AN: Surprise update, boom! Yeah, so I might have written this and chapter three back in September of 2016 and then kinda...forgot. Someone reblogged one of the pics I did for this fic and I remembered out of the blue so...here you go 8'D
Death Becomes Thee
Chapter Two
"Isn't this kidnapping?"
Beneath the mask of her helmet, Lucy frowned and hissed, "Hush."
"This is definitely kidnapping."
"Happy, if you don't shut your mouth, I swear to you, I will put you back in that miserable bridle Mavis had you in, bit and all."
The pale blue horse beneath Lucy shifted uncomfortably, then huffed and tossed its white mane. He muttered something to himself under his breath, but the goddess ignored him. She wished that she could forgo riding the creature all together, but as Goddess of the Underworld, Lucy's wings had never worked well in the light of day, and she would need speed to carry off Mavis' grand plan.
Not for the first time, she wondered if she should reconsider, forgo this mad idea of kidnapping (the fact that Happy was being annoying didn't make him wrong) and return to her realm while she still could. However, certain knowledge of the quiet loneliness that waited for her there, an eternity of misery yet to unfold, kept Lucy in her hiding place.
For thousands of years she had been alone in the dark...perhaps that had driven her a little mad. No, it most certainly had if she was planning on kidnapping one of Makarov's favored sons...
The cry of an eagle, sharp and close, dragged Lucy from her reverie. It was quickly followed by an achingly familiar laugh and the pounding of sandaled feet on hard earth. The goddess' heart skipped a beat at the sound; it was even more beautiful in person.
From her hiding place among the shadows at the edge of a forest clearing, Lucy watched as an eagle dove from the painfully bright, blue sky above, and trailed its broad wings along the tips of the tall, gently waving grass that grew below. Across the way, a man burst through the underbrush and into open, laughing as he moved in powerful leaps and bounds over the uneven ground.
In the distance, voices cried after him, calling for him to slow and wait for them to catch up.
"Hurry up, I've almost got it now!" Natsu shouted, grinning broadly as he raced after the eagle, the grandest one he'd ever laid eyes on. He didn't have any particular plan for when he managed to lay hands on the creature, but it'd certainly be a tale to tell tomorrow.
Lucy watched her prey with hungry eyes, riveted by his every movement. Muscle rippled beneath sun-kissed skin, a sharp contrast to his shock of rose colored hair. The life and energy that poured out from him with each step he took towards her left the goddess entranced.
The flash of sunlight on dappled feathers as the eagle banked up into the sky again brought Lucy back to the present and their purpose there that day.
"Now!" she told Happy.
"But-" the horse began to object uneasily.
"I said now!" the goddess commanded, power in her voice as her heart's desire faltered in his headlong dash to watch the eagle soar high and away, a look of disappointment on his face.
Unable to deny a direct order, the horse sprang forward into a ground eating gallop that quickly closed the distance between them and Natsu. The lesser god looked around in surprise at their sudden appearance. His expression quickly twisted into alarm as the picture they painted fully pressed itself upon his mind. The rider bearing down on him was clad all in black and gray armor with a sword at its hip, vast black wings trailing behind, a terrifying spectre to behold for even the most stalwart soul.
By the time he turned to run, though, the horse was on him. Its rider bent down in the saddle and scooped him up in one arm as they passed, making Natsu yelp in surprise.
"Back the way we came!" a feminine voice commanded the horse from behind the mask of the rider's horned helm as the man struggled violently against his captor.
"Get off of me!" Natsu shouted as the horse wheeled about and charged back into the depths of the forest, branches whipping at his back and legs as they passed. The lesser god raised a fist to strike his kidnapper, but she stopped the blow with one hand, and dragged him in close so he was draped across her lap.
"Hush now, I mean you no harm," the woman said as she clamped one arm across his struggling form.
"Bullshit!" Natsu bit out as he struggled. "You think you can just-"
"I'm sorry, but I really have to pay attention to this next part," his kidnapper said, tone apologetic as she reached up with her free hand and pushed the mask of her helmet back. Natsu was so startled by the pale beauty of the face beneath the terrible black armor that he briefly stopped struggling, allowing her a chance to lean in and press a kiss to his lips.
The man gave a start at the contact, and though he wanted to struggle against her, an inexplicable exhaustion swept over him. He was unconscious before their lips parted, though the kiss had lasted only a moment.
Lucy broke contact almost hesitantly. The warmth of Natsu's lips against hers was more than she had felt in centuries. It was like the first light of dawn after the long night. Still, as much as she longed for more, she knew it would be wrong to try again now that her intention of putting the man in her arms to sleep had been accomplished.
"What did you do to him?" Happy asked worriedly as he galloped on, dodging around trees and leaping over rocks, attention too fixed on keeping his feet to glance back at his rider and their 'guest'.
A small, wry smile pulled at the goddess' lips, and she said, "The kiss of death."
The horse gave a startled whinny and skidded to a halt, prancing anxiously in place. "You what?!" he demanded, voice panicked as he tossed his head and threatened to buck.
"It was a joke, a joke!" Lucy insisted as she clung to her mount's back with only her knees, her arms wrapped tight around Natsu's limp form. "A kiss from me cannot kill a god, even a lesser one!" the goddess explained hurriedly, deciding to neglect the fact that a kiss from her could kill a mortal. "It only put him into a deep slumber, I swear it. You know I would not harm him for all the world, Happy!"
Happy's ears flicked back, then forward again as he glanced over his shoulder, eyes rolling to catch a glimpse of the man on his back. When he realized his rider spoke true the horse calmed somewhat and flicked his tail.
"Alright then," he said. "But jokes like that aren't funny, I hope you know!"
"Consider me chastened," Lucy said, glancing back the way they had come. The shouts for Natsu to slow down had turned to cries of distress as his companions realized something was amiss. "They'll catch us soon, Happy, we'll have to fly to make it now."
Her mount made an unhappy noise, and Lucy got the distinct feeling that he did not care if they were caught in the least. He could not disobey a great goddess, though, so he did as she bid.
Happy started running again, but when they reached a clearing, he gathered his haunches beneath him and took a mighty leap skyward. Suddenly, the air around them was filled by massive, white wings that grabbed at the air with a clap, and bore them up on the wind that filled them.
On his back, Lucy clung tight to the saddle-horn with one hand, and to the man in her lap with the other. Her own wings, useless by the light of day as they were, she tucked tight along her back so they would not interfere with Happy's own. The eagle, Mavis in one of her favored forms, flew past, dipping a wing in greeting as she did. Lucy nodded in turn, still torn by her Queen's hand in all of this. The Goddess of Thunder had never been one to explain her motives when it did not suite her needs, though, so Lucy set the concern aside for the time being. She had no doubt there would be some price for Mavis' help in the future, but there was little she could do about that in the present.
When the eagle had gone, Lucy glanced to the ground and found she could see a group of naiads and dryads racing through the trees below, searching for their missing companion. The goddess felt a guilty twinge for the pain she knew she had caused them, but one glance at the man in her arms and she forgot it.
Even in slumber he was the most incredible creature she had ever laid eyes on. She did not think she had ever truly appreciated the color of his hair, the arch of his nose, or the line of his jaw until that moment.
He was hers. She had stolen the earth's greatest treasure from those who couldn't truly appreciate him, and now she would bring him into her realm where he would shine all the brighter for the darkness.
Happy's broad wings carried them rapidly away northward towards the mountains where the hidden gate to her kingdom lay. They circled once as the horse prepared himself, then broke into a sharp dive into the shadows that lingered in a cleft at the cliff base. He tucked his wings at the last moment, and carried them through into the darkness beyond.
Stairs, seeming supported by nothing, wound down through the void for what seemed an eternity. Lucy waved a hand, though, and suddenly a pale light faded into being. Happy flew towards it, then back-winged sharply before landing with a clatter of hooves outside a narrow stone gate through which one could not see. The horse gave a wary snort, but Lucy guided him through with a gentle tap of her heels, spurring him to pass through to the other side.