Lucy and Laxus Ship Week: Day Two - Devilish

On the cold, brimming waves of the northern Atlantic ocean a pirate vessel by the name of Fairy Tail rode the storm with vigour, the crew aboard cold to the bone and fingers tingling with numbness in the watery graveyard of ice and fear. Atop the steps a man barked his orders with glee, those below begrudgingly following his orders as they had ought to do as should they be deemed a liability they owe have been thrown overboard. This man was the Captain, broad in shoulder and a giant to those of the slimmer, less fed crew. His blonde hair luminescent in the dark, and eyes the same beady colour as the sea, his face made of contrived glee when the lightning shook the sky and lit the waters. "Capt'in," Hollered the first mate, a woman with hair as red as the blood that fell from her knee emerged from the stairs to the lower storerooms, face pale and eyes livid, "Hole in the hull!" The shrill of her voice carried over the storm.

Laxus nodded his head and braced over the railing to look at her, eyeing the ends of the sails for the clews and the brails for strength, all of which seemed likely to last, "Very good, Erza. Bucket rally!" Barked the man, turning to two of the crew who were struggling to keep the ropes in place, "Use the tar!" They could get more rope in the next port, which was not likely to be far off given the calculations.

The two followed his orders, their pink and blue hair falling after Erza as they tried to stop the scuttle that would ruin the food - and perhaps the food had been the incentive, not the drowning. A snake of naïvety in Laxus let him believe that their ship would be fine, but as ever with such things the man was wrong; a large wave, tempered by a thick slew of thunder and bright light disoriented the crew, and threw half overboard - including the Captain himself.

Laxus awoke on something soft, the entire place feeling dark as his body trembled from the thick, marring pain that coursed through him like the lightning in the clouds. For a moment, he opened his eyes where the harsh light, though dull, forced him to close the blue orbs with a shriek. In the hazy fog, his lids allowed for a gaunt black spot to appear over him, sounds lakim to the grating teeth of a starved wolf close to his ear. "Where am I?" Laxus pondered with a desperate groan, arms weak as they pushed his torso up to survey, through slit lids, the area he was now in.

Bells jingled beside him, and with a start the man looked to the ethereal beauty by his side who spoke with a rough and soothing voice, bells sitting on straps about her toes, "Deep underwater," The being smiled as her blonde hair, the colour of molten gold, lapped about her shoulders in Magic movements and her full lips showing the pointed teeth beneath them, "Well," The delicate, paper-thin skin on the creature's nose wrinkled as they crouched where they stood, allowing Laxus to move away in fear of all the stories he had heard, "Not so deep, look there," The beautiful creature pointed a long and snow-white finger through the ceiling to what appeared to be the surface where a rounded dot of sunlight poured through and split like it did with the gems on the woman's neck. The woman settled her gaze on Laxus, arm falling when she saw he would not look, and the man found himself paralysed by the rich hazelnut colour that surrounded the slit iris, "You've been asleep for quite some time," The creature looked below them, and Laxus followed to where her finger traced ripples in the floor, "I was getting impatient." Though he was not paying attention to her words she spoke on, watching from lowered lashes as he took in the vast pocket of air they occupied beneath the sea.

He was trapped.

Laxus swallowed the bile and saliva that had gathered in his mouth, wiping a weathered hand over his blue-hue lips before glancing to the side of her, "What are you?"

"Lucielle; Lucy." On her hands and knees the being slunk towards Laxus, his body shuddering at how she looked, "A Succubus," Those Devil's eyes followed the movement of the sailor's hand to the empty pocket of his trousers, and she sat back with glee to hold onto the pretty, curved knife she had taken from it earlier, "A Siren," The topaz gems on the knife matched those in the ring she wore on the smallest finger of her left hand, "Take you pick, darling," Laxus scowled standing to look down at the woman.

"A Devil," He spat with hate, pushing himself backwards on the unstable platform to be grabbed by tendrils of black poison, "Release me!"

"No can do, darling," The Devil threw his knife past his ear, satisfied with the sound it made as it was taken in by the water that encompassed them, "See, I intend to keep you," Lucy moved towards him, playing with the topaz ring on her finger, one he recognised as belonging to his grandfather.

"Where did you get that?" The sailor demanded of the Devil, spittle flying from his lips. "It belongs to me."

Lucy hummed, moving close to run her tongue over his cheek until he shuddered in disgust, "Your grandfather was a very kindly man," Lucy recalled, slipping her fingers beneath his clothes to touch his cooling skin, "Gave me his freedom and love for my protection," Lucy looked up at the boy, her glowing blue clothes the same turquoise as the water about them.

"That useless drunk," Laxus spat, deliberately covering the woman's face. Lucy closed her eyes in annoyance and moved away, a chair arising from the water for her to rest on. "Course he made a deal with the Devil," Laxus laughed bitterly, bowing his head and trying desperately to recall all that his grandfather owned, "What would he need to protect?"

Lucy was silent for a long time, recalling the human feeling of grief and rejection, "You." Laxus's eyes snapped to the woman, her tone more broken than she obviously intended as she looked lovingly down at the old ring, "His ship," Lucy liked her lips, the self-satisfied look returning to her face as she rose from her water throne, "Gave me his freedom and love in return for, well," Lucy ran her fingertips over the side of Laxus face, and this time, the sailor could not pull away, as though he was drawn to the Devil by Magic, "In case you ever got in trouble by water I was to protect you," The creature's brow drew together as her hand rested on the sailor's shoulder, confusion littering her features, "Nay," Lucy's head twitched, as though recalling a memory, "'Save him' was what Makarov said." It seemed like pity to Laxus, the way that she looked at him, "So I did."

"I don't need saving," Laxus growl, struggling against his bonds.

Lucy breathed in, her chest swelling at the statement and defiance colouring her skin in Magic as she hissed, "All right," Water began to pour in from the sides of their bubble, fast and furious, its torrents came down harshly on Laxus' back. The cold harshness taking his breath and the water replacing it in his lungs until he screamed for the woman to stop, "Oh, I'm sorry," Suddenly the woman was by him, kissing air into his lungs until he felt free and warm, his head following hers when she moved to part them, "Did you have something to say?"

Laxus glowered at the Devil, cursing how his body had reacted to the temptress, "Are you trying to kill me?" Laxus raised his hand to his neck, where the Magic had left blackened welts.

Lucy turned her attention to the scar on his face, a perverse beauty to the mark that marred his skin so crudely, "You're already dead, all it would do is destroy the soul." Lucy trailed her nails down the mark, flattening her palm against his cheek until he felt how cool the metal was in comparison to the Devil's skin, "What use of that would a mortal have anyway," Lucy played with a tassel on her skirts, the sun in the sky betraying the time of day to the darkness down below. "Never did understands why humans have so many useless appendages."

"I am not dead," Laxus laughed at the woman, pulling open the ruined cream shirt and burgundy leather overcoat to reveal a mottled and muscular torso that Lucy surveyed with an indecipherable expression. Laxus placed his hand over his heart, leaning forward in a sneer as his eyes stayed locked with the unimpressed Succubus, "My heart beats," Laxus screamed, his voice unsure as he failed to find a pulse within his chest, "And I am breathing!" As if to prove his point the man took a shuddering breath, though it felt unnatural for him to do so.

"You drowned, darling," Lucy admitted, taking the ring from her finger in shame before tossing it to him as though it burned her skin, "And your precious crew helped you do so," Laxus gasped as memories flooded him, of reaching for the secure line and having a cutlass fall on it, "Well," Lucy looked over his shoulder, a faintly fond smile gracing her and when Laxus followed it the frozen face of Freed floated by, his face, like Bickslow's, paused in a scream though he was the one with a topaz knife in his throat. Evergreen was lost in the water behind them, an almost pleasurable look to her swollen, mottled face, "Those three tried to help, jumped in after you they did," Lucy hugged her waist as though holding a lover in a tight embrace, her teeth sharp as she did a light, jolly dance, fingers writhing in the air before she spun, "But it is so very chilling in this water, and there was a storm."

"Why does Ever look so different?" The broken words fell from Laxus' lips as he fell to his knees, one palm reaching for his most trusted family.

"Mhmm," Wandered from the Devil's mouth as her small tongue ran across her pearly teeth, "I tasted Incubus in the water," She offered, "A Great White, if I recall correctly," Lucy moved closer, speaking in a small voice as he hand sat on his bare shoulder of peeling skin, "Perhaps she fell pray to him."

Laxus stilled, knuckles becoming paler as he gripped the ring in his hand, words uttered through clenched teeth, "Is that what's going to happen to me?"

"True enough," Lucy's smile was earnest as she regarded the pale blonde hair on the head in front of her, "I did not promise the old man anything beyond saving you once," Stealing a kiss from the man, Lucy walked away from him, happy to leave him in mourning as she flicked though an old book of Magic, "Often when one of my kind 'encaptures' a human, the weak creature is used and thrown away, as they so often do with each other," Something incomprehensible rushed from her lips, a dark language from a forgotten time that meant nothing to Laxus, "Though there are cases when something more is made of the being, a lower Devil perhaps?" The irises of Lucy's eyes changed in colour, becoming a startling orange before Laxus, the man watchful for anything that would be his death. He was at her mercy, down in these depths, after all, "Mhm, there are stories of such things, I suppose," The creature had thrown the tome away with discontent, orange eyes trained on the hand Laxus had clenched round the ring, "But those are all fables."

"What are you going to do with me?"

For a moment, Lucy looked away to the phantom images of the floating corpses and watched alongside Laxus as a bright beam of hair, miles long, reached from the heavy depths in a shot of ecstasy and morbid fate to steal the bodies as though a beggar stealing scraps. The rustling seaweed-like hair returned to its homeworld below the bubble, its patterns trance-like and fitful. Lucy returned her eyes to Laxus, who was fearful of their split irises, a wide smirk appearing on her jaws in what seemed like glee and a leer before she rose a brow and let her face settle into what was only to be described as satisfaction.

"Something absolutely devilish."