Alright guys, fair warning, this FT AU is going to also be an AU of our world. I'm using Earth as a basis, but in an attempt to save myself from a lot of research I don't have time for, I'm going to be making up quite a bit of the geography as I go along. I already am, since I've put Magnolia near the equator without choosing an exact spot. I started the story in October, and even though we're working our way towards Christmas, Magnolia won't be getting any snow.

I'm planning on writing about some of the trips Lucy and Natsu will no doubt be taking, but I will be taking creative liberty to construct places that fit what I'm looking for, rather than looking for real places that have what I want for the story. If I do it that way, the updates won't come as often, and I prefer the creative freedom to send them to Virgo's Virgin Villa on a nude beach if I want instead of having to find real vacation spots on real nude beaches. (Not the I necessarily will be sending them there, just that I reserve the right to send them somewhere made up and crazy if I want.)

Serenserious, I apologize for forgetting to answer in the last chapter, but of course there will be other demons (even besides Erza, who we will see again.)

Thanks as always for the love guys, and happy reading!


"So Lu, are you having a party again this year?" Levy asked as she bit into her apple. Levy, Lucy, Cana and Juvia were taking a long lunch since they'd just gotten the all clear that the November issue of the magazine was officially finished.

"I don't think so. Things have been a little crazy this year with Natsu around, and I didn't have time to properly prepare for a Halloween party."

"Aw, but you do one every year," Juvia pouted. "Juvia was going to ask Gray to go with her… You have to have one!"

"I'd help you with food, if that's the problem," Levy said.

"And I know for a fact that you have plenty of decorations. We can all help you set up," Cana added.

"I don't know, guys. There's a lot of clean up that goes into it-"

"You're house is spic and span all the time, Lu, even with your new house guest. What's the real reason?"

Lucy took a large bite of her salad as she contemplated her options. She'd been learning more and more about demons recently from Natsu, and she was pretty sure she didn't like what he had told her. Learning that they liked to find ways to taunt and prank humans through the thinning barrier of their worlds had made her a little twitchy. All she wanted to do was lock herself in her apartment and stay there until sunrise. It didn't help that Natsu was looking forward to being able to drop his facade for the evening. She wasn't sure she wanted the others around while he was like that. The horns and scales could be explained away as just a really good costume, but the size difference was going to be plainly noticeable. How would they not have questions? Maybe she could convince him to just go out and try to blend in at a bar or something…

"I'll think about it," she finally said, ignoring Levy's question. "I don't know what Natsu has planned for the night, so let me talk to him first."

Juvia opened her mouth to speak, but stopped before she said anything. Instead she continued to stare beyond them towards the window facing the street. Levy was the first to notice. "What's up, Juvia?" Juvia smiled and pointed across the room, causing the other three to turn. Cana snorted as she took a drink from her soda while the Juvia and Levy giggled. Natsu was outside of the building, his hands and face pressed against the glass searching the room. Once he spotted their table, he pulled one hand away to wave at them as he grinned.

"What is he doing here?" Lucy mumbled under her breath as she stood.

"Wasn't he supposed to be out of town?" Cana asked.

"Out of the country," Lucy answered. "He just left for Japan on Thursday, he wasn't supposed to be back for another few days. I'll be right back."

As soon as Lucy left the lunchroom, Levy turned back. "Ten dollars says he missed her."

"Twenty says he got her a souvenir," Cana countered.

"Fifty says we can use him to convince her to have the party," Juvia said, drawing smiles from the other two.

"Ooo, I like how you think," Cana said before they all turned to watch the pair outside.

"What are you doing back already?" Lucy asked as she joined Natsu on the sidewalk, conscious of the fact that her friends were still on the other side of the glass, no doubt watching them.

Natsu shrugged. "Happy wasn't impressed with the food. He said seafood isn't quite the same as fish and after the live octopus, he decided he'd had enough. And while it's interesting over there, it's also very loud, and it was hard on my ears."

"I didn't even think of that," she said. "I could have warned you if I had."

"It's not your fault," he reassured her. "It was a fun experience at least, but I don't think I'd like to go back any time soon."

"Well I'm glad you had fun." Lucy glanced at the glass and then turned to lean against it before speaking again. "So, uh, I actually had something to ask you."

"What's up?" He crossed his arms and leaned next to her.

"Well, Halloween is at the end of next week and I was curious what you were going to do."

He looked surprised. "Oh. I guess I hadn't thought about it yet. Usually Erza ropes me into helping her police the more troublesome demons in our world so they don't do anything too crazy to your world. Since I'm here this year, she can't ask me to help, so I can do whatever I want, but I had really only planned on hanging out at your place. Without this," he said, gesturing at himself. "It's nice to have a break every now and then." Lucy nodded, thoughtful. "Why do you ask? Are you trying to make plans?"

Lucy hesitated before answering. "Well, usually I host a party at my place-"

"Awesome! Sounds like fun!"

Lucy raised an eyebrow at him. "You don't even know what we do."

He shrugged, grinning widely. "It's a party and your friends will be there, right? So it's bound to be a good time! Can I come?"

"Uh…" Lucy watched him as he inched closer and closer to her, his dark eyes pleading, and was he sticking out his lip, too?!

"I was actually still trying to decide if I was going to do it this year."

"Why wouldn't you?"

When she realized he was genuinely curious, she sighed and then gestured at him. "Isn't that obvious?"

"What, because I'm here?"

"I don't know if we can reasonably explain away your true form."

"Oh, I wouldn't show up in my true form," he said, his expression serious. "That's not meant for human eyes."

"So the way you were when you showed up wasn't your true form?"

"Absolutely not. I can count on one hand the number of times I've used my true form in this world. The one I showed up in is the one I prefer to use. It requires the least amount of magic to hold, so it doesn't bother me to maintain it."

"Gotcha. Well, my issue still stands. You were like eight feet tall when I met you. That'll be hard to explain away if my friends see you like that."

"I could say I'm using stilts," he suggested.

Lucy blinked at him. Then she blinked again. "Why didn't I think of that?"

He shrugged. "Don't know, but now you have your explanation so you can have your party! I get to come, right?"

"I suppose so," she said. "If you think you can blend in well enough, I can't think of any other reason for you not to."

"Whoo, yeah!" Natsu pumped his fist. "I'm stoked, this is going to be awesome! What do I have to do to get ready? Do you need help planning or decorating or anything?"

"No, the girls have already volunteered. Actually," she corrected herself, "you'll have to find somewhere for Happy to go. I can't explain away a talking, flying blue cat."

"Happy has a human form, too, you know."

"Does he?" Lucy tapped her chin as she reconsidered. "Still, if he came I'd have to come up with some reason for him to be here, too, and I don't want to keep piling on the lies to my friends, you know?"

"I understand, but you'll have to explain it to him. Halloween is his favorite holiday."

"Can't he just go out and do something on his own?"

"Well, usually he-" Natsu froze, mouth parted as he smiled. "Actually, now that I think about it, I think he'll be fine."

Lucy gulped. "What is that smile about? What does he usually do?"

"Nothing!" Natsu stood and dug into his pocket, pulling out a small brown bag to distract her. He took the hand closest to him and closed her fingers around it. "Here. I got you something."

"You… got me something? Why?"

"I missed having you around," he answered with a shrug. "Plus, that's what you humans do, get souvenirs when you go on trips. I didn't even need to do any research to figure that out. Every other shop over there boasted that they had the great souvenirs in the country. Not that I agreed, but I thought you'd like something so I got you that." He started walking backwards away from her as he lifted his hand in a wave. "Have fun at work, I'll see ya when you get home!"

"Alright, thanks! See you later!" Lucy slowly made her way back towards the door as she opened the gift. Reaching in, she pulled out a small crystal Japanese style dragon with the long body, made up of reds, oranges, and yellows. It's mouth was open and it was breathing fire. Lucy smiled as she entered the cafeteria, forgetting for a moment that her friends were waiting for her, until she heard a loud "Ha!"

Startled, she looked up and saw Cana pointing a finger at the other two. "I told you!"

"You told them what?" Lucy asked as she sat back down.

"I told them he was going to get you something, and he did!"

"Probably because he missed her," Levy added, squinting her eyes at Lucy as she blushed. "I'm right, aren't I? Ha! I was right, too!"

Cana stuck her tongue out, but Lucy interrupted her before she could say anything. "Alright, knock it off. Instead of your guys' incessant need to find romantic feelings where there are none, how about you guys start helping me plan the Halloween party? Cana was right, I do-"

Loud laughter from both Cana and Levy made Lucy pause. Her silence turned to confusion when she noticed the smug grin on Juvia's face. "What? What did I miss? Guys? Stop laughing and tell me what I missed!"


As Lucy shut the door to her home, she barely had time to set down her purse before Happy launch himself at her and landed face first in her chest. "LUUUUUUCY! Natsu said I can't come to the Halloween party! He gets to go, how come I can't come, too?!"

Lucy sighed as she wrapped an arm around him so she could lean over and take off her shoes. "Sorry Happy, but I've got enough on my hands keeping an eye on Natsu and making sure he doesn't get himself into any hot water. I don't want to have to keep up lies about both of you, okay? I don't mind doing it once I go out traveling with you guys, but back home, I'll already have to explain why he doesn't come around anymore once you guys go back next year. I don't want to have to do it with both of you."

"Actually, you don't-"

"Hey Lucy, welcome back!" Natsu entered the kitchen as she set her lunchbox on the table.

"Hey. What have you guys been up to this afternoon?"

"Nothing much, just napping."

"Napping? Didn't you sleep on the plane?"

Natsu's face immediately turned green and he put his hand over his mouth as he made a gurgling sound. "He can't sleep well on planes," Happy said. "He gets motion sickness really bad."

She frowned. "Oh, that sucks. I'm sorry."

"Not your fault," Natsu said, a little less green as he looked out the window. "I usually just walk everywhere, so I don't have to worry about it."

"Yeah, before we came here, it had been years since he was in a vehicle. The last was with Erza and-"

"Don't!" Natsu's face turned even greener and sat at the table. He laid his head on the tabletop and focused on his breathing to try and ease the suddenly roiling in his stomach. "Don't mention that, or I really will be sick."

"Sorry," Happy said, flying out of Lucy's grip.

"That reminds me," Lucy said as she sat next to Natsu. "Erza said something while she was here about keeping your secret. I had some questions about that. Wouldn't you guys want humans to know about your kind, so you can make contracts with us? I mean, it's just easier for me to not have to explain why I have a demon living with me, but from your end, why would that be an issue?"

"We've had humans abuse the contracts they've made with demons before, using loopholes to get more out of the demons than they had agreed to. Humans that are thirsty for power have been known to use demons and abuse their abilities; because of that, special rules were made to combat them so that demons couldn't be taken advantage of." He scoffed. "Most don't see the irony in that."

"So how do you stop people who have made deals from telling everyone or making more contracts with the same or other demons?"

"Once a contract is fulfilled, the demon has the right to remove themselves from the memory of the person they were contracted with. Most of them do, especially for the short term contracts. It's harder to erase that knowledge from people who make long term contracts, but demons are good judges of characters, surprisingly. It allows us to be selective about who we make contracts with, so the ones who would abuse the knowledge don't get long term ones.

"The people who do manage to get long term contracts generally only have parts of their memories erased, usually to remove sensitive information to protect the demon. That is, unless both agree in advance to make another contract in the future. Then they usually allow the human keep their memories long term. That hasn't happened in centuries, though. In fact, I think there have been less than half a dozen contracts that have lasted as long as ours will in the millenia that my world has existed, and even less that have agreed to make more than one."

Lucy's eyes widened at his words. So she might not even remember him after he was gone? Suddenly, the year long contract felt too short. She'd gotten used to having Natsu around. While she sometimes missed her privacy, she had realized she liked having him, and even Happy, around in the evening to keep her company. She had grown to care a great deal for the chaotic half demon, half dragon, and she would miss him terribly once he was gone.

He seemed to notice her unhappiness because he smiled. "Don't worry, Luce, I won't take your memories." With a shrug, he added, "I don't have any secrets, and you're too nice to tell anyone anyway, right?"

She blushed, but before she could say anything else he suddenly leaned forward. "So? Tell me about the party! I wanna help!"

Lucy laughed as he practically bounced in his seat. She got up to make a pot of tea as she told him about the plans that she'd already made with her friends. He said he wouldn't take any of her memories, but even if he did, she didn't think she would mind. She would cherish whatever memories she was able to keep. As he launched into a heated argument against one of her choices for the party, she merely smiled as she poured them each a cup, then settled in to listen to his impassioned speech.

With a quiet word, she caused him to fall silent for a moment, pout on his face, before he jumped into a new and more elaborate argument. Yeah, she thought with a smile, whatever memories I get to keep will be enough.