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Chapter Text

“Twinkle, twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are.”

July 2, X784

In hindsight, she really should have thought through a proper plan before leaving home.

Lucy had been so focused on just leaving, once she got the idea in her mind, that she admittedly didn’t do as much research as she would have liked when she had the leisure of time. Granted, that ‘time’ was slowly driving her insane, so Lucy didn’t regret leaving when she did, but she did regret not doing better research on guilds. Or, more specifically, guild membership requirements.

That wasn’t something discussed often in Sorcerer’s Weekly, so Lucy could only guess that it was proving oneself adept with magic. Hopefully celestial spirit magic was impressive enough. Sure, Lucy had some gold keys, which she knew were rare now that she was familiar with the scope of keys out there in the world. She wished that Aquarius had mentioned that before, but Lucy supposed it didn’t matter to the spirits themselves, just to the people who saw the magic from the outside.

Maybe that was why Lucy was worried. Lucy should have been worried that she would fail out here on her own, or that her father would take offense to her sudden departure, or that something terrible would happen now that she was alone, but Lucy was just worried that she wouldn’t be good enough to join a mage guild.

But that was a really depressing line of thought, and Lucy really shouldn’t be doing that in the middle of a magic shop. That was just rude.

She had spent the last thirty minutes perusing the ‘weapons’ section, but there was nothing impressive and nothing she was interested in using. All she really knew how to use was her whip, which wasn’t that great in the field of work she was hoping to get, but it’s not like she was ever alone with her spirits. Besides, Lucy didn’t have the delusion that she would be trying to do dangerous jobs.

Lucy was probably worrying for nothing. She could get into a guild without extra help. She could! She had charisma! Yeah, yeah, she had a great personality and any guild should be happy to have her!

(She really hoped someone was in the market for celestial spirit mages, please, please oh God.)

Still, she had been loitering around the shop for a while now and she would feel bad if she didn’t get anything. Talking to the shop-keep lowered her expectations of grandeur even further, but! There was a key!

“That one’s not powerful at all,” the shop-keep commented, almost embarrassed.

Lucy didn’t pay him any mind though, because now at least her visit here didn’t seem like a waste. “So what?” She shrugged, smiling. “I was looking for it.”

One of her spirits casually mentioned that the white puppy spirits were bountiful in the spirit realm and made for great companions, so she had been keeping her eye at for one of the keys. And here it was! Oh, today could be a wonderful day after all! She hoped they were cute and friendly. Better yet, she hoped the spirit was available for long periods of time, because she didn’t really want to be out here on her own and most of her spirits were too busy to come out if there wasn’t something to do.

“How much?” Lucy asked, trying to hide her excitement.

“Twenty thousand Jewel.”

Today…could be better. Lucy became painfully aware at how limited her budget really was. “Hooow much might it be again?”

“Like I said, twenty thousand Jewel.”

Oh, cruel world. Cruel, cruel world. The first of her plights, and she was already forced to resort to…that technique.

Lucy threw herself onto the counter, swinging her gloriously toned and wondrously moisturized legs in front of the man. “Come on,” she crooned, making sure to give it every ounce of her natural Lucy-charm. “How much is it, really, you wonderful old man you…”

He was staring. But not in the ‘oh she’s so beautiful and I’m so impressed, way,’ but in the ‘she’s a creep!!!’ way. Quick, Lucy, do something else! Before you lose him! She put on her best smile and winked. That always worked in the magazines, right?

He was still just staring.

Oh no! He still thought she was a creep!!! The old man smiled awkwardly. “I can do nineteen thousand if you insist, young lady.”

Lucy took the offer because she already made herself desperate, but she was still mad about it.

“So, my looks are only worth one thousand Jewel?” she muttered angrily to herself, walking down the street of the harbor town that wasn’t a hub of magical activity and in no way had anything that she was looking for. How much did she have for train fare? It should be enough, but she was going to be skimping on meals, that was for sure.

Where should she even go? Lucy had hoped that Hargeon would be a good place to meet people and make connections, but apparently there wasn’t much here but fish. Maybe she could get lucky and meet a mage on a job, or something. Or, she could go ahead and resort to her Plan B (aka the more likely but less desirable plan) and start traveling via the main railroad from city to city looking for a guild and/or work. She knew Magnolia was on that trade route, but surely, she needed a better plan than just walking into a guild and asking to join. There had to be some secret ceremony or grand entrance or something. Besides, Fairy Tail was a nice dream, but they were a huge guild and one of the best ranked, so she really wasn’t likely to get in without some great feat or at least really good recommendation. Which would probably be next to impossible without divine intervention.

Gaaaahhh she was still pissed. She was destined to live a poor destitute life as the bottom of the barrel, wasn’t she! Was all of her worth in her family name?! No, no-no-no, it couldn’t be. These people just didn’t appreciate beauty and grace. Yeaaaah, that was it. Shame on them!!!

Oh, who was she kidding? What did Lucy think she was doing? She had no idea how to navigate the magical world! It didn’t matter how many books or magazines she read—she was inexperienced. Heck, even the keys she did have were a product of luck. In fact, the white puppy key was probably the first that she outright acquired on her own. The closest beforehand was Lyra’s key, which she found in a marketplace and tried to barter for while her father was out of town, but it had been Spetto who helped her convince the man that her bracelet was apt trade, so Lucy didn’t know if that counted as her own doing.

The other keys were simply given to her. Most of them were her mother’s, so it made sense, but it was still odd to think about. Aquarius’ key had been among her belongings when she passed, and thus, ended up in Lucy’s possession soon after, though Lucy hadn’t been able to summon her and form a contract until later. Mr. Bero had been the one to help her with her magic, giving her Horologium’s key for practice for summoning. After that, Spetto gave her Cancer’s key, which she said belonged to her mother before her, and since Spetto didn’t know any celestial spirit magic, she had only been waiting until Lucy was ready. With her summoning capabilities improving—and her dream of becoming a guild mage more evident—Bero gave her Taurus’ key as a “graduation present” of sorts, claiming that since Taurus was a combat spirit, someone as elderly as Bero had no use to be running around in those situations. Lucy always thought that that was just Bero’s way of trying to get her ready to leave.

Old man Crux’s key was an odd exception, because Lucy simply found it. In the storage room, nestled with old stuff of both her mother and her father. She assumed it was her mom’s, but she didn’t know why it wasn’t with her mom’s other keys. Unless her father was the one who threw it here. She could likely ask old man Crux why he was there, but she was a little afraid of the answer. If she had to guess though, he bore information that somebody didn’t like, and her mom was far too nice to ditch someone because of that.

The oddest key she acquired, however, was definitely Scorpio’s.

A stranger found her in the garden of her own home, in front of her mother’s grave. It would have been a terrifying experience had the stranger not proved to be benign, mysterious as she was. The woman was hooded, and it covered her hair and half of her face, but she revealed her slender hands and the gold key in her palm.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” the woman said, and she had brought flowers for the grave, too, like she was going to visit regardless of Lucy’s presence.

However, it was to Lucy that she handed the key. “He asked for you.”

Scorpio was a little odd, but everyone was, and he was kind and polite despite it all. Lucy had no idea how he and Aquarius were dating, but they were happy, and that was all that mattered in the end. Lucy didn’t know who the probably-celestial-spirit-mage was, or where she went, disappearing soon after, but it was kind of her to inquire who Scorpio wanted to be with. She assumed the only reason she was sought out was on account of Aquarius, but honestly, if Aquarius spoke anything remotely good about her, she would take it.

Lucy was still trudging aimlessly through the streets, still salty about that rude, swindling old man but secretly glad she had gotten the key anyway, when she heard a loud commotion. She looked down the street to see a bunch of people—mainly girls—crowding around this figure and squealing. Was he famous? Was something going on?

A few girls ran past her. “It’s the great Salamander!” they scried. “A famous mage, in our town!”

Salamander? Oh wait! Wasn’t that the name given to those fire mages that could use their magic without items and without harm to themselves? That was so cool! A famous mage like that was surely in an awesome guild. This was her chance!

Lucy looked back to the gathering crowd with awe. Those were a lot of people; he must be really popular. Most of those people were girls, too. She wondered if he looked cool, too. That would be nice. Just imagine—a dashing, hot (heh) fire mage being super impressed with her totally awesome celestial spirit magic and sweeping her away to join an amazing guild. And he would probably pay for her ride there, too!

She approached the crowd and made her way through it, trying to get a good look at the mage in question. Lucy was jostled around quite a bit—which was incredibly rude—but it was all understandable when she made it into view of the mage. He was waving sweetly as a bunch of people clamored for his attention, deftly trying to respond in kind at the multitude of questions and conversations coming his way. His blue hair dazzled in the sunlight, and his smile was as bright as flames itself. It was as if his very presence radiated power and majesty.

Her heart seized. Was this what it was like, being in the presence of an accomplished and famous mage? No wonder Sorcerer’s Weekly never ran out of content! She was amazed; she was enraptured. The Salamander was a being above all others, and they were all lucky to be there. Nay! He was gracious to allow them to be here, basking in his warmth.

Lucy tried to get closer, hoping to see more, but her shoulder smacked into someone else’s, and it was too sturdy to give. It would have been forgiven, however, if Lucy hadn’t turned and noticed that the girl she bumped into was completely and disrespectfully annoyed, muttering something along the lines of, “Salamander, you’re so hot, or whatever,” without a single ounce of sincerity.

She couldn’t help but to stay, shocked. The girl was a little taller than she was but was slouching, spiky and twisting black hair falling over her furrowed eyebrows, and her arms were crossed. If it wasn’t weird enough that this chick could stand to be in the presence as such as magnanimous being as the Salamander and dare act grumpy, the crazy lady was wearing a scarf in the middle of July! How absurd!

Lucy was torn between chastising her and ignoring her in favor of watching Salamander more when the girl turned, dark eyes wide and nostrils flaring. “Anna?”

Her confusion slowed her thought process. “No? I don’t know an Anna.” Just who was this chick anyway?!?! Calling her a random name and distracting her from… What? Why was she needing to look at that guy again? Some odd feeling was crawling up her belly and she couldn’t place it. Lucy regarded the Salamander again, more cautiously this time, but he just flashed a smile and waved.

“Gyah!” Lucy yelped as the girl suddenly yanked her away from the crowd just as the Salamander was leaving, throwing out an invitation for some party and riding away on a purple flame. The girl watched the Salamander go with a frown while Lucy pulled her arm away and rubbed it, because ow! What a grip! And how rude.

“What was that for?!” she shouted. “I wasn’t trying to compete with you, you know!” And why would she? Lucy was a little fog-headed on the matter, but there was something off about that guy. She might have been able to pay better attention if this crazy girl didn’t man-handle her!

The girl in question tilted her head, nose twitching. “You’re related to her, right?” she asked, with no context whatsoever.

Lucy could gather, however. “I don’t know an Anna,” she hissed. If she did, Lucy wasn’t about to go blabbing about her family tree. That was over. Lucy might as well not be a Heartfilia anymore, and she didn’t want to be—not if it meant becoming what her father wanted. She abandoned it, anyway. She prayed her mother would forgive her, but she was just Lucy now, and Lucy really didn’t need strangers trying to guess if she was related to some random girl.

“But you have those gold keys and you smell like…” The girl blinked. “Ah, never mind.” She gestured vaguely to the keys Lucy kept on her side. “You’re a mage, though, right?”

Was…she about to tell Lucy how she smelled? Gross! Especially since Lucy had to get a cheap hotel and she questioned the validity of that water so she probably really did smell disgusting! Gaaaaahhhh!

However, the subject of her keys was an easier one, and Lucy didn’t miss the opportunity to jingle them proudly. “Yep! I know, it’s pretty amazing. Celestial spirit mages such as myself are rare, too.” She desperately hoped that fact made her valuable, but at the very least, she could scare this chick into respecting her. (Or at the very least reset whatever bullying just happened, or whatever that was.)

The girl’s eyes widened with a sparkle, which was exactly what Lucy was hoping for. “Are they cool? Can any of them breathe fire? Can I meet them?!” she practically gushed, dizzying Lucy.

She wanted to meet them? That wasn’t something people usually asked. Granted, the people she knew—had known—were the type to ask ‘are they your servants?’ or ‘what does that have to do with your family’s business empire?’ and other dumb questions like that. The girl’s enthusiasm couldn’t help but to pull a smile from Lucy, despite how weird the chick was.

“Maybe,” she conceded. “But I shouldn’t bother them now in case I need to tonight.” If she was going to talk her way into mage circles and guilds, she might need a demonstration. Salamander said something about being on a boat, so maybe she could bring Aquarius along, but Aquarius was mean so maybe she could use Cancer instead. He was nicer, and generally more friendly with strangers.

“Don’t go to that guy’s party,” the girl said, voice dropping back to serious.

Lucy took a step back. “Hey now, I’m not interested like that. He’s a total creep, but I need connections!” And she did get an odd feeling about him and…whatever happened when she was there earlier, but she didn’t have enough evidence to formulate. The girl had been too distracting, and she was yanked away before Lucy could finish her observations.

Speaking of which… “Hey! I don’t even know who you are!” she chastised. Random stranger telling her what to do… Sheesh! Though she supposed since she was here, so might as well reciprocate. Because it was polite. “I’m Lucy. Not Anna. Lu-cy.”

The girl blinked, before her face split into a smile. “Oh, I’m Natsu.”

“Nice to meet you Na— what the heck?!” Her attempt to make this meeting civil ended in a shriek when the girl turned into a guy. Wavy black hair shrunk into spiky pink hair, and the chest flattened and widened.

Natsu, who was totally a dude now, blinked at her innocently with the same dark eyes. “Hi Lucy!” he greeted with a cheerful smile.

Lucy was going to pass out. She’s been played. Absolutely nothing changed in their super-strange-total-strangers relationship, but she felt bamboozled all the same.

“You’re— But you were—” Lucy closed her eyes mid-stammer. Of course! The answer was right in front of her, and it explained his odd and familiar response to her keys. “You’re a transformation mage.”

“Nope.”

“What?!” What did he mean he wasn’t?! He just did it! And why? To scare her! Whatever form this person was supposed to take, screw them!

He laughed. “My magic is fire. I can just do a little transforming on the side, which is why somebody”—he yelled to the side—“decided to use me as bait!”

The more she talked to this crazy person, the more confused she got. Something was going on here, wasn’t it? From what she had gathered from that magic shop, Hargeon was not a hub of mage activity, yet, two—three if you counted her, with a possible fourth if lying-fire-dude was with somebody—were here now, and maybe against each other? And what was this about being ‘bait’?

Was she about to be caught in the middle of something?

No no no. Of course not. Lucy was as careful as she was sensible. She could extract the information she needed, consider, and then leave if need be.

“Why didn’t you want me to go the Salamander’s party?” Lucy asked, crossing her arms in an attempt to be stern. At first she thought it was just some crazy jealousy, but now that Lucy was looking at the big picture, she realized that Natsu had been displeased from the start—about Salamander. But whatever it was warranted secrecy, and it wasn’t an issue of avoidance either. Something was happening, and even if this guy was off his rocker, she wanted an idea before she started planning going to places. If a fight was going to happen, she would kiss her possible connections goodbye and move to the next town. She didn’t have a death wish.

“Because,” a new voice said, dropping down with a thud. Lucy totally did not squeak when the second man with wild black hair, red eyes, and metal studs in his face landed beside her. From where the hell he came from, Lucy had no idea, but he was built like a fighter and somewhat familiar. Like she’s seen his picture before. “It’s a trap.”

Chapter Text

“Not lookin’ back
Not givin’ up
Not letting go
I’ll keep on running.”

—Cash Cash, “Reach for the Stars”

Earlier…

“Yo, Natsu!”

Natsu pulled his eyes away from the job board to see Gajeel approaching him. Oh, he was back! He was beginning to worry, because he and Erik tended to disappear on their jobs for long stretches at a time. No where as long as Gildarts of course—he was still gone—and even Acno could be ‘gone’ for longer if he was sleeping, but they knew where he was.

“Hey Gajeel,” he greeted back. “How’d it go?” Erik wasn’t with him so he must have gone back home to sleep.

“Eh, well it turned out the bandits that the job commissioners wanted us to find were part of a syndicate run by city officials, so things got messy, but it’s over now. Mostly. Erik was arrested.”

Oh, he was going to be so pissed when he got back.

Happy snorted a laugh. “Again?”

“Yep.”

Gajeel was unbothered, so it probably was the same as the other times. According to Erik, it wasn’t actually ‘being arrested’ (that’s just what they liked to call it), but rather, the Rune Knights (or even the Council) forcing him to debrief what he knew, because it was ‘above guild jurisdiction’ post-kick-butt, and Erik tended to learn a lot about the baddies whenever that stuff happened.

“It’s amazing how badly they want ‘im to join the Knights, but at the same time, they hate his guts ‘cause we do things better than they do, so they make it difficult. It could easily be a few more days until he makes it back, so I went ahead and left,” Gajeel continued. “Speaking of which…” He slung his arm over Natsu’s shoulder. “Are you free?”

“Uh, yeah?” Natsu wasn’t sure where Gajeel was going with this, but it sounded like he wanted him to do something. It couldn’t be one of the more boring jobs though, because Levy was here, and Gajeel normally split off with her if he wasn’t with Erik or maybe Rogue. Rogue, Sting, and Wendy have started going on more jobs together now that they were older, but they still went with Natsu, Gajeel, and Erik, or even Laxus or Acno, on the bigger ones, depending on what the job was and who was available.

It’s been a while since he and Gajeel went on a job, so that could be really fun. The last one they went on was to beat up that lava monster. That was fun, but it was annoying how little fire affected lava. Lava was also weird, and he couldn’t eat it, despite previous guesses. Well, they still beat it up, so it worked in the end.

Gajeel gestured over to the side, a little farther than the rest of the guild’s occupants. Natsu and Happy followed. “So, there’s this lead that Erik and I have been sniffin’ lately, right?” Gajeel started, and Natsu started to check out. Oh, it was the sneaky stuff again.

“Unless you’re ready to beat someone up, go find someone else. I ain’t gonna let you trick me into being your signal fire in the middle of the woods for hours again,” Natsu retorted, remembering the most recent time those two managed to convince him to help. Admittedly, there were times he came along and they actually were taking down a dark guild or something of the sort, but they normally didn’t know that in advance. Which was a shame, because that was the fun part.

“Well, we are. Hopefully. If all goes well, we’ll be beating him up by tomorrow night.”

“That means that you don’t know,” Happy supplied cheerfully.

Gajeel glowered. “Hey now, these things are unpredictable. Regardless, I could really use your help, Natsu. Not even just because Erik is still getting dressed down by the Knights.”

Natsu narrowed his eyes. Gajeel was by far the worse at convincing him to do things, but then again, nobody had the puppy eyes that Rogue did, and Wendy was adept at them too, so it wasn’t a fair comparison. “Oh yeah?” he challenged. “That’s what you said about the thing in the woods.”

“To be fair, I really thought they would know the difference between a regular fire and a magic fire. I wasn’t expecting those goons to be so distractible.” Gajeel shook his head with a frown. “Anyway, that ain’t the point. There’s this guy that should be in Hargeon tomorrow.” He scowled. “He’s… a collector for the Bosco slave trade.”

Natsu winced. It was serious, then. He knew that Gajeel and Erik have been taking out pieces of that thing for a while now. Acno, too, especially since they traded a bunch of black-market magic items and he had been knocking down their warehouses for years now since discovering that they had dragon lacrimas too. Some really awful stuff went down in that, and Natsu had zero problems with smashing a guy like that in the face.

“From the accounts, it seems like he uses charm magic,” Gajeel continued, “which complicates things. Hard to tell how strong it is, but that’s probably why this guy can be so open about things and not get caught. It could be a focus thing, but if his magic is strong enough to even get ya’ when you’re expectin’ it, then… Well, Erik did the research. It should only work on one species at a time, and he’s using it on humans.”

That sounded hard. Sneaky magic like that was always annoying to deal with. “How are you gonna’ get around that then?” he asked.

“Byyyy having someone who would be immune to it at the front, of course,” Gajeel answered with a grin.

Natsu didn’t get it. Didn’t he just say that it was hard to know how strong the effects are? If Gajeel knew how to get around it, then what was the problem?

Gajeel placed a hand on his shoulder. “That’s you, bat-boy.”

“Ohhhh,” Natsu realized. Duh, he just said it would only work on humans! Between being an etherious and a dragon slayer he was…not that much human. He was born a human, but then he was revived as a demon so it was complicated. He stopped thinking about the specifics. Or at least, he did his best to, because it didn’t matter. He was okay with himself, and his family didn’t care either, so it was enough. “Wait, so you are using me and Happy as bait again!”

“He only said you though,” Happy giggled.

“Yeah, Happy’ll be too obvious. He can be on point with me.”

The two shared a fist bump, and Natsu pouted at the both of them. “You guys are so mean,” he whined.

“Oh there’s another thing,” Gajeel added. “This guy’s name is Bora, but he uses a moniker out in public. Get this—he calls himself ‘Salamander.’”

“Salamander?” he echoed. “But that’s— Hey! You mean he’s using my schtick?!”

Salamanders were apparently a nickname for dragons, even though not all dragons were fire affiliated (this era’s perception of dragons were weird) and somebody started calling Natsu that because he had fire magic and he was one of the ‘dragons of Fairy Tail.’ Which was hilarious, because nobody really knew how close to dragons they were; people just thought it was a play off of the fairy theme, and their guildmates just knew it was some specific form of magic. Acno drilled into them the dangers of letting the nature of their magic be known, but it was also impossible to hide, so the most they could do was play off of the lack of knowledge people had these days.

So it was possible that other people got that nickname too, but still! He didn’t want some creep giving his name a bad name!

“Most likely,” Gajeel confirmed. “Probably a fire user too. So when we figure out how he’s doing his thing and we beat him up for everybody to see, you can have first dibs.”

Natsu pounded his fist into his palm, fire spurting out briefly. He was gonna enjoy beating this asshole up. He was all fired up now! “Let’s go!”

—o0o—

Gajeel was an awful brother, and Happy was a traitor.

It was bad enough that they were crunched for time and had to take the train. Happy barely dragged them off of it in time, too. However, that was just a hazard they had to deal with as a dumb side effect of post-birth magically evolving senses. This though…this was Gajeel’s fault.

“You didn’t mention this when you first told me the plan!” he hissed indignantly.

Gajeel waved him off. “It wasn’t important then. Besides, it doesn’t really change much. You’ll still be just hanging around the guy to get whatever information you can, and then we ambush him at his ambush. No difference.”

“No, there is a difference! This is embarrassing!”

Natsu had a lot of regrets. Those regrets included trusting that Gajeel’s plan would be fun and not as complicated as other people’s tended to be, and he also regretted trying to learn transformation magic. Sure, he had a racial affinity for it, and it was fun for pranks even though he was nowhere near great at it and it was impossible to trick dragon-sensed siblings with visual tricks, but it helped with his etherious transformation and not doing it by accident.

Now he was just cursed with ability. But that didn’t mean he was some damn actor! (He was actually a really bad liar, and this was probably going to go terribly.)

“What? Looking like a girl that much of a problem to you? This guy’s got a type, ya’ know,” Gajeel pressed teasingly.

Natsu glowered. “No. That’s not the problem! Th-the problem is you want me to do what?!”

“Fangirl!” Gajeel repeated cheerily. “Ya’ know, the ogling and cooing and stuff. That’s what everyone else does, so it’ll make him think you’re charmed.”

“Just pretend like he’s a platter of jerk chicken,” Happy supplied, playing at being helpful when he was of no help at all. “That’ll make you go crazy for him.”

“You’re both awful,” he announced, giving his brother and best friend once last glower before he started the transformation.

It was much easier to go between aspects of his normal form and his demon form, because it was all a part of him, than it was to make things up. That got more complicated, and it was harder to make it realistic, or to carry through on making it solid or passable, if it never existed in the first place.

Fire was a lot simpler. And awesomer. That’s why Natsu liked it the best.

He didn’t do much. There was no need to reconfigure himself entirely, he just needed to make his chest into a girl’s and… He supposed he should change his hair. Natsu couldn’t come up with a face without copying somebody’s so he didn’t bother, instead just changing his hair to be longer and black. He probably looked like his mom. That would work.

Natsu stomped off to do the stupid task he agreed to do, turning around once to stick his tongue out at the retreating Gajeel and Happy, and maybe flick them off too, but then he got to work sniffing out the imposter mage.

It wasn’t like this was his first time doing stuff like this—tracking down dark mages or petty criminals. There were plenty of jobs that required some set up before the fight. Sometimes, there wasn’t a fight at all. It depended, and Natsu understood that. In fact, it made mage-work interesting, because nothing ever happened the same way, and things were never boring. It’s why Natsu wouldn’t give up this life for anything.

But that didn’t mean that every single job was enjoyable. Natsu had opinions, just like anyone else. And those opinions included that jobs where he had to find the perp but not immediately fight them sucked, because that meant he had to pretend like he was there to do something else, and he was not particularly good at that.

Natsu spent a large portion of his life pretending. Or more accurately, trying to avoid having to pretend. It was so much easier if nobody asked any questions, or started guessing correctly; then, Natsu could simply be and it wouldn’t be a problem. At least there were places he didn’t have to worry about it, like at home, but on jobs like these he had to worry about everything and not mess it up.

It made his head hurt. That’s why Natsu preferred to keep things as simple as he could.

He smelled fire, but it was a low-heat magic fire that smelled like raisins and it was frankly disgusting. He followed it to see some idiot flaunting it around and making shapes around a growing group of squealing girls, and he knew that must be Bora.

Natsu’s fingers itched. It would be easy to get the other people to run and take that asshole out right here and now, but he couldn’t because then no one would believe him and the guy wouldn’t get arrested. It wasn’t a job from an official source, and it wasn’t really a job at all. That’s what made this stuff so tricky: they had to get the person to say it publicly enough that there was “ample evidence” that they were in fact breaking the law. Which was annoying and overly complicated, especially when the Rune Knights were so picky. It was amazing that Erik or Gajeel haven’t actually gone insane yet; Master already had, and Acnologia was always close, so he went out of his way to avoid it.

But Natsu needed to do this now, not only because he promised Gajeel he would help, but because this guy really did sound dangerous to deal with, if he was what rumors cracked him up to be. Not to mention just a huge scum. Natsu agreed that he was the best guy for the job here, considering the circumstance, but that didn’t mean he was thrilled about the plan.

Ugh. He was going to have to pretend to like him? That was painful. Gajeel owed him for this. Happy too. He didn’t know how, or for what, but they did.

Nobody batted an eye when he sulked up to the growing group. He watched the shit-faced liar and tried to listen for any “useful information”—whatever that could be—but he was just doing party tricks with his gross fire and signing a bunch of autographs. The girls (and maybe some guys too, but Gajeel was right when he said the guy had a type) were all clamoring despite how lame the guy was, so he saw the effects of the charm magic. How was the guy doing it anyway? Natsu sniffed around for the magic, but between not knowing what it smelled like, and the guy’s stinky fire and the raging emotions (hormones?) of the people around him, it was hard to tell.

Between listening and sniffing, it was hard to try to “act fanatic,” so Natsu didn’t bother putting that much effort into it. That Bora guy was too self-absorbed to notice anyway, probably.

Then somebody smacked into him.

It wasn’t the first time it happened—these charmed people were nuts, and Natsu understood why this magic was really creepy—so he ignored it. Until he turned and caught the girl staring at him and she looked just like Anna.

So Natsu made the impulse decision to try to pull her out before things got worse, being “obvious” be damned.

—o0o—

Lucy was not Anna, but Natsu wasn’t unconvinced that they weren’t unrelated. He knew Anna had a family, but she didn’t talk about them much, and he had always been convinced that she didn’t visit them, so he never knew for sure. He had always been curious though.

Lucy definitely didn’t know them, and she was pretty angry for some reason. Well, maybe just miffed. He wasn’t sure why, because he just saved her from a great deal of embarrassment—they were gonna save all those girls regardless, but it would be bad if they tried to do something to her because of her magic or took the spirits’ keys—but she was still huffy. Maybe because Gajeel just scared her real good. It was kinda funny. Anna barely showed any emotion at all, so this girl was already very different besides appearance, smell, and magic.  

“What do you mean it’s a ‘trap’?” she shouted, waving her arms around. “And who even are you people?!”

“Maybe we shouldn’t be doing this out in the street,” Happy mused. Oh right. Sneaky stuff. Bora was gone, but still.

“Oh, we could go get food!” Natsu suggested, feeling his stomach rumble at the thought. Transformation magic was exhausting when you had to make things up, and it didn’t even do as much as fire!

“Don’t dodge the question!” Lucy hissed, pointing her finger. “And, and— Did that cat just talk?”

Happy waved. “Yep.”

Lucy stared at him a moment more, blinking, before shaking her head and moving on. “Back to the question dodging, you—” She took a moment. “Question dodgers! What’s going on here, and who are you people?”

“Easy there, missy,” Gajeel laughed. “Happy’s right: here’s not the place. How ‘bout we talk over food so Natsu stops being all mopey at me.”

“Hey, I’m not mopey,” he immediately retorted, but upon taking a moment to think about it, Natsu realized that this was Gajeel’s apology, and it meant that he was paying. And that they were getting food. “But I’ll take it.”

However, Lucy wasn’t as excited as he was at the prospect. “Wait a second!” she protested, crossing her arms with a stomp. “You expect me to go to some random place with total strangers? Ha! As if! I wanted an explanation, not to get mugged! I’m not an idiot, you know.”

Strangers? Okay, so they might not technically know each other, but if she really was one of Anna’s grandkids, and Anna was like an aunt to them, then that made them… Cousins? Wait no. Ah, whatever—it made them family, in a way, so Natsu didn’t want to just leave her, especially with a crazy guy like Bora running around trying to snatch people. That wasn’t right.

“Come on, Lucy, we don’t bite!” he urged brightly. “We’ll explain everything, promise.”

Gajeel shrugged beside him. “You don’t have to come if you don’t wanna know, but we’ll be leaving now. Feel free to come or go, but I wouldn’t suggest sticking around.”

Was Gajeel really going to leave her out there? Natsu opened his mouth to say something, but Gajeel shook his head with a subtle shrug, yanking Natsu along before he could turn back.

“You’re just gonna leave her?” Natsu whispered as soon as they were out of normal-people hearing range. “With that creep out there?”

“It’s not like we can force her to, even if she is a Heartfilia,” Gajeel replied, snorting a little in frustration. Okay, so he wasn’t doing it because he wanted to. “But I think she’ll come. She had a lot of questions. And people that pushy like their questions answered, believe me.”

Natsu glanced back, and Lucy was muttering something under her breath while pacing in circles. Maybe she would come after all, if she was still there. “Wait? Heartfilia?” Had he heard that name before?

“That’s Anna’s last name.” Gajeel rubbed his chin. “Though that doesn’t mean that chick still has it. Last names are weird like that, so I have no idea if it still exists, or if there are more not related to Anna out there. I think I heard it get thrown around before, but with nothing to do with celestial spirit magic. But she definitely seems related. Or we’re both crazy.”

“That’s always possible,” Happy teased.

“Hey!”

—o0o—

This was crazy. They were crazy!

Or maybe Lucy was crazy, because she was running after them.

It probably—definitely—was a dumb, stupid thing to do, but she wanted to know. She did want to be a mage, and this was some sort of magic conflict. It was something she would see a lot of, even if she wasn’t directly involved. And Lucy had no intentions of being involved, in this or in anything, but Mr. Bero had drilled into her that in the world of magic, one must be prepared to face anything, and she was going to be prepared for this. Even if that preparation gave her a list of names to avoid and a good timetable to get the heck out of here.

If she wanted answers, Lucy had two options: the weirdos she was running after, or the conceited mage in the square. There was something fishy about the Salamander guy, though Lucy had been too distracted by the transforming dude to make a complete analysis, though in hindsight, he was only one person and she was about to approach two and a cat. She was outnumbered if something went wrong. Or, well, not really, because Lucy had her hand on Scorpio’s key, and the cat didn’t matter, so it would be two on two if things got nasty.

Which she really, really hoped didn’t happen. (Oh God what was she getting into?!)

It was fine. She would be fine. This was just a mark of her persistence. Besides, those suspicious characters were going to a real (if albeit not-as-populated-as-she-would-have-liked) restaurant, so it wasn’t like it was some dingy back alley that exists for the sole purpose of bad plot foreshadowing.

Lucy slammed open the door with too much vigor, but she had a lot of pent-up energy over this, okay? She spotted the two hooligans sliding into a booth, both on one side like they knew she was coming, and ooo darn those boys! She marched to the other side and took a seat, trying her very best to ignore the smug face of the black-haired dude and the too excited face of the other.

“Start with who you are and why you dragged me around like a sack of potatoes,” she demanded, because Lucy was very much so in a position of deserving to make demands, thank you very much. Seriously, why did she get dragged into this? There were a bunch of other people there! Unless… Unless it was because she could use magic too? No no, surely that alone was not enough to summon the ire of the universe; plenty of people used at least some magic. Right?

“I’m Natsu,” the first boy repeated with a grin, the information still useless to her. “And that’s Happy, and that’s Gajeel,” he introduced, pointing to the cat and the metal-faced weirdo in turn.

“We’re guild mages,” Gajeel continued, and that was the first bit of use to her. “From Fairy Tail.”

From…from Fairy Tail. Lucy expected… Well, she had no idea what she expected. For them to be wannabes like her, maybe? Or from something she never heard of, but they were part of one of the best mage guilds in Fiore?! No no, this wasn’t right!

Yet, the boys rolled up their sleeves, and the cat lifted his backpack, and the fairy-ish symbol of the guild was clear as day. Lucy was astounded. Maybe excited, but definitely shocked. It was just like what she wanted when she heard that there was a mage here! Connections! Maybe she could figure out how to get into a guild like Fairy Tail. Oh! Maybe she could impress them so much they could just recommend her in! How cool would that be?

No! Lucy, focus! She still had questions, and these were still potential lunatics. She bet they were the ones that gave Fairy Tail the reputation of troublemakers. (Because surely the whole guild wasn’t actually that crazy.)

“So why’d you manhandle me then?!” she pressed, still ticked on that front. It was completely uncalled for. Not to mention the weird rivalry with that other guy. Was he from another guild? Guild wars were ancient history, of course, but that didn’t mean that there weren’t rivalries; she’s read about a few, though most of the articles were just speculation and for fun. “And why did you say the other guy was a trap?”

It wasn’t just her curiosity at stake—it was quite possibly her career. Lucy realized that she didn’t have the same awareness of the world that other people growing up with guild influence would have, but she wouldn’t let that stop her. Anything pertaining to this, she would learn. Even if it happened to be super sketchy rivalries in the docks of another town. At least these two boys, weird though they were, seemed willing to talk to her, so she would use that to her advantage.

“Oh. Heheh…” The pink-haired boy, Natsu, laughed apologetically. “My bad. But I was trying to get you away from the charm magic.”

Charm magic? Wait. No way. Her spine stiffened as it all came together: her weird memory lapse, the rabid girls, the off-putting aura of the Salamander. Lucy hadn’t been able to study him with Natsu distracting her, but he had been wearing jewelry, hadn’t he? Not to mention just being a mage.

What a scum! Using illegal magic just to gain attention. It was good to know pricks like that existed in the mage world as well.

So, he was just trying to save her some embarrassment, huh? Lucy exhaled sadly. He was just as embarrassing, yanking her around like that and confusing her, but she appreciated the sentiment. “Thank you, then. I must have gotten drawn in from a distance and didn’t notice,” she sighed, now simply embarrassed at what kind of image that gave her: a girl trying to be a mage falling for a magic trap. Rookie mistake, she was sure. What kind of guild would want an idiot like her?!

“No problem!” Natsu replied cheerily. He didn’t seem to be mocking her, but this guy also gave her the immediate impression that he didn’t think things through, so maybe he hadn’t realized it yet. Or he didn’t care.

Gajeel, the scarier looking one of the bunch, looked a bit more pensive, but not necessarily upset. Or maybe he was. Not that it mattered to Lucy. Nope. Not at all. They were only mages from one of her top-choice guilds. Nothing special there.

Except when Lucy was trying to figure out what her next step was, it hit her—where she recognized Gajeel. It was a Sorcerer’s Weekly issue! There wasn’t much on him (there rarely was on anyone) but it was a feature all the same, because… because… “You’re an S-Class mage,” she blurted as the revelation dawned on her.

Gajeel’s face split into a grin; meanwhile, Natsu threw his head back and groaned loudly. “Yep, sure am,” Gajeel confirmed, much to the obvious chagrin of his companion. “Cool, right?”

She nodded absently, still trying to process it. S-Class mages were the top guys, right? The most powerful in the guild, or the most skilled. It was a distant dream for mages, and one many never achieved. Lucy never dared to consider herself in such a position—it would be a miracle and dream-come-true enough to get into a guild at all. It was strange to think that there was one in front of her. He honestly didn’t seem that impressive, but maybe that’s because both of the boys had ordered an ungodly amount of food. (It was a bit horrifying.)

Keeping track of the deeds of individual mages was hard—nearly impossible, even—but she had heard of exploits done by the guild, and sometimes specifically S-Class individuals from that guild. Was she actually talking to one? Oh! This could be her in! Surely, if she managed to not look like a complete noob (that ship probably already sailed) in front of them, then that could be how she gets in a guild like Fairy Tail! Quick, Lucy, say something!

“Oh! I remember hearing about that time a Fairy Tail S-Class mage took down that entire dark guild storming this town single-handedly,” she recalled, the wonder in her voice not completely contrived, because that really was amazing. (Though Lucy was totally buttering him up—she knew how to get her foot in the door of places.)

Gajeel chuckled lightly. “That doesn’t really narrow it down, but you’re probably thinking about Erza. I think she got a lot of publicity for that one.”

There were more than one of them. Of course. Duh, Lucy! A giant guild like Fairy Tail was bound to have a few. “There was also that time somebody stopped that huge water monster from swallowing a beach—that was someone from Fairy Tail, right?” she continued. Lucy had been wary of beaches for at least a few months after reading about that one.

“Ah, that was Jellal,” Gajeel responded, a bit sheepish at this point.

Oh no! She was doing the opposite of flattery! What other stories has Lucy heard? “Um, that thunderbird attack?”

Natsu piped up this time, grinning widely. “Oh! That was Laxus’s team!”

This was not going exactly how Lucy planned it. Could she salvage it? Should she? Curse her mouth, it continued! “Well, there was also that—”

“If it’s something cool, it probably wasn’t Gaj—ACK!,” Natsu interrupted, only to be cut off with a loud thud underneath the table. The cat began snickering from the other side of him, only for a piece of food to be flicked towards his face with surprising speed and accuracy.

Gajeel cleared his throat. “Anyway, that stuff isn’t important. Not a lot of what a mage does is public, ya know,” he grumbled. “You should know. You’re a mage—you in a guild, right?”

“O-oh, well, um,” she stumbled. Was this her chance? Or just another jab at how pathetic she was? “Actually, I’m not. Not yet, at least! I’m looking to join one, though.” Lucy mashed her fingertips together with a nervous giggle. “You know… a guildlikeFairyTail?”

That was dumb. She totally came off as desperate, and she wasn’t desperate! (Okay, maybe she was, but they didn’t need to know that.)

Gajeel burst out laughing, and Lucy wished that she had magic that let her turn invisible or melt into the floor. That didn’t work. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be. Fairy Tail did have a reputation for being destructive (even though they looked like a fun group of people) so maybe she should find another guild. Lamia Scale, maybe? They seemed laid back… Phantom Lord was also a top guild, but she knew even less about them than she did some of the others, so she doubted she knew enough to join.

“You got guts,” Gajeel remarked with a grin. “I like it. Sure, Fairy Tail is always happy to accept new people.”

“Yeah, you should totally join!” Natsu continued, now over whatever pain was inflicted on him earlier. “It’ll be great!”

The cat raised his paw. “Aye!”

Lucy blinked owlishly. What? Were they mocking her? They didn’t seem derisive… How the heck did that work then?! She had been pathetic! She was also a total stranger. They were total strangers. Was this legitimate, or should she be worried? Was she even awake right now?

She was still trying to fathom what just happened when Natsu continued, practically bouncing in his seat. “You can come back to Magnolia with us tomorrow and we can introduce you! Fairy Tail’s never actually had a celestial spirit mage before. That’s like, what, seven or eight new people to the guild all in one?”

“Huh, it is like that, isn’t it?” Lucy mused. She shook her head, snapping her back to the more pressing matter. “Wait, but really? You’re just gonna show me your guild? You just met me!”

“But you seem nice though,” Natsu responded, like it was obvious.

“It’s up to you if you really want to join, but if you want to check it out, there’s nothing stopping you,” Gajeel continued with a casual shrug. “How else do you think mages join guilds?”

Lucy stifled a nervous laugh. She really overcomplicated that one, didn’t she? If what they said was true then… She could join a guild! One of the best guilds! She would have a job doing magic, and take that Father!

“Wow, really?” Lucy breathed, practically squealing. If this was a dream, then it was an amazing dream! Maybe today was the best day after all! “Thank you so much!”

“Yeah!” Natsu responded with a cheerful grin.

“We should be done tonight,” Gajeel explained, “though I suppose there’s no guarantees.”

“Oh, are you guys on a job?” Lucy asked, a little curious now. What were mage jobs like? She knew that there were a vast variety of them, too many to name, but witnessing one up close was an experience she never had before, having grown up in the middle of an empty manor.

However, the boys and cat glanced at each other. “Not exactly,” the cat—Happy, she believed—said vaguely.

“Speaking of which—” Gajeel turned to Natsu. “Where’s the thing?”

Natsu stared blankly. “Uhhh… I wasn’t paying attention. Lucy distracted me.”

“Hey! Don’t blame me for your stuff!” she huffed. She didn’t even know what they were doing!

“Gihi, he said it was at the docks, ash-brain. Good thing I was listenin’ too.”

“If you coulda’ listened so well without me, why’d you make me do all that!”

“So it wouldn’t be out of place when we gotta get closer tonight.”

Natsu pouted, grumbling underneath his breath while Gajeel continued to chuckle. Wow, those two were strange—but in a charming way. Probably.

Something about their conversation about the not-job stuck out to her though. Lucy didn’t mean to pry, honest, but she couldn’t help but to listen and connect the dots when they were talking right in front of her. “Wait, are you guys talking about the Salamander’s party?”

They blinked owlishly at her. “Yeah, how’d you know?” Natsu questioned innocently. “Do you have hearing magic too?”

“What, no,” she scoffed. You two were being obvious and I’m not an idiot, is what she didn’t say. “I was there too, remember? I don’t know why you’re here to go to that scum’s party, but he said it was on his boat. They’re just meeting at the docks.”

“Eh?”

The boys continued to stare, faces paling. They glanced at each other, then back to her, before dropping their heads to the table in utter anguish.

“What the heck?!” Lucy was dumbfounded. She had no idea what was going on, but it all managed to confuse her even when she wasn’t expecting any differently. She looked to the cat, who was snickering now, for answers.

“They’re bad with vehicles,” he explained, just as vaguely as before.

“What?”

He mimicked throwing up.

“Seriously?! They get seasick?!” Weren’t they supposed to be professionals? How sad was that?! “Come on, it can’t be that bad.”

“Oh, it’s bad,” Happy confirmed.

Lucy had no idea what to do with this information. “Then don’t go, or whatever. He’s just a scum anyway, and free food isn’t worth it.” Not that Lucy had still been considering going for that very reason. Nope. No way.

Gajeel shook his head. “No, we gotta go stop him. We’ll figure something out.”

“I can’t carry both of you,” Happy immediately protested.

“Stop him?” Lucy echoed.

“He’s not just an ass—he’s a trafficker.”

“And we gotta kick him in the butt.”

Lucy gasped. That was horrible! No wonder Natsu had been so insistent on pulling her away and upset with the situation, even though he was there. Ugh, that Salamander guy was even worse than a creep! No wonder he was using illegal magic—he was a criminal!

She shuddered at the thought of how close she was to getting involved in that. She also understood what they meant by doing a job here, even though they didn’t call it a job. It was unofficial.

That was one of the things that always stood out to her about Fairy Tail—how willing they were to help out when they weren’t even supposed to be somewhere. Heck, the stories she recounted earlier were cases of a Fairy Tail mage handling something unexpected just to protect the people nearby. It was admirable. Lucy’s spent so long around people who only did things for their own gain, that it was always refreshing when people were good just because they could be. It was something she aspired to.

So maybe that’s why—without thinking things through at all—she blurted, “I can help.”

Chapter Text

“A no-good stowaway would have been caught. I'm a great stowaway!”

—RWBY, “The Stray” (Sun Wukong)

Lucy had made a mistake. A horrible, foolish mistake, but it was too late—she was already on the boat.

It’s not that Lucy didn’t want to help, because the more she heard about what the Fairy Tail mages knew of Salamander—Bora—the more she too agreed that he needed a whack in the head and a lifetime in prison; however, she had absolutely no idea what she was doing.

At least…she wasn’t alone?

She turned to see Natsu hurling off the side of the ship, wishing immediately that she hadn’t seen that.

Yeah, she was pretty much alone. Happy hadn’t been kidding when he said the boys would be totally out of commission. Honestly, she was amazed that his magic disguise was holding up at all, because he was in no way in fighting condition. Gajeel said to knock him overboard if things got tough, and that he’ll be better in the water than on the boat, though Lucy wasn’t sure if that would work. He could totally drown in the state he was in. Of course, Gajeel and Happy were apparently in the water and/or air somewhere nearby, so they would probably get him, but it still seemed cruel.

Her job (and technically Natsu’s as well, but he was completely useless as he was) was to figure out how and when Bora would nab the girls and get him either to confess it in front of everyone or catch him in the act. Which, Lucy realized, was more of a ‘goal’ than a ‘plan.’ At least she knew a thing or two about how to act in parties where a guy was a total sleaze—don’t eat or drink anything, no matter how free or delicious looking it was. Just…smile and pretend to be having fun. Which was hard enough without trying to figure out how to stop him!!!

Good job, Lucy: you made your own overly complicated initiation test. She took a deep breath. At least Lucy wasn’t a quitter. She wished she was, but she also wouldn’t stoop to that now.

Lucy watched the creep make his rounds out of the corner of her eye, swirling her glass of punch around occasionally and dipping it overboard when she turned around and checked to make sure Natsu was still there.

The party was formal—or at least, a casual kind of formal that just came with pretty dresses and no specific rules. It was nice. Would be, if not for the circumstances. Although Lucy was well aware that she was the only one who shared that sentiment. Natsu begrudgingly admitted that not letting Lucy go alone “on the hell boat” was a good idea; he vehemently drew the line at doing anything else, no matter how insistent Gajeel was that he had to “dress the part.” It had been an…interesting…argument to watch, to say the least, but Natsu ultimately won with only setting one article of clothing on fire (she was told that this was impressive, though the implications frightened her), and he was still wearing those white pants and a long-sleeved blue shirt, like it wasn’t the middle of summer. At least he wasn’t too out of place, because some of the girls weren’t as dressed up as others. He was only out of place because he couldn’t even stand up.

“Heeey, why don’t you join the party girl,” some other girl said, approaching her with that judgemental gleam in her eye. “Salamander-sama was sooo kind to make this all for— Oh.” Her unfocused and too-wide eyes landed on Natsu, and Lucy could see the gears slowly turn as the girl realized Natsu’s condition even in the midst of the charm magic. “Oh, poor thing.” The girl patted Natsu awkwardly and then stumbled back to get closer to Salamander like everyone else was.

She would admit that Natsu made for a great alibi as to why she wasn’t in the midst of the action even though she was totally charmed. Definitely. Lucy caught Bora glancing in her direction and she panicked, barely remembering to flutter her eyelashes or something.

Oh crap he was walking over here, wasn’t he? Quick! Act natural! …ly charmed. Naturally charmed.

She whipped around to face him, bringing a hand up to daintily cover her mouth and accidentally launching the glass of punch behind her in the process. Oh well, now she wouldn’t have to pretend to drink it. “H-hello, Salamander sir, er, hottie,” she preened. Very unconvincingly. “You’re hot.” Yeah, that was better.

Bora chuckled like the egomaniac he was. “Fire is pretty hot, if that’s what you mean,” he commented lightly, swirling around his glass. “Unless you meant me, in which case, I’m flattered.”

She giggled behind her hand, struggling to keep her urge to slap him in his narcissistic face down to a minimum. “I meant you, silly, but your fire is lovely too.” It actually was pretty, all purple and ripple-y and all. Not that that was the point, because he was an ugly, ugly, black-hearted man who didn’t deserve cool purple fire magic.

“I couldn’t help but notice that you didn’t seem to be joining in,” the scoundrel continued innocently, even though he was fulfilling every worry she had over this matter. “If there’s anything I can do to help you— Oh.” He laughed a little, eyes sliding down to Natsu. “Oh I see. Your friend seasick, huh? Here, let me get her something to drink.”

He immediately left, heading straight for the refreshment table to fix a glass with extra ice. Aw, how sweet, he was— No! Snap out of it, Lucy! It was a trap. A trap. Him and his horrible, probably sinister, concoction! (Besides, she was certain Natsu would only throw it up if he drank it anyway. Not that she was going to let him.)

Bora headed back to them and Lucy plastered on another smile.

“Here you go,” the douche said kindly. Or at least fake-kindly. “For… Oh, I don’t believe I caught your names. My apologies. I know I would never forget a face like yours, though. Nor your…afflicted friend.”

She continued to smile tightly. His flattery was tempting, but it would get him nowhere because she knew it was full of lies. And suspicion, maybe, based on the way he was unnervingly still here and trying to make conversation, eyeing Natsu all the while. He probably guessed they hadn’t had any of his stupid tainted food. She had to shake it, so Lucy took the proffered cup anyways, noticing the rings on his fingers as she did so. Could those be magic rings? If so, it was possible that they could be the reason for the charm magic, or even for something else. Lucy wished it was obvious what a ring did from an observer’s perspective, but that was just wishful thinking.

“Thank you,” she purred begrudgingly. “I’m Lu—” Wait no! Not her real name! “—cienda. Lucienda.” Nice save. She pointed to Natsu, a real smile sneaking onto her lips. “And that’s Anna.” Revenge was very sweet, but in hindsight, it didn’t matter that much. Especially when he was dead to the world and emptying his guts into the ocean. Oh well.

Bora didn’t think anything of it. She was a genius. “What lovely names,” he praised, and she was glad that they were fake because then it would be gross. “Anyway, I’m sorry to hear about your friend there. But she’s in safe hands with my crew if you want to join the festivities.”

Right. His crew. Those equally creepy guys lurking about the deck not doing anything. Like heck she would trust them with her possibly-probably-guildmate! “Oh, I’m sure she’ll be fine in a bit,” Lucy countered, twirling a strand of hair around her finger to appear as innocuous as possible. “Thank you, though.”

He left slowly. Hesitantly. The guy was still kind of watching, even if he was pretending to hover elsewhere, so Lucy bent down and poured the glass slowly down the edge of the boat in an attempt to make it look like Natsu was drinking it.

“Can we beat ‘im now?” Natsu asked, sounding like the only thing he was capable of in that moment was dying, not fighting anyone.

“Later,” she promised loosely, truly having no idea if that would actually happen. Besides, they still needed ‘evidence.’

…she was going to have to talk to him again, wasn’t she?

If only the food wasn’t a source of suspicion, otherwise Lucy would totally be stuffing crab legs in her bag to remedy the embarrassment she was about to undergo. Maybe she’ll take some anyway and get someone to check them out for safety. And if they weren’t, then she was still taking his crab legs. Because screw him, that’s why.

“Don’t drown, I’ll be right back,” she decided, regretting her choices once again. Lucy picked herself back up to her feet and stomped over to where the bulk of the party was. She heard Natsu groan in response; good enough.

Lucy stomped over to the action with great anger and trepidation, but she was raised a noble, so she knew how to hide her dissatisfaction well. She swept some crab legs into her handbag, turned on her heel, and approached Bora.

“This party is so great.” She was always bad at faking enthusiasm; hopefully, that was sufficient. “Why’d you do this for us anyway?”

“Because Salamander is so gracious,” a nearby girl piped automatically.

“And he’s so kind,” another added.

Bora continued to smile, but there was suspicion rising in his gaze that took an uncharmed person to see. “Lucienda, was it? Why did you come here tonight?”

Lucy couldn’t think of a good response in the next five seconds, her mouth opened fruitlessly. It was enough time for Bora to wave dismissively as one of his grunts looped her underneath the arms. “Hey!” she shrieked indignantly. “Let me go!”

At least this was evidence enough to— Oh no. At that same moment, the other girls started dropping. At the tables. Standing up. Mid-sentence. It didn’t matter. Lucy sucked in a horrified gasp at the sight, but at least she could see the heavy rise and fall of their breaths.

They were sleeping. “You— You used sleep magic on them!” she accused, eyeing his rings suspiciously again.

This time, Bora didn’t hide his inner ugliness as he smirked. “Guilty as charged. Shame it didn’t work on you, but we’re far enough away now that it doesn’t matter. Hope you enjoy Bosco.”

Lucy snorted angrily, at the same time she couldn’t help but to dart her eyes to the shoreline of the harbor and— Oh, it wasn’t actually that far. Too far for an average swimmer, sure, but for how long they had been on the boat, it should have been…farther.

Bora seemed to notice this too, and she heard his sharp whisper to his men. “We should be further out now.”

“We tried to tell you but didn’t get the chance. Engine is working, but it kept stalling for some reason.”

“Ugh, it’s fine. Just get it working and let’s get out of here. Now.”

Lucy shared the sentiment, but in a different way. It was a good thing that she had enough presence of mind to wear her extra pointy shoes. She slammed her heel into the brute’s thigh with extreme prejudice, and he was startled enough to let go with a yelp.

She ran for it. There was a guy standing over Natsu, guarding him but obviously not counting the sick one as a threat, so she didn’t need to worry about a game of tug-of-war. She took her weaponized shoes, mourning them for their inevitable loss, and chucked them at the guy’s face. Lucy really hoped that they were serious when they said that knocking Natsu overboard was a valid strategy, because she had only fifty percent of a plan and she desperately needed something to account for the other half.

“Come on Natsu let’s go!”

“Wha…? GAH!”

With strength that was definitely fueled by adrenaline (and aided by his vicinity to the railing), Lucy grabbed Natsu by the back of the shirt and jumped.

They dove under the ocean’s surface, and she had to use the wave’s momentum to thrust herself back upwards. For a terrifying moment, she thought she would have to drag Natsu up, but he surfaced next to her seconds later, his hair pink and body back to normal, and finally looking a bit more alert. “Fighting now?” he asked.

“Yep.”

Fights weren’t her forte, but luckily, she had spirits that loved violence. Perhaps too much. She was going to make these jerks sorry for trying this in the middle of the ocean. Lucy felt for the keys strapped underneath her dress, knowing exactly where her strongest spirit rested on the chain. “Gate of the Water Bearer, Aquarius!” she summoned.

The blue-haired spirit emerged from the water as glorious as she always did. And, as always, she glared at Lucy immediately upon arrival, this time looking down on her from her floating vantage point with that usual judgemental glare. “What are you doing, brat?” she asked dryly.

“Whoa, a fish lady!” Natsu remarked with awe. “Wait, why are you flying?”

“Aquarius! I need you to use your power to send that ship back to the harbor,” Lucy shouted, pointing up at the boat.

She regarded both of them with an irritated quirk of her eyebrow. “Tch.”

“Did you just reply with ‘tch’?!” For most spirits, their contract specified when they could be summoned, but Lucy was young when she made her contract with Aquarius, and that part… Never happened. It was likely an oversight on all of their parts, but it just turned into a game where Lucy always managed to summon her at the wrong time. Still, Lucy knew that Aquarius was the only one who could do this, and she really hoped she would. Otherwise, they were sunk. Possibly literally.

Aquarius scoffed. “You are such a noisy kid.” However, the celestial spirit raised her water jug anyway. Success! She was actually doing it! This really was a great day! (Wait, was it? She was in the middle of a crisis!)

“Oh shit,” came a voice from above them, right as Aquarius’s wave rose. “Iron shatter!”

Lucy looked up to see Gajeel floating above them. Or rather, being carried by Happy, who had sprouted wings. Before Lucy could comprehend the fact that the cat could fly, water rushed over her and they were being dragged along with the wave.

She broke free of the water just to find herself on the shore along with the boat as well as Natsu, Gajeel, and Happy, all with various levels of daze in their eyes. Lucy spotted Aquarius frowning over her. “Why did you drag me along with it?!”

“Whoops, I took the ship along with you,” she intoned.

“You were aiming for me?!?!” Why was Lucy even surprised?

“Don’t call me for a week,” Aquarius replied instead, ignoring the fact that she just attempted to murder Lucy via drowning. “I’ll be on vacation with Scorpio.” The spirit woman smirked as she faded back into the gate. “My boyfriend.”

“I know so stop telling me!” Aquarius was worse about judging her single-ness than the mothers of potential suitors. It was embarrassing.

“Why didn’t you tell me you could blow an entire boat onto land?” Gajeel asked with wide eyes. “That’s really cool and all, but I wouldn’t have bothered to anchor the boat.”

“Eh?” Lucy blinked the water out of her eyes as if that would make her understand what he just said better. “You— You anchored the ship? In the middle of the ocean?!”

“Yeah,” he replied like that wasn’t a big deal. Was this the crazy power of S-Class mages (who were also subject to terrible, ‘sorry-I-can’t-help-you’ motion sickness)? “What, you didn’t know the plan?”

Natsu pulled himself up, helping a groaning and soaked Happy along with him. “Nope. Not with your words,” he replied, much to Gajeel’s confusion.

“Oh. Whoops.” Gajeel shrugged. “Anyway, the roaches are crawling out now.”

“What—?” Lucy looked over to see Bora and his men climbing out of the surprisingly (gratefully) intact wreckage.

“What the hell happened to my ship?!” Bora was yelling. It didn’t take him long to notice the three (four? did Happy and his wings count?) mages who were very much responsible for what happened to his ship. “You!”

Aaaand this was the part that Lucy was very keen on being left out of, thank you very much. She sidled off to the side where Happy was, while the two boys broke out into (frankly terrifying) grins. (Wait, were their teeth sharp?! What the heck?)

“Mr. Bora, what should we do?” one of his men asked, too loudly.

“Don’t use my name!” he shouted back, but it was too late. There were onlookers now, and a lot of them. Boats crashing through the harbor apparently did that. (Whoops.) His fate was sealed.

“Yeah, Bora of Prominence,” Gajeel pressed. “What were you kicked out of your guild for again?”

Bora’s face twisted into a scowl, purple flames rising around his fists. “I don’t have to answer to you!” he screeched, and with that, he hurled magic fire in their direction.

Lucy knew, intellectually, that Natsu and Gajeel were experienced in this. They came here for a fight, and it stood to reason that they were prepared for it. That didn’t stop the instinctual panic that rose in her chest as she saw them—Natsu especially—engulfed by flames. It simply wasn’t survivable, fire resistance or not. A scream caught in her throat, but before the full shock of it all hit her—

“That tastes awful,” Natsu commented, sounding completely unharmed. The fire dissipated around him, funneling away to… his mouth. He was… eating fire?!?! “And you call yourself a fire mage?”

“Fire magic doesn’t affect Natsu,” Happy explained, sensing her confusion. She barely managed to tear her eyes away from the fight to look at the cat, who remained unbothered as the battle sprang forth.

“But he’s still human,” Lucy protested when Happy gave no further comment. How? How was he not affected? Was Lucy just that unknowledgeable of the world of magic? And just when she thought she had a grasp on it too. As good of a grasp as she could get when her father had wanted her to have nothing to do with it. She supposed…what she had still wasn’t enough.

Happy stared at her unblinkingly, before finally giving her another one of his vague tips. “He uses a special kind of fire magic. Dragon fire magic.”

Dragon…magic? Lucy knew of the myths, sure, but she never heard of a magic called that. Although, something about the cat’s tone gave Lucy the impression that was it was rare, so it wasn’t really her fault for not knowing. She focused back on the fight, and even though it had only been a few seconds, it was practically over. Metal bands were pinning the crew to the docks in various places, from where they tried to run, and walls were erected around them. Bora was on the defensive, and he was losing. Natsu took a deep breath, and suddenly fire was spewing from his mouth. Lucy watched in wonder as the fire barreled forward and swirled around the bad guys, blocking them from sight.

When it dissipated, they were all down.

They didn’t stand a chance.

Lucy blinked at the surroundings. Neither…did anything else.

“That was easier than I thought,” Natsu remarked, and— Was he pouting?! He looked petulant at the idea that his insane fire fight only lasted a few seconds. Wasn’t that a good thing?! “And his fire tasted like shit.”

“Never said he was a good fire mage, just that he was a sneaky bastard,” Gajeel shrugged. “At least the damage was minimal.”

“Oh yeah!” Natsu cheered, high-fiving Gajeel. “The city didn’t burn down!”

“Look at the docks you idiots!” Lucy couldn’t help but to shout, crushing their delusions. The docks were half-burned and half-crushed, and what remained intact was pierced by metal. The damage was huge! (It was in no thanks to the boat that careened through. Oh shoot, that was her fault wasn’t it?)

Natsu scratched the back of his neck. “Whoops.”

“Army's coming,” Gajeel commented.

Oh, that was good. They could arrest that guy and they would be officially successful! She wondered if they awarded medals for this kind of thing.

“Run?” Natsu asked, eyes fixed on the docks.

Gajeel nodded after a brief moment. “Run,” he agreed.

They took off before Lucy had the chance to ask why—though she guessed it had something to do with the mass destruction—but once more, she was being yanked along by Natsu. “What are you doing?” she yelled, barely keeping up.

“You want to come to Fairy Tail, right?” he asked, grinning brightly over his shoulder. This was the same boy that just proved capable of off-hand cataclysmic power, and he looked like an excited kid. His smile was infectious.

If Fairy Tail had people like them, well… “Yeah!”

“Then let’s go!”

Chapter Text

July 9, X784

It had been a week now, but it still felt surreal. Lucy woke up in an apartment that was her own, got ready, and went to the Fairy Tail guild hall to complete jobs. That was her new routine—her life.

It. Was. Amazing.

And exhausting. And sometimes scary. Okay, so technically, Lucy had only been on one job since she arrived in Magnolia with Natsu, Gajeel, and Happy after the Bora incident (at least he was properly arrested now, with all of the testimonies from those girls and the bystanders who watched the fight) but every encounter with the new but increasingly familiar setting of Fairy Tail felt like an adventure in and of itself. Her and Natsu’s takedown of the Everlue estate was somehow less intimidating than watching the guild try to kill each other. Amicably. (She hoped.) Amicably trying to kill each other.

Nowhere was safe.

But thus was the life of a mage, she supposed. Admittedly, there had already been more fighting than she imagined—though she didn’t know if the Bora incident counted or not, being beforehand—as her first official job to retrieve a book ended in a fight, and they ran into a fight with those bandits on the way back. Not to mention the infighting. Every time she turned around, it seemed that two or more Fairy Tail mages were engaged in some sort of fight. The Master only seemed to intervene if it got too big, but he wasn’t here now, so it was quickly getting out of hand.

Lucy thought that she would be more concerned. Well, she was concerned, but not as much as she should be. It was…exhilarating, in a way. At least it was after it was all over, and they won; during the fight, the rush of her heart was mostly fear. Her spirits were enjoying it though. Taurus finally got to fight things, and it was enough to distract him from ogling over her, at least for a little bit.

So while all the danger was preferable, Lucy decided it wasn’t something she couldn’t handle. (At least at this scale.) She survived, after all, and she was victorious! Granted, Natsu had been with her each time so far, along with other guildmates, so it probably didn’t have much to do with her, but! She still did something, so it counted.

Although, speaking of guildmates…

They were interesting, to say the least. Very lively. Aside from Natsu and Gajeel, she hasn’t properly met many of them yet, with how busy she was trying to find and set up an apartment, but there was always something going on whenever she came—usually of the ‘active’ variety, whether it was dancing, yelling, or fighting. (It was usually fighting.) Plus, the copious amounts of alcohol, that didn’t seem to affect how weird anybody acted at a given time. At least everyone was nice. Well, to her.

Which helped, because this guild stuff was vaster and more confusing than Lucy had originally anticipated, but nobody judged her for all of her questions. (She hoped.) Even now, looking at the job board felt overwhelming. There were so many types! And some of this stuff she had no idea what to do for. Removing curses? Fortune telling? The fighting jobs looked simpler!

“You can pick anything you want,” Natsu supplied helpfully, even if the suggestion wasn’t helpful at all. “You don’t have to do it alone yet either, if you don’t want to.”

“Aye,” Happy added. “Since we picked the last one without you, you can pick this one without us!”

Lucy scowled at them, though she wasn’t really upset. “You two tried to use me as bait. Again.”

“I was also used as bait both times,” Natsu shot back. Okay, that was fair. “We need to use Happy as bait next time.”

“Hey!” the cat protested.

It was a tempting thought, but… “Or, we could try a job where no one has to be bait,” Lucy suggested. She glanced back at the board, hoping for some non-dangerous and non-stealth job to jump out and hug her. Sadly, no luck.

Natsu nodded emphatically. “I like that plan.”

Lucy rolled her eyes at their antics as she attempted to look again. She was tempted to let Natsu help her solely because she was being indecisive, but it was true that they owed her for not telling her about the Everlue thing until they already picked it. Although that was all in the nature of taking turns. Wait. Is that how things worked here? “So do you always go on jobs with the new people?” she asked Natsu. Lucy knew that teams existed, but most of the stories she heard were lone jobs. Was this just because she was new? Or because Natsu was…well, Natsu?

To her surprise, Natsu scratched the back of his head, looking away. “Ah, not really, but you were— you seemed nice. You are nice.” He smiled brightly. “Besides, I haven’t met all of your spirit friends yet!”

Lucy didn’t know whether to be amused or perturbed, so she settled on exasperated, though a smile crept onto her face anyways as she shook her head. She would have guessed it was demeaning if it wasn’t Natsu, because after spending the day with him, he seemed to be honest to a fault. (Honestly, she had no idea why Gajeel thought it was a good idea to let him infiltrate anything; transformation magic be darned, he was the worst liar ever.) A part of her did want to prove herself by taking on her own jobs, but… Well, he was offering, so who was she to refuse? At least until she got her bearings, and then she could… Do something.

She hadn’t planned this far ahead.

“How do teams work? If you team up with someone, is it permanent?!” she asked aloud, suddenly afflicted with the worry. Whenever she heard of teams, it was always a thing, not a happenstance. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Natsu or want to work with him, but where were her options?! She needed those, right? It didn’t matter if she was indecisive or not!

Happy laughed. “No, silly,” the cat responded. “Team-ups and teams are completely different.”

“That doesn’t make any sense!” He just said the same thing! Why did she keep asking this cat and fire-eating boy questions they couldn’t properly answer?

Another guild member heard her plight and jumped to her rescue. “You don’t have to force yourself to team up with anyone,” a guy said. She turned to see a dark-haired young man sitting at the edge of a table… completely shirtless. (It was summer, sure, but inside?! Wait, that was the same dude that was naked the first day she came in, wasn’t it? What was his name again?) “And teams are only decided officially when they’re written down and signed off. I heard you did good on your first job though, so I’m sure you’ll get plenty of recruitment offers, if that’s what you’re looking for.”

“Uh, thank you, but I’m still figuring out what I want to do,” she replied. Though teams did sound fun. Less pressure. Though she would hate to get roped into a stuffy team, or one full of numbskulls. Not that Lucy deserved any recognition. In reality, she would probably be the one bogging a team down! She couldn’t barely do anything right. (That was probably why Natsu was pitying her, even if that’s not what he said.) “Besides, I-I’m not that impressive, honest. Natsu did most of the heavy lifting on the last job.”

The dark-haired man set his equally dark gaze on Natsu, getting up out of his seat. (Where were his pants?! Lucy could have sworn he was at least wearing pants.) “What? You?” the guy growled. “So what, you can go on jobs with random newbies and take their credit now?”

Natsu took half a step back, but ultimately, he glared back. “I didn’t take anything! We were just doing a job together. Got a problem with that?”

Lucy was no longer a stranger to random fights breaking out in the guild, but this seemed…tense. Neither boy moved—they just glared with clenched fists. Beside her, Happy watched, though his tail was lashing back and forth in some sign of distress. This wasn’t a usual happy-go-lucky kind of fight…was it?

“Tch.” The other guy broke first, walking away.

“Gray, your clothes,” somebody called, bored, like it was a common reminder.

The guy—Gray—looked down and was startled by his own lack of clothing. He hadn’t known?!

Natsu snorted softly, traces of the light-hearted attitude he had earlier gone. “Always so judgemental,” he muttered.

Gray stopped mid-motion. “What’d you say about me, you flaming piece of shit?!”

“You heard me, you perverted punk!”

“Then come say it again to my face, you coward!”

“What did you call me?”

“You heard me.”

And they started fighting. Lucy shouldn’t have been surprised. They were trading blows and rolling on the floor, so, it was like a usual bar fight. She knew that when these guys actually fought, it was with more vigor and magic, but still, the tenseness had been something else. She hadn’t seen Natsu look so rigid before, even when they were dealing with people who genuinely wanted to kill them. Granted, she just met him a week ago, so who was she to know? Happy still seemed distressed though, even if he didn’t make a move to join or break-up the fight. Although, with the way they were going at it, she doubted Happy would be able to do anything.

“Gray and Natsu fight a lot,” a new voice commented. Lucy saw an orange-haired dude with blue-tinted glasses approach her. Oh, it was Loke—the most-liked guy that should have been voted biggest flirt. She’s seen him with more ladies than she has witnessed bar fights, at this point.

She saw Natsu and Gray tumble into a table before she turned her attention on the flirter. He was still her guildmate now, so she could at least be nice and make conversation. They…would be fine. She hoped. “Arguments mostly, but this isn’t rare, especially if they’re left alone together.”

“Oh, do they now?” she mused. Everyone had their rivals, she supposed. Who was she to question the workings of Fairy Tail? Though it was hard to imagine someone as welcoming and happy-go-lucky as Natsu having a rival. “I’m Lucy, by the way.”

To her surprise (not that it should have been surprising), Loke scooped up her hand, touching his nose to her knuckle as he bent his head. “Lucy,” he repeated. “A beautiful name, for a beautiful face. If I were to regard your dazzling features without my shades, I am certain my naked eyes would shatter.”

She pulled her hand back with a nervous laugh. “Better take them off then,” she muttered sourly. Ah. There it was: the flirting. It probably wouldn’t be as bad—she was used to it, to a degree, living the life as an eligible noble—but it tasted extra funky in her mouth after both Bora and Everlue.

However, she didn’t need to work hard at chasing him off, because suddenly, his gaze shifted downward, and he was scrambling away. “Y-You’re a celestial spirit mage?!” He widened the distance between them in a heartbeat. “I’m sorry, but this is the end of us!”

Bemused, Lucy watched as he ran out of the building. That just might be the weirdest thing yet—and solely because he was scared of her magic? They were guildmates, weren’t they? And what did he mean, ‘us’?! “When was there even an ‘us’?” In regards to guys flirting with her, he made top ten oddest, that was for sure.

“Don’t mind him. Loke’s not good with celestial spirit mages.”

Lucy turned to see Mirajane at the side of the counter, startled a little by the girl’s sudden appearance. Mirajane had been present at the guild hall each time Lucy had been there, though Lucy hadn’t gotten the chance to talk with her in depth. She was always hanging around the back, sticking to a certain spot just long enough to handle an affair before moving to the next. She seemed nice—soft-spoken and reserved—though a little sad. Maybe it was the all-black long sleeves and skirt, or the way her bangs hung over her eyes, or maybe it was just the way her smiles only made it so far. It wasn’t that they were fake, or anything. Just…not to the same liveliness as so many others in the guild. Not that Lucy would ever hold that against her. Of course not!

“What do you mean by that?” she asked, both curious and eager to hold a non-guild business related conversation with the elusive Mirajane.

Mirajane shrugged, expression helpless. “Who knows? It was probably a bad experience with a girl. He flirts with every one that he sees.” Glad to know Lucy wasn’t special. “But I know there’s one girl at the church who uses celestial spirit magic. He saw her with her keys once and gives the place a wide berth ever since. So, it’s nothing personal.”

Lucy nodded thoughtfully. It was a weird thing to be afraid of. She just hoped it wasn’t because of any disdain he had towards celestial spirits, because then that would be a problem for her. But enough about that weirdo. “So, you work for the Master, right?” Lucy asked. Natsu had mentioned that Mirajane was in charge of all that stuff, and that she was a mage too, but he didn’t say much. Just that she wasn’t active anymore. Lucy didn’t want to pry, honest, but she was curious, and it would be nice to get to know her a little better, considering her position.

Mirajane gave her a half-smile. “In a way. I’m just a member of the guild, but I’m more comfortable handling the paperwork and food nowadays.” Then, with a twinkle in her eye not present before, she added, “Besides, the Master would mess it all up otherwise.”

Lucy chuckled at that. “I believe it.” He was very passionate, but he also chucked a stack of bills over the balcony on her first day in the guild.

Before she could say anything else, or simply ask how Mirajane was doing—alright, so she was trying to make a female friend in the guild, okay?—she saw Loke running back inside. “Erza’s coming!” he announced.

Which promptly set half the guild hall in a frenzy. Fights halted, people jumped down from tables, and even Natsu and Gray froze from their tussle.

A chill ran down Lucy’s spine at the implications. Who was this that everyone was so afraid?! Wait. She recognized the name. Gajeel had mentioned her, hadn’t he? So she was—

A young woman appeared at the entrance of the guild with a large object in tow. Her armor clanked together as she walked, carrying a massive horn-thing with one hand like it was a box of paperweights. Her long red hair and skirt did nothing to diminish the intensity of her presence.

A guy who Lucy believed was Max sidled up to them. “Mirajane, please tell me Jellal is back,” he whispered.

Mirajane shook her head. “Sorry. He thinks he’s going to be at least another week.”

Max whimpered. “We’re gonna die for sure.”

Before Lucy had the chance to ask and prepare herself—or even to run—the woman known as Erza set down the horn with a resounding thud. “I’m back,” she announced, though it was pointed more towards Mirajane. “Is Master present at the moment?”

“Welcome back,” Mirajane replied, no hint of the same fear the rest of the guild had. “He’s at the regular meeting.”

“I see…” Erza nodded once. If she was disappointed, Lucy had no idea.

“E-Erza, what is that humongous thing anyway?” Warren asked.

She turned his attention to him. There was a pleasant smile on her face, and Lucy still had no idea why everyone was losing their mind. “The local townspeople decorated it from the monster I subdued. It was so pretty, I brought it back as a souvenir.”

A-a souvenir? She said that with a straight face, too.

“Will it be a nuisance?”

Warren began to sweat. “N-no not at all!”

At this, Erza began to sweep her gaze over the room. Even knowing that she had no prior involvement with anything whatsoever, Lucy couldn’t help but to feel nervous. That intense stare was all the more impactful with the horn behind her. “Anyway, guys, I heard you’ve causing trouble again.”

There was a collective shudder.

Erza stared onward, catching the whole room’s attention. “Even if Master forgives you, I won’t.”

Lucy listened numbly as Erza listed her grievances, nit-picking at the various quirks of the guild as she berated them for the trouble they’ve caused. No wonder they were scared of her—she was forcing them to be responsible! (Though she really was scary about it, Lucy would admit.)

“I take it she’s always like this?” Lucy asked quietly to those next to her.

“Aye,” Happy responded. “Erza’s really strong, so she can beat up anyone who’s misbehaving, too.”

“Is she the guild’s disciplinary enforcer or something?” That was a scary thought. Maybe that’s why the guild was extra-crazy when she wasn’t there. Lucy wasn’t sure to be relieved or worried at that prospect.

“She’s Erza.”

Okay, that was on her for expecting Happy to give her a thorough answer.

“By the way, are Natsu and Gray here?” Erza asked, turning to Happy. She no longer looked as intense, but Happy still threw the two under the bus as soon as he could.

“Aye.” He scurried out of the way, and Lucy felt inclined to join him, moving closer to Mirajane’s counter.

Maybe at least Erza would break up their fight— They weren’t fighting anymore?!

Gray and Natsu were now seating at opposite ends of a table, diagonal to each other and not looking anywhere remotely in the other’s direction. They were pretending the other didn’t exist! After all of those insults that they were hurling (and punches), Lucy had been sure it would take something extreme to stop them.

Wait. Erza was that extreme something, wasn’t she?

“Natsu. Gray. I trust you’ve been behaving?”

“Y-yeah, nothing happened,” Gray stammered out, rigidly turning to face Erza like he didn’t previously know she was there.

“Aye.”

Natsu sounded like Happy!

Erza placed her hands on her hips. She wasn’t the disciplinary enforcer—she was the guild mom! Whether or not she called their bluff, however, she didn’t say. Mostly because Erza suddenly said something very different. “I actually have a favor to ask both of you.”

Natsu and Gray stiffened. Even Mirajane made a small noise of surprise.

“I heard something troubling while I was out,” she started. “Usually, I would consult Master about this first, but considering it might be urgent… I need your help. You’ll come with me, right?”

Lucy wouldn’t have thought the request was so strange if it weren’t for the collective surprise of the guild, especially the two boys in question. Well, considering their rivalry, she could see the problem, but this was a lot of fuss over the matter. Maybe the nature of it was more severe than she thought. Surely Erza knew what she was doing, right? Though if it was an emergency, wouldn’t there be other candidates to help? Just what kind of emergency was it?

“We’ll leave tomorrow,” Erza decided, turning to leave. “Prepare yourself.”

“Ah— No— Wai…” Gray stammered, all traces of his confidence gone.

“I never said I would come!” Natsu fumed after her, fruitlessly.

All Erza responded with was “I’ll tell you the details on the way.” And then she left.

Gray and Natsu—and the guild, for that matter—was left in an odd quiet stupor. Then the murmuring broke out, and people slowly went back to their business.

“I-impossible,” Gray muttered to himself. He shot one look at Natsu, grimaced, then turned on his heel to leave. Probably to prepare. Lucy would have felt bad for him if he hadn’t been equally responsible in all those nasty insults the two threw at each other.

Well, this had all been very strange.

“So, you’ve been summoned, huh?” Lucy mused to Natsu.

“…yeah. Guess so.”

Natsu was…quieter over the matter than she expected. When Gajeel had tried to cajole him into things, it was met with loud and fiery resistance. Now, he just seemed…timid? No, that didn’t seem quite right, but he was definitely more subdued than she had ever seen him before, minus the time he was seasick on a boat.

“Natsu…” Happy tugged on his clothes. Natsu snapped out of whatever daze he was entering.

“Sorry Lucy, but that job is going to have to wait. I…better go pack, or something.”

Lucy watched him go, Happy flying along after him. He should be fine.

Though that assurance she told herself didn’t stop her from wondering.

—o0o—

The trudge home wasn’t nearly as relaxing as it should have been, knowing that Natsu had just been signed up for a guaranteed few days with no one but Gray and Erza. He didn’t know whether to be mad or just upset. Not scared, because he wasn’t. He was fine.

He had about ten minutes of walking to convince himself before his argument fell apart at the seams.

“I’ll come, too,” Happy said. “Erza can’t be mad at me coming because I’m a cat.”

That was a solid point. “Thanks buddy.” That would help, having Happy, at least.

Ugh, why did Erza have to do this? And now of all times? It was bad enough that he got stuck in a fight with Gray earlier, but now he had to keep being around him? It was easier if he got to avoid him for a few days after one of these things. At least long enough to forget.

“Then come say it to my face, you coward!”

Natsu tried to focus on his breathing like Acno always suggested, feeling the licks on fire on his tongue, but he ended up clenching his nails into his palms anyway, just to distract him. If he stopped thinking about it, it would be fine. It would be over. Gray was just Gray. He didn’t know. He would (should) have no idea how much he would hate Natsu if he knew everything, so that was just normal Gray-being-Gray interaction, not anything else. Gray was just being his usual smug, angry, nosy, rude, exhibitionist self—with cold skin and icy magic and no Natsu, don’t think about it.

The job couldn’t take that long. Even when Erza thought she needed help, she could normally handle it; she was probably just dragging him and Gray into it to punish them for fighting (which was not his fault, it was stupid Gray’s) and torture them for the fun of it. Well. Erza probably didn’t see it that way, but she thrived off of being bossy about things that weren’t a big deal, and that bossiness also came with lots of hitting. Which was a shame, because Erza was really cool when she wasn’t yelling for no reason.

Maybe, Erza would be busy yelling at Gray for being naked the whole time, and Natsu and Happy could get by without incident. Yeah. That would work.

Now he just had to get to tomorrow.

Without Erik or Gajeel getting involved, because Gajeel would be dumb enough to pick a fight with Erza over the matter (and then lose, again), and if they did get involved, then Gray would be right, and Natsu would just be a coward running away. Again. He really wanted to, because the last thing Natsu wanted was for Gray to have more reasons to hate him, but Gray and his dumb know-it-all-ness already called Natsu out for letting his brothers deal with Gray so he wouldn’t have to, so he had to prove Gray wrong.

It was too bad that Acno was still with Wendy, Sting, and Rogue on that job they dragged him off to after the those three pulled Macao from down the mountain, otherwise, he doubted Erza would need him and Gray for an emergency. Plus, it left him alone with Erik and Gajeel, and they would definitely do something if they found out.

He hoped they were asleep, but he doubted it. He and Happy needed a distraction!

“Hey, Happy, what food do you wanna bring with us?” he asked, and he switched his thoughts to what they probably had in the fridge.

“Fish!” Happy immediately replied.

“Fish is good,” he agreed. “We probably still got that dry fish in the jerky bin.”

Happy hummed thoughtfully. “It’s not bad, but if we can catch some fresh fish…”

“Okay, if we have time.” That was always Happy’s response. Classic.

Then Happy drooped. “We might not… Fine, I’ll take the jerky,” he conceded, before his mouth started to water. “I hope there’s tilapia left.”

“You took the rest of it for the last job.”

Happy drooped again. “Oh. Right. Salmon, then.”

“I think there should be some more of that spicy chicken,” Natsu mused aloud. Unless somebody else ate it, in which case, he’ll clobber them for sure. “Oh, and carrots.”

He used to think that mages just had to find food wherever their job was, and for the most part, they still needed to, but Acno also drilled into them the merits of having travel food in case they needed it and couldn’t get other food quickly, since their metabolisms ran high when using magic. Though he also talked a lot about still needing a balanced diet, so it couldn’t be all jerky. Which was a shame, because Acno made great jerky, but ‘fruits and vegetables contain other vitamins that you need,’ so they had all gotten used to the usual pattern of packing travel snacks by now.

“You just like carrots because they’re orange,” Happy teased.

“Who am I, Sting? They’re crunchy! I like the crunch!”

“Okay, orange dragon slayer…”

Natsu huffed. He tried to see if the orange thing worked one time and nobody let it go. At least there was way more material on Sting as far as color things went.

They made it to the house and Natsu figured he would go ahead and claim what he wanted from the kitchen before anyone beat him to it. Erik and Gajeel were also downstairs, but at least they weren’t food-competition.

“Speed,” Erik intoned.

Gajeel slapped a handful of cards onto the table. “Fucking damnit!”

“Ooh, you had eight cards left. Getting faster, I see.” Erik was smirking at Gajeel, but he waved when Natsu and Happy entered. “Hey guys.”

“Hey Erik, hey Gajeel,” Natsu greeted, though he had been hoping that they would be upstairs. Ah, maybe he’ll grab food in the morning.

“Yo,” Gajeel acknowledged, but his attention was back on Erik. “You’re a damn cheater.”

“In a reflex game? That’s the whole reason we’re playing this.”

“Yeah, well, fighting is a ‘reflex game’ too and you use your magic on that!”

“Gajeel, I swear, I’m not using my magic to cheat. You’re just bad at this.”

“Am not! Fine. How ‘bout, uh, best twenty-four out of fifty!”

“It’ll be twenty-six out of fifty-one.”

“Whatever, I’ll beat you!”

Good, they were distracted. Natsu was hungry anyways, so he went ahead and grabbed some crackers to take upstairs. He just needed to not think for long enough until he was out of range, or just asleep—yeah, sleep would be a good idea—and then…

“Natsu, are you okay?”

Damnit.

Erik was looking at him now with that suspicious look. He should have known. It was impossible to hide this kind of stuff from Erik, what with his cheating hearing magic and all. (What set him off? Natsu wasn’t even thinking about it!)

“It’s okay. It’s no big deal,” Natsu tried, confident that it was, in fact, not a big deal. It was just a potential few days of listening to a bunch of nagging, and just a little bit of dealing with ice magic. That was all. Maybe the fight would actually be fun!

Despite his confidence, Erik narrowed his eyes further. “You’re only this quiet if you’re still upset though,” he countered.

Natsu groaned to himself. Both Erik and Gajeel were watching—waiting—but he knew they wouldn’t say anything if he didn’t. They would just be worried and probably hover for the next few days. Which wouldn’t work, because he’d be on a job, and they would find out about it eventually. It wasn’t proving Gray right if he just told them about the job, right? He wasn’t hiding. Just communicating. There was a difference.

“Erza wants me and Gray to go on a job with her tomorrow,” he finally blurted.

They blinked, and for a moment, it was silent. Until Gajeel abruptly stood up, palms banging against the table. (Oh, he dented it. Again.) “She wants you do to what?! The hell?”

“She voluntold you, didn’t she?” Erik deadpanned.

“She did,” Happy confirmed solemnly.

Erik closed his eyes and sighed, while Gajeel just remained agitated. “She thinks she can boss people around ‘cuz she’s the most senior S-Class here, huh?” he muttered. “I’ll show her a thing or two about—”

“Wait,” Erik called, beating Natsu to it. (Because then Gray would be right, and Gajeel would just have his butt beat again. The latter would have been funny, if not for the Gray-being-right part.)

“What for?! I can go right now!” Gajeel protested.

“And get your ass whipped again? Sure,” Erik said with a shrug and a tone that meant he was being very sarcastic. “Though Sting will be upset if he misses it again.”

Gajeel glowered by the door. “I can beat her!”

“Even if you did, it won’t change anything—sorry, Natsu.”

Gajeel was still sulking. Whatever he was thinking caused Erik to raise an eyebrow and shake his head. “Cubellios,” he called. “Come sit on him.”

“Wait no— Cubellios! Don’t you dare!”

Cubellios raised her head from her resting place on the couch, blinking lazily before she started to slither towards Metal-Head. Even in the midst of dealing with the idea of that job, Natsu couldn’t help but to laugh as Gajeel attempted to flee the giant snake in a panic. Ever since her growth spurt, she’s been over five hundred pounds of solid muscle—and still fast.

She wrapped herself around his leg and tripped him, before making her way on top of his back. Sure, Gajeel could remove her forcefully, but that would just be mean, which was probably why he was scowling on the floor. (Sitting on people made her happy.) “Fine,” he grumbled. “But do you have any better ideas? Natsu, did that freak of nature even say why she was dragging you and Ice-Breath along?”

“No,” he responded. That was a good question though—he just figured it was because she always hated it whenever he and Gray fought, which was totally unfair, because everyone fought. (He knew it was different, but it’s not like anyone else knew why he avoided Gray, so it shouldn’t have mattered.) “She just said that she had some sort of emergency that she wanted help with.”

“Erza? Help?” Gajeel scoffed. “As if. She’s her own army.”

“Nobody can blame her for being careful—which she should be,” Erik countered. “Not that I understand why she’s pushing it like this.” He sighed. “I’ll go talk to her.”

“What?” Natsu registered the words and grew alarmed. No, then that would go right back to proving Gray right! “No. It’s fine. She’ll figure out why it’s a terrible idea when Gray gets all bicker-y and messes everything up.”

Erik sent him a look that he couldn’t quite decipher. Oh shit, Erik knew, didn’t he? Stupid loud thoughts. He wondered if he could melt into the floor now and sleep until next week, when this was all over.

“I’m only going to talk to Erza,” he repeated, which… Okay, Gray might not know, then. “She probably has a reason, otherwise, I can try to talk her out of it. Though no promises on that front—she’s stubborn.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” he grumbled. And, Natsu remembered, Erik would know, because Erik and Erza were friends. She probably didn’t nag him because he was older, but it was also probably because of their shared past. It wasn’t like he knew everything about her, or anything, but they all knew enough to know that Erik, Erza, and Jellal all had some history together, and Erik’s upbringing sucked. Really bad. It was over now, which was good, because Natsu hated the idea of someone trying to build that thing that only existed because of him, but… No, don’t think about all that. What was he doing again?

Right. Erza and Erik were friends, so maybe he really could reason with her. Maybe.

Maybe he could convince her that Gray didn’t need to come too, at least. Sure, Erza was scary, but Natsu knew that she wasn’t always that scary, like when Erik or Jellal (especially Jellal) was around, so maybe he could be friends with her too.

“Okay,” he conceded. “But I’m still going to go to bed now.” He’ll just pack his sleeping bag and the snacks in the morning.

(Oh stars, they were taking the train, weren’t they?)

Great.

But it would be fine. It was just a job. Maybe it’ll go well, and Natsu would understand at least Erza a little better, or maybe it’ll just be over soon. (Or Erik preformed a miracle.)

It’ll be fine.

Chapter Text

“‘Cause like constellations a million years away
Every good intention, every good intention
Is interpolation, a line we drew in the array
Looking for the faces, looking for the shapes in the silence.”

—The Oh Hellos, “Constellations”

Well, that had been a weird day. Lucy wasn’t sure if it was weirder than the others or not, but she had been left disconcerted in the aftermath of Erza’s visit to the guild hall, so that counted for something.

Lucy chose to stick around longer though, instead of using the opportunity to dash back to her apartment (her brand new apartment that was all hers!!!) and work on making it comfortable, and well, livable. After the moment of anxiety, there was a wave of calm that washed over the guild, and it was nice to take the moment to get acclimated to them without fear of getting whacked in the face. For the most part, the guild snapped back to their usual antics quickly, though there were no more large-scale fights that night.

Well, another reason she stayed was because Mirajane gave her some sort of fruit juice blend on the house, and it was delicious. Lucy was not going to be rude and squirrel away the heaven-juice, even if Mirajane had to slink away to deal with something else. It didn’t take a vast imagination to consider all of the possible things to handle in a guild like this, especially with the master gone; it was no wonder Mirajane looked vaguely tired all of the time.

She looked through the listed jobs again, trying to spot something that looked easy enough for even her idiot self to handle, because Lucy had the now pressing concern of rent to deal with. Not that it should be too difficult; there were a lot of jobs, and she had a month each time. The apartment complex she found was much cheaper than Fairy Hills, so she should be able to make it. Admittedly, Lucy had been glad that Natsu offered to do a second job with her, because then she could grab something with a higher reward and not worry about botching it as much.

She had no idea how long that job (was it a job? or one of those side things the guild did, like with Bora? what would that be called?) with Erza and Gray would last, so Lucy should probably go ahead and take something, even if Natsu promised to do a job when they got back. Besides, Lucy shouldn’t rely on his hospitality; she needed to be an independent mage capable of taking care of herself. Only then, could Lucy truly be successful in her goal.

Ugghhhh, but she had no idea what half of these jobs were talking about! They sounded straightforward enough, but did she know how to remove curses or the best way to connect caravan routes? Of course not! Magazine and books didn’t cover that—not the ones she had access to, at least.

“I know,” the man near her remarked sagely. His name was Nab, she believed. Or at least that was his nickname. “Choosing a job is very difficult.”

“Why do they all have to be so vague?!” Lucy couldn’t help but to reply. Seriously! If they made the picture a little smaller and added a few more sentences, she would have a better idea of what she was going up against before she traveled halfway across Fiore for it.

Nab nodded enthusiastically. “Tell me about it!” he exclaimed. “This way, it’s so hard to tell if the job is right for me, you know?”

“Most jobs offer more information on site,” Mirajane suddenly said behind them, scaring both Lucy and Nab. It was always noisy in the hall, so of course it wouldn’t be hard to sneak up on somebody, but Lucy didn’t even notice her in her peripheral! “Nab would know this is he ever went on a job.”

The man became cowed at this, but Mirajane maintained her small, soft smile, belying the savage that Lucy was starting to think lived somewhere underneath her nonthreatening veneer. Lucy hoped that she would never tick off the kind-hearted girl enough to see it.

“Why is that anyway?” she asked Mirajane, genuinely curious. Heck, for the Everlue job, they hadn’t found out why the Daybreak book was so important until after they got it. Were mages just used to going into things blind?

“Most jobs are commissioned by individual parties, and even in the case of the larger ones, clients want their privacy, too. These flyers are meant to only cover the basis of what’s needed, so half the mage world isn’t privy to the client’s affairs.”

“O-oh.” She should have realized that sooner. Duh! “That makes sense.” She shouldn’t complain as much about that, then, because Lucy knew that she wouldn’t want some of this embarrassing stuff to be broadcast to a bunch of strangers, even if one of those strangers was going to come and help.

“Oh, and Lucy? Can I speak with you for a moment?” Mirajane asked.

“Huh?” Lucy was taken aback for a moment. Did she do something? Or was her poorly strategized attempt at friendship working? “I-I mean, sure.” Play it cool, Lucy. Play it cool. You know what you’re doing. Totally.

Mirajane led her back to the counter. The guild was thinning out by this time, so they were the only two over there.

“Natsu was the one who offered to take you on that job, right?” she asked.

What did that have to do with anything? Was this about the weird team dynamics inside of guilds? She couldn’t think of why else Mirajane would be asking, so she just answered honestly. “Yeah. I met him before coming to Fairy Tail, actually. Along with Gajeel. They introduced me here when I asked, and then Natsu took me on a job after I joined.” Too many details, Lucy! What are you doing, monologuing for exposition? At least there was no need to include that he either did it because he felt incredibly sorry for her lack of magic skills, or because she was blonde. Granted, with the transformation abilities that Natsu had (although disliked), that bit wasn’t necessary, though admittedly, it helped. She supposed.

Mirajane nodded along. “That’s nice,” she commented nicely. Was that all she wanted to know? Wait, no, she was continuing. “I take it you two worked well together?”

Lucy saw the image of the destroyed estate in her mind’s eye, remembering how she got dragged through tunnels without warning and their awful attempt at sneaking in to snatch book, Natsu forgetting that she wasn’t fireproof when he let his attack be reflected by that stupid frying pan, and not to mention, his dumb (but heartwarming) insistence not to take the (incredibly high) reward money because they didn’t destroy the book. Not immediately destroying the book, even when that was all the job requested, was probably the only thing that she and Natsu were on the same page about the entire time, everything else subject to too many quick decisions and not enough communication.

“Yeah, we did.” It was good enough. Not that Lucy had a great indication of what ‘working well together’ actually meant besides books, but even though it was a far cry from what Lucy would have defined it as, they didn’t die.

Mirajane also didn’t need to know how chaotic the simple job had truly been.

The white-haired girl hummed thoughtfully, swirling around a pitcher of the heavenly fruit juice and pouring some for herself. She offered some more to Lucy too, which Lucy accepted greedily.

“That’s good to hear,” Mirajane responded. “You seem like an easy-going and thoughtful person. Fairy Tail could always use people like you.”

Lucy blushed at the compliment. “Aw, thanks, but it’s no big deal, really.” Though secretly, she was thrilled at the praise. It was just a little nudge that informed Lucy that coming here really was the right choice. She couldn’t have messed up, if she was getting complimented!

“On that regard, could I ask you for a favor?”

“Of course, anything,” Lucy answered quickly, not even giving it a second thought. Mirajane wanted a favor from her! She was useful! Yay!

“Could you go with Erza, Natsu, and Gray on their quest?”

“Yeah, no prob— eh? Wait, what?” The words registered too late. Lucy blinked owlishly at Mirajane, like the action could clear the fog from her mind, because surely, that wasn’t what she said… Right? Besides the fact that that was the equivalent of jumping between hissy cats, Erza seemed to be wanting those two alone for something, and Lucy really didn’t want to upset the angry lady.

Mirajane did not rescind her words. She looked down into her cup, lips working somewhere between a smile and a grimace, before she looked at Lucy again with the air of someone who needed a break. “I’m sure you’ve noticed, but Gray and Natsu don’t get along,” she began, and yes, Lucy had definitely noticed. “It’s been like that for as long as they’ve known each other. Before I knew them, even.”

“Whoa,” Lucy wondered. “How long was that?” Someone like Mirajane held a position of seniority, and Natsu… Well, Natsu wasn’t any older than her (she didn’t think), so how long had these two been out? Heck… How long have they been in Fairy Tail, if they were just barely adults like she was?

“Well, we— I joined Fairy Tail about six years ago. Natsu had only been there for a few months at that time, but it was still longer. As kids, they would always be arguing and fighting. I think everyone thought that they would grow out it, or at least grow out of the spiteful part, but… Well, if you ask me, it’s only gotten worse, even though it doesn’t happen as often. Normally, someone is there to break it up, or they just avoid each other, but I’m afraid it’ll only escalate out of control if they’re forced to work together. Erza means well, I’m sure—she’s known them for longer than I too—but she can be…” Mirajane paused on the word. “Heavy-handed and dense.”

Wow. That hesitation did nothing to soften that blow.

“So what does this have to do with me?” she asked, though her voice might have gotten squeaky with the words. Lucy was still stuck on how long they knew other—how long they’ve been in Fairy Tail. When she was twelve, she couldn’t even leave the house, much less go on dangerous jobs all over the world! Did their parents not have issue with any of that?

Did…any of them even have parents left?

Lucy shook the thought from her head, because it wasn’t her business; things happened: Lucy knew this well. She just tried to focus on Mirajane’s answer instead of letting her mind wander.

“You could mediate for them,” Mirajane said brightly. “You’re new, and unbiased, but you’ve proven yourself capable and patient. That way, I can trust that someone can be there to stop them from tearing a hole through a city. I know Fairy Tail has quite the reputation, but it’s not as if we condone the destruction. Besides, it’ll only give Master a heart attack if he found out those three left to who-knows-where. It shouldn’t be said that we didn’t try, right?”

Lucy chewed her lip. Mirajane had an excellent point, of course, and it sounded like they didn’t have anyone capable of stopping them or helping Erza with whatever impossible quest she had in store on hand, so… Lucy was flattered to know that she was their best option, because that did speak of trust, but… Ugh, Lucy had the feeling that it was going to be rough. At least she wouldn’t have to do the hard part of the job—just keep the peace. (Which might be the hard part.)

She finished her glass of juice and sighed. Mirajane had been so nice and welcoming to her—all of Fairy Tail, really—so who was Lucy to be rude back? She was a part of this guild, so that came with duties, right? To help the guild and its image? It was only beneficial to all of them, after all. “Okay,” Lucy conceded with a grin. “I’ll help.”

“Thank you, Lucy.”

Yeah, Lucy the Helper—she liked the sound of that. If mediating between two grumpy guys is what stopped destruction, then it was her job as a mage to carry that through, right? This would be tough, but it was for the greater good.

Maybe, if she did a good job mediating, Mirajane would teach her how to make that fruit blend—

Lucy paused in the middle of the street—or more specifically, the fun ledge between the street and the water way that was cleaner than everything else. The juice…

She had just been bribed, hadn’t she?

—o0o—

July 10, X784

Erza was finally all packed and ready to go.

Maybe.

Probably.

Did she bring a big enough cooking pot in case they had to camp? She knew Natsu ate a lot, so maybe they would need more food? Wait, she already had the biggest one she owned. (It wasn’t big enough; she would need to buy a new one.) Maybe she could get one quickly? Ah, but the train… Curse their schedules! Erza has been foiled by them too many times by now, and she would not let that schedule foil her in front of Gray and Natsu. Especially not after she requested them to come with her, finally.

It was something that Erza had been meaning to do for a while now, though when it came to jobs, everyone was usually off doing their own thing, and Erza herself typically handled jobs alone if it was a matter of efficiency. Although, in terms of companionship and less dire circumstances, it was nice to gather together and enjoy the teamwork of guild and friendly bonds… Though Erza knew she could never convince Natsu and Gray unless the situation was dire.

And it was. Probably. Dark guilds were known to be unpredictable, and forbidden objects more-so. In truth, if it were only the dark guild, Erza alone would be sufficient without a doubt, but the unknown item did create cause for concern. Erza had learned to be wary of unknown magic, especially that which was hidden away. There was only a slim chance it would be outside of her capacity to handle, but if it presented the opportunity that she had been hoping for… Well, it was a good opportunity, and nobody needed to know of her reasonings. The emergency was reason enough.

“There you are. Though you’re not particularly hard to find with that much luggage.”

Curses! She didn’t consider the possibility that there would actually be other people available, having only known that Jellal was likely still off in the mountains—but her secrets were doomed to be revealed, it would seem.

“Hello Erik,” she greeted, turning around to face her friend.

He was wearing that skeptical look—the one he had before unfolding all of her carefully folded feelings. Erza sighed to herself. She loved Erik, and she honestly appreciated the way he could interpret her ideas without her needing to stumble through some poorly communicated spiel, but no secret was ever safe from him. With him, of course, but from him? Not a chance. Between Erik and Jellal, her more…rambunctious…plans were usually killed in the water. For once, she wanted to see if they would actually work, common sense be damned! It was the Fairy Tail way, and she would have it.

Cubellios wormed her way from Erik’s side and launched herself at Erza. It had gotten more difficult as of late, but Erza prided herself in her ability to catch—or at least support—her snake friend in something of an acceptable embrace. (Though she had been informed, once, that Acnologia now remained the best at cradling the snake as she so desired, which was unfortunate for Erza’s pride, but completely understandable.)

“And hello, Cubellios,” she said, rubbing underneath her jaw and the base of her neck, right above the snake’s green guild mark. While Erza thoroughly distracted herself by tending to her snake friend, she faced Erik again, disappointed to find that he still looked unimpressed and tired. Even though they had only really started talking a couple of years ago, Erik and Jellal managed to have that exact same expression at any given time. It was funny, actually.

“I heard something about an emergency,” he started. “I’m not going anywhere, so I’m free to help if you need it.”

“Oh, well actually, I already got—” Erza cut herself off abruptly, but the thought was already done. She resisted the urge to sigh: foiled again. Though if Erza could help it, she would see this mission through; she swore to herself that she would. “Gray and Natsu are coming with me.”

Erik did sigh, before moving forward to match Erza’s position and motioning her forward, matching her stride when she kept walking. “Do you want to talk about?” he asked, and that was his way of giving her the chance to verbalize it before he picked up all of her messy thoughts and unraveled her secrets, sitting on them fruitlessly like he did for the rest of the world.

“Maybe…” she admitted. “But I do want to go through with this.” Erza was sure that Erik was here to talk her out of it, but she was decided. It had to be done—for Gray and Natsu’s sake, as well as her own. She wasn’t sure if he was here because Natsu had told him what happened, or if he just knew, but her instincts told her it was a mixture of both.

Her friend hummed thoughtfully. “I know you do, and I doubt I can talk you out of it, but you do know why this could be a bad idea, right?” he prodded.

“It’ll be fine,” she insisted, mentally digging her heels in. “I can handle them.”

“Stars, you sound just like Natsu,” he muttered, dragging a hand over his face. “Yes, I’m sure you can beat the shit out of them if they act up, but that’s not what I meant. Gray and Natsu both have their reasons for not getting along, and their mutual fear of you isn’t going to change that.”

“I don’t…” Erza opened and closed her mouth, grappling for the words. His implications were uncomfortable, though Erza knew he wasn’t wrong. She…didn’t want them to be afraid of her. A healthy respect, sure, but she didn’t want their fear… Erza wasn’t sure how to verbalize that without sounding pathetic, but Erik already knew what she meant by now. “They just need to talk without fighting, and a job would give them the excuse, but they would never on their own. Besides, we use to go on jobs, when we were kids. Or at least stuff around the guild. They just need a little reminder.”

They used to get along wonderfully as children. Sure, Natsu and Gray squabbled a bit, but it wasn’t that bad. They could be in a room together, certainly. Sure, people changed and shifted… But they shouldn’t have to. Natsu and Gray were still guildmates; no tragedies befell each other, and no rifts beside personality differences… Surely that alone wasn’t enough to drive them apart? And if they grew apart, then what did that say about her?

Erza would always be grateful to Fairy Tail for helping her in that dark time of her life, but Gray and Natsu had been particularly instrumental in pulling her out of her funk. Gray gave her the push to keep going, inspiring her to be strong; Natsu gave her an outlet to be able to see other people, and not just herself. Erza treasured, especially looking back, the times that the three of them were able to spend together, and she regretted not holding onto those better. Yes, people needed…space…to go and find themselves, but Erza could also see that those two would spend forever denying their comradery without intervention. This was her, finally finding the courage to intervene, and she wouldn’t be talked out of it.

Erza wasn’t going to sit idly by and watch more friends drift away.

Erik exhaled deeply. “Okay.”

She doubted he was responding to her comment about their fighting.

“Okay,” he repeated, “but—Erza, you can’t force people to be friends. Not with you or each other. Besides, I don’t think emergencies and life-threatening situations provides a lot of time to work out emotions.”

“But it worked with you,” she blurted.

Erik blinked in a startled way. “What?”

“The— the Tower mission. We became friends.” Perhaps it was a little more complicated than that, but the Tower still remained the scariest thing she had ever experienced—the first and the second time, though the second, when they came to tear it down, was leagues better. Still, through the fear and the worry, she and Erik had bonded. She knew it. She did. Though, for a second, her stupid paranoid heart wondered if that was true, until he laughed.

“Yeah, okay, you’re right about that,” he conceded. “I just don’t want you to get your hopes up too high, if this doesn’t work out.”

“It’ll work out fine,” she assured him.

He sighed again.

(What? It would be fine. Why did he always act like that whenever she stated it?)

“What is the emergency anyway? I can still come with you,” Erik asked instead. If he was back on this, then did that mean she could carry on with her original plan without interruption?

“Just a dark guild with some artifact. I noticed them on a job, but I missed the connotation of what they were saying until afterward. It could be difficult, but it’s nothing too extreme, I’m sure,” she answered, waving her hand. “There’s no need for you to come along, too.” Erza paused, before adding, “I’ll take care of your brother. Trust me.”

Erik still looked doubtful. She supposed it was his duty as an older brother to worry, but he shouldn’t doubt her ability to protect both of them, either.

“It’ll be fine,” she repeated, since Erik for some reason didn’t think that she was being one hundred percent honest and confident when she said that, because she was.

“Fine,” Erik relented with a longsuffering huff. “Just remember that they got their reasons for being the way they are, and I doubt either of them will want to talk about it. And I can’t speak for Gray on this one, but Natsu…” He paused to consider his words. “Natsu doesn’t want to fight. Not with Gray, at least. He does want to fight most anybody else. Yes, he still wants to fight you, but for different reasons.” He sighed and shook his head. “It’s complicated. Just know that those two are great at lying to themselves, and you’re in for a rough time if you rush things.”

“I got it, trust me,” Erza assured, waving off Erik’s fretting. He was like a mom-friend (if she interpreted that saying correctly), and it was sweet, but not necessary. (Though Erza could honestly say that Jellal was worse.)

“Okay. Don’t die out there, then.”

“Never.”

Her luggage lurched as Cubellios slid off of it, and its lessened weight made her believe that she could get to the train station in record time.

Erik may be worried, but she was confident that things would work out. All she needed was some alone time with the two again, and they would be back to being the companions that they were. All three of them.

—o0o—

The rattle of Erza’s ridiculous load of luggage faded into the rest of the street, but Erik resisted his urge to scream anyway.

“Cubellios, how is she so stubborn and yet well-meaning at the same time?” he vented.

Cubellios flicked her tongue in his face, which was as good of a reply as he was going to get.

It was still a bad idea. Some might say it was a terrible idea. There was a lot—and truly, a lot—of damage that could result from Natsu, Gray, and Erza being alone together, but… It also wasn’t impossible that things could work out. Natsu and Gray could stand the reminder that they were still guildmates, and if they were familiar enough with each other, then maybe, they wouldn’t be constantly activating each other’s fear responses. (Or, of course, they could make it worse because they don’t actually admit to themselves that they’re scared, because why would they?!) Ugh, this was why Erik never wanted to become a therapist.

Not to mention that his gut feeling was correct, and Erza was just trying to rekindle her friendship with them. Not that there was really much to kindle but… Well, Erza needed to figure that out on her own. She was still hurting over the lack of communication between her and the rest of her old cellmate squad, and admittedly, poking at Gray and Natsu might be a better alternative to ripping open those old wounds. Problem was, it was going to rip open their old wounds instead…

Erik glanced at the clock on the bell tower. Good. Erza was only going to just barely make the train—which meant she wouldn’t have much time to argue or talk her way out of things. He stalled for enough time. Hopefully, Mirajane’s side of the plan was successful.

He didn’t mind the idea of those three getting a suitable distraction. In fact, it might be healthy, in the long run. However, it was doomed for disaster if they attempted to reconcile by themselves, because Erza’s enthusiasm didn’t make up for the desert of subtlety between them. If it had to happen, at least they wouldn’t be alone.

—o0o—

Erza arrived at the station in record time, she would say: an entire two minutes before departure. She deserved a reward for that alone.

It took her a moment to spot Gray and Natsu, which was good, because that meant they weren’t fighting. She was proud of them already. There was, however, a disruption in the air as the temperature wavered from hot to cold and back, so they were fighting in a way—but not as badly as they could be. She was very proud indeed. She was also impressed by how timely they were. This mission was already going excellently.

“Sorry, did I make you wait?” Erza apologized in way of greeting, although she was secretly glad that they got the chance to sit together before her arrival.

“Whoa, that’s a ton of luggage!” came an exclamation, from neither of the boys.

Erza looked to see a blonde girl with them, situated between where Natsu and Gray were standing, arms crossed and quiet as they affected the air quality with their auras alone. She seemed familiar though. “You were in Fairy Tail yesterday, weren’t you?” Erza asked, though once she placed the face, she was certain that she was correct.

The girl bowed in polite greeting. “I’m a new member, Lucy,” she introduced. Ah, she was at the station too? How fortunate. Erza always made sure to properly greet new members, but she had been preoccupied yesterday. However, Lucy continued. “Mirajane asked me to tag along. I’ll try to be useful.”

Damnit! After she spent so much effort evading Erik, she was thwarted by Mirajane! Why was everyone so intent on stopping her from having a good, healthy, bonding experience with two of her should-be friends? Well, at least Lucy was new, so she didn’t have any of the same reservations as the rest of the guild, perhaps. And maybe… Erik had a point about there being too much awkward tension around them—particularly the boys. Maybe it would be best for a third party to be present. Besides, the train was already here.

“I’m Erza. It’s nice to meet you,” she said with a smile, washing her reservations away. Besides, Lucy herself did nothing wrong. And now that Erza connected her to the new person of the guild, she realized that Lucy must be the face behind the chatter. “I see you’re the one that people in the guild were talking about,” she commented. “I heard you defeated a mercenary gorilla—very promising, indeed.”

Lucy laughed awkwardly. “Ah, well, that was Natsu and that’s not even what happened…”

The whistle blew. It was time to board the train, then. Erza grabbed her luggage and motioned to her newfound team. On the other side of this train ride, they had a mission to fulfill. “Let’s go.”

Chapter Text

“To understand what I was longing for and missing some aspect of myself, and that there are no strangers. There are only versions of ourselves, many of which we have not embraced, most of which we wish to protect ourselves from.”

—Toni Morrison, “Strangers”

Not for the first time, Gray wondered what he did to deserve this. Sure, he’s done a lot of things, and he has certainly been paying the price, but stuck on a mission with Erza and Natsu? That was just salt in the wound.

He was perfectly capable of handling these kinds of things by himself. Okay, so Gray wasn’t so foolish to believe that he was anywhere near Erza’s level, and if she said she needed help, then she meant it, but he alone would be sufficient to help her. Why did she want him and Natsu?

Aside from the fact that Gray would be happier if he didn’t have to deal with his loud, hot-tempered, idiotic ass, Natsu would only slow them down. He was sure of it. His magic (or personality) wasn’t suited for anything involving a degree of subtlety—like non-sanctioned jobs, or “missions,” tended to warrant—but he would only get in the way of Gray’s own magic and fighting style. Not to mention that unless it was blowing something up, Natsu needed help with just about everything. He either didn’t understand the simplest context clues, or he was hiding behind his “siblings” in the face of a fair fight, or…or something. Gray didn’t pay attention to Natsu (because why would he?) but he was sure Natsu was the same idiot he was when they were kids, except without all of the blind confidence, which was perhaps the only thing that had been respectable in the first place.

Ugh, he was thinking about this too much, though Gray couldn’t help but to feel resentful when he saw Natsu nauseous and barely able to handle a simple thing like a train-ride, yet somehow, Natsu managed to be nominated for an S-Class mage before him. (He failed, of course, but the nomination was still baffling.) Seriously, the train still bothered him? When he was a kid, Natsu barely understood the concept of trains, and he would get rattled by them and complain for hours, but even Gray had enough faith to believe he would grow out it, but here he was, proved wrong again.

Natsu kept muttering and groaning in his discomfort, too, and Gray was losing patience. “Go sit somewhere else if you’re going to be annoying,” he snapped. “Or better yet, don’t ride the train! Just run!” If he didn’t like it, he should at least have the decency to suffer in silence; otherwise, Gray was going to go mad listening to him drone on. If Gray had to be here, he had least wanted things to go smoothly—though that was a tall order considering present company.

“I know it happens every time for him but…” Lucy frowned in pity. “I can’t imagine having to deal with that with no way to ease it.”

Erza sighed. If anyone would understand how squirmy Natsu was being, it was her. “There’s no other way. Come, sit next to me,” she ordered, tone…motherly? Don’t tell him that Erza pitied the guy too.

Natsu shuffled over, just for Erza to knock him so hard in the gut that it knocked him out, leaving Natsu sprawled across her lap. “That should ease him,” she declared kindly.

Goosebumps ran down his back at yet another display of Erza’s cruel kindness. Lucy was just as jumpy, which was good, because everyone needed to learn Erza’s intense ways sooner or later. Still, Gray didn’t feel sorry for Natsu, but that was a rough thing to do to him so nonchalantly. Not for the first time, Gray wondered how Erza and Jellal were friends.

“Uh, i-if you say so…” Lucy said, eyeing Natsu like Erza was about to come knock her lights out too.

“If I understand their ailment correctly, then not being aware of their surroundings should help. I’ll have to ask Natsu if it worked when we arrive,” Erza explained like what she did was perfectly natural.

But there was something about the way that the girls were talking about Natsu’s weak constitution that was throwing him off—like it was a medical condition or something. It was the first Gray had heard of it, though he never traveled with Natsu. Or anyone else, really. Not since he was a kid and new to the guild. However, as little as Gray cared as to the specifics, he also was aware that not knowing things could be detrimental, and they were technically all working together, and Gray would be damned if he was the reason the teamwork didn’t go well. “Ailment?” he questioned. “Isn’t it just being carsick?”

“Motion sick, to be specific,” Lucy replied. “At least that’s how Gajeel and Natsu put it. They can’t be on vehicles without getting really bad motion sickness.” She laughed awkwardly, eyes distant in some unpleasant memory. “And oh, it can be bad…”

Erza nodded. “Acnologia explained it to me, once. The dragon magic that they use enhances their senses a great deal, but on vehicles that have a ‘rigid motion’—whatever that means—it causes the magic to backfire and confuse their equilibrium, so they get sick. Not even Acnologia himself can avoid it.”

Oh. Gray hadn’t expected the explanation, but it made sense. He had no idea why all of the “dragonlings” (as the guild insisted on calling them based solely on their idea of theming) chose to use that magic or how they had obtained it. The fact that it had a side effect made it all the more perplexing, because generally only spells and magic that pushed the limits of the body or the universe snapped back on the user like that. Techniques of those sort became known as ‘forbidden’ for a reason. Who would teach those to a kid though? Maybe their parents really were ‘dragons’ if they were that crazy.

“Wait, even that freakish healer gets motion sick?!” he realized belatedly, having just processed Erza’s word. It was a hard image to wrap his head around.

“Indeed. It’s all very unfortunate.”

Gray leaned back in his seat. “Huh.” He supposed that this wasn’t a matter of tolerance at all, and Natsu really couldn’t help it. That was…awkward. Perhaps he was overly harsh, just about that one thing, at least.

“Acnologia…” Lucy repeated. “That’s Natsu’s oldest brother, right? Acno, I think he called him? He told me about his family when we were traveling for that job, but…” She gave an exasperated laugh. “He’s not exactly a linear storyteller.”

Erza found Lucy’s (very apt) description funny, chuckling sincerely. “We all have our faults. But yes, I believe he is—they all have dubbed each other brother and sister, which would make Acnologia the oldest. Some would liken him to their parent. Regardless, he’s a well-respected member of the guild, and an S-Class mage.”

“Oh, like you and Gajeel, right?”

Erza laughed some more, shaking her head. “Not quite,” she responded, and Gray knew what was coming. It was something that every mage knew intrinsically after years of work, but it was probably easier if somebody broke it to Lucy outright. She seemed to have a lot of idealism, but at least she was brave enough to ask questions. He’s seen a lot of new mages get disheartened or upset. “It’s true that we both share the rank, because we have been recognized by Master, and by extension the magic community, as exceptional in our field, but mages like Acnologia are on another level entirely. People can go their whole lives and not reach it. If I had to say, he is one of the three most powerful individuals in the guild—this including Master.”

“I-including?!” Lucy shrieked, alarmed at the casual mention. “But isn’t he one of the Ten Saint Wizards? The top ten most powerful mages in the continent?!”

“Official,” Gray chimed in. “They’re the official top ten. The Wizard Saints are powerful, sure, but they’re just the ones recognized by the Council. Doesn’t even cover all of the guild mages, much less dark ones.”

It was all about merit, these things were. Sure, every mage worked hard to be the best they could, and some went farther than others. To survive in this work, especially in the gritty parts, a mage had to be tough, and that warranted power. However, to get titles like ‘S-Class’ and ‘Wizard Saint,’ you needed an opportunity to prove yourself. Gray wasn’t so vain as to believe he was anywhere close to S-Class—not when he’s seen those monsters at work—but he knew that he wasn’t an ‘average’ mage either.

And as Erza said, there was discrepancy inside the tiers and classifications, too, so it’s not like gaining a title was the end-all-be-all. It didn’t mean as much as actual ability.

Though that was also a matter of opinion, sometimes. There was a long-standing debate in the guild as to who was the most powerful: Gildarts or Acnologia. Rumor goes that they’ve sparred before, but neither of them would admit to it—much less who came out on top. Gildarts was an obvious monster of a mage, so he tended to be the favorite as to who was strongest—especially since he spent whatever scrap of time that he was actually at the guild breaking down walls by accident. Acnologia was an enigma; few saw him in action, and those who did either didn’t see enough, or they were tight-lipped about it. Imaginations could run wild, and added with the fact that Acnologia did tank a drunk punch from Gildarts, there was a group adamant that he was in fact the strongest, despite only admitting to using healing magic and the dragon magic that a whole slew of mages at Fairy Tail seemed to use.

Gray personally had never seen Acnologia fight. The closest was whenever he broke up a fight, whether it was internal or chasing off some idiot who thought they could mess with the guild. Sure, he took hits like they were made of paper, but fortitude wasn’t always the same as firepower when it came to jobs. Though apparently, he could clear tough jobs fast, so it was largely possible that he really was Gildarts’ kind of monster. Hell, the other S-Class mages like Erza, Laxus, and Jellal were all crazy strong too, and everyone who knew Mirajane before the tragedy knew that she fit into that category as well. Gray didn’t know much about how Gajeel and Mystogan fought when it was serious, but Master wasn’t an idiot, so obviously they earned their spots as well. Besides, in Mystogan’s case, he apparently managed to match Mirajane in power and skill so precisely in the trial of ’81 that Master returned having declared them both S-Class. Gray had seen Gajeel around more than Mystogan—which wasn’t special, because even after Mystogan started to make an effort not to hide every time he was around the guild, he still was a shy guy—but that didn’t equate to seeing Gajeel in action in more than a barfight. Erza did give Gajeel a beating when she finally agreed to a duel, but Gajeel also survived way longer than most, so that alone was impressive.

The majority of it was just semantics, though. Gray didn’t care about titles—not really. Sure, some recognition would be nice, but Gray was confident in his own ability to handle things, and he did succeed in those things, so that was what mattered in the end. Not that he pegged Lucy as the vain type, only joining a guild for fame and glory, but it was best to shut those delusions down quickly.

“I see…” Lucy replied, nodding slowly as understanding filled her eyes. She really did catch on quick. “Oh, by the way, I realized I actually have no idea what magic any of you even use,” she said with a quick laugh. “I’ve only ever seen Natsu and Gajeel. What magic do you guys use?”

She was looking at Erza when she asked, and it made sense that Erza would be the more interesting of the two. Even though the previous conversation made clear that distinctions weren’t everything, there was still an obvious divide in power.

Erza waved it off, however. “My magic isn’t that interesting,” she said. “I’m just a requip mage. I think Gray’s is far more interesting.”

“It is?” Gray couldn’t help but to stare in a moment of confusion. She thought what? Erza seemed calm and sincere, looking to him, like she hadn’t spent years yelling at him whenever he used it inside. (For very respectable reasons, of course.) She was probably just avoiding talking about her own and using him as a conversation switch. That was fine.

Lucy was watching him with bright and expectant eyes, so he decided a demonstration would be easier. With a grunt, Gray made a small replica of the Fairy Tail emblem, letting it float above his palm for a moment while Lucy gasped excitedly at the mundane display, before he banished the construct back to the air with a flick of his wrist.

“It’s ice make magic,” he said, not knowing what else to do but provide an explanation anyway.

Lucy continued to watch him, and he wondered how she became a mage anyway with so little interaction to different types of magic. Or at least knowledge. Or maybe she did know, but she somehow retained that child-like adoration of seeing it happen.

She grew thoughtful for a moment, quiet, before slamming her hands together with an elated shout. “Fire!” She pointed to Natsu, still passed out in Erza’s lap like a weirdo. “Ice! Aha! No wonder you two don’t get along!” She giggled behind her hand. “You two are so straightforward and cute.”

Gray was trying to figure out how the hell he was supposed to respond to that, when Erza began scrutinizing him with some soft look that he couldn’t figure out. (Was she upset or was she pitying him? Confused? It was a look that she gave Jellal a lot after he first joined, which gave Gray only a little context, because neither of them ever gave any indication of what happened.) “Is that so?” she asked.

That he was annoyed by Natsu just because he used fire magic? Of course not. There were plenty things about Natsu that irked him…though one of the things that made Gray distinctly uncomfortable was his willingness to randomly combust. (Literally.) Whether it was lighting himself on fire mid-speech, or just summoning heat when he said he wouldn’t. Frankly, it was just proof of him being reckless and irresponsible. Besides, Gray using ice literally had nothing to do with it. His ice wasn’t so weak that fire would be a problem. Annoying, sure, but fire wasn’t always the winner against ice when it came to magic. There was no rivalry. It was nothing.

(Ice didn’t destroy things the way fire did anyway.)

Erza was still looking at him with that look (she was worried, wasn’t she?) and now Lucy and Happy both were eyeing him too.

He averted his gaze from everyone, irritated that they were bugging him about this subject at all. It didn’t matter. “Who cares about that?!” he snapped in a grumble.

It was still quiet, and the last thing Gray wanted was to push this subject further. It was a waste of time anyway. He cleared his voice, carefully wiping away his irritation in favor of being responsible. “Anyway, let’s get ready, Erza. What’s going on? You asking for help doesn’t happen that often.”

Or at least, asking help from people like him and Natsu, who she wasn’t as close to. Gray wasn’t sure if the times she and Jellal went on jobs was a matter of extreme duress—because each were powerhouses by themselves and Gray always wondered what two of them in the same fight were like—or if they went because they were friends. Either way, Gray was positive that she would have sought out Jellal if he was available, but then that also begged the question if the threat that Erza saw needed him, but she was forced to settle. Gray was confident in his abilities, sure, but not that confident.

Erza was still scrutinizing him, but she must have finally realized the situation, because she got on topic. “Right. Let me explain that.”

She told them about her run-in with a group of mages at a bar in Onibus, and how she overheard them talking about some artifact that they were trying to uncover called ‘lullaby.’ Maybe it was his lack of experience in the same things Erza dealt with, but for once, he was as confused as Lucy.

“Lullaby?” he questioned.

“Lullaby…is that some sort of magic that can put people to sleep?” Lucy guessed, and it was a good guess. Maybe that was the cause for concern? Still, sleep magic was normal, and it was weak against those on guard anyway. This was probably something more severe.

“I don’t know,” Erza admitted, and Gray’s confusion grew. “But since it’s sealed, it probably contains powerful magic.”

The train began to slow, signaling its arrival at the station; meanwhile, Gray was still missing the cause for concern. If he had any more pride in the matter, he might have waited to see if what Erza saw was obvious, but they were already in Onibus, and Gray knew that a little pride wasn’t worth lives if they were on the line. “I don’t get it,” he admitted. “So you came across some folks who wanted to break the seal of an unknown magic. Maybe that was just their job. Nothing special.”

“That’s what I thought, too.” Erza stood as the train reached a halt, her expression serious. “Until I remembered the name Erigor. The ace of a mage guild called Eisenwald. Shinigami Erigor.”

Oh. Oh. Now Gray understood. Erza continued to explain it to (now panicking) Lucy as they gathered their belongings, and Gray analyzed the situation. It was the first he heard of it, but it made sense that Eisenwald—those remaining, at least—would grow into a dark guild after they were busted for doing illegal commissions. Not to mention that there was no telling who joined in the six years that they were dark, so there was no good way to gauge their strength. Erigor had a reputation, however, and if he was still involved, then he was probably still living up to that reputation. Erza was right to be cautious.

Lucy was very much not okay, and Gray didn’t blame her. She was new. Honestly, Mirajane was being optimistic in sending her out with them on a mission like this, because jobs were unpredictable enough, but dark guilds were another matter entirely. Not that anyone knew what Erza needed until just now… Well, whatever. He did feel bad for her though. She was sweating profusely and practically shaking, while Happy hovered over her fruitlessly. “Maybe I’ll go back home…” she muttered.

“Wait, Lucy…” Happy started, but Erza wasn’t finished.

“It was a blunder on my part.” She clenched her fist, and the intense determination made Gray remember that they really were only the backup in this; Erza was a beast all of her own. Though it was evident she was beating herself up over the matter. “If only I had remembered the name back at the bar… Then I would have handled them swiftly.”

The dark tone she took had Lucy shivering to the side. Poor girl; she doesn't have thick skin yet.

He got the picture now though. “Right,” Gray responded to Erza’s explanation. “If it were just the folks at the scene, you could have handled them yourself, but when it’s an entire guild…”

Erza nodded. “An enigmatic one at that. Plus, they got a hold of that magic called ‘lullaby.’ They’re plotting something. We can’t overlook this. So, we’re going to march on Eisenwald.”

There was the wild and impossible task he expected. It wouldn’t be the first time that Gray dealt with a dark guild—or the last—but it would be his first time taking on an entire guild all at once. Although if there was anybody that he trusted to make that a reality, Erza was certainly among that number. Gray grinned. “Sounds interesting.”

The guild certainly wouldn’t be expecting to have a handful of Fairy Tail mages on their back, much less the Titania, so they had the element of surprise in addition to their power. It was a tough task, especially if Erigor was as intimidating as old rumors made him out to be, but it was feasible. A part of Gray felt excited for the first time this trip; the presentation of a challenge made his fingers itch for action. The world would be a safer place with one less dark guild running amok anyway. However, as much as Gray was ready to find those bastards, he also had no idea where to start. A plan would be vital if they were to take advantage of the element of surprise.

“By the way… Do you know where Eisenwald is?” he asked Erza. She seemed to have a plan regarding location, sending them to Onibus, as it was their last known location.

“We came here to find that out,” she replied. Ah, so it was because it was the last known location. It made sense that their location wouldn’t be such an easy find. Unless Erza had something else up her sleeve, they would probably have to ghost that bar in hopes for more info or question the bartender and other potential contacts.

“Wait!”

Lucy, despite her many muttered (and not muttered) comments about leaving, had been following behind Erza with her bags, until she was shouting and waving her arms, while Happy flitted around, scanning the area almost frantically.

“Natsu’s not here!”

—o0o—

Natsu felt awful.

Usually, he was at least aware of these stupid, rumbling train rides, but this time, it was apparently so bad he blacked out a section of it from his memory. His eyes and ears were also worse than normal, which was disconcerting but not out of the blue, because he couldn’t hear anything past the rumbling, and whenever he tried to pry his eyes open, the nausea got unbearable.

Magic motion sickness was the worst. Apparently, normal motion sick people could at least look at things.

Whatever. The trip couldn’t be that long. (Right?) It’ll be over soon enough. Not that he could remember much of what happened. Erza had started saying something to him? Wait, someone was saying something to him now. He sniffed—and that was barely working either—but he couldn’t smell much of anyone that he knew. Who was that voice? Natsu determined that he didn’t recognize him, and he was…talking about guild stuff? Whatever. If it was something important, the others could handle it. Natsu didn’t think he was capable of much except for dying at that moment.

Then there was a foot in his face. Adrenaline spurred through his veins like magic, and Natsu’s eyes snapped open to see nobody but some smarmy dude with his foot on his face. There was a deeply familiar smell, like shadows, but Natsu still couldn’t place much.

He just knew that he was alone (he didn’t know why) and this jerk was a mage (dangerous).

“Wha…” Adrenaline kept his eyes open and muscles ready, but he still didn’t have good motor control with the stupid rumbling, confusing train beneath him. The best he could manage was to shove the guy’s foot off. “You… doin’…?”

“Oh! You finally talked!” the creepy jerk laughed. So he had been talking before, hadn’t he? What happened to the others? Did he do something to them? “But I can’t really understand you.”

The jerk didn’t try to kick Natsu again, which was good, because Natsu was feeling his stomach churn in tandem with the too-bumpy train.

“Fairy Tail has been getting a lot of attention lately,” the guy continued. Natsu didn’t need Erik’s magic to know that his words didn’t match his intentions. “You know… Stuck up people like that annoy the hell outta me.” There it was. “You know what we call Fairy Tail?”

Natsu just glared. It was the best he could do, and besides kicking him, the jerk hadn’t done much yet. Still, making fun of his guild and calling them stuck up was unforgivable. Natsu would at least be pissed about it.

“Flies!” The jerk gave a creepy, jerk-like grin and laughed in a mean way. “Haha! Fly-swatting!”

With that stupid smile on his face, the jerk begun to whack him. That was it! Natsu had enough of this punk. Not to mention, the absence of his guildmates was freaking him out. What if he had done something to them? And there was something…else. Something nearby. It set Natsu on edge. He was gonna pay!

Natsu managed to stand. “You…” he growled, and the insult died there. He couldn’t stand and talk at the same time, so Natsu chose to focus on his magic.

“Oh, are you gonna’ go for it?” the jerk taunted.

Hell yeah I am! Natsu let the magic erupt from his skin, his fists bursting into flames.

…then his stomach promptly committed suicide, and the magic retreated out of reach.

Well shit.

“Ha! What kind of magic is that?” the jerk mocked, which was totally unfair because the stupid motion sickness was making his magic inaccessible, and Natsu couldn’t do anything about it. “You gotta’ use your magic… Like this!”

A bolt of shadow socked him beneath the jaw, destroying Natsu’s frankly impressive attempt at standing up on a train. The shadow was slimy and too solid, nothing like Rogue’s despite being the same type of magic.

Natsu skidded across the floor of the train, and the opposite momentum from the train’s path was more agonizing than the weak shadow punch. “Sh-shit.” His head was spinning, and half of his senses were out of commission. Magic motion sickness sucked so bad. But he wouldn’t let some stupid side effect stop him from dealing with this punk. His pride as a Fairy Tail mage and as a dragon slayer was at stake!

The world lurched again. For a second, he thought it was just his stomach, but he slammed into a new row of seats, and he heard the cry of the other mage too.

Suddenly, Natsu could breathe again.

The train stopped.

Natsu took a deep breath, realigning his magic. He had no idea why the train stopped, or what was happening, but he would take advantage of the situation to deal with this punk and go find his guildmates— The smell hit him.

He hadn’t placed it before, when he could barely hear and see, much less have the presence of mind to smell, and it was faint from dormancy, but he would recognize it anywhere: Zeref’s magic. Natsu ignored the now-yelping guy and saw that his satchel had fallen, and inside of it, a flute that reeked of Zeref and death. Natsu didn’t know if they were different smells, or the same—Zeref and his magic often smelled like death—but that part wasn’t important. What was important was that this bad guy had something that Zeref made, which wasn’t good, because Zeref tended to make really powerful and really dangerous things. It also was Zeref’s, and Natsu knew that his stuff wouldn’t lead him to his brother, but at the very least, somebody had to deal with it before somebody did something worse with it than…whatever Zeref made it for.

Natsu snatched up the bag, the flute-looking thing (that was probably way more complicated, knowing Zeref) rolling to the bottom of it. He would figure out what it did later and keep it safe for now. It wouldn’t be the first object of Zeref’s that they stored away, and it wouldn’t be the last.

“Hey!” the jerk shouted. “Don’t touch that!”

The jerk pulled for shadows, but he was slow.

“Shut up!” Natsu summoned forth the fire that he couldn’t earlier and more, slinging it forward in a claw attack and sending the mage flying through the back wall of the train car and probably through the next one as well.

“We’ve confirmed that the emergency break was due to a false report,” a voice came through the speakers. “We’ll depart shortly.”

Shit. He couldn’t protect the flute thingy and fight at the same time if he was sick. He needed to run. He would have to figure out where the others were once he was off, and trust that they could handle themselves, whatever happened to them.

Natsu secured the stolen satchel first, and then grabbed his bags from the overhang. (The others’ stuff was already gone.) He heard that jerk coming back, yelling, but Natsu burst through the side wall and threw himself off of the train just as it started moving.

“Natsu?!”

A car was coming straight for him, which changed his landing strategy slightly. (Ever since he learned how to fly, Acno made him always have a landing strategy, which was annoying but admittedly meant less bruises and things being broken.) What was weirder was that Erza was driving it, calling out to him, while Gray was on top of the car and Lucy sticking her head out of the side.

Aaaaand the shadow jerk was coming after him.

Natsu kicked, a spur of flame coming out of his heel and sending himself higher into the air above Gray and shooting down the shadow hand that came after him at the same time.

“Look out!” he warned with a shout, because even though the guy’s shadows weren’t as fast as Rogue’s, they were big, and his flame only dispelled half of it.

This would be a lot easier if he had the freedom to fly.

Whatever. They had a fight on their hands anyway. Natsu would happily beat up some cultist that worshipped his brother as a bad guy, any day. Bring it on!

Chapter Text

“I can feel it on my tongue
Brick and mortar as thick as scripture
Drawing lines in the sand and laying borders as tall as towers
I babble on until my voice is gone.”

—The Oh Hellos, “Constellations”

Erza couldn’t believe she had been so careless. She left Natsu on the train! Alone and magically repressed: he would be completely defenseless!

No wonder Erik had been worried. He had the right to be worried. She shouldn’t have been so stubborn and just let him come… He was better at this sort of thing anyway. All of Gray’s questions only reminded her that she did not have a plan beyond coming here and working together with Gray and Natsu (and now Lucy) to track down Eisenwald and teach them a lesson they will not soon forget, but that left much room for… improvisation. It was something that Erza herself often employed on her jobs, but many of those were straightforward. In the parts when it wasn’t, Erza could adapt and improvise, as she was quite resourceful. But did her resourcefulness equate to good leadership skills? Probably not. Jellal was better at that: the planning and the leading. He always was.

She had been a fool, but now, Erza would make sure that things were resolved, one way or another. She could work quickly, at least. After informing the station attendant of their plight and employing their handy emergency break, she found a kind bystander that so graciously allowed them to borrow a car, and with it, Erza began the race to catch up with a train.

The others with her were being helpful as well, even without needing guidance, and she was grateful for it. Erza had always known that she could trust them. (Even though Lucy was new, Erza wasn’t surprised that a bright lady in Fairy Tail such as herself would prove capable in her own way.) As they approached the train, Gray climbed onto the roof and Lucy kept lookout from the window, while Happy made sure she didn’t fall out, and she assumed that he would watch over Gray as well, while she focused on driving.

It didn’t take long. It didn’t even take a daring jump onto the train—now moving again, for some reason—because Natsu was quick on his feet and already jumped towards them. “Natsu?!” Lucy cried, surprised.

How fortunate! Wait. Natsu wasn’t alone.

It was hard to ready herself while her magic was being poured into the vehicle, but Erza would not be stopped so easily. Natsu twisted through the air as he shouted warning, his flames simultaneously giving him air-time and repelling the magic sent against him. The magic looked vaguely ethereal in nature, so Erza chose defense over a sword, summoning a shield and holding it in front of them, while a spear of ice from Gray dissolved the rest of the tendril. A form of shadow magic, was it?

Natsu twisted again, a burst of flame sending him higher into the air and in the same trajectory of the vehicle. He moved through the air well—with practice, even. It was useful that moving of his own will didn’t ignite the same cursed side effect that vehicles did; no wonder he practiced. “Happy?” he called.

“Aye!”

Satisfied that Natsu was taken care of, now held aloft by Happy, Erza allowed herself to place her full attention on the upcoming threat. Dismissing the shield, Erza requipped into a better suit of armor, long gold sword at the ready. “Hold on!” she warned, and abruptly she ripped the pipe away from her wrist and she yanked the steering lever, sending the car skidding sideways but ultimately braking.

There were several yelps behind her from the sudden stop, but she trusted that Gray and Lucy were fine. Erza focused on the figure flying toward them, his momentum not yet adjusted since leaping from the train.

Good. It would make this easier. Erza kicked off from the car seat and readied her blade, rushing toward him with speed that matched his own. The man squirmed, wrapping black shadows around himself, but Erza’s light blade tore through his attempt of a shield as if they were nothing. Unfortunately, the man was crafty, and dispersed himself with the shield.

“There!” Natsu warned from above, and she followed the flame he sent from his hand to the shadow behind the car.

Natsu’s fire crashed into the shadow, and it splashed upward. Erza readied her blade and met the form, using the flat of the sword to knock the assailant out of the magic and onto the ground. The circumstance of their arrival in Onibus fresh on her mind, she recognized the mage nearly instantly. “Eisenwald!” she hissed accusingly, but also triumphantly. She knew that they would show themselves sooner or later. Wait. That was the one that was going to dispel the magic, wasn’t he? What was his name? It didn’t matter; he was right here.

The Eisenwald mage widened his eyes, some mix of fear and hatred in them. Gray encased his body in ice right as the mage made the effort to get up. Excellent.

“What is your guild planning?” Erza questioned, sword pointed towards him in case he tried anything funny.

“My guild?” the mage asked innocently, though Erza would not believe it. “My guild hasn’t done anything to you. In fact, that guildmate of yours stole from me.”

“You’re the thief, you— you thief!” Natsu shrieked indignantly. Erza spared him a glance, more out of curiosity than anything else. He and Happy had landed, positioned beside her while Gray was on the other side, and Lucy was behind Natsu. There was a new bag around his shoulder, and he shifted it behind him protectively.

“All you guild mages,” the dark mage spat, fake-polite smile still etched onto his face, “are the same. Making assumptions. I’m just trying to do my own thing, yeah? And who’s to say that can’t include a little music.”

From behind her, Natsu snarled quietly. Or maybe—maybe that was a growl. (Erik has growled before, too. They all had very interesting side effects to their magic, and she knew that those side effects were only part of the reason that kept the name—dragon slayer—as well its nature, close to their chests. Still, seeing it in action, even in small ways, amazed her.)

Erza continued to glare down at the Eisenwald mage. She trusted that Natsu’s instincts were correct, just as her own remembered that this was the one who claimed that he could break the seal on the hidden magic object that the guild was seeking. “I said,” she insisted, growing impatient. Her impatience manifested as an array of swords in her inventory, which embedded themselves dangerously close to him in the ground, “what is your guild planning?”

The fake-polite smile grew cruel. “Something you flies wouldn’t understand. Shadow orochi!”

Gray’s ice shattered, and a hoard of shadow-snakes erupted from the dissolving shards. The snakes flew upwards and towards them, jaws open to strike. Erza took the gold blade in her hands and quickly utilized the light blade attack, cleaving a great number of snakes and sending them back to nothingness. Others were annihilated by bursts of ice, and Erza knew that Gray could handle the rest.

It didn’t take long to spot the dark mage. He vanished in the wake of his spell, but he was desperate to get back whatever Natsu confiscated from him. Natsu’s arms alighted in flame, defending his front, while the dark mage and a few of his shadow orochi snakes rushed him. Happy picked Natsu up and they flew upwards. The snakes burned in the presence of Natsu’s fire, and the mage, too, was blown back. Natsu could handle him well; she was glad.

“Damnit!” the mage hissed. He was eyeing them all with a wild look, as if he only now realized that he was outnumbered, five to one. Perhaps now he would be more susceptible to her questions.

“Stop at once!” she commanded, switching her sword out for a spear so she could throw, spearing the man’s coat to the ground. Erza summoned a large claymore to her hand to hold over him. “Tell me what your guild is planning this instant.”

“Or what?” he sneered. “You’ll pester me to—EI!” The mage bit back a shriek when she dived her sword straight through his chest. He turned his chest to shadow to avoid the blow, just as she suspected, but now there was fear in his eyes. “Okay! Okay! Let up, I’ll tell you!”

Erza pulled back the sword, but left it hovering above him to keep him in line.

“I-it’s the boss’s plan, you know?” the man stuttered. “I was just sent to get some flute and bring it back.”

“Back where?”

“U-uh, well…”

Erza glowered at him, grip on her sword tight. Glaring usually worked in these situations.

“East! I was heading east. To meet up with them. I don’t know where, honest—I was just supposed to stay on the train.”

“Is that where your guild is located?”

“N— Er, who’s to say? I-it’s not really a guild anymore, right? We’re just buddies and partners. That’s all.”

Erza glowered some more, as if her narrowed eyes could see right through his deception. She knew, on some level, that he was trying to misdirect her, but she wasn’t sure where. It was true that he was headed east, if he was on the train, but was it really to meet his guildmates? Did he get on at the Onibus station? Another thing she missed in her negligence, if it were so.

Regardless, he was headed east, so it was important, somehow. Though if Natsu had his cargo in his possession, then the rest of the guild wasn’t as much of a threat—or at least, they wouldn’t be able to fully enact their plan.

Still, she had her mouth open, about to question him once more about their plan—or at least, the nature of the artifact—when something exploded behind her. Unthinking, Erza whipped her head back to see it; a shadow ripped through the base of the car, tearing it in half. Shit!

Too late, Erza realized that the mage turned himself to shadow once again, eliciting a startled sound from Gray, who turned away to look at the car he destroyed at the same time she did. Shit! He was gone!

Erza yanked the spear out of the ground, pinned to nothing, and looking around almost wildly. There were so many shadows. He could be hiding anywhere, and it was hard to compare their tones to each other when everything looked a little different. “Natsu!” she called, because he had been the one to spot the mage before. Whether it was because of his senses, or his experience with Rogue, he had proven himself adept at it.

Natsu’s gaze tracked the area, nostrils flared, but the there was no cry of success. “Shit,” he hissed softly, unknowingly echoing her.

He escaped.

“He— He traveled through shadows, right?” Lucy asked. Her eyes were wide, and Erza had to remind herself that despite her previous success, she was still new. Lucy pointed to the train tracks. “It has one big shadow. Maybe…?”

“That’ll do it,” Natsu grumbled, posture still tense. He patted the bag behind him briefly, then released a sigh, some of the tension fading. “Whatever. That thief doesn’t have anything he stole anymore…”

Gray grunted. “Must have figured out he was outnumbered and had no chance of winning. At least…” Gray eyed Natsu and the bag briefly, before closing his eyes with a shake of the head. “At least their plan seemed to revolve around the thing Natsu snatched off of ‘im. So threat gone, right? For now.”

“I…suppose so,” Erza agreed. Letting him get away—again—still felt like a failure, on her end, but that was the benefit of having friends to back her up. At least it wasn’t a total loss, as Gray and Natsu said.

“Hey, I don’t like the ideas of those creeps running around either, but at least they don’t have a McGuffin to blow people up with. Besides, you know how pissy the Council gets about these things,” Gray continued, and he had a good point. When public safety was on the line, guilds were granted (vague) ability to protect public interest, but starting wars without precedent was another thing entirely. (Not that dark guilds had the luxury of being protected by the law.)

She sighed, letting her disappointment escape. “Very well,” she decided. “We should deal with the artifact first.”

Erza turned her gaze to Natsu, waiting for him to reveal the artifact or give some input. He almost missed her cue entirely, jumping slightly when he noticed them all looking to him. “What?” he asked, still confused.

He must still be tired from the train. Poor thing. She should have been more verbal. “What was the artifact he was carrying?” she asked.

“Huh? O-Oh, that.” Natsu’s hand hovered over the bag, but then after a moment of hesitation, he brought his hand back up as he crossed his arms. “That’s not a big deal. I can deal with it when we finish your thing, Erza. So uh… what’s the emergency anyway?”

It was her turn to be confused. Had something happened to him during the fight? She knew that he knew because not only had she told everybody on the train, but Natsu himself had been the one to apprehend the object from the Eisenwald mage.

Happy tugged on Natsu’s pants leg. “Erza explained it while you were knocked out.”

Oh. Erza felt a rush of embarrassed heat to her cheeks; Natsu really hadn’t been awake, had he? First, she denied him explanation, then she left him on the train… It was pure instinct that allowed him to handle the Eisenwald mage and confiscate the artifact, wasn’t it? Their victory was no thanks to her, surely. “I’m really sorry, Natsu,” she apologized with a bow of her head.

“Eh, it’s no big deal,” Natsu replied. “It’s in the past now. So that was the guy we needed to beat up?”

“More like his guild,” Gray put in. “Eisenwald. One of those guilds that went dark after they got busted for illegal jobs.”

“Though as Gray said, now that we have the Lullaby, we can go back, right?” Lucy added, a note of optimism to her expression.

“We’ll have to do something with it first,” Erza responded. Destroying it would be the safest option, long-term, but objects didn’t always destroy easily—or without backlash. Acnologia had warned her and others of that concept many a time. (A lesson he gave back at the Tower, with lacrimas all around, and a lesson she internalized later when breaking a cursed conch shell had her speaking backwards for twenty-four hours—something she might have brushed off if it weren’t for his lecture afterwards.)

“Wait, ‘Lullaby’?” Natsu questioned, looking between her and Lucy.

“That’s what I heard the Eisenwald mages discuss, before I realized who they were,” Erza confirmed. “It’s likely the name of that item. The mage we fought had said he was going to unseal it. Though I’m not sure if the item itself is sealed, or if he was unsealing it from a location.” It would be good to know. If the object itself was still sealed, then attempting to destroy it could simply unseal it; if it was from a location, or if the Eisenwald mage already freed the object, then it was unpredictable. “We’ll have to inspect it.”

Natsu hesitated again. Was something wrong? He had been thrown into this fight rather suddenly, but he handled it very well, and now he was caught up, so what was the issue? Slowly, he pulled the bag to his side and opened the flap, staring down. It was still there, wasn’t it?

Erza took a step forward, worried that something she couldn’t figure out was amiss, but then Natsu reached down and poked something tentatively.

Oh. He was just taking precautions. “It’s not glowing, is it?” she asked.

Most times, things glowed before they activated. It was uncanny.

“No,” Natsu mumbled. He sounded distracted, eyes still fixed down into the bag. Her curiosity was mixing with her impatience, but Erza restrained herself. She was used to Jellal’s methodical approach to things; it was new for Natsu. Almost worrying. However, a dragon slayer’s sense of smell was great, and he was likely inspecting it as he stared. If anyone would have a good guess as to what the nature of the object was, it would be Natsu.

Eventually—slowly—he pulled it out. As the Eisenwald mage alluded to, it looked like a flute. It was small and wooden, and at the top was styled a skull. A skull with three eye sockets, to be precise.

“Creepy,” Gray commented dryly.

There was a gasp from Lucy. “Wait. A flute with a three-eyed skull… Lullaby…” Erza watched as the blonde girl worried the bottom of her lip. “No,” she muttered, talking more to herself than to them. “It’s just a made-up story…”

“What is it?” Erza asked, a sense of dread threatening to build in the pit of her stomach. She staved it off, but her imagination didn’t bode her well.

“The cursed song,” Lucy replied. “If that flute is it, then Lullaby… Sleep, death… It fits. Then— Then it’s the Lullaby!”

“Yeah, I think we got that,” Gray remarked. “But ‘cursed song’?”

“No,” Lucy tried. “I mean, yes. The Lullaby is the cursed song. I— I just read about it in a book, so I can’t say for certain, but there’s a forbidden magic that’s ‘murder by curse’ right?”

There could be ‘murder’ by a lot of things, but Erza believed she understood where Lucy was going. “Yes, I think it’s in the name. It’ll curse the target and cast death. It’s a black magic.” It was something she assumed from the beginning. Most objects of this nature were dangerous simply on account of being black magic, and with black magic, came death and destruction.

“That’s not really black magic though,” Natsu muttered.

Huh? Erza looked to Natsu. “What do you mean?” she asked. How could it not be? It was dangerous, but it was dangerous because it didn’t give its victims a chance; curses were not something that a warrior could fight against by normal means.

“I— I mean, black magic can’t just kill people. Well, anything can, but normal people use black magic,” Natsu stuttered back in response, bewildered for some reason.

“Normal people?” Gray questioned. “What kind of damn ‘normal’ people are running around with black magic?”

“That’s not what I meant!” Natsu retorted angrily. For a moment, Natsu and Gray looked like they were about to undo their excellent progress and start fighting again, so she cleared her throat, eyeing them each in warning. They looked away from each other and calmed down. Good. She would hate for them to backslide so quickly.

“I just meant that black magic is just like other magic, ‘cept it does different stuff. It’s not that special. It kills people as good as fire or ic— swords. Black arts is what can just kill people. Even then, it’s— it’s complicated.”

“Oh.” It was more insightful than she expected, but honestly, Erza should have known that any of Acnologia’s children would have a better grasp on magic than normal. “My mistake, then. But Lucy… You said you read about it in a book?”

“Y-yeah,” she continued. “It was a story about a flute that could kill whoever played it—the cursed song. However… However, legend goes, the Black Mage, Zeref, took the flute and changed it to ‘mass murder magic,’ which reversed it; whoever hears the song d-dies. I just thought it was a scary tale, but if that guild actually wants it…”

“Then the ‘mass murder magic’ is likely applied,” Erza finished darkly. It fit the reputation of the Dark Mage. His inventions, and his plans, all were made with the intent of mass destruction. His followers were as mad as he was, seeking evil instead of peace. The thought of this dark guild wanting to use it to slaughter who knows how many people… It made her skin crawl. The knowledge that such people existed in this world was not new to her in the slightest, but it will never be okay—nor should it be.

“If we toast the flute, that’s plan over, then,” Gray said. “Nothing good could ever come out of some cursed Zeref artifact anyway. Natsu—” He exhaled roughly. Even though Gray had not given into the urge to fight, he looked tempted now—or at least agitated. But why? She still did not understand why they couldn’t stand each other.

(Though perhaps she had a theory, now.)

“Natsu, since you got it, you can do the honors. It’s wooden anyway, so burning it would be safest.”

“No!”

Erza, about to object herself, did not expect such a vehement retort from Natsu. In fact, she had expected him to comply immediately if she did not intervene.

His shoulders tense, they began to droop back down slightly when Happy hovered beside him. But he still appeared bothered. “I-I mean, destroying this stuff is dangerous. Besides I think…it’s al— S-Sometimes there’s backlash, ya know? We should really just give it to Acno.”

“Since when are you careful?” Gray asked, voice sharp.

“I’m careful!” he hissed back. “When I need to be.”

Lucy chuckled nervously, muttering to herself. “It would have been helpful if he was more careful, but…”

“But he’s still Natsu,” Happy whispered back to her. Lucy nodded sagely.

“Natsu’s right,” Erza agreed. Gray, whose mouth was open with a retort, looked to her with surprise. “It could be unpredictable. It’s no longer an emergency, anyway, so there’s no need to take any risks. Natsu—do you think it’ll activate for any reason?”

“Um.” He looked down at the flute in his hands, before slowly putting it back in the bag. “I don’t— I don’t think so.”

Good enough. “Then we’ll take it back with us and keep it guarded. Master will know what to do with it, when he returns. Or Acnologia, for that matter.” Natsu mentioned it, and Acnologia had told them before that he could be consulted on such matters as well. One time, Jellal had confiscated a page from a group he had fought with a cursed script he couldn’t read, so he brought it back to Acnologia; the older mage glanced over it, and without even needing to read it, siphoned the magic from it, destroyed the paper, and explained that it was half of a body link spell. He certainly was an expert in destroying sinister magic items… (Or buildings.)

Her guildmates nodded in affirmation. Then, it was settled. “Let us head back, then, before Eisenwald comes back for us.” It would be hard for an entire dark guild to mobilize without drawing attention to themselves, and the military—though not always equipped to handle mages—was no push-over. What was important now was securing the mass-murder magic.

“Umm.” Lucy raised her hand tentatively. “The car is destroyed.”

Right. She appraised the machine, broken in half through the middle, once more. So it was. “We’ll walk, then.”

There was a collective half-hearted groan, but she pretended to ignore it. Erza would have her quality time yet.

—o0o—

Kageyama was so fucked.

That was the only thing apparent to him as he slipped into the shadow of the train tracks and zipped to a location that didn’t matter except for being far away from those fly freaks.

Flies. He was beaten by flies!

Flies with as much destructive magic as the hearsay said… Kageyama had been firm in his belief that no legal guild could possibly attain the power of a dark one, since they were unwilling to push their limits, but he was beginning to wonder. That fire brat could find him. The ice was annoying. And the red head… He resisted the urge to shiver and lose his grip on the shadow magic. The red head was insane. Not only did she manage to have a magic sword that could hurt him, but she was willing to do it, too.

There was another girl, too, though she didn’t do much. Even if she was useless (which was likely), he had been outnumbered three to one.

Not that he was outnumbered when the fire brat stole the Lullaby.

Did he know? Did he recognize it? Recognize Kageyama? Surely not. The weapon had been sealed for centuries! Although… There were rumors. It was how Erigor found out about it, after all.

It didn’t matter how at this point. It just mattered that Kageyama screwed up and let some fly steal the prize that his guild worked hard to attain.

Erigor was going to be pissed.

He was so, so fucked.

He traveled along the singular shadow until he got to the train station. A gasp escaped him upon exit; he had used a lot of magic. So soon after dispelling that seal, too. Kageyama shouldn’t have gotten cocky on the train. He hadn’t had the energy or the time to fight, but it had been so tempting. The plan wasn’t really his to carry out, after all. He needed to get his catharsis in elsewhere.  Sure, getting the flute out of the sealed box was a challenge, and then unsealing the Lullaby itself was another, and popping those suckers was satisfying, but it wasn’t as satisfying as wiping the pompous smirk off of a righteous legal mage’s face. The opportunity had been right there. How could Kageyama have known that the train would suddenly stop and that the dude would go from sick and pathetic to raging inferno within seconds? Stupid. He was so stupid.

Kageyama made his way away from the bulk of the station, but not far away from the tracks. Not yet. He just needed a plan—and a moment of reprieve. He couldn’t brute force them down, so he would just have to play to his strength: stealth. Knowing that the fire brat could spot him made things difficult, but what was life without a challenge? Besides, now that he’s run away—er, temporarily retreated, their guards would be lower.

After he caught his breath, and maybe grabbed something to eat to regain a spot of strength, he would go back after them. Without their car, they shouldn’t be able to make it far. He would just trail them from a distance until he got an opportunity, then he would snag the Lullaby and dash off faster than they could notice.

The plan could still work. He just needed to hurry.

“There you are, Kageyama.”

If he could, he would have jumped out of his skin on the spot. Though all things considered, Kageyama thought he did a decent job at stifling his reaction. “Erigor, sir,” he greeted coolly, hoping beyond hope that this was a coincidence.

“Decided not to take the train? Ah, probably better that way. Less interference.” Erigor was staring at him. Studying him. Waiting to see just how badly he messed up.

So fucked.

“Ah, yeah, that’s it. Mages take the train, ya know? Can’t let anyone know about the plan before we get there. Which… Weren’t you supposed to meet me in Clover Town? Sir.”

“About that,” Erigor replied dismissively, languid as ever despite the sharpness ever present in his gaze. “The guild deserved a bit more theatrics for our mutual guild problem. I thought it would be fitting if they were able to be there, so we were going to meet you on the train here. That way, Clover Town will be secured for the ceremony, just in case the military caught on. You weren’t on the train, though. We made a scene and everything. Had to make the guild get scarce before the military ruined things early.” Despite being so casual, it was clear that everything was done in warning.

“No, sir.” Kageyama didn’t know how to rectify this. Erigor might as well have been their god—and he could punish them as one too, just as he would punish the guildmasters that let them be cast aside. “I rode the shadows of the tracks.”

Erigor shrugged. “Whatever satisfies you. Anyway.” He held out his hand expectantly. “The flute.”

Kageyama hung his head in defeat. This was it. For a moment, he desperately tried to consider what would get him out of this unscathed but— No. Erigor was not so easily defied. Besides, he failed. He had failed his guild and he should pay the price for it.

“I don’t have it,” he confessed.

The air stilled.

“It was— It was flies!” he continued, confession pouring out. They had to get it back. “There was one on the train, and we fought. Then there was more of them. Four of them, to be precise. They took the Lullaby and headed back west. I couldn’t stop them. But their guard is lowered now; it’s in the pink one’s bag, I can still—”

“I see.”

Those were the last words Kageyama heard before a blade of wind whistled by his head, straight to his ear. He didn’t even have time to appreciate that Erigor gave him a quick death, because he was gone before he hit the ground.

Chapter Text

“I wanna be there for you,
Someone you can come to…”

—Flyleaf, “There For You”

For the first time in Lucy’s teen-to-adult life, she cursed herself for wearing heels.

Why? Why did she think this would work? Because it happened to work on the first mission? Of course not! Never mind the fact that Lucy’s (wonderfully toned) calves were much more used to walking in heels than anything else, and her shoe collection tended to revolve around them unwittingly—this was a job. Er, adventure?

They were walking.

They were going to walk for forever, and Lucy had regrets.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t the shoes. (“I’m sorry my babies,” she whispered to them in apology.) It was just everything. She actually didn’t mind walking, although at this pace and this length, in the open plains and low foothills and under the oppressive July sun, she would surely change her mind soon. No, Lucy decided, it was definitely the atmosphere.

Silence.

Lucy was not a stranger to silence. Heck, she was the opposite of a stranger to it, because she lived so much of her life in it. But this silence was uncomfortable and wrong, because, well, it was wrong. It was true that she hadn’t known Natsu for long, but he had never been this quiet before, and it was unnerving.

It had been a long walk back from the Everlue job too, but Lucy didn’t notice because Happy and Natsu collectively talked her head off the whole time, telling her things about their family and Fairy Tail, and mundane stuff in between. They asked her stuff too, and she told them about her spirits. There had always been conversation. And even when the idle chatter was too much, she would prefer it to the sulking silence that everyone fell into, no matter how hard Erza tried to break it.

“There’s a forest trail to the side of Onibus,” Erza said, likely attempting to stir conversation once again. “We can camp there for the night.”

“What?” Gray responded. “Why?”

Oh, two words this time, and both questions; Erza was getting better results. (Except that Natsu still wasn’t talking.)

However, Lucy had more than a few words. “Camping?” she echoed. “I thought we had our stuff sent to a hotel in Onibus. I thought we were going to Onibus, and then back to Magnolia?”

Erza was completely unbothered by the concept of their stuff being elsewhere. “We’ll come back to retrieve it at a later date. For now, we should lay low, and keep the Lullaby away from large populations. Besides, if Eisenwald decides to give chase, we would be better prepared for it in open terrain.”

“Or we’ll be better prepared for an ambush,” Gray muttered beneath his breath. If Erza heard him, she ignored it.

“If we draw them out and deal with them, it will be all the better,” she continued. “And if Eisenwald does not pursue, then they had less resolve than I thought.”

Wow. Erza really didn’t hold anything back—she was shaming a whole group for the possibility that they wouldn’t try to kill them! Ha! (Why was Lucy here?)

Gray shrugged. “Fine.”

They fell back into silence.

Lucy was in a weird position. She knew what her position would be when Mirajane bribed her into coming, but Lucy had accepted anyway because she was a fool, so she had to deal with it. However, it meant that she—the new girl—had to somehow navigate tension that was literal years in the making. She barely knew them. Lucy met Erza today.

Not that Erza was the problem. In fact, Lucy guessed that Erza was actively trying to stop the tension, based on how she would try bringing up random things they saw on the side of the road, or mentioning similar jobs. The best she could get was a few grunts out of the boys. Lucy wondered if she should just start a conversation with Erza herself, but that would leave Gray and Natsu by themselves, which is what she promised Mirajane not to let happen. Not that Lucy was positive anything would happen. Though that cycled right back into ‘Lucy was new and had no idea what was going on,’ because what if they did start fighting? What if the silence was the fight? She didn’t know! Did it matter anyway?

Technically, it wasn’t her problem if they fought. Half of Fairy Tail fought. People didn’t always get along, so she was told. It was fine. Except… Except it wasn’t, because they were upset, and Natsu looked like a kicked puppy after his fight with Gray, and he looked like one right now. It just felt wrong. They weren’t happy like this. Gray kept trying to bury his fists farther into his coat and steal weird glances at Natsu, and Natsu spent the last few hours of walking studying the ground. It…didn’t really look like they hated each other from here. But something was definitely wrong. Or just off.

What on earth was Lucy supposed to do about it? Should she do anything about it? What could she do? She didn’t know how to deal with people! She knew how to deal with aristocrats and people who couldn’t leave her even if they wanted to because her father paid them. That, Lucy realized, was not quite the preparation she needed.

Though a good mage could improvise, right? Lucy just needed practice. (Why was she practicing with sad teenage boys? Right, because she promised Mirajane.) No. Not ‘practice.’ Not anything. Natsu, at least, was her friend, and it was her duty as a friend to see what was wrong.

…Right?

Before Lucy lost her resolve again, she finally fell back and matched Natsu’s stride. “Hey,” she started, as awkwardly as she knew she would. “Are…you okay?”

Natsu looked up from his reverie, startled. “What? Oh yeah. Yeah I’m fine,” he responded quickly. Too quickly.

She tried to convey her disbelief with her eyes. “Uh-huh. So. Want to talk about what’s bothering you?”

Judging by the look on his face, she might as well have asked him “where did you hide the body?” It was almost downright comical, like it was straight out of a book, except for the fact that her friend was panicking. “Never mind. It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me,” Lucy amended. She understood the need for privacy, really. Still… She wanted to help, somehow.

“I’m fine though,” he tried. “Really. Thanks, Lucy.”

Over his shoulder, Lucy caught Happy with a look akin to worry on his face. It was similar to how he looked when Natsu and Gray were fighting, back at the guild hall. Between Happy and Natsu’s own too-quick and too-enthusiastic answers, Lucy didn’t believe him.

Different strategy, then. “Hey Happy—can I talk to you for a second?”

“Huh? What is i—HEY!”

She yanked the cat to the side. “Thank you! It’ll just be a second.” There was really no avoiding Natsu’s range of hearing, but that wasn’t really the point. He knew she was concerned, and he will keep knowing it until it sank in. Regardless, she took Happy farther behind the group.

“Is Natsu okay?” she asked, hoping his friend would sell him out, because Lucy really didn’t want Natsu to be not-okay the whole time they were forced to go camping with a death flute. (Oh God, they were going camping with a death flute.)

Happy really was Natsu’s best friend-slash-brother-slash-whatever-they-called-themselves, because Happy gave the exact same bewildered expression as Natsu: wide eyes staring blankly, mouth slightly hanging open, and frozen body language. “Natsu is Natsu.”

Lucy resisted the urge to shake the cat like a ragdoll. “I know that. But he’s upset, isn’t he? I— I just want to help.”

And she really did. Bribes from Mirajane aside, Lucy wanted a friend. If she was being honest with herself, then Lucy would readily admit that one of the reasons she wanted to join a guild—and not become an author, or a reporter, or anything of that variety—was because Lucy was enamored by the concept of having peers that she could be herself around. Not a Heartfilia, not an heiress, not even a coworker, or a celebrity—just Lucy. She never expected it to work out so fast, but dare she say, Natsu had befriended her. She had assumed that Natsu was just like that with everybody, but this trip proved that that wasn’t the case. He was actually fairly withdrawn. Lucy knew what that was like, and she didn’t want to ignore it happening to someone else. Besides, Lucy wanted to be a good friend herself.

Happy looked at Natsu’s back. “Um… I don’t know,” he admitted. If it was an admission at all; it very well could have been a desperate dodge on his part.

She shouldn’t have expected more from this, if Natsu wasn’t telling anybody. “I’m sorry, Happy,” she sighed. Lucy dragged him away for nothing. “I’m just worried.”

“Yeah…” Happy’s tail drooped some more. “I am too.”

—o0o—

Damnit. Natsu didn’t mean to make the others worry. He just didn’t have the chance to talk it out with Happy, since they were all together—though he didn’t expect to worry Lucy too. He didn’t think it was that noticeable. Or that bad.

He was just thinking. That was all. He would rather not be, but there wasn’t much else he could do. It’s not like the others would know any more about it than he did; in fact, they knew less, and Natsu really didn’t want to have to explain stuff if he didn’t have to. Especially about Zeref. He knew that they thought Zeref was long dead and purely evil, and that was…fine…because it really did look like that from the history books, and Zeref really did do some awful stuff, because he was cursed, and he wasn’t himself anymore.

Not that there was any reason to tell anybody anything. They would go back to Magnolia, and Natsu could talk with Acno, and Acno will know what to do about Lullaby. There wasn’t a problem right now. Nothing was wrong, nothing was in danger (right now). Natsu was just a little…lost.

He had come across Zeref’s stuff before. Hell, he probably has found more random items that Zeref used, or stuff his stupid cult made, than the average mage, because of those times he would get restless and go look for Zeref even though Natsu knew that Zeref wouldn’t show up that easy. All those fruitless trips did was remind him that Zeref’s magic was as scary as he remembered it, and that people who followed the image they made of him really sucked. Well. It also succeeding in worrying other people…

“Natsu, please. Don’t keep throwing yourself at every piece of dark magic you can possibly find. Or cultists.”

“But I can handle— OW!”

The thirteen-year-old winced as Acnologia gripped his forearm. There wasn’t even anything wrong with it! So he thought. Yeah, okay, Acno wasn’t even holding it hard, it was just bruised.

Without saying anything else, Acno resumed the healing magic over his arm. Natsu glared into the floor. It’s not like it was a big deal anyway. He beat them. Not that he had anything to show for it. They were just dumb, clueless strangers.

Acno finished whatever he was doing to his arm, and it did feel a lot better now, but Natsu still didn’t think it had been that bad.

“Natsu,” Acnologia finally continued. “I know what you’re trying to do.”

At this, Natsu snuck a look back at Acno. He had that serious, slightly crinkled gaze that reminded him of Igneel whenever Igneel was worried. Maybe it was the dragon eyes that made it similar.

“If Zeref doesn’t want to be found, he won’t be. All your poking around is going to accomplish is throwing yourself into dangerous situations.”

“But Zeref—”

“Is out there, yes. Likely not on this continent, if I’m being honest. But finding him isn’t your responsibility. That’s on him. So are his artifacts, and his followers. Not yours. Just remember that, okay?”

Natsu knew that. Really. He wasn’t the one who made this stuff, and he didn’t make Zeref make it. (Not directly.) Still, Natsu was older now, and he was stronger, and he knew about Zeref more than normal people, and he didn’t want his brother’s stuff to hurt people. Or for people to continue to find Zeref’s stuff and think that he was the incarnation of pure evil. Zeref was…crazy…sure, but it wasn’t like he was trying to destroy the world all the time. Besides, if he was, he wouldn’t be hiding and doing nothing.

Dealing with Zeref’s stuff wasn’t new to him. It really wasn’t. Natsu knew not to touch things if they were active, and to find out what it did when at all possible, and to make sure that nothing caused death magic to splatter everywhere, because even if Natsu was resistant, nobody was ever immune.

However, Natsu had never seen another etherious before.

He had heard many stories of them. Tales of the ‘demons of the book of Zeref’ terrifying the world, whether it was centuries ago when they rampaged in unison, or even in recent times, when one would break out of stasis and burn down a city. Natsu had no idea what to make of it. Human history wasn’t exactly kind to demons, and especially not to anything related to Zeref. Sure, some of that stuff did happen—Acno was there, and even Anna knew some—but Natsu knew that other stuff was… What was the word? Right. Embellished.

But Natsu had no idea why Zeref made other etherious in the first place. To help him? To practice? Because he was bored? Because he did want an army? Not that he seemed to stick around everybody afterwards. (Though Natsu might be the exception to that.) Were other etherious like Natsu? Or were they more like magic blobs? Either way, they were alive, and that counted for something, right?

He resisted the urge to look at the flute again, because that would be obvious. It wasn’t a book. Natsu thought that all etherious had a book, because that’s where the script was, but Zeref was smart so maybe he could do it other ways just as easily. Maybe the flute was just something else that Lullaby was linked to. Natsu didn’t know what an etherious book (or whatever body linked object) smelled like anyway. He wasn’t even sure what other etherious smelled like, other than that etherious was like magic but it was ethernano and bane particles at the same time, like a demon, but instead of being mixed in blood, they were just mixed together by themselves to make a fake-blood that was magic. To that extent, Natsu was pretty sure that he was different even from other etherious, because he was still organic. (Was he more demon than etherious then? He knew it was more complicated than that, but Acno could only explain so much before Natsu had no idea what he was talking about.)

Natsu did know what death smelled like, and what Zeref smelled like. It was the first thing he gathered from Lullaby, which made sense, because the scent of death was one of the strongest scents there was. Magic was strong too, and it was there, but Natsu didn’t immediately gather it was different (every type of magic smelled different anyway) until he smelled life too. People smelled different from objects, because objects didn’t change. (Not in the same way, at least.) Death had a scent, and so did life, and the flute had both. Coupled with the weird magic that almost smelled like ethernano but off, somehow… Well, Natsu had a feeling that he couldn’t shake.

Acno would know for sure. Until then, Natsu just had to make sure that nothing happened to the flute, because if he was right, then Lullaby would die. (That, or Zeref’s magic would leak from the flute, and kill everything else.) Honestly, Lullaby being an etherious made more sense than whatever story about Lullaby existed. Lucy knew it better than him, but Natsu heard it before too, and it didn’t make sense. Zeref already could kill people around him, and that was the problem; why would he make something to do the same thing? (Although Zeref did a lot of things that didn’t make sense, because he was crazy now.)

He heard his name, and he startled back to the present. Lucy and Happy were still back there talking, and they were still worried. Shit. He needed to let them know that he was fine, because there wasn’t anything wrong with him—Natsu was just a little confused and worried himself, that was all. There was no need for them to worry too. In fact, everything would be fine anyway, because Acno would know what to do.

Natsu would tell Happy his theory, but it wasn’t exactly one that he could share aloud without freaking people out more. Lucy seemed like she was very understanding, but she was also scared of Lullaby right now, so Natsu didn’t want to make it worse. He liked her company, and he didn’t want her to leave.

He shook himself from his thoughts and fell back to where Lucy and Happy were. Natsu noticed that they were started to enter a forest area and leave the scrubland behind. Wait, weren’t they going back to Onibus? The forest was west of that, towards the mountains by Crocus. Huh. Well, Erza wasn’t Laxus or Wendy, so she must know what she’s doing. If they were going to walk back to Magnolia, that was fine by him.

“Natsu!” Lucy greeted. “You’re back!”

“Uh, I was never gone?”

Although if they were at the forest already, maybe he did space out longer than he thought. Judging by the way Happy was staring at him, he probably did. “Sorry. Just got stuff on my mind. I didn’t mean to worry you,” he apologized. It was actually a little weird. Natsu didn’t remember the last time somebody who didn’t already know about this stuff asked him personal questions like this. Maybe he should try to tell Lucy one day, if she wanted to know.

“That’s okay,” Lucy said. “I was just starting to worry if the Lullaby was affecting you, somehow.”

“No, it’s not doing anything. Besides, I’m pretty resistant to black arts anyway.” He would feel it if it was doing something. Sometimes, Zeref’s stuff did leak or do funky things, but Lullaby was dormant, if Natsu had to guess. (Did dormant etherious sleep in their book? Or flute? Or was he somewhere not using magic?)

“Yep. Natsu’s stubborn like that,” Happy added.

Natsu chuckled with a small roll of his eyes. It was mostly Igneel’s scarf and his etherious nature, but he was pretty stubborn too. Like hell he would ever let some magic stop him!

“I don’t think that’s how that works…” Lucy muttered.

“Sure it is!” Natsu laughed. Though Lucy still didn’t seem to believe him, at least she was fighting a smile, so she was feeling better now.

“Let’s peel off the path now and find a place to set up camp!” Erza called from up ahead.

“Wait, we’re camping? I thought you guys would have wanted to stay in Onibus?” Natsu didn’t mind camping himself—especially in the summer—but Lucy didn’t strike him as the type. He wasn’t sure about Erza or Gray.

Lucy gave an exasperated look. “I did,” she whined. “But Erza said something about ‘laying low’ and ‘being prepared’ or something.” She squinted at him. “You really weren’t paying attention, huh?”

“Nope. But I know now.” He certainly wasn’t complaining—though he did feel bad for Lucy.

Natsu looked around the forest. Mostly pine trees and other fragile soft woods at this part, so no tree sleeping. Shame. It was the weather for it, too. There hadn’t been rain for a while, so everything smelled dry, other than the faint smell of mud from somewhere else—probably a little creek nearby. Natsu watched a squirrel jump from one tree to another and meet up with his friend, just to scurry out of sight again. The forest was pretty scarce, unlike the thick forests of Magnolia or the cave. There were lots of mosquitos, though—so a really slow creek, then.

“Here’s a good spot,” Erza decided, coming up to a small clearing, underneath a big conifer that took up a lot of branch space. Cubellios would really like that tree; he wondered if there were more snakes in it with the squirrels.

It was flat and shaded (though that didn’t matter with the sun starting to set) so it was nice. “Okay.” Natsu took off his backpack and plopped it on the ground.

“Now we just need to set…up.” Erza stared into an empty spot in the air.

“What’s wrong?” Gray questioned. Oh right. Gray was here too. That dampened the camping mood a bit.

“My luggage was sent to the hotel, so I don’t have it,” she replied, still staring. “That was merely an oversight on my part.”

“You thought you had all that with you the whole time?!” Lucy and Gray exclaimed nearly simultaneously.

“It’s not like we need much anyway,” Natsu commented with a shrug. Camping was simple. (It only got complicated when it was raining, really.) “Just food, water, and a place to sleep. Oh, and fire, for you guys.”

Lucy sighed loudly. “I have to sleep on the ground, don’t I?” she whimpered, staring down despondently. It was honestly hilarious, because the ground didn’t hurt. It was just the ground. But also apparently normal people couldn’t sleep in just any position? Levy would say something to that effect whenever she made fun of Gajeel for sleeping on the hardest thing imaginable. (The ground was pretty hard, but he also once saw Gajeel sleep on a metal beam, so that’s probably what Levy meant.)

“I can’t believe Natsu’s the only one prepared,” Gray commented, some odd tone in his voice. Awe? No, probably disbelief.

“Hey, I’m prepared for things!” he shot back. Why did everyone always think that Natsu couldn’t do things? He was capable of doing things and being prepared! He did that all of the time! Maybe he was worse at it when he was younger, but he got better!

Whatever, he could go ahead and set up. Natsu picked a spot no one else was standing, and briefly summoning his throat fire in a partial way, he circled the spot and torched the dirt-covered ground. (Did somebody yelp?) There! Perfect. As he laid down his sleeping bag, he looked up to see Lucy and Gray staring at him, though Gray found something else to look at as soon as they made eye contact. “What?”

He looked at Happy, who only shrugged, as confused as he was. Did he do something?

“Why’d you do that?” Lucy almost shrieked, though it came out in more of a nervous chuckle.

“What? The fire?” he asked, still confused. Why wouldn’t he? Or was this another normal people thing? Not that any mage could ever be the same.

“Yes of course the fire!”

“Softens the ground,” he explained. The ground wasn’t bad, but he wasn’t Gajeel.

“Ohhh. That’s brilliant! It loosens the dirt, doesn’t it?” She reached over and poked the ground, only to pull her finger back quickly with a yelp when it was still hot. “Wait, how is your sleeping bag not on fire?!”

“Oh, it’s fireproof.” He already went through a few before figuring out that a magic sleeping bag would fare better.

“Could you do that for me?” Lucy asked quickly. When he blinked at her questioningly, because he didn’t know if she meant the ground or a fireproof sleeping bag, she cleared her throat awkwardly and elaborated. “Torch the ground, I mean. If I have to sleep on it, it can at least be soft, right? I’m hoping if you do it now, then it’ll be cool by the time I need to sleep…”

“Sure thing Lucy!” That was easy. Although it sucked that she would need to wait… Maybe Gray could cool it down for her? If he was willing to do that, but Natsu didn’t know. Not that Lucy really wanted to sleep on the ground anyway…

Even though Natsu usually slept on his pack or hammock, he was used to sleeping on the ground too. Sometimes, it was too much work to set anything up and he just wanted to sleep. So he was used to it, and he didn’t mind. It wasn’t that much different anyway. “Hey Lucy,” he started, turning back to her. “How ‘bout you take my bag? I don’t need it.”

“R-really?” Lucy regarded him with the same expression that Rogue gave when his frog limit was extended to twenty. “Thank you!” She hugged him tightly then released just as quickly, squealing while she did it.

Natsu was glad that she was happier now. He looked around for a new spot, thinking that he would grab a bite to eat then go ahead and sleep, when he spotted Erza.

Now, Erza was staring at him. Did she want a fire scorched spot too? “Fire!” she exclaimed. “Natsu, help me go find firewood!”

“Huh? ACK!” Before he knew it, Erza was yanking him off into the woods, away from their newly found camping spot. Okay, he guessed he was getting firewood now. It was actually strange, because Natsu himself didn’t need a fire, and his body was warm enough that dogpiling him was generally his siblings’ go-to method of getting warmer, although dragon slayers were sort of like dragons in the sense that their body temperatures could adapt to things better, though being cold sucked still.

Of course, he has built fires before, because it was a good snack, so Natsu wasn’t clueless. He knew what kind of sticks gave which flavor. Though he guessed that they wanted a warmth-fire, so a normal one. (Did Gray even need it? He had no idea, but Erza was the one who asked, so it didn’t matter.)

He picked some dry branches off the ground, avoiding the ones that smelled rotten or too fresh (even though pine fire was pretty tasty). Good thing it didn’t rain recently, or this would take forever. They could finish in no time at this rate.

“So um, Natsu.” He looked up when Erza cleared her throat, coming back to where he was with her own armful. “How are you?”

“Uh.” What kind of question was that? Did everyone think that he was going to get mind zapped by Lullaby or something?! He still had that jerk’s satchel around his shoulder, and Lullaby still hasn’t done anything, anyway. “I’m good?”

“That’s good.”

They blinked at each other. Was Erza okay? She looked odd. Mostly because she was mimicking a fish, and not yelling or being Erza, so it was different. Not that Erza was always scary. She was pretty cool when she wasn’t yelling (at him), but she could also talk about a lot of rules that Natsu didn’t know about, and sometimes that was intimidating too.

They continued to find a few more sticks. (He wanted the fire at least a little big so he could eat it, because now he was thinking about it.) Natsu figured that Erza was done with what she was saying, but then she stopped again. “Are you afraid of ice?” she blurted.

Natsu looked up so fast he dropped everything he was carrying. “Who told you that?” he blurted in turn. He wasn’t scared of ice! Ice was normal. Ice was everywhere. It was only inside of ice that things got…bad.

Okay, maybe he was a little scared. But he could melt ice now, so it was fine. Not that anyone had tried to freeze him again, so he didn’t know how effective it would be, but fire melted ice really well and freezing tended to take time— Except it spread really fast. It only took time to… work.

Shit. He was thinking about it again.

“I’m not scared of ice,” he continued, realizing that he didn’t need to worry about the validity of the statement because this was Erza, not Erik or Acno. Besides, he was pretty sure that he wasn’t. Ice by itself was nothing. And ice was similar to snow, and snow was fun. Soft, a little cold, and very meltable. He didn’t even feel it as a fire dragon slayer!

“Nobody told me anything,” Erza replied, looking at him funny. “Lucy just pointed out that ice and fire were fated opposites. It just got me thinking, that’s all.”

“Well I’m not.”

Could this conversation be over now?

She narrowed her eyes. Oh no. She didn’t believe him. Or… or he was just kidding himself. It was so close. Ice, in its pure, tall, and magic form, always reminded him of it, no matter how hard he tried not to be. Natsu wasn’t an idiot. He knew that there was only one dragon out there responsible, and that that dragon was probably dead. It wasn’t anybody’s fault anymore. Magic was magic, and people could use it for both good and bad, and it had nothing to do with the magic itself but— But it was stupid. It always made him remember.

“I was just—”

“I’m scared of getting frozen.”

Natsu blurted it before he knew what he was doing. It wasn’t like it was a dangerous secret or anything, because he trusted Erza. (She knew about dragon slayers, after all, even if she didn’t know about the past stuff.) It was just his personal problem—that was all. And the pressure brought it forward.

It wasn’t really something that he admitted before, but he knew it, and his family knew it. It just never needed to be said, and he was able to avoid it that way. But Acno said that things were easier to deal with when you were honest with it, so maybe he was right. Natsu always wanted to be honest, but sometimes it was hard—it was either dangerous, or he had no idea what the truth really was.

“Oh Natsu, I’m sorry.” Erza dropped her sticks and approached him, hugging him tightly. She was strong, and strong people gave the best hugs. It was certainly better than all the times that Erza banged his head into her breastplate. “I didn’t mean to force it out of you. I’m really sorry. I— I was just worried. And I guess it wasn’t unfounded either… I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t do anything,” Natsu mumbled. He didn’t mean to make her worry. He was just really good at that, he guessed.

“But I did,” she insisted, pulling back. “I understand though.”

“Understand what?”

“About… About your situation.”

Huh? What did she mean by that? “It’s a really stupid fear though.” Only he was misfortunate enough to experience that, and then he was still upset about it when it was over. He knew that stuff like that was normal, but it was so rare, it would probably never happen again.

Unless Gray got really pissed at him. Which he could.

“If it is, then mine is stupid too,” Erza continued, looking down. “I don’t like small spaces. Even if I’m not trapped, I feel like it. So the idea of getting frozen… That does sound pretty awful.”

“Oh.” That made sense. He didn’t think Erza was afraid of anything though. She never showed it. “That does suck.”

“Yeah.”

They stood there for a moment, sticks still on the ground. Erza’s non-scary side was nice. Maybe this trip could be fun after all. Besides, if Erza knew, maybe she would understand why Natsu didn’t like fighting Gray (even though his face was very punchable) and she wouldn’t get as mad when it happened. That would be nice.

“Okay. Good talk.” Erza gathered up her sticks again, and Natsu did the same. They just needed to go back, start the fire, and then maybe Natsu would eat something before sleeping. Wait. Did Lucy and the others have food if all their luggage was gone? Maybe he should try to catch something on the way back. He was banned from the kitchen back at home, but campfires were still available for use.

Though it would be harder to cook in this wind… Did Erza or Lucy know how to cook? They would be better at it than he was anyway, unless they also liked stuff extra crispy.

“Natsu, do you feel that?”

He looked back at Erza, who went still, glaring out into the forest.

“What, the wind?” It was a little surprising considering the weather but… He stopped and sniffed it. Oh. “Magic wind.” It wasn’t anybody’s he knew either, which meant it was somebody new. Likely close by. Judging by Erza’s reaction, she had an idea, and it wasn’t a good one.

Erza dropped her bundle once more, summoning a sword into her hand. “Erigor.”

Chapter Text

“Every inhale I take, swallows the ocean whole, and I am one
With the hurricane, tall as the tide that laps with a rabid tongue
With every exhale, I break you down with a fury, I lay the hills undone…”

—The Oh Hellos, “Notos”

This excursion didn’t happen at all like Gray thought it would. For one, it was too smooth and too quick to be like any other Fairy Tail attempt at doing good; he also didn’t expect for Natsu to do the heavy lifting—on a train, no less.

Not that that was a bad thing. The flute was out of malevolent hands, and that was what was important. Gray wouldn’t nitpick how it was done. Though he had wanted to fight a little more, so maybe he was still disappointed on that front. It had been a while since he did anything with Erza with her not yelling at him for losing his shirt. (He looked down at his torso briefly; yep, it was still on.)

Granted, even his desire for action didn’t equate to wanting to be out in the open as bait like this. Well, off to the side a little, but not by much. If they built a campfire like Erza wanted, then they really would be sitting ducks. It looked like Gray would be up all night, just in case. That was fine. He was used to it.

There was also just the flute itself. Any cursed item from Zeref brought nothing but trouble, and the sooner it was destroyed, the better. Hell, he would have gladly done it himself, but he begrudgingly understood the need to be careful. There had to be a way, however; if re-sealing it was the only option, then what was to stop this mess from happening again? Not to mention that the damned flute was already causing problems. Natsu was weird by default, but for him to be this spaced-out and quiet was extra weird and unnerving. Carrying that thing was going to give him brain damage.

Well, somebody had to carry it, but surely Erza had a higher resistance against shit like that? Or was there something they could have done to mitigate its effects? Admittedly, Gray hardly noticed anything when they were looking at it, other than a general creepiness, and he was well familiar with Zeref’s form of dark magic. That shit was nothing but dangerous. For that matter, he had no idea why Natsu still had it all, because he was the most likely to randomly combust and set things on fire out of all of them. Not that he has or anything. But he was acting weird, and it worried Gray for reasons he couldn’t quite place.

“Um.” Lucy cleared her throat awkwardly, looking from Happy to Gray like everybody had a better sense of what to do than she did. “Is this the part where we gather food? Or is there something else I’m missing?”

Right. Food. Normally, if Gray was in this kind of situation—without an inn, on the way home—he would just skip out. However, if there was a potential of a fight, then it would be best to go in prepared. Mages had a high metabolism, after all, and this wasn’t the kind of situation to go half-cocked into.

“Yeah, probably,” he responded with a shrug.

“Oh!” Happy hovered excitedly. “We could go fishing!”

“Is there a river or something even near here?” Gray asked. Fishing wasn’t a bad idea, but all Gray saw was forest, and the area was pretty dry. If there was something, it wouldn’t be large enough or close enough.

“I don’t know…” Happy’s wings drooped, before they ‘poofed’ away and he landed on the ground. Gray sometimes forgot that the wings were only magic; they were so solid, too. He also forgot that the odd cat creature was hatched from an egg inside of the guild hall only a few years ago, and despite just existing alongside the guild, Natsu, and the other dragon-themed bunch, he was still just a child. (Maybe. Did talking animals age the same way?) Though he certainly looked the part as he pouted in disappointment over the lack of fishing prospects.

“We could pick…berries?” Lucy suggested hopefully.

“Sure, there might be blackberries or something somewhere. Did you…see any coming in?”

Lucy rubbed her arm. “No…”

Gray stifled a sigh. He didn’t mean to be the bearer of bad news, but somebody had to be the logical one. This wasn’t the situation to go on a wild goose hunt for anything. And on the off chance they did find wild blackberries, would there even be enough of them for it to make a difference? It might be better to just sit down and rest to conserve energy in case they needed it. He needed to contribute, somehow. (Why were things harder in a group than it was when it was just him?) “Maybe we can catch some squirrels or something? There’s plenty of those around here,” he suggested, because he had to suggest something.

Though he wondered what was wrong with his idea when Lucy made a sour face at it. “Eat the…squirrels?” she repeated. “But… But they’re so cute!”

Oh. Gray couldn’t help but to laugh. “And they’re snack-sized. Not much different from fish.”

“But fish aren’t cute.”

“And fish taste better.”

He shook his head with a smile. How did Lucy and Happy manage to agree on something for completely different reasons? Regardless, their simple aspirations were amusing. “Well, it’s that or no food.”

Lucy looked up to the trees, tracking a squirrel with her gaze, while her expression morphed through the stages of grief in rapid succession but out of order.

“Oh!” Happy exclaimed. “I almost forgot! We brought food.”

“Really?” Lucy squealed hopefully. “You did?”

Once again, Gray couldn’t help but be surprised. He wasn’t sure why, but the idea of Natsu and Happy being so prepared was baffling. Maybe because they were always so reckless—Natsu especially. At least, that’s how Natsu was as a kid. And what he seemed to be now, with reports about his collateral damage, and about how he said things without thinking. Though Gray was forced to admit that he underestimated Natsu is more ways than one, and that it was possible that his perception of him was wrong too. (Not that wrong, because there was still evidence that he was a flame-headed idiot, but maybe not as much of one as Gray thought.)

The revelation shouldn’t bother him. They all grew up. Gray did too. He and Natsu weren’t even friends, nor were they ever. They were guildmates who were about the same age, and that counted for something, but it wasn’t much. Maybe that’s why Erza dragged them both out here—to make them shut up and realize that they weren’t kids anymore, and that they could go their separate paths and be mature about things, like guildmates should. Sure, Fairy Tail wouldn’t be Fairy Tail if they sometimes didn’t let loose around each other and duke out their grievances and release some steam, but that didn’t mean they had to actively be jerks. Maybe… Maybe Gray was taking some things out on Natsu that he shouldn’t have. Lucy’s teasing comment had grossly oversimplified things, but it was…true…that Gray didn’t have the fondest memories of fire. Natsu being so haphazard with it left an ashen taste in his mouth. However, Natsu didn’t do anything to Gray, besides be a mild nuisance, but who in Fairy Tail wasn’t weird? Gray was probably just being petulant over the matter without even realizing it.

“So we have jerky, carrots, oranges… Jerky,” Happy rattled off while he opened his bag with a tap of his chin. “Natsu has some of it in its bag over there, but I normally carry the food so it doesn’t get burned. Natsu overcooks his food, you know. It’s why he’s the worst cook. The only person who’ll eat his cooking besides Natsu is Rogue, and that’s just because Rogue likes the taste of charcoal.”

“He likes the taste of what?” Lucy questioned, but Happy didn’t say anything else to that matter. Gray noticed that Natsu’s pack was here at the camp, but the stolen bag with the Lullaby wasn’t, meaning it was still with Natsu. Well, they were just picking up sticks, and Erza did drag him off in a hurry.

“Natsu’s jerky is really spicy though,” Happy continued. “But the other stuff is normal. I should have some…” Suddenly, Happy paused, looking blankly into his bag. “I forgot.”

“Forgot what?” Lucy asked, concern growing. “Please tell me you didn’t forget the food!”

Happy shook his head. “No, I forgot this. Lucy, this is for you.” The cat reached into the bag and pulled out what could only be described as a key, handing it to Lucy like it was an orange.

Lucy had a very different reaction. Her eyes nearly bulged out of her head as she plucked it up and inspected it with awe and trepidation alike. It was a gold, stylized key with some sort of symbol at the top. Huh. It looked like some of Lucy’s other keys. That was how her magic worked, wasn’t it?

“This is—” she stuttered. “This is a gold key. Wait. Is this Virgo’s key?!” She nearly shook Happy in her questioning. “Pleaaase don’t tell me you stole this from Everlue!”

But Happy shook his head again. “No, she found us at our house and asked for you. She said her contract with Everlue was broken, and she wants one with you,” he said.

Keys, celestial spirits, contracts… Gray didn’t know much about the magic, other than that it relied on certain types of keys that celestial spirit mages collected and bonded with, but the idea of a spirit roaming around and requesting a mage was bizarre and not at all what Gray expected. Maybe he was biased, but he assumed the magic was loose and maybe elemental, just different by key, like keys were just the basis of a spell.

Though maybe this situation was actually strange, because Lucy still appeared dumbfounded. “That…came to your house…?” Lucy muttered. “And she…asked for…me?”

Happy nodded. “Aye.”

“Wait… You had that on you the whole time?! For how long? And you didn’t tell me?!”

“…I forgot. I guess Natsu did, too.”

Lucy sighed, deep and exasperated. Gray didn’t blame her. It seemed like a big thing to forget.

She turned the key over in her hand, studying it, before gripping it by the hilt somewhat uncertainly. “I guess I’ve kept her waiting, huh? Do you guys mind if I go ahead?”

“Fine by me,” Gray replied with a shrug, though he didn’t really know what Lucy needed to do. Activate it or something? He was curious, actually, so he took a step back and watched.

“I am the person who connects the road to the celestial spirit world,” she said, hand outstretched with the key. He realized it was more of a chant when the key began to glow softly. “Thou shalt respond to the calling and pass through the gate. Open! The door of the virgin, Virgo!”

With a flash of light from the key, and a poof of wind, a person appeared. It was a pink-haired girl dressed as a maid, and if Gray hadn’t seen Lucy summon her, he never would have guessed that she wasn’t human.

“Eh?” Lucy squeaked, hand still outstretched.

Well, if Lucy was surprised too, then maybe her appearance was abnormal too. Not that Gray really knew what he was expecting.

The maid-spirit-girl gave a short bow. “How may I help you, mistress?”

“Y-your appearance…” Lucy said, failing to articulate. “But— You… You’re Virgo?”

“I am,” she replied coolly. “I am a loyal celestial spirit of my owner. I can work in whatever appearance you’d like me to.”

“Everlue… wanted…” Lucy shivered.

Without missing a beat, the spirit—Virgo—asked, “Would you prefer—?”

“NO!” Lucy certainly had more of an idea of what Virgo was referring to then he did. “No. This is fine. Thank you.”

“As you wish, mistress.”

“Wait, don’t call me mistress.”

“Then, how about ‘your highness’?”

Lucy made a face. “No.”

“How about ‘princess’?”

Did… Did this happen with every spirit, or was this another product of this being some odd case? Still, when Gray thought about ‘forming a contract,’ he expected something…different. More formal, maybe—especially with how the ordeal started. Then again, who was he to judge? He would never use this kind of magic anyway. Sure, it was always useful to learn more about other types, but he was content with ice-make magic.

“…that sounds fine.”

Or maybe Lucy was also just being herself. Everybody had their quirks after all. Heh, a quirky spirit for a quirky mage; it was fitting for Fairy Tail, alright.

Gray left them to it. After the weird name thing, they started talking about days that were good and days that weren’t, which was strangely sensible for a magic summoning system. Was this just like a celestial spirit’s day job? He wondered what they got out of it, because he doubted it was money.

Happy was also watching them with mild interest, though he seemed more intent on the jerky he was eating. Without saying anything, the cat handed him a piece from the bag. He accepted in kind—without a word, but with a nod of appreciation—and continued on his way. Not that he was going anywhere. There was no point in leaving the camp, especially when Erza was likely under the assumption that they would stay. Not that Gray would leave Lucy and Happy alone in case Eisenwald did come for them. Gray was sure that they (Lucy at least) could hold their own in a fight, but it was hard to gauge the strength of an entire guild. Though there was a chance that they would never come; it was just that in Gray’s experience, if things could go wrong, they did. It was always better to plan for it ahead of time.

“—need some sort of schedule.”

“As I said, princess, I can be on call anytime you wish.”

“But don’t you need a break?”

“Not really.”

Gray listened idly as Lucy tried to convince Virgo to at least take one or two days off so that the contract was legitimate and not just ‘whenever’ (a concept that seemed to baffle Lucy greatly) as he had his light dinner of a strip of jerky and half an orange. The jerky wasn’t a bad idea either. It actually tasted like fish, and because it was dried, it would keep in any condition. Gray normally didn’t go to areas that would require extensive camping for his jobs, but this seemed to be an easy contingency in case travel between towns turned out to be longer than expected. Though Gray still thought that carrying a sleeping pack around on every job was excessive, even if it turned out apt in this case.

How long did it take to gather firewood anyway? There were trees everywhere, so surely, there were plenty of branches lying around. Did they even need a fire? Gray normally went without. He lived on the coldest mountain imaginable, once, so any cold that this region of Fiore threw at him was nothing in comparison. Besides, it was summer, and it really didn’t seem necessary. Sure, nights got a little chilly, but it wasn’t anything severe. Unless he was just desensitized to it because of his training? Whatever. They could build a fire if they wanted, but with the wind picking up like it was, that was sure to be difficult.

Wait. Something wasn’t right.

Camping might not have been Gray’s specialty, but fighting was. It was like the principle of make-magic itself: be prepared to do anything, and be prepared for anything. Everything was possible. So when the wind gust tore towards their camp with accuracy not found in nature, Gray was able to react accordingly.

He slammed his fist into his palm, and an ice wall took the impact of the wind. Mostly. It began to crack under the strain, and Gray had to replace it with more magic before it broke. “Lucy! Happy!” he warned. “Get ready!”

Gray didn’t know how they fought, but at this rate, they were going to have to.

—o0o—

Lucy finally managed to convince Virgo to take Sunday off—because a spirit with no set summoning limits was absurd and a little worrying—when they were attacked. Lucy had been hoping, really hoping, that they wouldn’t be attacked. Now Lucy could say for certain that no matter her childhood nickname, ‘luck’ certainly wasn’t part of her magical abilities.

She shrieked just a little when Gray constructed a giant ice wall (wait, when did he take his shirt off?) and it subsequently started to crack from what sounded like an angry, roaring wind.

“I can help, princess,” Virgo announced, and suddenly, the celestial spirit was swan-diving into the ground, a tunnel in her wake. Honestly, Lucy had no idea how that would help, but when it came to fighting, she trusted that her spirits knew what they were doing.

She was just as useless now as she was in the last fight. Virgo was already summoned, and Lucy doubted she had the magic to summon anyone else after making a contract (that took so long to make). She thought that maybe she could hold her own in these kinds of situations, but she was starting to think that she just had false confidence in the matter. Looking back, Lucy realized that she hadn’t really been fighting during those fights—with Bora or Everlue—but instead running around and deflecting, or searching libraries, or whatever. She wasn’t suited for this kind of stuff. Which she told herself was fine, joining the guild, but now she just felt like dead weight.

Lucy wanted to help; however, the tunnel mouth made for great shelter when the wind split Gray’s wall wide open, sending ice shards everywhere. Or, did it? Did the ice dissolve back into magic? Lucy wasn’t sure if she wanted to get out of the hole to check.

“So, you’re the flies that stole from Eisenwald?” a voice intoned. “You shall be punished.”

“I will accept the punishment.”

“Huh?!”

Lucy valued her safety, of course, but she wasn’t so cowardly that she would hide while her spirit turned suicidal. It was part of her role to make sure that they don’t do that. First twenty-four summoning and now— oh holy pumpernickels, Virgo just launched herself out of the ground and kicked Erigor the Shinigami in the face.

In the few seconds that it took to stare in dumb amazement, Lucy realized several things. One, Erigor the Shinigami—the ‘god of assassinations’ himself—was attacking them, because the creepy tattoos and the frickin’ scythe could only mean that it was the famed criminal. Two, Virgo, who was a ground-based spirit, was the opposite of what she would have summoned if she had known they were fighting somebody with wind magic, though Virgo managed to make progress anyway. Three, Lucy was now standing out in the open while Erigor was constructing some sort of maelstrom around himself and the area. More importantly, she was out in the open in a place where she was completely unprepared to protect herself, much less fight back.

Maybe she should crawl back into the hole, where she was worthless but safe.

Delivering her kick, Virgo flew past him, though Erigor waved his scythe and attempted to make her pay for it. Lucy sucked in a scream as the dark guild mage attempted to cut Virgo in half, but somehow, the pink-haired spirit managed to twist out of the way and dive into the ground.

Wait. His wind wasn’t strong enough to break up the ground, was it? Maybe Virgo was the right choice after all.

“Lance!”

A spear of ice sailed toward the floating Shinigami. He didn’t even bat an eye; a sharp rush of wind wrapped around his body, obscuring him and shredding the ice-spear.

“Damnit!” Gray spat, and Lucy shared his sentiment.

“You flies think you can defy me?” he growled. “Return the Lullaby, and I’ll grant you a quick death.”

“Like hell we will!” Gray shouted, and an ice-hammer the size of Erigor came swinging at him from above. Gray was just like every other member of Fairy Tail she met so far: strong and bold. He was attacking a literal assassin and he wasn’t even batting an eye! Was this a Fairy Tail thing? Lucy wanted some of that fairy dust to rub off on her soon. (Or maybe not, because this was all very reckless.)

The hammer shattered on impact against the wind-armor, but the force was enough to move Erigor through the sky.

Toward Lucy.

Aw heck—! The wind-masked man locked onto her, spotting an easy target, and he dived. So fast! Lucy tried to jump out of the way, but her legs couldn’t outrun wind, and she was going to die like this, and— A force knocked her sideways, dragging her away from the path of the very sharp blade.

“Happy!” she realized with a cry. The cat grabbed her by the back of the shirt and flew her to safety, somehow faster than Erigor. She knew he could fly, but such speed! Lucy was winded from the gesture—the air in her lungs left behind—but she was very grateful.

“Brats!” Erigor spat, and he was forming some attack against them in retaliation.

Happy continued flying. “Hold on, Lucy!”

She shrieked as they changed their directory suddenly, trying to avoid the attack. Lucy wasn’t sure if they would avoid it, but a wall of ice took the hit for them instead.

For a second, it looked like they were going to survive this…then Erigor changed tactics. “Stormbringer,” he chanted, and then he made an entire tornado in the middle of the forest.

“wwaaAAAH!” Happy, though faster than Erigor, was not more durable, and he quickly started to lose momentum and get sucked into the force of nature that the mage summoned in the midst of them.

By some miracle, Lucy managed to grab onto Happy and a tree, hugging a large branch (that was reaaallly high up) with her free arm and her legs for dear life.

Not that she was sure it would last. Lucy could hear the trees groan, and branches began to crack off and get sucked into the maelstrom that Erigor created. What little existed of their camp was probably circling around the tornado too, so it was good that they didn’t actually have the flute with them, being that it was still with Natsu, and subsequently with Erza.

Wait! Where was Gray?! Did he get sucked in? Was he okay? What could Lucy do about—?

Crack.

The branch that was her salvation was now her doom, because it failed her (which meant she failed Happy) and now they were rocketing toward the tornado of death. Briefly, it occurred to Lucy that she could use her whip to grab onto something else, but there was a disconnect between her thoughts and her body, and all she managed was some more undignified screaming.

“I have you, princess.”

Before she got eaten by the tornado, the beautiful celestial spirit who Lucy totally completely remembered in the chaos grabbed her by the torso and yanked her downwards.

Virgo took them into a hole underground (Lucy was still holding onto Happy, thank goodness) and the wind didn’t follow them.

Gray was there too, and Lucy was relieved to see him in one piece. (Mostly. There was a shallow cut on his forearm.)

“Okay, we don’t have long,” Gray said. “Without any targets up there, and once he realizes we don’t have the Lullaby at the camp, he’s going to find a way to collapse the tunnels.”

Lucy flinched. Being buried alive did not sound good. At all. “Could he really do that?”

Gray shrugged. “I’m sure he could figure it out. We have air down here, so his wind can get to us if we’re not careful. Virgo.” He turned to the celestial spirit. “You said you can make tunnels anywhere, right?”

“Correct.”

“Can you aim one for the middle of his tornado? Dead center?”

After a merely a second’s thought, Virgo nodded, and opened up a small tunnel above them.

“Oh!” Lucy saw what Gray was doing. “Erigor is still hovering directly over it, right? You think you can surprise him?”

Gray shot her a confident grin in response, confirming her theory. That could just work! Except… Hadn’t Gray tried and failed to get his ice through that stupid wind armor before? Erigor was too attentive, and now that there was nobody up there to distract him…

Oh. Drat.

How come every plan she was a part of boiled down to ‘needing a distraction’?

Except it didn’t necessarily need to be a sexy blonde female distraction, sooo…. “Hey Virgo?” she asked. “Do you think you can last up there long enough to distract Erigor?”

“If I don’t, then you may punish me.”

“Wh-what? No, if you can’t last up there, then you can go home,” Lucy replied quickly, shocked at the idea that Virgo would think that she would do…that. Was Everlue that rough with her? A part of Lucy felt bad that she never considered the spirit’s situation while they were fighting. Regardless, Lucy vowed to make sure that she was well off in her care.

Wait, did Virgo look disappointed? Lucy couldn’t be sure, since she’s only just (properly) met Virgo, and she also jumped into the ground above immediately after.

“Here goes nothing,” Gray quipped, and he held a fist against his open palm and ice began to rise through one of the holes that Virgo created. Lucy saw Gray use his magic on the train, and during their fight with the shadow guy, but this was the first time she watched him do it on a larger scale. It was like how Gajeel created metal, except not at all. Gray concentrated and ice grew out of the air and towered through the hole, shaping itself—or rather, Gray was shaping it with his mind—into a needle, threaded with the growing pillar. Before becoming invested in the world of mages and guilds, she had been under the impression that anything above a parlor trick was considered above-average magic. And maybe it still was. Guilds seemed to be full of people like her, using magic for bigger purposes, but since coming to Fairy Tail and witnessing things close up, Lucy couldn’t help but wonder if she was simply…average.

They waited with bated breath. Not that Lucy was waiting for anything in particular, because she wasn’t doing anything. Well, Virgo was here on account of her magic, so she supposed that was as good of a contribution as any.

“You again?” Erigor spat from above, and Gray took that as his cue. The needle shot upwards, hopefully towards Erigor.

A lot of noises followed, and Lucy could only guess what they meant. More cracking noises, the ever-present whirring, some grunts and battle cries—one for Virgo, another for Erigor—and a high-pitched whistling followed by a thwack and another cry of disbelief.

The latter sounded like Erigor, so Lucy counted it as a good sign, because anything that was bad for him was good for them. Unfortunately, she felt the tug on her magic loosen, and that meant that Virgo’s gate closed, which was not a good sign. She looked to her sides to see what Happy and Gray thought, only to find that Gray was already climbing out of the other hole that Virgo made back to the surface.

“Let’s go,” Happy suggested, and Lucy didn’t argue. She wasn’t sure how she would help—she didn’t really have the magic for another summon so soon after Virgo—but she would also be lying if she said she didn’t want to see what was going on. That, and how could she leave Gray alone? (Not that he needed the help, but still.)

Happy helped her out of the hole, and Lucy somehow felt instant relief when she emerged, despite the battle very much going on.

The tornado was still there, but it was quickly losing strength—probably because Erigor was no longer hovering over it like some supreme tornado master, but instead, pinned to the large tree by a spear under his arm and through his cape.

Erigor made some motions with his free wrist, and the tornado dispersed entirely. Granted, the removal of the tornado was in favor of sending it forward as a death-torrent that cleaved trees in half as it flew. Luckily, that was in the direction that Lucy was not. Probably towards Erza, because who else could have nailed him with a spear of all things? If Erza and Natsu were back, then it didn’t matter what Erigor threw at them, because Lucy was sure that even the Shinigami was no match against everyone.

Chapter Text

“To the ground again
We turn that old wheel round again.

Well, even the great celestial hieroglyphs
Are bodies of dust illuminated, and if
The heavens can be both sacred and dust
Oh, maybe so can the rest of us.”

—The Oh Hellos, “Hieroglyphs”

Erza had only heard rumor of Erigor the Shinigami’s strength. The rumors painted a picture of an unstoppable force of evil; Erza had been faced with similar rumors over her years as a mage. Some were true, some were worse, and some simply fell flat.

She began to suspect that Erigor was the latter case.

The wind-blade he sent their way was problematic, but not impossible: she and Natsu simply ducked. The most that happened was a couple of trees threatening to land on them, but Erza cleaved one with her blade, and Natsu punched the other one in half with a flaming fist.

Still running, Erza made it into the wrecked clearing just as Erigor was wrapping himself in some layer of moving wind. She caught the flash of red at his side before it was covered, and she knew that she had struck him with her warning blow. Although, now that he was wrapped in wind, she wondered if he would simply heal himself.

It was likely that his reputation as unbeatable stemmed from the nature of his magic. Air and wind users were rare, so she had heard—nevermind the fact that Fairy Tail had three. Wendy and Acnologia could both heal, and Mystogan could disperse his entire body into the air; despite air seeming to be the weaker of the elements, she knew first-hand that its utility could be formidable.

However, Erza doubted his abilities were anything like Mystogan’s—who was a magic anomaly anyway—else he wouldn’t have been so easily wounded by her attack. Unless she truly caught him by surprise.

“So, it’s you,” Erigor surmised, “the Titania.”

Erza wasn’t in the mood for conversation—not after this fiend interrupted her and Natsu—but she wouldn’t deny him this. “I am.”

“Good. I’ve always wanted to cross blades with you,” he said with what she could only imagine was a cruel grin, as he brandished a scythe. It was a worn but well-kept weapon; it certainly wasn’t just for show.

No matter his capabilities, she would remain vigilant. Erza requiped a thin two-sided blade into her hand, studying his wind armor while readying a strike. Hands of ice wrapped around Erigor’s calves, yanking him downwards. Gray’s attack cracked under the swirling wind, but it held together long enough to pull Erigor back and knock him off balance. It gave Erza both an opening and a grasp of his armor’s strength.

She lunged forward, straight for Erigor. The wind was constantly moving, which made it effective armor against Gray’s attack, but if it moved, then there were places where the wind was not. Erza aimed for his right side, where she likely wounded him before. He still moved, which meant his joints were not as tightly wrapped as his chest.

Erigor had a quick eye, however. He saw her coming and thrust out his palm; a rush of wind knocked her backwards. Erza hit the ground with her heels and immediately took off again, this time aiming lower so she could get behind him. She used a burst of magic to speed up mid-air, switching her armor to something that allowed her better maneuverability, and she jabbed the sword upward into his armpit.

His scythe swept behind her, at her position, and blocked her blow. Keeping pressure on her right-hand sword to keep the scythe at bay, Erza summoned a second sword in her left and tried again. The rapier almost succeeded in piercing his back, but the wind snapped the blade in two.

He twisted his scythe and a burst of wind knocked her back once more. Erza took that moment to regroup. His wind armor broke her sword, but he also spent effort to block her attacks ahead of time; either he feared her as an opponent, or he was not trusting in the integrity of his armor. If it was the latter, then she would give him reason to believe the former.

Erza dismissed her first sword that didn’t break and requiped a larger claymore instead. Unfortunately, Erigor had his own new attack at the ready.

“Emera Baram!” he cried, crossing two fingers on each hand over each other in an ‘X’ pattern. She didn’t know exactly what the spell did, but anything that required specific hand movements tended to be both precise and strong.

The air pressure moved accordingly, and Erza held the claymore in front of her protectively, adjusting her stance as the air began to shove its inhabitants. Too late, Erza realized that she was not the direct target of his attack.

The spell had a large area of effect. She could hear Gray, Lucy, and Happy get thrown by the backwind, and she herself had to fight to stay on the ground, switching quickly to heavier armor. The main force of the attack spiraled towards Natsu.

“No!” Erza tried to intercede, but the wind was strong enough to impede her speed. Natsu could hold his own, of course, but if he was suddenly the target, then it was likely that Erigor figured out he was guarding the Lullaby. Natsu wouldn’t be able to use his magic to its fullest capability with that thing on him—something that didn’t matter as much in their previous fight but could be problematic now.

Fire spewed from his mouth, colliding with the torrent of wind. Natsu’s roar and Erigor’s emera baram fought for dominance in the middle, neither being immediately eradicated as the wind stirred and the fire continued to pour from his mouth.

Right. He didn’t even need his hands for magic—he was a dragon slayer. Natsu would be fine. Perhaps she should take the opportunity to engage Erigor from behind, while he was distracted with Natsu.

“What?!” Erigor sputtered. After the brief power struggle, the spells succeeded in cancelling each other out completely. “And from your mouth?!”

Natsu’s gaze swept the area behind Erigor, landing on Erza for a split-second before he glared up at Erigor. “Come down and fight me fair-and-square, or I’ll do it again,” he threatened, baring his sharp teeth with a smirk. Good. He was keeping him distracted; that would make this easier.

Erigor grunted in displeasure, choosing to remain mid-air rather than give in to Natsu’s taunt. He swung his arms, and blades of wind rolled off of them, coming for Natsu.

Natsu sidestepped one and punched the other. From her new vantage point, Erza couldn’t tell if he was injured or not in his collision with the wind—having coated his fist in fire, of course—but she knew that he was durable.

“You call that air magic?” Natsu teased. “My little sister can hit way harder than you!”

Whether it was his words or his subsequent fire attack, Erigor was successfully riled up. He was wide open.

Swiftly, Erza poised her claymore to strike and leapt, switching armor once more to favor speed. Under normal circumstances, the blow she prepared would be enough to slay a human foe, but his armor would likely absorb the fatality of it. If it didn’t, oh well. The assassin had surely earned himself such a fate when he decided to take innocent lives.

She swung the sword down on his back, and this time, she sent the man plummeting to the earth with a sharp cry, his elemental shield giving way to her blade and dissolving altogether on impact. Erza landed on top of him, aiming to weaken him further and knock the air from his lungs as well. She re-readied her sword, prepared for the inevitable attempt to counter her, and— Oh. He was no longer moving.

Erza nudged the assassin with her foot, and when he didn’t stir from that, she reached down and slapped him.

“What did you do that for?” Lucy gasped from behind.

“Oh good, you three are okay.” Erza smiled as she laid eyes on Lucy, Gray, and Happy. She figured they would be, but after everyone got knocked back, it was good to have confirmation.

“Yeah, we’re alive,” Lucy huffed, “and it’s not like I’m worried about that jerk or anything, but… why did you slap an unconscious dude?!”

“To make sure he was unconscious,” she explained simply. Erza would have thought that that was obvious—if he was faking it, then it would be hard to fake it under duress—but Lucy was new to the field of mage work, so all was forgiven and understandable. (She didn’t know why this answer caused Gray to chuckle awkwardly behind his hand, however.)

“Wait.” Lucy took a tentative step forward to peer at the fallen Erigor hesitantly. “He’s not…dead… is he?”

“No.” He likely survived, considering his capabilities. (Wait, had she checked?) With a wince, Erza realized that she hadn’t. “…I don’t think.”

As she turned back to the body, she saw Natsu nudging him with his foot, staring down quizzically with a sniff. “He’s alive,” he confirmed.

That was a shame, but it was what she expected.

“How’d you tell?” Lucy asked, a note of curiosity in her voice as she addressed Natsu. “You didn’t even check his pulse?”

“Hm? Oh, he’s still breathing.”

Lucy facepalmed. “Duh,” she groaned to herself.

Lucy seemed to be trying to imbibe as many tricks and techniques that mages employed as she could. She really was a bright girl—very eager, too—and Erza wished her the best, though she couldn’t help but wonder if Lucy was taking things too hard. She was new, after all. When Erza was new, she barely knew how to function as a human being, much less a mage, so she understood that it took time. Still, her dedication was commendable.

“So, what are we gonna’ do with him, anyway?” Gray asked.

“Good question.” Erza hadn’t thought about that yet. She normally left people of this type alone after she instilled in them the consequences of their wrong-doings…or they were in a populated area, and the army or other law officials would handle them after the mage’s portion of the job was over. However, it was true that they were in the middle of the woods (though she supposed the sudden lack of trees in this area would be eye-catching) and that Erigor was known for his deadly intentions. In fact, he had been planning some mass murder this very day!

“We’ll have to take him to Onibus,” she decided. “Either the army or the Rune Knights can handle him, then.” The only other option was to end him right then and there, but Erza wouldn’t slay a downed foe. This was simply the consequence of him surviving her first blow.

“What about the Lullaby?” Lucy asked. “We can’t take that thing into the city though…right?”

“Yeah, that would defeat the purpose of us being careful,” Gray added.

“We could split. Happy and I will take them—the flute to Acno in Magnolia, and you guys go back to Onibus. Your stuff is there, too, right?”

“Yes, but…” Lucy frowned, and Erza felt the same thing.

Under normal circumstance, she would trust Natsu to carry the object—especially since Erigor was already down. However, that didn’t account for the rest of the guild, and more importantly, he would simply just be alone with Happy again. He had trusted her, and opened up to her in the woods… It felt wrong to simply abandon him now. What if there was still more? Or he needed companionship for comfort? Erza knew a thing or two about these feelings, and she knew that being alone in them was the worst.

“If we do split up, it should be more even then that. Like two and two…plus Happy.”

Before Erza could come to her own conclusion, Gray put his thoughts in—and he made a good point. Logically, such a split would ensure adequate safety to both sides, assuming it was needed. Erigor wasn’t going to wake up anytime soon, however, and even if he did, he wouldn’t be much of a challenge in this condition.

The solution was obvious, but Erza hesitated. She knew now, that at the beginning of all this, she had made a mistake—a miscalculation of sorts. She thought that Gray and Natsu’s violent natures led them to a stubborn stalemate, where they didn’t walk away but they couldn’t make up, either. Now Erza was beginning to realize that it was more…complicated. She should have realized it before, because it wasn’t like this was the first time she was in this situation, but Natsu was clearly…uncomfortable…around Gray. Maybe he was even scared of him. Erza understood—there was a part of her that didn’t want to, but she did. Natsu had his reasons for his discomforts, but Gray didn’t have to bear the brunt of that. They were guildmates, after all. However, after thinking about how Gray reacted to their rivalry on the train, she wondered if Gray had similar issues.

It hadn’t been that bad when they were kids. Sure, they tussled some—and maybe some of these reasons were underlying—but it didn’t seem as tense. Though… Right. Natsu had had some memory issues when he first came to Fairy Tail, hadn’t he? He didn’t talk much about it, but he did say that he couldn’t remember the other kids he grew up with until it was fixed. There likely were other memories as well… If only they could help each other work through their experiences and become friends again—though Erza knew she couldn’t force them. She fooled herself to think that maybe she could, if she made them be together again, but she realized that this was probably what Erik meant when he warned her.

It had been similar with Erik, once. It was clear that Erik wasn’t comfortable around Jellal—just like her old friends weren’t either—and as heart-breaking as it was, she understood because she, to some degree, felt the same thing. Ultear made Jellal do terrible things, and even though it wasn’t his fault, everybody thought it was him for a while. It was his face and his body, and Erza knew that associations, and the memories they brought, could hurt just as bad as the thing itself. She hated that Jellal had to go through that, and she did her best to make Jellal feel welcomed regardless. Erik didn’t hang near Jellal often—especially in the beginning—but he didn’t run away either, so Erza always held out on hope, and eventually, she was rewarded with being able to see them comfortable around each other despite everything. Granted… Though Erza had provided them many opportunities, Erik and Jellal ended up talking on their own terms when Erza hadn’t been paying attention.

Maybe Erza wasn’t cut out for reconciling people at all. Maybe she just needed to…wait. Just as she had to with her other friends. (If they were even friends anymore, after all this time.)

Gray and Natsu just needed time, and all she could do was hope that that time would come. She had the distinct feeling now that leaving them alone together would not build towards that, as much as Erza had believed it would. Luckily, Erik and Mirajane were right, and their plan of meddling came in handy.

“A two and three split then,” she decided. “Happy and I will take Erigor to the city. We can fly there quickly, and then retrieve our belongings. You three stay here and head off in the morning. We’ll meet you either here or on the road.”

She waited for their affirmations, but she got four blank stares instead. Did they not understand how obvious a split it was? It put Gray and Natsu in proximity, yes, but Lucy would be there as a buffer. Besides, they’ll mostly be sleeping. It was foolproof.

“Sound good?” she prompted.

“Uh, yeah, of course.”

“Sure.”

“O-okay.”

“Sounds like I’m not going to sleep…”

Erza gave Happy a stern stare after his mumbled statement. Surely, as a mage of Fairy Tail, he understood this was more important than a single night of sleep.

“I mean, aye sir!” Happy amended.

She nodded, pleased a resolution to their dilemma was found. “Then it’s settled.” Erza picked up Erigor by the ankle, switching to her flight armor. She tossed the scythe to Happy to carry, and they took off.

Hopefully whatever experience those three had in her absence would be constructive. Or, at the very least, not disastrous.

After all, Erza still wanted to hope that, one day, they could all get along again.

—o0o—

“So…” Lucy hummed in the silence that followed after Erza and Happy left. “Erza realizes that the campsite is wrecked…right?”

“I have no idea,” Gray sighed, surveying the damage with his hands on his hips.

It was quite a daunting sight to take in, too. (Tornados could really do a number on trees.) All the trees in a thirty-foot radius were either cracked or fallen entirely, and branches of all sizes littered the ground in a labyrinth of wood. Between the debris and the lack of cover, it no longer made for a nice and comfy spot for camping. (Not that camping was super comfy to begin with.)

Hopefully, Erza and Happy could find them just fine if they moved. Lucy realized that Erza also said that she might meet them on the road, but she wished that it would be sooner, because Erza also promised that they would come back with their luggage. Although, Erza had also brought an obscene amount, so Lucy doubted that there would be anything quick about the return trip, flight or no.

(Ugh, she was going to have to skip out on brushing her teeth in the morning, wasn’t she? Gross.)

“Shouldn’t be hard to find another spot,” Natsu said with a shrug. “The woods were pretty scarce down that way too.” He pointed to the side, where he and Erza had been looking for firewood prior to all of this.

Oh! Wait! Natsu! “Your pack! And sleeping bag!” she exclaimed, remembering what happened to it. “It was blown away in the attack. I’m— I’m sorry, I don’t know where it is.”

She looked around, hoping to spot his belongings even though she hadn’t seen them in her first appraisal of the ruined camp. Lucy knew that this was in no way her fault—they were attacked by a tornado-wielding madman, after all—but she still felt bad that it was lost after he lent the bag to her.

“I’m sure we can find it,” Natsu replied, more cheerfully than she would have expected.

He sniffed the air, and with a palm to her face, Lucy remembered that Natsu was a certified bloodhound for some reason. (She had the feeling they called it ‘dragon magic’ because of the throat-attacks and the eating, but the way she’d seen Natsu use his nose, they should name it ‘beagle magic’ instead.)

“Well, I see your sleeping bag,” Gray said. Lucy looked back to see Gray staring into the trees; she followed his gaze, and sure enough, Natsu’s sleeping bag was caught in the branches of a surviving tree.

“That’s…really high up,” she remarked. Wait, Happy could—! Right, Happy and Erza both left, and they happened to be the only two who could fly. (Though Erza could only fly with certain armor? It was hard to know for certain; she switched armor so fluidly. Lucy still had goosebumps over the way a girl practically her age nearly cleaved a man in half with a sword.)

Even if the barely-standing tree had the structural integrity required to be climbed, all of the lower branches were already stripped off. There didn’t seem to be any feasible way to get it normally. Well, there was magic. Lucy mentally scrolled through the spirits available to be summoned, but she wasn’t sure if any of them had the maneuverability. Maybe Taurus could, but he also wasn’t the most acrobatic… She shivered at the mental image of the bull-man trying to climb a tree, and decided that no, that wouldn’t work.

“I can do it.”

Gray and Natsu spoke at the same time, surprising each other. They blinked incredulously at each other before Gray closed his eyes and shook his head with a grunt. “How can you get it down without knocking the whole tree over?” Gray asked.

“I could—” Natsu cut himself off with a frown. “I hadn’t thought that far yet, but I’m sure I could do it!”

Gray had that look like an angry or witty retort was coming, but he broke eye contact and looked back at the tree in question. “Sure, but I got this one. You can focus on finding the bag with all the food in it.”

He started crafting something with ice, likely intending to grab the object and bring it back down, whether by conveyor or dropping it. (Luckily, sleeping bags weren’t fragile.) It was quite clever, actually.

Retrieved sleeping bag aside, Lucy was just relieved that Gray and Natsu didn’t start fighting. In the midst of everything, she nearly forgot that she was supposed to be peace-keeping, though she wasn’t sure what she would have done if they decided not to back out of it right then. Despite appearing somewhat cowed by Gray’s hint of doubt, Natsu hadn’t said anything either, choosing to go back to sniffing out his missing bag with the food that Lucy had yet to eat. (She and her growling stomach really hoped the bag was in a safe place—and zipped shut.) Lucy wasn’t sure if they chose not to take the opportunity for whatever reason, or if they were just too tired to.

Their rivalry—or whatever it was—was weird to her. At a cursory glance, it seemed like every other I’m-better-than-you-let’s-fight relationship that Fairy Tail seemed to be full of, but at a second cursory glance, it was obvious that both Gray and Natsu acted like they were backed into a corner each time the other spoke. Except it didn’t make sense why they were both so awkward and defensive.

Her magic teacher, Bero, had always said ‘the best offense is a good defense’ but Lucy never would have believed that Bero wasn’t mixing up a popular adage and instead being clever unless she witnessed Gray and Natsu fight. Who knew that it was possible to weaponize defending your honor? Assuming that’s what they were doing. They were defending something, but Lucy didn’t know what it was. She wasn’t convinced that they knew, either. She was starting to get the idea that they didn’t necessarily want to seek each other out, but they had the inability to back down once engaged, which made their squabbles turn into cornered-animal-brawls, and that wasn’t fun for anyone—them, her, Fairy Tail, innocent bystanders…

It was what Lucy always imagined owning a cat and dog simultaneously would be like. Not that that was a good comparison to make about people she only really just met but… Yeah. They were a cat and a dog who lived in the same residence but couldn’t exist in the same room without feeling invariably threatened by the other’s existence, and she was the begruntled human who had to jump in-between the teeth and claws to stop them. Erza was the commanding owner, who could still them with her voice alone, but Lucy was just the guest who was left alone in the parlor with the dog and cat, who weren’t fighting yet but were growling and sulking, and there were fragile things everywhere and Lucy couldn’t just yell at other people’s pets and—

Maybe this metaphor got away from her.

Besides, currently, her worry seemed to be for nothing, because Gray was untangling the sleeping bag with some giant pole-claw-thingy, and Natsu was digging through the branches of a fallen tree. They weren’t growling at each other or anything, nor were they even speaking.

Lucy wasn’t sure if that was the best either. It didn’t seem bad in comparison to the fights, but it was just… Sad maybe? It wasn’t really Lucy’s position to say, but it certainly seemed that way to her. The angry comebacks, snapped defensives, and grumbled lines reminded Lucy of every word that left her mouth to her father for the past few years, and that wasn’t a good headspace to live in. It was even more concerning when their misery was mutual.

She had promised Mirajane to mediate, but now Lucy couldn’t help but to feel that resolve that she didn’t want to see either Natsu or Gray upset. If that had been Erza’s goal as well, then she empathized.

“Found it!” Natsu shouted, emerging from the thick of a fallen pine tree with the bag in hand.

“And I—” Gray strained his neck upwards as guided the bag downwards, only to ultimately have it slip from the ice’s grip and fall on top of him. “…got the other one.”

“Perfect!” Lucy clapped her hands together. They needed to move this show along quickly so one, they didn’t have an opportunity to fight like depressed pets, and two, she could eat and they could all go to sleep. “Now we just gotta’ find a new spot, right?”

Gray nodded, rolling his shoulder back as his ice contraption dissolved. “Yeah. Somewhere in the direction we’re heading in, preferably.”

“This way will work,” Natsu said, gesturing to the same area he mentioned before. “It’s a little farther from the path, but it’s still west.”

“As long as you don’t get us lost,” Gray grumbled.

Before Natsu could even think about responding, Lucy intervened. “HAHA, I doubt we can get lost with half the forest looking wrecked, right? When in doubt, we’ll just look for the giant hole the sun is coming through,” she laughed, hoping she successfully stopped the doubt-dagger sequence that would have followed.

Gray huffed a laugh, so she supposed it was successful. Lucy, one, angry cat and dog… Well, they had more points, but only because they’ve been at it longer than she has been here.

They followed Natsu out of the tree graveyard and into the part of the woods that was denser and not as torn-apart. They must have passed by wherever Erza and Natsu had been, because Natsu bent down to collect a pile of dropped sticks on their way to whatever destination he had in mind. Which wasn’t much farther from the stick-collection point, but Lucy didn’t realize they had arrived before he announced it.

“Isn’t it a little small, though?” she couldn’t help but to ask. As far as the ‘amount of ground without tree or bush on it’ went, it was nearly a third of the size of the last area.

Natsu shrugged. “Camps only need to be as large as the group,” he said. “Besides, I figured you guys might be more comfortable here because there’ll be less ticks, probably.”

It took a second, but the insinuation was not lost on her. “There were ticks at the last place?!” Oh, she could feel them crawling on her now! That itch at her back—that was definitely a tick, wasn’t it? Gross! She needed a bath. She needed a really, really long bath.

“Looks good to me,” Gray remarked with a shrug.

For a moment, Natsu looked surprised, but then he turned around and started shaking the leaves out of the sleeping bag. He then handed it her. “There you go, Lucy. You can set that up wherever and I’ll start the fire.”

“Thanks.” She took the bundled-up bag and looked for a suitable location, now acutely aware of the concept of ticks and bugs. Everywhere looked suspicious. She finally took a gamble on a spot in-between two trees where she didn’t see anything (and she looked); hopefully, she’ll be exhausted enough not to care when she laid down. Otherwise, she was not going to sleep at all.

Natsu had arranged half the sticks he brought into a neat pile before he set it on fire. Huh, there were some thick sticks in there; was he carrying those the whole time?

“It probably won’t burn all night, but it’s good for food,” Natsu said. “Are…you guys hungry? I could catch a squirrel or something.”

“What is it with you guys and wanting to eat squirrels?!” Lucy took a deep sigh. She really hoped that this much camping wasn’t actually part of the mage-gig. “The jerky you have in your bag is fine. If it’s still good.”

“Sure, help yourself,” Natsu responded, choosing to throw the entire bag at her instead of handing it to her like a sane person. Lucy fumbled with it, nearly dropping it entirely before she managed to get a grip on it.

She opened it up to see a broken branch stuck inside and disappointment. Oh no, the contents must have been flung when it was caught in the tornado! Or Erigor dumped it when he was going through their stuff looking for the flute. (That meanie.)

With a heavy sigh, Lucy removed the branch and set the bag to the side. “It’s gone,” she announced miserably. “I’m just going to…sleep. Yeah. That’s it.”

“Are you sure? I can go catch something.”

“I’ll go find something.”

Natsu and Gray spoke at the same time (again) because apparently, despite all differences, they were eerily similar. Lucy could only stare at them dumbly, hoping that this wasn’t some macho competition between the two of them—or that it wouldn’t turn into one.

“Somebody else should stay here too, just in case. So I’ll go,” Gray insisted. “Shouldn’t be long.”

“No, I can do it. I’m a better tracker. You stay.”

The tension grew, and Lucy could practically see the honor-defending-defenses slam down in their expressions. “No, no!” she interjected. She had to stop them! “That’s not necessary. I’m more tired than anything else, and I probably won’t even last long enough for something to be caught and cooked.”

Natsu squinted at her. “…you sure?”

She prayed her stomach didn’t growl and betray her. “Yeah, totally. Anyways, it’s late, don’t you think?” The sun had finally fully set, and though the fire now gave the impression of light, she could imagine how dark it would be. And dark meant late. “We should probably hit-the-hay, so we can get an early start, right?”

“Earlier would be better,” Gray agreed. He shrugged. “Okay, if you’re good with it.”

Natsu was still scrutinizing her like seeing through lies was one of the many capabilities of dragon magic, but ultimately, he let it go. “Okay. You guys sleep; I’ll take first watch.”

Gray frowned.

Lucy was about to about to have an aneurism. How did they find this many things to compete over?!

“Fine.” What? Gray didn’t fight that one? A miracle! “Just wake me up for second watch.”

“Okay.”

Relieved that they seemed to make it through without incident, Lucy slumped into the sleeping bag. The ground was much harder than a bed, but it wasn’t as bad as Lucy imagined it to be. She really was tired; forming a contract and then having Virgo out for so long immediately after did take a chunk of her magic. Not to mention all of the walking, and the whole getting-attacked twice bit.

The sound of the fire was soothing, like one of those things that play ambient noises so you could go to bed. This was…nice. An interesting end to an anxiety-filled day.

Hopefully, tomorrow went without a hitch and ended with Lucy bathed and in her own bed. Gray and Natsu wouldn’t get into another fight, they wouldn’t be attacked again, Erza and Happy would return with all of their stuff and with Erigor properly arrested, and the Lullaby would be put in a safe place or safely destroyed and dealt with.

Though she had the sneaking suspicion that with this group, it wouldn’t be that simple.

Chapter Text

"As your bright and tiny spark,
Lights the traveler in the dark—
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star."

It was hot. Searing. It burned the air in his lungs and dragged his body down. The smoke obscured his vision. He wanted to scream, but he didn’t know who for.

Deliora loomed.

He was unbearably small in its presence, and even smaller when the monster aimed its hollow eyes at him.

“There’s more I can take from you.”

That awful sound pierced the smoke and his ears, the sound of concentrated fire about to explode, and—

Gray jolted awake. It was dark and his eyes stung, and it took a moment for his body to figure out that he could breathe properly. But there was smoke. Where was the smoke coming from and where—?

Oh. Right. The fire.

It wasn’t really a fire now—just smoking embers. All smoke was going to do was cling to them and get everywhere. It was still hot enough outside, and Lucy had a blanket anyway, so Gray reached over and put it out with a spray of ice. If Natsu wasn’t going to feed the fire anymore, then it was pointless.

Where was Natsu anyway? Wasn’t he supposed to be keeping watch? If he wandered off, then that defeated the whole purpose of—

“Nightmare?”

He jumped.

Natsu jumped too, but in a completely different way. Somehow, he was in a tree, despite the lack of low-bearing limbs; nevertheless, his voice came muffled from above, and he was landing—softly, at that—on the ground moments later.

Damn salamander was going to give him a heart-attack. It didn’t help that everything was dark, because Gray had just taken away the tiny light source they had, and the moon could only cover so much. The moon could, however, somehow reflect off of Natsu’s eyes like he was a cat, which was really the only reason Gray could see Natsu in the first place.

“No,” he gritted out, despite being a bold-faced lie. It wasn’t a big deal anyway. Just a dream that happened to suck. It made sense that it would happen, with everyone on edge. The thought of toting around some Zeref-made catastrophe didn’t make for a good headspace to have peaceful sleep in—but that was just the consequence of being vigilant. He didn’t need Natsu or his creepy eyes judging him for something that was normal.

Natsu grunted in a disbelieving tone. “You think I don’t know what a nightmare looks like?”

He opened his mouth, ready to return Natsu’s retort in kind, but then the words registered. Or maybe it was the tone. One way or another, Natsu was experienced; whether it was in regard to himself, or those he lived with—or both—it was hard to tell.

Not that Gray knew the scope of anything. Long ago, Gray came to terms with the fact that he couldn’t expect anyone to understand exactly what he had gone through—and honestly, Gray wouldn’t want them to. He didn’t wish what happened to him on anyone else. It was a string of bad luck and bad decisions, and Gray lived with that. Sometimes, he had to live with it in his non-waking moments, too. Nightmares weren’t ideal, but they didn’t change anything.

“I’m fine,” Gray insisted, because he had the feeling that Natsu doubted that too. “Wasn’t even that long.”

He hoped Natsu would drop it. He was too tired to deal with him right now, and Gray was trying to keep his distance and not start things anyway.

“…okay.” Natsu did drop it. He dropped it so well, that now the two of them were both just sitting there, awake in the middle of the night with Lucy sleeping soundly in the midst of them. It was awkward as hell. Especially when Natsu’s stupid creepy cat eyes kept moving around, and Gray couldn’t just…go back to sleep. He normally couldn’t this quickly; he was too on edge. Not that there wasn’t reason to be on edge, but there also wasn’t anything he could do about it.

Unless…

“I’m already up. We can go ahead and switch watches so you can get some sleep,” Gray suggested.

In his head, this existed as the ultimate solution. Gray could put his spurt of vigilance to good use, and Natsu could get some sleep. Based on the number of times that Gray has noticed him or one of the other dragon mages asleep in the guild or some random place, he was left to believe that extra sleep was just another one of their bizarre magic’s side effects.

However, Natsu immediately protested. “It’s not even halfway through the night yet.”

He resisted the urge to groan aloud. Why was Natsu always so difficult? Gray just wanted to be nice and offer him more sleep! He wished this was the moment Erza decided to show up, because that would at least alleviate this tension in favor for a different kind of chaos. Not to mention it would be distracting in a way that didn’t unnerve him—like how his accidental stare-down with Natsu was unnerving. Though Gray still didn’t back out of it, because he wasn’t going back to sleep, and he didn’t need to be coddled about it either.

“There’s no point in me going back to sleep just to get woken up again,” Gray argued finally.

The staring lasted for a moment longer. “Then don’t go back to sleep,” Natsu responded, as if he hadn’t just denied Gray his turn at night-watch.

“That’s what I’m saying,” Gray gritted out, exasperated. “So, I can take watch since I’ll be awake.”

Natsu’s moon-reflecting eyes felt judgemental and unblinking. “But it’s still my watch.”

Gray was going to have an aneurism. “Make up your mind, flame-brain!” he hissed, making a conscious effort to keep his voice low. “Will you let me stay awake or not?”

“I never said you couldn’t,” he hissed back. “We can both be awake, dumbass! But I can keep watch better.”

“I—” Oh. Natsu was talking about different things, and Gray merged them. He blamed himself for being out of it—maybe it was best he didn’t take watch after all. And, as much as Gray hated to admit it, Natsu was better at seeing in the dark. “Right. Okay.”

Gray decided to walk to the other end of the (small) camp and try to make himself comfortable, leaving Natsu and his staring eyes to his back. He leaned against a tree and determined that he would just sit vigilant anyway, though Natsu’s vantage point was better.

He looked up at the black mess of branches against the night sky. How did Natsu get up there anyway? Gray couldn’t remember seeing a climbable tree when they arrived at this camp, but then again, Gray hadn’t looked for one. Maybe he could watch—to the best of his capability—Natsu climb up again, so when Gray’s ‘official turn’ for watch came, he could repeat the action.

Natsu stayed on the ground.

He rummaged around and eventually stopped, the sounds of leaves crunching ceasing, and Gray, despite his resolve to end their interaction, couldn’t help but to look back and try to find Natsu. His white scarf made him somewhat easier to spot in the dark, so he didn’t take long to find that Natsu set up on the other end of camp by the base of tree, similar to what Gray did. Why didn’t he just go back up the tree? It was a better position, and if his goal was to be farther away from Gray, then it succeeded in that too.

Whatever. All he could do was ask, and that would get him nowhere. Natsu hardly made sense when he wanted to, and Gray doubted he was for conservation with him after Gray had been just a dick as well.

So he just sat there. Natsu did the same. Gray assumed he would keep watch on that end, and Gray kept watch on his. The forest was quiet though. Gray found himself just staring at the stars and listening to the wind in the branches more than watching the ground, but there were barely any squirrels jumping around, much less people. (If he could hear the squirrels, then Gray was confident he would hear something bigger.) At least watching the sky and trees provided something else for Gray to focus on, because if it was just his thoughts, then he would no longer be vigilant enough to keep watch at all. Besides, if he wanted to give his brain free reign, he would have just gone back to sleep.

The moon traveled across the sky slowly, bringing its group of stars with it. The sky in Fiore was dimmer than the sky in Isvan’s mountains, but the forest still provided a decent view, despite the fact that the stars seemed farther apart this way. That, or Gray simply couldn’t remember Isvan’s sky correctly anymore and his comparison was flawed from the beginning. The trees didn’t help either; half of the sky was obscured by branches. It made tracking the time more difficult, as the slightly swaying trees kept ruining his placement, but it was as good of an attempt as he could manage.

Gray waited and he watched. Sometimes, the quiet and the coolness of the night lured him back into a tired state, but resolve kept him awake. Eventually, the passage of time became apparent even to him, although the sky remained dark. Surely it was over halfway through the night, though; the moon was on the other side of the sky now.

Natsu probably assumed Gray took over and fell asleep, but if he fell asleep where he had been sitting, then Gray wouldn’t be able to watch over his spot well from here—which was even more of a problem since Natsu still had the Lullaby with him. That, or that dumbass was still stubbornly awake despite there being no point in him being up too.

…either way, Gray had to get up and go check on him.

His eyes were better adjusted to the night now, so Gray didn’t have as much trouble making his way back the way he came and to where Natsu was just beyond that, passing by a softly snoring Lucy as he went.

Natsu was sitting cross-legged under a tree, and to Gray’s surprise, he was still awake—something quickly made evident by his inhuman gaze sweeping towards Gray before he even made it there. “Is something wrong?” Natsu asked.

“No, nothing happened.” Now Gray felt stupid for coming over here. He was just going to be nagging at this point—though somebody had to. “But I figured that you should get some sleep. I can take over keeping an eye on the flute and this half of the camp just fine. I doubt anything will happen anyway, besides maybe Erza and Happy returning.”

Natsu frowned. Even though Gray couldn’t see the expression well, he could practically hear it in his hesitance. “I’m fine though. I can pull an all-nighter,” he insisted.

Gray pinched his nose, doing his best to keep his exasperation to himself. All getting more insistent would do would be wake Lucy up, most likely. Still, Gray wasn’t going let Natsu’s recklessness jeopardize their mission.

“Fine. Stay awake for all I care. But at least let me take over watching the damn flute.”

“No.”

Gray was losing his mind. What was this guy’s problem?! Gray was trying to be more civil, but this wasn’t his fault. It always seemed that Natsu was a thousand times more obstinate with just him. What was his fucking problem?! “Why won’t you go to sleep and just trust me?” he blurted.

Damn. That was not how he meant to say that…

Before Gray’s admittedly slow and tired brain could figure out a way to rectify that, Natsu stood up.

“I don’t want to go to sleep either…” Natsu admitted softly, which was not what Gray expected in the least. Especially since he was (correctly) calling Gray out for his own behavior. “Besides, I gotta’ keep watch over Lullaby. It’s… Uh, well, I’m pretty immune to death magic. Not immune. Er, resistant? Igneel’s scarf helps. Well, it absorbs most of it. It’s uh, it’s happened before. In case anything does happen, it’d be better if I was the one there.”

Gray didn’t know how to respond to that, so he didn’t, at first. It was actually…sensible. Self-sacrificial and paranoid, but sensible. Still, whatever experience Natsu had wouldn’t mean much if he was dead on his feet.

“I at least had some sleep before-hand,” Gray countered.

“I can sleep when we get home,” Natsu continued. “I’ve gone without sleep for a night for jobs before. It happens. Acno will probably be there when we get back, so I can hand it off to him, then I’ll be fine.”

He bit back a groan. Despite whatever reason Natsu had, he was still as obstinate as ever. But Natsu’s choices weren’t his problem—even if Gray didn’t want his guildmates to be reckless like that. “Fine. Okay, whatever. But if you fall asleep on the road, don’t come crying to me.”

It was still a decent walk from here to Magnolia, assuming the part of the forest they were in was still close to Onibus. It wasn’t the worst, and every Fairy Tail mage has likely made that walk before for one reason or another, but it was another stretch of overbearing sunlight if they were taking the main road.

All of this was assuming that it would be done when they arrived at Magnolia, too. Gray didn’t like just pawning off their problem to another mage, even if Acnologia was more generally experienced, as everyone treated him to be. And he probably was—but that didn’t make him that much better than any other mage, necessarily. Besides, none of that guaranteed he would be any more knowledgeable about a flute that was sealed for who-knows-how-many centuries.

“What do you think Acnologia will even do about it, anyway?” In his musing, Gray ended up voicing the question aloud.

Sure, it was a sudden bout of skepticism, but Gray didn’t know why Natsu looked like a deer caught in front of a wagon.

“Uh, well, he’s dealt with this kind of stuff before,” Natsu replied, not very convincingly.

Gray raised an eyebrow at him, sure him and his freaky eyesight could see the expression well. “Flutes that put people who hear them to death?”

“Zeref’s stuff… I mean. It’s a specific type of magic—hence why it’s so weird. And sometimes volatile. He’s good at dealing with it and not dying in the process.”

Why was Natsu dodging the question? It made no sense. “I thought you just said that you were resilient towards it.”

“Yeah, well, the ‘not-dying’ part isn’t the hardest part,” he continued, “but Acno is better at, um… dealing with them.”

“Very descriptive,” Gray deadpanned. He didn’t know why he was even bothering. If all they did in the end was waste Acnologia’s time, it would be Natsu’s fault, anyway.

“Uh, well—”

“Enough!”

A third voice stopped them mid-breath. It echoed like multiple voices intertwined and unnerved him immediately, not just because it was a strange voice when they were supposed to be alone.

Gray shifted into a magic-ready stance, and Natsu lit a fist on fire, only for them to immediately see that the source was the flute, floating out of the bag of its own accord and mocking them with now-glowing eyes.

“Shit,” Natsu hissed. “What are you—?!”

“Silence!” the flute—the Lullaby—screamed in overlapping voices. Its body began to unravel. Gray should have done something—anything—to stop it in the process, but he was frozen as he watched the flute come to life. “I will not sit by as you speak of feeding me to that dragon!”

It grew. What was once a hand-held flute grew into a towering monster, arms and legs splitting from the base as it twisted outward. There were gaping cavities in its chest and its biceps; the black sky filled the holes, as it towered above the trees, and it blotted out the stars. Horns pointed skyward, and beady glowing eyes looked down on them.

The Lullaby was a demon.

Gray should have moved. He should have done something. Yet, he stood there like a child in the shadow of Deliora, unable to think and unable to fight.

Natsu suddenly moved in front of him, a fiery fist punching back a wooden claw that would have hit Gray otherwise. The spell on his body shattered, and finally, Gray snapped out of it.

There was no need to think at all. All he needed to do was fight.

—o0o—

This was bad.

Natsu had known that there were so many ways that this trip could have gone badly, but somehow, he didn’t expect Lullaby to wake up and start attacking them on their own. He (stupidly, apparently) thought that if Lullaby hadn’t woken up before, then they wouldn’t do it unless something triggering happened.

Maybe something was triggered, except that trigger was just talking about Acnologia. But Natsu never said that Acno was going to eat them! Natsu just wanted to know more about Lullaby, and if there was a safe place to put them where nobody would get hurt. Not that he could communicate that to anybody else here without sounding like a damned Zeref cultist!

He had to do something—to stop this. Natsu wasn’t as good at talking people down as others were, but he had to try, at least. Not that he could do more than open his mouth before Lullaby’s clawed hand made a swipe towards Gray.

(A giant clawed hand swiped towards Lisanna, and—)

Natsu intercepted, punching back the hand with the raw force of fire. Lullaby, though alive, was made of wood—or something like it, at least. The hand was blown off entirely, weak to Natsu’s attack, and Lullaby screeched in pain.

That was the other thing. Natsu expected Lullaby to look… well, like a demon. Or some variant of one anyway, or something closer to Natsu. Lullaby just looked like a monster.

Lucy screamed.

“What the heck?! Natsu?! Gray?!”

“We’re okay!” he shouted back. She sounded like she still was where she had been sleeping, which was now on the other side of Lullaby, but easily in stepping range.

“I got her,” Gray said. “You get that thing.”

Natsu nodded, unable to vocalize anything in that second. The scent of fear still wafted from Gray, but not as strong as it was when he had been staring blankly at Lullaby seconds before getting squashed. Lucy definitely sounded freaked out. Why wouldn’t she be? She was woken up by a giant wooden monster-looking person who looked like they were attacking. Maybe they were attacking them?

It was all so confusing. Natsu wasn’t sure what to do. He was good at fighting, but was that what he was supposed to do? Maybe Lullaby just misunderstood.

He needed to get closer. He couldn’t fly, so he climbed, clawing into Lullaby’s leg and kicking off, launching himself to their shoulders by periodically using their body to jump off of.

“What are you doing?” he shouted once he made it to their face. Lullaby made a screeching attempting to swipe him off, but Natsu jumped on their head instead. “We didn’t do anything to you!”

“I will not be hindered any longer,” they replied. “I want to eat.”

“Uh, if you’re hungry, then we can just— AGH!”

Lullaby attempted to knock him off with their stumpy hand, causing Natsu to slide down his back. He had to grow his claws on his fingertips a little just to hang on.

“And I will start with your souls!” Lullaby declared dramatically. Then he started making the sound.

Natsu still wasn’t sure if the legend about hearing the music and dying was true, but Lullaby was definitely trying to kill them. There wasn’t any doubt about that. Lullaby might succeed too, if they didn’t stop them.

He had to stop them.

“Lance!”

Gray attacked from behind, icy arrows splitting in many directions and striking Lullaby on either side of Natsu, nearly giving him a heart-attack in the process. However, the ice arrow pierced through the etherious and the high-pitched music sound they were making changed, causing Lullaby to startle out of making it and turn his back to where they were.

It was weird to think that knocking holes into them was so easy—and effective. In a surprising turn, Natsu was not excited to fight this new foe. He loved fighting. It was both easy and challenging, and it was exhilarating. Fighting new people was especially fun because Natsu got to see and try new things—to prove his strength in different ways. Yet here and now, it just felt like…a loss. He could probably curb-stomp this guy into next week, but it was a loss in a different way, even though that feeling didn’t make sense.

“I’ll feast on your souls, and then I’ll feast on every soul this world has to offer,” Lullaby threatened, though they sounded confident enough to mean it as a promise.

Lullaby twisted their body, aiming to swipe at Gray. Natsu had to hang on tighter, and even then, he was nearly flung off. This time, Gray summoned a giant ice wall, protecting him and Lucy from the blow.

“Uh, what time is it—? Who cares, it’s close enough. Open! Gate of the Bull!”

Lucy used one of her keys, and the bull-guy came out and launched himself at Lullaby’s calf with his ax, screaming “MOOO!” while doing so.

His guildmates were fighting. Lullaby was fighting them. This was a fight.

“Damnit,” he cursed, and Natsu lit his arm on fire and punched a stream of fire through his sternum. Or where a sternum should have been, at least. Everything was still wood.

Natsu kicked off again and worked on the shoulders, while Taurus and Gray hacked away at the lower half. Within moments, Lullaby no longer sounded like a flute, but instead like a wheezing old man. To Natsu’s knowledge, he was no longer a musical threat—but that didn’t stop Lullaby from continuing to attack. (Nor did it stop the other two, still trying not to get stepped on.) Lullaby swiped at Natsu again, like he was some annoying fly (ugh, he hated that comparison now) and Natsu barely paid attention as he sent a wing attack to intercept.

“Why do you want to eat people’s souls?!” he finally asked, trying not to breathe in the smolders of Lullaby’s now second stump arm. It smelled like etherious, and it might as well have tasted like blood. “Is that what Zeref wanted?!”

Natsu hated that he asked. A part of him…really didn’t want to know, because it may be right. Or worse, even. Natsu wanted to trust that his brother was still himself, somewhere down underneath the curse—the Zeref that was patient and kind and never hurt anyone—but Zeref also made all these awful things, and a hoard of etherious. For what? Why would he when all it did was hurt people? Did Zeref care?

…probably not. Maybe that was the part that hurt the most.

“I want…” Lullaby stilled for a moment, their three eyes still glowing hungrily as they turned their massive head to stare into Natsu. “…his soul.”

“What?” he choked. Natsu was caught off guard enough that Lullaby’s final attempt to knock Natsu off their shoulder succeeded.

Righting himself midair was normally never a problem, but Natsu was still dazed and winded. Lullaby…wanted to kill Zeref? Were they mad at him? Why? Because they were created? Or did something happen afterward?

“Natsu!”

Lucy’s scream brought him back to the present. Right, falling. Natsu twisted into a better position, ready to shoot fire from his feet to soften his crash. However, the crash met him midair in the form of Taurus slamming into him to catch him. “I got yoooou,” the cow dude announced, before landing and promptly dropping him on his ass. “Luuuucy, I saved him!”

“You didn’t have to drop him,” she muttered.

“But I only want to carry yooou.”

While Lucy and Taurus bickered, Natsu heard the cracking sound of ice spreading, and saw that Gray managed to freeze one of Lullaby’s legs to the ground.

They kept trying to move despite of it, struggling to make that whooshing flute noise that would probably kill everything. They were relentless.

But so was Natsu, and Natsu wouldn’t let anyone kill his guildmates, innocent people, or his brother. No matter what.

He stood, and he roared.

Immobilized by Gray, Lullaby could do nothing to stop the fire dragon’s roar that slammed into them and burned. Whether it was because they were wooden, or just weak, it was the last thing they could take. Lullaby collapsed, leg snapping off where Gray had frozen it, and they lay smoking on the trees. Lullaby had no flesh or blood; they simply began to dissolve as the living magic faded and the body link snapped.

Gray huffed a sigh of relief. Lucy whooped tiredly, high-fiving Taurus as he disappeared through the gate. Natsu watched as Lullaby died.

They won.

—o0o—

They won! It was finally over. They didn’t have to worry about locking away the flute, because the flute was apparently a demon of the book of Zeref and now it was destroyed. Lucy shivered again at the thought that that thing was with them the whole time. Sure, she heard the stories about Zeref’s demons—creatures that come to life from his creations—but seeing one in person was another level of freaky.

Nobody wanted to sleep—or go back to sleep—immediately after the fight, so they decided to just start walking. The camp was trashed anyway, and she personally was way too wired to try and go back to sleep. Natsu and Gray seemed to be in the same boat. Lucy had been worried that Erza and Happy wouldn’t be able to find them, but Natsu assured her that they would be fine. Knowing how scary Erza was, Lucy was inclined to believe him. She said she might have to meet them on the road anyways, though Lucy did feel bad about making them carry the stuff for longer. (Although, the majority of it was Erza’s, so Lucy didn’t feel that bad.)

She was tired, however. The sun had risen, and now it was cheerfully reminding her that she had gotten a few hours of sleep; she suspected that Gray and Natsu had gotten much, much less.

The walk was just as quiet as it had been when they started their trek back to Magnolia, but it wasn’t as tense and awkward. At least she didn’t think it was. They stayed closer together. Maybe it was just because Gray and Natsu were too tired to fight, but Lucy hoped it meant that they wouldn’t be as testy with each other.

It was funny how almost dying made for good bonding.

No wonder this guild was so strange.

Maybe Lucy was strange, too, because she enjoyed it. She wanted to get to know them better, and as intimidating as it had been in the beginning, Lucy wouldn’t mind seeing more of Erza and Gray in addition to Natsu and Happy. Maybe she really could make friends.

(Although she could really go without having to fight any more Zeref-demons in the middle of the night.)

—o0o—

“I see you guys made good progress!” Erza called from ahead, waving them over. “I was actually hoping to meet you out here, since Happy and I decided to continue on towards Magnolia instead of stopping. I’m glad you caught up.”

“Aye…” Happy confirmed tiredly, half asleep on top of Erza’s luggage. Natsu was amazed he stayed awake at all—it must have been Erza’s influence.

They saw them on the road a while back. Even Lucy and Gray could spot Erza’s gigantic cart of luggage (how long did she think they were going to be out??) from a mile away—nearly literally. It wasn’t hard to catch up either. Everyone was eager to get back home, so they were making good progress. Besides, if he slowed down, Natsu would be too tempted to take a nap on the sunny rocks on the side of the road, except the nap would be a trap, because Natsu had that uneasy feeling that sleep would be…interrupted…unless he was really tired. Or put out with sleeping magic.

Stars, he hoped Acno was home. If he wasn’t, then Natsu was sleeping in Acno’s bed anyway.

“This has been a very fortunate leg of our journey,” Erza said happily.

“How is she so awake?” Lucy whispered.

“It’s her ‘Fairy Tail decorum’,” Gray deadpanned just as quietly, and Natsu and Lucy both stifled a laugh. Erza had enough stubbornness to be a dragon slayer, that was for sure.

Erza looked directly at Natsu, and for a moment, he wondered if she heard him. However, she was more focused on his bags. “I trust the Lullaby is still secure?”

Oh shit, Erza didn’t know. “No,” he replied honestly, shocking her visibly. “They attacked us so we killed them.”

“What?” she exclaimed, alarmed. She grabbed him by the shoulders. “You were attacked? By who? And they stole the Lullaby flute?!”

“No, it was the flute that attacked us,” Gray clarified, and Erza’s full attention was turned to him. Natsu was relieved, because he wasn’t sure he could explain that while figuring out what he should or shouldn’t say.

“Yeah, i-it turned into this huge wooden monster!” Lucy added with a shiver.

Gray nodded. “It was apparently one of Zeref’s demons. It transformed in front of me ‘n’ Natsu and tried to kill us before moving into town. It wasn’t as strong as I expected.” Gray cleared his throat like he was swallowing words. “The three of us handled it without too much trouble, and it dissolved without killing anything. Nothing was left of it, not even the flute. So catastrophe averted.”

“How did you not see it?!” Lucy questioned. “It was huge! Definitely taller than the trees. Not to mention half the forest was wrecked!” She flinched. “Uh, that wouldn’t be a problem, would it? Do we get fined for stuff like that?”

Gray shrugged. “Not if they don’t know we did it.”

An embarrassed blush spread on Erza’s face, and Happy did that blank blink he did when he was confused. Natsu laughed. He couldn’t help it. Maybe the lack of sleep was making him delirious, but between their expressions and the fact that they somehow didn’t notice the fight due to their own adventure, he found everything hilarious. It was like it didn’t happen at all—like some weird dream. Except Lucy and Gray were there too.

It felt just like any other quest he would do with other people, whether it was his friends or his family. It was so normal.

(It wasn’t, but it was.)

“Heeey, we were busy!” Happy squeaked, and Natsu made an effort to stifle his laughter. Not a great effort, but an effort. “It took forever to find our stuff!”

Happy looked like he was about to get up but decided against it with a tired blink; he crossed his arms and pouted instead, so Natsu decided to move towards him and ruffle his fur just to finish the job of teasing him.

“Oh.” Erza cleared her throat. “My apologies. I’m glad you three were able to handle it.”

Lucy sighed loudly. “Yes, but now I just really, really want to go back home.”

“Agreed,” Gray grunted.

“Seconded,” Happy moaned.

Erza shook her head with a smile. “Well, home it is.”

They continued onward. Everyone seemed happy despite the lingering scent of yawns. It was nice. It should have been nice. Yet, Natsu couldn’t seem to shake the sickness in the pit of his throat.

It tasted like etherious.

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are."