Chapter 4- Beach Party?
Juvia woke up the next day feeling refreshed and relaxed. Usually she wouldn't, but the bed was so comfy she lied down for a few more minutes. Then she remembered that the town could get attacked at any minute so she quickly did her morning routine and got ready. After she was done, she left the room and decided to see if Natsu was up so she knocked on his door.
"Natsu-san." Juvia called as she knocked.
"Natsu-san." She tried again. She was about to knock again when one of the staff members came up to her.
"Miss? If you're looking for the young man with the scarf, he left his room a few hours ago." She told her.
"Oh, thank you." Juvia replied curtly. She then went back down to the lobby where she ran into Natsu.
"Yo, Juvia! Finally up, are ya?" Natsu called over.
"Good morning to you too, Natsu-san. And yes, Juvia woke up a while ago."
"You have breakfast yet? This place has a great buffet."
"Not yet. Natsu-san has already eaten, then?"
"Yeah, when I woke up a few hours ago. I'm a little hungry now though, this place has a great gym."
"Is that what Natsu-san has been doing?"
"Yeah. Morning's a great time to work out. Wanna eat?" he offered. Juvia smiled and nodded. Natsu led her to the hotel's restaurant, where sure enough, there was a breakfast buffet. Juvia could see that there were plates upon plates of food.
"Wow, Natsu-san. You were right. There's so much food!"
"Heh, not for long." Natsu said, grinning evilly, causing Juvia to worry slightly.
"Really, Natsu-san? All that?" Juvia asked, eying the giant stack of food Natsu had in front of him.
"Yeah! This is actually less than what I'd normally get, but this is my second meal today." Natsu said as he dug in.
"Juvia doesn't know if she should be worried or impressed." She mumbled to herself.
"Is that all you're gonna eat?" Natsu asked, looking at her one plate.
"For now, yes. Juvia will just get more when she's finished with this plate."
"Why not just get it all at once? Then you don't have to make so many trips."
"Because it… it would… Juvia doesn't really know." She stammered. She honestly couldn't think of a reason.
"Shee, ish a good idea. You shud do it thoo." Natsu said between bites.
"Natsu-san! It's impolite to talk while chewing." She told him. Natsu swallowed all the food in his mouth in one gulp and grinned sheepishly.
"Eheh, yeah. Erza told me that a while ago. Sometimes I forget, sorry."
"It's ok. Just try to remember ok? Juvia is going to get more food." She said as she got up. Natsu expected her to bring back a plate or two but he was surprised when she brought back six plates full to the brim of food.
"Woah."
"Is something the matter?" Juvia asked.
"No, just, that's a lotta food. Didn't expect that much from you."
"Well, Ju-Juvia must eat more than oth-other girls because Juvia has a high metabolism. She also needs to eat more to maintain h-her water body." Juvia explained, slightly embarrassed.
"Cool. Hey, did you try the kebobs? They're so good!" Natsu said, offering some of his to her. Juvia happily took some as she and Natsu ate their breakfast. Bystanders would later remark that they'd never seen so much food be eaten so quick. Others were just jealous that those who ate it didn't seem to get any bigger.
"Man, that was good!" Natsu said, stretching as he and Juvia left the hotel.
"It really was, Natsu-san. What should we do now?"
"Go to the harbor? We can wait there and see if the kraken might show up." Natsu suggested.
"Spend all day at the harbor and just wait?"
"Well, it's part of a beach too. We can hang out there." Natsu informed.
"A beach?" Juvia mused aloud. "Sure, maybe we should get some beach supplies though, enjoy our time there?" she suggested.
"Juvia, that's great! The hotel's gotta have some stuff! BEACH PARTY!" Natsu cheered, dashing inside to no doubt get beach gear. Juvia chuckled and went inside as well to get ready.
Soon after, the two met outside ready to go. Juvia changed into shorts and a tank-top, wearing her bikini underneath and carried a basket while Natsu just wore beach shorts and his scarf wrapped around his head while carried lots of beach gear including multiple beach balls.
"Are you sure you need all that, Natsu-san?"
"Yeah! Can't have a beach party without all this stuff." Natsu stated.
"It's just us, Natsu-san. Juvia doesn't think that makes it a party." Juvia told him and Natsu almost deflated immediately, dropping everything he was carrying.
"Bu-but we can still have fun at the beach!" Juvia quickly said, trying to cheer him up.
"Beach party…"Natsu mumbled quietly.
"Juvia brought snacks." She tried to cheer him up. Natsu perked up a little.
"Snacks?"
"Yes, and we could still fight the kraken as well."
"Alright! C'mon Juvia, what are you waiting for?" Natsu said, rushing down to the harbor. Juvia just sighed and picked up one of the beach balls that Natsu dropped and followed after him, passing through an open market that lied just before the beach. When she got there, she found that Natsu had gotten two lawn chairs under a large umbrella near where the beach met the harbor. Natsu was waving over to her.
"Natsu-san shouldn't just run and leave Juvia behind." Juvia pouted, setting her basket down and sitting on the chair.
"Eheheheh, sorry. I was just excited is all."
"Juvia can see that."
"But, hey, at least it's a nice day out." Natsu said, putting his hands behind his head and relaxing on the chair. Juvia couldn't help but agree as she lied down on the chair under the umbrella. The two of them relaxed comfortably until a couple beach goers noticed them.
"Hey, those marks… they're Fairy Tail mages!" one of them, a young woman said.
"Really? You sure?" the other, a young man asked.
"I'm positive! Look, the guy has a white scarf! It's Natsu the Salamander!" the girl said excitedly.
"No way! The fire dragon slayer?"
"Yeah! That means the girl has to be the Spirit mage, Lucy Heartfilia!"
"Doesn't she have blonde hair? That girl has blue hair."
"Huh? Wait… hold on… I think that's Juvia Lockser!"
"You sure know a lot about them." The guy said.
"Of course I do! Fairy Tail is the top guild in all of Fiore!"
"I wonder what they're doing here?" the guy asked and the girls eyes lit up.
"Let's ask them." She said, grabbing his arm and dragging over to them.
"Wait, no, this is a terrible ide-"
"Hi! Would you two happen to be from the Fairy Tail guild?" the girl asked the two mages. Natsu looked at the two carefully.
"Yeah. I'm Natsu, and this is Juvia." He introduced. Juvia waved politely and the girl let out a high pitched squeak, causing Natsu to cover his ears.
"I'm really sorry about her, she gets like this when she's excited." The guy apologized.
"It's fine but can she not do that again?" Natsu asked.
"So you're really Natsu and Juvia?" the girl asked.
"Ye-yeah." Natsu hesitantly replied, covering his ears just in case and for good reason too. The girl was about to squeak again but the guy covered her mouth with his hand.
"Thanks." Natsu said.
"No problem. So what are you doing in Hargeon?"
"We're here about the fire kraken."
"Oh, so that's why you're with Juvia." The girl said, breaking out from the guys grip.
"I'm Ren and this is Rei, by the way." The guy, now known as Ren said.
"What's that mean?" Natsu asked.
"It's just that usually when you do a job, you're with Lucy Heartfilia. And Juvia is either with Gray Fullbuster or Gajeel Redfox." Rei said.
"How does she know that? Is she stalking us? Are you stalking us?" Natsu asked, slightly worried.
"No, no! I read it in Sorcerer Weekly. They have the info on teams and things like that."
"Juvia is slightly worried about how they know all this."
"They have field reporters that keep track of these things. I wanna do that someday!" Rei said with conviction, but it only caused Natsu and Juvia to worry.
"Again, I'm really sorry about her, she gets… passionate about these things." Ren repeated.
"It's fine, I guess."
"Hey, is it true that Lucy Heartfilia and Gray Fullbuster are dating?" Rei foolishly asked.
"WHAT!?" both mages shrieked.
"Juvia knew that her love rival was interested in Gray-sama! But she has not won! Juvia is Gray-sama's one and only!"
"Lucy would never be interested in that stripper!" Natsu yelled, flames spewing from his mouth.
"Where did you hear this?" they both demanded of Rei, scaring the girl slightly.
"It- it was in a go-gossip coulomb." She admitted.
"Where is that pillar? I'll burn it to the ground!"
"No, Natsu-san. Not that kind of coulomb, an article in a magazine." Juvia explained.
"Well, I'll burn that too! Lucy does not like that ice-prick!" Natsu proclaimed, igniting his fists.
"Natsu-san, it's ju-just a rumour, it's not true." Ren tried to calm the pissed off dragon slayer. Natsu's flames died down.
"Really?"
"Y-yes." Ren stammered. Natsu calmed down slightly.
"Ok. But why did she ask that if it's not true?"
"Because she gets too excited and doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut at times. I'm very sorry about her, we'll leave you alone now." Ren said, dragging off a protesting Rei with him.
"Well, that wasn't fun at all." Natsu sulked.
"Juvia agrees, Juvia could have gone without listening to her lies."
"Yeah. There's no way Lucy would like that frozen idiot." Natsu mumbled, slumping back in his chair. His comment got Juvia's attention, prompting her to ask question that's been on her mind.
"Natsu-san, why do you always fight with Gray-sama? The two of you are comrades but you always are so… hostile to each other."
"We're not hostile. We're rivals. Though I'm a lot stronger. And better, and awesome-er and smarter. But we fight 'cause it's what we, do ya know? "In Fairy Tail, if you ain't brawlin' ya ain't bondin'" that's what gramps says."
"But Juvia doesn't see the girls fight."
"You kidding? Cana gets in on these whenever she can, and god help you if you mess with Erza's cake, she'll end you." Natsu warned.
"That does sound like Erza-san."
"Yup. Hell, there was even a couple times when Levy got in on the action too." Natsu said, much to Juvia's surprise.
"What? Even Levy-san? Juvia can't believe it."
"Oh yeah. She's good too. All she had to do was say a word and you'll be crushed under a boulder in no time. But that's nothing compared to Mira. When we were kids, her and Erza would go at it all the time."
"Wow, to see those two fight would be quite a sight."
"You have no idea. Back then, Mira was tied with Erza for the strongest girl in the guild. Hell, if it wasn't for Gildarts and that lightning bastard, they were probably the strongest ones in the guild."
"Is Gildarts really that strong?" Juvia asked.
"Totally! You remember the S-class exams?"
"Of course, Juvia won't be able forget that soon."
"Well, me and Happy had to fight him and he kinda sorta beat us with just his magic power…" Natsu said, slightly embarrassed.
"Wait, Juvia remembers that. There was a huge spike in magic power somewhere, you mean that was Gildarts-san?" she asked, thinking back to the enormous, crushing power she felt.
"Yeah, he's awesome. But now I have my Lightning-Flame Dragon Mode and after the power ups we got during the games, I can take him!" Natsu proclaimed confidently. Juvia laughed to humour him.
"Man, all this talk about fighting and stuff really gets me going! When's that Kraken showing up, I wanna fight somethin'!" Natsu complained. As if answering the fire mages plea, a rumbling came from the ocean. Juvia, being so close to the water, could sense that something large was approaching and was instantly alert.
"Juvia thinks that Natsu-san will get his wish soon." Juvia warned. Now Natsu could feel the rumbling as the waves that splashed on the shore became stronger until a massive tentacle erupted from the water followed by another and then another until the beast itself began to rise from the ocean. A massive dark red squid, easily larger than the guild hall, stared at the harbour and the frightened beach goers before smashing its tentacles into the ships docked on the harbour. Its head and a few tentacles then burst into flame that would go out each time they'd submerge but would re-light as soon as they met air again. Seeing all this, Natsu broke out into a wide grin.
"Alright! C'mon Juvia, let's kick this things ass!" Natsu said, igniting his fists aflame and charging at the beast.
(A/N. Hello again. I'm really sorry for the late update, I've been fasting this month and got pretty sick too and let me tell you, those two things do not mix well. At all. But I'm back and writing again. Some of you may have noticed that I started a new story but let me tell you that it will not impede on the time it takes to write this one so for now, I hope to keep my normal schedule of around once a week. As always, if you liked the chapter, leave a review!)