Y'know, when I started writing this it was honestly just supposed to be a stupid, shallow story in which to play out some fun FT fantasies of mine, and while I still like to imagine it's just as stupid and shallow as when I started, your feedback as certainly encouraged me to put a little more effort into the story production. So thanks for all the reviews, I never would have written a whole chapter about a date without them! (And don't worry, we'll get back to some steamy fun in the next chapter.) XOXO
After Lucy applied a substantial amount of make-up to cover the indecorous red marks littering her neck, she spent the rest of the day running errands while her mind flew at a thousand miles an hour. The last 24 hours had given her more to think about than the last year had.
That asshole! Just who does Natsu think he is, judging me like that? Especially after he was so worried I'd judge him for being with Gray…Okay, but like him and Gray! When did that happen! How on Earthland did I not notice that?! I'm supposed to be their partners! Though now that I think about it, they're pretty cute together…No! Focus! You're supposed to be mad at Natsu. And I am, that asshole! But he does have a point. I don't know Laxus that well. What if he's just toying with me? But he said he loves me. Do you do that when you're toying with people? No, there's no way Natsu's right about this…
Between her anger, doubts, confusion, fear, and the remnants of her magic depletion, Lucy was worn out by mid-afternoon and crashed hard, drooling in the most lady-like way possible all over her pillow as sleep carried her away.
When she finally woke up, the sun was beginning to set and her clock read 6:33.
6:33!
She jumped up frantically and dashed to her shower, stripping off clothes along the way and leaving a trail of discarded fabric in her wake.
What followed next were the shortest and most frenzied 27 minutes of her life in which she managed to wash her hair with body soap, put her dress on backwards…twice, and put her shoes on the wrong feet. She quickly dried her hair and threw it up in an "artfully messy" twist and dabbed more make up on to cover the marks on her neck before realizing she'd completely forgotten to put on underwear.
She blushed deeply and turned to go back to her dresser and fetch some when a heavy knock on the door stole her attention. She froze for a moment, debating whether or not she had time to finish dressing before answering the door, but her visitor was clearly impatient if the second round of loud rapping was any indication.
She hurried over to the door, her heels click-clacking on the wooden floor as she walked, and cracked it open.
Laxus was standing there in a well-fitting red button up shirt with black slacks. He looked good. Lucy almost giggled as she realized they were matching, red and red. Laxus looked up at her, his face surly looking, but his eyes seemed to gleam at the sight of her. Even if he wouldn't show it, he was looking forward to this date.
When did I get so good at reading him?
"Hi," she said, slightly breathlessly, cringing internally at how girly she sounded.
"Let's go," he said gruffly and Lucy wondered if she was just imagining his cheeks darkening slightly.
"Just a sec, I'm almost ready," she said with a smile, turning to close the door but Laxus put his foot in the way.
"You look fine, well better than fine. What could you possibly still have to do?" he asked and Lucy flushed.
"I…uh…just forgot a few things while I was getting dressed…" she trailed off cryptically, but the dragon slayer had no problem figuring out her issue and his eyes roamed her body lecherously before he snickered.
"Really, I think you look perfect," he said teasingly, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and dragging her out the front door, giving her only enough time to grab her purse off the wall.
"Laxus!" she yelped in protest, but he just laughed as he moved his arm down to her waist and set out down the street.
Lucy could only hope her face wasn't flaming as badly as she felt it was. There was no way for anyone to know she was going commando, per say, but she couldn't shake the feeling that everyone who glanced at her somehow knew.
She buried her face in her hands.
"I feel like a harlot," she said, as an unfamiliar breeze stirred around her exposed core.
Laxus just laughed again, clearly amused.
"Nobody can tell," he said lowly.
"They're all looking at me!" she muttered self-consciously and Laxus just looked down at her with a confused expression.
"Of course they are, you're beautiful," he said as if it were obvious, causing her face to light up for entirely new reasons.
They walked the rest of the way in a comfortable silence, enjoying the late summer evening as the sun painted the sky a myriad of oranges and pinks. The streets were full of couples like them, and Lucy beamed to know that for once she was among them weaving between them alone.
They came to a nice restaurant where Laxus had somehow already made reservations. Lucy had always wanted to come here, but it seemed kind of weird to go by herself. It was all so perfect she almost forgot about her underwear-free state.
Almost.
Lucy glanced around, half checking for people who seemed to know and half checking for people that she knew. While she and Laxus weren't a secret per say, they still hadn't had a chance to tell the guild about them yet. So far Natsu and Gray were the only ones who knew.
Lucy's mind threatened to replay the events of earlier that afternoon, but she was quickly distracted as a waiter came and took their orders.
"Lucy?" Laxus said, and Lucy's head snapped up to him. She noticed the waiter was gone and she had just been staring into space. "You okay?"
"Y-yeah! I'm great. This place is amazing! I've always wanted to come here," she smiled, but Laxus wasn't fooled.
"Did something happen?" he asked. As much as he would have loved to pretend everything was fine, he wanted this thing with Lucy to last and that meant sorting out any and all problems that came their way head on.
Lucy's smile faded a bit and she glanced at the table.
"I talked to Natsu today," she said, her voice quiet as she recalled their argument for the thousandth time. She left out the bit about Gray, figuring that was their secret to tell even if she was sure Laxus' dragon smelling had already picked up on it.
"And?" Laxus probed, trying to keep the nervousness out of his voice. He knew Lucy and Natsu were close friends and he hadn't missed the glares he'd gotten for the past few days from the fire dragon slayer.
"He…wasn't happy," she said, refusing to meet Laxus' eyes.
He reached across the table and wrapped her delicate hand in his larger, rougher one.
"Are you happy?" he asked, his voice low and concerned. He sounded steady, but his heart was racing as he looked at her, fearing what Natsu's opinion of him might mean to her.
At last she looked up and a sweet, genuine smile spread across his face.
"Yeah, I'm happy," she said truthfully, squeezing his hand a bit. "And I told him to suck it."
Laxus laughed at that. Lucy might look like a princess, but she was as stubborn as that bull spirit of hers when she wanted to be.
"We've never had a fight like this before. I mean, I've pushed him out my window and yelled at him for eating my food, but we've never actually had a fight, y'know? I don't like it. And it also hurts that he couldn't trust me enough to tell me about—" she cut off in horror as she accidentally let his secret slip.
Laxus, however, didn't look surprised. "I know about ice boy," he said and Lucy sighed in relief. "Though it was confusing at first. They sure go to some lengths to make sure nobody finds out."
"Natsu was saying that dragon slayers can smell people on each other," Lucy said tentatively, debating whether or not to go there.
She decided to go there.
"He said you always smell…different," she said, averting her eyes from his piercing stormy ones.
"Different, eh? I believe the term he used the other day was 'man-whore'," he said with a tilted grin.
Lucy just blushed, letting her silent question hang in the air.
"He's right, though. I've never had a relationship like this before. All the women I've been with were just that: women I've been with. I don't even know most of their names," he confessed.
Lucy glanced up and saw that he looked a little ashamed, but truthful. For some reason, he would rather tell her the truth about this than pass off an easy lie. That alone made Lucy's resolve about him harden.
"Why now?" she asked curiously.
"Why now what?"
"Why are you trying out a relationship now? I mean, this all just started because you found Libra's key, right?"
Laxus coughed lightly.
"I dunno, I like you. You're smart, interesting, beautiful, so why not?" he said gruffly and Lucy raised an eyebrow.
She was pretty sure he wasn't telling her the whole truth, and she couldn't figure out why he would lie about that but admit to his numerous affairs with random women.
Lucy, however, dropped the subject. For now, she was just happy that he liked her. For now, that was enough.
"What color are your eyes," she asked randomly and he looked up, confused, his stormy grey orbs staring right into her own doe brown ones.
"What?" he asked, afraid he didn't hear her right.
"Your eyes. They seem to change colors," she said smiling.
He grinned and those stormy eyes seemed to light up, thankful for a change in topic.
"Yeah, sometimes they're more blue and sometimes they're more grey. There's really no predicting it," he said.
"Like the sky," Lucy noted. "Appropriate for a lightning dragon slayer."
They broke their hands apart as the waiter arrived with their food, which looked and smelled divine.
After that their conversations took a lighter turn and they covered all the basic favourites: what's your favourite color, book, holiday, animal, season. If you could fight one mage in the GMGs, who would it be? If you could go anywhere in Fiore, where would you go?
It seemed every time they found out something new about each other, they discovered ten things they hadn't even thought of before. Both were fully aware how surreal it was.
Laxus and Lucy.
It was almost as unexpected as Natsu and Gray, though at least the latter two had been on talking terms before the beginning of this week. However they seemed to make up for lost time as they talked and talked (and talked and talked and talked) and before long it felt like they'd been friends for years rather than just five days.
After dinner they just walked around town, their strolling as aimless as their conversations. They wound their way all around Magnolia until they stopped on a bridge overlooking the canal. The sun was asleep now and the moon was casting her light along the calm water.
"Laxus," Lucy whispered in the still night, her arm wrapped around her companion's.
"Hmm?"
"Did you mean it? When you said you loved me?" she asked quietly.
Laxus looked down at her in shock. In truth he'd kind of hoped she'd forgotten that part, not because he didn't mean it but because he knew that for her, at least, it was way too early.
"Yeah," he replied simply, watching a fish jump out of the water and splash back into it.
They stood in peaceful silence for a few minutes before Lucy spoke up again.
"How do you know?" she asked.
"How do I know?"
Lucy nodded. "How do you know if you love me?"
"I just know," he said, meeting her curious gaze. She broke it and looked out at the water.
"I'm sorry that I don't know," she said, and Laxus looked down at her sadly.
It was still too early for him to explain all the things about dragon mating. He didn't want her to feel like she was obligated to love him just because he couldn't love anyone else. If it weren't for the way she overwhelmed his dragon senses he too would be wondering how he was supposed to know. In truth, he wasn't entirely sure why it was Lucy and not some other girl, especially as their relationship before this had been practically nonexistent. All he knew was that it was her, and that's all that really mattered.
He turned to the blonde girl and gently took her face in his hands.
"I couldn't expect you to know," he said, and she flashed him a confused look before he bent down and pressed his lips against hers.
Lucy was content to put her bemusement aside as their lips moved together softly. Just like earlier, she had the feeling that he wasn't telling her everything, but it was hard to keep that train of thought as his tongue traced along her lips, pleading for entrance.
She smiled into their kiss as her hands reached up to wrap around his neck to pull him closer. She opened her mouth and softly sighed against him while he took the chance to dive into her, his tongue twisting and sliding against her own. He moved his hands down to her waist and pulled her even tighter against his chest.
Neither of them knew how long they stayed like that, occasionally gasping for shallow breaths as they kissed slowly and leisurely on the dark bridge. Neither seemed in a hurry, content to just hold and taste each other thoroughly. Their entire night of getting-to-know-you conversations made them feel so much closer, and now it was like they were somehow merging into one person (at least their hair color wouldn't change much).
When they finally broke apart, each panting heavily, the moon had risen in the sky and the stars were brightly shining (with Regulus twinkling almost violently). They pressed their foreheads against each other as they caught their breaths in the warm summer night. Lucy shuddered and gasped as a breeze brushed over them, reminding her of her panty-lessness.
Laxus chuckled and moved his hand down from her waist to rest on top of her scantily-clad bum.
"Wanna go back to my place?" he asked lowly in her ear as his hand massaged her ass lightly. A shiver shot down her spine and to her core as his voice vibrated along her skin.
She smiled up at him as coyly as she could and took off down the street, swaying her hips as she walked so her dress swung dangerously behind her.
"Lucy," Laxus said, as he watched his blonde partner saunter away.
"Mmhmm?" she hummed lightly, her dark eyes gleaming deviously in the moonlight as she looked at him over her shoulder.
He paused for a moment as he took her all in. Her golden hair looked almost silver in the moon's reflection and the way that dress hugged her curves was sinful. A smile played at her sweet lips and she practically seemed to glow. He still couldn't believe that she would date him like this. He felt like beauty and the beast, and he was most certainly not the beauty.
What did I ever do to deserve her?
Perhaps he'd never know. He smiled into the darkness.
"My apartment's this way," he said, turning on his heel and striding off down the street as the flustered celestial mage tried to claim she knew that the whole time.
Yeah, he liked her.