A/N: Recently I found out how to fix my grammar and spelling errors..., and I might have added a detail or two. For the past weeks I thought that my corrections were already being made public, but alas it wasn't. Point is it's fixed. If by any chance their still are some mistakes, I am sorry. Other than that enjoy. 7/3/17
With the sunning shining bright over Magnolia, the reception a small and intimate affair with no more than fifty including the band itself, was held outside a private venue on a cliff, overlooking the town. Lucy hadn't been too many weddings herself, but the one's that she had attended were big with over four hundred on the guest list and very luxurious. Usually held in a mansion, with servers working the floors with a serving platter with the best sustenance Fiore could offer, from truffles with small flecks of gold to imported caviar from Hargeon Port. Guests would arrive in limousines and while other's on their private helicopters. Yet, if anyone were to ask her which she preferred she would respond, "small and intimate" as opposed to inviting the duke's second cousin who is married to the king's nephew and owns a vineyard somewhere in Crocus. Mind you, she has never met that person; but her father would invite them just to see if he could make them a potential backer for the railways.
"Wedding cakes are the best, don't you agree," She heard a familiar voice next to her. Erza takes the seat in front of her. The red head barely sits down when she's already putting a fork full of cake into her mouth. "The strawberry cream is very well made." She smiles, "So Lucy, Natsu tells me you have a way with words."
Not knowing how to respond, she nods, "I suppose so."
Erza waves her hand in front of her, "Don't be too modest, Natsu sent me a recording of "Alone" and I must say I was very impressed in the way you express your emotions so vividly, raw," She continues. "It sounds like it came from somewhere very personal."
Well it did come from my notebook, she thinks to herself.
"Either way I am glad that you were able to share your lyrics with the band."
"Lyrics." She says under her breath. Not poem, but lyrics.
"Yes lyrics," She repeats. "Was that not the intention?"
"Not exactly."
Erza raises an eyebrow, sending a chill down Lucy's spine, she looks at Natsu who is setting up the microphone to his height. He looks up from the mic and their eyes meet, he grins and waves at her.
"What did Natsu do?" She asks, her tone turning serious.
Not being able lie to the red head, the blonde sings like a canary. She sighs, "…he was doing it for his band. But I personally gave it to him so—."
"That fool," Erza growls. "I thought I told him not to take others belongings."
"There's no—"
"I am sorry for the damaged that he has caused you." Erza crosses her arms, "But do not fear I will go and teach Natsu a lesson about not taking things that don't belong to him." A dark aura emanating from her that very second.
Sorry Natsu.
"She looks good in that dress." Loke puts a hand on Natsu's shoulder, as he looks at the blonde sitting in the back table. "Now I'm never one to question the presence of a gorgeous woman, but how'd you do it Natsu?'
"Do what?" He asks.
"Get Lucy to be your date."
Natsu adjusts the mic, "What?" He says incredulously, "Lucy's not my date." The mic picks up his voice, blasting his voice into all the speakers. He immediately notices the crowd, giving him a weird look. His eyes land on Lucy, who is beet red and fanning herself hoping to look nonchalant.
"Smooth." Gray takes his spot near the front man.
Natsu clears his throat. Tapping the mic, "Guess it works." He says into the microphone. "So umm now that, that is taken care of I am Natsu Dragneel and we're the 5 Spades." He looks to his band mates. Gajeel lets out a low chuckle; Loke gives him a sarcastic smile and a thumbs up, while Gray stands there feeling second hand embarrassment for the idiot. Coal for brains.
Laxus rolls his eyes and nods; he picks up his drumsticks. "One, two, three." He taps.
Gajeel strums his bass guitar with fingers skating along the fret board, playing the intro. Laxus joins in with a hit to kick drum, followed by Loke who's fingers dance along the key board. Natsu and Gray exchange small smiles and begin to the play. Natsu begins to sway from side to side, hand firmly placed on the microphone, he sings. For a song that is supposed to be cheesy 80's one hit, the band makes it work. Rather than playing it as a pop song, the 5 Spades cover it as a slow song for the bride and groom's first dance. From far away Natsu could see Lucy and Erza in the back table taping their fingers on the table, Natsu can't help but to grin as he continues singing.
"They're really good." Lucy smiles.
Erza nods, "Natsu may be impulsive, loud, and immature, but he is a real performer."
Lucy couldn't agree more.
"It's a good start," Erza comments. "However the real show is to begin."
After the first dance is over, Natsu get's this confident look on his face. He's not the only one, the rest of band have the same look on their, even Laxus he is known to be stoic for the most part, is grinning. Laxus twirls the drumsticks between his fingers and begins to play, his arms moving at lightning speed as he hits the drums. Loke stops the playing the keyboard and reaches down for something, a keytar. He joins the three men at the front. The three, Gray, Gajeel, and Loke begin to play. Gray and Loke go back to back, as Gajeel begins to shred it on the bass. Natsu sides steps, passes the mic stand between his legs, bringing it up back up.
"The 5 Spades are good," Erza adds. "But F5 is great."
She could actually see that being the case, the 5 spades had an energy like no other, but the other day that she saw Natsu just playing by himself as part of F5 there was a different kind of energy—presence, which Lucy who's good with words couldn't describe. There was no doubt that F5 was the superior band, with just a guitar and Natsu singing, it had left its mark with the blonde.
Erza then turn towards her and folds her hands on top of the table, "I am frank person and as such I will cut to the chase, as you already know we are in need of a lyricist."
Lucy nods.
"The demo that Natsu made has resonated with me in the seconds that I've heard the song, which leads me to this, Lucy how, would like to be the new lyricist for F5?"
She freezes on the spot. A lyrist? A writer, yes. Publishing and writing stories in the future, definitely. But a lyricist? She didn't even consider herself a poet, she did that to blow off steam.
"Lucy." Erza's tone softens. "Anyone can write, essays, research papers and so on, but only a few could make art out of their writing and I believe that's what you are. In your most simplest form you're an artist. You may not sing, act, paint, but you are an artist. I know someone who is an encyclopedia of knowledge, she could practically write her own if she wishes so, but she doesn't have what you and that's art. Your purpose was not to write a song, but to express your feelings, yet can't you say that music is the same."
"I don't know," She knew the structure of poetry but to convert it into lyrics she felt like a fish out of water. "Honestly Erza, I consider myself more of a writer than a poet."
"Nevertheless you do write poetry, do you not?"
She nods, "I do, but only as a pass time, more like something I use to clear my head."
"Well if this you merely clearing your head, I would be more interested in reading what you actually intend to write," Erza smiles. "Don't answer just yet, please take time to consider the proposition."
"Okay."
Good money. I'll have enough for the rent and enough for groceries. Tonight we eat like kings. On the other side of the door he could already hear laughter. He knocks on the door.
"I'll get it." He hears the voice of a little boy.
"Yo." He greets.
"Uncle Natsu!" The blonde seven-year-old jumps into his arms.
"Larcade." Natsu hugs his nephew back.
"Mom. Mom! Uncle Natsu is here." The boy smiles.
Another little boy pops his head out of the door. "Uncle Natsu." August tackles his uncle onto the floor.
"Let's wrestle." The blonde haired boys shout in unison. Larcade climbs on to Natsu's chest "pinning" him to the ground.
"Boys." Mavis leans against the doorframe. "No wrestling in the hallway."
"Hey Mavis." He greets from under the boys.
"Natsu." She stifles a laugh.
"Boys let's take this inside of the house." He dusts himself off. August jumps on his back holding on by wrapping his arms around Natsu's neck, while Larcade grabs onto a leg.
"To the living room." August orders.
"Aye sir." Natsu grins.
"I see you played another wedding?"
Natsu looks down at himself still dressed in a white tuxedo, "Yeah it was pretty good, but the pay was better, we didn't have any money cut from our check." How was he suppose to know that ice sculptures are so delicate? But the worst part was when the bride tackled him and started throwing punches at him for ruining her masterpiece. It took Erza, Laxus, and the groom to pry the bride off the pink haired front man.
"That's good." Mavis sets an extra plate on the table for him.
"Quick time out boys," He tosses them on the couch, and runs towards the small dining room. "Whoa Mavis step away from the table."
"Natsu?"
"We're celebrating," He smiles. "Go and get your purse, I'm taking you and the boys out to eat."
"Where?" Larcade asks.
"Wherever you guys want?"
"Let's go to that place we saw on t.v," Larcade says.
"Oh yeah the one with the pizza and the games," August adds. "The Red Pizza Planet. Yeah let's go there."
"Let's go." Natsu grins.
The Red Pizza Planet is a family entertainment center known for having an arcade, laser tag, bowling, and a giant indoor jungle where children go and play inside multi-colored tubes and slide down slides for hours, however, it's infamously known for their pizza also known as the Red Planet. A 16 inch pizza pie made with the best dough, a sauce made out of real tomatoes where the small chunks are still visible, pepperoni and sausages covering the entire surface, finally topped off with the hottest chili pepper Magnolia had produced, the Dragon seed.
"We have to get the Red Planet." Natsu ruffles the boy's hair.
"No." The three say in unison.
While Natsu Dragneel could handle the Dragon seed, most "normal" people would far away from it due to its intensity. According to some scientists, side effects we're not pleasant, from dehydration to indigestion and so on.
"Fine," He pouts. "but I'm going to ask for dragon seeds on the side."
"I still don't understand how you can stand those." Mavis lets out a small laugh.
"One kid at school says that his friend's neighbor dad ate a dragon seed and had a heart attack." Larcade dramatically presses his hands to his chest.
Mavis shakes her head, "That's not possible…I think." She says to herself.
Leaving their pizza crusts behind the two boys race towards the jungle gym leaving the two adults behind to talk.
"They seem happy." He takes a bite out of his pizza as he keeps an eye on the boys.
"You're spoiling them." Mavis playfully rolls her eyes.
"I'm the cool uncle."
She nods, "But you didn't have to do this."
"I wanted to." He says with a mouthful of pizza.
"We could've ordered pizza at home," She says. "We could've saved thirty seven jewels, which would've been enough to feed Happy and Carla, their tuna and salmon. Not to mention you could've paid off your tab at Fairy Tail."
Natsu swallows hard, bad move on his part considering the owner of said restaurant is sitting in front of him. "Yeah," He gives her a nervous smile. "I'll pay it off soon."
"Good," She sighs. "Still you didn't have to do this Natsu."
"That's what family is for." he relaxes into his seat.
"You have two jobs and you play at weddings on the weekends," She takes a sip from her water. "You take care of Wendy."
"She's family," He says. Wendy, he didn't realize he would miss his cousin so much after she went off to a science camp for four weeks, on the plus side she would be returning home tomorrow. "But you guys are too. You're my sister, wife to my brother, mother to my nephews, how can I not want to spend on you guys."
"Natsu," She says in a small voice. "Thank you." Ever since Zeref's passing six years ago, things had been rough for the owner of Fairy Tail. For starters, the house that she and her family lived in for ten years had been sold to the bank in exchange for money to pay for Zeref's treatment. After that, she had no choice but to sell Fairy Tail, luckily for her, Makarov Dreyar was there. Yet it didn't matter how much they spent on treatment for her husband's condition, in the end it wasn't enough to save him. Through thick and thin, Fairy Tail was there for her, but most of all was her brother in-law, Natsu. He visits the boys almost every day, he got another job just to help her get stable, and still at the end of each month, he gives her a couple hundred jewels.
"Don't mention it."
Sensing that he was adamant on his final answer, she changed the topic. "So how's the search for the lyricist going?"
"We found her," He grins. "Her name's Lucy."
"Is she good?"
"She's great. She's funny and very smart, and a little weird, but that's what makes her fun to be around. "
She questions with an all knowing smirk. "I was asking if she is a good writer."
He doesn't think it over twice when he answers, "Definitely."
"Interesting," She continues smirking. "How you mentioned her qualities first."
"I guess." He shrugs.
"I was asking about her writing skills," She says. Knowing Natsu, he didn't have the slightest clue to what she was insinuating. Mira will enjoy hearing about this.
"She's awesome. Here listen to this." He hands her his phone and plays the song for her. "It's a demo that I made for the guys."
Hearing the soft strums of the guitar, she feels her heart starting to beat fast, taking her back to the time she met her husband. It was a summer day, she had barely returned from visiting her friend's grave, when she saw two boys playing guitar. One was an older boy with jet-black hair, with a black guitar on his lap, the other a younger looking boy with a fascinated look on his face as he watched the older boy play.
"Whoa." The pink haired boy stares with awe. "Zeref, I want to play just like you. Teach me, okay."
She couldn't help but also be fascinated by the boy with the guitar.
"Alright." he smiles.
"…don't leave me alone." He sings. "Cuz I don't know where to go."
With that last note, she's brought back to the present. Her heart pounding in her chest, hands tightly clenched, tears streaming down her face.
"You okay." He places a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm fine." She says.
"You sure?" He asks.
Mavis nods and lets out a small laugh, "Yeah, I'm fine. Thank you."