Chapter 24

Lucy's eyebrows scrunched together and she frowned as she traced the constellation in her book with her finger. She looked back up at the stars as she sat there on the back porch, looking at the spot where the constellation should be, but it wasn't.

"Hey, cosplayer!" Bickslow shouted as he walked onto the porch. "Ever wants to know if you want chicken or spaghetti for dinner? Or both." He grinned, but it dropped when she only shrugged her shoulders and looked back down at her book. "What's wrong, cosplayer?" He asked as he sat down next to her.

She handed him her book and pointed at the constellation, then she pointed at the sky, where it should be.

He frowned when he saw which one it was, and he took a deep breath. "Do you know about celestial spirits?"

Her frown deepened when she noticed his serious expression, and she shook her head.

"Every constellation is a representation of a spirit in the celestial world." He explained. "There are some wizards who can call them out with keys that belong to each spirit." She nodded her head that she was paying attention. He pointed to the constellation in the book. "This one, was a spirit named Leo. He was the leader of the zodiac spirits."

She frowned and wrote in her notebook, 'what happened to him? Why isn't his constellation in the sky?'

He sighed and ran a hand through his mohawk as he looked at the sky. "There was a member of Fairy Tail named Loke. He was there for about three years. I noticed he was different, but I didn't figure it out until it was too late. He was a spirit. He was Leo, but he disappeared. I'm not sure why he disappeared, but he's gone, and so is his constellation."

Lucy's mouth dropped open, and a tear slid down her cheek. She looked back up at the sky, and more tears fell as she looked at the empty spot in stars.

Bickslow put his arm around her and sighed again. "Sorry, Lucy. I figured you deserved to know the truth."

She nodded slowly, and wrote, 'thank you for telling me. It just makes me so sad. No one deserves to just disappear.'

Bickslow smiled and kissed the top of her head. "You've got too big a heart for your small body, cosplayer."

Lucy airily giggled and laid her head on his shoulder as her tears slowed down.

"Bickslow! Did you get an ans-?" Evergreen stopped right at the open door leading to the back porch, instantly noticing the solemn atmosphere surrounding the two.

Bickslow lifted his head and looked at Evergreen before looking at Lucy, who was wiping her tears away. "Which one you want, cosplayer?" He grinned when she wrote, 'both'. "All of the above, Ever!"

Evergreen frowned and huffed. "Fine. You're damn lucky that I love you, Lucy."

Lucy smiled slightly as Evergreen went back inside. Bickslow stood up and held his arm out for her. "We should probably help her. I might get turned into stone. You'll probably be safe though." Lucy accepted his hand and he pulled her up. "Actually, you'll definitely be safe. If she ever did that, Laxus would kill her." He grinned as she giggled, and she took one last look at the empty spot in the sky before she sighed and they made their way inside.

"So, Blondie?" Laxus asked as he wrapped his arms around the girl in his lap. They were in the guild, sitting at a table slightly away from everyone. She turned to look at him, and she tilted her head. "How would you feel about having Warren try to patch you through to everyone again?"

Her eyes widened as she stared at him. She remembered what happened last time, and she didn't want to hurt any of them again. She didn't know if her mother's scream was still in the back of her mind, but she really didn't want them to have to hear it again if it was. It honestly wasn't that long ago anyways, and she would be lying if she said she wasn't scared to try it again.

He pushed her hair behind her ear, and kissed the tip of her nose, successfully erasing the worry from her eyes. The guild didn't even tease them anymore when they had moments like this. It was a normal, every day, many times a day thing, so they just let the two have their moments unbothered. "You don't have to if you don't want to. It was just an idea."

She chewed on her bottom lip as she looked at him. He was very good at keeping his face emotionless when he was feeling something he didn't want anyone to see. She could see it though, there was a small glimmer of sadness in his eyes, and it made her realize that he really wanted to hear her voice. She had never thought about it much before, but it must be hard for him. She released her lip, and she frowned. It made her feel awful that she couldn't give him everything she wanted to. And that small bit of sadness in his eyes, no matter how small it was, made her heart want to shatter into a million pieces.

"Don't worry about it, okay?" He whispered as he kissed her forehead. "Just forget I said anything." He ran his fingers through her hair, before he picked his mug up from the table, and took a sip.

Her heart dropped, and she stared at her hands in her lap as she sunk into his broad chest. She wanted to do it for him, she really, really did, but she was terrified. She didn't want to cause the guild to feel that pain again, but more than anything, she didn't want to hear her mother's scream again, if it was still there. For the past week, she had been trying so hard to move on from everything that happened, from all the memories that were thrust onto her so suddenly. It was hard, and she spent more time lying awake in bed at night, than she did sleeping. Laxus had been there for her through all of it, and it was getting much easier to cope with. She balled her hands into fists. He was always there for her, so why couldn't she do this one thing for him? She quickly wrote in her notebook, and turned his lap to show him. 'I'll be right back.' He nodded and gave her a quick kiss on the lips, and she slid out of his lap. She scanned the guildhall quickly, and when she spotted who she wanted, she made her way over.

"Hey, Lucy." Max greeted as she sat at their table.

"How are you doing today?" Warren asked.

She smiled at them. 'I'm okay. How are you guys?'

Max sighed, "I'm finally enjoying some peace now that Natsu stopped asking to fight me...for now."

Lucy airily giggled and shook her head. She was probably the only one in the entire guild that he hadn't asked to fight, and she was thankful for that.

"You're just scared cuz you know he'll fry your ass." Warren snickered.

Max pouted and rested his chin on his arms. "Maybe, maybe not. But I don't particularly want to be set on fire today."

"Yeah, I can agree with you there." Warren agreed with a chuckle. He turned his head when he felt a tug on his sleeve.

'Can I ask you for a favor?' Lucy timidly held up her notebook to him.

"Of course, Lucy. Whaddya need?"

Lucy took a deep breath, and with shaky hands she wrote, 'Can you try to patch me through to the guild again?'

Max and Warren both looked at her in concern. "Are you sure? I don't mind, but you don't have to." They could both tell she was scared by the way her hands were shaking.

Lucy nodded and looked at him with pleading eyes. 'I want to try and talk to Laxus in particular.'

"Of course. It will probably go out to everyone though, if that's okay." When she nodded, he put two fingers up to his forehead. "Here we go."

Lucy's shoulder's tensed in apprehension and preparation as she looked into Warren's concentrated eyes. She flinched when his eyes widened, but she felt nothing different. "Can you hear me?" She gasped when she heard his voice in her head, and she nodded.

He smiled at her. "Go ahead and try to say something."

She held up her finger, and got up from the bench. She looked over to Laxus, and her eyes saddened. He was leaning on his elbows, his eyes focused on the wall in front of him, taking sips from his mug. She hated that she had made him sad, she never wanted to make him feel like that. He looked tired as well, as his shoulder were slumped over slightly, and she knew the sleepless nights he had spent with her, trying to help her through all of this, were starting to get to him. She took a deep breath as she drew near to the table, and stopped a few feet away as she tried to call out to him in her mind.

"Laxus?" His eyes went wide, and his mug froze in its path to his lips when he heard a small whisper of his name in his head. The sound was light and angelic and he almost doubted that he heard it at all. He slowly sat his mug down on the table, and turned in his seat to see a timid Lucy standing a few feet away from him. Her hands were clasped together in front of her, and her eyes were anxious and nervous as he locked his own with them. He slowly stood up and took slow, steady strides towards her. He cupped his hands on both sides of her face as he whispered, "was that you?"

A small tear escaped her eye. "You can hear me?"

"Whoa! Is that Luce?"

"Her voice is so hot!"

"She sounds so cute!"

"She sounds like an angel!"

"I could get used to hearing that in my head every day."

Laxus was barely paying attention to the other voices of his guildmates, but he could tell she heard them by the blush that formed on her cheeks. Everything they said was true, though. She sounded hot, cute, angelic, beautiful, light, mesmerizing, soothing, he could name many more for how her voice sounded, but that's not what had him stunned by her at that moment, well, for the most part. The fact that she actually did this for him, that she did it even though she was terrified of doing it, made tears want to built up in his eyes. He knew that it scared her, by the way she reacted earlier, but she did it anyways, for him, and it made his heart feel like it was going to jump out of his chest. "I can hear you." He whispered as he pressed his lips firmly to her's.

Even though the guild members never commented on their affections out loud, they could now hear their "aww's" and "it's so sweet I'm gonna puke's" clearly in their heads now.

He could feel her melt into the kiss and it made him smile. He broke away and put his forehead against her's as he opened his eyes to look into her's, tucking her hair behind her ear. "You didn't have to do this for me. You know I don't need to hear your voice for you to make me happy."

"I know." She replied through the connection as she reach up and put her hands on either side of his face. "I needed to do this, Laxus. I needed to be able to get over this fear. I want to tell you this myself, and not just written down. I love you, Laxus. With all my heart. I may have been scared, terrified actually, but I want you to know how much you mean to me. I don't care that everyone's listening right now, I just want to be able to tell you myself.

You have no idea how much it means to me that you've been there with me all night long, for the past week, staying up with me when I'm too scared to sleep. You've been there with me, every step of the way, ever since you found me in the woods, and you always make sure that I know that I'm loved. Thank you so much, Laxus. Thank you for being there for me, protecting me, protecting my heart, and for loving me. You, Bickslow, Evergreen, Freed, everyone in Fairy Tail have done so much for me, and I can't thank you all enough. You've all made me feel like I finally belong somewhere, that I have a real family, and I love you all so much. I love you so much, Laxus." An airy giggle escaped her lips at the same time as a light, cheery giggle rang through everyone's minds. "It feels amazing to be able to tell you that."

Tears freely fell down Laxus' face, and a choked sob crawl up his throat as he crashed her into his chest in tight embrace. He buried his face in her hair as he whispered, "I love you so much. So damn much. I'll give up a thousand sleepless nights, I don't care, I'll always be right beside you, and I'm never letting you go."

Not one eye in the guild was tear free. There were no teasing thoughts in their heads, only smiles on their faces. Mira was the worse off, as she had to sit down in order to not faint. Evergreen snapped a picture of the two, even though she couldn't exactly see where she was aiming through her tears. Even Natsu and Gray had tears in their eyes as they warmly smiled at the two. It was clear to everyone that they loved each other before, but now it was obvious that they were each other's entire worlds, and it was beautiful to see. It was one of the most pure and genuine loves that they had ever seen, and they all felt lucky to be able to witness it.

Surprise! Another chapter! I know, I know, wow it's been ages and ages right? Well, I realized I said I would post another chapter, and I had to re-read this again in order to get a feeling for this story again. This story was my first, so it's special to me, therefore I will probably post a chapter every now and then. No telling when though. I can't just let it die.

But! I just want to say a huge thank you again to all of you who supported this story, especially the ones who did from the beginning. There were like, four or five of you guys who would review every chapter, and you have no idea how much I looked forward to them. All of you guys are my bread and butter, and you are delicious ;)

I have, I think, five stories going on at the moment, maybe six I can't remember off the top of my head, so it might be a bit before I add another addition to this. If you are interested though, and want more LaLu, I have started another one. It has a completely different vibe to it though, so if you aren't into it, that's totally cool.

Anyways! I love you guys! I've licked my cat countless time for you! She kinda likes it now though ;)