Chapter Five
Lucy and Romeo woke up early and got ready for the day, then look over and notice that Natsu was still sleeping and both smirk evilly. "Open, Gate of the Water Bairer, Aquarius." Lucy said and Aquarius appeared. She saw that both of them were smirking and raise an brow, Romeo pointed at a sleeping Natsu and Aquarius starting smirking as well. Aquarius isn't a fan of Natsu so she was going to enjoy this. She created a small whirlpool around Natsu, Natsu jolted up being hit from ice cold water from all sides and then glared at the the three of them, they didn't notice since they were laughing their heads off. After another minute they calm down a bit "Thank Aquarius!" Lucy said. "No problem, I enjoyed it." Aquarius said then left. Aquarius is nicer to Lucy since Lucy and Romeo have done so much for her and the other spirits, also did enjoy these plans that Lucy comes up with.
"So we are going hunting today, so if you want food you have to go out there and get it and no eating fire, also the use of magic is forbidden, we do not use magic to hunt so neither will you." Lucy said while Romeo gave Natsu his gear. "You are still going to give me food later right?" Natsu asked worried to go without food. "Nope, you have to do things the way we do, and we get our own food. We will give you food if you admit defeat tho." Lucy said smirking at the end. "I'm never going to admit defeat." Natsu said putting the bow and quiver on his back and the hunting dagger on his belt. The three of them headed out into the forest, Natsu went off on his own, Lucy and Romeo decided to spy on him for a bit to see how he does on his own. After an hour of watching they realize he the worst hunter ever, he makes so much noise that the animals can hear his a mile away, he haven't even seen an animal and is letting his frustration get the better of him, also his tried to use his dragon senses, but failed since he only ever used them in battles. Lucy and Romeo left to actually go hunting, leaving poor Natsu by himself. Both of them only went after small game since they don't really need much right now.
A few hours later Lucy and Romeo were back at the house working in the garden, so far Natsu hasn't come back and the started to think that he got lost, but were going to leave him because he needed to find his own way back and it gives them a better chance of winning the bet. With Natsu he was lost and he hasn't found anything and he was getting hungry, Natsu just sigh, he's not as dumb as most people think, tho he would hate to admit it he most likely wouldn't last the week at this rate. He sigh again thinking if he didn't find his way back before it got late he could spend the night outside. After a few more hours the sun was setting and he finally got back to the house and when he enter he saw Lucy and Romeo eating, after seeing this his stomach growled, getting the attention of Lucy and Romeo. "Looks like you didn't find anything." Romeo said. "Yea well it's not surprising since he has no idea what he is doing." Lucy said. Natsu tried to ignore them and go to sleep, but his nose and stomach wouldn't leave him alone while they were eating, each second was torture, he never went without a meal before, he couldn't even eat fire right now. He finally got a break when they finished their food and the smell went away, the three of them went to sleep and that is the end of day two.
Three more days went by and Natsu still hasn't eaten anything and it was killing him, he was thinking he wasn't going to last another two days of this, and at the end of the day he finally had it when he saw Lucy and Romeo eating a plate full of meat. "Fine I give up, please give me something to eat I starving and can't take it anymore." Natsu said swallowing his pride and did what his stomach told him to do. Lucy and Romeo grinned hearing this and handed him a plate and told him to dig in. Natsu did what he was told and after a minute all the food was gone and he was full. "How do you two survive like this?" Natsu asked. "It's easy for us since we been doing it for years and enjoy it. Better question is how can you survive in that castle? We would get bored after a day and most likely end up destroying it fighting each other to entertain ourselves" Lucy said with Romeo nodding in agreement. "Don't know, I guess it because I go on a lot of missions." Natsu said thinking about it. "Well tomorrow we'll take you back, but we need to make two stops in town before to head to the castle." Lucy said. Natsu just nodded in agreement. The three of the went to sleep, Natsu ready to head home after this hell as he would call it, but after thinking it over he may enjoy it if he gets trained. Thinking he may ask them after he relaxes.
All three of them woke up early in the morning and got ready to leave, Lucy and Romeo grab somethings that were going to give to others. Lucy is carrying a basket full of apples and a basket full of berries, you can guess what the two stops are now, Romeo has some bags of food, and Natsu is carrying the animal skins. It toke them an hour to get into town and they went right to the Magic Shop. "Hey Levy!" Lucy and Romeo shouted when the entered. "Hey you two." Levy said walking over to them with a small box in her hands. "P-Prince Natsu what are you doing here?" Levy asked after seeing Natsu behind them. "Don't mind him, also don't call him prince. Also here you favorite." Lucy said giving her the basket of apples, Natsu was just whispering "Whatever." "Lucy here something for you, also I have some more good news." Levy said giving Lucy the box, Natsu was curious and walk over making Levy a bit nervous. "Natsu stop making her nervous it not nice." Lucy shouted hitting him in the head, making Romeo laugh. "L-Lucy he the prince you shouldn't hit him." Levy said. "I don't care if he a prince, if I want to hit him I'm going to hit him. Now Natsu say your sorry." Lucy said. "I'm sorry for making you nervous." Natsu said trying to avoid Lucy wrath. Levy was so confused then remember she had something to tell Lucy. "Lucy you know the keys I told you about last time, well all of them are on their way here and will be here in a few days." Lucy and Romeo grinned. "But I heard about the key with the spirit of the dog and it disappeared without a trace before I could find anything else out." Levy said worried. "Don't worry Levy, once the Spirit King finds anything out he will send word to us and both me and Romeo will act. After all he keeps calling me and Romeo his friends." Lucy said smiling making Levy smile as well. "So I understand Lucy knowing the Spirit King, but how does Romeo?" Natsu asked. "Well you see, when we found Loke we has banish from the Spirit World for a crime that he didn't commit. Both me and Romeo found him almost out of time in front of his last master grave. I use my magic to try to force his gate close with Romeo suppling me with some of his energy, after we shouted something out about him being wrong he appeared. We both shouted at him and combined our energy to summon all of our family to support us. Then he found Loke innocent and called us his friends since we almost gave our lives to save a spirit." Lucy explain, and it shocked Natsu. "Well we got to go Levy we got to go see Mira and Lisanna now." Lucy said walking out with Romeo and Natsu following and shouted a quick thank you.
The three of them made their way to the orphanage and enter and in a second the kids surrounded Lucy and Romeo, cheering that they were back. Mira and Lisanna enter the room to greet Lucy and Romeo and then froze when they saw Natsu with them. "What the prince doing here?" Lisanna asked. "He with us, we are on our way to the castle to drop him off." Lucy said making Natsu sound like a little kid. Then out of now where someone enter the room "Lucy I thought I heard your voice and Romeo here too, you growing into a fine man." The person said. "Elfman your back." Lucy said with a smile. "Yea got back yesterday." Elfman said walking over and hugging both Lucy and Romeo tightly "C-can't b-breathe" both Lucy and Romeo said, Mira rush to the rescue and got Elfman to release them. They took a deep breathe and Lucy handed her the berries. "So how long are you staying?" Romeo asked Elfman. "About a week then I'm going on another mission." He answered. "Elfman you been gone for weeks, spend more time with your family before going on another mission." Lucy said sightly angry. Elfman saw thing "Yes ma'am" trying avoid her rage. "Why is he scared of her?" Natsu asked confused. "Because Lucy can easily kick his butt." Lisanna answered. "Wait he lose to her, that funny." Natsu said laughing. "Don't forget you lose to her, and she went easy on you." Romeo said shutting Natsu up and made everyone else laugh. "Elfman can you take this stuff?" Romeo asked. "Sure no problem." Elfman said taking all stuff they were carring. "So kids, do you want to see me make a contract with a new spirit?" Lucy asked and they jump in joy shouted yes.
They all went to the backyard and Lucy told them all to stay back except Romeo who was by her side. She open the box and grab the key, both of them took a second to look at the key, then went to work. "I call upon thy in the world of the Celestial World, I call upon you to pass through the gate. Open Gate of the Immortal Bird, Phoinex" and a bright red light blinded everyone then appeared a bird made out of fire. "Greetings you must be my new Master." the bird said in a female voice. "My name is Lucy and this is my brother Romeo, I hope we can be good friends." Lucy said. "I heard of you two, you two treat the other spirits as part of your family, both of you are even friends with the Spirit King. I'm glad that my key reach you." Phoenix said with a happy tone. "Yes now we need to work on our contract." Lucy said. "No need I'm available whenever you need me, also to answer any questions you may have, I use Phoenix Magic, it's like Dragon Slayer Magic, but only Phoenix's can use it so sorry to your brother I can't teach him anything new. I can heal you and anyone else you ask me to, it works by giving my life force to them to heal their wounds, also it not a big deal to do it since I'm a immortal so if I somehow die from it I'll be reborn from the ashes good as new. So draining of my life force in this world is not a problem for me and it can help other spirits as well, but I am still limited by your magic supply and I can't do anything about that. Like some of your other spirits if need to I can force open my gate if you need me and cannot summon me. That is all." Phoenix said making everyone impress. "That it then, when you go back talk to Loke or Leo as you know him, and he will tell you everything else you need to know. And welcome to the family!" Lucy said and Phoenix nodded and left.
After the contract was made all the kids couldn't stop talking about seeing Phoenix, Natsu did a dumb thing and made a comment about eating the fire off of Phoenix earning him a kick to the face by both Lucy and Romeo. After spending sometime with the kids the headed off the the castle, right when they enter the main gate Happy flew right into Natsu chest crying and saying how he miss him. The guards knew better then to try to take Lucy and Romeo weapons away after last time. Happy refuse to get off Natsu chest saying if he did then Natsu would leave without him again. They enter the living room area and everyone was surprise to see them, then Grandine grinned and extended her hand to Igneel "Pay up, I told you Natsu wouldn't be able to last the week." Grandine said making Natsu jaw drop that his mother bet against him. Igneel handed the money over and said "Last time I bet on you Natsu, really was a week that hard to last on your own." Lucy and Romeo were just smirking and walking over and join Wendy on the coach. "So how did he lose?" Wendy asked. "He had to hunt for his own food and couldn't get anything and after a few days of starving he gave up." Lucy said. "Told you his stomach would get the better of him." Grandine said to Igneel. "So what did you make him do?" Igneel asked. "We haven't made him do anything." Romeo answered. "Yet!" he added with a smirk.
They invited Lucy and Romeo for dinner which they accepted, and now were all eating quietly which again was bugging Lucy and Romeo. The only difference was Natsu glance over at Lucy ever now and then, and Grandine grinned at this seeing that Natsu doesn't hate them anymore and seem to be interested in Lucy now, it may be by respect of strength and skill right now, but she knew it will grow into something more, even if she had to force it herself. "So Natsu, what do you plan on doing over the next few days?" Grandine asked. "Well I plan on resting a few days then take a mission." Natsu answered making Grandine smile "Why don't you take Lucy with you, it will be good for both." Lucy and Romeo choke on their food from shock for her said this, "What, I don't want her to join me. Missions are me and Happy only." Natsu shouted. "And I don't want to go on a mission with him either." Lucy said. "Now you two, you should get to know each other better since you going to be seeing each other more often now." Grandine said. "Why is that?" Lucy asked. "Because we want you two to live here in the castle with us. You two live in the forest alone and you are friends with Wendy so we are giving a home." Grandine said with a smile. "Sorry but we are going to decline on that offer. We love it where we live and couldn't be happier there, and no offense but it is boring here, their not much to do." Lucy said which shock everyone but Romeo that she said no to the queen and said that the castle was boring. It was quiet then Igneel started laughing "I like both of you, your not afraid to say that on your mind and don't care who you say it to. Well then at least accept having your own room here for when you visit and need to spend the night." Lucy and Romeo look at each other then turned. "Sure, but we only need one room and one bed, we don't mind sharing and we don't like being separated from each other." Lucy said. Igneel just nodded. "Now that is settle, you two should really go on a mission to get to know each other better." Igneel said. Lucy just sigh knowing that they were going to keep asking. "Fine, but Romeo has to come, like I said we hate being separated from each other." Lucy demanded. "I have no problem with that now Natsu you will take them on a mission if you like it or not." Igneel said. Natsu just nodded not wanting to get his father angry and do something horrible, like get Erza involved, he shivered at the thought.
Lucy and Romeo left to head home, but told Natsu they meet up in five days to do the mission. Lucy and Romeo arrived home and Loke open his gate to join them. "Hey Lucy, Romeo! I meet Phoenix and glad you made a contract with her, I also told her about the picnic we do and she seem excited about it." Loke said. Lucy and Romeo smiled at this "Well it's good that she is happy, so do you anything else to tell us?" Lucy asked. "Yea, so far nothing really new, but we have a feeling that another Celestial Mage is taking the keys, but still don't know why tho." Loke said. It made sense since a Celestial Mage is the only one who can use them, well except for Romeo since the spirits come out through their gates when he calls them for help since he family. "Maybe they are trying to harshness the power of the spirits through the keys to become more powerful or something." Romeo said. "Could be, but why not make a contact with them to use their power, their is no limit on how many spirits you can make a contact with." Loke said. "Maybe they trying to do something else with them, but the idea of that worries me more, I hate not being able to do much about this." Lucy said. "Yea same here, all we can do is collect more keys and protect them." Romeo added. "Well that is it for now, I heard that you going to get my brothers key soon, I am glad that he is going to be safe soon." Loke said then disappeared. Lucy and Romeo decided to go to bed, but keep thinking about what Loke said 'Why would another Celestial Mage take other keys and not make a contact with spirit. What is going on?' was the last thought that they had before they fell asleep.