A/N: I don't own anything, but I did make up Lace and Asmodeus and Lace's sister and such. Wow, I really am not taking this one seriously. Oh well~

"We're baaaack!"

Natsu burst through the door of Fairy Tail to the voices of his fellow guild members.

"Where were you, Natsu, you missed a great drinking contest~!" Kana hollered.

"Hey, I heard you brought a new girl!" Loki called. "Is she hot?"

Gray followed after, greeted with happy voices as well.

"Gray! You came back! And Natsu!" Lucy cried. She flipped her head around. "Where's Lace?"

Natsu pointed behind him. "She's right here. And she brought someone."

Lace pushed through the doors and the room fell silent.

"She's almost as pretty as Mira-nee," one man whispered. "But…Who's the guy with her?"

Asmodeus trailed darkly after Lace like a shadow on a summer day, tall and black. He glared at everyone he saw, tossing his hair indignantly and showing off his horns.

Makarov stood in front of Lace quietly. She smiled at him cheerfully. "Sir, Natsu, Gray, and I were able to complete the mission and collect the reward."

The short man pointed behind her. "Yes, that's great, but who is that?"

Lace glanced behind her. "Oh, that's the demon lord Asmodeus. We're on friendly terms now, though."

Asmodeus jerked his head. "Howzit going'."

"He doesn't want to join, unfortunately. He wants to—what was it, again?"

"Watch you. Guard you. Stuff. Not for anyone else. Just you."

Lace nodded and turned back to Makarov. "He's my bodyguard, I guess you could say."

Makarov shook his head. "Well, I guess as long as he doesn't do anything to Fairy Tail…"

"Pssh. I have no want to get into a battle with any of your guildees or whatever they're called. As long as no one touches Lace, I won't touch no one."

Lace shook her head. "Anyone. Won't touch anyone."

Gray blinked. "Shouldn't you be more careful? He is a demon, after all…"

Lace smiled. "I'm sure it'll be alright. I'm not worried."

"You never are," he muttered to himself.

"I'll just brand you with the symbol, and then…where do you want it?"

Asmodeus bristled. "Brand?"

"It's fine; it's a part of joining a guild. Um…my hand," Lace answered. "Anywhere else it'd be covered up."

Lucy high-fived her. "Yeah! Brand on the hand! Woohoo!"

After the branding was done, Lace turned to Natsu and Gray. "Ok, so now what?"

Natsu shrugged. "I dunno. There's no good missions right now—"

"—and nothing going on around here," Gray finished. "I know: why don't you go find an apartment and get settled in? Then I can start teaching you until we get another mission."

"We…do you mean," Lace said excitedly, "that I get to join you guys when you go on missions?"

Natsu glanced at Gray. "Well, I'm okay with it—"

"And I'm the one that suggested it—"added Gray,

"And I'd love to have another girl on the team—"Lucy said,

"Aye!" finished Happy.

Lace giggled happily. "Thank you, thank you thank you!" she cried.

"There's an empty apartment near mine," Lucy offered, "and the rent isn't bad! We can hang out all the time!"

Lace grinned. "I just might take you up on that." she turned to Asmodeus, who had lost interest in their conversation and was staring at Happy.

"What do you want to do?" she asked.

The demon lord shrugged. "I'll stay with you," he said.

Lucy blinked. "I'm not missing anything here, right? You guys just met?"

"It's weird for a girl and a guy to stay in the same apartment if they're not dating," Lace explained.

"Dating? Is that like being engaged?" he made a face. "Because that's just gross…"

"It's kind of like that," Lucy said.

Asmodeus shrugged. "Whatever, I found a place anyway. It's kind of in the woods. This cave. There were some bears, but they don't live anymore."

"You mean they don't live there anymore," Gray corrected.

Asmodeus blinked. "No, I mean they don't live anymore. They make good rugs, though."

A heavy silence filled the guild, a very unusual phenomenon.

"Well! Then!" Lace said, breaking the silence. "Shall we see about that apartment, Lucy?"

Whistling, Lace skipped down the hallway. She had picked out her room; paid the first payment with the money from the mission; and put down the stuff she didn't need with her. Stopping at a door at the end of the hallway, she rapped quickly, calling:

"Luuuucy! Can I come in?"

"Sure, come on in!" came the answer.

Lace opened the door and walked into Lucy's apartment. She burst out laughing. "And you told ME that it's weird for a girl and a guy to be in the same apartment?" she exclaimed.

Lucy poked her head out of what Lace supposed was the bathroom, head wrapped up in a towel. "What?" she turned her head to see Natsu, fast asleep on her sofa. "Natsuuuuu!" she howled angrily, disappearing momentarily into the bathroom, and then reappearing with sopping wet hair.

"Natsu, what did I tell you about coming into my apartment on your own accord?" she shouted, shaking the dragon slayer ferociously. The pinkette shook his head sleepily.

"You said…I could come in any time I wanted?" he offered drowsily. "Aye!" agreed Happy.

Lucy stepped back, hands on her hips. "No, I said you had to knock first! What if I was getting dressed?"

Natsu shrugged. "Then I'd see you in your underwear?"

"EXACTLY." Lucy slapped him on the head powerfully. "Don't do it again!"

She turned to Lace, who was watching the scene with some amusement. "Hi, Lace. Sorry, Natsu and Gray always break into my room." she pulled at her hair. "Aw, it's so wet, and it's gonna take me forever to dry it…"

"Don't you have a hair dryer?" Lace asked.

"I did, until Natsu broke it!" she complained loudly. "He kept eating all the hot air!"

"Here, I got it," Lace said, widening her stance. "Hold on to something."

Lucy grabbed the door frame, Natsu grabbed the couch, and Happy grabbed onto Natsu.

"Don't eat this," Lace told Natsu as she produced a small fireball.

"Okay…here we go…" she said, creating a small wind in front of the fire. It grew bigger and bigger…then Lace sent it flying straight at Lucy, blasting her with the hot air. The blonde lost her grip on the frame and flew backwards into the wall.

"Oh my gosh, are you alright?" Lace exclaimed, stopping the wind and fire. Lucy shook her head wildly, making her now-dry hair fall perfectly into place.

"Yeah, I am! Thanks!" she grinned, putting her hair up into its usual pigtail. "That was really smart!"

Lace blushed. "Well, I did spend a lot of time in places without hair dryers. I had to come up with something," she laughed.

Asmodeus burst into the room, panting. "Lace! Are you okay?" he asked, clearly winded. "I came here as fast as I could!"

Lace blinked. "Uh, yeah. How did you know I used my magic?"

The dark-haired demon muttered something about a demonic connection, and then slinked out of the room.

"I'll wait downstairs, okay?" he called.

"Did he say 'demonic connection'?" Lucy asked.

Lace nodded. "Yeah, he did…"

The blonde's eyes widened. "He made a demonic connection? Are you serious?" She tugged a book out from her massive bookshelf and started flipping through the pages.

"What's a demonic connection?" Natsu asked.

"Yeah, what is it, Lucy?" Gray asked.

"Where did you come from?" Lace asked. The shirtless boy pointed to the window. "Natsu left it open."

Lucy glared at him. "I'd appreciate if you didn't—oh, never mind!" she pulled out a pair of attractive reading glasses. "A demonic connection is a connection a demon makes with a human."

"I could have told you that much!" Gray muttered.

"Aye!"

"Quiet, Happy, I'm not finished. They can tell whenever the human uses magic, and can mix their powers with the mage's to increase both of their power capacities! The human can also tell when the demon uses his magic, and can get to the location where the demon is at any time within 10 seconds," Lucy read. "They also share a psychic connection, and can occasionally read each other's emotions."

Lace blinked. "But I can't feel his emotions. And I didn't feel when he used magic to get here."

"The connection is probably incomplete," Lucy explained. "To make a demonic connection, the two have to have a strong emotional connection already. Furthermore, there's a kind of ceremony…you'd know if you made a connection. Asmodeus probably felt serious about wanting to protect you, so he carried out his part of the connection."

"But if he wanted to have a connection with Lace, shouldn't he tell her so she can do her part?" Natsu pointed out.

"He's probably a mixture of embarrassed and worried," Lucy said. "The fact that he already has such a strong emotional connection…plus the ceremony is a little dangerous. He probably didn't want you to get hurt."

Lucy squealed in delight. "This is just like a love story or a fanfiction or something!" she giggled. "How romantic!"

Lace shook her head. "Really, he doesn't have to worry," she muttered. "I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself. And he should tell me about this kind of thing." She headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" Gray asked.

"I'm gonna ask him what my part of the ceremony is," she replied. "And see when the best time is to complete it!"

A/N:

Really I should have done this ages ago. A thousand apologies to all y'all and stuff. Okay then.