Okay, I own neither Lord of the Rings nor Fairy Tail but I thought of it and it seemed fitting. Also I should write that somewhere in my writing corner.
"Can we talk about what happened with Em earlier?" Vander asked once everyone was back inside and settled at the table. "Particularly what it would take for Starfire to growl like that again."
"I don't know. I kinda just followed my gut," Lucy said with a grateful grin at him.
"My guess," Cristoff said, "is that Em first recognized an unfamiliar dragon slayer and reacted. Since dragons are matriarchal, both Lucy and Em could be Queens. My guess, since I know Lucy has been around more dragon slayers, how many have claimed you as kin?"
"Including Laxus, three: Wendy and Gajeel."
"A queen without kin can't rule. Em's only kin is me since she likes sleeping with Laxus too much," Cristoff said.
"You two?" Lucy said.
Emzadi shrugged. "Dragon stamina. By the way, I'm claiming her as kin so hands off." Her glare was directed at Vander who held his hands up. "It occurs to me that we definitely need to take you shopping," she said, glancing at her clothes.
Lucy perked up then remembered, "I definitely don't have enough money left for that."
"You know, I have some secretarial work that I could some help with," Arman said. "Why don't you go shopping tomorrow morning and work for me for a few hours in the afternoon?"
"Dad," Emzadi whined. "That's going to limit how much time we can shop."
Be glad. She'd have you out past midnight at least, Kaleb told Lucy.
"I appreciate the offer. Thank you."
While Emzadi sulked, Xally and Evergreen began to gush about their favorite shops that they'd need to stop by tomorrow. Zander would chime in with requests to judge Evergreen and Lucy in lingerie. Xally flicked water at him but Arman stopped before a full-blown food fight could start.
"Can we go back to you sleeping with Flamebreath?" Bickslow asked. "Losing your virginity to him couldn't have been pleasant. I'm Boscan. You could've asked me."
"One, I didn't know you were Boscan. And two, I lost it to Loke." Her former guildmates all made a sound of shock. "What?"
"Loke? That's Leo, right?" Cristoff asked.
When Lucy nodded, Arman said, "That makes sense."
"How does that make sense?" Emzadi asked.
"Celestial mages often lose their virginity to their spirits. I hadn't put much thought into it until Loke became contracted to me. We talked about it and he's a flirt so naturally he agreed."
"Your mother's first was Orion," Arman added.
"Oh, I've heard he's good. Almost all of his contracts are here in Bosco."
Arman nodded. "All Sudehpah based in Cellis have to be contracted to a human-based celestial spirit."
"Why do you think I avoid Cellis?" Vander chimed in.
"Oh, so you only bed virgins when it can cause an international crisis?" Farron asked.
"I only did that- how many times did I do that?"
"Too many," Arman, Farron, and Kaleb said at the same time.
"Raise your hand if you think he'll do it again," Emzadi said in a not subtle voice. Everyone raised their hands and after a few seconds, Vander did too.
With the exception of the women, Arman, and Kaleb, everyone went home. Kaleb defended his choice to crash in his old room by saying he wasn't in the mood to ask Cristoff to jump him to White Sea when Cristoff was going to his apartment in Pelerno. Arman gave him a 'I don't buy that' smile before heading off.
"Lucy," Kaleb said, catching her before she headed upstairs with the others. While Evergreen shot her a curious look, his two sisters didn't glance his way. "I wanted to say I'm sorry."
"Thank you." The two had wandered out to the balcony off the dining room. He couldn't help but muse that she was beautiful under the stars.
"I have the best intentions."
"I know, but it's still manipulative. Have you ever judged somebody not by their thoughts but by their actions?" She saw the flicker of uncertainty. "In one of your interviews, you said you came into your powers as a child. And then there's the Immaculate Light that I'm not even going to pretend to understand.
"I think the thoughts we act on are far more important than the ones that we don't. I'm sure you have thoughts that you don't act on because you know they wouldn't be appropriate." She smiled. It was a dangerous mischievous smile that was too familiar to Vander's for his comfort. "You know, I think at least twenty impossible things a day. And every day I think, I'm gonna make three of these possible." She inhaled with a slight shrug. "Now most of the time I don't succeed. But would you judge me harshly for those impossible things?"
She directed a thought at him. It was from her viewpoint but was of him in bed naked. Though there wasn't any real context to the thought, he knew how they'd ended up there. She followed it up with a few other thoughts. Most were during sex. Some he'd heard the night before, but some were new.
He stepped forward, cupped her jaw, and looked into her eyes. "Share pleasure with me?"
She smiled. "No." Despite her words, she continued to bombard him with images.
"Is that an indefinite no or a finite one?" His voice was husky and the thoughts she provided were arousing.
"It's an impossible thought to be shelved for the time being. Besides," she said, dancing out of his grip, "I have a long day tomorrow and I need my beauty sleep."
He was about to collapse, knowing that the closest bathhouse was already closed for the night.
She stepped back into the doorway. "By the way, there's an author named Sherri Ken who used you and your brothers as inspiration for her deliciously erotic novels. Complete with fanart." She sent him a few images with scenes and left with an almost devilish giggle. Then, because she was feeling particularly evil, she also sent him fanart of his brothers as well.
-oOo-
Lucy and Evergreen collapsed onto the couches in the first living room, not caring where they dropped their bags. Xally looked exhausted as well but was doing infinitely better than the other two. Emzadi was the only one that wasn't exhausted. She'd insisted on dragging them to a dozen stores with the reminder that they had to be back by one. Nor did she seem to care about the sheer volume of clothes.
"Here," Xally said, bringing them glasses of water.
"Why do you not look ready the keel over?" Evergreen said crankily.
"I'm used to Em's shop 'til you drop-a-thons. You should've seen the one right after I got back from the university. I ended up calling Cris."
"Ah. I was hoping to avoid this," Arman said with a chuckle.
"Oh! I'll be up there-" Lucy tried to bounce up- "as soon as I can feel my legs."
"It's all right. I'm sure it won't take much time."
It took a few minutes and she still had jelly legs, but she made it to his office. The doors to her temporary study were closed since she'd decided to use the hall door. When she'd asked about the two doors, Arman told her he'd had them done when he and Ganier were first married so that even when they were working, they weren't far apart.
In the center of the room, were four large boxes filled with envelopes. "I'm going to have you sort the requests for my sons."
"These are all requests?" She knew that arranged marriages were illegal in Bosco, it didn't mean that potential suitors or their parents wouldn't send requests in the hope that a spark might happen.
He gestured to the labels on each. "For Farron's, just copy the address onto an envelope and add the note saying that he's Promised. For Kaleb's, unless you recognize the name as being prestigious, toss it. Otherwise, send the thank you but not at this time. Personally, I think he should consider them, but he's refused. Cristoff's are a bit more complicated. Since he'll eventually mate, he tries to meet all of them to see if his dragon is interested. He's convinced his mate will be a mage so unless it's explicitly said that the potential is a mage, toss it. Everyone gets a letter."
"What does his letters say?"
"That he's at the Pelerno guildhall the last Tuesday of every month and to understand that as a dragon slayer he's looking for a mate. And a reminder that he's in high demand and therefore might be called away on a mission."
"So, he goes to see if his dragon shares his interest?"
"Yes. And lastly, Vander. If it's not Boscan, toss it. If it is, send them a letter that says he's not looking to settle down but if they're interested in sharing pleasure for a night, send back a letter with a star in the corner of the envelope and he might get back to you if he's interested. Set aside any that I might have missed the stars."
She nodded and started sorting Vander's first. "Does he ever respond?"
"He has no problem attracting lovers, but I know occasionally he gets curious about them. Mostly, he just thinks they're boring.
"What happened between you and my son last night?"
Lucy flushed and took a few minutes to decide if she really wanted to have this conversation with him. "We mostly talked about why I didn't like him intruding on my thoughts."
"Mhm. And the reason why he felt the need to go to the bathhouse just after sunrise?"
"He asked me to share pleasure," she mumbled.
Arman heard her perfectly. At first, he was ecstatic until he realized that the only reason Kaleb would have searched out an attendant was if he'd been rejected. "You said no?" Then, more to himself, he added, "That has to be a first."
"You know where are Em's and Xally's requests?"
He chuckled and let her change the subject. "They prefer to take of their own letters."
They continued to talk as they worked. It is half him needling for information on which of his sons was her favorite. The other half was her bouncing ideas off him concerning potential leads as well as book ideas.
"Some friends from Fiore are visiting for a bit. I already talked to Cristoff and he said we could stay in one of the White Sea apartments for a few days."
"Feel free to bring them over."
"I appreciate that. They're coming to help me do research and bring some stuff from Fiore."
Lucy was nearly done with the last box, Kaleb's box, when she said, "You've been trying to set me up with one of your sons. Why ask me to do this?"
Arman stood, walked over to her, and squatted so that he was at her eyelevel. "Your last lover left your bed." She gasped. "You didn't say anything or think it for Kaleb could hear. It was an educated guess. I don't know which one you'll choose or even if you actually will choose one, but with my sons, it won't be because they had no other options. It'll be because you were the only option that mattered." He pulled the envelope out of her hand and replaced it with one heavy with her payment.
"This feels like a lot," Lucy said, not counting it.
"I'm not taking it back," he said in a sing-song voice. "Go hang out with my daughters and let them convince to become their sister-in-law."
She giggled and stood. Before leaving, she glanced at the three boxes.
Any guesses on who's visiting? And yes, I made a Dark Hunters joke but come on. I couldn't resist. (I also really don't own Dark Hunters. Sherrilynn Kenyon does.)