AN: This is set after the Oracion Seis Arc. There are some people I might have left out and I've also added a couple OC's. Also I've changed some details so that I could have certain people in the story as well. ;p I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

The Party

Chapter 1:

Lucy's POV

You are invited to the house warming party of

FREED JUSTINE

When; 8 pm on the second Thursday of the 2nd month

At: His new home on West Clove Ave in Magnolia, Fiore

Please look for the house with the rose arch trellis at the front gate.

The soft sound of her flip-flips clapping along the cobbled walkway along the canal echoed off the walls of the surrounding buildings. It had been really hot that day and while the night was still warm, there was a nice welcome breeze. She had dressed light, in a short frayed denim skirt and simple red tank top. She was enjoying the night as she took her time making her way to Freed Justine's house warming party.

He had finished a job that had gotten him a huge payoff so he went and got himself some huge house. That border lined on mansion. Probably not as big a mansion as she had lived in when she was with her father, but she had heard that it had three floors and had a huge garden in the back. The house itself had dozens of rooms, including a decent sized ballroom.

She had asked Mira earlier why he had bought such a huge place, and she said that Freed had stayed in the male dorms for a long time, and had to share his space with people like Bickslow and Elfman who were constantly yelling and making a ruckus. So she thinks he might have gone overboard with wanting lots of space. And between the girls they had agreed that he will eventually probably want roommates. Because after living with so much noise all the time. The quiet will eventually get to him.

She eventually came to the street that she needed to turn down. It was near the edge of town and was lined by a long stone wall that came to her waist and was topped by wrought iron in some fancy design that seemed striking in the dimming light of the evening. Lacrama lampposts lines the sidewalk shed a faint white glow along the way until she found the gate. A beautiful arched trellis with blood red roses woven through the spaces made for an almost surreal entrance. Like the gateway into a real life fairytale garden. The walkway leading up to the house had small lacrama stones lining the sides periodically that gave off a pale yellow light, and there were lighted fountains on either side. It was really beautiful, if not somewhat unnecessarily extravagant. Especially for what one could call a bachelor pad.

Stepping up to the door she rang the bell. It didn't take long for the door to be answered, much to her surprise by Evergreen.

"Oh hey there, come in. Freed had to do something so we're taking turns answering the door." The woman smiled as she ushered Lucy in.

"Thanks. I'm not too late am I?"

"Not at all. Most everyone is here already. I think we're just waiting on Mira, and Lissana. But they had to stop off at the bakery to get the cake."

"I hope Freed doesn't mind, I was kind of short this month on jewels. So I'll have to get his house warming gift after my next job." The blond girl said sheepishly.

"I'm sure he'll understand. Freed is the kind of guy that would be happy that you just showed up."

Evergreen led Lucy into the ballroom. It was lined with tables and had a long table along one wall that was lined with food. Some people were dancing and others were sitting at the tables talking amongst themselves.

"HEY LUCY YOU MADE IT!" A boisterous voice bellowed out.

"Oh hey Natsu." Looking around for his sidekick, "Where's happy?"

"He's over there stuffing his face with fish. Freed went all out on the spread so we're going to take full advantage!" he grinned as he pulled her over to their table.

"That's just like you, always hungry!"

When they reached the table she saw Erza she was leaning back in her chair arms crossed over her chest, eyes constantly darting around the room as if she just knew that something was going to jump out and she had to attack it. Though her eyes did fall on the man next to her more than they did the rest of the room. And much to Lucy's surprise the weapons mistress's cheeks were tinted a light pink. Jellal, he had been exonerated due to his help with defeating the Oracion seis. It had just taken some time. A LOT OF IT. The new council Lucy thought were some serious tightwads.

Gray was at the table too leaning forward he had his chin resting on his folded hands as his elbows braced on the table-top. Lucy had to giggle a little as he was doing his level best to ignore Juvia next to him who was currently glaring daggers at Lucy. The glare only deepened when Gray said hi to her, and the spirit mage sat down in the only empty chair next to him.

"So how's the party going so far?" She asked everyone.

"It's not bad. It's almost like a day at the guild except there's free food and booze." Gray stated offhandedly.

"Yes, it does seem rather the same." Erza stated.

"I don't know what you guys are talking about THIS IS AWESOME!" Natsu exclaimed as she stuffed a chicken leg into his mouth and began gnawing on the bone.

"What a lame Of course you like it. It's free loser."

"What did you call me Ice cube?"

"A loser flame head!"

Both boys jumped up and got in each other's faces. Yup just like at the guild Lucy thought. She got up and went to the open bar near the food table and got a drink. Said hi to a few more people before she went back. Hoping that by the time she got back to the table that the fight would be defused. On her way she was surprised to see some people from the other guilds there as well. Lyon and Sherry were there. She had to shake her head as she saw him casting longing glances towards Juvia. She often wondered how things might have been different if Juvia had seen Lyon first before Gray. She thought the girl was hopelessly infatuated with the dark-haired boy and sort of felt sorry for Lyon whose endearments were not returned.

She noted the Triance was there as well, and had a momentary panic attack and darted her eyes around to see if their 'boss' was with them. That Ichiya guy was just too weird.

There were some other faces she had never seen before as well. Probably acquaintances of Freed though she saw some of the guild members talking to them. So they must be well known with the others.

Levy waved at her as she passed by then turned suddenly to smack Gajeel on the arm for something he had said though he was too far so she didn't hear him.

She finally made it back to the table, and sat down. Time passed and the party was going pretty well. She had ended up dancing with Levy and then Mira and Lissana had finally showed up with a huge cake.

The girls all danced together while the guys watched from the sidelines. It had been funny watching Juvia try to get Gray to dance, who had flat-out refused.

Natsu had tried to do the same but ended up getting dragged to the dance floor by Lissana who sandwiched him between herself and Lucy. She didn't think she'd ever seen the fire-mage blush so much. It had been worth the dance if only to see his face like that. Even though he pretty much just stood there not knowing what to do.

Suddenly Freed came in and whistled, the music died down and he cleared his throat.

"Everyone I'd like to thank you for coming to celebrate my new acquisition!" Everyone clapped and cheered but quieted down again when he brought his hands up gesturing for them to hush once again. "I have planned a very special event for tonight's festivities a race if you will." He smiled as he let that sink in for a moment. "You may partner up if you like or you can go by yourself. Though, I shall warn you. There will be some challenges that you cannot do by yourself. So please keep that in mind. Each team or individual if you prefer will be given a different starting point. The goal is to reach 20 points and reach the end of the race with all your points intact. Sometimes you will be pitted against another team. The team that wins gains the point. If however your team loses, then you lose a point. "He waved his hand and lettering spread up the side of the wall listing the basic rules. "The winning team will win a week-long stay at the mountain resort spa" He smiled as the oo's and ahh's calmed down once again. "One more thing. The team member limit is 2. Cats don't count Natsu." To this the fire mage groaned.

"That's fine. I can do this by myself! I don't need a teammate!"

"Remember what I said Natsu, some of the challenges you will need help."

"Whatever I'll show you!"

"You've been warned."

There was a strange niggling feeling playing at Lucy's senses, but for the life of her she couldn't figure it out. So she brushed it aside thinking that it was nothing.

Teams were chosen. Much to Juvia's disappointment Gray decided to go by himself because he didn't want to be out done by Natsu. This also prompted Lyon to go alone. As they teams made themselves known Freed made the words fly up on the wall.

NATSU

GRAY

LYON

ERZA/JELLAL

GAJEEL

ELFMAN

MIRA/LISSANA

BISCA/ALZACK

BICKSLOW

EVERGREEN

MACAO/WATABE

REN/SHERRY

HIBIKI/EVE

JUVIA

LUCY

LEVY

FREED

KIlDAIN

GILDARTS

CANA

DANIKA/MARJOREE

These were the teams that made up the people that stayed. Some had to leave due to missions starting. Wendy and Carle had left because it was super late as well as Romeo.

This was fine so the adults didn't have to worry about kids.

"Okay now I'm going to hand you a map. It's magicked to show you where your starting point is, there is also a small dot on it to show your current location and another dot will show you where your next destination is. In each location there is an item that you have to collect to prove you've been to the check point. Remember you have to reach all the check points and have 20 points in order to win! There are several challenges along the way. Just to let you know, I've rigged each challenge point to give you a several choices of challenge. The challenges themselves are secret and random. But you get to choose a number so in case you have to repeat a challenge point that doesn't mean you will get the challenge you just got."

Levy raised her hand quickly, "So, is this going to be like those barriers you made in the city before?"

"Yes, you will be stuck in the barrier until you can pass the challenge. The winner will move forward while the loser has to stay and repeat the challenge point."

Everyone nodded.

Freed passed out the maps and when he reached Lucy his fingers lightly brushed hers. She got that strange feeling again, but again brushed it off.

Slowly everyone filed out of the room and made their way to their respective starting points. Lucy's happened to be in the library. When she got there, there was a small table that had a line of bookmarks on it. On the bookmark it read.

To the blue room in the west

Tarry not and do your best!

She had to shake her head, because it sounded kind of cheesy and not very imaginative. But she did as she was told. Making her way out of the library she turned towards the west of the house. She could hear people moving around on the different floors as she made her way up the first flight of stairs.

The house really was nice, Opulent with beautiful molding. Not much for décor, but she suspected that in time that might change. Apparently, he Freed had actually had a lot of stuff he had collected over the years. He had just put it in storage until he needed them. Which was a good thing, because even with the amount of stuff he had, had.. The house still looked a little barren.

Upon reaching the top floor she turned down the hall and was met with an invisible wall.

"Well, here we go" she muttered to herself as she realized she had found herself in her first challenge point. Runes appeared in front of her as she tried to figure out what the rules of the challenge was.

Waiting for challenger.

Guess she'd have to wait until someone came along. Luckily she didn't have to wait long because Natsu was barreling down the hallway towards her. She kept quiet as he ran passed and then laughed as he crashed headlong into the invisible wall.

"Ow! You could have warned me Luce!"

"It's no fun that way." She giggled.

"So you're my first challenger eh? I'm all fired up so you better watch out!"

"Whatever" she grinned as they both looked to the barrier when words started to form.

Pick a number 1-5

"Ladies first"

"Fine, um…" She tapped her chin. "How about number ….3"

"Why did you pick that number?"

"I don't know." She shrugged as they watched the words appear.

Your first challenge is to establish dominance. The challengers will French kiss. The winner will move forward.

Both wizards stared at the words as if it was a foreign language. Lucy was the first to recover.

"WHAT KIND OF CHALLENGE IS THIS?!" She yelled vehemently

"IM NOT KISSING HER! ARE YOU CRAZY?!"

Then both of them yelled. "FREED!"

Much to their surprise Freed slinked around the corner, his voice was sweet as he drew out the word. "Yeeeeesss?"

"What the hell is this?" Lucy pointed up at the words on the barrier wall while the other hand was on her hip.

"It looks like a challenge to me."

"Right, we can see that, but what the hell? Kissing? Seriously?"

"Very serious."

"Look here Mister, I'm not kissing Natsu, and I doubt other people are gonna want to be kissing each other either."

"Well, that's too bad, so so sad." Freed sing-songed.

Lucy blinked and Natsu got a little closer. "He smells funny. " The fire-mage stated as he tilted his nose up sniffing a few times. "That's not Freed. I'm sure of it."

"Well, then If that's not Freed then..who?..." and then it dawned on her, that feeling. "Gemini?" she mutter growled.

"UH OH we been had! They found out that we've been bad!" The figure of Freed faded out and the twins appeared.

"It's too bad you can't get out, we put a barrier around the house. So you have to play the game" they laughed some more.

"Why did you guys go and mess with Freed's game for?"
"We were bored. The party was lame so we spiced it up with a much more fun game! But now that you have found us out, it time for us to head out!" They giggled some more as they faded out of sight.

"WAIT COME BACK AND GET RID…" She yelled, but they were already gone.

The two turned to look at each other once more.

"I don't wanna be stuck here forever!" Lucy whined dejectedly.

"Me neither! Man I'm glad Happy went with Wendy so I didn't have to see this."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"It's not just this Luce, but if this challenge is supposed to have us kissing, Can you think of what other kinds of things those to crack-heads you call celestial beings have cooked up? I'm pretty sure this is gonna be one crazy night!"

"Oh crap! What if we have to do other stuff later on in the game?!"

"We better hurry up and get this over with the sooner we get it over the sooner we can get out and put this night beh….." but he never got to finish his sentence as Lucy had rushed forward grabbed his head and kissed him. Taking full advantage that his mouth had been open she took the initiative to delve her tongue into his mouth rendering him speechless.

It took a moment or two for him to come to his senses, but soon he was participating each of them trying to gain the upper hand so the barrier would announce a winner. She felt his hands weave themselves through her hair gripping her head to keep her close. She tried to think of what would constitute a tell-tale sign that one was being more dominant.

Sounds.

So Lucy did her best to not make a peep, not a moan or sigh. But it was proving to be difficult because Natsu, to her surprise, was not a bad kisser. She had to do something and quick, or else he was going to make her do something embarrassing like moan. She had to get him to make a noise first.

So Lucy did something she never thought she would. She slid her hand down his chest slowly all the way down to his pants where she cupped the bulge she found there and squeezed gently.

He groaned, and it was loud, before he pulled back to take breath so caught up in what he was doing he leaned forward to place a kiss on her neck.

WINNER OF THIS CHALLENGE

LUCY

A soft chime drew their attention and they both looked up at the barrier wall. Lucy cheered and jumped out of Natsu's arms and ran off leaving a sputtering boy behind.

"WHAT! NO WAY! YOU CHEATED! GET BACK HERE I DEMAND A REMATCH!"

"NO WAY NATSU!" Lucy called back over her shoulder as she ran off. He was spitting fire and banging on the invisible wall yelling at her, but she wasn't going back. Thankfully she had seen the outline of that barrier so she could try to avoid it if she had to go back that way.

All around her she heard people yelling. Apparently they too had found out what kind of game this was. She couldn't help but feel a little twinge of excitement with a healthy mixture of fear. What did the night have in store for them?

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.

AN: Well folks, what did you think of the first chapter? Please review! Also if there are any pairings or crazy situations you might want to see please let me know! All ideas are welcome! ~ NOMEH