disclaimer: i don't own fairy tail.
title: devil's dangerous
summary: countries at war, everything's going down in flames
dedication: mother's day, i guess? since...well...since it's mother's day haha
notes: um so basically this whole thing finally got a plot! yay! and also, don't draw hasty conclusions just yet…there may be a new character in this whole mess…gray is not who you think he is, nor is he who you do not think he is. or could he be? okay, this whole thing is just getting confusing haha but anyways i'll just say not to draw conclusions coz that's a good idea. enjoy! (also Levy will come in the next chapter okay be patient thanks bye) (oh yeah and so will gajeel, he'll have to break the news sometime soon, right? and levy's not gonna be happy haha of course)
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"Oi, kid, get out of my way! My Juvia needs to get her feet fitted," Lord Lockser boomed, shoving aside what he deemed as a random pink haired kid with his golden haired girlfriend. Wait…pink hair…that…was the young Dragneel and his fiancé Miss Heartfilia! "Excuse me," he added as an afterthought.
Juvia trailed meekly behind, casting inconspicuous looks at Natsu. The blue-haired lord marched straight up to the front desk and slammed his hands down. "The shoes I bought today were the wrong size!"
Ultear sweated nervously. "U-Um, are you sure? Our shop has never gotten a wrong size before."
"Are you accusing me of lying?!" Lord Lockser roared.
Ultear shook her head. "I'll let you consult with our shoe expert, Gray. Gray, come out!"
A man with unruly black hair and a frown slouched out of the back room. Upon seeing nobles in the shoe shop, he straightened up somewhat, waved in a somewhat salutatory fashion, then said in a somewhat polite voice, "Hi, 'm Gray."
Juvia looked back and forth between Gray and Natsu, eyes spinning. Unbeknownst to her father, she was shamelessly ogling Gray's handsome face. Her mind compared Gray and Natsu and ultimately decided that Gray was the better one (Natsu had a fiancé and Gray didn't; he was single and free) – and once she decided that she really liked someone, she was completely devoted to that person. Her love-muddled mind decided that Lucy was still her love rival, although she was engaged.
A Juvia in love was really dangerous.
Meanwhile, Lord Lockser stared at Gray, unimpressed. "Where's the man that brought the shoes? I've got a fishbone to pick with him!"
"O-Oh, Lyon's out collecting the materials. But if you need someone it'll be Gray!" Ultear plastered a cheerful smile on her face, eyes hard.
Gray held out his hand, and Juvia swooned. Gray pushed a hand through his wild hair, and Juvia nearly fell into a dead faint. The lord placed the shoebox in Gray's hand a little harder than usual. Lord Lockser was usually a kind noble, like his title suggested, but Gray was a little too rude for his liking.
"Thanks, Lord Lockser," Gray mumbled as a customary address to a man higher than him, a lowly shoemaker. He looked at it, and turned the shoe over in his hands. Immediately, he realized exactly what was wrong. It wasn't his problem – just that Lord Lockser didn't seem to know how to properly prepare new shoes.
He pulled the paper balls out of the inside that helped the slipper keep its shape and handed the shoes back to the lord. "When you get new shoes, just pull out the stuffing first," he said, baritone voice resonating in the small shop. Juvia's eyes sparkled.
As her dad dragged her out of the shop, her eyes glinted with a hard light and she pointed at Gray while making a small heart.
Even though Gray's back was turned and he was heading back into the back room, he shivered and felt as if a knife was slicing across his back. And it was ice cold.
Normally he loved the cold...but this...this was just insanely scary.
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Lucy walked out of Ice Make: Shoes with a spring to her step and no boxes in her arms. Instead, Natsu groaned as he shouldered all the weight. Lucy called it a punishment for getting into a verbal argument with Gray, the shoemaker, of all people, but Natsu knew he would have to carry the boxes ever since he walked out of the door of their bedroom.
His pocket jingled and he nearly cried. Out of twenty gold pieces, he now only had seven left. Who knew Lucy could buy so many things? He bet that she wasn't even going to wear half of them. "Let's go home, Luce," he sighed in misery.
Unaware to his turmoil, Lucy skipped down the lane to the porch and pulled the double doors open with a flourish. She pulled the bags from him, and with a rare display of her monster-like strength, she lifted them all up the stairs and into their bedroom. Natsu sat downstairs massaging his abused deltoids and biceps. Lucy was strong, he knew that. So why couldn't she carry her own bags? But then again, Natsu did love her, for whatever reason (she's so weird, for one...) and if she had to make him carry her bags, then he would.
"Natsu, I'll tell Virgo to make dinner!" Lucy called from upstairs.
Natsu's spirit was abruptly revived. "DINNER!" he cheered, then slouched into the kitchen to grab a few spicy tofu snacks.
"Don't eat anything until dinner's served," Lucy warned, voice echoing down the staircase. "It's not good for you."
Frowning, Natsu slunk back out of the kitchen to settle himself onto the couch and take some well deserved z's.
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Lyon returned to the little shoe shop, carrying bags of leather, string, and other supplies.
Ultear said wryly as he entered, "Well, I guess you missed your chance to see Miss Lockser."
"What? Miss Lockser came by?" Lyon asked, intrigued.
"Oh, yes, her father is somewhat of a blithering idiot."
"Sh, don't say that. Someone might hear," Lyon warned.
Ultear rolled her eyes. "I'm sure Gray agrees."
"Since when has Gray agreed with anything?" Lyon gestured to the back room with amuse.
"I agree with Ultear," Gray called from the back, in order to spite Lyon, and also because it was true.
"He just loves proving me wrong, doesn't he?" Lyon moaned, face twisted in an adorably angered expression.
Ultear nodded, once, twice. "Oh yes, yes he does."
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Throughout the carriage ride home, Juvia was thinking about the handsome man she had seen earlier. Forget Natsu! This man was a thousand times hotter, and his icy coldness made him ever so appealing…
Meanwhile, her father was stewing off to the side. How could he have forgotten to remove the stuffing? Maybe he was too excited about the engagement. That had to be it. What more could Juvia want than Gajeel? It was definitely a better alternative to marrying a random noble she had never met before. He was just looking out in her best interests.
Suddenly, he heard a loud bugle sound as the carriage passed by one of the poorer neighborhoods along this road.
"Draft call! All young men under the age of thirty five and over the age of eighteen please report to the post office by eight o'clock next morning!"
Draft? For what war? Lord Lockser thought deeply for a few moments. Oh yes, the war against the neighboring country. The King was a man named Silver, and he was said to be so ruthless that his own children fled the country after his wife was murdered. Their kingdom and this one were fighting over a small strip of one hundred acre land that bordered both their countries.
It was such a small deal, but neither side were willing to give up. The soil was fertile and vegetation abundant; if it was used properly, the land could become a welcome source of crop income in years to pass.
Juvia had heard the draft men calling as well, and her thoughts turned to Gray (finally, she remembered his name!). Was he under eighteen? He was running a shop with his siblings all on his own though, so he could very well be an adult already. What if he went off to war and never came back? Resolve tightened, she decided to make sure he was still there the next day. Her father was to be off at a meeting all afternoon, and she would take that time to travel down to the little shop.
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King Makarov sat on his gold gilded throne in the throne room. His grandson Laxus, whose father Ivan had been exiled years ago, sat next to him, face drawn in a scowl. "How much longer are you going to send men to that tiny little piece of land?!" Laxus roared, angered. "It's not worth it, Grandfather!"
King Makarov shook his head and sighed. His grandson did not yet understand the politics of war, even though he was already seventeen years of age. "Laxus…if we allow them to take that land, what do you think will happen?"
"They can have that thing, and then we'll just live peacefully with the new boundaries," Laxus retorted, face smug. Wasn't peace what his grandfather wanted? Maybe he was getting a little crooked in the head.
"No, no," Makarov said. "Think about it like this. If we give the land to them, they'll think we're weak. And then what will they do? They'll come marching into our country expecting us to hand it over just like we did with that strip of land."
Laxus thought on it for a long while. "You're right, Grandfather. But I still don't like the bloodshed…not as long as I can't get into some of that action."
"No, Laxus. I will not allow you to fight just yet. You are not ready," Makarov said with a firm tone of voice.
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In the neighboring country, some two hundred fifty miles away, the king of that nation was smirking.
"Finally…I'll be reunited with you, my dear son."
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