Dear Jesus guys, I cannot tell you how bad it's been these past couple months. And by that I literally mean that if I were to list out all the things that have stressed me out since I last posted, you guys would boo me out for making an author's note half the length of the chapter. Suffice to say that I have been stressed, busy, sick, had friends be sick, be more stressed, been more busy, and have missed the updates for both Wings of a Dragon in December and Wingéd Magic in January. In fact I didn't even finish the chapters. I cannot tell you how ashamed of that I am. Luckily for you guys, it looks like I'm going to make it this month, if only by the skin of my teeth. Enjoy the chapter you guys.

~Star Child~

Rating: M

Warnings: Some Language, Implied sexual actions

Summary: Aquarius is a Spirit meant for battle, not for playing with little girls! But if there's a chance for some good gossip, then maybe she'll stick around...

Words: 3356

~Star Child~

Lucy stands by the pool in a ruffled red swimsuit, looking down into the waters. In her hand there is a Golden Key, which she turns over and over.

The Key is Aquarius's, a Spirit that used to belong to her mother. Lucy knows that her mother had at least three Spirits – Aquarius, Cancer, and Crux. She remembers Aquarius and Cancer from when she was a child.

The memories are foggy – she was so young when her mother died and the Spirits stopped coming around – but they are there. She remembers Cancer helping her into a red dress on the day of a wedding – the wedding of the CEO of an allied company – and applying little bits of rogue to her cheeks. She remembers sitting in his lap as he pins her hair up into an imitation of her mother's elaborate pin up. She remembers his look of pride as she leaves for the wedding, as pretty as a porcelain doll.

But more than Cancer, Lucy remembers Aquarius. She remembers eagerly waiting by the pool every Wednesday for another lesson. She remembers her mother playfully splashing Aquarius in the face, and the Spirit retaliating with a wave that washes them all out of the pool. She remembers Aquarius teaching her to swim underwater. She remembers being brought to the surface by Aquarius after inhaling some water, the Spirit coaxing the water from her lungs. She remembers Aquarius teaching her to dive. She remembers the face Aquarius makes when she's genuinely angry, and the face she makes when she is pleased but wants to seem angry. Lucy remembers friendship.

And Lucy misses that – that sense of friendship. Lucy has no friends – the servants and tutors love her, but they couldn't be called friends. Crux is wonderful as well, and his companionship is a great gift to her, but he still doesn't fill all the needs of a little girl.

Today is one of the days she's allowed to Summon Aquarius.

She takes a deep breath, and sticks the key in the water.

"Open, Gate of the Water Bearer! Aquarius!"

Aquarius was not expecting to be Summoned. Sure, today was one of the days she could be Summoned, but Lucy is a kid. What could a sheltered little kid possibly do with a Zodiac Spirit?

So when she finds herself reforming in the Human World, she's both surprised and confused. And that makes her nasty.

She zeros in on Lucy, standing by the pool in a red swimsuit (Who let a kid like her wear red?! Aquarius thinks furiously, She should be wearing blue! Blue!). The girl is looking up at her with a hopeful, happy expression. Aquarius relishes the chance to shatter that expression.

"What the hell do you want?" she says harshly.

Lucy's happy expression falters. "I... I..."

"I-I-I-iiiiii," Aquarius mimics cruelly, "What, you can't talk? What the hell do you want?"

Lucy now looks completely unhappy. "Isn't today one of the days I can Summon you?" she says uncertainly, "Did I get it wrong?"

Jeez, this kid is such an amateur. "Yes, today is one of the days," Aquarius says impatiently, "So what the hell do you want?"

Lucy gathers her courage and says, "I was hoping you would play with me, please!"

Lucy's face is a combination of hopeful and prideful, but Aquarius doesn't even notice, because she's PISSED. Play with her? Play with her?! Aquarius is a Zodiac Spirit, not a fucking babysitter! She's an elite! How dare this little shit Summon her for something so trivial? Lucy cringes back from Aquarius's black, furious aura, her eyes widening in fear.

"Who the HELL do you think you ARE?!" Aquarius screeches, "I'm a Zodiac Spirit, the best of the best, and you Summoned me here to play with you?! I've never been so insulted in my life! Is your head empty or something?! Because I've never met someone so fucking STUPID!" Aquarius doesn't even pause for breath. "Come play with me!" she mocks, "How fucking old are you, two?"

A quiet voice interrupts her rant. "I'm eleven."

Aquarius goes to give the girl a contemptuous look, but when she actually looks at the child, she stops short. Lucy's eyes are brimming with tears that she valiantly tries to hold back. Aquarius is suddenly very uncomfortable. She's reduced Summoners to tears before, sure, and she's enjoyed it, but she's never made a child cry. It makes her feel almost... guilty.

That doesn't mean that she's not still mad at Lucy though; she's just not as mad. Aquarius turns her back to Lucy, giving off a haughty air. "Then go play with the other eleven year olds!" she snaps over her shoulder.

Once again a quiet voice speaks up behind her. "There are no other eleven year olds. There are no other children, period."

Aquarius turns around in surprise. Lucy is looking up at her, and this time she looks past the tears, and sees the crushing loneliness in her eyes. Aquarius remembers, out of the blue, Lucy's tearful face on the day of her mother's funeral; the cruelty her father showed her; Capricorn coming back and telling them how traumatized Lucy was, just weeks before he disappeared. Aquarius sighs – God, it's no wonder Lucy Summoned her, the kid is probably desperate for some sort of affection.

Aquarius mutters something too low for Lucy to hear. "Excuse me? I couldn't hear that..." Lucy says a tad uncertainly.

Just loud enough to be heard, Aquarius angrily says, "What the fuck did you want to play?"

For a moment, Lucy's face is uncomprehending. Then, realization spreads over her face, and her entire body lights up.

"I was thinking we could play underwater tag!" Lucy says enthusiastically.

Aquarius makes a scathing noise, tossing her blue hair. "Underwater tag?" she says scornfully, "I thought you were eleven, kid, not five. Go grab a cup and fill it with pool water."

"Why?"

"Because I said to," Aquarius says impatiently, "Just do it, kid." To her pleasure, Lucy obeys and leaves to go get a cup.

She returns out of breath, having run to the kitchen and back. "Is this alright?" Lucy asks, holding up the cup she found. It is not a paper or plastic cup as Aquarius had expected, but a goblet made of pure, sparkling crystal. The shine of the expensive material catching the light immediately appeals to the Spirit's sense of beauty and importance.

"That is perfect," Aquarius purrs, "Now fill it up with water, and make sure not to spill any."

"What would happen if I spilled it?" Lucy asks as she kneels down at the edge of the pool to fill the goblet.

"Then I'd have to leave," Aquarius replies.

"Why?"

Jeez, again with the whys. Were all children this annoyingly curious, or was it just Lucy? "Because I need the water to maintain my connection to the Human World," she says flatly, "If it disappears, I disappear. Now let's go." She elegantly floats away from the pool and to Lucy's side.

"Where are we going?"

"Does it matter? Let's just go."

And with that, Aquarius sets off into the mansion, Lucy following close behind her and holding the goblet with both hands to avoid spilling a single precious drop. Aquarius doesn't know where they're going, but she's sure a mansion this large has something to entertain an immortal Spirit and an eleven year old.

The first source of amusement they find is in the Servant's Wing. They come across the bedroom of a servant who once insulted Aquarius (by implying she was prettier than Aquarius! Seriously?! It was like the little witch was blind or something!). Normally, the Spirit doesn't bother to remember humans that aren't her Summoners (sometimes she doesn't even remember them), but Aquarius has a great memory for grudges, and she remembers that she never got revenge on this particular maggot.

So Aquarius convinces Lucy to help her play a trick on this particular servant. Originally the trick was a lot meaner, but Lucy is a relatively nice person, and is fond of the servants, so the trick goes from malicious to mischievous.

Lucy finds a bucket and some liquid soap. Aquarius fills the bucket with water from her urn, and commands the water to mix itself until it's frothy with soap bubbles. Together, they hang the bucket up inside the servant's room, set to tip itself as soon as the maggot opens the door. Aquarius is congratulating Lucy (and more importantly, herself) on a job well done when her keen eyes spot a group of servants coming down the hall.

"Time to go, munchkin," Aquarius announces, grabbing Lucy's hand.

"Huh?"

"First rule of trouble making," Aquarius advises, "Never get caught at the scene of the crime!"

With that, they speed off down the hall, leaving only dust clouds and a few drops of water in their wake.

They slow after a few minutes, mainly because a horrified scream echoes through the manor – their trap has been sprung. Aquarius smiles maliciously, and Lucy gives a quiet giggle.

"So what now?" Lucy asks, looking up at her. Aquarius looks around thoughtfully. The deserted hallway they are in has a dozen closed doors along it before it merges with two other hallways at each end.

"Let's try door number one," Aquarius decides, reaching out for the closest door. It is as she lays her hand on the door that she hears a noise from inside the room, and pauses to listen.

"Oh Rin-kun!"

"You like that Hitomi-chan?"

"Oh yes, Rin-kun! More!"

Aquarius let go of the door knob like it burned her. Lucy must see something in her face, because she immediately asks, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing!" Aquarius laughs, herding Lucy away from the room, "I just would rather open door number twelve!" True to her word, she opens the furthest door and herds Lucy inside.

The room that they enter isn't particularly interesting, at least at first. It's full of old, antique furniture covered with dusty sheets. But half hidden by a couch is a cardboard box with LAYLA written on it in thick black sharpie. Aquarius grins and points it out to Lucy, who lights up like the sun, and together they drag it out from behind the couch.

Once it's been pulled out, they can see that the full label is LAYLA'S BOOKS. Aquarius rips the tape off the box and starts rifling through it. Lucy is examining each book reverently, but Aquarius tosses them to the side carelessly. She is looking for something specific. "Come on, where's the good stuff?" she complains, searching more vigorously through the box.

Lucy gets her attention and shows her a book. "What's this?" she asks curiously. Aquarius takes it from her and grins. Dark Love is written in spiky letters across the top of the front cover of the book, and below that is a picture of a woman looking longingly into the eyes of a man clad in a black robe.

"This," Aquarius announces, "Is exactly what we're looking for. It's a romance novel."

"What's a romance novel?" Lucy asks, tilting her head to the side rather cutely.

"It's a story about love," Aquarius explains. Layla and Aquarius had a shared love of the books, although Aquarius preferred hers a little raunchier than Layla did. Layla's romance novels were full of things like 'and together they laid until the dawn came' and 'the red and orange hues of the sunset perfectly matched the passion of their joining'. Actually, those novels were probably okay for Lucy to read. All the fun stuff was just implied.

"Here, let me read you the summary," Aquarius says before clearing her throat, "When Isabella, the heiress to an enormous fortune, is kidnapped by a Guild of Dark Mages, she is terrified. One of her captors is the handsome Thanatos, a man with a heart as cold as ice and magic as black as his silky locks. Strangely, she finds herself drawn to him, and he to her. Will Isabella be able to escape the Dark Mages? Will she even want to?"

Lucy looks intrigued. "Can we read it?" she asks. Aquarius happily cracks open the book and begins reading aloud. Lucy is entranced by the relationship, horrified when the Dark Guild tries to kill Isabella, and dazzled when Thanatos gives up his evil ways to save his love. They finish the book quickly, and move onto the sequel, White Knight. From there they blow through Savage Summer, The Cursed Rose, and Blood-Red Passion. Lucy is star-struck by the (rather cheesy) stories, but eventually Aquarius's throat goes dry and they have to take a break.

During their break, Lucy notices that there is another box behind the couch. This one, they find, is labeled LAYLA'S MAGAZINES. When they open the box, the first magazine they see is a copy of Sorcerer Magazine. The magazine is old – dating back to the month of Layla's death – but that doesn't bother Lucy. The picture is of a short, older man in front of a building. The title reads "A LOOK INSIDE FIORE'S MOST CHAOTIC GUILD: FAIRY TAIL!" Lucy curiously opens the magazine up to the correct page and begins to read. She starts to grin at the reported antics, and starts giggling when the reporter is hit by a banana. When she is finished reading, she jumps to her feet with a grin.

"I'm going to find more of these!" Lucy exclaims before running out of the room, magazine in hand.

"Wait! Lucy!" Aquarius calls after her, but it's no use; Lucy is long gone. Her mood instantly darkening, the Spirit picks up her goblet of water and follows her Summoner.

Lucy moves with the mind-boggling speed of all children, and the next time Aquarius spots her she is speaking to a butler, who points her in a new direction. The Spirit labors to keep up with the young human. She finally catches up to her Summoner in an out-of-the-way room on the ground floor of the four story mansion.

The little girl is kneeling on the floor, her back to the door, and is surrounded by magazines. Aquarius looms up behind her, radiating a dark aura.

"Oh Luuuu-ccccyyyy..." the Spirit growls, her face set in an expression of righteous fury.

However, when Lucy looks up, she doesn't seem frightened at all. In fact, she beams at the irate Spirit, too excited by her discovery to be frightened of her.

"Look, Aquarius!" she exclaims, shoving a magazine up towards her face. Aquarius looks at it automatically. It is another, more recent issue of Sorcerer Magazine, and once again it features the Guild Fairy Tail. Aquarius looks at the many magazines surrounding Lucy; they are all copies of Sorcerer Magazine, ranging from old to new, and they all feature Fairy Tail in some way, from interviews with the members to reports of their missions. Nearby is a large magazine holder filled with more copies of Sorcerer Magazine, some of which have been pulled out and tossed aside carelessly. None of those editions feature Fairy Tail. Aquarius's brow furrows. Did Lucy go through all these magazines to find the ones on Fairy Tail?

"This is Mirajane Strauss," Lucy chatters, "She joined Fairy Tail a year or two ago, but she's older than me. I think she's really pretty, and they say she's really strong too!"

Somewhat reluctantly, Aquarius looks at the picture of the girl. She looks to be in her early teens, with a high white pony tail and black punk clothes that match the bad attitude on her face. She is a very pretty girl, one who will be beautiful in a few years.

This looks like it's shaping up to be a very good gossip session, so Aquarius lets go of her anger, puts down her goblet of water, and settles in next to Lucy.

As Lucy reads a tale of destruction (some kid named Gray froze a town or something unimportant like that), Aquarius reads the interview of a 30 some year old red head named Gildarts. The Spirit quite likes the rugged, handsome cut of his face, and the interview says that he's one of the strongest members of his Guild. In other words, he's a great catch, and possible boyfriend material. This, of course, means she has to bring it to Lucy's attention.

"Lucy, come over here. Look at this." Lucy comes over, and Aquarius shows her the picture of Gildarts. "See this guy, Lucy? He's a real catch. He's strong, he's handsome, he's probably got some great abs – he's boyfriend material. This is the type of guy you should try to date."

Lucy examines the picture, wrinkling her little nose. "He's old though," Lucy complains.

"That's true," Aquarius agrees, "Let's find someone closer to your age."

When they are done going through all the interviews, they have only found two people that Aquarius finds worthy. The first was a blond teenager names Laxus, and the second was a boy called Salamander, who they didn't have a picture for, but was supposed to be Lucy's age.

"See, he's another good catch," Aquarius says, pointing at the picture of Laxus, "Very strong, handsome, lots of abs even though he's still young, and he's the grandson of the Guild Master! What more could you want?"

"A nice guy," Lucy says critically, "Look at his face. He's got an awful attitude." The teen does indeed have an ugly look on his face.

"That makes him a bad boy!" Aquarius says passionately, jabbing her finger at the picture, "He's got a hard exterior, but I bet he's soft inside! Like a clam!"

"I like this one better," Lucy says, waving around the magazine that has Salamander's article. There isn't a good picture of the boy; the best that there is is a picture of his chest as he turns away, part of his face showing as well. You can see the bottom corner of a toothy grin. They don't have a name either; just the one that the magazine made up for him, Salamander. "He seems like a lot of fun!" Lucy continues with a smile, rereading the article. It doesn't have much on him; the boy was too busy bouncing around like a top to give a proper interview.

Aquarius grudgingly examines the article. "He is closer to your own age," she admits, "Actually, I think he is your age."

"See, perfect!" Lucy says, "He's my age and seems really really fun!"

"The article barely says anything about him!" Aquarius argues, "Laxus's article gives a good profile of him!"

"That just makes Salamander mysterious!" Lucy counters.

The argument goes on. And on. And on. In fact it goes on until Lucy's magical reserves finally exhaust themselves and Aquarius disappears. Lucy smugly decides that this means that she has won the argument, and she gathers up the magazines for later reading.

This is Lucy's introduction to the fantastic Guild Fairy Tail, the Guild that she will one day join. It's a very favorable introduction, one that leads Lucy to take out a personal subscription to Sorcerer Magazine so that she can follow the Guild's antics. She even develops something of a small crush on the mysterious Salamander. (Lucy insists that this crush was dispelled the moment that he sprayed the food she bought for him all over her. Aquarius thinks that it merely transferred from Salamander to Natsu.)

On a slightly less life changing note, Lucy also goes back to the storage room and gathers up her mother's romance novels. She reads them constantly. She reads them at dinner, she reads them in the bathroom, she reads them in the bath itself, she even reads them while she's supposed to be asleep. She reads them so much that in a different world, a certain white haired, one eyed man feels a sudden urge to defend his title.

Crux complains to the other Spirits that Lucy has begun to blow off her homework to read those 'appalling excuses for literature'. Aquarius is undeniably pleased.

Who needs to know how to do math anyway?

~Star Child~

Before I get questions from shippers, no, that was not foreshadowing for a romantic relationship. This story will have no actual romance. It'll have little hints that you can take as you will, but I will never outright say that Lucy is dating someone. Aquarius and Lucy were just being girls and gossiping. We do it all the time. And her crush on Natsu doesn't mean anything either. Just a silly little childhood crush. (Whether it becomes an adult crush is up to you)

I'd like to thank all of you for recommending so many songs for me! I was really surprised by how enthusiastic everyone was to share their music! I haven't gotten through all of them yet, but I'm working on it. If you like, you can keep giving me more, but that's is 100 percent optional. Totally up to you.

On another note, I have a snow day tomorrow! Yay!

Stay warm and dry and don't forget to review!

Vamp