Oh lala! So far so good! Thank you guys for reading and reviewing but I'm kind of torn:

Lucy and Laxus? Lucy and Gray? OR Gray and Laxus?

So, what's it going to be? Lucy's fate is in your hands! Tell me what you guys think. LOL

Haha, kidding! I know who but for now: zziiip!

P.S.: Credits to the naughty person *wink* who suggested the third pairing.

OOC characters.

DISCLAIMER: HIRO MASHIMA OWNS FAIRY TAIL

CHAPTER TWO

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER

"Where's Lucy?" Natsu said to nowhere in particular as he continued having breakfast with Happy sitting on the table in front of him, happily munching his second fish for the day. Usually, by this time, Lucy would be at the guild hall having breakfast with them but for some reasons, she did not arrive and he was almost done eating. It was like a routine for the both of them. He'll arrive at the guild first, eat his breakfast and she would arrive a few minutes after, bright like the sun, before his food is gone.

'Maybe she got caught up with something or maybe she overslept?' He thought with a frown.

Mira, being the only person near him, heard Natsu and knitted her brows in confusion.

"Eh? You don't know?" Mira asked him.

"Know what?"

"Lucy left Magnolia yesterday. She said she's going away for a vacation or something."

"What?" Natsu's slammed his palms on the table, standing up. The noise made several heads turn in his direction. Damn, it was early and the morning and he had to be such a loud-mouth.

Mira sighed, refilling his glass with water.

"I just told you, didn't I?"

"But why didn't she tell us?! We're supposed to be partners and partners stick together right, Happy?"

"Aye!" Happy answered, raising his paw up in the air.

"Maybe she wanted to go alone and have a time for herself. Don't worry, she'll be back before you know it." Mira said, shrugging her shoulders with a smile, trying so bad not to tease him since her match-making radar was starting to kick in and Natsu looked just like a good victim but then Lucy wasn't here. Maybe some other time perhaps.

"But… But being alone is lonely!" Natsu whined.

The wooden door of the guild opened and a certain Ice Make mage went in, walking directly to where he was. Gray noticed Natsu's pouting.

"Where's the fire, Fire Freak?" Gray asked, smirking, and ordered a breakfast set from Mira who skipped towards the kitchen to prepare his meal.

"Lucy left," Happy explained. "She's so mean."

"Left?" Gray sat beside Natsu, who by now had his forehead against the table.

"Mira said she went away but she also said that Lucy will be back soon."

Suddenly, Natsu jumped on his seat and faced Happy with a new goal in mind, his fists wrapped in flames.

"That's it! Maybe we could catch up and surprise Lucy!"

"No!" A voice from behind them boomed. The three turned their heads and saw the master walking down the stairs towards them.

"Just sit tight here, brats."

"But Gramps!"

"Shut up! I don't want you ruining Lucy's vacation. Go take a mission or something, you good for nothing idiots!" The old man said and made his way out, his white coat flapping behind him.

"Tch." Gray scrunched up his face in irritation. It's not everyday that Natsu can actually think of something good but then the old man had to ruin it.

After a little while, Mira arrived with Gray's tray and went off again to cater the other guild members who started to arrive in time for their breakfast. Eating silently, Gray thought over as to why Lucy left without telling them. It's not like he was against her taking a vacation but to not inform them? Why keep it only to herself? What if something happens to her? What if she gets hurt or someone would kidnap her or something even worse? Where will they find her? Where did she go exactly? He still saw her yesterday, sitting in the bar, drinking and talking to Levy. He did not want to admit it but he was sure that he saw Lucy looking at him yesterday with a small smile on her face while he was in a wrestling match with Natsu over something that he could not remember. Why was she looking at him anyways? It's not that he found it creepy but it kind of 'fired him up', as Natsu would always say, when he caught her silently looking at him from the distance with her adorable brown eyes. Maybe Happy was right when he said that Lucy is weird. Sometimes.

Of course, if Natsu would ask him to come with him and find Lucy, he will, but then Gramps had to be such a killjoy and ban them from going after her. Maybe taking a mission alone or with Juvia could lessen the waiting time. For some reasons, taking missions with the Water Mage was actually kind of good, magic-wise that is. True enough, their elements were compatible, remembering how well it worked during the first time that they did a Unison Raid together, and finishing a job became a fast and an easy task but she had to be all creepy and obsessed with him. Thinking about her, he felt goose bumps all over his skin, making him shiver in a slight disgust. Ignoring Natsu beside him, he silently finished his meal and went to the request board.

A dream?

Or was it a memory?

Lucy thought to herself as she opened her eyes, slightly squinting at the blinding light that greeted her. She let her eyelids drop once again, feeling her eyes tear up a bit from the pain. Lucy searched for a pillow with eyes still closed and having found one she pulled it directly above to cover her face, blocking the morning sunlight as the darkness closed in. She tried to go back to sleep but she was too awake to do so and she suddenly regretted the fact that she had forgotten to the close the curtains right before she crashed on the bed last night but she knew that it was impossible.

She was pissed drunk last night but somehow she can still remember most of what happened, although not everything. She sighed against the pillow, trying to remember what she was dreaming about as the other half of her brain thanked the gods for not blessing her with a bad hangover.

Waking up with a pounding head can really be a troublesome pain in the ass. She knew by experience because it happens a lot not just to her but also to her fellow guild mates after a night of endless brawls and parties. Even one soft, teeny-bitty noise would seem like a dragon roared right through your ears and one slight movement of the muscles could purge out all the acidic and non-acidic contents in the stomach. She cringed at the thought of puking and shook it off out of her brain. She was just really glad that her head was not throbbing wildly at the moment.

Oh, where was she again?

Yeah.

She was thinking about her dream because it woke her up.

No.

She can remember it now- it was a memory but at the same time it was fused with snippets of dreamlike scenes.

Lucy remembers it then, it was a long time ago. She remembers flying out of the large room at the Hosenka Inn where her team mates decided to stay for the night, as she had suggested, after a successful mission. She just got out of bath with Erza but Natsu had to ruin her relaxing evening it when he decided to have a pillow fight. She smiled at the memory since it was where she got a little bit closer to Loke, since it was where she had started to uncover the reason why he was keeping his distance away from her.

To say that she was not offended at how he would avoid her like she was some kind of a leper was a total bullshit, especially recalling how she had written his name next to Jellal's profile on her list of possible boyfriend candidates and even if she had crossed it out after seeing his man-whorish-slash-flirtatious side, still, she was a bit hurt. He did not have to scurry away from her like how he did but in the end- all that's well ends well, or so they say, and somehow it did.

She remembers risking her life for him (as he also did for her), she remembers finding out that he was a 'fallen star who could never return back to the heavens' and most of all, after discovering that he was the gallant leader of the Zodiacs- Leo the Lion. Then, remembering something else, she almost laughed when the memory of her walking out on him, terribly pissed at the fact that he had managed to trick her with his flirty pick-up line while hugging her and then laughing at her reaction, only to later on realize that his pick-up line had actually a ring of truth in it.

Sitting up, Lucy took out Loke's key from under her head pillow and opened his gate. With a burst of a sparkling golden light, he appeared beside her dressed in his casual clothes.

"Good morning, my Love." He said huskily with a wink.

"Cut it out," She told him but smiled nonetheless.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" He asked. "Or maybe, do you want to take a shower with me?"

Lucy stood up and hit him playfully in the arm, shaking her head to decline his outrageous offer.

"No," Lucy started. "I was just thinking, maybe you want to join me later?"

Loke raised an eyebrow then wiggled it suggestively. "I'd join you anywhere, anytime, my Princess, as long as you moan out my name."

Lucy groaned. She had to be careful with her words around him. "For dinner, you idiot and don't get any ideas in that dirty mind of yours. Remember the Super Express Restaurant?"

Loke thought for a moment then nodded, wincing slightly at the memory when Lucy slapped his cheek. "Are you asking me out on a date?"

"Maybe. Whatever. So, are you in or what?"

Loke smirked and suddenly took her hand, kissing it. "Of course, anything for my beloved Princess."

This time, Lucy flashed him a smile. "All right then. I'll see you later."

Before he could injure her ears with his flirty lines again, Lucy forced closed his gate and sank back on the bed, bouncing softly against the fluffy mattress. Glancing at the wall clock, she noticed that she woke up a little to late for breakfast and a tad too early for lunch. She wasn't feeling hungry particularly but she knew that she had to eat since she had been drinking the night before and her body needs to replenish what it lost. Before taking a shower, she drank a glass of water to ease out the dryness in her throat as she planned to hit out the onsen later in the afternoon, thinking of inviting Virgo or Aries along with her.

Deciding to go along with the town's classic oriental ambience, Lucy decided to deck herself with a yukata. With lotus flowers as patters, the silk robe was teal in color and it made her blond hair, that was done up in a princess bun, stand out and shine in contrast to her milky skin. After what seemed like forever, she swirled around the mirror to check herself out and to see if she looked okay. Finally satisfied with how she looked, she headed out and enjoyed the day as a tourist.

By dusk, Lucy was still bursting with energy, exhilarated from her excursion all around the town. The people were nice, both locals and tourists alike, and they even smiled widely at her in greeting whenever they see or catch a glimpse of the pink, familiar guild mark at the back of her hand. It warmed her heart knowing that she was a member of Fairy Tail, Fiore's strongest guild. The guild was her last remaining family, a loving and protective family, albeit crazy and wild and destructive most of the time. She had been with them through thick and thin, through sorrow and joy and all the challenges that they had faced as a group only made them stronger but will it really stay that way forever?

Things change and nothing lasts. People change and time runs fast. Lucy tried to distract herself by looking at the stars above her as she leaned against the edge of the onsen, feeling the hard stone on her back, when she sensed that her thoughts were turning in the wrong direction. She was here to enjoy and relax herself and thinking about depressing things certainly was the wrong thing to do but this was not the first time that it happened.

For quite a while now, it had been like that. She would find herself thinking back, reminiscing about the happy things that had happened to her, remembering the blissful and joyful times that she had spent with her family at Fairy Tail, with her mother, her childhood when her father was still good to her and even her brief time with Michelle but then, all of a sudden, her thoughts would instantly turn dark and sour without warning and she did not even know what could have possibly triggered it.

Sometimes she would dream about it too. She would dream about being with her team, enjoying their time together laughing and talking after a tiring mission then, instantaneously, they would be transported in a different place and she would see them cold and bleeding on the ground right before her eyes. Lucy would wake up screaming with her sheets damp from the cold sweat after that and these disturbing dreams made her realize that time is fleeting, that there is no such thing as a perfect life and that anything bad can happen without warning. Exhaling out a heavy breath, she stood up and left the onsen, hoping that her dinner later with Loke would lift her spirits up again.

Living this kind of life was beginning to turn boring but Laxus knew that it was what keeps him going no matter how pointless it was. He was living a life with no direction, a life on repeat with no sense and no purpose, no goal and no motivation. Yet, at the same time, he just could not stop and give it up. There was nothing else for him to do.

Occasionally he would go back home in Magnolia, take an S-Class mission alone or sometimes with his team, The Thunder God Tribe, and then he would find himself leaving again on his own, going to one place after another. It was like a pilgrimage for him, a solitary journey but in the end, instead of feeling that sense of fulfilment, he would end up feeling empty, feeling nothing. He would feel as if he was just a dry and hollow shell, being washed here and there by the tide called life.

He walked the streets of Balsam Spa Village with powerful strides, his face serious in contemplation. He arrived a couple of hours ago but he ended up resting in his room after suffering from his motion sickness during the whole ride by train. He started to wonder what the Raijinshuu could be doing now. He thought of Freed who was now openly dating Mira. He thought of Evergreen and Elfman with their love/hate relationship. He thought of Bixlow and Lisanna.

'Damn.' He muttered under his breath.

His team took the whole of the Strauss' siblings and he was what? He was still alone, a fucking bachelor. Sure, he could have whomever he wanted to but only in bed, only the body but never the heart. Then, a certain Card Magic user mage came into mind. She had been his first girlfriend, his first kiss, his first fuck, but she was not his first love. He was 16 that time and like any other 'healthy' teenager and a dragon slayer at that, denying his instincts was a hard thing to do especially since he was new to the whole thing and had still no control over his physical urges. His grandfather had been aware of what he was doing but Laxus was stubborn and rebellious and the only thing that the old man had been able to inject inside his head was to never get a girl pregnant if he 'felt' nothing for the girl.

At first he had been confused but he was not stupid. He was still young and how could he possibly raise a child on his own? Cana was a drunkard and he knew that what they have would never last. What they had was purely physical, a relationship that was only fuelled by lust. They barely even talk to each other whenever they were inside the guild, they would barely acknowledge each other's presence. After a few months, they both grew tired and just drifted apart as if nothing happened at all. Cana went on drinking day after day, substituting water with alcohol and Laxus was, well, he went off chasing other girl's skirts, tasting other 'flavors' so to speak. Thinking it over, he knew that Loke was better than him. At least the guy was not some kind of a man-whore like he was.

'Tch.' He felt like a pussy, a wuss, thinking about love. He wanted to vomit from the thought. He did not want to be bothered by such a troublesome and stupid thing like that but seeing all the lovers frolicking along the street made him feel so bitter and Laxus Dreyar did not like it, not one bit. Sure, he loves Fairy Tail but that was all- a familial kind of love. It was like a strange concept to him, a foreign word and even if, one day, it would hit him hard in the face, he knew that he would not even recognize it. Knowing how big his pride was, he did not want to accept and admit it, not even to himself.

It was dark now. He was downright hungry and he needed a drink, a strong one. Remembering where the restaurant was located, he made his way there as he tried to ignore the smell of hormones and testosterones hovering all over the air. He almost cursed himself for being a dragon slayer. Picking up his pace, he walked quickly until he finally spotted the infamous golden head of the gigantic dragon adorning the restaurant's entrance under that signage that says: Super Express Restaurant. Eager to fill his appetite with the Nodding Chef's specialty, he went inside only to be greeted by a sound of laughter and a shock of orange and blond hair. He froze for a moment, trying to quickly contemplate whether or not to leave the place, but a pair of chocolate eyes met his.

"Laxus?"

He groaned. It was too late now.

"Yo."

It was awkward.

It was so fucking awkward.

Laxus knew that he had interrupted something but the pair showed no signs of him doing so but instead they invited him over to join them and he was a little bit tongue-tied to decline their offer. No. Her offer. He awkwardly made his way towards their table and sat beside Loke as the Nodding Chef came over to take his order. He never thought that he would see them here, especially the blonde Celestial Mage. Maybe she was with her team mates but seeing that Natsu was absent, he thought again, realizing that he couldn't smell the Fire Dragon Slayer all over her. He had never seen the girl without the pink-haired idiot and vice versa and had concluded that the two were dating but what's this right now? Was she cheating on Natsu? Why was Loke here with her?

And how could she just invite him over like that? Like they were good friends or something? He could not recall a time where he even talked to her and yet here she was, smiling at him casually. He had heard stories about how kind-hearted she was, that a single smile from her was like the sun itself. Back at the guild, she was always cheerful, always ready to fight for her friends; always ready to defend and protect them then he suddenly remembered the time at the GMG where he fought his father and the whole team of Ravel Tail. He did not know what occurred to him that time, but he remembered fighting for her name and sake when that Flare bitch attacked him, especially after seeing how she beat up Lucy. The memory made him feel funny, funny in a way that he did not know how to describe it. It made him uneasy.

"Laxus? Are you all right?" A soft voice broke him out from his reverie.

"Uh. Yeah." Dammit. 'What the hell is this?' He said, and then thought to himself.

"Anyways, I was asking you why are you here and where's the Raijinshuu?"

"Why? Am I not allowed here?" He growled, irritated at his own self.

"I was just asking you, jeez." Lucy said defensively.

Laxus did not know that his words came out wrong. He cursed himself silently, wondering what the hell was wrong with him.

"So?" She asked again.

This time, Laxus noticed her eyes. It was the first time that they were close together, face to face, and her eyes, he hated to admit it, were beautiful, almost to the point of enchanting. Before he could think anymore, he stopped himself and focused his gaze at the wall behind her. Beside him, Loke poured their empty cups with sake.

"I just finished a mission so I came here to relax," he lied. "What about you two?"

Lucy smiled at him and having sensed it, he felt his gaze go back to her. It was like gravity, like a magnet and he did not even want to think about it anymore, knowing that he could not possibly explain it.

"Oh," she giggled for a bit. "Nothing. I'm on vacation right now and Loke here just joined me for dinner."

"I wouldn't leave such a beautiful lady to her own now, would I?" Loke said. "There are perverts everywhere. Especially at night."

Laxus could not help but react to what he just said. "Yeah, you're right. There are perverts everywhere and one of them happens to be right beside me."

Loke glared at him and put on a wounded look, bringing his hand right up his chest. Just then, Laxus felt a tingling sensation in his hears when he heard Lucy laugh. He felt his body heat up.

'Just what in the devil's name was that?' He thought to himself. It was so absurd, it was just a laugh but how come? He started to feel so giddy in a freaky way as he looked at the girl across him, holding a hand to cover her mouth as she laughed with her eyes gleaming in mirth.

Just then, a loud pop filled the room as a figure beside them appeared.

"Virgo? What are you doing here?"

The spirit in the maid outfit bowed to them.

"Good evening, Princess. Good evening, brother and you too, Laxus-sama," Virgo said. "I'm sorry to interrupt your dinner but I need to borrow big brother here. The Spirit King demands his presence at the moment."

Loke groaned and gave Lucy an apologetic look. He stood up with a sigh.

"Well, there goes my night," he said. "I'm sorry, my Princess, but it looks like I have to go now. I'll make it up to you some other time."

Lucy frowned but nodded her head. "It's all right, Loke. I had a great time. Thanks!"

Loke turned to Laxus. "Well, I better go. Please take care of Lucy in my stead."

"Wha-" Before Laxus could even finish his words, the two celestial spirits disappeared with a pop and a flash of light. Laxus and Lucy stared at each other, unsure of what to say.

"I-" they chorused.

"You first." Strike two.

By now, Lucy had a faint blush on her cheeks. She bit her lip as Laxus ran his fingers through his blond, spiky hair.

"Damn."

Lucy giggled and he did not even realize that he said it out loud.

"Soooo..." She said, looking unsure but she was smiling and seeing her like that made him smile as well. Before he knew it, he said the words that he would regret later on. Probably.

"How about we drink somewhere else?"

TBC

Sooo... What do you guys think?

Let me know, please. (R&R)

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'Til then! :)