A/N: BEHOLD! I have found the beauty in prompts! Yes, it is I, your ever unfaithful Shadow. I have been missing lately and I'm sorry. Those of you who've been to my LJ know why, those that don't….go read it, got it! :P
Anywho, I found this lovely little Fairy Tail community on LJ called Fairy Flash. I recommend checking it out. It's an old prompt that got my juices flowing, but here it is anyway…
Disclaimer: I don't own.
Prompt: Playing with dolls/Puppets from Fairy Flash (renaliner)
Word Count: Around 2000
Rating: G-PG
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Lucy's Revenge
The straw finally broke the preverbal camel's back one seemly ordinary Tuesday. The day had started out normal enough, with Lucy in Fairy Tail guild looking for a job for her and Natsu.
Levy had been as bright and perky as ever and had been even more so that morning since Lucy had a new chapter for her to read.
Mirajane had helped her pick out the perfect mission for her and her pink and blue haired companions. Well…pink haired and blue furred, as it were.
It was a simple mission in the next town over. They needed someone to remove a dam that had been made by some pretty relentless beavers. It would be easy and the pay was nice, so Lucy had taken the flyer and sat at the bar, waiting for Natsu and Happy so she could tell them the good news.
This, however, was the point the day had started to go down hill.
Lucy was sipping a fruity drink and thinking what shoes to buy with the money she would receive from the job she and her team would do when she first heard the noise.
There were two voices getting closer and closer to Fairy Tail and it seemed as if the very foundation of the guild shook with their roars of outrage.
Lucy rolled her eyes, sighed and looked at her watch.
It was only…ten o'clock in the morning and they were already at it. Why, oh why, did she have to be friends with the two loudest people in the universe? Did the Gods hate her? Was she horrible in a past life? She wondered for a moment if she could just hide inside Horologium but decided that the noise would probably still filter through the old clock.
Sure enough, only a few moments later, Natsu and Grey burst through the doors with Happy floating close by Natsu's shoulder. She had no idea what they were arguing about, but it didn't really matter. The two of them could argue who had the best rear out of the two of them and the insults would be the same as usual…
"Shut up, Squinty Eyes!"
"Come over here and make me, Droopy Eyes!"
Lucy turned to see the two of them with their foreheads pressed together, their teeth bared. She wondered what they would think if she told them that they resembled rabid dogs most of the time.
"I'll win against you any day of the week, idiot!"
"Put some clothes on." This came from Happy, who seemed to take some strange delight in constantly pointing out Grey's state of undress. Happy's comment had at least put a halt in the argument as the ice mage put his clothes back on.
A grinning Natsu and hovering Happy sauntered toward her. It was going to be one of those days, it seemed. Grey followed the other two shortly after and the three of them plus a cat sat at the bar and ordered a round of fruity, frothy drinks and a fish.
"I found us a job, Natsu," she announced as soon as she was sure the argument wouldn't pick back up again.
"Oh, yeah?," he asked with his normal jubilance. "Lemme see!" She handed him the flyer and took a swallow of her drink while he read it over.
"Sounds good to me. You wanna leave tomorrow?"
"Sure…what time?"
"I'll come pick you up after breakfast. It's a short train ride, at least," said Natsu, and he looked a little green at the prospect.
"Hmm…" hummed Grey. "I guess I should find myself a job." He pushed up from the bar to make his way over to the posting board. Grey - Lucy noticed with an exasperated shake of her head and a little smile - was already out of his clothing, again.
"Grey," said the magic cat on her right, "Lucy is staring at you. You should put some clothes back on."
"Stupid cat! I wasn't staring!" Lucy screeched and lunged over Natsu to try and get her hands on Happy. Natsu laughed and pushed her away from his beloved feline companion and back into her seat.
"You shouldn't stare, Lucy. You'd probably pick up germs from just looking at him," Natsu said and managed to infuriate both herself and Grey at the same time. If Lucy wasn't so angry, she'd be in awe of his superior, all be it strange, skills.
"I don't have germs!" yelled Grey from her left, who had apparently joined back in the conversation after at least putting his pants back on.
Natsu cackled and Grey fumed. Lucy rubbed her temples, trying to stave off the headache that was sure to form soon.
After that, insults flew back and forth between the ice and fire mages…and Lucy had the extreme misfortune to be right in between the two with Happy throwing in a comment every once in a while sitting just to the right of her on the bar. She let her head fall forward and it bounced on the wood with a nice thunk sound.
And then it happened.
Just as she was starting to successfully drown out the battle cries and insults that seemed to be crushing her under their noise level…
"Moron!"
"Brainless!"
And the three of them managed to cover her in ice on one side, singe her clothing on the other and slap a fish in her face.
The entire bar was silent as Lucy stopped breathing.
"Lucy…" whispered a wary Natsu. The three of them had stood up and started to back away very slowly, as if she were some sort of wild animal that had just broken out of its cage.
After drawing in a large breath, Lucy had a mild meltdown.
"I'm going to KILL YOU ALL!" she screamed. Everyone in the guild cowered. She wasn't a particularly powerful mage, but she found that for some reason, everyone was a little afraid of her temper.
She turned slowly to see the three of them with their hands up in that universal 'please calm down' way. She was having none of it. Lucy didn't want peace. They had gleefully killed all the peace she had left in her body and then stomped it to death before throwing it in the ocean.
No…no peace for them.
Which found them in the situation they were in now. Lucy sat on her coffee table while looking down her nose at her guests that were sitting on either side of her sofa. Happy had flow away the first chance he'd gotten. She would get him later, but Grey and Natsu would get their punishment now.
She took a calming gulp of her tea and took stock of her prey. They looked nervous, as they should. This would end today, one way or another.
"You two have some serious issues to work out," she announced before getting up and walking over to her bed. Once there, she grabbed a stuffed dragon and a stuffed polar bear. She made her way back to the table and handed Grey the dragon and Natsu the bear. The two of them looked at her like she was crazy, but they would know the pain and humiliation that she had suffered for over a year now.
Oh, yes, she thought as she adjusted the normal-looking hair pin that kept her bangs out of her eyes.
"What the hell are these?" asked Natsu while looking at his polar bear and rubbing the back of his head.
"Plushies, obviously," she said with a roll of her eyes. "I've bought one to represent almost everyone in our guild.
Natsu smiled. "What did you get for Erza?"
"I found a little fairy doll with red hair."
"Why a fairy?," asked Grey while twirling his dragon by the tip of the ear.
"Because everyone calls her 'Tatania'." She only received more blank looks. "I don't suppose either of you have read any Shakespeare."
They gave an identical shrug while still playing with the animals. Lucy strangled back the evil giggle.
"Now," she said as she leaned towards them. "Grey, you will start. You have the dragon, which means you'll be playing the part of Natsu."
He didn't have the decency to rein in his evil laughter.
"Don't get so excited," she warned him with narrowed eyes. "You are going to play the part of Natsu, but you'll be telling the polar bear - which is you - something nice that you wish the real Natsu would say about you."
They regarded her with wariness and she was sure she would crack a smile and lose her chance at revenge. However, she managed to keep her own body under her control somehow and intimidated them by clenching her teeth and glaring at the both of them. They glanced at each other and seemed to come to the same conclusion. They wouldn't get out of this, so they might as well humor her.
Grey cleared his throat and looked nervous but determined.
"I…I'm glad you always have my back," he stuttered quickly. Lucy nodded in what she hoped was a sagely way.
"You can agree with that, right Natsu? You are glad that Grey always has your back when it really matters."
Natsu nodded and still looked confused. He clearly wasn't understanding the exercise. By the change in the tilt of Grey's head, he, at least, was starting to get it.
"Alright, Natsu, your turn. Say something to the dragon that you wish Grey would say to you."
She could almost see the wheels turning and the steam escaping his ears. The giggling bubbled again under her ribs but she squashed it quickly.
"Just look at the dragon, Natsu, and say the first thing that comes to mind," she coaxed and it seemed he had finally landed on something.
"I'm glad we're friends because we've both lost someone very important to us, and only people who have experienced that knows what it feels like."
Lucy and Grey blinked in surprise at the extremely mature and touching statement that poured from Natsu's lips like it was the most natural thing in the world. It almost made Lucy feel bad.
Almost.
"Grey? Do you agree with that?"
He nodded and it seemed even Natsu had finally caught on to the reason she had made them do this.
"It's not so bad, is it?," she asked them. "It's not really so hard to say nice things to each other once in a while. You two have a lot of differences, but you also have a lot in common."
They simply looked at the animals in their hands without really looking at them, pondering on Lucy's words.
"I suggest you two go eat some lunch. Try and get along, okay?"
They handed back the plushies and she saw the smiles touch the corners of both of their mouths. Hopefully her revenge wouldn't wipe those smiles off their faces. Maybe it would unite them in something other than a need to fight against each other.
**********
The next morning, Lucy didn't fight off her smile. She watched as her two favorite males and her favorite (all though still awaiting punishment) cat made their way into the guild. For a change, they weren't fighting. They were having a quiet discussion about something that Lucy couldn't hear.
She looked around the guild. It was full of people.
Perfect.
Lucy walked up to a stool and braced her hand on the counter of the bar with pushing herself up to stand on top of it. It teetered for a moment before becoming stable. When she felt it safe, she straightened her legs and stood at her full height.
"Can I have everyone's attention, please?," she asked in a raised voice. It took a good minute before everyone quieted down and she grinned.
"I bought a new gadget the other day and I wanted to try it out with everyone." She reached a hand to the side of her head to pull what looked like a flowered hair pin from her golden-blonde tresses. "In his tiny hairpin is a magic recorder."
She saw Natsu and Grey stiffen from the corner of her vision.
"I bought this last week but it wasn't until yesterday that I got to use it for the first time. I wanted you all to share the first recording with me."
She pressed a button and there, on a large white wall, were Natsu and Grey with their plushies.
The roars of laughter were enormous but the entire guild was no match for the dragon slayer and the ice mage.
"LUCY!!!"
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A/N: I know, I'm extremely evil. Mawahahaha! So, just to remind you in case you've forgotten. Reviews are love. Please sign in before you do, though. I like to leave a little thank you or whatever with everyone whose kind enough to review. If you don't have an account, send me an e-mail.
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Thanks for reading! ;)
Shadow