Lucy watched the man of her dreams from afar. Well, sort of. She sat at the bar, absentmindedly munching on the fries Mira had set in front of her, while watching the man she wanted as he lounged in a different part of the guild.

"Luce," Natsu interrupted her thoughts, sitting beside her.

She smiled at her best friend, still watching the god of a man from the corner of her eye.

"Hey Natsu," She replied. "What's up?"

"Lisanna and I are going on a job together and thought you and Gray might like to come along."

Lucy sighed. Ever since Lisanna and Natsu had started dating they'd been trying to get Lucy and Gray together. She had a sneaking suspicion that this was at Mira's urging, but didn't ask. Not that Lucy didn't appreciate the effort, but she wasn't interested in Gray as a boyfriend. From the time they'd spent together, his interests lay elsewhere as well. Gray was definitely interested in a certain Arc of Time mage while Lucy... well, Lucy was interested in a certain blonde haired lightening Dragon Slayer.

"No thanks Natsu," She sighed, turning back to her fries.

Laxus sat with his back to the bar, his eyes partially closed as he listened to the conversations flowing around him. Freed and Bickslow were bickering about something right next to him, which was a little distracting but he didn't mind. Anything to keep his mind off of the Celestial Spirit mage who was sitting at the bar. She still managed to creep in his thoughts and he tried to block the idea of them doing anything together when her voice filtered through, sounding a little dejected as Natsu asked her to go on yet another quest with Lisanna and himself.

Laxus shook his head in irritation. Couldn't the boy see Lucy wasn't interested? Everyone else in the guild knew that Gray and her were more like siblings than lovers, but somehow Lisanna and Natsu kept trying to hook them up. He growled a little at the thought, rolling his eyes as Natsu started to beg her to go. He could tell she was getting ready to give in and that annoyed him. She shouldn't have to go if she didn't want to, which she clearly didn't.

He hadn't realized what he was doing until he was standing in front of the two, his eyes narrowed.

"She can't go on a job with you losers," He snapped at Natsu. "She's going on one with me."

He grabbed her arm and dragged her to the mission board, grabbing the first one his hand touch and tearing it off the board.

"We'll take this one," He said, handing it to Mira.

Lucy looked at him, blushing, as Natsu yelled at him.

"Since when is she going on a job with you? You didn't even have one picked out until after you grabbed her."

Laxus flashed him a smirk, "She promised to go on my next job with me. I wanted to see how well her spirits interacted with my lightening."

Lucy watched with wide eyes until they left the guild.

"You didn't have to do that," She whispered, looking down. "I would have gone with them."

Laxus growled in irritation.

"I know, that's why I rescued you. It's stupid that you always give in to them even though you're not happy."

"Who says I'm not happy?" She snapped.

"Come on Blondie, everyone can see that you're miserable whenever you go on a job with them. Let them work without you for once."

"Fine, have fun on your job."

Laxus raised an eyebrow at her, "It's our job, remember?"

"You really want me to go?" Lucy asked in surprise.

He nodded, "I meant what I said earlier. It could be interesting. Besides, the job specifically asked for a Celestial Mage. There's only two that I can think of and Yukino is already on a job with Rogue."

Lucy tilted her head, "How did you know what it asked for?"

"I read the board every day. I've been watching that job for the last week, so I was surprised that you hadn't picked it up yet."

Lucy blushed as they walked back to her place, "I normally don't read the request board because Natsu or Erza pick the jobs before I can."

"Well, that's going to change when you work with me," Laxus said, folding his arms. "We take turns picking the jobs. Here, you take that and read it over. Meet me at the train station at seven tomorrow morning. We'll leave then."

He turned, walking away before Lucy could say another word.