Chapter Thirty-five

I jumped and spun around immediately at the voice, quickly scanning the patio as I went. I heard a deep chuckle as I frowned, unable to see him.

"I'm up here, on the roof." My eyes flicked up, my head soon following, to see a blood and dirt free Laxus. To see him practically glistening in the moonlight suddenly made me overly self conscious of the fact that I hadn't cleaned myself up yet. I crossed my arms over myself and leaned back against the railing, one leg crossing over the other automatically.

"What are you doing up there? There's a perfectly good balcony here." I say, a smile on my face with my head tilted slightly.

"Being up here hides me from the eyes of my team. Besides, I like it up here. It's relaxing." He finished, laying down on the roof.

I let out a quiet huff as I rolled on my hips to look out at the field again when I saw Laxus tap the spot beside him, only catching it because of the angle I was looking. Pushing myself up, I took the few short steps beneath the roof, Laxus disappearing from my sight. Reaching up, I found that I was too short to even come close to the roof. This was a house built for the unnaturally tall, like Bixlow. I'd never realized before how high everything went, and I am not a short person so this was strange to not be able to reach something, or to feel short in a house.

"Ugh." I reached up again, on the tips of my toes. I stretched as far as I could, looking down as if it would help me, so it came as a shock when I felt a hand encase itself around my wrist and pull me up. I saw Laxus' smirk at my shocked expression as he set me on the edge of the roof before moving back to his original spot.

"Thanks." I said quietly, bringing one leg onto the roof as I turned to face him. He said nothing for a few minutes. When he finally spoke it was a quiet tenderness I hadn't known Laxus could use.

"It's a clear night. Relax and look at the stars."

I leaned back on my hands and realized he was right. There wasn't a cloud in sight, and it was a crescent moon, so the stars were shining brightly without competition. I let a small smile appear on my face at the sight.

They really are beautiful, especially without the lights of Magnolia to corrupt them. This is the one thing about my father's house I missed, seeing the stars without any obstructions.

My smile turned sad and bitter as I started recognizing and naming the constellations of the friends I might not ever see again.

"What's wrong?" I looked to Laxus, and from what I could see in the darkness of the night, he had sat up with his knees brought up in front of him, his arms on his knees, with an eyebrow quirked in his curiosity.

I blinked my wide eyes, slowly adjusting to the darkness, "Nothing." I gave him a lighthearted smile in return. His eyes hardened.

"Don't lie to me, Girly. I can feel your emotions just as much as you can feel mine."

I let out a small sigh, realizing there was no point in trying to hide anything from him if he truly wanted to know, "I was just thinking about my spirits. Looking at their stars just reminded me that I can't see them."

Laxus gave a quick nod in understanding then spoke again, "I wasn't just talking about right now, Lucy. During our fights earlier, and again when we were back in that library before you came to speak with my team."

My eyes widened slightly, "That was just me feeling really useless. Again."

"What's there to feel useless about?"

"I'm guessing Bixlow told you everything that happened in our fight?" He nodded. "Then you should already know. I did nothing. I couldn't do anything."

Laxus stayed quiet a few short moments to let me speak more. When I didn't, he did instead.

"That isn't what I heard from Bix. According to him, you saved his ass on more than one account. He said he probably would have been lying in the middle of that field beside Levy, barely able to move, if not for you."

"I don't know what he told you, but I didn't do anything worth much." I start, hugging my knee to my chest, "Right from the beginning Bixlow told me to stay out of Beta's range because I still can't control your lightning magic. And after I received one of your injuries, he didn't want me involved at all because we weren't sure when I was going to get an injury from you, and we couldn't risk you getting an injury from me."

"Lucy, you pulled him out of danger when he didn't realize that this Beta guy had more than one type of magic until it was too late. And you figured out that guy had more than one trick up his sleeve in time to save Bixlow from what could have been a fatal attack-"

"I didn't save him that time." I interrupted.

"You tried, and it gave Bix enough warning to get out of the way, which both him and me consider saving. And you used that brain of yours to figure out some part of what this group of people can do, but not only that, you somehow got that guy to explain all the parts you didn't know, gaining more information in a few minutes than we probably ever could have on our own, even with both Levy and Freid with the best research materials."

"Maybe, but I couldn't even help him by sending in a spirit to fight alongside him because I lost them in my own stupidity." It was in that moment that I felt Laxus' patience break for a moment, but in that moment I received a light smack to the back of my head.

"Quit your talking like that, dammit. We all know you're a damn good mage, and a freaking powerful one at that, so stop putting yourself down. You may not be as physically powerful as some of us, but you've got your brain and an incomparable amount of magic storage, which is only ever getting bigger and stronger. Once you get you spirits back, they're going to be stronger than ever before, and so will you." Laxus words had gone from loud and stern to a tone full of certainty.

"What makes you so sure that I'll even get them back, anyways?"

"Like I told you when you first lost them, all your spirits are probably busting their asses to find a way to fix your keys." My eyes widened at his words.

"That was you who told me that." I whispered, more in relief than question.

"Ya? You thought it was someone else?"

"No! I mean, my hearing was damaged and messed up at the time, so I didn't recognize anyone's voice, not even Wendy's when she came to speak to me. When I woke up again the next day and I found out you were the person I was 'Linked' to, I always kind of figured, but I didn't want to ask, in case I was wrong." I say in a rush.

It stayed quiet between us for a minute before I broke it.

"What made you say that anyways? I mean, we didn't really know eachother all that well at the time."

"Well, uh... I guess it's because your magic is kinda similar to Bix's magic. Like how he has a bond to the souls in the totems, I knew that you had a bond with your spirits through your keys, so suddenly not having them would be devastating for anyone like you guys. And I heard from Wendy that a few of them were left to you by your mother, so..." Laxus let his sentence carry off, looking away from me slightly.

A comfortable silence fell between the two of us. I moved farther up the roof, beside Laxus. In the distance I could see the sky beginning to light up, the stars disappearing. I hadn't realized how much time had passed until then. When I first came out onto the balcony it was almost midnight, and probably just past then when Laxus first made his presence known, so it should have been at least three or four more hours until the sun rose, and judging by the light that was appearing, it was about three-thirty, maybe four.

Knowing the time made me feel more tired than I was a few minutes ago. I layed back on the roof, almost immediately I began to drift off, curling on my side. I was in that inbetween of being awake and asleep when I felt a hand push my bangs off my face, tickling my forehead. The hand tensed when I tensed slightly, and once I relaxed again it moved and rubbed my cheek lightly before pulling away. I was completely asleep within seconds after.

Hello, Muses, welcome back. I'm really sorry I haven't been updating all that much, and that there isn't really all that much LaLu happening. I just have a major case of writer's block, which sucks because I really want to write this story, but the ideas just aren't coming to me.

Muses, send me inspiration and let me know what you thought of the chapter and I'll be back as soon as I can.