Just a few little author notes I guess. I really love the friendship and bond they all share, and how Lucy's home seems to be a place where the cuteness of it all really comes to light. So I've decided I'm going to write a series of short stories about moments she's had with various friends, individual friends and sometimes even distant friends using her house as an escape pad. I hope you enjoy them, I'm gonna rate this one T for safety, it's gonna have some swearing and possibly some Graylu fluff. (I'm gonna write a Nalu one soon, I'm just really diggin' Graylu at the moment.)
I do not own any of Fairy Tail or its characters.
Lucy stood in her bath/shower soaking in the warmth, her mind wandered as she enjoyed the fresh scent of her herbal mixtures. Shower time was by far one of her favourite things to do.
A lot of things have changed since Lucy Heartfilia joined the Fairy Tail guild, although this was bound to happen after all the things she'd been through. All the things they'd been through.
She was now stronger than she'd ever imagined possible, her second Origin unlocked she could summon up to three spirits at one time, and she'd once summoned the celestial spirit king. She'd managed to collect and befriend spirits like Virgo and Leo king of the Zodiac, Gemini, Capricorn, Sagittarius. Her friends where greater than anything she'd ever conjured up in the lonely bedroom which she spent her childhood. They where heroes, and she was well on her way to becoming one herself. She'd lost too, things where missing from her life. But she had a light in every aspect of her life, and that was the light of the Fairies.
There was one tradition, one new addition to her life that really iced the cake. It was the fact all of her closest comrades had felt comfortable enough in Lucy's home to make it their own second homes. Natsu and Happy, Carla and Wendy, Gray, Erza, Gajel, Levi, Panther Lilly, Cana had all slept, eaten and bathed in her home several times over the years. Hell, even Romeo, Elfman and Macow had stumbled in one night after making a drunken ruckus all throughout her neighbourhood.
Lucy constantly complained about her (often times uninvited) guests intrusions, however deep down their presence and smiles warmed her to the core. For she had always known a life of loneliness and now she knew a life filled with friendship and laughter.
Laughter from the living room of her apartment snapped Lucy out of her thoughts. She decided it was time to hop out of the shower, seeing as one of her friends hadn't intruded yet it seemed a good way to end the peaceful warmth she'd experienced. Lucy hopped out, and stared at herself in the mirror for a short while. She hadn't really changed at all in appearance beside a few scars and more defined muscles, and yet she was a completely different person. She snapped out of her thoughts again and turned around to grab her towel off the rack behind her. When she was met with a door that suddenly snapped off its hinges, and flew by her missing her by a hairs width. Gray came stumbling out from behind the broken door, and he didn't miss Lucy. The collided hard, knocking Lucy back into the bath and Gray along with her. She tried to regain her balance, but Gray hadn't regained his and so they both fell into the bathtub which was sill wet from her shower. The curtain wrapping around them as they did so. Roars of laughter came from Natsu in the lounge room. Lucy was about to start screaming and yelling when the intense stare of Gray Fullbuseter caught her attention. His face was flushed and when she looked at him his face filled with guilt and he immediately looked away. "SHIT" She yelled realising that she was naked, and Gray's body was stuck pressed against hers wrapped in a shower curtain. Her cheeks reddened as she desperately started kicking and screaming trying anything to get free of this hell.
"Hey calm down Lucy would ya!" Gray now had his eyes closed, but was sure to keep his smirk from her vision. "Moving around like this isn't helping." Lucy didn't pay any attention to his words, she just continued kicking and screaming while babbling on about how crazy they all where.
Gray pulled his arms out from their stuck position and grabbed both of Lucy's arms. This stunned her enough to stay still.
"Just hold still" he ordered his eyes still closed. With that Gray made an ice sculpt of a knife and cut them out of the shower curtain. The moment Gray was free he sprung up and rubbed his stomach where Natsu had clearly kicked him through the door. Lucy covered herself with the broken shower curtain, red in the face still. Once she stood up out of the shower, she noticed that her back was actually quite sore. "Ouch" she said, gripping onto it. When she lifted her head up, Gray was holding a towel with an apologetic look on his face. She blushed again, and took it from him.
"What the hell NATSU!" Lucy screamed after covering herself up with the towel. He had been too busy being scolded by Erza (who promised him that he and Gray would have that door fixed before they left of she'd hang them both to dry) to notice the awkward moment she and Gray had just experienced. As always Happy was stuffing his face at the fridge, so he didn't see a thing. phew Lucy thought to herself if Happy had have seen she'd have never heard the end of it.
"Ice-brains started it." he said childishly folding his arms over his chest.
"If I didn't get to see an eye full of Lucy naked I would punch your lights out fire beast" Gray joked evilly, really riling Natsu up this time. On purpose of course.
"Ya pervert!" With that Lucy gave Gray a good Lucy kick, turned around to Natsu and did the same. She then gracefully turned around, and walked toward her room to get changed, she swore just before she shut the door she heard more bickering coming from the two. "I saw up her towel." Gray whispered to Natsu, making him punch the Ice Wizard as hard as he could in the arm.
"Geez, I take back everything I thought in the shower." Lucy was fuming, but mainly from sheer embarrassment. She had to admit none of these awkward and at times costly situations wouldn't happen if she just got a new lock for every window and door in the house. "Ahh who am I kidding?" she whined to the air in her room. "They'd find a way in anyways" the thought brought a smile to her face again.
"Why are you all here anyway?" Lucy spoke virtually into the oven as she grabbed out the roast she'd been cooking for half the day. Every single time she tried to cook a roast, her house would coincidentally fill with guests.
"Well, me and Gray just finished a mission in Cressy. Strange place, that. Anyway we decided to stop in and visit considering it'd been a week since we left." Erza explained quite politely.
"Yeah, we thought here would be more relaxing than the guild hall...I didn't think flame-brain would be home yet. So we where wrong about that." Gray took a dig at his rival. However Natsu ignored it, it was his turn to speak.
"Me and Happy just got back from our mission yesterday. In the woods just out of town there was this monster terrorising a small village." Natsu began to explain, dramatically. Lucy began to imagine the entire woods burned to a crisp and Mongolia's wood supply shortened by Natsu's flames..yet again.
"Long story short it wasn't even a monster it was just a crazy guy from the village who wasn't very good at transformation magic, we sent him to Mira, Elfman and Lisana. Hopefully they can sort him out." Happy cut in, a fish hanging out of his mouth.
"It was boring really but at least Natsu didn't burn anything to ashes."
Lucy smiled at her friends stories as she dished them all out a plate of her food. She'd never been that good of a cook before, she never had to do it. But the more these guys stayed over, the more effort she put into their meals. Loving the praise, and the feeling a good meal gave everyone. At the start there'd been a few horrible attempts, however her friends winced through it trying to convince her they liked it. She admired them all for that.
"What about you Lucy? How was your week?" Gray asked inquisitively, he was staring at her again.
"Well...a-ah." Lucy began to talk but was cut off by the sound of two people climbing in her window. Oh I wonder who this is she said grabbing out two extra plates.
"What's metal breath doin' here?!" Natsu puffed in anger having smelled Gajeel before anyone heard who it was.
"Whatever I damn want that's what" Gajeel said standing directly behind Natsu and the kitchen table, hands on his hips and a deathly grin on his face. They immediately began cursing and insulting one another.
"Whatever brings you two here" Erza directed her question at Panther Lilly the black Exceed knowing full well that Gajeel and Natsu would bicker for a while.
"Hey you two! If another thing breaks in my house today, you'll all be finding another innocent victim to mooch off of! If there's any of you left that is" Lucy screamed, warning the dragon slayers to mind their behaviour. Not that it ever worked.
"Well you see, Gajeel and I where walking back from some training and he said he could smell all you guys and some good food. He got all offended that he wasn't invited to the tea party."
"Don't make it sound so gay cat!" Gajeel yelled at his furry friend.
"Sorry, Gajeel." Lilly laughed before continuing. "One thing lead to another and here we are!"
Lucy smiled again, their group grew stronger and bigger every day, with the Ice Demon Slayer, Titania Queen of the Fairies, The three dragon slayers, and the exceed they would never be stopped. "Wait, where's Wendy and Carla?" Lucy questioned, realising they hadn't joined like they normally did.
"Oh they're on a mission Bunny." Gajeel cut in.
"Who you callin' Bunny?!" Lucy barked. "Grubs up" she added.
Everyone dove into their normal routine, grabbed plates and passed them around. To feed everyone Lucy had to ration her servings, but not a single person was ever ungrateful for her food. "Thanks Lucy!" they all said in unison before indulging.
"So we saw an interesting new type of magic mobiles today. They actually store your magic power so you can just get in and go!" Gray said excitedly to his friends, he had always loved those things.
"Wow, that will come in handy for many reasons!" Erza agreed chowing down on her vegetables.
"Why do we even bother with those things?!" Gajel talked with a mouth full of food "I mean we'd all be able to use our magic somehow to run faster and it'd probably use less power!"
"Who are you kidding!" Natsu yelled at Gajeel with a mouth full of food himself. "You can't run faster than a magic mobile!"
"Oh yeah you want to make a bet on that do ya?!" He virtually headbutted his dragon slayer rival.
"Yep, I'll win!" Natsu said happily, he was about to open his mouth to say more when Erza butted in. All that woman needed where a few words to shut people up. "Quiet now." silence fell over the room. "We are at Lucy's dinner table!" she acted as though she wasn't just as out of control as the rest of them, but if it wasn't Natsu breaking her doors down it was definitely Erza. She'd broken more than Gray and Happy put together, and that was saying something.
All of the Fairies sat together at Lucy's table and talked, sharing stories and laughter knowledge of their quests and serious stages of conversation taking them back to their old fights and foes.
Dinner had finished, and all the cleaning up was done thanks to help from Gray. Lucy appreciated the help, regardless of the fact she knew he was only trying to get out of fixing the irreplaceable bathroom door. Leaving that job to the only person in the room who was probably not capable of fixing it.
Gajeel Lilly sat together, challenging Erza to a card game, they where very intense in their battle. Lucy wondered if they'd all be staying. I hope some of them don't mind missing out on bedding. She thought to herself, knowing one of these days she'd have to go buy more extras or suffer more mornings with a stray who'd found their way into her bed. Most of the time it was Happy, sometimes Happy and Natsu. Erza had once or twice, and even Gray.
Happy and Natsu sat by the broken door, a darkness weighing over them as they realised they where doomed, they couldn't fix it.
Gray was hiding somewhere most likely reading her manuscript or trying to stay away from the windows just in case Juvia decided to pop her head in too. Not that this would bother Lucy, unless she found out about the bathroom incident before of course. Then that'd be a different story.
Lucy took a deep breath as she had one last look at her team mates, she was tired it'd been a long day. But this moment was too amazing for her to worry about sleep, she walked over to her couched and joined her friends in their own adventures within her home.
How did I ever get so lucky. Lucy thought to herself with a smile as bright as the stars.