Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or anything relating to my crossover characters.
Enjoy!
Mirajane hummed happily to herself as she got the bar ready for the day ahead. After Tenrou, it was nice to be doing something so normal again.
She glanced up as Lucy entered the hall, smiling cheerfully. "Well good morning, Lucy!"
"Good morning, Mira." Lucy returned with a dazzling smile, walking up to the bar and sitting down on one of the stools. "Elfman and Lisanna still asleep?"
"Yes." Mirajane answered with a giggle. "Elfman usually gets up early to work out, but the boys decided to challenge Cana to a drinking contest…"
"Ah. Say no more." The blonde shook her head ruefully. "You would think it would have sunk in that they aren't ever going to be able to outdrink her."
"Oh well, it makes it fun for the rest of us." Mirajane said with a devious glint in her eyes.
Lucy shuddered suddenly. Drinking meant losing your inhibitions and/or getting into embarrassing situations…which meant plenty of blackmail material for those sober enough to either remember or—heaven forbid, document it.
And the She-Demon, feared throughout the guild as being a master manipulator and plain terrifying, was not someone you wanted to have any leverage over you.
"So Lucy, any interesting tidbits I should be made aware of?" Mirajane asked with a wink. "Such as…oh, a man, perhaps?"
Lucy's eyes widened, before the blonde coughed awkwardly and hopped off the stool, making excuses as she ran away from her friend.
Mirajane had to bite her lip to stop herself from laughing.
Oh well. She could get her information elsewhere.
Gray looked at Lucy curiously when he noticed that the blonde mage was walking down from the very top level of the building.
"When did she become S-Class?" Gray wondered quietly, knowing that the top floor of the 'new' guild hall was reserved for the elite mages.
"Eh?!" Natsu practically shouted. "Who?"
"The year after you all disappeared." Jellal answered, hearing Gray's question and following his gaze to see who he was talking about. "She worked very, very hard to get where she is."
Natsu finally saw Lucy, and blinked slowly.
He was slightly put out, to be honest. She hadn't even been a candidate last time, yet she still managed to pass the exam. And she hadn't even been in the guild two years at that point, while he had been in Fairy Tail since he was seven!
Erza calmly hit the Fire Dragon Slayer upside the head, guessing at his thoughts when he pouted. "Natsu. She more than deserved it, I'm sure. I'm quite proud of her."
Lucy was close enough to hear Erza's comment, and blinked in confusion. "What's up you guys?"
"Not much, Lu." Gray said with a smirk. "Just processing the fact that you got S-Class before Fire Crotch and I did."
Natsu growled at the insult, but refrained from attacking when Lucy laughed.
"Congratulations, Lucy." Erza said, beaming happily. "I knew you had it in you."
"Thank you, Erza." Lucy said warmly as the others offered up their own congratulations, though Natsu was still pouting slightly. "Oh, don't worry, Natsu. There will be plenty of action in the next few months."
"What do you mean, love rival?" Juvia asked, causing the others to jump as they hadn't noticed that she had appeared behind Gray.
The Ice Make mage himself looked slightly creeped out, but less than usual, Lucy noticed.
Still, the love rival thing had gotten old years ago. Gray was like her (now younger) brother. Oh well.
"Well, we've added a few more guild events to the roster…" Jellal mused.
"Including exhibition matches, where we can test our strength against each other, and even mages from other guilds." Lucy added. "Three matches every four months. We rent out a venue, sell tickets, take bets, etcetera."
"Really?" Erza's eyes glinted as she smiled dangerously, causing Natsu and Gray to back away nervously. "Three matches? One on one?"
Lucy nodded in agreement. "Yeah. One of the battles is set, but the other two aren't. Talk to Macao if you want to sign up."
With that, the redhead sped off.
Jellal shook his head fondly. "I wonder who she'll be up against."
Natsu's eyes lit up. "Oh! We should mention it to Mira! They haven't had a battle in forever!"
Gray was more hesitant. "Yeah, but remember the last time they did?"
Jellal and Lucy blinked at the two teens, who shuddered in unison, before deciding that they didn't want to know.
Later that day, Lucy was slightly underwhelmed when Natsu challenged her for the match.
What, now that she was S-Class, he wanted to test himself against her? Was she not good enough until now?
No, that was slightly unfair, wasn't it?
The pinkette had actually tried fighting with her before, but when she was younger she was too scared of getting hurt, too fearful of being considered weak, too…
But that was before.
She had grown up quite a bit since then.
As such, she nodded towards Macao, who officially marked them down.
Now it was time to begin strategizing…
Laxus couldn't help but overhear.
So the blondie had accepted Natsu's challenge, huh?
Well, he was curious to see the outcome of that battle.
He had always noticed the blonde girl, acknowledging her looks but otherwise disregarding her as a weakling. God, he had been an ass before his exile.
It was only later, during the Battle of Fairy Tail, that he got his first inkling that he had been wrong about her. Her blonde hair by no means influenced her intellect (though he would hope not, considering his own blonde hair), and she had even beaten Bickslow in a fight.
Believe it or not, that was quite a feat.
Unfortunately, he hadn't really had time for that realization to sink in before he was sent off, but through letters with the Thunder Legion he did manage to find out some more about the enigmatic blonde.
Freed and Bickslow had gone on and on about how the girl had saved 'Loke', being more aware than most of how Celestial Spirit magic worked. Bickslow had been impressed by her bond with the spirits, but Freed was more interested in her skill.
Laxus had never thought about it before, but opening a portal between Earthland and the Celestial Spirit world required quite a bit of energy just to summon the spirits, much less to keep the gate open and to power their attacks. Silver keys took a decent amount of magic, but the gold ones took much more.
And the (then) seventeen year old had been summoning the Zodiac spirits one right after another, using their most powerful attacks, fought beside the Lion spirit with her whip, and still took out one of Laxus' lightning lacrima.
There were other stories that had been conveyed to him through mail, some of which his team had found out about much later, since they had only just begun socializing with the rest of the guild.
Back on topic.
Lucy Heartfilia.
Laxus would be the first to admit that he'd been a callous jerk when he'd made that comment back when Phantom Lord was attacking. Freed's subtle disapproval after he hung up on Mirajane had made that clear.
But regardless of that, the blonde didn't seem to hold it against him in the slightest.
Her smile when she saw him was just as wide as those for her other friends, except her old team. She even managed to talk Macao into allowing him back into the guild, which the older man had done with little to no hesitation.
He seemed to trust her completely. Had she taken on the role of advisor during the time they had been gone? What about Wakaba?
The Lightning Dragon Slayer tuned out the Thunder Legion, who were still celebrating his re-entry into the guild.
"Wait a minute." Gray said, freezing in place. "You said one of the matches was already set up, right? So who's fighting?"
"Jura Neekis from Lamia Scale against one of our new members, or at least new to you." Lucy answered. "Toph, one of our S-Class mages. She uses Earth, too, so it's going to be an interesting battle."
"Just how good is she?" Erza wondered. "From what I remember, Jura is a very strong and capable mage."
"Well, Jura is one of the Wizard Saints now, and he admitted that he wasn't sure which of them was going to win." Jellal answered. "Toph's power over Earth is more ingrained and instinctual than his own. She moves a limb and the Earth moves with it. She doesn't use magic circles, call out her attacks, or anything like that."
Juvia perked up in interest, as did the rest of them who didn't already know the Earth user.
"But the most interesting part of her fighting style is what most would automatically assume is her greatest weakness." Jellal continued.
"What?" Natsu asked eagerly.
"She's completely blind."
Natsu suddenly stiffened, and he suppressed a low growl.
A moment later, they could see why.
A certain dark-skinned man with a long white coat had just wandered in.
"Erik!" Kinana exclaimed, beaming as she hugged her fiancé, who hugged her back even though he was glancing at the 'newcomers' warily.
"Cobra?!" Happy shouted.
"Yeah, we managed to arrange for his release, too." Ultear murmured.
"But…why?" Erza asked, confused.
"Well, he was getting desperate trying to find out where Cubellios was." Kinana spoke up, smiling fondly. "And his desperation was so real and intense that the magic council did an investigation, because he was going crazy with worry."
"His purple snake?" Happy asked, tilting his head.
"Yes." Laki said. "Anyway, as it turned out, his snake was a human, and had been transformed into a snake by a dark mage before Erik found her."
"Ah, yes." Makarov muttered, suddenly appearing. "I was the one to realize it and change her back. I was unaware of that detail, of course."
"And now he is happily engaged to our resident Serpent Take Over mage." Laki cheered, happy for her best friend.
Kinana giggled in agreement, showing the others the platinum engagement ring with a rather beautiful amethyst stone and snake-like vines making up the band. "He was visiting Richard (formerly known as Hoteye.)"
"Wait, I missed something." Natsu said.
"Idiot." Gray scoffed. "Kinana was Cubellios."
Kinana nodded in agreement, before she transformed into her most used snake form, a large dark purple one with wings and a white underbelly.
"Woah." Levy summed up the others' thoughts.
"I know, right? Though, I had amnesia for a long time, so I didn't remember my time with the Oracion Seis when I first joined Fairy Tail." Kinana grinned after she transformed back.
Those who had been part of the Allied Forced against the dark guild (except Lucy) just blinked at the pair.
Please review!
I figured I'd have the other crossover characters come in later instead of mentioning them all to the Tenrou group immediately. The series kind of set a precedent of not mentioning a character until they appear (or right before) anyway.
