Wheels of Fire

Cat Fights and Cuteness

Natsu was doing something he rarely ever did. He was reading a book.

He had seen the book in a tiny library the Edolas Fairy Tail had, not much more than a few shelves crammed full with beaten bindings. What caught his attention was the name of the author: Gildarts Nash. He simply had to know if it was the same Gildarts. There was only a little information on the author, but it seemed to be Edolas' Gildarts. The story was a hot romance, sickeningly sweet at times, dangerously seductive in other places. Natsu was shocked at first, then guiltily intrigued, and finally so engrossed that he kept on reading. Still, some things in the author's descriptions bothered him.

"What the hell is with rippling muscles?" he wondered aloud.

"Women like it."

Natsu jolted at the voice. He had been too caught up in the scene, where it seemed like the female protagonist was about to take the male rescuer to her bedroom to reward him. Natsu wondered what cool reward she would give, and why it involved "slowly unbuttoning his silken shirt, smoothly caressing the fabric off his bronzed skin, until the rippling muscles of his broad chest gleamed in the lambent candlelight." Natsu was so eager to find out what her reward was going to be, he had not heard Edo-Cana enter the library, carrying a saucer and teacup with her.

"Gildarts Nash is my father and a famous romance novelist," she told him as she entered and took a seat at a window-side chair with a small table perfectly built for her dainty teacup. "He used to belong to this guild, but he left many years ago to pursue a career as a writer. He travels the world to collect stories, and he drops off free copies of his trashy, smut-filled novels from time to time. We haven't seen him in a few months."

Natsu looked down at the book. "I can't imagine Gildarts Clive as a writer."

Edo-Cana lifted her cup to her lips. "I can't imagine Lucy Ashley as a writer. To each their own." She took a genteel sip. "Speaking of Lucy, Gray thought you should know that she's currently fighting with Wendy. It appears to be quite the cat fight."

"Fighting?" asked Natsu. "I mean, that's normal in my guild, but I haven't seen any real brawls since I got here, besides Lucy and Levy bickering all the time."

"It is strange," Edo-Cana mused. "Especially since both of them mentioned your name. I didn't stay long enough to find out the cause. Not my concern, and they were disturbing my teatime. Darjeeling goes bad with bickering."

Natsu realized he should check it out. If they were fighting because of something he did, then he would sort it out. He was already such an inconvenience to this guild, so the last thing he wanted was to have friends fighting because of him. Still, he had no clue what he did that would make Edo-Lucy, who loved everyone in the guild, to fight with Edo-Wendy, who seemed to get along with everyone. He wondered if it had anything to do with the massage oil Edo-Wendy had used on him the other day. It was sweet of her to want to rub his back, although then she wanted to rub his chest too. That was strange, but Natsu had just laid there and tried to enjoy it. The oil smelled funny, though. It made his head dizzy, and instead of working out his muscles, Edo-Wendy's hands had merely glided over his skin, hardly doing anything useful to help make his muscles feel better.

"I wonder if that has anything to do with the whole rippling muscles thing," he mused to himself. "Cana said women like it, and the lady in Gildarts' book just rubbed her hands over the man's chest, same as what Wendy was doing to me."

Edo-Wendy had poured on lots of the funny-smelling oil, rubbing further and further down Natsu's torso, almost down to his pants. The smell had just begun to make Natsu want to go to sleep when Edo-Lucy practically broke the door down. She smashed the vial of oil and began to scream some word Natsu did not know.