The sounds of fighting filled the air. Crashes, curses, shouts, screams, they all mixed together in a horrible cacophony of violence and destruction. It was made all the worse considering they were in a fairly populated train station. Lucy wished she could say she was unaffected by the scene. However, that would be a blatant lie.
Lucy took a deep breath, trying to settle herself. It didn't work. Not with the fight happening a few feet away from her. It was no use to try and distance herself from the battle, it simply followed along behind her, which was strange as the participants didn't seem to acknowledge anything other than each other. A paranoid little part of her suspected Happy was behind it, however she couldn't figure out how the cat would manage that sort of feat.
People were staring. Either in horror at the carnage playing out before them or at her with misguided concern due to her proximity to the fight. She'd had the hope that sitting quietly and out of the way would ensure her presence would go unnoticed, obviously it didn't work that way. She could feel their gaze boring into her and Aquarius's words from the other day rang clearly in her mind. She couldn't afford this kind of attention.
In any other circumstance, she would have found their energy impressive. Natsu and Gray hadn't really stopped fighting since the day before. Whenever one of them would be distracted by an outside force, the other would simply start it up again at the earliest opportunity. Despite that, the fight wasn't very serious. From what she could see, neither of them seemed to actually be trying to hurt each other.
Since waiting it out wasn't doing anything, the only solution Lucy had was to try and stop the fight. The question was how could she?
The best spirit to summon would be Taurus, but Lucy would likely need to save her energy for whatever Erza was dealing with. Even if it wasn't likely she would be able to do much to help. Besides, summoning a spirit was fairly flashy and enough people were paying attention as it was without her adding magic into the mix.
She had her whip with her, but whip welts hurt and the thought of actually striking at one of her comrades, even if only to hold them back, left a foul taste in her mouth.
Lucy could, in theory, separate them physically. However, that option was dismissed as soon as it crossed her mind. There was no way she'd be able to do something like that.
That only left one option.
It took a couple minutes and more yelling than Lucy would have liked, but eventually the two male members of Fairy Tail were seated at an undamaged bench with Lucy stuck in the middle to act as a buffer.
"Why are you here anyway?" Natsu grumbled. His arms were crossed and he was deliberately not facing her, Gray or any of the trains.
"Because I can't say no to Mirajane!" She whined, feeling strangely defeated. Considering her financial situation, Lucy really should be on an actual paying job right now rather than helping out with Erza's unofficial mission. Luckily Mirajane promised her a month of free food at the guild. So that was one less worry for her.
Gray gave a tired sigh, "yeah, that's fair. No one can say no to Mira." A part of Lucy thought that he had no right to sound tired; she was the one who'd had to keep the two of them separated after all. "Why'd she ask you come along anyway?"
"She thought you'd need someone to keep you two from fighting so much." Mirajane was right, they did need someone to keep them from fighting all the time, but Lucy had doubts about her ability to keep things peaceful for long.
Honestly it was a lot like dealing with the newer Lucy Number 7 and Lucy Number 10. Granted, with those two at least Lucy would be able to put them into a time out. She doubted either mage would appreciate any attempt at trying to stick them in a corner.
"Really, look at what you did to the station." She continued, pointing to the destroyed zone not far away. Merchants were still cleaning up their wares and sending glares in their direction. "It's one thing to act like that in the guild or in a fight against an enemy, but do you two not know the meaning of the term collateral damage?"
The dark haired mage on her right snorted. "You really shouldn't expect ash breath to know something like that. He can barely read."
"What did you say frost brain?" Natsu half got up, leaning over Lucy to sneer at Gray.
"Nope!" Lucy grabbed the nearest shoulders of both men and shoved them away. "Gray, you have no right to talk, you're just as bad. Natsu, stop letting him bait you." Almost at one, both men turned away with a huff in order to sulk. Lucy wanted to bury her head in her hands. It really was like dealing with Lucy Number 7 and Lucy Number 10.
In desperation she turned to the only other sane member of the group. "Happy, why couldn't Mirajane ask you to mediate them?"
He smiled cutely up at her, "I don't know what that means."
"It means doing your best to keep them from fighting."
The blue cat shook his head. "Oh, if that's the case, you're doing a really bad job."
"Eh?" She looked quickly to either side of her. Sure enough in her moment of inattention both Natsu and Gray had taken to standing up on the bench, towering over her and pressing their heads together in an attempt to gain the upper hand over the other. Lucy suddenly felt like she was at ground zero for a Lacrima bomb.
A sudden, desperate thought crossed her mind and she sprung up from her now unsafe seat. "Erza! We're over here!"
The effect was just as imitate as it had been yesterday and now that Lucy knew what to expect, the sudden, synchronized and painfully false friendship between Gray and Natsu was actually pretty funny. Lucy couldn't help but laugh. It was too bad her little trick wouldn't work for very long.
"You tricked us!" Even with the knowledge that Erza wasn't actually there, the two mages were still in complete sync with each other.
"You two," she giggled out, "get along much better than you act." Maybe they fought so much in order to show their affection for each other. Lucy didn't know much about friendship, but she hoped she'd never reach that level with anyone. She couldn't imagine how tiring it'd be if she had to constantly fight someone, much less someone she cared about.
Apparently she'd said the wrong thing though because the two men immediately separated and Gray started gagging.
She was distracted from the byplay between the black haired mage and Happy when Natsu turned to look at her in confusion, as if he just realized she was there.
"So, Lucy, why are you here?"
She huffed. "I already told you! Weren't you listening at all?"
It was then that another voice spoke out, a much more feminine voice. "I heard someone call me over, did I make you wait?"
Lucy turned to greet her fellow female mage, only for her jaw to drop at the sheer amount of suitcases the red haired mage had. Lucy liked carrying all her clothes with her too, but even she had her limits. If Erza could drag that small mountain behind her on every mission, it was little wonder she had been able to carry that large horn over her shoulder with one hand.
Gray instantly went back to pretending to be friends with Natsu while the fire mage once again started to imitate Happy. Thankfully for them, however, Erza ignored them in favor of Lucy.
"You were at Fairy Tail yesterday…"
"Oh, yes, I'm Lucy, I just joined a few days ago…Mirajane asked me to tag along."
Erza smiled, "Lucy, huh. So you're the one our guild mates were talking about. They said you defeated a mercenary gorilla in hand to hand combat. A truly impressive feat!"
"Tha-that's not exactly what happened…" Who the heck was telling people these things?
"This mission might be a bit risky," the red head continued, paying no mind to what Lucy was saying, "however, considering how well you did on that job, I think you'll be okay."
"Wait, what? Just how risky are we talking about?" Just as risky as fighting a gorilla bare handed?
"Hold on a minute!" Natsu, thankfully, interrupted before Erza could say anything more to freak Lucy out, "I don't actually care what we're doing but I have a condition to going with you."
"Oh?" One of Erza's thin eyebrows rose at his words. "A condition?"
"When we get back, I want you to fight with me! I've grown stronger since the last time."
Both Lucy and Gray were shocked and somewhat frightened by that condition. At least for Lucy, hearing Natsu declare something like that when he'd normally just go straight into a fight was a bit intimidating. Gray's reaction just increased the intensity of the situation.
Erza, however, simply smiled. "You really have grown up, haven't you. I'm not very confident in myself, but…okay, I'll accept."
"What'd you mean you're not confident! Be serious!"
The red head chuckled. "I know, I've just always wanted to say that." She turned to their fourth member. "Did you want to fight me as well, Gray?"
The other mage shook his head so quickly Lucy was a little concerned he'd give himself whiplash.
Erza's answer was all that Natsu needed though and his head burst into flames. "Yeah! Let's do this!" He cried.
It was all Lucy could do to subtly arrange her hair to cover her face as people started staring again.