"When do we arrive?"

Natsu was sick, but he tried to pretend otherwise. He refused Wendy's help; he was too angry against Erza to be receptive to any support, and Wendy couldn't help someone who refused it. The atmosphere was tense no matter how the girls, except Erza who was silent, and Happy tried to colour it.

"Less than one hour "

"I was not addressing you."

Erza didn't say anything; she just looked at him until he stopped glaring at her with haughtiness. She was patient, and he was sick: she knew that even all his anger couldn't fight the sickness eternally, so she waited until the nausea was stronger than his hatred, and finally he looked down.

She hated being in conflict with any of her friends. She really wanted to reconcile with him, but she knew he was not ready to hear what she had to say. Talking would have been useless, so she did the best thing she could : she waited. Natsu was impulsive but not resentful. The anger would pass, and eventually they could have a conversation.

After ten minutes Wendy began to be nauseous too. Natsu fought for ten more minutes before collapsing on Lucy's knees while Wendy was asleep against Grey's arm.

"It will pass to him," said Lucy, trying to improve the mood.

"I know it will, but he is right." She talked absently. Objectively, he was right; the Council forced her to obey. This mission was not ordinary; that much was obvious. At first, it was a simple confidential request, but as time went by, this confidentiality seemed to hide a lack of official authorisation, to the point that she began to doubt the legal aspect of this request.

"Don't be too hard on yourself !"

She hadn't expected that outburst, but Lucy's voice pulled her out of her thoughts. The blonde almost immediately looked down at Natsu, surprised, and covered her mouth. Apparently, she hadn't planned on speaking so loudly either.

"You're the leader; you make the difficult choices, and we follow you. We know it's not that easy for you. You're the one who makes the hard decisions."

Lucy hoped she had found the right words. She knew that Erza was too strong and sophisticated to share any dismay if she ever crossed it. She was impassive.

"You always tried to protect everyone; that's your problem, Erz." Grey turned towards her; his voice was calm and composed, and for an abstruse reason, it was relaxing.

"Never mind. Let's just finish this mission."

She made a terrible rictus, but Lucy smiled back.

Grey didn't try to comfort her. He had already defended her in front of everyone by stopping Natsu earlier; he didn't want to cross the line again and risk hurting her pride. She was hurt, but he knew she preferred to handle it alone; at least that's what he would have preferred, and they were quite similar, so he pretended to not see anything. That was how it was between them; she respected his privacy, and he had enough respect for her to do the same.

"We will go to the hotel to register. You could begin to investigate during this time.

"Perfect!"

"Aye, Sir!"

But even all the enthusiasm of Lucy and Happy could not elicit a smile from Natsu. The three of them are gone, letting Erza, Grey, and Wendy. Grey got Lucy's suitcase, and they left for the hotel.

"Carla, look at this coffee shop! Cherria talks about it all the time.

Erza and Grey exchanged a look before looking at Wendy and the stars in her eyes.

"Just go, girls. I will send you the address. Try to take advantage of it to gather information. We will all meet up this evening."

Wendy and Carla nodded, and Erza took Wendy's suitcase with her. For once she didn't take her usual amount of luggage but just a suitcase so she could handle Wendy's and Clara's stuff.

"The name of the reservation, please ?"

"Scarlet and Dragneel"

It was not a palace like their previous hotel but a two-star hotel. She especially paid attention to its location in the centre of the city more than anything else, but it was a charming place. The receptionist searched for one more minute before smiling at them.

" Humm. Two bedrooms: one suite with an extra bed and a single one with two beds for your Dragneels' friends, but you pay for them all. That was that"?

"Yes, totally."

Suddenly the man had loosened his smile, staring at the screen with obvious contrariety, then confusion.

"I'm sorry, but it seems that the suit is not available anymore; a couple had also reserved it, and I gave them the key hours ago. I'm confused. I don't understand how it is possible."

Erza tried to smile regarding the hour. It was already a quarter to two. Grey tried to hide his impatience too. Objectively this man had nothing to do with this, and it would be unfair to hold it against him, especially since it wouldn't help them resolve the situation any faster.

"I don't know what to say to you. There are no other suits, and I suppose you wanted to be with your child. Otherwise, I could propose to you two classical bedrooms with one king-size bed.

The two of them look at each other, trying not to laugh, but they regain composure. They had mages to find and had lost enough time.

"It will be perfect. No worry."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, totally. Thanks.

"One of the bedrooms had a balcony, and I will make a gesture on the price."

They thanked the man while an employee took their luggage and accompanied them to the bedrooms.

First, they went in a shop to buy sunglasses, and he chose a bandana to cover his messy pink hair because even if he was angry at Erza, he didn't want the mission to fail because of him. Time was passing fast. Lucy smiled. She laughed also, and just like that, because he was with her, his gloominess started to vanish.

"Are you still angry?"

"Never against you."

Lucy blushed and tried to ignore it by punching his arm in a more playful than hurtful way. He absently pretended to be hurt while he was thinking of what he had said. Even he was surprised by his response.

Usually, he was cautious with this type of topic, deliberately pretending to be oblivious when he was more than aware that the line between his friendship with Lucy and something else was very blurred.

But this affected dumbness translated nothing more than selfishness : he pretended to not see their situationship by speaking of good friendship because he knew that, as long as he did it, Lucy would be unsure. She was waiting for him to make the first move, and he knew it ; it was the better compromise he had found.

He couldn't just let her go; she was becoming too important for him, but she was not enough to force him to give up his freedom. Only the idea of having to explain himself on what he did with his free time or his mysterious disappearance was enough to stifle him. It was selfish; he was selfish.