As always Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima. Enjoy!

Chapter 2

Feelings and Blackness

"Oi Blondie! What do you think you are doing? Go find your own compartment." Laxus growled while glaring at Lucy.

"You're blond too, Laxus. So that nickname doesn't really work." Feeling the train start to move he turned a little green, and she grinned and crossed her arms over her chest. "And knowing that you also get motion sickness I would like to see you try to kick me out now that the trains moving."

"Okay, sit here, but you never did say why you're sitting here."

"I'm just drained, magically, and I don't want to put up with too many people."

Laxus nodded in understanding and settled back into his seat a little more, and watched as Lucy settled into her seat a little more too.

"So why are you magically drained? It wasn't Hibiki, was it?" he grinned as the blood drained from her face, only to turn red a moment later.

"H-h-how do you know? He didn't run into you did he? Wait what am I saying, you were already on the train when it came in. How do you know!? Tell me! If you don't tell me I'll-" She was cut off by his laughter.

"Did you forget that I'm a Dragon Slayer? I could smell him on you. Next time you see him tell him to cut down on the cologne." He held his nose and pretended to be offended. She swatted at him and he laughed as he caught her arm before she could connect with his head.

"So what is the real reason you're tired, you also might want to eat before it gets cold," he asked while pointing at the bag of rolls beside her.

She sighed and settled into the seat, pulling out a roll. Over the next hour she explained what had happened on her job between bites of her food, and he concentrated on her story while trying to ignore his motion sickness. He noted when she complained about not having a spirit who could track, and sat back with a sigh when her story was over.

"So why didn't anyone go with you on this one?"

"They were either already busy, pregnant, or had kids to look after."

"If I remember correctly this job didn't have that big of a reward, and it was an S-Class job right? Why did you take it?"

She grinned. "It offered only two million jewel, but it offered three silver keys, which I wanted."

He leaned forward in interest, "which ones?"

She pulled her keys off her belt and started to flip through them. "I need a new key ring." she muttered, most likely to herself but he heard it anyways. After a few seconds she held three keys in her hand and held them out to him.

"I haven't made a contract with them yet, but they will respond in an emergency," she explained to him. He took them and looked at the symbols on them. Only one he recognized, it looked like and upside down triangle with the top left line going out further than the others. He held it up for her to see.

"This one is Lupus, the wolf, right?"

She grinned and took it from him, "Wow Sparky, you're smarter than you look."

He scowled and looked at the other keys. One of them had a V with a horizontal line near the base. It looked familiar, but he couldn't place it. The next had what looked like a stick figure of a horse with a half arch on it. He held up the latter and tried to keep a straight face.

"Why does it look like a stick figure horse?'

"That's because it is a horse, well it's a winged horse. It's Pegasus." She continued to explain as she took the keys from him. "The other one is Vulpecula, the fox. I don't know what they can do yet, though."

"How many spirits does that make now?"

"Hmmm... let's see... I have all twelve Zodiac keys and the Thirteenth Gate thanks to Yukino. Adding these three silver keys to the ones I have I now have thirteen silver keys. So that makes twenty six spirits." She put her keys back on her belt and smiled at him. "So Sparky, what job are you returning from?"

Laxus rolled his eyes at Lucy. "You know, 'Sparky' isn't a very original nickname either." She stuck her tongue out in response. "If you must know it was a body guard job for a traveling lord."

"Oh," she sighed and stared out the window. He noticed how tired she looked and he stood up to look through the overhead compartment. When he sat back down he held out the blanket he found to her.

"Here, get some rest. I'll wake you when we get closer to Magnolia." She took the blanket and wrapped it around herself and leaned up against the window. Some time later she was sleeping quietly.

As Lucy slept Laxus found himself gazing at her. Seven years sure has changed her. I'm pretty sure she doesn't feel the same about me as I do about her. He watched her sleep, her mouth parted slightly, trying not to think of how soft her lips would feel against his. He watched as she moved slightly, sending some of her hair down over her shoulder. Those beautiful golden curls... I wonder how soft they really are... He leaned forward and reached his hand out to smooth back her hair, he was suddenly thrown airborne as the train started to flip. He felt his head crack against something, and then everything went black.