This is a REWRITE, if you have read the original story I condensed what I had into this first chapter and some of the second (even so, it is very heavily edited and improved). After that the story is taking a completely different direction than what I had previously written, so different I couldn't simply revise the story as it was. Enjoy!
Lucy was in a particularly good mood. For the first time in forever she had enough money to cover her rent, bills, and other expenses, and it was only the beginning of the month. She pushed open the doors of the guild, yelling out an energetic "Good morning!", only to be met with the sight of Natsu and Gray snarling at one another. Ignoring the spectacle, she honed in on Erza sitting at a table, an entire strawberry shortcake in front of her. Happy sat on the table next to the cake, a mini spoon in his hand.
"Idiot! My punches are stronger, with or without magic!" Natsu growled as he shoved a finger against Gray's chest.
"Aye Lucy! Good morning!" Happy grinned at her, ignoring the brawling Dragon Slayer and Ice Mage, shoving an entire strawberry into his mouth.
"Hello Lucy." Erza smiled, ignoring the two fighting mages as they passed perilously close to the edge of the table. She held out a spoon to Lucy. "Have some cake with us. It's fresh."
Lucy grinned, throwing abandon to the wind. Cake for breakfast wasn't something she was usually into, but the baker's cakes from The Cake Shop were the best and usually sold out quickly. Today was such a good day, after all, so Lucy accepted the spoon with a smile and dug in. Erza poured her a cup of cherry juice from the pitcher on the table.
No sooner had a bite passed her lips before she felt a hard shove against the back of her head, and went flying, face first, into the cake. The untouched cup of juice tipped over as well, and Lucy could feel the cool liquid seep into the front of her top. Cherry juice… the stain would never come out; Lucy felt her anger mount as the situation sunk in.
"Ah, Lucy! I'm..." She heard Natsu start to stutter, then abruptly go silent.
The room was completely silent as Lucy pulled her face from the cake, dollops of whipped cream and cake crumbs clinging to her skin. She turned around ready to unleash her anger on Natsu and Gray only to be met with the sight of their faces drained of color, looking terrified.
Behind her she heard Erza ground out through grit teeth, "My cake…"
The air around Natsu and Gray filled with broadswords, the points meres inches from sinking into their flesh. The mages fell to their knees, whimpering nonsensical pleas and apologies to Erza.
Erza towered over them, speaking with maniacal menace in her voice "I waited in line for an hour for that cake. Punishment is the only option. There is no escape."
Elfman's voice burst in. "Yes! Accepting punishment is a man!"
Juvia appeared out of nowhere, clinging to a momentarily petrified Gray, "No! Juvia will not allow Gray-sama to be punished by any woman but Juvia!"
It would have been a comical sight for Lucy to see if a blob of whipped cream hadn't chosen that moment to fall from her face and down the front of her shirt. Irritation burst through her and she grabbed Fleuve d'étoiles, lashing the whip towards Natsu and Gray. Before the whip could land, a wave of water washed over her drenching the rest of her clothes, and everyone on her side of the room.
"Nooo! Juvia will not allow her love rival to whip Gray-sama! Juvia must be the only one to whip him.", the water mage squealed with her eyes closed, unleashing a torrent of water whips around her. The jet streams whipped around the room, wrecking everything in their path.
Pandemonium ensured.
"My book!", Levy squeaked, staring at the water soaked pages of the ancient book before her. Jet and Droy, seeing their dream girl distressed, turned to retaliate, but in their haste knocked over Cana's barrels of wine, which fell to the floor and burst open. Cana, seeing the destruction of her wine barrels, rose in anger, and sent blazing cards straight at the pair of men. Some cards hit their mark, but some flew past, blowing up against Elfman's chest, which caused him to roar, "A man doesn't back down from a fight!". Elfman picked up his table and threw it wildly. The table smashed against Laxus, who had been leaning casually against the bar. Immediately lightening crackled around his body, and the Raijinshuu, seeing their leader get hit, surged into the battle alongside him, accidentally knocking over Bisca and Alzack, who both drew their guns. By the time Lucy was able to make it to the door, she was no longer just covered in cake, cherry juice, and water; building debris, splinters of wood, an assortment of food particles, and some odd unidentifiable sticky substance covered her clothes and skin. She closed the doors behind her with a sigh, effectively drowning out the noise of the carnage still going on.
Well, at least she had enough money to treat herself to a new outfit.
Lucy was quite pleased with her new outfit. The dress was made of cream colored, sheer chiffon layered over a sheath of pale pink satin. Tiny clear jewels decorated the material sporadically, twinkling like stars when they caught the light. Intricate golden flowers were crocheted along the collar of the garment, raising up and forming the straps of the top, crossing in a beautiful X shape across her back. To complete the outfit, a pair of gladiator sandals wove their way up her calves, tiny iron star studs dotted along the straps of leather. To further spur her newly good mood, the shop owner had clasped a small barrette of three interlocking crystal stars onto the side of Lucy's hair, saying it was her gift to so beautiful a customer.
She made her way back to the guild, pausing at the closed doors to listen to the level of ruckus inside. She still felt weary over the morning's events but she really wanted to show off her outfit. The noise level didn't sound much louder than the usual chaos, so Lucy decided it was safe and went in.
The first people she was saw were Wendy, Charla, Happy, and Pantherlily playing some sort of card game. From the looks of it Pantherlily was dominating the game. Wendy looked up as Lucy passed and gasped, "Lucy you look so pretty!". Lucy beamed at Wendy, her honest, childlike reaction so adorable that she grabbed the tiny Dragon slayer and hugged her.
"Yes Lucy, you look very lovely tonight." Erza's voice spoke from behind her, and as Lucy turned around, Erza reach out, grabbing both her and Wendy, effectively crushing the two girls against her armor. Apparently she had been unable to resist the visual temptation of female affection.
"Aye sir!" Happy agreed.
"Yes, you do look quite nice." Charla put in.
"Mhm." Pantherlily agreed absentmindedly, eyes on his cards.
Lucy gently broke away (actually pried herself from Erza's grip with great effort) from the group hug, her face a light shade of pink, pleased with the praise she was getting. The cherry on top was when Gray and Natsu, who had approached behind Erza put in their comments.
"Lucy you look amazing! Like a model" Gray said enthusiastically.
Natsu nodded his agreement vigorously. "Lucy, you look even better than a model! Doesn't she everyone?", Natsu yelled so the whole guild could hear. From all around the guild shouts of agreement could be heard.
Lucy felt like her grin would split her face. Even though she knew they were being extra nice with the over-the-top compliments since they felt guilty about shoving her face first into a cake, it was nice to be complimented about her appearance when she put in the work.
"I win!" Lily suddenly exclaimed, throwing down his cards. "Let's play again."
"No. It's like 33 to 0, and everyone has zero except you!" Happy protested.
"Don't worry Happy!" Natsu exclaimed, dropping into an empty seat, "I'll help you crush him!".
"Ah, a team battle! I accept the challenge!" Pantherlily declared, an arrogant smirk on his tiny face. "Gajeel! Come help me beat Salamander!"
"Eh? Beat Salamander? No problem." Gajeel declared from his seat at the bar, "Where do we battle?".
"It's a card game." Lily responded.
"Tch, a card game? No thanks." Gajeel spat dismissively, turning back to his beer, "That shit is for wimps and small children."
"Ha!" Natsu burst out, "He doesn't even have the guts to play. He knows he'll lose to me, just like when we fight."
With a loud growl, Gajeel rose from his stool, and stomped over to the table, shoving himself into an empty chair. "Deal the damn cards.", he snarled, downing the rest of his beer than slamming the empty mug onto the table.
"A fairy tail mage never steps down from a challenge." Erza declared, sitting down.
"A group match huh? Sounds interesting." Gray agreed, placing himself beside Erza.
Gajeel was surprisingly bad at cards. As in, flat out horribly, unskilled. Under normal circumstances Lucy would have teased her opponent mercilessly, but since this was Gajeel, and Lucy didn't want a fistful of iron through her throat, (she had seen him hurl metal at their comrades for much smaller annoyances) she choose not to comment on his lack of skill. Besides, she wasn't entirely sure it wasn't because 95% of his concentration seemed to be on hurling insults at Natsu, or the fact that he had already chugged back eight mugs of beer in the twenty minutes they'd been playing so far.
Gajeel's only saving grace was being paired on a team with Pantherlily, but the Exceed could only cover for his teammate so much. The more games they played the more Lucy started to get the feeling Gajeel didn't even know how to play the game, he had just decided to play because he refused to back down from a challenge, and of course he would be loath to admit he didn't have a clue what was going on.
Mirajane stopped by to refill Gajeel's beer.
"Oh my, what fun you all look like you're having.", Mirajane commented, her eyes crinkled into a smile.
"Yeah, it's great!" Natsu agreed happily, " Happy and I are in the lead.".
"Idiot you haven't even won a game yet!" Gajeel argued.
"You're one to talk, you're the worst player I've ever seen." Natsu shot back. The two men instantly lodged themselves into a face to face snarl fest.
"Well, why don't you make it more interesting." Mirajane suggested cheerfully, producing a large bottle of a dark amber liquid, seemingly out of thin air. A stack of shot glasses appeared just as magically, and she placed the lot into the center of the table. "When anyone loses they take a shot."
"Sounds fun!" Natsu agreed, pumping his fist into the air.
"It will definitely up the ante." Gray commented, Erza nodding in silent agreement beside him. Lucy sweat dropped; of course they would agree after easily winning the last five rounds.
"Actually, I was thinking about heading home." Lucy interjected, standing up.
"But Lucccy! We've barely started." Happy protested, trying to look sad. "Who will walk me and Natsu home if we get drunk."
"Hey we're not gonna lose Happy!" Natsu declared, to which Happy bounced back from dejection with a cheerful, "Aye, sir!"
"Yes," Erza stated a hand shooting out to Lucy's shoulder and forcing her back down, "and if you leave who will take the shots for Wendy. "
"But-." Lucy looked to Wendy who managed to look adorably forlorn at the thought of losing her human teammate. The protest died on her lips, "Ok, just a few more games." Which left Mira positively beaming as she produced another bottle of liqueur and placed it beside the first before heading back to the bar.
Just how much did she think they were going to drink?!
"I say we play a new game."Pantherlily suggested, his countenance utterly casual. "How about poker?"
After everyone agreed, Lily acting as self-appointed dealer, dealt out the first hand.
By her fifth consecutive shot Lucy's belly was full of the fiery burn of too much alcohol.
She had a mounting suspicion that Lily was slipping Gajeel cards on the sly; there was no possible way he had lost so spectacularly at Crazy Eights then completely dominated at poker, which was a card game ten times more difficult. At first she had wanted to voice her suspicions despite the emanate threat of being pounded to the floor with an iron hammer, but the alcohol had made her thoughts fuzzy and ultimately unconcerned. It didn't really matter anyway, especially since she was getting to see a drunk Natsu. Usually, his magic just burned through alcohol so he couldn't even work up a buzz but he and Gajeel had agreed to moderate their Dragon Slayer magic to even up the playing field.
Now Natsu's cheeks were starting to take on a tinge of color as pink as his hair, his grin even larger than usual. Erza looked normal, the only giveaway of her inebriation the occasional unprovoked head nod and smirk. Lucy decided she must be having some sort of internal monologue playing out in her head. Gray's indication of his current state was that he was stripped to down to his boxers, which actually wasn't saying much since that wasn't out of the ordinary. In fact, Lucy was just grateful that the boxers were still in place.
Lily dealt another round and Lucy grinned as she saw luck was finally on her side. She had a pair of queens and a pair of tens, a really good hand. She was definitely going to win this time. Triumphantly she slapped her cards onto the table with a loud, "Hah!", only to have her victory cut short at the sight of Gajeel fanning out a 3 of a kind. To add insult to injury they were all 2's. The only indication Gajeel made about his victory was a slight arrogant upward quirk of his mouth in her direction. That little gesture grated against her nerves.
There was no possible way he is that damn lucky! Her alcohol befuddled mind shouted. I ought to Lucy kick him into admitting he's cheating! That was too good a hand I had!
Apparently Natsu felt the same way, because he shoved an accusing finger at Gajeel, screaming, "You're cheating!".
Despite the fact he hadn't taken a shot yet Gajeel had a pretty good buzz going. He had been downing beers since the beginning of the evening and was currently on his eighteenth refill. He was starting to get bored with poker but the boredom was worth working through just to see Natsu get more aggravated with every hand he lost. Despite Salamander's ever-present stupid grin, he could tell the Fire Dragon Slayer was on the brink of an explosion, and if he played his cards right (pun intended) he could have a real brawl going in just a few more rounds. Gajeel had been pretty disappointed to hear he missed a good fight in the guild that morning.
"Hah!" Lucy shouted as she put down a pair of queens and tens. Gajeel smirked, it was a good hand, but not good enough. Gajeel casually laid out his three of a kind. None of these unskilled losers were going to break his winning streak. He had been the best at poker during his Phantom Lord days.
His smirk grew as he watched Lucy's mouth fall open in disbelief, then her cheeks glow pinker as he could see the anger growing on her face. Just as she looked like she was about to say something, Natsu pointed at him, yelling, "You're cheating!" Unfortunately, Natsu was also a bit buzzed, so the arm he threw out accidentally knocked Gajeel's full mug out of his hand, causing it to spill all over his clothes. That was as much as Gajeel could take, fuck being patient with cards.
"Look what you did!" He roared, launching himself full throttle at Natsu, his blood temperature instantly rising in anticipation of a good fight. The two men began trading blow for blow, both sporting almost identical feral grins on their faces as the fight thickened. After a few moments Erza and Gray rushed over to try to stop the fight, seeing the Dragon's Slayers' attacks grow in magnitude. This backfired however, as Gajeel accidentally cracked Erza against the head with a swing of his iron bar, and Natsu landed a fiery kick against Gray's stomach. Erza and Gray, both fueled by the alcohol running through their own veins joined in on the battle wholeheartedly.
Lucy sighed; but it was a sort of weary, accepting sigh. From the moment they started playing she knew it had only a matter of time before an all-out war started given the relationship of the players.
"Ah," Wendy's sweet voice brought her to attention, "Should we stop them? It, um, seems the alcohol has made them be even more destructive than usual."
Wendy had a point. Lucy looked on wearily as a gigantic hole was blown through the roof, then subsequently, a similarly sized gaping cavity appeared on the wall. They definitely seemed to be fighting more fiercely than usual. It was probably their lack of inhibitions due to the alcohol… even the other members of Fairy Tail that usually surged into guild brawls seemed to be hanging back. She thought about making a getaway; one ruined outfit was enough in a day, but at that moment, each of the four launched an attack that combusted into a large outburst of magical power. The energy surged spectacularly throughout the guild, and when the dust cleared, the entire roof was missing and half of the wall over the bar had collapsed, destroying said bar beneath it. Every table, chair, and person was haphazardly thrown across the room, the inanimate objects smashed to pieces.
Lucy cringed; this was a lot more than the usual carnage after a guild fight.
Therefore, she wasn't surprised when Makarov appeared, growing in size, his voice magically enhanced to boom across not just the guild, but probably the entire town of Magnolia, and maybe even a few more miles beyond that.
Makarov's face was red with anger; his ranting so deafening Lucy could only catch the occasional words like "brats", "punishment", "fools", and "money".
"Oy, Gramps! It's not so bad!" Natsu put in, a cheery grin on his face, "It-".
Makarovs hand shot out, effectively flattening Natsu against the ground. His other hand swept out, scooping up Erza, Gajeel, and Gray in one sweep and unceremoniously dropped them atop Natsu's prone form.
Lucky instinctively moved back as Makarov's body swiveled toward her, his arm reaching out in her and Wendy's direction, but it was with a much gentler touch that he lifted up the two girls and set them on their feet next to the pile made up of their friends.
"You group of brats!" He roared, "You've destroyed the guild beyond magical repair. Not to mention most of the building materials we had were completely used up this morning in your first fight. If I don't teach you, you will never learn. You all will hold yourselves responsible for the monetary amount it takes to buy supplies and manpower to rebuild this guild."
Responsible for the monetary amount… those words played themselves on echo throughout her head. Lucy's face went blank as she imagined all her rent, grocery, and bill money flying out the window for the next several months. What made matters worse was that she hadn't even been in either fight! Well, she had given one snap of her whip that morning, but it hadn't connected with its target so technically...
"Hey, I wasn't even here this morning!" Gajeel protested.
"SILENCE!" Makaroc shouted. "You will all do your duty as Fairy Tail mages. More so, you will have the money by the end of next week. Ten million jewels."
Everyone's mouths fell open in shock. Ten million was roughly the equivalent of five S Class missions. There was no possible way they could achieve that, considering Erza was the sole S Class Mage.
"Coincidentally," Makarov boomed on, "there is a special request I received this morning that fits the situation. It just so happens it requires six mages, therefore, you all will be going on this job to pay for the damages." He shrank back to his size and took out a folded piece of paper from his back pocket. Without a word he handed the paper to Erza, then turned on his heel and disappeared into his office.
Behind his closed door, Makarov cackled to himself.
Like it? If you've read the original, much less long winded and better word choice right? I was in the worst writing slump because I came to dislike what I had written, so here's to hoping I can start cranking out the chapters since I like this version SO much better!