chapter seven: green tea and blue dragons

It was over.

Not just the job, though that was satisfying. When Miyako and Natsu had borrowed one of the villager's spears and 'destroyed' the moon, Gray's heart had nearly stopped. For a moment he'd really thought- Miyako's grin had been demonic in all the ways the actual demons were not.

Gray chuckled to himself and leaned back on his hands, head tilted toward the sun. It had felt like he'd spent the whole job stuck in an eternal night. He'd either been unconscious or underground for most of the daylight hours since reaching the village. It was nice to see the blue sky again. He inhaled the salty air, and for the first time since arriving at Fairy Tail, he felt the weight of Deliora and Lyon and Ur melt off his shoulders.

Closure at last. Closure he hadn't even known he'd needed.

Their last night on the island had been spent having a celebratory banquet. Gray had danced with more girls than he could count, which had been… something. Honestly, he wasn't much of a dancer, but he hadn't been able to say no.

"Hey."

He cracked his eyes open as Miyako sank into the sand next to him. They were on the beach waiting for Bobo to finish making preparations to bring them back to Hargeon.

"Hey yourself," he replied, bumping shoulders with her.

They sat in silence for a moment, looking out at the water. It was nice. Gray had thought he might feel weird around his friends now that they'd learned about his childhood, he thought he'd feel especially weird with Miyako given he'd broken down in her arms, but he didn't. He felt strangely at peace.

"You were going to use iced shell," Miyako said softly.

And Gray tensed, insides twisting into knots. He opened his mouth, and then closed it without saying anything, unable to find a way to defend his actions. A glance in her direction showed him Miyako was still watching the waves crash against the beach.

"As soon as we get back to the guild, jīchan is going to ask me for a report on how you, Natsu, and Lucy did. For you and Natsu, my assessment will factor into his choice in the S-Class trials this year," she said.

His hands clenched into fists in the sand and he swallowed, patiently waiting for her to continue.

Miyako turned to him suddenly, and he was naked under the scrutiny of those sharp eyes. "If you can promise me you'll forget about that spell, I'll assume these were unusual circumstances, and I won't mention your apparent proclivity for suicidal self-sacrifice to him."

The air rushed out of his lungs. "I'd appreciate that," he managed.

She nodded, and turned back to the ocean, but her brow was still wrinkled.

"I'm not suicidal," he felt the need to say. "I just…"

"You weren't thinking clearly. It was the first solution you thought of because the master you idolize had done it already and it had worked, so you didn't bother looking for another option," she finished for him.

"…yes."

Her fingers closed around his and squeezed. "I get it. I'll be honest; if Deliora had been resurrected in its entirety, I have no idea what we would have done, but you weren't going to give us a chance to try, and that's unacceptable."

He bowed his head in shame. Miyako tutted. She reached out and pressed her pointer and middle fingers beneath his chin, forcing him to look up.

"I understand that there are times when hard choices must be made. Ur understood that, and I have a deep respect for your teacher. But it is never the first option, only ever the very last."

She withdrew her hand and he found himself nodding.

"Gray! Miya-chan!" Natsu called and they both turned toward the sound of his voice. The dragon slayer was waving his arms and gesturing to the boat. Bobo, Lucy, and Happy were already onboard.

Their time was up. Home awaited them. Gray glanced back at the island once more, and gave his silent thanks. When he stepped into the surf to board the boat, the water was surprisingly warm where it lapped at his ankles.

-O-

"Deliora, you say? That's troubling."

Miyako sighed into her green tea. They'd arrived back at the guild over an hour ago and she'd only just finished giving her jīchan a full report of what had happened. "Yes, very," she agreed.

It almost seemed like a joke. Not three weeks ago they'd had an encounter with another of Zeref's demons. Miyako had even gone so far as to name Deliora as one of the reasons she planned to study Lullaby at the time. She'd not even got the chance to properly do so before they'd run into it. It was pure luck they'd gotten off the island unscathed, and Miyako was deeply unsettled by the lack of control she felt she'd had over the situation.

Some of this must have shown on her face, because her jīchan steepled his fingers beneath his nose and asked, "Are you okay, my child?"

"Yes," she answered automatically, but under the weight of his unamused gaze she admitted, "I'm just finding myself haunted by the what ifs."

Two of them in particular had taken up residence in the peripheral of most of her thoughts. One being what they would have done if Deliora had been truly alive, and the other being Gray, and what could have happened if Natsu had not been there to stop him from throwing away his life. She'd hoped she'd gotten through to the ice mage during their talk on the beach, but she knew there wasn't really any forgetting a spell like that. It was always going to be there in the back of his mind.

"You know there is no use getting hung up on those," he told her.

Miyako looked at him sharply. "Isn't there? Just because it didn't happen this time, doesn't mean it won't happen ever. If I examine every eventuality and prepare a response to-"

"You imagine you'll find yourself on a supposedly cursed island where a group of rogue mages will attempt to resurrect a demon of Zeref using an ancient, holy ritual again?"

"Don't be facetious. You know that's not what I meant," she grumbled.

Her jīchan help up his hands in surrender. "My point is you cannot possibly plan for everything. You will only drive yourself mad trying, or worse, you'll find yourself so attached to your plans you won't be able to let them go when it's called for."

Miyako scowled at her tea. She'd suddenly lost her taste for it. He was right, of course, but that didn't mean she had to like it. There was a balance between having a plan and being flexible, and it continued to evade her. So, she changed the subject. "Natsu mentioned there was a suspicious man in Lyon's ranks, one that used time arc magic."

"That's a lost magic," he said idly, and his eyebrows shot up his wrinkled forehead in surprise.

"Apparently, he'd only recently joined Lyon's cause, and from Natsu's description, even Lyon did not fully know who he was or where he came from. The others, they all had the same motive, and they all came forward in the end to offer their apologies to the village, but not Zalty," she said.

Jīchan rubbed at his chin, suddenly looking tired. "You believe he might have had an ulterior motive for resurrecting the demon, and that it might have been malicious?"

"I'm not sure," Miyako said haltingly. "He did restore the village of his own volition, but still… I don't like it. I don't like that Lullaby and Deliora happened in such quick succession."

The older mage was quiet for a long moment. "Miyako, I'd like you to forget about it for now," he told her seriously, and held up a hand before she could protest. "I'm not asking you to stop your research- I wouldn't do that. I promise I will keep my ear to the ground, but, for now, why don't you go join your teammates in celebrating a successfully completed S-Class job?"

If she listened for it, Miyako could hear Natsu and Happy giving a dramatic rendition of their quest to their guildmates. There was laughter and cheering. It was all so loud. She was tempted to finish her tea in her grandfather's company, and then head down to her study.

"Alright," she finally agreed.

And when she emerged from his office, Natsu noticed right away. His ember eyes flew up to where she was leaning against the second-floor railing and he grinned. "Miya-chan!" he called, and everyone looked up, welcoming smiles on their faces. He gestured for her to come down, and she did.

-O-

Magnolia was a bit further north than Lucy was accustomed to living, and the summers were far milder in comparison. When August rolled around and the temperature never crawled above eighty degrees, she was pleasantly surprised. Still, her fellow guildmates had been complaining about the heat since the month had turned, and had started taking any job that brought them north. To Lucy's amusement, Gray was suddenly the most popular wizard in the guild. She could easily imagine Natsu receiving similar attention in the winter.

But as it stood right then, Natsu was being sullenly pouting because even Happy kept a foot of distance between them. To be fair, the cat had a fur coat and was more susceptible to the heat anyway, which is why Lucy guessed Gray didn't complain when Happy took up residence on his person more often than not.

That's where Happy was now, curled up on Gray's head like a shaggy cap. Lucy couldn't help but smile at the sight from where she was sat at the bar sipping on a strawberry smoothie.

"S'not even that hot," Natsu grumbled, his cheek pressed into the bar.

"It's not," Lucy agreed absently as she swirled her straw around, partly because it was the truth, partly because Natsu looked so pathetic.

He perked up at that. "Yeah?" he asked, and she nodded. For a moment he stared at her with an intensity usually reserved for battle. "You didn't know that Hakobe still had blizzards even in the summer."

"I'm from further south, near Margaret Town," she freely admitted. "The mountains near us don't see weather like that, even in the winter."

He nodded like he'd expected as much and she really ought to give him more credit. Natsu wasn't as oblivious as he came across. He went back to glaring at Gray from across the guild, so Lucy returned to what she'd been doing before he'd distracted her: planning her novel.

The trouble was, while she had a fantastic idea for a cast of characters, she had no conceivable plot. She was sure she wanted to write an adventure, but she had literally no inspiration for what the stakes of the story would be, and she hadn't even formally settled on a genre! Fantasy? Something more grounded in reality? A mystery? A thriller? The possibilities were overwhelming, and she frowned at her smoothie.

"You've got those funny looking wrinkles again," came Natsu's voice.

Lucy jolted to attention and scowled at him. "Well, yeah. I'm stuck for an idea for my, you know." She didn't want to say it out loud.

"You mean your novel?" he asked tactlessly, and Lucy recanted on her earlier thought.

"Yes," she said in a flat tone. "That. If you aren't going to help, go back to obsessing over Gray."

Natsu's nose wrinkled at her phrasing, but he said, "Okay," and stood up from his seat.

But then he didn't leave. Instead, he held his hand out to her expectantly, and Lucy raised an eyebrow questioningly. "What are you doing?"

"Helping you! Come on, you aren't going to get an idea all cooped up in the guild. Let's go get some fresh air," he said with a smile.

She hesitated, but some fresh air didn't sound like a bad idea, plus, her smoothie was mostly finished. Natsu, sensing her shift in mood, wiggled his fingers enticingly.

"Alright," she agreed, placing her hand in his.

Immediately, she was yanked to her feet and Natsu began dragging her towards the door. "Alright!" he cheered. "Happy, c'mon! We're going fishing!"

Fishing wouldn't be too horrible, right?

-O-

Lucy was wrong. Fishing had been a disaster.

Natsu and Happy had gotten into a spat about the fish Natsu had caught and Happy had run off. But that wasn't what was bothering Lucy as she walked back into the guild, a cold sweat trickling down her neck that had nothing to do with the weather. The malicious glean in Natsu's eye when he'd told her shut up… she hadn't seen the dragon slayer look so mean before. Hadn't thought him capable, at least, not with her. Maybe with Gray.

It was really bothering her. Despite her complaining, which had really only been on principle, the afternoon had been nice, peaceful, even. The speed at which everything had soured was astonishing. There had only been seconds between a carefree smile and a furious snarl.

She wondered if it was something she said, or if she'd just caught the backlash of his fight with Happy.

"Oh!"

Lucy hadn't been paying attention to where she'd been wandering, but when she looked up, she found she was in a library. There were a couple of tables in the middle and the shelves went all the way to the ceilings. It was quiet, quieter than she'd ever witnessed in Fairy Tail, but that was probably because there were only two people in the spacious room.

Mirajane was on perched high up on ladder, carefully perusing the spines of the books, and Miyako was across the room, squatting to be eye-level with the lowest shelf.

"Mira-san! Miyako-chan! What are you doing?" Lucy called.

The silver-haired beauty looked over her shoulder with a pleasant smile. "We're sorting some old materials," she replied.

"I'll help too!" Lucy volunteered.

"We'd be happy to have your help!"

Mirajane filled Lucy in on what they were doing, and she quickly got stuck in. Lucy was a pro at the Dewey Decimal system. She'd spent long hours in the library back home avoiding her father, and assisting Ribbon in doing exactly this type of labor.

As they worked, Lucy explained what had happened at the river with Natsu and Happy. Mirajane's hands and eyes remained busy, but she listened astutely to her tale, and made all the appropriate sounds and facial expressions in time with her words.

"So, don't you think Natsu was being a jerk?" she asked when she was done.

Mirajane laughed softly. "But that's what makes him cute!"

Lucy frowned and glanced down at Mirajane, who by then was sorting books on the table as Lucy retrieved them from high up on the shelves.

"You also like Natsu's childlike side, right Lucy?" Mirajane asked coyly.

And her foot slipped. Lucy flailed her arms trying to catch herself as the ladder teetered backward dangerously, but only succeeded in knocking a whole shelf of books to the floor, which did nothing to cushion her fall.

At the loud clatter, Mirajane and Miyako both rushed over, but Lucy's laughter at her own misfortune eased the mild panic in their expressions.

"Are you okay?" Mirajane asked.

"Sorry!" she replied, rubbing the back of her neck. "I just- oh? What's this drawing?"

One of the books she'd knocked over was splayed open on the floor, the corner of a picture peeking at her enticingly, and Lucy pulled it the rest of the way out.

"How nostalgic!" Mirajane said.

It depicted a group of children in the guild hall, and Lucy's eyes roved around the increasingly familiar faces. "Is this everyone when they were kids?" she asked in amazement.

"That's right!"

With the confirmation, Lucy began putting names to faces. She picked out a little boy standing tall with his hands on his hips, shaggy black hair falling into his eyes, wearing nothing but a pair of blue boxers. "So, this is, Gray," she identified, turning her attention to the girl next to him. She had dark hair pulled back in a pony and bright purple eyes. "And next to him is Cana!"

Behind them was Macao and Wakaba looking disturbingly young. On the left side, a grinning boy with spiky, pink hair. Natsu, obviously. In the drawing, little Natsu was clinging to a small, blue dragon, much to her confusion.

"It's Happy!" Mirajane told her brightly.

Lucy almost choked on her own spit, but quickly moved on. The girl with the bright red hair tucked neatly into a braid and dressed in a gleaming chest plate was Erza. She looked just as authoritative as a child as she did now, Lucy thought. Behind Erza was an older boy. Lucy had only seen Laxus the once, but she easily recognized him. He had the same bright yellow hair, scar, and even the same sound pods. And, on his shoulders-

"Miyako-chan!" Lucy squealed. "That's you, right?"

But, what other flaxen-haired little girl with round-framed glasses would be receiving a piggy-back from the taciturn looking teen?

The Miyako of now was looking at the photograph with a sad smile. "Yes. I was seven, I believe," she said, an odd note to her voice.

"Seven?" Lucy repeated. Then, this picture was drawn eight whole years ago. "You haven't changed at all!"

Miyako wrinkled her nose, looking mildly offended. "Perhaps, but Mirajane has," she said, and then pointed to another girl in the photo.

Lucy gawked at who she'd indicated. This girl had Mirajane's silver hair and cerulean eyes, but she was dressed in a cropped tank-top, booty shorts, and thigh high boots. She was smiling, but there was a challenging tilt to her eyebrows. "That's Mira-san!?"

The woman in question laughed, and shrugged off Lucy's astonishment.

There were a couple of more people Lucy knew. Eight years apparently didn't shave any age of the Master's face, so he was easy. Then, she picked out the familiar silver-hair of the Strauss siblings and correctly identified a smaller, meeker looking Elfman. Lucy's eyes lingered on the last person in the picture. A girl with Mirajane hair and eyes, but younger. Was there are third Strauss she had not met?

She glanced quickly at Mirajane, who had the same, melancholy smile as Miyako as she stared at the mystery girl. Lucy swallowed down her question, and asked instead, "How did Natsu and Happy meet?"

Mirajane perked up and began telling her the story. During it, Miyako wandered off to continue sorting through the books, but Lucy listened with rapt attention.

When she'd finally finished, Lucy said, fondly, "I see! What a nice story though! But now, those two…"

"The worse they fight, the closer they are, you know?" Mirajane assured her.

"Oi! Mira!" They glanced up and saw the Master perched on the railing. "Help me out over here!"

"Coming!" Mirajane called, and hurried away.

Lucy turned back to the picture, her lips quirking up. Everyone had been so small and cute! She couldn't help but wonder what it would have been like to grow up at the guild, and the idle musing made her heart ache sharply. It was a weird feeling… like she was homesick for the place she was currently at.

Her gaze lingered on the unidentified girl. The only name she hadn't recognized in Mirajane's story was Lisanna, so this must be her. Lucy traced the girl's face with her finger curiously, but ultimately her eyes were drawn back to Natsu and Happy at the center of the drawing.

"I wonder if they made up?"

"You mean Happy and Natsu?"

Lucy jumped and clutched at her chest. "Miyako-chan!" she gasped. "I forgot you were still here!"

Miyako's head tilted to the side and she smiled. "I get that a lot," she said. "Natsu and Happy will be fine. They always are."

"Yeah?"

The younger blonde nodded resolutely.

Lucy stared at the photo for a moment longer. Suddenly, she was filled with the need to see Natsu, her Natsu, the Natsu of now, all grown up on the outside, but with the same canine-bearing grin as the kid in the photo. "I think I'm going to go check on them… just in case," she decided, standing up.

Miyako made a sound of acknowledgement, and Lucy turned to race up the stairs, but paused at the bottom step. "Do you want to come?" she asked.

The heavenly body mage looked up in surprise. Her eyes darted around Lucy's face for a moment before she found what she was looking for. "Alright," she said.

-O-

not a whole lot of action in this chapter, but, a bit of fluff. a nice break between arcs if you will, because next chapter we shall start phantom lord, i'm almost sure.

and i wanted to address a couple of reviews i've gotten regarding my use of japanese in the story. i think i'll be going back and changing any phrases or words i've used to english. it's something i personally enjoy, but i understand it can also ruin the reader's immersion. i think i included it in part because when i'm writing dialogue from the show, i'm transcribing as i'm re-watching the episode, so i'm hearing it in the original Japanese, and within that context it made sense to me. i will however, continue to use jīchan instead of gramps, and any honorifics.

i said this in my first a/n, but it bears repeating: i'm completely open to criticism, so lay it on me. i don't care if you want to give it harshly (not that any of y'all have) or sandwich it between compliments- i'm out here to improve.

~ calliope