I Leave You, My Pride

Determination and Depression

Many Weeks Later

Natsu sat at the bar in the guild hall. All around him, conversations mixed and blended into a murmuring cacophony of voices. Conversation in Fairy Tail seemed to be a living thing, pulsing, swelling, ebbing, part of what made the guild such a great place to hang out between missions. Natsu ignored most of it as he watched Mira make him a drink. Then one voice suddenly came through all the droning noise and sharply pricked at his ears.

"I saw that Ice-Make guy out in a field today. I thought he was training, but he kept shouting something about a lion. Gave me a start!"

Natsu tilted his ear just a little in that direction. The speaker was one of the new girls to join their guild. Although she had been with them for six months, it still meant she had never gotten to meet Gray until his sudden arrival back in Magnolia.

"Oh, a lion," the girl's friend said. Natsu recognized that voice as Chico. She had been in the guild long before Lucy, although she was more a face in the background. "That'd be Lucy Heartfilia."

"Who? Oh, I heard about her. She's the girl who turned into a Celestial Spirit, right?"

"It's why Gray left, to learn how to bring her back. He failed, but he's still trying."

Natsu spun around in his chair. "He didn't fail!"

His shout made the two girls jolt and some of the crowd to fall silent.

"Gray is getting stronger," Natsu insisted loyally. "On our mission yesterday, he called out Scorpio. He's a tough fighting Spirit. I bet he'll have Lucy back before summer."

Just then, Mira set Natsu's drink down in front of him. "How was your mission, anyway?" It was asked purely to calm Natsu down before he did anything to scare the other guild members. She took a lighter to the alcoholic drink, and it suddenly caught on fire.

"It was easy." Natsu gulped the flames rather than the alcohol. "It wasn't S-Class. Erza wants to ease Gray back into the habit. He did well, but he didn't use ice at all. Only Scorpio. I was sort of looking forward to seeing how strong his ice magic is now."

"He probably wants to focus on Celestial Spirit summoning during missions so he can get strong enough to call Lucy," Mira reasoned.

"Yeah," Natsu mumbled, staring at the blue flickering flame. "Just calling out Scorpio drained him. He didn't wanna admit it, but I saw how he looked afterward. It was just one person he called out, though."

"It was a Zodiac Spirit."

"But Lucy could call them out with no problem," Natsu whined.

Mira smiled at him. "Doesn't that just show how strong Lucy was?"

Natsu mindlessly stared at the drink as he let her statement sink in. He knew she was right. Natsu had always known that Lucy was strong with magic, sensing the vast well of magic within her body. Physically, she was still a delicate lady born into a rich family, yet her magical aptitude ran deep.

The two girls were still talking, although they whispered now.

"Don't you think Gray Fullbuster is cute?"

"Cute? He's a sex god! Whenever he takes off his pants..."

"Oh, I know what you mean. Rawr!"

"Oh, Chico, you're hilarious! It's a shame he's so obsessed with that Lucy person."

"He might move on."

"I hope so. I really want to ask him out, but Cana told me to forget it, he's saving himself for Lucy. Then he's always obsessing over those keys..."