My beta, ShadowedSoulSpirit is amazing! Thanks so much to her for continuing to help me.

Enjoy this chapter


Natsu emerged from the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist, and a dazed look on his face. Lucy immediately steered the dripping Slayer to her bed and tucked him in next to his snoring blue Exceed.

There was no helping it, and if she didn't get him into bed now, then there was no telling what he would do. Once he woke up, the mushrooms should have worn off.

Lucy made her way to the bathroom, bracing herself against the doorframe for a moment before entering. She was mildly surprised to find that the bathroom wasn't completely destroyed. In fact, besides the small pile of Natsu's clothes and a few puddles of water on the tile, she never would have known that her destructive friend had been in here.

Well that was a definite relief.

She bent over and collected the pile of laundry from the floor. She was just going to dump the nasty clothes into her hamper and offer him a pair of clean clothes she kept around for him for emergencies, when she felt something in the pocket of his pants.

Curiosity got the better of the Celestial Mage, and she withdrew a small brown package from Natsu's pants. She wasn't surprised to find that it was empty. He must have eaten quite a bit of them to still be loopy. Frustrated, Lucy dropped the clothes in her hamper, and the package in the garbage.

Since her bed would most likely be occupied by Natsu and Happy for the next several hours, Lucy decided to make her way back to the guild. Mira had already heard what had happened, and it was best that Lucy do a little damage control. She didn't want people getting the wrong idea.

She wouldn't deny that Gajeel was attractive, but he just wasn't her type. He was too rough and rugged for her taste. She preferred someone softer and more understanding, which also ruled out Natsu. Gray was out of the equation due to Juvia's homicidal nature. She figured that if it weren't for the insane Water Mage, he might make the perfect boyfriend. Unfortunately, Lucy wasn't brave enough to attempt it.

Laxus was the kind of guy that could wrap his arms around Lucy and make her feel tiny yet secure all at the same time. The only problem was that Lucy thought he was a complete ass and more than a little perverted. She expected her man to keep the perverted comments to a minimum in public.

She couldn't really think of anyone else in the guild that was her age, and not completely creepy to consider for a date. There was always Gildarts, but he was a little out of her age range. She wouldn't mind dating someone older, but considering that Cana was one of her best friends, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to go there. Not to mention that he could be a total weirdo.

Shrugging off the depressing nature of her lack of a love life, Lucy found that her feet had carried her all the way to the guild entrance. Pushing the doors open, she made her way to the bar where she found Mira busy chatting with Cana. She had no doubts as to what they were discussing.

"Hey guys." She called cheerily.

The two girls turned to her with matching grins. Lucy shivered at the conspiratorial nature of their smiles and took a seat next to Cana.

"Hey Lucy. Where have you been?" Cana wagged her eyebrows suggestively.

"Putting Natsu to bed," she replied flatly. "I finally found the bastard, but he was in no shape to answer any of my questions."

"So Cana told me about you and Gajeel."

"No. It wasn't like that!" This was not going the way Lucy had hoped.

"You can't deny that you liked sleeping next to that sexy, hulking piece of Slayer." Cana grinned lecherously, and Lucy caught Gildarts giving her a proud thumbs up from the corner of her eye.

"W-what? Don't say that!"

Although she would never admit it, she had slept better that night than she had in ages. She would say it was because her body was worn out after frying all night. Her friends would most likely claim that it was because Gajeel was next to her. She certainly didn't want to hear any of that.

Just as Lucy was about to give up hope and crawl into a corner to die, Erza burst through the doors of the guild with a harried look on her face. All chatter ceased as everyone turned to face her. A blush dusted her cheeks as she waved the guild members back to what they were doing and scanned the crowd. Spotting Lucy, she practically ran over to her.

Thankful to see her friend, Lucy jumped up and met her half ways.

Mira and Cana exchanged shrugs and went back to discussing Lucy's love life without her.

"Lucy! There you are!"

"Erza! I'm so glad to see you."

Erza pulled Lucy into a bone crushing hug.

"We need to talk." She grabbed Lucy by the wrist and forced her into a quick jog away from the guild.

"Erza, what is it?"

"We will talk once we reach the safety of your home."

"Wait!" She tugged her arm free from the Titania's grasp and waited until she had the girl's full attention. "Natsu is there. Can we go somewhere else?"

With a moment's thought, Erza quickly changed their course to head for a tea house that offered isolated tables. Lucy noted that her friend must be desperate for some girl time.

Once they were seated at a table in the far back, and Erza had ordered drinks and strawberry cake for the both of them, Lucy decided to address her.

"So Erza, there was something I needed to talk to you about too."

"Ok." Erza paused with her fork half ways to her mouth. "You first."

"Well last night I went out in the woods with Natsu and we fried. He left me alone and Gajeel found me and took me back to his place but I was half naked and I woke up in his bed this morning but he wasn't there!" She rushed it all out.

Erza's cake fell right out of her mouth.

"Does anyone else know of this?"

"Well I told Cana, and Mira overheard, and then there's you. That's it."

"How do you feel about Gajeel?" The older mage had recovered from her initial shock and had polished off her cake. At a gesture from Lucy, she slid the blonde's untouched cake over to her side of the table and started on it.

"Well I don't know him very well, and even though we've all forgiven him there's still the Phantom Lord incident. I guess I'd say that I haven't ever really thought of him that way. Plus, there's Natsu. Even though he's a total idiot and not my type, I always figured we would be together. I mean, we already are together most of the time."

"Lucy" Erza gave her a reproachful look while gesturing to a waiter and pointing at her empty plate. "You can't just decide you and Natsu will be together because you are close friends. Love doesn't work that way. You don't get to choose. It chooses for you. Take it from someone who knows." Lucy noticed how her friend's face brightened to an unhealthy red at this statement.

"I know. So what should I do?"

"You should follow your heart!" She proclaimed this happily while digging into her third piece of strawberry cake. Lucy had no idea where she put it all.

"Easier said than done," she grumbled to herself. "So what did you want to talk to me about?"

"O-oh." Suddenly her face went pale and her fork clinked against her plate as her hands shook. "Well it's about while I was gone with Gray." Lucy nodded her head to continue while she took a drink of her forgotten tea. "Well…we are kind of together now."

Lucy spit the tea across the room and right into the face of a passing waiter. Without even apologizing, Lucy leapt from her chair and pointed an accusing finger at her friend. "What?!" she shouted.

Erza shushed her and pulled her back into her seat.

"One thing lead to another, and we got a little closer than just friends would." Erza was trying, and failing, to hide behind the hair she was named for.

"Erza! You mean you two…you know.." Lucy's face flushed as she implied that the two mages had slept together while on a job.

With a sheepish nod of her head, Erza confirmed that they had. Lucy felt all the blood rush to her face imagining it.

"W-well I'm happy for you guys! Really, Gray is a great guy and I know that he will treat him right. Just try not to be too hard on him." Lucy was imagining Erza tying Gray up and beating him with a whip while in a sexy yet scary bondage outfit.

The thought was disconcerting to say the least.

Erza merely blushed and looked away. She didn't have any more cake to focus on, and the conversation seemed to be getting stale.

"So about those mushrooms.. Do you think you could get some more?"

Lucy's mouth fell open. "You want to try them?" She couldn't imagine her straight laced friend frying.

"Well, it kind of sounds like fun."

"Oh o-okay. If you really want to. Natsu never told me where he got them from, so we will have to go back to my place and get him to tell us."

Erza stood abruptly, knocking her chair over. "That won't be a problem."

Lucy backed away from the suddenly sword wielding knight standing in front of her. She was afraid that the evil aura she was emitting would melt her skin off.

They made their way back to Lucy's apartment with Erza marching forwards with her sword drawn, and Lucy following along behind to apologize to the innocent bystanders that she was scaring the shit out of. Once they reached the apartment, Erza kicked the door open, and snatched Natsu out of the bed. Lucy demurely closed and locked her door and stood leaning against it.

She didn't really understand why Erza was so worked up over getting some mushrooms. She wasn't all that excited about having to go through that ordeal again, and especially not so soon. However, she would not be the one to deny her crazy friend anything.

"Natsu!" The fire mage's eyes spun around in their sockets as Titania shook the daylights out of him. "Tell me where you got those mushrooms from so that I may procure some more for me and Lucy!"

Natsu whimpered and tried to pull away from Erza, but it was no good. There was no escaping the deranged knight.

"G-Gray. I got them from Gray!" Erza dropped Natsu and he crumpled to the floor in a pathetic heap of Dragon Slayer.

Erza turned to give Lucy a questioning look, and the blond simply shrugged her shoulders in return. She wasn't surprised though. Gray had spent all his money and refused to tell anyone what it was on. It made sense now finding out that the mushrooms had come from him. Something like that was bound to be expensive.

Happy was on the floor comforting Natsu, who was crying into his shoulder over being abused in such a manner.

The two girls shared a look that showed their annoyance at the pink haired boy's antics.


Gajeel grumbled as he made his way to Lucy's apartment. Pantherlily flew beside him at a steady pace, and ignored the things that his gruff friend muttered under his breath.

"Fucking listen to a cat. Stupidest god damn thing I've ever heard." His heavy boots hit the ground harder than necessary for simply walking.

Lily smiled as Gajeel stomped up the road and stopped across the street from Lucy's apartment. Gajeel focused on Lucy's window with crossed arms and a deep frown.

"What is it, Gajeel?" Lily looked at his friend questioningly as he continued to hover in the air.

"That fucking flaming ass tard is in there. I can smell him, and the Titania." His cerise eyes never moved from Lucy's window.

Lily frowned and turned to his friend. "That just makes it all the more important that you ask her."

Gajeel shook his head and turned to walk away. There was no way he was going to confront Bunny Girl with the crazy knight and that fucking flaming idiot in there with her. He would wait until he could catch her alone.

Suddenly Lily was in his battle form, and holding Gajeel by the arm.

"Gajeel. Rethink this."

"The fuck? No." He jerked his arm away and continued walking. He didn't know what was getting into his cat lately.

He thought that Lily would be upset with the revelation that Gajeel had a thing for Lucy. Lily loved Levy, and it seemed like he was always trying to get them together.

The little Exceed would sit in the shrimp's lap while she read, and sometimes insisted on dragging Gajeel along on jobs with her. He wasn't sure where this sudden change of heart came from. Maybe his friend could just really tell that he didn't feel that way about Levy. After all, he was a Dragon Slayer, and there was no changing a Slayer's mind when he chose a mate.

The problem now was convincing the brown eyed beauty of what Gajeel was already sure of: they belonged together.

Part of the Slayer wanted nothing more than to grab the girl by her hair and drag her back to his house kicking and screaming. That was the animal in him talking, though. He knew that would never work. He had to take her on a proper date. Girls liked those kinds of things. There was still the Phantom Lord shit he had to work through with her as well. She deserved a proper apology, and he could only hope that she accepted it and was willing to give him another chance to show her who he really was.

Just as Gajeel was about to make a break for it again, he spotted Erza and Lucy exited the stairwell that led to her apartment. With his acute Dragon Slayer hearing he picked up on their conversation as soon as he focused on the two girls.

"So we need to go find Gray."

"Right. He is supposed to be meeting me back at the guild anyways." Erza replied.

Even from across the street Gajeel caught the faint blush that colored Lucy's cheeks. She was playing with the hem of her shirt as she fell into step next to Titania.

Suddenly Erza spotted Gajeel and Lily. She waved to them as if beckoning them over. Lily gave Gajeel a gentle push in their direction, and Gajeel gave him a menacing glare in return. It didn't look like Lucy wanted the company at the moment.

"Go on." Lily prompted, and Gajeel saw that he really didn't have a choice considering that Erza was coming straight towards them with Lucy firmly in tow.

"Gajeel! What a surprise." He mentally rolled his eyes at the red head. "We are heading out this evening and were wondering if you would like to join us."

Gajeel gave Lucy a questioning look. It was the first time they had seen each other since he had carried her home the night before. She was still blushing when she made eye contact with him. He couldn't tell if this was a good thing or not. She gave the Slayer a tentative smile and waited for his reply.

Unfortunately, he didn't know what he should say.

"We would love to." Lily answered for him.

Sometimes Gajeel wanted to smack his Exceed. Lately he was taking upon himself to make his friend's decisions for him. This partially annoyed Gajeel, and partially amused him. He still couldn't figure the little guy out.

"Great. Then meet us here in two hours."

Gajeel didn't have time to reply to the demands of Erza as she was already halfways down the road with Lucy's wrist in her unrelenting grasp.

"And bring something to swim in!" The shout echoed down the street back at Gajeel.

"Well that's settled then." Lily gave Gajeel a smug look and reverted back to his chibi size.

He really couldn't believe this shit. It wasn't that he didn't want to see Lucy, but this wasn't the way he had imagined things going. He was hoping to take her out to dinner or something and apologize to her in private. Now he would have to control himself from ripping her skimpy bathing suit off her while trying to formulate an apology that was appropriate for an audience as well. Great.


Review and let me know what you thought of this chapter! Also, take the time to take the poll on my profile.