Hey guys!
How was your St. Patrick's Day? Mine was very green, at least everything around it was. Anyway thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows from the previous chapter! Now on with our regularly scheduled story.
Wendy's Tiring Sunday! Frostbite early in the Morning!
It was a fresh, pale blue sky that greeted the world that morning, faithfully reflected in the multiple puddles of rainwater across the ground. Wendy pushed open her window and surveyed the view with sparkling green eyes.
"Yes! It's sunny!"
"You're right," Happy assented happily. "It's like the rain last night never fell. But Wendy, you're sure up early for a Sunday."
"I'm going on a picnic to the forest park with Chelia today. Hey, you should come with us, Happy. If you stay inside the backpack, nobody will notice you. Come on!" Her enthusiasm could be contained no longer and she swept Happy up in a crushing embrace. Ignoring his muffled cries for help, she danced across the room. "I'm so glad its good weather today!"
"Good morning!"
"Morning, Wendy." Her father glanced up from his breakfast and smiled his gentle smile. She returned it, skipping to her chair with a pert giggle.
"The dragon is on cloud nine," Natsu observed cynically, causing Wendy to stop in her tracks and scowl slightly. Then she whipped around and shot him a dazzling smile.
"I'll forgive you today." Natsu almost choked, and Igneel looked up again.
"You're really in a good mood today, Wendy." Igneel commented.
"I'm going out with Chelia today." Her father's smile faded, and before she even had a chance to wonder at it, a thump on the table caused her to look over. Natsu was resting his elbows on the family's message board with a sort of resigned expression on his handsome face. "What?"
"You're doing all the chores today, correct? Did you forget that you wrote it down yourself last week?"
Wendy looked at the scribbling across the white surface of the board and felt her shoulders slump. Oh no...
"I can't do chores today! I have to go spend time practicing for the big cheerleading competition." She said.
"All right," he'd said, rather shortly. "I'll switch with you."
"Really?"
"But you have to do all the chores next Sunday." She had nodded blithely and hurried to mark the change on the board.
"Okay!"
And that was how it had happened. She was very much in charge of all the chores on Sunday, which was today. Natsu didn't wait for any acknowledgement on her part, but shrugged into his jacket and made for the front door.
"Well, I got work today."
Her father was a little more sympathetic, and collected the laundry basket from upstairs to bring down.
"It's been raining a lot lately so we have a lot of laundry. Do you want me to help out a bit?"
"You have your presentation today. I'll do it."
She smiled bravely for his benefit, and his expression softened as he leaned down to ruffle her hair.
"Thanks Wendy."
"Leave it to me!"
"Then I'll put this near the washing machine."
"I'm going now!" Natsu shouted, and the door slammed.
"I'll be heading out too." Igneel reached for his briefcase and absentmindedly straightened his tie.
"Have a good day you two!" she called out just before he left the house. And then it was just her and a long day of chores stretching ahead. She allowed herself a small sigh before picking up the phone and dialing Chelia's number.
"Oh, I see," was her characteristic response once Wendy explained the situation. "That's too bad."
"Sorry Chelia. I forgot that I was in charge of all the chores today."
"There's nothing we can do now."
"I'm really sorry."
"Don't worry about it too much. Please do your best with your chores."
"Mm. Thanks. See you at school tomorrow."
"Yes, tomorrow." Wendy hung up, and after a moment Chelia did as well. The picnic basket and camera equipment had all been stacked on the coffee table in preparation for today. It really was too bad.
"I'll bring a letter of apology with me on Monday," Wendy said aloud to the hallway. She really did feel awful for backing out. But there was nothing that could be done about it; her family was depending on her to get the job done today. She eyed the mountain of laundry in the basket and rolled up her sleeves. "I'll get to it!"
She began by scrubbing the dishes in the kitchen sink.
"How's it going, Happy?"
"Just because there's nobody at home right now, why do I have to do something like this?" he grouched in reply, struggling to load all the clothing and the soap into the machine. Finally he managed it, and pressed the button. Water began to pour into the basin.
Wendy could hear the machine starting, and hummed contentedly to herself. The clothes were getting washed, the dishes were done... she was off to a great start. She wielded her feather duster with aggression, flicking over the living room with practiced ease. After dusting it was time to roll up the lint on the carpet, and she crawled around behind the couch to make a thorough job of it. She was almost to the edge of the carpet when she caught sight of something familiar peeking out from underneath. It looked like a –
"Is that a Fiore Card?" She leaned over and reached to touch it. A sudden sensation of numbness gripped her fingers and she quickly withdrew her hand. Frantically, she looked at her fingers to see them dusted with crystals. Thinking fast, she pressed her fingers together to generate more heat and tugged the card from underneath the carpet. To her surprise there was only half a card.
"The Ice, the Ice Card?" Wendy read.
The water finished filling the drum, and then everything went quiet. Impatiently Happy hovered over the open lid and scowled.
"Hey, it stopped. What the - whoa!" He'd misjudged the distance and smacked his head right into the open door of the machine, losing control of his wings for a moment. The heavy metal door slammed shut down over him, and at last the machine began to agitate.
"Happy, I found a Fiore Card! Well half of one at least. Oh, he's not here." She paused in surprise at the sight of the empty utility room, then shrugged and slipped the Card into her pocket. "I'll brag about this later."
After about a year, it seemed to him, the machine stopped agitating and Happy was able to push the lid up and crawl out.
"Things sure spin around a lot today," he slurred, gazing dreamily at the way the walls were rotating around him. Then he shook his head to clear it and slammed his little paw against the machine with determination. "That's it! I quit! This isn't the type of thing that the strongest guardian beast should be do -"
"I know!" It was Wendy out in the hallway, mopping and talking gaily to herself. "When I'm done with this, I'll have some ice cream with Happy!"
Well, if she was willing to be reasonable with her incentives...
"I guess I can help her a little bit more," he muttered, though it was grudging.
The morning was wearing steadily into the early afternoon by the time she was done upstairs and crept down the basement stairs.
"All right! This is the last place!" She was industriously vacuuming under her father's desk when something large stuck to the mouth of the vacuum. "Huh? What's this?" She wrinkled her nose as she pried the offending litter away from the vacuum, then realized what she was holding. "Oh, it's other half of the Fiore Card! I'm lucky today, I found two halves of a whole Card!" She was beginning to think that it had been entirely worth it to stay home today, and beamed as she took the first half of the Ice Card from her pocket and placed them both on the desk. She put them together and a blue light resonated from the both of them. Instantly, the room grew colder and Wendy shivered.
"Well they don't call it the Ice Card for nothing!"
The phone rang and Wendy ran upstairs to answer it. Unnoticed by her, the two halves started to pulse out frozen energy, freezing everything around the basement.
Next time: Battle in the Basement! Sky versus Ice!
As always please review and in the comments, tell me what Fairy Tail character should be a card!
