This is the shortest chapter I have ever written, but it was either cut here, or have a much too long chapter. So I hope you aren't too disappointed. The next chapter shouldn't take me too long.

Chapter 2

„Natsu! Let me go!" demanded the blond haired girl while trying to dislodge the two muscular arms currently wrapped tightly around her waist. The more she wriggled against his grasp, the tighter Natsu held her, pressing her back against his front.

He growled. "No! You didn't want to go on a mission with me and now suddenly you are taking one with Laxus? And how come I can't come along? You're MY partner!"

Anger and frustration had made his voice rougher, with the occasional growls that vibrated through his chest. Due to her very close proximity to that very same chest, Lucy could feel the rumbles they created. She squirmed again in his arms, looking beseechingly at her friends and guildmates all around them, silently asking for help. But was disappointed when she was only met with smirking faces. Damn them all. The only people who would have possibly been sympathetic to her plight - Levy, Wendy and Erza, were currently out on missions. Levy with her two team mates and Erza had taken Wendy and Charle along. Even Happy had gone with them to be close to Charle, not that she thought the Exceed would have been any help. He would have most likely just flown around over their heads while rolling his tongue and saying "They lllliiiike each other!"

And apparently the rest of her so called friends thought that watching her trying to reason with Natsu was great entertainment.

Right now he was holding on to her so tightly her feet were barely touching the ground.

She knew Natsu would be upset about this, but she had hoped he would understand if she explained it to him carefully. Instead he had latched onto her when she stood from the table after their talk and refused to let go since.

Sighing impatiently, she tried once more to reason with him.

"Natsu, we have been over this. I need Laxus' help because it's an S-Class job-" She didn't get any farther as Natsu interrupted her.

"But you don't like going on S-Class jobs!"

Lucy was currently fighting down the urge to snap at him.

"Yes, I don't. But like I already told you, this one is different. The request was issued by the Layton family, they were friends of my parents. I was good friends with their daughter, before I ran away from home, anyway. If they are in trouble, I want to help."

Natsu shook his head, hugging her to him even more.

"Then why can't I come with you?!"

Lucy gasped at the tightening of his arms. Any more of that and she would have trouble breathing.

"Because Laxus said you can't! He is probably tired of you challenging him all the time!"

Well, his exact words had been: 'Alright, I'll take you on the job, but your moronic idiot of a partner and his cat are not coming with us! I'm not gonna do a job with that fire obsessed nut destroying the employees house and a cat flying around my head talking about fish!'

Quite frankly, Lucy would rather have Natsu go with them as well. He always made her feel safe when he was with her and considering that this was an S-Class mission, she could really use some of that reassurance. Then there was also the fact that she still didn't quite know how to act around Laxus and having Natsu and Happy with them would have surely lightened the atmosphere.

But Laxus was doing her a favour, so the least she could do was to accommodate his wishes. Sadly, her partner didn't see it that way.

"Then fuck Laxus. Let's just go without him!"

Her eyebrow began twitching in annoyance.

"I can't go without Laxus, he is an S-Class wizard, who you need if you want to take on an S-Class job!"

"Then let's take Erza!"

"Erza isn't here right now and won't be back for the next few days. Apart from that, Laxus has already officially accepted the job. Right now he is probably on his way back from getting his things from his place to meet me here so that we can go to the train station!"

And thanks to her pink haired buffoon of a partner she was still at the guild, her travel bag still empty underneath her bed in her apartment and she was nowhere near ready to meet Laxus. Lucy groaned softly, she so hadn't wanted to make a bad impression on the lightning dragon slayer.

Gray was thinking of stepping in and helping Lucy out. At first he and the others had been content to just watch as Lucy tried to break things to Natsu as gently as possible. After all, what could be more entertaining than watching the Flame Brain whine and cling to Fairy Tails one and only celestial spirit mage like his non existent sanity depended on it? But as funny as it had been, he didn't want Lucy to get in trouble with Laxus because he had to wait for her to get ready. The dark haired ice mage was just about to take a step forward when he saw a figure approaching behind the arguing couple.

Natsu stubbornly shook his head and buried it into Lucy's neck, while lifting her feet completely off the floor.

"I don't care! You are not going on a mission without me, even if I have to-" his words were abruptly cut off when a large fist hit him on the back of the head, knocking him out in one blow.

Landing back on her feet, Lucy heard Natsu's unconcious body slump to the floor behind her and quickly turned around. Shocked, she took a slight step back.

"L-Laxus!"

The blonde man, a knapsack slung over his shoulder, just looked at the girl before him and shrugged.

"I expected him to make trouble. I'm guessing you haven't been able to pack anything yet?"

Taken aback by his rather laid back attitude, Lucy simply nodded.

Laxus turned around, heading for the doors again.

"Then lets get to your place and to the station before the moron wakes up again. Our train leaves in about forty minutes, think you can be packed in that time?"

Quickly shaking herself out of her stupor, Lucy ran a little to catch up to the larger man.

"O-of course, that's plenty enough time. Thanks Laxus."

He shrugged again.

"Don't mention it. I told you, it's always fun to pound Natsu."

Unbeknownst to him, Lucy relaxed slightly. Laxus had reacted far calmer than she had expected. He didn't even seem angry that she wasn't prepared yet. Maybe traveling with him wouldn't be so bad.

And the two left the guild hall.

The rest of the Fairy Tail crew stood in an unusualy silence, processing what had just taken place. Gray was the first to move, using his foot to prod the unmoving form of his frenemy on the floor.

"So, what are we gonna do with him?"

The train ride was spent in silence, but it wasn't an uncomfortable one. Apparently Laxus suffered from motion sickness as well, though his wasn't as severe as Natsu's and Gajeel's. Still, he told her before the train started to move that he would prefer to just close his eyes and listen to some music from his portable music lacrima. Lucy was completely fine with that. She had dreaded not knowing what to talk about with him during the three hours they would spend in the same compartment. Now though, she would have time to think about possible conversational topics for the two of them when they got off the train in Lirca, where the Layton estate stood.

Still, though, there was a nagging feeling in her gut that she had forgotten something.

Back at the guild, Master Makarov, laden down with a few books, papers, bags that probably held some very skimpy swim wear - if the shops label 'Wet Dreams' was anything to go on, and a huge grin made his way up to the bar. He decided to ignore the chained up and sulking pink haired dragon slayer slumped down against the wall next to it.

"Mirajane, would you happen to know if Lucy is still in my office, or if maybe she has made her way home already? Now, it wasn't easy to do this with such short notice, but I have taken care of everything concerning her little vacation and I got her some sweet stuff to boot!"

The takeover mage had a nervous grin on her face, as she set down the glass she had been cleaning and answered her Master.

"I'm sorry Master, but Lucy left for a job with Laxus a little over an hour ago. It should take them about three days."

Mirajane watched as one after one, the items the little old man was carrying fell to the floor, while his face lost its joyful expression. Then his lips formed into a small pout and he walked over to Natsu and sat down next to him. Both sulking. One because his partner was gone, and the other because it wasn't due to his genius planning.

to be continued...

Reviews:

Amyskywalker:Thank you for the kind words and I'm with you, I think the two can make a very cute sibling pair. I do hope I will be able to write them well. This lenghts better? :-)

Silly:Thanks so much. I agree with you, there should be more fanfics that have the two bond in a brother/sister way. Many hint at such a relationship, but so far I have seen non that really write it out. I'm gonna attempt to do that here and I can only hope that I will do well. Hope you like this chapter as well, even though it is rather short.

YamiHinata: Well, not quite yet mission time, but they are getting closer. Thanks for the comment.

Loulla:Thank you. I hope you liked this chapter as well, though it didn't have much Laxus/Lucy interaction.

alleycat1979:Thank you very much for your rec, I'll be checking it out myself soon, as I'm sure others already have. I hope this chapter was to your liking as well.

DaMastah101:I'm glad you said the bit about the grammar, because english isn't my first language and I always fret about these things. Gotta find myself a beta-reader. Thank you for the review.

Irelya:Thank you. Hope you liked this one as well.

Kyinue5356: Thanks. To be honest I was a little worried about how I wrote the Master and Laxus, but so far no one has complained and your words have given me extra courage.

Yua-hime: I love you for the long review you worte me, thank you so much. Originally, I just needed a reason for Lucy to be up on the second floor to see the mission request. And I wanted to have some kind of believable built up for that and not just some half-cooked story implement to have her up there. But I think this worked out pretty good. With her love for all things literature and her upbringing, I can really see her to be well versed in the management side of things.

It's great that you are close to your brother, I'm afraid me and my own are rather estranged. Maybe because we are so far apart in age. But I plan to put the spot light mostly on scenes between Lucy and Laxus here, hopefully the romance between her and Natsu won't come too short with that, gonna have to watch out for that. Say, if you are comfortable sharing that kind of information, is your brother older or younger than you? Mine is younger, by the way, nearly 7 years.

Sadly I wasn't able to make any recommendations for this chapter, I have hardly had time to read anything myself in the last few days, but I'm glad you liked them. If you are looking for more, my other story: Fighting Fairies, has a few as well. I think I started at chapter 7 there... And there are some in the reviews made by other readers.

I know this chapter doesn't have much content, but I hope you liked it anyway. Next one will be longer. Thank you again for your detailed review. :-)