I'm really sorry for the very late update.

Chapter 7

One comes back full of determination...

...the other goes off with nothing but uncertainty

Zeref walked about around the woods aimlessly. He had been right, the place was very calm and peaceful and numbed his powers, though his mind was far from being at peace. If he was being truthful to himself, it had a lot more to do with the previously met fairy queen than the meeting in terms of proportions. He had thought that with time maybe, just a little, but maybe his varying feelings for her had lessened; but it proved to be the opposite. Many a times, he had to force himself to concentrate what actually both the sides were saying. If he hadn't been the heika, definitely he would have rushed towards the girl; fairy or not, their queen or not. He wouldn't have cared a damn and...and what? Crush her little body to his? Or wring that tender neck of hers? He wasn't ready to forgive her as of yet, he might not be able to. Just because of her, he had to lose so much of himself. 'No...' he thought, he would have forgiven her for anything, no matter how much she hurt him. But it wasn't just him who was hurt; because of her he had almost lost Natsu. His innocent little brother, who didn't even have any part to do with whatever happened between him and Mavis.

'No.' he thought more firmly this time. Because of her, because of him, Natsu had suffered limitlessly that time. He stopped his walk. 'Not anymore. Not this time.' he decided. He ran through his mind with what happened.

For few moments, he stared at her astral body wordlessly. He couldn't make the words to say in his mind because it was busy in the fight between his urge to let the memories and now her presence to fill his every part ,and his self-preservation to save him from those cursed passion that made him want to die sometimes just to stop them from blasting his mind off.

"Heika-sama." Invel said questioningly. Zeref turned to see his commander-in-chief looking at him worryingly. Which crashed him to the harsh reality and graveness of their current situation. 'Put yourself together Zeref.' he thought, the self-preservation mode of his mind winning and taking over. Taking control of himself, he said, "No...it is us who should be thankful to you for thinking of such an event."

Her expression remained unchanged when she carried on, "It would have been meaningless if you hadn't agreed upon it. Also, you decided to come over here rather than us going to your kingdom."

At once everyone behind Zeref became stiff, expecting it to be trap and thus a full-on attack. The fairies also braced themselves in turn. But before anyone could make a move, Mavis carried on calmly, "I understand. Being here makes your people uncomfortable, so why don't we directly proceed to the matter? And I assure you, no one will attack from our side, unless it's of course for defense purpose."

Zeref signaled off his crew to stand down and replied with the same calmness, "Here likewise..." he turned to Silver with questioning look on his face, of course concerned for still-not-appeared Natsu. Silver shook his head in negative. Wanting to wrap the tension up as soon as possible without further waiting, he continued, "Shall we then?"

Natsu hadn't arrived till almost the end of the discussion, thus missing the whole thing. Thus now he was currently trapped with Invel's lecturing! Zeref chuckled lightly at the thought.

Now, he was surer than ever. He didn't know what was going through Mavis' mind; but he would never put his brother's life in danger again. Moreover, it wasn't just Natsu this time...he also had brought his people along with him, who were loyal and totally dependent on his and his decisions alone. He couldn't risk their lives as well. He turned to walk the way back, his decision made firmly. If Mavis wanted peace; he would give her so, forgetting everything what happened before; but if it was war that she wanted, he would take out every painful feelings he felt because of her to wipe her presence entirely.

...

"Denka-sama. How could you be so careless, especially when we are in Tenrou? Do you even realize how much you made us worried?" Invel asked strictly. Natsu shrugged off slightly. Inside, he was getting tired of all that nag-nag; it had been years since he got himself under Invel's scoldings. He replied boredly, "Yea..."

" 'YEA...', MY ASS! You wouldn't have even thought of doing such thing if you had realized!" shouted Invel, finally losing his control.

Natsu shrunk at the sudden change in Invel's composure. And when Invel lost his calm, nothing good came out of it, never for him at the very least! No more excuses now...they won't work anymore...So Natsu quickly blurted out to sidetrack him, "I found some secret treasure of the fairies that they had hidden!"

"Huh?" everyone in the hall said out loud.

They had been escorted to another site, where they would be staying the further days in Tenrou until matters were sorted. It was a little far from the main settlement of the fairies, for security reasons, but it was nice. As usual, there were nothing but forestation in the surrounding. Even the rooms were carved in the tree trunks. There was a moderate sized building in between, that comprised of a single big hallroom kind of thing, where they all could gather to eat or pass time. Bad or not, the fairies sure knew how to provide hospitality to guests.

Gildarts asked Invel in a drawling manner, "What the hell is he saying?"

Even Invel was wordless; Natsu's plan certainly had worked!

"Geez...again?!" exclaimed an irritated Gray. "He has been sprouting off this nonsense about fairy treasure since we found him. He has finally fried his remnants of the little brain he had!"

"SHUT UP FROZEN PANTS! You wanna have a round huh?!"

"Natsu...do consider we are not at home, so don't start your brawling here." Zeref said humorously.

"Heika-sama." everyone began to stand up in greeting.

"Please be at ease." Turning to Natsu, he said, "So, what happened Natsu? You wandered off yet again. I was quite worried. This is not a place where you will be forgiven for anything that goes wrong." Zeref said seriously which was enough to make Natsu feel guilty.

When he didn't give any response, Zeref said, more softly this time, "Please be alert here Natsu. Sure we are here for truce, but you never know what might happen. You could at least take someone with you. Realize that you are the denka of Alvarez and act accordingly. Gray, Wendy, you have my sincere thanks for bringing him back. Anyways, I'm sure you all are tired with today's hectic activities, please make sure to rest fully. That's all. I'll leave you all for your further activities." Zeref began to walk towards his room when Natsu halted him, "Nii-san , wait! What about the fairy treasure?"

"Ooh...You were not making that up to distract Invel then?!" Silver asked, much to Invel's annoyance.

"NO! It's true! Nii-san, I'm sure there is something that the fairies are hiding."

Natsu had now everyone's full attention. Zeref said somberly, "Tell us what happened Natsu. Be brief as possible and don't leave any details."

Natsu nodded and recounted his encounter with the blonde fairy. By the time he was finished, everyone was confused. Who was this fairy? And why hide her in a barrier?

"She might be a powerful fairy. She must be their ultimate attack plan towards us." Gray said.

"No, she wasn't that strong. Not that she wasn't something, but not as strong as someone to defeat us all. I have felt her powers." Natsu disagreed.

"Then why hide her from us? Juvia doesn't understand at all." Juvia confusingly said.

"They even had kept a track of her. Who did you say noticed?" Silver asked.

Natsu tried to remember the name, his brows furrowing in process, "Umm...that Loke guy said some 'corn' noticed...what corn I don't remember."

Others sweat-dropped at the half-name produced by him.

"Oye Natsu. I know you are hungry...we all are. But don't jumble up people's and food's name together!" Gildarts said sluggishly.

"I'M NOT MAKING IT UP! There really was such a guy. He did had 'corn' in his name!" shouted back Natsu.

"This is really frustrating. We don't have any proper lead for this fairy lady." Silver said.

Zeref agreed, "It won't matter if we discuss about her anymore. It will lead to nowhere, considering the lack of information. Let's stop for today. And let's watch out for that guy Natsu told. " Back to Natsu, he asked again, "Umm...you really sure about the name?"

"Not YOU too!" accused Natsu.

Invel concluded "Alright alright. We get it. Let heika-sama go and rest. And you all too. Food is arriving shortly. Eat your fill up, whatever the food maybe because you are to remain active tomorrow as well."

Everyone relaxed and resumed their talks and activities.

Natsu sat with his hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling. He still wasn't able to shove away any thoughts regarding Lucy. Earlier conversation with the lot had let to increase his curiosity by countless folds. She intrigued him to no bounds.

Was she really some fairy super plan to destroy the them? Now he began to doubt whether the little ministration she gave earlier was her full capacity power or not. She had said so herself, part of him wanted to believe her, other part of him wanted himself to be wary of her.

Natsu was very instinctual. He did what he felt. But this fairy had messed up badly with his instincts as well.

But there was a high possibility of getting things cleared up the next day now that he had told everyone. They all would try to find about her...Did he want that? Suddenly he was regretting telling about Lucy to others.

Natsu was astonished at the unexpected track his thoughts were going on. The room now felt a bit cramped to him. Wanting to go outside, he stood up.

"Denka, they are bringing food shortly." Invel said at his movement.

"No, I'm not hungry now. I will eat later. I'm going out for a bit. I will stay close and not go far off." Natsu replied and went out.

"What's wrong with him?" Silver asked Invel.

"I don't know. But before the discussion, heika-sama had said the exact words and wandered off."

They shrugged it off as genetics of behaviors.

It was anything but common. Natsu was in turmoil. What should he do? He needed to do something about Lucy. What if it ended up with war among the two kinds? Never ever did he have to think before any kind of fight. Natsu Dragneel couldn't opt whether to fight or protect the enigma that had filled his mind and senses...Lucy.

I'm really really sorry for such a late update. To be truthful, I don't know when my next update will be. It's hard to come up with the scenarios, but I want to give you guys my best. So please be patient with me.

And...this chapter, I know a lot of new things and turns from the past. I assure you they all will get cleared up gradually. Thank you all.