Thank you for the reviews! graystripemkc: Yep, Laxus is powerless against our best girl! Hehe! But yes, it's always nice to have the chance to improve and fix your stories and chapters.
Hope you will enjoy this chapter! (At least I liked to write it more than the last one.) Please review!
Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail and I'm just playing with the characters.
Lucy eyes fluttered open slowly. With the back of her palm she gave them a gentle rub, then carefully looked around the room she was in. Half asleep it took her some time to recognize the unfamiliar place. She was still at Bickslow's house. Lucy rose up to sit and felt something fall of her shoulder. it was a blanket someone must have put on her after she had fallen asleep on the sofa.
Little embarrassed by her behavior, Lucy stood up, took the blanket and folded it. She couldn't believe she had fallen asleep on near stranger's home, but what made her cheeks heat up more was the fact that she had done so completely without permission. Now they probably tough she didn't have any kind of manners. First she sleeps in a park, then at someone's place without a permission.
By the way... Where were they? Lucy looked around her, but she couldn't see a single soul. Correction. She saw one, right in front of her. One of the Bickslow's totems sat on the coffee table, its' little face toward her. Lucy glanced around one more time to see if she could spot its' owner. When she didn't see anyone, she crouched down and stared back at the little wooden doll. It's angry scowl was at the same time cute and slightly disturbing. Lucy felt like it was reproaching her for staying over without permission. "Do you know where your master is, um... Do you have a name?"
"Pippi."
"Pippi, eh? That's a nice na-" When Lucy realized she had actually been answered, she turned her gaze toward the voice slowly. There, in the door frame leading to the kitchen, stood a long man with a human shaped tattoo between his eyes. His two colored hair was standing on the sides and top of his head. Lucy blinked couple of times. "...who?" She asked with uncertain voice. The man blinked, then burst into a familiar laugh. "Bickslow," She said a bit relieved. "You can't blame me for not recognizing you without your visor and hood."
"i guess not" He let out last off the laugh. Then motioned the girl to come over. "Come. I have made some breakfast."
Happy, but somewhat troubled, Lucy followed him to the kitchen. There around a medium sized dining table sat Evergreen with a cup of coffee. Laxus, also a coffee mug in hand, was leaning against a countertop. The man didn't as much as glance at her direction, but Lucy's eyes were glued to him, slowly widening, from the second they landed on him. Or more correctly on his bare chest. The man wasn't wearing any shirt! His pecs and abs looked rock hard, and even the tiniest movement of his body made them flex nicely. His arms were even better and Lucy couldn't comprehend how his shirts didn't tear around them. And then there was that tattoo covering most of his left pectoral, reaching from the upper part of his bicep all the way down to his abs where the symbol of Fairy Tail crowned the whole.
"Want to touch?" Someone whispered.
"...yeah..." She answered unconsciously. Only when she heard Laxus spat the drink out of his mouth and started to cough, she realized she had said it out loud. Slowly like thermometer growing hot, a scarlet red color started to rise on her face. She snapped her face horrified toward Bickslow, who was now double-over with laughter. How could he do that to her?! Was it a payback for sleeping over at his place?!
Evergeen stared the trio confused, her coffee cup stilled on her lips. What on Earth had she just missed? But whatever it was, she knew without anyone telling that Bickslow was behind it. Still, seeing their leader being so caught off guard was rare. Bickslow must have succeeded in his prank pretty good this time. Poor girl, she though her eyes focusing on Lucy, she was red as tomato and looked ready to cry. What the girl did next wasn't only unexpected, but made Evergreen almost spit out her own drink. Thankfully her mouth was empty.
Lucy face burning walked to Laxus, then dropped on the ground and slammed her forehead on the floor. "Please! I will do anything! So please, just forget what you just heard!" She begged.
Lucy wanted to run away and hide herself in a hole where no one could ever find her, but she couldn't afford to do so. If she ran away now, she couldn't trust herself to return. Instead she decided to face the embarrassment face first. She was more than sure she wasn't the first girl to ogle him or the first one to get caught doing so. And she believed she wouldn't be the last one either. It still didn't make it allowed and the least she could do was beg him to forgive and forget it.
Without taking his eyes from the bowing girl, Laxus groped around the countertop behind him for some paper. When his hand found the roll, he ripped a piece off of it and wiped his face with it. He had realized that the girl wasn't their normal snobby rich kid, even if he kept referring to her as one, but this was exceeding his expectations even more. He had felt her eyes on him. It was nothing new to him to be stared. But he had not expected her to answer that idiotic question of Bickslow's like that, so seriously. And he definitely hadn't expected her to come forward about it so openly. Didn't the girl have any shame? Did she think it was only awkward for her? How the hell was he supposed to answer to that?!
Thank god, his most loyal follower came to his rescue in nick of time. "Is Miss Lucy here? I brought her-" Freed entered the kitchen with the bag Lucy had left in his apartment yesterday, but his sentence was cut short by the confusion caused by the scene he saw. Bickslow could barely hold himself up as he was laughing so hard, Evergreen, eyes wide open and jaw slack, was staring at their leader and the girl. Lucy was on the ground legs under her, forehead and hands pressed against the cold floor. And then there was Laxus. Their leader stared the girl by his feet with shocked eyes and a piece of paper pressed over his mouth. When the man noticed him, Freed was sure he saw something similar to relief flash in his eyes.
This triggered something inside of Freed and in a flash he was standing behind Lucy, his rapier drawn and pressed on the girl's neck. "What have you done?" He asked with dark voice.
When Lucy felt the cold touch of metal on her skin, she took a long, very high pitched inhale, her eyes slowly turning toward the weapon. When she saw the sword, her mouth opened to silent scream. If this is how she gets treated when apologizing, she definitely should have chosen the 'run away' option!
"Calm down, Freed." Laxus commanded. The murderous aura of the man helped him snap out of the bewildered state of his. It also made him realize that if he didn't step in the girl might be in real danger. Freed could be rather...extreme at times. Even if the reputation of Fairy Tail was in the bottom muds and injuring a client wouldn't do much to it, Laxus didn't want his team to be the first one to open that chart.
Freed glanced at Laxus and then Lucy, narrowing his eyes. With snail's pace he withdrew his sword, then extended the other holding the bag. He let go and the bag dropped next to the girl's head with a thud. Startled to action by the sound, she grabbed her bad and kicked her to the side. She slide to the closest countertop, slamming her back against a closet's door under it. Like a scared, trembling animal, she shielded herself with the bag. Every time someone moved her eyes darted at them, the bag moving more between them at the same. Not only had they made a fool out of her, but also threatened her life. Maybe she had been wrong for trusting these people. She didn't want to believe everything that was written about Laxus and his team. She knew magazines tend to exaggerate and she didn't want to believe that anyone from Fairy Tail could actually be that bad. Had she been wrong? They had such a great time yesterday too...
"Hey," Laxus started, little amused now by the whole situation. When she heard his voice, the girl snapped her eyes at him and Laxus felt a smirk forming on his lips as he saw the hate-fear glare she was giving him. It looked like the girl would start hissing if he took even a step closer to her. But then his smirk died and his eyes widened, when he saw tears glistering in the corners of her eyes. "O-oi..." He reflexively reached his hand toward her. However, the second the first tear rolled down her cheek the whole room froze for a second.
"And now all you idiots out!" Evergreen jumped up from her chair and pointed toward the doorway. Bickslow was about to open his mouth, but Evergreen pointed again toward the doorway. "Out!" The men complied. However, them being out of the room wasn't enough for her. She stuck her head out of the kitchen after them and pointed toward the front door mouthing 'out'. This the men didn't want to obey first, but Evergreen was a great persuader and all it took to change their minds was to threaten to take her glasses off. Little crumbling the men left. Before stepping out of the house Laxus glanced toward the kitchen, his brows furrowed. It was the first time in years that someone has actually cried in his presence.
Evergreen huffed after the male members of her team and then turned to Lucy, who was silently shedding tears in her defensive position. Sighing she walked to the girl. "You now," She started gently as she crouched down to Lucy's level. The girl lifted her sad eyes to her. "Those guys... They don't mean any harm. I swear. They are just..." She tried to think how to put it nicely. "Rough. Freed adores Laxus like a god and sometimes because of that forgets what common sense is. Bickslow, he's not a bad guy. His sense of humor is just a bit twisted, but he never means any real harm with it. And Laxus... He's... Well, for certain reasons he doesn't think too highly of other people. And that's why he's clumsy when it come to human relationships. But when you get to know him, you'll see his not so bad." Evergreen smiled a little, before adding too quietly for Lucy to hear. "That is if you don't get on his bad side."
Lucy listened quietly, nodding here and there. Gradually her tears dried up, only the ones still glistering in her eyes remaining. When Evergreen was done, she wiped the under her nose and gave the brunette a weak smile. "I'm sorry for this." She referred to her tears. "And don't worry. i'm not blaming them for anything. I just overreacted. This is the first time I have left my home without an escort and I have never done anything like this before, rebel against my father that is. This is completely new town to me, with completely new people. I ended up giving nearly all my money to Laxus." Lucy let out a small laugh at the stupidity of it. "And that's why I had to sleep the night before in the park. I'm sorry." She apologized again for her tears as she wiped the remaining ones from her eyes. "I think I'm just stressed and tired and hungry, and unloaded it all like this." She assured while giving Evergreen a bright, genuine smile.
Evergreen gave Lucy careful look, then huffed. "That's good then." She stood up and walked to the stove. There on a pan, kept warm, was a couple of small pancakes. She took a plate from a cupboard and piled the pancakes on it. Then she walked to the fridge. She took out a butter and a glass bottle of orange juice. One by one she placed the items on her hands on the dinner table. Lastly she went to fetch some silverware, a mug and a bottle of golden syrup and added them to the setting. "Even if Bickslow is a moron, I can assure you, he makes the best pancakes in town." Evergreen turned to Lucy with a smile. She motioned the girl to come sit down and eat the small breakfast she had put up for her.
Lucy stood up and walked to the table. She hesitated a second, but then sat down. She put a tiny piece of butter on the pancakes and added some syrup. Carefully she cut a piece of a pancake, placing it in her mouth. Her eyes widened as the heavenly taste spread over her tongue. Evergreen hadn't been exaggerating when she called them the best in town. If something she had been belittling them. The extraordinary taste made Lucy's hunger spike even more and she started to stuff the pancakes in her mouth with little grace. She would never leave a whole day with only chips and crackers again!
Evergreen snorted at the sight. Then shaking her head she moved to wipe the coffee Laxus had spat on floor. She went to the sink to wet a rag. When she was about to squeeze the extra water out of it, she saw something moving in the corner of her eye. She immediately turned her head toward the doorway. Nothing moved and she was about to dismiss it when a tiny wooden wing appeared behind the door frame. Evergreen's expression wasn't the prettiest after that.
The brunette slammed the rag to the sink and marched toward the flying totem. The little doll peeked behind the frame and when it saw Evergreen approaching it flinched and tried to fly away. However, it was a millisecond too late to realize it had been discovered. A hand grabbed a hold on its' little body, pulling it back. There was nothing it could do when the front door slammed opened and it was thrown outside with a speed of a professionally thrown baseball. "Go tell your imbecile owner that all of them can come back!" Evergreen shouted after it and the doll did as told with pleasure. Anything to get away from the crazy lady.