All Rights to Hiro Mashima

Thank you for all the overwhelming support for this little ficlet! This chapter was written for Desna who I thank from the bottom of my heart for adding it to its first community. :3 If you haven't already, take a peek at her own Lalu story "Fate Decides."

BEWARE! THE LIGHTNING ROD! THE INNAPROPRIATE COMMENT!

~ Lightbulb ~

Chapter 2: The Gift

In which Laxus asks for advice from an unlikely source and figures out just how fucked he truly is.

The days passed quickly until almost two months had gone by since the 'confrontation-in-the-guildhall-between-Scary-Lucy-and-the-dillhole' (as the kids were calling it these days), and Laxus hadn't made a lick of headway in making the beautiful blonde his mate. She sat in front of him at his own fucking desk three nights a week for the God's sakes. He was starting to feel the pathetic feeling of desperation creep up into his mind.

Laxus knew he was acting like a scared little pussy, but somewhere in his mind, he couldn't get passed a mental block that told him that if she turned him down…or stopped being his friend or learned to despise him in any way, that would be a fate worse than death itself.

Slight exaggeration, but don't judge him, he's desperate.

It had come to the point where Master Laxus actually stood in front of the bathroom mirror every morning to pep talk himself with a half-hearted speech about how he was stupidly good looking and every woman everywhere wants to be with him. Especially if they knew just what he was working with under the hood so to speak. Honestly,…it was not hard to guess that he was well endowed just by looking at the size of his hands and feet.

After taking a celebratory shot of whisky (just to calm his nerves even if it was nine in the morning) after pumping himself up and telling himself that today would be the day that he would get this shit over with, the blonde would march out of his front door, down the path and towards his beloved guild.

He would talk to Lucy today about all this mating bullshit, calmly, like adults. Then they would find each other irresistible, rip off each other's clothes, and make love until the sun rose. Then somewhere down the line Lucy would have his thirty-three babies, he would train their army of children in the art of Lightning Magic and she would help those who wanted to follow in her footsteps and find Spirits, and they would become an unstoppable force of nature.

The Dreyer family. Hulking badass dad, wickedly strong sexy mum, thirty-three lightning spirit babies.

They would take over the world.

Every morning these thoughts would make their weird ass circuit through his brain as he walked the distance from his home on the outskirts of town to the guild. He could teleport with his magic, but enjoyed the silent contemplation of a morning walk, especially because if he timed it just right he would arrive at the same time as the object of his affections.

Sometimes he thought she had become an obsession, but then he reminded himself that he just thought about her a lot, there was not stalking Juvia-style, nor was there any peeping or trying to insert himself into her life more than he already had (which wasn't very much, to be honest).

She was just always on his mind. Especially with no clothes on, or on the flip side, with all her clothes on with his children or curled up next to him reading a book. He lived a strange life, but he knew that he wanted that last one the most. More than anything he just wanted someone to love him and feel comfortable around him.

Yes, he had a resting asshole face, but there was nothing to be done now. It was too late in his life for him to change his default facial expression. Two decades of being a douchebag had ingrained itself into his mind.

As he would inevitably arrive at the same time as Lucy (imagine that! A total coincidence that had happened for the last twelve days in a row), she would turn to him, give him that gigantic Lucy smile that lit up his insides like his stomach was strapped to a bunch of firecrackers and sent to the moon, and he would automatically melt.

Into a gigantic Laxus sized puddle.

Unfortunately for him, that smile and the way she would say "Good morning Master" sent him into a tailspin of giddiness. It also tied his tongue in knots and plastered a stupidly goofy smile on his face (which wasn't a good thing when sitting near Mira or anyone for that matter, he was supposed to be a surly Dragon dammit).

But all this ultimately sapped him of his courage to even bring up the topic of Dragon Slayers, their mates, and the fact that he wanted to bone her so bad that he had had reoccurring wet dreams of her spread out on his bed moaning for his cock.

It was infuriating. For him at least.

For others, like Gajeel, it was so amusing that he had started to come to the guild earlier than usual just to watch Bunny and the Sparkplug interact.

So here he was, Laxus the big bad Lightning Dragon Slayer, brought down by a petite blonde with a killer ass and bright smile. Standing outside his guild hall feeling his courage to have a quick chat with Blondie spiral down the proverbial drain yet again.

"Gihi…" Gajeel's infuriatingly annoying laugh filtered up to his sensitive ears and immediately bolstered his resolve. He had been the laughing stock for the walking pincushion for almost two months.

No.

No more! He was going to do something about all of this today.

He looked towards the bar to see that Lucy was bouncing the Connell's newest addition to their family (a little green haired boy by the name of Jessie) on her knee. She blew a raspberry on Jessie's little tummy and the child squealed in happiness and Lucy laughed.

She looked over at him and gave Laxus a heartfelt full toothy smile, and he almost collapsed to his knees in awe.

Lucy was breathtaking in her simplicity. Just a quirk of her lips completely slays him.

He was absolutely fucked.

Looking away from the adorable sight at the bar that was giving him heart palpitations, Laxus stalked over to the guffawing Iron Dragon Slayer.

Gajeel popped another screw into his mouth and looked up to see Laxus looming over him. "You okay there? It seemed like you were about to collapse for a moment."

Laxus scowled and grunted noncommittally. "Tch."

Gajeel laughed louder. "I could hear your goddamn increased heart rate from all the way over here."

"Shut up." The blonde grumbled then threw himself into the seat opposite Metal Brows. "How do you deal with all this shit? I can't look at…anything without thinking of her. I walked by a bakery and got a boner because the damn icing smelled like that vanilla body lotion she uses."

Instead of making fun of him his impromptu teacher looked at him and then snorted. "There's nothing you can do to make this easier. It's the Dragon, he wants who he wants and everything that you notice about her, or reminds you of her, or the dreams…fuck those dreams. They were the worst part…it is the Dragon's way of pushing you over the edge if you leave the claim too long."

Mildly sceptical eyebrows rose. "You had those dreams too?"

Gajeel took a bite out of the metal plate his scrap metal had come on. "Tch. I still have them. Just because I know who my mate is…doesn't mean that I deserve them."

"Isn't that the truth…we both don't deserve the women that our magic is pulling us towards."

Finishing off his plate, Gajeel gave Laxus one last look. "Just be glad you didn't nail her to a tree with your own iron. I will never, ever be able to forget that."

Laxus nodded and decided that they needed to move on from this depressing topic. "How did you tell Levy?"

The uncomfortable silence that followed answered his question well enough. "You…haven't told her…have you?"

"Tch. No, not yet. Are relationship is finally stable after all that Alvarez shit and the war and rebuilding again…I'm just waiting for the right opportunity."

Well, shit. Laxus realised that he was up shit creek without a paddle. He was so sure that the idiot in front of him would have some type of fool proof plan with like…step by step instructions of something. But to find out that Gajeel, the man that had an honest to the Gods relationship with his mate, didn't have a fucking clue how to proceed let all the wind out of Laxus' sails.

The lightning mage let his gaze wander the hall again, finding Lucy happily chit chatting with her blue-haired best friend. Both girls were so into their conversation that they didn't notice the two hulking males watching them with longing in their eyes from the other side of the room.

Gajeel saw the look on Laxus' face and shook his head, knowing that the sappy puppy eyes that he was sporting could be found on him as well.

"Shit. We are so fucked."

"You got that right. I can't go a single night without dreaming about her in my bed. Or her pregnant with my child. Or just…being with me. It's driving me out of my mind. I can't relax at all, my moods are all over the place. It's like I'm PMSing without the waterfall of blood."

Large hands raked through long raven hair. "Get used to it. That's supposed to go away somewhat when the bond is formed, but until then…"

Laxus scowled. "Goddammit. You know what? We are making a pact, right now…by the end of the year, we are both going to have told our mates what they mean to us."

The Iron Dragon rolled his eyes and nodded. "Fine. What if the other doesn't go through with it?"

Laxus grinned, his smile slightly reminiscent of a certain Demons. "Naked spread in sorcery weekly with a full interview with Jason."

"Ugh. That guy is so damn annoying." Gajeel smirked. "Sounds interesting, but let's make it even harder. We have exactly two months instead, not six."

"I like the way you think Metal Brows."

They shook hands and sealed the deal, casting surreptitious glances around the guild to make sure they hadn't been seen acting like civil human beings.

With the agreement settled, they both rose to go on their way (Laxus towards his office and Gajeel towards Salamander to work off some of his nervous tension), but before they could take more than three steps, Gajeel decided to do something that everyone would refer to as 'the-biggest-fucking-mistake-this-year.'

"Yo Bunny Girl, wanna come up on stage with me again? I've still got that sexy little suit that you wore last time."

Three things were wrong with that statement.

One, it sounded like Gajeel was flirting with Lucy (both Lucy and Levy had walked over towards them headed to the guilds hot spring) so that sent Levy into second guessing her relationship with her almost-boyfriend.

Two, Gajeel knew that this shit wasn't going to fly with Laxus (he was an alpha personality after all and his Dragon was extraordinarily territorial).

Three, Lucy had warned him that she wouldn't be getting back up on that stupid stage even if it would save her life.

The reaction the walking pincushion was slightly worried about was Levy's, but in truth, he should have been downright terrified out Lucy's.

She was the Starbringer after all. The only Celestial mage that also had mastered water magic (a gift from Aquarius during Tartaros that had somehow stuck around) and that stupid Iron Dragon forgot about Scary Lucy.

A jet of boiling water hit Gajeel in the face, drenching him to the bone and made him look like a drowning rat. Lucy and Levy rushed off towards the baths, scowls in place before he could even attempt a comeback.

However, Laxus decided that that comment couldn't be forgotten and that in that moment Gajeel had turned into a rival. He growled low in his throat and let his magic leak out to his extremities. It sparked and arced around his body in fast waves fueled by his frustration and annoyance.

It was clear that Gajeel had forgotten that he was essentially a walking lightning rod with extra iron in his blood. Even his bones had traces of metal in them. He was also standing in a puddle of water completely drenched.

Laxus smirked at his prey, and before you could say fuckingshit, Gajeel had turned into a slightly smoking pile of singed clothes and electrical burns.

Wendy was on him in an instant and others laughed and shook their head at the idiot Dragon who had the gall to incur their Master's wrath. Because truly, they all knew Gajeel somehow deserved it.

-ooo-

Feeling marginally better than before, Laxus went up to his office and closed the door enjoying the peace and quiet. While the talk with Metal Brows had been a long time coming, it didn't really answer any of his questions.

How was he supposed to deal with all these feelings inside him now? Is this what normal people felt all the time? If it was, he felt almost sad for them. It was too much all at once.

And the fact remained that he was nowhere near getting his mate and he needed to deal with this within the next two months. There was no way he was going to be able to even get on her radar in that time if he couldn't figure out something.

What did women like?

Money? No too impersonal.

Chocolate? Closer, but not enough.

"Dammit!" He scrubbed his eyes with his massive palms. He knew almost nothing about relationships and even less about women in general. There were mystical beings that were so complex that they need a map and a compass just to navigate through and he didn't have a chance of understanding.

He wanted to show Lucy what she meant to him.

Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in the deep, deep inside his brain.

He would get her a gift. A gift so great that she would fall madly and utterly in love with him and they would get started on that army of children immediately.

Laxus jotted down a few ideas completely disregarding all the paperwork around him. What did Lucy like?

Books…writing…milkshakes…small skirts…kicking people…snippy remarks…and her spirits.

Spirit keys had become extremely rare in the last few years, either being lost or forgotten or destroyed, so those that were found were a long sought after commodity. He knew this was perfect, he would be the one to give her a new friend and she would see him in a new light.

It was a slightly selfish reason, be he truly wanted to see her happy. So Laxus made his mind up and over the next two weeks, between his Master duties, taking solo missions for the hell of it and travelling with the Thunder Legion, he made sure to check all the magic shops and the rewards for all the requests in the guild.

He had no luck until one afternoon when an SS quest was turned in for a protection and escort job from Crocus to the capital city of Bosco.

Normally, he would try and contact Gildarts with something like this because this request was actually coming from one Toma E. Fiore, but when he saw that the reward was a celestial spirit key, he was all over it.

Immediately he called up the Thunder Legion and told them about the impending mission to which they agreed and dispersed to pack then meet at the train station.

He asked Mira to find Lucy and have her come up to his office immediately.

Forty-five minutes later found the two blondes staring across mounds off apology letters until Laxus cleared his throat and started.

"I'll be on a mission for the next month Blondie. I'm putting you in charge of the guild." He held up his hand when she started to protest. "-I know you know how all of this works, and we have been a pretty good team for a year and a half now. You'll do just fine."

"But why me? Why not Erza or Macao?"

"Because neither of them are my successors."

"…what?" Her whisper of disbelief sent him smirking.

"You heard me. If something should happen to me on any mission or a freak accident or something like that…you Lucy Heartfilia are my successor. You will take up the mantle of Fairy Tail's Guild Master and you will do it with pride and courage. Just like you showed in the war, just like you show every day."

Laxus donned his ever present fur trimmed coat and patted the top of her head, almost asking her what hair treatment she did every day because dayum her hair was so silky. "You'll do just fine Lucy. I believe in you."

And then he swept out the door, missing the look of surprise and adoration that crossed Lucy's features. He was on a mission. Laxus was going to find that key for his mate and tell her just how much he loved every part of her when he returned.

This gift was going to blow her away.