"This is Cate Ferrari, reporting from Tapei industries, where the historic merger between Rusty Rose and Lacrima Industries has completely broken down. As a last resort, spokespersons from both companies have agreed to bring in an independent arbitrator. But who is it? Speculation has run from the Secretary General of the United Nations to the Queen herself. But the head of the monarchy seems unlikely, as I'm told the arbitrator is due to arrive by car at any moment."
Red headed news anchor, Cate Ferrari, stood in front of a crowded building with tons of press clamoring outside as two very high profile CEO's and their teams waited stanchly inside. Before long a limousine pulled right up to the entrance, and the paparazzi cleared out of the way. Cate gestured for her cameraman to focus on the limo.
"The mystery arbitrator has arrived!" She narrated as the door to the limo slowly opened. "And it's none other than... Purehito Geiborugu?"
A tall, elderly man with long, slicked back, silvery white hair, a thick, but well trimmed mustache and a matching long, white beard, stepped out of the limousine adjusting his tuxedo. He smiled and waved at the barrage of flashing lights from photographers, and questions from reporters, showing wrinkles on his face, as evident of his extremely advanced age, nonetheless, despite this age, his figure was muscular and well defined. Cate's camera followed him closely as he walked inside the museum that was covered in red silk and had two angry men and their subordinates seated at tables across from each other.
"Tensions are running high and thousands of jobs and livelihoods are hanging in the balance of these two companies. Right now, Purehito Geiborugu seems to be the best, or likely only, hope for success."
"Gentlemen, gentlemen," Purehito said bombastically. "Shall we attempt some smiles for the cameras?"
On his private jet after a successful merger, a beautiful woman served Purehito champagne in a glass, while casting him overtly flirtatious glances. He couldn't focus too much on her when he received a call on his phone with caller ID reading 'Kyouka'. He answered the call of his ex-wife with furrowed eyebrows.
"Hello?"
"Purehito," the woman briskly. "We need to talk. It's about Meredy."
"What about Meredy?"
"It's this teacher of hers at school. She's causing her trouble."
"Well why can't you handle it? I'm kind of in the middle of something here."
"Look I tried, but it seems as if that principal of hers won't put her in place, so as soon as you land Purehito, you and this teacher need to have a talk."
With that, Kyouka hung up the phone leaving Purehito with a giant headache. Whoever this teacher was had to be an absolute beast where even his demon of an ex-wife couldn't seem to keep her in check.
Looks like he's going to have to take a trip to a middle school.
Once arriving to the school, Purehito walked into an empty classroom, save for the desks that all had a bunch of jumbo sized cucumbers on them, and a blonde woman in an unflattering dress, big dorky glasses with a sign that read Mr. Monogamy hanging around her neck, collecting them.
"Excuse me miss, I'm looking for my daughter's teacher, Ms. Heartfilia?"
"Oh that's me," she attempted to reach her hand out for a handshake and accidentally knocked over a box of condoms. The tiny gold packets flooded her desk and the floor, and the woman unsuccessfully tried to scoop them in her arms as they overflowed. Awkwardly, the blonde leaned against her desk and smiled at him as if none of that happened.
"I'm Lucy Heartfilia," she chuckled dryly reaching out her hand.
Purehito looked at the hot mess before him in disbelief.
This was... this had to be some sort of joke right?
Enter Hades
"Meredy's, uh, mother, told me about you over the phone," he said as he shook her hand. She held the ends of her dress and bent her knees slightly. Purehito was taken aback. He didn't know how to respond to the odd gesture.
"Did you just... curtsy?"
"I did, yes; I did."
The older man tried to shake himself awake from this dream. Maybe the jetlag from the long plane ride was getting to him and making this interaction seem a lot worse than it was.
"I'm sorry, I just got off a flight from London," he said holding his head. "Maybe I'm a little out of it..."
"Oh, London." Lucy tried putting on a fake British accent. "Did you have a busy sch... Se-dule...?" She cleared her throat. "Did you have fun?"
"No, because I was advising a merger," he answered, feeling almost offended all of his hard work was being trivialized.
"Oh," Lucy's voice became small. "Fair enough." Clearly her attempt at small talk wasn't working.
"Is this a... bad time?" Purehito gestured to the multitude of Trojan condoms everywhere and the cucumbers in the classroom. Surely there had to be an explanation for this rather colorful first impression. He was grasping at straws here.
"Nope, no, no, no, I was just cleaning up from the sexual health class," Lucy started rambling. "I had to take condoms off 30 cucumbers, and condoms are harder to take off than I thought. Like, I know how to put them on, lots of guys find it hot when girls are the ones who roll the condom on for them, but I didn't know how to take them off. I guess someone else has always done it for me."
Purehito blinked slowly. He blinked once. Then twice. Then a third time as an awkward silence stretched between them.
Note to self: take Meredy out of the public school system as soon as possible, he thought. I don't care what Kyouka says anymore.
"Um, so you wanted to talk to me about Meredy's art?" Lucy brushed a tendril of hair from her bangs delicately behind her ears. She turned to the board behind her at a painting. "So, this is one of the pieces she did. Um... That one's called, um, "At the Mall with Grandma." She made that in dream sess, which is where, um, I let the kids have time to create something."
"Yeah... Meredy's gonna be opting out of dream sess from now on. She'll use that same time to review her other schoolwork with a tutor."
"Did you talk to Meredy about this?"
"I don't need to. I want her to know fractions before she goes to high school."
Lucy was appalled that he even suggested she couldn't do her job.
"Well, for your information, I do follow the curriculum."
"My daughter is wearing doll's heads around her neck at home, so whatever you're doing is clearly putting her on track for Yale. Keep it up."
"I talk to your daughter every single day. Do you? Because hiring a tutor is not the same thing as spending time with her."
"I'm her father, not her friend," he looked pointedly at the blonde. "I know what she needs. How old are you by the way? You seem a little young to be running a classroom all by yourself."
"First of all, that's incredibly sexist of you to assume that because I'm a young woman, I'm not capable of running my classroom by myself. I oughta report you to the faculty. And second of all, I'm 27, thank you very much."
"Well Ms. Heartfilia, I can tell you right now that going to the faculty to report me won't do you any good."
"Oh yeah?"
He held a mirth in his eyes that told Lucy he knew something she didn't. He continued with a twitching smirk that didn't go unnoticed by the blonde.
"Yes. Especially not if I make a complaint to the faculty about you first about the antics you're carrying on in this classroom that's poisoning my sweet Meredy's mind."
"Sweet?" Lucy asked incredulously. "With all due respect sir, you don't seem to be aware of the kind of trouble your daughter has been causing for other students in my classroom. Meredy is incredibly gifted and intelligent, but it's just that... her ability to mesh with the others is... severely lacking. I have one student in particularly who she had been bullying mercilessly for weeks. Thankfully that's over now, but I want you to know that everything that I do with Meredy and my other students in this classroom, I do because I want to help create better people... not just better students."
Lucy was panting by the end of her rant, getting riled up by how passionate she was about her students. Purehito was silenced initially by the sheer willpower of her conviction.
Meredy's been bullying other students? Well that was news to him.
He cleared his throat and gathered his bearings indignantly.
"Well it won't matter how well Meredy can 'mesh with the others'" he said with air quotations. "Once she gets her full ride scholarship to an ivy league school in the future."
Lucy wilted a little. Her message didn't seem to get through to him at all.
"My daughter comes to this place to learn academics Ms. Heartfilia. I hope I've made myself clear on that front," he said as he turned around and took his leave. Before he left her vision in the doorway he turned to leave her one last remark.
"Give my best to Mrs. Monogamy," he mocked.
Lucy instantly looked down at the sign still hanging around her chest and yanked it off, throwing it on the table feeling stupid.
"Lucy, he's the third largest donor in the city."
"We take his money and then what? We have to answer to him?"
"Yes. Exactly."
Lucy angrily paced back and forth in Lyra's office, fuming after her encounter with Meredy's father. She marched straight there as soon as the man left to make good on her threat to him earlier.
"So, you're asking me to give up my integrity?" she asked her principal.
"That's literally what I just said. Are you listening to me? We need his money."
"So what if he pulls his donation? I'll just raise the money myself." Lyra raised an eyebrow. "I'll get a ragtag group of kids together. A lost soul, an orphan, a Jewish kid with a keyboard, a little slut who can dance, and one fatso, and I'll choreograph some dances. Make a musical."
"You did that already Lucy. It's called the spring musical, and it brought the school $60 total."
"Please don't make me apologize."
"You're gonna go to his office," Lyra instructed sternly. "You're gonna say that you were wrong. Say you're never gonna let the kids do anything creative ever again. From now on, your classroom is full-on North Korea: Math! Math! Math! Make sure he doesn't pull the donation."
Lucy looked away from her hopelessly.
"Tell me, when he was yelling at you, did he do that little thing with his mouth? You know, that little smile thing? That's why the teachers and administrators all call him Hades behind his back. Every time that guy comes around, he brings Hell."
"That's actually kinda mean Lyra..." Lucy trailed off.
"Apologize Lucy. I'm serious."
"Guys!" Gajeel came running into the loft that afternoon in a panicked frenzy. Loke and Lucy were lounging in the living room, with Loke on his laptop and Lucy grading papers. They looked at him skeptically. "Guess who I just saw?"
"Kanye West?" Loke asked.
"No you idiot, Natsu," Gajeel panted. "And he looked like he was... exercising!"
Lucy threw her pen down, causing all the papers she'd been grading to fly everywhere, meanwhile Loke flew up over the couch to Gajeel, sending his laptop barreling to who-knows-where.
"What?" Lucy asked as she scampered over to him. "He was exercising?!"
"No I swear, I saw him along the sidewalk jogging!"
"Are you sure it was him?" Loke asked. Gajeel shot him a look.
"How many spiky, pink haired, sharp-toothed, racially ambiguous Hawaiian natives do you know living in the L.A area?" Gajeel then continued to tell them how confused he was seeing him, since the bar and the Chinese restaurant were in the opposite direction he was going.
"Well do you know where he was headed?" Lucy asked. "He had asked me to take him to get a new cellphone today."
"When I pulled over to ask him, he told me..." Gajeel had to pause a moment because he was getting choked up. "...the gym."
Loke and Lucy gasped in unison. Loke raised his hands up in the air and smiled at the sky.
"Mazal Toff!"
Lucy showed up to the nearby gym that Natsu was currently working out at, feeling a little bit nervous. As she walked past a bunch of exercise buffs lifting weights, running on treadmills and doing push-ups on yoga mats, she noticed her pink-haired friend laying on a bench press, pushing a metal bar that looked quite heavy with several weights on it by himself. As she walked nearer to him, she noticed he was shirtless.
'Look at those arms...' She quickly shook the shameless thought from her head.
"You're supposed to have someone spot you, you know."
Natsu stopped his sets upon hearing his best friend's voice. When he looked up, he saw the blonde smirking at him, staring with big, curious brown eyes. Except, from where he was, she looked like she was upside down. He put the weights back on the rest and got up.
"I don't need a spotter," he said, picking up his water bottle and quenching his thirst with generous gulps.
"You gave the guys quite the shock when they heard where you were going," Lucy continued. "Loke declared that it must've been DEFCON red levels of seriousness for you to be up and about. Either that or you'd suddenly turned gay for him."
Natsu laughed. "Loke's been trying to get me to work out for years," he explained. "Him and Gray. It didn't take."
"So what changed?"
Natsu sighed. "You know after the whole cancer thing I've just been doing a lot of thinking. I want to take care of myself. Maybe cut back on all drinking, start working out again, who knows, maybe even eat better."
"Really?" Lucy's eyebrows grazed her hairline. "I'm so proud of you."
"Don't be too proud," he joked. "I'm ordering Chinese food as soon as I get back to the loft."
"Do you think that..." Lucy paused, as she was about to approach the delicate subject. "Maybe you'll start boxing again?"
Natsu sighed again. "I don't know about all that..." he looked away from her uncomfortably. "Maybe just for exercise, but competitively? I don't think so."
She nodded her head in understanding. Regardless of what he said, Lucy was beyond happy that the cancer scare hadn't thrown him into a depression of some sort, and was instead motivating him to do better. Sometimes, Lucy was truly in awe of this man.
"Anyway, you ready to go?" He asked, wiping the sweat off his face with a towel. As Natsu put his white, muscle tee back on over his head, Lucy never thought back muscles could look so tantalizing, but watching Natsu's back as he dressed himself definitely changed her mind.
"Yep," she squeaked out, jingling her keys. She silently berated herself for how high her voice came out. Natsu looked at her strangely, sensing how tense she was.
The blonde shook her head again at her wayward thoughts. 'For fuck's sake Lucy... and after such a wholesome moment too...'
"So buying a phone's a big deal," Lucy explained to him as they both stood around waiting for a customer service representative at T-Mobile to get back to them. "I mean, think of how long you'll have this thing. It's like buying a car or a bra," she reached for her bra strap under her the collar of her dress and slung it. "I spent eight years with this baby. Ow."
"Hey, uh, sorry," the male service rep said when he returned to them. "I was just checking your credit score, and I got this number that's crazily low, so I'll try again."
"Don't bother," Natsu stopped him. "I'm sure it's right."
The guy did a double take. "Seriously?"
Lucy yanked the paper out the man's hand containing Natsu's credit score just to see what the fuss was about. "Natsu are you serious?" She cried. "250?! You get like, 150 just for being alive!"
"Hey, Mojan! We got a 250 credit score!" Their service rep shouted to someone in the back.
"I might've made some shoddy investments on a lama farm in my twenties..." Natsu said quietly, trying to appease a very upset Lucy.
"YOU'RE STILL IN YOUR TWENTIES!" She reminded him. Late twenties albeit, but still in his twenties regardless. He wasn't going to use the 'young and dumb' excuse to get out of this with her.
"What happened to all that money you made while you were boxing?"
He opened his mouth to answer, but was thankfully cut off when their service representative called more of his friends over to laugh at Natsu's credit score.
"Claire, Brendan, this guy's got a 250 credit score!"
"Look at this," he showed them the paper as a small group of men and women gathered around him in pink T-Mobile shirts.
"Oh, I'm sorry," a round woman, who appeared to be the manager apologized. "I've been doing this a long time. I've just never seen a score this low. Did you just wake up from a coma?"
Lucy snorted in laughter at the last comment and her salmon haired partner shot her a dirty look at the act of betrayal. Lucy played with her hair pretending she didn't see him. It wasn't her fault if they were funny.
Meanwhile, back at the loft, Gajeel had a bone to pick with his other male roommate. He found the honey blonde in his room wearing a white T-shirt that was soaked with sweat, blue basketball shorts, socks with tennis, and a blue headband, as he did deep lounges with weights in his hands. Undoubtedly, he was inspired by Natsu getting back in the gym. Gajeel bust his door wide open and folded his arms.
"Why did you make me look stupid in front of Sue last night?"
Loke paused his sets in confusion. "Wait, what?"
Flashback
Gajeel, Loke and Sue were all hanging out together at a booth in a crowded bar (not Fairy Tail), surrounded by tables of noisy crowd participants in the bar trivia. One of Sue's favorite past times was playing things like trivia and bingo, and when she heard this particular tavern were offering prizes for winning their trivia, she brought both Loke and Gajeel along to increase her chances at winning. "Which of the five great lakes is located entirely in the United States?" asked the man on the mic.
"Uh... Lake Erie?" Gajeel asked hesitantly. Loke scoffed.
"Yeah, if Lake Michigan didn't exist and we won a fictional U.S.-Canada war. Lake Michigan!" He answered.
"Correct!"
When the trio returned to the loft, Sue was all over him.
"Loke, you're like the Michael Jordan of bar trivia!" She said excitedly, following him as he put away his coat and keys. "We were in the Greek mythology zone! I mean, you knew every question."
He didn't bother to act modest at all her high praise, if the perma-grin on his face was anything to go by. "Perseus, Icarus, Medusa... Medeuce, deuce!"
Gajeel trailed behind them coming in the loft, not that the pair seemed to notice.
"Guys, you're shouting..." he grumbled.
"I mean, you knew every answer!" Sue continued. "Like, what was the tiebreaker you got? Calvin Coolidge's birthplace?"
"Little Plymouth Notch, son," the man replied smugly.
"Wow, I'm done with this," Gajeel said to no one in particularly. "Hey, Sue-"
"I mean, seriously Loke, how did you know that?"
"How can you forget that?! Answer: you don't," he answered cockily, giving her a high five which she obliged. Gajeel felt the vein in the middle of his forehead twitch, remembering that was one of the answers he got wrong.
"Jar!" Loke said with a chuckle, pulling out his wallet. "I'm gonna jar myself on that one."
"He's like a trivia god," Sue said making herself comfortable on the couch facing him. Gajeel instinctively sat on the other side of her in an attempt to break up their little love fest.
"Gajeel, don't worry about it, man," Loke jeered over their female guest. "It's your public school education. You'll catch up one day." Loke chuckled at his own joke. "Jar again."
"Ohhhhh," Loke said, realizing what Gajeel was referring to. He returned to his lunges. "You want me to take a dive next time?"
"Take a dive?"
"You know, like pretend like you know more than me when Sue's around, so it seems like you're smarter. I know you'd do the same thing for me if I were the dumber one."
Gajeel recoiled at the casual shade at his intelligence. "Wow, okay, so let me get this straight: You think just because you know a few facts about Princess Kate, that makes you smarter than me?"
"First of all, Kate is a duchess," he corrected. "And whip-smart by all accounts. And second of all, don't be so prideful. Look, man, there's nothing wrong with being the second smartest in the loft. You know what, let me take that back. Lucy teaches children."
"You memorize facts," Gajeel shot back. "I can memorize facts. That doesn't make you smart."
"Okay, well, maybe, but I'm definitely smarter than you," and with that, Loke finally stopped his lunges. "Whew! Glutes are done, my man. I'm gonna go to the stairwell, work on my calves. Come with?"
"Hell no!"
Loke cast an uncertain look at Gajeel's glutes before looking back up at him.
"You sure?
The next morning at breakfast, Lucy recounted her dreadful experience with Meredy's difficult father to the boys over bowls of cereal. Today was the day she was supposed to go find him and apologize, but something about that still didn't sit well with her and she was hoping to get some perspective from her friends.
"So now I have to grovel," Lucy said in conclusion. "And I hate groveling. I would have lasted two seconds in the court of the Sun King. I think about that all the time..."
"You do?"
"Do you know how much I have to grovel on a daily basis?" Loke scoffed. "It is literally obscene. Come the weekend though, I'm the one who's filling up my cart with Fila, Nautica, Impulse Fila, Hilfiger, CK, BR Leather cuff, and more Fila."
"This is the problem, Luce," Natsu interjected. "It's rich people. We are right where they want us: Just suckling on the teat of consumerism. That's the exact reason I got rid of my phone," he finished smugly.
"First of all, you were denied a cell phone because you have the credit score of a homeless ghost," Gajeel said, hardly managing to hold back a laugh. "And second, that's extremely rich coming from someone who grew up in a wealthy family."
"My parents were not wealthy," Natsu corrected him. "Probably upper-middle class at most. Only my dad worked and after his injury he was forced to retire altogether."
"Yeah, sure," his cousin said dismissively.
"Look, how I got here doesn't matter," Natsu continued. "I'm a man of the people now."
"You're right," Gajeel smirked bringing his glass mug to his lips. "And that's why you now weigh more than your credit score."
Lucy, Gajeel and Loke all laughed at his joke.
"Okay ha ha, laugh it up," the pinkette said. "I'm here now, and I'm loving it. Yeah. I'm the guy with no phone. I'm a digital ninja. As we speak, I'm writing a letter to my friend, to see if he wants to party with me this Friday."
Lucy leaned over to read the words on the paper in front of him. She'd been wondering what he was doing, ever since the conversation started the pinkette had a pen and paper in front of him and he'd been writing dutifully.
"What up, Kev? You in? Natsu Dragneel." He read aloud.
"Yeah, but Natsu, he might pull the funding from the school, so that's why I'm just a little bit nervous."
"Blame your period," Loke blurted out.
The light banter in the air and conversation all stopped as everyone turned to look at Loke uncomfortably. He continued shamelessly.
"I've actually done this before. I mean, both parties knew that I was lying, obviously, but it didn't matter because they knew that I had utterly humiliated myself, and at the end of the day: they respected that."
The trio continued to stare at him strangely for a while before Gajeel finally spoke up.
"I'm sorry; I just feel like someone should suggest a simple apology. I know that's not where we're headed here, but I'm just gonna go on record and say, that I'm the one who suggested it."
"Nope," Lucy said pointing at Gajeel. "No!" She pointed at Loke. "I'm going with Natsu's advice 'cause I don't think I have to apologize."
"Hell yeah Luce, and you should march into his office, and say, 'Hey, Hades, you can't tell me what to do! Your money doesn't own me!' And then throw away your phone."
"Yeah!" Lucy pumped her fist in the air. The other two boys watched shaking their heads. "I'm gonna throw my phone into the fiery chasm where he keeps his poor people!"
"Actually, scratch that," Natsu said softly. "I gave my mom your number in case of emergency."
That Saturday morning found Gajeel in the living room of a corporate VP's very upscale living room. He lounged on a long, L-shaped couch, sitting adjacent a remote control fireplace, below a large plasma screen TV, and glass doors leading to the front yard let in precious rays of sunlight as well as the view of the family's pool. Gajeel watched aimlessly as a young girl played with Barbie dolls and a toy house set on the living room ground before him.
After his furious job hunt over the past few months, being an usher at Erza's wedding, working as a temp in the post office, teaching kids how to play the hand bells, his very brief, but very bizarre stint at Super8 that one time, Gajeel finally landed a job he actually liked.
Flashback
"Hey, has anyone ever told you that you're really good at this?" Mako asked getting up.
"Quite the opposite actually."
"Regardless, if you ever want to hang out with Miko again... I will pay you A LOT of money. Let's go home honey. But seriously a lot."
He chuckled and waved them both goodbye as they began exiting the party. "Thank you."
Becoming Miko's babysitter was a lot less stressful and physically demanding than any of his other jobs, plus it paid much better. Much better. The kid was quiet and well-mannered (although the little girl's introversion was one of the things that made her mother worry about her) and she a good listener, which Gajeel liked a lot. The two of them formed a bit of a connection at Loke's Christmas office party, and it was the fact that the child seemed to open up to Gajeel that landed him the gig.
"I want her to think that I can bring something to the table," Gajeel said, explaining his dilemma with Sue while he absentmindedly tossed a tennis ball in the air. "I really care about this girl Miko, and I want her to be my girlfriend. But when she sees me, all she sees is a part-time nanny."
"You are a part-time nanny," the girl answered innocently.
"I want her to think I'm smart."
"Well what about fake glasses?" she offered. "They work for me."
Gajeel finally turned to her to give her an incredulous look, studying her auburn orange hair that fell over her green eyes like curtains.
"But you don't wear glasses..."
"They're fake Gajeel, so I don't wear them everyday," she replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. She excitedly jumped up. "Hold on."
Miko raced upstairs and after the sounds of a door opening and closing, she raced back downstairs with a pair a big, brown wire glasses and a Disney princess mirror compact. Without asking, she unfolded her glasses and slid it on his face before opening up her compact mirror and handing it to him. He inspected himself.
Well I certainly look like a nerd...
But will this be enough for Sue?
"I don't know kid..." he said uncertainly staring at his reflection. "I mean, I don't think your nerd shades will suddenly make me smart enough for her."
"What do you mean?" she asked, taking her toy compact from him. "I think that you're the smartest man in the whole wide world."
Taken aback by her compliment. He smiled genuinely at her and ruffled her hair, feeling his heart warm.
"Thanks kid," he said, before she suddenly took off running in the backyard to go playing on her swing set.
Meanwhile, Lucy was on the road, driving purposely to the Hades' office with the address Lyra had given her, not to apologize, but so she could give him a piece of her mind.
"Okay, so I have a speech I wrote for him," she spoke into her phone. "And I want to practice it."
"Why are you listening to Natsu?" Loke asked from the other end. He and Natsu were sitting side by side in the living room, with his phone on speaker talking to Lucy for moral support. "This is a horrible idea."
"Hey," Natsu butt in. "Ghost Protocol, man."
Loke rolled his eyes. "What the hell even is Ghost Protocol? Don't answer that. Besides, you're using my phone. It's not Ghost Protocol Natsu, you're just using my phone."
"This is a group call," he defended. "I'm just talking in my living room, and it happens to go into that box."
"Okay, so I'm gonna start with a quote against social Darwinism," Lucy interjected, still keeping her eyes trained on the road. "Then a discussion of the Gilded Age, the robber barons, the Great Society, how we ended up with such a huge wealth disparity in this country, and then, I end with a bluegrass version of Public Enemy's "Fight the Power."
"Boooooooooooooooooooooooo," Natsu drawled from the other end. "I don't even know what half of what you just said means, but booooooooooooooooooooo, tomato, tomato, tomato. It sounds boring."
Lucy was currently parked at a red light at a busy intersection. As soon as the light turned green, the blonde took her foot off of the brakes and pressed gas, but the car jerked forward and paused before driving normally, all while releasing a sputtering sound.
"What is that?" Loke asked. "Are you driving a lawn mower?"
"No, it's just... it's my car," she said, truthfully feeling concerned about it.
"Look, this is a great opportunity," Natsu interjected. "You need to ask yourself, where are you even going in life?"
"Lucy, buy a new car," Loke said as the sounds continued.
"You don't need a new car," Natsu protested.
"Guys, I think my car's stalled out," Lucy said as her car slowed down. She rolled it over to the side of the road. "Can you guys come and help me out?"
"Yeah, we'll be down in a few minutes."
After Loke spoke, Lucy leaned back in her seat and sighed. She didn't even notice when a familiar older man curiously stepped to her car and knocked on the glass.
"Hey, can I help you?" the man asked.
"What? Oh, hi Mr. Geiborugu! Um, how'd you know I was here?"
"I was driving by and I saw you. My office is right here," he pointed up ahead.
"Oh, oh, what a coincidence," she said robotically. "I had absolutely no idea. How weird..."
"What's wrong with the car?"
"Guy sounds like matinee idol," Loke said, still on the other end of the call.
"Shut up, Loke," Natsu said.
"I'm just pushing it to the nearest gas station," Lucy said to the older man. "It's like, a mile away, so I'm fine."
"I know a guy, he can be here in ten," Purehito offered.
"Oh, no, Mr. Geiborugu," she chuckled nervously.
"Purehito."
"Mr. Geiborugu," she insisted, not wanting to establish any kind of familiarity between them. "I can take care of myself. It's how I was raised. My family didn't use their money to fix everything, so when something broke, we pretended it still worked. Some of my best memories are pushing this car around on family vacations."
Hades raised an eyebrow. "So you're saying your family has money?"
Lucy's breath hitched.
"Look, Ms. Heartfilia, my tow truck's already on the way."
"That's very nice and generous of you sir, but my friends are coming, and I need my car, and..."
"Here, let me help you," he cracked a small smile at her. "Take mine."
"What?" Lucy blinked in astonishment.
"Take mine," he insisted, before pulling out his car keys. "Here."
The blonde swerved around him to look at his sleek, black futuristic car with it's butterfly doors open and raised in the air. Lucy started panicking.
"Oh I couldn't..."
"Take it," he insisted again. "You can drop it off tomorrow night. I'm having a party, a cookout. Come on over any time."
After a moment's silence, Lucy uneasily took the man's dangling car keys from his hand, still trying to process this act of generosity.
"Thank you... so much..." she said to him genuinely. The momentary relief that washed over his features told Lucy that he was being sincere in his actions. "This is... amazing. I promise I'll return it washed and polished."
As the parent and teacher shared their moment, the boys on the other end of the call, who were long forgotten at this point, were mystified.
"Do you think it's a superhero?"
"No dummy. I think it's Luce and some weird guy."
"Ms. Heartfilia?" Purehito asked breaking their silence.
"Lucy," she corrected. "You can call me Lucy."
The two of them shared genuine smiles.
"Great. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow, Lucy."
"Thanks."
Once Purehito was gone and Lucy was in the man's car by herself, she took in a breath. And then the barrage of questions from her curious roommates came in from the other end of the phone.
"What kind of car is it?" Loke started.
"We are the 99%." Natsu reminded her.
"Is it an SL?
"We are the 99%."
"Does it have a push ignition? Please tell me it's not a hybrid."
"We are the 99%!" Natsu repeated like a mantra.
"And then he just... gives me his car," Lucy said, recalling her second encounter with Hades to her best friend. It was the next day, and the blonde and brunette were in the bathroom of the loft as the schoolteacher did her make-up in preparation for Hades' cookout. "He just hands me the keys," Lucy said in confusion, blending her shimmery gold and yellow eyeshadows together. "He's throwing the fact that he has money in my face isn't he?" Lucy asked turning to Cana. She didn't give the woman a chance to answer as she turned back to the mirror and continued monologuing. "You know what he's doing? He's taking back the power, so I have to go to his cookout, and instead of standing up to him, I have to grovel."
"Okay," Cana quickly interjected. "Just a thought: What if he likes you?"
"What?!" Lucy instantly stopped hot curling her hair to look at her. "Why would he like me? He hates me, and I hate him."
"Well you're young and beautiful, and passionate, and educated, and are good with kids... his kid in particularly. And I'm willing to bet you're the first woman to stand up to him in a long time and guys like that. Plus, this guy is single and he sounds really nice based off of what you said."
"He is absolutely not nice. He basically told me I didn't know how to run my classroom to my face. I would never go for that guy."
"Oh please," Cana scoffed. "I know you chica, and if he said that to you, you probably said some out of pocket stuff to his face too. Look the two of you just got off on the wrong foot! Why don't you just give this guy a chance? Something might actually come out of this, you never know."
"Did you even hear what I just said?"
Cana rolled her eyes. "Can I say something to you that you're not gonna like?"
"Yeah..."
"-Maybe Hades intimidates you. Because you wouldn't have to take care of him, because he would take care of you, and that just terrifies you."
"What do you mean?"
"All your life you've been surrounded by little boys you had to take care of. Sting. Dan. Even these guys as much as I know you love them. But Hades is a man. And he has his life together and he could be really good for you."
Lucy was trying to come up with a rebuttal but she was speechless for a bit.
"See?" Cana said with a promising smile. "You can't even argue with me because you know I'm right."
When Gajeel came over to babysit Miko that afternoon, he arrived with his game face on. He'd spent every waking moment since his confrontation with Loke memorizing the answers on a pack of bar trivia cards that he bought. He was determined to prove that son of a bitch wrong.
"How many pounds are in a metric ton?" Miko asked him, reading off one of the cards.
"2,204.6. Next," Gajeel answered. The little girl shuffled cards and read what was on the next one.
"In 1948, Albert became the first..."
"American... American monkey in space. Let's go!"
"This ancient-"
"Mesopotamia! Hit me."
Miko put the cards down for a moment and gave him a deadpan stare.
"You don't actually know what a Mesopotamia is."
"Of course I know what Mesopotamia is. Don't be crazy."
"Use it in a sentence."
Gajeel coughed awkwardly and let his eyes wander until they landed on her Barbie doll dreamhouse. "Look... there's Mesopotamia."
"Gajeel..." she said warily.
"Now you listen to me kid-"
"I'm going to have to draw on your hatred of rich people for this," Lucy told Natsu as the pair approached the gates of Hades mansion. She brought her friend along for moral support. "Hate me up."
Natsu and Lucy looked like ants at a picnic basket as they stood before the towering stature of the man's "house". It was easily the second biggest mansion Lucy's ever seen in her life, which was saying something, since Lucy's seen a few. There was a beautiful topiary garden out front with shrubs trimmed in different shapes like horses and lions. His gates were covered in vines with white flowers on them that spelt the word 'WELCOME'.
"Well that should be easy," Natsu scoffed, instantly drawing disdain for the exterior design, instead of admiration, like Lucy. "Look at this place."
"I know," Lucy said mirroring him by folding her arms and scrounging her nose too. "Ugh."
"I'm betting at one point there was a moat. Rich boy punk," Natsu continued to scrutinize the place even after the pair were let inside and were now exploring the inner chambers. "This hallway's excessive. It's braggy."
"Well, I guess everyone's out back," Lucy said, noting the vacancy.
"Ugh, look at this place, Luce. Are you kidding me?" He said in disgust at the pinewood walls and expensive paintings. He walked over to the kitchen. "It's so over-the-top. A kitchen island? Be a man! Let your counter attach to itself."
"Whoa." Lucy's jaw dropped as she stepped into what looked like a personal library. The room was wall-to-wall with shelves filled with books of all kinds. At the center of it all was a desk with a view of the sunset, a cozy looking chair and a quill with a jar of ink rested on the desk. The place was so beautiful she could almost cry.
"This place is so beautiful I could almost cry."
"Whoa, something's happening to me, Luce!" Natsu called from the other room. When Lucy found him, the pinkette was in a room with a fireplace, the heads of various forest animals mounted on the walls, and a pair of shotguns crossed each other right above the desk. It appeared to be Hades' study. "I want to sit at this desk and veto a law," Natsu said, spinning around in the chair.
As fun as it all looked, and as much as she wanted to join the pinkette in a rolling chair of her own, Lucy had to gather her bearings. Having Natsu around was having the opposite she wanted and she was already feeling herself being swept up in the elegance of his home.
"You're not helping Natsu," she complained. "I know this room is beautiful, gentlemanly, and... smells like Christmas, but you have to stay strong. I'm gonna go find Hades- I mean Purehito. Keep... playing with that duck."
"I want to kill you," he said to the stuffed duck. "Because I respect you. Hey Luce!" He called after the blonde left. "I think I understand hunting!"
Lucy somehow made her way to the backyard where Hades' cookout was actually being held. To her surprise, it didn't look any different than a normal cookout. There were foldable tables and white plastic chairs plastered about the lawn as groups of people in spring attire held lively conversations and ate barbequed meats and vegetables with waters and canned sodas to wash it down with.
"Huh..." Lucy said to herself. She was expecting more out of this to hate. She spotted the man of the hour himself behind the grill with an apron on and hairnets on his head and beard. He motioned for her to come over.
"Hey, Lucy. Thanks for coming," he said, everything else around him long forgotten and his face lit up at the sight of her. "Oh! The mechanic called. Your car's done. He also wanted me to communicate to you that you need to change your oil."
"I want to, first of all, say thank you, Purehito," Lucy started. "Second of all, I want to say, um, I know that you donate a lot of money to this school, but-"
"You think I'm a snob." His demeanor suddenly changed with those words, his eyes becoming heavy with disappointment.
"Oh, no. No. No," she panicked, beginning to feel guilty. "I have nothing against people who live in enormous mansions."
He raised an amused eyebrow at her awkward phrasing. "Lucy, I'm 42. I've made a lot of money, and I enjoy spending it." Just then, a young man carrying a tray of hors d'oeuvres walked past them and Hades picked up something off the plate and presented it to Lucy. "Oh, you've got to try one of these."
"Deconstructed spring roll..." Lucy said instantly recognizing it. Hades raised a curious eyebrow at her.
"Ugh... yeah. How'd you know that, if you don't mind me asking?"
"O-oh! Umm, I was obsessed with the Food network and cookbooks when I was younger," she said quickly. "I've never actually had one before..."
"Well it's delicious. You should try it."
With that, Lucy took a bite of the fancy sushi, and with just one bite, the flavors exploded in her mouth.
"Oh, my God!" she exclaimed. "This is amazing! I want to punch you!"
He chuckled at her reaction, before his attention was taken by another woman at his party. "Purehito! Purehito!" she said latching onto his arm, dragging him away. "Come tell Carolyn about that time you delivered that baby."
"Oh. Yeah."
Lucy was shocked. "You delivered a baby?"
"Twins, actually," he said as he was carried away.
Lucy stood there in a stunned silence for a minute.
"Twins?"
Back inside Hades' study, Natsu was still fooling around with the man's stuff. Now the pinkette was wearing a fedora, a black sweater and reading some kind of log on the man's desk. Hades came walking and jolted at the stranger in his private sanctum.
"Are you wearing my sweater?"
Natsu's eyes bulged out of his sockets after he was found out. He quickly put the book down, took the hat off and stood up from the chair. "No. Yes. It was on the back of the chair. So I thought the sweater belonged to the chair. I thought it was a chair sweater. Those exist. Hi, I'm Natsu," he introduced himself quickly.
"Oh, you came with Lucy..." Purehito said carefully, measuring the pinkette with his eyes. He didn't beat around the bush.
"So are you two...?"
Natsu's eyes slowly widened. With that one question, everything Lucy described Hades has done so far made complete sense.
"Oh no, I'm just her friend. And her roommate. I'm the guy with no phone, if she's told you. That's my thing. No phones."
"Why don't you have a phone?" he raised an eyebrow.
"Because I don't want to be tied to some corporate system. That, and no one would give me one. I have an incredibly low credit score."
Hades laughed hardily in amusement. Natsu laughed a little too. At least he didn't seem angry which was a good thing for him.
"You know, when I was your age, I had a really skinny ponytail, and I think I was living off of selling my own blood."
"That's funny. Then what happened? One day you just woke up and you had all this?"
"No... I realized I needed to grow up," he said earnestly. "That's what happened."
Natsu's smile slowly faded.
"Um... I got this as a gift from the company for Christmas," Hades reached on his shelf and grabbed a brand new phone in a box and handed it to Natsu. "So..."
"I can't take your phone, man," Natsu said pushing the box away. "I can't... it's just..." Hades pushed the phone back to him, and once the box was in Natsu hands, his protests died down. "It feels really good in my hand... Is it possible to be sexually attracted to an object?"
"Yes. Yes, it is." Hades said. "And you can keep the sweater too."
"Thanks, I... I don't know why I put it on, to be honest with you. I just came in here, and it smelled like Shakespeare, if Shakespeare were a cowboy. And lived in a hawk's nests, and changed boat fuel, and smoked cigars and burped... you know, man stuff!"
"Right... well enjoy it."
Lucy had wandered back into the mansion to find Hades since he'd been gone for a long time. Night had already blanketed the sky outside and at this point, she was ready to go home. She just wasn't going to leave before giving that man a piece of her mind - like she originally intended. Hades' mansion was very big and rather confusing, so Lucy found one of the guest bathrooms before she found the study room again, but immediately became infatuated with the bidet toilet and walked inside.
"Bidet! Well bidet if I do," she punned, before resting on the toilet and pressing a bunch of buttons on the control panel to the left of her. After the toilet voiced something in another language, it started spraying the blonde furiously with a stream of water, causing her to shriek in surprise. "Oh my God! Oh my gosh!"
"Lucy," Hades called from the other end of the door. "Is that you?"
"Oh, God! Oh, God!"
"What's wrong?! Sorry Lucy, I'm coming in!" He charged in when she didn't answer him, but continued shrieking. Once inside, he too, was sprayed with toilet water.
"Oh my Goodness! What's going on?!"
"I just... Wait, wait, wait. Ow! I just pressed some buttons with cartoon characters on them!"
"Yeah, it's Japanese," he told her.
She groaned in frustration. "Of course it's a Japanese bidet! Look, Purehito, I wanted to tell you that I am not sorry about what I said because Meredy is 12, and she is creative, and not just some prodigy, and I don't care if you pull your donation, I am not gonna grovel-!"
"Why did you think I was going to pull the donation?" he asked aghast. "It's a school for small children Lucy, I would never do that."
Hades words made her realize just how crazy she must've looked there the whole day, and now standing there with her dress, makeup and hair all ruined, the blonde stormed out.
"No, Lucy, Lucy! Wait!" He cried, still trying to fend off the attack of his toilet. "Lucy, you put it up to six happy faces! I've never gone past three!"
"Luce, why are we leaving? Why are you all wet?" Natsu chased after his roommate as she stormed out of the party, drenched in water and clearly upset. "Did you try to take a bath in his tub because you wanted to see what it'd feel like to be him? 'Cause, weirdly, I get that."
"No!" She yelled, her blood boiling. "I want to leave because we don't fit in here, Natsu!"
"Look, I know that I've been saying you can't give into this guy, but I don't think that you should run from him, either... 'Cause no matter where you go, he could find you. I believe that."
"Natsu please! Get serious! I'm leaving."
"Hey, hey, Luce, stop. Look, this may complicate things, but... I'm in love with him."
Lucy stopped. "Shut up!"
"No, I won't shut up! He smells like strong coffee and going to see a man about a horse."
"You're ridiculous, Natsu. I can't believe you."
"No, but I'm not done yet," he grabbed onto Lucy's shoulders and stared her square in the eyes finally getting serious. "He likes you, Luce. And I don't want to watch you to throw away a chance at something good."
Lucy's eyes widened at his declaration. She searched Natsu's golden eyes for a hint of dishonesty but her pink haired friend seemed to be 100% sincere. Natsu's words from the other night echoed in her head again, as they seemed to consume almost every thought she's had since then.
I think I like you.
I like you a lot actually... I'm really glad I met you.
Her chest felt a bit heavier hearing his words, but she had to keep reminding herself that he meant those words the other night as her friend. With that in mind, she took a deep breath.
"Thank you Natsu..." she said calmly. He smiled empathetically at her.
"Go get 'em kid."
With Natsu's encouragement, she quickly rushed back into the mansion to find Hades.
"Don't be intimidated just because you're younger, poorer and wetter than everybody in there!" He yelled loudly as she ran back inside.
Meanwhile that night, Gajeel, Loke and Sue returned to the tavern to compete in another night of bar trivia. Gajeel came locked and loaded with answers this time thanks to his review session with Miko, and although Gajeel felt a lot more confident about tonight's round of trivia, his two companions weren't having any fun.
"Goldfinger!" Gajeel shouted. "I mean, no, no. I meant to say Golden-Golden Hind! Golden Hind is what I meant to say. No..."
"Gajeel, you are all over the place," Loke replied annoyed. "The Green Bay Packers did not invent the T formation, nor was Crispin Glover the first man to die in the Revolutionary War."
"Shh!" Gajeel hushed.
"This is supposed to be fun..." Sue trailed off, slumping in her chair. With that, trivia night came and went a second time, and Sue didn't get the air fryer she had her eye on - plus she had no fun. As they all walked out into the brisk night, Gajeel noticed her silence and tried to cheer her up.
"Look, Babe, it was fun," he said to her. "I just didn't want to look stupid in front of everybody. All right?"
"You're not stupid," she said.
"Well, I mean, he did skip Earth when listing the planets..." Loke said quietly while getting into his car.
"Seriously what has gotten into you today?" Sue asked him. Gajeel sighed.
"I just... I just didn't want you to think I was an idiot."
"So you tried to memorize all the trivia answers?" The man nodded his head bashfully. Sue laughed out loud. "Gajeel! I don't want some smart, rich guy who owns his own car. I want to be with you. I don't care if you don't know Ernest Hemingway's birthplace."
"Oak Park, Illinois," Loke said from the car.
"So, what are you saying?" Gajeel asked with a creeping smile on his face. "Are we doing this? Is this real? Like, are you officially my girlfriend? Because if that's what you're saying, then that would make me very happy."
"Mm, me, too," Sue said, wrapping her arms around his neck and bringing his lips in for a kiss. As the two of them made out in the street, Loke didn't hesitate to make his opinions known.
"Sue, be careful with his mustache, please."
"Mmm," they hummed.
"It's very delicate," Loke continued. "You know what, I can't watch this anymore. Gajeel, I hope you're better in bed because your street work is embarrassing. Am I talking too much? I don't want to ruin the moment. You know what? If this was my grandmother's building, she'd be outside on the patio, and she'd be yelling down at you, and she'd be saying, "You look beautiful. "The two of you are a beautiful couple. I'm glad you found one another." But she wouldn't invite you up because she's a horrible, horrible racist."
The two continued to kiss passionately despite the awkward commentary.
"You guys want me to put on some Jodeci?" he offered.
"There you are," Hades smiled when Lucy returned. "I was looking for you."
"Okay... Listen," she said sternly. "I'm not used to people who have it all together. I think... in some weird way... you scare me."
He chuckled.
"Oh, I don't have it all together. I don't even know how to talk to my own kid. I can't remember the last time she hugged me using both arms. She once said she wanted to go bra shopping, and I bought her a ski vest."
"Listen, every eye roll means you're doing something right."
"Really?"
Now it was Lucy's turn to chuckle. "No, but that's just something I tell parents to make them feel better.
"Lucy... will you have dinner with me?"
The blonde took a deep breath. "Yes."
"Great," he said, a smile gracing his lips.
Hey mom,
I'm sorry I haven't to you written in a while, but I've just been so busy with life and having so much fun with my friends lately! I so wish you could meet them. I haven't been living here too long, but the kind of friendships that I've formed with the guys here let me know that they're going to be in my life forever. Or at least I hope.
So today, I met the father of one of my brightest students.
He kind of reminded me of dad at first. Cold and indifferent towards my feelings, yet expecting nothing less but perfection from me in everything.
Now I know our family circumstances were very... different, but I think a part of me saw myself in Meredy as a little girl. Maybe that's why I went so hard for her. She's a bit of a rebel in my classroom and used to bully other students, but I think that was only because she probably felt bullied when she's at home, at least in the sense where everyone has these ridiculously absurd standards for her. What about what she wanted? Her dreams? Her wants? Her having fun? Her childhood?
After some wacky circumstances, Natsu and I ended up at his mansion and I stood my ground. You should've seen me mom. Even though there was water from a toilet squirting everywhere (don't ask), I didn't bow down to him. Oddly enough, he asked me out on a date afterwards, which, I never would've known he was interested if it wasn't for Natsu. Although, Natsu swore he was in love with him after seeing his office and messing around with his stuff. That weirdo. Don't tell him I said this because I don't want to inflate his ego, but... he could be really wise sometimes.
Anyway, I miss you always and hope you continue looking out for me.
With love,
Lucy
Hello all!
How's everybody doing? How's the chapter? Favorite part? Me personally, I really enjoyed the sections with Gajeel and Miko in them. I have a nephew that I'm somewhat basing Miko off of (so its a little personalized), and he'd say the sweetest things to me at the most random times, melting my little nerd heart! I wish we saw Miko more in the anime too. Another part I really liked was the gym scene. Just for clarification, Natsu really didn't remember his confession last chapter, so for him it's like it didn't happen, (although we know that for Lucy, it did happen, she's just choosing to see it as platonic for the sake of not overthinking things). I'm hoping to give Natsu a little plotline throughout these chapters about his journey to self-discovery and finding his purpose. Honestly, all four roommates, (plus Cana) will be having plotlines about finding themselves and their purposes. Hope you're looking forward to it!
Anyways, we've finally reached the "Hades" arc in the story. Was anybody expecting it to be Hades?
Thank you all for all the continuous feedback! Particularly from fluffy experiment, rao hyuga 18, queenuly14, samurai of sunflowers and Copperreign12! I really appreciate you guys! Also big thanks to those who followed and favorite after last chapter!
Until next time: Douchebag 101