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Lucy stared up at the front of Master Bob’s mansion and sighed. Why had the master decided to send her on this mission again? They were teaming up with three other guilds to attack an extremely powerful dark guild. Sending the others all made sense. Erza, Jellal, Simon, Natsu, and Erik were some of the strongest wizards in Fairy Tail. So why had he thought it was a good idea to send a newbie like Lucy along?
Oh, yeah, apparently she had a talent for keeping Natsu relatively focused, and she and Natsu had gone on jobs with Erza’s team before. (She, Natsu, and Happy tended to float back and forth between Team Erza and the Ice Djinn Trio for jobs.) Lucy had a nagging feeling, though, that she had actually been sent in the vague hope that she could keep Natsu and Erik from killing each other. Erik was quite possibly the only man in Fairy Tail who wasn’t completely cowed by Erza, but then again not much seemed to phase Erik. Honestly, if Erza wasn’t enough of a threat to keep Natsu and Erik in line, Lucy had no idea what she was supposed to do about it.
The foyer of the house had a wide, sweeping staircase and chandeliers. It reminded Lucy of the mansion of one of her father’s former business associates.
“It’s a beautiful building,” Jellal commented, pointedly ignoring the way that Erik and Natsu were glowering at each other. Simon nodded. For such a cheerful and positive person, it always struck Lucy as odd that Jellal favored such a dark wardrobe. “Mystogan would like it. He likes open, airy architecture.”
“He definitely would,” Erza agreed.
“Mystogan?” asked Lucy.
Jellal looked surprised.
“You haven’t met him, yet? I guess I shouldn’t really be surprised – he’s pretty shy and didn’t exactly hang around after that stunt Laxus pulled. Mystogan is my twin brother.” Jellal paused, an odd expression flickering across his face so fast that Lucy almost missed it. “Well, more or less.”
Before Lucy could ask what he meant – either you were someone’s twin brother or you weren’t, there wasn’t exactly a lot of middle ground – three young men appeared on the stairs and things got… weird. Like, ‘how did I end up in a host club and isn’t this sexual harassment’ weird. Lucy didn’t mind a bit of fawning, but this was just awkward and uncomfortable. And why did the tsundere one seem to like her best?
Then Hibiki made the mistake of trying put an arm around Erza. It was a very big mistake, because Jellal and Simon were already looking kind of twitchy and upset. They always seemed rather protective of Erza even though she was the strongest member of their team. Lucy was still surprised when Simon grabbed Hibiki by the front of the shirt, lifted him up, looked him dead in the eye, and rumbled, “She’s already in a relationship.”
“Of course, my apologies!” Hibiki wheezed, wide eyed. His feet weren’t actually touching the floor. Simon let go, and Hibiki’s shoes hit the carpeting with a muffled thud.
“Now then, we’re here to work, not have fun,” spoke a smooth voice from the staircase. Lucy looked up and blanched. His voice was definitely the only smooth thing about this guy. He was- He was- “Mmm! What a beautiful parfum!” Oh gods, he was sniffing her! Creepy!!! “Get all of this cleaned up!”
“Yes, boss!” came the chorus, and the three young men began rushing about, cleaning up the mess they had made.
“I-Ichiya,” Erza stuttered. Stuttered. She appeared to be fixed in place by horror. Lucy thought Erza might have been shaking, because her armor was rattling faintly.
“Ah! My glorious Titania Erza!” Ichiya swooped in for a sniff. “As always you have the most wondrous par-”
WHAM!
A burst of radiant golden starlight sent Ichiya flying towards the entrance doors. Jellal was holding his arm out straight, palm perpendicular to the ground and pointing at where Ichiya had been standing less than a second ago. Jellal’s expression was terrifyingly neutral.
“I thought you were supposed to be the team’s diplomat!” Lucy screeched. How were they supposed to take on Oracion Seis if they all killed each other first?!
Ichiya didn’t hit the door because someone had opened the door just as he had been sent flying. Instead, Ichiya bounced of the air just in front of a short, unimpressed man with the most ridiculously massive eyebrows Lucy had ever seen.
“How… predictable,” the man sneered and raised one humungous eyebrow.
“Oh. I was hoping that Fairy Tail would send the Ice Djinn Trio. After all, the wonderful Lyon is… love. But then again I suppose his absence is also love.” A woman with long pink hair followed the man with the truly spectacular eyebrows through the door looking forlorn.
Eyebrows let out an annoyed sigh,
“It’s best that the Ice Djinn aren’t here, Sherry. It would have made things even more awkward.”
Lucy frowned at them. Short with huge eyebrows. Pink hair and ‘love.’ Why did this all sound so familiar…? Oh, god. These were some of the people Gray had mentioned fighting during that whole Galuna Island-Deliora fiasco. They really had gone straight and joined a proper guild in the end, then? Thank heavens the Ice Djinn Trio had been away on a job when the master had assigned this mission. Lyon still hid under the table at the mere mention of the ‘love’ woman, Sherry. As for Gray and Ultear…. Well, the less said, the better.
“Honestly, Ichiya, at least try to show some decorum.” A massive bald man followed through the door, stepping fastidiously over Ichiya’s slightly singed form.
“Meeeen…,” came the quiet groan from the floor.
“We are the representatives from Lamia Scale,” continued the bald man. He eyed Ichiya who had started inching like a caterpillar towards his students and safety. “I see that this alliance is already off to a promising start.”
There was a sound of a scuffle behind her, and Lucy turned just in time to see Cubelios flatten Natsu to the ground with a smack of her tail while a somewhat rumpled Erik looked smug. Damn it! When had those two started fighting again?
Eyebrows let out a snort.
“Really? Fairy Tail felt it necessary to send six wizards? But then, I suppose you don’t have anyone strong enough to match Jura in your guild, do you?”
Erik and Natsu abruptly stopped squabbling and turned as one to face this insult. Arguments over what constituted a dragon and a real dragon slayer could wait in the face of such blatant slander to their guild. Erik had on his so-incredibly-calm-he-looked-like-he-was-going-to-murder-you face, and Natsu’s right fist was on fire.
“Are you calling our guild weak?” Natsu snarled.
“He is. I can hear him,” Erik confirmed a little too causally. Behind him, Cubelios rose up and flared her wings.
Jellal quickly stepped in before things could escalate any further.
“How about everybody takes a step back and calms down. We’re here to work together – this isn’t a competition. Save your energy for Oracion Seis.”
“You’re hardly one to talk!” yelped one of Ichiya’s students. Lucy thought his name was Eve. “You blasted Ichiya in the face!”
Jellal’s expression didn’t even show the slightest bit of remorse.
“He was invading Erza’s personal space even though he’s been warned before what would happen if he ever did that again. He knew exactly what the consequences would be,” Jellal informed the younger man cheerfully. “Now,” he continued, “three of the four teams of representatives are here. We’re just waiting on the representative from Caitshelter.”
“They only sent one person?” asked Sherry incredulously. The bald man, who Lucy supposed was the ‘Jura’ Eyebrows had been taking about before, nodded.
“Just how powerful are they?” asked Hibiki.
“They must have enough power to rival one of the wizard saints,” mused Erza.
Lucy bit her lip. Whoever it was, was probably incredibly dangerous. What guild would be confident enough to send just one person on such an exceedingly perilous mission?
There was a patter of feet, a quiet squeak, and a loud thud.
A small girl with long blue hair was lying sprawled face first on the carpet. She couldn’t have been more than twelve.
“Ow,” she mumbled, sitting up. “Um.” She looked up at their staring faces, and her cheeks pinked with embarrassment.
“Are you alright?” asked Simon, crouching down and offering her a hand up.
“Y-yes.” She accepted the hand and then brushed off the front of her dress once she was standing. “I’m Wendy Marvel from Caitshelter,” she told them shyly. “I’m sorry I’m late. It’s very nice to meet all of you.”
Simon was the only one to react. Everyone else was too busy trying to process the idea that somebody had sent a twelve year old to help take down a dark guild.
Simon took ahold of her upper arms in his huge hands and lifted her straight off the ground like she was a feather. Wendy let out an ‘eep!’ of surprise. He stared at her for a long moment.
“You’re adorable,” he finally declared. “I want one.” Simon turned his head to look pointedly at Erza and Jellal. “Make me one.” Then he set Wendy back down and patted her on the head.
Jellal’s face had gone very red. Erza was just eyeing Wendy speculatively.
“S-Simon!” Jellal squawked. “You know the deal! No kids until you make S-class, and Erza says she’s ready!” He crossed his arms uncomfortably.
Lucy really, really didn’t understand the relationship between those three, and she didn’t want to either.
“I can’t believe they sent that kid all by herself,” someone muttered.
“She isn’t all by herself,” corrected a haughty voice. “I came with her as well.”
And another bipedal talking cat walked into Lucy’s life, though this one was white and female. Happy’s jaw nearly fell off. And the world descended into a vacillation between cuteness overload, awkwardness, and Simon chasing Ichiya’s students around the room for being perverts who hit on not-even-teenage-yet girls.
“Wendy. I know that name from somewhere.” Natsu looked like he was trying to concentrate. He scrunched up his face. “I can’t remember.” He turned to Erik. “Can you remember?”
“I can hear people’s thoughts. I can’t read minds,” Erik growled.
“There’s a difference?”
Lucy resisted the urge to put her head in her hands. This group would be lucky if they didn’t all kill each other within the next hour. How exactly were they supposed to stop Oracion Seis?