Not much going on with this chapter, mostly Nalu. But don't worry your pretty little heads! The next few chapters will have a lot of butt-kicking action in it!
Chapter 9 – Nalu and the train!
"Oi! This is our territory now! So get lost scum!" rang out a voice.
Rico, Lucy and Felicia whipped around from their campfire to see a gang of five, roughly the same age as them standing with smirks on their faces.
"Who are you?" glared Rico as Lucy started to growl, baring her fangs at the others who flinched slightly but kept their ground.
"We're the Arok Vemon!" sneered a green haired with heavy lidded eyes.
"And we're gonna became the best Dark guild in the world so you lowly scum better get lost!"
"D-dark guild!" stuttered Felicia in horror, fear visible on her face.
"Rico I think we better go! These people could be dangerous!" but Rico ignored his friends warning and took a step towards the people who sneered.
"Felicia, when we became a guild, it may become ours job to take out Dark guilds!" said Rico in a cold voice which made the girl flinched.
"So you're gonna take us out huh? I like to see you try!" hissed a raven haired boy wearing a purple headband.
"Wind slicer!" the boy bought his hands forwards in a quick movement and a gust of wind headed straight to Felicia who was still looking at Rico in shock. She didn't see the wind like blade coming.
Lucy leaped in front of her friend and opened her mouth widely, the Arok Vemon's gasped loudly as they watched the blonde seemly suck the attack through her mouth, eating it.
"You're gonna get it now!" grinned Lucy dangerously cracking her knuckles.
"VOID DRAGON'S FIST!" Lucy punched the boy who had attacked Felicia in the gut, the punch sent the boy flying backwards where he smashed into a tree and fell to the floor unconscious.
"W-what the h-hell!" stuttered the boy who had first spoken, he seemed to be the leader of the group who slowly starting to back away.
"LUCY! FINISH THEM OFF!" Screamed Rico pointing at the group who now began to panic, not knowing what the blonde might do next.
Lucy hesitated and looked at Rico with concern, when she didn't make a move Rico snapped his gaze at her and snarled.
"DO IT!"
The blonde gave a tiny nod and reached towards her belt where she unclipped a golden key.
"Open! Gate to the Water Bearer! Aquarius!" commanded Lucy as she thrusts the key into the pot of water they had boiling away on the campfire. It seemed it was a good idea at the time, but when Lucy saw the look on Aquarius's face she knew she had made a grave mistake.
"Thought you'll summon me from boiling water did you? You little wench!" said the water spirit with deadly venom lacing her words.
"TAKE THIS!" Aquarius lifted the jar she held in her hands high in the air and spun it around. A tsunami of giant proportions thundered towards the two screaming groups, Aquarius smirked as the screaming kids were washed away with the water through the trees.
"DON'T CALL ME FOR A MONTH! I'M GOING ON HOILDAY WITH MY BOYFRIEND! YOU GOT THAT!" yelled Aquarius cupping her hands around her mouth so her "master" could hear.
Aquarius chuckled with laughter as she heard a frightened scream in reply, and then vanished back into the spirit world.
Finally the torrent of water became nothing more than a trickle, the two groups were scattered all over the meadow where the water had washed them. No one had the strength or energy to move.
"L….uc….y?" panted Rico lying spread out on the wet grass.
"Y…ea…h?" panted Lucy back trying to move her head to drink the puddle of water next to her for strength, but couldn't.
"Don't eve…r do t…hat again!"
Lucy woke to the sounds of morning and groaned loudly, her body killing her like hell!
"I'm never ever doing that again!" hissed Lucy as her head throbbed where Gray had accidently punched her, aiming for Natsu who had jumped behind the blonde crackling with laughter.
It was for this reason that Lucy woke up alone in bed, she threated the pink haired moron that if he ever came near her at night, let alone try to get into bed with her, she will give him the crushing crown jewel treatment that she gave to Gajeel. This threat seemed to have worked.
The blonde winced as she gingerly got up from her bed and wobbled to her bathroom, maybe a nice long soak in the bath might do her some good before she went to the guild.
Lucy finally arrived at the guild, pushing the doors open and being hit by the noise generating from her fellow noisy guild mates.
"Ah there you are Lucy." Said Erza as she suddenly appeared before the blonde who were rubbing her head, the noise were slowly making her lingering headache worse.
"Come, I have picked a mission for us. This one was actually given to me by the Master." Erza led the blonde over to a table were Gray and Natsu were sitting, glaring at each other.
Lucy took a seat and growled, glaring at the boys who suddenly flinched when their saw her, sweating pouring from their foreheads.
"H-hey Luce!" stuttered Natsu at an attempt of a friendly greeting but Lucy merely turned her head away from him, averting her gaze so she didn't have to look at him.
Natsu pouted and casted his gaze down to the table, crossing his arms as Happy beside him sniggered.
"Right then." Said Erza as she sat on a chair besides Lucy, the red haired mage stared at them all before continuing.
"It seems a dark guild by the name of Death Blade has suddenly appeared out of nowhere and is causing havoc in the town of Herpina." Stated Erza as she spread out the mission slip on the table so everyone could lean in and look.
"Death Blades? Why does that sound so familiar?" thought Lucy to herself, a faint but notable feeling of dread swelling up in her chest.
"The town has requested for the Death Blades to be taken out! And we're doing the job!" smiled Erza with excitement dancing in her eyes.
"All RIGHT! I'M ALL FIRED UP!" yelled Natsu in joy, his fists bursting into flames. Gray simply smirked and absent-mindedly took off his shirt.
"PERVERT! WENDY'S HERE!" screamed Lucy pointing at Gray who just started to undo his trousers, Wendy looked over when she heard her name and squealed in horror when she saw Gray.
"Wha? Gwahhh!" yelled Gray and quickly leaped under the table for his discarded clothes. Juvia who had been hiding/stalking behind the pillar gave a gasp of joy and squealed with delight, her pale face blushing heavily.
"Oh Gray! Juvia does not care when you strip in front of her! Juvia wouldn't mind you ask her to help!" with that the water mage began to drool as naughty daydreams invaded her mind.
"Hehe…. Ice Pervert…" sniggered Natsu.
"What did you say flame breath!" screeched a voice from under the table.
Lucy groaned and banged her head on the table, then cursed loudly a second later flinching. She had forgotten she had a headache.
"Owwww….." hissed Lucy clutching her head, the pain throbbing so bad that it were bringing tears to the stellar mages eyes. She looked across blinking rapidly and noticed the flames dancing merrily from her nakama's hand, for some reason she couldn't tear her watery squinting eyes from it.
With the pain clouding her judgement, Lucy without so much as a thought leaned over and grabbed Natsu's fist, clamping her jaws on the flame and devouring it. Energy flared with the blonde and instantly her headache disappeared, Lucy sighed with relief and then froze.
She looked up to see Natsu staring at her with shock filling his face, his mouth gaping at her. Thankfully nobody else saw this as they were all too busy to notice, except for Happy who looked gobsmacked.
Lucy leaped away from Natsu with embarrassment and fright, with one last fearful look at her still shocked unmoving partner; the blonde leaped to her feet and ran out of the guild.
"Stupid, stupid, STUPID!" Lucy screamed inside her head as she pelted across the street along the canal to her home.
"I can't believe I did that! What was I thinking!"
Lucy skidded to halt in front of her home and quickly unlocked the door, rushing inside. In her panic to get away and the relief of being home, she failed to notice the scent of ash.
"Luce…."
The blonde screamed and spun around, her face going red and her heart beating fast as she saw the one person she were trying to escape standing at the doorway to her living room. How the hell did her get here before her!
"I… I s-sorry!" squeaked Lucy squeezing her eyes shut and backing up against the wall staying away from him.
"I d-didn't mean to! My h-headache was killing me! And your f-f-fire looked so nice! I'm sorry!"
"Luce, don't be scared…" Natsu whispered and Lucy snapped her eyes open when she felt his warm hand on her cheek.
"I'm not mad at you…you just startled me, that's all." Natsu blushed heavily and came closer to his nakama.
Lucy blushed even more and cast her eyes downwards, trying to ignore the roaring feeling in her heart. Natsu seemed to have the same problem; Lucy had always been his best friend. But lately the salamander noticed things about the blonde he had never noticed before and it scared him, but it also made him think that what he and his nakama had could be more.
"If you needed fire for your pain, you only needed to ask." The fire mage pressed his warm forehead against Lucy's and placed his hands on either side of the blonde on the wall, this caused the stellar mage to look up.
"N-natsu…" whispered Lucy nervously and then she closed her eyes. This warmth emitting from the pink haired mage made her relaxed; she loved this warmth of his and wanted to be closer to it.
Slowly she wrapped her arms around his torso and pulled him closer, the heat intensified.
SLAM!
"Lucy! We have to-!" Gray burst through the front door yelling then stopped his tracks, staring at the two mages in an intimate embrace in shock.
"What the hell!" yelled Gray jumping back as if seeing the two of them like this burned him.
"Gray!" squealed Lucy and she roughly pushed Natsu away from her blushing. Natsu looked at Lucy with disappointment and then glared at Gray, his body temperate rapidly rising with anger.
"I'm sorry to interrupt your little make-out session but we have to go! Erza is waiting for us for the mission!" smirked Gray looking at the salamander who growled at him.
"We were NOT making out!" snapped Lucy furiously and she pushed past a still smirking Gray out of the front door.
"Heh… I always thought you were too dense to notice the opposite sex Natsu, too bad you suck at it though. Lucy was quite in a hurry to get away from y-!"
Gray never got to finish as Natsu punched him in the face, making him fly backwards onto the open street outside.
"Shut-up!" Natsu snarled darkly as he ran past the cursing, groaning Gray who was clutching his face and trying to stem the blood trickling from his nose.
"Damn it! What is it with you and punching me lately!" hissed Gray as he pulled himself off the concrete floor and began to wobble towards the guild.
"I'm sorry Erza!" apologized Lucy as she skidded to a halt in front of the re-equip mage who were outside the guild with the mission clasped tightly in her metal gloved hand.
"I'm here!" yelled Natsu as he appeared from no way beside the blonde, Lucy and Natsu made eye contact and blushed looking away.
"Where's Gray?" demanded Erza as she looked up and down the street, finally the ice mage came into view and quickly hustled up to the group.
"What happened to your face!" gasped Lucy at the dried blood on Gray's face.
"Ask your boyfriend!" he snapped angrily clutching his face.
Lucy suddenly bristled and a small growl escaped from her lips, she stepped away from the fire mage who pouted slightly and glared at Gray who flinched.
"He's not my boyfriend! We're just nakama! He's my most trusted partner!" Lucy said angrily.
"Bed Partner….. cos she liiiiiiiiiiiiiike's it! Aye!" whispered Happy thinking Natsu could only hear him, not realising that Lucy could too.
Natsu blushed heavily and the flicked the cat on the nose, earning a yelp of pain from the blue exceed. Lucy quickly turned her head away and closed her eyes trying with all her will power not to snap the damn cat's neck in two.
"ENOUGH!" Roared Erza and everyone flinched and snapped to attention.
"The train will take five hours to get to our destination and I want to get there before it gets dark!"
"T….t-train!" stuttered Natsu in fear as he clutch his stomach, just thinking about the train is making him feel nauseous. He quickly turned to face his blonde nakama with pleading eyes.
"Luce! You'll like me lay in your lap right?"
Lucy looked at him to answer but then noticed the smirk on Gray's face.
"No." said the stellar mage bluntly instantly feeling guilty at the crushing look of panic and disappointment on the pink haired mage's face.
"But Luce!" whined Natsu as Lucy turned away. The Fire mage frown and clutched his stomach tighter, he had a feeling this train ride would be the worse so far in his life.
"Damn it! Just looking at him in this state is making my chest twist in knots! I've never seen him suffer this much before!" thought Lucy looking down to the train floor to a lifeless lump that is her friend.
Natsu groaned loudly with his cheeks bulging, nearly half of the floor is covered in his drooling slobber. It had only been an hour; he still had four hellish torturous hours left.
"That's it! It was funny at first, but now it's just downright pitiful!" moaned Gray moving his feet to avoid the ever increasing pool of drool from the groaning heaving pink haired teen on the floor.
"I can't ignore him anymore, or else I'm going to die from too much guilt!" exclaimed Lucy who indeed looked like she were being tortured with guilt.
Slowly the blonde kneeled to the floor wincing from the drool but tried to ignore it, slowly she edged nearer and gently lifted up Natsu's head to place on her lap.
Natsu's groan subsided as the blonde began to tenderly stoke the pink hair of her friend.
"Lu…..ce…" whispered the fire mage hoarsely and he slowly wrapped his arms around Lucy's waist. Lucy blushed heavily but continued stroking her nakama's hair, her free arm going over his shoulder.
"Your such a pain…" muttered Lucy rolling her eyes but slowly she smiled, ignoring the looks she were getting from the others.
Happy smiled and decided that this time; he would keep his mouth shut. Gray frowned and looked away from this scene before him, he was seriously contemplating whenever to go into another compartment. Erza simply smiled at her friends, and hoped with cross fingers that they would let her be the first to eat a slice of their wedding cake. Oh, and it better be a strawberry cheese cake. Yep!