God it's been forever since I've updated this. Somehow I had convinced myself that it wasn't that long ago since I had updated it? I don't know how, but that's what I thought.

At any rate, enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

Breakfast was… not horribly awkward for Lucy. In fact, it was almost pleasant.

When she'd woken up, it was a different story. She'd reached out, groping around for a warm body. Her search revealing only the cold, hard surface of the tent. She'd snapped awake with a deep, yawning, cold emptiness in her chest. Of course Loke hadn't stayed, Lucy realized a moment later. He'd had to go back to the Celestial World at some point. But his absence still hurt.

Crawling out of her tent, every joint stiff and making popping sounds, Lucy was greeted by the sight of a campfire. Cobra sat beside it, frying up more fish. At her curious stare, he just shrugged and said, "It's what's available."

Which was fair enough, but it led Lucy to wonder just how often Cobra and his friends ate fish, and how often she herself would be expected to. Fish could get old really, really fast.

Another shrug was her only response.

This did not bode well for her dietary intake for the future.

"What did you expect?!" Cobra grumbled. "We're criminals on the run! It's not like we can regularly eat at a five-star restaurant!"

"Regularly?" she teased, hauling her aching body in front of the fire. "So sometimes is alright?"

He passed her a stick spitted with two small fish. "Yeah, though the worst criminals tend to fill the place up fast so you gotta make a reservation in advance."

Lucy giggled, feeling much lighter inside than before. "That's truer than you realize." She couldn't even begin to list all of the crimes committed by the ruling class that she'd been forced to entertain at her father's parties growing up. Some of them even had more extensive body counts than Cobra likely did. Not that they would ever face the law for the things they did. And she'd had to smile politely at them the entire time, and pretend she didn't want to smash their teeth in, or it was face… She cut off the thought there, unwilling to think further on the topic.

"Where did you sleep last night?" she asked suddenly, changing the subject before Cobra's magic found out more about herself than it already had.

Instead of replying, Cobra grunted and jerked his head to the tree hollow behind him.

Mortification flooded Lucy. "I'm so sorry. I didn't even consider… I mean… I should have asked Virgo for another tent for you to sleep in."

"It's fine," he stated bluntly. "I'm used to it."

And now it was officially awkward.

So, so awkward.

Walking next to the blonde woman was damned uncomfortable.

Not because he could hear her thoughts. Well… not just because of that fact alone. Cobra was long used to being privy to society's nastiest secrets shelved deep into the recesses of peoples' minds. Brain had been a member of Magical Research, after all. Naturally, his pets were his subjects as well. Broken down mentally and physically to be living anti-links to contain Zero. Growing up in The Tower of Heaven. Mind being flayed at every turn by the darkest parts of humanity. So handling one person's thoughts and secrets was no big deal. By comparison, hers was relatively tame.

No, there was something about Lucy herself that rendered him profoundly uncomfortable. It couldn't just be the gratitude she'd displayed over the mere act of returning after dumping the damn food waste (holy fucking shit that wasn't anything to be grateful for. He was a criminal with a number of bodies under his belt, and he'd nearly taken her friend's arm off once. Grateful was the very last thing she should ever feel for him). But though it didn't sit well with him, he'd ignored far worse things than the odd positive feeling. So it had to be something else that had him suddenly rebelling against his impulse to take her with him (which, upon reflection, wasn't really like him at all, either).

Gods, she freaked him out.

After she'd gone to bed, he'd doused the fire and tried not to consciously listen in to her conversation with her spirit. Relegating their voices to background noise proved harder than he would have hoped for, however. In the end he'd ended up hearing all of it. Her bond with her spirits was nothing like Sorano's had been – it seemed to be closer to his relationship with Cubelios. What in Earthland had he been thinking? She still had her spirits; she didn't need him or Crime Sorciere to help pick her up again.

Then why did she continue to follow him?

Soon they'd leave the forest and he could pass her off to Jellal and the others. Then maybe he'd get some semblance of peace inside his head. Thankfully, they would be there in a few minutes and then…

"Are we almost there yet?"

Cobra grit his teeth. No phrase had ever effortlessly aroused so much hatred in him as this one did. "Almost."

"Thank the stars," Lucy wheezed. Keeping up with Cobra this time had been a great deal easier than the trek had been the previous day. Having actual food in her stomach, not to mention water, did wonders for her endurance. But it was getting late in the day, and exhaustion had signed a lease and was already moving in furniture.

Unfortunately for Cobra, this meant that she talked a lot more. She did realize that he could hear her every thought, right? There was zero reason to chatter at him. With horror, he realized that she might actually be worse than Meredy and Richard. Was this karmic justice for all of the murder? It had to be, right? Something out in the universe just really, really hated his guts. It would explain all of the shit he'd gone through in his life up to this point. Something clearly wanted him to suffer.

More time passed in silence, Lucy's brain finally short circuiting from her weariness and ceasing its jibber jabber.

By the time she summoned the energy to think about asking again about how much longer, Cobra was able to (with great relief) indicate the hill before them. "Just on the other side."

The former Fairy Tail mage nodded, excitement and trepidation warring within her.

Cobra sympathized, as he did not relish the upcoming conversation with his new guild either. For different reasons though, as he was still utterly convinced that they would welcome the blonde with open arms for the most part. Or at least the ones whose opinion mattered would.

Squinting into brightness, Lucy questioned aloud, "I think that hill has a pink spot."

"It does," Cobra sighed heavily, not ready for what was inevitably coming next.

The spot swiftly resolved into the form of a person as it approached. Her pink ponytail waving as vigorously as her arm, Meredy called out to them, "Erik! You're back! Is there someone with you?"

It took Lucy a moment to process just who 'Erik' was. Then she felt silly. Cobra had mentioned that to her before, hadn't he? It was hard to shake off the name she had previously known him by, but that wasn't any excuse for her failure to call him by his preferred name. She'd do better, she resolved.

There was a lot of 'doing better' that she needed to accomplish, she realized. New situation, so time for a new outlook. Lucy made the promise to herself, and swore to keep it.

Meredy froze in her tracks the second she came close enough to recognize Lucy. Her jaw dropped, and she pointed. "L-Lucy!" she exclaimed. "Erik! You brought Lucy?!"

The Celestial mage waved slightly, donning a tiny smile at Meredy's reaction. "Hello, Meredy. Been a while."

No answer met her greeting, as Meredy continued to stare at the other young woman. Suddenly, she did an about-face and raced back up the hill.

"What…?" Lucy began to question, halting when Cobra – no, Erik – groaned exasperatedly.

"This is not going to be fun," he muttered in response to her curious gaze.

"Jellal!" Lucy faintly heard Meredy call out. "Jellal, you're not going to believe this! Erik brought home a girlfriend! It's Lucy!"

Jellal's nigh-screech of surprise rang out across the space between them. "What?!"

"And it begins. Time to face the music."

Lucy had a feeling that the awkwardness between them was going to continue on for some time.