Sooo~ I'm obsessed with the Avengers right now (Yes, I'm one of those people lol) Specifically, Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner...)
On related news~ This chapter is a little different than previous chapters; it's not a noticeable difference in writing, I hope, just to me it stands out...Anyway, it's one of those few chapters that aims for humor more than fluffy romance, but I hope you enjoy it anyway~ *crosses fingers*
Warning: Mild harsh language
Disclaimer: I own nothing~ (Another un-related note...Hibiki was in this week's chapter! I'm just waiting for him to...actually do something...)
Blue Pegasus consistently remains a large and popular guild, specifically with the women demographic. It's not the strongest guild in Fiore, though to call it weak also is an injustice. Master Bob built the guild's reputation up and kept it a respectable guild throughout the years.
It was within the last decade or so that the guild really took off in popularity. This jump in membership has largely been linked towards the additions of a few mages in particular, particularly the Trimens.
Among them, the one most associated with the membership rises is Hibiki. His affiliation with the guild has contributed the greatest, though he humbly comments to remain oblivious to such a link.
Any woman questioned among Blue Pegasus will provide their personal guess as to Hibiki's preference in a woman. Ask a brunette, she'll say as much, and a blonde, or a red head, and so on. Sporty girls claim he hates girls that are too prissy, and the modest with promote that he likes a fine, mature woman. No one has the same opinion as to what Hibiki prefers, and none have any confirmed factual evidence to support as much.
This has sparked several estimations and even fights between the women of Blue Pegasus, and some outsiders, on what kind of woman Hibiki likes. The broad question has also instigated the formation of roughly eighteen (last confirmed) legends pertaining to Hibiki, concerning females and the preference. In the end, the best conclusion anyone can muster from the sample size of interviews is Hibiki likes women in general.
Hibiki himself turned a blind eye to these rumors and legends. He wasn't interested in confirming or even denying the speculations, nor did he bother to clarify anything. He'd caught wind of a few of them, mind you, but he never took any of them serious. He treated every woman he met with the same servitude that each deserved, and he didn't discriminate against any either. The women of his guild, and outside of it, weren't too bothered by it, either, and no matter how skeptical they were towards Hibiki through legends and gossip, the moment he presented himself in the equation, physically, they forgot all about those reserves.
It would have gone on as such, until one day Hibiki overheard that the legends concerning him no longer were just about him.
"I hear he's got a girlfriend."
"One?"
"Just one!"
The gathered girls gasped, several throwing their sparkling manicured hands over their glossed lips in horror.
"Is it serious?"
"It is, isn't it?" One girl wailed, which sent others into a frenzy.
"Is she pretty?" Another demanded, angry.
"I don't know, I haven't seen her."
"I have! Or, at least, a friend of my cousin's did. He says she's hideous!"
"I heard she's pretty."
"Huge boobs."
Everyone nodded in agreement. That seemed to be the only consistent detail any of them had confirmed.
"Well, who is she?"
"A mage."
"Of Blue Pegasus?"
"She's not one of us!"
Several girls swooned, others violently stomping their feet. This was unheard of! Hibiki had been snatched by a single bimbo's selfish desires?
"She must have him under some charm!"
"I knew he was acting different! He doesn't greet me the same as before!"
"He rejected my offer to go to the resort together the other week!"
"It's all her fault! This dumb girl, whoever she is!"
"There's no way she's prettier than any of us, right..?"
"And she's not even of Blue Pegasus!"
"Hm? Who isn't?"
The girls froze, Hibiki's voice carrying over them. The bravest of the gathered finally swallowed, mustering enough courage to speak, "Hibiki! When did you get back in town?"
"Yesterday. I'm actually heading towards the requests for a job right now. Have any of you seen Ren and Eve?"
Some of the girls smiled at the mention of the other two charming members of Blue Pegasus, while the more Hibiki-faithful followers eyed Hibiki up and down, still judging in their minds the weight of the horrible crime that was Hibiki's possible girlfriend.
Hibiki, meanwhile oblivious, didn't catch wind of any of the tension, and took the group's silence to mean that none of them had seen his two partners.
Shrugging it off, Hibiki waved a curt farewell and took his leave.
The moment he was gone, the group turned on itself.
"He's definitely with someone else!"
"How could he! Who is she?"
"That bitch!"
"Say, Hibiki..?"
Hibiki looked up from his plate, Lucy having no even touched hers. They were sitting at a small cafe, outside on an iron welded table and chairs with a quaint umbrella shading them. The restaurant was a small, local chain that remained quite popular in Magnolia through it's simple food and timeless charm, still appearing to Lucy as it had seven years ago.
The food was just as good as Lucy had promised it was, but Hibiki thought maybe it wasn't, considering as much hype as Lucy had built surrounding it, she had yet to touch her own dish.
"Is something wrong?" Obviously.
"Do you...you're not, well..."
Hibiki just eyed her, waiting for the question.
"You...Do you only date girls with a superiority complex and dominatrix background? B-because I'm not into that stuff-!"
Lucy hiccupped when Hibiki burst out laughing.
"Wh-what? Where did you hear that?"
Lucy pouted in defense, blushing as she admitted, "I-I heard some things..."
"From who?"
"...Mira."
A potential sabotage?
"Sh-she just mentioned them..! She said she'd read about it, just some casual things that appeared in Sorcerer's Weekly..."
Hibiki smirked, intrigued by Lucy's genuine concern.
" 'them'..? There's more rumors?"
Lucy blushed.
"M-maybe, but...that one seemed the most logical."
"R-really? What exactly do you think of me? How bad were the others..."
Lucy quickly found interest in her plate, avoiding the question.
"Th-this is really good! Still, after all these years!"
"H-hang on a second! Exactly how many of these rumors are there?"
"...eighteen."
"Eighteen? All about me?"
"Well, your preference in women...at least, there was eighteen that Mira had read..."
"Huh...what were the other seventeen, then?"
Lucy choked.
"Wh-what..?"
Smirking, Hibiki leaned back in his patio chair, smugly. "Go on. Ask me about the others. I'll confirm them if they're true."
"You prefer shapely girls, with a small voice and light opinion."
"I don't have any preference physically. Every woman has a charming voice unique to themselves, and contrarily I enjoy hearing any variety of opinion they have."
"Strong women with a sense of independence and a hard-to-catch exterior."
"I suppose I wouldn't want her to be too submissive, but I would respect her wishes if she truly wanted to be left alone."
Somehow, Lucy couldn't believe that last part. Frowning, she watched Hibiki just smile, answering her questions like some pageant portion.
"Cosplayers?"
"Role play isn't bad," he winked. Lucy scowled.
"Leg fetishes?"
"Me or her?"
"Tsunderes? Genki girls? Cougars? Stellar Spirit Mages?"
"I enjoy seeing a different side to a woman. As long as I feel needed. Women are like wine, finer with age. And...maybe yes to the last one."
Lucy rolled her eyes, giving up. Throwing her hands up in defeat, she retreated.
"I'm not sure I have any closer to an idea of what kind of women you prefer now than I did before!"
Hibiki leaned in, propping his chin on his hands.
"If you wanted to know what kind of girl I like, you could just ask me."
Lucy, still frowning, gave in, inhaling deeply as she set her hands in her lap.
"Alright, then. What kind of girl do you like?"
Hibiki pretended to think on it for a moment.
"Well...she has to be intelligent, or else we'd never be able to hold a conversation. Some humor, else she's too strict...And she has to care a lot. About her friends, her self. Infinite love," he quoted. Lucy just smiled.
"She sounds perfect. Too good for you, in any case."
"You really are."
Lucy, startled, dropped her fork. Using the excuse, she immediately jumped to bend for it, but Hibiki beat her to it, gracing her fingers as he lifted the utensil to her. Blushing, Lucy could only respond with a whispered, "Thanks."
Flustered and with nothing to retort, Lucy avoided looking at Hibiki, well aware that he was grinning directly at her.
Meanwhile, a group of Blue Pegasus branded females huddled behind a bush, brimming red with anger and letting off such a wrathful aura that several bystanders, who noticed the odd group, felt heat emitting from the girls and quickly walked on. Several had taken notes throughout the eavesdropping, all on Hibiki's word-for-word confirmation on his ideal type, while others were still nit-picky analyzing the blonde date of his.
"Did you see the rack on her?"
"Unforgiveable!"
"Look at the guild mark, on her hand! She's a Fairy Tail Mage!"
"No fair, she isn't that much prettier than me!"
"She's kinda pretty..."
"She's bewitching him, for sure! It's definitely a charm!"
It was still light out as Hibiki walked Lucy home. Their date had been more of a luncheon date, if anything, and the sky was still a bright orange, that reflectively glistened on the river beside them.
"You never told me what kind of guy you're into."
Lucy pondered a moment.
"A sensible guy...someone intelligent, a bit sensitive..."
"He sounds too good to be true!" Hibiki scoffed.
"Maybe," Lucy laughed, shaking her head at the mock hurt in Hibiki's face.
"Hey, hey!"
Lucy stuck out her tongue, Hibiki growling in mock irritation as he made a move to threaten pushing her into the river. Well aware of the severity of such a threat, Lucy yelped, just as Hibiki griped her waist, but rather than push, he pulled her off the wall, swinging her around him. Lucy squealed out a demand to be set down, to which Hibiki laughed at, ignoring.
All these playful actions only amplified the jealousy in the eyes of the spying mages, who were biting at paper and near ready to tear the unsuspecting stellar mage to pieces, if they could so much as get their hands on her.
They almost foamed at the mouth when Hibiki left the blonde outside her apartment, with a kiss on her hand. He was such a gentleman, they swooned. And that blonde was an undeserving witch!
"Nothing he said described her!"
The others nodded, contemplating all they'd seen in Magnolia.
"She has a sexy figure, and a nice face, but nothing none of us couldn't compete with!"
"Did you see her at the Tournament? Weak!"
"She's too young for him! She hasn't changed, in seven years, the rumors say. M-maybe that's why!"
"He only likes her for her youth!"
Nods of approval.
"She's definitely bewitching him!"
More nodding.
"Or maybe she's genuine, unlike you hags."
Several heads nodded in agreement, until one girl flinched, catching on to the statement.
"H-hey! What-?"
All the girls jumped upon seeing, in the flesh, Hibiki, accompanied by Ren and Eve (Who presumably was the one to speak).
"You're not as pretty when you look down upon others," Eve added, the comment met with audible gasps of horror.
"Green isn't a good color for you," Ren glared.
"Judging someone without meeting them isn't fair, or lovely. Both of which are standards that all mages of Blue Pegasus live by. So, not only are you disgracing yourself, but the very guild's name, with your actions."
The proposed leader of the group winced, visibly hurt, before retaliating, "W-wait! How did you even know..? A-and you're the one, fraternizing with the enemy-"
"Fairy Tail is an enemy?" Eve snapped. "Last I knew, they were a legal guild composed of mages just like yourselves, bonding together through magic and the common fight for survival."
Hibiki tapped at his temple, "I was aware of you all following us. Archive, remember? For someone who proclaims to know me so well, you should have thought that one out..."
In a true showing of cruel wickedness, the three stared down the girls, who bitterly swallowed any remarks and retreated, haughtily exiting the guild.
"Maybe we were a bit too harsh," Eve sighed.
"I-I hate to see a woman cry," Ren added detachedly.
Hibiki said nothing, simply watching after the girls.
"I don't care what others say about me...but, the moment they bring Lucy into it, it's no longer just about me."
And that, he wouldn't stand for.
A/N: Random Facts; to start, I tried to show the other sides of Hibiki that I'd felt I'd been drifting from (The let's-get-dangerous-side and the flirtatious-host-personality). The bitchy girls were fun to write, sorry if they were too out of place...I tried to run on the Hibiki rumors thing~ Key word= Tried.
The end, Hibiki is really harsh, but for once I don't feel that is totally OOC...maybe. I enjoyed bringing Eve and Ren back ;)
I should mention, cuz it's been a few chapters since I did so-Alerters and Readers and Reviewers! Thank you! Checking my email and still getting alerts and faves+ just...I feel as excited seeing those as I do seeing Hibiki in this week's chapter ;p (It's a lot, believe me lol)
Anyway, that's it! See you all next chapter, hope you enjoyed this one!