Chapter 1
"One more!" Laxus called out, voice loud enough to drown out the chatter of patrons inside the pub. A sizable silence ensued before the cacophony resumed and droned on.
Immediately, the stoic barkeep slid an open-bottled beer across the length of the plank-like wooden table, the bubbling fizz spilling. Laxus caught the bottle and chugged the bitter liquid in one clumsy swig.
"Gahhh!" he grimaced, loudly slamming the glass bottle on the wooden surface before nudging it to his right where a dozen or so empty beer bottles rest. He wiped traces of the beer from his mouth with the back of his hand.
"Mo-" he poised to order another before he smelled something oddly familiar.
Berries. Vanilla. And something unfamiliar...a little bitter - not the alcohol-bitter that he is currently downing- but sanitarily bitter with undertones of artificial fragrance. He turned around on his wooden stool.
"Ah! Lushie!" he cheered, both hands raised in the air.
There, standing before him was a very confused Lucy Heartfilia. "I thought I smelled someone familiar," he grinned.
The woman before him merely sighed, with shoulders slumping slowly. The downward action made Laxus' eyes follow, giving her a once over. She was dressed in a white long-sleeved turtle neck, tucked-in by a plain black fitted skirt held by a leather belt with a gold buckle. She was also wearing dark-colored stockings and plain white heels. On her right shoulder rests the strap of her plain white shoulder bag, and on her left arm rests a folded white dress suit.
All in all, she is dressed smartly and formally.
Uncharacteristically, is what he would like to say. Well, that may be what he was smelling weird.
"May I?" Lucy glanced at the stool on his right, voice hoarse and weary.
"Be my guest," Laxus gestured towards the seat, as he caught another bottle with his right hand.
Lucy mouthed a thank you, before proceeding to practically collapse on the seat beside him. She hauled her things on the table, and raised a finger to call the barkeep. "Scotch. Neat."
Laxus raised an eyebrow, bottle inches away from his lips. "Well, color me damn surprised," he snickered.
"Huh?" Lucy turned towards him. She raised an eyebrow of her own. "What?"
Laxus rested his elbow on the countertop, propping his cheek on his palm before glancing back at her. "I never would have pegged you for a Neat Scotch kinda girl."
Lucy made a lopsided grin. "Yeah! Given my day, I don't think a Strawberry Milkshake would cut it."
The barkeep tentatively placed a whisky tumbler glass in front of Lucy. She held it and swirled the amber-colored alcoholic beverage inside before smelling it. This earned her another cocked eyebrow and a snicker from Laxus. "What? Old habits die hard," she defended.
Laxus raised his arms in mock resignation.
"And you?" Lucy asked, glancing at the heap of empty beer bottles at his side.
"Let's just say that, given my day, a single bottle would just not fucking cut it," Laxus laughed boisterously. Lucy followed with one of her own.
"Touchè. Touché," Lucy pointed out before gulping her scotch in one swift movement. She slammed the tumbler at the counterpart and grimaced. "Kahh!"
"So, what brings you to this godforsaken land of Crocus?" Laxus asked, offering to refill her glass with his beer.
Lucy handed the glass near to him as if it is a nonverbal agreement that, 'yes, yes, I would very much like more alcohol in my system.'
Laxus tipped the bottle, and the malt-based beverage sloshed as it filled the empty glass.
Lucy hesitated for a moment, as if deliberating whether she should speak or not. A few seconds and a fatigue-laden exhale later, she began. "I had a meeting with my publisher."
Ah, yes, Laxus remembered. A year after Acnologia's death, his guildmate here has won the X793 Kem Zaleon Prize for Best New Author. "And that is a pain in the ass because?"
Lucy breathed before continuing her apparently weary tale. "The publishing company is pushing for a sequel for Iris's Adventure."
"So, then write a sequel," he offered, taking a swig of beer.
"It's not that easy. A sequel needs more umph. Iris's Adventure is a novel based on the more exciting adventures that I had in Fairy Tail, leading up to the defeat of Acnologia,"
Lucy paused. And Laxus watched her drink the beer inside the glass.
'Damn. That's mighty impressive,' he remarked. The novel and the beer trick, that is.
"I don't think there's anything topping that," Lucy sprawled her upper body on the counter top, gently banging her head against the wood. This made Laxus smiled slightly.
Laxus drank again. "Ain't that just means more fights, more explosions and more adventures?"
"That's the concept. Easy if you look at it in that way. But so long as I have no manner of inspiration or basis, writing a sequel is next to impossible, " Lucy grumbled, her cheeks now pressing at the wooden counter.
Laxus drank again. "Here's an inspiration. Why not write about the 100 Years Quest. That's several degrees more fights, more explosions and more explosions. Not to mention more dragons."
Lucy sat up immediately, and looked at him as if he had grown another head. Then she smiled her 100-watt smile.
"What?" he grumbled.
Lucy continued staring at him...like the way Freed stared at him...which made him very uncomfortable.
Lucy's eyes watered for a moment before cheering, "Oh, gods! You're a genius, Dreyar! The 100 Years Quest! I am so going to write about it!"
Laxus' smile widened a bit more.
"Right! Yes! The content of that quest might be confidential but it's just an inspiration!" She continued her rant, beginning to get a piece of paper and a pen from her bag. "But! I can just make some adjustments...a few tweaks, and I'll be set!"
"And then the main character will..." Lucy trailed off, her hands moving clumsily as she scribbled notes down each parchment. "...after that, she will be..."
Seeing her talk so animatedly about her book caused him to smile instinctively. He caught himself before the blonde noticed it, feigning a cough to hide it in one fluid motion. Nevertheless, he cannot deny that her manner of childlike joy has been a proverbial light...the silver lining among the chaos of his day.
"Oh, shoot!" Lucy stopped writing, face suddenly staring off into space.
"What? What?"
Lucy looked at him, her face looking like she had seen a ghost, before finally speaking in a grave voice, "I have to write a romantic subplot."
Oh, Laxus thought. Then he burst into laughter.
"Hey!" Lucy slapped his arm. That action only served to further the boom of his boisterousness.
"Laxus!" Lucy whined. "This is serious!"
Laxus calmed himself down to small and silent chuckles. He downed the rest of his beer and placed the bottle near the empty ones. He crossed his arms across his chest, raising an eyebrow as he snickered, "Ain't you and Salamander a thing?"
There was a solid three-second pause before Lucy facepalmed. "Oh God. Not you too!" She took her hand from her face before shooting him an annoyed look.
"We are not a thing," she tutted, making air quotation marks. "As far as I can tell, he and Lisanna are..."
"Lisanna, huh?" Laxus interrupted, his face in a far-off look. He looked at his companion once again, and shrugged. "Guess, it kinda makes some shit ton of sense."
"Do you think they'll let me interview them to get some materials for my book," Lucy beamed, as if expecting some sort of a positive answer from him.
"Gee, Lucy," Laxus started, a snicker already evident in his voice. "You best be prepared for some bland-ass love story," he teased, laughing.
Laxus began noticing that Lucy has puffed her cheeks, a clear sign that she was annoyed as fuck. He coughed before recomposing himself. "Fine. Fine. But here's a question: Do you really think that Natsu would even consider the question?" He drawled.
Lucy paused for a moment for two reasons. First, to observe that Laxus' face is noticeably redder than a few seconds ago. Just how many bottles did this man drink? And second, is to ponder his question, a finger resting on her chin in concentration. Then she began chuckling as she shook her head.
"Roightt?!" Laxus remarked, his amused watery smile showing off his elongated canines.
"I know right!" Lucy exclaimed, laughing. "He'd probably do some mental gymnastics resulting in me joining him in some mission in a place only God knows where."
"Okay. Then what about Lisanna?"
"Hmmm. Lucy, I strongly suggest that you don't. One word of that reaching Mira's ears, and it will be the end of it," Laxus began to guffaw. "Believe it or not, you'll be strong-armed into planning a wedding."
"Ooookay..." Lucy bit her pen before speaking. "One's a bland ass story. The other, I don't even get to write a story because I will be busy preparing for a wedding the bride and groom may not have any idea about." Lucy sighed in resignation.
"Looks like..." Laxus began to stand up, the feet of the wooden stool creaking as it brushed against the floorboard. He swayed left and right as he continued his fits of snickers. "Y-you're back..." He pointed at Lucy clumsily, eyes half-lidded. "...to square one," Laxus grinned like a fool.
Lucy immediately sprang up, arms ready to catch his swaying six-something-feet tall hulking body should it decide to keel over. "Geez , Laxus. Just how many did you drink?!'
Laxus held up five fingers.
"Five? Five?! I don't know about your Math, but these bottles do not scream five," Lucy exclaimed in indignation.
"Cases," Laxus snickered under his breath. "Five cases."
At this, Lucy blanched before she could facepalm for the second time that night. "Oh, joy...this is going to be a long night," she whined.
No wonder Laxus was more than talkative.
Lucy kept her stance, with her standing to support the hefty weight of this man as her arms snaked at the small of his back, and him with his large arm slung over her shoulders.
Oh, gods of Ishgar, just how many pounds does this man weigh? she mentally slapped herself for instinctively reaching out under him. Lucy could feel her knees wobble, and her heels breaking as they clacked against the wooden floor, from all of the dead weight.
Not to mention the strong smell of booze mixed with perfume emanating from his body…This is not a flattering fragrance.
"Capricorn," Lucy cried out before her knees gave out on her. A soft golden light emanated from her open purse before another tall figure appeared near her. The butler-suit wearing Celestial Spirit swiftly, smoothly and efficiently slid his body in place of Lucy's.
Lucy sighed in relief before asking the barkeep for the tab. The man behind the counter nodded his head before reaching out to hand the receipt to Lucy.
She took it, and for the third time that night, Lucy can only facepalm.
"E-Eight-ty t-thousand jewels?!" she stuttered before her voice raised an octave higher in exasperation. That is a month's rent! That is her month's rent! Lucy felt like cursing but opted not to. What else can she do?
Begrudgingly, and as her heart was crying for the amount of money she will soon be parting from, Lucy took out her cheque - a small luxury she has afforded from all the royalties and earnings she had from her published book - and wrote the total billings.
Goodbye, 80,000 Jewels.
After recomposing herself - albeit with moderate success - she led Capricorn and their unconscious ward out of the pub and into the night streets of the Crocus, the capital of Fiore.
Lucy hummed as she began to walk, the warm light cast from the window of the pub to the concrete pavement getting smaller as she led the way. There was a clear and definite calm in the surrounding, owed perhaps to the time.
Perchance, it was around one or two in the morning, where no one - save from the dimming echoes of cheers and merriment from the now far pub, and the rhythmic chirps of crickets. Lucy stretched her arms out and inhaled the crisp and cool air. Unhindered by pollution and all distractions, the subtle fragrance of Crocus the Flower Blooming Capital's limitless flowers wafted like a symphony of smells to her nose.
Lucy looked before her and surveyed the blueness of the cobbled pavement as the light of the moon cast its mesmerizing glow. The moon was full and huge, and from her point of view, was framed by two large buildings. It was picturesque, and she made a mental note to include such a romantic scene in her sequel.
The road before her ran down, and she felt the need to race downwards. She took off her shoes, and ran, letting gravity pull her faster and air refresh her face and hair. It was a thrill but as the road gradually straightened out, she slowed her descent.
Lucy giggled, feeling the childlike joy bubble for but a brief moment. She took a glance at Capricorn, letting herself beam a toothy smile. It was a little unladylike, but it was the feeling that summarized this tiny, tiny, yet precious moment.
Capricorn offered a rueful smile, Laxus' arm still slung over the Celestial Spirit's shoulder. The mage's head bobbed up and down as the Spirit walked.
"If only things could stay like this forever…" Lucy glanced back at Capricorn with all the gentleness that she can muster in a single simple smile.
Capricorn halted himself from walking. "Lady Lucy…" he began, emotion betraying the sternness of his voice.
Lucy's own smile faded into a bit of a comical sigh as her eyes landed on Laxus. She turned to their front and began walking again. She did not speak anymore, just hummed. Sometimes she skipped along with the hum. Sometimes she twirled around.
Lucy did this for a few more minutes until they reached the inn that she was currently staying in. The exterior is quite homely, the building constructed mainly of wood and bricks. A sign reading KALEIDOSCOPE INN is plastered on the front, above the closed wooden door.
"Capricorn, you may now go," Lucy said, giving the Spirit permission to go back to the Celestial Spirit World.
"As you wish," the Spirit bowed with his hands on his chest like a dignified butler.
A flicker of light later and Laxus was left alone, standing on his own. Lucy faced him.
"Do you have a place to go?" she asked, noting that the man before her is relatively alert.
Laxus cocked an eyebrow at her. "Are you suggesting a tryst?"
Lucy blushed ten times redder, fumbling for words. "N-No! T-That's not what I meant!" She exclaimed.
"Relax, Blondie. I'm just messing with you," Laxus let out a chuckle.
Lucy puffed her still blushing cheeks and hurriedly turned back to slam the door open. She stomped forward. Laxus followed, a grin still plastered on his face.
"By the way, how did you know that I'm already awake?" He asked a moment later, before realizing the answer. "Wait…Damn, Blondie! You're a Magic Sensor, ain't ya?"
At this, Lucy smiled triumphantly before leading him to the lobby receptionist for him to get a room of his own.
Because honestly, a man and a woman sharing a room is such an overused cliché.
