Chapter Forty-Seven
Rumours
The Fairy Tail guildhall was abuzz with activity, which it often was, and most of the time that was due to a certain Fire Dragon, today however, it was indirectly because of him.
Groupings of people all over the guild were whispering, sharing the latest gossip between themselves all while they waited for Natsu to arrive at the guild.
Makarov had heard it all, and after his debrief with the team that had gone to Loduhn, and secondarily the rescue team, he expected people to be probing and trying to find out more details about their job.
Instead, everyone was chatting about the fact that when Evergreen had gone to challenge Erza for whatever asinine reason she had to dislike the Fairy Queen this week, it hadn't been Erza who answered the door to her room in Fairy Hills, it had been a mostly naked Natsu.
As if on cue, the well-rested Dragon Slayer waltzed through the doors, already aware that all eyes were on him. He offered nothing more than a lazy grin that showed his sharp canines, knowing from the tempestuous look on Evergreen's face that a confrontation was happening.
"Don't you know," she shouted, pointing a finger at him, "That it is entirely inappropriate for someone like you to be in the Fairy Hills dormitory!?"
He yawned slightly, taking his time to consider this, "Who are you again?"
"I'm Evergreen, you saw me just this morning!" She raged.
"Really? I don't think so, I'd probably remember that." He said, pushing past her and taking residence on one of the barstools beside Cana.
The unfolding spectacle before them was interesting enough that even the usually drunk brunette was watching intently, paying no attention to the mug in her hands.
"I even turned you into a statue right before that red-haired harlot used foul trickery to beat me!" Evergreen continued.
"Ah, so that's what this is about, you've got a jealousy thing for Titania?" He asked, spinning in the chair, resting both elbows against the bar and giving Evergreen his full attention.
"Uh oh," Gray said from a table in the corner after he saw the look in Natsu's eyes. He was about to make things infinitely worse.
"What's going on?" Erza's voice called out as she entered the guild hall. For the first time since any of them could remember, she wasn't wearing her armour, but instead a long blue and white dress.
"From what I gather," Natsu answered her with a devilishly bright smile, "She has an inferiority complex towards you, probably because the only way she's ever made anyone rock hard is with her magic," he said, utterly stunning the entirety of the guild, his triumphant grin plastered across his face.
Evergreen looked at him in horror, her mouth agape and unable to move.
"Holy shit, dude," Gray said, at last, breaking the silence.
"You… I…" Evergreen managed to mumble before shutting her mouth and walking out of the guild without another word.
"That was mean," Erza frowned at him, "Shall I assume that she's the reason everyone is looking at us?"
"She came knocking this morning, I answered the door while you were still asleep, so, the obvious implication is likely why everyone is staring. Probably made it slightly worse with my retort." He said with a soft smile, greatly enjoying putting the gorgon in her place.
"Hmm," Erza hummed slightly. She was in an unusually good mood, and that only served to further stoke the whispers reaching the corners of the guildhall.
"So, rock hard, huh?" he felt Mira rest her elbows just behind him, her mouth inches from his ear.
"Rigid," he replied, leaning back slightly.
"I'm a little upset that you didn't think to let me know you were only a few doors down from me," Mira whispered before making her way across the bar.
"Why does she get off on teasing so much?" Natsu muttered, watching the silver-haired barmaid walk away. There was something different about her as well. He watched her go about her business, her hips swaying slightly more than they should.
She was ramping up the flirting, that much was clear.
"Do you have any plans for today?" Erza asked him, striking idle conversation.
"I do, as it happens, I promised Happy that I would take him fishing and it seems like such a nice day so I thought today would be the day," Natsu answered her easily.
Cana waited for her refill and left them alone, going off to pester Levy about something or other to do with Gajeel and his repeated absence from the guild.
"Let me ask you something," Natsu said, turning to face Erza now that it was only the two of them at that part of the bar. "Are you three still going to be competing with each other, or are we all going to just acknowledge each other in this?"
"Well, I can't speak for Lucy, but Mira and I have always been competing with one another, since the day we first met. I can imagine that it won't be half as serious as it used to be, but yes, I think there will still be small moments here or there where our past habits may surface." Erza replied honestly, smiling brightly at said waitress as she brought over a plate with a slice of strawberry cheesecake.
"You're pretty dedicated to the whole colour scheme, huh?" Natsu mused, greatly enjoying the look of delight across her face.
He hadn't known her for a long time, but in that time she had gone through more hardship than she had to. His feelings for her aside, he was glad that he could see her now, enjoying the small things in life like the cheesecake that was so routine for her.
"Wait a second!" Natsu lurched forward, eyes wide.
"What, what is it?" Erza looked around, thinking that they were under attack.
"At the Tower of Heaven…" Natsu slowly looked at her.
"Yes?" she asked, one eye tracking him. He knew that the other eye was perfectly pointed at him from behind the hair that fell down her face, but he doubted that magic eye could see in detail as great as the real one.
"When Jellal was being a dick and throwing his voice around, he said 'Erza Scarlett is to be sacrificed'..." Natsu looked stupified.
"He did," Erza nodded, now wondering if Natsu was having an aneurysm.
"Is…" he stopped, unable to find the right words to ask, "Is your name really Scarlett?" he asked, looking at her with a cracked expression.
"You've been here for months, how could you possibly not know what my name is?" she asked, amused by the Fire Dragon's antics.
"I'm quite often distracted by indecent thoughts whenever I speak to you," he replied smoothly. There was a flirtatious glint in his eyes but it wasn't over the top.
She gave him a sidelong look. The usual blush that cascaded across her cheeks hadn't appeared this time.
"I guess it would be hypocritical of me to scold you for that. Part of me was expecting that we'd end up…" she stopped short, letting the sentence hang in the air.
"Rolling around for hours on end? Ma'am, I wasn't aware that I would have to pay for my lodgings with my body," Natsu feigned a gasp, greatly enjoying the smile Erza gave him from that.
"Idiot," she said softly, returning her focus to the desert.
He'd been about to retort when Lucy walked through the doors, Happy flying in small circles around her as she too approached.
"Feeling better?" she asked, a genuine smile on her face.
"Much, I hijacked her bed last night, so it was nice being able to sleep in comfort rather than a cave," he answered with a smile that mirrored her own.
"Ooh," Lucy braved a wicked glance at Erza, knowing that she could get under her skin.
"It's… Not what you think?" the redhead responded, realizing how it sounded.
"Not according to Evergreen," Lucy's eyes filled with the kind of devilish mirth that was often only found in Natsu.
"That was, and I'm probably going to end up saying this a lot, but that was entirely Natsu's fault." Erza sighed, knowing that her problems with Evergreen were likely going to be ramped up tenfold after that chance encounter.
"It's Evergreen, if she said you did one thing then I would be fairly convinced that she's taking things out of context." Lucy grinned, taking a seat at the bar.
"What's on the agenda today?" the Celestial mage asked.
"Well, providing that you don't feel any different today, I was going to go fishing with Happy," Natsu told her, carefully watching her from the moment that she stepped into the guild.
"Lucy doesn't like fishing," Happy announced, not sounding glum about it. He sat on the bar near Natsu, enjoying the perpetual warmth that followed him around.
Lucy ignored the comment from her feline friend, "I feel fine, do I feel different to you?" she asked, taking a moment to look herself over.
"Yes," he told her immediately, "You smell like a Dragon," he shrugged somewhat.
"Is that bad?" she asked with a raised brow. There wasn't much she could do about that now.
"I suspect that you're only going to become aware of it if we are alone. You haven't had years to hone your senses like I have, you can't pick up a single source yet, but if you could smell what I smell…" he stopped and crossed his arms, frowning slightly while he figured out the best way to say it.
"What?" Lucy prodded.
"We probably wouldn't be wearing our clothes for very long," he answered, a slightly animalistic grin pushing through. Those sharp canines served as a solid reminder of his true nature.
"Natsu!" Erza chastised him quietly. Mira couldn't help herself, she forced herself to quickly finish cleaning shelves behind the bar so that she could come over to them. The direction their conversation was going, she couldn't stay out of it for long.
"What? You still smelled partially like a Dragon because of that lingering magic I gave you, we wore next to nothing last night," he said, turning her lustful gaze on the redhead that whom he'd shared a bed.
"OK," Mira said, putting her clothes down, "I think Evergreen might have been on to something," she said, immediately stoking the fire within Erza that rose to tint her cheeks crimson.
"I-we," Erza tried but Mira wasn't giving her any room to defend herself.
"How was it?" she asked, leaning in, "I thought I'd be the first one to lay it down, I've given him enough chances after all," the silver-haired mage teased.
"You have?" Natsu asked.
"You have?" Lucy and Erza said together, a fraction of a second after Natsu.
"For someone with the senses and instincts of a literal God, you sure do miss the more obvious things right in front of you. Better work on that, Mr. King," she blew him a sly kiss and winked before walking away from them, thoroughly rocking the boat in only a handful of sentences.
"I'm pretty sure she's just playing me," Natsu told them, though his frown said otherwise. He couldn't tell for certain.
"Whatever," he sighed, "You ready to go fishing, buddy?" he asked the flying cat.
"Aye, sir!" Happy saluted as he hopped up onto Natsu's shoulder and the two left the guild.
It had only been a matter of seconds, just until Lucy was sure that he wouldn't be able to hear her with her keen senses.
"Isn't this weird?" She immediately turned to Erza.
"The obvious?" Erza raised a brow.
"No," Lucy said quickly, "Isn't it weird how this whole thing just doesn't feel awkward?" She asked.
Erza thought about it for a moment while she finished the cheesecake, 'I suppose, though I haven't really thought about it properly." She answered with an honest shrug.
"That's probably for the best…" Lucy muttered, resting her head against a palm.
"So," she said, giving Erza that same sideye she had when she'd entered. "How was it?" She grinned.
Erza, for all the times that she'd been able to petrify Lucy with her death stares, just didn't seem capable of it anymore. Instead, it was a playful look.
"We really didn't do anything…" she shifted, looking for the right word.
"Untoward," Lucy mimicked Erza's voice as best she could, that had been the thing that wanted a glower.
"I think you'd be better off asking anyone at this point. He'd been through a lot, and while you were debriefing the master with Gray and Gajeel, he just needed some sleep." The Fairy Queen told her.
"Yeah, Gajeel told me to omit some certain details of what happened, like the fact that I'm technically a Dragon Slayer now, he said that only Natsu would be able to explain it properly," Lucy said, staring at the bar.
"Now that Natsu's gone, how do you feel?" Erza asked, turning to face her.
"Awful, everything is so loud, and I can smell absolutely everything in here. I think he underestimated how much of his magic he tried to give me, I feel everything around me. I can feel your magic, and how dwarfs some of the other mages in here." Lucy let her head sink. She was tired, she'd likely been fighting against this new way of seeing things.
"I'm sorry, I should have gotten Natsu to stay with you, he's probably the only one who can help you," Erza said shyly, feeling bad that she'd seized the opportunity she had seen yesterday.
"I don't know, he wasn't kidding about that whole attraction thing. The whole time he was sat there I was fighting not climbing over you to get to him," the Celestial slayer covered her face. She could feel the heat of her cheeks warm her hands.
"Lucy, that's probably not the worst thing that can happen in the world. You're alive, thanks to him, you should talk to him properly, you don't want to have to figure something like this out alone," the redhead told her, the sympathy clear.
"Yeah," Lucy mused for a second before looking back at her comrade, "and you still don't think this is weird?" She added.
"Not particularly. It might be weird if we end up in a slightly compromised position together, but-" Erza hadn't seen the immediate problem with her words.
"Woah!" Lucy stood, unable to let her face blush any harder, "Cannot deal with thinking about that right now, thanks for the pep talk, I'm going to gatecrash their fishing." Lucy waved over her shoulder as she left the guild, following the overwhelmingly strong scent that she knew was the Dragon King.
A/N: A handful of chapters like this one before we start the next arc. Review?