Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima owns the series. This story was just made for fun.
Prologue, Part 4: Lucy's Frantic Panic & Mai's Minty Monetary Gain! The Beautiful Theater Play & The Manipulative Play of Mind Games
Lucy's POV
I slowly opened my eyes to see rays of sunlight shining through the window, the brightness of the sunlight telling me that a new morning finally came. This brand-new day was also a day where I'd have to attend my classes at Magnolia Academy, so I slowly sat up in the bed while yawning softly. As I yawned, my hands touched the other side of the bed to see that the pink comforter was cold and it seemed like Mai hadn't been sleeping next to me for a few hours. I chose to just brush off her absence, since she probably went home during the night, and I'd still see her at school.
The fact that I'd see Mai at Magnolia Academy caused my face to feel quite warm, almost as if my cheeks were blushing in a deep shade of pink. They were probably blushing from how my mind recalled last night's events, remembering how Mai helped me experience the act of having sex with someone for the first time, and letting my hands touch different parts of my body to feel it be sticky from our orgasms only made me giggle in a happy manner about last night. Mai and I got to celebrate our four-month anniversary in a way that showed how our feelings were unified, and we were such a great couple.
I started to sweetly giggle at the thought of us walking to our classes together, even lightly holding hands, and the thought of getting to gently rest my head on Mai's shoulder while she'd have an arm around me was something that made me happily get out of bed. I ran straight into the bathroom to start getting myself ready for school, and I went over to the bathtub. I quickly turned the faucet for hot water to come out of the pipe, seeing it start to fill up the bathtub as fast as it possibly could, and I grabbed a pink washcloth that sat with three bottles of strawberry-scented body wash on a grey shelf above the bathtub.
As I opened a white bottle of body wash and poured it on the washcloth, the sudden sound of my cell phone ringing from my bedroom had drawn my attention to it. I decided to put the pink washcloth down on the edge of the bathtub, and I went out of the bathroom to go get my light pink cell phone out of my white skirt's left pocket. Upon retrieving the cell phone that rang three times, I got to see the screen inform me that Mai was the caller while I also got to see the picture of her smiling face appear below her name, so I lightly tapped the green button on my phone's screen to answer the call.
"Good morning, Mai." I told my girlfriend in a calm tone, happy that she was the first person who I'd be talking to on this nice morning.
Mai responded nicely while she switched the conversation to a video-call setting for me to see her playful smile, "Morning, Lucy! Sorry that I left your apartment this morning without saying anything. I just really had to get home to take a shower, sweetie. You should take a bath, too, unless being bare is your proposed idea for the academy's new school uniform."
"Mai, that's totally indecent! Anyway, I'm getting ready for school right now and I'll see you later!" I responded to her with a mildly annoyed facial expression, as I was hearing her start to giggle at that little remark she made.
I proceeded to push the red button on my phone to end the phone call, and I took my phone with me while walking over to my closet. When I reached the small closet, I felt glad to take some hangers off of the rungs while my school uniform's clothes were on them. My school uniform consisted of a white collared shirt, a dark orange necktie, a cream-colored vest, a plaid skirt in the cherry shade of red, plain orange dress shoes, and a ruby red blazer. Before I could get my clothes off the hangers, I soon had a nice smile on my face from remembering to fully empty the pockets of yesterday's clothes.
That prompted me to look over at my white skirt, and I hurriedly walked over to it. I put my hands in the skirt's right pocket to remove some money, as well as removing some bows that I decided against wearing on my anniversary date at the last minute, but putting my hand into the skirt's left pocket made me widen my eyes in shock from feeling that something was amiss. There was only some money in that pocket, and my Celestial Fragment wasn't there. Where did my personal treasure go? Why was it gone now?
I tried to not look very panicked, and I thought that my skirt was on the floor was just a sign that the Celestial Fragment rolled out of it to be on the carpet. I got down on my knees to look under the bed, but it wasn't there. I removed the pink comforter and the pillows from the bed, but there was no sign of the treasure being there. I got up to glance over at my desk, before squatting down to check the space under it, but my Celestial wasn't there. I felt very worried now, since I clearly remembered how I also didn't put it in my closet, as well as how I didn't leave it in the kitchen or in the living room, and I exhaled breaths of worry while a wave of anxiety overrode my emotions.
"Where is my Celestial Fragment? Where could it be? It's not in here, and I know that I still had it when Mai and I were still outside the apartment before-" I thought to myself in a worried manner, the feeling of panic on my face starting to seem more frantic before I noticed how something else very strange.
I slowly walked towards the window near my desk to see that it was slightly open, which was very odd because of how I never left my window open. It could only be opened from inside, which meant that someone else must've opened it to either quietly escape or let somebody else come into the apartment. My mind was now making me think of bizarre possibilities, such as thinking that Mai stole from me based on how she was the only person who had been with me last night. Would Mai seriously steal my Celestial Fragment?
It seemed like a possibility, but I started to look ashamed at how I couldn't just accuse her that without any legitimate proof. Not only would it be rude to think my sweet girlfriend would take my personal treasure, but that thought made no sense to me at all. Mai was the best girlfriend in the entire world, since she was like an older woman who guided me through things, and we even had great chemistry when we first became friends. She had even walked with me to all of my classes during our first week of dating, and she was just making sure that I'd be okay.
Mai was so kind to me, so she couldn't have possibly stolen my treasure. In fact, we were even sleeping together during the night after our lovemaking. Due to us both being so tired, that was reasonable enough for me to not view her as a possible thief. Mai would never hurt me, due to how we were in love while enjoying the past four months of our romantic relationship, and we cared for each other. Mai would probably be devastated to hear that my Celestial Fragment was stolen, since she seemed just as happy as me when I found it on our date. She'd probably help me look for it after school ended, and I exhaled soft breaths to calm down the fast-moving thoughts in my mind.
"Just calm down, and think about this rationally. Mai protected you from getting mugged yesterday, and you trust her immensely just like how she trusts and loves you. Mai's not the thief, but you now have to deal with how a random person broke in here to see if there was anything worth stealing." I thought to myself in a somewhat relaxed manner, making myself calm down enough for when I'd be at school.
I still had to get ready for school, prompting me to run into the bathroom, and I quickly got in the bathtub while also turning off the faucet that was near my washcloth. As I started to wash my body with the pink washcloth, I tried to relax in the hot water. The heat of the water would probably help my mind be free from some of the anxiety that I was now experiencing, and I soaked in the tub while letting the pink body wash create cute pink soap bubbles in the water. The heat and the soap made me feel calmer, almost like the heat was coating my skin like a hug to comfort me after dealing with a horrible situation.
It felt even more horrible to know that I lost my Celestial Fragment after one of the happiest days that I spent with Mai, especially since planning out our date with additional things that she wanted to do really made me feel very happy. I never planned on having that Celestial Fragment get stolen, which made me be unsure of what do now. This wouldn't have happened if I had been more careful with taking care of something that I deeply cherished. In fact, I should've taken better care of something that symbolized the beautiful atmosphere and wonderful feeling of how my first date with Mai went so well.
Thinking more about Mai made me start to scrub my body very quickly with more of the body wash, before carefully making my way over to the shower to turn its faucet for hot water to descend from the showerhead. I'd take my shower as fast as possible, since Mai probably wanted to at least walk to school with me for a few minutes, and I'd also frantically put on my uniform. After that, I'd probably have to go buy some food that I could save for lunch. That would be very nice, and I began to happily smile at how Mai and I always had lunch together after our respective theater and writing classes would end. That made lunch actually be special, since the only other time that Mai would be around me on a school day was when we'd walk to Magnolia Academy together.
Meanwhile, on a street... (Narrator POV)
Mai walked down the street with a happy smile on her face, wearing the school uniform that was for upperclassmen while she held a black briefcase in one hand, and she lightly adjusted her red headband with the other hand. She liked how the accessory was fashionable, but Mai didn't view it to be as fashionable as her uniform. Mai wore a black collared shirt with a light orange necktie that complimented her white vest, along with a plaid skirt in the ruby shade of red, dark red dress shoes, and a crimson red blazer.
Even though Mai was a student at Magnolia Academy, she still glanced at some of the shops that were on this right side of the street. There were some cafes, along with one cafe that uniquely featured a karaoke club, and there were restaurants selling ramen or other unique Japanese foods on the other side of the street. Mai paid attention to this side of the street while her hand went down to touch her skirt's right pocket that seemed a bit heavy with something seemingly of value in it, and Mai was looking for the right shop that would make her scheme finally have a payoff.
Her purple eyes soon spotted a jewelry store, one that was belonging to a pastel yellow building with a gold awning above the front door. Mai glanced in different directions for a few moments, making sure that no students would see her enter this place, and she hastily entered the gem shop. Upon letting herself be inside this place, Mai noticed the fancy cherry red carpeting that went well with the orchid purple walls. They were just as beautiful as some glass cases that had amethyst purple frames around them. Those frames and the glass cases made Mai look quite impressed, before she seemed even more impressed with the glimmering gems that were on sale.
As Mai walked over to some jewels that were on the right side of the store and proceeded to just look at their beauty, a man who had messy black hair in a ponytail came out from the back room that was behind the pumpkin orange counter. He glanced down at his dark orange tuxedo that matched his pastel orange eyes, and he looked at Mai with a curious facial expression. He watched Mai proceed to nearly press her face against the face, almost as if she wanted a very close look at the gems, and the owner of the shop loudly cleared his throat to get her attention.
"If you want to buy some gems, Miss, I hope you know that we have a 50% discount for students of Magnolia Academy. I'm well aware of when you have to be at that school for your first class, so tell me your name so that I can sign you in. This policy is for selling gems, too." The shop owner calmly explained to Mai, as he saw her turn around to look at him.
Mai told him with a sweet smile on her face, as she walked up to him and pulled out the Celestial Fragment from her skirt's pocket, "Well, I'm here to sell this gem and I hope it looks good to you."
Upon looking at the glittering Celestial Fragment, the shop owner exclaimed in an amazed tone from recognizing it while Mai signed her named in a blank area of a brown book's recent page, "This is the Verdant Mint Star! Miss, this jewel is the real thing! It's quite rare, Miss! I'll give you seventy-million jewels for it! This is an extravagant gem shop, so we can arrange for the transaction!"
"Thank you very much, sir. You're lucky that someone as great as me is selling this to you, since I'll be just as extravagant as the jewel someday. Although, get me that money as fast as possible. I can't show up to Magnolia Academy late like a moronic first-year student." Mai responded to him with a calm smile on her face, before seeming a bit stern.
As the shop owner hurriedly went into the back room where he kept large amounts of money for people who came into the shop to sell gems, Mai turned around to just silently grin in a pleased manner about how her plan to get herself and her friends wealthy ended up finally paying off. They would all end up being rich, which meant that Mai could have no trouble with paying money to get herself into a modeling agency for fashion or an acting agency for her talent, and Mai also wondered if she would also be able to get into Sekichiku University.
That was the university she wanted to be in, due to that school supposedly having great fashion trends and an amazing theater program. Mai began to think about how attending that university could even allow her to join a modeling agency or an acting agency later on, since she would gain some more acting skills while also being more skilled with her fashion sense. By having the most fashionable outfits, Mai would eventually get noticed by an agency and end up in Sorcerer Magazine. That was her master plan, anyway.
Speaking of plans, Mai started to frown in a somewhat annoyed manner at how she'd have to keep acting like she really wanted to be in a relationship with Lucy. She didn't want to have to keep dating the younger girl for months after graduation, especially now that the plan for getting rich quick finally came with good results that Mai would show to her friends later, and Mai felt like the only reason left for her to date Lucy would just be for messing with her emotions. After all, it would be fun to keep making Lucy think that her first relationship was going to be the one where she'd end up marrying Mai in the end.
"It's so cute that she wants to be Lucy Kinoyama, and she seriously thinks we're in love. It's amazing how that blonde-haired bimbo is a major idiot for trusting me, but I'll lead her on for a little while longer." Mai thought to herself with her lips forming a sadistic smile, before she softly giggled in a satisfied manner at that plan.
The shop owner told Mai in a calm manner while he came out from the back room with a large bag of jewels, briefly disrupting her thoughts about the sadistic plan pertaining to Lucy, "Miss, here's your money. You should probably make a fast deposit at the bank, before going to Magnolia Academy."
"Thank you so much for giving me this money." Mai turned back around to tell him with a feigned smile of niceness on her face, her eyes becoming filled with the feeling of happiness from seeing the brown bag of jewels that was quite large.
As the shop owner proceeded to look at the name of the most recent gem seller who just sold him the Verdant Mint Star, Mai hurriedly grabbed the bag of jewels and left the store. Now that she was out of the gem shop, Mai could go the nearest bank and deposit all of her cash. She was now officially rich, which made her feel like she would at least need to withdraw a small sum of money to flaunt it around later. Of course, Mai would definitely have to thank Lucy later when this fake relationship came to an end. Mai would be happy to end their one-sided love, and whether Lucy would cry or not didn't matter much to Mai.
She didn't care about the younger girl's feelings when it came to genuinely loving her, only seeking to manipulate those feelings and be sadistic to mess with Lucy's head. Mai recalled how Lucy once seemed so worried when Mai didn't make a good grade on a test for her literature class, prompting Lucy to spend at least seven days and nights helping Mai study for a revised test, and seeing Lucy's worried face from noticing Mai's unhappiness was something that made Mai feel like laughing. In fact, she even wished to see Lucy's panicking face right now.
If Lucy ever felt very anxious, then Mai would be glad to say some comforting or encouraging words in a way that made her advice seem authentic to Lucy. Playing that type of wicked game with a little first-year student actually seemed fun, since Mai being upset could make Lucy try so very hard to keep her satisfied with gifts or love, and having Lucy be uncomfortable enough to freak out for Mai to pretend that she genuinely cared were both perceived by Mai to be her best strategies. However, she slowly started to smile at the fact that she'd get to eat lunch with Lucy after theater class ended. After all, Mai was the Theater Club President who could freely give Lucy something at lunch that would surely make her think that Mai actually wanted her to feel happy.
Five hours later, at lunchtime...
Lucy walked down the hallway that had light blue walls with a brown tiled floor to match, carrying a black box that was in the shape of a rectangle while the scent of food was slightly emerging from the container, and she smiled happily from how the bell rang with a cute melody to inform all students of how the hour for lunchtime finally came around for them to eat food. This was the time when she and Mai would finally get to eat together while also getting to just happily talk, as opposed to just passing by each other on the way to their first classes of each day, and Lucy felt glad that she'd get to eat lunch with her girlfriend again. There was a cafeteria room for lunch, but the high amount of underclassmen and upperclassmen who would be there really made Lucy prefer to eat outside.
She quickly reached a door that led to the most beautiful area outside Magnolia Academy, being labeled as beautiful from how the pink cherry blossom leaves were on seven trees that stood in a circle around some pink roses that were planted by the students who were in Magnolia Academy's gardening classes. Lucy simply smiled at those roses for a moment, viewing them to be extremely beautiful flowers that were pink like strawberry ice cream, and she was glad to be attending a great school. In fact, Lucy proceeding to walk down a red brick-covered route on the right and go around a corner caused her to see something else that would definitely help her focus on cheerful thoughts.
Lucy looked over at the ruby red picnic table where she usually sat with Mai's clique, liking how this table was in the shade of one of the cherry blossom trees, and she soon saw Mai coming to the table from the other direction with her posse of third-year students. That included Kanami and Naomi, who watched Lucy and Mai share a friendly hug for a moment after they both smiled in a kind manner from being very happy to see each other. Of course, Mai was just feigning a happy smile to hide how she felt even happier about how her plan finally worked.
As Mai sat down on one side of the picnic table with Lucy sitting in between her and a pink-haired classmate, she thought about how the only thing in the right pocket of her red plaid skirt was a white envelope from the bank. It contained some jewels that were withdrawn from the bank by Mai, after she chose to deposit all the money that she received from the jeweler who gladly paid Mai a high amount of money for selling a gem as glittery and beautiful as the Celestial Fragment. Even though Mai fulfilled her and her friends' goal of getting rich, she felt like Lucy at least deserved to be thanked in the smallest way possible. Mai pulled out a roll of orange tickets from the left pocket of her skirt, after putting her blue bento box down on the table, and she broke off one of the rectangle-shaped tickets in front of Lucy's face.
"Here you go, Lucy. Since it will be the final production that I'm starring in at Magnolia Academy, I thought it would be good for you to have a free ticket to see my performance this evening. You'll even get a front-row seat, too." Mai explained to Lucy with a very generous smile on her face, before cutely giggling.
Lucy happily responded with a surprised and also appreciative look on her face while taking the ticket from Mai with one hand, before opening part of her bento box with the other hand, "Wow, Mai! Thank you! I'm glad that I'm getting to attend your play, and I'll cheer for you louder than anyone else!"
"When we all go out together later tonight to eat ramen and sing karaoke, will you cheer the loudest when we're celebrating and having so much fun?" The pink-haired student playfully asked Lucy, as she opened her brown lunch bag to reveal that she'd be eating fried squid balls.
Mai responded for Lucy with confidence in her purple eyes, smiling arrogantly at her playful classmate while opening the blue bento box, "Minako, Lucy will be cheering the loudest for me when she hears me sing karaoke. After all, she knows that I have the most beautiful voice in the entire school."
That only prompted Minako Takeyuchi to just roll her fuchsia pink eyes in a comical and sarcastic manner, thinking that she was a better singer than Mai. Minako had been in the choir at Magnolia Academy throughout all three years of her being a student, and she thought that more experience would make her be able to sing far better than someone who was more prominently known for being a good actress. Speaking of acting, Mai shifted her attention to her lunch and picked up her pair of dark auburn chopsticks while smiling at Lucy.
Mai gave Lucy a very loving smile while picking up a few noodles with her chopsticks, and she moved them to be in front of Lucy's mouth. Lucy happily ate them while putting her ticket for the play on the table, feeling glad that Mai was feeding her like they were on a date, and that caused Lucy to pick up some small balls of spicy sticky rice that was covered in soy sauce mixed with a hotter sauce that was in a red color. She fed them to Mai, who chewed them with a seemingly happy look on her face, and Lucy proceeded to eat one of her spice-covered rice balls while feeding Mai.
Mai swallowed the food, before instantly trying to hide the faintest frown of disgust with a grateful smile that expressed a feeling of experiencing deliciousness. That faked reaction only made Naomi and Kanami playfully chuckle from how they recalled how Mai didn't like overly spicy food, but Mai comically gave Naomi a light kick to the leg for laughing at how Lucy made an actress authentically cry. Mai wiped away some of her tears, and she ate her food while Lucy politely bowed her head to apologize. As Lucy picked up another rice ball that was wrapped in seaweed and picked up some octopus balls with her chopsticks, she got to hear Naomi suddenly clear her throat.
Naomi asked Lucy with a curious facial expression, looking like she wanted to pry into Lucy's life for gossip, "Lucy, wasn't your four-month anniversary with Mai yesterday? What fun things did you two get into, if you don't mind telling us?"
Lucy timidly replied with a somewhat nervous look on her now-blushing face, after swallowing her food, "Well, we went to a bridge and we were supposed to eat the cake.. I.. I even requested to have our names on it, but last night.. was when.. we.."
"That was when I made Lucy get to lick something better than the icing on her cake, girls, and we would've probably showered together if we weren't so tired from our amazing day." Mai replied for Lucy, as she made one of her hands rub Lucy's back in a gentle manner to calm her down.
Upon feeling Mai rub her back, the amount of blush on Lucy's face lessened for her cheeks to only be in a light pink color while she started feeling relaxed again. She started to smile at Mai in a very kind manner, appreciating how Mai was such a comforting girlfriend. The fact that Mai seemingly cared so much about her in their relationship caused Lucy to gently move Mai's hand away from her back for them to just be holding hands for a few seconds, and the softness that Lucy felt from letting her fingers rest in the palm of Mai's hand made her feel like Mai would always support her when difficult situations arose.
Lucy's mind started having more thoughts about the Celestial Fragment, even having the anxious thought of wondering if it was still in the town of Magnolia, but Mai was by her side now. Mai would probably react with being stunned or angry to hear the bad news of how someone stole Lucy's personal treasure, especially after how Mai proved to Lucy that she was so trustworthy by protecting her from a seemingly blatant thief while ironically not being able to maintain the trust of always protecting Lucy from dangers such as thievery from a more sneaky criminal.
Still, Lucy started to sadly look at the orange ticket that Mai had given her. It would be appropriate to tell Mai about her dilemma after the play concluded, since the Celestial Fragment itself was a private matter that only they seemingly knew about, and discussing matters about a treasure with Mai's friends wouldn't be necessary. Lucy's eyes shifted back to her food, and she started eating while taking her attention off of Mai for a moment. Mai merely glanced at Lucy in a calm manner for a few seconds, before giving devious smirks to all her friends that informed them of how Mai was plotting out what to do in the aftermath of stealing the Celestial Fragment. Mai began to have a manipulative smile on her face from deciding that Lucy should probably just enjoy the theatrical play before she'd experience some of Mai's more theatrical mind games.
Later in different points of the evening, at Magnolia Academy's auditorium...
After the day of school ended, Lucy stayed around with the other students who wanted to be the first people in the auditorium to watch the final play occur. She ended up being one of the first people to reach the auditorium room, which had sky blue walls beautifully matching the orange carpet that went well with the brown chairs that were cushy like the ones in a high-class movie theater. Lucy soon saw the cube-shaped fixtures with lights in them start to dim, perfectly creating darkness in the auditorium while the elegant-looking red curtains slowly separated in opposite directions to let her see that the only source of light would come from the black stage lights above the play occurring on the black stage.
The play soon started off with Mai coming on to the stage in her role as a princess, wearing a Gothic lolita-style dress that had alternating patterns of black and dark red frills while the top of the dress looked almost like a corset top with no laces in the front or back, and there was a ruby red rose on the left side of her head. Mai's brown hair was in two uneven twin tails, and she also wore some scarlet red high heels that complimented her pink leggings. Mai began to sadly tell the audience about how some thieves stole the legendary cherry pink orb from her palace, and stealing that treasure caused all the trees to wither.
Lucy and the other audience members watched how the background consisted of dead-looking trees, not a single flower even sprouting on the black grass that appeared beneath Mai's feet, and the audience watched Mai walk to the other side of the stage to pant heavily as her character was walking on a long journey. The princess was trying to retrieve the orb that would bring the feeling of the spring season to her land, but Mai was right on cue to stop walking while a first-year student named Erza Scarlet came out dressed as a swordswoman in grey robes. Mai turned to face Erza, who motioned for the character of the princess to stop trying to go off on her own to get the treasure back.
Erza's character started to look quite stern from suspecting that the princess was being lured into a trap, and going with her to get the cherry pink orb would be a good idea. Mai only nodded joyfully, before tripping over her feet to show that the princess was quite clumsy, and she quickly got up while Erza ran towards her with a comical look of disbelief on her face from seeing that the princess thought that she could retrieve the orb on her own. As Erza and Mai ran in place while a pagoda with a balcony at the top floor soon came into the background with a waterfall setting that eerily featured black water, Lucy and the other audience members looked quite interested.
"Wow, Mai's play definitely has a dark setting. Still, she's very good at acting in any type of play." Lucy thought to herself with a calm smile on her face, as the curtains briefly came together to signal that the first act now ended.
After about thirty minutes of waiting, the curtains parted again to reveal that Mai was now walking over to the brown pagoda. The pagoda building had seven orange-tiled roofs with curved protrusions on the eaves at different levels of the tower to represent how the tower was prestigious, but Mai soon expressed a look of surprise from seeing seven people in hooded black robes emerge from the tower with black swords in their hands. Those were the evil thieves who ransacked the princess' castle, and Mai made her character act fearful enough to timidly hide behind Erza.
The woman with scarlet red hair proceeded to have a swordfight against the leader and their army, making her two swords clash with their seven swords, and the audience got to watch Mai's character run into the tower. That was actually her cue to leave the stage, since the fight scene was intense in this second act to where Erza's sword went right through an enemy's chest for that impaled person to be thrown off the sword when Erza threw that foe at their allies, and Lucy smiled nicely at how her girlfriend had a lead role in such an exciting play.
Erza continued to beat up the villains with her sword that was actually a fake one with a sticky blade for enemies to briefly get stuck to it, but they would only be released from the sword if Erza attacked them or threw them down on to the stage. Upon seeing the fighting last for about forty minutes, Lucy and some other audience members liked how Erza and the other actors made stage fighting look very real. There were even appropriate sounds for when the sword sliced or impaled someone, and the liquid that looked like red blood actually slowly came up from special effects members who made red liquid lightly gush up from small and hollow holes in the stage by making paintballs burst upward from beneath the small and hollow holes in the stage. Those spots were either purposely tripped on or laid on by people who needed to look like they were actually bleeding out, which made the audience be immersed in the play instead of just thinking about the actors. In fact, even Lucy started to have an amazed look on her face.
"Wow, the swordswoman jut killed all of those men. Now that they're out of her way, I wonder what Princess Kotone will do to get cherry blossoms back on the trees." Lucy thought to herself with a facial expression that showed a mix of amazement and curiosity.
Erza stated aloud while looking at the audience, placing one hand against her forehead to supposedly try seeing something in the distance, "Princess Kotone, where are you? Where in the world did you go off to, princess?"
"Lady Suzy, my noble swordswoman! I'm in the tower, and I finally found our kingdom's precious orb!" Mai responded to Erza with a pleasant smile on her face, after running back on stage to get into the tower through its backdoor entrance for the third act of the play to begin.
Ten minutes after Mai could be heard climbing to the top of the tower, the curtains briefly came together to conceal the stage. They parted again in opposite directions after fifteen minutes went by, and Lucy smiled in a happy manner from seeing the beautiful sight of Mai walking out to the tower's balcony with a cherry pink orb in her hands. Mai stretched her arms outward with her hands still having a tight grip on the orb, and she joyfully smiled at how it glowed when the light of the sunset shined through a window to make the orb beautifully reflect that light in its pink color.
The pink light shined with a high amount of brightness, causing Lucy and the other students around her to shut their eyes for at least ten minutes. When the light began to fade, Lucy opened her eyes and she saw Mai come out of the tower while the trees that were once dead now had pink cherry blossom petals falling from them in a slow manner. Two trees even appeared near the pagoda, letting their cherry blossoms land in Mai's hands while she happily spun around from how the retrieval of the treasure made the characters now be in a beautiful place. The audience got to hear birds chirping while some traditional oriental music began to play in the background, the flute sounding just as beautiful as the rush of the waterfall's water that was now dark blue, and Lucy got to see Mai display something special just for her.
Mai walked to the edge of the stage to be standing over Lucy, who instantly looked surprised from seeing a shower of cherry blossoms come down upon Mai from overhead, and Mai merely gave her girlfriend a kind smile as the cherry blossoms landed around her in a circle. The cherry blossoms that landed on Mai's rose and dress ended up making them both become light pink, causing her to happily giggle to the audience and blush in a cute manner at how her character looked just as beautiful as her kingdom's beautiful setting, and Mai politely bowed to the audience. The spectators cheered and stood up while applauding, Lucy cheering the most from how she enjoyed the play, but Mai motioned for the curtains to close when Erza was about to politely bow. Mai viewed herself as the brightest star in the play, and seeing her shine like a star with those acting skills made Lucy start to softly frown from thinking that Mai wouldn't be faking any feelings of unhappiness when Lucy had to tell her about the star-shaped treasure being gone.
30 minutes later, at a fountain...
After leaving the building, Lucy simply waited for Mai in front of Magnolia Academy's fountain of sapphire blue water that beautifully gushed in five different-sized layers to make the fountain look quite lovely. Lucy stood in front of the fountain's orange ledge while she slowly paced back and forth, wondering how Mai would react to her piece of bad news. There was the possibility that Mai was going to yell at Lucy for not keeping her personal treasure safe, which would especially be ironic from how Mai played the role of a princess who had to deal with a valuable treasure being stolen, but Lucy started to look down at the ground while sighing in a saddened manner.
She felt very upset about losing an item that practically symbolized the start of her wonderful relationship with Mai, and Lucy soon glanced up from the ground to see Mai now running towards her. Mai was dressed in her school uniform again, since she no longer needed to be in her princess attire, and Mai ran quite fast to happily hug Lucy. She wrapped her arms around Lucy's neck in a sweet embrace, liking how the younger girl fulfilled her cute promise of cheering very loudly for Mai, and she even pulled Lucy close to her.
Mai soon broke the hug from seeing Lucy look very sad, almost as if she had something on her mind that was important and very troubling. Since it seemed like Mai needed to now comfort Lucy, she proceeded to just sit down on the fountain's ledge. She gave Lucy a concerned look, having some anxiety in her eyes, and Lucy could tell that the anxiousness in Mai's eyes meant that she rally had to be careful with explaining the situation to her. Saying too much about the situation could make Mai wonder why Lucy didn't tell the police first, and not fully explaining herself could make Mai think she was careless.
Lucy didn't want this incident to create any perceptions between them that would put a massive strain on their relationship, and her body started to tremble with the feeling of sadness. She tightly closed her eyes while thinking about how honesty was a crucial part of relationships being able to thrive, though, and admitting that she was a victim of thievery would make Lucy feel like Mai would at least try to help her look for it throughout Magnolia Town. As she saw no other way to explain her true feelings right now, Lucy sat down next to Mai to look at her with small tears starting form in her eyes.
"Mai, I... I think that someone broke into my apartment, and they stole my Celestial Fragment! That was my treasure, Mai, and somebody stole it during the night! It's gone now, and I cared about it so much!" Lucy told Mai in a saddened manner, looking upset as she proceeded to cry and hug Mai tightly.
That prompted Mai to respond in a stunned and worried manner, feigning genuine concern for her girlfriend with a panicked facial expression before looking a bit guilty, "Lucy, that's horrible! I can't believe that someone would steal from a girl as nice as you! We have to do something, Lucy! I should've stayed with you for another hour or two, and maybe I would've been able to catch that thief in the act of stealing."
Lucy replied to her girlfriend in a disappointed tone, as she ended the hug to look at Mai with the emotion of hopelessness starting to appear on her face, "It's just horrible that my treasure is gone, Mai. However, I don't want you blaming yourself for anything. Neither of us expected the Celestial Fragment to get stolen, especially not after how our anniversary date was so fun."
"We can have more fun during the next few weeks by stealing it back from whoever took it, Lucy. They were so underhanded to steal your treasure when neither of us was guarding it, and I don't care if we have to track them down in one of the faraway towns or even confront them while they're in one of Fiore's other academies." Mai explained to Lucy with the passion in her voice sounding genuine, as she stood up to give Lucy a confident smile.
Upon seeing Mai be so confident and seem very determined to help Lucy get the treasure back, Lucy felt her cheeks blush light pink. They weren't just warm from how she liked the fact that Mai didn't scold her for not having enough responsibility to protect the Celestial Fragment from getting stolen, but Mai seemed to care way more about getting the treasure back right now. She even gave Lucy an assuring smile that showed her how Mai felt optimistic about finding the Celestial Fragment, even if searching the towns beyond Magnolia was necessary.
That high amount of devotion shown by Mai made Lucy stand up to happily kiss her on the lips while having her hands on Mai's cheeks, and there was a high amount of love mixed with the feeling of joy in Lucy's kiss. She soon closed her eyes while feeling Mai return the kiss, liking how her body felt relaxed from Mai giving her a kiss that felt just as passionate, and Lucy just stood right in front of the fountain with Mai. Mai felt her cheeks blush in a deep shade of pink, liking how her lips made this kiss seem quite romantic, but the moment she closed her eyes was the exact moment when Lucy decided to end the kiss.
Lucy sweetly looked at her girlfriend, before looking over at an interesting patch of flowers. Those flowers were smaller than the rose Mai wore in her hair for the play, but Lucy ran over to them and picked one off of the ground. She went back to her girlfriend, and Lucy placed it in Mai's hair. She placed it on the left side of her head, liking how the flower was in a strawberry shade of pink, and Mai giggled softly from how it felt very nice to now have another accessory that matched the pink scrunchie that was on one of her wrists. Upon seeing Mai still keeping that gift so close to her like it was a cherished treasure, Lucy joyfully looked into her eyes and decided to make a nice promise to her.
"Mai, I promise you that our next anniversary celebration won't involve any treasures getting stolen. Since I made you worried today, I'll make you very happy next month. You can trust me on that, Mai, just like how I completely trust you." Lucy told Mai with a happy smile on her face, as the feeling of disappointment began to lessen.
Mai informed Lucy with a kind facial expression, her eyes showing delight from remembering something about next month's anniversary, "Next month, we'll be celebrating on my graduation day from Magnolia Academy! Lucy, I hope you'll be there to see me graduate! After all, it'll make me very happy to see my sweet girlfriend cheer for me and keep up that feeling of happiness for later."
Lucy stated to Mai with a joyful facial expression, before giving her a friendly and happy hug, "I'll definitely be at your graduation, Mai. In fact, I'll be sure to even have a gift for you that's just as great as you hearing me cheer."
Mai thought to herself while sharing the hug with Lucy, looking over at the fountain's water that showed her kind smile change into a sadistic smirk, "I'll definitely have a surprising gift for you, too, Lucy. Although, I'll probably be the one who enjoys the sight of it."
As Mai stopped hugging Lucy, she soon saw Naomi and her other friends standing at the entrance to this dirt path. This route was different from the path Lucy took earlier, since it made Lucy feel like Mai came down this route to rescue her from the heavy weight of losing her precious treasure. Mai was her savior, the person who helped Lucy reduce the weight of the anxiety that had heavily been on her mind, and Lucy appropriately rewarded Mai with that light flower in her hair. The accessory went well with Mai's dark auburn hair that looked beautiful in the setting sun, the rays of sunlight making it start to glimmer.
The glimmers of sunlight in Mai's hair really reminded Lucy of her Celestial Fragment, liking how it shined with some glimmering and glittery beauty. Mai soon felt one of Lucy's hands gently stroke her hair, which prompted her to softly grab Lucy's hand. Lucy soon felt herself run quite fast, as Mai was now running to make them both catch up with her friends who were also all still in their Magnolia Academy uniforms, and Mai didn't forget about how her friends wanted to celebrate Mai's final play by going out for food and karaoke.
As they all started to happily smile at Mai from how she was finally ready to join them for some fun with Lucy coming along, Mai's running speed allowed her to quickly catch up to them. They all decided to walk out of the academy together, Mai's posse acting as if Lucy was truly a part of their group, and Lucy panted a bit while holding hands with Mai. She was somewhat tired from that running, but getting to have fun with Mai's clique would definitely be enjoyable. Lucy smiled nicely from thinking about how they'd all be having a fun time together, but Mai's lips created a sadistic smile as she thought that Lucy would no longer be useful for getting treasures or just for being an amusing victim of Mai's manipulative mind games.
How was Chapter 4? The fourth chapter of this prologue is developing Lucy's worried feelings about losing her personal treasure, as well as developing Mai's manipulative and sadistic side by how she's pretending to love Lucy or secretly liking it when she feels hurt. Also, in reference to my last Author's Note, the play made Lucy fall into Mai's hands by how she felt happy enough to love Mai even more now. It seems like Lucy's love for Mai is at its highest point, but her other emotions may also end up reaching their highest points when some truths finally get revealed to her. I'll update as soon as possible. :)
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