Chapter 55: Relax, Dreamer
Hot sun. Hot sand. Hot tan lines.
A large group of Fairy Tail members were gathered on the beach for a day in the sun, including all of Team Derelict Heart. Why? Because Master Makarov had scheduled a mandatory relaxation day for Dreamer when he caught her moping in the kitchen with a half-eaten tub of ice cream. "Would you stop worrying about Resmond, young lady?!" He'd ordered a day at the beach and also confiscated her ice cream.
So now, being forced to relax, Dreamer stood with her feet in the cool salty water, gazing at the horizon. Behind her, Fairy Tail shenanigans were already in full swing.
Erik was lying in a beach chair under an umbrella, arms behind his head, eyes slanted in Kinana's direction. The young woman was wrapped tightly in an oversized beach towel, cheeks as red as a sunburn.
"Well?" he raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to get in the water or what?"
She fidgeted uncomfortably and looked at the ground. "I… Maybe I'll just go back to the guild…"
Erik sat up and stared harshly at her, amethyst eyes catching rays of sunlight. "Stop thinking that," he snapped. She cast her eyes down at the sand.
"I really wish you couldn't hear my thoughts sometimes…"
I can't be out here! This was a stupid idea! Letting the girls pick a bikini out for me… No one wants to see an overweight girl in a bikini… What will he think of me? There are so many beautiful girls out here. Skinnier than me. Prettier than me.
"I said cut it out," Erik snapped.
"Stop listening!" She put her blushing face in her hands.
"Look," he bared a fang, irritated. "You think I care what you look like? How many times do I have to tell you? It doesn't matter what body you have or what form you're in, you're still my Cubellios. That's all that matters to me."
She gasped, eyes sparkling with emotion.
That's nice, but… I want you to think I'm attractive in this body.
"You're seriously not getting the point." He sighed heavily. "Of course you're attractive to me, Kinana. You're. My. Cubellios."
She swallowed nervously, thoroughly embarrassed by this entire exchange. He closed his eyes and chuckled under his breath.
"What's so funny?" she asked, defensively clutching the towel closer. She really wished she could read his mind.
"Kind of reminds me of the time I couldn't find you anywhere in Zero's base. Turned out, you were hiding in the boiler room, embarrassed because you were shedding."
Even though she couldn't remember this, she still felt an uncomfortable twist in her stomach.
"I thought you were beautiful then, and I think you're beautiful now."
"Oh!"
These words hung in the humid air. Finally convinced, she nodded resolutely and took her towel off to reveal a sparkling green two-piece. He glanced at her and smirked.
"See. I don't know what you were worried about."
She giggled, all uncertainty gone. She grabbed his hand suddenly, pulling him from the chair. "Come on! Let's get in the water together!"
"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute! I don't even have sunscreen on and I don't need more of a tan!"
Closer to the water, Syllest was building a sand castle with Jezran. They'd already constructed a three-foot-tall identical model of the Excalibur Estate. It was quite silly, the sight of a little girl in a blue swimming dress, giggling as a tattoo riddled, much older thug placed a stick in the top of one of the towers.
Natsu, Piper, Gray, Elfman, and a battle-form Pantherlily were having a swimming race. Carla was tanning with a reflector on the beach, which was funny considering fur should be impossible to tan. A group of girls were chatting and applying sun screen to each other's backs, to include Lucy, Juvia, Cana, and Levy. A volley ball game was happening farther down the beach, and Mirajane and Erza were in a surfing competition. At the top of a sandy dune, Reedus was painting the beautiful scene.
"Hey, Beth!" Gajeel strode up to a cluster of umbrellas, where curled on a beach towel, in full clothing to include coat and boots and sunglasses, Macbeth was curled up in a ball—asleep. He didn't respond, so Gajeel chucked a seashell at his head. "You really gonna sleep all day?"
"I'm going to try," came the testy response.
"Come on, man! Get up and enjoy the sun! And the scenery…" There was a suggestive hint to his tone, as he glanced over at Levy in a striped swimsuit.
"No thanks. I'll burn." He tugged his coat further over his face.
"No way, I'll put sunscreen on you!" Gajeel held up a sunscreen container.
"Touch me and I'll murder you."
"Alright, fine." Gajeel turned toward the beach with his hands on his hips. "Hey! Dreamer! Get over here!"
Macbeth narrowed a red eye at Gajeel. "Don't."
Dreamer glanced over her shoulder to see Gajeel standing in black swim trunks, hands on his hips, shouting for her. A pile of black clothes marked Macbeth's presence beside him.
She started toward them.
"You know," Gajeel squatted next to Macbeth. "Levy said it's pretty unheard of for your girl to dress in anything revealing."
"That's because she was trying to hide the fact she's not Syllestra's mother." He yawned and pointedly did not respond to the "your girl" part of this phrase.
"Doesn't look like she's hiding anything now."
She was in a dark pink bikini that almost perfectly matched the shade of Macbeth's Fairy Tail mark, and which also accentuated the pink of her irises.
"Don't you have anything better to do than harass me, Gajee?" Macbeth taunted, officially burrowing his head under the coat, almost as if to hide.
"Nah."
"What's up?" Dreamer stood in front of them, head cocked to the side.
"Beth here needs some help applying sunscreen," Gajeel smirked widely.
Dreamer's cheeks caught color. "Ah… Macbeth?"
"Go away," he snapped.
"Hey, use your charm magic to persuade him to get off his lazy ass," Gajeel commanded.
"You know it doesn't work if he knows I'm using it," she sighed. "Just let him sleep, Gajeel."
"Yeah, whatever." Gajeel crossed his arms with a pout. "You're both boring as hell, you know that? I'm gonna get in on that race." With that, he charged across the sand and dove into the water to catch up with the swimmers.
Dreamer now stood awkwardly at Macbeth's feet. She cleared her throat. He made no effort to move. She released a quiet sigh and turned to leave, deciding to help Syllest and Pops with their sandcastle. But before she'd taken a step…
"Dream."
She paused and looked back over her shoulder at him. He sat up and stretched with a yawn. "I want to go back to the guild hall," he said, with the hint of a whine. "It's too hot out here." And bright. And sandy. And just about everything else he didn't like.
"You know, it would be less hot if you weren't dressed in all black and an overcoat." She rolled her eyes. "You can go back if you want. Master said I have to stay out here until lunch."
Instead of responding, he slid out of his coat. Then his boots. Then the fur scarf. Then unclasped his belt.
"What are you doing?" she swallowed dryly, eyes naturally drawn to the bare skin of his stomach.
"Cooling off," he said simply. He tossed the belt, unbuttoned his pants. Dreamer chewed her lip, not sure where exactly she should be looking right now. She opted for watching the girls chat on their beach blanket, though she occasionally looked back at Macbeth undressing.
Finally, he was unclad but for his dream catcher necklace and a pair of white swim trunks. Which meant he'd planned on getting in the water all along.
She tried not to look at him too closely. Tried. But she'd never seen Macbeth in anything less than a halter top and pants. Never seen him this exposed. Now, her eyes flitted over the lean muscles of his torso.
"What's wrong, Dream?" A smirk touched his lips. "You look a little red. Are you getting a sunburn?"
"N-No, I'm fine!" Her eyelashes fluttered and she forced herself to look away. The cruel gleam in his teeth told her that he didn't buy it for a second. He shrugged and laid back down on the beach towel on his stomach. "You got undressed just to go back to sleep?"
"Sunscreen," he said casually, pointing to the bottle Gajeel had left.
"…Wait, you're serious?" She stood rooted to the spot, stomach alive with butterflies.
"What's wrong, Dream?" his voice was a teasing drawl. "Scared?"
"No, of course not!" She huffed indignantly and sat on her knees at his side, snatching up the bottle. "I'm just surprised, that's all." She slathered sunscreen in her hands and tried to sound confident. "You used to hate being touched."
"I can make a special exception for you, sweet Dream."
She inhaled sharply, and purposely averted her eyes while she pressed her palms against the taut muscles of his back. "Don't tease me," she said quietly. Her mind wandered to the night in the garden. Knees touching. Her hand on his bare stomach. His lips, so close… The beach suddenly felt a hundred times hotter.
She rubbed the sunscreen into his skin and did her absolute best not to let her fingers linger. She absently thought about how many people thought he looked girly. Clearly they'd never felt the solid strength of his muscles. For a moment, she thought he was perfectly masculine.
"There." She sat back on her haunches and swallowed dryly once more. He sat up and stretched, only accenting his muscles even more.
"Hm. Shame. I could fall asleep with you touching me."
"D-Don't say things like that!" She crossed her arms and averted her gaze. She could feel his red stare piercing her bare skin, so she looked back at him. He was propped up, eyes flicking over her skin and fixing themselves on her bikini clad chest, which was plumped up by her crossed arms. "H-Hey!" She covered her breasts instinctively. "Could you be any less obvious when you stare at my boobs?!"
He smirked and gave a nonchalant shrug, clearly unremorseful.
Her blush deepened. She gave a "hmph" and turned her back on him, drawing her knees to her chest and pouting like a child. "You're such a jerk…"
"You knew that already," he stated.
"Why do you do that?" She buried her face in her knees.
"Do what?" He was grinning ear to ear. "Torment you?"
"You know, most people would call it 'teasing' or 'flirting!' Why does everything have to be about torture with you, geez?!" And… was he flirting? She felt like he had been lately, but… It was impossible to tell with him.
"I love your reactions," he answered, drawing closer to her. She bundled herself up tighter but he leaned forward and breathed against the skin of her neck. His breath was cool on her sunburnt skin. "You're so entertaining."
"Well I wish you'd stop!" His breath made her skin prickle.
"Do you really?" His voice drawled in mocking disbelief. He moved closer and put his hands on her shoulders to turn her toward him. She instinctively bent to his will and looked at him. The faint smirk, the devious eyes.
"I…" She didn't know what to say or do. He really was tormenting her. Ever since they'd almost kissed… No, before that. Asking her to stay in his bed. Wrapping his arms around her. The teasing, the grazing of her skin. The way he'd lower his head to her neck to whisper some kind of unholy threat, which for some reason always made her insides burn with pleasant flame. She'd already admitted to herself how she felt about him, but she didn't know if he felt the same. Honestly, she was afraid to know. What if he really was just teasing her for kicks? What if she was just a game to him? A toy?
The thought hurt. She wanted to be more than that to Macbeth. More than a toy or game. More than a teammate. She wanted…
"Dream…" His low voice brought her back to the present. His eyes bore into hers. He reached up and brushed her cheek with his thumb. His touch jolted her. His eyes wandered down to her chest, then up to her chin, her eyes, her lips… Consuming crimson. Sparkling rubies. He lifted a finger and gestured for her to come closer.
She forgot they were at the beach. She forgot about all the Fairy Tail members around them. She couldn't hear the background noise anymore. All she heard was the pounding of her own heart. The only thing she was aware of was Macbeth's swallowing gaze. She was weak to his command, and leaned forward to obey. A faint smirk painted his lips. He threaded his fingers into her hair and tilted her head back, just a bit. His hand slid down to her shoulder—the other cupped her jaw.
"M-Macbeth?" Her skin felt like it was boiling. They were sharing breaths—so close… She'd wanted this moment for so long… Stayed up at night thinking of his parted lips, his vortex eyes gleaming only for her…
His thumb stroked her cheek—his fingertips danced on her collarbone—his nails tickled her scalp.
Wait… If one hand was on her shoulder and the other on her cheek, then… What was in her hair?
She let out an ear piercing screech and jumped up off the towel, shaking her hair. She wildly threw her hands through her hair and screamed again when something latched onto her finger. In another second she was trying desperately to flick a crab off of her hand, where it had pinched on for dear life. Meanwhile, Macbeth was literally rolling on the sand laughing so hard that he was crying.
"GET IT OFF!" She screamed and flailed like a fish until the crab had had enough and finally soared through the sky and dove back into the sea. Dreamer stood panting for breath, hair completely disheveled, teeth gritted hard enough to crack. "YOU BASTARD!" This outburst caused a few curious gazes to turn their way.
Macbeth couldn't breathe or speak for laughing so hard.
"I hate you! I'm going to go sit with the girls. Away from YOU!" She picked up her towel and huffed, stomping through the sand. She paused suddenly, tears welling in her eyes. "I thought you were really going to kiss me that time."
His laughter died at once. She sniffled slightly and started to walk again, the chill of rejection making her suddenly feel cold, despite the setting. She didn't want to be anywhere near him anymore.
"…Do you want me to?" His voice called after her, low and thoughtful.
Her heart caught in her throat and she blushed. "N-No! I just want you to leave me alone!" She made to run but something tugged her back. It took her a moment to realize he was using his magic to tug her towel back toward him. "Let go, Macbeth!"
She looked at him and his eyes were big and desperate. "Come back," he whined like a child, pouting slightly.
"No! You can't trick me with your stupid kitty cat eyes, okay? Just leave me alone!" She pulled against the towel.
His expression turned devious. "Come back." It was a command this time, deep and threatening. "There are other strings I can pull to bring you back to me."
Her bikini top straps seemed to loosen slightly.
She gasped and instinctively covered herself, with a nervous glance at everyone else on the beach. "Okay! Okay!" She blushed ferociously and started back toward him.
She sat back down beside him but her heart was still heavy. She sighed and willed herself not to cry in front of him. How could she be so stupid? She actually expected him to kiss her?
"Dreamer." He called her attention to him. She looked and got caught yet again in his red eyes, which looked like embers in a fire. There was no smirk on his face now. "Do you want me to kiss you?"
She averted her gaze and felt the tears prick again. "I… I don't know…" She cleared her throat. "I guess it depends on, you know… how you feel about me." Was this really happening? Was she talking feelings with Macbeth right now? The sun must have fried her brains…
"You don't already know?" His stare could burn holes through her, just like real embers.
"No. I try not to read your emotions, okay?" She sighed heavily. "I just… What am I to you, Macbeth?" She looked at him again. She had to know… Am I just a game to you? Or…
His response was without words. He reached for her again but she swatted him back.
"Hands!" She demanded.
He laughed and showed that his hands were empty of any pinching sea creatures. She nodded and went back to feeling embarrassed and exposed. And he went back to reaching for her. His hands pressed on her shoulders, pushing her down on the sand. Her breath hitched and she swallowed nervously when he hovered over her, red eyes staring down.
Those eyes flickered back and forth between hers. Down along her chin and neck, collarbone and breasts. Back up to her lips.
"M-Macbeth, people will see us…" It was an excuse. She didn't care if the whole world saw, if he really did feel the same way about her. That was all that mattered, but she was afraid to admit that.
He lowered his head and snuggled his hair against hers, breath on her ear. "What are you to me?" His voice was a tremble. A whisper. "You're my sweet dream."
His words elicited an unwarranted sigh from the base of her throat. She was as red as possible, all the blood rushing to the surface of her skin.
"Oh, Dream…" Husky. Heavy. He pulled his head back and stared at her again. One of his hands found her bare side and stroked the skin there, sending shudders down her spine. Then, he began to lower his face toward hers, closing the distance.
She parted her lips in expectation. Desire. Please, kiss me this time. Please, oh Mavis, let him kiss me this time!
The couple had garnered the attention of some of the other members. In the water, Pantherlily had reverted to his chibi form. "They seem to have gotten close."
Gajeel followed his gaze and smirked widely at the sight of a shirtless Macbeth drawing his mouth toward Dreamer's. "Heh. That's my Beth. It's about damn time."
"I take that to mean you will be kissing Ms. McGarden soon?" Pantherlily asked, innocently.
"What?! Shut up, Lily, you don't know what you're talking about!"
Back under the umbrella...
"Macbeth, I…" Dreamer whispered. This was it…
Suddenly, his finger was on her lips. She blinked in surprise. His red eyes sparkled mischievously, but they also brimmed with passion. Then, with his own finger still in the way of a full kiss—a real kiss, he pressed his lips against hers. He was kissing her... No, he was kissing his own finger, millimeters from her lips.
It was so unfair.
He leaned back after a long moment, a black smirk painted on his lips. "That's all for now, sweet Dream."
"You're a demon from hell," she said darkly.
"That's the best compliment you've ever given me."
She kneed him in the stomach and rolled him off of her so she could stand up defiantly. "Shrivel in the sun," she ordered.
"And I'm the sadistic one," he taunted.
She crossed her arms over her chest angrily. Of course he'd just teased her again, but… The look in his eyes… She felt high and giddy and tingly all over. She had a prophetic sense that it wouldn't be long before she got a real kiss from him. Maybe that time, she'd be the one to pull away, just to see how he liked it.
She wasn't sure how she knew, but she was almost certain now… Macbeth felt something for her. She could sense it in the air around him when he'd been looking down at her. His emotions were always confusing to detect, but there was no denying the intensity that had emanated from him.
He didn't try to stop her when she walked away this time. Instead, he watched her go before laying back down on the beach towel and staring up at the umbrella over him. There was a bitter frown on his face. He closed his eyes and remembered his conversation with Gajeel.
I'm part of the light?
"Ooooh, girl, what was that about?" Levy cooed as soon as Dreamer had reached them.
"Nothing," she said quickly before sitting with the girls.
"Didn't look like nothing," Cana said, with a chug from some mixed drink in a half of a coconut.
Dreamer looked over her shoulder at Macbeth's form lying on the beach.
"Maybe, it was… something."