Damn it, damn it, damn it. Lucy ran down the street, trying not to curse out loud at being late.

She glanced down at her watch, five minutes until 10. Struck with a good idea, she grasped her keys, and still running, shouted, "Gate of the Golden Bull! I open thee! Taurus!" The overly muscled bull appeared, running alongside her. "Taurus I need you to carry me as fast as you can to the train station!".

"No problem! Lucy, nice body!" Taurus picked her up and perched her on a shoulder, running at a much faster pace than she had been able to.

As Taurus raced onto the station platform with a minute to spare, Lucy breathed a sigh of relief. Only to suck it back in again and watch in horror as the train facing outbound from Magnolia slowly began its departure.

"Taurus I need to get onto that train!" Lucy screeched, clutching his head in panic.

"Alright Lucy! Nice Body!" Taurus ran down the platform, catching up to the train as it was gaining speed.

Lucy saw a person leaning against the back railing on the outside platform of the last train car. A very familiar looking person.

"Gajeel!" She screamed, fueled by the adrenaline of the situation.

The man on the platform turned at the sound of her voice. If he was surprised at the sight of Lucy riding on the shoulder of an oversized bull as it raged down the train platform towards him, he didn't show it.

Lucy reached a desperate hand out to him, but all the man did was stare, arms crossed against his chest. Asshole. Lucy grit her teeth in irritation. Well, desperate times and all.

"Taurus throw me!"

Taurus launched her, with more power than she expected, straight at Gajeel. In midair she saw Gajeel's eyes widen fractionally in surprise, his arms instinctively uncrossing to catch her as she flew towards him. Unfortunately, the idiotic Taurus also threw her suitcase at the same time. Since it was much lighter it flew faster, slamming into Gajeel's side, surprising him enough to knock him off balance. Therefore, when Lucy reached him a few seconds later, instead of easily catching her, he crashed against the wall behind him, body sliding down until he sat on the ground, Lucy on top of him.

Lucy's hands were splayed against the wall in front of her, as she took a moment to regain her balance. She was kneeling in front of Gajeel's slumped form, in the space between his legs, his hands grasping at her waist where he had caught her. The bump and sway of the train was too difficult to find her balance against, and her hands fell to grip his shoulders as she tried not to completely collapse on top of him.

Lucy cringed, afraid to look down. Shit. He was probably fuming mad. She didn't blame him. He was already such a prickly person to deal with, it had been obvious last night from his attitude he really wasn't looking forward to working with their team. She'd seen him take beatings a thousand times worse, but she had caught him by complete surprise so maybe he hadn't been able to steel his body with magic in preparation. Maybe she had caused him some serious damage; he didn't seem to be moving...

Maybe he had broken something.

Or maybe he had been knocked out.

Lucy looked down.

Or maybe he was staring up at her as the entire bottom half of his face lay engulfed in the valley of her chest.

Lucy blinked. Gajeel continued his unwavering stare.

Lucy rapidly leaned away from him, her face hot in embarrassment. She was probably turning bright red, how humiliating. His hands fell from her sides. As his mouth came into view she expected his teeth to be bared in a snarl, but instead, there was a slight smirk on his face.

What the-

Before she could stop herself, her palm slammed against his forehead, forcing his head away from her.

"YOU PERVERT!"

"What the fuck?" he snarled up at her as his head cracked against the wall behind him. "It's not like I asked you to shove your tits in my face!"

Lucy's face turned even redder at the crude words. Her hand rose for another assault but before it could begin its decent Gajeel's own hand clamped down hard on her wrist; his other hand moved to grip her hip and push her away from him until she fell backwards onto her backside in the space between his feet.

Grumbling Gajeel stood without effort and turned, shoving open the car door. He stepped inside, slamming it shut behind him.

Lucy took a few moments to reign in her emotions. Despite her actions, she wasn't as angry as much as she was embarrassed. Sure, she had been in some equally compromising situations with Natsu and Grey, but, well, they were Natsu and Gray. This was, Gajeel. She couldn't even begin to process it all. He was like a wolverine that grew razor sharp needles instead of fur. The more she thought about it, the more horrified she became until she had no choice but to grab her suitcase and slink into the car after him, head turned downward in embarrassment.

Erza sat in a booth with Natsu lying across her lap, face purple with motion sickness. Gray and Wendy sat across from the pair, Wendy leaning against the window asleep.

Erza turned to look at her. "Good morning Lucy. I have your ticket here. I was confident you would make it."

Lucy felt herself relax upon seeing her teammates. Just being near her friends made her feel better. Her mortification at what had happened just a few minutes prior disappeared, even as she walked past their full booth to the one Gajeel sat at right behind them.

He didn't even look at her, just stared out the window resolutely, arms crossed. Fine, whatever, she wasn't about to grovel for his forgiveness. Pantherlily sat in the seat next to him, and gave Lucy a formal, "Good morning Lucy." She smiled at him in return and sat onto the seat across from them, shoving her suitcase beneath her.

Ugh. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, the hangover she had been keeping at bay hit her with full force. She was never going to drink again. She knew Wendy could easily solve it, but she didn't want to wake the small girl from her nap. She screwed her eyes shut and she pressed her hands onto her temples, gentle massaging the area. The pressure didn't let up, so she let her hands fall, but kept her eyes closed. Maybe she could take a nap as well. She stretched out horizontally along the seat, using a bent arm as a pillow. After a few moments it was quickly apparent that it was not going to happen. Each jostle of the train over a bump in the tracks intensified her headache, making her feel almost dizzy. She cracked open one eye, thinking that training her vision on a focal point would help, but the only thing in her line of sight was Gajeel.

His head was still turned to the side, gaze focused on what lay out the window. He sat with his back straight, arms knotted in front of him. Lily lay in a position similar to her own, except his head was propped up against the side of Gajeel's thigh. Lucy almost giggled to herself. Gajeel was so formidable and rigid and large, yet the little Exceed was snuggled up against him as though he were a fluffy, overstuffed pillow.

Lucy let her eyes idly rove over the man in front of her. Jeez, he had a lot of piercings. Lucy began to count each one she could see, her gaze slowly moving from metal stud to metal stud. This was almost as methodically relaxing as counting sheep, she mused. She could feel her headache seem to fade into the background as her lids lowered slightly. When she finished counting the ones on his face she moved down to the ones trailing along his arms.

Hmm, she wondered how that worked. She wasn't knowledgeable about piercings nor experienced with them. He was the first person she had ever seen who had sported metal on their arms. Her thoughts drifted across her mind like sluggish otters floating around a pond. The pieces of metal on his arm didn't even look like piercings, more like bolts that had been screwed in place. Knowing him, maybe they were just that. She giggled internally to herself, if she unscrewed them, would he fall apart? He was as stiff as a board after all. She let her eyes travel back to his face, only to be met with an intense red stare. If she wasn't so sleepy, she might almost have found it intimidating. Instead, the pull of slumber licking along the edges of her mind just made her widen her grin, giving him a full-blown dreary smile.

Gajeel lifted one metal studded brow, as though to say Really? You're just going to smile at me after I just caught you staring? I've reduced men five times your size to their knees for much less. Or at least that's what Lucy imagined he was insinuating; Gajeel was not a very talkative person so she would fill in the blanks herself. The irritation around him was almost palpable. He was so damn inflexible, both in character and physicality. She wondered if he was planning to stay like that the whole trip. He would probably pull something just from sitting like that, he had his muscles clenched so tightly each bugle and bump along his arms stood out. Or maybe, she mused, he was just that muscular and toned. After all he probably spent his free time jumping off cliffs and wrestling polar bears and Vulcans in blizzards with both hands tied behind his back. She mentally laughed at her own joke, her eyes drifting down to look over the tiny form of Lily, forgetting that Gajeel was staring at her.

The Exceed's head was still propped up against Gajeel's thigh. A faint purring/snoring combination was emitting from his mouth. It was so like Happy that Lucy gave a small giggle, straining to hear it. It was a soothingly familiar sound, the tiny grrrs and mewls, intermixed with breathy sighs and whistles.

Her last thought before she full drifted off to sleep was that snuggling up to Gajeel like that must feel akin to cuddling up against a large boulder.

Man she was fucking weird.

He watched as she first smiled to herself several times, a few moments later even laughing out loud, before completely knocking out. Her behavior was almost as idiotic as Natsu. But, he supposed, they spent so much time together and Natsu was so moronic, it probably wasn't surprising if his behavior rubbed off on anyone who spent that much time with him.

Gajeel bared his teeth in irritation. He didn't want to spend his time thinking about the other man. Especially,since he was the reason he had been outside of the train car when they departed. Wendy had cast a Troia on him (without him asking), but apparently she had done it too many times to Natsu, so it wasn't working on him. Something Gajeel hadn't given two fucks about, until, asininely, Natsu had gotten sick even before the train had begun to move. The smell had completely invaded Gajeel's incredibly sensitive nose to the point it almost had his own stomach roiling. So he had left to get some fresh air, but only a few moments after he got outside the whole situation with Lucy went down. It had been annoying as fuck (apart from practically getting a mouthful of her tits), so he had come back in here without thinking. But now the smell was starting to get to him again, he could practically smell the sickness oozing out of Natsu's every pore.

Gajeel steeled himself, taking deep breaths through his mouth, so he wouldn't start to get motion sick himself. It seemed that it was worse when he was around other Dragon Slayers, sans Wendy. He wanted to go back outside, but Lily was leaning against him, fast asleep, and he didn't want to wake him. Trying to keep his mind off the putrid scent coming off of Natsu, he looked around.

There wasn't actually much to look at, besides the sleeping girl in front of him. Which, actually wasn't too bad, now that he examined her.

She was wearing another one of her incredibly low cut tops, the tops of her breasts even more visible than before, since she was laying sideways. As he examined them up close he saw just how large they were. They always looked big, since she was always wearing ludicrously tiny tops, but he had never gotten to stare at them like he was right now, up close and all. His fingers twitched with the urge to reach out and grab one in each hand. An urge created from as much curiosity as arousal -he wanted to see if they were too large for even his hands to fit around.

Gajeel smirked in satisfaction as he remembered how goddamn soft they felt against this face. He'd been slightly pissed off as he landed on his ass after catching her, but then she had landed with her chest right there, and his hands had gripped her waist, telling his hormones just how fucking small it was in comparison to the expanse of her chest, and her smell had filled his nose as it pressed up against the soft cushions…

"You know if you keep smiling like that you'll scare more people than when you're scowling. You look like a lecherous mountain lion." Gray stood in the aisle next to his seat, smirking slightly. Fucking shit. Gajeel didn't really have a problem with Gray, he was always too focused on Natsu to really even notice the other man, but he was angry that his thought process had been interrupted.

"What do you want?" He snapped, as his brow furrowed into his normal, tough as nails look.

"I was just going to get some food. Then I noticed you looking at Lucy like she's a piece of meat." He paused, the smirk falling from his face. "If you touch her I will fuck you up." With that Gray continued on his way. Gajeel just snorted. As though the ice mage could even come close to beating him.

Admittedly, Gray's threat had annoyed him somewhat. Not because it was a threat, because it just fell in line so thoroughly with the whole atmosphere the group gave off. They were so touchy-feely, love-thy-comrade, it was damn irritating. He couldn't even check out a chick without receiving a verbal assault.

Hearing Gray enter the next car Gajeel let himself go back to looking over Lucy's body, this time focusing on the way her skirt slightly rode up, causing the bottom to bare hang pass her hips as the weight of gravity pulled the edge downward. Every time the train went over an especially large bump the hanging hem would tremble, threatening to slide up another millimeter or two. Gajeel's predatory dragon senses caused him to hone in on the sight, his deprecation sharpening so intensely he could practically see each individual thread of the fabric...

Some imperceptible alarm went off in his head, forcing his eyes upward.

Erza was swiveled around in her seat, her eyes just barely reaching over the back edge of the chair, staring right at him.

Staring right at him with a clear warning.

A slight chill as thin and sharp as needles of lightening seemed to snap along his nerves at her look. Gajeel wasn't a pussy, but Erza was one mother fucking scary force of nature. She was comparable to a female version of Elfman on hundreds of steroids with thousands of magical weapons at her disposable. He didn't give a flying fuck about Gray, but he really, really didn't want to have to battle with Erza if he could avoid it.

So he gave a small grunt, and slid his gaze back to the window.

When he risked looking back a few moments later he was mercifully met with the sight of scarlet hair.

Lucy opened her eyes as the announcement over the PA system told the passengers they had reached their destination. She looked over at Gajeel and suppressed the urge to start laughing. He was sitting in the exact same position with his arms tightly folded in front of him, right down to his eyes staring out the window. As the train rolled to a stop he got up and stalked down the aisle towards the door without sparing a glance her way.

Lucy began to push herself off the seat, but the movement brought her attention to a warm mass pushing against the back of her calves. She looked down to see Lily snuggled up in the bend beneath her bent knees.

Awww, how cute. She reached down and gently let her fingers tips glide along the tiny top of his head. He looked and felt just like Happy did when he snuggled up against her. Gently she shook his shoulder until his eyes popped open.

"Lily, we're here."

"Ah," the Exceed sat up and stretched his tiny arms out. "Thank you Lucy, for waking me up." Then he jumped down from the seat and followed the same path as his partner.

"Lucy!" Wendy's voice brought her back to attention, "Good morning, I mean, afternoon." The little girl smiled up at her, looking cherubic in the sunlight slanting through the large windows.

"Wendy! Hi! I didn't want to wake you when I got on, and then I fell right asleep." Lucy grabbed her suitcase and followed a few paces behind the younger girl to the train platform. The semi-familiar sight of Clover's train station greeted her.

"Over there." Erza led them over to a middle aged man with royal blue hair, dressed impressively in a sharp suit and sunglasses. Lucy didn't even bother to wonder how Erza knew he was the right client.

The man didn't say anything to them, simply led them outside to a sleek black vehicle with dark tinted windows. Once inside, Lucy could see that not only did the windows keep inquisitive outsiders from peeking inwards; it also kept the vehicle's inhabitants from seeing outwards. It felt a bit claustrophobic, and if her team hadn't been with her Lucy would have begun to panic at that point. Being as it was, she settled into her seat, besides Wendy and Carla, Erza on the other end. Somehow Natsu, Gray, Gajeel, and Lily had ended up sitting in the seats on the opposite side; all three men were pointedly looking away from one another.

A solid black stand from the middle of the floor as the vehicle began to move. A hologram shimmered into focus. It was the image of the same middle aged man in a suit and sunglasses that was driving the vehicle, except this one had lime green hair.

"Welcome Fairy Tail mages." He gave them a short nod in greeting. "Please forgive the lack of visibility. The location of the destination you are currently headed to is strictly confidential. Currently, you are on your way to a highly advanced, state of the art facility that is under development. Your mission is to help us complete this facility. Upon your arrival you will immediately be separated and undergo individualized evaluation to measure your skill set and aptitude over a variety of areas. This is to determine where you will best contribute to the completion of the project. Your luggage will be taken care of. Each of you will be assigned a room, and all your needs will be met during the duration of your mission. Understood?"

They all nodded their consent and the man vanished from view, the black stand sliding smoothly downward, out of sight.

"Hell yeah!" Natsu's fist punched in the air in triumph. "I'm going to be evaluated as the best! You losers will see!"

Immediately Gajeel and Gray launched into a verbal battle with Natsu over who would be deemed most skilled.

Lucy's felt a thrill of excitement rush through her body. The thought of seeing the results of her evaluation was pretty intriguing.

"You all are being foolish." Erza interrupted the men, forcing them to fall silent to listen.

"Arguing over who is the most skilled is a waste of time." She paused, to cross her arms confidently across her chest. Lucy smiled, trust Erza to be the voice of reason.

"Clearly, I am far more superior than any of you, in both physicality and mental aptitude."

Lucy face faulted.

Before she could collect herself, the vehicle rolled to a stop, and the same man's voice floated through the car.

"We have arrived, please exit the vehicle."