"A gate key no one's seen before.. What do you mean master?" Mira inquired, interest completely peaked as she asked the question everyone wanted to know the answer to.

"No one really knows, and no one can open the gate unless they know its name I guess. Apparently it's been hidden for hundreds of years, maybe longer.." Makarov answered while rubbing his chin and thinking the situation over. "They saw you at the Grand Magic Games Lucy and seeing you open so many Zodiac gates simultaneously and casting Urano Metria caught their attention."

Everyone at the guild was still listening to Makarov spill all the details, after all this sounded interesting. Lucy thought the request over and began rubber her arm in embarrassment "But master.. Why me? Yukino is also a Celestial Mage.. And a damn good one too." Lucy mumbled in a moment of self-doubt.

"Lucy, you've really got to give yourself more credit my child.. You may not have realized this, but you're the strongest Celestial Mage this turn of the century, in fact, probably even longer than that. You have more Zodiac keys than any other mage that our archives can recall, and more importantly the bond you share with your keys is as unique as it is exceptional. I believe this key has been waiting for you Lucy Heartfilia." Makarov stared her straight in the eye and almost dared her to argue his logic.

At this the entire guild started shouting, giving Lucy praises and wishing her luck on her mission, which she hadn't even accepted yet, and had absolutely no details on. "Master, what exactly is the mission?" She questioned with a raised eyebrow - he was making this sound far to easy to be true..

"Oh that's right I almost forgot.. Well it turns out that the key isn't just locked away but being guarded by a demon thought to originate from the book of Zeref. So all you have to do is beat the demon, storm the vault and grab the key!" Makarov answered with a bright smile, as everyone else felt a sense of impending doom looming over their shoulders over his overly simplistic attitude over a very serious and dangerous mission.

"All right! Let's go Luce! I'm all fired up!" Natsu sang as he literally began burning and shooting fire out of his mouth, standing and practically already running for the door. Lucy couldn't help but smile.. What an idiot.. Doesn't even think twice about it.. She laughed as she stood to follow, after all what would a tough mission like this be without her favorite Dragon Slayer?

"Oh, I almost forgot, it's actually an S-Class mission so you have to take an S-class mage with you. Since Erza's still out with Wendy, Gildartz is gone, and Mira is currently out of duty, Laxus will go with you." Makarov finished with another smile.

"What?! We don't need Laxus! I'll prove it! Fight me right now Laxus, I'll kick your a-" Natsu was face first into the wall before he could even finish his sentence. Laxus still in his seat next to the blonde girl finishing his drink; a little more than peeved about being thrown into this mess, and for what? A key? Bullshit.

"Oh, and there's also a money reward too, 5,000,000 jewels since the demon is causing quite a ruckus in the nearby town" Makarov added with another bright smile

"IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU'RE FORGETTING TO MENTION?!" Laxus and Lucy shouted in unison, looking at each other briefly then focusing back on the old man at the exact same time.

Happy was now sitting in Levy's lap, looking at Laxus and Lucy's identical reactions and facial expressions, "cute couple.." he purred with eyes wide and angelic. Lucy instantly reached for her whip, the blue cat had caused her enough embarrassment for one night and decided enough was enough, that was until Gray stepped in. "Count me in! Can't let the Dragon Slayers have all the fun," Gray winked at Lucy, instantly calming her anger as she smiled back at her friend.

"Juvia will go too. Juvia will show love rival how to properly defeat a demon." Juvia was still glaring daggers at Lucy as she stood closer than was necessary to Gray. Guess she's still mad about the whole embrace thing.. heh.. heh.. Lucy sweat dropped with an uneasy smile.

"Not-uh, no way, if anyone's accompanying Laxus-sama it's the Raijinshuu!" Freed instantly proclaimed with Evergreen beside him, Bixlow slowly fell in line behind the other two, still cursing and attempting to fix his now dented helmet thanks to Natsu's unannounced hello.

"I aint splitting the reward 8 ways. As of right now it's me and the chick going, you guys can fight amongst yourselves to decide who comes with." Laxus finished with a scowl looking at Lucy to find any objections. Which there was none.

"Well since the mission is meant for Lucy she should pick who gets to go!" Natsu proclaimed, pulling his head out from the wall, rubbing both where he was punched by Laxus and where his head collided with solid stone and wood.

"It's an S-class mission kid, she can't even go unless I'm with her so it's both our decisions."

Lucy was really starting to like Laxus. He had no problem putting his foot down and wasn't completely excluding her, even though she was sure he'd be doing all the fighting and hard work.

"Well since my only real goal is the key, and maybe some rent money, I'll leave specifics up to Laxus. Natsu, Gray, you can come only if you promise not to destroy everything and cost us our reward." Lucy finally spoke up, not wanting to completely leave her team/partners/friends out, especially since she hadn't really seen them all too much recently.

"Tch fine, when we heading out?" Laxus asked, giving an exasperated look at the Ice and Fire mages, already anticipating all the aggravation they were going to cause him. Truth be told he'd rather just go with the chick and get it done and over with... Wait? Just him and the chick? He was starting to regret not putting his foot down. Damn.. Oh well.

"You leave tomorrow morning! Oh by the way it's actually in the next country over, Seven, it should take you about 12 hours by train to get there. Good luck my children!" Makarov waved and smiled as he jumped from the counter and made his way back to his office. Everyone watched him leave with exasperated expressions.

Yet another detail he forgot to mention.. Lucy and Laxus both thought, eye rolling at the same time, causing Happy to giggle once again.

Laxus began to carefully look over the job description his grandfather handed him just moments before, already going pale and becoming nauseous just thinking of the ride. He briefly glanced over at the Fire Mage, and the look on Natsu's face showed he felt the same way.

The Fire Dragon Slayer briefly glanced over to Lucy with the biggest puppy dog eyes he could muster, "can't we just walk..?"

"NO!" Lucy declared as she snapped the paper out pf Laxus' hand and made her way back to her apartment. Heck, the next country over? She needed to start packing..

The next morning Lucy arrived at the train station a little more tired than usual. She hadn't noticed Levy and Cana tailing her out the guild hall last night, but the duo insisted on helping her pack. They managed to keep her up most of the night talking about Levy's missions with Gajeel, and then slowly the question of Natsu's boob grabbing was laid out on the table to which Lucy put to rest. Seemingly deterred about a Lucy-Natsu fling at the moment, the girls instantly began questioning about Laxus. That topic was an even easier one to brush off. However Cana wasn't buying it and decided Lucy needed to be ready for anything. So, she took it upon herself to pack all of Lucy's lingerie. Lucy had no idea what situations Cana pictured, but she didn't dare ask. In fact, as she rummaged through the undergarments in her bag she was pretty positive Cana slipped in a few pairs of her own after not recognizing a few pair.. Apparently she decided not all of Lucy's undergarments were "sexy enough".

The Celestial Mage sighed recalling everything from the night before, and kind of sad Erza wasn't there for the mission or the night of laughter and story sharing. But then she quickly realized exactly who she was going with and that just maybe she'd get to know Laxus a little better, which might not be such a bad thing - especially since he was going to be Master one day and everything.. Heck, maybe this mission will help him and Natsu get along a little bet-

KABOOM

Lucy paused and lost her train of thought as the ground rumbled and lightning struck, followed by flames, ice, and then what looked like Runes encasing the damage. Lucy could hear dolls chirping "Fight! Fight! Fight!" and instantly knew this mission would most likely be her undoing.

Chapters will continue to get longer :)