Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, crossover characters, etc.
Note: To those of you who may be wondering, Raven is from the Teen Titans cartoon, as opposed to the Teen Titans comic series. Thanks for asking, Altairis vogue! I'd forgotten that they have the same name so I didn't think to clarify.
Enjoy!
Lucy stared at her roommate in shock.
Living with Jellal was strange. He always seemed to be walking on eggshells around her, despite Lucy's assurances that he hadn't done anything wrong and he'd been forgiven for any wrongdoing he had done while possessed.
He tried to do all of the chores, and sometimes paid Lucy's share of the bills before she could do so, though when that happened she got him back by doing the same thing.
When she asked him about it, frustrated, he told her that he could never repay her for getting him out of prison, where the guards had reveled in tormenting him.
At that, Lucy had deflated, before telling him that there was nothing to repay. Jellal didn't owe her anything, it was her own morals that insisted on getting him out of that situation.
Jellal looked awkward as he waited for a response to his offer.
"Um…Lucy?" he tried.
"Y-you want to teach me more magic?" Lucy asked, snapping out of it and turning thoughtful.
She did want to get stronger, after all.
Jellal nodded an affirmative.
Lucy was silent for a moment. "If you do, then any debt that you think you owe me is fully repaid."
Jellal grimaced slightly, before nodding again.
"What did you have in mind?" Lucy asked with a smile, glad that he had agreed to her terms.
"Well, you mentioned that Mirajane didn't have much luck teaching you Transformation Magic because you use Holder magic…" Jellal began. "So I thought that I could start with teaching you some Heavenly Body magic. It's similar enough in nature to Celestial Spirit magic that it should come fairly easy to you despite it being a Caster magic."
He noticed Lucy's eyes brightening in interest.
"That's not all I could teach you, though." He said, gaining confidence as she seemed to like his idea. "I could teach you Thought Projections, Telepathy, Telekinesis. Bind Snake, which restrains people. Maybe some Fire, Earth, Wind, and Water magic. If I teach you those four you could use Abyss Break…Darkness magic I wouldn't be able to teach you, though. I can only use it because of my former possessed state."
Lucy's eyes were wide.
She'd known that Jellal was extremely powerful, but that was a lot of magic that he was capable of using.
"I like the idea of Thought Projections most…" Lucy said quietly. "After Heavenly Body, can we start with that and then decide from there?"
Jellal grinned at her for the first time.
"You want to be able to trick people with Gemini and clones, don't you?" he asked in amusement.
Lucy tilted her head innocently, swirling her hair around her finger. "Now Jellal, why would you say that?"
Despite the act, her eyes were mischievous.
The blunette threw his head back and laughed.
Jellal's theory that Heavenly Body magic was a good choice for Lucy was right, but it still took about six months for her magic to adjust enough that it didn't put a strain on her body and magic when she used it.
He only taught her a few spells, like Meteor and Grand Chariot, but she was more than happy with that.
She didn't want to neglect her spirits, after all.
After another two months, Lucy could hold two thought projection clones at a time, and when she focused enough she could even let them use her magic, something that she had been determined to do since she had discovered that 'Segrain', Jellal's main clone from way back when, had been able to use magic.
She was hesitant to learn any Elemental Magic, remembering Natsu, Wendy, Gajeel, Laxus, Juvia, and Gray, so she decided to pass on that one.
Jellal seemed to understand her decision, and instead suggested that they spar, with him using only those types of magic, so that she could still get used to defending herself against them, to which she happily agreed.
During her training with Jellal, Lucy still had to go on missions so that they would have food at the house.
On one such mission, she came across a man who trapped her using Freed's magic: Jutsu Shiki.
Needless to say, the frustration and helplessness she felt in that battle had made her determined that she wouldn't be caught like that again.
And so she taught herself how to rewrite and dispel various rune traps. She wasn't anywhere close to Levy or especially Freed's level, but she could free herself in a pinch. If she had enough time, she could even write her own trap, though it could be dispelled by anyone with even a bit of knowledge of ciphers and codes.
Lucy smiled fondly as she glanced at Jellal out of the corner of her eye.
Ever since he had begun to pay off his (nonexistent!) debt, he had relaxed quite a bit, which she rather appreciated.
Now that she was getting to know the person beneath the self-loathing and guilty-conscious, she found that she really liked him as a person.
He was serious, but had a sense of humor. He had also shown himself to be slightly overprotective of her, as he had shown when some drunk jerk began flirting with her as she was walking home. She hadn't been anywhere near the man, but Jellal had sent a glare so chilling that the man paled dramatically and ran (more like stumbled while tripping a lot) away.
She was beginning to look at him the same way she looked at Gray.
As an older brother.
(Hopefully she would one day have Erza as a sister-in-law.)
Macao glanced at Lucy thoughtfully as he (yet again, did it ever end?) went through recent paperwork.
The Celestial Spirit mage had been going on a lot of solo missions, which made sense as the rest of her team was on Tenrou. At first she had taken easy ones, but that quickly changed as she became determined to become stronger.
Her clients had all given her glowing praises, appreciating her efficiency and how quickly she managed to get the job done. Sometimes she went further than the job required, which pleased the clients, even more so when she didn't ask for a higher reward, though some gifted her with books (or on one occasion, a silver key.)
What Macao didn't realize was that it was Natsu who inspired her to do that. With their first mission at Duke Everloo's, with Lucy realizing that actually completing their mission wouldn't be a good thing, and Natsu refusing payment because they technically didn't do the job, he taught her a valuable lesson.
The mage watched curiously as Lucy left the building with Jellal.
He had been rather impressed when he heard that Jellal was training Lucy, which not only gave the girl more confidence, but left her better equipped for her jobs. Of course, she didn't neglect to practice with her Celestial Spirit magic, either.
She had grown a lot since joining Fairy Tail.
Please review!
Requip will come later on. And new silver keys will be coming up. ;) You guys might be amused if you're familiar with the crossover characters that I'm going to have as two of the Celestial Spirits. They're not in the original story, either.
ATTENTION: I've decided that midnight is a good time to post a new chapter, since I've decided that I like waking up to reviews and not having to wait while conscious, constantly checking my e-mail because I'm just like that. That being said, it probably won't be unusual for me to post TWICE in one day. I'm only warning you guys because unless you're getting alerts for this story, if you only go by when the story has been updated you won't be able to tell unless you go back and check.
I'm on Mountain Time, so there's the midnight update and there will be the occasional 5 PM update. For example, I'll probably post another chapter at 5, and then another at midnight.
