Once again I'm back! Hello dear readers!
Thank you for all the favorites, follows and especially reviews! Super special thanks to IAliceB for doubting my come back as it really gave me a nice boost for writing! So you better read this chapter like you promised! :3
Anyway... Sorry for all the grammar and such errors! Hope you enjoy!
Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail and I'm just playing with the characters.
Bickslow opened his mouth, then closed it filling his cheeks with air only to blow it out. He probably would have lifted his finger at this point, if not for the cardboard box occupying his hands. There were so many things he wanted to say, but at the same time he was completely lost what to say. If this is how it felt to be speechless, he could say with confidence that he didn't like it. At all.
'I mean... Look at them!' He screamed in his mind. The position they were in screamed at him to crack a joke about it. Maybe something between the lines 'Seems like the beer did its' job better than well!'. But he couldn't silence the nagging voice somewhere in the far corner of his small brains that for everyone's sake it was better that he kept all the jokes to himself for the time being. After all, even he could see that the situation didn't put their Boss-man in the best light.
It had only been couple seconds since he walked in the room and Bickslow felt like his head was already overheating. One of his two team mates was better come and solve this shit out before his brain completely burned out. Because then, he could promise it, all filters on his mouth would be shut down and then there would be a frog or two flying past his lips. Ans he would have zero control over them.
Luckily Evergreen and Freed weren't that far behind him.
First one to step in the room was Freed, who simply froze to the spot with shock as he saw the two blondes. Evergreen, who followed right behind him, ended up bumping at his back. "Hey! Watch i-kjhdk!" Her snarl turned into incoherent gibberish when her eyes landed on the sofa set. With speed that would have made even Laxus himself jealous, she pointed her fan at the blonde pair. "W-what are you doing?!" She finally managed to gag out.
Laxus furrowed his brows, nearly knitting them together, as he watched his team mates' reactions. He couldn't be completely sure what was going on in his teams head, but seeing their expressions, he got the gist of it. They had no idea what was going on, but he was the bad guy in their eyes. Should he have felt hurt that even his closest (and only) friends were now against him? Probably. Did he? Not really. It was more like he had known - expected even - that one day they too would turn their backs at him. Just like Gramps had to him and his dad, and they weren't just any other guild members, they were family. His own flesh and blood. "Whatever..." He muttered as his expression darkened.
Lucy, still tightly pinned against the sofa, glanced up upon hearing Laxus voice. It was automatic reaction, which she immediately regretted. Laxus face... It wasn't angry like before, but there was something...fundamentally scary about it. It almost felt like this was the first time he was truly showing what lied under his tough interior. What was hidden in his heart. It was dark and scary, yet... somehow fragile.
Lucy felt a lump in her throat. Call her crazy, but... For the first time since they met she felt like she actually wanted to get to know this man. Knowing the notorious persona called Thunder God from the magazines wasn't enough. She wanted to know who was behind this persona. Who was the real Laxus Dreyar?
The thought was forgotten as fast as it had come, when Laxus suddenly turned his darkened gaze at her. It made her flinch with fear, but at the same time made it impossible to turn away. His eyes, like two lightning balls on the night sky, had captivated her, immobilizing her completely.
Laxus, on the other hand, didn't have any issues with moving. He realized her arms and instead grabbed a firm grip on her bare tights. Lucy didn't have time to register what was happening, let alone get embarrassed by the skin-to-skin feel, when her legs were removed from the man's waist and hoisted over the edge of the sofa. While Laxus stood up from the sofa, Lucy felt her body being dragged toward the floor by the gravity. In her panic she felt the sofa around for any kind of hold, but all her hand could reach was the loose sheet that only got dragged down with her. Second later her back hit the floor and the sheet slide lazily on top of her.
Completely bewildered and paralyzed by what just happened, Lucy could only listen as the restroom door opened and closed. Moving the sheet from her face, she barely managed to get a glimpse of Laxus, now fully clothed and his fur lined coat on his shoulders, stomp past his team to the front door. After the door was opened and closed with excessive force followed the familiar sound of lightning hitting the ground.
The loud explosion snapped Freed from his paralyze and without second though he run outside after their team leader. "Laxus-sama!"
The remaining three in the house waited in quiet until Freed came back. The mixed emotions filled face of his made it evident that Laxus had managed to leave without clue where to.
Freed felt anger, and before he even realized it he gave Lucy a glare. Pretty nasty one two. He could see the pang of guilt it caused her in her eyes, which in return made him feel ashamed of himself. He knew better. Lucy was in no way guilty for any of this - more like the victim - and the one he was actually angry at was he himself. The poor girl just happened to be an easy place to focus his anger at. Once again regretting his action toward Lucy, Freed bowed his head with an apology. "I'm sorry." Without waiting for an answer he moved to the kitchen to cool his head down.
"Wou." Bickslow watched as his team mates back disappeared in to the other room. He had seen the nasty look Freed had given and it wasn't pretty. "Don't mind Freed. He can be a little sensitive regarding Laxus sometimes... ...not that you wouldn't already know that..." Bickslow ended with an awkward laugh as he remembered the one incident from not-so-distant past where the man in question had placed a rapier on the girl's neck.
Evergreen shook her head, fingertips on her forehead. Being the only woman in the team was sometimes unbearable. Surrounded by males was the same as being surrounded by idiots, no matter the IQ. Apparently, once again, it was her job to clean after the guys. "Are you alright?" She asked the blonde girl, who still laid on the floor, covered by the sheet.
"Yeah." Bickslow joined Evergreen's question, obvious to the offensive remarks the woman was silently making. "Like, what happened? It seriously didn't look good walking in only to see you with tears in the eyes and half naked Boss-man on top off you. I mean..." He wasn't sure how to frase his next question without sounding like he was doubting Laxus.
Hearing somebody talk about her tears, Lucy automatically swiped her eyes. But the only evidence left of the tears was the dry residual and the overall icky feeling around her eyes. She can't believe she had once again let them see her cry. However, there was nothing to be done to it now.
Moving her attention to first question, she properly sat up. "I'm alright. We just had a fight with Laxus." She explained even though she also wasn't completely sure what had truly happened. One moment everything seemed to be going OK and the next he was accusing her of something she still couldn't understand.
"You fought?" The tap higher pitch in Evergreen's voice implicated that she didn't believe what she was hearing. Laxus having a brawl fight with someone? Not their Laxus. There had to be something else the blonde girl wasn't telling them. She bit her lips, then dared to say out the question, which obviously hanged heavy on both her and Bickslow's minds. "He didn't...do anything to you, did he?"
Evergreen couldn't believe herself. How could she actually say that out loud?! There was no way Laxus would ever do something like that! But... These days, it sometimes felt like she didn't know Laxus anymore. The worse his relationship with Master got, the more alien he felt. And as sad it was, Evergreen couldn't currently say with hundred percent confidence that she trusts Laxus.
Lucy blinked couple of times as she let the question sink in. Cheeks flashing red, she shook her whole body in denial. "No! No! No! Nothing like that!"
Bickslow, who had walked to the sofa table and put the cardboard box down on it, well backwards on one of the armchair with relieved sigh. "Thank fucking god!"
Evergreen, too, felt an enormous stone rolling off of her heart.
"Then what happened?" Bickslow turned his head toward Lucy. "Why the fuck where you wrestling on the sofa?"
While trying to figure out how to answer the question, Lucy stood up and fixed the sheet back on its place. As she sat down on the sofa, a big sigh escaped her. "I actually don't know. Laxus started to accuse me of something, asking what are my real goal and name. And when he said some...hurtful things about my mother, I slapped him. That was act-"
"You slapped Laxus?!" Bickslow almost choked hearing the words. "Our Boss-man?!" He burst into laugh. "Man! What would I give to see that!"
"Shut up!" Evergreen slammed her fan against the man's visor. She sounded annoyed enough to pass as one, but in fact she was fighting against a smile of her own.
Lucy wasn't quite sure how to take Bickslow's reaction. Was it good? Hope so. If only Laxus would have taken it the same way, they could have avoided this mess entirely. "As I was saying," She continued. "The slap was what started the actual fight. I called out one of my spirits. I ended up throwing kicks and punches toward him. One thing let to another and soon I was pinned under Laxus, who...in fact...only tried to keep me from assaulting him more..." Saying all this out loud made a rosy hue rise on her cheeks. That wasn't a fight. It was more like a child throwing a fist tantrum against a grown up. She did all the fighting all by herself.
When the pause kept stretching, Evergreen realized that Lucy had said her part. "Right..." She popped her lips. "But you still have no idea what had originally angered Laxus? What had caused his doubt for your identity?"
Lucy shook her head, still slightly embarrassed of herself.
"Welp," Bickslow slapped his palms against the armrests, then stood up. "Only one way to find out. We gotta find Laxus and ask him."
Evergreen nodded. "You coming?" She turned to Lucy.
Lucy hesitated, but then nodded. "Yes." She hadn't yet forgotten or forgiven the hurtful words Laxus had said to her, but she genuinely wanted to sort this mess up. It didn't mean she would forgive him, though. Easily, at least. It just meant that she felt like this was partly her fault. Like 10 to 15 percent, maybe. And now that the situation had calmed down, she couldn't help herself from remembering the feeling from before. The feeling that she really wanted to get to know the real Laxus. And who knows? Maybe if everything goes well then she could even call Laxus a f-
Lucy shook her head. The maybe in that sentence was far too big for her to think about the future. She would first see which direction the situation would develop. After that she could think her future relationships with Laxus as much as she wanted.
"Freed, we are going to go look for Laxus. Are you coming?" Evergreen shouted over her shoulder while she headed toward the front door.
Not even a second later, Freed exited the kitchen in hurry as if fearing that they would leave him behind. "Of course, I'm coming! What do you think?" He exclaimed. The moment in the kitchen had really helped to calm him down. On top of that, the solitude had offered him a chance to analyze Lucy's story in peace. He had come up with a hypothesis what had happened, but the few remaining question marks made him stay quiet. He didn't want to assume anything at this point.
"By the way, what's in the box?" Lucy asked as she walked past the sofa table.
"Lacrima." Bickslow, who was two steps in front of her, answered nonchalantly.
"Lacrima?!" Lucy's eyes shot open and she had to take a second look at the box on the table. "That big? What for?"
"Now that is a secret." Bickslow laughed, before slipping his shoes on and walking out of the house, bewildered Lucy right behind him.
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