Chapter 4

KEY:

French

"Ready to go, Wen?"

Wendy looked up at her cousin as he spoke. Gajeel was holding her headphones out, knowing she would need them. Especially where they were going, and where they would be spending the entire day.

The mall.

On a Saturday afternoon in the middle of the summer, it was promised to be packed full of people. More than I'll be able to tune out, she thought, nervously. She was looking forward to shopping with her new friends, but she was honestly a little frightened of what the day had in store. A headache, most likely.

"I suppose," she finally answered.

Gajeel didn't have to share her little talent to know exactly what she was thinking. "It's gonna be just fine," he reassured her, ruffling the hair on the top of her head.

"Gajeel!" She pouted, swatting at his hand.

"Gihi," he chuckled as he left their room to join the others in the sitting room.

She put on a deep green dress, a pair of white sandals, and placed her headphones around her neck after connecting the cord to her phone. She was still trying to get her short blue locks to stand down that Gajeel had messed up as she went to the sitting room.

"That's everyone," Lucy announced, getting to her feet. "Ready to go?"

"I'll lead the way on my bike," Gajeel said, following the excited blonde out the door.

Wendy noticed the way he glanced at Levy as he walked by her, and she couldn't help but giggle to herself. Although the bluenette hadn't seemed to notice, Gajeel was doing a poor job of hiding his interest.

"Wanna ride with me, kiddo?" Gajeel asked as they all reached the parking lot. There wasn't enough room in the car for everyone, so that meant someone had to ride with him. Wendy smiled to herself, getting a wonderful idea.

"I actually promised I'd sit next to Cana," she said, grabbing the brunette's arm. "You should take Levy with you."

"M-Me?" The woman gasped, sputtering something in Malayalam Wendy couldn't understand as her face darkened with a blush. "N-No, I can't. I've never ridden a motorcycle before, and—"

"Get on, Shrimp," Gajeel snapped, throwing the helmet to her. "If we don't get movin' we won't beat the rush hour traffic."

Wendy smiled at the woman as she climbed onto the bike behind Gajeel, holding onto his waist firmly. "If you wreck this thing, I'll kill you," she threatened. With a chuckle, Gajeel took off, Natsu driving the rest of us behind him in the car.

"That was a nice fib you pulled back there," Cana snickered, patting Wendy on top of the head, "getting those two to ride together. The sexual tension the last two weeks has been enough to choke an ox."

"That's probably why he takes so long in the shower," Lucy snorted from the front seat.

"Hey!" Natsu exclaimed, "not in front of Wendy!"

"Come now," Cana laughed, "Wendy's practically a woman! She's not a child, so I'm sure she knows all about—"

"I will wreck this car," he cut in, swearing in Hawaiian under his breath.

"Poor Wendy, you have such over-protective cousins," Lucy teased, hitting Natsu lightly in the arm.

"It's not so bad," Wendy giggled. "Sometimes I'm really thankful for it."

"You three are not cousins by birth, correct?" Juvia asked.

"That's right," Wendy answered. "Our parents all went to college together in Hawaii, and they became best friends. After they graduated, they stayed in touch with each other, traveling between their home countries every couple of years to visit one another. When Gajeel was born, since he's the oldest, they decided to be the god parents to each other's children. Natsu lived the farthest away, so Gajeel and I didn't get to see him as often, but we're all still really close. Like cousins."

"And since Gajeel lives in Blagoveshchensk, there's only the Amur River separating him from where Wendy lives in Heihe," Natsu added.

"So that's why you're Russian is so good," Lucy said.

"M-hm," Wendy nodded.

"What took you guys so long?" Gajeel interrupted as Natsu parked the car.

"Unlike you, I care about traffic laws," Natsu snapped, getting out of the car.

Gajeel snorted. "Whatever, pinky. Come on, I'm starving. They have a killer Hibachi grill inside."

"Did you have fun?" Wendy asked Levy, smiling at her.

"You did that on purpose," Levy glared.

She smiled innocently. "I don't know what you're talking about." Before she could retort, Wendy grabbed her hand. "Come. Let's eat!"

Halfway through the meal, the crowd picked up inside the restaurant, much to Wendy's annoyance. She could barely hear the conversations going on at their table, thanks to the ones going on everywhere else in the restaurant. Sensing her discomfort, Gajeel pulled her headphones up over her ears. "Listen to some music," he told her, smiling. She nodded.

"Wendy doesn't do so well in crowds," Natsu said, answering the questioning glances of the others. "She gets headaches pretty easily from all the noise, so she uses headphones to drown them out a bit."

"But she'll still hear you if you talk," Gajeel added, patting her on top of the head.

"We could have picked somewhere else to go," Lucy frowned. "If I'd known you didn't like crowds, I wouldn't have suggested the mall."

"It's alright!" Wendy reassured her. "It's a tourist town, so everywhere is crowded. I'll be alright."

"Are you sure, Wendy? Juvia would be alright with going back," the bluenette said.

"I'm fine—promise!" She told them all, smiling at how kind they were. She knew they'd react that way, which is why she hadn't told them. Natsu and Gajeel worried enough about her; she didn't want the others to worry as well.

"Since she's fine, we should hurry up and finish our food, then we can head into the main part of the mall to shop! It will be less crowded there, so that might help her headaches, too."

They all agreed, finishing their food while chatting amongst the group. Levy teased Lucy on her still-atrocious surfing skills, Juvia and Cana agreed to go to an art supplies shop together, and Natsu and Gajeel got into an argument over where they should go first. While they stood outside the restaurant arguing, Cana had grabbed her hand and drug her along with her and Juvia to the art shop.

"There are so many!" Juvia exclaimed, happily, as she looked at all of the different types of paints. "Oils and water colors are Juvia's favorites!"

"My favorites are body paints," Cana smiled, coyly, as Juvia's face turned as pink as the paint she was holding.

"J-Juvia has never done body painting," she murmured, turning back towards the shelf.

"We should try it some time," Cana chuckled, flipping one of Juvia's blue curls as she walked passed her and into a different isle. The poor woman nearly knocked over and entire shelf in surprise, much to Wendy's amusement.

"Would you like to test any of the colors, miss?" A store clerk asked as she and Juvia continued looking at the oil paints.

"Oui, please," Juvia nodded. She handed the clerk a tube of paint that was a beautiful blue-grey color. He squirted some of it onto a paint tray and handed her a brush and a small square of paper. The paints seemed to move on their own across the paper at the command of Juvia's brush. Before long, she had painted an incredible eye, using a black pen in her purse to do the lashes and pupil.

"Wow!" Cana grinned, seemingly appearing out of nowhere as she took the paper and stared at it. "This is amazing, Juv!"

"Indeed," the store clerk agreed. "It looks just like your friend's eyes."

Wendy tried suppressing a giggle as both Cana and Juvia blushed, Juvia snatching the paper back quickly, mumbling something about "it was the only reference she had to test it" and "it's not her fault her eyes are pretty" as she took the paints to the front to pay for them.

Cana winked at Wendy as she walked towards another check-out, a bag of body paints in her hand. Wendy giggled, rolling her eyes at the two of them. They're almost as bad as Levy and Gajeel. Well, at least Gajeel attempted to make an effort to not be so obvious.

"So, where to now?" Cana asked as they reentered the main area of the mall.

"There you are!" Gajeel snapped, marched towards them from across the room. "I've been lookin' all over the damned place for you!"

"Chill out, bun-head, we were in the paint shop," Cana told him.

"You shouldn't drag her off without telling anyone," Gajeel growled.

"I assumed you'd appreciate the alone time with your freckle-faced little Indian hottie," Cana snickered. Gajeel retorted with a slur of Russian curses, causing a laughing Natsu to cover Wendy's ears. "Hey pinkie, same to you," Cana smirked. "Figured blondie could use the chance to break you, like she does those horses of hers."

"W-W-What?!" Lucy exclaimed, walking over to us with Levy. "Cana!"

The brunette was thoroughly enjoying herself as the others sputtered embarrassed excuses and apologies to each other, and Wendy joined in on her laughter. "I'm glad it's not just me who noticed," Wendy laughed, wiping her eyes.

"Oh, it's been two weeks in a suite with all four of them—it's been hard not to notice!" She snorted.

"OOOOOOkay then," Natsu said, loudly, grabbing Wendy's hand and dragging her away. "Let's go to the music store next! I want to see what kind of local artists they've got here in Aussie!"

"Aussie?" Gajeel scoffed, raising an eyebrow.

"I want to check it out, too!" Levy agreed, to which Gajeel grumbled and followed along.

"See, not hiding it at all," Cana whispered, laughing.

Wendy giggled, watching her friends all tease each other as they walked to the music store. They had only been together for two weeks, but it felt like they had all been friends for years. Well, they are a pretty special group of people, Wendy thought to herself, smiling.

{YO YO YO!!!! So the wifey finally got this up and I am working on the next part. It will be just a little bit because I AM AT HER HOOOOUUUUSSSEEEE!!! So anyway, this chapter was tons of fun. The next chapter?.... Hell.}


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