Chapter 4
The rays of light shined through the windows, entering the celestial mages room and prompting her to wake up. She yawned and stretched, and before she moved, she noticed Happy still sleeping soundly, curled up in a ball against Lucy's leg. Lucy couldn't help but laugh as she pet Happy, noticing a small purr escape his mouth. Lucy got up and walked out of her room and entered the bathroom, opened the bottle of toothpaste, squeezed some on her toothbrush, and began to brush away.
"Hm, it's been a while since I performed a mission with Natsu actually. I should try to get him to do one with me. It'll be fun…except he'll probably end up destroying everything" thought Lucy as she nervously laughed at the thought of Natsu accidentally destroying the town. She spat the toothpaste out and started up the sink, washing her mouth and face. After she dried herself, she left the bathroom and went over to the living room, where she saw Natsu last before going to sleep.
"Hey Natsu, you wanna-Natsu?" started Lucy as she looked around only to realize Natsu wasn't here. She raced up her room and began to put on her old outfit from the Grand Magic Games; a strapless and sleeveless purple top piece with the Fair Tail insignia on left of her chest. Around her neck was an armor piece that spread to her shoulders as well. She wore a mini skirt with a belt around it, and attached to it were her keys and her whip. Finally, she put on her knee high leather boots and shook Happy awake.
"Is it time to eat already?" said Happy in a tired and groggy voice.
"Come on, we have to go find Natsu!" said Lucy urgently.
"He's probably off training somewhere" said Happy as he went back to sleep. Then, Lucy picked Happy up by his tail and began to carry him outside.
"Lucyyyyyyy!" whined Happy as he was held by Lucy upside-down.
"You can sleep later!" lectured Lucy. Happy sighed and spread his wings and began to follow Lucy's lead.
"You are really worried about him. You MUST looooooooooooooooooveeeeeeeeeeeee him" snickered Happy as he giggled. Lucy's face turned into a bright red as she punched Happy with monstrous strength.
They had spent over an hour, searching for Natsu as fast as they could, all over Magnolia. After splitting up, they met up with each other outside of Magnolia.
"Any luck?" asked Lucy, panting and gasping for air.
"Nope. What about you?" asked Happy, who was just as tired as Lucy.
"I got nothing. Where could he be?" asked Lucy, until she felt a powerful magical presence.
"Wait a minute…" said Lucy as she began to walk out into the forest. Happy followed behind her. Lucy kept her hands at her keys, just in case they ran into danger. To her surprise, she had actually found Natsu. He was just standing there, stared down. She and Happy sneaked into a bush, spying on him.
"What's he doing?" asked Lucy.
"I think I know. Look at what he's staring at" said Happy as he pointed at the small grave stone.
"He said that right after he came back to Fairy Tail that he would give Igneel a proper grave. He said it was the least he could do until he killed Acnologia…" said Happy. Lucy just watched sympathetically as Natsu stared at the grave. Just before he turned around and started to walk away, Lucy was able to see one shiny pearl drop from his face, and onto the ground. Lucy smiled as Natsu walked away.
"Oh Natsu…there's only so much you can hold back your tears from" thought Lucy as she stood up.
Lucy and Happy walked towards the guild, and to their surprise, met up with Wendy, Carla, Gajeel, and Pantherlily.
"Well look at this. It's the blue cat" laughed Carla as she walked towards Happy, smiling.
"Hi Carla!" shouted Happy in excitement, spewing with love.
"Welcome back, Happy" said Pantherlily, cross-armed but smiling.
"Thanks Pantherlily" laughed Happy, but then his face immediately darkened and became more serious.
"You didn't make any funny moves on Carla while I was gone, did you Lily?" said Happy in a dark tone, making Pantherlily sigh.
"If the blue cat is here, then that means to pink freak is back too" commented Gajeel.
"Natsu's back?!" shouted Wendy in excitement, glad to hear that her older-brother-like friend has returned.
"Yup, and he has but also hasn't changed at all" laughed Lucy. "We were just heading to the guild, you four wanna join us?" asked Lucy.
"Yeah, we were heading there anyway" replied Wendy, with a smile. Gajeel just shrugged as he walked, followed by the rest.
As the group entered the guild, Wendy immediately searched the area, looking for Natsu. Then, they all saw him, standing in front of the board.
"I wonder what mission I should go on…" muttered Natsu as he rubbed his chin.
"Natsu!" shouted Wendy in happiness as she raced towards him. Natsu turned around in confusion to see Wendy throw her arms around him, embracing him. Natsu suddenly began to remember when Wendy did this when he defeated Zero, making him smile a bit.
"Hey Wendy! How you been?" asked Natsu with a smile.
"I've been great! I've gotten a whole lot stronger since you left!" replied Wendy, still hugging Natsu. Natsu patted her head and when she looked up, she saw Natsu looking at her with a proud expression spread across his face.
"That's great, one day I should have a match against you" laughed Natsu.
"After you have a rematch with me" said Gajeel as he laughed with a smirk.
"Why should I give you a rematch" said Natsu, angering Gajeel.
"BECAUSE YOU OWE ME ONE YOU MORON!" shouted Gajeel.
"FOR WHAT?!" responded Natsu, holding his fist up.
"WELL, FOR ONE, YOU DITCHED ME DURING THE GRAND MAGIC GAMES DURING THE SEMI-FINALS!" shouted Gajeel, still angry about the time Natsu pushed him on a cart and basically abandoned him.
"YOU DITCHED ME!" shouted Natsu.
"WHAT THE HELL?! THAT'S NOT WHAT HAPPENED AT ALL!" shouted Gajeel. Natsu's fist began to be cloaked in flames as he glared at Gajeel.
"WELL IF YOU WANT A REMATCH, I'LL GIVE YOU ONE RIGHT NOW!" shouted Natsu. Gajeel's fist suddenly transformed into an iron sword.
"BRING IT ON FLAME-BRAIN!" shouted Gajeel.
"Here we go again" sighed Carla, as Wendy and Lucy nervously laughed while the rest of the guild laughed hysterically.
"Break it up you-"started Erza.
"STAY OUT OF THIS" shouted the two as they punched Erza right in the face. Suddenly, everyone gasped in shock. Natsu and Gajeel just stared in confusion until they had realized what they had done. And when they did, fear spread across their faces as Erza glared at them menacingly.
"So what mission should we do?" asked Natsu with a swollen cheek from where Erza had struck him.
"How about this one?" asked Lucy as she handed a paper to Erza.
"Hm, we should get something more challenging. This seems like useless labor" stated Erza.
"How about this one? Take out some Vulcans seems decent enough" said Gray. Lucy shuddered as she remembered the first time she had to deal with a Vulcan.
"Na, that's way too easy. Even you could handle it, Gray" laughed Natsu.
"And what's that's supposed to mean flame-for-brains?!" asked Gray in anger.
"If you two start again, I will have to discipline you two all over again like when we were younger" said Erza, as a vein began to show on her forehead.
"W-what I meant to say is that Gray doesn't need us to do that mission!" said Natsu in fear as he gave Gray a friendly hug.
"Y-yeah, and I meant to say that I could never do a mission without you guys!" added Gray, who was hugging Natsu back. Erza smiled while Lucy and Happy laughed. Then, Natsu turned his head towards the board, eyes caught on a certain mission. He suddenly got up and walked over to the board and grabbed the paper, examining it while the rest of his team watched.
"So what's the mission again?" asked Lucy as she stroked Natsu's hair. Natsu was resting his head on Lucy's lap due to his motion sickness caused by the train ride. Happy sat next to her while Erza and Gray sat across from them.
"Apparently, there's been suspicious attacks and robberies occurring in Whiterose, a major city in Fiore" stated Erza.
"For some reason, Natsu really wanted to go on this mission, and once he's got something in his head, there's nothing changing it" said Gray as he sighed. Lucy laughed as she continued softly stroking Natsu's hair as she averted her attention to the chain wrapped around Natsu's left arm. She slowly moved her hands toward it, touching it, then immediately jerked her hand back.
"Lucy? What's wrong?" asked Erza, noticing the tense look on Lucy's face.
"It's this chain…when I touched it, I felt something weird from it" said Lucy as she was about to touch the chain again until Natsu put his hand over the chain. Lucy and the others stared at the chain until the felt the train halt to a stop. In almost an instant, Natsu got up and shouted, as if the fact that he was completely out of power moment ago never happened.
"ALRIGHT! WE CAN FINALLY GET OFF THIS DEATH TRAP, WOO HOO!" shouted Natsu in happiness as he ran out the train door. The rest of the group followed after him and left the station. As they emerged from the station and stared in complete awe at the gorgeous and enormous city. There were skyscrapers that seemed to just disappear above the clouds, cars racing by every few seconds, and the abundance of civilians walked down the road. They suddenly heard a loud scream, which caught there attention. They jerked their head toward source of the scream, already in a battle position.
"LOOK! FAIRY TAIL WIZARDS!" shouted a girl. Suddenly, the people who were just walking by like average people turned to the five wizards, who had a confused expression plastered on their faces. Suddenly, they all began to cheer, chanting the Fairy Tail name.
"Looks like we're kind of famous around here" said Happy as he flew around.
"Yeah, and they seem to be especially fond of Natsu" said Erza with a smile on her face as she watched a giant crowd form around the pink-haired mage, which even he was struggling to escape from. Gray laughed as he saw the mage getting mauled by fans.
"Well when you've done everything Natsu did, can you really explain anything else?" laughed Lucy. Then, crowds began to form around the other Fairy Tail mages as well.
"You're Gray right?!" asked a girl with fascination while the others screamed, some even fainting.
"Please go on a date with me?!" shouted one of the boys that surrounded Lucy and Erza.
"No, what about me?!" shouted another. Lucy and Erza backed up as they nervously watched the crowd become even wilder and wilder.
"ERZA! LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!" shouted Natsu as Happy carried him and flew through the air.
"Requip: Heaven's Wheel Armor!" shouted Erza. Erza began to fly as she went towards Gray and grabbed him, carrying him while floating in midair. Meanwhile, Happy and Natsu shot towards Lucy.
"H-hey! What are you guys-DOIIINGGGGGGG?!" shouted Lucy as Natsu picked her up. When he had her in his arms, Happy floated towards where Erza was. They stared down as the crowd of people watched in amazement.
"So, where are we gonna go now?" asked Gray.
"We should find a place to stay. Since this is a city, finding a hotel shouldn't be a problem.
"But this place is huge!" shouted Lucy.
"Let's split up! Erza and Gray can go cover that side of the city and then we'll get this side. If we find anything, we can contact each other" suggested Happy.
"Good idea Happy! C'mon, let's go!" shouted Natsu. Before anyone could protest, Happy began to shoot through the sky while Natsu cheered and Lucy screamed.
A\N: Welp, that's chapter four. Sorry if some of you just want to get to the action, but I feel like the story would just be more full if I space it out. Plus I want to keep it at a decent pace (Thanks Zangetsu50!) so it doesn't feel rushed. And sorry it took some time to get here, school and all that jazz lol. Anyway, enjoy and review if you want, and I'll see you guys later!