What's a Soulmate?

Out of Body Experience

Gray hadn't slept for two days. Not much, considering he'd stayed up longer. But he knew that they'd have to fight the Deceiver once more, and that'd take energy.

He was in his room, trying to get some sleep. Natsu and he had each gotten their own room, since nobody wanted to sleep with their wheezing and hyperactivity. The others weren't comfortable, he could tell, because the rooms were small. He just shrugged it off, reminding himself it was better for him.

When he was finally drifting off, Loke came barging in. "Yo, dude! There were these girls passing by, and may I say, babes. You wanna go follow them?"

Gray scowled at his celestial spirit friend, and begrudgingly sat up. His muscles ached. Stretching, he made a mental note to look for a gym somewhere.

"I won't be able to sleep," he said in annoyance. "So sure."

Loke grinned and pulled him quickly, noticing the girls were already walking out of sight. Aries would surely scold him for following girls, but at the moment he didn't mind. Gray, on the other hand, felt stalkerish. He'd first hand been stalked, and he knew how creepy it felt.

Lucy saw them walk out, and shook her head. "One day Loke will get in so much trouble, and I won't help him with the killer girls."

"What about Gray?" asked Levy, who was reading a book by her side.

"He'll eventually notice he's being like Juvia, and I know how much that bothers him," she said simply.

Levy nodded, in a trance from her book. She'd found what she thought was the "Ancient Book of Out of This World Magic." It was written in a language she didn't understand, so she'd been trying to crack the code, one may say.

"Shrimp," Gajeel came up behind her. "You should stop for a bit, you could screw up your eyes real bad."

Levy instinctively pushed her book behind her protectively. She glared at the Iron Dragon Slayer.

"These books are my life, so no."

Her tone made it obvious there was no arguing about it. Gajeel huffed and stomped away. Lucy looked around, frowing at the missing sight of her Slayer.

"Where's Natsu?"

Salamander was walking around with Happy, thinking about nothing in particular. His scarf hung loosely around his neck, making him warmer than a normal person would've liked. He enjoyed it, though. The warmth reminded him of Igneel, and that made him feel like his father was still inside him.

Happy flew around Natsu's head. "Did ya figure out what a soulmate is?"

The pink haired boy looked at his feline friend. He'd forgotten about the promise he'd made to Wendy.

"No," he sighed. "But I won't give up! I'll figure it out eventually!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Natsu saw something move. It was an extremely familiar red tail. The thing kept slithering behind buildings. Natsu looked at Happy, who was staring off into space. 'Am I the only one who notices that huge thing?' he wondered.

"Come on, Happy!" he exclaimed, dragging his companion behind him. The tail disappeared everytime Natsu thought he'd found it. Some towns people were looking at the Slayer with confused expressions. Natsu was too busy with figuring out what that tail was doing to notice.

"What are we following, Natsu?" Happy asked.

Natsu stared incredulously at him. "Are you telling me you haven't seen the huge tail that's been hiding from us?"

Happy blinked, causing Natsu to groan. The he figured out why the tail looked so familiar, it was Igneel's. He closed his eyes, reminding himself that it was impossible. The Deceiver was messing with his head, and he needed to get over it.