CoLu Week 2019 is finally here! I am so excited to share this story with you as it has been in the planning stages for months and now it gets to be shared with all my amazing readers! I hope you enjoy this story and please review!
Cobra fucking hated trains, hated how week his stomach had become while on transportation ever since he powered up after joining the Thunder Legion. He was a fucking Fairy now, a FAIRY! His life had taken a strange twist after the shit that happened with Achnologia, no longer content just to travel the world with Amazon's fucking fiance and his band of merry men. Granted it had been her idea for him to join the guild, but that was beside the damn point.
He'd been trapped, in some form or another, his entire damn life. Born in the tower of heaven after his mother was raped by some random douche-bag, then he was under Brain's thumb, before being thrown in jail, only to escape and find out they were working some other douche-canoe which landed his ass in jail for a second time, and finally he escaped after the council was destroyed. His old team was then caught by the fucking blueberry who had them trying to atone for their sins.
After everything he'd helped out with, surprisingly most of it was by Fairy Tail's side, he needed more than roaming the lands. Didn't help his damn dragon was whining at him to settle the hell down, male or female didn't matter to his damn dragon, so long as they were up for lots of sex. That was another thing that was pissing him off lately, he couldn't just fuck any random chick anymore. His dragon decided it was time to find a mate and he couldn't get hard around just any slut anymore. Fuck his life. Fuck his dragon.
It was the main reason he was fucking testy lately. A month, an entire fucking month, and he hadn't been laid at all. His hands could only do so much before it became boring. Not to mention he was surrounded by a team who was constantly getting laid. The self-proclaimed fairy queen was screwing the 'manliest' of men, Freed was boning the demon, while chuckles was shacked up with the drunk, and their mighty leader was balls deep in the bubblegum princess. He could smell the sex on them and hear the happiness in their souls and dammit all if he didn't want that too.
According to metal face, he had to have skin-on-skin contact with his mate in order for his dragon to determine who that was. Apparently, his dragon had made it fucking clear that bookworm was his mate but he ended up nailing her to a damn tree since he was in another guild with a different set of rules. It gave him a sliver of hope that if someone could love that bag of bolts then someone could love him too. Love, fuck he was getting sappy since becoming a fairy.
"Where the hell is our brave leader anyway?"
"Laxus had some business he needed to handle before joining us. He will be on the next train and will be meeting us for supper at the restaurant in our hotel this evening," Freed answered without looking up from his book. "We are to scope out the town after we meet have our meeting with its mayor to get the details of this mission. It was an incredibly high ranked mission with miniscule information and pays approximately two point five million jewels, per person." Bickslow whistled at the amount. The money for S Class missions still amazed Cobra. Why the hell were they plotting world domination when one could make an actual living being an S or SS Class mage?
"Bossman often meets us a bit later, granted it's usually because Gramps is making him do some kind of paperwork. Can't be the next Master if he's always out on missions."
"Seriously? When when the last time lightning breath actually came on a damn mission with us? He was here when I first joined six months ago to assess how everyone adjusted to me being here, but that's it."
"Technically, we don't need him being here since Bix and Freed are both S Class mages now. It gets his growly ass out of the political game so he can reset, I think." Bickslow cackled at that while Cobra smirked while Evergreen continued to file her nails. "Besides this mission has a special reward, which I'm excited to know what it is."
"Special rewards could be something of rare value or as mundane as food vouchers, don't get your hopes up too high, Evergreen." She huffed and turned slightly away from the poised man. This group was the sanest of all the fairies in the whole damn guild and he often roomed with Bickslow because he couldn't hear the man's soul. No-one knew why but the bookworm and Freed suspected it had to do with the similarities of their soul magics. He didn't care, it just felt fucking good to be able to sleep at night since he was rooming with Bickslow since joining the guild.
"Bickslow would you stop! You're going to ruin it!" Evergreen smacked the seith mage's hand with her fan.
"I can't help it! It's a loose thread on my shirt that's begging to be pulled off," he whined back at her.
"You keep pulling at that thread and it'll become looser and will eventually snag somewhere. Just melt the end for now which will help until you can get it properly fixed. Juvia would be more than happy to show off her sewing skills, that woman is wicked could with clothing and needles."
"Of course she is," Cobra snorted, "bluebell has to sew the stripper into his clothes so he stops showing off what is hers." Evergreen hid her laugh behind her fan, Freed smiled into his magazine, and Bickslow laughed so hard he fell off the bench they were sharing.
Arriving at Goldame in ten minutes. Passengers who are disembarking here please have your passes ready for your luggage, thank you.
About damn time! His guts hadn't stopped rolling but the brief conversation had helped him to temporarily forget about it. The four of gathered their bags, following Freed who was taking them to their hotel for early check-in. Three room had been booked for five nights since they weren't sure how long this mission was going to take. He was rooming with Bickslow, Laxus and Freed were sharing, and Evergreen was on her own. They threw their bags in the room before they headed off to see the mayor.
"Welcome Fairy Tail mages. Mayor Tulle is waiting for you in the office, so if you could follow me please." The black haired woman led them to the assigned room, but Cobra was keeping his ears open for any other additional information. "Mayor Tulle, the mages from Fairy Tail are here."
"Wonderful, please have a seat. Can I offer you any coffee, tea, or water?"
"No thank you, Mayor Tulle," Freed politely declined as he sat in one chair, Evergreen in the other, which left him and Bickslow to lean against the bookcase. "We would like to discuss the mission you posted in the guild, as there were few details pertaining to what is happening."
"Of course. It's quite an oddity I have to say. We have a gambling ring circulating the city, prizes range from rare animals to black market drugs to magical enhancing potions, all of which are highly illegal. Our local police have been unsuccessful in capturing anyone from the group, but we know there is a different location every night. This will be the fourth night in our town."
"This is quite troublesome. Do you have any more clues or information to go on?" Freed inquired as the Mayor drummed his fingers on the rich redwood of his desk.
"There is roughly a half-mile radius where people have been experiencing certain . . . personality changes."
"Mayor Tulle," Evergreen smiled politely at the older man, "what kind of changes."
"Well, everyone has reported that for several hours they are forced to be nicer than normal and in certain areas, they're compelled to tell the truth, no matter how small and all the time. By morning everyone is back to normal. It happens in a different location every night."
"We will certainly look into this matter. Just to confirm the payment is two point five million jewels per person with a bonus reward?"
"There is a half million incentive if you can solve this in three days, before our annual summer festival. I also have a celestial key to give to you once the mission has been completed, but Laxus was already aware of this."
"Sorry Mayor Tulle, but Laxus is unable to join us until later and must have forgotten to mention this piece of information."
"No matter. I will entrust the safety of my citizens to you, hopefully, this can be solved before anything bad happens. Cherrie will see you out." He pressed a buzzer and the young woman showed them back out the way they entered.
"Thoughts?" Bickslow asked as he stretched his arms over his head.
"A magical item is my hypothesis. Something that is easily moved from each gambling area to another and doesn't pull attention to itself." Freed hummed as he started running through all the possibilities.
"Do you think there is a drug that could be making people speak the truth? Someone trying to get some valuable information?" Evergreen inquired to the team.
"Also plausible."
"Could be an animal," Bickslow added, "we have Exceeds, flying serpents, and Mavis knows what else in Fiore."
"True. It seems we have more questions than answers at this point. Laxus should be arriving in fifteen minutes, so I suggest we head back to the hotel."
"One second," Cobra stopped the team as he peered around the crowd of people. "Someone here knows the location of tonight's meeting. Be right back." He listened in on the soul that was cackling about how much money he was going to make on some potion he had concocted. Cobra pretended to be interested in buying a new jacket as he filtered through the information then headed back to his team.
"Turns out there's an auction happening two nights from now, before the start of the festival. A crap ton of bad guys are looking to sell merchandise and the gambling ring is a way to see who has what. Tonight it's being hosted at some place called the Red Robin at eleven pm."
"Guess we'll need some clubbing clothes. Cana's friend Bacchus has raved about this club to her on several occasions, loads of strippers and happy endings."
"We shall fill Laxus in on everything over our meal." The four of them headed into the restaurant where they found Laxus sitting in a large booth with a mug of beer.
"Yo, Bossman," Bickslow called out, "How was the ride here?"
"Nothing special. What'd you guys find out?" Freed filled him in as they ordered drinks and food. "Red Robin, you say? Did anyone bring clothes for a club?" There were four sets of no's as he pondered for a minute. "I'll be right back." They watched as he headed for the front desk to talk to the woman there who handed him the phone. A brief conversation was had before he rejoined them. "You'll have clothes by the time we're done our meal."
"Damn Bossman, what connections do you have?" The only answer Bickslow received was a smile from the large blonde. Cobra was having one hell of a time reading the lightning slayer, which had never been a problem before. He'd keep his guard up, for now, just in case this man was an imposter.
They ate their meal while idling talking about boring shit. A couple drinks later and they were leaving the booth to make their way back to their rooms since Evergreen stated she needed time to prep. Women. He heard the brunette snicker, hiding her face behind her fan for a moment, but he heard loud and clear where her thoughts were going and couldn't help the smirk that appeared.
"Bix," Laxus looked at seith mage, "Did you know you're leading a trail of thread back to the room?" Bickslow looked behind him to see there was indeed a trail of thread leading from their wood booth to the entrance of the restaurant.
"Son of a bitch!"
"Told you so!"
"Can it Ever!"