Disclaimer; Fairy Tail and all it's characters belong solely to Hiro Mashima!
A/N This chapter has been edited due to spelling, grammar and any other mistakes to improve this story for all of you readers and fans!
Fairy Hills *Lucy's p.o.v *
Finally the devil child was asleep! Well that was not really fair to Asuka. She really was very good with me, apart from at mealtimes and bedtimes. It's my own fault about her being unusually hyper tonight, what child wouldn't be hyped up about having a sleepover. Still it didn't mean she could act like a spoiled brat over the fact she had to go to bed! Gahh, I sighed in frustration as I headed back to where the girls were staying in Juvia's room, we were using Bisca's old room for Asuka-chan tonight seeing as it was just opposite Juvia's, so if she needed me, I was close at hand but we could also have our own time without her being disturbed.
I was actually really glad that Lisanna had invited me, I had to admit I was slowly starting to go insane looking after Asuka all by myself,( how do single parents do this?) I was constantly exhausted, had no time to myself and was always having to keep an eye on the child and her constant mischief causing ways. Although, in a way I really enjoyed having the little girl around. I was never bored and it was good practice for the future too, I guess, in case I ever became a mum. Not much chance of that happening in the near future, seeing as I can't seem to get the boy I liked to notice me for love nor money! So marriage and children were still a very long way away in my eyes.
As I reached Juvia's door I took a deep breath and shook off my somewhat depressed mood before reentering the sleepover fray. Levy was the first to notice my entrance, looking over from where she was setting up the projection lacrima for our more adult based movies now that we had finished watching Asuka's pony movie.
"Did she go down okay? You've been gone an hour," Levy asked, probably taking in how tired I looked.
"Yeah finally, she really is a madam about bedtimes though, but this has by far been the worst night yet." I sighed slumping into a bean bag, that Virgo had set up for us, and grabbed a coke from the table the caffeine might help keep me awake for a little while longer.
"Juvia doesn't think its fair on you to have to look after Asuka all the time while her parents are away,Lucy.-san" Juvia mumbled through a mouth full of popcorn, looking at me with concern in her eyes.
"I don't mind really, it's normally only for a few days or at the most 2 weeks. This time it's only been longer because of some complications to their mission." I replied in defense of Al and Bisca, even though I was rejoicing at the fact that they would be home soon, hopefully.
Lisanna at this point walked back into the room her arms stuffed with more figure ruining goodness. Yes I really needed the sugar!
"Still Lucy it's not right, they always land Asuka with you and never ask anyone else to look after her anymore," Lisanna interjected, walking over to the coffee table to set down the snacks, before plopping down into her own beanbag and looking over to me.
"Well, do you remember the time they left Asuka with Erza for that one mission just after we all returned?" I grimaced at the memory, it was somewhat of a taboo subject these days. The other girls returned my horrified expression with ones of their own.
"God! Don't go there Lu-chan that poor girl," Levy shuddered, picking up a bag of sugar coated strawberry sweets. Then for some reason we all burst out laughing and started telling each other about other, horrifying stories about other members, who had tried and failed to look after Asuka. We finally agreed after a long discussion that I really was the only one capable of handling her over a long period of time.
"Hey Lucy, I meant to ask you earlier but why was Loki playing in the pool with you?" Lisanna asked munching on popcorn. The conversation having changed from Asuka horror stories to what everyone had been up to today.
"Yeah I was wondering that too," Levy stated.
"Normally you just handle her alone, well as alone as you can with Natsu always gate crashing Juvia supposes." Juvia finished. I gave them a warm smile, they were all so concerned for me. I really couldn't ask for a better family. No point hiding this from them. I took a deep breath and decided to tell them the truth, after all if you can't count on your family when you're down, who can you turn to?
"Natsu left yesterday morning on a 200,000 jewel job request, kindly saying he'd bring me half for rent and living costs, on his way back, which was super thoughtful of him! Anyway I was managing like I normally do until around lunch time yesterday, Asuka started to get more and more unruly. Then today took the cake, Asuka had the biggest tantrum I'd ever seen her throw so far, over something really small, me not letting her have an ice cream or something because I was busy sorting lunch." I sighed. I felt really bad admitting this to anyone, but I had to get it off my chest.
"I lost my cool with her and wanted to walk away, but I couldn't because that would have left her all alone. She just kept going on and on, but just when I thought I couldn't take another second, Loki appeared out of nowhere like he usually does, saying he'd take her to the guild, get her some lunch and I could follow later after I'd calmed down," I lowered my head in shame at admitting this, I felt like I'd failed in my mission to look after Asuka.
"So that's why." Levy said coming over and giving me a huge hug. "No need to be ashamed Lu-chan you've been looking after her so well and everyone needs a break, even mothers. But if you were struggling so much why didn't you come to us?"
"I'm so sorry," I whispered returning the hug with tears in my eyes as I felt two other sets of arms encircle me. "I just felt that if I asked for help...well that I'd be admitting defeat, I mean I've only been looking after a child for a month and most mothers look after their children day in day out. I'm a failure!"
"Juvia thinks that Love rival is being too hard on herself," Juvia reassured me , her arms tightening around me in a bid to give comfort.
"I agree with Juvia, well on everything apart from the love rival thing," Lisanna chuckled, lightening the mood a little.
"Hey I know, how about until Bisca gets back, you and Asuka stay here and we all look after her?" Levy suggested as she and the others withdrew from the embrace.
"Would that really be okay with you guys?" I inquired, fresh tears starting to form in my eyes. " I don't want to be a bother."
"Of course," All three yelled in unison.
"I wouldn't have suggested it, if it would be inconvenient now would I?" Levy winked at me and Juvia nodded her agreement. This caused me to laugh.
"I guess that's true." I smiled, starting to feel more like my bright bubbly self again.
"Now to sort the details out," Lisanna said, a serious look on her face.
After a few more minutes of sorting out the details for our new arrangement, we settled in to watch out movie, 10 things I hate about you, which turned out to be a unanimous favourite of all of ours. I smiled warmly feeling more at ease than I had in the last few weeks and let myself relax, get lost in the movie and enjoy the girl time and chat over the movie.
*Lisanna's p.o.v* after the movie
So tonight hadn't gone exactly to plan, but oh well. I'd meant to start a discussion about boys when Lucy had returned from putting Asuka to bed, but it transpired that our loveable blonde friend had needed some serious girl support and it had driven me even more into the mind frame of having a good talk to Al and Bisca about their parenting. This couldn't continue poor Lucy and Asuka needed them around for a while, Lucy isn't Asuka's mum, Bisca is and as such maybe she should be staying at home to look after her, while Al works! Or Alzack can stay home while Bisca's out on a job! Either way it beat them dumping the poor child on Lucy, almost every other week. I could almost also bet the reason why Asuka had been playing up so much lately was because she just wanted any and all attention to reassure her that she hadn't been abandoned. I was going to talk to master about it as well, in the morning and bring it to his attention so it could be sorted out! Otherwise my matchmaking plans were going to go down the drain as Lucy would be too drained to go on any possible dates! But as well little Asuka needed her parents around more too.
I listened as Lucy, Juvia and Levy started a debated about the movie we'd just seen, weird romances and broken hearts. This was opening up the floor for me to set in motion my earlier idea about adding a Zodiac couple to my resume of romantic set ups.
"Isn't Aries kind of like that with Loki?" I asked, as the subject of Juvia's unrequited love for Gray arose.
"Now that you mention it yeah, she seems to be in love with him but he's always chasing me and every other piece of skirt he sees and doesn't really see her," Lucy muttered furiously.
"Yeah but unlike Juvia, Aries doesn't stalk her want to be boyfriend and drown any girl that goes near him," Levy teased waggling her eyebrows at the other bluenette in the room. Lucy and I laughed at this, poor Juvia really did need to cool it with the stalking.
"Juvia does not know of any other way to show her affection for Gray-sama," Juvia whispered in reply to our teasing, fidgeting around with an empty packet of crisps. I thought I was the only one to hear her but I'd have to deal with her rather, scary way of showing affection, in a little bit.
"I know, why don't you call her out and we'll have a talk about how to get things moving with Loki?" I suggested, looking at Lucy.
"Yeah that would be great, then maybe he will stop being such a playboy," Lucy's face coming alive with a positively smug grin. Who knew the blonde even had an expression like that. Lucy stood up and walked over towards Juvia's bed so that there was some room to summon Aries.
"Open gate of the ram, Aries." Lucy called and then in a flash of light and a slight puff of pink wool, there stood the pink haired spirit shifting nervously, as if expecting to be hurt. Although from what I'd gathered from my many conversations with Lucy, not to long ago the poor spirit was somewhat damaged after what had transpired with her former summoners.
"I'm sorry, is something wrong?" Aries asked timidly, pulling her hand up to her mouth.
"No, no nothing's wrong. We just wanted to talk to you and hopefully become better acquainted," I beamed at the still nervous looking woman. To this Aries looks around blinking with confusion, hadn't she ever had anyone want to be her friend before?
" Lisanna's right and what better way to become friends that when you're having a sleepover," Levy smiled trying to put the horned girl at ease with us.
"Juvia agrees,"Juvia chipped in nodding her head slightly.
"Is this really alright princess?" Aries mumbled turning to Lucy to check if she was allowed to socialize.
"Of course it is Aries you're a friend and you deserve to get to know us better," Lucy mega whatted the poor thing and dragged her over to sit on a bean bag. "We also plan on helping you snag Loki, as our first order of becoming closer nakama, duty." She chuckled darkly.
"W..Wh..what?" Aries stuttered, blushing profusely at the last part of her statement.
"Spill, tell us all about him," I urged focusing solely on Aries. May as well make her feel like part of the group straight off the bat!
"Yeah we know you like him, Lu-chan told us all about it." Levy giggled handing the spirit some candy. Which she took and started nibbling on.
"Princess!" Aries squealed looking like a fish out of water, How had that Lion not noticed just how amazingly cute this woman was? Were men really so dense as not to see what was right in front of them? What am I saying? If they weren't so dense, my demonic plans wouldn't be needed. I shook my head to try and focus back on the problem at hand, Aries and helping her get Leo.
"Don't princess me Aries, this is for your own good, it must kill you a little inside every time you see that playboy flirting with other girls, myself included." Lucy tutted at Aries, wagging her finger at the pinkette, followed by a playful wink when she saw how shell shocked the girl seemed.
"T-that is true," Aries confirmed the truth of Lucy's statement while looking at her lap as she played with her dress hem. "I'm sorry."
"Why are you sorry Aries?" Lucy tilted her head to the side in confusion, concern laced in her voice as she moved to position herself in front of Aries, taking a hold of the spirits hands.
"Because I get jealous of you when Leo flirts, and declares his love for you. I'm jealous of how much he talks about you in the spirit world," The ram sniffled as she started to cry while explaining herself to Lucy. "I shouldn't be jealous, you are a wonderful person who cares for all of us spirits with every drop of your soul. You even stood up to the spirit king to save my precious Leo, rescued and took me in, plus you treat me as a human being and not just a tool. Your the first person who's held my key to do that."
Now the poor thing was full on crying as she looked up to see her owner smiling at her warmly. This just seemed to increase the tears and amount of 'I'm sorry's' coming from the pink haired woman.
"Aries look at me," Lucy said firmly yet kindly, just like when she'd handled Asuka earlier. "It's okay to be jealous, I don't care one bit, you never let it get in the way of us being friends. You've been a wonderful ally to me and everyone in fairy tail over our time together, which is why everyone here agrees with me, that we will help you get together with Loki." Lucy finished pulling Aries in for a hug as the ram continued to cry her eyes out.
"Juvia agrees with love rival. Aries shouldn't be upset over being jealous, it's only natural, when you see the person you love flirting with someone else," Juvia agreed with watery eyes over Aries story. Well she is the expert on jealousy.
"I'd have beaten Gajeel to death by now if he pulled the sort of crap Loki does," Levy murmured beside me, thinking no one could hear. I did't think anybody but me heard her either...hmmm looks like Bixlow was right about those two. The problem with getting Gajeel and Levy together is more on Gajeel's side of things than Levy's. Speaking of Bixlow I wonder how his side of our plans are going? Don't worry about that right now Lisanna, focus girl, Aries and Leo. That's the pair to concentrate on right now!
"Lucy, how long can you summon two spirits for these days?" I asked, feeling a familiar smirk crawl onto my face.
"Almost the entire day if they aren't using any of my magic to fight," She replied looking at me quizzically to see where I was heading with this line of inquiry.
"That's good to know," I muttered, tilting my head backwards to look up at the ceiling, as I drew up a plan of action in my mind.
"I'm sorry, but what does that have to do with helping me become Leo's lamb?" Aries questioned me politely.
"Oh no reason, just thinking that you can have a date in the human world for the day," I mused out loud, pulling my head back down to face everyone.
"Juvia thinks there's only one problem with that plan, how would you get Loki to resist flirting with every woman he will be likely to encounter, while they are on their date." Juvia stated, ever the pessimist it seems but she had a very valid point.
"Simple Lu-chan orders him to spend the day with Aries and not to look at any other woman he may encounter throughout the day," Levy interjected. Yes thank you Levy! I liked this solution.
"But...but that's not fair on Leo-kun forcing him to spend time with me," Aries whimpered.
"No it has to be done, I don't like to order you guys like a master would a servant, but I think in this case it has to be done. For the good of your sanity Aries, if not for anything else," Lucy patted her hand a firm tone to her voice.
"Well that settles that," I confirmed getting up to put our beds into order. Levy followed to help me out. Lucy and Juvia looked at us as they noticed what we are doing.
"It's almost midnight you guys," Levy huffed at their blank and quizzical expressions.
"Crap!" Lucy cried out in alarm. "Asuka will be awake at 6 if not earlier."
"No worries Lu-chan, I'll take the early shift with Asuka so you can get some rest, cause I gotta admit you look wrecked." Levy smiled, looking over at her best friend with a warm smile. To which Lucy rushed over and glomped the girl to the floor, extracting giggles from everyone in the room, including Aries.
"I'll be off then," Aries mumbled looking at Lucy. "Don't worry I won't drop any hint to Leo about what you're planning. Thank you guys ever so much for helping me" She smiled before disappearing off in a cloud of pink smoke. Leaving the rest of us to get ready before climbing into bed and getting ourselves comfy.
"One last thing before we go to sleep," I piped up, remembering a thought I'd had earlier.
"What?" The girls replied rolling onto their sides to face me.
"Juvia about your Gray obsession." I started off.
Back at the guild *Bixlow's p.o.v*
This was freaking hilarious, Natsu was on shot 8 and was already starting to struggle, Gray had managed 9 so far as had Gajeel, who was desperately trying to get ahead of the others. Cana on the other hand had downed all 20 of hers and only looked slightly tipsy. See what I meant about her being an alcohol consuming monster! Natsu managed to down his 9th shot, as Gray banged his 10th glass back onto the table, swaying a little where he sat. Gajeel was in the same boat as Gray.
I was so glad to be witnessing this first hand, catching it on video was an added bonus. Lisanna was gonna piss herself in the morning at how funny this turned out to be! But so far no comments had been made about any of the 3 girls we were trying to pair with these guys, just the classic trash talk...hmm with the state they're in now maybe I should start the ball rolling. But which girl should I mention to get the ball rolling? Levy isn't really my type, I also didn't want to get an iron club to the jaw for bringing her up. Juvia was hot but not my cuppa tea and most likely would cause Gray to shut down completely even in his drunken state. So that left Lucy, who really was a stunner plus with me being known as a perv that seemed like the best combination I could think of to start the topic of girls on fire...but who to direct the question at? Hmm Natsu maybe as he's her team mate? or Gray who was also her teammate? Gajeel was out of the question so that only left one logical person. Cana! She was one of the cheerleaders best friends so the question I planned to ask wouldn't seem to out of place if I asked her. Yes that decides it Cana would be my way forward!
"Hey drunkard," I raised my voice so she could hear me over the sounds of the groaning Natsu who was finally on his 13th shot while the other two were fighting with number 15...seriously what did the drunk put in those glasses?
"What Bix *hick* low?" Cana replied somewhat groggily. Maybe she was a little past tipsy after all. That shouldn't surprise me she had been drinking since noon.
"You'd know if cheerleader was single or not right?" I asked keeping an eye on the Pyro to see his reaction, he seemed to stiffen a little as he overheard us.
"Hahahah does Lucy have a boyfriend?," Cana burst out laughing. "Natsu do you know?"
"Who'd want to date her anyway," Natsu huffed gulping down shot number 14. "She's weird."
"Have you not seen bunny girls figure dumbass?" Gajeel slurring roared, glaring at the pink haired idiot. I had to agree with Gajeel there the blonde in question, had one hell of an amazing body. "Any guy with half a brain would want to bang her!" He laughed finally finishing his 18th shot. Wow that was fast, how did he manage to get that far ahead?
"Do you?" Cana said slyly looking over at the iron dragon who had his head resting on the table, he wasn't looking so good, or like he could finish the remaining shots. He was totally playing a penalty game tomorrow if he couldn't drink anymore, I smirked internally.
"Hell nah, bunny girls got a great figure and all, but I like my bookworm just fine," Gajeel muttered closing his eyes. Interesting bit of info there.
"Gray?" I turned to the stripper, seeing as the ice brain idiot had stayed oddly quiet. Ohh there went his 19th shot...and his clothes for that matter.
"Hmmm," He slurred toppling over onto the floor. Another one for the penalty game. "Yeah I totally wanted to when she joined the guild, was why I even agreed to work fulltime with Flame brain over here in the first place," he slurred trying to get back up to the table, but failed miserably.
"Hahah," Cana cackled slapping her hands on her thighs as she watched Gray flailing. "Do you still want to?
"Nah, she's like a sister to me these day, besides she's too in love with Soot-brains to notice anyone els..." He hiccuped before passing out on the floor before he could finish his sentence. Well that was interesting news but no words about Juvia...
"Huh?" Cana and Natsu blurted out.
"Well it's pretty obvious ya know!" Gajeel said taking over for Gray. "A girl like the bunny would have no problem getting a *hick* guy if she wanted...but all she ever does is look after Salamander and go on jobs with him..." He trailed off at this point, also passing out.
"You have a point there I guess Gajeel," I thought it over, looking at the unconscious guy. Natsu looked shell shocked at finding out the cheerleader may be in love with him, before proceeding to down his last shots and pass out himself...and now he wouldn't even remember anything about this in the morning, jeez seriously these guys!...Well I guess actually it's my fault for setting the number of shots so high.
"Poor Lucy falling *hick* for Natsu, she'll be a virgin for ever at this rate." Cana sighed looking at the pink haired mage with a unidentifiable look in her eyes.
Yeah and poor Lisanna, it looks like she'll have a harder time than expected getting some of these guys together. I doubt she'll be able to have them all paired up by the end of the month, like she's originally planned. I switched off the recording lacrima, as it's job was over now, and put it away for safekeeping, knowing full well that the devilish take over mage would want to watch it tomorrow and decide where to take her plans from there, but seeing as my job was over now. I could have some fun for a while, finally.
"Hey Cana, think you can beat me?" I laughed maniacally, watching the brunette start to pour more of her concoction into the shot glasses and hand it over.
"Of course," She smiled wickedly at me.