My beta is the best: GoddessxNyte2
Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail, Desna owns the Pradesh Family.
Enjoy!
"Here, you talk to her," Gildarts spoke through the com, before tossing it over Lucy, who was sitting beside him with a faint sheen of sweat on her skin. They'd spent the morning working on her physical training, of which she freely admitted was her greatest need.
Not that she liked it. In fact, she hated it.
Unfortunately, Gildarts had pointed out that her magic was expanding too fast, and that if she didn't train her body enough to handle it, she would likely fall ill. In fact, they were both a little surprised that she'd not done so already, considering how much magic power she already had access to. She didn't really have room to argue against physical training.
So, here she was, sweating like a pig, in the worst heat known to man (seriously, wasn't Seven North of Fiore? Shouldn't it be colder?), having just gotten done with two hours of running around in circles picking up random boulders at the discretion of a twisted old man.
It hurt to breathe. It shouldn't hurt to breathe. She was sure.
Lucy scowled at the aforementioned old man, as she snatched the small device he'd tossed her out of the air. She grumbled something about not being able to talk if she couldn't even breathe, but looked into the device anyway to observe the man at the other end of the feed. Her eye softened and lit up happily when she turned her attention to Laxus.
Despite her protests, her voice was strong and she didn't seem be struggling too excessively with her breathing when she spoke up, "Hey, Sparkles!"
"Blondie, of all the ridiculous nicknames you've given me in the time we've known each other, I take the most offence to that one, by far. I don't sparkle," he protested vehemently.
Lucy allowed a small smile to grace her face as she shrugged. Her nonchalance irked Laxus a bit, and he felt obligated to give her an eye roll, but mostly he was just glad to hear from her - so he quickly let it go.
"So, Destructo is actually making you work hard. Good to know."
"Yeah, the guy's a freaking lunatic. I'm convinced he's gotten some lacrima recorders hidden around here, and is making a fortune sending comedic videos of my various 'training' exploits - and my frequent failed attempts at them," she shot another glare towards Gildarts briefly, "Any news out of Sabretooth recently?"
Laxus looked his fellow blonde over, as much as he could through the tiny lacrima com, before nodding slowly. "Yeah… Lightbulb and Emo Hair are out for your blood, apparently. They called every single Fairy Tail guild member that owns a communication lacrima, demanding answers. Even called up the old man when he was in the middle of the guild hall and made a big fuss about us letting you go instead of turning you over to the Rune Knights after they heard about the Fallen Star incident… Did you really take that girl's keys?"
The questioning in the Thunder God's tone hurt just a little, that he would think she'd actually be capable of doing something so completely despicable. She raised a brow at him, frown firmly in place, but didn't offer a response.
"Look, Lucy, I get that you're trying to be public enemy number one or some shit to make sure the guild doesn't suspect anything, but isn't that… a little far? I mean-"
Lucy cut him off angrily, "Laxus, are you serious?"
He looked at her, a little sheepish, but continued regardless, "There's very little I'd put past you if it were to protect celestial spirits, Blondie, so don't give me that look."
She considered this for a moment, and decided she rather liked being known as a fierce protector. And he wasn't exactly wrong, if she for one second believed Yukino and Sabretooth weren't capable of protecting the remaining Zodiac she wouldn't have left them there.
"Alright. I've decided not to be offended by your lack of faith in me. No, I didn't take her keys…"
Laxus seemed to release a breath he didn't know he'd been holding.
"Well, actually, I did technically take them-"
"What?!"
"Oh calm down, Blondie, and listen to me. I took them, but only because she asked me to. She had reasons, a lot of them actually, but they aren't really mine to discuss with you. The only thing you really need to know about it is that Sting, Ryos, and Yukino are aware of everything, so if something goes wrong and you need help on your end, they'd be willing and able to assist."
She thought that over for a second, a finger to her scarred lips, "Actually, I probably should have told you that weeks ago. My bad."
Laxus, who had been working mostly alone for weeks to find scraps of information, found that he was… more than slightly annoyed.
Lucy kept talking, pretending not to notice the scowl on her brother's face, "They're pursuing this because I asked them to, it's to help keep me and my location from being discovered, and before you ask," she looked at him sternly, "no: they don't know where I am, where I'm going, so they aren't a liability."
Laxus sighed, letting go of his frustration and he simply nodded in the affirmative. He'd been worried as hell ever since Rogue called him looking ready to kill. He's gotta give the kid props, his acting was pretty freaking convincing, "Yeah. Alright, I get it. We've not had much traction in finding anything new on this end, but we're doing everything we can to stay silent, so it's been very slow-going. Speaking of, I did need to ask your opinion on something."
"Hm?" Lucy responded, prodding him to continue while cleaning the dirt from under her fingernails.
"Right. So the best source of information on virtually unknown Dark Guilds is-"
"No."
Sighing, Laxus continued, "is Cr-"
"Lax, I swear to Mavis, if you bring Jellal in on this, the next mage I hunt down will be you."
Said mage pinched the bridge of his nose before continuing, "Lucy, if we want any kind of edge on this fucking guild without letting them know that you're whole fucking exile was a giant misdirection, then we need to involve Crime Sorciere. It's was really only a courtesy that I asked you beforehand!"
Scary Lucy seemed to be more prominent in Lucy's life these days, as evident to Gildarts by the dark aura surrounding his new trainee for the second time in the last three days of physical workouts (the first time was an event that he was never, ever going to speak of again), when before he'd only heard tales of the near-legendary being.
"Laxus Antony Dreyar," Lucy glared daggers at the wizard, "you will not involve Jellal in this. I won't even have to come up with a threat for this shit, because if you even so much as think of involving Erza's boyfriend and one of my closest friends in this after every fucking thing I've sacrificed, after every horrible, heart-wrenching things I had to say and do to convince them not to follow me and put their lives in danger, I will turn Virgo loose and just, I don't know, forget, to set limits on how far she can go to punish you. I've mastered remote gate-opening in the last few weeks, and I will put it to good use without a second's hesitation. Do you understand me?"
Lucy could feel Virgo's excitement through their bond. Her key practically vibrated with joy at the prospect, which sent imperceptible shivers down Lucy's spine that she had to fight to keep from showing.
Laxus seemed much paler than normal, but based on the determined, albeit somewhat anxious, expression on his stupid face, he wasn't backing down this time. Scary Lucy must lose some potency through the com. Damn it.
Before much else could be said between the two fuming blondes, a door was heard opening and closing quickly on the Fairy Tail side of things and Laxus blanched further, trying to pull the com away from view as fast as he could before someone saw him conversing with the recently-exiled Light of Fairy Tail. But as fast as Laxus was, he wasn't fast enough and the com was plucked from his hands with a shout from the irritated lightning mage.
Lucy and Gildarts were given a good view of Laxus's office floor (which was disgusting, so much so in fact that Lucy wasn't quite sure how it was even physically possible for him to have made such a mess in the three weeks she'd been gone, because she was very sure it wasn't like that before the group had left for the S-Class Trials) for a few moments while they heard muffled arguing.
"Shut it, Sparkle Dick. I heard everything anyway, Greenielocks hasn't found the rune yet that can block my magic."
There was some cursing and a bit of shuffling, and a very quietly muffled 'I don't sparkle' heard from Laxus' office, before a very annoyed maroon-haired man popped up on the com, locking a single piercing eye on the celestial mage.
"Heya, Tinker-Tits. Long time, no hear. As much as I hate this sparkly fucker, and as much as I love that sadistic hell maiden of yours, he's right. You're not gonna find shit on your own. Now, how's about you tell me why the fuck you decided to go dark without saving my wretched ass from the lollipop guild first?"