A/N - So, uh, been a while. Yayyy real life?

Not much to say before the chapter starts, beyond the fact that I finally figured out whose voice keeps coming out of Emmett's mouth when I write these scenes, and it's Travis Willingham's. Haven't quite figured out Brandy's yet, but yeah, when you read Emmett's dialogue, that's who you should be thinking of.

Anyways, I'd like to thank Derpulies, Lightsbane1905, and mysterygirl123 for reviewing!

Derpulies: Awww, thanks! I'm glad to hear people like Emmett; like I've said before, he's an archetype I've never written before, and his storyline and backstory are actually pretty important to Brandy's own backstory, especially involving The Incident. I also just really like writing him a lot.

And when I was referring to the arc as being non-impactful, I guess I was just referring to it in comparison to Tempus Fugit, my Soul Eater fanfic? Because with TF, Soul Eater is already done, so I can afford to do my usual extensive "plot out EVERYTHING and its relevance to EVERYTHING ELSE" that I do with my outlines. But because Fairy Tail is still going and sometimes throws some curveballs (like FUCKING CHAPTER 499) I have to be a little looser and more flexible with how I plan out my story, which is pretty new to me. So instead of following my outlines, sometimes I'm freewriting stuff that won't have relevance until I retroactively decide its relevance, which is kind of new and scary for me? Luckily I'm decent-ish at writing my way out of corners and I've got my sister/beta to help me out with plot stuff, so hopefully I'll be able to keep the story from falling apart without a rigid outline with which I can keep track of what happens when.

(And yeah, not looking forward to writing THAT part of the arc when Skin Deep reaches it, that's for sure. Well, actually, I kind of am, if only for some really good character developments I have planned.)

Lightsbane1905: Well, given that it was assaulting the mind of his student, I think Emmett was slightly justified in seeing the Baku as a threat that needed to be dealt with. But yeah, people's intentions not always being as malevolent as initially assumed is a recurring theme in Fairy Tail, so I figured I might as well continue it a bit with the Baku. And circumstance affecting our interaction with the world and its people is going to be a bit of a thing with the rest of my story, so, you know. Parallels.

mysterygirl123: Thanks! We won't be seeing the fifth Construction for a while, though. Waffled on showing it next chapter and during the Lullaby arc, and eventually decided on the Lullaby arc. That's only a few chapters, though! As for the sixth one, well, that's it's own thing. We will be getting a detailed rundown on just how Construction works next chapter.


Chapter Ten - Pacts and Promises


Whether or not a person enjoyed having a window on the eastern side of their bedroom depending entirely on whether or not they liked being woken up at eight-thirty in the morning by the sun shining directly on your face. For Brandy, it had its ups and downs. On the one hand, the morning light was a gentle, warm comfort against her perpetually itchy skin, something she could bath in for hours, or at least until it warmed up enough where spending the day underneath the sheets became impractical and unpleasant.

On the other hand, she thought, wincing as she threw her arm over her eyes, it's really damn bright. She rolled over and covered her head with the pillow. And I am really tired. It had been a couple days since she had gone on the mission with Emmett. The money they'd gotten from their mission had been more than enough to cover the 100,000-jewels rent that she and Emmett had to pay to stay in the two-story house they lived in, and Brandy had been taking advantage of the fact that she didn't have to worry about taking any more jobs for a few days by getting as much rest as she could. Going straight from a Natsu Mission to an evaluation mission had started to take a toll on her. So she was just going to lay here in bed, curled up under the light fabric of the sheets, and spend as much of the morning she could sleepin-

CRASH.

"Oh, for the love of…!"

Brandy didn't need to go downstairs to investigate what had caused the sudden crashing sound that had shaken the entire house, partially because she already had a pretty good idea of who it was and partially because of the set of slightly frantic footsteps ascending up the stairs to stop right outside her bedroom, followed by a careful knock at her door. "Brandy?" Emmett asked from the other side of the door. "Are you awake?"

Brandy sighed. "It'd be sort of hard not to be!" she responded, pushing the pillow off her head and pulling herself into a sitting position. "Let me guess: Natsu and Happy are here." She rubbed at her yellow eyes, still heavy with lingering tiredness.

"Yeah. They said something about a really good mission they want your help with. Also, they're sort of eating everything in our pantry."

Brandy bit her tongue to stop herself from unleashing a string of swear words that would make even her mother blush. "Yeah, okay, I'll be down in a minute. Just lemme get dressed real quick, okay?" She dragged herself out of bed with a yawn, reaching for her dresser. Outside her room, she could hear another crash, followed by Emmett's footsteps as he raced back down the stairs. Brandy sighed and pulled up the left leg of her pajama shorts, revealing the smooth, bronze-brown skin of her thigh. "Construction Focus: Ink Tattoos," she muttered, her voice lacking its usual enthusiastic inflection as she pressed her palm to where her spider was. "Come forth, Frigga the Weaving Spider." Frigga burst forth with far less fanfare than usual, landing on the ground and skittering around to face its master. Brandy ambled over to the door and opened it, gesturing towards the hallway. "Go make sure that pink-haired idiot and his feline companion don't bring the whole house down." The spider obediently scuttled out the of the room and towards the staircase, and Brandy closed the door behind it. "That ought to teach them a lesson or two," she grumbled, heading back to her dresser and pulling out her outfit for the day. "Think they can just barge in whenever, do they…"

She quickly pulled off her pajamas and got dressed, eschewing most of her traveling garb for a soft woolen turtleneck sweater, a part of dark brown short-shorts, and her usual leather thigh-high boots. Since she wasn't planning on going anyway today, she wasn't too concerned about keeping her tattoos bared; the only one she needed to worry about was Frigga, and that was because it was already out. Speaking of which…

As she left her room and headed down the stairs, she heard a familiar, agitated voice float up from the ground floor. "-what the heck is your problem, Brands? We just wanted to see if you were awake, you didn't have to sic one of your Constructions on us!"

"Aye!"

Brandy sighed as she entered the pantry, where Natsu and Happy had been tied up in some of Frigga's webbing and were about as pleased with their current situation as you could expect. "You know that I can't hear you through Frigga, right? Trying to talk to me using her is kind of pointless; she's not the Ravens or anything." she said, taking in the destruction the two had caused. "Cheese and crackers, boys, what did you do? It looks like a hurricane roared through here."

"We were hungry." Natsu stated it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"And you couldn't have eaten while at the guild because…?"

"Well, we saw this really cool mission and thought you'd be able to help, so we came right over," the Dragon Slayer explained, trying and failing to wriggle out of the webbing pinning him to the floor. "But we forgot to eat, so we thought, 'hey, we could just have breakfast over at Brandy and Emmett's house!' You don't mind, right?"

"Yeah!" Happy added. "You guys always have really yummy food from Ranuncolo!"

Brandy groaned. "Yummy and expensive, you dolts. Frigga, return," she snapped, calling the spider back to her thigh with a snap of her fingers. The bindings around Natsu and Happy melted away, allowing the two to move their limbs about. " Do you know how much it costs to have that sort of food imported? That's why we only prepare Ranuncolian meals on special occasions, like on a holiday or after completing a really difficult mission. And now you've gone and gobbled up our entire pantry." She activated the concealment ink charm and marched over to Natsu, yanking the flier he had been holding right out of his hand. "I swear to everything you hold dear, you pink-haired jerk, if this mission isn't worth it I'm going to-"

Her words died in her throat as she gawked at the reward listed on the flier. "Two hundred thousand jewels? Split three ways, that's over sixty-thousand jewels each! I could replace all the food you just ate five times over!" She scanned the job information, and her excited expression faltered a bit. "Wait, this is just a basic magical object retrieval mission. Why is it so expensive? And why do you need my help?"

"Keep reading!"

"Um, let's see… some book owned by some guy named Everlue… owns a mansion in Shirotsume Town, that's a carriage ride and change away… dirty old man looking to hire a new maohhhhhh, I see." Brandy jabbed an accusing finger at Natsu and Happy. "You want me to pull some feminine wiles out of nowhere and seduce the Duke so I can get access to that book. Well, as much as I would just love to get my flirt on with a dude who styles his moustache out of his nose hairs - seriously, gross - there's one little problem."

Natsu blinked, his brows furrowing together. "What do you mean?" he asked. "Is it because you like girls?"

"I like boys and girls, Natsu, that's not the problem. The problem is this." She points to one of the finer-print sentences on the flier. "Everlue's looking for a maid with blonde hair. Does this-" she gestures to her short, umber locks, "- look blonde to you?"

"Yeah, but you could just use your magic to change it, right?" Natsu pointed out. "Put some yellow ink in your hair, and then you could totally pass as a blonde! Then all you gotta do is put on a maid costume, get into that guy's mansion, and get that book! Two hundred thousand jewel, real easy!"

"Natsu… Natsu." Brandy sighed and ran her hand over her face. "That's not… Ink isn't dye, Natsu, I can't just turn my hair blonde like that. And even if I could, why would I change my hair like that just to impress some creep for one mission? Not only would I look terrible as a blonde, but dying my hair lighter would require either using a bunch of stuff in my hair that I don't want to put into my hair, or going out and buying a Color-Change device that I would never use beyond this one mission."

"Oh." Natsu seemed to deflate a bit. "Aw, man, and I was so excited to go on this one, too."

"Think of all the fish we could have bought with all those jewels!" Happy sniffed, a look

The corner of one of Brandy's eyes twitched in irritation. "Then why the hell don't you two just ask Lucy? I mean, she's a blonde, right? And she's hotter than I am, so she'd have a better shot anyway." That last comment wasn't meant to disparage herself; while she didn't exactly have the exaggerated voluptuousness of half of the women on this half of Fiore, Brandy's lean musculature, long legs, and tendency towards outfits that revealed both of these factors meant that she could use her body as a weapon as much as she could use it as a storage unit for her actual weapons. That being said, she wasn't exactly an expert at direct seduction, and Lucy was… well, Lucy. There was no beating around the bush about it: the girl had curves to spare. Plus she had the whip, so she could always work the domination angle if the maid thing didn't pan out.

"Huh… that's a good idea. We could check out her new place while we're at it, too!" Natsu suddenly jumps to his feet, filled with renewed vigor. "Well, then, what are we waiting for? Let's go, Happy!"

"Aye!"

Before Brandy could even process the shift in Natsu's mood, he had grabbed her wrist and was pulling her towards the front door. "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" she yelped. "You only came over because you thought I could turn myself blonde, why are you taking me with you?!"

"Hey, just because you can't be blonde doesn't mean we don't want you coming along with us!" Natsu exclaimed, beaming over his shoulder at her. "You're our pal, and pals stick together!"

If his smile wasn't so infectious, she'd deck the bastard. Instead, her mouth twisted upwards into a smile of her own. "Okay, fine, but I'd better get a fair split of the profits," she said, before raising her voice and calling out to Emmett, "Hey, Master Torhearth, I'm going over to Lucy's. I also might be going on a mission, so I might not be back for a while!"

"Uh, okay!" Emmett's voice floated back to her. "Are you going with Natsu and Happy?"

"Apparently!"

"All right. Don't blow anything up!"

Brandy's gaze fell upon the Dragon Slayer, who was still practically dragging her towards the door with a trademark grin. Yeah, right. "No promises!"


"Wait, do you even know which house is Lucy's? She moved into Magnolia like two days ago."

"Yeah, of course I do! It's the one that smells like her, duh!"

"Your dog-like sense of smell is both fascinating and very, very concerning."

"Natsu isn't like a dog!" Happy objected as he walked beside the two humans. "Dogs are mean and scary! Natsu's sense of smell is like a cat's."

Brandy rolled her eyes. "Sure it is. Are we almost there?"

"Yup!" Natsu pointed to a quaint house near the canal. "It's that one, right over there."

It really was a nice little place, Brandy mused as they approached. It was a little shorter than the neighboring homes, with rich brick-orange walls and windows going all the way up. The way the windows were built into the roof suggested a third floor; perhaps an attic of some sort? She wasn't sure what a single person could do with an attic, especially when their luggage filled up exactly a single suitcase. But whatever worked for Lucy.

"All right!" Natsu said, his voice suddenly dropping down in volume as he rubbed his hands together. "We've gotta be real quiet about this."

"That word is in your vocabulary?" Brandy deadpanned.

Her snark went ignored. "Yeah!" Happy stage-whispered. "We need to be like ninjas!"

"Yeah, ninjas!"

"Wait," Brandy said. "Why do you even need to be quiet, anyway? Aren't we just stopping by to ask Lucy for help? Why are you climbing in through that window?"

She had to admit: when he wanted to, Natsu worked quickly. By the time she'd finished her sentence, he had already pried open one of the first floor windows and was halfway over the sill, with Happy perched on his shoulder. "We need to get inside somehow," he pointed out, immediately having forgotten the whole "be quiet" stuff he had been espousing just two seconds prior and instead reverting back to his default volume.

"You know there's a door, right? Why don't you just, I don't know, knock?" Natsu didn't answer her, disappearing into the house. "H-hey, get back here! Natsu!" Brandy grumbled under her breath and pulled herself up over the sill. "Can't believe I have to babysit your thoughtless… ugh!"

As her boots hit the floor, the first thing she noticed was that the inside of the house was nice. Like, really nice, with soft pink walls and long green curtains that covered the doorways. "Wow," Brandy murmured. "How much does this place cost? It's gotta be at least as expensive as our place, if not more…" Noting that the pink-haired Dragon Slayer she'd chased after was nowhere to be found, she raised her voice and called out, "Natsu? Where'd you go?"

For a moment the only response was silence. Then, a shriek came from upstairs that almost made Brandy jump out of her own skin, followed by a crash and a "Get the heck out of here, you jerks!"

Hooo boy. Brandy made a beeline for the stairs, taking them two at a time and practically charging into the room where the noise had come from. Inside, she saw Natsu and Happy sprawled on the ground, each rubbing miserably at various newfound bruises. Above them stood Lucy, wearing little more than a towel and a furious expression. "Jeez," Natsu winced. "We just came over to check out your new pad."

"Aye," Happy groaned weakly.

That's a big load of crap and you both know it.

Lie or not, it clearly wasn't going to pacify Lucy. "Oh, yeah?" she snapped. "Well, what you call 'checking out,' I call barging in! And I'm pretty sure the police would call it breaking and entering," she added.

Brandy figured that now was as good of a time as any to butt in. "See, idiots, this is why we knock and wait patiently," she sighed, heading over to Natsu and grabbing him by the shoulder so she could haul him to his feet. "Not that either of you know what that word means…" She turned to Lucy with an apologetic smile on her face. "Sorry about that, Luce. Natsu's one of those 'gold heart, empty head' sort of people, you know?"

Lucy folded her arms over her chest with a pout. "You can say that again. So what are you doing in here, then?"

"Trying to keep Natsu from causing a big ruckus." Brandy playfully ruffled Natsu's hair, ignoring his vocal objections over it. "Keyword being 'tried.' Don't worry, we're not here to be a bother." Her gentle hair-ruffling transformed into her shoving Natsu's head downwards pointedly. "Isn't that right, Natsu?"

"Ow, hey, let go of me!"

Lucy relaxed a little at this, because if there was one thing Brandy had learned how to be very good at, it was appearing friendly and approachable even when all evidence pointed to the contrary. A skill born from necessity. "Well, you guys should really get going. I'm gonna be really busy getting things set up, and I'm not even dressed yet, so…"

"Come on, we were just trying to be friendly!" Natsu said.

"Yeah, well, this is a serious invasion of my privacy, so if you could just-" Lucy's coffee-brown gaze fell on something just behind Natsu and Brandy, and her eyes widened to the size of teacup saucers. "What are you doing?!"

Brandy looked over her shoulder to see Happy in the process of turning one of the walls into his new scratching post. "Nice place you got here," he remarked.

"Let's try and keep it that way, all right?!"

The momentary distraction was enough to allow Natsu the opportunity he needed to slip out of Brandy's grasp and wander over to the writing desk on the far side of Lucy's bedroom. "Hey," he said, picking up a large sheaf of papers, "what's all this?"

Lucy's expression turned from one of ire to one of horror as she saw what Natsu was holding. In the span of about half a second, she had crossed the room, ripped the papers from his hands, and in the process kicked him in the face hard enough to send him stumbling back. Brandy had to admire her bath towel's dedication to its job; even though all of that it stayed firmly secured to her body. "Nothing!" Lucy shouted, dropping to the floor and clinging to the stack of papers like it was a lifeline.

Doesn't seem like "nothing," Brandy thought.

Natsu seemed to share a similar sentiment. "So you'd just kick me in the face over nothing?" he asked, nursing the rapidly-rising bump on his head.

"Yeah, maybe I would! Now would you please just go home?"

"Aw, but your place is way more exciting!"

"I hate boys…"

After a very apologetic Brandy had finally managed to drag a very bemused Natsu out of the bedroom and down into the living room, Lucy had gotten dressed, tied her hair into low pigtails, and had poured out some tea for the lot of them. And that's where they were now, with Brandy, Natsu and Happy enjoying their tea while Lucy frowned sternly at them from across the kitchen table. "Look," she said, "I just moved in, and I'm not ready for guests. So how about you three just drink your tea, say thanks, and get out, ya got that?"

"Talk about cold-hearted," Natsu said with a sigh.

"Ice-cold," Happy agreed.

Lucy's scowl deepened. "Watch it, cat."

Brandy rolled her eyes and took another sip of her tea (she didn't recognize the flavor, but there was a smoky quality to it that she really enjoyed) before speaking. "You did technically trespass, you know. It's perfectly fair of Lucy to decide when and how she accepts guests in her home."

"What do you mean, 'you?'" Lucy's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You're a trespasser, too, you know."

"Only in the interest of trying to keep Natsu from destroying your house like he did my pantry this morning," Brandy said, shooting a glare at Natsu from over the edge of her teacup.

Natsu wasn't listening. Instead, his eyes had lit up as an idea formed in his head. "Hey, I know!" he exclaimed. "Why don't you show us all those weird little key guys that you like to collect!"

"For your information," Lucy said, "they're called Celestial spirits."

"How many of these Celestial spirits do you have contracts with?" Happy asked.

Asking an angry wizard about their magic was a sure way to distract them from whatever had them angry in the first place. "Six, so far!" Lucy said, beaming as she held up her keyring. "Not to brag or anything, but I even have a couple of different types of them." She carefully removes the keys from the ring and lays them out on the table. "The silver keys are the ones you can find in the magic shops. I've got Horologium the Clock, Crux the Southern Cross, and Lyra the Harp. But the gold ones are super rare. There are twelve total, and they open the gates of the Zodiac. I've got Taurus the Golden Bull, Aquarius the Water-Bearer, and that last one is Cancer the Giant Crab!"

Natsu's mouth watered at the mention of the last one. "Giant crab?!" he gasped.

Happy joined in on the salivating. "Giant crab legs…"

"I've never met anyone as obsessed with food as these two," Lucy muttered.

Brandy shrugged. "Boys and cats, am I right?" She propped her elbow up on the table and rested her chin in her hand. "You know, I know I've said this before, but I can't emphasize enough just how impressive your magic is. I mean, Celestial Spirit Wizards are incredible enough, but to have a full quarter of the Zodiac keys? That's insane. And you can summon any of them at will?"

"Well, not 'at will,' exactly," Lucy admitted. "The terms of the contract we Celestial Wizards make with our spirits determines when and where we can summon them, and for what reasons. So why do you know so much about Celestial Spirit magic, anyway? I mean, I know you mom has that key, but there's got to be more to it than that."

"Well," Brandy said, "From an academic standpoint, I've actually always been interested in summoning-class magic. Construction is classified as a summoning-class, you see, and it's always fun to see how the different types of magic within a certain class compare and contrast. Especially when you take into account the Holder and Caster super-classes."

"Huh, really? How does Construction magic work, anyway?"

Brandy grinned. "Tell you what: I'll show you mine if you show me yours." She reached out and poked Lucy's shoulder. "Go on, summon one of your spirits for us. I never actually got to see you summon Aquarius back in Hargeon. I wanna see what it's like."

"That's not how it works, you know," Lucy huffed. "I just told you, I can't summon a spirit whenever, it'd be against our contract. But I do need to make a contract with the key I bought in Hargeon." She pushed her chair away from the table and stood up, facing Natsu and Happy. "I don't supposed you fellas are interested in seeing how a Celestial wizard makes a contract with a Celestial spirit?"

Natsu and Happy stared at her for a second before leaning towards each other. "I hope it's not some grody blood pact," Happy whispered.

"Well it sounds like a pain in the butt to me," Natsu replied.

Neither of them were being nearly as discreet as they thought they were. "Um, I can hear you," Lucy said flatly, "so leave my butt out of this."

Brandy stood up out of her chair and practically slammed her hand over Natsu's mouth, shooting him a shut-up-or-I'll-make-you-shut-up look. "Ignore that! Please ignore everything that comes out of his mouth, we would be very interested in seeing you make a contract!" She gives Happy's tail a tug for emphasis. "Isn't that right, boys?"

The message was clear: absolutely no wild antics until Lucy pulled off the summon.

After that, though, anything was fair game.

"Oh… kay then," Lucy said hesitantly, obviously a little put off by the way Brandy and the boys were acting. "Anyways…" She pulled out the key in question, its silver finish gleaming in the light streaming through the window. "All right, pay attention," she said, before holding the key out at arm's length in front of her, as if reaching to unlock a door only she could see. Her voice gains a new layer of authority as she recites what Brandy quickly surmises to be the incantation for the initial summon. "I call upon thee, in the world of the Celestial spirits. I beckon you to my side at once. Pass through the gate!" She swept the key in an arc in front of her before bringing it up and then down in a vertical line. "Open, Gate of Canis Minor! Come, Nikola!"

A beautiful magic circle burst forth into the air, with several beams of light spiraling out from the center. The beams came together, forming what looked to be a sphere of liquid light that eventually took the shape of… a small, trembly, snowman-dog-thing.

That was… underwhelming.

Natsu and Happy seemed to think so, too. "Nice try," they said in unision.

Lucy rounded on them. "Shut up, I meant to do that!" She immediately turned her attention to the snowman-dog-thing, and as it stared up at her with large, pensive eyes and a small, open smile on its face, she inevitably fell to the curse of Proximity to Small Adorable Thing. "Aww, look at you!" she cooed, dropping down to her knees and scooping up the critter so she could cradle it close to her chest. "You are such a cutie-patootie!"

"It is pretty adorable," Brandy agreed, kneeling down beside them. "Hey, buddy. Can I pet you?" The snowman-dog nodded, and Brandy reached over to lightly stroke the top of its head, causing its smile to widen slightly and its tag to wag a little. "You know, if I'd known that being a Celestial wizard would mean getting to summon you, I'd have learned that as a kid instead." Of course, her mom would have killed her for that. She already disapproved enough about the fact that Brandy hadn't studied the family magic. Not my fault I lack the aptitude, Mom.

"It doesn't take much magic power to get these little guys through the Gate," Lucy said," so a lot of wizards actually keep them as pets."

Happy frowned at that. "You know, this whole 'pet' thing doesn't sit well with me," he whispered in an aside to Natsu at a much louder volume than he thought he was speaking at.

"Not with a weird master like Loony here," Natsu replied in an equally loud not-whisper.

"My name is Lucy, and I can still hear you." Lucy and Brandy exchanged a look before Lucy put the little snowman-dog down and pulled out a small pad and a pen. "Well, let's start working on our contract. Are you free Mondays?"

The critter shook its head.

Lucy wrote that down. "Tuesdays?"

The critter nodded.

"Wednesdays?"

And on it went, with Lucy went through the days of the week and the snowman-dog indicated its availability or lack thereof. Brandy was fascinated by how straightforward and mundane it all was. She had assumed that forging a contract with something as powerful as a Celestial spirit would require some sort of advanced spell, the way forging the blueprints for her Constructions were.

Of course, between her condition and the rare type of Construction she utilized, maybe she just had it a bit harder than others.

"Great!" Lucy said as she closed the notepad. "Well, that just about does it." The snowman-dog leaps into the air, letting out a prolonged, high-pitched noise of happiness at it does.

"That was pretty easy," Happy said.

"It may seem silly to you, but it's really important," Lucy replied. "You see, a Celestial wizard's contract relies on the promise that's made between the wizard and the spirit. Which is why I make it a point to always keep my promises. Got it?"

Ah, hell. Brandy shot a glance over at Natsu. He looked pretty disinterested on the surface, but she could see a hint of something almost diabolical in his eyes. He was scheming something, she was sure of it. "Always?" she said. "But what if you get tricked into making a promise with a bad guy or something, and you had to do evil things for them?"

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on. As if I'd get tricked into doing something like that."

"You mean like how you totally didn't get tricked into believing that purple-haired asshole in Hargeon was from Fairy Tail? That he was Salamander?"

"Oh, come on!" Lucy jabbed a finger in Natsu's direction. "As if anyone would realize that Natsu's Salamander at first glance! Look at him!"

Well, in that case, what happens next is on you. "Point. Still, give us credit; our recruitment standards aren't strict, but they're not that low. Anyway," Brandy continued, trying to get the conversation back on track, "is sorting out the agreement between spirit and wizard really that simple?"

"Well, it varies depending on the strength and availability of the Celestial spirit, but yeah, there's no ritual or pact or anything complicated like that. All I need to now do is come up with a name for the little guy!"

"Isn't it Nikola?" Happy asked.

"No, that's the species," Lucy replied. A metaphorical light bulb went off over her head. "Oh, I know!" she exclaimed before holding her arms out towards the snowman-dog in a beckoning gesture. "C'mere, Plue!" The spirit seemed to take to the new moniker well enough, wobbling over to Lucy's embrace.

"Plue, huh?"

"I think it's, like, the cutest name ever!" Lucy gushed, nuzzling her cheek against the soft fur on Plue's head. "Isn't that right, Plue?"

"Are you sure he's cool with that?" Natsu asked.

"Why wouldn't he be?"

"He seems pretty content with things," Brandy said.

"So even though his sign is 'the Little Dog,' he doesn't bark?" Happy remarked. "That's kinda weird."

"Yeah, well, I don't hear you meowing over there, buddy." Lucy put Plue down, and he immediately toddled over to the middle of the room, where he began hopping back and forth in a manner that could be considered dance-like, if one stretched the definition of "dance" to its breaking point. "What's he doing?" Lucy asked.

Natsu seemed to be enthralled by the spirit's clumsy bouncing, stroking his chin thoughtfully as he watched. After a second, he gave Plue a thumbs up and a trademark Natsu Grin. "Aw, man, you're right about that, Plue!" Plue returned the grin and the thumbs-up, though in a manner significantly less confident than that of the Dragon Slayer.

"You can understand him?!" Lucy yelped. She was answered only by an uncharacteristic silence and abrupt stare from Natsu. Shooting a nervous glance at Brandy, she hissed, "What is his deal?"

Brandy could only shrug.

"All right," Natsu said, standing up, "then it's settled. You're both going to be a part of our team!"

"Your… team?"

"Aye!" Happy exclaimed. "Even though everybody in the guild is allied to one another, some members that get along really well get together and form teams within the guild. That way, jobs that may be too hard for one person to take can get done by a team!"

"That's right," Brandy said. "However, don't think that being in a team is a binding contract or anything. For instance, Natsu and I could technically be considered a 'team,' but given that Master Emmett is my mentor in Construction, I do a lot of missions with him to help refine my skills." She shoots a pointed look towards Natsu. Don't think I don't know exactly what you're trying to pull, you pink-haired little punk.

If Lucy recognized the subtext, she didn't showcase it, instead seeming to be completely enchanted by the idea of magical cooperation that Natsu and Happy were offering up. "Awesome!" she said. "Let's do it!"

Natsu held out his fist, and Lucy eagerly tapped it twice with her own fist before the two shared a high five. "Cool! So you're gonna work with us?" Natsu said.

"Yup, you have my word!"

"Okay, team, then let's get to work!" Natsu pulled out the flyer for the Everlue mission. "I've got our first job right here!"

Brandleif sighed. Aaand because she doesn't like to go back on her promises, she's stuck with us. Stuck with him, I mean. I can bail anytime I want to. Not that she did want to or anything, mind; Natsu was still her good friend, even if he was two tons of excitability, destructiveness, and lack of social graces wrapped up in one pink-haired package. But… hey, maybe this whole team thing with these three will turn out to be pretty fun.

Lucy seemed to think so too, eagerly grabbing the flyer from Natsu. "Lemme see what you got…" She ran a critical coffee-brown gaze over the flyer. "So it's in Shirotsume, huh? No way, two hundred thousand jewel just for taking a book from some rich guy named Duke Everlue?!"

Natsu's grin had turned completely mischievous. "Should be a piece of cake, right?"

Lucy kept reading, her gaze flitting down to the fated fine print. "Please note, Everlue is a dirty old man who's currently looking for maids… with blonde… hair…?" Her expression turned to horror and betrayal as she stared open-mouthed at the others. "What?!"

"We know a blonde-haired girl, don't we?" Natsu asked conspiratorially, leaning down to once more faux-whisper into Happy's ear.

"Yup!" Happy agreed. "And I bet we can find her a maid's uniform!"

"Why you sneaky little… that's not fair!" Lucy cried. She immediately rounded on Brandy. "You knew about this, didn't you?"

"Knew? I was the one who suggested you playing the part of the maid," Brandy answered. "You are both cuter and blonder than me, after all. Of course, my intentions were for that to be interpreted as us asking you, but…" She gave a it's-Natsu-what-do-you-expect shrug.

"Then why didn't you say something?!"

Brandy cleared her throat and, in an admittedly poor imitation of Lucy, said, "'Oh, come on. As if I'd get tricked into doing something like that.' That was what you said, wasn't it?"

"You… you…" Lucy sank to her hands and knees, practically clouded in gloom.

"It's a good thing that Celestial wizards never go back on their word, 'cause now you're stuck with us," Natsu said.

"But you tricked me!"

"Oh, lighten up, wouldja? Now, try getting into character and address Happy here as your master!"

"No way!"


A/N - Natsu and Brandy's entire dynamic could be described as "Natsu no" "NATSU YES" "yeah okay fine" and absolutely no nuance would be lost. That's it, that's these two idiots.

This chapter ended up a lot longer than I had planned on it being. The scene in Brandy and Emmett's house wasn't supposed to be as long as it was, but Brandy and Natsu play off each other so well when Natsu's being his usual firebrand self and it sort of got away from me. As for why Natsu doesn't know that Brandy's ink magic can't change her hair after seven years of them knowing each other, well… it's Natsu. He probably didn't pay that much attention to the details of her specific brand (eh heh heh) of magic. That, or he just doesn't know how hair dye works, which is always plausible; I figure there are some folks in our worlds who don't really know how the chemicals function. Hell, even I don't really know how it works.

Okay, so I know I had a three-chapter-one-chapter system in place for Skin Deep and Tempus Fugit, but I really want to write the next chapter so we're putting off the one chapter of Tempus Fugit until I finish up my Skin Deep hot streak. So the next chapter of Skin Deep will be up soon, THEN Tempus Fugit. In the meantime, feel free to favorite and leave a review!