Particular- Squinty CrisLu Fluffy VanLu

(Honestly, I am in the FLUFFIEST mood ever)

Vander Pradesh had been listening to the impressive goings on in the hotel room next to his since his own company for the night left with wobbly legged satisfaction in the middle of the night and he had to say, he was quickly becoming obsessed with the impressive slow build of sounds that started out as sweet, breathy symphonies before it built into a crescendo of intensity to pull a cacophony of rasped cries and husky moans from whoever had landed in between Cristoff's sheets.

A loud thud marked the moment one of the two, his brother by the sound of it, hitting the wall directly behind his head of newly christened honey wheat length of hair to mark yet another round of raucous sex for the duo to pull a grin wider than the Grass Sea from the young Pradesh. It was always nice to hear his family getting taken care of by someone with such endurance and enthusiasm with a lung capacity to rival professional divers. He even caught himself with curiosity enough to almost meld into his shadows and watch the pair just to have visuals to go hand in hand with the sinful audio he'd been thoroughly enjoying for hours to instead let the soothing sounds of pleasure carry him into a dreamless sleep, a rare gift he valued almost more so than his immense understanding of the human body and all the different ways to tweak and play with masterful ability.

When he woke the next morning, the Lunar Slayer and his lucky lady for the night had already went there separate ways but Cristoff's mood for the day seemed even more elated than usual which was a feat for his empathetic, easy-going teddy bear of a brother. Sending earnest silent thanks to the spitfire that was without a doubt the root of the goofy smile on his face, Vander went on with his life without giving another thought to the woman.

That is until he was on a less than savory mission he managed to save for the two men Grenlow had sent before his skills were required though they seemed hardly happy to see him when he freed them of their magic-cancelling bindings and left them with a snarky comment on how much the old grouch would love them cooperating for once to take the cell of well-trained assassins holed up just outside the Pelerno.

He had been methodically going through to take the three men and two women out when he heard the distinct ring of her voice crying out after the crack of a whip. A wave of adrenaline rushed his veins when it was clear the woman was having a drastically different reason for the melodious voice he could recall with perfectly clarity to have the hard edges of pain to cut through her throat like razor blades.

Without hesitation, the Shadowquip raced through the rest of the warehouse to find the last of his targets had chained the vivacious blonde by her wrists and suspended her just high enough that she needed to balance on her toes to keep from dislocating her shoulders and impressively enough, she seemed to be doing so with little effort despite the crimson stream of blood running from a cut across her right eyebrow all the way across the corner of her sharp, focused gaze to disappear into a tangle of blood-stained blonde hair chopped off in uneven chunks above her shoulders.

Even more impressive than her ability to keep all her weight perfectly centered on the mangled sorry state her feet were in was the cutting, unyielding fire she spewed from her mouth in the form of wildly inappropriate sarcasm after she spit out a bloody mix of spit from between the swollen lips of her once perfect cupid's bow.

"It's a shame you won't live to see what my whip can do in capable hands. A tragedy really."

The stunted man's grip tightened on the deadly weapon as he surged forward with the intention of dropping the whip entirely to swing his rapidly growing fist towards her small but smugly smirking face. Something he would commend at a time when he wasn't slashing the throat of a sloppy greenhorn passing as a professional killer.

By the time his sputtering frame sunk to the floor, eyes bulging as he choked on his own blood, the mixture of chemicals and endorphins keeping her upright started wearing off as she swayed and caught herself in a sloppy motion.

His shadowmade dagger cut through the steel of her chain bindings to release her body into his waiting arms and he realized she was in far worse shape than she let off. The remnants of her clothes were in shreds barely covering her ample chest while her skirt hung onto her wide hips for dear life as the wounds from her sadistic captor started adding up the more he looked over the blonde.

Just before her eyes shut, finally able to rest after enduring her torture for days, her voice came through the steady hitch in her breath that had him worried that her lungs had taken damage, "...about time...you left...the shadows…," before a pained look crossed the puffed features of her face and passing out to have a blank expression replace the twisted, unwelcome look.

Just as he lifted her body with a gentle care, wary of the unseen injuries she more than likely had, Vander heard the lax footsteps of his fellow comrades and explain in brief curt words that they would need to head back to Grenlow and explain what happened before stepping into the void to take the woman to Cristoff. If anyone could heal the damage riddling her resilient body, it was the Lunar Slayer and his powerful magic.

Which is where he left the woman to recover while he went back to the warehouse to try and figure out just what the fuck this particular woman was doing on the outskirts of Pelerno when the last he heard her voice was on a trip to the capital of Fiore and that was quite a hike from here.

He spent hours going over every nook and cranny of the nondescript warehouse and was left with absolutely no explanation on either of his conundrums; the second being his original mission to find the target or targets of the little band of hired assassins.

Scratching his jaw in an absent gesture after picking through the plain black clothes of his unfortunate victims and finding nothing but a half-used tube of chapstick and a pouch of what smelled like a sleep powder he had only seen on his trips to the shadier black markets of Sin. The wild country famous for its piracy and rugged geography has been known to spit out less than savory people more often than not.

The option he had left was to wait until the blonde woke up to explain for herself and he had plenty to keep him busy until then.

XxXxXxXxX

From where he was lounged across the cool material of his brother's couch trying to throw the smooth decorative stones of the hand-blown glass bowl-ish creation from one of their trips to Minstrel at the random knick-knacks Cristoff liked to collect, he could hear the easy timbre of his brothers voice respond to the lilting tone of their temporary charge which was a relief since she had been lights out for four days and Grenlow was starting to get bitchy about the amount of time it was taking for him to come up with information that actually progressed the stand-still they were currently forced into.

It didn't faze the Shadowquip any but he preferred to keep the ornery man off his fine ass and as far away from his persons as he could get. The two had a history and it made for tension between them in ways that amused the prodigal son of Bosco's military and grated the ex-guildmaster without fail.

Before he could too lost in reminiscing, Cristoff's bulkier build poked out from his spare bedroom with his usual soothing presence emanating out to ease the tension his body naturally carried after spending too much time in the void. "You'll be pleased to know Lucy's been asking for you, little bro."

Unable to stop himself, his brow raised as a devious smirk took hold on his face. "I'm always pleased to know my names on the lips of beautiful women, especially when it's in favor of yours, moonbeam," before flicking the last of his makeshift ammo directly at the center of Cristoff's forehead and hitting the mark with a grunt of pain.

The Lunar Slayer rolled his deep sapphire eyes as he immediately rubbed the affected area to soothe the welt before it got too big. "Behave, please. This particular Lucy belongs to Bickslow's guild, or at least she did the last time I saw her. Her mark's gone and she keeps changing the subject when I try to get her to talk to about it." With a shrug and a wide gesture, the tall raven-haired Pradesh motioned for his younger brother to go ahead in while he made a very awkward call to the guildmaster of Fairy Tail. Maybe Laxus would be a little more open about just what the Celestial Mage was doing all the way in Bosco without her little pink guildmark.

When Vander first entered the room, the first thing he noticed was the messy tousled waves of her clean golden hair cut in an chin-length bob to fix the hack job her captures gave her. The top half was tied back from her pretty heart-shaped face and he was glad to see she held only the faint white line of a barely noticeable scar where she had taken the sharp tip of her whip over her eye to leave a tiny gap in the end of her brow. He had a perfect view of her profile as she daydreamed with a distracted smile on her face lifted towards the sunlight shining uninhibited through the solid panes of glass that filled most of the room.

He had to blink to make sure the glow coming off her toned frame was actually coming from the sun and not shining out from her creamy skin.

Sensing his presence, the full force of her being was directed at where he was leaned casually in the doorframe a good fifteen feet from where she was sitting upright with a set of very unique Canis Minor pajamas he knew hadn't come from Cristoff. Her voice was bubbly and bright as she hit him with a magnetic smile filled to the brim with gratitude. "You finally came to visit me."

"I've been visiting you every night, sunshine. You're the hard to pin one here," was his easy response as he pushed off the wall to fill the chair he and Cris had been taking turns in while they waited for her to wake up.

The melody of her carefree laughter sounded as her eyes wrinkled with mirth before she spoke through the last of it, "Says the man who found me chained to a pipe as I lay on bedrest."

He gave a few conceding nods of his head before pushing the loose strands of his ombre hair back out of his face before getting comfortable and asking outright, "Why did I find you chained to pipe in a warehouse filled with assassins?"

As if the inquiry was tiring for the Celestial Mage, she let out an exaggerated sigh before launching into the story she had touched on with Cristoff before he told her that Vander was actually there and she could actually meet him. "Well, it's sort of complicated but long story short-ish, I was trying to get the name of the society those morons worked for since they had been seen throughout Fiore but I didn't get it. The guy who was watching me did have a loose set of lips though, blabbed on about a place called the Labyrinthian. I appreciate the save though. I had sent Loke and Virgo back just before squirrelly guy got ballsy and took to using my whip instead of his fists."

His dark brows furrowed at the mention of the legendary and lost place mostly famous from the ancient stories and myths of the still worshipped gods in Ca-elum. There were rumors that the elaborate maze had been found in the wilds of the countries western island but both teams of explorers and archeologists sent to investigate entered the forest and never returned.

Her continued musing interrupted his rapidly forming thoughts as she leaned back into the headboard to look at the sad little nubs of her nails from her short captivity. "I know for a fact there is only one good lead on where that could be and I also know for a fact that you Boscans have a trade agreement with Ca-elum that leads to regular air shipments to and from the main island."

Blinking at the only just recovered mage still not officially off bedrest, he had to clarify what he was ninety-nine percent sure meant Lucy had every intention of boarding one the heavily guarded airships to hitch a ride to the foreign country to find the impossible mythic labyrinth and do her best to eradicate what was a whole slew of half-assed assassins cowering in the trees.

Leaning forward with his hands pressed together against his lips in thought, he narrowed his gaze to purposefully scrutinize the completely unfazed blonde, her own bored deadpan rivaling his borderline condescending look. "You," gesturing to her horizontal, novelty pajama covered body tucked into pale blue blankets, "recently revived international mage of mystery, would like to what, comandeer a ship and crash into the mythical setting that may or may not hold a minotaur and a whole barrel of trained murderers and take them out all by yourself?"

He watched as a slow-curling grin started forming on her face as something keen and sharp sparked in her dark brown eyes to stoke his own sense of adventure to life as she leaned towards him unconsciously, "I won't be by myself."

"Oh? You have friends crazy enough to join you?" His reply was playful as he found himself perched on the edge of his seat, caught up in the rare energy and warmth held within her eyes.

She looked away with an unreadable but knowing smile, her voice clipped with a confidence that started stoking a whole other kind of fire low in his core. "Plenty, but we don't need them. You and I will move faster alone."

"Funny, I don't remember agreeing to come with you."

Her response was quick, as if going tit for tat with him was nothing for her. "Are you saying you don't want to come with me?"

"Not necessarily."

Satisfied with his bland answer, she opened her mouth to let out what was about to be a swift finishing blow for the discussion but the sound of one very familiar growl caused her eyes to roll and her shoulders to sag. Her quiet muttering let him know the root of her ire was most definitely the Lightning Dragon Slayer on the comms with Cris who was heading straight their way by the sounds of it.

"I told Cris not to call Laxus. Now I'm gonna get an earful of totally unfair bullshit that doesn't have anything to do with anything."

Trying and failing to hold in his chuckles at the fiery woman's expense, Vander got comfortable for the showdown between the two fair-headed Fairies.

"Well where the fuck is she, Cris? I've been over every goddamned inch of Fiore and no one knows anything about it. Including firefuck and Titania who have been up my ass every fucking day since she left. I'm gonna kill someone if someone doesn't tell me what the fuck is going on right now!"

Oh, yeah. Vander missed the easily riled Lightning Mage. Eager to see how Lucy handled the pissed off man solely focused on her, he hoped she wasn't the type to wilt away from Laxus' overblown and quite frankly melodramatic ways.

Cristoff completely ignored Fairy Tail's Master as he knocked pleasantly on the already open door, his voice as casual as the look on his face. "Excuse me, but you have a call and it seems pretty pressing."

"Pressing? Are fucking kidding me right now with this shit?"

Rolling her eyes, Lucy threw off her covers, walked in measured slow steps to his raven-haired brother before simultaneously taking the comm lacrima from him while she stood on her tiptoes to press a chaste kiss to his jaw since she couldn't quite reach his cheek. She too ignored the huffy, red-faced dragon on the other end of the call as she spoke in a light manner at odds with the tension bleeding from the smooth lacrima. "Thank you so much for this, Cris. Totally owe you one for looking out for me."

"I am three seconds from grabbing a mage at random and electrocuting them in your place, Blondie. I need answers now."

Taking a deep breath to prepare herself, she finally looked at Laxus with a haughty pose, her hip cocked as she loosely held the comm so his view of her would be off-center and crooked in ways that would irritate the irate Slayer even further. Vander could hear the way his teeth were gnashing from his lazy position and let out a noise of approval to himself.

"Hello, fellow blond human being. I'm fine, thank you for asking and uh, I'm obviously in Bosco. Where Cristoff lives," stopping her drippingly sarcastic monologue to make a wide motion to space around her to end up with the tips of her fingers barely touching the Lunar Slayer's chin as if to say 'where else would she be', "and I recall you telling me that I was no longer your headache to deal with after you removed my guildmark."

Frustrated to the point of insanity at dealing with her, Laxus finally erupted in an explosive string that took both Pradesh's aback while Lucy rolled her eyes and checked her nails. "YOU FUCKING TOLD ME TO! You wanted it gone. You wanted to leave. I was trying to keep you from doing something so incredibly stupid, even Natsu knew not to fucking touch them without my approval. It's been three weeks and I'm getting real fucking tired of having to run interference for you and your dumbass decisions."

Putting her hand to her chest in genuine offense, her eyes narrowed dangerously as she seethed and the temperature of the room lowered from the icy tone to her even words, "I didn't ask you to run interference for me and you gave me no choice. You said it was out of Fairy Tail's hands. You said there wasn't a place for someone unwilling to listen to rational thought in your guild."

"What did you expect, Lucy?" The use of her name had her wincing just a little as his tone softened and he let out an exhausted breath before he rubbed his face and continued, "My hands were tied and I had to let the Council take over. They threatened to shut us down if we were found anywhere near this. I know you knew one of the girls they found but this is bigger than just a few scattered incidents."

There was a lull of silence before Laxus spoke quietly. "Come home before you get hurt worse than you already have. Your nakama misses you."

The emotion behind his words was sound and unmistakable; he was worried about her and he wanted her to come home. He regretted letting her go in the first place but he was the Magic Council's favorite plaything at the moment and he needed to keep the guild in perfect check until they grew bored with waiting for them to mess up.

Lucy already knew that though. It was the whole reason she had him take her mark away before she left.

The next few minutes consisted of her watery eyes eating away at both Pradesh boys as she asked if she could have some privacy to talk to Laxus which both complied to with reluctance before they found themselves sitting next to each other on the couch in silence. Cristoff's knee bouncing out of worry while Vander shamelessly listened in on the blonde while he feigned sleep.

XxXxXxXxX

Six days later, Vander had found himself roped into a pretty solid plan based around flimsy at best information on the Labyrinthian she managed to scrounge from random connections at the entrance to a totally benign looking temple crumbling away from decades abandoned to nature.

Having found himself in utter fascination with the enigma that was Lucy Heartfilia, he literally popped in directly behind the beautiful mage as she bent to read the ancient dialect that was carved into every inch of available stone to press his hips into her backside as he bent to put his face next to hers as if he were also reading the language and not just testing to see how much of his teasing she could take. Which was a lot already in the short time they've spent together.

"Whatcha got for me, sunshine?"

A snort of a laugh sounded from her before she pulled her face back far enough to look up at him from beneath her thick lashes with an easy smile pulling at her pouty, delectable lips, "Yeah, unfortunately my knowledge on this dead language is slim to none BUT I did find a stone that looks suspiciously like a button and we," pausing to straighten both their torsos and have the Shadowquip throw his arms over her shoulders and practically drape himself over her smaller frame before she continued with a devious lilt to her voice, "are going to see what it does."

Just as she finished and pushed her 'button', they heard the odd noise of stone moving across stone before Lucy let out a near maniacal cackle and the floor dropped out from below them and they were tumbling and sliding down a chute to gods only knew where.

By the time the two hit the bottom of the boobytrap, Vander had landed flat on his back in a cloud of fine powdery dirt with his breath cleanly knocked from his lungs with a glorious face full of the soft mounds nearly loose from the tank top she was wearing. As a salacious grin spread across his face, Lucy shifted her weight from his gasping chest to hover just over his pelvis as concerned laced her voice through her coughing and waving to try and disperse the cloud of dirt so she could see and breathe properly, "Are you still kicking down there?"

Unable to answer until his lungs rebooted, he lifted one of his hands to give her as a good squeeze as she braced herself up with a hand splayed across the center of his chest.

Her quiet melodious laughter sounded as the dust started to settle around them and the hand that was fanning at it moved to cup his cheek before giving him a few pats, "Gonna take that as a yes then," before bracing herself on his forehead and pushing herself upright to take in the room where they had landed.

Vander having finally gotten normal lung function back, sat up on his elbows to watch her walk the edges of the cavernous room lit very ominously by flickering torches of blue flames and drawled good-naturedly, "Well, we know what the button does and I'm pretty sure we can expect the same kind of end result from any other buttons or levers we find in our continued travels together."

"Come now, we're having fun," was all she said before she let out low whistle and Vander got the distinct impression that he was going to have to be the impulse control of the two which would lead to glorious adventure or the excruciating demise of them. Either way, the day was starting to have some real potential.

"If it's another switch, I'd rather you not- okay, or push the thing and we will see where that takes us."

She gave him an intelligent sharp look from over her shoulder before the wall in front of the two mages slid open slow enough to force them have to wait in patient silence for it to finish. Their eyes never left each other as Lucy's saucy stance held firm and Vander resisted the uncalled for but not unwanted urge to see what ancient booby-trapped temple sex would be like.

When the loud commotion of the door opening finally ceased, the Shadowquip swept his arm out in a show of chivalry. "After you, sunshine."

False shock took over the deceivingly innocent features of her face as she quipped, "There are manners somewhere buried in that brain of yours? Huh, I thought it was filled with pin-up posters and sex positions. Color me impressed," before blowing a few stray strands of her hair that came loose from the messy knot at the back of her head and walking into the newly revealed hallway without hesitation.

The youngest Pradesh watched her hips sway, his head tilted to really take the wide swing in as his thoughts started twisting and turning, cursing his own rule against sleeping with the same person twice while he tried to figure the likelihood of her letting him lock them in somewhere so he could finally get his fill of the tempestuous woman.

Calling back over her shoulder in a sing-song, he shook his head with a mirthful glint to his wine eyes. "Better catch up, baby tomato. Hah, get it? Ketchup, baby tomato. What a punny joke."

No, Vander was pretty much convinced she was sent as the ultimate test of his lifestyle since she was just as reckless as he was except she didn't use a magic that could get her out of the shit she found herself in, she just walked in with confidence and the tenacity to see herself out of it and she did it with a smile that could bring a man to his knees.

Something he was more than willing to do if it meant he could have his chin drip with her cum and hear his name from her heavenly lips just once.

XxXxXxX

Three hours, two spike pits and one gnarly looking gruesome scene that explained where the other teams of researchers got to later, the two mages were standing in front of what could be a door or maybe the stone structure could be just another wall like the rest of the giant stone archway-door-walls they found. Vander had his arms crossed over his chest with a thoughtful look on his face while Lucy had her hands on her hips as her lips pressed into a tight line, a quizzical crease between her brows as they both their necks craned up to stare in complete silence while surrounded pile literal piles of bones. Human bones. Bones that had definitive teeth marks in them.

Her eyelids drooped as she finally turned to offer with a careless shrug, "We gotta open it."

Vander's eyes stayed fixed on the door that undoubtedly held whatever ate the other guys that obviously made the mistake of opening the door the last two times someone was faced with the current 'do or do not' moment they found themselves in as he gave his head one good shake to say 'or nah', "I don't know if we 'gotta' open it actually. Didn't go so well for the last cats."

Her face dropped into blatant indignant deadpan as she stared at his striking profile, the giant sconces of blue flames dancing across his rakish features mischievously. "What do you mean we don't gotta open it."

"I mean," the way he drew the word out clearly showed his belief that he thought he shouldn't even have to explain to her why the door should remain closed but was doing it anyway to fill her whims, "something or more likely from the amount of bones left, somethings chowed down on the last people to open the door. I would like to keep us from becoming chew toys so," finally turning his head to meet her gaze without acknowledging the (somehow familiar) melodramatic look on her face at all to hit her with his damned best charming smile, "let's find a different way in."

Her expression softened into dubious interest as she prompted with a simple, "Go on."

"Sunshine, in my vast pool of wisdom I have collected over my lifetime, I have gathered this particularly true piece of knowledge."

His borderline arrogant timbre and schmoozey face nearly pulled giggles from the blond but she remained firm in her skepticism as she hummed in slow response as a roll of her eyes escaped her stoic front, "Mhmmm."

The cheshire grin the pulled the corners of her lips wide sent a very real shiver down her spine to settle quite neatly low her abdomen as he delivered his line with the ease of a veteran, "There's always a backdoor I can get into."

Their eyes were locked, his shining with debaucherous self-satisfaction and hers with sharp refusal to give him any additional satisfaction with the reaction he wanted from her.

His brow raised playfully and she felt her nostrils start flaring as the muscle of her cheeks start twitching and he knew he had her right then and she knew he knew he had her by the way his eyes crinkled into victorious slits and a shit-eating crooked grin quirked his lips.

Letting out the breath she had been holding through clenched teeth, her belly laughter was building momentum until managed to smother it enough to give his stomach a quick backhand and she wiped her eyes, "I can't believe you just said that to me with that deadass serious look in your eyeballs. That is impressive levels of perversion."

Bowing his head as he caught her hand in his and pressed it to his chest, his voice was easy and lilting as he accepted her words as the praise it was, "Thank you so much, that is so sweet of you to say but," letting a few of his own endearing airy chuckles out before continuing, "I meant, I can get us into that room without having to open this monster of door." His thumb had started rubbing over the skin of her knuckles at some point and she was having to remind herself that he was the one and done Pradesh and she had done the one and done thing once in her life with Cristoff and was not the biggest fan. Not that it wasn't the most perfect night of her life so far and that she didn't get an amazing friend out of the exchange, she just wanted to build something real and the way she was having to suppress her attraction for Vander, it would be better if she just didn't get involved at all lest she wanted to go through the one-sided pining thing again.

No, thank you. Check please. Not happening again.

But that didn't mean she wouldn't enjoy his attention while she had it. So she gave his hand a light squeeze before throwing her hands up in surrender as she teased the handsome Shadowquip. "All right, backdoor, let's get to gettin'. I want to get back to Magnolia before I'm eighty."

"Pushy, pushy. Sheesh, you're a tough customer." His words were light and carefree as usual as he clapped his hands together and rubbed them villainously, "Come, sunshine, to the shadows we fade."

Her hair had come mostly loose at this point and it fanned out as she shook her head with a warm toothless smile on her face, her voice filled with quiet laughter as she stepped into his waiting arms, "You are such a cheese."

Knowing full well he could carry her bridal style and deciding against it, he ran his hands just over the curve of her backside to grip thighs and lift her to his body, her hands wrapping around his shoulders to feel the hard muscles of his shoulders and back flex as an adorable gasp escaped her frame. His laughter was ringing in her ear as she felt the familiar pull of shadow travel pull at her appendages like gravity had doubled on her and held on for dear life.

By the time they got by the Nemeon lions, plural use there, and into the main chamber, they had come the conclusion that the 'society of assassins' was actually just a bunch of nutjobs worshiping whatever entity the temple was originally devoted to and that they had found a way into the main chamber through tunnels in the forest floor. More than likely where they got the labyrinth part of the name.

It took the two of them, four if took into account both Leo and Sagittarius, all of twenty minutes to clean house before the young Pradesh was scooping her up and pressing her face firmly into the crook of his neck to prevent her from opening her eyes while he took them through the void to the place he thought she'd want to go most now that they had their little adventure; home.

When she realized the whispers had stopped and Vander had eased his grip on the back of her head to play with the sensitive hair at the nape of her neck, she in turn eased the vice grip of her thighs around his waist and lifted her head only to be blinded by his annoyingly gorgeous hair. In a huff, she pulled completely back to take in her surroundings.

Oh, no. Oh no, no no, no. She was back in Magnolia.

Where Laxus was waiting to have her locked away until she was a hobbled old woman.

Refocusing on the grinning man enjoying their position with a laziness she pretty much equated to that of a cats, she gave her best puppy-dogs before asking with a deafening amount of hope, "Can we actually go back to your place?"

That, Vander could do with pleasure.

~I added too much last minute stuff and I was very late cause this one got away with me a little XD~