brains and brawn | sting eucliffe

¹³ᴊᴜɴɪᴏʀ ᴀɴᴅ ꜱᴄᴏᴜᴛ

There was, perhaps, a reason for the girl's sudden mood change.

She'd felt so confident walking into things, she'd trained herself to fight against people that were ten times her strength. She knew how to be strong- she thought she was strong.

So, was there a reason that her lips curled downwards? Her shoulders slumped, and her footsteps weakly pounding against the hallway?

Why was being alone affecting her so much?

It wasn't fear, that was for certain. When Raven Tail was taken, there was no reason for Fairy Tail to worry about anything other than defeating Sabertooth. No kidnappings, no weird plot twists, and certainly no dangerous targeting. Gears was perfectly fine with how it was.

But she felt left out.

Fairy Tail was off at a waterpark for the day- celebrating the comeback that they'd worked so hard for.

Of course, it's not that she wanted to miss out- everyone had seemed so happy inviting her- but she had a bad history with water.

Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. Her best friend was an ocean dragon slayer, so why was she so fearful of the liquid? It's not like she was afraid of drinking it or anything, she needed it to survive. And yeah, she could swim- however much she avoided it, she could swim.

It wasn't even the bathing suit that bugged her. Yes, she wasn't the most body-confident teen either. She just.. didn't enjoy the thought of swimming. Or being soaked to the core.

Simple, put Gears in water and she'll be sure to rust.

But, anyways- she felt a little left out. Since nobody wanted to stay with her at the stadium to hang out. Well, Levy seemed like she did, but Gajeel pulled her towards the leaving group before she could even move her direction.

And Amaya seemed too hell-bent on beating Natsu there to even realize that she'd been left behind.

So now she walked through the stone corridors, sighing to herself. Pondering about her what she wanted to do now.

She supposed she could walk around Crocus, try to find some kind of shop where she could find pieces for her music boxes. Maybe a thrift store to find something cool for her wardrobe. Speaking of a wardrobe, she was glad she changed out of her stuffy guild uniform.

Sure, she had nothing against the one piece, she just hated that it wasn't what she felt the most comfortable in.

Now? She adorned a cute green top and a patched-up jean jacket- paired with black leggings and brown ankle boots. Simple? Yeah. Comfortable? Double-yeah.

Gears was ready to take on the damn world. Even though her mood was shit, it wasn't going to stop her from having a decent time exploring the city. She was going to have a great day having some alone time, and it would be-

Her stomach grumbled in the middle of her inner-monologue, causing her to pause in her steps.

Okay, she would have a great day.. after getting a bite to eat.

--

Finding the food court took a lot longer than she'd care to admit- and after asking for directions from an always-kind Millianna- she was able to find it. But only after she circled the stadium twice.

The girl was definitely happy to see the familiar sight of the food court- having only been there once before with Levy during a break between fights.

The two girls had grown closer over the while they'd known one another. They each adored the same literature, same mindset, and the same story of origin. Much like Gears herself, the blunette had lost her entire family- no one else to call home. After getting that off one another's chests, it was easy to talk to each other like they'd known each other for years.