Thank you guys for all of your support. Since I'm starting school again, I'll have less time to write, but I will still try to update both this story and my Mystwalker story as much as I can. So I'm sorry in advanced if updates are a little slow.

This chapter will focus on Natsu and Lucy, so I hope you guys enjoy and I don't own Fairy Tail.

"Lucy-san, get the Cheshire style wig from the Alice in Wonderland costumes. Then afterwards, the costumes need to be reorganized since the last guests who used the Twilight costumes didn't clean up after themselves. Afterwards, you can take your break," someone commanded.

"Sure. Does Levy-chan have her break with me?" Lucy asked as she placed the pile of costumes that she was already carrying down for them to be hung on the racks by other people. It would be a waste if the students didn't get to have fun with what their other classmates have created.

"Actually, there was someone who came and pulled Levy-san out. From the looks of it, she's going to be busy the entire day with them. I think it was her parents."

Parents at a cultural festival… It's not supposed to sound weird, but to Lucy those words might as well be in German. She certainly can't imagine her father at a festival unless it was something pertaining to his work. "I see. It's been a while since she's seen her parents, Levy-chan must be happy!"

"Yeah, yeah. Please get back to work before it gets too crowded around here."

Lucy sighed and rolled her eyes, but it was nice to see that the booth was doing well. There weren't any empty hours, which could be a positive and a negative thing, since it was good that they were getting money, but bad since the available hands needed to work to maintain all of the customers. Meaning, it's a lot of busy work.

"Excuse me, can I buy this wig?"

"'Buy'? I'm sorry but-"In front of Lucy was a short person with long wavy hair who looked incredibly suspicious with the overly large hat and the cough mask. It could very well just be that visceral feeling in her gut, but isn't this the principal that all the staff members were looking for? "Um…Master Mavis? What are you doing?"

"Shh! I can't let them find me or they'll lock me in my office until I finish with the closing speech!" So she knew about that… "I mean- I'm not Mavis! My name is…M…M…M…um…" She should probably try to think of an alias before she goes out and tried to deceive people. "My name is Marigold Mage! I don't think that we've met before Lucy- I mean person I've never seen before, so you don't know me!"

Just go with it Lucy, just go with it. "O…kay, I guess. But you can't buy the wig; it's a part of the costume." Lucy looked at the wig that Master Mavis was holding up. It was plain and black; she was pretty sure that there were plenty of other costumes that used the exact same wig. Though… It's not a good idea for her to help the principal hide and if she's found out helping, she'll probably get in trouble.

"Pretty please? I promise I'll return it at the end of the day. I just need it until everyone goes home." It was then she released it, her killer weapon, it was the puppy dog eyes! Legend has it that this was how she got her husband to propose to her, which is actually true... Seriously, that guy was slow back then too!

"Um…" How can it hurt? Besides, look at those eyes! "Just make sure that you bring it back later and don't break it or anything," she told the shorter and older woman.

"Thank you!" Within instants, Mavis looked like a completely different person, with shoes on. She could actually pull this whole disguise thing off. "Oh and make sure that you don't tell anyone that I've been here or else I'll ask Faye to make all of those play pictures public."

"Oh… wait what?"

"Bye bye, Lucy, I mean- person I don't know!"

"Bye?" How that person manages to get past the entire staff is beyond Lucy's comprehension. Then she remembered that she had work that she needed to do before she could take a break. She quickly began to scramble around to gather all the costumes and materials together before the student in charge yelled at her for being lazy.

"Excuse me miss, I heard that you could take pictures with the staff," Lucy turned around to tell him that was right, but she stopped in mid-breath when she saw exactly who it was that was in front of her, "Won't you take a picture with me, my dear?"

"Loke, you're here again? Is it okay for you to skip work like this?"

"Of course, I'm one of the best workers and there's no way that Uncle would fire me because I'm one of the best." He sounds as confident as ever. "And look who I brought along with me so that the three of us could enjoy the festival together." Loki switched to the tone of a mc for a beauty pageant then said, "Presenting the cute alumni of Fairy Academy and my ever wonderful and beautiful girlfriend, Aries!" He pulled a familiar fluffy pink woman out who was bearing the widest of smiles.

"Lucy, it's been a while! I'm sorry that I wasn't able to come here last time when Leo was. "

"Aries, I missed you, we definitely need to catch up, Loke hogged you too much last time," Lucy told her favorite cousin's girlfriend. Aries was probably the nicest out of all of Loke's girlfriends that she's met and the nicest out of all the women that Loke's ever met whether it be a one night stand or a bar meet up. "I'll take pictures with you guys as soon as I'm done with my job, then we can go check out the rest of the festival together!"

"Good idea; high school girls really are lively, I remember all the girls that I met in high school…"

"Leo, please don't get any weird delusions," Aries warned him cautiously. Seriously, how did Loke get such a sweet girl to go out with him and they still haven't broken up yet? It can only be explained by the miracle of true love, people.

"What are you talking about Aries, I-"

"Get weird delusions any time that he sees a between a 6 year radius from his own age," Lucy finished, organizing costumes back where they belong. "Aries, I swear that you are amazing for being able to stay with my playboy cousin for this long. It's been at least 3 years hasn't it?"

"Yes. Our 4 year anniversary is coming up soon too."

"I hope that this year I don't find a sheep…"

"I'm sorry Leo, I didn't know that you didn't like them-"

"It's not that I don't like them, but it was just shocking to see a petting zoo when I came over to your house," he stated. "I know you love animals but that was a little much wasn't it?"

"I'm sorry! But my friend said that she needed someone to watch them that day and…I'm sorry!" Long story short, the sheep peed on Loke and the couple couldn't have their romantic anniversary dinner like they planned. Lucy smiled good naturally. They really worked well together; Loke was like Aries' knight, he was gentle with her and always protected her. Lucy wished she could find someone like that for her again.

"Lucy, why hasn't the vampire fangs been cleaned out yet?"

"I'll be right there. You two pick out some costumes and I'll be back in a couple of minutes." Lucy hurried off to her work.

Loke bent down to Aries and whispered, "Remember that at the end of the day, you and Lucy will go back before me." Aries nodded. It was all a part of the plan. "So which costumes should we use? Do you want to try on this lamb costume?"

"It's so fluffy! Then Leo, you should try this lion one on."

"Why?" True, his hair was extremely spiky and voluminous and his nickname Leo comes from the zodiac calendar which was popular when they were in high school, but to dress up like a lion is a little…

"I'm sorry, Leo but I thought that it would suit you. You don't have to wear it if you don't want to," she told him.

"No, I'll wear it since you picked it out for me," he assured her when he saw her slightly depressed expression. He's actually a pretty good boyfriend isn't he?

"Sheesh, can't people just keep the fake fangs after they use them?" Lucy muttered. They were completely covered in drool. "Have you two finished choosing your outfits yet? I can show you guys around as soon as you're done here."

"Lucy, why don't you join us? It'll be an even better picture if you joined us," Aries offered. "You can wear this magical girl costume and it'll look perfect!"

"Sure!" But when did they order a magical girl costume? Was that to imitate those popular manga that everyone loves reading? "Um… does this outfit look strange on me? It's kind of short and tight…" Which is pretty typical of a magical girl costume, they're either short and tight or frilly and slightly overdone. "And why do I have to hold these keys?" she asked holding up the silver and gold keys that jiggled slightly.

"Don't worry, you look great Lucy! Girls can look amazing in mini-skirts!" Loke, you know your girlfriend's right next to you right?

"Mini-skirts…" Aries repeated faintly. She didn't like wearing them or any kind of revealing clothing because she didn't like flaunting her body, or else guys hit on her and a lot of bad things happen, but Loke likes them a lot… "I'm sorry that I can't dress the way that you like Leo." Immediately feeling the aura of depression that Aries was giving off, Loke quickly comforted the girl.

"Well, you look great even when you don't wear things like that, so don't worry about!"

Aries sighed. Then came Lucy to the rescue. "That's right Aries! You're really pretty when you don't wear things like that, you're a lot better off not wearing miniskirts or a lot of makeup. A natural look suits you much better!"

"Really?"

"Yeah! So don't have such little self confident," Lucy encouraged. Aries smiled, showing that she had cheered up. They finished taking funny pictures, with good memories and stories that will be enjoyable even in the future. Lucy took this rare chance to fully enjoy herself and embrace the spirit of the cultural festival. Everything seemed so bright and colorful, it was like there were sparkles and excitement everywhere. "This is so much fun, I'm glad that you two were able to take a break and come," Lucy mentioned happily as she sharing a box of takoyaki with the two adults.

"I'm sorry if we accidentally ruined your plans," Aries said. "Since you've got a lot of friends, I thought that we would have been imposing on you, but I'm glad to see that you're enjoying yourself Lucy." Aries really did treat her like a little sister. Apparently there was something to her that was different and kinder than other people that Aries had met.

For a millionth of a second, Lucy looked sad to hear about her 'lot of friends'. "You guys aren't a bother at all! I'm actually really grateful that you came since Levy-chan suddenly had plans to show her parents around, so we couldn't hang out together today."

"Eh? Didn't you make plans with some of your other friends too?" Since Aries barely gets to see Lucy she still thought that the gang from middle school was still close to each other just like before. Lucy didn't respond, which made the older girl panic. "Ah, I'm sorry! I didn't mean anything offensive by that!"

"No, I get that. It's just that I think that most of them are busy with their other class activities." They've been busy for over a year. In high school, people change, they become different from who they were when they're younger. Maybe it was because those children were worrying about their own situations and their own classes to not be able to notice the hardships that their friends were facing. As a result, they drifted farther apart from each other.

"Now now, don't get so depressed, there are still more things to enjoy on a day like this!" Loke exclaimed, handing both of them colorful candy. "Now, where do you two want to go now? There are still a lot of fun booths to enjoy."

"Let's see… I heard that there was a shop made up from stuff from the special skills department," Aries remembered reading in a pamphlet. "Does that sound like it'd be interesting?"

"That'd be fine, the people here are really good at stuff like that, you two would be surprise," Lucy told them. Everyone knows just exactly how talented they are and Lucy is no exception to that.

"Now that I think about it, Gray and Natsu are participating in that stuff, aren't they? It's been a while since I've seen them. Are they still fighting?"

"Of course they have been, there's rarely been a time when they weren't fighting. You should've seen them yesterday, they were fighting during the play and they wanted to kill each other afterwards," she remembered aloud. The murderous aura was thick enough to be fog and affected everyone near them. Natsu and Gray looked like they wanted to beat the living crap out of anyone who got in their way.

"Oh really? It sounds like fun." It was not fun, they ended up getting blackmailed!

"It's a shame that we couldn't come yesterday. Your performance with your class must have been interesting and a lot of fun," Aries commented. Oh, if only she knew…

"Actually, maybe it's better that you weren't here yesterday," Lucy muttered under her breath as the three of them walked back into the school building. Noticing the commotion within the building, she asked, "What's going on over there?"

"Oh, that's the art students' gallery isn't it? You know the people who draw and paint, the more traditional art forms. I heard a couple of rumors of there being some amazing drawing. If there's less people should we check it out later?"

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Whose painting could it be? As Lucy was wondering if she knew anyone with amazing artistic aptitude, she accidentally bumped into someone; a timid-looking man with black hair. "Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going."

"No, it's my fault. I apologize." Lucy was about to walk away but the man was still staring at her. Ah… It truly is troublesome to be too cute, is probably somewhere along the lines of what Lucy was thinking at the moment. "You're a student here aren't you?"

"Yes, I am. Is there something you need or someone you're looking for?"

"Would you happen to have seen the principal of this school, there's something that I need to talk to her about."

"Um…No?" Her answer sounded more like a question but the man in front of her did not try to pressure her into giving a less suspicious sounding answer, which Lucy was thankful for. Who was that person anyways?

Whoever he is, he's polite and young looking. "Oh, thanks anyways. Sorry to disturb you." But he looks oddly familiar…Was he a substitute teacher here?

"Lucy?"

"Ah, sorry, I'm coming!"

On the far side of the school, there was an entire gallery of just beautiful art. Fairy Academy is a great school for art, despite the fact that not even half of the students are enrolled in any art electives, but that doesn't change the fact that there are several galleries within the school that are primarily for showcasing the best works of each division.

"These are amazing…" Aries said, looking around at the ice sculptures, glass works, and metal statues.

"As expected of the special classes here; they're all good. Ah, here's Gray's work." Lucy turned to see an ice sculpture of a swan about to fly up from the water. The water was perfect; little droplets were set on top of the splashes of water. The detail was amazing. There were even ice feathers that looked like the real thing.

"Gray's improved a lot since last year…" Lucy commented, amazed. She knew that he was good, but this is really, really amazing. Lucy turned her head to look at the other artwork, and something immediately caught her eye.

"Macao-sensei are you sure that Natsu's glass sculpture will attract the First Master?" vice principal Makarov asked nervously to his coworker. "If this doesn't work, then I will have to do it and you know what happened last time I gave the closing ceremony speech!"

"Now, now Master calm down! You said that she loves anything having to do with fairies right? And Natsu made that piece well, so it should be able to attract the First Master's attention, and then we'll be able to get her to work on the closing speech. Besides, that was a complete accident last time!" This plan doesn't seem to be that well thought out.

"Weren't you involved in that incident?" Macao-sensei avoided the shorter man's eyes. They were trying to get someone else, but it ended up being Makarov who got pelted with mayonnaise balloons.

"B-Besides, isn't that man back? I heard from Faye-sensei that he was searching for her as well."

Makarov sighed. "That is true, but…he's slow." He's incredibly slow. Despite the fact that he's her husband, he's very slow when it comes to Mavis; even Natsu or Gajeel could be faster at getting hints. Oh speaking of Nastu…

"Hey Lucy, you came to see my art?" Natsu greeted. "Tell me which one looks better; stripper's, metal head's or mine."

"I haven't seen Gajeel's yet but…" Natsu probably wins, hands down. A full sized image, completely made out of delicately crafted glass only connected together by the thin smelted iron… It was a fairy. The face and body was made out of creamy, milky like glass, the hair (how did he even make it look so real?) was a transparent blonde, and the most impressive part was the wings. The multi-color butterfly like wings, were beyond anything that a normal student could achieve. But the person who made this was Natsu Dragoneel, not any ordinary student.

"Natsu! It's been a while."

"Oh, Loke, have you been picking up girls again?" Natsu… "Did I say something wrong?" he asked when he noticed that Loke was trying to comfort Aries.

"Yes, you said a lot of things wrong…But aren't you supposed to be selling things in the store?"

"Nah, Macao-sensei said that I didn't have to because I made that in about a week to help find the First Master. Besides they said that I couldn't work the store anymore since I'm 'apparently' bad with customers." Natsu, you are terrible with customers. You ate someone's yakisoba bread once! And not to mention all the times that he's tried to help out at 8-Island, he ate all the food that he was handling…Yajima-san had to deal with a heck of a lot of complaining customers.

Lucy chuckled weakly. Should she tell one of the staff members that Mavis brought a wig to disguise herself? "But the glass sculpture is really good Natsu, it's almost life-like."

"Nah, its still could be better." In Natsu's eyes it's still not good enough. While it's amazingly detailed, this fairy sculpture still doesn't give the impression of being alive. If it was his father, then it would look much better. Natsu still has a lot to learn.

"So what did you make for the store? Miniature dragons again?"

"Nah, I tried something else this time."

"What-"

"Look at you, lovebirds!"

"What are you talking about? Lucy and I aren't birds." It's an expression Natsu… "Even if Lucy eats like a bird, which is actually a lot." That is true, about birds, not about Lucy.

"Natsu! What are you talking about? I eat like a normal person and you eat more than me!"

"Hey Lucy, it's not good to yell that much," Natsu stated, suddenly acting like a responsible teen. It's pretty out of character for him yet incredibly fitting. "You're bothering other people you know."

"Whose fault do you think that is?!"

"Lucy, I'm sorry if my question offends you, but why are you yelling?" Aries asked innocently. It was then Lucy wanted to slap herself on the forehead, and then slap Natsu, while Natsu wanted to say that he told her so, but her aura was kind of scary right now, so he shouldn't. "Lucy? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Perfectly fine. Why don't we go to the store before it gets too late?"

"Natsu, you should come with us," Loke suggested. "It's been a while since we've had a nice long chat and you're free aren't you?" Right when he noticed that Natsu was going to decline to buy food, he mentioned, "Oh and there's an extra box of takoyaki, you do want it? It's still warm. You just need to follow us for a while." As expected of Loke he was raised well.

"Loke that's not necessary-"

"I'll go!"

"Natsu, don't you have something else to do?!" Like buying food, or eating food, or picking a fight with Erza, Gray, or Gajeel, or competing in some class run game that involves prizes.

"Nope, I'm completely free." In other words, he doesn't have any plans.

"Say that without the takoyaki in your mouth." Unfortunately for Lucy, Natsu keeps promises, especially the ones that involved food. And since it was on Loke's request, she couldn't refuse, since it was a rare day that she could spend with her cousin.

"Don't worry Lucy, I'll make it up to you. I've got your favorite cake decorated in sugar roses at home."

"Do I look like the type to be bribed by food?"

"Does that mean that you don't want it?" Lucy didn't answer that. So Lucy is a glutton! At least partly one. Loke smiled. "Then it's all good!" Loke, how do you know how to handle them so well?

Lucy looked grumpy but the second that she saw a familiar face in the shop, she was smiling again. "Ah, Levy-chan, you're here too?" Lucy recognized the two people besides her. "Hello, McGarden-san tachi. Have you been well?"

"Yes, we've been fine, Lucy-chan," her mother answered.

"It's good to know that you and Levy are still good friends. Thank you for taking care of her while she's in Magnolia."

"No, it's my pleasure."

Levy's family lives outside of Magnolia in a town that's about 5 hours away, but they agreed to allow Levy to go to Fairy Academy since it was a prestigious school that always puts the students' worries first, so it seemed like the perfect school for Levy. Also, the library was said to be huge. But after the incident with Gajeel and Phantom, they have been extremely worried and threatened to take her out of the school several times.

"Mom, Dad, you don't need to be so formal with Lu-chan," Levy reminded her parents, looking embarrassed. "Lu-chan, I promise we'll go look around the festival tomorrow so make sure that you keep your schedule free."

"Got it. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Levy's parents look a lot like her," Natsu mentioned when he and Lucy watched the McGarden family watch somewhere else.

"Wouldn't it be that Levy-chan looks like her parents?" With the whole glasses and petite figures, someone can definitely tell that they're from the same family. "And weren't you and Loke talking about something?"

"He went with Aries to look at ice prick's mini ice sculptures."

"Oh…" There was an awkward silence between them as Lucy randomly fingered the delicate glass vases and whatnot while Natsu was munching on takoyaki. Why does it always end up like this when they're near glass? "So what did you make for the shop?"

"Necklaces, but they got sold out yesterday and in the morning so there's no more."

"Since when can you make jewelry? Last year it was dragons."

"It wasn't any good, just look at this one," he pulled out a star shaped pendant that was on a silver chain. "It's all scratched up and the thing was so tiny that I got metal across it." But that flaw made the piece even more beautiful. The streaks of metal looked like they belonged to the design. Natsu, somehow noticing that Lucy was interested in it asked, "Do you want it? It's way too girly for me."

"Really? How much do you want for it?"

"Pay for lunch on the last day of the festival and we're even?" Natsu thought almost immediately as he handed her the necklace.

"Fine, but I get to put a budget on you."

"Why?"

"Because if I don't, you'll eat through my allowance for the entire month." Both sides agreed to the little deal and there was hope in Loke's eyes that maybe those two were going to make it. Maybe as friends, maybe as lovers, but they're going to make it out.

The bell rang and a voice was projected on the loudspeakers, "All events for the day are ending. All guests and students should leave towards the front gates, those students who are staying behind…"

"Hey it's Gramps!"

"Finally, First Master if you're listening somewhere, PLEASE WORK ON THE CLOSING SPEECH AND STOP HIDDING!" He acts as though she'll listen to him. "That is all."

"Leo, you're not coming with us?" Aries asked as she and Lucy walked in the car that was parked not too far from the front gates of the school.

"Nah, I've got to pick something else. It's not too far away and I'll just walk home so don't worry about me and make sure you don't drive at 5 miles per hour again, okay Aries?" She nodded and started the engine.

"Really Loke? Normally you love driving and it's not that big of a problem if we go together."

"Well you see…" He knew she was to say that but he forgot to think of something that will make Lucy just go with it. "Capricorn said that I should walk more and get more exercise and I wouldn't want to keep two ladies from going home on time. Virgo said that she was going to make a feast tonight."

"Then make sure that you don't follow some girl on the way home," Lucy reminded him.

"Of course not. I'll see you guys in a bit." The car rode off and Loki turned towards the gate, seeing the very person he needed to talk to. "Hey Natsu. Let's have chat."

"No thanks, I've gotta go feed Happy or he'll make a mess of the house with the fish in fridge." Yes, Happy has done that before. How can that cat do so many things that involve thumbs is unknown to many people. "It was nice seeing you Loke, we've got to spar again like we used to sometime."

"I can walk alongside you for a block or two and we can talk." Natsu stopped. "Come on Natsu, it wouldn't hurt to talk to me would it?" Obviously Loke wasn't going to take no for an answer, so Natsu agreed. They walked the first minute in silence, so Loke decided to be the first to start the conversation. This was his whole idea anyways. "Your glass work was great."

"Thanks."

"Your dad would be proud of you."

"Yeah…"

Natsu's aura became depressed. "Natsu, you and Lucy don't hang out that much anymore," Loke stated. "I don't really know what that reason is for you two to be angry at each other, but if it's got anything to do with my uncle, or anything-"

"Loke, don't tell me to make up with Lucy," Natsu cut off coldly. "Not when the man who raised me is involved." Natsu's normally friendly eyes were sharper, more serious than before, and cold. "And not when she understands what she has." Loke couldn't say anything to him, not when he was like this. "We'll spar sometime when you're not busy, Loke."

"Natsu-"Natsu ran off, not wanting to hear anymore. "Natsu!"

…Well, that went terribly. When it comes down to it, the things that those two don't want to talk about that. Each side won't give in, they're not willing to give in. Even if they can act natural, like friends, nothing is fixed, nothing can be fixed. Both of them can act like everything's fine, but that doesn't mean that anything's fixed. Damn their stubbornness. Stubbornness is the reason why many people can't be happy, but their stubbornness has its reasons. After all, he wants what she has and she regrets what she has. If only fate didn't play such tricks on people, things would be better in the world.