#technically Natsu is high but whatever

[aarcanechaoss]

Theory time with Higuchi!

For anyone who wants a good read and some info on Ichiyo (Natsu) Higuchi this Reddit Post was really interesting

I first want to say I have zero evidence or reasoning behind most of this shit specifically the two abilities I’m pulling out of my ass (I do still love my Flowers at Dusk theory don’t get me wrong and a lot of the Growing Pains / Child’s Play theories are beautiful). Again these are for entertainment only I have no bets on these being real LOL

1. Draining / Absorbing

2. Her word is law

Now before I get into these (1,2) I want to bring up an interesting point seen in the Reddit Post I shared.

Specifically the Mori does not punish Higuchi part- and remembering the episodes in particular he really doesn’t. At most he is disappointed in her failure and asks if “she is suited for this job.”

Now this also made me realise (again the Reddit Post mentioned this too I found after reading further) the Command Unit is in direct line to Mori just after Executives.

Meaning she is high ranked overall in the Mafia not just amongst the Black Lizard.

She is Akutagawa’s equal - role wise in the mafia.

Why?

We know she is an ability user (not what the ability is) so is she simply well connected to Mori or is she a Secret Weapon? Or both.

Somehow she had to make it to Commander level even with the lack of respect she receives (until rescuing Akutagawa but even then they still don’t treat her like a leader).

I propose an option that also has no standing or reasoning.

She’s related to the previous boss.

Someone who didn’t have a choice to have anything but a mafioso lifestyle.

A granddaughter or a great niece etc. but let’s go with grandchild for this post- a favoured one at that- which I will get to.

Yes, this would technically mean she’s been in the mafia the longest compared to many characters (Dazai, Chuuya, Akutagawa etc).

I hear your “Wouldn’t Hirotsu know then?” It’s entirely possible if she is a favoured grandchild the Boss would have only wanted certain people to know about her when she was so young plus it’s not like every grandparent shares a last name with their grandchild (he could be her mother’s father).

It’s also possible if he knew the boss had a grandkid she would have been known as Natsu not Ichiyo at the time (since that is the authors real name).

And we all know I head-cannon that our girl is naturally brunette / raven haired so of course I'm adding in more plot with the name thing. Could be just for fun, maybe it was ordered, maybe it's so the people who did know about Natsu wouldn't point her out (Mori just hiding the nepotism).

In any case if this was how Mori knew her- after digging and of course killing him it’s entirely plausible that he’d 1. Look at it as an opportunity to fuck over the guy even when he’s dead 2. She’s a valuable asset because of it.

By that I mean her family name would hold power eg. she goes by Natsu (boss last name) when Mori needs something that only her family could get him.

Or she’s incredibly powerful and he’d be an idiot to not keep her. Perhaps she hates her power and he keeps that in check- she does what he says and then she doesn’t need to use it / she doesn’t have control - because less control over that means more control over her.

It’s not like she’d be his heir or anything (though that would be a funny fic idea- people trying to fight for the next in line and Mori is just like no I have a replacement it's Higuchi).

Anyway onto my not at all reasonable Ability theories.

1. Draining / Absorbing

This one was originally a "takes abilities" theory- which has absolutely no merit being a theory at all unless for whatever reason Asagiri decides that she and Dazai have been secretly related the whole time.

In the Reddit Post OP theorises that she could paralyse her opponents using her novella Takekurabe (Comparing Heights) with the English titles Growing Up and Child’s Play as the forefront. Though I’ve seen the use of the title Growing Pains instead of Up as well.

Using OP's word's, I don't think Higuchi will have a name-based ability (eg. Beast Beneath the Moonlight or Thou Shalt Not Die) and so for this crack theory I'm also using Growing Pains / Childs Play.

I suggest that she can drain or absorb abilities instead- leaving her opponents with a dull aching because a part of them is practically gone should she drain an ability to its dredges. She could probably kill someone if she wasn’t careful and took too much.

Think Rogue from X-Men.

That would make her a formidable enemy to have and an even better secret weapon.

It would also make her just another tool like Dazai was- instead of halting an ability she practically takes it away (which is plausible if we really dug into it, but this is more she takes the power or energy involved in using the ability).

Where did this idea even come from you ask?

Honestly no clue but I was trying really hard to figure out what possible ability she could have, and I have landed on it must be powerful and this would absolutely be an ability that she would hide until necessary. It would also be a play on the novella titles instead of simply going Child's play= dolls= voodoo doll ability for example (mostly because that's kind of Q's ability) but more a play on how for some people transitioning into adulthood is draining and not as fun as when the world was too big for us.

2. Her word is Law

Okay this is also a stretch just so we are clear BUT I think it's more plausible than draining / absorbing. I don't really know which title I'd give this one because I'm leaning again to a more a non-name-based ability (eg. No Longer Human or Plum Blossom in the Snow) so for the fun of it lets call this Flowers at Dusk (Yamizakura- yes, the one I usually use in Fics).

When I say her word is law I don't mean legally speaking- think Jessica / Paul Atreides or the Reverend Mother from Dune and how they use 'the voice'.

This ability came to mind since Ichiyo Higuchi is an important figure in Japan, though it wasn't like she would be able to sway politics or anything of the like. Her works are important, the words in the stories are significant. Key word, words.

This would be a valuable power worth keeping hidden and close to the chest, she would make her way up the ranks fast with such an ability and more than likely she'd be a great asset in regard to interrogations.

Mori would absolutely keep this ability a secret and keep her close because of it. Let's play into the idea that she hates or is afraid of her ability, a power that takes away others free will or control would be hard to deal with depending on your mental fortitude or upbringing.

If she said jump you would jump, if she said kill you would kill.

She'd be the perfect secret weapon with an ability like this especially if no one else knew and she got kidnapped- whoops they didn't put on ability suppressors ...oh hey where did she go?

I feel like this is a plausible option- only because we know nothing but that she is an ability user. It would make sense for her to be closer to Mori- he'd ensure she would never use the ability on him and considering people underestimate her already it would be an uppercut of a power to have and no one (but Dazai or those who are deaf I suppose) would be able to get away from it.

We'd really have to get into the meat of this ability and flesh out weaknesses par her voice box and No Longer Human. Is it the vibrations in her voice? Does she need a key word? Can she only use it on a certain number of people at a time? Could she pinpoint who isn't going to be affected if it were with a large group.

For example- The Black Lizard get cornered, and she needs to use her ability would her yelling STOP, MOVE BACK or FREEZE (any key words really) affect Gin, Hirotsu, Tachihara or Akutagawa?

Can you tell I like this idea for an ability lol.

Well, I think this post has been long enough. Let me know your thoughts as well, which one do you like better? Do you have any theories for what Higuchi's ability could be? Which book title do you think Asagiri will choose when we get to finally see what her ability is?

[nagirambles]

Rambling about Fairies - Rhodonite Chapter 3 + 4

This spinoff probably has my favourite depiction of Gruvia. 

Juvia’s love for Gray continues to be treated as a ‘running joke’ rather than the core of Juvia’s character. After Gray’s very cute rebuttal, it’s quickly pushed aside in favour of the mission/exposition, because despite her joy at this opportunity, she does understand this job is important. She does go back into a joking mood very often, but when things are serious, she is a very competent wizard that does not cite she is ‘doing this for Gray-sama’ or whatever. 

And they even slip in a moment where she goes deadpan like ‘yeah no, Gajeel is definitely involved,’ because she’s also exasperated by the coincidence. It’s personality. It’s a subtle sprinkle of personality. 

Juvia’s role in this spinoff is mainly to accompany Gray as he does the more investigative and technical talk, but she’s still necessary here because she puts in the important parallel between her and Levy in regards to Gajeel. 

Also, she allows the story to continue feeling light and slightly humourous, not simply because of the ‘we’re on a date’ ‘NO!’ dynamic, but because this also brings back one of Gray’s forgotten personality traits...

I am talking about Gray’s part-time Tsukkomi schtick. 

Along with the advancement of Gruvia, Gray completely forgot that he was the assigned Tsukkomi when Lucy wasn’t around, and this was important because it shows him as the ‘competent and smart’ one of the group without taking away from his fun-loving side. Juvia’s the type to be exasperated in silence, which is a fun contrast to Gray’s explosive exasperation. Once again, it’s personality. it’s a sprinkle of personality between their ‘ship moment’ panels, personality that’s forgotten about in canon. 

Every time a Gruvia moment is on screen in 100yq, Gray is just the Tsundere and Juvia is just the lovestruck Gray fangirl. Whilst when Gray is with Natsu or Lucy, his loving, slightly stern big brother personality actually exists. And when Juvia is with the girls or with Gajeel, she gets up to goofy shenanigans like protecting Levy’s pursuit of love at the start of this spinoff. I miss their personalities! This spinoff literally proves that it doesn’t need to be one or the other, they can coexist!

I like it when Gruvia enriches each other as characters, instead of taking away from each other’s personality like it’s in canon. So this spinoff probably has my favourite depiction of Gruvia of all time.

That’s a bit of high praise, but my standards are just really low since canon is like that.

[entomjinx]

Flaming

Prompt: I'm not jealous.

The winter winds of Magnolia were violent and frigid, but that didn't stop Gray from pulling off his shirt and throwing it who knows where. As per usual, he was pissed at the dragon slayer he called his best friend, and as per usual, it wasn't even Natsu's fault. Despite knowing this, he couldn't help the rage that boiled beneath his skin.

From where he sat in the guild, he couldn't hear what Natsu was talking about, but his face was slightly flushed as he spoke to Lisanna and Lucy, who were both smirking. They continued to talk for several more minutes, and Natsu's face got steadily brighter and brighter. Gray had nearly jumped up and challenged Natsu just to get him away from the girls, who had to be scheming something.

"They have to be scheming something." The thought hadn't come from nothing. Lisanna had been in love with the oblivious slayer as a child, and Lucy isn't exactly subtle with the way she throws herself at him. "Why can't they just back off?"

After a while longer, Gray couldn't watch it anymore. "Hey, Ash-for-Brains," He shouted as he stood up, "I'm bored! Spar me!"

Natsu's head whipped towards him, a large smile plastered on his red face. He nearly shouted a conformation, but both of the girls he was talking with grabbed his shoulders.

"Sorry, Gray," Lucy shouted, "Natsu is a bit busy!" It took all of his willpower not to glower at the girl.

"We'll return him later," Lisanna promised.

"You'l return him later? He's not your property!" The ice mage swallowed his irritation and attempted to rationalize with himself as he turned to leave the guild. "I mean, he's not mine either, so why am I-" Gray shook his head slightly. He was already half-way home and clad in only his underwear, leaving him as exposed to the world as the reason for his actions was exposed to his mind. "Don't kid yourself, Gray. You know why you're like this."

Love was a word Gray used to hate. Not because it was a bad thing, but because everyone he'd ever associated it with had died. His mom, his dad, his childhood friends, his extended family, and his teacher were all gone, and until a few years ago, he'd have believed it was his fault.

Natsu changed that.

The pink-haired idiot had taught him that it was okay to cry, to trust in other, and to love himself, which was something that Gray had been unable to do for a long time.

"I love him, but he could never return that. Not in the same way."

Natsu was three seconds from decking both Lucy and Lisanna in the face and being done with it. They'd been bugging him for the past few hours, poking and prodding for personal information that he didn't feel like sharing. "They didn't even let me spar with Gray!"

"Come on, Natsu!" Lisanna was repeatedly poking him in the arm, desperate for an answer. "There has to be someone you like." She was smiling mischievously, and with Lucy mirroring the look, it was unnerving.

"Why won't you tell us?" Lucy was poking his other arm, effectively blocking his exit route. "It can't be that you're embarrasses are you?"

"Why," Natsu hissed out, "can't you except 'It's none of your fucking business' as an answer?" Many guild members had been watching them from a distance, curious about what was going on. Some had even made their way closer, like Mira. "Because it isn't any of your business." He made sure to bare his teeth a little more than the past few times he'd basically told them to piss off. Maybe they'd get the hint this time.

"But-"

Natsu wasn't even sure if it was Lisanna or Lucy, but he cut them off with a loud, "No," and the shoved them both away, "I'm going home. Bye, everyone." He ran over to the door and slipped out. He ran the long distance to his house, cold winds slapping him in the face and reddening it even more.

"If they found out I was in love with a guy, they'd never forgive me."

With the exception of The four dragon slayers he grew up with, Gajeel had never met anyone denser than the mages of Fairy Tail. He had listened to Lucy and Lisanna constantly prodding the annoying fire dragon he called his cousin. They had been close as children, not quite enough to call each other "brother", but that didn't mean he couldn't read Natsu like they were brothers.

The five of them had had a habit of people watching that allowed them to notice things no one else would, but something they all seemed to have in common is that they never seemed to notice anything pertaining to themselves. They used to laugh about these situations all the time, but now, it was hurting one of them. It may not be physical pain, but emotional pain was just as bad.

Gajeel sat quietly, formulating a plan, and damn was he proud of it.

"Now all I have to do is get us all in one place, at the same time, and make it look completely inconspicuous."

When Sting and Rogue had shown up claiming they wanted to hang out with the other dragon slayer like they had a children, Natsu had ridden it off as coincidence. They had stayed for a few hours and talked about everything that had happened since the dragons had left, and it had been nice. Several others had sat and listened to the stories along the way, and to Makarov's delight, not one brawl had been started,room, and the despite the fact that most all of the teenagers were in the guild's back room, together.

Then the sun started to set, and they proposed the idea of a game and brought out a special kind of alcohol. "Where did you even get that?" The pinkette asked. They had several bottles of the one kind of alcohol humans didn't sell, and it was then that Natsu started suspecting things. "Never mind, I don't want to know. Why'd you bring it though? That shit's expensive, and you can only get it from inhumans. Why waste it now?" Vodka was not sold among humans anymore, because there were so few people who could handle it, especially the higher percentage ones. However, if Natsu wanted to get drunk, he'd have to drink the higher percentage ones. His magic would burn all of it away otherwise. If he wanted it to last longer than a few minutes, then he'd have to add a special herb to it.

"The very herb that Wendy had in her hand," He noted. It worked the same way that cat-nip worked with cats but on dragons, so technically, he'd be high, not drunk.

"I see that look Natsu." Sting said annoyed, "You think we have ulterior motives." He paused, and when Natsu continued to analyze every last twitch of his body, he continued, "We don't. We just want to play a game of Never Have I Ever, and teach them how to play too."

Everyone seemed to brighten up at the thought of playing a game they'd never heard of, and the enormous grin that had been stretched across Sting's face was not helping Natsu's situation. Once Rogue pulled out the shot glasses, he knew there was no way he'd get anyone to back out of it.

With a look of utter disbelief, Natsu reluctantly agreed to play.

"Okay, so here's how the game works," Wendy began, "When it's your turn, you say 'Never Have I Ever' and then say something you've never done. If someone in the circle has done it before they down the shot." Several guild members looked at the shot glasses incredulously. They were only half the size that they were used to, and the drink inside was supposed to be flavored with whatever it said on the bottle. "Feel free to switch to water if you have to. This stuff is really strong."

Gajeel reached into his bag and pulled out a box that he passed to Wendy. "I know I don't have to say this, but you're not touching the alcohol."

Wendy's eyes lit up as she realized the box was filled with all of her favorite sodas, and she didn't hesitate to tackle the iron dragon slayer. "Thank you, Gajeel!"

He pushed her off gently and ruffled her hair, "Yeah, yeah. Let's start this thing. Never have I ever accidentally worn my underwear on the outside of my pants."

The group burst into raucous laughter. The laughing increased when Gray was the only one to take a shot and even more when he nearly spit it out. "I was not expecting it to burn like that," His voice had gone slightly hoarse, "Damn." By this point, Gray himself was laughing, and Gajeel signaled to the left at Sting.

"So for those of you who didn't get it, the weirder the thing is, the funnier the game is." When the others nodded, he giggled quietly and smirked, "Never have I ever let someone dress me up like a life-sized doll."

As soon as the words left his lips, a very violent "Fuck you," slipped out of Natsu's mouth as he snatched the shot glass and downed it like water. A few of the girls had also taken shots, but the attention was on the pinkette.

"Sorry, NaNa." Sting said joyously.

Natsu glared at him, "No you aren't, asshole." The group watched the exchange curiously, and Natsu sighed. "They'll never let me live this down." After steeling himself for the inevitable teasing, he quietly admitted to letting Wendy dress him up, play with his hair, and even put makeup on him when they were kids. While there was teasing, there were also several mentions of it being sweet of him from the girls.

"I think I still have pict-" Sting was abruptly cut off when a wooden sandal hit him in the face.

Natsu was smiling, but it seemed to be emitting it's own deadly aura. "No you don't," He said cheerfully. Those sitting closest to the fire dragon slayer, Gray, Lucy, Lisanna, and Erza, all shifted away slightly.

"That's terrifying."

The game had been going on for an hour now. Several of them had switched to water, and a handful had dropped out entirely, choosing to watch the chaos in their tipsy states. Cana, Gajeel, Rogue, Lucy, Lisanna, and Natsu were the only one's who hadn't switched to water or been given a soda from Wendy. Wendy, Erza, Levy, and Gray had all switched to water.

And Sting?

Sting was a lightweight and completely unconscious in Rogue's lap.

"Nev-Never have I ever," Lucy had gotten the hiccups about three shots in, and they wouldn't leave no matter what she did, "Had a cr-ush on a childhood friend."

Rogue, Lisanna, Erza, Levy, Gray, and surprisingly Natsu, all downed a shot. After the second never have I ever, they'd decided to tell the stories of whatever had happened, and for the most part, it had gone peacefully.

That wasn't the case this time. Lisanna shouted "I told you so," and immediately attached herself to Natsu, who began pushing her away the second she made contact with him. "You jealous?"

"I am n-ot jealous, and that doesn't m-ean anything!," Lucy shouted back, "He mi-ght not any more!" She reached out to shove Lisanna away, but Erza got in between both of then and Natsu.

"What's this about?" The red-head asked.

They both replied in perfect sync, "I like Natsu, but she likes Natsu, but we don't know who Natsu likes." They both looked like they were about to cry, and they reached for the fire mage again.

He was laughing softly, and the entire room looked at him like he'd lost it. He started to laugh louder and louder, and the two girls who'd been crushing on him began to get angry. Through his laughter he said something in a language they'd only heard a few times, Dravic. The other slayers busted into drunken giggles as well, and the fire mage lit himself on fire, making them laugh harder.

Erza, not wanting to see her friends hurt, glared at the slayer nearest to her, which happened to be Gajeel. "What part of this is funny?" She hissed.

He looked her dead in the eyes, his own filled with mirth, "Erza," He barked out with his laughter, "Erza," He continued to laugh before managing to forcing the sentence out, "He's flaming." The dragon slayers laughed harder.

Natsu dispersed the flames and unintentionally leaned back into Gray, who was behind him. He leaned forward again, face flushed slightly, and apologized half in Fiori and half in Dravic. Gray waved off the apology, and since he was drunk and no one was looking, he decided to pull the fire mage back into him, cuddling in when Natsu didn't move away.

Everyone's eyes were still glued to Erza, who was steadily getting more and more pissed off.

"And what exactly," Erza growled out, "Does that have to do with anything?"

Wendy stepped in between her "cousin" and Titania, choosing to explain before Erza decided to castrate him. "He translated a slang phrase from Dravic," She said gently. She placed her hands on Erza's shoulders and took a deep breath, "He's gay." Erza continued to stare at her blankly, "As in, he likes guys."

"I know what gay means, Wendy," the redhead replied quietly, "I'm just trying to wrap my head around it being used to describe Natsu, as it's not something I expected." She shook her head gently. "Or maybe I'm just tipsier than I thought..." She added. Everyone had cracked up again. After the laughter had died down, she made a humming noise. "It's... It's like being handed a piece of strawberry cake that looks just like strawberry cake, but when you take a bite of it, it's chocolate. There's nothing wrong with chocolate, you're just surprised it's not what you thought it was."

The room silenced, only for the one who started this mess to break it, "We're too shit-faced for this right now," Gajeel muttered. Those who hadn't passed out laughed, and once that died down, people began to sleep where they were. On a table, upside down, or in someone's lap.

The first thing Erza saw when she wake up confused her, until she remembered everything she found out the day before. Natsu was curled up in Gray's lap, dead asleep, and the ice mage was gazing at him adoringly, clearly still mostly asleep.

At that moment she understood that the reason she didn't see it had nothing to do with it not being there, but rather the fact that neither dared to show it. She didn bother to question it any further.

"I could get used to seeing them this happy."

Words: 2,606

[honeypirate]

Superpowers I Like

An ongoing list of superpowers i like. most from superpower wiki, the stuff in () are my thoughts, the rest from the website’s linked. sometimes powerlisting changes the names so if the link doesnt work let me know ad i’ll update. 

Let me know if you use any and tag me in the fics you write!

Geometric Physiology

Transform yourself or objects into any shape

Universal Irreversibility

Ability to render an action impossible to be stopped, blocked, manipulated, and reversed

Talpidae Physiology

can mimic/transform into talpids, including the moles, shrew moles, desmans, and other intermediate forms of small insectivorous mammals.

Earth Weaponry

can create or wield weaponry with power over earth, which grants the user a wide variety of earth-based abilities

Transcendent Demonic Mage Physiology

The power to use the abilities of demon of godly arcane powers.

Tooth Fairy Physiology

Can transform into and perform acts the tooth fairy does. (Rip out the teeth of your enemies. control every tooth in the room. could also be strengthened to control bone? maybe?)

Psychic Food Manipulation

The ability to manipulate psychic food/edible substances. (technically, animals are edible, people technically.. like this has so much room for creativity)

Contact Force Defiance

can ignore contact forces, forces that require contact with something, like a surface of the ground or an object. They can defy contact forces and not need to make contact with the surface, or interact with objects from a distance without touching them. Like magnets that don’t want to touch.

Life Connection

User is connected to any/all life and living things, so that as long as they exists life does as well. This allows them to have both an emotional and spiritual link to every form of life, so if the target feels pain or is injured all living things would feel the same pain and/or possibly gain the same wounds as the user. If the user ever dies or is killed then life itself may cease to exist as well. Reader needs a bodyguard??

Fine Interaction

The user can interact with anything that that is microscopic, no matter how small it may be, allowing the user to interact with them as if they were objects or surfaces, possibly even causing macroscopic effects if skilled. This can include viruses, diseases, microbes, atoms, molecules, particles, superstrings, etc. reader is a heart surgeon.

Snake Den 

The user can project numerous snakes from their body to eject poison into the target, project snakes as projectiles to attack or otherwise send them to the target.

Chi Manipulation

The user can create, shape, and manipulate chi. By learning to harness this inner latent energy, they can gain superhuman capabilities and use them in cases of extreme combat. Some examples include physically manifesting all of their inner strength and unleashing it through sheer force of will

Dimensional Storage

The user can put items/beings into a separate dimension for safekeeping and can summon them back with relative ease.(I really like this one)

Liquid Transmutation

User can transform any/all liquids, whether organic or inorganic, into any other fluid/liquid and change a liquids inherent properties such as turning water into acid or even make something like soda poisonous. Any liquids transformed by this power would have all the properties of the liquid they become.

Replication

User can instantly and perfectly replicate themselves and/or targets which can be objects or living beings, numerous times, while usually being able to recombine the clones. Most users have both of these abilities (if subconsciously), copying their clothes/equipment along with their body. Original target will normally be able to maintain control over all copies.

Reactive Adaptation

Users can either instantly develop powers or abilities to deal with threats or their bodies dynamically learn from experience. Depending on the user's control of the power or genetic structure, the reactive effects can be permanent or temporary.

Self-Sustenance

Users physical needs are greatly reduced or completely removed. These needs include air/breathing, sleep/rest, food, drink, bodily evacuations, shelter from environmental effects and their lack (heat/cold, dryness/wetness), etc. The user is also able to stay immobile without the normal effects this would have.

Technology Manipulation

User can create, shape, and manipulate technology and technological constructs, computers, robots, hardware, and other devices that can be termed as "technology." Manifested as a special form of electrical/telekinetic manipulation, a special form of "morphing" which allows physical interaction with machines, or even a psychic ability that allows mental interface with computer data.

User can control the flow of intricate machinery, and assemble or disengage their programming at will and operate most technology at distance. A variation of Electricity Manipulation, they control specific electrons and instructs them which items to engage or disengage and may be able to use the electric impulses to gently control smaller metal parts

Matter Ingestion

The user can eat any substance without harmful effects, regardless of what they consume. They can consume matter in any form - solid, liquid or gas.

(maybe what they eat gives them energy, maybe like how Natsu can eat flames?)

Persuasion

can compel people by speaking, the victims are unable to disobey; the seemingly cogent commandment is far too compelling. At a high level, users can persuade people into hurting/killing themselves or even flip around sense of logic, but can never cause victims to achieve what they are not capable of. 

(maybe user has to work up and strengthen it to be able to persuade peoples to do bigger things)

Anatomical Liberation

User can split their own body apart into pieces and control the said pieces however they wish, by levitating them away from the user's main body and using them as they were connected to the user.

User is immune to cutting and being slashed because they can just pull their bodies back together again. They can also remove their own organs without dying and will neither bleed to death nor die if their brain or heart is removed.

Omnilingualism.

User can speak, write, understand and communicate in any language, including computer codes, languages they have never been heard before, sign language (even lip-reading), illegible words, and backwards speech and writing with little or no training. The user may even communicate with non-human animals or read body language.

Item duplication

user is able to mimic and replicate the objects of others around oneself, and be able to use those objects as one's own.

Darkness Manipulation

User can create, shape and manipulate darkness and shadows. By itself, darkness is mostly used to cloud everything into total darkness, but by accessing a dimension of dark energy it can be channeled to a variety of effects, both as an absence of light and a solid substance: one can also control and manipulate the beings that exist there, create and dispel shields and areas of total darkness, create constructs and weapons, teleport one's self through massive distances via shadows, etc.

Density Manipulation

User can manipulate density, which is defined as mass per unit of volume. This allows them to alter solidity, change the size of substances, create or destroy matter/mass in a volume, change inertial resistance (mass), make things intangible, either strengthen or weaken gravity, concentrate or expand matter, or create pressure differences in a fluid (gas, liquid, plasma) to induce a current and possibly use it to move solids.

Some users might even be able to control electrical charge density, which is the amount of electric charge per unit volume. This would, in turn, enable them to manipulate electromagnetic fields. Control over population density might also be possible for some users as well.

Luck

The user is gifted with an automatic and continuous supply of good luck, most have no control over this power as things considered "lucky" randomly and unexpectedly happens to them despite any predestined fate or logical reason. Ergo, nothing bad will happen or if it does, their power will sort it out no matter how impossible the situation is or how high the odds are against them, allowing the user to always be in complete context in whatever situation they are, be free to do as they please without consequences, and be untouched and ineffective to the laws of causality.

All aspects of user's life improve drastically: work, social, romantic, personal, financial, school, and basically life as a whole would become easier, happier, and would excel altogether.

Paralysis Inducement

Users can immobilize the target completely or partially, causing them to be left without movement and sensation. Making motor functions and muscle movement unavailable, the victim may freeze on the spot or crumple to the ground.

Pain Infliction

Pain Infliction is the ability to inflict horrible pain on others with the mind. It is triggered by pointing one's hand at a target, who will be overwhelmed with pain. The pain is described as a thousand tiny blades stabbing the brain. The pain will instantly vanish once the user loses concentration.

Prehensile Muscles

User can make their muscles stretch/extend and hold/manipulate objects like an extra limb. (could be like tendrils)

Liquid Mimicry

user can morph their body into a liquid state, is made up of or can transform their body completely into liquid substances. A user's transformed form is anatomically identical to their normal form, aside of being made of liquid, in which case it contains all to organs and is somewhat vulnerable to attacks. Alternately the user can transform into homogeneous matter, without any part of their form being more important than the other.

Animal Morphing

User with this ability either is or can transform into animals, whether partially or completely, as well as use the abilities, traits and appearance/physiology of animals by rearranging their own DNA structure. They are able to transform into animals that exist, alien animals and/or animals that are extinct, such as Dinosaurs.

User may have this ability from an empty genetic code, allowing them to accept any form from which they have a DNA sample, others may be able to alter their form mentally and change just by seeing and mimicking animal features.

Life-Force Absorption

The user can absorb life-force/energy, vitality and health, while removing it from the source, into their body and use it in various ways, gaining some form of advantage, either by enhancing themselves, gaining the drained power, using it as power source etc., either temporarily or permanently.

Weapon Hands

User can transform parts of their body to form a weapon of their choice onto their hands and forearms, possibly their biceps, triceps, and shoulders.

Vision Manipulation

The user has complete control over the vision of oneself and others. They can enhance, reduce or remove them temporarily or permanently, protect them from being overwhelmed, cause the target to see things that aren't there or prevent them from seeing things that are, cause/remove sensory ailments, etc.

Tactile Teleportation

User can teleport objects and/or beings through physical contact, the user can transfer them to any location they desire as long their in physical contact with the object/being

Disease Manipulation 

The user can create, manipulate, shape, transform, cause/heal, etc. all forms of diseases, including their severity, contagiousness, methods of spreading, etc. They can control the organisms that spread diseases, including germs, bacteria, virus, or other pathogens on a cellular level, including bacteriophages, microorganisms (microscopic organisms), retroviruses, cells that abnormally grow to make cancerous tumors and cysts, and pathogens that produce genetic mutations

Morality Manipulation

The user can manipulate morality, making people ethically good or immorally evil by psychically kindling the targets’ minds so that they succumb to the voice of truth or to the urge of sin. The victim may feel the calling of the Almighty or some other cosmic force of good or succumb to all inner sins. The effect may expire, but that may be years after the evocations.

Dream Manipulation

User can create, shape, enter and manipulate the dreams of oneself and others, including modifying, suppressing, fabricating, influencing, manifesting, sensing, and observing dreams as well as nightmares, daydreams, etc., possibly including past ones. They can produce and modify dreams, bestow nightmares or lucid dreaming, entrap people in REM, and promote spiritual/emotional healing within dreams.

In some cases, user's power extends to the real world, such as wounds inflicted on a sleeping victim, healed damage (mental or physical) affecting the physical form, and other wise blurring the line between waking and dream. They may be able to pull someone from the waking world into the dream world or brings people/things from the dream world into the waking world.

[sunnywritesstuff34]

Working

hello! It is time for more Boruto AU, with Sasuke this time! @ghostjellyfishheart was excited for this, so enjoy lmao. I apologize in advance for this. Just. Disregard the choppy transitions. Tune in next whenever for Boruto being incredibly confused by Sasuke and trying to figure out how to adjust to living in his house. It’s incredibly awkward. Can’t wait. 

(TW and CW for: unconsciousness, coma, critical injuries, tired Sasuke Uchiha, angry Boruto, probably ooc Kakashi and like six other ooc people, death, parental death, possible parental death, cursing, the Uchiha Massacre, one night stands, Sasuke is trying very hard okay he’s doing his best, both of them are good dads because I wanted them to be okay?)

Sasuke Uchiha was angry. No, scratch that, he wasn't angry, he was pissed. He was furious. He was beyond angry, he had reached the peak of anger and transcended to another plane, and that was something he didn't even think possible. For starters, it's not like his day was going well to begin with. Kakashi had stuck him with way too much to do, endless goddamn paper work. Apparently sharingan was mostly for battle, because it really didn't do shit when it came to focusing. And it's not like his paperwork wasn't important, it was. He had to review a series of reports from high profile shinobi on their teams and the work of their teammates, so and so and so and so, it was always something. 

In all honesty, he had signed up for this. Well, okay, he didn't sign up for it, but he agreed to it. After Naruto’s disappearance Sasuke was just about ready to throw himself into as many dangerous situations as far from Konoha as possible, but no. He didn't know whose idea it was, maybe Tsunade’s, maybe Sakura’s, maybe Kakashi came up with it all on his own, whatever. Now he was working as Kakashi’s right hand man (and shadow in a lot of ways) and, in his own word’s, the Hokage’s “Don't Be Stupid And Callous And Hurt People For The Greater Good Because It Really Didn't Go Well Last Time” reminder. He really was doing good work, he caught multiple oversights and made sure to hold Kakashi to his word about the decline of execution, especially for missing-nin. He nearly punched Ibiki in the nose about sixteen times for being ridiculous, but what the hell did he expect? Changing things on a fundamental level and rebuilding at the same time were hard, it was pretty tempting to fall back on old methods. It was largely Sasuke’s job to prevent that from happening, and he was really good at doing it without murdering anyone, surprisingly (though he came close a couple of times.) The destruction of the Foundation was extensive and incredibly difficult, and it was surprising to pretty much everybody except for Sasuke just how deeply corrupted the village was. They were also changing up Anbu, though that was still an ongoing process. Sai helped quite a bit in the destruction of the Foundation, and helped develop some sort of rehabilitation for people indoctrinated into it like him. He was very passionate about it, something that Sasuke totally understood. It was personal. 

All things considered, there were two reasons that Sasuke didn't cut and run as soon as Naruto wasn't around to keep him anchored any more. The opportunity for bettering Konoha and the shinobi world as a whole and… well… Sarada. Sasuke and Sakura had Sarada around the same time that Naruto had Boruto with Hinata (say that ten times fast) albeit in a less… graceful manner. Naruto and Hinata had a child after getting married due to mutual affection, and Sasuke and Sakura had a child because of… well, a one night stand. 

In hindsight, though it hadn't worked out with Sakura, he was grateful to have Sarada. She was a sort of anchor that kept him from running yet again, especially seeing as Sakura was busy running the hospital/teaching the next generation of medical nin/finding new techniques for medical advancement and health/going on a mission every once in a while. She was also, you know, his daugther, and he loved her. Sakura’s parents had a fit when they found out, and they had an even bigger fit when they realized that the two of them weren't getting married any time soon. If Sakura had decided that a marriage was best, Sasuke likely would have gone along with that. What else was he supposed to do? It wouldn't be fair to her, especially in the eyes of traditional families and clans. Sakura, of course, was having none of that, and Sasuke was incredibly relieved. Sasuke had raised his daughter for the most part, and he loved her more than anything, but it was clear to anyone with eyes that Sasuke Uchiha wasn't necessarily the image of “perfect father.” At first, he thought of Sarada as an ambiguously important responsibility, as cold as that sounded. But then she was born, and she had legs and arms and a brain and feelings, so of course he became attached. Actually, she was sixteen at that point, and she had become an excellent kunoichi. In fact, she was taking the jounin exams soon, which Ashina might be too if Naruto had stayed. Speaking of Naruto…

Sasuke had no idea why he was surprised. It seemed that no matter where Naruto was or how many years it had been since they'd seen each other, he would always, always be a pain in the ass. That would never change. Of course Naruto would show up with his children in the Forest of Death. Of course he would do it while Sasuke was swamped with work and trying to help his daughter prepare for the exams. Of course, of course, of course. Not that he was complaining (he was), at least not in the long run. It was better that Naruto come back eventually, but twelve entire years? That was a long time. A very long time, with no explanation. Just to show how thoroughly Sasuke was swamped, he heard the news in the middle of an incredibly important meeting with the daimyo and Kakashi. That didn't stop him from rushing to the hospital anyway, but it was inconvenient. Whatever, Kakashi (the damn slacker) would probably survive without him. Ino arrived distressed and covered in blood, only to deliver the message of a lifetime. Kakashi pretended not to care, especially since he was in the middle of a meeting and Naruto was technically a missing-nin. But he did care, obviously, he was just very good at compartmentalizing. Sasuke was too, but Naruto and Sarada seemed to be the only exceptions to this rule. So, he took off without explanation and rushed like hell to the hospital, because Ino said that Naruto had been in critical condition. The idiot always managed to get hurt somehow, but if he died before Sasuke got to chew him out for vanishing, he would resurrect the bastard so he could pound him into the dirt. Or hug him and never let go. It was a toss up, either one. Sasuke’s chakra was flashing dangerously, and it made everyone around him nervous, but at this point he could care less. The Uchiha opened the doors to the hospital and rushed to the front desk, but he was intercepted by an exhausted looking Ino.

“Where is he?” Sasuke blurted, and she glared at him momentarily.

“I'll tell you where, but it's not that simple Sasuke, you can't just rush in there-”

“Tell me where he is,” Sasuke growled. 

“Sasuke-”

“Ino why can't you just-”

“Sasuke Uchiha!” she shouted in a way that sounded suspiciously like the few memories he had of his mother. He blinked. “Would you listen to someone for once in your entire goddamn life? God, you're just as frustrating as Sakura said you were. Naruto is stable for now, but he’s in comatose. Hopefully he’ll survive. But his kids are sitting in the room with him, and if you storm in there all furious, you'll scare the shit out of them. If you have to go in there, do it slowly and calmly. And Shikamaru says they go by Boruto and Himawari, not Ashina and Natsu. They must have changed their names at some point. Either way, you need to calm down.” Sasuke paused, because (damn her) Ino was right. He had to calm down. He was pretty threatening on his own, but to these kids, who were already worried about their father? He collected himself briefly as Ino sighed. “He’s asleep in room 306. Please be careful.” 

“Thanks, Ino,” he managed before practically launching himself past her. Just before he turned down the hall, he paused. “And Ino,” he called over his shoulder. “If Neji comes by… tell him to go to hell.” With that he was off. The room wasn't hard to find, and he threw the door open. It was a private room, no other beds except the one where Naruto lay. He sucked in a breath when he saw him, because it had been so long and frankly the man looked terrible. His breathing was shallow and he was way too pale, but he was alive. God, he was alive, at least he was alive. Sasuke could hardly believe it. Naruto was alive, and he was here. He was so caught up in his own head that he didn't notice the two children sitting by the door until he turned around to face them. He froze in place as an awkward silence settled, and the first thing he could think was oh my god, he looks just like him. Ashina- no, Boruto, looked just like Naruto used to, he was nearly identical except for Boruto’s eyes being a slightly lighter shade of blue. There was a girl sitting next to him that looked alarmingly like Hinata, and she was watching him with more curiosity than defensive aggression like her brother. 

“And who the hell are you?” Boruto demanded. Sasuke blinked. 

“I um. I am an old friend of Naruto’s. I- I had to see him. My name’s Sasuke Uchiha.” 

“Boruto- Boruto Namikaze,” the kid explained begrudgingly. Sasuke sat down in one of the chairs against the wall, a few away from Boruto and Himawari so that Boruto could watch him from a safe distance. He’d picked up a thing or two about skittish children in his time, and he figured the best course of action was to remain passive until Boruto let down his guard. Like an unruly cat that hisses whenever you get too close to it. 

“What… what happened?” Sasuke asked, trying to start a conversation in a totally subtle way. Boruto winced and hesitated, almost looking… guilty.

“We got ambushed. That's all. He tried to keep us safe and it didn't… It's complicated.”

“Ah,” Sasuke muttered. “Right. Naruto is my friend, I've known him since we were kids. He’s always one for reckless endeavors.”

“Sometimes,” Boruto conceded. “I guess. He’ll… he’ll be okay. He has to be.”

“He will,” Sasuke assured him before he could stop himself. “He’s strong. Sakura Haruno is one of our top medical nin, she's not here right now, but she should be back from her mission soon, and she especially will be when she knows that Naruto is here. He's very important to us.” Boruto glanced over at him, tearing his eyes from his father. 

“How did you know him?” he asked tentatively. Sasuke smiled without realizing it. 

“He's my best friend. We went to the academy together, we fought in the Fourth Shinobi War. He was always there. He’s important to all of us, before he… before he left.” Boruto looked away nervously. 

“Right,” he muttered. “Of course, that makes… that makes so much sense. I mean, I always wondered how he learned ninjutsu, I guess- I guess it makes sense for him to be from a Hidden Village. I just never…” Sasuke stared at him for a moment.

“He never told you?” Boruto shook his head and traded a glance with Himawari. 

“No. He never talked about anything from before we were born. I never asked because it just… made him sad, I guess. I didn't like making him think about it.” Sasuke nodded numbly. Did he regret it, he wondered silently. Did he regret leaving? Did he ever think about coming back? The door opened just then and Boruto tensed again, whipping his head to the door. Kakashi stood in the doorway with Sai behind him. 

“Hello. It seems Sasuke made it here first.” Boruto eyed him warily, moving closer to his sister. Kakashi took one look at the bed and then looked away, trying to not think about it for the time being. He turned his attention to Boruto instead.

“Well Boruto Namikaze, it looks like we have a lot to talk about. But it's been a long day for you two, and I think we’d best keep the hard conversations for tomorrow, hm?” Boruto must have read that as a threat because he bristled at the words, and Sasuke silently wondered how, despite years and years and years of experience, Kakashi never got any better at learning how to speak to children. Sai watched pensively, like an owl, tilting his head. Sasuke could understand Boruto’s nerves, especially considering the company he was in. Sasuke silently cursed Sakura for leaving at the worst time possible, but he knew it wasn't her fault. 

“You should try and get some sleep tonight, we’ll probably have more information on Naruto’s condition in the morning. Don't worry, Sasuke’s house is comfortable.” Sasuke shot to his feet.

“What?” he demanded. Kakashi looked at him lazily.

“Oh yeah, sorry about that. I think it'd be best for the two of them to stay with you for the time being. You have a child of your own, and lord knows I wouldn't trust anybody else to do it. Sorry Sasuke, I promise i'll pay you overtime. I can have somebody else handle your paperwork for a few weeks.” Sasuke blinked as the children looked between the man and his teacher. Finally, the Uchiha gritted his teeth.

“Of course, Hokage-sama,” he growled. “It would be an honor.” Kakashi nodded.

“See? It's not that complicated. I have business to attend to, I'll have a conversation with you tomorrow, Sasuke.” With that he was gone, and Sasuke found himself alone with two children. Two. he had his hands full with one, and now he would have to take care of three. And they were Naruto’s children, lord only knows what they would get up to. 

“Um,” Sasuke started. “I… I suppose… we should go… home.” Boruto hesitated before standing, tossing one glance over his shoulder at his father before walking out the door. Please wake up soon, Naruto Sasuke thought silently. But there were a few things Sasuke didn't realize at the time, and wouldn't for weeks. Naruto wouldn't be waking up, at least, not at first. 

Kyuubi would. 

[clumsyracconking]

a villain

Ch.11 (1105 words)

Damn, 3am me when I was writing this really just said fuck the ship, well whatever happens happens I guess, imagine Dabi sitting there listening to Hatef--k by The Bravery while he’s thinking about Hawks. On a side note I suddenly realize the monster that I call a fanfic I’ve created.

Tags: @rachi-roo-bnha @imacowboy3 @magical-girl-04

Dabi had nothing to do other than sit with his thoughts, he was wishing he hadn’t kicked Hawks out because at least Hawks could fill the space a bit, or they could fuck, either way, when it was just Dabi the place felt empty and lonely. 

“Knock knock bitch.” Shoto said barging into Dabi’s apartment without having actually knocked, he was covered in soot, “I’m using your shower because Toga’s works weird.” 

“I- yeah ok go for it kid.” Dabi wasn’t going to tell Shoto that all of the showers in the building worked weird, he’d figure it out at some point. He did wonder why his brother was covered in soot but that was explained when he got a text with a video file from Hawks. “I know you don’t want to talk to me but figured you might want to see this.” And God Hawks was right, he did want to see that it was kind of awesome.

--

“Hey Shig I need to talk to you and tell you about something.” Hawks was down at the bar for the first time in a while.

“The fuck do you want kfc.” Shigaraki knew about his new recruit who had recently been offed and was pissed but would still hear the bird out.

“I want to start working for you again, this whole solo thing isn’t working out. I want to wreak some more havoc and the most effective way to do that is to join you.” Hawks had a very matter of fact tone when he spoke knowing Shigaraki rather that than a ‘clueless NPC’ in his words.

“You and patchwork are having issues aren't you.” Shigaraki said he didn't ask because he knew they were. He motioned to Kurogiri to pass them some glasses and booze, they were in for a long night.

--

In the end Hawks and Shigaraki ended up getting hammered and playing video games. The next morning the two were found leaning on each other, controllers in their laps.

“Oh my fuck.” Toga gasped seeing Hawks and Shigaraki, she had to take a picture of this and that’s exactly what she did and then went to show Shoto it’s not like he would really get it but she couldn't exactly show Dabi, she knew something was up with them.

“Young Hawks I advise you to move before he wakes up.” Kurogiri said tapping Hawks on the shoulder in efforts of waking him up, spoiler alert it didn’t work. Kurogiri even went to check his pulse to be sure Hawks wasn’t dead. He wasn't, just really tired. So the misty man gave up, he’d separate them if it got bad.

Shigaraki woke up first, feeling the added weight of Hawks on his side. “You smell like stale cigarettes kfc, you know that right.”

“I’m aware, exquisite observation.” He deadpanned not opening his eyes, if Shigaraki was going to kill him he would've done it already so he wasn't worried.

“Very well.” Shigaraki said putting a gloved hand on Hawks’ head, contrary to popular belief the two didn’t hate each other's company.

“So did we ever actually get to the question you asked me or did we just drink and game?”

“We drank an’ gamed most of the night I think, I gotta say I have missed having a challenge when I game though. Dabi is shit and Toga doesn't really get the controls.” Hawks said eyes still closed and pushing into the hand that was resting on his head.

“What about the youngest Todoroki kid? How's he play?” Shigaraki asked with a grin on his face.

“Oh you mother fucker, you knew?” Hawks’ eyes shot open, when he spoke he left it vague so Shigaraki could fill in what he knew there were a lot of Todoroki secrets that he could know.

“That you’ve been harboring the youngest and that Dabi is the oldest, yeah I knew it’s really not that hard to figure out, plus that time you all got really high the youngest came down and grabbed like two bottles from Giri, he’s still pissed about that by the way.” Shigaraki was just playing with Hawks’ hair at this point and speaking in a calm tone which is something he only ever did around Hawks and once or twice around Toga when she didn’t feel well and he only did that because he knew no one would believe her.

“Damn, well technically I wasn’t harboring him just somewhat housing him. Yeah no, don’t even tell me that sounds like bullshit I already know.”

“As long as you know kfc. We should get up at the very least move though.”

“You right, you right but I wish you weren't because I’m comfy.”

--

“So why'd you get upset with Hawks yesterday? And why did you say it was a conversation for us to have later?” Shoto really didn’t understand beating around the brush or small talk, he and Dabi were sitting around because he didn't like being alone and Toga had gone out, Hawks was nowhere to be found so he settled for Dabi.

“Fucking christ, I don’t know how to say this.” Dabi found it frustrating when he couldn't articulate his thoughts and now really wasn't the time.

“That seems like a you problem bro.”

“God the last person who called me bro was Natsu. Well damn guess that works too.” Dabi hadn’t meant to say it like that, kind of anticlimactic really.

“Did I just hear you right?” 

“Yeah Sho you did. It’s me, I'm Touya but emo.” Dabi added the last bit in attempts to lighten the mood a bit, it wasn't effective.

“Oh you mother fucker, God Fuyumi would fucking kill you, hell I want to kill you.” Shoto wasn’t mad but he wasn’t happy, more irritated and sad really. After a few moments of silence Shoto spoke again, “I remember that night you know, watching you leave. You said you’d be back soon and that it was our secret. All hell broke loose in the morning, Natsuo and Fuyumi were in hysterics for hours, Natsuo was never the same and Fuyumi basically became a mum for all of us, even cooking for father.” Dabi knew all of this, he hadn’t truly left, he still came by often, he just stuck to the shadows and the roofs so no one would know.

“I’m gonna go for a bit, I need a second.” Shoto murmured to himself and got up with his hand on the door. He looked back at his older brother, “I’m glad to have you back.” Before walking out and going to sit alone wishing he’d chosen to do that in the first place.

[cutesuki--bakugou]

Pushover

A conversation that may or may not have happened between Bakugou and his daughter Natsuki during Koge’s birthday party, written out in the story titled Birthday. 

Main Pairing: Bakugou x Koge (OC)

Featured Characters: Kirishima x Nene (OC), Matsuki (OC) x Otoha (OC), Natsuki (OC) x Mimiyuki (OC) Seijirou (OC) x Dokuji (OC) ,Daiki (OC), Atsuki (OC), Serina (OC)

Rating: Teen Warnings: Cursing, alcohol Genre: Fluff / Domestic / Family Words: 1660

Natsuki let out a heavy sigh as she flopped down to sit next to her father, letting her arm rest around the back of the couch behind him. “How’s it hangin’, Daddy-o? Worlds best Dad? Coolest Dad in the Univer-” 

“What do you want, Natsuki.” Bakugou grumbled as he kept his eyes on his phone, currently scrolling through his pictures as he was looking for something particular that Koge had asked for a few moments ago. With a huff, Natsuki pulled her legs up onto the couch, glowering at the phone as it was keeping most of his attention that she was trying to receive. 

“Just because I come up to you doesn’t mean I want something Daddy, I was just coming to hang out with you. You looked lonely over here all by yourself.” She moved some of her hair out of her face, leaning her cheek against his shoulder. “Why do you think so negatively all the time?” 

Bakugou locked his phone, taking a second to put it into his pocket as searching for the picture would require more of his time than what he had at the moment. “Natsu, I know you. If you come up to me, and try to butter me up first thing, then you want something.” 

“That’s not always true. But-” 

“But?” 

“-Today it is true. I do want something.” A wide grin crossed her lips as Bakugou rolled his eyes, turning her body more to face him. “But it’s not for me!” 

“Not for you, huh?” Bakugou leaned forward to grab his drink off the table, thinking that he would require alcohol for whatever request she was going to have. Natsuki was his baby girl, and he would do anything in the world for her. Within reason, of course. Still, he had a tendency to crack and give her whatever she wanted, even if he did make her work for it by either paying him back or helping him do things that required assistance. “Go on, then.” 

After a quick glance around to make sure no one was within earshot, Natsuki kept her voice low, nearly whispering to him. “I want to throw a retirement party for Uncle Seiji.” Her statement made Bakugou cock his eyebrow at first, a bit surprised that she would want to take on such a daunting task. “Will you help me?” 

“Like… Just with us, or a formal party?” 

“No, I want it to be huge! He had always talked about it, where we have a formal like… ceremony where he hands off the company to me. But Uncle Doey said he may not be able to do all the planning and stuff with his injury, and Serina is so focused on college it’s hard for her to do much. I really want to plan it for him!” Natsuki took her father’s arm, giving him a small shake in excitement. “You know so many people that he does, you could help me invite them and stuff!” 

“Are you sure he’d want this?” Bakugou glanced over at Seijirou, who was currently chatting happily with Serina and Koge. “You don’t think it would be overwhelming for him?” 

“No way, I think he’d love it. I wouldn’t want it to be a surprise, I’d keep him in the loop, make sure he’s comfortable with everything. I just want to do it for him, make sure he gets the official send off that he deserves. You know he’s been kind of… abandoned by the hero community, after everything he’s ever done, it’s like he doesn’t matter anymore. Or that’s what he thinks. I want to show him that’s not true.” 

Bakugou gave a soft grunt in agreement, looking down into his cup as he considered it. Sure, Seijirou had always irritated him, from the very first moment he met the man back in High School. But, his wife and children adored him, and it was true that Seijirou had done so much for them all. In particular, Seijirou had pushed Natsuki to become the strong woman that she was, taking the fact that she was quirkless and turning it into something truly amazing. So, with a nod, he turned his gaze to look at his daughter, who was already beaming. “Alright, Natsu. I’ll help you.” 

“Really?!” Natsuki bounced in her spot, though she stopped abruptly as Bakugou struggled to keep his drink from spilling. “Oh shit, sorry! You really mean it, though?” 

“How could I say no? As long as you’re sure he’s on board with it. I don’t want to plan and pay for a bunch of shit just for him to be a bummer about it all. Get his approval first-- Not right now! Damn, Natsu, breathe.” Bakugou had to snatch her by the wrist and pull her back to sit, making her squeak in surprise from the way he jerked her back. 

Although she was annoyed at first, a thoughtful expression came over her face, huffing as she sunk down into the couch. “Hm, you’re right. This is Mama’s night, I should wait.” 

“Good choice. He’s still not retiring for another two years, right?” 

“Well, he’ll technically retire whenever, but I think he wanted to wait until I was twenty five to hand the company over to me completely. I just think it would be good to start planning early! You know him, he’ll want it to be extra extravagant and invite a whole bunch of people.” 

“Sounds fucking awful.” 

“Hey, I’ll be the one who’s judged the whole night and criticized on if I’m worthy or not. You’ll have to let me kick your ass to prove it to everyone.” 

Bakugou scoffed, taking a hefty swig from his drink. “Natsuki, no matter how much I love you, I am never letting you kick my ass. I’d let you try, but I’m not going to just let you win.” 

Giggling, Natsuki nudged him playfully, smirking up at him. “We both know I’d still kick your ass. You’re an old man now, you got them creaky bones and flabby muscles.” 

“Excuse me?” Bakugou lifted his arm to flex, only making Natsuki’s giggles turn into a laugh. “Do you see this? Does this look like flab to you, little girl?” 

“Oh no, no flab at all.” Natsuki gave his bicep a few hard smacks, which had really no effect on him. “Hard as a rock! Just like your head- ow!” She flinched as Bakugou gave her nose a flick, punishing her for that last comment. “Rude!” 

Chuckling, Bakugou sat his drink down on the table, not wanting to drink it too quickly since he was already feeling quite a buzz from it. “You think everything is rude, Natsu. Oh, how are you and Mimi?” 

“We’re great, Daddy.” Natsuki’s smile turned soft at the mention of her lover, looking over at the elegant blackhaired beauty as she conversed with Matsuki and Otoha. “She’s so supportive and amazing. Having moved in with her is one of the best decisions ever. I miss being home with you and Mama, but Mimi is just the fucking best. I miss her a lot when she goes on tour, but that’s normal, I guess.” 

“Good. I’m glad her high profile life isn’t too much for you. I know sometimes it could be for your mom.” 

“Aw, you don’t have to worry about me.” Natsuki waved her hand in the air dismissively. “People know better than to mess with her when I’m around. I guess I’m kinda used to it anyway, being the daughter of such a bad ass pro hero. I’ve had my fair share of bullshit growing up.” 

“It’ll get worse when you take Seijirou’s company. Are you sure you’re ready for that?” 

Natsuki sighed, tilting her head to the side a bit in thought as she looked down to the floor. “I had been thinking about that a lot… It’s what I’ve always wanted, and I know I’m skilled enough, but I’m worried I don’t have the personality for it. He’s so carefree and people just piss me off all the time.” 

“People piss him off all the time, too, you’ve seen him turn into some type of merciless sociopath. I remember once in high school, we were in one of his classes, and he shit on Denki Kaminari so hard it was the funniest damn thing. He can be brutal, and so can you. In my opinion, you have the perfect personality for what his core message is. I don’t think he would offer it to you if you weren’t perfect to be his successor. You should be proud of yourself, Natsuki.” 

“Think so?” Natsuki looked up at her father, genuine concern on her normally stern features. With a nod, Bakugou ruffled her already wild hair, giving her a comforting smile. 

“Of course I think so. You’re my bad ass baby girl, you can do anything you put your mind to. You know damn well you’ve completely blown me away with how much you’ve accomplished. Not only did you get that college degree, you’re about to inherit a multi million dollar company from one of the most prolific heroes in the country. I couldn’t be more proud of you.” 

Wide smile on her face, Natsuki hugged Bakugou tightly, receiving a tight squeeze from him in return. “Thank you, Daddy. You’re the best. I think I’ll come talk to you when you’re tipsy more often, you’re so nice!” 

“Tch, I’m nice all the fucking time, what are you talking about?” 

“Well, while you’re in such a nice mood and I’m staying in town for the next couple of days… Want to go shopping with me tomorrow to hang out?” 

“What, so I can buy you shit?” 

“... No. Unless you offer. I just want some Daddy-Daughter bonding, is that too much to ask?” 

“Uh huh, sure. It’s been a few years since I’ve taken you shopping, so that’s fine.” 

“Heck yeah. Worlds best Dad.” 

“Don’t push it.”

[cielwritesshit]

Post Exam High - Gratsu

Summary: Natsu hasn’t seen Gray much recently, since they’ve both been busy with exams. But now they’re over, and Natsu gets to go see his boyfriend. Kissing ensues.

So, when I started writing this, it was originally going to be Natsu walking in on Gray in a skirt. I was listening to Renai Circulation, and it was gonna be cute, but also very much a crack!fic. However, I didn’t feel comfortable writing that, so I decided to push myself to have them be a bit more intermit with each other. This is my first time writing anything like this, so please leave some feedback, telling me what you liked, and how I can improve.

Special shoutouts to @splendidlyimperfect and @friendlyneighborhoodfairy , I know you two were excited to read this, and I’ve finally found the motivation to finish this. Thanks you two <3

Enjoy :)

Natsu was on his way to his boyfriends house. This wasn’t a new thing in their relationship, they’d often just show up at the other’s place (though, miraculously, they never both tried it at the same time). Natsu had missed Gray a lot. He’d barely seen him all week, since exams and assignments had been coming from every single class, and they didn’t share many classes this year. Since they only had a couple of months left, they’d both agreed to focus on their studies. But now, they were over, and everything was going to be a bit more relaxed, at least until the stress of their finals showed up. But they had ages until then, and neither were too worried.

Plus Natsu just wanted to see his boyfriend, was that to much to ask.

So he was on his was over to his boyfriends house, just to hang out for a bit. Natsu had really missed Gray, they normally spent all their time together. And if they ended up making out with each other, well, Natsu definitely wouldn’t mind.

He’d knocked, but after a minute of waiting for his boyfriend, he just went in anyway. It wasn’t the first time Gray hadn’t heard him, he tended to play music so loud that you had to shout to carry a conversation sometimes. Besides, they’d agreed long ago that they were okay with the other breaking in to surprise them.

What Natsu wasn’t expecting was to find his boyfriend washing up, wearing one of his shirts, and a pair of jeans that hugged his figure perfectly. He was swaying his hips from side to side to the beat of whatever song was playing on the radio at that moment. Natsu felt himself freeze, mesmerised by the way Gray’s jeans clung to him in all the right ways. It didn’t help that Gray seemed to be doing it deliberately, as if he knew he was putting on a show for his boyfriend. Blood rushed to Natsu’s face as he stepped towards Gray, trying to be quiet.

Gray didn’t notice Natsu was there until he felt hands on his hips, and his boyfriends chest pressed up against his back. He jumped, dropping the bowl he was washing into the sink, the soapy water splashing the front of his – well, technically Natsu’s shirt. He went to spin around, but Natsu held him in place. Gray looked over his shoulder, his face beet-red.

“N-Natsu! What are you…” Gray trailed off as Natsu started swaying in time with the music. “Don’t stop just because I’m here.” Natsu all but purred. Gray’s face flushed as he finished what he was washing. No sooner had he finished drying his hands, Natsu had turned Gray around and kissed him. Gray melted into the kiss, allowing Natsu to take the lead. The kiss was full of passion. As Natsu grazed his teeth across Gray’s lip, he let out a soft moan. They pulled away, but kept their foreheads touching.

“I’ve missed you too flamebrain.” Gray murmured, as Natsu pressed another kiss to his lips. Gray smiled, and Natsu blushed slightly. The two of them were smiling like idiots.

“Jerk, of course I’ve missed you. I’ve not kissed you in a week at least!” Natsu pouted. Gray laughed, leaning in to kiss him again, before turning them so Natsu was pressed up against the side. Nastu lifted one of his hands to Gray’s hair, leaving his other one on Gray’s hip. He carded his hand through his hair, earning a quiet gasp from Gray. Gray slid his hands down Natsu’s back to his thighs, before picking him up and putting him on the kitchen counter. Natsu wrapped his legs around Gray, pulling him closer. They continued to kiss, Natsu occasionally letting out soft sighs. They were both smiling, as they ran their hands through each other’s hair.

They were so caught up in their own little world that they didn’t notice when Gray’s aunt opened the front door. However, they did notice when she cleared her throat from the doorway.

The two of them sprang apart. Gray nearly slipped on the water he’d splashed onto the floor when Natsu had caught him.

“Hello Natsu dear, it’s lovely to see you again. Would you like to stay for dinner? We’re having spaghetti tonight, your favourite.” Ur smiled at the two of them. Gray turned his back, going back to washing dishes as he had been just minutes earlier. Natsu laughed, his face the same shade of pink as his hair.

“I’d love to. Do you need any help making it?” Natsu ran a hand through his spiked hair, before pushing himself off the side. Ur shook her head, smiling at her nephew. Surprisingly, Gray hadn’t made a sound since Ur had come in. Natsu, followed her gaze, smiling like a lovestruck idiot. “I’ll wait upstairs then. C’mon Gray, I still need to beat you at Mario Kart again!” Gray dried his hands, grabbed his boyfriend by the scarf and dragged him upstairs. Ur laughed as Natsu struggled to get out of Gray’s grip.

Gray pulled Natsu into his room, slammed the door shut, and pushed Natsu against it. Natsu barely had time to respond before Gray’s lips were back on his. They kissed as if their life depended on it. Natsu’s brain short circuited as Gray’s lips travelled down, past the scarf to his neck. Natsu whined as Gray teased him with feather light kisses. Gray grinned, before biting down gently. Natsu let out a moan, and Gray silenced him with another kiss.

“Quiet down, wouldn’t want Ur to hear you.” Natsu shook his head, but still moaned when Gray bit down on his neck again, leaving a dark mark that Natsu was hoping would be covered by his scarf.

><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

Later that night, while they were eating dinner, Natsu kept adjusting his scarf. Ur kept sending suggestive looks their way, and Gray sat there with a cocky grin all night. Natsu looked at his boyfriend, and a single thought popped into his head. Bastard.

Tag List: 

@splendidlyimperfect

@friendlyneighborhoodfairy

Let me know if you want to be tagged in anything in the future.

[insanescriptist]

Rereading the Fairy Tail manga for research purposes, so having reached a little past chapter 100, here’s impressions:

-Natsu’s not a complete idiot

-He’s just a mostly thoughtless one who doesn’t see destruction as a bad thing or as something to avoid. Hence why he doesn’t try to limit it

-He’s actually bad at intentionally trying to destroy things. Accidentally however...

-Dragon Slayer Magic is technically using an Enchantment to temporarily transform parts of a person’s body to be like a dragon’s. Which makes sense considering an Enchanter made it.

-Considering that magic can change a person’s body in various ways, accidentally making it possible to turn into a dragon should have been expected.

-Actually considering that due to Lacrima, Cobra and Laxus don’t have inner dragons doing the anti-body thing to prevent that specific side-effect, chances are they will turn into dragons eventually if they keep using it.

-Same for Sting and Rogue, since their dragons are dead.

-A lot of Natsu’s attacks are actually magnified by the enchantment; Natsu’s sheer destructive power makes a lot more sense that way. Natsu however has no sense of scale so he does things like 500x times more powerful than he needs to

-Happy is a lot smarter than he appears; he’s just an obnoxious little shit-stirrer

-Lucy stayed with Mira while trying to find an apartment to rent; also it’s Mira that hands out a copy of Lucy’s apartment key to her team.

-So they’re not breaking in. Mostly.

-Gray so killed a person without blinking; he froze a guy’s head solid during the whole ‘Lullaby Incident.’

-It’s Gray’s speed with his magic that makes him dangerous

-Gray has his issues but he’s a lot more prideful than a person would expect; intelligent fighters are great okay?

-Lyon however I have issues with. Lots of. How did you get followers? Especially ones that were part of a mage guild? Did you put out an ad in Socerer’s Weekly? How did you pay for all the supplies you’d need for a group of people for three years? How did you even move Deliora?

-Also Gray’s from the ‘northern continent’ so um... plot-hole space? Unless there’s like a second ‘northern continent’ so the ‘western counties’ remark by Ur makes sense

-need to go look at that book Levy has on one of the splash pages; is a world map

-Actually there’s a lot more death, but it’s mook death so we don’t care. See how the army was ‘defeated’ by Eisenwald or whatever it was called. This is further combined with the mooks that died at the Tower of Heaven; not just in the slave revolt flashback but when the tower is destroyed and they’re crushed, followed by the unstable magic of Etherion doing whatever to the crystals

-Lucy knows she weaker than them physically; she at least makes up for it by having a wider background knowledge of magic. Too bad none of this ever gets followed up on in other ways.

-Lucy is uncomfortable taking jobs without the rest of the team; no wonder you’re a broke bitch. Taking jobs with just Natsu means your income is breadcrumbs.

-Lucy’s also had to have renegotiated her contracts with her keys several times; otherwise she’d have only access to all her spirits on Wednesday as that’s the only ‘day’ Aquarius originally let Lucy call her on.

-When Lucy got Loke? She went and accidentally renegotiated Celestial Spirit Magic contracts in general. Because for Loke’s story to logically work out, a mage could only have one Celestial Spirit out at a time. With Loke jamming Karen out, she couldn’t summon another.

-So Lucy made it possible for summoners to have two out at one time; clearly the time for Spirit Double Battles is near

-Also Karen probably had another magic of some sort. Celestial Spirit Mages by themselves are considered weak because there’s so many conditions built into using the magic; when to use the spirit mostly but also all the agreements between the contractors. Hence Lucy must have renegotiated all her contracts at least once, as Lucy uses her keys more indiscriminately as the series progresses. It’s a versatile magic, but limited to having the item, having the contract, being the day of able to use the spirit’s time/energy etc

-Lucy might want to look into learning some other magic to be more well-rounded; as intelligent as she is, runes would be easy enough. So would re-quip. You’ve lost your keys how many times now?

-Laxus what are you wearing when first introduced? Please tell me that it was laundry day and you were wearing a gag gift from Bixlow, even if Bixlow hasn’t been introduced yet. Because awful. Let Natsu burn it, please.

-Also Laxus, considering the size of the communication lacrima in the guild, how large is the one you’re carrying? Also how do they work because the one Urtear has with her later is like the size of a basketball. Not exactly portable.

-Cana is awesome and has great leadership skills; she lead the defense of the guild against Phantom while Erza was out cold and Mira was being useless

-The Guildhall clearly has several sub-levels. Mavis’ body is well hidden and probably the reason why the basement hasn’t flooded despite being next to the lake. Makarov, I love you but it’s probably Prech/Hades who reinforced the shit out of the sub-layers.

-Loke probably overdid it during the attack by Phantom Lord and probably shaved off a few months of his ability to stay in Earthland while defending the guild. No wonder he was looking so terrible after

-Juvia once dated Bora of Titan’s Nose; you know the guy in the first chapter that Natsu beat up? You’re better off without him.

-Juvia dear, a crush is not love and you’re being somewhat obsessive; that it only gets worse and is eventually reciprocated is less than ideal; maybe it’s those last few chapters of Naruto but I keep seeing Sakura/Sasuke parallels in the ‘chase the man down for a pity fuck, get it, get a child, have ongoing depressive episode’?

-I probably wouldn’t mind this so much if Juvia had more of a personality than ‘love struck, obsessive fan.’ Like what are your ideals, what do you like that’s not about Gray?

-Lucy’s tragic backstory is probably less lonely when you consider she probably could hang out in the local ‘large’ village; she’d be slumming it but she at least would have had friendly acquaintances

-The staff do love her and she them; Lucy just doesn’t have her father’s love

-Jude is a piece of work that deserves to be told off; also, marrying Lucy to nobility for land to expand business so your eventual grandson will inherit?

-Fuck you; Lucy should have slapped a bitch. As it is, refusing to do so probably put a nail in the coffin of your business Jude.

-There’s a difference between ‘army’ and ‘rune knight’ and the latter are solely answerable to the ‘Magic Council.’ Also the ‘Magic Council’ seems to be a continent spanning organization separate from the national government, meant to monitor and organize mage guilds.

-It being corrupt as it is later is not really a surprise as there’s really not a lot to hold them accountable; Jellal and Ultear infiltrated the council and it’s implied that Jellal through work for the Council was named Wizard Saint.

-There’s probably more than just those two who have infiltrated the ‘Magic Council’ organization. Those two are just notable for having reached such a high level, as they both had voting power.

-Erza’s actually a holder-type mage, who can also use caster-type magic

-Specifically re-quip is a caster-type magic but she uses both the inherent and charged abilities of her armor and weapons to further her strength and abilities physically and magically. She’s also got some telekinesis so she can also further use this to ‘wield’ more weapons

-Erza’s oblivious to a lot of social things, which is not surprising as she’s not actually the social type.

-She’s missed so many people having a crush on her: Simon, Lucy, Gray, Bisca... yeah, Erza turns people into useless lesbians. Gray somehow manages to avoid this, possibly through the power of stripping. More probably through friendship and being in a Rivalry with Natsu

-Rivals is a relationship status okay; someone where between committed and it’s complicated

-Erza’s ability to kill a bitch gets nerfed for plot purposes; namely Jellal

-Jellal, you being evil I like. You have personality. You’re an asshole but somehow charming with your teenage boy sense of humor and extra-ness. Your fashion sense however needs work.

-Jellal was clearly in charge of getting supplies and such for his minions/slaves. And yet he can’t import a fashion sense? Clearly skipped movie night too much

-Wally so did make movie nights happen; they can probably quote movies verbatim

-Jellal focused a lot on Natsu. Not for his magic but because he wanted to fight Natsu. No evil plotting here

-Simon, you are so pathetic, this is why you’re a plot point later, so you can actually be useful after death

-Also Erza, ‘Eternal Wizard Saint’? Aren’t you just going a little far in your imaginary funeral. Makarov’s speech was in character but, a little more realism

-Oh and there’s more mook death in the Tower of Heaven arc; I think I mentioned it before? Them getting crushed by a collapsing tower and then vaporized by unstable magic? No wonder Erza and Jellal were spit back out; plenty of people died.

-Erza probably ripped open her second origin/magic container here, trying to absorb and direct the unstable Etherion magical build-up

-The way the story is framed makes you think the dragons are out and in hiding somewhere, instead of being spirits inside their slayers or something

-It’s probably a flashback?

-Oh and Lucy can make fireworks too; clearly gate keys are not just for summoning spirits

[pseudologia-fantasia]

Libidinous - Chapter One

Originally posted on Wattpad.

Lucy pressed her lips together, shaking her head to the boy as though she were speaking to a toddler.

"No, it wasn't a sleepover--" She grunted lowly as she rubbed her hands over her face. "Gosh, what are you even talking about?"

His eyebrows furrowed and he looked to Lucy with a childlike wonder. "Then what were you guys doing?"

Lucy sighed, then in a grand gesture, sighed her shoulders before tossing her hands in the air.

"Intercourse."

 ｌｉ·ｂｉｄ·ｉ·ｎｏｕｓ

Lucy has a problem. She knows this very well, thank you very much. A severe sex addict, she practices promiscuity with every boy she can get her hands on, or any boy who will put his hands on her.After being caught by her strange and childlike school mate Natsu after a one-night-stand, she finds herself befriending the oddball and discovers ways to overcome her urges with his help.  

My first lemon, so errors are expected, but nonetheless, I hope you all enjoy.

Mature content including: extreme sexual activity, rape, addiction. Read at own risk.

All characters belong to Hiro Mashima.

Lucy grunted lowly, taking in a swift and unwanted smell of the musky apartment. She looked at the pasty looking ceiling above her head as her fuzzy eyes stared up continuously.

It then suddenly dawned on that she couldn't remember the name of the man sucking lavishly onto her clit. She ground her crotch against his wet and sloppy mouth, moaning out curses as his tongue drilled at her wet vagina. She hummed out in the sweet and tender satisfaction, her fingers clawing at her soft thighs as she felt her sex partner dig his own fingers into her thighs.

"Mm..." She moaned out, her head rolling back as her hips matched their movement, rolling against his lips.

His hands pushed her down further, and she gasped as she felt her partner bite against her clit, his nose taking in the strong scent of her soaked sex. She let out a loud cry, and hit her climax, her chest rolling back in short and swift spasms.

There it is... She thought as she fell quickly from her high. Not as good as it used to feel. She grunted quietly as she slid off her partner, and began to suddenly think of how tired she was. She looked down to the irritable hard her partner had, and thought, Well crap, he's not done is he.

Lucy opened her eyes to the sun running across her eyes. She grunted quietly as she sat up off the bed to find the stranger still asleep. She looked at the clock, finding it to be 8:03.

Swiping the sheets off her naked legs, she leaped out of the bed and scrambled to find whatever she assumed belonged to her. She tug her toes into her shoes, not caring if the heel made their way to meet the backs or not, pulling on the pair of panties dangling on the foot of the bed and slipping them into her long legs. She couldn't find her bra, but she put her dress over her naked chest anyway before scrambling to the door.

She pushed right out the door at a fast pace, wondering how late she'd be to first block if she took the time to run back to her apartment and catch a shower and put on her uniform.

Her chances were slim, but school didn't start until 8:45.

As she stepped outside the door, she squinted as the bright sun flooded her vision, as her hand went up to shield her eyes, she found her self face to face with a eerily familiar pink haired boy.

His gaze was innocent, and he looked right at her chocolate brown eyes, not taking any notice to the small tint of her nipples peaking through her thin dress.

"Don't I know you from somewhere?"

She looked at his clothing, noticing the uniform.

Oh dear.

The uniform matched the one she had in her apartment. And she felt for a moment as though she'd walked into school naked.

"Um...sorry." She took another step, shuffling slightly so her feet would settle into her yellow flats. "Sorry, I've gotta head to work."

She only made it a yard until she heard the door of the apartment she'd just escaped from open swiftly.

"Hey!" The man she'd just screwed stepped out, she was quite surprised to see he was wearing her bra. But in a way, she wasn't.

"Oh...hey." Lucy crossed her arms, trying to push her arms subtly over her chest.

"You wanna...have a coffee, could I get your number or--

"Oh sorry, I've gotta get to school..." Lucy spat out. It was a brave move, but it always worked.

"Oh come on, you can miss a day right?"

"Um." Lucy spun around yet again. "Sorry, but 11th grade English can be a pretty tedious class to miss."

The raw horror on the man's face was priceless. And he simply bowed his head, huffing out a quick "I'm so sorry" before spinning into his room to call his mom and apologize for every sin he'd ever committed.

It was like that. She was a full bodied girl, and could fool a man into think she was a woman. But when a man finds out he'd screwed a kid, he is almost always drowned in his own guilt and self pity.

It's not as though he’d report her, as they could be charged for rape of some kind, as he wasn’t sure if Lucy was even of age. Technically she was, right at the legal age, actually. Either way, men would usually latch onto the thinking: dear god, I’ve fucked a high schooler. So it was an easy way to get guys off her tail, and a simple way to be rid herself of a very unwanted stalker.

Lucy began to shuffled away from the door, and the pink haired boy who stood there through the whole awkward morning after banter.

"Hey--wait up."

She didn't turn around to face the boy that ran towards her, and huffed out a breath as she climbed down the stairs.

"You just move here or something?" The boy asked from behind, attempting to keep up with Lucy's brisk walk of shame. "I've never seen you around here so I was curious."

"Nope, and you're likely to never see me around here again." She hissed quickly, her hand grasping the thin chain of her purse. "Goodbye forever."

"Wait--don't you go to my school?"

Crap. She thought as she felt a sharp pain in her side, and that naked in school feeling began to arise.

In a flash of power and bravery, she span around and looked the boy in the eye.

"Don't tell anyone you saw me here today. And especially don't tell anyone what I was doing?"

They boy looked at her in confusion for a moment longer. Then his eyes lit up and he snapped his finger. "Oh! Do you want me to keep a secret?"

"Yeah. Sure." Lucy huffed briskly. "Can you do that for me?"

"Sure thing, these lips are sealed." He pinched an imaginary key at the edge of his lips, which had curved into a wide smile.

"Okay then." Lucy wheeled around, making her way down to the bottom of the steps as she heard the boys rough voice again.

"I'm Natsu!"

She turned just her head, looking up to the boy who was at the top of the stairs.

He stood there, with this ruled grin on his face waiting for her to complete the exchange.

In a quiet voice, she nodded her head. "Lucy."

[seventh-zephyr]

My thoughts on Keiko leaving Kalafina

So, it’s been a few days since it was announced that Keiko had left. I’m still sad about it, of course, but I feel like I need to talk about it and get it off my chest and then maybe I can have some peace of mind about the whole ordeal. All under the cut because yeah, this is gonna be long.

tl;dr Keiko means a lot to me personally and although I may not like the fact that she has left Kalafina (for both technical and personal reasons), I respect her decision and will continue to support her as well as Wakana and Hikaru in a new era of Kalafina.

Let me start of by saying that I do not blame Keiko for leaving, I know it was entirely her choice, and I respect her decision to leave.

With that out of the way, I do wonder how Kalafina’s future concerts will function. The vast majority of their songs were written for three people to sing, and there are songs that are outright impossible or near impossible to sing with only two people without leaving things out (lookin’ at you, sprinter and signal). Unless they add another person who possesses similar vocal range/skills as Keiko, a number of their songs will either have to be majorly retooled for two (such as Fantasia, and even then that shouldn’t be too hard with this song) or outright unperformable (such as Magia or ring your bell, or other songs with a lot of 3-way harmony work). Of course, songs from the oblivious single still would work perfectly fine with just Wakana and Hikaru, but nearly every other song would need to be retooled (I say nearly because even if it might be weird, something like Kagayaku Sora no Shijima ni wa could work with two people). Part of me really hopes they hold auditions for a new member because the way things stand now, live performances will become a new challenge without a decent buildup of additional music written for two voices.

At the same time, I really wish that Keiko hadn’t decided to leave. She added a lot of depth vocally to the group. My choir director always talked about a choral sandwich in Concert Choir before I got moved up to Chamber Choir. He really doesn’t talk about it at all with Chamber, but it’s something I’ve always found important. Your four choral parts (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass) make up a sandwich. Soprano and bass are like the bread, essential but not important compared to what’s actually in the sandwich. Alto and tenor are like the middle of the sandwich, the contents. They’re the important parts, they’re what make the sandwich good. Otherwise, you’d just have bread, and no one wants just bread. In Kalafina, it’s just soprano and alto. Wakana is soprano, Keiko is alto, and Hikaru is somewhere in between. Sure, Hikaru could fill in some of the vocal gaps Keiko left behind, but there are some gaps that just can’t be filled (such as Yami no Uta, a showcase of Keiko’s dark alto power). And yeah, you could flip the choral sandwich thing on it’s head here and be like “But Zange, wouldn’t the sandwich here be W and K as bread and H as the stuff in between?”, but my point with bringing up the choral sandwich is that yes, Hikaru could sing some of Keiko’s stuff. But Hikaru can’t replace her completely in songs like Alleluia, or Yami no Uta, or some others that I’m forgetting. Keiko has that kind of power, she adds that depth into Kalafina’s music and makes it interesting, something you can’t really do with only two choral parts.

Another reason I wish Keiko didn’t leave: She’s one of my biggest inspirations. When I first joined choir in 8th grade, the girls sang up and down the scales to figure out if they were a soprano or alto. We did that and I was like “Hey, some of these high notes are a little too high for me, I’ll sing alto because that’s were my voice feels more comfortable.” So that’s what I did. And almost every time we got a new song, with a few exceptions, sopranos would always have the melody. I remember being a bit frustrated at this and wondering when the hell the altos were gonna have a song where they had the melody. I had to quit choir 3rd tri that year so I could take another class, but 3rd tri was where I discovered Kalafina. And I mean really discovered. I’d heard some of their songs before as anime endings, but I didn’t know who they were. Honestly, I don’t entirely remember how I even discovered them. I know it was through Google Play Music, it was probably on the random stream list for the artists I was listening to at the time (Garnidelia and Mimori Suzuko). Whenever a Kalafina song popped up, I was like ‘hey this sounds really good, I should find more of this.’ I distinctly remember my favorite songs being ARIA, Natsu no Ringo, and sprinter (which still remains one of my favorites to this day). The only album they had on Google Play Music’s streaming was Seventh Heaven, so that was all I really knew for Kalafina music (except for those anime endings and like two or three other songs).

Fast forward to my freshman year of high school. I rejoined choir with the intention of taking it all four years of high school, and Kalafina had quickly become one of my favorite groups. I had their first and fifth albums, as well as their two best-of albums downloaded onto my school computer so I could listen to those while working on stuff instead of looking for it on YouTube. Around November or December, I found out that Kalafina released a Christmas (or as the album calls it, a ‘winter acoustic’) album. Of course, with my love for both Kalafina and Christmas music, I immediately download it onto my school computer and listened to it. It was absolutely beautiful. Around this time as well, we were really getting into gear for our Madrigal Dinner (where I sang with both the Concert Choir and the Madrigal Singers that year), which was in early December, just after my birthday, and by this point I had heard the Choral Sandwich spiel from our director a few times. It was just a normal school day, and we were doing our normal Concert Choir rehearsal during 7th hour. We were practicing one of the songs we would be singing during Madrigal, I think it was Go the Distance from Hercules. We were just practicing that song, as normal, and something in me clicks. I think ‘Holy shit, I love the alto part in this song. Why can’t we have more alto parts like this in our songs?’ followed by ‘Oh my god we get the melody in this section and it sounds really good but we almost never get the melody,’ and then it hits me: ‘Altos don’t need to sing the melody to be amazing. But when we DO have the melody, it sounds absolutely incredible. Just like Keiko.’ From that day on, Keiko Kubota became one of my biggest influences when it came to singing. Whenever altos had amazing harmony parts, I’d think, ‘How amazing would Keiko be singing this part?’ and try to sing it like I imagined she would. Low notes became a treasure to me because they were rare in the songs we were singing in Concert Choir. Whenever we were told to have a dark tone on certain parts, I smiled as I sang that part while thinking of Yami no Uta. Because of Keiko, I’ve learned to truly love the alto life. Every single note I’ve sang as an alto since that realization has been precious to me. There’s no other way I would have it, and I can say with complete honesty that I’m proud to be singing alto.

And that brings us to the present. Sophmore year, I’m in Chamber Choir now, and Keiko Kubota has just announced that she left Kalafina. I’m, of course, disappointed. Keiko was my favorite member, alongside being one of my biggest inspirations, so of course I don’t want her to leave. However, as I mentioned earlier, I respect her decision and I won’t blame her for it. I’d love to see her do some solo work, or even a revival of FictionJunction (she’s still a part of that, at least!) just so I can hear more of her incredible voice, but I can’t say for sure that it will happen, no matter how much I want it to. Wherever Keiko decides to go next, be it in music or not, I’m positive she’ll do an excellent job, and I’ll support her all the way. And just because Keiko is no longer part of Kalafina, that doesn’t mean I’ll stop being a fan of theirs. Goodness, no, their music is too good. Even if it’s just Wakana and Hikaru going forward, I’ll still support them until the very end. It’s a new era of Kalafina, with both their main composer and one of their original members gone; they need all the support they can get. Not to mention, a Kalafina without Keiko is infinitely better than no Kalafina at all.

So thank you, Keiko Kubota, for 10 years in Kalafina, and I greatly look forward to whatever you decide to do next.

[yannasunflower]

Blood & Magic - Ch. 4

This thing is over 7,000 words long and I’m pretty sure I’m dead but I finally got it out. No small thanks to my boyfriend for demanding updates, he’s really the only reason I managed to push it out so fast. As always, based off of @constellunaa incredible Modern Fantasy art. 

Blood & Magic (ffnet)

Ch. 1 | Ch. 2 | Ch. 3 | 

Chapter 4

Lucy frowned at the palace in the distance. It had become habit to stand on her balcony in the early mornings with her coffee, watching the sun rise, watching the palace slowly come to life under the light. She wrapped her sweater around her more tightly, tapping a finger against her mug. The mornings were cold now, the September chill finally settling in. The bird song had stopped and the leaves on the trees themselves had stilled. The air was quiet, too quiet, even for the small village. It made her restless. She stared at the palace, eyes narrowed. Something was off, she could feel her stomach clenching. Pushing off of the railing, she set her coffee down on her desk, fingering the leather journal, still open to its latest page. A soft caw sounded and she moved back to the balcony. A raven perched on the railing, a small envelope encased in its beak. She smiled, stretching her hand out to stroke its head. Virgo preferred to send letters this way; it was quicker, she insisted. Lucy took the envelope between her fingers, brushing the tip of her index finger against the edge of the flap, feeling a pang of guilt that she hadn’t written yet. She’d been so busy with her first week of school, she hadn’t had time to write out a letter to her maid.

The raven remained, blinking at her with intelligent eyes and she frowned once more. It was expecting a response to fly back with. Which meant the letter was more urgent than she’d thought. She ripped it open carelessly, nightmares quickening her fingers as she pulled the single sheet of thin paper out. She scanned it quickly, face paling as she did so.

Miss Lucy, Master Ichiya has been assassinated. Master Jude has not spoken of it yet. No other details. Be safe.

Her breath hitched. For a moment, there was breathless silence. And then she was a flurry of movement, grabbing a pen and shoving her textbook out of the way. Her fingers shook as she scrawled out a quick response, urgently encouraging her maid to continue to update her. She included a series of dots at the bottom of the paper before folding it carefully and placing it in another envelope. She handed it to the bird, who flew away instantly. She watched it go, a black dot in the distant sky, before she closed her doors and dressed quickly. Jeans and sweater on, she stuffed the letter into her pocket and grabbed her toothbrush and brush before leaving. Lucy hurried to the bathrooms to brush her teeth and comb her hair before running back to the dorm to throw her things back in her room and leaving again. Plue went with her, sensing her urgency, ears alert as they walked through the winding path to the headmaster’s own office. The school was not awake yet. It was a Saturday, which meant most were probably sleeping in, leaving the halls silent and eerily empty.

She knew the headmaster was probably awake. She knew he had, in all likelihood, already received the news. And that her visit was probably unnecessary. But it was, at the same time, extremely necessary. Whatever had been boiling beneath the surface in Fiore had finally begun to make its appearance in a marked way. Ichiya was a notable nobleman, one from a distinguished family. He was also very outspoken in his opposing of the king. His death was significant in ways that Lucy could barely understand. But she sensed it, the magnitude. Her skin crawled, her eyes darting uneasily at the walls, the paintings with eyes that seemed to follow her. She was doing this based on whispers and shadows, her father’s muted conversations with other nobles, their smirks they couldn’t quite cover as they left her mansion, eyes skipping over her like she didn’t exist. If she was wrong, she would be arrested and possibly executed.

Plue growled lightly, his energy spiking in her chest. She tensed, hair along her arms rising. The sound of footsteps behind her made her spin around to face Professor Porla’s smiling face. His dark eyes were narrowed ever so slightly, smile more of a smirk than anything. He taught their Curses and Charms class and had a reputation for being strict with a nasty attitude toward most students. So far, he’d been genial with her. She figured her name did the trick, and her father’s friendship with the man.

“Ms. Heartfilia,” he said, voice smooth and too silky. She tensed. Walking in the halls was technically not against the rules. She wasn’t breaking curfew. But it would definitely raise a few questions at this time in the morning. It was barely seven. Her mind raced as she forced herself not to look guilty or afraid. “What would you be doing this early in the morning on a Saturday?”

“I had a question for the headmaster,” she answered sweetly, giving him a smile. She had nearly forgotten just how practiced she was at telling lies. His family wasn’t very well known, and she’d never seen him cast any spells, but she had always felt his magic was dark. Sinister. He’d taken excessive interest in her among his many visits to her father’s mansion, more than most of her father’s friends. His smile sent chills down her spine. She reached a hand out for Plue, patting his head in an attempt to soothe herself. “I wanted to know something about the history of the garden and I thought he may be the best to ask,” she continued. Lucy was keenly aware they were alone in the halls. Plue’s fur bristled. Enemy, his energy whispered. Her breath slowed.

“I see,” Porla said, polite smirk still on his face. “Walking alone is not safe for a young lady such as yourself. Allow me to escort you.”

She offered no argument. She kept a careful distance as they walked, Plue trotting between them. It was only one more hall until the headmaster’s office and she breathed deeply. If she allowed her anxiety to show, it would raise more questions, which she couldn’t quite explain or lie about so easily. The letter was burning in her pocket and she restrained herself from placing her hand on it. The movement would attract attention; ladies did not walk with their hands in their pockets.

They arrived at the door and Lucy sent him another sickly-sweet smile. “Thank you, Professor,” she said. He merely dipped his head and slipped away, leaving her in front of the door. Inhaling deeply, she rapped it lightly with her knuckles. A quiet voice told her to enter and the door swung open of its own accord. She smiled at the headmaster, seated behind a massive desk that made him look even smaller. His office was incredible, two stories high and filled with books upon books. He smiled at her kindly and she relaxed under it, glad to be away from Porla.

“What is it, my dear?” he asked, folding his hands on his desk, which was cluttered with papers. He nodded toward the chairs in front of it and she seated herself, crossing her ankles and gnawing on her lip nervously. She didn’t quite know where to begin.

“I received a letter,” she finally said. Lucy pulled the opened envelope from her pocket, smoothing out the creases and handing it over to Makarov’s waiting hand. He placed a pair of reading glasses on his nose before pulling the single sheet of paper out, scanning the few words on it quickly. There was no change to his expression and when his eyes returned to her, they were unreadable.

“I heard,” he said simply, handing it back. He put his glasses back on his desk carefully. “Your maid should be careful who sees these letters. The times are becoming dangerous.”

Lucy nodded, stuffing the envelope back in her pocket, chewing her lip once more. She uncrossed her ankles, crossed them again, clenched her fingers against the arm of the chair. Plue leaned against her leg, attempting to soothe her nerves.

“He was a dissenter,” she blurted out finally.

Makarov nodded. “He was. Outspoken about it as well,” he hummed. He leaned back, pulling a pipe from his desk’s drawer and filling it carefully. She watched him light it thoughtlessly with his finger. He drew a few breaths from it, puffing thoughtfully as his eyes watched her, still carefully blank. The smoke rose, obscuring part of his face. It was a dance. She stared back, willing her gaze not to waver. He knew why she was here. She wasn’t interested in word games. She had played them her whole life and for once, she craved directness. Sincerity. He blinked, slowly.

“Are you sure?” he finally asked. She did not blink. The smallest of smiles twitched at the corners of her mouth. Her fingers straightened and she relaxed her shoulders. Plue settled more peacefully at her feet, ears still pricked. “This is not a game for children,” he warned her, placing his pipe on his desk and leaning forward, eyes narrowed now.

“I’ve never been a child, Makarov,” she retorted.

“You’re all children to me,” the headmaster returned tiredly, though there was nothing patronizing in his voice. “Children in an adult world who must grow up too fast. You’re choosing to enter this game that I can barely survive myself. I don’t know if you’re very brave or very foolish.”

She nearly shrugged, turning her gaze to the books lining the walls, the lanterns, the paintings. It was a comfortable room. Safe. Nothing like her father’s office at home. She leaned back against the chair. She was suddenly very tired, of everything. Natsu’s face flashed in her mind and she suppressed a smile. Levy. Gajeel. Juvia. Gray.

“I’ve never had a choice,” she said softly. She turned her eyes back to Makarov. Her young face looked old. “My name entered me into the game from the second I drew my first breath.”

Makarov’s eyes were now sympathetic and he acknowledged her words with a nod. Her treatment by her father was no secret among the magic families. “You have been both blessed and cursed with good fortune,” he sighed. He leaned back in his chair, drawing a few more puffs from his pipe. She was reminded of his age at the sound, the lines in his face and wrinkles on his hands belying a long life of struggles and accomplishments all at once. He acted young, somehow. His energy and spirit were vivacious, like a teenager’s, but his body was old.

“Your father is a supporter,” he finally said after some silence. She nodded and waited for him to continue. His eyes fell shut as he thought, hands folded over his stomach. “Your maid, is she trustworthy?”

“We’re very close. She’s been my maid since I was a kid,” Lucy confirmed.

Makarov nodded, eyes opening. “Burn the letter. Burn any letters you receive from her. Act as if everything you send outside this school is going to be read because it probably will. You should develop a code with her, something others would think is innocent.”

“Already done,” Lucy replied, thinking of the dots at the bottom of her letter. Ink blots or innocent marks of a restless mind. Something her and Virgo had come up with when she was a child and bored, just learning about codes in her lessons. No one would know the difference.

“Smart girl,” Makarov praised her warmly. She raised her chin proudly, though it wasn’t so much that she was smart as it was she was very good at hiding things. “You’ll communicate with me through Gildarts. He is in the basement every night. If you’re caught, tell them you were going to practice magic past curfew. They’ll probably let you off with a warning.” He stood suddenly, coming around his desk to clasp her hand.

“Be safe and be smart, Lucy. Restless winds are blowing.”

She smiled and placed her own hand gently over his. His familiar use of her first name warmed her to the bone. “I will,” she vowed. He looked at her with desperate hope. For once, she didn’t feel afraid.

It was easy enough to lie and tell her dorm mates she had gone for an early walk. They all knew she woke up at ungodly hours of the morning every day. She offered to make breakfast, since the mess hall didn’t make food on the weekends, and they soon forgot her supposed early morning exercise, the boys leaping at the opportunity to eat. Natsu hovered over her shoulder, watching her move the eggs around the pan while the others chatted around the chairs and couch. Levy was giving Gajeel and Juvia advice on their essay due Tuesday and Gray was tapping away on his phone, a message to his father he had told them. It was a peaceful Saturday morning, quiet and subdued. One she wanted to savor before the news hit them. It was a wave; she could only pray they didn’t drown. She glanced back over her shoulder at Natsu, practically a dog wagging its tail. He didn’t move from his position until his phone rang, buzzing insistently on the table. He frowned and Lucy watched him pick it up, brow furrowed.

“Dad?” he asked. Lucy’s breath stopped. She had a feeling she knew what was going to come. Her fingers rose to play with the key hung around her neck. She watched her friends turn to face Natsu expectantly. If only they’d had just a little longer. Just a few minutes more, she wished. She watched Natsu’s face change from mild confusion to one of concern.

“What do ya mean?” he asked urgently, pacing the room now. The rest watched him silently, faces varying degrees of confusion. Lucy barely remembered to turn the stove off before the eggs burned, hands shaking. Her conversation with Makarov played through her head once more. She couldn’t involve her dorm mates; it was too dangerous and she refused to risk their lives like that. In the days to come, the school would come under much scrutiny. Makarov had never really openly supported the king. And the crown prince, even less. She would have to play her part carefully. They all would.

“Okay,” Natsu murmured, hand rubbing at his chin, frowning now. Lucy ached to see him so worried, wishing she could smooth the lines from his face and ease his fears. But she had too many of her own. Natsu’s arm lowered and he looked at her, eyes wide and dark.

“He says Ichiya’s been murdered,” he announced. A collective breath was sucked in. His eyes didn’t leave hers. “All the nobles are being called to the capital to swear fealty to the king.” She felt her chest constrict at this. Makarov would have to go, as well as her father and most of their families. She wondered if the king would kill all who refused. A chill danced down her spine. She realized that he would most definitely. Declare it treason and execute them like animals. Lucy suddenly desperately hoped that Ichiya had died painlessly, peacefully. He’d been a decent man, perhaps overly friendly, but never disgusting or rude to her. He deserved a good death.

“That’s definitely not good news,” Gray muttered, standing up and opening his own phone.

Gajeel was already walking down his hallway to his room, where his phone was, muttering something about his ‘damn old man’. Lily trotted at his heels. Levy and Juvia hurried to their own rooms, both with identical faces of concern on their faces. Lucy chewed her lip as she watched Levy go. Her parents were in a special kind of danger; she’d have to talk to her and Makarov about it later. She probably didn’t understand the exact magnitude of the news, or having to swear fealty to the king. It wasn’t going to be a fun vacation to the capital.

Lucy glanced back at Natsu, who continued to stare at her. “You knew,” he stated, finally. Lucy flinched back but offered no argument, waiting for him to continue. She tugged at the chain around her neck nervously. He was smarter than he seemed about certain things. Herself being one of them apparently. “Why didn’t you say anything?” he asked. He didn’t sound hurt or betrayed, just curious. But he looked at her almost sadly. Knowingly. She swallowed past the lump in her throat and looked at him hopelessly.

“I just wanted us to have breakfast,” she said mournfully. She tossed the cold eggs in the trash, rubbing at her forehead. A headache was beginning to form behind her eyes. His gaze turned to one of understanding and he moved forward, wrapping her in a tight hug. She stilled only for a moment before returning the embrace, wrapping her arms around his neck, burying her face into his shoulder. He smelled like wood and smoke and she could feel herself trembling against him. He was solid and warm. If only time would stop, she thought. If only she could have this one, precious moment. Here, with Natsu, in a school for magic on a quiet September morning.

“Whatever happens, we’ll be together Luce,” he murmured into her hair. She breathed out, nodding against his shoulder, eyes fluttering shut.

“Yes,” she agreed simply.

Lucy couldn’t focus. She paced her room, raking her hands through her hair as she thought. The Draconia families were outspoken opponents of the king lately as well. If she knew Igneel and his family, they would go into hiding. They were smart. The Fullbusters would have to do the same. Lucy realized most of her dorm mates’ families would be fleeing soon, either to hiding or another country. They were all proud, old families who would rather die than bend the knee to any king, especially a mad one. All except Levy’s. They probably didn’t even understand just yet. Everything would be new to them.

Her breath caught in her throat at the thought. She’d seen a picture of them, once. Levy had showed her. A man with the same eyes as Levy’s, wide and bright. And her equally short mother with the same hair and laugh lines etched around her mouth and eyes. Her hands had been covered in dirt; a florist, Levy told her. They’d been laughing and Levy was looking at them like they put the sun in the sky. Lucy’s eyes fell shut at the image. Her breathing slowed and she lowered her hands, closing her fingers around the golden key her mother had given her. What would she do, to protect the way Levy’s eyes beamed when her parents were mentioned? The answer came the next second. Anything. Her body moved of its own accord, eyes flying open. She wrenched her door open, hurrying to knock on Levy’s. It had only been a couple of hours since they had all separated to their rooms; Levy answered quickly, face paler than before.

“Your family,” Lucy breathed. Levy bit her lip, opening her door wider. Lucy entered, taking a careful seat on Levy’s neatly made bed.

“I’m not sure what to tell them,” Levy confessed in a rushed whisper. “They won’t understand what it means. I don’t even really understand. I don’t know what they should do, either. They’re only Everyday’s, will he really make them swear fealty?”

Lucy reached a hand out, clasping Levy’s small one in her own. “They need to leave. The second you enrolled here, your family was put on a registry. Your name is a magical one now,” she answered firmly. “You said your aunt lives in Peregrande right?”

Levy nodded vehemently, eyes wide as Lucy talked. She sucked in a breath before continuing. “Tell them to go to her; he can’t touch them there.”

Levy’s eyes fell shut and Lucy smiled sadly, heart hurting. Levy would have to do what none of them wanted to do. Send her family away. They sat in silence for a few minutes, just holding each other’s hand. The sound of their breathing filled the room. At a sound from the main room, Levy’s eyes opened and she withdrew her hand, inhaling deeply.

“I’ll call them,” she said, firmly like she was still convincing herself. “For their safety, I’ll send them away.”

“Talk to Makarov first, he can help,” Lucy said. Levy nodded quickly, tears in her eyes. “You’ll be safe here,” Lucy assured her. “The school is, politically speaking, neutral grounds so the king won’t find an excuse to march his army out here for a bit. We have some time to prepare.”

Levy flashed her a grim smile. “You know so much,” she observed. Lucy’s back stiffened. “How? What’s happening, Lucy?”

The blonde shook her head, clenching her fingers and avoiding Levy’s eyes. “I can’t say,” she whispered. “Things are going to be a bit complicated now. I’m not sure what will happen.”

“Lucy,” Levy murmured, hand reaching for her again. “Please, tell me.”

Lucy looked into her open, honest face. She remembered the way Levy’s voice had sounded when she had first greeted her. So hopeful. So excited. A girl who had relatively recently found out about magic. Who didn’t care for names or titles. Who called her Lucy and linked pinkies with her as they walked through the halls, giggling. Who had lent her books and kept her up at night talking about them instead of studying. Lucy looked at that girl and closed her fingers around Levy’s outstretched hand.

“Soon,” she promised. Levy released a shuddering breath.

“What’s going to happen?” Levy asked. Lucy huffed out a breath, shaking her head.

“Who knows?”

Lucy watched as Levy left their dorm, hurrying to Makarov’s office to ask his help. Natsu was seated on the couch, watching her go with an uncharacteristically solemn face as well. Lucy sat next to him, curling her legs under her as she instinctively leaned against him. His arm went around her shoulders, his other hand on her knee, and he turned to face her, face still too serious. This was Natsu, she thought. Where was his smile?

“My family is going into hiding,” he told her. Lucy closed her eyes, sighing. She’d known as much but to actually hear him say made everything real. Too real.

“They’ll be safe,” she assured him, opening her eyes once more. “Igneel is a strong fighter and your mother isn’t exactly soft herself.”

It was true; Grandeeny specialized in healing magic but her tongue was famously sharper than any blade and she was a fearless woman. You had to be, Lucy thought, eyeing Natsu’s face thoughtfully, to be married to a Draconia man. An image flashed through her mind, unbidden, of a little cottage in a meadow, Natsu laughing as she made coffee. She shook it free. She’d known this boy for a week and the king on the throne was mad. She didn’t have time for stupid daydreams.

Natsu exhaled deeply, taking his hand from her knee to rub it over his face. He looked tired, worn out by stress. It was only nine in the morning. Lucy smiled, patting her lap.

“Take a nap,” she told him. He eyed her skeptically, like she had lost her mind.

“Ichiya has been assassinated, my family is in hiding, and the king is crazy, and there’s nothing any of us can do about it,” he summed up bluntly. “And you want me to take a nap?”

She laughed, throwing her head back. She tapped his forehead with her index finger, smile teasing. “You love to sleep, I don’t see the problem.”

Natsu blinked. Then he shrugged, stretching out and depositing his head in her lap. She tangled her fingers in his hair, marveling at the softness of the strands as she pulled her fingers through it slowly, raking her nails against his scalp lightly. He practically purred, eyes fluttering shut.

“Thanks, Luce,” he mumbled drowsily. It always amazed her how quickly the boy could fall asleep. “I hope you’re okay; I know your dad is…” he trailed off. An explanation was unnecessary.

Lucy huffed. She stared down at his face, where a smile was slowly appearing as she continued to carefully scratch his head. A smattering of freckles across the bridge of his nose drew her eyes and she smiled. She glanced at his ears, where his usual earrings were placed. She sometimes forgot he even had them pierced; the earrings were small, simple metal things with his family’s sigil engraved on them. She had no doubt Gajeel had done them; his own face was covered in metal piercings, earning him the affectionate nickname of “Metal Head”. He growled whenever any of them used it but she had a feeling he secretly enjoyed it.

“I’m alright,” she hummed. “You guys have it much worse.”

Natsu didn’t respond, his breath evening out. Before she knew it, he was asleep.

“Levy,” Lucy whispered, eyes flitting to a pair of boys at the other side of the gym. “Those boys won’t stop staring at you.”

Without looking where Lucy had nodded her head, Levy shook her head, brow furrowed as she fiddled with the laces of her shoes. She straightened, hands moving to her hair to tie it back.

“Oh, that’s Jet and Droy. I met them the day we moved in. They’re quite nice, if a little overly friendly.”

Lucy hummed, turning back to the center of the gym. The names were unfamiliar to her so she was guessing their families were small. Gildarts Alberona stood in the middle of the room, grinning at them all. Although he was the official school librarian, he also taught the sparring classes. He was a big man, dressed in workout gear and casually leaning against a polished wood staff. He watched as the stragglers filed in, all dressed in workout gear. It was their first actual sparring class and Lucy couldn’t deny she was excited. Though the boys were all much more “fired up” as Natsu put it. They were practically vibrating next to her and she swore Natsu’s body temperature had spiked by at least five degrees. Standing next to him was almost like standing next to a heater at that point and she resisted the urge to tell him to calm down. The eager gleam in his eyes made him look happier than she’d seen him all weekend and she figured he could blow off some steam after everything that had happened. They all could.

“Right, welcome to your sparring class. I’m Gildarts, as most of you know. Today we’ll just be doing a general get to know you. I’ll pair you up randomly and the class will watch you spar to get a feel for everyone’s abilities and magic. And yes, I said magic because you are allowed to use magic in this. I’m here to make sure no one gets to crazy so just remember that if you get a little too heated. No broken bones, light contact only. The spar is over when one of you is knocked off the mat or pinned down.”

The class stirred restlessly as he began calling out names. Lucy bounced on the balls of her feet as a light warmup. She’d been trained in hand-to-hand combat, though probably not as thoroughly as some of her classmates. Her magic was distance magic and she would probably have little use for learning wrestling or anything like that. Her contracted spirits wouldn’t let anyone reach her too easily. Still, she toyed with the idea of asking one of the boys to tutor her. Things were about to get a lot more complicated and if the worst-case scenario happened…

Well, they could all use a few lessons and Lucy liked to be prepared.

She straightened as her name was called.

“Heartfilia and Orland, you’ll be sparring.”

She winced internally as Minerva threw her a nasty glare. She wasn’t too eager to go against someone who held an obvious, if somewhat groundless, grudge against her. Lucy wasn’t sure what she’d done that had pissed the girl off so much but she hoped the hostilities faded with time. She didn’t fancy making an enemy out of the incredibly influential Lord Orland’s daughter. Her father wouldn’t like it at all, considering they were both strong supporters of the king, and it wouldn’t exactly make her time at the school pleasant. Not to mention the rift it would cause in their dorm.

She wanted to laugh when Levy and Gajeel’s names were called. It was hilarious to see the affronted expression on Gajeel’s face and the absolute glee on Levy’s.

“That’s just not fair to the Shrimp,” Gajeel muttered and Levy rolled her eyes.

Natsu was paired with Sting and the two boys grinned maniacally at each other.

“Rematch, cousin?” Sting leered. Natsu rolled his neck, letting the joints pop loudly, one by one.

“Anytime, Sting,” Natsu growled. Lucy rolled her eyes, turning back to their teacher as the first spar started. Boys.

The spars passed quickly until they reached Lucy’s. She swallowed, the nerves in her stomach beginning to really act up. Minerva would play dirty and she wouldn’t go easy on Lucy at all. Natsu seemed to sense her anxiety and he squeezed her hand, sending her a reassuring smile.

“Kick ass, Luce,” he grinned and she giggled, shaking her head.

“Thanks,” she answered gratefully, squeezing his hand back. Gajeel and Gray nodded at her encouragingly and Levy let out a quiet cheer, Juvia smiling brightly.

“You can do it,” Juvia whispered. Lucy smiled at the group, giving them a little wave as she stepped up the mat. Minerva waited for her, weight on one leg, manicured hand resting on her waist.

“No weapons, just magic,” Minerva demanded instantly, eyes narrowed. Gildarts glanced at Lucy to see if she’d accept the terms and she nodded back. She preferred it that way, if she was being honest. Minerva was the vicious type who wouldn’t hold anything back and Lucy didn’t quite feel like having to get mean in return in front of their entire grade. She hated losing and she would hate it even more if it happened because of the bratty, spiteful heiress opposite her.

She’d already chosen a demon while she’d waited to be called and she mentally ran over the words she would need to summon him. Demons or spirits, the words were synonymous really. She’d formed contracts with a few while growing up, mostly under the direction of her grandmother before she passed away. Some had been contracted to her mother as well and had welcomed the opportunity to work alongside her. Not all of them would be useful in battle and Lucy knew there were a few high-powered spirits that didn’t form contracts and could only be summoned once during a certain period of time. Her magic required the memorization of virtually hundreds of summoning spells and the varying personalities and abilities of their demons that she would need to be able to recall at any moment, and she had barely a quarter mastered. Another reason she wanted to learn more hand-to-hand techniques. She wasn’t anywhere close to even being proficient with her magic, despite Virgo’s assurances to the opposite. It wasn’t enough.

She was drawn from her musings at a word from Gildarts, who reminded them of the rules before stepping back. Lucy’s magic stirred restlessly at her fingertips as she began her summoning spell. Minerva merely waited, sneer still fixed on her pretty face.

Lucy thanked her grandmother for teaching her how to mentally Chant, giving her an advantage since her opponent wouldn’t know which spirit she was summoning when.

Taurus, demon o’ mine, contracted to me, I summon thee, she chanted. In a flash of light, he appeared, a great bull who laughed boisterously as he appeared. The entire class jumped, startled by his appearance.

“Who is our opponent today Mistress?” the bull shouted with an enormous grin, hefting his enormous axe in one hand as he grinned eagerly at Minerva, who had not moved.

“Just a spar, Taurus, go easy,” Lucy murmured uneasily. Minerva hadn’t twitched and it was making her nervous. Taurus seemed to sense her nerves and he squinted at the girl who waited, eyes narrowed with concentration.

“Piece of cake,” Taurus shrugged and he rushed forward, laughing loudly. Lucy felt a rush and a sickening jolt and suddenly she was slamming to the floor in front of Taurus, who barely stopped himself from swinging at her with his axe.

“What in the hell,” Lucy snarled, glancing at Minerva, whose face was still infuriatingly calm. She’d teleported, switching their positions. Lucy stood quickly, ignoring the way her head spun. She was going to need a different strategy. Spatial magic like that couldn’t work on a target that was moving and that’s what she did, breaking into a sprint.

“Taurus,” she called and he was a flurry of movement too, rushing Minerva once more as Lucy moved to the side. Minerva didn’t flinch, or say any spells, as Taurus’ axe disappeared from his hands and dropped at Gildart’s side. The teacher blinked at it, shaking his head briefly before turning his attention back to the fight. Taurus didn’t slow, however, and Lucy watched as he released a battle cry, fist outstretched to strike Minerva square in the stomach. The girl was gone in a flash, suddenly at Lucy’s side. The blonde barely had time to suck in a breath before Minerva’s foot was in her face, sending her sprawling.

“We agreed no weapons,” Lucy spat, rolling as she hit the floor and springing to her feet, ignoring the pain on her cheek.

“I didn’t use a weapon,” Minerva sneered and the class stirred, anger flitting around the room at the deceit. Lucy cursed herself for not seeing the loophole sooner, raising her hands into a defensive position, standing lightly on the balls of her feet. Taurus was suddenly behind Minerva, axe in hand, and he swung. Minerva ducked, rolling forward and stretching a hand out. The axe disappeared once more and Lucy could’ve laughed at the annoyance in Taurus’ face. The room was beginning to heat up and Lucy could feel sweat dripping down her face. She glared at Minerva, who shrugged innocently.

“I like warm weather,” she laughed and Lucy groaned internally. She was beginning to get a pretty good grasp on Minerva’s magic and it was daunting. It was a bad match for Lucy’s own magic.

Growling, Lucy moved forward, hand outstretched. “Signa!” she cried, watching as a flash of light hit Minerva square in the chest, sending her flying backwards toward Taurus, who grabbed her in one hand and slammed her to the floor. She thanked her tutors for teaching her a few offensive spells as she continued forward.

Minerva disappeared from under Taurus’ hand and Lucy spun instantly, blocking the punch Minerva had aimed for the back of her head. She threw a kick and smiled with satisfaction at the gasp Minerva gave when it made contact with her stomach. Taurus rushed by her, grabbing Minerva’s shoulder and sending her flying once more. She landed on the mat still, unfortunately, and Lucy wasted no time in moving once more, determined to end the spar.

Minerva raised her head, snarling, and Lucy didn’t have time to blink before the air exploded in front of her, blinding her as she hit the floor. Gasping, she rolled, feeling Minerva’s foot land where she had been. She heard another bang and Taurus’ huff of pain, knowing Minerva had thrown the same spell at her demon. She rolled to her feet, panting, attempting to find Minerva in the smoke. Another explosion at her side sent her back to the floor. So that was why Minerva had been heating the air, she thought grimly.

“Enough playing nice,” Minerva snapped. Lucy watched as she held her hand out, index finger pointed at Taurus who had found his axe and was sprinting toward her.

“Back!” Minerva shouted and suddenly Taurus was gone. Lucy gasped as the wind was torn from her lungs. She’d never seen anyone send a demon back to their world without the Master’s permission but it was exactly what Minerva had done. She didn’t have time to think about it, however. Minerva turned back to her, cruel smile on her face.

“Just you and me, Heartfilia,” she snarled. Lucy jumped to her feet. Minerva shouted another spell she couldn’t quite hear before suddenly she was being attacked on all sides, blows landing on her head, back, stomach, everywhere. She cried out in pain, her head snapping back as Minerva’s fist suddenly made contact with her nose. Blood sprayed the air and she faintly heard Gildart’s voice calling for a halt before Minerva’s knee made contact with Lucy’s gut. Gasping, she doubled over, taking a knee to the face that sent her sprawling. The floor beneath her back was hard and cold and she realized she was off the mat. Natsu’ voice was roaring something she couldn’t hear and then Minerva was on top of her, her weight pinning Lucy down as she drew her arm back for another punch.

Then Gildarts was there, a look of anger on his face that would have chilled Lucy if she wasn’t dizzy with pain.

Minerva was plucked from Lucy like a child, Gildarts throwing her away from Lucy with one hand. He leaned over the blonde, face concerned.

“Heartfilia?” he asked, voice warbled, like they were underwater. Natsu’s face appeared next to his, dark eyes suddenly turning into four dark eyes. Lucy squinted. That wasn’t right, people had two eyes, didn’t they? She couldn’t remember for sure. She could feel the stickiness of her blood all over her face. She realized vaguely that she probably looked disgusting but she couldn’t summon the energy to care.

“Lucy?” Natsu asked. She giggled.

“Your voices sound funny,” she laughed and watched as they exchanged worried glances.

“Take her to the nurse, Dragneel,” Gildarts sighed.

Lucy felt herself being lifted and she let her head roll back against Natsu’s shoulder. The swaying movements as he walked made the darkness in her head come rushing forward and the last thing she heard before blacking out was Natsu’s voice telling her to stay awake.

Lucy woke up slowly, wincing at the pounding in her head. Her eyelids were heavier than her textbooks and her mouth was dryer than it had ever been and she refused to open her eyes, afraid the light would split her head open.

“Drink,” a voice demanded and a cup was pushed against her lips. She swallowed the cool water gratefully, the soothing feeling against her throat nearly sending her back to sleep.

“Don’t fall asleep again, stupid girl, I’ll give you something for the headache.”

A few moments later a couple of pills were pushed into her hand and Lucy used the water to swallow them. The relief was instantaneous and she slowly opened her eyes. She was in the nurse’s office. Curtains covered the windows so the room was dim, thankfully. Plue lay next to her bed; he raised his head to look at her, whining softly. She smiled at him reassuringly and he whined once more, his energy in her chest restless. She knew he was probably upset he hadn’t been there to protect her. Porlyusica glared at her from the side of her bed, mouth set in a straight line. Lucy had forgotten she was the school nurse.

“Concussion,” the woman confirmed, folding her arms against her chest. “For your sake, and mine, I won’t tell you pain of a father about this. He’d hound me for weeks and no doubt make your life miserable.”

Lucy smiled weakly, closing her eyes again. She didn’t even want to imagine what would happen if her father heard about this. It was shameful, that his daughter was so easily bested in a mere sparring match.

“I brought the swelling in your face down and fixed that pretty nose of yours so you just need to worry about the concussion. You’re to rest here until dinner; no more classes for the day.”

Her tone invited no argument and Lucy nodded mutely.

“No sleeping,” Porlyusica snapped before standing, leaving the room quietly. Her bedside manner left something to be desired Lucy thought.

Her eyes opened again and she wished she had her journal to write in, if only to pass the time. She had no books and a glance at the clock told her that her dorm mates were likely in the middle of class. She imagined the nurse had probably had a rather difficult time forcing Natsu back to class and smiled at the mental image. No sooner had the thought crossed her mind than the door opened once more and in walked the devil himself, eyes lighting up when he saw that she was awake.

“Luce,” he cheered quietly, mindful of her concussion, taking a seat on the chair by her bed. “How are you feeling?”

Lucy groaned and he winced. Their hands joined so naturally that Lucy almost didn’t notice it, appreciating the feel of his rough fingers between hers. His hand was warm and she raised it to press the back of it against her cheek, relishing in the contact. He watched her with a small smile on his lips, dark eyes bright.

“Minerva?” she croaked, lowering his hand. Natsu handed her another cup of water and she downed it gratefully.

“Probably still getting chewed out by Makarov. Gildarts was pissed,” Natsu answered. “I think Levy was ready to slit her throat.”

Lucy snorted at the image of tiny Levy taking Minerva down, which actually wasn’t too hard to imagine. The blue haired girl could be vicious when she wanted to be.

“How did your fight go?” she asked. Natsu grinned, sharp canines peeking out from beneath his lip.

“I killed ‘im,” he boasted and she laughed lightly.

“Who won Gajeel and Levy’s?” she suddenly gasped, having forgotten they’d been paired up.

Natsu burst into laughter. “Levy,” he snickered. “She put him flat on his ass. You should’ve seen it Luce, it was great.” Lucy giggled alongside him, the mental image hilarious. She winced as her headache acted up again. She pressed a hand to the side of her head, massaging her temple gently.

“I’ll kill her,” Natsu growled suddenly, making her jump. His voice was low and he was staring at her with an intensity that made her skin heat up. He looked positively murderous. “Nobody should get to lay a hand on you like that, Lucy.”

“It’s my fault for being so weak,” she half-joked, avoiding his eyes. Another growl ripped from his chest, nearly animalistic. Plue raised his head at the sound of it, checking to be sure Lucy wasn’t in any danger before lowering it once more.

“You’re not weak, Lucy,” Natsu murmured, voice gentle once more. He raised his other hand to cup her face with, forcing her to look him in the eye. Her headache seemed to fade at the light pressure. “You’re anything but weak.”

The air stilled. Lucy watched him with wide eyes. His face was open, earnest. Sincere. There was no pity in them, no disgust at her weakness. Her father would have been angry, revolted by her. Natsu just seemed worried. Happy to see her, happy to be next to her. She raised her other hand to place it over his, leaning into his warm touch. Her eyes fluttered close and she listened to his breathing, even and steady. They sat like that for a few moments, quietly. His hand suddenly moved away from her face and she opened her eyes quickly, confused and a little hurt. He stood, nudging her over so he could sit on her bed. He settled down next to her, putting his arm around her shoulders and pushing her head down to his shoulder gently.

She smiled, closing her eyes again. The sound of their breathing filled the air. She could almost forget everything that had happened that day, that week. Natsu was solid and comforting beside her, his arm offering her protection and safety she hadn’t felt for a long time. It was almost as if Natsu’s presence kept away all the bad in the world. She hummed, shifting so she was more comfortable, head tucked into the crook of his neck. He placed his cheek on top of her head. No more words needed to be said and she felt time slip away from her, marked only by the rise and fall of Natsu’s chest. They fell asleep quickly.

[fresh-princess-is-here]

Nalu Week: Prompt 4

Body Language

Prompt #4

Rating: M+ (sexual innuendo, indecent words)

Words: 1,689

“I’m telling you, she wants me.” Loki stated, eyeing a woman across the bar who short brown hair and a heated look on her features. Natsu flicked his eyes up from his phone, then back down, fighting an eye-roll.

“No, what she wants is her ex-boyfriend to stop talking to the redhead.” He informed helpfully.

Loki turned to him, giving him a sharp, interested glare, “How do you know that?”

“Because she walked past thirty minutes ago, talking to her friend about how it wasn’t technically stalking since it’s an open area and it’s purely by coincidence she’s in the same bar as he is,” Natsu began, taking a long sip of his drink, the alcohol burning down his throat in that familiar way, before continuing, “And for the last fifteen minutes she’s been downing shots of tequila, probably to work up the courage she needs to confront him.”

“It’s weird how you do that.”

“Do what?”

“Read people… And listen into their private conversations.”

“Nothing is a private conversation these days,” Natsu replied, bored out of his mind, before giving something for Loki to chew on, “But, since she’s obviously still hung up on him, maybe you can take one for the team and make the ex jealous.”

“That would still leave me high and dry.”

“Not if you play your cards right. Her friend is cute. She’ll either pity you for trying or think you’re a creep.”

“I’m still not following your logic.”

“He’s trying to tell you that even though she might perceive you as a creep, you can change her mind. Besides, if all the creeps in the world didn’t get sex, than we wouldn’t be suffering overpopulation in this bar.” A sweet voice slid over to them as the woman on the other side of Loki crossed her legs, flicking her blonde, long hair over her shoulder.

Hot, Natsu thought, eyes moving over her body slowly in a look of appreciation.

Warm brown eyes flickered over Loki, a considering long look before she returned to her cocktail, dressed in a tight red dress, that slid up her thighs when she shifted, revealing creamy skin and toned muscles. She lifted the stemmed glass to her pink lips, taking a swift sip.

“It has a chance of working. Odds are six to ten. Depending on factors like her type, inebriation and whether she’s in the mood.” She commented afterwards, staring at her drink thoughtfully.

Loki slid closer to her, obviously recognizing her as a stunning member of the opposite sex, “And what are the chances of us working out?”

“Negative zero. But the attempt will be amusing.” She replied back without missing a beat and the arousal Natsu felt mixed with amusement, as he turned back to his glass, motioning the busy bartender for another.

Loki took the message - for once, Natsu noticed - slapping Natsu on the back, with a parting open farewell (just in case he struck out) and then walked over to the two women. Natsu watched with a small amount of interest before thanking the bartender who refilled him.

“Are you psychologist?” The woman’s curious question voice caused made Natsu to glance over at her, getting lost in the curve of her tits and the twist of her lips.

“No. I’m a mechanic. I’m just good with people.”

One perfectly plucked eyebrow arched up, “Define ‘good with people’. Because your friend made it seem like you analyse people or something..””

Natsu chuckled lowly, turning to her person slightly more fully, as she leaned over the seat separating them, a curious expression on her face.

“I notice things that other people mostly don’t. Little things, like dialect, tell-signs, body language for example.I didn’t take a course or train for it, it’s just something I do.”

“That must make you one hell of a poker player.” She smiled a little, as Natsu laughed, giving a modest shrug even though yes, he used his peculiar talent of attention to detail to assist in swindling his friends out of hundreds.

“You offering a match because the buy-in has to be large to keep me interested.” He joked.

“I don’t play a lot of money-based gambling games. Strip poker is more my speed.” She admitted, and Natsu saw the truth there, the way her cheeks burnt, and how her body leaned in closed. His blood boiled in excited arousal at what he saw there.

She was interested.

It had been a while since a woman showed anything of the sort to Natsu, he had a been experiencing it of a dry streak and work had swallowed any attempt of a social life.

He carefully thought about how to proceed and decided a woman like the one beside him deserved every ounce of charm he could offer.

Admittedly it wasn’t much.

“Not a big risk taker?” Natsu asked, still struggling how to work this to his advantage, when she laughed, the noise husky and sweet.

“One would say baring yourself to another being is a bigger risk than money.”

Now Natsu was thinking about her bare, and his dick stiffened at the imaginary image floating through his mind. The words left his lips before he could stop them.

“Depends on the confidence of the person. Would you say you are confident when it comes to baring yourself?”

She pursed her lips playfully, but Natsu could tell she was only being coy and not truly thinking about his question. Then she leant in, resting her hand on the seat between them, tilting her head to whisper to him. Natsu found himself crowding in also, letting her lips brush his ear in a soft intimate confession.

“I like to think I’m quite confident on how good my body looks naked. How about you?”

Lust simmered inside of Natsu, making his gut tight and his pants tighter as he leaned back, eyes flicking down purposely to her full pink lips. Her tongue peaked out, licking along her bottom lip, obviously catching his attention there.

“Let me buy you a drink.”

Lucy, as she had dutifully informed him, placed her hand on his arm and laughed along to something he said, her touch soft and warm against his bare forearm. Natsu felt her lean in, talking over the loud music blaring now that the ‘party’ atmosphere had awakened.

But to Natsu, it could have just felt like it was him and Lucy, sharing bedroom eyes and stories about their lives. What he had learnt so far is Lucy was a financial advisor, had a puppy golden retriever who was overly fond of her shoes and didn’t have any family left that were worth mentioning.

”So, you really think that in a few years, science and technology will allow us to go onto another planet and start over?” She smiled, looking at his as if he was crazy and honestly, Natsu didn’t mind. As long as she was looking at him.

“Yes.” Natsu grinned, “You telling me that you wouldn’t like to live on Mars or something?”

“I suppose, but to Martians I’d be really ugly… and I don’t know if I could handle that.” She winked, finishing off her cocktail and Natsu chuckled softly, also finishing his, while tracking the bartender down for another. It took a few times to grab his attention but he managed before turning back to Lucy, looking deep into her warm brown eyes.

“Well, if it’s any consolation, I think you’re stunning. Martian beauty standards and all.”

Lucy bit down on her lip, a pleased flush sprinkling her cheeks, making her skin glow even more under the light. She leaned closer, ignoring the bartender who was quietly refilling his drink and making her another.

Whatever she was about to say - something Natsu had been awaiting eagerly for - was cut off when Loki appeared, apparently haven struck out.

“No good buddy?” Natsu asked, despite his annoyance of being interrupted as Loki sat down beside him, waving at the bartender and ordering a rather strong drink.

“It was going so well too, but the minute I mentioned how desperate for a good time she looked, she shot me down.”

Natsu shook his head at his friends stupidity before feeling Lucy slowly slide her hand down from his arm, and place it on his thigh. He glanced at her through the corner of his eyes, head still tilted towards Loki as she smiled up at him, arching her eyebrow and biting her lower lip.

Heat filled him, making his cock twitch in his jeans, and he turned back to Loki, “That’s tough man.”

“It happens.” Loki shrugged, “The good news is that now we can turn this into a guys night. Especially since I’m not getting some.”

Natsu cleared his throat softly, leaning into Lucy’s grip on his thigh as her fingers trailed down his jeans, trying to ignore the fact that Loki assumed that if he wasn’t getting any, Natsu wasn’t either.

Lucy reciprocated this situation for him, by peeking over his shoulder, “I’m sorry, but Natsu is getting some. If he wants it that is.”

Loki’s eyes widened as Natsu smothered his smile, leaning down to brush his lips against her ear, “I want.”

Lucy’s smile was beautiful, sweet and filthy all at the same time as she tilted her body towards him, tucking her hair behind her ear with a heat in her eye that threatened to melt him alive.

“Want to get out of here?”

“I want that too.”

Lucy set about finishing her drink in one smooth gulp, and gathering her purse, pulling her black coat on around that sinfully tight dress of hers.

Natsu turned to Loki, climbing out of his seat, giving him a firm slap on the back, “Sorry man but… sorry.”

Loki gaped at him, squawking in an indignant tone, “What sort of friendship is this?”

“Take one for the team,” Natsu grinned, shrugging on his jacket also as Lucy slipped her hand against his, lacing their fingers together. Loki watched him with a look of outrage but Natsu was slowly being lured away, by the vixen in the tight red dress.

“Come on.” Lucy giggled, as Natsu threw a definite farewell over his shoulder, following her through the night-life of the bar. She glanced over her shoulder at him once or twice, sending him a naughty little smile, her hips swaying, fingers tightening around hers and he stopped them just outside the entrance.

He drew her close, unable to control himself when it came to her body language.

This is part one of a three part process for Nalu Week 2017. All the stories will be linked.

Hope you enjoyed!

Stay fresh!

xo freshprincess

[squisherific]

Chapter 538: Gruvia Thoughts

I hope you anons don’t mind being grouped together.

Yes, I did read the chapter, and I feel the same way, anon #2, I was VERY comforted by the moment with Gray, but I’ll get into that more in a bit.

As for my thoughts, anon #1, technically my thoughts are “!!!!!!!AGGUHGGYFTDDTGUH!!!!!!” haha!

But more articulately, I reblogged a bunch of posts that did a wonderful job explaining everything I also feel about the chapter and that moment. ^__^

So, I’m just going to expand on some things from my POV. But first I have to mention a headcanon I shared with my friends a couple of weeks ago, about what I WISH would happen after the book of END stuff was wrapped up, and that’s also partly why I’m so happy with this!

Basically, after Natsu and Lucy had their angsty moment, I wanted Gray to excuse himself (because all the other ships had their privacy during their angst, so Nalu need it, too) by saying, there’s someone he needs to go find. And hearing this, Lucy and Happy (and maybe Natsu) cheekily ask “Juvia?”And that stops Gray in his tracks, and with a bit of tsun he admits blushingly, yes Juvia, there’s something he needs to tell her. 

So, the above is what I WANTED, but I was 1000% sure we wouldn’t get any of that. Because why would Mashima be that nice during such a long drought of Gruvia? 

But INSTEAD, we got THIS. THIS THIS THIS!!!! This is SO MUCH BETTER than what I was dreaming of. Gray didn’t need to be prompted to mention Juvia. When talking about what they wanted to do now, he admitted ON HIS OWN TRUTHFULLY that he wanted to apologize PROPERLY to Juvia! This is what has been on his mind. This is the first thing he thinks about. It feels so gooooodd. ;_;

Not only that, but an APOLOGY! WHAT-NOW-HUH?! 

OK, so I think most gruvia fans ever since Avatar have been DYING for a proper apology from Gray. We never got it. And after everything that happened in this arc, especially Lost Iced Shell, we’ve been craving another one. But, for me? I had NO HOPE for an apology. Not a bit. 

So, the fact that a mention of ANY apology was made, already I’m floored, and so happy. Yes, the flashback panels we got were of 499, but you know what? That’s fine to me, because I did want Gray to talk to Juvia slightly about 499 before running off after Zeref, and we never got it. So, I’m going to be happy with anything Gray chooses to apologize for at this point. 

And I LIKED seeing those 499 panels, because it reemphasized that there’s unfinished business there. It’s obvious Gray still feels terrible about hurting Juvia, even though he couldn’t help it. And he probably feels the worst about not being able to save her/prevent her death, while she was able to save his life. We know Gray has this feeling of failure hanging over him, over the lives lost on his account, or because he felt powerless to prevent them. Juvia, as we saw from his reaction after her “death” was a BIG one for Gray. That RAGE. That GRIEF. And what they made him DO against, not just his enemies, but also his FRIENDS. 

So, an apology? Any apology? BRING IT. It’s already more than I hoped for, and that is brilliant. YES PLEASE. Also, as @thatsvicchan mentioned, it IS a parallel to when Juvia wanted to apologize to Gray about “killing” his father in Tartarus, and THAT lead to my favorite Gruvia moment EVER, the boob hug lol. SO, I have really high hopes for this, because not only are we starting off from Gray’s side this time (he wants to find HER for ONCE), but we know it’s going to end up with CANON GRUVIA. We got a hug last time, sooo can we please have that KISS?! They need it. They deserve it. And so do we!

Now, probably my other favorite thing about this moment, is Gray’s FACE. THAT FACE!!!! That face is EVERYTHING. Some people mentioned Gray looks like he’s blushing, but I just see dirt. Gray is nervous (hence the awkward scratching of his face), and excited (hence the SMILE). Like @dooshiedoosh mentioned, that face is getting ready for WAY more than just an apology! 

Gray knows what he’s getting ready to do, and I love that there’s a nervous kind of energy about him. It’s something he’s looking forward to. It’s something he WANTS to do. He NEEDS to do. This is about his feelings. His emotions. What he’s been holding off on since at least the time he and Juvia were living together IMO. He told her to wait for his answer in 453. He was ready then. He’s even more ready now. This is his future he’s about to embrace, and that face is perfection. It just is. 

Smiley, nervous Gray thinking about Juvia, and wanting to talk and apologize to her. This is what came to his mind when thinking about what HE wants to do when this war is over. Juvia is his top priority, and conveying his feelings to her is his top priority. And I’m just so excited we got this reminder, because I know we wont get anything Gruvia-wise until Natsu (poor Natsu!) and Lucy (poor Lucy!) deal with whatever happened at the end of this chapter. Not to mention that Time Lapse crack (if Ichiya drops out of it, I’ll laugh so HARD).

Anyway, did I really just ramble THIS MUCH about just TWO panels in the new chapter? Yes, yes I did. Because I’m just that immensely happy haha. It feels so nice to be surprised with something more than you’d ever think you’d get for your ship. And it gives me such hope for canon, because if this is what we get when Gray is away from Juvia, imagine when he finally gets to talk properly with her? Within two months, IT’S HAPPENING. BRING IT ON!

[fallen029]

Accidents and Incidents.10: Proposition

Previous Chapter

The thing that bothered her the most was probably his attitude about the whole thing. He wasn't inconspicuous in the least bit. In fact, he was actually rather open about it, in his own creepy way.

"Afternoon, Lisanna," the seith said that first day, even giving her a half wave. His visor was down and his babies were floating around his head, but none of those attracted her attention. Not his dark attire and definitely not his tongue which hung in his usual precarious spot from his mouth.

No, instead, Lisanna's eyes were drawn to the flower pinned to his black cloak. Mainly become it looked like it was beginning to wilt and she had to wonder how long it'd been pinned on there. Definitely too long.

"New fashion statement?" she asked, gesturing to it.

"Eh?"

"Eh?" came the same sound from his five dolls. "Eh?"

"The fl- Never mind." Rolling her eyes, she leaned against the bar counter. "It's just me working today. Kinana's out sick and Mirajane's-"

"With the boss, I kn- Know what? I'm suddenly not thirsty."

For a moment the two just stared at one another, him through the bars of his visor and her through the deep blues she and her siblings shared though they were suddenly clouded with confusion.

"What did you just-"

"Err- Wow! Lucy! Hey." Suddenly he was turning and headed over to where he saw the blonde. At the sound of her name coming from his mouth, the celestial wizard let out a loud groan and a question of what she'd done wrong to deserve a visit from Bickslow while Happy, who was seated with her, just snickered something about how much she secretly loved the seith.

Lisanna only watched from behind the bar with a frown. Why would he say that Mirajane was with…the boss?

Makarov?

No. A quick glance down the bar told her that the man was seated atop it, in his usual meditative way, though it appeared that he was actually asleep and, nope, no Mirajane.

She said that she was going out on a job for the man though, so perhaps that's what the seith meant? Maybe?

Hmmm.

"Hey, Lisanna, you think you could lend me some jewels to then I give them to you to bring me some food?"

And Natsu had arrived from whatever mess he'd been causing elsewhere. He grinned too, as he took a seat in front of his long time friend, though her eyes were still lingering over at where Bickslow was purposely annoying Lucy and Happy was nearly dying from his excitement at their perceived flirting.

"Uh, Lisanna?" Natsu was not one to be ignored. More the one to do the ignoring usually. Craning his neck, he looked around. "Say, what are you-"

"Nothing." Shaking her head, she focused in on him finally. "I was just… You know Bickslow, right?"

"Yeah, sure. What about- Oh. Him and Lucy, huh?" Natsu sighed when he saw it. "I owe Happy some jewels. He bet me this would happen, but I just-"

"What? No." With a groan, she said, "He only went over there to bother her to get away from me."

"Oh." Natsu grinned at her. "You and Bickslow, huh?"

"Has Happy, like, infected you with the same annoying habit he has or what?"

"No," the man groaned before moving to rest his head on the bar. "I'm just hungry! And broke. Feed me."

"Why don't you go catch a fish?"

"I've been trying for hours," he grumbled. "But- Oh, hey. You could come with me and turn into a fish and lure the other fish to my fishing rod and then-"

"I'm not leading my brethren to their death."

"They're not your brethren. I am."

"They are if I'm a fish."

Heh.

"I'll feed you though," she sighed when she saw the look on his face. His eyes, however, were back over to where Lucy was putting on her usual fear of Bickslow shtick. Or at least he thought it was a shtick. "Just don't tell Mira that I'm giving away free stuff to you. Or Master Makarov."

Looking back at her then, Natsu said, "But what was it then?"

"Huh?" She'd turned, off to go make his meal, but glanced back at him when he spoke. "What are you talking about?"

"What's bothering you then? You mentioned Bickslow and then-"

"Oh, now you remember what I said?"

He sat up with a shrug. "What was it? He challenge you to a fight? You need me to take him on for you? I'm down. When and where? Now you say. Ha!"

"No, Natsu." She had to lean over the bar and grab his arm to keep him in his seat and not over there pounding into the seith. "I swear; you only use my words to entertain yourself."

Sometimes.

"What was it then?" He was slightly disappointed, but still managed to sound interested. "Lisanna?"

"Nothing." Releasing his arm, she took a step back. "I don't think. I just… Never mind. It's stupid. Here. Let me go make you your food, huh? Before Master wakes up and sees you not pay."

That was the last Lisanna had a chance to think of Bickslow. That day, anyway. Natsu occupied the rest of her time up at the hall, as well as Happy (once he finally finished fawning over the couple that absolutely no one other than him thought had a chance). It was nice. It beat working all day by herself, anyways.

However, the next day, Bickslow did something similar and she just couldn't ignore it.

Err, rather, his dolls did, technically.

She'd just opened and, that day, Kinana was there with her. They were both diligently trying to get the guild cleaned when he entered.

Which wasn't too odd. A lot of the more core members of Fairy Tail came in before opening at times, to get a crack at the jobs before the lower levels. Mira allowed almost anyone in once she got there and, well, Lisanna didn't feel up for arguing with an longstanding ruling.

"Hi, Bickslow," she called from behind the bar, where she was taking a stock the liquor. Kinana was off in the back, cleaning up the bathrooms (Mira usually did that, but without her…) "Did you need something?"

He didn't even fully come over to the bar before he began to speak. "Actually, it's about Freed. See, I haven't been able to get in contact with him through the lacrima and neither has Ever or Laxus, so-"

"The boss!" His babies went crazy at that name. "The boss!"

Bickslow though, used to their usual cries, didn't notice. Lisanna did though, tuning out of most of what he said as she frowned.

Laxus…was the boss?

Then that meant that her sister was with Laxus.

But why?

Huh?

He'd been gone long before Mirajane took off. Lisanna remembered being the one to process his S-Class job a few months back before when Makarov was busy and Mirajane was cleaning up a mess down in the bookroom.

"You sure you can handle this?" he asked as he handed the flier off to her. "Kid?"

"I'm not a kid, Laxus," she complained as he only stood over her, watching diligently, as if half hoping she'd screw up so that he could make fun of her. "I'm just as grown as any of you."

"I thought that ghosts were trapped in the age that they died in?"

"I'm not ghost!"

"You sure?" And then he had to reach out and poke at her face. "You're actually Lisanna, huh? Lisanna Strauss? Not an imposter?"

"Do we have to go over this every time we talk?"

Yes. They most definitely did.

That was actually the last that Lisanna had thought about the man. Other than the Thunder Legion, others didn't bring him up often. Since she could remember, back when she was a kid, he used to always take lengthy, hard jobs and not be seen for months at a time. It was just something he did.

It never occurred to Lisanna that what Mirajane was off doing had anything to do with Laxus.

Until then. And it hit her hard, too in that moment.

What could that job have to do with Mirajane? Was Laxus…in need of help? If so, why not send Erza? Or Nat… No. Just why not Erza? And why was the Thunder Legion still in town? Shouldn't they be flocking to him?

"-usually contact me," the seith went on, oblivious to her lack of listening. "I mean, heck, he's been gone forever! He usually doesn't do this. I mean, I know, we've all been trying to take solo jobs recently, the three of us, to prove that we're more than just the Thunder Legion, that we're great alone too, but-"

"W-What?" Lisanna finally glanced back at him. "Bickslow, what are you talking about? I wasn't-"

"Listening? Huh? Is that it? You weren't listening to me?" He tsked. "How shocking. No respect, babies. No respect."

"No," she insisted. "I was just-"

"I mean, what? Do I have to be Freed to keep your attention? Or Laxus? I'll have you know that I could capture your soul right now if I wanted to," he threatened. "Ignoring me. Do you not know who I am?"

"I was just-"

"The boss!" The babies were still fluttering around, going crazy over that word. "Con. Boss."

"Bickslow," Lisanna tried then, staring hard at him. "Are… Is the boss…Laxus?"

"Huh?" Suddenly, the darkness in his tone was gone. "What are you-"

"Is my sister with Laxus? What are they doing?"

"Eh…I… I didn't say anything! And you can't say that I did!" Just like that, Bickslow was turning to high tail it out of there. "So don't even try."

"No, Bickslow, wait. I just want to know-"

But he was gone. Kinana came rushing out from the back, at the sound of all the yelling, but Lisanna could only shake her head.

The other barmaid couldn't help her. No, there was only three people in her life that she could always rely on. And, as it was, Mira was gone and Elf was out on a job. That left only one. And he would do anything for her.

Anything.

"We'll fight him. Beat where Mirajane is out of him. Yeah?"

That was what Natsu said when she met up with him and Happy later, at Lucy's house. They were over there, bugging her like usual, but all three stopped to listen to Lisanna's story.

"Wait," Lucy said as Natsu jumped up from where he was seated on the floor, around her little table, flames blazing from both fists. "Natsu, sit back down. And Happy, stop flying in my apartment."

"I'm revving up," the Exceed complained. "You know, to fly Natsu out the window? To go rescue Mirajane?"

"We don't even know if she needs rescuing," Lucy insisted. To Lisanna, she only said, "You said that she asked you to leave her alone, right? And not ask any questions?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Then why-"

"I did ask though," she admitted. "After Bickslow left the bar this morning, I asked Master Makarov, when he showed up, if he knew where my sister was. And he got this really odd look on his face and told me that he sent her out on a job, but that she won't come back for some reason. I wanted to know more, but Erza arrived back from a job and he had to go speak with her about something and I just… I mean, I don't think that Mirajane's in trouble or anything. I just don't like that Bickslow's hiding stuff and that Mira wouldn't tell me what was going on. I mean, she didn't take stuff for a job."

"What are you talking about?" Lucy was keyed in on Lisanna then as Natsu, deflated by the celestial wizard's order he not go somewhere, fell back down on to the ground, Happy taking to landing on his head. "Lisanna?"

"When I found her in the house, packing," the other woman said. "She wasn't just taking things that you would take out on a job. She took, like, a movie lacrima and some of Elf's movies and… What could her and Laxus be doing with something like that? And why would she hide it? What sorta job are they on?"

For a moment, they all thought. Then, that time when Natsu popped up, it was with renewed energy.

"Let's go fight Bickslow for the truth!"

Lucy only groaned. "Seriously, guys, I don't think-"

"It is the only option," Lisanna agreed as she too got to her feet.

"What?" Lucy knew that the other woman was rather keen on doing whatever Natsu and Happy did, but to that extent? "Lisanna-"

"I don't mean really fight him," she insisted. "Just get him alone, question him-"

"Maybe take him hostage," Happy said as he took to flying around again. "If we have to."

Lisanna nodded. "If we must."

"You guys can't be serious." Getting to her feet as well, Lucy said, "I mean, come on. What do we really know? Nothing. We're not even sure if Bickslow knows where Mirajane is! We can't-"

"Gross, Lucy," Happy complained. "Just because you love him doesn't mean you have to condone everything he does."

"Yeah, Luce," Natsu complained as he headed over her window to push it open. "Keep your love life out of this."

"I'm not in love with him, dopes. But you guys can't-"

"We can and we will! Come on, Hap. Let's go!"

"We need a plan," Lisanna called after them as they left through the window. "Wait for me! I'll meet you downstairs."

Lucy though only glared at her. "You can't let them take him hostage."

"Of course not," she said, rushing after them. "Not alone anyways."

"Lisanna-"

"We're just going to question him. That's all."

"Yeah, well, have fun with th-"

"No way." She even took the mage's hand, dragging her along. "You're coming with us."

"What? Why would I-"

"To use your feminine wiles against Bick-"

"I'm not in love with him!"

Oh, Lisanna knew. But it was more fun to pretend that she didn't.

"Besides," she insisted. "You know that Natsu would ever let us do something like this without you."

"Something like this? What? You mean kidnapping? Lisanna-"

"Let's hurry before they ditch us."

Oh, because they just couldn't have that, could they?

It actually wasn't as simple as just jumping Bickslow though. Or just questioning him. If they approached him in the guildhall and a fight broke out, if he truly wanted to get away from them, it would be rather easy.

No. They had to get him by himself. And, as Happy pointed out, they had to find a way to where none of them could become under his control.

"Then he could fight back," the Exceed insisted to which Natsu nodded.

"He won't have a reason to fight back," Lucy reminded. They'd already gone over that on the way to the hall. "Because we're not going to attack him. Remember? Guys? Remember that? I'm serious, we're not-"

"Yeah, Luce, we hear you," Natsu complained, waving a hand at her. To Lisanna he only said, "We'll have to blindfold ourselves. All of us. Then he can't-"

"Natsu," Lisanna sighed. "If we were blindfolded, then how would we see?"

"Hmmm. This is quite the quandary." Glancing at his best friend, he said, "Thoughts? Hap?"

"We could cut eye holes in the blindfolds!"

"Yeah and then-"

"And then he could see our eyes and that would defeat the purpose," Lucy finished. "Now that we got the stupid ideas out of the way-"

"Hey," Lisanna began with a grin. "Why don't we just blindfold him?"

"What?" Lucy gave her a look. "You can't be-"

"Yeah!" Happy was excited by that for some reason. "That'll be great. And I bet you'd like it too, Lucy."

"What? Why would I-"

"I think you know."

"I do not! Would you stop-"

"Okay, so blindfold Bickslow and then question him," Lisanna said with a nod. "We just gotta get him out here though. Outside the guild. And, you know, I can't because he's already weary of me after this morning-"

"And I can't because…well…" Happy thought. "I just want Lucy to do it."

"Hey-"

"And I know that she does too."

"I do not!"

"So Lucy," Natsu decided. "You lure him out here and-"

"No way," she complained. "And besides, we're still on guildhall grounds. Just not in the building. You'll still cause a big fuss-"

"There he is!" Happy interjected suddenly. "Look!"

It was across the long property that they spotted him, over at one of the tables outside, speaking with Evergreen.

"Great," Lucy sighed, relieved. "Let's just go over there and ask him what- Where are you two going?"

Natsu and Happy, at the sight of him, took to running off.

"We gotta hide," the Exceed insisted. "He'd never come over here with us two brawny men around."

"Go seduce him into comn' over here, Luce," Natsu added.

"That has literally never worked any of the, oh, billions of time we've tried ti!"

"Then lose some weight."

Growling, she said, "Look, you stupid cat-"

"I believe in you, Luce," Natsu called his assurance over his shoulder, even sending her a thumbs up. "Good luck!"

"Thanks," she dryly responded. "That's really- Hey, Lisanna!"

"I have to go find something to blindfold him." She was headed towards the hall, no doubt hoping to find a dishrag or something. "Good luck. And remember, if he doesn't buy dinner, you don't have to put out."

"Why do you all insist on- And hey! How long are you planning to be-" Then Lucy sighed. "And she's gone. Great."

Sigh. It was bad enough when Happy and Natsu drug her into their dirty plans, but Lisanna too?

She wasn't certain what she was going to say as she approached the table Bickslow and Evergreen were at, but luckily, the other woman inadvertently saved her.

Namely, Elfman passed at the exact moment Lucy was going over and, Ever, knowing he just returned from his job, rushing to try and not be seen by him, but somehow also fall into step with him, ran right into Lucy.

"Oy, Ever," Bickslow groaned. "Try to be more careful."

Elfman took notice of the collision as well and rushed to help both women back to their feet. Which, honestly, was the last thing Ever wanted.

"There you go, Lucy," the overly muscular man said as, for Evergreen's taste, his hands lingered a tad too long on her arm. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she sighed, rubbing at his head. "I just-"

"She is fine, Elfman," Ever hissed as it was Bickslow that had to help her to her feet. "And so I am. Not that you care."

"What are you talking about? I was just about to ask you-"

"Well, you missed your opportunity!"

"Ever!"

And then the two them ran off to have…whatever they were having, leaving Lucy and Bickslow alone. Well, other than his dolls, who were floating around in concern.

"Fall," they sang. "Lucy fall."

"The two of them," Bickslow snickered, gesturing over at where Elfman then yelling at Evergreen about how she never respected him and, honestly, he didn't give a damn how she was anyways! "They never learn, eh?"

"I guess they don't," Lucy sighed as she smoothed over her skirt once more. "But, uh, that's what makes them so entertaining, right?"

"Guess so."

There was an awkward beat as the seith just stood there, staring at her, and Lucy tried to figure out just what she should say to keep him distracted (you know, so they could kidnap him or whatever stupid plan they were going with) and keep him around.

"Well, I guess I'll get back to it then," he said as he moved to take his seat again.

"It?" Lucy prompted.

"You know. Sittin'. Judgin'. Sippin'." He held up a bottle of whatever he had that had been resting on the table. "It."

"W-Well, that's definitely something to keep one's attention, sure," she said slowly. "But, uh, I-I actually had something that I wanted to show you."

"Show me?"

Nodding slowly, she tried to keep their conversation going. "You know…I…found a dying…animal behind the building and…I thought you might want it's…soul."

Because that, honestly, was one of the only things that Lucy knew about him; that people said he took things souls. Like dead animals. Apparently.

Ugh.

"A dead animal, huh?" Bickslow jumped right up. "We have to go save it. Take it's soul, what do you think I am?"

"Well, don't you take souls or-"

"Come on! Is it a dog? We gotta get it to a vet. Are you crazy? Just letting it die?"

"I just thought-"

"You psycho."

"M-Me? You're the one-"

"Come on! Where is it?"

"I…Just over…" And then she saw Lisanna as she turned, coming out of the building. Letting out a breath, she reached for the seith's hand and drug him that way. "I'll take you to him."

She passed Lisanna too, as she drug the seith along, his babies making noises the entire time. Catching the woman's eye, Lucy tried to make it obvious to her to follow along behind them, but honestly, after all she'd been through with her and Natsu that day, Lucy wasn't counting on anything.

"It was breathing really badly," she said as Bickslow just rushed along with her. "And…it was just sickly, you know?"

They were only just on the empty, unoccupied side of the building when Lisanna, who was sneaking along behind them, rushed up to the back of Bickslow and, reaching out, quickly knocked the visor off his head before tossing the towel over it.

"Hey! He growled. "What the-"

"Hush," she hissed against his ear, adrenaline pumping. It was such a rush, kidnapping someone. She was beginning to understand why people…

Err…um…well…

"Who is that?" Bickslow was fighting her and, honestly, was way stronger. Lucy had to help her keep him from throwing her off. "Huh? Who-"

"It's me, stupid. Lisanna. I-"

"Lisanna." Suddenly, just like that, he stopped struggling. His babies, who seemed thoroughly confused, just stayed motionless in the air, poised to start firing green bolts of energy at his command. "And Lucy. Blindfolding me."

"Yeah," the celestial wizard breathed. "We-"

"Well, all you had to do was approach me," the seith snickered. "And here? Behind the building? Very kinky, girls. I-"

"Ew, gross." Lisanna, who almost had the dishrag tied around his head, about dropped it. "What do you think-"

"Two sexy women like you? Ambushing me?" More snickers. "Well, I-"

"Maybe Lucy, but definitely not me."

"Why," the blonde groaned, "are you all so insistent on that? Huh?"

"Don't be embarrassed," Bickslow assured her. "And don't think that I want this blindfold thing. I like to see it all. I-"

"You're disgusting," Lisanna said, dropping her hands once she had it tied. "Truly."

"Yeah, well-"

"Great!" Natsu was running over then, around the building. "You guys got-"

"Awe, gross, nah." Finally Bickslow just reached up to remove the blindfold. "You two I'm down with, but a dude? Look, I'm into some crazy shit, but that's just-"

"We're not trying to have sex with you," Lisanna yelled at him which, honestly, was just awkward because, though they were out of everyone's immediate eyesight, they were not well away from others. Blushing from having to declare such a thing aloud in public, she whispered, "We want information."

"Info, huh? And you go about it by propositioning me for-"

"No one," Lucy said with a glare, "propositioned you. At all."

"Lucy might have." Happy had flown over too. "Maybe. Who knows?"

"I do," she complained. "And I didn't."

"You did hold my hand," the seith said. "That felt very proposition like."

"Yeah, well, it wasn't. So-"

"The point," Natsu complained, much more interested in tussling than hearing anything they were talking about, "was that we want to know where Mirajane is. Right now. Else I'll have to beat it outta-"

"What?" Bickslow was still rather worked up and only glared at them, eyes flashing green. "This is what you idiots jumped me about? Seriously?"

Huffing, Lisanna took to crossing her arms and looking off. "Well, you wouldn't tell me and-"

"Because I don't know, alright? I-"

"Liar," Natsu accused.

"Natsu," Lucy hissed. "He doesn't have on his visor. He can-"

"I don't care. He's lying." Coming closer, the Salamander only glared at the other guy. "I can smell her on you."

No one was expecting that. Not even Bickslow. It had been days since he'd seen Mirajane and Laxus. Surely the other mage's nose wasn't that strong.

Just what had the slayer magic done to him?

But Natsu was only glaring at the flower which Bickslow picked up on. And with a frown, he moved to unpin it from his chest.

"This?" he grumbled. "This is just something that she gave me. It means nothing!"

"Except," Lucy said slowly, "that you at least saw her. You know, for her to give it to you?"

Glaring over at her, Bickslow said simply, "I liked it better when we were going to be sleeping together."

"W-What?"

Happy only snickered. "Well, she does love you."

"Look, you stupid cat-"

"Where did you see my sister?" Lisanna asked. "With Laxus? What were they doing together? And why doesn't the Master, who's supposed to have sent them on this job, know what they're doing? Huh?"

"I don't know, right?" Bickslow insisted. "I just ran into them-"

"So you have seen her."

"Lisanna-"

"Just tell me what her and Laxus are doing together and I'll leave you alone."

"Or," Natsu tried. "We can just fight and-"

"Wait," Lucy intervened. "You said that they were together, right, Bickslow? When you saw them?"

"I didn't see-"

"Yes, you did," Happy accused. "Just admit it."

"Unless you wanna fight," Natsu enticed. "Because then-"

"Fight, huh?' Bickslow was bucking up then as well. "You did interrupt my threesome-"

"For the last time," Lucy groaned. "That was never-"

"No fighting." Lisanna rushed to stand between the two guys. She knew at that point that if they dissolved into a brawl, she'd never get her information. "Seriously. Just-"

"You promised," Natsu complained. "The only reason I did this was because-"

"Just," she insisted, staring up at Bickslow, not caring that his eyes were covered and she could very well become caught under his spell, "tell me where my sister is. Please. What is she doing with Laxus?"

"I don't know."

"Just tell-"

"Honest." He even threw his hands up in protest. Looking her back just as hard into her deep blues, he said, "I just saw them out. They were together and she had some flowers and it looked like they were on a date, but they weren't because I figured it out, right?"

"Flowers," his babies sang as, finally, they began to relax some. "Flowers."

"Right," the seith nodded. "She gave me one. When I was leaving. And-"

"What did you mean they weren't?" Lisanna prompted as Natsu just took to grumbling, annoyed that he'd been duped out of a fight. "Bickslow?"

"Eh?"

"You said that they weren't on a date," Lucy prodded as well. "You just did. But why did you know that?"

"Oh." Then he snickered as, finally, his face lost some of its tension, him smiling at the memory. "Because boss was in a chair."

"A what?"

"A chair," he told Lisanna. "You know a, uh, wheelchair. For the recon?"

"Recon?"

"Reconnaissance." Then he shrugged. "Or I guess that's what they were doing. I mean, what else could they be doing? Just some sort of scoop, I figure. Scope out a place, spy on someone. Whatever. I don't know. They said not to mention it though, so you guys better keep your traps shut. And I won't tell no one about how you wanted to sleep with me-"

"That never happened," Lucy complained. "And you know it."

Natsu looked to Lisanna then as she just stood there, staring down at the ground, thinking.

"Are you satisfied then?" he asked before bouncing slightly. "Can we fight now?"

Instead of pointing out that no one ever necessarily promised him a fight to begin with, she just whispered, "But that doesn't make any sense."

"Huh?"

"It doesn't," she began as she headed away from them then, "make any sense."

And it didn't. At all. Mirajane wouldn't have hidden something like that from her. And why did Master Makarov seem to know nothing about it?

What really bothered her, however, was the wheelchair thing.

What did that have to do with anything? Bickslow just dismissed it, but she couldn't.

And why were they on a date? Or whatever it was that they were on that the seith thought he had so figured out?

Maybe it was just her being the annoying younger sibling or just being nosey in general, but Lisanna headed back into the guildhall to ask Master just what it was that he knew and didn't.

His words stumped her even more though.

"Recon?" the man seemed to balk at the words from his position up on the bar. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Then what," Lucy prompted from where she stood next to Lisanna, having gone in there with the girl as she left the boys to that fight Natsu finally got out of the seith, "did you send Mirajane away for?"

"I didn't send her away for anything," Makarov said. "Not technically. More to pick something up."

"What?" Lisanna asked. "Master?"

He seemed conflicted for a moment before saying, "I wasn't supposed to mention it to anyone, but I'm so annoyed with them both right now-"

"What is it?"

Taking a breath, he said slowly, "Laxus was…in need. That's all I know. He contacted me and said that he was in a hospital-"

"A what?" Lucy's eyes grew. "Is he okay?"

"I do not know," the man said with a shrug. "He wanted Freed, but as you know, he's unavailable. The only one I could think of that might be of use to him was your sister, Lisanna, but now I've sent her off and I fear the two of them…"

Lisanna frowned. "That the two of them…what?"

"I honestly don't…" Makarov shook his head. "I don't know what they're doing. But if Bickslow knows where they are, then I wish one of you would go down there and bring them both back. If not my grandson, then definitely Mirajane. I did not send her off on a vacation after all. And I most definitely didn't give her leave to go play house with Laxus."

For a moment, both the women only stood there, too shocked for words. Then, face turning to a rare one of determination, Lisanna turned to head out of the bar.

"Where are you going?" Lucy called after her. "Lisanna?"

"Can you help Kinana with the bar for a bit?" was all she called over her shoulder. "I should be back in a day or two."

"S-Sure, but where are you-"

"To go get my sister, of course." Or to stop her before she made a horrible mistake. Lisanna liked Laxus enough, but… Gross.

Outside, she immediately went over to where Natsu and Bickslow had garnered a small crowd to watch them duke it out. And boy were they. The seith had Natsu pinned to the ground when she arrived, breaking right through the small group gathered to march over to the boys.

"What the- Lisanna!" Bickslow growled as she came over to grab him by the back of his cloak and pull him off Natsu. "What are you-"

"Lisanna," Natsu complained. "I was just about to beat him."

Happy, who was watching with the others, only snickered. "Yeah. You had him right where you wanted him; beating you into a pulp."

"That is not what was going on, little buddy."

"Was from my perspective."

Lisanna only dragged the shocked (and perhaps a bit willing), Bickslow along behind her.

"You," she told him finally, his babies frantically chasing after them, "are going to take me to my sister and Laxus. Right now."

"What? You're crazy. I-"

"It's happening," she sang, just continuing to tug him along. "So don't fight it."

"Lisanna, the boss doesn't want-"

"Don't care."

"He and your sister will-"

"Don't care."

"And I can't-"

"Still don't care. Now be quiet. You're on my nerves already."

Ugh.

"Look, woman," he finally growled, though he continued to allow himself to be dragged. "I don't think you understand. Laxus is not someone to cross. He-"

"I have direct orders from Master Makarov to go get them and, at the very least, bring my sister home immediately." She stopped, suddenly, right outside the gates. Letting him go, she pointed back at the hall. "You want to defy that man, you go right ahead. I'll be waiting."

Bickslow, scrambling to his feet, glanced over at the hall and shivered.

Fight Master Makarov? No thank you.

"Alright, fine," he grumbled, turning to look back at Lisanna. He'd long picked up his visor, but only pushed it up to glare down at her then as he said, "But we do this my way. Got it? It's my ass on the line here."

Lisanna only took a step back before gesturing off to the side. "Lead the way."

He snorted before setting off.

Damn Strauss. He didn't know how the boss was putting up with the other one for so long. Had to be Hell. Seriously.

Fanfic

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[theolddarkmachine]

SUPER LATE GAJEVY LOVE WEEK 2017: DAY 2- BODY SWAP

Hiiiiiii, have you ever seen the movie It's a Boy Girl Thing? 1) It's really good for being a random, low budget teen romcom and I def recommend checking it out on Netflix. 2) It's what inspired this. Also I wasn't too wildly happy with the last chapter because I felt like I copped out so I just want to apologize for that. Please also see note at end!

“Would you two shut up!” Natsu yelled, his flames escaping his control slightly as he snapped at Levy and Gajeel. The two had been arguing since they left the guild and honestly, he didn’t care that it was Gramps who had told him to take them along on this mission, he had had enough! The old man had had a strange twinkle in his eye when he’d asked him to bring them along, and it’s not that Natsu didn’t know what that look meant. That look meant nothing but trouble. He should know, he was the master of that look. But right about now when the Iron Dragon and Script Mage had been fighting incessantly for what seemed like hours, he was pretty sure he was going to burn the whole damn forest to the ground.

“Butt out, Flame Breath!” Gajeel barked, turning his attention to him instead.

“Yeah, Natsu, mind your own business!” Levy added just as angrily. What was that saying? Couples start to act like each other over time? If only they’d give in to the obvious tension between the two of them, maybe he wouldn’t have to listen to them with their big dumb mouths.

“I give up, you guys find your own way home!” Natsu yelled back, fire engulfing his hands as he threw them up and stormed away. They weren’t too far off from the guild hall anyway, if they couldn’t get home from here well that seemed like a personal problem. He’d done his part, they’d gone to the weird statue in the middle of the woods outside the hall, and found nothing out of the ordinary. Well, there had been that one moment where it seemed to have a surge of magic power, but given his comrades HAD STILL BEEN FIGHTING, he hadn’t paid it much mind. It was gone almost immediately anyway, so most likely nothing to worry about.

He hoped.

****

Levy was worried they may have overdone it with the show they had put on for Natsu when they’d joined him on his mission. Her and Gajeel had agreed to keep their relationship to themselves for awhile. It was honestly none of anybody’s business, but she couldn’t help but feel playing up their fighting would only make things more obvious.  But she was going to go along with it, if only because it was kind of fun to go at the dragon slayer. There was a small part of her that wished she could just hold his freaking hand in public though. Being secretive did have it’s moments where it was kind of fun and dangerous, however. She giggled to herself as Gajeel unlocked the door to his house.

“What’re you giggling about, shrimp?” He asked curiously as he pushed the door open and held it for he.

“Oh, nothing you should worry your pretty little head over,” she smiled up at him sweetly as she brushed past. He rolled his eyes and growled lowly, no real threat behind the sound. He couldn’t actually be mad at his little blue fairy, not that the rest of the guild needed to know that. He was enjoying the bubble they’d been living in and not having to share what they had with anyone else. A loud yawn tore itself from Levy’s mouth.

“I feel you, short stack,” he said in response, smothering his own yawn. “Let’s go to bed.”

****

The first thing Levy noticed when she started to stir awake, was that it was really freaking hot. Like, really hot. Was certain she was cooking from the inside out kind of hot. The second thing she noticed, was a really small arm slung across her waist. The third, and possibly most alarming, was what ever that uncomfortably hard thing was in her pants.

“Gajeel?” She said sleepily wiggling closer to the body behind her. There was only a moment between his name leaving her mouth and her eyes snapping open. Now, Levy wasn’t much of a morning person. Far from it, it took 45 minutes to an hour on a normal day for her to make it out of bed and to the kitchen and another 30-45 minutes before her coffee kicked in and she was able to actually partake in human contact. She was aware that sometimes, her voice could be a bit husky and low in the morning when used before that time. But the voice that she’d heard just now was not her own at all. It was, without a doubt, Gajeel’s.

“Yeah, Lev?” She heard her own voice respond from behind her as the small arm tightened around her waist. Since she had no idea what the fuck was going on, she was going to ignore the fact that Gajeel didn’t even seem to think twice about the fact she was clearly speaking with a man’s voice right now. The bluenette started to count the seconds before the moment of realization dropped. One Mississippi, two Missi- “What the fuck?!” If he’d had his own voice, she was sure that would have come out as a roar. With her voice it sounded, well, harmless. Flipping over, Levy found herself staring into her own horrified hazel eyes. If she was looking at herself, and Gajeel seemed to be her, then it only stood to reason that...

She shakily brought a hand up, terrified to confirm what she already knew was true. breathing in deeply, she looked at the large hands that were now her own, and the forearm that was studded with iron. She isn’t going to admit she screamed, because she wasn’t even sure Gajeel should have been able to make the noise she made anyway, but she definitely let out a manly yell. Then everything went black.

****

Levy-- or would it technically be him? Referring to his body as Levy was weird-- had come back to the land of the living about an hour later. Gajeel would be lying if he didn’t admit it had been a shock to wake up about two feet shorter, a hundred pounds lighter and with tits, but he had to stay strong for his girl. Or... whatever. He currently stood in the kitchen, arms crossed across his chest as he stared up at the cabinet with the sugar for the coffee he was trying to make. He hadn’t even thought about how high that dumbass sugar was until five minutes ago when he’d thrown the cabinet open and stretched up to grab it, seeing that his hand was still about 6 inches from the container. Stretching as far as he could and standing on tiptoes, he was still inches from the thing, but he would be damned if he asked for help. Nope. It wasn’t going to happen. Glaring up at the sugar, Gajeel inhaled deeply closed his eyes, and threw his arm up towards the sugar as he envisioned it turning to iron and lengthening into a claw. He stood there for a second with his arm outstretched before letting out a sigh of defeat. It had been worth a try. Slamming the cabinet door shut, he poured two cups of coffee and took them out to the living room.

There was one thing he enjoyed about being Levy, aside from the boobs which were still fun to play with, and that was how light everything felt. It felt more like he was floating than walking, which was certainly a change from the usual heaviness of his own body. Turning the corner into the living room, he saw himself curled up in the corner of the couch, book open on his knees and Levy’s reading glasses propped on the edge of his nose.

“Lev, if you let anyone see me like that, I will never forgive you,” he deadpanned in an attempt to sound menacing. A fruitless effort since he knew his blue haired girl could never sound terrifying. “Here’s your usual coffee. Black, just the way you like it.” He set the ‘Beware: I Bite’ mug on the coffee table in front of her before falling down onto the couch and sprawling out to take up as much room as he could. Gajeel sipped from his own mug and winced at the bitter taste of the coffee without the sugar.

“Couldn’t reach the sugar, huh?” She said, not looking up from the book in front of her, a  hint of a smile playing across her lips.

“Shut up,” he mumbled as he took another sip of the warm liquid. “Find anything about what the hell might be going on?” Levy finally looked up, leaned forward and grabbed the mug before returning his gaze.

“First of all, talking to myself is really freaking me out,” she said and then took a sip. How she enjoyed coffee in all its plain coffee glory was beyond him. “Second, I can’t really seem to find anything in any of my books. We haven’t run into any wizards with the ability to using soul magic aside from Bickslow, and I doubt he’d switch our souls out for the hell of it,” her eyes suddenly narrowed at him. (He realized now why people found him scary, it wasn’t fun to be on the receiving end of his own glare.) “Unless you pissed him off recently, Gajeel.”

“You know I’d admit to that, short stack,” he mumbled, avoiding eye contact.

“There was something that was kind of interesting, but it doesn’t really go into too much detail,” Levy went on to say as she turned the book around. “Doesn’t this statue kind of look like the one from yesterday?” She pointed at a drawing that resembled that of the one they’d gone out to see with Natsu.

“Sure does, Lev!” He smiled. “What is it?” He watched as she shrugged his shoulders, peering at him through those glasses that looked positively ridiculous on his face.

“All it says here is that it’s a statue of Tezcatlipoca, and he’s been known to be a god of discord.” She paused for a moment than shook her head. “You don’t think our arguing yesterday had anything to do with this, do you?” Sipping the disgusting liquid in his mug, he mulled over the thought.

“Ya got me, Shrimp, but it does seem like a good place to start.”

*****

Once she got used to being a man and speaking to herself, she thought she’d enjoy being so big. She could finally reach books on the top shelves, and could finally see what it was like to look down at people instead of look up. Turns out, she hated being so much bigger. All her limbs felt so much heavier, and she didn’t particular enjoy how she kept accidentally glaring at people. Gajeel apparently had resting bitch face, something she never noticed since he never seemed to have that look around her. (That, or she’d just gotten used to it. Actually, that was probably the real reasoning.) The plan had been to find Natsu and ask him what exactly he knew about the statue. The problem was, upon seeing them Natsu did as Natsu does and, well...

“Solid Script: Shield!” Levy yelled out of habit as Natsu leapt at her.

“Wanna brawl?!” He yelled as he came flying at her, fist raised for attack.

“Salamander, get off her!” Gajeel roared, jumping into the fray disregarding the fact his fist would most likely do little to no damage in the state they were in. Almost as quickly as it began, the commotion stopped as the fire dragon slayer looked from Gajeel to Levy and back again. Staring at Levy’s body he cocked his head to the side.

“Levy, are you feeling okay? It’s not like you to call Gajeel a girl,” he said before turning his attentions to Gajeel’s body. “I mean unless there’s something I don’t know. You’d know better than me, I suspect.” Levy watched as Gajeel used her fist to punch Natsu in the face.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, punk,” she heard her voice say lowly. “Now we need to ask you some questions.”

“But first, could you get off me please, Natsu,” Levy said. It wasn’t that he was heavy or anything, especially in this form, but she didn’t exactly like being this close to Natsu. Gajeel’s sense of smell picked up the earthy, spicy scent that Natsu carried and a hint of something much sweeter. Almost like vanilla, and she wondered if that was Lucy. It may be the fact she said please, but he quickly pushed back, still with the perplexed look on his face before turning to Levy’s body.

“Gajeel?” He asked before leaning forward and taking a quick sniff. “Wow it is you! How the fuck did you manage that!” He turned to Levy where she was on the ground and sniffed. “That sucks, Levy, talk about a major downgrade.” She sat up and shook her head.

“We aren’t quite sure how this happened, but we think it has something to do with that statue and were wondering if you could help us out with any information you might have about it,” she said hopefully. With any luck, he would have the answers. Her hopes were quickly dashed as he shrugged his shoulders.

“Sorry, Levy, I don’t really know,” he said apologetically. “Gramps asked me to take you two out to take a look and see if there was anything weird out there but that was it. There had been a moment where I thought I had felt a surge of magic power from it while you guys were really going at it but it was gone almost as quickly as it came about. Dunno if that helps any.”

Levy nodded before perking up.

“But you said that the master told you to take us?” Her eyes lit up when he nodded.

“If anyone knows anything about that statue, it’s gonna be Gramps,” he confirmed. Looking over at Gajeel, she nodded, knowing that they would both need to head to the guild hall right away. Before she could do anything else, she watched as Gajeel punched Natsu in the face.

“That’s for trying to ambush us, Salamander,” he yelled.

*****

Mirajane looked down at the stein she was drying as she shook her head.

“I’m sorry guys, the master went out this morning and said he wouldn’t be back for a couple days,” she said sweetly. “Why, what’s wrong?” On the way to the guild hall, Levy and Gajeel had agreed to not tell anyone else about what had happened, more to avoid the inevitable questions and jokes that would come with it. They hadn’t, however, come up with a good lie for why they’d been looking for Makarov.

“No reason, Mira!” Gajeel said, trying his best to sound as much like Levy as possible. He’d even worked on not scowling, which was a pretty tough thing for him to accomplish. Levy had lectured him about his rest bitch face and mentioned that she was going to be very upset if he gave her wrinkles from scowling like that while they were swapped. The takeover mage smiled at him.

“If he gets home early though, I’ll let him know you wanted to speak with him! Until then, want to go ahead and have a bite to eat?” It was Levy’s turn to speak up, as Gajeel normally ordered for the both of them. After placing their order, they walked over to an empty table to try their best to avoid people. It was a lot harder to be someone else than one might expect. With a sigh, Levy went to lean against Gajeel before she groaned loudly.

“No offense, Gajeel, but I really hate being you,” she said sadly. All she’d wanted to do was lean against her boyfriend and maybe even cry a little bit. He probably wouldn’t appreciate it though if she started crying in the middle of the guild hall while in his body. She was certain there would be a way to reverse whatever they’d gotten into. There almost always was, but in that moment she couldn’t help but think about what might happen if they couldn’t. Gajeel must have picked up on that fact as he snaked his arms around her waist and kissed her on the cheek. He could feel the eyes of the other members in the hall on them and he honestly couldn’t bring himself to give a damn. His girl was hurting so he had to be there for her.

“We’ll figure something out, Lev,” he said, resting against her. He didn’t like being the one to do the leaning, not being the one leant on. She sighed deeply.

“I know we will, Gajeel.”

They sat in silence for a moment, both allowing their eyes to close and imagine that they were back in their own bodies. In that moment, a warmth overtook the both of them and a gold light enveloped the both of them. The sound of the guild hall fell away as it grew brighter.

“What the-” Gajeel started to say before he was cut off and the light blinded them. Once it cleared, Levy rubbed her eyes before looking down at her hands and seeing them as her small dainty hands. And excited squeal escaped her lips as she turned to Gajeel and actually saw him next to her.

“Gajeel!” She cried. “I’m me!” Before she could say anything else, he tapped her chin up with his finger and pressed a hungry kiss to her lips.

“It’s so good to see you as you, Lev,” he smiled. Her stomach flipped as she heard someone wolf whistle from behind them “I don’t know what happened, or why, but I don’t think I’m going to take being able to see your beautiful face with my own eyes for granted again.” This time she initiated the kiss, smiling as cheers erupted in the hall.

*****

Makarov chuckled to himself, proud of his trick as he watched the two lovebirds from his hiding place upstairs. Sure, he’d gambled a bit sending Natsu out with them, especially given Natsu and Gajeel’s penchant for fighting each other and very well could have ended up the victims of Tezcatlipoca instead. Not that that wouldn’t have been great fun either. But as he watched Gajeel throw him arm around Levy as she nuzzled her way into his chest right there in the guild hall, both looking the happiest he’d seen them, he knew his plan had worked splendidly. Everyone had known they’d been together for ages now, and it had honestly been silly that they’d been keeping up this act like no one knew. In the end it was only hurting them. He caught Mira’s eye from where he sat and winked at his co-conspirator. He turned his attention back to the couple, who had been joined by Natsu and Lucy. They all looked so happy and it almost brought a tear to the old man’s eye. Nothing made him happier than knowing his children were happy.

****************

A/N- So, upon quick reread before hitting "Publish" I realize that if you haven't seen the movie the whole what caused them to turn back thing might not be as clear. So basically in the movie the protags are on a school field trip at a museum and they're arguing in front of the statue of Tezcatlipoca and because he's the god of discord, he switches them until they like learn to be harmonious. Basically, the master knew if he sent them out with Natsu they'd be doing their arguing schtick and get switched and wouldn't be switched back until they were able to be like normal and happy and coupley instead of hiding. Basically. The issue is in order to fully develop all that I feel like this thing would have needed to be much longer than I'd like for a one shot length. Especially a one shot I wrote while working XD