You're Part of My Crew Now, Princess

New Friend

It's been a week since the incident at Ilenia Island. Lucy's wounds were close to being completely healed, and Natsu was completely healed. Lucy occasionally needed help getting around the ship and Natsu was almost always by her side. When Natsu wasn't with Lucy, he made sure that Levy and Gajeel were. Levy and Lucy had grown very close to each other and found out they had a lot in common. Gajeel was there to help Lucy if she were to fall or need assistance down or up the stairs.

Natsu always had an eye on Lucy, and Lucy knew it. She could tell that she was being watched all the time, she could feel it the second Natsu walked away from her. She wanted to ask him to stop, but she didn't want to hurt his feelings. She knew he was only trying to watch out for her, so she left it alone.

"What do you want to do today Lu-chan?" Levy asked as she walked with Lucy and Gajeel.

"I don't know. I was thinking I would just stay in bed for the rest of the day, I am relieving you of your duties today," Levy and Gajeel looked at each other before nodding and leaving Lucy once she got to the girl's quarters.

Lucy let out a sigh of relief once she was alone. What no one knew was that Lucy was doing this to read the book that Levy had brought from her bunker in her old house on Ilenia Island. She had noticed it was really old and seemed to be about magic. She went to Levy's bed and looked under it and found the book hidden under an old blanket.

She looked at the book and realized that while it was in a different language, she could still read it. She flipped through the book and it seemed to stop on a specific part of the book when she tried to turn the page, it wouldn't budge. She figured that the book must be magic and it had decided she needed to read this page.

She looked at the page and saw that it was labeled "Celestial Spirits". She started reading and was completely fascinated and almost dropped the book when she saw a picture of a Celestial Spirits gate key, which she learned that they allowed the Spirits to cross into the human world.

Lucy quickly got up and ran for her dresser where she pulled out the bag that she had gotten from Ratchin. She rummaged through it until she felt her hands touch the, now warm, metal key. She pulled it out and looked at it before scrambling back to the book she left on Levy's bed. She looked the pages the book had 'allowed' her to read and found the picture that depicted the key she was holding in her hand.

"No way...why did Ratchin give this to me?" Lucy mumbled to herself as she looked at the key in her grasp.

Lucy had in her possession the gate key belonging to none other than Leo the Lion, who was the leader of the twelve golden zodiac spirits.

Lucy continued to read about Leo and the other zodiac keys. She learned about their powers and how to summon them. She silently thanked Levy for bringing the book with her.

Lucy ran out of the women's quarters in search of Levy to show her the key and get her opinion on it. On the way she ran into Natsu, who kept her from falling after she ran into him.

"Where are you going, and all alone I see." Natsu had a disappointed look on his face when he realized she was alone.

"I went to lie down for a while so they left me alone, but at the moment I really need to talk to Levy about something." Lucy was looking around and trying to get away from Natsu.

"Anything you care to share?" Natsu said it in a way that it wasn't really a question.

"Well you see, it's kind of a personal matter between the two of us, and if it ever concerns yous, I promise we will let you know." With that Lucy was running down the hall again in search of Levy.

It didn't take Lucy long to find the small girl. She ran up to her and hold to lean over to catch her breath.

"Lu-chan, are you ok?" Levy asked as she gazed at Lucy with a worried expression.