Welcome back, just a fun and games kinda chapter before we launch into the next major arc.
9
Scarlet hair fanned out in the air as Erza ducked under his right hook, drawing her elbow back to retaliate with a powerful uppercut toward his gut, Natsu thrust his wrists down in an X blocking her at the wrist and forcing her arm back down. He drove a knee upward aiming for her chin as her body was rocked temporarily off balance from the momentum of the block, but she recovered quickly, pivoting on her foot to twirl around him and gripped his shoulder to draw his body back as her own knee came up attempting to connect with his spine. The fire mage bent into his legs leaping up into the air and flipping over his opponent in an arch, landing on the ground and sliding away from her. She shouted her approval for the impressive dodge, and he smirked back at her, launching forward again with a fast kick toward her ribs, the scarlet mage blocked with an armoured shoulder before snapping her forearm up around his shin, locking his leg in place. His eyes widened as her other arm came up, aiming to bring an elbow down into his upper leg, pushing down into her arm bracing his leg and jumping off his anchor foot, he planted a hand on the ground and swung the other leg up over the one she had trapped to finally land a powerful kick against her breast plate hard enough to dent it. Erza's body was sent skidding back with a sharp gasp of surprise, she paused briefly to glance down at the large dent in her armour before looking up with her own smirk at the pinkette. The two vanished in a flash meeting in the center of the training field, both throwing simultaneous high kicks that connected at their shins, sending a gust of wind out in all directions.
The onlookers all brought up hands or turned away to brace against the wind that blew through the crowd.
All of this happened in a flurry of strikes moving so quickly it was nearly impossible for the average eye to follow, "holy crap!" Lucy exclaimed, "what is with these two, they aren't even using magic yet!"
Beside her Gray grunted in irritation, as impressed as he was, he always hated getting reminders that his rival held back on him when they sparred. Watching him fight Erza made it entirely apparent.
The two mages leapt back once, twice, to opposite edges of the field continuing to size each other up.
"Alright Red, I'm getting serious!"
"No more holding back, Natsu!"
. . .
It had been about a week since they had returned from the allied mission, and it had been a totally typical morning in the Fairy Tail guild hall. Lucy had found herself at a table with Natsu next to her grumbling over his boredom, Erza across from her flipping through Magnolia's local paper and Wendy across from the pinkette. Lucy and Wendy were watching the blue and white cats across the hall as Happy once again pulled out all the stops to try to woo his crush, and the girls chatted about how adorable the pair of cats were. Wendy giggled and told her that she thought Carla might be wearing down, apparently, she had been less rude to the 'tom cat,' as she endearingly named him and even perked up when he appeared. Though, Wendy had added, she doubted her partner would willingly admit that any time soon.
"Say Natsu, where is Haru at this morning?" Wendy asked the older dragon slayer. Natsu's onyx eyes shifted up to meet hers from his spot with his chin buried in folded arms.
"Ocean. He's getting in some training."
Lucy turned to him then, "I thought you two usually trained together?"
"Yeah, usually, but due to the nature of his magic, manipulating larger and larger amounts of water is a great way to challenge his magic container, and increase endurance and magic capacity."
"Huh, I never thought of training in that way."
Erza had peered over her paper at that, meeting the fire mage's eyes, "you know, I could use a good training session myself. How about it Natsu? Do you want to spar?"
A large toothy grin spread across his face at the suggestion, "now we're talking," he jumped to his feet, "I'm all fired up!" The redhead mirrored his excitement with a grin of her own. The two didn't spar seriously all that often, and she stood gesturing for him to follow her to the training field out back of the guild so they wouldn't wreck the hall. Lucy and Wendy exchanged a look of interest before taking off, hot on their friend's heels, and when Cana realized what was happening, she was announcing the match and taking bets. Soon, most of the guild had poured out back to circle around and observe the friendly fight while Erza and Natsu stretched and shouted taunts at each other. According to Cana the bets were split almost evenly right down the middle, the match would go to whoever lost focus first. Makorav had even followed his children out, a beer still in hand and took up a spot at the center of the crowd to officiate the fight, planning to call off his overly destructive brats if they started getting too overzealous.
. . .
Natsu's stance dropped as he clenched his fists on either side of his rib cage, fire erupting off his body, across the field his opponent requipped in blinding light to reveal the red and black flame empress amour, she gripped her sword with both hands holding it in front of her at the ready.
Gray whistled, "Shit, Erza means business," he stated in mild surprise, Lucy and Wendy turned questioning looks on him. "Flame empress armour cuts the effectiveness of fire-based attacks by 50%," the ice mage began, and Lucy nodded, she had already known that, "but Erza has combined it with the blade form her sea empress armour." The blonde's eyes widened in realization as they shifted between her comrades on the field.
"Now we're talking!" Natsu shouted from across the field, he dragged one foot behind him into a wide stance, extending one arm forward, palm up and curled his fingers a couple times at the redhead. "Give me everything you got!"
Grinning wildly, Erza disappeared in a flash of red, reappearing next to Natsu launching a brutal roundhouse kick into his shoulder that he didn't even have time to react to. She skipped back slashing her sword through the open air sending a wave of water to crash down on him, but the attack never landed, fire burst off the dragon slayer as he spun on his heel cutting the wave in half with a fiery spin kick. The crowd awed in surprise as Natsu taunted, "you'll have to do better than that, don't forget, I spar with a water dragon daily."
"Hey, when did Natsu achieve his S class?" Lucy wondered out loud, leaning toward Gray's side, he shifted narrowed eyes to the blonde next to him and huffed out in irritation, not his favourite subject.
"Last year," he stated flatly, but taking in the curiosity on her face, he knew he wasn't getting away with such a simple response. "It was a smaller examination, Gramps only nominated four mages last year, Natsu partnered up with Haru and they took the exam by storm. It wasn't even close." He dropped his chin onto a fist and clicked his tongue in annoyance, "this year will be my year though. I know Gramps will give me a chance this time, just watch, I'm going to catch up to them."
Lucy nodded eagerly, bringing a determined fist in front of her chest, "you'll have to get through me! I'm going to give it everything I've got too," she announced with conviction, and Gray grinned at her, welcoming the challenge.
Erza had given up on taking Natsu down with water-based attacks, her sea empress sword just didn't pack the punch that Haru's water magic did and the damn fire mage had been deflecting her attacks without breaking a sweat. Switching strategies, she requipped to her black wing armour and flew toward him striking at him with a barrage precise slashes of her sword, which he skipped and spun around, dancing around her blade easily. He ducked under another swing and thrust a flame infused palm up into the wrist of her sword hand, forcing the blade up and opening up her defence he brought his knee up into his side and struck out hard with fire dragon's talon into the side of her armour. The armour shattered around her ribs, as her body was thrown back, digging in the balls of her feet, she managed to stay standing.
"Fire dragon's roar!"
Just as Erza recovered, she was met with a full power roar barreling down on her, she threw her body to the side, shoulder rolling out of the way and coming to a stop on one knee. Her armour glowed again, and she darted forward in purgatory armour, swiping the large sword on an angle down toward Natsu's shoulder.
"Shit!" He yelled, trying to jump back but not quite dodging the full attack, he took a shallow cut across his chest to the bottom of his rib cage, catching his balance just in time to take a devastating kick straight to his chest. Natsu went flying across the field, crashing into the ground and went rolling kicking up a large cloud of dust and nearly bowled down a group of onlookers who dodged with shocked cries. Erza slammed the tip of her sword into the ground, her body remaining tense and ready as she eyed the dust, doubting he was down for the count just yet. Flames shot through the dirt breaking apart the cloud as the fire mage rolled back, kicking both legs into the air to land back on his feet. "Damn, nice shot!" He shouted, tearing the scraps of his vest off and tossing it to the side, he ran a finger along the shallow gash on his torso humming in interest, he would be feeling that tomorrow.
His eyes shifted back to meet Erza's again as both mages panted in exertion, Natsu bent into his knees, kicking off the ground to shoot forward propelled by his flames, "fire dragon's iron fist!" Erza spun to the side, narrowly missing the punch, but Natsu dropped into a low spin kick, sweeping her legs out from under her and pushed off the leg folded under him to flip above her and deliver a fiery hammer kick right into her middle denting another armour.
Erza coughed out as her body was driven into the ground beneath her, and Makorav swept a giant hand out separating the two, "this match is over!"
The crowd of Fairy Tail mages blinked at the two S class, 'who the fuck won then' was the collective thought on their was clear the rivals still had more fight in them and were rearing to go, but both mages stopped their match, respecting the master's call, Erza's armour vanished, returning to her blouse and blue skirt. She remained on the ground, but she pushed herself up into a seated position, bringing her other arm around to assess her ribs, Natsu held a hand out and pulled her to her feet smiling widely.
"This match goes to you, Natsu, where does that put us now?"
"Well, you won the last two... so I think we're even again." He laughed, scratching the back of his head with a toothy grin.
Cana was moving around the crowd taking money from people, as Wendy darted over to the two to check the fighter's injuries, Cana came to a stop in front of Gray with a smug look, "pay up, sucker!" He grumbled as he forked over a handful of jewel, the brunette started distributing the winnings to those that bet on the fire mage. Lucy strolled over to her comrades and watched as Wendy's hands, glowing blue, moved over the long gash in Natsu's chest, sealing the wound.
"You two are incredible!" Lucy praised them, and they both turned to her with a thanks, as the sky slayer moved to place a magic infused hand on the front and back of Erza's ribs.
"More like reckless!" Carla reprimanded as she flew over to land next to her partner.
"Natsuuu! You were awesome!"
"Thanks little buddy."
"Now I wish I hadn't bet against you."
"You did what?!"
Haru approached then, walking up to the join them placing his hands on his hips, he glanced around the group before he deadpanned at the sparring duo. "You know, you two are so noisy I knew you were fighting from multiple blocks away at the beach." Natsu and Erza exchanged a look, the former burst out laughing, while the redhead chuckled behind her hand trying to retain some composure as Haru rolled his eyes at them grumbling about the pair ruining his peaceful swim.
Lucy squealed, clapping her hands together and her companions all looked in her direction, "you guys! We should go to the beach, it's beautiful and we deserve a break, we've continued busting our butts even after the whole Oración Seis fiasco."
The boys exchanged a look, the water slayer would never turn down more time in the ocean, and Gray just shrugged in agreement. The redhead pursed her lips in consideration and Lucy observed her nervously, before the knight's body glowed and became clad in a black bikini. "Wonderful idea Lucy! Off we go boys," she commanded pointing down the street toward the beach.
Natsu shrugged a shoulder, "well alright then, I'm gonna grab my swim trunks and meet ya at the beach," he turned to the blue cat, "let's go Happy!"
"Aye sir!"
Haru and Erza, already in swim wear, marched off in the direction of the beach, the redhead calling over her shoulder for the others to meet up as soon as they're ready. Gray had tried to follow them but the scarlet mage turned a death glare on him, "You are not swimming naked, swim trunks, GO!" He paled and bolted in the direction of his apartment.
. . .
Racing back to the beach cheering rambunctiously with Happy soaring overhead, Natsu kicked up a cloud of sand trailing behind him as he headed straight for the water where Erza, Wendy and Carla were already playing with a large beach ball in the shallows. Bolting into the ocean, and belly flopping in the middle of the circle of girls, he sent up a large splash of water soaking all three of them. Still holding the beach ball, Erza's eye twitched, "do you want to go again…" she drawled angrily, but the pinkette just smirked, scooping his hands into the water and splashed a wave of water into her face. She blinked back at him stunned in silence as the water dripped down her face. When she snapped out of it, she whipped the ball at him watching it bounce off his head and back to Wendy, before she dove at him furiously plunging them both into the water. Wendy stood with the ball in her hands, sweat dropping at Carla as the other two came up gasping for air and engaged in an all-out water war.
"Let's go Carla," the young slayer said flatly, turning to put some distance between her and her insane comrades, Wendy and the cats exited the water to drop on to the beach blanket Erza had requipped earlier, just as Lucy wandered up in a white flower print bikini.
"Hey you two, I brought iced teas, do you want one before they get too warm?" The blonde asked holding out a couple ice cold cans. Wendy accepted one with glittering eyes, popping the tab and taking a big gulp, she sighed out a thank you and took another smaller sip.
Lucy joined them on the blanket and sighed contentedly until an explosion of fire causing a giant tidal wave followed by a distinctly feminine squeal, broke the peace and quiet. The blonde quirked an eyebrow as the wave crashed into the shore and Erza plowed into the sandy beach, sliding to a stop just in front of the blanket on her belly, arms stretched out in front of her. "Eh?!" Lucy's eyes widened at the swirls in her friend's eyes, "uhh… Erza, you alright there?"
The scarlet mage recovered in an instant, jumping up to lounge in a beach chair that appeared in a flash of light with a colourful umbrella, a can of strawberry iced tea already in her hand. "What a beautiful day, wouldn't you agree," she breathed out as if she hadn't just been violently ejected from the ocean. Lucy deadpanned.
Natsu ran up waving his arms excitedly when he realized the stellar mage had arrived, "Lucy! Let's play!"
Before she could even answer he'd grabbed her wrist and was dragging her off toward the waters protesting, but she gave up quickly and let herself be pulled along. They ran into the shallows kicking up water as they went, until the pinkette tossed Lucy over his shoulder running deeper before diving in and sending them both into the depths. Bursting to the surface Lucy screeched indignantly, treading water and scanning the crystal clear surface for Natsu. She felt a tug on her ankle and barely managed a gulp of air before he dragged her beneath the water again. Kicking off his ribs like a springboard, she swam away gracefully, and he watched as she pierced the surface flipping her hair back in an arc, before he got a face full of water as retaliation for his sneak attack. He sputtered, spitting the water out.
"Keep your eyes on me, Natsu," she said with a wink, "or you'll lose this water fight, for sure!"
"My eyes are always on you, Lucy."
She felt her face flush, 'get it together Lucy, no way he meant anything by that,' she screamed internally. She opened her eyes from her internal struggle only to find the pinkette inches from her face gazing intently at her, her face coloured instantly, and she screamed and shoved her hands forward smacking him away violently.
"Oww! What was that for," he whined, she mumbled something that sounded like 'too close,' and he grinned, gliding through the water and popped right back up in front of her again. Lucy froze as the fire mage's eyes scanned over her face, he brought a hand up to carefully trace her loose bangs back to tuck behind her ear, before leaning in even closer. She thought her heart might pound out of her chest at the small gestures, and then a smile broke across his face and he dipped under the water again, before she felt arms wrap around her body with her arms pinned to her sides from behind. She shrieked as she felt him launch up and fall back into the water, taking them both under again, he released her swimming around her to grin wildly down at her before speeding away. She rolled in the water, eyes narrowing as she sped after him, and launching her body from the water to attach herself to his back as he came up for air. "You're not getting away that easily dragon boy," she called playfully, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.
He peaked back over his shoulder at the blonde now anchored on his back, "alright then, you better hang on tight," he shouted running through the shallows as she shrieked in laughter.
From the shore Erza squealed excitedly about wanting to play too, and grabbed Gray by a fist full of hair, dragging him to the water before he knew what had happened. Tossing him in the water, and jumping on his shoulders, she pointed forward to the blonde now perched fully on Natsu's shoulders. "Onward trusty steed!"
"Oi! I am NOT your damn horse," Gray yelled indignantly, wondering how he had gone from comfortably relaxing in the sun to having the scarlet knight's thighs locked around his head.
"It's okay popsicle, I know you're just scared to lose."
"OH, its ON, Natsu!"
The boys collided, barely paying attention to the girls scrambling to remain seated on their shoulders, all four mages' hands meeting and trying to topple the other team.
"You're going down, Erza," the blonde promised, Erza smirked noticing the smug look her friend wore mirrored Natsu's own.
"Bring it on, Lucy!"
Natsu and Gray were exchanging blows enthusiastically, Natsu spun and jumped to throw a back kick at Gray's chest, reaching up with a hand on Lucy's ass to steady her. He ignored her smacking him in the head for 'copping a feel.' The kick landed, and Gray tumbled back, his hands going to Erza's legs to keep her from falling as her legs clamped around his head hard. "GAH! Erza, c-can't breathe," he choked out as his face turned blue.
"Get your head in the game Gray," she demanded.
Blades of ice appeared in both of Gray's hands as he leapt forward again, Natsu responded by wrapping his fists in fire and just like that, a simple game of chicken, became a magic battle. They were back in thigh deep water, as Gray slashed his ice blades in a flurry of strikes and Natsu parried, grabbing one blade with his bare hand to melt the ice on contact. Erza reached out catching Lucy's wrist and wrenching forward trying to pull her from Natsu's shoulders, but he reacted driving his hand up into the redhead's elbow forcing her to let go. Lucy shot a palm out to brace against the muscle of Natsu's chest to stop her forward momentum and the pinkette helped resettle her back in place.
"Let's get 'em," Lucy called drawing a glowing hand through the air in downward arc, pulling an elbow back passed her ear as a shimmering golden bow and arrow formed, "star reform: star shot," she opened her hand and a beam of blinding light shot forward crashing into Gray's chest. Not expecting an attack from Lucy without her keys, he went flying back, Erza's arms flailed and they both went down in a large splash of water.
"Yeah! Nice shot Luce!" The fire mage held a hand up, and she connected the high five cheering out as the other two surfaced with narrowed eyes.
"Can't beat our teamwork!"
Erza fixed the ice mage with a glare, "you lost focus!" The raven haired dropped his head in defeat, as the scarlet knight swatted at him half-heartedly. Erza stopped mid strike as a thought dawned on her suddenly, she looked back over her shoulder at Lucy who was still balanced on Natsu's shoulders. "Wait, you have other magic?!"
The blonde just smirked, "girl's gotta keep some tricks up her sleeve, right?"
Haru emerged from the water between them, gracefully tossing his head back and shaking out his hair to dispel some of the moisture. "There you go again, ruining a perfectly peaceful swim. So noisy." He turned a small smile on them before diving back under the water and making his way to the shore. Lucy slid off Natsu's shoulders and the four mages followed Haru back to the beach blanket where Wendy was sitting under the umbrella with Mira and the two cats.
"Oh Mira, I didn't know you decided to come too," the blonde said, squeezing the water from her hair as she sat down next to the model.
Mira nudged Lucy playfully, leaning into whisper, "I had to come observe how the progress on my bet is going," she said with a wink and cocked her head in Natsu's direction where he was arguing with Gray about the game of chicken. Lucy went beet red, fixing Mira with large eyes and once again frantically denying every implication her friend made. To Lucy's horror, Haru sat down with her and Mira and announced that Natsu had been spending multiple nights at the blonde's place since they'd returned from the Oración Seis mission, adding a ton of fuel to Mira's theorizing.
Lucy glared at the water slayer, "why would you bring that up," she screeched before her head whipped in ivory haired mage's direction at the sound of her delighted squeals. "It's not what you think Mira!"
Natsu jumped over to the blanket, flopping down between Lucy and Haru throwing an arm around Lucy's shoulders without a second thought, "whatcha guys talkin' about," he asked them.
Mira and Haru both burst out laughing, and the stellar mage sighed in defeat, deciding to ignore her annoying guildmates in favour of reaching into her cooler for an iced tea. The fire mage took the can out of her hand, "thanks Luce," he said smugly, and she turned an incredulous look on him.
"If you wanted one, just say so, that one was MINE," she reprimanded, but he'd already popped the tab and downed half the tea. She glared at him out of the corner of her eye as she reached for a new can for herself.
After all the stress and trauma of the past few weeks, the Fairy Tail mages finally got to simply kick back and relax, with no cares in the world. They spent the rest of the day on the beach playing, sunning and chatting, well into the evening. They put some fish on spits for dinner and set them to cook over a bonfire Natsu made, and when they were finished eating, Erza instigated a game of Truth or Dare, causing even more shenanigans. Haru laughed with the others as he watched Natsu run down the beach in the nude, his scarf tied around his head like a turban on Erza's dare. They felt so carefree in that moment, none of them could have guessed that in a short time, they'd be facing another incredibly dangerous mission with their lives on the line again.
A/N. Any predictions on the next arc? I'll give you a hint, the previous arc hinted at this one a few chapters back.
Also… help me out here, I've got some bare-bones ideas set for some major arcs, but I'm not sure what I want to play with next. S class trial and GMG are the only off limit ones cuz some of the characters I need aren't in play yet. I could use suggestions/someone to bounce ideas off for unique ways to get Gajeel and Juvia on scene without your typical Phantom Lord play. Hmm. So, if you wanna help a girl out, review or PM me!
**Also, be on the lookout Friday, I expanded on a sexy Nalu moment from a chapter still far off in the future, for a fun one-shot teaser of things to come.
See you Saturday for the new arc!
R&R. xx Loka Muse