47 Preperation

As we get closer to the town with the job whose name I can't remember at the moment, I get more and more excited to get started. Not only is it my first out of town guild mission, it's a job to help with a theater. (Ah, the theater! If it wasn't for the fact that I might have had better luck winning the lottery than becoming an actress I so would have gone into the theater instead of trying to become a veterinarian.)

"Cool it, will ya?" Natsu grumbles as he is laying down with his head in my lap like the last time I was on the train a few weeks ago. Natsu says his motion sickness isn't fully cured and that this is the best way for him to ride the train for now. Lucy won't let him use her lap and he would rather not risk using Erza's.

Gray basically shoved Natsu at me so he could sit next to Lucy and the window so I'm stuck with Natsu and Happy whether I wanted them or not. During the train ride Lucy slowly started to relax and calm herself down which is making me wonder what she was so nervous about. So far besides the beginning shuffling of seats, it's been a nice quiet ride. I look down fondly at the fire mage before ruffling his hair with a grin.

"Sorry about that, Pinky. Didn't realize you needed your beauty sleep." I apologize with a chuckle.

"What's beauty sleep?" Happy asks from his perch on Erza's lap.

"Just a saying back on my world. The way I understand it is that some women claimed the more they slept the more beautiful they became, so getting more sleep than you need is called beauty sleep. Of course I could be completely wrong, but it isn't like I can go see how the saying got started for real. Although there is a big chance that it could be tied into the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty. Depending on the version of the story it can be real sweet, to downright creepy." I inform the blue cat.

"What is that story about?" Erza asks with an interested look. Lucy and Happy look very interested as well and I smile happily at their curiosity. (I should probably tell them the more Disney version since these guys are quite innocent and I'd rather not mentally scar them. Yet. Hehe.) I close my eyes to help me remember it just as I begin telling the story.

"Well basically the story of Sleeping Beauty is about how when the princess Aurora is born, the king and queen invited all the important people in their kingdom and the surrounding ones to a party to celebrate the princess being born. 3 good fairies came to the party and they gave her the gift of beauty and song."

"Before the 3rd gift was given the party was crashed by the bad fairy Maleficent. Despite the insult of not being invited, she bestowed a gift unto the child. That yes she will grow beautiful and all will love her but before the sun sets on her 16th birthday she will prick her finger on a spindle of a spinning wheel and she will die." I pause here to see if they are still listening and I'm surprised to see everyone riveted.

"What kind of gift is that? Making someone die on their 16th birthday!" Gray asks indignantly.

"That's the thing, Gray. It wasn't a gift, it was a curse." I explain to him.

Lucy exclaims fearfully while shivering, "A curse!"

"Well what happened?" Natsu asks impatiently as he sits upright in his seat and turns to face me.

"You guys are really that interested?" I ask still feeling the initial surprise as I get lots of nods and 'Yes'es.

"Maybe I should start again in the proper way then since I'm just giving the summary of the story." i say thoughtfully. This is where they start to disagree. The boys want the story to continue while the girls want to hear the whole thing in the proper way. As they squabbled about it, I figured the best compromise is to continue the story, but in the proper way. I whistle sharply to catch their attention.

I lean closer to the others as I start moving my hands to go with my voice as I go into storytelling mode. I pitch my voice low to add drama to start, "As Maleficent said those words a great wind burst into the room swirling everywhere as a green fire shot out of her staff to hit the slumbering babe. Amidst the gasps and cries of outrage that the evil fairy would dare strike the innocent princess, Maleficent cackled wildly."

I did a wild witch's cackle to add to the story. No one else was in the car with us so I didn't worry about bothering anyone so I gave my all into that cackle. Taking a deep breath I continue in a deep voice, "The sound of it sent chills down the nobles' spines as fear clutched their throats." I shortly pause to see that everyone is listening wide eyed to the tale.

"Her raven companion let out a shrill squawking as if laughing with his mistress and with a great swirl of her cape, the evil fairy disappears in a puff of smoke. The lights which were dimmed by her presence brighten back up to their former glory as if nothing has happened. The great wind and the green fire surrounding the princess also fade away with the departure of the evil Maleficent. As if no longer bound in place, the king and queen rush over to their precious baby to find that she is perfectly fine and still sleeping."

By now, I have everyone's complete attention and they all lean towards me to listen to the story better. Happy even moved over from Erza's lap to lay on Natsu's head.

"The queen starts crying tears for her baby girl who is now cursed to die before she can grow up. The king, overcome with grief, pulls his sobbing wife into his arms so they can comfort each other however little it may be. The last fairy, who has not given her gift yet flies over to the sorrow-filled parents to let them know that there is some hope."

I pitch my voice higher to mimic a soft spoken fairy," 'Fear not good king and kind queen, for I have not given my gift yet.' The monarchs look up at the small green fairy, the look of hope in their eyes almost too much for the little fairy to handle for she has sad news as well. 'Alas, wicked Maleficent's magic is too strong for me to get rid of, so the small princess will remained cursed, but I can change some of the curse.'"

The train comes to a halt signaling the end of our journey and the beginning of the mission.

"Don't stop!" Happy cries out as I get up to put on my pack that Erza is letting me use for our mission.

"We gotta get to our job now." I tell the pleading cat.

"That doesn't mean you can stop telling the story. Keep talking until we get to the building at least." Happy begs with his large kitten eyes. Looking at the others, they also have hopeful expressions. Laughing, I agree while getting off the train. After everyone is off and we regroup, I continue with the tale.

______________

The group of 6 finally make it to the theater since they walked slower than normal to get more of the fascinating tale of Sleeping Beauty. It's a story they haven't heard before and Krysti's surprising skill of storytelling left them feeling enraptured. Lucy realizes that it is similar to the story The Cursed Princess, but not so much that she didn't enjoy the story as well.

Krysti is pleased while telling her friends one of the fairy tales she grew up with. It reminded her of when she would volunteer to read to kids at the library. She spent many years reading what that building had to offer and greatly enjoyed telling stories to the younger kids to get them into the joy of reading as well.

Doing the kid story time is the main reason why she has been wanting to get into theater. Being able to make so many little kids happy with just simple storytelling, she wanted to spread the happiness to even more people.

"Whoa." Arriving at the building, Krysti looks up with big shining eyes, excited to do something in the Arts. The large brunette is passionate about many things, science being one of the main ones, but what not many people know, including her family is that she is passionate about the performing arts as well.

Living in a small town like she did, was not conducive to the theater. So volunteering for children's story time was the closest she could get. That included when she was going to school. Sports was all the rage and not much of the school budget was left if any at all for theatre plays.

So being in a production has been a secret dream of hers that has burned brightly for many years. Now that dream is coming true even if she is only going to be a stagehand.

"Whoa."  The whole group says in unison as they take in the size and grandeur of the theater.

"It's huge!" Lucy exclaims with wide eyes and mouth gapping.

"This place is classy." Happy comments as he gazes up in wonder and awe. Erza knocks on the door and a sad sounding male voice wafts from behind a pillar that was behind the group.

"Excuse me. Um… hello?" the voice calls out sadly and everyone turns to see a small man who is about waist high hiding behind the pillar.

He wiggles a bit as he continues, "Um, you are the members from Fairy Tail? I'm so glad you responded to my request."

"Sure! Just leave the stage work to us." Lucy answers in her usual chipper way. At her words the small man seems to shrink down some while looking sheepish.

"Actually, about that… I'm in a bit of a pickle right now…" he informs the group while looking even more sheepish. Everyone looks confused at his words and he lets out a sigh in defeat.

"Come inside and I'll explain. Thank you." He says as he seems to disappear behind the pillar. Everyone exchanges glances before moving to the door to go inside as the owner asked. He leads them to a small room that is sectioned off by a curtain and has various costumes and acting props strewn about.

The owner hides as the group settles around the table. Krysti decides to stand behind the others instead of sitting down and Natsu joins her so he doesn't have to sit next to Gray.

The owner's fingers grip the curtain worriedly before he lets out another deep sigh and says sadly, "My name is Labian. I am the manager/owner of the Selazade Theatre Group. The play will have to be delayed because all the actors deserted me."

The Fairy Tail wizards look at the small man in shock as Lucy blurts out, "Wha…? All the actors ran away?"

"Yes. Thank you." Labian replies.

"For what?" Happy says under his breath.

With a forced smile, Labian continues his tale, "All my plays have been bombing, one after another. And someone keeps giving bad reviews about the plays. It's to the point that even the actors have become ashamed to be in them. They were worried that if they stayed on in my theater…"

A shadowed look enters his expression as he goes on, "I quit my well-paying job 10 years ago to pursue my dream by opening, owning, and operating a theater. Even my wife got sick of me chasing my dream and left me."

The smile left his face and he started to cry loudly, "I'm only left with this theatre! It's all I have left going for me! I'm truly grateful to you guys!!!"

Gray looks uncomfortable with Labian's crying as he replies, "What is there to thank?"

"Its as I said. If you guys didn't come to help, this theatre would have to close down. I'm really thankful. But the play is called off! Thank you!" Labian starts crying again. Natsu looks bored while Gray starts to look exasperated and Lucy is concerned.

Krysti who has been whispering with Erza during the small man's emotional display leans back with a smile and an odd glint in her eyes.

"Oh, that's all that's troubling you?" Erza comments off-handly with her head lowered.

"I thought it was something big…" The redhead lifts her face up and her expression causes her entire being to light up like she is in a spotlight.

"If you need actors, there's two right here." She says while gesturing to herself and Krysti who also starts to shine just as brilliantly as Erza.

"What!?" Lucy gasps out while looking at the two older women.

"They're dazzling!" Gray blurts out, shocked by it all. Erza immediately starts to almost sing a bunch of syllables which is soon followed by Krysti doing a different set.

"Vocal exercises." Happy exclaims when he figures out what the women were doing. Natsu with a grim look on his face walks up to Krysti and bonks her hard on the head.

"What the hell, Natsu!?" the brunette snaps as she levels a glare at the scowling Dragon Slayer.

"The old hag said not to use magic for two weeks." He growls out.

"I was not!" Krysti defended herself.

"Yes you were!" Natsu retorted. Soon the two roommates started bickering childishly and ignored everything else around them, causing everyone but Erza to chuckle uncomfortably.

Clapping her hands to dispel the awkwardness Lucy turns towards the owner as she says, "Actually it does sound kind of neat."

"We won't let your dream end." Gray adds helpfully.

Labian looks touched by their offer to help that he seems like he is about to cry again.

"Everyone…" he says softly as his eyes mist up in gratitude. Without warning his expression sours as he looks off to the side. "Well, I guess I can let you try… Amateurs. " he mutters not-so-silently in a complete 180 degree change of personality. Lucy chuckles uneasily as she, Gray, and Happy aren't sure how to take this personality change in the man.

"Now he doesn't thank us." Gray says under his breath being the only one to say anything about the owner's odd language tic.

Natsu and Krysti continue to squabble and Erza is in her own world while doing vocal exercises.

______________

Labian handed out scripts afterwards and everyone picked a part for themselves except for Krysti who felt there wasn't a part she could play. So she resigned herself to be a stagehand just like she expected to be during the train ride.

She didn't hide her disappointment as well as she thought, but the others didn't know how to help so they left things be. The other five even had tracksuits with the Fairy Tail logo that they changed into while working on stage which made the older woman feel even more left out.

They were informed by Labian that the play was scheduled to be performed next week so everyone got busy to do the best they could. Lucy, who read and seen many plays, and Krysti, who took acting classes, noticed right off the bat something was wrong with the script. The two book loving girls saw that the play Fredrick and Yanderica is quite bad.

Correction, very bad.

The very basic plot is a normal princess gets kidnapped and has to be rescued from the evil doers type of story. But the way the story is told is quite awful, everything from what the actors say to how the story is resolved just screams awful. So on that first day and well into the night, the two worked hard to fix the play.

The girls decided to just fix the worst of the problems because if they took the time to make the script any better then they wouldn't have enough time to actually be ready for the play. It didn't sit well with them to not make it as best as it could be, but with their time constraint, this is the best they could hope for.

The next morning, the new improved copies of the script was handed out and everyone got to work. They rehearsed like crazy to make sure they got all their lines down and Erza turned out be to an amazing actress. She plays the dashing prince so well that when they bound her chest for the dress rehearsal that anyone who didn't know her would think she was an actual prince straight out of a fairy tale.

Gray and Natsu, who have much less stage time than Lucy and Erza, helped Krysti with lots of the stage work by building and painting sets. The brunette got the idea to set up a pulley and cable system to support Natsu in his dragon costume. While having Happy to fly him around is all well and good but it would be too much for the little cat to carry Natsu plus four large wooden barrels.

She was very big on safety, and on the 3rd day Krysti went out and got a special magic resistant protective paint coating to cover the stage and props with. Mainly it was due to seeing how easily the boy's magic was able to destroy the props in one of their small fights.

Knowing how her friends tend to get mad and start fighting with magic at the drop of the hat, she figured the cost would be worth it. Although to not insult them, she would get up during the night as they slept and would go to work covering everything she could get ahold of.

Happy was given the job to distribute fliers for the play to which he had a lot of fun with. He would fly all over the town high into the air and scattered the fliers into the wind so the entire town became covered in them. He didn't stop there, in Fairy Tail fashion, he went overboard and flew everywhere he could to spread the news. By the last day before the performance it seems that half of Fiore was covered in the flyers.

At one point during the 5th day of rehearsals, Labian came up to the stage and announced that the cheering squad has arrived. The 6 friends exchanged glances, confused at who it could be. Without a word, they all head outside to find not just Mira and Makarov there, but a handful of other people as well.

Krysti recognized the Captain from the pirate ship that took her off of Galuna Island, but everyone else was a stranger to her. She hung back as the rest of her friends went up to greet and exchange pleasantries with the newcomers. As the large group talked and had fun reminiscing she slinked away to go back to the stage to continue painting one of the sets.

Barely a minute after the arrival of the others, Lucy was emotionally exhausted from the entire group and how ridiculous they can be. Some of their demon friends in their human form from Galuna Island showed up, along with the some of the guild masters from when they fought Lullaby. Even the guy, Bora, who pretended to be Natsu when Lucy first met the Dragon Slayer came to support the play.

Most importantly is Yajima from the Magic Council who is a big supporter of Fairy Tail despite their antics. The tired blonde crawled up the steps to get some breathing room from the conflicting mix of personalities. As she sat up to recover her mental fortitude, she noticed something amiss. It took her a minute to figure out that Krysti has disappeared.

Just as she was going to call out to the others about the missing brunette, she heard a muffled shout coming from inside. Curiosity gripped her and without a word to the others, she went in to investigate. Lucy peers down onto the stage after entering to find that the brunette is clutching her foot while cursing like crazy.

The celestial mage blushed from some of the more… colorful… words the older woman used. Lucy made her way down to the stage and Krysti noticed her as the blonde neared. An annoyed expression soon turned into a sad one as the brunette became more depressed.

"Krysti, what's going on? Why aren't you outside with the others?" Lucy asked the older woman concerned and slightly alarmed at the mood the older women is in. Krysti sighed deeply before bending over to pick up the freshly painted bush that fell on her foot. She sighs in resignation when she sees that the paint not only smudged on the bush but left a mark on the floorboards that needs to be cleaned up before it dries.

"Nothing much." she finally says in a low monotone as she goes to grab a rag. "I just want to get this done as soon as possible. You been working hard, go out and take a break with the others." Lucy frowns at the lifeless tone that Krysti used to answer her. Something was wrong with her friend and she is planning on getting to the bottom of it.

"You're working just as hard as the rest of us. You deserve a break as well." Lucy countered as Krysti took a nearby water bottle to wet the rag.

Krysti snorts a little before shaking her head, "Naw, that's ok. You go have fun. I'll be fine right here." She gets down on her knees and begins to scrub the floor. Silence is her answer and Krysti's eyes begin to mist as the dam holding back her emotions starts to crumble. Another rag dropping onto the floor with a wet smack startles the brunette enough to look up at the blonde girl dropping onto her knees as well.

Lucy gives a bright grin as she says, "I'm just fine right here as well." Still grinning, she looks down to help get the paint off the stage. At those words, Krysti's eyes begin to water up again. This time however for a completely different reason.

She left in the first place because at that moment, seeing her friends with all these other people that they knew, she keenly felt out of place and that she doesn't belong. Fairy Tail has been so welcoming and inviting that she was able to easily forget that she is an off-worlder even with all the differences between the two worlds.

Seeing all those people she doesn't know interacting with her friends like they've known each other for years had her remember and it hit the brunette like a punch in the gut.

So she fled.

Fled from her friends because she didn't want to bother them with her feelings. She always knew that she didn't belong but despite everything it wasn't until just -that- moment that the fact actually hit her. Everything going on kept her so distracted that it hasn't really set in.

She doesn't belong and she may never belong to this world. Deep in her heart she knows she isn't going to give up looking for ways to get home, but at the same time Krysti's practical side says that she needs to adjust to this place because odds are she isn't going back home.

With Lucy coming in and refusing to leave, the larger woman was overcome with gratitude. That small action helped remind her that despite not being from this world, that she wasn't alone and wasn't going to be alone. That she has friends now, friends who actually care about her well-being.

Everything that she is feeling spills out suddenly and she tries to choke back a sob that wants to escape. Lucy hears it and sees Krysti red-faced and struggling not to cry. Greatly worried, Lucy scrambles over to the older woman and hugs her.

That action releases the dam and Krysti flings her arms around Lucy and cries hard. All the tears that she cried for all those early mornings back in the woods by Natsu's house were for her family and what would happen to them without her there. This time with Lucy, was the first time she cried for herself.

She cried for her lost home and family. She cried for how she may never get back home. She cried for how she knows she will never see her mother again. She cried for every missed moment and opportunity she could have and should have had with her family.

Lucy stays quiet through it all.

Not knowing what is causing the breakdown but she is resolute in being there for the woman who has become a big sister to her. Lucy just hugs Krysti tighter, not minding the fact her clothes are getting damp. The only sounds in the great hall are the sobs from a homesick girl and the quiet reassurances from her friend.