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“You need someone to do a dance battle?” Lucy asked, her eyes wide in shock and confusion, trying to comprehend what the client was asking of us. This wasn’t mentioned anywhere on the flyer.
“Yes, the bandits have issued us a challenge. If we can find anyone who can beat their champion in a dance battle, they would leave our town in peace. I didn’t add it to the job posting because no one took us seriously when I did. We’re nearly at the last of our food stores and we ran out of basic medicine and other supplies over a week ago! We can’t last much longer if we don’t get the trade routes cleared,” the client cried, getting down on his knees and outright begging us to help him and his people.
“We understand sir, and we won’t let you down. We took this job and we’re not backing down now!” Lucy promised, looking determined. I internally groaned, we just had to get this kind of job didn’t we.
-Time Skip-
“I said that but I doubt the dance lessons I had at home are gonna work here, let alone fighting while doing it.” Lucy sulked, walking away from the mayor’s office. I stayed silent behind her, not wanting to bring attention to myself. I was getting a bad feeling about this. It had started when it ended up just being Lucy and I on the job, everyone else being pulled away because of this or that unavoidable thing. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Lucy, the best sister a guy could ask for. She was great and I had no problem working with her but it just felt…off with it being just the two of us.
“I know whatcha mean. If only Erza was here, she’d jump at the chance to dance while battling.” I said, rubbing the back of my head, thinking about the one time we’d tried doing dance lessons at the guild. I still shuddered just thinking about what Erza had put us through. As we walked, trying to come up with a solution, I couldn’t help thinking about the celestial spirit rebellion debacle a while back. Just thinking about it made me stop walking and shake my head to get rid of the embarrassing memories. I could probably—No, I’d promised myself that I would never do anything like that ever again, even if my life depended on it.
“Gray? You ok?”
I looked up from where I’d gotten lost in thought to see Lucy a little ahead of me, concern etched onto her face and a hand outstretched like she expected me to collapse.
“Yeah, I’m ok just looking at all our options and not liking what I’m seeing, is all.” I said, waving away her concern and moving to catch up with her.
“Yeah, it’s not looking good for us but we said we would do it so we’ll find a way. We are Fairy Tail wizards after all and we can’t let the guild down!” Lucy cheered, always the one looking on the bright side and ever the optimist. I sighed in resignation. She was right, we couldn’t let the guild down and I wasn’t about to let Lucy get into a fight we both knew she couldn’t win. Time to suck it up and get it over with.
“I…” So much for sucking it up and getting it over with, “...I can do it. It won’t even be the first dance battle I’ve ever been in.”
“Come again? When have you had time to get into a dance battle? And with who?”
“...It was during the celestial spirit thing where we all split up and battled one of your spirits. I got Cancer and…” I trailed off, having already admitted it once should have made it easier the second time right?
“You didn’t?!”
All I could do was nod. I felt my cheeks warming, a weird sensation when made out of ice but I couldn’t help it. The embarrassment was almost too much, it was so bad I couldn’t even look in the direction of her face, let alone look her in the eye.
“Then let’s do this! The faster you fight their champion and win, the faster we can go home! You can do this!”
I sighed again, grimacing just thinking about what I would have to put myself through. The shit I did for this guild, it always amazed me.
-Time Skip-
“You tell anyone about this, anyone at all, and I’ll tell everyone you still can’t tie rigging knots worth a damn even after all these years living on a boat.” I threatened, seeing the dumbstruck look on Lucy’s face after I beat the bandit’s champion.
“Huh? Oh! Nope, not a word from me. Master won’t even know. I promise!” Lucy said, blinking a few times to shake herself out of whatever daze she’d been in.
“Good, now let’s go before they ask us to do something else embarrassing.”
She nodded and we quickly made our way back to the mayor’s office with proof we’d won. After getting our jewel, we started towards the trail that would take us to the harbor where we’d moored the boat. I knew I could trust Lucy to keep quiet about what she’d seen, both because she wasn’t one for that kind of gossip and she knew the blackmail I had on her was just as bad. Mutually assured destruction and all, joys of being siblings. I guess it wasn’t so bad going on a job just Lucy and I, better than Natsu that was for sure. We got the chance to bond and no one else had to see me make a fool of myself, at the end of the day I’d call that a win.