Hey Jealousy - A Fairy Tail Fanfic - Chapter 6
The Fairy Odd Couple have a hard time liking each other, much less loving.
All characters property Hiro Mashima
Chapter 6 – Lucy Falls for Gajeel?
Lucy drummed her fingers against the table and blew her blonde bangs out of her face for what seemed like the hundredth time that morning.
She yawned.
She stretched her arms.
She bit her lip.
She was bored, bored, bored, bored, bored!
She gave a loud sigh and looked over at Gajeel, whose dark red eyes met her clear brown ones briefly, then darted away. He grabbed his tankard and took a swig, then wiped his mouth on the back of his arm. Lucy looked at him hopefully, but Gajeel wouldn't meet her gaze. "How in the world does Levy-chan stand this?" she thought.
Lucy sighed again and looked at her hands. She wished Pantherlily hadn't decided to go off and play cards with Wendy, Charle, and Happy on the other side of the guildhall. At least she'd had someone to talk to for a little while before the exceed had flown off to his game. Since then, the two mages hadn't spoken a word to each other in what seemed like hours.
The silence was deafening.
"AAAUGH!" Lucy yelled, waving her arms up and down and sending Gajeel's drink flying off the table. "I CAN'T STAND IT ANYMORE!"
"What the hell is your problem, blondie?" snarled Gajeel, whose eyes had almost popped out of his head when her scream came out of nowhere. "You shocked the shit outta me!"
Lucy put her hands on her hips and glared at the metal mage. "Gajeel, we agreed that you were gonna pretend to be my boyfriend!"
"Don't freakin' remind me," he snapped.
"Well how is anybody supposed to think you're my boyfriend if you keep ignoring me?" she hissed.
Gajeel rubbed his head and closed his eyes as though trying to massage away a headache. "Man, you're high maintenance! How does that flame-brain put up with you?"
"I AM NOT HIGH MAINTENANCE!"
"Whatever," he shrugged. "Why can't you just sit there and let a man think, like Levy? She doesn't need constant attention!"
Lucy clenched her fists. "Because I am not Levy, I'm LUCY!"
"You finally figured that out? And they say blondes are stupid!"
"AAAARGH!"
Gajeel raised his hands. "Alright, alright, I'll stop crammin' ya. Last thing we need is an audience." While he had enjoyed riling up Lucy, the stares they were getting from the other guildmembers were beginning to annoy him. One of those stares in particular, Gray Fullbuster's, was really starting to get on his nerves.
"Why don't you go sit with Juvia's stripper?" he pointed at the bar. "Ain't he your teammate?"
Lucy looked over and saw Gray studying her and Gajeel. He gave Lucy a questioning glance that she
understood immediately. As teammates the two had learned each other's expressions so well that they could almost communicate with each other without words. It was a skill that came in handy when you had to sneak up on an enemy – a concept that still escaped Natsu and probably always would.
"Why are you hanging out with that guy?" Gray's glance seemed to say.
Lucy gave him a sheepish smile. "Don't worry, I got it under control!"
By the look in Gray's navy blue eyes she could tell he was unconvinced. "You sure?" his eyes asked.
Lucy nodded back. "I can handle it!"
Gray leaned back against the bar and crossed his arms. "Alright. But if he gets outta hand I'll come kick his ass for you!"
Lucy grinned. She appreciated Gray's overprotectiveness, sort of like an older brother she never had. "Deal!" she winked at him.
"Oi, how are people supposed to think I'm your boyfriend if you're flirting with the stripper?" Gajeel glowered. Not that he was interested in the sunny blonde, but it was a blow to his manhood to have even his pretend girlfriend flirt with someone else.
"I was not flirting with Gray! Juvia would kill me!"
"That's true, gi-hi-hi!" Gajeel felt a bit of pride at the thought of Juvia kicking some Lucy ass. He and Juvia went way back, having met each other when they were part of the Phantom Lord guild. He liked being in Fairy Tail now, especially because of Levy, and he owed it all to Juvia. At the same time he missed the days when Juvia was a kick-ass mage and not a fangirl drooling over that dense half-naked ice-make mage who either ignored or didn't get the massive signals she was always sending him.
Lucy leaned back in her chair and flopped her arms down her sides. "Look, can we please do this right so that when Natsu finally shows up we can get it over with?"
Gajeel exhaled. "Yeah, fine, the sooner the better."
A feeling of dread began to spread over Lucy as she began to realize what "pretending" might have to involve. "Uh...okay. Well, um, what should we do?"
"Hey, this is YOUR plan!" Gajeel growled.
"Well it's not like I've done this before!" she shot back.
Gajeel shook his head, trying to keep his temper under control. "Figure somethin' out already! Can't you think of something from one of those books you're always readin'?"
Lucy blushed as the titles of some of the racier romances she read flitted across her mind. "No we're not going there!" she thought, remembering certain scenes that would best be played out with Natsu. Suddenly, her brain turned perverse and she had a vision of Gajeel in a ripped pirate shirt holding her close in his arms and whispering, "My heart adores you oh sweet bunny girl." Hilarity began to bubble up in her chest and she bit her lip to keep from bursting into giggles.
Gajeel glared at her. "What's so freakin' funny?"
"Nothing, nothing!" she said, shocked back into seriousness by the surly look on his face. Lucy placed her index finger over her mouth while she considered the best course of action. "I guess we can start with you putting your arm around me, that should be easy enough."
As soon as the words left her mouth, Lucy regretted her suggestion. The last time Gajeel had touched her was when he was still a part of Phantom Lord and determined to destroy Fairy Tail. That confrontation had resulted in Lucy receiving several nasty bruises that took weeks to heal. But her wounds had been nothing compared to the scars Levy had sustained at Gajeel's hands when those two first met. That Levy had forgiven, and then fallen for Gajeel still amazed Lucy.
As though thinking that same fact, the arm that draped around Lucy's shoulders was surprisingly more gentle than she expected. It was a heavy, strong arm like Natsu's, but yet not like Natsu's. Whereas Natsu's arms usually relaxed protectively around her, Gajeel's arm was tense and awkward – exactly how she felt herself.
"WHAT THE - !" Lucy heard a loud bang coming from the bar. She looked over to see Mirajane holding Gray in a headlock and covering his mouth. "I guess Gray just saw our PDA!" she sweat-dropped.
Lucy and Gajeel sat stock still, neither one of them wanting to budge in case their movements would cause them to come into closer contact with each other.
After what seemed like ages, Lucy sighed. "This isn't working," she said, removing Gajeel's arm from behind her shoulders. Gajeel let out his own sigh of relief. "Maybe we should just forget it!" she added as she stood up from the table, getting ready to walk away.
Lucy always had been clumsy; it was a fact she would freely admit to anyone. But she wondered later how exactly she tripped at that moment when all she was doing was getting up out of her chair. If she had known any better, she would have sworn her legs had been pushed out from underneath her by two little hands, but it couldn't have been any of the exceeds – they were on the other side of the guildhall playing cards. At any rate, Lucy fell, and she fell hard.
Right into Gajeel's lap.
As her butt landed on his groin, Lucy felt Gajeel's arms come around her to stop her from falling backwards on the floor. She clutched at his shirt for leverage, feeling the grooves of the six-pack that were engraved on his abdomen. Lucy looked up and straight into those dark red eyes that burned with a fire almost as intense as what she had seen a few times she caught Natsu looking at her. She felt a blush creep up her cheeks as Gajeel's mouth curled into a feral smirk. "Levy-chan, you are a brave girl!" she thought.
A loud crash filled Lucy's ears as the guild doors flew open - not an unfamiliar sound in Fairy Tail. Natsu's yelling was also standard background noise for the boisterous guild. But the words that came out of his, and Gajeel's mouths at the same time was something Lucy had never heard uttered inside the walls of Fairy Tail.
"GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY GIRLFRIEND YOU DAMN DRAGON SLAYING BASTARD!"
A/N - Who WOULDN'T want to fall in Gajeel's lap? Hee-hee-hee
