Day 5: Delirious

Lucy idly watched as Cobra left their home for the guild to find a job fighting the burgeoning blush rising up on her checks at the thought of this being their home. After the water gun incident a little more than 2 months ago their relationship had slowly started to evolve. Erik would surprise her with little gifts in inconspicuous ways, always made sure to cook breakfast for them to eat together when they were both in town, and would even sit much closer to her letting their legs and shoulders brush up against each other when they watched the Lacrimavision.

She knew what he was doing, saw the way he looked at her mostly because he didn't even try to hide it and she was grateful for the slow progress. Even more grateful Daturas was running interference when things started getting a bit too heated for her. It gave her time to be sure of herself and her feelings, to think about about what real future with him would look like. This would be more than till death do they part. If she was in fact Cobra's mate their lives would be tied to each other in a way she'd not imagined was possible. But... the potential fallout if the mating failed…would possibly kill her but most definitely break her heart.

Not two days after Lucy had started to believe there just might be a future with Erik in her cards had Natsu tried to, and subsequently failed at, claiming Lisanna. It had been a hard blow for the young couple when his mark didn't take, even worse was when Lis almost died from not being able to incorporate his fire magic in her body. Had Wendy not been at Fairy Hills that night, the animal take-over mage most likely would not have survived.

That was a possibility that the celestial spirit mage could not ignore, especially not when Erik's magic was poison, and why she asked Dot to be extra clingy until she was sure. So far that fear rejection and failure had kept her from openly reciprocating his actions and inevitably slowed their progress in becoming anything more than just good friends.

That was, until now.

It took Lucy far longer to realize than she would ever admit to, after a quiet drunken confession from Lisanna, to realize that Erik was not Natsu and her and Erik's situation was completely different because both men and women in the scenarios were different.

Natsu was wild and impulsive like the fire he wielded, a kind of jump in feet first kind of man so when Lisanna had said they were likely mates and laid out all the signs there had been over the years as to why… true to form, her friend hadn't questioned and just gone for it ignoring the fact that literal years had passed with them being nothing but close childhood friends. That sign had been strategically left out of Lisanna's discussion.

When the white haired woman finally woke up and in the infirmary without the fire slayer's mark she had been devastated. Natsu dealt with the situation like he always did; he took off with nary a word to the mountains with only Happy as company.

Lucy may have distanced herself from the man recently because of everything she was still trying to get over but that didn't mean she didn't still love him. He'd been her first friend, the boy who'd given her the chance at fulfilling her dreams and she knew he was likely suffering more than anyone realized but she knew only time would be able to sooth his soul.

As sad as that reality was, learning that Lisanna had pressed to point had been just the wakeup call she had needed to finally more forward.

Cobra was not the sort of person who would chance connecting his life with someone he wasn't sure about especially if it meant the someone could die. He was calculating and precise. He knew Lucy was his mate and everything about his actions and words conveyed his certainty of it and that he wasn't going to let her get away not matter how much she waffled around.

More importantly, Lucy didn't want to get away. What she wanted the most was to live the rest of her life with the irritable poison slayer and proclaim her feelings by doing something that would mean the world to Erik. Possibly create something tangible that announced to the world she returned his feelings and was ready to start a life together with him that wasn't stupidly cheesy like a sky writer or something.

It was decided; Lucy was going to build their home a greenhouse. A nice little place where they could spend time together as a little family growing the rare and expensive plants that wouldn't normally survive in Magnolia's climate but were the favorites of both Cobra and Daturas.

To do so would take time, careful planning and lots of jewel to hire the right people to get the thing up while Cobra was away and to purchase some of those plants to get them started. It couldn't be pulled off during his absence this time but she could start.

"Daturas and I are going on her first job!" Lucy announced as she strolled into guild later that morning. The little bud was completely on board to help make a gift for "Daddy" and to help conceal "Mommy's" thoughts so it would be a surprise. The only concession Lucy had to make was that she had to bring the plant along to help earn the money together so it would be a gift from them instead. Only problem, Erik had yet to leave the building and was looking none too thrilled.

"Excuse me?" Cobra's voice cut through the happy cheers of everyone else in the guild. "Are you out of your fucking minds?"

"It was Dotty's idea and I agree. We won't go on anything dangerous."

"You won't be going anywhere without me."

With that the line had been drawn and Lucy's eyes turned to the purple plant on her shoulder.

He won't know.

He's already suspicious because he can't hear us.

It's a better surprise.

Dotty…

Everything'll be fine.

Ok…

"Ok deal. You get to come along," Lucy conceded to both demands graciously as she marched right up to the board to find their first family job.

Cobra's eyes narrowed on them as they crossed the main floor. They were up to something and that couldn't be anything good. I'll have to keep my eye on the both of them.

"Starshine don't look her in the-" Cobra's voice stalled as his chest constricted, his warning came too late. His desired mate's very soul was now under a brutal attack by the disgusting bitch that trying to rip it free of Lucy's body and put it in the creepy ass amulet hanging around her neck where she kept all her different "trophies". This is what made seith magic so fucking frightening.

Lucy now stood defenseless in the midst of the raging battle as she fought a very real struggle of her own for her soul with everything she had. Cobra needed to take that seith mage out before she could succeed but with dozens of mages between them and his inability to use his poison dragon slaying magic without the threat of killing Lucy too made getting even near the bitch far more difficult than he liked.

Momma! Daturas screamed in agony that was reflected in his very core as the bright sound of Lucy's soul became muffled and trapped. In a rage he couldn't control, Cobra cut through his last obstacles in his way and gripped the blonde to his chest stopping the lash of her whip from connecting with Dotty, something she would never forgive herself for even though her actions were not her own.

A mass of gray mist started filling the room coming from the enraged flower, her petals finally open somewhat like a mouth unleashing a similar attack to his own poison roar. It spread quickly dropping man and woman alike as Cobra listened intently to lungs being robbed of oxygen when the mist was inhaled or as the mysterious compound entered the dark mages' bloodstreams by passing through their skin. Cobra quickly moved as far away from it as possible moving up when he noticed how it settled toward the ground thanking the heaven's that compound was heavier than air. As the seith mage piece of shit dropped to the floor Lucy no longer struggled in his arms.

Standing on the alcove over the entire area Cobra watched on as dark mage after dark mage succumbed to his beautiful little bloom. If it wasn't the strange gaseous substance Daturas was putting out taking them down it was her thorn covered vines that had magically grown from the sides of her little body. He could only assume the trauma of watching her mother's soul being ripped from her body forced her magic to mature prematurely.

As Cobra watched on he wondered idly if the gas had a similar paralytic effect like the poison in her thorns did. Alone and in low doses the poison wasn't strictly lethal but if the mist was paralyzing lungs and hearts…it very well could potentially be. All things considered this was probably the best place something like this to have happened so Dot wouldn't accidentally harm Lucy or anyone in Fairy Tail...He just wished it hadn't been incited by what happened to his Starshine.

A part of him regretted his little girl growing up so fast but he would let his adopted daughter vent her emotions for now and comfort her when things settled. None of them had been prepared for a simple lost item request they'd taken turning into having to take on an entire branch of the dark guild Nightmare by themselves off the cuff. The town people were unaware of Nightmare's presence, he would have heard it if they had been, and it had been the faintest of scent trails from the ancient relic's observation site that Cobra had followed as their only lead to track it down again so they could return it that led them to said dark guild.

The day had quickly degenerated into a fight for their lives.

Breathing in deeply, Cobra drank up the poisonous mist now that Daturas was the only moving being down below, it would be a little counterproductive to have the Rune Knights hit the floor too instead of cleaning out the trash when they arrived.

As the toxins entered his blood stream a rush of overwhelming euphoria and almost giddy excitement hit Cobra so hard he almost dropped the blonde in his arms.

"Whoops!" he giggled adjusting Lucy to a more secure hold. Gods he hadn't felt this good since… He'd never felt this good. "Dots, grab the amulet from that shithead for Papa yeah? We need to get Starshine to Bickslow," Cobra called out happily, eye shining barely able to focus longer than a minute let alone stand still.

Bixy can save Momma?

"I'll turn him inside out if he doesn't." Cobra's smile was just a touch too wide as he lowered the arm not holding Lucy so his daughter could hop up to his shoulder before walking right out of the building no longer giving a fuck if he should wait for the authorities to show up. The town could go fuck itself too and search the building on their own if they wanted their precious relic back for all he cared. He was barely able to remember how to walk right now and he had the dragon soul chanting in his head, protect Starshine and Dot, over and over again in delirious delight to make sure he didn't forget. That was only going to happen if he got to his good ol' buddy Bickslow.

Soooo, that happened. Daturas is just growing up so quickly but since she's a plant that seems about right. Give all the hugs and snuggles to our blossoming flower by fav, follow and commenting! - Blas