"Ah!" Lucy said stretching as she pulled the covers off her and planted her feet on the ground. She got up and went to the window pulling the curtains and letting the sunlight in on her apartment. "Another beautiful day." It was still too early to work, but too late to go back to bed.
She headed towards the bathroom in a sleepy haze to start her day slowly and then start making a plan to get those two idiots to train. Before she could reach she tripped over something and fell on the floor. 'What the-? Since when do I have furniture here?' She tried to blink the sleep out of her eyes and look at what caused her to fall face first on the wood floor. After she managed she looked behind, and wished that she could be more surprised upon her discoveries.
She got up, stomping her foot on the floor making the entire living space shake. "What are you guys doing here so early in the morning!" She asked at the two bodies that were littering the floor. "Wake up!" She nudged both of them with her foot trying to get them awake. Gray and Natsu hesitantly did so and started opening their eyes. Gray got up on his elbows and found a comfortable position to look at Lucy while Natsu after seeing what the commotion was about, mumbled something and let his face drop on the floor again, not taking too long to start snoring again.
"Morning."
"Don't you 'morning' me! What are you guys doing here so early?"
"Ah, that." He said rubbing his eyes to be able to see the girl in front of him straight. "I didn't know if I should sleep in my apartment or his, so I came to yours since it was the safest. I don't know about the idiot here." He finished tilting his head towards Natsu.
"The safest?" The girl asked quirking a brow.
"Yeah. Because I'm not sure if under the master's conditions I am allowed to sleep in my apartment, and I don't know if I can trust Natsu's…"
Lucy sighed. It was too damn early to be dealing with this crap. "Ok. Fine. I'm not going to get angry so early in the morning. Get your ass dressed and meet me at guild in an hour. The same goes to you!" She said kicking Natsu again.
"Wha-?"
"Just get out of my apartment!" she screeched making the two boys leave at once.
-/-
"Lucy! I'm tired!"
"Stop complaining Natsu!"
"I don't want to do this!"
"But you'll do it!" Lucy scolded getting a bit tired of this. "After yesterday's mission I realized that the two of you must practice your powers! We took way longer than what we should have and if the enemy was another the two of you would have ended up killed!"
"But Lucy! It's too early for this!" Natsu kept whining as he sat on the floor, while Gray rested on a tree with his arms crossed snoozing off and Lucy looked at him scolding and putting her bag down with Happy flying around her.
"Whose fault was that I had to leave my apartment at eight in the morning?" Natsu looked down and started pouting. "Gray already explained his motives, but why were you there?"
"I felt like it."
The blonde's delicate eyebrow twitched but she chose to ignore the subject. "Okay, we'll start training. Natsu, since you already know… the basics of Ice Make magic, today you are going to explain to Gray how to use dragon slayer magic, understood?"
"Why should I?"
"Because me and Master told you so." She said a threatening look coming over her face and the poor scared mage could simply nod. "Happy, when did you get here? Never mind, you are going to stay next to me and help them when I tell you to. Gray! Wake up!"
"I'm up, I'm up!" he said removing himself from the tree only to slump against it again as soon as the blond walked away from him.
When she was finally able to get Natsu off the ground and Gray away from that damned tree she decided that the practice session was officially started.
"Hmm, Lucy, I don't think that my body had any fire since the switch… How is he supposed to use the Dragon Slayer magic?"
"Not to worry! He will have in no time." She started rummaging through her bag and taking out a lighter and a torch "I knew this would happen so I had it covered. Open up Gray!" She lighted the torch and held it up to the now pink haired mage.
"What! There's no way I'm going to eat fire! That's physically impossible for a human!" he edged away from the blonde to avoid the fire.
"I do it don't I?"
"You're not a human. You are a monster!" he snapped back turning to look at the other teen.
"What! I dare you to say that again you bastard!"
"Gladly. You are-"
"That's it!" Natsu cut the other boy and jumped him starting yet another fist fight with him. As both wrestled on the dirty floor, Lucy sighed knowing that even with the switch some things would never change. After allowing them to vent up a bit of their anger towards each other she finally interrupted both of them with a hit on the head.
"That is enough." She said as the two boys rubbed the spot where they had been hit. "Now Gray you will eat the fire with no complaint or whining and you Natsu are going to teach him dragon slayer magic after that. Understood?" The two boys were about to protest again before she interrupted them. "And you won't protest or I'll call Master."
The boys nodded and Lucy handed the torch to the ice mage. Gray, after spending a few minutes staring at it, and hearing some impatient protests from his guild mates, finally ate it and made a face of pure disgust. "This stuff tastes horrible! How can you even consider eating it?"
"What do you mean with that? It tastes great!"
"It doesn't! It tastes like… like… I don't even know how to describe it!"
"That's just to show you how good it is!"
"No it isn't!"
"Before the two of you start another argument over some petty little subject like that, let's start training. After Gray learns the basics, you can argue all you want."
"Aye!"
That being said, both boys started their training while Lucy sat with Happy reading a book under the tree where Gray had been. It's not that long into Natsu's explanation that screams are coming from both sides and they are yet again ready for another fight. Lucy looks up from her entertainment and looks at the two boys.
"You retard! This is the basic of basics!"
"Maybe if I didn't have such a shitty teacher I would be able to do it!"
"What was that!"
"You heard me!"
"You goddamned exhibitionist!"
"Boys! If you don't hurry up you are going to stay here the entire day, and you won't eat anything until then." She said, her eyes on the book again. To Gray it didn't really matter if he didn't eat until nightfall, but to Natsu it was a completely different problem altogether.
"No meals! Lucy you are cruel!"
"Aye, you are cruel Lucy! This means I won't have any fish!"
"You are not included Happy."
Upon hearing this Happy got calmed and Natsu started ranting about cruel blonds, stupid ice mages, unfair masters and starving. After a few minutes of this he turned to Gray with a new determination in him. "Let's do this Gray! I want to be back at the guild by lunch time."
"Tch. What do I care if you starve to death?"
"Because I'm taking you down with me!"
"That made no sense…"
"Let's just do this!"
"Fine, fine."
After a few more hours of intensive training and bickering, much to Natsu's stomach dismay, Gray was already able use Dragon Slayer magic. He was no expert like Natsu, of course, but Lucy though that for now that would be enough, since he could clearly defend himself and attack.
"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist" Gray roared and successfully performed the attack.
"Ah, weak."
"Shut up you bastard! It's not like you can control my magic that well either!"
"I can you stupid-"
"Ok boys, that's enough." Lucy said coming in between them. "We can go back to the guild now. And yes Natsu, you can eat." 'I'll make them train again some other time, but for now it's better if we go back to the guild before they try to kill each other and I'm not able to do anything to stop it. And also, I'm tired of being here.'
The whole way back to the guild was filled with talk and the usual bickering but Lucy was satisfied since they made no move to kill each other during that time.
Once they were back to the guild, everyone was as loud and animated as ever and everyone pretended that just yesterday Natsu and Gray weren't sulking on the corners of the guild. That, and also no one seemed to notice the switch yet.
Lucy sat on the counter while Natsu and Gray went around the room taking part in the fun and noise. "Mira-san? When is Erza coming back?"
Mirajane smiled and came next to her. "Tomorrow I think. She went on a mission that isn't that long. How do you think she'll react to Natsu's and Gray's situation?" she said nodding her head towards the two boys.
"I don't know. And why does she have to react? We may keep this up without her noticing…"
"Lucy, it's Erza." Mirajane pointed out, like the obvious thing it was, and Lucy let her head hit the surface in mortification. "Don't you think she'll notice something's up?"
"You are right! What am I going to do! She's probably going to be pissed! I don't think I want to be in a ten mile radio next to them…"
"I just hope she and those two don't break down the guild again…" she smiled while Lucy kept worrying about Erza finding out, looking at all corners of the guild, for a possible spy, while Natsu and Gray were at each other's throats with everyone else cheering on for them. She relaxed for a bit, and turned again to the silver haired girl when the guild's door opened.
It was supposed to be longer, but well, I haven't updated in a really, really, really, REALLY long time, and I'm really sorry for that! And now, I haven't got that much time to update anymore (10th grade in arts is a lot of work). I'll try to be as quick as possible!
Hope you enjoyed, and look forward to the next update! Thanks for your great patience!
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does.
