#gajevy fluff | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

dragongodryss · 8 months ago

Text

Memories of the past, Joys of the present and Dreams of the future

There wasn't much Gajeel missed about the days before he had joined Fairy Tail. In fact, it was only one thing. Skateboarding. He had been pretty damn good at it too, before he had developed motion sickness.

He wondered if the twins would grow up to enjoy it as much as he had, or if they would like different things entirely. The had only been born about six months ago, but he loved them with all his heart, and it sucked that he couldn't share this with them.

"What wrong Gajeel? Are twins okay? Are you okay?" Levy asked gently.

"Yeah. Just thinking."

"Don't hurt yourself." She joked before getting serious "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really. There's not much I can do about it anyway." He had more important things to worry about, like taking care of his kids, or his upcoming wedding. Or even the fact that he and Levy didn't really have time to do anything together anymore. When one went on a job, the other stayed home with the kids. His guildmates helped out sometimes, sure, but he could probably count the amount of people he fully trusted to take care of two babies on his hands. Bisca and Alzack. Maybe Mira or Freed. Maybe. No, Mirajane wasn't a good influence. Lisanna? He didn't really know her, but she seemed sensible. Lucy helped sometimes, but she didn't have much experience with babies and she had her own life. Rogue was the third best choice, after Bisca and Alzack, the fact that his frog was still alive was a testament to that. He had watched his niece and nephew on a couple of occasions, but he was helping Sting with Sabertooth.

On his way back from a job with Jet, Droy and Lily, he noticed a skate park. Several people were skateboarding there, having the time of their lives. Blasted motion sickness. That was also why they were walking.

He didn't know why the grief over not being to go skateboarding anymore was hitting him now. Was it because he would never be able to share the joy with the twins? He tried to conceal it from Levy. They both had bigger things to worry about. Or so he had thought.

It took Levy two weeks to drag Rogue into it. Gajeel, half asleep on a Sunday morning, could hear them through the floor.

"He won't tell me what's wrong, and Lily has no idea either. Whatever it is is clearly bugging him and it's not going away. Please just try." Levy was clearly at her wits' end. Gajeel hadn't wanted to worry her. He got up and got dressed. He needed to come clean.

"Alright, but if he hasn't told you or Lily, he probably won't tell me either." Rogue agreed.

"Fro thinks so too!"

Gajeel came downstairs.

"Morning." He said, not sure where to start.

"You heard us didn't you?" Lily stated more than asked.

"Yeah. Didn't wanna worry you. It's not a big deal. But I guess it's too late for that."

"What happened?" Levy asked.

"It's stupid. I used to really like skateboarding, but then my motion sickness, well, happened, and I couldn't do it anymore. Then a couple of weeks ago, I realized I'd never be able to teach the twins how to skate, even if they were interested."

"That's not stupid. I remember you doing it all the time. Of course you'd be upset about it." Rogue said.

Levy thought for a moment.

"Say, Gajeel? Did Wendy ever use Troia on you?" Levy asked.

"Nah, what's the point? It'll stop working anyway."

"Yeah, if you overuse it. Using it once or twice a year probably isn't going to do that. Or if you want to be sure you get to skate with the twins, once every two years. But I think once a year would probably be fine." Levy explained. "So you don't forget. You could even teach us, as practice."

Gajeel froze. Was she suggesting what he thought she was?

"Sounds fun. All we need are some skateboards. You and Frosch coming too, Rogue?" Lily asked.

"If you'll have us." Rogue smiled.

"Fro thinks so too."

"You mean now?" Gajeel asked.

"No, we need to find someone to watch the twins and rent some skateboards. And ask Wendy to cast the spell on you two." Levy reminded him. "Next week. Should we go rent the boards on Saturday?"

"Hey, little blue! You got a minute?" Gajeel asked a couple of days later.

"Yes Gajeel? What's up?"

"Me, Lev, Rogue and the cats are going skateboarding on Sunday. Could you cast Troia on us and do you want to join us?" He asked.

"I'd love to come, but I don't think that spell will work on me. I can definitely cast it on you two though." Wendy said, a little sad.

"My bad, kid. Wanna go get ice-cream with us afterwards?" Gajeel frantically tried to cheer her up.

"Yep. See you on Sunday!" It had worked. Gajeel doubted he would have any trouble convincing the rest to get ice-cream.

Meanwhile, Levy had convinced Alzack and Bisca to watch the twins for the afternoon, so that was taken care of.

The group looked around the shop for skateboards, in the for hire section.

"No, Rogue. That skateboard is too small. No, Rogue, I don't care if it has frogs on it, you're going to get hurt." Gajeel insisted. "And before you ask, it's far too big for Frosch."

There was a clatter as the exceed in question launched herself into a stack of skateboards while riding a penny-board.

"Frosch, are you alright?" Rogue dashed over to rescue her.

"No testing the boards inside the shop!" The salesman scolded.

"Don't you think she's learned her lesson? Hasn't she suffered enough?" Rogue asked, clutching Frosch to his chest. Gajeel walked over to make sure Rogue didn't get them kicked out or arrested. But since the exceed was safe in his arms, Gajeel doubted it would come to that.

"Fro thinks Fro's going to fly."

Babysitting was hard. At least Levy and Lily had found boards that wouldn't cause them to fall flat on their faces. The idiot he was trying to wrangle, however, was still wistfully looking at the frog board.

"For the last time, Rogue-"

"Wait, hear me out! I can use my magic if I fall off, so it's fine." Rogue suggested.

"You'll be doing that anyway. Come on, there are loads of cool boards."

"Listen to Gajeel, Rogue, he knows what he's doing. Look, that one has a tiger on it!" Levy thankfully jumped in. It was nice that Rogue finally got to act like a kid, he'd definitely earned it, but when it was putting him in harms way, it got exhausting quickly.

"Yeah, it's pretty cool too. What do you think, Frosch?" Rogue agreed. Luckily, that board was the right size. He wasn't sure what he would have done if it wasn't.

"Fro likes it. It's pink and green, like Fro!"

It had been agreed that Rogue and Frosch would spend the night over at Gajeel and Levy's so they wouldn't have to travel all the way from Gazania. It was honestly impressive how much more responsible Rogue became the second he was around the twins, or literally anyone less responsible than him.

Right now, Gajeel was holding his children while Rogue cooked and Lily set the table. Levy was reading a fairy tale aloud to Frosch and the twins.

"Rogue, you'd better not be making fire in there! It'll take Salamander fifteen minutes to get here, even if he picks up his damn lacrima." Gajeel said when he smelled a faint burning smell. He didn't need to shout, Rogue wasn't deaf.

"It's fine, it's under control. And Natsu and Sting owe me 5'000 jewel now." Rogue said smugly from the kitchen.

"Why, did you bet on who could set my kitchen on fire first?" Gajeel asked.

"No, Sting and Natsu bet on who could set water on fire first, and before you ask, no, I don't know why, and I said I would because I'm sick and tired of having to turn off the fire alarm. He set everything except the water on fire."

"You set water on fire! How?"

"It's really easy, do you want to see?"

"No! Not in my house."

Levy had stopped reading, giving Gajeel a concerned look.

"No, it's fine. He's not going to set our house on fire." Gajeel reassured her.

Dinner was served soon after, surprisingly unburnt. It was spaghetti and meatballs. And chocolate cake.

"Okay, but how did you set the water on fire?" Levy finally asked.

"Oh, there was oil in the pasta water, so I set that on fire. Then I put the lid on it to put it out." Rogue explained. Gajeel couldn't say he hadn't done stupider things with less care. At least Rogue understood how to put out an oil fire.

"It was a good idea, but could you not do that in our house in the future?" Levy requested.

"Yeah, sorry. I really should have asked first." "Fro thinks so too."

Rogue looked even guiltier than before, and Gajeel knew he wouldn't do it again.

"It was a pretty neat trick. I'll take the twins to Saber and you can show them there." Gajeel suggested.

"Do you want them to turn out like Natsu?" Lily asked.

"Do they owe you 5'000 jewel each or together?" Gajeel changed the subject.

"Each. They really didn't think I could do it."

"Wow. You should take bets from them more often." Gajeel said. Levy shot him a warning glare, which probably meant he was being a bad influence. Scratch that, he definitely was.

"Guess it pays to be the smartest idiot in the room." Rogue joked.

"Don't do anything stupid. Your reputation as the smartest Dragonslayer is in danger." Lily warned him. "Wendy'll come for your title, and if you keep listening to Natsu and Sting, so will Gajeel."

"Terrifying. I'll be careful." Rogue promised.

It was finally the day. Gajeel hadn't realized how excited he had been until the time had come. Wendy had cast her spell on them and everyone was ready to go.

"Helmets, everyone." Levy reminded them. Rogue was already wearing his, so the comment was directed at him and Lily, who was in his combat form.

"Fro doesn't need a helmet." Frosch proclaimed. Gajeel knew it was because she had opted out of actually skateboarding, but there also wasn't much brain to damage. The same could be said of him though, so he shut up about it.

As soon as his helmet was on, Gajeel sped off. He didn't know the names of most of the moves he did, since he'd rarely spoken to anyone about skating. But he jumped all of the ramps just fine. He had missed this so much, and now he could do it again. Out of practice, he fumbled the landing, landing on his hands and knees.

"Are you alright?"

"Yep. Happens to the best of us. What's important is to get right back up."

The first hour was fairly slow, with the other three trying to get comfortable with the boards. Rogue and Levy picked it up surprisingly quick, at least on flat ground. Lily struggled a bit, but Gajeel himself hadn't become an expert overnight. He taught them how to do an Ollie next, in part because it was fairly simple, but mostly because it was the only move he could name.

Levy took a while to position her feet correctly and decided to take a break to properly observe the difference between what Gajeel was doing and what the others were doing after falling down half a dozen times.

Rogue fell into his shadow the first few times, but perhaps as a result of that safety net, he was braver about it than he would have been otherwise. He was the first to master it among Gajeel's students. Once Rogue had succeeded, Levy decided she had observed enough and tried again. She had improved considerably, and Gajeel was once again impressed by how far taking a step back and watching had gotten her.

Lily, despite being otherwise physically capable, seemed to have some trouble grasping it. Remembering how Rogue had used his shadow, Gajeel led him to the lawn.

"Try practicing here. The board won't slip so much and the landing will be softer." He suggested. After a few more tries, during which Rogue and Levy practiced turning, Lily had managed to do an Ollie. It wasn't the most magnificent one Gajeel had ever seen, but it was an Ollie.

"Do you want to try on the concrete again?" Gajeel asked. Lily grinned.

"Of course." He fell a few more times, but he was succeeding more and more often. Gajeel patted him on the shoulder, concratulating him on his improvement.

He left Lily to practice a bit longer to check on the other two. Rogue had figured out how to spin mid-air, though he fumbles the landing and fell into his shadow, while Levy was doing laps around the park. and Frosch flew back and forth between them. He waved her over and walked over to Rogue. Levy drove over and tried to stop, but she miscalculated and crashed into Gajeel, who caught her. F

"Sorry!" She squeaked. Gajeel chuckled.

"Nah, don't worry. You're doing great. You both are." He praised them, and both grinned. "If you want to try some of the ramps, I think you can pull it off. Just be careful."

Rogue and Frosch sped off to try out the ramps, while Levy went with him to check on Lily.

"Lily and I can race each other around the park, if you want to do some ramps." Levy suggested.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, you're the one that wanted to skate, it would be a shame if you didn't." Levy insisted, Lily nodding in agreement.

Gajeel smiled and took off, joining Rogue on the half pipe.

"Hey punk! Watch this!" He bragged, speeding up the pipe. He made it to the top and flipped over, flying through the air. The familiar rush of feeling the wind in his hair and nothing but the board under his feet washer over him. He landed at the top of the opposite side and skated down, coming to a stop.

"Wow! That's awesome!" Rogue cheered, while Frosch flew in circles around both of them.

"Gajeel flew like Fro! Like Fro!" The exceed laughed.

"Can I try?"

"Normally, I'd say no, but with your magic, the worst that could happen is that you'd look stupid."

Rogue smiled at that and skated to the top of the half-pipe, standing at the top. That was how Gajeel had started off too. He drove down at full speed and came up on the other side, flying straight into the air and straight back down onto the pipe before rolling back to the side where he started and rolling down again, stumbling to a halt at the bottom, without the help of his magic, Gajeel noted.

"Nailed it." Rogue said flatly.

"Good job. Not what you were aiming for, but it's still a solid trick."

"Fro thinks so too!"

Gajeel went to the other ramps to practice, leaving Rogue to practice his flips. He cleared the obstacle courses a few times before turning to watch Lily and Levy race. Lily was a little clumsy in his driving, but was maintaining decent speed, to Gajeel's pride. Levy, meanwhile, was matching him elegantly. A small rock, maybe the size of Gajeel's fist was in her way, but instead of swerving to avoid it, she jumped over it. He smiled as he heard her laugh aloud and sped off to join them. Lily fell back as he approached, granting them some time alone.

"Nice jump, shrimp! Hard to believe it's your first time."

"Thanks. It's hard to believe I'm finally skating." Levy admitted.

"Huh? You've thought about skating before?"

"Yeah. I've always wanted to learn, but there was something else that came first every time. It's more fun than I expected, you know." Levy's smile could have blinded Gajeel then and there.

"Glad to hear it. Do you want to try on of the obstacle courses with me?"

"Sure do!"

Gajeel led her to the simplest one, two bars, followed by a rise and then a small ramp with a stream the size of his forearm between it and the landing space. The whole park was much fancier that the one in Oak Town had been.

Gajeel did a double Ollie over the bars and casually drove over the rise, winking at Levy as he passed her. Then, to show off a bit, he did a flip over the ramp, which easily cleared the stream.

"How was that, Lev? You think you can do the course?" Gajeel asked. Levy grinned confidently.

"Watch me."

She cleared the bars, a little awkwardly, Gajeel admitted, but she stuck both landings. Then she turned her skateboard around to face him before going over the rise, where she winked at him. Turning to look ahead, she faced the ramp, flying into the air before hitting the ground and skidding to a halt. She almost fell over, but kept her balance and gave him a thumbs up, which he returned. When he placed his foot on the board, a now familiar wave of motion sickness washed over him. He picked the board up and walked over to Levy instead.

"Did the spell wear off?" She asked.

"Yeah. Guess it's time to get little blue the ice-cream I promised her." Gajeel confirmed.

They entered the cafe Wendy had chosen about an hour later, after dropping the skateboards off at Gajeel and Levy's house.

"Thanks kid. Today was great." Gajeel told Wendy. He looked at everyone. "I'm paying, buy whatever you want."

Lily was thrilled to learn that the shop had kiwi ice-cream as a temporary addition to the menu, and Wendy admitted that that was what made her choose the shop over the other one she was considering. Levy, out of curiosity, had a scoop of kiwi ice-cream and a scoop of vanilla. Gajeel mixed chocolate and raspberry. Frosch chose one scoop of bubblegum. Wendy had white chocolate, strawberry and bubblegum, which Gajeel doubted would mix well. Rogue chose white chocolate and mint-chocolate chip.

"Natsu set Lucy's house on fire today." Wendy told them mid meal.

"Really? What happened?" Levy asked. Gajeel and Rogue exchanged looks.

"Apparently, he was trying to burn water. Happy banned him from trying it at his house." Wendy seemed thoroughly confused. Levy looked at Rogue, who cleared his throat.

"Tell him Sting and I are inviting him to dinner in two days. Tell him to bring 5'000 jewel." He asked her.

"Sure, but why?"

"You'll see. Can the squirt and I come too?" Gajeel asked. Rogue agreed.

"Tell me how it goes." Levy asked.

"Don't you want to come too?" Rogue invited her.

"Nah. I'm going to stay with the twins."

"Lily?"

"I'm good. Maybe Levy and I can finally finish that rom-com we were watching."

"Hello, welcome to our house!" Lector greeted Gajeel, Salamander and Wendy.

"Rogue! They're here!" Sting called out excitedly, rushing to the door. "Natsu, did you do it yet? The water thing."

"...No." Salamander admitted reluctantly.

"Me neither. Don't think Rogue has either. Don't think he really tried."

"I'll figure it out first!" Salamander declared. Gajeel suppressed a grin. Once he and Sting had gone off to see Rogue, Gajeel turned to Wendy.

"Did he bring the 5'000 jewel?"

"I made sure. But why?"

"He's about to lose a bet. Surprised he didn't guess."

The six of them sat at the kitchen table while Rogue brought the food. Gajeel noted the soot stains that marked the area around the stove. It was spaghetti again.

Rogue brought the pasta water over, earning him some questioning looks from everyone except Gajeel and Frosch. He pulled out a lighter and turned it on, trailing it over the oily water. It caught fire instantly, burning brightly. Salamander, Sting, Wendy and Lector gasped.

"5'000 jewel please, gentlemen." Rogue requested as Salamander ate the fire. Salamander looked upset at losing the bet, but Sting stared at Rogue in awestruck shock. Gajeel hoped he didn't look like that whenever Levy said something smart. Sting went over to grab his wallet to hand Rogue his winnings, and Gajeel nudged Salamander to do the same. At Rogue's insistence, they washed their hands afterwards before tucking in.

This was lining up to be one of the best weeks ever.

#gajeel redfox #rogue cheney #levy mcgarden #wendy marvell #panther lily #Frosch #fairy tail #sting eucliffe #natsu dragneel #gajevy #stingue if you squint #sting and natsu are a bad influence #skater boy gajeel #bets #skateboarding #fluff #gajeel practices parenting on Rogue and Wendy #mentions of kiwi ice-cream

9 notes · View notes

lemondroplizz · 2 years ago

Text

imagine you stumble upon me thinking i post interesting stuff when im really only here bc of the incorrect quotes for my favorite fandoms and the tea😂

#monsterhigh #cleuce #total drama #duncney #bnha #kacchako #fairy tail #nalu fluff #gajevy

10 notes · View notes

mavikiu · 1 year ago

Text

Hey guys!

To celebrate Gajevy day, I posted a new chapter to my fic, bringing the total to 23! It also reached novel length by now and I plan to finish it soon :3

It's a medival fantasy AU, with lots of fluff, magic and drama! Plus, a whole lot of Levy being super smart hehe.

Please consider checking it out if you're looking for new reading material, it's also posted on ff.net : https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13383713/1/Molten-Steel

#don't hesitate to tell me what you think #I crave comments #fairy tail #fanfiction #gajeel redfox #levy mcgarden #fairy tail levy #gajevy #fanfic #fairy tail fanfiction #mavi ft

7 notes · View notes

fairydares · 2 years ago

Text

fuck it, new fic. let's do this.

(there's a 'keep reading' line so don't worry, this isn't too long.)

Title: Chasing Tails (AO3 Link) (Chapter 2) (Chapter 3)

Fandom: Fairy Tail

Rating: E (Explicit) because I'm almost positive there will be eventual smut. I'll be clearer about this as I actually decide what I'm going to write lol. Overarching Warning for Graphic Depictions of Violence.

Categories: 2nd gen fic; adventure, humor, romance, fluff, and angst in approximately that order. i guess.

Pairings: Nalu, Gruvia, Gajevy, Jerza, Miraxus+Fried (don't know what that ship's called sorry), Chendy, Sting/Yukino, Baccana-- next gen has pairings, too, but I don't want to reveal those yet.

Tags/TW's: The first chapter contains UFC/MMA-esque violence as well as some implied street violence. There may be more TW's I need to add later, but I honestly haven't written the whole story or decided everything, so that's all I can give you for now. I'll do my best to tag appropriately as I go.

Summary: It’s been almost 12 years since 17-year-old Layla O'Neil was found living alone on the streets and put in foster care, and she likes to think she’s done a pretty good job of forgetting the past. She doesn’t remember her birth family, the name “Nashi [*1] Dragneel,” or where she heard the absurd stories she told the police who found her. Stories about Wizard Guilds, flying cats, and–most cringey of all–her self-proclaimed status as a “Fire Dragon Slayer.”

But the past becomes pretty impossible to ignore when it confronts her in the form of some middle-aged, pink-haired stalker who won’t stop calling her the ridiculous name she’d nearly forgotten, and trying to convince her to come back to “Fairy Tale.”

Oh, and claiming to be her dad.

Like Layla doesn’t have enough problems! The last thing she needs is some delusional freak following around. Especially one who’s starting to make her want to take his hand…

Yep, this is a Second Gen (and therefore post-canon) fic. The idea took root and just would not let go. I’ll warn you ahead of time that the premise is somewhat dark. That said, I’m the kind of writer who likes (and tries to write) stories with sad beginnings, hopeful middles, and triumphant ends. I don't want to give too much away, but you shouldn't expect major character deaths or anything like that, though their may be some forms of lightly implied abuse.

Feel free to reblog, make your own additions with commentary, whatever. I'm quite lax with stuff like that. Hope this was comprehensive enough, and that you enjoy!

Chapter 1: Dragon-Slaying Aliens

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“That’s correct…a world that exists independently from the one we know. And, unfortunately, a world that’s begun losing its Magic…unlike here, in Edolas, Magic is a finite resource. Without limits on its use, it will one day disappear forever.” -from Episode 78, “Edolas”, (English dub, ~00:09), Carla’s line [*1]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------To say this mission had gone sideways was a big-ass understatement, and even Natsu had to admit it.

It had started well enough. A relatively small mission. Not even S-Class! Puny wannabe Dark Guilds like the one Shirotsume needed dealt with–what was it called? Bony Jewel or something? Anyways, they were a dime a dozen, these days. Hell, Natsu was pretty sure he and Happy took out, like, a billion of them in the past seven years by pure accident. So how the hell was he supposed to know that this time, he’d get blasted to another world–one even Team Natsu hadn’t wound up in?

And he was positive they’d never been here. He may have had a bad memory (something he’d begrudgingly been forced to actively acknowledge as he grew into a man) but he was sure he’d have remembered somewhere that made him feel this bad. It wasn’t just that he couldn’t use his Magic. If it had just been that, this might have been fun. Hell, a lot of the worlds Team Natsu had visited–even Edolas–had been fun.

This one sucked.

If he hadn’t known better, he’d have thought he’d been transported to the future–one where FACE had been activated and all the Magic had been dissipated. Because it had felt, truly, like all the Magic was being sucked out of him. When he’d woken up on the forest floor, he’d felt as if he was dying. His lungs had burned with each breath (and not in the good way). His limbs had felt like lead when he tried to rise.

He’d quickly realized that couldn’t be the case, though. Even if the Dragons hadn’t destroyed FACE, if all the Magic had been sucked from Earthland he’d have Magical Deficiency Syndrome. He’d either be down or in forced into his END form.

He’d wandered around the small forest he’d woken up in alone, trying to focus through the stink and noise he was only capable of perceiving through what felt like about a hundred layers of thick blanket, and calling for his best friend as long as he could. It hadn’t been long before he gave up and left; Happy had never shouted back (something he considered fortunate, at this point; hopefully Happy was back in Earthland) his stomach was trying to eat itself, it was dark–and, worst of all–he still couldn’t use his Magic. At all.

Actually, scratch that: the absolute worst part was when a glance at his (as usual) bare shoulder showed him that his guild mark had vanished. It was just gone. So was his scarf, and so was his Mini Communication Lacrima. Obviously, his guild mark and scarf were bigger deals personally, but the Mini Comm was a bigger loss in immediate, practical terms. After That Day, seven years ago, Laxus–now Fairy Tail’s Master–had started putting Navigation Enchantments on everyone’s Comms so that anyone who went missing could be traced. There was a 3D map of Earthland and Edolas visually tracking everyone’s movements in the Master’s Office. It could even find them in Edolas.

Now, Natsu’s was nowhere to be found. No one would be able to find him, wherever he was, and any hopes of contacting them were obviously dead in the water, too.

He was gonna have to find his own way back, somehow. He only prayed his scarf was somehow back in Earthland, and that Happy had grabbed it for him.

As he hobbled down the weird, too-neat walkway he’d found, he had to believe that whatever was preventing him from using his Magic was what kept him from sensing anything beyond the general–the stink, the sound, the pain, the hunger. Normally, with his better-than-normal resilience and enhanced strength, his pain would have mostly taken care of itself by now. Usually, making himself move helped. Now, it seemed to be making things worse.

After finding the pathway, he’d kept shouting for his little buddy a whole bunch of times, but all he’d gotten were several loud verbal confrontations and one physical one. He’d expected to beat the massive brute towering next to the smaller woman beside him–and he had. But it hadn’t been as easy as he’d expected. His movements had been slower than normal. His limbs had felt like lead. His strength had been lesser. Every time he tried to call up his Magic, a wave of dizziness and lethargy had overcome him. It was like he’d feel the rushing up inside of him only to sputter to coldness at the last second; he hadn’t seen so much as a spark since he’d woken up.

In the end, it was only experience and determination which had allowed him to level the much larger man, and hard-earned wisdom which had seen him running from the screeching woman and the gun-wielding, uniform-wearing soldiers her screeching had drawn. Yet the punch he’d taken to the nose had made it bleed and the kick to the thigh had made him limp.

It wasn’t just that his Dragon senses had vanished, making him woozy, making it difficult to stand and excruciating to move. His strength was gone as well. Not even sealstone would have weakened him this much.

He’d wandered, now, for what felt like several hours. The number of Magical Vehicles around were astounding–astounding, and nauseating; just looking at them made Natsu want to vomit. The one good part of having an empty stomach was that he had nothing to give up. He meandered in a stupor, through unbelievably thick crowds, dodging Magic Vehicles and their honking, and glaring down anyone who yelled at him for not understanding something, occasionally barking back to scare them off.

He’d never been so disoriented, and the worst part was that deep down, he knew that there was no one to blame but himself.

Lucy and Happy had asked him, point-blank, if the Quest he’d chosen had anything to do with his search for their long-lost daughter and kitten.

It had. Of course it had.

However, Natsu had denied it. Because if he hadn’t, he and Happy wouldn’t have been able to leave right then. Lucy would have forced him to bring someone else along; she was busy taking care of their son, Luke; the Perve-sicle was already out on his own mission/search for Juvia, and Erza was away, which meant he’d have had to ask someone outside Team Natsu.

No thanks, he’d decided, covering up the fine print on the mission request with his fingers before holding it up to Lucy’s nose.

Now, as he snarled at yet another person yelling at him for being in the way, Natsu was starting to consider the possibility that he just maybe should’ve been more upfront, and even that he should–perhaps–have waited for the stripper to get back before taking on Bony Jewel or whatever alone.

But how the hell was he supposed to have known it would end up like this?! It had been going fine–in fact, it had been going great! A couple opponents had offered a real challenge before their Master had shown up. Natsu had been laying down brick in that fight, too. Yet when the guy had been on his last legs, he’d whipped some creepy, sparkly rainbow skull from nowhere (now that he thought about it…that might have been what the Guild was named for!) and shot one last attack. One so big, Natsu had been unable to dodge–though, of course, he’d made to both block and finish the fight with an enormously powerful Fire Dragon Wing Attack.

Based on his current predicament–he had to assume it hadn’t worked. Even though the skull had shattered in the heat of his flames at the last second, the blast had still hit him. His one consolation was that he was pretty sure his little buddy had heeded his final warning to get back. So he was almost definitely still back in Earthland.

It had taken Natsu several pathetic attempts to stand. Getting here felt like a blur. Now, he had no idea what he was doing. What he should do. Their money had been in Happy’s knapsack, and without his precious nose, finding food was basically impossible anway.

Man…Lucy’s gonna kill me, he grumbled internally, grunting at another group who shouted at him for bumping into him.

Okay, yeah, maybe he should’ve been honest. Maybe he should’ve waited. But how could he do that when the lead was so good? When there was even the smallest chance he might finally find Nashi [*]?

At the thought, his footsteps halted temporarily. He ducked his head, bangs shadowing his eyes. He balled his fists at his sides. The thought of the missing daughter he’d never stopped searching for never got easier to bear.

It was the worst thing that could happen to a parent, to lose their child. Something he wouldn’t have wished on Fairy Tail’s most vicious, evil enemy. He and Lucy understood that too intimately. Still, he didn’t let himself get bogged down, not when it might hold him back, not when it might keep him from finding her. Seven years, she’d been gone. Her, Wendy–so many of their nakama and allies. Time had neither hindered nor halted his search for any of his missing comrades, but especially his little girl. She’d be twelve, now. He’d gotten better with birthdays and anniversaries when he married Lucy. He’d woken up and started crying on April 14th this year, the same as his wife.

Still, even on that day, he’d spoken of her. When he was with Luke, Lucy, and Happy, he talked about it. He talked about how he’d find her and Harley–Happy and Carla’s kitten–how they’d be a family again. He spoke of the future to give it power, just like Igneel had taught him. Just like he’d taught his own kids. Wherever Nashi was, he was sure she must be doing the same; speaking of how she’d find them again, the same as he strove to find her.

But he couldn’t continue his search (covert or not) until he got home. So getting home was definitely at the top of the to-do list. Right after eating.

He kept walking.

Wherever he’d wound up was seedy, dark, yet strewn with lights that made paths across his newly-sucky eyes when he looked at them directly. Gross and smelly, too. The people he’d just bumped into started shouting back at him, something about bumping into someone’s girlfriend, and he huffed irritably. Normally, he’d never back down from a challenge like this, but believe it or not, he was too lost, confused, hungry, and tired to deal with another fight–not when the injuries he’d sustained from the previous one were still hurting this much.

It was humiliating. He’d always been the type of person who refused to back down from a fight, no matter how outmatched he was. These days, a lot of fights were honestly pretty boring for him. Erza would always be scary, and Gray was admittedly pretty strong (if not badass enough to stand up to him, or so he would always insist). He could proudly admit to having achieved (at least) Gildarts-level strength without the clumsiness to make him dangerous.

Now, he was balking out of fights with people who weren’t even using Magic.

There was something viscerally terrifying about how much his injuries were troubling him. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t limp without worsening whatever injury that asshole had doled out on his knee. His nose felt bigger than his head.

He stumbled on, brooding.

The guy whose girlfriend he’d bumped into got louder, closer. Obviously, the freak wasn’t gonna let it go. Cursing, he started hobbling more quickly, turning the next corner. To his relief and curiosity, bright lights, loud voices, and a huge crowd–littered with food stands he might be able to beg food from–appeared. He made his way into the thick of it, ignoring the shouts behind him, and ducked and wove between people. It took him several seconds to realize he was still trying to find food by his nose, which barely even freaking worked. Frustrated, he turned his attention to the source of the light, which seemed to focus down on whatever sat in the middle of the crowd.

Curiosity shoving past the numbness and hunger, Natsu pushed his way towards it.

“Ow!”

“Hey!”

“Watch it, freak!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Natsu grumbled. “Watch your damn selves!”

He still felt like shit, but the crowd was oddly invigorating. As he crashed through the thickest (front) lines of the crowd, more lights came on while the darkness behind him fell deeper. Natsu winced, blinking. It took him a few moments to register what he’d stumbled upon: a roundish sort of stage, elevated a few feet off the ground and bordered by some kind of chain-link cage thing. Two corners were open to be entered, but fended off by some big dudes in black suits, holding back the crowd.

“WELCOME, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!” boomed a voice that came from everywhere and nowhere at once, making Natsu flinch again and the crowd start chattering loudly.

Match? Natsu wondered despite his disorientation and exhaustion, thinking of the Grand Magic Games. He shoved aside every stranger who tried to take his place at the front of the audience, looking around with wide, curious eyes, shoving his gnawing stomach to the backburner.

“FIGHT FANS! ARE YOU REAAAADDDDYYYYY??!!! ”

Fight? Natsu thought, perking up, conveniently forgetting his injuries in a burst of excitement. Several people started chattering at the crack of the loud voice that was everywhere and nowhere, making Natsu look around even more fervently.

“BECAUSE THIS LONG-WAITED MATCH-UP IS… ABOUT…TO…BEGINNNN!!!”

The cheering got louder, the shoving got more aggressive, and Natsu got more aggressive right along with it. He’d be damned if he was going to miss a good fight. Besides. He needed to see what the Magic here was like. He was being smart. So ha! How about that, Lucy?!

“INTRODUCING: OUR FIRST FIGHTER!” the voice shouted while Natsu continued to elbow and shove, anticipation rising. Music rang out, a dude’s loud, snarly voice backed up by a bunch of deep bangs and booms which had Natsu trying to decide if what he was listening to was awesome or fucking awful–nope, definitely fucking awful. For the first time, he was glad he couldn’t hear properly since he got here.

A light flashed at one corner, drawing his eye. “UNLIKE HIS OPPONENT, THIS FIGHTER IS WELL-ESTABLISHED IN THE SEMI-UNDERGROUND OCTAGON! HAD HIS PERFORMANCES BEEN FORMALLY JUDGED WHILE THE UNDERGROUND WAS STILL ACTIVE, HE WOULD LIKELY HAVE LONG-BEEN PERMANENTLY DISQUALIFIED! YET, IN SPITE OF A CONTROVERSIAL CAREER, HE HAS REMAINED A STAPLE OF THE SEMI-OCTAGON FIGHTING WORLD FOR TWO YEARS!”

“Er, feels kinda harsh?” Natsu muttered to himself, sweating slightly. Though he didn’t really get what “controversial career” meant.

“WHILE THIS IS NOT FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE, DUE TO HIS HISTORY, MANY WILL NO DOUBT VIEW HIM AS REIGNING CHAMP AND DEFENDER! INNNNTTRRROOODUUUCCCINNNG… ‘MAD BULL’ MATTHEW BRON!”

A door Natsu hadn’t even seen was slammed open as if it had been kicked, and an enormous man–even bigger than the one that had managed to tag Natsu just a little bit ago, a man built like that potato head guy from Lamia Scale, and actually bearing a similar-shaped bald head–appeared, yanking off headphones and chucking them over his massive shoulder one of the lackeys who’d followed him out. The much shorter guy jumped, barely catching them and fumbling a lot once he had. “Mad Cow” or whatever grinned maniacally as he stormed for the ring, dark eyes wild.

The response from the crowd was mixed but mostly positive, Natsu quickly noticed as he glanced around. His eyes skated quickly over the group next to him (which was booing, unlike most of the crowd) then returned his focus to the stage-circle thing. He could see well enough, he was glad to note, even if his vision was nowhere near as sharp as it was back on Earthland. Big Guy took his place at the corner of the ring and immediately started pacing, lifting tree-like arms and roaring as he did so. Meanwhile his lackey scurried for the bit of protected corner behind him, trying to shout for his attention and getting nowhere as he continued to pace.

Natsu quickly decided he didn’t like the looks of this guy, intro aside. He was the type of asshole Natsu lived to knock down a peg, and despite his injuries and exhaustion, Natsu found himself appraising the big bastard, hands twitching. Sure, he wasn’t in the best shape, but since when had he been one to turn down the chance to kick some ass? It was more a reflex than anything. For about the billionth time since he’d landed here, he tried conjuring up some fire only to curse internally as all he got for his efforts was a wave of dizziness and a wash of helplessness.

“NOW FOR OUR CONTENDER,” the voice boomed. “SHE’D ONLY BARELY ENTERED THE UNDERGROUND BEFORE IT BECAME THE SEMI-UNDER, BUT WAS ALREADY MAKING WAVES! THIS FIGHTER HAS SPARKED INTENSE DEBATE ABOUT WHETHER WOMEN SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO FIGHT MEN–IN ANY OCTAGON!” More mixed din. Natsu frowned in confusion. Was it for the other fighters’ safety or something? Because someone should ban Erza from contributing to the guild hall violence. Oh, yes. That was a great idea. He’d have to bring the idea up to Gray when he got home.

“BUT IT’S DIFFICULT TO ARGUE WITH HER HANDY VICTORIES!” the voice boomed. “THANKS TO HER NEARLY-UNBROKEN STREAK OF INSANE WINS, SHE HAS BEEN NICKNAMED THE THE ‘PHOENIX’, ‘UNDERDOG’, ‘TENMEN’...AND HER PREFERRED NICKNAME…”

A new song started, and this one was undeniably cool, in Natsu’s opinion. Something hard, fast, and catchy, punctuated by an angry-sounding woman singing something about “not giving a damn” about something or other. The door at the opposite end of the ring swung open. A girl came swaggering out, and Natsu froze.

“THE DRAGONESS, LAYLAAAAA O'NEEEILLLLL!!!!”

It wasn’t his daughter. It couldn’t be. Her name wasn’t Layla. Her name was Nashi. His Nashi would be twelve, and this girl was in her late teens–maybe even her early twenties. The fact that her fighting nickname was “The Dragoness” was a nasty coincidence, but that’s all it was. This couldn’t be Earthland’s Nashi.

But it was this world’s Nashi. Of that, there was no doubt. And Natsu couldn’t make himself take his eyes off her, couldn’t even make himself blink as he stared, ignoring the cheering and booing all around him.

A couple strands of unruly pink hair at her bangs had broken free of their tight braids, as adorable and predictably unpredictable as his little girl’s. They clung to her forehead, bouncing as she strutted towards the monster still pacing, practically frothing at the mouth, and Natsu vaguely registered the sound of several peoples’ alarmed murmuring. If he hadn’t been so distracted, he’d have understood; she was about half the guy’s size and about -50% as insane-looking.

Not scared, though.

And…she looked like Lucy. She looked so much like Lucy that it hurt. He could still remember times when he’d call his little girl’s name, she’d turn around, and he’d gasp–because it really was like an adorable, wild little pink-haired Lucy turning to look up at him, her whole face lighting up like he was the greatest thing in Earthland. The memory choked him up, a feeling he’d gotten used to over the past seven years. He swallowed hard.

But that wasn’t Lucy’s smile. Natsu felt like he had seen that smile somewhere but he wasn’t particularly interested in thinking about it all that deeply, because what mattered was that it was her smile, his little girl’s, big and toothy and unmistakable–a little lopsided, the corners of her lips characteristically curling.

It hit his chest like a shot from Zeref, making him briefly clutch at his waistcoat’s dirtied fabric.

Natsu knew, firsthand, just how similar other worlds’ versions of his loved ones could be to his. Hell, Edolas Lucy had chopped off her hair to make it a little easier to distinguish herself from Earthland Lucy.

That didn’t make it hurt any less to suddenly see another world’s Nashi– Layla, this one was called. That was Nashi’s middle name. It made sense, when you thought about it. Names were one thing that seemed to sometimes differ slightly between worlds, as he’d learned on the 100-Year-Quest [*3]. Her canines were sorta sharp, maybe, but they weren’t Dragon Slayer sharp, like his and daughter’s. Besides. Edo Nashi and Fireball’s canines were a tiny bit sharper than normal, too.

It couldn’t be her. It couldn’t be. Looking at her still felt like being punched in the chest by Erza. Yet he couldn’t stop watching as the music, cheers, and boos faded, she stripped off her sweats (to much catcalling and whistling) to reveal a black sports bra/shorts getup sort of like “Mad Bull’s” shorts, revealing a body packed with much more muscle than any of Fairy Tail’s women would’ve allowed themselves to accumulate. She looked pretty badass, he decided.

The voice that was everywhere and nowhere boomed on:

“NOT ONLY A CHANCE AT THE UPCOMING TITLE ON THE LINE, BUT–POTENTIALLY–THE FUTURE OF MIXED SEMI-UNDERS. TWO CHALLENGERS, SQUARING OFF FOR A CHANCE AT THE SEMI-FINALS. THIS IS A GIGANTIC CULTURAL MOMENT IN THE HISTORY OF THIS SPORT… ‘MAD BULL’ MATTHEW BRON VS. THE ‘DRAGONESS’ LAYLA O'NEIL!”

“‘Dragoness’ is fucking right!” Mad Cow or whatever roared while he hugged one arm across his chest, grinning ferally at his much smaller opponent. “Here hoping some man will look at you, fugly?!”

Several people in the audience laughed. Even the announcer chuckled. Meanwhile, Natsu’s blood boiled. On some level, he knew he needed to separate himself from this. From this fight, from this “Nashi.” Especially when he was this powerless to do anything about any of it. But it was impossible to listen to someone say that to another version of his daughter and not have every protective instinct in his body flare, especially when the spectators apparently thought it was fucking hilarious.

However, her grin didn’t even flicker. “Like you’re one to talk!” she cackled. “You look like Popeye fucked Bigfoot!”

Natsu didn’t flinch at the language like many people in the audience seemed to. In fact, he found the disapproving murmurs confusing. The other guy hadn’t exactly been polite, but he hadn’t gotten the same reaction. Still, a solid number of people were laughing their asses off, including the group next to him which had booed Mad Cow.

He also had no clue what the hell she’d just said even meant, but the way Mad Cow’s smile dropped off his face, a handful of people started howling with laughter, and the commentator’s chuckles cut off abruptly was enough to make Natsu grin.

Some random guy in some sort of black, collared uniform entered the arena, signaling to the loud, annoying commentator. Unlike her opponent, no one had followed This Nashi into the arena; she was all alone. So she ran back to her own bit of protected yet empty corner and threw her clothes and a water bottle over the chainlink fence, then ran back towards the middle of the arena. There, she hopped up and down, shaking out her arms. Stretched them above her head.

“OUCH!” The commentator finally seemed to recover, though he sounded somewhat vexed. “WELL, ONE THING’S FOR SURE, THE CHALLENGER CAN TALK GAME…WHETHER SHE CAN LIVE UP TO IT IS ANOTHER QUESTION.”

“God, I fucking hate when Hansis commentates,” the guy next to Natsu muttered, his friends snorting in agreement. Then he glanced at Natsu–only to double take. “Oi, are you related to the Dragoness or something?!” he asked, eyes on his hair.

“Uhhh…” Natsu chuckled nervously, feeling himself start to sweat. He may have been what Erza would (and frequently did ) call an “impulsive idiot”, but he had no clue how to explain that he was the father of her other self. “Something like that.”

“Whoa, seriously?!” The guy’s friend leaned around him to look at Natsu with wide, shining eyes, then continued, “I won’t ask anymore, ‘cause obviously you’re trying to protect your identities or something, but that’s so cool! We’re huge fans!”

“Hmm…” Natsu said, scanning their apparel–t-shirts and hats emblazoned with her face and silhouette–and what looked like homemade signs of her name, written in fiery letters. “I can see that…what is this, exactly?” He asked this while looking around at the lights, spectators, an unfamiliar kind of money being exchanged and counted between several people.

Natsu tilted his head, blinking. “No?” he said.

“The semi-underground tournament?” the only girl in the group said, eyes almost as wide as her friend’s. When Natsu only continued to look confused, she said, “What, do you live under a rock?! You’ve at least heard of MMA, right? Mixed Martial Arts?”

He perked up at this. “Like a fight?! Hell, yeah! How do I get in on this?!” He grinned, cracking his knuckles, his earlier scuffles and empty stomach completely forgotten.

“YOU DON’T!” the entire group shouted, eyes bugging.

The dude who’d first started talking to him huffed, sweating slightly. “The ‘semi-underground’ octagon used to just be called ‘the underground fights,’” he explained loudly, Natsu still having to lean in to catch what he said with his new, bad ears over the increasingly excited din. “It was illegal, but, like, illegal in the ‘everyone knows but won’t squeal’ way, you know?”

Natsu nodded, fully getting this. After all, how many times had soldiers arrested him only for Queen Hisui to let him off with a finger-wag. Of course, his luck on that front had run out seven years ago…

“The feds finally cracked down on it,” the guy continued, “but didn’t prosecute any of the fighters. Now, it’s called the ‘Semi-Underground’...it’s got no weight-classes (which is why the Dragoness can fight big dudes like Mad Bull). All genders are free to compete and fight each other. It’s a bit more for entertainment than pure fighting prowess– that was different, before,” the guy added with a wistful tone. “But still! You can’t just go waltzing into the octagon, you know? Back in the basement where this used to happen, you could’ve gotten away with that, but now you’ve gotta work for it, you know? Seriously, do you live under a rock or something?”

Irritated, Natsu opened his mouth, but his response was cut off when a loud voice–not as loud as the announcer, but still–redrew all their attention to the ring. “Alright, fighters,” the black-collar guy said into a microphone which was smaller and not as loud as the commentator’s, quieting the audience. “We’ve been over the rules. Protect yourself at all times. Follow my instructions. We’re going to have a clean fight, you hear me?” He glared at Mad Bull, but This Nashi was the only one who dipped her chin in recognition. Natsu’s eyes narrowed along with hers when her opponent refused to acknowledge the guy’s words. “Now, touch gloves at this time, and come out ready to do this!”

Both fighters instantly danced away from each other. Black collar guy scowled. Both the commentator and the audience made sounds like “ OOOOOOOH!”

“NO TOUCH!” came the commentator’s gleeful voice, “I REPEAT, NEITHER FIGHTER TOUCHED GLOVES, AND SO FAR, NEITHER ARE REALLY MOVING FOR EACH OTHER–”

“SAY YOU’RE PRAYERS, BITCH!” Mad Cow roared. “YOU’RE DEAD MEAT!”

“BRING IT!” This Nashi roared back, and Mad Cow lunged, swinging in immediately with a big, dramatic overhand hook that would have knocked her out immediately if she hadn’t skated out of its way. It took about three similar exchanges for Natsu to sag in disappointment.

“Oi!” he shouted, utterly let down, “Where the hell’s the magic?!”

“Geez!” the guy next to him laughed. “The fight’s only just started: give them a minute to warm up! Then we’ll get to see the cool stuff.”

“What, they’re not allowed to use it at first or something?” Natsu asked, still staring as This Nashi fended off huge, devastating blows raining down from above and leapt back from the powerful kicks, eyes narrowed and expression tight.

“...Er, what?” the guy asked.

“Magic–duh!” Natsu huffed, flickering wide eyes between the guy and This Nashi, who was now darting backwards around the round-ish ring, still fending Mad Cow off, weaving and ducking with a speed few could hope to match. “You know?! Fire, Ice, Celestial Magic…?

The guy stared at him for a second along with his companions, all of whom were also sweating. It was then that Natsu knew:

Something more was going on here. Something he didn’t understand. This place…wherever he was, it was like Edolas. Not now, but back when he, Lucy, and the others had gone there. Magic didn’t just not exist, here; was some kind of… taboo on it.

“Oh, sorry,” he chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. Trying to keep his voice as quiet as he could over the crowd, he continued, “I didn’t mean to say something that would get you in trouble...”

The group’s only response was to sidle away from him surreptitiously, glancing at him and sharing looks with wide eyes. Natsu was thrown for a loop once more. Ooo- kay, talk about overly-suspicious. Were there guards listening in on their conversation or something? As discreetly as possible, with his hand still at the back of his head, he looked around, eyes narrowed.

Yet…he saw nothing to warrant their suspicion. An unruly crowd…and an astonishing lack of guards. At the Grand Magic Games, there’d always been a ton of guards. Way more than he wanted to be there, honestly. Did this have something to do with the whole “underground” thing?

He looked at the group again, then realized something important: it was him they were looking at nervously. Nervously, and like…he was crazy or something.

It had taken time, but the years had made Natsu wiser–cooler–about situations like this. Even as his stomach sank with the realization that getting home was going to be a much harder task than he’d initially realized, he acknowledged that he’d need to be careful about mentioning Magic here. Dropping his hand, he forced a small smile at them then turned his attention back to the arena, where Mad Cow continued to chase This Nashi around the edge of the arena. Meanwhile, his mind continued to reel, loud to himself and no one else.

“–IT’S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE SHE’S CAUGHT IN A CLINCH, HERE, AND THEN OUR NIGHT WILL BE OVER!” the commentator was blaring. It was sort of surprising, how easily he’d been able to tune out when Natsu’s ears were registering so little. “I HATE TO SAY IT–” (Based on the glee in his tone, Natsu doubted that.) “–BUT HOWEVER MUCH OF AN EXTRAORDINARY FIGHTER SHE IS, SHE’S STILL A FEMALE FIGHTER. HER OPPONENT HAS WELL OVER A HUNDRED POUNDS ON HER [*4]. AND, AGAIN, I HATE TO SAY THIS–BUT THERE ARE JUST PHYSICAL BARRIERS NO CHICK FIGHTER WILL EVER BE ABLE TO OVERCOME! RIGHT NOW, THIS IS A DOG FIGHT, AND NOT ONE SHE CAN KEEP SCRAPPING IN! SHE’S NOT GOING TO COME OUT AS THE ‘UNDERDOG,’ THIS TIME–”

“Man, she’s getting her ass beat!” someone from the group broke the awkward silence as This Nashi was swept aside by a blow that caught the guard at her ear.

“Maybe she’ll make a comeback!” another guy said, tremulous but hopeful, as a log-like shin crashed into her stomach.

“She definitely will!” the guy who’d first spoken to Natsu said, though there was a distant note of doubt in his voice as she barely reeled from an arrow-fast straight right.

Despite the awkwardness of their last interaction, Natsu couldn’t help appreciating these people, who were so devoted to this world’s Nashi. He decided to end their night more positively. “Is that what you think?” he asked in a somewhat bored tone, eyes on the girl still gliding backwards, dancing away from the hits and kicks or else blocking them. He felt, rather than saw, the group’s eyes jumping to him, some of them quickly leaping away only to dart back.

“What do you mean?” the first guy ventured when he said nothing else, edging a little closer once more.

Natsu crossed his arms over his broad chest, eyes thinning as Big Boy brought down a hailstorm of fists on This Nashi’s head. His eyes tracked the way a particularly big hit caught her forearm–but only barely, seeing as she’d slid out of the enormous range even as she blocked. Just like he’d thought…

His stomach churned uncomfortably. It was eerie and cruel, how much her movements and the memories aligned–

“OUCH! That hurt, Daddy!” After the exclamation, Nashi began grumbling, vigorously rubbing her forearm where his fist had just him.

“Woops!” Natsu chuckled sheepishly, “My bad!”

Despite the fact that she was still rubbing the arm he’d tapped with a light hit, the little girl who barely came up above his knees scowled.

It was midday, now. In their front lawn; his and Happy’s house, now much larger with the rooms he’d added for Lucy and their kids.

“But–” He grew serious. “–you think your enemies will take it easy on you, Nashi? You think they’ll give you a break because you say ‘ouch’?”

She dropped her arms to her sides and scowled–pouted, really. She was so cute, he couldn’t have kept his lips from quirking into a grin if he tried. Strutting forward, he planted a hand on top of her head, rubbing the unruly locks. He only grinned wider when she turned her scowl/pout up to him. “Sorry, kiddo, but they won’t!”

Lucy would have lost her mind, if she saw the interaction. Natsu could just hear her now: “NATSU, WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?! SHE’S FIVE! BE CAREFUL, WOULD YOU? BLAH BLAH BLURGH BLAH– !”

He never really got Lucy, when she acted like that. Nashi was a Dragon Slayer, like him. She could take much more than a normal human, but would never learn that she could if he didn’t show her! Not to mention that Igneel had been way tougher on him, when he was five. Besides, he didn’t want his kid to be some weakling! What father did want that?

Not any good ones, that was for sure. Especially not when their kids had Nashi’s determination and drive.

“I’m sorry I hurt you,” he apologized again, still rubbing her head affectionately. “But you’ve got to understand…if I hurt you, it’s because I know your enemies will hurt you the same way…I don’t want it to surprise you. I want you to be able to fight back, still. You do still want to be a big-time Dragon Slayer, don’t you?”

She stared up at him dubiously, but the smile caught on quick. She’d never been able to resist smiling back at him.

“...Yeah,” she admitted finally, feigning reluctance.

He lifted his hand off her head, cupping it around his ear and leaning down towards her. “What was that?!” he shouted. “I couldn’t hear you…what was it you want?!”

“I–pfft–I WANT–” Her small smile turned to a grin–the big, corner-curled grin only his daughter ever could or would achieve. The one that always melted his heart.

“I WANNA BE A DRAGON SLAYER!” she managed to roar through her grin. “NO–I MEAN, I WANNA BE THE STRONGEST DRAGON SLAYER EVER!”

“HELL YEAH, YOU DO!” he roared back, the pride managing to make his chest burst even as he squared up again, preparing for more training. An adrenaline only teaching one’s prodigy could spark electrocuted his system. “IF THAT’S REALLY TRUE, THEN COME ON, NASHI! YOU’VE GOT MORE IN YOU! I KNOW YOU DO!”

“OH YEAH? WELL I DO! I GOT WAY MORE IN ME!” She dropped into the stance he’d taught her, grinning for everything she was worth. The sun illuminated her smile.

He somehow managed to grin even more widely. “Right, then listen up!” he commanded. “When Dragon Slayers fight, they got one big advantage: they can take a whole bunch of hits–then still get up. So that’s exactly what you’re gonna do.”

“...Huh?!” The little girl’s eyes bulged out of her head. “You’re sayin’ I’m gonna let myself get hit?!”

“Well, not too hard,” he elaborated. “And not too much…you’re just gonna play defense for a while, see?” He moved for her, throwing a fist much more slowly than he normally would have. Automatically, she wove away, eyes wide on his face. His right fist was followed by his left, then a kick–all too sluggish to be real. She easily moved around and blocked all of them. “This way,” he continued, throwing another kick. “You can learn the guy you’re fighting, how step, how they breathe…”

“How they step…how they breathe…” she repeated to herself in a murmur, eyes flickering all over his body as he continued to pantomime a real fight. Natsu couldn’t help but grin. Nashi was a distractible kid, but when it came to fighting, she was always on the ball.

Natsu didn’t mind one bit when Lucy blamed him for that.

“...how they fight,” he finished.

“...how they fight!” she whispered.

He started speeding up his movements. Let her orient before he lit up his fists. She mirrored him, flames igniting her much smaller fists. Their dance became even faster “That’s it, Nashi!” he praised as she leapt back from a kick, only letting it clip her shoulder. “Get into the flow of it! Read my movements! Remember, breathe, and–”

“She’s reading him,” he murmured, voice softer than he’d meant it to be. “Fending him off and waiting for the right moment; his hits are only clipping her.” His hunger was catching up with him again, as was his pain. He ached. He wanted to sleep. And…

…It hurt. It hurt too much. Knowing it wasn’t his Nashi…that just made it hurt more. Each hit, each block, each flash of those brown eyes…they felt like shards of glass piercing his heart.

I can’t stay here, he realized.

“What was that?” the girl in the group asked, venturing closer to him.

His heart was heavy, sinking as he watched the girl. Embarrassment washed over him as he realized that had been a stupid thing to say in the first place. This wasn’t his Nashi. She wasn’t using what he’d taught her because he hadn’t been the one to train her. Hell, she probably wasn’t even gauging her opponents’ movements; she was probably fighting for her life, here.

She would lose.

“Nothin’,” he replied thickly, dropping his arms even as he watched the girl roll away from a rather impressive and extremely long-ranged crescent kick, not even the man’s big toe catching her at all. “I was wrong…enjoy the rest of the fight, guys.” He used the ensuing beat of silence to stare–for just one more second–at the girl. This world’s version of his girl.

Without thinking, he went to heft up his backpack, only to sigh in quiet defeat–the exhale almost visible even in the warm air–as he remembered it wasn’t there; he was just a weakling in this world. That’s why his back (and whole body) felt so heavy.

“Oh, you’re leaving?” the first guy who’d spoken to him said as he turned away, pushing back through the crowd. His tone was an odd mixture of relieved and disappointed. Natsu said nothing, merely waving.

Overhead, the booming voice–which he’d tuned out during the competition–continued to sound off. “–AN ADMITTEDLY UNBELIEVABLE DODGE, BY ,” it said, clearly shocked, as Natsu pushed past a woman who was obviously excited to be moving closer to the arena. “BUT THE NEXT FLURRY OF BLOWS LANDS, ALTHOUGH IT APPEARS SHE’S BLOCKED MOST OF THEM–”

“YOU’RE DONE, BITCH!” roared Mad Cow, so loud that he managed to drown out the commentator–who went silent, anyway. This made Natsu pause, his brows knitting with fury.

It doesn’t matter, he reminded himself. She’s not your daughter. He refused to look back, forced himself to take another step, then another. She’s just some fighter from another world who’s, apparently, out of her league. She’s not–

A loud slam, like a body falling on a mat. “SHE’S DOWN! I REPEAT, ’S DOWN!”

Natsu smirked. “See, dumbass?” he murmured to himself.

“IT’S ALL OVER, FOLKS! SHE’S–”

All of a sudden, a fleshy CRACK rang through the air, followed by an enormous chorus of gasps and cries of surprise from the crowd. A deafening silence ensued.

“... HOLY– UNBELIEVABLE!” the commentator managed. “A KICK FROM THE GROUND–AND O’NEIL'S BACK ON HER FEET! THEY’VE GAINED GROUND FROM EACH OTHER, AND MAD BULL–MAD BULL IS NOW TRYING TO RECOVER!”

Despite himself, Natsu slowed even as he urged himself to keep walking. Even as he continued to force himself not to turn back. Looking back is only a distraction. It’s not Nashi. That is not Nashi. It’s not–

“Man, I really hate guys like you, you know that?”

The seething voice was what made him stop, closing his eyes. There was just…something about it. A growl. A fire. Something that punched right back into his memories:

“Remember, breathe, and keep your eyes on my chest! That way, you can see my whole body at the corners of your eyes!” A combo, one which he pumped more speed and power to than before–throwing her off on purpose.

“Oof!” she grunted as she landed on her butt.

“There, when you fall– that’s when you make your comeback! Now that you’ve watched your opponent, and tricked him into thinking you’re down– now is when you get back up and blow them away! That’s how a Dragon Slayer fights! That’s how a Fairy Tail Wizard fights!” She stared up at him with huge eyes, shining with admiration, and flushed cheeks.

He grinned.

“So?! Get up! Always get back up, Nashi! I’m not asking the impossible of you–you can do this! I know you can!”

“I–I will!” she scrambled to her feet, fists blazing with gold heat as she lunged for him. “I’ll always get back up! No matter what, I’ll–”

His chest seized. He clenched his jaw, knowing he needed to make himself keep walking, but unable to do it. Even as people churned around him, trying to push past him, he found himself shoving them off, refusing to move from exactly where he was. One foot planted in front of the other. Half-hovering. Eyes still closed.

Whatever just happened had quieted the crowd, an anticipatory sort of silence that made him clench his fists, eyes still closed.

And then, Natsu’s world flipped upside down:

“You didn’t even bother to study my previous fights, did you?” Her growl carried across the hushed crowd. “Tch, typical…if you had, you’d know: You’d know I always get back up!”

His eyes flew open.

He whirled back around and watched, wide-eyed and world rocking, as the pink haired girl rose. Rolled her shoulders against her ears, one at a time. The grin was gone, a heavy, intimidating scowl having taken its place as she recovered, getting her feet back underneath herself, her stance back in place. Her nose was wrinkled in fury. Her eyes burned.

Natsu’s lips parted on a gasp as he stared.

Mad Cow scoffed, hunched and rubbing his chin with a hand like a mitt. Natsu guessed that This Nashi must’ve caught him there–probably with a kick, given the size difference. That must have been what made the crowd react with shock. They were recovering now, though, getting louder.

“And why the fuck would I bother to do that?!” Mad Cow shouted, dropping his hand. “I don’t need to! Every guy you’ve faced could’ve beaten you easily if they’d quit acting like even more of a little bitch than you! You shouldn’t fucking be here anyway…fucking birds, knowing dudes will take it easy on you so you can take advantage of it and collect the reward…well I’M NOT ONE OF THEM!” He roared the last part. The bitter fury in his voice was a kind Natsu was familiar with.

“Studying what you can find of your opponent’s fighting style–that’s basic! And you wanna sit here and bitch about how I don’t deserve to be here, you lumpy-headed fuck?! ”

“The FUCK you just call me?!” McCow snarled back.

“YOU HEARD ME, SHITWIT!”

“THAT’S IT!” the man shouted. “I’ve had it! I was gonna take it easy on you, but–”

“THAT’S MY LINE!”

It seemed that was both their limit.

They flew at each other. But now, everything was different, and Natsu doubted that anyone without a trained eye and fighting experience like him could recognize it.

Apparently, the commentator was one such person: “THIS IS–THIS IS INCREDIBLE!” the voice boomed, full of disbelief, as the girl caught the fist rocketing towards her face with a hard elbow, making Mad Cow let out a roar of pain. She kicked away an arm flying towards her head, and launched a sidekick at his now-uncovered stomach–one that landed hard. She built on the damage, bearing down on him as he stumbled backwards, tripping over his own heels. A right roundhouse followed by a left to his head. Despite the fact he was obviously disorientated, he caught the first one– blocked it and tried, unsuccessfully to catch her foot–but not the second, which cracked into his ear and made him stagger, her chasing him and hammering him with surprisingly powerful blows. Each one of her hits accumulated speed and strength.

The commentator picked up again, saying something or other about “striking machines”, but Natsu didn’t hear. His eyes were wide, now, and glued to the girl cracking her shin into her opponent’s nose, teeth bared. The expression on her face…the fire in her eyes…the speed of her hits…her fighting style…it was like he’d begun watching the fight currently happening through one eye and a stream of memories through the other, his breath going still in his lungs–

“–No matter what, I’ll always get back up!” screamed the little girl, running forward and hammering him with fiery strikes, kicks, and even elbows. They’d only just started elbow work. Natsu staggered back with each good combo she landed. He put in the effort to make it look convincing, pride swelling within his chest.

“That’s it! Build on it! Faster…harder! C’mon!”

This Nashi slipped underneath and into one of Mad Cow’s big overhand hooks, the corrected trajectory of his fist barely skidding over her shoulder as her right fist tore up, slamming into his chin. Even as his eyes rolled and he staggered backwards, her expression was so mutinous it was almost funny.

But as good as the uppercut was, it turned out to be a set-up:

“LOOK AT THIS COMBO…CROSS, HOOK–WHOA! AN ABSOLUTELY DEVASTATING LEG KICK! CLASSIC MUAY THAI-INSPIRED COMBO FROM TURNING–”

“FUCKING BITCH–!” Mad Cow roared, but his opponent cut him off with a voice like thunder.

“I’M THE BADDEST BITCH YOU’VE EVER MET!”

“I’LL ALWAYS GET BACK UP! I WILL! I’M GONNA BE A GREAT DRAGON SLAYER, JUST LIKE YOU! NO–I’LL EVEN BEAT YOU, ONE DAY!” Nashi took a deep breath, and Natsu grinned, allowing the pause in the fight, because he knew what was coming. The catchphrase both like his and not. Inspired by him, but all her own.

Her fists blazed brighter than ever. The sun illuminated her grin.“JUST WATCH ME, DADDY! DON’T EVEN BLINK! BECAUSE I’VE–”

“–GOT A FIRE IN ME THAT YOU’LL NEVER PUT OUT!”

Mad Cow’s eyes were wild with fear as he desperately swung for another, big lead cross–one which spelled his downfall. The Dragoness leapt off her left leg–her back leg. Her right shin cracked into his already dipping head.

He fell forward and bounced off the mat, limp as a ragdoll, while the audience screamed all around him.

Even as the giant fell still, she made for his prone form, fist raised, but didn’t fight at all when the black-collared man appeared seemingly from nowhere, grabbed her around the waist, and practically threw her away. Instead, This Nashi– The Nashi skipped backwards, smirking, and raised a wrapped fist.

And that was the realization which thundered through Natsu, now gaping up at the victorious, pink-haired fighter stalking towards the edge of the cage: not This Nashi. The Nashi.

After seven, grief-filled years, Natsu Dragneel was absolutely sure he had just found his daughter.

*1. Yes, there will be quotes from the original series (the anime dub, sub, or the manga depending on whichever version I like best) at the beginning of each chapter. HOWEVER. The quotes are not spoilers and are often only tangentially related to my plotline. The one for this chapter, for instance, is specifically about Edolas, but is not actually true of the world where Natsu has landed.

*2. Yes, I know the canon Edolas Nalu child is “Nasha.” I decided on “Nashi”, instead, for reasons which will be explained later.

*3. Sorry in advance, but I pretty much kept what little I remembered/liked from 100YQ and ditched everything I didn’t. Same with the original story, but way more with 100YQ. Idk what it is but even though I’ve read the whole thing, 100YQ has this unique quality where a lot of what happens slips straight out of my mind as soon as I’ve read it. In one eye, out the other. So you’ll just have to roll with me, sorry.

*4. Real-life inspiration for Layla (/Nashi) comes mostly from Ronda Rousey, whose biography I read and happen to have on hand, along with Kaoklai Kaennorsing (especially his fighting style). Those are the two main ones. If you’ve read My Fight, Your Fight, you’ll understand how Layla (/Nashi’s) personality is inspired by her–especially as you go on. I highly recommend looking up the Thai kickboxer/Muay Thai fighter Kaoklai Kaennorsing. He has been called the Giant-Slayer because he did, in fact, defeat opponents who had over 100 pounds on him. Watching his fights is just an incredible experience. Other inspirations include Rose Namajunas, Connor McGregor, and some others. There are also several fictional inspirations including and outside Fairy Tail which I won’t bore you with (some of them I’m sure fellow anime fans will be able to guess lol).

#nalu #fairy tail #natsu dragneel #lucy heartfilia #nashi dragneel #nasha dragneel #gruvia #gajevy #jerza #fan fiction #fanfiction #2nd gen #post-canon #if this is wonky i'll fix it tomorrow. too tired now.#nalu fic

43 notes · View notes

ao3feed-gratsu · 2 years ago

Text

Dragon Bonds

by WolfyTheWolfz

Gray and Levy are still learn the quirks of having a dragon slayer as a mate.

Words: 821, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 2 of Dragon Senses

Fandoms: Fairy Tail

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: M/M

Characters: Natsu Dragneel, Gray Fullbuster, Gajeel Redfox, Levy McGarden, Sting Eucliffe, Rogue Cheney, Wendy Marvell, Happy (Fairy Tail), Charle | Carla, Frosch (Fairy Tail), Pantherlily (Fairy Tail), Lector (Fairy Tail)

Relationships: Natsu Dragneel/Gray Fullbuster, Rogue Cheney & Natsu Dragneel & Sting Eucliffe & Wendy Marvell & Gajeel Redfox

Additional Tags: Dragon Bonds, Mates, Gratsu - Freeform, Gajevy - Freeform, Post-Alvarez Teikoku | Alvarez Empire Arc, Fairy Tail Dragon Slayers, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Post-Canon, Alternate Universe, Fluff and Angst, Comfort, Established Relationship, Secret Relationship

Source:https://archiveofourown.org/works/45963067

#gratsu #ao3feed gratsu #fanfiction #fairy tail #gray x natsu #natsu x gray #mlm #slash

2 notes · View notes

acacia-may · 2 years ago

Text

The Jam Problem [Gajevy & Fairy Tail Guild Shenanigans Past & Present]

Story Summary: Gajeel signed up to be part of a guild--not to pose for ridiculous photos for merchandise. When he refuses to participate in the creation of the Fairy Tail guild's promotional items, however, First Master Mavis tells him and the rest of the guild the origin story of Fairy Tail's merchandise business which began with Yuri Dreyar, his stubborn denial of his not-so-secret affection for Rita, and way, way too much jam. Will this story provide inspiration for Gajeel and a not-so-secret affection of his own in the present?

The Secret History of the Fairy Tail Guild’s Promotional Items and Merchandise.

Fandom: Fairy Tail

Genre: Fluff and (Attempt at) Humor, Tongue-in-Cheek/Satirical Humor, Fluffy Romance, Friendship, Fairy Tail Guild Shenanigans, Idiots in Love, Fluffy Ending, Affectionately Silly (Please don't take this too seriously)

Relationships: Gajeel Redfox x Levy McGarden (Gajevy), Fairy Tail Zero (Mavis Vermillion, Yuri Dreyar, Warrod Sequen & Precht Gaebolg) Friendship, Yuri Dreyar/Rita, and Fairy Guild Found Family. Some Gray Fullbuster/Juvia Lockser (Gruvia), Some Juvia Lockser & Gajeel Redfox Friendship. Hints at/Joke about Mavis Vermillion/Zeref (Zervis) for kicks & giggles.

Characters: Gajeel Redfox (POV Character), Levy McGarden, Mavis Vermillion, Yuri Dreyar, Warrod Sequen, Precht Gaebolg, Rita Dreyar, Makarov Dreyar, Juvia Lockser, Gray Fullbuster, and The Fairy Tail Guild

Rating: G (though there are a few instances of some mild language so PG would probably be a more accurate rating. However, it didn't merit a T rating by any means).

Warnings: A few instances of minor language, but otherwise nothing but fluff, humor, and shenanigans here. This story is silly and is not meant to be taken too seriously.

Word Count: 5560

Link to original post on AO3. Please do not repost to another site.

Story Below the Cut! Thank you so much for reading! 💕

The Jam Problem

(Or The Secret History of the Fairy Tail Guild’s Promotional Items and Merchandise)

“No.” Gajeel glared pointedly at the rest of the guild and at Makarov in particular. The guild hall was suddenly quiet, and Gajeel could feel all eyes transfixed on him. However, he stood his ground and argued, “I’m not posing for any stupid pictures.”

“Everybody in our guild does promotional photos,” explained Master Makarov. “It’s for official merchandise.”

“I was kind of nervous for my first photoshoot too, but it’s actually kind of fun,” said Lucy with a smile.

“Lots of fun,” agreed Happy with a bright smile. “And when you’re done, sometimes they give you nice fishies.”

Gajeel huffed. “I don’t like pictures.”

“It’s really not that bad.” Gray shrugged. “You just go. They snap a few photos, and it’s over. Takes like fifteen minutes tops.”

“Shut up,” grunted Gajeel irritably. “You just want an excuse to walk around shirtless.” Gajeel huffed again. “Why do we even have to have merchandise in the first place?”

“It’s a way to supplement the guild’s income,” explained Cana who was sitting on the table clutching a barrel.

Mirajane nodded, “Running a guild is expensive.”

“Then, why don’t we charge more for jobs or something? Why make us all into dumb calendar girls?”

“There’s not just calendars,” said Natsu. “They make lots of merchandise with our faces on it: figurines, posters, clothing, jewelry…”

“I don’t want my face on any of that stuff.”

“Oh come on, Gajeel,” chuckled Levy, appearing behind him. “It’s just part of being in the guild.”

Gajeel sighed. He supposed Levy had a point, but he was too stubborn to concede on it.

“The Fairy Tail guild has been selling merchandise and promotional items from the very beginning,” explained Makarov. “It’s a tradition my father started with the help of First Master Mavis.”

“That’s right,” giggled Mavis. “I had almost forgotten about that. It’s kind of a funny story actually. You see, it all started with this jam problem…” Her voice faded wistfully before she playfully smirked at him. “If I tell you the story will you promise to take the pictures?”

“I want to hear the story, First Master,” exclaimed Natsu.

“Me too!” Happy chimed in floating around her. “I hope it has yummy fishies in it.”

“I’d like to hear it too,” said Lucy, and Levy nodded in agreement as they chuckled amongst themselves.

“I’m actually kind of curious myself.”

Gajeel frowned, but eventually he sighed. “Alright fine, but I’m not making any promises about any dumb pictures.”

Mavis positively beamed at them before she settled down into her seat to begin her story. “Well…it all started when the Fairy Tail guild was just starting out, and Makarov’s dad, Yuri, and I were out at the market shopping for supplies…”

“What do you think, Mavis?” asked Yuri balancing an apple in one hand and an orange in the other. He threw them up in the air and eventually caught them, clearly trying to hide the fact that he fumbled and nearly let the orange drop to the ground.

“I think you can’t juggle,” Mavis replied with a tilt of her head. She nodded sympathetically at the poor fruit seller, Rita, who was clearly growing exasperated with Yuri’s antics. Mavis wondered if she would be more exasperated if she knew that the main reason for Yuri’s show was likely to get her attention. “I also think we have plenty of fruit back at the guild hall and don’t need any more.”

Yuri waved his hand at her insisting, “No, I just checked earlier today and we’re running low on apples and oranges.”

Mavis blinked at him. This was a bold-faced lie. They currently had at least a bushel of each back at the guild hall, possibly more since Precht and Warrod had been trying their best to think of creative storage places for the, frankly, ridiculous amounts of fruit Yuri kept bringing back to the guild. Their last solution, which Mavis had assisted with, involved stacking crates of berries on Yuri’s bed. This must have been at least somewhat of a deterrent for him since he wasn’t insistent on buying any more berries. Perhaps they would have to try the same thing with the apples and oranges he bought today.

While Mavis tended to see the humor in the whole situation, Warrod and Precht were at their wit’s end. Sure enough, when the pair returned from their shopping trip with two more crates of apples and oranges, they were greeted by a very exasperated, “For the love of Ethernano, Yuri, stop buying fruit.”

Warrod sighed heavily as Precht shook his head at the crates and added, “What are we even going to do with it all?”

Yuri shrugged his shoulders. “Eat them, of course.”

“This is way too much food for us to eat, Yuri,” sighed Warrod. “We could probably feed the entire city of Magnolia.”

“And it won’t keep forever. Fruit perishes quickly,” added Precht with a frown and a shake of his head.

“Well…” hummed Yuri, seemingly unconcerned besides a slight furrow of his brow and wrinkle of his nose. “I don’t know we can make it into jam or something.”

“That’s what we’ve been doing,” explained Mavis. It had been her idea to make jam in the first place, and it was turning out quite well given Warrod’s hidden and previously unknown talents for jam-making. She’d taken to teasing him that if one day he chose to retire from the guild, he could have a very successful and lucrative career as a marmateer.

With a weary sigh, Warrod nodded in concurrence. “We have enough jam to last an apocalypse.”

Yuri chuckled with a somewhat disbelieving scoff. “I’m sure we don’t have—” He stopped abruptly as Precht opened a cabinet door to reveal shelves stacked with jam, then another cabinet of the same then another and another.

“We’re running out of cabinet space,” observed Precht in his dry, matter of fact way.

Warrod sighed shaking his head at the jam jars before turning to Yuri with a pointed, almost pleading expression. “Please Yuri, stop buying fruit and just ask the fruit lady to go to dinner with you already.”

Yuri’s face flushed, but he frowned indignantly with a bristly huff. “First of all ‘the fruit lady’s’ name is Rita, and second of all this has nothing to do with her.”

Precht blinked at him, and Warrod shook his head with a sigh. “You’ve bought enough fruit to feed an army and you expect us to believe that’s because what? You just really love fruit?”

With a stubborn glare in his companion’s general direction, Yuri huffed again. “As a matter of fact, yes, but it’s none of your business why I want to buy fruit.”

“You’ve made it our business,” sighed Warrod. “And believe me, no one is more upset about the fact that we’re involved than we are.”

“I’d like to go back to that time when the fact that you were besotted wasn’t our problem,” said Precht with a dry, matter-of-fact expression.

There was a flash of red in Yuri’s cheeks, but he huffed indignantly, “I’m not besotted, and even if I was, it wouldn’t have anything to do with you.”

“It would if you kept trying to turn our guild hall into an orchard,” quipped Warrod.

“Which you are,” Precht solemnly added with a pointed stare. Yuri rolled his eyes.

“Yes, I got the joke the first time, Precht,”

“There’s nothing wrong with being smitten with Rita and wanting to go on a date, Yuri,” chimed in Mavis with a reassuring smile. “I’d like to go on a date too someday.” She paused and a somewhat dreamy sigh she had not been intending accidentally tumbled out of her mouth as she added, “With Zeref.”

Yuri’s brow furrowed at her, and he turned back to a somewhat concerned Precht and Warrod. “Are we ever going to do something about Mavis’s ‘Zeref Problem’?”

“I think it’s just a phase,” reassured Warrod with a thoughtful nod.

“She’ll probably grow out of it before anything bad happens,” Precht agreed, before he frowned. “The real problem here is you squandering our guild funds on way too much fruit for the four of us to eat.”

“We’ll probably be eating nothing but jam for the next decade,” sighed Warrod.

Yuri wrinkled his nose, but his face suddenly lit up. “I know! I’ll sell the jam!”

“What?” asked a cacophony of confused companions.

“Yes, I’ll take all the jams down to the market and sell them. Then we won’t have to worry about the cabinets or the money or whatever it is that has you both so twisted up.”

Yuri’s plan was, unfortunately, easier said than done. Though he and Mavis took several crates of jam down to the marketplace the next day and set up a makeshift shop table, they failed to sell a single jar. Never one to be defeated, Yuri determinedly took to trying to stop potential customers in the street which only made matters worse. Eventually he sunk back to his stool with a defeated huff.

“Don’t worry, Yuri,” Mavis tried to reassure him with a pat on the shoulder. “Maybe our guild can just have jam with every meal from now on.”

Yuri sighed, but before he could say anything a woman with a basket full of vegetables walked up to their booth with a gentle, “Excuse me? I didn’t mean to overhear, but did you say you’re in a guild?”

Mavis nodded. “Yes, we’re in Fairy Tail.”

The woman smiled. “Oh my goodness! Your guild saved my town when we were overrun by wild boar a few months ago. Thank you so much.”

Yuri perked up immediately, and standing up from his stool, shook the woman’s hand with a lopsided grin. “All in a day’s work m’aam.”

“Is Fairy Tail selling jam as part of some fundraising efforts? I’ll take four jars, please.”

Yuri’s eyes grew wide, but his smile widened. “That’s right. This is genuine Fairy Tail guild jam made by our guild members at the Fairy Tail guild hall itself.”

Some of the customers passing by stopped as they heard Yuri’s impassioned speech and began to crowd around their booth to buy their “Genuine Fairy Tail Guild Jam.”

Yuri turned to Mavis with a smirking smile. “Mavis, I have an idea…”

*-*-*

The next time Yuri and Mavis returned to the market all of their jam jars had labels that said “Genuine Fairy Tail Guild Jam” with their guild mark on it. The jam was a major hit, and the people of Fiore couldn’t get enough of it…until, of course, they could…

“Sales are down,” sighed Yuri with a slight shake of his head. “But we still have a ton of jam back at the guild hall.”

Mavis frowned. “We wouldn’t have nearly as much if you hadn’t made Warrod make more orange marmalade.”

“We were running out,” Yuri protested.

“We’re not trying to run a shop here. We’re trying to get rid of the jam we already have, right?” When there was no response, Mavis repeated, “Right, Yuri?”

Yuri’s eyes were glossy and his expression was distant with a somewhat dopey grin. Curiously, she followed his gaze across the market to the fruit stand. Mavis sighed. Of course…

“Yuri!”

He startled and whipped around to look at her. “What?”

“You’re making goo goo eyes again.”

His face flushed, but he huffed and bristled, “I am not making goo goo eyes.”

With a pointed tilt of her head, Mavis blinked at him; then, sighed. “I don’t understand why you don’t just go ask her to go to dinner so we can be done with this whole jam business.”

“I don’t want to go to dinner with her,” Yuri insisted. “And besides, if I did—which I don’t—it wouldn’t be that easy.”

“It seems pretty easy to me,” shrugged Mavis. “If Zeref was running a fruit stand, I would be over there right now—gazing deeply into his intense, sensitive eyes.” She sighed dreamily, and Yuri shook his head.

“I always thought his eyes were kind of emotionless, but okay…” quipped Yuri.

“Yeah…” sighed Mavis wistfully. “His intense, dead gaze, but yet his eyes are so sensitive and so sad…”

Yuri’s face contorted, and he blinked at her. “Yeah, Mavis…about Zeref…don’t you think he’s kind of…?”

“Wonderful? Handsome? Amazing?” Mavis interrupted with wide eyes. “The ideal man.”

“I wasn’t going to say any of those things,” Yuri replied bluntly. “In fact they’re not even close to anything I was about to say.”

“Have you seen his abs, Yuri?”

Yuri spluttered. “Have I…what?”

“Have you seen his abs?” Mavis repeated emphasizing each word.

“Well…no, but…”

“Then you can’t possibly understand.”

“You’re right about that,” Yuri muttered dryly under his breath. “I definitely can’t understand.”

“They glisten, Yuri. They glisten!”

“Yeah…okay…I’ll take your word for it…” Yuri huffed and rolled his eyes before he said hurriedly, “Oh look a customer.” He stood up from his seat and donned his brightest, salesman smile. “Good Afternoon, Ma’am. Welcome to Genuine Fairy Tail Guild Jams. Home of the official jam of the Fairy Tail guild—made by the guild at the guild. How can we help you today?”

“Yes, um…this might be a bit of a strange question, but my son is a big fan of Warrod…” A young boy shyly peeked out from behind his mother. Yuri smiled at him with a wave of his hand before turning back to the mother.

“Well you’re in luck. Warrod actually made all of these jams—it’s one of his many talents.”

The woman and her son smiled. “Does he have a favorite kind of jam?”

“Oh…uh…” stumbled Yuri, his brow furrowing.

Luckily, Mavis cut in. “He loves orange marmalade.”

“That’s right!” agreed Yuri holding out a jar to the customer.

On the opposite end of the table a group of young women giggled, and one of them asked somewhat sheepishly, “What about Precht?” before she and her companions started giggling again.

Mavis smiled. These girls must like the strong, silent type. She could understand that, but it was a bit funny to think about Precht having fans infatuated with him.

“Oh I know that one,” said Yuri proudly. “He likes blackberry jam, and Mavis here likes strawberry. I’m a raspberry guy, myself.” He said as he made a show of balancing some of the jars before holding them out to the giggling girls.

“Mavis,” he turned and winked at her. “I have another idea…”

*-*-*

When Mavis and Yuri returned to the market again, their “Genuine Fairy Tail Jam” jars not only had the guild symbol, but each member’s favorite flavor of jam had their face on it and the words “Warrod’s favorite jam” or “Precht’s favorite jam” and so on. The people of Fiore ate this up, both literally and figuratively—though Warrod and Precht were both mortified at the idea of having their face on a jam jar. Sales were rising through the roof, however, and the jam inventory at the guild hall was quickly decreasing so they didn’t complain about it too much. In fact, there was so much demand for the new jam jars, that Warrod and Precht were needed to help run the booth and carry more crates down to the marketplace. This only attracted more attention and sales steadily rose as people calmored not only for the jam but for the chance to meet their Fairy Tail heroes.

Mavis could tell from the weary looks on their faces that Precht and Warrod were both looking forward to this jam problem finally reaching its conclusion, but she knew they feared that until Yuri sorted things out with Rita they would be trapped in the vicious cycle of excessive fruit buying, marmateering, and jam selling.

Yuri, however, seemed content to take his sweet, sweet time, but this didn’t stop him from falling all over himself whenever she stopped by their booth.

“And now you can get a jar of jam and my pretty face,” teased Yuri with a lopsided grin that Mavis could only assume he thought was charming, as he practically shoved a jar of raspberry jam under Rita’s nose.

Rita merely blinked at him, but eventually sighed and conceded, “Alright fine. How much do I owe you for the jam?”

“What? Oh…”—Yuri waved his hand with a dismissive shrug of his shoulders. “Don’t worry about—”

“A dinner,” interjected Warrod.

Yuri whipped around to glare at him, then at Mavis as she added, “At our guild hall.”

Even the serious Precht joined in with a somewhat curt and monotone, “Tomorrow night.”

Yuri glared daggers at them though the blush in his cheeks betrayed his embarrassment. It seemed he couldn’t bring himself to turn back around to face Rita.

“That—” Yuri hissed at his friends through his teeth though it was clear that even he didn’t know what to say.

Rita’s brow furrowed in confusion, but she hummed thoughtfully at the jar of jam. After a long pause, she finally shrugged her shoulders and sighed, “Okay.” Yuri’s blush deepened though, of course, since his back was turned Rita couldn’t see it. Mavis, however, giggled at the strange combination of his embarrassment and indignance. Even Warrod and Precht shared a knowing look as a slight smile twitched in the corners of Rita's mouth and she quipped, “This had better be some jam.”

“So what you’re saying is, we all have to take these stupid pictures just because Makarov’s dad was too scared to ask out Makarov’s mom?” huffed Gajeel.

Mavis hummed thoughtfully. “Well I guess that was part of it, but the other part is that eventually Precht made a cost-benefit analysis and realized it was a pretty lucrative business and a good way to supplement the guild’s income.”

Gajeel blinked at her as Makarov agreed, “Running a guild is expensive.”

“Sure,” he grunted. “But you’re still lucky to have been born. Your dad was hopeless.”

“Don’t say that,” interjected Freed from his seat at the bar with the rest of the Thunder Legion. “Then Laxus wouldn’t exist either.”

Bickslow and his floating dolls, or his “babies” as he called them for some reason Gajeel would never understand, all nodded in agreement. “I can’t imagine a world without the boss.”

“It would be awful,” bemoaned Evergreen with melodrama.

Freed, seemingly unprepared to allow Evergreen to outdo his own melodrama, shook his head and added with a solemn, utterly horrified expression, “It would be such a dark, cruel and terrible world.”

“I don’t know, without Laxus’s bad moods things might be a little more cheerful around here,” argued Mirjane with a cheeky, teasing smile.

Freed huffed, “How dare you—” but Laxus cut him off.

“Everybody knock it off and calm down. Everything worked out, obviously, and even I can admit my great grandpa was pathetic.”

Surprisingly, Alzack jumped to the late Yuri Dreyar’s defense. “I don’t think he was pathetic. It can be difficult to express your feelings—especially in the beginning.”

Bisca nodded in agreement, but Laxus rolled his eyes.

Gajeel sighed. Though he could admit that maybe Alzack and Bisca had a point, he grunted, “Okay but the jam—really? It’s dumb.”

“I don’t know, Gajeel. I thought it was kind of sweet,” said Levy looking up at him with a smile that made his cheeks feel warm. He cleared his throat.

“It was kind of romantic,” agreed Juvia. “But too subtle. I would’ve been a little more obvious.”

Gray snorted in a muffled, disbelieving laugh. “A little?” he repeated incredulously before he dryly quipped. “You know you could learn a thing or too from Makarov’s dad.”

Juvia’s eyes widened, and she blinked at him doe-eyed for several seconds before she asked, “Would you like me to get you some jam, my darling?”

Gray pressed his hand to his forehead with an exasperated sigh.

“Maybe you should get some jam for a certain someone,” Happy teased Natsu by poking him in the arm.

Natsu shrugged. “Oh do you want some jam, Happy? That story made me kind of hungry for some myself actually.”

Levy laughed. “You know I wouldn’t mind some jam now either.”

“I can get you some jam, Levy,” interjected Jet.

“Well I can get you jam too—even more jam,” Droy quickly added.

“Not as much jam as me,” protested Jet before he and Droy descended into an argument.

Gajeel sighed and rolled his eyes, but before he or anyone else could tell them to knock it off, Lucy said, “I don’t think any of us should be using jam as a romantic gift.”

Juvia began to protest, “But my darling, Gray—”

“I don’t want any jam!” Gray cut her off in exasperation before standing up from the table.

“I think it’s kind of creative,” said Levy in what seemed to be an attempt to return to the original topic. “I mean anyone can give roses or chocolates, but you never hear about anyone giving anybody jam.”

*-*-*

You never hear about anyone giving anybody jam. Levy’s words stuck in Gajeel’s head for the next several days, despite his somewhat desperate attempts not to think about it. Could she really be serious about that? Was this some kind of girl code that she wanted jam?

“Mr. Redfox? Mr. Redfox?” called a somewhat exasperated voice, and Gajeel rolled his eyes with a frown. The photographer from Sorcerer Weekly was obnoxious, and even more obnoxious was the fact that he couldn’t get around having to take these ridiculous pictures. He’d like to give that Yuri Dreyar a piece of his mind, but, unfortunately, for now, he was stuck taking these dumb photos. He sure as hell wasn’t going to pose for them though.

“What?” he grunted, and the photographer looked somewhat frightened as he tightened his grip around the camera. “Are we done now?”

“Well we got lots of pictures, but we’re um…” He glanced nervously at his assistants. “We’re still hoping to snap at least one of you smiling…If that’s okay with you? Then we can wrap things up here.”

Blinking, Gajeel glared at them. No way was he going to smile for any of these stupid pictures. They should be glad he was even letting them take these pictures in the first place, and he was about to tell them so when a voice interrupted.

“Oh…sorry…I must be early…” Levy chuckled lightly as she walked into the room.

“You’re right on time Ms. McGarden. We’re just finishing up with Mr. Redfox,” said one of the assistant photographers. Levy’s eyes widened and she turned to wave at him.

“Oh hi Gajeel.” A wide smile spread between her cheeks and her dark eyes seemed to shine as she met his gaze. “You look handsome,” she chuckled, and Gajeel felt his mouth twitch. He wasn’t sure she was right about that.

“Eh,” he shrugged his shoulders. “You look nice too.” He heard Lily sigh and figured he probably deserved that after such an understatement. She looked beautiful, always looked beautiful, especially now when her cheeks flushed pink at the compliment and her whole face lit up with that bright, beaming smile of hers and it reached her kind eyes.

“Finally! Thank you!” sighed the photographer in relief, throwing up his hands. “That’ll be all Mr. Redfox.”

Gajeel’s brow furrowed. “What? What about…?” He stopped abruptly as his face grew suddenly warm. They must have gotten their smiling photo. Of course, they did. That smile had tugged at his lips as it nearly always did when he was with Levy, but he hadn’t even noticed.

Narrowing his eyes, he twisted his mouth into a frown, but he shrugged it off. “Yeah whatever…” he muttered. “Good luck with these morons,” he quipped only half-joking to Levy with a quick wave of his hand as he and Panther Lily walked off.

Sorcerer Weekly had had the bright idea to shoot photos on location in Magnolia, so Gajeel had to make his way back to the guild hall through town and the busy marketplace which was bustling with people, and who would’ve thought the first shop stall he noticed sold nothing but jam. Gajeel huffed and rolled his eyes with a slight shake of his head. It was all that stupid jam’s fault, but…he couldn’t help but wonder.

“Hey, Lily?”

“Yeah?” Panther Lily replied with a tilt of his head.

“Do you think Levy was serious about all that jam stuff?”

Lily shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe.”

Gajeel frowned, but his brow furrowed. He supposed it wouldn’t hurt to at least take a look at the jam booth.

Anyone can give roses or chocolates, but you never hear about anyone giving anybody jam.

“Oh hi, Gajeel,” said Juvia who was perusing the jam selection herself.

“Hey, Juvia. Shopping for jams?” He realized that was probably an obvious question, but he and Juvia had been friends for so long, he knew she wasn’t about to judge him for it. Sure enough, she smiled and nodded.

“Yes, I came straight here after I wrapped up my photoshoot. I wanted to get some jam for Gray.”

Gajeel blinked. She must have been shopping for a long time since she had had the photography appointment immediately before his. He would usually have said he couldn’t imagine how someone could spend so long shopping for jams, but now that he was actually at the booth and saw how many different types there were he was beginning to understand. He picked up a jar of blackberry jam, then blueberry then something called boysenberry whatever the hell that was.

“Why are there so many different kinds?” he grunted with a shake of his head. How was someone supposed to know what kind to pick?

“I was wondering that too,” sighed Juvia thoughtfully, but her mouth curved into a kind smile. “But I think I’ve finally narrowed it down. I’m going to get boysenberry because it’s so unique so it’s very special, and Gray is very special to me. And I’m also going to get strawberry because it’s sweet and Gray is sweet.”

“What kind of jam is smart, do you think?”

Juvia tilted her head. “Smart?” Her brow furrowed for just a moment before she perked up with a: “Well, yes, I suppose Gray is very smart. I should probably get him a smart jam too.” She hummed thoughtfully. “I read somewhere that oranges are supposed to make you smarter so maybe an orange marmalade.” She picked up a jar and held it up to Gajeel. “Yes, orange marmalade. I like it. Thanks for the idea Gajeel.”

Gajeel shrugged. “Sure.” That wasn’t his intention, but he didn’t really want to explain that to Juvia right now. Besides maybe she was right about the orange marmalade. He picked up a jar. What if Levy didn’t it like it though? Would she be upset? Maybe he should get more than one kind like Juvia. Levy was sweet but she was also spunky so maybe a tart yet sweet raspberry would be good… Or there was one time she and team Shadow Gear had invited him and Lily along on a hike through the woods where they had picked blackberries so maybe she’d like a blackberry jam. She helped make a strawberry cake for Erza once, but that seemed to be more of Erza’s favorite so maybe Levy wouldn’t like strawberry jam. And for the life of him he had no idea what boysenberry even tasted like. Gajeel huffed. Why in the world was this so hard? And why the hell were there so many damn jams?

*-*-*

“I’ve got a delivery for a Levy McGarden,” said the delivery man carrying a large, wooden crate into their guild hall.

“That’s me,” Levy replied. Gajeel quirked an eyebrow and glanced up from his food just briefly enough to see the look of confusion and surprise that passed over her face. Several guild members began to crowd around Levy as she opened the crate with a crowbar.

“Is that…jam?” asked Lucy with a tilt of her head.

Gray snorted a dry laugh and quipped, “Did they buy the whole store?”

“Do you want me to go back and buy you all of the jam, my darling?” asked Juvia in a fidgety concern.

“This has nothing to do with us, and you already got me jam, okay?”

“Wow! There has to be a hundred jars in there,” said Happy flying over the crate, but Carla huffed.

“Don’t be ridiculous. That crate can only fit about 25 jars.”

“25 five jars is still a lot.”

“I’ll say. I’ve never seen so much jam! It’s making me hungry!” chimed Natsu enthusiastically.

“Who’s it from?” asked Wendy, curiously climbing up on one of the benches to peer into the crate.

Levy shrugged her shoulders. “There isn’t a card or anything.”

“Ooh…a secret admirer,” gushed Mirajane who was wiping down the bar. Though she acted surprised, Gajeel could have sworn she turned to wink at him. He frowned.

“So manly!” agreed her brother, Elfman.

“Hey, I was going to get jam for Levy,” protested Jet.

“Yeah, well I was going to get jam for Levy too,” Droy argued in response.

After a few minutes they pointed at each other and said in disjointed unison, “Wait! You didn’t get this jam?”

First Master Mavis giggled. “It’s nice to know we’re still keeping with the Fairy Tail tradition of hopeless men.”

Gajeel huffed. She definitely glanced pointedly in his general direction.

“I guess that means Juvia is me,” she added with a cheerful chuckle. “And Gray can be Zeref—except not a dark wizard yet.”

Gray whipped around. “Yet?”

Mavis shrugged. “You never know.”

“Didn’t things between you and Zeref turn out terrible?” questioned Laxus dryly though he didn’t look up from his drink.

“Mmmmm…” Mavis hummed. “I guess, but it was good while it lasted. He was so sensitive and strong and have you seen his abs? He’s really handsome, just saying…”

Laxus blinked at her. “He’s a dark wizard—the dark wizard Zeref.”

“He’s still cute!” insisted Mavis, playfully huffy.

“He tried to kill you and trapped you in a rock crystal.”

“Actually Precht made the rock crystal, and that wasn’t Zeref’s fault. Our love was just too powerful.”

Laxus could only blink at her in disbelief as Juvia cried, “Oh no! Gray, my darling, do you think our love is too powerful and could hurt you?”

“What? Uh—” He stopped abruptly and clearly sensing an opportunity said, “Well actually yeah, Juvia. You should probably tone it down a little bit before I end up in a rock crystal like Mavis.”

Juvia nodded solemnly. “I will try my best, my darling.”

“This is ridiculous,” muttered Laxus under his breath.

“You’re just like Yuri,” giggled Mavis, teasingly poking him in the arm. “Though less friendly.”

“With all due respect, First Master, Laxus is extremely friendly,” interjected Freed, followed by Evergreen’s enthusiastic agreement.

“Laxus is the most friendly.”

“I would be his friend,” added Bickslow with emphatic nods that were mirrored by his “babies.” “And I am.”

Laxus glared at his companions. “Are you telling people I’m friendly? Stop going around telling people I’m friendly. I’m not friendly.” However, his protests earned nothing but more arguments from the Thunder Legion and laughter from both Mavis and Mirajane.

Gajeel decided this was probably enough chaos from one day and nodded at Lily as their cue to leave. He made his way out of the guild hall, but he must have failed to notice Levy get up from her table as well because the next thing he knew she was right beside him tugging on his sleeve. His cheeks grew warm, though he cleared his throat and tried his best not to appear too startled.

“Gajeel,” she said with a smile, and he felt a smile of his own tugging at his lips as she met his eyes. “Leaving so soon?”

“Eh, there’s only so much of these knuckleheads I can take,” he quipped dryly but the corners of his mouth twitched. “You should go back in though.”

“I will, but I just wanted to make sure to catch you and thank you.”

“For what?”

“For the jam.” Levy’s smile widened. “It was from you wasn’t it?”

Gajeel shrugged his shoulders. “So what if it was?”

She chuckled. “It was sweet—though you really didn’t have to buy every kind they had.”

“Listen, there were so many different kinds and I didn’t know what kind you wanted and—”

He stopped abruptly as Levy suddenly stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek which he was sure was flushed right about now. Levy was red faced herself as she pulled back from him, but she smiled sheepishly and said, “Thank you, Gajeel” before she scampered back off to the guild hall.

Gajeel stood frozen in the street outside the Fairy Tail guild for several moments. He imagined his expression was more similar to if Levy had whacked him on the back of the head with one of Erza’s swords, and he slowly raised his hand to his blushing cheek where she had kissed him in disbelief. That really must have been some jam.

#gajevy #yuri dreyar x rita #mavis vermillion #gruvia #ftreboost #gajeel x levy #yuri dreyar #gajeel redfox #levy mcgarden #juvia lockser #fairy tail zero #fairy tail fanfiction

18 notes · View notes