Chapter Text
Paper Moon
Chapter Nine
Laurel Grove Forest
Fiore
They were gone, traveling down the dirt road, becoming smaller and smaller. Elfman let out a sigh he had been holding in since he was discovered the night before. He watched as the two blondes simply became small dots on the horizon. It was finally safe.
The giant mage turned and collapsed on the grass beneath him. He brought his arms down to rest on his lap. Boy am I exhausted. I can't believe I just did that. Wait, I have to let them know that Laxus and Lucy are heading to the the inn.
He waited a few more minutes to be safe before sticking his hand in his pockets to dig around for a bit. There, nestled in his hands was a small communication lacrima. His part was nearly coming to an end and he was grateful. It was too much stress to his life.
He wasn't fond of these backhanded techniques, they simply were not manly. Especially since Laxus was involved, that in itself was a danger to his life expectancy. However, he had to do right by the guild. Elfman let the shakiness disappear from his body and scanned around the area. The house had vanished much too quickly, that wasn't supposed to happen for hours. They had underestimated the strength of the enchantment.
Not to mention he had nearly blundered the whole plan! Tripping over the campground was not in the original plan and it had nearly cost him his life, but he had found a way to fix it all and stick to the schedule the best he could.
Elfman looked towards the forest, Gray should be heading out any second, if he hadn't already. Hopefully he had done his part and gotten rid of Natsu like he was supposed to.
This was much too complicated for his like. Elfman didn't understand why they couldn't be manly about this, why the sneakiness? He lifted the lacrima to his face and waited. He really hoped he wouldn't get punished for nearly ruining the plan.
The screen fizzled a bit and very real fear coursed through his body as he waited in anticipation. "Is it done?"
How am I going to explain my mistake? "They're heading to the inn now."
"Excellent! The next part will be initiated shortly. Join back with the others, Gray has already made his way back." What? That means that Gray got rid of Natsu last night, how was he so manly? In the time it took him to complete his objective, I managed to screw mine up!
"Y-yes of course. I'm just going to grab my stuff from my room; I'll see you in a bit."
"You did well, Elfman. They won't know we were even a part of this." The lacrima switched off and he felt very relieved.
He knew he was going to regret not telling her the plan was completely wrecked. The two mages were suspicious of him and the job. That little paranoia of them derailed weeks of plotting. They were supposed to travel back to the inn when they saw the new note posted on the front door. That had to be tossed when the frigging house melted!
On top of that, having him stumble in front of them drew hostility from Laxus and put the job in jeopardy. But, he grinned as he relaxed, they didn't know about the surprise at the small inn. That would be his saving grace. Hopefully.
Because well-
Big sister Mira was scary!
Fairy Tail Guild
Magnolia
"You did well, Elfman." Mira shut off the lacrima and nodded at the Master. "He's heading back to the guild shortly, he completed his task successfully."
"Everyone gather around! Quickly, quickly. Everybody settled? Good, I hereby call this meeting to order." Makarov cleared his throat and looked down at all his children. The sight of them all gathered together nearly brought him to tears (that or the countless drinks he had consumed) and seeing them all gathered for such an important issue? Heart-wrenching. This truly was the guild that Master Mavis had set out to create. "We'll start off with roll call. Mira dear, if you could do the honors?"
"Certainly, Master. Listen up, because I'm only saying this once okay?" Mira was all smiles, but her tone suggested imminent death upon disobedience. The giggly atmosphere of the room decreased severely. The members could tell Mira meant business. "Levy?"
"Here!" The bluenette's hand was barely visible amongst the taller members.
"Freed?"
"Yes, yes I have-"
"Gray"
"I'm here."
"Good to see you made it back. Did you leave Natsu and Happy like how we discussed?" At his nod, Mira called out a few more names: Lisanna, Reedus, Cana, Gajeel, and a few other various members of Fairy Tail were there. "Alright, that's everyone except for Elfman, but he should be here in a few hours."
Makarov took that as his queue. "Then let's get started, welcome back everyone to the Fairy Tail Matchmaking Initiative, otherwise known as make-sure-Laxus-doesn't-die-alone group. And now for updates, Lisanna how did sequence D plan out?"
Lisanna stood from her seat and puffed her chest out proudly, "I'm proud to report part D went as Master Mavis planned." Lisanna then transformed into the little boar that had run Lucy off the ravine. "They never suspected a thing. Though," she said rubbing at her backside, "Laxus's bolts are no joke…"
"Excellent." Makarov turned around on the bar counter and added to the drawings on a random chalkboard. "Beautiful. That means operation E and F are set and will be completed shortly."
Behind him, there was a hastily drawn out plan. Mira pointed to it and circled the letters. "As a brief refresher, this operation and club was put together by the Master and myself."
It all started when Mira had one day noticed the Celestial Wizard sitting at one of the booths, alone. Lucy seemed to be waiting for her teammates, which was not out of the ordinary. Mira would have been content to leave the girl alone but while she waited, Mira noticed the blonde casually looking around the guild.
Mira had first thought she was probably looking for Natsu or something. (It was one of her more common ships) What really caught the demon off guard was when Lucy had finally let her eyes rest, she followed Lucy's eye line was surprised to see her staring intensely at the second floor at Laxus.
The blonde would absentmindedly drink her smoothie but her gaze always returned to Laxus. Oh, what's this? Does Lucy have a thing for our resident lightning dragon slayer? Then, after a few more sessions of Lucy-watching, Mira discovered that it wasn't a one-time thing. Lucy constantly searched out the older man whenever the chance stood. It was intriguing and better yet, Laxus returned the other blonde's gazes when she wasn't looking. Very intriguing. Soon, an idea formed in Mira's head; a couple she had never even considered.
Naturally, she told Makarov about what she had witnessed and was pleased to discover that he was in agreement with her. He had twiddled his mustache and grinned devilishly. And that was how the club was created, soon, the pairing attracted more and more supporters. And so Operation Paper Moon was created.
It was actually a very simple plan.
(It was not.)
Part A was creating a fake request that Mira and Levy had drawn up. It was something that was supposed to offer a larger reward for a relatively simple sounding duty. It had to be something that would attract Lucy's attention and make it seem like it was her idea to take the job. So the mystical mushroom 'Lia Tyriaf' which was really only 'Fairy Tail' backwards, was born.
After that, part B was to somehow replace Erza for Laxus. The job had to be S-Class but Erza was not the S-Class mage to take the job. Under the watchful eye of Erza, no love could bloom. Makarov took care of that part. By sending Erza away, it took away from the pain she would cause everyone once she found out what was happening. So sending her to another "job" that just so happened to be at a resort and it just so happened that Jellal was there as well. Makarov quickly came up with an excuse on why Laxus needed to chaperone team Natsu, which really wasn't all that hard. They were very destructive and with Laxus's very obvious guilt complex, it had been cake.
Then C was Gray's part. He was to send Lucy and Laxus on a bogus search for Natsu, guaranteeing personal time spent together. Lucy wasn't going to let her best friend stay missing and Laxus wasn't going to let Lucy wander around in an unfamiliar place. It only slightly backfired when Laxus electrified the crap out of him. But he stayed strong and didn't reveal the plan. Mira was just scarier to be honest. He also was in charge of getting rid of Natsu and Happy momentarily. Erza and Natsu would be the most opposed to the matchmaking simply because they were the most protective of Lucy. So it was an obvious choice to remove him from the equation altogether. (It was mostly because Erza and him would have found a way to mess up the plan.)
Gray snickered, that flamebrain wasn't expecting Gray to tie him up and leave him on the train; Lucy had inspired him with the stunt she had pulled earlier. The idiot didn't even know he was on a train. Natsu had been dead asleep at his campground when Gray found and tied the fire mage up and tossed him on the first train he saw with the help of his maker magic, that was a cakewalk. By now, Natsu should be on his way back from Hargeon, where the attendants were bound to find him. But not for at least another couple of hours… All he had to do to get rid of Happy was to bribe the cat with some fish and he eagerly followed.
Payback sure feels good. It was nice to stick it the fire mage.
Laxus had unknowingly initiated sequence D when he suggested everyone split up in different directions, Mira couldn't have planned it better if she tried. From there, Lisanna had transformed into a little boar, her job was to lead Lucy to Laxus by all means possible. She had also been the bird that attacked the pair later on. (It took her awhile to heal from all the shocks Laxus sent her way.)
Elfman was supposed to trail Lucy and Laxus and make sure they didn't stray from one another. In order to do that, he had picked his stealthiest transformation. With the leopard transformation, he could follow the two unnoticed.
From there, the two would make it back to the beautiful mansion Reedus had painted, read the note on the door stating that Gray and Natsu had already found paper moon and were waiting at the inn with the reward.
Obviously the two would head to the inn only to 'wander' into a rune that Freed had subtly drawn, forbidding them from leaving the room. The rune would have them locked together for seven hours or however long it took them to admit their feelings.
The goal was that the close proximity would unleash the sexual tension Mira just knew the two of them had.
And it was so simple!
(There was so much room for error.)
She sighed happily, she could just imagine the beautiful babies the two would produce. They were in her debt, now they had to make her godmother!
Her joy soon came crashing down.
"Did you hear that?" Gajeel suddenly interrupted. Gajeel was really only in on this stupid plan because Levy was. His head was pointed to the ceiling, as if he was trying to hear. Everyone else in the guild became silent. His arms crossed. "I don't recall seeing thunderstorms as part of the forecast." And it wasn't, the weather called for sunny skies. The rumbling got louder and it seemed like it was moving towards the guild hall.
The Master was the first to respond, with a spew from his drink. "Oh shit, it's Laxus."
Mira stared incredulously at Freed, "I thought you enchanted the hotel room so they couldn't leave!" Oh please no! This isn't part of the plan!
The rune mage just lowered his head nervously. His calculations had been all wrong! If only he hadn't been so boastful, he knew Laxus was magnificent! "There's a possibility they could have escaped. It was only preventing them from leaving from the door or windows." His voice trailed off, how could he be so stupid? Of course the two of them would find a loophole. He let Laxus down, now he was never going to be with Lucy. Freed cleared his throat and quickly spit out, "Lucy does have her Celestial Spirits and Laxus is no slouch." There was more silence as the thunder sounded stronger.
Everyone panicked. Some tried to leave the building but it was in vain when the guild doors slammed open. Laxus strided in, looking extremely ticked off with Lucy trailing not far behind, looking just as irritated as Laxus.
"Laxus my boy, you're back!" Makarov gulped as he clutched his mug tightly. They were all so fucked. How did they get here so fast? Oh wait. Laxus. Of course. I hate his powers sometimes.
But Laxus was having none of it. "Cut the crap. Now does someone wanna tell me what's going on?" Well at least the boy isn't a total moron, glad to see that some things stuck.
"Whatever makes you think something's going on?" What he wouldn't do for some Lightning Empress Armor.
"Don't take me for Natsu, I knew something was fishy the moment you made me take Erza's place. Having Elfman trample into us confirmed that."
"Where's Elfman?" Mira threatened quietly, she had spoken to Elfman not even an hour ago. "Laxus, if he's harmed-" Laxus merely rolled his eyes.
"Tch, don't get your panties in a wad. The big lug's fine, he's just shaking off the little spin Virgo gave him when he walked past us in the inn. The idiot had booked the room across from Lucy."
Mira made the choice to ignore the attack on Elfman's intelligence. "How did you get out of the runes?"
"Did you really think that I couldn't break one of Freed's enchantments? It said we couldn't leave from the door or windows, so I made my own." Mira watched Laxus scan everything in the room. "What's with all this junk?" Mira made the error of moving out of instinct to try and cover up the board, succeeding in only catching his attention and sealing her fate. He looked up and down the chalkboard they had out. His eyes narrowed even more, they moved at a rapid speed, taking everything in much quicker than Mira thought.
"What the fuck is all this Mirajane?" Laxus sounded terrifying. So much so that Lucy stepped out from behind him and read over the board as well, her eyes widening.
"Well, you see- the master and I-"
"Don't throw me in there!"
"Enough! You know how fucked up this is?" Laxus glared at every member, "you created a fake mission with fake information just to get us together? Are you serious? You wasted a ton of time, energy, and money. I could have spent those days doing something more important."
"We just wanted you to be happy…" Mira trailed off, looking down with shame.
His face was in disbelief. "So you what, you think locking me up with Blondie for 48 hours would make me happy? I barely know her! What about Lucy? Did anyone ask her what she wanted?"
"Please," Gray snorted, "she's been mooning over you for years now. You're all she wants. Everyone knew, I didn't think you were so clueless."
Laxus was silent then.
Lucy's heart caught in her throat, she tore her eyes from the ground to look at Laxus but he was avoiding her gaze. Did Gray just tell Laxus how I feel about him? He wasn't supposed to know! It was one thing to make out with the guy but to have him hear how deep her devotion went was a completely different story. Her heart pounded as she waited anxiously for his response. It was all out on the table now.
After what felt like years, Laxus with an unreadable expression cleared his throat. "Whatever. I'm done." He turned and without a single glance to Lucy, left the guild.
"Laxus wait!" He couldn't just leave! Not like that, what did he mean by 'whatever'? Why did he leave without sparing her a glance. Had she done something wrong? She called out to him twice more and nearly cried when he kept going with no sign he had heard her.
And she could do little more than stare at the doors as they closed.