Lucy, athletically-challenged as she was, would have given up the chase and called Natsu to finish the job long before she reached my current point. And that was leaving my assigned section of the town and veering into someone else's territory.

Loke's or Levy's, I wasn't sure. Directionally-challenged. Remember that.

The shadowy figure remained in my sights at all times. They turned a corner; I was only a second or two behind. They thought leaping over an overturned crate was a great idea; I forwent common sense and did the same (who am I kidding, I would've done it even if it would've been smarter not to).

This bastard wasn't getting away if I had anything to say about it. And I could've filled a dictionary with everything in my response.

I rounded another corner, arms pumping at my sides, heart singing with adrenaline. If singing was the best way to describe the erratic drumbeats pounding in my ears, anyway. My sneakers slapped loudly against the dirt road, each step becoming more pronounced as it merged with the cobblestone of the (possibly) wealthier part of the town. Rich people in Somnia? Probably not with that thief, there weren't.

Thief... Ah. That made my job easier, actually, seeing as how the thief was right in front of me. Well, more like ten feet away and widening the gap with every long stride. So yeah, maybe easy isn't really the word I'm looking for...

They were running, I was running after them; they were sticking to the shadows, I was trying to drive them into the light. This game of cat-and-mouse (which I now dub a game of insanely-pissed-off-blood-thirsty-Celestial-Spirit-mage-and-death-wish-seeking-bastard) made me fume, my cheeks tinted red from anger and exercise. Couldn't they just give up? I doubted they even knew the value of my Gate Keys, so what was the point in snatching them?

If I'd thought about that, maybe things would've ended up differently.

"Gah! Dammit, man, just stop!" I hissed futiley, knowing full-well there was no point. Petty thieves didn't really repent, now did they? Huffing to myself, I forced another burst of speed and pounded after them, around a corner, down a dark, empty alleyway...

You see where this is going, don't you?

I slowed about halfway down the alley, jogging to a standstill. I couldn't see the cloaked guy anymore. He'd vanished. The other end of the alley was a dead-end, the buildings on either side of it too high for even me to vault over in the short amount of time he'd had before I ran in here. All I could hear was my own ragged breathing, and the drip-drip-drip of forgotten rain water falling from the damp rooftops. 

When had it rained last, anyway? I wished it were raining right now. I felt so gross with the sweat coating my body like a second, sticky skin. My clothes clung to me uncomfortably. Fact was, the faster I got this crap over with, the faster I'd be making Loke carry me back to the guild (I still felt he should be punished for his constant flirting; guys shouldn't toy with girls hearts, ya know?). 

Something tinkled. Soft, subtle, but louder than a bellowing Natsu to me, I knew it so well. My goddamn Gate Keys. I snapped my head up, only to be greeted by someone slamming their mud-crusted boot into my face. I hit the ground, knocked back towards the entrance to the alley, my hands scraping painfully against the rough path. 

I hissed out a breath; my forehead was throbbing from the blow, my hands stung like Natsu'd gone wild and singed off a few important layers of skin. This was just not my day. "You bastard," I growled, rising to my feet slowly. I blocked the next kick, catching the thief's foot in both hands. I felt my boots skidding back a few feet and sweat dropped; did every guy have this much unnecessary power in their wiry frames?

Biting back an impromptu grin brought on by thoughts of Natsu and Gray, I tightened my grip on my attacker's foot and twisted my wrists, spiralling his body to the ground. 

A grunt escaped him as I dropped my foot onto his stomach, pinning him in place. I leaned over him, grinning unabashedly this time. "You lose," I mocked in a sing-song voice that would have had me writhing like a bucking horse if it had drifted to my own ears.

The thief remained still. 

I moved in to press my foot deeper into his diaphragm, wanting a bit more of a reaction than this annoyingly stoic silence, when I paused. This thief... was just a kid.

Alright, maybe kid was too lenient. He looked a little younger than me, maybe fifteen or sixteen. Beneath the tattered hood of his equally wronged cloak, his eyes glinted a mysterious green, pupils cat-like with their pronounced narrowness. Strands of grass-green hair fell over his face, tickling his chin; his first and seemingly only movement was a breath puffed out to dislodge the hair that had settled around his nose. 

The stomach held under my foot felt thin and fragile all of a sudden.

His watchful feline eyes hooded as I continued to simply stare at him incomprehensibly. "Tsk, tsk," he crooned, this mocking smirk curling his lips; I still couldn't muster my earlier anger. Damn. What was wrong with me? "You've caught the thief but are too nice to finish him off? What a cowardly mage you are."

"Heh." I spotted my Keys dangling from around his wrist (it was lying in a nasty-smelling puddle that may or may not have been cat piss, so I almost didn't want to reach for them) and grabbed them in one swift motion. Then I stepped back, allowing the boy to sit up. He eyed me distatefully, the gears reflected in his eyes working overtime to figure out the underlying meaning of my actions. I chuckled "Fairy Tail wizards do offer mercy from time to time, kid. As long as you don't waste it and do something stupid, it's not like I'd seriously hurt you. Now come on." I wrapped my fingers around his bony arm and hauled him to his feet. "As soon as we show Lorenzo that you're not a threat anymore, you can go on your merry way. Sounds good, huh?"

Maybe I was wrong. Maybe Lorenzo was stressed about something else. This wasn't the "terrifying experience" I was expecting, at least...

"You said you're from Fairy Tail, right?"

His voice - something between tentative curiosity and subdued childishness - hadn't changed, but I still felt my eye twitch, either in annoyance or suspicion. "Yeah..." I said slowly, throwing a flimsy grin at him over my shoulder. "Fairy Tail, the strongest guild in Fiore. That's us alright."

"Good." The shadows eclipsing his face from his overlong bangs disappeared as he raised his head, revealing a sharp, satisfied grin. His hand lashed out and caught my arm in a vice-like grip that no amount of frantic tugging on my part could break. "My name is Candor," he said, conversationally of all things. A scowl tugged my lips down. "I'm so glad your a Fairy this time. You have no idea how boring it was dealing with those wannabe guilds while I waited for someone at yours to pick up this job request."

"You've got a bone to pick with Fairy Tail?" I growled, giving another futile tug to try and free myself from his grip. Shit-nothing happened.

His smile was beginning to scare me, as well as the twisted gleam in his eyes. "Not really," he replied smoothly, reaching up to brush the hood back from his head. "I just wanted a strong mage to play with for a while. When I saw your Keys, I thought you'd be helpless without them and only took them out of boredom." He chuckled. "I'm pleased to find out I was wrong."

My patience had been wearing thin; it'd been basically just a teensy-weensy string, taut and fragile. And this kid was going to regret severing it.

Twisting myself to face him again, I swung out a leg, aiming to clip his head and send him to dream-land for a few hours. But he countered by ducking and, when I was busy trying to regain my balance, pushed me up against the grimy wall with that unruly (and amazingly undeserved) strength of his. 

He seriously reminded me of Natsu. He look like he weighed about as much as I did but had enough power behind his punch to break a goddamn mountain.

Or Erza's armor.

"You're... doing something... stupid... aren't you?" I ground out, my voice strained from having his forearm pressed to my windpipe. It was a warning, I'd guess: You're helpess, and I can kill you if I want, so do as I say. Despite how hopeless it seemed (as he'd pinned my arms above my head so that I couldn't reach the Keys I'd returned to my hip) I was still contemplating whether I should spit in his baby face or not.

"Stupid?" He rose on tiptoes to meet my eyes, our noses brushing. My neck and cheeks burned red from the anger flaring in my chest. A kid four or five inches shorter than me pinned me to a freaking wall. How lovely. "A subjective term, don't you think? I'd prefer to think of it as something.... fun."

Fun. I'd been turned into a child's plaything. 

I'm pretty sure death-by-tripping-over-your-own-shoelaces would have been less humiliating. For God's sake, I would have preferred death-by-fangirl!

...Probably, anway.

Candor's wry smile widened as he pulled back, holding the arm that had been crushing my throat in front of him. A warm, emerald-green glow enveloped his hand. "I could've have done this right from the start," he told me, "when I'd gone after your Keys. But I prefer to test out my newest toys, and you, especially, are one that gave me a very enjoyable test-drive. I'm very excited to see how our play date goes."

You're really milking the whole "toy" thing, aren't you, bastard? I'm kinda embarrassed to tell you this is the last thought I had before his glowing hand settled at the base of my neck and my vision went black.

Loke's POV

An hour passed, and I'd found nothing. 

Oh, Winter's not going to like this...

No doubt she'd be frustrated to the point of violence that we couldn't find this "half-assed thief" in an hour like we'd planned. She'd also be upset we'd have to spend more time here, because it meant more time away from her sister and Natsu.

And Gray.

Oh how she'd weep over Gray.

I was jealous, even when I had no reason to be. Gray was a nice, dependable guy, and he and Winter got along perfectly. I'd never seen the Ice-Make mage act so warmly to anyone before. And she was always so vibrant around him. It was a match made in... well, not heaven, because it did not leave everyone feeling blissful and satisfied. But it was a good match. I had to admit it. And after that date of theirs...

But again, I didn't even have a right to be jealous. Not when Winter and I weren't even...

She didn't know. That was the tragedy and the happy ending, all wrapped up on one emotional package. She didn't know, and she wouldn't know, not until the very end. And even then, what happened to me would still be vague and unclear to her and Lucy and the guild. A blessing for her, a curse for me. 

"Loke!"

Levy's crisp voice snapped me out of my reverie, and I spun around to meet her. She skidded to a halt in front of me, then dropped her hands onto her knees, panting heavily from the run. Her face was completely flushed and sweat beaded her brow. "What's the rush, Levy?" I asked, brow furrowing in confusion. "The hour's only been up for a few minutes, right?"

"It's Winter!"

I stiffened, my mouth opening, but remaining silent. What happened to Winter?

Levy, straightening up, looked at me half-sheepishly, half-panicked. "She'd asked me to meet up with her twenty minutes before the time we told you," she explained. My brow rose unconsciously. She grimaced. "I'm sorry," she added quickly, waving her hands around. "She was just upset with you because you're always flirting with girls, and Winter's the type of person who thinks you should only be with one person at a time. But that's not the point! She never met up with me!"

"She never met up....?" She wasn't the type to abandon a meeting like that. Sure, she could be rebellious, hotheaded, and was inclined to put herself in dangerous situations to help her friends, but she... Oh dammit.

I took off without a second thought, calling over my shoulder, "I'll find her! What kind of gentlman would I be if I allowed an already exhausted lady to tire herself out more?" She looked as though she wanted to say something, but doubled over coughing before she could, still not recovered from her desperate run. 

And so my search began. Whenever I was with Winter, she had to go and do something stupid and get herself injured or into a meaningless brawl. The worst part, was that it was never for her. The struggle was always for someone else. The guild, her friends, me... I shook my head. This was why she'd never be able to bear learning my secret.

I didn't want to see that bright smile of hers dim like a fading star...

*********

I couldn't remember how long I'd been looking for her, but the sun was just starting to set by the time I stumbled into an abandoned alleyway, full of assaulting smells and questionable damp spots on the ground. 

I'd forgotten that Winter was combing the south side of town and went through the north and west sections before ending up here. It would have saved me so much trouble, but I'd become forgetful in my haste. After the scare she gave me in the demon's den, I'd promised myself that whenever we had missions together that I'd protect her. She wouldn't have appreciated my efforts much, I was sure, but I was determined to stick by my decision nonetheless. As long as I was tethered to Fairy Tail, I wouldn't let anything happen to Winter.

And, after I'd scanned the dismal alley for a moment, I realized I'd already failed.

Winter lay folded against the wail, half-hidden behind a brimming trashcan, only her splayed legs visible from where I stood. But I recognized her faded combat boots the second I saw them.

"Winter!" I dropped to my knees beside her, carefully moving her head onto my lap. She was breathing; I could easily see the deep rise and fall of her chest. Her cheeks were their normal color, no pallidness to them at all. No fever, no bruising that I could see. She looked perfectly healthy. So why had she collapsed like this? 

"Winter, how are you always getting into these situations...?" I muttered, smoothing out her ruffled hair. Her lips twitched a bit, as if in response. I half-smiled at the sight. Perhaps she... No. She cared about me, as she cared about all her nakama. That was all there was; that was all there could be. I closed my eyes, heaving out a fatigued sigh. "Sometimes I wonder why I bother with all the trouble you cause me..."

"It's cause I'm fun. No one... hates the fun chick of the group."

My eyes flew open, widening as I watched Winter prop herself up on her elbows, lifting her head from my lap. I strangely missed the weight. "So you're ok?" I asked, trying to subdue the worry that laced my voice. 

"Fine, I'm fine." She waved me off with a good-natured smile, slowly pushing her legs beneath her and standing; I followed suit. "Dunno what happened, but I'm fine I swear. My throat's just a little dry, is all..."

I forced a smile, even though I wasn't sure she was a fine as she claimed to be. "And here I was thinking I'd get to carry you again, Winter. It's such a shame. I happen to love cuddling you to my chest~"

I waited for the heat to flood her cheeks, for her fist to push at my arm half-heartedly in embarrassment, the stuttered response that usually followed my bluntly flirtatious comments. 

It didn't come.

"Playboy," she teased, grinning. There was something off about it though; not just that she'd miraculously gotten accustomed to my "playboyish" ways. Something about her smile. It wasn't... warm. She dusted off her pants, frowning at an unidentifiable stain on her thigh, before shrugging and linking her hands behind her head. She gave me a stinted closed-eye smile. "Ya know, I haven't told you this, but playboys are the kinda people I despise the most. They even outrank murderers. Funny, huh?"

I wasn't given the chance to respond, though I doubt I would have come up with something coherent anyway. Winter's eyes blinked open suddenly and she thrust out both hands, palms forward. A crooked smile tugged at her lips as she sang, "Solid Script: IRON" and the bone-crushingly heavy IRON block crashed into my chest, sending me flying back, completely out of the alley.

I bounced against the ground, pain jolting through me, front and back. I gasped; blood pooled on my tongue, forcing me to cough if I didn't want to choke. The crimson drops spattered on my jacket, shirt, on the ground I lied on. I couldn't move, but whether I was paralyzed from the blow, the shock, or some combination of both, I wasn't sure.

Winter... had attacked me. And she wasn't finished yet.

"Oh, c'mon, I know that didn't kill you. You survived a demon Loke; an attack from lil' ol' me isn't gonna do anything major at least. Get up, get up, I wanna have some fun~!"

She bounded out of the alley, stopping when she was a little less than fifteen feet from me. She stood, feet shoulder-length apart, arms crossed under her chest, playful smile dancing on her lips. For all the world, she looked as though we were playing a game. What the hell is going on here?

My muscles protested shrilly as I pushed myself to my feet; nothing wanted to work right after a blow like that. I clenched and unclenched my hands, flexing the muscles in my arms. Sore. Everything was invariably sore. I didn't know she had that kind of power behind her magic. 

"You're gonna play, right?" Winter chirped, trying to disarm me with yet another cheery closed-eye smile. She threw her hands wide, flashing two Keys between her fingers. "Great~! You can pick: Aquarius or Taurus?" She giggled, noticing my confusion. "I borrowed him from Lucy the other day, since she was complaining about how perverted he was with her. See, I can handle Taurus, because even though he's a perverted bovine, he's only that way with Lucy and me. He's dedicated, unlike some ring-magic-using mage I know~!"

I held my arm against my stomach, trying in vain to hold back the ache slowly seeping into every inch of my body. She didn't mean it. She didn't mean it, because this wasn't Winter. There was no conceivable way that this was Winter. I wouldn't believe it. And yet, her words were like daggers, and they hit with pin-point accuracy. A part of me wondered if whatever had been done to her caused her to speak her true thoughts.

Does she really think so little of me?

"Well, c'mon, you gotta chooooose, Mr. Playboy!" She waved her two Gold Keys around teasingly. "One or the other. Pick your poison!"

I had to bring out the real Winter, because I had no intention of hurting her.

The only question was how?