Summary: Inspired by 10th Kingdom, Lucy's hair gets cursed to never stop growing. This becomes quite a problem.
Pairings: ImpliedNatsu/Lucy, Gajeel/Levy, Levy/Lucy friendship, and perhaps some Laxus/Cana if you squint.
YouTube Prompt: Since there's a Rapunzel theme, a crack video tribute to Fairy Tail to I Have a Dream from Disney's Tangled.
It started on a normal mission.
Team Natsu were on the usual capturing magical bandits (which thankfully were not those Jiggle Butt gang or they would have never been able to complete this job) when the guy Lucy had helped capture, shot her with a spell.
"Lucy!" Natsu called out worriedly.
"It's okay," Lucy gasped as she stumbled back on to her feet, "I'm all right…the spell didn't do anything to me."
"That's what you think," the bandit smirked.
"Shut the fuck up!" Natsu snarled as he punched the bandit unconscious. Erza decided then it was probably best for the bandit's health if she took guard over him instead of Natsu which allowed him to go back to Lucy. "Are you sure, you're all right?" he asked as he examined her carefully.
"Of course I am!" Lucy smiled at him warmly.
Natsu grinned back, and the pair of them seemed to be in their own sparkly world, which Happy was fully prepared to comment with his usual tongue roll of 'you liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike her', when his eyes' bugged out instead.
It might have just been him but he was certain Lucy's hair had just grown a bit.
FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT
The next day Lucy rushed into the guild in hopes of finding a knowledgeable person in curses and odd magical spells. She had woken up this morning to have found her hair down to her waist which was rather worrying. She had Cancer cut it all off before she went in the shower only to find as she was drying her hair that it had all grown back. So she had hoped to find Levy who was generally an expert in all magic, or Mirajane who knew glamour magic very well (what with being a model an all), or even Master, who might take advantage to pat her bum, but would at least point her in the right direction.
Fortunately she stumbled upon Levy first. The small, blue-haired, girl was reading by the bar while enjoying an orange juice. She looked up and smiled in greeting to Lucy but it immediately transformed into a look of astonishment. "Lu-Chan!" Levy gasped. "Your hair looks gorgeous."
"Erm," Lucy blushed lightly as she felt thrown off, she didn't expect a compliment about her problem, "Thanks," she mumbled.
"Whoa Lucy," Cana whistled in admiration, she too was relaxing by the bar, but unlike Levy, she was definitely drinking something alcoholic. A light cocktail by the looks of it as Mira wouldn't want the brunette to be on the floor before even lunchtime. "Nice hair extensions."
"That's the thing!" Lucy couldn't help but wail. "They're not hair extensions! This is actually my hair! I think I've been cursed!"
"What?!" Cana and Levy shrieked in unison.
"I know," Lucy agreed sadly, "it's unbelievable."
"Unbelievably ridiculous," Gajeel grunted from his dark corner. Lucy couldn't help but notice he's been doing that a lot recently, sitting in a dark corner that happened to be nearby Levy. Hmm, that was definitely something she needed to chase up on with her friend when she wasn't having cursed hair issues. "Are you sure, you're cursed? You don't look any different to me."
"Or me," Lily inputted when the girls stared at Gajeel with matching gobsmacked expressions, well Levy and Lucy did, Cana just drank. "Hair is hair."
"How can you two be so blind?!" Levy asked. "Lu-Chan's hair has never been this long before."
"I wouldn't sweat it," Cana said as she stretched out, "it's a male thing. They're all blind, deaf, and dumb, especially when it comes to hair."
"That is an unfair generalisation," Lily grumbled.
"How do you know?" Lucy asked.
"Just watch," Cana said as she stood up, "Oi! Losers! Tell me, what do you think of Lucy's new hair style?" she shouted out over the guild.
It was at this point when Lucy suddenly became surrounded by the female members of the guild. Lisanna sighed jealously as her hair could never grow out right, Bisca was curious what hair products she used, Erza was in full admiration mode, while the others were all very complimentary….apart from Charle who thought they were all being stupid. Meanwhile the boys all just stared at Lucy dumbly.
"Lucy's hair hadn't always been that way?" they all asked one another.
"See," Cana said smugly to Levy.
Lucy shrieked suddenly when she felt something crawl down her legs and then tickle the back of her knees. Some of the other girls screamed, Cana choked on her drink, and Gajeel's eyes bulged out of their sockets while Lily looked rather intrigued.
"Lucy!" Lisanna cried out. "I think your hair just moved on its own!"
"Well bugger me," Gajeel murmured, "Bunny Girl is cursed after all."
FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT
Natsu was on his way to Lucy's, he hadn't been able to see her all day because Happy wanted to go fishing, and when they finally managed to make it back to the guild (restless and bored out of his mind), he was disappointed to learn that Lucy had already gone home. Something to do with her hair and how it was starting to grow on people (whatever the hell that meant), he didn't ask questions because everyone looked exhausted especially Freed, Levy, and Gajeel who apparently had something to do with Lucy's hair. Natsu really didn't care, he just wanted to see his partner, and maybe get her to cook for him, and then maybe sleep in her bed while she was bathing…
He was at the bottom of Strawberry Street when he suddenly tripped over something long, golden, and smells a lot like Lucy. Really, really, a lot like Lucy, as if it bathed in her scent…..it was really, really, really nice, and Natsu may or may not have rolled round in it for a little bit. It was really no one's business and no one will believe Happy because Natsu wasn't a cat that rolled around in soft things like he was.
"Natsu," Happy said, his eyes wide with horror, "I actually think that's Lucy's hair. Look!" he pointed to Lucy's building. "It's coming out from her window!"
This snapped Natsu out of his daze as he realised what Happy had just said was completely accurate.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!"
It was then when Lucy's hair decided to literally move down the road. It rippled like a river, and just for a moment, Natsu got a tiny bit nauseous at the thought of being on a golden river, despite the fact he wasn't on a boat or a raft. Lucy, he thought as his nausea disappeared. Lucy was in danger. Of what, he wasn't sure, but he had to get to her. He ran all over the golden hair, jumped up, grabbed hold of the thick, silky, golden hair and used it to climb into Lucy's bedroom.
He barely dodged the shoe Lucy flung at him.
"What the hell, Natsu?!" Lucy snarled. "Do I look like Rapunzel stuck in a tower?"
"Who?" Natsu asked confused.
"A princess who had really long…." Lucy trailed off and shook her head. "You know what never mind. It was a stupid question. What were you thinking of using my hair like that, does it look like it's a rope you can climb up on?"
"Now that's definitely a stupid question," he ducked in time to avoid the other shoe Lucy threw at him. Unfortunately Happy wasn't so lucky and ended up unconscious amongst Lucy's ever growing hair. "What the hell happened to you, Luce?" he asked.
"I've been cursed!" Lucy wailed. "It's that bandit we caught yesterday! He did this to me!"
"Bit stupid really. I mean what harm can hair do?"
"It's driving me insane!" Lucy shrieked as she clutched the sides of her head. "Do you know how horrible it feels to literally feel your hair growing? And it's everywhere, I kept tripping in it earlier, and now that it's gone outside I can only imagine what disgusting crap is tangled up in this."
"Yeah, I may have treaded a lot of dirt onto it," Natsu admitted sheepishly. Thankfully Lucy had run out of shoes to throw at him since the rest were hidden under the piles of hair. "Can't you just cut it?"
"Don't you think we tried?!" Lucy snapped. "It keeps growing back whenever Cancer attempted it, no matter what sort of ruins Freed used, or what counter-spells Levy wrote while he was doing it."
Well that explained why they looked so exhausted earlier.
"Yeah, well no offence, but I can't see your crab being that stro-"
"Don't you dare insult my spirits!" Lucy hissed fiercely. He choked in reply as Lucy's hair was literally strangling him. Seriously, how the hell did she do that? The moment she realised what was happening, her hair let him go. He rubbed his throat, stunned. Man Lucy's hair was strong. "Oh my God!" Lucy panicked. "Now my hair is becoming sentient!"
Natsu didn't know what to say but he was certain about one thing…They definitely had a problem.
FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT
Erza took over cutting Lucy's hair after the town council made a complaint apparently none of the tradesman were able to come in now. Yes, Lucy's hair has grown that much. She neatly hacked her way through Lucy's thick hair until it was back to her usual shoulder length which left everyone else (actually just the men for some reason) to haul the rest of Lucy's hair out of the town. Unfortunately by the time they cleaned Magnolia out Lucy's hair had already grown back.
Erza had taken to keep attacking it while Lucy had just given up and decided to read a book. "It's useless," Erza groaned she wiped some sweat off her forehead, "No matter how much I cut off it keeps growing back."
It had taken five days for Erza to finally admit defeat, so no one was surprised when after she said that, she collapsed into a chair and fell asleep immediately.
"Perhaps if we cut it by magical means" Levy theorised. She had been researching the spell non-stop especially when Lucy's hair managed to creep its way into her bedroom at the dorms. "I mean with actual elemental magic, not with Cancer or Erza's swords."
"Excellent idea, Levy-Chan!" Jet cheered her.
"I would be the first to volunteer," Droy said in between eating a sandwich, "but my magic doesn't cut."
Everyone turned to look at Laxus, whose lightning would definitely cut through Lucy's hair, the grumpy blonde looked back and then glowered at the lot of them. The weaker members of the guild (i.e. the ones more easily scared) instantly looked away with a squeak while the rest just kept looking at him expectantly.
"No way," Laxus grunted, "I'm not a hairdresser."
"You're just dressed like one," Cana muttered, "a gay hairdresser."
"What was that?!"
"Nothing!"
Natsu grinned evilly and held up a fireball. "I'll do it," he volunteered.
"NO WAY IN HELL!"
"C'mon Lucy," Levy tried to calm the hysterical blonde, "it's either this or your hair starts to make its way to the boarders of this country."
Lucy shuddered as the mental imagery of her hair tangled in the woods, covering cities, drowning in rivers and lakes, took over in her mind. She'd rather die than have this curse! "Fine," she sighed as she gave in, "I'll give it a go."
"AWESOME!" Natsu pumped a fist into the air. "I'm all fired up!" he shot Lucy another evil grin and she gulped. She knew that she was going to regret this. She was so going to regret this! "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" he shouted as he grabbed hold of Lucy's hair.
The smell of hair burning filled the guild building and managed to wake Erza up from her virtually comatose state. It was Erza, wide-eyed and horrified, that let Lucy know there was definitely a problem. "Natsu!" she shrieked. "You're burning off too much!"
"What?!" Lucy shrieked.
He tried to jump away which led to Natsu almost setting her entire head on fire. With Juvia's quick use of water (in which she may or may not have attempted to drown her love rival) they managed to save Lucy from having her hair completely burnt off. Once she had been cooled down, Levy kindly helped her wash her hair in the bathroom and dry it, she realised exactly just how short her hair was.
It wasn't its usual length, it wasn't even just a few inches shorter than normal, or even a bob (she might have been able to deal with it if it was a bob). It was as short as a boy's. Well…as short as Gray's hair as it covered her ears and touched the nape of her neck.
"NATSU!"
Once Natsu finally recovered from the kick Lucy had given him (Wendy had to heal his broken nose), he looked up at Lucy sheepishly, scratched his head, and said, "Oops…"
"Oops? Oops?! Is that all you have to say for yourself?"
"You know," Natsu said suddenly a little shy, a light pink that matched his hair dusted his cheeks, and "you look kinda cute with your hair like that."
Everyone looked on in shock as Lucy instantly lost all fury and blushed brightly as she turned into a puddle of goo.
"Did someone get that?" Wakaba shouted. "Did anyone get those magical words that defused a woman's temper?!