HAPPY BIRTHDAY MINNA!
…
"What is this new nonsense you're spewing NeverMakesSense?" You ask?
Well, today is my birthday. But, in an attempt to reject the fact that I only have one more month to do my homework for the summer (English, how I hate and love you), and also that my family and friends might had tried to make this a big deal (screw sweet 16's!), I'm trying to pretend today isn't my birthday! Instead, I'm going to pretend today is your birthday, dear readers, and thus I give you this (hopefully good) chapter as a gift to your not getting older. Unless today is your birthday as well. Then PM me and I can freak out that I actually share this day with someone else!
"That makes absolutely no sense," you scoff. To which I answer, "Why do you think my user name is NeverMakesSense?"
So yeah, this is the result of my denial. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I asked Hiro Mashima to give me ownership of Fairy Tail for my birthday, but he never answered. Until then, I own nothing.
Oh yeah, also: A person said that they were confused, so I'm going to assume that there were other people who were confused as well. So, I'm going to quickly explain the boy's situation:
Guilds are gone, so a lot of wizards are screwed and out of a job, making the boys settle with working in the House of Aces until they are older and no longer attractive. Then they can, I don't know, sell kittens on the side of the street? I saw a hobo in the city doing that once.
"Natsu," Lucy's eyebrow twitched, "I thought I was cooking for a couple of people, not a freaking roomful!" She stepped towards the boy wielding a ladle as her weapon. She was very, very close to murdering him.
"Come on, Luce. Calm down," he laughed nervously.
"Calm down? You shove a freaking flying, talking cat in my face and sacrifice me to a room full of hungry people that I didn't even know was expecting me, and you want me to calm down?" She shouted, reaching out to grab his neck so she could choke the lying bastard.
"It's not like I'm leaving you alone. I'll help," he evaded her attacks, leaving the two dancing around the kitchen in a quest for survival and revenge.
"No, I'll do it myself. A promise is a promise," Lucy sighed. Technically, she made a promise, and her mother always taught her to keep her promises. No matter how impossible the promise it was. Plus, she wasn't sure that Natsu was that good of a cook besides bacon and coffee, and since Mira wasn't there (why must she go to a party when Lucy needed her the most?) it looked like she was on her own.
Ah, you're confused again, aren't you? Lets go back a bit...
(Earlier that evening)
Lucy tapped her foot nervously as she stood in front of Natsu's door. She didn't know if she should knock, or just wait for him to come outside, or just wait for the door to open on it's own- wait, the door is opening on it's own. Huh, guess that was the right answer.
"Oh, you must be that Lucy chick," the man who opened the door mused. He was huge, towering over Lucy and installing a bit of fear in her. Okay, maybe it was more than a bit of fear. He was one of Natsu's friends? What, does the pink haired idiot run with delinquents too? Oh god, he probably burned down their storehouse and now he had to run with them- wait, stop overactive imagination! Natsu couldn't be stuck with a bunch of drug addicts. Anyway, the man leaned in closer, making her shake a little bit. Considering he was basically a mass of muscle, hair and metal piercings, can you blame her?
"Geeze Gajeel, stop scaring her," Lucy almost cried tears of joy as Natsu grabbed the back of the man's neck and pulled him back into the apartment. Gesturing her to come inside, Lucy timidly stepped in and made her way around the small apartment to the kitchen where she was apparently going to cook. She put the food she had brought on the table and began to ready herself for her mission.
"Don't make yourself too comfortable, Luce. We're going to leave soon," Natsu called out.
Um...what?
"What?" She twirled around to stare at him. The boy was already grabbing his coat and calling out for the other people in the house to get ready. The scary man from before, Gajeel, started to laugh at the surprised look on her face.
"We're going to Fairy Tail," a small voice beside her explained. Lucy looked down and saw a blue (is that natural?) cat sitting at her feet.
"Ha ha, funny Natsu," she said dryly, picking up the adorable cat. He started to purr in her arms.
"Oh, that wasn't Natsu," the cat yawned, "that was me."
Holy shit, did this cat just talk? Lucy looked around the room to find all of the boys staring eagerly at her, waiting to see what she would do. Well, Natsu had a look of worry, but the other two (especially that sketchy metal faced Gajeel) shared similar faces of amusement. Lucy held up the cat and looked it in the face.
"You can talk," she deadpanned. She didn't expect an answer.
"Aye sir!" He smiled. Yup, this cat could actually speak. What next, it could fly too?
"Well then," Lucy set the talking cat down and walked over to a large pot she had brought with her.
"Are you okay, Lucy?" Natsu asked warily. She could hear the other two suppressing their laughter.
"One moment please," she asked curtly, turning back to the pot, opening the lid and sticking her head in it before screaming as loud as she possibly could. After a few seconds she quickly closed the pot and turned back around. They stared at her (even the cat) and she stared back. Absolute silence until Gajeel started to guffaw loudly.
"I like you," he laughed. Lucy smiled tentatively and looked at the other guy, Gray. She shrieked and Natsu came up behind her and covered her eyes.
"Where are your clothes?" She cried.
"Shit," Gray discovered that she was right. There was a squirting sound. "Gajeel, what the hell? Why did you squirt me with water?"
"Get rid of your bad habit," Gajeel chuckled evilly.
"I'M NOT HAPPY DAMMIT!"
"Just go get dressed."
"Let's go," Natsu whispered in her ear. They grabbed her cooking materials and walked out, leaving the still arguing men behind. Happy flew out ahead of them, and when the girl saw that her joking suspicions were correct she fainted. Only for a brief second, and thankfully all that you could see as evidence was a slight stumble in her walk. Natsu smirked over at her with knowing eyes. Damn dragon slayers and their advanced senses.
They walked in silence until the other two boys were able to catch up. Then the air was filled with insults (if calling Gray an ice face could really count as an insult) and laughter. The more surprising event was that Lucy was actually involved in the whole thing. For once, she felt comfortable joking around with some people she had never really met before. She wasn't sure if it was because they were just easy to get along with or if she had Natsu by her side, but it was something that made her realize for the first time that she really was changing. Once she realized that, Lucy had a giant smile on her face that wouldn't go away.
Well, until they got to Fairy Tail, anyway. The building some how looked more lively then when Natsu and Lucy had visited during the night. The paint seemed less faded and the ivy didn't look so threatening and there was just this happy atmosphere that made you feel like you were home.
"Hey everybody!" Natsu slammed the doors open and was welcome with a chorus of 'hey' and 'what's up?' and even 'STOP BEING SO RECKLESS YOU FOOL!'.
"This is Fairy Tail?" Lucy wondered. It was full of a reasonable amount of children (I mean, it's a freaking orphanage and all), but there were also a bunch of adults lazing around and drinking in the back. A girl that was cradling a barrel of alcohol particularly caught her attention.
Was she supposed to cook for all these people?
"NATSU! GAJEEL! GRAY! WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU- oh, hello young lady," a very short old man came up to them screaming, but once he noticed Lucy standing among the group of boys he abruptly stopped. Well, that was a quick turnaround. Lucy shot her eyes over to her three companions to see them suppressing victorious smiles. It appears that they had used her as a shield.
"Hi, I'm Lucy," she greeted shyly. There were a few whistles as the older people in the room took a notice of her. She probably shouldn't of worn a short skirt today. Natsu stepped next to her so he was slightly in front of her, like a shield.
"Nice to meet you. I am Makarov, the master of Fairy Tail," he smiled widely. "Please ignore the idiots in the back, they have no better place to be then annoying an old man."
"Lucy is going to cook tonight!" Natsu yelled. The younger children cheered and thanked an invisible god that they didn't have to eat anything else Makarov made.
"Ungrateful brats," the old man muttered. He walked back over to where two other adult men were and started laughing and drinking with them. By the smile he wore on his face, Makarov wasn't annoyed in the slightest. Natsu started to push Lucy into the kitchen (which generated some calls of 'holy shit, Natsu brought a girl home?' from the older people, and the younger ones kept on staring at her, wondering if she was a princess) while Gajeel and Gray went over and started to fight with a couple of the older kids. For a second, Lucy saw a flash of blue hair hiding behind a post that she thought belonged to Wendy Marvel. But, she couldn't confirm her suspicions because Natsu pulled open a door and shoved her into a small kitchen.
Lucy then remembered the irritated feeling she had when they first arrived. She picked up the most threatening thing she could find and turned on him.
"Natsu," Lucy's eyebrow twitched, "I thought I was cooking for a couple of people, not a freaking roomful!" She stepped towards the boy wielding a ladle as her weapon. She was very, very close to murdering him.
"Come on, Luce. Calm down," he laughed nervously.
"Calm down? You shove a freaking flying, talking cat in my face and sacrifice me to a room full of hungry people that I didn't even know was expecting me, and you want me to calm down?" She shouted, throwing the ladle on a counter, instead reaching out to grab his neck so she could choke the lying bastard.
"It's not like I'm leaving you alone. I'll help," he evaded her attacks, leaving the two dancing around the kitchen in a quest for survival and revenge. Lucy stopped when she realized she would never be able to catch up to him. This chase was beginning to feel like exercise. Ew.
"No, I'll do it myself. A promise is a promise," Lucy sighed. Technically, she made a promise, and her mother always taught her to keep her promises. No matter how impossible the promise it was. Plus, she wasn't sure that Natsu was that good of a cook besides bacon and coffee (which are almost impossible to mess up), and since Mira wasn't there (why must she go to a party when Lucy needed her the most?) it looked like she was on her own. "I'm going to need more food though."
"There's a fridge over there," he pointed to an ancient machine that was the source of a loud thrumming sound. She walked over and looked inside. Well, since she was cooking for a lot of people she could just make some stew...
"Hey, Natsu...?" Lucy whirled around to find the room completely empty. The wooden door to the main hall was still slowly closing. "Deserter," she grumbled. Oh sure, he was totally planning on helping. Natsu may look and act like an idiot, but that boy was very good at making manipulative plans. She didn't know if she should be impressed that he had a brain or annoyed because this is the second time that night he used her.
Well, no use thinking about it. Lucy cracked her knuckles and started to chop some vegetables.
(I know nothing about cooking, so we'll take this time to look at something else!)
"Hey Gramps!" Natsu called out to get the old man's attention. He felt bad about leaving Lucy alone to cook, but there was a more important matter he had to take care of.
"What is it boy?" Makarov asked, but it looked like he already knew what Natsu wanted to discuss.
"I have a favor to ask."
"Let's hear it then."
(Hm, more mystery. Whoops. Anyway, back to the kitchen!)
She couldn't do this. Lucy thought she could, but the second the actual cooking started she found herself running around the kitchen like a madwoman. Well, she was a little insane, but that is not the point! She felt like it was hopeless; things were burning and she spilled some sauce on herself and god dammit, this was stew, so why was it turning into a disaster?
"Dear Bacon God, help me!" She prayed frantically. There was a golden flash through the room and a soft poof sound. Lucy let out a scream, watching the smoke clear with both terror and excitement. The Bacon God finally answered her prayers! HE TOTALLY EXISTS! TAKE THAT, VEGITARIANS OF FIORE!
"Puunnnn~," the smoke cleared to reveal none other then Plue. Lucy stared at him in disbelief. How did he get here? Lucy felt around in her pockets, pulling out his key when she found it. She must have grabbed it in her nervous frenzy of getting ready, knowing she would feel safer if she had one of her keys with her. But still, how did he get here?
"Uh, Lucy? You okay?" Natsu poked his head in the room. "Wait, was Plue always here?"
"I summoned him," she gasped. Plue was a weak spirit, there was no way he came on his own power. But...that was impossible.
"I thought you said you couldn't use magic anymore," Natsu was just as confused as she was.
"I can't. The Angel took it away," Lucy saw his confused expression and decided to explain. "When I was ten some men kidnapped me. They worked with this lady who was always talking about how she was an angel, and one day she got bored and sealed away my ability to use magic."
She remembered that day very well. The woman always dressed up in these feathery clothes, and every day she boasted how pretty she was because she was an angel, and how Lucy was going to go to hell because she was making an angel waste her time on a kidnapping. They were all pissed at the lack of response from her father, even Lucy herself. You're daughter is taken away, you get asked for ransom, and you freaking ignore it? The last day she was kept the woman broke, and she sealed her magic away.
The woman was bored. Lucy couldn't see her spirits ever again because some sadistic bitch had nothing to do. And yet, here we are, with Plue looking up at Lucy like he was ready to help. Could it be that she was getting her magic back? Lucy looked over at Natsu and saw the most intense look of anger and hatred on his face.
"That's horrible," he hissed.
"It seems like I'm getting it back though," She smiled, holding up Plue as proof. Natsu calmed down and smiled back. Lucy heard something start to bubble.
"SHIT!"
"That wasn't nice, Angel-sama," Lackey #1 chuckled at the picture in the lacrima. Their blonde target was fanning something on the stove and cursing while her annoying pink haired companion was trying to help by putting the whole thing on fire.
"What? I'm just giving her a sense of hope," Angel's innocent voice was like honey, sweet but sticky, "well, false hope, that is," she started to laugh, watching the girl throw that spirit Angel summoned at the boy's face. He ducked and the spirit's nose was lodged in the wall. She pulled it out of the wall and tried again. This time it was a direct hit into the boy's forehead.
"When are we going to get her?" Lackey #2 quivered with excitement. He wanted to play with the blonde again. Her screams were so lovely last time.
"A little while longer. We have to tread carefully if we are going to defy him," She smashed the lacrima and started to walk away. Her two followers scrambled after her. Their insane laughter filled the quiet air with malice and mischief.
Lucy watched everyone eat in complete awe. The conversation and laughter had abruptly but off as soon as she rolled out a large pot full of stew. They all started to stampede towards her, making Natsu grab her by the waist and pull her out of the way before she was trampled by the hungry crowd. Before she could turn around and say a thank you the boy let her go and joined the feeding frenzy. Now they were all quietly stuffing their faces. It was both fascinating and disgusting.
"You can never say they aren't thankful," Makarov popped up beside her. She nodded and pushed her own empty bowl aside. The old man tilted his head towards an office in the back and hopped off his chair. She followed him into the old office, getting nervous when he shut the door behind her.
"Don't be so nervous my dear," he hopped up onto a large leather chair (which looked so funny compared to his small body size) and gestured her to do the same.
"Is there something you want to ask me, sir?" She asked tentatively.
"You have been spending a lot of time with Natsu," he stated.
"Is that a problem?"
"No, of course not. Natsu is a grown boy now, I can't control him," they both laughed at that, "but I still have to ask you something."
"Okay."
"My children have been through a lot in their short time. Natsu's generation especially. The guilds closed down and there isn't work for them. You see what they do now," he waited for her to nod before continuing, "they have been let down since their parents abandoned them. But lately I've seen a bit of change in them. Natsu especially."
"I don't really follow you."
"I am beating around the bush, aren't I?" He chuckled to himself, looking out the small window in his door as he did so. Lucy could hear the noise start to resurface in the main room again, signaling that everyone was done stuffing their faces. The voice she could hear over all others was Natsu's arguing tone. He was fighting with Gray again. "Are you going to leave him?" Makarov tilted his head towards the door. "When you finally get what you want, will you abandon him just like his father did?"
So Natsu had daddy issues too, huh?
"I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong idea," she answered in a steely tone, "but I'm not some shallow bitch that runs through guys like hair dye. I cherish my friends, not abandon them."
It was silent. Inside, she was horrified of her behavior in front of the old man, but it was how she felt. She loved her friends, and somehow the insane pink head wiggled his way into being one of them. Makarov gave her a piercing stare, as if he was trying to look into her soul. Apparently he liked what he saw, because the old man broke out into a huge smile that took over most of his face.
"I like you," he laughed, "you have spunk."
"Thanks," Lucy smiled. The door to the small office slammed open and in walked Natsu himself.
"What are you doing in here? It's more fun outside!" He grabbed her hand and started to drag her out towards a large group of smiling people. She looked over her shoulder and saw that, somehow, the old man was smiling even bigger than before.
Erza Scarlet was tired of working for Laxus Dreyer. The man was mean and a pervert, and his other two body guards practically worshiped the ground he walked on, which annoyed her immensely. It wasn't really his behavior that bothered her, though; the girl had worked for plenty of men like him. It was the fact that one, he was very powerful (she could tell by the waves of magical energy coming off of him) so he didn't even need a bodyguard, much less three (in fact, he had her mostly doing paperwork for him. Cretin) and two, he kept secrets from her. They all tried to hide it, but she had heard whispered conversations and seen them all disappear for a length of time. No wonder the last guy quit. Right now, she was trying to finish as quickly as she could so she could go home and hopefully catch her boyfriend in time. Outside she could hear the laughter of her coworkers.
"Hey, Laxus says he wants another report from the House," Erza heard Bixlow whisper. Well, the man tried to whisper, but he was so loud that it came out at normal volume. Erza went up to the door and laid her ear on it, just to make sure she heard every word.
"I'll go tonight," Evergreen said in a quieter tone. Go where? The House? Wait, she had been sorting through a bunch of documents and saw that name. The House of Aces. "Though Laxus shouldn't worry. Those fools don't know anything."
"I'll see you later then," She heard Bixlow's footsteps stomp away, then a lighter pair that told her Evergreen had departed as well. Running to her desk, Erza grabbed her coat and bag and ran after the two. It was time she paid a visit to this House of Aces.
Wow, I think this is the longer chapter yet! Look at you guys go, getting a double birthday present! I hope this explained some things, but if you are still confused PM me and I'll try to explain as best I can.
Hm, I still feel Nalu deprived though. Next chapter will have to fix that. I'm thinking getting Lucy drunk. Thoughts?
Remember to leave a review! Later guys!
~NeverMakesSense