#Natsu is missing something or rather someone

[sweetasmiele]

NALU WEEK - DAY #3

YEARNING

“Is something wrong, Natsu?” Mirajane asked, skillfully balancing a tray full of wobbling dishes.

Natsu had been restless all morning, and a restless Natsu was a danger to society, especially when the guild had just been renovated, again. 

She had been watching him wander from table to table, annoying everyone he encountered. He had already set a wooden pillar on fire and picked two fights with Gray. He would likely have started a third if the ice mage hadn’t left for a job with Juvia.

He was slumped over one of the tables, his forehead pressed against the wood. Happy was doing the same beside him.

“Just so you know, the Master said if you start another fight, I’m allowed to kick you out,” she said casually, trying to catch his attention. “He said I can use any means necessary.”

She saw him shiver and heard a series of grunts, which answered her previous question. Natsu was anything but okay. Mirajane sighed, putting the tray down on the table to focus on the little depressed boy in front of her.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” he whined while sitting up straight. “I’m so bored.”

“Mira, life has no meaning,” Happy added, his tone equally depressed.

“Have you looked for a job?” Macao suggested from a table nearby.

“They’re all stupid,” Natsu grumbled, rolling his eyes.

“Maybe you’re hungry,” Droy chimed in from somewhere behind her.

“You just need a drink!” Cana cheerfully exclaimed, presenting him with a full pint.

Mirajane looked around. The hall that day was quite full, but someone’s absence was clearly standing out.

“Guys, I don’t think it’s any of that,” she said with a giggle, and Natsu raised his eyebrows and looked at her with curiosity. She picked up her tray and started walking away, realizing there was nothing she could do to fix Natsu’s mood. 

“What, Mira? What?” he called after her, as if she knew secrets he couldn’t remotely fathom.

“Lucy will be back shortly,” she raised her voice so he could hear her, a knowing smile on her lips.

“What does that m—Lucy! You are back!” Natsu shouted, loud and excited.

“You are back!” Happy repeated.

Mirajane shook her head and chuckled. She might have to help Lucy out one of those days because Natsu was oblivious to so many things it was becoming painful to watch.

But, at least for now, the guild hall was safe.

[akiumzeno]

A Dive Into Ushirono Fuyu's Relationships

I intend this to be a character analysis but I was thinking of this while on the bus and going ice skating and got really passionate that I had to write down the words. If you already can't tell from my pfp and banner, I love Fuyu so I made him his own dedicated analysis because he's the best.

ZENO remake and ZENO daily life SPOILERS

Fuyu and Maeno's relationship

Well, the most dominant thing about Fuyu and Maeno's dynamic is the revenge part. All throughout the game, Fuyu is chasing Maeno (and Tsugino) down to kill him. And his additional part in the story is about redefining that revenge.

And well, it's understandable; Maeno ate his sister. Granted, he didn't want to and was forced into it but Fuyu had no way to know that. How could you forgive someone who did something who did so atrocious?

But... there's something to be discussed about that.

Fuyu didn't see the event happen. One day, Maeno and Natsu both went missing. It was strange. How could both of the people he cared about just disappear without a trace?

So he set out to find out (or even better, Maeno and Natsu). And he did. After years, he finally found Maeno... but not Natsu.

And likely, that's when the awful truth came out. Natsu died because Maeno cannibalized her. And it's likely when he found out, he gained ZENO and was determined to kill Maeno in revenge.

Fuyu got hired as a researcher/doctor and tried to hide his ZENO and suppress his ZENO (likely through treating himself with the Memory Control Device). (Also, one of the doctors had a feeling he had ZENO).

And he waited for the perfect opportunity to get his revenge (which we all knows that opportunity comes).

Although Fuyu wants to kill Maeno and will never forgive him for what he did, that doesn't mean he hates him. In fact, he cares for Maeno. And you can see this in different endings.

Fuyu begs Maeno to not leave him in the Oblivion ending, Fuyu seems shocked or concerned when Maeno dies in the punishment ending and, hell, even Fuyu chooses to help out Maeno and work with him rather than leave him alone to die by Tsugino and get his revenge. He could completely just not choose to help him and escape the facility on his own and there would be no problem but he can't because he still cares enough to try to help him.

Despite what Maeno did, Fuyu can't not care for Maeno. They had known each other since they were 4 years old. They've been together and sharing their lives together. They always had each other. And nothing will change that. Fuyu may not forgive him for what he did, but there will always be that part of him caring for Maeno.

And it's probably because he cares for Maeno is the reason why he wants to kill Maeno. The first reason is that ZENO makes you want to kill your loved ones. But it's because he cares that it's why it hurts so badly. It was his friend, of all people, to eat Natsu, let alone the friend he spent years trying to find. (Maybe his only friend.)

And it's also why he doesn't feel fulfilled when he kills Maeno. Because there's still a sense of emptiness after killing his friend. Sure, he might've gotten his revenge but there's still a hole of sadness and anger still inside fo him and he doesn't feel better from killing one of the only pieces of his left still left, after Kanrai destroys his workplace and all his friends are gone and the only family he has left are all shitty people. He loses the one good thing left in his life. And revenge is not a thing that'll make you feel happy for long, if at all.

Fuyu and his family

Fuyu's family. ...Yeah.

Hoo boy. Won't this be fun?

Uh, I'll get into Natsu first because I honestly cannot dissect much about Fuyu and Kanrai's relationship aside from what's in the wiki, the two English translation videos of ZENO daily life and TV Tropes.

So, Natsu is clearly one of the only people who is close to Fuyu (the other being Aki and later on Haruno, I believe). So a ton of Fuyu's prime motivations are hinged on Natsu since his and Maeno's relationship ranges from strained to enemies after Maeno eats Natsu.

Considering Kanrai's just... garbage personality and Ritsuka deciding to be a free woman over taking care of her children, Fuyu had to be the one to take care of Natsu bc they have about a 10-year age gap, whether it be just giving her a father figure or straight-up defending Natsu from danger. (Also, second thought, Fuyu also had to take care of Maeno considering he was home alone at 4 and all Maeno would want to do was just stay inside and read books all day. Bro's fr a single dad since childhood.)

With this in mind, it's very easy to understand why Fuyu is so protective of Natsu. She quite literally had no one else to look up to, aside from Maeno. He was her one and only protector and they shared a relationship that was very close because of this. Hell, he even takes a stab for her.

And it's also hard to not love Natsu. She's sweet, polite, curious, cheerful and selfless. Aside from being her brother, her personality also made it easy for Fuyu to want to protect her.

So when she died, that must've left a hole in his heart. She was gone forever and he couldn't do anything about it, especially because he was the one who was always taking care of her. (And why it hurts so much that Maeno was the one to take her away.)

While we never explore Fuyu's grief (much) with Natsu in the game, we can very much assume he grieved for Natsu a lot. And the reason for his revenge was likely trying to fill up the hole in his heart. And Fuyu chases after that, thinking it would please or avenge Natsu, when we know that's not true.

And it takes talking with Natsu or seeing her memories to see that isn't what Natsu wants nor how he'll be able to heal.

And even though he did want revenge, he's more than willing to give it up or change way of revenge for Natsu. Because, no matter what, what she wants will always be priority because he loves her and always will. Nothing will change that, ever.

Now, the parents. They're so lovely.

Let's start with Ritsuka. Ritsuka never took care of Fuyu, only occasionally making contact and sending him fruit as a gift. She valued being free over being a good mother, likely because she felt adverse to it because she was told to do that her entire life. But of course, that is selfish as fuck.

Fuyu (and Natsu) grew up without a mother figure and he had to provide for himself (mostly, I believe Kanrai's secretary might've helped), which led to him being rude and blunt as he grew older. He never had anyone telling him to be a good person or had someone to take care of him, making him way more independent at a younger age than any normal kid, especially because he had to take care of Maeno and Natsu, as mentioned before.

While Ritsuka did end up gaining just a bit more concern for Fuyu after Natsu died (emphasis on bit) and tried to visit more frequently, but by then, the damage had already been done. Fuyu had already grown into his stern and cold self, and her actions were too little and too late.

Now, Kanrai.

Kanrai and Fuyu have anything but a loving and respectful relationship. Fuyu wants nothing to do with Kanrai and Kanrai is only concerned with Fuyu when he's able to be used as a tool for himself. But well, how did we get here?

Well, let's begin with how Fuyu was even conceived. As mentioned before, Ritsuka was told to be a wife and mother, and not only that but it was already decided who she'd marry, with that man being Kanrai. However, around the time they were getting married, Kanrai said to her that the only expectation of her was to bear one child and then she was free as a bird. She wasn't even expected to raise the child, just give birth to them.

But this begs the question of why Kanrai wanted a child, anyway. Did he want to be a father? Did he enjoy taking care of children? Maybe he just needed to continue his lineage.

Hah, NO!

He wanted a child... to try to spread ZENO.

He wanted to have the child develop ZENO and then have a person which he can influence under his own will to go do whatever he wants. And if that child never developed ZENO then he didn't care for them at all. How fun.

While I'm not sure if Fuyu knew he was even created for the sake for ZENO, but regardless, his father didn't pay attention to him. And it likely stayed that way until Natsu gained ZENO and Fuyu himself got involved with the issue, considering Kanrai does try to ask Maeno to tell Fuyu to call him back. And that probably frustrated Fuyu more with his father than his mother's neglect did.

For Fuyu, his father never bothered to take care of him until he got involved with this illness that Kanrai has based his entire, wicked and horrible, life on. To him, that likely felt like a slap in the face. He didn't care before and now he cares once he begins getting involved with ZENO; the disease that led to his sister's death because his best friend had ZENO and ate her because of it. Not to mention, Kanrai wants to spread that same disease.

And that's likely the reason why Fuyu refuses to return his calls and constantly says for Kanrai to die. He was created for the sake of ZENO, something that ruined his life and made his life just suck. No matter what, Fuyu could never live as a normal kid because Kanrai had set it up to be that way. If Fuyu had never gained or gotten involved with ZENO, his family had no desire to ever raise him and he meant practically nothing to them. And it probably hurt more for his family to exist and never take care of him rather than just never having one that was alive. His whole life was just doomed from the start and all he has to blame for it is Kanrai. Because it was Kanrai who wanted him to exist, not his mother.

Fuyu's life is the worst and it's his father that made it that way. Fuyu hates the circumstances that made him the way he is. The circumstances created by the horrid, vile, wretched, awful and evil Kanrai.

[phoenix-before-the-flame]

You have awakened a hyperfixation that has been long dormant. It requires Natsu headcannons for nutrition (please, and thank you very much kind person)

Ah but of course. Would I even be Phoenix if I couldn't even oblige a comrade with Natsu headcanons

Always has something flammable on him. Packs of matches, lighters in his pockets, sparklers in his bags, etc. He's always gotta have something on him for snacking purposes when he's traveling. This also, incidentally, is a reason why no one likes having him near their kitchens because they know he's gonna swipe their matches/lighters.

Doesn't like reading much despite how much he loves stories. He gets why other people like it but it's just not for him. There's just not enough in there to catch his whole attention. He'd much rather listen to someone narrating a story to him than try to force himself to read it. This is the basis of how Natsu and Levy started hanging out as kids, she'd read some of her books aloud and he was her most avid listener.

Is unintentionally snobby towards other fire wizards. He's not even doing it on purpose! It's just if you use fire magic within his vicinity he will judge the quality of the flames, heat intensity, overall control, etc. It's even worse if he eats it and doesn't like it.

A lot more reliant on his senses compared to the other slayers, especially his sense of smell. Every new thing he encounters has to pass a sniff test first. He does this with people too but tries to not let it be too obvious (kept gettin too many complaints but he doesn't always remember). Flip side though is that he can get easily overwhelmed by smells that are too strong :(

Adrenaline junkie. Much to the annoyance of his friends. If he doesn't do anything that'll guarantee him a head rush he'll explode.

Absolutely despises anything touching his neck that isn't his scarf. He hates anything that touches his neck (and by proxy, the scar on it). It is an absolute no no zone for for anyone or anything to touch.

People fucking hate fighting him because he is all over the damn place. He's slippery, he keeps dropping to all fours like some freak. Can't let him get too close cause he bit someone a few minutes and they dunno if he's willing to sink his teeth into another person. Plus there's something in his eyes that makes people uncomfortable cause no one should look that excited while bleeding and fending off a hoard of bad guys.(In a normal sanctioned fight like GMG or something official he will not bite, he can hold back for that. Outside fights he's playing by his own rules though)

Started his collection of souvenirs from each mission as a way to tell Igneel about everything he's done over the year while he was gone. Stopped a lil bit after Igneel's passing but picked it back up again down the line. Maybe not as meticulous about it as before but it's a hobby he still keeps up.

Ambidextrous but favours his right for a lot of things. Still doesn't get why it's a big deal to people that he is tbh.

He could literally watch Happy stab someone but would still defend Happy without question and with his last breath. 'Oh? My lil buddy stabbed you? Well what'd you do to piss him off huh? He wouldn't do that just cause. Obviously you did something that made him defend himself! What were you tryna do to him huh?!' It's why Happy's so smug, he knows he can get away with almost anything cause of Natsu.

Had severe Tony Hawk syndrome before GMG and his face got known enough for people to finally be able to put a face with his nickname 'Salamander', which honestly he kinda misses. Sure free stuff is nice, and meeting new people but he could do without people always hounding him sometimes :/

Does not know how to tie shoelaces and never will. You can't make him.

[itzgruvia]

Gruvia fanfiction: hurt/comfort, sad and a little bit of fluff by the end.

Warning: mention of self-harm, depression, anxiety, bullying, and blood.

Original posted in AO3

____________________________________________

Juvia was never one to indulge herself into someone's personal business, unless she was asked for.

She was private herself, and she never wanted to ask for help or advice concerning her anxiety disorder, even if she deeply wanted to seek their comfort, but this isn't about Juvia.

it was about her only lover, her sweet man, and compassionate boyfriend.

Through out their intimacy and romantic relationship-which was still developing- they always tried to share their problems, their insecurities, it has been difficult for both, especially for a person like Gray, always wearing a ghost-like shield to separate his friends from his life.

Juvia could say the same thing about herself, mostly because she doesn't want to bother people.

But they went through this, they discussed about it and how they'll try to lean on each other when it gets too hard, and so far they have been showing a little bit of vulnerability.

At least that's what Juvia thought.

It was a late afternoon, Juvia was finally done with her classes and ready to join her friends in the FT salon room, and end the evening with a nap, she can feel a headache coming to upturn her night.

She wanted to take the stairs rather than the elevator, to get her legs pumping after sitting in the hard wooden chairs in her class, it makes her legs numb and uncomfortable, And once she was about to take the next stairs, she heard murmuring, two people were conversing in hushed tones. it didn't take her too long to realize who thery were.

Gray and Erza, of course no one can miss her orotund voice.

Juvia knows they were having a private conversation, something she shouldn't be listening to, but she couldn't budge from her crouching position ( how did she get to crouch in the first place?).

She wasn't jealous, she is very much confident about that, because she knows better than be jealous of Erza, and despite her overriding imagination and her traumatic past that deprived her from having any trust towards her new friends, she believed that Erza is better than a cheating friend. moreover, she wouldn't do this to Jellal, or Gray or to her.

But Juvia had a feeling that this might be something she had to hear, even if she'll feel guilty after it.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Erza asked, rarely does Juvia get to hear worry laced in her voice.

"Yeah" Gray replied, although it took him a brief moment to do so. Matter of fact, she noticed how tired he got in the last few days, but she didn't worry too much about it, she assumed it might be university loads of assignments.

"You know you can talk to me about anything" she assured the boy, a weird sense of worrisome began to crawl over Juvia; why is she pushing him to speak up? must there be some history that Gray didn't bother to mention to her?

"I am alright Erza... trust me" he responded.

there was quietness for a moment, Juvia urged to take a little peak from where she is hiding but she doesn't want to risk being founded, it will cause problems and Gray might even be disgusted and break up with her and all her friends will find her weird and leave her alone like before-

her exaggerated overthinking stopped abruptly when she heard the rustling of fabrics.

she carefully leaned to see that Erza was rubbing his arm in comfort. It was all peculiar to her.... well maybe not new but unusual, especially to Gray, she isn't that affectionate compared to Natsu and Lucy.

Well, if Juvia were to be general, the Red haired woman was never this gentle with anyone but she has her motherly moments.

so this was very surprising for Juvia, and it made the worrying pit in her stomach stronger.

"If ... you have the idea of doin-"

" I am not going to do it" he retorted, in a rather sharp manner, he sighed after a moment.

"I swear it's nothing like that... I'm just tired" he added, less bothered than before.

"Alright... let me know when you need me, okay?" gripping his shoulder gently, Juvia could see the nod of her boyfriend; he agreed.

once they started to move, Juvia panicked for a second, if they do find her here she'll throw a bunch of stuttering words thus making her look like an idiot and ending her perfect romance.

but instead, they both agreed to take the elevator down to the common room ( which made her remember to go there as soon as she undress from her outfit), fortunately for her, she doesn't have to stand in an awkward anxiety inducing situation.

Once she heard their voices disappearing and the sound of the elevator, she slowly left her hiding place and ran upstairs to her dorm floor, all while her brain is racking through what she had heard.

Gray is hiding something from her and he doesn't want to tell her. That's one thing she is confident about.

But what she doesn't know is the content, what he is going through, is it bigger problem than she can imagine? She has never seen Erza that worried and particulary towards Gray.

it says a lot.

the loud chattering of her friends didn't distract her from her circling thoughts about Gray, he was sitting next her, their knees touching while arguing with Lucy about whatever topic that Juvia didn't bother to listen to.

She doesn't know if she should ask him about it, she feels like she might be pushing him into a corner and making him pour out his stress out and that's not something Gray is found of, she knew that by experience and she doesn't want to make the same mistake.

However, she is scared, what if ... it's a huge thing that concerns his life? She knows that Gray tasted that empty sense of life once when he was young, he told her that and Juvia cried by the end which made Gray nervous.

And what if Gray isn't happy? what if he doesn't want to ... go on anymore? she can't always trust his pretty smile, she can't be reassured by that even if she knows him by the back of her hand.

"Juvia?" her beloved's sexy! voice called out to her, while nudging her knee with his slightly. She snapped out of her haze, and looked at him.

he didn't look all worried but the usual frown on his face slightly changed, something that meant that he was observing her silent demeanor.

once she immediately set her eyes on his beautiful handsome face, she fought against the overthinking of hers. Gray would do that no more, not after what he told her; the fact that she was here with him and breathing with him was enough for him to continue living (his words not hers).

so maybe Juvia is overthinking it.

"what are you thinking about?" , he asked.

she blinked, feeling nervous after she got caught dazing in front of her friends, although she couldn't see Lucy in her spot anymore.

"it's nothing, just some assignments to do" she chuckled to hide the nervousness from her voice, but she knows that she failed just by forcing that small laugh from her lips.

Gray kept looking at her, an invitation to vent about whatever is eating her up, but Juvia doesn't know how she can bring forth a subject that concerns him, plus how can she tell him that she was eavesdropping into a private conversation?

.... it's not like she followed them, it was a coincidence.

However, if she stores this worry to herself, it will haunt her tonight, and she has an assignment test tomorrow, she can't afford to go without sleep in her system (not like she never done that before).

Maybe stating it at first won't make it a problem.

"well... I heard something today" she began, fiddling with her fingers in her lap.

Gray leaned on his arms, his elbows on top of his knees, she felt a little bit comfortable talking with the fond gaze that he is wearing in his face.

"I accidentally heard you and Erza talk about something today, in the staircase.." she told him, not daring to look at his eyes.

"Juvia didn't mean to first of all, but based on the conversation, Juvia is feeling a little bit worried about you..."

she finally glanced at him and she felt the anxiety pile up in her stomach.

Gray's face was... conflicting, like he was scared but he is masking it with anger.

" you were eavesdropping? what the hell Juvia-"

"Juvia wasn't! I was taking the stairs!"

"you never take the stairs!"

"i do when I want to walk!" Juvia never wanted to raise her voice at her beloved, but the way he is taking the conversation was ... nerving, as if he is accusing her of discovering a secret door that holds his deepest scars.

he got up from the coach, ready to leave the conversation, running away from it.

"My love, Juvia was just asking!" Juvia tried to follow after him.

"don't ask questions I won't answer Juvia!" he looked back, harsh expression covering the fear in his eyes.

Juvia gathered a moment to breath in, she doesn't want her anger to control her emotion, but it made her feel so unfair, it was so unfair that she got to share her deepest scars, her trauma, her fear, her joy, her sadness.

and he offered her everything, so why is he pushing her away?

" what is it that you are hiding from me?" she asked quietly.

" I don't need to tell you"

"that's so unfair!" she yelled, her fists clenched from her sides, and she finally blurted it out, in she failed on keep her emotions controlled.

she can see her friends coming through the entrance door, concerned over the raised voices. It is actually way more concerning when it's the rarest couples who fight.

Gray looked taken back by Juvia's tone. She rarely does that to anyone, but if she did it towards him, it indicates that there's something bigger.

"i always reach out to you, even when I am afraid" she continued, she felt her face heat up like a furnace.

" so what are you afraid of?"

the question triggered something in Gray. She can see his usual frown vanish from his face, and for a moment she saw him scared, as if she caught a glimpse over his past self.

but Gray clenched his jaw and turned around to leave, Cana and Lucy didn't try to reach out to him, they just let him leave with their mouth agape from what they've witnessed.

Juvia felt the frustration hitting her at once, clenching her hair tightly, she can sense the painful clutch.

she fell back into the couch, huffing in disappointment.

It turns out asking him was a problem.

Gray is hating himself, no matter how much he blasts the music into his ears, it couldn't block the loud noises in his head.

he admits that this was the worst fight he ever had with Juvia, everything was sudden to him, like a slap to his face, Juvia never yelled at him with anger, actually, she never yelled at anyone before.

but it's his fault anyways, he was defensive because he was a coward, who didn't want to show his scars to her. how could he? Juvia was a gentle soul although she always tries to deny it with her past "Shameful acts" of whatever, but everyone has their own piece of tainted wrongdoings.

Gray doesn't care if she killed someone before, she is still that blinding sunlight that engulfs his cold chest with warmth.

and he is afraid that if he pulls up his sweater and shows what he did to his wrists will make her see him in a different way, whether with disgust, fear, or pity.

he had seen those people before. he met them, and he was friends with them before they stripped him from his secret self-harming and pulled down their masks to reveal their true colors.

pity, disgust, fear...

if only Erza hadn't stopped him in the staircase, if only she wasn't so frightened-

Gray sighed, he pulled his headphones away from his ears.

no he thought, here's no one else to blame but me.

come to think of it, Erza had the right to ask him about his wellbeing, he kind of found it hard to keep on the same damned routine of university, and on top of that the unnecessary load of assignments he has to do, it makes him anxious just the thought of them.

but it doesn't matter now, he had another problem to fix...

Gray was never a fan of communication, and after today? he can sure label himself as the worst at communication, he shouldn't have yelled at her, he shouldn't have looked at her that way, she deserves better.

maybe if he could just end it.

"when you face a problem with someone you love, you harvest your self-hater and think that people deserve much better than you do, and then you end everything."

she heard him coming closer to her place, where she is swinging her legs from the rooftop. She would have been terrified if there wasn't another rooftop built right under it, so the fear of breaking a leg or two from a fall is impossible to happen.

she felt a heavy weight over her body, warmth embraced her as she slowly tugged the coat with her fingers, although she wasn't feeling the cold.

she saw from the corner of her eye,Gray shifting his position over the railing of the roof, leaving his legs dangling similarly as hers. she didn't have the courage to look at his face again, which made her frustrated to death, because the silence hanging between them was driving her mad.

should she say something? should she start by apologizing? she could if the heavy lump didn't pressure her from forming words.

"I'm sorry", she heard him say, oh so softly that made her heart hammer with speed.

why should he apologize when she started this whole mess? she opened her lips to argue against who's fault it was, but he beat her into it, " I didn't mean to yell at you"

Juvia finally turned her head to look at him, he was avoiding her eyes and instead looking blowing them, his black messy hair was moved by the wind of the season, and it made him look so ethereal.

she shook her head instead and looked below them as well. She noticed a small creature-probably a squirell- settling himself in one of the tree branches, enjoying his treat.

"Juvia is the one who is sorry, I shouldn't have listened to your conversation.."

" I could have just explained what you heard instead", this time their eyes locked at each other, she feels the heavy awkward air began to shift away alongside the wind.

she would be lying if she said that she wasn't curious about their conversation because she knows that if they don't discuss it right now she will be left with a sleepless night, yet she doesn't want to push him into pouring down his scars if he doesn't want to.

"Juvia doesn't want to pressure you-"

"I want to."

he interrupted her, and Juvia doesn't have a choice but to listen and give in into her curiosity impulse.

Gray took a breath, and Juvia felt the nervousness seeping from him, so she hesitantly offered her hand towards him, she doesn't know if he is comfortable about it or not, so an offering is better than a bold move, like she usually does.

He looked surprisingly at her hand and smiled slightly, grabbing her hand while interlocking their fingers together, "you usually just hold it, why are you being polite?" he said, pointing out the fact that she is impolite when it comes to showing her affection towards him.

Juvia snort:" for now I'll be polite "

she grasped his hand for reassurance, and smiled at him.

"well.." he began, "since you know that I didn't enjoy my life in Korea, and that I had to work a lot and study everyday like some slave, and why my mental health was dropping all the way down" , he stopped for a moment, breathing in through his nose, and exhaling; and Juvia waited patiently, she could even wait for ages she won't mind.

"I used something so I won't try and kill myself"

Juvia's worrying pit started expanding, making her whole body tense with the thoughts running over her head about her beloved hurting himself.

" I used to self-harm."

the blue-haired girl remembers the feeling of being absorbed by fear, how her whole body freezes whenever she encounters a crowd, how the fright will make her shiver non-stop and her mind draws blank. She is familiar with this.

but she never felt fear choking her being like right now.

self-harm.

just the thought of seeing her lover sinking those sharp razors to his wrist so he wouldn't try suicide as an option, she felt like crying.

Gray broke the eye contact between each other, realizing how much of a shock that might have been to her, she can sense how tightly he is holding her hand right now, as if she would run away from him any moment.

"i am sorry" he apologized, he looked dejected, and Juvia could maybe see a glimpse of his old self.

but why is he apologizing? does he think that she'll run away out of disgust from what he suffered? does he think that Juvia would leave him because he had other means to keep himself from dying?

"Do you think that Juvia will leave you?" Gray didn't glance at her, so she grabbed his chin with her hand, turning his head to look at his grey eyes, they were red, ready to brim with tears. "This isn't your fault, and ju via wouldn't even think of leaving your side after opening up to me."

she can feel the tone of her voice quiver, but she held it because her sweet lover man is the one who has the right to tear about it, not her, no matter how much she wants to.

"you are very brave my love." she said softly, cradling his cheek, which were cold under her hand. she knows that he won't believe it, not now at least, it might need time for him to realize how courageous and strong he is, she is aware that he went through this all alone.

"i am not going to leave you alone, Juvia promises on her life."

the lid broke and everything in it scattered out.

Gray cried silently, and Juvia brought his head into her chest, to cradle him from all the pain and the danger of the world, she can sense her own tears ready to fall like a rain shower.

they held each other tightly under the glimmer of the stars and the dark sky, while the whistles of the wind gave them a bittersweet shiver, but all they could feel was each other's warmth.

Gray wants to not give in into his self-blame tendency, and while it's hard, opening up to Juvia made him feel that something clicked, like a puzzle joining to fill a whole picture.

Juvia completes him.

and so they cried, their fingers still locked together and the time passed not knowing for how long they were in each other's embrace. and nobody broke their heartfelt moment.

[yzeltia]

Closer to You

Chapter 4 Characters: Natsu Obinata, Violet Fisher, U'odh Nuhn, U'rahn Nuhn, L'lolamo Lolomori (Hydaelyn), U'rahn Tia, Jannie Eyradoux, Drake Clan Rating: T for Nuhn Notes: cw seeing someone choked, cw mammet abuse

Dinner was quiet, or rather, Natsu had been. While the whole of the Drake clan had been warm and inviting, there was a certain aura of melancholy any time someone glanced at a vacant seat. Everyone was missing U'rahn, but didn't seem to want to say it. What's more was that she felt unworthy of their hospitality, unable to provide an answer to get them closer to the truth.

She reflected on this as she leaned over the balcony of her and Violet's room, the latter opting to lounge in her bed and read one of the books from U'rahn's stack. Not bothering to look up, Violet sighed and called out to Natsu. “Nyx said rest. You're going to rub your hands raw if you keep fidgeting like that.”

The Au Ra looked down at her bare hands, having not noticed she'd been wringing them together. Returning to her bed, she flopped down then hugged onto a pillow before pulling her tomestone over to have something to play with.

“Expecting someone,” Violet asked, attention rising from the book.

“No, not really.”

The book was shut and the Hyur suddenly had a bemused look upon her face. “Who is he?”

“I'm sorry,” Natsu asked, head tilted.

“You're worse at girl talk than me. The only use that thing has is business and pleasure and I'm not thinking you get a lot of work calls,” Violet scoffed, gesturing to the tomestone.

Natsu flushed lightly. “No. It's nothing like that at all. Though, I haven't heard from my friend in some time. I'm worried about him. People are often unkind to him.”

“So it is a guy.”

“I'm not exactly his type,” Natsu laughed while shaking her head, “He um…prefers much taller partners…”

“Men?”

Natsu avoided the other's interested gaze as she gave a little nod, “Well, that too.”

“No need to be bashful about it. He's not getting shit because of that is he? I'll literally stuff someone in a cannon and fire them into the farthest depths of the Indigo Deep.”

“No. It's not like that. Fuyu'li is of Garlemald. He joined me on the ship when we stopped in Thavnair and we traveled Eorzea together while I was looking for my brother and he was looking for ways to help his master’s sister. Eorzea is a nice enough place and I understand people's caution…but some people could be so cruel.”

“I don't think you understand,” Violet responded sharply, “No offense but you're from Hingashi. Eorzeans lived in constant fear of occupation. An entire moon was dropped on us to that extent and while we've entered peace time, it does not undo the damage that has been done or bring back those we've lost. It is going to take time.”

Natsu lowered her head, “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-”

“I know. It's just a bit of a sore spot.”

Silence lingered between them for a moment. Violet eventually leaned back while Natsu shyly held herself, rubbing her arms.

“Did you…lose someone,” Natsu eventually asked.

“Many. Most importantly the one person in the world that was left who believed in me at the time…

“I'm sorry…Were they your…”

Violet stared at Natsu a moment before bursting out laughing, so much so that she fell back onto her bed. When she finally could catch her breath she waved her hand. “Far from it. He was an old man. No…I am… hard to love.”

Nastu frowned as Violet started to rake her hair through her fingers, looking elsewhere for a moment, seeming rather lost. Feeling that she should turn in, the Au Ra shifted to pull her covers around her, opting to let Violet take care of the lights when she was ready to turn in herself. As Natsu found herself in the throes of falling asleep, she felt Violet plop down behind her.

“You don’t have to play the lost, shy ingénue y’know,” Violet said softly, ‘You are allowed to be angry.”

Natsu opened her eyes, shifting her head on her pillow so that her horn wouldn’t dig into the pillow case. “Angry…”

“You think we didn’t look into your background before letting you have the run of the Company? You grew up as a daughter of a noble family, whose mother was victim to scandalous rumors because she did not name a father. I know what it’s like growing up like that…either your mother becomes protective and shelters you like mine did or…,” Violet trailed, feeling Natsu tense up behind her, “Right. Well, the rest is obvious. Things got too much and you found out about your father and at some point Y’zel, traveled all the way here to find him missing and then your only friend runs off.

“You get to be angry. You’ve got every right to be. So don’t swallow it and make yourself out to be something you’re not. Okay?”

Natsu stared at the wall, feeling discomfort bubble up in her chest, a small burning. Violet was right, there was anger in her, a little at least. “I’ll keep that in mind,” she said softly before letting herself pass out. 🍎

When morning came, Natsu found herself alone in bed. She readied herself for the day and helped herself to some fresh tea before making her way to check on U’rahn and L’lolamo. Inside the Nuhn’s house, she found U’odh snoring lightly in a chair by U’rahn and L’lolamo, arms crossed and ears folded while behind the partition for the washroom she heard Violet arguing quietly with someone. Curious, she approached, finding the Hyur with an Elezen woman that seemed to have on light makeup that was a bit ill-suited to her complexion.

“You could have left this to me! You should be picking out flower arrangements or something,” Violet hissed.

The Elezen crossed her arms, shaking her head, “Artoirel is more than capable of making wedding decisions without me. Rahn is just as much a little brother to me as you. You should have contacted me immediately. How could anyone even- Oh! Hello!”

“Good Morning,” Natsu said, giving a formal bow.

“Right, this is the girl that can pick up an Echo from touch,” Violet said in a huff, “Natsu, this is Jannie. The third of the Warriors of Light.”

“Thank you for helping us get insight into what is going on with Rahn,” Jannie added quickly before ushering them back into the main room, “Have you eaten?”

“I had some tea.” “Oh, that won’t do. I will see U’khuba about getting you some bacon,” the Elezen fretted before hurrying off out of the small home.

“I dont’t- Oh, well there she goes,” Natsu sighed.

“She doesn’t want to seem like she’s just an extra warm body in all this. She doesn’t even need to be here,” Violet huffed. “So much for taking a break.”

“Some bacon would be nice though,” U’odh yawned, startling the two, “Are you feeling better Natsu?”

“Yes sir,” Natsu answered with a little nod, carefully pulling off her glove, “Should we wait for Nyx?”

“If they felt they should be herrre, they would be,” U’odh said, scratching his beard, “I’d take that this will not be as harrowing of an experience for you. Still…I feel I should say you do not have to do this for us. We are strangers and this seems to take a toll on you.”

“She doesn’t have anything better to do other than wait around,” Violet said flippantly, shrugging as Natsu whipped her head back toward her, “What? I’m not wrong.”

Grimacing a little, the Au Ra returned her attention to L’loamo assuring U’odh with a, “I’m happy to help,” before taking a deep breath and placing her hand on the woman’s arm.

She felt scattered, as if her thoughts were malms away…or perhaps not thoughts but little pieces of her soul. The last thing she remembered was feeling so sorry for someone. Someone so lonely that she’d given the last bit of herself so that he might feel a drop of love. And now she was nowhere…and everywhere, but not like before. There was no certainty she’d see her son again, or her husband, or her parents, or anyone….

And there was a pulse…a spark of inspiration, and again the thunderous might to protect those she loved. She felt herself being drawn inward. Warm embers of passion reminded her of her charitable heart before erupting into the flame of mortality. She felt a sense of self, she felt life’s embrace, and then a sense of time and place came to her. She was warm, in the desert…U’odh was close…and so was her boy.

Her heart swelled with love and duty. She was with them again, she could fight with them. And she could love them and never let them go. Rahn had friends now didn’t he. He’d love them too. And maybe a wife?  He was a Nuhn now, he’d said. She’d love her too. She knew it…and other things too. How many malms it was from her childhood home to the ocean, and how to make that into films and ilms. Common things too, like not drinking salt water. And more complex things like how to navigate the seas at night using the stars. A sense of excitement came over her as life restored meant a new path, a winding river of fate being gifted to her as this strange aether poured into her. And then she felt the wind in her lungs and took a breath as she opened her eyes.

Natsu blinked. Despite feeling whole again she was tired and her body was sore. Her ears perked up, the sounds of struggling catching them. Weakly getting to her feet, she looked up to find her son dangling his legs and tail as a smirking twin of him held him in the air by the throat. Her hand stretched out as she tried to summon her blades to her, chakrams, anything…only to have a cast iron pan appear in her grasp. 

“Get…your hand…off…my baby,” she sounded out hoarsely, bringing the pan up and out in front of her threateningly.

The imposter immediately was taken aback, dropping a limp Rahn to the floor. The snide expression on his face was gone, replaced by shock and then tears. “I’m sorry. I needed him out of the way…”

With that the imposter fled leaving her to drop the pan. The little bit of strength in her let her pick up Rahn and his little broken toy and get into the bed where was able to give him a light kiss on the head before returning to her slumber.

Natsu pulled back as she came to her senses, looking up to the expectant faces of Jannie and U’odh. A bit of excitement came over her as looked between them. “I understand what's happening.  Where's Violet,” she asked.

“I’m not sure exactly. She was watching you and suddenly ran out the door,” U’odh answered.

Natsu hesitated to explain for a moment but soon stood, wanting to give U’odh an answer to what happened to his family. Touching her linkpearl, she connected to Silent Courel, “I know why no one can agree on what they’re seeing. You saw your sister and Leonnoux saw Y’zel. Here, U’rahn saw Nyx, and L’lolamo saw U’rahn. I think someone is able to take on the appearance of a person that’s important to them.”

“Understood. I will communicate this to the rest,” Coeurl’s voice came through. U’odh shook his head, “That answers little, but at the very least we can be prepared. I’ll have everyone pair off so that way we cannot be surprised.”

Natsu shook her head, “They seemed to be done here. At least with U’rahn…they seemed to worry about him being in the way.”

Jannie suddenly stiffened, then looked outside. “Besting a Warrior of Light is not an easy feat and if that was their intention then I doubt they were looking to stop at just one. I rather hate to say this but Violet was right, it might have been best if I stayed away until we had a means to take care of this threat. I fear Violet and I might be targeted next.”

“What a crrruel method of enrapturing one’s opponent,” U’odh said, brushing his hand over L’lolamo’s head, “I think it best you and Violet find yourselves in betterrr company until your friends can find out more.”

“Fury, you might be right…though drawing us here was a miscalculation on their part. Artoirel would look rather out of place here and well, Violet’s beau isn’t among us anymore and I am uncertain if she’s moved on to another. Regardless, if someone was to make an appearance for her she would probably catch them rather off guard.”

“You would be surrrprised how the sight of your dearest one can captivate you. Are you not to be wed, Jannie? Out of place or not I’m sure the sight of your husband to be might give you a brief pause. Though I might have grown old and sentimental given my circumstances,” U’odh said, eyes not leaving his wife’s face.

“You can never truly know what’s in someone’s heart,” Natsu echoed, touching her chest briefly, “Though I guess, I can be an exception. L’lolamo was so happy to be back with you and U’rahn.”

U'odh went to say something, but was soon interrupted as a loud explosion shook the room. The Nuhn was gone with Jannie out the door as the calls to battle rang through the Springs. Natsu quickly put back on her glove then gave chase to see what had happened. 

Mechanical whirring sounded through the village as the screams and yells of the huntresses sounded out around her. Sand seemed to permeate the air, dusted up by whatever caused the explosion. As she hurried into the fray she collided with someone who was quick to embrace her before she could fall. For a brief moment she tried to get her bearings but felt herself falter as she slipped into an Echo.

She was happy, and yet there was a lingering anxiety as she watched Garlean airships on the horizon. It was quelled though as the laughter of her boys sounded out, both running toward her with apples cradled in the bottom of their shirts.

“Mama! Mama! Look!”

“Easy there,” a woman's voice cooed, bringing the Au Ra out of the vision.

Natsu felt herself closing her eyes. The embrace was warm and the other's calmness soothed her in a familiar way that she couldn't quite place. Released, she took a step back to look up at Roegadayn woman looking down at her. “I'm sorry ma’am!” she breathed out, moving to attempt to get by.

The woman seemed shocked, as if not expecting to be addressed. Still, she stepped aside. “It's not safe that way. You should take cover,” she warned.

“I have to find my friend,” Natsu called back before returning to her sprint.

As she hurried through toward the west gate, the sounds of mechanical clanging grew louder as the rallied cries of the Drake clan and their resident Flame soldiers crescendoed with it. A huntress being flung back beside her, Natsu drew her rapier and focus then flourished the latter into the air as wind erupted from her, blowing dust and debris aside and clearing the area for everyone.

Just outside the gate a Garlean Sweeper clutched an unconscious Violet in its hand. Focusing on the pilot, Natsu’s eyes widened, the magitek having a dark-haired Miqo’te on top with fringed blue tips.

Seeing a huntress raise her bow toward him, she propelled herself forward and slides her bowstring, “You can't! That's Fuyu'li!”

U’odh whirled around, sword in hand, “Well your friend is getting away with your other friend!”

Confused and scared, Natsu teared up, holding her sword up, “Please don't hurt him! There must be a reason why!”

Before U’odh could object further, the sound of Violet's motorcycle roared closer before landing between her and U’odh. Atop it L’lolamo held out her hand to swipe her husband’s sword before drifting around to Natsu’s side. Looking over a pair of glasses she yelled, “Let's go!”

“L-Lola!?,” U’odh balked.

Taking the Miqo'te’s hand, Natsu hopped on the back of the bike and let the woman rev off after the Sweeper as it passed over a dune in the distance. Natsu panted, looking back to the shocked Nuhn and his huntresses. “We’ll be back with answers! I promise!”

[kiliinstinct]

Did Someone Ask For a Flame's Desire Chapter 21 Preview?

Cause I got it. Right here. Just for you!

“He escaped.” It wasn’t a question. Erza froze, gaze tilting as she considered his approach. Rather than ask him about his abandoned patrol, she nodded, deftly pointing down the path. “Freed’s magic was taken.” She explained, face going pale at the sight of the blaze overheard, “I told him to rest.” He nodded and rushed past her, noting the baffled expression that flashed across her face when he did. Now wasn’t the time for too many questions, beckoning her to follow, his steps gathered speed while sparks fizzled beneath his feet. “Keep up.” The order was quick. Laxus was quicker. Magic surged through his veins as static crackled in his hair. The speed boost sent him through the edge of the village and to the next treeline with ease. If he noticed Erza’s own rise of magic, buffing her to keep pace with him, he gave no sign. He said to keep up. If she couldn’t manage it, that was her problem.  While he skipped most of the beaten path and the terrain from his own abilities, Erza’s fast steps pattered behind him, rushing through the grass and underbrush as they entered the line of trees heading up the hill. He knew these woods. All of them did, but it had been years since he’d last gone this way. The underbrush was thick with spring over growth and smelled of freshly bloomed blossoms, but the faint scent of electricity followed behind him, mixing with the strong smell of ash and dust that began to billow through the forest.  Whatever Natsu was doing, it was making enough of an impression at least. It created the perfect beacon, with the illumination filtering through the trees, they could see their path clearly. Except a different light, from Laxus’ peripheral, gave him pause. It wasn’t the harsh light of heat and fire, but a gentle glow through the trees, closer to the beaten path, and heading their way.  Laxus hadn’t expected Lucy to come barreling through the trees, grass and twigs stuck in her hair and clothes, eyes wide in a panic. Her cane was missing, but she moved with the barest hint of a limp, gasping for breath as she did. Erza took action instantly, moving forward to catch the girl in her arms, revealing the magically altered outfit that glittered upon her skin- a speed increased spell, Laxus noted.  “Erza!” Lucy gasped, wheezing for air between words, “Kage is.. He-” Erza tutted under her breath, awkwardly patting the top of Lucy’s head in an attempt to assure her. “We know. We were on our way.  Where’s Natsu?” Laxus felt an unwanted shiver run up his spine, making the tall man cringe as Lucy’s eyes welled with tears and sparks of .. something, prickled along her fingers. It was then he realized the light was coming from her, almost reflecting the blistering heat above them, and sprinkles of magic swirled around her knee, holding her up. Had she unlocked her abilities then? Catching the way she coughed, face sweating in exertion, it seemed not.  “I couldn’t.. I tried,” Her words were too jumped to make sense, whining in frustration, Lucy pinched the skin of her arm hard enough to bruise, wincing as tears trailed down her face. “I can’t control it.. Th-the magic. I… have it, but it’s not.. “ the light fluctuated, almost dimming and her nose scrunched together, focusing to keep it intact. “Natsu told me to get help. He’s still up there, but-” “But…? Erza prompted, coaxing Lucy to continue, eyes flickering down to the magic swirling at Lucy’s feet before meeting her gaze again. “Is he in danger?” “Kage cut his throat-!” The panic began to rise in her voice, “I’m sorry I-.. help him, please!”

[fics-n-stuff-n-stuff]

Natsu Dragneel/Lucy Heartfilia Gray Fullbuster/Juvia Lockser Levy McGarden/Gajeel Redfox /

all fairy tail characters basically - CharacterAlternate Universe - Modern with Magic / Fluff and Angst / Romance / Friendship / developing feelings / Lucy has new spirits I checked constellations and gave her ones I thought were cool

Summary

Lucy is thrown into a world she didn’t know existed. Join her as she unravels this new world full of magic that brings adventure, romance and destruction along with it.

———

Just a modern re-telling of Fairy tail following its arcs with a few twists and turns along the way💞

You can also read it here -

———————————————

Chapter 8

Lucy woke up in a cold, dark cell. Her head was pounding, her lungs aching.

Shaking off the confusion she struggled to remember what happened and how she got there.

Looking around, she tried to focus and figure out where the hell she was, but it was dark and she could barely see past the bars in her cell.

Turning her thoughts over, the last thing Lucy remembered was disconnecting her call with Natsu, and the next thing she knew she was swallowed by a vortex of water.

The mage seemed to have snuck up on her, catching her off guard. It was a woman with blue hair who was able to manipulate water.

And turn into water, if what she remembers is correct, she was losing oxygen fast.

She tried to fight her way through the water and tried to get free, but it was no use.

Her keys were in a bowl by her bedside, her whip in one of the drawers. She hadn't planned on doing anything but relaxing for the day after her rambunctious night out.

Shuffling around, Lucy stood up and started pacing back and forth in her small cell.

Who had abducted her? And why did they take her? Natsu said something about a rival guild being the one to hurt Levy and the guys, but she'd just joined Fairy Tail.

Why would they take her of all people?

If they were even the ones behind this, it could be someone else entirely.

The sudden sound of footsteps bouncing off the walls turned Lucy's attention back to the cell door. A few moments later a tall man, dressed like he'd just got off set filming for Harry Potter, appeared on the other side of the bars. Smirking at her.

He had a menacing aura surrounding him, auburn hair was hidden underneath a ridiculously purple pointed hat, and he was also wearing a purple cape, with fake bat-like wings attached to it.

'Seriously, he looks like a stereotypical bad guy, how drab.' Lucy thought as she looked at the man, waiting for him to speak.

"Ah Miss Heartfilia, you are awake. Good, Welcome to my guild." He spread his arms "Or rather my guild's prison cell."

The man stopped in front of her cell and leered at her. "My name is Jose Porla, I am the master of Phantom Lord. Apologies for your accommodations, but we had to take the necessary precautions, considering you are a Fairy Tail Mage."

Lucy was petrified, frozen in place the moment her last name passed his lips. She tried to school her features and show no fear. But she was petrified.

What was happening here?

"What do you want from me?" She managed to grit out, hands clenching at her sides as she tried to compose herself.

Because that's what it always came down to, he wouldn't have used her last name if he didn't want something from her, or rather, the benefits her title could provide.

The man let out a laugh at her question

"My, my, where are your manners Lady Heartfilia? What would your father think, if he saw you." The man taunted her.

"I am no lady, I can assure you. And my father can go rot in hell, as far as I'm concerned." She spat out at him, her anger coming out at the mention of Jude Heartfilia.

"Oh, well then aren't you a lucky one? It's a good thing, that I have no intention of handing you over to him like I was hired to do." He said as he unlocked and opened the door of her cell before coming in.

Lucy felt like someone poured a bucket of ice down her shirt.

Her father.

Her father hired a magical guild to deliver her back to Crocus.

He knew where she was, he knew and he simply sent someone to retrieve her. It shouldn't surprise her, not really, he was used to letting other people handle his business.

Backing up until her back was up against the wall, Lucy tried to put as much distance between her and the older man as possible.

"You attacked Levy, Jet, and Droy because my father hired you to bring me back?" Lucy's voice was trembling, heart sinking to her stomach.

It was her fault. They got hurt because of her.

"Causing pain to the pathetic fairies and Makarov was a bonus." He laughed cruelly, putting his hand in his pocket as if to retrieve something.

"But once Juvia brought you back, along with these-" The man held out his hands and showed her the chain holding her golden and silver keys in his possession.

"I realized your father was holding out on me. You are not just a runaway, but a genuine spirit summoner, and in Fairy Tail of all places. Who would've thought?" He let out a laugh before continuing his rant.

"Now that I know, I've decided to keep you. I will tell your father you were unfortunately killed in the crosshairs of a guild battle." He put the keys in his cloak pocket, the sinister smile never leaving his face.

"I'm sure you will be of great value to me, and if not, these will fetch a pretty price." He patted the pocket where her keys were and Lucy almost jumped him at his thinly veiled threat towards her spirits.

"I will never willingly help you, you twisted son of a bitch." Lucy spat at his feet, making the man furrow his brows in disdain and slap her across the face.

Lucy fought the urge to clasp her throbbing cheek as she turned her head back to look at the vile man in front of her. She will not show weakness.

"How dare you spit at me you ungrateful little tart. This is your reality now, as far as I'm concerned, you have two options."

He moved suddenly Lucy could barely react and a blast of dark purple matter was coming toward her, but instead of hitting her, it blasted the wall behind her, blowing a hole in the wall and revealing how high up they were.

Lucy jumped forward at the impact catching herself and, looking back she could see debris falling to the ground and shattering.

"You can stay here, or you can jump. The decision is yours, Miss Heartfilia." He said with a smug smirk on his face.

* ********* ********** ********** ********* *

Natsu was never known for keeping his cool.

Maybe, it was because he was a creature of fire, or maybe because his instincts always lead him to triumph, so he never saw the need to stop and think things through.

He was the punch now, ask questions later kind of person, and having to sit around listening to most of Fairy Tail argue with each other about how they should handle Phantom Lord was close to tipping him off an already nonexistent ledge.

When he burst through the door earlier that day shaking with rage and announcing that Lucy was abducted, all hell broke loose with the guild.

The attack on their fellow nakama was bad enough, and hearing one of their own was taken had them ready for war.

The master was able to round everyone up, standing on the railing of the second floor.

"Shut it you brats, we have a serious situation on our hands." His voice boomed through the guild, immediately silencing everyone.

"Three of our own have been severely injured by Phantom Lord l, and they have now kidnapped Lucy!" Natsu could see the tension and anger radiating from the short man.

Makarov Dreyar was not an easy man to provoke, but if you hurt his children, you will feel his wrath.

"This was an unjustifiable attack and I will not have anyone hurting my children and getting away with it. Now I want you all to ready yourselves for battle. Mira, prepare a portal to Oak Town!" The master ordered before disappearing into his office, everyone cheered and scrambled to get ready for their upcoming fight.

All Natsu could do was stow in his anger, he couldn't stop thinking about Lucy.

'Was she okay? Why did they take her in the first place?'

He also felt guilty because she wanted to go to the guild, and maybe if he weren't so insistent on her waiting for him, she would still be here, still be safe.

Maybe if they were on the phone when it happened, he would've gotten there faster.

Unbeknownst to Natsu, the temperature surrounding him started rising turning the air humid, almost sticky, as he went around in circles in his head.

"Natsu?" He heard a voice call out, bringing him out of his head.

"I told her to wait for me. She wanted to come to the guild and see Levy, she was so worried when I called her." He turned to look at Erza as he spoke, almost trembling with the need to run.

To run to Oak Town, find Lucy, and burn everyone involved to a crisp. "But I told her to stay in her apartment because we didn't know how dangerous it was." He let out a depreciating laugh at the irony, the fire inside him burning to escape and unleash its fury.

"This is not your fault. We don't even know why they're doing all of this, so how could you have known they'd take her?" The armored woman tried to console him, going to pat his shoulder and almost dislocating it with her strength.

"I should have been there to protect her."

This time, Erza hit the back of his head, hard.

"Tch, idiot. She doesn't need you to protect her. Lucy can protect herself, I've made sure of it." She said proudly, tilting her chin upwards. "Her fighting skills, while still needing work, are sufficient. Though she is still hesitant when we spar, I am confident that if put on the spot against an enemy, she could hold her own." The scarlet mage lectured him.

'Jeez, she almost knocked my head off.' Natsu thought with a slight pout on his face as he rubbed his head where she hit him.

"I don't need ya to tell me that Luce is strong. I know that. It's just, I don't know, an instinct of sorts that is screaming at me for not being there for her." He tried to explain, turning his head to look at the side as he tried to regulate his emotions.

It was a difficult concept for him. He's never felt this way before. He loves all his Nakama and is willing to do anything to protect them. But there is something different about the way he feels about Lucy.

It challenged him and drove him in a way he'd never experienced before, and he couldn't understand it.

Looking back up at Erza, he saw a warm, understanding look in her eyes. She went to pat him on the shoulder, gentler this time.

"We will get Lucy back, and you will get the chance to raise hell on the people that took her." The older girl said with determination, leaving no room for doubt.

Natsu straightened his posture and gave her a grateful smile. "Thank you." He told her.

She nodded back at him, squeezing his shoulder before turning to leave and prepare for the fight.

Natsu, feeling a bit better, went to find Happy, who will be staying back with Charla and some of the younger guild members with Wendy overseeing them.

"Hey Happy, we're about to leave, so I wanted to say bye. You're gonna be okay here?" Natsu asked his little buddy as he approached the table he was sitting at.

"Aye, we'll be waiting for you here when you get back! Maybe after, we can make Lushi come fishing with us again?" The blue exceed shot out, and Natsu smiled at his optimism, knowing it was highly unlikely that Lucy would go fishing with them in the middle of December.

"Sure thing buddy, you keep the guild safe while I'm gone, yeah?" Natsu stretched his hand to pat Happy on the head.

"Aye, sir!" The cat exclaimed nuzzling into his hand.

Natsu smiled at the blue cat and turned his gaze to where he could feel Wendy, who was trying to hide her trepidation behind a small smile.

He left Happy to his antics in trying to woo Charla and approached the younger girl, startling her as he put his hands on her shoulders, leveling her with a firm gaze.

"Don't worry Wendy, you stay here, look after Levy and the others. We'll get Lucy back and kick Phantom's ass, you'll see!" He told her, and some of the tension in her lessened at his words.

Giving him a form nod, she smiled.

"Go and give them hell!"

"Aye! I'm all fired up now!" He shouted, fist pumping in the air, and fire wisping from his mouth as he went to where the rest of the guild was gathering by the doors, readying to go through the portal.

Mira and the master at the front of it.

"All right ya brats, when we step through this door and attack, we violate the guild's treaty, but given what Phantom has done to us, the treaty is as good as void." There was a unanimous acclamation through the crowd at the old man's words as he continued with his speech.

"No one attacks Fairy Tail and gets away with it! Now get ready my children, for we are going to war!" Master Makarov exclaimed, and with the chants and roars from the rest of the guild, he stepped through the portal, everyone following behind.

* ********* ********** ********** ********* *

Lucy was at a loss for what to do as she stood in her cell, cold wind creeping from the crater that was blown through the wall.

The vile man was examining her with a smirk on his face, knowing she wouldn't dare jump, and that he had her right where he wanted her.

"I'll let you mull your choices over, but don't take too long, or I'll have to resort to a more unsavory approach." Tipping his hat toward her, he left the cell, locking it on his way out and leaving Lucy trapped, between steel bars and a hundred-meter fall.

The moment the clacking of his heels was out of earshot, Lucy fell to her knees in despair, tears spilling down her face.

She didn't know what to do.

She was sure that by now Natsu knew she was missing, and maybe they'd put together who took her, maybe they'd even take down Jose and his guild.

But that still left her father.

The man responsible for all the chaos and pain caused to the people she'd grown to love in these short months.

He hired someone to take her back once, he'd do it again if they managed to take down Phantom Lord and she refused to go back to him, She would not go back to that life.

And if Fairy Tail fails, (she couldn't bear thinking it, but a contingency plan was always a good thing.) there was no way she was letting that man use her and her spirits, she would rather die than have that happen. Mind made up, Lucy straightened her spine, wiping the tears from her face.

She stood up, feeling slightly more composed, and waited for Jose to return.

* ********* ********** ********** ********* *

The moment they stepped foot out of the portal door and into the clearing a little way out of Oak Town where the Phantom's building was located, all hell broke loose.

While there were the standard wards to keep out any curious humans, that could easily be taken down by a determined mage, there also appeared to be guards placed in front of the castle-like structure ahead who seemed to be expecting them.

All of Fairy Tail charged with a roar, handling the guards with ease before breaking the door down with a bang and storming the rival guild.

"Where is Lucy?" Natsu bellowed, body ablaze as he went around and bulldozed everyone in sight, not giving any of them a chance to answer his question.

The rest of the guild was fighting as well, everyone feeling the need to avenge their fellow guild mates and get Lucy back.

Erza was wielding her heavens wheel armor, a hundred swords raining down on her enemies.

The chill of Gray's magic was barely noticeable with how angry Natsu was, but he could still see from the corner of his eye the ice princess knocking people out left and right.

Elfman transformed into a monster, a mix between a bull and a bear, hulking his way through the guild.

Everyone else spread out, equally ferocious in their own way.

In his peripheral vision, Natsu could see the Master climbing the stairs, in search of someone. Leaving him be, he charged at another mage demanding once more to know where Lucy was.

The man was unconscious before he could answer and Natsu felt his anger rising, he tried sniffing her out, but there was an onslaught of magical residue and too many people for him to pinpoint anything.

There was also something pulling him out of the building, telling him Lucy wasn't there.

Like how he knew she wouldn't be in her apartment.

He was about to charge at another mage and demand answers when a steel rod appeared in front of him, stopping him in his tracks.

"Gihi, the little fairy's all riled up." A raspy voice came from above Natsu, who tipped his head back and looked up to see a man with long dark hair sitting atop one of the ceiling beams.

The steel morphed back into an appendage and the mage jumped down to stand a few meters from Natsu, hands crossed as he smirked at him.

"That little blonde piece of ass isn't here."

He sneered at Natsu, who bristled in response and found himself at a crossroads, not knowing whether he should listen to the instinct yelling at him to run and search for Lucy or to stay and fight this spiky-haired bastard.

"Where the hell is she?" Natsu shouted at the man, who only laughed in response.

"Probably long gone, now that you're here." He snickered out, shoulders shaking.

Mind made up, Natsu sent a fire blast towards the insufferable mage and booked it out the doors of Phantom before the other man could retaliate.

He could hear several of his Nakama calling after him but he paid no mind to them, he didn't know where he was going, but he was certain it would be wherever Lucy was.

* ********* ********** ********** ********* *

The chill was starting to get to Lucy as she waited in her cell.

There was a shockwave a few minutes back that went throughout the building, and she was certain it was Fairy Tail.

She had rushed to the bars, straining herself to try and hear any commotion, or if anyone would approach.

After a few minutes of silence, she heard the same clacking of boots and knew it was Jose.

Taking a few steps back, she mulled over her next course of action.

"It seems things have escalated quicker than I anticipated, we need to go." He told her as he unlocked her cell, sauntering toward her casually, acting as if she wasn't here against her will.

A sudden anger encompassed Lucy at his attitude, there was a boiling rage that didn't quite feel like her own flowing from her core.

Embracing her in a familiar way, making her feel warm. It gave Lucy the needed courage to go for the attack.

Moving suddenly, taking the amber-haired man by surprise, she grabbed him by the shoulders digging her fingers into his cape keeping a firm hold.

She used the leverage and kicked him between his legs as hard as she could, making the man yell out in pain and double over, clutching his crotch.

Lucy moved quickly, reaching into his pocket she took her keys out and walked backward and away from the keeling man on the floor.

"You little bitch! Get back here!" Jose shouted at her as he went to stand, and in a move of pure panic, or maybe stupidity she wasn't sure, Lucy found herself turning to jump out of the tower.

Her heart was racing as the wind whipped around her, hair flying everywhere, keys clutched to her chest as she fell, hearing Jose's screams on her way down.

'I can feel him, I know he's down there, I can feel him!' Lucy thought to herself as she plummeted to her death.

That anger, the heat that accompanied it, it had to be him.

"Natsu!" She yelled as a final precaution, mind flashing through the last few months of her life in Fairy Tail as she braced herself for the worst.

* ********* ********** ********** ********* *

Natsu realized he was running to the back part of the castle, where in the distance there seemed to be a tower of sorts with a wall blown through, he could see debris on the ground from where he was as he approached.

Knowing that's where Lucy was, Natsu increased his speed, dread filling his body. 

As he looked up once more at the hole in the tower, he saw a figure throw itself off the ledge and his heart sank and he prayed it wasn't her.

A flash of gold glinted in the air as he watched her fall.

"Fuck!" Natsu exclaimed at the sight. 'The hell is she thinking?'

"Natsu!" He heard her scream and instantly increased his speed, adrenaline pumping through his body as he prayed to whoever was out there that he makes it in time.

As he watched her near the ground his panic arose, and he found himself strained as he sped up and in a desperate move used his fire as a boost.

Natsu jumped, managing to catch Lucy mid-air in the last second.

His arms wrapped securely around her waist, and her head tucked in his shoulder, he turned their bodies so he would take the impact as they tumbled to the ground.

"Lucy? Luce, are you okay?"

Natsu called out once they hit the ground, pulling his hands away and grasping her shoulders gently, trying to look her over for injuries, but she refused to budge.

He could feel her shaking in his arms, and the anger returned at the thought of someone hurting his Luce and making her cry.

Looking up at the hole in the tower he vowed to burn them all.

The sound of her laughter diminished any negative emotions from him as he turned to watch her lean away from him and throw her head back.

He watched, mesmerized by the way her hair cascaded down her back, glowing as the sun hit it, making it look like melted gold.

The way her eyes were shining with mischief.

His hand moved on its own accord and brushed itself through her hair, It was soft, a little tangled from the wind, and he was completely in awe. She looked beautiful.

Free.

He wanted her to always be like this.

"I'm sorry, I know none of this is funny." She wiped a tear from her face as she tried to reign her laughter, looking at him with mirth in her eyes she chuckled again.

"I just jumped out of a fucking tower, and, and you caught me." She giggled at her words and Natsu's smile warmed as he watched her.

Moving his hand from her hair, he traced the side of her jaw. "I'll always be there to catch you, weirdo." And he meant it. "But don't make a habit out of jumping off buildings, the fall wasn't kind to my back." Natsu told her, moving his other hand to rub a sore spot on his back.

Lucy winced at his words, eyes turning sad, and all the previous happiness was gone.

She looked up at him, eyes filled with tears. "I'm sorry. It's all my fault!"

Taken by surprise, Natsu didn't know what to do, he was never good at consoling people.

He decided after a few beats to scoop her into his arms and rub her back comfortingly.

"Hey, none of this is your fault. Phantom Lord did this. They're the ones to blame."

He told her, but she only cried harder at his words.

"You don't understand, I don't want to go back!" Her voice was muffled by his shirt but he still heard her, heart dropping at her words.

"What do you mean you don't want to go back?" He tried to keep the hurt out of his voice but something gave him away as she lifted her head to look at him.

"No, no, it's not like that! I don't want to go back home!" She exclaimed through her tears, waving her hands in front of him, nearly missing his face in her haste.

"My father hired Jose to deliver me to Crocus."

Her voice was small and shaky, and Natsu felt the boiling anger returning with a vengeance at her words. "What?" Was the only thing he managed to get passed his teeth.

Lucy's tears were flowing down her cheeks, glistening in the sun as they fell. He watched her take deep breaths to calm herself before she tried explaining.

"They took me from my apartment, you know that already. I woke up in that tower and the master of the guild told me that my father was the reason all of this happened!" Her voice cracked and Natsu moved to clasp their hands together, giving her a reassuring squeeze.

"He hired them to take me back home! I don't want to go home Natsu, please." She choked on a sob at the end of her plea, and Natsu felt like someone was crushing his heart as he watched her.

He was stunned by the fact that her father would hire thugs like Phantom to kidnap Lucy, the fact that he would hire anyone.

He moved slowly, not wanting to startle the crying girl, and wrapped his arms around her, bringing her into his chest.

"You're not going anywhere you don't want to. No one's gonna force ya out of Fairy Tail, and as for these clowns-" he pointed to the tower behind them. "They've wanted to take us down for a long time, if this didn't happen they would've found another excuse to attack us. None of this is your fault."

He could hear her breathing steady and she looked up at him, red-eyed with puffy cheeks from crying.

"But, my dad-" She started but Nastu shot her down.

"You're not responsible for what he does." He cut her off, bringing one of his hands to wipe the tears off her cheek.

She offered him a strained smile but relaxed in his hold.

"Come on, let's go find everyone else and see what happened with the fight between Phantom." He told her pulling away slowly he helped her stand and took her hand in his.

They walked slowly and in silence, as Natsu let Lucy gather her feelings. Not wanting to push. He had a lot of questions, but they could all wait until she felt calmer and was safe in the guild.

As they neared the front of the castle, they could see the mayhem inside and outside of the building.

Unconscious bodies of Phantom and Fairy Tail mages alike sprawled everywhere, the rest were fiercely fighting. Amongst all the pandemonium they saw Erza calling for Fairy Tail to retreat.

They could see Lisanna crying as she looked down at Mira, who was holding Master Makarov's unconscious body.

He looked unearthly pale.

Picking up the pace, Natsu and Lucy hurried to where the guild was gathering,

"What the hell happened?" Natsu asked gruffly as they stopped a few meters from them, he felt and heard Lucy's gasp, her hand clutching his tighter as she looked at the old man lying in Mira's hold.

"We need to get back to the Guild, he needs medical attention fast!" Mira shouted, focusing on the man in her arms.

Someone opened a portal, and everyone started rushing through it, taking their fallen Nakama with them, leaving Phantom Lord behind.

[lucy-and-rebecca]

Why I think it's high time Natsu and Lucy got together

One of the first post I made on this blog was two years ago when NaLu made it into tumblr's top 100 ships that year. I made another post last year when they made the list. Now after another year I'm making this post because they didn't make it into the list this year.

Now I understand that whether a ship makes it into the top 100 on a platform like Tumblr says absolutely nothing about the ship, but it does say something about the fandom around that ship. When NaLu did make it into the list it felt good, not because it meant the ship was somewhat popular but rather it meant the fandom was active. It meant people still cared.

And I understand that there are still a lot of talented people making art or doing analysis or just sharing their thoughts on NaLu but there is very little to talk about. The fandom is tired and frustrated, rightfully so. NaLu not making it into the top 100 is a reflection of that.

Seeing that list come out made me realise that it has been two years since I because active in the fandom, which was around the time I started reading 100 years quest. Two years.... of absolutely nothing.

Let me make one thing clear, I don't doubt Natsu and Lucy will end up together. You have to misunderstand so much of fairy tail to think they might not end up together. I'm not worried about if it will happen, I'm worried about when and how.

100 years quest has given NaLu fans scraps. It has given us one or two good moments and a few panels of Lucy saying Natsu's name with a worried expression on her face and a sea full of fanservice and absolute nonsense. Now I love slow burn, I really do but NaLu is something beyond that.

Male dominated fandom spaces like the fandom for a shonen manga have a tendency to look down on romance and shipping. Shipping is seen as something awful and sheer act of shipping two characters together means taking something vital away from those characters and reducing then to nothing. If you have been in shipping fandoms for a while I'm sure you would have come across posts or comments like these.

But the simple truth is, romance is part of fairy tail. It Always has been. It is part of the story and it is part of the characters' lives. Even though Gruvia also deserves more screen time I absolutely love the incredible positive influence Grey and Juvia had on each other. Seeing Grey slowly turn into someone who can be open about his feelings for Juvia felt great to wach. Gruvia fans have also written some of the best analysis of the characters in fairy tail that I've ever read. Romance has been unarguably vital part of both of these characters and both of them would be worse version of themselves without it.

Gruvia scenes also make a bit jealous. Because that's what NaLu is missing. Natsu as a character doesn't change that much. We learn more things about him but he rarely grows as a person. Whatever growth he had in the series is tied to Lucy. Natsu's effect on Lucy is a lot more clear but I think that's because it's easier to notice Lucy becoming more agressive than Natsu controlling himself.

The lack of romance has been detrimental to both Natsu and Lucy as a character. Romance and romantic relationship are part of most people's life and neither of them had the opportunity to properly experience that. They are the main characters of the series and for them to truly grow as characters they need to make progress in their relationship.

Romantic relationships takes time and effort and having the main protagonist go through all of that as they are on the 100 years quest can make for a really compelling narrative. But we aren't getting that because NaLu is reserved for last. I'm afraid they will get together in the final chapter and live "happily ever after" but there is no such thing as a happily ever after. Two people officially getting together is not the end of the relationship. Figuring out how to make a proper romantic relationship work will also help them grow as people. If they got together in the last chapter we will miss out on that.

If Natsu and Lucy only get together in the last chapter, their stories, their growth will feel incomplete. A romantic relationship will be good for them and it needs to happen as soon as possible.

[zai-doodles]

Ok ok I’m so sorry but I LOVE your thoughts on Fairytail and I’d love to hear more!!! (If that’s alright with you >.<)

How about your thoughts on the powers? Any specifically you really liked? Any you DIDN’T like? Any that are so cool in theory but their execution is… questionable? (cough cough Erza cough Mirajane)

I love u sm listen I have a whole thing written already just abt how I would change lucys powers bit since u name dropped erza imma write a new thing just for u

Like ok imma get v high fantasy nerdy bare with me but erza would be a DOPE paladin

Like ugh the biggest missed opportunities with erzas powers is that they never really explain or put any emotional significance on her armors or weapons were just like, yea idk she found that ig? Before the show?? And just has it???? And if it's damaged dw bc it just goes back to the magic closet and gets better :D

Like UGH ITS LAME and high key just an excuse to draw her in skimpy ugly ass armor YEA I SAID IT MORE OF THE ARMOR IS UGLY BITE ME

Back to the paladin thing, so paladins in dnd usually pledge themselves to a God and get their power from them or whatever, BUT there's also a different type of paladin called an oath paladin, where their power comes from an oath they've pledged rather than an entiy

So stay with me, erza as an oath paladin, who's oath is that she will always fight to protect her family as long as she breathes

Or some dramatic shit like that right??? So tower of heaven, she's a tiny child and makes this pledge to herself in the heat of the moment, it gives her a burst of magical energy bc shes doesn't say it but she subconsciously is staking her life on this oath

When she gets to fairy tail she tries to understand her magic more but finds it difficult to channel it unless someone is actively trying to hurt someone else

Her magic doesn't come naturally if she's the one being attacked, it has to be someone else

SO I have a lot written abt erza gray and natsu being the most weird sibling ever and in the mean time erza is simply training in more traditional fighting and swords man ship bc shes learned v quickly she can't always rely on her magic to carry her in a fight

OK SO LAST THING, as erza grows older she gains the blessing of the fairy queen Tatiana, not directly but she can FEEL her presence and it helps erza channel her magic more freely bc she has to accept thats is is part of this new strange family and protecting herself is just as important as protecting others because she needs to be alive to protect them

NVM I LIED THIS IS SO LONG SKHXJD

I'm so sorry so anyway-

In my mind fairy magic is like a creation type magic, tho u can't make something from nothing BUT since erzas oath is based around her family erza can make her magical armor and weapons based on her bonds with her family

Stay with me aixhks

Like she gets a chain mail sort of shall made out of dragon scales, they are fire resistant and cut like a blade, it's heavy so it limits mobility

However very soon after she also summond boots that make ice when she walks, that takes a lot of training with gray to get use to but the combination of the two allow almost full defense and mobility

Most of her armors and weapons are just random things shes found but these are special, their strength is reliant on her love for the person they connect with and the power increases when they are uses in defense of that person specifically

HOWEVER they take a lot of magical energy and erza doesn't always have control over WHAT the weapon will be, causing her to go a little crazy in terms of training herself to be damn near proficient in every weapon or fighting style she can think of

I dislike the canon ages being so young so in my mind I age them up like 3-4 years when canon starts and so when erza finally starts going out on jobs on her own she's constantly training and perfecting her technique, almost never allowing herself STILL to use more magically enhanced weapons unless she absolutely has to and that's my explanation for why she's so crazy strong??

When canon starts I kinda think she has at least 1 thing for every guild member, but they r very small with the exception of natsu, gray, mira and Makarov, the trade off being that those are still the hardest for her to use

Lil extra thing

Natsus armor is the cloak like I mentioned, but by the time canon starts it has an extra property where if the enemy is hit with it or touches it it causes burning and melting damage rather than slicing them from the sharp scales, if you are not en enemy the cloak does no harm

Grays boots start as more normal boots with the bottoms replaces with ice, however as their bond grows the shoes become knee high plated boots of ice, allowing even more chance for mobility since she can slide on her knees without breaking momentum, if she kicks an enemy with them equipped they are stunned or "frozen" for a small period of time.

Mira, ok so first it's just a simple gauntlet that looks more like some brass knuckles, but again, time passes and they become more intricate, by canon time the gauntlet is a full sleeve of weeving patterns and almost lace texture, the hand mimics miras demon form claw but the rest is the beauty and grace of her mira, the claw and talons can pierce almost anything and are very hard to control on that front so erza doesn't use them often since she doesn't usually try to inflict lethal damage on opponents, but it has a good amount of practical use when trying to clear paths or use the terrain to her advantage

I think erza gains weapons as she goes, not only from others like lucy, but eventually natsus cloak has a matching chest plate, grants boots come with daggers, etc

I have more ideas but this is so long I need to stop snhdlsnx

[eryiss]

Tell Me Lies

Summary: Laxus returns to the guild to find Freed under the influence of a truth spell, which forces him to answer all questions truthfully and as fully as he can. Laxus takes it upon himself to help Freed navigate the potential embarrassment the spell can cause, but his own crush on Freed and a slip of the tongue might change their relationship forever.

Notes: This is my main piece for Fraxus Day 2022, hosted by @fuckyeahfraxus. This was a fairly last minute idea for me but I really liked the concept, so I hope you all like it too. Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoy it.

Links: Ao3

Tell Me Lies

Laxus would deny any accusation that he sought Freed out when he entered the guildhall, happenstance simply made it so that Freed was the first thing happened to see. He would also deny that he felt a flush of relief when he saw him uninjured and safe from the mission that he'd been on for the past month. He would most definitely deny how his lips turned up into a proud smile as he saw Freed surrounded by guild members who, years prior, Freed would never have spoken to

He wouldn't deny, however, that he stumbled when he caught the expression on Freed's face. His pissed off and barely holding back expression.

It took time to know Freed's mannerisms and expressions, but Laxus had known him long enough to notice it. Something was happening that Freed didn't like, and if it kept happening, Freed was going to snap, and it wasn't going to be pretty. It made sense that he was annoyed - he was surrounded by Natsu, Cana and Gajeel; how could anybody not be annoyed - but he actually looked pissed off. The last time he'd been pissed was when Bickslow was going through one of his pranking phases and Freed's coat had been caught up in the crossfire, stained with a slime that had been intended to go over Gray's head. That hadn't been pretty.

The look of tension irked Laxus and pushed him to walk forward. As he did, he noticed that, while only Natsu, Cana and Gajeel were speaking to Freed, many people were watching. It was like a show. Laxus joined the crowd, glancing at Levy. She wasn't the type to bullshit, and she was watching with a small look of pity.

"What's going on?" He demanded quietly.

"Laxus," She startled, looking up, then towards Freed. When she spoke again, it was louder. Clearly, she was speaking to the crowd Freed had around him. "You're here."

Everyone looked towards him, a mixture of emotions on their faces. Everything from guilt, to amusement, to a shock of fear. Laxus narrowed his eyes at all of them before settling on Freed, who was still tense but there was a glimmer of worry in his eyes. "I asked you what's going on?"

Laxus didn't miss the tint of gold behind Freed's eyes before he spoke. "I have been put under the effect of a truth spell, and they've decided that they're going to make me the subject of their jokes and ask personal questions about me."

Tensing his jaw, Laxus looked at the crowd. "Leave. All of you."

"Come on," Natsu laughed, nudging Laxus on the arm and completely missing the anger Laxus was feeling on Freed's behalf. "It's fun."

He was dragged away by someone smarter than him, and Laxus glared at him until he was as far away as he could be without leaving the guildhall. Only once the brigade of idiots had scattered throughout the guild, and Laxus had made his opinion on them clear with nasty glares at them all, he turned to Freed. Some of the tension in his shoulders had left, but he was still holding onto a mug with a white knuckle grasp and looked like he wanted to leave. Why hadn't he left already?

"Couldn't you have stayed at home?" He asked as he took a seat.

"No, the spell has a failsafe in it. If I don't answer a certain number of questions per hour, then I go into a trance-like state and confess secrets," Freed sounded resigned as he spoke. It did sound like him, rather than his voice running without his control, so maybe he had control over the wording at least. "Or, at least that's what I was told. I haven't allowed myself to risk testing it."

"Can you control how you answer the questions?"

"Somewhat, but I can't talk myself out of answering them. Supposedly I have to be honest and whole in my responses."

"Shit."

"Yes."

Neither spoke. This was kind of a nightmare for Freed, Laxus thought. Freed was the kind of man who could break down the walls of privacy when he wanted to, but still liked to have them as a defence. While not exactly a control freak, he had always needed to be the master of his own destiny in both big and small ways, and what he allowed people to know certainly was something he needed influence over. It was bullshit that it had been taken away from him, and Laxus felt a flush of anger hit him.

The fact that the guild had been taking liberties pissed Laxus off. He could only hope that they hadn't been too invasive with their questions but didn't have too much hope. Fairy Tail members were good people, but often assholes. If they took things too far, Laxus was going to deal with them. But not now; Laxus needed to actually help Freed out.

"Anything else you know about the spell?" Laxus asked, before faltering. "You want me to stop asking questions? I didn't think."

"The questions you've asked me so far don't bother me," Freed assured him, with the smallest of smiles. That was good, at least. "And the spell states that I must answer all questions truthfully and as completely as I can. If I don't answer at least fifteen questions every waking hour I go into the trance which I mentioned earlier. Any attempt to circumvent the spell - such as putting myself to sleep until it's over or writing runes on myself that would force me to lie - also induce this trance. The spell lasts for forty-eight hours, twenty seven of which have already elapsed. The spell was placed on me in an act of revenge, which I personally believe was petty, unwarranted and overall, rather pathetic."

Laxus grinned a little. Freed definitely had a bit of control over what he was saying then. "Would you be okay if I asked what you did that warranted revenge?"

Freed paused and looked at Laxus with a hint of thankfulness. "I would be okay with that. But, again, I insist that the revenge was not warranted."

"Of course, you don't," Laxus huffed with a smile. "What did you do?"

"The couple who commissioned me for the mission were wealthy and had no class about it. Throughout my work they required daily updates which hindered my progress greatly. Once I had done everything that they needed, I returned to their home for payment. Rather than getting what I was promised, I was given a reduced rate because, and I'm quoting this, 'my work was slapdash and my updates laughable and filled with poor grammar.' None of that is correct, particularly the part about my grammar, which was perfect."

"I'm gonna guess you told them that?"

"I did," Freed nodded, tension slipping away further. "Apparently the old bitch didn't like that and cast this spell on me."

"Old bitch?" Laxus grinned.

"There's a chance that my self censorship abilities might have slipped," Freed averted his gaze, and Laxus laughed. "I believe that the intention was to humiliate me as some form of punishment. But once they'd explained the spell to me - rather gloatingly I might add - I knew everything I needed and teleported back to Magnolia."

"Sounds like you," Laxus commented, then frowned. "Wait, did you not get paid at all then? You were out there for a month, right? That's bullshit."

"I was there for thirty four days, and I was paid two thirds of what I was owed," A second of self satisfaction rushed Freed's face and he leant forward slightly, almost conspiratorially. "I also saw a rather fetching pocket watch, which I took before I left. That has more than made up for the deficit in my pay."

"You stole from them?" Laxus laughed. "Ain't you worried that they'll come here and start shit with you."

"I did steal from them, and I don't think they'll do anything. The spell they cast on me is highly illegal, much more serious than stealing something. If they're smart, they'll avoid the rune knights just like I am."

"You're a devious son of a bitch," Laxus praised, and Freed raised his mug as if to toast the sentiment.

Now that the anger and tension that had been bubbling up inside Freed was gone, Laxus found himself glancing around the guildhall to everyone who had been taking liberties with Freed's situation. When he did, he saw that half the guild was watching them as if waiting for something. Laxus felt a snap of rage break inside of him; did they think he was going to pull the same crap that they had and were waiting for some blackmail or private information that Freed would never willingly tell them? Assholes.

It was when he noticed how quiet they were all being that Laxus' patience died, and he stood up with a huff. Freed looked at him with a quirk in his brow, and Laxus jerked his head up tinstructing Freed to do the same.

"You need someone askin' you questions, don't need an audience. We'll haul up at your place, I'll ask you a bunch of lame ass questions until this shit's over. That okay?"

"That sounds very nice," Freed answered, and Laxus didn't miss the slight falter in his movements. He didn't know what caused it and thought it best not to ask.

Once Freed was standing, he swung his coat - devoid of all pink slime after Bickslow had been tasked in scrubbing it all out using his toothbrush - on. They had just walked out of the doors and onto the streets when someone ran up behind them, the clatter of his feet barely covering the 'Natsu, stop it!' that Lucy yelled. They both turned to see Natsu with a shit eating grin that made Laxus nervous.

"Before ya go, Freed, who was it that you said you wanted to date because you thought he was hot as hell? I forgot."

Motherfucker.

He saw panic and dread overcome Freed and acted on instinct. At least fifteen strong bolts of lightning slammed into the ground in a thick cylinder that surrounded them, striking Natsu at the same time. It was a thunderous explosion and overbearing crackling filled the space, and Laxus made sure to look away from Freed so that he couldn't read his lips. He could hear nothing but the sound of his spell, and once a few moments had passed, he looked down at Freed to see he was no longer speaking, he let the lightning go.

"Thank you," Freed said quietly.

"Don't mention it," Laxus shrugged. "Natsu's an ass."

"He is."

Laxus nodded, and they walked in silence towards Freed's house. He didn't mention that Freed's cheeks were redder than they had been before. He didn't linger on the fact that Freed definitely had someone he wanted to get romantic with. He didn't allow himself to think about how much it would hurt to hear it was anyone other than him.

He needed to get Freed through this, and then deal with his own crap later. It'd be fine.

----

The day, once Laxus had seemingly taken charge of it, got significantly better for Freed. Despite the man's usual stoicism, Laxus had more than enough questions to fulfil the spell's quota and none of them had been the least bit invasive of his privacy. He had thanked Laxus a few times over the day but, as expected of the blonde, he had brushed it off and told Freed not to mention it.

As the day went on, Freed found himself becoming less stilted in his conversation. While the spell hadn't controlled everything he said, it was hard not to be cautious. With Laxus, the ease of conversation they usually shared was slowly coming back.

"Okay," Laxus said, checking his watch when one hour turned to the next. "I'm gonna make dinner."

"Why?" Freed asked with an edge of amusement in his tone. "That is not where your talents lie."

"I know, that's why I'm doin' it," Laxus shrugged, standing up and going towards the kitchen. Freed followed him, hoping for an explanation of his logic. "I don't know what I'm doing in the kitchen, right? You do. I'll probably have a hell of a lot of questions to ask ya. Seems to make sense."

Freed didn't falter, but he smiled slightly at Laxus' back. The man was more thoughtful than people would ever give him credit for, including himself. Freed was never sure if he, and the other small group of chosen friends, were the only people to see this side of Laxus. He both hoped that wasn't true and hoped that it was. Yes, Laxus deserved to be appreciated in his fullness, but there was something so… satisfying about being in this group that Laxus seemed to hold dear.

Not one to mince around things, Freed had never shied away from his feelings for Laxus. They had developed slowly, but surely, and once Laxus had returned from his banishment it had exploded in intensity. He had a calmness to him, an honesty that he'd previously lacked. He had mellowed into someone that Freed not only crushed on but felt like he could love.

Of course, the crushing hadn't stopped either. Looking at the broad expanse of the man's back, the narrowness of his waist, the bulging biceps and tuggable hair, Freed found it impossible to imagine anyone not crushing on Laxus.

Acting on it was off the table, though. It was a risk he wasn't yet prepared to take.

The process of cooking was somewhat a mixed bag of competency. It certainly got the hour's questions completed, but also served to highlight the difference between Laxus and Freed. Whereas Freed was partial to a stringent set of instructions and enjoyed the process of making a pile of ingredients into a full meal, Laxus seemingly got annoyed at each step of making the dish. He was snappy to the point of childishness, and Freed sat at the kitchen table holding in laughter as Laxus cussed at a pan of frying onions. There was also the onslaught of rhetorical questions aimed at the process - Why the hell does it need this much garlic? Why does it need to be exactly this much sauce, what does it matter? Who the hell was the first person to sauté anything, it's bullshit? - all of which were exponentially more amusing when Freed found himself answering them due to the spell's effect reacting to his words.

When the meal was finished, they sat opposite each other to eat it. Freed couldn't help but give note to the domesticity of their actions. They spent the day together, reading and talking, and now they shared a meal that they had cooked together. There was something homely about it. Something new.

Their friendship was not one of homely delights and gentle domestic bliss. They were close, that was never in doubt, but they both needed time alone to recoup their energy. Whenever they weren't on a mission, they would usually spend their evenings in their respective homes. Freed sometimes would spend an evening at the guild - that had been a goal he'd set for himself after the harvest festival to become a more well rounded person - but Laxus leant towards seclusion. This simple coexistence was new for them both.

"They didn't pry too much, did they?" Laxus asked suddenly, and Freed looked up from his food in confusion. "Earlier, in the guild, they weren't taking liberties. And you don't need to tell me what they made you say if you don't want to."

"They were not kind," Freed said slowly, and felt a tugging from the spell that made him keep going. "They knowingly asked questions I would not have answered without the spell. They wanted to embarrass me."

"Who was the worst?"

"Natsu, Cana, Gajeel, and Loke."

"I'll make sure they regret it," Laxus promised. He said it casually, like Freed didn't need to be assured because he should expect it anyway, and the implied certainty of Laxus being on his side made Freed smile.

"You don't need to do that, I have my own plans laid out already," Freed smiled.

"Is it gonna be bad?"

"It will be, but I think fair when considering what they have done," Freed smirked, and Laxus grinned at him.

With the issue settled, they went back to eating. The meal was a good one and, once it was finished, Freed insisted he would wash the dishes and clean the kitchen as Laxus had done most of the work in preparing their food. He dismissed Laxus to his living room, knowing that talking all day would start to wear away at Laxus and he would need some time to recoup his reserves. Laxus took some convincing, he had made a mess of the kitchen and seemingly felt guilty about it, but Freed insisted.

Once the kitchen was in a usable state again, Freed glanced at the clock and sighed. The cooking and cleaning had taken over an hour, and they'd not gotten close to the new hours' number of questions. He would have liked to give Laxus more time to himself, but needs must, and he hoped Laxus would understand.

When he walked back into his living room, he saw Laxus had been looking around. Laxus didn't often come to Freed's house, so he wouldn't begrudge the man the smallest bit of snooping. When Laxus turned to him with a teasing grin, Freed suddenly regretted leaving Laxus alone at all.

"So, put together Freed Justine - dignified and stoic - has a gossip magazine," Laxus taunted, holding something up that made Freed's pulse quicken. "Why the hell do you have this?"

It was unintentional, Freed knew it, but Laxus had just asked him a question.

Panic rushed through him. He knew what that magazine was, and he knew why he had saved it. It had been a drunken thought made in a weak moment, one forgotten about almost immediately, but the spell hadn't allowed him his dignity so far. He felt the magic in his skull tugging at him, forcing him to speak. He wanted to break through it, to push the spell away or even just leave, but he couldn't. The spell wouldn't allow it, and Freed found his mouth opened without his consent.

"It's the issue where you did a photo spread, I thought I should keep it," Freed forced the words out, trying to control the words. That was believable. That wasn't overly humiliating. That was- he kept talking. "You wore a variety of swimsuits in the shoot, your body looked incredible, and they flattered you perfectly. I found it too hot to simply throw it away."

Neither spoke. Freed's humiliation festered.

"Freed," Laxus began. "Shit, I didn't mean to-"

Freed turned on his heel, walked to his bedroom, and locked it with a rune.

----

Laxus paced up and down Freed's hallway, cursing under his breath. How the hell had he let that happen, he'd been so fucking careful in not asking stupid questions all day. He had gotten sloppy - all the casual time spent with Freed must have made him stupid, dammit - and now he'd hurt Freed. Freed was a prideful man and making him confess something like that was a massive fucking mistake.

"Come on, Freed, open the door," Laxus said into the locked door. "It ain't that big of a deal and, well, just let me speak to you face to face. It ain't a problem, just open the door."

He knew he wouldn't get a response, nor would the door open. Freed hadn't openly responded to anything he said, other than the questions he had shouted through the door so that the spell's other effect wouldn't take place. He'd made sure they were simply factual things - trivia and nowhere near personal - and Freed's responses were quiet and subdued. It had hurt a lot to know that was his fault.

What were they going to do? Freed was the kind of man who would not get over this if Laxus handled it badly. Laxus couldn't let that happen. He just needed to make Freed feel less embarrassed. He could do that. He didn't know how, but he could.

Fuck, he was bad at these things. He could fight, that was all. If Freed was facing a dark wizard, then all Laxus would have to do is jump in front of the spell and let it hit him instead. He could take the pain himself, fall on his own blade if he had to, but when it came to emotional crap, he didn't…

Fall on his own blade. That… that might work.

"I'm leaving, but not for long," Laxus said into the door. "Just remember that this ain't as big a deal as you think it is, and I'm gonna prove it. Don't put up runes around the house."

Again, no response, but Laxus hadn't expected one. He hesitated for a moment, placing a hand on the door and giving it a gentle push to see if Freed's runes had been taken down, but they hadn't. He sighed, walking down the hallway with a glance over his shoulder. There was no point to it. He left the house and covered himself in lightning, letting it engulf him and transport him to his own house.

He spent as little time as he could looking for what he needed, and the moment he had, he stormed back out of his house and travelled back to Freed's house. No runes had been placed to keep him out, at least, so Freed hadn't gotten worse. He walked back up the stairs, sat down with his back leaning against Freed's bedroom door, and sighed.

"I'm back," He said gently. "And I'm gonna show ya something that should make you feel a little better."

Slowly, he reached into his coat and pulled out what he'd taken from his house. It was a small pile of pictures, cut out from various magazines, all of Freed. Every time Freed had been involved in a photoshoot since Laxus had been kicked out of the guild, Laxus had been sure to get a copy and save the pictures. They ranged from serious and powerful looking pics of him using magic, to a sultry spread of Freed wearing the tightest briefs Laxus had ever seen and being more fuckable than any man Laxus had ever seen.

Before he could talk himself out of it, he slid the pile under the small gap under the door. He saw as Freed took them and heard the sound of paper sliding against paper. He was looking at them, and possibly sitting down too.

"I realised I loved you when I was kicked out of the guild," Laxus said quietly, but loud enough for Freed to hear. "I was thinking through a lot of things, trying to figure out who I was, and I kept going back to you. You were important to me, I didn't exactly get what that meant, and then I saw a shot of you in a magazine stand. You looked so fucking good, and it made me feel warm. Safe, y'know. And I just kept thinking, how the hell am I gonna live without ya. I thought I'd have to. Thought I'd never get to see you again."

Still no response. Laxus rested his head on the door and kept going.

"I wallowed, for a while, then I got my shit together. I knew I needed to be a good man, so I could come back. You deserve better and I knew I could be. That's why I have the pictures. When I knew you'd been photographed, I bought the magazine and cut the pic out. It kept me going, made me sure that I was making the right choice. It kept me right."

Laxus let out a breath.

"I didn't just keep them for that, though. Not all of them; even if it took a while to admit to it. You had a phase of taking real smutty pics, and it was fucking great. First time I saw one of them - it was the one in those boxers you were advertising - I wondered how I didn't know I was hot for you before," he shook his head. "What I'm trying to say is, well, I get you didn't want me knowing about that magazine, but don't be embarrassed by it. Whatever you did, I bet I did it worse."

"Are you just saying this to make me feel less embarrassed?" Freed's voice was small. Laxus hated it.

"No, this is the truth. All of it," Laxus' cheeks tinged with red. "Freed, I've been shit scared of admitting this to you for a long time now, but I'm not losing ya to this. I'm in love with you, I'm real fucking attracted to you, and I'm not gonna let this ruin what we have."

"But what I did-"

"Was nothing compared to what I've done," Laxus cut him off, cheeks flaming red now. He needed to get the next words out, to put a stop to all of Freed's embarrassment. "I've pulled myself off to that picture of you in those briefs more times than I can count. That time you yelled at me in the cathedral, when I was at my worst, that's a fantasy for me now. You being firm, keeping me in line. Fucking hot."

"I still shouldn't have kept that magazine."

"I'm fucking glad you did, I should have told you this ages ago," Laxus sighed, standing up and facing the door again. "If you want me to leave, I'll leave, but I don't want to. What I want is for you to open that door and talk to me. Really talk," he then smiled ruefully. "Maybe we can get to a point where we discuss our attraction, rather than hoarding pictures of each other half naked."

There was a beat of quiet, before Freed spoke with a slight tease. "I only have one picture, you've at least six."

"Seven. Had to throw one away, I was, erm, using it too often."

"The one with the waterfall?"

"Yeah," Laxus laughed. Of course, Freed could guess that. Freed laughed too.

"I want to open the door, but I need you to promise me something before I can," Freed spoke calmly, but with a hint of his usual confidence in his voice. It gave Laxus a shot of hope, and he straightened his back. "Everything you said, about what you felt for me, was that just you trying to make me open the door, or did you mean it?"

"I meant it," Laxus said firmly. "If I was under the spell you are, I bet you couldn't shut me up for how much I want ya. It'd be fucking pathetic but worth it," he felt sure in his words. "Can I ask you a question? A personal one?"

A beat of silence. "Yes."

"You sure?"

"Yes. I think I know what it would be."

"You think you'd ever be able to feel like that for me?"

"I think it would be easy."

Laxus felt relief flush through him, and the moment the door opened, he let out a breath that he hadn't known he'd been holding. Freed was standing on the other side of it, holding the stack of pictures - with the one of him in those briefs at the top, dammit - but looking at Laxus with assessing eyes. They stood for a moment, neither knowing what to do with the situation, before a jolt of pressure hit Laxus. This was the closest he'd been to acting on his crush, and he wasn't going to miss this chance.

With two steps, he was in Freed's space. One hand rested on Freed's waist, the other on the back of his neck, and he pulled Freed into a slow, needy kiss. It was electric, like fireworks exploding in his mind. Fizzing and cracking, and Laxus was weak.

Freed was pushed flush against him, the pictures dropping to the floor as Freed's hands ran through Laxus' hair and gently tugged in a way that made Laxus' legs go to jelly. He pulled Freed closer and opened his mouth, feeling Freed's tongue butting against his and groaning in pleasure. This was perfect. Freed was kissing him, and it was perfect.

"Damn," Laxus panted slightly as they pulled away, though not so far that Freed's lips didn't graze against his own. "That was, erm, really good, right?"

"It was," Freed whispered, body still melted into Laxus'. "Better than good, actually. Spectacular, you might say."

"Yeah. That's, er, that's a pretty good word for it," Laxus nodded slightly, grinning without need to stop. "The picture thing didn't bother you, though? Cause I get that it's kinda weird."

"No, not as much as it probably should. Though I would be a hypocrite if it did," Freed smiled a little ruefully. "And you mentioned talking? So, we don't get to this point again, is that something you'd still like to do?"

"Yeah," Laxus nodded again, then his grin took on a naughty slant. "But I'm keeping those pictures either way, that a problem?"

"So long as I can keep mine of you, then no," Freed smirked. "Although yours outnumber mine quite a lot. Seems unfair."

"I could be convinced to model for you," Laxus laughed, bliss making him silly apparently. He couldn't be bothered to care about that, not with Freed in his arms. "I could give you a taste of it now, if you'd like?"

"Oh, gods' yes," Freed panted, and Laxus grinned. "Though, if you think I'll be satisfied with a taste, you'll be proven wrong."

"I can deal with that," Laxus grinned. "You think you can handle me?"

With no prompting from the spell, Freed grinned and said "Oh I'm sure of it."

[ignitedbynatsu]

He Makes You Feel Insecure ~ Rogue

A/N: let it be known that I finally managed to update at the deadline I set myself 🥳 I'm so sorry I was gone this past week but college was getting hella busy so I had to focus on that this past week but I'm backkk. Thanks to everyone who stuck around, I missed you all and can't wait to get to the requests ❤️

Genre: angst to fluff

Warnings: swearing, insecurities (he makes you feel too childish)

Other versions:

Gray ~ Laxus ~ Cobra/Erik ~ Bickslow ~ Gajeel ~ Natsu ~ Jellal ~ Freed ~ Sting

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

A loud crash could be heard followed by your and Sting's laughter filling the guild. You quickly fled the scene and hid behind Rogue while stifling your laughter.

You had played the oldest prank in the book on Minerva. A water bucket on a half-open door. You'll never understand how the brilliant mage fell for that one, but she did, resulting in you hiding from her wrath.

"(Y/N)! Sting!" Minerva screeched as the water dripped down her hair.

"We're sorry Minerva-san, we just couldn't pass the opportunity" you apologize on your and Sting's behalf, but it was nowhere near sincere As you both were still doing everything in your power to not burst out in laughter. It wasn't even that funny, but to you and Sting it was hilarious.

"I swear I'm dating a child" the annoyance that was latched on to the words made you immediately stop laughing. Surely he didn't mean for it to come out that harsh, right?

"I'm sorry, what was that" a soft smile still playing on your lips, but that was quickly wiped off when you met his cold gaze.

"I said that you're fucking childish, (Y/N). It was bad enough having Sting act this way, but with you encouraging him and even joining him? I feel like I'm in a fucking daycare. Grow up, will you" Sting laughter also died down as he saw his friend take his frustrations out on you. "Hey, man, that's not cool-"

"No, Sting, it's fine. I- uh- I'll see you all tomorrow" even Minerva shook her head in disappointment as she observed your slumped shoulders as you left the guild. She didn't miss the tears starting to form either.

The rest of the day everyone felt that they were walking on eggshells around Rogue, not daring to get on his bad side. They felt bad for you. Sure you could be a little annoying with all the pranks you pulled, but they all knew it was just good fun. You never meant any harm and just wanted to make the guild feel a little more like home.

That homeyness that you seemed to bring everywhere you went, was gone the next day. Your usual colourful outfits were replaced by dull grey and black clothes. They even were certain that they hadn't seen you crack a smile once that day.

"Hey, (Y/N)! I got this amazing idea for a prank and-" you interrupted Sting before he could elaborate his grand idea "thank you, Sting, but I'll have to decline."

You had never refused a prank before, nor had he ever heard you talk that formal "that's it"

You raised an eyebrow at him as he stormed off to God knows where.

You hated turning him down. After all, you had been itching all day to break this facade, but it was for the best. It'll pay off in the long run you kept telling yourself. After all, you couldn't imagine a world where you'd have to live without Rogue. So if that meant you'd have to change your personality a little bit, you wouldn't even hesitate to make that sacrifice.

Meanwhile, Sting had left to go find Rogue. He knew that his best friend was the only one who could put an end to this "is this what you wanted?"

"I have no clue what you are talking about" Rogue replied as he turned around to meet the fuming blonde.

"You seriously don't see how miserable you made (Y/N)?" He scoffed as Rogue looked around to spot you. It took him some time as he did not expect you to wear something so... Colourless. "You haven't even spoken to her today, have you?"

"I decided that I was way out of line yesterday and that I should give her some time" he explained. Did you really think you needed to change just to please him?

"How kind of you" Rogue was surprised by the sweet words coming out of Sting's mouth, but when he turned back to the said boy he was met by a harsh glare "now go fix it"

"What if I make it worse" the guilty was slowly eating him alive as he dared to steal another glance at you.

"You can't possibly make it worse than it already is" Sting dismissed his insecurities

"Fro thinks so too!" Rogue's head snapped towards the Exceed "Frosch?"

"It's three against one here" Lector also piped up as the three stared at him expectingly.

The raven-haired sighed, knowing he should do something to fix his mistakes, so he took a deep breath, gathered all his courage and headed towards his girlfriend. He never thought he'd feel this scared again to talk to you.

"(Y/N)... Can we talk?" He wanted to sound confident but when you looked at him and not even spared him a small smile, he felt like he wanted to sink back into the shadows.

"Of course, what is it you'd like to talk with me about?" Rogue cringed how smooth your tone was. No unnecessary intonation, no shouting, no expression. Everything was dull and blank.

"Why are you acting like this" your eyes went wide for a second. Were you still not living up to his expectations? Was it too little? Too much? You had no clue.

"I'm afraid I don't understand what you are talking about" you replied swiftly, covering up any traces of emotions you had just shown. "Did you not want me to stop acting like a child?"

"Yes, but-" "and is what I'm doing not exactly that what you asked me to do?" "Yeah... But-" Rogue was getting frustrated, but he knew he had no right to snap at you again.

"Then I don't see the relevance of this conversation. I'll be heading home now. I'll see you tomorrow" with that you placed a kiss on his cheeks and headed back out of the guild.

Rogue's attempts at covering up his frustration were in vain as you could read him like an open book. Afraid to get yelled at again you hastily decided to head back home. Ready to scream or punch something just to get your own frustrations out.

After the failed attempts of him making it up to you, you managed to put up your facade for a week, until one day you just didn't show up. You didn't notify Sting or Rogue in advance, which you normally do, you were just too tired to deal with anyone.

"Has (Y/N) told you she wasn't coming today?" Rogue's anxiety was through the roof. He nearly burned a whole town to the ground when he lost Frosch. Imagine what he'd do if he didn't know where you, his significant other was. "No"

"I'm going to her house" with that Rogue left in an attempt to find you. Luckily for him, you were indeed just at your house.

Your stomach dropped at the sound of someone knocking at your door. You were tired, no, exhausted even. You hated that you had to pretend that you were someone that you're not, but it was all for a good cause you kept telling yourself, and yet you couldn't muster the energy to keep up that facade.

"(Y/N)? Please tell me your home" your heart broke at the sound of his voice. The worry and desperateness were caused because of you. Once again you were not good enough.

You opened the door ever so slightly, just enough, so he could make out that it was in fact you. "Thank God you're here"

"I'm sorry for not giving a heads-up. I promise I'll be back tomorrow" you promised him as you were about to shut the door again, but he stopped you by placing his own hand against the door.

"(Y/N), please, we need to talk" you contemplated for a minute, weighing the pros and the cons "please"

You slowly opened the door further as a signal for him to come in.

The sight in front of him shattered his heart. Your eyes were red and puffy. Your figure was completely slouched and your arms were wrapped around your middle, hugging yourself, in an attempt to shield yourself away from.

"I'm sorry I probably look like a cry baby right now-" he stopped you before you could finish your excuse "hey, no, none of that"

"I want to tell you something and I need you to listen without you interrupting me, okay?" You nodded your head at his request and waited patiently as he continued. "First and foremost I'd like to apologize for my behaviour last week. I shouldn't have worked out my frustration on you and I shouldn't have attacked you like that."

You nodded your head at his apology "second, I want you to know that you should never change your personality. Especially not for me. I love you, (Y/N). And when I say that, I mean every piece of you. Your good and your bad traits. If fell in love with you for who you are, and not the person you've been portraying as the last week."

"Please go back to your old self. I'd rather have a childish person as my girlfriend than a fraud that's clearly exhausted by putting on a facade. I really am sorry for making you feel like you had to change for me" by now you were full-on crying. Maybe it was because of Rogue's kind words, maybe it was because of the exhaustion, maybe a bit of both. All you cared about now was being in his arms and feeling loved.

"It's okay" you whispered as placed your head on his chest as he planted a kiss on your head.

"It really isn't. That's why I'd like to make it up to you" you broke the hug to look up at him as a mischievous glint was sparkling in his eyes "how about we prank Sting?"

"I'd love to, but for now let's just watch a film and cuddle" you smiled at his idea as you had never pranked Sting before since you always prank others together.

"Anything for you, princess" that's how you spend the rest of your evening in each other's arms, with him reassuring you every once in a while that he loves you and that you should never change.

[linkspooky]

Touya is Dead, Dabi is Here.

Dabi is the foil to Endeavor. His villainous foil. However, not everything is about Endeavor. Let’s shove him to the side for a second. Dabi is also the villainous foil to himself, in a stranget twist and turn of events. Dabi has a villain persona that he plays up, he’s trying to show everyone that he’s the monster created by Endeavor’s monstrous actions, but I think he’s also playing himself as the opposite of Touya, the villainous foil to Touya’s once heroic ambitions. Touya was supposed to die, but Touya lived. Now, Dabi is trying to destroy everything Touya is, by embodying the opposite of everything Touya was. 

1. The Child Who Didn’t Get Saved

Touya’s remembered in a certain way by his family members. Endeavor doesn’t even seem to pity the child who died on his watch, so much as he pities himself. He pities the fact that he didn’t get to raise his son up into a successor. When he sees the scarred up Dabi still alive in front of him, he doesn’t feel happiness that his long dead son is alive, or even pity for the monster covered in burns. 

His first thought is disappointment, that Dabi didn’t grow up into what he wanted him to be. Natsu remembers the crying child that always clung to him, but he probably has the most realistic view of his brother. Someone who was suffering under his father, and someone whose pain shouldn’t be forgiven or swept under the rug. Whereas Fuyumi and Shoto who were both less close to Touya, don’t even seem to know how to talk about him, or how to feel. 

Touya is in the eyes of others around him, either a sad and tragic case. A crying child in need of saving who unfortanately did not get saved. Or he’s just not talked about at all. I’m not going to talk about Shoto and Fuyumi because of course they don’t know how to feel about the death of their own brother, and their mom who they’ve been seperated from for a decorated they’re coming to terms with all that slowly but... not only did society as a whole forget about Touya but, Endeavor too. He doesn’t really see Touya. He just sees an unfortanate lost child. He sees a son who he wants to come home. Touya died so young, and so suddenly that his feelings aren’t really recognized. Nobody really knows Touya, and the Touya they all understand is the sad child he used to be. The sad, pitiful, tragic, child. 

And is it any wonder that Touya doesn’t want to be this person anymore? That Dabi denies being this person? If all Touya used to be was a sad child, constantly crying, who was never good enough no matter how hard he tried. Then wouldn’t it make sense that Dabi wouldn’t want to be this person anymore? 

It’s painful being Touya. Touya is vulnerable, a child who couldn’t do anything about his situation. A child who tried so hard he ended up burning himself. Not only is Touya vulnerable, he’s frail, weak, all the things Dabi doesn’t want to be and all the things his father found worthless. Touya has flames stronger than anyone, but a weak constitution to go along with it, so much so he always ends up hurting himself with his own fire. It’s pretty obvious to see that Dabi is in pain, everyone else around him except for Dabi himself seems to notice it. He’s covered in burn wounds at all times, he’s literally constantly smoking, and just barely stitched together. Yet, Dabi denies being in pain, and through doing that, he denies himself. 

2. That Child Grew Up Into An Asshole

Denial is a coping mecahnism.  Refusing to acknowledge that something is wrong is a way of coping with emotional conflict, stress, painful thoughts, threatening information and anxiety. Rather than simply being vulnerable, it’s sometimes easier to deny that you are ever vulnerable atall. Especially for people like Dabi who spent long periods in their childhood feeling helpless and week. 

From the moment a baby comes into the world, forming attachments to parents or other caregivers is critical to a child’s emotional, physical and psychological development. For an infant, having a gentle and responsive caregiver provides the nurturing a child needs to grow into a healthy adult. A cared for child develops self-esteem, feels secure in exploring the world around him or her and has a strong foundation for understanding how to build healthy relationships later in life.

But if those earliest relationships break down, the child may experience what is known as abandonment or neglect trauma.

One way of coping with this trauma is to be entirely self sufficient. To basically close up, never need to rely on other people ever, and therefore never open up. Basically, what Dabi denies more than anything else is his vulnerability, even though it’s obvious he’s in pain. 

Vulnerability, after all is the reason he got abandoned. Touya was tossed to the side because he was too weak. Therefore, in an effort to be strong Dabi denies feeling any pain at all, and in the process shuts out his other feelings. He also denies anything, his connection to his family, any feelings of guilt or remorse he might have.

Self-denail, and self-abuse, it’s the same reason kids from bad homes end up acting irresponsibly and abusing drugs, it’s all a fancy way to hurt yourself. 

If overthinking about things causes him pain, causes him to break Dabi’s solution is to simply not think about things. If being Touya is too painful for him, then Dabi chooses not to be a person and plays up the monster. 

It’s almost like Dabi and Touya are two separate people stitched sloppily together, but they’re coming apart slowly at the seams. Dabi pretends to be a remorseless villain when facing off with Endeavor, but then in front of the crowds when he’s begging for sympathy he shows off all of his burns, sits politely, and presents a character that is much more human making his case that he killed innocent people but he did so with reason, for a good cause. While, the same Dabi instead of Endaevor seems to just want to burn everything for the fun of it. The point being that, Dabi contradicts himself a lot. He argues with himself. 

It’s because Dabi is putting on deliberate acts. He’s changing himself based on the audience. It’s just that he’s also not as good of an actor as he thinks he is. However the performance seems to be pretty consistent at least for the most part, he wants everyone to regret what Touya became because of Endeavor’s abuse so he purposefully makes himself into the opposite of everything Touya was. Touya wanted to be a hero to carry on his father’s legacy, Dabi is a villain dedicated to completely destroying his father’s reputation and leading him to ruin. 

Touya was known for being particularly close to Natsuo, not only playing with him all the time, but confiding in him. Touya must have been a good big brother to Natsuo if Natsuo misses him so much. Yet, Dabi acts like Natsuo is nothing special, just another casualty in his revenge on Endeavor. 

Touya was someone always working hard to earn Endeavor’s attention and please him. Dabi seems to only want to bring about Endeavor’s ruin and think of ways of hurting him. There’s a certain irony in Dabi being so laser focused on Endeavor, because once again you reap what you sow. Endeavor wanted to raise his child to exist solely for his purpose, to carry on his legacy, to center everything around Endeavor’s needs rather than to care for another living human being with needs of his own and that’s what he got - someone who is singularly laser focused and obsessed with bringing him down. Even if Touya is still obsessed with only Endeavor to the point of forgetting the rest of his family, that’s literally just a symptom, a side effect of child abuse, of Endeavor raising Touya with the expectation that he had to please him.

Touya was a kid who is always crying, and Dabi seems to have no feelings at all. Once again, always, always he presents himself as the opposite of everything that Touya was and wanted to be. 

Dabi denies that he is Touya, and therefore denies that he is in pain. 

He pulls his brother close, and hugs him, and then does the opposite of what a big brother is supposed and hurts his younger brother instead of protecting him.

It’s not just Dabi being the opposite of Touya, it’s almost like he’s doing everything he can, to  burn up and riun Touya’s memory. To deny that any part of him ever was Touya. 

Dabi is in denial, but also I think some part of Dabi is aware of his denial. Like I said, he contradicts himself. He says that these are Endeavros’ flames, then just as easily he says “no duh, it’s obvious I’m not Endeavor.” 

I think Dabi realizes what he is doing, it’s just at the moment he believes he has to do this. It’s the only way. Whatever, Dabi is hoping to achieve, the radical reform of society, the destruciton of the hero system, it’s more important the feelings of his family, and more important than his own feelings. 

However, if those feelings are there it means Dabi isn’t without hope. There’s still a human side to Dabi. Dabi is still Touya, the same way Shigaraki is same Tenko. Their child selves died, but they never did die. Dabi is trying to be pure evil, but parts of him are still good he’s just suppressing himself. 

I think what Dabi needs to realize is that his hurt feelings, his feelings of vulnerability, are just as important as the strength he fights with. He needs both parts of himself in order to live on, weak little Touya and villainous Dabi. I don’t think Dabi will turn into a 100% good person, but as for character development the same way that Shoto is learning to reconcile his two disparagent sides, his ice and his flames. I hope that Dabi learns that he’s still Touya, while being Dabi at the same time. He’s not a villain, he’s someone capable of being both good and bad. It’s only that way he can learn to live on as Touya, rather than hoping to die and drag his father to hell with him as Dabi. 

[nicobaka]

CLEARING UP AND EXPLAINING SOME THINGS THAT PEOPLE TEND TO MISUNDERSTAND ABOUT GRAY, JUVIA, AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP

(warning: spoilers. It's also gonna be some LONG ass shit lmao. Sorry for typos in advance)

I heard a lot of people hating Gruvia for things that they misunderstood (or just straight-up dismiss/ignore) about the ship, and so I thought I'd clear up and explain some of those here because I just think all this hate towards the ship is unnecessary especially when most of their reasons of why they hate the ship aren't really valid or reasonable.. I mean, yeah, you can dislike and hate it all you want, we all have different preferences. But the level of hate Gruvia gets for reasons that are already proven false and untrue is just unbelievable. Like people saying Gray is somehow "controlled" by Juvia, or that Gray has "Stockholm syndrome" when Juvia never even tried to kidnap Gray... And worse is when people start to spread misinformation and slander the ship, spreading hate and negativity towards the ship for reasons that are again, proven to be untrue.

[ GRAY'S BIG TSUNDERE ASS ]

Gruvia is not one-sided, it's just that Gray's a big frickin Tsundere and that he refuses to show affection, so he may come off as cold to her sometimes. Although later on he realized that he should accept his feelings for Juvia rather than pushing her away and trying to run away from his own feelings before he regrets it, so now he has become less of a Tsundere and is trying to become a better person for her (but still a Tsundere lmao)

[ GRAY'S PAST AND CHILDHOOD TRAUMA ]

Gray does not dislike nor hate Juvia, even from the very beginning after they just met. Hell, even right after their fight in their first meeting. After their first actual meeting, Gray even helped her, saved her, made her happy, and even smiled with her. He wouldn't have done all that if he disliked her. He wouldn't have said he has no problem with Juvia joining the guild if he disliked her. He wouldn't hang around with Juvia inside and even outside the guild if he disliked her. He wouldn't have worried and felt bad about her not passing the exam of he disliked her. He wouldn't have carried her running away from danger even though she already said she can run away by herself if he disliked her. He wouldn't have agreed to going out with Juvia, which clearly meant as a date to her, if he disliked her. He wouldn't have lived with her for half a year if he disliked her. He would have agreed with Juvia leaving him alone if he disliked her, but instead he hugged her, thanked her, and cried on her arms. He wouldn't have sacrificed himself for her safety if he disliked her.... I can go on and on for hours with this honestly. But the point is, he clearly doesn't dislike nor hate Juvia. He even said he's grateful for having Juvia always by his side.

It's just he didn't wanna get too attached to her. He has always thought ever since as a child that it's his responsibility / fault whenever someone he cares for dies. He blames himself for it, consciously or unconsciously, and puts the burden upon himself. He feels like whenever he gets too attached to someone, they would leave him and when that happens it'll be his fault. That's the reason why he seemed cold to her sometimes, it's that he doesn't wanna get too attached to her, afraid that she would just leave him like the others...

"I'm going to avenge my mother and father!"

"I wasn't... able to do anything..."

"It's your fault, Gray." (Lyon)

"It's my fault that Ul died 10 years ago"

"No matter how much time pass, it won't change the fact that it's my fault Ul's dead!"

"I lost both mother and daughter..."

Him trying to push Juvia away by being cold to her is most likely something he did unconsciously, since he himself wasn't really sure about his feelings for her and having the fear of loosing his loved ones before, at least when it was just starting. But as we already know, his attempt of trying to not get too attached to her wasn't successful. It didn't have any chance of being successful to begin with since the reason why he didn't want to get too attached to her and why he had developed the fear of loosing her in the first place is because he's already attached to her from the beginning. He was the one to save her, worries about her a lot, cares for her, protects her, and spends a lot of his time with her, which made him even more attached to her. Which explains his expression at that one recent official Gruvia art which some fans didn't like... He looks like he feels like he shouldn't fall in love with Juvia, but he really just can't help it.

And when it actually almost happened, when Juvia almost killed herself for him, it finally became clear to him what he feels about her, and he realized that it was stupid and cowardly for him to try and avoid Juvia and his very own feelings, because of his damned childhood trauma. He could've lost all the chances he had with her forever, with all those efforts she spent on him all be put in vain. And now that he realized this, that doesn't make the fear of loosing her disappear. It can't be erased just like that. But instead of avoiding, hiding, and keeping his feelings like before, he's trying to improve and be a better person for her that can protect her no matter what.

[ THE LOVE POTION THINGY IS NOT CANON ]

The episode about Juvia buying potions made her look bad for some fans. It was not in the Manga. It's not canon. The part where Lucy expected Natsu to confess (which was seen in the same episode) is canon, since it is from the Manga. But the part where Juvia buys love potion and uses it to try and get Gray is not in that chapter, nor is it in any chapter in the manga, meaning it's not canon and is an anime-only part. Well personally I found it quite funny, but some fans really hated Juvia on that one.

[ JUVIA IS NOT A YANDERE B*TCH ]

I saw a lot of people referring to Juvia as a "yandere" and portraying Juvia as such.. Juvia is NOT a yandere girl who will kill you if you reject her and shit. If anything, she's the opposite. She can NEVER hurt Gray. She'd rather kill herself than hurt Gray. When she thinks she's making Gray uncomfortable, she immediately apologizes. When she thought she disrespected Ul's death anniversary by saying it should be a happy day for Gray because it's their anniversary (she didn't know it was Ul's death anniversary at first), she felt very sorry and disappointed in herself. The reason she couldn't approach him at the start was because she didn't want to make him and his friends uncomfortable, and because she isn't used to socializing with other people (add the fight with Phantom Lord which caused the guild a lot of trouble, plus how people always disliked and pushed Juvia away). Basically, Juvia has, or at least had social anxiety. At first, she couldn't approach Gray because she was extremely nervous. Juvia also wasn't as bold as she is now towards Gray at the start, she was shy and was shown to even stutter a lot trying to express her thoughts to Gray and the guild members. Yeah, she becomes extremely mad when someone threatens Gray's life, but that's just like Natsu being mad when someone threatens to kill Lucy. Or Gray being mad when someone threatens Erza's life. Or Mira being mad when someone threatens her siblings lives.. But Juvia didn't even actually kill Meredy (the one who did threaten to kill Gray), but instead even became friends with her! A yandere would do the total opposite. I think that if Gray ever rejects her, she wouldn't even be mad at him, but would probably be very depressed and think a lot about what she did wrong.. She was even willing to give up on him in Tartaros Arc, when she had to kill Gray's father, she thought she doesn't deserve to love him anymore after what she did so she was willing to finally give up and leave him alone... When yanderes are the kind of people who'd go as far as to kill every other person close to you just so they can have you for themselves...

But Gray himself does not want her to leave. Even though he seems annoyed with how Juvia is clingy towards him and all that, in reality, he doesn't want her to leave. He hugs her and says "thank you" to Juvia for being the one to "kill" Silver, saving his father and finally letting his father rest in peace, so that Gray didn't have to kill his father himself. Silver himself wanted to die and even thanked Juvia for that so I don't really understand why people hate her because of it. And if Gray disliked or hated Juvia, he definitely would have agreed about her leaving him alone.

The main reason why Juvia acts like this is because she's trying to show her love for others that she wasn't able to show before, since she was always rejected, avoided, disliked, and even hated by others. She's always pushed away by others. So now that someone (Gray) didn't push her away and showed care for her, she didn't want to miss the opportunity of finally feeling loved and being able to share her love.

And Gray, together with the guild, accepted her. She wants to feel loved and accepted, so she's trying all her best to not be seen as someone gloomy or unlikable that others used to think she is. She does things that she thinks would make them happy, she does things that she thinks would make them accept her. But since she never really knew how to interact with other people before she joined the guild, and the people she used to be with were toxic as hell, she comes off as awkward sometimes. But she's growing, together with Gray and the guild, she's growing.

[ THE LOVE RIVAL" THING IS JUST FOR COMIC RELIEF AND WAS NEVER SERIOUS ]

She may say "Love Rival!!" when someone's getting close to Gray, but it's only put as comic relief and she was not actually serious about it. Even Lucy, the one whom she always calls her "rival", never took it seriously. If Lucy did, she would have never approached Gray ever again, or hated Juvia for it. If Juvia was really serious about her so called "threats", they would have kicked her out of the guild long ago. Plus, she may act like that, but in reality, she cares for and is willing to sacrifice for her friends, including Lucy. And Lucy herself knows that. Even Gray knows when she's just joking around and even called her out for joking at serious times.

It's sad that people say that they are concerned about Gray and Juvia "forcing" herself into him when they don't really actually think about and consider what Gray is actually feeling towards her.. Gray loves her, she loves Gray. Just let them be happy. Gray has lost too much, at least let him enjoy being with Juvia.

Anyways, I'M NOT FORCING YOU TO LIKE THE SHIP, WE ALL HAVE PREFERENCES. But I'm just trying to make you understand both characters, their relationship and development a little more. Well, this is mainly just from my perspective tho. Especially with all the hate this ship gets and how misunderstood both characters are and the things they do. And if you got to this part, thanks for reading all of this lmao this is my first time posting something like this in Tumblr, I hope it wasn't that confusing.

[frostfireft]

Can we have more Bickslow headcannons? And maybe Evergreen, Freed, and Lexus too?

Fuck yeah you can! I’m gonna start with a lot of angst and then move into their dynamics as a team. (this got REALLY long but I’m not sorry)

-I gave you all my HC for Freed’s backstory in my last post and mentioned that Freed is the reason that Bickslow and Evergreen joined the guild, so have both their backstories too! 

-Bickslow grew up in a travelling circus with several other child performers. It wasn’t exactly a nice environment. There were lots of issues and safety hazards and abuse going on behind the scenes, but they were forced to keep smiling and performing through it all. 

-Bickslow was especially targeted by the ringmaster because of his magic allowing him to look into people’s souls. The ringmaster is the one who forced him to wear a helmet when he wasn’t using his ability on the crowd for money. 

-Because of that, he only had five friends back then, all children younger than he was, who looked up to him both for his tricks and the fact that no matter how upset he was, he had a smile for them.

-one day the tent caught fire during a practice. Bickslow was the only one to make it out alive. 

-but considering all the traumatic events they went through, most of the children kept there weren’t able to move on, and their spirits lingered in the area... Except for the five kids who were most fond of Bickslow. They stayed near him and talked to him all the time, especially once they realized he could see them. You still have a soul as a spirit after all. 

-the town he was in began to think he was crazy because he was “talking to the air” all the time, and they would continuously call child services to try and take him to an orphanage. The five spirits however, would warn him before they could, and Bickslow used his years of acrobatics skills to stay away from anyone who tried to move him away from where the circus burned down. It may have been a place of trauma, but there were good memories too, and it’s all he had. 

-So the town tried one last gamble. Who better to adopt a child with mysterious magic that Fairy Tail? 

-And Makarov, in an attempt to get Laxus to be more social, decided to send him and Freed. 

-It went about as well as you’d expect. Laxus tried to fight him while Freed did research on the area and what happened to him. 

-Laxus didn’t have as much control over his magic as he thought he did at that age, and Bickslow was kicking his ass before Freed showed up and trapped him so they could talk.

-Freed shared his story with him and offered the same thing Laxus once offered him: a home. 

-Bickslow cracked soon after that, and told them everything after Freed started asking questions about the town thinking he’s crazy while they were on the train back to magnolia. 

-While many members of Fairy Tail were unnerved by him, those around their age did their best to make him feel at home. Natsu listened to all his stories about the circus and about the five ghosts who followed him, and Bickslow listened to his stories about the dragons. 

-Freed used this time to research Seith magic extensively, and he eventually came across the idea of putting the souls into objects. He and Bickslow worked for weeks to figure out how to do it, and the five spirits became his five main “dolls.” 

-He of course, asked them if they were okay with being alongside him before putting them inside the tiki dolls, and if he cried when they said there was nowhere else they’d rather be? Well Freed and Laxus weren’t going to tell anyone about it. 

-Evergreen was both harder and easier to get back to Fairy Tail. 

-Like Freed, She was once a part of the noble class, but under a name she never wants to use again. 

-When she gained her eye magic, she accidentally turned her mother to stone, and it was all downhill from there. Her father tried to keep her locked in a room, and it worked for a long time. 

-Eventually though, she had decided she’d had enough, and snuck out and ran as far away as she could. She kept a ribbon tied around her eyes any time she had to go into town, and learned how to walk while completely blind. This did some damage to her eyesight after several years of doing it. 

-it felt like it was too good to be true. She was free and she did odd little jobs in a town far from her original home to earn money for food. it was all she needed..... Until a child tore the ribbon from her face. 

-the second she made eye contact, the little boy turned to stone. There was nothing she could do about it except cover her face up again and run. 

-her father, however, had notified several guilds about her disappearance and claimed she was dangerous if left alone, so when stories spread about a homeless child turning a boy to stone, it became their first lead in months. 

-there was a lull in fighting missions at the time, and something about her magic intrigued Freed. It was an eye magic like his and Bickslow’s first magics, and they aren’t exactly common. Freed, Laxus, and Bickslow took it upon themselves to take the mission to bring her home.

-She very quickly figured out how to hide herself in the woods and away from people. Freed had to trap the entire area and make it so that eye magics don’t work within his barriers before they could even get close to her. It took almost a month. 

-And much to their surprise, she was nothing like what they were expecting. After all, they were supposed to be hunting down a nobleman’s son, not a daughter.

-Bickslow almost immediately asks her about why she ran away, and Ever looks up at him- then panics as she slams her eyes shut- but he doesn’t turn to stone because of Freed’s runes, and he explains as such. 

-They have a long conversation about why she ran away, and she tells them everything her father did to her, from being locked in her room to being terrified to tell him she’s his daughter and not his son because of his anger issues.

-They realize then and there they can’t give her back to him, and Freed comes up with the plan to tell him that they didn’t find his son, but rather a random girl with a similar magic, and she can join Fairy Tail instead of staying on the run. 

-The only reason she doesn’t agree immediatly is because of her eye magic. She couldn’t control it, and the idea of turning someone to stone again scared her.

-Freed sent Laxus to buy a pair of glasses without a prescription and a nice dress for her to wear, and he etches runes into the glasses to block her eye magic when they’re on.

-She’s sold from that moment on, and the raijinshuu’s friendship is sealed with that secret. 

-Laxus helps her chose her name before they get onto the train, and they solidify the story before then too  

-Makarov Accepts the story without question, even though they have a sneaking suspicion he knows. 

-They become a tight knit group in no time. 

-Then they learn about Ivan and all he did to Laxus, and they start to jokingly refer to themselves as the Laxus protection squad. It’s a lot less of a joke when Ivan’s actually around though, and the guild definitely notices. Makarov even starts to officially call them that in some reports. 

-No one remembers who suggested the name “raijinshuu,” but they all privately agree it’s dumb. Especially since  it insinuates that Laxus is the team leader. Freed’s the captain of their team for a reason.

-Dispite the fact that Bickslow is the tallest of them, both Laxus and Freed are both physically stronger than him. That’s not to say he isn’t strong, but Laxus can carry freakish amounts of weight due to his slayer biology, and Freed does the same due to his demon biology. 

-Freed can carry all of them at once. No one knows how. 

-Freed puts new runes on Ever’s glasses every time she gets new frames or a new prescription. He knows she doesn’t need it anymore, but she’s always grateful for the option. 

-if they share a bed, Freed and Ever cannot sleep next to each other. Their hair tangles together and they’ve only had to make that mistake once. 

-Ever and Bickslow are not under any circumstances allowed to cook, Freed can make fancy meals, and Laxus makes homemade stuff that would make your mouth water. He also stress bakes in secret at four am. 

-That’s how they always know he’s stressed when he doesn’t tell them. It’s kind of hard to miss 6 batches of cookies that spontaneously appeared overnight

-Freed has an unsharpened rapier that feels like getting hit with a slap bracelet at full speed. Naturally, this is the sword he chases Bickslow with when he pisses him off. 

-Laxus likes to pretend he’s one of the smartest members of the guild, but the raijinshuu knows he’s actually kind of a himbo. 

-Bickslow is really close friends with Loke, and when he noticed the man was dying slowly, the others comforted him despite not knowing what was going on.

-Bickslow often helps ghosts pass on from the mortal plane. 

-Evergreen keeps up with all the latest fashion, but she still considers Freed to be more fashionable. Because of this she always double checks her outfits with him. 

-Evergreen’s always the first to sass someone when they’re being rude to her team. It’s earned her her reputation as a “bitch” but she’s far too proud of it to be offended.

-One Laxus was open about his dragon slayer magic, they pushed him to talk to the other slayers to learn about himself and his magic. Freed and Bickslow pushed the hardest though, since they’re friends with Natsu and knew that he would be all too willing to drag Laxus into his little family of dragon slayers.

-Laxus was much happier oncce he accepted that he was more dragon that human anyways, and the more he learned, the happier he was. 

-In case it wasn’t clear: mtf Trans!Ever (she/her exclusively), he/they Freed, and  wtf is gender, is it a food?” Laxus and Bickslow (any pronouns). 

[aashi-heartfilia]

FT100YQ Ch 89 || Lucy will defeat Selene?

Firstly, a quick overview over the chapter...

So this chapter starts off directly from where we left last time! Now that the Alta face is defeated, the hands are all falling apart and our gang had to make a run for it now, lol.

One of things I love about FT is the light hearted comedy mixed with the plot.

And yaaaay, the Magic Circle returns:

Team Natsu is safe and thanks to Virgo doing that 'walla' pose

So apparently, now that Beauty Godess are defeated they're being arrested by Elentir's army. And where was this army until now?

Their rivalry finally somes to an end and I'm so glad. Mimi had to be officially my favorite Lucy rival now! Look at the smug expression on her face. She is so proud that she was defeated by someone like Lucy. Mimi is saying something along the lines of "Let's fight again" and Lucy is like "that won't be necessary". But really, it's kinda sad that even Mimi had to be arrested.

Party time! Lucy narrations are back again!!

Carla jealous of Touka again

NALU crumbs!!

Natsu being the chad he is, aww💞

Natsu is such a Chad and a sweetheart that it never fails to put a smile on my face. When Touka was getting upset about all the chaos she cause, Natsu was like "Hey, it's okay!" And he turned it into a fun environment.

Now the main focus:

Lucy will defeat Selene?

I think it is worth noting that this was the first time when the main villan wasn't defeated, which is very good considering the plot progression so far. Let's be frank here, after all that TN went through in this arc, they were in no position to defeat Selene or Suzaku no matter how wounded they were. It would have been like dragging the plot unnecessarily and wouldn't have made any sense at all. So yeah, I'm totally satisfied with how it went.

The thing is, FT isn't just about slaying God Dragons bit rather about good and bad. Look at how much problems and terror Selene caused in Elentir. TN may not have been able to defeat Selene but they liberated Elentir from her curse and now people can live freely. Good for them. They were some kind of 'Mesiah' themselves in a way for the people of Elentir.

My theory is that Selene is kept for the final plot. We have seen that Lucy is at the level of Selene's Minion at least and to see Lucy defeat Selene would be a major development. It feels like Udea and Mashima Sensei are setting up the main villans for the final plot, it can be Natsu vs Ignia and Lucy vs Selene.

Fire vs Volcano, Stars vs Moon. For now it looks like Lucy is missing home so they're going back next chapter. Back to Earthland where we have Diabolos, Ignia and Vernies waiting for them. We still have no idea how they'll find the next God Dragon but let's see what happens.

Till then, this is it!

See ya!

[ukeishin]

— friends forever and ever and ever

note: im impatient so im posting rn 😁 but i’ve been having a lot of hinata thoughts lately. pls let me know what you thought of this!! i’d love to know :)

ft. hinata shoyo

warning: angst, hanahaki disease, unrequited love, blood

⤷ main page

You had no one to blame but yourself for your current predicament.

Your waste bin overflowing, your desk in total disarray, and your floor a mess as well.

Then again, it wasn’t like you intended to fall for Hinata, you muse, picking up one of the red-tinged petals you coughed up only moments ago. Using the sleeve of your sweatshirt, you carefully wipe off the blood that’s collected at the corner of your mouth. You grimace when you pull your arm away from your lips and see how crimson now stains the material of your sweatshirt. You’ll have to toss it into the wash later with all of your other blood-stained clothing.

The wooden frame of your bed digs into your back as you lean your head against your mattress. You wince at the sharp pain in your chest when you accidentally take a deep breath and begin to shallow your breathing so as to not further aggravate the flowers blooming in your lungs. Pity how something so beautiful only grows in such unfortunate circumstances. If you didn’t feel like absolute shit at the moment, perhaps you’d be able to admire it.

Hanahaki disease. The physical manifestation of unrequited love.

What a load of shit.

It’s rather dramatic in your opinion, and quite frankly rude. How dare your body betray your true feelings when the object of your affections so clearly does not feel the same way?

A tired grin crosses your face at the thought of Hinata: the man who’s been one of your closest friends ever since high school. Reflecting back, it was truly only a matter of time before you fell for him. While the two of you attended Karasuno, you were able to chalk up your feelings to those of friendship, but as time progressed, they evolved and soon enough morphed into romantic ones.

In high school, you successfully fooled yourself into believing your feelings were platonic.

At the time, Hinata was strictly your friend. You weren’t blind, you could appreciate that he was cute, in a boyish sort of way, but you were more preoccupied with things you deemed more important: schoolwork, managerial duties for the boys' volleyball team, and worries about your future.

But Hinata had somehow inserted himself in your life and stuck.

He was hopeless in school and the moment he found out that you scored relatively well in comparison to him, he begged you to tutor him. You were a bit skeptical at first, but you eventually relented. You were pleasantly surprised to find that Hinata was eager to learn the material and attentively listened to what you had to say, even if it was only because passing his exams was the only way for him to attend the Tokyo training camp.

You admired Hinata's tenacity and often stayed behind after practice had ended in the gymnasium to help him run drills over and over. He was determined to be the best he could be, and you didn’t mind helping him achieve his goals even if you weren’t exactly well-versed in volleyball. He would seek out your input and if you had any critiques or advice for him, Hinata would take it to heart and incorporate it into his next play.

Soon you began to spend time together outside of tutoring sessions and volleyball practices. You’d hang out with Natsu together and indulge in her whims and desires: weaving friendship bracelets, painting rocks, playing volleyball, and more. Your presence in the Hinata household became normalized, to the point where you could show up at their front door unannounced, and Natsu would simply throw the door open and exclaim, “big sibling!”

You’ve always been the greatest of friends so you’re not entirely sure when the change occurred.

Maybe it was when he left for Brazil. While Hinata was continents away playing volleyball, you remained in Japan attending university. It was easy to distract yourself with schoolwork and internships, but at the end of the day, you missed Hinata terribly. You two did your best to keep in contact with text messages and facetime, but with the time difference, it was difficult. It wasn’t the same and no amount of homework could fill that Hinata-shaped void in your life.

Up until that point, you didn’t realize just how much Hinata had weaseled his way into your life. It wasn’t like your life had ever revolved solely around Hinata, but you had grown accustomed to his presence. No matter what, you could always count on him to be there for you with a bright smile and some silly, but encouraging words.

It was when Hinata returned from Brazil after two years abroad that you realized you were completely and utterly fucked.

He had grown into himself in more ways than one. He carried himself with more confidence than he did before and his features weren’t cute in a boyish way anymore. He had matured and to put it bluntly, Hinata got fucking hot. His skin was sun-kissed, a beautiful golden tan, and he had grown a few inches taller in his time away. The muscles that lie right underneath his skin were strong and corded, and it didn’t go unnoticed how the muscles in his thighs were especially prominent. There was no doubt that Hinata had changed greatly in his time spent in Brazil, but then again, some things never really change. He still had that same old grin, which would brighten your day no matter the circumstances.

The two of you were able to pick up your friendship right where it left off.

That’s when the flowers had started to bloom.

You were unlucky even in comparison to others who suffered from Hanahaki disease. Most of the time, the growth of the flowers in one’s lungs would be gradual. However, in your case, it was accelerated. The first time you experienced a coughing fit, you filled your waste bin to the brim with bloodied petals.

You suppose it was because the realization that you were in love with Hinata had hit you like a freight train.

You did your best to conceal that you had Hanahaki disease. It would do no good to worry anyone with it, especially Hinata. Being in love with someone who didn’t love you was one thing. Being in love with an idiot who didn’t love you was another. If Hinata learned that you had Hanahaki, his first question would be “Who’s responsible?” and it would take everything within you to not scream that it was him.

So you crafted the perfect facade. You would plaster on a smile in front of others and act like everything was completely okay even if behind closed doors, blood-soaked petals were beginning to pile up. If anybody seemed to suspect something was amiss, you would wave aside their concerns and assure them that you were just feeling a little under the weather.

It hurt that Hinata didn’t love you back, but what hurt most was that he didn’t love someone else. There was no other person that was the object of his affections. There was no one that you could blame and point to as the reason why Hinata didn’t love you in return. The fact that Hinata just didn’t see you in any other way than a friend hurt more than the flowers killing you.

Alstroemerias. Those were the flowers that were filling up your lungs. A hollow laugh filled the air when you looked up the meaning of them: friendship. How cruel of the world to make the flowers blooming in your lungs represent the only relationship you would ever have with Hinata.

But, you’d rather have Hinata as a friend than not at all.

So you take care to maintain the smile that’s beginning to strain and ignore the sharp pain in your chest when Hinata tells you that you’re the best friend he could ever have.