Chapter Text
They had found a job a quick trains ride away from Magnolia, though not quick enough if you asked Natsu and Wendy. A gang of thugs were terrorising a small town, trying to assert their dominance and control, while hoping the council and local guilds would ignore such a small time place. Maybe if Fairytail was a snobbier guild they would have, but little to no pay has never stopped them helping out before, it wouldn’t now. Her pride in her guild and friends swelled up in her chest as they stepped off the train. She was glad for these little reminders of why she joined them, one of the best choices she had ever made, they were nothing like the uppity elite she had grown up with. By every star in the sky she was thankful for that.
It didn't take long before they were spotted, a ragtag gang like theirs was admittedly hard to miss, the thugs lined up in the middle of the street, blocking their path. A tall lanky, man, leather jacket and ripped jeans screaming 'I'm trying to look tough', stepped forward, cocky grin on his stupid face.
“You guys are looking a little lost aren't you?”
Never one to back down from a challenge, Natsu stepped up to face him down.
“Nah we’re never lost, we’re here to put you in your place.”
A snort followed by a round of laughter from the thugs, what was their name again? Something stupid like Crimson Skull maybe? It would explain the design on their shirts anyway.
“Only weak idiots would be desperate enough for cash to try to bail this place out, think you can take us on?”
She heard the swish as Erza’s sword left it’s sheath, pointing at them in challenge.
“If you truly think that, then get ready to be proven sorely wrong”
“Aw no Erza, let them have their stupid ideas” She shared a look with Wendy, the small girl stepping back to start up her magic, as Gray moved up to Natsu. Ice already starting to form in his hand “Bet I can knock down more than you can, flamebrain”
“You’re on ice drool”
“That was one time!”
They argued as they charged, Wendy releasing her supportive magic with loud yells of ‘Vernier’ and ‘Arms’, apparently deeming a defense boost unnecessary, nevertheless she still felt encouraged by the magic flowing around her, strengthening her. Wendy then ran to catch up with Erza, who was already challenging an opposing swordsman, the clang of metal on metal ringing through the air. Ok, her turn, she picked out her opponent and flicked her whip forward, catching him off guard as it wrapped around his left arm, disabling it. He looked stunned as she pulled her whip taunt, pulling him to her. Frustratingly he dug his heels in, she cursed under his breath as he pulled against her, right hand coming up to send a shockwave out at her feet, nearly knocking her off balance.A victorious grin spread across her foes face.
“You should have tied up both my hands, your stupid weapons magic won’t save you from my next blast.”
She couldn’t help her grin, even as purple magic swarmed onto his hand, glowing brighter and brighter as it stored up energy.
“Maybe if weapon magic was my thing you would be right”
“But thankfully, for the both of us, it’s not”
The man yelped as he suddenly surged forward, a powerful kick in the middle of his back knocking him flat onto his face. Her whip went slack as she returned it to her hip, no longer needing it around the unconscious man’s arm. She shot a wink to her helper, an amused Loke.
“You would think he would have heard of a distraction before right?”
“Honestly Lucy, I’m not sure there's much between these guys ears. I’m impressed they remember their names nevermind actual tactics. Though speaking of, i’m going to have to politely ask you to stop playing bait, you’re going to give me a heart attack”
“I’ll stop playing the dumb blonde card when it stops working Loke, the surprise on their face is worth it everytime. But fine-” She grabbed her whip, cracking it through the air. “-Let’s show them what teamwork and training can do”
“After you princess, I do so love to watch a woman at play. Especially when she knows how to properly use a whip”
His not so subtle wink was answered with a roll of her eyes, she turned away from him, facing the chaotic fight in front of her.
“Think you can keep your eyes off me for long enough to help or are you a lost cause?”
“I can keep one eye on you, one eye on them, I’m very good at multitasking”
“Heh, we’ll see about that”
“Well that didn’t take long”
The pile of unconscious bodies laid unimpressively at their feet. All that talk had accounted to nothing, the morons had been little to no challenge at all. They stood, watching as Erza tied them all up together.
“Awww come on, how can I get fired up if they fall from one hit?”
“Right? I'd rather be back at the guild enjoying a nice brawl”
A certain flying blue cat caught her eye as he hovered over to Gray's shoulder. Oh no. A smirking Happy was never a good sign, especially when teamed up with terrible influence number one, Loke.
“I don't think that's what you meant to say Gray.”
“You're right Happy, I think he means ‘enjoying a nice date with Juvia’. How romantic.”
“...Friends aren't supposed to betray each other this way you know. Keep this up and I'll show you what happens to a cat when its frozen”
As their banter got louder she couldn't stop shaking her head, what was wrong with the boys in her life? She heard a noise, like a small voice, but before she could turn to find it, Erza slug an arm around her shoulder.
“Let them get rowdy, we've done a good job today”
“Um Lucy, shouldn't we have-”
“Right, the village is safe and no-one was hurt, it went really smoothly, considering its us”
“Actually we didn't-”
“Yep, let's celebra-”
“WENDY IS TRYING TO SAY SOMETHING! YOU ANIMALS!!”
She felt her heart stop as she jumped and spun around, face to face with an angry, white exceed. Carla had some lungs on her considering her size.
“Sorry Wendy, I couldn't hear you over the racket. What's the problem?”
“Loke never went feral. Wasn't this meant to be a test?”
You could hear a pin drop in the following silence as, all at once, they all remembered the second reason they were there. Then just as the stupefied calm came, it left, leaving only frustration in its wake. Well there went that happy feeling.
“Shi- I got caught up in everything and forgot. How could I forget? He’s only my husband and one of my spirits, no big deal”
She felt a small pat on her arm as Wendy gave her a small smile.
“It’s ok, we all got caught up in what was actually an easy fight for once. .We haven’t relaxed this much on a job in so long”
There was a groan from the pile about relaxing, but it went ignored over Natsu’s response,
“Yeah, it’s been so long since I haven’t had to worry about dying...maybe that’s why there was no real fire in this fight”
“Just blame Loke for getting so distracted by your short skirt he forgot about it”
“What?! I-”
“Payback buddy, payback”
She locked gazes with Loke, immediately disheartened to see him looking so panicked. Really now, teasing him while he was vulnerable was so mean. She would have to put a little hot sauce in Gray’s next meal.
“Lucy, I promise I didn’t forget on purpose, it was just...it was like I blinked and the fight was over, no real time to do anything”
“...It’s fine, we’ll just try again next time, maybe with a more challenging mission”
But it wasn’t enough, despite her encouraging, he still seemed defensive. Did he feel like he had to explain himself? They had all forgotten to step back and let him take over, it wasn’t that big of a deal.
“It’s not easy you know? I have to concentrate to pull out my full magic, I have to be in the right mindset, like all that meditation showed me. The only time I was able to instantly switch was when you were...And well, let’s face it, those guys weren’t exactly threate-”
He was cut off as the ground suddenly rumbled beneath them. Cracks appeared in the floor near them before huge spike of rocks shot up from underneath, headed in a line straight for them. She rolled to the side, Erza and Wendy at her side, as she looked up at their new adversary. He was wearing the crimson getup, so he was one of them, But she hadn’t spotted him earlier during the line up. She was quickly pulled to her feet by an armoured hand as he slammed his own against the ground, causing rocks to fly up and launch themselves at the group. The fast, sharp projectiles might not be able to pierce Erza’s armour, but it would definitely do a number on her skin. She sent a small nod of appreciation toward her friends fast thinking, before silently cursing to herself. Where had this guy come from? Was he some sort of secret weapon? Were there more members hiding somewhere? She ducked out of the way of a rock aiming for her head, as Natsu charged forward, smashing them away with fiery fists.
“Were you hiding? I’ll show you what Fairytail does to cowards who abandon their friends”
As he got even closer, laughter filled the air, even amongst the chaos, she caught Loke flinch.
“A coward? No I was just getting this from our base!”
He showed off his right arm, revealing a golden bracelet. It was long, covering his wrist and part of his lower arm, it looked to be intricately decorated, though she couldn’t really admire the design with gravel in her face. The only thing about it that caught her eye was the round orb in the middle, glowing a dark brown and pulsing violently. What in the-?
“You need some fancy jewellery to fight?”
“No! But it does allow me to do this!”
He shot out his hands, magic thundering from his fingertips down into the ground, tearing it up from out under Natsu’s feet, forcing him to run back, putting space back between the two as the chasm chased him. Happy flew in and grabbed his back, pulling him up into the sky as it finally caught up to him, thankfully preventing it from swallowing him up.
“Ok, maybe don’t stay too close to him”
“Aye sir, we’ll stay in the air”
Those on the ground all moved a little closer together, not wanting to get caught, but also wanting to help out if someone else did. Erza turned to Wendy and Carla, a determined look on her face.
“Carla take Wendy into the air”
“You don’t need to tell me twice Erza”
“But-”
“Wendy, we may need your help if one of use gets pulled into one of those holes. But Natsu can actually be useful for a change and help us there.” The small jab actually got Wendy to giggle,thankfully relaxing her. “I want you to check on the townspeople, there may be people trapped in their homes. Their safety is a priority and only you can heal them if they are injured”
She couldn't blame Wendy for seeming reluctant to leave, but Erza had a point. You couldn’t tear up this much ground without causing knock on effects, homes were partially destroyed or sliding into the ground, people needed to be evacuated. So it was with a quick nod that Wendy allowed Carla to lift her up and hopefully out of danger.
“I’ll be back soon ok?!”
“Ok Wendy”
It was with a wave that she watched them shoot off, before a shiver down her back told her of an incoming projectile, she was about to move when suddenly someone pushed down on her shoulders, forcing her down with them.
“I really appreciate your kindness, it’s one of your many amazing traits, but could you focus please?”
She was surprised by her lions voice, how gruff and agitated he sounded. He was starting to get worked up, well he wanted someone more threatening and he had gotten it. Though she didn’t like the implication that she wasn’t careful.
“I was fine, I was about to move”
A snort was his only answer as a wall of ice shot up before them, taking blow after blow from the rocks, small cracks forming where it was starting to weaken. Gray and Era dropped down beside them.
“Ok that should give us a moment, what’s the plan?”
Well it was obviously get the bracelet, it was clearly powering up this jerks innate Earth magic, making it stupidly strong. She could hear Erza and Gray going over potential ideas, dismissing some ideas while trying to mix others. The issue was that they didn’t know the full extent of this guys powers, which seemed to be growing in strength the longer the fight went on. There was a rumble as the ice shook, she spotted something moving close by in the ground. Was he up to something? There wasn’t time for a discussion, but going in wildly could cause them all to fall. What could she- oh! It was crazy, Loke was going to scold her afterwards, but her own plan formed in her mind. There was one clear way to distract this guy while also maybe finding out some information on his limitations. Besides, she really wasn’t liking the way the ground was slightly shaking around them, like something was waiting to pounce out at them She needed to move, now. She took a deep breath as ice shards began to fall, catching her spirit’s attention.
“Lucy? What are you-”
He was cut off by the crashing wall of ice, and her bounding up before the others could react. She ran forward, pulling out her whip and smashing the smaller rocks as they came at her. She may go down while playing the distraction, but she wasn’t going to make this easy for him. She actually managed to cover half the distance, pulling her whip back to try and get a hit in, when, just before it hit, a wall of rock appeared at his side. So he could defend himself, good to know. Erza was probably already thinking up ways to destroy it. She tried to charge forward again when a large spike of earth shot out of the ground in front of her. She heard yells of her name as she stumbled back, right into a second spike. Two more shot up at her sides, catching her legs and cutting them, she let out a yell as her knees crumbled slightly, forcing her to bend down, but she wasn’t on the ground yet.
“You nuisances will die one by one, then i’ll be in charge! We’re going to be running this town my way!”
The ground rumbled under her feet and her heart dropped in sudden fear. He was going to impale her! Had that been what those rumbles were? Had he been trying to cut them all? Was he insane? Or just desperate? She couldn’t bring herself to breathe, nevermind think properly, her mind a loud buzz of frantic thoughts, as his hand slowly raised to summon the last spike. But before the magic could take hold a loud roar filled the streets. A large beam of light, shaped like a lion, raced past her, forcing him to drop his magic to dodge out of the way, leaping to the ground moments before impact. In the next moment there was a crash on her right as the stone spike crumbled, revealing a snarling, pissed off Loke. His claws dug into the two spikes beside him as he leaned forward, fangs bared as he came inches to her face.
“I told you to stop playing bait!”
The guttural fury in his voice did nothing to hide the worry in his feline eyes. Movement caught her eye and she saw...a tail?! He had a lions tail, swishing behind him madly. She immediately looked up and yup, in that incredibly messy mane that now went down past his ears, were two cat ears, pressed down against his head. She was right...this really did make it hard to take him seriously. The intense relief and calm she now felt at seeing her lion could almost make her laugh, if she wasn’t so close to crying.
“You actually only politely asked me to. I told you i’d stop when it stopped working” She braved a quick rub of his new ears, finding an evil joy in his responding huff. “Besides, when have we ever properly planned anything out? We definitely didn’t plan anything about this attack out well, you probably should have changed on the train.”
He growled at her as he picked her up bridal style and leapt back, dodging an incoming line of spiked rock. Well someone's found a new trick . He ran back to where they had been, hiding her down behind some rubble. As he laid her down he noticed the long cut along the side of her leg and actually hissed. It should not have made her shudder the way it did.
“Lioness you stay here”
“But-”
“Stay! Stay here, i’ll deal with him, then you later”
“...I didn’t plan on getting hurt Loke, I wanted to help you all out, to back you up. I was going to pull back or fake fall or do something when I felt i had gotten enough information about him. I wasn’t expecting him to be crazy enough to kill.”
His glare lessened as he kneeled down, but she could tell he was still upset with her.
“That doesn’t matter, what matters is you’re bleeding. It was foolish, We just needed another moment to work out-”
“When? When could you have done that? He wasn’t going to let you guys talk it out and we both know that, look around you!”
She held her arms up, Gray was currently making ice pillars to stave off the onslaught, freezing the ground that opened up. But he was getting tired, he wouldn't last. Erza was the same, deflecting rocks constantly wasn’t fun and it was wearing her down, preventing her from advancing. She was starting to wonder if any plan would have actually worked, if he was able to create so much chaos at once. What they needed was something more unpredictable, they may hate the cause of it all they want, but that something unpredictable was right in front of her. He snarled, annoyed that he couldn’t fire back with a retort.
“Whatever, let me deal with this. I’ll be back in a minute”
He stood up, back turned to her to prevent any more arguing. She watched him slowly stepping forward, feeling annoyingly helpless, and hoped he had some sort of idea of what to do.
It was so hard to walk away from her, a part of him was crying out to tend to her wounds, to look after and care for her. But that had to come later, right now he needed to focus, to move his thoughts away from the memory of her getting slashed, the scent of her blood driving his most primal instincts. To tell the truth, he barely remembered how he saved Lucy, but he was in control now, so it was already an improvement over last time. He looked over the fight, allowing himself a second to hear and see everything going on, to orient himself. Erza and Gray were slowly making ground, but with how much magic they were using, they wouldn’t be facing this guy at full strength. Hang on, how did this guy have so much magical energy anyway?
“Now that i’m in charge I need a new name. Something cool like The Rock King. No wait, how about The Land shark! Yeah that one's much cooler”
Again how did he get any kind of threatening power?
Annoying, slash him.
For once he agreed, this so called kings voice was grating his ears. He leaned forward as he broke into a run. Magic and adrenaline pumped through his legs, almost catching him off guard with how much faster he ran. He fought the urge to start running on all four, even if that may have technically given him more of an advantage, it would be embarrassing to let Lucy see him like that. Amazingly he could feel every little vibration under his feet, he could tell when the ground was about to open up or rise up to block him. Letting his senses guide him, he made his way through the destroyed street. There were so many holes and broken homes, he hoped the villagers got those crimson idiots, and rock candy king here, to help fix it.
Our revenge first!
A small growl escaped him as power flowed through his hands, smashing the larger rocks that came his way, easily dodging the smaller ones. He had been noticed, his progress slowed by an onslaught of earth. Anger boiled up inside him, this would not stop him! The growl turned into a snarl as he pushed himself forward, taking slow step after slow step, he would make it. In desperation his foe, our prey, quickly raised the ground up under some rubble, sending bits of a home flying towards him. He stood, paralysed in shock and fear as they sped closer. He closed his eyes, waiting for the hit...that never came. He opened his eyes to a crystal clear barrier, and let out the breath he had been holding. He felt two familiar presences behind him, coming to back him up.
“I can’t keep doing that you know buddy”
“We need a plan, we’re so close!”
His eyes scanned the battlefield, looking for anything to help, when he noticed Happy flying and dodging some rogue pebbles. An idea sprung to mind and he felt a smug grin sprawl onto his face. He was going to lead his pride to victory! A small whistle rang out in the air and Happy shot down.
“Natsu, we’re swapping places. The moment this ice wall goes down I want all of you to attack at once and provide covering fire. Happy get me up in the air!”
“Wouldn’t it be easier if I kept a hold of Natsu and he-”
“He’s mine!”
He hadn’t meant to snap, but this bastard was his, his pride should know that.
“Happy, just do as he says, this might work, we should give it a shot”
Good old Erza, for a second in command she was really useful for calming everyone down. He could definitely rely on her. As requested, Happy moved to his back, ready to take off with him in tow. On a mental count of three, Gray forcefully tore down his wall, before calling on his ice arrows, sending a barrage forward to their target. At the same time Erza and Natsu jumped out from the left and right, Natsu calling on his Fire dragon Breath, while Erza charged in with her sword. He was forced to forgo his attacks, surrounding himself in a circular wall of stone, that he had to focus on constantly rebuilding lest any of the onslaught broke in. Perfect, the idiot didn’t notice him and Happy up above, though he supposed it would take a skilled mage to hold off Fairytail and this guy, despite his massive power boost, was not skilled. A quick nod to Happy was all it took and he was free falling. For a blissful moment he was at peace, finding something strangely soothing in pouncing on an unsuspecting foe. Then he snapped into focus, landing on Mr ‘Six feet under’ claws first. The surprise caused his rock guard to tumble, causing them to roll with the force of the tackle. Unfortunately the momentum led him to landing on the ground underneath his foe. Earth rose up to encase his feet but wasn’t quick enough to trap his hands.Magic flowed to his hands as he called upon Regulus’s power, lashing out at face, eyes, whatever her could with glowing claws. A tiny part of him was embarrassed for how animalistic he was behaving, but a much larger part was smug and victorious when he felt the weight leave his stomach. His prey rolled back onto his feet as he slashed at the rock holding him down, eventually breaking it and allowing him to stand.
“Do you actually have a name by the way, I’m getting tired of calling you prey in my head”
The idiot flinched, did he not know what he was?
“I’ve decided on-
“No! No nicknames, actual name please”
“...It’s Agate, can we get back to fighting now?”
Agate? Well with a name like that the magic makes sense. But isn’t that much cooler than a nickname? He took a second to mourn for his poor parents before pushing forward, getting in close to try and hit him. Agate, seriously why didn’t he stick with that?, wasn’t that well off in close quarters, his magic was powerful, but at this range he could hit himself. Lions on the other hand, fought best face to face, and no matter how quickly he tried to put space between them, Loke was there, ready to try and land a punch. He backed him up against a wall, having finally instilled some fear into his opponent.
“Hand over the bracelet, you’ve lost”
“Never!”
In an act if defiance, or desperation, spikes started to randomly shoot out of the ground, away enough from them to not be a threat… to them. His friends weren’t so lucky, having to back off and scramble around to avoid getting pierced. As they moved away, a cold feeling swept over him as he realised Lucy couldn’t get away. A feral growl escaped his lips, this needed to end now. He leapt forward, catching Agate off guard. His glowing claws wrapped around his arm.
Bleed him, cut him, teach him a lesson.
His magic scratched down his skin, leaving large, bleeding cuts, before his fingers hooked under the bracelet, pulling it off. The earth stopped shaking, the large pillars and spikes crumbling back into the ground, covering up some of the damage. Agate fell to his knees, holding his arm and cursing from the pain, but he wasn’t really paying attention. He turned to face where he had left her, more than a little panicked.
“Lucy! Are you ok?!”
His ears pricked atop his head, desperate to hear anything from her, but the world was still, besides the constant string of curses. A moment of intense sorrow as his heart plunged, before his eyes finally caught movement. First he saw Wendy, slowly moving out from behind the rubble and then there she was. Lucy had her arm slung around the smaller girl’s shoulders, limping slightly, but her leg did look a little cleaner. A breath he didn’t know he was holding shot out of him as he started to run, chucking the bracelet to Erza, leaving her to pull Agate up and keep him from doing anything stupid.
“LUCY!”
His tail swung wildly as joy burst up in his chest. He was about to jump on her when in the nick of time he remembered her limp, he managed to reign himself in, stopping just short of bumping into them, beaming down at her.
“You’re safe!”
“Yeah, Wendy found me and was healing up my wounds before we got attacked by that jerks magic. She and Carla got me out of the way though.”
A large surge of platonic affection for her overtook him as he gently nuzzled the top of Wendy’s head, before pulling back, leaving a hand on her shoulder.
“Thank you little dragon, that was a very brave thing you did”
Reward her later.
Right, now what said ‘Thank you for saving my love’ adequately enough? He heard Lucy giggling at Wendy’s flush, oh had he gone too far? Holding back feline affection wasn’t easy for him. Though speaking of his princess. His arms crossed as he did his best to look upset at her.
“I’m still not happy with what you did, you could have been seriously hurt...or worse.”
“...I’m sorry, that was stupid of me, though it was better than you all getting run through by rock.”
A half apology, but that was probably the best he was going to get from her, still it was better than nothing, with a loud sigh, he let all the anger flow from him, his smile returning.
“Fine, i’ll just have to keep a much closer watch on you from now on.”
He took Lucy’s other arm, putting it around his shoulder, allowing Wendy to release her. His love wasn’t heavy, still the poor girl looked shattered enough. His tail found it’s way around her waist, pulling a small chuckle from her.
“How in the world…?”
“A small conversation with the Spirit King. I’ll only have these when drawing on my lion power though”
“I can live with that, don’t need you listening in on me all the time”
He was about to counter when her hand when to his ears again. That infernal scratching, it felt so good but broke his brain, he couldn’t think through the haze of pleasure, but why would he want to?
“At least I can do this now”
He snorted, shaking his head free of her.
“Oh come here you”
He held her close, gently pulling her in, her tail snug on her hips, not letting go anytime soon. He wouldn’t let go of her ever. She always felt like home to him, everything from her touch to her unique smell soothed him. Finally, everything felt perfect. Just as he relaxed into her he was startled by her shaking. He pulled back slightly to look at her, surprised by her tears, falling swiftly down her cheeks as she laughed.
“Oh Loke, my sweet, sweet Loke. When was the last time you purred? I didn’t realise how much I missed it until now.”
It caught him off guard, to hear the sound suddenly reach his ears, but it didn’t stop. He was in Lucy’s arms how could it? In fact,in acknowledging his purr, it just got louder, sending strong vibrations through them both. He joined in her laughter, thrilled to once again be at peace, with himself and the world around him, holding his whole world tightly against his chest.
It had been a long road but he had finally arrived here, fully himself once more, surrounded by those he called friends and family. Hate may have been the emotion to fully bring himself out, but it was love that helped him understand and accept it. He was Leo and Loke, he was a spirit and he was a lion. He could be calm and suave, a perfect gentleman, but also highly emotional and aggressive, like an angry feline. There was no need to separate them. Both were him. All of this was who he was.
And he was happy.