Star and Iron Chapter 21: A Job for Two, a fairy tail fanfic

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Fairy Tail characters that honor belongs to Hiro Mashima!

I do own the Original Characters (Ocs) that appear in this story and the plot~

Chapter 21: A Job for Two

Days had gone by almost too fast for the Celestial Mage.

Yukino had been dead for two weeks. It had been two weeks since Lucy Heartfilia found her body in the sewers of Zinclonis. She had been mourning for her fellow Celestial Mage for two weeks straight. She had spent every night crying and remembering the few good times she had with Yukino. There were few memories, but she still was going to cherish those few memories of her. She finally accepted the fact that she would no longer see the light blue-silver haired mage ever again. She was still upset about the way she had died. There was nothing she could to change the way Yukino had died. Eventually, when her mind had accepted Yukino had passed on that she had the epiphany. Her fellow Celestial Mage would not want her to be so depressed. She would want her to move.

It was time for her to get out of her apartment and go on a job.

"Well, I'm off." She said to her empty apartment. She smiled softly at her dragon plush Gajeel sprawled peacefully in between her pillows on her bed. His yellow green eyes were staring at her as she stepped outside her apartment. "See you later, my Chibi Gajeel."

It was a nice day out today Lucy thought. She watched some white clouds pass idly by. The sun was shining brightly and was warming her skin. She walked to her guild with a slow peaceful gait. She didn't even feel like calling Plue out today. She heard the usual greetings from the boatmen in the river. Lucy waved back half-heartily to them. She heard her keys jingling together with each step she took. Her hand unconsciously placed itself over her Celestial Gate Keys. She felt a comforting aura radiating from her keys.

Her friends had grown.

She now had all twelve of the Zodiac Keys and the thirteen key, Ophiuchus. Any other Celestial Mage would be ecstatic about having all twelve keys and the thirteen key. Don't get her wrong she was happy that she had accomplished such a feat, but the way Libra, Pisces and Ophiuchus had come into her hands was the reason why she was not as excited she should be. She had only received them because of an unexpected death. She promised herself that she would find out who had killed Yukino. She would get justice for her, but first she had to find some sort of leads. She only needed a place to start, but how long that would take.

She shook her thoughts away.

Lucy arrived at the guild and she prepared herself. She readied herself for the other guild members bombarding her with questions of all sorts. She dreaded this, but she rather get this over with now rather than later. She took one breath then she walked in. Like she had predicted she was surrounded in an instant. So many questions bombarded her and they all expected her to answer. She wince feeling too crowded, but she just waved them off with a smile as she went towards the request board. She heard the audible groans of disappointed, but no one stopped her. Her brown eyes scanned for any interesting jobs, particularly any jobs that had similar circumstances to what had happened to Yukino. She saw nothing. She decided to go ask Mira.

"LUUUUUUCCCCYYYY!" She heard him first and then she saw a blue blur fly towards her with tears in his eyes. "You finally came out!"

"Hi Happy!" She gave the blue cat a small smile as she hugged him. "How have you been?"

"Good, Carla and I are planning a fishing trip when her, Lily and Wendy get back from their job." Happy grinned widely his eyes sparkling with excitement. "I'm sorry I haven't visited you lately, but Wendy said you wanted to be alone for awhile."

That's right Wendy told me she was going on a job with Carla and Lily yesterday when she came by.

"It's okay Happy. It makes me glad that you are thinking about me." She petted him on the head. "You're so sweet Happy."

"Oh Lucy, that reminds me I have to tell you something." The cat's grin lowered a little. Lucy didn't know why he was acting so nervous all of a sudden. "It's about Team Na–"

"Hey, there you are!" Lucy's body locked up her eyes widening as she heard the voice of someone she did not want to deal with right now. "Yo, Luce what's up? Haven't seen you in awhile!"

It was Natsu and he was grinning at her like the other day when she punched his insensitive mouth did not happen.

He was acting like nothing was wrong.

"Ah, Lucy there you are. We have been looking for you." Erza stood besides the Fire Dragon Slayer with her usual stern look on her face. Lisanna was hiding behind her with a small annoyed glare on her face. She didn't look to happy or pleased. Happy flew out of Lucy's arms and floated above Team Natsu. "I'm glad we found you."

"Looking for me?" She raised a single confused eyebrow. Why were they looking for me of all people? Why are they looking for the person they wanted to kick of their team? She got her answer when Natsu pushed a job request in front of her face. "A job request?"

"Yeah, it looks like it will be a lot of fun!" Natsu smiled his eyes shining with happiness. "It will be more fun if you go with us, since Gray bailed on us again and went on a solo job."

Oh, so I'm an afterthought or something to them now.

"Yes, this job was specifically only sent to our guild. It will go well if you come along Lucy." Erza agreed with a nod as she handed the job to her. Her eyes were calm and collected. "So will leaving at ten a.m. work for you?"

"I—" Lucy tried to say something. Like say something about how uncomfortable this was for her, but Erza kept on speaking like she had already agreed to go on the job with them.

"And make sure to pack light, Lucy." The red head stated firmly. Lucy didn't reply as Erza continued to speak about packing and the job request in her hands. She used this time to actually read the job description.

We are in need of assistance with solving a problem with our forest. We are trying to build a grazing area for our live stock, but the animals refuse to go inside of it. Our men also refuse to go in there. They've claimed to feel something dangerous lurking in the forest. We will like this matter to be solve quickly.

Reward: 13,000 jewels

If possible I request the Celestial Mage of Fairy Tail and the young man who was with her to come solve this matter.

Mayor Gato of Aeterna Caelestis

Lucy's eyes widen when she recognized the name of the small town. She had been there before. That was the place where she had fought the dead lizard and had ran into her guild-mate by accident. She stopped her train of thought when she realized just who the Mayor was asking for. He was asking for her and the person with her to go help. That meant he wanted her and–

Wait…

"Tell me why you are you asking me on this job?" She asked, her eyes staring at Erza and Natsu. She had a feeling she already knew the answer to her question. "You guys have been ignoring me for awhile and now you suddenly want to go on a job with me?"

"Duh, it's asking for you." The Fire Dragon Slayer responded simply. "Didn't you read the job?"

"We can't ignore such a specific request from a client." Erza further affirmed her suspicions.

I knew it! They just asked me to go with them because the job asked for me! Ugh, you damn bastards!

"It'll be so much fun, Luce!" The pink haired Dragon Slayer went up next to her and patted her back eagerly.

"No."

"Luce?" Natsu looked at her confused as did Erza.

"I said no, you damn bastard." The Celestial Mage's eyes narrowed into slits and she gritted her teeth as she held both their gazes. "I will not go on this job with you guys."

Especially since you're only asking me because I was specifically asked for, not because you want me to go!

"Ha ha, you're so funny Lucy!"

"I'm not kidding." The blonde's voice was low and clipped with anger. "I will not subjugate myself to this."

"Lucy, this is unacceptable." Erza's frowned in disappointed. She must have realized Lucy meant business. "You cannot ignore the client's request for you. That would be rude of you Lucy!"

"Who said I was going to ignore Gato-san's request for me? I didn't." Lucy responded with a glare as Natsu took the job request from her hands. She made no move to get it back yet. "Gato-san needs a job done and I will get it done, but not with you guys."

"Lucy, what are you saying?" Erza confusingly stared at her. "I don't understand."

"Yeah, you can't do this by yourself, Luce!" Natsu pouted like a puppy, who had his new toy taken away. Days ago she would have found that cute, but now all she could focus on was her anger in Natsu's obvious doubt in her abilities. "Don't be like that!"

"I can't do it by myself? Seriously, don't doubt my mage abilities. And I never said I was going to do it by myself either." Lucy snatched the job request from the pinknette's hands. She turned away her eyes searching among the guild members."I'm going with the person who was with me."

Now where is that grumpy Dragon Slayer?

"But Luce–"

"I said no! Now leave me be!" The Celestial Mage replied sternly, ignoring him and Erza. "I don't need this right now!"

She almost made a clean break away from her ex-team when the person, who had not spoken yet actually said something.

"What you're too good to team up with us, Heartfilia?" Lisanna said in a leveled voice, her blue eyes reflecting contempt as she gazed at her. "Like we, the strongest team in Fairy Tail, would need a crazy, oversensitive weakling like you to help us out anyways. Team Natsu is better off without you, Heartfilia."

"Funny, because where I'm standing I have been doing just fine by myself." Lucy smiled pleasantly and she could tell her smiled pissed off the youngest female Take-Over Mage. She shrugged the girl's insult off like it was nothing. "As you can read I already have a client that is specifically requesting me for a job."

That shut the girl up for a few seconds, but she bounced back quickly.

"You think you're all that don't you?" The young female Strauss glowered at her.

"No, not really." Lucy turned and grinned when she spotted who she was looking for. He was talking to Levy. She briefly wondered what the pair was speaking about. Hopefully, he already didn't have a current job to go on. There was only one way to find out. Goal set in mind she was going to walk over to the person, but someone grabbed her wrist.

"Hey, I'm not done talking to you, Heartfilia!" Lisanna held the blonde's wrist tightly. Her blue eyes were cold and angry. "You just can't think you can ignore me and get away with it!"

"Strauss, let me go. I have no desire to fight you today." Lucy spoke in a clear tone. Her eyes were hard and her face drawn in seriousness. She really didn't want to get into another argument with this girl; she had better things to do than to fight with someone with a sour attitude."I'm trying to be an adult here by giving you a chance to let go."

This girl just doesn't give up. I'm sure Mira raised her not to be so rude to others.

The two mages stared each other down, but it was Erza that intervene.

"Lisanna, release Lucy. It's her choice not to come with us. You are fighting with her over nothing." The S-classed Mage ordered, her eyes flashed the Take-Over Mage a warning look. She grabbed the young girl's wrist. "Do it now or I will do it for you."

"What? Erza, she insulted us!" Lisanna argued as Erza squeezed her wrist. She squeezed it in so hard, until the white haired girl let go. "Ow, why did you do that Erza?"

"You were acting unreasonably."

"Me acting unreasonably? You have to be kidding me!" The blue eyed girl screeched in disbelief. "I was only defending us."

"If I remember correctly you insulted her first, Lisanna." The Reequip Mage answered calmly. "You should apologize to her."

A tiny part of Lucy was grateful that Erza was reasonable and sided with her, but that change anything about their current situation.

"Hmph, I won't do such a thing!" The Animal Take-Over Mage crossed her arms and turned her head. "I did nothing wrong!"

"Don't worry about it Erza. Natsu and her still haven't apologized for what they did the other day, so I'm not surprise she refuses to apologize." Lucy rolled her eyes. "Let her sulk."

Erza looked confused about what Lucy meant about another apology, but she didn't have the time to inquire what Lucy meant when a gruff voice joined in their conversation.

"Like that weak little girl's puny, meaningless words would mean anything."

The guild was its normal rowdy self today Gajeel mused.

The Iron Dragon Slayer was leaning against a wooden pillar in the guild waiting for Bunny Girl to show up. He never liked playing the waiting game much, but he had to today. He recalled how he ended up in such a situation. It was all because of Wendy the Sky Dragon Slayer. The brat had left off on a job with his cat and hers, but she reminded him of what she expected him to do. She had reminded him that he had to go on a job with the Celestial Mage. It had to be a job with just him and her and no one else. She had left him with an innocent smile plaster on her face. Then she waved goodbye to him with Lily and her white cat on her heels wishing good luck with his task.

Wendy, that damn brat, was forcing him do this or she would snitch him out to Bunny Girl about breaking into her apartment. He didn't feel like that information should be getting out in the open anytime soon. That and he feared the blonde's reaction too. So in order to keep the brat quiet he agreed to try to figure out what exactly was going on with him in regards to Bunny Girl. Gajeel shook his head and focused on the task at hand. She wanted him to sort out his thoughts about her Nee-chan by going on a job with Bunny Girl.

He couldn't believe he was going to do this!

Just great I'm being blackmailed by a twelve-year-old girl. Me, Black Steel Gajeel being threaten by a child…

At least you'll get to be with Bunny Girl.

And now I have a nonexistent voice in my head that's claiming to be my subconscious …I must be losing it.

"Gajeel!" A certain short blue haired book-lover waved hello to the Dragon Slayer. "You look like you're in a better mood today."

"Tch, I have no idea what you're talking about Shrimp." He shrugged nonchalantly his eyes looking over her head seeing who was in the guild. Still no Bunny Girl he whispered to himself mentally. Maybe she wasn't going to show up today? "I'm no different."

"Uh huh," Levy grinned broadly. "Anyways, I want to ask you something? So can I?"

"Whatever."

"Gajeel, do you want to go on a job with me and Shadow Gear?" The Solid Script Mage clasped her hands together in a pleading manner. "We could use the extra strength!"

The gruff Dragon Slayer stared at tiny bluenette. He usually would agree to go on a job with her since he did considered her a friend, but right now he wanted to tell her no. He knew it wasn't only because of being blackmail by the brat. He would admit it to himself that he sort of wanted to find out what exactly was going with his actions and thoughts towards Bunny Girl. And he never neglected to not to feed his curiosity. Speaking of Bunny Girl, he saw a flash of blonde hair enter his line of vision.

Finally, she decides to show up!

"Gajeel?" Shrimp's confused filled voice brought his red eyes back down towards her. She was waiting patiently for his reply. He must have been lost in his thoughts for awhile based off Shrimp's look. "So will you come on a job with Team Shadow Gear?"

"Shrimp–" His reply was interrupted by a yell his ears picked up.

"Hey, I'm not done talking to you, Heartfilia!" He saw the rude white haired mage, Mira's younger sister grab Bunny Girl's wrist. Her blue eyes were cold and angry. "You just can't think you can ignore me and get away with it!"

Gajeel felt a growl reverberate in his throat at the display he was watching happen across the guild hall. She's threatening her. She's threatening Bunny Girl…

"Strauss, let me go. I have no desire to fight you today." Bunny Girl spoke in a clear tone her eyes were hard and her face drawn in seriousness. She look like she didn't want to waste her time arguing with her and Gajeel had to agree it would be a waste of Bunny Girl's time to fight someone she had mauled already. "I'm trying to be an adult here by giving you a chance to let go."

The two mages were staring down at one another, until Titania intervened.

Good, the little Strauss needs to stop messing with Bunny Girl.

Or I'll rip that damn arm out of her socket if she doesn't release Bunny Girl.

"What? Erza, she insulted us!" The Animal Take-Over Mage released the blonde's wrist. "Ow, why did you do that Erza?"

"You were acting unreasonably."

"Me acting unreasonably? You have to be kidding me!" The blue eyed girl screeched in disbelief. "I was only defending us."

"If I remember correctly you insulted her first, Lisanna." The Reequip Mage answered calmly. "You should apologize to her."

"Hmph, I won't do such a thing!" The Animal Take-Over Mage crossed her arms and turned her head. "I did nothing wrong!"

That cheeky little bitch.

"Hey Gajeel, pay attention!" Shrimp's voice once again made him look at down at her, but his red eyes were itching to look back at the blonde mage. "I am waiting for a reply."

"No, I have a job with someone else." He replied quickly as he side stepped her leaving her looking somewhat disappointed. He walked towards Bunny Girl and that dumbass Salamander's team. He didn't even look back at Shrimp. His eyes were solely on the woman who was making him act so strange lately. As he neared he heard Bunny Girl telling Titania not to worry about the other girl apologizing. He decided to make his presence known.

"Like that weak little girl's puny, meaningless words would mean anything."

"Oh, Iron Hedgehog Head there you are!" Bunny Girl grinned brightly at him, her eyes sparkling with happiness.

She looks happy to see me.

"Oi, don't call me that Bunny Girl!" He glared, but inside he didn't really mind the nickname anymore. "It's annoying!"

"Like when you don't call me by name?" She rolled her eyes. Then she shoved a job in front of his face. She ignored Team Natsu standing behind her. "Look at this!"

"A piece of paper, it's a piece of paper." He shrugged. "You know what paper is right?"

"Idiot, read what it says!" She huffed annoyed ignoring the last remark possibly. "It's a job request. The mayor, Gato-san, is requesting us specifically!"

"…" He just looked at her. Was she going to ask him what he thinks she was going to ask? That would make his part of the task so much easier. "Uh huh,"

"Aeterna Caelestis'mayor, don't you remember?" She asked arching her eyebrow. "The dead zombie lizard in the forest?"

"Another corpse extermination?" He cocked his head to the side. Really, he hoped it was not another walking dead corpse. They smelled really bad. "One was enough already."

"I agree! It was one ugly thing!" She laughed shaking her head in joy. "So what do you say? Want to go on this job with me, Iron Hedgehog Head?"

She is! Good, it was easier to get a job with her than I expected.

"Tch, if it's another zombie then you will need my help, Bunny Girl." He smirked widely. And this time I'll be the one that beats it not you.

"So that's a yes in Iron Hedgehog Head language."

"Hey, you just can't take a job from us, Luce!" Salamander made his voice and displeasure known. He was glaring at Gajeel. "We got it first!"

"Shut it, Natsu!" Bunny Girl responded and then proceeded to ignore the Fire Dragon Slayer. She grabbed the Iron Dragon Slayer's arm pulling him away from an upset Team Natsu. "We're doing this job!"

And I have some thinking to do. His red eyes stared at her face as his skin tingled with excitement from her touch and from the mere idea that it would just be the two of them. Lots of fucking thinking to do…

Reposted 6/5/2015