The Date with the Demon
"I'm happy that you'll be able to come with me. It'll be a great help." And with that said, the mage was left all alone to herself. Sighing in tune with her shoulders dropping, the mage looked around and seeing that the person she was looking for had already gone, she decided that she too will be heading home. Quietly getting up from her seat in the corner, she slowly made her way passed several mages still on the process of their merry making, and quietly slipped out of the door.
"Juvia is tired," the mage sighed. Then adjusting her cardigan and hat a little bit, her dainty feet started making their way down the cobbled stone road. Before turning on an alley way, the mage looked back at the lively building. "Love rival," Juvia muttered to herself, and she was swallowed by the darkness of the night.
"Hmmm, this is getting pretty exciting, don't you think?" Mirajane mused, leaning on the window sill from the second floor of Fairy Tail building.
"Aye," Happy agreed, perched beside her, fish in his paws. "But…"
"It will be okay," the white haired mage said, patting the Exceed on the head, smiling reassuringly.
"Are you sure you'll be fine?"
"Don't worry, big sister, just leave everything to me," Lisanna bubbly said, pumping her fist in the air. 'Right?"
"What's right?!" a fuming Natsu roared. "Everything's not right! Especially this," he hotly said, pulling at the pink, frilly apron with a big, blue heart-shaped face of a dragon. "This is disgusting. And why the hell is it pink?"
"It's not disgusting Natsu. It's cute!" Lisanna giggled, making Natsu's veins popped.
"STOP MESSING WITH M...!"
A few seconds later and the poor dragon slayer had two identical bumps on his head.
"See, Natsu is here to help me, big sister. Big brother Elfman is here too,"
"MAN!" from somewhere roared Elfman. 'Nice timing, brother.'
"See?" Lisanna told her sister, as if desperately convincing her that everything will be fine in her absence. "Also," the youngest Strauss added, "Gray is also helping, for free," pointing to the direction of a shirtless waiter, serving Laki her drink. "Isn't he truly an asset?" Lisanna breathlessly said, eyes twinkling at the sight of Gray. 'Nice body.'
Mirajane nodded. There was no doubt Gray is really an advantage, not to mention his stripping habit is unique, she thought as she watched the Ice mage talking animatedly to the Wood mage. Then, she smirked when she caught Laki stole a glance on Gray's six packs, even adjusting her glasses to look carefully at his ass. 'Closet pervert.' Then turningfor the door, Mirajane stole one more glance at the lively hall and waved at her little sister. "I'll see you soon," and then she was gone.
"Wait a minute, Lisanna, why should I be wearing this stupid thing? Just give it to Gray, he doesn't have a shirt to begin with," Natsu insisted, seemingly the pain in his head gone.
"Natsu, I already told you…"
"What? You got a problem with that, flame brain? And besides, it suits you,"
"Gray," Lisanna whined, hurriedly restraining Natsu as his fist ignited. "Stop provoking Natsu…"
"Damn you, Gray," Natsu hissed vehemently.
Another couple of minutes passed and Natsu once again was sporting another set of red bumps.
"Stupid," Gray muttered to himself, walking away with his serving tray.
"Hey, waiter,"
'Oh, someone's calling me. Better make myself be of use or else.' Making his way past several messed up tables and chairs, Gray froze as he found himself standing face to face in front of a wickedly smiling Cana. "Hey, waiter,"
"What now?" Gray steadily said.
"My tankard's empty," Cana maliciously said, playing with the tankard's lips with her pinky.
Gray's jaw clenched. 'Really she's pissing me off!' Then realizing that the youngest Strauss was watching him expectantly with twinkling eyes, Gray groaned inwardly and shot Cana a distasteful look. "I'll get you a new one." Then he walked briskly, trying as fast as he could to finish his unfriendly conversation with the Card Magic user when he heard something fell. Turning his head, the ice within him finally flared as he saw Cana's empty tankard lying on the floor, with a snicker plastered on her face.
"Oops, it fell, sorry,"
"Hey…"
Ten minutes. She has been standing there for ten minutes, and as time passed by, she became more and more restless. Occasionally biting her lower lip, she would turn her head, looked at her left, then at her right with her teroterobouzu dangling on her neck. Scanning everyone passing in front of the place of their rendezvous, and not knowing a single one of them, she started making faces in her annoyance, faces that didn't get unnoticed by the people who cared enough to throw her a curious look. It was a fine afternoon, and only a few set of fluffy clouds were painted in the bright canvass of the sky. It was a fine, warm day, and there she was, standing primly in her cardigan and top hat and all.
"Juvia..?"
The timid mage looked up and saw Loke, dressed in a plain green tee with the sign of the lion in its left, lower portion, paired with his white cargo pants. Smiling brightly like the sun, just like showcasing his sharp set of teeth, the lion spirit looked around, then went past her to the window and peeked inside. "I don't see him," Loke flatly said.
"Him?" Juvia frowned a bit.
"Yeah, him," he said, looking back at the quiet mage.
The rain woman thought for a moment, and it was not long that a blush suddenly appeared in her cheeks. Cupping them, she began giggling and saying incoherent words, much to Loke's amusement. "Yo…you…you mean G…Gra…Gray-sama,"
The lion spirit shook his head, laughing silently at the woman's actions. "You're pretty obvious."
Still red in the face, Juvia composed herself and looked directly at him. "Gray-sama is not here. Juvia is here to meet someone."
"Meet someone?" Loke repeated her. "Wow, that's rare of you."
"And natural for you," Juvia dead panned, making him chuckle. "Mirajane asked Juvia to come here, and Juvia is now waiting for her. What is it?" Juvia asked as she saw the lion spirit's jaw dropped.
"Did she…did she set us up?" Loke hoarsely asked, his mind going blank. Although Juvia sure has the quality to boot, it just plainly didn't crossed his mind that one day he will get paired with the woman who was so into the very man he was so envious of. Not even in his dreams, if he ever had one.
"Hmm…that's a lovely idea you got there, Loke."
"Here."
It was rather an annoyed throw followed by his careless handing of the beer that resulted, once again in another messed-up table. From the bar, Gray sighed for what seemed like the thousandth time. "He's really having It rough."
"No, I think he's enjoying every second of it," Lisanna answered, hands occupied with jugs of beer.
"He's enjoying it?" Gray repeated questioningly, and unknowingly cocking his brow, he snickered, "From the looks of it, it's like he's ready to kill someone."
"Well, you're wrong," she dismissively said. "Natsu's a lovable creature. Now," then she pushed the beers towards him, "For Alzack and Bisca. Thanks." And then she was gone in a flash, leaving a very confused Gray.
"Lovable creature?"
"Coming through, coming through…"
"Oh, just get the hell out of here, old man! We're bus…look how he licked his spoon…oh, my god, did he just winked at me…kyahhhh!"
'My, my, you're sly, Loke."
Loke smoothly replied,"I'm just making them happy."
"Right," Mirajane flatly replied. Hands busy twirling her lemonade straw, she glanced at her right, looking at a very quiet Juvia. "You seemed off. What are you thinking at?'
Juvia blankly stared at her. She was sitting primly, hats and all, her dainty fingers fiddling at her dangling teroterobouzu. Just a short look and one could easily say that she was struggling for words evident with the many faces she was making, even making Loke look at her for a period of time, making his fan girls watching at bay scowl and throw Juvia sharp glares. Then an idea hit him. Without ado, Loke reached out and tilted Juvia's chin, and forced her to look him in the eye and suavely said, "You're very alluring today. Why don't you and I…"
"Loke!" Mirajane interjected, though not as surprised as the water mage who had slapped his hand with a funny blush. "Stop hitting on every girl in front of you," Mirajane added, then, glancing at the gless window beside them, she said, "and will you please make them go away? We're supposed to be talking in private and they're not making Juvia feel better."Juvia's not affected by them, forJuvia have only eyes for Gray-sama."
Taking in those words as a signal to start what she was brewing, Mirajane smiled at her. "Yes, and Gray wanted you to assist us. He said you'll be a great help, right Loke…Loke?"
Finding his seat empty, Mirajane, knowing they're on a public place, restrained herself from releasing her demonic aura and instead called out to him. "Loke dear, come here."
Even with his instincts kicking in to continue flirting with the ogling ladies by the window, Loke, though as proud as he could be, wasn't an idiot enough not to notice one of Fairy Tail's strongest mage's demonic rage struggling to get unleash behind an angelic smile. And for once in his dear nine lives, he denied his instincts and decided to save his life by quickly apologizing to the group of disappointed young ladies, also making Mirajane smile as she heard him tell them that he will make up to them the next time they meet. Really, he is the man!
"No…I…I mean…" Juvia stuttered, hands in her face, trying desperately to hide her growing embarrassment.
"it's alright," Mirajane piped in. "Actually, were here to talk about Gray-sama."
It was a very busy afternoon at the port of Magnolia as fishermen hauled their catch of the day. Fishes and all kinds of aquatic entities known and unknown to men, exceeds, and even, just maybe, to Aquarius herself, just like Loke had thought foolishly, were present that very day as porters, traders and all alike were too busy, drowned in their lively dealings. It was a very busy day, and all were quite aghast as they heard from the little, cozy restaurant a horrifying duet of 'what.'
It was a sudden, synchronizde reaction coming from Juvia, who was surprised and pleased that for once since she joined the guild, she will be able to talk freely about her Gray-sama; and of annoyance and displeasure from Loke, who seemed not so keen talking about men. Hell, he even can't see the reason why of all human alive, it has to be him. Him!
"You're kidding me," Loke flatly said, making Juvia threw him glares of daggers.
"Hmmm," Mirajane started, her amusement heightening as she watched Juvia's eagerness and irritation towards the lion spirit. "Juvia, can I ask you something about Gray?"
The water mage, hearing the name of the love of her life, quickly stared at her, as though she was a specie of something man is still uncertain of.
'Here she goes again,' Loke thought. 'Here she goes again with the thing called…'
"Love rival."
It was a very busy day, and Loke wished that any minute now, his beloved master would summon him to fight some dark mages, or ask him to assist her in her shopping. For the first time, Loke hated girls.
Everyone, I'm back with the the 7th chapter of our beloved Stripping the Feline! Really, I am deeply sorry for not updating for how many days…almost one month! But don't worry. Starting today, I'll be keeping you guys updated, so rest assured that you won't be left hanging by the bushes. Also, thanks for the reviews and comments! I really appreciated them, very much!
Whew! A few weeks to go and it will be New Year here Taoyuan. So guys, Shin Nyen Kway La!
