Lucy stared in shock down the street where the Clefairy had run off. She held the cold and smooth edges of the rock, the spikes digging gently into her hands. She was scared to look was scared to face the situation that was, quite literally, pushed into her arms. It scared her not because of danger, but because of the attachment she felt to it. It was a feeling of love and protectiveness, even though she had never seen or heard of anything like it before. It was almost unnatural, the love she was beginning to feel towards this object. She was shaken out of her zoned out state by Cobra's hand shaking her shoulder.

"Star, what the fuck?!" Cobra's voice rang out in anger, fear, and frustration. "What's up with this shitty space rock?" As his fingers went to drag along the surface of one of the points, Lucy whined in protest and shuffled away from him, curling in the fetal position around the rock in the middle of the street.

"Don't touch it!" she whined once again.

Cobra stood up from his crouching position, staring blankly at the now certifiably insane woman. "Okay Star, once again, what the fuck is up with you and the shitty space rock."

Lucy uncurled from her position and sat up. "I-I don't know Cobra." she whispered, once again running her thumb over one of the edges."It's like… I feel this really weird connection to whatever this is. Like it's my duty to protect it. It feels almost human to me, like a child. But that can't be right. It's a rock…"

Cobra sighed, and held out his hand for Lucy to pull herself up. "Well," he began, "we can at least head home for now. We can head to the guild tomorrow, and we can ask the book-shrimp and grass top what the hell we do with this thing." Both of them once again began walking down the street, Lucy sending Klefki back and cradling the mysterious rock in her arms.


In the morning, Cobra was once again the first one up in the morning. He began to go through a part of his share of chores, since Lucy wouldn't be up until at least 9:30, even though he usually got up at 5:30. Plus Lucy would throw a complete shit fit if any dishes, even a spoon, was left in the sink, or if any clothes remained unfolded for any amount of time.

At 9 sharp, he began working on breakfast. Lucy was always on dinner detail. When he decided that it would be safe enough to wake her up without being on the receiving end of a "Lucy Punch!"™. He opened her bedroom door, and almost swore again because 1) Lucy was holding the rock which was now swaddled in a baby doll blanket in her sleep, 2) swearing is just a thing Cobra does constantly, and 3) he wasn't exactly sure how Lucy managed to find a blanket from a baby doll toy in the first place.

He sighed and turned to leave the room. He would rather hear her whining about getting up late than the potential fury of a protective Lucy.

"Is this person my friend?"

Cobra froze. Literally what the fuc-

"Is he also my friend? Is he just this person's friend?"

Okay, now somebody had to be shitting with them. He could hear this voice clearly, a voice that had all the depth and lightness of a pure soul. It was light, and flittering. But it had to be wrong, was absolutely had to be wrong. There was very few people he had met with their soul's voices sounding like that. There was Wendy, Yukino, Kinana, Lucy, and Chelia. There might be more, but he had never traveled outside of Fiore. Hearing that kind of voice was unsettling when he didn't know where it came from. Lucy was asleep and he already knew what she was dreaming about. No one else was here except for them. That voice…

"I'm so lonely… I so wish that she is my friend…"

Cobra started shaking when he realized where the voice was coming from. It was part fury, part fear, and part his need to protect Lucy. There was only one thing that voice could have come from.

Rushing back over to the sleeping Lucy, he tried his best to pry the mystery rock out of Lucy's arms without waking her up. He didn't need to alarm her, just needed to separate them. There were now multiple disturbing theories in his mind about the rock Lucy was holding, and none of them were the good kind of disturbing.

But of course Lucy only woke up when he just managed to tug the damn thing out of her arms. "Cobra…" she once again muttered as Scary Lucy™ took over, "what are you doing?" She stood up from the bed and rose to glare at him in her pink nightgown, once again making something that was intended to be cute and non threatening the complete opposite. As she moved to take the object out of his hands and Lucy Kick™ him into oblivion, he panicked,grabbed her wrist and threw the rock out of the room, making a huge thunk noise.

"Cobra, what the hell?!" Lucy shouted. Cobra attempted to awkwardly hug her in comfort/an attempt to get her to stop struggling, but only received a punch in the face.

"Aw shit you dumb fucking blonde!" he shouted without thinking and immediately curled in on himself. "Oh shit, wait Star I didn't mean it like that- oh MAVIS NO!" He yelled and was once again being chased by Lucy's pokemon.


After being hit by a Moonblast, Dazzling Gleam, and Psyshock combo and being striked out cold, Cobra woke up tied to a chair at the breakfast table, seated across Lucy. She was eating pancakes while the Klefki was making a mess by flopping around in the stick of butter set on the table. Meanwhile, the Kirlia was sitting on the counter with a basket of blueberry muffins, individually pulling each blueberry out and sorting them by size. He was sure that she let all her other pokemon as well as his out. His thoughts were confirmed when he saw his Dragalge swimming around in its' special bleach mixed fish tank; his Nidorino and her Plusle and Sylveon were fighting over control of the remote for the Lacrima TV, and his Toxicroak was goading the unnaturally calm Lopunny into fighting. By Lucy was his traitor of a Drapion begging for the bacon slices she was handing him, and his Serperior and Seviper were still curled around him.

Looking back at the blond, she still had the blanket wrapped rock in her lap. He groaned, sitting up straight in the chair. "Shit, Star," he said, "did you really have to knock me out that bad?"

Still focusing on her pancakes, she replied "Behaving badly or violently is against your probation contract, Cobra. It's my duty as your current guardian to oversee any difficulties you have integrating yourself back into society."

He groaned internally. He hated when she talked like that, especially when she was serious like this, and not joking or teasing about it like she usually does. "Star, I had a good reason."

"What was your 'good reason' for attacking me and Mr. Rock?"

"Okay, seriously Star, Mr. Rock?" He groaned at the miserable excuse for the name of the rock. "Besides, that's not my reason," He stopped speaking for a second to stare at her and get her to look directly in his eyes, "my reason is that there's something strange about that rock."

Lucy finally became serious, setting her fork on the plate and focusing on Cobra. "What do you mean, Cobra?"

"Star, I don't understand myself, but I heard things coming from it. As if it has a soul." he said. Lucy frowned, and the Lopunny hopped over to untie him from the chair, as if the pokemon always knew what it's owner wanted. He stretched, his hands raising over his head.

"Cobra, rocks don't have souls."

"I know that dipshit, I'm saying that isn't a fucking rock at all."

She frowned, walking over to the sink to rinse off her dishes. She turned around again, tugged her Klefki gently out of the butter dish, and sat down with a soft cloth to wipe it off. "Cobra," she began, "I don't understand it all. For all I can see what we got from that Clefairy last night was a rock. But it is strange… it's not even been a day and I feel so attached to it. Like it was my best friend, or something like that." She smiled gently down at the pokemon now gently chirping in her hands. "In any case, we should be getting to the guild. We can figure this out, right?" She smiled, and he agreed.


After cleaning up and Cobra actually getting his breakfast, Lucy and Cobra gathered their pokemon up and Lucy stuffed the strange rock into one of her backpacks. They both began a slow, quiet, and comfortable walk to the guild.

The noise from the guild reached Lucy's ears from a mile away, and you could feel the noise shaking you as you walked in. Everyone loved their pokemon too much to not at least have one of them out at a time, and the guild was always packed with both humans and pokemon, some even from other guilds. Natsu was being tackled by a whole pack of growlithe puppies, laughing rambunctiously and heartily. Mira was tending the bar, her Umbreon and Absol calmly taking naps in their soft beds she had put behind the bar for them. Juvia was showing a Totodile pictures of Gray, dancing in his human mama's excitement even though he really didn't understand. Gajeel and Midnight were both situated in dark corners of the guild; Gajeel was chewing on scrap metal while a Mawile was napping in his lap; Midnight was resting with his Musharna in a corner, cushioned by a Drowzee. Laxus was looking out over a balcony on a higher floor of the guild, situated in a comfy chair, a cold beer in hand, and stroking the fur of his Jolteon and Luxray, feeling and looking like a king.

Levy, looking up from her book with a Corsola tapping around her, greeted them both. "Hey Lu, how was your mission?"

Lucy sat down and Cobra went to sit in the slightly quieter portion of the guild with Gajeel and Midnight, his only eye keeping vigilant watch on Lucy. "It was nothing, we just had to punch out a few bandits and talk to Mest." she said.

"Well, I'm glad it went well!" Levy grinned at her. "By the way…" she pointed a finger at Lucy's backpack, "what's in there, Lucy?"

"Oh, that," Lucy spoke slowly, trying to figure out how to explain the situation to her friend, "It's just something strange Cobra and I found getting back from our mission. Here, let me show you." Lucy pulled off the backpack and reached in to pull out the rock. She stopped at the growling and confusion heard across the guild. The moment she touched the rock, Mira's Absol bounded from across the guild, claw lifted up to slash at her with a snarl lifting up it's slight snout.