Chapter 2
Lucy POV
I woke up to the sound of the forest around me. I tried to turn, but something held me in place. I lifted my head and saw Gajeels arm around me. I blinked, then blinked again, then I blushed.
How? Why? I thought, but then it all came back to me and I realized that I had just had the best sleep in a very long time. I smiled slightly, then I put my head back on his chest, closed my eyes and fell asleep again.
Gajeel POV
I woke to Lily poking me, I opened one eye and glared at him.
"What?" I asked grumpily, I hated being woken like that.
"Only that Lucy is using you as a pillow and you seem fine with it." He said and crossed his arms over his chest. I blinked at him then glanced down at the woman beside me. She seemed calm and at peace, not something I was used to when people were around me. I sighed and looked at Lily.
"As you probably know she has been having a hard time sleeping lately." I said, he nodded.
"I have noticed that she has seemed less energetic lately." He said
"Yea, well, last night after you had fallen asleep we found out why." I said, resting my head against the tree behind me.
"And?" What was ?" He asked
"She has become used to always hearing the sound of a heart beating close by when she sleep." I said, I saw how Lilys eyes widened in surprise. Then, as he looked at Bunny, they softened.
"Must be because Natsu always slept over at her place and probably sharing a room with Erza when out on missions." He said softly. I nodded.
"So, I didn't really want to tell her 'no' when she asked if she could sleep like this." I said, Lily nodded with a small smile. He knew I wasn't as cold and indifferent as I acted in the guild.
"I'm glad she was able to sleep." He said. Then we heard a groan and I felt Bunny move. We looked at her as she opened her eyes and looked around at us.
"Morning." She said with a smile and sat up. Stretching her back.
"Morning." Me and Lily said.
"Slept well?" I asked her, she smiled and nodded.
"I haven't slept that well in a long time." She said.
After that did we get up and Lucys maid spirit, Virgo, appeared with breakfast. A fruit salad with chicken for Lucy, a warm sub with kiwi on the side for Lily and a large warm sub with melted iron shavings on for me.
"She is spoiling us." Lily said halfway thru the meal. I nodded in agreement.
"She does that sometimes. Not all the time, but now and then she do." She smiled. It was obvious she loved her spirits.
"Well, I'm not complaining. This is one of the best breakfasts I've had while out on a mission." Lily said, smiling at her. She smiled back.
"Same here. When your team split up they didn't realized what they lost." I said, taking a huge bite of my sub.
"What? Free food?" She said, a glimt of humor in her eyes. But I saw the pain she tried to hide. It was the same as what I saw every time I looked in a mirror.
"That too. But I was thinking more off the fact that you are a great fighter and mage." I said, she blushed slightly.
"Really? They never really let me do much, so I always thought everyone assumed I was weak." She said, bowing her head slightly.
"Far from it. And not only that, but you are carrying too. So, I can't really see why they wanted to split up the team." Lily said. Bunny looked at us and smiled.
"Thanks you two. And the team hasn't been officially disbanded, we just stopped going on missions together." She said and shrugged.
"Odd." I said, she nodded.
"I'm thinking of telling master that I'm no longer on the team. That way we can do as you suggested earlier, and team up." She said, I gave her a smile.
"Sounds good to me." I said
"Me too." Lily said
~ Time Skip ~ Lucy POV
We had just left the clients house and a huge smile split my face as I looked at my new keys.
"Oh. My. Mavis. I have been looking for those two for years." I exclaimed, Gajeel and Lily looked at me.
"Which one did you get?" Gajeel asked me
"Pegasus and Lupus." I said, and, when I saw there confused looks, continued. "The Winged Horse and The Wolf."
"Ahh. I wonder what kind of power the have." Lily said
"I don't know. But if we find a place where I can summon them we can ask and I can make a contract with them." I said
"There is a park not far from here. I'm sure we can find a place where you can summon them there." Gajeel said, I nodded, smiling.
We quickly found a good place and I took out my two new keys.
~ After making a contract with them ~ Nobodys POV
Pegasus was a beautiful silver color, brown eyes and used wind magic and can fly really, really fast.
Lupus was a deep black color with blue shades and blue eyes. He uses shadow and sound magic. He was also very good at tracking and hunting.
~ Time Skip ~
The three Fairy Tail mages arrived back at the guild later that day and Lucy went right up to to Makarov office to talk to him about her leaving her old team and partnering up with Gajeel and Lily. She even go him to promise not to tell the guild or her old team.
"Why my child?" He asked her, she hesitated.
"Because I don't want more to deal with then I already have." She said.
"What do you mean?" He asked
"I like Natsu, as more then a friend, and to get over him I can't stay on his team. And Gajeel has promised to help keep me busy with missions until I'm okay again." She answered
"I didn't know that." He said apologetically
"Few really knew, but some suspected." She said
"Well, this changes some things." Makarov said and scratched the back of his head.
"What do you mean, master?" She asked him
"We got a mission that is requesting you, but it's a S-class mission, so you and Gajeel can't go alone." He said
"Why not send Laxus with us? We get along alright, and, he is S-class." Lucy said, Makarov blinked. Then he nodded.
"Okay, I will do that. Here is the mission sheet, go tell Gajeel that I prefer if you leave tomorrow morning." He said, giving her a paper.
"Will do so." Lucy smiled and stood up.
"Take care of the boys out there." Makarov said, Lucy laughed.
"I will try my best to keep them out of too much trouble. But I am, just like them, a true Fairy Tail mage." She said, making her guild master laugh.
"Tell Laxus I want to talk to him, would you?" He said, she nodded and left the office. On her way down she told Laxus that his grandfather wanted to talk to him. He nodded and went to talk to him. When he passed her he ruffled her hair and said.
"I'm glad you are better. The guild wasn't the same when you weren't your usual bubbling self. Just tell me if you want to beat up the flame brain for hurting you." She had been about to stick out her tongue at him for ruffling her hair, but now she just gaped.
"How?" She asked, looking around to make sure no one had heard what he had said, but the only one who had noticed was Gajeel.
"I'm not blind, Blondie. I see more then people think. And you can relax, the only ones I have told are my team, no one else." He said, she smiled up at him.
"Thanks. I don't want it to come out." She said, he nodded and went to talk to his gramps.
Gajeel POV
Me and Lily sat at our usual table waiting for Lucy to come down from talking to master.
"There she is." Lily said, nodding towards the stairs. I saw her come down and heard her conversation with Laxus. After wards did she walk straight over to our table.
"How did it go?" I asked
"It went well. He had a mission for us, it requested me, and is a S-class." She said and sat down beside me.
"That's why he wanted to talk to Laxus?" I asked, she nodded.
"Yea, since none of us is S-class and I don't feel like dealing with my now old team, so I said he could check with Laxus, since we get along alright. I hope that was alright" she explained
"Sure, when do we leave?" I said
"Tomorrow morning." She said, me and Lily nodded.
After that we just talked, trying to get to know each other better. A while later did Laxus come up to us and joined our conversation. We continued talking until Laxus said.
"Gramps never said what the mission was about. Can I see the mission sheet?" I blinked, I had forgotten about the mission.
"Sure, it's something about some monster. I'm not sure what." She said, Laxus nodded and read the sheet over, when he lowered it I gestured for it and he gave it to me.
*S-class mission : kill a monster that's attacking our town
Location : XX town
Reward : 6.000.000J + 1 Celestial key
Requested mage : Lucy Heartfilia*
"Doesn't sound too hard, but we shouldn't underestimate it." Laxus said when I gave it back to Bunny. I nodded.
"Well, it is a S-class mission. So I kinda guessed that it would be dangerous, so you don't have to tell me not to underestimate it." Bunny said
"Worried?" I asked, she shook her head.
"No. I know we can do it." She said, we smiled.
"You got that right, Blondie." Laxus said
"When are you going to realize you are blond too?" Bunny asked, sounding exasperated, but there was a small smile on her lips.
"When ash brain realize he is an idiot." Laxus said, I saw Bunny stiffen slightly but then relaxed.
"In other words, never." She said. Both me and Laxus started laughing at that. Lily snickered.
"Exactly." Laxus said, just then did I cast a look on the clock.
"Dame, it's already midnight. And our train leaves at 8." I said
"And non of us have packed for the mission yet." Bunny said
"See ya tomorrow." Laxus said and left using his lightning speed, we blinked.
"Thank was fast." Bunny said
"Well, we should leave as well. See you at the station tomorrow morning." I said as we left the guild.
"Yea, see ya tomorrow." Bunny said and walked of.
Nobodys POV
Lucy walked home, dredging the silence in her house. She unlocked her door and walked in.
"Hello, how have you been?" A voice said, she jumped and turned.
"Gray! What are you doing here?" She asked her ex-teammate, who were only in his underwear, sitting in the couch.
"I haven't seen you in forever, and wanted to see how you were doing." He said
"Oh." She said. "Well, I don't have time right now. I have to pack for a mission tomorrow and then sleep." She said, shrugging.
"Need any help with the mission? I can get the others and we can all go." He said
"It's okay, I don't need help. It's only a quick mission to take out a monster." She said, Gray blinked.
Since when did she act as if a monster is no big thing? Gray thought
"It's no problem, it would be my pleasure to drag flame brain out of bed." He said
"Neither Erza nor Natsu is home, they are out on missions." Lucy said, glad she managed to say Natsus Name without stuttering.
"Oh, then it can be just you and me then." Gray said
"No, I don't need the help. How many times do I have to tell you that?" Lucy said, starting to get irritated.
"Whaa. Calm down. I didn't mean you can't take care of yourself. I just wanted to help." Gray said, lifting his hands in the universal gesture for peace
"Then where were you when I did need the help a few weeks ago? Where were you when I fought the dark mages a week ago? I did need your help then, but now? Now I have others who help me when I need it. So stop pretending I'm more then just an other member of the guild. Because you all showed quiet obviously that's all I am to you." She said, breathing heavily. Then she stalked up to her closet and pulled out a backpack and some clothes, putting her clothes in the back pack.
"Lucy, I..." Gray said, but Lucy interrupted him.
"Save it. I don't haven time for your excuses. I need to get to bed. So if you could please leave it would be a great help." She said
"I'm sorry I wasn't there. And who are you working with now?" Gray said, bowing his head.
"So was I, and it's no one you need to worry about." Lucy said, her voice snappy. Grays shoulders sagged and he nodded. Leaving thru the front door, closing it gently behind him.
Lucy locked it and walked over to her bed, sat down and took her alarm clock. She sat it on 7 so she could take a quick shower and get something to eat on the way to the station. Then she went in to the bathroom and prepared for bed before undressing and lying down, hoping to get at least a little bit of sleep.
Gray POV
I walked thru the streets towards my apartment while thinking of what had happened at Lucys apartment.
How long has she been working alone? Why didn't she ask us for help? I thought
"Gray!" I heard a voice shout, I turned and saw my girlfriend, Juvia. I smiled at her.
"Hi, already back? That was fast." I said and gave her a hug.
"The mission was easy for Juvia." She said, then she frowned. "But you don't seem very happy. Did something happen?" She asked, I sighed.
"Lucy practically thru me out of her apartment when I went there to visit." I said and told her everything that had happened while we walked to a cafe that was open 24/7. We sat down and ordered what we wanted.
"Juvia isn't that surprised." She said, I stared at her. She just shrugged. "Juvia isn't." She just said.
"Why not?" I asked, trying to see what she had.
"Lucy likes Natsu and she was hurt when he chose Lisanna, and was hurt again when you and Erza stopped going on missions with her for Juvia and Jellal, rather then inviting us to come with all of you. You left her alone when you knew how much she hates being alone more then anything else." She explained between sips of her tea. I just sat there, staring while I took in what she had said.
"I can't believe we, I, did that to her." I said, then I looked up at Juvia, panic in my voice. "Do you think she ever will forgive me?" I asked her. She shrugged.
"Juvia don't know. Lucy is a very forgiving person, she forgave Juvia and Gajeel after all, but even she has things she can't forgive." She said, I slumped down in my seat. Feeling like the biggest A-hole in the world for treating Lucy, who I see as a sister, like I had.
"Wait, you said she likes Natsu?" I asked
"Yes, she do, it wasn't hard to see for someone watching. But Juvia thinks those feelings are dwindling." She said
"Why do you think that?" I asked, once again amassed by her observation skills.
"Lucy is someone who won't stay in a dark place for too long, either she will get out of there by herself or someone will help her, since people just seem unable to leave her alone when she is down. But either way, she won't stay depressed." Juvia explained, I nodded, that sounded like Lucy.
Nobodys POV
Gray and Juvia stayed at the cafe talking for an hour more before going home.
In the meantime was Lucy lying on her bed, trying to sleep but knowing she wouldn't get any.