A/N: WE'RE T-3 CHAPTERS UNTIL THIS STUPID THING IS DONE FUCK. I almost bumped the rating on this one, but then I figured like...it's not that bad.
Fair warning, didn't bump the rating on this one for the reason you're thinking I did.
Or.
Well.
Maybe you are, but just not the right way :)
(Don't kill me)
Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does. I also don't own the song 'Get Low' by Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz.
On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Nine ladies dancing.
"3, 6, 9, damn she fine! Hoping she can sock it to me one more time!"
"Get low! Get low!"
"From the window!"
"To the wall!"
"Til' the sweat drip down my balls!"
"Til' all these bitches crawl!"
"Til' all skeet skeet motherfuckers!"
"All skeet skeet goddamn!"
"When you said pre-game, I assumed we would be knocking back a glass of good quality wine and then heading out," Wendy murmured, swiping her metallic red lipstick over her lower lip once more for good measure. "Not, you know, chugging fireball."
"Have you met them?" Lucy said. "It's Cana. And Mira bartends. Wine is pre-game for fancy dinner parties, and fireball is pre-game for clubbing. You're lucky they haven't found the tequila."
Cana perked up at the mention of her second favourite drink on planet Earth and whipped around, pointing her curling wand at the duo seated at the dining table. "We're saving the tequila for body shots at the club! Mira! We got more fireball?"
The silver-haired beauty dug around her purse for a moment before yanking out a fourth of a bottle of fireball, which Cana gleefully snagged and downed in an impressive three seconds. Mira shook her head in mock disapproval, turning back to her heels to continue strapping them to her ankle. Lucy could hardly make heads or tails of the complicated design of the shoe and figured she would be better off in something more plain for the rest of the night, much like her outfit. Where Cana was in an adorable little black number with more straps to hold it together than there was actual cloth, Lucy had opted for a dark red halter neck that stopped short of her knees. Mira had gone for something similar in black, while Wendy had wisely selected a bell-sleeved dress and flats.
"So, what's the general plan, then?" Wendy asked. "I've never gone clubbing before, so…"
"Right!" Cana declared, spinning around and barely managing to catch herself on the door-frame. "Time to introduce you to the F.E.A.R. protocol!"
"Focus sash, endeavor, quick attack, Rattata?"
"No, you Pokemon addicted nerd, F.E.A.R. stands for...Fireball!"
"Engage!" Mira chirped.
"Ass!" Cana crowed.
"Reap!" Lucy finished.
"First, we pre-game with fireball. Then, we go to a club and engage both the bouncer for quick entry, and then some cute guy on the dance floor. Following that, we put our asses to good use and grind for a few hours, and then come back home and reap the rewards. Rewards being all the phone numbers and, depending on the night, the dude you brought to bed," Cana explained. Lucy made a discrete cutting motion over her neck and mouthed, 'you don't have to do that last part' to Wendy before the brunette could take notice.
"Sounds fun! Where are we going?" At that, both Mira and Cana exchanged A Look.
"Club Boost," Mira said, glee falling off her in waves.
"Are you people trying to kill her?" Lucy demanded, setting down her mascara wand. "Club Boost is way too packed on the weekends for her first night out! We need to take her somewhere more subdued. Like, Noctum or something."
"I can handle it," Wendy said confidently. "I can cut open a body with trap blaring in the background, this is nothing."
"They let you listen to trap in the anatomy lab?" Mira whined. "No fair! When I had Berkowitz she only let us listen to classical music."
"A couple people in our class had a mini-revolt, so trap it is."
Five minutes after they'd entered the club, Lucy had lost her shoes and fifteen dollars.
The shoes were no surprise. It had become a bit of a running joke between her and her friends that Lucy's end of the night costs were alcohol, cover, and however much she had paid for her shoes. She'd tried every type of heel imaginable, from stilettos to pumps to dainty two-inchers, but the second she could feel the bass beneath her the shoes went missing. The fifteen dollars were Cana's, seeing as she had been the one to guess the closest 't-minus shoe loss' ("You couldn't have made it another ten minutes?" Mira had pouted).
"Cheer up, babe," Cana yelled, "At least Wendy had those extra sock-shoe things!"
"They're called no show's," Wendy said, although Lucy had to strain to hear it over the steady thrum of SoCa.
"Kinda like Juvia," Mira said, directing her gaze pointedly at Lucy's phone. "Has she texted back yet?"
"Yeah, she said she'd be a little late. Apparently Totomaru had a small issue they needed to take care of," Lucy replied.
"Little issue? Like, E.D. little issue?" Cana shook her head sorrowfully and sipped at her vodka martini. "A toast to Totomaru and his dysfunctional dick. He's too young for this."
"You're twisted!" Lucy yelled as the music switched over to some basic trap number that had the crowd roaring. "He forgot to upload his student's lab grades is all."
"Erik would consider that grounds for murder," Sorano said directly into Lucy's ear. "Remind me to tell you about how he almost got kicked out for threatening to burn off his chemistry TA's dick."
The blonde took the napkin Mira extended and dabbed at her martini soaked hand. She had only narrowly managed to avoid spilling it all over her lap when Sorano had appeared out of absolutely fucking nowhere and scared the shit out of her. There goes ten dollars, she mourned. She'd only had one sip of the beautiful nectar, too…
"Her boy-toy's here?" Cana asked eagerly. Lucy's insides churned uncomfortably. Keeping Erik far away from her best friend had been a pain in the ass like no other back during the Renaissance Incident; compounding that with the fact that she'd been steadily avoiding her friendly neighbourhood toxicologist since said incident, and this outing was starting to look more and more like a giant escape room and she was ten minutes away from losing the game.
It wasn't like it was exceptionally hard to do so. He was away at work during the day and she was busy studying for finals in the university's library. Any texts from him were ignored and could thusly be excused as 'I left my phone on do not disturb'. If he dropped by at any point in time during the evening, Lucy merely huddled up in her room and turned up the volume of her music until he went away. She'd yet to even look at the string of lights that connected their balconies - both because she was afraid that if she so much as touched it that whatever physics voodoo had been worked over it would vanish and he would really injure himself trying to climb down, and because there was a small part of her that wanted to keep one line of communication open. Yes, she was dead terrified of speaking to him again, especially after whatever the hell had happened in the barn, but she was more terrified of never speaking to him again.
But not yet. She couldn't speak to him yet.
"Yeah, he's probably doing a line with Macbeth." At Lucy's scandalized look, Sorano rolled her eyes. "Oh, calm down, he's not actually doing a line. Macbeth, on the other hand...Erik's preferred poison has always been of the alcoholic variety."
"In that case, I'm gonna go and buy my new friend a welcoming round," Cana declared, sliding out of her head and shimmying her way through the crowd. Lucy groaned and pulled out her phone, hesitating over his name.
To: Dr Viv-ass
Time: 6:22 PM
Cana's coming your way, just thought I'd warn you.
From: Dr Viv-ass
Time: 6:22 PM
Oh, we're on speaking terms now?
Fair enough. Had her wincing, but fair enough.
"Lovers spat?" Sorano crooned. Mira honed in on them like an MRI did pieces of metal, her blue eyes flashing. Dread clawed through her chest with every heartbeat, and she brought what was left of her martini to her lips in the hopes that she could use to wide brim of the glass to cover her face. Her first fear should not have been Cana, no, it should have been Mira. All Cana could do was tease her mercilessly and go and scatter fallen chips; Mira, on the other hand, could have worked for the CIA with how good she was at interrogation. Actually, Lucy had no proof that Mira didn't work for the CIA, so that was one theory that was up for grabs.
"Are you two arguing again?" Mira asked. "Or is this another misunderstanding?"
Wendy touched her shoulder gently. "We won't judge."
With that, Lucy started from the beginning.
She watched their faces light up with glee when she said she thought she had a crush on him, and then the open-mouthed shock when she explained the events of the barn. Sorano had looked indignant, probably because this was the first time she was hearing of it (which meant that Erik had remained similarly silent on the matter), while Mira recoiled, clutching her chest. Wendy was mercifully silent the whole while, not even a gasp escaping her, for which Lucy was grateful. Mira and Sorano already had an inkling of what was going on, but Wendy was an unbiased third party, one who was extraordinarily critical - of all of them, Wendy would give the most clinical answer. The quieter she was, the more she was mulling over the information.
When she was done, Lucy leaned back and held her hands up at her sides. "And that's that."
"You're both stupid," Sorano said. "You know that, right? Beyond stupid. So stupid you both need neurosurgery to fix it."
Right. Just what she needed to hear. It wasn't as if Lucy thought was she was doing was a good idea, dammit, she knew it was stupid. Nothing was ever solved by ignoring the issue until it went away (because, newsflash, it never did), but it was a hell of a lot easier than putting on her big girl pants and knocking back a fistful of antacids to deal with stress induced acid reflux. It wasn't as if Lucy didn't stay awake for an extra hour every night running over scenario after scenario of how she could approach him and talk about what had almost happened. It wasn't as if she wasn't trying.
"You're both just scared," Wendy corrected. Her short blue hair brushed against her hollow collarbones as she tilted her head ever so slightly to look up at Lucy. "You, obviously, but I think he is, too. He just doesn't process his emotions well."
"So what do I do?"
"I don't know. But you do. You might not know it yet, but you do. And when the time is right...well. You'll see."
"Wendy's getting awfully wise in her old age," Mira's teasing tone broke the heavy atmosphere weighing down on them. She covered her mouth with a dainty palm and wiggled her eyebrows, purring, "Does she have a boyfriend?"
"Yes, and his name happens to be Nuclear Medicine in the 21st Century, Fourth Edition."
Mira's hands folded together over the table, and with that, Lucy slid out of her seat and made her way over to the bar. She had sat through enough 'can education count as a long-term relationship' debates to last her a lifetime. Sorano, on the other hand, had yet to be inducted into that particular weekly debacle; what better time than the present?
From: jujubes
Time: 6:42 PM
I ran into Cana on the dance floor, Toto's at the bar getting himself a drink
To: jujubes
Time: 6:43 PM
I'll meet you on the floor with him then!
It wasn't hard to spot Totomaru. It wasn't his impressive 6'2 stature that gave him away, but rather his black and white hair, split down the sagittal plane, that had him sticking out like a sore thumb. That and the fact that anybody within a five foot radius could smell the unmistakable stench of sanitization wafting off him. Lucy felt a sudden twinge in her chest. Erik smelled kind of like that, too. Their brief separation was the longest they'd been apart since they met and for a second, when that scent had hit her nose, she could almost feel him all over her. She rubbed her arms forcefully, willing away the chill that had hit her, and sidled up to Totomaru.
"Let me guess. Rum and coke."
"You know me so well," Totomaru deadpanned, accepting his glass from the bartender and turning to face Lucy. He had untucked his shirt from his jeans and rolled up the sleeves, but beyond that it was pretty clear that he had rushed to the bar straight from the lab. All that was missing was his tie-dyed lab coat and the safety goggles that made his eyes look three sizes too big for his head. "Let me guess. Bloody Mary."
"Nope," Lucy popped the 'p' and grabbed his drink, taking in a mouthful and sighing deeply. "I'll just steal it from you."
"I'm getting some severe prom flashbacks here," he said, pulling it back. "Ironically, the only thing missing is you missing your shirt."
"And you still have your pants on, so."
"Well." In the blink of an eye, the drink was gone and he was extending his hand towards her in an exaggerated fashion. "If I remember it right, this song was playing around 3 am that night. Shall we?"
Lucy curtseyed. "Indeed."
When the bass was heavy enough, Lucy couldn't feel herself.
That was was she loved about the club the most. Those brief moments when the music twanged just right and it was like she was floating in space. If there was anything she loved more than that, it was the anticipation before it - when the guitars started strumming a little faster and took her heart with them; the fade notching up ever so gently, drawing her breaths out quicker with every little spike; the pitch getting higher and higher and higher and causing her to tense up more and more and more until the bass dropped and she was flying. Sometimes, the only things keeping her grounded were the swaying bodies that boxed her in, but if she closed her eyes then it was like they weren't there anymore. It was her.
Just her.
Totomaru's arms slid around her waist and drew her back flush against the hard planes of his chest. Lucy slid her arms up and locked them around his neck, drawing him close. His thighs brushed against hers, teasing them apart before stretching back and pulling her with him. Rough stubble streaked down her face, inciting a pleasant burn against the heat of her cheeks; she followed the curve of his jaw, just to feel it all over again, but one of his hands trailed up, pausing between her breasts for only a fraction of a second before it caught her chin and tilted it over so he could press his lips to the shell of her ear.
"Is that the doctor you're having issues with?" Totomaru murmured, cutting through the blissful haze Lucy had worked herself into. "Because he looks ready to come over here and make me taste leather for a few weeks."
Lucy fluttered her eyelashes open just enough that, to an outsider, it would have looked like they were still closed. She could make out Erik's tense body next to the bar, half hidden by the slouched figure of Macbeth. She arched her back, driving her ass backwards and thrusting her chest out, the very picture of sensuality. The new angle gave her an even better view of Erik snapping his back up straighter than she thought possible.
She didn't think it was the thrum of the bass sending waves of something riding through her stomach this time.
"Yeah," she replied. "He does look pretty antsy, hm?"
"You want him to come over?" He dropped his mouth to her neck, hovering so close he could have been kissing her and the crowd - Erik - would have been none the wiser.
"Won't Juvia be a little upset over her boyfriend getting all touchy-feely with his ex?"
"Juvia." He smirked against her skin. "Has given me full permission to do everything short of bathroom sex to get you two in close proximity. Apparently, while the two of you desperately do want to talk to one another, you're both, and I quote, 'too fucking bitch baby' to initiate it all. You especially."
"So you're going to, what, give us a little push in the right direction?"
"Jealousy is a plot point as old as time. Let me work my magic."
So Lucy did.
It was easy getting back into the groove of things with Totomaru. Their relationship had been short, but fun while it lasted and she had no hard feelings over their breakup. Her body certainly hadn't taken long to remember how to sway and grind back against him. His hands swept familiar patterns against her torso, tracing memories long forgotten into the curve of her hips and the swell of her ass. He brushed his lips over the column of her neck and her jaw, pressing down every so often in areas she knew they'd been before - skipping math class to make out behind the stairs, the lab bench after hours, prom under the stars when his fingers had sent her up to join them.
She was no innocent party in it all. She ran her fingers through his hair and pulled at the roots harshly, tighter still when she heard his breathless moan into her skin. Her ass pushed back into his groin, far too reminiscent of times spent in the back of his cramped car, and when she dropped down and slowly rose up, Totomaru's hands running the length of her reverently, Lucy knew she had caught him.
"Oh, he's mad," Totomaru whispered into her ear once more. Lucy smiled lazily, flicking her tongue out to run over her redredred lips. "Not mad enough to come here and talk."
"He will be in a minute," he promised, trailing his hand lower and lower and lower-
Lucy's head slammed back into his shoulder, gasping as his freezing cold fingers slid up her skirt and curled around the lace of her frilly thong. Her legs squeezed together tightly against the sudden burst of heat within her. Good God, it had been so long.
"Really, Luce? Thongs? You haven't changed a damn bit." He laughed. "The good doctor's on his way over."
And with that, Totomaru spun her around and kissed her.
Lucy had only a second to process the roughness of his stubble against her mouth and the taste of rum on his breath before she was pulled back into Erik's chest with enough force to push the air out of her lungs.
"Dr Vivas, yeah?" Totomaru asked cheerfully, as if he hadn't just had his tongue down her throat a moment ago. "Nice to meet you. Name's Totomaru."
Erik's face was impossibly marble in its stillness. His eye barely moved as he took in the chemist - the challenge - and the only indication he gave that he'd even heard what the other man had said was a sharp exhale. His grip tightened on Lucy's shoulders; she shuddered. It wasn't painful, God no, but the difference between him and Totomaru was dizzying in its intensity. Totomaru was a slow burn, far too gentle to have her feeling anything more than a burst of fluttering in her abdomen. Erik was a pulse of something warm and hazy, a drop of it in her chest that rippled out until the furthest edges of her body could feel it, even if only for a flash in time.
"Juvia looks like she's about to start body shots." Totomaru winked and tapped her nose. "Gotta go save my girl before she starts breaking bar-tops again."
"His girl?" Erik hissed once he left. "He's got a girlfriend and he's-?"
"Totomaru's my ex from high school," Lucy replied defensively, turning around so she could meet his livid gaze. "This was just a song from prom, we thought we'd have a dance for old times sake."
"He kissed you."
Lucy shrugged delicately. "Unplanned, but Juvia's okay with it." Well, she was okay with it for a reason, not that he had to know.
"Right. Right." Erik dropped his hands (Lucy almost groaned) and rubbed his face. When they fell at his side, his face was back to that impassive half-sneer that he'd carried back in the beginning. "Jesus Christ, Heartfilia."
That had her reeling back. She swallowed thickly, doing her best to stay steady on her feet. Maybe it was the alcohol; maybe it was the heat of the dancefloor; hell, maybe it was sudden onset food poisoning, but Lucy felt queasy.
"So we're on speaking terms now?" she echoed.
"Don't," he snapped. "I'm not the one who went fucking AWOL for a week after the whole thing in the barn."
"Oh?" Okay, now she was almost mad enough that she forgot her stomach was roiling. "What thing in the barn?"
"You know damn well what I'm talking about."
"Then say it."
"No."
"Fine," Lucy snarled. "You almost kissed me in the barn. Happy?"
"Only took you a week to build the guts needed to say it, huh?" Erik said. His hands fell to where Totomaru's had been, pulling her flush to his hips. He braced his forehead against hers as he spoke. "Yeah, I almost kissed you. You were the one who wanted to wait to talk about it."
"I was a little freaked out. Just a little. God forbid I need some time to process that youmightbeinterestedinme," she said the last part so quickly that even she needed to repeat that to herself twice before she got it.
"Wait, what?" He drew back, mildly surprised. "You were freaked out over that? And your natural response was...what, making out with the cow?"
She scowled. "Don't be a jackass. And...well, that was more to get you mad enough to come talk to me."
"You're fucking stupid, I hope you know this."
"Funny, your lawyer told me the same thing," Lucy said dryly. She hadn't noticed that her arms had found their way around his shoulders; his own wound around her waist. They were so close she could feel his chest rise and fall, see the steady thrum of his pulse in his neck.
It was hard to describe how her heart felt so full and empty all at once. She was a rope, held up by nothing but sheer tension alone, and she knew that the second he pressed those full lips of his against hers, the wire would snap and it would be all over. She was equal parts hungry for him and hesitant. If she had it her way, she'd drag him to the corner of the club, pin him up against a wall, and be ruined for all other men when he finally, finally took her. But.
But.
Not now.
Now was not the time. Now was not the place.
It seemed Erik had read her mind, because he sighed softly and pressed their foreheads together once more, brushing the side of his nose against hers. "Yeah. I know."
"I want to know what we are first," she whispered, trailing her hands up to cup his neck. "I like you. A lot. But I think we need a little more time to adjust to that."
"Fine," he replied. "I don't know what we are. I like you. You like me. But if it takes us a week to get our shit together to talk about almost kissing, we're not ready yet. When you are, I'll be here. Even if it takes a few years."
"I should hope not. A few weeks at the most."
"I'm gonna need a few weeks to adjust to the fact that you dated a chemist." Erik's tone soured. "Am I a rebound? God, tell me we're nothing alike. I hate him already."
"You're a chemist, too," she reminded him. "And no, you're nothing alike, except you both think that the soft sciences should be purged. And you both enjoy doing experiments at home. Also, your grading schemes are-" Erik groaned loudly and dropped his head in the crook of her neck. "Shut up, I need a minute to digest this."
Lucy laughed, twining her fingers through his hair. She closed her eyes and curled her toes, stretching her leg muscles where she stood. Even if they hadn't come to a solid definition of what they were, they were talking again and that meant that one day they would. She'd been worked up over nothing, fretting over whether or not he would acknowledge what had happened - and, beyond that, whether or not they could still be friends after it. She valued his presence in her life too much to let something as stupid as a crush get in the way of it, but the knowledge that what had transpired wasn't just some fluke of the moment thing - that it was real - broke the dam within; hell, she was surprised she was still standing after it all. Every muscle in her body was loose and her head was stuffed full of cotton. Still, she had enough sense left in her to curse herself for being so damn stupid and compounding the problem herself - if only she'd opened the door when he came knocking the first time around, it wouldn't have come to this.
All things happen for a reason, Inner Cana murmured, and if this was how you two were supposed to discuss it, then so be it. The universe has a way of making these things work.
You know what? You're right.
"He spent a lot of time kissing your neck," Erik said suddenly, his lips sliding into the hollow of her collarbone. "Any particular reason why?"
"We dated during high school for a bit. Horny teens like leaving hickies." Lucy grinned devilishly. "You should've seen me after prom. Hey!"
"Whoops," he deadpanned, staring at the spot he'd nipped her with a self-satisfied look. "My bad."
"Jackass."
The pressure against the corner of her lips was so light that it was only Erik pulling back that let her know that, no, she'd not just imagined him giving her what amounted to a half-kiss.
"The one spot he didn't get you," Erik said.
"He still got me on my lips."
The look he shot her was nothing short of illegal. "I will in due time."
"Oi! Quit fucking on the dance floor and get over here, we need to do the body shots part of F.E.A.R!" Cana hollered from across the club. If there was one thing Cana never let anybody forget, it was that she had single-handedly led the cheerleading team to nationals four years running in high school. Her lung capacity could probably give Juvia a run for her money, and she was a nationally ranked swimming champion.
"F.E.A.R?"
"Long story." Lucy grabbed his hand and pulled him over to the bar, where all their friends were waiting. "Sorry! We were talking."
"All well?" Wendy asked kindly. Her sharp eyes flicked between their joined hands and the light air about the two of them, before finally settling on pinning Lucy with a knowing look.
"Yeah." Lucy squeezed his hand. "It is."
"It will be," Erik said.
A/N: fun fact, this chapter was supposed to end with Erik pinning Lucy up against a wall and kissing her wherever Totomaru had. I just felt that would clash weirdly with the direction this chapter took, though, so you get this weird half-resolution. They're not dating but they're...somewhere. They're talking. I felt like their conversation was super rushed but at the same time it just felt...right? You know? Like, they have this understanding of one another and once they got the biggest chunk of their shared worry out, the rest of it just fell into place. Kinda like ripping off a bandaid. Honestly, this was one of those chapters where I kinds just sat back and went 'um? okay hello? whomst? the fuck is doing this? hello?' instead of my regular 'uh...here is a word and here is another...together...you make a SENTENCE.'
Anyways, I'm sleepy, enjoy.
Special thanks to rhosinthorn for being my sounding board as always.
Hit that mf review button.
-Eien.