Mr. Macao had insisted on giving both Natsu and Lucy a cut of the money he'd made from the extermination job. While her first impulse was to refuse, it wasn't something she could afford to do. That gift, and most of what little money she still had went to the down payment of her new apartment.
It had been a bit of a rush, to find and negotiate for her new home, considering it had been in the late afternoon when they returned with Mr. Macao. However Lucy had managed to do it, with Mirajane's help. Despite the rush, she'd found a nice place. It was the most expensive out of all her limited options, but it wasn't in a questionable neighborhood, it was located fairly close to the guild, it didn't look like the walls were covered in mold and it even came fully furnished!
It was a shining diamond in a sea of coal. Even after spending the night there, Lucy still couldn't believe it hadn't been snatched up the second it'd been on the market. Granted, she hadn't really been able to appreciate the niceness of the apartment when she just got it. Between the mountain, the Vulcan and the stress of house hunting, however brief that was, she had been exhausted. She'd only had enough energy, and money, to buy some takeout and a box of tea before collapsing in the shockingly comfortable bed. She fell asleep before the sun even started to set.
She then slept until noon. It was wonderful.
Lucy could have slept a lot longer if she hadn't been starving. It wasn't until after she'd polished off last night's leftovers and soaked for a good long while in the tub that she began to feel remotely ready for the day. Her magic still wasn't at 100% but she'd have to go on a job today regardless. She had no money left.
Still, she couldn't help but think as she left the bathroom, it was worth it to live in such a nice apartment. For only 70,000 Jewels too. Granted with the down payment and safety deposit it was closer to 140,000, but still she should be able to make enough to afford next month's rent.
She looked around her new home; it was technically only two rooms. The large main room which was divided up by various floor types and the wonderfully spacious bathroom which didn't actually have a door to block it off from the main room. It was fine with Lucy, a curtain worked just as well. She doubted she'd have a lot of company.
The floor was mostly wood and smelled strongly of cedar, the only areas that didn't have wood were the bathroom and the area blocked off as the kitchen, both of which were clad in large white tiles. There was plenty of storage space, not that she had much things to store even after unpacking most of what she had the night before, and the walls were a crisp white color. At one wall there was a small brick fireplace to heat up the room during the winter. In the kitchen there was another heat source; a nifty little cooking stove. She had no idea how to use it but it looked amazing!
Still one of the best parts had to be the bedroom area, with its nice soft bed, large comfy reading couch, Natsu and Happy pigging out on junk food and getting crumbs everywhere…
Her thoughts screeched to a halt as she registered that last bit.
"What the hell?" She cried out, uncomfortably aware that she was just clad in a towel. It was her home, she was supposed to be alone in it! More than that, she honestly hadn't expected to see Natsu again, at least outside the guild hall. While he had warmed up to her a bit more after saving Mr. Macao, it wasn't nearly to the point of being friends.
Natsu waved lazily at her. "Yo!" he greeted around a mouth full of chips. The two of them must have brought those snacks over, she didn't have any food left in her apartment.
His voice snapped her out of her stupor. "Why are you here?" She shouted, and on instinct she kicked out at them, catching Natsu on his cheek and hitting him into Happy.
"'Cause Mira told me you got a new place…" He pouted, holding where she'd hit him and acting as if she'd just flipped out for no reason.
"So what?" If she'd wanted others breaking in all the time she would have gotten that one lockless apartment that was half the price of this one. Mirajane talked her out of it though. "That doesn't mean you can just barge in like you own the place!" She pointed one finger accusingly at him while her other hand clutched at her towel to hold it in place. "Haven't you heard of personal space? What kind of morals do you have?"
"Hey, that kind of hurts my feelings."
"I'm the one that should be hurt!"
Meanwhile Happy had recovered and decided to make himself at home. "It's a nice room." The sound of scratching distracted Lucy from ranting at Natsu.
"Don't sharpen your nails on the wall!" So much for her safety deposit.
Natsu caught her attention again. "Hey, what's this?"
She turned to see him at the desk the apartment had come with, he was holding a bundle of papers. Writing was one of the few indulgences she'd allowed herself while on the road looking for other Celestial Spirit mages. She'd kept up the habit of documenting the things she'd done and the people she'd talked to, however she'd also allowed herself to write other things too, things that were much less factual and more fantastical.
She didn't know if he was holding her Journal or some of her other writing but it didn't matter to Lucy. Either way they were written in the shorthanded code that Miss Layla had taught her and the others. He probably wouldn't be able to read it, but it might raise a few questions as to why she'd bother writing in code to begin with.
She snatched the papers away with a loud cry, holding them close to her chest and glaring at the pink haired mage. She probably could have grabbed them in a much less dramatic way. As it was, Lucy had a feeling she had just called more attention to the papers and he'd only try harder to see what they were. He was a bit like one of the other Lucys in that way.
His next words simply confirmed that. "What is it? I kind of want to know now."
"Who cares?" She was the one who cared, obviously. She needed to change the subject, to distract him. "Just go home already!"
"Don't wanna. We came to visit you!" He grinned. It reminded her of the pictures she'd seen of sharks. Had his teeth always been so pointy?
"Don't I have a say in it?" She cried out.
Somehow she managed to wrangle out a promise from the two of them to not destroy her brand new apartment while she ducked into the bathroom to change. Neither of them commented when she'd brought the paper with her. When she left, now dressed in a dark shirt and knee length jeans, Lucy deliberately placed the papers, the Journal she realized, in a drawer where it wouldn't be easily grabbed.
"I don't really have anything interesting," she told them as she set about brewing some tea. It was about the one thing she was confident in making. Though the kitchen was new to her, boiling water was easy enough.
She discreetly sniffed at the tea bags before placing them in the kettle. She hadn't thought to actually check them before. The box said they were a mix of apple mint, vanilla and elderflower. Lucy had bought them because at the time she'd been both sleep deprived and stunned at the knowledge that there were more kinds of mint other than peppermint and spearmint. They actually smelled quite nice.
However if she'd known Natsu was going to break into her apartment she would have gotten something with chamomile instead. Didn't Happy say Natsu didn't like that kind of tea? Maybe then he'd think twice about breaking and entering.
With a small huff she placed the full teacups in front of the intruders before settling across the table with a cup of her own. "You know I just moved in, nearly everything in here came with the apartment. You might as well leave when you finish your tea."
"You're so cruel." Natsu deadpanned, taking a gulp of the still way too hot water.
"Aye." Happy added.
"How am I the cruel one? I gave you tea!" Wasn't that what she was supposed to do in situations like this?
"Oh yeah!" Natsu suddenly perked up, grinning and once again showing off his unusually sharp teeth. Lucy really had to wonder how they got to be so sharp; was it natural or did he file them? Then again, if he filed them wouldn't they be much shorter than they were? His upper and lower canines were much longer, and sharper, than a normal person's. He continued, breaking her from her dental musings. "Show me all your key guys."
"Key guys? They're not called 'key guys.' They're Celestial spirits." Hadn't she told them about it before? Or was it just to Happy? "And it'd be impossible for me to summon them all right now. It'd take too much magic. There's some I can't summon today anyway." Even if it was the one day of the week Aquarius was contracted to help her, the testy spirit would probably kill her. She'd asked for this week off so she was likely still on that date with her boyfriend.
"How many Celestial spirits do you have?" Happy asked around the same time Natsu asked another question.
"Why can't you summon some today?"
"I have six keys, and I can't summon them today because they don't want me to." The second answer was a bit simplistic, but she could go into contracts later if they were still interested. She detached all her keys from the ring at her belt and placed them on the table in two groups, one for gold and the other for silver. "These keys," she gestured to the silver group, "are silver." Which was a little obvious but that was what they were called. "They're considered common as there's at least three of each kind. You can usually buy them in stores and while the amount of magic needed to summon them varies, it's never nearly as much as it takes to summon a gold key. There are one or two exceptions, however that's usually because more than one of the key is needed," such as the Canis Venatici which needed at least two of the same key for them to be comfortable with being summoned. Supposedly it was about being part of a pack or something.
There was also Sextans, representing the sextant constellation, which were almost like Canis Venatici. Each key summoned a single unique instrument but if the correct number of them, six, were summoned then they'd play themselves and utilize magical music. That, as well as the stronger Octans, took the least amount of magic to summon individually.
"Or," she continued, "several different keys are needed to summon a single whole," like the Argo, there was also Octans, representing the octant constellation, which was like Sextans only they could play much stronger magic. Unlike the Argo though, the Octans Keys weren't named after constellations, rather the keys represented the stars that made up the Octans constellation. It made for some interesting, if not hard to pronounce, names.
Lucy then pointed to each key individually as she named them out. "Horologium, the Pendulum Clock, you've met him before on Mt. Hakobe. Crux the Southern Cross, and Lyra the Lyre."
She then turned her focus to the glittering gold keys near her other hand. Natsu seemed to be paying particular attention to those. "Golden keys are different. There's only one of each and they all represent one of the Ecliptic Zodiacs. They take the most magic to summon but they are considered the strongest in terms of pure power and control over their element."
The fact that she had three of them in her possession was almost beyond belief. Most Celestial mages went their entire lives without seeing even one of them. Though the fact that Lucy had pretty much inherited two of them likely contributed to that. A part of her was still in awe of the fact that Miss Layla had wielded all twelve of them at once, even if most of them were with her through a temporary contract.
"As you can see, I have Taurus the Bull, who you've also met at Mt. Hakobe." She paused for a moment, recalling how that particular meeting went. "I know his appearance took you by surprise and you didn't know he was on our side, but Natsu." She glared at him, making sure she had his attention. "If you ever strike down one of my spirits like that again, I will never forgive you."
In retrospect that was actually a really weak threat; it'd sounded much better in her head. She'd also said it to Natsu, someone who'd just broken into her apartment and gone through her things; he probably didn't care at all about her forgiveness or anger.
However it was also the only threat Lucy could make that she would be able to follow through on.
He proved her thoughts right by not being intimidated at all. Giving her a cheerful grin and a thumbs up. "Got it!"
Lucy wanted to growl at him, to impress upon the dragon slayer that she was serious. It probably wouldn't change anything though so instead she let out a small huff at his flippant response before continuing. "This one's Aquarius, the Water Bearer. She's the one who sent Bora's yacht back to Hargeon's port."
"Aye! The fish lady!" Happy gleefully chirped.
Lucy gave a weak laugh. "If you called her that, she'd probably drown you."
Happy gave a small shudder, clearly recalling Aquarius's personality from the one time the two met. "Aye."
"Lastly, I have Cancer, the Crab."
Strangely enough, this got the biggest reaction out of the two.
Natsu smiled broadly, Lucy would swear she could see fire in the back of his mouth. "Crab? It's a crab?"
"Craaab!" Apparently Happy's love of fish extended to other sea foods as well. However, if the blue cat tried to eat her spirit then, comrade or not, she'd rip his teeth out. She'd do that if he tried to do the same to Aquarius too, but Lucy had a feeling the spirit would try to drown her for the sentiment.
"I swear you two get excited over the most random things…" She grumbled, before gasping sharply as she recalled the seventh key she'd most recently obtained. "Oh no!"
This got the other's attention immediately. "What? What's wrong?" Natsu looked around, as if something was going to jump out at them at any moment.
"I completely forgot!" She scrambled up out of the chair. "I got another key in Hargeon, just before meeting you two." How could she forget? She'd even placed the now nearly gleaming key on the counter just so she'd remember it after she'd woken up. She scooped up the small object and cradled it gently.
"I'm so sorry," she cooed to it, completely ignoring the looks Natsu and Happy were giving her. "I didn't mean to forget you, that wasn't very nice of me at all!" The key pulsed warmly in her hands. She couldn't communicate with it as easily as she could with the keys she was contracted to, but it sort of felt like forgiveness to her. "Don't worry, I'll make a contract with you right away!"
She turned to face the two males, both of whom were looking at her like she'd done something completely crazy. "I'm going to make a contract with this spirit. You can watch if you want."
That got their interest and they followed her to a more open part of her apartment.
"Does it involve blood seals?" Happy sounded a bit worried, but before she could assure him otherwise, Natsu spoke up.
"Butt seals? That sounds painful."
"Why are you suddenly talking about butts?" She muttered. Even though she'd just asked, Lucy honestly didn't want to know why Natsu's thoughts went in that direction. She spoke a bit louder, "we don't need blood seals or anything like that. Just watch." She settled herself into a stable stance and raised the silver key. It took a bit more magic to summon a spirit that she didn't have a contract with. She'd heard that it took even more to summon a spirit that had a contract with someone else, though thankfully that wasn't the case here.
"I am linked to the path to the world of Celestial Spirits, now! O spirit, answer my call and pass through the gate! Open Gate of the Canis Minor, Nicora!"
There was the usual flash of light and doorbell sound and with a burst of magical smoke a small, snowman like dog appeared with a weird almost purring sort of bark. He landed on the ground with a flourish, standing on two legs. She grinned, that spirit really was cute. Natsu and Happy stared at him in shock.
"D-don't feel bad!"
"Aye, you'll do better next time!"
"Wha? Hey! It's not a failure!" She picked her new spirit up. "He's a Nicora, a type of spirit dog. He's adorable." With that she hugged him close and got hugged back.
"H-he is?" Natsu didn't seem to get it. A part of Lucy wondered if that was a general guy thing or if it was just unique to Natsu.
"His gate doesn't use much magic, so he's a popular summon for children and his kind are commonly used as pets." With that she pulled out a small notebook and a pencil. "Moving on, it's time for the contract."
The Nicora nodded in agreement.
"Are Monday's good to summon you?" She focused intently on the dog and his reactions to her questions.
The spirit shook his head.
As she continued, she had the feeling that Natsu and Happy were less than impressed. Well, she supposed it would seem kind of dull from an outsider's perspective. Eventually she moved on from summon-able days to favorite foods to asking if there were any taboos the spirit had. The last thing they talked about were conditions Lucy would have to agree to if she wanted to keep the Nicora's contract. Considering Canis Minor was one of the most easygoing kind of Celestial spirit and the fact that it'd been a while since this one in particular had been contracted to anyone, the spirit didn't give her any.
It took less than half an hour to get through it all.
"Okay, contract done!" It was, but at the same time it also wasn't; Lucy would need to write up an official contract, sign it along with the spirit and make three copies; one for her to keep, one for the spirit, and one for the spirit to file with the Celestial King. Also there were other terms she wanted to add, most of which would be difficult to explain to her observers and probably raise too many questions.
However, for now, what they'd talked about and agreed to was enough for a verbal preliminary contract. Unless she stated otherwise now at this moment, the preliminary contract would last a week before she needed to either renew it, write up the actual contract or let the spirit go. It also gave them a week to change the conditions. Smaller things like the days she could summon the spirits were easily changed without affecting the main contract; something Cancer and some of her other spirits took advantage of when it suited them. The conditions, however, were unchangeable unless the spirit wanted to change their entire contract, which Lucy was told, involved quite a bit of Celestial bureaucracy as well as renegotiating and rewriting the entire contract.
"That seems really easy." Lucy jumped at the sound of Natsu's voice. She'd forgotten he was there; both he and Happy had been relatively quiet throughout the negotiations. That or she'd been too focused on her new spirit.
"I guess it looks that way, but it's really important." Most, if not all, of the contract is so that the spirit doesn't get abused by the mage they're contracted to. However that didn't work all the time. Sometimes spirits were so desperate for a contract, they won't have any condition or taboos and would agree to just about anything so long as they could be used.
"These contracts are promises made to the spirits. It's the basis of Celestial Spirit magic." She hoped the tea still on the table was cool enough for her to drink now. After all that talking her throat was parched. "Because of that, I try to never break a promise." It was more of a personal thing, a good habit she wanted to cultivate and keep. So long as she didn't break the promises made in her contracts, it didn't actually matter if she kept her word regarding other things.
"I see…" Natsu muttered.
"That's right," Lucy recalled one last thing she needed to do. "I need to name him, if he wants it." She looked to the spirit who gave her a nod. Having their summoner give them a more personal name was something some silver key spirits preferred. Others, like Horologium and Crux, disliked the idea of being called something other than what they were.
She had to think for a few seconds for a name that suited the white creature before a good one popped into her head. She knelt down and held her arms out, "come'ere Plue!"
With a happy 'puun' the orange nosed dog bounded into her arms.
"Plue?" Natsu sounded a bit incredulous.
"Isn't it cute? I think it suits him."
Happy came a little closer to the two of them. "Plue is the Canis Minor, but he doesn't bark. It's weird."
"You're a cat and you don't meow." She pointed out, giving Plue one last snuggle before setting him down to go back to her tea. However, Plue had a different idea as he started to do some strange charades that she couldn't interpret.
"Plue! That's a great idea!" Natsu called out.
"You understood that?"
Predictably, Natsu didn't answer. "Celestial Spirits…They're really useful aren't they? That bull on the mountain helped out a lot."
"True, and he would have helped more if you hadn't knocked him out." It might have been an accident, and she might have forgiven him, but that didn't mean Lucy wasn't still a little mad at Natsu for knocking Taurus out.
Natsu continued as if she hadn't spoken. "I didn't think Lucy would join us then, but if she hadn't, things could have gone a lot worse." She bit her tongue and fought the urge to remind him that Mirajane had suggested she join them; there was only so many times she wanted to repeat herself. He turned to face her. "Now that I think about it, you're really weird, but you're also reliable and a good person."
The young man in front of her regularly ate fire, couldn't stand even thinking about transportation, had a talking blue cat who could fly as a friend and he was calling her weird. A part of her wanted to know what kind of world Natsu lived in. The rest of her was too terrified to find out.
Whatever point he was trying to make, it seemed he still had to think about it. He lapsed into a thoughtful silence, leaving Lucy in suspense.
Happy, understandably, was able to follow his thought process better. "Natsu, are you thinking about…? Are you sure you want to? She is really weird."
"Why am I the weird one?"
"Yes, I'm sure! It was Plue's idea and I agree with it!" He turned to her with a big boyish grin. "Let's make a team!"
It sounded all nice and dramatic, but the meaning was lost on her. "A team?"
"Aye!" Happy chirped. "All the members of the guild are comrades, right?"
"Yes." That had been thoroughly established on Mt. Hakobe.
"But some members get along much better than others. So they make teams and take jobs together. If you're on a team it's easier to take harder jobs."
"That makes sense…" Natsu and Happy were still way too eye catching for her own good, however harder jobs meant more money and possibly more traveling. If she had more money, than she could buy any neglected spirit she came across. And traveling could only mean more chances to find another Celestial Spirit mage. "Okay! It sounds fun!"
"Alright!" Natsu cried out, "it's decided!"
"Aye!"
She giggled. Despite whatever ill will she'd gained from the journey to Magnolia and the issues on Mt Hakobe, it seemed she'd managed to become friends with Natsu after all. She found that she couldn't wait to go on their first mission together.