Fire, Blood and Stars

Chapter 28

Everything else was over quickly. Makarov was found in perfect condition, just asleep. Several magical knights did appear, but it was pretty easy to convince them that Fairy Tail acted in self-defense. You know, with the Phantom Lord guild hall obviously having walked over to Magnolia and all.

The fact that Jupiter went off during their conversation and was subsequently blocked by Natsu also played a part in their absolutely impartial judgement.

The injured Phantom Lord members were all taken to Porlyusica, who did not take it well.

"No more than four! What do you take me for, a hospital? Leave four here and get out of my house!"

"Yes ma'am", squeaked Laxus, who had been chosen to bring the injured there, since he was the only one, except Natsu, who could do it in one trip.

There weren't too many injured. Two of the element four had bad injuries from Gray, one had a cracked scalp and broken bones from being slammed into a wall of ice, and the other had a cut ear and some other assorted injuries.

Another one of the Element four had been injured by Laxus, along with the crazy guy who thought he was from "Earth" or something.

Of course, the most injured was Jose, and Gajeel was really ill too. But since they hated Jose, he did not get treatment from Porlyusica. Instead, he got treatment from Natsu, so every time he got up, Natsu made a scary face and Jose fainted again.

Gajeel also did not receive treatment from Porlyusica. Nobody had any particular grudge against him, but he was the one that had kidnapped Lucy, so sending him to Porlyusica could potentially make Natsu angry.

Instead, Gajeel got treatment from the only person who had any knowledge of healing in the guild, apart from Natsu.

"Heal!" said the bluenette, and the word HEAL appeared in green energy in the air. Then the green energy got sucked into Gajeel, stopping his convulsing and bloating.

"Energize!" Levy said next, and the word ENERGY written in energy (heard it as soon as I said it) appeared, before disappearing into Gajeel and waking him up with a jolt.

"Hot!" he exclaimed as soon as he sat up, looking directly at Levy. He had meant that she had given him too much energy and he felt like he was burning, but she took it in a different way and blushed. Not that Gajeel noticed (he felt like he was burning, a girl was the last thing on his mind).

Just then, Jose sat up. Natsu glared at him and he fell down again.

Juvia was in a unique position. The moment the rune knights had come, she had transformed into water. But due to the handcuffs, everything above her wrists was still solid. Yes, the knights had thought of it as a joke (yes, in Fiore, a severed hand was akin to a joke) and not noticed her. But it felt weird.

Juvia, in her puddle of a body, slowly began inching towards the Fairy Tail guild. She needed Gray-sama to take the cuffs off. The moment she thought that, her thoughts began to drift towards Gray-sama's oh so fine body. Lost in her thoughts, she didn't even consider the fact that he might not be willing to help an enemy. He was Gray-sama. Of course he would help.

Natsu's concentration on Jose was broken when Lucy sat down beside him.

"Hey."

Natsu immediately looked at her and smiled.

"Hey. How're you doing?"

Lucy looked upwards, thinking. "Well, I discovered that my father is after me for some reason or the other, and organized the attack."

Natsu immediately sat up straighter, eyes narrowed. "Your father?" He wanted to get mad, but seeing that he was supposed to have no idea who her father was, and how utterly evil he was, he managed to keep his rage to a bare minimum.

"Yeah.. as you can tell, we don't really have a good relationship."

Natsu scoffed. "That's the understatement of the century!"

She frowned. "What do you mean?"

Natsu's eyes widened. He'd almost blown his cover. "Well, he attacked the guild."

"Yeah", she nodded. "Hey, you said, before running off, that you wanted to talk about something?"

Natsu's heart thumped hard a few times before skipping two beats entirely.

"Yeah, I did."

You are my soulmate. We are technically destined to be with each other.

"So.., I found my long lost brother, and we're resurrecting Gray's teacher, who froze herself, along with my long lost brother's son or grandson or something. Wanna come along?"

Zeref can help me tell her. This is a step ahead! I'm not avoiding it or anything, b-baka!

Lucy looked as if she ad been expecting something else, but then smiled. "Sure, I'd love to!"

Just then, Jose woke up again and started screaming. Natsu glared at him and he fell back down.

"Um, Natsu, before we go to your brother's resurrection- wait, no, your brother who is resurrecting Gray's teacher, can we- can we go to my father? I think I need to make it clear that I'm staying here."

Natsu gave a little start and looked at her. "If you're sure you want to, then yes, of course. But don't go without me."

She smiled. "Of course not. That's why I said 'we'."

There was a short silence.

"So..., was that all you wanted to tell me?" Lucy asked.

She knows!

How, you idiot?

I don't know, but she knows!

Okay, quick, what was it Cana said that you do when you can't explain anything by talking?

I think it was lip-to-lip contact of some sort. Right?

Maybe. It's worth a try, at least.

Natsu put a hand on her shoulder and leaned in a bit. At first Lucy looked confused, but then her mouth opened slightly in (hopefully) understanding. Her breath hitched in her throat, and-

Unfortunately, a puddle with hands picked that moment to enter the room and turn into a woman.

"Hello, guildmates of my beloved Gray-sama. Could you please tell Juvia where Gray-sama is? Juvia needs him to take off Juvia's-"

Clothes?, every single person there wondered.

"Handcuffs", she finished. Everyone gave a coordinated sigh of disappointment.

Gray entered the room and caught sight of Juvia. He could have backed out of the room easily, but he had a fan! Who cared if she was a bit crazy?

"Looking for me?"

Juvia gasped and turned to see her beloved Gray-sama standing at the door. His smile was so bright that the sun hid itself out of shame! Her eyes trailed lower to his seventy-thousand pack abs (the number had jumped up by twenty thousand, if anyone is keeping count), and even lower to his-

"Gray, your clothes", said Levy, shielding her eyes with a hand. Gray yelped, his cool façade disappearing (not that Juvia was anywhere near conscious enough to remember it) as he started hunting for his clothes. Outside.

"Do you think he realizes he's outside? And naked?" asked Lucy.

"Give it a minute", Levy replied. Sure enough, Gray reappeared in the room, this time making clothes of ice before leaving.

"So, should we go?" asked Lucy.

"Yeah, sure. Come on", replied Natsu as he stood up. Jose woke up again, suddenly. Natsu made a face and he fell back down again.