Here's the next update. This chapter is pretty light as I wanted to start developing Lucy's relationship with Laxus. Hope you all enjoy! Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

Chapter 5

Lucy had no idea what to think of Laxus as she followed him. She wasn't even really sure what she was hunting for. She had left her too heavy pack off with Freed who looked confused as to what she had in there. She just shrugged and headed off after Laxus to avoid questions.

After about ten minutes of walking she finally asked, "Ummm, Laxus?" He grunted in response. "What exactly are we hunting for?"

"Animals? What else?" Laxus responded in a no nonsense manner.

"Well, why'd you bring me? You're a slayer. You don't really need…" Lucy started.

"Shhh," Laxus said stepping back beside her. He hunched down behind some bushes, and she followed suit. They waited a moment and a few deer popped out into the clearing. "I wanna see that aim again," Laxus finally whispered.

She shivered at his closeness his breath touching her ear. She swallowed hard and brushed her hand over Sagittarius's key. At first, she was just going to summon him again, but at the last minute she changed her mind, "Star dress, Sagittarius form." She shifted into her bowman gear and took aim. She launched two arrows and dropped two deer. She shifted back.

Laxus stalked out into the clearing and appraised the kills. "Nice work! Both clean kills," Laxus said to her removing the arrows and starting the cleaning process. Lucy smiled at the compliment proud that he was praising her. She leaned forward to watch him. She hadn't cleaned stuff too much as usually Erza took the opportunity to work on her blade skills.

She asked him questions as he went along, and he even let her do parts of the second one. He was leaning down over her when he heard it. He went tense, and so did she. She glanced up at him faces inches apart. It could have been a moment if she wasn't so worried about what that roar was.

Laxus leaned back on his haunches glancing up at the cave in the mountain above the forest. "Well, now we know why the Vulcan have all come down," Laxus said.

Lucy gulps and looks up at the cave too. "What is that?" Lucy asked.

Laxus shrugs, "Not sure, but I have a couple guesses. Let's head back tell the others what we found."

Lucy nods relieved that she won't have to go up there today. She was tired from all of the summoning, not to mention the lack of meals and sleep were finally starting to get to her. She moves to get up and winces slightly. Normally people would miss it, but Laxus being a slayer did not. He raised an eyebrow at her, "Ya okay there, Blondie?"

She glared back at him forgetting her fear and pain for a second, "Ya Blondie, I'm fine." She starts moving forward, but it seemed sitting made her stiffer than she thought. All of her aches and pains were starting to come out, and she winced again. Laxus raises an eyebrow at her while he hefts the skinned deer meat up over his shoulder. He doesn't say anything as they make their way back, but slowly Lucy starts wincing more and more. He watches as her fatigue sets in. Finally, they get back to the campsite. The other three were all gone washing up, so Laxus gets the meet cooking.

She sits down heavy, and Laxus finally prods at her with a stick. Lucy scowls at him then sighs, "Just a little sore from today. Those Vulcans landed a good one before I got my star dress on."

He seen her hand wrapped around her midsection, "Here. Let me see." He walked over to her, and he's confused as he hears her heart rate increase. She lifts up her hand, and slowly lifts up some of her shirt. Her heart rate increases, and he starts to smirk, "Calm down Blondie, I can come up with something better than this to get your shirt off."

Lucy turns bright red and goes to punch him. He grabs her wrist easily chuckling to himself, "Now let me see." He pulls her shirt up more showing most of her stomach and side. There was a nice bruise already forming and a few cuts from Vulcan claws across the top. "Damn, ya shoulda said something. I wouldn't a made ya go hunt," Laxus said.

"Don't do that!" Lucy said suddenly angry. "I'm a mage too! I don't need coddled!"

Laxus was surprised by the fire in her eyes. He lifted up his hands in surrender, "Not saying you do, but we have a long week ahead, and you hurt doesn't help what we need to do."

Her fire left as quickly as it came. "Right, sorry…" she murmured. He shrugged and moved them both next to the fire. He found some ointment and applied it to the cuts. She hissed at the pain, but didn't say anything. He was just finishing up when the others came back into the clearing.

They stopped dead in their tracks. Bix and Ever exchanged a glance before getting mischievous smiles. "We interruptin something?" Bix called tongue lolling out.

Ever jumped in, "Because we can come back."

Lucy turned red and started to splutter which caused Laxus to chuckle, "Get yer heads outta the gutter. I'm just seeing to Lucy's wounds."

Evergreen sobered up at that and came over to check. Bixlow and Freed followed. "Never see him tendin' any of our wounds…" Bixlow mutters. Freed nodded in agreement. Bix got a soft zap from Laxus telling him to shut it which sent him into a new fit of giggles.

Evergreen peaks at Lucy's stomach which Laxus was just beginning to wrap, "That's from when they tackled you wasn't it…"

Lucy looked up and smiled at Evergreen, "Yeah, but I've gotten worse from getting in the cross fire of Natsu and Gray. It's no biggie." Evergreen nodded, but didn't look convinced.

They all settled down to eat for the night discussing the creature up in the mountain caves. They all agreed to go check it out at first light. They figured whatever it was, it was scaring the Vulcan down from the higher elevations. Lucy was the first to start nodding off. It didn't surprise anyone. She'd worked hard, but was still running on practically no sleep. She curled up in a sleeping bag next to the fire and dozed off. Slowly everyone else began to follow her. Freed had set up runes surrounding their campsite, so no one had to stay up to keep watch. Plus, very few things could sneak up on Laxus's dragon slayer ears and Bixlow's totems.

Lucy awoke to her keys vibrating. She yanked on her sweatshirt and added a little more wood to the fire. She had asked Horologium to wake her up early, so she could do more reading. She was still exhausted, but she was focused.

She pulled one of the books she'd borrowed from the library out of her bag and picked up where she left off. She had been taking notes, but so far most of it was just the basic concepts like which magic was the opposite and balance to the other. She hadn't found much talk about celestial spirit magic at all. She found very interesting concepts about how her magic mixed well with dragon slayer magic due to the long history of how dragons and the celestial spirits came into being, but none of it helped her. She slammed her book in annoyance when light first started to shine on the clearing. She moved about her business cleaning up and starting breakfast, but little did she know she was being watched.

Laxus continued to watch her as she got breakfast ready. He had heard her wake up very early. He'd assumed she'd just been cold and was going to go back to bed, but when she had started reading he was surprised. After an all-nighter the night before and a long day of work, he expected her to be toasted. However, here she was pouring over books she'd brought along. That explained why her bag was so heavy at least. He contemplated asking her, but it was clear she was avoiding the topic with everyone. He wasn't sure why. If she was just looking into her magic, what was the big deal with getting help? Maybe she just wanted to get stronger on her own? That made sense to him. He was much the same way.

He had found himself dozing off and watching her throughout the rest of the early morning. He liked the way the fire reflected off her brown eyes and made her hair more golden. He watched her squint in frustration and liked the way she could get so focused on something. He'd been impressed with her yesterday. Not only had she held her own, but she had also covered for her teammates. She watched how they fought, assessed the situation, and blended in seamlessly with the team. He found himself almost excited to see what else she had in store.

Laxus re-awoke to Lucy slamming her book. He could tell she was frustrated, and some part of him wanted to go over and comfort her. He quickly decided to brush that thought away as then he would have to explain how he'd been watching her all morning. He watched as Lucy bustled about her morning routine. She washed her face, rolled up her sleeping bag, and started breakfast. She walked to the edge of the clearing and slipped into new shorts and combat boots. He'd watched her change admiring her long legs, but not really getting to see anything due to the longer sweatshirt she had on. He felt Bixlow nudge him. He glanced over at the sprawled out seith mage.

"Enjoying the view?" Bix whispered over at him stretching his arms out. Thankfully, his totems decided not to repeat him this morning. Laxus let out a low growl. He wasn't sure why. Bix and him normally did check out girls together, but for some reason Lucy was different. Bix raised an eyebrow at him and chuckled, "Someone woke up on the wrong side of the forest floor." He looked back over at Lucy returning towards the fire and whistled appreciatively at her as she got close. He wasn't ashamed that he'd been watching her, but it got under his skin that Bix had been doing the same.

Lucy rolled her eyes at him, "Keep it up Bix, and you can just say good bye to breakfast."

Bix rolled over grinning at her, "C'mon Cosplayer. You wouldn't deprive me of my needs!" He winked at her over the last part.

She turned slightly red and turned to Laxus, "Hey Laxus, care for two servings? Bix isn't going to be joining us for breakfast this morning."

Laxus chuckled at her sitting up, "Sure Blondie. Wouldn't be a slayer if I turned down someone offering food."

Bix look betrayed and laid back with a hand over his heart, "Where's the loyalty?"

Evergreen took this moment to wake up and throw stuff at Bix. Lucy looked shocked. Evergreen didn't even have the graciousness to look embarrassed as she stormed out of the clearing.

Lucy looked to the boys for help wondering if she should go after her. Bix responded, "Only if ya have a death wish."

Laxus nodded, "She's fine just not a morning person."

Freed got up and sniffed the pot, "I have to say Lucy-sama that smells great."

"Oh thanks! Wendy and I usually do the cooking with Team Natsu as Gray and Natsu have odd tastes, and it's the one thing Erza actually isn't good at," she said conversationally as she stirred the pot adding spices from her bag.

Laxus chuckled nodding, "Yeah, Scarlet has never been able to cook. Mira loved to challenge her to contests back when they were always going at it. I ended up being a food taster a lot… Erza's stuff was…" Laxus shook his head in disgust. "Well, it made a dragon slayer not want to eat." Bix started laughing.

Lucy nodded in agreement, "It took one mission with the bunch, and I quickly realized I was going to starve or learn to cook."

"Beauty, brains, and a cook. Ya got the whole package Cosplayer," Bix said appreciatively.

Lucy blushed and handed everyone their bowls, "Just for that, you can have breakfast." Bix smiled at her, Laxus scowled into his bowl, and they all dug in.

Once Evergreen got back and had her breakfast, the group set out towards the cave Lucy and Laxus had found yesterday. They kept it casual as they knew they would be traveling most of the day. They ran into a few stray Vulcan here or there, but generally Bixlow's totems would take them out before they even knew about them. Lucy did get to take one out with her whip which once again surprised everyone, especially Laxus, at her agility and precision.

By nightfall, they got close to the base of the mountain. They set up camp once more and rested. They hadn't heard any cries like Laxus and Lucy had in the clearing, but Laxus said he could smell monsters. That put everyone on edge. Lucy got a very unrestful night once again due to her anxiety about whatever was in the cave. She ended up getting up early deciding to read as she wasn't sleeping anyway.

The morning went by much the same, and Laxus lead the way up the mountain. Finally, after climbing all day they finally got to a ledge just below the cave. The sun was just starting to set when they heard a loud roar which was echoed by more roars from the cave above. They saw large, black wings coming at them from the sky line and a barbed tail casting sharp shadows from the setting sun. They all pressed back into the ledge when Laxus swore under his breath. "Holy mother of…" Bixlow whispered. Then, the group of five dropped into the earth.