Four: Don't Go There


"Lucy, you look terrible."

The sickly stellar spirit mage could only nod grimly in Gray's direction. Lucy knew she looked like a mess having been bedridden for the past four days, but that just couldn't be helped. She was just thankful that she was now strong enough to get up and walk around.

"That's tactful, Gray," Erza said making the ice alchemist flinch as she came up to their table and sat down beside them. "Lucy, I'm glad to see you. I take it you're feeling better?"

"Yeah, thanks." Lucy managed a smile as she pulled her jacket around her.

"I thought you'd be in good hands after Natsu offered to take care you. It just seems like you got worse and worse though, doesn't it?"

Lucy laughed lamely thinking it'd be better not to tell Erza that it was because of Natsu that she had actually gotten sick.

"Where is Natsu, by the way?" Erza asked as she looked around the guild.

The blonde shrugged but also gave a quick look as well, hoping to find a glimpse of the dragonslayer's rosy-colored hair among the throng of mages.

"OOPS, HEADS UP!"

The three teammates jumped out of their seats as a beer keg came crashing down on their table, splattering the wooden top with foaming beer.

"What do you think you're doing, Kana?" Erza called to the drunk girl who was currently swinging from one of the chandeliers.

"Nothing, Erza. Relaaax! I'm just having my usual brunch. Three shots of tequila, a mimosa and four kegs of beer. Well, make that three since I lost that last one." Kana hiccuped and smiled down to the redhead.

"You'd better clean this up now."

"Naw, naw. After brunch. Hey, Mira! Another one!"

Even though Lucy felt ill, it was still easy for her detect the ominous waves rolling off of Erza. The whole guild felt the tension in the air and discreetly backed away from the brawl that was bound to occur.

"Lucy, I think you should leave," Gray mumbled out of the corner of his mouth as he nudged her toward the doors of the guild.

"Yeah, I think so too," Lucy nodded and weaved through the tables and chairs on her way to the exit. Sure enough, as she was out of the doors, there were yells, clanging of metal and a slight shaking of the ground.

A heap of dust fell from the roof onto Lucy's nose making her sneeze. Sniffling, Lucy shook her head and took a few steps away from the guild before she felt nauseous. The smell of the beer from before lingered in her nose despite the cold, fresh air outside. Beer wasn't frog skin and orange rind juice but at this point, it definitely sounded just as disgusting to the sick girl.

"Uggghhhh," Lucy grumbled irritably as she started to make her way home again as quick as she could. The guild behind her echoed chants of the other mages egging the two girls on inside.

"Feeling sick, are you?" Lucy turned around and saw Gazille leaning against the side of the guild's wall, smirking. He twirled a thin rod of metal nimbly between his fingers before popping it in his mouth. Lucy gave him a dead-panned look; she was in no humor to bully the iron dragonslayer.

"Yeah. I'm heading home."

Instead of offering words of sympathy, Gazille burst out laughing. "I bet it was that idiot, Natsu's fault, wasn't it?"

The blonde immediately perked up at the mention of her teammate's name. "What?"

"Everyone's been talking about it," Gazille walked toward Lucy and crossed his arms. "They say it's so sweet how Natsu's trying to be a mother."

Lucy bristled at the mocking tone of his voice. "They didn't say that. You're just making it up."

"Oh, am I? They said he took you home, tucked you in and even tried cooking," Gazille bent down to Lucy's level and ticked off the duties Natsu had attempted to do on his fingers. "He's quite the homemaker."

"Hey! You stop making fun of him, Gazille," Lucy scolded as she stared unflinchingly into his eyes. "He's doing the best he can."

"Really?" Gazille gave Lucy one look over. "'Cause it seems like you're not getting any better. He's failing pretty badly at being your nurse."

"THAT'S IT!" Lucy yelled and stamped her foot. She closed the distance between herself and the iron dragonslayer in one step. "You leave Natsu alone! I mean, what the hell is your problem, asshole?!"

Gazille, surprised by Lucy's temper, backed away from the girl but it was no use. He cowered under her rage and shrank even further as she stuck out an accusing finger and jabbed it at his chest. "You listen here, Gazille. You need to grow the fuck up and stop sticking your stupid iron nose into other people's business!"

Gazille backed into the door and tripped over the threshold, falling inside the guild where Lucy stood over him menacingly. Her cheeks were flush from either her rising fever or ferocious anger but it was hard to pinpoint, and Gazille found it terrifying to look anywhere else but her fiery brown eyes glaring down at him.

The guild had momentarily paused their cheering during Erza and Kana's battle to witness this new scuffle. But after seeing that it was Lucy taking on the almighty bully, Gazille, they erupted into wild roars again.

"GO ON, LUCY! STICK IT TO 'IM!!"

"YEAH, NOW HERE'S A MATCH THAT I WOULDN'T EXPECT! LESEE SOME ACTION, GUYS!"

"ARE YOU GUYS, CRAZY? WHAT IF LUCY GETS KILLED? I MEAN IT'S GAZILLE, FOR CRIPE'S SAKE!"

"FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FAIRY TAIL STYLE, FIIIIIIIIGHT!!!"

Hearing the crowd's excitement, Gazille finally snapped to his senses and jumped back to his feet. He wouldn't be embarrassed by this tiny little harpy, no matter how shrill she was. He was just caught off guard is all. There was no way in hell that she could beat him.

Gazille smirked as he puffed out his chest and cracked his metal encased hands. "You want to fight that badly, bunny girl? Over something like that idiot of a dragonslayer?"

Lucy narrowed her eyes in defiance, feeling adrenaline course through her veins. "Yeah, that's right."

"Well then, bring out your stellar spirits and we'll get this party started."

Lucy reached for her keys but felt her fingers grasp at air. Remembering that she'd left them at home, Lucy tried to play it off cool by waving her hand as if dismissing Gazille's comment. "I don't need my keys to kick your sorry ass."

The crowd gave her the obliging 'ooohhhh' and backed away to give them space.

"Fine, this'll be even simpler." Gazille raised a hand to deliver the first blow.

"Wait, Gazille, you're really not going to..."

"Someone stop him!"

"JOKE'S OVER, GAZILLE! DON'T HURT LUCY!"

The anxiety of the guild rose and all of the previous fun was wiped away as the Fairy Tail mages froze, waiting to see if Gazille would really cross the line.

"Don't worry," Gazille smiled. "It's only gonna take a flick on the forehead to settle this." And he raised his fingers to Lucy's face.

The stellar spirit mage stood her ground bravely, staring down Gazille's iron-clad, bunched up fist headed straight for her.

Before Erza and Gray could even move to stop him, a hand shot out from behind Lucy and grabbed Gazille's coiled fingers. In the blink of an eye, the hand burst into flames and pushed Gazille flying back and crashing into a table.

Lucy's jaw dropped as she turned to her left and saw Natsu standing there eyeing the ex-Phantom mage dangerously. "What are you doing, Gazille?"

"Ooh, I like that tone, Salamander," Gazille mocked as he pushed himself free of the debris.

"I asked you what you were doing?" Natsu repeated himself and stepped a few paces in front of Lucy facing down his opponent. The fire around his right fist grew and Lucy could see the orange and red flames pulsate as if itching to burn its next victim.

"I was going to take on your patient, Nurse Natsu. But you interrupted just in time. Lucky you," Gazille then looked at the girl behind Natsu. "Or should I say, lucky Lucy."

That was the last straw for Natsu. A wall of fire surrounded the fire dragonslayer and he charged head first at Gazille. "SHE'S SICK, YOU BASTARD!!!"

Gazille merely stood his ground, put up a hand and gently flicked Natsu on the forehead. The act was so out of character that Natsu stumbled, stopped, and rubbed the spot.

Lucy and the rest of the guild facepalmed at the anti-climatic showdown of the dragonslayers.

"What the hell was that?" Natsu asked as he examined his finger for any blood. "Didn't even hurt..."

"That," Gazille waved dismissively, "Was what I was going to do to your girlfrien-!" He was cut short by yet another flick on the forehead- this time, it was from Natsu's end. Unfortunately for Gazille, Natsu hadn't held back so the force made Gazille's head snap backwards. "HEY, YOU IDIOT! THAT HURT!"

"Well, I didn't say it wasn't going to hurt," Natsu retorted as yet another confrontation threatened to break out.

Lucy attempted to grab Natsu's scarf to pull him back, but it was too late. The two boys began to throw around more verbal warfare that quickly escalated to shooting fireballs and metal projectiles.

"Great," Lucy sighed as a fresh wave of fatigue hit her- she decided that she'd had enough excitement for one day. In fact, it was enough excitement for any normal day let alone one in which she was feeling particularly ill.

"FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!"

This time, it seemed all of Fairy Tail joined in the scuffle and Lucy ducked under an overturned table as a shield.

"Haa, sometimes, this guild is just too much," Lucy said fondly as she peeked out from behind the safety of the table. Watching the melee between her friends, she suddenly caught Natsu's gleaming eye as he stood near the perimeter of the scuffles. He grinned at her.

"Natsu, I-" Lucy started but he had already turned his attention back to the brawl and punched Gazille in the nose.

In doing so, Natsu missed Lucy's outstretched hand which was quickly pulled back.

"Yup, sometimes, it's just too much."


A/N: The cover of latest FT special makes my day. I like how I completely missed Happy being there until my friend pointed it out. My excuse...uh, blue makes him not stand out? lol

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! :)