Alright, time for another chapter!
Sorry it's taking forever for updates, I've just been so busy lately. I'll try to update as often as possible, I appreciate your patience.
At the end of this chapter, I'll have an important note, so please read that.
Away we go!
Lucy's Apartment
"Here."
"Huh? What's this?"
Layla held out her hand to give something to Lucy. When Lucy saw what it was, she was almost left speechless.
"Is-is that what I think it is?!"
Layla nodded.
Lucy took the object, tears flowing from her eyes. It was a golden key.
"Aquarius..." Lucy cried. She couldn't believe that right here, was the water spirits fully formed key. Lucy hugged the key to her chest not wanting to let go of it, in case it tried to vanish.
"But how?" Lucy asked her mother.
Layla smiled softly, "I saw that you kept her key after all this time, and I thought that it was about time for the two of you to be reunited. So I had Aquarius make a new one. She was against it, but she knew that this was important for you."
"Mama..." Lucy bawled, burying her face in her mother's chest.
"Aww," Layla said, embracing her daughter. Layla was glad that she was able to do this for Lucy. Ever since she had moved in with Lucy, Layla had been looking forward to helping out her daughter any way she could. Layla had missed a lot of the moments in her daughter's life, but she was determined to make up for all those times. Aquarius had been Lucy's first friend, and even though the water spirit was against giving Lucy her a new key, deep down Layla knew she cared for Lucy, even if she didn't want to admit it.
Lucy suddenly ran off, leaving her mother confused.
"Where are you going?"
Lucy turned around, "To summon Aquarius! I can probably summon her from the bath. She might not like it, but I just have to see her!"
"Why the bath?"
"You know, since she can only be summoned when there's water around."
Layla had to laugh at that, "Did she tell you that herself? It'd be really inconvenient for you if that was the only way you could summon her."
Lucy's mouth dropped open, "Why would Aquarius lie to me?" Then it dawned on Lucy, probably could have seen this from the way the water spirit tried to make it impossible to summon her.
Layla just shook her head, and then disappeared through a dimension gate to go have a word with Aquarius. Layla returned a moment later with a smile on her face, and told Lucy to summon the spirit, without any water needed.
Shakily from anticipation, Lucy managed to correctly say the words to summon Aquarius, it had been a while. After a bright flash of light, Lucy laid her eyes on her first friend ever. There were plenty of tears being spilled from both sides as they reunited. Lucy was crying about seeing her long lost friend, while Aquarius...? She was crying comically about not being able to get away from Lucy, no matter how hard she tried.
"Aquarius!"
"Why, Lady Layla?!"
Aquarius tried to get smart and ask if her key could be the property of Layla, but was shot down by the elder blonde mage.
"Sorry, Lucy's the one who needs you the most. I have my own magic, so I'll be fine." To illustrate her point, Layla held up a ball of pure non-elemental magic that just seemed to scream uber-powerful.
That unfortunately, meant that Aquarius had nowhere to run. Reluctantly, she reciprocated the girl's feelings with a hug. Layla smiled as she watched the scene in front of her unfold. Judging from the uncomfortable look on the spirit's face, Aquarius wasn't into this as much as Lucy was. Still, Layla was glad she had been able to make all of this possible.
This wouldn't last, as the blue-haired beauty quickly grew tired of the moment. Despite her best efforts, Aquarius wasn't able to shake Lucy off of her. This would change when she equipped her urn. That got Lucy off of her as the mage tried to run away, screaming for her life.
"Begone!" Aquarius roared.
Lucy was blasted away by a torrent of water, through the wall of her apartment, and off somewhere into the distance.
"I'm blasting off again!" Lucy cried out, fading off into the distance. (Wait for it... *Ding*)
Layla frowned slightly at Aquarius for the way she was treating Lucy. The water spirit sheepishly scratched the back of her head, trying to say she was the victim in all of this, but Layla wasn't buying it. When that failed, Aquarius retreated back into the spirits realm, somehow thinking Layla couldn't follow her there. Luckily there were more pressing matters at the moment, namely the condition of their apartment. Good luck getting your security deposit back.
The blonde just sighed about all the work that was ahead of her.
"That's right, while you go off and play, you just leave Mama to clean up your messes. Typical." Layla growled. "When you get home, you're getting a spanking!" She yelled out loud, shaking her fists at the air as she threw a rather childish tantrum.
Cue some random pervert, "Mistress, may I get my spanking now?" He had managed to be walking by outside, and heard Layla's outburst.
"I wasn't talking to you, pervert!" Layla yelled, queuing up a mega-flare spell.
"Yes, give it to me!" This guy's a class act.
*Boom!*
Woods outside Natsu's house
*Crash!*
"Mmmrrrmm!" Natsu tried to say, but it was muffled by something landing on him.
Here he was innocently playing hide-n-seek with Rose and Happy, when— Wham!, Lucy comes falling out of the sky, landing on him, and ruining the game. Kinda spoils your hiding spot when someone comes flying into you, and gives you away. Maybe napping up in a tree, while under the pretense of "playing" was wrong.
"Found you!" Rose and Happy cheered, oblivious to what was going on. It took them a moment to realize the compromising that Natsu managed to find himself in yet again. Natsu once again getting some face time with Lucy's chest. Rose just looked on, while Happy took it another route:
"Ahhh! Lucy's trying to eat Natsu!"
All Happy saw was Lucy on top of Natsu, where he got her "eating" Natsu from is anyone's guess. Happy tried to fly away with a giggling Rose, who thought everything he did was just so entertaining. The Exceed was crying comically, saying it was too late for Natsu, and that he and Rose would have to move on without Natsu, leaving the poor guy to his "fate". Happy didn't get very far, as Lucy managed to nail the air-borne cat with her whip. Lucy caught Rose from Happy's falling form, and let the Exceed splat against the ground. Natsu couldn't really feel bad for him, his adoptive son did leave him to die.
"So, what were you doing Lucy?" Natsu wanted to know why Lucy had been flying through the air again.
"Oh, that's right!" Lucy replied, excitedly, "Look what happened!" She managed to fish Aquarius's key out and show it to him.
"Hey, that's great! I know how much she meant to you." Natsu had been around Lucy more than anyone else, so he knew how much she loved her spirits.
"Key!" Rose exclaimed, reaching for the golden object.
"You like that? Each of my keys summons a spirit." Lucy explained.
"Spirits?"
Lucy smiled, it was a chance for her to show what Rose's possible mama is capable of. So she had the Dragneel family sit back and relax as she got started. She opened with her white doggy, Plue. The second Rose saw the odd creature, she instantly had to hug it.
"Cute! ...What is it?" Rose asked, she didn't quite know what kinda animal it was.
"I think it's a dog..." Natsu said.
But Rose wasn't convinced. A "..." bubble appeared over her head as the pinkette began pondering it. Natsu sweatdropped as he watched the little gears in his daughters head began moving. If the girl is anything like any of the women Natsu knows, there's a good chance she'll think odd things.
"Oh, I know! It's a bug!"
"You think it's a bug!?" Natsu exclaimed.
Meanwhile, Garage Island
"See, I told you Plue was a bug! You always said I was crazy, but this proves it, Haru!" A woman yelled.
Haru groaned, "Not this again. Plue doesn't look anything like a bug, Elie!"
The two parents began bickering back and forth, over a completely irrelevant subject.
"Pu-Puun!" Elie's Plue exclaimed, he wasn't really helping things.
As for Levin? Levin's just wondering what the heck they're talking about. He and his aunt Cattleya ran out of the house as Elie grabbed her tonfa blasters, it was gonna get a little violent.
Back with Natsu
While Rose played with Plue, they were visited by a certain lion spirit. Lucy never summoned Loke, but he felt the need to show himself.
"Well, hello there little lady," Loke said, playing nice with Rose.
Rose initially was nervous being around the strange man, but when Loke managed to wiggle the hair on his head that looked like cat's ears, she calmed down.
"Kitty-man!" Rose exclaimed.
Happy mocked the lion spirit, saying he looked cute for playing with the pinkette. Good thing Loke was distracted, otherwise, the Exceed would have been Regulus impacted into next week. But the thing that distracted Loke was not good, however. He was blushing, imagining Rose all grown up and mature. This drew Natsu's ire, his protective Dragon/father nature coming forth. Natsu was all up in Loke's face, breathing smoke and fire, challenging the spirit to try anything.
"H-help Lucy!" Loke cried out.
This was one of the few times anyone would ever seem him afraid of anything. But he would get no mercy from Lucy either, she didn't like the idea of him trying anything with her possible daughter.
"Get lost!" Lucy yelled, kicking him back through his gate.
She sighed, "Sorry about that, let's try someone else."
Lucy summoned the twin spirits, Gemini. Rose quickly abandoned Plue, who went back to the spirit world, sad that it got replaced, but happy that Lucy gave it a sucker to enjoy. The twins floated and danced around Rose, much to her delight. Lucy then had them transform into a flawless copy of Rose, but for some odd reason, the pinkette didn't seem to like this. Natsu's real daughter began messing with Gemini, possibly thinking the spirit was her sister, and therefore was her rival. To stay off Rose's "bad" side, Gemini turned into Lucy. This was unfortunate for the celestial mage, because this meant another round of the towel-Lucy version of Gemini.
"Wow," Natsu thought, eyeing Gemini up and down, "copied Lucy to a T."
Lucy sent Gemini away, embarrassed that the spirits seemed content on always showing up in that form.
Next Lucy summoned Cancer, hoping things would settle down. And things were calm... for a minute. After the stylist spirit tried to give Rose a haircut, which she was extremely against, Happy got delirious, wanting seafood. Rose took that as a sign to chase the spirit around, little streams of fire coming from her mouth, trying to cook the crab-person. Natsu looked on, with a nod of approval. Before, he had been hungry enough to try the same thing, but held off because the spirit probably didn't taste like the real thing. Cancer fled back through his gate, safe for now.
"Moo! Lucy-san, am I up next?" Taurus said, making his presence known, ogling Lucy with hearts for eyes. But the bull wasn't by himself.
"Yeah, Moshi Moshi!" Sagittarius added.
"Gaah!" Lucy yelled, nearly tearing her hair out in frustration, "You guys are using up all my magic!" Her spirits seem capable of showing whenever they feel like it, not needing the mage's permission to do so. What had once been an "innocent" talent show for Lucy, had changed into her spirits running amok. Maybe she should have thought things out better...
"Horse meat?" Rose asked, tilting her head while gazing at the archer spirit who had arrived. Sagittarius sweatdropped while backing away from the pinkette, she was making him feel afraid and nervous.
"No, wait!" Rose exclaimed, "I know, it's a pony-man!", her little eyes sparkling. Leave it to a little girl to be obsessed with a "pony". She wasn't even nervous that Sagittarius was technically a guy. She then jumped onto his back, wanting a ride. Rose was acting like some kinda Dragon-knight on her steed.
"Charge!" she yelled, sights set on Taurus. She almost had surf, and didn't want to miss out on turf.
"Moo?"
"Sorry, Moshi Moshi!" Sagittarius cried, having to turn his arrows on a fellow spirit.
"This is seriously messed up." Natsu mumbled. It was quite a sight: a pink haired girl riding a horse-costume wearing man, chasing a axe-wielding cow, yelling for beef. Still not the oddest thing in the history of Fairy Tail.
Lucy wore herself out chasing after her spirits, trying to send them back to their world. When she finally did, she collapsed on something soft, pink and fluffy. Aries had arrived and summoned a bed of her wool to break Lucy's fall. For once, a "normal" spirit who wasn't going to cause a scene.
"S-sorry." Aries apologized.
"*Sigh*, it's not your fault" Lucy mumbled. The busty blonde was kicking back and relaxing, while Rose played with the white lamb. For once Aries wasn't all apologetic and sad looking, she genuinely enjoyed playing with Rose. Lucy couldn't help but feel a little jealous of her own spirit, maybe pink haired girls just seemed to get along better. Speaking of pink haired girls:
"Shall I punish myself for the others mistakes, Hime?"
"How would that help anything?" Lucy deadpanned. Virgo appeared, looking for an excuse for discipline. When Virgo caught sight of the Dragneel duo, this would cause an interesting rivalry to spark between her and Aries, since they both wanted alone time with the pink Dragons.
Before Lucy could get off her butt to step in and stop things, a certain sight filled her with dread and fear: Aquarius's key was shining. This was the only warning Lucy would get before the mermaid showed herself, and boy was she mad. She immediately began accusing Lucy of parading around her other spirits like they were toys for her amusement. Lucy didn't even get a chance to defend herself when Aquarius grabbed her urn, ready to blow Lucy away.
"Wow, a mermaid!"
Aquarius stopped when she felt someone touching her tail. Looking down, she met the sparkling little eyes of Rose. The pinkette had the biggest, widest smile anyone had ever seen on her face. The water bearer's defense immediately crumbled after seeing the adorable child.
"Awww, hi there cutie-pie!" Aquarius cooed, unable to resist picking Rose up.
"Your pretty like a princess!" Rose squeaked. The busty blue-haired beauty blushed at her words, and used this as an opportunity to belittle Lucy and elevate her self over her master. Even though all Lucy could do was lay there and take it, she was glad Rose had deflected all of the spirits rage away from her. Lucy knew Aquarius had a soft spot for cute children, evident from the way she always would get flustered and humble around them.
But Aquarius pushed things a little too far with her next comment, "How cute! Just how I imagine my daughter will be!" She said this referring to Rose, while hungrily gazing at Natsu. This caused quite a reaction of anger/jealousy from the other three girls, and a look of shock from Natsu. He sweated as he felt like the Dragon was going to be devoured by the mermaid. This is why Dragons don't go swimming. Sure, maybe some of the reason Aquarius was acting this was to annoy Lucy, but then again, Natsu is a single father who is easy on the eyes...
Lucy wouldn't believe it, "Yeah right, how would that even work?!"
Aquarius smirked as she was enveloped in a flash of light. When it died down, everyone was shocked to see Aquarius's tail was gone, replaced by two long legs. Now she looked like a real woman, and not like her usual mermaid self.
Natsu gulped at the sight, her long legs that seemed to go on for ever, capped off with a small, skimpy blue bikini bottom that matched her top — she looked flawless. He got a little dizzy, his inner Dragon wanting out. It took a lot of restraint not to go Harem Dragon-king mode, 4 irresistible beauty's right in front of him, looking for a good time.
Before he could make the decision whether or not to let himself free or not, Lucy began to keel over from exhaustion. So many spirits coming and going left her drained of magic. Add in the fact that she already has competition from her human rivals, and now her spirits seem to be getting involved in the mix, Lucy's ready to go to sleep so she can wake up from this nightmare. Her mind was shutting down, trying to protect itself from all the nonsense.
Aquarius set Rose down, and gave her a kiss on the forehead, promising her and Natsu that she will be seeing them very soon. The wink to Natsu seemed to mean she'll being seeing him personally sooner rather than later. Rose waved the spirits farewell as the vanished, back to the spirit world.
Natsu picked up Lucy's unconscious form, and took her back to her house. Even asleep, Lucy smiled and snuggled up close to his body, she'd recognize his warmth anywhere. After dropping Lucy off at her apartment, and dodging Layla who was looking to relax with him after fixing up their apartment, Natsu made his way home contemplating the change in Lucy's spirits actions...
Later that night, Natsu's house
"So, did you have fun today?" Natsu asked, while tucking his little Dragon into bed for the night.
"Yeah! Those spirits were really cool! But, some of them made me hungry." Rose stated. Happy agreed, mumbling about fish, despite being asleep. Natsu laughed as he ruffled Rose's hair, and giving her a kiss on the forehead good night.
"Good night, Dada." Rose mumbled, falling asleep immediately afterwards, all tuckered out from the days fun. Natsu silently left her room with a smile on his face, glad that she enjoyed herself.
Natsu then arrived at his room, and reaching for the light switch, his nose alerted him that someone was in his room. Before he could react, he was pulled into the dark room, and the door was slammed shut. He soon felt the soft fabric of his bed against his back and realized someone was on top of him. When he was going to say something, he was silenced by a warm, soft pair of lips pressed against his. Figuring there was nothing he could do in this situation, he let himself be the victim, and made out with the stranger.
The light clicked on, and Natsu recognized the pretty pair of blue eyes looking into his.
"Aquarius?!"
"Shh, you don't your daughter coming in here, seeing what's going on do you?"
He shook his head no.
"Good. Now, where were we?" They continued the lip lock until they were interrupted by someone clearing their throat. Looking over, Natsu saw a blushing, shy Aries and Virgo. They had turned on the light while Aquarius tongue-wrestled Natsu. She beckoned them over to join in, Aquarius wasn't one to deprive her fellow spirits who were like sisters to her of this opportunity. Now there was 4 individuals in one bed, and looked like they had room to spare... good to know.
Before he could give his urges the green light, he had to be absolutely sure they were on board with everything. They weren't toys for his amusement, they were celestial beings who were actually people, not anything less. He even asked them how they got here, he doubted Lucy or Layla would let them free to do this with him. They told him they went the Loke route, able to summon themselves if they were needed. They were certainly needed now. Since they formed a hidden bond with Natsu from being around him so much, they could use his abundant magic supply to keep themselves here, without needing to drain Lucy's. His Harem mode awarded him extra magic and stamina that wouldn't go to waste.
He was even worried about getting someone pregnant, but Aquarius relieved by saying no human could get a spirit pregnant, that would cause anarchy. Notice how Natsu's not exactly only human, he's got some other races mixed in him as well...
With all bases covered, Natsu gave into the celestials, possibly throwing the universe out of whack. Ehh, worry about it later.
Afterwards, everyone was fast asleep. The spirits hadn't disappeared back to their own world, instead, they spent the night sleeping in Natsu's bed with him, none of them aware of the possible ramifications of their actions.
The next day, Fairy Tail guild hall
Natsu strolled into the guilds hall, whistling and having a huge smile on his face. Must've had a good night last night...
"What are you so happy about?" Lucy grumbled. When Lucy woke up from her power snooze, Layla made good on her promise of a spanking, and now Lucy's butt really hurt. While she was happy she and her mom were doing things together as a family, she wouldn't be filing this moment away under "priceless memories". And even though she didn't know exactly what was going on, some of her keys felt dirty to her, like something had gone on behind her back.
But Natsu couldn't say what put that smile on his face, admitting it would be the end of him. Before the 3 spirits left him to go back to the spirit world to recover, they had each given him a special pink version of their keys, in case he was interested in "calming" his Harem mode. Those keys would allow for brief hook-ups if he was interested, without having to rely on anyone's magic, and keep the two celestial mages from getting suspicious. Of course, Happy and Rose were also suspicious as well, but they weren't going to push the matter.
So Natsu's walking around with a huge dumb grin on his face, with no one wise to the secret shenanigans he was up to. His unusually friendly and upbeat manner, even for him, distracted everyone else, so no one noticed the town of Magnolia rumbling, and the streets shifting in preparation of a long away member of Fairy Tail returning...
Dun, dun, Dunnn! Big man's coming to town! Pretty obvious who's gonna be showing up next, and that should let you know the girl Natsu will be getting closer to.
Now on to the important note: many people have been requesting to see a Natsu x Hisui chapter. Originally Hisui and the capital of Crocus were gonna be one of the last places Natsu and Rose would be seeing on their trip around Fiore, but due to popular demand, I'll be doing that chapter after the next one. Since I love seeing reviewers feedback so much, I thought that you all could come up with a scenario where Natsu has a reason to hoof it all the way out to Crocus to see the princess. I have an idea... but it's not exactly a great one, to be honest. So I wanted to give you all a chance to weigh in. If in your reviews or PM's you could include a scenario, it would be greatly appreciated. It could be anything, either a reason for Natsu to go to Hisui, or for her to come to him. That'll help me decided whether it'll be a Omake or a regular chapter, and whether or not to add Cosmos, Kamika or any other girls.
Thanks again, see you next time!