Chapter 4: Stellar Spirit of the Canis Minor Constellation
Disclaimer: I don't own anything
"Where the hell am I gonna live!" Lucy complained as her, Natsu and Happy walked out of another real estate agency who definitely did not want anything to do with a seventeen year old girl with no steady income and 'especially not one from that rowdy guild of ruffians', their words not hers. She was close to breaking down and pulling out her hair out of frustration, Natsu was sulking and dragging his feet against the pavement, he really didn't want to be there but Mira 'insisted', AKA, promising death if he didn't. Both looked like complete idiots walking down the busy streets of Magnolia with Natsu's peculiar fashion choice and their defeated postures but neither of the two cared, they already had a light-blue and white flying cat with a green bag attached to his back.
"Lucy, can we give up?" Happy whined, "Just live with us for a while since everywhere, including Fairy Hills, hates you." What Happy said was undoubtedly true. Fairy Hills wouldn't let her in because there was no room as it was and the rest... Well let's just say they didn't exactly like Fairy Tail and seventeen year old girls with no 'real job' or steady income.
"Yeah Luce. That'd be wayyyyyy easier than trying to find your own place." Natsu said.
"Since when was I 'Luce'?" She said in a daze, she'd never had a nickname before and she had to admit, nicknames were kind of funny.
"Lucy, pretty please live with us." Natsu and Happy pleaded on their knees.
"... Fine." She hung her head in embarrassment. She was moving into some guy's house that she knew for three days and they weren't dating or anything like that. What could possibly go wrong? She thought, It's just Natsu and Happy.
"Well, let's go!" Natsu yelled excitedly, punching his clenched fist into the air.
Natsu led Lucy by the hand all the way to his home which sat in a grassy clearing between the town and a wild forest. Overgrown climber plants like ivy and jasmine crawled up the sides of the cream coloured plaster of his house and a wooden, home made sign read Natsu and Happy's home. Stone decorated the door arch and the edges of the house and a circular window cast a sunny glare from the second story.
Natsu put down Lucy's stuff he had been forced to carry. "Wow Luce, you barely have anything." Natsu stated while staring at the small pink suitcase that was currently occupying the lounge room floor, along with Natsu's possessions strewn about the whole house.
Lucy steeped into the threshold of the house and became infuriated instantaneously, "Natsu, I hope you plan on cleaning up this pigsty," She said menacingly. The dragon slayer in question cowered under her evil aura that threatened to consume his very existence and scampered to pick up his clothes and other items.
After they cleaned, Lucy realised that the quirky house was in fact, quite nice. He had a pretty comfortable couch, a hammock which they moved upstairs into Natsu's bedroom, decent kitchen supplies and appliances, a working shower and a bath and more than enough room for all three of them to live comfortably. Sun was streaming though the windows, bathing everything in a orange glow, meaning it had been a few hours since they had arrived and going by their stomachs, time for an early dinner.
"Lucy, I'm hungry." The boys said in complete unison.
"I am too but I'm all out of money so you two go ahead to the guild and I'll just wait for you guys to get back."
Natsu took her hand, "I wanna see one of those cool spirit dudes so if I buy you food will you show me some?"
"Sure," She smiled, "I'll show you how I make contracts because I've got to make a contract to Nikora of the Canis Minor constellation."
"Does it involve blood contracts?" Natsu asked.
Lucy looked at him aghast, "Absolutely not!"
"Geez, Lucy, Natsu was just joking. Lighten up," Happy said. Lucy ignored his comment and picked him up and walked out of her new shared home with Natsu by her side.
Walking to Fairy Tail was surprisingly interesting. Natsu decided to take the park route filled with cherry blossom trees filled with brilliant shades of green but not yet heavy with blossoms and played a little game of hide and seek with the other two, where Natsu had to find them. Lucy was horrible at the game but still humoured her, taking longer than usual to find someone. He then pointed out the famous landmarks that he could see all the way there.
The sky was stained indigo by the time the trio reached the guild doors and Natsu, with his seemingly endless amount of energy, kicked the doors inward with a shout of, "Mira I want some food, please!" The guild barely paid any mind to his outburst and continued with their conversations, except for Mira who went back into the kitchen to make Natsu's usual monster of a meal.
Lucy ordered her food like a normal human, as well as a raw fish for Happy, "Just put it on Natsu's tab. He said he'd pay since I have no money," And sat down at a table with Natsu and a white haired girl with a pixie cut who looked like a younger version of Mira and a buff man with the same hair colour as the girl. "Hi I'm Lisanna Strauss, Mira's little sister."
"I'm Elfman, the most MANLY MAN there is!" The man yelled for no good reason, other than his obsession with being a man.
"Oh uh, hi my name is Lucy... It's nice to meet you both," She said nervously.
Mira gracefully placed Lucy's dinner in front of her and then served the others at the table, the boys having giant plates with a monstrous helping of everything. "Enjoy," Mira said, and Lucy did. It was one of the nicest things she had eaten in ages, made better by the laughter and the lightness of the atmosphere in the guild.
"So Lucy," Lisanna said after they'd finished their meal, "What made you want to join Fairy Tail and how did you meet Natsu?" Mira came over and sat with them for reasons unknown to Lucy; gossip and shipping.
"Well, I've admired the guild for a long time and I ran into Natsu at Hargeon and I ended up buying him lunch and talking about my admiration for Fairy Tail. Then Natsu destroyed the port because he was fighting someone and the magic Knights ran after us so brought me with him to Fairy Tail."
"Awwwww, how cute!" Lisanna squealed, "He liiiiikes you."
Lucy's face flushed red, "No way! It's not like that!"
"Of course I like Lucy, she's 'nakama'." Natsu intervened.
Everyone at the table burst out laughing, save for Lucy, and slowly left until only Natsu and Lucy remained. Natsu got pulled into a fight with the guy who was always half naked and wore a sword-like necklace. Lucy watched their somewhat comical fight and insults such as 'ice princess' and 'ash for brains', and she found her eyelids slowly shutting despite the constant noise of the guild hall. She closed her eyes and laid her head on the table and fell asleep almost instantly.
"Natsu! Hey Natsu!" Lisanna screamed over the ruckus that was technically his doing.
"What!? I'm tryin' ta fight Gray here!"
"Unless you want Lucy to be hurt or squished in her sleep, I suggest you move her!" Lisanna yelled back, pointing to the blonde that was passed out on the table they were sitting at earlier. Wakaba suddenly went flying in the direction of Lucy as if to say 'you were way too late on moving her to a safe place'. He took off at superhuman speed and jumped onto and then off the closest persons' back and collided with the older member of the guild — straight into a wall but saving Lucy.
"You're probably right!" Natsu shouted back after he'd recovered from the less than pleasant landing in bits of broken plaster and brick. He scooped up Lucy princess style and called Happy over so they could go home, "See ya," He yelled to the people that could hear him.
Natsu and Happy walked home in silence and Lucy didn't stir in her sleep. Natsu could hold her without a problem, probably because of the dragon slayers' strength and the strength he developed from jobs and fighting.
When they got home, Natsu plunked Lucy on the couch and Happy spread a blanket over her and snuggled into her side, "'Night little buddy, see ya in the morning." Natsu said as he climbed the stairs to his room.
"Hey Natsu and Happy, do you want to see one of my spirits now?" Lucy smiled. They had just woken up and were sitting at the table at Natsu's place still in their pyjamas.
"Yes!" They said in sync with childish excitement.
"Ok, well here are all of my keys," She said while carefully placing each one on the table. "Horologium the clock," Lucy gestured to a shiny silver key with a clock face at the top of it. "Crux, the southern cross," Another silver key with a simple cross on it. "Lyra, the lyre," She pointed at the last silver key with a strange harp shaped design on it. "And these ones," Lucy pointed to the three glittering gold keys which had their respectful zodiac sign on it, "Are the gate keys to the zodiac spirits, Aquarius, the water bearer, Taurus, the bull, and Cancer, the crab."
"Can we eat the crab?" Natsu and Happy said in complete unison with drool dripping at the thought of eating.
"Absolutely not! Cancer can feel pain and I'd never subject my friends to that kind of torture."
"Fine, we won't." They pouted. "Can you show us what they look like?"
"No, not all of them but I'll show you how I make contracts with my spirits with the new key I got, Nikora of the Canis Minor constellation." Lucy said, pulling out her new silver key and held it out in front of her. "I am the one who connects the stellar spirit world. You will respond to the calling and pass through the gate." A shiny lock appeared and grew out into a massive circle, "Open, gate of the Canis Minor, Nikora!"
"Wow," Natsu said, slack jawed with astonishment.
"Aye," Happy said with the same expression as Natsu.
A snowman-looking thing appeared, it was around the size of Happy with a nose that looked like an orange carrot. It "Don't feel to bad," Natsu stuttered out, thinking she had failed.
"It's not a failure!" She said indignantly, swiping up the Nikora and cuddling it with affection. "Aww, he's so cute! I'm gonna name him Plue."
"Isn't it's name Nikora?" Natsu asked, still reeling from the the anticlimactic summoning.
"He's a 'he' not an 'it' and Nikora is the generic name. Plue sounds cuter anyway... Moving on to the contract," Lucy sat down cross legged and began to ask what days he could come out of the celestial spirit world to which Plue would either shake or nod his head. She took note of the days in a little starry notebook."Okay, the contract's done," She smiled at Plue.
"It's really easy." Natsu stated.
"I know, but it's extremely important for us. Stellar spirit mages regard the contracts, or promises, with utmost importance. That's why I never break promises." Lucy said, excited that she could talk about her beloved friends with someone. She hugged Happy like he was a teddy bear for no good reason (Lucy: What? A girl can just be in a hugging mood.), while Natsu was busy watching Plue do a weird little dance and when Plue finished, Natsu gaped at him.
"Plue that's a great idea!" Natsu exclaimed.
"What is?" Lucy asked.
"Let's make a team!" Natsu said with excitement.
"Aye," Happy said with a grin.
"... Yeah ok... It's a promise." Lucy said uncertainly. She wasn't used to kindness and people wanting her company other than getting money off of her.
Natsu grabbed something from his pocket and shoved it in Lucy's face, "I already picked up the perfect job for us to go on!" He said excitedly. Lucy took it from his hands and began to read it.
Please find and destroy the book 'Day Break'
It is located in the library inside Duke Evaloo's mansion
Reward: 200,000J
Warning: Duke Evaloo is a pervert, womaniser, overall hentai, and wants to hire a maid with blonde hair. You have been warned.
"H-how could you!?" Lucy said, then increased the volume of her voice, "You used me! You bastard!"
"Pfftt, aye, we did," Happy snickered.
"We are gonna use you to sneak in there! Great idea right?"
"No! I hate being used like this!" Lucy yelled with livid aggression.
"Too bad, we already signed you up for the job with us," Natsu said, "Besides, we didn't choose you just 'cause you're a blonde; we chose you 'cause you're nice!" He smiled. Lucy blushed and accepted her fate that came with being Natsu's partner.
"Aye, he liiiikes you!" Happy blurted out with laughter following after. Lucy blushed and Natsu stood with a blank look on his face, confused as per usual. Natsu shrugged Happy's statement off and continued normally, tugging on Lucy's hand to follow him and grabbing Happy on the way out of the slightly burnt front door. Probably from a day when Natsu was too fire happy, but then again, when wasn't he?
A small, light blue haired girl, an orange haired man with an odd hat placed on his head, and a black haired man with the back of his hair looking like it had been licked by a cow stood at the Fairy Tail guild's request board. "Hey, did someone take the Evaloo mansion job?" The blue haired girl asked Mira.
"Yes. In fact, you just missed it Levy. Natsu took it not too long ago, apparently he was going to take Lucy with him and Happy." Mira answered politely.
Levy sighed, "Damn, I was thinking of taking it too." The two others grumbled after, thinking of the hefty reward for a relatively easy looking job.
"Levy, maybe it's best if you didn't go," Master Makarov cautioned.
"Why?" Mira, Levy and the two boys asked in unison.
"I just got in contact with the client and the reward has been raised to two million jewels."
"Ten times more!?" Levy spluttered. The others who had heard the conversation either had their mouths hung open or was choking on their drinks. "That's almost as much as an S-class mission!"
Master shrugged and went back to drinking his beer with an uncaring air about him.
I might not post for a while because I haven't done any chapters after this and my other fanfic probably will go on hiatus since I'm not really getting into the story when I write it but this one is pretty interesting (of course it is, it's FT) so yeah... I hope I don't procrastinate with this one or get bored.