Chapter Ten- Mishap
Day One- Food Festival
Lucy and Morganna arrived early that morning. Neither had got much sleep, they had both been up very late to cook something for the festival. They had decided to do something together, after solo attempts led to failure. The girls bagged a stall near the centre of the market-place, which was filled with small stands of different colours, all for Fairy Tail guild members to sell their wares. At this early hour of the morning, the only people around were the roommates, Makarov, Mira, Levy, and, of course, Natsu with Happy. When food was involved, nothing would keep Natsu at bay.
"Hey guys!" Natsu called, waving happily and grinning widely as he jogged over to their stall.
"Aye, morning!" Happy cried, hovering next to his friend.
"Morning." Lucy said with a yawn. She rubbed her eyes.
"What's up? You both look exhausted." Natsu cocked his head to the right as he spoke.
"We were up all night cooking." Morganna replied, stretching her arms. "I didn't even get time to stretch this morning."
"Why did it take so long? What did you make?" Natsu asked. Lucy elbowed Morganna, who looked a little sheepish.
"We made octopus dumplings. And the reason it took so long? My roommate is an idiot." Lucy said, lightly punching Morganna on the arm.
"What happened?" Natsu enquired.
"Well…"
"So, Lu, what should we make?"
"Do you know how to cook anything, Mo?"
"Not really. I don't usually need cooked food. But following a recipe should be pretty easy, right?" Morganna reached for a few cookbooks that Lucy had on a shelf in the kitchen.
"Right… hmm. How about this?" Lucy pointed to the contents table of one cookbook. Her finger rested next to the words 'Octopus Dumplings'. Morganna flicked to the page where the instructions were given. They searched the cupboards for the ingredients, and found they had everything except the cabbage.
"Oh well, it'll be fine." Lucy said, waving her hand dismissively. Morganna nodded.
"Yeah. Who even likes cabbage anyway?" she agreed.
"Apparently, dreams with cabbage or lettuce in them have a sexual connotation." Lucy said as she weighed out the flour, salt, sugar, and dashi powder.
"Gross! Who thinks cabbages are sexy?" Morganna shuddered at the thought.
"No idea. Mo, can you put the baking powder and water in the batter mix? I'll chop up the shrimp."
Morganna measured out a few tablespoons of baking powder into the bowl and turned to grate the ginger, when she accidentally dropped the pot of baking powder into the bowl. Another massive lump fell into the mix, which crumbled to pieces when Morganna tried to pick it out. She shrugged. A little more wouldn't hurt.
Lucy brushed her hands on her apron and wiped her forehead. After an hour of careful preparation, the girls had completed their dumplings and were ready to cook them. Morganna placed the pan on the heat and sighed.
"Right, in one minute we need to flip them over and let the other side cook a bit. Sticks at the ready!" Morganna said, handing Lucy a pair of chopsticks. "Now!"
The girls began flipping the dumplings. They had made fifty so they needed to work quickly. Morganna flipped one a little too roughly, and suddenly the dumpling exploded. As if on cue, other dumplings began to combust and the two girls dived under the table for safety.
A few minutes passed, and Morganna poked her head out.
"I think it's ok to come out now, Luce." Morganna was confused as to what had happened. Lucy crawled out from their refuge and dipped a finger into the exploded batter. She made a disgusted face then turned to look at Morganna, her arms folded and her expression irritated.
"Mo! You idiot! You put in way too much baking powder! That's why it exploded!" Lucy cried, throwing a dumpling at Morganna's face. It missed and hit the cupboard behind her with a dull 'thwack'. Morganna rubbed the back of her head.
"Oops." she said. Lucy sighed.
"Now we're going to have to remake them. This time, you make the filling and I'LL do the batter."
"Okay, lets get to work!" Morganna said.
Natsu burst into uncontrolled laughter. Levy wandered over. "Morning Lu-chan, Momo. How are you?"
"Okay. Tired. How about you?" Lucy asked.
"I'm well. Your food smells so good! What is it?" Levy replied, smiling widely at the pair. Morganna couldn't help but smile back.
"Octopus dumplings." she said.
"I'll buy one!" Levy said, handing over five jewel and taking a dumpling. "See you later, I have to go back and mind my stall!"
Natsu straightened after his laughing fit in time to see Levy skip off.
"I might as well try one." He gave Morganna five jewel, took a dumpling, and bit into it. "Mmm. This is pretty good. Yummy!" he smiled.
"Well, Luce did most of the cooking. I guess I'm not cut out for the culinary arts." Morganna said.
"Mo, keep an eye on the stall for a sec, I'm just gonna run over and have a look at the other stands." Lucy said, running off. Morganna turned to Natsu.
"Did you bring anything to sell?" Morganna asked him. Natsu nodded.
"Yah, I brought spicy cabbage rolls. Here, try one!" he reached into a small box he had tucked under his arm and handed her one. She looked at him dubiously and took a bite. Her mouth practically exploded with heat.
"What the bloody hell is in this?! It's so hot!" Morganna cried, fanning her mouth and panting.
"Jalapeños, red peppers, and ghost chilli." Natsu said matter-of-factly. He ate one himself and didn't seem at all affected by it. He moved over to the stall next to the girls' and plonked his things down. Lucy returned with a handful of star-shaped sweets. She gave a few to Morganna who gratefully ate them. They were a little sweet for her, but they tasted nice and fruity.
"Where did you get these?" she asked, popping a strawberry flavoured one into her mouth.
"Mira made them." Lucy replied.
"Mira MADE them? Like, on her own? She has awesome skills." Natsu said, having stolen one from Lucy and chewed on it thoughtfully.
"Oh, loads more people are arriving. This is going to be a great start to the festival." Lucy said.
Oh, how she would come to regret those words.
A few hours later, the market square was filled with mages and civilians alike perusing the wares. Every now and then, Lucy or Morganna would go off and buy some food for the two of them. Gray had turned up recently, deciding to share Natsu's stall, selling iced tea with Natsu's explosive cabbage rolls. They were making quite a lot of money from that combination.
In the centre of the market stands, there was a large open space with benches and a water fountain. Around mid-afternoon, Gray and Morganna decided to wander around the festival and get some more interesting foodstuffs.
"So what do you want to get?" Gray asked.
"I don't know, it all looks so good. Oh for goodness sake. Put some clothes on, Snow Queen." Morganna replied, shoving Gray. Gray nudged her back. She punched him on the arm, and he pushed her again. They started to laugh, and again Morganna knocked Gray, and he tackled her backwards. Unfortunately, he accidentally threw her into the fountain. She burst out of the water, soaking wet and laughing hysterically. Morganna reached for anything, and her hand closed around a firm rice cracker.
"Oh, you're for it now!" she cried, and hurled the food missile at his head. Gray ducked, and the cracker hit Wakaba on the shoulder. Without missing a beat, he turned a threw a melon at Gray, who he thought was the culprit. It hit Gray in the stomach and made him fall over. Macao had seen this interaction, and did what any self-respecting Fairy Tail guild member would do. He grabbed a projectile himself and shouted:
"FOOD FIGHT!"
And with that, it was on.
Immediately, all the members of Fairy Tail were gathered round, flinging food at each other and laughing manically. Even Lucy and Erza, usually quite reserved and embarrassed when things like this happened, found themselves launching tasty missiles at every mage in sight. Morganna ducked and dodged as best she could, but occasionally she would be to distracted by attacking to keep up her defense and something would hit her. She would then whirl around and aim something in the general direction of the offender.
"WAIT!" screeched Makarov. Everyone looked at him, disappointed. He sighed. "If you're going to use the food, the least you can do is pay for it." Everyone nodded. That seemed fair enough.
Chaos resumed. Jewel after jewel was dropped into money-boxes and handfuls of food were grabbed from the stalls and thrown everywhere.
"This is mental!" Gray called to Morganna.
"Yeah, and we started it!" she shouted back, laughing hysterically. Gray laughed as well, and threw a pancake at her and she caught it, then chucked it back. Suddenly, an idea struck her. She leant over and whispered in Gray's ear. His eyes lit up and he nodded. The two of them elbowed their way through the crowd, each picking up culinary weaponry as they wandered towards Natsu.
"Ready?" Gray asked, and Morganna nodded. Then, she pounced, shoving the cupcake she had grabbed into Natsu's face. He recoiled and as he stepped back Gray tipped some sort of snow cone down Natsu's vest. The dragon slayer yapped and started shaking the ice out of his vest. He turned on the pair who were collapsing with mirth. He glared for all of ten seconds before laughing himself.
"REVENGE!" he cried, shoving an onigiri into each of their faces. The three started laughing again.
By 4pm, the market was destroyed and everyone was covered in bits of food. Makarov collected up all the money-boxes and staggered slightly under the weight.
"Well, it may not have gone how we were expecting but at least we made a lot of money. Tomorrow will be a talent contest, so bring your skills!" he called, smiling widely at the mages.
"Well. That was…interesting." Erza said, walking over and picking bits of fish out of her hair.
"Bagsie the bath first!" Lucy called as she ran off towards the house Morganna began sprinting after her.
"Not if I get there before you!" she called.
A few hours afterwards, as Morganna was leaving the bathroom, she walked into the living room to see the whole of team Natsu spread across the apartment.
"Oh there you are damsel!" Natsu said, turning over his shoulder to see her.
"Shut your eyes! Goddamn pervert." Morganna muttered as she hurried into her bedroom. The team spent the evening playing cards, talking, and fighting. An average day in Fairy Tail.
Day One- End.
There we have it. Longest chapter so far, with a fairly short update gap. Aren't you proud. Myself and Rvlakia Kavair have a Drama performance coming up, based on the opening "Once upon a time…" so our piece begins "Once upon a time, in the land of Fiore…"
She should be posting a transcript of the piece on Fanfiction, and/or posting a video on youtube, either on her channel, Rvlakia Kavair, or mine, Mad Hatteress, or our collab with other people Aki Suta.
Thanks for reading! See you soon with day two!