Disclaimer: Wait… I'm writing fanfiction…. I don't think I own it…
A/N at the bottom
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"Hey Loke," Mira said from the bar. "I set up an appointment with a friend of mine."
"WHAT?" Loke almost screeched, leaping up from his seat at a nearby table. His beer fell to the floor and splattered every which way, drenching both his and Natsu's pants.
"Mind it, Furball!" Natsu yelled at Loke, the fire mage's hands igniting in flames.
"COOL IT!" Erza shot from the other end of the guild, putting a stop to what could have become one of Natsu's legendary rampages.
"You've been out of it for the last week. Hell, Lucy said you almost got run over! You've almost drowned, you haven't been paying attention, you've been blanking out at the most random moments- Loke, it's gone too far!" Mira resumed.
"I'm not going to a shrink, if that's who you want me to meet!" Loke retaliated.
"I can introduce her to you, if you really want. You need to sort this out though."
Loke blinked once or twice before-
"Look, Loke, I have someone to introduce to you." Harry said to his younger brother as they slipped into their respective beds. Even though Loke was a sixteen year old, they still shared a room. It had become more of a dorm mate thing than the 'I require you to have comfort' reason that Loke presented to Harry as a kid.
Harry had taken one night of nightmares and fears and had moved into Loke's room just like that.
"Let me sleep…" Loke groaned, yanking his lion themed-covers over his head. A worn-down stuffed lion rested underneath the blanket with him, its yellow-gray mane slightly peeking out from underneath the covers.
Harry shrugged and fluffed out his pillow. It was a nightly ritual that the wizard did; a small sliver of consistency. It wasn't like life with the two didn't have some sense of normality; it was just that Harry was a person who needed something- and someone- to always be able to rely on, no matter what happened.
Loke had only noticed that about Harry in the last couple of years. It might have been the way Harry seemed to clench onto Loke when they went into any type of battle field, or how Harry seemed obsessive compulsive about the smallest things. The pillow was one, but Harry also had a certain way he woke up, a simple routine of covers being folded over, Harry sitting up, rolling out of bed, and then folding his covers back over. In the end, Harry's bed ended up being a perfect quiditch-themed resting place.
No matter how hard Loke tried, he couldn't get his bed to the state Harry's was always in.
"She's coming over tomorrow." Harry said as he put his head down.
"WHAT?" Loke almost screeched. He rolled out of bed in shock, knocking his stuffed toy to the ground. "A GIRL! COMING OVER TO OUR PLACE?"
Harry turned towards the opposing wall and let out a long stream of fake snores, trying to throw off Loke's question.
Loke gave Harry a glare from the floor, lightly picking up Minor- as Loke's stuffed lion was named- and gently placing it back on the under sheets above.
"Girlfriend." Harry's muffled reply barely reached Loke's ears. "She's my girlfriend."
"So when you say you have some crazy junk to take care of, you've been going out on dates or something?" Loke asked incredulously.
The "crazy junk" that Loke was referring to was the abrupt breaks that Harry had been deciding to take during training. They'd be in mid-air, ready to fire another round of magic at each other, and Harry would suddenly glance at the clock. With a quick "Goodbye", Harry would teleport away and Loke would be left wondering about what the hell had just happened.
"Yes," Harry reluctantly replied. "But Charlie introduced me to her!"
"You're going out with Mavis?" Loke automatically assumed.
"No! I mean… Maybe." Harry scrunched closer to the wall.
"You're screwed when Charlie finds out," Loke said matter-of-factly. "He's going to slowly kill you when he finds out that you're with his girlfriend."
"They had a clean break off two months ago." Harry mumbled. "They both agreed that they weren't right for each other and went their separate ways."
"So that means you can snatch her right up?" Loke exclaimed as he stood up. "You're disgusting."
Loke hadn't had much experience with relationships up to this point, but he had heard some very strong opinions from Capri on the subject. Capri had repeated it over and over- one should at least wait four months after a breakup before entering a new relationship, one should make sure another is right for them, one should be considerate of their other; the list went on and on.
Capri had also prepared Loke to deal with people who disobeyed these rules, even if said person had never heard of them before.
"Hey!" Harry said as he flipped over to face Loke. "She wanted it!"
"So you guys have had sex already?" Loke asked. He had set himself back down on his bed, Minor in hand.
"No! Why would you think that?"
"You said that she 'wanted it'!"
"I was referring to our relationship, dumb lion!"
The two brothers had always got along together, unless they were drawn into one of their rare arguments. Loke was somewhat relieved that, even in these arguments, there were boundaries. No fists were number one, no magic was number two, and no swearing was number three.
Loke had contemplated breaking rule number three lately. He wasn't sure why, but after speaking with Harry, they had both assumed that it was because it was the age and stage Loke was in.
It might have also been because Ron constantly swore over the phone, but neither mentioned that in their discussion.
"Well, I'm sorry that Taurus is a perv and talks like that all the time!"
"HE DOES WHAT?" Loke could see the frustration and tension in the room was getting to Harry. Provided, Loke hadn't told Harry about his Nakama's distorted view on things- mainly sex, but they could talk about that later- but really? That wasn't relevant right now. At the moment, they were sorting out the whole "You stole Charlie's girlfriend" thing.
"I didn't say anything?" Loke squeaked, suddenly very thankful for the fifteen feet of black and gold rug between him and Harry.
"HE TALKS LIKE THAT ALL THE TIME? WHY THE FU-" Harry trailed off and the room fell silent. "I'm sorry," Harry tenderly said. "I didn't mean…"
Loke didn't say anything and just tugged his covers back over his shoulders, gazing at the green wall next to his bed. Tears collected in the corners of his eyes as he thought over what him and Harry had just been talking- talking wasn't the right word for it, more like quietly screaming- about.
Was it his fault? Should he have acted differently? Could they have avoided this? Loke's mind raced, water collecting on the bedspread beneath him. He hugged Minor tightly, massaging one of the lion's worn black eyes with his thumb.
Loke's face was nearly glued to his pillow as he drifted off, dreading tomorrow.
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So…. Loke's older, Harry's got a girlfriend, I've decided that the pairing will turn out to be HaLo, we get to meet Mavis next chapter, Loke and Harry have their first big fight, Loke feels injured… You get the idea. ^^
For all who do not like the Harry/Mavis pairing: THIS PAIRING WILL NOT BE THE MAIN ONE IN THE STORY. For those who do: I hope you enjoy what I do with it as it lasts! :)
Now, so I'm not killed off because of this, I'm unable to update for the next two weeks. I won't have enough time to write, so I'd rather not whip out 500-word chapters and post those. My chapters are short enough already, and I recognize that!
With that, please review! What do you think will happen between Loke, Harry, and Mavis?