answers to reviewers questions or statements:
darthwolf: When this job's over, Mira's going to have words with Peter. Very strongly worded words with him.
Batthan The Dark Knight: Yeah, Peter's gonna find that he may have pushed Mira and Erza's tolerance for his antics too far this time.
Zayden StormVoid: You forgot Erza in there, she's gonna be less than pleased when she hears about this. Laxus may be arrogant and full of himself, but he does have the power and skill to back his praises up. Yeah, Lucy's view of Peter is gonna be greatly changed during the course of this mission. For now she just seems him as they odd, mysterious guy but she's gonna learn there's a lot more to him than just that.
Omni-Creator Kami of Anime: There are gonna be no mutants made by Zeref in this.
Fox Boss: I already have a few ideas for some of Peter's rogues gallery but I will say that Electro's is pretty interesting.
CRUDEN: Oh it will, so very, very much.
Disclaimer: I don't own any Marvel or Fairy Tail characters seen, mentioned or used.
Today was going to be a good day.
Even before arriving at the Guild Hall to begin readying it for the rest of the guild, Mirajane just knew that something great was going to unfold. She didn't know what it was exactly, but she didn't care. Her mood was brightened even more with the knowledge that Erza was going to be gone for the next day or two on a job, which meant she'll leave Peter alone and maybe just maybe, stop deluding herself into thinking she ever had a chance of her beloved Peter in the first place.
'And Cana's gonna find herself lacking in alcohol today' Mira thought with a evil grin as she slowly rubbed her hands together 'Fufufufu… I can't wait to see her lose her mind and beg me to reconsider!'
Elfman had already received his punishment last night when they got home, a good hour in the corner followed by a long rant about how disappointed she was in Elfman's behavior on his first mission with Peter and Cana as a team. Elfman can call himself a 'Real Man' all he wants but a good scolding from Mira left the poor man in tears and begging for forgiveness from the sadly gullible Mira. It worked, sadly, she could never stay angry with him.
"Now where is my loving man?" Mira said to herself as she looked around the Guild hall for Peter has more and more members trickled in for either breakfast, looking for a job to go on or simply socialize.
Peter was usually in by now and helping himself to some of the breakfast she made specifically for him. Toasted waffles with sugar, syrup and whipped cream, he had a bit of a sweet tooth in the morning. Even more so when she made his meal.
After a few hours passed and noon began to approach, Mira grew a little be concerned over the continued absence of Peter. At first she thought he simply overslept but after another hour of his continued absence, her worry reached it's peak and she quickly reached into the folds of her dress for her communication Lacrima. It was smaller than the average Lacrima and easier to travel with than the standard basketball sized ones she's seen. She just hoped Peter was within range to answer.
After she connected hers to Peter's own Lacrima, she waited quietly and hoped she was just simply over reacting a little. After a few more seconds, a holographic like image of Peter appeared.
"Mira?" Peter said with obvious surprise and shock at seeing her calling him "W-What uh, what's up?"
"Hi Peter" Mira gave her beloved a warm smile, a little perplexed on why he seemed surprised by her calling him "Where are you? I've been looking for you all morning"
"Oh, I uh, I'm on a job right now" Peter said a little nervously "Left last night"
"Oh..." Mira said with a disappointed sigh "And here I was hoping you'd have breakfast with me this morning"
"Sorry Mira, but Natsu wanted to get a really early start" Peter chuckled sheepishly.
Mirajane couldn't help grin at this "Oh, so you've decided to go on a job with Natsu and Lucy?"
"Don't forget Happy" Peter replied with a shrug.
"What kind of job is it?" Mira asked with curiosity.
"Bah, just another one of my typical Curse solving ones. Some dude over in Hargeon's suffering from a curse that gives him horrific nightmares when he tries to sleep and causes him to hallucinate during the day" Peter said with a wave of his hand "Lucy said she needed some insight on how these kinds of things are handled for her novel and Natsu tagged along because he's under the impression at some point a giant demon's gonna pop up for him to fight"
"And little Happy tagging along in the hopes there's fish to eat" Mirajane giggled.
"Yep" Peter said with a nod before something out of Mira's view caught his attention, likely Natsu, Lucy or Happy or all three, before he returned his attention to her "Well, we're pulling up to the station now. I'll call you later once we've settled"
"Okay, stay safe and try to keep Natsu from causing more damage" Mirajane said with a laugh "I don't think Hargeon has quite forgiven him yet the last time he was there"
"I'll do my best" Peter said with a nod "Laters babe"
"Bye honey" Mira waved at his image before it flickered out of existence.
Well, that explained why she didn't see Peter this morning, he'd left the night before. It also explained why things were so quiet today in the Guild Hall, Natsu was off on a job with him. Lucy was gonna have her hands full keeping Natsu and Happy entertained while Peter looked into solving this curse. She just hoped nothing unfortunate happens. Even on jobs this simple could easily escalate into something serious and even life threatening under the right circumstances.
'Ah, I'm just over reacting' Mira thought as she grabbed a tray that was loaded with Laxus's food and rink for the day and carefully made her way up the stairs to the second floor.
The resident 'bad boy' of the Guild was leaning back on the hind legs of his chair with his eyes closed, humming to the tune of whatever song he was listening to on his headphones as Mira set his food down. As much of a dick Laxus could be, especially in recent months, he tended to keep to himself most of the time when he was at the Guild Hall.
"Thanks..." Laxus said, his eyes still closed as Mira finished off loading her tray on to his chosen table for the day.
"Welcome" Mira said with a smile as she turned to leave before her eyes caught something off about the request board for S-class missions...
One of the sheets, the one for the Curse on Galuna Island, was missing.
"What on Earth Land…" Mira said with a frown as she walked over to the board to see if the sheet had fallen.
Seeing it hadn't caused a bit of worry to begin growing in her chest as she looked under a few of the nearby tables to see if when it fell it simply flew over towards on of them. After failing to find it there, she grew even more concerned before she realized that maybe Laxus had simply taken it. With a sigh of relief had her overreaction she turned towards Laxus to ask him if he still had the sheet when she noticed the look on his face.
"Loose something?" he asked without a hint of mockery in his tone. To her it sounded like he was annoyed she was still within the immediate vicinity of him.
"Do you have the request sheet that's for Galuna Island?" Mira asked with the worry she was feeling earlier return.
"Nope" Laxus said with a shake of his head as he turned his attention back to his food "And before you ask, no, Mystogan doesn't either"
Mira's eyes widened at this before she dropped the serving tray she had and quickly rushed towards the stairs "Master!"
"Hmm?" Makarov said as he took a calming sip of his morning tea, laced with a bit of something stronger to give it that extra kick.
"I don't know what's happened, but one of the S-class requests is missing!" Mirajane said in a worried and panicked tone.
Makarov's eyes shot wide open as he spat his drink out in shock. This caught the attention of a number of people that were within earshot of Mira's reveal.
"Say what?" Wakaba said with confusion "One of the jobs for the second floor is missing?"
"The jobs up there are S-class quests. Anyone no who took it?" Macao asked.
"Well it's either someone really strong or really stupid" Laki said with a thoughtful look on her face.
Before Mira could say anything else, Laxus spoke up from his table on the second floor.
"I know who took it" he said with a smirk on his face "A little blue cat flew up here and ripped it right off the board"
"Happy...?" Mira said with surprise as various other members of the Guild expressed their shock at this reveal.
If Happy took that request, that meant Natsu and Lucy were in on it, which also meant-
"Peter's gone with them" Mira whispered with fear.
She quickly pulled her Lacrima back out and used it to contact Peter's, she'll be having some very strong words with the man for being so blazingly reckless like this. To her growing anger and worry, Peter didn't respond which meant he knew that they've been found out. He probably suspected it when she first called which explained his unease at the beginning of her call earlier before he realized she was just simply seeing where he'd gone.
The fact he lied to her... it hurt more than she was willing to admit, even to herself.
'Dammit Peter' Mirajane thought with anger as her grip on the Lacrima tightened until it looked like it was about to shatter under the force of her grip. After several more seconds of receiving no response from Peter, she slammed the poor Lacrima on the counter top of the bar and stomped back up towards Laxus.
"Laxus!" she nearly shouted in anger as she marched right towards the bemused Mage "If you knew it was Happy, why didn't you stop him?!"
Laxus couldn't help but roll his eyes at this "Oh lighten up will ya. All I saw was a blue cat flying off with a piece of paper in it's mouth trying to act all sneaky. Besides, Natsu's not cleared for S-class, I never dreamed he'd break the rules"
Mira's anger continued to grow with every word that Laxus said and the sheer disinterest at the very real danger that Natsu, Happy, Lucy and Peter were all in right now. For a brief moment, Mira's magic power flared to the point that it caused Laxus's brow to quirk in interest as he saw the dark look on her face.
"Heh, it's been a while since you've given me that look" he stated.
Makarov hummed at this, displeased that this morning was going to hell so fast, this was why he stared drinking so heavily "This is such a mess... well, which one is it?"
Mira was silent for a moment as she glanced back at the board to see which request sheet was taken and went through her memory to see which one it was before she felt her heart freeze "It was.. it was the one for lifting the Curse on Galuna Island"
That explained why Peter and the others were going to Hargeon, to find a ship to get them to the remote island. It also explained why Peter went with them, it seemed to occur to Natsu that if they were gonna take such a job on, he'll need someone that specializes in dealing with curses. Under any other circumstance, Mira would've commended Natsu for using his head for once, but knowing that it's drawn her beloved Peter into danger...
The flying lizard raised fucker will be lucky to still be walking when she's done with him.
While Makarov and several other Guild members were taken back and surprised by the job that was taken, Mirajane had forgone trying to call Peter and was quickly making her way down from the second floor and passed the bar towards the Guild's main entryway.
"Mirajane, where ya going?" Wakaba asked the white haired beauty as she was making her way to the door.
"To bring them back" Mirajane said in a curt tone that sent a shiver up the chain smoking man's spine.
"Out of the question" Makarov said, causing Mira to pause mid-step and turn back to the Guild's master with shock on her face.
"What?" she said.
"Your not going Mira" Makarov said with a sigh "It's been over two years since you've gone on a real job request or used your magic in any serious way. To say that your out of practice and out of shape would be an understatement"
"I can still take care of myself master!" Mirajane snapped angrily, causing several nearby mages to flinch, unused to seeing the normally kind, bubbly beauty like her being so aggressive.
"I'm sorry, but my mind's made up" Makarov said with a sigh before he turned towards his grandson with a hard gaze "Laxus, I wont you to go and get those buffoons. Your the only one here present strong enough to bring them back by force"
Laxus seemed unhappy about his assignment before another voice spoke up, causing everyone to turn and see it was Gray who stood up from his table.
"I'm sorry Master, but that's not quite true" the ice mage said with a determined expression on his face.
...
"Man, this place sure does bring back memories" Lucy exclaimed with a wistful expression on her face as she took in the port city "It feels just like yesterday when we first met"
"It practically was yesterday" Natsu said dryly.
"The people around here seem to think so too" Peter said as he saw quite a number of the port city's residents shooting death glares at Natsu and Lucy, mostly towards the former.
If the large construction he saw on the way in was any indication, when Natsu was here he caused quite a bit of damage to the place.
"Hehehe... forgot about that" Lucy said sheepishly before she set her sights on the city's docks "Well, lets see if we can find ourselves a boat to get us to Galuna Island-"
"Are you crazy?!" Natsu shouted in shock.
"I'm starting to think so" Peter said while Natsu nodded in agreement.
"Aye sir!"
"Forget the boat!" Natsu said as he followed after Lucy with Peter and Happy right behind him "Lets just swim for it!"
Peter couldn't help but sigh at this "Natsu, Galuna is close sixty miles off the coast. It'd take us all day and night o get there probably... assuming we don't get eaten by something or get too tired to keep swimming and drown"
"Both fates which I'm looking to avoid" Lucy said with a nod while Natsu looked sick just thinking about going on a boat, or any form of transportation.
"Aww come on!" he whined as he turned towards Peter "Come on man, help me out here!"
"Aww is the little Salamander afraid of a big scary boat ride?" Peter mocked, causing Natsu to growl at him.
"It is kind of funny" Happy chuckled as he landed on Natsu's head with a fish tail hanging out of his mouth.
"It's not funny!" Natsu exclaimed as Peter passed him by and gave him a quick pat on the shoulder.
"Sure it is" Peter said with a snort as he followed after Lucy towards the docks to hire someone to get them to the remote island.
Sadly, finding a boat to get them to Galuna proved to be far harder than what either Peter or Lucy expected. Every person that they spoke to seemed terrified at the idea of even traveling in the same general direction of the cursed island, which Peter supposed he couldn't blame them for. Even when Lucy offered to pay any possible Ferrier a million Jewels they were quickly denied. And every time they failed to find a boat, Natsu looked more and more pleased. Peter was half tempted to kick him into the water just for that alone.
'We've gotta find a boat quick before someone from the Guild gets here' Peter thought worriedly as he felt his Lacrima go off again, likely Mira trying to find out what in the hell he was doing.
He hated having to lie to her earlier when she called, even if he did sorta tell the truth about them coming here to deal with a curse.
'Somehow I doubt that'll make things better' Peter sighed as they approached a an with a small dingy to see if he might be willing to take them to Galuna Island.
The boat's owner was rather unassuming in Peter's opinion but he couldn't help but feel something was off with the guy. Not in that he was dangerous but looking at him, something about his appearance was... off.
"Don't know why you wanna go there, but no sailor worth his salt is gonna take you to Galuna. Even pirates wont go near that place" the man revealed, causing Lucy to look at him in disbelief.
"Are you serious?" she asked with shock.
"Looks like we're gonna be swimming after all" Natsu said with a pleased look on his face.
"I really hope you get bit by a shark if we do" Peter said as he glanced at the pink haired teen dryly before he noticed someone approaching them 'Uh-oh...'
"I found you!" Gray said as he was suddenly behind Natsu, causing him and Lucy to jump in shock while Happy let out a startled 'eep' and rushed behind Peter's legs.
"Gray? What are you doing here?!" Natsu exclaimed with shock.
The Ice Make wizard gave them all a dry look "Gramps found out about your little scheme and sent me to bring you all back"
"Least it was you and not someone else" Peter said with a shiver at the thought of either Laxus or Erza being sent after them.
Though for some reason the thought of Mystogan coming instead freaked him out even more, seriously, that guy was waaaay to mysteriously creepy in Peter's opinion.
"If you all come back now, you might avoid getting kicked out of the guild... maybe" Gray said with a smirk on his face.
"Kicked out?!" Lucy paled "I don't wanna get kicked out!"
"I don't care, I'm going on this S-class quest" Natsu said, undeterred by the prospect of being booted from the Guild for his actions.
This seemed to annoy Gray as he glared back at Natsu "Man, your way out of your league here. Just come home..."
It was than a haunted look came over him "When Erza finds out about this she's going to be so angry"
This caused all of them to pale at the thought of Erza finding out.
"You know, swimming towards a cursed island where we'll face certain death is looking pretty good now" Peter said as he glanced out towards the ocean with a thoughtful look on his face "Think a sea monster will eat us?"
"Please Gray you gotta save me" Happy said as he flew over to Gray and hid behind his shoulder with a scared expression on his little blue cat face "I told them this was a bad idea but they forced me to come along!"
"You are such a liar!" Lucy snarled at the Exceed.
"No seriously, drowning seems like a perfect way to go if it means having to choose between that and Erza" Peter explained as he glanced at the boat driver "Wouldn't you agree?"
"Huh?" the man said with obvious confusion.
"I gotta prove my power to Erza" Natsu said with a determined expression on his face "so like it or not, I'm doing this quest!"
"Master ordered me to bring you four home, I'll drag you back if I have to!" Gray said as he and Natsu butted heads again, their magic power flaring.
The two than stepped back and coated their hands in their respective elements of fire and ice and stood at the ready to clash with one another. Peter shook his head at their antics while Lucy and was panicking. And little Happy was sitting on a nearby crate, watching the whole thing with a fish in his mouth. Before Peter could step forward and stop them from destroying the dock they were on, and a number of nearby ships and boats, the driver that Lucy tried to bargain with seemed to stare at them with shock on his face.
"Magic..." he muttered before he sat up and stepped forward "Excuse me, but are you all wizards? Have you come to lift the curse off the island"
"Nah, we just wanted to die somewhere tropical and Galuna Island seemed as good a place as any" Peter said with a shrug while Lucy scowled at his response and smacked him in the arm.
"Cut it out" she said.
"Yeah, we are" Natsu said with a nod while Gray snarled at them.
"Not. Gonna. Happen!"
The man looked at them all for a moment before he came to some sort of conclusion and nodded "Get in"
"Huh?" Lucy sounded.
"Seriously?" Natsu said with excitement at finding a way to the island, completely forgetting the fact he'll be hit with a serious case of motion sickness from the trip.
"No way" Gray said as he stepped between them and the boat driver's boat with his arms spread wide.
Natsu started at the teen for a second before a evil grin grew on his face and he quickly delivered a high powered kick to Gray's face, sending the ice wizard flying. Peter winced at this while Lucy and Happy gaped at the sudden act of violence from Natsu.
"Peter, if you would" Natsu nodded towards Gray's unconscious form.
"Would I what?" Peter asked with a frown.
"Tie him up" Natsu said with a eye roll.
"With what?" Peter said as he looked around for any rope.
"With your damn webs so we can take him with us!" Natsu exclaimed with annoyance.
"Well why didn't you just say so?" Petr asked with his arms spread wide "All you had to do was say 'Hey Pete web him up now so we can bring him with us'"
"I thought it's be obvious!" Natsu yelled before his mouth was suddenly covered by a glob of webbing shot from Peter's hand.
"Too loud" peter stated as he glanced down at Gray and sighed "Sorry buddy... but you go back to the Guild empty handed, they'll send worse after us"
He quickly covered Gray in a thick cocoon of webbing before he threw him over his shoulder as if he were a small back of feathers.
"Who'd they send after Gray?" Lucy asked with worry.
"Probably Erza" Peter said with a shrug, causing Natsu and Lucy to both pale.
Peter snickered at their reactions as he turned towards the boat driver and gave him a nod "Ready when you are cap'n!"
...
Several hours later and the six of them were slowly making their way to Galuna Island. Aside from Gray waking up about half in hour into the trip and loudly complaining about his current predicament, the boat ride was surprisingly peaceful. It may have helped that Natsu was incapacitated by his motion sickness which meant he wouldn't be arguing with Gray the whole time. Lucy had proven to be rather entertaining to talk with, she was pretty curious about the kind of magic Peter employed and the kinds of missions he's been on in the past, it seemed she didn't find his jobs to deal with curses as boring as he thought she would.
He inquired about her own magic too, mainly around the kinds of spirits she could summon, what they could do and what they were like.
"Never knew the Zodiac spirits had such... colorful personalities" Peter said after Lucy finished explaining what Taurus, Virgo, Cancer and Aquarius were like.
"Yeah, their rally something" Lucy said with a sheepish grin before she noticed how dark it's gotten and felt a chill run up her spine as she looked down at the dark waters of the ocean around them as the sun had finally set a few minutes ago "Man it's creepy out here"
"Yeah" Peter said with a nod as he looked out at the dark sea before he chuckled "For all we know, some kind of sea monster's watching us right now"
"Please don't say that!" Lucy whined.
"Could be right under us, waiting to knock us over and eat us" Peter said in a creepy voice "Perfect time too. No land for miles and miles around"
"STOP IT!" Lucy yelled in frustration, causing Peter to snicker.
"Don't worry Lucy, your way scarier than any old sea monster we'll see out here" Happy said with a smile, causing Lucy's brow to twitch.
"The hell is that supposed to mean?" she growled at the talking cat who giggled in response.
"Least you aren't tied up" Gray said with annoyance as he tried to see if the webs he was in would give way yet "UGH, why am I still tied up like this?"
"Payback for the time you slid some ice under me and caused me to sip and fall" Peter said with a smirk as he leaned back and rested his hands behind his head and looked up at the night time sky "Don't worry, they'll give in another hour"
Gray growled at Peter before he looked towards the boat driver that had been oddly quite the whole trip "This is your fault too buddy! Why'd you decide to let us on in the first place? You didn't seem to eager to take us to Galuna until you found out we'll mages"
The man was quite for a moment before he turned back to face them all "The name's Bobo"
"Hi Bobo," Peter said with a small wave.
"And if you must know, I sued to be a citizen on Galuna Island" Bobo revealed, quirking peter, Lucy and Gray's interest "But... I had to flee. I just couldn't take it anymore. I should warn you, tragedy befalls any who step foot on the island, there's no avoiding it. That is, unless your able to lift the curse"
"Dealing with curses is my specialty Cap'n Bobo" Peter said with a confident grin as he made out a few constellations he normally couldn't see at night in Magnolia due to the light pollution.
"Even ones such as this?" Bobo said as he moved his cloak out of the way enough to reveal his left arm which has since been transformed into some sort of demonic looking limb.
"Whoa..." Peter said as he sat up and stared at the man's transformed arm with wide eyes.
Gray, Lucy and Happy all had similar expressions on their faces as they stared at Bobo's arm. Neither of them had ever seen such a thing before in their lives, even Peter in all his years dealing with curses has never seen something that could so radically alter a person's body like this.
"Are you saying that a curse caused this?" Gray said with wide eyes.
"Yes, that's right" Bobo said with a nod as Peter continued to examine his arm.
"Interesting..." Peter muttered before he held a hand up and after a brief flash of light, a small notebook with a magic pen attached appeared in it.
He quickly opened it and began to write down a few notes, glancing up at Bobo's arm every few seconds before writing down a few more things along with a small, highly detailed sketch of Bobo's arm.
"Seen anything like this before Peter?" Gray asked.
"Not like this, no" Peter said with a shake of his head as he jotted down a few more things before closing his notebook and sending it back to the small magical pocket dimension he drew it from in the first place.
"Oh man..." Lucy said as she stared at Bobo's arm with growing fear, already dreading this request even more than she was earlier.
Bobo looked up ahead and nodded as he increased the speed of the boat "Up ahead, that's the island"
Peter, Lucy, Happy and Gray all turned to see a distant dark mass in the distance along with a light towards the top. As they drew closer, they could begin to make out a few details about the island such as the jungles it was covered in along with a large singular mount towards it's center.
"What's that light on the top of that mountain?" Lucy asked and if she focused hard enough, she swore she could hear distant chanting coming from the island, likely from the source of the light itself.
"No idea..." Peter said with a sigh, his enhanced hearing, while nowhere up to Natsu's level, could just faintly make out the chanting coming from the island "But something tells me we'll find out soon enough"
"Think it could be connected to the curse?" Gray asked.
"Maybe, maybe not" Peter said as he turned back to ask Bobo some more questions before he noticed something odd...
Bobo was gone.
"Uh guys, where's Bobo?" Peer said with wide eyes as he looked around for signs of the boat driver.
"Huh?" Lucy said as she turned back only to panic when she noticed that Bobo was indeed gone "AHHH what happened? Did he fall over?"
"No, I didn't hear anything" Gray said as he leaned out as far as he could and looked through the dark waters to see if he might be able to spot the man.
"How the hell could we've lost the damn driver?" Peter said before he felt his danger sense going off and looked back to see something that caused him to pale "Oh sweet mother of god, why?"
Lucy, Gray and happy all followed Peter's gaze and paled at the sight off a massive eighty foot tall wave rushing towards them. All four of them let out screams of terror while Natsu simply groaned in misery as the wave's crest came surging towards them and the boat began to break up under the force of the wave.
"Happy, can't you fly us out of here!" Lucy screamed.
"I can't, I'm not strong enough!" Happy yelled back just as the wave crashed down on them, shattering the boat and sending them all into the sea.
The last thing Peter felt before he lost consciousness was a cold wet embrace as he and the others were dragged into the dark crushing depths of the ocean...
...
"W-Where... where am I?"
Those were the first words that escaped Lucy's mouth as she slowly opened her eyes to see that it was morning and she was looking up at a sunny, blue sky. Her whole body felt like it was used as a punching bag by a Vulcan. She also felt like she was lying on something hard, but oddly warm. She let out a hiss pf pain as she sat up and turned to see what she was lying on only to see that it was Peter.
She couldn't help but blush as she realized that she was sitting right on top of his groin and something hard and slowly growing was pressing against her rear. This wasn't the first time she's felt an erection but this was definitely bigger than the last one she felt by a good inch or two if what she was feeling was right. If this was what Mira was being given, Lucy could understand why the woman always seemed to be in a chipper mood, she knows she'd be too. With a shake of her head, Lucy quickly climbed off the teen and made to grab his helmet to remove and see if the man was still alive when his hand suddenly shot up and grabbed her wrist.
She froze as Peter let out a cough and slowly sat up.
"Shit... what hit us?" he groaned as he brushed some sand off himself.
"A tidal wave from the looks of it" Lucy said as she stood up and tried to ignore the phantom feeling of what was pressed against her when earlier, now was not the time to think 'that'!
Peter nodded as he forced himself back to his feet and let out another pained groan before he noticed Lucy blush and advert her gaze "what?"
"Um Peter..." Lucy scratched her cheek as she pointed down towards his waist with her other hand.
Peter frowned at this before he realized what she was pointing at and quickly turned around "S-Sorry!"
"It's fine" Lucy said with a cough as she mentally tried to force the blood out of her face at the very noticeable bulge she saw in his pants "It uh, it happens to all of us"
Peter froze at this and looked over his shoulder at Lucy "I beg your pardon?"
"You know what I mean" the blonde corrected herself with a cough "Are you, are you good to go?"
"Uh, could you give me a minute?" Peter asked sheepishly, embarrassed couldn't even begin to describe how he was feeling.
"S-Sure" Lucy stammered "I'm gonna go look for Natsu, gray and Happy"
Peter nodded at this "Please do... and please don't tell them-"
"Trust me, I wont" Lucy said with a nervous laugh.
If she did tell them ,than one of them, probably Happy, might end up telling Mirajane if they get back to the Guild and the sweet barmaid might think that Lucy was trying to snatch her man up. The thought of a pissed off Mirajane coming after her because she believed that Lucy was trying to take her man filled her with more fear than Erza should she come after them. Erza just might be possible to negotiate with... Mira on the other hand-
"I'd have better luck taking on a shark with no arms in the middle of the ocean" Lucy said with dread in her tone as she stopped and took this moment to examine her surroundings.
They appeared to be on the edge of jungle that boarded a white sandy beach with the ocean beyond that. She could make out the remains of the boat they arrived in along with Natsu, Gray and Happy's half buried in sand forms. She quickly rushed over just as the three began to awaken with various sounds of pain and discomfort.
"Ugh... looks like we made it" Natsu said as he pulled himself to his feet and looked around.
"We're lucky that wave washed us ashore" Lucy said with a sigh as she looked around to see no one else visible.
"I don't know if I'd call it lucky" Gray said as he brushed some sand out of his hair before he noticed the absence of their fifth member "Hey, where's Peter?"
"I'm here" Peter called out from somewhere in the trees "I'll be out in a second"
"What's he doing, going to the bathroom?" Natsu asked as he pulled Happy out of the sand who let out a relieved sigh.
"Uh, no..." Lucy said with a blush forming on her face "He's uh, taking care of something"
"What is it?" Gray asked before he noticed Lucy's blush deepened and broke out into a laugh "Oh you've gotta be kidding me"
"Oh shut it!" Lucy snapped while Natsu watched them with confusion before glancing at Happy.
"Any idea what their going on about?" he asked with a nod towards a laughing Gray and a angered and embarrassed Lucy.
"No" Happy said with a shake of his head "They must've drank too much sea water"
"Probably" Natsu agreed as Peter stepped into sight.
"Nice to see we've all made I-" Peter began before he looked around and frowned "Any signs of Bobo?"
"No" Gray said as he stood up and brushed some more sand off him and pulled a bit of seaweed that was on his pants off.
"Forget about that stuff for now and lets go exploring!" Natsu said with obvious excitement.
"AYE!" Happy said in agreement.
"We've been here only thirty seconds and you've already forgotten about the mission?" Lucy said with a sweatdrop as she reached into the holster where she held her Gate keys to retrieve the folded request form for this job.
She unfolded it and quickly scanned over it's contents to see if it could offer up any more information about their quest.
"Lets see... apparently there's only one settlement on the entire island" Lucy said as she read the brief description about the island "The village chief is the one that put out the request, so I guess we're gonna have to find him"
"Not so fast" Gray said, drawing everyone's attention towards him.
"Forget about it Gray" Natsu said with annoyance "You cant take us back to the Guild now that the boat's been destroyed"
"Unless you know hw to make a boat out of the wreckage of the one we came in on and the trees around us" Peter said as he looked around the area at the scattered remains of their boat.
"Your right" Gray said with a sigh "Which is why, I'm coming with you"
This took everyone back by surprise.
"Huh?" Lucy said with shock.
"He definitely drank too much sea water" Happy loudly whispered to Natsu who nodded with wide eyes.
"Y-Yeah" the dragon slayer agreed.
"Or too much sun" Peter offered up his own explanation for Gray's sudden shift "He's looking a little redder than usual"
Gray scowled at them "That's not why. I refuse to sit by and watch as you three make S-class before me!"
"Okay, now this is starting to make sense" Peter said with a obvious sigh of relief "For a second, I though the world was about to end"
"Aye sir!" Happy said with a jump.
"Besides, if you get kicked out the Guild would get pretty boring pretty quick" Gray said with a shrug "Gramps will be upset-"
"Pissed beyond all reasoning is more like it" Peter interrupted.
"-But he wont say mad us for long if we do this" Gray said with a smirk "Let's go"
"Alright!" Natsu said with a grin as he was shook with excitant "Ah man I can already see Erza's face when we pull this off"
"I can also see her face when she finds out what we did, regardless" Peter said with a sigh of dread 'Doubt Mira's gonna save me from her'
Hell, she might join in!
"Oh yeah, that reminds me" Gray said with a snap of his fingers and looked at Peter "Mira wanted me to tell you that you and her are gonna have a very long talk when you get back"
"I figured as much" Peter said with a saddened expression under his helm.
"Whelp, let's get going" Natsu said as he brushed a bit more sand off his pants and pointed in a random direction "We're gonna have to hoof it a little if we wanna get there by sundown"
"Oh joy" Lucy said with a sigh "Wandering through a jungle on a cursed island, so fun"
"Your the one that wanted this" Peter said with a shrug "Too late to back out now"
"I never wanted this in the first place" Lucy scowled in annoyance as she folded her arms under her well sized breasts.
"Until she saw the size of the reward, the fact we'd be on a tropical island and she'll get a Gate key out of this" Happy said with a snicker, causing Lucy to glare at the blue furred feline.
"Shut it cat!"
...
And done.
Next chapter, Complications arise...