Away from prying eyes, Mira and Laxus had a far more interesting relationship than most of the guild knew about. What most people saw was the pair fighting, and it usually came down to Laxus saying something Mira considered rude or chauvinistic. It led many guild members to believe that they might even be a couple, and if asked they would protest it a little too loudly. The truth came down to one thought that Mirajane Strauss had when she first met the boy a mere four years older than her: 'It must be lonely not having siblings.' The better she got to know him as he became a moody teenager, the more that thought evolved into something along the lines of: 'He would be a better person if he had an older sister to beat some sense into him.' That had been the plan, of course, but then she'd lost all confidence in herself as a sister and magic user when Lisanna died. She'd given up on her mission to be Laxus' older sister until Laxus had pulled that stunt during the attack of Phantom Lord.
"Tell her if she becomes my woman, I'll help out. And tell that geezer to hurry up and retire so he can give me the master's position."
Along with another jab about Cana stripping, these were the words that reminded Mira of her previous resolution and why it was so necessary. At the time he had been twenty-three and needed to be reigned in before he became one of those men. It was a tragedy, really, since Laxus had been a fairly sweet boy. Little did Laxus or Mirajane realize that those words caused a chain reaction of events that would eventually ensnare an unsuspecting Lucy Heartfilia.
"What's the bet this year?" Laxus asked, leaning against the wall in the dark beer cellar where Mira was taking stock of their pumpkin beer for their upcoming Halloween party. Mirajane loved parties and now that Laxus had been allowed back into the guild by Gildarts she was back to squishing his ridiculous ego any way she could. Mira knew now that she was a very good older sister considering how well her younger brother had done in the Grand Magic Games and other more personal interests that he thought she didn't know about. A good older sister knew how to convince a younger brother to play a game they were inevitably going to lose. It didn't matter that Laxus was older than her. She would turn him into a good man if it meant she needed to kill him and resurrect him first.
"You sound confident, Laxus." Mira hummed. The fact that he had come to her this year was a great sign.
"After the outcome of the Grand Magic Games, I'm certain that I can get any woman in Fairy Tail, let alone any of the other guilds." he said while smirking. Mirajane didn't let it get to her.
"Is that so?" she said turning to smile at him. Laxus felt a cold shiver move down his spine but made a great effort not to show her that it was affecting him. He raised a hand to halt their smiling cold war.
"I have one rule – no married person can be part of the bet." It wasn't that Laxus didn't think he could have Bisca if he wanted to, but he just didn't want to deal with the fallout later.
"I can agree with that rule," she replied, looking back at the paper she was using to tally the guild's barrels. She did this to hide her genuinely happy expression. For him to say such a thing was real progress. "however, I will have to add one more level of difficulty to our annual bet: I will choose your costume for the party." Laxus repressed laughter, realizing that it meant he too would be choosing her costume. That alone would make the bet worth it. He rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
"Sounds like fun. So who's the lucky lady this year?" he asked. Mira looked over at him, raising her eyebrows.
"You know I can't tell you that until the evening of the party." she replied factually. The rules of the game were that they would give the name of one person at the party to be the other person's target. They had to do whatever action was written on the paper they pulled from a hat with that person. They both wrote an equal number of actions on slips of paper so it was fifty-fifty whether one of the actions she had written would come up. Either way, the game was a great way to remind Laxus that social skills were an important part of life and that he couldn't use his body to solve every problem that came his way.
The day of the Halloween party, Team Natsu was getting their costumes ready. This year they had decided to coordinate costumes, although it had been made more difficult by Natsu's constant need to compete with Gray and the fact that said ice mage's costume depended on his ability to keep it on.
Erza looked herself over in the mirror, appreciating the shine of her armoured knight's costume.
"Erza, I understand that these costumes go together really well but I thought the whole point of Halloween was to dress as something you aren't." Lucy said as gently as she could. She had been chosen to dress as the princess if only because she already owned a gown. She had been unable to leave it behind when she'd left home. It had sentimental value for Lucy so she'd never intended to wear it. Being tied into her mother's old dress brought on a lot of strange feelings, but it wasn't like it would fit anyone else even if she was alright with lending it to her less than gentle team. Wearing it herself made her anxious because her time with Fairy Tail had been surprisingly fatal to many outfits. She took a deep breath and reminded herself that this was just a party and that it wasn't like they were fighting perverted dragons again. It was just a party, yet she didn't feel any more at ease.
"It was the only way to get Natsu to agree to a group costume theme without fighting Gray." Erza stated simply. Lucy sighed, as she could hear Natsu and Gray bickering as they entered her apartment window.
"I'd be a better king than you, black ice!" Natsu complained. To prove his point, he pulled a very beautiful crown from a sack he was carrying. Lucy felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand as she recognized the plundered crown.
"If you wear that you're going to get all of us arrested, flame brain!" Gray replied with equal fervor.
"Natsu, why do you still have that?!" Lucy squeaked. There was something extremely fitting about the image of Natsu proudly holding the actual king's crown while dressed as a dragon.
"Natsu. Gray." Erza said calmly. Their bickering died instantly. "Natsu, I thought you wanted to dress as Igneel for Halloween?"
"Aye!" agreed Happy as he flew in the window behind them. Lucy squinted, and silently wondered how they'd both managed to climb up to her window without the blue exceed's help.
"Happy, your costume is so cute!" Lucy said while looking at the tiny blue exceed in his own dragon costume.
"Juvia is ready to be Gray-sama's queen at any time!" Juvia said while flinging herself at Gray. He moved slightly to the left and she landed unceremoniously on Lucy's couch with her crown tilted. As Lucy helped Juvia up and fixed her crown, she had to admit that Juvia did make a beautiful queen. When she wasn't fawning over Gray, she could be quite composed.
"GRAY!" Erza bellowed suddenly. "If you don't put your shirt back on this instant I will not be held responsible for what I do to you!" It was not lost on the rest of the group that the person most invested in their group costumes was the scarlet haired woman. They might have been called Team Natsu but Erza Scarlet was definitely their leader.
When the group did arrive at the guild hall for the party, Gray was tied up in some rather impressive knots to prevent him from stripping. A knight carrying in her king tied in bondage knots was not the entrance they had planned, but it probably suited them better anyway. The group costume theme worked on two levels: the individual characters were fitting but overall they were all characters from a fairy tale. Despite their entrance, the master was still very pleased.
"Wow! Nothing less from our Titania!" he praised as Erza dumped Gray unceremoniously on the floor.
Laxus wasn't paying attention to their display because he was heading to the bar under the guise of getting drinks for the Thunder God Tribe. He slipped into the backroom where Mira now kept most of their liquor because of Cana's habit of just grabbing a barrel for herself. He triumphantly pulled a bundle of clothing out from under his coat and handed it to the mischievous barmaid. She unfolded it and looked it over without the reaction he'd hoped for.
"That's it? Well, okay. Here's yours." Mira's greatest asset in their bets was her body, or so he had thought. He'd found the least sexy costume ever: the Tenrou tree. Her reaction made him nervous as he hesitantly reached out to take the costume she had prepared for him.
"Where's the rest of it?" He questioned, holding up a black bow tie and some sort of black tube of material. He realized in horror a moment later that it was a short skirt.
"That's all of it." she said looking pleased. He had been so focused on finding a costume that wouldn't be flattering on Mira that he had completely overlooked the possibility of a cross-dressing sexy costume, if it could be called that much. He was almost certain this was closer to lingerie. It horrified him further that there was a short leather skirt in this world that fit his measurements. He eyed her wearily as a wicked smile grew on her lips. "Well, there are some stickers for your nipples but I didn't think you'd want them." She held up two gold star shaped stickers for emphasis. He managed to stifle a groan, not wanting to give her the satisfaction.
"Fine! It's time to exchange names." he said, pulling a small strip of paper from his pocket. He placed it on the barrel they were using as a makeshift table between them with the words facing down. She did the same, and then they filled the hat with the other paper strips. They'd formed this ritual because it was harder to choose a target person when one had no idea what the action would be. Either way, Laxus was confident with his choice this year, having carefully observed to see which guild members were more likely to go along with Mira's silly games. He was certain she had chosen the same way, so he'd made an effort to be at the very least not rude to anyone for the last week. They locked eyes, his orange clashing against her blue. She very carefully plucked a paper from the hat and revealed it to him. He managed to not laugh out loud and merely smiled widely.
"Hug -" she read aloud. He then lifted the piece of paper with her target written on it. "Freed Justine." She sighed heavily. Another rule to make the game harder was that the target had to initiate the action, and it was going to be a long night for Mira if her goal was to somehow convince Freed that he wanted to hug her. She mentally made a note that next year she would make it a rule that Laxus wasn't allowed to pick anyone in the Thunder God Tribe because of their obvious loyalties. If anything, looking like the Tenrou tree might increase the odds that he'd hug her without realizing it was her. The takeover mage accepted the challenge gracefully, knowing that Laxus was going to have his own difficulties besides wearing a short skirt.
Laxus was absolutely certain that whatever he drew couldn't be nearly as difficult as what Mira now had to do. So he picked a paper out of the hat nonchalantly and unrolled it so that Mira could see it first. It was not reassuring that the white haired woman burst into giggles. He flipped the paper over and couldn't figure out what was so funny.
"Kiss-" he read aloud, following her lead as she lifted the paper she'd written his target on so he could read it. "Lucy Heartfilia. Shit." The biggest challenge in these games most of the time was the crowd that the target tended to hang around. Convincing the buxom blonde to kiss him while he was wearing a mini skirt was one thing, but it was entirely another to manage this feat with pests like Natsu, Gray, and Erza nearby. He'd hoped to avoid seeing the pink haired runt that evening because of his embarrassing costume, but that was now impossible.
"It's going to be a great party, isn't it?" Mira said as she emptied all the papers into a metal garbage tin before he used a lightning bolt to ignite a flame within. It would be bad for both of them if any evidence remained of their game. Laxus tried to look on the bright side as he eyed his costume: at least he didn't have to paint anyone's toe nails this time.
In the hall, Gajeel had taken the opportunity to play more music on the stage. Lucy sighed with relief as Levy was recruited as his lone back up dancer. Lucy began to wonder if anyone in Fairy Tail really understood the point of Halloween, because she wasn't sure that a punk rocker counted as a costume for someone like Gajeel. It was also less than subtle that Levy was also dressed as a punk rocker with fake piercings and all. Just like how Juvia's costume actually suited her, Levy's wild blue hair also fit her costume well.
"Hey! Watch it!" Gray said, nearly knocking Lucy over in his motion to dodge Natsu's flames.
"Dragons breathe fire!" Natsu replied. Lucy's attention was torn from Levy's downright adorable attempt at playing a tambourine on stage as she also tried to distance herself from Natsu. It did her no good though, because they all went down like dominoes when Erza pushed Natsu. Natsu grabbed onto the edge of Gray's cape which made the ice mage trip and fall towards Lucy. She paled as she hit the floor and heard a sickening ripping sound. She dared not breathe at first, and prayed fervently that it had been Gray's ridiculously long cape that had made the noise.
"Lucy, are you alright?" Natsu said, drawing her attention to the fact that she was the only one still on the floor. As she sat up, she looked down at her dress helplessly. The bodice had ripped in half, revealing her tightly laced corset. "Luce?" Natsu's voice tugged at her attention and she looked at him. The devastated look on her face quickly melted into sheer rage as she stood up and suddenly grabbed Natsu and Gray by their collars before knocking their heads together in the most savage display she had shown Fairy Tail to date. She felt Mira pull her away, and looking into her deep blue eyes she felt herself begin to cry in earnest. Mira the tree guided Lucy into a back room while the master fretted and began yelling at the stunned Natsu and Gray. In the darkest corner he could find, Laxus leaned against the wall with a surprised expression. Maybe the bet wasn't lost after all. For a brief moment before Mira had pulled her away, Laxus had seen a completely different woman inside of the tame little blonde. Seeing her smash the two fighting mages' heads together unexpectedly had earned her his respect.
"What's wrong?" Mira asked, patting Lucy's back as she allowed herself to cry while holding onto her friend.
"Mom's dress!" she managed to say between sobs, and Mira nodded in understanding. Lucy hadn't cried about ripped clothing before, but Mira easily realized what the blonde was trying to tell her.
"Oh Lucy," she said, holding her closer. "Everything will be alright. I'll find someone to fix it, okay?"
"Really?" Lucy asked. She looked at Mira while sniffling.
"Take over magic ruins a lot of clothes so a tiny tear like this is nothing." she said, gently patting Lucy's head. "Let's get you changed into something else." Mira looked around the room and spotted both hers and Laxus' clothes nearby. Mira smiled darkly.
"Mira?" she asked, beginning to feel nervous.
"I have an extra costume right here." Mira answered her, picking up Laxus' purple button up shirt, overcoat, and sound pod.
"Isn't that..." Lucy began hesitantly.
"That's right! It's a Laxus costume!" Lucy looked at her in disbelief.
"Well, I was going to wear it but I changed my mind."
"Hm." Lucy responded, not quite convinced. She supposed it wasn't unusual for Mira to have a Laxus costume since she was the only person she knew who had enough guts to wear said costume. Mira helped her out of her dress gently so as to not rip it any further and she hesitantly slipped the purple shirt over her corset and found it long enough to fall around her hips. Mira appeared with a large black belt which she buckled around Lucy's hips so that the shirt would conform to her shape a bit better. Lucy went to put on the coat and Mira stopped her.
"You wear it like this." she said, dropping it over her shoulders. As Mira attached the sound pod to the belt and put the spiked headphones over her ears, Lucy became slightly more comfortable in the costume. With the way she was feeling at the moment towards her friends, a Laxus costume seemed more than suitable.
"Thanks Mira!" Lucy said. She felt better now that she'd had some time to calm down. When she reemerged from the back of the guild, Natsu, Gray, and Erza immediately approached her. Natsu and Gray's original intent had been to apologize but they were distracted by what she was wearing. Natsu sniffed the garment before she slapped him away.
"Lucy, why are you wearing -" Natsu began.
"Tch!" Lucy cut him off, turning to look away. She crossed her arms like a certain lightning dragon slayer and shot him the most condescending look she could muster.
"Whoa, that's a really good impression." Gray said, clapping.
"Buzz away little fairies." she said dismissively before turning to leave them behind. The rest of Team Natsu watched with mouths agape.
"You've really done it this time." Erza commented.
"What?! None of this would have happened if you hadn't pushed me!" Natsu argued.
Lucy had found the darkest corner of the room and was wondering where Mira had found another sound pod. As she began to play with it while wondering what kinds of music it played she realized she wasn't alone. When her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, she clapped her hands over her eyes. Her face had turned a bright red colour and she hoped he couldn't see it in the darkness. She slowly uncovered one eye to check that she wasn't seeing things. Laxus was still standing there in nothing but a black miniskirt and bow tie.
"Oh my stars." she cursed, taking deep breaths. He might as well have been naked.
"I hope you're not still impersonating me, because that's nothing like me."
"What are you wearing?" she asked, trying to focus on his face.
"I could ask you the same thing. Why are you wearing my clothes?" Lucy managed to hold back a scream rising in her throat. She instead made an awkward strangled noise as she shrugged out of his coat and threw it at him.
"I didn't know! Sorry!" she said as she began to unbutton the purple shirt. She should never have trusted Mirajane Strauss! He stilled her hands with one of his large ones.
"It's fine. Don't you want to be someone different tonight?" he asked, doing the buttons back up while her brain faltered. He settled the warm coat over her shoulders once more. She wasn't sure what was more shocking at that moment – the fact that he was most definitely wearing a miniskirt or the fact that he seemed to be the first person who shared her feelings about Halloween. She tried to respond and failed several times, beginning to look like a fish.
"Uh..."
"I definitely don't do that either. If you don't know what to say, just swear or something." he advised. Lucy was having a difficult time accepting that this was really happening. Laxus was giving her advice on impersonating him and he was wearing a miniskirt.
"Shit." she replied simply. Today was Halloween, and that meant all rules were broken, she reminded herself. If she was going to pretend to be Laxus, the very least she could do was make a better attempt at it.
"That's better. You look like you could let off some steam." Lucy thought very carefully before replying.
"Those shitheads ripped my dress." she said haughtily. The trick to pulling off this moment came to Lucy suddenly: she merely needed to pretend that she was not talking to Laxus at all. As best she could, she imagined with all her might that Laxus was just some woman. She glanced over at him shyly, thinking that he'd probably make an attractive woman. Laxus seemed to pick up the direction of her thoughts.
"I'm not that shy with women. If I see something I like I'll say it." She realized that he was absolutely right. It was just incredibly hard for her to think straight when he was more naked than she'd ever seen him.
"Lucy, I'm really sorr- WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?!" Natsu said, failing to apologize for the second time that night as he caught sight of Laxus in the dark. Lucy felt lightning crackling in the air and she suddenly felt bold. She was also still pretty pissed about the dress.
"Hey brat! You're one hundred years too early if you think you can fuck with my woman!" Lucy said, folding her arms in a very Laxus like manner. Natsu's face went completely blank as his brain failed to comprehend what he was seeing. Lucy imitated Laxus' devious smile as best she could. "Children should go to bed." Natsu seemed to be having the same problem she'd had when she first saw Laxus, and for the first time she watched him retreat. She laughed as heartily as she could at the sight. She was almost certain that Laxus did not giggle like a girl. She turned to look at him again for input.
"Your woman, eh?" he asked while looking thoroughly amused. Lucy fought off her embarrassment, reminding herself that she was committed to the role now.
"We can't both be Laxus tonight." she said pointedly, pulling up a chair before standing on it. She was having a difficult time feeling the role out when he was so much taller than her. The best she managed to do was be at the same height.
"That's true." he agreed. "So what do you want to do next? You could fry those shitheads with a lightning bolt." His eyes glowed a little and she felt the ticklish tingle of electricity all over her body. She smiled at him.
"I can think of something better." He raised one eyebrow and the electricity faded away. Her skin still tickled and there were a few places where the electricity had caused an entirely different reaction.
"Oh?" he inquired. She licked her lips and successfully ignored the knotting feeling in her stomach. She couldn't believe what she was about to do, but it was Halloween. When would she have another chance like this?
"I'll make you my woman." she said, leaning over to kiss him. Laxus was conflicted because although he had achieved his side of the bet rather early, it was also a little bit weird being kissed by a woman impersonating him. He closed his eyes and held her closer before he ran his tongue over her lips. She sighed, opening her mouth to him. While he deepened their kiss, he slipped one hand under his shirt and grasped her bottom lightly.
Nearby, Mira won her bet a second too late as the lights came up as Freed jumped into her arms out of sheer shock. She'd been trying to scare him all night for this effect but apparently seeing his beloved team leader making out with Lucy Heartfilia did the trick. The guild which had been noisy up until that point had now gone completely silent. As if finally sensing all the eyes upon them, the two finally broke apart. Lucy threw her head back and looked at them all darkly.
"What are you shitheads looking at?"
The one thing that Mira had not taken into account when she'd chosen Lucy as her candidate was how seriously Lucy took Halloween.
"Mira, I think I'm drunk." Cana said a moment later, breaking the silence.
(Author's Notes)
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters.
Thank you , thank you, thank you Tiernank for stepping in to beta this for me!
It was really fun to follow up a long and serious undertaking such as "Surprises" with something like this, so I also want to thank SuperAndroid18-z-af and the LaxusXLucy group for giving me a reason to write this. I had a hard time at first because I couldn't quite imagine the Fairy Tail universe celebrating something like Halloween when they can use magic.
I will be cross posting this to Deviant Art and AO3, but it will be exactly the same (no explicit version this time, lol).