***I get bored, sometimes. And sometimes boredom leads to watching tons of series on my computer, or, like now, some rather interesting stories. This would be one of them. I thought of it somewhere in between the transition between one show that I finished and the next to come. Don't get me wrong, I am currently watching that show now. I AM able to multitask at rare occasions though it tends to throw me out of sync.
I do not own Fairy Tail, nor its characters or its storyline. That would require consistency***
"I am drunk..?" it was a statement, but I still ended it as if it was a question.. kind of. Because I REALLY felt drunk.
"Yes. Yes you are," Cana Alberona confirmed before chugging the remaining.. something.. in her current barrel before putting it on the ground. A boy took it away right away. He had to be an intern due to the brief look he gave us, filled with disbelief, but his mentor had trained him well. He didn't mutter a word.
"Where are we?" was my next question, an actual question this time. The kind that would do fine with an answer. Man, my mind was off. I DID know that this wasn't Fairy Tail, however. This was some kind of bar or pub or something. A relatively low roof, smoke making the air misty, very few lights. The only one I knew was Cana, the two of us seated in a booth for ourselves, a booth shaped as a horseshoe with enough space for more than the two of us, but still only we sat there. For now. I actually woke up here. Wh would've known.
"Hargeon," she replied after the same intern came rolling in with another barrel of.. something.. and left with the money Cana gave him for it. Hargeon. We were in.. Hargeon? Why? And when did.. I didn't remember going to Hargeon.
"When..?" I asked, and to my surprise she upped her barrel and filled a small cup I hadn't noticed standing on the table in front of us. It was nothing compared to the remaining content of the barrel, but the very notion of her even thinking of sharing her booze with anyone was almost unheard of.
"Who knows, found YOU in the gutter for a change. The bartender helped me carry you in. A new boy. I think I'll get to know him better later, but first, drink." she nodded towards the cup, and I obliged, picked it up and took a sip. Rum. So I was found in the gutter? If the boy that brought my fellow Fairy Tail booze had been carrying me in here there was no wonder he gave us odd looks. Getting used to Fairy Tail behavior took time, if getting used to it was at all possible.
"Wouldn't pubs refuse to bring passed out people into their premises? They have people that would toss drunken customers out, you know." I tried to reason. If I was passed out drunk a place that served liquor wouldn't normally just let me in. It would be bad for business. Then again, my friend could be very persuasive if she wanted to, even violently so. More than once I had seen her knock out people by throwing her barrels if arguments didn't work in her favor.
"I know, but we're Fairies, and that makes a difference. This booth is permanently reserved for us, and we get to do pretty much anything we want." she said it as if it was the most self explanatory thing in the world. I didn't see her logic, so I decided to try making her explain it.
"Why?" I asked. Way to go me and my coherent questions... Oh well, it made enough sense for her to understand the basics. I could understand that Fairy Tail would WANT to have reserved areas to hang out when not in Magnolia, but I couldn't really comprehend why any place would allow that. Fairy Tail was after all known for the destruction we tended to leave behind.
"Fairy Tail is a guild known for craziness, but above all else, we are known to pay up." she explained as if she read my mind, thankfully. Now when I thought about it, I guess we HAD to be known for paying up too, or else we would become a dark guild in no time. Debt would be a weird way to go for our guild, but I was certain the council would've jumped the opportunity to disband the guild that stood for most of the destruction of private and public property in Fiore.
"Come on, drink some more," she continued urging me, and I once more obliged. I was drunk, I think, and obviously had nothing better to do. I couldn't say I was too fond of rum, but I had tasted worse. So I was found in the gutter, by Cana, and brought to a place where she seemed to be a regular. Great. At least it was a Fairy that found me rather than anyone else.
"So, what are YOU doing here then?" I asked, since she wasn't likely to know why I was here by the looks of it. She was a regular, probably. Ugh, why did I ask that? She was here drinking, obviously. But still. Maybe she was here due to something else BEFORE she decided that she wanted to go to this place for a drink. It was kind of far to just walk by.
"Don't know." she replied and proceeded to take a massive chug of her barrel. So she was here on drunk adventures too. Had I been with anyone when I decided that Hargeon was the place to go? Had I been in Hargeon to begin with, perhaps? The only thing I knew right now was that I felt drunk, and that I according to Cana was in the town of Hargeon, and that neither of us knew how we got here. Cana accepted the notion willingly, and with the amount of booze she ingested that could be understandable. I felt sort of curious however. What was I doing before?
"You know, I AM going to get to know the new kid better. You stay here, okay? Watch the booze." and with that, she stood up and started walking towards the bar area, her hips swaying seductively. I was left behind with a barrel and a cup of rum, sitting alone in the booth reserved for Fairy Tail. When left alone I got more time to think about why I had been in the gutter.
Had I been on a mission before I ended up here? If so, would the rest of Team Natsu be around looking for me, or would they be somewhere while being equally intoxicated? Or had it only been me and Natsu? Perhaps even just me? Did anyone miss me? My face felt sore. Why was that? Had I been in a fight before this? Was I injured?
"You want something to eat, miss?" came a more seasoned man, a man in his late twenties. Not a senior, perhaps, but older than the lad Cana had picked as her next victim. He seemed like the kind of person that wouldn't be surprised by just anything.
"Ah, no, I'm not that hungry, and besides, I don't have any money," I smiled, and he sat down, smiled at me too.
"I can put it on the Fairy Tail bill, we are quite known for our outstanding fried chicken wings here at The Weeping Widow. That and rum, but you already tried that," he said it in such a friendly voice. The lad seemed like the kind of person that would fit better at a bar rather than a pub. And "The Weeping Widow"? A shifty name. The famous rum might explain why Cana was here though, relatively far away from Magnolia.
"Nah, I think I'll have to pass on that. When did I get here?" I asked the question. He seemed like a nice guy. He might help me figure out SOME details.
"A few hours ago. Walt over there carried you in after Cana persuaded him. Poor kid, he doesn't stand a chance against a woman like her," he chuckled as he sent a glance across the darkened room where the two of them were situated. I could hardly see them due to the smoke and the sparse light. So I had been here for at least a couple of hours. Perhaps more. Good to know.
"You were dead drunk, apparently, but you don't strike me as a binge drinker," he continued, and my attention went back to the guy in from of me. Light blue hair, piercing blue eyes and a smile that might suggest that though he was nice now, he might have a wilder side to him too.
"How would you know that?" I asked back, and his grin widened. Definitely a wild side there. He pointed to the cup that was all but full even with the sips I had taken out of it. A clear sign of someone that was less seasoned in the arts of drinking.
"I know my stuff. My old man used to run this place, though my Ma took over after he died. Name's Jack, by the way. Everyone calls me Jack. I haven't seen you around before, so who're you?" he asked me, ignored a call for refills from one of the other booths. I saw an old woman with grey hair respond to the call. This mans mother, apparently.
"I'm Lucy. Lucy of Fairy Tail." I replied. There was no harm in telling this man my name, after all. He already gave me his, so even though I didn't technically know him, it felt like the right thing to do.
"A nice name. Now I don't know much about guilds, Lucy of Fairy Tail, but I know there are something called teams. You on a team or are you going solo like your friend?" he asked. He sure was a curious one, that Jack. Of course I WAS in a team, and sort of proud to be too. Erza had made sure of that.
"You're right, some people DO form teams within a guild. I'm a member of Team Natsu," I replied, took another sip of the rum The Weeping Widow allegedly was famous for. I guess it wasn't THAT bad. It had a sort of rich taste I could appreciate in my already existing level of intoxication. When I sobered up again it would probably taste foul once more.
"Wow! THE Team Natsu? As in the strongest team in Fairy Tail? Impressive!" Jack praised me, and I laughed. I guess my team would be quite famous.
"And surprising, I bet. As well as not being a professional drinker I don't seem like your typical super strong mage." I continued.
"I didn't say a thing about that." he protested, but I saw through him.
"But you thought it. Don't worry, you're sort of right. Sometimes I wonder why I'm on that team myself," the last statement was more of a muttering before I took another sip from my cup, let the alcohol work its magic. I was drunk. I think. Or at least I thought I was, though the effect was going away faster than I'd anticipated. Strange…
"I'm sure you're a strong mage. Not anyone would've been able to prove themselves against the Titania or the Salamander." he argued, and I chuckled.
"Natsu's a dork once you get to know him, and Erza really is nice when she's not punishing people, though she's still scary as hell, while Gray is nice as long as Natsu isn't anywhere nearby, that is if you ignore his constant stripping. I wouldn't be able to fight any of them even if I tried to," I shivered by the mere prospect of meeting any of them in close combat. I would surely die.
"Where are they now?" he asked further.
"I don't know. You don't happen to know a nearby area that's currently being leveled by Team Natsu at the moment, do you?" I asked him in a sort of playful tone, though I sort of hoped that the boy in front of me would lay out about how Team Natsu currently was destroying buildings at the other side of town. But he laughed instead. I guess that wish WAS kind of far fetched.
"No, sorry to disappoint you. I DO however know someone that might be able to contact them if you want," he suggested, and I smiled at him.
"That would be really nice!" I declared, an even brighter smile lighting up my face. Perhaps did THEY know what was going on, even if I might've not been with them before all this.
"That decides it then, come with me," he got up walked over to me as I got up too, a bit more unsteady that I thought I'd be, but he was there to support me. I noticed his garb, consisting of a black t-shirt and white shorts that reached down to his knees. He wore sandals.
"Watch out there, Lucy, the booze is still in your system, whatever it is that made you black out the first time. The rum is quite potent stuff too," he said. We started walking, the two of us, and I held onto his arm to keep my balance, briefly noting that I could see Cana no longer, though the dark kept me from being certain if she had really left the premises.
Out we went, out where I could see that this was a dark alley, a back alley that no one would venture down unless their primary goal was The Weeping Widow, or perhaps some of those shifty doors that probably led to private homes. It was silent, and it was late. The stars were barely visible up there since the streetlights didn't start before one of the bigger streets down the hill.
"Just in here, now that wasn't far at all, was it," he teased as he stopped in front of one of the shifty doors. Ah, shifty doors. But someone inside would know where the rest of my Team was, surely.
"Nah, that wasn't far at all." I answered, really DID feel the effect of the rum. He chuckled at my absentmindedness as he pushed the handle down, helped me over the threshold and into a dark room. I couldn't see a thing since there were no windows. Was this REALLY such a good idea? My brain started to question my judgement and I had almost decided that going back to the pub might be a good idea when the lights were turned on and blinded for a short moment.
It was a white room, sort of, with a filthy dirt floor almost covered by unconscious females around my age or slightly older sleeping by the walls. That was not what occurred to my blurred mind first though. Just a detail. A detail I would've thought of anyways as I recognized the person in front of me. I had once stared at him with awe, wanted to do anything to please him since I believed that he would help me accomplish my dream.
"Bora.. Bora of Prominence." I stated simply. There he was, with the same blue hair, the tattoo over his right eye, even that wrecked cape of his. Bora, the man I had believed to be Salamander. A man working in the human trafficking business. Shit. I reached for my keys, keys that weren't there. Double shit. Since when had I been without my keys? Had I ever had them during my current stay in Hargeon? The ground was swaying beneath me, reminding me of that time on the boat when this very man had tossed my keys into the ocean.
"Well well, darling, we meet again. Revenge's a bitch, aint it but?" he stated sweetly right before my knees hit the ground and I felt the rest of my body falling. Shit was not a covering word for this. Damn neither. I was utterly fucked. Screwed. And I STILL didn't know how I got here in the first place. Damn, I was tired...
***Because my series are important, and besides, I don't normally exceed my usual limit of around 2000 words in the early stages. This was intended to be a one shot, but when Bora decided that he wanted to enter the show I could hardly refuse the idea that formed around his appearance. I might continue this, extend it to be a two shot or something. If I decide that it earns a place amongst my stories exceeding the two chapter limit I might dedicate an own brilliant Title to it rather than a mere chapter or two. Depends if I find my own continuation to be entertaining enough***