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“I’m a wanted criminal, it’s not like I can just sit around in a cafe and chat,” Ultear said as she marched on forward out of the lights of the city right into the dark of the park next to them. Gray grumbled, not really excited to be so far away from the rest of the guild at a time when he needed to be back at a certain time, but didn’t feel like he had any other choice either. There were things he wanted to know after all.
They snailed through the sitting couples to the darkest spot at the very back. Gray was an adult man with considerable strength and power, so nothing could scare him, still, this kind of spot even gave him goosebumps, but she was right, better this than have her spotted and arrested. That was the last thing he wanted.
She sat down on a bench and though there was a lamp not too far from it, her entire face was covered by darkness, even know that she wasn’t wearing the hood of her cape. Gray sat down next to her and crossed his arms. They remained fully quiet for a full minute before she finally turned to him: “So, what did you wanted to know? I don’t have much time.”
Where to start? Gray couldn’t explain why he suddenly had wanted to talk to her, but it had overcome him as soon as he had seen her. When they had met back at the training session they had barely time to speak to each other, ending the fight that they had started 7 years ago and Gray felt like this was something that needed to be settled. Ur had always sat him and Lyon down too to resolve their conflicts.
“You were the one to break Jellal out of jail,” Gray said and just recounted something that he had been told. “Even though you knew he had his memories back and he could have potentially been dangerous.”
Ultear leaned back into the bench: “It was my fault that he was there in the first place. Besides, I knew he wasn’t a bad person. You don’t want to scold me for that, do you?”
“No,” Gray said. Obviously, Jellal was no longer a danger to any of them, nobody could deny that especially not after he had seen the sad look on his face and heard his absolutely pathetic lies to Erza, but Ultear couldn’t have known that. “But how did you make it off Tenroujima?” He asked next.
“With a boat,” Ultrear said. “I took Meredy and we left. We saw the dragon from a distance, but we were far enough away to be capsized by the waves and such.” Gray nodded. He’d figured something like that.
Ultear loosened the band in her hair and tightened it again. Gray watched her from the side. She clearly had her mother’s features, but when she moved her hands it didn’t show any of the scares that had spanned Ur’s fingers. Ultrear could use Make Magic in some capacity Gray had seen it, but her main magic source was completely different. Nothing to scar your fingers over.
“I knew you guys weren’t dead,” Ultear continued. “I just knew it would work out fine.”
Gray let out a breath: “That was naive of you to think.”
She gave him a smile, but there was a fierce light in her eyes: “I just knew everything was alright with you. I told Jellal that Erza was okay when we got him. I met Lyon and told him too…”
“You met with Lyon?” Gray looked up. That was the first time he had heard about it. Sure Lyon had mentioned Ultear to him, he had told him that she was still on the run and hunted by the magical enforcement unit, but he hadn’t said one word about having met up with her.
Ultear shrugged: “Well, Lyon, you and me, we are in some ways connected. I figured he’d be worried about your whereabouts and I wanted to put his mind at ease…”
Gray laughed: “Lyon probably had better things to do.”
“On the contrary,” she said. “He was quite relieved that I believed so strongly that you were still alive. Of course, he was shocked to see my face when he first ran into me, but I think it was exactly this face that got him to trust in my words. And I ended up being right.” She laughed a little. “There is this childish part of me that wants to go see him to tell him exactly that.”
He didn’t know what to say for a moment, preoccupied with wondering if he had ever seen her smile before. Well, it was not like he had seen her at all much before. The last time they had met he had left her on the surface of an ocean and then the next time she always wore this serious look on her face.
“He is here in this town,” Gray gestured to the lights coming from Crocus, “Go ahead.”
Ultear: “I can’t, I have no time for such things anymore. I have bigger tasks to fulfil. “ She turned to him: “Besides, you wanted to talk to me didn’t you? That is why we are here.”
Right, Gray had run into Ultear on a walk through the city. The rules of the Grand Magic Games said he had to be back at his inn by midnight, which was only 30 mins away, and still he had stopped her for a chat. And though she had insisted that she also had no time to talk, she had still dragged him out here to do it. Maybe she too wanted a clear air between them.
“Ah,” Gray said and scratched his head. “You have bigger tasks to fulfil now, huh?” He raised a brow. “You did say you are on the hunt for dark guilds, right? Like your own former allies?” He bit his tongue when he saw the reaction those last words had on her. “I- uh, mean allies that you knew from years ago…”
Though still looking a little dejected, she quickly found herself again: “Yes, sure, I know my way around. I not only was a leader in a ver yprominent dark guild, i was also on the council for a while and though I was young then, I was still paying attention. Jellal was too, which is why we are so good at weeding out. There are some that keep slipping our grasp though and of course there is the mystery of this energy at the Grand Magic Games to solve.”
“Hard to imagine that there are guilds that could escape your notice,” Gray said. “You have eyes and ears everywhere it seems.”
Ultear waved with her hand: “Despite all the experience I just talked about I am actually not that knowledgeable, you know. They are very tricky and very strong. The three of us have decided to not make a move on them until we are significantly stronger.”
“Can’t you just use your Arc of Time for it?” At least thats what she had done for them not so long ago.
She frowned a little and it looked like this had been something on her mind too. “I can’t really,” she said after considering his words for a moment. “It would take too much of my life energy and I need to preserve it for now. There are better uses for it, I think.”
“Like living, right?” Gray said and put his head to the side.
Ultear laughed a little: “Uh, yeah, of course, living.”
He took a deep breath. They were all the same. Ur, Lyon, he himself and Ultear. Somehow this deep rooted wish to sacrifice yourself for someone else was instilled in all of them. It was fairly pretty ridiculous.
“You know that killing yourself won't atone for your sins right? Only living can.” Gray heard himself say the words and realised immediately that he himself didn’t live by them. This was different though, Ultear was Ur’s daughter, Ur had wanted nothing else but for Ultrear to be alright, so it was his duty as her student to make sure she was. If Gray died in the process it really didn’t matter.
“Oh,” she said and shook her head, “Will you remember that too in the future, Gray?” Her eyes looked directly at him and his lips curled. He wanted to say something back to describe that he, in fact, did not matter a little bit in comparison to her, but her stare kept his mouth shut. He felt a little faint, but that was probably just because he hadn’t eaten a lot during the day.
They heard noises not far away from them, people were shouting and then suddenly quieted. Gray stretched and Ultear said: “Well, I should go back soon. There is lots to prepare.”
“I still don’t understand how you guys want to use us to investigate during the Games”, Gray said and scratched his head. “Will you stay near?”
She winked at him: “Don’t worry about it.” He frowned. It wasn’t like he worried about it, he just didn’t understand what was going on.
“We are good right?” she asked.
Gray was again reminded by the way Ur made Lyon and him settle their disputes by talking it out. “Yes, we are good.”
Then, quite suddenly, the noise that had a moment ago still been far away was suddenly right next to him. They could hear a pair of voices, officers, yell something about “No magic battles in the park” and light flashlights into everyone’s faces. They were heading right for their bench.
“There is always some shady shit going on over there,” the first one said.
“We really need to put more light into here,” the second one confirmed. Their light was aiming right and Gray’s shoes.
In panic he turned over to Ultear. “Go, they will find-” She shushed him and he closed his mouth, the footsteps approaching quickly.
Before he could understand what was happening, Ultear had grabbed the sides of his face, turned him to face her and kissed him. Baffled, he just let her do it. When she combed his hair with her fingers he suddenly felt slightly hot and really badly longed to take his shirt off.
The flashlights went over their faces. The first guy made a sound that sounded like “ew” and the other one said: “Let’s move on.” And then Gray could hear them walk away.
He was out of breath and slightly embarrassed when she finally let him go. He had never been kissed like that and maybe that was because she had so much more experience than he had. This was weird right? It definitely should have been, but he didn’t feel weird at all.
“Uh-?” Gray made, halfway into asking what the hell happened, but Ultear was already on her feet.
“I’m sorry Gray,” she said and sounded in a hurry, “I really should go before they come back. It is always good to make people uncomfortable with physical intimacy, but it never keeps them away forever.” Always? What had Jellal and her done in the last seven years? “Also, you have your curfew, remember?”
Gray nodded: “Ah, uhm, yes…” His lips felt a little hot in a way that he couldn’t explain.
“Ok, well, then, just go back, don’t worry about it.” She pulled the hood over her head and before he could get another word of goodbye out of himself she had already disappeared into the dark.
Just a moment later the flashlights returned. They moved from Gray’s feet over his face again like they had just moments ago. Gray could clearly hear one of the officers tell the other “Got dumped, huh?”