I forgot to mention at the beginning, but this takes place after the end of the Edolas ark, so Lisana and Pantherlily may be in this fic (I haven't decided yet). Thank you all for your reviews, alerts and favorites! It has been my driving force for this fic! (Even with the severe case of writer's block). By the way, if anything seems sloppy or incoherent, don't hesitate to tell me, 'cause I will try my best to fix it. Anyway, on with the chapter!
Revised as of 10/4/13
Disclaimer: "Fairy Tail" is the property of Hiro Mashima, not me, only the events and OCs of this story are mine
Chapter Three
Lucy walked through the chatter and ruckus that characterized her guild and took a seat at the bar. She rested her head on her folded arms, letting out a deep sigh. Her position didn't go unnoticed and soon the white-haired bartender sidled up to the blonde.
"What's the matter, Lucy?" Mirajane asked, placing a mug of some kind of liquid in front of her.
Lucy lifted her head to her friend, thankful for the ever ready ear of Fairy Tail's poster girl. "Yesterday was so confusing," she sighed, resting her chin on her hand. The weirdness hadn't stopped after Natsu and Happy's hasty departure. Thinking back on it, it may have become even more surreal after they were gone.
Hikari had commandeered her kitchenette, directing Lucy to different preparations with the ease of a drill sergeant. When they had finally been seated at her lone table, a meal even Lucy's old chef would have wept in envy at in its simplistic but tasteful beauty was laid before them. The mango crepes (her favorite fruit) were cooked to a delicate golden brown, with a drizzle of yogurt based sauce on top and a side of boiled baby carrots. Lucy had been amazed that this could have been created from her meager supply of food; it was almost time to restock.
Hikari had dug in right away while Lucy had just been taking in the food. Noticing that Lucy hadn't touched her food yet, the Spirit raised her head to her mistress with a slight frown. "Go ahead and eat, you haven't eaten in three days."
"Ah, yeah," Lucy said. She picked up her fork and let it hover above her plate. "It's just that…where did you learn to cook like this?"
"A few of my summoners were very well off, and I get bored sometimes, so I tend to pick up things here and there. Habit really, I guess. You tend to pick things up when you've been around for a while," Hikari said offhandedly, giving a slight shrug.
Lucy blinked at the nonchalant way Hikari seemed to take things that others would die for to be able to do. Maybe to a Stellar Spirit things like this didn't have as much meaning since they were practically immortal. But remembering her other spirits made her think this trait was wholly Hikari's.
Deciding that she would think about things later, Lucy ate her dinner, her stomach feeling better already with something to fill it. She hadn't even noticed that she had been hungry.
About halfway through her meal, she remembered an important matter that had been nagging at her since she had first found Hikari's key. "Um, Hikari," she began hesitantly, continuing after she was sure she had her companion's attention. "What constellation are you from?"
The Stellar Spirit paused with a forkful of food halfway to her mouth, caught off guard. She set it down with a sigh, expression serious. "You already know."
"No I don't," Lucy exclaimed, both irritated and perplexed. How could she know something she had never been told? And she hadn't even heard of any Stellar Spirit or key resembling Hikari.
Shaking her head, Hikari explained, "We have a contract, right?" When Lucy nodded her confirmation, she elaborated. "Because of that, it's already in your subconscious, as it is part of the incantation needed to summon me in full. But because of the nature of my contract, you would only be able to access it in times of great need. Unfortunately, once you remember it, you won't forget it again." She had a complicated look on her face as she had said that, parts guilt, sorrow, and regret. "I made sure long ago that I would safeguard the ones under my protection, even from myself, as much as I can."
The blonde summoner sat back in her chair as she thought through this new information. It also brought up another point that she wasn't able to ask either Crux or Hikari before. "Why are you still able to be an active Stellar Spirit when your contracts can kill your summoners? I mean, Loki was banished to die in this world, and he wasn't even directly responsible for his previous master's death," Lucy asked in as normal a voice as possible, but she wasn't able to keep the slightest trace of curiosity from it.
"Leo's circumstances were different from mine," Hikari answered in a tone that said any more questions on that topic would not be appreciated. But right then Lucy didn't care.
"But why?" Lucy pleaded, leaning towards Hikari in her desperation.
"It's personal." When the blonde looked ready to argue, Hikari raised an eyebrow at her. "Do you like it when others pry into something you don't want them to? Especially secrets?" Lucy flinched back slightly, knowing from experience that she didn't like that feeling either. "Some things are meant to be left alone. If there is a need for it, it will be made known to you." For the first time, Lucy could see the age on the young face as she said those words. It (whether the look or the words, she wasn't sure) left an odd sense of foreboding run down Lucy's spine.
"Now," Hikari stated briskly, mood changing quick as lightning. "Remember to keep my key with you at all times."
"I would have done that even if you hadn't asked me," Lucy said stiffly, offended.
"I had to ask. There have been others who would often forget about my key and leave it when they went out on missions or places where they ran into trouble." Hikari scowled, and muttered under her breath, "Idiots."
Slightly horrified that Stellar Spirit mages could be so careless and thoughtless to the spirit's feelings, she was quick to reassure her new spirit friend, pretty face radiating sincerity. "I would never do that! Even if it wasn't in my best interests, it would still be rude."
Hikari smiled at her. "I know you won't. But I still had to make sure the point got across to you, otherwise I wouldn't be able to find you when you need me." At Lucy's confused look, she clarified. "My key acts as a ...tracking device, I guess you could say. It helps me pinpoint your location in this world. Since I have to crate my own gate, this prevents me from coming out in the wrong area, or even country from you." Lucy blinked, never having thought the keys could work like that. "I once came out in a frozen wasteland because an idiot I was contracted to hadn't known about this and called me without my key on him, or anywhere near him for that matter." Hikari said sourly, obviously still irked at the memory. Her expression lightened though when she added, "I did manage to teach a flock of penguins how to dance. My favorite was the conga; it was hilarious watching them waddle and kick their stubby little legs. One always fell down every once in a while." Hikari looked off into nothing, smiling slightly as she reminisced. "They were such cute little suckers. I hope none of them were eaten by a seal."
Lucy had to cover her mouth to stifle her giggles at the thought of dancing penguins, but her mirth was instantly wiped away by the image of them being interrupted by a hungry seal. When she had finally gotten control of herself, she looked up to see Hikari staring speculatively at her. When their eyes met, Hikari grinned, eyes gleaming in a way that made Lucy gulp discreetly in apprehension.
"How well can you dance?"
Coming back to herself with a mental shake, grabbing her mind and forcibly bringing it back to the present, Lucy looked up to see Mirajane looking at her curiously from across the bar.
"I spent most of the night dancing," Lucy informed her with a slightly haunted look in her eyes. It was okay for the first hour or so, but then Hikari had found out that Lucy didn't know how to swing dance. The next four hours had sorely tested Lucy's endurance, as well as her apartment. She had never known that dancing could be so destructive. And her cheeky new spirit had just laughed or shrugged it off, depending on what was knocked down or broken. It didn't help that her tailbone felt like it had a bruise the size of a tennis ball from repeated falling. Whoever had thought up the ballet needed to be shot.
Mira's face had this perplexed look on it as she asked, "What's so bad about dancing?" But she never was given a response since Lucy was pulled off her stool and into the crowd. Mira giggled to herself when she caught a brief glimpse of who it was. She set off to another customer whistling a merry tune.
Before Lucy knew what had happened or get out a fully formed protest, she was shoved into a secluded corner and was boxed in by Happy and Natsu. They crouched down to her level, as she had landed flat on her already sore butt.
"Lucy, who was that scary girl at your apartment last night?" Natsu asked quietly, looking around warily, as if the person in question would appear out of nowhere. Which she might very well do, Lucy thought ironically.
"She's my new Stellar Spirit. Her name is Hikari," Lucy sighed, a part of her amused in spite of herself at their obvious wariness of the dark haired spirit.
Both cat and dragonslayer's mouths dropped open in sequence, and for a moment their reactions were identical.
"But she looked normal!" Happy exclaimed, slightly disappointed.
"Loki looks normal, too," Lucy pointed out, a little miffed that he thought Stellar Spirits were abnormal. …Though she had to admit that they had quirks.
"…It's not as interesting though."
Lucy gave an indignant snort, but let it go. She knew there would be no changing them, and even if she could she would never want to change them.
Natsu had been unnaturally quiet throughout this little exchange, so Lucy looked over to see him frowning thoughtfully, abnormally serious outside of battle. "Natsu?" Lucy prodded.
He looked up, blinking once at her. "Yeah, Luce?"
"Is something wrong?"
"Nah…just that it explains why she felt full of magic." Even though he said that, he still had a troubled look on his face until he smiled abruptly. "Everyone's been asking about you Luce. Let's go!"
Lucy had no time to reply before Natsu pulled her up again and dragged her to the table where she could see Gray and Erza sitting at. When the trio reached the table, all of her friends pounced from where they had been lurking off to the sides. It now made sense why she had been able to pass to the bar without being accosted earlier, despite being gone for three days unconscious in bed.
Fortunately, Levi was the first to reach her, jumping enthusiastically onto Lucy in a hug, which she gratefully returned. "I'm so glad you're alright, Lu-chan!"
"Thanks Levi-chan," Lucy said, smiling as the rest of Fairy Tail descended upon them. The most frequently occurring question asked was how she had fallen unconscious in the first place, but Lucy herself didn't know that yet. So she just answered that she didn't know. It seemed that not many besides her most frequent teammates knew about Hikari's key, and she didn't feel like sharing just yet, not until she had more answers. Come to think of it, she had forgotten to ask Hikari herself if the spirit knew what had caused that particular reaction, considering she was most likely involved. Lucy silently resolved to ask her about it at the next opportunity.
After all the members had greeted Lucy and gone about their business, she turned to her blue haired friend. "I have a favor to ask you, Levi-chan."
"What is it?" Levi asked curiously. Lucy's teammates and the remaining members of Team Shadow Gear all leaned closer, sensing that something serious was going to happen.
"Do you think you could find out anything related to this key?" Lucy asked as she held the black and gold key up to Levi.
Levi stepped forward to get a closer look, peering down at the object in question intently. "I've never heard of a black Stellar Spirit key before," she muttered to herself. Fairy Tail's unofficial researcher looked up at Lucy with eyes shining in determined excitement for the hunt of knowledge. "Leave it to me!"
"Thanks Levi-chan! If anyone can find out something about this, I know you can," Lucy smiled gratefully.
Levi ran off to start her search, waving goodbye to Lucy as she went, Jet and Droy trailing after her. "I'll see what I can find for you, Lu-chan. See you later!"
"Yeah, see you later!" Lucy called to Levi's retreating back, waving. She turned back around, and looked at the usual quartet plus Charle and Wendy watching her.
"Didn't your questions about that key get answered last night?" Erza asked.
"Not all of them," Lucy sighed. She glared at the blue exsheed and pink haired dragon slayer out of the corner of her eyes. "Two idiots interrupted us while we were clarifying the contract."
"Who?" Erza frowned, clenching her fist on the table. Natsu and Happy both started sweating at the implied retribution for interrupting Erza's important female friend when she was doing an important task.
"Don't worry about it, Erza. I can ask the next time I call my new spirit." Even though Lucy was still irritated at the two troublemakers, she thought that since Hikari seemed to have intimidated them enough last night that it was enough punishment. So when they both let out discreet sighs of relief after Erza calmed down, Lucy let herself smile, just a little.
"So what's your new spirit like, Lucy?" Gray asked. Sometime between Erza's reaction and Lucy's subsequent attempt at appeasement his shirt and pants had vanished.
"Gray, your clothes!" Lucy exclaimed. Even after getting used to his weird habit, her eyes still bugged out of their sockets most of the time this happened, especially if he stripped far enough. She was still an innocent maiden, after all!
He looked down casually, and jumped up when he noticed that he was only clothed in his boxers with little snowflakes decorating them. "Shit!"
Off behind a pillar, Juvia collapsed with a bloody nose. "G-Gray-sama~"
"Ha ha ha! You have snowflakes on your underwear!" Natsu laughed as he held his stomach.
"Sh-shut up, fire breath! They were a gift!" Gray glared at Natsu, forgetting his lack of clothing for the moment.
"So? That still doesn't change the fact that they make you look like a sissy!" Natsu fired back, grinning madly.
"What was that, girly hair?!"
"It's not girly!"
But before the fist fight could begin or Erza stepping in to stop them, something else happened to make them take their attention off each other.
A pop and a small flash of light appeared right in front of Lucy, and out of it materialized Loki. Lucy opened her mouth to ask what he was doing here when he stepped right up to her, an aura of seriousness surrounding him, cutting Lucy off before she could utter a word.
"You made a contract with the R-Hikari, right?" Loki asked in an urgent voice. When she nodded hesitantly, Loki grabbed her shoulders, eyes wide and panicked behind his sunglasses. "Don't ever let her drink alcohol!"
"I-What?" Lucy asked, not expecting that of all things. "Why?"
The lion spirit's eyes unfocused, growing wider and haunted. A shudder went through his body as he whispered. "Bad things happen when she gets drunk." He blinked and focused on Lucy once again. "We aren't supposed to talk about it." Loki shook his head, looking like he was trying to rid whatever image he was seeing from his mind, and gripped her tighter. "Just don't let her, okay?"
"Ah…yeah," Lucy promised, unnerved to see Loki lose his cool even more than when he had been dying and hiding from her.
He nodded, seemingly satisfied with her answer and popped back to the Spirit World.
"What the heck was that all about?" Gray asked, breaking the silence that ensued.
"I have no idea," Lucy replied. But she knew how to find out.
"Lucy!"
Said blonde stopped and turned around at the sound of her name. She had been walking along the side of the river leading to her apartment after catching up with her friends at the guild. But the quick turn made her lose her balance on the slick bricks and she felt herself falling in what seemed like slow motion. The only thoughts running through her head as she fell were Those old guys are going to say 'I told you so' and Whoever called out to me is going to pay, damnit!. A shadow fell over her that she could make out, even against her closed eyelids, and warm arms wrapped around her just before she hit the water. Luckily or unluckily, the water was relatively shallow where the two landed, so neither was in any danger of drowning, but Lucy hit her still sore tail bone again on the riverbed.
Her head broke the surface as she gasped, the water just below shoulder level as she propped herself up into a sitting position. When she opened her eyes, she was met with dark green, almost black, eyes peering at her. It was too dark to make out the expression in them, but she could still make out his features in the fading light. "Natsu!"
"You okay, Luce?" Natsu was leaning over her in concern, but somehow Lucy felt her heart pick up the pace at this gesture, as he was positioned almost on top of her.
"I'm f-fine!" Lucy spluttered as she pushed him off and got to her feet. "What did you want?" Lucy asked, trying to hold onto her earlier irritation instead of letting him see her embarrassment.
Natsu got up also; already, almost invisible steam was rising up as he dried his clothes off. "I found a mission for us to go on," he said.
"But didn't you want to go with Lisana since she just came back from a mission?" Lucy asked, remembering the promise he had made with her new white haired friend.
"It's okay. I still have to make up for losing your rent money on our last mission, remember?" He grinned.
Lucy blinked at his reasoning, feeling slightly surprised that he was being so considerate about that issue. But that didn't stop a feeling of warmth spreading through her as she smiled up at him. "Yeah, sure. Thanks, Natsu."
His grin widened in acknowledgement. "Happy and me will meet you at the train at nine tomorrow morning, alright?"
"Okay," Lucy grinned back and they climbed back up onto the road. "By the way Natsu, where's Happy?" she asked curiously.
"Ah, he and Charle went out to spend some time together before we leave." Natsu answered absently. Lucy looked up at him and noticed him looking at her, but he stood silhouetted in front of the sunset so she could hardly even see his face. She frowned slightly, feeling that something was off about him. But before she could put her finger on it, another thought struck her.
"Hey! How come you get to be dry while I'm all wet?" Lucy pouted.
Natsu broke out in laughter, and whatever had been different seemed to break with it. Lucy's chin jutted out even more. He reached out and grasped her shoulders and they heated up along with Lucy. After a moment he drew them back and Lucy was dry again.
"Thanks," Lucy said simply, mollified.
"No problem," He answered, white teeth still visible as he grinned at her. "I'll walk you the rest of the way."
When Lucy looked at him questioningly, he said. "Don't want you falling in the river again."
"That was your fault, idiot!" the blonde fumed, stamping her foot.
"You're the one that fell in," Natsu laughed.
"Humph!" Lucy stomped on ahead of the grinning dragonslayer.
She didn't notice that Natsu watched her apartment from the street until a little while after her lights went off, wearing a serious expression half hidden in the shadows before he left.
Sorry that there isn't much action in this chapter, but its purpose was mainly to tie up loose ends from the last chapter, a transition to the plot, and to get the story ready for its plot. I know that Natsu is kind of out of character right now, but there is a reason for it. Next chapter be ready for the organized madness that is Hikari! On with the madness!
Seriously though, i would like to know what you think of this story so far. Till next chapter!
~Moonlight Through the Water
