The Kitty Corner
Hey readers! Long time no hear! I know that I haven't posted a chapter for This Crazy Life for a few months and it's driving me insane. I'm having a lot of difficulties with actually finding time to write, plus I've had some bad writers block with the story. I have different plot points I want to include before I get to the main dish but still figuring out ways that Natsu and Lucy can develop a tight bond with one another.
If you have any recommendations and moments you want to happen for This Crazy Life, I'm open to hear them and I'll see if I can incorporate them!
If you haven't checked out This Crazy Life, feel free to read. I'll try to update the story as soon as I have the plot figured out and the next chapter done!
I'm not sure when I can post a new chapter to this story since I have some exams coming up soon so I won't set an update schedule until after May or so.
Hope you enjoy the new story - had some random inspiration and had to write it. HAVE FUN!
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail but man do I wish I could.
In everyone's eyes, Lucy was a strong woman, despite her continuous negative thoughts of being weak. Although she wasn't physically strong like Natsu or Erza for that matter, she was a worthy opponent. Handling celestial spirit magic might seem easy to those who don't truly know the form. Many would just think that the mage would wave their key in the air, shout a few words and make a contract then boom you're done. This really isn't the case.
Celestial spirit magic requires a lot of spiritual and magical strength. Apart from strength, it also requires very strict concentration, to understand the abilities of summoning a spirit and knowing their strength. A good-natured heart is always helpful too, which would help strengthen one's magic and bond with the celestial spirit, giving more power to their abilities. A lot of training is required to even summon one spirit; and Lucy can manage to summon two at a time, maybe even three.
Even after this, Lucy couldn't help but to see herself as weak. Being with some of the best on her team, she felt like she was constantly reminded how weak she was and felt like a burden to the others.
Although her magic seemed powerless, there was much more to it. Not only that, but there was so much more to her than what met the eye. To open this hidden part to world and to herself, all that it took was for a heart to simply break.
It was as rowdy as ever in Fairy Tail. Master Markarov decided to throw a party in honor of not receiving a complaint from the council or having to pay for any damages for a whole month. This was mostly because Team Natsu was lying low.
Their previous job required them to go undercover, requiring them to keep their identities a secret. Infiltrating a large crime gang wasn't as easy as it seemed. One needed to be cunning, secretive and above all else, resourceful. For instance, it was a good idea to form bonds with some of the criminals, so that they could climb up the scale in power and take them down easily.
Most of the team were very prepared for this, except for one person. When it came to Natsu, he ended up ignoring Erza's instructions and beat up most of the gang members to a pulp. Although he did defeat many of the foes, his actions caused the gang's main and most deadly targets to escape, which also lead him to be beaten nearly to death by Erza. With those people on the loose Markarov thought it would be best if they didn't take any jobs for a while. Even if they didn't know their identities, they knew their faces.
Erza agreed with Master Markarov, seeing as they didn't know very much about the fighting style of their targets or what kind of magic they did use, only the crimes that they've committed. Based on that, Erza didn't want to risk the lives of her nakama, no matter how strong they are. Her agreeing meant that Natsu and Gray agreed. The two tried to argue about it but they would up acting like best friends to try and calm down Erza's murderous aura for they tried to defy her. They had no wish to die.
Lucy was concerned about how she was going to pay her rent but was very touched when Levy offered to do some more jobs in order to help out her friend. Although she felt guilty, Lucy accepted her offer, saying she would pay her back as soon as she could and would use the month to work non-stop on her novel, just so that Levy could read it. Lucy wasn't complaining since she had many ideas in mind for her latest story, hoping that her friend would enjoy the adventures in store for her pleasure.
Now let's get back to the party. The celebration was going as expected. Beers where flying, people where having a good time while Mira, Kinana and Lisanna were serving drinks. Wakaba and Macao were talking about the young mages (some inappropriate things were mentioned about the females), and getting glares from some of the girls - mostly from Laki muttering that they were old perverts. Gajeel tried once again to take stage to sing only to find out that Freed and Levy created a rune to prevent him from going up on stage again. Although Levy was small, she was able to hold her ground well against the intimidatingly tall, pouting and angry Gajeel (he really did want to go and sing). Natsu and Gray started to bicker which turned into a guild wide brawl. Erza was eating her seventh heavenly strawberry cake at the time (not noticing the fight because it was so delicious), not even paying any mind to Elfman who was screaming about how almost everything was 'MAN'. And as usual there was Cana chugging her barrel of ale.
Everyone knows that she is the best drinker in their guild, but it seemed like she was drinking more than the usual. It was her second barrel of ale, after previously consuming two and a half barrels of wine, three bottles of tequila, a bottle of whiskey, almost five bottles of 60% vodka and who knows how much sake she drank (many started to loose count after eight). Others paid no mind to it, thinking that she was celebrating with the rest of the guild but it didn't remain unnoticed by the blonde celestial mage who just ordered a strawberry milkshake.
Walking over to the Card reader and taking the next bar stool beside her, Lucy said, "Hey Cana! How's it going?"
Glancing at her with a straight face and a flat voice, Cana replied with, "Fine."
"Is there something wrong?"
After raising an eyebrow, Cana said, "Why do you ask?"
Lucy didn't know how to put it lightly, so she decided to tell her outright what she was thinking. "Well, you're a little livelier when you're drinking. But today you seem quieter, drinking by yourself at the end of the bar. I'm just wondering if there's a problem."
"Pft! All these 'men' out here are a whole bunch of wusses, that's my 'problem'. They can never keep up with me, no matter how much they try. They're all such wimps."
"They're a whole lot of light weights compared to you but you still like to see them try to keep up, even if they probably have no chance, right?"
No response came from Cana. Lucy was thinking, 'No answer? It must be because she can't give me a reasonable excuse.' This was justifying in Lucy's mind that it was only a matter of time until Cana's going to tell her about what was wrong. Leaning against the bar, she was preparing herself for her casual life talk/dirt dish with the brunette. Surprisingly, the girl was going to do just that.
"It's fucking Gildarts!" Cana exclaimed as she threw her arms into the air.
Lucy knew that Gildarts was somewhere in the guild or Natsu would perk at the mention of his father figure's name, causing him to come over and interrupt them. Wanting to prevent that, Lucy got off from the bar and walked right to the front of Cana. This way people couldn't see what they were talking about, and that their conversation would be somewhat muffled, not that anyone would hear them over all of the commotion in the guild.
Crossing her arms, Lucy asked, "Your dad? What's wrong with him?"
"He's waaay to clingy. He's always appearing out of no where and interrupts what I'm doing. It's the. Absolute. WORST!"
"I can see how that could be annoying. Natsu always appears out of nowhere when I'm home. But he's done that multiple times and it never really bothered you that much. You would just push it off or find a way to dodge him. Why is it a big problem now?"
"Well... it's 'cause he walked in on something private." Breaking eye contact, she turned her head to the side, grabbed a pint of beer and stared at it while swirling the liquid. Lucy couldn't help but feel curious about why Cana was being secretive all of a sudden. Not only that, but she thought she could detect a faint trail of pink on her cheeks. She wasn't sure if it was out of embarrassment or if it was from all the drinks she's had.
Pressing her for more, Lucy kept asking her questions, hoping that she could get some information.
"What happened? Can you tell me? You can trust me with anything confidential. I won't tell a soul."
"I dunno if I can... Maybe... But only if you do something for me first."
"Sure! I'll do anything. My curiosity is going crazy an- wait a second. What are you going to make me do?"
While giving Cana a suspicious eye, the woman started to grin. She pointed to the center of the guild and said,
"Go over to Natsu and tell him that you want to meet him over by the Rainbow Sakura tree later on tonight."
Lucy started to turn a little pink and became flustered. Catching herself, Lucy tried to put on a composed and serious face but it failed miserably because of the lightly painted pink on her cheeks. Lucy knew about her face heating up but hoped that Cana was too drunk to notice, even if she knew how much this woman could hold her booze.
"It's going to be super embarrassing. People are going to get the wrong idea. Why am I supposed to do this for you?"
Putting on a smug face which was accented by a sly smile, Cana said, "If you want to know what happened, then you'll do this for me. Plus, don't you want to make your saddened friend feel happier?" The fake puppy face she put on was making Lucy feel guilty and hate towards her friend. Who knew it was possible to hate and pity someone at the same time?
Lucy was having an internal struggle, not knowing if she really wanted to go through with this but her curiosity was getting the better of her. Plus, she could just tell Natsu at the tree that she wanted to treat him for dinner for being so good for the past month. It's not too often that the Fire Dragon Slayer doesn't destroy an entire city.
"Fine, I'll do it. But you better promise me that you'll tell me."
"Sure sure. Cross my heart, now go up and ask before I change my mind."
Lucy took a deep breath before turning around. She felt like she was going to pass out from embarrassment. Natsu was her best friend, her nakama and nothing more.
'We're just friends. Just friends. For the sake of the team we are just friends. I don't even feel this way about Natsu, but I know what Cana's motive is behind this.'
Even if she would harass her from time to time, Lucy knew that Cana was trying something (A/N: The GrayLu and NaLu fans should stop fighting and focus on the CaLu. There are many moments when Cana grabs at Lucy, like in the Fairy Tail bath house. I love NaLu way to much to let Cana's inappropriateness pass without noticing. The real enemy isn't Gray, it's freaking Cana). She's also seen that Cana and Mira have been talking to each other a little more often than usual. Once Mira is involved, Lucy knew that her love life was in jeopardy.
'If they're setting up a 'I-hope-sempai-notices-me' moment I won't hesitate to bring out Aquarius to kill them, or me out of embarrassment. It's even supposed to be at the rainbow sakura tree. Can't they be creative for once or did they have to go with the stereotype, like what the hell.'
Walking over to the middle of the guild, the blonde tried to keep calm. Dodging flying chairs, beers, fists and even a table, she somehow was making progress getting to the center of the fight. That's where the core of the fighters was, including Gray and Natsu.
Lucy was concerned for her life, hoping that she wouldn't be accidentally crushed or punched by one of the guys. The blonde knew that she would have to stop the fight since Erza was too distracted by the delicious cakes that Mira had baked. Doing her best to seem serious, her dark aura started to surround her when she interrupted the boys stating, "Stop this idiotic fight now."
Almost like a command to soldiers, the brawlers stopped. They were frozen in spot for just a moment and then they stood straight and in line. Everyone was accounted for, except for the two biggest idiots of them all. Natsu and Gray were so engrossed in their fight that they didn't see or hear 'Scary Lucy' give her order so they continued like nothing happened. Lucy was getting annoyed by their childish and destructive nature so she decided that using her 'Lucy Kick' would be enough to stop their pointless fight and get their attention. She hoped that she could knock them out, quickly grab Natsu and make a run for it before people started talking. When preparing for her kick and taking a breath, Gray used his Ice Make magic to make a large boxing glove of ice surround his hand. He used it to punch Natsu square in the jaw and as soon as it came in contact with his face, Gray said, "Admit defeat Flame-ass."
Natsu might deny it with all of his might, but the hit from Gray was very powerful. Leaving a little bit of frost bite and ice (now melting into water) on his face, Natsu was struck to the ground. While toppling over, he didn't notice the blonde behind him and took her down too – like he could prevent it.
The atmosphere in the guild suddenly got tense. Everyone saw the 'Scary Lucy' and knew that Natsu was definitely dead. That was a certain fact.
Natsu started trying to get back up but noticed that there was something underneath him. Getting up on all fours, he opened his eyes to a surprise. Just below him was his blonde best friend sprawled on the floor, her head lying to one side, some of the golden hair covering part of her face and her eyes shut. The view of her was making him curious. What exactly happened?
Looking around at his other guild members, he saw that all of them had faces that either looked shocked or scared. Even Gray looked like he was watching a little baby rabbit being devoured by a lion, so in other words, he looked completely and utterly terrified.
"Um, Natsu?" A small voice said under the pink haired boy, barely louder than a whisper. Looking down he could see the girl with dishevelled blonde hair was staring straight back at him with no expression apparent on her face.
"Yeah Luce?"
It was completely silent, almost. The only exception being Cana's outburst saying (more like screaming), " 'Ata boy Natsuuu!" (Don't you just love her drunk slurring?)
"Do you think that you could get off of me?"
That's when the idiot finally pieced it together; him falling on Lucy, them being in a compromising and probably embarrassing position in front of the entire guild. He felt bad that Lucy would feel embarrassed by it. He wouldn't really care if people teased him about it because the whole thing was an accident, right? Trying to make her feel better by saving her from further embarrassment, Natsu quickly got off of her, jumped up and put out his hand to her to help her up. Lucy pushed his hand away and got up on her own. The action surprised Natsu very much and made him curious on why she would do that.
"Lu-chan!"
A scream was heard from the back but Lucy knew it was Levy. It was difficult for her to get through the thick crowd around the tumble scene.
The quietness was starting to be filled by whispers and quiet chatter; probably gossiping about the two. Lucy knew that Fairy Tail was a great guild filled with many nice and amazing people, but she couldn't help but feel like she was being judged by everyone. She just wanted to hide her face and crawl into a hole, she just felt embarrassed by all the talking.
Levy finally came through the crowd and ran up to Lucy with a comforting smile, but her eyes were still filled with concern. Suddenly, her face started to pale a little.
"Lu-chan, you're bleeding."
Confused, Lucy asked, "What do you mean?"
"Lu-chan, you have blood in your hair. I think it might be from your head."
Reaching a hand to her blonde locks, she felt nothing out of the ordinary. Moving to the back, she started to feel something sticky; it was slightly thick and was warm. Bringing her hand out in front of her she saw a red liquid on her fingertips. She didn't know how to react, so she stood there motionless.
Wendy, like Levy, was struggling to get through the crowd but found her way faster to the girl (the guild knew what she was trying to do). Approaching Lucy, Wendy grabbed her hand and tried to lead her to the second floor. Being so small though, she couldn't get anywhere without Lucy actually walking.
"Come with me Lucy-san to the infirmary. I can treat you up there."
Snapping out of it, Lucy turned to look at the little blunette, giving a nod and a small smile. Wendy was still concerned but smiled back at her, happy that she was responding. This was a good sign.
"I want to make sure that you're all right Lu-chan so I'm coming with you."
Turning to the Solid Script mage, Lucy said, "Thanks Levy-chan," giving another nice smile.
"I'm coming too," The Fire Dragon Slayer loudly said while raising his hand high into the air.
Lucy turned around to face him, again with no expression on her face and blankly said with a hint of anger, "No."
The entire guild shivered by how cold Lucy was being, but Natsu didn't understand at all. All he wanted to do was to make sure that she was alright. Why was she being so distant?
Walking with Wendy and Levy, Lucy started to head to the infirmary, but as she was moving something small fell. Although very small, once it hit the floor it crashed and was loud enough for Lucy (and probably the dragon slayers) to hear, causing her to turn around and look to the ground to find out what the noise was.
She wasn't the only one startled though. Erza started feeling antsy and worried, wondering if anyone else noticed. Looking over to Master Markarov, she saw that he was talking to both Laxus and Mira. 'So they sensed it too. But where is it coming from?'
Walking over to the small object on the floor, Lucy noticed that there were shards of something on the ground. Picking up the pieces she noticed that the shards were strong but were pieces of glass that were deeply stained red. The puzzle finally pieced together. Grabbing her left ear, Lucy wanted to check if she was right. It wasn't there. Lucy gradually started to rise from off the ground, her eyes still kept to the ground.
"Natsu..." Her voice was strong but shaky. Her fist seemed to mimic her voice, shaking but had a strong fist; blood started to drip down her right hand from digging her nails and clutching the glass shards so tight that they were cutting into her palm. Everyone looked with concern.
Raising her head, she wore a face so scary that it could have easily won against Erza's serious/death face. Natsu didn't take it that way though. He didn't find Lucy that scary. All he wanted to do was hold her; she was crying out of frustration and anger, but she still looked so timid and tired. The only thing was… she was so far from that.
"You broke my earring."
Everyone started to blink. Natsu thought to himself, 'That's what she's concerned about?!' He was more concerned about the fact that she was bleeding and was amazed that her earring was taking priority to her.
His heart might have been in the right place but the idiot made a huge mistake when he said, "Lucy, that doesn't matter right now. You have dozens of earrings you can use instead! Right now your head is bleeding so you need to take care of that first! Don't be stupid!"
Lucy's expression didn't loose any of its anger but there was a lot more tears in her eyes. She was truly angry and sad by what he said.
Lucy spoke in a very very quiet voice.
"They... they were..."
"Lucy you need to go to the infirmary right now." Concerned that she wasn't moving, even after what he's said, Natsu started to approach her. Lucy flinched from instinct and backed away.
"You asshole."
Everyone was shocked by her outburst. Lucy and Natsu were best friends but Lucy seemed to be very shaken by the incident. Even Natsu was taken aback from what she said. He really wanted to know why she was acting so differently right now.
"I don't have dozens of pairs of earrings. It's only this one pair. D'you know why?" At this point, Lucy's voice started to rise. No one wanted to answer her.
Starting to tear up even more, she said with almost no emotion at a normal volume, "Because I got these from my mama."
If it was possible, the entire world stopped. No one could react to the situation that just evolved. The entire guild knew that Lucy really loved her mother so her latest statement caused everyone to regret the situation and feel pity for Natsu.
"She was sick when she gave them to me. Mama looked really happy when I wore them. The next day when I went to see her and bring her flowers, she was already gone."
Natsu started approaching her and said, "Luce I-"
"You're such an asshole!"
Lucy ran out of the guild crying. No one knew what to do. Walking over to Natsu and placing a hand on his shoulder, Erza said to him, "Go after her."
"Why? She obviously doesn't want to be anywhere near me." He said while looking down, feeling horrible.
"I don't think you understand correctly. That was an order."
Looking back at Erza, he could see that she had worry in her eyes.
Erza told Natsu, "Master, Mira, Laxus and I noticed a presence of immense magical power. It's surrounding the whole city. We can't tell where it's coming from."
"It's coming from out there? Does that mean Lu-chan's in trouble?"
"Possibly."
"And Lucy-san still has her head injury."
"Ash-for-brains, it might be some of the gang members that got away."
With Lucy's name being involved with the words 'gang members' and 'trouble', it didn't take Natsu long before he decided to bolt out the doors and chase after his best friend.
'Wait for me Luce. I'm coming for 'ya.'
What was the sudden spike in magical power?
Will Natsu reach Lucy?
What was Cana hiding?
Will Gray ever keep his pants on?
Hope to hear some reviews about the story! Until sometime soon,
~FelineDynasty :3