Laxus slammed his hands onto his grandfather's desk causing a slight harumph to come from the old man.
"You can't seriously expect me to accept this mission? Where you drunk when you did this? Honestly Gramps, did you really think that I wouldn't notice that you had sent in this request, it's for three dragon slayers and a celestial mage."
Laxus held up his hand to silence his grandfather "yes I realize that it could have meant me, Gajeel and Natsu but what stood out the most was the little note at the bottom." He shoved the request form under his grandfather's nose as he pointed at the last line on the paper.
Enunciating each word clearly Laxus scowled as the words left lips.
"P.s one of the slayer's must have a name rhyming with Lowbra."
Makarov's face twitched as he attempted to keep a straight face.
"Son I have no idea what you're talking about, I didn't send in that request." Small choked sounds left his lips as he covered his mouth to stifle the loud guffaw that escaped.
The lightning slayer was not amused. "Look gramps I could have let it slide you letting him join but trying to get him to go on a mission with Lucy? He tried to kill her, have you no respect for your so called children?"
This took the smile right off the master of Fairy Tail's face.
"Now listen here boy, I care about you all and that is why sometimes I have to interfere. Yes Cobra has had a dark past and yes he did some bad things but so have you. He had an awful start to life, this world hasn't been as kind to him as it has to us. Everybody deserves a second chance, all they have to do is ask. Cobra has shown remorse and that is all I ask."
Laxus tried to speak but Makarov shushed him. "
Now that he is a part of this family I shall ask you this, do you not have any respect for our guild and our family? You were given a clean slate and so was Gajeel, why shouldn't he be given the same opportunity?"
'I hate that the old man has a point.' Laxus thought. Sighing heavily, he nodded in defeat.
"Alright Gramps you win, sorry I got so angry but you know how I get when it comes to Lucy, that girl's like my sister and I want to protect her, even from the past."
"Yes but if you try to protect her too much she'll never learn to heal herself. Please think about letting him come on a mission with you all. He'll need the money as well, just don't rule it out straight away. Him and Lucy might just become fast friends, I mean he did get his guild mark in the same place as hers, maybe he has a crush on her now?"
A deep frown settled on Laxus's face as he exited his grandfather's office to go talk to Gajeel and Lucy about this. See what they thought about it.
"Hey Mira, are Gajeel and Lucy here yet?" He said as he passed the white barmaid, she shook her head "I've only seen Gajeel come through, he's waiting in the gym, haven't seen Lucy since last night when she ran out after Cobra."
'Where the hell is that blonde idiot.'
Laxus's mind was running a mile a minute as he walked into the weights room and looked at Gajeel.
"Is bunny not with you? Where the hell is she?" The iron slayer said gruffly, trying to not let the worry leak into his voice.
"Mira said nobody's seen her since last night when she left the guild to get Cobra, did nobody go and check on her? That psycho could've attacked her or worse!"
Both the men growled at each other "Why didn't you go check on her?"
"Well I was with Levy all night I forgot."
"It shouldn't just be up to me to look after her when she gets drunk."
A loud bag of a door closing and the smacking of feet on the concrete stairs caught their attention, a feminine voice muttered. "Fuck fuck fuck."
"Act extra mad." Gajeel whispered to Laxus as they both pulled their best angry faces as their missing blonde sister entered the room, hair wet from, what they hoped, was a recent shower and clothes haphazardly put on.
Glancing up at the dragon slayers she saw their rather unhappy looking faces and pulled her most angelic smile. Sadly for her, it didn't work on them. Laxus was the first to break the silence.
"Where the hell were you?"
Lucy knew she was in trouble now. She probably reeked of Cobra and to top it off she was late.
"Well guys you see I spent the night with my good friend Erik." This caused both the dragon slayers angry faces to be replaced with their extremely confused faces.
Gajeel rubbed his head "Who the hell is Erik? Don't tell me you were late today because you were getting laid? Yes then Bunny girl." He held up his hand for a high five which he slowly retracted when Laxus gave him a death glare.
"Shut the hell up Gajeel." Laxus turned back to face Lucy, he looked at her disapprovingly "Don't tell me you had sex with some randomer, you're better than that."
Lucy scoffed. "Laxus I may be untouched in the hymen department but certainly not in the boy department, please don't treat me like a child, Erik is just a friend, someone I know outside the guild. I, er, helped him clean his house last night." She wasn't technically lying.
"That's what friends are for, I always used to clean Natsu's house, I lost track of time so I had to rush home, shower and change. Nothing happened I promise. Calm the big brother act and hug me."
She held her arms out. "Also I am very hungover so you should be proud I still showed up"
Practically smothering her in a bear hug, Laxus rubbed his knuckles on her head causing her already messy hair to become extremely static because of his lightning magic.
Squealing in protest she tried to wriggle out of his grasp "Laxus let go of me you giant penis! My hair won't calm down for days, stop it!"
Gajeel watched them both with a evil smirk on his face, waiting for the right time to strike. Finally letting her go, the blonde man laughed at her appearance. With a heavily flushed face and messy hair she was a picture.
'Speaking of pictures.' Gajeel leapt in between them both and snapped a very unflattering photo of Lucy
"Gihihi now we're even bunny!" The black haired man shouted as he tried to run away but was caught by her whip, dragging him onto the floor. A fight between all three of them ensued that lasted all morning, leaving them all cut up, bruised but satisfied nonetheless.
They all sat on the floor against the wall of the gym catching their breath.
Lucy laughed "Well that burnt off any frustration I had, no gym session needed." Both the men laughed and agreed.
Laxus cleared his throat and decided to speak up about the situation his grandfather had spoke to him about.
"Hey blondie, if theoretically I asked if you would come on a mission with me, Gajeel and Cobra, how against the idea would you be?" Her answer shocked him.
"I'd be totally up for it, when do we leave?" She smirked at him "I'm all up for being in a triple slayer sandwich."
Several hours later in a train carriage there were three slayers, one whose name rhymed with Lowbra, one celestial mage and a hell of a lot of hostility.
Lucy tried to diffuse the situation before Gajeel tore out Cobra's throat and Laxus cheered him on.
"So guys, dragon slayers huh, crazy how rare you guys are and I get three of you in one compartment, someone pinch me huh? Ow not literally Gajeel, you idiot."
The pierced male shrugged his shoulders, plucked Laxus's sound pop off his neck, slid it onto his head and closed his eyes, deciding that sleeping was better than trying to converse with anyone, especially since his motion sickness was starting to kick in.
Looking over to Laxus who had a face like thunder, that was also starting to go slightly green, she decided that getting rid of him was her only option to make them all happy.
"Hey Laxus fancy going to grab me a bottle of water? Go stretch your legs and while you're at it your smiling muscles, it takes 62 muscles to frown but only 26 to smile. Bear that in mind."
She tried to sound stern, it seemed to work as he stood up and trudged to the canteen compartment of the train.
She turned to look at the only remaining slayer, her brown eyes twinkling. "And then there were two. How have you been Erik?"
Why did I agree to this.'
'Who the hell thought this was a good idea.'
'Erik looks so yummy in those jeans, I can practically see little Erik through them, maybe if I look harder it might get harder.'
Cobra was only happy to hear the last thought, the other two not so much. Gajeel and Laxus were questioning why they had come on the mission, Lucy was just enjoying the ride. Now that the lightening slayer had left and the iron slayer was asleep with his ears covered it was just him and the sexy blonde who was currently shuffling closer to him with her body guards now out of the way.
"Can we have some fun now?" She said as she practically crawled onto his lap, which caused him to get freaked out by the close contact, gently pushing her back onto the seat, he hopped over to the other side of the carriage.
"Look Luce, it's nothing against you but please stop invading my personal space, I don't feel so hot right now and I have a bubble that should never be breached. If you get hurt it's not my fault, you've been warned."
She pouted and placed her head against the window of the train, waiting until they arrived at their destination. Deciding that she didn't want to be covered in vomit she gave up for the time being, which cobra was very thankful for.
'Stupid sexy man turning me down all the time.'
Laughing in his head at the blonde's constant sexual thoughts he tried to tune her out and think about the mission, from what the maroon haired man knew, it was relatively easy.
Take out some monsters that were terrorizing a village, it wasn't something that would require three high level dragon slayers and one incredibly powerful celestial mage. But the money it was offering for its completion was something he couldn't turn down or question in his current situation. He needed the money.
Once the train had stopped Cobra stumbled onto the platform, closely followed by Laxus who was just as wobbly but trying to put on a brave face whereas Gajeel was being lead off by Lucy and her spirit Virgo as he was struggling to support himself.
"I'm fine bunny, you're embarrassing me!" Gajeel insisted but as soon as he struggled out of their grip he hit the floor with a fleshy smack.
Lucy barked out a laugh and patted her spirits arm.
"Thank you Virgo you can go back now, this idiot doesn't need our help." The pink haired maid bowed to her master and vanished. Cobra had always appreciated how special those spirits were but his old guild mate Angel never had, she treated them like shit, so he treated her like shit.
He firmly believed that you have to give respect to gain respect. This way of thinking hadn't failed him yet.
Lucy walked ahead of the three men and bounced excitedly which drew Cobra's eyes to her large breasts that were also bouncing.
'He's checking me out aw how cute.'
'Dammit she doesn't miss a thing.' Cobra thought, blushing slightly as he looked at the blonde girl who was currently winking at him.
'I'll get you soon enough big boy.'
"The village is just up ahead, race you there." Lucy sped past Laxus and raced up the hill, excited to fight some monsters. Laughing, Laxus ran along with her, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw what lay ahead.
"What the hell are those things?" He said in shock. There were about twenty weird dog looking things except they had two heads and were covered in spikes instead of fur.
Lucy yanked her whip from her hip, a smile already on her face.
"They're hell hounds, someone has obviously manifested them, been unable to control the beasts and ran away, leaving them to harass the village. We just need to kill them as fast as possible. They'll know we're here soon. But most importantly, remember to have fun boys."
She ran into the middle of the field, whip in hand and summoned her spirit Taurus.
'She really does love to fight.'
Laxus looked at Cobra as he ran after Lucy.
"Don't fuck this up, this is your second chance."