Hey, y'all! This is my contribution to the Graylu Secret Sibling Exchange hosted by graylu-angstweek. My partner was fresh-princess-is-here!
I hope you like it, and Happy New Year!
New Year's Eve was close and Lucy was sitting on a table at the guild remembering how she used to celebrate the New Year with her family. She thought of all the balls and the parties that their parents' friends hosted, then compared it with how Fairy Tail celebrated it and couldn't help but laugh.
"What the hell are you laughing at again, Lucy?" Natsu waved his hand in front of her eyes looking for attention. "Whatever, move your big ass and help with the decoration for the party, would ya?"
That earned him a slap on the back of the neck.
"Dumbass" Lucy rolled her eyes yet got up nonetheless. She took out some of the garlands Natsu was carrying in a box under his right arm and joined the others.
The party that Fairy Tail hosts every year to celebrate its end is legendary and that means they have been cleaning, decorating and planning each second of the night for a week, all under the supervision of the ever so lovely Erza, not-so-lovely when things got out of control. Something that, being honest, happened quite too much since this was Fairy Tail. So yeah, the week has been a torture and Lucy was meditating about getting a job alone and coming back for the day of the party.
As if the Spirit King had listened to her, Makarov appeared standing over the bar counter holding a paper and reunited the Team Natsu.
"Listen up. A great friend of mine has requested our service urgently. I took it as a personal favor so I need you to success in this job no matter the cost. Got it?" At their nod, Makarov put his serious expression aside and sat over the counter, grabbing his beer firmly. "Good. However, I can't send you all to another city when there are only three days left to our party…" He tugged at the end of his beard and saw Erza ready to volunteer. "I can't send you, Erza, since I need you here helping with the organization. Of course Natsu must not go since we don't want, by any means, something set on fire…" Natsu's complaints were loud but nobody really payed attention to them. "That leaves you two, Lucy, Gray, I'll leave this on your hands."
"No problem" Gray smiled at Lucy and they fist bumped.
"What do we have to do?" Lucy asked.
"My friend's daughter life has been threatened. He hired bodyguards to protect her but the attackers are stronger each time they appear. He has an important business dinner tonight so he can't keep an eye on her and is desperate to finish that nightmare as soon as possible. I want you to find the one who's haunting her, and end him."
"Why are they after her?" Happy said, landing on Lucy's head. He was wearing a party hat so he wasn't definitely leaving the guild, but he wanted to gossip anyway.
"My friend is a very important strategist of the Magic Council…"
"Let me guess" Gray interrupted "The classic "blackmail by kidnapping daughter" topic, isn't it?"
"Don't worry, master! Count on us!" Lucy grabbed her things and picked up the floor Gray's long forgotten shirt before passing it to him. "We're leaving now!" Makarov handled her the paper with the direction and the request.
"It's on us, old man!"
Gray followed her out of the guild, still buttoning up his shirt.
After a short stop to get their package, Gray and Lucy took the train to Crocus.
"Ah, back to the capital!" Lucy said, leaning back on her seat. It wasn't long since she had lived there on her own.
"Such good memories, huh?" Gray smiled at her, resting his head on his hand.
"Weeeeell…" She sighed "Do you mean back then when a dragon made my clothes disappear? Living there all alone wasn't very funny either!"
Gray giggled. He dared to laugh at her misfortune!
"You dummy. What an ass!" Lucy pouted.
"Hey" Gray stopped at the middle of his laughter "Did you just call me dummy?" He was beyond amused. "That was kind of cute, you know."
Lucy decided to ignore both the genuine smile he was directing at her and the shiver that ran down her spine.
"All I remember is calling you an ass" she avoided his eyes and crossed her arms. Why the hell she felt her cheeks warming she didn't know, and his soft laugh was not helping at all.
"I do have good memories in Crocus." Gray said, gaining her attention again. "You supported me when I lost the first round, that meant a lot to me. It still does, tho." He winked at her. Lucy leaned in to get a little closer to him. He was right, those were the days.
"Yeah" She looked up to him "I think you did a good job supporting me as well back then."
They stayed still, not knowing what to do with their proximity, until they felt a constant stare on them. They turned to look at their side where an old man was watching them.
"What a weird way to flirt the younglings have now…" The only thing he said was enough to get Lucy to sit correctly on her seat again and Gray to look out the window with his cheeks exploding in pink.
"Mr. Baclan has been waiting for you." Was the first thing a servant said when they entered the large house of the requestor's house. The girl, a bit younger than Lucy and Gray, guided them to what they figured was Mr. Baclan's office. A tall, grey haired man received both mages.
"Thank you for coming." Two old green eyes pierced the pair with desperation, although the man maintained the composure. "I'm sure Makarov has given you the details already." Gray and Lucy nodded. "Gabriela!" He called, and a little girl not older than six came into the room running.
She had raven hair and dark brown eyes, but they couldn't see much more since the girl was hiding behind her father's legs.
"I don't know who is behind the attacks against my precious Gabby, but I want them to stop."
"Don't you worry, sir. We won't let anything happen to your daughter." Gray said, while Lucy was trying to get the girl's attention. She extended one of her golden keys and moved it through her fingers, the eyes of the kid fixed on it. Lucy then enclosed it with her hands.
"Blow." Lucy said, smiling, and the girl ran to her. Standing in front of Lucy she let air out quickly, and the blonde mage opened her hands. The key was no longer there.
"Where did it go!?" Gabriela asked, searching everywhere.
"It's okay Mr. Baclan, nobody's going to harm her." Lucy said, then showed the kid her key again. "Right, Gabby?"
"Yes!"
Gray's heart skipped a beat when his brain decided it was a good idea to imagine Lucy as the mother of his children.
"So, what are you playing with?" Gray asked Gabby, sitting beside her on the ground after losing a round of "heads or tails" with Lucy to decide which one was going to tell her she had to go to bed.
"She's my friend Malia!" The girl handed him a beautiful brunette doll. "She's a princess and that's cool!"
He gave her the toy back.
"Have you ever met a real princess?" Gray said, an idea forming in his head.
"No, never." The girl puffed.
"Do you want to know a secret?" He whispered. Gabby nodded, excited. "She is a real princess" Gray said, pointing at Lucy.
"Really!?" The girl exclaimed, the doll now long forgotten.
"Aye. She used to live in a really big house, with at least ten floors. Her garden was longer than this whole town, and she wore the most beautiful dresses of the world." Gray was exaggerating a bit, but who cares.
"That's incredible! I met a real princess!" Gabby wanted to go with Lucy, who was quietly reading on a chair, yet she made another question to him first.
"How did you know she is a princess?" You're so lucky you found one!"
Yes, he is. He thought.
"Isn't it obvious?" Gray said, looking at his partner. "She's very, very beautiful, with precious eyes and the smoothest golden hair…" Gabby nodded. "But most of all she's strong, hella strong, and kind, and forgiving. She loves and supports her friends with all her being, and that's what makes a real princess." Why the hell he just told a six-year-old girl about the crush he had on his partner, he didn't know. Anyway, the girl almost had hearts instead of eyes so he now had to finish the story. "Oh, and she tells the best bedtime stories. Wanna hear one?"
"Yes! Yes!" Gabriela got up so quick she almost falls and ran to Lucy again. "Princess Lucy!"
The blonde looked at her and then at her partner with a confused look, yet she carried the girl nonetheless. Gray saw the bright smile Lucy had when the kid asked her to tell a story, for she was a writer and loved inventing tales. She left with Gabriela to the contiguous room, where the bed was, and came back to Gray, who was waiting relying on the frame of the door, some minutes later.
"What the hell did you tell her? She couldn't stop calling me 'princess'" She smiled when Gray shrugged.
"I just told her the truth." The smirk Gray showed her made Lucy need to rely on the door as well.
"I didn't know you told tales, too. I want to know that story, though." He leaned closer to her, placing a hand above Lucy's head.
"I bet you do."
Lucy swore she had never been closer to Gray before, a few inches apart of that smirk of him which was making her feel weak on her knees. She placed his right hand over his chest looking for the stability that Gray's gaze was stealing her. Lucy could feel his heart beating frenetic.
She could've sworn Gray was leaning closer to her if their attention wouldn't have been claimed by the sound of a window breaking.
"What the…" Gray cursed and both their eyes opened wide when they saw gas filling the room where they had been before. "Shit."
Quickly, Gray froze the lacrima someone threw inside the room to stop it from spilling more gas. Two men wearing all black entered through the window, not expecting to see two mages blocking their way to where their target was sleeping.
"Who are you?" Gray said, ready to fight. Lucy took a step beside him, placing a hand on his back.
"We can't leave the both of them unconscious, we have to averiguate who they work for." He nodded.
One of the enemies kneeled to touch the floor and at that moment sand started to fill the room with such force it created a tornado. The other took advantage of the distraction and ran over the wall to get to the door.
"What the fuck are they!" Gray shouted, half closing his eyes due to the sand.
"They seem like real ninjas, not like Natsu!" Lucy said, moving her hand to her keys. "Anyway, leave this to me. Star dress! Scorpio!"
When Lucy changed her form, all the sand fell to the ground immediately, nullifying the tornado. Gray formed an ice bow and shot the other man, pinning him to the wall without even looking away of Lucy and her beautiful body fitting perfectly in that armor. Gray had to force himself to keep his mouth closed. He swallowed hard and approached the man trying to get the arrow off his body to scape. Lucy got back to her normal clothes – two whip movements and their enemy was tied on the floor.
"Well, this was easy." Gray said. "You, human waste" He hammered the arrow deeper into the man's shoulder and heard the cry leave the other's throat. "Who do you work for? Spit it!"
Gray didn't get an answer. Lucy wasn't any luckier either.
"Gray." She said. "They didn't mutter a word since they came."
"Yeah, I know. That doesn't mean I…" Gray stopped talking when he saw the horror look on his partner. "Lucy…?"
"Open his mouth. Now." Lucy ordered and Gray fought with the man to introduce two fingers on his mouth. He forced it open – the man didn't have a tongue.
"What the actual fuck!? How are we going to interrogate them now!?" Gray exclaimed, cleaning his fingers on the ninja's clothes.
"We don't need to, I know who they are." Lucy approached Gray. "They belong to a guild of mercenaries called Arde Lucus, I know them because my father used to contract them as bodyguards when we travelled or hosted important people in our house. If you want to be accepted in the guild, you have to cut your tongue off, for they can't tolerate betrayal nor snitchers. The last thing I had heard of them was that they had changed to a dark guild who swindled people to gain money."
"Seems like the rumors were true, tho."
"I know where their guild used to be, and I don't think they changed the Crocus headquarters. I just have to go there and crash it down for sure…" Lucy started but Gray laughing made her look at him again.
"You? You're crazy if you think I'm going to watch you go there all alone. Fucking crazy." Lucy blushed, yet pouted annoyed.
"But we can't leave Gabby alone. I know the place, so…"
"So you write it down for me and I go there while you take care of her. She likes you much more than she likes me, anyway." Lucy pointed at him pissed.
"What? And what makes you think I'll let you go there alone!? No way in hell, thank you." She tied up both ninjas and got ready to leave, but Gray had other plans. He jumped to the windowsill and smiled to the furious Lucy who was about to start rambling and shouting at him.
"Come on, Lucy, don't look at me like that. Just give me the address and before you get rid of those two I'll be back again, I promise." Gray smiled and she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.
"You dumb imbecile." Lucy sighed, yet explained where the guild was to him. "I hate that you get away with this one…"
"I'll be okay and you know it."
"...I hate seeing you go." Gray changed his playful smirk at her words. Lucy was looking down and grabbing his shirt tight.
"Listen up, Lucy." He lifted her chin with a finger and looked at her eyes. "I understand how you feel because I can't stand seeing you leave either. But I won't let even a scratch mark your skin if I can do anything against it so… I'll be right back. Aye?" Gray smiled, leaning closer to Lucy.
"Aye…" She felt her cheeks warm with the proximity, again. Lucy slowly closed her eyes waiting, hoping, for a kiss that never came.
The second after their noses brushed, Gray had jumped off the window and Lucy was seeing him run now with the eyes wide and her heart about to explode in her chest.
That idiot! Lucy didn't even know why she wanted –and still wants– him to kiss her in the first place! She doesn't like him in the very least! Not at all!
"Bastard." She cursed, and the two enemies suffered her rage.
Lucy was reading her book beside a sleeping Gabriela when she heard some window crystals break against the floor again. She quickly grabbed her keys, just in case, and ran to the contiguous room hoping to find a raven head safe and sound.
"I'm back." Gray's cocky smile greeted Lucy. The relief she felt was fighting her arms for not kicking him in the face while she came closer to her partner.
"You're a dumb idiot, I want you to know it." She said.
"That's rude, Lucy!" He smiled, looking down at her.
"I could've made it in half the time, dickhead."
"I don't doubt it." Gray placed a hand over Lucy's head, the smile never leaving his lips. "But they won't ever harm anybody again and it was kind of easy, you know. Anyway, what's with this passive-aggressive swearing?"
Lucy grabbed him by the cheeks and squeezed them.
"It's your fault" She pulled him close and standing on her tiptoes crashed her lips against his.
Gray wasn't expecting it. Her move had left his heart beating frenetic and made his brain shut down. He closed his eyes anyway and slowly moved his hands down to her waist so he could hold her close to him. His lips moved against Lucy's, finding them wet and soft. Gray recovered the composure and sucked on her lips, parting them then with his tongue, licking hers.
Lucy caressed his scalp and followed him deep into the kiss until they broke it gasping.
"How's this my fault?" Gray asked. He hadn't let Lucy go and she blushed, the anger long forgotten.
"Huh… You-you can't try to kiss a girl and then… Then leave. Moron." Lucy gulped and Gray couldn't help but laugh.
"And this was your revenge? That's cruel Lucy!"
"How is this cruel?" She whined, encircling his neck with her arms. Gray was feeling happy as hell, as if he was dreaming, yet he decided to play along. It's not like the girl you're head over heels for makes the first move everyday.
"Because I like you." He whispered. "So if you say this was just revenge… You're going to break my heart!" Gray heard Lucy gasp, she was looking at him with wide eyes.
Go big or go home, he thought.
"You like me?" Lucy said. "As in like, like me?" He chuckled.
"Yes." Lucy tiptoed again and left a peck on his lips. "Hey! How's that you can kiss me whenever you want but I don't have the same right!" Gray teased.
"I never said you couldn't, Gray." She smiled, tracing a pattern with her index finger down his chin. "I may or may not like you back." His cocky grin appeared again and he leaned until brush his lips with hers.
"You may not? That hurts me, princess." Gray lifted her off the ground, holding her tight.
"Kiss me and you'll figure it out."
And he did. Oh, how he kissed her.
BONUS
"It was a nice job…" Gray said, following Lucy close on their way back to the guild from the train station. "But we didn't get a reward, tho. That sucks."
"Are you sure we didn't get a reward, Gray?" She looked at him over her shoulder, rising an eyebrow.
Gray smiled and fastened his pace to reach her and hug her from behind, kissing her neck while they walked together.
"Well, I sure did."
Lucy laughed so he smiled, too.
"I was talking about sloping off working on the guild, perv." Lucy turned around and looked at him in the eyes. A warm ocean blue staring back at her when she put her arms around his shoulders. "But this isn't bad either."
They joined in a passionate kiss, oblivious to their surroundings.
"Holy shit. Wait for Mira to know that." Said a certain brunette girl, holding still a bottle of rum and running to spread the gossip.