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So, to clarify, in this, Cobra has never tried to kill Lucy before. They've just maybe had a couple of slight run-ins and prolonged glances. Hope you enjoy =)
In a world where dragon slayer mates' pain is inflicted on each other, Cobra finds Lucy in the middle of a battle at the GMG and decides it must be a defect that he got a soulmate as perfect as her.
Lucy stares at the arena nervously, remembering the last games she participated in. It had been years now since the eclipse gate and the mess that came with it and Lucy had gotten so much stronger, but a small part of herself still felt like a little teenager skipping into the arena, and that terrified her. If she's still the old Lucy that means she doesn't have a chance of winning against the shiny, new tricks all the other mages had learned over the years, and if one thing was clear in her mind, losing this time isn't an option.
Nonetheless, she's excited. It's nice to be reunited with their friends from other guilds since the likelihood of their paths crossing becoming slimmer with the years. The GMGs give her a chance to talk to Yukino about their magic, something they know they should do more often. The Games themselves are also a major source of entertainment for Lucy. Though a lot of mages find matches other than theirs boring, Lucy learns a lot from them. Everyone has a different style of magic, different techniques, and preferences, and by learning their quirks, she opens her eyes to the diversity and complexity of magic with each match. It reminds her of her mother and how she always tried to show Lucy how magical magic really is.
As they enter the loading dock for the guilds, the chants and cheering make her stomach flip. A part of her feels nauseous with anxiety with the attention and the possibility of failure swirling around her mind. Another part of her is thrilled, enraptured by the energy radiating from the arena. This is quintessentially the energy that drew her to Fairy Tail in the first place. The supportiveness, competitiveness, and drive were all so refreshing after so long.
"You good?" Gajeel asks, patting a heavy hand on her shoulder. His eyes dart to her fidgeting fingers and all she can do is nod and shoot him a nervous smile for assurance. Their team this year consists of her, Natsu, Gray, Erza, and Gajeel. When Laxus had first announced the team, Lucy had been surprised. There were a handful of people she thought were a better fit (leftover tendrils of her inferiority complex reappearing once again), but Laxus had assured her that he thought she was a good addition to the team when it came to her agility and intelligence. And, of course, that compliment was enough to give her a big head for long enough for them to ship her away to Games.
"Nervous," Lucy finally manages to respond. "A lot has happened since I last participated."
"Yeah," he agrees, eyes lingering on the water-bearer's tattoos on her shoulders. Many things had changed, especially after Tartaros, for both good and bad and though Lucy often misses when things were easier, she knows that everything that occurred was essential for her growth. "You'll be fine though. You've trained for this. Don't sweat it."
"Oh, what wise words, sir," Lucy drawls, rolling her eyes. "I shan't sweat it now with your kind words of encouragement."
"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. What has my thoughtless husband said to you now?" Levy asks, falling into place beside them with a matching haughty accent. Lucy laughs at the expression on Gajeel's face, letting the two push her anxieties down until they're long forgotten.
After taking so much time to train, the preliminaries hadn't been a problem. Lucy's strategy and Natsu's brute force combined to create an unstoppable pair. They dragged everyone through the maze in no time and completed second, right after Sabertooth. Sting had congratulated them immediately, telling them how excited he was to play against them once again.
"It hasn't been the same without all of you," he smiled softly, the rest of his team behind him nodding in agreement. The guild had been placing first with ease in the years that Fairy Tail hadn't participated and Lucy knew that sort of victory didn't mean as much to them. As Natsu begins to shout at Sting, promising that they will win the games this year and all the years to come, Lucy can't help but hope that she won't be a target of his determination this year.
She's snapped out of her stupor as the man in front ushers them towards the opening, the cheers growing louder as their guild name is announced. Stepping into the light, she squints in an attempt to adjust her eyes to the contrast in lighting, immediately spotting the rest of her guild. They all wave back as Natsu guffaws and runs around them like a child. Her eyes connect with Mavis' and the woman bows her head with a graceful smile, determination and assurance washing over the blonde with the movement. She wouldn't lose this time. She'd show the world how strong she's become. She'd make her guild proud.
Cobra grunts as Jellal nudges him towards the arena, walking as slow as humanly possible in an attempt to avoid the chaos and noise emanating from the building. He had refused to show up during the preliminary rounds, nearly poisoning the rest before they let him lay in bed peacefully. He had hoped that they would lose which would, in turn, result in going home, but unfortunately, they allegedly done very well for themselves. Since their victory this morning, Sawyer had been continuously mentioning how amazing their guild was (most of the focus being on how amazing he is himself), but Cobra was sure they were embellishing.
The poison mage pauses when the melodic hum of a soul reaches his ears, curiosity stirring somewhere deep inside of him. The rest look back at him, begging him to stop being such a dick and Jellal pulls at his sleeve in an attempt to drag him forward. The soul is louder than the rest, the sound so bright and happy it almost makes Cobra want to vomit. Who the hell was that happy at seven in the morning? He finds himself lost in thinking about what the soul might smell like (his guesses are vanilla or maybe something citrusy and bright). His team gladly takes the distraction as an opportunity to drag him toward the arena.
The crowd is loud, cheering for another team as they enter quietly behind. It had been Sawyer's idea to join the Grand Magic Games after their guild had become legal and of course, Jellal had no objections since his girlfriend would be here as well. Cobra, on the other hand, had thought it was absolutely idiotic.
"There's Erza," Sorano points out excitedly. The equip mage stands proudly in front of the rest of her team, Natsu, Gray, and Gajeel shouting and cheering back at the crowd. A blonde-haired girl stands among them, smiling wildly and waving at the rest of her guild in the stands. His heart thrums for a moment when their eyes catch, a small blush appearing on her face before she quickly looks away.
"Pretty..." he observes, staring at her as she walks off the field. He tries to remember her, place her face, but he can only think of vague instances. He's never paid much attention to Fairy Tail and it seemed to be backfiring now.
"What?" Sawyer asks, turning from the crowd towards him. Cobra shakes his head, forcing a scowl onto his face to avoid any suspicion. He wills himself to focus on being dreadful and irate as usual. They pass through the arena and enter the room holding all of the guild members with Jellal immediately making a beeline for Erza. Cobra moves to stand in front of the board, reading about the tournaments that were on the schedule for today.
"There's a huge battle first and then a bunch of one-on-one fights," the blonde says to Natsu, tapping his shoulder repeatedly to gain his attention.
"I'm all fired up!" He grins, punching his hand in the air animatedly. Lucy rolls her eyes, smiling and shaking her head at the man's antics. Their eyes meet once more and her cheeks blaze, soft thoughts reaching him through his magic. She wills for her heart to stop beating so fast and comments on how attractive he is, which just brings a small matching blush onto Cobra's face. Poisoning children, bomb threats, dead parents, slave trafficking, Cobra recites, trying to force the blush off of his face.
"You're not in any one-on-one fights today," Jellal says, interrupting Cobra's crisis. "So, we'll probably send you in for the big field battle that's happening first."
"We know you hate this but we're counting on you, so try your best, okay?" Sorano smiles from her seat beside her younger sister. Cobra grunts and they all leave it at that, knowing that if they bothered him too much, he would get himself and the entire guild disqualified the moment the game began.
"They released the fights," Lucy says, catching the rest of her team's attention. She feels conflicted when her name isn't on the board, sad that she wouldn't be able to showcase her spirits but also relieved that she wouldn't have to fight anyone one-on-one today. Memories of her fight with Flare come to mind and she can't help but cringe.
"I'm against Lyon," Gray grumbles. "Great."
"I'm going to obliterate you, Jellal!" Natsu shouts, laughing obnoxiously loud as flames slowly appear on his hands.
"He's going to burn this building down," Lucy says, muttering a soft incantation under her breath and blowing on the flames. The flames sizzle out and Natsu frowns at the blonde.
"Rude," he grumbles, plopping back down onto the couch.
"Are you gonna do the field battle?" Gajeel asks, trying to distract her from Natsu's impending tantrum. From the side of her eye, Lucy watches as Gray mumbles something to Natsu and the two begin fighting. She rolls her eyes and mutters a few words under her breath before blowing on the two, watching them fly apart and stick to the walls of the room. The rest of the guilds stare at them, unsure how they had flown apart as Lucy continues her conversation.
"I should, shouldn't I?" She sighs, twisting the bottom of her dress between her hands.
"Don't be nervous," Gajeel tells her once more. "You're a lot stronger than last time."
"I know," she sighs. "But so is everyone else."
The crackle of the microphone sounds over the room and everyone begins to rise from their seats, staring at the lacrimas as the hosts and judges introduce themselves.
"The first battle of today is field battle," the host says in an ominous tone. "A mage from each guild will be put onto a field with runes around their body. Each time you use your magic, the runes will light up brighter and brighter and when someone strikes you hard enough on your chest or head, your runes will turn red and you'll be escorted off of the field. The more people you take down, the more points!"
Lucy's mind races with different tactics and strategies, ignoring the noise around her as Natsu shouts encouragement. She looks around, surveying the other mages participating and trying to smile assuredly at her team before walking towards the arena. They would probably transport them to a different field and put up large lacrimas so the crowd could watch.
"Good luck, Lu!" Levy shouts, waving at her. Lucy waves back, the last of the participants walking out. Another man walks around, placing runes around their body. Lyon stands beside her, making small talk as they wait for the event to start. Lucy can't help but feel nervous as she goes over her strategy in her mind. Then, she feels her body waver as everything disappears before stumbling onto the field.
The field is flat and grassy where they all stand but fades into a thick forest with tall trees. Her eyes flash towards the weapons displayed across a table and a small and possibly stupid plan formulates in her mind. The timer flashes as she looks around, noticing the rest on their toes, ready to run.
"You've got this," she whispers to herself as the clock flashes zero.
Despite knowing that she should hide and observe the others first, Lucy can't help but rush to the table of weapons, grabbing a dagger and the bow and arrow, not even bothering to stash them as she runs full speed towards the trees. She decides that taking a defensive stance would be best during a large battle like this. Once everyone takes each other out, Lucy would just defeat the few stragglers and hopefully win the battle.
She rushes past the trees, scanning each one to find one fit for her to scale. She can hear footsteps not too far behind her and shouting from the main field, so when she finds a tree just big and hidden enough, she immediately begins to throw herself upon it. The runes on her body begin to activate as someone grows closer and she hopes she can hide before they find her. She throws her leg over the branch, shuffling towards the leaves before ducking her head.
Rogue quietly steps past the twigs and leaves, trying to find her as she tries to slow her breathing. He pauses, leaning against her tree for a moment before another voice sounds from behind and he rushes towards it instead. As he passes, she lets out a sigh of relief before continuing her climb up the tree. If she got high enough, she was sure that she could see the entire field. Then, she could knock people out with her bow and arrow. She knows by calling out her magic, her runes will begin to shine brighter, so she refrains from calling out Loke and Saggitarius and quietly begins to shoot others one by one. As the arrows reach the runes surrounding their body, it shatters and their runes shine bright red as they're escorted out of the arena. She sends a silent thank you to Sagittarius for all of the archery lessons he'd forced her to go through.
She gets nearly seven people out before the dark-haired mage from before notices her presence, sprinting towards her tree. She groans in annoyance, looking around for another tree to hop to. The trees around her are sturdy but much higher than the one she's on and she doesn't want to go much higher and introduce the possibility of falling. As he approaches her tree and shoots a liquid toward her, she has no choice but to climb onto the branch of the next tree. She assumes he follows her because he thinks she'll be an easy catch, but he ends up chasing her for what seems like forever. Her limbs groan in protest as she continues maneuvering through the leaves and branches and she comes to the point where the next branch is too far for her weakened legs.
The trees behind and beneath her all seep with purple liquid, sizzling the spot to the core until the entire tree begins to collapse. She grabs her bow and arrow, quickly shooting at him to distract him as she tries to figure out how to jump down. The arrow nicks his ear and Lucy feels a sharp pain in hers as well. She ignores the stinging as she leaps down from the tree, her feet and legs radiating with pain from the impact as she sets off sprinting. She can hear him grunt in pain and wonders whether someone else is behind them as well. She curses as she calls out Loke, asking him to battle the men reaching her from her left as she deals with the man following her.
He throws a knife at her once more and the knife slices through her shoulder. Lucy lets out a yelp of pain, pressing her hand to the wound. Blood seeps through her fingers as she looks up to see him mirroring her actions. She narrows her eyes in confusion, thoughts whizzing through her mind while she observes him. There was no one around, no possible way he had been hit in the exact spot at the same time as her. She had seen something like this happen with a few couples at the guild, both people's pain reflecting on the other but she always doubted it was true. It had always been a far-off legend in her mind.
"No fucking way," she mutters, grabbing the dagger from her boot and slicing her palm. Lucy watches as Cobra hisses in pain, slapping his hand on his palm and looking back at her with confusion.
Cobra stares at her, trying to understand where all this pain is coming from. He doesn't realize it until he feels curiosity (and a deep desire he desperately tries to ignore) bubbling up inside of him once again, letting out a curse as the realization hits him like a ton of bricks. It had happened to Gajeel and he'd heard about many more stories about the soul connection that could occur between a dragon slayer and his mate but he had never believed it would happen to him. He was too traumatized, too sad, dreary, and hateful to have a soulmate, especially not one whose soul sang like hers did. And besides, he didn't want a soulmate. He's never desired companionship the way his other guildmates do (as he thinks this, he realizes he may have always been lying to himself because now, with the possibility of companionship ahead, he finds himself disgustingly overjoyed).
He could tell from their battle that she was intelligent (hell, she figured out their soul link before he did and he could hear souls), strong, and beautiful too, her big brown eyes staring at him expectantly as his mind tried to catch up to hers. It has to be a mistake, he decides. It was a defect in the system. He couldn't end up with someone like her. He couldn't have her as a soulmate.
"So," she drawls, rubbing her cut palm and taking a step towards him. "I'm Lucy. I'm from Fairy Tail."
"Cobra," he introduces.
"Scary," she snorts. A man runs up to the two and before Cobra can leap into action, Lucy has already pushed him to the ground and pressed a knife to his throat, activating the red runes. "What guild are you from, Cobra?"
"Oración Seis," he answers. Recognition flitters through her eyes as a smile lights up her face and Cobra feels like his world is complete. He hates this. He hates her. He wants to have her babies.
"Jellal's guild!" She beams. "I totally know you! What a small world."
"Yeah," Cobra chokes out, the blonde's soul flashing through some images of his guild. The more he fights all of the feelings bubbling inside of him, the stronger they feel. He hates his stupid dragon and his powers and his stupid fucking guild for ever enrolling in these stupid games, but he hates himself the most for wanting to ask her to say his name again.
"Well, sorry to do this to you but I'll make it up with drinks later, 'kay?" Lucy smiles, quickly twisting his arms and kneeing his stomach before pressing her dagger to his throat as well. The runes glow around him as she laughs at his shocked expression. "Meet me at the bar down the street after I win this thing."
"A little cocky, aren't you?" He asks as she skips away towards the forest once more.
"Hey, with a guy as cute as you cheering me on, I'm sure I can do anything," she winks, making a blush erupt onto Cobra's cheeks as he exits the arena, fighting to tame the small smile on his face.