A/N Yo~ an update! Hihihi. ^_^ I hope you'll like this chapter :) Once again, I would like to thank those who listed this story on their fav's and alerts, the silent readers, the reviewers and those who PM'ed me. Arigatou, ne? *bows* Special thanks to Bareerah123 for this beta'd chapter and to Marina Cristina who I forced to read this fic late last night. Also, to Infinitecity who made a fanart based on this fic. You might want to check it out, go to her profile or my profile for the link. And as usual, responses are placed at the end of the chapter. :)

Oh, just so you know…

*Dorei is a servant slave or just slave.

Notice: All review responses are removed from this chapter.

Chapter 5: HIS SLAVE

"Natsuuuuu…" chimed Happy, who flew around in circles over their heads, "I miss Lucy~"

"Pack your bags, brats. We're going back to Magnolia." Makarov announced in full authority.

"But Lucy's not back yet, why are we going without her?" Natsu asked clumsily, his eyebrows both furrowed in irritation.

Makarov let out a sigh, "We told you, Lucy will go straight to Magnolia, she just had something to do with her mother's relatives."

"Maybe I could follow her to Joya… Why did you let her go alone with Erza, jii-chan?" he shivered, "She didn't even talk it out with me. I'm her partner, that weirdo always leaves without saying anything first! When will she ever learn?" Natsu argued back. The fire mage still couldn't believe Lucy had left for another country without even telling him, and he thought they were a team.

"Darn it, Natsu! You're loud! She's with Erza… will you go alone with those two?" Gray grunted, annoyed enough at hearing Natsu's rants, "It's not like you're the only one left behind." He mumbled. Actually, he was feeling bad himself that he wasn't able to convince Erza to bring him along in following Lucy.

"But… Lucy should have at least told me her plans… This is annoying!" the pink-haired boy groaned.

"Aye…" Happy chirped in, as he landed down on Natsu's head.

Hearing this, Makarov felt a pang of guilt in his heart. Since it's been decided that Natsu must not know what Lucy got herself into, the members who knew had set up a lie. The master had agreed on Erza's plan. The titania wanted to watch over Lucy at least, even from afar, and took over the tracking spell he had casted on their celestial mage. It had been two days already since then.

Erza brought Gajeel and Lily along, but not Gray. Gray, on the other hand, was in charge of taking care of Lucy's apartment, which included taking missions for her monthly rent if ever it would take that long until her return. It was a decision opposed by the ice mage of course, he wanted to watch over Lucy too, but Erza insisted that if they go together, it would definitely raise unwanted suspicions to Natsu. And besides, most of them were at fault here, so the least they could do was to take responsibility of their reckless actions.

"She'll come back in no time, Natsu." Mira said, to the rescue. "You need not worry… She'll definitely come back."

"Who's worried? I'm not!" Natsu blurted, "The ice brain's the one worried!" he pointed a finger to Gray accusingly.

Gray flinched, "Am not! It was you, flame head!"

"You are, perverted punk!"

"Am not, flaming piece of shit!"

"You are, exhibitionist!"

"Am not! You want to fight?"

"Bring it on!" Natsu yelled as his body instantly burst into flames.

Gray was about to charge back, when Makarov released a deadly aura, "Cut it out, you two!"

At the Sabertooth guild...

It's been two days since the Fairy Tail Celestial mage arrived at the Sabertooth guild base, and she was grateful that the guild master was kind enough to take her in as their guest. Though, her dragon slayer marker thinks otherwise. He said he would never consider Lucy as their guest, even if Mai threatened to kill him. Every time they would meet, he would call her his slave and such. Who in his right mind would mark his slave as his possible mate, damn it! Was always what Lucy thought. She had no strength to argue, and so she just let him be. It wouldn't hurt to be called a slave for a few days, after all. And she was in their territory, so as long as he doesn't get overboard, Lucy sure could bear it. The bite around this time, was starting to dry out, though dragons scales started to mask the bite itself, which she found disgusting, but not noticeable. Mai said it was a good sign, it was a hint that the dragon saps were withdrawing itself from her system through scales and maybe, just maybe, in no time, the mark would disappear.

"You're coming with us to a mission… in a maid's costume." Sting instructed, his voice again hinting that absolute authority.

"Eh, why would I?" Lucy raised a brow, "I won't wear a maid's costume especially in front of you, guys!" she scoffed, all determined to defy the Sabertooth leader's order.

"You're not part of our guild, you're not someone significant either, in fact, you should be honored to be able to come with us in a mission…" Sting grinned, finding the Fairy tail mage entertaining. He turned to look at the female Sabertooth member, "Give her the maid costume Rufus bought."

"Are you sure about that, Sting?" the white-haired girl asked in hesitation.

"Yeah," Sting nodded, eyes focused on the blonde fairy tail mage, "She isn't to be treated as a guest, anyway."

With this, the female Sabertooth mage went her way to the shopping bags of necessities Lucy assumed the Rufus guy had brought for her earlier.

Lucy swore she wanted to just call all her spirits and kill the arrogant dragon slayer. Damn, if only killing him wouldn't kill her too.

"Here, changing room is there." The girl muttered, handing her a shopping bag and pointing a finger to one direction.

The Fairy Tail mage timidly took out the clothes inside, her jaw dropped in disbelief. She was currently holding up a very revealing maid costume consisted of avery short black with touches of red dress and white apron atop of it. White lace tied up low-cut, corset-like top with puffy white long sleeves and white lace lining at the corset had completed the dress itself. Digging deeper in to the bag, she found a black fish-net thigh highs complete with garter-belts. There was also a white and black lace choker included.

"Like hell I'm wearing this!" Lucy yelled angrily, recovering from the horror of seeing the maid costume the idiot dragon slayer wanted him to wear. She instantly stuff it back into the shopping bag and drop it on the floor, she pointed a shaking finger at it and said, "That won't even fit me!"

Sting wasn't even paying attention to her, and he's not even the slightest interested in what kind of maid costume did Rufus buy for the Fairy Tail mage, what he wanted right now was to take off and finish the mission as soon as possible. And if he got stuck here at the guild just because of this blondie, he would never forgive her. She's wasting his precious time, for Pete's sake.

"You complain a lot, don't you?" Sting shifted his eyes towards the horrified celestial mage boringly, "Rufus had memorized your body for sure, it'll fit you just fine. Just go change, be ashamed that you're causing us delay."

Lucy shot him a death glare, wanting to strangle him by any means possible, "Perverts! It's bad enough that you're taking me as your slave! But in that kind of outfit? You're seriously asking me to wear something like that in a totally unfamiliar surrounding?"

The white dragon slayer shrugged nonchalantly, "It's not like you never posed for Sorcerer's magazine in your bikini 7 years ago, dorei?" he taunted, an annoying grin etched across his face.

"Wha–how did you–ah, shit!" Well, that… she couldn't deny. She could still remember when she posed for Sorcerer's Magazine like it was just a few months before. The celestial mage muttered a few curses under her breath, "I'm agreeing to be your slave, but I won't wear that outfit!"

"Yes, you will dorei! I'm not giving you any choice here…" The blonde dragon slayer mocked, "So stop talking like you have a choice."

Lucy rested both hands on her hips, "Let me remind you that it wasn't my fault that a drunken dragon slayer had marked someone he barely knew and got his life bonded with me. Don't get too full of yourself! You should be thanking me for staying here." She snapped.

Forty-five minutes later…

"Oi, blondie! What the hell's taking you so long?" Sting yelled impatiently, both elbows planted on his legs. "Damn it! Come out now."

"I… don't want to." Lucy's voice trailed off momentarily, "This… is too much. You should've asked me to wear a bikini instead."

Rufus chuckled as the female Sabertooth member glared at the masquerade-masked man, which silenced him a bit. Rogue entered the room with the two exceeds. "Master is calling for the fairy tail mage." Rogue said bluntly, eyes focused on Sting, the latter didn't even care to react.

"Sting-kun, let's go! Let's show the world how strong you are!" Lector chimed, as he pumped his paws in the air.

"Show the world!" Frosch chirped in.

"Damn this blondie, oi! Don't make me destroy that freaking door to make you come out!" Sting finally snapped out, as he straightened his back and was about to stand up when the door creaked open.

The blonde celestial mage let out a loud sigh, as Sting and Rogue heard faint curses uttered by her due to their strong sense of hearing.

She emerged from the changing room wearing the revealing maid outfit, her head casted down. Her hands tugging at the front of the short skirt, wishing for it to magically grow longer, okay, Lucy would admit… she wasn't always modest when it comes to her choice of clothes, but wearing this in front of someone she just met somewhere, not to mention, they were her guild's rival, felt like she was being violated.

Seeing this, Rufus smirked proudly, muttering to himself, "I knew it would look good on her… This will be recorded in my memory…"

The white-haired girl gaped at Rufus, "I told you that outfit was too revealing!"

Rogue just looked at the blushing celestial mage from their rival guild, his face expressionless and uninterested.

Sting, however, had his eyes animatedly widened and almost bulged out of his head as a dribble of blood leaked from his nostrils.

"Uh… uh…" Upon realizing his perverted thoughts, the white dragon slayer instantly covered his nose to refrain anyone to see this unusual reaction. "Change your clothes back! Damn it!" he yelled in agitation as he marched out of the room. "We're taking off in exactly 10 minutes. Finished or not!" with that, the door slammed close.

Lucy quickly ran back to the changing room and jumped happily, as she changed her clothes back. "What a weird guy! But who cares? Hihihi." She happily mumbled to herself, finally free from wearing that stupid costume and unaware that the shadow dragon slayer could hear her.

"Ne, Rogue-kun, is the weather hot?" Frosch asked Rouge almost inaudibly.

"Why do you ask? Are you feeling hot?" the dragon slayer questioned back.

The exceed shook his head vehemently, "Because Fro remembers you telling Fro that when someone gets exposed to extreme heat temperature, the nose will spurt out blood. Fro thinks Sting-kun feels hot."

Rogue let out a stifled laugh, he couldn't keep the emotion to himself any longer, "I guess." Was all he managed to answer back, as the blonde celestial mage of Fairy Tail made her way out of the changing room wearing more decent attire.

At Sabertooth Master's office...

"Uhm…" Lucy fidgeted her fingers, her eyes casted down on the floor. "Can I at least call Mira to report things… before we take off?" she asked hesitantly, but secretly wishing that the guild master was kind enough to let her.

Mai smiled, "Here," she handed the Fairy Tail mage a handy lacrima orb, "Take this… you can call your guild anytime with this. I don't want to have a bad relationship with Fairy Tail and give them the idea of us selfishly taking you everywhere without letting you communicate with them. And I sure hope you'll get along with my dragon slayers duo well. They're a bit rough, but seeing that you're from Fairy Tail, I guess you can manage."

"Thank you, Mai-san. I wouldn't last a day here if I hadn't met you. You're so nice." The fairy tail mage drew out a bright smile.

"To be honest, Lucy-chan, I don't want to deal with anything involving Fairy Tail ever since… but I'm glad I met you. You remind me so much of someone I used to know from the past…" the guild master stated, sadness evident on her features, "And I think it was fate that brought you here… Maybe it's about time I face the past."

Lucy gave her a curious look, she was about to ask more questions when a loud thumps were heard from the door. Both heads turned to look at the door's direction. "Oi,dorei! You're taking too much time! Damn it!"

"Tch~ that arrogant monster… Why won't he just leave without me?" Lucy mumbled under her breath.

"HEY! I heard that! Come on out! It's not like I want you to come anyway! I only gave you 10 minutes and you took an hour just by talking with our master! You really are talkative! You weirdo!" the boy slamming the door screamed in irritation, whom they recognize as Sting.

Mai sweat dropped, as Lucy stood up and bowed slightly, "Thank you so much, Mai-san. I shall call you and report to you too from time to time." Lucy said respectfully.

Mai just gave her an approving nod, Lucy took this as a sign of dismissal and turned towards the door. "Lucy-chan, take care… alright?" was the master's last words, and then Lucy went out to meet an impatient and annoyed stare from Sting and the two exceeds, while Rogue wore his usual expression.

Damn it! This is like dealing with Natsu and Gajeel, not to mention, the two exceeds who's arrogance were worse than Happy and Charle. Lucy sighed, "Sorry Sting-dono."

"I told you not to call me that!" Sting edgily scolded.

"Ah, Sting-kun?" she corrected.

"Who told you to call me that, too? Damn it!" the white dragon slayer admonished.

"You did." Lucy said, securing the lacrima orb in a bag given to her by Mai.

"Did not!" Sting protested.

"Did to!" the blonde girl exclaimed calmly.

"Did not!" the Sabertooth team leader was losing it.

Lucy raised her head and caught Sting's eyes, "You remind me so much of Natsu…"

Silence…

"Let's get going." Rouge cut in to the silence. "Now, we'll have to take a vehicle to get there on time." He said, emotionless and still looking impassive.

.

to be continued...