Chapter Twenty Nine - Unison
"Will you be my Lioness?" Loke nervously asked his Princess. It took every ounce of courage he once thought he had to push those words past his lips. Forget fighting Draco, this was the hardest thing he had ever done.
Lucy's eye's widened to the size of dinner plates as she stared at Leo. As he slipped the ring on she could feel her heart pounding, almost hard enough that it exploded. Fireworks burst in her tummy. Was he really going to-?-'oh my god...' The words she'd longed to hear slipped out of his mouth so lovingly.
Lucy slowly gazed at the ring and looked back up into his eyes that she always got lost in. Everything, from the time they met, until now, replayed in her head in a flash. When she saved him and the multiple times he saved her. Their first kiss. Their first time...When he fought to bring her back, until now. It was like a dream come true. Loke was her everything and she wanted to be with him forever. Finally her wish came true.
Lucy leaned in and pressed her forehead against his, caressing his face.
"Of course I will Loke...Forever and always. I love you my Prince..." She stole quick kiss before moving back into a fighting stance, smirking.
"Now, let's defeat him together...My love.."
Loke couldn't stop smiling. He snuck her a quick kiss behind the ear and stood back.
"We can do this, together.." He gripped her hand tightly, raising the bandaged one. His golden blood glowed as his hand grew back. He wiggled his fingers and looked at it.
"Hm... By taking your hand it grew mine back... I wasn't aware of this magic...That's...handy..."
He wasn't proud of that, and he never will be. He just couldn't help it.
"Now isn't the time for me to be making terrible jokes. " He grabbed her other hand as they stood foward together, fingers linked tightly. This was the Unison raid position.
"HEY DRACO... OVER HERE YOU BIG UGLY BASTARD. " Loke called in an attempt to get his attention.
Draco grunted and tossed the spirit he had in his jaws to the ground. The ground rumbled as he stomped closer and closer. Loke had weakened him, shredded his wings and grounded him, the spirits also played their part in distracting him long enough. Now it was time to finish him off for good.
"If you had gotten to know more about humans you'd realize something... True strength and power comes from the heart... Love makes us stronger and let's us do the impossible. "
Draco glanced at his new hand,
"I took that hand...and ate it..." He roared, filling his lungs with fire again. His neck was glowing with heat as he readied an attack.
Loke narrowed his eyes at Draco, and smirked.
"Regulus Light of the King & Queen, Unison raid! Blast the darkness out of the skies!" He roared out to the stars, which shone brightly above them, casting vibrant colours into the sky.
Lucy and Loke's magic fused, their bodies glowed brightly. The roar of lions shot into the sky.
Draco opened his jaw and started to form flames in his jaws.
Their hands pointed towards the dragon, as a huge two layer magic circle formed in front of them, drawing in the star light quickly.
"Are you ready Lucy? On your word my Princess... We blast him to smithereens..." He muttered into her ear, softly.
Lucy glanced at Leo once more with a smile. "Oh you know I am!" She slowly shut her eyes, trying to control the magic. A familiar voice appeared behind her and she whipped her head back, only to see nothing.
"The two of you can do this Lucy..." Said her sweet angelic mother.
That was all she needed. There was no love more powerful than a mother's love. Lucy smiled brightly and shut her eyes again, focusing all the magic that was flowing through her, sending out waving of her Love. To Leo and her Spirits. It was strong and powerful. Even Draco snarled, backing away a bit.
"What is this?!" He spat, taking his concentration off gathering the flames to shoot at them.
"This? THIS IS CALLED LOVE!" The two lovers gripped each other's hands tightly, pressing their bodies together as golden Magic built up at the ends of their hands.
There was no doubt about it. This was an unstoppable force, and Draco froze, feeling powerless as he stared into the circles.
Loke burst into a huge smile. "Well then, Let's show him what love can do!" He roared, eagerly.
The magic circle before them was bright white, with a flaming gold mane around it. It was blinding to look at, causing Draco to squint in pain. He channeled his Regulus into their hands and then- BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Their magic blasted out of the circle and tore through the landscape in front of them, ripping it to pieces. The blast was shaped like a huge golden lion and his fierce lioness, ready to ponce on the dragon as it approached.
The night sky lit up brightly, like a supernova just went off. The shock waves knocked the spirits down as it struck Draco head on. He didn't have a chance to think or get away, it was too fast. Their huge Regulus teeth and claws gouged into his flesh and rocketed him into the horizon, before only a faint spec remained. Draco was out of commission.
As the spirits stood up off the ground, all was quiet on their battlefield, it was peaceful...
The magical blast began to fade, and golden flecks rained down gently from the sky, like a magically blanket of snow.
The huge surge of magical energy was enough to knock the strength out of anyone, but the pair remained standing...
"LEO! LUCY!" A young girl ran hugged them both from behind. She was a young blonde from the house of Aquarius, wearing their sigils. "Thank you for saving me... I didn't want to marry that brute..." The young mermaid let go, grinning. There was something oddly familiar about her, but you would never be able to tell why.
"No problem!" Loke smiled warmly. The girl then ran back to Aquarius.
Rosie, the little bear started cheering as Yukino stood back up to her feet, next to Ophiuchus who was also okay, just a little beaten up. The small bear ran up to her and hugged her legs. "You're the girl, big brother always talks about! " Ursa minor, Yukinos big Pink bear walked up behind them both, picked them up and cuddled them.
Selene ran up to her boys and husband and wrapped her arms around them. They then all turned to Loke and Lucy.
Loke had swept her down into his arms and had her in an romantic embrace. He stole her breath away with a passionate kiss as the light sparkled around them, casting orange, gold, red, blues, greens, as many beautiful colours as you could thing of around them.
"Ewww..." Rosie laughed, her older brother then covered her eyes. Yukino chuckled to herself. "They did it!"
Scorpio put his arm around Aquarius and smiled at them. "Did you ever think the lion would win her heart?" He asked.
Aquarius rolled her eyes, "No..." she began breaking into a small faint smile. "But.. I am glad he did... The big idiot." She started to laugh quietly, much to Scorpio's surprise.
The golden speckles of light continued falling for hours, and the dragons and serpents helped with the injured. They were free. Draco's little sister was able to return to take the place on the silver key. Nobody was ever officially told what happened to the dragon, but there are a few stories lingering around about his where abouts. All of them involve insights of a flightless lizard, crawling around and cowering in the darkness, not speaking a word to anyone.
Loke broke away from her lips and smiled broadly down to her. He pulled her back into his arms before both their legs gave way out of exhaustion and she toppled onto him. He held onto her, hugging her tightly, nuzzling his face into her neck. He was truly happy.
"You've not been back to the guild for a very long time..." His voice became urgent, "They don't even know you've woken up yet..." He grew wide eyed. "Oh no... They're going to chew me out for sure, now!"
Lucy ran her fingers through his hair smiling. The battle was finally over and she was happier than ever...until those words slipped out of his mouth. "U-Uh oh...uhmmm..." Thinking about how her Guild mates would react was a bit...scary.
"Erza..and Mira are gonna...you know..." They looked at each other and shook in fear, but soon both just laughed, holding onto each other. She was just glad they could be together now. Lucy raised her hand up, admiring the ring on her hand and looked back at Leo who was grinning from ear to ear. "Thank you for making me the happiest girl in the world loke..." She leaned in a pecked his cheek. Everything was perfect...for now.
After helping clear a few things up on the battlefield, The two finally made it back to Magnolia, walking through the darkened streets in hopes of not seeing anyone just yet. Besides, Lucy had something on her mind that she couldn't shake off. That little girl from the house Aquarius looked so familiar... But she just couldn't figure out why. She was making awkward facial expressions thinking hard. Meanwhile, Leo was staring down at her with his eyebrows raised.
They both decided to put their vacation on pause until they got back to the guild and let everyone know Lucy was alive and well. It had been about a month since they last saw or heard from her!
Loke smiled warmly, intertwining his fingers gently with hers down at his side. He was admiring the way the moonlight shined off her hair, and not looking where he was going.
He rather ungracefully managed to trip down a curb, but Lucy was so busy concentrating on something else she missed it. Phew... He tilted his head and raised his eyebrows at her.
"... Lucy, are you okay?" He finally asked. She sure was making some weird faces. "You um... Well, I think you've flicked through every facial expression available whilst I've been watching you... What's up?"
Lucy's nose twitched before looking up at her lion with her big brown eyes. "Hmm? Oh yeah! I'm fine! I promise." She grinned and squeezed his hand letting him know it was okay. "Just a bit nervous about telling everyone about our...Engagement."
Her eyes trailed to the ground as a big grin spread across her face. She shook her head and placed her other hand over her, now, scarlet face, giggling. It was so sudden...All of this was. From the time they met till now has been crazy. From saving him...To their first kiss...First 'time'...First everything and now they were in engaged.
"Heh.." Time really does fly by, eh?
She ran her fingers over her rosy lips, licking them and remembering his taste. His touch...his..errr- 'Alright Lucy calm yourself down!' She shook away her thoughts and gazed back up at him with an angelic smile.
"Perhaps we could break the ice when we're not so exhausted?" But...What Lucy and Loke both forgot was she was still wearing the ring...Eventually someone would notice.
Moments later, they pushed open the guild doors, inhaling and trembling at the same time. "Hope everyone won't be ma-"
"LUCCCCCYYYYYY!''
A stampede of her guild mates rushed over to the two love birds, surrounding them. Some (like Erza) had a dark unfriendly aura above their heads and some (like Makarov) were bawling their eyes out. Everyone was so relieved to see her. She held her hands up laughing nervously and backed away a bit, her eye twitching.
"H-Hey everyone..."
Without realization, there was a certain Salamander dangling from the ceiling above them. He was ready to attack a certain lion.
Loke stepped back a little as the stampede rolled towards them both. Uh oh. He gripped her hand tightly and gave them all a gentle smile. If only they knew what they'd just been through.
"Hey guys..." He looked around, not seeing Natsu at all. 'Lucy i think they're mad at me...' he flicked his eyes at her nervously, his voice trailing into their minds.
'I sort of… Uh, forgot to tell them you woke up, then Aquarius took us away...ahah' He looked back at them all and subtly gulped.
'You forgot to tell them?!' Lucy harshly whispered under her breath, giving him a sassy glare.
"You better apologi-" just before she could finish, Natsu leapt from the ceiling and tackled loke to the ground.
"YOU BASTARD! YOU HAD US WORRIED SICK ABOUT LUCYYY!" He roared, about to punch his lights out. Luckily, with quick thinking, Erza stepped in and grabbed Natsu by the back off his hair and threw him backwards into the other guild mates.
"Ehm.." She pushed her hair back and looked around at everyone, clearing her throat.
"Enough! I'm sure Loke had his reasoning for not telling us..." Her terrifying gaze turned back to Loke, taking a step forward with a crooked grin. "...Right lion boy?"
"Kya!" Loke slammed down into the ground as Natsu tackled him, he was about to respond when an even scarier threat took a hold of Natsu and threw him off Loke. He gulped and looked up at Ezra.
He rubbed the back of his head and smiled slightly. He felt fear as erza looked at him.
"Y-yeah.." He shuffled back to his feet and dusted down his suit, trying to drag that out long enough to gather his thoughts, then rather sheepishly looked back up at everyone. He was wrong, THIS was one of the scariest things he'd done.
"Lucy was summoned to the spirit world as soon as she woke up. Aquarius picked her up" he raised his finger as he spoke, they won't get mad at Aquarius!
"Sorry I didn't tell you all... After that a lot of stuff happened which meant we couldn't leave..."
It didn't help Lucy had a slight tan from all the vacation time they'd already had. He looked around to see everyone's response.
"Hey we saved the spirit world! Ask Yukino if you see her!" He pouted and looked at Lucy awkwardly for help. He didn't want to have his lights knocked out by Erza. Not again.
Lucy slid in front of her lion, defending him. "He's telling the truth...I'll explain later..." Her hands were held up in front of her, that's when someone noticed the ring.
"LUCY!? YOU'RE ENGAGED?!" Mira shrieked and jumped in front of her, taking her hand and examining the ring.
"Oh my goodness! This is gorgeous! Erza look!" And just like that everyone shuffled in closer, inspecting her ring. Lucy face was deep red. She looked back at Loke who was laughing awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. Big help he is!
'Oh crap... Well now that the cats out of the bag...'
"Aha...uhh yeah...I am." Lucy smiled a bit , trying to pull her hand away.
"OOOO YOU HAVE TO TELL US EVERYTHING!" Everyone said in unison, giving her the lovely dovey gaga eyes.
"I-I...uh...well..uhm...heh..." She pulled her hand away and slipped behind Loke. "I'll let you explain this one...aha..."
Loke looked at Lucy even more awkwardly and then back at the crowd. "Aha, well I did tell you all I'd make her my wife."
He put his arm around her and a stupid grin spread across his face.
Natsu was still glaring at him from the other side of the room. Loke flicked his eyes to him slightly, behind his shades. He just smirked slightly.
He gave Lucy a side cuddle, "Don't worry, I'll look after her like always. Although she is very good at doing that herself."
As the night went on, Loke and Lucy told them the story about how the spirit king rewarded Lucy and sent them straight on a vacation.
Their vacation was then spoiled right at the wrong moment, when Draco dropped in just as Loke was about to ask the question and kidnapped her! War broke out in the spirit world and together, Loke and Lucy stopped Draco's tyranny! Loke and Lucy had since sat at a table, as they explained. The lion took a hold of Lucy's hand gently under the table. The roaming fangirls had since left in a flood of tears and everyone was sat around, captivated by their story.
After the war with Draco, the celestial world was slowly coming back together. The spirit king came back from his vacation very confused to say the least. Leo was summoned to explain and had a lot of meetings to get it all back to normal. He tried to see Lucy as much as possible, doing his best to try wake up before her and cook her breakfast and give her a morning hug to brighten her day.
The huge workload that came with clearing up the spirit world left the Lion busy and unreachable on some days. Lucy understood, she really did but there was still a small part of her that reached out to him. Perhaps she just needed to be more patient, she knew there was more fun to be had, a wedding to be planned, a future to call her own.
The truth was, Lucy's adventure was only just beginning.
