Denial
. . .
"The target has been captured," were the last words Lucy heard before her world became dark.
. . .
"I'm so fucking over this job," Laxus shouted as he moved forward, swinging an electrified fist at the sea monster. The team had confronted a smaller version of this creature, sending it to the bottom of the ocean within a few minutes. That's when the mother arrived. And when she saw what they had done to her baby, all hell broke loose.
Thankfully, quick on his feet, Freed was able to write a containment rune around the team and the beast so that none of the waves they were creating caused ships to crash into the pier.
Bickslow winced as he heard bone crunch where Laxus' fist made contact with the creature. The massive sea serpent staggered before finally falling down, lost in the water.
"Anyone else wanna fuckin' mess with me?" Laxus bellowed at the sea.
Bickslow floated back to the pier on his babies where Evergreen and Freed were standing. "Never seen him so out of control," the Seith commented. "We barely had to do anything. He beat the first thing bloody without even using much magic!"
The brunette sniffed. "I'm certainly not complaining. Those things looked slimy. And getting my hair wet? Do you know how long it takes to get it like this?"
"What? Like you just got out of bed?" Bickslow cackled before jumping back on his totems to run away from the enraged female.
"Would you both calm down? We've got enough on our hands with Laxus acting out. I don't want to babysit you two as well," Freed said formally.
The lightning mage climbed out of the water, using the ladder on the side of the pier. He was soaked through from the fight and subsequent swim. "Let's get back to the hotel," he gruffed at his team. "We can collect the reward after we change."
They all nodded in agreement before following their leader a few blocks to their hotel.
. . .
"Our Guild has been—" Natsu could barely finish the words, the anger rising up in him was too great. He had left for a day mission with Erza and Gray just that morning. They returned to find the Guildhall completely destroyed. Large metal pillars stuck out at odd angles from the building and rubble dotted the street.
"What on earth happened?" Erza said, gazing up at the structure.
Mira approached from a group of Guild members nearby. "Phantom," she said, trying to hold back the tears from falling. "Come on." The silver beauty motioned for the team to walk through the rubble and directed them down into the basement. Natsu looked around. Everyone looked somber, drowning themselves in drink.
"Where's Gramps?" Natsu shouted, anger flaring in his heart. "How could he let this happen?"
Everyone stayed quiet before Mira finally answered. "He's gone to confront Phantom's Guildmaster, Natsu."
"What?!" the fire dragon slayer yelled back. "He went alone? How's he going to fight him alone?"
"He's not alone, Natsu. And he didn't go to fight," Mira said firmly.
"Violence for violence isn't always the answer," Erza said, bowing her head to the wisdom of their Guild master.
Natsu threw a flaming fist against the wall. "This is bullshit! I'm going after him!" But as soon as he tried to run back up the stairs, Elfman came through, carrying a sickly looking Makarov in his arms.
"I'm sorry," the man said with tears in his eyes. "It all happened so fast and I couldn't protect him."
"Quickly!" Mira beckoned Erza to the Master's side so she could help set him down on one of the tables. "We need to contact Porlyusica."
"I'm on it," Erza said, quickly running to the corner of the room to contact the woman.
"It's okay," Mira said to her brother, trying to comfort the larger man. "I'm sure you did all that you could. What matters is that we're all safe. The master will pull through, you'll see!" she said, trying to cheer her brother up.
"It's not okay," Elfman sniffled, looking at his sister. "And we're not all safe."
"What do you mean?" Gray interjected.
"Jose, their Guild master," Elfman continued, turning to Gray. "He's got Lucy and they're planning to bring the fight to us."
"What?!" Natsu bellowed from where he was listening. "Where is Lucy?" he yelled at the larger man.
Elfman took a seat, slumping himself in the chair. "I don't know. We traveled to what we thought was their headquarters but the whole thing ended up being a thought projection. I have no idea where they're holding her." The beastman hesitated. "And, Mira," he said uncertainly. "She doesn't look good. I think she's been severely beaten," he gulped, "or worse."
"Cana?" Mira said, turning to the brunette. "Any luck?"
The brunette sat in the corner, silently flipping through her cards. At Mira's words she lost her temper, throwing the cards against the wall. "This is useless. I can't locate Mystogan."
"I see," Mira said with sad eyes. She wasn't sure whether it would work but she said a silent prayer before channeling her magic into the communication lacrima.
. . .
Laxus stepped out of the shower, toweling off the last of the seawater and slime from his recent fight. He ran his hand through his thick locks, spiking his hair high. He thought a good fight would help clear his mind but it didn't. And that angered him. Him and his team were staying the night in Hargeon, maybe he could find himself a woman to fuck to help forget about the blonde.
He dressed quickly, not wanting to keep his team waiting. The sooner they collected their reward, the sooner he could hit up a club and snag himself a lay. He shrugged his cheetah print shirt on. It wasn't his first choice but he had grabbed it as a backup and his other silk shirt was covered in sea slime. Throwing his soundpods around he neck, he felt a slight buzzing come from his pocket.
Reaching in, he pulled out his phone to see Mira's face appear on the screen. Swiping to answer the call, her normally cheerful eyes were sad on the screen. He sighed, wondering what new bullshit awaited him.
He listened, growing more and more agitated as Mira explained the situation. "Master's seriously injured. And we can't seem to locate Mystogan. You're the only one left that we can turn to! Help us Laxus! We could really use you about now. Fairy Tail is in terrible danger."
Laxus smirked internally. This couldn't be more perfect. If Phantom Lord wanted to take care of his aging Grandfather, that only made his plans for the future that much easier. "Man, Makarov is freaking pathetic. I don't see how this is remotely my problem. You're big girls, so deal with it yourself."
"So you're not going to help us?" Cana blurted.
"Of course not! Why would I?" Laxus was seriously angry at this point. Between everything that had happened with Lucy and now this? He was at his boiling point. "That senile old toad started this. Why do I have to be the one to clean up his mess?"
"Please Laxus," Mira continued. "They've kidnapped Lucy."
"What?!" the lightning mage immediately responded.
"Those fuckers kidnapped Lucy," he thought to himself. The urge to ask Mira where'd they taken her was real. But so was the urge not to give a fuck. "She was the one that left," he reminded himself. "She was the one that said 'no repeats.' What? She's supposed to run and think that I'll chase her everywhere she goes? I ain't no whipped dog," Laxus reasoned with himself.
He shook his head, resolute in not getting involved. "Who? The new girl?" He thought for a second about how fun egging to two women on might be. Knowing it would get a rise out of them, he continued, "I tell you what: if you can talk blondie into being my woman, I'll do anything she wants." As he said it, he tried to swallow the realization that he might have meant it.
"You are such a pig!" Cana yelled at him, giving him the reaction he was after.
He gave her an annoyed look. The members of this Guild were so pathetic. "Are you sure you wanna talk that way to the guy you're begging for help?" Mira stood silently watching the entire exchange. "Do me a favor," Laxus directed his attention back to the barmaid. "If that geezer man happens to pull through, tell him he's over the hill and he should hand the Guild over to me!" He laughed at the shocked faces on the screen before ending the call.
Despite his hysterics, he was seriously pissed. "How fucking dare she? That bitch decides to run away from me, run away from my bed like I didn't rock her entire world. And then what? She goes and gets herself kidnapped and suddenly it's my fucking problem? No fucking way." He grabbed his phone just so he could throw it against the wall, enjoying the way it shattered into a million pieces.
A knock on his door had him whipping his body around. Irritated, he bounded to the door, throwing it open. "What?" he demanded of the rune mage.
"Oh, Laxus," the man said sheepishly. "I thought I heard something from your room. I just came to check on you." Freed blushed a brilliant shade of red and Laxus sighed.
He knew the man was heavily infatuated with him. Laxus could understand, of course, the reason for his worship but sometimes he got a little overbearing. "I'm fine," the blond gruffed, grabbing his fur trimmed coat from the back of the door and throwing it over his shoulders. "I just need a good drink and some good pussy." Freed blanched at his crude words. Getting a reaction out of the man was one of Laxus' favorite past times. Sometimes he understood why Bickslow loved to tease so much. "Come on, Freed. Let's find a bar."
"I'm right behind you, Laxus!" Freed said with enthusiasm, recovering from his shock.
END CHAPTER 7
. . .
Hello lovers!
Okay shorter chapter, I know I know, but I'm trying to get what I have out to you. If you're like me, I hate waiting for updates so instead, I'm going to endeavor to get things out to you, even if that means the chapters are shorter.
What do you think, guys? Do you still like a bad-boy Laxus. As my dearest DESNA knows, I've been bouncing back and forth with how bad I want to make our lightning mage, but I think I've all but decided. Hope you can handle his devil may care attitude. I know it's a huge turn on for me. But then that's me and I'm a flipping weirdo.
I also fully recognize I haven't stuck to the main plot of the story. I'm definitely changing things around and that's totally okay you guys. Shhhhhh everything will be alright, don't worry.
In other news, Christmas is over! Yay! My husband and I did not buy one present this year. So refreshing. Literally, when people sent us things, I'd call and say, "oh you really shouldn't have. No really, you shouldn't have. Because you're not getting anything." Snicker. We didn't even get a tree. We spent the entire day in bed. Just epic.
I have weird feelings about Christmas. I used to LOVE it. Seriously, I would decorate and play Christmas music and get presents and wrap them special for everyone. And then I started looking at the other side of the holiday. The one where people were stressing out and buying crap that was gonna end up in a landfill for people they didn't care about just to check that box. And it pissed me off.
Anyways, it's over so enough of that. Time to set new years resolutions that I'm sure I'll keep for like an hour before I make an excuse.
Love you guys!
Not done writing tonight, so who knows. Maybe an update will be in your future sooner than you think!
Musicera
*A fool thinks he owns Fairy Tail, but a wise man knows he only writes fanfiction.
