Chapter 9
(Time Skip: Six Hours Later)
Lucy woke up at four in the morning; she didn't need to be awake for another hour and a half. The problem was that once Lucy woke up she was up for the day. She carefully got out of bed so as not to disturb Evergreen. Lucy went to the connected bath and took a quick shower. After Lucy was done she got dressed in legging, sweater dress and ankle boots; since they were going up north for their mission. After she was done getting dress Lucy went down stairs to start a simple breakfast for the whole group. Upon going down the stairs Lucy was surprised to see Bickslow was in the livingroom considering the hour.
What was most surprising was that he was doing a handstand, and had his feet almost bent completely backwards touching the floor behind his head. She responded by saying, "Wow, I need to start calling you Stretch." Bickslow laughed and proceeded to pick his feet up off the floor and do a cartwheel to get on his feet. Lucy was curious, "Wish I was that flexible, might come in handy while in a fight. Where did you learn?" Since Bickslow wasn't wearing his visor for once, Lucy could tell the questions had brought up something painful.
Lucy quickly walked over to Bickslow and touched his arm, "Oh, Bicks I did not mean to bring up something painful. Forget I asked, okay?", Lucy said while looking straight into his eyes. Bickslow was unnerved by Lucy looking him in the eyes, few people trusted him enough to do so. "You are looking me in the eyes! Why? Most people are too scared of my magic." Lucy was confused by this, "Bickslow, you are my guild mate, my designated protector, and also my friend. I am not scared and trust you completely."
Bickslow was happy to hear Lucy say that, "I learned acrobatics from my parents before they died. They were professional acrobatic trainers, ran a small gym. Do you want to learn? It might be a smart idea with you being a mage that uses spirits. It might give you an edge in getting away from an attacker and a chance to use your keys. I am willing to teach you." Lucy grinned widely, "I accept your offer! Now let me cook you and everyone else some breakfast."
Lucy began to pull out the ingredients for biscuit dough while Bickslow looked on in amusement. Lucy noticed the blue haired mage's expression and asked, "What is funny?" Trying not to laugh out loud he said, "You know they put those in bags and freeze them for fast baking." Lucy shook her head at the smirking mage, "I promise these will taste better than any frozen biscuits you have ever eaten." Bickslow began to act offended, "Well I never heard such hogwash. I make a mean frozen biscuit if I do say so myself." Laxus walked in to see the two mages laughing together and it made his already irritable mood worse.
He came in growling at Lucy and Bickslow, "Why are you two cackling like hens this early in the morning." They looked up at the lightning mage and Lucy said, "Well good morning to you Mister Grizzly. I was laughing at Bickslow's taste in what he calls good food. So, what woke you up on the wrong side of the bed, Grumpy Bear?" Laxus hmphed at the two, "You want me to be sociable this early, give me coffee." Lucy giggled at the sleepy Laxus and replied, "It will be done brewing in a minute, I think you can survive that long. I do not remember you being this grumpy the other morning..." Laxus replied, "You do not drink coffee. It took extreme effort to be that nice with no caffeine." Lucy just shrugged in response.
Bickslow whispered to Lucy, "You are a brave woman Cosplayer. No one messes with Laxus before his morning coffee, or risk getting zapped by your Grumpy Bear." Laxus heard everything Bickslow said due to his heightened dragon senses. Lucy turned around to pour both men some hot coffee, but she quickly turned back around at Bickslow's yelp of pain. "Do not call me Grumpy Bear.", Laxus said while glowering. Bickslow turned to Laxus, "Lucy did not bet singed, why did I?" Laxus moved in close to the other man, "You know better, she does not."
About this time Freed and Evergreen walked into the kitchen. Freed cleared his throat, "Do not kill him in my kitchen. I need coffee before dealing with his cheerfulness or your surliness Laxus." Evergreen mumbled in agreement with Freed. Lucy giggled at the four other mages, "Is everyone so grumpy every morning?", she asked while pouring coffee. Bickslow chimed in saying, "I am not irritable in the morning, just everyone else is. It is why everyone volunteered me to be your early morning exercise buddy."
Lucy turned to the stove and laid bacon in a hot skillet, after serving the others mugs of coffee. "I shall remember to hand out caffeine regularly then. Cheese biscuits are ready; let them cool while the bacon finishes cooking.", Lucy said. Laxus in his team sipped their drinks in silence till Lucy had set a platter of biscuits and bacon in front of them. Once everyone had taken a few bites the grumpy mages in the group seemed to cheer up. Bickslow looked at Lucy apologetically, "I am sorry Cosplayer for making fun of your methods. You were right best biscuits ever." At this Lucy did a little dance in a circle, "I told you so Stretch." Evergreen looked up from her food, "You saw him showing off didn't you." Bickslow grumbled, "I was not showing off." Lucy giggled and replied to Evergreen, "I caught him in the middle of a hand stand, with his legs bent backwards. He offered to teach me some tricks, I agreed."
At Lucy's statement, everyone stopped eating and stared at Bickslow. The blue haired mage looked uncomfortable from the looks his friends were giving him. Lucy looked between all of the people and asked, "What? What is going on? Is that a big deal?" Bickslow mumbled at Lucy, "I have not willingly talked about my skills with anyone since I was young. They just think I have finally lost what little sanity I have." Laxus looked at Lucy and stated, "Wow, you really are something special if you got him to open up to you. It is time to head to the train. Let's get our stuff and meet outside in 10. Evergreen stay with Lucy till the whole team gets outside. Once we leave the barrier she is my responsibility. Everyone keep your eyes open, and Freed put those ruins on Lucy we discussed last night."
Freed walked to Lucy and pulled out his sword, "Miss Lucy please hold out your hands palm up. I will be putting protection and defense ruins on you as a precaution." After getting Lucy's permission to continue Freed wrote two ruins. On Lucy's left palm he wrote a ruin that would erect a barrier around Lucy if someone tried to harm Lucy. On the celestial mage's right palm, he wrote a ruin that would send any magic attack that tried to hit her back at the caster. Freed explained all of this to the blonde female as he wrote his ruins. "There is one catch to these Miss Lucy, they run off your magic. If you run out of magic they are useless."
Lucy nodded in understanding and everyone spread out to collect their baggage for the trip. When everyone met outside Lucy called out Virgo to take their bags till they got to their destination. The group of mages barely made it to the train station in time. Laxus paid extra for a private car. He pulled his sound pod onto his ears; trying to ignore the motion sickness. Lucy asked Freed, "How long will we be on the train?"
Freed answered, "We will be on this set of tracks for the next eight hours. It will be another two hours after that by carriage to reach the nearest ocean port. We will be on the boat to the country's capital for about two days pending good weather." Lucy looked at Laxus in sympathy, "He will be in misery the whole time. Laxus, what is worse trains, wagon riding, or boats?" He growled out, "Boats not that it is any of your business. Why do you want to know, Blondie?" Lucy gave the ill dragon slayer a dirty look. She replied with bite, "Well I have something that could make it easier, Grumpy Bear. Well I guess you don't want it since you like to snap at people."
Laxus looked at her in confusion and Lucy explained, "It is a pill form of Wendy's motion sickness spell. It has the same effects, but it wears off fast. You also work up a tolerance to it quickly, as well. It is best not to use it till the motion sickness gets extreme." Laxus nodded his head and closed his eyes trying to sleep away the worst effects. Bickslow pulled out a multi tool and started to work on his babies. Evergreen started to read a fashion magazine, while Freed pulled out an old rune book. Lucy looked out the window for a long time, before she decided to sketch the landscape in the distance.
She dug around in her carry-on for her sketchbook, oblivious to her partners' curious glances. When she started drawing the outline of the mountain in the distance, Evergreen spoke up, "I did not know you could draw. Are you any good?" Lucy giggled and flipped to a different page, showing Evergreen a picture of Lucy's spirit Plue. "I am decent but I will never make a living on it.", Lucy stated. Freed leaned forward, "You are quite talented Miss Lucy. It makes me wonder where you learned your magic from?"
At Freed's question Lucy became sad, "My mother shared the same magic as me. She taught me before she got sick. Father did not approve of a proper lady knowing such things, but he could not deny my mother anything she asked for. After she died he tried to make me forget about magic. That did not work as you can see. What about you Freed? Where did you learn rune magic?" It was now Freed's turn to look sad, "I taught myself from books. I was not fortunate enough to have an instructor at any stage in my training." Lucy realized that the topic had made the green haired mage upset, so she posed the question to Bickslow.
The blue haired man wouldn't look Lucy in the face when he replied, "My magic kind of runs in the family genes. Usually skips a few generations before it shows up again down the line. Basically, means no one taught me either." Lucy looked to Evergreen to answer the same question as the other two did, "My story is similar to yours Lucy. My dad began to teach me his magic when I was young, but he died before I could learn everything. I had to go at it alone after that." Lucy now realized why Laxus and his team were so close; none had a very pleasant past.
After the past was brought up everyone lost the mood to socialize. Shortly after everyone went silent Freed left the private car. When he returned fifteen minutes later, he had enough food for everyone. Laxus woke up from the smell, he was obviously distressed by his motion sickness and the smell of the food. Lucy grabbed her jacket she had in her carry-on and pushed it against Laxus' face, "Smell this it should mask the scent of food." The jacket helped cover the smell but Laxus was obviously still very ill. Lucy began to worry about the lightning mage and asked, "Do you want those pills or I may know something else that may help?"
Laxus replied with shallow breaths, "This is nothing compared to a ship; save the pills. What is your other idea, Blondie?" Lucy grinned at the dragon slayer, "trade places with Ever and lay your head in my lap. I got a trick I normally use on Natsu. It helps with the sickness some. Want to see if it will help you?" Laxus did not argue; he followed Lucy's instructions. When Laxus was settled, Lucy wrapped her jacket like a scarf around his neck. When that was done, she began to rub his temples, forehead, and play with his hair. After a few minutes Lucy asked, "Does this help?"
Laxus only nodded in response. The Thunder God Tribe just stared at the two blondes, amazed that Laxus was so relaxed around anyone other than them.
"Stop staring and eat the damn food so it will stop torturing me.", Laxus huffed. Freed carefully handed Lucy a sandwich trying to keep it far away from Laxus' nose. Freed placed crackers and water next Laxus. Lucy quickly ate her food to minimize the smell. The rest of the ride everyone stayed silent. Laxus stayed in Lucy's lap with her playing in his hair till they reached their stop.