Sorry about not posting for a couple days! I always hate waiting when I start reading a new story, so I'll try to keep the updates coming! Please enjoy! Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

Chapter 4

Well, actually, it was more Sting smirking at Lucy, Rogue looking bored out of his mind, and Yukino ran up to them holding Frosch and Lector.

"Oh shut it Kitty Cat," Lucy snapped at Sting with a smile. He grinned at her as she made her way up to Yukino to give her a hug. "It's been a while!"

"No kidding! We are going to have to plan a girl's day soon. These two are starting to drive me crazy," Yukino said.

Rogue raised an eyebrow as if to say, 'Me, I could never.'

Lector piped up, "The great Sting could never be annoying."

"Thanks buddy!" Sting said smirking at the two girls. He looked around, "Where's Natsu? I was hoping for a rematch."

Lucy rolled her eyes as every time they ran into each other the two fought. Not really like it used to be, but they both enjoyed the challenge. "Not here," Lucy said. "I'm on a mission with Laxus and the Ranjishu."

Yukino and Rogue both raised their eyebrows at each other. "So you're not with Team Natsu anymore?" Yukino asked.

"Oh no, nothing like that…," Lucy started.

"Oh good! Then, you've realized what a loser Natsu is and have come all the way to Crocus to hang out with me!" Sting grinned throwing an arm around Lucy.

"In your dreams Kitty Cat," Lucy said rolling her eyes.

"You bet you are," Sting whispered winking at her.

Lucy turned a light pink, but before she could push Sting away Loke decided to summon himself, "Unhand my princess, Kitty." He pulled Lucy out from under Sting's arm.

"L-lord Leo! Nice to see you again," Yukino stuttered.

"And it's lovely to see you as well, Lady Yukino," Loke said bending to kiss her hand. Rogue glared daggers at him.

From behind her, Lucy heard Laxus clear his throat in impatience. "Right… Well, we have to get going, mission and all. Maybe, we will see you later this week!" Lucy backed away. When Loke didn't follow, she rolled her eyes and said, "Force Gate Close."

Yukino and Frosch waved happily. Sting said something suggestive, but Lucy tried to ignore it. She was really embarrassed and took the lead towards the client's house. Here they were being so nice by letting her tag along, and her friends were being as embarrassing as ever.

Bixlow and Evergreen strode up beside her matching her fevered pace with ease. Bixlow loped an arm around her causing her to slow some, "Well things sure are interesting with you around Cosplayer." 'Sure are.' 'Sure are.' 'Sure are,' his totems echoed.

"Care to explain that?" Evergreen said sliding up to take her arm grinning at her mischievously.

"Oh well, we run into them from time to time. Natsu and Sting fight. Same old. Same old," Lucy said.

"Oh that I get," Ever said. "I was asking about that thing between you and Sting."

Lucy gave a very unlady like snort, "Nothing really. We went on a date once. Natsu showed up. They wrecked the place in a fight. End of story."

"Natsu in a jealous rage," Evergreen said mockingly.

Bixlow bust out laughing, "Natsu doesn't even know what jealousy is."

Lucy turned redder, "Can we talk about something other than my horrible dating life, please?"

Ever looked shocked, "Wait, there's more stories like this?"

Lucy looked down, "With a team like mine well, privacy really isn't a thing. Natsu comes in the window, regardless of the situation. Gray is always stripping in my apartment. Erza can be just as bad. So, yes, there are definitely more stories."

Evergreen patted her arm consolingly no longer teasing her, but Bixlow got caught up on something else, "Regardless of the situation? What kind of situations you getting into Cheerleader?"

With that Lucy turned bright red and shoved him off. Evergreen started wrapping him with her fan, but winked back at her like I want details later. She turned even redder at that.

Freed cleared his throat stepping up closer with Laxus beside him, "I could add some runes to your residence. To keep your teammates out when they are unwanted."

Lucy was shocked, "You'd do that for me?"

Freed nodded, "Of course, we're guild mates after all."

Lucy nodded smiling, "I'll think on it, but thank you for the offer."

Laxus who had been watching and listening very closely despite the sound pods on his head finally cut in, "If you two are done," he said to Evergreen and Bixlow, "we're at the client's place."

It turns out they had arrived at a major trading post. They walked into the manager's office trying to stay out of the way of all of the hustle and bustle. Freed and Bix took up places by the door, Laxus took a seat with Evergreen quick to follow. This left Lucy feeling awkward as ever, so she tried to seem invisible on the back wall.

The manager looked up from his papers and various calls to Laxus's introduction, "Hmm? Fairy Tail mages? Right. Beasts keep attacking our livestock to the north east of town. There's a small settlement there. The mayor will be expecting you within the week. When you finish, he will pay you." The man went back to looking at his papers. Several lacrima devices went off, and he started answering them. They took that as their cue to leave although not without Evergreen casting a few annoyed glances his way. Lucy ushered her out before he could actually catch her glare.

They decided to rest up at an inn that night before heading out. Everyone decided to split up. Laxus and Bixlow headed to get supplies, Ever decided to check out some new boutiques, and Freed decided to show Lucy the library. When she got there, she wasn't disappointed. The place was huge, and she wasn't sure she was ever going to be able to leave.

Freed chuckled at her, "I know the place is quite overwhelming, but the sections you need are this way." He led her up several flights of stairs and through a maze of bookshelves. Finally, he brought her to a smaller room where all the walls were lined with shelves. "This room should have everything you need. Of course, the balance of magic is listed in many old scripts this should at least give you the base you're looking for."

She glanced around overwhelmed. She didn't even know where to start. She started running her finger along the titles. Freed cleared his throat, "If you're newer to the subject, I suggest starting here." He placed several large tomes on the desk in the middle of the room. "From there, you should be able to direct yourself better. If you want, I can help you loo…"

"No, no, I-," Lucy cleared her throat realizing she was being rude. "Thank you, but I need to get a base before I can really formulate my question. Thank you so much, really. I will call for you if I need anything."

Freed nodded at her trying to think of what to say to get her to open up. Lucy helps everyone, and now it was clear something was eating at her. It would be nice if he could return the favor for a change. Eventually, he shrugged it off and decided to peruse a different section deciding to come check up on her later.

However, Freed is also known to get distracted by books, so when later finally did roll around he realized it was much, much later than he predicted. His team always met up for dinner when in towns like this. He bolted off to meet them assuming Lucy had already left. When he arrived at dinner, though, he was surprised to see Lucy was not there. They decided to leave her be as she was obviously busy. They figured this was the reason she came, so they thought it was best not to distract her. Eventually, they all headed to their rooms for the night agreeing to meet at first light.

The next morning the boys were waiting in the lobby for Evergreen who was, per usual, the last one to be ready. However, Evergeen came down the stairs much more awake then normal. "Is Lucy down here?" She asked slightly frantic.

The boys all shook their heads confused. "You don't suppose she's still at the library?" Freed asked slightly concerned. Now he really wished he would have invited her out last night.

Just as they were about to go looking for her, Lucy came bursting in the doors panting hard, "I'm here! I'm here! Sorry I'm late!" She bent over to take a breath. Her hair was all pulled back a few strands falling out in the front. Her clothes were the same as yesterday, and there were large bags under her eyes.

"Lucy! You had me worried!" Ever stormed up to her. "Why didn't you come back?"

Lucy looked up sheepishly still panting, "Sorry! I was in the library."

"All night?" Ever asked shocked.

Lucy nodded and shifted her bag, "Don't worry, I got a little sleep! So, I won't slow you down!" She shifted her bag again. "So, let's go?"

They all turned to Laxus who just shrugged and led the way. Bixlow followed after him murmuring, "Wow, Cheerleader rocks the morning after look too." Before Laxus can respond, Bix yelps and turns to find Lucy had kicked him hard. She smirked and linked arms with Evergreen pulling her out the door talking about the boutiques she found yesterday. Laxus snickered down at Bixlow as he got up, but he had to admit Bix was definitely right about Lucy.

They headed out into the tree line Laxus leading the way. He was basically going to sniff out any creatures in the area, and he immediately detected Vulcans. They tried to keep Ever and Lucy in the middle as these guys did like to go after girls. That didn't end up being too much trouble as Lucy would keep chatter with anyone in the group which forced someone to always be near her. She also matched his demanding pace well despite the lack of sleep. It impressed him that she could do so well on empty, but he was curious to see how she would do later on in the day and when they had to fight. He knew she was a good celestial spirit mage, but he really hadn't seen her fight too much. He'd been knocked out during Tartaros when she took on several of the demons, and no one really seemed to know what she did during that time to get free everyone. However, since then he'd only really heard about her in relation to her team where she was pretty unremarkable. He wasn't really sure what to expect.

Lost in his musings, he was almost, ALMOST, surprised by a group of Vulcans. Luckily, Bixlow's totems had warned them just in time. They came into a clearing of twenty Vulcans. There was a moment's pause before both sides launched at each other, the Vulcans primarily targeting Lucy and Evergreen. Evergreen took to the air with her fairy wings and used Fairy Machine Gun. Freed immediately started writing up runes surrounding the clearing, so they could trap the Vulcans. Bixlow starts shooting them down with his dolls, and Laxus rushes forward zapping and punching all of the Vulcans near him.

Lucy takes a second to watch them go in perfect formation, but is shaken awake when she sees a Vulcan charge towards Freed. "Open gate of the archer, Sagittarius!"

"Moshi, Moshi!" Sagittarius says saluting off in the distance.

"Take down that Vulcan!" Lucy says summoning her fleuve d'étoiles and attacking the Vulcan nearest to her.

"Right 'O m'lady!" Sagittarius says firing a barrage at the Vulcan keeping him off of Freed.

Lucy then becomes focused on the four Vulcan all grabbing at her. She is forced to dodge and roll back several times going on the defensive. She glances around seeing that there were seven reaching up and jumping at Evergreen who was floating above them. Bix was firing at those below her. Laxus was taking on another eight as she continues to hold her own waiting for Freed to finish his rune circle.

Eventually, Laxus finishes off his group, Sagittarius took down his one, and the six under Evergreen were dropped. Lucy still had two on her while she'd managed to kick the other two unconscious. Suddenly, she does a count. One was missing. There were seven on Evergreen, not six! She glances over to see one jumping from a nearby tree at Evergreen's back side.

"Sagittarius!" She calls.

"Aye, aye m'lady!" He calls back shooting one powerful arrow right past Evergreen right into the Vulcan. It drops him in one hit.

"Nice wor…" Lucy starts to call when she is tackled down by the two Vulcans still on her.

"Lucy!" Evergreen calls out!

She felt smooshed and cramped, but really they were just trying to get ahold of her not smash her. "Star dress, Taurus form," she whispers brushing her keys.

She immediately transforms and gains Taurus's strength. She's able to heft the two monstrous monkeys off of her and swings her axe to drop them. She turns around while changing back smiling at her group who stares at her dumbfounded.

Evergreen comes up to her, "Are you okay? You could have got hurt cause of me!"

Lucy brushed it off, "No biggie! I'm just happy to be of use!"

"Don't think ya have to worry about that Cheerleader," Bix said then frowned. "That nickname doesn't really fit ya…" 'Name.' 'Name.' 'Name,' his totems chant. He seems to be disappointed in this and gets lost in thought.

"You were a great help, Lucy! You covered me well!" Freed nodded at her.

Laxus came over after tying up the last of the Vulcan. "Yeah, not bad Blondie," he adds appreciatively. "Let's stay for the night. Bix deal with them, Freed camp, Ever water."

Everyone nods and heads off in their own directions. Lucy shifts nervously, "What about me?"

"You and I are going hunting," Laxus says with a hungry smirk.