LaxLu Challenge Week 2015, Day 6: Snuggle, with a side of a belated entry for Day 5: Busted.
Disclaimer: If I owned Fairy Tail, I guarantee you, the Tartarus arc NEVER would have happened.
What the Fairy Caught
Who would have known Laxus was the snuggling type?
Lucy woke to the smell of thunderstorms in the woods, the odd bitter aftertaste of a magic-refill potion in her mouth, and a feeling of something hard and too warm for her liking wrapped around her...or rather, someone. Which was strange; she didn't remember going to bed or even crashing on a nearby sofa, in fact, the last thing she remembered was dismissing her Pegasus-spirit as she and young Chelia dismounted, the sky god slayer sprinting into the guild hall to attend to the patient whose wounds were beyond Wendy's power to heal. Blearily, she cracked an eye open to get a look at her surroundings.
What she saw shocked her into opening both eyes wide: she was greeted with the sight and weight of a large arm wrapped around her, attached to a broad shoulder with the tips of tattoos peeking out the torn armhole of a navy-blue T-shirt. A heavy muscular leg had thrown itself over her lower body, and a spiky-haired blond head burrowed in the crook of her neck. Laxus must have carried her to the futon-style sofabed in his office after she collapsed, and fallen asleep himself shortly thereafter, being just as exhausted by the night's ordeal as anyone.
Loud pounding on the door at just past midnight had awoken Lucy, who kicked off her bedcovers, grabbed her worn pink bathrobe to throw over her nightgown, and went to tell off the visitor who had rudely awakened her—but the words failed her as she caught sight of the lightning dragon slayer on the other side of the door. "Get some slippers on and grab your keys, Lucy," Laxus ordered. "We got an emergency, and Gramps needs you at the guild right away." Too frightened over ideas of what this emergency might be to argue, the Celestial mage shoved her feet into her favorite pair of chocolate-brown fuzzy slippers, snatched her belt with keys, whip, and other essentials, and followed Laxus at a run out to the street in front of her apartment, where he turned both of them into lightning to teleport to the guild.
Upon arriving at the guild, the pair were greeted by a scared Juvia, a deeply worried Master Makarov, and the sound of Gajeel's voice, erupting in outcries and some rather colorful swear words, coming from the direction of the guild infirmary. "What's going on, Master?" Lucy questioned in lieu of greeting, "Laxus said it was urgent..."
"Gajeel was poisoned by a Celestial Spirit, Hydra the Many-Headed Beast, while he, Pantherlily, and Juvia were out on a mission to take out a dark guild called Lernean Scourge," the old master wasted no time in explaining.
"Juvia managed to wrest this key from the dark guild-master's hands," the bedraggled but mostly-uninjured water mage added, handing Lucy a silver key with seven snake heads surrounding Hydra's symbol.
Summoning the beastly Hydra had proved no more draining than any gold zodiac, which encouraged Lucy a good deal; she had expected the Spirit to resist her, possibly even attack her. But the Hydra had expressed grateful relief over her key passing into Fairy Tail hands, since the severing of her contract with her previous master, following his arrest, would now mean that she would be contracted to one of the most loving Celestial mages the Spirit World had ever known. It was only her answer, when Lucy demanded to know what would neutralize the poison in all the teeth-punctures on Gajeel's left thigh, that compounded the worry of the entire surrounding group: "Your young Sky Dragon Slayer's magic is capable of slowing my poison, but not of neutralizing it. It will take the magic of a Sky God Slayer to neutralize the poison so that the wounded man may be fully healed."
Lucy grimaced at the soreness she felt all over, a souvenir of her harrowing ride to Lamia Scale and back to pick up Chelia Blendy, bringing her to Gajeel's infirmary bed once Fairy Tail sent word of their calling for aid. Unfortunately, there would be no stretching any of the soreness away unless she could extricate herself from Laxus' sleeping embrace without waking him.
"Send word to Lamia Scale that we need Chelia's help," the Celestial mage delivered the order to nobody in particular, "and tell them that as we speak, we have a Pegasus rider on her way to pick the healer up." Order delivered, Lucy ran out the main entrance of the guild hall, touching a lacrima on her belt that had been a recent gift from Erza, and requipping into a horseback-rider's getup well suited to high winds: a chocolate-brown quilted riding coat with a pale pink scarf peeking out at the neck, pink breeches made of a thick fleecy material, and brown fleece-lined boots. Her brown leather-covered helmet, emblazoned with a pink Fairy Tail crest and fitted with ear-protecting flaps, a pair of white winter gloves, and a pair of aviator's goggles completed the ensemble. She wasted no time in detaching the appropriate key from her belt, one that she had acquired on a mission with Wendy, and calling out, "Open, Gate of the Winged Horse! Pegasus!"
A beautiful white winged mare with gold-streaked wing feathers appeared in a flash of golden light, bearing a special saddle designed for a passenger-rider to sit behind the driving rider, and not even waiting for Lucy to reattach the key to her ring before kneeling so that her master could mount her and ride. "To Lamia Scale, Aurora, as fast as your wings will carry us!" the blonde mage bade the great horse as she mounted, the Spirit soaring off with a loud whinny.
Turning her head to the open side, Lucy noticed her overcoat and scarf, essentials-belt, helmet, goggles, and gloves carefully arranged on the coffee table next to the futon, her boots standing just below. Laxus had clearly divested her of these articles after her magic-drain-induced collapse, and she was relieved that he'd removed the parts of her riding getup that were most uncomfortable to sleep in. She would have hated to feel overheated whilst held firmly in place by his sleeping form, or to have something on her belt digging painfully into her side. Turning her head back toward the man snuggling close to her in his sleep, she gave him a sad smile. She would like nothing more than to stay right here in his arms, but she really needed to stretch out her aching limbs, as well as rinse the annoying bitter aftertaste of magic-refill potion out of her mouth.
Tears sprang to Lucy's eyes, however, at the frightening thoughts of what might have happened had Jura not insisted on her taking the potion when he and Chelia greeted her at Lamia Scale's entrance. Had she run out of the energy to sustain Aurora mid-flight, she and Chelia might both have fallen to their deaths. Or if Aurora had needed to land somewhere far away en return route, she would never have been able to see Chelia safely to the bedside of the poisoned Gajeel in time to save his life. Juvia, Levy, and Wendy, not to mention Pantherlily, would not have been the only ones whose hearts would have shattered had Gajeel died that night; all of Fairy Tail would have been devastated.
"Is something the matter, Lucy?" Laxus' deep voice, roughened with sleep, shook her out of her morbid trail of thought. Blinking back her tears, she looked up to see his face hovering above hers, stormy blue eyes full of concern.
"Just fell into a bit of morbid thinking, is all," Lucy answered honestly, not wanting to lie and say she was fine when she still felt sore and exhausted from the nearly three-hour round-trip flight to Lamia Scale. "As much as I like snuggling with you, Laxus, I really need to stretch and go rinse out my mouth."
Nodding in understanding, the dragon slayer nevertheless brought a hand up to wipe away the tears that had slipped out of the Celestial mage's eyes before he reluctantly released her from his embrace. "Just remember, Lucy, it's thanks a hell of a lot to you that Fairy Tail still has its Black Steel."
No sooner had Lucy smiled her gratitude, stretched out her sore limbs, and gathered up her loose things in preparation to leave Laxus' office, however, than there was a sudden commotion from the general directon of the bar. "Holy Mavis! Evergreen, you devilish little fairy you!" Mirajane's voice cried out in glee. "Snug as a bug in a rug, I knew it!"
The Celestial mage felt the blood drain from her face at the she-demon's outburst, and sure enough, she caught sight of the lightning slayer facepalming when she looked over her shoulder. "Don't tell me Evergreen busted us sleep-cuddling and managed to get evidence to show for it..."
"Damn sure sounds like it," Laxus was forced to answer.
Reluctantly, Lucy pulled her boots and belt back on, stowed the rest of her loose riding gear with her recently-acquired requip lacrima, and permitted Laxus to lead her out of the office and down to the main floor of the guild hall, as more voices followed Mira's exclamation.
"Damn, first what happened in Freesia and now this—Laxus seems to have been getting closer and closer to Cosplay Queen right under our noses!"
"Finally! Love Rival isn't a love rival anymore!"
"That's a man!"
Both blond mages sincerely hoped that someone who'd been there last night and could explain what had happened—like Levy, who'd attended to the wounded Gajeel alongside Wendy and therefore knew exactly why Lucy had wound up running herself ragged—so that they'd be spared at least some of the inevitable drama. The gushing from Mirajane and lewd remarks from Bickslow and the ever-drunken Cana, the honor-besmirching accusations hurled toward Laxus by the overprotective Natsu and Erza, the way Happy would invariably tease Lucy. But all the same, the Celestial mage reflected, who would have thought Laxus was the snuggling type? What a way to wake up!