Nalu Week 2015
Bonus Prompt: Shine
Summary:
"It was the shine in her eyes that convinced him."
"If… If Fairy Tail mages are truly like this, then I don't want to join your horrible guild after all!"
At her words, the ceiling creaked and collapsed, timber and metal falling to crooked heaps in the office.
Coughing as the dust filled the room – weirdly enough only an almost indiscernible buzzing hummed in the air, Lucy watched through squinted eyes as the scene unfolded before her.
A man rose, straightening up in the center of the gradually dissipating cloud of dust.
Pink hair caught her attention first, and then the white scaly scarf.
Lastly came the slanted onyx eyes, narrowed in deep anger at the captain of the ship, Salamander.
Said man in the purple cape was frozen in shock.
"I," the boy she met earlier paused and then collapsed, slumping over. "Blurrfgmugh…" he mumbled, cheeks puffed up as if he was going to puke.
Forget as if! He was going to puke!
She blinked, for one second ceasing to struggle against her captor's strong grip.
Salamander snapped out of his trance and pointed at a sailor, instructing him to tie the pink-haired boy up.
"Lame," she sighed, going limp in her captor's arms, losing all hope.
Her keys had been thrown into the ocean, lost forever; and none other than her own, greedy ambition had spoiled her one chance at freedom and taken another's as well.
She would be taken as a prisoner and then sold into slavery, never to see her father again. But maybe, that was for the best.
A pang of sadness shot through her heart.
Somehow it still hurt.
Then, a miracle came in the form of a winged cat; it was none other than the boy's blue furred, talking exceed!
"Happy!" she cried, voice filled with relief.
Expecting the cat to swoop down and save the boy, she froze, shocked as it grabbed her by the back of her dress and lifted her right from the grip of the sailor.
"Hey!" the man yelled.
"Get that cat," Salamander shrieked in an unmanly fashion and pointed at them. "Prominence Whip!"
Tendrils of purple-tinted flames arched towards them as a magic circle opened up in front of him.
Skillfully, Happy swerved between the incoming projectiles, the flames colliding with each other and exploding in brilliant violet fireworks.
"Haha! Sucks for you," spirits boosted, she blew a raspberry at the shrinking people.
Just as they began the descent towards land, Happy looked down at her and smiled.
"What's with that smile, Happy?" Lucy asked, feeling as if something bad was going to happen. "Nothing is wrong, right?"
"Lushi, I have to tell you something," Happy said, his wings disappearing with a pop. "My transformation ran out."
"YOU ANNOYING CAT!" she screamed as they plummeted down, the surface of the waves drawing closer.
With a large splash, they hit the water, immediately sinking deeper.
Upon opening her eyes underwater, Lucy looked around, her vision blurry.
Aha! I found you! She thought, a flash of gold near a rock catching her eye.
Swimming closer, she grabbed her key ring and surfaced, Happy following close behind, both of them gasping for breath.
"What are you going to do, Lushi?" the blue kitty asked, and the blonde grinned, happy that she could finally do something.
"Open the Gate of the Water Bearer, Aquarius!" she chanted, a golden magic circle blossoming from her outstretched key.
"Shoot!" everyone on board the ship shrieked as the tidal wave carried the ship to port and beached it.
"She got us as well," Lucy mumbled, standing up and waiting for the dizziness to pass.
"Hmph. It seems like I missed," the celestial spirit murmured, evaluating the result.
"You missed?" Lucy screeched, causing the blue-scaled mermaid spirit to roll her eyes.
"I was aiming for you," she smirked at the annoyed expression on Lucy's face. "Don't call me again, in like, a month. I'm going on vacation with my boyfriend. My boyfriend."
"I get the point!" the blonde growled angrily, glaring at the spirit.
"Your fish friend has a point, Lushi!" Happy chirped
"As for you, dim witted fish feeder, you have no chance of getting a girlfriend. You'll end up forever alone as a cat man," the celestial spirit predicted, making Happy's tail droop.
She turned back to the blonde and observed her for a few seconds before sighing.
"You should get one, though," Aquarius advised Lucy, her eyes softening a bit. "Then he could protect you from him."
"…" Lucy turned away, unwilling to let her see the conflicting feelings probably appearing on her face.
"Tch. Whatever – it's not like I'm worried about you or anything," the mermaid flipped her hair and nonchalantly placed a hand on the blonde's head. "But honestly, that pinkette over there is a good candidate for you. Think over my advise."
Vanishing in a sparkle of golden dust, she left the girl spluttering and wondering why she had contracted with the water bearer in the first place.
Muddling her already jumbled mind, Happy snickered, "you liiiiiiiiiiiiike him!"
Wisely choosing to ignore him, Lucy turned to the wreckage of the ship.
"Happy! Will Natsu be alright?" She asked, reaching for her keys as the boy was surrounded by five muscular men. "I can go help-"
"No, it's fine," Happy stopped her, smiling even as Salamander shot a blast of purple fire at the crouched boy. "I forgot to mention, but Natsu is a wizard, too."
"Eh?" She took a sharp inhale; suddenly, it all made more sense when the flames started to swirl inward towards the pink-haired boy.
He gulped, swallowing the flames and let out a tiny burp.
"H-he ate the flames?" She exclaimed, and the blue cat smiled humorlessly.
"Natsu is a dragon slayer. He has skin as tough as a dragon's scales, fire as hot as a dragon's flames, and lungs as fire resistant as a dragon's." Happy informed her.
Just then, Natsu let out a yell border-lining a roar, and knocked away a man with a flame-clad fist.
"You said you're from Fairy Tail?" He glared at the nervous, sweating Salamander and spun around dramatically, exposing his right shoulder. "Well, I'm Natsu Dragneel of Fairy Tail and I've never seen you before!"
A bright red guild mark glowed on his shoulder, the queer, bird-like shape representing the strongest guild in the kingdom of Fiore - Fairy Tail.
"Fairy Tail..." Lucy gasped, staring at the mark, disbelief evident in her voice. "No way! I knew his name sounded familiar!"
On the battlefield, a sailor ran up to Salamander and yelled, "Oh shoot! Bora, he's the real deal!"
"Don't call me that here, idiot!" Bora shrieked, but the damage was done.
Natsu launched himself toward the fraud, hate evident on his face.
Happy's eyes narrowed while Lucy slowly processed what she heard.
"Bora... Purple flames... He was a member of the Titan's Nose guild a few years ago, but was excommunicated because he was found to be running an illegal slave trade." Happy said, turning to Lucy.
He was surprised to see the blonde girl fisting her hands, jaw clenching in anger as well.
"That- that buffoon!" She ground out furiously, brow creased.
Happy smiled to himself at her attempt to insult Bora civilly. She'd be a good change in Fairy Tail.
As they watched, Natsu casted a "Fire Dragon's Roar", sending Bora flying into a cliff halfway across town.
"Don't ever use Fairy Tail's name again," he warned to empty air.
"LUCY KICK!"
Startled, the boy whipped around to see Lucy, breathing heavily, in a fighting stance as one of Bora's accomplices soared through the night sky - crashing into the harbor.
She turned and he stared at her for a few seconds.
The light of the moon bathed her in an ethereal glow; she seemed to shine.
She didn't seem to notice his staring at her; she was going on about how sorry she was for treating him harshly at lunch and how she was sorry for overreacting and kicking the bad man a mile away.
It wasn't until Happy snickered obnoxiously that he blinked, her spell on him vanishing.
His cheeks felt warmer; he was glad that his scarf and the dim lighting hid his face - what the hell was wrong with him?
She was still rambling on when he grabbed her hand and took off.
Wings sprouted from Happy's back as he flew ahead of the pair of wizards.
Heavy footsteps and the clink of armor followed their fast footsteps.
"Wait a second," Lucy slowed down a little and Natsu turned his head to peer at her curiously. "Where are we going?" she asked.
A bright, wide grin spread across his face and time seemed to slow for a second as he faced her.
"You said you wanted to join Fairy Tail, right?" He asked and she glanced up at him, surprised and hopeful.
She didn't need to say a word - the shine in her eyes convinced him.
So this is going to be my first year attending Nalu Week!
Shine is the first bonus prompt (it was due on June 24th but gihi...) and it's also my first (kinda sad) attempt at a one-shot.
Hope you guys enjoyed!
~HazelDragonNora (my usual account) via Jelly Bean and Nora (my collab account with my friend, Jelly Bean)