A/N: Alas, we have reached this final chapter! I had so much fun with this fic and I'm glad you guys are enjoying it! Thanks for all the beautiful reviews, I love you all!
Have a fabulous day, minna!
Unbelievable!
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Three days later...
Natsu and Gray slammed their heads down simultaneously on the table in the guild, letting out a loud groan and sigh as their foreheads smashed into the wood. Beside them, Juvia and Erza silently plopped down next to them, bags under their eyes and yawns escaping their mouths. Wendy and Carla wearily squeezed in next to them all while wiping their eyes and their clothes halfway on them. A few tables away, Cana, Evergreen, Bisca, Levy, and Laki were sleeping on a bench, their heads laying restlessly on the table.
"...Do you hear me? I don't want to see you back there until you have paid everything on this paper, and I mean everything," a voice was shouting outside of the guild, causing Natsu, Gray, Wendy, Carla, Erza, Juvia, and Happy, who out of nowhere came to sit next to Natsu, to perk up.
"Okay, okay, I understand now," a second voice was saying, and this sounded like Lucy.
"Good, now go make some money and scram!" retorted the first person.
Lucy entered the guild a few moments later, her shoulders sagging and her face graced with a smug frown. She dragged her feet along the floor as she came in, and in her right hand was a printed paper, scribbled with signatures and numbers and payments, signed all by herself and her landlady.
Natsu beamed at her presence and his face took the form of his signature smile. "Oi Lucy!" he called her over enthusiastically, the demeanor he was sporting a few seconds ago already gone like the wind.
Lucy looked up and caught his gaze, grinning a little before she walked over to them with the paper in hand. "Good morning guys," she greeted dryly, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and yawning cutely, waving the paper in her hand. Their eyes followed it skeptically as she waved it around before she suddenly slammed it down on the table with such an unknown anger that she startled Erza, who was hard to scare.
"Lucy what is that...?" The numbers were the first thing everyone noticed when they were finally able to scrutinize the paper, and upon seeing a dollar sign next to a six digit number, they groaned aloud altogether and slammed their heads again on the table, pain coursing through them all but with not one of them caring.
"This is all the money I owe...for what happened at the slumber party three days ago," Lucy explained in a surprisingly scary tone, a dark and dangerous tone that was not to be questioned. "You guys...because of you guys I owe a total of...three hundred thousand jewels!"
After the slumber party three days before where everything had ended up soaking wet and frozen to ice in Lucy's apartment, her landlady had called the police to report "dangerous behavior and disastrous messes", which had caused the police to come and see the horrible state of Lucy's apartment and, after hours of unfreezing everything using fire magic that Natsu had been prohibited to use at the moment, they had arrested everyone who had attended the party for violating the use of the apartment building, and the party-ers had been sentenced to a forty-eight hour prison confinement. Then the previous day just before this current day, they had had to endure interrogations from the police, as they were asked why they threw the party, why and how it got out of hand, etc, then Gray, Natsu, and Gajeel had taken three hours to get out of all their clothes and wipe all the makeup from their faces, as they hadn't been able to do so while they had been in their prison cells. Then, to make matters worse, Lucy's landlady had filed a complaint about the misuse of the apartment building, claiming Lucy owed her money for the destruction and allowing everything to get frozen and soaked, but instead of taking the situation to court the policemen, exhausted as they had been, simply wrote out a fine for Lucy with a generous deadline: she had two weeks to pay the three hundred thousand jewel fine.
Wendy gasped in shock as she stared at the paper underneath Lucy's hand. "Lucy-san, I'm so sorry..."
"Oh don't worry Wendy, it's not your fault that everything that happened did happen," Lucy assured the younger girl, then she turned her gaze to Erza, Natsu, Gray, and Juvia, fires burning one thousand degrees sparking in her eyes.
Gray scowled as he refused to meet her gaze. "I don't know why the hell you're looking at me. It wasn't all my fault."
"You froze my whole apartment!"
"Okay, but Juvia flooded the whole place. You're just lucky I saved you by freezing you before you drowned and anyway, why the hell did you dare her to smack my ass?!"
Juvia blushed. "We were playing a game of Truth or Dare, Gray-sama, and Lucy-san dared Juvia..."
"You mean you actually did it?" Lucy was surprised beyond belief. "You actually did it, Juvia?"
"Well...a dare is a dare." Despite the situation, Juvia beamed proudly.
Lucy shook her head and her cheer dispersed into the air immediately. "Forget that, as I said I have to pay three thousand jewels because of all the damages you guys did."
"You're making a big deal out of nothing, all we did was have fun," Natsu told her, rolling his eyes carelessly. "Isn't that what slumber parties are all about?"
"A big deal? Out of nothing?!" The vein in Lucy's forehead was on the verge of popping as she bit her lip in exasperation and sighed heavily. "Natsu, the hole you made from your gigantic head caused some of the water that Juvia summoned to flood out of the house. Juvia, your water drenched everything, and seeped through my front door, further flooding outside of my apartment. Erza, your swords left marks in the floor and it took almost a few hours to withdraw them from the ground since they were stuck pretty deep. Wendy nearly died that night because of you guys. Cana-" Lucy turned to the brunette seated some tables away from them and pointed an accusing finger at her. "You knocked Wendy unconscious and your beer left a strong odor in my apartment that is close to not being able to be removed. Bisca, your bullets left holes in the ceiling and almost caused some of the roof to fall into my apartment. Laki, you shouting all of your strange phrases and stuff could be heard from my neighbors, and it severely pissed them off. Evergreen, no one may not have noticed it as first but during all the crazy drama, your magic got out of control and you accidentally turned a few things to stone, but as they usually would be able to turn back to normal, this time they can't! And Gray, worst of all YOU FROZE MY WHOLE HOUSE!"
"We're sorry," the criminals chorused sadly, except for Gray, who still refused to look at her.
Lucy beamed. "Apology accepted."
Erza nudged the scowling ice mage. "Gray, don't you have an apology to say as well?"
Gray shrugged and folded his arms behind his head, leaning back into the bench with a sigh. "I don't see why you're complaining, you have two weeks to pay it off and plus, you can easily take a job to get the money faster."
"That doesn't excuse the fact that YOU FROZE MY HOUSE!" Lucy hollered once more, facepalming herself in anger. "Well whatever, if I do take a job you guys are coming with me. You're all the main reasons why I have to pay this in the first place. But Wendy, you can stay if you like."
"UGH," groaned Natsu, Gray, Erza, and Juvia, slamming their heads flat onto the table once more.
"Actually Lucy-san, I don't mind coming with you on a job," Wendy piped up.
"I'll come too," Happy volunteered. "I missed this whole slumber party fiasco so I at least wanna come on this job with you guys. And besides, you guys were put in jail. Jail sounds a lot of fun..."
"You stupid tomcat, it was anything but fun!" Carla shouted. "Do you know what kinds of food we had to eat? I have never before seen in my life cereal in the shape of mashed potatoes!"
"Jail was the worst..." Natsu muttered, his voice muffled since he had his face in the table. "I had to stay in the same cell as Ice Princess and Iron Man."
"What was that?!" Gray yelled while his face was smashed into the table, and a few feet away across the guild hall, Gajeel, who had been silent as he eavesdropped on the conversation, bit into a block of iron in disgust.
"Well it's better than being squashed into a single cell. All of us girls had to share," Lucy reminded him with a sigh.
"I still have the marks from being pressed against the cold stone walls." Wendy shuddered violently.
"At least you all weren't so small that you were nearly being trampled over," Carla said. "The moment they released us you guys darted out of the cell, nearly stepping on me...Oh!"
Natsu, Gray, Erza, and Juvia shot their heads up and turned to Carla in alarm. "What is it Carla?"
Carla rubbed her temples thoughtfully. "I just seemed to recall something...It's not a vision of the future or anything though...but for some reason, even though Mirajane was with us during the whole phenomenon, she didn't get arrested like the rest of us and she was no where to be seen when the police arrived at Lucy's apartment."
Everyone's eyes widened, even Gajeel was shocked as he was listening from afar.
"You're right..." Erza finally realized.
"She wasn't there at all when they arrived..." Gray whispered in shock.
"And she wasn't in the jail cell with us either for those two days..." Lucy said aloud.
"Weird," Natsu commented. "But, hey Wendy and Carla, I saw you two leave out of Lucy's window when Juvia flooded the place. How did you guys get arrested? You left way before the police came."
"Yeah, how did Wendy-chan get arrested as well?" Juvia asked.
A sweat drop rolled off Wendy's forehead. "It's a long story...but after we left, the landlady found us running away and she questioned us. We told her the apartment was flooded and everything so she went over to see for herself, taking us with her. By the time we got back to your place, Lucy-san, everything was covered in ice so she called the police, and she had us arrested too because she said we were witnesses and we had also been a part of the slumber party so she said we deserved to 'go to the slammer' as well." Wendy sighed. "That night was scary..."
"Lesson learned, I think I'll never host a slumber party again," Lucy decided. "But still, I want to know why Mira wasn't arrested with us."
"Oh, me?" The white-haired barmaid strolled over to their table, her famous smile decorating her face as she carried a plate of beer, dressed in her favorite red dress. "I heard my name."
"Yeah. When we were arrested for the slumber party, you were no where to be seen. How come the cops didn't get you?" inquired Erza suspiciously.
"Oh, that, hehehe." Mirajane giggled. "I knew all along."
Gray and Natsu shared a look. "Knew what?"
"Well, I knew from the start the moment I saw you boys at the doorstep that you were not new members of the guild and you were in fact Gray and Natsu," Mira admited.
"What?" Lucy and Juvia gasped. "Why didn't you tell us then?"
The barmaid chuckled heartily. "Well, I overheard the conversation Gray and Natsu were having that day when Gray was telling Natsu about how they were gonna sneak inside the party. I was curious so I kept it to myself, and it got me thinking that since Lucy isn't really much of a party person then the slumber party may be a bit boring so if Natsu and Gray did decide to sneak in then it would spice things up. I watched them leave and I followed you guys a little bit of the way to the mall, just to make sure my suspicions were right. Then at the party, I had a lot more fun than I thought I would have. No offense Lucy, but I thought the party would be lame. When Natsu and Gray came, by that time the party was getting really interesting so I thought that for the sake of having more fun, I would keep their identities a secret and let them participate with us. I went along with their little scheme and everything, especially the whole naming thing because I honestly thought their names were really cute! Then when Gajeel arrived I pretended he had been admitted into the guild and gave him a fake name so he could fit in and spice up the party as well."
Everyone at the table listening attentively, even Cana, Bisca, Evergreen, Levy, Laki, Lisanna, and Gajeel, who had been sitting far away, came over to listen to the Takeover mage's tale.
"However, it appeared that Gajeel only came to hurt Gray, so when I saw what his intentions were I was going to say something, but everything got out of control in less than a second and I didn't have time. Before I knew it, the whole place was getting flooded and Gray was on the verge of freezing everything, so I quickly switched to my Satan Soul form and blocked the attack when Gray unleashed his magic to freeze everything. The next moment, I hear sirens buzzing and the landlady shouting angrily so I hurried out of Lucy's apartment through the window and went on like nothing happened. And I really didn't think you guys would end up in jail but..." Mira finished the explanation with a sympathetic sigh.
"Wow," chorused all the listeners. "You knew?"
Mira nodded and smiled.
"So you're telling me that we wasted all that time dressing up as idiots when you already knew who we were from the moment you saw us?" Natsu stared at Mira before swiveling his head to glare at Gray. "Your stupid plan was a waste of our time! I knew she would figure us out fast, droopy-eyes! You made us wear all those damn clothes when she already knew! You bastard!"
"Well how the hell was I supposed to know it wouldn't work, Flame-brain?!" Gray retorted. "I was just going with the first plan that popped in my head. I never really said you had to listen to me, every time you asked me about it I always gave you a choice. And if you knew she would find out why didn't you say so?"
"Because I was putting my trust in you! I thought you knew what you were doing?"
"Wait, you're telling me I had to dress up as a fucking woman and it wasn't even necessary?" Gajeel barked.
"No one even told you to do it!" Gray hissed.
"Stripper, I'll kill you! You made me dress up as a woman for no reason!"
"No one told you to do it!"
"I can't believe I listened to you Gray!"
"Shut up Flame-brain!"
"That's it! Come here stripper!"
"Back off!"
"Knock it off, boys! Now!" Erza commanded, grasping a lock of all of their hairs in her hands as she gripped them by their heads. "Stop arguing and shut up! That was in the past! What's done is done and there is nothing we can do about it!"
"Uh...Erza-san? You do know that your slice of strawberry shortcake was frozen at Lucy's apartment, right?" Wendy told Titania.
Erza's eyes widened in terror, then she looked to the boys in her hands, tightening her grip on their hairs. "You froze my cake...Gray?"
For the love of him, Gray didn't deny it. "Yes," he admitted with great reluctance, and her grip on his hair tightened.
"You will die!"
MIrajane, Lucy, Juvia, Wendy, Carla, Laki, Levy, Evergreen, Cana, Bisca, Lisanna, and Happy watched for the next three minutes as Erza relentlessly beat Natsu, Gajeel, and Gray first in her Heart Kruez armor, then her Heaven's Wheel armor, then her Purgatory Armor, until Mira sighed dramatically and transformed into her Satan Soul form and put an end to the one-sided battle. By that time, Gajeel, Natsu, and Gray could barely see clearly in front of them, and lumps were sprouting at a peculiar rate on their heads. "You need to calm down Erza, as you said, that was in the past. What's done is done and there is nothing we can do about it."
Erza grimaced at Mira, her old rival, and reluctantly ex-quipped out of her Purgatory armor then crossed her arms. Gray, Natsu, and Gajeel collapsed to the ground in pain, their heads throbbing and Wendy hurrying to aid them and relieve them of their injuries with her Healing magic.
"Well now that that's out of the way...Lucy! Are you gonna choose a job?" Mirajane asked kindly.
Lucy shrugged. "I guess I have to. There's no other way to pay the bill off in two weeks, and if I don't I'll get arrested again..."
"Arrested?" Suddenly, Master Makarov jumped onto their table with his hands on his elderly hips and scowled at the blonde celestial spirit mage. "You were arrested Lucy?"
"Master! You're back!" the Takeover mage squealed excitedly. "How was the meeting?"
"Lucy, you were arrested?" Makarov repeated, more seriously, narrowing his eyebrows to study the girl.
Lucy began sweating under his gaze whilst everyone else at the table who too had been arrested remained mute. Tell their guild master they had been arrested for hosting a dangerous slumber party that could've gotten people killed? Yeah right. Might as well eat a full plate of Erza's cake in front of her, too.
Master Makarov let out a groan that rumbled in his throat as his surveyed all the strangely quiet mages crowded at the table. "I just got back from a meeting with the Council...that's why I haven't been present these last few days. As I was walking over here a few minutes ago, I overheard a couple talking about a group of 'troublesome mages getting arrested for throwing a wild slumber party' but I didn't think much of it because I hadn't cared of this suspicious slumber party. But hearing your conversation just now...You were arrested Lucy?"
"Master, I..."
"And the rest of you here...you were all arrested too?"
Silence followed his question, and uncertain gulps echoed in his ears.
Makarov took a deep breath to recollect himself, then held out his hand to Lucy and beckoned for the bill she was holding. She handed it to him with shaky hands and everyone watched his face as he read the slip. First confusion, then agreement, then a cloud of shock filled his face. Then a scream and the mages knew they were in trouble.
Makarov's eyes were blank white as he shook and shook atop the table, dropping the paper to the floor and then falling on his side. "My children...Surely, I have taught you better than this...I don't mind slumber parties but..." Master Makarov launched himself on his two feet and pointed angrily to the paper on the floor. "DO YOU REALIZE YOU OWE THREE MILLION JEWELS?!"
"WHAT?!" yelped all the mages who had been arrested, and Lucy's scream topped them all. "No, Master, you read it wrong. I only owe three hundred thousand jewels...not three million..."
Makarov shook his head violently and jumped off the table to pick up the bill, then held it up in the blonde's face so she could see. He pointed to the circled price in bold onyx letters and shouted, "YOU OWE THREE MILLION JEWELS, AS WRITTEN RIGHT HERE!"
And Lucy and everyone else looked to where he was pointing to find that Makarov was right~the money Lucy owed wasn't three hundred thousand jewels, it was, in fact, three million jewels. When showing everyone the paper, Lucy had been blocking the extra zero with her thumb, causing herself and everyone else to believe that it was only three hundred measly jewels she had to pay, when in reality, it wasn't. And now that she saw it with her own eyes, the blonde wanted to cry.
"So you see now...for the damages you all caused you have to pay...three million jewels...and if you don't pay it in the given time, we all are going to be arrested..." Makarov continued in a shaky voice.
"Lucy!" the others screamed. "Why didn't you read it correctly?"
"I don't mind you going to jail for not paying but me, that's going too far!"
"Why'd you keep the extra zero blocked?"
"How did you even manage to misinterpret what it said?"
"It was clearly written, all you had to do was read it right!"
"I am not going back to jail!"
"You need to get a job and fast!"
"What the hell? If you don't pay we all get arrested? That's not fair!"
"Get your ass a job and start making some money now!"
And everyone continued to yell and shout and cry at Lucy for her disastrous reading and her idiotic thumb for a long while, all the while with Master Makarov weeping and bawling on the table, rolling around with his knees tucked in front of him and sucking his thumb. "NOO! I can't go back to jail! The horror!"
"Get a grip, Master. It'll be alright," Mira assured him with her model smile.
"Please stop yelling at me everyone!" Lucy begged, and everyone stopped immediately. "Okay, I'm going to go get a job that pays a lot so I can start stocking up on money for this payment. I know we all don't want to go back to jail, so don't worry, I'll get the money in no time!"
"I'll come with you, Luce," Natsu said, putting an arm on her shoulder with a smile.
"I'll come as well," Erza agreed, moving to stand next to the two.
"Might as well go too," Gray said. "We are a team after all." Upon hearing that, Happy, Carla, and Wendy all got up to stand next to them all, ready for their next adventure as Team Natsu.
Lucy pumped her fist with cheer. "Great! Let's go get our job!"
So the group walked over to the Request Board merrily, their minds set on choosing a pricy job that would help set aside some money for the bill. However, when they finally reached the board and looked up to choose a job, they were greeted with a shocking discovery...
"THERE ARE NO MORE JOBS TODAY?!" The Request Board was completely blank, except for a little sticky note that read "Oops, sorry! There won't be any jobs for about a week! Sorry for the inconvenience!" -Mira
"BUT MIRA WHY?" Natsu shouted across the hall.
"Well, there doesn't seem to be any problems with the other towns around here, therefore there are no more jobs to take. Maybe in about a week there will be some...sorry about that guys."
"But...but...but...BUT THEN THAT MEANS I'LL ONLY HAVE ONE WEEK TO PAY THREE MILLION JEWELS!"
"I'm really sorry, Lucy. If I could help I would but...I can't do anything about that."
"NOOO!" bawled Makarov. "We'll all have to go to jail again...NOOOOO!"
"I CAN'T GO BACK TO JAIL!" wailed the blonde, sinking to her knees in defeat as tears flooded from her eyes. "NOOOO! I'M TOO PRETTY TO BE ARRESTED!"
Mira sighed as soon, everyone was crying over the unsettling news. "My, my...jail can't be all the bad, right?"
"AAAH! WHY ME?!"
And that's a wrap! I have finally finished the third and final chapter of this fic! Woo!
This chapter was something, since I named it Unbelievable I decided I wanted to add a bunch of silly things in this to go with the name, as it would be unbelievable for Lucy to have misread the bill and for there to be no more jobs. XD It probably could have been better, and if you think so, share your thoughts in the reviews. I feel like Makarov was a little out of character, and I had actually planned for him to transform into his Titan form and start attacking them out of anger, but that doesn't fit his character so I realized him crying was more like him, since I recall him bawling like a baby when the Magic Council came to the scene after the whole Phantom Lord incident. XP
I really enjoyed writing this, and for those of you who have been reading and reviewing the previous chapters, thank you so much. It means so much to me knowing you guys like my stuff. I already have a new fic in mind and I think you guys will like that one as well. x3
Oh yeah, and Natsu calling Gajeel Iron Man was random. I forgot what nickname he calls Gajeel if he even calls him one at all, so I went with Iron Man because Gajeel is an Iron Dragon Slayer. For those of you who may have been confused, there is your explanation. ^~^
Thanks again for reading this, you are all awesome and I love you all for your comments! Have a fabulous day (and remember not to get into any trouble throwing slumber parties, okay?) XD