I'm sorry for not updating for a while, final exams have ended and I'm on summer break! I do not own Fairy Tail.

One Year Later

Lucy's POV

Dreams would always tug at me in the strangest ways possible. Kind of like how I had that dream on the way to see Grandeeney for the first time. They always felt so real, but that wasn't possible. Memories from my old life would only hit me during my seizures, so this was obviously just my mind comforting me.

He carried me to the bed, my hands digging in his hair, crushing our lips closer together. He set me down on the bed with more care than I thought possible. Slowly and slowly, he nudged me to the center of the bed. I lied down on my back, my arms limp at my sides, he hovered over me with both his hands on either side of my face. We both froze, panting. He looked down at me, a small wrinkle formed between his eyebrows, kind of like when he would try to figure something out. It got to the point when his intensity made me squirm beneath him.

I lifted a hand towards his face, trying to smooth the wrinkle away. He lifted a hand from the mattress, catching the hand that had my pink mark. He tilted his head to the side, placing a kiss to the center of my palm.

"I wonder," he said, turning back to me, "how is it that we got to this point?"

"I think it all started when you asked something and I answered," I said. I knotted my left hand in his hair, emphasizing my point as the ring bit into his scalp.

"I'm pretty sure Mira would kill us for not letting her or anyone else in on this," he laughed.

"Correction," I interrupted, "she's going to kill you. I'm just an innocent bystander in all of this."

The fake hurt he had on his face was almost comical, but I managed to kiss it away, reassuring him without words. He bent his head to my neck, kissing at the skin above the above the collar of the dress I was wearing.

I gasped against his mouth, grabbing at his biceps, which were covered by a clean, white button-down shirt, his black jacket discarded on the floor. I inched my arms up until they met at his neck, slowly unwinding his scarf, tossing it somewhere near the pillows. He sat up, pulling me up with him. His lips went right to mine, moving a hand to the zipper at the back.

The sound of the metal was deafening in the quiet room. Then everything got hotter.

I was then shot up from sleep when I heard voices yelling, "Surprise!" I bolted upright from the bed, instinctively launching myself at the closet person to me, which so happened to be Kane. I managed to pin him under me in a matter of three seconds, his arm twisted behind him and my knee digging into his back.

We were like that for a few more seconds before my muddled brain processed Father holding a cake with the number 20 written out in pink frosting and presents in Grandeeney and Happy's arms. I automatically leaped off of Kane, shaking off the remains of the dream. "Of my gosh," I exclaimed, helping Kane up. "I am so sorry, Kane!" I patted him down, watching to see if he would wince. He didn't, which was a huge improvement compared to last year, when I broke his arm.

"I'm beginning to sense a pattern here," muttered Kane. "I told you we should have waited until she was fully awake." They all nodded in agreement, Kane rubbing his arm socket. I sighed in embarrassment, sinking down into the bed and throwing the blanket over my head, as if it would make me invisible.

This was a continuously annoying gag that Happy came up with, the first time when Kane turned sixteen, a few weeks before I had turned nineteen. I always managed to not get into the deeper stages of sleep and my body reacted whenever something like this occurred.

The few seconds of quiet were short lived, when finally Kane threw the blanket off of me. "Come on," he urged, "time to wake up nee-san." I sighed in defeat, forcing myself to sit up straight.

"Alright," I said, "I'll cooperate. Lay it on me." They didn't seem to be able to get the little subtle hints the past few weeks that I've been dropping, the ones that clearly stated that I didn't want a party. But they obviously chose to ignore them all.

Father's gift was a magical book that would hold thousands and thousands of stories, letting me keep reading to my heart's content. Grandeeney got me new sets of parchment and an enchanted writing quill, never running out of ink. Kane made me a comb made out of coral from the sea, the surface was flawless and smooth, and when I ran it through my hair it didn't stop short. Happy then shoved a beautiful pair of gloves in my hands, a creamy, crisp white that was lacey around the wrists. I raised an eyebrow at him when I saw what was inside the wrapping, he said that it was the maid that helped him out.

We sat around on the ground, digging into the chocolate velvet dessert. Neither of us three ever asked where Father got the cake, but we all knew that he went to the other world to get it.

Kane told me once before on his sixteenth birthday, when we all came together for the first time in months, that Father came back from somewhere, smelling of pollution and other humans. During that first year of training our sense of smell had increased tremendously, but neither of us three confronted him about this.

I bit down into my piece of cake, seeing a shiny, new chain around Father's neck. "That is a gift from another dragon," said Father when he caught my staring. "He is an excellent blacksmith and he heard about how well your training was doing. " One second the chain is short then as he reached to take it off it grew. "The chain changes length to accommodate the wearer. If you want to take it off it grows and once around a neck it shortens." He passed me the chain.

There was a silver key hanging on the end of it, the handle shaped like dragon wings. "Is this another gate key?" I asked. I traced my fingers on the design, admiring the craftsmanship.

"Not really," answered Grandeeney. "The key changes itself to whatever the wearer wishes." My face must have shown the confusion. "Just put it on and think of a sword." I did as told, unhooking the key from the chain. The chain shrunk, until the edges of it rested at the hollow of my neck. The key was firmly grasped in my hand. I thought of the long silver blade and a one-handed handle.

There was a slight shimmer to the key before it quickly grew and sharpened itself. The blade was perfectly polished and the handle had the designs of dragon scales. I gasped in awe, running a finger over the smooth blade.

"Best birthday EVER!" I exclaimed.

"Remind me again," I said, "why we're at the beach again?" After the cake was properly disposed of in our stomachs, Father said that we were all going on a little outing. Happy was napping in the sand, with Kane sitting next to him drawing in the sand with his dagger.

"To meet someone," he repeated.

"Are they the dragon that gave me the present?" I asked, wanting to thank them.

"No," he said. "The ones we are waiting for are due to arrive soon enough." He leaned back against the bark of a palm tree, his arms crossed over his chest, bringing attention to his armlets. The sun was dipping further into the sea, almost dark.

I sighed, tired of waiting. I took off my boots and rolled my pant legs up to my knees. I went over to the water until it went up to my ankles, shivering at the temperature. I walked along the water until Kane and the others were just specks in the distance. I decided to turn and make my way back to them, when all of a sudden I felt a splash of cold water assault me. The water quickly soaked my blue tank top, plastering it to my skin.

I yelped at the attack, quickly turning to find the one that was laughing. My glare landed on a man with golden hair, his chest was bare with a swirled tattoo over his heart extending over to both his shoulders, his lower body hidden behind some rocks. My anger quickly turned to surprise.

There were other HUMANS here?! Does Father know?

My eyes then connected to his, my body froze. My pulse started racing and my palms started sweating. My feet moved without me realizing, needing to get closer to him. I was vaguely aware of my name being called, but I was too focused on the man, this god of a man. His eyes were as blue as the sea and his skin was beautifully tan, his arms and chest perfectly toned.

I felt an arm wrap around my waist, tearing me away from my goal. I fought against the vice, needing to get to him. My irritation only increased when a hand blocked my view of him, covering eyes.

"If you would be so kind as to release my daughter from you siren spell," said Father, "I would be ever so grateful Aristo." So the god's name was Aristo? What a beautiful-

All of a sudden a fog I didn't know was there left my head, my body stopped fighting Kane. I blinked a few times to clear what was left of the fog, seeing the man now perched on the rock. There was a scaly, green tail where his legs were supposed to be. He was a merman?!

"Aw," he complained. "You're no fun Draco. It's not like I was going to do anything bad to her." He looked back at me, his eyes dancing with mischief. "Sorry, angel. Where did you find a human daughter as beautiful as she, Draco? And where can I get one?" If the circumstances were different, I just might have been flattered. But my anger won out when I realized that he controlled me with a spell. My hand went to the key at my neck, quickly morphing it to a dagger.

I leaped in his direction, but Father was there to pull me back.

"There, now. You see?" he said. "She wants to kill you now."

"Not kill," I hissed. "I just want to scar that pretty face of his." All the while I fought against Father, Aristo sat there amused. I kept trying to squirm away from him, but his hold was firm and I slowly calmed down. Father cautiously let me go, I didn't try to attack him, so I settled with glaring at him. He just smiled back at me, completely relaxed on the rock.

"She looks like fun," he said, eyeing me up and down. "What are the chances of you letting me keep her?" My glare deepened, my anger rising. But that was exactly what he wanted so I just relaxed my body.

"This," I hissed, pointing in Aristo's direction, "is who you wanted to us to meet?"

"Well, yes and no," he said. "I was planning on introducing you all to the merpeople after giving you a lecture on how dangerous they can be. They usually come to the shore when the moon is waxing, but Aristo has a way of disregarding patterns."

"That's a nice way of saying I'm more adventurous than most, Draco," mused Aristo.

But Father ignored him. "My intention was to have you meet the Fay tonight."

"You mean, like, fairies? How's that possible?" asked Happy.

"Many creatures like dragons, came to this world as an escape of extinction. There is much more to this world than Earth Land."

How do you feel? Like your mind was blown?