Disclaimer - Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima & all things Pradesh belong to DESNA
A/N - Sorry about the delay. Real life sucks sometimes. But good news, my muse came back and I've some interesting ideas on where to lead this story. Hope you like it, please R&R.
Lucy tapped her pen against her chin staring at the unfinished list before her. Mira nudged the plate of untouched pancakes towards the frustrated blonde. "They will get cold."
"Hmm? Oh, yes thank you. Sorry, I'm just having a hard time with this." She picked up the fork and took a small bite while staring at the mostly empty paper before her.
"Writer's block? That's unusual for you."
"No, well not exactly. I'm not even to the point of writing anything yet and I'm already stuck." She sighed and resumed the tapping. "I was so excited about Erza that I forgot something kind of crucial." Mira glanced around to ensure no one other than Cobra was listening and leaned towards her so they could speak quietly. This was about her ships so it was important. "I realized that I don't actually know that much about Jellal." Lucy turned the paper to Mira so she could read it.
Pros: Blue hair, strong, responsible, determined, calm, feels bad about the Tower of Heaven
Cons: Former criminal, too much guilt
"Well, why not ask Cobra? He was in Crime Sorciere so he should know a lot about him."
"Not happening Tink. I'm not about to help you and Linda Blair over there with your weird dating games." Mira glared at him for the nickname. He merely cocked an eyebrow. "Are you trying to deny you are possessed by demons?"
Mira's reply was interrupted by an excited blonde jumping over to the Poison Slayer. "Come on Erik, just a little bit? Describe him in three words." She put on her most innocent face. Cobra refused three times before he finally relented to her begging. He'd never admit it, but she was downright adorable when she wanted to be.
"Fine. Three words. Allergic to fun. Now go find something useful to do."
Not ready to be deterred, she decided to play a card she'd been holding onto for a while. "I just might have made some hemlock berry jam…"
"When you were on that preserving kick…" Lucy nodded, grinning. She knew she hooked him. "That was four months ago. You've been holding out on me." She nodded again and grinned more. He sighed. "Look. All I will tell you is that he is the most constipated man in Earthland and his balls are probably bluer than his fucking hair. I can give you some advice though. Spend time with him and figure it the fuck out yourself."
"You know that is not a bad idea. Not bad at all Erik. I will go get the jam!" She bounced away while Mira cleaned up the forgotten pancakes.
"That was nice of you to help her," Mira started.
The Poison Slayer just snorted back. "She'll be ready to kill herself just to stop the boredom after a few days with him. Meredy is the only one that can still handle his bullshit, but she's batshit crazy." He leaned his chair back against the wall, closed his eye, and sipped his cyanide laced beer. There was definitely a benefit to having a demonic bartender. They had no qualms about poisoning your ass.
"Can I ask you a question? Why do you let her call you Erik?"
"Have you ever tried to stop Tink from doing something? Some battles aren't worth waging."
Mira pondered that for a moment and decided he was probably right. But then she figured he'd just poison anyone else that tried the same. He had a soft spot for her just like the rest of them. "Why do you call her Tink?"
"Meddlesome, small, blonde, fairy princess with big tits. Now get me another beer and leave me the fuck alone."
Lucy spent the next few weeks arranging all the details. She convinced Laxus to let her pull an S class mission as long as she went with Crime Sorciere. She waited for Natsu and Gray to go on their own mission so they wouldn't try to come with her and then she contacted Jellal and convinced him to join up.
Today was the day she was heading out to meet them and she was excited. The mission was right up their alley, taking down a dark guild. It was a smaller and newer guild so Lucy felt comfortable with it as well. Evidently they were stealing rare artifacts and magical items and doing it in the middle of large crowds. Somehow they were inciting riots and every witness was so involved in the angry fighting no one ever saw the thefts. No one could recall why they were angry, just that they were enraged and it was gone as quickly as it came. People were left injured, confused with a huge mess to clean up.
The last theft was some items that the Magic Council was transporting. They were taken in the middle of the day in the middle of Hargeon. Needless to say, the mission had a pretty hefty payout as well due to the fact it was from the Magic Council themselves.
She had spoken with Jellal about it in detail over the lacrima com when she brought it to their attention. They both felt it had to be some sort of mass mind control. Lucy was fairly confident her Capricorn stardress would protect her from such controls and Jellal had spent a lot of time building up such protections through various means on his own. Meredy would sensory link with one or both of them and stay outside the range of effects they were able to estimate from the reports.
It was a good starting plan and they even worked out the most likely next targets. If they were right, they could be done with the mission within a few weeks. If not it could take months. Either way it would give Lucy plenty of get to know Jellal time and she could plan things from there as well as add a good amount of Jewel to her savings. Grinning, she let Viirgo take her bags to the Celestial Realm as she strapped her whip to her hip and closed up her apartment.