Opening the wooden guild doors had sent a rush of warm air out onto the front step, and Lucy took a moment to close her eyes and listen to the merriment happening inside. Stepping in, the content smile on her face grew into a large grin and that same warmth from before found its way in and spread throughout her chest. She felt happiest here and everyday was a new adventure or a new memory that she wouldn't trade for the world. Lucy made her way to the bar but took time to say hello or shriek at some of the more ridiculous members.

Laughter and the smell of breakfast moved through the guild as Lucy happily ate her pancakes. Gray had stopped to sit down and they had a really great conversation about everything happening with them lately. It was nice talking to Gray because he was a really great listener. He was intelligent and rational (most of the time) and was relatively easy to hold a conversation with. Sure, he could be a bit harsh or cold but in her time with Fairy Tail and after everything all of them had gone through together, Gray had come to be like an older brother to her. They watched out for each other, listened, laughed, and would often bond through relaxing together when the guild just got to be too much. His presence soon became regular and comforting, especially these past couple days with Natsu gone. He was the one that helped keep the loneliness at bay.

Lucy genuinely hoped that he would get it together with Juvia, but she wasn't sure it would be happening too soon. She would most likely have to continue to fend off the scary glares from Juvia, but she couldn't help but hope that spring would bring new love and happiness to her guild, including herself. It'd been a long time since Lucy had gone on a date. She'd been so busy with jobs and her novel that she really just couldn't find the time to go out and meet anybody that would meet her high standards. As a mage, she met new people every day, but for some reason none of them seemed to generate any romantic interest. Poor Mira was probably dying to set her up, and maybe one of these days she would take the crazy woman up on her offer. Natsu would probably try to intimidate whoever she chose, just like he always did. Stupid.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Gray snapping his fingers in front of her face, and bringing her back to reality.

"Wow, you were pretty out of it…penny for your thoughts?"

"It's nothing, really."

"You're missing Flame head?"

"No! Why would I miss that idiot?!...I think I'm just...worried about him. It's really unusual for him to just up and leave like that, especially without any of us with him."

"Well, I mean, not really if you think about it."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it's been a long time since it happened but he used to do it all the time before you came around. He was pretty reckless, and don't get me wrong, he loved us and everyone else in the guild, but he was gone pretty often. He was always off investigating some rumor and searching for Igneel, and then you came around and suddenly he had someone waiting for him back home."

Lucy blushed when she realized what Gray meant. It was true that Natsu was often near her, since the two had grown practically inseparable over the time they had known each other, even more so after the Grand Magic Games. Of course, not everyone in the guild knew about the little incident that occurred involving the death of her future self. She still sometimes had nightmares, but most nights, the stupid idiot had already snuck into her bed and was there to comfort her and talk to her about it. He was always reminding her that they were safe and he would do everything in his power to keep it that way. She guessed she understood what Gray was talking about, but when she tried to imagine life at the guild without Natsu's constant presence, she couldn't and that baffled her for a few moments as she contemplated the impact that the flaming fool had on her.

"Wow. He's really on your mind isn't he?"

Gray laughed as Lucy turned red and immediately started yelling and getting defensive.

'Just like a true Fairy Tail mage,' he thought. In the back of his mind he had the smallest hope that Natsu would get his shit together for Lucy's sake. The guy was devoted, he'd give him that, but he wasn't sure that would be enough to make the dynamic between him and Lucy last. 'Dude has got to learn how to take a look at reality and grow up.'

But for now the slight upturn at the corner of Lucy's mouth told him everything he needed to know.

A moment later the guild doors burst open and a small wave of heat made its way throughout the room. Lucy already knew who it was but turned around in her seat to make sure. As she expected, her eyes landed on Natsu, squinty-eyed and large infectious smile, standing in the doorway carrying a large burlap sack on one shoulder and a disgruntled pink Happy on the other. Lucy decided to make Natsu work a little harder than usual in apologizing and turned around to ignore him and finish her breakfast.

"I'm back!"

Various greetings traveled amongst Natsu and the members as he walked over to Mira to update his status with the mission to complete. He also decided to order a meal and with a bit of sweet talking and silly face induced giggles, he was able to to convince her to light it on fire for him so that he could restore his magic quicker; however, she did charge him extra. He'd already smelled Lucy when he entered the guild, so he searched for her blonde head of hair and walked over to the table where he'd spotted her eating with Gray.

"Heya Luce!"

Silence. Lucy continued to eat her food as if he hadn't sat down a little over a foot away from her. Natsu figured she just hadn't heard him. Lucy was weird like that sometimes.

"Hey! Luce, look it's me! I'm back!"

Still nothing. Natsu's face screwed up in confusion and Lucy just continued to pretend he didn't exist, even going so far as to look up at Gray and speak to him.

"Gray do you hear something?"

Gray snickered at the disgruntled look on Natsu's face and decided to play along with Lucy's little charade.

"Why, whatever do you mean?"

"Well, you know, I thought that I heard my partner sit down and try to talk to me, but that can't be right because he would never suddenly leave on a mission without me and then not talk to me or get in touch with me, forcing me to worry about him for a whole week. He would never-"

"ALRIGHT LUCE! I-I get it ok?"

Gray scoffed at Natsu's response. It was as he thought, one of these days Natsu was gonna need to grow up.

"You got somethin' to say Popsicle?"

"Focus on your current problem, lame brain. You know where to find me." And with that Gray got up and walked over to the bar in an attempt to avoid the argument that he knew was coming.

"Ugh, that guy…" Natsu clenched his fist and glared at Gray's back.

"Ahem."

Natsu looked back at Lucy as if he had just remembered that she was there and quite upset with him, and she could feel a headache coming on. She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples and when she looked back at Natsu he was looking down and patiently waiting to be scolded. 'Well at least he's got the decency to look guilty about it,' she thought. She looked back up at him again and let out a heavy sigh. She couldn't stay mad at him for long and all of the tension in her shoulders fell away.

"You understand why I'm upset right?"

"I think so. I'm really sorry Lucy. I'll try not to do it again."

"Alright"

Lucy could accept that. He hadn't meant to upset her, he had simply been his reckless self, and most days that's what she loved about her best friend. Today was just one of the days when it made her worry about him and she wasn't used to it. She smiled at him as he absent mindedly slurped at a flame from his food. He was real cute when he felt guilty, almost like a puppy.

"So you gonna tell me about this super-secret mission?"

He looked up to see her doing his signature ninja pose and a large grin broke out on his face. He spent the next 30 minutes recounting to her the details of his latest mission. She listened enthusiastically when he told her about all of the cool monsters he got to fight, laughed at his description of all of the crazy characters he met, and jumped right into enjoying the stories that he had to share with her. The two had become lost in their own world and the rest of the guild sat back and relished in the happy aura coming from their direction of the building. This was what Natsu liked the most about Lucy, the way she enjoyed his adventures, even when she went on them and complained all the time, because in the end she always took his hand and followed him to their next one. They were busy laughing at the story of how Happy came to be pink when the guild doors opened and let in a slight breeze and soft ray of sunshine.

"Um, hello, I'm looking for Lucy Heartfilia?"