They were idiots. Complete and utter idiots! Why on Earthland did they allow Erza to train them?!

Even Natsu was exhausted and that was saying something. They were nearing their eighth lap around Magnolia and despite Magnolia not being that large, the perimeter stretched at least 20 kilometres.

Lucy was magically keeping up, despite her exhaustion seemingly getting the better of her as her movements were sluggish and she tripped at least twice in the past mile.

Gray and Natsu were still neck and neck, challenging each other silently. It was a matter of speed, stamina and who could glare the hardest while not running into anything.

Wendy was at the back of the group, Charle fluttering beside her gracefully, seemingly fine, but you could see the fatigue in her as well.

Erza was upfront, running as though her life depended on it, and she did not even break a sweat!

Lucy was starting to get suspicious, but not only suspicious, she was also pretty sure she was hallucinating. Was that… a flaming bird on the detour rocky road into the woods? She stopped momentarily and Wendy easily bypassed her. Lucy managed to catch her breath and found herself staring at the flame visible between the trees. She carefully made her way up the rocky slope and towards the scaffolding of the trees, while still keeping her eye on the phoenix.

She wasn't sure how she managed to see the thing, as it was quite a distance in, or maybe it was moving away from her. Nevertheless, she moved forward and kept her eyes locked on the bird. All of a sudden, Lucy found herself in a clearing, with a tranquil lake in front of her, creating a sense of untrustworthy serenity.

She sniffed the air, expecting it to be damp or at least smell leafy, but the air was crisp and rather smelled sweet.

The phoenix surveyed Lucy from its perch on a branch. All of a sudden it burst into garnet flames and shrunk in size once the fire evaporated. Lucy held out her arm horizontally and the flaming bird fluttered down to rest on the open skin of Lucy. The remaining flames on the bird flickered over her skin, but did not burn her, unlike Natsu's raging fires that destroyed nearly everything.

Suddenly the silence was broken by her friends calling for her. Lucy let the bird fly off and she ran into the direction of her friends' calls and vaguely noticed that the bird was following her. She ran with renewed energy down the slope and towards the open road, finding her friends yelling for her.

"Sorry, guys!" she yelled, coming over to the group as they gathered.

"Where did you run off to?" Gray demanded with his eyes uncharacteristically steely.

"Um…. I went Phoenix hunting?" Lucy supplied weakly, gesturing to the bird which had perched on her shoulder.

"Um…. Luce, what the heck is that?" Natsu asked, pointing to the bird on her shoulder.

"Oh, this is a phoenix," Lucy supplied.

"Cool!" Lucy could barely stop him before he had the bird in his hands and was snuggling it to his chest, sneakily licking the flames now and then. The phoenix looked unnaturally calm in Natsu's hold…

"WHY ARE YOU LICKING THE BIRD!?"

They managed to finish the rest of their run in record time, nobody even mentioning Lucy's odd momentary absence. When they returned to the guild for lunch, they all, except for Erza, collapsed at the nearest table. Erza went ahead to the bar to place an order for her team. The bird had followed them, strangely enough, seemingly finding Lucy as a very affectionate partner.

Within minutes the waitresses managed to whip up something for the exhausted team. They dug in and were left alone for the most part, partly since nobody wanted to be hit with flying food from the boys' direction.

The phoenix nibbled on everything he saw, but never bothered the teammates immensely. Wendy was thoroughly attentive to the bird, genuine curiosity in her focused gaze. The guild was rather empty, except for the selected few members who chose to stay and linger, or team members waiting to go on a mission, or returning from such.

BAM!

Lucy sighed. Why did she ever think she was going to have a nice, peaceful lunch?

"Where's Asuka?!" Reiki demanded; his appearance rather frazzled as though he ran just as much as Team Natsu did.

"Which one?" Mirajane piped up, "Tall one or mini one?"

"The mini one! That's it!" he exclaimed, with animated hand gestures, "I'm never babysitting again!"

"When did they get back?" Gray whispered to his teammates.

Erza shrugged.

"Reiki!" the elder Asuka exclaimed, following the Celestial mage into the guild, "Stop losing me!" and lo-and-behold, she held herself in her arms.

Little Asuka was fast asleep, holding tightly onto the lapels of her future self's jacket.

"Oh, thank heavens!" Reiki exclaimed, spinning on his heel and taking the sleeping child out of Asuka's arms.

Lucy decided that watching the two friends converse, was much more pleasing than paying attention to her team's random chatter.

Reiki was gentle with the child is his arms, cradling her like she was his own. It seemed that he had inherited Natsu's fatherly instinct.

The previous night had definitely been an awkward arrangement. Natsu and Lucy had been in a deep discussion until the stroke of midnight, mostly about Reiki and Nashi. Given that they had a rocky romantic relationship, but a solid friendship first and foremost, they had resigned themselves to the fact that one day Lucy was going to be the mother of two very dangerous children, with Natsu as their reckless yet loving father. They had hugged and convinced each other that making a commotion out of it would only cause more tension among them, and they joked that Erza had much more to worry about, what with mothering three children – two of them boys.

Reiki and the elder Asuka was in a deep discussion at the bar, and while the younger Asuka slept, the elder Asuka indulged herself in an alcoholic drink. She seemed apprehensive at whatever Reiki was suggesting, while Reiki had a fierce look in his eyes. Lucy pondered momentarily what they were discussing, but Natsu managed to answer her.

Like he could read her thoughts.

"They're arguing. I think it's about where the rest are," he explained. Lucy looked to her side to face Natsu and nodded, returning her gaze to the duo.

"Do you think we should talk to Reiki?" Natsu interrupted her thoughts.

Lucy shook her head. "We'll wait until Nashi is here first, then we'll discuss it with them."

Lucy watched as Reiki exhaled heavily, obviously frustrated.

Then a firm, "No," before he stood up and left the guild with the little Asuka still in his arms. Mirajane stopped by with that angelic smile, prepared to fill their glasses with more water.

"How was training?"

"A night- I mean it was really fun. We even found a phoe-," Lucy stopped short, noticing the phoenix's lack of presence.

"Where'd it go?" Natsu murmured, glancing around frantically.

"Hey, Mira, when did the kids get back?" Gray asked, interrupting the two mages search for the flaming bird.

Mira shrugged, but answered nonetheless. "It's only those two. They came back this morning, and Alzack and Bisca needed a babysitter, so they had him take care of the kid."

"Did they honestly believe that leaving Asuka with her future self as well was a good idea?" Erza asked, clearly not amused.

Mira giggled softly and tucked the tray under her arm.

"It was only Reiki here at that point. I couldn't watch over her – I don't have the time," Mira explained, "And besides, Reiki is a sucker for kids. Actually, all the boys are – it's sweet."

"It's weird," Gray commented dryly. "Guess it's genetically transmitted."

They all seemingly turned their gazes to Natsu and Lucy, who were in an avid and animated discussion as they left the guild to go hunting for the bird.

What a strange couple…

"That was a piece of cake!" Danielle exclaimed cheerily, her arms outstretched above her.

"For you maybe," Selene drawled sarcastically. "I nearly had my head bit off and if it weren't for Lamina, I'd be a goner."

"I don't know why you didn't just throw a Molotov cocktail into its throat. It's your specialty, ain't it?" Giselle asked innocently. She skipped pleasantly ahead across the dirt road, not even bothering with slowing down so the rest can keep up.

"My Molotov was used on the mayor," Selene admitted sheepishly.

"Oh, yeah, by the way, that's not happening again," Nashi interjected sharply.

"What, throwing customers with poisonous and flammable liquids or using said poisonous and flammable liquids?" Selene asked.

"Both."

"Hey, does anyone know if Edward or Ur is dropping by again?" Danielle asked.

"Edward took Storm with him; don't know where they are, and I don't care," Nashi muttered.

"Where are we heading anyway?" Lamina asked. "We're not even heading to the guild."

"You know where we're heading. I told you this morning."

"I was doped on coffee, you can't hold anything against me since then."

"We're going to visit my grandpa," Nashi told them and for once her friends fell silent.

"Grandpa?"

"Yup, grandpa."