Mud squeltched over her wellie boots as Lucy made her way back to their tents, pushing her dripping hair out of her face and cursing loudly when she nearly slipped. She pulled her damp coat tighter around her body in an attempt to block out the chill and sighed, wishing that she was anywhere in the world but where she was at that moment.
When her classes had finished for the mid term break, Lucy hadn’t expected to find herself being dragged along by her friends on a camping trip, least of all to a muddy field in the middle of nowhere that Gray claimed to have stayed in once. And yet here she was, cold and wet and tired and carrying a bundle of sticks back to their campsite to be used as firewood, because someone (coughNatsucough) had forgotten to pack charcoal for the barbecue.
She made it back to the tents and dropped the sticks in a pile beside the barbecue. “Here’s your bloody firewood,” she said, slumping down in one of soaking chairs as she spoke.
“Someone’s in a good mood,” Natsu Dragneel muttered from where he was croutched beside the barbecue. He rolled his eyes and reached for the sticks, pausing when he grasped the nearest one. “It’s wet,” he snarled irritabily, staring up at her. “How the fuck do you expect me to build a fire with wet firewood.”
“Of course it’s wet dofus,” she retorted, crossing her arms defensively. “Incase you didn’t notice, it was raining earlier, and rain is often known to cause things get ‘wet’.” Raining was an understatement actually, it had been absolutely bucketing for their entire journey down, turning the field they were supposed to be camping in into a sea of mud and leaving not one dry stick in sight. Lucy had done her best to find some vaguely dry firewood, but when mixed in with the pile those few sticks had become just as damp as the rest.
“Stop bickering you two.” Levy was siting nearby, examining the manual on how to put up the tent and occasionally shouting instructions to Gajeel and Jellal, who were both wrestling with the monstrous piece of canvas. “I hate to say it Lu, but Natsu’s right. We’re gonna need dry wood if we want to build a fire.”
Lucy pouted. “Maybe we can just do without one then.”
“Of course we need to have a fire!”
Lucy jumped at the indignant voice of her other friend, who had appeared behind her out of nowhere. Natsu glanced up, and Lucy noticed him shudder slightly at the sight of an enraged Erza. Gajeel and Levy both nodded hastily, mumbling hurried apologies, and quickly returned to their work, but Jellal was unfazed.
“You just want to toast marshmallows,” he sighed, rolling his eyes and shaking his head.
“That may be so.” Erza’s voice was as brisk as ever, but when Lucy turned around she though she caught a hint of pink in the redhead’s cheeks. “And we’ll need a fire to do that. Natsu, Lucy, you two can go off and collect more firewood.”
Natsu looked horrified. “Why me?” He moaned. “Isn’t their anyone else who can do it?”
Erza glared at him. “No there isn’t,” she said sternly, “Gajeel, Jellal, Levy and I are putting up the tents and Gray and Juvia are filling up some water bottles.”
Gajeel snorted. “I’ll bet that’s not all that they’re doing,” he smirked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. He paused, and grinned wickedly at Natsu. “Go on Salamander, you should be good at this, considering how skilled you are at burning things down.”
Levy was opening her mouth to chastise him, but Natsu cut her off, raising his hands in the air as a sign of defeat. “Okay okay,” he said. “I get it. You are all jealous of my superior wood collecting skills and want the master go and show yous how it’s done.”
