Good Intentions

The Dinner

Disclaimer: All Fairy Tail Characters belong to Hiro Mashima

Chapter 2: The Dinner

Erza practically dragged Lucy through the streets of the city in her eagerness to return to the inn. They finally reached their destination and Erza busied herself with the inn's concierge. She wanted to get a reservation for her team for dinner for that evening. Lucy made her way back to their room.

As she was about to enter her room she thought she heard some noise coming from the boys' room and decided to knock on their door. A tired looking Gray opened the door wearing only his underwear. It had gotten to the point where she didn't even notice this behavior from him anymore. She was usually more concerned when he was fully dressed.

"Oh hi Lucy. How are you feeling?", Gray asked as he let the celestial mage into their room.

"Hey Lucy!" an also tired Natsu made an effort to greet her from his bed.

"I'm feeling better, thanks! I heard the job didn't go so well.", Lucy said carefully.

"Yeah, we screwed up. Erza was really mad at us. She told us to get out of her sight. She's never done that before.", Natsu informed her.

"I much rather prefer it when she whacks us on the head. We feel pretty bad about what happened. It was really stupid. I'm sure we're going to hear it from Gramps when we get back as well.", Gray said sadly, scratching the back of his head nervously.

"Why do you both look so tired?" she asked her two friends.

"We felt really bad about what we did so we spent the last few hours putting out fires and trying to fix as much as we could of the mess that we made. We figured it was the least we could do after all the chaos we created.", Natsu told the celestial mage.

"We also managed to find some of the members of the dark guild that got away and turned them in to the Rune Knights. Still no reward though and we never ate lunch.", Gray continued, "Has she calmed down at all yet?".

"Well then, you'll be happy to know that Erza is getting a reservation for all of us for dinner tonight.", Lucy told the hungry boys. "I am glad that you did all those things as I am sure that it will help make her feel better about this whole mess. Well, I am going to go get some rest before dinner. You should do the same. We will come get you when we're ready to go."

After checking on them Lucy went back to the room she shared with Erza. She had thought about warning Natsu and Gray about Erza's plan but decided not to at the last minute. They looked like they had learned their lesson and she thought that when Erza saw that she would change her mind.

Natsu and Gray were both trying to get some rest before what they were sure would be a stressful dinner with Erza. They agreed to try to be on their best behavior for the entire evening and they both dozed off in their respective beds.

They woke up feeling slightly refreshed, although starving, and they started to get ready for dinner. Happy had mentioned to them earlier that Erza had been so angry she had refused strawberry cake, which is unheard of, so they were determined to do their best. In their bid to get back in Erza's good graces they both made sure to take showers as well as dress the best they could. Natsu promised to use the best eating manners that he knew, which of course were still pretty terrible. Gray promised to keep his clothes on through the whole meal, which they both knew probably wouldn't happen. They sat around immersed in their own thoughts waiting for the girls to come get them.

Back in the girl's room Lucy and Erza were also getting ready for dinner. Lucy was telling Erza about her earlier conversation with the boys in the hopes of talking her out of her plans. She couldn't explain why but she had a really bad feeling about that potion. However, the more Lucy tried to talk her out of using the potion on Natsu and Gray the more determined Erza was that it was a great idea. She only hoped Erza was right.

"Are you ready to go Lucy?", asked Erza. At Lucy's nod Erza requipped into her outfit for the evening and they headed next door to go get Natsu and Gray. Erza had managed to get a reservation at a popular restaurant near the inn named Cher Amis. It offered private booths, lots of food variety and was loud enough to not make the boys nervous about their manners. As they made their way to their reserved booth the mood was a bit tense as Natsu and Gray were not sure what was going on with Erza. She was being way too cheerful about the whole episode from that morning which, considering how angry she had been earlier was not a good sign.

Their waitress, who introduced herself as Monica, approached their table to get their drink orders and tell them about the evening's specials. Lucy and Erza decided to try some fruity drink that was the restaurant's specialty , Gray ordered a cold beer and Natsu tried something called a Hot Toddy because it had the word hot in the name and he didn't want to ask questions. While they waited for their drink orders the two boys decided to apologize for their earlier behavior. They had agreed that Gray would start as he could be relied on to be the calmest of the two and Natsu nudged him under the table.

"So Erza,", Gray chuckled nervously, "Flame brain, I mean Natsu, and I wanted to apologize for this morning. We were totally out of line and we know that and it won't happen again."

"To tell the truth this is the first time in all these years that we have fought with each other during a job, it was pretty unprofessional. You know that we would never purposefully embarrass Fairy Tail like that", Natsu continued.

"And we hope that you can forgive us and that we are all ok now.", they both concluded together both relieved to get their prepared speech out without any incident.

Erza for her part was very impressed that they had obviously worked together on their prepared apology. Not only that but she took notice of their cleanliness and appearance. She began to think that Lucy was right but she decided to push a little to see how long they could keep their act up.

"Well I have to say that I am happy to hear that from you. I had begun to think that if you guys could not work together we would have to break up the team but I like everything I am hearing right now.", Erza positively purred at them.

"Now can you tell me what started the argument in the first place?', she asked them innocently.

Lucy looked at Erza, she couldn't be sure but she thought that her friend was trying to set a trap for Natsu and Gray. She wondered if this was wise.

The boys were looking at each other willing themselves to get through the explanation without an altercation. Once again Gray took the lead.

"Um well you see when you left we were fighting the remaining mages. We were doing pretty well when I noticed this one mage sneaking up on fla- uhm Natsu while he was in the middle of one of his attacks.", Gray explained, " I decided to cast an Ice Make Floor to help him since it was quick and I could move on to my own attacks easily but I didn't get a chance to warn him. When he landed from his attack he slipped and fell on his ass."

At the mere mention of Natsu falling so clumsily Happy started laughing hysterically. "Ha ha ha ha he fell... oh what I would have paid to see that. I bet that the other mages must have laughed. Ha ha ha. That's hilarious". Happy started wiping tears out of his eyes.

Natsu to his credit, tried to take the joke well. "Yeah, heh it wasn't that funny. It hurt!"

Happy continued his mirthful laughter which was beginning to get on Natsu's nerves.

"Oh, I don't know Natsu. The mage that told me about it thought it was pretty funny! What did you think Gray?", Erza grinned at him.

At this point Monica came back with their drink orders and asked for their food orders. Lucy and Erza both ordered the special while Natsu and Gray ordered enough food between them to feed a normal family for several days. Happy of course ordered fish.

Erza waited patiently for Gray's answer as she felt the next few minutes would determine whether she would continue her plan.

"Well, it was kind of amusing I guess", Gray tried to answer in a way that would not anger Natsu. He was pretty sure Erza was up to something but he wasn't sure what. Unfortunately, his nerves, Happy's laughter and a memory of Natsu's clumsy fall all worked together against him and before he knew it he started snickering.

"The hell you laughing about, this whole thing was your fault!", Natsu ,whose pride could not stand ridicule, snapped at Gray.

"I was trying to help you, you dimwit, it's not my fault that you lost your balance", Gray replied hotly.

"Well, I didn't need your help. I was doing fine on my own.", Natsu retorted.

"Not from where I was standing , that guy would have had you if I hadn't done something.", Gray yelled.

"So now you're saying that I'm not capable of fighting without your help? I'm a dragon slayer Ice Pervert, I'm hardly defenseless.", Natsu yelled back.

Back and forth they continued their bickering. Erza was looking at them with a strange look on her face, almost predatory. "That's enough, both of you go outside and get some air. Don't come back until you have calmed down. I'm disappointed in you, you were doing so well. Happy go make sure they don't do something stupid." All three of them went outside, Natsu and Gray with scowls on their faces.

Erza took the vial from her pocket, she sniffed the contents to make sure that the smell would not give the potion away to the dragon slayer. As far as she could tell it seemed to have no smell, hopefully it would also have no taste. She put two drops in each of the boys drinks.

"Wait Erza, why did you do two drops? Fuyu said to do just one!", Lucy exclaimed worriedly.

"Are we sitting at the same table? Those two need extra help, they just can't get along. Not even when they are trying extra hard. You are still new to them Lucy. I have been dealing with the two of them for seven years.", Erza said calmly.

"I have a bad feeling about this, we can still get them new drinks.", Lucy said desperately.

"This is going to work, I know it is.", Erza said assuredly. She had the grace to feel a little guilty that she was sneaking a potion to her friends but she convinced herself that it was for their own good. If everything went as planned they would not need the potion ever again. She could confess to them later and take full responsibility for her actions. They would all have a great laugh about it someday. With her plan set in motion she chatted with a nervous Lucy as she waited for Natsu and Gray to return to the table.

Monica finally arrived with their meals and the boys returned to the table immediately after. They did not look happy but they were being civil which was more than Lucy expected. They ate in silence for a few minutes. Both boys downed their drinks and ordered another. Erza had been staring at them intently as they ate but seemed to lose interest after awhile.

Telling Lucy that she had been dealing with their antics for seven years made Erza feel nostalgic. She decided to start telling stories from those times so that Lucy would not feel left out of their childhood. That led to Natsu and Gray also telling some stories from that time. The rest of the dinner was spent in pleasant conversation and lots of laughter. Lucy was touched that they would share their memories with her as they were all normally very private. It was nice to think of them as kids instead of the overpowered mages they were now. They finished their meal , paid and walked back to the inn. No more fights were heard out of Natsu and Gray for the rest of the evening. Erza, convinced that her plan was working was in a great mood. They all started discussing their trip back to Magnolia in the morning and went to their rooms for the night.