Unbetaed.
Notes/Warnings: Silliness. This chapter is just crack.
K - Kiss
"No." Natsu said vehemently. "I don't accept to play this character."
"But why?" Came the too calm answer from Erza. "You accepted to come to this mission and so you'll do it."
"But-!"
"No 'but's or anything. There was a raffle, and you got that character." Erza continued in a serious tone but, Natsu couldn't help but notice, exchanging a meaningful look with Lucy who – the traitor – was pretending not to be there. "Do you think that I want to play the old king?"
"Or that I want to play the peasant that becomes a tree? I'm going to be a tree!" Lucy nearly shrieked. "You're going to play the princess, Natsu!"
"Exactly!" The fire mage shot out. "Me, a princess?" he threw his hands in the air. "I don't want that. And, especially, I don't want that end. Or," he made a face, "the prince…"
At this he got two sets of giggles. He glared at his friends.
"Yes… the prince…" Lucy said in between small fits of giggles. "You'll be… fine. Haha…"
"I don't see your problem, Natsu." Erza said in a serious tone despite not having her giggling under control either. "All the characters were given randomly. It's not our fault that you and Gray landed the couple."
"Don't!" Natsu hid his face in his hands. At least he was only being currently teased by Lucy and Erza. If Gray were here with them the fire mage might just end up in a brawl on the set and he didn't need to land in more hot water than he was in already, metaphorically speaking.
"Aww, don't be like that." Lucy consoled him. "You'll be cute, and the two of you look hot together."
"Wha-!?" Natsu stared dumbfounded at her. He threw his hands up and left, disquiet filling him. He pretended not to hear their laughs.
#
"Do you think that it's going to work?" Lucy asked, a big smile still on her lips.
"I think so. Those two are such blockheads that they've been pinning after the other for ages and haven't done anything yet." Erza said with a sigh. "We needed to do something."
"But… how about Juvia?" Lucy inquired, grabbing one of the boxes with costumes and leaning against the counter.
"Don't worry." Erza smiled. "We had a long chat and she realized that she had put these feelings of gratitude in the same place as love and mixed some things. Then she told me that, secretly, she found the dance of sorts that those boys have going cute."
"She didn't!" Lucy said with a large grin.
"Oh, she did." The red headed mage was grinning back. "And she's going to help us."
#
"I'm not going there or doing that scene!" Natsu all but hissed as he tried to compose his wig.
He was fuming. The wig was super heavy and appeared to squeeze his head (and where did they go find a teal wig, seriously?), then the dress was very puffy, the light pink corset was tight and the vaporous skirts curled around his legs (he'd already had a few scares with tripping, and that was without speaking of the heels!) and on top of it all, he still had to remember his lines – and doing the deed. By mutual accord, he and Gray hadn't rehearsed the scene integrally but, how awkward would that be, acting the whole thing for the first time right in front of the audience?
Because it wasn't just the guild that had come to watch the play. No, it was the whole of Magnolia and wasn't that just great?
Natsu knew how to keep a level head in moments of stress but the current moment went beyond stressful. He didn't know how to act!
Besides, there were a few other… reasons… and he didn't exactly want to think of it so he was just getting very stressed and panicking like there was no tomorrow. Which, might not be…
And then he had to see the secret smiles, the whole air of smug amusement coming from Lucy and Erza and some of his other friends! At least Gray seemed to be taking things stoically and so he hadn't had as much teasing as feared. Not that he feared the teasing, no, he would always get as good as he got but this whole train of thought and reasoning wasn't exactly helping calming him.
"You are going there and doing that scene!" Erza countered, batting his hands away from where they were nearly tearing at the outer skirt. The sheerness of the lilac as well as the sparkle of the fabric did made one want to touch it. "Things are going so well. And it's opening night." She stroked the red beard adorning her face, her free hand resting calmly at the sword she had on her side.
"Tche. You say that because you're allowed to wear armour. The only things you have that are different are the cape and the crown, as well as the beard." Natsu nearly pouted, crossing his arms in front of him. "But me, look at me!" he nearly whined. "I'm awful!"
"If you stopped fidgeting with the clothes maybe you'd be better, no?" Erza remarked. "At least you're better than Lucy. It can't be easy to move inside that tree-costume." They both paused to watch what was happening on stage.
"No, milord. We've fallen under the curse." The tree-person was saying in a woeful voice. "Everything was well but one day, all of a sudden, all of our riches disappeared and people all around the land became the most unthinkable things."
"So, what were you?" the prince asked, placing one hand over his sword's handle.
"I… wasn't anything much, just a simple peasant, tending to my land and family." The tree seemed to twitch, what seemed to be a blue squirrel coming from the branches and leaves. "Ah, this squirrel used to be my beloved cat. We did gain many boons, we did."
The squirrel returned to the protection of the foliage.
"And what can I do to help?" The gallant prince asked.
"Lift the curse, save the princess. She has been encased in the adamas, being the source of both the curse and its cure…"
"Very well." The prince nodded.
The crunch of the adamas under his fist was as satisfying as its jagged buts were cutting. Blood was flowing down his arm, soaking his shirt and ripped coat. Not that it was surprising, given the lot of hurdles he'd gone through to get to this place, the prince had gotten quite a lot of wounds.
Dark eyes were following his movements, still encased on the sharp (yet sparkling) material. There was curiosity in them.
The prince let his trusty sword fall to the ground with a hollow clang and plunged his other hand inside the adamas case. The pain was sharp and raised up his arms, seemingly becoming a living creature that thrived in hitting his insides. The prince took a pained gasp as he went deeper. He knew that he had to be stubborn and reach the princess. Her hair was silvery, and it was odd and contrary to what he'd been told.
'Are you here to finally free me?' he heard in his mind.
"Yes. You remember me." He said through gritted teeth.
'I do.' Her eyes closed.
And at that moment, the prince caught her hand.
Instantly there was a flash of light and all of the adamas burst with an immense noise. The prince was thrown back, landing on his ass and hands, slipping backwards due to the slickness of his blood. When he dared to open his eyes again it was to see that the whole case of adamas had disappeared and the princess was standing and looking at him, long hair flowing down over her shoulders and teal once again.
"You're here." She said before crumbling down.
The prince hurried to her side, helping her sit up and staring intently to her eyes.
"I'm here. Don't go. Remember what we talked about?" he asked in a frantic tone. "Bring back the nature, bring back the water. Remember?"
"Yes… I… but, where's my father?" she was slightly confused.
"Don't you remember what you promised me?" he finally asked, hands tightening over hers, before his right hand came to cradle her cheek.
"I promised you something, I remember." She suddenly seemed to freeze before brusquely grabbing his coat and giving a quick tug. The prince fell slightly off-balance and his lips crashed against the princess'. She made a strange noise before catching his lower lip between her teeth. He quickly paid back in kind, slipping his tongue inside his mouth, the hand cradling his cheek slipping back to cradle his head, knocking the wig out of place and making pink spikes of hair emerge.
The whole room was silent.
#
"Told ya!" Erza said smugly from where she was sitting in backstage. She alongside with a few other female mages were sitting and had a clear view from the scene on stage.
"You did! But I never imagined that they would start making out in the middle of the stage, in the middle of a scene, in front of everybody!" Mirajane said between little excited squees.
"We're good…" Lucy nodded to herself, earning more nods from the little group.
"Nobody can do anything against our little team." Juvia said, despite being nearly melting at the sight of the two mages.
"Yes! And now the questions is, who can we matchmake next?"
"Ohhh, I know!"
They all turned and started murmuring. Glancing at the stage every now and then, of course.