I'm not sure anyone could quite figure out why it was that both Lucy and I were in such disastrously foul moods. Pissed off was the understatement of the century. I was seething, grinding my nails into the splintery wooden counter of our temporary outdoor bar. No amount of humorous bickering from Gray and Natsu could alleviate the dark emotions pressing condemning hands into my shoulders. Anger slithered through my veins like a flaming serpent.

He didn't trust me. After all this time, after all the damn promises we'd made to each other, he couldn't trust me with the burden of whatever secret he carried. Some friend he claimed to be, stringing me along even now, when I only wanted to help.

I should sic Aquarius on his ass for revenge...

Anyway, why Luce was so peeved, I wasn't sure. I had a hunch it had to do with Loke and all his unflappable charm with the ladies, but I hadn't had the heart to pry much. She was respecting my inner turmoil; I should do the same for her.

Happy, on the other hand, had no such courtesy.

He was lounging atop my head, his tail absently curling around my neck, paws slapping at my temples at random intervals. He'd been under the assumption that I was mad at one of three people: Natsu, Gray, or him. Erza was excluded because of my previous episode in which fangirling was heavily involved. Lucy was out of the question because...

Actually, Lucy should have been his first choice. Our similarly melancholic moods really should have been some sort of indicator that we'd had a fight or something. Now, that wasn't actually the case, but considering how little we actually got mad at one another...

Sorry. Offtrack again.

Happy had, for the past ten minutes, been badgering me for answers, asking why I seemed so utterly and intolerably gloomy and if a fish would help lift my spirits. I politely declined (and in no way threatened to skin his tail) and yet he refused to give up. I wouldn't have pegged him as persistent (unless the escapade had a big, fishy payoff), but his behavior earned him a sprig of admiration from me. Too bad it was so drowned in a sea of irritation.

Growing tired of playing nice, I reached to curl my fingers into his fur and return his blue butt to Natsu's face when Lucy suddenly straightened from her slumped stupor, eyeing something over the top of my head (aka, Happy). I abandoned the cat in favor of following her gaze, and my brows rose.

Poor Mira...

Said mage was currently surrounded by a mob of women, all jockeying for attention, demanding to know where a certain playboy had hidden himself.

I leaned back in my seat, elbow propped up on the counter, chin against my knuckles. "Loke's done something to get himself in a shit-load of trouble..."

"Wait," Lucy groaned, "you're telling me those are all his girlfriends?"

"Pretty much," I replied. "At least, these are all the girls who have chased my ass around Magnolia. By the way, Mina, that one with the poofy pink hair, can throw a heel with some serious accuracy, so I don't recommend pissing her off."

Lucy had every right to sweat drop at that statement; I would have, too, if I weren't speaking from experience. I still had the scar on my hip from where she'd nailed me a few months ago. And Lucy wondered why I was so against wearing heels; they were deadly as hell.

We watched for a moment while Mira attempted to dodge question after question regarding Loke's whereabouts (of which she obviously knew absolutely nothing). Then the topic turned to something a bit more volatile:

"Did he get a new girlfriend?"

"She's someone from the guild, isn't she?"

"She's got huge breasts, I just know it! That was always Loke's type...!"

Luce and I exchanged grimaces. We more or less fit that description to a grossly blatant T.

"Yes, well..." Mira was not at all succeeding in her valiant efforts. I admired her, honestly; if it were me in that position, someone's head would have already popped off their shoulders. "You see... I don't know anything about Loke's girlfriends" - she looked up, caught my eye, and a glow of satisfaction transformed her face; I gulped - "but I certainly know someone who might~!"

Have you ever had about a dozen sets of eyes suddenly whip around and pin you to your seat with a heated glare that makes you want to piss yourself? You might have, actually; teenagers and the like are pretty horrible to each other. Still, I don't think you could comprehend the unbridled hatred radiating off these girls, the intent to kill simmering in their eyes, how utterly terrified I was, sitting their like a goddamn vulnerable rabbit at the hands of a starving fox.

Or a whole damn den of them.

So, yeah, I was already on edge from the whole what-the-hell-is-Loke-hiding-from-me thing, and my fingernails were close to being shredded from the many, many splinters embedding themselves in the sensitive skin beneath them, and I honestly had no desire whatsoever to be brutally ripped limb from limb by a mob of psychotic fangirls - so I ran.

I jack-knifed to my feet, took hold of Lucy's arm, and sprinted from the guild, my feet slapping loudly against the silent streets of Magnolia. Happy'd been thrown off during my violent exit, though he'd taken extra care to pluck out a few strands of my hair in his struggles; but he was behind us, and so was a hoarde of desperate woman.

That was pretty good incentive for Lucy not to protest, for which I was grateful. I didn't need her chattering in my ear about my stupidly impulsive behavior while I was on the verge of death itself.

_________________________

"Wait... he said what to you?"

Lucy exhaled softly, flopping backwards onto her bed, an air of mental exhaustion radiating off her in unsettling waves. "He said that he... doesn't have long to live," she repeated rigidly, for what must have been the hundredth time; my brain refused to accept this answer and continually demanded that she explain herself, growing more fervent and frantic with each repetition of the very same words I didn't seem to understand.

I sank gracelessly onto the floor, cradling my head in both hands, staring listlessly between the bangs veiling my eyes at my scuffed up boots, looking but not quite seeing, as my focus had been cast inward.

What he said, about that being the last time we'd see each other...

Lucy and I ended up at home not long after we "escaped" the rabid fangirls on our tail. I use the term loosely because we did absolutely shit-nothing. Happy - who'd been determinedly flying after us - had the brilliant idea to call out "Look! There's Loke!" and the group performed a synchronized about face that had them speeding off in the Happy's indicated direction.

Which explained why I'd allowed him to take my precious spot atop the bed beside Lucy. Dude really saved our asses back there.

"When he said it was a pick-up line," Lucy went on, oblivious to my mental turmoil, as she was still fixated on the ceiling, "I slapped him. Hard."

"Got that part," I murmured, recalling the angry red mark scrawled across his cheek.

"But then... as I was thinking about it... I realized he'd sounded too sincere when he'd said it. He couldn't have... that wasn't a joke, Winter."

"No, 'course it wasn't. Loke's a playboy, but he wouldn't go that far just to get a girl." I fingered a single Silver Key dangling from my belt loop. I needed answers, Lucy too, and if Loke wasn't going to tell us straight-out what was going on, well... we'd just have to take matters into our own hands.

Lucy, who was on the same train of thought as I was, pulled herself into a sitting position, her eyes flicking to the Key now held up between two of my fingers. "Crux?" she guessed; I offered a wan smile as a response, sorta of a you know me so well, sis gesture she had no trouble interpreting. It was a smug look I wore often.

With a flick of the wrist and a rather subdued summons, Crux (or as I liked to call him, Grandpa) was floating several feet above the floor. Crux, or rather, Crux of the Southern Cross, fit his name perfectly: He was literally a cross, one that sported limbs and a face, but a cross nonetheless. And he was an expert at gathering intel.

Lucy and I took turns explaining the situation to him, ignoring Happy's attempts to jab into the conversation with a pointless question, building strength and fervor as we neared present day Loke and his natural wariness for all things Celestial Spirits. We'd realized as we were talking that it was only us Loke acted oddly around, and I remembered Mira mentioning to me that he may have had a bad run-in with a Celestial Spirit mage in the past, so we asked Crux to search for any connections Loke may have had with Celestial Wizards before joining Fairy Tail.

"Wah! He fell asleep, Lucy!" Happy gasped, referring to Crux had slumped forward, still apart from his subtle breathing, seemingly out cold.

"Nah, man, that's just how he looks when he's searching." In response to his incredulous stare, I only shrugged. It wasn't as though we dictated how our Spirits used their magic, or how they looked while doing so.

He looked about ready to burst out with another question when Crux more or less exploded, filling the air with a shout so loud Happy's fur stood on end and in its wake I was forced to pound at my ear turned towards Crux in order to regain some semblence of hearing.

"Gramps," I groaned, rubbing at the tender skin beneath my ear, "couldn't you be a little less Natsu-ish sometimes...?"

I was ignored, obviously. No one cared about Winter's opinion. Hell, right now, I didn't even care.

"Did you find something, Grandpa Crux?" Lucy asked eagerly, clamboring to the edge of her bedspread.

"Hmm," he hummed, nodding a bit; I felt my heart skip a beat. "In the Spirit World, one's activites are still a private matter, so I can't be too precise, but..." I motioned for him to go on, fully prepared to clasp my hands together in mock-prayer and beg him if he decided it was necessary to draw out this agonizing silence.

He fixed us with a sleepy stare, and his next words sent frigid shivers racing up both our spines:

"The Celestial Wizard Mr. Loke has been in contact is... Miss Karen Lilica."

Karen? I thought, just as Lucy gasped, "Karen Lilica?!"

While Happy pestered Lucy about her knowledge of the famous wizard, I rubbed tiredly at my temples, sorting through my sudden king whirring thoughts.

Karen Lilica. She was an idol of many aspiring Celestial Mages, Lucy and myself included. I'd known that she was affiliated with Blue Pegasus, and for that I'd wanted to join them for years - until we heard about Fairy Tail, anyway. That was quite the startling revelation.

But besides that, Karen had died a few years ago, kinda mysteriously if I'm being honest. Her death was in all the papers, but they only described it as an accident - that was it, no details or anything. It had bothered me for a while, why the circumstances surrounding her death were so vague, but with the excitement of leaving home and setting out for Fairy Tail, any thought of Karen had been pushed to the furthest recesses of my mind.

And now they were at the forefront again, glaring and spiteful, because the pieces were slowly falling into place as I listened to Lucy muse out loud after dismissing Crux for me.

What other reason was there for Loke to act so paranoid and skittish around Celestial Wizards, other than that?

"Dammit... what the hell are you thinking, Loke?"