ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO HIRO MASHIMA, THE GUY WHO CREATED THE AWESOMENESS THAT IS FAIRY TAIL.
Woohoo! Finally another chapter!
'Thoughts'
Italics – will be used for emphasizing words, flashbacks, and Bickslow's babies repeating him.
I may end up putting spoilers in future chapters. I'll give ya a heads-up. There are websites that allow you to read the manga. So far there are 143 chapters out last I checked. So, get caught up! 😊
Lucy steps into Laxus's office when he opens the door for her. Her jaw drops and eyes bulge at the sight in front of her. There are stacks and stacks of paperwork scattered throughout the room.
"You said Freed was a godsend!" Lucy shrieks. When she offered to help she thought she would be helping with the books or something.
Laxus defends his most loyal friend, "He was!" Laxus sighs, "It took forever to even just sort it. You have no idea how bad it was before. Some of it is even dated back to when Mavis was Master."
Lucy is flabbergasted, "Is there any rhyme or reason to this... this... organized chaos?"
They both fully enter the room and Laxus points at each stack, the first being by the desk. "It's sorted by the reign of each Master. Mavis's is right there." Laxus then turns towards the filing cabinets alongside the wall. "Those stacks are Precht's and Macao's. They're actually not too bad."
There are 4 tall filing cabinets. 'Three of those are more than likely for Master Makarov's reign.' Lucy snorts, 'They'll probably need three more.'
Laxus looks at her questioningly when he hears her snort.
Lucy shakes her head at him and eyes the stacks, "I hate to admit it but from what Mavis had told us about Precht it doesn't surprise me. And as far as Macao is concerned, well the main culprits for this mess was on Tenrou. I'm nervous to see Master Makarov's piles." Lucy starts to turn around and Laxus stops her.
He opens up one cabinet drawer, "I have Gildarts, and Erza's reign already filed away. Gildart's is just a piece of paper reinstating me and Erza's is the paperwork from reforming the guild." Laxus then directs their attention to the stacks and stacks of paperwork along the wall on the other side of the room.
Lucy's jaw drops again. She knew it was going to be bad but not THIS bad!
"Gramps' 3rd, 6th, and 8th reign? Fuck if I know, is there." Laxus feels bad when he sees Lucy start to rub her temples, "look you don't have to help."
Lucy gestures at the piles, "No it's okay, I told you I would help so I will."
Laxus nods his head, "Thanks Lucy, I really appreciate this. So um anyway, Laxus walks over to the desk, grabs a blue ledger, and hands it to Lucy. While she looks through it he continues, "We've managed to find all of the record books of missions and taken by whom. We may need to get more and rewrite it out, a lot of it is illegible."
"No kidding," Lucy sets it down and picks up a green ledger, this one being the financials. "This finance book is a mess!" She flips through and finds the date and her jaw drops, "We've been practically in the black since the guild started! How are we still a functioning guild?" She sets it down back on the desk where she found it.
"Hell if I know. We have been writing down the amount of jewels owed to towns from destruction that the reward couldn't over."
Lucy walks over to Makarov's pile eyeing it warily, wondering how much is from her team, "How much of Mavis's is done?"
"I'm actually almost done with it." Laxus watches as Lucy picks up a handful and flips through the papers. A shiver goes down his spine when he hears Lucy growl.
"What the hell!"
Laxus slowly walks up to her to see what she's angry about and is startled when Virgo suddenly materializes next to him.
"Here's your communication lacrima Princess. Punishment?"
Lucy turns around and takes it from her. "Thanks, Virgo, and no, no punishment at least not for you."
Virgo turns to Laxus, "Will you punish me Laxus-sama?"
"Uhhh..."
Lucy quirks her eyebrow at the honorific she just gave Laxus and says, "No Virgo."
"Very well Princess."
After Virgo goes back to the spirit world Lucy walks over to the door and closes it so no one will hear the conversation.
Laxus keeps his eyes on Lucy unsure if he wants to ask her what's going on. "If you're worried about someone overhearing the room is soundproofed."
"I'd still rather have the door closed." Lucy dials the magic council and taps her foot while she waits for someone to pick up. After what feels like forever, a male voice that she can't place finally answers the call.
"Hello. Thank you for calling the magic council. We are busy at the moment helping others. You can stay on the line while you wait for the next available representative or hang up and call later. Thank you."
It goes silent and Lucy takes it off of her ear, looks at it, and says, "what the hell?" She puts it back up to her ear and asks, "Hello? Is there anyone there?"
"Hello. Thank you for calling-"
"What the hell is this bullshit!" Then she recognizes the owner of the voice, "Warrod Sequin! I am in no mood for jokes!"
Laxus is slack-jawed that Lucy just yelled at not only one of the founding members of Fairy Tail but a member of the Magic Council.
Warrod chuckles, "Relax, I'm only kidding. Now what is the problem, Miss?"
"Lucy, just Lucy, and the problem is that the former Magic Council billed Fairy Tail for a matter they had no right to bill us for!"
"Well Lucy, just Lucy, as much as I would like to help, I'm afraid I can not help you with that."
Lucy sighs and doesn't bother to ask why because there's a high possibility that he didn't help Precht, "Can I talk to Jura? He may be able to help."
"Jura who?"
Lucy's eyebrow ticks, "Jura Neekis."
"One second. Who are you again?"
'Relax Lucy, he likes getting people riled up or old age is finally getting to him.' "It's Lucy. I was part of the team that helped unfreeze the giants."
"That's right, thank you so much for that. I'll connect you with Jura, please hold."
Lucy hears him ask Wolfheim how to transfer a call.
Laxus could hear Warrod on the other end and was trying his hardest not to laugh. She's calmed down somewhat but he doesn't want to risk incurring her wrath.
He gathers his composure and asks, "What is all of this about?"
Lucy hands him the paper at the same time Jura answers. He looks it over not understanding the issue. The former council billing them for anything and everything is nothing new.
"Miss Lucy. What can I do for you? Warrod said Fairy Tail has run into an issue and I may be able to help?"
"Just Lucy please Councilman Jura."
"Jura is fine. Now what is the issue?"
"I just have a quick question. Did the Lamia Scale Guild get billed for the Nirvana incident?"
"No, I don't believe so. Why? Did Fairy Tail?"
'Of course, the former council would bill only Fairy Tail.' "Yes, we did and you know as well as I do that they requested us. Did they honestly think we could take on the Oracion Seis without any damage? Not to mention Cait Shelter was a fake guild so I don't see how they can bill us for the destruction of a guild that didn't legally exist."
It clicks and now Laxus understands the real issue.
"I'll call Blue Pegasus and ask Master Bob to double-check. If it turns out only Fairy Tail got billed then I will be asking you to send it to me so I can null and void it."
"Thank you, Jura, we really appreciate that."
"It's not a problem Lucy. If I may ask, why are you doing the paperwork? That's Master Makarov's job."
Laxus takes the lacrima from Lucy, "Master Makarov likes to pawn it off on me since I'm Guild Master-In-Training. Also, if there's anyone who can dig Fairy Tail out of the hole, it's Lucy."
"Hello Laxus. That sounds like something he would do. Well, like I said, I'll do what I can and if you come across anything else that I may be of assistance with, please don't hesitate to call."
"Thank you, Jura."
"You're welcome. You have a good day and good luck." Jura chuckles and hangs up.
Laxus hands Lucy her lacrima back. "Do you think he'll be able to null and void that bill if Fairy Tail was singled out?"
"Even if all of the guilds were billed he'd still take care of it not just for us but Blue Pegasus and Lamia scale too. He was there for everything and knew the council requested us. And if he can't, I'll just call Queen Hisui."
"Wait, What?" Laxus is stunned that she would do that.
Lucy leans up to give Laxus a quick kiss, "As much as I don't want to, I'm going to work on Master Makarov's pile. There's probably more that Fairy Tail was wrongfully billed for." She grabs a pile, sits on the couch, and gets to work.
Laxus finds the necessary ledgers for Lucy and sets them down on the coffee table in front of her. "You're going to need these."
Lucy mutters a thanks as she separates the papers.
As Laxus works, he notices Lucy shifting uncomfortably on the couch and sees her hunched over. That's going to end up hurting her back, especially with her large breasts weighing her down and he tries to think of a solution. He makes a note to himself to apologize to Freed. Had the man said something, something could have been done sooner.
They can't move Gramps' piles, he doesn't want to sort that again. Not that they did much sorting with that mess. The cabinets are against the wall that separates his and Gildarts' office. The guy is never around and when he is, he doesn't utilize the room. It won't be difficult to move Precht's and Macao's out of the way. 'Time for a little remodeling.'
He gathers up Mavis' paperwork and files it away. Afterward, he takes what Lucy is working on.
"Hey! What are you doing?"
"You're going to work at my desk for now."
Lucy isn't going to complain, her back is starting to hurt. Once she's settled she watches as Laxus moves papers about so he can move the cabinets. He ends up rolling them to sit by her covering him from her view.
"Laxus, what are you doing?"
"Shielding you from the debris." Laxus walks behind her, opens the window, goes to the bare wall, and punches it.
"LAXUS!" Lucy stands up to look over the cabinets and sees Laxus destroying the wall with his fists. She has to quickly dodge the debris that flies towards her. She takes cover and waits for Laxus to finish demolishing the wall. Which doesn't even take another minute.
"Alright Lucy, you can come out now."
Lucy gets up and coughs from the dust still scattered in the air. She waves her hands through the air, attempting to clear it and is shocked at the destruction.
"Why did you destroy the wall? I understand you've been at this longer than me but you could have gone down to the gym and taken out your frustrations on a punching bag or hell, you could have just challenged Natsu to a fight."
Laxus grabs her hand and pulls her into the other room, "I'm making more office space. This is, well was, Gildarts office."
Lucy scans the room and sees a desk. It clicks, "Thank you Laxus, I really do appreciate it but couldn't it have waited? And who's going to clean up this mess? It definitely isn't going to be me."
Laxus walks out the door and shouts for Freed and Bickslow. The two men are confused as to why Laxus is calling for them from Gildart's office, that is until they see the mess.
"Laxus-sama, you could have gone to the gym to work out your frustrations."
"Yeah Bossman, or challenge Natsu to a fight. You know he wouldn't have passed that up."
No sooner has Bickslow finished his statement, than Natsu appears. "Laxus wants to fight? Lets-"
"No!" Lucy cuts the man off. "No fighting, If you destroy all of Laxus's and Freed's hard work, I'll Lucy-Kick your ass so hard you'll be coughing up my boot."
Natsu slowly backs away, hands up in surrender, "Sorry Luce." He quickly turns and runs away. He does not want any boots up his ass. He's not Max who would probably enjoy it. He bets it'll be a nice change from the broom.
"Freed, I'm going to need you to redo the runes and include this side of the room."
"Not a problem." Freed gets to work adjusting the runes he already set up.
Laxus turns to Bickslow, "Could you get brooms and shit so we can clean up this mess?"
"Can do! But may I ask why you made this mess?"
"We need more room and Lucy needs her own desk. Sorry, I never thought to do it for you Freed."
"It's not an issue Laxus-sama."
Laxus turns around and gives Lucy a kiss on the forehead, "We got this, you go back to work."
Lucy sits back at the desk, sees it all dusty, and sighs. He really should have waited but his heart was in the right place.
It doesn't take the guys long to clean up the mess. It helps that Bickslow can transfer his souls into inanimate objects. By the time they're done the four of them go down to the bar and order something to eat.
"When we remodel the office, I want you to pick everything out," Laxus states to Lucy.
She turns toward him, "Me?"
"Yeah, I'll give you the jewel for it."
After they eat and instead of working on the paperwork, they discuss how they want the room to be arranged.
The next week they spend more time remodeling instead of doing the actual work that's supposed to be getting done. They still work on it, but begrudgingly.
They decided on sky blue paint for the walls. Once the paint was dry, they moved both desks and chairs closer to where the wall used to be, setting them next to each other. Laxus has four filing cabinets on the other side of his desk and Lucy has six. They'll eventually reorganize the drawers.
Freed helped them very carefully move the paperwork to their assigned desks, specifically the piles of Master Makarov's reign that Lucy was working on.
A large beige area rug is placed on the floor in front of the desks. On the other side is a dark grey couch up against the wall in between both doors, a coffee table in front of it. Two matching chairs are angled by the couch so whoever is sitting there can converse with people on both sides of the room easily.
Both Laxus and Lucy have decorated their respective sides of the office that suit them. Lucy has a bookshelf filled with books and knick-knacks, and a constellation chart on the wall. Laxus has his music player along with a couple of band posters; Nirvana, AC/DC, and Rick Allen the drummer for Def Leppard with his nickname The Thunder God on it.
Lucy found a beautiful painting of rolling hills, a starry sky, and lightning striking down. She hung it up above the couch. She also put up miscellaneous decorations and has fake plants in corners.
They stand in the middle of the room and admire their hard work.
"Now let's hope this wasn't all for naught." Lucy sighs.
Laxus puts his arm around Lucy, "Don't worry, Freed is going to use his magic and make it all indestructible. Like the council did with the paperwork."
"They must have caught on to Makarov destroying it. My first day here he burnt up a complaint and fed it to Natsu."
During the week they spent remodeling the office, they made sure to spend time together outside of the guild. Laxus took her out on dates, usually ending with them going back to his place to watch a movie. They would fool around but were too tired from the work they did. Some nights ended with Laxus dropping her off at home.
Despite what they talked about, Laxus wants to wait until they don't have much to worry about the next day. He wants to be able to laze about with her the morning after at his home without the worry of responsibilities waiting for him. Not to mention, while Lucy was away the women of the guild told him to take it slow, well, all but Cana.
But how slow is too slow because another week goes by and he can see Lucy is getting frustrated. She's been doing everything she can to entice him, and he's been very tempted to just bend her over his desk and take her virginity that way. Once they have finally gone that far, the girls are going to want details and if they find out that's how he took her virginity they will murder him.
Laxus's thoughts are cut off when he hears Lucy growl. He looks at her and sees steam coming out of her ears and is surprised when she calls Queen Hisui.
"Lucy! How are you?"
"As much as I wish this was a social call, I got to talk business with you Queen Hisui."
"Please Lucy, when it's just us call me Hisui."
Lucy tries to keep her cool when she questions the Queen. "Did you know the former council billed Fairy Tail for the destruction of Crocus?"
"What!" Hisui exclaims, "They didn't have the right to do that! The chaos from that was my fault. Fairy Tail among other guilds helped fix my mistake." Hisui then gasps, "You don't think they billed the other guilds that helped do you?"
"I honestly don't have a clue, but it's highly likely Fairy Tail was singled out from the other guilds. It wouldn't be the first time. They also wanted us to write an apology letter to them."
"They really had it out for you huh?"
"Yeah."
"And why would you have to write out an apology letter to them?"
"I don't want to speak ill of the dead. Anyway, I just wanted to make you aware that I'll be sending it to the present Magic Council to null and void it. They'll probably contact you about it."
"And I will tell them to destroy it. There was no reason for the guild to be billed for my mistake."
"Mmhmm... Well, I got to get back to this wretched paperwork."
"Out of curiosity, how bad is it?"
Lucy sighs, "We have a ton of apology letters to write out to numerous towns and villages for multiple incidents. We have to go through and tally what we owe so we can pay them for the damages. I don't know how long it took but Laxus got Master Mavis's reign done and is now working on Precht's. I made the mistake of taking on all of the paperwork from when Master Makarov became Master. It's a disaster."
Hisui hums, "Hmm... How about this? You send me a list of the towns you need to write out apology letters for and I'll write one out per town and apologize for everything on behalf of Fairy Tail."
Lucy is close to tears and Laxus is frozen in his seat.
"On top of that, tally up what you owe each town and send me that list as well. I'll pay everything back in full. I'll inform the council and you can send the paperwork over to the council for them to null and void it and make copies before sending it back to you. I'll be in touch with them to make sure they get the job done."
Laxus damn near falls over in his chair but manages to catch himself.
"Q-Queen Hisui," Lucy can't hold back the tears and cries in astonishment and relief.
"It will only be the paperwork from before the war with Alvarez, not anything after and I will also do this for the rest of the guilds that have helped save our country throughout the years. After this, you have to keep up on it, this is a one-time deal."
"Yes Queen Hisui! I will teach Laxus everything I know so this mess doesn't happen again."
"I'm sure you'll do a great job. So, what are you doing helping out with the paperwork anyway?"
"I agreed to help Laxus."
"That's right! He's your boyfriend!"
Hisui might not be able to see the blush but Laxus can. "Yeah, he is."
"So?"
"So, what?"
"How is he, you know?"
"HISUI!"
Hisui just chuckles, "Relax Lucy, you can tell me all about it when we have tea together."
"Tea?"
"Yes, it's been a while since we've sat down and got caught up with each other."
Lucy hears the tone in Hisui's voice that lets her know the queen isn't being completely truthful.
"There's more than just getting caught up."
"Yes, you're right but it's a conversation I would rather have in private."
"Please don't tell me it's something bad."
"Well, that depends on who you ask."
"Great. Well, will Saturday do? I want to get as much done as I possibly can before Friday night."
"What's going on Friday?"
"Sleepover with the girls."
"Oh! Oh! Oh! I've never had a sleepover before! You can come here!"
"I don't know..."
"Please, Lucy? I just want one night where I'm not the queen."
"Do you think you can handle spending the night with a bunch of Fairy Tail women?"
"Can't be any worse than dealing with dragons."
Lucy laughs, "Uh actually... you know what? Yeah! We'll go there."
"YAY! Alright I got to go and get everything ready."
"Uh, Hisui."
"Should we invite the women from the other guilds? I'll call Yukino and ask her since you're busy. I'll see all of you on Friday. And don't forget to bring those lists, Lucy. Bye!"
Lucy stares at her phone then sets it on the desk. The conversation went from the heinous paperwork to having a sleepover at the castle with not only the women of Fairy Tail but others from ally guilds as well. This ought to be interesting.
Laxus grabs Lucy's chair, rolls her over to him, and turns her so she's facing him, startling her.
"I can't believe you just got us out of debt with one phone call."
Lucy smiles and wheels away, "We're not in the clear just yet. We may be out of debt but we still have to organize it and make those lists. We also still have to redo all of the books so everything is accurate."
"Wait, do I have to redo everything I've already gotten done?"
"Hmmm... it wouldn't hurt to go through it just in case. At least it's in order, so that's a plus." Lucy summons Virgo.
"Punishment Princess?"
"I can promise you there will be a high chance of papercuts if you help us sort through all of this." Lucy goes on to explain all that needs to be done and Virgo is right on top of it.
Before they know it, it's dinner time and while they might not be done, they've made good progress.
"Knock knock," Makarov enters the room and his jaw drops at the fact that more of the floor is visible. He looks up at Laxus and Lucy, back down to the floor and his eyes land back on the two wondering, "How in the hell? How did you two manage to get so much done?"
Laxus smirks at his grandfather, "It's what Lucy managed to do."
Makarov turns his attention to her and she replies bashfully, "Well, I may have made a call to the Queen and she offered to pay for everything before the war along with writing out the letters. She's doing the same thing for the other guilds. We just got to go through all of the papers, write down the town names, and tally up how much is owed."
Makarov's bottom lip quivers as he listens to Lucy explain everything and at the end, he bawls as he runs over to hug Lucy sticking his face right in between her breasts.
Laxus grabs him by the collar of his shirt and pries him off of Lucy, "Old geezer, what have I told you?"
Makarov sniffles as Laxus sets him on his desk, "Thank you so much, Lucy! We are so lucky to have you."
"Send a thank you up to my parents in heaven, especially my father. He was the one to make sure I learned everything there is to know about running a successful business. After he lost his business he managed to not only build himself back up working at the Love and Lucky Guild, he had also built up quite the nest egg."
"How much?" Laxus inquires.
"Enough to cover seven years of my rent. Oh, this is the only time Queen Hisui will be able to help us out so we need to make sure to keep up with this. I'll get everything organized in a way that'll make it easier. Oh! May I suggest punishment for those who cost the guild a bunch of money from here on out?"
"You know that includes you right?" Makarov chuckles.
Lucy waves her hand around, "I think I've already received my punishment."
Both men reply with a "Touche."