A/N: Here you go guys! As promised! I'll try ad upload another tonight, but it's late and I've got reading to do, but there will be another at some point tomorrow, I promise! I just can't seem to stop writing this, which I know you appreciate from the amazing comments you've been leaving! Truly, thank you so much for all the reviews! You have no idea how much they spur me on into writing more for you all! Please carry on enjoying my story and thanks once more! :) xx

Laxus's POV

Damn it Laxus! What the fuck was that?! Bix was only trying to help, jeez! So what if he likes Blondie? She likes him and trusts him enough to let him have his mask off! He's never gonna find another girl like that! You selfish BASTARD! Now look at him! You just destroyed your best friends last chance at happiness, congratulations you asshole! I ignored the thoughts running through my head as I dumped the massive pot on the stove, trying and failing to ignore blondies massive grin and the tempting glance down her shirt she was unknowingly giving me.

'Tch!' I said, turning and walking away so she didn't see the hint of pink in my cheeks. I glanced at Bix and tried to smile apologetically, but I probably just grimaced. Damn, I'm bad at this friend crap. Ever since blondie barged her way in on my life I've been acting like a hormonal teenager.

'Hey, Sparky! Cut the carrots. Bix, could you please go fill this thing halfway with water?' She smiled at Bix, and I saw him immediately perk up, grinning his characteristic grin as he lugged away the pot.

Oh please Bix is it? Sparky do this, is it? I quickly squashed the jealous thoughts, growling as I roughly chopped the carrot, slamming the knife down against the chopping board.

You don't even like blondie you stupid ass! Bix obviously does so give the poor guy a break! He's had the shittiest life imaginable till now, letting him have her might help...

'LAXUS!' I flinched as blondie screamed in my ear, and glared at her.

'WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR BLONDIE?' I shouted, gesturing wildly with the knife in one hand and an un-chopped carrot in the other.

'You were ignoring me Sparky, off in La-La land. You've done enough carrots, now go get a damn onion and chop it up. Try not to cry, I might think you like me, cause now I'm ignoring you.' She glared at me before turning and smiling at Bix who'd finished filling the pot with water.

I glared and turned around. Heading to the pantry where I'd seen blondie pull out the carrots from.

'Damned blondie. Ignore me will she? Ha! She can damn well try.' I muttered, complaining to myself as I searched for the onions, getting more and more enraged at not being able to find the damn things.

'OI! BLONDIE! WHERE'S THE DAMN ONIONS?' I shouted out to the kitchen. I didn't get a reply, instead I heard her telling Bix she'd need to go get the onions. I frowned as she walked in, not even sparing me a glance as she began to search for them.

'Are you seriously ignoring me blondie?' I asked, disbelievingly as she pulled out a small step ladder and climbed up it, looking up on a second shelf that was above my head. I hadn't even noticed it.

I stood on my tiptoes, smelling, and instantly identified the box with the onions in, and reached up to yank it off the shelf, but suddenly felt pain and heard blondie screaming in laughter, and found myself sitting on the floor.

Bickslow's POV

I quickly ran to the entrance of the pantry, only to see Laxus sitting on the floor looking dazed and cosplayer clutching on to a ladder for dear life as she split her sides laughing at my leader. I looked around, and found a load of potatoes scattered across the floor, and half of a filled sack lying on the floor next to Laxus.

I grinned as he looked around, completely dazed.

'OH MY GOD! The Great Laxus Dreyer! Knocked down by a sack of potatoes!' Cosplayer gasped out between squealing laughter.

'OH JEEZ, Bix, you should have seen his FACE!' She was still laughing, and suddenly lost her grip on the ladder, and let out a high pitched squeak. Instantly, my babies zoomed to her and caught her before she hit her head on the stone slab floor, gently lowering her to the ground to stand.

She started giggling again as they whizzed up and around her body randomly.

'Thanks you guys!' She giggled, patting each of them individually.

'You ok, cosplayer? I asked, checking to see if she was hurt, but glad to find she was ok.

'I'm fine, still trying to catch my breath from Laxus-' She burst into giggles again at the thought of it, and I even laughed a the mental image I had of him having a sack of potatoes falling on his head.

She wiped the tears from her eyes, before walking towards Laxus, finally having seized control of her laughter, she bent down to check if he had a bump on his head, gifting me with a really nice view of her ass.

I whistled appreciatively and grinned.

'Nice butt cosplayer.' She turned and glared at me, but I winked at her. I'd already taken my mask off before Laxus had shouted for her. I was still expecting her to look into my eyes and run away screaming, but instead she just grinned at me.

'You know Bix, you're never gonna get a girl if you carry on with the perverted comments.' She said, sticking her tongue out and kneeling next to Laxus.

I felt dread settle in my stomach.

STUPID BIX! Can't you keep your damn mouth shut for once!? WAIT! NO! We've already agreed, she's Laxus's. Since Tenrou, he's changed. He's been working so hard to be the next Master, he needs someone to support him, and Lucy's perfect. You don't deserve her, one day she'll be scared, just like the rest... just like everyone else was...

Lucy's POV

'Hey Sparky, how many fingers am I holding up?' I asked, giving him the middle finger, and watching as he glared at me.

'Very funny blondie.' He grumbled, quickly pushing himself to his feet. I quickly stood up with him and caught him as he stumbled to the side.

'Hey!' I said, before Bix strode across, suddenly serious, and grabbed Laxus before he squashed me.

I stood between the two huge men, being slightly squished by the muscled chests, before I felt my face flush red and managed to squirm out from between them both.

Smooth Lucy, real smooth. I thought to myself, quickly turning to pick up the onions and potatoes strewn across the floor, as I spoke to Bix, refusing to look at him.

'Sit him down in the kitchen Bix, he must have hit his head harder than we thought. I'll be right there, think you could chop these and put the soup on boil?' I asked, finally over my embarrassment as I handed him three onions, which his babies ended up carrying as he was too busy lugging Laxus's shaky body to a chair.

I sighed, running a hand through my hair and pulling out my pony tail, before quickly putting it up into a messy bun, ignoring the few tendrils that escaped around my face and the back of my neck as I walked out of the pantry and over to the cupboard where medical supplies were kept.

'You're pretty well stocked cosplayer.' I turned around to see Bix had fixed his mask to his head again, and frowned.

Hope I wasn't too harsh with that pervert comment earlier- no, this is Bickslow we're talking about. He's proud of his perverted front. Yes it's a front and you know it baka. I pushed my thoughts aside before smiling at him.

'Well, yeah. At the moment we've got over fifty orphans under the age of 10, do you have any idea how much those kids eat? Or even how many cuts and scrapes they get?' I laughed softly as I sat down in front of Laxus, looking into his dazed, grey eyes. I quickly averted my gaze as his seemed to lock onto my own brown eyes.

I started to feel around his scalp, trying to find where he'd been hit by the sack of vegetables, as Bix walked over to the massive soup pot and began to start cooking the meal.

I heard Laxus making a noise, and leant closer to him to find he was purring as I massaged his head!

I backed off, gingerly touching his head, my fingers sliding through his soft, spiky hair, before I found a bump the size of an egg towards the back.

'Jeez, how can you get punch and knocked about so much and be fine, but one hit from a potatoes sack and boom, welcome to Laxus's second brain.' I murmured, searching for an ointment perfect for bumps, and gently rubbing it over the swelling, ignoring his moans of pain.

'God, you're such a baby.' I mumbled as I finished applying the ointment.

'At least you're not ignoring me anymore.' He mumbled. I looked down to see his eyes closed and glared at him.

'Whatever Sparky. I'm so telling the guild you were taken out by a root vegetable.' I heard Bix stifle a laugh, and watched as Laxus's eyes opened lazily to stare up at m, before he grinned like a predator.

'I guess I'll just have to get something dirty on you then.' He whispered so only I could hear. I glared at him before smirking, and harshly patting his head bump, earning another glare as he winced.

'You can try Sparky. Now shut up and let me bandage your thick skull. We should showcase those potatoes. They must be made of some pretty hard stuff if they managed to hurt your thick skull.' I said cheerfully, wrapping a bandage around his head, resisting the urge to pull it incredibly tight and hurt him.

At the end of the day, he was hurt trying to do as I asked him to.

I laughed as the tonne of kids slurped at the soup, shouting at each other as a few bread rolls went flying through the air.

I really should visit more often. I sighed, playing with the soup Bix had ended up preparing nearly by himself.

We'd managed to eventually drag Ever and Freed away from their paradises. Laxus had had to physically drag Freed out by his collar, he was so engrossed by the book he didn't even notice he was somewhere else till he reached out and tried to read a bread roll, then looked up confused as we started laughing hysterically at him.

He'd flushed a cute shade of red, before slipping the gale force glasses off and silently eating his meal, not even noticing the bandage on Laxus's head till halfway through the meal when I asked how he felt.

Ever still couldn't stop talking about all my old dresses, and nearly fainted when I told her she could take as many as she wanted home with her to adjust or make new clothes from. Her eyes went starry eyed at me, and I started backing away when she threw her arms around me.

I sighed, frowning as I remembered the size of the bill I'd gotten for this place. My inheritance from my Mother was dwindling quite quickly, and I tried to pay off most of the bills from my job earnings, but paying my rent for my apartment in Magnolia as well as a place this big was daunting. Especially with the destructive tendencies of my team.

Now I had to find the silver key of the Phoenix to see if it would help with the trouble in the spirit world.

Loke had told me that some mages had denied their spirits the right to help, and I felt myself getting angry at the memory.

'What do you mean, they won't allow them to help? This is your world! How can a mage from my world stop you from helping in this kind of situation? Don't they realise how serious this is!?' Loke looked at me, sadness in his eyes.

'Mages like yourself and Yukino understand, and have allowed us to aid him, which has helped immensely, we're holding it off quite well with all 12 zodiacs available, plus Opiuchus. Some silver keys have managed to help, but most are forbidden. He doesn't mind, he'd rather they stick to the rules of their contracts and the spirit world than go against the law.'

'SCREW THE LAW!' I shouted, pacing around the clearing I'd managed to sneak off to in order to talk to Loke without the others over-hearing us.

'Lucy, unless you have a way to convince those mages, we'll just have to cope. Just focus on staying alive during this mission, ok? Don't do anything reckless.'

'Oi, blondie. You ok?' Laxus asked, staring at me with something approaching concern. I forced myself to grin and nod, taking a large sip of the soup.

'Great cooking Bix! What seasoning did you use? It's really incredible!'

Freed's POV

I watched Lucy like a hawk. Something was troubling her immensely, and I had a feeling it was the problem we weren't allowed to know of that related to the spirit world.

She'd been brooding over her soup for the past five minutes till Laxus interrupted her. She looked like she'd wanted to commit murder, but before that, she only looked sad and incredibly depressed.

I exchanged glances with the rest of the Raijinshuu. They'd noticed too.

Not many people realised and understood my love for knowledge, reading and books, and never had anyone given me full and unrestricted access to a collection as large as Lucy's, and I was truly grateful to her.

She'd snuck her way past my walls and had entered my heart without consent and set up house there.

I smiled at the thought, and knew that I would always protect and respect her as I had Laxus. It wasn't the only reason why I liked her. She was kind, joyful and unreasonably stubborn and determined when she wanted to be. She seemed to have a gift for understanding peoples strengths and weaknesses, and made up for them easily with her own.

Whatever was going on in the spirit world, was causing her pain, and I was going to find out what it was. I quickly ate the last of the soup before excusing myself and running back to the library.

I remember she said her Father had hated mages, so I didn't expect to find many, if any, books about celestial magic, but on the slim chance there was one, I needed to read it immediately so I could understand better what was troubling Lucy.

I shall help her. I don't care if there are consequences for this, I shall save her from this worry at least. I told myself, pulling on her gale force glasses and running along the shelves, selecting books that could even have the slimmest relevance or mention of the celestial plane, before settling down for a long night between the pages.