AN: Edited and revised. Replaced chapter.

~~~Chapter One~~~

Most people would consider him egoistical, judging a book by its cover. It was true that before, over 8 years ago he could have had that appearance, but now, he had been shown what it was to be loved and to love. What it was like to have a family, to be a family; even if there was no technical blood relation between most. Most people never experienced what traumatic events that he had to endure along with his family. Hell, most people wouldn't even be alive if it wasn't for the family of Fairy Tail to save all their asses.

Laxus Dreyar shoved his hands into his pockets as he walked down the cobble stoned streets of Magnolia. The air was brisk, cold enough that he could see his breath every time he exhaled. Winter time was definitely in the air. He saw the guild hall coming into sight as he trudged on. Normally the thunder legion would be with him, but sometimes he preferred to be alone.

He started to recollect on the memories from him being arrogant when Team Natsu took on an S class mission, him knowing full well that Happy was the culprit to stealing the quest but played it off. The time Phantom Lord attacked the guild to capture Blondie, he remembered making the comment about how he would only help if Blondie would be his woman and the harsh things he said about his gramps and in the end, he turned his back on them. He closed his eyes and grimaced as he remembered how he started a battle of Fairy Tail, forcing the members to attack and hurt each other as he sat in the Cathedral just watching the damage and his guild fall apart which only led to him being banished.

In that time span of repenting banishment, he grew up and opened his eyes. He didn't know where he would be if it wasn't for the guild and as for his Gramps, the one family member who had always been there for him, always bent over backwards, raised him, and he treated him like dirt. If it wasn't for Gildarts, he probably wouldn't have been granted reinstatement as a member. Not that his Gramps was out of line for denying over and over because the way he saw it, he deserved it.

He shook his head as he pulled the doors open entering the guild hall. For the time of day, it was rather quiet. Mirajane stood behind the bar, drying off beer mugs. Bisca and Alzack sat at table, in a conversation while Asuka played with her toy guns. Reedus sat in front of his easel, painting who knows what. Gajeel and Levy sat at table, Lily standing on top of the table his hands waving in motions as if he was lecturing them. His eyes caught the thunder legion, occupying a table close to the mission board. He headed over towards them as Evergreen and Freed were in a deep conversation about Freed's adoration for his master. Master as in Laxus, not Makarov.

"Hey man. Was beginning to worry." Bickslow announced causing the other two members to halt in their bickering to acknowledge their fellow member. Laxus sat down in an empty spot, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Worry for what?" Laxus asked his eye brow raising in question.

"Master!" Freed excitedly said, his eyes widening in excitement that Laxus was now with them. Laxus knew Freed had feelings towards him, only Laxus couldn't share the mutual feelings. He loved the guy like his brother. Same with Bickslow and Evergreen as his sister. They have been by his side and been his family through all the hell.

"You haven't been yourself lately. Wasn't sure if you were going to show up." Bickslow commented back as he stared at Laxus.

Laxus shrugged his shoulders. "I'm fine."

"You're not fine. We aren't blind. We can see it written all over your face Laxus." Evergreen butted in; her arms now crossed over her chest mimicking Laxus. She stared at him, but enough to avoid his eyes.

"Are you sick master?" Freed asked. "I can rub your neck later if you want."

"Hmph." Laxus closed his eyes as another head ache started to come on. "Guy's. I'm fine. Stop harping me." The guild door opened and slammed closed behind them causing the foursome to turn their attention to person walking in. She was dressed in a dark red dress with black leggings and black ankle boots. Her blonde hair tumbled down her back like a golden waterfall, a white snow cap on her head. Her brown eyes twinkled as she spotted the silvery haired woman behind the bar. She waved and smiled as Mirajane greeted her, tracking her way over to the bar and sitting down.

"I can't believe she turned down going on the quest with Team Natsu and stayed behind." Evergreen mentioned, causing Laxus to turn his attention to her.

"What do you mean?" He had no idea what Evergreen was talking about, but he had been gone on a mission himself for a while so catching up was an understatement.

"Team Natsu went on that 100-year quest that Gildarts failed. Lucy stayed behind. It was very heart breaking to watch, but she was adamant on staying. I don't blame her." Freed spoke.

"It also didn't help that she had told Natsu in her own ways how she felt about him, and the moron was still oblivious and blew her off. If I was her, I would have turned down going myself. It's embarrassing." Evergreen pitched. "But, he was her best friend. Sometimes you have to put yourself first and that's what she did, but it didn't end well. They were both very offended at each other."

He eyed the blonde from the corner of his eye. "How long has her team been gone now?" Laxus asked curious.

"I'd say about 2 weeks now." Bickslow responded.

"You can tell she's hurting but she puts up a rather good front." Evergreen said as she took her glasses off her face to clean the lens.

"Well she didn't only lose Natsu, she also lost Gray, Erza, Happy and Wendy. Wendy did try to stay behind with Lucy, but Lucy finally convinced Wendy to go. It was just a sad scene period to watch. I would say it's her own fault for staying but honestly, I don't see it as that way." Freed said bowing his head with his eyes closed.

Laxus stayed silent as he watched the blonde from the corner of his eye. She wasn't the same cry baby that had joined the guild 8 years ago. Not in the least. She grew up into an attractive woman. And he couldn't deny that he wasn't interested. But the thought of her having feelings for the flame brat doesn't attract him in any sense. He watched as her lips up turned into a fake smile as he heard her tell Mira that she was fine. Waving her hand and chuckling to try and back up her words. An orange light appeared next to her as an auburn male appeared next to her, one of her spirits known as Loke. He watched as she smacked him for appearing out of nowhere scaring her. Mira covered her mouth, stifling her giggles towards the pair.

"Be careful, you don't want to burn a hole into her now do you?" Evergreen asked with a smug look. Laxus turned back to his group, giving them a look.

"Shut up." Laxus grumbled as he stood up. "I'm going to take a piss."

"Aw, he's just crabby he got caught gawking at cheerleader." Bickslow teased as Laxus grumbled at him walking away. Luckily, she didn't hear his table or at least he hoped.

She woke up to the sound of silence. She was still laying on the couch where she had last remembered being. Her face was still tear stained as she cried herself to sleep last night. The past two weeks had been more than terrible. She lost her best friend. Her team. Well, not really lost but they wouldn't be back for a long time, completing a mission that even one of the strongest S class mages couldn't even swallow to finish. She wanted to go, but after confessing her feelings to Natsu and all he cared about was going on the mission, not even recognizing that she loved him, she couldn't do it. She had to break herself away. Natsu was more than confused to say the least, but what she did understand was that Natsu just wasn't into a relationship or romance. He had no interest in the idea and was oblivious to anything other than family and friendship.

Natsu will always be dear to her heart, her best friend but what she needed was to move on. To move on with her life instead of always being wrapped up into him. She groaned standing up, stretching as her back popped. She called forth Plue as she started a shower. Plue danced outside the tub keeping her company as she washed her hair and lathered herself with lavender and vanilla wash. Normally she would choose strawberry scented wash, but with all the stress she was under the lavender really helped her and plus it was such a nice change of scent.

She stepped out, steam wrapping around her body as she dried off, walking into her bedroom. She pulled on a maroon dress that she rarely wore with black leggings. She decided to keep her hair down, throwing on a white snow cap. Calling to Plue, she walked towards the door slipping on her black ankle boots heading outside.

The cold air made her gasp as it took her breath away. She cursed to herself as she walked towards the guild with wet hair. She stepped onto the ledge that was by the canal and balanced herself to walk on it.

"Well, Plue. What shall we do today? Maybe try to look for a solo mission? Or maybe see what Levy and Gajeel are up to?" Lucy asked the spirit. She sighed as she stared up into the gray dreary sky. "Or maybe just take another day to recollect reality." She started to shiver. She jumped down off the ledge as she got closer to the guild.

Plue disappeared back to the spirit world as she walked into the guild hall, half glancing around as she saw Mira. Mira smiled at her and she waved to her as she started walking to the bar.

"Hey Lucy. How are you today?" Mira asked smiling, her sapphire eyes gleaming.

Lucy returned the smile. "Oh, I'm fine." Mira shot her a look making Lucy chuckle. "Mira, I promise. I'm fine."

"I just worry about you Lucy. Especially after-"

"Mira. Please don't. I know you mean well, but please can we not talk about that right now? I'm still trying to get over it, if I can ever get over it. He was a big part of my life, which I made a minute instinct decision that it was time to end the charade of never being on the same level." Her eyes wanted to tear up, but she mentally took a breath to calm herself.

"Princess." A voice whispered in her ear, making her screech and jump almost falling off the bar stool she was sitting on.

"Damn it Loke." She smacked him. Mira started giggling covering her mouth to hide the huge grin.

"Don't be like that. You had me worried. I just wanted to make sure you were okay. We all worry about you." Loke stated, he turned to where his back was leaning against the bar facing the guild. His eyes landed on a set of eyes a few tables away before the man got up and headed towards the restrooms. 'What do we have here? Laxus.' Loke thought.

"Loke? What are you staring at?" Lucy asked as she twisted on the seat looking in the direction he was staring in. All she saw was the thunder legion sitting at a table. That's when her eyes caught his back as he walked away. "Laxus is back?"

"Yeah, he returned last night." Mira replied as Lucy twisted back facing Mira. "He's been staring over here at a certain blonde." She winked.

"Say wha?" Lucy asked incredulously. "You've got to be kidding."

"Do I ever kid you, Lucy?" Mira asked offensively. Lucy waved her hands frantically in front of her instantly regretting questioning her.

"He was staring over here until he caught my eyes and then he took off." Loke spoke up.

"See Lucy. I wouldn't kid you." Mira smiled as she picked up another mug to dry.

"Yeah yeah." She stood up. "I'm going to see what Levy and Gajeel are doing. Looks like Lily is lecturing them again." Lucy waved at Mira as her and Loke turned to walk away.

"Princess. Are you sure you're okay? I sense a lot of sadness from you." Loke whispered in her ear. Lucy shoved him as Levy's table approached them.

"Yes, I'm fine so stop asking." She grumbled.

"I still think you fail to see my point Lily." Levy said leaning her head on her hand.

"What point is there to see?" Lily asked as his paw touched his chin in thought.

"What are we talking about here?" Lucy interrupted smiling at her friends as Loke wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Lucy rolled her eyes at him removing his arm.

"Hey Lu. We were just trying to explain to Lily, uh about this mission that we want to take." Her voice got higher towards the end.

Lucy blinked a few times. "Oh, okay." She looked around. "Well, I just wanted to say hi. I'm going to for a walk before it gets blistering cold."

Levy's eyes fell sad as she lied to her friend, but she didn't want her to know about how they were talking about her and Natsu.

"Okay. See you later Lu. We'll catch up later?" She asked.

Lucy nodded. "Sure." She saw Gajeel staring at her, giving her the chills. "Do I have something on my face?"

"Be carefully bunny girl." He grunted as he turned around.

"Uh, yeah. Sure. Bye guys." Lucy waved as she walked away.

She walked around town for a while before ending up in the woods outside of Magnolia. Her fingers were frozen along with her nose, but the scene was so serene, she would bare it for a few more minutes. She came up along the creek, the water quietly flowing over the rocks at the bottom. She sat down on a stump, staring out in the distance, just wanting to cry once again.

He watched as she waved at Levy and Gajeel before making her way out the door. He saw Levy's face dropped as she watched Lucy's back. He closed his eyes to focus on what they were saying.

"Well that was bad timing." Gajeel snuffed.

"I just wish she would be happy again. I hate to see her so alone. I try my best to try and be there, but she's been pushing me away. Maybe we should take on a mission with her?" Levy suggested.

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea." Lily commented nodding.

"That's if she even wants to go. I see her all the time stare at the mission board, pacing back and forth then just leaving empty handed." Gajeel said.

"I just, I don't know. Stupid Natsu. Hopefully someone can sweep her off her feet. I miss my Lu." Levy stated sadly.

He sighed as he looked down at the group then at the doors. He wasn't sure if he was the right person to go after her or if anyone should go after her. After a minute arguing in his head, he groaned and headed towards the doors after the blonde.

He watched as she walked around the town, sulking. The little bug dog thing was waddling next to her, she every once in a while would smile at him and at one point she leaned down and picked him up. He didn't know much about celestial magic, but it was definitely a different experience to watch. By looking at her, he could tell she wasn't physically built, but he could tell she could still pack a punch or even a kick from hearing about her famous Lucy Kicks. His curiosity was the magical whip she used. She knew how to flick her wrist in the precise motion to get the results she wants.

Then there were her spirits. He recently picked up that some of her spirits could open their own gates and summon without her physically doing it. All they needed was her to be in distress. Loke was one of the spirits that consistently opened his own gate.

Getting lost in his own thoughts, he didn't realize that she had veered off towards the woods.

"Damn it." He muttered as he quickly jogged searching for her. He caught her scent giving him the signal that he could slow down. He leaned against a tree as he captured her persona sitting on a stump. She was just sitting there staring off into the distance, tears down her face.

"Why am I so stupid?" He heard her mumble. "I just couldn't keep my mouth. There I go again screwing things up, but honestly it was probably for the best." The pain he felt hearing her panged his heart. "I guess it's my own damn fault for ending up alone again." He heard a smacking noise causing him to stare at disbelief. She was smacking her cheeks. "You can do this Lucy. You have to." She mumbled her hands falling back into her lap.

He took a breath almost wanting to regret what he was about to do, but his lips moved before he could stop himself. "You know you don't have to be alone." He watched her jump and fall off the stump landing on her ass, her face in complete shock staring at him. He stared into her dark brown eyes, red from all the crying, her red nose to match, his facial expression not changing. "It's time to get over whatever is bothering you. I know a gist, since I've been gone but sounds to me, you're better than that. Remember you have family still outside of him."

"Laxus, what the hell." She cried out. She put her hands to her face. "How can you understand the pain I'm going through. It was never in my game plan for things to turn the way they did. I was never supposed to fall in love with him." She cried harder.

He cringed not realizing the emotional mess he just got involved with. With a sigh, he pushed himself off the tree and stood over her.

"You can either sit there and wallow in something that was never meant to be, or you can learn from it, stand up and move on with your life. If you and that dumbass were meant to be, it'll happen. But take my advice and suck it up Blondie because you have too many people worried about your well-being and all it's doing is causing grudge against Natsu the more they see you beat yourself up." He stated waiting for her reaction. Her sobs quieted, but she was still shaking. He couldn't tell if it was from her crying or if she was cold. He shrugged his coat off and wrapped it around her, grunting as the cold air surrounded his warm body.

"You give a big speech to someone you barely take 2 minutes to acknowledge since I've joined the guild." She said.

Snap.

He gritted his teeth, realizing he deserved that. "I'm always away on missions and plus, how do you expect any male to really associate you with Natsu constantly hoovering over you and not to mention Gray. Gray was just as bad." Now that he was thinking about it, no matter how much she had ever protested about being part of the strongest group, knowing that she wasn't much help they always included her but also treated her like she had to constantly be protected.

"Not when it was family." She retorted back at him.

"When you were in the infirmary after the Grand Magic Games after the Minerva incident, I came to visit you as well, he acted like I wasn't welcome. I'd say, he had a possession over you."

"Are you sure it's just not a dragon thing? With you both have dragon slayer magic." She tossed, tilting her head towards him. He watched as she pulled his coat tighter around her.

"I actually hadn't thought of that one. It could be, but he doesn't own you." He commented.

"No one owns me. And no one will ever own me. I'm my own person." She stood up shivering as the wind picked up, the cold air stinging her face.

"When it comes to dragon instincts, it's a whole different level Blondie."

"So, what does that mean for you?" He raised an eye brow at her question.

"What do you mean by that?" He asked curious.

She stared at the ground. "You're a 2nd generation dragon slayer right? Do you have that same possessive personality?"

He never really thought about that. He never came across a human body that gave him that sense of protectiveness. Hell, he never even had a girlfriend. He's had a few 'one-night stands' to get an easy lay to get the edge off, but there was nothing there. Nothing tugged at him.

"You shouldn't worry about me." They started walking back down the path leading back to town.

"I'm not. I was just asking if you had the same urgencies." She bluntly stated.

Damn. He thought. That was cold.

"I didn't mean that the way it sounded." She spoke up. "Sorry that was really mean of me. What I meant is that I'm not worried about your love life. I was just wondering if it's the same for all generations of dragon slayers to feel that possessive urgency."

A smile played his lips. "I guess you'll have to wait and see." She tilted her head towards him a baffled look staring at him. "Joke?"

"That was a lame joke, and a lame pick up line." She grumbled. She shimmied off his coat as they stood in front of her apartment. "Thank you for loaning me this. I appreciate it. I would offer for you to come in, but I barely know you and I want to sleep. So, have a good night Laxus." Her hand on handle, she turned back towards him. "And thank you for talking to me. It was nice and different."

He watched her disappear behind the door. He chuckled shaking his head as he started off back towards the guild, unaware that she stood at the window watching him walk away. She bit her lip staring at him.

"What is your motive Laxus? Is this desire or a game?" She asked through the window, his figure disappearing as he walked into the distance. She peeled the thin clothes off her and snuggled into her bed, closing her eyes in hopes of sleep.

He walked into the guild hall, more people now occupying compared to earlier. The thunder legion was now gone, which in odd sorts made him relieved so he didn't have to ask twenty-one questions. He headed towards the bar, taking a seat next to the brunette who was working on barrel while sitting on the counter.

"Laxus Dreyar. Dreyar Laxus. Nice to show your presence to us to show that you're still alive." Cana hiccup as she gulped down several chugs of beer. "Whatcha doing anyways?" Mira walked over to the duo smiling, handing Laxus a mug.

He held his beer up. "Needed one of these."

"Did you find her?" Mira asked. Laxus choked on his beer.

"What?" He choked up.

"Whoa buddy. Are you going to be okay there?" Cana asked slapping his back laughing.

"Lucy. I saw you follow her out. Is she okay? I just worry. She puts on that front, but everyone knows better than that." Mira frowned at him. Not a frown of disappointment, but of pure worrisome.

"She's stubborn. She knows what she needs to do. She's a big girl, she'll figure it out." He grumbled. "And Mira, whatever you're thinking. No." He slapped his beer mug on the counter. "Thanks for the beer." He stood up to leave.

"Please keep an eye out for her, Laxus. That's all I ask." Mira interjected. "Lucy is our light and her flame is low. We can't let it burn out."

His eyes lowered. He couldn't disagree with that. Somehow the girl was the glue to the guild. She was the one who brought everyone back together after the disbandment. Bringing their family back together. She was the one always putting the confidence into everyone else.

"Why me?" He asked. "I barely know her."

"Because she's Lucy. There doesn't need to be any more reason than that." She hissed.

"Mira." He sighed, rubbing his hand through his thick blonde hair. "I'll-I'll see what I can do. Maybe I'll take her on a mission or something. I don't know." A piece of paper appeared in front of him. He looked at Mira, her head tilted to the side with a huge smile on her face

"Do this one." She offered. He grabbed the paper with a huff and read over it, his eyes widening.

"You can't be serious Mira."