Authors Note: Sorry this took so long. I had a lot going on and this chapter required a lot of research before I could write it.
Natsu's ears picked up the sweetest sound they had ever heard! He had just been about to punch Sting in his ever running mouth when the sound of laughter came from the doorway. Turning to look at the source proved to be a bad idea though, as soon as he did Sting sucker punched him in the gut. That was gonna hurt for a while! Taking a second to catch the wind that got knocked out of him; he found Lucy watching from the entrance to the dining hall.
A sudden strong urge to show off came over him and he grinned evilly at Sting who glared at him warily. Suddenly Sting found himself getting hit with one melee attack after another and soon Natsu was standing atop him in a victory pose. Natsu could practically hear the victory bells ringing around him. Lucy laughed again and walked over to him.
"Hey Luce! You see me being awesome?"
"I see you covered in food and abusing Sting." She gave Sting a little wave, and he returned it still on the floor under Natsu.
"Eh, he'll be fine and I can always wash off easy." He finally stepped off of Sting and went to put an arm around Lucy, but she batted him away.
"Natsu I just took a bath!"
Grinning, he swiped a glob of some sort of sauce from his shoulder and streaked it across her cheek while saying:
"So? You can always take another!"
She let out a funny squeal and socked him in the arm successfully getting more gunk on her hand. She sighed and went to grab a napkin to clean it off. After successfully scrubbing the food off her hand and cheek she turned back to Natsu who was grinning away at her.
"What?" She asked a bit unsettled by the humor in his eyes.
"You missed some on your cheek."
"Where?"
"Here..."
He grabbed the napkin from her and held it up like he was going to wipe it off for her but instead came up with a devilish idea. Cocking his head to the side, with that toothy grin of his, leaned in and licked the remainder of food off her cheek. Lucy's face instantly went red and not even a moment later she delivered a painful 'Lucy Kick' to Natsu's head. All the while shouting:
"Kyaa! What the hell do you think you're doing!?"
"I was cleaning the food off for you!" He responded back rubbing the sore spot on his head. Sting was hanging out with Rouge who had stayed in the corner watching the whole time. They both had shocked looks on their faces, Stings quickly turning to amusement, as Lucy continued her attack on Natsu.
"Was it necessary to lick me!?" She yelled as she started throwing items from the table at Natsu. Dogging them easily he just laughed.
"I don't really see the issue Luce!"
"You don't see the issue!?" She grabbed a tin jug from the table that had held water before the earlier fight and aimed it right for his head. With a loud thud the jug hit him dead center of his face and he yelped at the pain. Lucy smirked triumphant. Sting broke out laughing.
"Nice one Lucy!" He gave her a thumbs up while wiping tears from his eyes with the other hand. Rouge just shook his head at his friend. Lucy smiled at the praise though it didn't last long as an intimidating looking man walked into the room. He took one look around with a disgusted look on his face before he snapped at everyone.
"Seriously!? I can't leave for even an hour and you lot go and wreck the place?!"
"Cool it Laxus it was just a fight we'll clean the mess up." Sting said coolly obviously not caring that a death glare was being shot his way.
"Forget it, we're moving out. Several dark guilds have been seen heading for Twilight Ogres' territory. We're going in for back up. Get ready and tell the others, we'll leave as soon as we're all ready. Sting, END wash the food off yourselves would you?"
With that Laxus left the room in a flash of lightning making Lucy jump slightly. What a way to travel! Then again Natsu's version with fire seemed scarier in a wider perspective she supposed. Natsu sighed and took Lucy's hand, without speaking they walked to the back of the dining hall through a two way swinging door and Lucy found herself in a kitchen.
"Luce, I gotta go so go ahead and make yourself some breakfast. Will you be okay if you're here by yourself for a little while until I can send someone to keep you company?"
"Yeah I'll be fine. It's not like I'm helpless or anything."
He smirked at that.
"Never said you were Luce. Just make sure if you go exploring to stay out of other people's rooms here. It's never wise to enter a dragons dwelling uninvited."
"Alright I'll remember that. Now go get ready and Natsu?"
He had started for the door but stopped and looked back at her.
"Be careful out there. I don't know much about this war but... it's still a war so just be careful okay?"
She hesitantly looks at him blushing slightly. He gives her his best toothy grin.
"Don't worry Luce I'll take 'em all out and be back in time for dinner, promise!" and with that he left to go get ready. Lucy sighs and leans against a counter.
Now she was worrying over a demon? What was happening to her life...? Oh well, best not to dwell on things. Taking a minute to look around she found some food that she could cook and started on it. Being an heiress to a wealthy family she didn't have much cooking experience but she knew enough to make herself a simple breakfast. While she cooked, sounds from everyone gathering to leave rose and fell until all that was left was the sounds of her food simmering in a fry pan.
"Guess I'm on my own now..."
That sunk in a little too deeply and she soon found herself in a weird little funk of confusion. She really was on her own! No father telling her how to live her life, no more tutors or uptight maids telling her how to best live up to her father's expectations of her, and no more pressuring human society telling her to hurry up and marry so she could give some snob an heir. Okay so maybe being on her own wasn't so bad but it was a bit terrifying in a freeing sort of way. She could do whatever she wanted now and that alone was enough to make her want someone's help to figure out what she should do.
Earlier she had been determined to go home and pick up her life from the ashes of what she had left behind, but now that she'd had more time to think about it this realm didn't seem so bad! It had already been explained to her that women had more freedom and rights here. She could dress how she wanted, do what she wanted, and choose her own suitors. The last bit of thought made her blush. Years of reading romance novels had back fired on her and she had dared to dream of a romance that would sweep her away into eternity. So naturally the idea of choosing who that person would be made her go light headed.
The only thing she was still wary on was learning magick. When Natsu got back she would diffidently have to ask him if her learning would mean she'd have to join the war or not. No way would she kill under any circumstances! That was something she would never budge on. Frowning; she wonders if that would mean they'd make her go back to the human realm? What would she do then? How could she go back to the bland, proper life she knew before? Would Natsu still visit with her if she was forced to go back? She'd miss him if he didn't.
Blinking herself back into reality; she finished her breakfast and cleaned up after herself. Once that was done she decided to try and do some cleaning up of the dining room just to pass the time. Sting and Natsu had really done a number on it. It was about a half hour later and she still hadn't made much progress. The dang food just didn't want to come off the walls! She was so busy trying to scrape what looked like dried mashed potatoes off the wall that she didn't notice foot steps behind her as someone entered the hall.
"I'm fairly certain END didn't bring you here to be the cleaning lady."
Lucy jumped and made a squeaking noise at the unexpected voice behind her. Whirling around to face whoever it was; Lucy found a small young lady with blue hair and hazel eyes. Though she was short, Lucy was fairly certain they were similar in age. The bluenette smiled and held out her hand.
"Sorry didn't mean to scare you, I'm Levy, Levy McGarden. I'm here to keep you company."
"Oh, hi. I'm Lucy Heartphilia. Nice to meet you Levy." Lucy smiled and shook her hand.
"Nice to meet you too. So why are you cleaning?"
"Needed something to do. I was gonna explore this place but it's so huge I worried I might get lost."
Levy giggled at that and shook her head.
"It's a fool's errand. This hall gets destroyed so often there's no point."
"From what I saw before I'm not surprised but we can't just leave all this food everywhere. That's disgusting!"
Levy winked and motioned for Lucy to move beside her. "Watch a pro Lu-Chan."
Ignoring her latest nickname; Lucy watched as Levy waved her hand in the air while she intoned:
"Solid Script: Clean!"
The word appeared in physical form in the air above the two girls and went flying around the room. Everything it passed over was suddenly shining like new and in its proper place. Lucy could only gape wide eyed at the scene before her.
"That was amazing Levy!" Levy giggled and did a little curtsy.
"Now that that's done, how about we explore? It's not often people get to be in here when the dragons are gone!"
Laughing and taking each other's hands they ran around the castle exploring every nook and cranny. It was easy being around Levy. She seemed like one of those people that you didn't need to know long to be friends with. It sort of just came naturally and Lucy enjoyed every second of it. She'd even started calling her Levy-chan in the process of it all. They had stopped in a giant library to catch their breath from all the giggling that they had been doing. Levy was currently exploring all the shelves of books pointing out all the ones she had read already.
"Read it, read it, read that one twice..."
"Wow Levy-Chan that's the fifth shelf you've cleared!" Lucy exclaimed.
"Heh heh yeah well when your family has been blessed by the god of language words just seem to come naturally to you." Levy blushed bashfully.
"God of language? Which one?"
"Ogma, he's Irish." Lucy gave her a confused look. "But your name..."
"I know seems Scottish right? I'm actually half and half, but full on Celtic."
"Oh wow..."
"How about you Lu-Chan? I heard you were pretty well off in the human realm, is that true?"
Lucy fidgeted not sure how she should answer. She didn't want to come off as some spoiled brat or anything, but there was no way to explain her circumstances without sounding that way. So instead she settled with:
"I guess…"
"You guess?" Levy questioned.
"Yes we were wealthy. However, 'well off' infers that we were happy as well. I wouldn't agree with that."
The way she said it suggested to Levy that she didn't want to talk about it. So deciding not to be nosy she changed the subject.
"Alright then. Say Lu-Chan rumor has it that you're a Star Child, but you haven't confirmed it. Is that right?"
"Yeah that's what Natsu told me I am. He said something about testing weather he's right or not, but that he's more than fairly certain I am one." She replied simply.
"Well if that's the case you must know what your star is."
Lucy had a brief moment of confusion before Natsu and Makarov's explanations came back to her. Stars are the physical representations of our souls, and for every star there's a soul that's bound to it. So simply knowing what star her soul would return to when she dies is the reason for the craziness of her life. Good to know…
Unfortunately that wasn't something she could loathe. Yes she knew exactly which star was hers, because her mother had been the one to show her. It was one of her best memories with her mother actually.
"Yeah I know which one it is." This made Levy go all doe eyed and curious looking.
"Wow! Do you mind me asking which one it is?" Levy asked.
"Um no not really. Its Alphecca the jewel in the northern crown Coronae Borealis."
"Oh wow that sounds amazing! I don't know much about stars regrettably but that sounds interesting!"
Lucy chuckled. She knew plenty about stars thanks to her mother. Her mother had been enamored with the stars and had constantly explained every constellation in the sky and all the stories behind their individual myths. Lucy memorized them all to heart and could recite each from memory.
"Wanna hear the legend behind the crown?" Lucy offered and giggled as the look on Levy's face looked as if she might burst with joy any moment.
"Yes please!"
Levy made herself comfortable in a chair across from Lucy and tucked her legs underneath herself before motioning for Lucy to start.
"The story starts with a princess named Ariadne, whom the crown belonged to. No one is quite sure who gave her the crown, as the story has been jumbled through the years, but the point is, it was hers. Now Ariadne was in love with a prince named Theseus who she helped escape the labyrinth under Crete after he defeated the Minotaur trapped in there. After wards they sailed away with each other only for Theseus to leave her on the island of Naxos heartbroken. She sat on the island crying and cursing the man for his ungratefulness when along came the God Dionysus. Upon seeing the broken hearted beauty his heart instantly melted for the poor girl and he married her on the spot. After their wedding Dionysus joyfully tossed the crown into the sky where its jewels changed into stars, and there is stays as a monument to their love."
At the end of the story Levy sighed happily.
"That was lovely, at first I thought it was going to end like most Greek and Roman stories do."
"What, with sadness and gore?" Lucy offered and Levy smiled and nodded.
"Yeah exactly!" Levy exclaimed.
"Well there are actually a few others that have happy endings too."
"Do you know them?" Levy asked hopefully. Lucy just laughed and for the next few hours they sat in the library sharing stories from myths they knew.
