A/N: many thanks to the readers and reviewers of this story. :D

In the Rotunda Restaurant, the Fairy Tail wizards were seated by a large window. With a pleasant smile the hostess handed out menus and assured them she'd send the journalist over to their table as soon as he arrived.

Natsu and Happy were busy drooling over their choices while the girls were looking over the schedule of events. Gray and Gajeel were just as busy watching Juvia and Levy respectively, but pretending not to.

"That's a lot of photos they want to take." Lucy shook her head, "I only brought three different bikinis."

Natsu raised the menu to cover his face as he smiled, imagining Lucy modeling her swim suits. Teeny-tiny scraps of fabric, flimsy and oh-so-easily destroyed with fire.

"Well, they might have their own supply of clothes." Levy remarked, "Mirajane always said when she did photo shoots for Sorcerer's Weekly, they'd have tonnes of extra costume changes planned."

Gajeel smirked, imagining Levy only wearing one of his t-shirts. It would be too big, serving as more of a dress than a shirt. It would drape over her fantastic ass and the neckline would gape, revealing intriguing bits of skin.

Juvia ran her finger down the list of events and squealed, "Juvia will destroy her competition in the water balloon fight!"

Gray began to fantasize. Juvia would be super excited to play with her natural element. She'd be splashing, caught up in the fun - her eyes would sparkle and Gray could watch to his heart's content.

The hostess escorted a man in his early thirties to the table. He was wearing sunglasses propped on top of his head, an open to the navel loudly patterned shirt and tight black pants. Following close behind was a dour looking younger man wearing a camera around his neck.

"Hey, I'm Tim. The dude in charge of everything; the interviews, the photos and who gets the special spread." Taking a roll from the table, he pointed at his companion. "This is George. He'll be on the business end of the camera."

Lucy shifted in her chair and preened. "Hello, I'm -"

Tim nodded, "you Miss Heartfilia, are the stellar celestial mage!" Pointing at each of the mages in turn, he showed off his knowledge of names and types of magic. He ended his catalogue with Happy, calling him the 'magic flying cat'.

The exceed was pleased to be included; agreeing vehemently, "aye sir!"

Levy offered the two new-comers chairs. Tim sat down and grabbed a menu even as he waved George off. "Thanks, don't mind if I do. George is on the clock, he can eat later." He pointed at George's camera, "start making money with that. Disappear into the background, will ya?"

Juvia sat silent, her smile drooping more as Tim ordered the photographer around. Gray nudged the water mage with a shoulder and settled his right hand over her left. Juvia glanced over with a shy smile.

One of the wait staff came over with a pitcher of water and began to fill the glasses already sitting on the table. "Have you had enough time to decide?" A chorus of 'no's' answered. "I'll be back in a few then."

Levy perused the menu and then went back to reading the itinerary. She caught Lucy's eye and pointed to an event near the bottom of the page. The blonde smirked evilly, "oh how fun! A karaoke contest!"

Gajeel paused mid-bite of his fork, "yeah? Doesn't seem too fair. Gi hehe he. With my talent, the rest of you guys have no chance."

"No chance to save our ears." Gray said in a snide manner, "do we have to participate in everything?"

"But Juvia wants to do everything with Gray!"

Making an effort to keep her volume low, Levy snickered to Lucy. "Yeah she does!"

"Truer words never spoken," was Lucy's response. "Everything and anything."

"Oh, and now you're just projecting what you want Lu-chan!" Levy giggled louder as her friend blushed.

"Oi Lucy! Can I have a look at that paper?" Natsu leaned over and took hold of the list. "Beach volleyball? Sounds great. Oh, and water slides! Awesome!"

"How're you going to manage your motion sickness?" Gajeel sneered at Natsu.

"Don't worry about me," Natsu fired back, "worry about how bad you're going to feel when me'n'Lucy couple the best."

"What else is there?" Gray leaned forward and looked past Gajeel at Tim. "Any chances for some real couples activities?"

"I like your attitude! We can spice up the individual photo ops, now which mage is your significant other?" Tim let his eye rove over the table, dismissing Happy, Natsu and Lucy from his consideration. "I'd be hard pressed to decide which of you extremely attractive people to sleep with myself." He grinned salaciously, "rumour has it from our sister publication about the Salamander and Lucy being long-time lovers, but your reputation is much more low-key. Do you go for cute and petite? Tall and dangerous or a curvy drink of water?"

To say Gray was shocked would be an understatement. His first impulse was to deny any possibility of being romantically entangled with Gajeel and scoff at being matched with Levy. He realized that would seem rude. He wasn't into either person beyond friendship. "I'm here with Juvia." The rest of what Tim said processed. "And who is your deluded source inside Sorcerer's Weekly? The only thing Natsu loves is food."

"Oh, you sound a bit jealous. Was he your first crush?"

Everyone sitting at the table except for Natsu and Happy locked their eyes on Tim. Juvia had a smooth expressionless face while Gajeel looked constipated. Gray scowled, and both Lucy and Levy smothered their giggles. The waitress approached the table again and took lunch orders, breaking up that particular discussion.

The mages relaxed as Tim focused on the food and talked with Natsu about the merits of fire chicken versus spicy beef ribs. They became embroiled in an one-upmanship battle of listing perfect meals. The rest of the table went on to enjoy their food as best they could.

Tim pushed away his empty plate, smiling. "I look forward to working with you all. There's a lot of things planned, but I have the utmost confidence the photo shoot will be amazing. See you guys in meeting room B in an hour."

A chorus of 'goodbyes' rang out from the mages. Gajeel stood up and walked around to where Levy was sitting. He stooped down to whisper in her ear, pulling her chair back as she stood up.

"I need something in my room, gotta go!" Levy made no other excuses as she and Gajeel left the table.

Juvia laced her fingers together and stared at them. She was trying her best to curb her reaction to the sly innuendo the reporter had made at the start of lunch as well as the poor treatment he'd given the photographer. Having been on the receiving end of lots of negative behaviour, Juvia felt bad for George.

"Hey, let's go explore before we have to report for those pictures." Gray had to repeat his offer twice before Juvia looked up and nodded. He hurried to his feet and pulled out Juvia's chair before offering her his arm as escort. "Let's go find somewhere private."

"You're not gonna ditch me for Lucy are you?" Happy asked Natsu. He looked across the table at the blonde. "We should let Lucy go for a walk, she needs to burn off some lunch or she won't fit into the photos."

"Don't think I won't jump across this table and rip out your whiskers cat." Lucy leaned forward and began to let a horrible grimace twist her face. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the photographer watching through his lens. Changing her mind she spoke her next threat through gritted teeth and a false smile. "I'm going to glue you to a pillow while you sleep. Maybe not tonight, or tomorrow, but soon." Lucy settled back into her seat to look at Natsu just daring him to say something in defence of Happy.

Being more intelligent than a lot of people gave him credit for, Natsu just nodded. He stood up and offered his arm to Lucy. "Let's go buy you some glue."

Happy sat at the table and considered becoming nicer to Lucy. "Hey, guys? What about the bill? Are you going to leave me with the tab?"

Lucy smirked to Natsu and pulled him along as she whispered, "Happy doesn't know the food's included in the job - don't bother telling him just yet. We'll swing by the hostess stand and let them know."

"Guys! Guys?" Happy looked around the restaurant, worried that every waitperson he spotted was going to serve him a bill. The photographer clicked his shutter rapidly, focused on taking more candid pictures of Natsu and Lucy. George strolled over to Happy as soon as the couple walked out of sight.

"Do you halfta bring something back? I don't think Bunny Girl or the Rain Woman are gonna interrogate ya Shrimp." Gajeel complained. "I got ya here alone for a purpose and you ain't cooperating."

"We don't have enough time," Levy reasoned, "we took the scenic route to the room - you stopped twice to drool over some wrought iron." She opened her bag and began to place clothes into a drawer. "C'mon, put your clothes away neatly."

"I ain't some prima donna fashion princess." Gajeel snorted, "my clothes can stay in my duffle until I wear'em."

"Fine." Levy snapped out her next words, "guess you want to lose then - because Natsu and Gray will listen to their partners. I'm sure their clothes are put away tidy."

Levy had to hide her smirk as Gajeel stomped over beside her and pulled out another drawer and shook his clothes free of the bag. Sighing he began to fold his garments. "Yer lucky."

Levy finished and moved to sit on the corner of the bed. "How so? I have a partner who resists good advice at every turn. And lingered too long staring at some lumps of iron. The resort would notice if they disappear, you'd be the number one suspect Gajeel."

He shut the drawer with a slam and turned to face Levy. "Yeah, well sometimes beautiful things drive me crazy." Gajeel gave his partner a predatory smile. "I'm feeling a little crazy right now."

"We've got maybe half an hour." Levy swallowed and licked her lips. She was sure her heart was going to fly right out of her chest, but she owed it to herself to try to calm down. Right now, Gajeel was ripe for the plucking and she had an extreme hunger. The petite girl sat still and willed her breathing to slow. "Kiss me."

Gray hustled Juvia down several corridors before slowing. The spot on his arm where Juvia touched was warm. He settled his other hand overtop of hers and smiled. He wasn't imagining the extra heat. Juvia was negating the chill surrounding his heart. "Hey."

"Yes?"

Gray couldn't help it, he broke into a rare smile. Juvia just looked so curious and innocent. "Eh, let's find some gardens. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

A bare dip of her head and Juvia blushed in response.

"G-great." Gray felt a weird combination of tongue-tied and excitement. Maybe in the depths of cultivated nature, he could share more of his self - if he could free the right words.

He'd gotten lucky, they were heading already towards the outside of the building. After less than ten minutes they were on a wide gravel path, flanked by hedges and a sign proclaiming 'East Gardens'.

Juvia was way more quiet than usual. She was still ruminating George the photographer's mistreatment.

Half an hour of flower gazing had Gray more anxious than he could ever remember being. The next bench in sight was empty and Gray decided they could sit and try to make progress.

"Juvia?" Gray found his fingers worrying the top button of his shirt. He slowly flexed his hand free and set it on his knee. "I want you to know that training doesn't make the list of things on my mind when I kiss you."

At that moment, there were no other people in view. No couples walking hand in hand, no families with children, not an extra soul. Juvia lowered her eyes but turned to look at Gray. "Juvia is not a burden to Gray?"

"Juvia, you're many things to me, but being a burden is not one of them." Gray let his impulses control him. He could hear the chatter of incoming people, but he had to reassure his partner her worth. He pressed his cool lips over hers and let her warmth assail his senses.

"Natsu, you can stop looking for glue. I'm over my snit. Happy was just being himself. You know I'd never take revenge. If I was like that, I would've done something horrible to him a long time ago."

Natsu flashed his grin at his partner. "You're right. You're right a lot."

"Glad you noticed." Lucy giggled, "I could get used to this sort of behaviour."

"You wanna go check out conference room B?" Natsu liked how Lucy's hand felt. He didn't think she knew, but she'd been the one to lace her fingers with his. "Gajeel and Levy are in the room, and Gray and Juvia took off going that way," he jerked his thumb to the left. "The conference room is the other way and we're assured of close to an hour of privacy."

The shoulder angel and devil started clapping. Lucy nodded. "I'd love to see what costumes they have picked out for us!" The two tiny apparitions face palmed and sighed.

Inside the conference room, Natsu shoved his clammy hands into his pockets. In silence he watched his partner 'ooh' and 'ahh' over the racks of assorted swim, fashion and casual wear. Lucy fondled the fabrics, drooling over the selected Heart Kreuz evening dresses. The next pile of clothes she handled had men's swim trunks. A flashy flame with coiled dragons pattern brought her attention back to Natsu.

"Sorry I got so caught up," Lucy waved at the costumes. "These are incredible, but I'm awake now."

"Yeah?"

Lucy didn't understand why her little apology had Natsu so perked up. It wasn't as if she'd never said sorry to him before - because she had. Lucy believed in taking responsibility for mistakes, and not leaving them to fester. So why was Natsu wreathed in such a giant smile? He was in front of her in an instant, and standing closer than usual. Natsu didn't have much of an idea of personal space, but this was ridiculous! Her heart skipped a beat.

"Awake?"

"Yes." Lucy felt Natsu's heat flaring and subsiding in distinct waves. "I'm awake. What do you want to do while we wait? We must have around half an hour before everyone else gets here," she smiled.

"I really want to kiss you."

Lucy flinched. Was it from the two tiny thuds she could've sworn she heard, or was it the way there was no chance of misinterpreting the slayer's words?

Natsu felt cold for the first time in his life as a dragon slayer. Honest communication had been Lucy's request, but that visible tremor after he let her know his truth had him feeling there were shards of ice in his gut.

In that split second, Lucy saw and read Natsu's reaction. He took a step back and Lucy took the step forward she'd been fighting against so long. Dr. Nora's words from her last session played, the well modulated tones becoming the pivotal fulcrum her life balanced on. Have you decided to wall yourself off from your best friend, or pursue your desires?

"Natsu?" Lucy squeezed her eyes shut and let her words spill. "Communication is a two-way street. I really want to kiss you too!"

* Next chapter just might have to be citrus flavoured. ;)