It's been a while since I've written anything. I'm not going to make any excuses (because I'm so terrible at making up good ones XD) so I'm sorry and I'll try to write a bit more, however I won't make any promises.
I also won't make any promises about this fic being any good, seeing as how it's actually written by the plot bunnies… damn things just won't leave me be…
Anyways…
Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or any of its characters *tosses another coin into the wishing well*
Another Day…
Another day, another disaster waiting to happen. This was the phrase that always ran through Lucy Heartfilia's mind first thing in the morning when she woke up. Sometimes she was wrong, and her day was filled with nothing but laughter, happiness and feelings that she had never felt before. Other days she had wished she had never gotten out of bed, returning home with ruined clothes, an empty purse and bruised pride. But it was all part of the package deal that Fairy Tail came with. You took the good with the bad. Although she had to admit, some of the best times she had with her new found friends easily outweighed some of the rough times they brought upon her.
And so, the young blonde sat at the bar of the rebuilt, remodeled Fairy Tail guild, quietly sipping her morning coffee and rubbing her tired, brown eyes while she awaited the yelling and banging to begin, which generally signaled the arrival of her teammates. Savoring the rare moment of peace, and her coffee, she swiveled around on her stool and surveyed the room in search of Mirajane. She appeared to be serving some of the other mages their usual morning platefuls whilst making a bit of small talk. She then picked up her empty tray and returned to her station behind the bar, near where Lucy sat.
"The rest of the team is unusually late, don't you think?" The white-haired mage said with a bright smile.
Lucy just sloppily took a sip of her coffee, not noticing she spilt a couple drops on her pink tank top, and replied "Yeah. Still, I'm not going to complain about it. I mean, we've done so many jobs this week I've easily got rent covered, along with that new dress I've been looking at." The blonde girl sighed. "In fact, I'd rather not go out on a mission for a while, I'm so worn out from summoning so many zodiac spirits in such short periods of time." She reached down for her key chain, hanging off her denim miniskirt, unclasped it and held it up in front of her, picking out individual keys. "Two days ago I called out Sagittarius, Taurus, Virgo AND Loke one after another to deal with a mob of mages from a dark guild, because they were actually a lot tougher than they looked, and Natsu, Gray and Erza ditched me… again!" A groan rose from her throat as her head fell onto the bench in front of her. Just remembering the incident made her feel tired all over again.
"Cheer up, Lucy!" Mirajane patted her on the head sympathetically. "It's not all bad, I mean, you must be getting stronger if you don't have to rely on the rest of the team as much, not to mention the amount of spirits you can call in a day has increased." Lucy smiled and lifted her head.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." She clenched her fist, feeling energized once again. "You know, it makes me feel like I finally fit into 'Fairy Tail's strongest team' now that I can take care of myself."
Mirajane grinned and said lightly "You mean now that you have Loke to take care of you?" Lucy faltered for a second and gave her friend an accusing look.
"You've been talking to Happy, haven't you?" She said in an annoyed tone.
"Not really. He talks about you two quite openly and very loudly in the hall." The blonde's low growl was met with a giggle.
"For the last time we are NOT a couple and I don't ALWAYS rely on him!" She slammed her fist down on the bar in rage, humoring Mirajane even more. "The next time I see him I'm going to rip his wings off!"
"Oh Lucy, don't be so hard on him. He was raised by Natsu, after all." She wisely decided to change the subject to suppress Lucy's anger for a little while and turned towards the request board. "Why don't you take a look at the jobs and see if there's anything you'd like to do before the others get here?"
"There's no point." She calmed down a little, back into her more depressed state. "They never like the jobs I pick, either because it's not challenging or the reward isn't good enough."
"But there's no harm in looking!" Lucy looked back at her cheery friend, who had a huge smile plastered on her face, and sighed.
"I suppose not…" She slowly stood up, gulping down the last of her coffee, before dawdling over to see what jobs were available, despite her lack of motivation to go on one. However, since it was first thing in the morning and only a few other mages were in she had the whole day's worth to pick from.
"Fix a dam near Tatsuki, exterminate a glow-rat infestation at Kawasa, escort an elderly man from Dansuke to Hayano, eliminate dark guild Granite Form near Tachisan…" She glanced over the request board, failing to see anything that really caught her eye, although she was in a hard-to-please mood. She wanted to either do a simple mission that she could do on her own if her teammates wouldn't co-operate, or a day off all together.
"Found a good one yet?" The sudden deep voice by her ear made Lucy jump a couple feet, startling the mage that had spoken up. Lucy breathed a heavy sigh and held a hand over her heart to calm down her racing pulse.
"Geez Gray, were you trying to give me a heart attack?" She said as she looked up at him, before turning away with a disgusted look, hands in front of her face, and adding "And do you mind walking in fully clothed for once?" The raven haired mage looked down, seemingly surprised that he was wearing nothing more than a pair of black trunks. He strolled over to Mirajane at the bar, giving Lucy a moment to compose herself, before returning to her side wearing black pants and buttoning up a white collared shirt.
"Anyway, have you found a good one yet?" He repeated. The only reply he received from his companion was a groan and a shake of her head. Gray looked over the board for a few seconds before saying "I don't see what the problem is. There's plenty to pick from, and it's not like they're all dull jobs." He turned to Lucy, who was staring at her feet, appearing to not be paying attention to him. He frowned, and practically got in her face as he spoke to her. "Hey, what's up with you today?"
Lucy huffed "Nothing…" in reply as she grimaced and pushed his face away from her own. She turned to get away from Gray as quickly as possible, but instead almost walked right into a crimson haired mage, who wore shining silver armor and bore a serious expression on her face. "Oh…. Hi Erza…" Lucy said unenthusiastically. The armored mage just stared back at her with a piercing gaze.
"Lucy…" At the sound of her name, Lucy froze. The tone Erza used was one that meant she was displeased.
"Y-yes… Erza?"
"Gray's not giving you trouble, is he?" Lucy breathed a sigh of relief, while the man behind her tensed up in fear. "Because if he is… I can deal with him…" Gray began to shake uncontrollably on the spot, his mouth opening and closing for a response, but with nothing coming out.
Lucy just waved her hands in front of her face and hurriedly said "Nononono! It's fine Erza, really! He was just helping me pick out a job…" She trailed off, making eye contact with the ice mage, who was madly nodding his head in agreement. Erza just gave a light 'hmph' before walking up next to Gray, who looked like he was about to faint. Whilst the two of them had their attention turned to the request board, Lucy once again attempted to creep away from the guild and score herself a peaceful day. She made it all the way to the doors before the last two members of the team slammed them open in her face.
"GOOD MORNING LUCY!" They shouted in unison. Lucy looked up from her place on the floor, after being knocked down, and glared at the young, pink haired teenager and the blue cat with white wings that was sitting on the dragon scale scarf around the boy's neck.
"Ugh… morning Natsu, Happy…" She mumbled in reply, picking herself back up and dusting off her skirt, accidentally brushing her keys which caused them to rattle. She jumped back in shock when Natsu's face was right near hers, a wide grin spread over his face.
"So, what mission are we doing today?" He asked energetically.
"Well…"
"This one!" Erza shouted from the request board in an authoritative voice, holding up a sheet of paper.
"Oooh! Lemme see!" Natsu ran over and snatched the request paper right from Erza's hand, staring at it intently with his winged companion staring over his shoulder. "Let's see…" A few seconds silence before he said loudly "750,000 jewel!" Lucy groaned at her friend's enthusiasm. In reality it wasn't that much, 15,000 jewel per member of the team, minus damage costs. She'd be lucky if she received 10,000. She tried reasoning with herself, thinking it might be a good idea to save up some money for a rainy day… or week…
Her thoughts were interrupted when the fire mage once again came bounding back towards her, shoving the job description in her face, and said "We're doing a really cool job Lucy! We have to get going as soon as possible!" The blonde scoffed in disgust, ripping the paper out of his hand and away from her face so she could get a better look at it. She sighed when she realized which job it was…
Eliminate dark guild Granite Form near Tachisan…
"Natsu, we just disbanded a dark guild two days ago, don't you remember?"
He responded to her question with a clueless expression on his face, before crossing his arms, shrugging and saying "Don't look at me, Erza's the one who picked the job." Lucy grimaced, knowing she couldn't really argue with Erza unless she wanted to be bedridden for a week. Then again, that would give her an excuse to not go on jobs with them, but at the same time she knew Erza would find some way to drag her along no matter how sore she felt. "Besides, it'll be fun! Right Lucy?" She looked from Erza, Gray and Happy to Natsu. She sighed in resignation.
"I'll go and pack my things…" She said glumly.
"Alright! That's the spirit!" Natsu patted her roughly on the back, knocking her to the ground for the second time that day, and he hadn't even been there five minutes.
As she walked out the door she heard Mirajane call out "Don't work yourself too hard Lucy! Try and have some fun!" Lucy turned back around to see her friend waving at her, and offered a small one in return, before trudging back to her apartment.
Mirajane watched the rest of the team discussing the upcoming mission, the two boys quick to start an argument, which ended just as quickly with Erza separating them to opposite sides of the room… via a punch to the side of their faces. She giggled at the sight, and turned to another mage that had just perched herself on the stool that Lucy had sat in earlier that morning, and ordered a red wine.
"You're up early Cana." She said with a smile. The young woman looked at Mirajane and sighed.
"I was hoping to catch Lucy this morning, but it looks like I got here too late."
"You just missed her. She left about five minutes ago." Cana sighed and slurped the rest of her wine down in one gulp.
"I saw something in the cards, I thought Lucy might need to know."
"Oh?" The barmaid handed her friend another glass of wine, which was sculled as quickly as the first. "Can't you tell Erza or Happy? They could pass the message on."
"They wouldn't understand, plus I'm sure they'd forget, even Erza. You know how they when it comes to missions and battling." Another sigh and another glass of wine down the hatch.
"The stars are shifting…"
Yeah I know… not that great… I suck at first chapters, and horoscope/tarot card prediction thingys…
That, and the person this fanfic is named after hasn't even made an appearance! :O
I know. I'm mean, aren't I? Hopefully the next chapter will get better and have a bit of action!
Anyways, reviews and constructive criticism are appreciated, but not necessary ^_^
No flames though, of course. I already live with a pyromaniac, so I don't need any more of those…
Thanks for taking the time to read this and hopefully I'll update soon!
~Piplup~
