Grandeeney had given her blessing for the dragon children to all go, including Wendy. "While you are gone, we shall look for Igneel ourselves. It is time the king was returned to his home and family." she had told Natsu in private after he had made his request of her, "Keep watch over Wendy for me." Now the group was walking into the outskirts of Magnolia. "Ah, home sweet home." Levy said. Lucy's group had refused payment from the mayor of the town, but they still had to report back to Makarov to let him know what happened and for Natsu to make his formal request for help in searching for Igneel.
Once they arrived there, the dragon children were all surprised at the guild hall, it felt much like their own clearing in the woods as far as while most of the individuals within it were not related to each other by blood, it still felt like one big family gathering, complete with bickering, laughing and just enjoying everyone's company. They were still taking in the sights when a blur of blue came rushing at their group.
"Gray, my love, you have finally returned!" the blur declared as its form became noticeable of that of a blue haired woman as she threw herself on Gray, hugging him to her. "What the… who the heck are you?" "Oh forgive me, I got over excited there for a minute. My name is Juvia, I used to work under Lamia Scale, but when Lyon returned from training with Ur and he showed me a picture of all of you… well… I just had to meet you." Juvia explained quickly as she separated a bit from Gray, who continued to try to put even more space between them.
"Looks like you picked up a fangirl Gray." Lucy chortled. Juvia turned towards her darkly, pointed at her and declared "Love Rival!" "What!?" Lucy exclaimed, while the others around them all laughed, already feeling like Juvia was going to be an interesting addition to Fairy Tail. A voice from near the back of the guild yelled out "I'm glad to see you brats made it back in one piece. Who did you bring with you?"
Lucy smiled, taking Natsu by the hand as she moved towards the voice of their master. "Master, this is my friend Natsu, the one I told you about. He and his friends ended up being the reason we went on the quest in the first place. Now Natsu has something he wants to ask of you." Lucy said, finishing by pushing Natsu forward, who stumbled a little before standing before Makarov, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Sorry for the trouble we caused, we didn't realize we were doing so much damage." Natsu began, "Lucy said your guild takes job request and I have one for you, if you're willing to take it anyways." Master Makarov nodded his head and said "Lucy has talked about you since joining the guild a few years ago. Anyone who is a friend of any one of my children, whether they've been on their best behavior or not, is welcome here. Now what is this job you want us to take?" "I want you to find my father, Igneel." Natsu stated firmly.
Makarov's mind raced, as he thought to himself "Igneel? As in the king of the dragons? I knew that Lucy had said that his father was special to me once, but I hadn't though the dragon king himself had taken in a human child. He has been missing for a number of years… let's see if my theory is correct, for I know what type of magic Natsu would have learned under Igneel." "Of course we will help you find him. Will you be joining us? What kind of magic do you use?"
Natsu signature grin burst forth as he said "Thanks! I do Fire Magic. My friends do Iron, Wind, White and Shadow Magic." "So I was right, it is that Igneel… hmm I have always thought something was off about Igneel's disappearance, perhaps it's time I did something about it." Makarov thought to himself before adding out loud "You're welcome. In fact, everyone besides Jellal will be put on this job immediately, his job help Mystogan is just as important as this one."
Natsu titled his head to the side slightly in confusion, before Makarov whispered for his ears alone "I never thought Lucy meant your father was that special. I have been bothered by the dragon king's disappearance for years, its time I started doing something about it." Natsu's widened slightly in surprise, but he grinned his thanks all the same. Louder, Makarov shouted to the room "Everyone, put down your job request unless we have already said we would help and come here."
Once all of his children except for a few who left to do jobs and would be brought up to speed later had gathered around him, Makarov continued "Listen up you brats, we have been tasked with finding Natsu's father, who has been missing for many years. Until he is found there will no taking jobs unless you absolutely need the funds for food, etc. Natsu will describe him for you so you will know him when you see him." Natsu gave a complete description of Igneel's appearance as a human, leaving out the dragon form for now, the fewer people who knew about it the better.
"Now, break off into groups of at least two mages, I don't want anyone going out alone on this one. Mira and Freed will organize which groups will go to where." Makarov finished with, "Stay safe my children." Lucy smiled and turned to Natsu and said "Want to be on my team? We can catch up more while we search for your dad." "Sure! Let's go see where we'll be sent." The two mages made their way over to where Mira and Freed were standing, Lucy saying "Hey Mira, I'm teaming up with Natsu and Happy to go look. Where do you want us?"
"Well if you could get a slightly bigger team together, I would send you guys to another country, something tells me that Igneel isn't being held here." Mira replied, while Freed nodded his support of her theory. "I don't think that will be much of a problem. Natsu, why don't you grab a few of your friends and I'll grab a few of mine and we'll meet back here for Mira to send us on our way." Lucy said. "Okay, be back in a jiff." Natsu said, making his way through the crowd to the nearest of his friends.
When they returned, Lucy had Erza, Romeo, Levy, Gray and Juvia, who had insisted she couldn't be separated from her darling Gray much to the former's discomfort. Natsu had Wendy and Gajeel and of course all of their Exceed friends. Natsu explained by saying "Sting and Rogue had already been asked by another group to join in their search area and were on their way out the door with Frosch and Lector to join them."
"We're going to be sending you to Tartaros, a country on the other side of Edolas." Freed said, looking up from the list they were forming, "On the way back, you can get a status update from Mystogan and Jellal for the Master. That is if they are still working on uncovering the assassin at that time." "Sounds like a good plan to me." Erza replied, thinking about getting to see Jellal since it had been awhile, perhaps they could even stop by on their way to Tartaros and say hi.
The group exited the guild and Lucy said, "Let's meet back here in an hour, that should give those of us who aren't packed and ready a chance to do so as well as say goodbye to any family or friends we wish to." Erza invited Wendy and Carla to join her so they wouldn't be lonely, Gray doing the same for Gajeel and Lily though his reasoning was more so to keep a barrier between him and Juvia. Natsu just naturally fell into step with Lucy, both feeling an invitation unneeded, Happy flying contently behind them.
Natsu and Happy were taken aback when she started walking up the steps to a mansion. Noticing the lack of Natsu by her side, Lucy turned to see them staring open mouth. She laughed and said "Come on Natsu, Happy, it's just a building." Natsu didn't say a word, but continued to follow her in. His mouth remained hanging open and if it could have it would have dropped even more upon seeing the inside. The decorations screamed rich person lives here, not to mention a butler met them at the door. After inquiring about the whereabouts of her parents, Lucy took Natsu and Happy by the hand and paw, pulling them through several rooms and hallways until they arrived at the dining hall.
"Mom, Dad I'm home and I brought guests." Lucy said as she entered. Layla and Jude turned to their daughter with a smile. Layla instantly recognized the blue Exceed that was slightly behind her and said "Oh Happy, it's good to see you again after so many years." Happy returned her greeting as Jude asked "Well we both know Happy, but who is this? Is this the Natsu kid you gave him to?" "Yes dad, this is Natsu. I ran into him on my last job and he returned with me, along with some friends of his, to request our guild's help." Lucy answered.
Layla had a sad look on her face as she said "You're going off again aren't you?" "Yes mom, this time will probably be for a few weeks, we're going to Tartaros in search of Natsu's dad." Lucy replied, stepping close enough to give her mom a hug. "Tartaros? Is that safe? I know that trading with them has been difficult lately and I can't help but worry that there is some sort of unrest going on there." Jude asked, concern for his daughter filling his voice. "Don't worry dad, besides Natsu, Happy and I there are nine others going, one of which is Erza."
Hearing that Erza would be with them seemed to set Lucy's parents minds at ease and they asked the two to join them for lunch, to which Natsu happily agreed. "I'll be right back, I just have to pack a bag real quick." Lucy replied. Once Lucy had left the room, Jude turned to Natsu and said "I'm holding you personally responsible for my daughter's safety. Erza is strong, but since this is your job request, I expect you to watch out for her." Layla put a comforting hand on Jude's arm as she softly said "Now Jude, Lucy can handle herself, she will be all right."
Natsu looked Jude in his eyes and said, "I promise I will do everything in my power to keep her safe sir. Lucy is great friend to me, I would never want harm to come to her." Jude accepted Natsu's answer with a nod, sitting back as the first bits of food were brought out. Lucy returned a few minutes later to see her parent's eyes bugging out at the ferocity Natsu attacked his food with. Sighing to herself, Lucy thought "I should have told them to mind their manners."
She walked up behind him and Happy, who was also sending some pieces of fish flying here and there, and whacked them both gently on the head, just enough to get their attention. "Geesh you two, have some manners and stop inhaling your food like that. There's more where it came from and we have some time still." Lucy demanded, as she took a seat between Natsu and Layla. Layla and Jude hid smiles behind napkins as Natsu rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment and said "Sorry Lucy."
From that point on, both were well behaved and the family shared many laughs over Natsu's stories as he told of things he had done since last he saw Lucy. Sooner then she would have liked, it came time for Lucy to leave again. She stood up from her chair and gave both of her parents a kiss and a hug, saying goodbye to them before leading Natsu and Happy out of the room. She picked up her bag that she had placed just outside its door and, with a final wave over her shoulder at her parents, Lucy took the first steps on the next part of her journey.
Happy Thanksgiving guys! As a gift for ya'll I decided to upload Friday's chapter today. So the next new chapter will be on Monday :D Also I had way to much fun writing Juvia's entrance, I hope it tickled your funny bones as much as it did mine XD Course it was late at night when I wrote/edited this chapter, so if you don't find it funny… I blame sleep deprivation XD
Answers to Reviews!
FireShifter: Thanks! And yes! Finally I have reunited Natsu and Lucy :D
FTAnt: This was the Juvia scene I mentioned awhile back XD Yay, glad you liked the last chapter :D and aww, thanks!
Ushindeshi: So am I! It felt like forever that they were separated when I was writing it, even though it was really just over two chapters worth :'D
