What Happens After Dragon Season?

The Job

Natsu insisted on walking to the town where their job was. Not wanting a repeat of his sickness, Lucy had reluctantly agreed. They camped for the night in a small grove of trees. Natsu and Happy caught fish from a nearby stream and Lucy helped cook it up over the campfire. Lucy stayed quiet while Natsu and Happy rattled on. At one point, Happy pointed out how quiet she was, and Lucy used the excuse that she was tired. Once they bedded down for the night, Lucy was surprised that it was Happy who snuggled up to her, not Natsu. Instead, he had laid his bedding down on the opposite side of the fire. Lucy hid her disappointment.

The next day, she summoned Pluu as they walked, using him to comfort her from her feelings of sadness. Natsu truly did not remember their time together. It was pretty obvious. He had not even tried to hold her hand! Even if he was being careful around Happy, surely hand holding would not be that scandalous! She hugged Pluu to her as Happy flew around them, chattering along with Natsu about the amount of fish he'd buy with his share of the reward money.

They completed their job as they had every other one - Natsu overdid it a bit, but things turned out okay in the end. Noticing Lucy's silence and taking it as anger for his goof up, he relented and they took the train back. Of course his motion sickness set in, so Lucy did her usual - put his head in her lap and ran her fingers through his hair as he relaxed into sleep.

Happy studied her from his seat across from her. "What's wrong, Lucy?" he asked once she got Natsu settled down and asleep.

Lucy shrugged. "It's nothing. I'm just tired."

"You keep saying that," Happy said, frowning. "I think it's something more. Did Natsu do something again?" he sighed.

Lucy gave Happy a sad smile. "It's nothing, Happy. I'll get over it."

"Yeah, but if Natsu did something, he needs to apologize. Knowing him, he probably doesn't even know what he did," the cat replied, rolling his eyes.

Lucy was about to answer, but the train stopped at the next station and Natsu slowly raised his head.

"Sorry, Natsu, this isn't us," Lucy told him. He groaned, and laid his head back in her lap. Happy giggled.

She was glad for the distraction - I mean, how could she explain the situation to Happy?

"Lucy!"

Lucy's head shot up and a smile spread across her face.

"Yukino! What are you doing here?"

"We just finished a job and figured we'd make our way to Magnolia for a visit since we were close by," Sting said, appearing behind Yukino. He glanced over at Natsu. "I guess Wendy couldn't give him that travel spell?"

Lucy shook her head. "How is it that you're okay?" she asked Sting, curious, as the train started to move. The couple had sat across the long aisle from them.

Sting grinned. "Our job paid with a rare medicinal root that when brewed into a tea, helps with motion sickness. I mean, I'm not ready to take a long journey or anything, but for short terms, it helps."

Yukino nodded. "So our visiting Magnolia was two-fold. It was a test of the herb tea - to see how it worked during short trips. Minerva is going to play around with it and see how she can make it long term."

Lucy didn't miss the two of them sitting so close together. When Sting rested his arm over Yukino's shoulders, she knew. Yukino blushed at Lucy's knowing grin.

"I guess you and Natsu went through dragon season as well?" Yukino asked, still blushing.

"Er, yes," Lucy replied, glad that Lector, Sting's exceed, was distracting Happy.