Searching for happiness (Attack on titan X Fairy Tail Crossover)

Chapter XXII - Somewhere before

I heard a soft, dull giggle, almost like a chuckle. Who was giggling? If it was Lucy again, who wanted to make any stupid comments, I would really kick her in the face this time. And while I thought this, I realized that I had closed my eyes. Was I finally dozing off? Gradually, I remembered watching Wendy sleeping, and that at some point my eyelids had become more and more heavier. From then on, my memory stopped.

I slowly opened my eyes and found myself in a semi-upright position, head to one side leaning on anything soft under me. As I slowly straightened up, I realized what the soft thing had been, Wendy's head. Was I actually dozing off and leaning against her the way she had with me? Slowly I got scared that I would become too soft, because such gestures and actions did not look very similar to me. Still a bit drowsy, I turned my head and looked straight into Happy's smirking face, holding his paws over his mouth so as not to laugh out loud. Was the stupid cat laughing about me?

"Stop giggling so stupid.", I growled at him and after a few more chuckles he actually fell silent. He had probably come to the realization that he should not irritate me. But the blue cat sitting on the table here in front of me also meant that Natsu was back.

Carefully, I stretched a little to be more awake and looked at my surroundings. Erza and Lucy still sat facing me, but next to Lucy, Natsu was actually there. On the other side was Gray, who was awake in the meantime and quietly they were talking and Wendy was dozing next to me still peacefully. How long had the two been here or how long had I slept at all?

Slightly too rough as intended, I nudged Wendy with my elbow so she woke up. After all, we could not sleep all day but had to continue to work on our mission. Frightened by my gentle thrust, Wendy flinched and her head shot up. While she looked around disoriented, Natsu's eyes wandered to her and he grinned at her broadly.

"Ah, Wendy, you woke up.", he said, "By the way, good to see you again.". Slowly, Wendy returned to reality and nodded to him a little dazed and rubbed her sleepy eyes. Even by doing that she looked incredibly cute! Damn, could not she stop looking so cute? And why did I think that so often lately?

"There's news.", Erza said bluntly. Apparently they had all waited until all of us were awake again. Natsu and Happy nodded in agreement.

"Right. After Happy and I had waited a while, a single person actually turned up at our place. She covered her face so we could not see much and she looked like she was waiting for someone, but no one appeared.", Natsu began with his narrative.

"And then we overpowered and interrogated the person!", Happy declared proudly, though I doubted he'd played an active role in the action. Probably Natsu had just rushed on this person and had taken this by surprise. But Natsu nodded proudly tpp and grinned even wider.

"Exactly. It was a young, dark-haired woman and we were able to hear from her that she was supposed to meet Kenny and give him new instructions.", he said and I was again scrutinized. If Kenny himself could not come to a meeting of his client, then he actually seemed to be struggling with the aftermath of our fight. Where the hell was this guy?

"And this woman was the client?", Lucy asked, but Natsu immediately shook his head.

"No, she was just a middleman. However, we were able to learn a little more about the right client from her.", he continued and everyone at the table immediately got a bit more excited.

"Really?", Erza asked in a loud voice, "Who is it?".

"Kenny was hired by a corporation to initiate all these abductions. And the boss of this group should have the name Marley. But even we could not get more out of her.", Natsu continued as I crossed my arms thoughtfully.

A corporation, or better said, the head of a corporation had hired Kenny to harm Erwin? But why exactly? To eliminate the competition? But you did not have to hire a dark guild right away. I was almost sure that there was still more behind this whole thing.

"Where is this woman now?", I asked, looking at Natsu. His gaze wandered to me and from innocent eyes he looked at me.

"Well, we thought about bringing her to you, but while we discussed it, she was able to escape.", he admitted a little sheepishly and I rolled my eyes annoyed. And I had already assumed that these two were able to act independently, but I was probably wrong.

"That was careless of you.", Erza scolded him immediately and frowned slightly annoyed.

"I've never heard of a certain Marley.", Lucy interjected, almost making it seem like she was trying to change the subject so Erza could not slander Natsu any further.

"Me neither.", I said thoughtfully, "But I'm sure that name will be known by Erwin. We should first return to him and let him know about these new facts.".

It was actually annoying that Natsu had not taken this woman, because I was sure that I could have got some information out of her. Because my methods of interrogation certainly differed enormously from those of Natsu and Happy. But at least we finally knew who was the mastermind behind all these kidnappings and that was a big step forward.

But still, the odd feeling crept into my mind that I had heard the name Marley somewhere before.

I am very sorry for this short chapter. :/

Published on 03-07-2019

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