Chapter Sixteen: Stargazing

Lucy's POV

As I walked along, I really had no idea if what Aston said was true. I could summon shadows? If we were talking about some Spirit, I was sure that Natsu, Erza, Gray or someone would have it, right? I was never anything that made me stand out, except for my last name which really didn't count since I never earned any of that stuff myself. But I never would have picked me for some super-rare type of magic.

Well, if it is true, I have to start practising on it… I thought. Aston had said I had to 'awaken' the power. Maybe if I worked hard on it, something might happen?

With that thought, I went straight to the forest outside of town. The area was quiet and peaceful which was good for concentrating. Also, no one was around so if I did do something wrong, I wouldn't have any injured people on my hands. I picked a shady spot with plenty of shadows where I could concentrate and the shadows would be able to appear if they wanted to.

Taking a couple of deep breaths, I closed my eyes and stayed perfectly silent, concentrating and gathering my magic power, like I would do to summon a Celestial Spirit. Then, when I felt I gathered enough, I let it all out.

A huge explosion of light erupted but as soon as that disappeared, I saw nothing had changed in the area. No Shadows, not even wild ones.

It is only the first try, I convinced myself, taking another deep breath. But before, I could start gathering some more magic power, a glow intruded my eyes. I opened them and saw a familiar mermaid sitting on a rock in front of me.

"Aquarius?" I said in disbelief, staring at my Celestial Spirit who had come out by herself.

"No, Peter Pan, who do you think?" said Aquarius.

Yep, definitely Aquarius.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Reminding you what you should already know," said Aquarius snappily, "Which is what the heck are you doing, releasing considerable amounts of magic power? It's wasteful and it also makes you exhausted! Do you know what could happen if you faint out here from using up all your magic power so quickly? Any decent creature could kill you in less than a minute!"

I sighed and ignored her, closing my eyes again, hoping she'd get the hint and go back to the Spirit World.

Freezing water splashed in my face and I yelped in surprise.

"Are you not listening?" demanded Aquarius, lowering her urn. She glared at me while I squeezed my hair to get the water out, "I had to cancel and date with Scorpio because of this so you'd better be grateful!"

"I intended to stop before I fainted," I replied, squeezing my hair on the left side, "I'm not that stupid."

"Hm… really?" said Aquarius sarcastically.

"AND WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?" I cried.

"Nothing," said Aquarius, leaning forward a bit and resting her face on her propped up hand, her elbow resting on her tail, "But, since I've been with you long enough to know you do reckless things and this is one of those things, I'm staying here in case you do faint."

"I won't!" I protested.

Aquarius smiled slightly at me. A rare thing, for her, "We'll see."

I glared at her (which didn't seem to affect her in the least) but decided it wasn't worth it and instead concentrated on my magic.

As time passes…

I hadn't even realised it was the middle of sunset when I bothered to pay attention to the time again. I had been concentrating so hard, it could have been two in the morning and I wouldn't know. Now that I started paying attention to myself again, I was exhausted and drained of magic power since I used too much all at once and it couldn't re-supply itself quick enough. I panted and leaned against a nearby tree trunk. I hadn't made any progress in the day. I just had eruption after eruption of light with no Shadows. They simply didn't like me or there was something I was doing wrong.

Aquarius hadn't moved at all from her position until she had me convinced she'd turned to stone. But then she moved, "Lucy, you're exhausted. Take a break for today."

I immediately straightened up, "One more try, please? And, more importantly, aren't you in pain or something from being here so long?"

Aquarius seemed to smile slightly for a second but I blinked and it was gone. She looked sternly at me to let me know it'd definitely be the last time, no question, "Fine. ONE. And this is nothing. I'm just concerned about you since you'll definitely overdo it!"

"Thank you," I said gratefully, closing my eyes. I gathered every ounce of magic I could possibly wring out from my already pretty much empty body. When I gathered all of that, I held it ready and gathered everything until I was sure not even a speck of magic was left. Taking a deep breath, I let it all out.

An even brighter explosion of light let out over the entire area. I heard Aquarius give a yelp of surprise even.

Did… I do it? I thought, my vision blurring as I fought to stay conscious. Tiredness overwhelmed me and I fell to the ground, blacking out.

…

"Lucy! Oi, Lucy, wake up!" called a voice. I tightened my eyes, wanting to not wake up and I wanted to sleep a bit more. I had been deprived of sleep lately so it was actually quite a nice feeling to finally relax and see nothing but pitch black. Though the voice kept intruding my sleep and I finally had to wake up.

Happy was right in my face, staring at me and calling my name, "Lucy! Are you OK?"

"Happy?" I cried, immediately awake. I sat up quickly and found that I was in a bed and in an unfamiliar room. I looked around but I couldn't find anything familiar about where I was. There were bookshelves and tables with various equipment pieces and plants scattered on top of them. The inside looked like a tree house like a fairy might live in because of everything made of wood or something natural, except for the bed and random equipment. Though the house was homely and actually quite relaxing because of the scent of flowers in the air. The light came in from a window next to me. I looked out and saw it was still already dark. I had been out for some time.

"What in the— Where am I? How did I—?" I asked before cutting off, recalling what had happened. I had been trying to summon Shadows for God knows how long and I'd run out of magic power, became exhausted from using it all at once and fainted, "Oh."

Suddenly the door thumped open and a familiar mage ran in, "Lucy!"

"Natsu!" I said.

"Are you OK?" yelled Natsu, dumping some plants on the table and running to my bedside, "What the hell happened to you? Did someone attack you? Who was it?"

"Calm down, Natsu," I said, smiling, "I was just doing some training and accidentally overdid it so I fainted. How did you find me anyway?"

"HUGE explosions of light were going off in the forest near where Happy and I live!" said Natsu, "Your scent was in that direction and we thought someone was attacking you so we ran over and found Aquarius leaning over your unconscious body! I couldn't sense ANY magic power, Luce! I thought you were dead!"

"I wouldn't die that easily, Natsu," I assured him, "Besides that, where am I now?"

"Well, when I checked you were still breathing, I assumed you had been badly injured or something. Aquarius had to go back to the Spirit World because she was in pain."

"I knew it!" I couldn't help but say, "Geez. Why couldn't she just tell me in the first place? I don't want them in pain…"

"Oh, and when she faded away, she told us to tell you 'I was right'," said Happy.

I couldn't help but smile, "Hontou?"

"And also, she says," said Happy, putting on a great impression of Aquarius' angry face, "'you'd better be prepared when I get my hands on you for going back on your word!'"

I shivered. I had fainted when I said I wouldn't. Damn it.

"Anyway," said Natsu, "After I checked your breathing was regular, I carried you over here to Gramps' friend's house."

"Who…?" I asked.

"That'd be me," said a strong, elderly voice. I looked to the entrance and saw an older pink-haired woman standing there. She walked in and sat down on a seat beside my bed. She was rather tall and dressed in a cloak. Her deep red eyes scanned me over for any injuries. She didn't seem to notice any.

"You overdid it on your magic," said the woman, "To state the obvious. I'm Porlyusica."

"Porlyusica-san?" I said as the familiar name hit me, "The one who helped Master and Erza?"

"Yes, you'd be right, Lucy."

"How did you know my name?"

"This boy came in and started screaming for me to 'help Lucy'. It was pretty obvious."

"Oh," I smiled at Natsu, "Well, now that I'm better, can I go?"

"To be honest, I would love nothing more than that," said Porlyusica, "But no. Something about you tells me you'll immediately overdo it and end up right back here. You have to allow your body some time to re-supply the magic power you lost." She walked to the table with all sorts of stuff on it and began using magic to extract things from plants, putting them into a mixture and adding a couple of drops of something I couldn't identify. After giving it a good stir, she walked back to me and handed me the cup, "It is a healing drink. It'll help lift the tired feeling from your body and allow magic to re-supply faster."

"Oh, nice," said Natsu, "Hey, Luce, can I have some—"

"You two, out!" shouted Porlyusica, suddenly breaking her calm appearance, "My limit is only spoiling one human! Get some healing herbs for me if you've so much time!"

"H-HAI!" shouted Natsu and Happy, running out. I nearly dropped my cup in shock and sweat-dropped, "Eh…?"

"Geez," said Porlyusica, back to normal and sitting down again. She observed me closely, which made me somewhat uncomfortable.

"Um, if you don't like humans, I could just go out," I said, "I promise not to overdo it again…"

Porlyusica sighed, "I made a promise with Natsu. I have to admit, I was surprised when he came in here, carrying an unconscious human. At first I refused him, like I do every other human. But then he literally begged on all fours, thinking something was really wrong with you. I have only rarely seen humans go to that extent…" she murmured and I wasn't sure if she was speaking to me or herself, "I decided to help him. He asked me continually if you were all right. Finally I just promised him I would definitely make sure you were in full health before I let you leave. I can't go back on my word now, can I?"

I looked down, not sure what to reply with. My reflection rippled on the surface of the liquid, trembling with every small movement. Natsu would go to that extent for me. He would probably go to that extent for anybody but it seemed quite surprising to me and made me feel good to have such a great friend. I lifted the cup and took a sip.

I nearly spat the drink back out. It was bitter and the taste lingered in my mouth no matter how many times I tried to swallow it down.

"What is in this?" I said.

"Now don't you start complaining," said Porlyusica strictly, "Just drink it all. It will do better for you in the long run."

All I could do was nod and gulped the whole thing down. I nearly gagged every time I swallowed some. Finally it was finished. I handed the cup back to Porlyusica and tried to smile. I hoped it didn't look like a grimace, "Thanks."

Porlyusica seemed a bit surprised at me saying 'thanks'. But she quickly recovered, "You're welcome." She stood up and went to the table, "The recovery will be slow. By the time you're fully healthy, it'll be very late. You'll stay here overnight."

"Demo, if I sleep here, where would you sleep?"

"Who said you were sleeping there?" said Porlyusica.

"Eh?" I said, "Wait, what happened to not letting me leave until I was fully better?"

"You won't be leaving my property," said Porlyusica, "Just sleep in the tree. Natsu can sleep there, too."

"Hontou, Granny?" said Natsu, suddenly appearing in the entrance. He held out some medicinal herbs, "Here."

"Natsu, baka!" I said. A dark aura radiated off Porlyusica and her eyes were just two dark holes. She grabbed the broom leaning against the wall, "What… did you say?"

"I can stay in the tree too? Thanks, Granny!" said Natsu cheerily.

"Really, Natsu?" I cried.

"Hm? Nani?" asked Natsu, looking at me and seeing Porlyusica, whose dark aura turned pitch black at the repetition of the word.

"Granny…?" said Porlyusica threateningly, holding the broom like a sword, "EVERYBODY, OUT OF MY HOUSE!"

The door slammed behind us.

"Why was I kicked out too…?" I said, crying anime-style.

"She's scarier than Erza…" said Natsu. I looked at him, the first time I saw Natsu really scared.

I smiled sympathetically and put a hand on his arm, just below his Fairy Tail mark, "Thanks for caring, Natsu."

Natsu grinned widely, "It's nothing."

The stars were shone in the sky, the moon bright as well. Natsu stood up, "Come on, let's go into the tree. We'll go star-gazing tonight."

I smiled, "OK." I stood up and Natsu, without warning, swept me up in his arms.

"Ah! Natsu!" I cried.

"How else are we getting up otherwise?" asked Natsu, "Happy can't lift both of us and he says you're heavy."

"Aye!" agreed Happy, flying up ahead, "Come on, Natsu!"

"Am I heavy?" I asked.

"No, you're nothing," said Natsu. He ran up to the base of the tree before leaping up and working his way up by small footholds I never would have spotted. Shortly we reached the thickest branch which stretched out so we could clearly see the stars without fear of falling since it was sturdy and thick enough for us to sit on.

As I sat down, my body temperature dropped as it adjusted to the new temperature. I shivered and Natsu noticed. I tried to shrug it off but of course, Natsu didn't forget about it. He looked at his clothes and, figuring he didn't have any clothes to lend me, he touched his scarf once before unwrapping it.

"Eh?" I said in shock when I saw what he was doing, "It's all right, Natsu! You don't have to—"

Natsu silently wrapped the scarf around my neck, "It's all right, Lucy. You're one of my best friends so it's OK."

"Natsu…" I said.

"He llllikes you!" said Happy, sitting on the other side of Natsu.

"Happy!" we both complained.

"You both llllike each other!" Happy said instead.

I ignored them both as Natsu and Happy jokingly argued. I touched the white scarf Natsu lent me. It really did look like dragon scales and gave off warmth that a dragon's fire might give, except cooler obviously. I now understood why Natsu never wore a shirt under his waistcoat. The scarf was so warm no matter how cold the weather was around it.

"Thank you, Natsu," I said.

"Eh?" said both Natsu and Happy.

"Thank you, Natsu," I repeated and leaned over to hug him in a friendly hug. Natsu seemed surprised at my sudden hug. I started to pull away but Natsu wrapped his arms around me and held me there. Happy flew over and lied down on Natsu's and my legs, acting as a bed, "I'm going to sleep now~ nya…"

"OK," I said, stroking his head until he fell asleep. Then Natsu and I watched the stars for a while. I spotted the brightest star and smiled. Mother… You're still watching over me, right?

Gray's POV

I walked along the stone floors of Magnolia, going for a short walk before heading back and going to sleep. I looked up and looked at the various stars. Like when I was little, I used to search the sky every night looking for the brightest star, believing the brightest would represent IU or my parents looking over me. Finally I spied it. It shone in the sky, brighter than any other star.

Lucy…

Lucy's POV

Gray…

Both POVs

...are you looking at this star right now?