48 Fredrick and Yanderica

The stage is set.

Everyone is in their costumes.

Lyra, the harp spirit, has her song ready.

The theater is packed.

Labian is quietly hiding behind a pillar as Happy helps Krysti with some last minute adjustments to Natsu's dragon costume.

"Ok now Happy, when Gray says…" Krysti starts off before the blue cat cuts her off.

"When he says 'Come out! My dragon servent!' is when I unwrap this rope so Natsu comes down on the pulleys to start saying his lines." He says by rote. Krysti smiles widely before giving the blue cat a small kiss to his forehead.

"That's right! Good job, Happy." She whispers happily before turning to Natsu. "And you?" she asks the Dragon Slayer.

He rolls his eyes good naturedly before reciting, "As I come into view I breath out a ball of fire that isn't hot." he says that bit with annoyance because all fire should be hot and he doesn't see the reason why the fireball shouldn't be hot as well.

"And I make sure to aim it near but not at Lucy and Gray." He also says that with some annoyance because he always wants to shoot fire at his rival.

"Great job, Natsu! You'll do just fine!" says Krysti happily while beaming so widely that her eyes are closed. She fails to see the slightly put-out expression on Natsu's face when he realizes that she isn't going to give him a kiss on the forehead like she did Happy.

The little blue-furred devil does notice however and hides his wicked smile behind a paw as he giggles madly. Krysti turns to look at Happy to see what caused him to laugh like that and Happy waves it off like how Lucy would in the same situation. Narrowing her eyes suspiciously at the cat, she lets it slide for now before moving off to go help Lucy with her dress.

After making the final adjustments to Lucy's costume, she goes to quizzing the others on their lines and parts. Finally satisfied with their answers, Krysti give the thumbs up to Labian that everything is prepare to start. Lucy and her spirit Lyra peek out at the crowd looking very excited.

Krysti hurries off to where the curtain pully is and sounds off the buzzer to let the audience know the play is beginning. She then turns down the lights as the audience hushes in anticipation.

Lyra's harp rings out clearly throughout the hall. Her beautiful voice immediately captivates the audience as the curtain lifts up to reveal the spirit surrounded by mountain scenery. A spotlight slowly turned on to light up Lyra on stage as she sang.

"Ages….Ago…A story from time long forgotten…From the Western Kingdom there lived a prince all alone, his heart cried out and its echo returned… He fell in love with a princess from a distant land." She sweetly sings. Mutters from the audience can be heard about her beautiful voice.

In center stage, another spotlight turns on to revel Erza in her prince's costume. She makes such a dashing prince that she seems to sparkle in the light. The audience murmurs its approval of the prince as Erza holds her pose as Lyra continues to sing.

"Hearing about his love being in danger, the Prince of the West ventured to the Mountain of Doom." Lyra's voice slowly fades out along with the spotlight on her as Erza turns and stiffly tries to make that flourish that she is supposed to make to help introduce her character to the audience.

The others are gathered at the side of the stage where they are to enter which is the opposite side of Krysti who is handling all the technical stuff. They whisper about how apparent Erza's stage fright is.

"A journey long and fret with perils to find true loooove." Lyra ends her song of narration which is Erza cue to begin her lines. The poor thing's knees are literally shaking her how nervous she is.

"M-M-Mmm-My name is F-F-Fredrick!! I-I-I'm…To s-save…Princess…" Erza manages to stutter out as she tries to walk to her next spot but fails. In her extremely agitated state of mind, she skips to a completely different scene.

"I…With these s-s-s-swords…." Is all she can stutter out. "I wield the power…" Erza pushes out with a mighty effort. So mighty that she actually summons them and due to her frazzled state of mind, she launches them into the audience. Thankfully no one was injured but it did give them quite a scare and took attention away from her stage fright.

Lucy makes the executive decision to skip forward to where Erza is at in her lines to help out the red head. Happy flies over to tell Krysti what they are doing and she prepares for it on the technical side. Soon they have Lucy being lowered on a rope as a damsel in distress.

"Prince Fredrick! Please save me from that infamous Sienhart!" Lucy calls out to Erza. Krysti flinches at that mistake, because she knows that if you're going to improvise like that you have to fill in your own explanation of who characters are.

Especially if you're going to name drop them like that as if the audience is supposed to know who they are. Mutters of who Sienhart is can be heard clearly and the brunette grimaces.

Gray strides confidently out and with a commanding voice declares, "My name is Julius! If you wish to save the princess, you must defeat me!" He ends on a pose and cries from the audience wondering who the hell Julius is and what happened to Sienhart can be heard clearly. Getting frustrated with her friends not being able to improv, Krysti grabs a microphone and starts to narrate.

"As Julius taunts Prince Fredrick to attack him, he stands there smugly knowing that even if he is defeated, no one can defeat his secret weapon given to him personally by his master, Sienhart." Krysti's voice rings out, catching the actors off guard at first but they quickly realize what she is doing. Even Erza seems to have calmed down some as she hears Krysti narrate the story.

"A-A fight? If that is w-what I have to do to s-save the princess, a f-fight you shall get!" Erza says as she shakily points her sword at Gray.

"Fredrick, the greatest swordsman of his kingdom, is confident in his abilities to take out Julius, the right-hand man of Sienhart, the brutish tyrant to the south." Krysti narrates.

Gray summons his ice sword and he and Erza do battle with Erza winning. Gray then summons Natsu in his dragon costume to come out and take on Erza while all the while Krysti narrates. Thanks to the battle, Erza hit her stride and she along with the others finished the play without any more hitches.

The brunette is just glad she and Lucy took time to fix the worst parts of the play. As the curtains falls she lets out a sigh of relief just after turning off the microphone. The applause is quite loud and the others go out to take their bows. Krysti trains the spotlights on them as she sits there happy that it came together in the end and nothing bad happened.

Thinking that the others must be tired, she leaves to go to the actor's dressing room area to prepare some tea and snacks for the group. Her friends pile into the room just as she finishes setting up the table for them. Natsu of course dives into the snacks along with Happy while the other three show more restraint.

Labian shows up with blushing cheeks as he starts showering them with thanks for doing such a great job.

"Never had I seen a play do so well! You must keep performing to make sure the theater stays a success!" he wiggles in excitement. Everyone exchanges uneasy glances at this.

One Week Later.

The applause fades away from yet another successful performance and the mages trudge into their break room, tired from performing three times a day every single day. So far the only thing to come from it is that Erza finally seems to of gotten over her stage fright. Otherwise it's the same thing which quickly got boring for the others.

Krysti is glad she got the magical resistant paint because after the 5th performance, it seems that the fights Erza has with Gray and Natsu seem to getting more violent as if they are taking out their boredom on each other.

When their costumes started to get torn from the fighting, they got scolded by the brunette since she was the one who was in charge of the costumes and she doesn't need more work since she spends most of her time repairing the damage done on stage by those three. With how successful the play has been and each showing has sold out, their pleas to Labian to let them be done with the job falls on deaf ears.

So the overworked members of Fairy Tail hatch a plan.

To lure in an actual troop of actors to take their place so they can finally leave.

Even with the recent success of Fredrick and Yanderica, most troops were hesitant to try because of Labian's reputation of bad plays. Luckily, 5 days later, a troop from another country agrees to take over the play and as soon as Labian heard that professionals were willing to act in his theatre he quickly hustled the Fairy Tail mages out with their pay without even a thank you.

Glad to be freed from the job, Natsu starts running around like crazy while the others cheer. To celebrate their newfound freedom, they head over to the nearest café and splurge. After eating their fill, they get tickets for the first train home and it seems that it will be evening by the time they get back to Magnolia.

Natsu for once is happy to be getting on the train. The tea seems to have almost completely gotten rid of his nausea and he starts making a nuisance of himself by running up and down the aisle. Although his fun has to be put to an end once he starts cartwheeling.

Once the Dragon Slayer is back in his seat, he can't help but squirm around as he watches the scenery pass by. Gray is annoyed but the rest of us just smile at the fire mage's antics since after all this is probably the first time he is able to ride the train without being sick.

Krysti looks at him with a fond smile which of course Lucy and Happy have to tease her about. Rolling her eyes, the eldest of the group just ignores them and settles down to enjoy the ride. Her mind wanders and partway home, she realizes that its been over two weeks since Porlyusica said that she can't use magic. So with an excited smile Krysti closes her eyes and concentrates.

Just like before she can feel some stirring within as she concentrates but this time it flows freely instead of being stoppered up like before. A quick peek and she lets out an excited gasp which draws everyone's attention. A small amber flame sits on top of her palm just as nicely as it can be.

Seeing the warm honey-orange glow sends a feeling of comfort in the brunette's body. She can actually feel the flow of magic as it seeps into her to help fuel the flame. The others are happy and cheer for her and she grins that is until pink hair suddenly fills her vision.

The sound of a chomp and the sudden disappearance of the warmth leaves a vacant feeling in her. Natsu leans back with a satisfied look on his face as he chews her flame.

"Now that is a tasty fire." He says with a small belch. Indignant, Krysti turns to berate him for eating her fire like that when extreme exhaustion overtakes her. Her eyes close shut as she falls forward to lean against Natsu.

"Oi! What's wrong, Crispy?" he gently shakes her to try to get her to respond. Nothing. He shakes her a littler harder.

"Hey! Wake up!" Still no response. His muscles bunch up as he gets ready to shake her harder when Erza stops him.

"Natsu." The sound of her commanding voice has the pink haired man freeze completely.

"Leave her be. The strain to summon her magic worn her out. Let Krysti sleep." He looks down in disgruntlement at the brunette in his arms and sighs before looking away with a slight blush. Happy and Lucy start to tease him about liking the woman in his arms and it riles up his temper.

This of course makes Gray want to join in the fun of teasing the Dragon Slayer. And he does with gusto. When Natsu lights on fire and is about to get into a throw-down match with Gray, Erza stops them effectively with just a word.

Natsu hmmphs with arms crossed over his chest and turns to look out the window and without his support, Krysti slumps down into his lap. He glances down, startled before looking back out the window to stare at the scenery.

No one notices that during the ride, his hand makes its way to her head. He gently strokes her hair not unlike how she would when their positions were reversed.

________________

I wake up feeling so tired. My neck hurts so I shift to ease the pressure on it and I notice that my pillow is unusually firm and warm. I open my eyes to see something off white. Curious, I keep looking and see some black and gold as well. I push myself up and it becomes quickly apparent that my 'pillow' was in fact Natsu's lap.

I can feel my face redden and Happy's snickering has me turn to look in his direction. (So I fell asleep on Natsu's lap while on the train. Well, color me embarrassed.)

I glance over at my roommate and mumble out, "I'm sorry." Before looking away to stare at the floor.

"Why are you apologizing? Geez Lucy's weirdness must be rubbing off on you. Don't be such a weirdo." Natsu replies good naturedly.

"Don't call me weird!" Lucy snaps angrily at the Dragon Slayer.

"But Lucy, you are weird!" Happy exclaims quite cheerfully. The irate blonde mumbles something violent that she wants to do to the blue cat before it quietens down again. The rest of the train ride passes along in peace although I really want to practice using my magic.

Yet, I don't want to risk Natsu eating my fire again and making me pass out like earlier. Although it was kinda nice waking up in his lap like that. (First time I ever fell asleep on a guy. Just too bad it really hurts the neck.) The thought of my neck has me crack it and I let out a happy sigh of relief at the release of pressure.

The release causes tingles to spread through my body like waves on a beach and they wouldn't stop. Closing my eyes, I concentrate on the feeling and realize that its not unlike the feeling of magic when I was able to summon it. I continue to focus on the feeling, letting the Etheranos flow into me.

After a while I get the image of water being poured into a glass already full and the excess water spilling over the glass. Without warning, the train slows down to stop and it breaks me out of my meditation.

As the others get up, I follow after them to get off the train. Stepping out, I move to the side to give the other passengers a chance to get out as I survey the town. (Even if it is small and quaint compared to the cities from back home, its still a pretty town.) I think to myself as I look at the buildings draped in the warm golden glow of the setting sun.

A glint of light catches my attention, and I can see something shining in a window of a shop a street away. Without thought, I turn to go towards the shop intensely curious at what could be causing this. The light twinkles merrily in the shop window, beckoning me to come towards it. I take a few steps forward when a cool hand grasps my left shoulder.

"Didn't you hear us call you?" Gray asks as I turn my head to look at him. I blink my eyes in surprise.

"Oh! Sorry, no. I didn't hear. I was distracted by that light over there." I explain as I turn to point at the shop. But now the sun moved just enough that the bright twinkling light is gone.

"What light?" Gray asks as he takes a couple of steps past me to see what I was staring at.

I frown somewhat at this.

"Its gone now. But I did see a light in that shop." I explain.

"Well the rest of us are going back to the guild. You coming?" he asks as he turns to look at me.

"Yea. I'll be there in a bit. I just want to check out the shop's name first." I reply distractedly. My curiosity is peaked and I want to see what that light was.

"Alright. See you." Gray calls out from behind me. I wave my hand to acknowledge him as I walk towards that building. I see more lights blink on and off in random patterns thru the shop glass window as I get closer. Slowly sounding out the letters, I think the name is The Crystal Palace. I'm not too sure though since the way the words are written in a different style than what is in the learning books.

As I near the shop window, I can see a multitude of crystals of all shapes, sizes, and colors. The shopkeeper must have seen me from inside because not long after I started window shopping, he opened the door to beckon me inside.

I walk in and see a wondrous sight. Not only is there all sorts of crystals, but most are also emitting a slight glow with a rainbow of colors everywhere. I let my jaw drop as I take in this magical sight. The shopkeeper chuckles at me and I smile at him, unashamed at all.

"So how can I help you today?" he asks while smiling happily.

________________

I leave the shop delighted with my purchase. I open the bag to smile again at the lacrima inside. (This is perfect. I can't believe that this world even has deodorizing magic crystals. With this, I can finally get rid of the stench in the bathroom!) I let out a happy laugh before tucking the bag under my arm as I continue on home.

(Knowing Natsu, he and Happy won't be home until later tonight. This will give me time to cook something good. Hmmm? What should I cook today?) Lost in my thoughts I wander through the streets happily humming.

The sun is close to setting when I make it home.

The lights are off so I know Natsu isn't home. Still feeling joyous, the urge to sing is too strong to overcome so I don't resist. I pull out my iPod and plug in the earbuds as it powers on. Soon enough I am singing to my collection of songs as I cook and clean. Not caring how I sound, I put all my feelings into each song as it comes up.