34th: Envy

Summary: They wanted what the others had. She wanted legs and he wanted a body that didn't betray his identity as a zodiac spirit. In the end, they realised that they had what they needed.

She glared at Aries as she watched the pink-haired spirit jumping around in the Spirit Realm; obviously relived that Leo had made it home uninjured from another mission. The Water Bearer glared especially hard at the long legs, the usually so timid spirit showed off like it meant nothing to her while it was obviously a great deal. Legs weren't meant to be shown off like this – at least this was what Aquarius believed. The mermaid had no legs so she was maybe the wrong person to be judge about this but Aries was showing indecently much skin lately. It was disgusting that this was how low the Ram had sunken on her quest to get the Lion's attention.

And even worse: it worked. Aries' self-confidence had gone up lately because she had finally managed to pass her gate without being summoned – a feat only highly skilled celestial spirits such as Virgo and Leo, the leader of the celestial spirits of the zodiac, had been able to. This made Aries – technically – a better spirit than Aquarius was and she hated the pink-haired brat for this because after centuries of belittling Aries, the Ram suddenly got something called backbone and actually did something instead of apologising all the time. This got under Aquarius' skin like nothing before. Aries was supposed to be the fragile one, the chain's weakest link. And now, the Ram finally did something useful. This made her madder than anything else. This was worse than the foolish summoner dropping her key all the time. This was concurrence and Aquarius hated concurrence – especially with Scorpio showing more and more interest towards the pink-haired spirit.

For a moment, she wondered if her life would be easier if she had legs. She would be able to walk if she had legs. She would be able to appear even if there weren't water. She would be more useful again. She would be stronger.

Scorpio glared at Leo as the Lion strolled down the street, patting down his hair to seem more human – not like there was much to do for him in order to appear perfectly human. Leo, Virgo, Libra and Aries were the lucky ones – with minimal effort, they would always look perfectly human. Well, Aries had to hide her horns but this was hardly difficult.

"Where are you going, Leo?" Scorpio asked as he tried hard not so sound jealous.

"I finally managed to get Aries to go out with me," Leo grinned widely as he looked around before he showed his fellow spirit the bouquet he had been hiding. "We will have dinner in the Human World – Lucy-san recommended a restaurant she was at with Natsu last weekend before she had to call Virgo to clean up the mess they made when Erza-san barged in."

"…and here comes the bride," Virgo announced, close to tears as she dragged Aries down the street, grinning widely. "Look what Libra-chan and I made out of shy little Aries!"

Scorpio and Leo both turned around and the renowned playboy blushed at the sight of his long-time best friend and now-girlfriend. Virgo had somehow managed – and the Scorpion assumed that violence might have been a way to achieve this – to get Aries into a pale pink dress made of silk instead of wool. The pink hair was styled neatly to hide the horns and Scorpio instantly knew that Aquarius would throw a fit if she saw him around Aries.

"We aren't getting married, Virgo!" Aries said as she blushed deeply.

"Yet," Leo grinned before he took her hand. "C'mon, we need to leave now."

And without further ado, they left the Celestial Spirit Realm.

"Finally he made his move on her," Libra sighed as she crossed her arms. "And it's really impressive that she can leave on her own accord now as well. Anyway, bowling?"

"Great idea, ebi," Cancer said as he stored his scissors in his pockets. "Lead the way, Libby."

"I go and look for Aqua," Scorpio sighed before he made his way down the street. He had a dark idea that his girlfriend's bad mood lately was to blame on the change in Aries' behaviour – or more exactly, Aries' return to her more self-confident self which a certain green-haired mage had crushed with all her might.

He found the mermaid at the lake where she watched Pisces swimming as Gemini tried to cheer her up by changing into the most ridiculous shapes.

"Aqua," he said as he sat down next to her. "Are you alright? Cancer said that you have been training too much lately … and you were avoiding me as well."

"Tell the stupid crab to leave me alone," she snorted as she glared at her blue scales. "I am ugly, ain't I, Scorpio? Even Aries - stupid, shy little Aries – is prettier than me."

"Leo thinks this but I think that you are far prettier," he sighed.

"B-but … she has legs, right? She can walk! She can dance!"

"You are the better swimmer, right?" he said as he patted her shoulder. "Look, that she has legs is no need to hate on her now, Aquarius. You have been friends with her for centuries and you took this long to realise that she has legs?"

"The legs are only part of the reason … when she actually tries to look nice, she is extremely pretty!" she protested. "And she has to be stronger than me now that she can leave for the Human Realm whenever she wants to. She can go out for dates there where the nice restaurants are … and we are stuck with the same few restaurants for centuries by now. Even Libra-san gets bored at the bowling centre by now … and she can manipulate the stupid things. I am getting sick of Aries getting things I deserve more than she does."

"It's not yours to judge about what she deserves," he replied in an attempt to appease her. "True, Aries is a lucky spirit lately but she worked hard for it and she suffered for this. You heard from Leo what kind of summoner this Karen-person was and Angel's wasn't any better. You know that. You have met her. She had mostly cruel masters until she became one of Lucy-san's spirits and while I can understand your anger, you have to accept this."

"You spent too much time with Borealis and the other monk-like spirits," she complained.

"Let's spar first and later on, let's go out for dinner, alright? My treat," he grinned. "And neither Borealis nor I are monks. We are both dating someone after all – and while I need to be calm to deal with your temper and while he surely suffers under Corona's short fuse, we learned to deal with those things." He got up and held out his hand. "And though you still don't have legs, Aqua, you have me and I won't leave you, got it?"

She grinned widely as she floated down the street. "And you are far more handsome than that useless playboy," she said amused.

"Damn straight," he chuckled.