A/N: Finally, a story that isn't angsty! This is for Lahcy Week, days 6 and 7. I already had this going when Lahcy Week was announced. With a bit of tweaking, I hammered it out into a story that works! Enjoy the non-angst, y'all! :D
Lahar studied the report in front of him. There had been a sudden influx of complaints about a con artist in the region near the Heartfilia Konzern. He tapped his pen on the table, frowning. Heartfilia… Railroad people. Rich as sin and just as arrogant to match. This needed to be looked into at once before Jude Heartfilia made an official complaint. Preferably by someone with a least a little bit of tact.
Maybe it shouldn't have been him…
"How dare you." Jude Heartfilia thundered. "How dare you come into my home and accuse a member of my staff of being a criminal, you Council scum? Do you even know who I am? I am the reason the Council can even move from one point in the country to the other! Without my railroads, all movement in the country would cease tomorrow!"
"Father." A cool voice reminded the two men that there was, in fact, another person in the room. Heartfilia's only child, a young, beautiful blonde woman named Lucy, was seated at the table watching the two with calm, calculating eyes. She rose and slowly walked around the table to lay a soft hand on her furious father's arm. "You know what your doctor said about getting overworked over small matters. The Captain is not worth your fury." Her brown eyes were smirking. Smirking at him. How could she? She looked so…smug…
A flash of understanding hit him right between the eyes. It wasn't one of Heartfilia's staff who was the con artist.
It was his own daughter.
The man most likely hadn't a single clue his only child and heir was nothing more than a common thief. Lahar couldn't arrest her without a huge scandal (she was related to Princess Hisui after all) and no evidence that she was actually the one at fault.
Lahar grit his teeth and quietly endured her mocking eyes and Mr. Heartfilia's verbal abuse.
When Mr. Heartfilia's fury was finally spent, Lady Lucy, who had seated herself again, rose and bowed her head to her father. "I will show the captain out, father." Jude merely grunted and waved her off. From what Lahar had observed, Heartfilia didn't seem to care much about his daughter.
They walked in silence to the foyer. He tried not to flinch when she spoke suddenly. "I apologize. My father gets very angry when he believes he is being threatened." She cut her dark eyes over at him, offering a thin smile.
"If that is how angry he gets over the thought of a household member betraying him, I wonder how he would react to finding out his daughter is a common criminal." He watched her carefully for her reaction. He was ultimately disappointed, for she didn't react at all as he suspected. Instead of stiffening and trembling, she merely smiled that slow, mocking smile, more akin to a smirk than anything. She didn't answer until right before the door closed behind him. Her soft whisper brushed against his ears.
"Wouldn't you love to know how I do it, Captain."
"Makarov!" The door to the guild flew open. In marched a very furious Captain Lahar. His cloak billowed as he stormed toward the already drinking Master of Fairy Tail. Several guild members dove out of his way. Non official mage or no, the Rune Knight was not someone you wanted to upset. "Where is she?" Lahar roared. For once, he looked rumpled and out of sorts.
"Who?" Mira asked, cleaning a glass. Lahar didn't hear her, focusing on the blonde bombshell leaned against the bar. Of course she'd be in Fairy Tail. The one place a girl like her would be welcomed.
She looked different than the last time Lahar had seen her. Her attire was the biggest change. Instead of wearing frilly gowns that impeded movement, all Lucy wore was a red bikini top and a long red skirt slit up both sides. Her gloating smirk, however, was firmly in place. She wasn't even looking at him and he could tell what was going through her mind. She was victorious. He couldn't touch her here.
"You," Lahar snarled. He stalked forward. Lucy set down her glass and turned to look at him.
"Oh! Captain Lahar!" She threw up a hand in a bubbly greeting. "How nice to see you again!" Lahar ignored her, instead zeroing in on the guild mark on her hand. Lahar blanched with utter rage. The girl who had eluded his grasp for months after running away from her family home was now a member of the guild he hated.
"How dare you?" Lahar thundered at Makarov. "Giving sanctuary to a criminal? Is this what Fairy Tail is reduced to?"
Makarov crossed his arms over his chest. "I was unaware that Miss Lucy was the con artist my children were sent to find. As it is, we've allowed her membership and I don't regret it. She is a valuable ally. Unless you have definitive proof she is what you say she is, you cannot arrest her." The growl that left the Rune Knight was less than human. He whirled and stalked over to the blonde, who looked up at him with a carefully hidden smirk.
"Don't think for a moment that being part of a guild will grant you immunity, Miss Heartfilia. The moment you mess up, I will be there to see you fall." Lahar hissed at the scantily clad blonde, who merely beamed and blew him a kiss.
"Of course not, Captain! What do you take me for, a common criminal?"
He had no reply to that.
"I hate her", Lahar growled to Doranbolt as he threw himself into his chair. His foul mood stemmed from yet another visit to Fairy Tail to see Miss Heartfilia. He needed some paperwork to drive out the memory of her smarmy remarks and mocking brown eyes. Her barbs were always careful calculated in the way only a lady of high class could do. The insults were offered with an affable smile and a backhand studded with brass knuckles.
Doranbolt raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know 'I hate her' translated into 'I'm attracted to this woman and wish I had the guts to kiss her or at least ask her out even though she's still sort of a wanted criminal and that sounds so wrong to my justice loving mind'."
Lahar squawked and sat bolt upright. "That's not what I said, nor what I meant!"
Doranbolt snickered as he folded yet another piece of paperwork into an airplane. Closing one eye, he aimed for the shiny desk of his comrade. "Throw that and I will kill you," Lahar snarled.
Doranbolt sighed and set the plane down. "Still doesn't change the fact you're in love with the Heartfilia girl. You can either man up and tell her or deny it forever and be a stick in the mud until the end of time. Your choice, Lahar."
"Did you bring popcorn this time?" Cana tapped Mira on the shoulder. The white haired barmaid beamed.
"Of course I did!" She handed Cana a carton and seated herself next to the drunkard with a happy little sigh.
Gajeel stared at both of them. "What are you crazy women doing?"
"This has become a regular occurrence since Lucy joined the guild." Mira covered her mouth and whispered. "I can't decide if they hate each other or they're secretly in love."
Cana cackled. "I bet they hate each other, but Mira's holding out for true love to appear."
Gajeel looked from the screaming figures of Bunny Girl and Glasses Man to the giggling gossips. Absently, he wondered when exactly he had lost his mind so thoroughly that this didn't seem weird, not compared to some of the crazy stuff he'd been through already.
He'd just have to chalk it up to a side effect of being a member of Fairy Tail. They'd been compared to an asylum where the inmates took over. Though that might be a generous comparison. He personally thought they were just all insane, irrevocably so.
If Lahar wasn't careful, their madness might infect him as well.
When he heard about Fairy Tail's disappearance, he tried to pretend he was okay with it. After all, who would miss the most destructive guild in the world? He had been trying to bring them down, for pities sake!
And, no, Doranbolt, he wasn't missing the feisty blonde Fairy. No matter how much his actions might suggest otherwise.
So what if he offered his help to the searchers from Blue Pegasus and Lamia Scale. That was his business. Besides, there was still a lingering sense of guilt; they had been near Tenrou. They could have gotten the entire guild off alive. But they'd been left to the dragon.
And now, Fairy Tail, the proud, mad, and loving Fairy Tail, was wiped from the face of the earth.
"Captain Lahar."
"Miss Heartfilia."
"I didn't expect to see you here."
"Likewise. I should have guessed Fairy Tail would make an appearance." She chuckled lightly, shaking her head. "You know Fairy Tail, we can't stay out of anything that promises excitement."
"It's been seven years, Miss Heartfilia."
Her smile faded. "Yes, it has. Everything is different for us." Her slim fingers brushed over her keys gently.
He risked a sideways glance. "I heard about the death of your father." Lucy's spine stiffened. "I'm sorry for your loss."
Slowly, she relaxed. "So am I," she whispered. Her eyes darkened as she looked over Crocus. He let his eyes trail over her, really seeing her for the first time. She was dressed conservatively, a simple t-shirt and shorts, belt holding her whip and keys, and tall brown boots. She looked so tired and so unlike the girl he had tried to arrest eight years ago. She had changed. And so had he.
"I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused you in the past, Captain." Lucy didn't look at him, keeping her eyes fixed instead on the rising sun.
He was surprised to find he wasn't angry at all with her. It'd been a long seven years, after all. Maybe he had changed, mellowed with the years. Or he just realized being angry at a girl who hadn't known better was fruitless.
"It's alright, Miss Heartfilia. You were misguided."
She snorted. "I was a spoiled, bored, rich brat. I acted out to try and get my father to pay attention to me." Her fist clenched. "And now I don't even have a chance to do that." She looked so forlorn and lost, he couldn't resist.
One arm rose and gently draped around her shoulders. She flinched, not from his touch, but from surprise. After a moment's hesitation, she leaned into his warm embrace.
Together, they watched the sun rise.
He looked at his wife sleeping quietly on the couch in his office.
It seemed even a sinner could become a saint.
A/N: I hope y'all liked this! If my writing goes as planned, (ha), I should have some Christmas related one-shots for y'all and a Great Collection update. Then after that comes LaLu week and then IT'S MIDKINO WEEK Y'ALL I'M SO EXCITED.