A/N: Two new chapters at once?! WHAT IS HAPPENING?!
First, I'm over-excited. Second, this one and the last one are a little short but don't quite fit together as one chapter, so merry Christmas. I'll skip the Previously on ADSS bit since they're updating at the same time.

"Hey Natsu. Have you seen Wendy at all?"

Natsu turned around, slightly miffed that he was interrupted from his new love: the buffet table. His annoyance faded when he saw who it was. His face contorted into what he thought was a devilish sneer but looked a little more like a disgruntled chipmunk with his mouth still full of food. Romeo looked at him with a confused expression on his face. "Y'know what, I can ask someone else if you're busy."

Natsu swallowed quickly as Romeo turned to leave. "Oi, Romeo." He was seriously not going to let go of this golden opportunity to tease the shit out of the kid. "She only got back a little while ago. I know you're excited to confess your undying love to her, but let the woman have a rest first, 'kay?" Romeo's face lit up like a fuse. Oh, how Natsu just lived for that. He finally started to understand why Mira was so obsessed with teasing people about their love lives-it's fucking hilarious.

I walked right into that one, Romeo thought, mentally slapping himself as he did so. He had been putting up with Natsu's relentless teasing for a few months now. It was like his big brother suddenly understood what it meant to have "feelings" for someone. Specifically a girl someone. But, try as he might, every attempt Romeo made to tease Natsu back about Lucy or Lisanna just fell flat.

"NO, jeeze. She's just a friend. You're such a dick."

"Love you too, little bro." Natsu slapped Romeo on the back, quite pleased with himself for the rise he got out of the kid. Again. He wished he had more younger siblings to annoy.

"But seriously, have you seen her around?" Romeo grabbed a plate and started piling up whatever food he could grab. It was only a matter of time before the other men (they were NOT boys, thank you very much) swarmed like locusts and devoured everything in sight. "I didn't get a chance to see her off before her mission, and her teacher asked me to give her something."

"Teacher? Oi, light this for me, would ya?"

Romeo ignored his request to turn his food into a pile of flames and stuffed a grape and some chicken into his mouth. "Yeah, y'know, from that university we take classes at sometimes."

"Oh yeah. Seriously, fire. Chop chop."

Romeo had been studying fire magic from one of Natsu's old opponents for some time. When his teacher got picked up by a university one city over, Wendy asked if she could go with him. She wanted to see if they had any medical classes. Turns out they had an entire school. Wendy's education was a bit behind her classmates', so she ended up commuting to the university three times a week for private tutoring with her teachers. Romeo didn't mind, though. He had been long finished with his fire magic courses, but the combat classes were pretty fun. He also may or may not have gotten a job part-time with the maintenance crew, and he may or may not have set up his paycheck to go directly towards Wendy's tuition. She didn't need to know that, though. And it didn't really mean anything. She had to pay rent and he didn't, so he was just helping a friend in need, right? He was such a good friend. Charle could pay for her own god-damned women and gender studies classes, though. He was tired of being referred to as "one of the oppressors."

"No, asshole, not if you're going to be such a dick. Go find some matches." Romeo took his overflowing plate and stormed off to sit by his father.

"What'd you say to piss him off so bad?" Gray asked. He had come over to claim his own food and bask in the glory of his work of art.

"I only teased him, but he should be used to that by now. Maybe he's on his period."

"You're making a joke, right? I don't have to explain the difference between boys and girls to you, do I?" Gray looked at Natsu nervously. He was honestly worried, because for a while there it didn't seem like the fire freak was catching on, and he really didn't want to explain the facts of life to the idiot.

"YES, ice face. I'm not that stupid." He got confused once, ONCE, and that was over a year ago. They just wouldn't let it go, would they?

"I'm just checking, ok?" He turned to look around the room to see where Romeo went while Natsu tried to light napkins on fire with the food warmers. Maybe he was too hungry to notice before, but was it just him, or were there a lot of unfamiliar people there? He recognized a few guys from other guilds, like Eve, but then where were Hibiki and that other guy? He looked around at the guests again, a little more closely this time, and realized that a good third of the guests were teenage boys. They were all a little fidgety, but that was probably just because their tuxes were uncomfortable.

Wait, what the fuck? I know it's a fancy party and all, but Mira AND Erza said it was fine if we just showered and wore a suit. He nudged Natsu with his elbow, still staring at the horde of boys milling around.

"Hey, uh Natsu? Notice anything weird about the people here?" Natsu turned around, careful not to drop any of his food on the table and accidentally light it on fire.

He swept his eyes around the room and took a good sniff at the air. "Yeah, what's with all the strange boys? And why are they trying so hard?" He turned to his left to address the lurking girl he just sniffed out. "Juvia, do you know what's going on?"

Gray sighed. That woman should've been born a ninja. He had no idea that she was next to him, as per usual. "How come you aren't with the other girls," he asked, turning to acknowledge her. It wasn't strange for her to be stalking Gray, but she was more often scheming with the other women, none of whom were present.

"Juvia was asked to keep you both from killing anyone," she muttered quietly.

"Why would we kill someone? We promised not to fight tonight for Wendy's sake, and anyways, it's usually only the furniture that suffers. We never actually hurt anyone."

"Yeah! And what about metal head or thunder boy? They're worse." Natsu was a little offended that he had to be babysat, while those two...where were those two?

"Juvia asked Pantherlily and Gildarts to handle them. Gajeel is locked in a back room and Gildarts knocked Laxus unconscious and threw him in a closet. Lily is guarding them both and Gildarts is outside in case they climb out a window."

I don't like where this is going... Gray thought. Gajeel, sure, he was really touchy lately, but Laxus? As long as nobody challenged him, he usually just drank in a corner with Freed. He could be an obnoxious drunk, but having Gildarts knock him out seemed like a bit much.

"Gildarts is here? When did he get back?" Natsu completely missed the part of the conversation that should have worried him like Gray. But, he hadn't seen the man in two years, and the last time he came back it was only because he had heard that Cana was really sick. It turned out to be a lie that Master told just to get him to come home and be guild master. Since Cana was off on a mission, Gildarts left the next day.

"More importantly, why is Gildarts on guard duty? Couldn't Freed have just set up a rune thing and made sure Laxus didn't drink too much and get too gropey?" Stupid Natsu, asking stupid irrelevant questions. Did he not realize that the two of them were likely to be locked in one of Juvia's water prisons?

"Juvia really shouldn't say..." She looked at her feet, knowing that if she met Gray's intense stare, she'd spill everything and have to cause him physical pain, and not in a fun, kinky way. She was more worried about Natsu, though. The only reason she hadn't taken him out yet was because the girls wanted to catch him ogling at Lucy first. She and Mira debated letting Gajeel stay, but Lily said that he became a clumsy, uncontrollable mess whenever Levy was around. He could see her later, maybe when there were fewer breakable things around.

"Come on Juvia, please?" Gray flashed his clutch debonair smile. She can't possibly resist this. Nobody can resist this.

It was true; Juvia would not have been able to resist Gray's charms, but she could manipulate him right back. She turned her head towards the table, careful to look anywhere but at his face.

"Gray, did you make this?" She pointed at the sculpted monstrosity. As much as she loved him, it was still just bad. However, she knew that if she stroked his ego he'd forget his questions. "It's so...interesting. What was your inspiration?"

Natsu groaned. He really didn't want to hear Gray's total bullshit explanation of that sad, sad centerpiece. He was planning to melt it once Gray walked away, but now it seemed like his community service would have to wait. Maybe Mira will tell me something, he thought as he headed towards the bar.

Fairy Tail and all of its characters are the exclusive property of Hiro Mashima.