Dare
As far as dares go, this one was creative. Each Fairy Tail girl had been given a dare and they needed to have proof of completion by the tonight. Those who failed were knocked out of the competition for Most Daring Female Fairy, and day one dares were easy. All she had to do was have a philosophical conversation with Natsu and Happy. It had taken a while to figure out which topic to talk about, it had to be something Natsu couldn't make a snap judgment on and end, and she hoped she had made a good choice.
"Hey Natsu, have you ever heard of a philosopher called Plato?" she asked as they were lazing about the guild. She had set up a recording lacrima for her proof.
"Philo-what-its?"
"A philosopher, someone who thinks about how the world works, they are usually very wise. Plato was a very famous one." Natsu had his chin resting on his folded arms, but he seemed willing to talk.
"A wise man huh? Who gets to decide that one person is wiser than another?" Wait, that was a philosophical question, this was going to be so much easier than she thought. Lucy considered her answer carefully.
"The general public I guess, or yourself. Philosophers publish their works so other people can benefit from how they think the world works, if people agree that the book rings true, then that man is wise." Natsu snorted.
"But people in general are stupid and only hear and like the things that make them feel better about themselves. Plenty of people think I'm stupid because I'm impulsive and it makes them feel better about themselves to think I have such an obvious weakness. They also like to think that you are physically weak because they can't stand someone as pretty as you being able to kick their butts. Idiots, all of them." Wow, Natsu was making a lot of great points and she was genuinely interested, she must have the easiest dare out of everyone. Though there will be no end to the teasing for the fact that he called her pretty.
Wait, Natsu called her pretty. She blushed deep red in response to his unintentional compliment. He was looking at her amused and she needed to get her blush under control ASAP.
"Have you really heard people talk about us like that?" He shrugged, but refused to meet her eye.
"Sometimes I overhear generalizations that people would think twice before saying to my face. Also, your doll comes with clothes that pop off, if that isn't defining a person based solely on their looks, I don't know what is. Do people think you want your clothes to come off? From standing next to you, I know that your clothes come off because you have taken so many hits and been in so many dangerous situations that they are literally torn to shreds along with your skin and you simply put on another outfit and keep fighting. Bottom line: people are idiots and no judge of who is wise." She was so going to hear it from Levy and Mira, but the compliment was wonderful all the same.
"Well, what if we talked about it and decided whether or not he had some good points. We can decide for ourselves then whether or not Plato is worth listening to."
"Sure,"
"He lived a really long time ago, so while he may have considered this as literal, people call it wisdom in the metaphor. Plato claims that when humans first started walking the Earth, we looked very different. We had two heads, four legs, four arms, and two hearts, but when the gods saw these creatures, they became afraid of their power and majesty. So, in an act of fear, they separated each human into two beings, what we look like today, and doomed us to forever looking for our other half. What do you think?" She could have explained the metaphor, but Natsu was good at cutting through crap and stating his point, she really wanted to see what he made of it.
"I think the gods were foolish," he said after a while, surprising her.
"Why?"
"Because the humans had no reason to hate the gods until they intervened. The gods were scared of their power? Well now they have reason to be, once the human finds their other half not only are they powerful again, but that anger is unleashed directly at anyone who tried to separate them. Beings that don't know pain have no reason to cause it."
An image came into her mind then, several actually, Natsu's face when he wanted to take on Phantom headquarters just the two of them, his face when the Minister of Defense had Lucy arrested, the peek of him she got through the fingers of Cain crushing her skull, and confidence as he comforted future Lucy. When they were together he considered them unstoppable, and when Lucy was about to be separated from him long term, he looked like he was the one dying.
"Acting out of fear is usually dumb," Lucy said while pondering the meaning of the memories, "Do you really think there is someone out there who when you are together have the power to challenge the gods?" He smirks at that.
"Of course," he said, "Don't you think that together we could take on any silly old gods? Why else would we be a team able to take on the toughest jobs." Wait, wait, wait, did he really just say that? Maybe he really didn't get the metaphor if he was saying things like that, because, if he was saying that, it might have to be one of the most romantic confessions she had ever heard of.
"So, is Plato wise?" Lucy asked, choosing to ignore the implications of what he just said.
"Yeah, I think he is. Now, nice talking, but Happy ran out of fish this morning so we need to go fishing again. See you tomorrow for a job, kay?" I nod and watch him leave with a Happy that had woken up when he heard the word fish.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Mira pulling the recording out of the machine and taking it to the back where all the other dare evidence was stored. She could only imagine what tomorrow's dare would be based off of that. At least the viewing was at her house tonight, she could kick them out before the teasing lasted longer than an hour.
*************Nalu******************
A/N: So, I felt like uploading some more. This is dedicated to FTW FairyTailWonders who not only started following this story, but was the first to review the latest chapter of Never Soloing Again.