Chapter Text
Lucy hated to admit it, but maybe Natsu and Happy had a point yesterday — she was not faring well with the hiking aspect. Her legs were starting to tremble from the effort, and her lungs felt a bit like they were on fire.
She had gotten more used to walking around towns in the past ten months, but that was generally flat, paved roads, usually for an hour or less. Walking up and down hills, for (at this point) over three hours without a break?
Ow.
At least it was a nice day. Lovely, actually — the sky was blue, with only faint wispy clouds trailing over it. A few birds were circling over them gently. From their place at the top of the hill, she could see the woods spreading out on both sides, and Magnolia shining in the sun behind them. The air was warm, but there was enough of a breeze to keep her comfortable.
Natsu and Happy were a good ten feet ahead of her, happily chatting to each other as they pointed out funny things along the way.
"A beetle!" Happy exclaimed excitedly, zooming away and returning a few seconds later with a large shiny carapace clutched between his paws.
Natsu nodded appreciatively. "That's a good beetle. But can it beat… this scorpion?"
Lucy's breath caught in horror as Natsu pulled a scorpion from her pocket, black and shiny and the size of her hand.
"Where did you even get that?!" she shrieked, upping her pace to try to catch up. This was made far easier by the fact that the other two had stopped in their tracks, and were now crouched by the ground, trying to get their respective insect and arachnid to fight.
Natsu spared her a quick glance before refocusing on the uninterested creepy crawlies. "I picked it up a couple hours ago. Say, Lucy, which one do you think will win? Definitely my scorpion, right? That beetle has nothing going for it except its antlers."
"No! Don't discount the safety of armour!"
Lucy watched the scorpion anxiously, but it didn't seem to be in danger of stinging Natsu any time soon. It was just sitting there, turning this way and that.
"Right… well, I'm sure the scorpion is super glad you brought it so far away from its family," Lucy started, tugging at Natsu half-heartedly. "But we're getting close, right? The faster we get to the site the faster I can sit down."
"You do look pretty sunburnt," Natsu said, and stood up suddenly. She pressed the back of her hand against Lucy's forehead, brows furrowed. "Your face is really red and you're all sweaty, but you don't feel too warm, which is good."
Lucy swatted her hand away, flustered and annoyed. "Get off! Your hand is warmer than my forehead could ever be, it's uncomfortable." She pressed forward, leaving Natsu and Happy to trail after her.
A half an hour later the path started trailing down towards the left, and Lucy saw that there was someone waiting for them where the woods began.
"HEY!" The figure called out to them cheerfully, cupping his mouth. "ARE YOU THE MAGES FROM FAIRY TAIL?"
Natsu cupped her own hands and bellowed back. "HELL YEAH, WE ARE!" Happy waved enthusiastically from beside her.
Lucy startled, shocked at Natsu's sheer volume. Another side effect of having 'dragon lungs'? Or was this just all Natsu?
The guy waited until they were closer to continue, which Lucy was thankful for. "That's great! We only put that poster out a week ago, and we were advised that it usually took at least three weeks for jobs to be accepted after distribution. So!" He clapped his hands eagerly and looked to each of them. "I'm Cole Cardwell, senior archaeologist. I was sent to bring you guys to our camp, since it's a bit off the beaten path."
"I'm Lucy," Lucy said, as they began to walk into the trees. "These are my teammates, Happy and Natsu."
Natsu and Happy both snapped a salute towards Cole, who's entire attention was fixed on Happy.
"A cat?" he said in interest. "A walking cat with blue fur… how about that?"
"Aye sir," Happy said nonchalantly. "That's what I am!"
Cole's eyes widened even further. "A cat who talks! How rare!"
Happy looked slyly up at Lucy. "This guy knows who the coolest team member is," he said, looking smug. "Hey, Cole, check this out!" And he manifested his wings.
Happy entertained Cole thoroughly for a few minutes by flying circles around him, while Lucy and Natsu walked behind. Eventually Cole remembered they were there and hung back to let them catch up.
"The reason we hired mages was because-" He cut himself off and shook his head. "Or, I guess I should explain first. My team came here to find and study the ruins of a civilisation that lived in this forest 400 years ago. We were hoping to discover more about their daily life, perhaps their diet or common fashion, what magics they might have used, if they kept pets, things like that. We excavated some ruins successfully, and even found some unopened jars that contained almost fully preserved grains!" He saw the blank expressions on their faces and added ruefully, "I guess that's more exciting if you're an archaeologist. But a few days in, we uncovered a tablet that was some ways away from any buildings. It had some carvings on it we'd never seen before."
"That sounds interesting," Lucy agreed hesitantly.
"Very!" Cole agreed, nodding enthusiastically. "There were some additional findings around it that made us think it was part of some kind of ritual. The carvings seem to depict a map, with hopefully some even more archaeologically intriguing discoveries at the end of it. But, you know, we're scholars. We're not exactly… survivalists."
"You need people to protect you in case the map leads you somewhere dangerous?" Natsu asked bluntly.
"Well… yes. That's exactly it," Cole agreed. "We're not expecting anything too dangerous — we are still quite close to Magnolia, so any really strong monsters have been killed, and the lesser monsters are heavily monitored to make sure they don't come too close —but there are also regular animals out there." He sighed. "It's my job to keep my team safe. I didn't want to take any chances."
"Well, that sounds perfectly reasonable," Lucy said decisively, and smiled in a way she hoped was reassuring. "And of course, we're happy to help!"
She was happy, actually. Happy to hear the job wouldn't be too dangerous, that is. She had defeated Everlue, but (despite all evidence to the contrary) he was still an intelligent being, with reasoning. His actions could be somewhat predicted. Not so with monsters.
She would… probably leave most of the fighting to Natsu, if that was the case. She was far more interested in the actual work the archaeology team was doing. Easy money, basically.
Happy piped up, raising a paw. "Say, Mr. Cole, when are we gonna reach the archaeology place? It's just that Lucy is getting pretty tired."
Cole looked around, and said sheepishly, "Ah. We seem to have passed the campsite slightly… it's back this way."
"When we get there, can we have some of the food you guys are cooking?" Natsu said, apparently completely unsurprised by the 180 in direction, or else not as annoyed about it as Lucy was. Some of the annoyance was definitely directed at Happy for using her as a cover.
"Of course," Cole said. "You guys are out here to help us, so the least we can do is feed you in return. Here we are!"
He pushed some branches aside to reveal a moderately-sized clearing, in the middle of which was a large man-made ditch, twenty feet wide and two meters deep. Along the edges of the hole were some tents, various tools for digging, and a campfire.
There were six other people in the clearing. Two of them were next to the fire, tending to a pot, and the other four were down in the ditch, doing… archaeological things. Dusting off the ruined wall of a building, Lucy saw. The people in the ditch seemed to be too absorbed in their work to notice the newcomers, but the two by the fire looked up as Cole led them over.
"This is my co-leader, Mindy," Cole told them, gesturing to the greying woman on the left. She pushed her glasses up and stood up with some effort. Her eyes twinkled cheerily as she looked them over.
"Mindy Maxwell," she appended, stepping away from the campfire to shake their hands. "I assume you told them everything?" She asked, looking towards Cole.
He shrugged, smiling at her fondly. "I'm sure you'll find something I've forgotten about."
"Come sit," added the other woman, who was still by the fire. She looked similar to Mindy, only younger. "The hike from Magnolia was pretty long, right? In fact, since we won't officially be needing you guys until tomorrow, you can go ahead and set up for the night. Relax. Read a book." She lifted up the ladle from the pot that was on the fire invitingly. "Have some soup."
In a flash, Natsu had dug out a bowl from her pack and was sitting next to her, almost salivating. "Soup, please!" She said eagerly, and the woman chuckled and obliged.
Happy tugged at Lucy's shorts. "I'll help you set up the tent, Lucy."
"Why? Do you think I can't do it myself?" She asked archly, but followed him away with a wave back to the others.
"I know you can't, Lucy. You have no idea how to do anything useful. You're a city girl, I can tell." He patted her leg reassuringly.
Lucy magnanimously refrained from punting him.
Once their tent was finally set up, Happy went over to Natsu, who was chatting up a storm with the lady who'd fed her. Cole and Mindy were down in the pit, probably discussing archaeological things with the other excavationers.
Lucy sank down onto her bedroll, sighing in relief. Her legs were aching up and down from all the walking. What a comfort!
…Kind of a comfort.
She grimaced, and moved around.
No, this was actually pretty uncomfortable. There was a rock under her bedroll right under her hip and it was pissing her off.
She stood up and moved her bedroll to the middle of the tent.
Better. Still not great, but it would do.
She let herself laze on her bedroll for half an hour, while her legs regained some strength. Outside, she heard Happy and Natsu talking with Mindy, Cole and the other woman who's name she hadn't actually gotten. There were some other voices mixed in too, that she hadn't heard before. The other archaeologists must have come up from the pit to say hello.
She should probably go out and be social, shouldn't she? Make sure to ask the right questions to learn potentially useful things. She sighed wearily at the thought.
But… Natsu and Happy had been taking jobs for far longer than her. Despite their jocular demeanors, they did know how to be professional. They could take care of the socialising for now.
And there was a book she wanted to look through.
She took the library book out of her backpack and flipped to the pages on Celestial magic, curiosity buoying her enough to sit up.
Celestial magic, the magic of astral bodies and the heavens themselves, has never been a most popular magic. Simply by virtue of the weight, metaphorical and practical, of the objects one must draw power from, celestial magic was rarely practiced on an individual level. Rather, it was saved for ceremonies where spells could be powered by entire rooms of mages, to magnificent — and sometimes devastating — effect. Additionally, many spells only reached their full power over the course of days, months, or even years of reinforcement.
As society has grown, and people turn away from the heavens in favour of setting their sights on faster, more practical (one might say 'grounded') endeavours, pure celestial magic has faded almost to extinction. However, there are branches of celestial magic that have adapted enough to continue into the modern age, which is why Celestial magic as a whole has been classified as 'Endangered' instead.
Lucy sat there, rereading those two paragraphs blankly.
It was kind of ignorant of her to think that Celestial Spirit magic was all there was to Celestial magic. The distinction, the specification, was literally in the name. She felt a bit stupid about it.
But with the way the book was speaking about Celestial magic… how was she meant to know? Apparently the rest of Celestial magic had fallen completely out of public knowledge.
Mother, I wish you had had the time to teach me more about our magic.
Had mother known? Had she known that there was more to Celestial magic than just their keys? It sounded like the other Celestial magic had been the sort of spells to be cast by more than one person. Would they have cast those spells together? Or was mother just as ignorant to the full spectrum of the magic they used?
Speaking of which… Lucy nursed the ache in her chest, and kept reading.
The chapter on Celestial magic split off into multiple subsections - Lunar - Nebulary - Planetary - Solar - Stellar - Voidal - and Lucy skipped all the way to almost the end.
Stellar
The recorded uses of Stellar Celestial magic are, if one forgives this author's straightforward use of simile, as varied and plural as the very stars the magic is named after. Certainly, most of the examples this author could find were spells of a combative nature, but there were also some that dealt in healing, in storage, in transformation - even things such as communion with the deceased. This large range of uses is most likely why it is still used in the modern era, in the form of Celestial Divination Magic and Celestial Spirit Keys, both of which will be discussed in more detail towards the end of this section.
The thing which sets Stellar magic apart is its ability to channel the power of more than one heavenly body in a single spell. Branches like Lunar or Solar, of course, only have the one body to represent, but even Nebulary spells focus only on one Nebula at a time, instead of mixing them up together. From the sources this author managed to find on Planetary magic (see previously mentioned footnotes), once a mage's body was attuned to the magic of one planet they could no more use a different type than a leopard could change its spots.
This is not the case with Stellar magic. Spells which rely on the power of constellations, atlases worth of stars, even entire galaxies! — though the last is a kind of spell this author could only find one instance of in all of recorded history, and it was theoretical — are possible and even bordering on common, though single-bodied spells still make up the majority of what this author came across.
Lucy couldn't help herself and skimmed the next few paragraphs, eager to learn more about her own brand of Stellar magic. Finally she came upon the beginning of a short statement.
Celestial Spirit magic is almost not Stellar Celestial magic at all- wow. Okay. That was rude. -on account of two things.
1) Celestial Spirit magic draws on the stories humans told about stars almost more than the stars themselves. Belief is a magic of its own, and through thousands of years, the belief in the characters behind certain constellations was enough to bring them to life. It is these spirits which Celestial Spirit magic is based on, and not the stars which make them up. This fact alone is enough to consider disqualifying it, without even bringing up the second point:
2) Celestial Spirit magic, unlike most Celestial magic, is a holder-type. The spirits in question reside in an alternate plane, and can be summoned through stylised keys that appear on Earthland at seemingly random. Celestial Spirit wielders feed their magic into the keys to open a dimentional rift through which the relevant spirit can pass through, and continue to keep that rift open while the spirit uses its own magic in aid of the summoner. This part of Celestial Spirit magic is not Celestial at all, but spatial. It has more in common with Requip magic or teleportation magic than other forms of Celestial magic.
And yet, Celestial magic it is. It is one of only two types of Celestial magic still used commonly today (see page 43), almost certainly because the amount of magic required for it is feasible for a single mage - at least, in regards to the weaker keys. To use the stronger ones for any notable amount of time is still the work of extremely powerful magic, to the extent that some keys have never been used, only found - the threshhold was still too large for an individual.
The author seemed happy to give more detail on Celestial Spirit magic, which she was grateful for. She was very intrigued by the idea of Celestial Spirits which had never been summoned before. However, there was a small, prideful part of her that hated the idea that there were things about her own magic that she didn't know about. Lucy ignored that part of her as best she could and read on intently.
There are 85 constellations for which keys have been found, some in duplicate and some only once. There is a simple pattern - the type of metal the keys are made of dictates the strength of the spirit, and the stronger keys only emerge once and are traceable throughout history. The constellations and their strength of key are thus:
Silver is the weakest. It is the most common type (58 of the 85 known keys). Owing to the sheer number of them, and in the effort of saving some page-space, they will not all be listed, but there are some examples which this author wishes to bring to attention for their unique qualities.
Silver is the only category in which inanimate objects (e.g. Antlia, Caelum, Coronas Australis and Boralis) can be summoned and used as tools by the summoner. These spiritless 'spirits' take the least strength, and their gates can be kept open almost indefinitely by a moderately strong mage.
This is also the only class of keys which contain spirits with zero combative skills (e.g. Canis Minor, Pictor, Crux) and most interestingly, keys which can be combined together to create a greater key and spirit (e.g. Puppis, Vela and Carina create the Grand Boat Argo; Mensa, Reticulum and Telescopium form the All-Seeing Spyglass). These keys can be summoned separately, and at a relatively low cost. However, once combined, the threshhold of power required becomes comparable to that of Golden Keys.
While she was grateful to learn more about Silver Keys as a whole, she was kind of annoyed at the author for not naming every single Constellation and their power. That would have been so much more convenient for her…
Speaking of which, the next level are the Golden Keys, the Zodiac Keys. These consist of Aquarius, Aries, Cancer, Capricorn, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Pisces, Sagittarius, Scorpio, Taurus and Virgo. There is a rumoured thirteenth Golden Key, Ophiochus, but this unfortunate author lost its trail about 400 years ago, and couldn't find any further mention of it in records.
Nevertheless, Golden Keys are meant for small-scale skirmishes, though they have been used effectively in proper battles and even in wars. Their minimum power threshhold for being summoned is double that required for the average Silver Key, and only increases for the stronger Golden Keys.
Lucy skimmed the next few paragraphs, which detailed the individual powers of the Golden Keys. This, at least, was information she already knew by heart. She didn't need a pretentious scholar to tell her about it.
Her satisfaction with her knowledge lasted until she caught sight of a third class of keys, at which point her heart stopped in mortified chagrin.
Platinum Keys are the strongest keys, and yet they are not as coveted as Golden Keys precisely because of their power level. Out of 14 keys, only 3 have ever been summoned, and then only for a period of ten minutes maximum. The rest are simply too draining for the average mage, or even most strong mages, to use in any practical way. Most of them reside in collector's houses; a few have been purchased and put on display in magical museums. Still others have disappeared from the records in much the same way as Ophiochus — lost to time, and to the world.
The Platinum Keys consist of the constellations Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Centaurus, Cepheus, Cetus, Draco, Hercules, Hydra, Hydrus, Monoceros, Orion, Pegasus, Perseus and Phoenix. Out of all these fantastical figures, only Hydrus, Centaurus and Orion were ever summoned.
The- Lucy slammed the book shut frantically, furious at herself and the book.
Not knowing about the other branches of Celestial magic was one thing. If the author was to be trusted, they were all but extinct. She could forgive herself for that. Even her lack of knowledge on Stellar magic was understandable.
How in Earthland could she call herself a Celestial Spirit mage when she didn't even know about Platinum Keys?! How could she take pride in continuing her mother's magic when she knew so little??
And how did she even miss that? Hadn't her mother taught her all the keys? Hadn't she heard of all those constellations?? She remembered her mother telling her about Monoceros, and Draco, and the Royal Family of the Heavens. She remembered learning about them as silver keys! Or… she thought she did. Had she been misremembering the entire time?!
Wracking her memory, she thought back to when she would sit on her mother's lap. They would go through all the keys together, flipping through a large picture book detailing all the spirits, with illustrations of the respective keys. Monoceros's key hovered in her mind's eye, a gorgeous silver colour, infinitely more ornate than the silver keys she had now- even her Golden Keys paled in comparison.
She sighed shakily and rested her forehead against the book.
"I'm sorry," she mumbled to it, blinking back unwanted tears. "I'm not mad at you. You were just doing your job." She patted the book morosely.
The ache in her chest grew. She couldn't bear the idea of her mother looking down and seeing how badly Lucy had failed to honour her magic.
She listened to the conversations outside for some time. Natsu had apparently been challenged by one of the archaeologists to an eating competition, so there were loud sounds of slurping and wood scraping wood and cheering from everyone else.
All of a sudden, Lucy straightened up and shook herself furiously. What's the point in beating myself up over this, she thought to herself. What I really need right now is a distraction, and I still have a whole book full of them!
She reopened the book and flipped over to a random part far away from the Celestial magic section, eventually landing on a section in the theoretical half of the book simply titled 'Mass Murder Magic'.
Sheesh, Lucy thought with a shudder. That's one way to get my mind off things. She wasn't usually a fan of horror, but right now she found she was looking forward to reading about it- at least until night fell.
This section might cause something of a stir in scholarly circles, but this author boldly presents the opinion that Mass Murder magic has never been outwardly proven. The idea of such magic comes primarily from rumours surrounding the Black Mage Zeref (see Page 48. 'Death Magic' for more details), but in all the (copious) records this author looked through when researching for this book, no actual concrete evidence was found that would prove the presence or invention of such a magic, only second-handed sources and hearsay from frightened villagers.
Were there records that proved mass murder in areas where Zeref walked? Certainly. But this could have been done with innumerable other magics, or even through non-magical means. This author sees no reason to overinflate the already grisly reality of such a terrible figure by imagining even worse things to add to his list of 'accomplishments'.
Nevertheless, there is something of a theoretical basis to the idea of Mass Murder magic. This author posits that such magic would come across as something similar to curse magic - the dark version of enchantments, where magic inflicts a negative 'curse' upon the targets, until the curse is taken off or the target perishes. Usual curse magics inflict such things as blindness, lethargy, or even illnesses. Mass Murder magic would simply go a step further and inflict the targets with death.
However, given the toll on magical power that it takes to unbalance the scales of life and death, magic on such a scale would be impossible to execute as caster magic. This author finds it much more likely that such magic would be wrought through items, instruments that could then carry the burden of magic in place of the caster.
This is, unfortunately, extremely similar to another rumour about Zeref and his creations. An acolyte of Zeref, arrested and thrown into prison, was heard boasting about an item Zeref had found, a flute the acolyte named 'Lullaby'. She spoke of nearly nothing else, detailing at length its 'terrible skull-like visage,' and its ability to inflict 'death upon all whom hear its tragic melody'.
Once again, no actual records detailing the existence of such an object were found by the author, leaving it pleasantly in the realm of fiction and unhinged delusional worship of an equally unhinged madman.
Lucy grimaced down at the book, both at the contents and at the author's clear slide into personal bias despite the scholarly vocabulary.
At least the chapter itself wasn't very scary. It was getting dark out, and she would hate to be kept up because her brain came up with imaginary scenarios of dark wizards stalking around in the forest, or something.
Her stomach growled, and she looked back up at the entrance, biting her cheek. It had been at least an hour since they arrived, now. Her legs had stopped aching a while ago, and she should probably go out and learn more about the job they were meant to be completing tomorrow.
She still didn't feel very social, but that was beside the point, so with a sigh she climbed back off her bedroll, drew back the tent flap, and went out to join everyone else.
"Lucy!" Happy shrieked, as soon as he caught sight of her. "We thought you'd fallen asleep!"
She smiled down at him as cheerfully as she could. What a good excuse! "I just wanted to take a breather, but I guess I took a nap instead." She looked around at the new faces, and bowed. "Hello! My name is Lucy. I'm the last member of the team that came out to help you guys."
"Come sit," Natsu said, patting the log next to her. As Lucy moved to sit Natsu turned to one of the archaeologists. "Can you pass another bowl over? Lucy's hungry."
In short order there was a bowl of soup pressed into Lucy's hands, and she started to eat gratefully. It was nice, well-salted with diced potatoes and carrots and chunks of meat floating around.
"Glad to see you're up, Lucy," Mindy said with a wink. "This is the rest of our team."
She set about introducing everyone to Lucy: Miranda Maxwell was Mindy's younger sister, the previously unnamed woman from before. Lorna Kiln was the pottery expert, a tall bespectacled woman in her fourties who wiggled her fingers in Lucy's direction. The pale young man clutching at his stomach was Nick, a new archaeology intern the group had hired. He'd been the one to foolishly take Natsu up on an eating competition, and was now glaring balefully in her direction.
An older, grey-haired man was introduced to her as Ben Nito. He had an avid interest in pre-modern Fiorian civilisations, and had apparently signed up as soon as he'd heard about the expedition. Next to him was a lecturer on the flora of Fiore, who they'd asked to come along to help identify any plants they found, fossilised or stylised or otherwise found in some way on site. She introduced herself quietly as Sandra.
Finally, there was tall, broad-shouldered man who looked about thirty, who joked that he'd only been brought along to be the muscle.
"I don't mind," he said cheerily. "It makes me feel better about myself to be in the company of people who are so much weaker than me."
"Piss off, Brian," Miranda snapped half-heartedly.
Brian just laughed.
"Now that we're all introduced," Cole redirected, though he looked amused, "are there any questions you'd like to ask?"
"I just want to make sure I have all the details down properly," Lucy said instead. "So, your team found a map of sorts, and you want to follow it to its destination. But as far as you can tell, it leads further into the forest, where there are more dangerous animals, which is why you asked for us to come out and help protect you guys. Is there anything I missed that's relevant?"
"Nope, that's it," Mindy said with a nod. "We-"
Nick scoffed and muttered something too quietly for Lucy to hear, but Natsu's head snapped up. She stared him down, jaw tight and fists clenched. Lucy looked between them, brow furrowed. Was there something wrong?
Mindy coughed and Lucy looked back over sheepishly. "As I was saying," Mindy continued, sending a warning glance in Nick's direction that he ignored, "we have reason to believe that the map was correctly oriented when we found it, which means it was facing the direction that that the map portrays. We aren't entirely sure what's at the end-"
"Treasure!" Nick said, looking away from Natsu to stare incredulously at Mindy. "What else could it be? The symbols are literally sparkles - what else would be important enough for them to make a map to find it?"
Ben sighed. He looked weary, as if Nick had brought this up before. "Nick, I understand that you're excited by the idea of 'treasure', but all of our findings point towards this being part of a ritual. Now, I'm not saying jewellery or other expensive items can't play a role in that sort of thing, but most likely it's something they valued on a spiritual level, rather than materially. Additionally," he said seriously, and his face hardened. "'Treasure' has many connotations, none of which should apply during an archeological expedition. We are here to learn about this culture. Even if it is something like gold, jewels, or other ornamentation, we are NOT here to take anything for ourselves."
Everyone else around the fire nodded firmly, and Nick looked away with a shrug. "Yeah," he said stiffly. "I get it."
Lucy looked down at her empty bowl, and then up at the darkening sky. Would it be appropriate for her to call it a night yet? Or was she still expected to socialise? "Well, whatever's at the end, we'll make sure you get there safely!" She stated, looking for somewhere to put her bowl. Nick scoffed again, quieter.
Natsu stood up suddenly and tugged her along. "Come on," she said. "I'll show you where you can wash up." Her grip was tight, but she let go quickly and strode off towards the other side of the campsite.
Lucy bowed to the archaeologists and then hurried off after Natsu, a bit bewildered by their sudden exit.
After a second, Happy landed on her shoulder. He seemed to read her confusion, because he whispered, "Natsu doesn't like Nick very much."
"Yeah, I figured," Lucy murmured back. "Did he do something?"
"He's a little bitch," Natsu said from in front of them, stopping next to a large metal tub filled with water. "A whiny little bitch who doesn't think we're strong enough to protect them from the weak-ass animals in the forest."
"…Ah," was all Lucy said, coming to a stop next to Natsu. When she looked over, Natsu's face was shadowed, so she couldn't make out too much, but she thought she caught a glimpse of Natsu's teeth bared in a snarl. She looked down into the tub. "Makes sense why you don't like him, then."
"Fuck that," Natsu dismissed harshly. "That sort of attitude is nothing new. I can deal with it, though if he weren't a client I'd definitely have punched his lights out by now. I just… the way he talks to his leader is so fucking annoying."
Happy leaped from Lucy's shoulder to Natsu's, and put his arms around her head reassuringly. She patted him absentmindedly.
"He's so condescending," Natsu continued, with a definitely snarl in her voice. "Like he thinks he knows better than her, even though this is her life's work and he's just a fucking intern. It'd be like if I went up to Pops and said I knew more than him about how to run the guild! And he's only like that with the women. Did you see him after Ben told him off? Complete submission! Fucking dick."
Lucy stayed silent. In the moment, she hadn't paid much attention to it, but now that Natsu brought it up she definitely saw what she meant, and she also felt a bit annoyed at the way Nick had been acting with Mindy. Though she kind of felt like Natsu was overreacting. Just a little.
But maybe Natsu was projecting. Or maybe being a dragon slayer made it more offensive to her, somehow. Whatever the case, it clearly mattered a lot to her, so Lucy kept her mouth shut.
They stood there in silence for a few more seconds before Natsu said (much more calmly), "Uh… You can wash your bowl now, Lucy. I'll dry it when you're finished."
Lucy kept staring down into the tub, bowl in her hands.
Happy brought his paw up to his mouth and sniggered quietly. "Lucy…"
She clenched her bowl tighter.
"Do you not know how to clean dishes?" He said. His tail flicked behind him in a way she swore was judgemental.
"I know how to wash dishes, you brat!" she hissed, whipping around to glare up at him. "In a normal sink, with running water and dish soap and an actual scrubber!"
"Did you forget to bring dish soap and a sponge?" Natsu said, confused. "I thought you kicked us out yesterday so you could pack."
Lucy almost growled at her, embarrassed. "Well, I'm sorry. Clearly I know nothing about camping out in the wild. After all, I'm just a city girl." She directed the last words up at Happy, who was now laughing openly at her.
"Well… I guess it's not that big of a deal," Natsu said, staring at her with an amused expression. "You can borrow ours for this trip, and then next time you'll know better."
Happy launched himself in the direction of the campfire. Within a few seconds he came back with Natsu's hefty bag swinging in his paws. He was still giggling a bit, but Lucy ignored him as best she could, to retain both her dignity and temper.
Natsu took her bag from Happy and dug out a half-filled bottle of dish soap and a two-sided sponge, which she passed over to Lucy.
"Okay," Lucy said, and knelt down carefully. "Thanks, Natsu."
"Sure." Natsu hummed quietly, lighting a fire on her palm for Lucy to see with. "Happy to help a teammate."