-Lucy-
Natsu uncovers my eyes and I blink at the sudden brightness. Natsu's grinning, Sting's smirking, Gajeel's ignoring me, Fro and Happy are jumping up and down and all I can focus on is the banner spread across the ceiling that reads; Happy 18th Birthday Lucy! They'd dragged the couch back towards the wall so they could fit the dining table in the centre of the room. It groaned under the weight of all the food. Cakes, pastries, drinks, hot food, lollies I stared at it all. What on earth is going on here? How did they do all this without me finding out about it?
"Happy Birthday!" Shouts Fro.
"How did you do all this without me knowing?"
They all laugh, even Rogue chuckles a bit.
"It's a secret! You're old now after all!" Says Natsu, I smack his arm.
"Well, this would've been your first Fairy Tail Birthday right?" I nod. "And you know how big Fairy Tail gets on festive. They were holding a party anyway and there was no way we could get you there and back in time for tomorrow's training sessions, so we decided to hold a party for you here!"
I start laughing. "You are all ridiculous!"
"It was all Natsu's idea." Says Rogue. "We didn't even know you were turning 18 today."
I look at him, he's blushing a little but his grin is still the same.
"Yeah well, you're old now so…" I glare at him. "Present time!" He announces suddenly, probably to escape my lecture about not being old and such.
"Exceeds first! Exceeds first!"
Wendy claps and Carla tells me that this gift is from her, Lily, Happy and Lector. Happy flies over to a small pile of presents I didn't notice before. He picks up one that's in a brown bag, and throws it to me. I go to open it but Wendy stops me.
"No! You have to guess!" I frown at her and she giggles. I roll my eyes and feel the bag. The object was small, it could fit in the palm of my hand, and when I pinched it, it separated into two.
"I have no idea."
"Okay, you can open it now!"
I open the bag and pull out two keys. One silver, Leo Minor. I snicker, Loke will be pleased. And another silver one, it looked like a key you'd use to open a door with and it had no markings on it.
"What's this?" I ask, Sting smirks.
"Key to my place." He says. I flush and am about to yell profanities at him when he starts laughing.
"Kidding, kidding. It's supposed to be-" I examine it closer.
"It's a platinum key!" I shriek.
"If you knew why did you ask?"
"Are you sure it's a celestial key Lucy? It looks like a regular key to me."
I nod at Wendy. "Platinum keys are totally different to ordinary keys." I pull out Navi's key and show them. "Navi's key looks to be silver, but it's actually platinum."
"How can you tell?"
"Celestial spirits are formed from constellations right? Platinum keys work differently. Instead of summoning spirits they summon things that once lived in the human world."
"Huh?" Wendy's looking confused.
"Okay. So, I'll give you an example. Say if I fought and defeated a dragon-"
"As if!"
"Shut up Buzz-bee. Let her finish." Natsu snaps.
"Say if I fought and defeated a dragon, I could then pull out an unmarked platinum key and use it to turn the dragon into a spirit! Then the dragon would technically become a spirit and would automatically enter under a contract with me."
"What about Navi?" Laxus steps closer to look at the key.
"Navi's master was defeated. According to Erza she requested her key be bought to me, people can free the spirits attached to the platinum keys though it's a long and draining process. There are only 31platinum keys in existence so people tend to think really hard about whether or not they want to free a spirit. Especially if it's a powerful one."
"Wouldn't that kill them though?" Happy asks me, perching himself on Natsu's shoulder.
"No. If a platinum spirit were to be released then they'd turn back into a tangible, for lack of better word, form and they'd continue doing whatever they were doing before getting themselves caught by a Celestial wizard."
"What if they didn't want to become a spirit?"
I shrug. "That's too bad. They have to stay with their master, they can ignore their master's wishes and refuse to fight, but they'd probably be punished."
The room goes quite and the air grows heavy. I was going to tell them that other thing today. How can I? The put all this work in for me. But the longer we wait, the worse the problem gets.
Cobra looks at me quizzically, but I shake my head.
"Our turn Nii-chan!" Giggles Wendy. Laxus slaps his head comically and thrusts a present wrapped in pink paper into my hands. Wendy steps forward.
"I picked it out myself! It's from me and Niichan!"
I tear the paper a little and discover that it's a book by Kemu Zaleon. It was a copy I already had.
"Thanks!" I say. Natsu peers over my shoulder.
"Luce, don't you already- OUCH!" I stomped on his toe to stop him from saying anything that could hurt Wendy's feelings.
"I didn't get you anything." Sting says. "Coz I didn't know what you liked. So later me and Lector are gonna go with you and you can pick what you like. That okay with you?"
"That's fine, you don't have to-"
"I want to."
"Oh. Okay then!" At least he cares.
Cobra hands me a soft square and when I open it I see it's a blanket.
"We kinda destroyed your other one."
Oh.
Gajeel gives me a brown, braided leather anklet. Attached to it were gold angel wings, a gold five-point star and a gold key.
"From me and Levy." He says. "Levy actually. I'm just the deliverer."
Before I can thank him Fro interrupts.
"Fro next Lu-nyan! Fro and Rogue-kun next!" Fro's beaming so widely I'm afraid it might hurt her face.
"Uh, you know… None of you had to get me anything at all…"
I was ignored.
"This one is from Fro!" Fro informs me depositing a long black box with a white bow in my hands. "Fro picked it out all by Fro's self! Is Lu-nyan proud of Fro?" I pull the box's lid off and see a black quill. The nib was silver and the feather was as long as my palm. I picked it up and twirled it in my fingers experimentally.
"Yes, I'm very proud of you Fro." I say and she claps with childish joy. "Thank you." I bend down and hug her she squeals with delight when I kiss her cheek.
"So Fro gets a kiss but not me?" Sting pouts.
"Don't push it buddy." Says Laxus, hitting the back of his head.
"Rogue-kun next!" Fro announces, pushing the said man closer to me.
Rouge steps forward and hands me a parcel in silver paper. I take it and he steps back shyly, ducking his head. I open it and something filmy pokes through the paper. I take it and hold it up. It's a new cloak. It's made of gossamer and resembles my Fleuve d'étoiles when extended. I pull it around my shoulders and it fastens itself around my neck. I move a little and when I do a shadow of the colours follow me and vanish after a few seconds. There were also a pair of matching gloves.
"Thanks Rogue!"
"Sure."
"Can we eat now?" Happy whines. Everyone looks to me for confirmation.
"Uh, sure."
And after that there is no more conversation. The only rational ones left in the room are Wendy, Carla, Rogue and me. The rest are inhaling the food on the table. Cobra and I are holding a decent conversation, which I find utterly bizarre because he's still shoving food in his mouth at the speed of light. Soon Laxus challenges him to an eating contest and he stops talking so he can concentrate. I find my thoughts drifting to the mission, worrying mostly. If this fails… No-one will be safe. The future depends entirely on this missions success. I remember the briefing and Lahar's explanation. I hear something drop to the floor and look up to see Cobra's terrified expression.
"You're kidding." I stare at him with wide eyes. I hadn't meant for him to hear. He strides over and grabs me roughly by the shoulders. "Tell me you're kidding!" I don't answer and try to squirm out of his grasp.
"Let go. You're hurting me."
"You should have told us sooner! We wouldn't be goofing off! FOR FUCK'S SAKE LUCY DO YOU THINK ANY OF US ARE READY TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT?"
"They gave us six months."
He lets go and steps back. "That's not long enough. And we just wasted over a week."
I look around. I knew he was right, I should have said something sooner. Everyone's staring and the room is deathly silent.
"What's going on?" Sting asks.
"The mission. We should clear up this mess and then Lucy can explain why we're all here." Cobra spits out the words like they taste bad on his tongue.
Everyone pitches in to help tidy the room. When everything's done I sit on the couch, nervous about what was going to take place in the next few minutes. Natsu sits on one side of me and takes my hand. Others are leaning against walls or sitting crossed legged on the ground the Exceeds are perched on tables or shelves. I take a deep breath and steel myself for my next few words. It's only three words but the effect they have is astronomical. Silence, then the room erupted into chaos.
"Acnologia's been breeding."
Oooh~ Who suspected? Some of you expressed your opinions of it having something to do with Dragons but did any of you expect this? Reviews make me write faster and I really do appreciate them. Thanks for your support through the last 30 chapters! Chapter 30! Wow! I only started this a few weeks ago too!
Much Love,
Rose ;)