A/N: Holy cow this story passed 100 reviews and followers! AAAAAAA
I never thought something of mine would ever reach half of that kind of response. This means that over 100 people are actually interested in reading my crazy ramblings. I cannot thank you all enough! The least I can do for you all is give you another chapter; I just hope it lives up to your expectations. Also, please remember that this is unbeta'd so kindly forgive me for any mistakes.
And one last thing: Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes! They made me feel all gooey inside xD
Three weeks later, Lucy privately admitted that she could have waited. She'd been right about things being interesting—she just hadn't realized how much that interestingness was going to involve her.
It was a virtual impossibility for the two men to be in the same room with each other for more than ten minutes without starting up with each other, more often than not resulting in physical brawls that Lucy would have to break up with several well-aimed kicks. They constantly bickered with each other, finding flaws in every nuance of the other's work, and when there were no flaws to find they created imaginary ones. Competition was what seemed to drive them—in nearly every aspect of their day-to-day lives they tried to outdo the other, even going as far as to try and see who could make a perfect triangle in their sandwiches.
However, all this rivalry vanished in an instant when they encountered a dangerous situation. They immediately ran to their stations and worked together in a seamless team that operated so smoothly that it sometimes left Lucy baffled and even a little jealous. Happy knew how to skillfully navigate their relationship as well, egging them on in playful quarrels and providing just the right amount of help when the situation called for it. Together it all came together in an odd sort of little family, and as a result Lucy felt a little lost.
Not that they didn't try to include her—far from it. From the get-go, Natsu and Gray called Lucy in to judge their matches and declare the victors in their various scuffles. Sometimes they'd even fight over her, roaring about how they wanted to show her what a real space thief looked like. But no matter what, they always remained steadfast friends, however much they tried to deny it. Happy said their "old-married-couple-bickering" was just how they showed how much they loved each other (he was promptly flung into the ship's tiny brig by the two disgusted men) and watching them, Lucy had to agree.
The true depth of their friendship, however, came to light at the end of the third week after Gray joined them. The four of them were lounging about in the "dining room" (previously one of the spare rooms with a really good food replicator that they'd cleared out and stuck a table and some chairs in), munching on their various snacks. Happy was sitting on the table plowing his way through a bag of MewMew's Kitty-Cat Treats while Natsu inhaled half a dozen plates of Ultra-Spicy Nachos drenched in Dr. Doom's Death Sauce (which was, according to Natsu, fifty times hotter than the Carolina Reapers grown on Magnolia). Every few bites he would turn his head and cough out a small fireball, to which Gray would respond by tossing a frozen grape at him. Natsu, being Natsu, replied in kind by growling and flicking a chip right back at him. Happy, not wanting to miss out on the fun, began to add to the mini-food war by tossing his cat treats into the mix. At first Lucy was content to ignore them, but after there were two saucy Nachos, a frozen grape, and three cat treats glaring up at her from her bowl of chocolate pudding, she put her foot down.
"If you three don't cut this out right now," said Lucy, glowering. "I will have each of you consume an equal portion of what USED to be my pudding." She held up the bowl to give them a clear view of the abomination inside it.
The three of them peered into the bowl and recoiled sharply.
"No thanks," Gray said with a shudder.
"Yeah, I'll pass," said Natsu.
Happy frowned thoughtfully. "Y'know," he said with wide eyes. "Chocolate covered cat treats might not be so bad."
Natsu snatched the bowl away. "Nuh-uh, little buddy. No chocolate for you. You know what happens when you eat that stuff."
"I thought only dogs get sick from chocolate," Lucy said.
"They do. Happy gets higher than theoretical astrophysics when he eats it instead."
She raised her eyebrows. "Is that an Exceed thing?"
"No, it's just Happy being one of the weirdest creatures in the galaxy."
Happy's tail drooped sadly. "It's not that weird…and I really like chocolate."
Gray snorted. "I wonder why."
Lucy narrowed her eyes at him. "Gray Fullbuster, where is your shirt?"
He glanced down at his bare chest in a panic. "Aw crap, where'd it go now? I had it two seconds ago!"
"Annnd there he goes again," Natsu snickered. "Can't keep your clothes on even in front of a lady. Shame on you, droopy eyes."
Gray jabbed a finger in the smug thief's face. "Now see here, you flaming—" He broke off as Natsu abruptly grabbed the offending hand. "Hey, what're you—"
Natsu tilted his head. "Since when were you into rings?"
"Huh?"
"The gold band on your ring finger," he said, gesturing towards it. "You never used to wear rings."
Gray glanced to the side shiftily. "Oh, that. Um…"
Happy leaned over to look at it and choked, his eyes popping out. "Isn't that a North Alvaresian wedding ring?"
"What?" Natsu's eyes shot up to stare at Gray. "Wait, is this—do you mean—you—?"
The engineer scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Yeah. Almost two months ago now."
"You—you and Juvia?"
He nodded. "Yeah."
Lucy leaned forward, brow furrowed in confusion. "Hold on—you're married?"
"And you didn't invite me?"
Natsu's voice had taken on an odd, quiet tone that Lucy had only heard once before, when she had gotten flustered at him calling her Luce and implied that he wasn't her friend. Gray looked up, but then dropped his gaze again guiltily.
"I'm…I'm sorry, Natsu," he said wretchedly. "Juvia's mother had just been diagnosed with leukemia, and it was bad, really bad. The doctors weren't expecting her to live much more than a month. She said that her final wish was to stand at her daughter's wedding. Juvia and I had been talking about it for a while, and, well…it seemed obvious what to do. But…" He swallowed heavily. "You'd disappeared a couple weeks before that, and no one from the guild could tell us where you were. Hell, we even tried to ask your brother, but he had no idea either. We didn't know what else to do, and Juvia's mom didn't have much time left. It was three days after the wedding that we heard a rumor that you'd gotten captured by the Federation, and by then…well, there wasn't much we could do."
"But…why didn't you tell me about it?" His voice was still unnaturally soft. "I mean, you've been here three weeks now, and you didn't say a word."
Gray still couldn't seem to meet Natsu's eyes. "I guess I was waiting for the right time. I knew this wouldn't go over well, and, well…" He bit his lip. "S'pose I should've gotten it out right off the bat, huh?"
"Um, yeah," Happy said emphatically. "You getting married is kinda something we'd want to know A.S.A.P., y'know?"
He sighed and leaned on the table, rubbing his hand over his eyes. "I see that now. I'm sorry, I really screwed up."
"Yeah," Natsu agreed. "Yeah, you did."
"But." Gray lowered his hand and finally managed to meet Natsu's eyes. "I didn't have a best man."
Natsu blinked. "You didn't?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"You weren't there."
The rosy-haired thief exhaled shakily. "Gray…"
He shook his head slightly. "I may have had the ceremony without you, but there was no way in hell I was going to let anyone take your place. I know it's not nearly the same as being there, and I know it doesn't make up for what I did, but—"
"Gray." Natsu cut his friend off loudly. "Shut up for a second." He seemed to be mulling something over. Then he announced, "You're right. It doesn't make up for what you did, which is why in the very distant future or possible alternate dimension when I get married, you are officially not invited."
Gray started to speak again, but Natsu held up a hand, stopping him. "However," he said slowly, glaring at the man across the table. "I do fully expect you to crash."
"Na—"
"And forcibly occupy the possibly vacant best man's position."
A large, brilliant grin broke out on Gray's face, the first true smile Lucy had ever seen him wear. Not a smug quirk of the mouth, not a knowing smirk, but a genuine, happy smile.
"Thanks man," he said.
Natsu narrowed his eyes at him. "Remember, you're crashing, so you're gonna hafta fight me to get that position."
"Fight? I think you mean demolish."
"I don't think so—you're gonna be all soft and flabby from being a husband."
"It'll still be way more than I need to kick your flaming butt."
"You wish! The hardest part will be rolling your fat gut out of the way of the party."
"Yeah, after I've eaten all your food."
"Why you—"
The two of them continued to bicker in perfect rhythm even as they stood, threw out whatever leftovers they hadn't eaten (Lucy had made it clear that she didn't want to see an iota of trash aboard their ship) and headed out of the room. Soon the sounds of their arguing had faded into silence.
"Well that was fun. They're such drama queens sometimes, aren't they Lucy?" Happy glanced at Lucy, who hadn't moved an inch for several minutes now. "Um, Lucy? You okay?"
Lucy sat frozen in her seat with her tightly clasped hands pressed firmly against her lips, eyes brimming with unshed tears.
"That was," she croaked. "The most touching, heart-throbbing, beautiful, and emotional bromantic moment I've ever seen. Or maybe that's just ever happened. I'm not sure which."
"Okaaaay then…"
She stood. "Excuse me. I'm going to sob hysterically in my room for the next hour or so. Call me if you need anything." And with that, she too left.
Happy looked around the now empty room and sighed. "Why am I friends with such weirdos?" he muttered to himself, and emptied the last crumbs of his cat treats into his mouth.
OOOOO
After they'd gotten about week out without running into anything life-threatening or even remotely dangerous, the crew of the Torus finally managed to sort themselves out and started figure out what they needed. Lucy was given enough time to take a proper inventory of the ship's supplies and discovered to her dismay that they were dismally low on essentials. As they'd noted before, there were no spare clothes at all on board, and the only extra blankets and such aboard the ship had been all but ruined when they'd gone down to Rura Penthe. They still didn't have any decent weapons and Natsu reported that they didn't have very many drone parts left in stock to activate their drone systems.
Gray had never recovered his shoes from the slaver ship, so he spent his days aboard the ship padding around barefoot and trying not to step on the random bits of machinery scattered about the ship that try as she might, Lucy never seemed to be able to clean up entirely. They were also running out of basic hygiene supplies. Natsu and Lucy had only one half a tube of toothpaste for the both of them and Gray had neither a toothbrush nor toothpaste. Lucy was down to her last bottle of shampoo and moisturizer and was in full panic mode, and Natsu was babying his scarf which Lucy had been unable to sew up due to their lamentable lack of sewing materials.
In addition to lacking day-to-day items, however, they soon found themselves facing a much worse problem. The dilithium crystals that powered the ship were decaying. At first Gray thought the problem was minor and could be easily remedied through exposure to high-energy photons that were emitted by fission reactors that powered most ships' subsystems, but upon examining their ship they found that Engi ships did not run off of fission reactors. Gray maintained that it wasn't worth panicking over, as the next starbase they reached would almost certainly be able to re-crystallize them, but as they kept flying through space and failed to encounter any signs of intelligent life, worry began to creep up on them.
It got to the point where Gray's breath was so bad and where Happy couldn't get his fur clean and where they were only using warp jumps three times a day to conserve energy that Natsu was constantly on the lookout for the nearest starbase, scanning the various sectors with a kind of mad desperation. Even this hope was extinguished, however, when Happy pointed out that even if they did reach a starbase, they were fresh out of any money to buy things.
"Maybe we can work for some money," Lucy said gloomily one day as they gathered in the bridge. It once the fourth week with no outside contact kicked it, they had started collecting around Natsu at the helm in their free time in hopes of seeing something. "Make some cheap cash that way."
"Do we have anything of value we can pawn off?" asked Gray.
Natsu snorted. "That's cute."
"How 'bout we turn one of them in for their bounty, then break 'em out again?" Happy suggested, gesturing at the two thieves.
An evil glint appeared in Natsu's eyes. "That's not a bad idea," he said with a sly glance at Gray. The engineer's slanted eyes narrowed even further.
"I dunno what you're thinking, pal, but whatever it is—"
"ABSOLUTELY not," Lucy interjected with a fierce glare in Natsu and Happy's direction. "We are not embarking on another one of your half-baked, hare-brained schemes to get us a couple coins. If we're going to get any, it's going to be in a normal, safe manner."
Natsu slumped. "You're no fun."
"I still say we just steal some stuff," yawned Gray.
"From what ship, droopy eyes?"
"Did either of you hear what I just said?" Lucy snapped. "SAFE."
Gray shrugged. "Hey, stealing is safe when you're with us. Master thieves, remember?"
She rubbed her temples. "Master thieves that both got themselves caught trying to steal a Federation cruiser."
"Then enlighten us, O Wise One. How could we have stolen those ships?"
"You're asking me? It's not like I studied how to steal my own ship!"
Natsu grinned. "Hey, then don't go making fun of those who did. We'll get it in the end."
Lucy rolled her eyes. "Oh, you're both impossible."
"Well then, whaddaya wanna do? We gotta get supplies somehow. If stealing's off the table, then I'm fresh outta ideas."
Lucy adopted a thinking pose, hand on her chin. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe we could just send out a distress signal." She punctuated the end of her sentence with another glare. "I would have thought that would be obvious. It's what most ships in our position would do."
Gray made a face. "A distress signal? What's that gonna do for us?"
"Someone will pick it up and help us out," Lucy explained less-than-patiently.
"What, you think they're just gonna hand us some cash and be on their merry way?" Natsu snorted. "More likely they'll attack us and strip us for scrap."
"You'd be surprised," said Lucy hotly. "Back when I was on the Zodiac, we picked up a ton of distress signals from ships in dire straits and helped them out. Usually the ship in distress would offer us something in return for whatever they needed, and everyone went home happy."
"So what would we give 'em? Like I said before, we don't exactly have anything of value."
"We could give them some of our drone parts," Happy offered. "Those are kind of valuable."
"And give up our only means of defending ourselves? Not likely."
"How 'bout doing some repair work or giving them upgrades?" asked Gray. "I'm pretty good and boosting reactors up a couple levels."
"That might work," Lucy mused. "As long as they actually need some."
Natsu raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Are we sure we want to do this?"
Gray shrugged in reply. "You got a better idea?"
The other thief grumbled under his breath as he reached for the button to give off the distress signal. "I still don't think this is gonna work, but okay…"
He hit the button. The crew waited for several seconds with bated breath before Happy announced: "That was a letdown."
"Well what did you expect?" chuckled Gray. "For us to hit the button and a ship to magically materialize in front of us?"
The cat twitched his ears awkwardly. "Kinda, yeah…"
He shook his head. "C'mon Happy, let's go to engineering. I want to brainstorm some ideas for upgrades."
"Aye sir!" The two of them left the room, leaving Natsu and Lucy alone. She looked out the screen at the stars around them.
"How fast do you think they'll come?" she asked.
Natsu shrugged. "Could be any time from a couple hours from now 'til next week. Who knows?"
"I hope Gray's breath doesn't kill us before then."
He laughed. "I think there're some gas masks in the cargo bay if we need 'em."
"Mmm." She looked down at her hands. The nails on her right hand, whose growth had been accelerated by the chronometric particles, had grown so long that she'd had to cut them off with a knife and almost sliced a finger off. Her other hand, however, still had very long nails that she really needed to cut as well, but didn't want to risk it.
The more she thought about it, the more she decided that her nails represented her at the moment. She had always kept her nails neatly groomed and manicured in the past; now they were wild and unkempt and uneven to boot. She herself was like that too. Back on the Zodiac, she had always been a calm, orderly person that never lost her temper or did anything rash. She had always thought things through before taking action and it had been what had gotten her so far in her career.
But now she was the opposite. Her things were all over the place. There was no semblance of order to how she went about her duties. She yelled at everyone around her more than she'd ever raised her voice in her life, and everyone was completely fine with it. There was no schedule, no time for eating and time for sleeping. No shifts, no designated duties. Here there was only the moment, what needed to be done and what didn't. At first she'd been so taken aback by it that she hadn't really known how to handle herself, but now that she was used to it, she started to wonder: which one did she prefer? The order of her old ship, while calm and structured and so much easier to work with, reminded her of the unpleasant atmosphere of her home and her family back on Magnolia. But the chaos of the Torus made her wonder for the first time if this was what it was like to be truly free.
"You okay?" The sound of Natsu's voice jerked her out of her reverie.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she said with a slight shake of her head. "Just thinking."
"You know," Natsu said slowly. "With this distress signal…a Federation ship might show up. You could go home pretty soon."
"Oh…I suppose you're right." Shouldn't that thought make her happier? He seemed to pick up on that.
"Okay seriously, what's up? That's not the reaction I would've expected."
She sighed. "I don't know. Have you…" She bit her lip. "Have you ever had to choose between two things you really wanted, but didn't know which one you wanted more?"
"Well duh, 'course I have. Everyone does."
"How do you pick which one to take?"
He picked at a spot on his face. "I guess I try and think about not which one I want, but which one I need. A lot of times you need one more than you need the other."
"And…how do you tell which one you need?"
"You just know," he said with a shrug.
"That's not really helpful."
"Uh…then I guess, um, I guess it's something you just can't do without. Something you can't live without."
She blinked. Something she couldn't live without?
"Although I guess that's a bit extreme if you're trying to choose between potato and barbecue chips."
The absurdity of that remark caught her by surprise, prompting her to burst out in giggles. "Of course you'd think of food."
"You're not?"
Her body shook with another wave of laughter. "Not quite, but I think I'd infinitely prefer food over what I've actually got rolling around in my head."
"That sucks. But hey, remember." He gave her a bright smile. "If you ever need to get stuff off your chest, you can tell us. We may not be therapists, but we can still listen. I mean, that is," he amended, "if you want us to."
Something about that smile sent a warm feeling shooting down her body from her head to the tips of her fingers and toes. Before she really knew what she was doing, she had gotten up from her seat and flung her arms around her friend's neck.
He shifted slightly with surprise. "Oh, hey there Luce. Okay." Hesitantly he put his arms around her and patted her back. "I guess it's Hug Time. I can do Hug Time."
"Thanks Natsu," she mumbled into the crook of his neck. "I mean it. Thank you for being here."
"Sure, no problem," he said, still patting her back with quick, light taps. "I mean, it's not like I'm going anywhere."
"Good. Make sure you don't."
"Don't worry," he promised. "I won't."
From the door, Gray and Happy silently watched the scene before them play out. They had come back to ask their fellow crewmembers about their opinion on a particular upgrade, but they both wordlessly agreed upon seeing the heartwarming embrace to wait.
Gray felt Happy's tail flick against his leg and looked down. The Exceed was staring at Natsu and Lucy with a decidedly unsettling expression. Acting swiftly, Gray reached down and yanked the cat out of the door, letting it swish closed behind them.
"Oh no," he hissed to him. "I know that look on your face. It's the same one you wore when I first met Juvia. I'm telling you Happy, whatever insane ideas you've got rattling around in that fuzzy little tin can of a head of yours, drop 'em. Now."
"I don't know what you mean," Happy protested innocently.
"Like hell you don't," snorted Gray. "Listen: it's not gonna work. Not with them."
"What makes you say that? You and Juvia turned out fine."
"That's because Juvia knew exactly what she was getting into. We were compatible in every way; never mind what I thought at first. But them?" He gestured at the door behind them. "Happy, he's a notorious thief wanted across the galaxy. Lucy's a Federation officer with a decently high ranking and a huge career in front of her. Hell, it's probably in her job description to turn him in. Not to mention that he kidnapped her!"
"She doesn't seem to mind anymore," Happy said smugly.
"She doesn't really have much of a choice—not until we get to a Federation starbase, anyway."
"You're just making excuses."
"Excuses?" Gray echoes in disbelief. "Happy, she doesn't know half of what there is to know about him, and he seems fine not telling her! I mean fucking hell, he didn't even mention he was an Etherious until they were together for what, three weeks?"
"So?" Happy looked mulish. "They totally like each other. You're really raining on my parade here, Gray."
"Forget getting rained on, your parade needs to get shut down. You can't have a relationship where the partners don't know major details about the other!"
"Since when did you get so wise and knowledgeable on relationships?"
He gave the Exceed a hard stare. "Since I got married."
"Oh, and that makes you an expert now?"
With a frustrated sigh Gray raked his fingers through his hair. "Happy, just trust me on this, okay? If they get there on their own that's one thing, but don't go pushing them into things they may not want."
Happy folded his arms sullenly. "Fine, I'll wait," he grumbled. "For now, anyway. Although if they keep going on like that I'll hardly have anything to do anyway."
"Who keeps going on like what?" The door behind them swished open to reveal a curious Lucy.
Both male's heads whipped around to stare at her. "Nothing," they chimed in unison.
She raised an eyebrow disbelievingly. "Okaaay then…"
They both cracked guilty smiles that did nothing to allay the blonde's suspicions. "Didn't you say you two were going to engineering to work on upgrade ideas?" she asked with a tilt of her head.
Gray nodded emphatically. "Oh yeah, we were—"
"And we did—" Happy added.
"We just wanted to, y'know—"
"—ask Natsu about some stuff—"
"—and we were gonna go see him—"
"—about to, we mean. We didn't actually, uh, go in yet—"
"—and we definitely didn't see anything—"
"—because we didn't go in yet—"
"—I mean, assuming there was anything to see in the first place, 'cause there wasn't—"
"—but we wouldn't know, 'cause we haven't gone in—"
"—so we're good, right?" Gray finished with a weak grin.
"Sure," Lucy said with a weary shake of her head. "Whatever helps you sleep at night." She moved past them and headed out of the medbay into the hall. Happy and Gray both let out relieved sighs and went to talk to Natsu about the possible upgrades to offer ships as payment for supplies.
That would have required other ships to show up, however. Three days passed since they first sent out the distress signal and not one other life seen was to be detected in the whole vastness of space. Finally midway during the fourth day another ship showed up, but refused to give any supplies without receiving all of the Torus's weapons and drone parts in payment. Needless to say, Natsu refused, and they were left without supplies once more.
The next ship to show up tried to scam them into giving them a free upgrade, but after a few well-placed drone attacks the other ship quickly admitted to having scarcely more supplies than the Torus did. After sending over a few measly scrap bits and a pathetic amount of money, the ship hurriedly left their space.
A week after sending out the distress signal a third ship showed up, this time proving Natsu's concerns valid. It attacked them without a single word, and it was only thanks to Natsu's brilliant piloting and sheer luck aiding Happy with the drones that they survived. Unfortunately the attacking ship managed to escape and the crew was left with nothing but a few less drone parts.
Eventually they came across a barren planet being orbited by a massive plasma storm and decided that the best course of action was to wait inside of it. The storm would put a massive drain on their engines and shields, but it would lessen the chance of someone attacking them, as any other ships in range would also suffer the side effects. To conserve what little energy that was left in the crystals, they decided to run off of auxiliary power for life support only, thus disabling the engines. Fortunately the storm did not block the distress signal, and so they waited.
And waited.
They waited so long that Lucy was down to the last watered-down remains of her shampoo and the boys had resorted to washing themselves with water and dish soap that they'd received from the ship that tried to scam them. Happy was a little stinkball, and Natsu and Lucy's breath had joined Gray's in the lethal gas department.
But finally, two and half weeks after they'd sent out the distress signal, and nearly six weeks after Gray had joined them, a ship responded.
With a joyous cry over the intercom Happy informed them that a ship had responded to their signal, and the three of them raced frantically to join him in the bridge.
"Are you sure?" Natsu pressed. "It might be another one of those assholes like the first one that basically wants our ship."
"No, I think this one's for real," Happy said. "They gave a really nice reply to our call."
"Well, we'll find out in a few seconds," Lucy said. "They're coming into range any second now."
"On screen," Natsu ordered.
The monitor flickered on. The image was patchy due to interference from the storm, but it was enough to see the oncoming ship swing around the planet like a boomerang in slow motion. The hull was a dark smoky gray with electric yellow lines streaking through it like lightning bolts. The shape of the ship was oval with two large dorsal fins on each side. It looked like a giant thundercloud.
"Oh shit, no way!"
Lucy tore her eyes away from the screen at the sudden exclamation to stare at her crewmates. Natsu, who had spoken, looked positively gleeful, while Gray and Happy were exchanging apprehensive glances. When no one said anything else, she cleared her throat loudly.
"Uh, anybody want to tell me what's going on here?" Still nothing. "Hello? Do you guys know that ship or something?"
Natsu finally managed to drag his gaze away from the oncoming vessel to shoot her an excited look. "It's the Thunder Legion," he breathed with relish. "That's Laxus's ship. I'd know it anywhere."
"Laxus?"
"Laxus Dreyar. He's one of Fairy Tail's top thieves," Gray explained. He looked decidedly unhappy. "And he knows it. I s'pose it's because of that that he's not the nicest bloke in the world, if y'know what I mean."
"Oh, so you know him?" Lucy was ready to cry with relief. "If he's your friend from your guild, that means he'll help us, right?"
"'Friend' isn't the term I would use," Happy said, making a face. "The guy's a total jerk. We'll be lucky if he even considers helping us out once he realized who's on this ship."
"We don't need his help," Natsu cried. "We'll beat it outta him!" He slammed his fists together enthusiastically.
Now Lucy was flat-out confused. "Huh? Beat it out of him?"
Gray heaved a world-weary sigh. "Since the day he joined the guild, Natsu's been obsessed with beating Laxus in a battle in space. I mean, he obsessed over beating everyone, but he doesn't seem to get the hint with Laxus."
"Get the…oh." Understanding dawned on Lucy, and she smirked. "I'm guessing their fights don't go too well for him."
"Putting it lightly, yes."
"What about fighting him in person? Is that any better?"
He snorted. "Hardly. In fistfights, Natsu just gets electrocuted until he's out cold on the floor."
"Electrocuted?"
"You'll see what I mean when you get a look at the guy."
"Today'll be different!" Natsu yelled. "I'm gonna whip his butt!"
Happy raised a paw. "I'd just like to remind the pilot that the Thunder Legion is a galaxy-class starship fully equipped to take on an admiral's ship, and that we are currently floating around in a fifth-class Engi transport vessel."
"What's your point?"
Gray smacked Natsu across the back of the head. "His point, idiot, is that we'd be demolished in six seconds flat. It wouldn't even be a fight."
"Aw c'mon, we could do it!"
Lucy shook her head in exasperation. "You never cease to amaze me, Natsu." She frowned, thinking. "Okay," said to Gray and Happy. "You two get him out of sight and keep him quiet. If what you say is true and Laxus is more likely to help a stranger than you guys, then let me do the talking and stay out of sight." The two of them nodded and dragged Natsu to the side as he squirmed and fought.
A button at the comm lit up, signaling that they were being hailed. Lucy gestured once more for them to keep Natsu quiet before she opened a channel.
"This is the Thunder Legion," a deep male voice said. "We received your distress call and are here to assist. What's your problem?"
"This is the Torus," Lucy replied sweetly, trying to sound as nice as possible. It was often the best way to deal with temperamental people. "We've been on our own for a while now and are really low on supplies; we were wondering if you'd be able to spare any?"
"Depends on what you need. We've got a surplus of day-to-day items and some missiles, but we've been out of the loop ourselves for a while now. This area's pretty empty 'til you get to the Zoltan homeworlds."
"That should be fine," Lucy said, relieved. "I can send you a list of things we need. It's not much, as we're not a big crew, but it's getting pretty horrible here. We're especially in need of high-energy photons because our dilithium crystals are decaying, but…" she continued to list the things they needed. The Thunder Legion was quite compliant, willing to give over most of their requests.
"We can give you some of our spare power cells, but we're kinda low on drone parts so I can't really give you any of those."
"Oh don't worry, that's fine," Lucy assured him. "We should have enough to defend ourselves until we reach the Zoltan homeworlds, but instead would we be able to—"
"Shit Happy, hold him down!"
"I'm trying, but he's wriggling too much!"
"Nnngh—FIGHT ME, LAXUS! Mmmph—"
"Shut up, moron!"
Lucy froze in horror as Natsu's outburst rang out through the whole room. Slowly, she turned her head to give the struggling trio the iciest glare she could muster. Gray mouthed sorry and Happy gave a helpless what-were-we-supposed-to-do shrug while keeping a tight grip on the struggling thief.
There was a pregnant pause over the comm. Then the man said, "What was that?"
Lucy gulped. "What was what?"
"That yell right now."
"Yell? I didn't hear anything."
"Mmm—gonna roast his face off!"
She closed her eyes. "And I didn't hear that, either. Can we just pretend that you can't too?"
Another pause. Then the man snapped, "Ever, put 'em on screen."
Their monitor flickered to show them the captain of the other ship, and Lucy understood why Gray had mentioned electrocution. Laxus Dreyar was the biggest Zoltan she'd ever seen.
Zoltans were strange beings with the majority of their bodies composed of pure, harnessable energy. Humanoid in form, their bodies came in varying shades of glowing green, ranging from a dark forest green to a nearly electric yellow, depending on the type of energy they had running through them. They had the ability to charge systems on ships simply by walking into a room, causing the obscene amount of excess energy coursing through their bodies to flow to the systems. Zoltans were considered to be incredibly valuable aboard a starship and their services were highly sought-out.
Whilst being a deeply officious and obtuse people, they generally favored diplomacy over acts of aggression and were know for being fair and just in their dealings with others. However, Lucy thought as she stared at the being on screen before her, there were clearly some exceptions to those rules. Laxus was a vivid yellow-green color, well over eight feet tall and covered in what could only be massive amounts of muscle. There was a jagged scar over his glowing right eye and there was so much energy surrounding him that it was literally sparking around him. She noted with some surprise that he had short, spiky blond hair, as many Zoltans did not have hair. Maybe it was a regional thing. He had a long, fur-rimmed coat slung over his shoulders, and at the moment he looked anything but diplomatic.
"Oh," Lucy squeaked. "Um. Hello there."
"Where is he?" Laxus growled.
"He? Um, sorry, er, haven't the faintest clue who you're talking about," she said very quickly.
The giant Zoltan folded his arms. "I'm not stupid, woman. I'd know that little punk's obnoxious yelling anywhere."
She opened her mouth to reply and closed it again, nodding. Then she turned to Gray and Happy and, with one eye twitching, said with a forced calmness, "Let him up."
The instant his friends released him Natsu leapt to his feet and charged to the front of the room.
"Yo Laxus!" he roared. "I'm ready to pound your brains out!"
"Yeah, with your—" He checked the list Lucy had sent him. "—eight drone parts left. That's really gonna do the job. I'm shaking in my boots."
"Shuddap," Natsu growled. "I can take you any day."
He snorted. "Tell me Natsu—just how are things on planet You Wish?"
The rosy-haired thief blinked, and frowned. "Planet…huh?"
"Good comebacks are wasted on you," the Zoltan said, shaking his head in disgust.
Lucy slapped her forehead in despair. "Natsu, please do us all a favor and go to the corner and just be quiet, okay?" She took him by the shoulder and steered him to a seat as he tried to work out what Laxus had said. "That's it. Now just sit tight and let the adults to the talking."
His frown deepened. "Hey, aren't I older than you?"
"Not at the moment," she said acidly. "Now SIT."
He sat.
She turned back to face Laxus. "I apologize for the immaturity of my crewmate," she said formally. "I hope this will not impact your giving us aid?"
"I'll be honest," Laxus rumbled. "I'm not too keen on the idea of helping out that moron, or those two idiots behind you." He jerked his chin at Gray and Happy who were cowering in the background. "But you're hot for a human chick, and I was hoping I'd run into him anyway, so I suppose I'll still help you out.
She raised an eyebrow. Hot for a human chick? Was she supposed to find that flattering?
"What do you mean, you were hoping you'd run into him anyway?" Happy asked timidly from the back.
"Oh right." He turned to a member of his crew, a rather pretty-looking woman with spectacles, long wavy brown hair, and emerald skin. The thin, translucent wings fluttering at her back led Lucy to believe that she was some kind of fly-alien, but she couldn't be sure. "Ever, where's that note from the capital I gave you?"
"You gave me no such note, sir." Her voice was stern as she adjusted her glasses.
"I didn't? Ah fuck, I must've left it back on Tortall." For a moment he looked vaguely disconcerted, but then he shrugged. "Eh, whatever. I remember the gist of it, anyway. Hey Natsu!" he called to the sulking thief. "I've got a message for you."
Natsu looked up in surprise. "A message?"
"Yeah, from your brother. He's been freaking out every since you ran away and really wants you to come home. Said something about a war and wanting to make sure you're safe."
A rather ugly expression crossed Natsu's face. "Sure he does. More like he wants his pet back where he can keep ahold of him."
Lucy glanced at him, confused. "What?"
At the back of the room, Gray nudged Happy and whispered, "See what I mean?"
Laxus scowled, electricity sparking off his hair. "Hey, don't get me involved in your family drama. I just delivered the message. I'll give you what you need to get your sorry asses outta here, and then I'm gone."
Lucy bowed low, the universal sign for thank you very much for saving our butt. "We appreciate what you're doing for us," she said. "I'm not sure how we can pay you back, but—"
"Don't worry about it," he grunted. "I just want to moving as soon as possible."
In the end Laxus was true to his word, giving them almost all of what they requested. To Gray's delight and the rest of the crew's relief they received a fantastically large supply of toothbrushes and toothpaste, together with boxes stuffed full of shampoo and conditioner. They were able to re-crystallize their dilithium and even managed to obtain some sewing materials for Lucy so she could patch up Natsu's scarf, but they didn't get any drone parts and Laxus flat-out refused to give them any clothes or shoes for Gray.
"We're not a charity organization," he told them shortly. "Nor am I your mommy buying you your clothes. You're gonna have to get your own wardrobe if you want it."
"With what money?" asked Natsu grumpily. He was still miffed about being banned from picking a fight. "Considering you're not giving us any."
"I'm not giving you free money, Dragneel."
"Well, we did offer an upgrade…" Lucy murmured hesitantly.
"Yeah, but we don't need one," Laxus said. "Just be happy with what we did give you and go make some cash on your own. Maybe you could prove that you're a part the guild and actually steal some stuff."
"Why you—"
"Natsu." Lucy cut him off with a heavy glare. "What did I tell you about picking a fight with the man giving us supplies for free?"
His spiky hair seemed to wilt. "Sorry," he muttered balefully.
They finished transporting the last bit of supplies. Once they were finished, Lucy twisted the boy's arms (literally in Natsu's case) and had each of them thank Laxus out loud. The Zoltan didn't even bother replying, instead cutting transmission and clearing the plasma storm before warping away. As fortunate as their encounter had been, Lucy was not sorry to see them go. There was something vaguely unsettling about talking to the other captain, as if she was a soldier waiting for a bomb to go off.
Their supplies may not have been fully restocked, but they were in a far better position than they had been a week previously. No longer worrying if their engines were going to give out after every jump, they were able to head off towards the Zoltan homeworlds with barely a hitch. All seemed well.
But as Lucy sat in her room and stared at the window at the rushing stars as they approached the next system, she thought back to Natsu's expression at the mention of his brother and wondered.
Bit of a choppy chapter, so if anything was unclear please let me know. And as always, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease review! I can't actually verbalize how much your reviews mean to me.