17 Chapter 17

Excited beyond belief, Lucy skipped around the room they were staying in, scooping up things and putting them away as she went. Natsu watched from where he was seated on the couch, Happy curled up on his chest to nap after a long night of dealing with Natsu's snoring. "Why are you so happy about this?" he demanded finally. "It's Erza who's coming."

"Because I like Erza," Lucy retorted, "And I want to make a good impression since we didn't chat for too long the last time we met."

"Erza's Erza," Natsu said with a shrug. "She's not gonna think more or less of you if you clean up. If ya really want to get on her good side, I hope there's some cake left over from last night."

"You could help me clean up, you know," Lucy said scoldingly, rolling her eyes. "Most of this is your mess anyways."

"Nah," he said in response, making himself more comfortable with a broad grin. "I'm comfy. 'Sides. Happy's happy."

"Jerk," Lucy replied. She bit her lip, silently wishing she had a Spirit that might be willing to help her out with the cleaning that was required when temporarily living with Natsu and Happy. But she doubted that was ever going to happen, so she quickly shut that idea away.

She'd just stuffed a few dirty clothes into her large duffel bag when Natsu's phone went off. He answered quickly after checking who it was. "Hey, Erza," he said, onyx eyes following Lucy as she hurried across the room and placed herself on the other side of the couch, looking hopeful. He rolled his eyes.

He chatted with the requip mage for a few moments, then finally hung up, informing his partner, "She should be here in the next ten minutes, or something like that."

"Great," Lucy said happily. She leaned back with a soft sigh. "I'm surprised she got here from Magnolia so fast…"

"She wasn't in Magnolia." Lucy glanced over at the dragon slayer as he spoke, surprised by his words. His bangs hung messily in his face, showing his laziness despite the lateness of the morning. Usually he was full of energy, ready to go out and do stuff, but today? He was exhausted, particularly after his large meal the night before. He patted Happy's head affectionately, throwing his feet across Lucy's lap as if they'd been friends for years rather than just a few weeks. She scowled, glaring at him. "She was in a town nearby… Four hours away, I think. By...that horror of a thing you call a car," he added, making a face. "She was working."

"Lovely," Lucy mused, giving up on removing his feet with a sigh. Suddenly, she smirked, lightly tickling the bottoms of them, and he jerked them away, moving faster than she'd ever seen him move before. He glared furiously at her, but she only laughed and gave the dragon slayer a smug little smile before getting up to fetch her notebook and pen. Only when she'd returned to her place beside him did he return his feet to her lap with a warning look. She didn't bother to move him this time, instead focusing on what she was writing, so he made himself comfortable.

He'd just begun to doze off, comfortable with Happy on his chest and his feet propped up alongside the familiar scents of his friends filling him when there was a loud knock. He made a sound of protest, groaning, and Lucy laughed softly, shoving his feet back off in order to stand. She stretched, popping her back as she went to open the door.

Happy scampered onto the back of the couch, eager to greet Erza now that he was awake, and Lucy smiled at him before opening the door.

As expected, Erza was there, her scarlet hair tied out of her face. Rather than the armor Lucy had grown used to seeing her in, she was in a pair of jeans and a pair of boots, a trench coat wrapped around her form. A bag was slung over her shoulder, and her dark eyes gleamed excitedly as she greeted, "Hello, Lucy. I hope it's okay, but I brought some company with me…" She waved over her shoulder, and Lucy blinked at the sight of none other than Gray. He was half-naked, just like every other time she'd seen him, and his dark eyes were friendly enough as he smiled faintly at Lucy, an almost apologetic look on his face.

"You brought the stripper?" Natsu's voice whining in her ear scared the daylights out of the celestial mage, and she jerked away in surprise. The dragon slayer had shown up to look over her shoulder, Happy resting on his own. "Why?"

Gray scowled. "You think I want to be here, stupid? Erza dragged me along."

Erza arched an eyebrow, saying icily, "Is there a problem with that, Gray?"

His gaze snapped to hers when she glanced over her shoulder at him. "No!"

"Good."

Lucy giggled to herself, stepping aside and elbowing Natsu so that he was forced to move back, too. "Come on in, guys," she told them. "You're welcome to stay here the night, but there's not that much space...someone will have to sleep on the floor. I can if you want."

"Nonsense," Erza scolded, gaze sweeping the room as she stepped inside, Gray close behind. Lucy stared at him with astonishment. How had he managed to lose his pants in the split second she'd looked away?! "Natsu will take the floor tonight."

"I never said-"

"You," Erza growled, shooting him a dangerous glare. "Will take the floor tonight, Natsu."

"Aye, sir!" the dragon slayer squeaked.

Lucy shoved her hand through her hair, her eyes wide. This was going to be an interesting night, and that was putting it simply. She closed and locked the hotel room door behind them, bustling past as she told them, "We'll have to go out for dinner, I think. I don't believe we have enough food to feed everyone…"

"Gray can pay," Erza offered cheerfully.

Gray looked at the requip mage with exasperation but only nodded, pursing his lips. Lucy giggled. Grateful Natsu had been kind enough to pay for a nice and large room rather than a cheaper small one, Luy paused to gather up her notebook and pen before heading towards the bed. "You can put your stuff wherever," she told them, smiling brilliantly.

Erza trailed after her, dropping her bag onto the bed beside Lucy's, and Gray, after dropping his bag at his feet, folded his hands behind his head and sneered, "Seriously, Natsu? Couldn't even keep from burning a building down when you were supposed to be living in it?"

Natsu bristled, flames lighting to life along his fingers, a small stream of it escaping the corner of his mouth as he snarled, "Shut up, you stupid stripper! I was protecting people. At least I can keep my clothes on!"

Gray glanced down. Lucy squeaked and ripped around, hands coming up to cover her bright red face as Natsu smirked hugely. Erza's expression became one of rage as she snapped, "If your clothes aren't back on in under a minute, Gray, then you will regret the day you joined Fairy Tail."

As Gray scrambled to find his clothes, Lucy gaped, trying to figure out why no one else was bothered by this. Happy flew himself over to sit on her shoulder, whispering in her ear, "This is normal. Gray's stripping habit is severe."

"I see," Lucy murmured back, frowning.

Erza shed her trenchcoat, dumping it atop of her belongings, then turned on her heel to stare at Lucy. Lucy blinked, slightly worried by the serious look the requip mage wore. And then Erza demanded, "I want to see how far your magic has progressed before we decide on any of the jobs Natsu picked out. According to our conversation over the phone, he grabbed every single job Fairy Tail had been asked to deal with in regards to Crocus, so we should have our pick. And I want to begin with a simple task. More than likely that escort mission he told me about."

Lucy's eyes were wide as she exchanged a look with Natsu. The fire mage only shrugged, waving at her to get on with it, and Happy didn't bother to move from her shoulder as she sighed and reached for the key in her pocket. With a quick motion, she'd summoned Plue, a proud look flashing across her face at the flash of light. Plue was standing there, not looking the least bit bothered that he'd been summoned.

"This is Plue," Lucy introduced, ducking down to scoop him into her arms. She smiled affectionately at the small Spirit. "Yukino gave me his key when we met...and he's the only Spirit I am able to summon. I can't do anything else, really, so there's really no point to even bringing me on those jobs. I won't be able to do any of them."

"Nonsense," Erza scolded. "I'm quite happy with the progress you've made. Natsu, bring out the papers, please. Gray and Lucy have yet to look through them, and I trust Gray will make sure Lucy can handle whichever one that is chosen. I'd like to have a conversation with you in private while they're doing this if you don't mind…"

Natsu looked horrified, and Happy snickered from his place on Lucy's shoulder as he whispered to her, "Natsu's in trouble."

Lucy, bewildered, simply took the papers when Natsu shoved them at her, his bad mood from the day before returning. She winced at the roughness of which they were shoved into her grasp, giving her a few paper cuts as Plue vanished with another flash of light before he was stalking towards the door, Erza close behind him. She closed the door behind them.

Wincing and shaking a hand to try and rid herself of the stinging pain, Lucy turned to Gray, who was once again fully dressed. She studied him, tilting her head slightly, and then asked, "Gray? What kind of magic do you use? I know Erza uses requip magic because she told me, but I never learned what you use."

He grinned, tugging at the collar of his shirt as if it was bothering him. "I use ice-make magic." He held his hand out, and Lucy watched curiously alongside Plue as a Fairy Tail emblem made of ice formed in his hand.

Lucy beamed. "That's beautiful," she told him, then waved him over to the couch, musing, "I got lucky that Natsu was willing to pay so much for such a big room...it's almost like my apartment, the one he burned down. I was all for paying for a much smaller place."

Gray snorted. "He's paying for this place? What a surprise. Bastard would rather sleep outside than pay so much. Stingy jerk." Lucy blinked in confusion and he smirked. "Dragon slayers inherit more than just their sense of smell from their dragons. I don't think I've ever seen someone as cheap as Natsu."

"He has a hoard," Happy piped up. "It's a huge one, too. But I don't even know where it is, and I live with him. It's as big as you, Lucy."

"You're about to lose that little tail of yours, cat," Lucy bit out. Happy only cackled and flew off to sit on the bed. "Anyways...here's the papers." She and Gray settled down onto the couch, side by side, heads bent over the papers. "I'll let you sort through them, I don't know anything about what I'm looking for."

Gray grinned, taking the papers. Lucy noted that he'd somehow lost his shirt, but sighed, not bothering to tell him about it. As long as the pants stayed on… "Okay, so you can usually tell how dangerous the jobs are by the money being offered," he explained. "There aren't as many from here that we get, so it'll be harder to show you the variety… Here we go." He set two papers side by side on his lap. "This one's for a good ten thousand jewels. It's an easy one - I think this is the escort mission Erza mentioned, so I'll let her know we'll be doing this one. All we have to do is escort this lady to another location in Crocus. Not difficult at all. But this other one is for five hundred thousand jewels."

"...are you...are you serious? Five hundred thousand?" Lucy's eyes were round with shock as she stared down at the paper. "That could pay for moving, replacing everything that burned, a new place, and even feeding Natsu for the next week!"

Gray snickered before adding pointedly, "Yes, but it's nearly an S-Class mission that requires us to take down a couple dark mages who we don't even know the identities of, Lucy. It's far more dangerous, nearly life-threatening."

Lucy grimaced, nodding her agreement before asking, "S-Class?"

"Keep forgetting you don't know anything about how we work," Gray muttered, shaking his head. "Right. Being an S-Class mage means you're stronger than a bunch of other mages. There's a bunch of other ranks, but being S-Class is most of our guild's goal, so I don't really pay all that much attention to the other ranks. Pretty sure Gildarts is above S-Class, though…"

"Got it. So S-Class missions are a big no for us," Lucy said firmly.

"Damn right they are," he replied. Gray shoved his hand thoughtfully through his dark hair, messing it up even more than it already was. "You should have seen when Natsu ran off with one. I don't think I've ever seen Erza that pissed off."

"She was scary," Happy agreed, scrambling back to sit in Lucy's lap. The celestial mage, patted his head absentmindedly, her eyes thoughtful.

"Anyways, I guess we'll go with this one." Gray carefully handed her the escort job, and Lucy set it beside her, examining her cut up hand with a sigh. Gray noticed and scowled, "Needs to learn to be more careful."

"He's working on it," Lucy protested, "He's just cranky because I didn't ask Levy or Juvia even to come." Gray blinked, then smirked, muttering about how annoying Natsu was, and Lucy giggled as she stood, carefully cradling Happy in her arms. "Do you want anything to drink? Do you think Erza might?"

"Sure," Gray agreed, standing swiftly. "I'll help with whatever you're grabbing. Can't carry however many glasses on your own, and I doubt the cat will be any help."

Lucy smiled hugely.

And then she snapped her head the other way snarling, "You can help. But put on some freaking clothes first!"