The Devil Slayer & The Steam Prince Volume1

Chapter 19 Winter Wonders Part4

Timeskip to Christmas Eve.
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Lucy's POV: It's been two weeks since I brought Seth to his family home from him being buried in the freezing cold. It's now the morning of Christmas Eve and we have been back at the guild sense yesterday and yet he hasn't come down for breakfast all morning and he is usually up early enough to help cook. As I'm about to get out my seat and go knock on his door I see him walk downstairs in footy pj's and his hooded robe and slippers. He turns into the bar and gets busy pouring things in bowls and then heats them from underneath with his fire magic. I call over to him and try to flag him over but he takes all his food and his tall mug to an empty table and just ignores us.
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"This again really, haven't we dealt with you being distant for long enough, were your team, yet you keep secrets from us and you won't let us in, instead you insist on being solitary." I hear Natsu bark and growl beside me over in Seth's direction with his fists banging onto the table. Then I see a sight we all thought we wouldn't see again, Seth removes his robes hood from his head and his hair turns burnt crimson and he looks over his shoulder at us with white eyes lined with orange and red. "Natsu back off we all know the damage Seth can do while in take-over, Erza says with a death glare."
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The pink haired pyro just grumbles under his breath and sits back down. Seth just turns his attention back to his breakfast and afterward helps clean all the dirty dishes. I then figure it out he doesn't want to be so physically close to Gray because he would then feel weird talking with the ice mage after learning it was Gray who took care of him here at the guild the night we found him in the snow and also because tonight we finally exchange gifts. I keep my knowledge of Seth's behavior to myself but I give a knowing gaze to Erza and she nods that she was thinking the same thing.
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After breakfast we bring Seth with us on some jobs during one of them we were in the woods and the bad guys were bobbing and weaving on foot at such a fast rate we could hardly keep up with them. "I'm going tree hopping." Seth said before scaling a tree and leaping from tree to tree. By the time we catch up he already has his daggers pointed at their throats and have their backs against tree trunks. After a few more jobs like that, we are finally in a city and yet still more brawling against job targets and I see Seth growing angry and annoyed at this. "I got them." says Seth before going shadow mode and eventually he emerges in front of the targets.
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Seth then slams his fists on the ground and then raises his hands over his head causing fire to come up from the ground and shoots to the sky. With a couple of hand gestures, Seth bends the fire causing it to arc over the targets and makes it shrink around them once we caught up to the action he powers down and dispels the dome of flames. He shoves his hands in his pockets and the only sound heard from him is the soft crunching of snow on the ground under his boots.
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By the time the rest of us get to the guild Seth is already inside decorating and humming carols as he works. When he finally spots us he stops humming and goes elsewhere in the hall to decorate. "Seth why don't you go get washed and changed it will be evening soon and that means it will soon be time for the gift swap." I hear Mira call over to him as he rushes past her. Seth then stops in his tracks and looks over at her. "Oh your right I just felt I should help more but okay I guess that would be for the best." Seth says in reply. "Maybe we all should do that." Erza says as she looks at our team. I nod in agreement at her idea.
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Gray's POV: I head to the guy's bath and once undressed I step into the water and even though I see Seth he pays me no mind and has his eyes shut as he relaxes in the hot waters. "You gave the entire team a scare, you know that right?" I say as I try to get his attention. Seth in turn just tunes it out and continues to get washed.
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As I'm about to try for his attention once more I see him lower his gaze from the ceiling and open his eyes with an open hand between us to stop me. With a few hand gestures like in our job earlier today where it was a dome of fire around the targets he instead summons a dome around him of water and fills it with steam to avoid conversations with me. Soon he gets out of the water and grabs his towel and leaves for his room all I hear from him is "See you at the gift swap." I just decide to get out and go to my room as well.
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Hours later the entire guild has had dinner and now it's time for the gift exchange and Seth was last to join us in the room as he walks in with a custom Santa costume with no beard or white hair and not the heavy boots or regular clothes, instead dressed in long black socks and black slippers as well as pj's that are made to look like a dressy suit with coattails and his Santa hat has fake sequins so he just sits with his legs angled and feet crossed while the gift he brought for the exchange rests in his lap. Soon everyone has exchanged gifts except for Seth and so Erza asks him whose name he had even though he wasn't here to pull himself someone pulled for him.
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"Um well, the guildmate I had was..." Seth says nervously and bashfully. "It's Gray, my slip of paper had Gray's name on it." Seth says after finally breaking out his nervous shell. He then gets up and puts the box he came with into my lap and so I open the lid of it and inside rests slippers. "Oh slippers thanks Seth that's a nice gift." I say as I look at them. "Click the fronts of them together twice." Seth says without looking me in my eyes. I do as he says and soon the stars turn into an image of me shirtless in my caster pose and falling around the image is powdery snow, I click the front of the slippers twice together again and the image disappears and the constellation returns and surrounding the constellation is detailed snowflakes.
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I then look inside the slipper and see soft fake fur so I try them on and they fit perfectly and feel really comfy. "Seth thanks this is amazing I have never had such nice slippers before, I really like it, I say as I crack a smile up at him." "Huh, oh ugh yeah sure no problem glad you like something I helped make." Says Seth before returning to his seat. We all then celebrate late into the night and everybody enjoys the party. A little after the clock struck midnight, I look around the crowd and see that Seth is dancing without any care and hasn't once yet used his steam clouds and so I just crack a small smile as I watch him. Erza then notices me watching Seth dance and decides to elbow me.
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"You're enjoying watching our most recent member dance without any care who's around aren't you." Erza says as she looks at me out the corner of her eye. "I'm just glad he isn't using his magic to dance he has already used magic and caused us to worry so I think it's nice to see him dance without it for once." I explain. "Oh well maybe you should go dance with him again but this time just dance normally not dressy seeing as this is just a guild party and not an elegant ball." Lucy says as she walks past having overheard what Erza and I were talking about.
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As I'm about to answer her I see Seth walk away towards the soda bar. As the night continued to get late I start to hear music playing and a beautiful angelic voice singing. I look around and see Seth is the one singing he then holds a lakrama in his hands and holds it up to the sky the lakrama was clearly the source of the music. Soon everyone is gathered in silence as they listen to him sing as if he was a siren in a past life. He just continues to sing with his eyes shut and we can all feel the emotions in his voice, The joy of being able to sing and yet the pain of no doubt the fact that this must of been something his mother sang to him.
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When Seth opens his eyes his eyes go white so we all start to worry if he is going to turn into an elemental. Instead of turning into lava his body glows lavender and the glow then pulls itself off of him and turns into the shape of a woman. The figure joins hands with Seth and he pours into it waves of shadow magic making the energy turn solid so tell everyone to back up and give him room. I had the sense that Seth pulled a memory of what his mother looked like into a physical form and so he and the figure danced as he continued to sing. The dance and song eventually end as the figure kisses Seth's forehead and he holds it tight to him, The figure then turns back into a lavender glow of energy and returns to Seth. Seth's eyes return to normal and he kisses the lakrama to end the music. Everyone of course, looks at him curiously as to what else can happen with his magic.
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Seth's POV: I had just finished dancing to a song of my past with a figure of my mother made out of my own magic. Everyone in the guild is now surrounding me and looking at me curiously and so it begins to make me uneasy so I just run out of the room and hide in my room and just try to ignore everyone's voices in my head. As I get undressed I hear a knock at my door even though it's late and I just want to sleep I end up sliding on some pajama pants and a t-shirt before opening my door.
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"Whatever it is can't it bloody wait till we have all slept a reasonable amount of hours." I say bitterly as I swing open my door roughly. "Um sorry, I just wanted to make sure you're ok you seemed nervous when everyone was around you." Says Gray as he looks over the railing as watched the party continue. I then take a slow breath as I adjust my approach. "Yeah, I got nervous because I hate being cornered or surrounded especially when people give me that look the others gave me it really makes me uncomfortable I'm fine now and all I really wanna do right now is sleep." I say with droopy eyes. Gray turns to face me and sees the exhausted look in my eyes and so just nods and heads back downstairs and so I close my door and strip myself naked and flop into bed not caring if I end up snoring loudly and end up getting hate for it come morning.