BichoBolita

Two bros chilling in a hot tub

Wine and Blood / Scars and Flowers

Breaking Stereotypes / Going against type

Proximity / Reunion

Art/Musical/Rockband

Fighting each other/Fighting side by side/Force of nature

Guilty Pleasures/Indulgences

Court/Council/Jail

Face the past/Imagine the future

Busted! or Secretly being a couple already and coincidentally encountering another secret couple during vacation

Dancing in the Rain

Height of Summer

Learn how to love

Transformation

Sports & Competition

Hidden moments

Dusk/Dawn

Moonlight/Shooting Star

Solace

Haunted

Mischief and Debauchery

Guildmates / Family

Mythology Au/Crossover

Videogame/Movie Au/Crossover

Soulmates

Demon possessions/Dragon hoards or Demon in disguise x Angel undercover

Early mornings/Late nights or Sunrise/Sunset

Deadly/Savage

Fruity

AU rivals team up or Canon verse first Unison Raid

Master(s)

Lightning struck

First Meeting/Growing old together

He likes guys

Enemies to friends to lovers/Friends to lovers

Casual (e.g. clothes/conversation/etc.)

Drunk on kisses/alcohol/power/life/etc.

Losing control

Weird Habits

Proposal/Wedding/Engagement

Tarot/Legends and Mythology

BDE Couple (Big dick energy? Big dork energy? Big dumbass energy? You decide, these nerds can be anything)

Unstoppable/Freed the Dark and the Thunder God

Night in/Night out

Mischief

Spa/Vacation/Hot springs

Hope/Despair/Complicated/Easy

Sweet treats

Seasons

Next generation/Adoption/Two Dads are better than one/The guild kids’ cool embarrassing Uncles

Pride

First kiss or Mutual Pining

Power couple or Competing/Competitive

Makarov

Patching each other up/Taking care of each other

Modelling/Weekly Sorcerer/Interview

Mythical creatures/Zodiac/Gods/Four horsemen of the Apocalypse

Post war

Crossover

Sharing

Morning/Night routine

Reverse

Training/Sparring

Quirks/Habits

Gaming

Spoiling each other

Playful shenanigans

Motion sickness

Beach

Music

Comfort

Fantasia

Camping

AU

Unison Raid

Blue Pegasus

Cooking & Baking

Thunderstorms

Clumsiness

Interfering friends

Flirting/Flirting gone wrong

Night

Confession

Anniversary

Dance into summer and/or Dancing in the rain

About damn time and/or Platonic flirting turns not so platonic

Library and/or History and Myth

Go to hell

Matchmaker(s)

The beauty and the beast/The beauty and the demon/The beauty and the dragon/etc.

Pretend relationship and/or Rumors

Dirty fight/Sweet love and/or Cruel/Tender

Reimagine a canon scene/Possible alterations and/or additions

Blush

First meeting

Early Days

Blood and Glitter

Cuddles

Late Nights

Training

Fighing side by side

Sorcerer Weekly

Photoshoot

Interview

Magic Swap

Masquerade/Ballroom

Again, thudding rang through Laxus’ cramped, cold bedroom. Mard was slamming his fist on the door again. “Hurry the hell up, Dreyar!”

The illusion shattered with the rattling of the doorknob, and Laxus had to take stock of where he was. In a small room in a house that wasn’t his own, trapped here for another week while he bent to the whims of a madman and their host. A host who had been cruel to him for no reason and likely wished to demolish the walls of hell and make it his own domain. That was the truth of Lord Justine, not the version Laxus had pathetically dreamed up for himself.

Lightning lit up the room from behind the curtains, and thunder made the walls shake with each crack. Rain hit the window pain and Laxus winced at the ferocity of it. He reached for a cap and popped his coat collar up in an attempt to keep himself as dry as he could when he went out.

“Dreyar, for fuck’s-”

Mard’s further yelling was cut off when Laxus tugged the door open and barrelled past him, too tired and snappish and not awake enough to be tolerant. He stormed down the coach house corridor and stepped into the thunderstorm without hesitation, not sparing his employer a glance. He slammed the door behind him, spitefully wishing that perhaps it could strike Mard as it moved.

The rain dropped cold and dirty onto his face as he charged towards the stable gate, which he knew he had locked after securing the horses safely inside. As he approached, however, the gate creaked and swung with the wind, butting against the attached wall. A quick glance at it showed it had splintered and was scorched, as if stuck by the damn lightning. The stable doors were limply rocking back and forth on their hinges, and the hay Laxus had spread out for them was scattered and spread haphazardly.

Charla was tucked in the corner of her sable, looking more perturbed by the storm than scared, and gave Laxus a slow look that belied her mood. Pantherlilly, however, was nowhere to be found.

“Fuck,” Laxus hissed.

He turned on his heel and barrelled out of the stable and towards the courtyard. A few wisps of hay gave him a vague direction as to where Pantherlilly had bolted, but once he was out through the gates of the house, he was presented with the moors. Fog rested thick and heavy over the ground, pungent scents rose and assaulted Laxus’ nose, and no sight of a horse could be seen.

“Fuck,” Laxus repeated, before storming forward.

Mard wouldn’t be following him, nor anyone else in the house. Lords and Ladies wouldn’t dare dirty their souls with the menial work of finding a bolted horse, nor would they entertain the possibility that labour so menial wouldn’t be completed by the time the sun rose. A task was set, and the staff would get it done, no matter how impossible it was in reality.

Hand held above eyes to shield them from the rain, he walked down the dirt track they’d come up from. Pantherlilly was a smart horse, and shockingly adaptable. Laxus simply had to put faith in the fact he might have simply been retracing his steps. He trudged down the road, clutching his coat closed, eyes scanning through the fog as best he could.

If he didn’t find Pantherlilly, he didn’t know what would happen.

He would be blamed, that was certain. He almost certainly already was. Even with the obvious signs of singing on the gate, Mard would find a way to twist the story to Laxus’ deficit. Maybe that would mean he lost his job and Mard would find some other poor sod to take advantage of, while Laxus trudged the gutter yet again. Perhaps there would be some form of punishment outside of his employment. Mard had never grown the balls to take the rod to Laxus, but perhaps pushed by both the pressure and protection of Lord Justine, he might finally make good on his threat. Or maybe this would just add to the power that Mard held over him, abused and warped to the point of total servitude.

Whatever Mard had planned for him, Laxus knew that finding Pantherlilly with expedience would be the best course of actions. Mard was twisted, but creative too. The longer he had to think, the more his warped thoughts could fester.

The damn moors, though. They were endless.

Surrounded by trees and fog, Laxus was disoriented fast. He could barely manage to remember what way the house was yet alone find a black horse in the darkness of night. The rain was heavy and thick, merging with the fog to create a total miasma. Flashes of lightning and crackles of thunder sought to break his concentration, and he shivered and the ice cold that hammered at him.

One of his shoes sunk slightly, and he looked down to see it was ankle deep in thick and viscous mud. He pulled his leg upwards, but found the mud unmoving. With a short squat, he took his trouser leg in hand and yanked, managing to force his foot from the swampland at the price of stumbling backwards. He fought for his balance, but the uneven land got the better of him, and he landed arse first into the path.

Something featherlight and sharp coiled around his wrist the moment he propped himself up.

Without looking, Laxus yanked his arm away, and felt something snapping. He climbed to his feet at the strike of another bolt of lightning and turned to see the thinnest line of a thorned plant stem lying limp where his hand had been.

Thunder boomed loud, as if it were right by his ear, and shocked him into blinking and lurching back. The stem wasn’t there when his eyes opened again. It hadn’t been there at all. He had been seeing things. Fog and rain and lightning had him seeing things. The sensation must have been his cuff tickling at his risk, and his imagination had gotten the best of him.

Upon looking up, he couldn’t find himself. There had been an oak tree he had been using for reference, he was sure of it. It was tall and proud, silhouetted often when the lightning struck the ground. Where was it now? Where had it gone?

It can’t have gone.

“Panther!” He yelled, dismissing the doubting of his own thoughts.

He was on the same damn path as he always had been. The fog must have just been getting thicker and restraining his sight further. As he walked, he felt mud giving way below him, and somehow heard the sound of twigs cracking and breaking under his weight despite the cacophony battering down at him.

Catastrophic thunder preluded a sharp bolt of lightning, before fire exploded and sent heat flowing through the moors.

A whistling of wind struck him head on, making him stagger back a few steps, hand extended to stop the stray flecks of grass and dirt from hitting him head on. He turned to see the large oak tree he had been looking for burning, fire scorching through the leaves, consuming it and turning it into a beacon of light despite the wet and cold and frigidity of the moors. Standing beside it, a mass of black, and Laxus was forced to squint and lean forward to see what it was. A horse. Pantherlilly.

Laxus lurched forward, stepping off the track for the first time. The squelch of muddy water filling his boots had him wincing, and the wind turned as if to push him back to the path. He forced himself to keep going. Pantherlilly was smart, but a horse was still a horse and Laxus could see how quickly the poor thing might spook and hurt himself, especially being so close to such a burning inferno.

Jaw tight and eyes clenched nearly shut, he walked on. Each step was laboured and he felt the chills running down his spine with each passing moment. He could just hope that Pantherlilly wouldn’t find the walk back to the path too deep and thick to manage.

“Come on, boy,” he coaxed as he got closer to the clearing of dirt the tree sat atop. “Come over here now. That’s a good boy.”

The damn horse barely paid him a glance, and instead absently leant down to take an apple that was resting on the ground. Contemptable thing wasn’t at all bothered by the fire and the lightning and looked perfectly at home in the chaos and danger. Laxus surged forward, eyes hard and resolve still clinging on despite everything.

As his feet hit more sold ground, he took a breath. Lightning struck the land close enough for him to spin on his heel and face it.

In the after-flickers of light, Laxus saw something.

Something wrong.

A silhouette of disturbed proportions.

It stood tall. Humanoid in figure but not much else. Feathers bristled and shivered in the wind, clinging to what could only be described as a carapace which had been warped into gnarled and twisting spikes. Blades of translucent purple protruded from it’s back like the spread wings of a most monstrous bird, and two jagged horns shuddered from its head. In the flashes of light, Laxus could see a thick shock a hair, and saw it was coloured a dark, wet green.

All at once, Laxus found himself frozen and filled with power. The monstrous beast was looking at him, Laxus somehow knew, and with the next flash to lightning it lurched closer. Laxus could see a thick, ink black fur, a scar reflecting the wings stretched out around it, and dull red eyes surrounded by cracked and dry scales.

The breathing was the worst of it, though. Distorted and throaty. Heavy and intent. Getting closer.

It was approaching him.

No time to consider the stupidity of the action, and doing so without forethought, Laxus shucked off his coat and threw it to the side. He rolled his sleeves up, wincing at the cold and the harshness of the rain. His shirt provided little protection and grew near transparent as if to proclaim the cheapness of fabric, but he needed the access of movement. If he was going to die – if this fucked up monster of the moors was going to kill him – then he would go down fighting.

The demon before him – and what else could it be other than a demon? – tilted its head slightly. It walked forward, not lit by the flaming tree that burned beside them. The red eyes were trained on him as if he were nothing more than a curiosity. Laxus took up a fighter’s stance, the move natural from his time on the streets.

“Fascinating,” the demon used a disgusting facsimile of a voice. “You intend to fight me.”

Laxus didn’t respond to it. He glanced to Pantherlilly out of the corner of his eye, to find the horse just as unbothered and watching them both with curiosity. “Get on home boy.”

“And for the horse, too,” the demon sounded near jubilant. “You’ll throw your life away and be ripped to shreds, all to save the life of a pitiful little utility animal.”

The wind picked up and another burst of thunder shook the ground, and Laxus kept his fighters stance firm. His legs were shaking as the demon took another step towards him, slowly and tauntingly raising a claw. Laxus found himself unable to move, body frozen still as the demon dragged a claw up the length of his neck, scraping his throat until it could tilt his head up to look right at him.

“Still not running. How charming you are.”

At the end of the sentence, Laxus was jerked to his knees. Coils of something searingly hot yet somehow not burning coiled around his arms, dragging him down into the mud. His breath came short as he tried to fight against the binds but found them immovable. He could do nothing but look at the monster before him, eyes blown wide and pulse hammering as it reached forward and dragged a claw through his hair.

“Certain death,” the demon continued. “You could have ran, you know. You didn’t have to come here at all. You could have left well enough alone and left the poor creature to perish in the endlessness of the moors, as you so clearly thought would happen. You could have turned cheek and ran from me, leaving me to feast on your beast and eat well with it too. You could have gone. You didn’t”.

The claw dragged down his cheek, slid over his lips, before cradling his cheek in a way that could almost be seen as tender.

“You’re not nearly as scared as you should be, Laxus,” the demon taunted, and the use of his name had Laxus’ eyes blowing wider. “I do hope that it’s more than a simple resignation to your fate. It would be terribly boring if that’s all this is.” He gave another contemplative tilt to the head. “I suppose I’ll never know, will I, given you’ll be a little preoccupied with being dead to answer me. A shame.”

Dark ink flickered between the demon’s claw, its eye glowed a deep purple, and Laxus felt the horror of acceptance settle deep and rancid in the pit of his stomach.

The world quietened around him. There was no lightning or thunder anymore, the fog receded slightly, and the wind calmed to a gentle gust. Laxus only had eyes for the monster and its twisted magic, which was getting closer and closer to him. It would kill him, whatever the black poison was, and Laxus could only hope that it would be fast.

And that Pantherlilly would be okay. Poor thing didn’t deserve this.

Light flooded the moors all of a sudden, as the sun rose and the fog dissipated all at once. Laxus could see Albion House in the distance, behind the demon, which smiled a little and laughed as much of a laugh as something like that could.

“Consider my curiosity your protector,” the demon said. “I’ll rather enjoy seeing what you do next. Promise me that it’ll be… explosive.”

Not giving Laxus a chance to do much of anything, the demon disintegrated, fizzling away into purple fluttering, then into nothing. The demonic chains that held Laxus down went with it, and Laxus jerked upwards with the sudden release. He panted, looking around as if the demon might spawn behind him, and saw nothing but the brightening marshlands that surrounded him.

“Well well well,” A woman’s voice, amused and trilling, laughed from above. Laxus looked up to see a woman of perhaps twenty years sitting atop one of the branches of the oak tree, no fear from either the demon or the fire above her obvious. “I do love a show, and the darling is one of the more dramatic men I’ve ever seen.”

Laxus took a step back, and his fists came up to a defensive position more by instinct than conscious thought. “Who are you?”

“Oh, darling, we’ve time enough for that later,” she hummed, and jumped down from the branch she sat on. She fell just a tad slower than she should. “You may call me the Queen of the Faries.” She tittered. “Admittedly, that’s not true, but I’m trying to start the rumour off. This far up in the country, who else could take the title.” Her face went dark. “And if you suggest Miss Erza Scarlett, I can assure you that the battle hungry welk is a hapless, pointless, cake scarfing- I’m getting distracted, aren’t I?”

“What are you saying?”

“You must have asked so many questions since you got here; surely you’re tired of not getting answers now,” she patted him on the shoulder. “Off to the house with you, I think. The lord will surely be missing you.”

Despite everything, that was the most absurd notion of the night. “Don’t think Mard bares any kind thoughts to me.”

“Mard?” The woman laughed. “I wasn’t speaking of him. I only speak of – and to, mind you – important people.”

“I can assure you ma’am, he thinks himself important.”

“Most boring people do,” she shrugged. “But not all men are made equal, not in spirit at least. Most of them end up in the mud and the dirt or flung across the skies as nothing but ash.” She waved her hand through the air, and it seemed to glint and glimmer with the movement. “But the interesting ones, those rare few with something worth exploring, end up in places much more unique.”

“What does that mean?”

“Oh, that’s not for you to know right now. All in good time,” She shook herself out of a distant thought. “Speaking of, I do have to insist you head on back. I went a little hard on the weather, I realise, and I don’t want the sickness setting in when you’re my problem to deal with.” She turned to Pantherlilly and took him by the head to deliver a soft kiss just above his nose. “You’ll see the idiot human back safely, won’t you darling? Big dependable darling like you, you can do anything you want. And so brave, too.”

She cooed over the horse for a little while longer, before stepping back with a wide smile. Where before there was nothing, not a soft and loose harness hung from Pantherlilly’s neck, limp and waiting to be taken. It looked, Laxus considered, a little like the thorny stem he had thought he’d seen earlier in the night. 

“Off with you both,” she insisted. “The trip back will be easier, I’m sure, but best to start while you have the goodness of health at your side.”

There was no reason for Laxus to follow the order, but he did so anyway. He took Pantherlilly’s lead and guided him back, throat dry and coat left in the mud. His mind was oddly quiet, as if too filled with thoughts to produce anything more than a black whiteness of presence. 

@joe-spookyy Ben and Socrates

@gooseontheinternet Chamomile and Beefy

@runawayy-rat Bartholomäus and Emo

@theunholystromboli Macrogryphosaurus, Xenoceratops, and Graciliraptor

@techlecticwtch Solas and Dorian

@merlyn-bane Roslyn and Rizzoli

@logictoinsanity Luna and Buttercup

@hagsthehag Orphie, Psyche, Calypso, Ariadne, and Eury

my sweet ladies Bonnie, Mira, An, and Tula

and of course, the irreplaceable

Neil,