An update already? Must be a badly timed Christmas miracle! (Don't get used to it. lol)
Anyway, here's pt. 2 of chapter 4. Thank you so much for all the feedback! It's so incredibly encouraging and makes me look forward to writing even more! I never imagined my silly crack-ship story would merit over 200 followers, so thanks sooooo much for reading.

Lucy slowly opened her eyes. Her whole body was aching like she'd run a marathon, making her groan slightly as she sat up. The room she was in was pretty nice for a small town inn, with pretty wooden furniture and a big, comfy bed that she was currently occupying in some pajamas she didn't remember changing into. She glanced around, still a bit confused, until she saw the tell-tale black coat sitting in the corner. That's right, I came here with Laxus, she thought, recalling the mission they'd been on. Then she remembered the conversation they'd been having right before she blacked out from magic deprivation. A crimson sear spread across her cheeks.

Is there anyone important, he'd asked. Why couldn't she just say no? It was the truth! Sure, she'd slept with a few guys in random towns while on missions, but it was more out of curiosity than anything. No one else had really caught her fancy, nor, apparently, she theirs. She loved Natsu and Gray both, obviously, but not like that. She loved them the same way she loved Erza or Wendy; they were precious nakama that she'd do anything to protect. But she couldn't imagine doing the kinds of things she had done with Laxus with either of them.

Deep down, Lucy knew that the real truth was that she was scared of her feelings for Laxus. Never having been in a relationship before left her extremely self-conscious and guarded. What if he didn't like her back? But even worse, what if he did? She loved to read stories about romance and all that, but the idea of actually being in a relationship scared her. What if she messed it up? Or what if he decided she wasn't as good as he thought she was? She would be opening herself up to a whole new level of vulnerability she wasn't sure she was ready for.

The stellar mage was pulled out of her dizzying thoughts by the creak of the bathroom door. Laxus walked out accompanied by billowing steam that hinted at the nearly boiling shower he just got out of. His hair was wet, soft droplets of water occasionally dripping down onto his bare chest and the towel carelessly hung around his neck. Lucy pinched herself for the slightly disappointed sigh she gave when she saw he was wearing pants. His face remained emotionless as he sauntered over to the bed. Placing a large, warm hand on Lucy's forehead, he checked for any remaining fever and grunted in approval when he detected none.

"Drink that," he said, pointing to a glass of water and some tablets sitting on the bed-side table. Lucy was quick to follow instructions, gulping down the bitter tablets. Instantly she felt a wave of energy pass through her.

"What is it?"

"…," Laxus paused for a moment. "I'm not entirely sure, actually."

"What do you mean you're not sure?!" Lucy half-screamed. Maybe blindly taking orders from him wasn't the best idea.

"I got them from Freed. They help with the after-shock of deprivation. He said he thought it'd be a good idea for me to carry them around with me. Something about going overboard…" he muttered, and Lucy giggled. In their reluctance to recognize their own limits, the fire and lightning dragon slayers weren't all too different.

"How do you feel?" he asked. Lucy couldn't help but notice the absence of his usual resident smirk. Was he mad at her for being such a burden?

"I feel fine. Great, actually!" she insisted, ignoring the throb of her head. It was embarrassing enough to pass out without complaining about it too. She flashed him a Natsu-worthy grin, as if that would somehow corroborate her story.

"Hn…" Laxus grunted in distrust. He stared at her intensely, making her smile falter until it was nothing more than a weak, unconvincing upturn of the mouth. At last, she gave it up and looked down in shame.

"I'm…sorry," she said quietly.

Laxus's eyes widened in shock and his breathing hitched. "For what?!" he exclaimed.

"For making you take care of me after I ran out of power like that," she hurried. "I shouldn't have come with you for an S-level mission. Luckily the job today wasn't particularly dangerous, but if it had been I would have just slowed you down. Even the jobs I take with Team Natsu are often out of my skill set. I'm just lucky to have everyone else—"

"Shut up," Laxus said roughly, and Lucy almost bit her tongue in shock.

"So-sorry," she stuttered.

"And stop apologizing!" he yelled, making her cower slightly back into the pillows. She lifted her head and saw him staring right at her, but instead of anger his eyes were filled with…pain? He sighed heavily and placed his head in his hand, distressed.

"You're not useless, and you're not just lucky. Sure, you're not the most powerful mage in the guild, but you're definitely not weak. You managed to use your spirits for hours on end today. Even I can't just rain down lightning all day. But you're more than just your power. All I do is use brute force to take an enemy down, but you're smarter than that. You know which spirits are best for which situation. You can quickly process who gets along with who or who is available according to your contracts, and at the same time you devise strategies to get the most out of your attack. And even further," he continued, hardly drawing a breath, "you are kind. Your spirits respect you in a way few people are ever respected. As do your friends. As do I."

Lucy could hardly breathe. He…respected her?

"You're with Team Natsu for a reason, Lucy. Those idiots would be so lost without you," he chuckled. And so would I, he wanted to say, but held back, not wanting to take advantage of her emotional state.

Lucy sniffled lightly and smiled gently at him. She nodded her head once, blushing fiercely, then turned her gaze to the window. The stars above were shining brilliantly as if to agree with everything the dragon slayer just said. She knew he was right (though she wasn't sure she was really that smart), but it was still hard for her to accept. After years of being told she was inadequate by the father who neglected her, part of her had come to believe it. Old habits die hard.

"We should sleep," Laxus said. "Check out is at 11." He walked to the opposite side of the bed and stripped off his pants unceremoniously. Clad only in his underwear, he slid into the bed next to an ogling Lucy and turned off the light. "Come here," he ordered.

"Yes, sir," she said, scooting over until she felt his arms wrap around her lithe frame and pull her in tighter.

"Just call me Laxus," he said, only too aware of how unfitting his previous game of master and slave was.

"Yes, Laxus," she repeated. Her light voice sent chills through his body, and the unshed tears that leaked onto his chest nearly broke his heart. How can she not see how incredible she is? She felt so fragile in his arms, but he knew it was a deception. She was the one with the power to crush him.

Lucy snuggled into Laxus's chest, savoring the feeling of his strong arms around her. His breathing was steady, but in her advantageous position she could feel his heart beating out of control. That was all the confirmation she needed to not be afraid anymore.

"There's no one," she said.

"Huh?" Laxus asked, confused. He lifted his head up slightly to look into her moon-lit eyes.

"You asked if there was anyone…important to me. Right before I passed out. Well…there's no one. There never has been," she admitted.

Laxus didn't know what to say, but he wanted to dance around the room in a very un-dragon slayer-like way. All he could do at that moment was smile, and that smile of genuine happiness was enough for the beautiful woman in his arms. Lucy reached one hand up and slid it into his hair. Slowly bringing herself up and the dragon slayer's head down, she kissed him so softly Laxus felt as if he were kissing air. And like air, he needed her.

Lucy wasn't sure if the need for more was her own or something she sensed from Laxus, but she responded aptly, pushing him back into the pillows while she moved to straddle his hips, the whole while never even breaking for a breath. She ran her fingers through his short hair while his hands pulled her in so that she might be just a little bit closer. While their other kisses had hinted at something more than a business transaction, this kiss screamed it.

Finally they broke, gasping for air. Lucy's head was still pounding slightly from the magic deprivation earlier, but the pounding of her heart overrode it. She looked down into the blue eyes that were staring lustfully back. No…lovingly. Laxus didn't just want her body tonight, he wanted her soul.

They stared at each other for eons, memorizing every feature, every breath, every scent. Lucy gazed at the lightning scar over his right eye and wondered how he'd gotten it. A fantastic tale for another time, she supposed, though she hoped the scar was only skin deep.

"Lucy," a deep voice said. Lucy realized she'd drifted off, absentmindedly tracing the scar with her finger. The dragon slayer's face beneath her showed his concern.

"Does it hurt?" she asked, moving her hand back into his hair. Laxus smiled sadly.

"Not anymore." He pulled her into another kiss which grew hungrier with each passing second. Lucy moved her hands down his neck and then to his chest where she braced herself as she sensually rubbed against his body. The lightning mage let out a deep groan beneath her and she could feel his arousal growing. She moved her mouth away from his, trailing up his jaw to his neck, and then down to where the neck curved. She sucked hard, right over the tendon and slid her hips against his again. The resulting stifled moan made her grin in satisfaction.

She sat up, her plush ass pressing against his hardness teasingly. Reaching down, she grabbed the hem of the nightshirt Laxus must have changed her into while she was unconscious and pulled it over her head. Her pale breasts gleamed in the moonlight, but Laxus couldn't stop staring at her dark eyes that gazed down at him. High on the power of her control over the lightning mage she rocked her hips again, agonizingly slowly, and lightly raked her nails down his torso to his pant line. Laxus, however, made no move to take control, surrendering himself completely to her will (though the way he saw it, that wasn't much of a change).

Like a hawk suddenly swooping for its prey, Lucy decided to stop playing around and pulled off both of their remaining clothes at a speed rivaled only by Gray himself. As she climbed back on top of Laxus, she feared her heart would beat straight out of her chest. She'd never been this….aggressive before. But she liked it, and so, apparently, did the dragon slayer. She dove down and gave him one last gentle kiss before surrendering to the screaming demands of both their lust-filled bodies and lowering herself down onto him, slowly so as to accommodate for his impressive girth.

When he was all the way in, she paused and took in the moment. Laxus's uneven breaths were the only indicator of his affected state as he lay back coolly, his large, warm hands splayed on her thighs. His mind, however, was going crazy. Lucy was shining like one of her stars in the refracted night light. Her movements were uncertain, a clear indication she'd never taken the lead before, but so passionate Laxus felt ready to come already. He'd fucked a bunch of women, but this was his first time making love to one.

Cautiously, Lucy lifted herself up Laxus's hard shaft until only the tip remained in before lowering herself back down, moaning lightly in the process. God that feels good… She set up a slow but fairly steady pace, bracing her palms on his chest while his own hands helped guide her rocking hips. The air was heavy with moans and hot breath. Lucy still felt slightly fatigued from her magic exertion earlier, but hardly cared about that now as she gradually sped up her pace, angling herself so that Laxus would hit that spot within her that made her legs weak. His own hips were also working to slam himself inside her with each thrust, reaching depths no other position quite explored.

"Fuck….Lucy," Laxus moaned beneath her. "I'm gonna…"

"You can…ahn… come inside…mmm… I've got my…ah…pills," she managed to reply between bated breaths. She kept writhing atop the other mage, but the familiar sensation in her core told her she wouldn't last much longer. Finally her orgasm hit, washing over her with an intensity she'd never experienced before, sending tremors all the way down to her toes. She surrendered to it as she rode it out, her tightened opening squeezing Laxus into his own finish. She shuddered as she felt his hot seed shoot into her.

Exhausted, she collapsed onto him, their chests rising and falling heavily as they gasped for air. Lucy tilted her head up to see Laxus's blue eyes smiling down at her. Despite her tiredness, she reached up and kissed him passionately. Their tongues tried to do the talking they couldn't do with words.

"I love you." Well, words weren't completely useless. Laxus almost bit himself for saying it. Sheesh, way to scare her off. "S-sorry, I didn't mean…" But he did.

Lucy, however, just smiled. She wasn't quite ready to return such declarations of sentiment, but it was nice to hear, even if she didn't really understand it yet. Why her? Why any of this? Determinedly she set her doubts aside and kissed him so gently he blushed. Blushed.

"It's okay," she said, her voice sweet as water in the middle of a desert. Because that's what she was to the dragon slayer: a blissful oasis in a desert of a life. Somewhere the poor nomad inside of him finally wanted to stay.

Lucy gently lifted herself off of the slayer, grabbed her clothes and a small bottle from her bag, and headed to the bathroom to clean up. Laxus watched as she made her way across the room, her curvaceous, pale body still gleaming. When she shut the door, he turned to look out the window where the stars still shone innocently, as if they hadn't seen a thing.

As he cleaned himself up a bit and re-donned his underwear, he couldn't help but worry. Would her spirits accept him as a suitable partner for their master? He had already heard what Natsu thought about him at the guild. Would he try to separate them even more? Would others feel the same way? And what if Lucy didn't want to be his mate? Dragons mate for life, and they are very possessive. A part of Laxus was afraid of what he'd do if she rejected him. He'd never hurt her…or at least, he'd never try to hurt her. But brute force has its downfalls. There was just so much that could still go so wrong.

But there was also so much that was right. Contented to leave his worries for another day, Laxus leaned back onto the bed, closed his eyes, and smiled. At least for now, his mate was his and his alone.

Lucy washed herself off with a towel and put her pajamas back on. She unscrewed the bottle in her hands and took one of the herbal pills Porlyusica had given her. As she swallowed the medicine she thought about a time in the future when she might not take the pill. Would this relationship ever get that far? Did she even want it to? Lucy didn't like not knowing things, but then again some things had to be left to time.

She closed the bottle and headed back to the bed where Laxus was already sleep, snoring lightly with a faint smile still visible on his face. She crawled into bed and took her place nuzzled into his chest. Closing her eyes, she let much-needed sleep take her to dreamland where she was greeted by little celestial dragon slayers and everything felt right.