Of Fire and Ice

C.30

I woke up to the smell of greasy cooked meat. I sat up and saw Lucy smiling at me. "Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked, rubbing my eyes.

"You talk in your sleep." Lucy said and my eyes widened. "What did I say?" I asked, glaring at her. "Not much. Just a bit of moaning and a few whimpers." Natsu snickered over some sausage on a stick that he was burning with his other hand. "I swear, if you guys are keeping something from me..." "We aren't. But would you like to tell us if it were a good or bad dream?" Erza asked.

"I don't remember, honestly... anyways, we've still got a long way ahead of us, so the sooner we get going... blah blah blah." I sighed, getting up for some sausage.

After we ate a bit more, we packed up again and went off. Now, I knew my hearing was very sharp, but I am so certain that I was hearing an extra pair of footsteps.

I kept my focus on the pair, and once I fell to the back of the group, I heard them duck behind a tree. I turned and blasted the tree to char. Everyone turned to stare. "What was that for?" Erza asked. "I thought we were being followed." I said sheepishly, then looked back to the tree to see a certain blue haired girl standing there, brushing ash off of her coat.

I sighed and relaxed. "Juvia, what are you doing here?" Grey asked. "I saw your team leaving to an unknown location... so I followed out of curiosity." She said, blushing.

Let's get this straight. I don't like Juvia. I don't dislike Juvia. I tolerate Juvia. I swear of she lays one single fucking finger on Grey, she will evaporate into our atmosphere faster than Natsu can lose his temper.

"Why does Lucy have dark hair? Aren't you blonde?" Juvia asked. "I'm wearing a wig." Lucy explained. "Yeah, question. Why do you own a dark wig?" Natsu asked and I felt all of their eyes on me.

"Where I'm from, having white hair isn't really a socially accepted thing." I said stiffly. "Besides, we all knew my parents were famous dark wizards. And how often do you see white haired people?" I shrugged. "Other than you, Mira and Elfman, not really." Lucy said.

"Exactly. Now let's get going. We're getting close to a town we have to pass through." Ari said. We went off again and as we were walking, I took a hood and cape out of my bag and put it on, tucking my hair out of sight until nothing was visible.

"You have a pretty good dark look going on." Grey smickered. "Shut up." I sighed and he pulled me close and pressed a kiss to my temple. "Just teasing." He said and I sighed a smile.

Soon we could smell fresh baked bread. Natsu and Happy were hungry immediately. I was getting nervous, and kept making sure my hair was out of sight. "It'll be fine." Grey said and took my hand in his and rubbed my palm with his thumb comfortingly.

"Remember, we're just passing through." Ari said, looking directly to Natsu and Happy. We came onto the gates and walked through, and received several curious glances. I just made sure to keep my head down.