Chapter 4

Lucy wore the lifejacket on; demonstrating to the passengers how it is to be used while the emergency video clip was played on all the TV screens simultaneously.

After the whole rigmarole of seatbelt fastening, oxygen mask donning, lifejacket wearing and emergency exits being pointed out, the drill ended with the unmistakable "Thank you for your attention." It never failed to strike Lucy how ironic that phrase was.

What she meant is, anyone in her shoes would know that nobody actually watched the show! Half the time would be only children gaping at them while the adults busy themselves with something.

But surprisingly, Natsu or the pink headed guy was watching her the entire drill.

The plane was going fly soon and the captain called for the final cabin checks before the crew members seated themselves for take-off. After doing so, Lucy returned to her seat. She fastened her seatbelt and waited as the pilot made his announcement yet again.

"Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Welcome to Magnolia Airlines flight 777, non-stop service from Los Angeles to Japan."

Natsu was still trying to figure out who Lucy was when he remembered something else. "Hey, Wendy?" The said girl turned her head to him. "Yes?"

"Our flight time will be 9 hours and 50 minutes. We will be taking off in a few minutes time."

"Do you have extra motion sickness patch?"

"At this time, make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in their full upright position." Wendy dug in her small bag she was carrying along for the trip. She looked up in anxiousness as she realized something.

.

.

.

"You used it all up during the trips, there's no more!"

Natsu paled. He and Gajeel had extreme motion sickness, but that lucky bastard was snoring away. "Shit." Natsu cursed as he pressed the button urgently to call for an air stewardess.

"Also make sure your seat belt is correctly fastened and all electronic devices switched off."

Lucy heard a chime and a blue light went on above her station.

What?! At a time like this?

She quickly unfastened her belt and walked speedily to the requesting passenger. That man was…

The pinkette?

"Uhm.. Yes?"

The man grabbed her arm, much to Lucy's shock. His face showed panic and he started to shake her real hard. "Listen –you have to get me off this plane," he said, his voice getting edgy.

"Once again, welcome to Magnolia Airlines-"

"I'm going to die!" He started releasing his belt and trying to push his way through before it was too late. Lucy had to use strength to hold him back. She wondered why he had such a sudden outburst.

"Please calm down, Mr Dragneel. Get back to your seat, the plane is going to take-off." Lucy said, also trying to keep herself calm. Is this flight his first time?

"-and enjoy your flight. Thank you."

The plane started moving and somehow for some reason, the man seemed to have lost every ounce of his strength all at once and Lucy was able to push him back onto the seat, but not before balancing herself by holding onto the seats.

"Mr Dragneel, put on the seatbelt."

The man looked slightly purple-ish.

The aircraft gained more speed.

"Sir, please! Put that darn belt on!" Her last sentence came out as a hiss. Realizing she had been rude to a First Class passenger, her eyes widened. She didn't mean it! She was running out of time!

The cabin was ready for the take-off but Lucy was still busy with the pink haired man. Noticing this, Mira frantically tapped her wristwatch, urging her to quickly be seated.

Running out of options, she bent down and fastened his seatbelt for him. Oh, how embarrassing! She speedwalked back to her seat and fastened her own belt just in time the plane lifted off the ground.

Phew…

She was going to apologize to the man later and check what was wrong with him. Wait, what if he was having a fever or something? As Lucy felt the pressure of the plane flying higher in the sky, she worried about things. Like what if the Dragneel guy carried a disease? They'll all get infected! Or worse -Lucy will lose her job!

Oh, Lucy… You and you're imagination. Everything will be fine… I hope.

So, the plane is currently flying evenly and Lucy figured the time was now to go and check up on Dragneel.

He looks like he's in a pretty bad shape.

He laid over the armrest, arms hanging helplessly and face looking really green. "Wen…dy… Save… me…" he even had a hard time trying to speak.

The girl was poking at the back of his weak form. "D-Don't give up, Natsu!"

Lucy approached Wendy since the man didn't seem to have any form to reply her. "Pardon me, is something wrong with that fine man over there?" she gestured to Natsu.

"Ano… He's having-"

"Help… I'm… dying…" he groaned.

Gray put down the magazine he was reading and looked up to Lucy. "He's exaggerating. Just get some motion sickness patches and I'm sure he'll be fine. Geez… All this groaning is irritating…"

Ah, thanks Fullbuster. If you could have just said it before the plane took-off, I could have quickly tossed a packet of patches for him without all the pushing and worrying. Really, thanks.

"Sure, please give me a minute."

Lucy headed for the galley and took a packet of patches and walked back to where the Natsu was sitting. "Thank you!" Wendy said as Lucy handed her three patches for her to put on Natsu. "You're welcome." Lucy replied with a smile.

The little girl immediately stuck a patch on Natsu. (But of course, it's not an immediate effect.)

"Ano… Can you please give me an extra patch so I can give him over there?" she said, pointing to Gajeel. "He's going to be in the same condition when he wakes up."

"Alright."

When Lucy was about to take out another two patches, Natsu's cheeks began to puff out a little, looking like he was going to puke any second soon. And he did.

But guess what?

.

.

.

Natsu vomited on Lucy.

"Ahh! I feel much better now! Thanks Wendy and uhm…" Natsu said before actually knowing the situation. Wendy had her mouth wide open while Gray was looking at him in amusement. Even some people –the ones who are not sleeping- were taking glances at him.

"What?"

It was then he realised the blonde stewardess standing beside him. His eyes widened when he saw her.

Lucy was too stunned to move or even say anything as the mess dripped down the side of her uniform onto her legs.

Did he just fucking barfed on me?

"Oh god, don't tell me I did that…" Natsu felt a bit uncomfortable, especially with the smell reeking from the woman. Still with her mouth wide, Wendy nodded in reply.

"Erm… I'm sorry?" Natsu said awkwardly.

Lucy snapped out of her shock.

"It's fine, sir. I'll just… get this mess cleaned up…"

No, it's not fine at all. You just vomited on me, for goodness sake! Look at my uniform! It's all smelly and dirty!

Lucy smiled half-heartedly as she dragged herself to the toilet. Using many paper towels, she wiped off as much mess as she could.

"Lucy? Lucy, it's Mira," the sweet voice spoke from outside. Lucy unlocked the toilet door as Mira pushed it open from outside and entered. Since it was the First Class toilet, it was big enough for Mira and Lucy. "Oh my. I saw what happened just now. Are you able to clean the mess?" the woman asked, grabbing more paper towels for Lucy.

"Yeah…" Lucy took the paper towels from Mira and used them to wipe her legs. The mess on her skin were easily cleaned off but the same could not be said for her uniform. "This is some stubborn vomit!"

An idea seemed to have struck Mira. "Hang on for a moment, I've got a solution!" She walked off. About a minute later, she returned with an air stewardess uniform in one hand and some talcum powder in the other.

"I always come prepared, something like this might happen. I've got an extra uniform you can change into. It might be a bit long for you though, since it's mine. And this powder is to cover some of the smell on you," Mira said, passing the two items to Lucy.

"Thanks Mira, you're a lifesaver!" Lucy smiled in relief.

Thank god for Mira!

Mira left Lucy so that she could change. She took off her stained uniform and applied some powder on herself. Then she put on the clean clothes that the purser had given her. Feeling much fresher, she stepped out of the toilet.

(1pm-lunch time)

Where food is concerned, plane meals needn't be the butt of jokes. The only catch is, it depends on which restaurant in the sky you dine in, according to renowned travel guru Roger Collis.

First Class dining is part of the ultimate flying experience. In the spacious, tastefully-designed cabin, the smiling stewardess –Lucy- pours bubbly champagne into the crystal flute for the passenger. Parked along the next aisle is a trolley laden with an array of truffles, rock oysters, foie gras, smoked salmon and hors d'oeuvre, served beside the passenger's seat.

Here, there is no laptop-size meal tray or tiny plastic-wrapped cutleries. Only the finest utensils are used, to go with all gastronomic delights. It's a gourmet's playground, one that matches most five-star restaurants in the best areas.

First was served the appetiser and everyone accepted their plates of fresh fruits coated with a special sauce created specially by the chef who made all the First Class food for this plane. The next course, soup (two choices), was ladled and served to each passenger, with croutons. As soon as the first row of passengers finished, the salad trolley was wheeled out and each salad tossed individually by their chairside, with each individual offerings of dressing.

With so much food, by the time the main course arrived, many passengers would have felt full already.

"Good afternoon, Mr Dragneel, would you like the main course of lobster, smoked salmon fish or roast meat?" Lucy asked politely, while beaming at him spreading such a wide warm smile. Mira had wanted to serve the other aisle (Wendy and Gajeel's row) so Lucy had to serve this one. The blonde suspected the purser wanted to keep Redfox in check and make sure he doesn't make any trouble.

"Uhm… Roast meat please," Natsu replied, shifting his gaze and watching the stewardess presented the meat carvings and sliced on the display carving board right before his eyes. She was going to place it on his food tray when he said, "Uh… Can you add something spicy to it? Like chilli."

Surprise filled Lucy's eyes. Then she thought that she shouldn't be surprised. Some people just like spice, I guess? "Sorry, Mr Dragneel but we don't use chilli. Is pepper fine with you?"

Natsu nodded and so Lucy ripped a packet of pepper and poured them into his lunch.

"More pepper please."

Another ripping sound was heard.

"More please."

And another.

"More."

And another.

"More…"

Lucy had opened eleven pepper packets for him and when he took a bite out of his food, Lucy expected him to breathe out fire or something, but to her amazement, he just gobbled it down like it was nothing. "E-Enjoy your meal, Mr Dragneel."

She pushed her cart slightly forward. Okay, next customer: Gray Fullbuster. "Good afternoon, Mr Fullbuster, would you like the main course of lobster, smoked salmon fish or roast meat?" she said, smiling equally bright.

"Lobster," came his reply after taking out one side of his earpiece he was listening from. "And please add lots of ice shavings."

Okay, now Lucy was really surprised. "Ice shavings?" she repeated, making sure she didn't heard wrongly.

"Yeah."

Her ears are definitely not playing tricks. "S-Sure, please wait for a minute." She took the ice shaver from her cart which was actually used to shave the ice for the champagne. She turned the handle, making it produce nice crushed ice. Tipping all the ice into the plate of lobster, she asked Gray whether the ice was enough or too much. Satisfied with the amount and requesting for plain water with ice cubes, he took his food and drink with a ginger "thanks."

Lucy just realized there were so many weird people out there who add weird things to their food.

Come on, who puts shaved ice into their plate of fresh seafood (and any other food)?

Apparently Fullbuster does.

When desert came, Lucy had to serve an ice cream cassata. There she was, presenting the tempting Italian sweet to Natsu Dragneel, who agreed to a slice (and then he'll just give the rest to Gray). Trying to slice it, she was taken aback to find that the knife just refused to make its way into the block. She tried again, this time harnessing all her strength and pressed harder. "Urghh…!" Silently, Lucy asked herself if she was trying to slice a rock.

Her face flushed with embarrassment as the three boys, Natsu, Gray and Gajeel plus Wendy looked with amusement at the knife stuck in the middle of the ice cream. Lucy flashed a quick grin and tried to remove the knife but it stubbornly refused to yield. She was sure Natsu was trying very hard not to laugh as she heard the muffled sounds coming from the man.

Apologising to the Dragneel, she wheeled the ice cream all the way back to the galley. As she passed by the other passengers, all curious eyes focused on the ice cream with the knife sticking out of it.

She cursed herself as she suspected she had thaw the ice cream sufficiently and she served it unwittingly without checking.

Gee, Lucy. You're an idiot!

She warmed up the knife and the rock-hard dessert so they would be separated and can be served. Wheeling it back to Natsu, who was laughing uncontrollably, she –this time-perfectly and professionally cut it and gave it to him in a bowl. He took a bite out of it and made up his mind that he liked it.

Seeing that Dragneel asked for more, Gray bargained for the dessert too. They ended up decided to have an eating competition of some sort. Lucy left the two to do whatever they want as she pushed the trolley to the next passenger.

That's the deal with the meal on planes.