When Lucy said she was ready to claim her win from the Grand Magic Games bet, Sting expected to have a wonderful day (and night) in bed. He did not expect to be dragged on a mission to find a missing artifact that might or might not be related to a celestial gate key that might or not be a myth.

"You know I would have come with you anyway, right? You didn't have to invoke the 24-hour bet for this," Sting said as they walked through Onibus looking for the client's home. Lucy bit her lip and refused to look at him or respond, which made him very suspicious. Sting stopped walking and grabbed her arm. He put a finger under her chin to gently force her head up to meet his eyes. "Alright, what aren't you telling me?"

"Well, I did some research on this artifact the client is looking for and… well…" Lucy mumbled something incoherently. Sting leaned in to bump noses with her.

"Say again?"

Lucy took a deep breath.

"It'sprobablyrelatedtotheRebirthdeviceandmighthavesomedangerousdarkmagicifthewrongpersongetsaholdofit."

Sting closed his eyes as he worked out what she'd said. He kept his eyes closed as he tamped down on his protective instincts that were screaming at him to sling her over his shoulder and book it back to Magnolia where he could tie her down if necessary to keep her safe. He finally opened his eyes again when he was sure he wouldn't go off on her.

"You knew I'd say no," he said flatly. Lucy fidgeted, but her wide brown eyes never left his blue ones. Sting sighed.

"Fine. We'll find the thing that may be related to a device that could kill you or at least turn you into a evil representation of yourself. Sure. Why not?" He released her arm and started walking again.

"Don't be mad," Lucy pleaded as she struggled to catch up with his long strides. "I need your help, Nightlight."

"I'm not mad," Sting said more gently. "Let's just get this over with."

They finally found the client's home. It was in the ritzier part of town, and Lucy was pretty sure the client was a wealthy businessperson. A butler answered the door and led them into a cozy den. A few minutes later, a woman entered the room wearing an emerald green gown, similar to something Lucy would have worn when she was still an heiress.

"Thank you for coming so quickly," the woman said as she gestured for them to have a seat. Sting remained standing just to the side of the couch where Lucy sat. "My name is Amelia. From the flyer you know what I'm seeking. I believe it is in a cave system in the canyon not far from here. I have a map for you with a more precise location of the cave entrance."

"May I ask, why are you looking for this devi- I mean, this artifact?" Lucy asked.

Amelia looked down at her hands which she had clenched tightly together in her lap.

"I take it you've looked into the nature of the device?" She whispered before glancing back at Lucy who nodded. "I recently discovered that my uncle, my last living relative, passed away. He left everything to me. Among his belongings was a journal. I didn't think much of it until I began finding the journal lying in places other than where I had left it, and it was always open to the same page. After a few days of this, I decided to read it."

She took a breath and smiled sadly. "To shorten the tale, I am apparently the last descendant of a line of wizards who protect the location of this device, though I have no magic myself. The magic seems to have dwindled over the generations, and my uncle was the last to possess it."

"But if the device has been safe all this time, why look for it now?" Sting asked.

"In his journal, my uncle wrote that he had reason to believe someone was getting close to finding the location. He didn't say who; he only wrote that it would be very bad for them to get their hands on it. I don't know that asking you to retrieve it is the best option, but I'm afraid of doing nothing."

"But what will you do with it?" Lucy asked in confusion.

"I haven't figured that part out, yet," Amelia admitted. "Hide it away somewhere else, I suppose. If I am the only one who knows where it is hidden, the secret will die with me as I have no children to carry on the burden."

Sting and Lucy exchanged a glance. There were still a lot of unanswered questions. Lucy stood, but she immediately sat back down as she remembered the other part of the flyer.

"The job flyer mentioned a gate key?"

"Oh, yes," Amelia said. "It was something else my uncle mentioned in his journal. You see, he was a celestial wizard. Part of the payment for bringing me the artifact is his gate keys. There are seven silver keys and one black. Also, he left some information about how the device is related to another spirit, but even he wasn't sure if it was real or not."

Lucy stood again. Amelia gave her the map, and the wizards took their leave.

"I like this even less than I did earlier," Sting muttered. "There are too many unknowns. I'd rather have Rogue and Yukino with us."

"They were on a job already, and no one knew how long it would take them," Lucy said. She looped her arm with his. "I don't like it, either, but we can handle this. I thought you were the great Sting Eucliffe? Or have I been dating some other dragon slayer for the past two months?"

"Better not be," Sting pretended to growl. Lucy giggled and paused long enough to pull him in for a kiss. For two months she had been seeing the white dragon slayer every day unless they were on separate missions with their teams, and she still couldn't get enough of being by his side. The more she learned about him, the more she wanted to know. Despite the odd factors of the mission, she was glad to have a chance for some real alone time with her boyfriend. He shared an apartment with Rogue, and her team still didn't know what boundaries were, so they were nearly always surrounded by other people. Lucy broke the kiss and started tugging him down the street.

"Come on, Nightlight. I want to get to that cave today and see what we're dealing with."

A/N: Due to unanimous decision, here's another chapter, which is obviously not the whole story. I did not intend to start another mini-arc, but it kind of happened. The muse wants what it wants. It won't be super long though because I'm deep into working on my fic for CoLu week in June. I really just want to show Lucy and Sting's relationship together on a mission, so that's what we're going to do. :D

Thanks so much for all who have reviewed, favorited, and followed!