Guys, I know I'm awful. I've just been lazy and distracted this month, but I'll try to get it together for y'all here on out. I've had this written for like two weeks now and was waiting for when I'd sit down and finish the damn chapter, but that apparently isn't happening right now so I decided to just post what I have.
So this is part 1 (hence why it's so short). I hope you like it, though there's no sexy fun in this chapter so far (that's part 2). As always I love the feedback! Thanks so much for reading!
Lucy felt as if she barely slept a wink the night before her mission with Laxus. The events in the guild earlier that day kept playing in her head. After Laxus had…..ehem…she had rejoined her friends, who all seemed more than a bit curious at his having called her upstairs. She had explained that he needed a celestial summoner for a mission. "Oh that makes sense," Erza had said, and they moved on to the next topic of interest.
Lucy wasn't sure why that bothered her.
In truth, she didn't want them to be in her business, judging her, but the utter lack of speculation about what was going on between her and Laxus was simply unsatisfying. No one teased her that Laxus fancied her or thought she was hot. It was like it was so far out of the realm of possibility that it wasn't even a good joke. Like what else could he possibly want to do with her other than use her unique power? Natsu was the only one who seemed to realize something was up, but he respectfully dropped it after his first mini-intervention. Though by the looks exchanged between him and Gray, Lucy suspected the ice mage would be on board soon enough.
As Lucy tracked the moon across the sky from her pillow, the question her mind kept returning to was why? Why did it bother her that her friends didn't think of them as a potential couple? Even she had to admit they were a crack ship if ever one existed, so different in every way except hair color. It was like pairing up Erza and Max or Natsu and Mira, just…wrong. So why was she even attracted to him in the first place? In all honesty, she knew she wouldn't have taken his deal if it had been just anyone. She wasn't that desperate for the key. But if it wasn't about the key, then what was it? They had had one actual, full length, personal conversation the whole time she'd known him, and yet she felt so much closer than that. She wanted to know more about him, everything. She didn't even find him to be the pinnacle of male beauty; too muscly. Yet she wanted those muscles wrapped around her as she slept, gently pressing her against his tattooed chest…
At some point in her musing, she fell asleep, yet her mind kept going without her so that she didn't even realize she was sleeping until she woke up the next morning.
Lucy got to the station well before the agreed meeting time, yet when she arrived a certain dragon slayer was already pacing back and forth outside the station. If she didn't know better, she'd have thought he looked nervous.
"You okay?" Lucy asked, startling him out of his tense ambulating.
"Ye-yeah," he said, still slightly frazzled. "Just waiting for you to finally show up," he said irritably, though Lucy could tell it was just cover up.
"Of course," she smirked.
"You sure you want to do this? It is actually an S-level mission, and I don't want you to push yourself," Laxus said.
"Pushing myself is how I get stronger," she chastised. "Besides, it's not the first S-level mission I've been on," she said, her mind recalling Natsu's crazy plan that landed them on a cursed island. "And I've got you for all the leg work."
She smiled up at Laxus and winked playfully, making the older mage turn sharply away to hide his own childish smile. Scary dragon slayers aren't supposed smile like that.
"Let's go then. There's a train about to leave," and he walked off without looking back at her. She slung her bag over her shoulder and pranced off after him, still smiling and humming slightly. And just for a moment, she didn't really care why.
The mission ended up being disappointingly mundane. Turns out some member of the aristocracy was also a celestial summoner, all silver keys, though. He and one of his spirits were engaged to be married (a choice Lucy found a bit irresponsible as a key holder), that is, until he said something stupid and the spirit locked herself in the celestial world. He had just wanted someone to get in touch with his fiancée and play couple's therapist. The S-level labeling was merely for discretion.
Lucy used Capricorn to get in touch with the girl despite Loke's protestations that it should be him as leader of the Zodiac. Last thing she needed was the playboy lion seducing the poor girl, though he claimed he would never betray his darling master like that. Lucy was touched to see that his comments got a glare out of Laxus before she forced the lion's gate shut.
"He's sure attached to you," Laxus grumbled.
"Unfortunately he's pretty useful in fights so I can't just lock him in a drawer somewhere," she said back as way of apology, though technically no apology was required.
Besides that one exchange, Laxus didn't say much. He felt more like her body guard than her partner, especially when they had first gotten sight of the young, handsome nobleman who, despite his distress at quarreling with his fiancée, couldn't help but flirt with the cute celestial mage a bit. As Lucy would later find out, this habit for flirting was part of the reason the spirit locked herself away in the first place. He was like a human Loke.
The Fairy Tail mages were pretty sure warring countries had drafted peace treaties faster than this couple made up. Literal hours of grueling, persistent negotiations passed before the girl agreed to come out. Sending Capricorn back and forth so many times nearly drained Lucy of her energy, but finally the young couple were able to talk face to face. Once that happened, the wedding was back on within minutes and the two couldn't be separated. Lucy had fought battles before that left her more energetic than this, but at least they got paid well. Laxus insisted she keep most of the money (a fair amount, thanks to the desperate aristocrat) since she had done most of the work, but Lucy insisted they split it evenly. After all, without him she never would have been able to take the job in the first place.
When they left the estate the sun was already rushing towards the horizon so they headed to the village a few miles over to stay at an inn. Lucy's gait was staggered and slow from her magical exertion all day, but she refused to let Laxus carry her. She refused to be as weak as she knew everyone thought she was.
The walk was quite a long one. Laxus knew Lucy was too proud to let him help her, so instead he tried to engage her in conversation to take her mind off of how tired she was.
"Have you ever fucked Loke?" Shit. Not what he wanted to say. Lucy stumbled a bit and looked up, not sure if she was more outraged or shocked. However one glance at his blood red face was enough to quell her anger and replace it with amusement.
"No. As a rule I don't engage in intimate relationships with my spirits. I found it a bit distasteful that our client hadn't done the same," she answered honestly.
"Why is that?" Laxus asked. Sure, the question had been a slip, but it was still interesting.
"The celestial spirits are compelled to obey their masters. If I had a relationship with any of them, I would never know if it was truly consensual or not. They're also immortal, so if anything really serious developed he would stay young as I grew older and eventually died. It's not fair to him and the relationship would be strained in the long term."
"Huh, I hadn't thought of that."
"There's also simple logistical issues like where to live and the time differences. But that's not the main issue."
"What's the main issue?" Laxus asked. Was there something worse than all that?
Lucy looked up and smiled coyly at Laxus. "I'm not in love with Loke."
Laxus stopped in his tracks as Lucy continued on, his heart pounding loudly. He was supposed to be the master here, so why did he feel so utterly powerless before this girl? She was beautiful, sure, but so were millions of other girls, none of whom could play with him like Lucy did. She was smart and strong. Maybe she wasn't very powerful, but she had an inner strength that Laxus admired. She was loyal to her friends, something he envied. He wanted her loyalty, though he knew that was something one earned, not something one could buy. And he didn't want to buy it. He wanted to have her heart and know that he'd truly earned it.
He just couldn't tell her that yet.
He shook himself out of his reverie and jogged to catch up to the swaggering mage.
"You've never had a boyfriend," he said, slightly breathlessly. "That's what the girls in the guild always say."
"Is there a question there?" Lucy asked trepidatiously.
"Well I'm pretty sure you weren't a virgin when I found you," he said, wanting to kick himself with every word that came out, but he had been waiting to ask this for four days. No… much longer than that. "I just—I just wondered if…there's anyone important?"
He half expected her to blow up in his face. It really wasn't any of his business. Who was he to ask her about that kind of thing when all he'd done was blackmail her into fucking him? His master plan was suddenly starting to seem like a genuinely awful idea.
Lucy was quiet for a minute before she answered. This whole conversation was so strange. Was he really interested in her? Or did he just want to make sure no angry boyfriends were going to come flying at him? She wanted to be honest with him, tell him that maybe she wanted more from him than a celestial key, but what if he didn't feel the same way? Though she'd never experienced heartbreak before, she'd read enough to know it didn't interest her.
"I…" she started, but was spared the rest of her reply by suddenly passing out from magic depletion.
Laxus stared in horror as the stellar mage dropped to the ground. Panicked, he checked her pulse, but upon finding she was in perfect apparent health (except for consciousness), he sighed loudly and shook his head at himself. He should have insisted that she let him carry her earlier, but at least he could do it now, and so he did.
As the town came into view, the summoner's surprisingly heavy body draped across Laxus's back, he thought over their humiliating conversation. WHAT WAS I THINKING?! He wanted to strike himself with his own lightning for his stupidity, even more so when he thought about how smug he was to know she had no interest for the lion spirit. Nor did it seem she was particularly attached to either Natsu or Gray beyond being friends and partners. He wished she'd stayed awake at least long enough to answer his last question, though. He needed to know if there was someone else. Because although he really didn't want to have to compete with some other fool, he would compete if he had to. And he would win. Because he refused to lose his mate to anyone.
