#stincy

“Hey, Beautiful.” His tone was soft, as he closed the distance between them. He pulled her up and into his arms. She had been crying again, and although she tried her best to hide it yet again, he could still tell. “I missed you.” He whispered as he pulled her closer to his chest. She’s cold. He thought to himself. She’s been here all day. His eyes darted around the room. Her cup of coffee on the desk was old, he could tell that just by glancing over. Her sheets were bundled at the foot of the bed, instead of being neat and perfectly made. Her towel was in a ball on the floor, instead of hanging up. She showered today, so at least that’s progress, the lion thought to himself before kissing the top of her head. Seeing his hime like this was rough, but he understood. He squeezed her tenderly one more time before lifting her face to him. Lucy looked away, knowing immediately that he could tell she was crying and that always made him upset. He stared at her, gazing into her eyes before placing another soft kiss on her forehead this time. “Let’s get you into bed.” He muttered under his breath before guiding her.

He tucked her in, before disappearing into the kitchen for a short minute, bringing back with him a small cup of tea and placing it beside her. He took off his jacket, smiling softly, before hanging it neatly on the chair she had been sitting on prior. “Hime,” he hummed as he sat on the edge of the bed, taking off his shoes and rolling up his sleeves. “I hate seeing you like this,” he was thinking out loud, while he took off his watch and placed it on the nightstand. “I know you hate being like this too,” Loke crawled into bed with her, placing his arm under her and pulling her into an embrace. “We are worried; Virgo, Aries, Capricorn,” he closed his eyes, whispering as he continued. “Staying like this, it’s not healthy, and I know it’s not what you want. We want to help.” He briefly opened his eyes, checking to make sure she was listening. “Hime,” he pulled her chin up. “Please, let’s leave Magnolia for a bit.” He felt her breathing change, so he quickly added on. “Just to get away from this. I know of a town we can go to, it’s far enough away that it should help distract you. I was talking to Capricorn about it, and he said we can help you train over there. We love you Luce, and we can’t keep seeing you like this. It’s breaking our hearts.” Lucy felt something wet on her cheek, before moving her hand slightly to touch it, realizing that he was crying now too. “Okay,” she muttered back, so low he barely caught the response. “Really?” he was taken back. “Yes.” “I’ll tell Virgo,” Loke breathed a sigh of relief, pulling his hime in closer. His fingers began to gently run through her hair, “we’ll leave tomorrow.” He muttered, closing his eyes, while the two of them drifted off to sleep.

“Ginger Town?” Lucy stared at the lion as they stepped off the platform. “Is this the town you wanted to go to? We’ve been here loads before.”

The lion spirit chuckled, a grin appearing, “No hime, but it’s only a short wagon ride from here.” She was hesitant, he could feel it. “Trust me, Hime.”

“Mm,” Leaving Magnolia was hard enough for her, but she took a deep breath, Loke is right. She had faith, or at least she had to think that as Loke and her walked in step to find a wagon.

“How’d you find this place?” Lucy’s head rested on the spirit’s shoulder as she stared off at the trees. They were close to the new town, she could sense it.

Loke bit his lower lip, searching for the right words. “Well, right after Karen died,” he tried to pick his words carefully before speaking again. “Before I joined Fairy Tail, I did a lot of wandering around. Soul searching if you would,” he normally never thought about what to say, but anything around Karen’s death was always a hard subject for the cat. “Well, I spent a lot of time wandering around, and I stumbled upon this town, and after meeting some of the locals, I started to feel like myself again, and I started to heal.” A somber smile appeared on Loke’s face, but it was gone quickly. “I think it’ll help you heal as well.”

“Mm,” Lucy was at a loss of words; Loke was a lot of things, but that was something she wasn’t expecting from him, and she could tell that it was difficult to tell her about. Anything involving Karen was particularly hard for him to talk about, but she loved that he could tell her about things like that. She cuddled closer to him, muttering a small thank you under her breath as they continued the ride.

The carriage stopped, and Loke gracefully got out, and turned to help Lucy out, despite her protest that she didn’t need help; the cat chuckled softly, and then turned to the driver and paid him for the journey.

“Since when do you carry Jewel on you?” Lucy smirked slightly, impressed at the spirit.

A smile appeared on him, “Now hime,” he replied almost flirtatiously, “What kind of man would I be if I made you pay?”

There’s my lion spirit. She loved his almost playful remarks. They felt natural coming from the playboy. “Good point,” she chuckled, “Now, care to tell me where we are?”

“Jamestown. Come on, the inn is closeby.” He gracefully grabbed her hand and led her on the way.

The inn was old, the wood was stained with age, and the paint on the door was chipping; Lucy hesitantly turned the knob, not really knowing what to expect when they stepped in. The door opened into a big lobby entrance, with the walls painted light blue, and the small couches spread throughout the room of a darker shade. A bell chimed throughout the lobby as the door behind them closed. “Welcome,” the old lady innkeeper chimed out. She came out, only to freeze at the desk when she came face to face with Loke. “Well, well, well,” the tone in her voice instantly shifted as she stared up and down the spirit, taking in his details. “If it isn’t Leo. Damnit,” she exclaimed. “I was hoping I was done dealing with you.” Her brow furrowed in annoyance, as she glanced over at Lucy, staring her up and down too, analyzing her features, before ultimately speaking again. “And you have a new one with you, big surprise. I pity you for having to deal with this pesky cat. Oh well, let’s hope he treats you better than his other girlfriends.” She made note to emphasize the last word, as if that was the least offensive thing to call them.

Loke chuckled, completely unfazed by the outburst of the innkeeper. “Now Christina, you know I could never be done with you,” he smirked while his hand reached up to adjust his glasses before speaking again. “Christina, my dear, you were wrong about one thing, this is Lucy,” he gestured grandly to the girl beside him, “she’s not my girlfriend, she’s my master.” Master rolled off his tongue, making it sound almost kinky.

“Excus-”

Loke cut off Lucy before she could protest, “Lucy, hime, this is Christina Garnet.”

“I’m sorry you have to deal with this spirit,” she shot him a glare, causing a chill to go down his spine. Loke shrugged it off. “I hope he’s better than he used to be,” she turned to face Lucy, trying her hardest to ignore the lion spirit. “What can I do for you, Miss Lucy?”

Lucy chuckled, the tone the old lady set had already began to grow on her. “I’d like a room, please.”

Christina cleared her throat. “Will Leo be staying with you as well?” She glared at the lion, not happy in the slightest for his presence to be there once again.

“No,” Lucy smiled at the older lady, reassuring her. “He’ll be going back to the spirit realm, and will only be here while I train.”

The cat chuckled, knowing full well that he never agreed to that plan, but of course he wasn’t going to tell Christina that. It would ruin my fun. “But Christina my dear, don’t you enjoy my presence?” The playboy teased, adjusting his glasses before attempting to reach for the older lady’s hand.

“No,” she smacked it away, not hesitating for a second as she turned away to grab keys. “It’s going to be 3,000 Jewel a night, that is of course providing you can keep that lion of yours in check.”

“Thank you Christina, I knew you were the best.”

“Masterpiece?  Really?”  Lucy clicked her tongue and attempted to understand how anything by Bruno Mars was worthy of being called a ‘masterpiece.’  “On what planet?”  An amused chuckle escaped her lips, as she looked over to her boyfriend who was currently holding a pen to his lips, using it as a pretend microphone while he belted out the chorus.

“This one obviously,”  Her blond boyfriend spoke in between lines of the song.   He reached over to turn up the song, only to have his hands playfully swatted away by the girl right before reaching the dial.  “Twenty four karat magic in the air.”  Sting closed his eyes and brought the ‘microphone’ closer as he sang even louder.  A smile swept across his face when he heard the beautiful laugh the blonde emitted while watching his antics.   

“See babe, I knew you liked me singing to you.”  

“Singing?”  She brought a finger to her chin, pretending to think about something.  “Is that what you call that?”  

Sting brought a hand to his chest as he let out an overdramatic gasp, feigning offense.  “So cruel!”  He brought his hands back up the wheel and continued to drum the beat just as the chorus was starting again.  “Come on babe!  Sing it with me!”  The blond got closer to Lucy so the pen was closer to her.  “What y’all trying to do?”  He tried to give his best attitude, nudging the girl softly with his elbow to get her to join in.