Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)

Chapter 4: Calm, Cute, and Icy Blue

The following day, Lucy arrived at the guild at 8:00 am to get a head start on her day. A nice smile was on her face, since she knew that Sting would be helping her train today. Lucy remembered how Sting had comforted her when she broke down and told him about how Natsu kicked her off of the team and replaced her with Lisanna, and she was glad to have a friend who was a good listener.

Her brown eyes scanned the request board that was filled with jobs, and she was looking for something in an area of the badlands or at least close to it. A rocky area like that was perfect for some real training to be done, and Lucy needed to do it. Something caught her eye, and Lucy grabbed the flyer sitting by itself at the bottom-left corner of the request board.

This job surprisingly wasn't in the badlands, but it was surprisingly located in a place known as the Snowpoint Temple. This temple was obviously located in the icy region of Fiore, the cold lands with snow and blizzards, and Lucy felt a little bit cold from just thinking about it. Even if Sting found that place to be acceptable, what would the job be like and what would the reward be like?

Lucy thought to herself in a shocked manner while her brown eyes scanned the flyer, "Not only would this be enough to pay my rent for a few more months, but I can definitely share the reward with Sting! He's my new friend, after all. I just hope that none of my spells make me look bad on this first mission with someone from Sabertooth."

While she unknowingly blushed a light shade of pink at the thought of watching Sting destroy huge pillars of ice, Lucy moved a few inches over to the window to check her appearance and make sure that she looked good today. Her hair was tied in a side ponytail on the right side with a green ribbon, and she wore a green vest top and a matching green skirt. The green vest sported a collar and tie that reached only to her mid-chest, and aside from a light green cloth band clasped above her navel, her belly and the under-inside portion of her breasts were exposed. She wore green running shoes, just in case a rockslide would possibly occur. Lucy also had a green bow on the left side of her head as well. Since this job did have lots of reward money, which was green, it wouldn't hurt to dress for success.

As Lucy looked up at the clock on the wall, she noticed that it was only 8:15 am right now. It wouldn't hurt to get to the meeting point early enough to talk to Sting and get to know him, right? They only became acquainted yesterday, and he probably wanted Lucy to tell him things about herself, too. Trust was important not only in friendships, but on jobs as well.

"Hey, you weakling! I've been waiting for you to step aside already, and I need to pick a good job for my team! Now get out of the way, Lucy!" Natsu yelled harshly from behind Lucy, as he proceeded to grab her arm from behind and push her down on to the floor.

Before Lucy could even get up or retaliate with one of her two spells of Water Magic, Gray came running from the left side of the guildhall and gave Natsu a freezing punch to the face while an icy blue aura surrounded his left fist. He saw what Natsu had done, and the ice mage didn't like how the fire dragon slayer was treating Lucy so badly because she was weaker than him.

The two boys began to quarrel once again like they did on an almost-daily basis, until Erza stopped them when she looked annoyed and bashed their heads together. They were both frightened of her, and Lucy looked a bit stern while not even wanting an apology from Natsu. He was a dense jerk who cared so much for Lisanna, and the fire dragon slayer obviously didn't value other women.

Not wanting to deal with anymore drama from the guy that she used to like, Lucy narrowed her brown eyes and looked up at the clock. The time was currently 8:23 in the morning, and Sting would be waiting at the meeting point until 9:00 when the first ship left the harbor. There were no trains leading to Snowpoint Town, a town near the icy temple, and it could only be accessed by crossing the cold seas.

The blonde mage ran out of Fairy Tail's entrance doors, right when Lisanna had just caught sight of her, and Lucy ran down to the harbor where the S.S. Aqua was located. She didn't know that Lisanna wanted to apologize for Natsu's behavior and be on good terms with her, but Lucy didn't exactly trust her. Lisanna could apologize, but Natsu would probably twist the situation into something unpleasant.

"Have an Aqua Ball, you jerk!" She shouted fiercely while giving him a glare, as she fired the blue ball of Water Magic at Natsu.

She hastily ran down the guild's stairs to go meet up with Sting, wanting to start the job already, and Lucy didn't even care that Natsu made a flame engulf his fist while he had blocked her attack with his right fist. Unfortunately for him, the real effect of Lucy's spell was not being like a water balloon. The miniature blue blast of energy surrounded his fist, damaging it, and Natsu yelped in pain. He was lucky that she didn't successively use that spell, honestly.

15 minutes later…

Lucy arrived at the S.S. Aqua for its voyage that was scheduled to end in the cold area of Shiver Town, and she saw Sting standing next to the white ship with his arms folded and a confident smirk on his face. When he saw what she was wearing, he smiled nicely and examined her from head to toe for a few minutes. Lucy was quite fashionable, and also very appealing.

"Nice outfit, Lucy. I guess that sexy style is a good reason for you not getting here a little bit sooner like I expected." Sting told her in a calm tone, as he still smiled and heard her panting from running all the way from the guild.

"I would've been here earlier, but Natsu was being rude to me just because he cares for his angelic little Lisanna. Anyway, enough about him. Here's the flyer, Sting." Lucy explained calmly while handing the flyer to the white dragon slayer, catching her breath while she looked somewhat exhausted.

Apparently, this job simply involved using some spells to break a seal that was in the temple. This magic seal could only be broken by strong amounts of magical power, obviously protecting something of importance, and the job also described the lock to truly be made from the coldest ice in Fiore. Even the hottest flames from a volcano couldn't break the ice, surprisingly.

While Sting's blue eyes scanned the flyer, he noticed that the reward was 600,000 jewels and the reward's description also had a plus sign and a question mark next to it. Would there be some added reward for doing something that didn't involve fighting bad guys at all, and what would this reward be? It certainly made Sting curious about this job, and he hoped that it wasn't a trap.

Sting handed the flyer back to Lucy before they got on the ship, and the brown-eyed girl really wondered if going on this job would make her become much stronger. She had been curious about the blue book that she clutched tightly in her right arm, wondering if she would gain any new spells on her first job with Sting, and Lucy entered on to the ship with him.

Since Lucy had still possessed the card key she used to enter the room at the end of the hallway on her voyage to Castelia Town, it was accepted once again on her and Sting's quest to the cold town of Snowpoint. Lucy looked inside the room to see it clean and shiny like before with a fully stocked food cart of breakfast items, and she smiled with delight.

However, while she was happy, Sting looked like he wanted to puke because of his motion sickness. He couldn't move at all, disliking the movements of the ship, and Lucy wondered if there was a spell in her book that could help him. Her blue book was still pulsating with a cerulean blue glow, and Lucy opened it up to find that two new spells had been written. Instead of one, why had two appeared? Would Lucy need one now, but save the other one for later?

The blonde girl shouted with strong emotions in her voice, determination in her cocoa brown eyes to help her friend, "I call upon thee, the third spell! Cerulean Charm!"

This spell made a small bubble of water rise up from the ocean, and it floated in through the porthole of the cabin where Sting and Lucy were located. The bubble of water surprised Sting while his face was green with motion sickness, wondering what the exact purpose of this spell was, and he looked a bit startled to see the bubble floated directly towards him. What was it going to do?

When the bubble made the slightest amount of contact with his mouth, it softly popped and made Lucy wonder what this spell was for. Suddenly, a cerulean blue aura surrounded Sting's body and the white dragon slayer began to feel perfectly fine like he did before going on to the ship. He also felt a lot more durable than before, like water that seemed to be like solid steel when someone jumped into it from a high altitude, and he also felt more powerful.

Lucy gasped in awe at the discovery of an enhancement and healing spell being in the blue book, having its own three lines in blue text on the second page, and she also realized that this spell only worked with some kind of water around. Conditional spells could be useful, right? She also noticed that Sting wasn't feeling any bad effects from the bubble emerging out of salt water, and this spell must've purified the water to make it consumable for Lucy and her allies.

"Whoa, you totally got me to not feel motion sick anymore. Thanks, Lucy. This will really help me with the voyage to Snowpoint Town, and I feel much more durable than before. That's a pretty cool spell you've got there." Sting told her in a calm while having a cocky smirk on his face.

Lucy thanked Sting for his praise, really glad that her third spell made him feel better, and she had a happy smile on her face as she saw his grin of confidence. Something about Sting made her blush a light shade of pink, whether it be his attitude or his abdominals, and Lucy couldn't resist looking into his charming blue eyes that contained slits in them.

She then came back to reality, though, and realized that they were only on a job together as friends. She didn't know if Sting was interested in someone else or if he was even looking to date anyone right now, and Lucy was still recovering from the heartbreak that Natsu had caused her to have. Rushing into a new relationship would feel more like payback instead of love, and Lucy desired the latter more than the former.

While Lucy went over to the food cart and got a plate of blueberry pancakes to eat with whip cream elegantly swirled on top of the stack, cold air began to flow in through the porthole of the cabin. Sting noticed ice floes drifting in the ocean near the ship, and the eerie calmness of these waters definitely made them be seen as the cold seas. This meant that the blonde mages would be arriving in Snowpoint Town soon, and Lucy hurriedly ate her breakfast.

When the ship arrived in the harbor of Snowpoint Town, Lucy and Sting immediately exited the S.S. Aqua and stepped on to the snow-covered ground. Snowflakes were falling from the grey sky above the town, and many of the townspeople were dressed in winter clothing. Merchant shops were even selling warm chocolate chip cookies and cups of hot chocolate to make easy profits, too.

Lucy shivered a bit while her teeth chattered, having not dressed appropriately for the weather, and she looked somewhat surprised when Sting took her left hand in his right hand. A white aura of warm holy light engulfed his right hand, making Lucy feel warmth while her hand touched his, and Sting thought that it was the least he could do for someone who effaced his motion sickness on a boat.

The two blondes walked up a small staircase to see that the temple was in the back of the town, surrounded by trees that were covered in snow, but there were two guards in front of the temple's entrance. They obviously wouldn't let any random person enter the temple, since they looked extremely stern and strong, and Sting knew there was one way to make them leave their post.

When they looked over at the area near the ship, Sting acted like him and Lucy were friendly tourists that smiled and pointed at the wonderful sights of Snowpoint Town. The white dragon slayer built a little snowman to supposedly impress Lucy, and the brown-eyed girl could understand his sneaky plan. She used the Aqua Ball spell on a metal pole that a little girl was about to lick out of curiosity, and the seemingly simple water balloon attack made her run away in fear. Lucy and Sting used this chance to quickly run to some trees near the temple, and they waited for their chance.

At the sound of Lucy's Aqua Ball making its blast, the two guards quickly ran towards the noise to check it out. This gave Sting and Lucy enough time to run inside the temple, getting past security, and they saw nothing in the icy room. There were stairs going down to a lower floor in the temple, however, and Sting went downstairs while Lucy followed him. The temperature in this place was really cold, but the light from Sting's hand had heat in it that didn't leave his body or Lucy's.

"Sting, there are no stairs in this room. How do we even find what we're looking for when there's nowhere to-" Lucy told him with a puzzled facial expression while not looking where she was walking, before unknowingly slipping and sliding on the icy tiled floor.

She lost her balance, falling in between the four tiles that were in the center of this room, and Lucy gasped fearfully when the ice around her began to suddenly have cracks in it. Was all her weight causing the icy floor to give way like this, or had her clumsiness triggered a secret or trap of some kind? Lucy fell through the floor, screaming in shock, and Sting looked concerned while purposely slipping towards the hole to follow his friend.

Lucy landed in another room of the temple, presumably the bottom room, and she rubbed her sore bottom while wincing in pain. She looked around to see four icicles in the corners of this room, and there was an icy white lock on the wall in front of her. It obviously didn't have a secret in the wall, since there was no indication of a door being there, but Lucy narrowed her brown eyes while feeling something strange emanating from this lock.

Upon seeing four large icicles in this room, Lucy had the strange idea to use the fourth spell in her blue spell book. However, a strange sensation also told her to first use the Aqua Ball spell. She threw four blue spheres of Water Magic at the lock, seeing them burst like small water balloons, and now Lucy had to use the fourth spell. What would this one be like?

She opened the book to see that the words of the fourth spell were pulsating with a sapphire blue glow, and this spell was known as Scalding Shot. It caused Lucy to unleash a scalding and spiraling beam of blue water from her mouth, and the water was obviously hot by the fact that steam was surrounding it. Lucy was pushed backwards by her attack, and something great began to transpire.

Scalding Shot's power increased by four times its primary amount when it touched the lock, and the spell had also grown four times its original size while moving four times as fast. The chain power of the Aqua Balls obviously assisted with other spells, and a massive blue blast of energy occurred after a single moment! Lucy could hear the icy lock breaking, the walls crumbling, and she didn't notice that Sting finally made his way down here.

"What the heck was that power now, Lucy? Did you break the lock?" He curiously asked while the white smoke was lingering, as the walls continued to crumble and reveal something.

This temple had been hiding a strange blue aura that was floating behind the wall, mostly likely stored away for people to not use its powers for evil, and Lucy looked surprised to see the cerulean blue aura enter her book like it belonged there. The spell book shined with blue light once more, and more of the text on its pages became blue for Lucy to read it.

Much to her surprise, and to Sting's amazement, it looked like four new spells had appeared! However, the blue text informed Lucy that these spells couldn't be used right now. She still needed to grow a bit before using these spells of Water Magic, and Lucy also looked astounded to see a bag of 600,000 jewels emerge from the shadow of an icicle.

"We did it, Sting! Our first job together was a great success, and I think that I've gotten a bit stronger from this!" Lucy told him with a happy smile on her face, before hugging him tightly and giggling with joy.

Sting hugged back, and he took a sniff of Lucy to enjoy her wonderful scent of strawberries and vanilla. She smelled so nice and sweet, just like her attitude, and Sting liked how her cocoa brown eyes seemed so innocent and pure. She was a really great partner for anyone to have around, making him not understand how Natsu could deem her as weak.

Speaking of not being weak, the white dragon slayer decided that the cold lake near Snowpoint Town was the perfect place for Lucy to use her Water Magic. She could spend her time training there with him, and she would certainly much stronger. He immediately informed Lucy of this decision, and she seemed quite eager to train and gain some strength.

"Man, this chick is so awesome. She's so strong, and Lucy is pretty cute. Wait, did I just say she's cute? Well, she does look a little bit attractive." Sting thought to himself while they finished their hug, before getting the bag of money for Lucy and finishing up this little adventure.

As Lucy purposely used the Aqua Ball spell on the ground to have a blast propel them upward to the upper floor of the temple, she and Sting didn't notice that Karen had appeared from the shadow of an icicle. She had seen the new powers inside of Lucy's book, seeing the four spells take up more pages, and Karen knew that Lucy was unlocking her master's spells.

"One of the seals is finally broken, and those spells will create something delightful to see. Master, do you feel your revival approaching? A part of you will soon be alive, and the rest will eventually follow." Karen thought to herself while smiling a bit, before vanishing into the shadows once more.

-One month timeskip-

Sting and Lucy had gone on jobs together for a while now, mostly as some training for Lucy to help her skills reach higher levels, and the two blondes had also been sharing the impressive amounts of money that they received from their jobs. Lucy had not forgotten about her Celestial Spirits, summoning mainly Loke and Aquarius when the times called for their appearances, but Lucy could still only open two Zodiac Gates.

She had also been glad that her time with Sting was getting her away from the sight of Natsu getting cuddly with Lisanna, but Lucy did have to sometimes dodge a few arrows when Levy or Erza would ask her where she was or if she could handle taking such tough jobs by herself. Well, they had never known that she would be accompanied by someone from the rival guild of Fairy Tail.

Lucy was also beginning to see Sting as a great partner on jobs, since his White Dragon Slayer Magic came in handy whenever Lucy's Water Magic or Celestial Spirits proved to be ineffective against giant monsters and groups of bandits. Sting had a few new moves up his sleeve, but he couldn't use them as once. He informed Lucy that his situation with Caster Magic was similar to her dilemma with Holder Magic. The limit to her spells was not bottomless, and Sting's energy also had its limits.

They had been training at the icy lake near Snowpoint Town for a whole month now as well, and Lucy's physical and magical strength had grown. She could keep up with Sting in a long race to and all the way back from the long snowy route that led towards Snowpoint Town, she could hold a large snowball above her head for 80 minutes, and she could spar with Sting afterwards while hardly feeling tired.

Also, her four new spells of Water Magic had been ready for her to use after she decided to become strong enough for Sting to not protect her as much. The fifth spell made Lucy have the ability to create sharks out of water, and they would rocket off towards their target at high speeds before exploding on contact with it. This was a chain spell like the others, meaning it became more power if used successively, and Lucy named this spell Aqua Torpedo.

The sixth spell caused a small blue bubble of water to form inside Lucy's mouth, and she surprisingly swallowed it instead of spitting it out. When she cast the spell again, Lucy spat out a larger blue bubble that could create a large cerulean blue blast or make a large blue ball of sticky saliva immobilize its target when it hit something. The chain spell could even be used if Lucy bit the bubbles and cast the spell again, and she called it Cerulean Chew.

The seventh spell made Lucy have the power to create a blue teardrop-shaped shield to defend herself from projectiles, and the shield would turn the long-range attacks into water that went directly into Lucy's mouth. She felt more durable and powerful from the shield's ability, and it helped her spells grow stronger to strike enemies. The shield could also reflect attacks on Lucy's command, and freeze enemies. This spell was called Sapphire Shield, by the way.

Finally, the eighth spell allowed Lucy to create a large blue sphere of Water Magic in her hands, and she could shoot it at an enemy to create an enormous light blue blast of Water Magic. This attack could follow its opponents, as well as absorbing any attack sent at it, and its power would be exponentially increased with the effect of chain power. Lucy named this spell Azure Ace, too.

Today, Sting had Lucy meet him at a bakery shop in Magnolia to discuss something important with her. He had also asked her to bring the blue spell book with her, most likely realizing something about it, and Lucy wondered what Sting to talk about with her. She even planned to buy him a lot of cookies for being such a good partner on every job that they did together.

Lucy wore a pink blouse with a scarlet red neckline and trim, which was complimented by a red miniskirt. She also wore some ruby red boots to match. After all, she found it important to look her best for meetings of every kind. She had her blonde hair down, and Sting's jaw nearly dropped when Lucy sat across from him at the table. He didn't think she was cute. He thought she looked pretty hot.

"You look nice as always, Lucy. That's one of the things I like about us working together, and I bought us some cookies. You'll be the first girl to say that the great Sting Eucliffe treated you to some fine desserts." Sting told her with a cocky smirk on his face while giving her a thumbs-up.

Lucy replied nicely to him, as she giggled at his arrogance and took one of the chocolate chip cookies off of her plate, "You're always so confident about things, you know. I like how you stay calm and positive in most situations."

"It's never good to freak out, or you won't be able to focus and succeed. When you are perfectly calm, the situation will totally be in your control." He told her with a calm facial expression, before eating ten chocolate cookies at once.

"I'll keep that in mind, Sting. Why did you call me here, anyway?" Lucy asked him curiously while looking puzzled.

Was this just a meeting, or was this just Sting's way of setting up a date while being in his usual attire? He obviously had something to say to her, or he wouldn't have called her out here and given her the day off from training. What kind of idea did Sting have about the book, and would it be something really logical with a great effect included?

"We won't train near the icy lake anymore, starting tomorrow. I heard that books needing spells to be unlocked would reach their full potential not only with the book master's will, but also in the respective environment. I want to see what you can do with a different type of magic, and we'll be fighting a pretty dangerous enemy who's popular." He explained calmly while biting into another cookie, smiling a bit.

"You can't be serious, Sting! I know there are many wanted posters for her, but we can't go after someone like that! Her powers will destroy us, and I don't want to get badly hurt!" Lucy pleaded while her body trembled, her fear obviously revealing itself to Sting.

She immediately got up from the table, and decided to leave the bakery shop to go do something else. However, Sting gently grabbed her hand and watched her slowly turn around to face him. Lucy was about to yell in his face, but then something unexpected happened. Sting pulled her into a soft hug, causing Lucy to feel his warmth and his strong sense of trust.

"There's no need to worry, Lucy. I won't let you get hurt on this job, and I'll be right beside you. You're a mage of Fairy Tail, but you're a nakama of Sabertooth." Sting softly whispered into her ear while they continued to hug, and he put his arms around her waist.

Lucy could only feel her fear slowly dying down, as her body stopped trembling and her cheeks blushed a light shade of pink while she was returning the hug to Sting. She felt safe and warm with him right now, and Lucy let out a soft and happy sigh while looking into his enchanting blue eyes. They felt so hypnotic, drawing her in, and Lucy's heart began to beat joyfully.

How was the 4th chapter? Did you like it? Lucy has learned a lot of Water Magic, but only half of the spells since it gets upgraded later on in the story. The StiCy is getting some momentum going as well, thankfully. Who will Lucy and Sting have to fight, and what type of magic shall come next? Standby for the update!