He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not (GrayLu)

Chapter 17:

Gray's POV:

It was morning, and I have to admit, I'm surprised. I don't know why, out of all of the places on Earthland, were we standing in front of the 8 Island's restaurant, which is located in a place near where our guild is, which we are trying to get away from so they don't get put in danger.

Erza, have you inhaled some of Natsu's stupidity?! Wait, you can't inhale stupidity. Um, nevermind.

(It seems like your the one who's "inhaled" his stupidity.
Gray: Hey! It was an honest mistake!)

We walked into the restaurant and immediately saw Mr. Yajima talking to some customers. They seemed to be his last ones because after they left, the restaurant was empty. He looked at us and his face showed surprise. He quickly ran past us and locked the front door, closed the blinds, and flipped the sign to say 'Sorry, we are closed.' He walked back to us and immediately started interrogating us.

"Why are you lot here?! Macky said it was mating season and you guys are mates! Why are four of the slayers here?! Did you get attacked? Your clothes make it look like you fell down a mountain! Did you?" He asked, becoming more panicked by the question.

Erza shut him up.

"Mr. Yajima, we did get attacked because they found the mountain base. We had to fight them off a bit during the night and then we fled here after resting during the day. The slayers that are with us are not affected. Wendy is also too young to be affected but in case she does, her mate is at another safehouse with his dad." She explained.

The old man nodded. "I assume you want to ask if it's possible the council can give you protection until the season is over?" He asked.

Everyone but Erza and Jellal froze and looked at him in surprise. Erza smiled and nodded like she didn't realize we were all staring at her waiting for answers.

"A little more than a week is left of the mating season. Since the council has a lot of guards and high security, we figured we would be the most safe there." She said.

I decided to add in my own part, trusting Erza's judgement.

"We can't go back to the guild because when the other slayers escaped, we," I pointed to Laxus and Erik, " came up behind them and found the guild hall trashed and every member unconscious with Master tending to them. They can't take another hit right now." I said.

Mira and Lisanna looked horrified at what I said. I can't blame them. After all, Elfman was unconscious too. The others looked upset and we're in disbelief that the slayers were responsible for it. I guess the mating instincts really have clouded their judgement.

The old man nodded again. "Yes, if you can get the council to realize the danger you are in, then I'm fully sure that they will grant you protection."

Erza looked relieved. On the other hand, Ultear looked mad and Meredy looked scared. Jellal turned to them.

"I was going to make it a surprise, but the king gave us full pardons once he found out that we helped stop the dragons and the Eclipse project. The council agreed to it as well. So we don't have to worry about hiding anymore." He said.

Their looks changed to ones of excitement. Meredy cried and Juvia was hugging her. Ultear smiled brightly.

Erza punched Jellal. "You idiot." She said. We all stopped celebrating and looked at her confused.

She looked at Meredy and Ultear and said, "He forgot to tell you that the council has ruled Crime Sorciere to be an independent guild that is not a dark guild. So you can legally eradicate dark guilds without being considered one yourself. This will be the only guild that can do so though, because when word gets out about this, other guilds might start wanting to do the same and they don't want to have to keep track of it all. So basically your guild is the only one of it's kind." She ended with a smile.

Ultear and Meredy smiled proudly at that. Jellal was rubbing his arm. Erza laughed at him as Wendy came up and healed it so it wouldn't bruise. Erza has amazing physical strength after all.

Wendy looked a little worried too, though. I had forgotten that Carla didn't come with the girls so she could distract Happy. I didn't see Carla and Happy among the unconscious bodies, so I can assume that they were safe. I told this to her and her mood changed to a happy one.

We left the restaurant with Mr. Yajima and headed to ERA, the magic council's main building. We had realized that we put Mr. Yajima in danger by coming to see him, so we knew we had to take him with us. We ran, once again carrying the ones who would have a hard time catching up (who shall not be named), to get there faster. It took a day to get there, plus we couldn't arrive at night to speak to them, so we had to hope we were lucky and take shifts at night and keep walking during the day, unlike last time.

We were in fact lucky, because there were no signs of the corrupted slayers anywhere near us during the night. Erza had changed our shifts so that the slayers couldn't make a plan off of when we switch with the others. Once those on shift woke us up, we started moving again, and we got to our destination, standing in front of the magic council building, while Erza was arguing with the guards to let us in so we can talk to the council. They weren't budging, so Mr. Yajima finally had enough and talked to them. Once they saw him, they immediately let us in. I guess it's good to have a former council member with us for this sort of thing.

We walked in and he requested for all of us to meet with the new council. We had to wait a few minutes but then we were let in to a big room, where the council members were sitting at a table talking. They stopped when they saw us enter.