Crowded Apartment

Lucy Heartfilia was in a bad mood. Her rent was due and she didn't have enough money to pay the landlady because of Natsu's overly destructive tendencies. So seeing Sting Eucliffe sitting on her doorstep definitely didn't help her mood. Even when she noticed that he no longer had a Sabertooth guild mark on his shoulder. She simply marched past him, opened the door to her apartment building and watched as he walked in behind her. She sighed, it seemed that he planned on bothering her so she walked up the stairs to her apartment, opened the door, and looked back at him. Wasn't she surprised to see Sting's partner-in-crime Rogue Cheney standing in her doorway as well. She raised a questioning eyebrow and, to her surprise, Rogue answered the unasked question.

"We need to speak with you about some things and we also have a request to make of you." She stared at him, dumbfounded. Perhaps he wasn't mute after all, just uninterested in speaking. She was broken from her trance by a voice behind her.

"Well, I thought you were smarter than that Girlie. You seriously thought Shadowy over there was mute?" She turned and her eyes instantly widened. What the heck was Cobra of all people doing in her apartment? He grinned at the suspicious look in her eyes.

"The Magic Council let me out after I gave them a bit of information they needed." She nodded, still suspicious and walked past him into her living room. Wasn't she surprised to see Laxus Dreyar stretched out on the couch looking perfectly comfortable and reading her novel. Lucy snatched the novel from him and collapsed into one of the two armchairs situated in her living room. She stared tiredly at the four dragon slayers that had invaded her home, rent totally forgotten. Cobra leaned against the wall, Rogue watching silently from the shadows, Laxus glaring at her from the couch, and Sting, where was Sting?

"He's in the kitchen." Lucy raised an eyebrow at Cobra's answer. Cobra just tapped his ear, grinning widely at her memory slip. Lucy rolled her eyes, wondering how she could have possibly forgotten the redhead's supersonic hearing. A shout of "you're a blonde followed her and almost instantly images of all the ways she could kill Cobra entered her head, completely filling it. Another shout of "there's no way Blondie." Echoed in her ears and angered her further, so when she saw Sting eating out of a large bag of potato chips her vision turned red and she Lucy kicked him off the counter, through the doorway, and into the brick wall above her fireplace. It was an instant knockout. Lucy winced; she hadn't meant to hit him so hard. After putting away the potato chips she walked into the living room and was greeted by the sight of a fully awake Sting rubbing his perfectly fine nose while Laxus, Cobra, and even Rogue rolled across the floor laughing. Cobra spotted her standing in the doorway and held up a hand for a high-five.

"Nice kick Blondie." She glared at him.

"I'll Lucy kick you if I hear you call me Blondie one more time." He grinned at her and then started to describe what had happened with Sting when her back was turned.

"Okay, so first Sting sort of slid down the wall you kicked him into. Then he rolled over on the floor, kicked Rogue in the shin, and sat up all of a sudden asking if Rogue was done making breakfast. After that he asked why his nose hurt, then he came up with this theory that he had fallen out of bed and landed face first. We (Rogue, Laxus, and Cobra) just stared at him for a moment then burst into laughter, and that's how you found us a minute later." Lucy giggled then began to wonder why they were all here. She knew Rogue and Sting's reason, but what about Cobra and Laxus, and more importantly, why did they all know where she lived?!

"I can't speak for Sparkplug, but I'm here because I need somewhere to stay and the Magic Council agreed that this would be the best place for me so they gave me a file with your address." Lucy sighed, if he had said her address was in the "Weekly Sorcerer" she would have started worrying that the Trimens would come to visit her. A visit from the Trimens was the last thing she needed now.

"I came here because your flame-brained friend decided it would be okay to burn down my house. I got your address from the one magazine with the weirdo reporter that likes to say 'Coooooooool'." Lucy walked to the closest wall and started to bang her head on it. She stopped abruptly when someone knocked on her door.

"Lucy-san, could you allow us entrance?" Lucy walked to the door and held it open for the Trimens, grateful that Ichiya wasn't with them today.

"Lucy, why are Cobra, Sting, and Rogue here?" Hibiki didn't question the presence of Laxus. Though that might have been because he was a part of Fairy Tail, and was therefore trusted. Lucy sighed and massaged her temples; all this explaining was giving her a headache. Before she could answer Cobra cut in with the explanation.

"I was recently released from jail by the Magic Council and they (Magic Council) decided that I should stay with Lucy for a year before I could go off on my own. I have a document with me for her to sign saying that she will be my legal guardian for the next year, or maybe longer. The Twin Dragon Slayers are here because they were kicked out of their guild and plan to join Fairy Tail so they need somewhere to stay until they find their own place. I may or may not join Fairy Tail depending on how much I like it there. I will also be helping Lucy pay her rent while I am staying here." The Trimens looked at Lucy questioningly.

"It's true, every word of it." They (Trimens) nod and spread out around the room, examining it.

"Well, I'm going to go take a shower. When I get out I expect sleeping arrangements to be figured out and dinner to be ready." Seeing Sting ready to say something Lucy added to her previous statement.

"I will be sleeping in my bed, no complaining, and I want my apartment perfectly clean when I get out of the shower." Nods went all around the circle of faces and Lucy went into her bedroom, locking the door behind her because she would be using the bathroom connected to her room. Leaving the boys to use the considerably smaller guest bathroom.

*meanwhile*

Rogue almost instantly claimed dinner duty and Sting convinced them all that Rogue was a wonderful chef. Cobra worked on cleaning the kitchen, Laxus and Ren moved the furniture in the living room so there was more space, Eve set the table, Hibiki found a recipe for Rogue, and Sting went to find Lector and Frosch.

*timeskip to when Lucy gets out of shower*

When Lucy got out of the shower she took note of the fact that there were two exceeds sleeping peacefully on her bed. She guessed that they were Sting and Rogue's exceeds due to the fact that a) She had never seen them before b) She didn't take Laxus for an animal person c) Cobra was more of a snake person and d) She had seen them cheering for Sting and Rogue at the Grand Magic Games (GMG). She was careful not to wake them up as she walked to her closet and pulled out a pair of sweatpants, a T-shirt, and a rather large, dark blue sweatshirt. After getting dressed she woke them up (the exceeds), the two exceeds waking up had to be one of the most adorable sights she had ever seen. Exceeds are some of the most adorable creatures you will ever see, and two waking up is even cuter. Lucy couldn't help but hug them to her in her delight at their absolute adorableness. Happy was never this cute, ever.

When Lucy arrived at the table a few minutes later Sting was carrying plates to the table and everyone else was taking a seat. Lucy ended up sitting between Laxus and Cobra, and across from Hibiki. The tense atmosphere from before had dissolved and everyone seemed comfortable with the seating arrangements. Lector and Frosch sat at one end of the table eating their food and everyone else was seated along the length of the table with Sting sitting at the end of the table opposite the exceeds.

Dinner was fried rice and orange chicken with a surprise dessert for everyone after the meal. When everyone had finished their firsts, seconds, and, in some cases, thirds or even fourths. Rogue and Hibiki went back into the kitchen to get the dessert out of the freezer. They came back in carrying bowls of chocolate pudding topped with whipped cream. Once everyone had a bowl in front of them and Rogue and Hibiki had sat down everyone dug into the deliciously chocolaty dessert. When the pudding was gone the Trimens cleared the table, cleaned and dried the dishes, and put the dishes away before bidding them all good night and asking if they could perhaps come over for dinner again the next day. Lucy was happy to agree, saying that it was fine as long as they didn't bring Ichiya. The Trimens laughed at that and bid them all good night yet again before leaving.

Once the Trimens were gone Lucy locked the door, the windows, and the grate over the fireplace before telling the boys to get ready for bed. Sting went to get a shower in the guest bathroom while Laxus pulled the two armchairs together to form a bed-type sleeping area. Cobra and Rogue gathered blankets and extra pillows to form two more bed-type sleeping areas.

"Oi Blondie, I was wondering why you locked the fireplace grate. I get it that you would lock the windows and door, but the fireplace?" Lucy looked at Laxus and sighed, she wasn't about to argue with him about calling her Blondie. So she simply answered his question.

"I locked the windows so Natsu can't get in, I locked the door so Erza can't get in, and I locked the fireplace grate so Gray can't get in."

"Does your team seriously come into your house so much that you have to lock up all entrances so they can't get in?" Lucy nodded, it was all true. Erza always came in through the door, Natsu used the window as a door, and for some reason Gray always crawled in through the chimney. It was annoying, but Erza wasn't nearly as bad as Gray, and Gray wasn't anywhere close to as bad as Natsu. Natsu had no sense of privacy or personal property, destroyed pretty much everything around him, and always ate her out of house and home. So she had started to lock her windows, she hadn't started locking the grate until Gray decided to come over one day in the middle of the night and ate all of her ice cream, and she had always locked the door anyway so that was nothing new. She shrugged.

"It really isn't that bad. It just adds some time to my nightly routine. Now, I want most of you out of here as soon as is humanly possible, mainly Laxus and Sting. Rogue can stay because he's a great cook, and Cobra will be here for a while anyway. So I want you two," Lucy pointed to Laxus and Sting (who had just gotten out of the shower and was wearing a shirt and a pair of pants that Lucy had in the bathroom closet just in case)," to go out tomorrow and find yourselves somewhere to live. It shouldn't be that hard if you're a member of Fairy Tail, we're highly respected here in Magnolia so you might get a discount if you tell people you're from Fairy Tail and show them your guild marks. I'm guessing that Rogue and Sting want to join Fairy Tail so you guys can all come with to the guild tomorrow. Cobra, you might want to stay behind a little bit because anyone who was there in our previous fights with Oración Seis, which is most of the guild, will try to hurt you. They don't know that you aren't the bad guy any more. Laxus, I suggest that you stay close to Cobra, Rogue, and Sting because I know Natsu is going to attack first and think later. Got that?"

The guys all nodded and started moving to their respective "beds". Laxus stretched out on the couch, Rogue and Cobra sat down on the piles of pillows and blankets that they were calling beds for now, and Sting jumped onto the two chairs Laxus had pulled/pushed together earlier. Lucy walked into her bedroom, taking the Lector and Frosch with her.

*timeskip to next morning*

Lucy woke up to Frosch gently poking her cheek and the smell of chocolate chip pancakes.

"Fairy-san, Frosch thinks you should get up now or all the pancakes will be gone." Lucy smiled. Frosch was her favorite exceed, and the most adorable. Lector was too obsessed with Sting, Happy teased her too much, Carla was too strict, and Pantherlily, though kind, was a bit too intimidating for her liking. So Frosch ended up being her favorite, not that it was a bad thing. The little green exceed actually had more privileges than any of the others. Frosch could have anything she wanted if she asked for it politely from Lucy, she was also allowed to have any of Lucy's food, and she had no restrictions or time limits on using Lucy's lacrima vision. So Lucy simply nodded and sat up, stretching slowly and languidly, like a cat. She swung her feet onto the floor and picked up Frosch before heading out of her room, through the living room, and into the kitchen. When she reached the kitchen she was greeted by the sight of three dragon slayers stuffing their faces and Rogue offering her a plate of pancakes.

When Lucy had seated herself at the table and drowned her pancakes in syrup she started to eat. She was kind of in the splash zone for the dragon slayers, but that meant that she would have a good reason to force them to do the dishes and force them to work together. Well, Rogue wouldn't have to do anything because he had made breakfast and he looked as though he could probably use more sleep. So she would let Rogue get more sleep while Sting, Laxus, and Cobra did the dishes and she took Lector and Frosch with her on a trip to get more groceries. Lucy grabbed her keys off her nightstand and took off to the market with Frosch and Lector while Rogue caught up on his sleep and the other dragon slayers took care of the dishes.

*with Lucy at the market*

Lucy bounced down the street cheerfully, full of unbridled energy. All four of the dragon slayers currently staying at her house had chipped in to pay her rent, so she had plenty of money to buy groceries and perhaps do a bit of shopping for herself even. Lucy skipped through the market, collecting everything she needed and more (she knew that dragon slayers ate a lot from several past experiences with Natsu) to bring back to her house. As she walked back to her apartment with the groceries (Lector and Frosch were helping by carrying some of them) she thought about the year to come. Cobra ans Rogue would be staying with her for a while, she was going house/apartment shopping with Laxus and Sting later, and Sting and Rogue would be regulars at the guild now that Sting and Rogue were joining. She would be able to do jobs without Team Natsu now, and maybe she would actually get a whole reward for once without Natsu's destructiveness. She would still do team jobs with them, but now she would be partners with Cobra. Her future was looking up, and hopefully her days of worrying about her rent would be over.