Chapter Text
Paper Moon
Chapter Six
Laurel Grove Forest
Laurel Grove
Fiore
The sun was starting to set under the dense canopy of trees, sharpening the shadows already on the surrounding woods. It was making it a harder to distinguish what was real and what was right in front of their faces. Shadows seemed to jump tree to tree, seemingly following the two mages. As menacing the forest appeared, it was nothing to the irritation Lucy and Laxus felt.
Easy, right. That's what I said about the job before we took it. If only I had known... Lucy huffed.
All they had to do was find a stupid mushroom and now they were heading back, job abandoned for all intent and purposes. Lucy, she really didn't want to get stuck in a creepy and dark forest. That, and her feet were just about ready to fall off. She wasn't sure exactly how much they had walked, but it was a lot. Seeing as she had already summoned Horologium-what a waste, if I had known I'd being walking this long I would have waited to use him!- she was left with no other options than to continue on her own two feet.
On the bright side, she got to be near Laxus. Though, she had a sneaking suspicion that he had no sense of direction whatsoever. Even though they were simply exiting the woods, Laxus didn't really seem to know which way was up. She had to often tell him he was going the wrong way and Pyxis would quack when he trailed too off course, which was every fifteen minutes or so.
However, walking with Laxus was actually quite vigorous. The man was a giant and he took huge steps, which was fine and all but it left Lucy in the back often having to resort to jogging in order to not be left behind. Secretly, Lucy felt he himself had no idea of where they were heading or how much farther the house was. Pyxis had become a semi-permanent member as he would appear and give a sharp shrill only when they veered off track, in order to conserve her magical energy. Lucy glanced up and rolled her eyes at Laxus's back, there he went, leaving Lucy behind again. "Laxus!" She said aggregated and sharply.
Laxus turned around, eyebrow raised in rebellion and was surprised at what he saw, Lucy was slightly bent over clutching her knees and panting a bit. He furrowed his eyebrows, had she always been this behind? Laxus could have sworn that she was besides him. It was a bit surreal because the Thunder Legion had no problem keeping up so he tended to forget others didn't have the endurance he was used to. He personally felt just fine. The sun setting was definitely putting a dash on his hopes. The plan was to get to back to the mansion by sundown, looking at the blonde. He frowned, they weren't making nearly enough progress as he usually would expect by now. "What's up Blondie?"
Laxus chuckled when she shot him a glare, "I'm tired and you take humongous steps. I have no problem walking but I can only go so far and I'm falling behind," boy can she talk,"and not to mention that you have no sense of directio-Laxus what are you doing?" In the middle of her rant/scolding Laxus had suddenly stepped close to her, made eye contact, and then turned on his back and sank to his knees.
Lucy nearly forgot that this was real, while she certainly dreamed about having Laxus on his knees in front of her- she blushed just thinking that- those were merely dreams and this was most certainly not a dream. She was quiet for probably far too long because Laxus turned his head to glance over his shoulder and looked expectantly at the celestial mage. At her hesitation he spoke, "what does it look like I'm doing? Get on."
Lucy stared at him wide eyed and nearly swayed in her spot. Instead of standing like she half-hoped he stayed, waiting. Lucy let out a little scoff and shook her head, unbelieving, "Laxus, you don't seriously expect me to climb on your back."
She could feel him roll his eyes. "Yeah I do. You were complaining about walking, you were really behind, and I'm trying to get out of this place before the sun sets." He paused and then added as an afterthought, "and you ride fire-brain all the time." He smirked wickedly at her blush and her spluttering. He sighed again when she didn't move, "do I need to hoist you over my shoulder and hold you the whole way?" As pleasant as the thought was, he seriously doubted Blondie would go for it.
Lucy struggled for words before conceding. The nerve! She might as well take advantage of the fact that he was offering her a way out of walking. He was right, Natsu gave her a piggyback ride whenever she demanded it. The only problem was that she didn't want to make-out with Natsu and she did with Laxus. She bit her lip in a final protest but saw reason. "You win." She placed her hands gingerly on his shoulders and tried not to shiver when she felt shocks up and down her spine. "Thanks." She awkwardly hopped onto his back and resisted freaking out about how tall he was. Having her center of gravity thrown off and being up higher than before was really going to mess with her head.
He made sure she was settled before he started walking. The silence the settled between them was a bit awkward Lucy decided. She was, after all on the man. "Laxus?" He grunted in response, "what do you make of this job anyways?"
Lucy feared she pissed him off when he didn't answer. The last thing she needed was to get fried today. "Honestly?" She nodded before she realized he couldn't actually see her. "I think this is a bunch of bullshit. I mean, what kind of job sends you off to explore a forest to find a mushroom that may or may not exist with no actual detail on said mushroom, no interaction between the the client or us, and attacks from fucking woodland animals?"
"Well-"
"Not to mention we don't even have a map of this forest. Whatever he's paying, it isn't enough. Not for all this hassle."
"Do you think we're in trouble?"
Laxus was quiet before sighing, "No, I don't think we're in any real danger."
"okay, in that case, what if he's saving lives with the paper moon?"
Lucy could hear the contempt in Laxus's tone. The ground started to get bumpy and she dug her hands tighter on his shoulders. Laxus also tightened his grip on her thighs, hands moving slightly higher, a fact Lucy was all too aware of. "Right…Our shady client is saving lives with a fungus." It was hilarious to hear how disgusted he was.
She felt a smile grow on her face. "Don't dismiss that thought so quickly, you never know what powers the mystical and elusive paper moon carries."
There was a loud snort and Laxus adjusted his grip on Lucy's legs. "Fat chance. I'm sure it makes me shit gold too." For some reason, maybe it was the dry way he said it or just the whole situation was getting to her, but Lucy burst out in uncontrollable laughter.
She nearly fell off trying to hold her sides if not for Laxus's reflexes. "Whoa, careful Blondie," he did a bit of a jolt that boosted her closer to him, pressed firmly against Laxus's back. His hands had gone up even higher, crumpling her skirt on the outsides of her upper leg, leaving a trail of goosebumps on the skin traveled. Lucy stopped breathing, her body felt taut as she waited for Laxus to do something.
Laxus realized Lucy had gone deathly quiet. He adjusted his grip on her thighs and was pleasantly surprised about the shiver that went through her body. Interesting. He looked down and noticed how high his hands were on her body. He felt a rush of heat blossom across his face, "sorry." Laxus's voice was gruff as he tried to cover up his embarrassment.
Sure he liked women and he definitely wasn't a blushing virgin, but he was still rather shy about those matters. Lucy being his guild mate was even worse-he would surely be pulverized if word got round that he manhandled the golden girl. (Well, they could try) With that in mind, he moved his hands back down to a more appropriate height. His embarrassment however, did not stop him from relishing in the nearly silent whine the blonde emitted at the loss of contact.
After a while, Laxus took one look at the darkening sky and made his decision. He stopped in his tracks and released his hold on Lucy. "Hop off Blondie." He could almost smell her confusion but she followed and gracefully slid down just perfectly against him.
Lucy picked a non-existent piece of lint off her skirt and smoothed it down. "Why'd we stop? Is everything okay?" Please don't tell me I was too heavy! I don't really wanna hear that right now…
"Relax. Now help me build a fire." Laxus placed his jacket on a nearby tree trunk. When Lucy failed to move, he snapped his fingers to catch her attention. "You still here?"
"Why do we need to build a fire?" She scowled when he gave her a long-suffering expression followed by a deep sigh as if he couldn't believe she didn't already know what he was thinking. It wasn't like Laxus was a talker, he stayed to himself and that included his thoughts and plans.
"We aren't going to make it back before sundown, at least not at the pace we were going. I'm not familiar with this forest so I didn't want to risk getting lost. Now help me build this fire unless you want to freeze to death tonight." Great, he explained a lot without explaining anything. But Lucy figured that he meant they were camping overnight.
She could definitely one-up him. So she did.
"Okay." Laxus watched her not move and rolled his eyes, "open gate of the Maiden!" It took everything in him not to scream a bit when a pink-haired girl in a maid's uniform appeared in front of them. He nearly forgot how versatile Lucy's magic was.
"How can I serve you princess?" He couldn't help himself and snorted loud enough that Lucy fixed him a deadly glare.
"Something funny?" She then turned to Virgo. "Virgo I need you to build us a fire please."
The celestial spirits nodded, and got to work. Within thirty seconds, there was a roaring fire, and she had set up the mini campsite. Virgo had played down two sleeping bags near the fire with some basic food supplies. "would that be all princess?"
"You did a great job Virgo!" Her spirit smiled eagerly.
"Punishment tim-?" A bright light encased the spirit and she vanished before she could finish her question. Lucy was red in the face and clutched her key in her hand.
Excellent, an mischievous smirk spread across Laxus's face, he couldn't help himself. "Do you often do weird sex things with your spirits?" The smirk widened when Lucy turned around rapidly and stared at him mouth-open.
"What- I do not! My spirits are just weird like that…"
"Relax, I'm only teasing. I know you wouldn't do that." He watched her shoulders slowly lose tension. Next thing he knew, she was waving marshmallows in his face.
"Time for s'mores!" He didn't comment on the 180 she just did and let her tug him down to sit close to the fire. They sat there silently as Lucy handed Laxus his marshmallows, a stick, graham crackers, and chocolate. She looked so happy preparing everything, he didn't have the heart to tell her that he really didn't like marshmallows. So he let her have her moment.
It was nice, sitting by the fire while the sun went down around them. The cracking sounds from the fire and the marshmallows was soothing to listen to. "Do you know any scary stories?" What was she five?
"No."
She pouted all too tantalizing- "c'mon you have to have at least one good scary story."
Laxus paused and thought briefly, "I once walked in on the geezer when he was stepping out of the shower."
Lucy shuddered at the image, "you're right that's one scary story." Laxus watched, mesmerized as she created the s'mores and took a bite out of it. He watched as her tongue swiped a bit of residual marshmallow and didn't notice until Lucy called his name.
"Huh?"
"I said is everything okay? Your marshmallow is on fire." Laxus directed his eyes to where Lucy was pointing and quickly blew out the flaming treat.
Enough was enough, Laxus took in a deep breath and looked Lucy in the eyes. "I don't like marshmallows." He said solemnly. "I don't like them, they're too sweet. Sweet things in general aren't something I usually go for. The thing is though, you get tired of all the beer and its bitterness, sometimes, you want the marshmallow you know? But the only way you can have it is with a little bitterness."
Lucy nodded slightly confused. She didn't expect Laxus to feel so strongly about marshmallows. Something told her however, that maybe Laxus wasn't just talking about marshmallows. "Okay… are you sure that's all Laxus?" She reached her hand forward and placed it tenderly over his. Laxus tore his eye contact away and looked down to where their hands met. He could feel his face flush and wanted to avoid looking back at the celestial wizard.
When he finally raised his head back he nearly jumped back at how close they were again. There was a pretty flush spread across Lucy's cheeks and Laxus could hear her heart rate quicken. The glow of the fire was making her all the more tantalizing.
Lucy bit her lip nervously. Laxus was closer, much more closer than they had been in town. Lucy steadied her nerves, it had to be the fire making Laxus appear flushed. There was no other way he could be blushing. Was she going to be able to do what she didn't have the courage to do last night? I'm crazy but I'm going for it.
She took in one last deep breath before she went to close the distance between them, she could hear leaves rustling but ignored them in favor of her lips just barely brushing over Laxus's before he grabbed a hold of her shoulders and pushed her away.
Lucy wanted to cry in embarrassment. How could she had read everything so wrong?
She barely noticed Laxus stand up. But she was shocked out of her embarrassment when she heard him yell, "Elfman? What the fuck are you doing here?"
Wait, what? Lucy scrambled to her feet as well and sure enough, Elfman sat, half-transformed at the edge of the campfire where he had tripped over a tree root.
Just what was going on?
And why was Elfman here?