Lucy groaned and slammed her face on top of the bar she was currently sitting at, covering her head with her arms.
"Lucy? Are you alright?" Mirajane asked, wiping down the bar countertop with a rag.
Lucy groaned again and looked up at Mira. "Natsu…" She gave up and shook her head, resuming her previous position.
"Ah. Natsu," the barmaid tutted knowingly.
"Yeah. He won't leave me alone. Job and job after job…" Lucy's voice came out muffled from beneath her arms.
Natsu was insistent on taking more and more jobs lately, and even more insistent that Lucy accompany him. Lucy wasn't sure why. What she was sure of, however, was that she needed a break, and soon.
"Have you tried telling him to go without you?" Mira inquired.
"Yup. He won't have it. Mavis knows why," Lucy said, sighing and propping up her chin in her hand.
Just as Lucy finished her sentence, Natsu bounded over, with Happy close behind, job request clenched in his fist. "Lucy!" he called out loudly. "I found us a job!"
Lucy gave Mirajane a look as if to say What did I tell you? and slowly swiveled in her chair to face her teammate. "Natsu, I've said this before. Can't you go without me just this once?" she asked tiredly, rubbing her eyes.
"But Luuucy, we can't go without you," Natsu whined childishly. "You have to come."
"Go with Gray and Erza or something. Honestly Natsu, I need a break."
"Go alone with frosty and the demon? Nope, no way," Natsu said stubbornly, crossing his arms and shaking his head.
"Okay, first of all, you wouldn't be alone with them, you'd have Happy, and second of all, this is ridiculous. I'm exhausted. You've been dragging me on missions day after day for weeks. I'm so magically drained that even if I did go with you I wouldn't be any help anyway."
"Lucyyy… Please?" Natsu begged, giving her puppy dog eyes.
"No. Not this time Natsu. I'm putting my foot down. Wait a week, let me rest up, and we can go on another job then," Lucy said with an air of finality, turning back around to face Mira.
"Fine. You're no fun anyway," Natsu muttered under his breath before turning and skulking away.
"See? You got him off your case, didn't you?" Mira said with a smile.
"Well yeah, but… I feel kinda bad now. I don't really mind going on jobs with him, but I'm just so drained." It was true. Lucy had deep, purple bruises under her eyes, and she looked paler than usual.
"Lucy, he'll get over it. Your health comes first," Mira said kindly. "Now let me make you some tea, and then you can hurry on home for some rest."
After drinking her tea and thanking Mira, Lucy slid off of her stool and began the short walk back to her apartment. Deciding to call out Plue for some company, she paused and pulled out his gate key. However, when she called out the words used to summon celestial spirits, nothing happened. She was too exhausted to summon little Plue, which really said something.
I definitely made the right choice, Lucy thought. If she wasn't able to summon a spirit that required such a minimal amount of magical energy, then how could she be expected to summon a spirit powerful enough to defend her?
Lucy replaced the key in her pouch and began walking again. When she reached her apartment, she kicked off her boots and collapsed on her bed, falling asleep as soon as her head hit her pillow.
Directly outside her window, perched on the sill, crouched a dark, shadowy figure. Perfect… simply perfect, he thought as the first few drops of an incoming storm splattered against the ground. As a flash of lightning lit up the sky, the light illuminated a large, creepy smile.