Hey guys! I missed my holiday deadline! Actually, I set Martin Luther King Day as the next upload date, but I completely forgot about New Year's, so... technically I missed it but also made it...? Yay?
So anyway, the theme of this chapter is (and I use the term loosely) three's a crowd. Not much more to say than that, so... here we go.
I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters, Hiro Mashima does.
Lucy walked into the guild with a clear purpose: find a job to pay her rent, and get it done before her landlady started to chew her out about it. To that end, she needed to find a job before Natsu did, otherwise they'd be fighting some monster and causing massive property damage in the process, which of course would mean no rent for poor Lucy.
She didn't bother asking if Natsu was here yet, having arranged for Lisanna to, shall we say, "distract" him for the morning until she could find a job that involved absolutely zero fighting, or at least had a snowball's chance in Hell of ending with them having to pay for any sort of repairs. How Lisanna got him to not go wild whenever they worked together was beyond her.
Approaching the job board, she thumbed through the available requests, murmuring to herself as she went. "Deliver a parcel to Oak Town... No... Find a lost item... That could go wrong fast... Ooh! Fabian's putting on a production of Beauty and the Beast!"
"Nah, that sounds boring," said a voice from behind her.
"It is not boring!" said Lucy passionately. "It's one of the all-time greatest love stories, an enduring classic! Just because you-!" She froze when she realized it was Natsu she was talking to. "Kyaaah!"
"Ah! What?!" exclaimed Natsu. "Is there something on my face?!"
"No!" said a shocked Lucy. "Weren't you supposed to be spending the morning with Lisanna?!"
"I'm sorry, Lucy," said Lisanna. "Happy flew in, and he ended up distracting Natsu from my distraction, and..."
"Happy," Lucy muttered under her breath. "Of course that damn cat would ruin everything."
"Eh?! What did I do?!" asked Happy indignantly.
"Whatever," said Natsu. "Let's just grab a job and head out." He grabbed a random job from the board and looked at it. "Aw, sweet!" he cheered. "Bodyguard job!"
"Absolutely not!" said Lucy. "I am not sacrificing another month's worth of rent for you to destroy everything!"
"It can't be that bad," said Lisanna. "Generally, bodyguard jobs are mostly status symbols for wealthy nobles."
"Aye," said Happy. "You should know all about that, Lucy."
"And when they aren't, you get to smack down a few strong guys!" said Natsu. "You win either way!"
Lucy sighed. There was no way Natsu would agree to anything else now. "All right, fine," she said. "Let's look at the job." She took the job Natsu grabbed and skimmed it over, only to come away with a blush. "We can't do this job, Natsu," she said.
"Whaaat?! Why not?" Natsu complained.
"The flyer says "couples only," explained Lucy.
"So what?" said Natsu.
"So A: we're not a couple, and B: you're dating Lisanna, so we can't even pretend!"
"I don't mind," said Lisanna. "I mean, it's just for one job, and I trust you guys not to take it too far."
"I mind!" said Lucy. "It's the principle of the thing! I'm not stealing another girl's boyfriend, even on a temporary basis!"
"Hang on!" said Natsu. "What if Lisanna and I act as the couple for the job, and Lucy joins us as our maid?"
"What?!" exclaimed Lucy. "No! Just once can you not give me the short end of the stick?"
"I ain't giving you anything like that, though!" said Natsu.
"Actually, you kind of are," said Lisanna.
"No, 'cause if she's the maid, she can just show up in her Virgo form!" explained Natsu. "Then she'll be ready to go if it comes to a fight!"
"Hey, yeah, I hadn't thought of that," said Lucy. "I just wish you had explained it that way to start with."
"Then that's the plan!" said Natsu. "Oi, Mira! We're taking this job!"
Lisanna had one more question. "How long can you maintain Virgo in Stardress mode?"
Lucy balked at the question. Neither she nor Natsu had considered that. "We'll just have to see, won't we?" she said with a smile.
"Natsu, you jerk..."
The job finished early, mostly because the client had made several perverted remarks at Lucy's expense, and it ultimately reached a breaking point. Lisanna was seething, Natsu made his rage known in between bouts of motion sickness, Happy had a serious look on his face, and Lucy was busy worrying she would make everything worse.
"Lisanna..." she said gently. "It's okay. Really."
"No it's not!" said Lisanna sharply.
"Really," said Lucy. "I've dealt with enough perverts to know that they're not worth the effort."
"I know," said Lisanna. "But you just don't tell a woman to her face that her breasts aren't real! And belittling service people on top of that!"
"That doesn't mean you should gorilla punch the creep!" said Lucy. "Especially when he's the client!" In reality, the Celestial mage was relieved she wouldn't have to be working for that slimebucket. But having to go back to Fairy Tail and explain Lisanna punching out their perv of a client... not so much.
"Yeah. Sorry," huffed Lisanna. "It was pretty cathartic, though."
"How so?" asked Lucy.
"I heard at least five comments about Mira-nee's breasts a day when we were waiting tables for a year," said Lisanna. "I just didn't want you to put up with that kind of crap."
"As long as I have these," said Lucy, gesturing to her breasts. "I'll pretty much have to. Those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind, right?"
"He still deserved it," pouted Lisanna.
"Hey, how come you never said anything, Natsu?" asked Happy.
"About... what?" Natsu wheezed.
"You've felt Lucy's boobs before," said Happy. "You know what they feel like!"
"I have...?"
"...When did this happen?" asked Lisanna with a glare.
"The dragon invasion at the Grand Magic Games!" said Happy. "Remember? Zirconis burnt Lucy's clothes off, and she was naked, and you grabbed her boobs, and she yelled at you..."
"I was covering them up!" shouted Natsu. "She was freaking out over it and I didn't have anything else to give her, so I did what made sense at the time!" When he finished speaking, he put his hand to his mouth to try and stifle the motion sickness a little.
"It's not like I asked the idiot to do that," said Lucy.
"I believe you," said Lisanna. "You still don't understand Natsu's logic like I do."
"Honestly, I hope I never do," said Lucy.
"So what are you gonna do for rent?" asked Happy.
"I dunno," said Lucy. "I guess we'll go kill a monster or something."
"Yay!" cheered Happy and Natsu.
Lucy smiled, despite knowing how the new job was likely to end. She'd heard three was a crowd, but Natsu, and now Lisanna, knew exactly how to make her feel like she belonged.
And there you go!
I wanted to show that Lisanna could be protective of Lucy just as much so as Natsu, especially when she has to deal with perverts. The ultimate goal was (and is) to illustrate just how important Lucy is to the couple that are her friends. Hopefully I drove that point home, and if not, I have 23 more chances to do it, and as we all know, 23 is No. 1.
So that's it, all. 'Til next time, I guess.
