Lucy's POV

I was fuming. I expected Natsu to do something so utterly and incomparably stupid, but for Gray to do it? In my home? I growled under my breath, ignoring Freed still complaining as I dragged him behind me.

My arm was starting to ache from dragging his unwilling carcas home, so I fingered one of my keys and called out sharply.

'Taurus!' The pervy bull immediately appeared, and thankfully grabbed Freed, flinging him over his shoulder and following me without a comment or glance at my breasts.

'Tch.' I muttered. If this perverted spirit could sense my mood and knew not to piss me off, it just went to show how utterly stupid Natsu was for egging me on.

'Lucy! RELEASE ME AT ONCE!' Freed shouted, trying to reach for his sword that he had strapped to his waist. Taurus quickly grabbed his arms, immobilising him.

'Freed, shut up. I need you to do something for me and I'm too angry to deal with anything, so just shut it. If you just come willingly I'll let you walk.' I clenched my fists tightly, ignoring the pain in my knuckles from punching Gajeel's stupid iron face. Thankfully Freed stopped kicking Taurus before sighing and agreeing to come with me. I touched Tarus's key in my belt pouch, and he disappeared in a shower of golden light, dropping Freed to the floor.

'Come on.' I called out, stalking away from the mage. I heard him mutter under his breath before he jogged to walk beside me.

'What is it? And why the anger Lucy?' I ground my teeth together angrily, before muttering under my breath.

'Stupid pink haired bastard. Freaking icicle butt.' Freed chuckled slightly.

'Ah, that explains a lot. What do you need me for though?'I stopped and cocked my head at him, my hand on my hip as I raised an eyebrow.

'Freed, you're a rune mage. Why do you think I want you?' Freed looked shocked at how I'd spoken to him, but nodded his head in understanding as I lead him to my house. Or at least, what remained of it.

I watched as Freed pulled out his sword and began to write runes surrounding my window and the exterior of my home as I sat on the edge of the canal, my legs dangling above the water as I tried to quench my anger so I could treat Freed civilly after him doing me such a favour.

Laxus's POV

I strolled out of the guild, following the frantic Bickslow and Evergreen as they tried to find Blondie and Freed. The music from my sound pod drowned out their annoying voices as they fretted in their own ways; Evergreen complaining about Blondie stealing her spotlight, when she was the Fairy of Fairy Tail, and Bickslow making perverted comments about him not knowing Lucy was such a masochist.

I sniffed the air, and started walking in the direction of Freeds smell of old books and coconut which mixed with blondies vanilla and strawberry scent. Bickslow and Evergreen followed not far behind, knowing out of any of them, I would find Freed fastest. It surprised me when the blond actually punched the iron freak pretty damn hard, but I'd managed to hide my shock, acting pretty casual as I electrocuted the flying mass of metal. It was harder for me to disguise my surprise at her beating both Gray and Natsu with one hit. I'd always thought the blonde was one of the weakest members of the guild, but obviously she's been holding back on us.

I grinned as I got closer to their smells, along with a smell of burning. Natsu must have done something really bad to piss off the happy blonde, and I couldn't wait to find out what!

Freed's POV

I wrote out the runes I knew Lucy wanted me to write, ensuring that both Natsu and Gray wouldn't be able to enter the home without her permission, and that any magical abilities either of them tried to use would be suppressed. I also added in a provision that stated should they try to start a fist fight without magic, they would be trapped in a rune cage separately until they were released with Lucy's approval. However, most of my efforts went into making sure they couldn't enter the property.

These other runes were there as a backup in the unlikely event the two idiots developed a brain somewhere.

As I finished, I turned and walked across to Lucy, waiting for her to stand.

As I'd worked, I could feel her trying to calm herself, and noticed that she had done quite well in doing so.

There was a sudden burst of golden light and a young woman in a maid costume with pink hair and broken shackles on her wrists appeared beside Lucy.

'Punishment Hime?' Lucy sighed and turned to smile at her spirit.

'Not today Virgo. Do you mind cleaning up a bit inside? I've got a few guests and some explaining to do.'

'Yes Hime. Punishment for pink bastard and icicle butt Hime?' Lucy giggled slightly and stood to hug the spirit, whose arms encircled her master in a tight hug, before she disappeared once again.

I heard Lucy sigh before she turned to face me, smiling apologetically.

'Sorry Freed, for dragging you out here. It's just those two idiots have really done it this time.' I inclined my head in acknowledgment as she lead me up to her apartment.

'I'm going to put some tea on, I know that the rest of your team will turn up at any moment. Please, sit down.' Lucy said as she invited me into her home and gestured to a comfy looking pink sofa as she walked across to her small kitchen area.

I looked around the room, my eyes lingering on a large bookshelf stuffed full of books, many of which I'd read, but many of which I haven't read, making my fingers itch to wander across the leather bound papers filled with knowledge. I forced my eyes to move on, and quickly inspected the rest of the room, ignoring the pink covered bed that was against the wall, and glancing at the table, noticing a small blackened wooden box. I frowned and sat myself down on her sofa, waiting for her to finish making the tea as my eyes were magnetically attracted to her book case. The urge to get up and snatch several of the books was almost overwhelming; however I managed to hold myself back for manners and etiquettes sake.

I heard Lucy giggle behind me, and turned to see her amused face.

'It's alright Freed, you can go look at my books. You can borrow them if you like, I've read them all already.' I blinked before quickly striding to the shelves and pulling out several books, my eyes eating up the titles and double checking whether I've read them before.

I saw Lucy's guild marked hand hold out a pair of Gale force glasses to me and gratefully took them off of her, before carrying a pile of books over to the table, placing them down as I read through book after book using the glasses.

I heard a knocking at the door, and knew the rest of my team plus Laxus had arrived, yet ignored them in favour of the immense knowledge I was gaining in regards to celestial magic and the history of Fiore.

I grunted in acknowledgement of my team as I vaguely heard them call my name, but had just gotten to an interesting part in a fiction book I'd grabbed off of the shelf, and couldn't tear myself away.

Lucy's POV

'FREED!' Evergreen shouted as she burst through the door before I could open it all the way. All she got in return was a grunt as the rune mage had obviously gotten to the best bit of the book. She glared before pouting and slumping in a seat across from him.

'It seems you've found Freed's weakness blondie.' I heard a deep voice chuckle, and looked up to see Laxus in front of Bickslow, whose tongue hung out of his mouth, and his "babies" encircled his head, repeating Laxus's words, "weakness, weakness!"

I shrugged and invited them inside, gesturing for them to sit beside Freed, who was now reading through a large tome about the hidden history of Fiore that I had managed to salvage from my Father's old library. I could see the scholarly mage was having the time of his life as his eyes widened at several parts of information within the book.

'I'll just get the tea, please sit down.' Laxus nodded, his sound pod still over his ears and Bickslow winked behind his metal grate before swaggering into my apartment.

I shut the door and quickly went to pour the tea, giving everyone a mug before sitting with them. We waited for Freed to finish reading the last book and remove the gale force glasses I'd lent him, before the questions began.

'So blondie, what'd you nick Freed for?' I took a sip from my tea, ignoring the urge to glare at Laxus for calling me blondie.

'You're blonde too genius, and I needed him to write me some runes to keep the two idiots away from my house.' My hand started stroking along the burnt wooden box I'd pulled towards me as I'd sat down, staring sadly down at the ruined container.

'What did fire breath and ice boy do to ya cosplayer?' Bickslow asked, his tongue lolling out.

"Cosplayer! Cosplayer!" I sighed at the wooden totems hovering around, zooming across my apartment.

I looked down at the box again and took a deep breath.

'They destroyed something I valued, which I can never get back.'