Summary: No one can cope in a heat wave….
Parings: Implied Natsu/Lucy, Gray/Juvia, and general friendship feels.
YouTube Prompt: A crack Fairy Tail boy tribute to this song www. youtube watch? v=bFZ2cIh-H5M
To say it was hot was a total understatement.
It was the very height of summer when a heat wave of the very extreme hit Fiore, and now the grass was brown, the canal's water levels had fallen dangerously low, and Fairy Tail hadn't had a brawl in days. In fact Fairy Tail was unnaturally quiet as no one had the energy to do more than turn up and slump against the cool, stone, walls before the heat got too much and they sloped back home.
Mira barely had the strength to stand behind the bar as her dress itched uncomfortably on her back and her hair was drenched with sweat.
"Urgh!" Lucy groaned as she sprawled against the bar. "It's too hot!"
"Chin up," Mira said wearily, "Master said Juvia will be home later today which means the pool can be refilled."
Another inconvenience of the heat wave, Juvia was constantly out on jobs with Gray where their magic was now in high demand and she had to go just as the water in their swimming pool disappeared to terrifyingly low levels.
(Natsu had a concussion and a hideous bruise from when he jumped in without looking. Fortunately though Wendy had that healed within seconds.)
"Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucy!" Natsu moaned childishly as he suddenly flung himself over her. "It's too hot! Do something!"
"Natsu!" Lucy shrieked. "Gerroff! It's hot already without you sweating all over me! Go lie down somewhere else."
"Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" Natsu whined as he clung harder to Lucy. "That would require having to move. I don't wanna!"
"Natsu!" Lucy gasped somewhere between Natsu's chest and the wooden bar as he knees buckled under the weight of Natsu. "…..Can't…..stand…." she wheezed.
THUMP!
And with that both Natsu and Lucy collapsed onto the floor into a melted puddle of limbs as neither could bring themselves to move.
Normally Mira would squeal in delight over this…..but goddamnit it was too hot! All she can think about is ice cream….mmm….ice cream.
"ARGH!" Cana screamed in frustration. "It's too hot and no matter how much ice I put in my drinks I can't cool down. Damnit!" she yanked at her bikini top. "I'm taking off another layer!"
"Cana!" Lisanna cried out in alarm (how she mustered the energy, Mira doesn't know), "You're already in your underwear! Any less and you'll be naked! And you're not Gray!"
"I don't care!" Cana whined as she fiddled with the straps on her top. "It's too hot!"
"You want Wakaba and Macao to perve on you?"
"Meh," Macao groaned from a shadow-y corner. "I'm too hot and bothered, and not in a good way, to think about naked girls."
"Yeah," Wakaba moaned, for the first time in a very long time he was cigarette, cigar, and pipe free. Which was unnatural in its own right but no one had the energy or the brain power to think about it and freak out. "Don't have the energy to nosebleed."
No one had the energy to mention how disgusting that was but the heavy, judgemental, silence said it all really.
The silence dragged on as no one had the energy to do anything. The Exceeds were all sprawled out in the sun, never before looking more like cats, Wendy bemoaned silently about her inability to make her wind cold as she laid beside Charle. Elfman shouted something about being manly and coping with the heat but barely got halfway when Evergreen suddenly turned him into stone. Erza, however, looked outwardly in control and in meditation but inwardly she was weeping because it was too hot to eat cake, and Laxus looked exactly the same, heavy coat and all. Mira would have thought he was unaffected by the weather completely but the sheen of sweat on his forehead suggested otherwise.
Stupid, stubborn, men, Mira thought darkly to herself.
The doors creaked open and everyone groaned as it suddenly got hotter (seriously, why was it colder inside a hot, stuffy, building than it was outside in the supposedly fresh air?!) and then sighed in relief when the door was closed shut quietly.
"Jeeze!" Gray said disbelievingly. "Juvia and I must have took a wrong turning somewhere because this is not home."
"Juvia agrees with Gray-sama," Juvia gazed up at Gray lovingly, "Juvia and Gray-sama must be stuck in a parallel universe."
"GRAY! JUVIA!" Everyone cried out ecstatically. "YOU'RE HOME!"
Gray's eyes popped out in alarm as he was suddenly mobbed by the newly rejuvenated members of the guild. Cana, Natsu, and Bickslow have already plastered themselves to Gray's cool skin as they sighed blissfully. "GERROF ME YOU FRICKING WEIRDOS!" Gray bellowed as he kicked Natsu off of his leg. "Give us a break we've been working all day trying to cool people off."
"Juvia is tired, hungry, and very hot herself," Juvia growled as a dark, threatening, aura surrounded her, "Juvia will murder the next Love Rival that touches Juvia's Gray-sama."
And with that everyone took one giant step away from Gray and Juvia. No one wanted to be murdered with the laziness and lack of action that has been going on it would take days before the body actually got buried and no one wanted a rapidly rotting corpse to stink up the place.
"You have been gone quite a while," Master observed once everyone settled down, "was everything okay?"
"Just a shortage of ice and water mages," Gray grumbled, "that stupid prick Lyon had the gall to go on holiday. Holiday!" he repeated disgustedly. "While everyone else is suffering and I'm having to do all the hard work."
(Meanwhile, far away, in a much cooler seacoast, Lyon sneezes and can't shake off a feeling that he owes Gray one hell of a punch.)
"Well you're both home now," Master said happily, "that's all what matters."
"Juvia is glad to be home," Juvia smiled as she accepted a glass of water from Mira, "though she enjoyed being with Gray-sama without any Love Rivals," she glowered in Lucy's direction but Lucy was too out of it notice.
"Yeah," Gray agreed absentmindedly as he accept his own glass of water, "and now we can sit back and re…." he trailed off as he realised everyone was watching him with wide, shiny, hopeful eyes, and immediately groaned. "Oh come on!" he whined. "I just got home! Can't I put my feet up first?" the wide, shiny, hopeful eyes were now accompanied with a pout, which coming from Wendy was just impossible to resist. "All right! All right!" Gray snapped as he threw his arms in an 'I surrender' gesture. "I'll turn this place in a winter wonderland, happy?"
There was a moment of silence….and then everyone cheered. It was a great, big, booming cheer that shook the rafters as everyone screamed and clapped their delight but it was as over as quickly as it started as another wave of exhaustion hit everyone hard.
God, when was this damn heat wave going to end?
"ICE MAKE!" Gray bellowed as he pushed all his magic as quickly as possible into his hands. This was an emergency of dire proportions. If Fairy Tail wasn't acting like Fairy Tail then the end of the world was bound to be upon them. "WINTER WONDERLAND!"
"WATER SLICER!" Juvia yelled as she sprayed everyone with water. "WATER SLICER!" she repeated again.
The cheering instantly started up again, Lucy perked up back to life, Cana actually put on a thin, summer, cropped, cardigan, Erza ate a cake with great gusto, Happy was back throwing insults and snowballs, and almost immediately Natsu started a brawl with Bickslow that pulled in half the guild.
Gray kept making snow and ice for everyone like a regular snow machine while Juvia acted like a sprinkler. It would be hours before anyone leaves to go home but when they all do leave they are energised, happy, and back to their regular selves which made all the hard work worth it.
"Are you two going home now, as well?" Mira asked as she moped up the last of the melted snow from the stone slabs. "You two must be exhausted."
Exhausted was an understatement as both Juvia and Gray had turned a chalky white out of sheer tiredness and drain of magical power. There were great big smudges under their eyes and their stomachs rumbled loudly for dinner.
"In a bit," Gray plopped down on the floor, "when I can remember how to move my arms and legs again."
"Yes," Juvia collapsed down slowly, her back squeaked against the wall, as her legs gave out from beneath her, "Juvia needs to close her eyes for a second and then she will go home."
And with that Juvia slumped sideways and snuggled into Gray's shoulder as her eyes fluttered shut. Instead of freaking out or trying to push her away, Gray snored happily into Juvia's hair.
His arm was wrapped round her shoulders.
(Meanwhile the Magic Council would have celebrated the fact that Fairy Tail were currently behaving themselves but they too were suffering in the heat wave to do more than collapse against the table and sweat profusely. Goddamnit, were they ever going to know and enjoy peace?)