Hear me

8

Luckily Mira hadn't asked any questions when Natsumi came ambling into the guild with a dower look on her face and dark circles under her eyes, but something told Natsumi that she didn't need to ask. She probably knew everything, anyway, especially with the way she'd been acting recently. Not like it mattered, the dragon slayer thought. The whole guild could go mind their own damn business, for all she cared. She was done talking about it with everyone. She wouldn't, however, refuse the extra two pancakes Mira had added to the already intimidating pile. The pink-haired girl poured an equally large amount of syrup over the pile and voraciously dug in, feeling more like herself with every savage bite she took.

"Hey, Charcoal Brain, you're dunking your hair in your syrup. Some of us would like to keep our own breakfast down." Gray said as he came up to the bar, waving at Mirajane. Natsumi gave him a sharp glare, looking him straight in the eyes as she stuffed another huge, dripping forkful into her mouth, cheeks filled to capacity. Gray shuddered, glaring back. "You're fucking disgusting, you know that, right?" When he received no response other than a vague, pancake-filled hum, he rolled his eyes. "Okay, whatever. Listen, I just came to warn you. Juvia just came back from a job. Said she'd run into Freed on the way to the train station. Apparently they're due back today, so if you're looking to make yourself scarce, I'd suggest you take a job pronto," he gave her a meaningful look, taking in her wet hair and crumb covered face. "Though I guess covering yourself in syrup also works as a pretty good deterrent."

Natsumi's eyes widened. She hadn't expected the Thunder Legion to be back so soon. Rearranging her face into another annoyed glower, she swallowed her current bite. "Why should I care?"

Grey scoffed, "Oh, so we're playing this game now? Alright. Whatever. I was just trying to help."

Immediately feeling like a heel, Natsumi relaxed her expression a bit. "Dude, sorry. Thanks, but I'm good. Plus, I haven't finishing demolishing these yet," she said, gesturing to her food. "It's not a big deal, trust me."

He didn't look convinced, but seemed to accept her response this time. "Yeah, well, don't say I didn't warn you," he said, walking away, nudging her shoulder gently as he passed.

"Yeah, yeah," she mumbled to herself, shoveling in another bite, "Bastard's lucky I didn't punch him for cracks like that."

"He's only trying to look out for you," Mira chimed in, hands busily wiping down the bar top in preparation for the morning rush, "We were all concerned for you after the tongue-lashing you gave Laxus, and even more so after you came back and started acting like nothing happened."

"So everyone's still hung up on that? Figures."

"It was kind of hard to forget you screaming your head off. Plus, Lucy came by before the Thunder Legion left and gave him a talk of her own, but you didn't hear that from me."

"Ughhhhhh," the pink-haired girl groaned as she leaned her head back, palms flat against the bar. While she wasn't surprised, she had hoped that not everyone would know about what had happened. "I just want to stop talking about it!" she whined to the barmaid, scrunching up her face in distaste.

"I don't think it's as easy as that, I'm afraid," Mira said in a gentle tone. "These things have a way of cropping back up until they're resolved."

"But I did resolve it. What's done is done and everyone just needs to leave me alone!" She was trying so hard, and it didn't seem like anyone was cutting her any slack these days.

Mira stopped in her ministrations, turning to face Natsumi fully with a small smile on her face. "You should know better than anyone that Fairy Tail doesn't know the meaning of minding their own business. Plus, it's pretty obvious that you aren't fooling anyone," she finished with a giggle.