【Re:Freezing】 | Gray Fullbuster x OC

44. Hello, My Dear Kin

It was too early for this.

It was too early for this when he just arrived.

"Gray-sama! Did you come to see Juvia off?! Juvia is elated!"

With a sigh, he shook his head and stepped around the gushing woman. "No, I thought you were out of town, to be honest."

A gasp escaped the blue woman's lips upon hearing those words. With a whirl, she grabbed his arm with whine. "Juvia can't believe this! Gray-sama is meeting with someone behind Juvia's back! Gray-sama doesn't even have the decency to wait and do it behind Juvia's back! Who is it?! Is it Karissa-san?! It must be!"

With a scowl, the ice mage pulled his arm away from her. "Wrong, wrong, and wrong. Plus, Karissa isn't even in town." He replied. She barely showed up at the guild at all. That wasn't strange for her though. Karissa was never one to show up every day. And according to Pandora, Karissa was somewhere training her magic. That's not out of character either. She always had her moments of focus on magic. What was strange was that she wasn't training in her usual spot anymore. This hinted that, perhaps, she didn't want to be disturbed. He respected that.

"Anyway, take care on your job." He lightly waved as he turned his back and walked further inside the guild.

Taking this as a sign of his excitement for her return, Juvia beamed with a light squeal. "Juvia will come home as soon as possible so she and Gray-sama can go on a date!"

A tired sigh came out of Gray. "No thanks."

The rain woman's shoulders drooped as shock landed upon them. It made her pout sadly as she turned away and depressingly walked off. She might as well have a little rain cloud over her head.

Gray settled down at a table with a soda he grabbed from the counter and shook his head at Juvia's antics. Her imagination was really something else.

Cana came to his table with a bottle of alcohol and greeted him.

"Oh, hey Cana."

"What's up with you? You walked in looking like something's on your mind." She remarked. Her hand became a cushion for her chin as she leaned on the table. "What, don't tell me you're too busy for your date with Juvia?"

Gray deadpanned at her jest. "Not even. I'm not dating her. And I'm fine."

"Hm," Cana searched his dark eyes that gave away nothing. It was too late. The moment she pointed it out, he had masked it away to make it seem like she simply imagined it. "Well, anyway, have you seen Karissa lately?"

"The Sinclosts went to Lamia Scale today to see if Clavis came back home." He summarized before taking a sip of his soda.

"Ah, the mysterious twin. Right." Cana took another swig of her drink and frowned a little. "Last time I saw Karissa was two days ago when Pandora passed by the dorms to give some food."

"Oh yeah? I haven't seen her in six days. I only heard from Gajeel that she took a job early in the morning yesterday and came back in the evening. She's mostly been training though."

"Gah, so that's why she wasn't around! I wanted to go on a job with her yesterday because her abilities would be useful on the job I went on. Man, what a busy bee." Cana pouted. Her fingers lightly rapped against the wooden table. Then, the reminder of Gray's words prior to the S-Class Exam made a smirk creep up on the Card Mage's lips. She leaned further on the table and held a hand next to her mouth. "Oh, I see. You miss her. You miss Karissa and you're sulking that you haven't seen your girlfriend in six days."

Gray narrowed his eyes at her. He looked around to check if anyone was listening in on them.

"I didn't confess to her."