Chapter Thirteen:

When he landed on the grass in front of his front porch, Laxus was unprepared for the fist that hit his jaw. Looking down, he saw a furious Lucy trying to push him away.

"Get off me you…" she swore at him, and Laxus looked at Levy, who had just come out of the house. The bluenette had moved beyond her initial shock of hearing Lucy swear worse than a sailor and even chuckled at the creative usage the blonde employed. Shrugging, he climbed the steps to the front porch and moved inside.

Yesterday, he had come home to find that Ever and Levy had filled his fridge with food and taped a sheet of recommended meals to the counter, courtesy of Wendy. Recipes were stacked next to the list of ideas, and Laxus wondered if they thought him incapable of cooking. It wasn't that he couldn't, he just chose not to.

By far though, the biggest changes were in his empty spare room. Laxus had placed an order for a twin bed, but the two women had overseen the delivery and made the bed. He had grimaced when he saw the pink coverlet they had chosen, but Levy had sworn that it was Lucy's favorite color, and Ever had said that the coverlet she had to throw out from Lucy's room was pink as well. When he had ordered the bed, he had also gotten a dresser and a desk as Levy had requested. Since he didn't see any suitcases in the room, he assumed that the girls had put her clothes away. Several books sat on the desk, and a few more rested next to the bed within easy reach.

Reaching the bed, Laxus set Lucy on top of it, ducking her fist as she swung at him again and backed away. Levy had followed them inside, and hovered in the doorway.

"Take me back to the guild," Lucy hissed, looking at Levy and ignoring Laxus. "I don't want to be here."

"I'm sorry Lu-chan," Levy said, wringing her hands. "Everyone agreed that this is the best place for you."

"Why not you?" Lucy asked, glaring at Laxus. "Why does it have to be him?"

"Lu-chan, I'm living on Gajeel's couch," Levy said softly. "Remember? I told you when I came back."

"Still on his couch?" Lucy asked acidly, her attention switching to the small girl. "Maybe I was wrong and he just thinks of you as a friend if you haven't been invited to his bed yet."

Levy ran out of the room, and he didn't have to smell the salt to know that she was crying. Turning back to the blonde on the bed, he pulled the desk chair over and sat down. "You're really being an asshole, you know that?" he said bluntly. He was tired of listening to her harass her friends when they were only trying to help.

"You would know more about being an asshole to people than me," she snapped, crossing her arms as she glared at him. "And don't tell me I shouldn't hurt them, because that's downright hypocritical."

"At least I've tried to stop hurting them," he snapped, knowing that he was rising to her bait. "And they're just trying to apologize."

"What if I don't want their damn apologies," Lucy said coldly. "What if I just want to be left alone?"

Laxus sighed. "You know we can't do that. At least while you're here you don't have to have someone in the room with you at all times. So stop complaining and acting like a child."

"I'll stop complaining if you take me back to the guild," Lucy insisted stubbornly.

"Nobody else has the room to take you," Laxus said. "And quite frankly, nobody else has the emotional strength to deal with your bullshit."

Lucy bristled. "I gave you a year and a half of my life. I think that entitles me to a right to bullshit."

"Nobody asked you to sign the bloody contract," Laxus snapped. "It was your choice."

"The first time," she hissed. "And I didn't see you caring about how much I gave up then. Especially since I was asked to sign the damn thing again."

Sighing, Laxus fought against the urge to react. He knew that's what she wanted from him, wanted him to cry and run away like Levy, or get angry and storm out like Mira. But if he gave in to her, she would keep pushing and pushing until he gave up and gave in.

"Lucy," he said, glad to hear that his voice was stern and not angry. "I know that things haven't been easy for you since Tartarus. But your guild just wants to help you, and so do I. You may not like the way we're going about things, but right now it's the only way we have. Just remember, we're not your enemies."

"What would you know about my last year and a half?" she spat, and he was amazed to see tears forming in her eyes. So far as he knew, Lucy hadn't cried since she woke up. "You weren't around for most of it! Nobody was, except my spirits, and you've taken them away from me!"

Laxus fidgeted slightly in his seat, thinking his words over before he said: "When you were unconscious, I gave Freed permission to search your room for anything that might tell us what happened."

She stared at him, her face as pale as it had been when she was bleeding out in his arms. "You didn't…"

Guilt burned in the pit of his stomach, but he kept his face blank as he said: "We didn't know what was going on. I promise you that only the Raijinshu read anything Freed found. Most of it was the contract, the records you kept of job payments, but…"

"You read my letters, didn't you?" she hissed, grabbing one of the books on her bedside table and throwing it weakly at him. Her aim was still bad, and he noticed that her arms were trembling. That must be the damage that Porlyusica and Wendy had meant when they told me she would have to undergo rehab.

"Not saying anything is as good as admitting your guilt," she said tartly, and Laxus put aside his examination of her physical condition and returned to her anger."

"Yes, I read the letters. Ever read them first, and brought them to Freed's attention. He was the one who brought them to me. Lucy, we didn't want to invade your privacy, but there was no other option at the time. We had to know what was going on."

"Well, now you know," she said icily, reaching for another book. "Now you know everything that I went through."

Should I tell her everything? Laxus wondered, watching her struggle to pick up the heavy book. She might think that we never found it, which would cause problems later on… Knowing that it was better to tell her now before she could actually hit him with the book, he sighed. "You know as well as I do that the letters don't tell me anything." They were mainly to her mother, with a few to the missing members of her team mixed in. But she never wrote anything serious in them, just sanitized accounts, as if she was trying to keep the receiver from worrying.

"No," she breathed, and he could smell the salt from her tears even though she tipped her face downwards so he couldn't see them. "Please tell me that you didn't…"

"Lucy, we had no choice." Laxus knew the protest was weak. What he had done could in a way be compared to his father implanting the lacrima in him. "You were lying in that bed and none of us knew what put you there. I did my best to keep as much from the others as possible. Ever found it, realized what it was, and gave it to Freed, who read it and then told me that I needed to read it."

"Get out," she whispered, her voice barely audible. "You invaded my privacy enough when you read my book."

Knowing that he couldn't do anything for her, Laxus checked the room to make sure that there was nothing in there that she could use to hurt herself with, and left.

Levy was sitting on his front porch, her mouth in a determined line as she looked out towards the trees. As he came up behind her, she said quietly: "He's making me choose what I'm comfortable with. That's why I'm still on the couch, even though I know he wouldn't mind if…"

"You don't need to justify yourself to me," he said quickly, not wanting the girl to feel as if she had to explain the nature of her relationship with Gajeel. "As long as nobody's being hurt, you don't need to tell me anything you're not comfortable with."

"What made her like this?" Levy asked, playing absently with her hair. "Lu-chan was rarely ever sad."

"She's not exactly sad…" Laxus said, trying to decide how best to explain. "Her year was rougher than any of us could have ever imagined if the information I have is correct. I suppose the best description of her…bitter. Lucy's struggling with bitterness. Levy, who stayed behind with Lucy during that year? Who did she see and who did she talk to?"

"As far as I know, she was here all by herself," Levy said slowly. "I think she said once that some people came by from time to time. When she mentioned it, I remember thinking that she must have been terribly lonely. Is that why she's angry?"

"Partially," Laxus allowed. "The Raijinshu appeared every six weeks or so, and she wrote to Erza and Wendy regularly. I assume you know that Grey disappeared, and Natsu left her a letter?"

"Grey left right around the time you did," Levy said immediately. "And I ran into Lu-chan while she was looking for Natsu. Erza left with Doranbolt to help settle the Magic Counciland leave Wendy at Lamia Scale. Lu-chan was really sad when she said goodbye to all of us. I wouldn't blame her if she was angry with us. If we had stayed, she wouldn't have had to deal with everything on her own."

"It's more than that though…I can't really explain because the only information I have is hearsay, but I don't think that she's actually truly angry with most people. She seems to understand that everyone had to leave back then."

"You said most people," Levy said, looking at him as he leaned against the railing of his porch. "That means she's angry with someone."

"You're looking right at him," he said quietly. "Of all of us, I betrayed her the most."

"Sure, you could have asked about the contract details," Levy began, but Laxus brushed her words aside.

"It's more than that. But Gajeel's here now, so you should get back to the guild. I'll call if we need anything."

"Okay Laxus-san," Levy said, smiling as Gajeel appeared on the path leading to the house. "Good luck with her. But you're the only one who's been able to go blow for blow with her since then."

"Thanks Levy," he said, watching her run out to meet the other dragon slayer. "I'm going to need it."