Poll Update: Lyon has officially been eliminated. Sorry Lyon, but there's only room for one ice mage in Lucy's heart... And Loke is back in the game! He's tied for last with one of my OC's, so everyone should put in their vote as soon as possible. By the next update, whoever is last, whether there are two or even three choices that have the least amount of votes, will get eliminated. That means, as of right now, the options for Loke and OC are on the line. Vote ASAP for the one who deserves Lucy's broken heart!

And I don't own Fairy Tail! Rating is completely subject to change. :p Have fun reading!


Chapter 7


Upon hearing the clatter, the two quickly separated from each other and continued laying there nervously. Lucy stared at the sky, still a hazy blue color, while Gray followed suit.

"Hey, hey, you two are finished already?" Natsu complained with his arms crossed. "Dang it, we missed the show!"

"Honestly, Gray. You could've made it last a little longer," Lyon shook his head. "Or were you too weak for Lucy?"

Lucy chuckled, sitting up slowly. "Wrong, Lyon. We ended in a draw. But only because I didn't allow Loke to attack, only defend."

"Why didn't you just allow Loke to attack with you?" Rogue wondered aloud. "After all, you will be facing Faire. You'll need all the advantages you can get. Even if you were simply trying to prove your own strength, now isn't the right time to do that."

Sting smirked as he threw an arm over his best friend's shoulders. "Aw, he's just being stingy about you ending the training session with a draw to Gray of all people. We all know you're powerful, so we were kind of expecting Gray to be kissing dirt right now."

"Hey," Gray bit back at that insult. "I'm not as weak as you, blondie."

Sting shrugged and made eye contact with Lucy. "I'm not the only blondie here."

"M-Me?" Lucy gave Gray a look.

"No, no," Gray stuttered as he stripped off his pants as well, "I meant Sting! I swear!"

"Ooh, he insulted you Lucy," Sting laughed.

The afternoon was wrapped up with everyone eating a fine dinner made by Gajeel, who was rather handy with an iron skillet. The small group of strong mages ate and laughed, telling stories and jokes long after their plates had been cleared.

Lucy didn't remember the last time she had such a lively dinner so happily with friends. Eating with her spirits in the past was always quiet and solemn, as she ate alone and as quickly as possible in order to get back to training right away. Though she didn't regret it, it sure would have been a nice break had she taken her time to eat with her fellow companions, now that she actually thought about it.

It certainly had been a while where she had had so much fun consistently. Of course, that's a given with the Fairy Tail guild...and Magnolia Manor as well.


It had barely hit dawn, as Lucy had noticed when the small beam of warm light fluttered over her face. Suddenly, out of nowhere, she heard incessant screams of her name from outside of her now charcoal-black window—still crumbling and steaming hot from the looks of it.

"Now, who could have possibly done that?" the blonde said through intensely gritted teeth and clenched fists.

She stood up, stretching a bit to calm herself down as if it would actually be of help. Her hands motioned to try to open the glass frame, if only it didn't dissolve into dust and ashes from the mere touch of her fingers. Apparently the windows were not as sturdy as the rest of the house. "Natsu," she sighed as she stuck her head out of the hole in her room, finding the pinkette on the ground with a big grin on his face. "It's 6 A.M., and I don't want to even ask why the fuck my window is gone."

"Obviously because I burned it!" he laughed as if it were a casual occurrence—which it probably was to the fire dragon slayer. "I couldn't sleep all night because I was so fired up over training with you Luce! I trained all night and once I saw the sunrise, I knew the day had only just begun! Come on, let's fight!"

As much as Lucy would love to say she was thankful, it really was only 6 in the morning, and the entire house had only slept at 3 A.M., meaning she had only three hours of sleep in her system. No way would she be able to battle Natsu with her eye bags as dark as her new window frame. "Natsu, I think you should wake me up in like, five hours. Good night." With that, she plopped right back into bed, squeezing a pillow tightly for comfort.

Of course, as if that would stop the pinkette. "Luuuuuuceeee," he groaned as he leaped onto the roof of the first floor and climbed into her room through the non-existent window. "Come on... Let's train, I've been waiting foreeeever!"

"Nooo," she grumbled half-asleep.

"If you don't, I'll start looking through your stuff..." Natsu said quietly, peeking over his shoulder to see that the blonde was still asleep. Since she was, he whistled softly outside the window, and immediately came Happy in flight.

"Natsu? Whatcha doin' in Lucy's room?"

"Shh!" the pinkette said while he grinned to himself, peeking into several drawers. "Come on, let's play ninja!"

"Ohh," the blue cat snickered as he flew over to his comrade's side. "We haven't played since the last time we got into Faire's room!"

"Yeah, but those were seriously dusty as hell because she never uses them anyways! But Lucy's are always nice and—oh look, I found the stash!" the fire dragon slayer whispered giddily as they were about to grab their favorite color...

BONK!

"What do you two think you're doing," Lucy said as she was suppressing a growl, her teeth gritted as her fists picked up the two panty thieves, whose heads were swelling from the previous hit. "You damn perverts!" she yelled as the two were tossed outside and into the sky, a gleam noting how far they had flown from Lucy's powerful and fury-filled swing. The blonde watched with satisfaction as they plummeted into the ground like meteors, still smoking as they emerged from the craters they had made in the front yard.

"Aw, come on Luce, fight me," Natsu managed to sputter out as he flew out of the hole in the ground with Happy carrying him into the air and towards the celestial mage. "I don't want to wait anymore!"

With a sigh, Lucy decided to agree. "Fine. We'll end this before breakfast and loser has to treat the other one to Fairy Diner!"

Happy shook his head, clicking his tongue. "We eat there waaaaay too much, let's just go fishing!"

"Alright, a treat to Fairy Diner is the prize! Last man standing wins. Ready to blaze?"

Lucy only smirked back at the pinkette, stealing his line as she did a flip over him and landed gracefully on the ground.

"I'm all fired up, Natsu!"


It was way too early in the morning to be awake, but the rest of the manor's residents were all lined up on the side as spectators, all studying Lucy's moves intently for their own day of training. That is, until Natsu nearly burnt all of them after his attack missed Lucy and went straight for them.

"Can your brain get any more burnt? Watch it!" Gray barked at the fire dragon slayer as he stood up. "Geez, I'm going in." The others grumbled and ended up following the ice molder as well, not wanting to burn out before the day even began.

"You chased our crowd away, Natsu," Lucy laughed as she shot up in the air with Aquarius by her side, though as irritated of a partner as always.

"I can't believe you woke me up for this crap," Aquarius groaned angrily. "I'm only spending another fifteen minutes with you before I go back to sleep, got it?"

"Water always beats fire. It'll be done quicker than that much time," the blonde grinned as she felt her blazing opponent charge at her. "Celestial Dragon's Tidal Roar!" she yelled as she put her hands to her mouth and unleashed a furious source of liquid energy towards Natsu, who had his own roar coming at her.

"Two can play at that game," Natsu said as his cheeks began to inflate with magic. "Fire Dragon's Roar!"

The two blasts of power collided, causing both sides to be temporarily blinded from the aftermath. The power was apparently equal... Lucy couldn't believe that one of her attacks was on equal par with the Natsu she had always known. It was...exhilarating.

The two landed on their feet, skidding along the ground to a dusty halt. Both had grins, enjoying this battle as though it were the time of their lives.

"Celestial Dragon's Crashing Wings!" Lucy yelled, charging head-on with both her arms spread wide with roaring waves by their sides. Natsu stood for a second to simply watch Lucy in all her glory, the tsunami of her arms about to collide with his body.

"Happy!" the pinkette yelled as he was quickly swooped out of danger by the flying cat. "If you get to use a friend, why don't I?"

Unfazed by his dodge, the celestial mage made a u-turn with a strong leap right at the floating fire dragon slayer. "Fair enough," she said, her arms still filled to the brim with catastrophic energy aimed right for Natsu. Of course, Happy naturally flew out of the way, until Natsu noticed that Lucy was never really aiming for him in the first place.

Acting as fast as possible, she flipped midair using the water from her arms to support her and placed her hands immediately to her mouth.

Natsu saw it coming. "Happy, drop me now!" Nodding, Happy quickly let go of the pinkette, but Lucy too saw his actions ahead of time. She had already pinpointed the place he was going to land.

"Celestial Dragon's Tidal Roar!" A mighty blast of stormy waters came blasting at the pinkette right when his feet were about to touch the ground. A grand explosion sounded, with mist and steam in the air.

"Steam...?" Lucy wondered before she realized what had happened. So Natsu wasn't all brawl after all these years, proven as he stood a meter deep in the ground with only minor damage. That wouldn't have been possible had he not encased his entire body in flames just a nanosecond before Lucy's attack hit him.

"Good try, Lucy, but it's almost breakfast. Which means it's time to finish this up," he grinned, running at full speed before Lucy could even comprehend his words. His speed was unbelievable, but this was no time for the blonde to be in awe. As his figure took flight right above her, she knew she had to do something before Natsu went all out on her before she could go all out as well.

This time, it was a battle of their strongest move—or at least the strongest they could muster up this early in the morning.

Lucy quickly took up a stance, the pressure from her magic creating a crater in which she stood as Natsu was slowly falling toward her.

It was now or never.

"Fire Dragon's..." Natsu slowly growled, the fire building within him, slowly expanding outside in a furious blaze. "Brilliant Flame!"

"Celestial Dragon's Typhoon Dance!" Lucy retaliated with dancing waterspouts descending from the stormy clouds that had brewed in the sky.

Water collided with fire, and a destructive blast sent the two flying in opposite directions yet again.A humid-like atmosphere took over the air, making it both moist yet warm from the aftermath of the two attacks from the slayers.

However, as Lucy laid on the floor continuing to catch her breath, Natsu had already gotten up despite his exhaustion. He sauntered over to the tired blonde, grinning at his victory.

"Last man standing wins."

"Oh shut up, once I get some food into me, I'll be at full power against you! Not to mention some shut-eye too..."

"Right, food!" Natsu said in a hurry, not even bothering to dust himself off before charging into the house to grab his things with Happy, and storming right off out the gates. "You can treat me to dinner later today instead of breakfast. I'm late for work!"

Lucy sat up, waving goodbye to the two with a tired smile as they disappeared beyond the hills.


By the time it was evening, all the residents of the manor aside from Faire had joined up in the living room. Gajeel was in his room, the strumming of his electric guitar barely shaking the soundproof walls of the house. Lyon and Gray were in the kitchen making cold food, and Rogue and Sting were in front of the living room television angrily battling each other on the Wii.

"Take that, Rogue!" Sting swung his remote constantly.

"You keep doing that, but I'll just block until I have the right moment. Like right now." Rogue swiftly swung his at one point, and the screen displayed Sting's character on the ground.

"I hate boxing!" The blonde dragon slayer yelled. "Let's play baseball!"

"See you guys later!" Lucy said as she slid down the stairs. The four downstairs immediately turned their heads, wondering where the blonde was headed. They all almost knew once their brain processed the periwinkle floral dress she had on right when she landed on her toes, covered by baby blue flats. Her white designer bag flew right behind her down the stairs and landed straight onto her shoulder. "Me and Natsu are headed out for dinner."

"Thanks for the invite~~~" Gajeel opened the door and sang (quite horribly at that) down the staircase, followed by an intense electric solo.

"Hey Luce," Natsu grinned, leaping from the top of the stairs and landing right next to her in a snazzy maroon tee and black jeans. Sting was about to make a snarky comment until his eyes landed on the pinkette's insanely white shoes.

"WHOA WHOA WHOA, those are some sick kicks! Where'd you get those? I ordered them by catalog a hella long time ago, but my package was never delivered-"

"Uh, Lucy, let's get going," Natsu grinned as he picked the blonde up in his arms like a princess. "We're outta here guys!" The two quickly flashed through the door, smoke trailing behind Natsu's blazing speed before Sting could put one and one together to make two.

"Those are MY shoeeeeeesssssssss!"


Mirene: Who doesn't want some NaLu next chapter? Plenty of scenes from their dinner date coming soon and of course, who could forget Rogue and Sting's day of brawling as well.

If you haven't noticed, I revamped the latest chapters a bit. More info in my author's note at the bottom of the last chapter!

VOTE FOR LUCY'S SOULMATE ON MY POLL! DO IT OR RISK YOUR OTP LOSING...

And please drop off a review!