Lucy pulled out the Gemini key as quietly as she could, and nodded at the two spirits, having already discussed her strategy with them. The mage herself moved to hide behind a tree, then silently signaled to her spirits.

It was in the form of Wendy that the gemini spirits knocked on Porlyusica's door. She could tell the woman was displeased before she answered the door. Peeking out from behind the tree, she saw Porlyusica fall silent before shaking her head at Wendy's appearance.

"I know you're there, and you can come out. I am capable of telling the difference between a person and a celestial spirit." the older woman said, and she sounded insulted. Lucy realized that the plan wasn't necessarily ruined, and came out from behind the trees to directly approach Porlyusica.

"Of course. I just thought that you might enjoy seeing Wendy. Because of her relationship with Grandine, I thought it might be nice for you to see her without her seeing you." Lucy held back from making the sign for victory when she saw Porlyusica reach down and ruffle the copy's hair. Gemini's copy of Wendy responded appropriately, smiling and blushing a bit. Porlyusica pulled her hand away and then turned her intense red eyes onto Lucy. She took this as the sign to release gemini back to the spirit realm.

"What did you really come here for, ?" Porlyusica asked her point blank. Now that Lucy was here, she was having a hard time actually saying what she needed to say. When she saw the older woman beginning to retreat into her cottage she panicked.

"I think I'm sick! Can you please help me?" Lucy said quickly in one breath. Porlyusica merely looked annoyed, but seemed to understand what it was that she had said.

"You're fine. You're wasting my time."

"No, you don't understand! My period is late and it's never late! I've also been feeling really tired and sometimes I have a hard time eating." Lucy continued to speak really fast. Lucy had come to Porlyusica purposely because of her experience with magic, because there was no way in Earthland that she was pregnant. She had physically suffered so much in the past few weeks, from her "training" with Ultear to her defeats in the games and even her near death experience with that one Sabertooth woman, that it was impossible. This left only one, terrifying thing: she was sick. Porlyusica didn't seem any less annoyed, so Lucy started to wonder if maybe the sickness was just emotional exhaustion after all. The woman had said she was fine. The silence had stretched between them so long that she wasn't sure the older woman was going to answer at all.

"Are all humans this stupid?" Porlyusica admonished her, making her flinch. "I'll say this one more time: you are not ill." This made Lucy happy to hear, but she still couldn't really understand why the woman was being so harsh about it. Anyone would think they were sick in this situation, wouldn't they?

"But..." Lucy managed to say before Porlyusica rolled her eyes and turned to look at something in the distance behind Lucy.

"You look smart, you explain it to her." Porlyusica said to no one that Lucy could see before closing the door to her cottage. She nearly jumped out of her skin when a lightning bolt came down very close to her. It shocked Lucy into silence, even though it was just Laxus standing there. Why was Laxus here? How much had he heard? Was he going to tell anyone? Well, not that there was anything to tell since Porlyusica had very firmly told her that she was fine.

"You really have no idea, do you?" Laxus asked her quietly.

"I'm sorry I wasted Porlyusica's time, I guess it was just exhaustion. I'm embarrassed you had to see this. Were you here to ask something too?" Lucy said, trying to brush off this incident as coolly as possible. Laxus didn't respond the way she had hoped, and instead he raised his eyebrows while an unfamiliar blush fell across his face.

"Lucy, you're pregnant." He said, almost defensively. She had been looking away in her own embarrassment after her last statement, so when she spoke again she whipped her head back to look at him so quickly it was a wonder she didn't have a whiplash.

"What?" She uttered, before she had even had a chance to comprehend what he had said to her. His expression had gone to normal, and he seemed to be giving her a few moments to think this through. Once it did, she narrowed her eyebrows in consternation. "That's impossible!". He rested one of his large palms over his face, clearly having a hard time with the topic of their conversation. Lucy was too caught up in her emotional turmoil to give him any mercy. She charged at him, suddenly angry. He could have easily dodged her, but he stood still and let her hit him on his broad and solid chest. She gathered her hand back to herself, her anger dispelled by the pain and shame of letting herself take it out on him.

"I... I almost died." She said quietly, unable to meet his eyes.

"Lucy, let's talk about this somewhere else. Okay?" He said, seemingly much calmer than she was. She sighed, realizing that after lashing out at him, he deserved at least that much. Porlyusica was likely also waiting for them to leave. He rested one of those big hands on her shoulder, and they turned to walk back to Magnolia.

"We can't talk at my apartment," She simply stated, reassured and calmed by this turn in events. It was Laxus, so he wasn't going to tell her secrets to everyone. He was wonderfully complex in that way. Besides which, there was literally no telling who was waiting in her apartment right now. Did everyone in the guild have a key to her apartment or was there an air duct they were sneaking in through? Yet another mystery in this world that she didn't particularly care to know.

"My place is closer anyway."

Author's Notes:

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or its characters.

I'm glad that so many people are enjoying the story so far when I only published the first few chapters yesterday, but I really do appreciate reviews as well (much thanks to XxShyxX and Tiernank for being my first reviewers!). I also want to thank all the people who are following this story and want you to know that your faith is well placed. I hope to release a new chapter every day or so since they're so short, and my wonderful beta reader Gangzta4life5 is making this possible.

I know there hasn't been much actual LaLu up until now, but it's starting now. Don't miss it! See you next chapter!