A small something written for the NaLu week bonus prompt. Hope you like it!
The usual disclaimer applied.
Lucy would never know
Summary:- The only thing Lucy ever found out was her plushies at the carnival were cursed. She never did and never will know why.
"Thank you, Lucy-san. With you agreeing to our contract, your plushies will also be sold at my shop in the carnival" the older man cheered at the 17-year old blonde. His day had been more or less good, if you exclude a few death warnings from certain males. As expected the pin-up model, who is also the bartender at the no. 1 guild had no problem with her plushies being sold at the carnival. Neither did the Titania. She even assured him that she would personally take care of the manufacturing, not trusting the skill of his employees. Or rather, she wanted them to be 'perfect'. The others in the race include Evergreen, Kinana, Laki etc.
The first blow was delivered to him when he tried to approach Levy Mcgarden, the solid script mage of the team Shadow gear; tried being the keyword as the moment his shadow fell approached hers, a pair of red eyes ordered him to leave, causing the poor man's shirt to become wet with sweat. The second blow was when he wanted Juvia Lockser to sign the contract. There was no resistance, what-so-ever. Two days before when he met up with her, the blue haired mage seemed all the very excited about the carnival and gave her consent for this plan of his but only on the condition that he has to give her an equal amount of plushies of her 'Gray-sama' as they make hers. The man found it weird though he complied. The problem was he had no contract papers ready by that. Now when he had them in his hands, the water mage was missing (Apparently, on a mission with her 'Gray-sama'). The third blow was a real blow when he was knocked out by Elfman who vented out his anger of having his big sister's (and also his not-wife's) mind manipulated in the scheme of that shop owner. All he did was trying to approach his younger sister. That was the sole fault according to the shop keeper. He had a heavy heart until Lucy, the final one on his list, agreed to his plan and signed the contract for him.
The mage beamed after the man left. This was the first time her plushies are going to be manufactured and sold at a festival as big as the Magnolia's. She could barely contain the excitement in her.
"What happened? You're looking weird" a clueless pink-haired mage came from behind, his cat flying over his head. They started looking around for anything that happened because they deemed their team mate to look weird.
"I'm not weird, you idiot!" she said, rolling her eyes. Excitement got the better off her and she flashed a smile at him, similar to the first time when she got her Fairytail mark, "They're going to sell my plushies at the carnival"
"Oh," he turned around uninterested, making his way towards the request board. He carried the same expression as the time when she tried to show him her mark. Lucy was confused but shrugged off. There were more important things to deal with. Unbeknownst to her, the fire mage shared a what-you-can-call devious smile with his flying partner.
~0~
Two weeks later…
Lucy was surprised to see the same old man who had her sign a contract at her door steps. She also spotted a few young men behind him, carrying a large box each. Her eyes turned into flowers as a grin broke onto her face.
"They sure must be the extra ones they made to give me because the others would've been sold out at the carnival" She thought to herself while asking him to come in.
To her, the shopkeeper had a weird expression. He would open his lips to say something but stop. He'd look at her and then sigh, showing her his bald head.
Lucy was baffled at his behaviour. She tried to pull on the smile and asked him about his reason in the most polite manner she was ever taught.
"Your plushies…" he sighed, recollecting the events that had been happening since the past two weeks. All the bad luck fell on him it seems. His stall got burnt just before the carnival, forcing him to sell the plushies in a tent. The good thing was the other plushies all got sold out within a record time of an hour. The only ones that were left were the blonde girl's who was gleaming at her own fantasies. Just when a customer came to buy it, left with no choice, his pants were on fire. The shop keeper couldn't keep the count of the fire extinguishers he had to use that day and the following days. When he had enough, he tried to sell them off to the neighbouring kingdoms. His attempts were in vain because the vehicles' tyres got punctured and the stuff couldn't be moved. Some claimed that the tyres melted as if on stove. Other employees claimed that bundles of them started flying. They ran away, shouting loudly as if possessed. This made him come to only one conclusion:
"Your plushies…" he clenched his fists. He gave a look at his employees who were already out of the house and left the door open for him to escape. Unknown to him, the celestial mage was building up her own world of dreams wherein she was the supermodel, posing for 'The Sorcerer'.
"Yeah, my plushies?…" The flowers in her eyes were replaced by jewel signs.
"They're…" he hesitated.
" They're?" Quite famous… was what she expected him to say. It just turns out the other way round.
"They're cursed! Not one got sold. They just brought misfortune!" he broke the news before running away from her and out of her little apartment.
Lucy was stunned at the revelation. It took her a whole minute to hear the words, another to repeat them and another till it sunk in her brain. Her eyebrows scrunched and she ran to the window, uttering curses at the shopkeeper for calling her plushies cursed.
She 'hmph'-ed before turning around and sigh. Her frown deepened thinking over all the excitement she had during the past two weeks.
"Luce, you're moving?" a voice brought her to her senses. She turned around to see the dragonslayer she first teamed up with to enter her home the usual way.
"No" she answered. She was too annoyed at the shop keeper to yell at Natsu for trespassing.
"What are these boxes then?" he asked. Happy who was resting on his shoulders, flew towards the kitchen.
"There's no fish there, you stupid cat!" she yelled after the exceed, who paid no attention. He knew there was one. He could smell it from the refridgerator. By the time, she turned her attention to her other companion, she saw a heap of her plushies in the centre of her room.
"What the hell are you doing?" she said, unbelievingly.
"Lucy," Natsu had a serious expression when he grabbed her by her shoulders, looking her straight into her eyes. "How did you manage?"
"Huh?" she blinked.
"Gildarts… He used his magic to split you into these tiny Lucys right? How did you still remain in one piece while splitting into these many?" Lucy had the urge to jump into the river in front of her apartment complex and drown. Her partner could say things out of blue, just like now.
"Those are plushies you idiot!" she replied, her eyes bulging out.
"Oh.." he nodded in understanding. "Why do you have so many?"
"Lucy is a narcissist," Happy who wasn't going to be happy anymore after this comment said, his mouth full of fish.
"You cat! I'm not gonna let you live!" Lucy threatened. "That shopkeeper said they were cursed and returned them to me. He just didn't have salesman skills"
"Oh," Natsu nodded in understanding, "Why are you keeping cursed dolls then? You already have a lot of rent pending that you owe, Luce"
The blonde didn't know if she was being flamed by the flame dragon's apprentice.
"I wanted to! Happy?" she was tired of the argument.
"Aye?" the cat came from within the kitchen.
"How will you store them?" Natsu asked. For some reason, he was looking thoughtful.
"That's what I was wondering," she fell into thought.
"I know!" she heard him exclaim. He lit his fist and she probably knew what was going to happen.
Before she could stop, all that was left was only ash in place of a heap of plushies.
"That's easier to store" he grinned along with the cat in the background.
.
.
.
.
.
She blinked at the duo, who mouths were stretched from one corner of their faces to the other.
"Natsu!" Second Erza mode on….
~0~
"Phew, that was close…" Natsu said, tired of running away from Lucy. "I didn't know she cared about them so much. The prank was a success. Did you sneak one into our home?"
"Aye, when I did that flying prank," the cat replied. "You liiike her!"
The cat rolled his tongue, causing a slight tint to appear on the dragonslayer's cheeks.
"Shut up, it was just a prank. It was a whole lot of fun, seeing them scream 'Ghost! Ghost!'" Natsu replied.
"Aye…" Happy agreed.
"Natsu! Happy!"
"Crap.." they uttered in unison.
"Don't ever say this infront of Lucy or we'll be dead meat. Her second Erza mode is scary," Natsu said, running away from his current source of fear.
"Aye…"
~0~
Lucy never did and never will know what exactly happened. … in that carnival.
So how was it?... Good? Okay? Better? Worse? Let me know what you think about it.
Also, I wanted to ask you guys what you would like to see for the NaLu week. I'm planning on it, though I may not be submitting anything during the actual week. (I'm going to be on a trip home. Going there after six months, already homesick *_*). I've had a look at the official prompts. I'd like to see if there are any particular prompts (official or self) you want me to write. Only rules being I'd not consider anything I'm not comfortable writing and that these are only going to be suggestions out of which I'm going to select (if I get too many or in other cases).
Got any then?
Also, I wanted to ask your opinion on if I should add the other NaLu week related chapters to this fic. For now, this is a oneshot.
Hope to get some advice from you, because I'm messed up.
Beatress.
