An unfortunate collaboration between boogey56 and myself. We're on a mission to add more ErLu (aka Heartlet, which I actually find to be a cuter ship name lol, so cheers) to the world. This piece is our grand opening.
(Although, to note, this is my 99th fanfiction. I know. Why.)
Regardless, please enjoy! So much fluff ahead. It's practically suffocating me.
Lucy wasn't sure how this mission was going to work out, with just the two of them. After all, the last time the two of them had worked together, they had completely forfeited the mission and gone on to explore other kinds of adventures, namely rumors of a famed blacksmith, spurred by Erza's interest in researching further about the best metals for armor.
But they never did find him, and Lucy's rent was still due in a week.
"We have to take this seriously this time," Lucy reminded the redhead sternly. "No more fooling around."
Erza nodded seriously in agreement, arms crossed. "Certainly. With the boys gone, this should not be a problem."
Lucy wasn't so sure about that. Things had been different between them recently, and she couldn't quite put her finger on why. Well, she'd always had a bit of a crush on the warrior, but lately, Erza had seemed a little bit off? Lucy wasn't sure.
Nevertheless, she whipped out the flyer and read through the mission instructions again to herself. "This shouldn't be that hard, right? All we have to do is show up in our best swimsuits and dance around to entertain the audience."
"Indeed. I can finally put my Legendary Swimsuit to good use."
"Uhh, Erza, did you get it fixed since, uh, y'know?" Lucy asked, wincing at the fiasco from the last time the Knight-mage wore her unraveling Legendary Swimsuit. "Maybe we should go shopping instead? I can totally pick out a super cute swimsuit for you!"
The scarlet-haired woman put her finger on her chin, considering Lucy's offer. "It's hard for me to say no to this because I recently saw Heart Kreuz's newest releases, and it's been approximately a week since I last added more outfits to my collection but..." and she turned to the blonde. "Don't you have rent to pay?"
Lucy smiled brightly, hiding her internal wince at the mention of her rent. There was no way she was going to pass up an opportunity like this… seeing Erza is so many different swimsuits? So many cute swimsuits? There was no way she was going to say no to this!
"It's nothing! That's what savings are for, right? Besides, I need a new swimsuit too! My last one was trashed."
But when Lucy saw the requip mage's eyes light up with the notion of a blank check, new clothes, and an entire free afternoon, she suddenly realized that she might have made a mistake.
Well, it was too late now.
"Besides, we should take advantage of some girl time, right?" she forced herself to add.
Girl time, right. Without anyone else. Shopping was innocent, totally innocent. They were just going to hang out, try on some swimsuits and Lucy was going to keep things to herself. That was how it was going to go, totally.
And so the day started as Lucy expected it to: With Erza's determination, they were able to get to the nearest swimsuit shop and get to the dressing room, arms full of bikinis to try on, in less time than it took for her to eat a strawberry shortcake—which was saying a lot.
"Oh," Lucy said, gulping when she saw the situation impending them. "There's only one open dressing room."
"I fail to see the problem," Erza shrugged, eyes latched on her prizes, debating which to try on first. She simply shoved the door open with her booted foot, strolling in and dragging Lucy along behind her.
Heart beating a million miles an hour and prickly sensations crawling up and down her arms, Lucy wasn't sure this wasn't such a problem. Maybe not for Erza. Very little seemed to be a problem for Erza, especially since she could probably just Re-quip directly into her choices.
Lucy, on the other hand, was going to have to shimmy in and out of the tiny things and adjust them because swimsuits that fit her assets weren't easy to find. She wasn't kidding when she said she needed a new one. It was impossible to find something that fit, covered what needed to be covered and was cute enough to wear in public.
Plus, was it just her, or was it getting really warm in this tight space?
"Hm…" Erza mused, not noticing the sweat droplets that were forming over Lucy's forehead. She debated between a black swimsuit and a dark blue one. "Which should I start with?"
The blonde looked briefly at the other woman's selections, and her jaw almost dropped. "E-Erza! Are you sure those are going to work on you?"
"Well, no. That is why we are trying them on. But I do need at least three swimsuit for this mission, so it seemed prudent to bring many different styles and colors to see what works the best. The mission did state the swim suit should be the best. So, logically, trying on many suits to see which is best is the way to go."
Lucy gulped. All of them? There were at least twenty different pieces, assuming the other woman didn't decide to mix and match the tops and bottoms — the whole reason they chose this store — and she got to see them all? Just how long was this going to take anyway! How in the world was Lucy to survive this? It was worse than the missions where everyone tried to kill them!
And not to mention they were going to be the bane of the store attendees' existence once the two of them were through with their search for the most perfect swimsuits. Lucy could just imagine the aftermath of Erza going through that many suits, the tops and bottoms slung every direction and hanging from various parts of the dressing room, victims of the redhead on a mission.
But there was no debating Erza's rationale. There never really was debating Erza's rationale.
Lucy sighed to herself, wiping some sweat off her forehead before fanning herself with her hand. "The black one, then," she forced herself to shrug indifferently. "Let's start with that one."
After all, if they were going to be trying each each and every one of them, it didn't matter where they began, right?
"Interesting choice," Erza commented, and Lucy wasn't sure if the redhead was judging her for the rather rashly made decision. Nevertheless, the other woman put aside the dark blue one, piling it onto the tower of all the other swimsuits that she had yet to try out, before she reached for the edges of her metal breastplate and pulled it off with her hands.
"Wha-What are you doing?" she gasped, stumbling backwards from Erza and bumping into the wall of the dressing room.
Erza looked at her with furrowed eyebrows and a tilted head, confused at why Lucy was so outraged. "I'm changing. What are you doing?"
"You're not Re-quiping?"
Erza wrinkled her nose. "I don't use my magic for mundane things like this."
Several instances to the contrary sprung to mind but Lucy reminded herself that arguing with Erza was a wasted endeavor. But did she have to take off her breastplate so slowly? The straps and latches couldn't be that hard to pull off, right?
"Um, can I help you? I mean, that looks difficult to reach!" Lucy yelped a little, feeling a tad bit too forward. Erza probably thought she was being all creepy, wanting to undress her and get her out of her armor.
"I am used to it," she replied in an off-handed manner but after catching sight of Lucy's face smile and added with a tilt of her head, "But I suppose I could use some help with the ones in the back. Be careful though, not to pinch your fingers."
Trembling a little and still no sure if she was overstepping some kind of friend code, Lucy reached forward, fumbling with the unfamiliar gear.
"Ouch," she hissed, doing exactly what she'd been warned around. Angry at herself, she shook her abused finger, trying to dull the sting. Erza grabbed it suddenly, inspecting it closely, "No blood but you will have a bruise. Lucy, I thought I informed you that could pinch your finger. You need to be more careful!"
"Y-yes…" and you need to let go of my finger, Lucy added in her head.
Instead, Erza ran her thumb over the hurt appendage gently, making sure there was no fractures or broken skin. Reaching down, she pressed a chaste, lingering kiss to it.
Lucy gasped, pulling her finger back. "Okay, thank you, Erza, it's all better now!" she quickly explained. What the hell was Erza trying to do?
Erza blinked at her, confused, before she smiled gently. "Alright then, I trust that you can help me with the rest."
The other woman turned around again, and Lucy's breath almost froze when she found herself facing Erza's bare back again. She calmed herself down as she brought scooped some of Erza's hair out of the way and over her right shoulder, feeling the silky smooth tresses between her fingers, still surprised at how soft the woman's hair was, despite her being a warrior and all.
She brought both hands down to Erza's back, still also amazed at the fact that her peachy skin was even softer than her hair. She trailed her fingers down the woman's shoulder blades, before stopping at the second strap, pausing.
Lucy licked her dry lips before she dipped her finger between the tight strap and the warm skin, realizing that out of all the times that been with Erza, she had never been this close to her.
Before she knew it, the last strap popped off, and they both gave out a small gasp of surprise as Erza's breastplate fell to the floor.
The redhead turned around, and Lucy pressed both hands to her mouth to suppress a squeal.
"Thank you," Erza said, unabashedly, before turning back around to continue stripping.
Still shocked at the whole previous exchange, Lucy only realized that she was staring when Erza's curious brown eyes caught hers again.
"Aren't you going to change as well?" the other woman prompted.
"Oh, well, I, yeah, that's a great idea!" Lucy stuttered.
"It only makes sense—we can halve the amount of time that we spend in this store if we make good use of the time in this dressing room."
"R-Right, good use," the blonde agreed by repeating, before she turned around. Her hips casually bumped into Erza's as she switched directions.
This dressing room was way, way too tight. Grabbing the top of her skirt, she bent forward to slide it off, hitting Erza again in the process.
"S-sorry!"
How was it that Erza was in the dressing room in metal armor and managed to gracefully avoid hitting Lucy while undressing out of it, while she was in a skirt and blouse, and she hadn't even managed to get out of the skirt without hitting her? Lucy felt like such an ungainly klutz. Plus, since her waist was so small and her hips were pretty wide — thanks ancestors — wiggling out of the skirt was always such a hassle.
Suddenly, her skirt was going down a lot faster than she'd anticipated and without the usual struggle. The fabric pooled at her feet, letting in a nice little breeze. Lucy shivered a bit at the unexpected loss of clothing — although, really, given her association with Natsu and his lack of respect for clothing she should be used to this by now — and mustered a smile.
"Thanks, it's always hard to get out of that. I mean, I've got such a big butt and…"
Erza's scrutiny cut her off. The other woman's eyes were locked on her behind intensely, her brows furrowed. For a moment, Lucy was terrified she was going to reach forward and do something weird with her hands. But, instead, her eyes darted back up to Lucy's and she said gravely, "I fail to see any problem."
"N-nooo, I mean, I'm fat… er, chubby… I…" please don't say it, please don't say it, I'll die if you say it!
"I think it is cute. And it suits you."
Oh for the love of! She said it, and Lucy was going to dig a hole and die at her straight face.
"Here, try this one on," Erza added nonchalantly, slapping said bottom directly against Lucy's, well, bottom. Squeaking with indignation and burning with embarrassment, she snatch it out of Erza's hand to give it a look. Sometimes Erza's sense of fashion was, uh, too brave for Lucy's taste.
But Erza had put a little thought into it, surprisingly. Not only did it look like it was the right size but the bottom was a gradation of blue to black with bright nearly-white blue constellations spangled across it.
Lucy would be the first to admit it was painfully cliche, but she adored anything that had to do with the stars, and it wasn't exactly was well-hidden secret from Team Natsu. Trinkets related to the stars filled her shelves and drawers, Erza, Gray, Wendy and Natsu bringing them back from jobs or errands, claiming they thought of her when they saw them. Each and everyone warmed her to the core, and sometimes when she was feeling down, she'd pull them out as a reminder.
Her favorite was actually a cheap ring Erza had brought her. It was so obviously fake and for a child, but Lucy adored it. Sometimes, she slipped it in her pocket for no good reason at all, just to have it there.
Hastily, she scooted into the bottom, surprised to note it fitted perfectly. How did Erza do that? Lucy never got the right fit on the first try!
"Mmm, perfect," Erza purred—or at least, that's what it sounded like to Lucy. She must be imagining things though. No way Erza purred, and definitely not at Lucy!
"That's amazing," Lucy admitted, surprised. "I can never figure out what size fits me best."
Erza smiled knowingly, "Let's just say that I'm very observant."
"True," Lucy acknowledged with a smile of her own, "That's why you're the famed warrior, Titania, Queen of the Fairies! I mean, you have to be observant in battle, right?"
"Oh, there's many other reasons why I'm observant," Erza said, her voice dropping an octave as she slowly stepped forward, halving the distance between them.
"Huh?"
"And maybe you're the one that's not noticing," she continued, her face nearing Lucy, right hand tickling brushing Lucy's left hip.
"M-me?" Lucy stammered, feeling her heart racing fast upon feeling Erza's body warmth radiating onto her skin.
"Yes, you…" the other woman cooed, exhaling sweetly over her.
Lucy saw Erza's eyes fall out of eye contact, looking down at her mouth, and as if on cue, Lucy found herself looking down for Erza's as well, the image of her glossy, soft, plump lips scorching into her mind.
Lucy wasn't sure if Erza had been the one to lean in or if it was actually the other way around, but when the distance between their lips closed, it was not the pretty and proper first kiss that Lucy expected at all.
In fact, it was wet and wanting, and when Lucy felt her lips parting she knew she was done for, as the other woman's tongue curled around hers immediately upon entrance.
Lucy didn't keep track of how many seconds had passed with their lips locked together, but she knew for sure that the number of moans Erza elicited from her was greater than three, and when Erza slowly pulled away to allow her to catch a breath, Lucy resisted all the temptation to touch her lips with her fingers to check if what had just happened really just happened.
"What...what do you think?" Erza asked her, almost hesitantly, and the softness of the warrior's voice took Lucy by surprise.
"It was...it was great," Lucy said, giving the redhead a bashful smile. "You're...you're a good kisser."
Erza blinked at her before clarifying. "Oh I know that," she replied with a sultry smile. "You're not the first girl I've kissed, Lucy."
Lucy might have hiccuped.
"I was wondering what you think of my swimsuit," Erza continued, stepping backwards and letting Lucy take in her entire body.
Since when had Erza changed completely into that black swimsuit?
"O-o-oh!" the blonde exclaimed, before quickly scanning the other woman's body. She tried not to think too hard about how Erza easily filled out the fabric with her curves. "I think it's perfect—it should work perfect."
"I still would like to see it in the hallway mirror," Erza remarked, running her hands down her figure and adjusting the top to a more comfortable position. Lucy nodded, more than willing to see Erza from both angles, front and back.
So they did just that, moving from the tight, hot, humid, cramped space to the set of mirrors just outside of the dressing rooms. They murmured approvals before one of the store attendants casually approached them.
"Ladies, are you finding everything in the store to your satisfaction?" she asked the two of them brightly.
"Oh, indeed," Erza replied smoothly, giving her a wink that almost made her as scarlet as Erza's hair. "Quite satisfying."
"And you, miss? You seem to only have purchased half a swimsuit…?"
Lucy's eyes widened, realizing in her flustered state, she'd gone to look in the mirror with her normal top and the swimsuit bottom only. Judging by Erza's smug look, the other woman knew it and hadn't said a thing!
"I-I f-forgot," she stammered, "Don't worry. My f-friend is an expert at knowing my bust size… I mean, she'll take care of me… I mean… aghh!"
"I would be happy to help," Erza put in, dropping her hand to the small of Lucy's back and guiding her towards the changing room. "I know just the thing!"
Lucy's heart skipped a beat, and when seeing Erza's mischievous smile, she had a very very strange feeling that she would be getting more than just a top part for swimsuit.
In the end, Lucy had been right about only one thing that day, and it was that they eventually forfeited the mission (or more accurately, hadn't even started), having ended up fooling around instead.
And damn it all, Lucy's bank account was down two swimsuits, she had an extra nightly guest to share a bed with, and her rent due next week still wasn't paid yet.
So much love! Please let us know what you think! (Message boogey56 too!)
thir13enth (avec boogey56!)