Chaos & Salamander

Chapter 29 - Fantasia

Lucy's POV

It's time for the Fantasia parade! I was excited to be a part of the parade, especially since I haven't been in Fairy Tail for long. Before the parade, Happy told me and Natsu what happened while the girls and I were trapped in stone. After finding Levy's stone body, Gajeel, Wendy and Carla encountered Bickslow. Gajeel fought him and won the battle between them but was badly injured which is where Wendy's healing magic came in handy.

Not long after the hostages including me were zapped away to different parts of Magnolia, the stone spell on Erza was broken. Confused, she headed back to the guild which was not too far away from where she was zapped away. Happy said it had something to do with her having an artificial eye. Gramps explained the situation to her and she ran out to look for Evergreen which she found quickly because of Evergreen's resentment towards her. Erza beat Evergreen with the help of her artificial eye and freed the rest of the hostages from their stone prisons.

On the other side of the city, while Erza was fighting Evergreen, Mira was fighting Freed after he was torturing Elfman for breaking the rules of the 'game'. Surprisingly this caused the return of Mira's Satan Soul. Freed didn't stand a chance against Mira and with his defeat, all the Thunder Legion was defeated. After the Battle of Fairy Tail ended, Gramps banished Laxus for endangering his fellow guildmates. Gramps was distraught with the punishment, but he was doing it for the best of the guild.

Now back to the parade, it looked amazing. Fireworks lit up the night sky while colourful magic, sparkles and shaped bubbles floated in the air around the lavish floats driving through the streets. All the Fairy Tail wizards were performing on top of these floats or dancing on the street.

Cana was spinning her card magic around herself on her own float with Macao and Wakaba, who were throwing fire and smoke magic into the air. Levy, Wendy and Bisca danced in cute pink outfits with flags in their hands. Elfman roared in his Beast Soul from on a castle float. On top of the castle float, a light pink flower opened to reveal Mira. She then transformed into a giant pink snake which surprised the crowd. Gajeel had his own float where he dressed up in a white suit and fedora hat with a guitar in his hands. "Shoo-bee-doo-ba" he sang which made the crowd sweatdrop.

Gray and Juvia were dressed like a prince and princess on their empty float. Gray built an ice castle with his magic and then Juvia made some water features with her magic. As part of the grand finale of their float, Juvia raised the water into an arch and Gray made an ice sculpture on top that read 'Fairy Tail'.

Erza had her own float where she wore a flashy red, yellow and white dress. Around ten swords spun around her as she danced with two more swords in her hands. She then requiped into a revealing dancer outfit with her hair up in two sets of pigtails and two different swords in her hands. The last float of the parade was Gramps' who was in a funny colourful cat outfit and was dancing ridiculously. The whole crowd cheered but could've done without seeing the old man shaking his butt.

The second last float was mine and Natsu's. Natsu sat on the railing at the back in front of a wall of fire with Happy while I danced around the float with my fire magic. I manipulated my fire to create spirals and shapes in the air. Natsu didn't seem interested in joining the parade but I wasn't going to let him sit on the sidelines. I created another fire stream in my palm and then looped it around Natsu to get his attention. He looked up, curious with a 'what are you doing?' look. I waved my hand to come over to where I stood but he shook his head which I pouted. "Come on Natsu. Join in the fun" I begged, and he shook his head again.

Since he was being so stubborn, I thought I'd make a compromise. "How about you help me with the finale?" I asked and he shook his head again, but I wasn't giving up. "Please? I'll make you whatever you want afterwards" I begged one more time and added some food to sweeten the deal. Natsu almost always comes over to my place to eat my cooking so it's worth a try. He groaned while tilting his head up before pushing himself off the railing and walking over to me. 'Yes!' I inwardly cheered.

Happy flew over to us excited. "You ready Happy?" I asked and he replied with a hearty "aye!" before flying to his position at the back of the float. Natsu and I moved to our positions on either side of the float. "Fire Dragon" I began chanting while breathing in. "Chaos Dragon" Natsu followed my lead. "Roar!" we both finished and our roars crossed each other in an X shape. Happy flew underneath the orange and black flames and cheered "aye!" before looping up and back over the flames. Natsu and I stopped our flames and then I shot each letter of 'Fairy Tail' with my flames. While I was doing that, Natsu shot mini fireworks around it with his magic. The crowd cheered at our performance once 'Fairy Tail' was fully spelt out.

I smiled brightly, proud of the finale while Natsu looked away. To the crowd, it looked like he didn't care but I noticed a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. Happy flew up to his face with a smirk and muttered something to him, which immediately made the small smile turn into a scowl. Happy squeaked and flew to hide behind my back. Natsu turned his scowl towards me but I just smiled a big toothy grin. His scowl faded into a neutral expression at my smile and he turned his head to look away from me. I'm glad Natsu had some fun during this festival and I hope I get to see him smile more in the future. A bigger one next time.