I am so sorry for the delay in my story! Half way through writing it my laptop decided to crap out on me! It was a while before I could find something to type it up with again, and then I had to start all over again cause I lost the original version. I will try my hardest to get the next few chapters up as soon as possible to make up for this I swear!

Natsu was kicking himself. He knew he should have gotten rid of that damn bottle of ointment when he had the chance. Now because of it, he may have ruined his and Lucy's friendship. Or what little of it there was. Now he found himself in the training room putting his body through hell trying to erase the damn memories. That was easier said than done...

One hour earlier...

Natsu had been walking back to his room to check on Lucy, thinking he gave her and Yukino plenty of time to talk. As he walked into the room he noticed Lucy sitting on the bed looking kinda down. He was about to ask her what was wrong when it hit him. The scent of Dragons Blood Root. A low growl escaped his throat. Lucy must have used the bath ointment that had been laced with the one herb, Dragons and Dragon demons alike, could not resist the smell of! He had to get away now! He could already feel the haze coming over his mind. Unfortunately Lucy had gotten up and grabbed his arm halting his retreat.

This wasn't good at all. With her this close he could smell it more strongly, and what was worse, it was blending together with her natural scent making every instinct he had go haywire.

"Should've gotten rid of that stuff…"

All self control vanished at that moment, as he grabbed her and pinned her to the nearest wall. Startled she let out a little yelp, which he eagerly quieted with his mouth. Exploring every inch of her mouth; he reveled in her taste. With all his senses flooded with the beautiful woman in front of him, he felt the purest of animal instincts take over him. All thoughts escaped him as he let his body take over, much like when he's in battle. His instincts never failed him then so it was safe to assume they'd do the same here.

She tried at first to push him off her, but it was useless. To him all he could comprehend was her hands on his body, and the thought made him growl in pleasure. Grabbing her hands and using one of his own to pin them above her head; he then used his other hand to tilt her head up and to the side so he had better access to her neck. Another growl escaped him when trailing his tongue down her skin to her pulse made her shiver and whimper a bit. Wanting to hear more sounds from her, he started biting and sucking on her neck (none to gently at that) searching for and sensitive spots that might give him what he wanted. He found a good spot at the curve of her neck to her shoulder. The cry that escaped her was purely sensual and it drove Natsu crazy hearing it. He proceeded to give that spot extra attention until he had her moaning and short of breath.

He smirked to himself satisfied with his work and decided to move on. Gripping the top of her nightgown, he easily ripped it open so that the creamy skin of her breasts were exposed. This caused her to squirm and try to break free of his hold but his grip was too strong. With his free hand he grabbed her left breast and ran his thumb over it, caressing it gently. He watched in fascination as her nipple slowly raised and hardened. With a quick lick of his lips before hand, he latched his mouth onto her. He was pleased to hear her moan, and even more so when she thrust her chest towards him, clearly urging him to do more. So with the release of her hands, he replaced them with her right breast, giving it as much attention as the one still in his mouth. Her hands instantly shot to his hair, gripping fist-fulls and pushing him closer to her.

After a final tug on her nipple with his teeth, he switched sides and repeated his previous actions. The pants and moans coming from Lucy were like music to his ears. As he worked on her breast with his mouth he let his hands wonder the rest of her body. Traveling down, he gripped her hips and growled. The tightening in his pants telling him it was time to stop messing around. Releasing her breast he resumed exploring her mouth, while also pulling at the bottom of her gown to get it over her hips. Getting himself in between her legs was proving difficult however as she kept her legs tightly together. Teasing him right now wasn't very smart of her, he was done with the innocent crap. Lucy pulled her lips away from his, but he didn't really mind. He just went back to her neck instead. She tried to push him away again and he growled in warning at her. He was in no frame of mind to be playing games anymore. She ignored him however and started smacking him instead. Growing annoyed, he pinned her arms again. Once he had a good grip on her wrists her proceeded to rip the rest of her nightgown, tired of working around it. Just as he was about to remove the last of her concealing clothing, large hands grabbed him from behind and tossed him out of the room. As he was standing to charge back into the room, arms coated in iron scales pinned him to the body they belonged to, keeping him from going anywhere. Not that he did still try. He thrashed about trying to get lose but the arms refused to let him go.

Looking back into the room, he saw Lily in his enlarged "battle form" standing in front of Lucy protectively. He was probably the one who tossed him out of the room. Big mistake Kitty… Just then he caught a glimpse of Lucy's face and he froze. Her face was tear stained and puffy, she was gripping her ruined night gown in a desperate attempt to keep herself covered, and worse of all… the look of pure horror in her eyes. The haze that had clouded his mind from the Dragons Blood Root shattered instantly and he felt as it he'd just been stabbed in the gut. What in the hell had he been about to do to her!?

He was then dragged away from the room, and he made no attempt to struggle against the person still holding him he was too disgusted with himself at that moment to do much. He wasn't let go until they were outside the castle on the complete opposite side of the building from his room. He was then tossed on the ground and being glared at by a pissed off looking Gajeel. It was a moment before he realized Gajeel was short of breath, he figured he must have been holding his breath the h\whole time to keep from being influenced by the roots scent. Smart guy…

Once he managed to catch his breath Gajeel finally spoke and drove the knife in Natsu's gut even deeper.

"Ya done fucked up Salamander."

"Understatement of the century metal head…"

Natsu picked himself up and ran a shaky hand through his hair. He needed to apologize to Lucy and explain what happened, but it'd have to wait until morning. Hopefully by then the scent of the root will have faded enough to have no effect. Frustrated that he couldn't do any thing sooner, Natsu turned to Gajeel and sucker punched him in the face. The unsuspecting man stumbled back a bit before righting himself.

"The hell Salamander!?" Gajeel bellowed before striking back.

They continued to fight for a while, Gajeel eventually catching on to what it was Natsu was doing. Natsu wasn't good with complicated emotions like guilt or self loathing, however, what he was good at was blowing off steam with a good fight. So Gajeel obliged. Once Natsu was bruised and beaten he finally stopped and leaned against the building to catch his breath.

"Lily will have explained some of what happened tonight. I'm sure Bunny Girl will understand and forgive you…eventually." And with that Gajeel walked off back inside.

Still feeling like he needed to work off his frustrations Natsu decided to head to the training room and work his body to the point of exhaustion so his mind wouldn't have time to think. Yet here he was, hours later physically exhausted and reliving the entire experience all over again!

"Ugh…! This is getting me no where!"

"Then how about a fight to take your mind off things? The ponies detected dark guild movement near the border."

Turning to find who was talking to him, Natsu found Cobra in the doorway sneering at him. A battle with some dark guild goons sounded perfect!

"We're moving out soon so get yourself ready."

"Alright a good brawl with some baddies sounds great! I'm all fired up now!"

Cobra just rolled his eyes (or eye seeing as the other was sort of sealed shut from an old wound) and left. Thinking about it, those guys in Blue Pegasus may be a bunch of weirdos but Hibikis' Archive magick sure came in handy. All he had to do was focus his magick a certain way and he could find out anything! If he poured enough magick into the Archive he could have infinite knowledge of everything! It's annoying that he wastes that ability on ways to pick up and please women.

Shaking pointless thoughts from his mind and slapping his cheeks to focus Natsu got his butt in gear. First things first: kick some Dark Guild ass then come back and apologize to Lucy. If he could make it through the fight he could face her as well.

X

It was morning already and Lucy had barely slept at all. She was still a bit in shock over what had happened with Natsu. She still wanted to know more about the stuff Yukino had told her before hand, in fact she had been planning on asking him about that when he came into the room last night, but then he started acting strangely. If what Lily (Who was randomly huge at that point) had told her was true then the bath oil she had used before was to blame. It was made of highly concentrated Dragons Blood Root which had similar effects on Dragon Demons as catnip did on cats. So that meant some mellowed from it, some got hyper, and some… Lucy blushed. So that's how he reacts to it huh? Kya! I cant be thinking things like that!

Shaking her head furiously to rid herself of the thoughts, she sat up annoyed with laying around thinking so much. She dressed quickly, remembering to grab her keys, and left the room in search of her pink haired friend. As she was walking she noticed how quiet the castle was. Normally it wouldn't seem that unusual but she'd come to learn that dragons had amazing lungs and could be heard for miles around. So for this place to be this quiet meant one thing. Making it to the dinning hall proved it. Yukino, Wendy, and Carla were sitting alone in the hall, chatting with one another.

"Oh Miss Lucy! Good morning, did you sleep well?" Wendy asked, noticing her first.

"Morning guys, and not really. Probably too many nerves for today." Yukino nodded at this.

"I had the same problem. I was too excited to start training I barely slept!"

Seeing Yukino's enthusiasm, she found herself excited as well. She couldn't wait to be closer to her mother by learning the same Magick she had used. If only she could get the incident from last night out of her head. Speaking of which…

"Hey Wendy? Are the others out fighting again?"

"Yes, there was a call from the Blue Pegasus Guild late last night. I stayed behind to help with your guys' training. Well that and someone had to let Jellal past the barrier."

Lucy was just about to ask what she meant by barrier when the young girl tilted her head to the side as if she were listening to someone whispering to her.

"Speaking of Jellal; He's here!"

Hopping up from her seat she hurried to the entrance, Lucy, Yukino, and Carla following behind her. Reaching the humongous front door, Lucy realized that the entire time she's been here, She'd never seen what the outside looked like! Everyone kept saying they were in a different realm, so did that mean it looked different as well? Regardless, she was about to find out. Wendy opened the doors (amazing considering she was so tiny compared to them) and stepped out. Lucy had to squint her eyes at the brightness of everything. The world around her seemed to glow with and unearthly light. It took her a moment to realize it was all the Magick in the air! This realm literally was over flowing with Magick, so much so it made everything seem… more alive. The forest surrounding them was blooming with life, the animals passing by healthier looking than ones she'd seen back home, She'd noticed a difference in the air quality a while ago, however, being outside just amplified that difference. Lucy was so preoccupied with taking everything in that she almost failed to notice the hooded figure a few yards away from them under the tree line.

He didn't make an attempt to move from his spot until Wendy held up her hand and a circle of glowing light appeared in the air. The scenery shifted and warped for a minute before settling once again. The man finally moved and headed for them. Wendy smiles at him as he approaches and gives a little wave.

"It's good to see you again Jellal-san."

Said man finally removes his hood to reveal a head of shaggy sapphire blue hair and a red tattoo adorning his right side of his face. He was classically handsome with a noble looking face, however, his eyes (which were a light shade of brown) clearly showed the weight of his troubles. Lucy couldn't explain why but his whole persona just seemed… sad to her.

"Wendy, you're looking well. I'm glad we're seeing each other under good circumstances for once. So I assume this is Yukino and Lucy. It's a pleasure to meet both of you, my name is Jellal Fernandes I guess I'll be teaching you both about your Magick." He smiled at the two girls, but Lucy noticed it didn't really reach his eyes.

"Not that I'm trying to be rude or anything but, I'd like for us to get started as soon as possible. I have a lot to teach you both and a short amount of time to do so."

Both girls nodded in understanding. They had been informed on the type of guild he ran. Constantly being in charge of former enemies and trying to keep them from reverting much be tiresome. So with everyone in agreement they headed inside to the training room. Along the way Wendy and Jellal reminisced with each other over past happenings. Apparently there has been constant confusion over his identity over the years. The list of names was interesting: Seigrain, Mystogan, and Sieg Hart. Lucy was so getting the story behind that later. It sounded full of craziness.

Once in the training room, Jellal got right to business.

"Alright before we begin I need to know where both of you are at with everything. What knowledge on our Magick you have and how much you can use."

Lucy looked to Yukino hoping she'd go first so she didn't have to. Luckily she did.

"Unlike most others in the Magick realm, we a re more connected to our true souls. This gives us unique powers they are unable to mimic. So far I can only produce my Magick as an aura around myself. I've been unable to go farther than that due to my lack of knowledge on how to progress."

Jellal nods and looks to Lucy for her answer. She sighs.

"Well I just learned about all this a few days ago, but What Yukino said I was informed on. Also I found out that my mother was apparently a Star Child as well. She left me these, though I'm not sure what to do with them." She says as she holds up her collection of keys.

Jellal gave her a shocked expression. "How on earth was she able to find all those?!"

Lucy shrugs. "I remember from my childhood her having these ones. I suppose when she passed she had asked my father to find the others for me. He was a firm believer that money could solve the impossible."

"Those are gate keys, they are used to summon the Celestial Spirits, Guardians of the stars. We work along side them to keep the sacred bond between the physical body and the soul safe. They may represent the 88 heavenly bodies but they aren't actually connected to the stars like we are. They are spirits who gave up their stars in order to protect the others. However, just as we Star Children are rare and hard to find, so are the keys."

"So basically it should have been impossible for me to have this many?" Lucy asks trying to make sense of all this new information.

"Not just that, but you also have ten out of the twelve gold keys. As those represent the zodiac signs they are the most rare."

Lucy blinks at him not really believing that an ignorant newbie like her could really have such good luck obtaining such hard to find objects… Then again everyone back home did used to call me Lucky Lucy…

Jellal looked to Yukino. "Do you have any keys?"

She shakes her head no and he digs in his pocket for something before handing them to her.

"Now you do, these were mine, but they stopped responding to my call years ago. I've no need for them anymore."

The keys he handed her were two gold, a few silver, and an odd gold one covered by a decorative black snake.

"Oh I couldn't possibly-" Yukino started but was cut off by Jellal.

"As I said, I cant use them anymore and every Star Child needs at least one Celestial Spirit on their side. So these will be yours from now on. But first you both need to form contracts with your spirits."

"How do we do that?" Lucy asked. Jellal just smiled.

"That is your first lesson girls: Making and keeping a Celestial Contract."