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"Okay, that should hold me for a while." Lucy gathered the ores from the ground and piled them into her bag. "Thanks for coming out here with me. I know it was uneventful, but I figured it was probably better to have back up, just in case."
"No problem, I'm always happy to come out with ya," Logan assured her as they headed back towards the front of the cave. "Why'd ya need to come up here anyway? We're pretty far from town, can't ya get sunstone from the Dead Sea?"
"I can, but these aren't quite the same. I'll show you when we get back into the sun."
They reached the mouth of the cave and Lucy grabbed a few of the sunstone pieces before dropping the bag beside their gear. She skirted the shallow pond taking up most of the cave entrance, halting beside it in the sunlight and holding out her open palm.
"The sunstones I can mine in the Dead Sea are always orange. These formed under different conditions, which created different colors. It's a bit hard to tell for sure, but once I cut and polish these up, they chould be bi or even multi-colored! At a minimum, none of them are orange."
"That's pretty. What ya gonna use 'em for?"
"Honestly? Gols. Arvio has some contacts in Walnut Groove that have been snagging all the normal sunstones I mine up. When I realized the caves in these mountains might have other colors, I had to check. Considering what we're getting for orange, I'm banking on new colors bringing in a ridiculously high price. If the Walnut Groove buyers aren't interested, he's certain the jewelers in Atara would be happy to pay whatever I ask. Apparently they're trying to move in on Walnut Groove's market."
Logan's gaze was concerned when he asked, "You hurtin' for gols, Luce? I thought you builders were making out alright. I can help ya out if you need money."
Lucy was touched at the offer. "Thank you, but things aren't that bad. It's not that I don't have money, I do, but the big projects aren't happening like they used to. The town is all fixed up, Catori World is built, all the new expansion projects Trudy had planned are completed, shoot, even Howlett's Hunters is fully built. Between me, Mi-an, and Wei, there just isn't much builder work to go around.
"Wei runs the Commerce Guild and Mi-an has Mi-Ni Botanica, but all I have for income is the workshop. I still make enough to get by, but its not enough to also put away for the future. I decided I also needed a separate revenue stream and — here we are. Truthfully, I spend more time now cutting and polishing gems to sell than I do on regular builder work."
Logan opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by the loud grunts and snorts that suddenly filled the air. Rambo slammed into him from behind, shoving him into Lucy and knocking them both into the freezing pond.
Lucy surfaced with a loud gasp, Logan cursing a blue streak beside her as Rambo and Merle continued to play fight outside the cave entrance.
A cold hand closed around hers and Logan tugged her to her feet and led her through the waist high water to lift her out before hauling himself out.
"C'mon, we gotta get a fire started and get outta these wet clothes."
They hurried over to the fire ring they'd set up earlier that day. It was late spring, but they were high enough up the mountain that it was still very cold. It would take them several hours to get back down to the bottom and warmer temperatures, far too long to wear their freezing, wet clothes.
Logan set about starting the fire as Lucy brought over wood to feed it. Once they had it blazing, they each turned their attention to stripping out of their wet clothing and laying them out to dry.
Once their clothing was spread out around the fire, it dawned on them they were both clad in nothing but their wet underwear. Eyes studiously avoiding each other, they shivered silently near the fire, the warm flames slowly heating their chilled skin, an uncomfortable silence surrounding them.
It didn't take long before Lucy could no longer stand it. This was silly! They were adults, for Peach's sake. Neither of them were unfamiliar with the form of the opposite gender. They'd seen each other in their swim suits at the Oasis, why would their underwear be any different?!
"This is silly! Why are we uncomfortable? Let's just look at each other and get it over with."
"O-okay," he agreed, hesitation clear in his voice.
"On three. One…two…three!" Lucy turned towards Logan and felt the blood rush to her head. Oh, my, this was nothing like seeing him in a swimsuit.
She was accustomed to actively ignoring his broad, muscled chest, strong arms, sculpted shoulders, and washboard abdomen. Years of shoving her desire for him deep inside had trained her to think of his body as a masterful work of art to be admired from a distance, instead of a mouthwatering confection she wanted to lick like an ice cream cone.
Those years had not prepared her for this. His swimsuits were always loose and cut off at his knees. His underwear was not. Instead, they stopped at his mid thighs, lovingly hugging him like a second skin and emphasizing all the right places.
She swallowed hard, struggling to hold herself in check, the need to fling her body onto his and beg him to take her against the cave wall nearly overwhelming. If only those damn underwear weren't so tight! The black looked so good against his pale skin and the white lettering…wait, white lettering?
She squinted, focusing on the lettering, then burst out laughing, her eyes shooting up to his, just in time to see him jerk his eyes up to meet hers, his face bright red.
"Are you kidding with those underwear?"
"What?" He looked down at his underwear like he'd never seen them before, then turned even redder, muttering, "shit".
His black boxer briefs were emblazoned with an arrow on the right front pointing up towards the waistband with the letters "the man" sitting just below the arrow. A second arrow on the left leg pointed at his groin accompanied by the words "the legend".
"Are," she snorted out laughter than tried again, "are they all like that? More importantly, how true is your advertising?" The question sent her off into gales of laughter, her snorts and giggles bouncing off the cave wall as Logan looked like he wanted to sink into the rock beneath his feet.
"I been busy, okay. Too busy to do the laundry and this was the last pair I had in the drawer. They were a joke birthday gift from Justice and Owen and I ain't actually ever wore 'em before," he protested over her laughter. "No one was ever supposed to see 'em," he muttered.
He glared at her until she stopped laughing. "You done?"
She snorted again, then composed herself, nodding as she sank down to sit on the cold cave floor. He joined her, sitting close enough she could feel the meager warmth from his skin, but not close enough to touch.
"I knew I hadn't seen you much lately, but are you really that busy? I thought things were supposed to be less hectic now that the hunter guild is open. Why did you agree to come with me if you are so swamped? Are you going to have to do laundry when we get back to town tonight?"
"First off, no matter how busy I am, I always have time to help you out. Spendin' time with you is one of my favorite activities, one I don't get to indulge often enough. You know that."
She could feel the heat warming her face. She did know that, same as he knew she would drop everything at a moments notice to spend time with him. She had a crush on him the size of the Eufaula. Crush, what a weak word, more like a debilitating need for him. She'd had it for years, and she knew he had one the same size for her. Neither of them had been very good at hiding it, and the whole town commented openly about it periodically.
Life, however, had conspired to keep them apart. First it was his jail time, then working off his debts while acclimating to his new normal and learning to parent Andy. Then it was her builder work for the town and Catori World. That was followed by his months long bounty hunt that had netted him the gols to pursue his dream of setting up a monster hunter guild. She'd hoped once his guild, Howlett's Hunters, opened up they would both have time to focus on turning their friendship into romance, but so far that hadn't happened.
"Second, things are supposed to die down. I had hoped everything would ease up before now, but gettin' in the initial bounties exposed some flaws in my processes and I been working out the bugs. I am happy to report that it won't be much longer now. Just a few more issues to deal with and it should be smoother sailin' for me.
"Finally, no, I ain't gonna have to do laundry when we get back. It turns out Jasmine and Andy were looking for some work so I paid them to do all the chores I've fallen behind on while I escorted you today. Normally I wouldn't let Andy do the laundry without me there, he don't do a very good job, but Jasmine assured me she'd keep an eye on him."
"You know, if you need help with stuff like that, you can always come to me. I'm happy to pitch in."
"I know, and I appreciate it. I don't want to take advantage of ya, though. Besides, if you're in my house, I want to be there with ya." His eyes were warm and his smile soft as he gazed at her, promises for the future in both.
Hours later, Lucy dragged herself wearliy through her front door. Merle was settled for the night in the stable and her new ores were safely stashed in the storage shed. Leaving her cold, wet boots by the door, she pulled off her moist socks and walked barefoot to the bathroom where she stripped off the rest of her damp clothes and stepped gratefully into the hot shower.
They'd waited as long as they could before conceding defeat and redressing despite their clothes not having fully dried. The rapidly dwindling afternoon had forced them to head back down the mountain lest it get too dark to travel safely. Their clothes had been only uncomfortably damp and not so cold as to be more than a mild annoyance. Their shoes, however, had hardly dried at all. Luckily, their socks had completely dried and provided an imperfect barrier to the wet leather.
As she stood beneath the spray, glorying in the heat, her thoughts turned back to Logan and his underwear. She couldn't stop the laugh from escaping and an impish thought entered her mind and took root.
Exiting the shower, she quickly dried off, slipping into warm pajamas and slippers. Hurrying to her office, she flipped through papers and files until she found copies of an order form for a custom apparel shop Vivi had given her a couple of years back. This particular shop not only offered custom prints on clothing, but would also create custom printed fabric. A mischievous smile on her face, Lucy plotted.
Logan rubbed his eyes and sat back in his chair, sighing. He was so close to ironing out the last of these procedure bugs. He needed a couple of new bounties to come in and a few to complete before he'd know for sure if he'd corrected all the issues.
Setting up and launching a guild had been a lot more work than he'd anticipated. He'd thought hunting down the S class monster for the million gol bounty would be the hardest part, but it turned out the real monster was the paperwork.
Just like Lucy had come through for him by taking in Andy while he was hunting down his bounty, Wei had been a lifesaver in helping him navigate the copious number of forms, legalities, and labor issues that came with running a business. The months he'd spent traversing the wilderness hunting down his prey had been a cakewalk compared to the jungle of bureaucracy that had followed.
He'd thought, naively it had turned out, that once he'd collected his bounty, he'd be able to set up his guild and in just a couple of months finally be free to court Lucy. Instead, he'd been busier than ever during a period when it appeared she had loads of free time. He despaired of their schedules ever matching up enough for them to make a go of a real relationship.
His thoughts turned once again, as they so often did these days, to the day they were knocked into the freezing cold pond. He'd known looking at her in her wet underwear was probably a bad idea, and he'd been right. Lucy hadn't realized the water had turned her bra and panties nearly transparent, and while she'd laughed at his stupid joke boxer briefs, he'd been struggling to control his body's reaction to the dark shadow behind her panties and the sight of her areola and hard nipples through the sheer fabric of her bra. Luckily, the freezing cold had helped his situation significantly.
Forcing the image from his head, he surged to his feet and headed home for the day. If he was lucky, he'd catch up with the woman herself at the Blue Moon. Not much longer, he assured himself as he rode toward town.
He wasn't lucky. Lucy wasn't at the Blue Moon, nor was she visible in her workshop yard. He returned home, dejected at not even getting a glimpse of her.
The sight of the box from Tailor Made sitting propped against his door confused him. He couldn't recall ordering anything and this was too small a town for packages to be misdelivered. He picked up the box and checked the tag. It was for him all right.
He headed inside, calling out a greeting to Andy as he removed his boots, hat, and gear, then carried the box up to his bedroom after . Plopping the box on his bed, he lifted the lid and picked up the envelope sitting on top of the tissue paper.
Logan,
I thought these might help your laundry situation.
Lucy
He stared at the tissue paper, dread and curiosity both gnawing at him. Lucy had a wicked sense of humor, it was one of the traits he liked most about her, and her ability to fuck with her friends when she felt impish was unparalleled. He pulled back the tissue and burst into laughter.
Nestled inside the box were five new pairs of boxer briefs, each printed with a custom pattern. The first pair featured bumble ants. Under that was a pair decorated with starby-on-a-horses. The third pair was covered in rocket roosters. The final two pair, though, were masterpieces.
First up, a pair dotted with miniature versions of his and Haru's wanted posters. He had to give her credit for courage, no one else would have dared to give him something like that, much less have gotten away with it. The fact he actually loved them was probably more about his feelings for her than actually liking the shorts.
The final pair, though, was his favorite. A white pair of boxer briefs starring Rambo. Rambo in all sorts of poses. Close ups of his head, full body poses of him rearing up, an image of him grazing in an unfortunate location on the back.
Logan laughed so hard Andy came to check on him. After they shared a good hard guffaw at the underwear, Logan swore the teenager to secrecy and sent him off to do his homework.
Staring in appreciation at the stack of custom underwear, Logan began to plan. A gift that amazing deserved something amazing in return.
Lucy looked up at the sound of hoof beats approaching the workshop gate. A happy smile stretched over her face as Logan on Rambo approached. Other than a thank you note in her mailbox the morning after Vivi delivered the custom underwear, she'd not seen hide nor hair of the man. She'd wondered if maybe she'd gone too far with the wanted posted underwear, but Andy had assured her Logan was simply really busy at the guild and had found the underwear quite funny.
She called out a greeting and headed towards the fence as Logan dismounted, the big smile on his face soothing her lingering trepidation.
"Afternoon, Logan! Long time no see."
"Lucy. How's your schedule lately, any big projects comin' up? Anythin' that's gonna take a lot of time or attention in the pipeline?"
She was momentarily taken aback at the abrupt questioning, but quickly rallied. "No. Schedule is light for the foreseeable future." Something dawned on her and she narrowed her eyes slightly as her heart rate picked up. "Why do you ask? Are their changes to your schedule happening?"
He leaned toward her, propping his arms on the fence, his voice taking on a husky sound. "As a matter of fact, my schedule has just lightened considerably. I finally got the bugs worked out of my procedures and the guild is running smoothly. Now that my schedule is light, I was hopin' your schedule was also light. Since that appears to be the case," his eyes turned hopeful as his smile took on a nervous edge, "would you like to go out on a date with me?"
Lucy couldn't contain her delighted smile as she enthusiastically agreed. "I'd love to. When?"
"You free tomorrow evenin'. How does a picnic on Mt. Rocksand sound?" She agreed and they finalized the details. Logan picked up her hand and pressed a soft kiss to the back, his eyes heated as he stared into hers, voice warm and rough as he whispered, "I can't wait."
Then he was gone, leaving behind a happy puddle of Lucy goo.
The next day Lucy's nerves buzzed from the moment she awoke until she returned home from delivering the latest batch of cut gems to Arvio. Aiming for the front door, anxious to get ready and head out for her date, she paused at the sight of the Tailor Made box on her doorstep. Curious if it was misdelivered, she checked the tag. That was her name all right, but she hadn't ordered anything from Vivi since the boxer briefs for Logan.
She carried the box to her bedroom, then lifted the lid, laughter bubbling up at the contents. She removed four sets of bras and panties in the same prints as the boxer briefs she'd sent Logan, only the Rambo pattern was missing. Setting the underwear aside, she lifted the card that had been hidden underneath.
Lucy,
Wear what is under the tissue on our date tonight.
Logan
A grin of anticipation on her lips, Lucy lifted the tissue.
As Lucy exited the yakmel cart at the top of Mt. Rocksand, she heard Logan ask the driver to close the stop for the night and not return for pickup, that Logan would make sure she got home safely. After a brief glance at her for confirmation, the yakmel cart rolled back down the path.
"I see you got my package." He appraised her appearance and she gave a little twirl, showing off the wrap top in Rambo printed fabric she'd paired with one of her favorite skirts. "Looks as good as I hoped." His voice dropped as he sauntered closer. "Did you wear all of it?"
She arched an eyebrow and slowly scanned his own outfit: an airy button down shirt in the same Rambo fabric and long shorts. "Did you?"
Her heart pounded hard as he took her hand and drew her close, lowering his head to whisper in her ear, "Let's see how the night goes. Maybe we'll both get our answer."
She swallowed hard against the sudden dryness in her mouth as he straightened with a cocky grin and led her around the flourishing Mama Tree, past a picnic blanket surrounded by candles, and over to the viewing area Trudy had installed a few years back.
As they gazed at the town below, the sunset bathing the buildings in glorious color and giving the scene an ethereal feel, Lucy reflected on his comment. Clearly he was done dancing around his feelings. Well, then, so was she.
Reaching back, she grabbed his hand and pulled it around her body, settling his hand onto the strip of exposed skin between her shirt bottom and skirt top. She held her breath, waiting for his reaction. He didn't disappoint. Stepping forward, he pressed himself against her back and wrapped his other arm around her, pulling her firmly against him, his arms holding her tight.
His head dropped down next to hers and he nuzzled along her cheek with his nose, inhaling her scent deeply, causing her stomach to clench and a wave of need to wash through her. "You sure, Luce?" He nibbled gently at the shell of her ear. "I been waitin' for you for a long time. I'm not lookin' for a fling, this is all or nothin' for me."
She turned in his arms, pulling his mouth to hers for a long, deep, satisfying kiss. Breaking the kiss, she whispered against his lips, "I'm sure. I've waited a long time for you, also. You're the only one I want, and I'm done waiting."
Capturing her lips in a branding kiss, he crushed her body to his. His hands travelled down her ass to the back of her upper thighs where he gripped her firmly and lifted. She wrapped her legs tightly around him, her mouth kissing and licking any skin she could reach as he carried her to the picnic blanket then laid her down.
Sometime later, Lucy lay happily in Logan's arms, grateful for the cool evening breeze blowing across her damp, overheated skin. "Well," she panted, "that answered that question. Those undies came out a lot better than I anticipated." She looked up at him and asked hesitantly, "I didn't go too far with the wanted poster fabric, did I?"
He chuckled, a carefree contented sound that filled her body with light. "Naw. Maybe if you'd done it right after everythin' went down it would have been a bad idea. But, now that time has passed and my name is fully cleared? Honestly, it feels kind of good reclaiming that part of my life in a more positive light. It's kind of freeing to laugh about it. Don't get me wrong, I won't be makin' a shirt out of that pattern, but I will wear the underwear with a smile."
"Good." A weight lifted off her at his words and she peppered kisses across his chest. "Now, I'd like to request you add the underwear from the cave into your regular rotation since I now have the privilege of seeing you in your skivvies."
"The joke pair? Why?"
She climbed atop him, lowering her mouth to his as his hands skimmed up and down her body. "Well, I already knew The Man." She kissed him softly. "Now that I've met The Legend, I have to admit," a pause for longer, deeper kiss, "you are one hundred percent as advertised."