"Finally!" Lucy panted, desperately attempting to keep upright as she waited to hear her final time.

"…Ten minutes." Lucy would have jumped for joy had she had any feeling left in her legs, but then again, she also had to wait until Cory decided if he approved or not. She glanced over at him, ignoring the vigorous obstacle course behind her that had been the source of her pain for three days now, each day having added a new piece to the already painful 'playground'. Cory looked down at his notes, then back up at Lucy, then to the obstacle course, before looking back down at his notes. He repeated this cycle several times, trying Lucy's patience indefinitely before shrugging and stretching. "I guess you can take a small break for now."

"Yes!" Lucy collapsed happily on the soft grass, rolling onto her back and allowing the soft breeze of early October to cool her skin. "Cory~! Water~!" She whined, smirking a bit as Cory succumbed to her needs, leaning over into the cooler beside his chair and snagging out a water bottle, tossing it over to Lucy who barely sat up in time to greedily accept it, throwing her head back and guzzling down as much as she could in the process. As she consumed the drink, she subconsciously allowed some to drip down her chin, along her sweat-glazed neck, past her prominent collarbone and down in the crevice of her brea-

"Cory!" Lucas barked, snapping said mage from his dirty thoughts as he turned to his dark haired friend, smiling sheepishly. Lucas had his hands deep in his black dress pants, slouching over menacingly as he snarled at Cory who, despite the rather warm nature of the day, wore his usual black jacket and jeans, happy to be back in his rightful clothing again instead of in Lucas' which he had to because of the latest mission. "Keep thoughts clean!" Cory nodded quickly, shooting a slight glare at Alex who, positioned beside Lucas, had obviously given him away. Turning back to Lucy, he found himself rather surprised to see that she was staring past him, lips puckered and eyebrows drawn close together in a rather cute, confused expression. Her chocolate eyes, Cory noted, were locked tightly on Lucas.

Cory chuckled a bit, but Lucy paid him no heed and continued staring at the well-dressed man from across the field. "Liking what you see?" Cory was no idiot. Lucy was attractive, as well as, dare he say it, Lucas, who found that most of the women he came across would flirt heavily with him. Of course, since what had happened with his past love, Lucas never cared much for another relationship, but if Lucy was interested, Cory was pretty sure that the girl's determination would not be stopped again by a past love...

"Wha- What do you mean?" The blonde stuttered, wide, innocent eyes turning to Cory. Had he not been looking for it, said mage probably would have never noticed the light blush that had now being to crawl up Lucy's neck. The Nature Dragon-Slayer smirked, chewing on a piece of bark he snapped off of a near-by tree. Lucy grimaced at his, scrunching her nose in disgust. "I still don't understand how you do that."

Cory raised an eyebrow, holding up his bark. "What? Eat? It's a part of my element, dammit! And stop changing the conversation! We're talking about your fail of a love-life!" As though she had eaten some of her own element, Lucy's energy was back in a flash as she launched to her feet, face beet-red in a mixture of anger and embarrassment.

"My love life is not a fail and I was not looking at him like that! I was merely observing!" The busty blonde crossed her arms across her chest and nodded, as though confirming her own argument.

Cory snorted and stood as well, although he seemed to be reverting back to his calm demeanor. "Oh please! You know you loved that kiss~"

Before Lucy could retort, Alex interrupted, jogging over from his position across the field, holding golden and silver items in his hand. "My keys!" Lucy exclaimed brightly, completely forgotten her anger at Cory as she ran to meet Alex halfway. "Am I allowed to start training with them again? I haven't called them out since I got here!"

Alex smiled as Lucy pouted, but despite her sour attitude, she was aware enough to notice that there was something off about that smile of his. It didn't hold his usual mischief, but something much heavier, something that she was far more familiar with: sadness. Before she should even ask, Alex shook his head and nodded to her keys. "Not training, but I need to speak with Leo. I heard a bit of the conversation last night while passing by our compound and I need to clear something with him." He couldn't help but be amused at the fact that Lucy's face immediately flushed in guilt. "Don't worry, I won't tell the others, but I really do need to talk to him."

Admittedly, Lucy was slightly reluctant to call out Loke, only to have him leave her side immediately. Yes, she was being selfish, but it was rare that she could speak to any of her spirits since her team kept her keys locked away until they decided it was time to start training with them as well. For Mavis' sake, she wasn't even allowed to call out Plue! But, the look in Alex's eyes, the well-hidden worry and sadness forced Lucy to think twice. Sighing, she pulled Loke's key off of her ring and raised it, slashing it downwards as she called, "Open, Gate of the Lion, Loke!"

There was a bright flash, forcing Lucy and Alex to flinch for a moment before the young Stellar Spirit appeared, throwing his arms around Lucy's body tightly, exclaiming how much he missed her and such before Lucy pushed him away, rolling her eyes and sighing, "The jig's up, Loke. Alex heard us talking last night…"

At the sound of Alex's name, Loke whipped around to face the Mind Dragon-Slayer, his face suddenly serious. "Loke," Alex greeted quietly. Loke bowed his head once in recognition before turning back to his master in curiosity.

"Loke," Lucy whispered, finding her arms wrapping back around him. She had found herself doing this as well the night before. He was her last connection to Fairy Tail it seemed and it was comforting having him around, though she would never tell him that. Every time she brought up their old guild, Loke's anger would swell and he would quickly excuse himself and close his own gate, leaving Lucy clueless, alone and confused. "Alex wants to speak with you privately, okay?"

Loke nodded, smiling down at her reassuringly. "I know you'll miss me princess-" she scoffed and quickly pushed him in Alex's direction, but he ignored it. "But I'll be back soon~!" Alex and Loke both laughed at Lucy's mutterings of annoyance as she turned back to Cory, but the humor was soon gone as Alex signaled the Stellar Spirit to follow him.

The climb up the tree and walk across the bridge to Alex's personal compound was silent and tense, but there was a clear sense of camaraderie between the two that anyone could see. As they entered the large room, Alex shut the door behind him, motioning for Loke to join him at the center table. The orange-haired man sat at the chair across from him, but refused to start the conversation, so Alex was forced to.

"Thank you, by the way." Loke raised an eyebrow at the man in front of him. "For giving me permission to show the others her memories."

Loke scowled down at his hands. "It wasn't right of me to do so. Those were her most precious and most terrifying moments. You should have asked her."

"No," Alex whispered. "You know that would have only hurt her pride and she would have said no. It would have just brought forth all the horrible things again since the others would be forced to ask her about her past instead of see it-"

"Is this all you've called me in here for?" Loke interrupted, not wanting to hear much more. His guilt level was through the roof and the fact that he hasn't fulfilled his wishes with Fairy Tail yet was making him even edgier than usual.

Alex shook his head, leaning forwards to gain Loke's attention from his hands. "I have to warn you about something, something concerning Lucas and Lucy." The Lion's head snapped up, his eyes showing a fierce sense of protectiveness. Alex could somewhat understand this, as he had known what it felt like, protecting those you cared about, but this was more than just friendship, this was a lion being loyal to his master, and something told Alex that it was far stronger than anything he knew. "I can't tell you much, not without Lucas' permission, but I don't want him knowing that I've been peaking around his mind in the first place. You see," Alex bit his tongue, trying to find a way to word this so it wouldn't cross any lines of privacy or sound too bad. "Lucy looks extraordinarily similar to an old flame of Lucas'." Loke shackles began to rise and he couldn't help but think, not again! "Her name was Alice White. And he truly…he truly loved her, but she was only kind because she felt pity for him, so when he…when he proposed Alice denied him and ran away with a man she had been seeing all along…"

Loke nodded in understanding. "What happened to her?"

Alex bit his lip. "I can't tell you that. It would breach the agreement I've made with Lucas over the past years, but I can warn you about one thing: when they are alone, keep an ear out from the Spirit Plane. Try not to let things get too far with them…I'm trying to make him realize that she's not Alice, but-"

"Yeah, he's stubborn. I can see that." Loke was not in the mood for this. He wanted to make sure Lucy was happy. He was finally able to see her without having to have shushed or nonexistent conversations and he wanted to spend that time with her. "Can I go back to Lucy now?"

Alex sighed and nodded, but as Loke reached for the door, he called out to him once more, saying, "He doesn't know!" Loke froze. "H-he doesn't know yet," Alex sighed. He just wanted to help, but it seemed that his abilities were only causing more drama. "If you lash out now, it won't have any significance. He'll just think you were trying to start a brawl." Loke nodded, muttering something along the lines of thanks before leaving, hurrying to go see Lucy.

Loke found himself quickly sitting down next to Cory, who was watching intently as Lucy left from one high peg to the next, trying to avoid the water trap he had set up below. She nearly slipped on one, but grasped onto the rounded top with sweaty hands and pulled herself back up, shaking slightly before leaping off to the final platform and jogging tiredly over to Cory and Loke, smiling widely as she saw her old friend. "Better than last time, Lucy! You've already improved by ten seconds-"

"That's it?" Lucy huffed, plopping down on the grass in front of Loke, who chuckled quietly while playing with her golden locks. They had begun to get longer… "Ugh~! I'm gonna be slow for life!" Loke's master whined while her trainer just rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah," he dismissed, simply waving her off as he sat back in his chair. "You said that you'd be magically inadequate and inaccurate for life too while training with Alex and Maybell, so just shut it."

Lucy's eyes flashed in anger, but it seemed that her energy was far too weak for her to present any argument, so she stuck to mumbling unintelligently for several minutes until her faithful friend began to shift next to her. "You leavin', Loke?"

"Yeah, I better get back and tell the others how you're doing before they kill me…"

Lucy looked up at him sadly before muttering a low, "Tell them I'm sorry…"

His deep chuckle made Lucy's head snap up, only to see the rather amused face of the leader of the Zodiacs. "Lucy~ we're your spirits and your friends! We're willing to do whatever it is that you feel will help you in your journey." Loke stood and stretched for a moment before leaning down to plant a small kiss on his princess' forehead. When he pulled back, he couldn't help but noticed just how utterly pink her face had suddenly become. "I will see you soon, princess." And with that, he was gone.

There was silence for a moment before Cory and Alex began to pull at Lucy's cheeks, cooing at her for being so cute. "I swear, if you two weren't such like brother and sister, I'd believe you were dating!"

"No! No~" Cory whined, yanking her left cheek a bit harder and ignoring Lucy's defensive slaps. "Our little Lucy's not allowed to have a boyfriend! She's too cute and innocent!"

A sudden slamming noise behind them made the three jump, and Lucy felt relieved as her cheeks were freed, but only for a moment before a red-hot blush shot up her face when she felt two hands clasp over her breasts. "If Lucy's got a boyfriend," Maybell smirked, tightening her grip on Lucy's bosom. "It's because of these big babies! I mean seriously, how do you ever run with stuff this big on your chest?"

Cory scoffed beside her. "She doesn't! She's slow as hell!"

"Hey! I am not!" As the team began to argue and Lucy freed her breasts of Maybell's hands, they all couldn't help but notice their missing teammate was watching from the balcony edge of their main compound, seeming torn between glaring at them and joining them. When his eyes met Lucy's he quickly chose the former and stormed inside, leaving the blonde to huff in frustration. "What the hell? Why won't he talk to me?"

The others laughed lightly, but there was something behind that laughter, a hidden pain. It seemed to be a common emotion in this group. "He's had a troubled past," Cory muttered softly.

"Yeah," Maybell added, rolling her eyes. "With women."

And as the others began to freely joke in the setting sun, Lucy couldn't help but wonder what in the name of Fairy Tail they had meant by that.

First of all...PLEASE DON'T KILL ME FOR THE LATE UPDATE! I've just been a bit stuck on what to write next since there are certain scenes that I'm dying to publish because I've already written them, but I've already done so many time-skips and I'm trying to limit those back down so I can get into the actual drama, but...yeah...

So~ Please Review! I usually hate asking, but it renews my confidence that I'm actually writing a good story and not something that is being utterly overlooked...

Please remember, there will be other romances, but this is ultimately a NaLu story, considering I'm NaLu all the way!

~The Infamous Smiles of Mona Lisa