A/N
Yo! Bobobear here. This is my fourth fanfic. I'm still an amateur so please go easy on me! If there's anything you don't like, message me and I'll try to do something about it.
Because of my (mhmm, believe it!) undying love for Fairy Tail's two top couples, Gruvia (the most beloved one-sided canon! or is it one-sided?) and NALU, I've decided to make a fanfic in which Juvia disappears with the resurrected Phantom Lord and... well you'll see.
Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima
Chapter 1: The Fight
"TWEEET! TWEEET!"
A guard appeared at the front of the train cabin, a whistle in his mouth that was attached to a rope around his neck.
"Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, we have arrived at our destination."
"NATSU! Sit down!" He paused as a pink haired man stumbled up to him, distressed and groaning. A blonde followed close behind. Her pretty face looked exasperated.
"Let me off the train! PLEASE SIR!" the male youth begged.
"Uh - that is, I was about to say that we are now in-"
"PLEASE!" Natsu bawled.
"Sorry," the blonde apologized, "My name is Lucy Heartfilia, this is Natsu Dragneel. He has, er, motion sickness. C'mon, Natsu, let's sit back down. We can get off soon enough, I think it's just half an hour to Magnolia."
"But the train's not even moving," said the bewildered guard. "We've already arrived!"
"Oh, it isn't? That's good then, we can get off, right?"
"Y-yes, just please give me your identification and ticket..." the guard stuttered, pulling out a clipboard and pen.
Some passengers groaned.
"That's not fair!" one man said.
"We want to get off too!" A woman nodded, gesturing to her three toddlers.
"Please wait, you'll get your turn!" The guard, obviously inexperienced, tried to calm them down.
Lucy showed him the two tickets and ID. "Here, sir."
"You may leave," the guard responded weakly.
Happily, Lucy beckoned for a blue cat to come flying up after it and then slid open the cabin door and felt the wind on her face. She turned around, smiling pleasantly.
"Wow, Natsu! Doesn't this feel good? Eh? Natsu?"
Natsu was already stumbling out of the train. "THIS BLESSED DRY LAND!" Natsu cried, then ran to the nearest trash can and threw up.
He swooned, and swung sideways, groaning as his body hit the floor. "Ouuch..."
"Silly Natsu. You're that tipsy?" Lucy stated with disbelief. She walked towards him and helped him up. He rubbed his eyes.
"He's motion-sick through and through!" Happy cheered, flying out and perching on Natsu's head.
"Oi!" Natsu shook Happy off, then looked about him. "I'm never going on a train again!"
Lucy shook her head. "Dragon slayers. What's with them? They all can't handle a simple train or carriage." She rolled her eyes.
"But Lushy, you were complaining too!" Natsu whined loudly, causing many people to turn their heads towards him.
A parent ushered her kid away muttering, "Sheesh young people these days, always whining shamelessly in public. Let's go."
Lucy blushed. "Natsu! Stop being so loud will you? Let's go."
It was no hard task because the crowd had already parted, mainly to get away from Natsu. Tugging him on the arm, Lucy led the fire dragon slayer out of the Magnolia train station. "Anyways, I was complaining because you were throwing up over my favorite dress. You should know better!" She groaned at the memory.
Natsu seemed not to hear. "Where d'ya wanna eat, Lushy?"
"The name's Lucy!"
"Let's go to your place!" Excited at the prospect of crashing at the blonde's home, the pinkette grinned and swirled around, grabbing Lucy and pushing her to a bench.
"What?"
"Piggy-back!" Natsu cheered.
"...you gotta be kidding me. Natsu, do you know how heavy you are for me? Then again I could call Taurus -"
"No, you get on my back," Natsu explained, shaking his head. "Hurry up!"
...Just like a little kid, Lucy thought bemusedly. She stepped onto the bench and Natsu bent lower.
"I bet I'm gonna look so weird doing this," the blonde chuckled in her head and jumped onto his back.
Natsu threw his arm up in the air, nearly making Lucy topple off. He stuck out his thumb and pointer finger making the sign of Fairy Tail.
"YOSH! TO LUSHY'S HOUSE!"
Lucy couldn't help but smile and imitate him, lifting her hand in the sign of Fairy Tail. "To my house!"
Laughing cheerfully, she rode his back all the way into Magnolia, finally arriving at her place. She slipped off his back and grabbed her handbag, fiddling to find the key.
"Hey Natsu?" she mumbled, "Have you seen my housekey?"
No response.
"NATSU!?" Lucy looked up to see the pink-haired male climbing through the window, one half sticking out and one half stuck inside
"...NATSU! GET THE HECK DOWN HERE NOW!"
"Sorry, I'm stuck." Natsu cheerfully commented.
Seeing she would have to pull him in from the inside, she fetched her housekey and stuck it in the door, dropping her luggage in the living room.
"Coming," she muttered.
After getting Natsu a simple dinner of yakisoba and chicken, she tucked him in on the living room couch (he insisted) and headed back to her own room.
She peered through the windows guiding her towards immensely dark streets. The roads were thundered with rain and darkened under the eerie shadows of houses. Further down the skinny and curvy road led to her guild, Fairy Tail.
Lucy sat down at her chair, leaning in towards her desk where she was thinking of the events of the day. They had just returned from a peculiar mission a few towns away, beating up a gang that had been bothering a wealthy businessman for the past few months. Natsu had accidentally let one of them run away, and that escaper sent some reinforcements which Lucy had to deal with.
"Yeah.. I guess I'm becoming a better mage!" Lucy said out loud while she made a jump for her soft pink bed. "And Natsu noticed it too..."
She recalled the shocked look on Natsu's face when she pulled out Fleuve d'Etoiles and KO'd every reinforcement with a single lash. It had quickly turned to admiration and she blushed when she remembered him complimenting her.
She shook her head. "That's not the point!"
"Anyway, it was really tough making sure Natsu didn't fool around and waste time; if it wasn't for me telling that flame brain to cut playing with those finger puppets, we might as well be failing the job and paying 482,000 jewels back to that weird boss who asked us to do the job in the first place."
Speaking of 'weird', there was something weird about Natsu today. He was super childish, like a little kid that wanted to play... Lucy thought as she tugged on her lamp switch.
Figures.. He's always have been a simple-minded and funny dude...Whatever..
She tucked herself in and listened to the calmer rain shimmering down on her windows like soft rhythms of a lullaby. Lucy soon dozed off to sleep, in her warmer than usual bed, accompanied with a variety of weird dreams.
A few hours later...
Natsu smacked his lips as he made a face of disgust at the taste of his own mouth which had woken him up. He flipped and rolled on the tidy, pink bed and managed to get some more sleep, after all it was only 11:48pm. However, hunger soon made its way to the fire dragon slayer's belly making him drool all over...
Licking his lips, he sat upright yawning with his arms stretched out.
*SMACK!*
*THUD*
*CRA-A-CK!*
A porcelain cup full of ice cubes and pepsi dropped from the couch-side table and spilled all over the shiny linoleum floor. Natsu's arms had hit into it when stretching.
He jumped off the couch.
"Whooaaaaah!"
Natsu slipped on more ice cubes which sent him to do a back flip following cartwheel, running backwards and slipping every time he moved. He looked as if he was a clown performing a show in the circus. Following that, came a loud thud.
"Geez... that hurt. Luigi should really make her floors more comfortable to fall on." Natsu got up, yawning once more and rubbing his behind.
Happy's sleeping blue form jolted awake at the other end of the couch. "Natsu! Morning!"
He flew over to Natsu. "Why is there pepsi all over the floor, Natsu?"
"Spilled, I guess. Ahhh, whatever. Say I'm starved!"
"Aye! Let's get some food!" came Happy's voice.
"But I want Lucy to cook br-" his words were cut short by a flung open washroom door slammed right into his face which sent him sprawling on the floor again.
Following the opened door, stood Lucy, hair wet from her shower and a fresh set of clothes on her. She was still wearing her favourite PJ slippers, a fuzzy pink pair with flopping bunny ears.
She looked left at the just getting up Natsu and right at the flying Happy smiling at her. For a moment, she didn't know what had happened. She looked right and then left, and then right, mouth dropped to the ground, expecting an answer to what is happening.
The awkward silence was broken by the Exceed's stomach's enormous grumbling.
"I'm hungry, let's get something to eat!" Happy replied as if nothing had happened at all.
Natsu got up. "I don't see why not. Let's go Happy!"
The two were just walking out the door when...
"NOT YET!" Lucy screamed as she kicked Natsu down again.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE? Didn't I tell you never to come? How in the world did you come in?"
"You invited me in for dinner last night remember?"
"As a matter of fact I DON'T! And what is that mess... NATSU! The pepsi! My floor.. the rug! Nooooo..."
"Ugg..Chill down Luigi..." Natsu mumbled flat on the ground from yet another blast to his typical morning.
"ITS LUCY! But my floor...and-"
"You can always mop it up!" chimed Happy.
"Not the rug though." Lucy gave a reproachful look at Natsu who was already creeping out of the room.
Natsu froze in his ninja statue, "Whoops. Didn't see there was a rug on that floor as well"
" 'Whoops', is that the extent of your compassion?"
"Okay, okay... eh, that rug sure is pretty! The white color really suits your bedroom as well...must have been bought with a plethora of jewels!" Natsu rubbed the back of his head and inspected the rug which had now soaked up all the coke and turned brown.
This churned up Lucy even more. She could even feel the steam strike out of her ears, but she sighed and eventually let it go. After all, there was nothing she could do about it rather than just wash it up, which of course it would still have a few stains on it even after being washed.
"OF COURSE it cost a lot of jewels! And you just stained it... it's - it's an almost impossible to clean stain, too..." she muttered. "Sigh.. Whatever, lets go get breakfast," she said flatly as she gave the expensive rug one more glance and headed off towards the guild.
"You shoulda said so earlier!"
"Aye!"
And the three of them consisting of a flying cat, a jumping up and down teenager and a dismal young woman went down towards the guild.
They entered the guild. Natsu had one arm over the annoyed Lucy's shoulder as they walked in, noting that it was full as usual but surprisingly, Erza, Gray, and some other members were missing.
"Yo what's up, Strauss?" chirped Natsu as he waved his free arm in the air. "Where is everyone?"
Mirajane looked up from behind the bar with Lisanna at her side.
"Oh, hi Natsu, Lucy, Happy! Sit, sit," Mira invited them.
Lisanna nodded at them. "Just the usual. Cana's drinking sake with Bacchus at the cheapest bar. They have some sort of a contest going on if you want to watch; a lot of people are attending and making bets, it's down the street. Makoa and Wakaba are arguing about money 'issues' so it might be good to avoid them for the time being."
"Oh, and if you want to sign up for a job, Gramps is out so ask me," Mira added.
Lucy took a seat. "I see not many people are here yet," she commented.
"About that..." Lisanna smiled nervously.
Natsu butted in. "How 'bout Icehead?"
Mirajane shrugged. "Oh, Gray is over there competing with...Ah, never-mind... What can I get for you couple?"
"Hun? wa-what.. No um..its not like...that" Lucy flustered. Natsu gave her a questioning look.
"Happy wants raw fish! The kind that Carla will like - the fresh kind!"
Nodding, Mira pulled out a basket with two raw, smelly fish inside and pushed it towards the blue cat and his white-furred friend. They took it and began to talk with each other.
Oh, Mirajane was talking about Happy and Carla. Geez, am I stupid. Wow. Its not like I will ever be a couple with Natsu... and even if I did...WHAT ARE YOU THINKING LUCY? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?
"Hey, Mira. The weakling, who's he battling?" broke in Natsu.
A long silence took place and finally Mirajane spoke.
"Some unexpected visitors. He'll win, of course. You-you shouldn't go to distract him though. Gray said that you shouldn't get in his way between the battle. It is a very serious one, I heard."
"Eh?" Natsu prodded her for more but Mira refused to answer.
Lucy rolled her eyes at the dragon slayer, then leaned back in her seat and looked around the guild. It was littered with pop cans and barrels of sake.
She could see
There, just behind one of the pillars, stood Juvia, camouflaged in the crowd. She had a slight blush on her face and as she peeked around hopefully to find Gray who clearly wasn't in the guild right now.
"NOOOOO! JUST TELL ME WHERE HE IS! NO NO NO NO NO! I WANT TO KNOW! TELL ME! MIRAJANE!"
Lucy fell out of her seat. She spun around, rubbing her hip while glaring at Natsu.
"Please shut up, Natsu! Unless I should turn into Satan Soul!" Mirajane gave a ferocious hiss.
"EEEEEEK! Natsu, behave yourself! NOW!" Lucy screamed as she remembered how scary Mira's Satan Soul was.
"ALRIGHT! I'M ALL FIRED UP! WHERE IS HE!?"
Lucy tried to restrain Natsu, at the same time trying to apologize to Mira.
Mirajane sighed. "Look Natsu, this thing that Gray is doing now, you can't go because... Well, I think it is best to not go, he needs his privacy sometimes you know."
"PRIVACY? WHO NEEDS THAT? I'M EVEN MORE FIRED UP NOW!"
"Natsu!" Mira scolded loudly. "I forbid you to go and find him! THE PUNISHMENT WILL BE SEVERE."
Lucy walked over to Mira and whispered, "What is it? What's Gray doing?"
"Weellll... he needs his privacy this time, you see. I can't say anything for certain but-" Mira smiled conspiratorially, "-I believe that the emotion he's fighting with is the exact will of a man in love."
Juvia frowned as she listened to the disruptive conversation, inching closer and closer in her translucent water form so she wouldn't be seen.
Gray-sama needs privacy? With whom?
She saw Lucy lean over to Mirajane and ask about Gray. Juvia clenched a fist at seeing her love-rival, then even more when she heard Mira's reply.
He's competing someone for a woman he loves? That's why he needs privacy? No, Gray-sama should love Juvia! It is Juvia who is right for him...
Juvia shook her head and cried as she ran outside, shifting back to her human form when she was safely outside of the guild.
Gray-sama doesn't love Juvia! But Juvia likes Gray-sama..
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...! My dear Gray-sama!...
"NAAATSUUUUU...BEHAVE. YOURSELF. NOW!" came the ferocious hiss of Erza who had just came due to the loud noise.
Natsu harrumphed and crossed his arms, sitting dejectedly on the floor.
Erza continued. "And don't go and try to distract Gray from fighting- uh, don't distract him."
"From fighting who?"
"NATSU!"
"Ahh.. A-ay-Aye!" Natsu stuttered.
Erza gave one more serious glimpse at Natsu and then asked Mira for a glass of water.
"What was that about?" Lucy muttered.
Mira shrugged. "There's a bunch of rumours going around, only one of them is true. I can't tell you much because I just happened to come here earlier this morning and was sworn to secrecy but like I told you earlier, a guy came in talking about some girl they would both fight for and Gray agreed..."
Erza nodded sternly. "Gray said that things were very important. We can't allow Natsu to know about this. The firebrain might run over and disrupt the entire thing. He doesn't understand that Gray has moments when needs his privacy!"
She paused to sip her water.
"Lucy.."
"Yes Erza-san?"
"Just... make sure Natsu is under control, okay? I know I can trust you to keep Natsu calm," the red-haired warrior smiled.
Lucy blushed. "R-really? I mean, I'll definitely do it. Makes me curious, though, about Gray's situation."
She frowned. Even Juvia seems to not know... she was at the guild earlier although I can't see her now.
Erza and Mira moved away to talk some guild business, saying a short "see you" to Lucy.
"See ya!" Lucy nodded, then turned and coughed to get Natsu's attention.
"Okay, Natsu let's set down some rules! Gray's not here and don't go looking for him! If he comes back somehow, LEAVE HIM ALONE. Got it? Natsu? EH?"
She stopped abruptly and looked frantically around the near-empty guild. She spotted Natsu's disappearing figure going out of the guild, with Happy trailing behind him.
"BAKA! GET BACK HERE!" stormed Lucy.
A/N thanks for reading so far, I'll update soon! and please review and tell me what you think, both compliments and critics are appreciated. thanks! :)