Hello my dearest readers! It's the first day of CoLu week 2019 and I am… unbelievably excited to share what I've written with all of you! This is my first time participating in a ship week, and I owe it all to my wonderful Beta for informing me of it, and for encouraging me to jump in and supply some quality CoLu content. And for jumping on in the middle of a computer crisis to read and edit my stories so they were ready in time for this week.

I hope you all like what I've come up with! Please, review. Reviews are my lifeblood and I freak out every single time I receive one.

A few credit things:

Dragon'sHost, THANK YOU for hosting CoLu week!

Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail

Desna's Pradesh characters show up in one of my CoLu days - so just a reminder: none of the Pradesh family belongs to me. They are all intellectual property of Desna

Enjoy!

Day 1: Thread

Lucy started her day like any other.

Wake up, fight off the sadness at having to leave the comfort of her bed, and kick whichever dragon slayer that had ended up on her couch in the middle of the night out of her house. Today, that dragon slayer had been Laxus, surprisingly enough. He was not a standard visitor to her home, but it happened occasionally, they were kin after all. In this case, apparently the blonde had pissed Mira off badly enough that he'd been kicked out of his own place and had required somewhere to crash.

Lucy decided that, while she cared for the man, it wasn't her problem - unfortunately for him, her mornings were sacred. She'd shoved him out the door unceremoniously, still tussled from sleep and grumbling, before closing it in his face. The uncharacteristic pout he'd shot her way almost earned him breakfast, but the celestial mage was able to stay strong as she clicked the deadbolt and locked the door.

Sighing, she continued her morning routine: Turn on coffee to brew. Brush teeth. Floss. Shower (bath would have been preferable, but she wanted to be at the guild early). Put on robe. Call Cancer. Decide on the day's outfit.

That last part was what had her stuck. She stood in front of her closet with a hand on her chin, considering her options.

She decided she was going to wear a skirt. But which one? She had a few new ones she wanted to try, but had decided she wasn't feeling particularly high maintenance that day, and her favorite, most comfortable black skirt kept drawing her attention, so she decided she'd wear it even though she'd had so many issues with it last time (the side had been frayed and she was constantly fighting the battle with herself not to mess with it). The comfort was worth the slight annoyance.

Satisfied with her choice, she paired it with a dark gray, v-neck tank top and her standard belt (keys and whip attached), put it all on and marched confidently to her kitchen, pouring the entire pot of coffee into a comically large thermos before heading to the guild to pick out a job for her and a partner.

Lucy's arrival to the guild was pretty standard. She walked in, received cheerful hellos from everyone who wasn't hung over, and made her way to the bar to chat with Mira. The only major difference was the cold, unforgiving glare she'd received from her blonde dragon kin.

She could have ignored it, but decided it was more fun to mess with him, so instead turned his way and flipped him off, a cheerful smile on her face.

"That smile is creepy as fuck, Bright Eyes. You need to stop spending time with the Ms. 'I-Am-Legion' over there."

Lucy spun around and plopped down next to the maroon-haired man, turning the exact same smile his way. His shudder was almost not noticeable. Almost.

The celestial mage's smile turned genuine, "Heya Sugar, you want to take a job with me today?"

Erik seemed suspicious of this offer. Lucy, though she was one of the few people in the guild who he could stand, was a devious little shit. And though he'd offered to go on missions with her before, she'd always told him she couldn't because Natsu would just follow and ruin it.

"...whatever I did, I'm sorry… I'd say I would never do it again, but we both know that I probably will," Erik said casually. Lucy only laughed.

"You didn't do anything, relax" The blonde assured, "I just need rent, and Natsu's destruction the last few missions has been out of hand."

"The world's most idiotic firecracker will just follow, and you know it," Cobra responded, still dubious.

Lucy's creepy smile had nothing on the angry glare she sported in that moment. Nothing.

Cobra swore, if she got mad enough that people started recognizing 'Scary Lucy', he was out. He was running for the fucking hills and never looking back. He'd seen that side of the blonde exactly one time, and the change in her soul had been so terrifying that he still occasionally had nightmares about it.

"Oh," Lucy said menacingly, "Natsu won't be following us today. I assure you."

The promise of pain in her eyes was both scary and, oddly, attractive. To Erik, anyway.

A whispered thought from the blonde's soul had him intrigued, so despite his better judgement, he found himself agreeing.

"Alright, Tink, lead the way," he said, downing the last of his bleach.

The first time she noticed it, was on the way to the train station.

She'd been walking along without a care in the world, until she noticed… something touching her leg... Just the softest of brushes on her skin.

Her author's mind supplied her with incredibly detailed images of spiders, fire ants, centipedes, and various other forms of creepy-crawlies. Enough so that, instead of looking at the source of the problem, she promptly freaked the fuck out.

It was a good thing Cobra could hear what was happening in her soul, otherwise he would have written her off as bat-shit insane (well, more so than normal) and dragged her straight to the mental institution. Directly there, without passing 'go' or collecting two hundred jewel.

As it was, he just fixed his single-eyed stare at her, before deciding that laughing his ass off was the best response. Lucy would have kicked him for it if she wasn't scrambling around, smacking at her leg, dancing around in the middle of the street trying to dislodge whatever nightmare-inducing bug that had decided she was it's next meal.

Taking pity on her, Cobra gripped both of her shoulders in a move that forced her to stand still. She could still feel it, and so let out a whimper at having been restrained, looking to her companion with terrified eyes. Said companion leaned down, reaching for the edge of her skirt, and pinched something between his fingers. As he pulled his hand back up, Lucy felt whatever the fuck it was against her skin being lifted away, and clenched her eyes shut tightly in fear.

"Tink"

Lucy shook her head. No fucking way was she opening her eyes to look in the face of her worst nightmare, unidentified bug no. 1.

"Bright Eyes"

"...no." it came out as a whisper.

Erik sighed, then physically gripped her face and pried her left eye open, "Look."

Having no choice in the matter, she did. And found herself focusing on a tiny, miniscule thread pinched between his tan fingers. She followed the dark string down from his hand, to find that it was a part of the frayed part of her skirt, that had likely gotten caught on something and was unraveling a small section of fabric.

"...Oh. Uh… Thanks?"

Lucy called Cancer to cut the stray strand, and decided she would be fine without changing because it was just a simple day mission, and possibly overnight if all went well. Besides, she had plans for the day that didn't include any delays.

The second time it happened, Lucy's response was only marginally less extreme.

She felt that oh-so-creepy tickling sensation on her thigh just as they'd exited the train at Onibus station, and she still flipped out.

The only improvement in her reaction this time, was the reduced amount of time she spent freaking out before finding the end of the thread herself and calling out Cancer in a huff. The spirit gladly assisted her in cutting the strand short while both he and Lucy studiously ignored the cackling poison slayer standing just off to the side.

When she sent her spirit home, she crossed her arms and averted her gaze, and stomped away from Cobra in a huff.

If he wanted her plans for the evening to work out in his favor, he would do well to stop laughing at her.

Erik heard her soul's declaration loud and clear, and muffled his laughter as he followed behind her to meet with the client.

Lucy should have known it would happen again. The job request was to deal with a fledgeling group of young mages that had been stealing small, inconsequential items for the last month or so. The client was the local chamber of commerce, a group of local business owners who found themselves annoyed with the petty criminals enough to hire guild mages.

It was in the meeting with them that Lucy felt that horrible sensation again.

She blanched, but as they were in a professional setting, and Lucy still had a deeply-set learned behavior for such a setting, she couldn't do anything about it.

Erik wanted to laugh his ass of, hearing her mind going a hundred miles an hour looking for any kind of solution to her problem while at the same time shooting impressive insults at the slow-talking businessmen across the room from where they stood. Instead, he decided to show her some mercy and help her out.

He reached behind her to that pesky spot on her skirt that kept unravelling and melted the spot just below the line of her skirt so the thread didn't irritate her further.

Lucy sighed in relief, thankful to Erik for this thoughtfulness and uncharacteristic grace in dealing with the problem.

That was until he decided to slap her ass, in the middle of a meeting with clients. When she slowly turned her tomato-red face to focus on him, he gave her an innocent look and explained himself. Loudly.

"What? It would have looked weird as hell if I just randomly grabbed in the general direction of your, admittedly, pretty fucking perfect ass and didn't find something do to with it."

By the time it happened, yet again, Lucy had become immune to the feeling on her leg. When she felt that tell-tale tingle, they were in the middle of a very stern lecture with the young mages they were sent for - or Lucy was, anyway. Cobra was sulking, as his many attempts to convince the celestial mage that the teens needed a physical lesson, in the name of a well-rounded education, had been fruitless.

Lucy had decided just to ignore it, in favor of finishing up her job, when the sensation stopped being one of a light tickle on her thigh, and became one of a…. Tugging. On her skirt.

She looked over to find that Erik, as some sick version of payback for having been out-argued, had been pulling the thread. He'd wrapped it around and around his hand, and seeing it, Lucy blanched.

If he had that much material around his hand, there couldn't possibly be all that much still on… her… skirt….

Lucy quickly covered herself, and the tiny, miniscule bit of fabric that still covered her most private parts, with her hands and looked in front of her to see three very red-faced teenagers staring at where her hands met in front of her uncovered body.

"PERVERTS!" she yelled, and immediately Lucy kicked each one into orbit.

Erik sniggered, satisfied that in a roundabout way, he'd gotten what he wanted in regards to the lesson plan.

The poison slayer heard a frustrated grumble echo through his girlfriend's soul, one that made him quickly lose all sense of victory as he stared at her in horror. She couldn't possibly be serious.

"What… No, Bright Eyes, fuck… wait! I'm sorry!"

She glared at him and pulled his signature white coat from his shoulders while he was too stunned to fight back. Lucy pulled it on over what was left of her own clothing and closed it over her torso, effectively hiding in state of undress under the overly-large garment. Peeking out from the fabric, she leveled a glare at her boyfriend.

"Too late, Erik. I warned you about laughing earlier! I made myself pretty fucking clear!"

"But… the whole plan was for me to finally, fucking finally, get you naked, somewhere that god-awful horde of idiots you call your team wouldn't barge in on us! I just…ya know, got started a little early, that's all!" he protested vehemently.

"Plans change," she informed him, stalking back to the train station, ignoring his disappointed grumbling as he followed close behind her.

Lucy had to stifle a giggle.

In his frustration, he didn't seem to be paying attention to her soul at all. If he had been paying any small bit of attention, he would have heard her thinking through all the different, wonderful, inappropriate ways her plans had changed once she'd seen him in that form-fitting thermal shirt as she'd forcibly removed his jacket.