The ship has sailed

by Chickensoldier2

Natsu goes too far, giving another shining knight the chance to step in.

Title: The ship has sailed

Rating: T

Warning: Language, violence

Pairing: Laxus x Lucy

Summary: Natsu goes too far giving another shining knight a chance to step in.

A/N: I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who reviews,favourites and follows! Hope you enjoy!

Laxus sat at a table near the bar with the Raijinshuu, overhearing Mirajane squealing about how something or other would be extremely cute. He couldn't even make out half of what she was saying over her high pitched voice and the 'denials', as she called it, of the two mages she was talking to. After hearing such nonsense for so long, Laxus couldn't help but grow the tiniest bit intrigued, seeing as it was the only real entertainment in the guild- the Raijinshuu were arguing again, and Natsu hadn't arrived at the guild yet, so no brawls had yet broken out. Mirajane had said something about 'shipping', making Laxus the teeniest bit more intrigued. What the hell did 'shipping' mean? After she had finished her conversation with Levy and Gajeel, Laxus made his way to Mira, not only to order another beer, but to also find out what this phrase meant. After all, nothing much was happening.

Laxus realised he had made a mistake asking Mira about this 'shipping' business; he had now been shipped with Freed, creating 'Fraxus', among other ships, including one with Mira herself, as other guild members joined in, creating 'Miraxus'. Laxus simply turned down every 'ship' that had been put out there, with Mira claiming that the 'ship had sunk' every time that he had rejected them. That was until someone created a ship that didn't have an annoying 'axus' at the end of the ship name, and it kind of sounded good to him. Not realising that he hadn't rejected the ship due to his thoughts, Mira had shouted "The ship has sailed!" and Laxus had no time to turn it down before the woman in question entered the guild.

The doors to the guild opened and a cheerful blonde skipped in, the pink-haired pyro trailing behind her. Laxus watched discreetly as she skipped up to the request board, and happily began to look over all the available requests. Natsu looked strangely tired, weirdly sitting at the bar, ignoring an insult that came from Gray. It was then that Laxus, tuning his view back to the blonde, noticed that Lucy, was in fact, not as cheerful as she seemed- both Natsu and Lucy had dark circles around their eyes and cuts and bruises. Pulling a job flyer from off the board with a satisfying rip from where it was pinned up, Lucy made her way over to Natsu, making Laxus realise another thing he had gotten wrong- she wasn't skipping at all. She was limping. Slamming the flyer on the bar in front of Natsu, she spoke in a low voice.

"If you don't go overboard again, this might be the last job we need to do to pay my rent money." She spat slightly bitterly, her teeth clenched at this point to restrict her from shouting at him.

It was at that point that Laxus understood all that had happened; Natsu had repeatedly gone overboard on every job that they had been on, causing too much damage, leading to the reward money being drastically cut, or not even being received at all,ending in Lucy not being able to pay her already late rent money. Typical Natsu. In fact, Laxus wasn't sure why Lucy continued to team up with Natsu at all; sure, he is the reason she ended up coming to Fairy Tail and he's saved her more times than one, but surely it would be easier for her to do her jobs if she went alone, or at least with someone more sane and less destructive.

As if the blonde woman read his mind, she gave Mira the flyer to approve and turned to Natsu.

"Actually," she began "Don't even bother coming this time. I can deal with this one on my own." taking the newly approved job flyer back from Mira, she limped out of the door. "I'll be back in a couple weeks!" she called back, aimed more at Mira than Natsu.

Sighing, Natsu placed his hand on his cheek. He really messed up this time. Looking back on the events, perhaps he shouldn't have burnt multiple buildings, including the inn they were staying in, attempted using her as bait for the creep they had to capture, eating every piece of food in sight, including all of hers and then accidentally push her in the way of a collapsing building so that he could fight with a random stranger on the street. Maybe it was the teeniest part his fault. No, it was definitely Lucy's fault, it had to be.

There was no way that Natsu Dragneel could ever do anything to wrong his partner; he was the best partner that anyone could have. In fact, he done most things on their jobs, so he would like to see her do this particular job by herself. Like hell she could rid a town of an invasion of forest vulcans all by herself. The job flyer itself said that there was well over twenty, and Natsu doubts that she could even take out one without him there;he was twice the mage she was, but he wasn't going to help her. If she said she could deal with this one by herself, he would leave her to deal with her failure by herself. That is, if she doesn't die without his help, Natsu thought, nope, he didn't care one bit, it was all her fault anyway.

It had been a little over a month since Lucy had slammed the guild's doors in a rage over Natsu being a fucking dickhead. It had been a little over a month since anyone, in fact, had seen or heard from Lucy Heartfillia. During the third week of Lucy's absence, Mira became concerned. The guild master insisted that if anyone, Natsu in particular, was sent after her, it would hurt her pride as a mage, and that Lucy could hold her own. However, another week had passed since then, and even Natsu was beginning to regret his actions and that he didn't go on the job with her. Fairy Tail Mages passed through the guild hall and left for long periods of time all the time, and no one would give a second thought, that was mainly the S-class. Lucy,however, was an entirely different case- she was at the guild every day, gone for only periods of at least a week, although everyone in the guild was confident that Lucy was a capable mage, this was unusual behaviour for he to say the least, and the guild members were becoming severely concerned for her well being. Makarov still insisted that she must be fine, so the guild agreed to wait a while longer for her long-awaited return.

Five weeks and counting. No blonde hair, no jangling keys, no ordering of a strawberry milkshake; No Lucy Heartfillia. Now, even Makarov had begun to lose his mind. Calling out for Erza, he thought that an S-Class mage would be best for searching for the blonde woman. S-class mages were the quickest, strongest and most efficient, and Erza knew her better than any of the other S-classes.

"Master." Mira began. "Erza left on a job with Wendy yesterday." She finished, looking at the small old man with concern.

Makarov was stumped. Erza was on a mission, Gildarts is travelling and he needs Mira here to deal with the requests, there's no way that he can burden Mirajane with the rescue of Lucy- she couldn't save Lisanna once, making her change pretty much her entire personality and if she were to fail saving Lucy, he wasn't sure what she would do. The only S-class left was Laxus. Did Laxus even care enough to go and rescue her? It was at least worth a try.

"LAXUS!" The small man called across the guild. The blond man made his way over to the bar, where the old man was sat, a pitcher of beer in his hand. "Lucy still isn't back. Go check up on her." he spoke slightly fast, his head bowed in fear that his grandson would turn down his request.

Makarov never got an answer. He could only hear the receding footsteps of his last hope. Looking up with tears beginning to well up in his eyes, Makarov prepared himself to shout at Laxus for his inconsiderate actions but paused, as he saw Laxus leave through the doors of the guild, his hand raised in the symbol of Fairy tail that he had made as a child.

"I'll be back in a couple weeks." He quoted Lucy, with less enthusiasm though, and left, the sound of his lightening the only thing being heard.

Makarov smiled, silently cursing himself for thinking of his grandson in his former selfish state; Laxus had changed, which was most definitely for the better.

The second month. Neither blonde had been seen. Both Lucy, and now Laxus had not returned to the guild.

LALU

Lucy and Laxus stood side by side. Laxus had found Lucy easily. It had now been a month since the two had teamed up in the vulcan infested town. When the flyer had said 'over twenty', it meant well over twenty, by what Laxus could tell anyway- when he had found the blonde girl, she stood in the centre of the town, the abundance of green bodies of defeated forest vulcans surrounding her. She had defeated them easily within a couple of weeks, as she had planned. The trouble she was having was moving the bodies. With her being such a petite girl, she struggled to remove three bodies a day from the town. Not only that, part of her reward for doing this was to be trained by a mage that lived within the town.

After just a month, Lucy had grown stronger, and, in the second month, Laxus had even joined in the training. The bodies of the forest vulcans were being cleared much easier with the help of Laxus, due to the time that the two had spent together, they quickly became friends, with Lucy even being able to see through his stoic facial expression; His eyes showed his real emotion.

LALU

The third month. Makarov could barely stop himself from going to search for the blondes himself.

Laxus couldn't train with Lucy after during the third month. He had become too strong, the mage that was teaching them had said that Laxus could not be taught any more. He could only become stronger through his own efforts, something that couldn't be taught. Understanding that, he watched from the sidelines as Lucy's magic and abilities grew. Now being able to summon three, four if she pushed it, celestial spirits simultaneously. After yet another thirty days,the blonde duo began to make their way back to the guild.

LALU

Four months. Four whole, ridiculous, tedious, horrifying months of a small blonde girl and an S-class mage missing. Makarov almost had several heart attacks whenever he let his mind wander to the two of them. The most troubling task was keeping Freed calm. Freed would cry for hours everyday, so much so, that Mira re-sailed the ship without Laxus' knowledge. Makarov was on the edge of a mental break down, he couldn't help but feel responsible for the disappearance of his grandson. That was of course, until a strike of lightening could be heard from outside of the guild.

Makarov, followed by almost the entirety of the guild, ran outside of the guild to see Laxus standing outside, with Lucy hugged tightly to his chest due to his lightning teleportation. He released Lucy from his hold, only for her to begin to collapse to the ground, as she wasn't used to the extreme speed that his lightening teleportation had to offer.

Catching her in his arms once more, he walked into the guild, with Lucy in a princess carry. Questions were being shot at the pair left,right and centre, neither responded- Lucy was too tired to deal with this shit, whilst Laxus only cared about making sure that Lucy was okay- that, and he just couldn't be arsed with the guild's noise and how hyper-active they all were. Walking up to the youngest dragon-slayer in the guild, Laxus set Lucy down in front of her. Before he could even say a word, the small blue-haired girl had already got to work on healing the injuries that the blonde had acquired in training.

LALU

The next day, Lucy walked into the guild in a state. Her eyes were red and puffy, some parts of her clothes were torn and her hair was a mess, with dirt ingrained in it, making her usual bright blonde hair look like a sandy brown. A leaf or two were stuck in the sandy mess, and mud stained her puffy red face. She had an amount of luggage behind her that could rival Erza's and her usual bright smile had turned into an unhealthy frown. Tears began falling down her face once more.

Before even Mira could make her way over to comfort Lucy, surprisingly,Laxus was already escorting her out the doors, telling her that everything was going to be okay and that he would help her; her tears dried up in an instant. Mira was frozen in place- she had never seen Laxus do something like that for someone. Being brought back to reality by the raijinshuu shouting at her, Mira stared back at the trio blankly.

"What?"

"Where did Laxus go? He was just there, sitting opposite us, where did he go?" Freed asked, genuinely worried.

"He had to go, he had some... things to attend to." She decided to cover for him, at least until she found out what was going on- more importantly, if 'Lalu' was a reality.

LALU

She hadn't managed to pay her rent on time- she had been gone for four months after all. Her landlady had kicked her out, so she ended up sleeping on the street for the night- she didn't want to see Natsu and it was too late in the night to bother anyone from the guild- so she didn't. She spent the night sleeping in an abandoned ally way as rain began to pour down and the mud from the ground streaked her face. She was freezing, wet and dirty. It could even have been thought to be worse than the last job that she had done with Natsu.

Lucy stood outside of Laxus' house on the outskirts of Magnolia, in utter shock. She knew that S-class mages made a lot of money, but this house... It was just breathtakingly perfect. Here she was, standing in front of a perfect house, with quite possibly one of the best people she had ever met, who didn't look far from perfect himself, and she looked...well, she looked like a tramp that had lived in a sewer for a week then got dragged through a hedge sideways, before landing in a massive pile of crap.

Taking her enormous amount of luggage, he hauled it inside and ushered her in.

"You can stay here for as long as you need. I'll put your stuff in the spare room while you take a bath." he said, moving his head so that Lucy couldn't see the light blush that spread across his face.

"You don't have to do this Laxus. I can find somewhere else, I can..."

"Blondie," He cut her off. "I said you could live here, didn't I?"

"T-thank you." She spoke softly- that blush must be contagious or something.

The two split, and Lucy made her way to the best bathroom she had ever seen, while Laxus made his way to the spare room that would soon be Lucy's.

LALU

Lucy sank into the warm water that filled Laxus' bathtub. It was the best feeling in the world. As she scrubbed the hell out of her hair, her mind couldn't help but wander to thoughts of the blond male. Why had he done this for her? What on earth had possessed him to make him go and find her when her job took longer than expected, then stay three months to train with her and now let her live with him? It's not that she wasn't grateful for all that he had done for her- in fact, she was so grateful that the rest of the time that she spent in the bath went in to thinking of ways to repay the man for everything.

Laxus was pretty much in the same boat as Lucy. As soon as he entered the spare room, thoughts of her filled his mind. What on earth was she thinking, walking in to the guild looking like that? Why hadn't she gone to stay with anyone else for the night? Laxus let out a sigh. It was probably due to her being all cute and considerate again. Wait... cute? The blush that Laxus wore earlier decided to come back again. It must really like being attached to his face whenever there's anything to do with the small blonde woman.

Lucy stayed in the bath scrubbing her skin until the water was pretty much brown- it was worth it. she had her answer. While Laxus went to the guild tomorrow, Lucy would cook him a meal- Although for him it would pretty much be a banquet- and, well, she hadn't thought any further than a massive banquet.

LALU

The next day, the two blondes arrived at the guild. Giving Natsu a slight glare (he wasn't forgiven yet), Lucy ordered the first strawberry milkshake that she had had in what felt like an eternity. Laxus made his way to his usual table where the Raijinshuu sat, as he was eyed curiously by Mira.

Thanking Mira for the milkshake, she let the cool liquid slide down her throat as her mind, once again, went to Laxus. It was now like Laxus was her mind's default, almost like a screen-saver. It was getting ridiculous, how she couldn't sleep because of him invading her mind, how everything she did, she was reminded of him. Absent-mindedly sighing into her milkshake,she noticed a sort of shadow looming over her. Slowly turning to see what, or rather who, the silhouette belonged to, she almost let out a scream when she saw Freed with his drawn sword, pointed at her face.

The guild froze at the sound of the metal scraping against the sheath of Freed's sword. Almost as fast as Lucy took to assess the situation and realise that Freed was actually serious about trying to harm her for some reason, Laxus had already stood in front of the terrified blonde, his arm stretched outward in a protective gesture. As he looked back at Lucy to make sure that she was okay, Lucy could see the anger bubbling in his grey eyes. Her heart throbbed at the fact the he was getting frustrated because of she was being threatened. Seeing the genuine fear in her eyes, Laxus couldn't simply sit and watch as his supposed friend threaten his new house-mate for what reason? When he had told the Raijinshuu that Lucy was now living in his house, due to them asking so many questions, Freed's initial reaction was to ask if he had been drugged and the next thing Laxus knew, he was threatening Lucy with his sword.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Laxus practically snarled at the green-haired man. How dare he?

"She's not worthy." Was all he said before leaving the guild. What the hell did he mean 'she wasn't worthy'?

Laxus briefly apologised to Lucy for Freed's behaviour before he went after him.

LALU

Natsu was sick of Lucy ignoring him. Finding out the hard way that Lucy had moved out of her apartment, He followed her home that day. He had to follow her through her massive shopping trip beforehand. She brought so much food, Natsu couldn't believe it. Was she having a feast or party that she hadn't invited him to?

As Lucy began to cook her 'thank you for letting me live here and everything you've done for me lately, I really appreciate it' meal for Laxus, Natsu stood outside stumped. She could barely afford the rent for her tiny apartment, so how the hell could she buy such an amazing house, and then buy so much food after that? Finding a good window to crawl into, Natsu prepared to apologise to Lucy even though it wasn't his fault- how considerate he was being.

The cooking was going well- she had multiple meals laid out on Laxus' dining table already, however, what she wasn't expecting was Natsu's sudden appearance as she removed the fifteenth cooked meal from the oven, causing her to scream, drop the steaming hot meal on her leg, and scream even more.

Laxus was almost home,where he could explain Freed's behaviour properly, and apologise once more. Just as he reached the door, he heard a scream come from inside his house. As he made his way into his house, the screaming got louder and he found himself running into his kitchen to find one person he didn't want to see.

"Laxus? What the hell are you doing here?" Natsu asked, ignoring Lucy's screams of pain.

"I could ask you the same thing," He replied, audibly annoyed as he found his first aid kit."Now, get out my house." He finished, leaving Natsu wide-eyed.

"Huh? But this is Lucy's house. I followed her here and she had a key and everything."

"Yeah, because she lives with me, dipshit." Laxus sighed, before turning to Lucy and blocking out Natsu. "What were you even doing, cooking this much? It's pretty obvious you eat no where near that amount." he stated matter-of-factly.

"I was cooking for you..." She began to explain before she got cut off.

"You didn't have to do that."

"I wanted to. To say thank you." Lucy beamed up at him with a smile that Laxus couldn't believe. Her leg was severely burnt, and here she was, smiling at him,with one of the most beautiful smiles he had ever seen. They stayed like that for a while, staring into each other's eyes and ignoring the hell out of Natsu, until Lucy winced at the pain in her leg,causing Laxus to pick her up, run a bath of freezing cold water and dump her in. It made Lucy laugh,scream and wince in pain all at the same time. Leaving Lucy in the water for a while, he cleaned up his kitchen floor to the best of his ability, before returning to bandage up Lucy's leg. After that, he had to deal with her complaining about her soaking wet shorts and shirt, making Laxus let out a roaring laugh.

LALU

Laxus spent the next week helping Lucy around the house due to the extent of her injury and her insistence that they needn't bother Wendy, as well as knocking Natsu out whenever he almost let slip that the two were living together. He had already silenced the Raijinshuu, and decided not to tell anyone else due to their reaction, but with his luck, the loudest mouth in the guild had found out. However, after Lucy had told him what Natsu had done, Laxus had no problem with pounding his face into the floor or a nearby wall whenever he saw him.

LALU

It was a week or so later that the two blondes had finally realised their feelings for one another and Lucy had moved in permanently. The day they announced it to the guild, they were teased so much that it could have been classed as bullying, easily. Mira was shouting about her 'ship' again, while Cana jokingly asked when Lucy would be moving in. The two blondes froze, looking at each other, silently agreeing that now was the time that Laxus wouldn't punch Natsu.

"What do you mean, they've been living together for a while now?" Natsu announced, and the two blondes laughed as they began to make their way to their perfect home before they got murdered as a result of torture for answers going horribly wrong.

End