Within: brawling (what else is new?); Lucy master plans (which work out better than Gajeel's any day); property destruction (Fairy Tail normality); Unison Raid (caught on camera); grabby hands (he can't keep them to himself).

Okay, so people wanted more, so I put my butt into gear to get you this. Seriously. I'm in hospital 2 times a week on top of work, so this is a miracle chapter. Or not.

I might not be able to update for a little while, depending on what the surgeon tells me on Monday… so, err, yeah.

Edited on the fly, waiting for my ride to the hospital. So, mistakes – please point them out.

Song by David Whitaker (Guilty Crown OST)

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Chapter 11 – Ready To Go

Months, although it had felt like years by now, of partnering up with Natsu, and subsequently Erza and Gray, had given Lucy phenomenal ducking skills. With the calibre of enemies that her team managed to attract, Lucy had developed an almost uncanny ability to dodge enemy attacks, not even mentioning friendly-fire. When Erza got angry, sometimes she threw things, at least of half of Gray's Ice Make magic were projectile-based, and Natsu was just as likely to hit his nakama (accidentally) as he was an enemy. As such, Lucy had the upper hand in this particular battle.

And this particular talent came in handy, while Taurus was ploughing through people, when one particularly annoying mage decided to sit upon the building's wooden roof beams and hurl handfuls of magic at them. She wasn't quite sure what kind of magic he used, only that it seemed to corrode whatever it touched - and she wasn't keen to find out what happened when it touched human skin. From what Lucy managed to deduce through the battle-cries and screams (at Gajeel), this acid-throwing mage was their rag-tag leader, and there, hanging around his neck, was a certain ultra-special one-of-a-kind camera.

The mage hadn't managed to stash it away when Gajeel came bursting through the doors and flattened two mages into the ground just by running into them. There was no use hiding it now, since they had caught sight of it, and the opposing mage seemed more than happy to keep it looped around his neck while pelting the with acid. What really sucked the most was that Acid McGee up there seemed to be dedicating his invaluable evil-dark-guild time to aiming mostly at Lucy, and not the more easily targetable Iron Dragon Slayer. It was in moments like these that Lucy missed Erza and her armour-induced ability to fly. How that bastard had gotten up there in the first place was baffling, because there must be a two story drop to the floor with no discernable way up apart from flying.

But that was something to be thought about where there wasn't acidic gloop being pelted at her from a distance, and she really needed to figure out how to get him down, as violently as possible. But therein lies a problem; he had the camera, and while Sagittarius could shoot him down, there was a good chance that the camera would get ruined as well - that meant no payday and damages. Gajeel had preoccupied himself with systematically exterminating the remaining ground force of mages, most of who had been crushed under the superior weight and strength of the Iron Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail. Lucy wasn't quite sure if she hated the fact that Gajeel was ignoring her, or was flattered that he thought her as an equal who could protect themselves.

Lucy let out a fairly high pitched sheik as she narrowly missed a sizzling glob of toxic material.

Hated it. She hated Gajeel right now.

Taurus decided to hang back after that near-miss, but there was little the ecliptic zodiac could do apart from push Lucy out the way when the shots got too close. All in all, with the ground force being decimated by Gajeel, and Pantherlily preoccupied with keeping Jason alive, it was up to Lucy to take down that guy. Lucy had already taken down her share of enemies on the ground-level, but since Gajeel was busy play psycho-Dragon-Slayer in the corner, getting the camera back was now up to her. But how the hell did she get it back without damaging it, and without being sizzled over by whatever the hell that corrosive shit was.

There was no point in asking Taurus for a strategy - the bull was remarkably like Natsu in battle, and there was no choice for Lucy other than to recall the spirit. Taurus readily agreed to the gate closure; while the bull was always rearing for a battle, there was a good chance that Lucy would be seriously hurt if she kept him out as her spirit. With the spirit sent back to the celestial world, Lucy was left with all her other spirits to call upon, but which? The obvious choice was Sagittarius, what with his long-range and accurate attacks, but there was a real chance that the camera, their payday, would get broken in the scuffle. To defeat that mage, they needed to get the camera away from him, then her spirit could drill him with a well-placed shot.

It all revolved in getting that camera, but there was no way for Lucy to reach the opposing mage. Her fleuve d'étoiles didn't have that kind of reach, even if it was a spirit weapon, and the closest spirit she had to retrieval would be Gemini with their ability to fly in the air. But if she called upon the twins to reclaim the camera, then she had no way of attacking the offending mage, let alone defending herself from the barrage of attacks that were steadily coming her way. Pantherlily could probably fly up and snatch it, but that would require a distraction… a distraction…

And what was more distracting than a not-so-stable Iron Dragon Slayer rampaging towards you?

Now, to get Gajeel over.

"Gajeel, help!"

Admittedly, not the most stealthy of signals, but effective nonetheless – and it probably helped that the moment he looked over she just narrowly dodged a hunk of acid or whatever the fuck it was. And Gajeel arrived, first in the form of a massive roar ripping over her head, caving in part of the roof and a stack of rafters - the slippery little bastard jumped out the way. Then the Dragon Slayer was in front of her, teeth bared in a snarl as he stood firmly between Lucy and Acid McGee, and her heart fluttered a little at the display. But now was not the time to go all moony (not that she would ever admit it) over the Slayer, so Lucy closed the brief gap between them with a short step.

"I need you to distract him for a few minutes," Lucy whispered into his ear.

She got no affirmative response from him, but he did let out a feral snarl and hurl a handful of razor-sharp iron shards up at the mage - who barely dodged. Gajeel peeled away from Lucy, moving at a fair clip to the left, pointedly away from both Lucy and Pantherlily, and this was clearly not the first time that Gajeel had played decoy. With the enemy mage's attentions firmly affixed on the angry incoming Dragon Slayer, Lucy fled as quickly and as quietly as she could over to Lily, who had been given a brief breather by the massive scene Gajeel was causing. Jason, despite being in possibly mortal danger, looked like he was having the time of his life, snapping away with his back-up camera.

"Lily," Lucy beckoned.

The exceed fluttered onto her shoulder, his rounded ears perked and eyes firmly fixed on the few mages left converging on Gajeel. Poor bastards.

"I need you to grab that camera. Don't worry about breaking the strap, just get it. I'll watch Jason," Lucy told him.

Lily nodded his little head, and used the still-ensuing chaos to zip off to one side unseen. Enemy mages were starting to converge on Gajeel, and although the Slayer could take the abuse, Lucy was begrudgingly worried about his injuries from Tartaros. He would never admit it, but he was favouring his uninjured side - Lucy could only see it because she had been working with him since. Working with him. Sweet Spirits, she had been working with Gajeel Redfox almost amicably, and she had been sort-of enjoying herself.

But now was not the time for that. She needed to draw attention, however minimal, away from Gajeel, who was now getting battered from two different sides. A quick fix. She needed a quick fix... yes!

Her hands sought out her key by touch and the tug of supernatural power. With her hand firmly wrapped around the golden zodiac key, Lucy presented it to the heavens.

"Open! The gate of the Scorpion! Scorpio!"

There was a flash of light as she unlocked the air in front of her, and the scorpion zodiac erupted onto the battlefield. Scorpio cried out his usual greetings, perpetual grin on his face - it had been a while since she had called out the scorpion zodiac for a fight.

"Scorpio, Sand Buster!" Lucy cried, jabbing her finger at the convergence of mages on Gajeel.

Scorpio knew - all her spirits knew her intentions without her saying - and hunched over to let the whirlwind of sand explode from his tail. It careened along the trajectory that Lucy had pointed out, and just like her intentions, it slammed into the enemy mages and just missed Gajeel by a hairsbreadth. The Iron Dragon Slayer looked startled for a split second before the feral grin stretched across his face, and with one massive roar, effectively eliminated the remaining ground forces in the warehouse. He always looked a bit manic in a battle, Lucy had noticed, and she could honestly say that Gajeel got more joy out of fighting than Natsu did, which was a stretch.

A tingling sensation on the back of her neck, the one that usually meant danger, compelled her to drop completely to the ground just in time to dodge more acid. She felt it whizz past her ear as she ducked, and the smell of burnt hair lodged in her nostrils. Rolling out the way and standing onto her knees found that the hair on the left side of her face was singed at the ends and corroded to brown. Lucy shrieked in both anger and alarm. Her hair! Her perfect, golden hair was ruined! That bastard!

A snarl ripped from somewhere above her head and she felt a heavy hand grab her - Lucy freaked out. She gave a sharp, piercing shriek and twisted and thrashed her body to get out the crushingly heavy grip on her arm. Where the hell was Gajeel?!

She was hauled upright suddenly, her alarmed eyes meeting angry-red ones, and her entire body went lax in the heavy grip. Gajeel had her by the arm, hauling her up onto her feet with a single hand. He had his iron scales activated along his arms and neck - which explained the heavy, crushing sensation - and he looked almost comically blank. No rage, no anger; it was like he was caught in between conflicting emotions and just settled on blank. Lucy blinked. Since it was Gajeel who grabbed her, he must have stormed over when he heard her scream…

…?

Was he worried about her?

His eyes were averted now, his grip loosened but still solid around her bicep, his slitted eyes locked firmly on the singular enemy mage left in the rafters. Lucy's eyes were fixed on him as she watched something amazing; his lips twitched downwards, his sharp teeth bared, his brow crinkled and he roared. It wasn't magic, it was just anger; he had found his rage again, and Lucy could feel the rumbling vibration of his cry through her bones and her chest. There was nothing she had experienced in her life that could match that feeling.

Everything in his body language switched to aggressive, more so than usual, and if anyone thought he looked scary before, then they should see him now. Every hardened line of his body screamed anger, rage and violence; and now Lucy could really see what set him apart from Natsu. She thought she knew at least a little about Dragon Slayers - she had been partnered up with one the longest, after all - and when Natsu got angry he carried this aura of dragon-like rage. But it was carved into every fibre of Gajeel's reflexes, his animalistic anger and war-mongering, his fierce loyalty and his urge to protect…

Lucy shrieked as she was shoved backwards by Gajeel, and she heard him growl as he threw his arms up in front of his as a shield. Lucy heard the sizzling sound of the Acid McGee's goop hitting something somewhere in front of her, and her instincts already had her back on her feet, whip in hand although it had no use right now. Gajeel was before her, iron-scaled arms thrown out in front of him in a cross pattern to protect himself, and Lucy could see the acid dripping off his scales. With an angry hiss from the Dragon Slayer, he flung the acid off his scaled arms; there was scalding on his scales, and Lucy dreaded to think what would have happened if Gajeel hadn't of activated his scales. That the attack was strong enough to damage dragon scales said enough.

Gajeel had thrown his arms up again, and again Lucy heard the sickening sound of corrosive liquid hitting the Dragon Slayer's scales. She didn't care how strong Gajeel boasted; he couldn't keep taking a beating like this - they had to retaliate, but how? There was no way to land a melee attack on his while he was squirreled away in the rafters, and the bastard had already shown that he was quick enough to dodge Gajeel's roar, if only by a little bit. They needed a bigger attack angle, something that could hit wider than what Acid McGee could escape from, and that meant that they were going to have to ramp up Gajeel's roar attack.

But how? Gajeel already had a wide and powerful range to his Houko, and it wasn't like she could just ask Gajeel to ramp up the power. He always put his full power into his movements unless he was pitted against his nakama (not that he would claim he had them outside Lily). How, how, how?! Maybe… maybe a joint attack might do the trick. She had been experimenting with these attacks with Natsu ever since the Tower of Heaven; since Lucy and Juvia created that massive attack with a clash of their power. Unison Raid, Master had called it; a rare feat where two compatible magics and people clash to create a powerful fusion attack. She doubted that she could Unison Raid with Gajeel. All his attacks were very physical, and she didn't think that you could combine physical attacks effectively - Natsu had tried with Loki, and failed miserably.

But physical would get them nowhere, because that bastard was still in the rafters, targeting Gajeel who had taken to dodging now unless it was aimed at Lucy. Lucy realised what he was doing; Gajeel was both satisfying his need to protect along with giving her an opening to think up a plan. He was trusting her. That was probably the most startling thing about this situation - not the fact that he had kissed her not half an hour ago, but that he trusted her with a major situation. Gajeel was placing with little faith he had left from his violent jaded life in her right now, and Lucy would not let him down. There was no way - this was too important to her; the respect of Gajeel Redfox.

Right.

She had to find a way to get Gajeel's roar to hit a wider area. If Gajeel could get into the rafters, then… no, the Slayer was much too heavy for those wooden beams to support his bulk. Lily could perform a sneak attack and knock him from the roofing… no, he was preoccupied with trying to find an opening to snatch away the camera. Maybe Gemini… no, that would conflict with Pantherlily's task. Shit, what could she do to knock that bastard down? She was running out of magical power from switching celestial spirits too much, and all she had left was Scorpio there and… and….

Huh.

Scorpio. Gajeel. Ranged attacks. Whirlwinds.

Huh.

Why the hell not?

It was the best option - it was the only option to get Acid McGee down from there; to use Scorpio's Sand Buster to add more wind and rotation to Gajeel's own roar. Scorpio twitched a bit, like he knew what Lucy was thinking, and shot an audacious wink at her; she often wondered how such a nice guy could date a hag like Aquarius.

Lucy dashed forwards and wrapped her hand in the back of his ratty tunic, giving it a short tug so that Gajeel knew she was there. The Iron Dragon Slayer suddenly turned around and grabbed her, his iron scales clanging noisily, and threw himself to the side, Lucy and all. She knew it must have been to circumvent an oncoming attack, but she still let out a startled squeak at being suddenly crushed to him. His arms were wrapped firmly around her body like an iron vice, but she wasn't being choked for breath; it was right on the line for uncomfortable.

Lucy grabbed a handful of hair and tugged, and Gajeel made a hissy sound that echoed through her body and made her toes tingle, but she quickly snapped out of it. At the risk of losing a handful of hair, he had ducked down that bit so that Lucy was on eye-level with him. This was probably the closest she had been to the Iron Dragon Slayer's face… well, except for when they kissed and his tongue licked her teeth and…

Fuck. This wasn't the time. She could analyse it all she wanted later, when her pretty hair was in danger of getting burnt again.

"When I give you the signal, launch a roar at him," Lucy whispered.

Their noses were almost touching, and her heart was hammering so hard in her chest that she was sure that Gajeel could hear it. But she was looking right into his eyes, and they were actually quite a pretty colour, and those slitted pupils were locked onto her, getting wider and wider…

Gajeel threw an arm up, changed into iron and flattened, so that the glob of acid hit his sword instead of her face. Too close. Too dangerous.

And she didn't mean that attack.

From under the protective veneer of Gajeel's iron and anger, Lucy sought out Pantherlily - and spotted him. She only found him because she was looking for the small exceed; he had managed to wheedle his way right up behind the dirtbag mage and was just looking for an opening. Well, Lucy could create that.

"Lily, now!" Lucy shrieked, pointing directly at Acid McGee.

Gajeel was looking back at her like she had lost her last marbles, but she got the reaction from rafters-bat that she was looking for. With a very startled look on his face, the enemy mage turned around as much as he could, contorting his torso and…

Pantherlily dashed forwards and latched onto the camera, kicking off the enemy mage's chest with as much force as he could. It resulted in a rather sickening snap of the camera's strap, but it came loose and Lily fell to the floor. The exceed easily regained his posture, wings outstretched, and levelled out before hitting the floor. And Pantherlily was out of there, putting as much distance between himself and the enemy mage as he could - and leaving the fight to Lucy and Gajeel. Gajeel had a very toothy smirk on his face, his red eyes looking back at her; and Lucy did believe that she had just gotten his approval. Adrenalin coursing through her body was making her toes tingle and her nerves rubbed raw, and those ruby-red eyes weren't helping.

That acidic A-hole snapped back to Lucy, eyes full of rage. Lucy crinkled her nose and glared back; she might have been weary or even intimidated under different circumstances, but she had a plan. Lucy smirked in a way that would make Gajeel proud, her fingers still twined in the back of his tunic, and tugged gently. She could feel the powerful muscles in his back lock up, his stance harden as he turned to fully face the last mage left standing. Lucy found herself standing beside Gajeel instead of being shielded by him, and her fingers left the back of his tunic to throw her arm out in front of her.

"Scorpio, Sand Buster!" Lucy ordered

It was almost like slow motion as she watched her celestial spirit's aim his tail, watching the metal plates shift individually as the sandstorm worked it way through his tail to explode out the tip. And that same second, it felt like her hair was standing on end as she felt the mass of power welling beside her in the Slayer. It exploded out of Gajeel's mouth not a split-second later, and it always amazed her to see a roar released so close. Her attack and Gajeel's Houko met half way to the enemy mage, and Lucy bit her lip in the hopes that this would work, because Acid A-hole was just about to jump out the way.

Then their attacks clashed. For a second, it looked like they were cancelling each other out; then Lucy heard a noise like nothing she had ever heard, like rushing wind and creaking and then exploding. Where the roar and sand met in the air changed colour, and the resulting whirlwind was so freakin' huge that Lucy was getting sucked in. And she would have if Gajeel's hadn't of grabbed her by the back of her shirt and dragged her back to the ground, his iron-scaled arm firmly around her and keeping her weighted down. And Gajeel was watching in dark glee as the exploding sand and iron whirlwind tore through the roof.

The whole roof.

They took out the entire roof of the goddam building! Fuck, Natsu would be so proud of her right now.

But what was more amazing was that it had worked. Her magic had fused with Gajeel's perfectly to create a Unison Raid. The last of the wind was whipping away, and she could see only the legs of their enemy mage, caught in the rubble of the rafters, but oh my god, Unison Raid! Lucy couldn't contain her excited squeal, and from what she would later say was adrenalin, she spun around and threw her arms around Gajeel's neck. Gajeel went bone-wrenching stiff against her, but she was still riding the high of Unison Raid, and he still had his arm around her waist.

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"They sure come out with these quick, don't they?" Lucy mused.

Gajeel and Lucy were walking down the canal road of Magnolia that afternoon, and her apartment was in sight from down the road. In her hands was a copy of Sorcerer's Weekly, and right there, on the cover, but more importantly with a double spread in the middle, was Jason's special on her and Gajeel. Fairy Tail's Deadly Duo: Unison Raid Caught On Camera! She didn't care much for the title nor the pictures that included the massive carnage of the building, but the main picture in the centre was amazing. Jason had somehow managed to get a picture of Gajeel in mid-roar of their unison raid, his face twisted in a feral anger and enjoyment. And Lucy was next to him, her hand thrust out with Scorpio in front of her, releasing the sand buster. She looked unusually tough in the picture, but thankfully Jason had caught the side without the singed hair, at least.

Lucy tilted the double-page to get a better look at the pictures on the side, and Gajeel grabbed her arm before she could go head-first into the canal. She nodded vaguely to the Iron Dragon Slayer, and then blushed horribly when she got the next page of the magazine. There was a half-page picture of Lucy hugging the Dragon Slayer, her arms around his neck and his hand very dangerously low on her hip. Oh sweet god, it looked like they were having an after-battle booty call right then and there.

"What're you doing?"

Lucy stared. Gajeel still had a grip on her arm, but they were standing in front of her apartment, and Lucy was pretty sure her face was horribly red. She jerked her arm away from him, and tried to say something but it came out a singular, unintelligible noise. Gajeel blinked in surprise.

"Spazz," he snorted.

Lucy couldn't. She just…. she just couldn't. Not after the kiss, and him protecting her, and his hands on her. He was too damn angry and pushy and sexy and if he ever saw that magazine then Lucy would kill someone!

"ThanksIgottagobye!" Lucy rushed.

She dashed past him and up the stairs to her apartment, and she felt like her face was melting off from the heat. She fished her house keys out of her pockets, and it took a moment of fumbling to find her home key instead of trying to put Aquarius's key in her lock. The heat was clearly affecting her brain.

But when she put her key in the lock, she paused. There was this odd thump-thump noise coming from the road below. With a frown, she turned the key and grabbed the handle of her door.

"Lucy!"

She stared as Gajeel came storming up the stairs, his jaw clenched and teeth bared and eyes wide. She was pretty sure that was the first time he had ever called her by her name before, but Lucy had never seen such a look on the older mage before, and his urgency was baffling to her. She pushed her door open, intending to invite him in before her landlady came down to investigate the less than quiet Slayer.

Dead silence.

She heard a click.

She watched Gajeel's face morph into something, something tragic and angry and why was he so upset? Then she smelt iron and sulphur, felt the harsh wind on her face and boiling heat on her skin. She turned her head and saw an orange-red inferno rushing towards her.

And then Lucy saw nothing but white.

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Author's note:

Umm…

Don't hate me?

Please?

Ave.