Prompt: Laughter
Title: Mira's Sees Too Much
So, I wrote a hundred word drabble called 'Mirajane Snaps' quite some time ago. The events of this story are a prequel of sorts to that one. It's what I imagined being the impetus for Mirajane acting the way she did.
As Mirajane walked back to the guild, arms laden with the groceries she needed for the day, she whistled a happy little tune; the day demanded it. The weather was fine and clear, her siblings and friends were healthy and happy, and best of all love was in the air.
Her favorite couples-to-be had been especially flirty lately, always sitting by and talking to one another. Just this morning, she had witnessed Gajeel and Levy cozily enjoying a book together. Okay, sure, technically only Levy had been reading the book, and Gajeel was just sitting next to her while they both ate breakfast. But when a little bit of food landed on Levy's chin and went unnoticed by her in her distraction, who was there to offer to wipe it off? That's right, Gajeel. Of course, the effect was ruined a little bit when Levy took the napkin from him and did it herself, then went straight back to her book. It was still a cute scene to her though, dammit!
Then there was Gray and Juvia, always good fun to watch. Juvia had been trying her best to get Gray to go on a mission with her, and to no one's real surprise he had agreed. Here's where Mirajane stepped in, offering a special mission she had tucked away, one looking for attractive people that were already a couple or could act like one to star in some advertising for a chain of hotels. Juvia had had hearts in her eyes thinking on it and even Gray seemed okay about it, him rationalizing it was just acting after all...that is he was okay with it until he read the flier and announced that he couldn't possibly go there. The hotel in question had banned Gray from ever setting foot inside their premises again after an unfortunate stripping incident involving some very important politicians and local businessmen.
It's safe to say that Mirajane was more than a little disappointed when they just ended up picking a mission to defeat some monsters terrorizing a nearby village.
And the mission she had painstakingly saved? Relinquished to Alzack and Bisca, who were beyond excited to have a mission that little Asuka could come along with.
It's okay though! Her favorite future-couple-who-were-so-close-they-were-practically-a-couple-already was due to come back from their mission today and she was positive that they'd stop into the guild to catch a bite to eat. Lucy especially liked eating Mirajane's cooking after a tiring mission, not usually having the energy to cook for herself, and everyone knew Natsu always liked to eat with his blonde partner whenever possible.
As she walked, she mused that if she played her cards right, maybe she could convince them to have their meal at that new restaurant in town—like as in a real date.
Not that she didn't enjoy their company or cooking for them herself, she just thought that those two totally needed to admit their feelings already, date, kiss, and then get married and have thirty-three adorable babies. Mira's imagination went into overdrive wondering what food she would be serving at their reception and which of their children would be her personal godchild.
So preoccupied with her thoughts and future plans was Mira that when she finally entered the guild, she walked right on past the couple in question who were staring directly into each other's eyes, and without a second glance headed to the storage room to put away her groceries.
She had put away the contents of the first bag when her brain finally caught up with what her eyes had witnessed. As soon as that happened, she sprang up from where she was and rushed back to the bar to make sure she hadn't been seeing things.
Her eyes weren't playing tricks—Natsu and Lucy definitely were there; they were occupying a couple of stools by the bar as they stared smilingly at each other.
Her sister Lisanna was also nearby, sitting on a stool a few seats from Lucy, snacking on carrot sticks and working on what looked like a crossword puzzle, not paying much attention to the proceedings. Happy sat on a seat in between the two girls, already chewing on a huge fish, not reacting to the events at all either.
It was a very odd sight to her. Natsu and Lucy looked to her to be openly flirting with one another and yet the people sitting so close to them weren't making a big deal about it.
Slipping behind the bar, Mirajane addressed her sister sweetly. "What's going on?"
"Mira-nee!" Lisanna said, looking up, her face brightening. "How was shopping? Do you need any help?"
Mira shook her head at her sister's query. "What are they doing?" she asked, inclining her head towards Natsu and Lucy.
"Oh. They're just having a staring contest. First one who looks away or laughs has to buy the winner lunch." Lisanna gave a disbelieving shake of her head. "Natsu told some truly dreadful jokes to get Lucy to laugh..."
"Oi! They weren't that bad!" Natsu interjected, keeping his eyes focused on his blonde partner's.
"I didn't laugh, did I?" Lucy stated simply, making the dragon-slayer before her frown.
"I didn't laugh either." Lisanna silently mouthed to her sister.
"They were awful, Natsu." Happy said after swallowing a mouth-full of fish, totally unaware of Natsu's frown deepening. "Why didn't you use any of your better jokes?"
"Lucy's already heard them." Natsu pouted. "She'd know all the punchlines already."
Happy shrugged. "Ah well, at least Lucy's attempt was worse." he reasoned, as blissfully unaware of the annoyed face Lucy was now wearing as he had been of Natsu's.
"Lucy tried snapping her fingers and waving her hand close to Natsu's face, but that had no effect at all." Lisanna explained. "You've been training your reflexes, haven't you, Natsu?"
"Yep, sometimes ya gotta block out all the distractions. Stay focused in the face of your enemy." Natsu smirked at Lucy.
Lucy stuck out her tongue at Natsu. "I'm still going to win. Just you wait."
"Now they're gonna change up their tactics." Lisanna announced to her sister. She then took a food order form from the bar and began writing on it, showing it to Mirajane when she was done.
It read: Natsu—funny faces. Lucy—distraction.
Sure enough, soon Natsu was pulling his facial features in strange and amusing ways in an attempt to make his partner laugh while Lucy tried to bring Natsu's attention to other things in the room (Gray, Erza, a small brawl one could hear in the background, the smell coming from other guild members' dinners as they sat only a few feet away).
"You should've made a real bet for that." Mira commented dryly. Lisanna shrugged, smiling.
It went on like that for a while, Natsu making all the silliest faces he could at the celestial mage, Lucy keeping herself impressively in control and only cracking a smile at his attempts. To be fair, Lucy wasn't having much more success, every attempt to get Natsu to look away failing completely.
Suddenly Natsu's stomach let out a loud growl, signaling just how over long they had been at their game.
Lucy smirked. "Give up, Natsu. Then you can eat. Wouldn't that be nice?"
"Hell no, I ain't giving up. It's gonna be a whole lot nicer when it's you buying me lunch."
"Pfft. Not going to happen. You're so going down first. I could do this all day." However, the satisfied smile she wore soon turned to a look of embarrassment when her own stomach made a noise of its own—not nearly as loud as Natsu's but still plenty audible.
It was Natsu's turn to smirk now. "All day, eh?"
"S-shut up."
Natsu very nearly lost here, but luckily reined in his merriment before his laughter could burst forth.
As boring as it was to watch them continue their game at times, Mira couldn't help but observe it, secretly hoping that something great would happen. Anyone foolish enough to come up to her at the bar was promptly (and harshly) shooed away towards where Kinana was working.
It went on like this for a while, the two of them not breaking eye contact, their expressions completely serious as the complaints from their stomachs grew steadily louder.
So intent was Mira on her subjects of interest that when Natsu's gut let out a particularly painful-sounding gurgle, she jumped from the resultant words of irritation he voiced.
"Gah! Okay, that's it! I'm ending this!"
Lucy smirked in satisfaction at what she thought was her triumph. However, the look was quickly wiped from her face when instead of looking away, Natsu's hands came up and latched onto her sides, tickling her mercilessly.
The effect was instantaneous. Lucy immediately began to laugh from the rough yet skilled actions of Natsu's fingers.
"Natsu—you—cheater!" Lucy shrieked amongst the giggles pouring forth. Her hands scrabbled to push his hands away, to hit his chest, to end the torture.
Natsu was starting to laugh as well, amused by Lucy's reaction, by how easy and fun it was to have her at his mercy like this.
"Natsu—stop!" she yelled, tears leaking from her eyes from laughing so hard.
"No way, Lucy! This is too much fun!" he cackled.
Mira definitely noticed the fierce glint in Lucy's eyes after these words were uttered. Next thing she knew, Lucy had worked her own hands onto Natsu's sides, digging her fingers into his armpits as she tickled him back.
Natsu now began to howl in laughter as well and tried to squirm away from Lucy's touch. As he tried to pull his body away, Lucy came with it, tumbling off her bar stool, her body colliding with Natsu's.
The tickling immediately ceased as Natsu scrambled to catch Lucy before she completely fell to the floor.
"You okay, Lucy?" he asked with a look of slight worry when the blonde haired girl was finally steady within his arms.
"Y-yeah. Thank you." Lucy stuttered, her gratitude at being saved from a fall apparent in her facial expression.
"N-no problem." Natsu answered, his voice cracking slightly as he looked long and hard into Lucy's slowly blinking eyes.
They stared silently at each other now, and whether their faces were red from their recent exertion or perhaps from this moment they were having now, Mira didn't know. What she did know was that both of them looked unbearably cute together and she cursed herself for not having her camera on her.
Then, just when Mirajane was sure that one of them would pull away from the other and break whatever spell was making them gaze longingly into each other's eyes, Natsu did something she never would've expected.
He kissed Lucy.
The first one was short and simple—just a light touching of lips. Lucy gasped at the contact while Natsu searched for any sign that what he had done was unwelcome. Not receiving any, he proceeded to plant another soft kiss on Lucy's lips, her eyes fluttering closed as she kissed him back.
Natsu grinned against her mouth at Lucy's willingness to participate. His hands shifted, one went to rest on the small of her back, the other at the base of Lucy's skull, threading his fingers through her blonde tresses. Lucy's own hands moved as well, tangling her fingers in the dragon-slayer's pink hair, holding his head close as their kiss deepened.
Mira was very surprised (but also very pleased) by this display, at their level of expertise. Were they already so good at this because they really were meant to be, as if they had finally connected with their destined other half? Or was it because they had been doing this already and in being so lost in the moment, involuntarily let out their little secret? For Lucy's sake, she hoped it was the first option—she was not going to be happy with the celestial mage if she found out she had been dating Natsu on the sly and not telling her.
The kissing of the couple before her intensified, their hands wandering to other places: shoulders, upper arms, necks, backs.
"Oh my!" Mira exclaimed when Natsu suddenly grabbed Lucy's legs right below her ass, hoisting her so that she now straddled his lap as he sat on the bar stool.
"Mira-nee?"
Mira fanned herself as she watched the couple's passionate make-out session escalate. One of Natsu's hands had worked itself under Lucy's shirt, which wasn't too surprising in Mira's opinion; it wouldn't be the first time that Natsu gave in to his fascination with Lucy's chest. However, seeing that their blonde summoner was also working at the fastenings of Natsu's jacket in an attempt to remove it certainly was.
It was actually quite shocking how far they were going. She had no idea that Lucy had it in her to be so daring. Lucy had been so shy before whenever Mira brought up any subject of romance, especially so if it involved Natsu. What a change!
"Mira-nee!"
"Mira-san?"
The sounds coming from them were so deliciously indecent. Their wet lips smacked loudly as they crashed their mouths together over and over again. Lucy let out little mewls of pleasure at Natsu's touch, at whenever she shifted and pressed herself more firmly into his lap. Natsu would hiss and grunt at these times too, pushing her hips down to meet his.
Natsu stood up, Lucy's legs wrapped firmly around his waist, their kissing reaching a fever pitch.
"Oi, Mira!"
Natsu leaned Lucy backwards over the bar counter, covering her with his own body. He moved from Lucy's mouth to her neck, sucking hard on the skin there, making Lucy moan loudly.
While he kissed, nibbled, and licked her neck, with one hand Natsu began to fiddle with his belt, surely in an attempt to take it off. Lucy's own hands went to help.
"No, Natsu, Lucy! Not on the bar!" Mira exclaimed, mostly out of duty to the guild. She was, of course, quite enjoying the show.
"MIRA-NEE!"
Mira tore herself away, coming face to face with the concerned visage of her little sister.
"Are you okay, Mira-nee?"
"Yeah..." she replied, looking questioningly at Lisanna. "It's just..." It suddenly seemed very strange to her that Lisanna was sitting here so calmly, looking at her in concern of all things, while being seated so close to the pair almost having sex nearby. Mira looked over to Natsu and Lucy again, only to see that the couple in question was no longer in the process of doing the horizontal tango on her bar counter. Instead they were both looking in concern at her as well.
"Mira? You okay?"
"Yeah, Mira, what didn't you want me and Lucy to do on the bar?"
Mira regarded Natsu and Lucy. Both looked totally normal, no flushed faces, no kiss-swollen lips, every hair and article of clothing perfectly in place.
What the heck happened?
"You kind of spaced out there for a while, Mira-nee." her sister answered, as if reading her mind. "You're back now?"
Happy giggled, still munching on his fish, most of it gone by now. "Mira took a vacation, Juvia-style!"
And then it came to her.
What had really happened.
Of course they didn't kiss and almost have sex in the guild! She had just been so disappointed after the events of Lucy stumbling onto Natsu and her thereafter pushing herself away in her embarrassment that Mira's mind decided to play out the story as she thought it should've happened.
"So you two didn't kiss?" Mira asked, pointing her finger back and forth between the duo.
"What!" Lucy screeched, her face beet red at the thought. "No! We most certainly did not!"
Natsu's cheeks wore a very uncharacteristic pink hue. "Mira...no...I..." he stammered. "Wha—what are you talkin' about?"
Mira stared at the now nervously laughing dragon-slayer before her.
"Can you make our food now, Mira? Heh-heh. We're kinda like, starving over here." he said, gesturing between himself and his pretty blonde partner.
In Mira's mind there was only one thing left to do.
She transformed. Her Sitri Satan Soul would do quite nicely.
"Oh no, I won't be doing that until you do something for me." Mira answered, her voice low and menacing.
Natsu and Lucy never stood a chance.