Lucy narrowed her eyes as she finally got a good look at the man who so desperately sought her. He was devilishly handsome. His blue-green eyes bore into her chocolate brown ones with such intensity it made her knees weak. The color of his eyes almost seemed to be shifting and rocking, like the slow movement of a lazy river, it was captivating. A mischievous twinkle shone through the green-blue and a cocky, seductive smile tugged at his tantalizing lips. The small hint of sharp canine teeth was shown by a small tooth tip poking over his lower lip. A dark green almost black mop of hair hung in spikey perfection. He smelled like an ocean breeze and the grass on a sunny day while lying under a shady tree. He had a well sculpted body with extremely defined muscles, much like Natsu, but this man was slightly taller than Natsu. He wore only blue swim trunks and sandals. His hard ads pressed roughly against Lucy's back. Something inside of Lucy moaned at the sight of him, like her body longed for his touch even if her heart didn't agree.
"Where are my manners? My name is Mizu. Don't worry darling, I already know your name no need to introduce yourself." The man rumbled. His voice enticingly deep and gravely, "now now, don't look at me like that. I'm sure you think I'm a terrible person. But I really am a nice guy! I only employed the ogre because it was stupid enough to fall for my lies; I never intended to let him eat those girls. I was going to kill him when I went to pick you up. But I needed him for a short while, getting you away from that fire dragon slayer is quite the task, my dear."
Lucy struggled to find her voice but managed to squeak out, "Danni…?"
"Ah yes Danni. Poor girl saw me kill a few pesky monsters in the forest here and thought they were dragons. She came to her own conclusion of my power and took upon herself the belief that I could bring back her parents. It's a tragic tale. Sadly I cannot do any such thing for her." Mizu said with such sincerity that Lucy was unsure if she should trust his word or not. "Oh yes and she wants me to marry her. I already turned her down…but she just wouldn't listen! Now that I have you, I'm sure she will come to her senses eventually. Speaking of which, where do you want our wedding to be held? I was thinking a beach would be nice…"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa buddy. Who says we are getting married?!" Lucy snapped. She didn't like being told what to do so casually by a stranger.
Mizu paused and then responded, "Well I guess technically nature did. Since you are my mate I only assumed you would want to participate in the human tradition of marriage. Unless you prefer to just be mates and skip all the complicated mumbo-jumbo, either way works for me."
"Neither way works for me! I want to be with Natsu! You can't just choose things like that for me!" Lucy huffed indignantly.
"You actually want to be with that oaf?" Mizu laughed like Lucy was making a hilarious joke.
Lucy had decided that she was done listening to Natsu being insulted. She sharply pulled her elbow in and crashed into Mizu's rib cage. He gasped and stumbled back, not expecting such a sudden attack.
Lucy whirled around and brought her knee into his face as he bent over to clutch his side. As she pulled up her knee she grunted, "Yes I do!"
Her hand went instinctually to her waist reaching for her celestial keys, but they still weren't there. Shit! How am I supposed to hold this guy off until Natsu gets here? Lucy thought.
"Looking for these?" Mizu straightened up whipping blood off of his now split lip. Swinging from his index finger was Lucy's entire key collection. Mizu had pulled it out of his pocket when he bent over.
"My keys!" Lucy cried happily and reached to grab them. The shining keys were stretched far above her reaching range. She hopped up and down on tip toe while Mizu chuckled at her pointless attempts.
"Now we can act like civilized people yes? Or has the blundering idiot Natsu destroyed your consideration with his loud obnoxious behavior?" Mizu smirked at his own taunts but Lucy kept a stony face, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of her reaction, "I purpose an exchange, if you would call it so, you for the keys."
Lucy gave him a perplexed expression so he expanded, "You consent to me, tell Natsu you choose me, and you will get your keys and Natsu won't have to die. I would so very much enjoy watching the life drain from his worthless body, but you know, I will take the high road and let him live."
Lucy made a sound of disgust, "You are so presumptuous it's no wonder you have to kidnap girls to get them to notice you."
Mizu narrowed his blue-green eyes in anger, "Oh is that so? Maybe I am 'presumptuous' only because I am well under the impression that Natsu cannot beat me in a duel. After watching him…and you…for some while I have analyzed and memorized your fighting styles. I know Natsu's weaknesses and I know how to defeat him easily, there is no contest between him and me."
"My fighting style? Well I guess I'll just have to change it up if I'm going to get anywhere against you…might as well start of the bat!" Lucy's voice rose to a higher pitch as her sentence ended and she pulled a dirty trick. But it was appropriate in this situation and she didn't feel all that terrible about it. Her right foot came up with all the force she could muster straight into Mizu's crotch. His face contorted in pain. This time when he bent over he really needed to because of agony. In his haste to protect from further harm he had dropped Lucy's beloved keys on the river bank. Lucy scrambled to pick them up. As soon as the cool metal met her fingers she felt instant relief and comfort. The coldness of the metal quickly faded with her touch, the keys were humming and warm, the spirits they led to were excited to finally be with their kind master. Lucy cringed slightly knowing the beating she would get from Aquarius would be severe; the mermaid spirit had a nasty temper and hated it when Lucy lost her keys.
Lucy revolved to face her opponent and found him still stooped over muttering a string of curses. He looked up at her, the handsome face she had seen earlier was now distorted by a vicious scowl, and he was not the least bit attractive with such and expression. "Oh now I see why you have to kidnap girls! It's not only because you are arrogant but because you hide a hideous face under a glitzy mask."
Mizu snarled at her, he was getting into a standing position and recovering fast. Lucy didn't waste any more time on senseless banter and skimmed through her keys. She knew that she wouldn't be able to beat him by herself but she could at least distract Mizu until Natsu arrived. She picked out the key of the Maiden, Virgo. Lucy relished the feel of swishing the key through the air like it was a magic wand and spoke the words like an incantation to bring forth her loyal spirit.
A pink haired, blue eyed girl formed in front of Lucy. She was wearing a simple maid outfit with chains dangling off her wrists. She bowed to Lucy, "It has been a while Princess, we missed you. Does this mean it's time for punishment?"
"No Virgo! How many times do I have to tell you?! I'm not going to punish you! Just stop wiggling your butt at me and help me fight this guy." Lucy sighed holding back a smile. She had missed her celestial spirits dearly and Virgo's antics reminded Lucy exactly why she loved the celestial beings.
"Yes Princess!" Virgo shouted with a determined look and presented an object to Lucy, "Here is Fleuve d'étoiles, the extending whip from the celestial world." Lucy took it with an appreciating nod. Virgo stood for a few moments then vanished into the ground. Where she had been standing there was now a large hole.
Mizu had fully recuperated and was giving Lucy the death glare, "Put it away, I'm not in the mood to kill all of your little puppets right now. As if they are any threat to me."
Lucy scowled, "They are not puppets! They are my friends!" Lucy flicked her newly obtained whip. Mizu stepped back to avoid it but Lucy just extended it. Mizu had incredible reflexes; his hand caught the end of the whip before it could lash across his face as intended. He yanked hard on the magical material pulling Lucy off her feet. She caught herself before smashing face first into the ground. Mizu released the whip and squatted from where he was to look Lucy in the eye. Lucy was satisfied to see an angry red mark where her whip had struck his palm.
"Are we done with these silly little games of yours? You know you can't beat me. Why are you even trying?! It's so absurdly futile! All you are doing is making me very, very angry. You don't want to see me when I'm—" Mizu didn't have time to finish his rant because the earth below his feet suddenly swallowed him up. He gave yelp of surprise. Lucy had figured out one of his weaknesses already. Mizu didn't see Lucy's celestial spirits as any kind of threat so he wouldn't notice their first attack.
An outraged howl came from the bottom of the pit and Virgo appeared at Lucy's side peering into the darkness. "Princess, I don't think I can do much more to help you please forgive me. If you cannot forgive me I would gratefully take all the punishment you can deal me."
"That won't be necessary Virgo! You have helped me quite a lot, thank you. You may return now." Lucy said trying to ignore the bit about punishment. Virgo dissipated and now Lucy stood alone on at the brink of the pit leading to a madman. She searched her keys again, who could hold Mizu at bay for a little longer? Fingers gripped the edge of the hole and curses were uttered with a sour voice. Mizu was surfacing so Lucy didn't have time to consider her options much longer. Lucy backed away from the dark hole just as Mizu dragged himself out. His dark green hair harbored caked mud and sticks. If his face had been full of anger earlier, he was now seething. His face was almost as terrifying as the ogre's.
"You nasty bitch. I'll teach you a little lesson about respecting me!" Mizu hissed and spat chunks of earth from his mouth.
Lucy tugged whatever key her hand happened to land on off of the key ring. She gave a silent thanks that it was Loki's key and not Plue's. She twirled it in the air in a similar motion from before and said the summoning words for the celestial spirit Leo.
Mizu lunged at Lucy trying to stop the opening of the gate but his face collided with the black suit clad, solid body of Leo the Lion.
Loki found the collar of the green haired man and pulled him in close so they were practically nose to nose. Loki glowered at the water dragon slayer, "What did you just call Lucy?!"
"None of your business spirits slave! Release me from your grungy hands. You lack the power to fight me." Mizu snarled back.
Loki sighed, "So you are pretty cocky is what I gather from that, let me teach you a lesson." Loki smashed his other hand into Mizu's stomach. Mizu let a hiss escape from his teeth but otherwise did not show any pain.
"Weak piece of shit think he can punch me?!" Mizu spit at Loki with venom coating his words.
There came rustling from the bushes and the distinct sound of Happy's high pitched mewling.
Author's note: Yay! I got another chapter out! This week has been so hectic I was really sad thinking I wouldn't be able to write one...but here we are! Hope you enjoyed, tried to put Lucy back into the fighting this time round! Again sorry for this but my updates from no until...um a while will be choppy and unpredictable. Thanks for reading and for all the reviews! :)