Yeah! It is Graylu week of 2015, and I'm really looking forward to reading all the awesome fanfics to come!
Anyways, today is the first day!
It looks like the prompts are harder than last year's prmpts, so let's do this!
Day- One
Prompt- Myth/Legend
Title- You Little Imp...
. o O o .
"Damn... I'm lost aren't I?" Gray murmured to himself as he pushed a large grouping of tall ferns out of his way. The fronds tickled his face and he sneezed. "Jeez... these things are taller than I am... how the hell am I gonna get out of here!?" He shouted in exasperation. All he got in response to his frustrated cry was the chirping of birds and the quiet rustling of the wind brushing gently against the leaves on the fully bloomed spring trees.
He sighed and looked around for a place to sit. If he didn't rest, he'd be even less likely to think straight and get out of this damn woods.
He'd come here on a simple job: Find a piece of jewelry. A group of travelers had lost it while they made their way through the woods, and it was very precious to them, seeing as it was a magic family heirloom, and they were willing to pay a hefty price to have it back. So, seeing as Gray had nothing to do but annoy his guild mate Natsu, he took the job, found the jewelry, and began to head back.
And promptly got lost in the process in trying to re-find the path he'd strayed off of.
He scoffed at himself and sat down on a mossy log that lay underneath a large oak. He looked up at it. It was old, the trunk so big around that he doubted he could put his arms around it. A few dead branches stuck out here and there, threatening to fall at any moment. He would have to watch out for that, he didn't want one to fall on his head and knock him unconscious out here in the woods.
He heard a twig snap in the distance and he looked up cautiously. He waited for a moment, then decided it was probably just a fox or something, he'd seen many on his way through the woods. But even though they were just foxes, he'd have to be careful. He couldn't afford getting a bad bite out here. He had almost no knowledge of the medicinal plants in the area, so he wouldn't be able to ward off an infection or anything of the sort.
At that moment, he was pissed off, frustrated, and very, very bored. He had no one to talk to, nothing to do except for rest and keep walking, and he was hungry. And just as it was with his knowledge of medicinal plants, he knew nothing of the edible plants of this area either.
The ferns to his right trembled and his head snapped in the direction of the movement. As soon as his eyes turned their way, the trembling stopped. Yeah, something was definitely there, and it was aware that he was watching them. So it was either some sort of very smart woodland animal, or a human.
He was going for human at the moment.
"Oi. I know you're there. Come out." He ordered, standing up. He placed his hands in an Ice Make position, ready for a fight, expecting nothing less than an enemy.
Except, that's not what he got.
A young woman stepped out of the ferns, and his mind went blank of all rational thoughts.
God she was beautiful.
She was slim, yet her legs were well muscled, as if she had been running all her life. She was pale and her skin looked smooth and soft. Her golden blonde hair fell about her face and brushed against her shoulders, and her wide, chocolate brown eyes gazed at him in fear and curiosity. She wore nothing but a very long shawl, that was strategically placed over her right shoulder, where it then fell down to her hips to cover her lower half. But other than that, she was naked.
Gray blushed and averted his eyes for a moment, before returning them to her face. "Who are you? Why are you following me?" He asked, regaining his composure. However beautiful she was, she could still be an enemy.
She hid behind the ferns again at his tone, leaving only her face exposed. "I-I'm sorry... I just... I wanted to make sure you got back to the outside world safely... it can be dangerous in here." She mumbled softly, in a voice that sounded like what honey tasted like.
Gray's eyes narrowed. "How do I know you're not dangerous?" He pressed.
The woman bit her lip before coming out of her hiding place behind the ferns and kneeling on the ground before him. He frowned when he noticed the slight shimmering that spanned out in a fourteen foot area on each side of her, as if something was there, but not quite visible to his eye.
"I'm not any danger to you. I just... felt like I needed to protect you!" She blushed and looked away.
Gray let his hands drop. "Y-you don't have to kneel like that, I believe you, okay?" He said. She nodded and stood up. Gray was finding it very hard to not stare at her completely exposed chest, but he managed. He was too enchanted by her eyes to really think about looking at other things. "What's your name?" He asked her.
She smiled and bowed slightly. "I am Lucy. And you are?" She asked, straightening up.
He held out his hand to shake, and she looked at it curiously. Did she not know how to shake hands? Odd. He drew it back to himself. "Sorry. My name is Gray Fullbuster, of the Fairy Tail guild."
Lucy cocked her head. "Guild? What is a guild?" She asked him.
Gray's eyes widened. "You don't know what a guild is?" He shook his head. "Have you never left this forest?" He joked.
To his surprise, she shook her head. "Nope. Why should I? I live here!" She answered happily. Something moved behind her and it caught Gray's eye. He looked and his eyes widened even more.
"You... you have a tail!" He pointed at her, looking completely baffled.
She laughed. "Of course I do! I'm a fairy!" She said, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
Gray stared at her in silence for a full minute before letting out a shocked, "WHAT?!"
Lucy looked at him with a strange expression on her face. "Is it that unusual? I thought that everyone knew about us." She mused, half to herself.
Gray blinked and shook his head, convinced that he was hallucinating or something. When he finally had bruised his arm from pinching it so hard, he accepted that it was reality. "N-no! No one knows that fairies exist! That's why my guild is named Fairy Tail!" He said. His eyes flickered back to her tail again. "It's because... it was an endless mystery... do fairies exist? Do they have tails?" He became quieter.
Lucy was quiet for a moment, then stepped forward. Her tail moved in front of her. It was long, golden like her hair, with a tuft of fur at the end. She touched his wrist with it gently, and Gray started. "You can feel it, if you want." She whispered, staring right into his eyes, brown piercing into dark onyx.
He hesitantly reached out and stroked the soft tail. It was covered in fine hairs, not what he was expecting. He thought it would be skin, or something of that sort, but not fur. Of course, to be honest, he hadn't really believed in Fairies up until now. After twisting his fingers into the fur at the end of her tail, he looked back up at her. "Can you fly?" He asked. He sounded like a little kid, almost whispering in awe, but at the moment, he didn't care.
She nodded, and the air behind her shimmered. After a few seconds, Gray saw what the wavering in the air was.
Pale pinkish, almost completely see through wings fluttered behind her, each one seven feet long. They looked delicate, like a dragonfly's wings, but there were a few minuscule tears and holes at the very edges of the transparent appendages.
Gray watched as they began to beat, becoming faster and faster with each stroke downward, until she hovered a foot and a half above the ground. "Yes. I can fly." She said softly. She let her dainty, bare feet touch the ground, and her wings stilled.
A silence fell between them, in which they just stared, taking in each other's existence. After a while, Gray found himself locked into those entrancing brown eyes that sparkled in the golden sunlight. Her hair seemed to glow like a firefly, and eventually, her cheeks turned pink.
"You..." she started. Gray was snapped back into reality. She bit her lip before continuing. "You are a very attractive man!" She blurted out.
Gray blinked. "Hah?" He said intelligently.
Lucy giggled. "You heard me, Gray Fullbuster. I said you are a very attractive man." She repeated. She stepped towards him and placed her hands on his bare shoulders. She leaned up towards his face and Gray could smell her. She smelled like wild roses and some underlying scent that was distinctly different than anything he'd smelled before. Something woodsy, but odd as well. Not bad, just... different. "Gray Fullbuster..." she whispered into his ear. Her fingers touched the back of his neck, fiddling with the chain that held his pendant on as if she were nervous about something.
He only half came out of his daze to stare down at her, his cheeks flaming. "Huh?" He breathed. His heart was beating rapidly against his chest.
Lucy smiled widely and stood on tiptoe. "I'll take you to the edge of the forest, back to the town you came from. But..." she trailed off, her eyes angled away from his for a moment, before coming back to meet his gaze. "Promise me you'll come back..." she whispered.
Gray nodded, somewhat absently, but truthfully. "I promise..." He said quietly.
Lucy grinned childishly and darted forwards. Her lips connected with his cheek, and when Gray blinked, she was gone, and so was the forest. He was standing at the outskirts of the town next to the woods, frozen in shock. It was getting dark out, and he looked back at the forest. He thought he could feel a pair of eyes watching him from deep in the shadows, and he smiled sheepishly.
"Well then..." he murmured, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "I'll have to come back to visit you, won't I, Lucy..." He began to walk back towards the town, feeling light headed and giddy at what had just happened.
Well.
Fairies existed.
They had tails.
And they were extremely beautiful, as far as he knew.
You learn something new every day, don't you?
. o O o .
Extra
. o O o .
"Oi, Icicle, where's that dumb necklace you always wear?" Natsu pointed at his bare chest.
Gray looked down and found that his necklace was, indeed, missing. He frowned. "That's weird... I don't remember taking it off..." His voice failed as the realization set in.
That fairy, Lucy, had been playing with his necklace, quite close to the clasp...
He grinned in amusement and closed his eyes. "You sneaky little imp..." He muttered under his breath. He opened his eyes. "Now I really will have to go back..."