i'm honestly so damn in love with this. i can't stop now I CAN'T!

also: i don't know if many of you knew this but Mashima actually named our beloved Lucy after Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds by The Beatles? tbh, i can see it—hence this lil doosey

**lyrics are from Mr. Brightside by The Killers**

/

it started out with a kiss
how did it end up like this?

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"Wake up, sunshine!"

Lucy groans and shields her eyes with one arm, slapping at the annoying face of one Gajeel Redfox with the other. "Go away," she growls, and coughs uncontrollably.

"That's what ya get for smoking god knows what!" Gajeel cackles and pounds her on the back repeatedly, and Lucy yells in protest.

"Gajeel, stop! That hurts! Ow!"

"Lu, are you awake?" Levy asks from the driver's seat, and Lucy sighs in relief.

"You're here, Levy! I thought I lost you on the dance floor."

Levy grins sheepishly, twisting around with a light blush on her cheeks. "Gajeel and I kind of left early…"

"Oh. Oh. I see. Wow, guys, some friends you are," Lucy whines but she is smiling a shit-eating grin.

"You're one to talk," Gajeel grouses, and Lucy raises a brow.

"Excuse me?"

"Don't play Miss Innocent with me, bunny girl. You know exactly what I'm talking about," Gajeel says in reply, and Lucy slaps the smug smirk off his stupid face.

"I don't actually."

Levy shifts the truck into fourth gear, chuckling all the while. "Check your phone, Lu."

Grudgingly, Lucy pats her body down, searching for her pink bedazzled iPhone. After a heart-stopping moment, she finally finds the device wedged between her cleavage along with crumbs and dried beer. Lucy dry heaves and thanks the gods that Levy is en route to Macwak's Wash and Stop.

"So, what exactly am I looking at?" she asks, and Gajeel cackles obnoxiously.

"Check your gallery."

Lucy does just that—and almost has a heart attack. "Eight hundred and seventy-three photos?!"

"You're quite the photographer, Lu," Levy comments dryly, but Lucy is too focused on what the photos contain.

"Why am I without a dress?"

Gajeel chokes. "What?!"

"Obviously those happened after we left."

"Levy!" Lucy screeches suddenly and the two other occupants of the car flinch. "Levy, why did you leave?! You could have stopped this!"

"Well fuck, Shrimp. I thought you said bunny girl wouldn't be a cockblocker."

"Hush, Gajeel," Levy rolls her eyes and meets Lucy's gaze in the rear view mirror, "What is it, Lu?"

"I think I shot a sex tape."

Gajeel chokes again. "What?! Let's see!"

"Ew, no! Gajeel, get your gross hands OFF OF ME!"

"I don't think it's a sex tape of you," Levy comments and pulls into the empty petrol station, laughing at the impromptu wrestling match happening in the back seat of Gajeel's cheap pickup truck.

"What else could it possibly be, Levy?!"

Levy parks the truck and pulls up the handbrake, reaching for the phone once the engine is off. "Unless you suddenly dyed your hair purple and hooked up with a buxom brunette, then I don't think it's you."

"That means I shot the tape! That's even worse!"

"Not really," Levy says, and mutes the sound of the video. She scrolls through, cheeks blazing, until she finally finds what she's looking for: the person behind the camera. "There!" she yells, and pauses the video as the camera is flipped around in-video to reveal a drunken pink-haired boy with a shit-eating grin.

"Who the fuck's that?" Gajeel wonders aloud, and Lucy freezes.

"No," she whispers and snatches her phone back, flying through the gallery until she lands upon the photos she knew would be in there—her and the pink-haired boy making out in a grimy bathroom. Ew.

"Oho!" Gajeel barks and Lucy jumps out the car with a shriek.

"NO! NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!"

"Didn't know you were into punks, Lu," Levy grins and exits the car also, grabbing the towels from the passenger seat.

"I'M NOT!"

"Suuuure," Gajeel cackles and follows his superhot girlfriend to the jet washer. He pops a few coins in the machine and grabs the large jet washer, gesturing at the girls.

"I'll go first!" Levy yells and promptly strips down to her undergarments. Gajeel raises a brow but aims the jet at her, careful to not hold it too close to her pale skin.

"I can't believe this!" Lucy whines from the ground, and Gajeel aims the jet washer at her. She receives the water at point blank and screams a bloodcurling shriek, jumping away from the bruising force. Her sparkly blue dress clings to her curves and contours, and the sparkles make her wet skin itch.

"GAJEEL!"

The pierced man is too busy laughing at the look on Lucy's face and Levy, too, is giggling along.

"You guys are the worst!" Lucy peels the dress away from her skin, shivering in her bra and underwear as a cold wind blows through the rundown petrol station. Levy raises a brow at her choice in Hello Kitty lingerie, and in a sullen voice Lucy says, "I was high at the time okay. I thought it was cute."

"Oho, bunny girl's got a pussy on her pussy!"

"Shut THE FUCK UP, GAJEEL!"

"Guys, stop fighting already! We've only got three hours to get back to Magnolia!" Levy chastises the two like they are children, and makes a big point of rinsing the conditioner from her wild blue hair. The hickies and bite marks riddling her neck and shoulders, however, stand out brightly in the sunlight and smash her 'tiger mom' exterior.

Gajeel grins at the sight and pulls her in for a deep and long kiss, one that sweeps Levy off her feet and has Lucy sticking her finger down her throat.

"Ew, guys, that's gross. Can't you wait until we get back home?"

"Whatever you say, cockblocker," Gajeel sneers at Lucy and aims the jet washer at her again, though this time he careful about it.

Lucy lathers her hair with the cheap jasmine scented shampoo, scrubbing and raking at her mysteriously glittery hair. Once done with the shampoo, she lathers her long hair in conditioner and washes the rest of her body with the only body wash they packed—Gajeel's ohsoexpensive Axe.

"Honestly Gajeel, this crap is bad for your skin. Why do you continue to buy this shit?" she asks exasperatedly, cringing at the way the chemical processed wash makes her skin feel.

"Well fuck, I'm sorry Your Highness—it must have slipped my mind to pack that Lush bullshit you waste all your money on," he grouses, tearing the bottle of sandalwood scented Axe from Lucy's soapy hands.

Levy, who had already slipped into a simple orange mini dress, rolls her eyes at the pair and throws Lucy a towel. "Come on, already!"

It is quite comical watching Gajeel shower, Lucy thinks with a mischievous grin as he dances out of the way of the jet washer.

"Shrimp! Not so fucking close, god! That shit fucking bruises!"

"Stop being a big baby and hurry up, then!"

"OKAY just fucking hold the damn thing properly!"

"Like this?"

"FUCK YOU!"

Lucy snickers and throws the bottle of Axe towards him. "My god, Gajeel, stop being a pussy."

Gajeel glares at her fiercely, drenched black hair falling around his face in dripping tangles. "Shut the fuck up right now."

Levy laughs aloud, aiming at the jet washer at his bare chest once again. "Hurry it up!"

"THIS IS SEXUAL HARRASSMENT!"

"Calm the hell down, pincushion," Lucy laughs and steps into her pink maxi dress, smoothing out the wrinkles and doing the zipper as quickly as possible. "I'm gonna go grab a drink—anyone want anything?"

"Peach iced tea for me!" Levy calls, and Lucy rummages through Gajeel's discarded pants for his wallet.

"Put my fucking wallet down and get me something strong," Gajeel yells toward her, furiously scrubbing at his tanned and scarred skin with a wash cloth. Lucy immediately knows that one semi-naked Gajeel and a half-clothed Levy spell trouble, and decides to be as quick as possible before the real sex tape begins.

The bells above the door jingle dully, and she clumsily steps out of the way of a packing crate. The lighting within the small petrol station is dim at best and flickers every couple seconds. Lucy shivers—damn if this place isn't straight out of a horror movie.

"Welcome to Macwak's," a rather bored male voice calls from the freezer section. Lucy startles and laughs nervously.

"Ah, would you happen to sell any, um, alcohol?" she coughs at the awkwardness of it all, grip tightening on Gajeel's leather wallet.

The dark-haired man blinks at her once, twice and rakes his eyes over her body. Lucy squirms under his icy-blue stare—and it is then that she realises he is very naked.

"Y-You're clothes!"

"Huh?" he blinks again and looks down at his bare chest, and merely shrugs at the sight. "What about 'em?"

Lucy chokes on her own spit. "You don't have any!"

The man's eyes widen and his pale cheeks turn a stunning shade of red. "Ah, this got awkward real quick."

"You're telling me?!"

"Could I borrow your underwear?" he asks, and Lucy stiffens.

"My what?!"

The nameless man waves a hand, cheeks still painted red. "Y'know, your panties. That's if you wear any," he concludes, and walks around her body with a scrutinising stare, "I don't see any pantie lines, so I take that as a no."

"Excuse me?!"

"The booze is 'round this way—I'll show you."

And so she is forced to follow the strange naked man into the back storage room—look at me now, mom.

. . . . . .

"Do you even get paid to work here?" Lucy sniffs, nose scrunching at the smell of stale beer and old cheese.

The naked man—who she later learned was actually called Gray—shrugs his shoulders. "Sorta?"

"Sorta?" she echoes, and he nods his head stiffly. Lucy rolls her eyes—but not for too long, because damn this boy was fucking fine and she was not about to miss out on precious moments spent staring at his naked godly self.

"So, what made you come into a dump like this?" he asks suddenly.

Lucy is shaken out of her stupor and rambles out a string of words, "Needed a shower and food."

Gray turns around to stare at her—FULL FRONTAL okay Lucy DON'T FUCKING PASS OUT NOW. "A shower?"

She clears her dry throat and nods. "Yeah. A shower. The uh, jet washer does the job."

Gray watches her for a second more and grins. "Well, I'll be damned. That's pretty fucking smart."

"Thanks…?"

"Anyway," Gray says, and she is grateful that they have finally found the alcohol. "Take your pick."

Lucy scans the assorted drinks, and finally settles her sights on a cheap one litre whiskey. She grabs the bottle by its neck and follows Gray back to the main store—only to find that the lights have gone off. Didn't she read a book before where this exact same thing happened minutes before the protagonist was brutally murdered with a string of sausages? She is seconds away from ripping off her gladiator sandal and using it as a projectile, when Gray suddenly pounds his fist against the wall.

"Fuck, not again," he curses, and pulls a pair of boxers from the fridge. "LAXUS! Ain't it your damn job to keep the fucking lights on?"

He slips the boxers on, and Lucy can only blink and observe. Gray, having noticed this, scowls. "What? It's damn hot 'round here, okay? I grew up in the North, not the fucking Sahara. Climate control, get it?" he waves a hand around his front, and Lucy blushes at the implications.

"Ah, y-yes."

He nods at her once, and opens his mouth to call out once more, "Laxus! Get your fucking sparkler ass down here!"

Heavy footsteps barrel from directly above them, and a man that Lucy can only describe as damn fucking sexyscary appears before them. "Shut the fuck up, stripper. You don't see me yelling like a two year old when the freezers shut down, do you?"

"Ah, yes, I do. Like, every day," Gray snorts and crosses his arms across his bare chest.

"That's 'cause you don't do your job!" Laxus jabs a finger into Gray's chest, and Lucy freezes when the blonde man's furious glare falls on her.

"Ah, I just came to get some food. And drinks. Yeah," she stammers, knees knocking under her maxi dress.

"You served a customer naked? You see, Gray, that is why we hardly have business anymore!" Laxus roars at the half-naked man.

"We never have fucking business, okay? And if anything, it's your damn glare that scares them off in the first place!"

"Okay, well, I'm just gonna go pay... yeah, um, it was nice meeting you?" Lucy slowly inches away from the glaring blonde with the lightning scar and the half-naked supposed stripper.

Somehow she manages to find Levy's peach iced tea as well as some snacks for the road. With her arms full with beef jerky and sweets, she navigates her way to the front counter. She spills the goods onto the worn wood, grinning a wide smile at the attendant—because god is she glad that she's finally leaving this dump and the sexy men behind.

"Your total is $17.40," the strangely familiar voice says in a bored manner, and Lucy looks up briefly to pass over the notes—only for her eyes to widen because ohmygod she would recognise that pink hair anywhere.

The man's dark eyes widen, and then his face breaks into a grin. "Hey, it's Luigi! I didn't think I would see you again!"

And suddenly, all her best moments from that previous night come rushing back—and Lucy wants to crawl in a hole and never come out for all eternity.

"Dragon boy?!"

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it was only a kiss
(only a kiss)