This is unacceptably long and I have no regrets.
Title: Self-Discipline and Other Abandoned Moral Standards
Fandom: Fairy Tail
Pairing: Lucy/Natsu/Erza/Gray
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: Total: 13,750. In this part: 7,241
Summary: Lucy attempts to get some writing done. Her teammates have other ideas. As if concentrating with a bunch of violent maniacs eating her food and going through her underwear drawer wasn't hard enough as it is.
A/N: I expect a medal for the longest PWP ever written. Dear god, I have a problem. In my defense, it's about equal parts bickering, Fairy Tail-style madness, and people getting punched in the head to sex, but there's a significant amount of each. Contains swearing, mild violence, various iterations of F/F, M/M, and M/F, group sex, Erza topping the hell out of everyone, socially inappropriate use of magic, and general perversion. Because this is so goddamn long, I'm posting it in two parts. The second part will be linked at the end of the first.
Lucy is getting more than a little sick of these attacks on her privacy.
It's not that she isn't used to coming home - or worse, stepping out of the shower - to a half-naked, armor-clad, superheated ruckus camped out in her house, eating her food and breaking things and acting like she's the crazy one. She's used to that. It's not the fact that she can't make them go away for the life of her; she's used to that too. It's just that sometimes - well, Lucy has made some adjustments after her time in Fairy Tail, such as reestablishing boundaries and revising her definitions of decency and sanity, but, well, sometimes things just get out of hand.
She's just trying to write. Erza is sedately eating the strawberry cake Lucy bought specifically to keep her away from all the food Lucy actually needs to live, and somewhere on the other side of the room, Gray and Natsu are arguing. About what, Lucy doesn't care: she's trying to write, and it's probably (definitely) something stupid. But then there's a thump, a crash, a shout - Erza looks up, shakes her head, and returns to her cake, so it can't be too bad yet. A scuffle has broken out. From the sound of it, it's more grappling and insults than fists, but…Lucy knows that sound.
It's not really a sound, in truth; more of a feeling, like an oncoming low pressure front that makes the skin itch and gives the air a faintly heavy cast. Still, the feeling comes in the pitch of their breath, the tone of their words, nothing that Lucy can describe, but something she knows, deep in her bones, with encroaching horror.
Now Erza is watching with interest. Lucy's fingers clench on her pen nearly hard enough to snap it. And then, there it is, like clockwork: Natsu makes The Noise.
The Noise is the bastard child of a snarl and a startled moan, the literal translation of which being, roughly, "no don't do that oh god wait do that again." Gray responds with a snicker, there's a pause, and Natsu moans in earnest - Erza is watching with the faintest, nearly undetectable hint of a smirk, fork poised midway to her lips.
The pen snaps. Lucy slams her hands down on her desk.
"That's IT," she practically screams. "Everyone. Get out. NOW."
This time, when Natsu moans, it's wordless, pouting frustration. "Come on, Lucy," Gray whines. "You do this every time--"
"If you don't want me to kick you out, you'll stop doing - doing--" Lucy still hasn't turned around. "That," she concludes, smacking her desk again for emphasis. She should have known this was coming; Happy is nowhere to be seen. "Erza," she implores, but the other woman is smirking slightly less faintly now. "Can't you do something about them?"
With a gracious downward tilt of her head, Erza smiles. "It's impolite to interrupt, Lucy," she says, in a tone so mild it's hardly scolding. She looks up across the room, and Lucy knows that look - it's the one that means she's not getting any help. "But there are many things I can do."
"OUT," Lucy snaps. But now…now the pattern starts to break down. Because Erza has just turned that look on her, which has never happened before, and Natsu is still making less-than angry sounds in the background, Gray is still snickering, and the atmospheric weirdness of the room has just increased tenfold. Lucy's heart stills, half in panic and half in outraged curiosity.
Against her will and better judgment, directed by Erza's insistent and overpowering gaze, Lucy turns around.
Lucy is so used to seeing Gray in his underpants in these situations that it comes as a shock to see him fully clothed. Not only that, but Natsu is actually half undressed inasmuch as he can be - scarf askew, vest hanging around his shoulders. His arms are pinned beneath his back in a way that looks sort of painful, Gray is on top of him, one of his legs between both of Natsu's, using his full weight to press him down, although Natsu doesn't look like he'd move if he could, except to grind his hips up against Gray's thigh a little harder. He's flushed and panting and squirming and he looks furious, but Gray isn't looking at him, he's looking at Lucy with that same charming, oddly intimate smirk she's seen on his face every day she's known him, but…it seems different, now. Maybe it's the faint flush spread across his cheekbones, or the way his chest is heaving a bit from labored breath, or his fingers clenched hard into the muscle of Natsu's upper arms.
Lucy has never really looked at them before when they're like this. She's heard plenty of times, caught glimpses of things she convinces herself she didn't want to see and spent long nights forcing her brain not to reconstruct what might have been happening based on those brief images, but…she's never really, truly looked. And now she can't look away. That is, not until she feels the light touch of Erza's fingers at her jaw line, brushing blonde hair behind her ear.
"Lucy," she says softly, lips nearly brushing Lucy's ear. "A hospitable hostess doesn't throw her guests out into the street at night, especially not when they're having such fun." Protests bubble up in Lucy's chest, accusations of trespassing and being taken advantage of, but Erza continues: "Now. Why don’t you be a good hostess and play a game with your guests?"
And just like that, Lucy can't speak, anger robbed from her along with sense and breath. Light fingertips make a tingly path from the curve behind her ear to the hollow of her throat. In front of her, Natsu makes a sudden, complicated flexing motion that makes Gray hiss and break eye contact to glare at Natsu in a way that is either more annoyed than it looks or not nearly as annoyed as Gray wants it to be. Lucy finds herself standing and realizes that Erza has essentially lifted her out of her chair by her shoulders while she was distracted.
"Erza," Lucy whispers, trying desperately to interpret the arms around her waist as a friendly hug - one that involves Erza nuzzling the back of her neck. She grips Erza's forearms, metal cool under her fingers. "They're staring at me."
They are staring, as it happens. Natsu has regained control of his arms and has his head arched all the way back to stare at Lucy upside down. He no longer looks angry, only flushed and excited and faintly curious, and Gray looks much the same, and Lucy is starting to worry. "Erza," she hisses frantically. Erza, to her horror, presses her hands flat against Lucy's stomach and kisses the side of Lucy's neck. She's sure she's just broken a nail against Erza's gauntlet.
It would be a lie to say she's never thought of Erza this way. Hell, it would be a lie to say she's never thought of Gray this way, or even Natsu - it's just harder, because Lucy never thought she really liked boys until she met real ones, not the old men and slobbering perverts shoved at her under her father's keeping, and she still has yet to meet one as gorgeous as Mirajane. But as Erza's hands slide slowly upward, lips hot and insistent at her pulse, Lucy can't ignore the way heat flows through her, starting in the pit of her stomach and spreading outward like wildfire. Part of it has to do with the way the boys are looking at her, fascinated and slightly predatory. They're rearranging themselves to get a better look, but very slowly, as if a sudden movement might frighten their prey away. She's seen them move like that before, but never at her.
"Erza," Lucy says again. She hadn't intended to whimper like that when she said it.
"Hmm?" She can feel the question buzzing against the skin just behind her ear. It tickles and makes her gasp and clutch harder, nails screeching faintly against metal.
Lucy swallows hard. "They're stalking."
Just like that, Erza looks up, and Lucy can feel the sudden businesslike change in her posture. "Boys," she says brusquely. "Get up off the floor and go sit on the bed like human beings." For a moment, they hesitate, nervous and almost pouting. "Now."
They go. Each of them sits on either end of the bed, far away from each other, still obviously pouting and steadfastly ignoring each other much the same way they do after every time Lucy kicks them out, like they haven't just been…doing that. Gray is leaning forward, elbows on his knees, but Natsu is sitting ramrod straight with his arms sullenly crossed, which gives Lucy an excruciatingly good view of the tent in his pants that that stupid skirt thing is doing nothing to conceal. Naturally, Lucy is horrified. And nothing else. Nothing else.
Suddenly, Erza's hands are on her breasts and Lucy promptly forgets to be horrified about anything. She sucks in a quick breath, arching her back a little - Natsu is pretending not to look but Gray isn't even trying, gaze intent - and now Erza is doing something with her hands, massaging and pressing and pinching a little, which makes Lucy yelp because even through her clothes that feels absurdly good, and also…practiced. Lucy has never had cause to wonder about Erza's sex life before. Has she done this before? With other girls? Does she always watch Gray and Natsu or does she join in? She's said she has a history with Mirajane and doesn't like to talk about it - Lucy's mind is suddenly reeling with thoughts that fan higher the heat in the pit of her stomach. Luckily there's no way this could possibly actually be happening, or Lucy would be panicking right now.
Erza's armor is pressing hard into Lucy's back now, and it hurts a bit, but she's suddenly terrified that if she points this out, Erza might take it off. And besides, now those hands are sliding up underneath her top, and when Erza whispers "Lift your arms," she does, mortified and powerless to disobey. Erza pulls her top off over her head, and Lucy is just glad she wore a bra today, although by the look on her audience's faces, you wouldn't know it. Lucy crosses her arms over her chest and blushes furiously, trying to scowl.
"What are you thinking, Gray?" Erza asks, sounding amused; Lucy wants to protest, because what about what she's thinking, but Gray is doing that oddly penetrating smirk again and the words dry up in Lucy's mouth.
"That I'd like to be standing where you are right now," he says. Lucy's mouth goes even drier. She can feel Erza smirking against her neck.
"Natsu?"
A pause, and then suddenly Natsu's full attention is on her. He's grinning. Lucy wants to scream, because she knows what that grin means. It means that he's about to say something that she's going to have to kill him for, and if that happens, Lucy thinks she may cry, because she can't handle much more of this.
"I don't know," Natsu says, shrugging; "I think she could stand to lose a couple pounds."
Lucy does not cry, but she does scream, and not even Erza's arms around her waist can restrain her.
In seconds, she's tackled Natsu to the mattress - he's laughing his head off and Lucy is repeatedly punching him in the chest, which has no apparent effect. She can hear Gray yelling in the background and suddenly Natsu flips Lucy onto her back and pins her - she yelps, because he just bit her shoulder - bit her! Like a dog! Admittedly, it doesn't hurt much, and when he does it again on the side of her neck and presses against her with his full weight, she might possibly make a noise that's a cross between a moan and a squeak. Lucy claws at Natsu's back and pulls at his clothes as if she's trying to get him away, which she isn't entirely sure she's doing anymore - this is all extremely confusing. And then Natsu makes kind of an undulating movement against her, and…horrified, Lucy realizes that he just humped her leg. Somehow, the only appropriate response is hysterical shrieking and a hard, wringing twist at his scarf that makes him cough.
"Natsu!" she hears Erza snap, and suddenly Natsu is pried away from her with strong arms, both Erza and Gray wrestling him off.
"Whaaat?" Natsu whines, glaring at Gray, because obviously this is all his fault and none of Erza's. "She liked it!"
Gray starts to call him something horribly offensive, but Erza cuts him off and turns to look at Lucy, still on her back in a half-naked, rumpled mess. "Is that true, Lucy?" she asks, serious yet concerned. Somehow, the contrast between Terrifying Dominatrix Erza and Dependable Big Sister Erza is more disturbing than the fact that Natsu was just chewing her neck and rubbing off on her like an animal.
"Um," is Lucy's wide-eyed response. There is a long, considering pause, and then Gray smirks, letting go of Natsu’s arm.
"Why am I not surprised the princess likes it rough?" He seems inordinately pleased by this. Lucy is blushing so hard she feels lightheaded. She tries to cover her chest with her arms again, suddenly feeling very exposed and out-of-place.
"Be nice, boys," Erza says soothingly, gathering Lucy up in her arms like she weighs nothing at all. The embrace is all cold, hard metal and the soft brush of silky hair; Lucy shivers, hiding her face ineffectually against a steel-clad shoulder. "If Lucy likes it rough, there are plenty of things we can do to her, but I think we should let her tell us herself." Lucy thinks Erza's right pauldron might melt under the heat of her face.
"So?" Gray announces. "Why don't you tell us, Lucy?" She's never heard him use this tone of voice before - close to it, on a few occasions, usually when he's flirting with a girl or doing that weird bantering thing with Kana that means both of them are going to disappear shortly to places unknown for the rest of the afternoon - but never quite this low and intense and close, right next to her ear, in fact, and just how the hell did he get behind her so quickly? Cool hands at her waist make Lucy jump, and equally cool lips brushing her shoulder make her heart clench and stomach quiver, something akin to panic but much…tinglier.
"Um," Lucy says again, this time in a small, quavering wisp of a voice. Part of her wants to scream at them to stop and back off. It's a tiny part, and she can't quite convince herself to regard its very good advice. All she knows is that the cold touch of metal at her front and Gray's skin at her back are surprisingly pleasant, given her overheated state, and that she thinks she might be having an out-of-body experience, because this can't possibly be happening, not without protest.
"Quit hogging," Natsu says suddenly - it occurs to Lucy that he's probably been trying to burn a hole in Gray's forehead with his eyes. "I wanna touch her too."
"You said I was too fat," Lucy says suddenly, loudly.
"Shhh," Erza says, stroking her hair. Gray is pressed close against her back now, and in spite of her own shell-shocked horror, the tension in Lucy's stomach wants him even closer. "Natsu, be patient. You'll get your turn. Lucy…tell us what you want."
What she wants? Lucy is torn between relief and indignant fervor because someone has finally, finally asked her opinion on this lunacy, and another part of her that wants to die from embarrassment, and a third part that has ideas and is clawing to be heard because it's sure they're very good ideas indeed. "I…I want…um…"
"Just tell us something you like and we can do that," Gray suggests. She can feel his breath against the back of her ear - even his breath is like a cool breeze, which is weird. "We're good like that."
"We've never done someone else, all three of us," Erza explains, still running soothing fingers through Lucy's hair. "But you're our friend now, and we want to make you happy."
"Yeah, I didn't think it was very fair," Natsu pipes up from somewhere in the vicinity of Lucy's right knee. "You're part of the team too. They kept saying you'd freak out and we had to wait for the right time or whatever, but I figured you'd freak out no matter when we did it."
Lucy has two thoughts: First, the shocking revelation that this may actually have been Natsu's idea, and second, a delirious curiosity as to whether he is trying to look up her skirt.
"Say something, Luce," Gray murmurs, not unkindly. Lucy's breath catches in her throat.
"I've never done this before!" she finally shrieks. Everyone in the room goes tense, and oh god, yes, now she's going to die of embarrassment, and her tombstone is going to say that she died a virgin because her head exploded before her three best friends could finish molesting her. And then the unthinkable happens: Natsu snickers.
Lucy is going to murder him.
But then, horror of horrors, Gray, who is supposed to be on her side, snorts very quietly against her shoulder, and the fact that he's very obviously trying to hide it just makes it worse. Lucy does the only thing she can think to do and jams her elbow back into his solar plexus. The air escapes his lungs with a satisfying oof, and then he's on his back, clutching his midsection and groaning, but Natsu is rolling around on the bed and cackling like a maniac and Lucy just hates everything.
"Bastards!" Lucy screams. Erza is bodily restraining her now. "Let go!"
"Now, now," Erza says firmly. "Natsu, stop that this instant, or you're not getting your turn at all."
Abruptly, Natsu's laughter chokes to a halt. He looks like a kicked puppy, and then adopts a sullen pout. Gray, somewhat recovered, snickers at him. Erza physically intervenes to cuts off the ensuing fistfight, and Lucy is starting to think that she really should just die now and save everyone the trouble. She's also starting to actually cry, just pinpricks of tears in the corners of her eyes, really, but it’s enough to make her think that this is a really, really bad idea.
"I don't want to do this anymore," she says, slightly choked. It was spoken quietly, but all the action comes to a sudden halt; Erza looks genuinely concerned, and Gray does too, which she wouldn't have expected, especially considering the rather absurd position he's in with Erza's hands around his throat and Natsu's hair in his mouth. Natsu looks…well, annoyed, but there's something underneath it that seems the slightest bit worried. Lucy is embarrassed again, but at least that's enough to keep her from bursting into tears. Especially when Erza gathers her up again and Gray and Natsu sit there in a disheveled tangle, glaring at each other as though it must be the other's fault for upsetting her. "I'm serious," Lucy says into Erza's shoulder. "If you guys are gonna be jerks then I don't want to do it anymore."
She knows that's too much to ask. They will always, always be jerks, and Lucy wouldn't be able to stand it if they weren't because they wouldn't be them; they wouldn't be hers. But if they can't be at least slightly considerate for a few seconds at a time, this isn't going to work.
After a few moments of pitiful sniffling, Lucy realizes that Erza has been talking; Gray too, on occasion, but Lucy isn't paying attention until Natsu gets up on his knees so he can look at Lucy over Erza's shoulder. He's touching her arm - holding it, really, warm fingers clasped to her bicep in what she knows is the closest to a display of affection he really knows how to do. "What do you want?" he asks. It's perfectly sincere, a more honest question than Lucy has ever heard, and something about the earnest weight of it makes this whole thing easier to stomach. It also helps her make a decision.
Slowly, with fresh determination, Lucy speaks: "I want someone to kiss me."
…What she doesn't expect is to see Natsu falter. It's a flicker of something, confusion or hurt or something, covered quickly by a pout. He looks down and mutters under his breath. Lucy feels heartbreak clench in her gut at the thought that Natsu doesn't want to kiss her, that she picked the one thing he won't do, and she suddenly flashes back to the moment he asked her to join Fairy Tail, when her gaze fell to the quirk of his lips and he grabbed her hand and spirited her away.
Erza immediately seems to sense that something is wrong. She turns, pressing her lips against the curve of Lucy's jaw. "I will," she says, but it's hesitant - maybe she can feel Lucy trembling. She can feel Gray's hand on hers, fingers lacing in a silent offer, but she can't look at his face because she's too busy looking at Natsu's. This shouldn't hurt. It's just ridiculous that it does, considering everything else. But still, she has to ask:
"Why not?"
Natsu glares at the mattress. Finally, Lucy gives up and turns to Gray, who, much to Lucy's horror, is smirking, possibly on the verge of derisive laughter. With great relish, he announces: "He's never kissed anyone."
All the heartache and anger melts away a sudden rush. "Oh," Lucy says in a small voice, but no one hears because Gray and Natsu are too busy fighting again. Erza has to let her go to make them stop again, but that's okay, because it makes sense now. "HEY," she snaps, after a moment to collect herself. "KNOCK IT OFF."
Everyone actually does knock it off, which makes Lucy feel pretty proud of herself. That almost never works. But they're staring again, which Lucy wishes they wouldn't do. "…I've never kissed anyone either," she admits. Surely they can't mock her for that after what just happened.
Of course, after a stretched pause, Gray snorts, Erza smirks quietly, and Natsu, Natsu, who has no place even acknowledging the comment, bursts into a fit of laughter.
Lucy doesn't know why she even bothers hoping anymore.
"Shut up," she shrieks, and another fight promptly breaks out, this time with her tangled up into it, and everything is screaming and kicking and clawing and biting and laughing and yelling and heat, hands, metal, bodies pressed everywhere. Erza keeps alternating hitting people with trying to be reasonable, and Gray can't stop laughing; finally, Natsu has Lucy pinned between the wall and the bed, locking down the flail of her limbs with his full weight, and he looks determined and kind of pissed off for several seconds and Lucy realizes, oh god, he's going to--
For the first several seconds, his lips are warm and firm and unrelenting, and Lucy doesn't feel much except for shock, but then she loses patience and throws her arms around his neck, forcibly adjusting the angle and pressing back only gently until Natsu finally takes the cue and lets up a little. Maybe Lucy hasn't kissed before either, but she's read enough trashy magazines and tacky romance novels to make Loki blush - she knows how this works, certainly better than Natsu does. She feels triumphant and lightheaded and dizzy; Natsu is kissing her in a way that seems tentative and confident at once, obviously unpracticed but not self-conscious in the least. In a daze, Lucy feels her own heart thumping wildly, hears her own pulse roaring in her ears, and she feels hot, too hot - it takes her a moment to realize that's him. Natsu has always been warmer than anyone else Lucy has ever touched, but now he's practically scorching. It's not bad, though; it just makes Lucy feel like she's starting to melt, which, weirdly enough, isn't a wholly unpleasant feeling.
This goes on for at least a minute, although it feels like forever. Lucy is perfectly content to let his happen. Not that she's exactly letting it happen so much as running her nails down the line of Natsu's back under his vest and through his mess of stupid pink hair and sliding her tongue over his bottom lip until the idiot figures out what she's trying to do and opens his mouth - oh, that…that actually feels really good… Lucy is slightly embarrassed to realize that she has just made that same extremely uncool squeaky moan noise again like she did when Natsu bit her, only this time Natsu moans too, deeper and rougher than her and different from the way he does when his wrestling with Gray gets out of hand. Lucy is pretty sure she might have to commit an honor suicide for finding it sexy.
When the kiss finally breaks, air taking priority over the new and fascinating sensation of tongues and lips and teeth, Lucy finally remembers that there are two other people in this room. Startled, she turns her head to look - Erza and Gray are watching in rapt fascination, not two feet away. Gray is even clutching Erza's arm like he'll fall off the bed if he lets go.
"Well, don't stare," Lucy snaps, face heating up. Natsu helpfully interjects by humping her leg again. Lucy punches him in the head. At this point, she's resigned to an entire evening of perfectly good moods arising and being subsequently destroyed.
Just then, Natsu grabs her by the shoulders and unceremoniously lifts her up to her knees, arms pinned at her sides. He's doing the mean grin again. "What now?" he asks.
"All in favor of getting Lucy naked?" Gray proposes. Immediately, the others raise their hands.
"Oh, god," Lucy groans.
But there are hands all over her again, struggling with her skirt and stockings and unhooking her bra and Lucy wants to shriek in protest again but when she opens her mouth, all that comes out is "No, you have to push the hooks in." This is not what Lucy had planned for her evening.
The problem is that now she’s naked except for her panties and the toe of one stocking hanging off her foot, seated on the edge of the bed, and everyone has stepped back to admire their handiwork, and they're staring, and Lucy would squeak and clamp her arms over her chest, but no; she's come this far, and damn it, she's going to see it through. Although she is pretty sure her entire body is blushing.
Finally, Lucy has to be the one to break the silence, complete with pointing: "You habitually strip in three seconds flat, you can take your clothes off with magic, and you're practically half nude already: Why am I the only one naked!?"
The others exchange looks, and, seeming to see the logic in Lucy's argument, immediately set about correcting the issue. Erza wins through the power of exquipping, and…suddenly Lucy is dealing with that funny tingly fuzzy-headed feeling again. She's seen naked women before - hell, she's seen Erza naked before - but something about the context and the way Erza is looking at her and the faint sheen of sweat standing out on supple, milk-pale skin makes Lucy's toes curl and mouth dry up.
"Do you want to have some fun, Lucy?" she asks in a voice like raw silk, flicking her hair over her shoulder. It takes Lucy a second to realize she's nodding.
"Hey!" Gray, for possibly the first time in his life, is having trouble getting his belt off - Lucy considers it karma for laughing at her. "I thought I was going first."
"Be patient, Gray."
"We drew straws!"
"You did what!?"
"You're just a sore loser, dumbass."
"YOU'RE a dumbass!"
"BOYS."
There's another fight, Erza clocks Natsu soundly in the back of the head - the way it makes her breasts bounce causes Lucy a serious of small heart palpitations - and he goes down, taking Gray with him in a tangle of flailing limbs and pained yelps. Gray is down to his underwear, finally, and Natsu is in just his pants and armband: Lucy thinks she's seen him without that skirt thing on maybe twice, and it occurs to her vaguely, as the boys wrestle like a pair of preschool delinquents, that he has a pretty nice ass. (She's thought this about Gray a lot, but at a time like this, she can forgive herself for it.)
She's sure they would probably forgive her for thinking Erza has a nicer one, though.
"Just keep each other entertained until we're ready for you," Erza says calmly to the somewhat boy-shaped mess on the floor. She turns a smoky gaze over her shoulder at Lucy, the look in her eyes all heat and desire and sparkling mirth. "Now. Where were we?"
Lucy wishes Erza would look at her like that all the time, only she suspects she'd be so weak in the knees by the end of the first day that she'd have to wear leg braces for the rest of her life. "Um," she says feebly.
Everything sort of seems like it's happening in slow motion, and Lucy feels like she's moving through molasses, powerless to resist - or maybe she just doesn't want to resist - as Erza bears down on her, pressing her to the mattress and moving her up to rest against the pillows. When they stop moving, Erza is leaning over Lucy on hands and knees, one of her legs between both of Lucy's; her hands are firm on Lucy's wrists, holding them against the pillows over her head. Lucy is somewhat surprised, and yet not really, by the way that makes her tingle all over.
She would feel exposed, but she's too busy staring. Lucy has always found Erza beautiful and strong and inspiring and heroic and all sorts of things, but somehow, she seems to hold even more raw power and wild, vibrant beauty like this: stripped of all her armor and weaponry, but more in control than Lucy's ever seen her.
It occurs to Lucy that waxing poetic about the naked woman pinning her to the bed is ridiculous, but that doesn't stop it from being the best moment of her life so far.
"I'm going to kiss you now," Erza says softly, and Lucy's brain short circuits for at least the fifth time this evening, and then, always true to her word, Erza does.
Her lips are softer than Natsu's, more pliant where he was unyielding, and the kiss is gentler - at first. As soon as Lucy whimpers, which she's sure she hadn't meant to do, the kiss turns fierce and dominating, almost possessive. Erza's silky hair is spilling over her shoulder and tickling Lucy's neck; she wants to reach up and run her fingers through it, but her hands are still bound. Lucy can live with that for now.
After a moment, it occurs to her dizzily that Erza is getting closer, lowering herself down until their bodies are pressed together, all heat and slightly damp skin and voluptuous curves - Erza is kissing Lucy's neck now, and Lucy can't stop gasping, drugged on the feeling of Erza's weight pressing her down and the softness of her breasts. Her hands are suddenly free, and she slides them into Erza's hair, gripping and making that surprised, squeaky moan again as Erza nips her earlobe and rubs slightly against her with her whole body. That feels a lot better than it even makes sense to, Lucy thinks vaguely, reduced to shuddering and gasping as Erza kisses a steadily descending path along her throat.
Lucy gets another shock when Erza moves lower, dipping her tongue into the hollow of Lucy's throat and then making a trail of kisses along her collarbone, one hand coming up to cup her breast. She jolts a bit as a thumb brushes firmly over her nipple at the same time as Erza runs her tongue along the top swell of her other breast - she hadn't been paying attention to much else, but someone mutters an obscenity in the background, and Lucy turns, a little fuzzily, to look.
Gray is on the floor, legs splayed, leaning heavily back against Natsu's chest; he's staring very intently at the scene she and Erza are making, but his eyes are half-lidded as he pants slightly, probably because Natsu (who is also staring) has his hands down Gray's boxers. Gray wears some of the most modest underwear Lucy has ever seen, probably because he knows he's going to be taking his pants off at some point during any given day, but Lucy can tell what Natsu is doing - she isn't stupid, and he's not exactly hiding it. She's a little surprised at the way that knowledge makes her stomach twist in that hot, pleasant way again, although part of that may be the fact that Erza has just descended to take one of Lucy's nipples in her mouth and suck lightly.
Lucy hears herself make a high, keening sound that she didn't know she was capable of, and about the time she's busy trying to catch her breath, Gray makes a startled groan that sounds more pained than anything else - Lucy looks reluctantly up from the path Erza is slowly licking up her cleavage to see that Natsu has his teeth sunk into Gray's shoulder so hard that his abnormally sharp canines are raising dark welts on the surface of Gray's skin, almost breaking through.
"Erza," Lucy whimpers, wanting to point out that the boys are being too rough again and that someone is going to get seriously hurt, because she doesn't want her first sexual experience ruined by a trip to the healer, but it's hard to concentrate on anything other than the feeling of Erza's body pressed against her, tongue sliding over the curve of her breast, fingers skimming her thighs. "Erza, they're, N-Natsu is--"
"Shhh," Erza says soothingly, looking up at her with eyes made bright by something Lucy has never seen in them before. Her fingers are sliding underneath the waistband of Lucy's panties. "Just watch. If things get out of hand, I'll know."
Dumbstruck by the implication that that doesn't count as 'out of hand', Lucy does as she's told. Focusing is difficult, because Lucy is a little nervous about where Erza's hand is going, but that isn't such a big deal anymore because Natsu is still biting, maybe even harder than before, and his hand is still down Gray's boxers and Gray's head is thrown back, fingers digging into Natsu's knees on either side of his waist, scrabbling for support as he twists and squirms and bucks his hips. He still looks like he's in pain, but suddenly, like a light going on, Lucy realizes he's talking, muttering under his breath a constant stream of words that's getting louder: It sounds kind of like "Fuck, Natsu come on, fuck, you son of a bitch, come on, harder, yes, fuck yes, oh god I'm gonna, I'm gonna kill you, I can't, oh fuck yes just like that--"
It's simultaneously the hottest and silliest thing Lucy has ever heard.
But she can't focus on that anymore when she feels Erza's lips against the point of her hipbone, warm and wet and moving lower. "Erza!" she squeaks, especially when fingers that had been idle before start to tug her panties lower. This seemed like a good idea - a really good idea - back when she was still partly clothed and things were happening mostly above the waist, but now a bolt of panic lances through her and she tries to squirm away.
But Erza holds firm. "Lucy," she says softly, her voice gentle and pacifying. "I'm not going to hurt you. You trust me, don't you? Now settle down and lift your hips."
There isn't much Lucy can say to that, but she does make a point of pouting as she obediently raises her hips off the bed so Erza can pull her panties off and toss them somewhere. She can't exactly keep pouting, though, because now Erza is, well…she's staring. Somehow, Lucy can't make out whether to be embarrassed or aroused, although she's banking on the latter because for all the mortification and awkwardness and insanity of this situation, Erza Scarlet is sitting before her, naked and faintly sweat-damp and staring at her as though she's something remarkable, tongue sliding over swollen lips, chest heaving tantalizingly with every breath, and Lucy has never been more turned on in her life.
Gray's litany of filthy encouragement faded into the background while Lucy was distracted, but it returns full force in the sudden moment of stillness and silence. Right now it's more broken moaning than words, and Natsu's teeth are at his neck - suddenly Lucy recognizes the past several months of occasional bruises in interesting places that are clearly way too nasty to actually be from teeth. "Erza," he groans, although he can't seem to decide whether to look at her or at Lucy, "I can't keep - he's being - ah, I'm gonna come, I have to." He sounds pleading, and it occurs to Lucy that he's asking Erza's permission, even though Natsu is the one touching him. That doesn't seem like the kind of thing Erza should be in charge of, does it?
Then Erza makes that face she has, the one that seems knightly and gracious but means she's about to slice someone into seventeen evenly-sized pieces, and Gray bites his lip and whines and Lucy decides that Erza should definitely be in charge of it.
Lucy feels Erza's hand moving slowly up the inside of her thigh in a way that spreads fire to every part of her body and causes a deep ache to settle between her legs; she realizes she's gasping, hands fisted in the sheets in a way that can't possibly look smooth, but it's pretty hard to care with Erza looking at her in that predatory manner.
"Why don't you boys take a break?" Erza suggests. Lucy is half that effortlessly dominating in her wildest dreams. "I think we're going to be awhile."
Gray moans piteously at that - Lucy isn't looking at him anymore, but she hears a brief struggle and a yelp and a curse and she's pretty sure the boys are fighting again, maybe because they only really have two methods of interaction and they're either going to beat each other off or up. "They'll be fine," Erza whispers, her fingers traveling higher.
Lucy jolts when she feels Erza's fingers slipping between her legs, instinctively trying to squirm away, but Erza's other hand is firm on Lucy's thigh and when she makes a soothing sort of wordless murmur and strokes that hand softly over Lucy's leg, she calms down.
…Except she's not really calm; not even remotely. Because Erza's fingers, strong and calloused rough from years of hard work and fighting, are moving against her in a slow exploration that makes Lucy pant and attempt to twist her body closer to that deliberate touch. She's probably making a low sound - it's difficult to tell if that's really coming from her own mouth - and she jumps when she feels Erza's mouth on her breast again, licking and sucking and scraping her teeth gently over sensitized skin. All she can do is wind her fingers into Erza's hair and cling for dear life.
Lucy hears a distant curse and what sounds like a low hum of desire. She wants to look, but she can't focus on anything but how good this is, and how mind-blowingly surreal, how she never would have thought it would be like this; she finds herself gasping a faint, almost shy litany of Erza's name as the other woman begins to kiss and lick her way lower along Lucy's body.
"Lucy," Erza responds softly, the tone of her voice strangely affectionate as she smiles against overheated skin and presses two slender fingers into the heat of Lucy's body. Lucy makes a sound like a strangled sob and hears a responding moan in the background. She rocks her hips up against the touch, pressing her fingers into the back of Erza's neck and gasping now on every breath.
"Please," she whines, not sure what she's begging for, but Erza only chuckles warmly and moves a bit lower, pressing soft lips to the inside of Lucy's thigh. At a loss, Lucy turns her head to see what the others are up to, needing some sort of confirmation that this is actually happening.
Confirmation comes in the form of Natsu pinned to the floor in a timely throwback to the start of this mess. His arms are trapped behind his back again, but this time his pants are wrapped around his knees and Gray's hand is wrapped around his cock, and Lucy dimly realizes that while she's seen a naked man before - it's hard to go a day in Fairy Tail without, really - she's never seen one in such a, um, state before. She's not sure what to make of it, and she doubts she'll be able to form an opinion anytime soon because oh god, is that Erza's tongue?
It is, and it's indescribable, and Lucy can't focus anymore on the bizarre contest the boys are trying to make sex into, or on anything else, for that matter. All she can do is feel, and maybe also gasp and moan a lot while twining her fingers into Erza's hair and desperately pulling her closer. She concludes that Erza has definitely, definitely done this before, otherwise she wouldn't have found that so quickly and done that exactly right.
Lucy can't decide whether to just close her eyes and hold on for dear life or watch what Erza is doing, but Erza makes the decision for her by looking up to make eye contact and doing something wickedly lascivious with her tongue that drags Lucy right to the edge. Then, she makes a low, humming noise that vibrates through Lucy's entire body, and very suddenly The Edge is miles behind her and fading rapidly into the distance.
It takes her a long time to come down, and when she finally does, Erza's head is resting on her hip. Lucy is suddenly, terribly aware of how sweaty and gross she must be and what a total wreck she must look like, but Erza doesn't seem to care; Lucy can feel soft puffs of breath ghosting across her damp skin and a rough palm resting on her thigh. Lucy's heart somersaults in her chest and she cards her fingers through long, scarlet hair, praying for this moment not to end.
Naturally, this means that someone has to find a way to ruin it.
PART TWO
Fandom: Fairy Tail
Pairing: Lucy/Natsu/Erza/Gray
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: Total: 13,750. In this part: 7,241
Summary: Lucy attempts to get some writing done. Her teammates have other ideas. As if concentrating with a bunch of violent maniacs eating her food and going through her underwear drawer wasn't hard enough as it is.
A/N: I expect a medal for the longest PWP ever written. Dear god, I have a problem. In my defense, it's about equal parts bickering, Fairy Tail-style madness, and people getting punched in the head to sex, but there's a significant amount of each. Contains swearing, mild violence, various iterations of F/F, M/M, and M/F, group sex, Erza topping the hell out of everyone, socially inappropriate use of magic, and general perversion. Because this is so goddamn long, I'm posting it in two parts. The second part will be linked at the end of the first.
Lucy is getting more than a little sick of these attacks on her privacy.
It's not that she isn't used to coming home - or worse, stepping out of the shower - to a half-naked, armor-clad, superheated ruckus camped out in her house, eating her food and breaking things and acting like she's the crazy one. She's used to that. It's not the fact that she can't make them go away for the life of her; she's used to that too. It's just that sometimes - well, Lucy has made some adjustments after her time in Fairy Tail, such as reestablishing boundaries and revising her definitions of decency and sanity, but, well, sometimes things just get out of hand.
She's just trying to write. Erza is sedately eating the strawberry cake Lucy bought specifically to keep her away from all the food Lucy actually needs to live, and somewhere on the other side of the room, Gray and Natsu are arguing. About what, Lucy doesn't care: she's trying to write, and it's probably (definitely) something stupid. But then there's a thump, a crash, a shout - Erza looks up, shakes her head, and returns to her cake, so it can't be too bad yet. A scuffle has broken out. From the sound of it, it's more grappling and insults than fists, but…Lucy knows that sound.
It's not really a sound, in truth; more of a feeling, like an oncoming low pressure front that makes the skin itch and gives the air a faintly heavy cast. Still, the feeling comes in the pitch of their breath, the tone of their words, nothing that Lucy can describe, but something she knows, deep in her bones, with encroaching horror.
Now Erza is watching with interest. Lucy's fingers clench on her pen nearly hard enough to snap it. And then, there it is, like clockwork: Natsu makes The Noise.
The Noise is the bastard child of a snarl and a startled moan, the literal translation of which being, roughly, "no don't do that oh god wait do that again." Gray responds with a snicker, there's a pause, and Natsu moans in earnest - Erza is watching with the faintest, nearly undetectable hint of a smirk, fork poised midway to her lips.
The pen snaps. Lucy slams her hands down on her desk.
"That's IT," she practically screams. "Everyone. Get out. NOW."
This time, when Natsu moans, it's wordless, pouting frustration. "Come on, Lucy," Gray whines. "You do this every time--"
"If you don't want me to kick you out, you'll stop doing - doing--" Lucy still hasn't turned around. "That," she concludes, smacking her desk again for emphasis. She should have known this was coming; Happy is nowhere to be seen. "Erza," she implores, but the other woman is smirking slightly less faintly now. "Can't you do something about them?"
With a gracious downward tilt of her head, Erza smiles. "It's impolite to interrupt, Lucy," she says, in a tone so mild it's hardly scolding. She looks up across the room, and Lucy knows that look - it's the one that means she's not getting any help. "But there are many things I can do."
"OUT," Lucy snaps. But now…now the pattern starts to break down. Because Erza has just turned that look on her, which has never happened before, and Natsu is still making less-than angry sounds in the background, Gray is still snickering, and the atmospheric weirdness of the room has just increased tenfold. Lucy's heart stills, half in panic and half in outraged curiosity.
Against her will and better judgment, directed by Erza's insistent and overpowering gaze, Lucy turns around.
Lucy is so used to seeing Gray in his underpants in these situations that it comes as a shock to see him fully clothed. Not only that, but Natsu is actually half undressed inasmuch as he can be - scarf askew, vest hanging around his shoulders. His arms are pinned beneath his back in a way that looks sort of painful, Gray is on top of him, one of his legs between both of Natsu's, using his full weight to press him down, although Natsu doesn't look like he'd move if he could, except to grind his hips up against Gray's thigh a little harder. He's flushed and panting and squirming and he looks furious, but Gray isn't looking at him, he's looking at Lucy with that same charming, oddly intimate smirk she's seen on his face every day she's known him, but…it seems different, now. Maybe it's the faint flush spread across his cheekbones, or the way his chest is heaving a bit from labored breath, or his fingers clenched hard into the muscle of Natsu's upper arms.
Lucy has never really looked at them before when they're like this. She's heard plenty of times, caught glimpses of things she convinces herself she didn't want to see and spent long nights forcing her brain not to reconstruct what might have been happening based on those brief images, but…she's never really, truly looked. And now she can't look away. That is, not until she feels the light touch of Erza's fingers at her jaw line, brushing blonde hair behind her ear.
"Lucy," she says softly, lips nearly brushing Lucy's ear. "A hospitable hostess doesn't throw her guests out into the street at night, especially not when they're having such fun." Protests bubble up in Lucy's chest, accusations of trespassing and being taken advantage of, but Erza continues: "Now. Why don’t you be a good hostess and play a game with your guests?"
And just like that, Lucy can't speak, anger robbed from her along with sense and breath. Light fingertips make a tingly path from the curve behind her ear to the hollow of her throat. In front of her, Natsu makes a sudden, complicated flexing motion that makes Gray hiss and break eye contact to glare at Natsu in a way that is either more annoyed than it looks or not nearly as annoyed as Gray wants it to be. Lucy finds herself standing and realizes that Erza has essentially lifted her out of her chair by her shoulders while she was distracted.
"Erza," Lucy whispers, trying desperately to interpret the arms around her waist as a friendly hug - one that involves Erza nuzzling the back of her neck. She grips Erza's forearms, metal cool under her fingers. "They're staring at me."
They are staring, as it happens. Natsu has regained control of his arms and has his head arched all the way back to stare at Lucy upside down. He no longer looks angry, only flushed and excited and faintly curious, and Gray looks much the same, and Lucy is starting to worry. "Erza," she hisses frantically. Erza, to her horror, presses her hands flat against Lucy's stomach and kisses the side of Lucy's neck. She's sure she's just broken a nail against Erza's gauntlet.
It would be a lie to say she's never thought of Erza this way. Hell, it would be a lie to say she's never thought of Gray this way, or even Natsu - it's just harder, because Lucy never thought she really liked boys until she met real ones, not the old men and slobbering perverts shoved at her under her father's keeping, and she still has yet to meet one as gorgeous as Mirajane. But as Erza's hands slide slowly upward, lips hot and insistent at her pulse, Lucy can't ignore the way heat flows through her, starting in the pit of her stomach and spreading outward like wildfire. Part of it has to do with the way the boys are looking at her, fascinated and slightly predatory. They're rearranging themselves to get a better look, but very slowly, as if a sudden movement might frighten their prey away. She's seen them move like that before, but never at her.
"Erza," Lucy says again. She hadn't intended to whimper like that when she said it.
"Hmm?" She can feel the question buzzing against the skin just behind her ear. It tickles and makes her gasp and clutch harder, nails screeching faintly against metal.
Lucy swallows hard. "They're stalking."
Just like that, Erza looks up, and Lucy can feel the sudden businesslike change in her posture. "Boys," she says brusquely. "Get up off the floor and go sit on the bed like human beings." For a moment, they hesitate, nervous and almost pouting. "Now."
They go. Each of them sits on either end of the bed, far away from each other, still obviously pouting and steadfastly ignoring each other much the same way they do after every time Lucy kicks them out, like they haven't just been…doing that. Gray is leaning forward, elbows on his knees, but Natsu is sitting ramrod straight with his arms sullenly crossed, which gives Lucy an excruciatingly good view of the tent in his pants that that stupid skirt thing is doing nothing to conceal. Naturally, Lucy is horrified. And nothing else. Nothing else.
Suddenly, Erza's hands are on her breasts and Lucy promptly forgets to be horrified about anything. She sucks in a quick breath, arching her back a little - Natsu is pretending not to look but Gray isn't even trying, gaze intent - and now Erza is doing something with her hands, massaging and pressing and pinching a little, which makes Lucy yelp because even through her clothes that feels absurdly good, and also…practiced. Lucy has never had cause to wonder about Erza's sex life before. Has she done this before? With other girls? Does she always watch Gray and Natsu or does she join in? She's said she has a history with Mirajane and doesn't like to talk about it - Lucy's mind is suddenly reeling with thoughts that fan higher the heat in the pit of her stomach. Luckily there's no way this could possibly actually be happening, or Lucy would be panicking right now.
Erza's armor is pressing hard into Lucy's back now, and it hurts a bit, but she's suddenly terrified that if she points this out, Erza might take it off. And besides, now those hands are sliding up underneath her top, and when Erza whispers "Lift your arms," she does, mortified and powerless to disobey. Erza pulls her top off over her head, and Lucy is just glad she wore a bra today, although by the look on her audience's faces, you wouldn't know it. Lucy crosses her arms over her chest and blushes furiously, trying to scowl.
"What are you thinking, Gray?" Erza asks, sounding amused; Lucy wants to protest, because what about what she's thinking, but Gray is doing that oddly penetrating smirk again and the words dry up in Lucy's mouth.
"That I'd like to be standing where you are right now," he says. Lucy's mouth goes even drier. She can feel Erza smirking against her neck.
"Natsu?"
A pause, and then suddenly Natsu's full attention is on her. He's grinning. Lucy wants to scream, because she knows what that grin means. It means that he's about to say something that she's going to have to kill him for, and if that happens, Lucy thinks she may cry, because she can't handle much more of this.
"I don't know," Natsu says, shrugging; "I think she could stand to lose a couple pounds."
Lucy does not cry, but she does scream, and not even Erza's arms around her waist can restrain her.
In seconds, she's tackled Natsu to the mattress - he's laughing his head off and Lucy is repeatedly punching him in the chest, which has no apparent effect. She can hear Gray yelling in the background and suddenly Natsu flips Lucy onto her back and pins her - she yelps, because he just bit her shoulder - bit her! Like a dog! Admittedly, it doesn't hurt much, and when he does it again on the side of her neck and presses against her with his full weight, she might possibly make a noise that's a cross between a moan and a squeak. Lucy claws at Natsu's back and pulls at his clothes as if she's trying to get him away, which she isn't entirely sure she's doing anymore - this is all extremely confusing. And then Natsu makes kind of an undulating movement against her, and…horrified, Lucy realizes that he just humped her leg. Somehow, the only appropriate response is hysterical shrieking and a hard, wringing twist at his scarf that makes him cough.
"Natsu!" she hears Erza snap, and suddenly Natsu is pried away from her with strong arms, both Erza and Gray wrestling him off.
"Whaaat?" Natsu whines, glaring at Gray, because obviously this is all his fault and none of Erza's. "She liked it!"
Gray starts to call him something horribly offensive, but Erza cuts him off and turns to look at Lucy, still on her back in a half-naked, rumpled mess. "Is that true, Lucy?" she asks, serious yet concerned. Somehow, the contrast between Terrifying Dominatrix Erza and Dependable Big Sister Erza is more disturbing than the fact that Natsu was just chewing her neck and rubbing off on her like an animal.
"Um," is Lucy's wide-eyed response. There is a long, considering pause, and then Gray smirks, letting go of Natsu’s arm.
"Why am I not surprised the princess likes it rough?" He seems inordinately pleased by this. Lucy is blushing so hard she feels lightheaded. She tries to cover her chest with her arms again, suddenly feeling very exposed and out-of-place.
"Be nice, boys," Erza says soothingly, gathering Lucy up in her arms like she weighs nothing at all. The embrace is all cold, hard metal and the soft brush of silky hair; Lucy shivers, hiding her face ineffectually against a steel-clad shoulder. "If Lucy likes it rough, there are plenty of things we can do to her, but I think we should let her tell us herself." Lucy thinks Erza's right pauldron might melt under the heat of her face.
"So?" Gray announces. "Why don't you tell us, Lucy?" She's never heard him use this tone of voice before - close to it, on a few occasions, usually when he's flirting with a girl or doing that weird bantering thing with Kana that means both of them are going to disappear shortly to places unknown for the rest of the afternoon - but never quite this low and intense and close, right next to her ear, in fact, and just how the hell did he get behind her so quickly? Cool hands at her waist make Lucy jump, and equally cool lips brushing her shoulder make her heart clench and stomach quiver, something akin to panic but much…tinglier.
"Um," Lucy says again, this time in a small, quavering wisp of a voice. Part of her wants to scream at them to stop and back off. It's a tiny part, and she can't quite convince herself to regard its very good advice. All she knows is that the cold touch of metal at her front and Gray's skin at her back are surprisingly pleasant, given her overheated state, and that she thinks she might be having an out-of-body experience, because this can't possibly be happening, not without protest.
"Quit hogging," Natsu says suddenly - it occurs to Lucy that he's probably been trying to burn a hole in Gray's forehead with his eyes. "I wanna touch her too."
"You said I was too fat," Lucy says suddenly, loudly.
"Shhh," Erza says, stroking her hair. Gray is pressed close against her back now, and in spite of her own shell-shocked horror, the tension in Lucy's stomach wants him even closer. "Natsu, be patient. You'll get your turn. Lucy…tell us what you want."
What she wants? Lucy is torn between relief and indignant fervor because someone has finally, finally asked her opinion on this lunacy, and another part of her that wants to die from embarrassment, and a third part that has ideas and is clawing to be heard because it's sure they're very good ideas indeed. "I…I want…um…"
"Just tell us something you like and we can do that," Gray suggests. She can feel his breath against the back of her ear - even his breath is like a cool breeze, which is weird. "We're good like that."
"We've never done someone else, all three of us," Erza explains, still running soothing fingers through Lucy's hair. "But you're our friend now, and we want to make you happy."
"Yeah, I didn't think it was very fair," Natsu pipes up from somewhere in the vicinity of Lucy's right knee. "You're part of the team too. They kept saying you'd freak out and we had to wait for the right time or whatever, but I figured you'd freak out no matter when we did it."
Lucy has two thoughts: First, the shocking revelation that this may actually have been Natsu's idea, and second, a delirious curiosity as to whether he is trying to look up her skirt.
"Say something, Luce," Gray murmurs, not unkindly. Lucy's breath catches in her throat.
"I've never done this before!" she finally shrieks. Everyone in the room goes tense, and oh god, yes, now she's going to die of embarrassment, and her tombstone is going to say that she died a virgin because her head exploded before her three best friends could finish molesting her. And then the unthinkable happens: Natsu snickers.
Lucy is going to murder him.
But then, horror of horrors, Gray, who is supposed to be on her side, snorts very quietly against her shoulder, and the fact that he's very obviously trying to hide it just makes it worse. Lucy does the only thing she can think to do and jams her elbow back into his solar plexus. The air escapes his lungs with a satisfying oof, and then he's on his back, clutching his midsection and groaning, but Natsu is rolling around on the bed and cackling like a maniac and Lucy just hates everything.
"Bastards!" Lucy screams. Erza is bodily restraining her now. "Let go!"
"Now, now," Erza says firmly. "Natsu, stop that this instant, or you're not getting your turn at all."
Abruptly, Natsu's laughter chokes to a halt. He looks like a kicked puppy, and then adopts a sullen pout. Gray, somewhat recovered, snickers at him. Erza physically intervenes to cuts off the ensuing fistfight, and Lucy is starting to think that she really should just die now and save everyone the trouble. She's also starting to actually cry, just pinpricks of tears in the corners of her eyes, really, but it’s enough to make her think that this is a really, really bad idea.
"I don't want to do this anymore," she says, slightly choked. It was spoken quietly, but all the action comes to a sudden halt; Erza looks genuinely concerned, and Gray does too, which she wouldn't have expected, especially considering the rather absurd position he's in with Erza's hands around his throat and Natsu's hair in his mouth. Natsu looks…well, annoyed, but there's something underneath it that seems the slightest bit worried. Lucy is embarrassed again, but at least that's enough to keep her from bursting into tears. Especially when Erza gathers her up again and Gray and Natsu sit there in a disheveled tangle, glaring at each other as though it must be the other's fault for upsetting her. "I'm serious," Lucy says into Erza's shoulder. "If you guys are gonna be jerks then I don't want to do it anymore."
She knows that's too much to ask. They will always, always be jerks, and Lucy wouldn't be able to stand it if they weren't because they wouldn't be them; they wouldn't be hers. But if they can't be at least slightly considerate for a few seconds at a time, this isn't going to work.
After a few moments of pitiful sniffling, Lucy realizes that Erza has been talking; Gray too, on occasion, but Lucy isn't paying attention until Natsu gets up on his knees so he can look at Lucy over Erza's shoulder. He's touching her arm - holding it, really, warm fingers clasped to her bicep in what she knows is the closest to a display of affection he really knows how to do. "What do you want?" he asks. It's perfectly sincere, a more honest question than Lucy has ever heard, and something about the earnest weight of it makes this whole thing easier to stomach. It also helps her make a decision.
Slowly, with fresh determination, Lucy speaks: "I want someone to kiss me."
…What she doesn't expect is to see Natsu falter. It's a flicker of something, confusion or hurt or something, covered quickly by a pout. He looks down and mutters under his breath. Lucy feels heartbreak clench in her gut at the thought that Natsu doesn't want to kiss her, that she picked the one thing he won't do, and she suddenly flashes back to the moment he asked her to join Fairy Tail, when her gaze fell to the quirk of his lips and he grabbed her hand and spirited her away.
Erza immediately seems to sense that something is wrong. She turns, pressing her lips against the curve of Lucy's jaw. "I will," she says, but it's hesitant - maybe she can feel Lucy trembling. She can feel Gray's hand on hers, fingers lacing in a silent offer, but she can't look at his face because she's too busy looking at Natsu's. This shouldn't hurt. It's just ridiculous that it does, considering everything else. But still, she has to ask:
"Why not?"
Natsu glares at the mattress. Finally, Lucy gives up and turns to Gray, who, much to Lucy's horror, is smirking, possibly on the verge of derisive laughter. With great relish, he announces: "He's never kissed anyone."
All the heartache and anger melts away a sudden rush. "Oh," Lucy says in a small voice, but no one hears because Gray and Natsu are too busy fighting again. Erza has to let her go to make them stop again, but that's okay, because it makes sense now. "HEY," she snaps, after a moment to collect herself. "KNOCK IT OFF."
Everyone actually does knock it off, which makes Lucy feel pretty proud of herself. That almost never works. But they're staring again, which Lucy wishes they wouldn't do. "…I've never kissed anyone either," she admits. Surely they can't mock her for that after what just happened.
Of course, after a stretched pause, Gray snorts, Erza smirks quietly, and Natsu, Natsu, who has no place even acknowledging the comment, bursts into a fit of laughter.
Lucy doesn't know why she even bothers hoping anymore.
"Shut up," she shrieks, and another fight promptly breaks out, this time with her tangled up into it, and everything is screaming and kicking and clawing and biting and laughing and yelling and heat, hands, metal, bodies pressed everywhere. Erza keeps alternating hitting people with trying to be reasonable, and Gray can't stop laughing; finally, Natsu has Lucy pinned between the wall and the bed, locking down the flail of her limbs with his full weight, and he looks determined and kind of pissed off for several seconds and Lucy realizes, oh god, he's going to--
For the first several seconds, his lips are warm and firm and unrelenting, and Lucy doesn't feel much except for shock, but then she loses patience and throws her arms around his neck, forcibly adjusting the angle and pressing back only gently until Natsu finally takes the cue and lets up a little. Maybe Lucy hasn't kissed before either, but she's read enough trashy magazines and tacky romance novels to make Loki blush - she knows how this works, certainly better than Natsu does. She feels triumphant and lightheaded and dizzy; Natsu is kissing her in a way that seems tentative and confident at once, obviously unpracticed but not self-conscious in the least. In a daze, Lucy feels her own heart thumping wildly, hears her own pulse roaring in her ears, and she feels hot, too hot - it takes her a moment to realize that's him. Natsu has always been warmer than anyone else Lucy has ever touched, but now he's practically scorching. It's not bad, though; it just makes Lucy feel like she's starting to melt, which, weirdly enough, isn't a wholly unpleasant feeling.
This goes on for at least a minute, although it feels like forever. Lucy is perfectly content to let his happen. Not that she's exactly letting it happen so much as running her nails down the line of Natsu's back under his vest and through his mess of stupid pink hair and sliding her tongue over his bottom lip until the idiot figures out what she's trying to do and opens his mouth - oh, that…that actually feels really good… Lucy is slightly embarrassed to realize that she has just made that same extremely uncool squeaky moan noise again like she did when Natsu bit her, only this time Natsu moans too, deeper and rougher than her and different from the way he does when his wrestling with Gray gets out of hand. Lucy is pretty sure she might have to commit an honor suicide for finding it sexy.
When the kiss finally breaks, air taking priority over the new and fascinating sensation of tongues and lips and teeth, Lucy finally remembers that there are two other people in this room. Startled, she turns her head to look - Erza and Gray are watching in rapt fascination, not two feet away. Gray is even clutching Erza's arm like he'll fall off the bed if he lets go.
"Well, don't stare," Lucy snaps, face heating up. Natsu helpfully interjects by humping her leg again. Lucy punches him in the head. At this point, she's resigned to an entire evening of perfectly good moods arising and being subsequently destroyed.
Just then, Natsu grabs her by the shoulders and unceremoniously lifts her up to her knees, arms pinned at her sides. He's doing the mean grin again. "What now?" he asks.
"All in favor of getting Lucy naked?" Gray proposes. Immediately, the others raise their hands.
"Oh, god," Lucy groans.
But there are hands all over her again, struggling with her skirt and stockings and unhooking her bra and Lucy wants to shriek in protest again but when she opens her mouth, all that comes out is "No, you have to push the hooks in." This is not what Lucy had planned for her evening.
The problem is that now she’s naked except for her panties and the toe of one stocking hanging off her foot, seated on the edge of the bed, and everyone has stepped back to admire their handiwork, and they're staring, and Lucy would squeak and clamp her arms over her chest, but no; she's come this far, and damn it, she's going to see it through. Although she is pretty sure her entire body is blushing.
Finally, Lucy has to be the one to break the silence, complete with pointing: "You habitually strip in three seconds flat, you can take your clothes off with magic, and you're practically half nude already: Why am I the only one naked!?"
The others exchange looks, and, seeming to see the logic in Lucy's argument, immediately set about correcting the issue. Erza wins through the power of exquipping, and…suddenly Lucy is dealing with that funny tingly fuzzy-headed feeling again. She's seen naked women before - hell, she's seen Erza naked before - but something about the context and the way Erza is looking at her and the faint sheen of sweat standing out on supple, milk-pale skin makes Lucy's toes curl and mouth dry up.
"Do you want to have some fun, Lucy?" she asks in a voice like raw silk, flicking her hair over her shoulder. It takes Lucy a second to realize she's nodding.
"Hey!" Gray, for possibly the first time in his life, is having trouble getting his belt off - Lucy considers it karma for laughing at her. "I thought I was going first."
"Be patient, Gray."
"We drew straws!"
"You did what!?"
"You're just a sore loser, dumbass."
"YOU'RE a dumbass!"
"BOYS."
There's another fight, Erza clocks Natsu soundly in the back of the head - the way it makes her breasts bounce causes Lucy a serious of small heart palpitations - and he goes down, taking Gray with him in a tangle of flailing limbs and pained yelps. Gray is down to his underwear, finally, and Natsu is in just his pants and armband: Lucy thinks she's seen him without that skirt thing on maybe twice, and it occurs to her vaguely, as the boys wrestle like a pair of preschool delinquents, that he has a pretty nice ass. (She's thought this about Gray a lot, but at a time like this, she can forgive herself for it.)
She's sure they would probably forgive her for thinking Erza has a nicer one, though.
"Just keep each other entertained until we're ready for you," Erza says calmly to the somewhat boy-shaped mess on the floor. She turns a smoky gaze over her shoulder at Lucy, the look in her eyes all heat and desire and sparkling mirth. "Now. Where were we?"
Lucy wishes Erza would look at her like that all the time, only she suspects she'd be so weak in the knees by the end of the first day that she'd have to wear leg braces for the rest of her life. "Um," she says feebly.
Everything sort of seems like it's happening in slow motion, and Lucy feels like she's moving through molasses, powerless to resist - or maybe she just doesn't want to resist - as Erza bears down on her, pressing her to the mattress and moving her up to rest against the pillows. When they stop moving, Erza is leaning over Lucy on hands and knees, one of her legs between both of Lucy's; her hands are firm on Lucy's wrists, holding them against the pillows over her head. Lucy is somewhat surprised, and yet not really, by the way that makes her tingle all over.
She would feel exposed, but she's too busy staring. Lucy has always found Erza beautiful and strong and inspiring and heroic and all sorts of things, but somehow, she seems to hold even more raw power and wild, vibrant beauty like this: stripped of all her armor and weaponry, but more in control than Lucy's ever seen her.
It occurs to Lucy that waxing poetic about the naked woman pinning her to the bed is ridiculous, but that doesn't stop it from being the best moment of her life so far.
"I'm going to kiss you now," Erza says softly, and Lucy's brain short circuits for at least the fifth time this evening, and then, always true to her word, Erza does.
Her lips are softer than Natsu's, more pliant where he was unyielding, and the kiss is gentler - at first. As soon as Lucy whimpers, which she's sure she hadn't meant to do, the kiss turns fierce and dominating, almost possessive. Erza's silky hair is spilling over her shoulder and tickling Lucy's neck; she wants to reach up and run her fingers through it, but her hands are still bound. Lucy can live with that for now.
After a moment, it occurs to her dizzily that Erza is getting closer, lowering herself down until their bodies are pressed together, all heat and slightly damp skin and voluptuous curves - Erza is kissing Lucy's neck now, and Lucy can't stop gasping, drugged on the feeling of Erza's weight pressing her down and the softness of her breasts. Her hands are suddenly free, and she slides them into Erza's hair, gripping and making that surprised, squeaky moan again as Erza nips her earlobe and rubs slightly against her with her whole body. That feels a lot better than it even makes sense to, Lucy thinks vaguely, reduced to shuddering and gasping as Erza kisses a steadily descending path along her throat.
Lucy gets another shock when Erza moves lower, dipping her tongue into the hollow of Lucy's throat and then making a trail of kisses along her collarbone, one hand coming up to cup her breast. She jolts a bit as a thumb brushes firmly over her nipple at the same time as Erza runs her tongue along the top swell of her other breast - she hadn't been paying attention to much else, but someone mutters an obscenity in the background, and Lucy turns, a little fuzzily, to look.
Gray is on the floor, legs splayed, leaning heavily back against Natsu's chest; he's staring very intently at the scene she and Erza are making, but his eyes are half-lidded as he pants slightly, probably because Natsu (who is also staring) has his hands down Gray's boxers. Gray wears some of the most modest underwear Lucy has ever seen, probably because he knows he's going to be taking his pants off at some point during any given day, but Lucy can tell what Natsu is doing - she isn't stupid, and he's not exactly hiding it. She's a little surprised at the way that knowledge makes her stomach twist in that hot, pleasant way again, although part of that may be the fact that Erza has just descended to take one of Lucy's nipples in her mouth and suck lightly.
Lucy hears herself make a high, keening sound that she didn't know she was capable of, and about the time she's busy trying to catch her breath, Gray makes a startled groan that sounds more pained than anything else - Lucy looks reluctantly up from the path Erza is slowly licking up her cleavage to see that Natsu has his teeth sunk into Gray's shoulder so hard that his abnormally sharp canines are raising dark welts on the surface of Gray's skin, almost breaking through.
"Erza," Lucy whimpers, wanting to point out that the boys are being too rough again and that someone is going to get seriously hurt, because she doesn't want her first sexual experience ruined by a trip to the healer, but it's hard to concentrate on anything other than the feeling of Erza's body pressed against her, tongue sliding over the curve of her breast, fingers skimming her thighs. "Erza, they're, N-Natsu is--"
"Shhh," Erza says soothingly, looking up at her with eyes made bright by something Lucy has never seen in them before. Her fingers are sliding underneath the waistband of Lucy's panties. "Just watch. If things get out of hand, I'll know."
Dumbstruck by the implication that that doesn't count as 'out of hand', Lucy does as she's told. Focusing is difficult, because Lucy is a little nervous about where Erza's hand is going, but that isn't such a big deal anymore because Natsu is still biting, maybe even harder than before, and his hand is still down Gray's boxers and Gray's head is thrown back, fingers digging into Natsu's knees on either side of his waist, scrabbling for support as he twists and squirms and bucks his hips. He still looks like he's in pain, but suddenly, like a light going on, Lucy realizes he's talking, muttering under his breath a constant stream of words that's getting louder: It sounds kind of like "Fuck, Natsu come on, fuck, you son of a bitch, come on, harder, yes, fuck yes, oh god I'm gonna, I'm gonna kill you, I can't, oh fuck yes just like that--"
It's simultaneously the hottest and silliest thing Lucy has ever heard.
But she can't focus on that anymore when she feels Erza's lips against the point of her hipbone, warm and wet and moving lower. "Erza!" she squeaks, especially when fingers that had been idle before start to tug her panties lower. This seemed like a good idea - a really good idea - back when she was still partly clothed and things were happening mostly above the waist, but now a bolt of panic lances through her and she tries to squirm away.
But Erza holds firm. "Lucy," she says softly, her voice gentle and pacifying. "I'm not going to hurt you. You trust me, don't you? Now settle down and lift your hips."
There isn't much Lucy can say to that, but she does make a point of pouting as she obediently raises her hips off the bed so Erza can pull her panties off and toss them somewhere. She can't exactly keep pouting, though, because now Erza is, well…she's staring. Somehow, Lucy can't make out whether to be embarrassed or aroused, although she's banking on the latter because for all the mortification and awkwardness and insanity of this situation, Erza Scarlet is sitting before her, naked and faintly sweat-damp and staring at her as though she's something remarkable, tongue sliding over swollen lips, chest heaving tantalizingly with every breath, and Lucy has never been more turned on in her life.
Gray's litany of filthy encouragement faded into the background while Lucy was distracted, but it returns full force in the sudden moment of stillness and silence. Right now it's more broken moaning than words, and Natsu's teeth are at his neck - suddenly Lucy recognizes the past several months of occasional bruises in interesting places that are clearly way too nasty to actually be from teeth. "Erza," he groans, although he can't seem to decide whether to look at her or at Lucy, "I can't keep - he's being - ah, I'm gonna come, I have to." He sounds pleading, and it occurs to Lucy that he's asking Erza's permission, even though Natsu is the one touching him. That doesn't seem like the kind of thing Erza should be in charge of, does it?
Then Erza makes that face she has, the one that seems knightly and gracious but means she's about to slice someone into seventeen evenly-sized pieces, and Gray bites his lip and whines and Lucy decides that Erza should definitely be in charge of it.
Lucy feels Erza's hand moving slowly up the inside of her thigh in a way that spreads fire to every part of her body and causes a deep ache to settle between her legs; she realizes she's gasping, hands fisted in the sheets in a way that can't possibly look smooth, but it's pretty hard to care with Erza looking at her in that predatory manner.
"Why don't you boys take a break?" Erza suggests. Lucy is half that effortlessly dominating in her wildest dreams. "I think we're going to be awhile."
Gray moans piteously at that - Lucy isn't looking at him anymore, but she hears a brief struggle and a yelp and a curse and she's pretty sure the boys are fighting again, maybe because they only really have two methods of interaction and they're either going to beat each other off or up. "They'll be fine," Erza whispers, her fingers traveling higher.
Lucy jolts when she feels Erza's fingers slipping between her legs, instinctively trying to squirm away, but Erza's other hand is firm on Lucy's thigh and when she makes a soothing sort of wordless murmur and strokes that hand softly over Lucy's leg, she calms down.
…Except she's not really calm; not even remotely. Because Erza's fingers, strong and calloused rough from years of hard work and fighting, are moving against her in a slow exploration that makes Lucy pant and attempt to twist her body closer to that deliberate touch. She's probably making a low sound - it's difficult to tell if that's really coming from her own mouth - and she jumps when she feels Erza's mouth on her breast again, licking and sucking and scraping her teeth gently over sensitized skin. All she can do is wind her fingers into Erza's hair and cling for dear life.
Lucy hears a distant curse and what sounds like a low hum of desire. She wants to look, but she can't focus on anything but how good this is, and how mind-blowingly surreal, how she never would have thought it would be like this; she finds herself gasping a faint, almost shy litany of Erza's name as the other woman begins to kiss and lick her way lower along Lucy's body.
"Lucy," Erza responds softly, the tone of her voice strangely affectionate as she smiles against overheated skin and presses two slender fingers into the heat of Lucy's body. Lucy makes a sound like a strangled sob and hears a responding moan in the background. She rocks her hips up against the touch, pressing her fingers into the back of Erza's neck and gasping now on every breath.
"Please," she whines, not sure what she's begging for, but Erza only chuckles warmly and moves a bit lower, pressing soft lips to the inside of Lucy's thigh. At a loss, Lucy turns her head to see what the others are up to, needing some sort of confirmation that this is actually happening.
Confirmation comes in the form of Natsu pinned to the floor in a timely throwback to the start of this mess. His arms are trapped behind his back again, but this time his pants are wrapped around his knees and Gray's hand is wrapped around his cock, and Lucy dimly realizes that while she's seen a naked man before - it's hard to go a day in Fairy Tail without, really - she's never seen one in such a, um, state before. She's not sure what to make of it, and she doubts she'll be able to form an opinion anytime soon because oh god, is that Erza's tongue?
It is, and it's indescribable, and Lucy can't focus anymore on the bizarre contest the boys are trying to make sex into, or on anything else, for that matter. All she can do is feel, and maybe also gasp and moan a lot while twining her fingers into Erza's hair and desperately pulling her closer. She concludes that Erza has definitely, definitely done this before, otherwise she wouldn't have found that so quickly and done that exactly right.
Lucy can't decide whether to just close her eyes and hold on for dear life or watch what Erza is doing, but Erza makes the decision for her by looking up to make eye contact and doing something wickedly lascivious with her tongue that drags Lucy right to the edge. Then, she makes a low, humming noise that vibrates through Lucy's entire body, and very suddenly The Edge is miles behind her and fading rapidly into the distance.
It takes her a long time to come down, and when she finally does, Erza's head is resting on her hip. Lucy is suddenly, terribly aware of how sweaty and gross she must be and what a total wreck she must look like, but Erza doesn't seem to care; Lucy can feel soft puffs of breath ghosting across her damp skin and a rough palm resting on her thigh. Lucy's heart somersaults in her chest and she cards her fingers through long, scarlet hair, praying for this moment not to end.
Naturally, this means that someone has to find a way to ruin it.
PART TWO