A/N: Hi all, this is my first fanfiction, so I hope you like it. The story is complete, so I'll be posting chapters quickly until it is all up. This story takes place after the Grand Magic Games and the following fight with the dragons that came through the Eclipse door. I'm basing my stories on the Anime, as I've had trouble getting into the manga due to the art style, I've seen some of the episodes after this point (including the arc where the Celestial Spirits have been effected and try to gain freedom) but felt the stories I wanted to write best fit here. I am also writing several other stories in the Fairy Tail world that will be directly related to these. I suppose I'll call the series "Fairy Tail Lives", or something like that. That said, those other stories will include a couple of OCs that may be mentioned here and change one detail of the official story as regards this one, in my little fanfiction there were eight dragons that passed through the gate and eight dragon slayers to fight them. (One of my OCs is another Dragon Slayer member of the Fairy Tail guild.)

I obviously do not own Fairy Tail or the characters created in its excellent pages by Hiro Mashima.

Natsu sat in the forest outside Magnolia thinking. Not something he generally spent much time doing, but today his thoughts were weighty. The Grand Magic Games were over, they'd won back the good name of Fairy Tail and proven to the world that their guild was strong and worthwhile. They had regained the title of strongest guild in Fiore! It was proof that the faith of their comrades over the past seven years had not been misplaced. A repayment for their loyalty and all of the degradations they'd had to live with.

Then there was the battle with the dragons. Eight dragons had wreaked such havoc on the capitol city that the rebuilding would take a very long time, months at least. Eight Dragon Slayers and all of the guilds present had fought to defeat them, and in the end it had not been the Slayers who had stopped them, but the destruction of the Eclipse door through which they had come between times, sending them back to their proper era.

It had been a hard battle, they'd nearly lost in many ways. He could still see the body of the future Lucy dead before him and his stomach tightened in grief for the memory, even though that event, that future, should have been reversed, as it were. But it had made him stop and take stock of things.

He was close with all of his nakama, but Lucy was his best friend, next to Happy, and seeing her life snuffed out before him had been an intense shock to him. The fact that he'd still managed to protect the present day Lucy was infinitely reassuring, but didn't lessen the effect of the occurrence on him. It also made him think how he'd have reacted had the present day Lucy died. He had to admit that it would probably affect him more than Lisanna's "death" had done back when they'd thought Mira and Elfman's sister had died. If he could get over the rage and terrible pain initially then he'd survive it. He would go on, for the sake of his remaining friends, for the guild, but a piece of him would have been forever torn from him.

Natsu was pretty dense about some things, but he began to wonder if his closeness with Lucy was something more than just a friendship. He wanted to protect all of his guild mates, but with Lucy that protectiveness was more intense, more visceral. He wondered what exactly that meant. He was not ignorant that she was pretty, and with the number of times he'd suggested she use seduction as a distraction, he obviously found her attractive, even though he'd say stupid things about how the distractions failed and how unsexy she must be if they didn't work, or make comments about her being heavy when he carried her, even though she was in great shape. Dragon Slayers were very much like the dragons they were supposed to be strong enough to destroy, it was a side effect of the magic that made them what they were. And as they had learned, the slaying of too many dragons could actually enhance that similarity to incredible, sometimes terrifying lengths. Dragons tended to mate for life, from what Igneel taught him, but Natsu had never really felt a pull to any female after he'd reached maturity. Yeah, he'd been close to Lisanna, but not as attached as she was to him back then. Was he finally beginning to be drawn to one? Such thoughts were not that clear in his mind, they were vague and hard to grasp. He truly was quite dense about romantic sensibilities, but the loyalty and closeness with Lucy was unique and it was beginning to confuse him.

With a "psh" and a slight growl he banished the frustrating and confusing thoughts from his mind. Even though he wanted to understand things now he should have plenty of time to work out his feelings. It was time to go to the guild and see what was going on with everyone else.

Lucy was at the guild talking with Levy. It was so nice having their old guildhall back! They were whispering about a certain Iron Dragon Slayer that she was trying to convince Levy to admit she had feelings for. They were attached to each other, Lucy was sure of it, and Gajeel had since proven that he was not the same person who had attacked and hurt the guild. In fact he would protect it with his life if need be, and he seemed to have quite a tender spot for the tiny bluenette. While Lucy didn't always like him, she admitted that she would trust him if it came up. Both of them were stubborn, however, and refused to actually ADMIT that they had feelings for the other. Levy didn't deny it as hard as she used to, but she still didn't seem ready to confess her feelings to the metal head. She was probably a bit afraid of rejection.

Lucy couldn't really blame her, given that she was fighting some denial of her own. She was forever denying that she felt anything more than friendship for Natsu. But while she was still outspoken about it whenever the subject came up, she was less certain in her own mind. She'd thought of the subject off and on ever since Mirajane had mentioned that maybe Natsu was going to confess affection for her months...no, years... ago. Even now she forgot sometimes the seven year gap. Ever since that time she would occasionally think of Natsu and wonder if maybe there was something more there. But he was her best friend and she refused to complicate things with added affection. She refused to put in jeopardy the closeness they had and their friendship for something she wasn't even ready to acknowledge to herself. She lied to herself and told herself that it didn't make her worried a little when Lisanna returned to them, that she didn't wonder if she had just been a temporary replacement for the Strauss girl. She wasn't precisely jealous of Lisanna, especially since Natsu had not thrown her aside and still spent a lot of time with her. She did, however, harbor a slight insecurity about Natsu and Lisanna.

After a while Lucy gave up on convincing Levy today and their conversation turned to books, as per normal for them. It had already been a busy morning for Lucy and she was grateful to simply sit and converse with her friend. After their latest brush with death after the Grand Magic Games Lucy had determined to get stronger as a magic user. Her progress since joining Fairy Tail was already quite good, but she needed to become stronger, to become someone who wasn't always relying on others to protect her. She'd never be an Erza, but she wanted to be able to protect her comrades just as they protected her.

This morning she had woken early and, not finding any intruding Fire Dragon Slayer in her house, had focused on training her magic power, just as she had with Capricorn before the Games. Over the time since the Games she had come to a point where she could, very briefly, summon three of her spirits at once when she was at full power. It was not yet possible for them to all be golden keyed spirits, but perhaps that would come one day. She could, however, call one of her Zodiac spirits and two of her silver keyed spirits to be at her side at once without it exhausting her. Or consistently have two of her Zodiac spirits summoned for an extended period without difficulty. Lyra, Plue and Crux and Pyxis were not really called for in a battle scenario, but it was the process of building her power that mattered.

She'd been trying to find more keys recently as well, with little luck. Although, she supposed more might come to light now that so many Celestial Wizards could no longer use their powers and no longer have contracts with their keys. The silver keys of either Caellum, Corvus, or Canis Major the "Big dog" would be welcome additions to help in fights but not require as much magic to summon. It was even amazing to think that now she knew of Ophiuchus' existence, there might be other keys of similarly powerful, non-Zodiac Celestial Spirits out there somewhere. Perhaps, for instance, there was a key for the constellation Draco. The thought of being able to summon a dragon celestial spirit when she was partners with a Dragon Slayer had made her giggle when she'd first thought of it.

She was also working out more to train her physical endurance, going for runs, or doing simple exercises at home. She wanted to train in combat as well, to hone her skills with the whip, but the thought of asking one of the guild was a little embarrassing. Natsu would never do, he'd insist that he could protect her, and he wasn't particularly focused. Erza was too intimidating. Mira was formidable when she was moved to fight, but somehow it didn't feel right to ask to train with her. Gray might well tease her about it, although he was likely her best option among the guild mates. Perhaps she'd ask Loke to train her. After all, he was a devoted friend and Spirit. And she was sure he'd approve of anything that helped keep his "master" safer. Capricorn would also be a good teacher, but he didn't pull verbal punches and she would want to be a bit more capable before asking him. She could see some improvement in her stamina, already, but she needed more skill. So perhaps she would start tomorrow with Loke.

There was a happy call of welcome as Natsu came in to the guildhall with Happy. She smiled at his friendly grin and excused herself from the conversation with Levy to go join her partner. "Hey, Natsu!" she said, walking up to them.

"Hey, Lucy!" he grinned. "What's up?" It was more of a greeting than a question, but she answered anyway.

"Not much. Want to find a job?"

"Yeah! But I'm surprised, you're set for a little while for rent, so why you so eager to get out?"

She shrugged. "Just felt like it, plus I really do have to get more serious in working if I want to save up enough to buy back my old home, remember? That's still a goal for me," she replied with a wistful smile and slightly far off look. And because her thoughts were elsewhere she missed the tender look he gave her.

"Well, ok! Let's go pick a job!"

Knowing Natsu's tendencies she looked for a job that would allow him to let out his...exuberance but still not risk destroying much. Finally she found one that looked promising. The job was requested by a town a half day out by train. They were being plagued by something that would steal livestock in the night. The pay was decent, and the difficulty wasn't high, so she took it down off the board. "What about this?"

"Sounds easy enough."

"Hey, hothead," said Gray, coming up. "You guys picked out a job?"

"You tryin' to start something, Ice Princess?!" yelled Natsu.

Lucy sighed as the insults flew and she told Mira that she and Natsu would be going on the job. Then, to save time and aggravation she took out her whip and snagged the Dragon Slayer by the ankle and yanked him away from the growing fight he had started and dragged him towards to door. She had learned a long time ago that to try and break it up by insinuating yourself in the fight, only caught you up in it. "Sorry, Gray, we shouldn't need help on this one! Come on, Happy!" she called over her shoulder while Natsu yelled and Happy smirked.