Paper Moon

Chapter Two

Magnolia Train Station

Fiore

"Laxus?"

"Hey there, Blondie." Lucy felt the air leave her body too soon. Why was he here? She had questions but couldn't find the words to speak them. It didn't help that being in his proximity made her brain short. She couldn't form a single coherent thought. Thankfully, Natsu answered for her. Until she remembered Natsu was a complete moron.

"Where's Erza? And why the hell are you here?" Natsu smirked, "oh, you're here to get your butt kicked right?" He cracked his knuckles and went into a fighting stance. "That's good for you, cause I can do it right NOW!" She was right, Natsu really was a moron. How did I not see this coming?

He hadn't taken two steps before Laxus swiftly punched him, shocking Natsu to the ground in a dead faint. He grabbed Natsu's ankles and dragged him over onto the train. He raised his eyebrows at the other three Guild members. "Are you coming? Or are you just gonna stand there? I'll explain everything on the train."

In a heartbeat, Gray and Happy were right behind Laxus. Lucy hesitated. What's he doing here? This is not good. She could feel her heart race and chose to take a deep breath. No matter what she felt she would push it all aside to complete the job. Besides, the reward was too enticing to forget over some juvenile feelings. I'm a member of Fairy Tail and we don't give up!

They quickly followed behind Laxus as he pulled open an empty compartment. She slid into the seat across Laxus and nearly jumped out of her skin when he stood up and placed Natsu next to her. Oh, well that's normal. Natsu usually sits next to me.

"Firebrain has a habit of drooling and I don't want to deal with it." Laxus sat back down and made himself comfortable.

"And you think I want him drooling on me?" Lucy complained, pursing her lips.

"I figured you were used to it. He sleeps in your bed right?" Why did that sound like a challenge? She must have been imagining things because Lucy thought she heard a twinge of jealousy in Laxus's voice. But that was ridiculous, this was Laxus.

Lucy blushed and crossed her arms, did everyone know about that? And why did they make it seem like they...did things? He was like her gross younger brother and she loved him to pieces. "Well, it's not like I invite him in. He just shows up." Gray filed in and took the seat next to Laxus. Boy am I glad I don't have to sit next to Laxus. Not like that's a bad thing...

"Ugh, what happened?" Natsu stirred and shook his head a little. "Where are we?" He looked around and saw Laxus, his previous head injury forgotten. "That's right, I was about to kick your ass." He stood, but before he could even do anything, the train slowly started to move and he slumped back weakly, face green.

"Well, that's done. Now, are you going to tell us why you're here instead of Erza?" Lucy listened to Gray interrogate Laxus. She wasn't really up to joining him. She had her hands full balancing a sick Natsu on her lap. How did he even get on my lap so quickly? All while trying to avoid Laxus's piercing stare.

"Sure, I'm here to make sure you idiots don't demolish the town."

"So, you're telling us the Master sent you to babysit us?" Gray sounded especially indignant. He crossed his arms and glared at Laxus. Lucy shifted uncomfortably. She wasn't necessarily opposed to having Laxus here, he was an S-Class wizard and could handle anything. The view wasn't bad either. If only she wasn't so uncomfortable around him.

To his credit, Laxus looked completely indifferent. "You heard me popsicle. I don't know, maybe you need supervision. Team Natsu is the most destructive team we have. Trust me, the last thing I wanna do is fight all your battles. I have better things to do."

"You aren't fighting our battles!" Lucy's eyes widened when she realized she had said that. She quickly slapped her hand over her mouth. What was I thinking? Great way to make him notice you. Both Gray and Laxus stared at her blankly. She gathered her remaining confidence and ignored her flushed face, "I mean, you aren't. You just said it- we're Team Natsu and we always hold our own. We haven't had anyone do anything for us and we won't start now."

As if motivated by her unexpected speech, Gray cheered her on. "Yeah! As far as I care, you're just here to supervise. So you can tell the Master, after this is all done that we don't need you or anyone to watch us."

There was a bit of a pregnant pause where Lucy thought they were about to die. She couldn't remember the last time someone had spoke to Laxus like that and lived. Laxus merely gave them a hint of a smile. "Huh, you guys have more backbone than I thought. Maybe this won't be a complete waste of time."

She couldn't help herself. Lucy gave him a bright smile and made herself busy by pulling out a map, effectively hiding her red face. She cleared her throat, hating how shaky her voice was. "So the job calls for finding this special mushroom called Lia tyriaf, otherwise known as 'paper moon' because of its round top and thinness. It only grows once every five years in a very specific kind of forest, the areas around Laurel Grove are the only places it's been sighted at."

"What's so special about it?" Gray asked.

"Well, it supposedly has magical properties, but it's so rare that it hasn't really been documented. One thing it worth thinking about is that the paper moon doesn't like the sun, so it's probably in denser forest areas."

Gray frowned and Lucy couldn't help but feel a little bad for dragging her team on this job. "That's not a lot to go on."

"I know, but it's the best we have. Once we meet the client we can find more out." She finally looked up from her map and saw Laxus looking at her intently. She shifted again. "W-what's wrong?" Mavis's sake! When did I become such a nervous wreck? Get it together Lucy, it's just Laxus. Oh who are you kidding? It's because it's Laxus.

"You're smarter than you seem Blondie." Why did he sound vaguely impressed?

"Excuse me? What's that supposed to mean?" All previous thoughts on how tingly Laxus made her feel went right out the door. Her sense of self-righteousness was stronger. Who does he think he is? And he's blond too!

He put his hands ahead of him, as a sign of peace. "Whoa, I meant it as a compliment, I know you're a smart cookie. I like that about you" Was it just her or was his voice...gentler? No, she had to be imagining it. Laxus was not one for gentleness.

"Erm… thanks." She figured it was best to let it go. Even if it was a shitty apology. She turned her head to the window, effectively ending all conversation and hoping that the train ride would go faster.

Laxus was a little bored, that and he was trying his best not hurl. Wendy's troia spell was starting to wear off just a little, making him a little nauseous. Not thinking about it helped. So he focused on his surroundings.

Lucy seemed jumpy around him and it was odd because they previously had a pretty good relationship. Up until recently of course, just after he started to work closer to home, she clammed up. Wonder why… She avoided his eyes like the plague and wasn't really able to talk, unless she was preaching at him of course. If Team Natsu was good at anything, it was definitely spouting speeches at random. Oddly, watching her cheeks puff up was somewhat endearing.

He appreciated a woman who knew how to speak her mind.

Yet this job… he couldn't help but wonder why Gramps had put him on it in the first place. Surely Mira would have been a better choice. With Kina helping out at the guild, Mira had more time for jobs and such. He had never even heard of 'paper moon' but he wasn't the go-to when it came to plants. Ever or Freed would have been in heaven when it came to something like this. They were both weird and liked stupid stuff like this. Laxus could imagine Freed creaming his pants just to be able to see the damn fungus.

He leaned back in his seat and tried to relax. Which seemed like the opposite of what Team Natsu was doing. Gray, who sat next to him, looked very tense; his fists clenched and unclenched, and his jaw was locked tightly. Laxus suppressed a chuckle. Was he tense because he was next to him? It was nice to see that the little shit was slightly wary of him.

Lucy seemed to try her best to look out the window even though the view was just grassland. Happy had fallen asleep on Natsu. Maybe he should try and talk to the others. He wasn't the talking type, but putting them at ease would help. He was going to be spending quite a bit of time with them.

"That's why." Both members swung to look at Laxus. He gestured towards the sleeping dragon slayer. "It's been quiet and I don't have a headache."

"Hold on, Natsu is motion sick again. Yet, you aren't. How is that possible?" Gray asked him. "Are you not as strong as him?" The end of the sentence was said with a jeering tone.

"I'm going to ignore that last part because I'm such a nice guy. Say that again and I'll put you six feet under. Not that I owe you an explanation but I asked Wendy to help me out. This should last me the whole train ride. It's only a few hours away to Kunugi station and we'll be walking the rest of the way to Laurel Grove, about 45 minutes away." He didn't mention that the spell didn't really last very long. The only real reason he had the blunette help him was so that Natsu wouldn't know he got motion sickness. He would never hear the end of it.

Soon, silence had settled in the compartment. Gray was asleep, leaning against Laxus' shoulder at an awkward angle. I swear if he starts drooling-

"How did the Thunder Legion take it when you told them you were going with us?" Lucy asked, interrupting Laxus from his thoughts. He debated whether to tell her that Freed had thrown his arms around Laxus and sobbed waterfalls. "No Laxus, don't leave us again!" Laxus cringed at the memory.

His arm felt funny, was it falling asleep? "Uh, pretty well." Just the opposite had happened. He was barely able to get out of his house, with Freed latching himself to his ankle. He had nearly dragged the rune mage half ways into the woods before he let up.

"Oh, well that's good. At least they don't just show up uninvited everywhere." She was definitely referring to her team. From what he had witnessed and heard, it made sense. In fact, he didn't think he had ever seen Lucy do a job and not have someone from her team appear. Even if it was supposed to be a solo job, they found a way to show up. It sounded pretty annoying.

He would have kicked their asses by now, but Lucy was made of more patient material.

"That so?" He shrugged his shoulder to shake Gray off of him because damn it, he wasn't an armchair.

"Yeah, the very first day I got my apartment, these weirdoes had already invaded half my things-" Laxus scanned her face as Lucy talked animatedly. She was hot. But everyone knew that. Her features were timeless, something that would always be conventional. Lucy was more than her looks though, she was fiery, kind, fiercely loyal to her friends and the guild, and she was smart to boot. As far as he knew, he had never seen a guy hanging around. He glanced at the motion-sick Natsu, maybe there was something there? Natsu and Lucy spent a lot of time together, all day and most nights too, according the the guild gossip. He felt the unfamiliar edge of jealousy creep in. So what if flamebrain and Blondie were maybe screwing?

Still, it was hard to believe Natsu had those sort of feelings, given how immature he was. He probably wouldn't even know what to do with a girl as gorgeous as Lucy. His eyes wandered over her body, taking it all in. His eyes followed her curves and settled at her chest. Those clothes left nothing and yet so much to the imagination.

It took him a moment to realize she was asking him something. He ran his fingers through his hair, not noticing that Lucy was following the movement, her cheeks burning. "Huh?" He hoped she hadn't caught him ogling her body like some prepubescent boy.

Something akin to annoyance flashed across her face but it was gone as quickly as it came. "I said, why'd you really come with us?"

"I already told you. Gramps thought it was a good 'learning' experience," his fingers quoted at the air, "besides that I don't know his reasoning. Why?" He asked as an afterthought, "you don't like me?" He teased.

"No!" His eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Wait, that's not what I meant!" He nodded at her so she could continue. "I like you-it's just different you know?"

A smirk spread across his face. "So you do like me." He thoroughly enjoyed watching Lucy squirm and blush. Too easy.

"N-no." He leaned toward her and relished that she inched away from him.

"What's wrong Blondie? Do I make you uncomfortable?" It was totally worth it to get her riled up. He had to entertain himself somehow, especially since it wasn't likely he would be doing much on this trip. Come to think about it- was he even getting paid?

"I-I uh-" the train stopped. Laxus hadn't even noticed the train slowing down. His stomach celebrated. Sweet, sweet solid ground. Lucy abruptly stood up, knocking Natsu to the ground.

"Owwww Lucy! Why'd you do that for?" Natsu rubbed his head bump delicately. Blondie rolled her eyes.

"We're here get up." She shook Gray awake. "C'mon guys, we gotta get going." She tossed the ice mage his shirt. Wait when did that happen?

"Can't you give me a minute Lucy?" Natsu slurred from his spot on the ground, he was curled up in the fetal position. Pussy. If he could suck it up, why couldn't the firebrain do so as well?

"Aye, you don't have to be so mean, you meanie." The cat chimed in.

He watched her eye twitch. "It's your funeral." For some reason he expected Lucy to do something more-violent? She seemed ready to deck the pair of idiots but restrained herself. Already, she had much more self control and patience than he had.

Kunugi Train Station

Fiore

"Ah, so that's why you didn't put up much of a fight." Laxus and Gray stood in the platform and stared at the spot where the train previously was. Now, it was a little mark on the horizon. Maybe Natsu and Lucy didn't have anything going on.

Lucy lifted her suitcase and sniffed. "I don't know what you're talking about." She could feel the both of them stare at her in disbelief. "Now, if we want to get good rooms we need to find a place to sleep before nightfall."

"C'mon Blondie, you know what we're talking about. You just left Natsu on the train."

She just sighed, "Your point Laxus? He wanted a moment, so I gave him a moment." She shrugged her shoulders. She didn't feel like putting up with his shenanigans right now. Happy was on the train, he would fly Natsu here sooner or later, preferably after the train had gone around a few times.

"Damn." Was that awe in Laxus's voice? The thought made Lucy feel tingly. "Remind me not to piss you off." Oh he's beautiful. You can piss me off anytime...

"Thanks." She giggled. "Let's go, Natsu will find us or we'll find him, either way. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can start on the job. Besides, I want a nice bath."

And that's chapter two. No worries, this is not a NaLu and it is most certainly a LaLu, I imagine Natsu and Lucy as the best of bros in this particular fic. Not to say I don't love a good NaLu, it's like my otp but i have a soft spot for crack ships and the less common pairings. Also Laxus is ridiculously hot. Yes I made up a town... There really aren't many towns described in Fairy Tail, especially with clear direction on how to get there.