Stellar Mistakes

Slashed

Every time Loke called, either at work or when she was at home, Lucy reluctantly stopped herself from pressing the Accept button. His messages were always brief. He wanted to see her. He could have seen her any time at work to talk about the project. If it was important, he could have left a better message, or called her into his office, or send an email detailing any issues.

Obviously, he meant that in a different way.

She did her best to avoid him around Fairy Tail, dodging out of his way, losing herself in the crowd, once when he seemed like he wanted to catch the elevator with her, she hit the Close Door button on him, then chuckled to herself as she saw his stunned face just before the lift took her down to the lobby.

Then one day, he called her to his office. She knew this was going to be awkward, but if he was calling her into a meeting, she had to go.

She opened the door, ready for him to demand an answer as to why she had been avoiding him. Instead, she saw Natsu, Freed, and Gray all there as well. Loke sat at his desk while the others stood lined up in front.

"Lucy, sorry to call you away from your work," he said, speaking in his director voice again. "I know you've been busy."

"Oh, no problem, sir," she said, trying to sound casual yet respectable. Busy ... sure. He had to know that the reason she refused to answer his calls was not because she was busy. "What's going on?"

He waited until she took a stand with the other three. Usually, Freed seemed to know what was going on before the rest of them, and Lucy had always figured that since he and Loke were old friends, Loke told him about the inner workings of this endeavor before sharing it with the rest of the team. This time, Lucy looked to Freed for a clue, was this good news or bad news, only to see a crease in his forehead showing that he was just as confused as the rest of them.

Loke began with a forced calmness to his voice. "This is, of course, about the Grand Magic Games campaign. The budget we were given for the ad has suddenly been cut."

All of them stiffened by the shocking news, and the mood instantly grew tense.

"The budget was cut?" Freed said, his eyes widening. Finances were his department, after all, so this was a blow to his well-crafted budget.

"Where did this come from?" Natsu cried out.

"You flame-headed idiot," Gray grumbled. "Obviously it comes from the city planners who give us the funds."

"That's right," Loke said. "Since the games are hosted in Crocus, the city is paying for this ad, and now they want us to cut our budget in half."

"What?" Freed shouted, the first time Lucy had heard him yell and it wasn't at someone who broke company rules.

"Half?" Lucy cried out. "But we already got things rolling based on the original budget."

"I know," Loke said, and his voice somehow stayed calm although the rest of them were in a panic. "Freed already calculated what was needed and how much everything would cost. We've been preparing for production based on that figure. However, this is our client's decision. There's nothing we can do about it. Nothing we can say at this point will change our instructions."

"True," Lucy murmured. Although it seemed unfair to slash the budget that drastically with no warning, it was also not uncommon. Still, it meant they had to make some major revisions, and just days before they were supposed to start filming. Based on the budget, Freed would have to come up with a new plan for the entire account. Natsu would have to renegotiate the production expenses and TV spot costs. Lucy had to rework the casting and locations of the commercial to be within the budget. The way she had envisioned it, they really would have needed everything in that budget.

Perhaps they could have cut a few corners here and there, but to slash the budget by half ... it was sadistic. Could they redo everything and still make it on time?

The team was speechless. Even Loke seemed slightly flustered.

Lucy thought about all that work she had been putting in. She drafted the proposal, she drew the storyboards, she chose the cast and shooting locations. She was the only one who could explain this to the staff. She balled her hands into fists and roused herself to action. She had put in the most work in the creative areas, where expenses were easier to adjust. TV shot costs were pretty much set, but actors and equipment could be flexible. It was easiest for her department to bend and adjust on this issue.

"I'll find a new cast who can work using this budget," she declared.

Everyone looked over to her. Loke had a somewhat troubled expression, but there was also a light in his eyes.

Natsu warned her, "You can't do it alone."

"I know," Lucy said, "I may not know anything about securing a TV spot, or the media buying costs, or how to create a budget, but no one knows production costs like I do."

Loke smiled at her. "That's right." Their eyes met, but what Lucy saw behind those glasses was pure pride. "First, we find a new cast and new supplies that work with this budget. We've already begun on the demo shoot, so we don't have a lot of time."

"Okay," Lucy said. "I'll handle everything I can."

Gray laid a hand on her shoulder. "If there's anything I can do ... my script doesn't really need to change, not if we keep to your vision, so I can lend a hand."

"Thanks," she said, grinning at him. "I'll let you know. I can come in tomorrow and get things going."

Gray cringed. "Dammit, I can only do mornings on Saturday. I have a hockey game later that evening."

"Then help me in the morning. You can leave messages with talent agencies and cancel reservations on locations."

"Don't worry," Loke said firmly. "I'll come in tomorrow, too. I can't make it in the morning, but I can arrive around noon. I have a feeling we'll be at this all weekend long, so the more hands we have on deck, the better."

Lucy was mildly surprised, but the others were more shocked that the Creative Director himself would leap into the fray like this. Rarely were workers called to work on the weekends, but this was no time to complain. The budget had been reduced, which meant it would not work with Lucy's original vision. Still, they had to maintain high quality. Lucy thought about what Capricorn had said about Loke being more of a player than a director. It was time for all of them, even him, to get their hands dirty as they rescued this project from such a brutal slash.

It was determined that for now, Loke and Lucy would be handling the production side of things as a duo, Gray would add support where he could, and Natsu was headed to Crocus to talk to television stations and cook up new deals with ad spots. For the rest of that Friday, the team brainstormed how to salvage what they could. Lucy worked with Natsu, pouring over graphs. She and Freed had lunch together, where he went into more details about the new budget. Then she went back to her desk. Of course, this was not the kind of thing that could be fixed in a single day, but she could get a start making lists of all the people she needed to call over the weekend. There was no time to waste.

Deep inside, she was proud of herself. She had stood in front of Loke and did not get flustered. She had focused on the job at hand. She still admired him and her heart still fluttered whenever their eyes met, but she knew when to be professional.

When her phone rang and she saw it was him, she once again rejected the call.

"If you need to talk to me about the project, you can leave a message," she muttered. Lucy focused back on her computer, not about to let her love life get in the way of her job, not when the hopes of everyone in Fairy Tail rested on their team pulling through this disaster.