Lucy was giving off the most enticing scent Natsu had ever had the pleasure of inhaling. It was clouding his mind; never the clearest when thoughts of Lucy were dancing around his brain, now even more foggy as Lucy's tongue was stroking his. Natsu pushed up with his pelvis, at the same time keeping his hands firmly anchored to Lucy's hips, keeping her in place.
He felt his fire race in his veins, threatening to unleash a conflagration. Dimly he realized he should pry his lips away from his favourite blonde, or at the very least move his hands off her ass. Yes; excellent plan brain, because you haven't gotten to touch her breasts yet, and that would be just criminal.
Natsu abruptly pulled away from Lucy and frantically tucked the blanket around her, pinning her arms down tightly. Dumbfounded, she could only manage incoherent sounds as her breathing levelled off from the earlier heavy pace. He leapt out of bed and scooped up the storybook, giving his now irate partner a solemn shake of his head. Natsu regained his place in the bed and handed it to Lucy who had just struggled to free her hands.
She opened her mouth to berate Natsu, but the serious look in his eyes caught all words in her throat. A heartbeat later and Lucy could hear the unmistakable sound of Happy crying. Realizing Happy would've blabbed their activities to all and sundry, Lucy flipped open the book and read a random passage.
The flying and crying exceed barrelled into the apartment and was caught by Natsu. The sobbing cat burrowed his head against the slayer's chest and gave vent to harsh wracking sobs. Lucy dropped the book and reached over to stroke Happy's head.
Recognizing her touch, the exceed abandoned his first partner for his second. He gave a hiccupping cry and jumped over to be rocked in Lucy's arms. Natsu watched Lucy cuddle Happy. The slayer was concerned for Happy, "What happened little buddy?"
Lucy kept stoking Happy's back and crooning nonsense words as the exceed's cries slowed down and lowered in volume. She looked up at Natsu and had to glance away from the raw emotion in his gaze.
His words, although addressed to Happy also struck a chord in the celestial mage. She was both relieved and disappointed; kissing Natsu had been glorious, but she needed time to think it through. What happened? The whole of Earthland moved and my devil side almost had free reign over my urges.
Happy gave another low shuddering breath and answered Natsu. "I gave Charle some fish and she threw it out!"
Lucy looked up from Happy and exchanged a compassionate smile with Natsu. He crossed his arms and continued, "But she refuses your fish all the time and you never let it get you down. What was different this time?"
"I got a special deal on some cans of wonderful fish!" Happy still had tears matting the fur on his face, but his voice had steadied. "A whole shopping bag of delicious tinned minced fish! I saw her toss them in the garbage!"
"But Charle wouldn't accept and then throw 'em out." Natsu spoke with certainty; he knew the white exceed was blunt and outspoken, but wouldn't be cruel on purpose. "What aren't you telling us?"
"Elfman told me how he gives Evergreen presents. I dropped the bag in front of her and when she picked it up for me, I refused to take it. I flew away as fast as I could." Happy pulled his face out of Lucy's breasts and turned to face Natsu. His voice trembled, "She shouted, 'Thanks a lot you shmuck', and left with Wendy and my bag of fish." Happy looked up into Lucy's face. Regaining some of his regular exuberance, he gave her a tiny grin. "Shmuck must mean something awesome like 'best fish giver' or 'handsome', right?"
Caught off guard, Lucy could only manage a hasty nod in agreement.
Natsu hid his answering grin and shook his head slowly. "A guy always gives his woman the chance to say 'no', Happy. It doesn't matter if she's human, dragon or exceed. A lady always has the option at any time to refuse - and that includes gifts. You tricked her into taking the cans of fish and she probably felt she couldn't not take them."
His eyes widened once more, crying fresh tears, Happy wailed into Lucy's cleavage. "Charle must really, really hate me now!"
Lucy sighed and pried the exceed off her torso, settling him on her lap. "If you left, how do you know she threw your gift in the garbage? Maybe you should apologize for tricking her into taking the fish."
"I can't! She must hate me! I circled back and watched Wendy and Charle walk to Fairy Hills. They stopped at the first garbage bin and threw away my gift!" Happy pawed away fresh leaking tears.
"Aw, buddy, don't take it too hard. There must've been a reason for throwing out the fish." Natsu picked up Happy and gave Lucy a heavy lidded look. The slayer grinned and promised the exceed, "Charle will understand once you explain it to her."
Suddenly much more cheerful, Happy nodded in agreement. "I can't face her now! I'll tell her when we come back from the resort. I'm so tired, let's sleep." He remained oblivious to the tension between Lucy and Natsu, both of whom were studiously trying to avoid looking at each other.
The blue cat jumped down from Natsu. He yawned and stretched, crawled to the foot of the bed and curled up. Lucy gathered up the story book and placed it beside the lamp on the bedside table. She clicked off the light and hesitantly wished Natsu pleasant dreams. The bed creaked a little as Natsu shifted, trying to find the perfect distance from Lucy's alluring scent. Far enough away that he wouldn't have to fear taking advantage of her in his sleep and close enough to reach out in the depths of the dark hours for comfort.
Each human mage lay down blushing at their private thoughts, going over the brief glorious moments spent kissing with abandon. Finally, slumber claimed them and dreams carried them away to relive those sublime moments anew.
Levy sat on Gajeel's lap and tried to make sense of how exactly she'd come to this point. He goaded me into this, but I'm not sorry this happened...rather I should be able to use this method on him as well. She pressed her face against his chest and sighed.
"Uh, you okay Levy?" Gajeel's voice rumbled directly into Levy's ear and she pushed herself upright. He refused to let go of her shoulders, instead craning his face down to look at her blushing visage. "What's wrong?"
"N-nothing Gajeel." Suppressing the urge to run from the slayer's inquisitiveness, Levy curled her hands into fists and clenched them tight. She slowly breathed out and relaxed her fingers. Pasting a smile on her face, she raised her lashes. The worry in his wine dark eyes gave her the confidence boost Levy needed. "I wanted to know something."
"Anything."
"Was that a fluke?"
"Huh?" Gajeel's confusion was palpable. He scrunched up his forehead and frowned lightly, "What are you talking about?"
"Well," Levy paused and wet her lips, her heart beating faster as she noticed Gajeel following the direction of her tongue as it peeked out. "That kiss we just shared... would a kiss you initiate feel as good?"
Levy rejoiced inwardly, Gajeel had taken the bait - his breathing was noticeably heavier.
Slowly, giving the petite woman time to evade or push him away, Gajeel brought his mouth to Levy's level. He gifted her with the lightest brush of his lips, tracing the tip of his tongue over the seam of her mouth. Levy sighed with pleasure and the Iron dragon slayer tasted her mouth, pulling heated gasps from the girl.
Levy squirmed on Gajeel's lap, clenching her thighs restlessly in search of relief. She gripped his shirt tightly and used it to pull herself closer. Gajeel broke their kiss, worried he would lose control. He could smell the earthy scent of arousal from Levy, a distinct sweet perfume that wanted to erode his hold on his ardour.
"How's that for an answer?" Gajeel chuckled awkwardly and inwardly cursed himself for a fool. When is this ever gonna happen again? Have I blown my only chance? He carefully stood up and let Levy gain her footing. "I know just the thing to settle dinner, how's about I walk you home?"
Levy nodded slowly, "Okay, we've trained as much as you're able tonight I guess." She gave a sweet smile to the slayer and patted his hand. "We'll work on your stamina and other problem areas tomorrow." She pretended to not notice his sour grimace at her matter-of-fact words and delivery. "I'll make a training schedule for tomorrow - don't worry, you'll get better."
Juvia came to, resting on what she assumed was Gray's bed. She almost lost cohesion again, but regained control in the nick of time. The urge to melt came back as she realized the top two buttons of her dress were undone, but she quelled it and hungrily drank in her surroundings.
Gray's bedspread was silky and thin, a shiny light blue that matched the blue curtains and darker hue of the carpet. Juvia propped herself upright and took this rare opportunity to scope out Gray's private haunt. Gray-sama must like blue! So many furnishings are different shades of blue! A soft knock on the open door had Juvia scrambling off the bed and babbling apologies to the blue lamp she almost knocked off the night table and towards Gray.
"Hey, calm down Juvia - you don't need to apologize, I'm the one who put you in here to rest." Gray shrugged, "What do you think, you sleepwalked into my room?"
"Juvia would not place bets against that, Gray-sama." She smiled nervously, "Juvia thinks Gray-sama would rather not have Juvia in his personal space." Juvia allowed her hands to flutter to her neckline and re-button her dress. She turned her head away as she gnawed the side of her lip, unwilling to chance making eye-contact with Gray. Taking one slow step after another, Juvia moved to the doorway. The ice mage stood, silent and broodingly handsome.
Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, Juvia waited for Gray to step aside. He tilted his head slightly and squinted his eyes, letting a soft 'mmm' escape his mouth.
"G-gray-sama?"
"Mmm?"
"Excuse me, Gray-sama." Juvia felt nervous; she was prey and Gray was a starving wolf.
"You know, you're really gonna need to drop the 'sama' from my name." Gray drawled this sentence, slowly with honey dripping from his voice. "I'll be damned if I let the stupid fire lizard beat me at coupling."
Juvia wasn't certain if she'd slipped back into fangirl-land. The way Gray's eyes had darkened as he'd said 'coupling' must surely have been a trick of the lighting. The water mage gave herself a savage pinch on her upper thigh, wincing from the pain. Juvia is not dreaming.
"Say my name - without the honorific, Juvia. I want to hear you say my name." Gray leaned against the doorframe, still blocking Juvia from the exit. "Consider it further training."
"Juvia prefers to show respect for the person who gave her the sun."
"You sure are stubborn, but so am I." Gray crossed his arms and shook his head, "We're at an impasse until you call my name."
"C-call your name?" Juvia had a soft and dazed look on her face.
Gray was having a surprisingly hard time forcing himself to play cool. He had an urge, well, several urges really, and most of them centered on applying a great deal of pleasure to the water mage and having her scream his name repeatedly. He smirked and nodded, "Just say my name and we can sit down on the couch and plan tomorrow's training."
"Juvia agrees to the training," she paused, "Gray."
"Was that so hard?" Gray led Juvia back to the couch and waited for her to sit first. She gracefully sat down. The raven haired mage had to hide his smirk when he plopped down next to Juvia and she shrank back from the contact. "Easy Juvia, this is also training. Couples share physical contact all the time, and we're gonna do it too."
"Ah, Juvia understands. What would Gray-sama like to do tomorrow?"
"Juvia, didn't we just go over this? Drop the 'sama' from my name, or be prepared to take a penalty." Gray jostled her shoulder and draped an arm around Juvia. He grinned as Juvia 'eeped' in reaction to his touch. For some reason, being the aggressor felt amazing. "I'm not certain what I should choose as punishment. Perhaps each time you tack on the honorific, you loose an inch off your skirt."
"Juvia cannot agree to this!" Juvia flushed and pulled down on the hem of her dress as if were already indecently short. "Juvia cannot!"
"Juvia can." Gray's smile lit up his face. "It's not a penalty if you don't care about the consequences." He relaxed his posture and crossed an ankle over his knee, never moving his arm from around her shoulder. "To be fair, I suppose I could figure out another option." Gray turned his head to connect his piercing gaze with Juvia, "But being fair about this his pretty far down on my list of priorities. I want to see more of the hidden Juvia."
"J-Juvia cannot believe her ears!" She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The cool weight of Gray's arm was a mighty distraction, she focused on steadying her pulse. "There is nothing hidden about Juvia worth seeing."
The ice mage sat unmoving. He remained quiet and waited for Juvia to re-open her eyes. Finally she did and he grinned with boyish charm. "I agree to disagree, you have depths unshared that I find myself curious about." Juvia tilted her head and returned his now solemn gaze. "Friends should be able to talk about anything."
"Juvia will try...Gray."
Pleased with Juvia's capitulation over the honorific, Gray gave her a one-armed hug. It was brief and before the young woman even realized it was happening, it was over and Gray had bounded off the couch.
He exited into the kitchen and returned with a pen and pad of paper. "What else do you think would make you melt?" Gray resumed his spot next to Juvia who was now sitting with her arms wrapped around her drawn up legs.
"Juvia cannot say," she mumbled into her kneecaps. "Juvia only knows shortly before it will happen - and sometimes not even then." She lifted her woebegone eyes to her partner to find him with a curious expression on his face.
"You have a great deal of power Juvia, and I find it odd that you'd spontaneously lose control of your state of matter."
Juvia does control her state of matter, very well in fact. Juvia allows herself to melt before over-reaching Gray-sama's boundaries. Juvia may fantasize all she wants, but she will not violate Gray-sama's choices.
Gray flipped open the note book and scribbled down a few ideas. He held it close and continued to write as Juvia tried peering at his notes. "Nuh uh, I'm not sharing my ideas unless you share what you think would make you melt. I think it'll work better for training as a surprise."
Squeezing her legs tighter, Juvia blushed. "Gray makes Juvia melt."
Unbidden, Gray rocked with laughter. He struggled to speak, "T-t-that's b-been obvious from the first day we met!"
Piqued, Juvia pouted and wrinkled her brows. "This is all Juvia can say."
His handsome face was as relaxed as Juvia could ever remember seeing him. Gray wiped tears from his eyes and set down the pen and notebook. "Let me walk you home and we'll start over again in the morning. I'll think of more things to try and so will you." He thrust his hand out towards Juvia, "Deal?"
"Deal!" Juvia responded with vigour. "Juvia will try very hard!" She gave a shiver as Gray's fingers tightened around her hand, not from their coolness, but rather from the skin on skin contact. "Juvia will be the best partner ever!"
Gray nodded and gave the feminine hand trapped in his a gentle squeeze. "You're damn right."
A/N: I want to say thanks for the many reviews the last chapter received. I appreciate each and every one: Otaku of Anime, obsessedwithnalu, lizzysakura21, GemNika, Soul Raider 116, Violet Ace, Erzascarlett, iamthewerepire, kurahieiritr JIO, usernamekrystal, TwiShadowhunter and several 'Guest's. I apologize for any misspellings of names...
I also appreciate anyone taking the time to read any of my work - and if you read the author's note to this point ~ lol, do you guys want some more dream smut?