"what on earthland were you all thinking?" mrs. dragneel was saying, pacing nervously. "there must be hundreds of you now!"
"eight, actually," wendy piped up, but was quickly silenced by the glare her mother shot her.
"you could've been seriously hurt, you know," she continued, hysterical now. "do you have any idea how worried we were?"
"yeah, yeah, our bad, mom," natsu rolled his eyes.
"one day we won't be there to fish you out of the messes you make," she fumed. "then you'll learn your lesson."
"i-" gajeel started.
"just go," she pinched the bridge of her nose. "know that i am very disappointed with your behavior. all of you."
"juvia was just kind of dragged into this," juvia said, and gray winced.
"i don't mean you, honey, you're doing great," mrs. dragneel promised. "have a lovely day. your room is already set up for you, okay? lily's going to be walking you there."
"someone has favorites," natsu mumbled under her breath.
"jealous?" lucy asked, leaning in.
"nah, i'd rather be your favorite," natsu said, and lucy felt her cheeks burn.
"i should've slashed your tires while i had the chance," she grumbled.
"you did what?" mrs. dragneel shrieked. "that is very illegal, young lady."
"they were trying to kill us!"
"that is also highly illegal. i see. you did what you had to do. dismissed."
"aye," they sighed, shuffling out of the room.
"...but it was totally worth it, right?" gray asked.
"totally." lucy sighed, thinking of the stars. "it was gorgeous out there."
"i-"
"not a word," lucy warned. "i'm not in the mood for your pick-up lines, natsu."
"natsu's a pick-up line guy?" gray snorted. "didn't think you had it in you."
"i don't want to hear a thing from you, especially with how you treat juv-"
"shut it."
"could you two stop fighting?" erza barked, and that was the end of that.
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"a resort?" lucy leaned forward in her chair, balancing on one leg.
"mhm!" wendy grinned. "mom felt bad that we had to sneak out and slash tires in order to have some fun, so all eight of us are going on a trip to akane!"
"when do we leave?"
"um, we're planning to leave, like, now."
lucy squeaked. "on such short notice?"
"um, is that okay with you? we have stuff packed for you and everything."
"of course! this is going to be so much fun," she sighed dreamily.
"okay! we're going to pull one last heist before bed, though. i've gathered gray, erza, and juvia up for this one. it's going to be sick."
"huh?"
"well, mom said we could go next week, but she has the tickets right now, so we can just-"
"we're swiping it from under her nose as she's sleeping?" she guessed.
"yeah, and for that, we've got erza pulling the bodyguards off of her room, gray and natsu are off grabbing the private jet-"
"so that leaves us to..?"
"swipe the tickets? yeah. you can dress up as a maid again and i'm small enough to fit in the vents!" she clapped her hands together. "i'm just the insurance, though. if mom wakes up, i drop from the vents and-"
"you're scaling the vents?"
"yeah, i've got a bit of rope ready and everything!"
"why am i not surprised?"
"shoo! start changing!"
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lucy hesitantly stepped inside. mrs. heartfilia was sound asleep. she glanced around and deflated. why are there so many drawers? it could be anywhere!
she tiptoed inside, careful to not knock over the many expensive decorations that were littered around the room. despite her best efforts, she tripped and stumbled forward. lucy squeaked, and mrs. dragneel stirred. lucy stumbled forward, arms poised in an attempt to catch herself again, and mrs. dragneel mumbled something in her sleep.
just then, mrs. dragneel shot up. "give me my teeth back!" she exclaimed, and then collapsed back down onto the bed, snoring.
lucy let out a sigh of relief. to her horror, mrs. dragneel rubbed her eyes and sat up at this. "lucy? is that you?"
lucy made her voice slightly higher and ducked her head. "n-no, grandeeney-sama. i was just- tidying up-" her throat seized up. she really was a horrible liar.
"oh, you even sound like her," mrs. dragneel yawned. "come closer, child."
lucy shut her eyes and began to hope that wendy was in position by now. "oh, it's really okay. i need to, um, clean off your vanity, though."
"of course," mrs. dragneel said hesitantly.
the vanity was an arm's length away from the bed. she bit her lip. how was she going to be able to do this without being caught? she approached it and slid the first drawer open. there, on top of the various brushes and palettes, were eight pristine purple tickets. she glanced up and grinned. the vent was right there. all she had to do was keep mrs. dragneel distracted.
"grandeeney-sama, do you need extra pillows?" lucy offered.
the older woman hesitated and then nodded slowly. "do fetch me some from that closet."
she opened up the closet and began to speak. "have i ever told you about the time i broke my arm falling out of a tree?"
"i don't believe you have."
lucy kept talking, trying to keep her distracted, but she only had so many stories to tell. just as lucy was running thin on material, a small black figure dropped down from the vents, a loop of rope wrapped around its waist. it scooped up the tickets, soundlessly shut the drawer, and disappeared back into the vent. she let out a sigh of relief.
"but i really must be going now. please have a good sleep."
"i will, thank you."
lucy ran down the hallway to meet wendy at the library.
"where to?" she said, out of breath.
"there's no time, we have to go now," wendy breathed, untangling the rope from her waist.
"but we're still in-"
"we can change in the jet!" wendy assured her.
"if you say so," she sighed.
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"i can't believe we made it in time," lucy sighed, lounging back on a couch.
"you're still in a skirt," natsu warned, looking away.
lucy pushed her skirt down. "shit! i'm going to change into pants as soon as i can."
"put your feet down!" juvia scolded. "stop flashing my gray-sama!"
"he's not even looking this way!"
gray sighed. "you know, in the end, we ended up sneaking out anyway."
"hey where are gajeel and levy?"
"still at home. they wanted to stay." erza studied her nails.
"did you give them their tickets?"
"i mean, obviously."
"okay, whatever! let's enjoy this trip, everyone!" natsu cheered.
"yeah!" they replied.
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wc ;; 1,071
a/n ;; this was kind of weirdly paced and rushed but i like where this is going sooo probably more interesting chapters to come!