U. O. ME: 1 Favour= a piggy back ride from Fyorne to Fiore. I'll be in town for a while, see you around Lucy Arthur Nighthawks.
"What's this?" Lucy stared at the note, "a piggy back ride on Arthur" she felt the ground spinning and the sky crash upon her. "Er what happened? My head feels as if it's splitting open. Was I clobbered from behind then knocked unconscious so Arthur had to piggy back me back here"
She lifted a hand to her forehead, "All I can remember is that we went to Maxwell Magpies after I got the reward money at Maxwell Mansion. I hope nothing embarrassing happened. But did he really piggy back me from Fyorne to here after all Natsu and I took the train."
She could vividly remember Natsu's groans.
Lucy was about to walk out to walk out of the building when her landlady stopped her.
"Your boyfriend said this was yours, I believe it's your reward money. I've taken the liberty of taking out this month's rent from it," she explained as she tossed the bag of coins towards her.
"What do you mean boyfriend, I don't have one, I mean it's not as if I don't want one it's just..." Lucy trailed off as she started to blush with embarrassment.
"The boy who carried you on his back and put you to bed," the old lady said. Lucy blushed even harder, Arthur did something like that.
"That guy Arthur is not my boyfriend, I only met him yesterday" Lucy nervously laughed.
"Hmph whatever, I don't care it's not my business" and with that the old lady turned her back on Lucy and walked away leaving Lucy very confused and hot under the collar.
Lucy walked into Fairy Tail Guild and it was rowdy as usual. She sat over by Mirajane who was serving some drinks,
"Hey Lucy a guy was here for you, he said his name was Arthur Nighthawks" Lucy was shocked, why on earth Arthur come here?
"Did he say what he wanted?" Lucy asked making sure her voice was kept level.
"Nah nothing much he said to make sure Lucy took it easy today, hangover migraines can happen rather suddenly."
Now she was perplexed, "What are you talking about Mirajane, what hangover? I haven't had any alcohol."
Mirajane went and gave Lucy some coffee she knew she would need it. "He said there was a great chance you wouldn't remember. Basically at Magpie's the bartender gave you rice wine instead of the flavoured water you ordered. You were out of it so he had to carry you back to your place."
Lucy's cheeks blushed for the third time in the last hour she was sure she had handled the alcohol appallingly, horrified at the thoughts of all sorts of embarrassing things could've happened. Lucy hastily gulped back her coffee, a migraine coming on.
Mirajane nudged Lucy, "So who's this guy, he seems to care an awful lot for you plus he's a hunk."
Lucy looked away, "No, no one special he just escorted me back to my client as Natsu had to return here urgently remember."
Lucy looked around "Where is Natsu anyway, I have to give him his share of the reward money."
Mirajane cringed, "You better just stay here; Erza and Master are giving him the scolding of his life." Lucy stopped her cup halfway to her mouth.
The Master could be scary but Erza was a demon the two of them together, she didn't want to think about it.
"Poor Natsu," she thought as she drank the rest of her coffee and ordered another.
A little while later Erza stomped into the Guild all in a huff. One full minute later Natsu followed walking in like he had lost all will to live. Happy was flying sorrowfully behind him. For the normally energetic duo this was alarming and depressing at the same time.
"Hey Happy, how bad was it?" Lucy asked very concerned. Happy shuddered, "It was horrible, they looked like demons possessed."
"Demons, I've seen Hell, they're demons" Natsu muttered as he sat down next to Lucy all zombie-like. Mirajane wordlessly went about getting Natsu's favorite snack, Fire on a Stick and passed it to him.
Natsu took it barely looking at it as he listlessly said thank you. Lucy felt sorry for the guy but she was sure the scolding he received wasn't undeserved although knowing Erza probably overdone. So Lucy just dropped the bag of coins in front of Natsu and sat by him as she knew he'd eventually thaw from his funk and be back on his feet again.
Mirajane looked pitifully at Natsu before turning back to Lucy, "So back to Arthur, what's he like. He just saw you alone and decided to escort back to your client" Mirajane asked sceptically. "Of course not, he helped me out in a sticky situation then decided to escort me back" Lucy shot back.
She stared at the last mouthful of her second cup of coffee bringing Arthur to mind. "Seriously that guy is totally secretive; he wouldn't even tell me what guild he belonged to." She drank it down in a final gulp, 'I mean what's up with that?' she moaned silently as she sighed her head in hand.
"What sticky situation?" Natsu asked still dead-beat but it seemed the girls' conversation started to stir him, "What happened when I left?" Lucy explained that because Maxwell's treasures emitted a high magical aura and that most people in Fyorne could actually read aura she found herself numerously attacked. Then Arthur defeated her final attacker and then even managed to dampen the aura with a magic spell resulting in no more attacks.
Natsu listened carefully and quietly which was unusual for him as he listened to Lucy's story including the whole drunk business which she needed help from Mirajane as she couldn't remember clearly what had happened. Once she had finished, he got up saying that he needed some fresh air. Lucy looked at him rather bemused. Mirajane just smiled to herself.