My second fic starring Capricorn...well, the dude's awesome and I felt either he or Loke should be the one to say all this. And since I like Capricorn more than Loke and he acts like he's Lucy's caretaker of a sort, he ended up being the one to do it.

Also, there is no Capricorn tag for this section, a fact which grieves me beyond words. This must be fixed immediately.

Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me; they and Fairy Tail are the property of Hiro Mashima.

Lights Out
By: Saya Moonshadow

Upon arriving back from her date with Scorpio, Aquarius was not altogether surprised to find Virgo waiting for her. That sometimes happened; she and Virgo were something close to friends, or at least good acquaintances, and she was fine with the Virgin's company provided she didn't try to pull a move on her precious Scorpio.

Virgo's face was impassive as it usually was, but for a split second, Aquarius detected something that looked an awful lot like disapproval in that blank gaze. And then it was gone, and the pink-haired Spirit began to speak.

"Capricorn wishes to speak with you, Aquarius. He said it was rather urgent and asks you to make haste."

Aquarius tried to object - she was tired, and honestly didn't feel like putting up with a stick in the mud like Capricorn at the moment - but Virgo had already started marching away. That was also unusual - ordinarily, Virgo waited to hear what she had to say, no matter what it might be.

Oh well. If the Virgin was choosing this of all days to be moody, then it was of no matter to Aquarius. She supposed that even dispassionate, kinky servants were allowed to act strangely every once in a while, and put it out of her mind.

Right now the question was whether or not to heed Capricorn's summons. On the one hand, she was indeed rather tired and just wanted to make her way back to her own quarters and go to sleep. But on the other hand, Capricorn was annoyingly persistent and would likely hunt her down and make the encounter rather unpleasant as punishment for making him wait. As he happened to have something of a talent for making things unpleasant when the mood struck him, she decided that perhaps it would indeed be wise to go and see what he wanted right away.

And besides, this way she could get it over with quickly instead of having him wake her up later and cut off her napping time.

She found the Goat where he most often was - in Gemini's playroom, watching the two young Spirits play and answering whenever they spoke to him. For a second, she just stood in the doorway and observed. Young ones, huh. She'd never particularly liked Gemi and Mini, and hadn't exactly been pleased when they had popped into the realm belonging to Lucy's Spirits along with Scorpio and Aries, but they made enough of an effort to not bother her that she found she could at least tolerate their presence.

She was also slightly in awe of how gentle Capricorn looked as he carefully took the toy Mini offered him and admired it. He was usually such a stoic and offered so few smiles. Seeing him look so relaxed for once was a bit disconcerting.

Well, that was enough of that. Aquarius cleared her throat, and watched as the Twins spun on their heels to face her. She scowled a bit when Gemi dived exaggeratedly behind his sister, an expression of mock horror on his face. Mini's reaction was stranger; instead of following along with her brother's game, she merely stared at Aquarius with what looked like disappointment mixed with sadness.

Capricorn's reaction was somewhat terrifying.

The Goat completely froze when he heard her voice, but after a few seconds straightened up to his usual towering height. His face, normally as impassive and serious as Virgo's, was a hardened mask, and he was obviously trying very hard not to glare. The brightly-colored wooden train clutched in his right hand did nothing to detract from the overall intimidating nature of his appearance - in fact, it made it a bit worse, as the oft-hidden nurturer in Aquarius worried for a split second about such a dangerous-seeming creature being so close to a pair of children.

"Aquarius," he said before she could begin, "thank you for coming to meet me so quickly. Come, we shall talk in the Library."

He handed Mini back her toy train and gave both Twins a light pat on the head before striding out of their personal domain without so much as a backwards glance. He did, however, give Aquarius a short look as he passed her, and it made a bit of a chill run down her back.

Whatever was bothering him, he did not look very pleased with her.

She wondered what she had done to upset him so badly; they did not speak unless forced to, and she had not spoken ill of him behind his back (at least, not since he had come under Lucy's care seven years ago). She had not wronged him in any way. There was no reason for him to be acting so hostile towards her.

She didn't say a word as she closed the large double doors of the Library of the Spirit World behind her, and Capricorn remained with his back to her, seemingly studying the rows upon rows of books in front of him. Somehow, though, she had a feeling that his attention was fixed on her rather than on the books.

"What is this about?" she asked irritably. A small smirk appeared on her face as Capricorn spun to face her; good, so he at least acknowledged her now. "Why did you call me to you?"

"It is about Lucy-sama, and your performance when she called you to her aid during today's event in the Grand Magic Games," he said without preamble, and his voice was as frigid as a blizzard.

Aquarius blinked, totally nonplussed. "What?" Did he mean her performance against that Water girl, Juvia something-or-other? The girl had surprised her greatly, and had very nearly out-performed her, but that was nothing to get so uppity about either. "My performance? I went in, used my wave, and got out. That's about it."

"No," Capricorn said, and she swore she felt the room's temperature drop at the ice in his tone. "I am speaking of how you abandoned Lucy-sama in the middle of a battle so that you could go on a pleasure outing."

The word "abandoned" was very nearly snarled, although he had returned to the previous coldness towards the end of his sentence.

But Aquarius found that she did not care. She rolled her eyes. Was this really all there was to it? "Look, it's not my fault if she can't handle herself, OK? I did what she called me there to do. And it's not like she would have been able to win anyway; that other woman would have been too powerful for her with or without my help."

"That is not," Capricorn bit out, "the point." He exhaled through his nose, looking for a split second more like an enraged animal than the dignified being he actually was. "The point is, you abandoned our master to fight someone who very nearly killed her. You left Virgo and Aries, neither of whom are adequate water combatants, to pick up where you left off, and in doing so, almost got Lucy killed!"

Shocked beyond understanding, Aquarius could not quite believe what she was hearing. She could not speak for a moment, but the instant she opened her mouth to defend herself, Capricorn spoke over her, not bothering anymore to contain his rage.

"Your negligence nearly cost our owner her life! Do you know what that could have resulted in for you, Aquarius? Do you recall a certain incident ten years ago with Leo and Karen Lillica? His actions had nearly the same result as yours, except that he was unlucky enough to have actually gotten her killed! And do you remember the punishment he received for that?"

She did. She remembered the punishment Leo had received for that very well, and felt her blood run cold at the mention of it, tightening her grip on her urn as it nearly fell from suddenly-numb fingers.

Banishment from the Spirit World.

Humiliation.

Three long, horrific years of suffering alone and almost dying before Lucy had intervened on his behalf with the Spirit King.

Capricorn had not been around to welcome Leo back into the Spirit World, but he had heard of the ordeal several times from Aries, who felt a great amount of guilt over the whole matter. And he himself had suffered in such a way as well, having been Taken Over by the man called Zoldeo and being forced to spend a whole seventeen years in the human world until he was freed.

"And for what did you abandon Lucy? A date? Which is something which you could do at any time other than when you are called in to do your duty!" He gave her a look of such disgust and disappointment that she actually recoiled a bit. No one had ever looked at her in such a way. "At least Leo had a good reason to do what he did, namely to protect Aries from further unjust abuse. There is no excuse for your behavior. And let me say, Aquarius, if your actions had resulted in Lucy dying, I would have been the first in line to petition for your banishment from this world."

He strode past her then, exiting the Library and slamming the doors behind him, and she did not stop him. Instead, she sank to the ground, her head bowed and her urn falling at her side with a clunk on the marble floor.

The Spirit of the Water Bearer was a proud one, and she rarely felt any shame or remorse. But shame and remorse did not even begin to describe what she felt now. She hadn't even considered the negative repercussions of her actions, truly. There had never been a reason to - no matter what happened, Lucy always pulled through. Sometimes a little worse for wear, but there was never truly anything to worry about.

The worst part was, Capricorn had not even bothered to mention that this was not the first time Aquarius had abandoned her owner in the middle of a fight. She had done it at least once before, during Lucy's battle with the woman called Angel, Scorpio's former owner. Gemini had later spoken of how they had attempted to kill Lucy under Angel's orders, but were unable to because of her love for Celestial Spirits. She hadn't even considered that perhaps Lucy might not have been in so much danger back then either had she, Aquarius, actually stayed and done her job.

Aquarius had never abandoned Layla in such a way. When Layla was her owner, oh no, abandoning Layla had never even crossed her mind. It wasn't until Layla had asked that she go to another wizard before swearing herself to her daughter that the thought of not being with her ever surfaced, and she still had yet to forget the pain that had accompanied the news of her former owner's death.

Perhaps that was why she did not get along with Lucy, because Lucy was still not even a scrap of the wizard that Layla had been and yet still looked so much like her. Maybe she was too much of a reminder of Layla. Nonetheless, Aquarius still had not even considered that maybe Lucy would also die and force them, all of them, to find yet another new owner.

Her hands came to rest upon her knees and squeezed hard enough to leave marks in the scales. And then she said something that she had not said for a very long time.

"I messed up."

AN: A little heavy-handed, I think, but I would like to see such an encounter in the actual manga. Sadly, it will probably not happen.

But, um, I don't hate Aquarius o-o; I'm rather disappointed with her in chapter 291, yes, and I think she really needs to get her priorities straightened out, but overall I actually do like her. I just wasn't very happy with her once again abandoning Lucy when she was most needed, and for something as little as a date. I mean, seriously. First against Angel, and now Minerva? Come on, Aquarius, you're better than that.

Another reason Capricorn might be so ticked off about this is the fact that he promised Lucy's mom that he'd protect their family for the rest of his life. However, Lucy has no children and is the last of the Heartphilia line, so there's no one set to inherit his key if she should happen to kick the bucket. He might be feeling like he himself has failed in a way as a result.

Anyway, I hope this was a good read. Please tell me what you think of it.