Author's Note:

Never written for Fairy Tail before, but this seemed like a good opportunity to give it a shot. Submission for March veraspromptchallenge organized by fic-writer-appreciation on Tumblr.

Prompt: Spirit

The Light of Fairy Tail

"Hey Lucy… What's wrong?"

Lucy dragged herself onto the open barstool next to Wendy and let her head thump down on the wood surface with a moan. "I think you mean what isn't wrong."

Behind the bar Mirajane smiled understandingly as she put a cup of tea in front of the bedraggled blonde. "What did those two do this time?"

"Those two…" It took a second, but Wendy's eyes widened when she realized who Mira meant, "You mean Natsu-san and Happy?"

Next to her and sipping at her own exceed sized cup of tea, Carla gave a dainty sniff as she said, "Who else would it be. No one causes more trouble than those two."

On Lucy's other side, Cana was seated on the bar top and draped comfortably around a large barrel of whatever alcoholic beverage she'd chosen that morning. She grinned as Lucy took a long drink of the tea and sighed, holding the cup like it was a lifeline. "Must've been pretty bad if they have you this bent out of shape. What'd they do?"

Lucy reluctantly set down the tea and began ticking off on her fingers, her voice and expression growing more and more irritated the longer the list went on. "The two of them broke in last night and thought it was a good idea to sleep in my bed. I woke up freezing at the ungodly hour of 4am to find they'd managed to wrap themselves in all the blankets. By the time I'd booted them out of bed and told them off, I was too worked up to go back to sleep so I went to take a shower and get ready. I came out to find the idiots had tried to make breakfast, but Natsu only succeeded in nearly torching the kitchen and Happy got fish scales everywhere." Her irritation somewhat spent, Lucy dropped her head back down on the countertop, her next words muffled slightly by the wood. "I told them to clean everything up and left before I decided to go with my original idea of strangling them. I don't even want to think what will happen if my landlady finds out…"

Mira patted Lucy comfortingly on the shoulder as she said, "I'm sure they'll have everything set right in no time."

Wendy nodded reassuringly, but Cana nearly choked on her drink as she tried not to laugh and Carla gave disbelieving sniff.

"Luuucy!"

Everyone in the group, minus Lucy, who'd buried her head under her arms with a low groan, turned to see Happy soaring toward them, closely followed by a grinning Natsu. Upon noticing Carla, Happy excitedly landed by the white exceed and pulled a fish wrapped in red ribbon out of his bag. "I got this for you from Lucy's fridge!"

Lucy's head popped up from the bar as she shot a glare at the blue cat. "You what?!"

"No thank you." Carla ignored Happy's depressed expression as she got up and moved to Wendy's lap with her nose in the air. Wendy frowned as she looked between the two exceeds. "Carla, that's not very nice."

"Well I don't want it."

In the time it had taken for Carla to turn down Happy, Natsu had made it to the bar. He frowned in confusion as Lucy buried her head in her arms again. "What's wrong Luce? I thought we were gonna go on a fun job today."

"I don't want to. I'm too tired to do anything." She hadn't meant for it to come out as a whine, but between the lack of sleep and the stress, it just kind of slipped out.

Quick to rebound from Carla's refusal, Happy shoved his paws against his mouth to suppress his snicker as he said, "You should get more beauty sleep, Lucy. You really look like you could use it."

"Damn cat." With more speed than should have been possible given her previously slumped form, Lucy lunged for Happy. Unfortunately for her, the exceed had been expecting this reaction and had already taken flight, leaving her palms to smack emptily against the wood as he made the short hop to land on Natsu's head.

"Natsu! Help! Lucy's being mean again!"

She shot a glare at the winged cat now buried safely out of reach in Natsu's pink hair. "I am not! You're the one saying rude things about my appearance!"

"But I can't help it if it's the truth!"

"That's it." With little thought of what she was actually doing Lucy snagged the nearest object, which happened to be Happy's beribboned fish, and chucked it at the blue exceed. Natsu's quick reflexes saved both him and Happy from getting a fish in the face, but the two people who'd had the misfortune to be walking behind him weren't so lucky.

Juvia was in the midst of trying to convince a more than panicked looking Gray to try one of the Gray-shaped cookies she'd baked that morning, when she felt something pass through her and smack Gray in the face. Normally Juvia was more careful of what she let pass through her, but she'd already been slightly fluid due to her unintentional daydreaming. She gagged slightly at the oily, fishy taste left behind in her water, while Gray looked behind her and yelled, "Oi, what was that for?!"

Lucy clapped her hands to her mouth in shock, while Natsu bent nearly double laughing, knocking Happy off his perch on top his head.

"What's so funny flame-brain?" Gray all but growled, a muscle in his jaw twitching.

"Your face, ice princess," Natsu shot a grin and a thumbs up at a still wide-eyed Lucy, "Good shot Luce."

Happy sat on the floor where he'd been dumped, staring at the now bruised and battered fish, his eyes filled with crocodile tears. "My fish! Lucy that was mean!"

Mira tried to diffuse the situation before it turned into a full on brawl. "Now, now, why don't we all just calm down," but no one was listening to her by that point.

Gray shot a ball of ice at Natsu, and the Dragon slayer was quick to flip out of the way. Unfortunately, Cana's barrel of sake didn't have the same level of dexterity and it exploded on impact, drenching the group in the strong spirits. All except Mira, who'd somehow managed to remain completely dry. As for Cana, she was knocked back over the bar and landed with a thump on the floor.

"Now I'm all fired up!" Natsu yelled excitedly as his hands became wreathed in flame, igniting the alcohol still dripping off him. With a grin that was far more cheerful than it should have been, he leapt at Gray and the two of them rolled away across the floor, trading punches and sending spurts of flame and ice flying off in all directions.

"Juvia will not let Love Rival use petty annoyances to steal Gray-sama's attention."

"What?!" Lucy turned to find Juvia giving her a heated glare and she waved her hands frantically in protest. "No! It's not like that!"

As water began to gather around Juvia, Cana dragged herself up off the floor and cursed as she leaned against the bar, cards already glowing in her hand. "Where's Gray?"

Juvia gasped, her eyes widening in shock. "Another Love Rival! Juvia will not let you touch Gray-sama."

Scooping Happy up off the floor, Lucy threw herself out of the way just as Cana's cards hit Juvia's wall of water. Carla had been way ahead of them and already had Wendy up near the ceiling, well out of the way of the expanding brawl. Off to Lucy's left Levy was yelling and pulling futilely at Gajeel's arm, trying to keep him from entering the fray, but only ended up getting herself dragged in after him. The pair were mirrored almost exactly on the other side by Lisanna and Elfman, who was yelling some nonsense about fighting being a man.

An explosion from near the front door caused everyone to pause and turn in that direction. Natsu and Gray both looked up from their sprawled position on the floor to find Erza standing over them. Erza herself seemed fine, almost without a hair out of place despite the detonation of fire and ice that had occurred mere feet from her, but the large strawberry cake in her hands hadn't been quite as lucky. The entire hall fell silent as Erza stared in shock at the half frozen, half burnt mess.

Ever so slowly, a charred strawberry slid off the top and hit the floor with a wet thump. Erza stayed motionless for several more seconds, before she mechanically placed the ruined cake on a half-demolished table next to her. No one dared to breath as they waited for the inevitable explosion.

In a flash, Erza's eyes narrowed to a glare that promised completely disproportionate retribution as she turned to face the quivering forms of Natsu and Gray. Her sword appeared in her hand and she leveled it at the pair as she called, "Prepare yourselves for judgment."

"Troublesome brats," Markarov muttered into his drink as Erza, after giving them a thorough walloping, finally sent the two delinquents flying out the front door. With a sigh, he eyed the extensive damage from his seat at the end of the bar.

Next to him Mavis laughed, her eyes sparkling as she swung her bare feet over the edge, "Maybe they are, but their spirit is the light that will lead Fairy Tail forward."