I do not own Fairy Tail.

Chapter 14 – The Fury

Lucy isn't sure when exactly she woke up and realized this wasn't a dream. Some time after the first kiss, but before hands started wandering. But none of that mattered. He was here, with her and that's all she needed to know.

Pulling away from the kiss to catch her breath, she moved to start kissing her way down his chest. Reaching his heart, she knew what she wanted more than anything right then. She wanted to be his. She wanted everyone to look at her and just know she belonged to Natsu.

"Mark me, Natsu. Make me yours." She could hear the pleading in her voice, but pride be damned. This was what she needed more than anything. This was what would make all the pain from the last few months mean something.

She barely understood his initial response of 'No' so shocked by his body suddenly jerking away from her.

"I don't want this with you."

Before, she would have been hurt. Tears would burn in her eyes, chest aching with the rejection. She would have thought of how stupid she was to think he wanted her. Then embarrassment would have flooded her system, turning her face and neck a bright cherry red as she realized how foolish she appeared, molesting her best friend like that. She would have eventually pushed the feelings down, not wanting to make Natsu upset by seeing her cry and act as though she was caught up in some sort of weird dream.

That was before, before these 3 months of torment. Before she lost everything. Before she had to sit back and watch as her friends threw her away. And now, having the one thing she wanted most in this world finally within her grasp and being denied...'oh hell no!'

"What?" Any normal male would have been instantly terrified by the lethal tone of her voice. And if looks could kill, Natsu would have been 6 feet under. She was not going to let this go. He was going to explain himself or suffer. But to her surprise, Natsu was pacing back and forth, muttering and completely ignoring the fuming blonde.

Lucy's boiling anger moved down to a simmer while she tried to catch what he was saying. Only a few things were clearly audible.

"...hot springs...under the stars...ask properly...need a dress...Erza will want a cake...there was something else...what was it..."

She had no idea what the hell he was talking about and decided to just concentrate on what she could, being pissed that he was ignoring her in all her righteous anger.

"What are y-"

"A church! You need to go church first!" Natsu exclaimed, cutting her off. His smile wide, pleased with himself for remembering that final piece of his plans.

Lucy, however, took this statement under a somewhat *ahem* different context. Her dwindling anger exploded into a full-blown rage as she jumped up and slugged him, knocking him off his feet.

Poor Natsu rubbed his aching jaw and then grinned at the celestial mage, proud of how strong she had become. Poor, sweet Natsu never saw the foot coming at him. Poor, sweet dense Natsu only saw stars then all was black.

Happy floated along happily, following the scorch-marked footprint trail. Gajeel and Panther Lily decided to take a detour to Kunugi, which just happened to be nearby, and left Happy on his own. They even offered to haul all of his and Natsu's stuff.

He didn't mind being alone though. Lucy would be at the end of this trek, and having Lucy around meant Happy got fish. So off he went. It was getting pretty dark out, but Gajeel was certain they weren't too far away, so he kept going, dreaming of the types of fish he wanted to get.

Happy cleared the hill just in time to see Lucy's foot make contact with Natsu's face, sending him up into the air just a bit before he fell and stopped moving.

"Those thunder thighs must pack quite a punch, eh Lucy?" Happy greeted the blonde, quickly flying to her. A quick but controlled fist boinked on his head, but he was already landing in her arms.

"What did you do that for?" Happy looked up, eyes swimming with tears.

"Sorry, Happy. He just pissed me off," Lucy hugged the Exceed to her. She had missed him.

"What did he do this time?" Happy purred, content with the snuggling.

"Oh just saying something about a church," Lucy evaded. Regardless of how old he might actually be, Happy was just too young to understand some things.

"Oh, so he told you about the wedding?" Happy was now on the ground, rooting around in Lucy's pack for food.

"Wedding?" Lucy looked quizzically at the feline.

Happy just sighed."Yeah, a wedding is usually done in a CHURCH," Happy stretched out the word in case the blonde had trouble understanding.

Lucy's face was one of the weirdest he had ever seen and he'd seen plenty of weird ones. He just sighed again. Apparently he was going to have to explain it with small words.

"Yeah. He is going to take you to a hot spring to look at stars, and then he's going to ask you to marry him. Then you have to do all that stuff like getting a dress, getting a cake, tell people to come to the CHURCH," again, said slowly, "where you say some things and ta-da, you'll be married. Natsu had this all planned for quite a while. Actually it was just before those pictures came out." Happy tilted his head, looking up at her shocked face.

Lucy was beyond shocked. Poleaxed is a better word. Natsu wanted to marry her. Enough to even plan out a romantic proposal. So why...

"But we were kissing and stuff then he said no," she was still struggling to put it all together.

It was so hard on Happy to be the only one around with a brain. "Wow, Lucy. Even I know you're not supposed to do that stuff until after the wedding. Explains why you don't know what a church is for, though."

Happy didn't really get a chance to say more as he was punted into the atmosphere. Luckily, Lucy aimed towards Magnolia, so she was certain he would show up at home...eventually.

Taking a deep breath, Lucy sat down next to the unconscious slayer. Her anger had finally given way to slowly building warmth in her chest. Natsu wanted to marry her. He wanted her to be his forever.

When she and Gajeel had made their promises to fight for the ones they loved, she never imagined this was waiting for her. She thought at best she would be able to get some dates out of Natsu, but left it open after that.

Just as long as he knew how she felt about him, it was enough for her, even if it never became anything more. Having him as her friend and by her side was enough.

Now it was looking like after this nightmare with Orc's Knuckle was over, she would finally get her happily ever after.

Gajeel left the music store, accomplishment pushing a grin on his face. His purchase would delivered in about a week to Magnolia. It was pure luck that following Salamander lead him this way.

Getting Levy to forgive him and move on was going to be a near thing, their relationship near broken. He knew he would never be able to say everything he wanted to her. He just wasn't brave enough for that. But there was one way he could get his feelings out in the open and not come across as a bumbling idiot.

For the first time, the heavy burden of guilt didn't hold him down. He actually had a plan and was eager to get home and get started on it.

But as much as he was willing to walk, remembering what Lily was told by Mavis, he knew he would need to hurry home, especially with his detour. Thus what good mood he was able to feel plummeted as he eyed the oncoming mode of transportation.

As the train came to a stop and the passengers exited, Gajeel caught a scent or two that seemed familiar. Looking towards the first cars, he saw 4 men get out and start into town. While the scents were only vaguely known to him, one face stood out. It was one of the patrons from the karaoke bar he and Bunny went to. That guy was one of the ones egging them into that kiss.

As that memory came in, his brain caught up with the other scents. He smelled them all, one time or another while they were in Clover. These had to be the ones following them, taking those pictures. It finally made sense why he never caught on that they were being followed back then. It wasn't just one person, but a group taking those pictures.

A low growl left him as he covertly followed the group. But easier said than done with a man of his size. Quickly explaining to Panther Lily, he sent the Exceed up to the air to follow them as he moved into a nearby alley, pulling out the communication card.

Zapping it with a bit of magic, the tarot design changed to show the guild's card mage looking a bit off. "Yo, Drunk! Get the old man. I found some of Orc's Knuckle here in Kunugi." Cana's face managed to not show any reaction besides a slight widing of her eyes. That's when Gajeel realized she was sober. Things must have gotten pretty serious while he was away to keep that one from drinking.

He experienced a few moments of vertigo as the card was walked around, the image of the guild moving as she swung her arms, giving him flashes of motion sickness.

He could hear a door shut and then saw Makarov with Mavis behind him. "We're here Gajeel. What's happening?"

"I'm in Kunugi. 4 members of Orc's Knuckle just got of the train and headed into town. I recognize them from Clover Town."

Makarov frowned over the information.

"Lucy spotted Draylen before here in Magnolia before she left." He filled Gajeel in on what he missed. "We've been watching him to no avail. He must be a diversion while their forces gather there in Kunugi. I'm sending Bixlow and Evergreen there now. They should arrive in a couple of hours. Keep an eye on things until they arrive, then get back here. We can't let them see you."

Gajeel nodded. He wanted to get back at these guys for taking those pictures and ruining everything, but he wasn't going to screw everything up just for that small pleasure.

"What about Natsu?" Mavis asked as Makarov moved out of picture to deliver his instructions.

"Salamander and Bunny should be meeting right about now. They'll probably start back in the morning. Should be back before tomorrow night."

"Good," Mavis smiled. "And you have the right idea on your plans for apologizing to Levy. Keep yourself honest and it will do the trick." And the magical image winked out, turning it back into a normal tarot card.

'That squirt's really creepy sometimes'. Gajeel just shook his head. Jumping to the roof tops, he moved along them to where he could smell Lily. Time to hunker down and wait.

Levy got up from her seat with a sigh. This stack of books was done. Picking them up, she walked over to put them back on the shelf. Although she enjoyed looking through all the books in the library, it was starting to get a bit tedious. Especially since they still haven't found any sign of the Abyss Break spell.

After placing the books back in their proper place, she moved down to the next shelf. Pulling out a few, she decided she could handle one more. Not really paying attention she reached for the next one to add to her stack, and her fingers went right through it.

Shaking her head, Levy was certain she just missed it, being tired as she was and tried again. And again, only met air. Now the book got her full attention. Only for her see that there was no book there.

She must really need a break if she was imagining books. With a sigh, she pulled her eyes back to the stack in her hand. But there it was, right in the corner of her eye. A book with a teal cover. Turning to look at it straight on, it disappeared again. 'What in the world,' she was quickly becoming irritated with this vanishing book.

Much trial and error later, Levy had figured out the trick. The book would vanish when it your attention was on it, but if you weren't looking directly at it, it was clear as day and solid too. Time to put all that trying to the test.

She tilted her head away from the volume and moved her fingers to the red book next to it. Pulling at the red book, she moved it a bit sideways and succeeded in knocking the elusive teal book off the shelf and to the floor.

With a cry of triumph, she reached for the fallen book, only to have her fingers pass through the cover, again. "Dammit!" she yelled, pulling the attention of Warren, Wendy and an aghast Charle.

"The manners of everybody here is atrocious." the white Exceed huffed, going back to her book.

"What is it Levy?" Wendy asked, moving towards her fellow blunette.

"I think I found it." Levy stated in awe, looking at the title of the book. A Sylph's Labyrinth by Yuri Dreyar.

"I'll get Master," Warren said, rushing off towards his office.

Levy straightened up, moving to follow Warren. "And see if we can get Freed t—ahh!"

Wendy looked over to where the solid-script mage was with wide eyes. She saw it happen. One second Levy was there, the next she just disappeared, like she fell into a pitfall trap. Running over to where she disappeared, Wendy only saw an empty floor, a book lying open off to the side. Not paying attention to it, the sky dragon didn't notice as the cover slowly closed and the book vanished.

Was in a humorous mood when I wrote this, thus poor Happy was punished rather than the original way I had it. Still giggling over it.

Thanks for reading and to everyone who reviewed/favorited/followed.