Some stuff about the timeline:
I went back in earlier chapters and realized I never set the details for the date, so we are all going to pretend that Lucy called Zach later, who informed her that in a week they should go for dinner in a small restaurant by the canal and talk books blah blah blah.
Also, a wonderful person has been leaving me reviews about inconsistencies (which I totally appreciate, btw, because I never notice them), and I just want to address one of them. Said person pointed out that Erza and Levy are buddies, so wouldn't it be weird if Levy just suddenly stormed in and started talking about guild evil master plans and what not?
Yes, yes it is. I was actually aware of this one, but I needed it to happen so we are all going to pretend that Erza shoved down her surprise until after the meeting, when she then had time to grill her friend about the company she has been keeping.
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its related characters. Just my own imagination.
For Makarov, today was just another day of fixing his guild-turned-orphanage-while-simultaneously-being-a-kinda-guild-in-secret and staring creepily at his comatose grandson. His hangover was not helping with the overall headache that he was getting from trying to figure out a plan of attack, and as the minutes dragged on and Laxus's breaths continued in a slow steady rhythm, Makarov found himself getting really annoyed.
"Idiot brat," he muttered under his breath, flicking his grandson's forehead so hard that a red welt immediately began to surface.
"I'm here, Master," Wendy Marvel yawned, walking into the room like a zombie. Considering how long she danced and ran around with Romeo and the other kids, she had every right to be tired. But here she was, up before noon a night after a famous Fairy Tail party, helping out with the to-be criminal. She was, in a word, a saint.
"Hello Wendy," Makarov greeted as he got up. Wendy began mixing an unappetizing mixture of herbs that was Laxus's treatment (she also noticed that a red welt had mysteriously appeared on his forehead, but decided to not ask questions. Like I said, a saint). The old man walked out into the dark hallway and started making phone calls.
The conversation with Baccus of the former Cuatro Cerebus: "Yes, Baccus, we're going to be stationed outside the party—no, we aren't crashing it. I said no! Just be ready."
The conversation with Kagura of what was previously Mermaid Heel: "Kagura, this mission is important. Tell your friends that the next episode can wait. If they don't want to miss it then they should just record it! I WILL KIDNAP THE BACHELOR IF YOU GIRLS WANT JUST BE THERE!"
The conversation with Sherry of what used to be Lamia Scale: "Yes, yes, love is important, but- uh, sure, I love Ren-kun too? That isn't the point—wait no, not that—just be there."
And so on and so forth. Every phone call made his faith in the success of the plan fade away. But, this was what the universe was offering him, so this is what he was going to take. Hopefully, the little brats would prove to be more useful when in battle than they are in strategy. The one phone call that made him happy was yesterday, when Erza Scarlet confirmed their suspicions while she was getting the fake Laxus a bagel (it was an obnoxious order that made Makarov second guess that the Laxus in his guild was the real one. His grandson was always so picky with his food).
"Master?" Wendy poked her head into the hallway before Makarov had a chance to break his cellphone in half. Makarov turned to the young girl with a "Yes?" in a really forced polite tone. Screaming at an innocent girl who is the key to curing his delusional grandson is probably not the smartest of ideas.
"There's something about Laxus-san's condition..." she trailed off, uncertainty covering her face clear as day. Dear God, when isn't there something weird about that boy. He doesn't even put his arms through the sleeves of his jacket, for Pete's sake! Ever!
He walked into the small infirmary suppressing a groan. Wendy was leafing through an ancient tome with a worried look on her face. When she finally found the page that she was looking for she reached over to pull up Laxus's left shirt sleeve to expose a black tattoo what was in the shape of a conjoined moon and sun. Makarov had seen the tattoo over the past couple of days, but just assumed that it wasn't special, but apparently it was, because the same marking was on the page.
"I knew I recognized that symbol when I first saw it," Wendy began, tapping the page. "Its a really old spell. The mage who casts it puts the same mark on himself, and while he has it then the victim will stay asleep."
"A type of body-link magic, eh?" Makarov hummed, thinking. "Well, we're just going to have to be on the look out then. Spread this information to our allies, see if they can find the bast—jerk."
"Yes, Master," Wendy nodded and scurried out of the room. Makarov sighed again. Today is going to be another long, long day.
Lucy groaned, falling back onto her bed in utter despair. She had come to face the most impossible decision of her life: what to wear on her date. Since the shopping trip with he-who-shall-not-be-named (and no, I'm not talking about Voldemort, although him with pink hair would be a sight to see), Lucy had accumulated a packed closet full of cute clothes. But, alas, the young girl had never actually been on a real date, and thus had no idea what to wear. Writing about it in fanfiction was one thing, but actually making the choice herself was a totally different experience.
God, why can't life be a fairy tale?
"Its not a date," she mumbled to herself, clinging to her desperate lie that it was a "meeting between intellectual individuals." Still, that didn't answer her question: what does one wear on one of these occasions? Instinctively she picked up her phone and started dialing Nats—he-who-shall-not-be-named's phone number, but then she realized what she was doing and threw her phone away before she could press the call button. She didn't need that pink haired idiot's help! She had other friends too!
Hmm, but who to call? Obviously she wasn't going to even try to contact Mira: one mention of there being a boy involved and the white haired sweetheart/demoness would be planning Lucy's wedding before she asked her what to wear. Juvia was out of the question too, since the water woman always answered outfit questions with either "bathing suit" or "sweater dress," neither of which Lucy wanted to wear. Erza couldn't be bothered. She was too busy with her boss, and if she knew Lucy was going out with a boy she would probably go threaten him with a sword. Which only left one logical answer: Levy.
"Come on, Levy-chan," Lucy willed the small bluenette to pick up her phone. It was on the fourth ring, essentially the no-one-is-there-you're-on-your-own-pal point of no return, when Levy finally picked up.
"Hi, Lu-chan," she answered groggily, like she just got up. It was one in the afternoon, she couldn't have just gotten up...could she?
"Thank god," Lucy sighed, "I have a fashion question."
"You know, that party last night must have really tired me out," her friend laughed, but it sounded more like a really exhausted chuckle more than anything else, "I thought you just wanted clothes advice from me."
"I do?" Lucy answered, sounding more like she was asking a question. She heard Levy gasp on the other end, and for a moment there was nothing but pure silence on the other end.
"WHAT?!" Levy then screamed. In the background Lucy heard a large thump, followed by a deep voice asking "what the hell is going on" followed by small apologies and a grumbled "whatever shrimp."
"Where are you?" Lucy asked, deeply curious about the mysterious voice. Although Lucy hadn't spent much time with him, she could have sworn that the second voice belonged to Gajeel. But that was impossible—
"Gajeel's place. Did you know he lives with Natsu? And-"
"Gray lives there too, yeah. Why are you there?" Lucy was completely and utterly surprised that someone else would dare set foot in their apartment, much less Levy. She had seen her small friend hanging out with the intimidating iron dragon slayer last night, sure, but she didn't realize that they were already very, very close.
"I don't actually know, I guess this place was closer than my house. Juvia is here too, cuddling Gray like no tomorrow. I'm taking a picture for blackmail. What was that, Gajeel?" Lucy listened to a far off conversation between the two. Levy must still be a little drunk, because there was no way in hell the normal Levy would be okay with waking up in a random guy's apartment. "So Gajeel wanted me to revise that statement because it makes him sound like a creep. I do remember telling him to just take me to the closest bed. What? Its the truth."
Yup, she is definitely still a little drunk.
"Anyway," Lucy cut in, trying to redirect the conversation to the topic at hand, "I'm meeting this guy that I met in the book place for dinner—"
"HOLY SHIT YOU HAVE A DATE?" It was at this point when Lucy decided that her friends were going to give her permanent hearing damage one day soon. Cursing, now that was interesting. It seems that a certain iron eating boy was having an influence on her friend.
"No I—," The blonde tried to explain that it was not a date, but a meeting between intellectual individuals, but she was abruptly cut off again.
"HOLY SHIT YOU HAVE A DATE?" Gajeel yelled into the phone. He probably ripped it out of Levy's hands, because she could hear her friend nagging him to give her phone back. Yup, Lucy was going to go deaf one day because of these people.
"Well, kinda," Lucy broke down. Let's face it, we all know that denial is sweet until the truth demands to be heard. Then it's a bitch.
"Lu-chan is all grown up," Levy was crying. "I'm so proud," Lucy heard more than one person crying and decided that Juvia must have woken up and, seeing the crying girl, decided to join in.
"So what should I wear?" Lucy was desperately trying to stick to the task on hand.
"Natsu probably doesn't care," she heard Gajeel scoff in the background, follow by a loud slap and his grunt of pain.
"The date isn't with him," Lucy snapped.
"I don't know what you should wear," Levy tried to steer clear of the obvious sore subject, saying, "Juvia votes sweater dress," there was a muffled argument on the other end, something about putting Lucy on speaker, "Okay, you win," Levy huffed, "Okay Lu-chan, you're on speaker. What are the choices?"
"Yeah," she heard Gray slur, "tell Gray-sama and he will make it all better."
"Gray-sama is so helpful," she heard Juvia coo. Lucy tried to resist the urge to face palm.
This was going to be a long afternoon.
Heh heh…hey guys….
So, I've had quite the hectic life, which has forced me to forgo writing. Since I've last talked to you (which was, apparently, Jan. 4, 2015), I have applied and was accepted into college, learned what lovely hell being a CS major is, and got a part time job at a certain arts and crafts store. Fun stuff, my friends, fun stuff. I just saw some reviews about this story, and I felt pretty bad about not updating, so I searched through my old, practically decapitated computer for the draft of the chapter I was writing and decided to upload a couple of parts of it while I try to find a way to finish this bad boy. So never fear, my lovelies. I'm working on it. It just might take a while, since I'm taking 17 credits this semester and I need that nice 4.0 to keep some scholarships. But I'm working on it.
In other news, I have been slowly working on another project. Its actually an original story with a Greek Mythology theme. If anyone is interested, I started posting parts of it on Wattpad. Its called "The Forgotten Echo," and my username on there is tilala66. So, if you want to see some original writing from me, go check it out! This is the URL: story/59173076-the-forgotten-echo