I think after this there will maybe only be 2-3 more chapters.
By the time that the fishing crew returned, the rest of the cabin was up and moving around. Natsu and Happy proudly passed off their catch to Mirajane to cook while Jackal plopped wetly onto the chair next to Lucy.
Lucy wrinkled her nose at him. "You smell like wet dog."
"I am a canine, and I am wet," confirmed Jackal, a stream of droplets hitting the floor to drive the point home.
His girlfriend looked him up and down. She'd never seen him in such a bedraggled state before. And there was pondweed stuck behind his ear. Removing it for him, she let it fall from her fingers onto the already wet floor with a fresh squelch. "Do I even want to know what happened?" Lucy hadn't heard any more explosions that morning, which she had assumed boded well but now looking at the miserable demon, she wasn't sure if she should do something about it or let it be.
Jackal's ears flattened against his scalp and his jaw remained firmly shut.
Rolling her eyes, Lucy stood up from the table. "I'll be right back with some towels." Provided there were any dry ones to spare, that is. The beach towels were probably dry by now, but they needed them for the water in a couple of hours, and the bath towels were for bathing...
Ah. That was the perfect solution.
Lucy stopped in her tracks at the entrance to the hallway. "Jackal!" she called over her shoulder. "Aren't you coming?"
The demon tilted his head in confusion, but stood up anyway and trudged after her, leaving claw prints of water behind him.
A short handful of minutes later the rest of the vacationing group heard loud yelps from the direction of the bathroom.
"Stop struggling and get in the bath!" Lucy shouted. "You're already wet so you might as well clean off the lake scuzz!"
"No!" protested the canine demon. "I refuse! My monthly bath isn't for another week!"
A loud crash emanated from the bathroom. "Dammit, Jackal! Just get in the water!"
"I refuse! I'll blow it up before I get in there! Good luck bathing me inside of a crater!"
"I will find a way! I will use Aquarius if I have to! Do you want to be blasted with water instead?!"
"Not your crazy spirit! Not again!"
Mard Geer's lip curled in disgust at the loud fight between the pair. "This is embarrassing."
"At least she hasn't gotten the whip out yet," commented Gray, his attention resolutely trained on his breakfast and cold sweat beading on his brow.
"And at least she isn't Erza," Natsu concurred.
The woman in question turned her fierce gaze on her childhood friends. "And what does that mean?" A dangerous aura that Gray and Natsu knew only too well flared around her.
"Nothing!" the boys squeaked out.
Erza seemed unconvinced, but was soon distracted by Mirajane calling for her assistance. Once her focus was taken off of them, the dynamic duo shuddered simultaneously.
"That was a close one," Gray whispered.
Natsu wheezed. "Too close. I thought we were done for that time."
The noises ceased from the bathroom, Jackal having presumably been successfully wrangled into the bathtub if the unpleasant aura emanating from it was any indication.
Mard Geer contemplated the boys for a moment, and the silence from his subordinate. He then looked back at his girlfriend as she put the finishing touches on their meal with speed that bordered on terrifying. It was interesting, he decided, how those with demons' curses flowing through them tended to be attracted to power. And simultaneously feared it.
Himself and Jackal being no exceptions, of course.