The story is starting to wind down, so there's only a few chapters left. My goal is to complete it before the year ends.
"More... fishing?" Mard Geer questioned, incredulous. "Yesterday was not enough for you?"
Happy stared the demon straight in the eyes, not the least bit intimidated by the warning in Mard Geer's voice. "There is never enough fish."
"So are you coming or not?" Natsu asked, poles in hand. "No offense dude, but the best fishing is right before dawn. Cause when the fish wake up, they get hungry." A growl reverberated in the cabin. "And so do I."
"I will... pass." Mard Geer's lip curled into a sneer. "I've had... quite enough of your brand of... fishing. If it can even be called that."
Natsu shrugged. "Suit yourself. Yo, Jackal! You ready? We're leaving!"
Turning to look at the furry demon, Mard Geer focused his baleful gaze on his underling. "You're joining them?"
"I'm hungry," Jackal replied.
Mirajane emerged from her bedroom, yawning hugely. "I'll cook whatever you manage to bring back," she offered, making her way to the cabin's small kitchen area. "I'll get started on side dishes now."
Natsu gave her a thumbs up. "Thanks Mira!" He grabbed Jackal by the scruff and hauled him out the door. "Come on, already! You're too slow!"
A small explosion rocked the cabin, a wave of heat blasting in through the open door. "Cheap move, dude!" came Natsu's shout.
"Please don't tell me that's what I thought it was," Lucy groaned, staggering out from her bedroom. "We're totally not going to get our security deposit back..."
Sipping a cup of instant coffee, Mirajane wordlessly handed Lucy another cup full of the same. Gratefully taking it, Lucy stood beside her friend in the kitchen and peered out the window. "Yeah that's going to be a pain to clean up," she muttered under her breath. "We're making Natsu and Jackal do it."
"That seems fair," Mard Geer concurred, though he wasn't entirely sure he knew what a so-called 'security deposit' was meant to be. Or how it related to acts-of-Jackal.
Lucy peered at the demon king for a long moment. Long enough for him to take note of it, and deign to do something about it. "Did you need something?" he inquired, raising an eyebrow at her. It was one of the odder things he'd picked up from the members of Fairy Tail, but it was an addition he felt he ought to keep. It seemed very versatile.
"You don't want any coffee?" Lucy asked, a little surprised that Mirajane hadn't yet offered any to her own boyfriend.
Understanding dawned in his eyes. "I am not certain if it is an aspect left over from our creator, or just a quirk of our design, but none of Lord Zeref's demons are capable of ingesting caffeine," Mard Geer explained.
"I'm shocked you're admitting to a weakness," commented Lucy. "Aren't you afraid that we'll use it against you some day?"
A cruel smile spread across the demon's lips. "I never said it was a weakness. In fact, I'd rather say that it would be a greater danger to you than to us. When we ingest caffeine, it loosens something in our structure, so to speak, and our powers become much more difficult to control, but they lose none of their devastation."
"It's true." Mirajane nodded along to her words. "You should have seen Natsu when he first tried a soda when we were children."
A caffeinated Natsu sounded horrifying without adding in the demon aspect, quite frankly. For that matter, a caffeinated Jackal did too.
"Duly noted for the future."