The Art of Trouble

Chapter 3: Seeing You

"Lucy..."
The raven-haired guy thought. However, for a particular reason, he doesn't want to utter it. He wanted to ask her the reason for her presence but, right then, Loke once again interrupted his thoughts.

"Uh... Gray, you might want to give us a hand down here, it's getting uncomfy here." Loke casually demanded, looking a bit in distress.

He shrugged himself at the statement, and extended his hand to meet Lucy's, but still, he was a little dazed by their sudden encounter. Then, Loke positioned himself, gesturing Lucy to step on his shoulders.
"I'll give you a lift." He suggested, suspiciously delighted by what he said.

Lucy had now stepped on both of his shoulders, stretching one of her arms to meet the guy's hand.

As he was about to pull her away, Loke suddenly jested,
"This is quite a good view."
Lucy, who was a bit curious at what he said, had turned to his side. Just then, she realized that Loke's face was just right under her.
The thought of Loke smirking triumphantly at what he just saw made her cringed in disdain.

"Ah....!!!! Eyes down, you pervert!"

Lucy seemed to be so distracted by his spirit's act of lasciviousness. She had kept on squirming and fidgeting, while the other guy struggled to keep her in his grasp, until she finally shouted, "Close the gate of Lion!             Leo!..."
Right then, as Loke disappeared, she had only yet realized what she did when her support was gone and had almost fell once again, if it not for the raven-haired guy who hadn't let go of her.

He had strengthened his grip on Lucy's arms as he had now used both his own to forcefully pull her away from the hole.
The force was truly strong enough that it made them both got yanked together on the ground.
He landed on his back while, Lucy was on top of him, her hands to his chest.

"That idiot..." He muttered, turning his eyes at the ground which now looked like a large manhole.
Not before long, his glance landed on Lucy's eyes.
For a moment, these two stare at each other once again. It's like they had a staring contest. Lucy's body was still on top of his, and his hands held her back.
An inexplicable feeling had wielded between the two, before he broke off, "W...We need to get out of here."

"Oh," was the only word she can say. She blinked her eyes, then stood up, dusting herself off the dirt.
She reached out her hand to him for her to help him stand.

When the two had settled their own feet, he began to speak,
                       "Follow me."
He strode towards a particular direction, but made sure that nobody had seen them.
He looked back at Lucy to check if she was still following behind.

Minutes passed yet, they still hadn't reached their destination. Lucy had started to feel tired, her stomach had now grumbled while, dizziness began to settle in along with her current state. But, even so, she continued to cope up with his pace, "Gray, wait..."
She called out to him, yet, he seemed to have not heard it.
She held on to a tree, slightly panting. When she noticed that he wasn't in any way slowing down, she started to move. However, she was not able to take another step as her legs had now gave in.
She felt like everything she was seeing was black.
Then, she collapsed on the ground.

Gray, on the other hand had noticed the silence between him and Lucy; and soon after, he got suspicious when he hadn't heard footsteps that followed his own.
He turned around and had almost panicked when he didn't see her. He scurried back to his previous tracks; it took him a while to do so before he saw an image of the blonde mage, lying on the ground. 

"Lucy!!!" He anxiously shouted.

Fear had crippled on his shoulders when he saw Lucy's body. He thought someone must've attacked her. He hurriedly went towards where she was lying.
Just then, he felt slightly relieved when he hadn't found injuries or bruises all over her body, and she was still breathing; this implied that she hadn't been attacked.

He wondered what happened to her but then decided to carry her off to his place, as he knew that the area wasn't totally safe for the both of them.