After Lucy had released the signal that she'd found Natsu, the group collected at the base of the no-longer Heartfilia mansion. It was around noon.
"Well, it only takes two hours by train to get to Aceto's ball and the event is happening tomorrow night, so we can still stay here." Erza said, glancing at Natsu warily. She didn't hit him for running away. he'd just needed to be alone. She thought that Kura knew where the Dragon Slayer was all along, and purposely sent the Celestial Spirit mage there to find him. she'd also thought that the reason why it took her about three hours was because they were... catching up.
"Okay." Everyone agreed.
"We still have to do something with the clothes Damien and Eric gave us though. How do we know that they aren't spell-bound?" Gray asked.
Ms. Spetto ran out in that moment, holding something in her hand. "oh, you were out here." She smiled. "another letter came for you while you were all out. It was sent by mail this time, not the boy." she said, handing them the orange envelope.
Lucy opened it and pulled out the note. Nothing else came out other than the sheet of paper. "FAIRIES, DO YOU REALLY NOT TRUST ME THAT MUCH? ASK MS. SPETTO FOR HER MAGICAL DEVICE FINDER UNDERNEATH HER DESK. I ASSURE YOU, I JUST SENT YOU THEM BECAUSE I THOUGHT YOU MAY BE A LITTLE UNPREPARED FOR THIS EVENT. YOUR WELCOME, DAMIEN AND ERIC." Lucy crumpled the note and threw it on the ground, stomping on it for good measure.
"Ms. Spetto, may we borrow your magical device finder?" The lady, a bit pale after Lucy had read the note, ran into the house. Lucy and the others went to the female guest room, where all the clothes were stored. The maid came into the room, handing the device to Lucy and then left to double the guard around the house.
The Magical Device Finder, or MDF, was a small, hand-held screen that showed blinking blue dots for magical particles in the air. Where there were concentrated amounts, it meant magic stored in one space and directed to a purpose. Like a Binding Spell.
Lucy tapped the screen on. The little black screen came to life, and she saw little blue dots floating all over the page. Just to try, she turned around and pointed to her friends, gasping. "Cool!" she cried. Everyone, except Ren, was coloured in different shaded of blue dots. Ren, on the other hand, was mostly a black silhouette, tiny particles sticking to him, but his left wrist was speckled blue. Lucy frowned and zoomed in on the wrist. It was in a band pattern, and in the center there was a circle.
Was that Kura's Mating mark? The Celestial Spirit mage thought. It made sense, but she didn't know it was made out of Magic. She zoomed out. "Guys, this is so cool! Hey, what do I look like?" She asked herself, pointing the camera towards her while peering over the screen awkwardly. Once again, she was blue!
"Okay Lucy, you should check the clothes now." Gray drawled. The blonde smiled apologetically and pointed the screen towards the dresses and tuxedo's. Other than a few sparks in the air, there was no concentrated blue.
"No spells." Lucy confirmed. "they're just plain dresses and tuxes."
"No, we're going to Aceto's ball in these?" Erza asked.
"Well, they are pretty." Aiko admitted, staring at her own tiny white dress.
"Aye! I have a fishy tux!" Happy cried, looking down at the blue piece.
Lucy smiled slightly. "They are nice and would go to waste if we didn't wear them."
The next day, around three o'clock in the afternoon, they boarded the train with their respective dresses or tuxes in their own bags. They got on, Erza knocked out Natsu and offered to Kura, but she said no, she'd prefer to stay conscious.
A few hours later, they stopped at a huge castle. Balsamico castle, which Team Natsu'd been to before, seven years ago. All of the building was lit up, lighting up the night, and music came from the windows. The group walked inside.
"It's so pretty!" Lucy commented, looking around. The very entrance was beautiful, with polished floors and gorgeous furniture and decorations. The giant, elegant chandelier hung above them, lighting the room nicely.
"Hello." A servant came to greet them. "You are mages, correct?" Everyone nodded, making a hand flame, bringing a quick flash of a sword out, a tiny ice sculpture, showing off keys, making flickering energy balls in a palm, sprouting wings, or just standing in the background awkwardly, hoping the servant wouldn't notice him. Once again he felt a flash of self-pity. Of course Ren had to be the only one who couldn't use Magic here.
"Thank you for coming. The dressing rooms are to the right, and once you are dressed, continue on into the ballroom." Everyone moved, Ren in the middle so the servant was less likely to notice him. Eventually, the hallway split into two parts, labelled Men and Ladies.
"See you on the other side." Lucy said, waving to Ren, Natsu, Gray, and Happy. The guys disappeared around the corner. Erza, Kura, Aiko and Lucy went to their own rooms.
Everyone got a small cubbyhole to themselves, where there was a small desk with a mirror and a bench inside. The wall was a curtain that you could slide shut so you were out of view. Lucy zipped the curtain shut and unzipped her duffel bag. She found the dress and smoothed out the creases accidently made in the sack.
Lucy slipped on the dress with little difficulty, having practice with the fancy dresses she wore when she was smaller, and then spun around in front of the mirror, hands up. She had to admit, Damien at least had a fashion sense.
The dress was stunning on the blonde. It was a midnight black, long, strapless dress with a slight poof at the end. It was tight enough that it didn't squeeze her to death, but was padded in certain areas to make her already generous curves and assets look better than they already were. Tiny silvery sequins were sewn into the fabric with enough delicacy that her body looked like the starry night sky; when she moved it seemingly created a trail of stardust. She hadn't done her makeup or added accessories and she already looked dazzling.
Lucy bent down, searching her travel bag to find some nice ball shoes and some add-ons. She didn't want to wear heels in case there was a fight, and besides, the dress was long enough that it hid her feet unless she kicked them up or the person bent down to look at them. Some simple black flats would do, the blonde thought.
Her hand moved around the duffel bag, searching through her clothes to find... she felt something leathery, thinking it was her shoes. Tugging it out, mouth opened slightly, she raised her arm.
It definitely wasn't a pair of flats. It was an old, broken black sandal. Lucy frowned and ducked her head.
Their mission was in a forest.
"Hey Luce!" Natsu warned her a split second before she ducked, and the man creeping behind her flew over the girl. The Dragon Slayer kicked him away with a well-placed snap kick, sending him flying, but there was a sickening crack, and his sandal flew off with the thief.
"Whoops." Lucy chuckled at the pink-haired boy staring at his foot. He didn't have much time to think about it as two more men came at him, swinging around a pocketknife and a hammer. Natsu ducked under the first weapon, rolled, and punched the second guy over into . Both sprawled on the ground, and Natsu finished them off with a dual-Dragon's wing attack.
Lucy lashed out her whip, wrapping it around a thief's ankle, and made him fly into another group of his friends, for some reason laughing.
Erza had tied the bandits up and threw them in her wagon; Team Natsu started walking to the nearby town to get their money for the job they had just completed. All 32 bandits caught.
Lucy was chatting with Natsu, but her friends whipped their heads towards her when she tipped forward, crying out. She landed on the dirty ground with a thud, rocks and dirt skinning her knees. She winced, biting back tears. Sure she'd experienced worse, but it still hurt.
"Luce, you okay?" A half-shoed Natsu helped her up and bent over to pick up what she'd tripped over. It was his discarded sandal. "It looks like it got revenge for being thrown out," he said, half-joking.
The sandal was very worn from years of use and had to be fixed by Natsu loads of times. [He wouldn't admit it to his friends, but he knew how to sew, actually quite well, but it seemed like such a girly task that he kept it between Happy and himself.] It wasn't the first time the leather had snapped, unfortunately, but he'd fixed it enough times that he was getting tired of it. He had an extra, less worn pair at home anyways, so he was about to throw it over his shoulder but Lucy stopped him.
"Here Natsu. When we get back I'll fix them." Natsu didn't know why he complied but he handed her the sandal and she popped it into her bag.
Of course. It was the same bag that she'd been carrying around all this time. She'd completely forgotten about the shoe and Lucy had been holding it over her shoulder or in a luggage rack all this time. Tears prickled her eyes but she fought them back. She wouldn't cry. It would make her eyes all red and she didn't want that when she was about to go to a ball.
Lucy shoved the sandal back in roughly and searched again. Eventually she gave up being neat and started ripping clothes out. She still couldn't find her little baggy, so she started shuffling through the load of clothes. Before her hands touched it though, she froze. Lying on top, was a pair of baby-blue, little flying chibi Dragons PJ pants. She cursed, the tears threatening to come again. Fate just despised her recently, hadn't it?
"Hey Luce! Come and look at these!"
Lucy hobbled over on her crutches and looked up at the hung up cloths where her boyfriend was pointing at. Natsu had taken her shopping since he'd said they needed to get her out of the house and it was something he knew she'd enjoyed. Lucy had complained, knowing that Natsu was only doing it because only she would enjoy it, but unknowingly the arguing had stopped as soon as she saw the first clothing store. Later, she would silently curse herself for not defending him more.
"What?" as soon as she said it, she noticed the cute little Pjs hanging up. They had tiny red Dragons flying all over the comfy, fleecy-looking material, and on the chest a crimson heart with the words "I love Dragons" on it. Lucy checked the price tag quickly and instantly bought it, even though it was slightly overpriced.
She hadn't noticed as she packed that she'd grabbed those particular pants. The tears were threatening to overflow, so she threw the pants away quickly and finally found her damned shoes and makeup/accessories kit. She stuffed the clothes back in, shoving the sandal and pants into the deepest part of her bag and zipping it up, pretending that all her insecurities were locked in there too.
She took a deep breath in and started preparing for the ball. Lucy slipped on her flats and applied makeup while summoning Cancer so he could do her hair up in a fancy, spiky bun that looked slightly messy and yet elegant at the same time. Two long strands of hair framed her pretty face. She put on a silver pendant necklace that complimented well on the dress.
"Hey Lucy, you almost done?" The voice she recognized as Kura called. "Aiko and I are coming in!" The curtain moved aside and the Dragon Slayer gasped. The Exceed behind her looked beyond Kura and smiled.
"You look stunning Lucy!" The purple-haired sword user exclaimed. She looked quite good in her purple long halter dress, bunched up slightly at the side to make a river of cloth, and she still didn't put on makeup. Her hair was put down, curling slightly over her shoulders and her cheeks were slightly red.
Lucy put on a smile, noticing her friend's nervousness. "You look better than I do," she complimented. "Come on, you're gorgeous! It's just a little bit of the jitter bugs." The blonde pulled her inside, Aiko following behind. The little Exceed was in a white dress with straps. There were no sleeves, but a cute purple ribbon was tied around her. She looked adorable.
"I-I... I mean... do you think I look okay?" Kura asked unsurely, playing nervously with her hair.
Lucy grinned. "You're not used to dressing up, are you?"
"Y-yeah... that and..." Kura's face turned into a pout. "Well, the Attack on our Church happened the day we were having a celebration. Two of us were having a wedding." Lucy felt sympathetic for her friend. She didn't know that. Even though Kura wore her regular purple dress with her black vest over it usually, she'd never seen her friend actually dress up for an occasion. Not that she'd known her for too long, but now she understood.
"Don't worry. Everything will go fine. With all of us against Eric and Damien, none of us are gonna get hurt." Lucy reassured her.
"I'm just nervous that Ren won't be able to protect himself." Ren wasn't a mage, he'd stayed with Kura and Aiko in FairyTail, but he hadn't ever used magic. The blonde smiled tightly.
"I'm sure he'll be fine. And besides, he has a pretty wicked sword. He had his own ways and if you're that concerned, you can just stay and dance with him. You two are dating, and it's not an excuse to stay close to one another."
"Yeah. Okay." Kura smiled tightly, silently wondering how much it hurt Lucy to be giving her dating tips. To answer the question, a lot for the blonde. She was so confused about her own relationship with Natsu right now... Kura searched her face before blushing again.
"Um... erm... could you... help me get ready?" Kura asked shyly, trying to break the tension-filled atmosphere. Lucy smiled widely before rummaging through her baggy, holding up a mascara wand evilly. The Dragon Slayer forcefully swallowed.
Haha Kura...
I feel great, because I've gotten two chapters uploaded today! yay! I answered all of your reviews in the previous chapter, got two new chapters posted... I'm on a roll! The next chapter also will be out soon.
review?