I do not own Fairy Tail, I just play with them.

A new Lucy

Chapter Six - Leon the little lion

When I woke up again it was early morning, but I didn´t know on which day. I might just have slept through the night but it was also possible that several days had passed due to my low magic levels. But know I felt perfectly fine, my magic levels were back to normal and the tiredness was gone. My muscles were a bit tense though, and I was really hungry.

I looked around and quickly notice that I wasn´t in our hotel room in the mining town any more. Panic gripped me and I shot up to a sitting position, I was just about to lose it and freak out completely when a familiar golden light appeared and Loke stood there in his usual suit.

"Calm down princess everything is fine. Don´t you recognize where you are? You´re back in the beach house." He told me and after a few deep breaths to keep the panic away, I did recognize that I was back in my room at the beach house. I left the bed slowly and started searching for clothes, asking Loke for more information.

"How long have I been out? How did I get here?"

"You´ve been out cold for almost four days because of magic depletion. Laxus and Bickslow took turns carrying you back here."

"They… they carried me?" I asked, a heavy blush painting my cheeks.

"Yes princess but no need to worry, Evergreen and I made sure that they did nothing inappropriate. Evergreen and Virgo were to one to clean and dress you." I blushed even heavier and quickly locked myself in the bathroom with my fresh clothes to escape from Loke´s smirking face. Seconds later I felt him go back to the spirit world. I sighed and shook my head at his antics before turning on the water in the shower to hot and stripping out of my clothes, stepping underneath the spray of water.

After an hour in the bathroom and dressed in fresh clothes I felt even better, the only thing missing now was food so I quietly made my way down to the kitchen, expecting the others to still be asleep since the sun had yet to rise above the horizon.

But when I arrived in the kitchen I found Freed sitting there with a cup of coffee and another thick book. He looked up at the sound of my approaching footsteps and I could tell that he hadn´t expected to see me since he choked on his coffee. I hurried forward and lightly slapped his back until he could breathe properly again before moving to the fridge in search for food.

"Should you not be in bed? How are you feeling?" He asked me worriedly and pushed me down to sit in a chair while he started fixing me breakfast.

"No I´m fine now, my magic is replenished so there´s no need to worry. As soon as I get some food in me I´ll be as good as new. What about you? Did Fenix heal you alright?"

"Yes I am indeed fully healed thanks to your spirit…" He fumbled with something in his pocket before holding it out to me, showing me two silver gate keys. Part of our reward for taking out the wyverns.

I immediately recognized the keys as Canis Major the great dog and Leo Minor the lesser lion. I held out my hand palm up and Freed gently placed the keys in my hand, allowing me to curl my hand protectively around them and hold them close to my heart. I had found Loke´s little brother…

I gave Freed a large smile and asked him.

"Do you want to see me make a contract with them?"

"I… I do but what about your breakfast? And should you really call them out so soon? You have just recovered from severe magic depletion."

"Breakfast can wait another few minutes, making contracts don´t take long. It´s fine they are silver keys, they don´t take much magic to summon." I reassured him and walked outside without waiting for a response, he´d follow me if he wanted to watch.

When I was certain that I had enough room to summon my new spirits I grabbed the Canis Major key and held it out in front of me.

"I am linked to the path to the world of Celestial Spirits, now! O spirit, answer my call and pass through the gate! Open! Gate of the Great Dog, Canis Major!" I chanted and immediately the familiar golden light appeared before a large dog stood in front of me. The dog was completely black and looked to be a crossbreed between a wolf and a black Labrador. He had a red collar with black studs and bright red eyes. His head reached to my chest with him standing on all four paws and he tilted his head at me and let out a short happy bark. There was a nametag attached to the collar so I leaned forward to read what it said before looking him in the eyes and speaking.

"Hello Bishamon, my name is Lucy Heartfilia do you want to make a contract with me?" The dog barked again and licked my hand as to show his approval. I quickly worked out the details of our contract with him and found out that as long as he was given treats, I could call on him whenever I needed him and that his specialty was tracking. Then he went back to the spirit world but before I called forth Leo Minor I called out Loke. I could see Freed standing a little bit away, watching me curiously as I interacted with my spirits.

"You called for me princess?" Loke greeted while bowing at his waist and kissing my hand.

"Yes I think that you will want to be present as I make a contract with my new spirit!" I told him happily before grasping Leo Minors key and chanting.

"I am linked to the path to the world of Celestial Spirits, now! O spirit, answer my call and pass through the gate! Open! Gate of the lesser lion, Leo Minor!" Loke´s eyes widened as a young boy appeared, bearing the same outwards appearance as Loke probably did at the age of 8. The boy looked up at me shyly and spoke.

"Hello master, how may I be of service?" My heart broke at the fear I could see in his eyes, his former owner must have been a bad one… I kneeled on the ground so that he could stand taller than me before I told him with a soft voice.

"Please don´t call me master… I´m not better than you, I work together with my spirits. Would you like to form a contract with me? You don´t have to if you don´t want to. You can talk it over with your brother before deciding anything." The boy's eyes widened before flashing to the side, taking notice of Loke who still seemed to be in shock at the appearance of his little brother.

"Loke?" The boy asked, clearly not believing his eyes. But his voice drew Loke out of the daze he was in and he smiled gently at the boy and told him.

"Yes it´s me Leon, you´re safe now."

Leon ran the few steps to Loke and threw himself in Loke´s open arms, Loke hugged him tightly and whispered comforting words in his ear, both of them shedding tears of happiness.

I decided to give the brothers a moment, feeling no need to stress either of them. Freed came up and stood next to me, his hand landing on my shoulder, making me tilt my head so that I could look at him from the corner of my eye.

"You truly are a great celestial mage; I have heard how kind you are to your spirits from others but to see it for myself… It is no wonder your spirits all adore you, if this is how you treat them all." I blushed at the praise but shook it off and told him.

"They may be immortal and from a different world but they are still people like you or me. I just treat them like how I would have liked to be treated had our positions been reversed." Freed simply smiled at me before letting me know that he was going back inside to continue making my breakfast. I only nodded absent-mindedly as I watched the two brother's reunion with a smile on my lips.

Eventually Leon let go of Loke and walked back to stand in front of me. I kneeled on the ground again but as I did that he flinched and his hands shot up in front of him as if he had to protect himself. My heart broke all over again but I gave the boy a gentle smile and told him.

"You don't have to be afraid of me Leon, I would never hurt you. Have you decided if you want to make a contract with me or do you need more time to think?" he gave me a hesitant smile and after shooting a look at Loke who nodded encouragingly at him, he spoke.

"I… I would like to make a contract with you Lucy-nee…" He said quietly while looking to the side.

"Aww… You´re so adorable Leon-chan… When are you available and what kind of magic do you use?"

"I´m not available between 10 pm to 8 am… I use light magic!" He told me and gave me another smile, a brighter and more confident one.

"That´s great, you can go back to the spirit world now if you want and if you have any questions for me or want to tell me something, you can tell Loke so can he let me know and I can call you out okay?" He nodded and went back to Loke, holding his hand as the two of them started to fade away. I saw Loke mouth a 'thank you' to me but I only smiled at the two of them. If I could make my spirits happy then I was happy too.

I went back inside just as Freed put a plate of waffles with whipped cream and fresh strawberries on the table for me. I squealed in happiness and wrapped my arms around him from behind, hugging him tightly.

"How did you know that this is my favorite breakfast?" I asked after letting him go and sitting down at the table. He poured himself another cup of coffee before joining me at the table, a prominent blush still adorning his cheeks.

"You always order it from Mirajane, I just assumed that you would not order it if you did not enjoy it." He answered, shifting awkwardly and sipping his coffee. I giggled at how cute he was when he was all awkward and blushing but then dug into my food, I was starving.

When my plate was empty Freed looked up at me with a serious expression on his face and told me.

"I wanted to thank you, for healing me in the mine. Without your help I wouldn´t have survived…"

"Don´t worry about it." I told him with a smile. "You would have done the same thing for me if the roles had been reversed. Besides, you already saved my life when you found me in the basement, I´m only repaying the favor."

"It doesn´t matter who saves who, we all belong to the Fairy Tail family and we should all be there for each other in our time of need." Another voice spoke from the doorway and both Freed and I turned to look at who had joined us.

It was Laxus, as usual dressed in black pants and a maroon shirt, his fur coat hanging open across his shoulders. His eyes still held traces of sleep and he made his way over to the coffee pot, pouring himself a large cup and taking a seat at the table with us.

"Of course Laxus, you are right as usual." Freed agreed before putting the dirty dishes from his breakfast as well as my own in the sink before leaving the room and heading back upstairs. As soon as Laxus and I were alone in the kitchen he turned to me with a serious expression and said.

"I´m glad to see you awake again, you were starting to worry us. I heard from Freed what happened but he couldn´t answer as to how you found the emerald key?"

"Well I´m fine now at least. The key was hidden in the mine and when our cavern collapsed it must have come free, luckily for us it was the key of the phoenix. Fenix is one of the animal kingdom keys and he uses healing magic as you know." I explained and I could see in his eye that he knew how close we had come to lose Freed and that it scared him. I put my hand on top of his larger one and tried to reassure him.

"Don´t worry Laxus, he´s fine." He only looked at me with those stormy blue-grey eyes of his before he said.

"I know." We sat in silence for a few minutes after that, I was playing with my glass of orange juice and Laxus drained his coffee in large gulps. As he went to refill it and put on some more for when Evergreen and Bickslow decided to wake up he told me.

"I talked to gramps when we returned here and let him know about the mission, he said that he would like to talk to you when you woke up. He said that it was about something in the guild and another possible mission for the five of us."

"Oh, okay then if I can borrow your communications lacrima I can go and call him right away."

"Of course, it´s on the nightstand in my bedroom." I nodded and stood up, draining the remaining juice in my glass in one go before placing it in the sink as well. I walked towards the stairs but stopped when I reached the doorway. I turned around and looked back at Laxus with worry in my eyes.

"Laxus?"

"Hmm?" He turned in his seat to look at me and I had to swallow before I could get my throat working again.

"He´s… He´s not mad at me is he?"

"Who? Gramps? Of course not Blondie why would you think that?" My eyes turned downwards as I answered him.

"Because I´m keeping you and your team away… Because I don´t want to go home yet…" I heard him get up from his seat and walk over to me but I didn´t raise my eyes. Not until he stopped in front of me and put his hand on top of my head again. Then my eyes shot up to meet with his and I was surprised to see him only smiling kindly at me. It was so rare to see him smile a true smile and not simply a smirk that I couldn´t tear my eyes away. I was startled when I realized that he was truly, heartbreakingly beautiful when he smiled.

My cheeks flamed red but I still couldn´t make myself look away. I knew he was hot, hell I wasn´t blind. But he always had his walls up to keep people at a distance that he never was seen as more that a hot body. When he smiled at me like this I felt like I could see the kindness of his soul, who he truly was.

"There´s no need to worry Lucy, Gramps is not angry. He understands why you can´t come home yet and we can still do missions, it´s alright." He told me and without thinking about the consequences, I hugged him tightly around the waist. He stiffened and when I realized what I was doing I blushed even harder before turning around and running up the stairs, leaving him standing in the doorway.

Laxus POV

I was stunned to say the least. Not that Blondie carried insecurities, I knew that and everyone has something that they are insecure about. No what had surprised me so was that she had hugged me without thinking. I could tell that she was acting instinctively since I could feel the heat radiating off her cheeks when she realized it. Apparently she was more comfortable in my presence than I had thought.

And here I thought she was still wary of me because of what happened during the fantasia incident and because of how I behaved when they were attacked by Phantom Lord…

I knew that since even before the grand magic games I had taken more and more notice of our resident celestial mage. During the games I realized that she had the potential to become a legend thanks to her rare magic and kind heart and that only intrigued me more. I smiled sadly while still staring at the stairs where she had disappeared, I didn´t realize that I had fallen for her until her team came back and told us that she was dead.

I had decided to try and get to know her better so that maybe I could have a chance to win her heart and earn her forgiveness. I thought that since she had forgiven Gajeel, maybe she could forgive me too…

But then we got the news about her death and I felt something break inside of me. I refused to believe that she was gone and therefore took mission after mission in the area where team Natsu´s last mission had been, hoping to find something, anything that could tell me she was still alive.

The first thing to give me hope was that we never found her body, nor could I smell the lingering sickly-sweet stench of death.

And then we actually found her, chained to that wall in the basement. And she was still alive…

I was horrified at the state she was in but I didn´t feel that I could lower my walls and show exactly how I felt, I needed to be calm and collected for my team. I didn´t know if they had picked up on my feelings for Blondie and I didn´t want them to find out like that. But I´ll be damned if I let her be hurt like that ever again. My dragon instincts understood that she was important to me and only increased the protectiveness I felt for her.

Perhaps I still had a chance to make her mine.

Lucy POV

I could feel Laxus eyes following me as I ran up the stairs and I quickly ran into his bedroom and shut the door behind me. I was seriously thinking about hiding away in my room after I had talked to Master and not come out until he surely had forgotten about how I had embarrassed myself.

I took a deep breath and shut my eyes for a moment, feeling the need to calm and center myself before calling Master. When I was satisfied that I looked calm and collected again I sat down on Laxus bed and grabbed the communications lacrima from the nightstand and called Master.

"Laxus I… Lucy! Oh it´s great to see you child…" Master said with tears falling steadily from his eyes.

"Hello Master. It´s good to see you too." I told him with a small smile.

"How are you doing? Can I help you with anything?"

"I´m getting better Master, that´s all I can say. It´s enough that you let us stay here in your vacation home and leave my survival a secret for now. Laxus said you had something you wanted to talk to me about? Something about the guild and a possible mission?"

"Yes I have kept a close eye on Natsu and Lisanna as well as the rest of team Natsu since Laxus called to let me know that you was alive and had been abandoned. Erza and Gray as well as Happy have been cleared from any suspicious behavior because of their reactions to your death. They as well as the rest of the guild have been devastated and are only beginning to function normally. I am worried that a few of our members are taking your death extremely hard but I will let you know if we need you to come back for their sake."

"Yes please do, I might not be ready to come back yet but if my friends need me then I will come." I told him seriously and he nodded and smiled at me.

"I know you would Lucy, you know the true meaning of nakama. You have my promise that I will call you if they don´t get better soon. But I´m afraid that I do have some bad news as well… Natsu and Lisanna were the ones who left you behind but I believe there are outer forces affecting them, for they are not themselves…"

"Not themselves in what way? I noticed that Natsu had become more distant before the mission and I talked to Happy about it but we couldn´t think of why other than that Lisanna was his mate and he didn´t realize. He had started to spend a lot more time with her by then."

"Natsu is still distant, and subdued which is really not like him… I thought his strange behavior was because of your death but since he knew you were alive when they left… He spends all of his time with Lisanna and even ignores Happy who is staying with Wendy and Carla because of that. There´s something strange about Lisanna as well but I can´t put my finger on what it is…"

"Maybe something happened to make Natsu the way he is now? I know that something happened on one of the first missions he went on with only Lisanna but that was months ago… could it really be what´s affecting him?"

"It´s not impossible… I was thinking about that too and did some research. They were supposed to find a book in some old sacred ruins. I was thinking about sending you and the Raijinshuu there to try and find out more, there´s a request to translate a book written in a dead language that I believe Freed could easily do. What do you think Lucy?"

"I think that it sounds like a great idea, but why ask what I think when Laxus is the leader?"

"He might be the leader of the Raijinshuu but not of you. You´re a smart girl Lucy, I value your opinions. Laxus told me that you have become a lot stronger so I have decided to nominate you for the S-class exams that are coming up, I hope that you will return to us in time for that at least…" I smiled at the short, old man and told him.

"Thanks master… I don´t think it will be too long until I return home. I hope you realize that I can´t continue to be a part of team Natsu though? Even if there´s a reason behind his betrayal I don´t think I can go back to how things were before… Maybe I´ll go solo for a while… I´ll tell Laxus about the translating mission and if the Raijinshuu don´t want to go then I´ll go to the ruins myself. Which town did the mission come from?"

"I realize that child, have you thought about joining another team? The Raijinshuu perhaps? The mission came from the town Peonia but please don´t go alone, I´m sure the others will come with you if you talk to them." The master pleaded with me.

"I don´t think the Raijinshuu would want me on their team, they have such amazing bonds with each other and I wouldn´t want to change that. Thanks master and goodbye for now."

"Goodbye my child, may luck be with you." The master told me before the communications lacrima was shut down. I put the lacrima back where I had found it and exited the bedroom. In the hallway I hesitated, trying to decide if I indeed was going go back to my room and hide or if I should go downstairs and tell them about our new mission.

I decided to be responsible and went back downstairs. I found all of them in the kitchen, seemingly waiting for me to join them.

"What did gramps say?" Laxus asked while looking me straight in the eyes with his usual smirk on his lips.

"That he thinks something is wrong with Natsu and maybe Lisanna, he wants us to go to some sacred ruins outside of Peonia to see if we can find something. Natsu and Lisanna went there to find a book on their first mission alone together and he thinks something might have happened then. There´s a request to translate a book in a dead language in the same town which he is sending us on so that we have a reason to be there, Freed can translate the book and the rest of us can search the ruins." I suggested to them.

"Sounds like a plan, let´s head out in the morning." Laxus decided and we all split up pack and prepare for another mission.

Please let me know what you think!

Love C