Chapter Eleven:

Mavis was right. Most of the buildings in that area were still standing. But there were places where interior walls had fallen and none of the wooden elements of the houses had survived. Only stone remained, sometimes tumbling in on itself.

Sighing, Lucy stood in the middle of the least damaged building, making a list of what needed to be done. "So, we'll need three rooms. If we rebuild at least half that wall, we can use the tent to make the upper half, and hang it from the rafters once we've replaced them…"

"No can do Blondie," Laxus said, hauling an armful of rubble out through the doorway. "That tent's going on the roof until we can put a permanent one on. If you want three rooms, you'll be contributing some sweat."

Glaring at his retreating back, Lucy reassessed the building for what felt like the umpteenth time. Each time she started to make plans, Laxus shot her down.

And the worst part is, his comments were usually right.

"Move it, blondie." Laxus grunted from behind her. "If you're going to live here too, you have to pull your weight. I'm not fixing this place for you to sit around and look pretty in. You want a roof over your head, you work for it."

She grumbled, but he was right. If she didn't do something to help turn the building into a suitable living place, she wouldn't ever feel comfortable. Picking up a chunk of stone, she hauled it outside to where Laxus was dumping the rubble.

He kept her working until nightfall, barking orders left and right. Lucy snapped back, but she couldn't help but admit that his plans were better than hers. She wondered if he had done something like this before.

Standing in the front room, she realized that in a way the building looked a bit like the guild hall. The main room ran the length of the building, with a large fireplace at the back. Laxus had reconstructed the walls so that their individual sleeping rooms were minimized and the public space maximized. While he had told her to keep laying stones for the walls to divide their sleeping space from the common space, he had gone out and come back with a long table. Lucy was going to ask where it had come from, but when she saw the telltale scorch marks she knew that Laxus had made it himself. They didn't have chairs yet but Laxus had made her help him carry the logs that had sat around the fire and placed them around the table. On one side of the back of the main room, a long stone counter had survived the years of abandonment, and the two of them had worked to ensure the stone oven and ingeniously crafted stovetop were safe to use. The last thing they had done was move their belonging into the building and Laxus was returning from their campsite with the tent.

"Oi, blondie," he called from outside. "Put your climbing skills to good use. Instead of hiding from me come help me with the roof."

Trudging outside, she climbed up the side of the building with a bundle of tent fabric tied to her back, glad that the stone hadn't been smoothed so that handholds were numerous. She heard a crackle of lightning, and glared at Laxus as he teleported himself onto the roof. "You couldn't have brought the fabric with you instead of making me carry it."

Grinning at her, he said: "It's called training Blondie. You're too soft. I thought you wanted to get stronger."

Lucy threw the tent material at him, but he caught it easily. "Now, now Blondie, we need to put it on the roof. Unless you want to pick it up and climb up here again?"

As he threw it back to her, she scrambled to catch it without toppling off the roof. Glaring at him, she recovered herself and said: "Okay Sparky, what do we do now?"

"Unwrap the material and throw me one end. We need to stretch it out over the roof so that it won't belly in when it rains. You better hold tight , or I'll make you come up here and fix it when it leaks," he threatened darkly.

Rolling her eyes, Lucy untied the tent material from its wrappings and threw an end across to him, which he caught with ease. "Tie your end to the corner, where that piece of metal is sticking out. Not there Blondie," he said exasperatedly. "There. And make sure your knots are strong."

Sticking her tongue out at him, she tied the canvas in place where he indicated, not seeing why his spot was any different than the one she had started to use. "I'd like to see you tie a set of laces that can survive an evening full of dancing," she muttered, irritated at his assumption that she couldn't do anything.

"Dress knots aren't the same as knots used to keep the rain off your head, idiot," he said, snickering as he tied his corner of the tent in place. "Take your other corner and walk as far down the roof as you can without tearing the fabric. You still need it stretched out all the way though."

She had forgotten about his dragon slayer enhanced hearing. "I'd like to see you dance in the middle of a crowd with a dress that's falling off because you didn't tie the laces tight enough," she said, snickering at the visual. "Sometimes, I used to think I would rather have a bit of rain on my head compared to those laces."

Bored, he snapped the tent canvas loudly. "Come on, the light's fading. If you want to be up here in the dark, I don't care, but I'd like to have a roof over my head."

With a roll of her eyes, she started walking carefully across the narrow edge of the roof, placing her steps confidently. She didn't notice Laxus's look of grudging respect as he shuffled down the line of his own side, but she kept moving forward as if she was walking on a smooth street.

Reaching the corner, she tied off the canvas securely and turned to look at him. "Is that tight enough Mr. Expert?" she said, gesturing to the knot. "Do you need to come over and check my work?" she asked sweetly, with an even sweeter smile.

Lucy was rewarded by a full body shudder from Laxus, but he ignored her in favor of tying off his own corner. Dusting off his hands, he said: "I've got an idea…"

"First one down makes dinner? That's an excellent idea. One rule though: no magic. Pure physical strength. Ready, set, go!" Lucy stepped off the edge of the roof, reaching up to grab a handhold and swinging herself to another one before she lost control of her descent. She caught a quick glimpse of Laxus's startled face, but a grin replaced it, and she was forced to keep moving.

Landing on the ground, she was about to call out to him, but her laughter died as he strolled around the corner to her. "Why thanks Blondie, I wanted to swim before dinner. You better make something hearty: I've been working all afternoon on a small bowl of soup and a sandwich. A man needs more than that to keep him running."

Before she could say anything, he strolled off, waving at her. "Later Blondie."

As he disappeared into the trees, she wanted to stomp her foot in anger. He was such a child at times. Now she was definitely not going to get a chance to wash before night fell. Entering the building, Lucy realized in despair that it was dark inside with the tent canvas overhead. There was no way she was going to be able to cook anything in here tonight until they got the lighting situation fixed.

Sighing, she started rummaging through the items on the table, trying to figure out what she could make for dinner if she couldn't use the stove. Finding enough ingredients for a basic stew, she grabbed their largest pot and marched outside, looking for a place to start a fire. Thankfully Laxus had thought to move their supply of firewood to the building, or she would have had to find that too.

With the fire set up, Lucy was about to light it before she realized that she needed water for the stew and for drinking. Standing up, she looked around through the gathering darkness to find either a well or the path back to their old campsite.

"The well's down that path in the middle of a little square," Mavis said, appearing on the other side of the fire pit that Lucy had dug. "If you want to start the fire, I'll make sure that it doesn't get out of hand while you're gone."

"Thank you Master Mavis," Lucy said gratefully, snatching the pot off the ground where it sat amidst the canned goods. "I promise, I'll be right back."

Finding the well right where Mavis had indicated, Lucy filled the pot with more water than she would use while cooking, leaving her enough for drinking and perhaps a quick wash of her face. After returning to the campsite, she chatted idly with Mavis while she prepared the stew, mainly just opening cans and keeping it from boiling over.

When she heard a crackle of lightning, Lucy froze, but it was only Laxus, teleporting himself in front of the building. Seeing the two of them and the fire, he meandered over, grinning all the while.

Bad-temperedly ladling stew into a bowl and topping it with a slice of bread, Lucy shoved it into his hands. "Here," she snapped. "Dinner."

Taking the bowl, he snickered. "What's wrong Blondie, worn out?"

"You are too," she said, filling her own bowl. "Except you've had two chances to clean up and make yourself presentable and I've only had one."

Laxus chuckled. "Was that all Blondie? Don't worry, we'll work some schedule out. Mornings are physical, and once we've got the building done, the afternoons will be magic."

"Other than the walls blocking off our two sleeping rooms, what else do we have to do?" Lucy asked, sitting on the ground with her food.

Taking a bite of stew, Laxus hummed in thought. "I want those to be storage rooms eventually, but we'll finish them tomorrow so we each have a place to sleep in. After that, I want to work on the roof and then replace the missing rafters and second floor. Once that's done, we'll move the beds up there and work on doors and shutters. From there we can do furniture in the evenings or mornings, depending on what we have planned for the rest of our training. You better be prepared to work hard."

Looking up, he found Lucy staring at him. "What?" he asked.

She raised her eyebrows. "You've got this surprisingly well planned out for Mavis only announcing that we would be moving to a permanent structure this afternoon."

He shrugged. "I've been thinking about how the guild building used to be, but instead of offices on the second floor, we need places to sleep. In a way, this is the guild building, just on Tenrou. Which reminds me…" Setting his bowl on the ground, he stood up and centered himself with the doorway. Lightning crackled around his hands, and he carefully traced a pattern in the air, a thin beam of lightning shooting out from his index finger.

When he was finished, a crude replica of the guild's symbol was etched into the stone. Lucy stared at it, and was surprised to find tears filling her eyes. It must have shocked Laxus, because he said: "Blondie, what is it?"

"It's nothing," she said, standing up and going abruptly towards the building. "I'm just tired and need to sleep. You're in charge of cleaning up."

With her arms outstretched, she managed to find her way to the room that her things had been placed in earlier on. Laxus had claimed the cot after sleeping on the forest floor for several nights, and she hadn't had a chance to complain. Stripping off her clothes, glad that they hadn't figured out how to light the building while the walls were still half built, she crawled into her nest of blankets. Once she felt far enough from Laxus, she let the tears fall, stifling her sobs in her pillow. He didn't know it, but he had given her family back just by tracing the symbol in the stone. Seeing it, like this was their temporary guild hall, made her feel as if the day would come when Fairy Tail was re-formed again. It was such a small but powerful gesture to her, and he didn't even understand.

Closing her eyes, she fell asleep with tears still on her face, feeling for the first time in recent memory as if there was a chance that her family was still there for her.