Chapter 2

"Soooo," said Natsu, deliberately winking his right eye, "I heard your last mission went...," He paused for emphasis. "...weeell."

Lucy made a face, her cups clinking as she closed her fridge with more force then usual. "Yes. It did."

"Ah ha! You and Loki, then. I should have known." He laughed, jumping up to steal a banana before settling back on her couch. It was late on a nice, lazy Sunday with no missions on the schedule, so that left all afternoon for Natsu to needle his embarrassed teammate. "You know, Happy kept going on and on about you two, but no one believed him. Till now, heh."

A well-aimed pillow flew straight at Natsu's head, almost knocking down the glass of water he was drinking from. "Oh please!" Lucy protested, "Just because we did a mission together doesn't mean we're....you know. Together."

"Look, first me and Grey were kinda freaked out about it," said Natsu, his mouth half-full, "Cause he's a stellar spirit and all. And he must be kinda old."

Lucy's hands flew to her face in an expression of agony. "Natsu, please tell me we are not having this discussion."

"But, but, Erza said we should be happy for you two. And we are!" he said casually, "So the only condition we have for you two dating is--"

"Loki and I are not dating!"

"--that you have to make time for us too. We say that for every 4 missions you go on with him--"

"LOKI AND I ARE NOT DATING." Maybe she was speaking in a different language?

"--you go on one with us. Isn't that fair? Loki popped by the guild the other day and Erza's already OK-ed the whole thing with hi--"

"...you did...WHAT?!"

Without pausing to aim, Natsu chucked his banana peel at Lucy's open trash can. He fist-pumped as it landed with a satisfying thunk at the bottom. "What?" asked Natsu, feigning mock innocence, "I dunno what you're talking about."

Lucy took a deep breath as she stared bloody murder onto the pink-haired boy lounging her couch. She decided not to kill him because blood stains would be a pain to get out. ...Perhaps she should take Mira up on her darn sunrise yoga class after all. She was in dire need for some peace in her life.

"Well, its about that time," said Natsu, tapping at the imaginary watch on his wrist. He had a knack for knowing when Lucy was just about to blow her top. "I guess I'll be seeing you--"

Lucy picked up the heavy steel paperweight (in the shape of a flower) that Gazille had gotten her for Christmas, experimentally tossing it up and down in her palm.

"--later!" Fearing her deadly aim, Natsu quickly escaped out the window.

After making sure her apartment was back in order (and that all of her windows were LOCKED), Lucy threw on her favorite shorts and a t-shirt and sank onto her bed, thankful that she had splurged for the plush mattress. Ugh, that boy could eat. She swore that she must have just washed every dish and piece of cutlery that she owned.

Sighing, she rolled over, pulling a pillow over her head as a wave of weariness washed over her. Seriously! Natsu, Grey, and Erza were making things much more complicated then they actually were. In Lucy's mind, it was clear-cut and extremely obvious that she and Loki were not an "item," as Happy had so gleefully put it.

Suddenly, her stomach rumbled and she sat up. Glancing at her alarm clock, she saw it was already 7:30 in the evening! With all that cleaning and reorganizing, Lucy had forgotten about dinner.

Lucy dragged herself over to her squeaky-clean kitchen. She wasn't in the mood for anything fast-food (plus, she had to save her money), and she much preferred a home-cooked meal to anything else.

"Yes!" she exclaimed, discovering about a cup of rice in her rice pot. Sure, it was uncooked, but voila! 20 minutes later and she'd have something soft and fluffy to eat. She danced a little happy dance because Natsu had told her that he'd cooked all of the rice during his ridiculous binge lunch. But now she could make fried rice...or perhaps she could just eat it with some canned tuna? There were so many choices! She pulled the rice pot out of its cooker, happily spinning with it around in a circle...until she opened her eyes and looked towards her dining room table. She stopped abruptly, almost dropping the little silver pot.

There, sitting on one of her (newly-cleaned) chairs was none other then Loki. He sat with one hand lazily propping up his chin, wearing an amused grin.

"...how long...have you been there?" Lucy asked, her eyes narrowing. She slowly hid the pot behind her back.

Loki chuckled, making a circle motion with his pointer finger. "Long enough to see that."

"Hmph. I don't know what you're talking about," she said, quickly turning around, mentally cursing herself for seeming so...

"Don't worry. I thought it was cute."

Once she was convinced that she had not turned a shade of red, Lucy spun back around, clutching her rice pot. "So, um, what brings you...here? To my kitchen?"

"Something extremely loud woke me up from my nap," he said, that amused grin still there, "It sounded just like thunder."

Lucy's eyes narrowed even more. "Shut up. I'm hungry, that's all."

"Well," said Loki, taking off his jacket and hanging it on the chair, "It was so loud, I figured I should come over and fix the problem."

"Oh, how generous of you."

"Why, yes, I think so," he grinned, disappearing behind the door of her fridge. He reappeared with an armful of ingredients and placed them all neatly by the stove.

"You're going to cook? Don't worry, I was just about to do that," said Lucy, holding up her pot.

Loki opened the cover, peering inside. "You didn't even cook the rice yet."

"I was interrupted." She tilted the pot back and forth, listening to the grains swish around in its container.

"Yeah. Right." He rummaged through her cabinets until he found a small frying pan. He put it on the stove, gesturing at the counter. "Pass the rice, Lucy, I'll make you something."

Lucy frowned. "You don't have to, I'm perfectly capable of feeding myself."

"What were you going to make? Tuna and rice?"

"For your information, I happen to like tuna and rice," she said. But she put the pot on the counter anyway.

After some "magic" with more of Natsu's leftovers and the meager contents of her pantry, Loki quickly had some onions sauteing in the pan. And by the time it took Lucy to hunt down a small tin of coffee, he was already ladling something--that smelled like oh gosh, was that Italian? Lucy LOVED Italian--onto a plate.

"Here," he said casually, sliding the dish across the counter, "Try this."

Lucy pulled out two spoons from a drawer, slightly suspicious of her spirit's intentions. But oh, all that doubt melted away as the first bite melted on her tongue. "Oh gosh, I have nothing to say," she exclaimed, quickly reaching for another, "It's too good for words."

"Heh, yeah. My risotto tends to do that to people," Loki chuckled, spooning up a bite for himself.

"But seriously, how did you do that? It was just...rice," said Lucy, talking with her mouth half-full.

"When you've got a couple thousand years, you've got more than enough time to perfect your technique."

"Alright then. A couple thousand years and I'll be a much better cook than you," she joked.

Loki snorted. "Yeah. We'll see about that."

Lucy stood at the sink, washing dishes. It was rather nice, having (non-Natsu or Gray) company over, she mused. And it didn't help that he was an excellent cook. And gorgeous.

She frowned, scrubbing the pan a little harder. She refused to think about...things like that, especially if they planned on working together.

And as if he knew that she was thinking of him, Loki was at her elbow. He had found a clean dishtowel and was humming as he dried off plates. They worked in silent harmony, washing and drying...until Lucy couldn't stand the quiet any longer.

"So. Did you...really talk to Erza?" she tentatively questioned, squeezing the sponge.

"Recently, yeah actually. She measured me for the correct length of a rapier."

Lucy felt a wave of relief. Rapier measuring was a good deal of topics away from--

"But she kept making me swear to never hurt you or she'd cut my appendages off one by one. With a blunt fork."

"...she what?!" Lucy felt her heart drop like a heavy rock down to the pit of her stomach.

Loki took this all in stride, the reflection of the shiny silverware glinting in his sunglasses. "Mmhm. Natsu and Grey also offered to barbecue me alive, on one of those pig-roasting spits, if I would like that better then brutal dismemberment."

Lucy said nothing, even though her mind was racing. SERIOUSLY. She was going to have a very serious talk with those three tomorrow morning.

"Why's that, you think?" asked Loki, spreading the damp towel over the tray of clean dishes, "Before, with them, it was sparring invitations. Now its...hurt Lucy or die." He chuckled. "It's like they think we're a couple."

Rolling her eyes, Lucy leaned against the counter. "Exactly! It's like once they've got the thought in their heads, there's no getting it out."

"Well, maybe its a good thing. It shows how good we work together." Uh-oh, he was starting to get that goofy grin on his face.

"We've only done one--" Lucy held up her index finger to block his face. "--job together. We're in no position to judge anything."

"That's fair enough," he said, thoughtfully easing up to against the counter as well, "Fine. Let's do a couple more jobs, then we'll see about our chemistry."

"Chemistry?! As in if we make a good couple?!" Lucy's expression was nothing other than incredulous. The nerve of him, to suggest that--

"Yeah, sure. Alright, we'll see about that too," said Loki, a pleased grin spreading on his face, "But the chemistry I had in mind was to see how well our fighting styles mesh up. You know, that sort of thing."

Again, Lucy had nothing to say.

"I must say, I like your idea a lot better."

"Yeah, I bet," crossly said Lucy, turning her face away as she crossed her arms.

Quite suddenly, she felt the lightest of touches slide down her jawbone until warm fingers cupped her chin, gently turning her face. "Aww, c'mon. You know it'll be fun."

Lucy snorted, very ready to deny the fact, but the rosy blush on her cheeks gave her away. "Sure, it'd be nice to have more rent money," she remarked, in a voice that betrayed just the tiniest bit of shakiness. She began to intently focus on anything, anything, to distract herself. There! Never had the apple magnet on fridge look so interesting...but she made no move to push his hand away.

"See?" His voice was amused, but he came no closer. "I'll see you tomorrow then, beautiful."

"Alright, tomorrow."

The touch on Lucy's face began to lighten as his fingers began to vanish. She had expected him to be his usual over-affectionate self, but this time he seemed quite respectful. Hmm. Lucy faced forward, but then she felt lips miss her cheek. Instead, they landed a bit short of her earlobe, sending a shockwave down to her toes.

"Sorry," he apologized (He didn't seem very sorry at all), but before Lucy could swing her fist at him, he was entirely gone.

"Aarg, he's such a...a tease," Lucy complained, throwing her hands up.

It was morning and Fairy Tail was already up and about. The sun was shining and the birds were chirping, but Lucy was silent. She faced forward, staring determinedly at the listings, refusing to acknowledge the presence of a certain spirit.

"Look, I said I was sorry!" Loki stood a good distance away (she had glared death and misfortune at him any time he had come too close), scratching his head. "You...you moved. So I missed."

"Still," hissed Lucy, clomping over to jab at his chest, "That gives you no excuse for kissing me?!"

The usually busy guild room instantly went so quiet, Loki was quite sure that he had heard a pin drop. Then, as quickly as the noise stopped, it was replaced by encouraging whistles, taunts, cat-calls, you name it. It seemed as if the the entire guild was in on it--Lucy was mortified to see Mira with a finger and her thumb in her mouth, making the loudest whistle of all.

"WHOOO, Lucy! Go get 'em!" cheered Natsu, waving his arms in the air. Gray had the most obnoxiously happy grin on his face. And Erza, oh erza. Her arms were crossed and she flashed a gloved thumbs-up.

Loki shrugged his shoulders. "I guess they...approve?"

He barely survived the next wave of glaring daggers as Lucy angrily stuffed a wad of paper into his mouth, shutting him up. He couldn't help but smile--she was awfully cute when she was mad--as he was roughly dragged by his tie through the guild's double doors.

"...Escort?" Loki skimmed the crumpled paper as he and Lucy waited. They were on the street, just outside the ritzy hotel lobby, waiting for their assignment to arrive. "All the way to Canon? That's quite far, isn't it?"

Lucy had still not said a word to him, so he continued to talk. "A bodyguard-ish job, and I'm wearing a suit! It's a perfect fit. How considerate of you to think about that, Luce."

Still not a word. "So, um, you and me. Dinner. After this. Sound good?"

This earned him a scowl.

"Aww, you can't be mad at me foreverrr," he complained, moving to throw his arms around her shoulders, but he was interrupted when the most elaborate carriage he had ever seen pulled up to the curb.

Lucy's jaw dropped as the carriage came to a stop; it seemed as if the magically-drawn coach had rolled straight out of the fairy tail Cinderella. It was a white carriage, its round shape reminiscent of a plump pumpkin.

She was abruptly pulled out of her daydream when someone tapped her on the shoulder. "Excuse me, are you my escort from Fairy Tail?"

Lucy turned to greet her charge, when speak of the devil. Before her stood Cinderella herself. The girl was beautiful, around eighteen or so and she wore her blonde hair loosely coiled around her shoulders. She was wrapped in a light blue traveling coat, and on her feet, Lucy swore that she saw dainty glass slippers.

"Uh, yes, I'm Lucy, pleased to meet you," Lucy said, trying not to sound flustered. "And you must be...?"

"Brooke," said the would-be Princess. Lucy had been expecting a Cindy, but Brooke was nice too.

Brooke looked around the area, a puzzled look on her face. "Forgive me, I'm a bit confused. Didn't my ad request two members of your guild? Have you brought a partner?"

"Yeah, I have," Lucy grimaced, gesturing towards the carriage, "Brooke, this--"

"Loki. Nice to meet you," he said, striding up out of nowhere. And then he smiled.

The composed, elegant composure of the Princess vanished for a second, and it was slowly replaced by the dreamy expression worn by Loki's former fangirls. With an embarrassed giggle, Brooke extended her gloved hand and to Lucy's horror, her partner took it.

Lucy trudged after the "pair," frowning deeply at Brooke's never-ending giggles as Loki helped her into the carriage. Next, it was Lucy's turn. With a grand flourish, Loki extended a hand to help her in as well, which Lucy ignored.

At least the 5 hour ride to Canon would feel better inside the plush carriage, thought Lucy, who was thankful that the job description included a ride back home. But still, she had to make small talk with this Brooke, who was too busy making ga-ga eyes at Loki. Hmph.

"You're not jealous, are you?" whispered Loki, who received his umpteenth glare of the day.

Jealous? Hell, no. Well maybe a little, but still. Putting her thoughts out of her mind, Lucy took a deep breath and put on her happy face, ready with her wonderfully interesting conversational topics...when Brooke again looked at her with the same puzzled gaze.

"I'm sorry Lucy, but would it be alright if Loki rode inside with me? You can have the seat next to the driver!" And with unmistakable fangirl strength, Lucy was ejected from her seat, thrown straight into Loki's chest.

The embrace was cut short as Lucy fumbled to stand, but oh gosh. The scent of his cologne was fresh. Elegant. Masculine and she fought it but again, color spread on her cheeks.

"...you alright?"

Lucy looked up. AARG, she had been too caught up in his stupid smell that she didn't notice that his arm was wrapped around her waist, ensuring that she didn't fall. He seemed quite happy.

"Stop, stop doing that," she mumbled. Darn him, she kept getting--

"My fangirls used to say that I 'dazzled' them," he said, spirit fingers for emphasis.

Lucy refused to use that word.

Suddenly, the shrill call of, "Oh Loooooooki! Where are youuu?" interrupted the moment, and with a cheery grin, Loki disappeared into the compartment. Lucy clawed her way up to the driver's bench, where a pleasant old man sat at the controls.

And then, with the roar of the magical engine, they were off. The wind loudly whipped through her hair (which would be full of tangles after the ride, Lucy despaired), so small talk with the driver was out. At least the view was nice?

A high-pitched giggle interrupted her thoughts, and Lucy sighed an exhausted sigh of irritation. Loki was in there, being fawned upon by Fangirl Brooke. While she had to sit on a wooden bench. In the sun. For five gosh darn hours.

Oh, it was going to be a long ride.