(A/N); So this is a gift fic for WishToBeWizard for helping me find the fanfic Switch. She requested a Lahar x Lucy or Midnight x Lucy fic, and I'm going with Lahar for now. I introduce to you the second Lahar x Lucy fic EVAH!
Also, this takes place after the timeskip, and before the grand magic tournament.
Let the fluff begin.
Particular
WishToBeWizard
Rambunctious and over-zealous. That's what Fairy Tail wizards were. More adjectives Lahar used to describe this particular guild were destructive, reckless, violent, and dangerous to the peace he had worked so hard to build during the seven-year absence of their most powerful members.
But, he admitted, albeit rather grudgingly, that they were also a family, a shelter, and a home. They were the most tightly knit group he had ever known- everybody knew everyone, had some sort of companionship, some bond that he could never find in the council, besides with Doranbolt.
Which is why it was of the utmost irony that he found her on that particular day, and, of course, she had to be from that particular guild.
WishToBeWizard
It was (finally, thankfully, blessedly) his rare day off from work, and Lahar had found that his feet carried him to a stroll through the Magnolia park.
Summer was in the air, apparent through every warm breeze that caressed his hair (which Doranbolt had commented on earlier on this particular day, saying is was 'completely impractical and overly long, and yes, it does make you look really girly. You just can't pull it off like Gajeel.' Of course, this vexed him to no end.')
It was under some discreet patch of dappled sunlight that he found a rather strange sight- a young woman, dressed casually but prettily and looking rather lonely. Even odder was the fact that there was an equally pretty-looking picnic set up around her.
Lahar had no idea what possessed him at that moment, but he wandered closer and closer to the girl with the picnic.
As he neared her, she looked up with startled, round, chocolate eyes, shiny with unshed tears.
"Oh! Um… Hello…" she said quietly, reaching to tuck back a fallen lock of gold-spun hair behind her ear.
Then he saw the mark- a soft baby pink and distinct against the pale tone of her hand- and he recognized her.
She was the Fairy Tail wizard, the celestial mage who risked her life to save her lion spirit and defeated Angel with the power of her devotion to her partners, who stood by her friends even when they were over powered, out numbered, and almost hopeless.
And yet here she was, not quite crying in the park.
"Good afternoon," he answered easily. Shifting his weight slightly, he glanced at the neat, checkered cloth at his toes. "Do you mind if I…?"
His question remained unfinished as the blonde's eyes widened as she hurried to answer. "No, not at all! Go ahead and sit," she exclaimed. "My name is Lucy, and I'm a mage from Fairy Tail!" she declared proudly.
Lahar nodded. "I've heard of you," he commented. "You've collected the most Gold Keys out of all the celestial mages, and are probably one of the most famous of them."
Lucy blushed profusely at this. Lahar noticed that the tears were nearly gone.
"R-really? I'm famous?" she asked with wide-eyed, childish amazement.
Lahar felt the edge of his mouth quirk up the tiniest portion of a millimeter.
"Indeed," he responded dryly. "As are your team mates." The councilman cocked his head to the side. "Tell me, do they destroy all those thing on purpose or are they really that reckless?"
The blonde ducked her head in embarrassment. "They mean well!" she defended. Lahar didn't miss the quiet uttering of "usually," and he raised a slender brow. "They just... Forget how strong they are, and that not all buildings are fireproof, or ice-proof, or sword-proof..." Lucy trailed off and sighed.
"They're idiots sometimes. I just wish they would remember that they have brain cells," she finished wistfully.
"Indeed," Lahar repeated wryly.
Lucy's eyes narrowed slightly. "Do I know you from somewhere?" she questioned.
Lahar stiffened. "It depends," he forced out. "When should I have met you before?"
So she doesn't remember much of me, he thought bitterly. I suppose it's for the better. Attempting to arrest her friends and Jellal couldn't have made the best impression.
(Or perhaps it could have been the absence of his "ridiculous, flowery, signature robes,' as Doranbolt so eloquently called them, that caused a blank in the young woman's memory, but really, it was more of the fact that she forgot him than the reason why, flowery robes be damned.)
Lucy's dry laugh shook him out of his turnoiling thoughts.
"I suppose you wouldn't recognize me even if we had met," she giggled. "Seven years would be a long time to wait, and I would remember you if it had been earlier." Her charming smile was disarming, and Lahar was stunned for a split second.
A stray lock of blonde hair fell down, and Lahar instinctively reached out and brushed it behind her ear.
Vaguely, he noticed that it was the same strands that the celestial mage had tucked away when she first saw him. Less vaguely, he noticed Lucy's cheeks flare up, and the heat rising go his own as he pulled back hurriedly.
Then the question that had been floating in his head popped up abruptly.
"Why are you here alone?" The words came out of Lahar's mouth before his brain could rephrase them into something more subtle and sensitive.
He flinched the same time Lucy did, shocked at the bluntness of his words.
"U-um... Well... I-I-"
Lahar cut her off before Lucy could even finish her stuttering sentence.
"If you don't want to tell me, it's fine," he rushed, before inhaling slowly and continuing. "I asked a personal question that I knew would make you uncomfortable, and I apologize for my insensitivity towards you."
Clinical, clean, and to the point. The council would be proud.
Fairy Tail would not.
His words seem to strikes chord within the blonde, placating as the were, and hotter than blushes that burned on her cheeks (which Lahar found rather endearing, though he would never admit it, not even to himself), a fire sprang to life in her eyes. If Lahar's own eyes didn't deceive him, he thought he saw the chocolate brown depths flash gold. (If the dark haired man was one untrained in the ways of magic and it's splendor, he would have blames it on the glare on his thin-rimmed glasses, or perhaps a flash of sunlight. But Lahar was not unlearned, and mages were curious creatures. Even so, he did not question it.)
"I'm fine, thank you very much," Lucy said stiffly. Her eyes narrowed slightly, and she added, "Maybe you should learn the art of 'foot in mouth.'"
Lahar frowned a bit, and as if she had suddenly realized the harshness of her words, Lucy tensed and looked down, ashamed.
"Sorry," she mumbled awkwardly.
"Ah."
They sat in an not-quite-comfortable silence for some time before Lucy wordlessly opened the small wicker asker at her and silently offered him a small sandwich, which Lahar gratefully accepted. It was as if the movement of their jaw and the soft sound of swallowing lifted the tension that had laid across them.
About fifteen minutes had passed when the young blonde abruptly laid down her food on a paper plate that she pulled from her basket and shifted her body so she could look Lahar in the eyes.
"I was supposed to meet someone here," she stated calmly. "My friend Cana set me up on a date with an old friend of hers."
Cana, he noted briefly, was the drunkard.
His started minisculely as Lucy made a wide gesture with her arm. "He didn't show up." Her voice quivered. "Cana was always talking about how nice he was and how much we would like each other...
"It's weird," she sniffled through a watery grin. "You know, I can't even remember his name."
Lahar didn't think. There was no wondering, no pondering about if this was the most logical, beneficial course of action, and for once, he didn't care. He just reached over and pulled the blonde into a hug. He couldn't even remember the last time someone had given him a hug.
It felt... nice. Comforting.
It wasn't a bad feeling at all, he decided. But it would be absolutely off limits to hug Doranbolt.
Lahar felt her arms reach around him tentatively and bury her face in the crook of his neck, taking shaky, deep breaths and trembling ever so slightly.
They sat in silence, an odd sight and even odder couple.
After Lucy had calmed down a bit, she pulled away, and Lahar suddenly felt much colder.
"Sorry 'bout that," she murmured, a hot blush staining her cheeks.
Lahar smiled kindly and ruffled her hair slightly. "It's fine. We all need to let out emotions out from time to time."
Lucy stood stood up and brushed off her shorts an grinned, genuinely and easily, and he wondered just how many people could light up his soul with one smile.
"Thanks for listening to me," the blonde started. "I'm sort of a handful at times!" She laughed sweetly, bending down to gather the plates and leftover food.
"Oh... Well... It was no trouble," Lahar responded with a quick, barely perceptible stutter. He hastily scrambled off the checkered cloth, surprised at how quickly time had passed.
Lucy's work was fast and efficient, and in a matter of moments had the food and tablecloth tucked neatly into her wicker picnic basket.
The celestial mage bounced lightly and the balls of her feet and sighed.
"I still feel like I should repay somehow," she said, and moments after, her eyes gleamed, and a mischievous smirk quirked up at the corners of her mouth.
Before Lahar could sort out even his own thoughts (honestly, he couldn't even remember standing up at this point), Lucy had stood on her tiptoes and planted a tiny kiss on the corner of his mouth, and his thoughts flew out the window all over again.
She had already taken several steps away before words would form.
"Wait!"
Lucy paused for a second, catching a glance of his still form out of the corner of her eye.
"Thank you... Lahar-san."
He didn't realize the importance of those words until hours later.
WishToBeWizard
"Lucy Heartfilia?" Doranbolt gasped, choking on his beer. "As in the Lucy Heartfilia, heiress of the Heartfilia Conzern?!"
"For the last time, yes, her," Lahar scowled, taking a deep swig of his own alchohal.
They were seated at a dim bar, Doranbolt hunched over his drink and Lahar with his back to the counter and legs stretched and crossed at the ankles.
His scarred underling sighed and gulped down some of his drink. "You know, you gotta be careful about the way you act around her or people will start to think you're a gold digger."
Lahar's let out a forced smirk.
"At least I go for girls more than half my age," he said through clenched teeth.
Doranbolt's eyes widened comically.
"Wendy is different!" he yelped.
"Yeah. She is," Lahar agreed carelessly. "I least I stand a chance with Lucy."
Doranbolt snorted and mock punched in the arm before sighing again.
"You fight dirty, my friend," he said dramatically.
"Friends we may be, but you forget that I am your superior," the councilman retorted drily, pushing up his glasses with on finger.
Lahar raised his mug. "Bartender! Another please!" he called, and jerked his head toward his partner. "On his tab."
It took the scarred man several seconds for his tipsy brain to process what Lahar was tryin to do.
"Oh my god. Are you trying to get drunk?!" Doranbolt gaped. "Are you kidding? I try to get you drunk for years and all it takes is an hour with a girl you barely know and you're trying to pass out?"
Desperate to change the topic, Lahar flailed inwardly for something, anything really.
"I hear Conbolt's son was been making some moves on Wendy recently," he said weakly.
"Oh you mean Romeo?" Doranbolt said filppantly.
Some moments passed and Lahar swore he could see the gears slowing grind is subordinate's mind.
"THAT BOY IS A HUNDRED YEARS TOO YOUNG TO GO AFTER WENDY!" he roared slamming his mug onto the polished counter so hard that both objects cracked and traumatizing the bartender.
It was a simple matter to tune out Doranbolt's ranting to think (mostly) peacefully about the events with a certain blonde and his newfound infatuation.
Lahar tilted his head back slightly and his lips curled up into a tiny smile.
"...har... Lahar! LAHAR! Are even listening to m-"
"What is it?"
"... You're making a really weird face right now, you know that?"
"Shut up."
WishToBeWizard
(A/N)- ...
...
...I'm actually quite proud of this. It's a bit shorter than I wanted, and a bit OOC, but I like it.
Plus, now I think this pairing is pretty damn cute.
FIFTY BILLION THANKS TO WishToBeWizard, and I really hope this met your expectations.
...So... Yeah. Next chappie of Of Stars and Light should come out before Christmas Break of the SRVUSD. Also, I'm curious to know how old you guys think I am based on my writing style. Let me know via review, and send me some prompts through reviews and PMs because I'm thinking about doing a Drabble series in which every chapter has several drabbles and each chapter focuses on a different pairing.
(Sorry for any typos cuz I did a majority of this on an iPhone. So. Yeah.)
Shadow Panther, out.