During the night the guild was celebrating their return from Tenrou Island, Laxus had been feeling a bit awkward. He wasn't exactly a member, and the Thunder God Tribe members who still were Fairy Tail members were happy to see him. Evergreen, Freed and Bickslow were trying to make him feel less out of place by carrying on as usual.

He was happy to be alive, considering that their aged members had thought them dead these past seven years, but he was still absorbing the shock that they had indeed almost died. With Bickslow to his left, and his grandfather to his right, they'd all been holding hands and awaiting the impact. The last thing he remembered didn't make sense: he hadn't been looking up at their impending doom, but across at the small blonde woman secured between Grey and Natsu. He was certain he had been looking up like everyone else, but for some reason he only remembered looking at her. It was the first time he'd really looked at her since he returned from his exile, and he'd thought that she had changed. To be fair, he was comparing her to that time Evergreen had turned her into a statue, but while journeying on his own he had heard stories about her. How had such a small woman dealt with a dark guild all by herself? He supposed that until their recent fight, he hadn't really seen her use her full potential.

Laxus didn't realize that he was smiling until one of Bickslow's dolls poked his shoulder.

"It's good to be home, right?" Bickslow said cheerfully.

"Home sweet home! Home sweet home!" his dolls joined in. Laxus wiped the smile off his face, fully aware that Bickslow could be too intuitive.

"Well, to be honest, I don't know how you managed without me." He replied while shrugging for effect. That was when he heard her voice among the general noise of the guild. He tried to look in that direction as casually as possible, but his friends knew him too well. Lucy was a few feet away at a table talking to Natsu.

"Those kids sure know how to make noise." Evergreen commented snidely. Laxus realized that most of the guild had already been watching whatever was going on, so it wouldn't seem that unusual if he also looked. As Lucy stood suddenly, looking determined, a strange feeling came over him. He felt an intense rush of energy, like they were in that circle again on Tenrou Island. He stood up without realizing it, and walked closer to where Natsu and Lucy were doing some ridiculous acrobatic exercises. Was that supposed to be dancing? They were moving almost too quickly to see, but Lucy looked uncomfortable. He felt a small bit of irritation begin to build up, although he couldn't understand why it was making him so upset. The air around him was becoming a bit static, so he took a deep breath to try and calm down. That's when the pink haired brat threw the poor young woman higher into the air than he had before, and he felt himself move without thinking. He suddenly pushed the unsuspecting Natsu to the floor.

"Natsu!" she shrieked. He caught her easily, and based on the colour of her complexion he could tell that his earlier observation had been right. She was justifiably feeling ill from being thrown around like a rag doll, and he felt his anger build up again. He felt her small arms wrap around his neck, holding tightly. Her body was so warm against his chest, and he felt his anger immediately disperse. Natsu stood up and his casual way of approaching Lucy bothered him.

The way she shifted in his arms told him that she probably wanted to be put down, so he obliged reluctantly without breaking eye contact with Natsu. How dare that brat throw Lucy?

"You brats, stop making such a mess in the guild!" he admonished, realizing very suddenly that he was annoyed with Natsu for a pretty peculiar reason. He felt Lucy disappear from behind him, and it surprised him that he could feel it without any physical contact.

"Sure, sure." Natsu replied, waving it off. He was instantly relieved that Natsu wasn't making a big deal of this because he couldn't concentrate on the pink haired brat any longer. He couldn't see Lucy, and for some reason he needed to know where she was. He was feeling strangely protective of her. He felt that something was awry with him, but he couldn't concentrate unless he could see her. He turned and scanned the room until he found her at the bar with some of the other women, including Evergreen. He could walk over there, right? Sure, he had to talk to Evergreen about something. His plan at pretence was forgotten as she turned her head and her big brown eyes met his. He felt her gaze strike him like a lightning bolt, and suddenly wished she'd say his name. He wished she would call for him. She broke contact, and he felt more loss than he should have. She had looked at him, he rationalized, so he should go to her. Maybe he didn't even need to talk to her, he just needed to be a little closer. Someone was trying to talk to him, but he decided that it couldn't be nearly as important as –

"Lucy." The voice finished his thought, and he turned to look in surprise. It was Natsu talking to him.

"What?" he asked, irritated that he was wasting precious time talking to the brat.

"I need to talk to you about Lucy. Come with me." Natsu replied. The name seemed to cast a spell on him, and he followed the pink haired mage into the back of the small guild hall. When he entered the door to the store room, his irritability flared up again. He could barely sense her from here, and he shifted on his feet impatiently.

"What do you want brat?" he asked, although with his current lack of focus he was surprised that he could even hear Natsu's response.

"Laxus, you need to stay in this room until Lucy leaves." Natsu said, and Laxus could feel the lightning gathering in his hand reflexively. How dare he? "Laxus, you're in heat and if you see Lucy now you're going to hurt her. If you don't want to hurt her or anyone else, stay here until she leaves for the night."

The words made sense. Now that he thought about it, he did skim over some information like that when he was trying to read about dragon slayer magic. He hadn't really read much of that paragraph, because it had nothing to do with improving his abilities, but Natsu had given him a pretty good idea of what was going on. More than anything, he didn't want to hurt Lucy.

"Ah. Fine." He agreed. He just needed to stay here until it passed over. He could do that much. He cleared out a small corner in the room and sat there, putting his entire focus on not moving. He closed his eyes and imagined her stone figure, reminding himself that he had no right to approach her after what he had done. He had threatened her life, and it was almost physically painful to think of it now. The pain was keeping him in place though, so he continued. He could do this.

(Author's Notes)

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters.

Thanks as always to my beta reader Gangzta4life5.

I also want to thank my reviewers (Raiza-chan, Illustre, snibs13, kurahieiritr JIO, and Nina Heart) - so begins Laxus' side of the events. I can tell you it was quite a different experience to try and get into Laxus' head space, and it required me to change my writing music drastically. Because Chapter 20 and 21 are strongly connected in my opinion I will be releasing both today before returning to just releasing one chapter at a time. Some of Laxus' chapters are longer though, so you will probably be happy anyway.