"Where the hell are they?" Natsu whined, pacing back and forth at the train station anxiously. He didn't like waiting one bit. He felt agitated like he'd burst out of his own skin any minute when things were slow and dull and in this case when people just couldn't be on time.
"Stop acting like such a child, Natsu, they must be on their way." Lucy chided.
"Natsu is always like this he wouldn't stay in one place even if he was chained down." Happy added, at which Natsu scoffed.
"Easy for you to say, let me take all your fishes away," he turned to Lucy and said, "and let me not accompany you on any job then we'll see what you'll both do."
Happy's contorted feline features depicted precisely how betrayed he felt by his salmon haired best friend who stood there smirking as if he had delivered some hotshot statements.
Lucy, on the other hand, was done trying to calm him down and hit him on the head instead. Natsu yelped with a wince looking incredulously at Lucy for her cruelty.
"What did you just say?"
"I'm, j...j-ust saying, Lucy doesn't mean I'll do that to you guys." Natsu corrected his statement. He was a dragon slayer but boy! Did the girls from his guild scare the shit out of him?
"Good. Now, be a nice boy and wait here until Juvia arrives." Lucy placed her hands on both her hips, she wasn't showing it but, Natsu knew Lucy was getting impatient at the unknown whereabouts of the water mage too.
"I don't see why we need, Juvia at all Lucy, can't you conjure that water chick sitting in one of those creepy third dimension pocket thingies of yours?" Natsu pointed at her side where all her celestial gate keys were tucked in tight inside her key holder, with eyes so innocent that Lucy contemplated between throttling or coddling him. Either way, she was ticked off at his lack of attention toward her celestial spirits.
"I freaking broke my Aquarius gate key when I summoned the celestial king, back when we were fighting your brother's demons remember!" She put a protective hand over her key pouch. "And it's called celestial spirit world not creepy third dimension, you jerk!" She screeched stomping her feet. Natsu and Happy who were now huddled together in the far off corner browsed her through narrowed eyes, their faces filled with wariness.
"Her mental state seems to be getting worse by the day, Natsu." Happy commented. "She needs help." His tiny paw pressed to his mouth forming a half cup as he whispered to Natsu, Lucy could still hear every single word that came out of his mouth though.
"I know right, it's almost like that time when we visited her and she started throwing a hissy fit…"
"I'm not mental and you weren't visiting buddy! You broke into my house and had almost burned it to the ground in the process!" Lucy screamed in Natsu's face.
"Sure, whatever you say." Natsu waved a hand at a fuming, Lucy which aggravated her further.
"If you two utter another word I am kicking you out of this mission, I'd rather do it alone than have you two loose mouths follow me around," Lucy spoke before Natsu could embarrass her any further. She had to keep her temper on a very tight leash 'cause the onlookers thought that she was abusing Natsu when it was actually the other way around.
Natsu feigned hurt and was about to say something when she said: "not another word." That shut Natsu up for good.
She should have known that it was too good to last forever when Natsu asked, "You did not answer me, Lucy. Why do we need, Juvia for this task?" after a moment of silence, all traces of comedy gone from his voice.
"Because," Lucy lets out a long sigh not following her own rule of silence and continues, "because, Aquarius' key is out there somewhere, remade somehow by some miracle after I obliterated it." Silver lined her eyes as she recalled the day she had to do the unthinkable. Such agonising memories flooded her mind, but she shook the thoughts away. If there was a way to find Aquarius' key she would raise hell to do that, she'd obtain that key even if she herself had to walk till the end of the earth to retrieve it.
"She's a water spirit her key is forged from using the water from both this world and the celestial world, that's what connects her to this place that's what makes her come back….here." She finishes swallowing with much difficulty.
Natsu understands what it is like losing someone you love, all right. He lost his father, and a brother who he never really thought existed until he witnessed his death in front of his own eyes. A bitter taste soon envelopes his mouth, in a flash he is in front of Lucy hugging her.
Startled at first Lucy gets comfortable in his embrace once she processes what's going on, hugging Natsu was nothing new, she welcomed his hugs without getting flushed by the action, in fact, they're warm and always felt like coming back home.
"But I don't get it what Juvia's part is in all this."
Lucy peels herself back from Natsu and scowls, "my god Natsu, you have to connect one and one and come up with a conclusion." She sticks the index fingers of both her hands in the air and brings them together to demonstrate. "Seriously how hard is it?" She now sounds irritated.
"You know how tiring that is Lucy, I don't like putting my brain through all that." Natsu pouts, gesturing vaguely with his fingers.
"Yeah, Natsu's not the one to do the thinking." Happy supplies, munching on his fish.
Lucy gives up and launches into an explanation, "when you are an elemental mage, the things forged from that very element or the things made from that element existing simply since millennia answers to you." She looks at Natsu and sees understanding finally dawning upon his face. Oh, thank the good lord! Lucy internally wails in relief.
"Since Aquarius' key is forged from the water of this world and we so happen to know the most powerful water mage to exist in the whole of Fiore who is none other than, Juvia lockser herself, finding the key would not just become easier but quicker too." She finishes.
That's why the celestial mage had called her friend all the way from Crocus where she was now happily settled with her loving or rather a brash mouthed dirtbag of a husband, Natsu mused.
"Sorry, I am so sorry." A sweet voice breaks, Natsu's train of thoughts.
"Ahh, Juvia finally you're here." Lucy exhaled, "what took you so long?"
Juvia fidgeted, fingers twiddling with each other, a blush bringing colour to her usually white as milk face. All these years and things really hadn't changed, yet everything changed. Juvia's love for Gray, for instance, was now projected onto someone who actually appreciated it and seemed to return it with as much ardour.
"Juvia was caught up…..doing…stuff." She answered taking careful pauses as if she was walking on the land of explosive mine.
"What do you mean doing stuff?" Lucy inquired.
"You know….stuff." Juvia unceremoniously replied, looking away. Natsu already knew what kind of stuff she was talking about, he was a dragon slayer for nothing. He stifled a guffaw if his sharp nose which was capable of picking even the slightest of smells wasn't lying, Juvia's partner in crime lurked within the crowd trying to reach them as they spoke and speak of the devil.
"I am stuff." One Sting Eucliffe stated triumphantly coming into view, at last, a finger pointed to his chest. Natsu snorted at the way his chest swelled up with pride at his own sense of importance, how Juvia handled his self-admiration so much he didn't know.
Lucy's eyes go from confused slits to realising bulge when she finally comprehends the implication.
Sting had meant to say it as a joke but no one laughed, definitely not Juvia, she, however, turned to her grinning husband whose grin faltered when she shot daggers with her glare at him for the tidbit of information he'd let slip.
"Whatever!" Lucy shuddered visibly, "let's go." She says moving past a flushed Juvia and a filled with remorse Sting and disappears inside the train. Juvia followed suit ignoring her husband's glances toward her with composed countenance.
This time Natsu laughed at the lost expression on Sting's face as they both boarded the train themselves and settled beside their respective partners. Sting looked longingly at his wife who still refused to look at him, something told Natsu that Sting won't be doing any kind of stuff for quite some time now.
His laugh was cut short once he was harshly reminded of his motion sickness the minute train started moving.