After the heart-to-heart Lucy had with the guild, her back felt lighter and she could finally stand up straight and tall again. They spent the rest of the night partying and the celestial mage finally, truly, started reuniting with all her friends again. It felt nice, for her and everyone else. And that made Team Natsu even more excited to go on a job together the following day.
Of course, they knew that they should not take anything too complicated. Lucy was still from twelve or thirteen years in the past after all, so taking a job way over her current skill set might not be ideal. When the next day did arrive, and everyone had their breakfast, the five mages looked over the request board to see which job they could take. Something simple that was not too much work, two years of not working together was a long time and the girls and Happy were worried about Natsu and Gray.
Once they chose one, they all scampered out the guild hall so quickly that the guild could not help but be nostalgic. The kids watched them with much interest that they began playing 'Adventure', using small bits of magic to fight and soon enough a brawl between them broke out. It made the rest of the adult members laugh at how copy and paste they looked compared to Natsu and the others.
So now, Team Natsu found themselves walking down a path after travelling three hours by train (much to the dragon slayers' absolute discomfort). To Lucy, she was surprised to see Wendy with motion sickness. Poor girl had been the last dragon slayer she knew that was fine from the inconvenient affliction, but she had told her that she started feeling it around the time after Tartaros.
Natsu, on the other hand, looked like his motion sickness had gotten worse. He had hung his head out the window of the train for the first hour before feeling so sick he had instinctively moved so that he laid down on the celestial mage's lap - much to her protest and embarrassment. The others had to explain to her that he had started to do that a few months they all reunited after Fairy Tail's disbandment, and even more so when her future self had gotten pregnant with Nashi.
"So what's the job we're going on again?" Lucy asked after thirty minutes into walking.
"Apparently, the town's been having trouble with their plumbing," Erza explained while pulling along her large wagon of luggage. "They've replaced, added, and even removed filters. They've surveyed the pipelines and troubleshooted everything - nothing's been fixed."
"So the plan is to investigate, find the problem, and then fix it," Gray said while munching on a granola bar.
"And if we don't find anything?"
"Start from the ground up, Team Natsu style," Natsu said with a mischievous grin on his face. "If I could get a few punches in, even better. I spent so much time training with Nashi and looking for Luce, I bet I could solve everything in no time!"
"That doesn't sound too promising." Wendy said while sweatdropping.
"Agreed." Carla said, walking around in her human form.
"Aye." Happy added while Lucy carried him.
The blonde woman could not help but stare at Carla while they walked. Since she had been avoiding everyone from the guild during the week she had been there, she did not know that the white exceed could even transform. But then again, she should have expected more surprises all things considered. Now that she thought about it, she wondered how strong all of them were compared to her time. And she was curious about the kids too. Knowing their parents, they definitely started teaching them magic.
After another thirty minutes, Team Natsu finally arrived to the town. It was pretty small, smaller than Magnolia, and there were water jugs littering the streets. The fairies guessed that the garbage collectors were find it hard to keep up with the volume of water jugs or the merchants that sell them have just not come to pick up the old ones and sell new ones. Regardless, it was obvious it was tough living with dirty water.
When they met with the mayor, he told them that the problem had been persisting for over a week and started with the west side of town so all seven of them decided that starting there would be their best bet in figuring out what was going on. They split into teams; Natsu, Lucy, and Happy; Erza and Gray; finally Wendy and Carla. It was just like old times, something both Natsu and Lucy were appreciative of for different reasons.
When the trio separated for the others, Natsu began leading the way with his nose. Sniffing around to see if he could smell something that he deemed 'not sewer-like'. "You know, I don't think I've said this yet, but you really haven't changed Natsu," Lucy said watching him crawl around the ground. "It's nice."
"Lucy would say the same thing when she was still around," Happy said. "But even she had to admit, he changed a bit after the two of them got married and had Nashi."
The celestial mage blushed slightly at the blue exceed's words. Now that she had forgiven everyone in the guild, or at least the future selves of the guild, the only thing left that was hard for her to process was the fact that she and Natsu were basically a couple. And from the sounds of everyone, a very committed and loving couple. Natsu had not said much of it ever since she first arrived, but his daughter would not stop begging her to sleep at their house now that she had forgiven her dad.
"I said that? About Natsu? Really?"
"Hey, why do you sound so doubtful!?" Natsu exclaimed in offense, standing up to point an accusatory finger at her. "I'll have you know we wouldn't have gotten together if it weren't for me!"
"Say what!?"
"Here we go again," Happy sighed while Lucy turned bright red from the bold claim. "We get big ol' pal, Lucy's got nothing on you when it comes to that."
"Well she doesn't know that!" the fire dragon slayer retorted.
"Obviously not, because the two of you in her time are still in the middle of being blind dummies." Happy shrugged while Natsu began to stomp his foot in annoyance.
"But it ain't completely my fault!"
"I didn't say it was, but we can't tell this Lucy too much about the future since it might mess her up later!"
"Did you guys just forget I was here or did you just want to make me curious on purpose?"
"You started it!" the dragon slayer and exceed duo exclaimed.
"Excuse you, I did no such thing!"
As the three of them bickered about who started what, one could probably guess they were bickering so loud that they probably interrupted someone's nap time. And if the rumbling beneath the town's feet was anything to go by, well, then the others do not need to know that it was likely their fault. If Natsu could have it his way, he would blame Erza and Gray just for the heck of it.
Several manholes near the three fairies had nasty sewer water sprouting from them with a weird lump passing by each hole as they exploded. The trio took one look at each other, their bickering forgotten, and made a mad dash for the lump before the others could beat them to it. The sewer water rained down on them and Lucy regretted that she did not bring any extra clothes. She should have known that a job with Team Natsu meant she needed several back-up outfits.
Eventually, they got to the center of town, where a fountain was letting the sewer pass through it. The lump had disappeared underneath it so Lucy tried to survey the area, Happy sprouted his wings and flew into the sky to see an overall view of the town while Natsu was picking a fight with the fountain. Safe to say, Team Natsu found their culprit. Now all that was left was to get rid of it so the town can have their water back.
"Natsu! Lucy!" Erza called as she and Gray ran up to the both of them. "What's the situation?"
"This weird lump underground seemed to have cause the flow of water to rise instead of following the pipes," the celestial mage explained. "We followed it until it went underneath the fountain."
Gray watched as the fire dragon slayer continued to yell at the fountain and sighed in disappointment. "So that's why he's acting like an idiot right now, huh."
Said idiot whipped his body around to land a headbutt on the ice mage. "I don't see you trying to help out, Ice Princess!"
"Well I sure as hell ain't helping you scream at a freaking fountain, Flame Brain!"
"Enough the both of you!" the scarlet haired woman collided their heads again, making them fall down in a delirious manner. "Honestly, a century could pass and you two would still bicker like children."
Lucy chuckled awkwardly as Natsu and Gray weakly apologized to Erza, and then looked up to see Wendy and Carla meet up with Happy in the sky. "Guys! We just saw a bunch of the sewer manholes explode on the other side of town! Did you find the cause of the plumbing issue?"
"Kinda, but it went underneath the fountain," Happy explained as the three of them descended. "There was this weird lump moving under the ground."
"Do you smell anything, Wendy?" Carla asked.
The bluenette sniffed the air around her after landing on the ground. Natsu followed right after her and began to sniff around the fountain to see if he could smell anything that could possibly lead them underground to wherever that lump was going. But the two of them just circled back, staring straight to the center of the fountain. Hidden between the smell of chlorine and minerals, both dragon slayers could smell mud and grime.
"There might be an entrance right here actually," Wendy said while Natsu nodded in agreement. "It's just hard to tell since the fountain's in the way."
While Lucy, Happy and Carla tried to see if they could find some sort of switch that could unlock some secret door within the fountain, Erza crossed her arms while contemplating their next move. "What even caused the lump to appear in the first place?" she asked. "Maybe we could just lure it back out again."
Gray moved to sit on the fountain's ledge. "You and I definitely didn't do anything," he said. "The two of us were just walking when the ruptures happened."
"Carla and I had been flying for most of the time once we separated," Wendy explained. "We wouldn't have known to come over here if it weren't for the sewer water or Natsu's screaming."
With those words, that left the three mages to look at the fire dragon slayer with unimpressed expressions. Lucy and Happy could see what they were doing and feigned ignorance, turning away from Natsu's gaze when he looked at them for back up. Carla just sighed, not totally disappointed as this is something that she was used to considering she was dating Happy, and had seen more than enough times the passing of blame game he and Natsu loved to do.
When the pink headed slayer realized that his blonde partner and blue exceed were not gonna help him, he began stomping his right foot in offense. "Hey! Don't go just looking at me like that!" he exclaimed. "Luce started it!"
"Did not!" the celestial mage immediately retorted.
"Did too!"
"Just 'cause I didn't expect you to be mature when it came to raising Nashi, doesn't mean I started anything!"
"Does so! I raised Happy pretty well, and I couldn't let you do all the work raising Nashi!" he continued. "You're my wife and her mother, not some random nanny!"
Lucy blushed an insane bright red, one that put Erza's hair to shame, at his bold statement. "C-Can we not mention the whole 'we're married' thing?"
"You're still acting shy about it?" everyone asked in unison.
"If you were in my shoes, wouldn't you all also still be freaked out!?"
The requip and ice mage would have said something in response, but when they thought about how they were like in Lucy's time, they wisely said nothing. Instead, they avoided eye contact and pretended the conversation did not happen. Wendy could only chuckle lightly, also remembering how Erza and Jellal specifically progressed their relationship. It was pretty hard to watch. At least Gray had it easy thanks to Juvia.
"You're just bummed out that I'm the reason we got together." Natsu stated with a cocky grin.
That earned a 'here we go again' sigh from everyone except the celestial mage who was still a blushing mess. "Do you gotta always gloat about that time, Flame Brain?"
"You do realize that the only reason you confessed your feelings was because you didn't want Lucy to go on a date, right?" Erza said with a smirk while Natsu and Lucy looked at her in disbelief.
In that moment, everyone else's eyes widened, recalling the memory vividly and began laughing. Oh what they would give to go back to that time and relive the drama that was Natsu and Lucy's admitting their feelings to each other and finally become a couple. It was full of second hand embarrassment, some crying, celebration, teasing, and even more. It was a story that will forever be ingrained in the members' memories.
Unfortunately, the nostalgic moment ended and the ruptures started happening again. It shook the ground to the point the water coming from the fountain was getting everywhere and the team had to move out of the way. It was then, that the fountain crumbled from the bottom up, revealing a creature that looked similar to a mole the team had dealt with long ago after X791's Grand Magic Games and right before the Tartaros battle.
"A mole!?" Lucy cried, the conversation now long forgotten.
"This again!?" Erza, Gray, Wendy and Carla exclaimed.
Meanwhile Natsu just smirked, lighting his fist on fire while Happy carried him from behind. "You ain't gonna get me muddy again this time! Come at me!" he said as they charged straight for him.
With one fell swoop and a boom, Natsu sent the mole flying with fire burning its head. Gray took the chance to look from where the mole had appeared from and saw that the sewer passageways were filled to the brim with water - which probably explained why the plumbing was so wack in the town. Now all Team Natsu had to do was find the source of all the rushing water and stop it from filling up the sewers and clear the rest of the excess water.
He knelt to the ground and froze the water, telling Wendy and Carla to see if they could find the source of the rapid water flow now that he froze everything. The duo nodded and flew to the sky to follow the manhole geysers now turned ice towers to find the source - Erza and Lucy following not too far behind. They followed the ice tower trails to a large river bank with a rapid current, which looked like overflowed due to a storm.
Using her Aquarius Star Dress, Lucy used her Aqua Metria to create a tall damn to block the water while Erza and Wendy helped direct the rest of the current to join back with the main part of the river. The requip mage then shot out a signal flare for Natsu, Gray and Happy to clean up the rest. When they saw the burst of magic in the air, the fire dragon slayer used his fire to evaporate the remaining water out of the sewer passageways.
Once that was out of the way, the team explored the sewers and found one of the main pipes completely damaged - likely due to the mole. It was a simple fix and with another process of trouble shooting, the town's plumbing problem was solved. They all cheered at a job well done, got their reward, and began to make their way back to the guild hall. Lucy could not wait to get back to the guild and tell Nashi all they had done.
"Who knew that that we would fight a mole like that again, huh?" Wendy asked while eating from a fruit cup she bought before leaving the town.
"It was certainly nostalgic to an extent," Erza agreed, finishing a pudding cup she also bought before leaving. "A fitting first job for Team Natsu after two years."
"No thanks to the pyro," Gray added which made Natsu bump heads with him - literally.
"Need I remind you who sent that mole flying, Stripper Boy?" the pink headed slayer asked.
"Need I also remind you who caused that mole to break the fountain, Flame Breath?"
"Now, now..." Happy said, trying to squeeze himself in between the two.
Carla took him into her arms and just pulled him away from the two frenemies. "I think it's best you just stay with me, Happy."
"Aye..."
Lucy giggled watching them all. It was nice. Everything was like how she missed it. She thought back to her nakama from her time; how they must be doing, if they were getting by alright; she wondered if she missed what they all had like she did. If only they could see their future selves like she did. Since she was in the future, she knew the guild would get back together eventually but she did not want to wait back in her time. She prayed she could stay like this for much longer.
I wonder what you're doing right now... Natsu.