Chapter Seventeen - Loke Arc Resolution

It was a cool evening, and Erza had taken Konata out with her onto the town, wanting to improve her relationship with her other co-lover just as she had done with Juvia. Unfortunately, Konata's sense of humor seemed to rely on entirely foreign references - in this case, she was being compared to a woman whose name was apparently "Darkness."

"I'm afraid I don't understand the joke," Erza told her.

"That's fine," Konata replied, with an implacable wave of her hand that seemed to silently declare the conversation over. Unlike the shy Juvia or the confident but impetuous Natsu, Konata knew what she wanted and rarely caused any trouble. She had no vices like drinking to complain about. "It's really a joke for me." This was the closest it came: making jokes that no one else got. She wondered if it truly was a problem that she should deal with... but she'd heard no one else complain about it.

"I see. I'll endeavor to live up to this Darkness's example. Or to live down from it," she corrected a moment later based on Konata's expression. Konata simply laughed.

"At least you can hit something, don't worry about it-"

"Loke's missing!" Natsu practically burst into the street on which the two of them were walking. "Lucy's worried he might be dying! We gotta find him!"

Erza immediately set herself into a stance where she could break into a run at any moment. "Where has the rest of the guild already searched?"

"I know where he is," Konata said. Erza, naturally, turned her attention to her diminutive co-lover and guildmate. "Oh. Um. I guess I shouldn't say."

Erza placed one hand on Konata's shoulder, her expression firming up. "It's understandable you would want to keep your comrade's secrets, whatever they may be. If his life is not in danger, then keep his confidence - but if it isn't, then please, tell us. I'm certain that Loke wouldn't hate you for violating his confidence to save his life."

"Oh. Well... I guess, technically, his life is in danger..." she sighed like it was some great she was being forced to unload. "He's at Karin's grave."

"Then let's go," Erza said, easily hefting Konata onto her shoulder and beginning to run down the streets, making a beeline directly for the gravesite in question. Then she realized she had no idea where it was, and paused. "Where is Karin's grave?" Konata shrugged, and Erza looked to Natsu, then Happy. "Happy, find Karin's grave," she ordered.

"Aye!" Happy said, flying directly up into the sky. When he returned, he appeared to have some idea of where the grave was, so they began to follow his directions.

* * *

The longer the journey went on, and the more left turns they had to make, the less certain Erza became of Happy's competence in the matter of navigation, but she had no better options available to her. He managed to find the grave only after a titanic man in armor appeared, and when they finally arrived, he was speaking solemnly to Lucy and Loke alike.

"...this case shall be judged as an exception," he boomed, in a titanic voice. "Leo, your return to the celestial world has been granted. You are pardoned. Give your thanks unto the paths of the stars!"

Erza got the impression that she had missed quite a bit. Firstly, who was Leo? Secondly, why did he need to return to the celestial world? Thirdly, why would one thank the paths of the stars? For all her questions, the moment seemed one of intense emotion, a circumstance Konata seemed liable to pierce in her prickly manner as she usually did, so she chose to wait for the resolution of the conversation. She held her arm up to keep Natsu back and provide Loke and Lucy their privacy.

At some point during the entire affair, Loke began to disintegrate, and Erza dumped Konata on the ground without much ceremony, earning an oof from the young woman as she accelerated forward to try her best to save him. There was a giant open gate behind him, which appeared to be what was disintegrating him, so Erza set to work, trying to close it. It was extremely heavy, but her work was soon interrupted. "Stop, Erza!" Lucy yelled out with energy. "It's good! It's good! He's being saved!"

Erza paused for a moment, and nodded. She would trust her guildmate. Lucy was not the sort of person to conspire to kill a guildmate, even one she did not get on particularly well with like Loke. "Very well." She watched the - tearful, but smiling - Loke slowly vanish into the aether, and the great gate vanished from sight, a single golden key left in Lucy's hard. "Now. Who is Leo, exactly?"

* * *

"So Loke was actually the spirit Leo all along, and three years ago had been condemned to die for causing the death of Karin." Erza didn't understand it much at all, but she was happy that it had all ended well for her guildmates and friends.

"Yes, that's what she just got done saying," Konata stated, sticking her pinky finger into her ear to remove some earwax.

"I was merely confirming I had the right of it," Erza said.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it." Lucy paused, blinking a few times, then turned her gaze to Konata with an increasing frown. "What are you doing here?"

"Konata correctly identified that Loke was at Karin's grave, and we arrived to render our assistance. It appears it was unnecessary, however."

"I could've told you that," Konata grumbled. Perhaps she would have preferred to be carried in the bridal style, rather than under the arm. Erza would keep that in mind in the future.

"Wait. How did you know he would be here? And hey! Weren't you talking about the Gate of the Golden Lion a while back!" She poked fiercely at Konata, who merely took it weakly.

"Whatever. You're a big softie, I'm not afr-mmf!" Lucy had begun to pull at Konata's cheeks with increasing anger, her expression one of incandescent rage. In the interest of her teammate, Erza intervened, pulling Lucy's hands away from Konata's face.

"Konata is our guildmate, and has shared information of value to us rather than keeping it to herself. I understand that you may find her personality occasionally abrasive, but do not forget that she is your comrade as well."

"Yeah, I'm your comrade," Konata said, in a very uncomradely fashion.

"Konata. You are also Lucy's comrade. You should behave yourself around your guildmates, and not intentionally make them angry. We should all endeavor to be one great, happy family. In fact, let's have a group hug!" She declared, stretching her arms wide and grabbing Happy, Natsu, Lucy, and Konata all in one titanic bear hug. Feeling their bodies, clasped in her arms, faintly squirming and groaning, was the sort of sweet wonder that could only come from a life well lived.

* * *

Lucy was idly making notes on a napkin as she sat at a cafe table. She was still trying to work out the main plot to her novel, and it was surprisingly tough. It had to be both familiar and yet intriguing. Something that would make her book "pop", like the premise of The Hundred Armed Man, or the mystery of Red Robin's End.

She was interrupted by a tap on her shoulder. She quickly folded up her napkin - containing such brilliant insights as "GOOD protagonist" and "what does a villain do anyway?" - and turned to face the the person who had interrupted her work. It was Levy.

"Hi! I'm not interrupting, am I? I kind of wanted to talk to somebody, and we're friends, right?"

Lucy mentally considered the extremely high quality of her notes and concluded she wasn't being particularly productive anyway. "No, it's fine, go ahead." (She still stuffed the napkin into her pocket so she wouldn't lose it. One day, when she was a famous author, it would be a valuable collector's item! Probably.)

"There's a guy I like," Levy said, making Lucy's eyes widen, her entire attention going to the other woman. "He's really strong, and protective, and I feel safe when I'm near him."

"Who is it?" Lucy just blurted out the question, wanting to get some of the juicy gossip. She could have excused herself by claiming it was like research, since knowing about the world helped you write about the world, but that would be 100% a lie. She just wanted to know. "Sorry."

"It's- well-" Levy's cheeks flushed in embarrassment as she hesitated to answer the question. "It's Lee," she said, in almost a hissed whisper. "He's really incredible. I actually stubbed my toe and he just-" Levy snapped her fingers, but Lucy was only halfway paying attention. Levy was in a relationship with Lee? But wasn't Lee in a relationship with Erza? She mentally calculated it and reached a single, inevitable conclusion: Lee had multiple girlfriends.

"Wait, wait, sorry," Lucy said, stopping what was probably a very charming anecdote about Lee figuring out a simple cryptograph she'd put together. "How many girls is Lee dating?"

"Oh. Right. That's the thing. See, I really do like Lee. He makes me feel confident, and safe, and self-assured. When I'm with him I feel like I'm a better version of myself." She wore the tiniest hint of pink on her cheeks that seemed to suggest that perhaps that better version of herself was generally in a horizontal position. "But... he's also living together with Konata and Juvia... and he's dating Erza too... don't think badly of him! He didn't trick me or anything! He told me when I asked. It's, well, if you have this really handsome, sweet, kind, protective man, whose powerful arms could carry you to heaven... but also he's sleeping with other women... I feel like I should be upset somehow, but I'm not, and I don't really know what to do about it."

"Ahaha," Lucy said, more an awkward statement of the words than an actual laugh. "Ha... well, are you happy?"

"I am! It's actually really fun being with him, he-" Lucy hurriedly waved her hands to silence the other girl, and Levy let out a little laugh. "Sorry. It's just, he's really... wow. He's my knight in shining armor. It's just weird, since he has so many girlfriends..."

"Does he mistreat you?" Lucy asked. Cut right to the quick! Then she could back to working on her novel rather than thinking about the fact that Lee had four girlfriends and was definitely thinking about a fifth! (The fifth was her!)

"No," Levy said. "He's really nice. To everybody else, too. Well, sometimes he can be a little mean with Erza, but I'm pretty sure that she likes it."

That was definitely too much information. Lucy's ears were burning. "Okay. Is he unable to... see to your needs? Emotional needs, that is!" She quickly said, not wanting to get even more TMI.

Levy considered that, tilting her head to one side as she thought about it. "I mean... I don't feel like he isn't."

"There you go!" Lucy declared, not even sure what it was that Levy actually had gotten, but sure she was definitely not qualified to offer any romantic advice to Levy. She'd never even really had a boyfriend! The closest she got to a guy going out with her was Loke when he was freaking out about being about to die! "I... should be going now," she said, and at exactly that moment the waiter with her drink appeared out of the building. "Right. My drink." She sat back down and was promptly served. "Thank you."

"So how are things with you?" Levy asked, as Lucy sipped her drink. "Any boys you're interested in?"

Lucy carefully chose her next few words. "I'm mostly thinking about Loke, since the thing that happened."

"I get it." Levy smiled and nodded. "You two would make a cute couple."

"A-ah, no, not like that, he wishes," Lucy replied, waving her hands desperately. "Ha... who would like a guy who's that much of an incorrigible flirt..."

"Well... a flirt can be fun," Levy noted, seeming to imagine Lee as she spoke. "But if that's not your kind of guy, that's not your kind of guy."

This conversation was a prison she was never getting free of, wasn't it? Lucy took another sip of her drink.

"Am I really not your kind of guy, Lucy?" Came a very recognizable male voice from behind her. She spewed out her drink onto the table in shock at his sudden appearance. There he stood, Loke himself, in the flesh, right behind her.

"Gah! Don't scare me like that! I thought you had to rest in the celestial world!"

"I did," Loke agreed. "I still do. But, hearing you talk-"

"You were listening the whole time?!" Lucy asked, in a sudden, awkward panic. Were all her spirits listening to her, all the time? She really shouldn't have said all those things about Aquarius that she had after being frustrated with the spirit in question... she had been listening in, hadn't she? Ohhh no...

"Only for a little while. I remembered something." He produced from his jacket four tickets, which he handed over to Lucy. "I had been planning to go to a resort hotel with my girlfriends, but I'm afraid I can't stay in this world. Share them with your friends - they're the least I owe you for what you did." He then gave Lucy a quick (and uninvited! Anti-invited, if anything, since she'd just been saying he wasn't her type when he'd showed up!) peck on the cheek and vanished into thin air.

Levy looked at the four tickets for just a second too long. "Do you want to come with me?" Lucy asked, considering it. They were friends, after all.

"Oh, no," Levy said, raising her hands defensively. "It's fine. Take whoever you want with you! Things with Lee and me are just starting, and it's been fun, you know? I don't want to run off to some resort hotel and spend however long away, and I wouldn't want you to waste one of your tickets on him, since you two aren't that close." Lucy's uncertainty about that must have played across her face. "Pick whoever you want! Really!"

"Well... I'll think about who I want to invite. You're on the list, though! Even if I have to add Lee to it so you can both come enjoy yourselves." Admittedly, that wasn't quite as big an ask as she was making it sound. He was hot, and apparently pretty cool, and probably really good at se- no! She needed to stop thinking about that before her cheeks started turning red. "I mean, who else am I gonna invite? Natsu?" She paused. "Do you think Happy would have to use a ticket for himself?"

"I... don't know," Levy said, humming thoughtfully. "Are pets allowed at the resort?"

"Happy's a friend, not a pet," Lucy said, huffing, and Levy laughed at that. "What?"

"Natsu's rubbing off on you," she said, with a warm smile. "Ooo, is he more your type?"

Lucy was forced to conclude that Levy was at least as into gossip as she herself was.