Chapter 6: The Attraction

As he stretched for another day of training, his eyes swept towards his team.

He took notice the way she laughed at whatever Bickslow was saying to her. The way her eyes would turn to Evergreen and the way she smiled at Freed. It didn't matter who she was with, she seemed to always make sure she was paying attention to everyone that was around her. He was pretty confident now that she could give Lucy a run for her money by placing Kagome as the new heart of Fairy Tail.

She had his whole team in the palm of her hand.

Evergreen adored her because she was another woman and knew how women could be. She loved the fact that she could talk to Kagome about the most girly things or boy trouble. She had confessed to Kagome that indeed, she did hold deep feelings for Elfman and although they may be sharing an occasional relationship of messing around, she wanted something deeper. However she was concerned due to the fact of him being so close to his siblings. Specially Mirajane. Kagome tried her best to advise her and Evergreen seemed to listen to everything she told her, which was rare, because Evergreen never listened to anyone. With the exception of Laxus, however he knew better than to get mixed up with the whole Elfman and Evergreen situation.

Freed seemed to enjoy greatly the way that Kagome would speak. She would tell him a lot of her close friend, Miroku, who Freed reminded her a lot of, with the exception of the perverted side. Besides the fact that Freed wanted to know more about her to help her, he also seemed to enjoy her company since they shared a great interest in books. He saw them at times sitting next to each other with a cup of coffee going through books for their research.

Bickslow had been the one that Laxus had been worried about the most. Bicks was crude, no shame with his perverted jokes and constant teasing. Laxus May be brash and at times crude as well, but his partner in crime was a whole other level. However, Kagome seemed to do just fine with the seith mage. She was witty and never would fall for the attempts Bickslow would make of embarrassing her or something. She always had something to say back. If anything, during the last month and a half, Laxus could probably could count three times that Bickslow had been successful with his teasing.

They had celebrated Kagome's birthday since Evergreen had remembered. He couldn't help but feel bad and made a mental note to get her something once they were in Crocus. That day, they spent a whole day at the lake. They laughed, they joked, they bonded. Kagome hated to admit it, but her eighteenth birthday was probably the best one she's ever had. Beside preoccupying on going back home, she felt like a normal person. Somewhat. She couldn't remember the last time she had such a blast for her birthday. Although when it was night time, she had needed some alone time, which they respected. It was also the anniversary of meeting Inuyasha.

He saw her eyes moving in search when they finally landed on him. He felt his throat going hot as her smile brightened and was wider as they made eye contact. A faint blush could be seen the moment he smirked at her.

He thought back to the time he had spent with her and he almost wanted to smile.

He had started to flirt. Something he had no intentions of doing but he couldn't help it. He blamed his inner dragon for that one. The first time he had done it with no shame whatsoever he had made a comment of her legs and ass and she had been so red afterwards, he thought steam was coming out of her ears.

He really enjoyed the way her face would flush with irritation and anger, especially when he would tease her regarding her weakness. He had learned that that word always triggered something within her, and it would make her learn faster and better whatever he was teaching her. He didn't say it to be a dick, he said it because he knew in no way she was weak. She was smart, beautiful, loyal, and strong.

Just thinking of the possibility of her leaving one day, it didn't sit well with him at all.

He could feel the attachment towards the small woman increase, and as much as the desire was growing of pushing her against a tree and kiss her, he had to stop himself. Because she was bound to leave. No point of making a connection with her, at least not like that.

Right?

Laxus had never met a woman like her. Probably the closest had been Mirajane, and although he had considered taking the take over mage out, something had stopped him from doing so. Eventually he was glad he hadn't as he then learned of Freed having a crush on her. Other than that, no one had caught his interest as much as she did.

Kagome was just different. Sweet and calm, sarcastic and vicious the next. Always looking out for everyone but determined to become stronger and better. That motivation is what he found extremely attractive. She always brought up how she always had to be protected and how much she despised it. It was fun teaching her what he knew, because he was molding her into a dangerous woman. Her looks were just the cherry on top.

He inwardly sighed. Yeah, he definitely had a crush.

As the time went by and more sweat and occasionally blood was spilled, the three months were up.

She could feel her joints starting to burn as she continued to run alongside Evergreen. She was tired and sweaty, but she was beyond happy. Happy for her new friends as they had worked so hard for the last three months in order to compete in the Grand Magic Games. She learned from them more how important it was for them, for their guild, to win the competition. No one should suffer the way the guild did while they were gone. Although it was a whole new world for her, she was determined on being their number one fan throughout the games. Being with them and their personalities pushed away the disappointment of not finding anything in the books Freed brought. She even read them twice each. But nothing.

She saw them bruised and exhausted for the weeks they were out in the woods, but they had all progressed immensely. As she took in Laxus' form at the front of their run, she could feel the sudden increase of power within him.

However, they weren't the only ones that had trained. It became a routine for Laxus and Kagome to train in the middle of the night, but after their first training session, they made sure it wasn't as long anymore so they could have some rest for the following day.

She was faster and her body was much more toned than what it used to be. She probably wasn't a professional fighter or even close to the level of skill Laxus had, but she could hold her own now and that's what mattered. She caught the proud look on his face whenever she did a move correctly and that drove her to continue proving herself. A new feel of power arose. Here, she wasn't Kikyo's reincarnation and constantly being compared to her.

Here, she was just Kagome for them.

But as her gaze was on the lightning dragon, she couldn't feel but her heart speeding up a bit. They had spent a lot of time together, whether with the rest of the team or just them two. There was something about him that even if she didn't want to, it kept pulling her in.

It was scary and it was the last thing that she wanted.

Men was the last thing she wanted to deal with again. Being rejected over and over by Inuyasha while she had fallen for him had been painful. Although those feelings had now gone away, the damage was there. She didn't want to fall for another one, especially one that was as clear as water that was or could possibly still be a playboy. Now for that, she was truly terrified. But her heart always seemed to have a mind of its own as it started to beat fast whenever Laxus was a little too close.

It wasn't just the fact that she was now physically attracted to him, it was his overall person. Even through his sick humor, dry replies, eye rolls, deadpan looks, he held a maturity she had never seen on anyone. He didn't hold a filter and for some strange reason she really liked that. And he was always there for her. Since the very beginning he became this support system. He didn't pry on why she would cry, he was just there, listening and holding her when necessary.

She was pretty sure he could hear her heart speeding up when he would be close enough to touch her.

She sighed mentally as she continued to run. She wanted to tell them more about herself, about what she could do, but there was never really the chance to bring it up. She was always too nervous to say anything. Laxus had pointed out that there was a strange scent to her, one of the times they were sparring, and she knew what it was. During that spar, she had felt her aura rising because she was irritated that she was being too slow to hit him, and she was finally able to kick him. After that, she was careful to not let it spike like that again, because she wasn't ready to say anything, at least during that time.

However she was determined to do it that night. She spent three months with them. She owed them that much.

Laxus knew he had pushed his team to their limits during the three months, so in reality, this run was the last thing they would do. He made them follow him for miles, until they finally reached a cliff. By the time they did, the sun was setting and the twilight hour was setting upon them. Evergreen and Kagome had gasped by the beauty of how the top of the trees were darkening as shades of red and orange filled the sky.

They all shared a moment of peacefulness.

But it was that sixth sense of something happening that it had Kagome turn around and raise a shield. Laxus felt a sudden energy coming out of her body and his eyes widened when he saw a translucent pink shield appearing where less than a second later, various arrows came flying at them but were stopped by said shield.

Freed stared at her in shock and then at Laxus. If Laxus had not felt them coming, how had Kagome?

"Well that's impressing," a sneer said as he came out of the the line of trees behind them, "No one has ever detected us, let alone stop our arrows."

Laxus approached Kagome who still had her hands up in prayer, "Demonic energy," she whispered to him.

His gray eyes went to the line of trees as they narrowed. He couldn't smell them.

"How many?" he asked her quietly as the other three were getting ready to fight.

"I feel one alive soul. There's five demonic auras."

"What is it that you carry woman?" It growled, "I can sense it… so much power…"

Her eyes widened as she looked at the jewel shards inside the small flask on her neck.

Laxus glare intensified as he cracked his neck, "Drop it."

She looked up at him, but his gaze was solely on the line of trees that was becoming darker as night was slowly settling. He would have to rely on eyesight to fight them.

The moment Kagome dropped the shield, they attacked.

Five cloaked figures came sprinting out of the tree line, immediately going after them. Laxus was able to catch two of them with his lightning, but the other three had made it with no difficulties. Freed brought out his sword and quickly slashed them while Evergreen attacked with her fairy machine gun spell and Bickslow used his babies on the Byron formation.

Kagome took notice that they were shielding her because she didn't have her bow and arrows. She hadn't brought them with her because they were going to run. She wished she would've done the same as Freed and just carry her weapon.

I'm so stupid! She thought as she saw another one coming out of the tree line and going straight to her. She hadn't sensed another one. She dodged it as she tried thinking of different ways to attack without harming herself so much.

The creatures were tall, around Laxus' height. Their skin a pale blue with black markings. Their eyes were a bright yellow with a green slit. Their skin resembled scales that seem to shine with their movements.

Another came out of the trees and they cornered her. Her eyes widened in alarm because they were starting to mask their auras. Laxus saw and his anger increased as he punched the two he had been fighting out of the way. Freed, being the closest to her and seeing she had no weapon, tossed his sword at her.

She cried out when one of them slashed her arm but with her right, she caught the the sword and stabbed the second demon that tried reaching for her neck.

The sword shone in a bright translucent pink as her purification energy traveled from her body onto the sword. The demon screeched in horror as it soon became ashes. The other demon stared wide eyed, but she quickly slashed it before it could react.

The battlefield seemed to freeze over as all the attention went to the raven haired woman, who's aura was fully visible as a challenging glare appeared in her eyes as she gripped the sword tightly in front of her, blood dripping from her other arm.

Bickslow seemed to be the first one to snap out of his shock as he had his babies body slam against the demon and send it flying to her. Kagome turned quickly and slashed it.

That's when the plan was created.

Laxus expanded his sense of hearing to detect the others while Freed created a rune on their radius to not let any of them escape. Evergreen, after sending her demon to its own demise, got closer to Kagome as her backup.

Laxus was able to send the demons he heard towards her way and she purified them, so now all now what was left was the person that summoned them.

Kagome swallowed, "If only I had my arrows-"

A surge of dark magic was thrown at all of them. The brunette immediately covered Kagome from the impact but was thrown unconscious to the side afterwards. Freed, Bickslow, and Laxus were not any better as they were slammed against the barrier walls that Freed had created, however, the moment Freed fell to the ground he lost concentration of it and it disappeared. Kagome yelled their names but as she moved to them, she gasped as she could feel a dark aura embracing her. More demons seemed to appear out of thin air and started making way to her friends. Goosebumps spread through her body as she could feel the entity of whoever had created the demons attempting to enter her mind when she tried to move.

NO, she yelled in her mind as she shut her eyes tightly, this happened once and it's not going to happen again!

The wind seemed to move around her as her own aura increased in size, her hair moving with the wind. In her mind, everything was foggy, until she saw the shape of a body, a dark shape, moving side to side and getting closer to her. She opened her eyes, which seemed to be glowing, and raised her hands towards the direction of the shadow she had seen in her head.

A ball of pure purification energy materialized and it shot forward, attacking the person that was controlling the demons head on. The moment it made impact, an explosion of light occured, engulfing everyone.

Laxus could only stare wide eyed as the demons that had appeared, turned into ashes, as their screeches echoed in horrifying pain. When the light faded, Kagome fell to her knees with a gasp. Bickslow motioned to him to go to her, while him and Freed would look at Evergreen who had not woken up yet. Laxus got to her just as her body was moving forward, preventing her from crashing onto the hard rocky ground of the cliff. Her head landed in his chest and he quickly took a hold of her to turn her, where he could see a trail of blood coming out of her nose.

To say the least, he was at a loss of words of what he saw.

She wanted to say something as she looked at his face, full of concern, but she was tired, and slowly closed her eyes.

The following morning, she woke up with a throbbing sensation on her arm and a splitting headache as well. She was inside her tent as the memories of what had happened made their way to her head. She sat up abruptly and panic rose when she saw that Evergreen was not laying next to her. She got up, ignoring the numb sensation of her legs and tore the tent open when she slammed onto a hard chest.

"You need to take it easy," Laxus said with a shook of his head as he wrapped an arm around her to sustain her.

She gripped the front of his shirt as she looked up at him, "Evergreen-Where's Evergreen?"

"I'm here Kagome."

Kagome removed her gaze from Laxus and leaned to the side, to see the beautiful brunette sitting on the ground with a blanket wrapped around her.

Laxus sighed, and with no effort, picked Kagome up and placed her next to the other woman. They embraced quickly and Kagome could feel relief knowing she was okay. Freed approached her and handed her a cup of hot tea, which she gratefully took a hold of. As she carefully sipped it, she could feel their gazes on her and she inwardly sighed.

She cleared her throat as she brought the cup down to her lap, "I guess I forgot to mention I have purification energy…" she trailed off, unsure on how to continue.

"I have never seen anything like it," Freed said as he sat down, his eyes wide with pure wonder, "Is it because of your relation to Kikyo?"

She took notice the way Laxus was looking at her and she swallowed, "Yeah… However what happened last night, it's nothing like I have ever done before. Usually my purification energy transfer to my arrow, in this case, your sword, but the whole thing coming out of my hands like that, I haven't done since I first came down the well when the Centipede Demon got me. It felt different though."

"Could be because your body took in ethernanos. That's like the magic container in our bodies."

Evergreen nodded, "That can be why you felt it different."

Freed leaned in more, "What else can you do?"

She sighed, "I can see through illusions. Detect jewel shards but you know that already. Same with seeing auras…"

She trailed off as she saw the gash that Laxus had on his head, from one of the claws from the demons. He had been sitting across from her so she crawled to him and raised her hand.

He felt the warmth spreading through his body as her energy hovered about his wound. It felt different than Wendy's. It was a lot more calming and pure. He was staring wide eyed at her.

"I just realized I could do this not that long ago," she softly said as she removed her hand. Her eyes casted downwards as she felt sad all of a sudden, "I know I should have been honest with you four about what all I can really do. I guess I was just afraid. Afraid of revealing what I am and you turning against me or using me. It's happened before. I was already planning on telling you, since we've become close. It's just… in my world, anyone that finds out the extent of my power, they want to use it for their advantage or they want to kill me. I guess that reaction has been implanted in my head. I know that it won't happen with you guys. I'm sorry for not being honest."

Evergreen shook her head, "You shouldn't apologize. We were strangers to you, it was understandable why you kept it from us."

"I'm just glad you were there," Bickslow said with a wave of his hand, "Even Boss Man didn't feel them coming."

Kagome giggles softly as she caught the look on Laxus' face, "Well technically they were after the power of the jewel. And here I hoped it wouldn't be the same as back home. However they were smart. The ones that came out later had masked their auras."

Freed nodded, "Perhaps. However, most of the demons in our world are either too far or are in association with the Black Wizard Zeref. Those are the ones we should be in the lookout for. They could really see you as a threat."

Laxus looked at Freed, "You're talking about the Nine Demon Gates. Tartaros."

He felt Kagome's confused look, "It's the last dark major guild standing. Last I knew there hasn't been any movements from them in years. No one knows where their guild is either."

"Let's not focus on that," Evergreen cut in, "We need to focus on the games. We should go back today to the guild as the Master is supposed to say his decision on who will be participating."

"Ever, you and miss Kagome just relax. We will pack everything. Also I feel Laxus should use his teleportation to get us back to the town faster. I can be the first one there to start buying our tickets back."

And with that, the men quickly started gathering their things. Kagome didn't like being just there, not helping, but the moment she reached to grab a plate that was by the put out fire place, she felt herself getting shocked. It wasn't painful, but it sure made her retract her hand quickly. She caught Laxus' smirk and she just shook her head.

Within two hours, everything was packed and ready to go. Laxus took Freed, then Ever, then Bickslow, and then finally Kagome. When he got back from taking Bickslow, he saw Kagome healing the wound from where the demon caught her. He was mesmerized by it.

Wendy couldn't heal herself.

He found himself kneeling down and gently grabbing her arm as he tugged it slightly to inspect it as she finished. Small traces of pink could be seen, but it definitely wasn't leaving a scar.

She took notice of one, how close he was, and two, that they were alone. She felt her heart speed up and she swallowed slightly.

"I'm sorry again for not telling you, especially you," she said softly, "It wasn't fair, especially with you helping me so much."

He shook his head, "Don't. It's okay. I hid the fact I was a dragon slayer from my best friends for years, the whole guild even longer. I get it. Some stuff can't just be shared so easily."

She gratefully smiled at him as he helped her up. She was still slightly weak from the previous night, so he made sure he kept a strong hold on her. She could feel the heat of his body and her heart swelled.

No, bad Kagome, no!

She shyly looked at him and she could see the tiniest hint of a smirk on his face. He always enjoyed embarrassing her.

Specially knowing that the attraction was mutual, although he doubted that Kagome suspected anything of his developing feelings for her.

And just like that, they were gone.

Laxus wasn't happy about riding on a train again for several hours. However, he did have Kagome and she sure helped with his motion sickness last time. The moment they got inside a cart, he made sure the woman was next to him and immediately laid on her lap. She stared at him wide eyed but he didn't say anything. She got the full message. She saw the familiar green tint on his face the train started and started gently running her fingers through his hair.

As the hours went by, with Laxus fast asleep in her lap, Freed and Bickslow left to get a few snacks from the other cart. As they left, Evergreen was curiously staring at Kagome.

"I've seen you improve these three months," she said quietly in fear of waking up her leader, "And the way you talk about how it is with your old friends… how come you set yourself back so much?"

Kagome wasn't in the slightest surprised by her question, "The insecurities of always being compared to Kikyo did a lot of damage. Inuyasha constantly running to her didn't help in the slightest."

Evergreen held sympathy for her, "Do you love him?"

Kagome was quiet for a while, "Yes but—"

"We are about to reach Magnolia!" Bickslow loudly said as he tore the door open with a handful of snacks. Evergreen shot him a dirty look as he interrupted whatever Kagome was going to say.

Kagome rolled her eyes at his excitement but then smiled. She looked down and that's when she noticed Laxus with his eyes open.

Panic settled in.

Had he heard?