Chapter 7:

Lucy moaned to herself in the hot sun. She had already taken off her small jacket and had slung it over her shoulder. She was positively drenched in sweat and could not figure out for the life of her why this enormous golden haired creature looked so cool and wasn't sweating by the bucket load. Granted, he had taken off his jacket and like her, slung it over his shoulder. He also had unbuttoned a few buttons on his shirt showing a gorgeous torso and pecs that looked like… Lucy halted that thought right there.

"Curse Erza's books! Curse them to the deepest pit of hell." Lucy thought to herself. She did not know when she turned into a closet pervert but she was going to curb herself of this…affliction. She did not want to perv on the lightning dragon slayer. He was her number one suspect in her case. And it would not do to be romantically involved with him. The heavens knew she had read enough books that showed her that being romantically involved with a person that was a suspect did not bode well for the heroine.

While Lucy was in her own world of thoughts she didn't notice Laxus stopping in front of her. She immediately ran into him with a squeak and promptly fell on her butt.

"What the hell Laxus? Why did you stop in the middle of nowhere?" she screamed at him.

Laxus turned around with a raised eyebrow and simply said: "Well blonde cheerleader, if you'd been paying attention, you would have noticed we are here, at the Blue Pegasus guild."

Lucy felt like an idiot and looked up to confirm they were indeed outside of the Blue Pegasus guild. She then turned to look at Laxus who was smirking at her. Lucy felt her hackles rising at the smirk and said, "Don't look at me like that Sparky. You could have at least warned me when you were going to stop." She then turned around and with a haughty flip of her hair walked past him and into the guild.

Laxus watched as the blonde cheerleader walked into the guild. He didn't know what was with her but something in him just loved riling her up. She gave him the most entertaining expressions he had ever seen and he was grateful that the master had given him this messenger errand with the blonde, even if he had to deliver it to this guild with its master that creeped the hell out of him. He sighed and followed Lucy through the door.

As Lucy walked into the guild, she was immediately greeted by the Tri-mens. Eve, Ren and Hibiki all fawned over her and offered her cool drinks from the heat. Laxus walked in and pretty much all the females in the guild gravitated to him, the foremost being Jenny. Laxus ignored the female titters and walked straight to Master Bob and handed him the envelope. Master Bob asked them to quickly wait for a reply. Lucy and Laxus both nodded in reply and Laxus walked towards the bar and sat down after ordering a drink.

"Lucy-san I did not know you and Laxus were dating. This is indeed the greatest of tragedies to see that you have lost your eligibility. When did this happen?" Hibiki asked.

Laxus and Lucy promptly spat out their drinks in response to the question. Lucy was lucky and spat her drink all over Eve, who shrugged cutely and went to change his shirt, meanwhile Laxus was not so lucky as he spat his drink all over Ichiya and Nichiya. Both males started screaming "men!" and began running around the guild.

Lucy was mortified. First the matching clothes comments and now she was dating the man. What next? Would someone think they would be engaged or heaven forbid, married? "Hibiki, Laxus and I are not dating. We are just guildmates and nakama that is all!"

Lucy blushed as she said that. Laxus grunted in agreement. Hibiki smiled as she said that and said, "Oh thank god. I could not handle it if you were dating this…ahem freakishly large man."

It was at this point Laxus magic began to act up. It was a sure sign of his temper. At this point, Lucy knew they had to leave now. Luckily Master Bob came back with the reply and gave it to Laxus. Laxus just nodded at him and walked out. Lucy hastily bid goodbye to the Blue Pegasus mages and rushed out to follow Laxus.

Lucy caught up with Laxus as he walked towards Magnolia. It was quiet for a few seconds and then Lucy spoke up, "Are you ok? You do know that Hibiki didn't mean that right?"

Laxus took a deep breath and squeezed the bridge of his nose to calm himself down. He then looked at Lucy and said, "I still have a problem with my temper, Lucy. I regret Fantasia so deeply and am so worried that one day I will snap. Gramps sends me on these kind of things to train me to become the next master and what do I do? I snap at the easiest and simplest provocations. I don't deserve the forgiveness that the guild and my gramps has shown towards me."

Lucy did not know what to say to this. It clearly looked like Laxus was suffering but she had no words that would comfort him. They then began to walk back to the guild in silence. During the walk back, Lucy racked her brain in order to say something to Laxus, but what could she say that would comfort the blonde-haired dragon slayer.

Upon reaching Magnolia, Lucy stopped Laxus with a wave of her hand. He looked at her inquiringly. She said, "Look here, Sparky. Everyone has a problem with their temper but I don't ever want you to say you don't deserve forgiveness. Every person in this world deserves forgiveness. Lord knows it took more than 7 years for me to forgive my dad but I did in the end. Work with your mistakes and move on. Learn and grow stronger. To learn to accept forgiveness is a sign of great leader, for it shows humility."

Laxus stood watching her for a few moments after her impassioned speech. He then simply smiled. A true authentic smile and ruffled her hair and asked, "How long did that speech take you to come up with, Blondie? Judging by the hair color I'd say the whole trip back."

"Moo Laxus, when will you learn my name is Lucy, Lucy! And don't ruffle my hair." Lucy replied to him.

Laxus just smirked back and carried on walking. Lucy run after him thinking that it seemed her impassioned speech had made a difference after all. When the pair had reached the town square, Lucy bid Laxus goodbye and went to her house. She was tired after the excruciatingly hot day and she had some sleuthing to do.

Calling out, "I'm home," when she reached her house, Lucy looked around. No intruder was present. She then called out, "Open, Gate of the twins! Gemini." The twins appeared and greeted their mistress. Lucy then asked them to turn into Laxus. Soon there was an exact replica of the dragon slayer in her apartment. He seemed to be out of place in her pink apartment and in fact too big for her cozy home.

Lucy asked the twins, "Gemini can you tell me where Laxus was four days ago?"

The twins answered back in Laxus voice. "Yes Mistress. We are searching." After a while the twins spoke in a very surprising voice, "Lucy, we cannot access the memories. They almost seem blocked to us."

Lucy was very surprised at this. She had not come across a case where Gemini could not access someone's past. She then asked, "Is it something like amnesia ?"

The twins replied negative, stating, "This is not amnesia Mistress. Amnesia is like a blank slate in a person's mind but these memories, I can sense they are there but I can't access them. Almost as if it's blocked by a rune barrier."

Lucy's mind flashed at this. Lucy then dismissed Gemini and proceeded to write down in her logbook.

Logbook:

Entrance four: Day four after incident.

Motive: Still unknown

People involved: Laxus and Alex maybe even a unknown third party

Crime: Same as previous entrance.

Any Evidence: Plenty of new evidence today. Gemini copied Laxus today in order for me to gain information.

Note: I asked Gemini to copy Laxus today. They did and could not access Laxus memories. They said it was blocked by a rune barrier, only Freed could write such complex runes that would only allow the exact person to access the memories. This means his team or maybe only Freed knew about Laxus's activity that day and chose not to share. That's one plausible theory, another plausible theory was that Freed wrote the barrier upon Laxus's request but Laxus did not involve his team with the details because of the secrecy.

It is not so hard to believe that Freed would do that. I know he worships Laxus. What could be so important that Laxus would go to such a far extent to protect information?

Another thing that happened today was during a conversation with the Master, Laxus asked him a very weird question. His exact words were "Is it time to move? Have they shown signs of activity yet?" I can't shake the feeling of this having something to do with my case. Who are they and why is Laxus and the Master monitoring their movement. Is it Alex or is it a person whose identity is not yet known? Can it be Laxus is in league with this person or could this person be a group like the magic council. But then why would the master know about it ? Is he operating under Laxus's request or something else?

A lot of progress has been made today but still, a lot of questions unanswered.

Lucy re-read her entry and then decided to go to bed. She stripped down to her undies and threw the purple dress across the room after giving it a dark look. That dress gave her a lot of grief today. She then got into her PJ's and went to sleep.

A/N: Hey guys. I hope you enjoyed chapter seven. As always Fairy Tail down not belong to me but to Mr Mashima. Do read and review.

Also please support my other story Godlike Abduction.

Eiko