You're Part of My Crew Now, Princess

Take One For The Team

None of this made any sense. Sure, getting together a group to go scout out the island did, bringing her along not so much. Even Wendy was dragged along. The group Natsu had hastily picked out consisted of Erza, Gray, Lucy and Wendy, and the two cats.

Even that made sense more than this.

They had found a town, it was originally the island they had wanted to land on in the first place. They had just been fortunate enough to land on the opposite side of the island, so they had a lot of walking to do. Lucy never thought about the fact she would be walking through lush forest for hours in nothing but a mini skirt and heeled boots. Yeah, not her best idea. Yet, they had made it and now here she was.

In a bar. Alone.

How did this happen?

She wasn't very sure herself; Natsu had originally come with her when the group split up to search for a shipwright. It was the middle of the day so the town shouldn't be too dangerous, Natsu had told her so, and he had been here before actually. But alas, he jumped the gun and ran out of the bar when they had begun to question the barmaid, saying something about meeting him across the street because something smelled really good.

She had not held in her sigh as she watched him bolt out the door.

"He seems like a handful." The brunette smiled at her, taking a drink of something. Now that Lucy paid closer attention she realized it was beer. Was this lady drinking on the job?

"You could say that," Lucy responded politely, honestly she had been more of a handful to the team than Natsu had. Life as a pirate was a handful.

"Boyfriend?"

Lucy choked on her own spit.

"What? No, certainly not." Her voice was as steady as she could muster.

"Oh? Well, a good looking guy like that won't stay single for long, you may want to snatch that up before it's gone." The lady chuckled, taking another swig from her glass.

Lucy bit her lip and turned to stare out the door he had just ran out of. Natsu was good looking but she couldn't...she wouldn't do that. He was her Captain, to think of him as a boyfriend was odd. He probably wouldn't know what that was anyway.

Lying to herself didn't seem to be working, she knew about Lisanna. Their relationship must've been rather far along when she had died. Happy said it himself...he had 'liiiiiiiked' her. Though that still didn't convince her much, sure she liked Natsu, but not that way yet, if she ever would.

"It's complicated," Lucy muttered, swiveling in her chair a bit debating just getting up and leaving.

"Isn't it always? That's half the fun right? So what are you in town for?"

Lucy's eyebrow rose, looking back at the row of empty glasses she had just determined did not come from the customers. The girl acted rather normally though, considering she should be plastered by now.

"Um...well, we were wondering if there was a shipwright in town," Lucy said, wondering if she should be asking a lady who was potentially drunk out of her mind.

"Oh yeah, you want Tim. Tim is an ass though, always overprices everything! Now he's the only one capable of building a ship on this island he can charge whatever he wants. If you're looking for a ship, you may just be screwed." The young woman chuckled.

"Great, so it's going to cost a lot of money." Lucy sighed, she had an idea of how much money the crew had. "Don't suppose you have an approximate estimate?"

"Oh lord, the last person that left this island had paid Tim, what was it? Something ridiculous. Like 13?"

"Thirteen what?"