Adult-FanFiction.org : Anime

Lion's Pride	By : Rhov Category: +. to F > Fairy Tail Views: 10067 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima. I make no money writing this. I do it for my own pleasure. Any lyrics are my own or I received permission from the artist.

Chapter List
- 7
- 8
- 9
"As I imagine your smiling face a petal fell from up above

I know that we'll have something good

It's called beautiful endless love

I know someday we'll be together

Underneath the Cherry Blossom Tree

All I ever want is for you to forever want me…."

- Disha Doshi

Chapter 8

Memory of Sakura Kisses

Two hours later, Loke sat at Fairy Tail's bar drumming his fingers impatiently. When Mirajane pushed a drink forward, he grabbed it and knocked it back fast.

"Why did she do it?" he growled. "She knew there might be trouble. Why didn't she wait for me?"

"Lucy is a proudly independent woman," said the petite, white-haired bartender. "She does her own thing."

He shot a glare up at her, as if Mirajane might have coerced Lucy into it. No, she was right. Lucy frequently pulled foolish stunts. Perhaps she hung around Natsu and Gray too much. Loke decided the only person to blame was himself for not staying by her. It was his fault! All his! What sort of protector was he? What sort of father would he be if he couldn't wake up to walk his lady to the store? All his fault!

All my fault!

He tapped the shot glass. "Another."

"You've had enough, Loke."

"Another!" he roared.

Mirajane folded her arms and gave him her most stubborn pout. "If we have to fight, you'll need your senses."

With a shout of frustration, Loke threw the shot glass at her. Mirajane easily batted it away as only a person used to brawls could do. He slammed both hands on the counter and leaned in at her.

"Do you have any idea how much pain I'm in?" he hissed in a trembling voice. "If it dulls the pain, I want it."

Elfman was already there to defend his sister. "Loke!"

"Brother?"

Loke turned around and saw Virgo timidly being led into the guild hall by Wendy. She held a silver tea tray. The sight of her calmed his raging mind, and he collapsed back onto his barstool. The maid set up the tray in front of him and got to work pouring a yellow-green tea.

"This will ease the pain better than any human drink." She stirred the tea with fast whisking.

"I'm shocked you're still around," Loke muttered.

"Princess did not send me back. Besides..." She held the teacup up for him. "...if I leave you now, Brother will truly be alone."

Loke gawked for a short moment, then he chortled softly. He realized no one in this guild blamed him or thought it was his fault. They were there to help and support him in any way they could. The guild was family, and the mark on his back proved that he was still a member of Fairy Tail!

He muttered thanks as he took the cup Virgo handed to him and looked at the tea. "How much of this did you bring?"

"Enough for five more brewings."

"And then that's it," he realized. "You can't go back for more."

"Even if I went back, without Princess nearby, I'm not strong enough to force my gate open. I'm sorry. You may punish me."

He waved off the masochistic offer.

"Could you help me to open the gate, Brother?"

Loke took a long drink of the tea, then shook his head. "If I was in the Spirit World, perhaps. I know I can force someone else's gate shut, so maybe I could force them open. But I can't call a Celestial Spirit out while in the Human World."

"Then this is all the seirei tea you have. Please use it wisely."

"Have some too," he suggested. "If you plan on staying out here with me, you'll need it. Otherwise, it'll start to hurt soon."

"It will be my punishment for letting Princess go alone. Besides, I can't be of much use in a fight. When we find Princess, it is Brother who must fight for her."

He sputtered a sigh and glared at the tea. "I'm getting better, but I'm not strong enough to fight. It...still hurts," he muttered. "A lot."

Natsu clasped him on the shoulder. "Then leave it to us. She's our nakama."

Gray came up as well. "We'll get her back."

Erza also stepped forward. "First, we need to figure out who took her. An investigation team already left following their trail. Luckily, Lucy wore perfume this morning. Gajeel is on the search party. With his nose, they'll find her easily."

"I should've been on the team," Natsu pouted. "I'd run in there and grab her immediately."

Gray turned his head aside. "That's precisely why you were ordered to stay home, idiot."

Natsu flared up at him. "What did you say, droopy-eyes?" Before they could fight, Erza smacked both of their heads.

Levy came up to Loke. "It'll take a while, though. The search party reported that the enemy is using the river and traveling at an incredible speed. They probably wanted to avoid leaving tracks. If it weren't for Gajeel's sense of smell, we might never have figured out where they were going. He's somewhat amazing, isn't he!" she praised with a slight blush.

"Go home, Loke," Erza suggested. "Rest as much as you can. We'll tell you as soon as we learn anything."

Loke glared at her. "Don't you dare take off and leave me behind."

"I swear, we won't," Erza nodded solemnly. "Virgo, stay with him."

"As you wish, Warrior Queen."

"Warrior Queen?" Erza asked, stunned at the lofty title.

Loke knocked back the last of the tea. He tried to stand, but his weakness hit him hard. Virgo held him under the arm, balanced the tea tray with her other hand, and slowly helped him out. As soon as the doors shut on the two Celestial Spirits, there was a collective sigh of relief throughout the guild. It was too intense being in the same room with a grieving man.

"There's no way he should go on a mission like this," Gray warned Erza.

Her brown eyes slid over to him. "If I tried leaving you behind, what would you do?"

Gray hesitated, but he realized what she meant. "I'd fight through Hell and you to get to her."

"Precisely. Loke has even more reason to fight. He's not only rescuing the woman he loves, but his child, too. He's weak, but he'll give it everything he's got. It'd dishonor him to leave him behind."

The sun was setting. Loke laid on the bed he shared with Lucy, holding a stuffed lion, a gift from Happy meant for the baby. Virgo sat primly by his side. She had already cleaned everything twice before Loke warned her to conserve her strength. So she sat on a stool by the bed, hands folded neatly, staring at the window as the minutes ticked by.

"We should speak of something happy," Virgo decided suddenly. "Brother, when did you and Princess get together?"

Loke thought the sudden conversion was strange, but he realized she was right. He needed to remember happier times and get his mind off of constant worrying. He hummed and thought back.

"It was Spring, a challenging mission. Lucy had already used three Gold Keys, and she finally called me out. The enemy was a fiend, using his magic to sexually harass Lucy, threatening to rape her. I grew too furious and killed him with a brutal attack I haven't used in centuries."

"That one?"

"Yes, Regulus Supernova! Afterwards, we saw that Erza took damage on her leg, so I carried her to a ryokan. Lucy was so weary, she simply forgot to send me back, and I didn't want to leave. I stayed in the room while Lucy went to an onsen. When she came back, she was shocked I was still there, but she still didn't send me back. She ordered room service for both of us. We ate, drank...maybe a bit too much," he laughed. "She got flushed and loosened her robe rather revealingly. It was hard to talk to her with those massive mounds of feminine beauty partially exposed."

"Shameful!" Virgo frowned.

"I didn't do anything. I won't take advantage of a drunken woman," he assured with a disdainful pout. "Anyway, she was really drunk, didn't know what she was doing. I figured she'd never remember anything in the morning, so I confessed to her all that I felt. I had to get it off my chest, I guess. I didn't want to disgrace her, so I carried her to bed. I stayed there all night in case she got sick.

"When she woke up, she avoided me. I still had to carry Erza, but Lucy never said anything. We made it to a town where we could rent some transportation. Gray drove, Erza had some pain killers and slept the whole time, and Natsu was stupid-sick as usual. I had to punch him out of his misery, then try to fit both him and Erza onto the same seat, laying one on top of the other. So only Lucy and I were the only ones awake in the back. I finally demanded to know why she was avoiding me. Turned out she remembered everything I said. It got awkward after that, so as soon as we were back at the guild, I left.

"Later, Lucy called me out again. I was ready to fight, except we were in the middle of Magnolia's rainbow sakura. She wanted to view it with me...just us. She had a picnic spread out and everything. That's when she said she had thought it over all night long, even lost sleep over it, and came to the decision that she was willing to try dating a little. Nothing much, of course: dinners, walks, basically things we had already done together, but just the two of us.

"I could hardly believe that, after all this time of shrugging off my adoration and denying she had any feelings for me, she was finally taking me seriously. And she was so cute and shy when she said it! I felt...that was the best day I had in many centuries. I wanted it to be just a little better, something extra I could add to this magical incantation of love, so I kissed her under the sakura. It was truly the most wonderful kiss!" he sighed with a goofy smile.

"A perfect kiss for Princess," Virgo agreed.

"We hid it from the guild, but I think they all knew. Things progressed fast...probably faster than we wanted," he admitted with an embarrassed laugh. "We couldn't help it. The attraction was inescapable. Her beauty is intoxicating, literally! I feel drunk when I'm with her, I can't think logically, I say things that sound stupid, yet she loves it. Best of all, the pain of being in this world fades whenever she's near me. I would've loved her even if she wasn't my master, but having her, protecting her, being her knight in shining armor...it makes life so much more wonderful. Now this, a baby, a family! It's a dream come true...except," he realized darkly, "with every dream, there's a chance of nightmares. I'm praying this nightmare ends, Lucy returns safely, and we can go back to enjoying our happily-ever-after."

"That sounds sweet," Virgo said without even a smile, although she sounded sincere. "But Brother, why a human? You've done this before: Karen, Hoshi, Parisah, Naomi, Kefira..."

"Because I loved them," he snapped to cut off the lengthy list. "I've dated Celestial Spirits as well. There's no difference in my mind. A person, be they Human or Spirit, can fall in love."

"Do you love Lucy more or less?"

"Way more than Karen," he muttered.

"More than Kefira?"

Loke paused, and a dark shadow passed over his eyes. "Never mention her name again."

"You once said she was the best lover you..."

"What happened with me and Kefira," he shouted over her, "was perhaps the worst mistake of my existence."

"Is Lucy also a mistake?"

"No!" he yelled. "Lucy...Lucy makes me stronger," he said softer, smiling as he thought about her. "Her presence is soothing. You feel it too, don't you?"

"I don't understand. I feel no different with her as my owner than I did under any other powerful owner."

"Is that so?" he smirked to himself. "It must mean we're meant for one another, like two stars that on their own shine well enough, but when converged their brilliance outshines the rest of the heavens."

"Does a human lover make a Celestial Spirit stronger than a Spirit lover? Are other Spirit lovers not as compatible?"

"Dunno," he answered, putting his hands behind his head and looking up at the ceiling. "I guess it's different for everyone. Why are you so curious anyway?"

Virgo looked to the window pensively. "I wonder sometimes: could I fall in love?"

"You?" he asked in shock. Virgo...in love? Even the Lion had a hard time picturing it. "Well, you may be the Maiden, but you don't have to remain one."

"Is that so?" she mused, sounding uncertain. She moved her seat from the stool to the edge of the bed. "There is something I can do to help Brother, but I feel hesitant."

"Help me?" he asked, confused by what she meant and how that tied into her curiosity about love.

"I have extra energy I can lend to you."

His mouth dropped for a moment at the kind offer, yet he firmed up and shook his head. "No, then you'll be too weak."

"I won't be fighting. I can leave once we rescue Princess, but you're stuck here. I can give you some of my magical energy." With a pink face, she inched closer to where Loke laid on the bed, and slowly she crawled on top on him.

Loke's eyes widened in shock. "Whoa, Virgo, what...what the hell are you doing? Hey!"

She took her handcuffs, and with a touch, a second shackle magically appeared on the dangling chain ends. She clasped each one onto Loke's wrists. He was too stunned by such wanton audacity to fight her off, but once he heard the locks click, the Lion felt a moment of panic. He yanked against the chains but merely pulled her arms along with him.

Virgo began an incantation. "Chained together thus, I call upon Spica." She squeezed her eyes shut tightly as brilliant light enveloped her, and her pink hair fluttered with the energy. "Grant me your power! Spica: Virgin Renewed!"

Loke felt a surge of energy flow through the handcuffs, up his arms, and spread all through his body. He stiffened, and his back arched at the intense tingle. Virgo gritted, but she held onto his arms. Pure white light engulfed both of them, searing and purifying at the same time, shaking the windows in the bedroom. As the surge increased, Virgo cried out and grabbed Loke tightly, lying fully on top of him and holding him hard to ride out the thrust of magic.

"V-Virgo," Loke strained out through the intense magical exchange. "Are you okay?" He could barely see through the blinding light, but he heard her whines and felt her body trembling.

"It hurts, and it feels...so good," she whimpered, which ended in a moan. "Leo...I...I..." She cried louder and crushed him into a hug.

Loke was numbed and tingling all over his body. He felt wave after wave of power throb through his essence, healing him and making him whole. As the surge began to wane, Loke felt like he could finally breathe, and he panted hard. Such a rush!

"That...wow," he exclaimed and laughed wearily. "That felt pretty damn good."

Virgo gave a few heavy gasps, utterly spent with the magical surge. She lifted her upper body and looked down at him as he leaned back against the pillows in exhaustion. Her cheeks flushed to see Loke's face sweaty and glowing in ecstasy. "That is the secret regenerative power of Spica: Virgin Renewed. I've not done that in a long, long time."

Virgo suddenly leaned over and kissed Loke. His eyes went huge. He flailed for a moment, but he did not want to simply shove her away, especially since they were chained together. Virgo made a soft humming sound and slid her body down a little, right over a spot Loke did not want her to discover. The sensuality in her quiet moan made him panic.

"Stop!" he yelled right over her mouth.

She leaned up and looked hurt. Then she saw the shock and distress in his face. Her bold actions suddenly dawned on her, and her eyes went massive. Virgo looked away so Loke could not see her blush. "I...I'm so sorry, Brother." She hurried with the shackles, but her eagerness to get far away made her fumble. "I didn't mean it. I just...the rush of power..."

"It's okay," he muttered, looking anywhere but at her. "Can you...um...not wiggle as you unlock those things?" He felt ashamed and a little angry that she kissed him without warning and without asking. However, he could not blame her impulsive response when even for himself, being handcuffed with a lady in a maid outfit straddled across his hips, made him aroused.

Handcuffs! He would have to use them on Lucy later.

There was a knock at the door and the sound of Erza's voice.

Loke cringed. "Shit! Hurry, unlock the handcuffs."

"I'm sorry. Punish me now."

"I will punish you, but later. Get the damn cuffs off, Virgo!"

With a snap, the shackles finally released just as the knock rapped louder. Loke leaped off the bed, ran to the other room, and opened the door to see Erza, Gray, Natsu, Happy, Wendy, Charle, and Levy dressed for a journey.

"We just got word," Erza told him. "They've discovered Lucy's whereabouts, but because of the situation, the investigation team is standing by until we arrive as backup."

"I'm going, too," Loke insisted.

"As shall I," Virgo insisted, adjusting her maid outfit as she walked forward.

Erza raised an eyebrow at her disheveled appearance but decided it was unimportant. "I figured as much and secured transportation for all of us. They're already near Fiore's border, but they've stopped for the night. If we hurry, we could be there before they leave in the morning. Do you need to pack?"

"All I need is right here." Loke raised his fist and showed them the gleaming ring. Damn that impulsive Virgo, but at least what she did gave him enough energy to not be stumbling around in pain. He felt like he could take on any enemy.

"I should bring the tea," Virgo said, hurrying to the kitchen.

While she was gone, Loke eyed Erza seriously. "Who did this, and why do they want Lucy?"

"Why? We don't know. Gajeel said the kidnapper looked like a noblewoman, and they're in a hurry to leave Fiore, so perhaps this is a rivalry between aristocrats. As for who, we have only a little knowledge. It's a single woman riding a watercraft of some sort pulled by what appears to be a large fish who can talk and walk on dry land. Gajeel heard the fish say a name—Kefira."

Loke's eyes widened in horror. "Kefira?"

Erza raised an eyebrow. "Someone you know?"

His face had gone white. "It couldn't be. That was centuries ago. She'd be dead by now." Still, he looked troubled. "With a walking fish, huh? What did she look like?"

"Not much to go on. Dressed like a noble, long black hair, pale skin. All I got on the fish is that it can walk and is blue. Gajeel isn't the best at communicating, although he did mention that the enemy smelled like snow...however snow is supposed to smell."

"It smells good," Natsu assured. "Like trillium flowers."

Virgo came up behind Loke. "The descriptions match. Do you think it's them?"

"That was four hundred years ago," he muttered. "There's no way Kefira could still be alive."

"There are always ways," Erza warned gravely. "Tell us anything you might know on the way. Let's hurry!"

End of Chapter 8

Rhov's Corner:

FYI: Trillium flowers are odorless...except to dragon slayers. ^_^

Hopefully I survive being pummeled by die-hard LoLu fans for daring to write that scene with Virgo. Sumimasen! *bows deeply* Virgo being coy is so hard to imagine. I have a feeling, if Lucy ever says "Yes, you'll be punished," Virgo will break out in a huge smile. That would be creepy!

I received permission from Disha Doshi to use her poem as this chapter's epigraph. It's gorgeous and perfectly fits the mood, "beautiful endless love," the love of an eternal Celestial Spirit expressed under the ephemeral sakura. She's at http://disha-doshi.blogspot.com. Thanks, Disha!

I wrote a prelude to Lion's Pride called Ephemeral Sakura, Eternal Love (http://fanfiction.net/s/7346095). It's not mandatory to read it, but parts of that story will show up here. It's seven short chapters, nice and fluffy. Plus Loke kicks ass!
- 7
- 8
- 9
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Lion's Pride