A/N: I'm too scared the read the latest two manga chapters of Fairy Tail, so I've been hiding from the internet. And can you believe that 'Blonde Day' officially has over 25k words and we're nowhere near 1/4 the way done yet?
Chapter Four: Luxurious Lions and Larcenous Lily's
'you'd be surprised how much it costs to look this cheap'
- Dolly Parton
.
All seemed peaceful that night on Strawberry Street as the moon's glow illuminated the cobblestone roads until they shone a pale silver. There was a minor breeze which caused some torn out pages of a few magazines and newspapers to go sliding across the street, only to get caught in the corners of small buildings or behind trash cans. The river in the canal rippled softly when fish swam to the surface to pick off the buzzing insects that fell into its dark waters, and boats rocked lazily with the minuscule waves that were instigated by the wind.
Every street and house light on Strawberry Street was switched off as midnight approached and the Magnolia citizens closed their shops and climbed into the warm comfort of their beds. All the lights, however, except those that belonged to one apartment with a brown sloping roof and two chimneys. Light shone brightly out from the window that led into a blonde mage's bedroom, attracting the attention of both hammered drunks walking home and pesky moths. If someone on the ground level angled themselves correctly from across the other side of the canal, they would even be able to see the heads of two silhouette figures inside the room, sitting crisscrossed on the floor and facing each other.
These two figures happened to be Lucy Heartfilia, the apartment's owner herself, and one of her celestial spirits, a lean man with spiked orange hair and a sharp suit that never seemed to wrinkle. The being's proper attire already stuck out dramatically compared to his master's raggedly pajama shirt and shorts, but with the mysterious green paste smeared all over his face, he just looked ridiculous.
Quiet snarling and a substantial amount of eye rolls were coming from Lucy, who was huffing and puffing angrily as she held Leo's hand and used gentle and careful strokes of the brush to paint the lion's nails. Though she was fuming on both the outside and the inside, she was precise in painting Leo's nails a bright and vibrant pink. Her own nails were a light orange and had just finished drying enough for her to start working on her spirit's.
"He just sat there!" The Celestial Spirit mage snorted indignantly and turned Leo's hands so she could get a better angle. "He sat there and didn't even attempt to talk! I even brought out the cards, and he refused to play them with me because 'he didn't feel like it'! He refused to participate and sat there!" She had spent an entire hour trying to decipher Cana's slurred teachings on how to play the basic card games all for nothing. Mirajane's advice had failed her.
Lucy shook her head. "You know what he was doing? He was sulking, that's what he was doing. Sulking like a child," the blonde spat as she tried to keep the hurt from seeping into her voice. She was mad alright, but she was also unbelievably hurt by the fellow blonde's nonchalant attitude towards not only her, but to everyone else in the guild.
"Uh-huh," came the offhand reply from the leader of the zodiac. The magnificent, resilient, and flirty spirit truly did look absurd and out of place with that coat of smarmy, green facial scream over his features (a 'face mask' that matched the identical one on his owner's face. Fortunately, unlike Lucy's, his orange spiked locks were already gravity defying, so there was no need to go as far as pulling it back with a hairband) and his pink nails. Leo's tinted sunglasses were placed on the floor next to him so anyone who had a brain could easily recognize his faraway and glazed expression as boredom.
If Lucy had just peered upwards, she would have seen his unfocused eyes. However, she was instead intensely concentrating on painting his left hand. She was a perfectionist, and she would not allow her spirit to leave her room with sloppy work on his fingers.
One of Leo's cat ears twitched when Lucy screeched, "How dare that… that lightbulb act so casual! I mean, all I did was put Mira's advice into action and misled him about my true intentions. Was that so wrong -I… well, actually… maybe it was, but still! It was horribly rude of him to not even try!" The mage was raging and she couldn't seem to stop. She had known that the path towards gaining Laxus Dreyar's friendship would be a long and twisty one, but she hadn't anticipated how annoying it was to be brushed off so insouciantly by the dragon slayer.
Leo let out a long humming noise. "What a bastard."
"Right?!" Lucy nodded furiously as she finished painting his index finger. She jostled his hand around so she could comfortably reach his thumb. "He could have at least tried to get to know me in return! But no, all he did was sit there with an solemn look on his face, which is also really insulting by the way, and scarf down his food that I paid for!"
The rest of the time she spent with Laxus had been her own personal Hell. After getting the dragon slayer to stay, the rest of the afternoon had been one giant mess of the words 'awkward' and 'unsavory', and it made Lucy want to bury herself under her bed and never come out to see the light of day. And because her mind hated her, it kept replaying the embarrassing moments over and over again while Lucy repeatedly called her herself an idiot.
She could remembered, very clearly, one of her biggest failures of that day. It made her cringe every time she remembered it.
"Well, okay," Lucy said uncertainly, shifting in her seat. Her mind came up empty, why was her mind coming up empty? Didn't she spend the entire last night writing down conversation topics on paper? Where were they now, why couldn't she recall them in the heat of the moment? "Do you... Do you want to talk about the crushing expectations of our fathers that pushed us to take extreme measures?"
As soon as the words had spewed out of her mouth Laxus paused, half a sandwich still in his hands, and sent her a glare that chilled her to her bones. She was completely frozen, she couldn't move a single muscle while being at the end of his nasty glower. Did Gray sneak up behind her and turn her into a block of ice without her knowing? Was that why she couldn't seem to move?
The fellow blonde put down his food with an out of place carefulness that only made the celestial mage shrink back in slight apprehension. "I'd rather jump into a tub of acid," He frankly deadpanned.
Dammit, Natsu. The blonde held back her groan of discomfiture. It'd only raise Leo's suspicions, and the celestial being might try to pry.
"Simply atrocious."
The fuming celestial mage's grip on her spirit tightened as she stewed in her anger. "Exactly!" Her voice was leaning towards sounding whiny, but she didn't care. After that horrible, horrible afternoon, Lucy thought she deserved to whine a little. Every hour she had to sit with that unmovable, unmalleable, unamiable -and all the other 'un's- man, she earned a full sixty minutes of complaining.
The blonde wanted to fling her arms up in surrender. "And where did he learn those manners?!" Okay, now she was just reaching for stuff to rant about. "Does the man know how to communicate feelings without shrugging? He's the king of shrugs! And the rest of us are all his lowly shrugger peasants! Laxus should be christened 'King 'Eh'."
An exhale. "It's a mystery."
The Lightning Dragon Slayer had been so rude that day, he wouldn't even give her an inch! She had forgotten how the man's emotional state was nearly identical to that of a rock's-
-Suddenly, Lucy deflated and her shoulders slumped. She loosed her hold on Leo and sighed heavily. That was a terrible thing to think, why had she thought that? Laxus was a person, of course he had emotions and feelings. Everything other than anger and annoyance was just... hidden really well or only brought out when someone was actually dying.
"Laxus is just so… so…" Lucy bit her lower lip as she tried to think of words that could accurately describe Laxus Dreyar. Her brows scrunched up in thought as she dipped the brush back into the nail polish container to gather some more. When she resumed her task, she said slowly, "So… bent on remaining a social hermit. Doesn't he want to see us all as something other than annoying siblings?"
"What a bastard."
Lucy halted her work at those familiar words. 'What a bastard'? Wait, he already- Lucy's head snapped up to see the lion's face turned away hers, staring out her window into the dark night. Her brown eyes narrowed. "You already said that," she said lowly, twisting her head and leaning forwards so she could get a better look at the spirit's expression. "Hey, are you okay? You've been acting a little distant, is something wrong? Did I do something wrong?" Her expression softened and she prodded his arm gently.
Leo stopped his gazing at the starry sky to peer down at the owner of his golden key. If Lucy wasn't so worried about what was going on inside that head of his, she would have burst into snickers at the sight of his green facemask. With a rather dramatic sigh, the lion spirit tilted his head back and brought his free hand up and placed the back of it against his forehead, making Lucy wonder if he picked the move up from Mira. "It's just… My highness's affections and attentions have moved on to another man. This disheartening development has both me and my heart pulverized."
A bright blush immediately bloomed across Lucy's cheeks as the spirit brought his hand back down and muttered a 'shit' when he noticed the back of it was covered in facial cream. "It's not like that!" Was her instantaneous, almost instinctual really, reaction. She gripped the nail polish bottle and begged the reddening of her cheeks to go away. "I-I, I don't… don't like like him," she stuttered. She was trying to become Laxus' friend, not date him!
"Sure you don't." Leo's eyebrow raise screamed disbelief. He pointed to her fingernails. "Then why did you paint your own nails orange, huh? Orange like his eyes."
Lucy gaped at her friend, momentarily stupefied that he was making a big deal out of her chosen fingernail polish. She spread her fingers apart to admire the job she had done. She liked orange! "It was a coincidence," the blonde tilted her chin and said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Pure coincidence."
The lion spirit snorted, all the while examining her room to find something to wipe his hand with. "Last time you painted your nails orange, you complained to Virgo for thirty minutes straight about how it made you feel like a peach with your golden hair. She now thinks you despise peaches." He gave her 'the look'. "I am only aware of this because Virgo then later lectured me for thirty minutes about how we, as your faithful spirits that adore you and all that you stand for, should never utter the word 'peach' in front of you in case it makes you feel 'uncomfortable'." He even went as far as adding finger quotes.
By this point, Lucy was just spluttering out different vowel sounds, but the celestial being was merciless. She was full on squawking when he cooed in a whimsical sing song voice, "Oh, you painted your nails the color of his eyes!" The sight of her burning face only seemed to fuel his teasing. Giving her a sly look, Leo pulled his hand from her grasp and carefully clasped both of them over his heart. "'Laxus, darling o' mine'," The lion's voice was pitched higher than normal. "'Laxus, your stunning eyes remind me of the lush colors that belong solely to the gorgeous sunset that lies over the outline of Magnolia!'."
Lucy immediately shushed Leo and flailed her hands in front of his green face to try to get him to stop. "Stop it, you're talking like Juvia!... And I do not sound like that!" She protested. Who was she kidding, she did sound like that. Unlike Natsu's impression of the blonde a few days ago, Leo's was spot on. He had the sparkles in his eyes and everything.
The Celestial Spirit Mage reached forward and snatched Leo's hand again. "Oh, just shut up." She rolled her eyes at the lion spirit's smirk.
"Or," he drawled easily as she continued painting his nails again. "Did you paint your nails orange because it's the color of my hair?"
It was Lucy that snorted this time. "Yeah, right. You wish."
"I do wish, I wish immensely." Leo was about to make another jab at Lucy, but paused when he noticed the tense lines forming on the corners of her mouth. "Are you okay, Lucy? You're all," he made a gesture that included pointing at her entire mouth, "frown-y."
"I don't know, I just…" Lucy trailed off as she scrutinized her work on Leo's fingernails. She dropped it and grabbed his other hand to start working on designs. "This Blonde Day was a disaster, I barely got him to agree to next week's one -Do you want stars or a heart? Thumb or ring finger?"
What she had said was true, she had barely managed to reel the other blonde mage into agreeing for next Thursday. They had ended it early and they were standing outside of café's doors when she had asked if he was free the same time next Thursday. He nearly brushed her off and walked away, but he must have spotted the pure desperation on her features because he grumpily agreed. For some reason, he only seemed to grow graver when Lucy beamed happily at his response.
The stellar mage didn't even want to begin thinking about what happened after that. After they had stiffly said their farewells, they began walking in the same direction back to the guild. One tense moment later and Laxus muttered that he suddenly felt like heading home. Lightning had started gathering near his legs and crackled around him before he morphed into his lightning form and sped away with an ear-deafening boom. Lucy hadn't been able to hear out of her right ear for the next several minutes and the hairs on her arms had been literally shocked into standing straight.
"Stars of course, my love. Ring finger." Leo leaned closer to her and wiggled his digits. "Hey, see if you can make my constellation."
"I don't think I can do that, your star alignment is so fa-expansive."
"I take offense to that."
Lucy let out a soft chuckle before she remembered her troubles. She became somber again. Mavis, she was just up and down for the past days, Laxus was making her an emotional roller coaster. "I don't know, Leo," she whispered, "if I'm the right one to become his friend. What if I don't have what it takes? I'm noisy and have a tendency to snap, those are terrible friend qualities."
There was a beat of silence, and Lucy could see Leo's drumming his fingers against her floor. After a few more moments Leo spoke up while Lucy finished painting a cluster of stars on his fingernail, "I don't know what you're talking about. The Lucy I know could forgive and befriend anyone while smiling the entire time. Also, I know quite a large number of mages who already love her, even if she is a tad loud and was quick to anger."
The celestial mage shyly ducked her head and quickly finished giving the lion spirit a clear coat. "You don't… I'm not…" she couldn't even finish her sentence.
"I'm right and you know it," Leo stated confidently. He gave her his other hand to put a clear coat on. "I haven't the slightest clue to why you want to befriend Laxus Dreyar, he's really a big dick-" Lucy promptly choked on her spit "-but I'll support you and all your decisions. And if that means giving you frequent pep talks that are obviously just to stroke your ego, then so be it. Anything for my queen."
"Hey! I take offense to that," the blonde threw the celestial spirit's words right back at him. Pep talks just to stroke her ego? She couldn't come up with a good comeback, so she threw his hands down and bounced up to stand. "There, Mr. High And Mighty, you're done."
"Finally." The lion grinned as he stood up, inspecting Lucy's work with sharp eyes. Leo wiggled his fingers again. "Well, now that that torture's over with and you've been re-energized..." he stopped and looked at her. "You're re-energized, right? No more moping and more solving?"
Lucy laughed. "Yes, Leo. I'm re-energized." She'd figure out something to do with Laxus tomorrow. Perhaps she could come up with activities that acquaintances could attend together. The mage idly wondered what his thoughts would be on taking a basket weaving class for Blonde Day. Everyone loved baskets.
The spirit clapped his hands together. "Great! Because I have to run." Leo walked around her room, picked up his sunglasses from the floor, and snatched up a towel from her hamper. As he started carefully wiping off the green facial cream from his hand, being mindful of the drying nail polish, he smiled warmly. "Sleep well, Lucy."
Just as he was about to materialize into light, Lucy held out her arm and rushed, "Wait!" She had to ask him something she'd been dying to know the whole night. No way would she let him escape without an answer.
The lion blinked and froze, and Lucy tilted her head and asked, "Why did you want me to paint your nails tonight?"
"Huh?"
The blonde shook her head. "Don't 'huh' me. You're the one who popped out of nowhere in my room and asked me to paint your nails pink. So why?" It had actually been hilarious. There she had been reading in her bed when a frazzled lion spirit appeared with a flash of stardust and glasses askew. He had immediately grabbed her book and threw it across the room, which earned him a kick to the chest. After recovering, he practically begged her to paint his nails pink for him.
Leo shrugged and played with the sunglasses in his hands. "I made a bet with Capricorn that I'd look better with pink nails than he would," he said simply before eyeing her. "If Capricorn asks you to paint his nails… claws?"
Of course that'd be the reason. "I'll deny him," Lucy chuckled. She didn't know why she was getting mixed up in something between two of her spirits, but she was in a good mood now and Leo was here first, after all. The celestial mage was about to say goodnight when she remembered. "Just one last thing, though, then you can go, I promise."
"And what would that be, apple of my eye?"
Lucy giggled again and pointed to her own face. "You gotta little… You still have the face mask on. You can wash it off in my sink if you want." The blonde had no clue how they both ended up with face masks on. One minute Leo was rifling through her nail polish supply under her sink, and the next he pulled the jar and got curious. Before she knew it, they were sporting matching green faces.
Leo waved his hand. "Ah, I'm going to leave it on. I'm planning to scare Aries with it and then catch her feinting figure in my waiting arms. Goodnight, Lucy. Sleep tight."
She said her goodnights and Leo disappeared back to the Spirit World. After he was gone, her apartment became dead silent, and Lucy exhaled heavily and went to turn off her lights. Now that her friend was gone, her limbs started getting heavy with sleep again and all she could think about was getting into the warm bed that practically beckoned to her to return.
The blonde stumbled her way to the bathroom and wearily scrubbed the facial mask off with a dirty towel before she went back to her bed and fell into it more than she did slide into it. She had a big day tomorrow. A day full of never-ending planning and asking around about a basket-weaving class because she honestly couldn't come up with anything better.
Lucy could only sigh in relief as she sank down into her bed. It was so warm and cozy, and she wrapped her puffy comforter around herself while she breathed in. She had only closed her eyes for seven minutes before Capricorn appeared and politely inquired if she would be oh so kind enough to paint his nails pink.
The small scrap of paper was gently folded back out against the surface of the wooden table in an attempt to get rid of at least some of the numerous creases that marred it. Earlier that morning Lucy had originally crumbled it up into a little ball and thrown it into the trashcan under her desk, but only five seconds passed before she fished it back out again. The blonde still thought the idea written on it was a crappy one but with nothing else, it was the only thing she still had.
She had even brought it with her to the guild, and she had been staring at it for the past forty-five minutes while she tried to figure out if she was serious about this or not. Okay, so it only took two minutes to realize she wasn't serious about it (Laxus in a basket weaving class? Edolas would have produced another magic source before that happened), but she was still holding onto it as if it was some sort of security blanket.
Not surprisingly, the Celestial Spirit mage hasn't seen Laxus since Blonde Day. The man and his posse have been mysteriously absent from the guild ever since their meet up, and Lucy was starting to expect that the Lightning Dragon Slayer was dodging her. If that was the case then jokes on him, because she's evading his presence right back.
The celestial mage was also avoiding Mira, and that's why she was seated at the table furthest from the bar where the silver-haired beauty was working alongside with Kinana. It was foolish to presume that Mira didn't know she was there -Lucy could clearly see the older woman keep sending little glances her way- yet she was still hiding. Lucy almost felt like Laxus, hiding in the back and avoiding any confrontation what so ever. It was depressing, yet oddly freeing.
Though she meant no harm by it, Mira would keep pestering her for more and more details on Blonde Day, and Lucy wasn't quite ready to admit the catastrophe of a day just yet. Maybe by Tuesday she would be. Tuesday seemed like a good day to admit all her faults and failures.
Speaking of Laxus, Lucy kicked her legs under the table and let out a high pitched, frustrated whine, earning a few 'I'm concerned for your health' glances from Gajeel and Pantherlily from the table to her left.
Lucy sent a weak glare their way in return, which they paid no attention to. They had no right to look at her like she was a weirdo. They were the ones who were currently dumping the separate hauls of tableware that they had both gathered over the weekend into one shining pile. The sheer number of silverware concerned her. Just how many establishments did those two 'borrow from' to gather that much? Was Gajeel stocking up early for the winter? Lucy reminded herself to check her silverware drawers when she got home.
Other than double checking that her appliances hadn't mysteriously vanished, she still needed to figure out a new plan for gaining the Lightning Dragon Slayer's friendship, and she had to do it fast. The next Blonde Day was only five days away and she had to bring something entirely different to the table if she would have any hope that Laxus would stay.
Lucy sighed and traced the numbers written down on the scrap paper while she slumped forwards. On the paper was the time and place of that basket weaving class she had originally first come up with during her 'spirit and Lucy time' with Leo. For kicks and giggles, she had looked around the next day and learned that Magnolia did, in fact, have a beginner's basket weaving class, and the old lady who ran the event was very skillful, even without four of her fingers.
From her peripheral vision, she could see Gajeel leaning towards her as his Exceed dumped the last few remaining spoons on their mega pile. The clanking of metal against metal was strangely soothing as Lily began sorting them into piles of forks, spoons, and knives. Lily's sorting came to a stuttering halt however when he picked up a whisk. It was nearly comical when the cat sweatdropped as he desperately went back and forth between each pile, trying to place the kitchen tool.
The blonde was mildly surprised when she noticed Gajeel's attentions wasn't focused on the buffet of metal in front of him, instead his peculiar red eyes were staring straight at her. Lucy's nose scrunched up. Did she have some food on her face? Oh no, had she been walking around in front of the entire guild with something on her face?! Lucy brought her arm and furiously began wiping at her mouth and cheeks.
The metal-studded dragon slayer surprised her even further when he enquired, "Yo, Bunny Girl, you okay there?"
The stellar mage tilted her head, confused, only to have Gajeel answer her silent question when he forthrightly pointed to her legs with a small smirk. Lucy was shocked to see that her legs were bouncing on their own accord without her permission. When had they started doing that? She pressed her palms down hard on her thighs and stopped the jittering.
"Well, huh," was all she could say. She must have really been lost inside her own head to not even notice.
Gajeel didn't seem to notice his Exceed pulling on his sleeveless tunic in an attempt to gain his attention -Pantherlily appeared lost as he still hopelessly tried to figure out where to put the stolen whisk- because the slayer scooted around in his chair until he was facing towards blonde. "So, spit it out." Gajeel nodded and made a clumsy 'go on' hand motion. "Give it to me."
Lucy rose her eyebrow, and she placed her hand over her heart. "Excuse me?" Give it to him? Give what? Her sense of dignity? Because if so, she couldn't. She had left that sucker at a table in the Strawberry Street Café along with her pride.
A flash of annoyance flew over his facial features as his frown became more prominent. Lucy really started worrying when Gajeel started opening and closing his hands in an overly aggressive 'gimme' gesture. The blonde leaned back in her chair, away from her friend, as discreetly as possible. After getting pummeled in the head so many times, the man's finally snapped, he's gone crazy. First the stealing of silverware and now this.
"Come on," Gajeel ordered forcefully, his voice laced with obvious frustration. His hand signals were starting to look like he was practicing strangling someone, and even their guildmates situated around them were beginning to don a nervous appearance. "Let it out. Right now, to good ol' metal-head."
"Gajeel, you're scaring me."
Pantherlily held up his tiny paw and yanked hard on the mage's tunic again, and he finally received the dragon slayer's attention. "Use your words, Gajeel, what would Levy say?" Lily reprimanded with a disappointed shake of his head.
After sharing a meaningful glance with his cat, The Iron Dragon Slayer took a moment to breathe out harshly through his nose while he squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them, he rolled his shoulders to relax them before he settled his eyes on her with an expression that very clearly indicated that he thought she was being a dolt. "What I'm tryin' to say is, what's bothering ya, Bunny Gi-"
"Gajeel," Lily warned, tail flicking in annoyance.
"-Lucy," The man said it with a twist of his lips like it felt weird using her actual name. His lips flattened into a white line, and he quickly twisted in his chair and grabbed a handful of stolen silverware. In seconds the metal disappeared into his mouth, and all Lucy could do was sit there in her chair with a rumpled on piece of paper in her hands and watch him eat, what could probably be, her forks.
It took a moment for Lucy to realize that the man was stress eating. The blonde bent down and placed her hands under her chair and awkwardly sort of squatted and dragged her chair closer to her friend's, suddenly being driven by a desire to comfort the other mage and his noticeable discomposure. She only got halfway before Gajeel stopped her with a heavily scarred, outstretched arm, his palm facing towards her and a scowl marring his face.
"Oh, no you don't," Gajeel hissed through his teeth. He only ceased his glowering when Lucy hurriedly scooted herself along with her wooden chair back to its rightful place. "I'm the one who's gonna… gonna help you, not the other way around. So, who's the pissbaby that's got you so down in the dumps, Bunny Girl?"
Pantherlily brought up his head from where it was bent over reorganizing a pile to correct the dragon slayer again, and Lucy could tell the exact moment where the predominately black cat decided to not even bother and go back to the silverware.
Her eyes widened. He Gajeel just said 'who'? How did he know it a person who was causing her frequent bouts of melancholy and the need to ask around about stupid basket weaving classes? Did he know it was Laxus in particular? If she wasn't sitting down, then she would have been roughly shaking his shoulders and demanding him to spill whatever classified information concerning her secrets that he held.
"How'd you know it was a 'who'?" Lucy probed as she eyed him cagily, ready to flee without a moment's hesitation and dive behind the bar. Mira could protect her there.
If Gajeel knew about Blonde Day, then that meant there was a high chance that everyone in the guild knew about Blonde Day, and that thought caused Lucy to start panicking. If people knew, then they would tease her and Laxus, and if they teased Laxus about it then he definitely would start avoiding her like the plague, even more than he was now. Mavis, if Lucy walked into the same building as him, he would most likely fling himself out a window to escape.
Gajeel's laughter broke her out of her thinking. "Gihihi," The Iron Dragon Slayer grinned devilishly as he leaned back in his chair and propped up both legs onto the table. His heavy boots thudded when soled heels met wood and Gajeel's grin only widened, seemingly not worried over the fact that if Mirajane or Erza caught him in the act, it'd mean certain death by defenestration or decapitation. "I didn't, but I do now," He proclaimed arrogantly.
Lucy blushed in mortification and cursed the slayer's existence. He got her there, and using one of the oldest tricks in the book too.
"So, who is it?" Gajeel prodded casually. He suddenly rolled his red eyes and scoffed, "Don't tell me it's that pink-haired idiot, Salamander. What'd the hothead do this time?" Before Lucy could respond that Natsu hadn't -for once- done anything wrong, Gajeel gave her a knowing look, "Ya hated the newest mission he picked out didn't you? I gotta good look at it myself before Salamander whisked it away, and it was a pretty shitty one, I'll admit."
"Wait," Lucy held out her hand at the unexpected change of topic. "Natsu picked out another job? He hasn't approached me about it yet."
Gajeel shrugged. "Really? For sure, I thought that's what you were poutin' over." He didn't even acknowledge her offended 'I do not pout!'. The other mage let out a soft 'huh' before telling her, "That flame-head picked out that one demolition job, and I 'member Shrimp telling me you hated callin' out your spirits on those."
Natsu picked out a demolition job for them? Lucy barely held back the disappointed groan or the slap of her hand to her forehead, Gajeel snickering when he saw her face twist from her inner turmoil. That had been the reaction he had been expecting.
Of course the rosette would, it was one of his top five favorite types of jobs (she knew this because Natsu had once made actual physical copies of this list and had proudly presented it to her along with the rest of the team. Lucy was sure she still had thirty or so copies still shoved in random crevices in her apartment). And he knew she hated demolition jobs. She always felt guilty for summoning her celestial spirits to do manual labor like collapsing a building.
But, really, Natsu could go on demolition job after demolition job and never tire of it. It was the only time he was allowed to destroy something with all that he had and not get in trouble for it later or have his pay docked. They truly were made for him -Oh. My. Mavis.
Lucy flipped and finally slapped the palm of her hand against her forehead. "Oh!" She accidentally exclaimed out loud. That was it! The solution to her Laxus troubles! A job.
"Gajeel, that's it!" She cried as she jumped up from her wooden chair. With a ringing laugh, Lucy picked up her piece of paper and tore it into many smaller shreds. She wouldn't need basket weaving classes anymore! The blonde mage wiped the nonexistent sweat from her forehead and smiled brightly at her friend. "You're a genius, oh, thank you!"
A job was the perfect idea! And hadn't Mirajane been telling her that actions speak louder than words? That she'll get to know Laxus better through his actions? She would go on a job with the Lightning Dragon Slayer! It was beyond perfect, and the only thing she had to do was ensure that the job was only something Laxus and her could do together. If the job was just suited to their magic, then Laxus wouldn't be able to pass on it or demand she pick another partner! That shouldn't be too hard, right?
"I'm… glad to help?" Gajeel said uncertainly as his eyes followed the unhurried path of the falling scraps that drifted to the floor. The man had no clue what had just happened, but the blonde was complimenting him and he wasn't going to deny it. The man clasped his hands behind his head and slouched further into his chair as he idly added, "Yeah, it turns out I am amazin' at this whole 'helping' thing."
Lucy paused in her impromptu celebrating to scoff at Gajeel's pretentious behavior, but the smile slipped off her lips when she got a good look at her guildmate. Hold on. Something in the celestial mage's head clicked, and she slowly studied the mage before her, who growled out a rough 'what are you looking at' when he noticed her staring at him. The other mage continued to demand her to tell him if there was something on his face and when he didn't get an answer, he sourly asked Lily.
Well, huh. Gajeel had been a lot like Laxus when the Iron Dragon Slayer had joined Fairy Tail, Lucy realized with a small smile. He had hidden in the shadows and kept to himself, all the while developing a strong sense of loyalty to the guild. And if Gajeel could now enjoy everyone's company, who's to say that Laxus couldn't? Lucy felt like squealing her happiness to the guild again, but was able to reel it inside her chest.
"Hey, Gajeel." Lucy said, beaming smile still firmly in place, and he looked up at her. "Why did you want to help me?"
The slayer's eyes narrowed before he snorted and waved his hand. "Eh, I had to fill my good deeds quota for the week, an' I spied you and your miserable…" He gestured to all of her. "…ness. Your miserable-ness. So, like the kind man that I am, I decided to help." Lucy's eye twitched at his self appraisal, and Gajeel had a sharp-toothed grin playing on his lips, red eyes practically dancing with pleasure. "I know, I know, I'm awfully great right? It was pretty magnanimous of me."
Lucy reeled back at his use of the large word. "How do you know what 'magnanimous' means?"
Gajeel smirked, looking as smug as the Exceed that caught the fish. "Gihi, Levy bought me a 'Word of the Day' calendar." The dragon slayer disclosed while he puffed up his chest. His preening only got worse as Lily bestowed upon the mage some 'well earned' praise beside him.
"She bought you a 'Word of the Day' calendar? And you're actually using it?" She asked dubiously, blinking with surprise. Calendar? Suddenly her head space was sent back to yesterday when Mira had been telling her that Gajeel had sprinted out of the guild while blabbering something about a calendar. Was that the same calendar he was talking about?
"I'm a very capricious man, ya never know what I'm gonna do next."
A/N: I friggin' love Lucy being bros with everyone.