A/N Cobra and Lucy have always been an interesting one for me, couldn't resist.

Chuckling darkly, Lucy stalked across the pitch black gym at the guild, nobody would be here yet, except for him. Being careful to be as quiet as possible, she tried to avoid all of the discarded equipment that her idiot guild mates always 'forgot' to put back.

She glanced down in disdain at the dumbbells that were just strewn across the floor.

'This is going to cause an awful accident one day and I'll probably laugh when it does.'

Following close behind her was Loke, like a loyal lion obeying his master, who was mumbling his discomfort at doing this at such an ungodly hour, or just for doing it at all.

"I'm all for doing this to lovely ladies." he announced, his eyes twinkling "But I can't help but wonder why we're doing this to him." Spitting out the word him as if it was foul tasting on his tongue.

Lucy rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh, why did she bring him again?

"Loke, will you just shut up? He'll hear us, we've been planning this for weeks, don't ruin it."

Getting closer to the sound of the shower running caused her to pause and slide along the wall, looking at the side of the room where the trickling water was coming from, she located her prey.

Slipping past the entrance to the shower cubicle she heard a man singing "Shubiduba." in a gravelly voice.

'Yep, Karma's definitely going to be a bitch Black Steel.'

Still in the dark, Lucy's hand grasped the moist shower curtain and yanked it off the railing, exposing the man behind it.

"Use regulus now Loke, light this motherfucker up!"

Nodding with his eyes firmly closed to make sure he didn't see the naked dragon slayer in front of him, Loke cast a bright beam of light, illuminating Gajeel's nude form and shocked face, which was the perfect opportunity for Lucy to snap a picture.

Her eyes briefly meet his wide crimson ones. Lucy raised one of her eyebrows and blew him a kiss, then ran away, laughing like a maniac.

"That'll teach you for peeking on me in the shower you big metal perv, see you in the training room." Her voice floated down to his ears as he scrambled to grab his towel and run after the troublesome blonde. 'I wasn't peeking.' He thought sourly as he trudged after her.

"Laxus you should've seen his face." Lucy spat out between laughs "He has this whole deer in the headlights look going on, super attractive Gaj." She winked at him causing a slight growl to leave his lips, making her laugh even harder.

They were doing their daily work out session in Fairy Tail's newly renovated gym. It didn't take long for her, Gajeel and Laxus to convince gramps that having a gym installed into one of the lower levels of the guild would be a great investment. Gramps would do anything to please his kids.

Plus once Lucy said that they would front all of the Jewel needed to buy the equipment, he had no reason to say no. Lucy was the person with

She loved the freedom of their morning gym sessions, they had started about 6 months ago when they all used to use it but in hour slots separately. Lucy needed the motivation to actually do something and both Gajeel and Laxus had offered, then realized they had both offered and argued as to who was going to do it.

"This gym isn't big enough for two dragons sparky."

Laxus wasn't amused by this, as the future guild master, he had to swallow his explosive temper, before he could be the responsible one and say he could train blondie she blurted out "You can both help me, I have zero motivation so I may need two dragons to help me, you up to the job boys?"

They both looked at the celestial mage, she had her hands on her hips with an adorable pout on her face, then at each other and begrudgingly agreed.

They found after the first couple of weeks that they all actually got on really well and chose each others company more often than not over their normal friendship circles.

Laxus's laugh bellowed across the empty gym. "Gajeel that's super lame man, thought us dragon slayers were supposed to have super hearing? How did she manage to sneak up on you."

"Bitch has super ninja skills, be careful Laxus you could be next. Nobody is safe." Gajeel mumbled as he placed his weights back on the bar and walked over to his bag to pull out an iron bar and a water bottle.

Pulling off his head band, Gajeel nosily munched on his metal and watched Lucy as she walked over to the dumb bells. She was slowly lifting more and more weight, slow and steady, just like Laxus had advised her.

She had visible muscle now on her arms and stomach, where it was soft before it was now toned and tight. The stronger her body was the stronger her magic became, no more feeling weak.

She had had enough and was glad she was making a change for the better. Laxus counted how many curls she had to do before she could call it quits and go to the guild hall for her celebratory strawberry milk shake.

"Nice work today blondie, look at your little guns." The lightning mage said squeezing her small biceps which caused her to giggle. Shoving him away, she gestured towards his huge body.

"Shut up, it's not my fault you have an insane amount of muscle mass. Nobody could ever match up to you."

Gajeel had met Levy at the gym doors, not wanting to interrupt their 'a bit too steamy for public' kiss, Laxus picked Lucy up, slid past them and gave her a piggy back ride to the bar.

"Onward Blondie, to the bar." Lucy declared pointing in front of them, they both called each other blondie since Laxus gave her the nickname and she always said he was blonde also so they shared the pet name.

They were more like siblings then anything else, they were both only childs and had always wanted a brother/sister.

He picked up speed, causing her to jiggle from side to side from the galloping he did. Laughing, she was jolted forward and nearly fell over his shoulders, she slapped his head playfully, digging her ankles into his sides like you would with a horse to spur them on.

"Hey horsey why did you stop? Did I get a bit-" 'heavy' she finished in her head.

'What is he doing here?'

'This was such a stupid idea.'

Cobra was seriously regretting his decision but what other choice did he have? Rot in jail or join a legal guild for observation, to see if he had reformed enough to join regular society. Tough choice, right?

He hadn't reformed, he still thought about killing and dismembering people, but it didn't matter as he was the one who could read minds not the people who would be observing him.

Willing his brain to stop overthinking something for once in his damn life, he realized that the carriage had stopped, maybe his stomach might settle a bit now.

"Time to go reptile." The guard escorting him spat out as he yanked him out through the open carriage door, causing Cobra to face plant the floor. Groaning in pain, he could taste dirt in his mouth.

'So disgusting.'

"Did you forget you handcuffed me shit head?" The poison slayer shouted as he was pulled up by his deep maroon hair.

The guard just smirked. Cobra could his thoughts as clearly as he could smell the alcohol that was lingering on his breath from the previous night. 'Of course I didn't.'

The guard's soul started talking to Cobra, telling him all his darkest secrets. So this one liked to dress up in his wife's clothes and have his male bed companions tell him how pretty he was.

Cobra was escorted up to the guild doors and uncuffed by the secret cross dresser. Cobra gently rubbed his freed wrists, phantom pain was still there from when he had been constantly cuffed in the tower of heaven, the wounds had long since healed but the scars remained. They would always hold the pain that he had suffered from his time at that shit stain on earth.

Turning to look at the guard with his good eye, he smirked as he blew out a small amount of poison, causing the man to start choking, his eyes were streaming from the toxic air that was now surrounding him.

"See you around pretty girl."

The guard's face paled even more at Cobra's choice of words.

'how did he know- goddammit he can actually read people' minds? I thought that was just a myth, fucking freak-'

He left the guard sputtering to himself as he entered the guild.

'Not many people here he thought.'

Good, he could actually think in peace, sometimes when he was in a too crowded area, all the souls overwhelmed him. His anxiety wasn't anywhere near as bad as it used to be, but sometimes it caused his chest to get that bit too tight and he couldn't fill his lungs with enough oxygen.

He didn't need that shit. He didn't miss being in the Oracion Seis but he missed what being in a renowned dark guild did for his confidence. Now he was just a criminal.

Walking over to the bar the first thing he saw was a giant of a man, carrying a giggling blonde, her soul sung for him, like a beautiful symphony, he closed his eye to focus on it.

Why did it seem so familiar. It was so soothing, it had instantly calmed him down.

Hearing a low growl, Cobra reluctantly opened his eye.

Someone's soul wasn't happy to see him. Actually, a lot of souls weren't happy to see him. Weren't they expecting him? Was this all some big joke to get his ass kicked? Maybe they'd let Fairy Tail beat him up and then haul him back to prison.

Looking at the cause of the noise he paled, not from the muscle head looming over him but from the girl he was holding whose soul was so very beautiful. It was speaking to Cobra.

'What is he doing here?'