"Natsu-u!"
The pink haired boy stopped and turned to look at his teammate, slouching as she walked tiredly towards him.
"Slow down, I'm tired of walking for so long!" The blonde protested; barely able to stay standing up properly.
"Lucy, hurry up, we have to get there before it gets dark." A blue exceed flew up to her.
"Easy for you to say, cat!" She glared at the exceed. She envied the flying cat's ability to spring wings out of it's back and fly. Sometimes she wished she could do the same, then she wouldn't have to walk so much.
"Come on, Lucy. It's not that far, anymore. Just a few more miles." The pinkette smiled, trying to encourage his friend.
"Shut up, it's your fault we have to walk all the way here, in the first place! You and your hatred of transportation."
"Hey, it's not my fault I get motion sickness!" Natsu pouted, folding his arms across his chest.
She shook her head sighing. "The least you could do is let me have a small break to catch my breathe."
"Fine. I am getting kinda hungry anyways." The pinkette rubbed his belly as it growled loud enough for the other two to hear it.
"Aye! I'm so hungry I could eat a fish." The blue exceed sat down next to Lucy, waiting for his meal.
Natsu laughed, sitting down as well with his backpack in his lap. He unzipped the biggest pocket and reach inside to grab their lunch.
"What did you pack for lunch?" The blonde curious stretched her neck up, to try and see what was in the salamander's bag.
Slowly, Natsu brought out a fish for Happy – earning a cheerful 'Aye' – and some turkey sandwiches for him and Lucy.
The celestial wizard looked at the sandwiches with slight confusion. 'I don't remember Natsu stopping by at any restaurant for food...Where did he get those?'
"What's wrong? Aren't you hungry?" The salamander tilted his head slightly, in cute kind of way, making Lucy blush.
"No-no! I was just wondering where you got these sandwiches, I mean, I don't remember you stopping at a restaurant to buy these nor someone giving this to you back at the guild." The blonde half asked, half stated.
"Oh. Well..." Natsu fiddled with his fingers and looked away before finishing his answers. "...I made them."
There was silence between the two mages. Neither one spoke or moved. All that was heard amongst the group was the sound of Happy happily eating his fish away, not aware of the two mages at all.
Natsu's felt his face heat up with embarrassment, or the fact that he was a fire dragon slayer made his body feel hot.
He never really mentioned it to anybody – since he thought they'd laugh and think he was lying, which they probably would – but he was a good chef. No, not your average I-can-make-mac-n-cheese-from-a-box chef, but the kind that could make really delicious food out of scrap, such as lasagna, spaghetti, chow mein and more. It was more of a hobby then a profession. It was a gift he'd always had.
Igneel use to teach him how to make simple things like sandwiches or cooking a fish in a certain way, and he was always able to do the task right on the first try; unlike when he learned new moves, which he'd always failed to succeed when he first attempted them. Slowly, he learned those too and became the dragon slayer he is today.
Natsu patiently waited for a response or even a laugh, from his blonde headed partner.
Soon enough, she finally opened her mouth to respond.
"I didn't know you could cook." The pinkette turned his head to face his friend, surprised at her response.
"Aren't you gonna laugh and tell me I'm lying?" He frowned slightly, looking down at their lunch.
"Of course not. I believe you Natsu." The celestial mage tilted her head slight and smiled sweetly at the pinkette, making him blush lightly in response.
"T-Thanks." He managed to say, while staring at his feet.
The blonde smiled again, reaching her hand out to grab a sandwich. "Now time to bite into this and see if they taste as good as they look."
Natsu watched intentively as the blonde slowly brought the sandwich to her soft, pink lips and bit into it. It was then followed by a loud "Mmm! This is sooo good!"
The salamander just smiled at her, along with a, "Thanks."
"Wow! You've got quite a skill, Natsu. You should use it and enter the Fairy Tail Deserts contest, next month." Lucy swallowed every last bit of the sandwich and reached her hand out for another.
"Pfft, no thank you! I'm not going to humiliate myself in front of the entire guild. No one's going to let me hear the end of it. Especially Gray." Natsu practically groaned as he said the name of the ice mage; who was probably back at the guild, searching for his missing clothes before Master Makarov came in and yelled at him for stripping in the guild again.
"Oh come on, Natsu. You can't let your skills go to waste. And besides, you could maybe win the grand prize!" Lucy looked up hopefully into his eyes, but sadly he denied it, once again.
"You're so stubborn." The blonde sighed, as she went back to her sandwich.
After lunch the three were back on their feet, walking towards their destination.
They were on another job. The Titania was out of town, visiting someone, and the the droopy eyed ice mage had just return from a job himself, so neither one was able to join the three on their short mission. Not like they really needed the help, anyways.
The blonde celestial wizard, of the group, had chosen this job this time, due to the fact Natsu's choices were all either too complicated or involved Lucy to use a sex appeal – which probably would have failed and left the blonde completely humiliated, like the other times it had.
Natsu didn't diss her choice, nor did he deny coming along, even though the job didn't involve any sort of fighting, which he was hoping for. The pinkette just sighed when Lucy pleaded and begged for Natsu to come along on the small mission. He didn't want to go, but he was running low on cash this month, especially since he had to give up his reward last week since he destroyed half a village while trying to capture a group of bandits.
This job was suppose to be quick and simple, and it needed Lucy's abilities as a celestial wizard to accomplish. They didn't know exactly why they needed a celestial wizard, since the job description was quite vague and didn't really explain what the job was. But Lucy took the chance, since it was one of those rare jobs that she could probably do alone. Natsu only came along to make sure they didn't take advantage of her or use her for something that could destroy the world – like the whole Infinity Clock thing.
The blonde celestial mage made a 'wow!' kinda sound as she looked up at the building in front of them, in awe.
The building was huge, and it reminded Natsu of a palace. There were windows everywhere, especially the big glass dome in the middle of the building.
'There's probably at least enough rooms, inside, to shelter every single person and family in Magnolia!' Lucy thought to herself as she looked at every single window on the outside of the building.
"Aye! We made it." The blue exceed cheerfully stated, flying over her head.
The Salamander just smiled and turned to his friend. "Oi, Lucy. Let's get going so we can finish the job quickly and get out of here."
"Aye!" The blonde smiled, imitating the blue exceed.
All three of them quickly ran up to large white door, which was bordered and had small golden designs, making it look shiny.
"Welcome to our humble mansion. The master has been awaiting your arrival." A short bald man spoke as he led them into the study where a couple was seated on a white couch with golden embroidery on the cushions.
"Ah! Thank you so much for coming. I really appreciate you taking on this small job of mine." The orange haired man smiled as he shook each of their hands before sitting back down next to a purple haired women.
"It's no big deal." The blonde smiled as she sat down on the a white couch across from the rich couple, right in between Natsu and Happy.
"So what is this job you have for Lucy?" The pinkette sighed, growing slightly impatient and wanted to get this over with.
"It's quite a simple task." The man began to explain. "Before my father died he entrusted me with this book, a book he was never able to open himself, and told me that there were secrets hidden within it. For the past twenty years I've been going from town to town, library to library, even went into some magic shops, trying to figure out the mystery of this book and how it could be opened. But with no luck, I wasn't able to unlock the book."
"So why do you need a celestial wizard for this job? Wouldn't you ask need a solid script mage or something?" Lucy looked at the man with confusion.
"Well, you see, I actually had script mage to come in and decode all the writings around the book cover and back. What he found was that the book would only be opened for a person who held celestial keys, which opened the portal between our world and the celestial world. That person would then lay out any one of their zodiac keys and focus all their magic towards the book. This would then unlock the book, revealing all the secret written in the book." The rich man finished explaining.
He then looked to his wife who nodded in response, leaving the room and coming back with a large dusty book – bigger than Happy's entire being. "This is the book. I hope you can unlock it for me."
Lucy took the book from the purple haired lady, looking at it curiously and cautiously. 'I wonder what secrets lie behind this book. I mean, they'd have to be really bad for it to be locked away, right?'
The blonde bit her lip before looking back up at the rich couple. "Is there a specific reason why the book's been locked up? I mean...Maybe the book's not suppose to be opened if it's been secured in that way..."
"Like I said before, I don't know what the book holds. All I know is my father told me through dying breaths to unlock this book for him, that there were secrets hidden in here, that could possibly make the world a better place." The rich man, awkwardly scratch the back his head and looked up at Lucy. "But if you're uncomfortable doing this, I understand. You can go back to your guild, and I'll wait for another celestial wizard to unlock it, no worries." He smiled, disappointment clearly showing through his emerald eyes.
Lucy bit her lip, she felt bad, but what if the book was evil? What if it opened a portal to the demon realm and caused the world to go into a dark age? She'd be the blame for it and millions of people's deaths. She couldn't live with herself if that were to happen...
But this man said the book contained secrets that could make the world a better place. There was a 50-50 chance it was possible, but could she take the risk?
"Lucy?" The sound of the dragon slayer next to her snapped her back to reality.
"Are you okay?" The pinkette looked at her a little worried.
Lucy smiled, nodding. "Yeah, I was just thinking."
"...about someone 'special'" The blue cat laughed, earning a hard glare from Lucy.
The blonde stood up, holding the book closely to her chest. Everyone looked up at her as she smiled. "I'll do it."
"R-really?" The man looked at her shocked. "A-are you sure?"
The celestial mage just nodded. "I'm ready to take the chance, and open the book for you."
"Thank you! Thank you so much." The man got up, shaking the blonde's hand vigorously.
Lucy sweat dropped, feeling her arm go numb from the man's fast movements. "Ah, no need to thank me. After all we haven't even finished the job yet. Nonetheless stared it."
"Ah, my apologize. I'll have Rufus guide you to our library so you can focus." The orange haired man nodded at the bald butler next to them. "Take these Fairy Tail wizards to the library, and if their hungry give them a snack."
Natsu and Happy's eyes lit up at the sound of 'snacks'.
"Yes sir." The short man bowed respectfully at his master before leading them towards the library. "This way please."
When they reached the library, Lucy's face was filled with astonishment. She couldn't believe how big this place was. There were books and bookshelves everywhere! The bookshelves were so tall, they were practically half as tall as the building. The ceiling was covered in a large glass dome, drawing in sunlight.
The room was round and had steps that led to the second floor of bookshelves. There was a small round table in the middle of the room, filled with books, which caught Lucy's attention.
"Ah! This is the perfect place for me to concentrate. Thanks, mister." The blonde smiled at the short man before making her way towards the small round table in the middle of the room. Natsu and Happy following behind.
"Ahh...This is so boring, Happy!" The pinkette lay flat on his back, groaning. "Lucy! Hurry up."
The celestial wizard sighed and looked at her bored friend lying on the carpeted floor. "Natsu, if you keep complaining every minute I won't be able to focus at all. Why don't you read a book while you wait?"
Natsu groaned louder. "Reading's boring."
"Or you just can't read..." Happy looked up from his book of fish.
Although the exceed practically whispered that, Natsu heard it due to the fact he had ears like a dragon.
"I can too read." The pinkette sat up and glared at the blue cat, who just pretended to have been reading.
Sure, Natsu knew how to read. Igneel had taught him to, of course, with the addition of Erza's help. But he never really liked it much. The most he's read are the wizard magazines, and he barely even read those. He just bought them for the pictures and the small personality quizzes at the back, which he did for fun.
He wasn't the best reader, nor the fastest. In fact he had difficulties reading, sometimes, and he was quite slow as well. He envied people like Lucy and Levy, who could read thousands of pages in just three days, where else it took him two hours to just read a kids book and understand what the hell was going on.
The pinkette closed his eyes and sighed as he got up and walked behind Lucy. "Why is it taking so long?"
The celestial mage sighed as she picked up the book, looking over the dusty old cover. "I don't know. I'm still unsure about opening this book. What if something bad happens?"
"Then I'll make sure that whatever comes out of it will suffer." The salamander cracked his nuckles as he smirked.
The blonde looked up at her friend and smiled. "Thanks, Natsu."
"Now come on and unlock the book. I'm curious to see what's inside." The pink haired boy held Lucy's head and turned it towards the book. "Focus."
The celestial wizard laughed slightly. "Okay, okay."
The fire dragon slayer and his blue exceed, companion watched the blonde close her eyes and take a deep breath; focusing her powers on the book. Her body began to glow a golden colour as she held the Leo Zodiac key over the dusty old book.
"Wo-ho! Lucy, you look so cool all glowy like that." The pinkette exclaimed, getting all excited.
"Shh, Natsu. She's trying to concentrate!" Happy hushed his best friend before the blonde lost focused, which would have upset her.
The blonde's hair flew around as she glowed even more.
Suddenly the key she was holding began glowing too and started floating, out of her hand. It then spun around in midair before falling straight down into the drawing of a key hold, turning it to the right, unlocking it.
The key stayed in it's place for awhile as the book started glowing as well. It floated up into the air, causing the wind around it to throw papers and books off the table.
"Woah!" Natsu took a step back astound.
"Finally some action." He smiled, pumping his fists in the air.
"Lucy!" The blue exceed suddenly exclaimed.
The pinkette suddenly snapped out of his enthusiastic moment and looked up to see Lucy floating away as well. "Lucy!"
He quickly ran over to the blonde and grabbed her foot, trying to pull her back down to Earth. "Lucy! Get back down."
But Lucy didn't move a muscle, she stayed floating in the air and continued to mindlessly use her powers to unlock the book.
"Lucy!" The pinkette called again, but no response.
"Natsu! Do something, she'd going to float away otherwise." Tears weld up in the exceed's eyes.
"Don't worry, Happy, I'm not letting her get away that easily." The dragon slayer growled, holding onto the blonde's foot tighter.
Suddenly the blonde, the key and the book glowed even brighter and with the sound of a 'ding-dong' and a flash of light, all the items fell back down to Earth.
Lucy yelped as she fell into Natsu's arms. 'W-what just happened?'
Natsu had fall backwards on his butt, still holding Lucy in his arms. "Lucy, are you okay?
"Y-yeah, I'm fine. Just got a little headache..." She rubbed her head lightly.
"Nastu-u, Lucy!" Both the mages turn their attention to the blue exceed pointing to the round table where the book had fallen back down.
The pages of the books were flipping through, rapidly, all by itself. They watched for awhile before the book suddenly stopped flipping through, and just froze.
"I-It's open, that means...I did it!" The celestial mage literally jumped out of Natsu's arms and ran over to the book. "Woah!"
"What is it?" The curious pink haired boy walked over and peered over the blonde's shoulder to see what was so 'Woah!' about it.
"What's it say?" He asked again.
"I'm not sure but it's a book of spells." The blonde continued to flip through the pages, looking at unrecognizable words and letters. "I wish Levy were here...Then we'd be able to understand what it's saying."
"Well, maybe you can find a book on how to read this, and then maybe you'll be able to do it." Natsu suggested.
Lucy smiled up at him. "That's a good idea, but I don't think we'll be able to decode everything that way."
The pinkette looked down and sighed. "I guess..."
Suddenly Lucy yelped as the book started flipping through pages on it's own again.
"W-what's happening?" The blonde's eyes widen as she watch the book rapidly flip through pages.
"Lucy, you broke it!" The blue exceed sprung his wings out and flew up beside her, folding his arms.
"I did not!" She protested.
"Guys, look!" The pink haired salamander pointed towards the book as it suddenly stopped on a certain page.
The three looked at the page curiously.
The pages looked old and dusty. There were faded doodles and writing on the pages.
Lucy inspected them, running her hand over the dusty pages.
Suddenly the writing and doodles began to glow and flew off the page, floating in front of the wizards faces, startling them.
"W-what did you!?" The pinkette exclaimed.
"Nothing! I-I just put my hand over the pages." Lucy got up, worry filling her mind.
The letters began to even glow more as a whispering snake-like voice was heard.
All three of them looked down, realizing it was coming from the book.
Natsu was able to hear the words as they were hissed out in a whispering, hypnotizing voice.
"Seibetsu o mage...Seibetsu o mage..." It repeated over and over.
"I knew that book was cursed or something. We gotta get out of here." The blonde took a step back, biting her lip.
"Aye!" The blue exceed agreed, starting to fly out of the room.
Natsu began to follow his flying buddy but stopped when he realized the blonde wasn't following. He turned around to see her still standing at the round table. He called her name several times, to try and get her attention. "Lucy! We gotta get out of here, come on."
But the blonde didn't move a muscle. It was like she couldn't hear him.
"Lucy!" The pinkette ran back to help his friend as the room suddenly began to shake.
The ground felt like it was about to crumble, books and bookshelves began to fall. The lights and windows shattered, dropping pieces of glass everywhere. But the pinkette didn't stop running back to save his friend.
"Lucy!" He grabbed her wrist and tried to shake her awake.
The blonde didn't move or say a word. She was hypnotized.
"Seibetsu o mage...Seibetsu o mage..." The book continued to repeat the words as the letters about it spun around and began to glow brighter.
"Lucy, snap out of it, god dammit! This place is about to collapse on us." The pinkette growl, looking around to make sure nothing was going to crush them.
"Natsu-u! Lucy-y!" The worried blue exceed called his friends as he tried to avoid the falling bookshelves and other objects; trying to fly back to help his friends.
The library began to deconstruct itself faster and faster.
Natsu tried to wake up the celestial mage faster. He tried calling her name, shaking her, and even trying to tickle her, but she didn't move. It's was like she was in a trapped in trance and couldn't get out.
Suddenly the glowing letters floating above the book, flew towards the two wizards, spinning around them.
"What the hell is this!? Get away from us." The hot-headed boy lit up his fists on fire and tried to punch one of the floating letters.
Which wasn't a very good idea, because the glowing letters suddenly froze, and started shaking, making the room shake even more. Natsu lost his balance and fell on his bottom, along with Lucy, who fell into his lap.
The glowing light around the letters and book turned red, before they started floating frantically around Natsu and Lucy.
"W-what the hell!?" was all the pinkette could get out of his mouth.
The letters suddenly attacked the boy, along with the blonde in his lap.
Both the pinkette and blonde began to yelp in pain as the letter began to burn through their skin.
"Natsu! Lucy!" The blue exceed flew faster as he saw his friends in pain.
The book began to hum, and spoke in a loud echoing voice. "Kurushimu! Kurushimu!"
"Aah!" Both mages cried out loud as the letters stuck to their bodies, burning their flesh.
They were suddenly thrown back at a bookshelf, smashing a hole through the wall.
"Natsu! Lucy!" Happy flew over to their side, his eyes filled with tears.
"I'm fine...Happy... Just take Lucy and fly her out through the roof, I'll find another way out." The salamander held his side in pain.
"But Natsu, your injured...I can't leave you here!" The blue exceed cried.
"I'll be fine. I'm fought worst monster than that bastard of a book." The pinkette grinned, making the cat smile as he wiped his tears. "Now you get out of here with Lucy! I'll get out on my own."
The young exceed did as he was told and grabbed Lucy by the collar, flying out through the already-shattered glass dome.
Natsu, however was still in the building. He got up weakly, still holding his side.
He looked towards the main and back entrance, which were blocked off by bookcases and other objects. Natsu scowled, as began looking around for another possible exist.
He quickly spotted a stack of bookshelves leading towards the already-shattered dome above. 'Perfect!'
Still holding his side, he ran towards his escape.
Books and tables flew began to fly at him, as if they were being targeted at him – which they were, by the glowing book.
He dodged all of the flying objects by jumping, fiery punching and kicking, even hitting them with his head. He soon made it out, and jumped down from the building just in time as the whole library part of the building collapsed on itself.
"Natsu!"
The pinkette got up, breathing heavily as he got up, still holding his side.
He looked up to see Lucy and Happy running over with tearful faces.
Before he could react he was practically tackled by the both of them.
"Natsu, we were so worried you weren't gonna make it." The blue cat cried.
"I'm alright, Happy. Don't cry." The pink haired boy hugged the cat, smiling.
"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, Natsu!" The celestial mage cried on his chest. "I shouldn't have taken this job! I'm so sorry."
"Lucy, it's okay. Don't be so hard on yourself." The pinkette chuckled lightly to himself, as he hugged her as well.
"It is not okay!" The three quickly got up at the angry sound of the rich man.
"We're so sorry, sir. The book casted some sort of spell or something when I unlocked it." The blonde looked down at the ground apologetically.
"I can go back inside and get the book for you." The salamander offered.
"There won't be any need for that now." He folded his arms across his chest.
"Why not?" The blonde asked.
"Why would you go back in there when the books not even there." The rich man retorted.
"Eh? What do you mean it's not in there?" The celestial mage didn't quite understand. The book was there even when they were trying to escape.
"The book floated up and disappeared." The bald butler appeared from behind the rich man, along with the rich man's wife.
"What!?" Lucy couldn't believe it. All that hard work unlocking the book, down the drain.
"We are still getting our reward, aye?" The blue exceed questioned.
"Of course not! You destroyed my library, and the book disappeared. I ain't paying a single penny for that." The man scowled.
"Please, dear. Calm down. You blood pressure is gonna run high." The purple haired woman put a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down.
"Oi! But we unlocked that damn book!?" Natsu couldn't believe it. All that waiting for nothing!
"I'm sorry, but I won't reward you when you've destroyed my library and haven't even got the book with you." The rich man sighed, shaking his head.
"Bullshit!"
"Natsu, calm down. Let me talk to him." The blonde held her friend back before turning back to the rich man. "What if we go find the book and return it to you?"
The orange haired man thought about it for awhile before answering. "Then I shall reward you."
"Double!" The pinkette spoke up.
"What!?" The man glared at Natsu.
"It's only fair. I waited for over two hours in that lousy library before the book was finally unlocked. Then we were attack by some stupid magic from the book, and almost got crushed by the whole damn place." The salamander folded his arms as he scoffed. "And now that we have to fetch the damn book for you, it's only fair you pay us double. Especially since we don't know where the hell the book went, exactly."
"Aye, I agree with Natsu." Happy raise his paw in the air, agreeing with his pink haired friend.
"I think the pink haired boy is right, Renado. It's not fair if we don't increase their reward when they're clearly asked to do more than what we originally asked." The purple haired lady spoke, looking in the emerald eyes of her husband.
He sighed, looking back into her own blue ones.
"I guess you're right. It's only fair. But, I will only pay you once you've returned the book, unlocked and undamaged."
"But we didn't half the job, don't we deserve half the reward now?" Lucy finally spoke up.
"I can't trust that you won't bring back the book. For all I know, you could just take half the reward and decide not to find the book, at all."
The rich man called his butler over and gave him a few instructions before proceeding back to his mansion.
"Make sure they leave here without destroying anything else. And please call my contractor. I need to discuss the matter of my library right now and get it fixed, immediately."
"Yes sir." The short man walk over to Natsu and the two others, directing them towards the exit. "This way, please. There is a carriage waiting for you outside."
The dragon slayer growled as he stomped away, back towards the guild. "Who does he think he is!? Not paying us for all that work. Fucking asshole, that's what he is!"
The blonde and the blue exceed followed behind their angry friend, listening to him rant.
"Natsu, calm down. We'll get the reward once we find the book. It'll be okay." The celestial mage tried to calm him down, but sadly Natsu was too upset to even try to.
"Bullshit, this all is! Where the hell are we suppose to find one fucking old book, anyways?" He growled.
"Well, Levy knows a lot about ancient spells and she has tons of books about ancient items. Maybe she could give us clue about where the book might be."
Natsu sighed. "I just needed some money for food...Urgh, I guess I'll just have to wait a little longer."
Suddenly there was loud 'thump!' as if someone fell.
The pinkette turned around to see what had happened as Happy yelped the blondes name in a shocked tone. "Lucy!"
"Lucy!?" Natsu ran over to the blonde's side. "Lucy, wake up!? What happened?"
"I don't know. Lucy looked dizzy and suddenly she just fainted." The blue exceed cried. "Lucy!"
"We gotta get her to a doctor, quick-" Suddenly Natsu felt dizzy as well, and couldn't see straight anymore.
"Natsu, what's happening? Natsu-u!" The cries of the blue exceed was the last thing that the dragon slayer heard before passing out himself, with a 'thump!'.