A/N: I just finished creating the special Blonde Day cover/summary for the special chapter, and I was dying of laughter making it. I can't wait to get to the special chapter, but sadly it's a long, long, long way off.

Please enjoy the next chapter of 'Blonde Day' and remember this is rated T for swearing (mostly Laxus' swearing, to be honest). And gosh, I love Mirajane with a burning passion.

Chapter Three: Bumpy Blonde Beginnings

'optimism – is a lack of information'

.

As Lucy sauntered her way towards Laxus' table, she could hear Mirajane's advice echoing in her head. The older woman had told her to be firm, and don't take no for an answer or else Laxus would sense her hesitation and use that against her. Lucy also had to just blurt out her intentions instead of becoming a stuttering mess and wasting his time. When Mira had revealed this to her, the blonde had shrank back in humiliation because she had done exactly that.

Lucy could still remember the saucy wink the silver-haired woman had given her as she instructed the Celestial Spirit mage not to reveal that she was inviting him to Blonde Day, but to make it seem like it was an important meeting that was crucial for the Lightning Dragon Slayer to attend. When Lucy had asked if that was lying, Mirajane had waved her hand and said she wasn't lying, just withholding the entire truth. 'It technically is an important get-together. Blonde Day is important to you, isn't it?' Mira had slyly shot back, that sneaky woman.

The blonde hopped down the few stairs to the lower platform and zeroed in on her target. Laxus was still slumping against his table and appearing like he was wishing for the sweet release of death, Raijinshū seated around him arguing about Mavis knows what. Lucy couldn't hold back a quiet snort at that. It was like they hadn't even moved in inch. Is that what they did all day? Waste time sitting around and arguing with each other?

Her mind instantly reminded her of just yesterday when Natsu and her were getting out of the guild's pool. As soon as the pink-haired dragon slayer climbed out of the water, they got into an intense argument over who had to right over the last towel. Lucy had needed it to wrap her hair with, and Natsu wanted the towel to complete with his towel-toga setup. The fight ended with Lucy and Natsu both exchanging spitting insults from the two separate palm trees that Happy had dropped them in to stop the two mages from lunging at each other when Lucy was so sore.

Lucy halted her steps. Okay, so maybe she had no right to say the Raijinshū were wasting their time.

Shaking her head, the celestial mage resumed walking towards Laxus. Okay, so she just had to tell him exactly what she needed right off the bat, no awkward talks about people calling her appliances or anything. That was easy, right? Easy-peasy. She ignored the sweat starting to form along her brow as she got closer.

The four mages were too focused on each other to notice her approach until she was only a few feet away from them. They were all turning their heads toward the Celestial Spirit mage, Evergreen and Bickslow halting their conversation about who'd be able to seduce the mayor of Magnolia faster, when Lucy 'spat it out', "Laxus, we need to talk."

Saying the demand out loud without the mumbling or the spluttering felt so good that Lucy was able to scrap together enough confidence to put a hand on her hip and stare firmly down at the Lightning Dragon Slayer. The surprised gawks she got from the Raijinshū only fueled her. She allowed Laxus to lift his head and blink heavily before she continued, "Can we meet up tomorrow at three o'clock at the Strawberry Street Café? It's important."

Laxus didn't answer right away, instead his orange eyes immediately sharpened as they flicked over her facial features, studying her as if he was searching for something. Maybe the fear or hesitation Mira had warned the Celestial Spirit mage about? Lucy almost said something when his spiked headphones slid down his ears to dangle from his shoulders and the man didn't make a move to right them. Laxus just kept eyeing the fellow blonde with an unreadable look.

Lucy was proud of herself when she only twitched, and there was a pregnant pause -the Raijinshū uncharacteristically silent as they held their baited breaths- while the dragon slayer leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his wide chest. He gave her a single nod and a blasé, "Okay, sure."

The smaller blonde thought she deserved a shiny trophy or at least a medallion for the way she reeled in her instant reaction of screeching her exuberant excitement to the entire guild. Lucy checked her chin and brought up her hand to point a finger at the slayer, to which his eyebrow quirked up at. "Don't forget," she warned in a stern voice that she herself was shocked at. Where was all this courage coming from?

The Lightning Dragon Slayer's upper lip twitched, and Lucy could tell he was acting when he smoothed his face into a deadly serious expression. The blonde even went so far as raising his closed fist and popping out his pinky finger. "I won't, pinky promise." He was messing with her now, but at least he had, somewhat unknowingly, agreed to Blonde Day.

The celestial mage had no idea what could have possibly possessed her body and made her lean over the table, probably giving everyone at the table a fantastic view of her chest. Before she could fully comprehend what she was doing, Lucy reached out her hand and hooked her own pinky around his. Lucy nearly squirmed away when her face was suddenly inches from Laxus', and she couldn't help but distractedly think, where his eyebrows always this thick?

It was only because of their closeness that Lucy could see the slight widening of Laxus' eyes, a clear indicator that he also had no clue why she had made such a bold move. His shock was quickly covered up, and the larger man rolled his eyes, jerking their twined hands down as he did. "Three o'clock. Got it, Blondie."

Without further ado, she huffed out a single 'good', whirled back, spun around, and walked away, silently shrieking. The piercing screams inside her head drowned out any other thoughts, and Lucy was sure that if Warren was inside the guild, the mage would have collapsed, unconscious, on the floor from the sound barriers she was mentally breaking.

She had done it, she had ordered Laxus Dreyar to do something! And not only did she not get thrown into a wall for her rudeness, but he had also said 'okay'. Was she dreaming? Did Kinana put something in her lemonade from earlier? Was this all illusionary magic? Surely this couldn't be real life, because Laxus had said 'yes'!

Lucy felt like she could soar. The best part was that she hadn't even said 'please'! The blonde mage strolled over to the bar in a daze, and even the pain from all her bruises and scrapes seemed to dissipate in the high she was riding. Lucy bet if someone nailed her with a flying chair, she wouldn't even feel a thing.

When the Celestial Spirit mage unthinkingly hopped onto the barstool, it was only Mira's teasing voice that snapped Lucy out of her stupor, "So, did it go well? What did Laxus say to Blonde Day?" The older woman was seemingly vibrating in her place, trying to at least make an effort to hold herself back from going on a tangent that included such words like 'starstruck' and 'blonde toddlers'.

The celestial mage froze in her tracks. Panic rising in her throat, Lucy gasped, "Shh, Mira!" Lucy flailed her hands in front of the Take-Over mage's face as if that would stop her. Her voice lowered into a harsh whisper, "Mira, he'll hear!" Her head whipped back and forth, expecting the lightning mage to pop out of nowhere and start interrogating her, and she only narrowly avoided tumbling off her seat.

Shaking her head, the silver-haired mage tsked and put a hand on her cocked hip. Mirajane chided, "I would never be so reckless when it comes to something so important to you, you know better than to think that. They left, Lucy, when you were walking over here." Mira's other hand lifted and pointed to somewhere behind Lucy. "And Gajeel ran out of here while you were talking with Laxus, shouting something about checking a calendar?"

The younger woman turned around in her seat again and immediately saw that Mira was right, the table she had just been at was empty and barren. And apparently not only had Laxus left, but also Gajeel. So that meant that all the dragon slayers were officially absent in the guild, and no one would be able to overhear them. Now that the danger had passed, Lucy slumped with relief. She glanced pitifully up at the other mage and wobbled out a remorseful, "I'm sorry."

Luckily, Mira wasn't offended and the model tucked a stray hair behind her ear as she smiled gently. "So," she drawled the word out with a sing-song tilt to her voice. "How did it go?!" Mirajane's eyebrows waggled suggestively, and Lucy couldn't help the small snicker that escaped her lips.

Hugging her torso, Lucy jerked her head up and down, and her bubbling joy was quick to return. She was so happy that she felt like grabbing Mirajane's hands and dancing with her in the middle of the guild. Lucy had so much energy that the could go on dancing for hours. "Oh, Mira," she started shaking from excitement on her barstool. "I did exactly what you told me, and he said yes!"

Mirajane loved seeing the light of Fairy Tail grinning from ear to ear, Lucy's happiness truly made her happy. She smiled kindly down at the stellar mage and she bent over the bar to rest on her elbows. "I'm glad for you, Lucy," she told the blonde truthfully. Mira tilted her head a little to the right and asked, "Do you have anything planned for Blonde Day?"

Lucy's lips slowly twitched down into a flat line at the question. "What do you mean?" The younger mage said it slowly, confused. She had already told Laxus the location, it was at the Strawberry Street Café. What more could she plan?

The silver-haired model side-eyed her while she straightened and began to pick up some of the abandoned wooden mugs that were scattered across the bartop. "Well, Lucy, what you are going to do when you two meet up at your little café? Just talk?" Mira questioned with a small chuckle, and Lucy had a feeling that if her arms weren't full of mugs, Mira would have been patting her head in an amused, motherly manner.

The blonde mage started sweating again for the third time that day. "I… hnrgh…" she said intelligently. That's exactly what she had been planning to do.

Mirajane halted her cleaning, staring at Lucy and taking in the younger woman's uncomfortable and nervous shifting.

Lucy leaned backwards on the barstool from Mirajane's stare, immensely relieved that her white cardigan wouldn't show off the rapidly expanding sweat stains forming under the arms. Mira's gaze was almost as piercing as Laxus'. Should she make a break for it? Should she hide behind Erza, or would the scarlet-haired woman also judge her for whatever reason that currently made Mira attempt to peer into Lucy's soul with that intense cerulean stare?

As soon as Lucy decided she would run, the other mage completely shocked her by bursting into a fit of bubbling giggles. The blonde was left openly gaping at the unexpected action while Mirajane began laughing so hard that she had to put down the mugs. Mira lifted a slender hand of hers up to her mouth to hide the snickers, but when she saw Lucy's reaction she erupted into another fit and had to lift her hand to cover her eyes so she couldn't see the Celestial Spirit mage's silly face.

When the older mage was done with her little fit, she reached out to bop a, still very bewildered, Lucy on the nose. "You can't just talk to him!" Mira had to stop and collect herself when she almost started laughing again.

"Wha… Why not?" Lucy inquired warily as her hands griped the edge of the bartop. "How am I going to get to know him if we do not talk about ourselves? Will that not work?!" She screeched and was seconds from reaching out and grabbing onto her nakama and beg for the solution to a problem she wasn't even aware of yet.

Looking down on her with strangest mixture of fondness and patronizing, Mira tutted and shook her head. The finger that had tapped Lucy's nose waved from side to side in Lucy's face, which made the blonde go cross-eyed from trying to follow it. "Lucy, you out of anyone understands from experience that to make close friends, two people have to go through a lot of stuff together."

Mira ruffled the celestial mage's hair, and all the while Lucy felt a strong desire to get this all down in writing. "You'll get to know Laxus better by watching how he reacts to different scenarios than you will with him telling you about himself. Actions speak louder than words, you know. Plus," she added sagely, "anyone who's anyone can lie when they talk about themselves."

"You're so knowledgeable," Lucy whispered, stunned. She hadn't even thought about it that way. Originally she'd been hoping that Laxus would open up to her as time went by, but what if he never did if all they did was chat to each other a few hours a week? Was Blonde Day not enough?

Biting her lip, Lucy whispered, "What do I do now? I already invited Laxus to the café, and I can't just randomly ask him to grocery shopping with me or go to a fair. Mira, what do I do?" The blonde bemoaned and started sagging. This was the second time she needed Mirajane's help today, and Lucy was starting to feel bad about it.

The silver-haired beauty stopped messing up Lucy's hair and started patting her head instead, just like Lucy had predicted a minute ago. "Hush, hush, no whining. This is a simple fix!" Mira chimed optimistically. She got in a couple more pats until she was satisfied. "Just make sure you bring a deck of cards for when the conversation starts to dwindle, it'll help get rid of that beginning awkwardness. See? Simple fix."

Her advice didn't stop there, and now Lucy's fingers were really itching to scribble all of these priceless words down on a sheet of paper. "And then maybe when you and Laxus get to know each other better…" Mira's sentence drifted off and there was a certain light in her eyes that was identical to the one she had in the shower room. "... You two can go on walks or shop or have movie nights together! Alone!" The other mage finished with a flourish.

That was nice and platonic, right? Lucy perked up. Okay, she could do that. It wasn't the plan she initially had, but actually this one might be more fun! "I like that," the blonde said it out loud before beaming at the other mage. Doing stuff with Laxus sounded a lot more exciting than sitting in one place and making small talk. She could totally do this.

Suddenly overcome with gratefulness, the blonde shouted, "Ah, thank you, thank you, Mira!" She flung her arms forwards to wrap them around the Mirajane's neck, causing the Take-Over mage to laugh when she was pulled over the countertop that laid between them.

Mira gave Lucy a quick squeeze before she pulled away with stars sparkling in her eyes. "Go get him, Lucy!" She cheered.

After Lucy laughed and waved goodbye, she took off for the front doors of the guild before anyone could stop and delay her. She only had twenty-four hours to craft a completely different strategy to winning over Laxus' friendship, and she couldn't wait to get started on it. But first, she needed to buy a deck of cards.

She was going to do this. Lucy had a better plan now thanks to Mira, so now there was no need to worry or panic about tomorrow.

Lucy was not ashamed to admit that later that night she had called Levy in a panic, the celestial mage practically hyperventilating over the communications lacrima as she tried to get out complete, grammatical sentences to no avail. All that had come out was hysterical, dry sobs and the name of one of her close friends.

Apparently Levy had assumed the worst because the next thing Lucy knew, the petite Solid Script mage had ditched the pizza in the oven that she had been making that night and had hightailed it to the blonde's apartment at seven o'clock. Lucy was given no time to prepare for Levy's arrival because the moment the smaller mage had gotten to her home, she had materialized into existence a key that fit any lock and kicked the door off its hinges with adrenaline-created strength.

Lucy had been standing in the middle of her living room, holding up two dresses from their appropriate hangers and gawking as she took in her friend (and her demolished door while it slid across the room, the metal bars scraping and tearing up her floor. Levy had already made the magical key, why had she felt the need to destroy her poor door?). With her orange headband sliding off, clothes wrinkles, and glowing red cheeks that revealed the fact that the blunette had sprinted there, Levy looked both frazzled and a force to be reckoned with, especially with the ferocious glint in her eyes.

It had taken half an hour to reassure Levy that, no, Lucy hadn't been attacked by a gang of mobsters or was bleeding out on her kitchen floor after a horrendous accident that involved reading a book while chopping up some vegetables. Lucy had to embarrassingly admit that she had called the Solid Script mage, losing it, because she had spent the past two hours trying to figure out what to wear the next day like a stereotypical fifteen year old girl.

The blonde had just been trying to decide between a blue or yellow sundress when the stress of ruining everything tomorrow had made her snap. The Celestial Spirit mage had done some amazing dodging as to the reason why she was dressing up the next day that would have made Laxus proud. Levy couldn't get anything out of her, Lucy was like a steel trap.

After that, the night only continued its spiral into chaos. Not an hour later a crazed looking Gajeel shoulder tackled her door and soared into her apartment as if he had the wings of an eagle. Unfortunately for the large man, he hadn't known that the door had already been blown off its hinges that night, or that the two females had placed it precariously leaning against the threshold as if nothing had ever happened. Instead of just lightly pushing the door down (or, heavens forbid, using it correctly and figuring out that it was a separated piece now), Gajeel had used an incredible amount of force and his entire right side.

Levy and Lucy could only observe from the couch as the dragon slayer flew through her apartment with her door, skidded across the rug at a grimacing-inducing speed, and finally came to a stop when he smashed into her furthest wall. Levy rushed to his -completely rug burned- side while Lucy bemoaned over the fact that her landlady would slit her throat after she saw the damages. The celestial mage was only able to complain for a short, two minutes before Levy ordered her to go grab her extensive first aid kit.

It turned out that Gajeel had snuck into Levy's dorm room for dinner, only to stumble upon the scene of smoke engulfing her entire dorm and her abandoned pizza smoldering in the oven. He had immediately believed the worst possible outcome and had tracked her scent trail to Lucy's apartment. More time had passed as the two female mages convinced Gajeel that, no, Levy hadn't been kidnapped by a dark guild or was suffocating to death after having an entire bookcase fall upon her tiny frame.

The two females had just convinced Gajeel that Levy was okay when Pantherlily flew into Lucy's living room through the giant gaping hole in her wall known as her doorway, announcing that he had visited Levy's dorm looking for Gajeel only to find his scent intermingling with a heavy sheet of smoke coming from the blunette's kitchen ("Gajeel, you didn't take care of the pizza?!" Levy had gasped, horrified). Lily had tracked him here after alerting Erza of the section of Fairy Hills that was currently 'on fire'.

It only got worse when Natsu and Happy appeared out of nowhere and tackled Lucy to the floor, blubbering about how they had overheard Lily frantically informing Erza about Levy's blazing dorm and had immediately come to the conclusion that there was a pyromaniac criminal in Magnolia that was targeting Fairy Tail's female wizards, and obviously Lucy would have been their next target. They had ceased their whimpering though as soon as the Fire Dragon Slayer, nostrils flaring, laid his sight upon Gajeel and sniffed out the smoke clinging to his form.

One assumption led to another and then the two dragon slayers were duking it out in Lucy's home, Natsu yelling something about how Gajeel was -once again, obviously- being controlled by some sick bastard and had been forced to turn dark side and burn down Levy's dorm room.

Punches flew, furniture was destroyed, and Lucy had been left sitting on her couch with her head in her hands as she imagined jewel signs slip away through her fingers while Levy comfortingly rubbed her back. The Solid Script mage had soothed her with the fact that the chance that Lucy would get her safety deposit back had long since passed, practically in the first week of her tenancy. This didn't help the blonde at all for instead of cheering up, Lucy curled up into a tighter ball of despair.

For some reason even more people had turned up at Lucy's apartment that night. Erza had stopped by to brake up the fight, the Master had popped out of nowhere to talk to Levy about the smoke damage done to her home, Jet and Droy had sailed in, frantic, searching for Levy, and even Elfman had shown up. Unlike the others, Elfman had no reason to be there at Lucy's apartment. He just was, and no one questioned it.

By midnight, Lucy had wept five times and had received seven dishes filled with lasagnas, green bean casseroles, stroganoff, and even a frittata. There had been a little mix up and now nearly half of the guild believed her apartment had been burned down in the process of the blonde fighting off a gangster mob of mages from a disbanded dark guild.

Fifteen hours, a portion of that frittata, and two cups of coffee later, Lucy was sitting at the table in her street's café in her flowing blue sundress. The blonde couldn't tell if her hands were trembling with nerves or the significant amount of caffeine she had ingested that morning. She had everything planned. She had even carefully chosen their seating arrangements; a nice table near the rear of the restaurant where Laxus could sit with his back to a wall and a good view of the rest of the little building. So why was she still so nervous?

She had been waiting an entire day for this moment. A day filled with pacing and stress shopping (the two neon blue shopping bags underneath her chair proved this shameful truth) and begging a tipsy Cana to teach her some card games. All day Lucy had been sweating through her clothes or having mini heart attacks at the thought that Laxus wouldn't show, and now the time had finally come.

The Lightning Dragon Slayer was seated across from her in the café known as Strawberry Street Café. It wasn't the most creative name, but their pastries were to die for. Literally. The first time Lucy had taken Erza here, the Requip mage was only a mere second away from snapping and massacring everyone in the building when the poor, shaking employee told her that they had already given her their last piece of strawberry cake that day and that there was no more. Lucy now always called through a communications lacrima to check if they had at least a whole cake prepared before Erza came over again.

Lucy watched Laxus get situated in his chair, almost frozen in surprise that the man had actually come. The celestial mage blinked, tempted to wipe her eyes with her hands and pinch her arms to see if this was real or not. As she looked up to peer at her nakama's face, she was also abruptly reminded of the… physical differences between the two blondes. She had forgotten the tiny -no, large- detail that Laxus was unbelievably tall and... and wide. When the dragon slayer had entered the café and approached their table, Lucy nearly got a nick in her neck from tilting her head up.

And up.

Even sitting down and ungainly sprawling in his seat he seemed to tower over her. How that was possible, Lucy didn't know, it was just fact of life. The blonde man was at least a head and a half taller than her. She only went up to his mid chest, and every part of his body she laid her eyes on was corded with thick muscle. She idly wondered if his boots added to his height.

Lucy didn't see the annoyed frown Laxus sent her, and she was only hauled out of her inner thinking when the slayer reached over the table and loudly snapped two fingers in front of her nose. Laxus pulled back his hand, tucked it into his fur-trimmed coat's pocket, and barked out, "Oi, stop ogling my goods, Blondie."

Jumping in her chair, Lucy let out a small, surprised shriek, to which Laxus rolled his eyes at. Realizing she hadn't even greeted him yet, Lucy splayed out her hands in front of her and hurried out an apology, "Oh my Mavis, I'm so sorry! I'm so glad you came, thank you for being here!" Lucy smiled sheepishly, definitely ignoring the part of her that wanted to flee the scene while she still could and save herself from the horrible embarrassment and sardonic eyebrow raising that was sure to follow.

He nodded and appeared bored as he easily breezed out, "By the way, you have my condolences."

... Okay. That had definitely not been one of things she thought he would say right of the bat... His condolences? Why on Earthland would he be giving her his condolences? Lucy slanted her head to the side and tried searching the man's face for clues, but Laxus was practically a clean, emotionless slate. And why did he make it sound like that was a huge honor that was being bestowed upon her? She felt strangely compelled to frame his 'condolences' to show them off to everyone else.

She didn't have the time to ask, Laxus steamrolled over her, "I heard from Freed about your apartment burning down last night as an act of revenge from the husband of the dark guild's master you captured during your solo mission." His nonchalant mask slipped enough to show an ounce of pity.

All Laxus got from the female blonde was a gape. He didn't seem to mind though because he took his hands out of his pockets and braced his forearms on the table while he continued, "Evergreen wanted me to tell you that she would have invited you to stay in her guest room until you found another god-awful pink infested place, but she recently got a shipment of new stone statues and stored them in that room."

She stared unabashedly at him. The Celestial Spirit mage couldn't figure out what to focus on and tackle first; the part where Laxus apparently heard wind of the rumors that had been flying around last night, or the part where she had just heard the largest spiel of words from the fellow blonde in the three years she's known him. Laxus was just about to add something else but before he could, Lucy squinted her eyes at him and confessed, "I cannot for the life of me tell if you're kidding or not."

Laxus didn't even twitch. He gave nothing away. The air around them lapsed into a long silence as they watched each other with unwavering gazes. Lucy literally had no idea what was going on in that head of his, she was utterly clueless. Was he serious? Did he actually believe that her apartment burned down? Or was he messing with her again and trying to get a rise out of her? And what the hell did he mean by 'god-awful pink infested place'?

After another beat of stillness, the smaller blonde decided not to even bother and brushed off what had just transpired to point vaguely in the direction to café's kitchens. She was beyond proud of herself when her voice came out smooth and casual, "I already ordered your food for you so you wouldn't have to wait even longer." It had been a sneaky move, but she figured if she fed him, then the Lightning Dragon Slayer would be forced to stay longer and hear her out while he finished his food.

To further sweeten the deal, Lucy added, "And I already paid for it all." She said it with a smile, but she was silently crying on the inside because it had cost a fortune.

Laxus raised a sarcastic eyebrow at that and leaned back in his chair, the awful creaking of the wood shifting made Lucy flinch and fear for the chair's well being. "You ordered for me?" He tilted his chin haughtily and by some miracle, was able to inch his eyebrow even further up as if it was trying to meet and embrace his hairline. "Do you even know what I like?"

"I don't," she admitted, but the grin never faltered because she had already thought of that. "So I just ordered everything from an entire page of the menu. You dragon slayers have spectacular appetites anyways, right?"

He eyed her while he nodded minutely. Like he thought a tiny nod was an appropriate 'thank you for your extreme thoughtfulness and hospitality, please stay by my side as one of my closest friends forever'. Had she just passed some sort of test? Lucy would like to know if she passed the test, but she was too afraid to ask.

The Lightning Dragon Slayer leaned forward on his elbows, his entire expression changing. Lucy had thought he appeared serious before, but apparently the other blonde mage could grow even graver. Must be an extraordinary talent of his. His brows furrowed, his mouth thinned into a straight, flat line, and Laxus leaned in. Mavis, the man was acting like someone had died.

Laxus didn't keep the celestial mage waiting, and Lucy braced herself for the horrible news that was surely to come as the slayer asked lowly, "So what happened?"

This had to be around the fiftieth time in the past thirty minutes that Laxus had managed to shock Lucy into silence. What in the world was he talking about now? Lucy said in a highly perplexed tone, "What?" She was back to wanting to pinch herself, just to make sure she was still on Earthland.

Right as Laxus opened his mouth, the loud ringing of a bell sounded, effectively making both blondes jump a little and turn their heads to the right where they were met with beaming faces approaching them. Four employees were by their table, each holding up a tray brimming with steaming food. Lucy was the one who had ordered the entire sandwich and soup categories, but she was still shocked over the enormous quantity.

Thankfully, the Strawberry Street Café was well aware of the appetites of the dragon slayers from Fairy Tail (and the almost absurdly high tipping due to either the mage's more generous paychecks or their kind-heartedness) so when Lucy had ordered, they immediately got to fixing it instead of staring at her and claiming she was just pulling a prank. They had only made that mistake once when Lucy had first dragged Natsu and Happy there. It hadn't ended well for either side.

They ceased their conversation as Lucy pushed past her confusion and happily greeted the hard working employees while Laxus merely grunted and removed his elbows from the table to make for more room. There were so many plates that the staff had to add on two more tables to the blondes'.

Even though Lucy had dined in restaurants with Natsu countless times and experienced firsthand how much he could eat, she still watched in surprise and amusement as plate after plate was placed down on their expanded table. Though Laxus still donned that grim expression, there was still a growing, satisfied light in his orange eyes as his entire focus centered in on the food. Maybe, just maybe, by the end of Blonde Day, Laxus wouldn't hate the entire time they spent together. Maybe the sheer amount of food that Lucy was willing to supply him would keep him coming back.

Lucy smiled at the staff before they took off back to the kitchens before turning around and seeing Laxus start gathering up plates with a broad sweeping motion with his arms. In that one moment, he truly did look like a dragon hording its treasure. Though the other blonde might be an artificial dragon slayer, he still was one.

It wasn't until Laxus had scarfed down seven sandwiches (Lucy had barely even finished half her bowl of broccoli and cheese soup) that he remembered she was there. There wasn't a hint of embarrassment on his face even though he was clearly aware of just how rude he was being, and Laxus 'oh so graciously' slowed down enough to ask again, "So what kind of horrible shit has happened to Fairy Tail's one and only Celestial Spirit mage that made her seek me out?"

Laxus made it sound as if- Oh.

Lucy's eyes slowly widened in realization, and she dropped her spoon, causing some scalding droplets of her soup to splatter over the table and her hands. Oh. Laxus had asked what's wrong the first time she tried to talk to him too. Did he... did he really believe something had to be wrong for her to approach him? Was that… should Lucy find that funny or really sad? As she stared at her soup splattered hands, she leaned towards finding it really sad.

Still not answering the man, she slowly reached out and grabbed a clean napkin. The celestial mage grimaced while she wiped her hands off as she remembered Mirajane's words to her yesterday. The silver-haired woman had said to make it sound important, and Lucy had. Honestly, she should have seen this coming. Of course Laxus would automatically assume something horrible had happened, she never really approached him before this, and she had followed Mira's advice and sounded serious.

"Well… Really, you see, nothing's wrong." Lucy couldn't meet Laxus' sharp orange eyes anymore, and she dropped her used napkin to start wringing her hands together instead.

Lucy never knew someone could frown while devouring a chicken cordon bleu. Laxus swallowed his bite and said in a tone that screamed 'annoyed', "Then why am I here?"

… Crap. Lucy forgot that at one point she actually had to tell the lightning mage about the real reason for their 'hanging out'. Lucy swallowed her own saliva at his hard look, undoubtedly thinking that she was wasting his time. Mavis, she probably was wasting his time. Because the world hated her, she was starting to sweat again.

Should she just come out with the truth? Be direct, just like Mirajane said? Lucy panicked and just hastened out, "Because it's Blonde Day!" No pleasantries, no leading up to it, just 'it's Blonde Day, surprise!'. The smaller blonde squeezed her eyes shut, too afraid to watch Laxus' reaction. Would he be angry? Would he stomp out of the café? Should she have brought out the cards before she admitted to basically tricking him into joining her for an early dinner hang out?

At a crackling noise, Lucy bravely peeked open an eye. She sort of wished she hadn't.

Laxus, right there in front of her, was looking at her with the most dumbfounded expression she had ever seen on him. He had dropped his sandwich back onto his plate (hands still up in the air as if he was still holding onto it), both his thick eyebrows had climbed up his forehead, his mouth was slightly opened, and his eyes were widened. Small sparks of electricity even fizzled above his shoulders as if even his dragon slayer magic was -pun unintended- shocked.

"Wha- What the fuck did you just say?" The Lightning Dragon Slayer stumbled incredulously.

"It's… Blonde Day?" Lucy made some sort of jazz hand gesture because honestly she was just making stuff up by now. She didn't know what she was doing anymore. "Ta…da?" The female blonde grimaced and stuffed her hands back under the table. Pathetic jazz hands wouldn't be able to help her situation.

The slayer's eyes stopped trying to pop out of his head to narrow dangerously at her, and Lucy tried to discreetly pull at her collar until she realized her dress didn't have a collar. "What the ever loving fuck is 'Blonde Day'?" Surprise had weaned into suspicion as Laxus nailed her with his resolute glare.

"A day were blonde mages go out with the other blonde mages to celebrate their rare hair color." Lucy ducked her head. This was it, now Laxus knew.

The man was just a big fan of staring at people in silence, wasn't he? Lucy went back to avoiding his gaze, especially when the lightning mage gruffed out in a deadpan voice, "That is literally the stupidest thing I have heard this week."

Lucy sighed and started drumming her fingers against her thigh. "I know." It wasn't a brilliant and sophisticated plan, she had been more than unsure of it herself when she had created it in the pool. But, like then, it was all she had.

"So what do you want?" Laxus was still eerily flat-voiced, and Lucy cautiously brought her head up again. "Why are you really doing this?" The dragon slayer inquired further, forgetting his meal completely and crossing his broad arms over his broad chest. Mavis, everything about the man was broad.

"I don't want anything," Lucy said truthfully. Well, she wanted his friendship, but she couldn't say that and she had a feeling that wasn't what Laxus was looking for anyways. He was asking what Lucy wanted from him, Laxus Dreyar the S-Class mage, the guild master in training. This was exactly what Lucy was explaining to Natsu in the pool two days ago.

"Sure you don't." His attitude and tone dripped with so much distrust that Lucy was surprised it wasn't forming a puddle of distrust underneath his chair. There was a scrape of the chair's legs against the wooden floor as Laxus began to get up. "I'm leaving."

Wait, he was leaving?! The celestial mage panicked and jerked forward, surprising Laxus and herself when she lunged over the food and grasped a handful of the fur lining of his coat. The fur was surprisingly soft under her hold, but she couldn't pay attention to that right now. "Laxus, please!" she begged for multiple things. For him to stay, for him to understand she wasn't going to use him or his status in any way, for him to give this a chance, all those things.

She knew they were making a scene, first unintentionally grabbing the attention of the other customers with the mounds of food the cooks brought out to their table, and now with her rather pathetic display. A blush started to dust over the Celestial Spirit mages cheeks when she spotted more than a few heads turn their direction in her peripheral vision. She probably looked like a desperate girlfriend that had just gotten dumped. That thought didn't help her at all, because her blush only worsened.

Laxus' nose scrunched up and his brows furrowed as he brought his hands up to lightly jab at her wrist and arms until she let go of his coat. Lucy carefully pulled back and stood on her side of the table, staring mournfully at the lightning mage. He couldn't leave, this had to work out. She didn't have any other ideas other than Blonde Day.

"Please, Laxus?" Lucy quietly tried as she clasped her hands behind her back, just to make she didn't try to dive after him once more. The man most likely wouldn't tolerate her touching his coat once again, and she wouldn't blame him. "Just… sit down for Blonde Day? All this food will go to waste if you leave."

Hard and unforgiving orange eyes scrutinized her, and Lucy tried not to fidget. They stood there like that for a few seconds while the whispering from the other customers grew louder, wondering what in the world was happening between those two blondes. Words like 'break up' and 'good twin, evil twin' were being thrown around, but the two mages paid no attention to them, too busy sizing the other one up.

The dragon slayer let out a heavy exhale and appeared furious, but he sat back down in his chair and started gathering up food again. He even extended his hand and swiped the rest of her soup away from her. After he had stolen her lunch, he pointed a finger at her (just like she had done to him yesterday) and declared, "This is stupid." He made sure the other blonde clearly knew his opinions on this. "I'm doing this for the free food. So don't go around thinking that I'm doing this for you," he warned.

Like Laxus, Lucy let out a big exhale herself and slid back into her chair. "Okay." She agreed lightly. This was good, he didn't walk out on her never to return. If he stayed for one Blonde Day, then perhaps she could convince him to stay for many others. The smaller mage had a feeling that Laxus wasn't like Natsu, and he wouldn't keep coming just for the food. He'd stop all together if he got too bored with her and Blonde Day.

Lucy clapped her hands together, much to the annoyance of the slayer who would much rather pay attention to his food than to her, and said cheerfully. "So! What do you want to talk about?" They had to start somewhere, right? Should she bring out the cards now or later?

Laxus shrugged and grunted.

A/N: So, did the first Blonde Day live up to your expectations? Was it realistic? Review/fav/follow and I'll... love you unconditionally...? Yeah, I definitely can do that.