You know how I said I was back in my main story FTGLS? Well get ready for a double dose of me today everyone cuz I'm back in full blast!
*SPOILER*
This story is totally inspired by the sacrifice of Aquarius. This first chapter is totally centered around it and is just setting the story up. The next chapter is where the title and the summary stems from so after this we're just gonna dive right in. Ready everyone?
It's gonna be a really short multi-chapter and FTGLS totally comes first and takes precedence. I hope you like this one. I've got a couple other stories in the works, but nothing ready to be published. Chapter two of MOO (hehe) is gonna be out soon I really really hope for those of you awaiting news on that story.
Disclaimer: NO GURSH DURNIT I DON'T FLIM-FLAMMIN' OWN FAIRY TAIL DANG GUMMIT.
Chapter 1
"Yo, Lucy!" Natsu shouted waving Lucy over to him.
"Hey, Natsu," she smiled, waving back, "What are you guys up to?"
Natsu flexed his bicep and pointed a thumb at himself confidently, "I'm about to kick some ass! You wanna watch me take this chump out?"
Max, standing on Natsu's left, rolled his eyes, "Why don't you hop off of that barstool and prove it, Mr. Tough Guy?"
Mira approached the group in front of the bar and rested her elbows on the countertop, "Oh Max, you're not going to try and fight Natsu again, are you? Don't you remember what happened last time? We don't want you getting too badly injured, ya know. The guild can't keep up with all these injuries."
Lucy nodded in agreement, "You know that's never gonna change, Mira. It wouldn't be Fairy Tail if we actually decided to behave ourselves for once."
Mira giggled, "I guess you're right Lucy." She straightened herself out and put up her index finger pointedly, "Besides I wouldn't want anything about the guild to change. It wouldn't be nearly as much fun." she added matter-of-factly.
Natsu jumped out of his seat and high fived Mirajane, "That's the spirit, Mira!"
"We could do with a little less structural damage," Happy piped in. The voice startled Lucy. She found Happy a little off to the side of the bar, happily nibbling away at a fish, "At least the Master wouldn't always be so stressed out."
"Poor guy," Lucy pursed her lips in thought, "I don't know how he handles all the lawsuits."
Mira smiled, touched by the concern for their master, "Well, you guys could stand to be just a little less destructive," She shrugged, "but the chances of that happening are slimmer than the chances of Max making it out of this fight without any major injuries."
Max paled and turned away, "Jeez Mira, thanks for the vote of confidence!"
With her signature, caring smile spread as smooth as butter on her face Mira patted Max's shoulder consolingly, "But what I'm really surprised about is you, Lucy."
"Me?" she tilted her head and gave Mirajane a questioning look.
"Yeah," Mira answered, "Aren't you usually the one that tries to stop Natsu from getting into pointless fights? You and Erza are the only ones that can handle Natsu."
Lucy put her hand onto the bar and bent over as though to tell Mirajane a secret. Mira leaned in as excited as a little kid on christmas. Lucy laughed, "Nobody can handle Natsu. I've given up trying to convince him to stop fighting around the guild. Now I just focus on minimizing the damage. He can pick fights to his hearts content if that's what he wants."
"Now I'm all fired up! I can't wait to let off some steam! Come on Happy." Natsu gestured for Happy to follow him.
To which Happy responded by jumping up and shouting out an enthusiastic, "Aye Sir!" but not before quickly finishing off his smelly snack.
"You're actually taking the fight outside this time?" Lucy raised an eyebrow in question, "Since when are you that considerate?"
"Hey, I can be considerate!" Natsu grumbled folding his arms across his chest, "I'm not just some kind of monster, ya know!"
"No you can't," Happy flew up between the group holding up a paw, "All you can think about is fighting and food."
"Hey, Happy!" Natsu put his arms on his hips and bent forward to give Happy a pointed stare, "don't turn on me little buddy! I thought you liked watching me fight."
"I do!" Happy quickly assured him, flying around Natsu, "Especially when you give them a legendary one, two punch with the good old Fire Dragon Iron Fist!"
"Well, I'll be sure to use that move just for you, pal!" Natsu beamed.
"Mira," Lucy called over her shoulder to the barmaid as she followed everyone out of the guild.
"No problem, Lucy!" she waved, happily. "Now," she said, turning around with her hands on her waist, "where did we put that fire extinguisher?"
The four guild members arrived in the back of the guild where a convenient sparring ground was located. Max stood calm and cool at one end, standing up straight and hands deep in his pockets while Natsu stood crouching at the other end with his fists engulfed in flames, "You ready to try beating the heat Max?"
Lucy tsked at Natsu's behavior, "Take it easy, Natsu. This is just supposed to be a sparring match remember?"
Happy looked downcast with his head tilted down and eyes blank, "Yeah, nothings just a sparring match to Natsu. He doesn't know what taking it easy means. He gives 110% to absolutely everything. Even if he really should hold back a bit."
Lucy laughed, "Tell me about it. How many times has he destroyed the guild hall and the towns that we go on missions in? I don't remember the last time we actually got paid for a job."
Happy looked up at her with knit eyebrows and a frown, "You don't have to come with us ya know!"
Lucy just turned her face skyward, "Stupid cat! I know that!" she turned her face back to Happy and grinned at him, "But it's that same reason that I love going on jobs with you guys. I never know what's going to happen and it always keeps me on my toes. It's that fire in his belly; that's the reason I know that no matter what, we'll be fine. We'll always pull through, as long as we're together."
Happy's slightly shocked expression turned into a grin just as wide as Lucy's. He looked towards Natsu, "Aye! As long as you're around us you don't have to worry about being so useless Lucy!"
"Hey, watch it you dumb cat! Here I am trying to pay you guys a compliment and you go and ruin the good moment!" she shouted with her arms extended at her sides and her hands balled into fists. The vein that pulsed on her forehead slowly went back to normal size and she let out the breath she was holding.
"Hey!" Natsu shouted, waving his arms around like a lunatic, "What are you guys yapping about over there? Pay attention or you're going to miss the fight!"
Lucy closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "Alright," she said, opening her eyes and walking straight into the line of fire. "We're going to see who's useless now."
"Lucy!" Natsu shouted, "Get out of the way! How am I supposed to beat up Max with you standing right in front of me? You're not going to stop the fight, are you?" Natsu's shoulders drooped.
"Oh, there's gonna be a fight alright!" Lucy shouted confidently, "Only one small change. Max," Lucy pointed her finger at the sand wizard, "your opponent is going to be me!" she finished placing her hand over her heart.
"Are you sure about this Lucy?" Max asked with a confused expression splaying out over his features, "I've never even seen you spar with anyone before. Come to think of it I've only ever seen you fight a couple of times. How strong are you?"
"Lucy don't be crazy," Natsu came up behind her, puffing out his chest, "this fight is mine."
"I've been training to surpass Natsu," Max warned, "and I've only been getting stronger."
Lucy faltered a bit, but she didn't move, "So have I."
"Lucy don't be crazy!" he started yelling at her on her left and moved to her right side, "You don't fight people for no reason!" he moved back to the left so fast it seemed like he just appeared there, "That's something I would do!" and back on the right, this time with his eyes squinted, "Are you feeling okay?"
"Let her fight Natsu," Max provoked, "This could be interesting. If she thinks she's up to it, I'd love to spar with you Lucy."
Lucy looked down to Natsu's crouched position and squinted her eyes back at him, "I'm gonna fight Natsu. So, you can either shut up and cheer for me or you can go pick a fight with someone else."
"How's he supposed to shut up and cheer for you at the same time?" Happy asked from just out of Lucy's reach.
The vein in Lucy's forehead acted up again. She clenched her fists and through gritted teeth she said, "Shut up ya dumb cat! Just take your pyromaniac and sit over there." she sent a quick gesture over to the edge of the field.
Natsu kept the examining and skeptical look on his face except a bit more light hearted, "Are you sure you can handle this?"
Lucy blushed lightly, "Of course I'm sure. I'll be fine Natsu," she stammered defensively.
"If you say so," he said, seemingly satisfied with that answer. He threw his hands behind his head, "I just don't want to have to take care of you if you get hurt. Whiny Lucy gives me a headache."
"Can it, you jerk! Like you'd be the one to take care of me! I'd be passed off to Wendy faster than you can say Fire Dragon Roar!" Lucy huffed.
Happy landed on Natsu shoulder and flicked his wrist, "We'd never pass you off like that, Lucy!"
"Oh yeah?"
"We'd probably end up carrying you to her and that would take ages 'cause you're so heavy!" he chirped.
"Why you!" Lucy let the amazing amount of tension in her body release and took a breath, "Now I'm all fired up." with a little more volume she added, "You ready Max?"
"You bet Lucy! Just know that I'm not going to go easy on you just 'cause your a girl." Max took his hand out of his pockets and slid his foot back into a ready stance.
"I wouldn't want it any other way," Lucy let her smile slip, "I think…"
"Come on Lucy!" Happy shouted, pumping a fist into the air, "You got this!"
Natsu sat cross legged and a wide smile splayed across his face, "Yeah, show him what you're made of!"
Lucy, with the encouragement of her closest friends, brought her fist down before her face, "Yeah, I can do this! Okay Max, I'm ready to go."
There was a small glint in Max's eye as he gathered a remarkable amount of sand over his fist, "This is gonna be a good match, I can feel it." Before Lucy could respond Max yelled, "Sand Blast!" and the impressive amount of sand made it's way toward Lucy at an alarmingly fast pace.
With seconds to spare Lucy jumped out of the way of the blast, "Hey!"
"You said you were ready." Max took a striding step so that he was in line with Lucy's body and sent another shot of the sand blast at her.
She rolled out of the way and jumped back to her feet. More to herself than anyone else she mumbled, "I'm not going down easy." Pulling out one of her keys Lucy shouted, "Gate of the Golden Bull! Taurus!"
"Yeah! That's the big cow!" Happy yelled excitedly.
Natsu stopped leaning back on his hands and sat forward, "Mr. Cowman? Why'd Lucy call him out?"
"What do you mean Natsu? Taurus is pretty strong. Why wouldn't Lucy use him?"
Natsu looked on unimpressed, then he smirked, "You'll see."
Appearing in a flexed stance Taurus looked over at Lucy with longing eyes, "Oh, Ms. Luuucy you're looking mooore and moore beautiful every time you summon me."
"Yeah, yeah. Listen, I need you to take him out for me. You think you can do that?" Lucy asked of her spirit eagerly.
Taurus glanced over at Max and reached for his axe, "Anything for you Ms. Lucy. I'll hit him so hard he'll think it was a mooooving truck!" So without further instruction Taurus made a beeline for Max with his axe poised to strike right behind him. As Taurus brought the axe down with as much force as he could muster, Max swiftly dodged the attack.
"That was a good try but not quite good enough to get me," Max teased.
"Taurus! Stop messing around!" Lucy yelled, with frustration lacing her voice.
"Look again, Ms. Luucy. He's not as fast as he thinks." Taurus proudly made a gesture to display Max, who seemed unharmed.
"What are you…" Max began, but as soon as he started speaking the tips of the left side of Max's hair fell to the ground.
"That's it?" Lucy yelled up to Taurus as he cowered above her, "If I wanted you to give him a haircut I would've called Cancer. Get busy Taurus!"
"I'm just getting started Ms. Luucy. Don't worry. He's gonna be put out to pasture!" Taurus repositioned for another strike.
This time Max was more prepared and jumped backward each time Taurus brought the axe down to meet him. At the moment that Taurus was drawing back his axe to put power behind the swing Max set his hands square in front of him and shouted, "Sand Wall!"
Sand came pouring from Max's sleeves and constructed itself into an impenetrable barrier in front of him. Taurus' axe slammed into the wall and got buried in it. A stricken expression came over Taurus' features and, leaving his axe forgotten in the sand, jumped backwards.
"Taurus?! What the heck are you doing!?" Lucy shouted, nearly pulling out her hair, "Why the heck would you let go of your axe and leave it behind like that?!"
Taurus stared at the sand with a petrified look. He put his hand up in front of him, "Is, is that… sand?"
Happy looked on in shocked horror and Natsu nodded knowingly.
"Of course it's sand! Considering the fact that we're facing a sand wizard I'd wager it's safe to say he uses sand ya big numbskull!" a defeated stream of tears rolled down Lucy's face, "Just get back to the fight, okay?"
"I can't Ms. Luuucy!" Taurus looked at her with a look of betrayal and stood behind her pushing her into the line of fire, "Sand is so desolate and sad. You can't graze on sand! It's like a horror mooovie!"
"Everyone knows cows have an irrational fear of sand." Natsu said, arms folded over his chest, disapprovingly.
Happy had a contented and dumbfounded look on his face, "Nobody knew that," he breathed, sitting down dejectedly.
"Seriously?"
"Maybe a sweet smoooch would motivate me enough to fight again." Taurus tried.
"Taurus, watch out!" Lucy crouched to the ground as more sand came toward them.
"Sand Rebellion!" with a flick of his hands the sand started to surround Taurus until he could no longer be seen.
Lucy stood and, her eyes twisted with fear, watched Taurus get trapped by the sand, "You can break out of this. Taurus you're stronger than this!" Lucy vaguely remembered this technique. If she was right then it wouldn't suffocate him it would explode. Lucy averted her face and felt the power of the blast rush past her, blowing her hair around her face. When she turned back around Taurus lay on the ground, struggling to sit up.
"Looks like Max is winning," Happy pouted.
Natsu merely made an inaudible grunting sound.
Lucy ran over to her spirit. She threw herself to the ground next to him, "Are you okay?"
"I can still fight on your behalf Ms. Lucy." he managed.
"No," she ordered, "You did great Taurus. But it's time for you to go back to the spirit world."
With a swipe of her key Taurus was gone and Lucy stood with her back facing Max, "I'm sorry, Lucy. I warned you I wasn't going to go easy on you, but if you want to stop that's fine." He took a couple of steps towards her but her voice interrupted him.
Lucy roughly wiped away the tears that pooled in the corners of her eyes, "I told you I didn't want you to hold back!" she lifted her head up high, "That way I don't have to hold back either!" Smiling brightly she turned around and went barreling after Max with the fleuve d'etoile blazing, "Haaaah!" she yelled thrusting the whip forward with all her might and landing a hit squarely across Max's chest.
With a grunt Max was sent back a couple of feet, "Woah, nice hit!"
"Thanks!" she replied in her usual cheerful tone, "I'm pretty good with this thing. I've had lots of practice by this point." She took two ends of the whip in her hands and stretched it until it was taught in front of her.
Lucy heard the whoops of encouragements from her teammates and sent them a wink, "You didn't think I'd give up that easy, did you?"
"Well I hope you don't think I'm done after just one shot." Lucy looked back. Max gathered even more sand around his hands, readying for another attack.
"I'm counting on it!" Lucy jumped back and snapped her whip above her, a smile wide on her face, "This is for Taurus!"
Max mustered out the first part of the Sand Blast spell when Lucy's whip made contact with Max's shoulder and passed right through it. Where Max was standing only moments before there was now a small pile of sand, "Sand Trap," Lucy whispered, "Where is he?" as soon as she looked over her shoulder Max was shoving into her abdomen and pushed her backward onto the ground with a thud.
Now just above her, Max put his hand out and started another spell. In the middle of the word Lucy's whip wrapped around Max's head, covering his mouth. With a swift yank of her whip, Lucy sent Max flying sideways into the guild wall. A sickening crunch could be heard and Max let out a small, "Ouch." Rubbing the back of his neck he got back on his feet, "Okay, I'll admit, that one did some major damage. You're a pretty formidable opponent Lucy."
"No time for flattery Max, we're in the middle of a fight." She flipped her hair, "And by the way, I know. Thanks."
"I guess it's time for me to bring out the big guns." Max let an astonishing amount of sand flow from his hands.
"I guess I'll do the same thing!" She took two keys and swung them in front of her, "Gate of the White Ram! Aries! Gate of the Lion! Leo!"
With a flourish the two appeared with Leo standing strong holding his wrist showing off his ring and Aries peaking out behind his shoulder.
"Hey beautiful," Loke took Lucy's hand and bowed before her, "You haven't forgotten about me have you? It's been a while since you called us out."
Lucy took her hand back and rolled her eyes, "It's just been quiet around here lately. No need for spirits."
Loke fained betrayal, "No need for spirits? You could have just called me out for a visit. I've missed looking at you. If this is going to work we need better communication skills."
"If what's going to work?!" Lucy yelled, her cheeks a flame red, "Aries, a little help here?"
Aries covered her face, "Oh, I'm so sorry Ma'am. I'm afraid I'm no use when it comes to Leo. I'm afraid I'm of no use to you when it comes to anything."
Max coughed, "Good to see you, too Loke."
Loke walked over to Max leaving Lucy with a huge bead of sweat forming on her forehead trying to, and failing to, comfort Aries. He approached Max and examined him from several different angles. He slapped a hand on his shoulder, "Max Alors! I don't think I've talked to you since before the seven year skip. I could barely recognize you!"
"You're looking pretty good yourself, Loke. I see Lucy has been treating you well." Max joked.
Lucy paled and shouted a quick, "Don't encourage him!"
"By the way, the reason you don't recognize me is because I'm not usually your opponent in battle." Max explained, he leaned back on heel and had his hands in pockets again.
"Opponent?" Loke looked back at Lucy, "What's he talking about?"
"We've been sparring. It's just a friendly match." Lucy explained like it was a daily occurrence.
Aries and Loke both looked at their master and Loke placed a hand on his masters forehead, "Are you feeling alright, Lucy?"
She swatted away his concerns, "Of course I'm feeling alright. Why wouldn't I be feeling alright?"
"I'm sorry Ma'am, but you're never the one to have us fight for no reason. It just so unlike you." Aries bowed her head and looked away.
"Aries is right Lucy. Since when do you spar?" Loke adjusted his glasses, "Usually that's Natsu's department."
"Hey, that's what I said!" Natsu shouted from his seat.
"I knew he couldn't be far behind." Loke grabbed hold of his lapels and turned on heel to face Natsu, "How've you been, Natsu?"
"Hey man, I'm so bummed that Lucy's the one fighting instead of me. I was the one that was gonna take on Max, but then Lucy decided that she was going to fight him." Natsu just shrugged and leaned back on his forearms.
"Looks like you've been a bad influence on my master. She never used to pick fights before you came along." Loke straightened out the cuffs of his sleeves.
"Loke you weren't around before Natsu met Lucy." Happy interjected.
"I-" Loke put up a finger in protest, but his jaw dropped for a moment. Regaining his composure he continued, "Of course not, I'm proud that she's held out this long."
"Oh, so somehow it's my fault that Lucy's fighting?" Natsu demanded, "How is everything always my fault?"
"Hey Loke!" Lucy called with annoyed tone, "I hate to break up your little reunion, but I brought you out here to fight not to socialize."
"Hey no problem gorgeous," Loke drawled, "You know you can count on me." He glanced at Aries and smiled, "Not that I mind, but why did you bring out the two of us?"
Lucy looked a little embarrassed at having to explain her reasons, but she did so anyway, "Well, the last time you two were out here fighting at the same time, you were fighting each other. I wanted to change that. I want you guys to be able to fight together."
"Oh, Ma'am. That's so sweet of you. I'm sorry if I caused any pain," Aries started trembling, "but I'm so glad to have a master like you!" she said quickly, before she lost the nerve.
Loke started tearing up in pride, "That's my master! No wonder I love you so much!"
"Back to business," Lucy ignored that last comment, "Sorry to keep you waiting Max."
"I was starting to get lonely over here." Max brought two pillars of sand shooting up on either side of him. "So let's continue. Sand Slash."
The sand separated into several tendrils that lashed out towards all three of Max's opponents. "Lucy, stand behind me," Loke shouted, putting his arm out to shield her.
"How many times do I have to tell you?" Lucy stepped up to stand beside him, "My spirits aren't shields. I fight with you, not behind you."
They all braced for impact. Just as the attack was about to hit a wall of wool appeared before all three of them and deflected the attack. Lucy looked to Aries and saw her straining to keep the wall up as Max sent more and more sand attacks at it. "I'm sorry Lucy. I'm so sorry for disobeying you. I just wanted to be useful and protect you."
"Way to go Aries!" Lucy encouraged her and then she turned to Loke, "While Aries has him distracted I need you to go out and use a magic so bright he won't be able to see anything. Aries, when Loke's got Max disabled I need you to wrap him in your wool bomb." Lucy held her hand up, "Aries lower the wall just enough so I can get a good look." She nodded and Lucy watched for the moment to catch Max by surprise. Flicking her hand down she signaled to Loke to jump out and attack.
He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and jumped out, "Regulus Impact!" and a light so powerful and bright engulfed the area and rendered Max momentarily powerless.
Aries dropped the wall and threw several Wool Bombs at Max, sufficiently wrapping him in wool and leaving him unable to use his body. "Way to go guys!" Lucy jumped up in victory, "That went way better than I expected it to!" Sending the two home and pulling out a last key Lucy called one more spirit to the field. "Time to finish this. There's no better way to fight sand, than with more sand. Gate of the Scorpion! Scorpio!"
With much less finesse than the other spirits, Scorpio just… appeared. No smoke, no cool stance, and no signature exclamation of "Wicked!". Scorpio just stood, back facing Lucy.
Disregarding his odd behavior Lucy opted for calling out, "Scorpio, I need you to finish him off with your famous Sand Buster!" Scorpio stayed silent and didn't move. Lucy noticed what was left of Aries' wool was fading away fast. Lucy ran up to Scorpio and touched his shoulder. Scorpio moved away from her. "Scorpio? I need you to hurry and finish this. What's going on?"
"Yeah, sure. We'll fight for you. We're just waiting for my hot babe Aquarius to get here. We'll wait as long as we need to." He said, still refusing to look at her.
Lucy looked as though she'd been struck. Everyone froze. They all knew the sacrifice that Lucy had made to save them when they were trapped inside Alegria. Scorpio was saying that he would fight for Lucy only if and when Aquarius could return to Earthland. With her key broken, she never could. Scorpio was telling her that he wouldn't fight for her. Lucy stood rigid, with her head bowed, bangs covering her eyes. "I did everything I could."
"To save your friends. We know. How wicked that the little lady saved the day. We're glad it was so easy for you," Scorpio's voice was as light as ever, but Lucy could sense the anger bubbling just below the surface.
"It wasn't an easy decision. It was the hardest decision I've ever had to make in my entire life!" Lucy put her hand over her mouth to stifle the oncoming sobs, "It was either lose every single person in the guild or…"
"Sacrifice sweet Aquarius' freedom. We know. Hey, We just didn't know that you were that kind of owner. We didn't know that you thought Aquarius' freedom was yours to sacrifice. We would have never guessed that you were like that." Scorpio was relentless and rigid. Lucy had never seen him unhappy, let alone cruel.
Lucy fell to her knees, "She said she wanted to go. She told me I had to do it. I'm so sorry." her voice shook but she didn't let the tears fall. She made a promise to Aquarius that she wouldn't cry anymore.
Scorpio turned to look at Lucy. His face was completely void of any emotion, "Ya know what the most wicked part is?" the way he stressed wicked didn't make it seem like it was a good thing, "My little beach babe misses you. She actually misses you." Lucy's eyes widened. The only reason she had agreed to Aquarius' idea was because she thought it was what she wanted. Now, there was nothing to take comfort in. Everything Scorpio said was true and Lucy knew it. "Are you even trying to fix up the mess you made?"
"Lucy!" Happy shouted and flew over to her. He flew into her lap, "Don't listen to him. You did what you had to. Fish lady knows that!"
Natsu stood between Lucy and Scorpio and put a hand on his chest, pushing Scorpio backward, "Hey, back off. She feels bad enough and she doesn't need you to make her feel worse. You're supposed to be her spirit and back her up no matter what. What kind of spirit makes their owner feel like crap?"
Lucy stood up and lifted her face, "Enough Natsu. He's right." She was much calmer than any of them expected her to be, "I'm so sorry for what I did and I'll regret it for the rest of my life. I will do everything I can to fix this, but I have to keep living. My friends taught me that no matter what you have to keep going and as long as they accept me I'll keep living with them and growing stronger. I'll never stop until I'm strong enough to bring Aquarius back to Earthland." This time it was her turn to face away from Scorpio, "Until then I understand if you want to terminate our contract."
Scorpio didn't answer he just turned and said, "We've gotta go. We've got a date."
There was a tense silence for seconds after Scorpio left. It was Natsu that broke the silence, "What a jerk! Come on Lucy. You don't really believe all that stuff do you?" Natsu picked up Happy and walked up behind Lucy. He put his hand out to comfort her, but she stepped around him and walked back over to Max.
"Go ahead, Max. Finish me off. I don't have the spirit to fight you so go ahead." Lucy tensed before him.
He placed a hand on her shoulder, "I don't think so!" he scratched the back of his neck and smiled, "I'm exhausted. Besides you could pull out Gemini and do that Urano Metria thing you were about to do at the Games. That looked really nasty and I'd rather stop now." Lucy upturned her head and looked at him surprised. He shrugged and put out his hand, "How about we call it a draw?"
Lucy stared at his hand and back at Max. She took his hand and shook it, "Sure thing. It's a tie."
"Great! Just know that I fully expect a rematch someday!"
Lucy fingered her keys absent-mindedly, "Yeah, not for a while. I don't think this sparring thing is for me." She looked over to the guild and noticed all the lights were on, "Wow, I didn't realize how late it's gotten. I've gotta get home. Thanks for the match, Max." She waved goodbye to him as he re-entered the guild. She walked over to Natsu and Happy, "I'm heading home. I'll see you guys tomorrow?"
"Are you sure you're alright Lucy? You seemed really upset earlier." Happy said, happily accepting a rub on the head from Lucy.
"Yeah, Im sorry if I made you worry. I guess I do that a lot, huh?" Lucy let a small breeze whisk away some of the days stress, "I'm fine. I just need to get some rest."
"I'm sorry Lucy," Natsu said in a serious tone that took Lucy by surprise.
"For what Natsu?" Lucy wracked her brain for something Natsu should be apologizing for but nothing came to mind. "You're not hung up on what Loke said earlier, are you? He was just being Loke."
His grip on Happy tightened a bit, "I should have been there to protect you. If I had been there then you wouldn't have had to- well, you know." his voice became sheepish by the end of his apology.
"Hey, it's not your fault that you were pulled into some crazy floating building monster thing. I did what I thought I had to. It's nobodies fault but mine." Lucy was comfortable talking to Natsu about this. It didn't weigh heavily on her around him. Her voice was light and easy even though what she talked about wasn't. She shivered despite the warm Magnolia night. "I'm exhausted so I'm going to head home. I'll see you guys at the guild tomorrow, okay?"
The two nodded and watched Lucy walk away until she was surrounded by the darkness and they couldn't see her anymore, "Boy, that was rough, huh Natsu?" Happy looked up from Natsu's arms to see his face.
"Yeah, sure was. I've never seen any of Lucy's spirits act like that before." Natsu was still staring at where he last saw Lucy, "I can't help but feel like if I had been there. Like I let Lucy down somehow, ya know?"
"Yeah," Happy rested his head against Natsu's abdomen, "You think if I'd been there I could have helped Lucy?"
"Sure buddy, but you probably would've ended up eating Lucy's big fish lady spirit and we'd be in the same spot!" Natsu started on the path home.
"I wouldn't have eaten Aquarius!" Happy defended, "But you might have burned her to a crisp!"
Natsu laughed, "I guess either way would be pretty bad."
"You think we should go check on Lucy?" Happy asked, "Ya know, just to make sure she made it home safe? Knowing her luck with men she probably got kidnapped or something!"
"Where do you think I'm going Happy?" Natsu joked, "If I wanna get a good nights rest for tomorrow I've gotta sleep in Lucy's bed! That things gotta be made a magic or something."
"Aye."
And that's the logic which made it alright for those two to sneak into Lucy's apartment through her window and convince her to let them stay the night. With far fewer protests than usual, due to how tired she was, eventually Lucy gave up and let them stay.
awwww they are so damn canon it's disgusting that they're not canon...
Let me know what you thought and stayed tuned for the real meat of the story.
R&R!
-Inkwell