Iron in the Stars

AN: Story is my idea, but I do not own anything Fairy Tail.

Chapter 15: Connections

As soon as we hit down I felt Natsu go to grab me and carry me. "No, Natsu, take him, I can walk." His fire was hell and I could feel the burns on my back. Laxus and Wendy came running out of the guild to help bring us in.

"I'm not going to let you go right now Luce. I know you're in pain and I know it is my fault. I'm so sorry Luce!" I heard a growl from Gajeel, but his eyes were still closed.

"Lucy! Gajeel!" I heard Wendy's startled cry. "Laxus bring him to the infirmary so I can heal him." We all ran towards the infirmary, me still in Natsu's arms. Porlyusica was there as well as Master. I heard her tell Laxus to put him on the bed while she started to get the blood transfusions ready. I was placed on the next bed over and was able to watch what was going on. I heard Wendy's frantic talking while her hands started to glow against Gajeel's wounds. I felt the pain making me feel fuzzy. I was starting to get disoriented. I wanted to pay attention to what was going on, but it was proving to be difficult. The last thing I noticed before slipping into unconsciousness was the tube hooked to the bag of blood going into Gajeel. I hope he will be all right. I can't lose him.

"Bunny?" The call of my name was soft. I groaned. I didn't want to get up. There was a dull ache on my back. "Bunny?" The voice sounded again. I went to look over at his voice, the voice I was afraid I would never hear again. He was awake, which meant he would be okay. Thank Mavis. I went to turn over to look at him, but as soon as I moved I felt pain radiate from my back all over my body. A moan of pain slipped out of my mouth and I decided to stick my head back into the pillow. There would be no moving yet. "Fuck Bunny, I'm sorry." I felt the back of his hand graze my face and I leant into his touch. The bed next to my dipped and I felt him start to lie down gently next to me.

"Should you be up and moving right now?" He chuckled and nuzzled his face into my neck. I hummed in appreciation when he started to kiss and nibble on my neck. It's been an emotional twenty-four hours and I would love to be with him right now, but there was no way. I didn't think I could move right now and I'm sure he shouldn't have been out of bed. He was on death's door last night. I closed my eyes with emotional turmoil. While he kissed my neck I twisted my face so our lips could touch instead. "I'm so glad you're going to be okay!" I felt the tears start to fall from my eyes, but he wasn't going to allow it to continue. His hands wiped the tears away.

"There will be none of that! Don't cry Bunny. I'm okay, well, for the most part. I feel like I've been hit by a train a few times, but I'll feel better soon enough. It's you that I'm worried about right now. I know you're in pain." He kissed me again. This was the gentlest I've ever known him to be. Not once did he cause me pain. "It's still really early. Wendy was working late into the night. She was low on magic and couldn't take care of you last night. She was devastated. Porlyusica gave you some pain meds and a salve for your back so you would be able to rest peacefully throughout the night. Wendy will be here first thing to heal you up."

"Good, it hurts like hell! Stupid Natsu and his stupid fire." I giggled a little wincing at the movement. "I can't even say that. I need to thank him for what he's done for me, for us. I can't even imagine how he felt last night. I know the last thing he would ever want to do was hurt me. Maybe I'll buy him some food. He'll definitely love that." Gajeel growled low. It didn't sound threatening against me, but it did sound like there was a threat behind it.

"As much as I hate the idea of you two together, you're right. He is your best friend and because of him I am alive. I think you should do something for him. I will thank him in my own way. For now though, why don't we get some more sleep? I nodded and allowed him to nuzzle his face into my neck. His presence allowed me to fall into a comfortable slumber that was interrupted far too soon.

There was a tingling on my back that felt uncomfortable, not painful, but not pleasant either. I groaned at the feeling. "It's alright Bunny, she's just healing you."

"I'll be done in a little while Lucy. I'm sorry I couldn't do this last night. Gajeel took a lot more magic than I expected." She sniffled with unshed tears with her confession.

"Sweety, don't blame yourself! If it weren't for you he'd be dead right now. You do not need to apologize for anything! We owe you so much Wendy. You help us all the time. You never need to apologize. When I'm better and you're up for it we need to go get some cakes and go shopping. I can buy you a pretty new dress and we can get our hair done by Cancer. How does that sound?" She squealed in response excited for the plans.

"I would love to Lucy! Thank you! Thank you! You should be feeling better now. Try moving and let me know if you feel some tightness." I went to move, but Gajeel grabbed my arm and kept me there. I looked over at him confused.

"Wendy, can we have a moment?" I looked over at her and noticed the deep red blush. Am I missing something? She nodded her head slowly then ran from the room closing the door on her way out.

"What did I –." I was going to finish with miss, but his lips crushed into mine. It was full of desperation. He flipped me on my back. I was terrified for a second that I was going to feel pain, but none came. I breathed a sigh of relief, which allowed his tongue to enter my mouth and intertwine with my own. I moaned at his welcomed intrusion. "Gajeel!" I cried out when his body pressed against mine. I tried to push him away. We were in the infirmary and he was still healing. We couldn't do this here. Someone could walk in! I ignored my attempt to push him away and kissed his way down my neck.

"Do you really want me to stop Bunny? I don't want to, but if you want me to then I will." His actions didn't reflect his words in the slightest. The bindings that were covering me up were cut off when Wendy healed me so I was already topless. He took full advantage of this. His mouth dropped down to my breast bringing my nipple into his mouth. I gasped in appreciation to the attention his mouth was giving me. I arched myself grinding my hips into his. I knew we should stop, but I truly didn't want to.

"You will be able to tell if someone is coming, right?" He grunted and slightly nodded at my question clearly not wanting to let go off the breast in his talented mouth. I started to run my hands against his back pushing him further into me. Instead of grinding myself into him again he pulled up, slightly away from me. I pouted at him and whined about the distance between us. He chuckled at my reaction. He kneelt on the back of the bed his knees in-between mine. I lifted myself up leaning on my elbows watching him strip off his shirt.

"Silly Bunny, I'm just helping you out." He came back down to me and kissed me lightly on the lips. I went to kiss him back, but it didn't last nearly as long as I thought it would. As soon as I started to react he had already pulled his lips off of my lips and down to my jaw. He nibbled across my jawline and continued his pattern south. He didn't focus on my breasts this time. Instead, he allowed his tongue to drag down the valley between the two all the way to my belly button. He nibbled gently on my belly button until I was squirming. He blew at the wet skin making me cry out in anticipation.

"Gajeel! Stop teasing me!" I felt his fingertips graze the inside of my knees pushing my legs up. He pushed my legs further apart and dragged his fingers up my thighs lightly touching the one place I wanted him to touch more than anything! "Gajeel!" I cried out again when his light touch turned more into a caress. My skirt and underwear were still on. My hands made their way down to take them off, but his hands stopped me. With one hand he was able to trap both of my hands against the bed.

"I don't think so Bunny." He had an evil smirk on his face that sent chills up my spine. It was when his teeth nibbled on my clit through my underwear I knew I was going to have difficulty keeping quiet. The whole guild was going to know what we were up to. His hand met his mouth and pushed my underwear out of the way. I felt his thumb start to make small circles on my clit while his tongue slowly started to penetrate me. It was amazing. That stud of his ran across my inner walls making me shiver in delight. I wanted to scream his name to the heavens when he went down on me, but I was going to have to restrain myself. I had to be quiet! He stopped and pulled away from me growling and looking at the door. "Damnit! Fun time is over. Apparently there are other things we need to talk about. They're all coming up. Here."

His shirt was in my hands. Did he expect me to wear it? I mean, I was topless and had no idea where my shirt was. Probably destroyed. I didn't have time to think about it because I even heard their footsteps coming up the stairs. I threw the shirt on and sat up in the bed. Gajeel leaned over on the bed and kissed me. Almost reassuring me that everything would be all right. I had to laugh when I heard Laxus clear his throat. I looked over at him and smiled widely. He had a scowl on his face, but still winked at me. My blush matched Erza's hair.

"Have I missed something?" I looked over at Erza who was looking between Laxus and me. "Is there an inside joke I haven't been told?" Laxus boomed in laughter and I giggled at her question.

"No Erza, it's nothing. What can I do for you guys?" The last one in was Master.

"It was I that wanted to speak to you, but I want to speak to everyone. Can you meet me in my office in about fifteen minutes? We were just coming in to see if you two were up and doing okay. I'm glad to see you are. Now I will gather the others and we will discuss what we know about these stones and anything we know about the creator of them.

"Yes sir. We will be there soon." Master walked out with Erza trailing behind him. "Laxus?" He walked over to us and dropped a heavy hand on Gajeel's shoulder while his other hand held my face gently.

"Do me a favor and don't get hurt again. I don't like it. You're both like siblings to me and I don't like the idea of losing either of you." He let go of me and dropped his other hand on Gajeel's other shoulder. "We almost lost you yesterday and if you ever do that again. If you ever hurt Luce again I will kill you myself. I will bring you back from the grave and kill you! The look on her face shattered me and I will not look at that again." He had a small smile on his face so I knew he was half kidding with the Iron Dragon Slayer.

"We should get going if we want to get in there before everyone else does." I got up, grabbed some clean clothes that was on the counter for me and walked over to the bathroom to change really quickly. I really wanted to take a shower though. Once we were done with this meeting my bathroom was going to be seeing a lot of me. "Alright, let's go!" Laxus must have already left because Gajeel was just sitting there waiting for me. I threw his shirt at him and walked out of the door headed to the Master's office. I knocked on the door and was greeted by Jellal.

"How are you two feeling?" Jellal smiled warmly at us and allowed us to walk into the room.

"We're good Jellal, thank you. Master, who all is coming?" Master was setting up the communication lacrima on his desk when I was asking. My guess was for Rogue. He had to take care of the guild while Sting was still missing, but I'm sure he would want to know what was going on still.

"Rogue has some news about Sting that he wanted to share as well. Apparently he has been spotted while one of his other guildmates was out on a job. We're just waiting on Natsu, Gray, and Lisanna."

"Don't forget the Exceeds!" I heard Happy's voice while he flew through the door with Pantherlily shaking his head clearly amused.

"They could never forget us Happy!" There was hot head and mister wanna be cool. I smiled softly at my best friend when he walked in the door holding Lisanna's hand. I hope they are together. "What do we know Gramps?" Master ignored his question while he called Rogue.

"Is everyone there now?" Rogue's calm voice filled the room. I saw Master nod his head at him and then allowed Erza to do the speaking.

"From what we've gathered already the rocks are tied into the elements. They seem to affect the dragon slayers only though. I can grab them, but they can't. I think it is similar to an etherion. It allows the user of the stone have a power amp. However, I'm still confused why the stone only affected Gajeel. Natsu ran over to us carrying the purple stone and Cobra grabbed the red one." She paused to think about the situation.

"Perhaps the stones are tied into a specific type of element. Gajeel grabbed the green stone because we were up against a beast that used earth magic. It was the same as Gajeels. If Natsu would have picked up the red stone that was giving the fire beast it's magic then it would have caused him to react the same way?" It was just a theory, but I couldn't think of any other reason it wouldn't work that way. Why else would the stone not react to someone like Erza or me? Everyone thought about what I said, but it was Rogue that responded.

"I think she is right, master can you do an experiment there for me? It will be very dangerous, but it would somewhat prove the theory." I hope he wasn't suggesting the slayers take the stones and see what would happen. I couldn't deal with Gajeel being that way again. Once was enough for me.

"What do we need to do Rogue?"

"If Lucy is correct, which I think she is then the slayers in your office will be able to touch all of the stones, but one. For example, Gajeel should be able to grab all except the green one and Natsu the red." He was about to say more when Erza cut in.

"The yellow stone was used with the lightning beast, so I would assume the same concept with Laxus." She put the stones out on the table in front of all of us. I saw the slayers take a step forward, but their eyes lingered on the one stone each of them couldn't touch. "What is wrong with you guys?" Erza pushed them all back again.

"I don't think this is a good idea. If they felt the same way I did just now I don't think I could just reach out and grab them without grabbing the one associated with me. It's like the stone is calling out to me. It'll be near impossible not to grab it. It's taking everything in me not to right now." Laxus and Gajeel had an arm on Natsu knowing full well that his restraint was much less controlled than the other two.

"How about we do it in turns? When the one is doing it the certain stone will be taken away and the other slayers will be sitting down. Does that sound a little more manageable?" I hoped my idea would be helpful and it must have since everyone smiled at me.

"That sounds great Luce! I want to go first!" Of course Natsu wanted to go first. I swear this guy was nuts. Master motioned for the others to sit down while Natsu grabbed at the now six stones sitting on the table. None of them held any affect. When the other slayers did the same exercise they received the same results. My theory must have been correct.

"Rogue?" Everyone looked over at me. "Each beast we fought had a matching colored fog around it and when Gajeel took the stone his eyes turned into a glowing green, what was the color of the mist that pulled Sting in again?" Rogue's eyes got large for a moment contemplating my train of thought.

"It was purple Lucy, but the beast you guys fought that had the purple fog used wind magic, correct?" I frowned at him. He was right that wouldn't make sense. Why would the purple affect Sting then? Unless we need to think of the mist differently!

"You said that you felt drawn to the purple mist right?" He nodded at me urging me to continue. "Well there was no stone that time, right? If I remember correctly they held a dark blue crystal, but no stone. What if the purple mist came from the user itself? The one who can create these stones and beasts? His purple mist could be universal to the point of brainwashing. I mean when Gajeel had the stone in him it was like it wasn't him anymore. It was just a power hungry killer. The crystal doesn't make sense though. Where exactly was the crystal again?"

"The man was wearing the crystal. You may be right though Lucy. I would assume if the man could make the stones that can power beasts and amp magic in the slayers he could basically get to the slayers with his power. Almost like he could warp their minds. If this is true then we need to be very careful right now. Your theory goes hand in hand with what I wanted to bring up about Sting. Yesterday a team was out on a mission when they ran into Sting. They were thrilled that he was okay and was going to see why he wasn't coming straight to the guild. His eyes, like Gajeel's, were different though. They were glassed over and purple. They said it was like he wasn't even there. He completely ignored them. When they pushed for answers and tried to force him home he attacked them. One hit of his light magic and they were knocked out. Next thing they knew he was gone and they were in the town's hospital." He ducked his head down. "It seems that we need to be very cautious. These stones mixed with the dragon slayer magic has the capacity to take out an entire village and much more."

This was definitely a lot to think about. The slayers should stay with each other and really shouldn't go on any missions. Not when this guy was out there. Who else would be able to bring him down though? Damn! We needed to come up with some sort of plan to take him out and get Sting back. I looked over at Gajeel. I wanted to go home.

"Alright, thank you Rogue. I will try and come up with a game plan. For now though no slayer is to go on a job by themselves. If a job must be done then bring at least one other slayer. This includes you Laxus. At least two slayers in each job, is that understood?" We all agreed with the master. "We will get Rogue back to the Saber's! At least we know he is unharmed right now which makes me think they need the slayers for something and doesn't want to get rid of them. That at least plays in our favor." The master sighed and rubbed at his temples. "Alright brats, get out of my office. Lucy and Gajeel I want you two to get rest today. No jobs for a few days!" I huffed at him, but nodded anyway. Gajeel just shrugged.

"Do you want to come home with me and Pantherlily Bunny? You can take a bath there if you want? Plus, I didn't get to finish what I wanted to do earlier." He winked over at me and I smiled over at him grabbing his hand and pulling him out of the office door. I could see the disgusted look on Laxus's face, the embarrassed face on Erza's, the smirk on Grays, and the confused look on Natsu's face. Lisanna was behind him giggling. Maybe she would explain it to him, but I wouldn't be around to find out.

"Bye guys!"

AN: Tada! I have no excuse for it being late. I wanted to watch all of the Harry Potters and still be social over the weekend It just didn't work out the way I planned. I'm sorry and I hope you enjoyed it.