Cobra barely restrained himself from shouting What the hell?! at her, laughing internally at the bitter irony. She hadn't even considered his idea at all, just charging in ahead with that smile of hers without a care for his opinion. It was so perfectly timed he might have deemed it payback for yesterday if she didn't look so serious. He took a step back from the table, ready and watching both women's reactions.
"Well, ah, I suppose it is alright..." Timidly, Minerva answered her, voice clearly struggling to not sound entirely like she'd just been crying. Lucy's smile remained.
"Perfect. I just wanted to know, do you think perhaps your guildmates are simply putting up an act for your sake?"
"W-What?! No! I don't think that at all." A spark of life returned to her voice. "They would never be so bold as to pull that kind of stunt."
"Really? Because it seems to me that if you think their actions are meant as a punishment, then what they really feel must be something else. Do you think that they're acting secretly out of malice, or out of fear from what you've done in the past?"
"No…no, it's nothing like that. Did I really make it out in a way that you'd assume that?" She seemed taken aback. "That wasn't what I meant to convey at all…"