A bit earlier the same morning...

Oric observed the people around him. The atmosphere was amicable. The conversations were calm. But he didn't completely understand all that was going on.

Laxus and Jellal were having some discussion about this treaty that Jellal had mentioned. Laxus then explained to Jellal why he went after the guild. Who Rory was and what she meant to him. It was everything that Oric had already heard but it didn't make it any less believable.

Oric looked at his sister and then in turn Laxus. He was still torn on his feelings toward the neanderthal that Rory was with. He obviously cared about her. He got away with calling her Aurelie when no one else did. The way she looked back at him, well she obviously also cared about him too.

The girl from Crime Sorciere, Meredy they had called her, was keeping a distance behind everyone else. Her cloak still hid her face but the length of her hair made it apparent that he at least knew that detail about her features. She definitely had wavy pink hair. Oric listened to her steps as they seemed to mimic his own. Then suddenly she had quickened her pace and was beside him. She pulled down her hood, and smiled at him.

Oric was taken aback by her beauty. Were all female mages associated with Fairy Tail beautiful? Her skin was a creamy apricot. Her eyes were green but, they weren't emerald green like his sister's. He could only mentally describe it as if the depth of the ocean and a turquoise gemstone collided with each other. Then the colors of the two swirled together just so she could have such a unique color of iris. She smiled at him.

"So, is the redhead your sister?"

"Yeah, that's Rory, my twin sister."

"And apparently I gather she is with Laxus?"

"Apparently... You didn't hear the conversation that Jellal and Laxus were discussing?"

"I did. I just wanted to see what you thought of the whole thing. You don't seem that invested in their relationship."

"Well, it wasn't long ago I was taken captive. It wasn't long ago that Rory went to Fairy Tail to find me help. Therefore, it wasn't long ago the two of them even met..." His words trailed off as he realized that if he said anymore it would probably come out angry.

"'Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons. For you are crunchy and good with ketchup.'" Meredy giggled. "Sorry, I saw a gift store that had a t-shirt that said that. I always wanted to quote off that saying someday."

Oric found his anger melt away somewhat and smiled at her good nature and attempt at humor. But he feared that meddling with dragon slayers, and dragons for that matter was that dire. So he couldn't bring himself to outright laugh at the joke.

Oric watched as Meredy glanced between the paired off couples. "It's so nice to see they all found each other. Even if they were right under each others' noses. I wonder how Juvia and Gray are doing."

"Who are they?"

Meredy quickly explained her first encounter with Fairy Tail and the not so romantic nature of the relationship between the ice make mage and the water mage.

Juvia and Gray both sneezed simultaneously. Then they glance each other's way. Juvia's face became inflamed and she hid further behind the pillar. She should go up to talk to her beloved but for some reason today she just can't muster the courage. Normally she would fawn over him with affection. But yesterday he had blown up in anger at her. So now she was scared to even be in the same room as him.

Her fear didn't detour her from at least looking in on him. But even what he might say if he discovered her staring his direction made her timid in fear of what he might say once he discovered her.

Gray groaned, pulled himself from the bench of the table he was sitting at, and paced over to Juvia's hiding place. He plucked her out of her reverie when he grabbed her wrist and dragged her behind him.

Juvia was so busy being shocked that Gray had pursued her hiding spot and grabbed her that she didn't really notice how he was dragging her along. It was only when he stopped and look back at her with his deep dark blue eyes that she realized he had taken them just outside the guild. Juvia shrunk underneath his gaze. She felt like a bug under a microscope.

Gray sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Look, I'm sorry about all the things I said yesterday."

"You had every right to tell me to stop stalking you, to stop gazing your way, and looking at you with hopeful eyes. You made yourself pretty clear that you wanted nothing to do with me. You even said that I should find someone that could return my affections. Which that got me thinking...maybe I should leave Fairy Tail."

'What?!?! Shit I don't want her to leave!' Gray tried to interrupt her but she placed a hand on his chest, which at some point had ended up bare because of his disrobing habit. The cold steely electricity he felt from her touch gave Gray pause. 'Maybe, her showing affections wasn't such a bad thing after all. But wait she is still talking.'

"I debated with myself for awhile now. I would miss everyone here but at least in Lamia Scale I know someone there cares for me. Lyon can be a tad annoying with his affections but perhaps someday I would grow to like him in return. I just think I need space from all this." She gestured her hands between the two of them and to the guild settled as a backdrop behind her.

Gray frowned at her. "I can't believe I'm saying this but I don't think I want you to go."

That's when he noticed the tears in her eyes and how the sky became gray with the clouds above them. "But, I can't be here and not dote on you in some way. It's not in me to do that. You made it clear that you would never return my affections..."

"When the hell did I say that?"

"You...you didn't have to. Not in so many words at least."

Gray was growing exasperated with the conversation. He reached out and brushed the tears from her face. He had a problem with girls crying especially when it came to him. It always got him in hot water. He couldn't deny the jolt he got from touching her skin to himself any longer. But he wasn't quite ready to commit to the idea either. "Look, I don't want you to fawn over me. That's true. But that's because it can get cree...er...I mean uncomfortable for me to feel your stares across the room. I just want you to come in and treat me like a normal guy for awhile. I know you have feelings for me but I think you hold me in too high of a regard."

"You think I have a modicum of hero worship?"

Gray shrugged. "Something like that."

Juvia sniffled and walked away. Gray didn't understand why she walked away it puzzled him. To him the conversation wasn't over yet. So he followed her to figure out where she was going, and perhaps get a clue into what she was thinking now.

Oric frowned when Meredy jogged up to Jellal and Laxus. Were Meredy and Jellal an item? Why did that thought cause a sensation like there was a lump of lead now residing in his gut? Why did his chest suddenly feel tight?

A strange noise filled the surrounding area and suddenly something was falling from the sky. Er, not something apparently, but someone. The body managed to miss Meredy by merely inches and landed on Jellal. The tightness in his chest and the lump of lead sensation started to slowly evaporate.

Just after the mysterious person fell Oric noticed the cart coming up behind them. "Everyone look out!" The whole group scattered off the street and watched as the cart fell to the earth. More people fell out of the sky into the cart.

A pink haired male got up and scattered several of the bags to and fro. "Luce! Lucy, are you okay?" A blonde reached her hand up to the male.

"I'm fine, Natsu."

A huge burly looking male groaned. "Yeah, bunny girl fell on top of me."

A pint sized blue haired girl piped in. "If it weren't Lu that fell on you, but another female I might be ticked. But actually it's probably a good thing she fell on you."

The blonde haired girl, apparently named Lucy looked around. "Where's Erza? Where's Jaspar?"

An elder man laughed at the shenanigans the potion caused. "No worries, I levitated down." Oric wasn't sure how he missed the petite elder male but there had been a lot of things happening at once.

"And, I'm over here. Something cushioned my fall."

"Not something, someone," Meredy giggled.

"Meredy, what are you doing here?"

"Why don't you ask Jellal?"

Erza turned beet red when she realized that it was Jellal that took the brunt from her fall. She got up quickly and tried to examine him for injuries but Jellal pushed her off. "I'm fine, Erza. Trust me."