"Ma'am, your chocolate strawberry dip?" a waitress asked Lucy with an unsure expression.
Lucy's right eyebrow slightly raised, feeling quite agitated. This morning, she could've slept another few hours if not for the bird slamming into her window. She woke up irritated and annoyed. Lucy glanced at the waitress with a crooked smile and dead eyes as if she was experiencing sleep deprivation.
"No."
...
The waitress blinked, waiting for Lucy to continue her sentence, but Lucy didn't say anything else. She had expected to receive the jewels, place down the order and a tip. Her confused expression was replaced with annoyance as she slammed the chocolate strawberry dip on the table and threatened, "Look lady, this is your order so pay up before something happens."
Lucy remained seated, ignoring the waitress's words as if she didn't exist. Many customers began to watch the two women from their spots, they quickly understood the situation. The beautiful blonde woman refused to receive her food, also refusing to pay for it. The fuming waitress quickly called out to the shop keeper, "Sir! This woman is refusing to pa-"
A loud screech could be heard as the blonde woman stood up from her wooden seat. She picked up a strawberry dipped in chocolate before saying, "Check my order again," and casually strolled out of the cafe.
The waitress glared at the door for a moment. Then, she snatched the order list from the counter, flipped through all the pages before shutting her eyes in embarrassment.
Table 11, Reg strawberry milkshake.
Oh, yes. Lucy knew that she had triggered the poor girl to experience one of the most embarrassing moments of her life. She had clearly witnessed the previous waitress write down her order: Table 11, Reg strawberry milkshake. The waitress would've flicked through the recipes, finding the order to prove herself right.
Taking notice of the time on her all-purpose lacrima, Lucy quickly made her way to the guild, straightening her skirt with her palms as she power-walked down the busy streets of magnolia.
Pushing the large doors open, she greeted everyone with a "Good morning!" and proceeded to take a seat on a stool facing the bar. Kinana warmly smiled, greeting the blonde girl and taking her order.
"A strawberry milkshake please," Lucy said with a light smile before briefly recalling the event that occurred just 20 minutes ago to Kinana.
Handing Lucy her ordered smoothie, Kinana chuckled at Lucy's not-very-pleased expression.
"Lucy? where are you from?" Kinana asked out of curiosity.
Sipping her smoothie, Lucy casually replied, "Oh I'm from Crocus."
Kinana gaped, her actions halting and whipped her head towards the blonde.
"The capital city?!"
BANG
The wooden doors kicked opened, startling the half-asleep guild members. Macao grunted as he stood up, followed by Wakaba with a fierce look on his face.
"How pathetic. No matter what time I come here, the place is always quiet," a voice from the entrance of the guild said in an insulting matter.
Macao glared at the team of 5 men. Lucy quickly came to a conclusion that this group of filthy disasters were from the rumoured "Twilight Ogre," the 'baddest' guild in Magnolia. A mocking grin flickered across her face as she examined their arrogant faces.
"Wow he needs a haircut," Lucy snickered in the background, not meaning to sound loud. "And a new face job."
Thibalt's face turned beet red when he realised that the blonde was referring to his hair and his initial mocking smile disappeared, replaced by an offended, angered look. He whipped his head to the bar where the voice came from.
Macao gritted his teeth and stepped forward, attempting to ease his silent laughter. Everyone stood up including Lucy, standing behind Macao.
"I thought you said next month," Macao said with a stern look.
"Heh," Thibalt snorted, "You used to be the strongest guild in Fiore but those days are long gone, now you're nothing but a bunch of worthless out-of-work wizards."
"Look at this dump you call a guild hall."
"Psh, you think you're better than us just because you got a bigger hall?" one of the members shot back.
One of Twilight Ogre's members stepped forward. "Well," he said, "Our master always gets what he wants, so pay up before we destroy everything just like last month."
Romeo slammed the thick Fairy Tail photo book onto a table, glaring at Twilight Ogre.
"Screw your master, you're not getting any money from us today."
Lucy silently whistled in the background, impressed by Romeo's straightforwardness. Ah, we're gonna be great friends huh?
Lucy stood still alongside the members, staring back at team Twilight Ogre. She observed Thibalt's actions and facial expression, slowly adjusting her body into a blocking position.
"If you could just give us another month, I promise we'll pay," Macao begged, no longer laughing at the team leader's disastrous face.
Thibalt snarled, stepping forward to throw a fist at him. Lucy's left leg stepped backwards. She pushed off from the ground, swiftly dashing in front of Macao, successfully—and quite easily—blocking Thibalt's powerful unexpected blow.
"Step away," she firmly said, grinning as if receiving his powerful punch was as easy as breathing.
He glared at her, refusing to retreat until Lucy grabbed his fist, her fierce strength threatening to crack his bones as she repeated, "Step away."
Thibalt pulled back, stepping back multiple times until he backed into his members. He held his fist in pain, then moved his hand into his pant pockets in attempt to hide his bruised and injured knuckles.
Angered, Thibalt once again dashed forward, but this time towards Lucy. He raised his weapon and smashed downwards. Lucy didn't move, but she was ready to dodge. She glanced at a certain crowd behind Thibalt before paying attention to her attacker.
A resounding kick could be heard as Thibalt was thrown high up into the air. Everyone present gaped at Thibalt, then turned to the large group of people standing at the entrance with almost teary eyes. Lucy used this opportunity to retreat and fade into the remaining members behind Macao and Romeo. Thibalt slammed into a large Fairy Tail banner hung on the wall and slid down, completing losing consciousness.
His team members turned back, shouting: "Who in the hell!?" in a unison. Romeo's eyes widened as he witnessed the Twilight Ogre team easily being beaten up.
A chuckle could be heard from within the dust caused by the attacks. A closer silhouette along with numerous other further silhouettes could be seen as the dust faded away.
"We're back!"
Everyone could now clearly see the figures, it was the core members of Fairy Tail. Lucy raised an eyebrow as she thought, "Pink hair? That must be Natsu Dragneel, the fire dragon slayer."
A bunch of exclamations filled the guild hall as the core members excitedly ran in, grinning ear to ear.
"We're gonna need a bigger guild hall!"
"Why do you all look like you haven't aged at all!"
Lucy sat at the bar, watching the emotional reunion with a light smile. She only joined yesterday so she was quite unfamiliar with the core members and decided to relax at the bar.
"Oiii," a figure approaching the bar called out with a slurred voice. "I haven't seen you around, you new?"
Lucy inwardly chuckled. You've been asleep for 7 years hun. "Yeah I'm new here, I just joined yesterday!" she replied with a bit of enthusiasm. The woman in front of her had a tall figure, waist-length brown hair and large brown eyes. Her light blue bikini top, largely exposing her upper body, emphasised her slim waist and her nails had been painted various different colours. She carried a large beer barrel as she sat down on a stool next to Lucy's.
"I'm Cana," she introduced herself.
"I'm a holder mage—hiccup—a card holder mage."
Lucy grinned, extending her arm for a handshake. She couldn't tell whether Cana was seriously drunk or not.
"I'm Lucy," she said.
"Lucy? A new member?"
Lucy responded to the surrounding people with a carefree grin.
"Uhm!"
A woman clad in silver armour and a blue skirt shook hands with her while introducing herself, "I'm Erza Scarlet, a requip mage."
Scarlet hair, Scarlet is her last name huh...
"I'm Natsu!" the spiky pink haired guy exclaimed.
"Gray."
"I'm Happy!"
"This is Wendy and Carla," Erza said, pointing at a young girl with blue hair and a white talking cat.
Lucy tried her best to memorise everyone's names but soon gave up after being introduced 20 times repetitively. She faced Erza and bid goodbye, stepping out of the guild hall and dashing off immediately.
I miss my apartment. Lucy sobbed while rapidly dashing away from the rowdy members.
Natsu scanned the list of jobs on the mission board. He caught sight of a quest that had a reward of 4 000 000 jewels from the client Count Balsamico.
"Hm... Velveno?" Natsu read the details off the sheet as the members gathered around him.
"Oh it's the magical ball that only occurs once every seven years and only wizards can attend."
They were all intrigued by the reward and target. "This afro-man is worth 4 000 000?"
Erza and Gray grabbed the quest sheet, reading out the details Natsu didn't mention out loud.
"Velveno possesses transformation and magical drain, which means we can't let him touch us," Gray read.
"Should we take up this job?" Erza suggested, she was clearly excited to dance. She spotted Lucy leaning against the bar, conversing with Levy about different novel genres and called out to Lucy.
"Lucy, you haven't been on a quest yet right? Come with us?"
Lucy beamed, easily agreeing to the offer. The group had their quest stamped by Kinana and proceeded to learn how to dance outside the building. Lucy, sweat-dropping at the sight of Erza torturing Natsu, took a stroll in a garden nearby to organise her thoughts.
I haven't found any of the targets yet. How long should I stay in Fairy Tail? After this job, I should take up a random quest and go looking for the villains...
Rogue Cheney huh... He's pretty eyecatchin- No! I'm going offtrack.
I blocked that bad haircut's punch, was it too big of a scene?
"Oi Lucy! It's time to go!" Natsu yelled from a far distance, waving his arms. Lucy jogged towards the guild building, joining the others who were discussing about their formal attire.
~ The Balsamico Castle
Dressed up in a long velvet-coloured dress with a side slit, Lucy exited the changing rooms and complimented Erza and Wendy's outfit. Erza's tight strapless purple dress was embroidered with large roses and had two slits on both sides while Wendy had her hair gathered into pigtails, wearing a flowy pink dress and a small furry cape.
The three females met up with Natsu, Elfman and Gray who were dressed in formal suits. Erza, peacefully eating a strawberry cake, was soon disrupted by a man asking for a dance, and being once known as the dancing demon, she immediately accepted. Lucy observed the two dancers. Of course, it was just Erza rapidly spinning the man. She could sense the magic radiating out of the man. Who even needs magic to dance?
Well, people who can't dance.
Before Lucy could warn Erza, the dancing stage floated high up into air, not allowing Lucy to speak to Erza. Should I just leap?
She immediately connected to the Warren's telepathic line.
"I have a suspect, the man dancing with Erza is currently using magic," she alerted. After speaking to Warren, Lucy spotted Wendy dancing with a blonde young man around her age who was also using magic. Lucy tsk-ed, scanning her surroundings for any abnormalities.
"Behind the red curtains, there's a figure being tied up," she said, dashing towards Wendy and her partner before the magical platform moved.
"Wendy let go of him!" Lucy yelled. Wendy, who heard her yell rather clearly with her dragon senses, immediately let go of the dance partner with a shocked, suspecting look.
The dance partner snickered, leaping off the platform and into the air. He transformed out of his fake identity into his real appearance, a slightly tanned man in a yellow suit.
"It's him! Velveno!" Gray shouted, "Ice-make: crescent blades!"
Crescent-shaped ice projectiles aimed for Velveno but Velveno counter-attacked with the same skill.
Gray stared in disbelief as his crescent blades were being cancelled out by the same skill. Lucy stepped forward, glancing at Gray before focusing on Velveno.
"It's that woman you danced with," she calmly explained, casually watching Velveno imitate Wendy's dragon roar. He aimed for the ring that was on display. The ring only appeared once every seven years for the Princess's marriage and the first person who held the ring would be able to propose marriage to her.
Velveno suddenly knelt down in front of the Princess, Aceto. The Fairy Tail members gaped as he proposed to her.
"WHAT?"
Aceto smiled and replied, "Yes!"
"WHAT?"
Lucy snickered. What a plot twist. It's been so long since I've witnessed such a hilarious scene before.
Count Balsamico immediately blocked the princess. "There is no way I'm letting you, a vile villain marry my precious daughter!" he shouted.
"Capture that scoundrel!"
Velveno was shocked by Aceto's response. Aceto smiled and walked to him. "I've been waiting for you for so long," she explained.
Lucy's eyelids closed, refusing to watch this drama any longer. She couldn't help but cringe.
Velveno handed himself in, allowing the guards to drag him out to be imprisoned. The Count glared at Velveno as he was taken away.
"Are we getting our reward?" Lucy asked the raging Count Balsamico. Count Balsamico glared at Lucy.
"There's no way I'm gonna pay it!"
Almost immediately, a hand yanked his collar and lifted him up into the air, almost choking the poor man.
She grinned, a grin that didn't reach her eyes.
"Are we getting our reward?"