8:30 am Lucy's apartment
Sunlight was breaking through the gap in her curtains as she woke, crow calls echoing from the nearby trees, Lucy sat up in her bed, looking around the room, she noticed the distinct lack of Natsu, she got up out of bed and walked over to her coffee table to see a small not under one of her books
"Gone house shopping, see you later at guild," she read off of scribbled note, Lucy looked up from the note crumpling it up and throwing it in the bin, she also noticed that he had left his cloak on her couch, she picked it up and hung it up over the chair as she went around getting dressed.
x-x-x-x-x
Walking into the guild, she saw that everyone had woke up from last night's party, all except for one person, who was currently sitting in the same position she had been last night,
"After last night's drinking contest I'm not surprised," Lucy said walking towards Mira who was currently washing down dishes, Lucy grabbed a stool and sat down "I remember the last time she was like this, I tried to wake her up and got thrown into the table, so I've left her to sleep, we don't want a grumpy Cana," She said as she walked into the back, "ouch," Lucy said in reply, turning around and looking round the guild hall she could see everyone was in picking up requests and leaving, or just sat and talking with friends.
"I think I'm doing this whole new life thing pretty well," she said to herself sitting at the bar, "New life you say, and in what way would that be?" said a new voice from Lucy's left, Lucy jumped on her seat, sweating slightly, she turned her head left to see a smiling Makarov who was looking at her with closed eye's, "Ahh master I didn't hear you come sit down," She said smiling innocently, Makarov chuckled a bit before speaking and finally opening his eyes, "I could tell," he said still chuckling.
That was until he was hit on top of the head with a wooden spoon courtesy of Mira, "OW," he shouted turning round and looking at Mira, a questioning look on his face, "That's for scaring the poor girl," Mira affirmed before walking back off to the back, Makarov grumbled to himself before sighing, "So lucy, where's Natsu this morning," Makarov asked taking a sip from a glass of water,
"He's house hunting, left before I woke up," she said jumping down from her seat, "I'm going to go over and talk with Gray for a bit, ill talk to you later Master," she declared before walking off, Makarov nodded as she walked away.
x-x-x-x-x-x
4 hours later
Lucy was standing at the request board when the doors to the guild opened revealing Natsu, one hand in his pocket the other rubbing his neck as he walked forward, He looked around before spotting Lucy "Lucy!" he shouted before walking over to her, gaining her attention she turned around and smiled at him "Hiya Natsu," she said, her pursuit for a quest going nowhere, "What's with the massive crowd outside?" he asked sitting down, before looking around, his eyes squinting slightly "and actually where the hell is everyone?" The guild hall had turned into a ghost town, not even Mira was behind the bar, "I don't know, everyone filtered out about 20 minutes ago, I don't know why," suddenly a lightbulb flashed on top of her head "Gray's fighting Erza, I completely forgot," she rushed out the guild hall, Natsu sat behind for a few seconds, sighing he stood up and walked towards the exit "I just wanna sit down for 5 minutes,"
x-x-x-x
Lucy got to the fight in time, Gray was currently across the makeshift arena from Erza, Makarov stood in the centre off towards the side, she quickly spotted Elfman and walked over to him.
Elfman noticing her waved as she came over to him, "Have they started yet?" she asked looking at the two fighters, "No you got here just in time though, they're about to start," he said clasping his hands together, "THIS IS GONNA BE MANLY," he shouted as the crowd started to get going, "Jeez two of the members of fairy tail strongest team clashing, isn't that a little dangerous?" she asked looking as Gray walked around the arena looking for his shirt "Strongest team? What are you on about?" Elfman asked confused, Lucy looked up at him angrily clenching her fist "You, Erza and Gray, you're the top three in fairy tail!" she declared looking up at him, Elfman gave her a weird look before speaking "Heh? Who fed you that crap?" Elfman asked folding his arms together.
Over his shoulder Mira stood collecting in bets, overhearing him calling her declaration crap sent her into meltdown
"Oh sis, it was you who said that," Elfman said panicking, "Well done you've made her cry," Lucy said flatly, Elfman apologised before looking up at the two in the middle of the arena, "Although I do recognise Gray, Erza and my own manliness, there's no way were the strongest, Fairy tail is filled with people way more powerful than us 3," he said "Elfman being humble! Never thought I'd see the day," a sarcastic voice said from a tall man stood next to two others, "Although I can say for sure Erza is the most powerful female wizard in the guild, I don't know about them being the most powerful," a small petite girl called Levy said, the man who had just spoke to stood to her right, "For men, you can't overlook Laxus and Mystogan, don't get me started on Gildarts, that man is on another planet altogether," Jett answered
Mira recovering from her crying fit spoke up, "I just thought that those 3 would have the best team chemistry," she said wiping her tears from her face, "Would they just fight as soon as Erza wasn't there," Lucy pointed out, "In any case, it will still be an interesting fight," Elfman said resuming his crossed arm position.
Just then Natsu finally decided to reappear, walking towards the group with both hands in his pockets he spoke up, "So the bossy redhead is fighting Mr Freeze, this should be fun to watch,"
"Natsu are new champion drinker, it's an honour to be in the presence of someone who beat the mighty Cana!" Droy and Jett shouted coming up to him, Natsu stared at the two before walking past them and rubbing his neck "So who's winning this do you think," he asked the assembled group, "He ignored us!" Jett said in shock, Droy who was also shocked put one arm on his friend's shoulder looking down, "Man we really need to get cooler,"
"All my money is on Erza, if I could, I would happily bet my life," Elfman said pumping his fist into the sky, Natsu sweat dropped and spoke "Okaayyyyy, anyone else willing to bet their life on the fight?" he asked looking round, everyone in the group raising their hand simultaneously except for him and Lucy, Natsu rubbed his chin before sighing "Fair enough," shrugging his shoulders he walked next to Lucy and got ready to watch the fight, just then he sniffed something strange, 'frog?'
In the ring Erza was squared off against Gray, "today's the day I beat you Erza," Gray said slamming his fist into an open palm "Hmm its been too long since we've fought," Erza said nodding, "I was a kid back then, things will be different this time round," Gray said, his confidence not disappearing," he faced her head on and smiled, "Todays the day I beat you,"
Erza smiled before speaking "I'm going to fight for real too, it's been a while since I've had a proper test of strength!" Erza declared reequipping her armour, coming out of her reequip she was wearing a beautiful blue-themed armour set, a sword-shaped into an icicle in her hand.
"Ice Queen armour, that's strong for negating Ice magic," Macao said from next to Natsu
"That's going a bit overboard if I'm being honest Erza," Wakaba said taking a puff from his pipe
"Ice queen armour huh," Gray said looking at his opponent, "perfect now I can go all out as well,"
Makarov put his hand out and cut through the air, "Begin"
"Ice make: Lance" Gray shouted doing his normal pose, shooting off tens of small ice projectiles at Erza, Erza quickly dodged through most, cutting some down the middle that she couldn't get past,
"Impressive, you truly have gotten stronger, but not strong enough," she said running towards Gray at high speed, she swiftly brought her sword down as Gray jumped out the way, Gray quickly ran around her dodging another swing this time from above getting far enough away he went into his position again, "ICE MAKE: HAMMER" he summoned a huge hammer of ice that he swiftly swung down on Erza who seeing this raised her blade, blocking the hammer on its way down, as both vied for control the spectators were amazed
"Wow, this is incredible," Lucy said, stars in her eyes as she watched the fight, "Pretty impressive huh," Elfman said, a smile gracing his face, "It's pretty tame if you asked me," Natsu whispered under his breath, Lucy who just about heard him nudged him slightly.
As Gray finally lost control of the hammer, he allowed it to disperse catching Erza off guard, well that's what he thought, he quickly had to summon a wall to block Erza's counter, her sword clanging off the ice she jumped back splitting them up, they both stared each other down before Gray summoned a sword of ice, he then lunged in, Erza doing the same.
As they were about to collide a gong was heard off to the side, both stopping mid-swing they disengaged and looked towards the noise.
Suddenly, a frog person, God knows what it was, strolled into the ring, the magic council emblem proudly worn on her jacket.
"That's enough," she said walking towards them both "Everyone stay where they are, I am an emissary of the magic council," it stated proudly
"The council?" Levy shouted, "Emissary?" Jett also shouted, "why here…?" Droy asked from over their shoulder
"So is anyone gonna talk about the fact it's a frog," Lucy asked confused, Natsu looked at her strangely before leaning into her ear, "They really taught you nothing in that mansion did they," he whispered into her ear, Lucy went red before pouting and grumbling, something along the lines of being too close.
Natsu looked back into the middle as the frog person spoke again "For eleven crimes committed during the recent Eisenwald incident, including the destruction of property…Erza scarlet is hereby under arrest," silence rung through the arena before it was disrupted by Gray "Wh-what!"
Before anyone could voice there concern apart from Gray who had already done so, a slow clapping emanated from the side of the arena, everyone to stunned to speak were knocked out of the stupor and looked towards the clapping
"My-my the magic council arresting people wherever they go, I'm so surprised to see that hasn't changed," Natsu declared walking out from the crowd, his hand in his pocket, his lips sat in a flat line, "Are you going to stop me?" the frog women asked looking at Natsu, Natsu looking weirdly at her before taking his hands out his pockets and putting arms out, "Who am I to stop the 'mighty' council from exacting there 'mighty' will over the guilds of Fiore," he said as both his left arm went back into his pocket, the other throwing some loose hair back from over his eye's "Hmm good then Erza if you'll come with me," the frog women said as Erza nodded and reequipped into her regular armour.
x-x-x-x-x-x
The members of the guild were currently sat in the hall, a depressing atmosphere suffocating the place, Natsu was sat with a very worried-looking Lucy, Gray and Elfman were sat probably discussing how to break Erza out of prison and Makarov and Mira were sitting by the bar.
"Hey Lucy," Natsu said snapping her out of funk, "Y-yeah?" she asked dazed "wanna go check out my new place?" he said swinging his keys about in front of her, Lucy looked confused for a few seconds before nodding, deciding she needed some air anyway walked out the guild with Natsu
Outside the guild, they walked down the main street,
"Hey Natsu, do you not like the council or something?" Lucy asked thinking back to the incident, Natsu titled his back looking back at her before speaking "Not like? I straight up hate them," he said chuckling slightly, "There no good wizards who care more about politics than the wizards of there own country, it's not like this anywhere else, admittedly it is a lot worse than this in some countries, but the council in this country ticks me off royally they have some of the most powerful weapons ever created at their disposal and act like children throwing there toys out the pram when they don't get their own way, an-…I'm ranting aren't I?" he said stopping himself in the street, Lucy giggled nodding her head as Natsu sighed and continued walking "Point is I hate them," he said laughing slightly as he finished, Lucy looked at Natsu before letting her thoughts wander for a few seconds, 'I hope Erza's doing alright' Natsu noticing her face change Natsu spoke again
"I wouldn't worry about Erza, one thing they also do well is scapegoating, they excel at it, that's all Erza is at the moment a sacrificial lamb for the Eisenwald incident, even though it's the council's fault they lost the flute, to make sure the public doesn't lose faith in them, she'll be taking the blame, She'll be back by tomorrow for lunch," he declared throwing his hands behind his head, Lucy looked stunted for a few seconds before smiling, "Thank you Natsu, that's out my mind at ease," she beamed over at him, that's when she thought about something he said, "…the council lost lullaby? How do you know?" she asked putting her hands behind her back and getting in front of him slightly.
Natsu looked at her slightly sighing and putting his hand on his head "I spoke without realising oops, well you see, obviously for Lullaby to be captured someone had to capture it…that was me," he said smiling slightly and pointing at himself "gave it to the council a few years back for safekeeping, which wasn't very safe apparently," Lucy stopped walking, Natsu confused looked back at her to see her wide-eyed.
"You captured Lullaby all by yourself!?" she asked him, running up to him, "Yeah it was a long time ago though," all of sudden the look in his eyes changed at he looked into the sky, "A long time ago," he shook his head sighing before looking back at Lucy "anyway were nearly here," he said walking down a side street coming out into a small street, that's when Lucy realised something, "Hey Natsu were near my house so do you wanna come grab your cloak?" she asked noticing it was on the way to where ever they were heading.
"Sure it's near there anyway," he said as he kept walking
5 minutes later they were at Lucy's apartment, walking into her apartment Lucy spoke, "Hey do you want a drink?" she asked poking her out from the kitchen, "Nah were not far from my place so," he replied tying his cloak round his neck, "Okay then," she said walking back out grabbing her key, she and Natsu walked out into the hallway, locking the door she turned around to only see Natsu facing the door opposite her apartment "Were here," he said unlocking the door
"You've got to be kidding me!"
x-x-x-x-x-x-x
it had been a few hours since Lucy had learnt about Natsu being her neighbour, she was currently sat writing when she heard a knock on her door, she stood up and answered the door, Natsu was at the door, flowers in hand, immediately Lucy was confused, a light dusting on her cheeks she took the flowers as they were shoved into her hand's "housewarming gift," he said smiling, Lucy looked dumfounded for a few seconds before looking down at the flowers, "Natsu I'm the one who's supposed to get you a housewarming gift," she said sweat dropping, "Oh," he said putting a finger on his chin, he looked down at the flowers before taking them back out her hand, "Lucyyyy, you shouldn't have," he said gesturing his hand playfully, Lucy went red before slamming the door in his face "Hmph," she vocalised "did you just 'Hmph' at me?" She heard him say through the door, "How did you hear me!"
x-x-x-x-x-x
As the day passed Lucy awoke the next day at 9 am, getting ready she had a shower and got dressed, she knocked on Natsu's door to see if he was still in, she waited for him to answer…which he didn't so she decided to head towards the guild, getting there 10 minutes later, she noticed Natsu wasn't there either 'Jeez guy probably slept in' she then greeted everyone.
3 Hours later and the guild doors opened to reveal Erza looking no worse for wear, "Hello all I have returned," she declared proudly, a huge cheer echoing throughout the hall, after she had greeted everyone she spoke to Elfman, Mira, Gray, Lucy, Makarov and Mira, "So when I got into the trail, they talked over some matters before deciding that I was to be some form of scapegoat, which I assume you already know master," she asked looking at him too which he simply nodded, "The council are spinless bastards so I saw this happening from the start," he said crossing his arms, "Natsu was right huh," Lucy said putting her finger to her chin, "What do you mean Natsu was right," Erza asked, "Oh when we were walking yesterday he said that you were being used a scapegoat by the council… well he got to that after ranting about how childish the council was," she said looking at Erza, "Hmm the boy doesn't like the council, how interesting," Makarov said jumping down from the bar and walking upstairs to his office "So all in all It was a symbolic arrest, had us worried for nothing," Elfman said slamming his head down on the table
Gray all of sudden slammed his fist down onto his palm, "Ah I get it, they let you 'leaf' early because they were all bark," he said releasing what had happened
…
…
"That was terrible," Lucy said giving him a deadpan look, Elfman lifted his head off the table realising something, "Hey Gray what about your fight with Erza," he pointed out, "Oh yeah, HEY ERZA!" he shouted, "We still need to finish our fight!" he called from across the guild hall, Erza who had moved to the other side of the hall and was eating looked up at him before sighing "Don't be ridiculous," she said closing her eyes and looking back down "C'mon Erza lets pick up…" he began to run towards her, "where we left off," he began to activate a spell when Erza stood up, "good grief,"
*BAM*
A simple punch to the stomach was all it took for Gray to be out cold, "We have our winner," Happy announced
The whole guild hall started laughing, but after a few moments everything got quiet, a little too quiet
"What's wrong master?" Mira asked as she watched sway sightly at his seat at the bar, he had come back down from his office during the rematch of Gray vs Erza, "I'm just feeling a little sleepy, is all," he yawned before speaking again, "… it's him,"
One by one each guild member fell to sleep, Erza propped herself up slightly, but she too succumbed to the spell, just then a lone figure walked through the guild hall, approaching the board, Makarov who was still awake spoke his name
"Mystogan," he said tiredly, as he approached the board the guild doors opened again, this time both Master and Mystogan looked towards the door, stood at the door was Natsu
"Huh I didn't know it was a sleepover, otherwise I would have brought my sleeping bag,"
X-x-x-x-x