Welcome back! Buckle in, it's a long one. Battle royale craziness ahead, and after this my brain needs a major fight break XD

Seriously, who's idea was it to do a 4 on 4 team battle…

Cuz she's crazy…

~Onward!

32

With the sun sinking over the horizon, the light was now minimal, which would add to the difficulty of the battle, and potentially lent an advantage to the dragon slayers and Freed with his Dark Écriture. But Haru wouldn't underestimate any of their six opponents, and he knew Lucy wouldn't either. The upper island was much smaller than the one below from which it sprang and as such, the available space for a four-way team battle was fairly limited. Their senior guildmates had spread out around the outskirts of the island, ready to jump to the rescue when anyone was knocked over the side and was unable to help themselves. The five S Class and Makorav would also be observing and offering final judgements should the match not come to a clear "total knock-out" winner as the Master put it.

There were no real rules in place, not that anyone was surprised, there was no rules to protect you during an S Class mission, beasts, dark mages and other thugs would always take advantage of weak spots. Though in the end, they were all still family, and no one would pull anything truly underhanded or ruthless, or they wouldn't be worthy of the promotion anyway. The only real rules that had been laid out had to do with eliminations:

1. If you were knocked out, you were eliminated.

2. If you were knocked over the edge and are unable to prevent your fall, you were eliminated.

3. If partners were eliminated, the Candidate could continue, but if the Candidate was eliminated, the partner was as well.

The competitors were spread out in an inner circle waiting for the Master's signal, all the picture of tense determination, one last challenge to overcome. Lucy's eyes swept over the other three teams and felt like they were all focused on them. It might not be the case, it certainly didn't help that Haru was part of the winning team the year prior or the fact that they cleared the first two challenges well ahead of the others.

"Do you think Gray and Freed will still focus on taking us out?"

"I would bet on it. But now we have Levy as well, and she's tactical enough to take advantage of a unilateral focus, I bet they'd come to regret ignoring her as a threat."

"Gajeel has also been getting more and more revved up throughout the challenge with all the perceived slights to his power."

Haru hummed in consideration, "I wouldn't count on that working to our advantage," he finally settled on. At her curious expression he elaborated, "there isn't a rule stating you HAVE to work with your chosen partner, I could see Gajeel going rogue and just seeking out whatever he thinks will be toughest battle to prove himself."

Lucy nodded slowly, a finger prodding her bottom lip absently, "he'd go after you, given the chance."

The sudden bark of laughter Haru let out, pulled her attention back to him and he just tilted his head with amusement plain on his face, "Natsu's gonna be going nuts stuck on the sidelines," he told her.

"THAT'S what you're thinking about right now?!"

Smiling again, he slapped a hand over her shoulder, "let the other's break up their teams and come after us, as long as we don't let them split us up, we'll knock 'em all back!"

"Damn right!"

. . .

Haru had been right, almost immediately after the battle royale began, partnerships dissolved gradually as partners seemed to forget they were partners, everyone out for themselves. Gajeel had clashed with Haru, just as he'd predicted, right off the bat, and Gray had attempted to take advantage of his preoccupation with the iron slayer, but Lucy had intercepted that. She noted that though Gray was fully focused on eliminating her or Haru as quickly as possible, Juvia for her part, was still keen on providing every support she could to the ice mage. Haru had entered water drive as soon as the start was signalled, depending on Lucy to be able to replenish his magic if needed, and Gray had clearly figured out that if he took her out, he took out Haru's bottomless magic supply with her.

Meeting Gray strike for strike, Lucy whirled around him as she kept track of Juvia to ensure she couldn't be blindsided by the bluenette. Being connected telepathically with Haru while he was in his drive state, gave her a lot of extra information as well; with his senses on overdrive, it seemed everything he tuned into was filtered to her as well. So, they were both fully aware when Freed tore across the battlefield and launched himself into the air above them transformed in his dark écriture demon form and wings, he was building up dark magic rapidly.

"Leave it to me!" Lucy declared, and Haru's affirmative echoed in her mind, "star reform: wings!" With a flare of enhanced speed, Lucy pivoted and drove her foot into Gray's ribs to knock him off balance and took off in a wide arc around the fighting dragon slayers in a golden blur. She jumped, flipping over the iron mage and planted her feet onto the iron pillar he was swinging toward Haru, the force of her landing drove the attack down into the ground as she sprung upward. Lucy spun in the air and delivered a brutal kick to the unexpecting Freed's side, throwing the trajectory of his attack off, the dark flare bomb was sent careening across the field to explode in the distance. Freed's eyes blew wide in awe, he hadn't seen Lucy's gold wings, near identical to his dark wings, before now, but he shook himself out of his stupor and the two connected into in an aerial battle.

At the same time, intense magic pressure was bursting off Gray and Juvia, enveloped in a bluish glow and their hands connected as water and ice flared up around them. Droplets of water froze in the air as they both widened their stance and leaned in back-to-back, "ice wave!" With the unison raid named, a giant wave burst forward and froze immediately into sharp spires of ice carving up the earth beneath them as the spell grew in size aiming to overtake Lucy, Freed and Bickslow.

"I don't think so!" Haru jumped over the swipe of Gajeel's arm-turned-chainsaw and planted a foot on his shoulder to springboard into the path of the encroaching attack, drawing in the mixed magics and consumed the entirety of the spell. Inhaling as he dropped back toward the ground, he dug the inside edge of his foot in to slow his momentum, "blizzard-water dragon's ROAR!" A massive vortex of raging waters and blizzardy winds shot back at Gray and Juvia, their elements turned against them in the blink of an eye. Gray managed to tuck and roll, taking only minimal damage from outer edges of the attack range and was throwing himself back at Haru before the water slayer even had a chance to recover. Gajeel had done the same and the three men were locked back in a three-way match.

. . .

Unbeknownst to Gray, in his singular focus on knocking his perceived toughest opponents out of the match while his strength was still at its highest, Juvia had been caught in the attack and propelled back toward the outer edge of the island. Natsu was a few meters to the side, well out of way of the ensuing matches to ensure no interference, it was driving him crazy, the coolest Fairy Tail brawl ever and he was barred from participation. Not that watching the insane eight-way war was not a blast in and of itself, the eight competitors had surely made some impressive strides over their month of training. Smirking as Levy burst from the surrounding foliage and raced straight for Juvia, who's body had come to a stop just mere meters from plummeting off the edge, Natsu observed the two women.

The small script mage was surprisingly quick, apparently having enhanced her speed with solid script winged shoes of some sort, she was arching around the water mage without slowing as the other woman had just started attempting to shake off the damage from the brutal attack.

"Sorry Juvia!" Levy called regretfully, drawing worried blue eyes to hers, "solid script: wind!" Large white text appeared and produced tornado-level gusts that picked Juvia right off the ground and sent her sailing uncontrolled the rest of the way over the edge with a scream, finally tearing Gray's attention from his opponents.

"JUVIA!" He shouted, spinning on his heel and sprinting toward the edge, "ice make, chains" he called frantically as he threw himself out of the sprint and slid to a stop at the edge on his stomach with the chains flying after the falling form of his partner, but to no avail. Natsu clicked his tongue in disappointment and dove off the edge in a burst of fire, shooting down to pluck Juvia out of the air. "Damnit!" Gray growled, slamming his fist into the ground as Natsu rocketed back up, the flames erupting from his feet extinguishing to drop down and lowered Juvia back to her feet. She slumped down to her knees crying about letting her precious Gray down, and Natsu simply patted her head, his eyes already returning to dart over the continuing fight.

"It's okay Juvia, I will win this for both of us, because you believe in me!" Gray vowed suddenly.

Sparkling blue eyes met his and she fervently agreed, "yes Gray darling, you'll win, I know you will!"

Natsu chuckled and crossed his arms in front of his chest as he resumed his duties in rescue and officiating, Makorav's voice echoed loudly over the small island, "First elimination: Juvia Lockser!"

Levy had vanished back into the cover of the Tenrou Tree's canopy as quickly as she'd appeared, the corner of Natsu's mouth turned up, mildly impressed. The script mage knew she didn't have the raw power to match the others in a fight, but she was likely the guild's strongest strategic mind, and if he had to guess, she'd remain hidden, picking off anyone and likely rescuing Gajeel when he inevitably got into a pinch, until only a couple opponents remained. Levy was more dangerous than the competitors gave her credit for, a lesson Gray had surely just learned, as he certainly didn't seem so unilaterally focused on Haru and Lucy anymore.

. . .

Haru flipped back and ducked down into a deep stance on all fours to just barely miss the flying shrapnel of Gajeel's iron dragon's roar, firing his own breath attack back in response. The violent water crashed into the other slayer and burst apart, Haru's eyes narrowed when his spell broke to reveal dark metallic scales flecking over the other's skin in a familiar fashion. Not the armoured scale-patterned skin Gajeel often summoned, but his own iron drive state, "Shit. Well, that's not good," Haru grumbled.

"You like Poseidon? You aren't the only one with a trick or two."

Haru straightened and snapped an arm out to catch Gray's arm with a hand above the elbow where a wide ice blade sprang from, just as the other man had jumped to attack from behind. Without removing his grip, Haru drove the elbow of his free arm down into the ice to shatter the blade and snagged Gray below the elbow as well before bracing his foot to spin and launch the ice mage straight at Gajeel. The iron mage batted Gray away and leapt back in a dark blur, causing Haru to grind his teeth in annoyance. He knew immediately that Gajeel had just leveled the playing field, his furtherly heightened senses would make it incredibly challenging to catch him off guard, and drive state gave the user major power and speed boosts. Haru could only hope that the draw back for Gajeel, having not had the years of experience with it that he and Natsu had, would mean a much higher demand on the other's magic stores.

A pained cry above broke their standoff and had all three men scattering outward as Freed's body careened down to form a small crater, kicking up a cloud of dirt and debris on impact. A flash of gold followed in chase, with Bixlow's totems swirling after her and Haru quickly countered with a barrage of water bullets to knock them away from her. Lucy reappeared, wings vanishing but replaced with Taurus' star dress, she dipped low to grab the disoriented Freed's ankle and whipped him around like a rag doll thanks to the inhuman strength her transformation afforded her. Releasing Freed toward the nearest edge, Haru flinched when Lucy shouted for his back up telepathically and her voice reverberated through his head, but he reacted instantly all the same. Lucy pulled her elbow back to her ear, her ethereal bow already in hand and let loose a streak of gold energy to find its' mark square in the middle of Freed's chest propelling him further back.

"Water dragon's tidal wave!" Haru added throwing his hands forward, water burst off him in a large wave to collide with the rune mage, solidifying his trip over the edge. Completely unconscious from the compounding, coordinated attacks, Freed had already lost, regardless of whether he came to soon enough to fly back up. Haru caught a glimpse of red hair fanning out as Erza dove over the edge to rescue Freed, and momentarily distracted, Haru barely got his arm up in time to block a heavy metal kick from Gajeel. He bit out a pained growl as throbbing pain shot vibrated through his forearm, had his own scales not been in place that would have likely resulted in a broken radius. He turned his arm and flexed his hand in experimentation, noticing the cracked cerulean scales, might still be fractured… Lucy swirled around him and drove a knee into Gajeel's gut only to cry out when Gray's ice arrows took her in the back throwing her and the iron slayer to the ground.

"Second Elimination: Freed Justine and by association, Third Elimination: Bickslow!" the Master's voice reported in a booming voice.

"Tough luck Laxus!" Natsu belted out in a fit of laughter from somewhere on the outer edge.

"30 minutes remaining!"

All four mages froze for the slightest of moments, as if they'd all forgotten about the time limit, their eyes darted over one another and then the split-second calm shattered and they flew forward again, colliding with a barrage of attacks. The wear of the battle was apparent in all of them at this point, Haru considered, he could tell Gajeel was feeling the effects of maintaining drive state for so long when it was still such a new spell, as his movements were slowing and the force behind his blows were a little less brutal. Where was Levy. He realized with a start that he couldn't sense her at all, she must have figured out a way to use her magic to mask her scent and magic signature while training with Gajeel.

He didn't have much time to ponder it though, dodging another attack put him square in the path of Gray's ice hammer to send him flying, which the ice mage followed up quickly with an ice cannon and Gajeel with a large-scale breath attack.

"Water dragon's lair!" Haru conjured the water shell just in time to take the brunt of the powerful combined attack, but the force shattered the shield and a burst of pain still crashed through him as he flew toward the edge.

"Aqua Metria!" Lucy's own tidal wave collided with him from the side unexpectedly, knocking his trajectory to safety as the waters submerged him. Gulping the spell down gratefully as he skidding to a stop, he caught sight of Lucy multiple meters away just as she'd flipped over a sneaky solid script attempt to send her over the edge. She landed quickly and shot over to Levy, the stellar mage's physical combat skills were much more advanced than Levy's and it didn't take Lucy long to subdue her. She had Levy immobilized on the ground with a knee braced between the other woman's shoulder blades when Gajeel's demon log swung around and batted her off in movement too quick to follow. Haru appeared out of his water arches to catch Lucy and the two slid back but managed to stay on their feet.

"Thanks for the save," Lucy said, winded from the blow with her hand gingerly assessing her ribs, she didn't look back at him.

"Back at ya," he replied releasing the grip he had under each of her arms, when he was sure she was steady.

Haru's eye twitched and he cursed softly next to Lucy's ear as Levy summoned a chunk of solid script iron for the other dragon slayer. Lucy echoed the sentiment, grumbling that she'd forgotten that they weren't the only team capable of pulling that trick. Power burst off Gajeel again as he guffawed and patted Levy on the head with his own strange version of affection.

Returning to telepathic communication, the partners turned to press back against each other to cover their blind spots, as the other three competitors began to close back in again, Lucy informed, "my magic's pretty depleted."

"So is Gray's. You can tell by the scale of his attacks and his posture… it's probably why he seems to be back to teaming up against us."

"Think we can knock all three of them off with one big attack?"

"Might be our only option at thi—fuck!" Haru cut off, as both he and Lucy were forced to dodge incoming attacks, a collision course of an iron roar, raining spikes of ice and a blast of fire. The pair spun around each other blocking and attempting to counter a continuing onslaught of attacks that Gray and Gajeel let loose while also trying to stay aware of Levy's movements on the peripheral.

"Open, gate of the twins: Gemini!" Lucy summoned, and the twins appeared, having already adopted Lucy's appearance, star dress and all. The two Lucys widened their stances and let their eyes slide shut to concentrate on building up the last dredges of magic power, trusting that Haru could buy them the time needed. A bright gold glow surrounded them as they chanted their incantation. Haru vaulted over them, summoning his own raging whirlpool around them as he did so to add an extra layer of protection. He charged forward just as Gajeel hit Gray with a series of brutal iron enhanced hits in quick succession to send him tumbling across the battlefield and Levy attempted to finish the job. Gray was quick to drive an ice blade into the ground to halt his course though, pressing himself up through heavy breathing as Gajeel leapt to exchange blows with Haru.

"What the hell Gajeel! We have to take out Lucy! That spell will be trouble for BOTH of us!" Gray barked angrily.

"I don't need you, to take them down ice prick!"

Gajeel loosed a full power breath attack, aiming to overtake Haru, and consequently, Lucy behind him, Haru met it with his more powerful blizzard-water dragon roar, to counter. Gajeel was forced back but Levy caught him with a script spell. Eyes flashing angrily, Gajeel leapt back to his feet, and his magic pressure exploded off of him, "dragon slayer's secret arts: karma demon, iron spiral!" With an arm turned spinning drill the length of his own body, the iron slayer closed in on Haru with impossible speed, the power of the spell whipping the air into harsh winds around him. Haru's eyes widened, 'too fast,' he thought frantically, focusing on defending Lucy and building his own magic up to a threshold he couldn't escape the impending attack. He braced, bringing his arms up in a feeble attempt at protection but the attack missed the mark, connecting with the ground just to his right and tearing a deep crevasse in the ground.

"I don't need you either ya trash can!" Gray shouted, dropping the head of a huge ice hammer into the ground and looking more than a little pissed off. Gajeel roared furiously at having his attack rendered pointless, and rounded on the smug ice mage, racing back toward him and temporarily forgetting about Haru.

Haru gawked incredulously, squabbling idiots, he pivoted, quickly returning to Lucy and finally releasing the magic power he'd been building up to a stifling density. The timing couldn't be more perfect, Gajeel and Gray had momentarily gotten side-tracked with their own rivalry and were back to exchanging strikes, despite Levy attempting to guide her partner's attentions back. Whirling water spun around him with quickly escalating power until he caught Lucy's eye, she nodded, eyes sharp and they threw their hands out simultaneously, gathering all the power of the of the thrashing waters and stars around them.

"Oh 88 stars of the heavens, SHINE—"

"Dragon slayer's secret arts—"

Levy screamed one last desperate warning cry at both the other men, she'd been trying to break Haru's and Lucy's concentration with solid script but the spells weren't strong enough to break through the whirlpool that raged around them. The maelstrom of water now too dense to see inside, stretched into the sky with golden light streaking through it, Gajeel and Gray froze when the magic pressure finally dawned on them.

"Urano Metria!"

"Ocean's vengeance, surging tsunami!"

The towering whirlpool exploded outward in a large tsunami in all directions, laced with the devastating star magic that turned the turbulent waters with a bioluminescence as beautiful as it was dangerous. Shock tore through Haru, having snapped to attention at the last chants of the spell, Gray had bolted toward them attempting to get to the eye or their storm. He hadn't quite made it in time, the spell erupted outward submerging him, but somehow, he'd reacted quickly enough to snag Lucy's ankle when he dove for them. Then equally surprising, even with his magic stores dwindling, Gray had dredged up enough power to freeze the section of the spell to prevent his elimination. Gajeel and Levy hadn't been so lucky, both had gone over the edge, even the S class had had to take to the air to avoid the range of that attack.

"Fourth and fifth eliminations: Levy McGarden, Gajeel Redfox!"

No time to celebrate the partial success confirmed by Makorav's announcement, Haru's eyes darted over the settling water and residual golden sparks that clung to the space and then he froze. The muscles of his shoulders and arms tensed as he cautiously brought his hands up to hold in front of him, half in attack readiness and half in surrender as he finally got eyes on Gray and Lucy. They had landed just a few short steps from the edge, with an arc of the frozen wave spiked hazardously around them, grappling in a tangle of limbs, they were each desperately trying to get the upper hand on the other. The ground froze under their feet as Gray built up the remains of his magic again, the sleek ice floor lending an even more precarious edge to Lucy's situation. She was out of magic, Haru knew, she'd used the last of it in their last-ditch effort to send all three of their opponents flying. Haru grit his teeth locking eyes with Gray, he hadn't expected the ice mage to think so quickly in the midst of the powerful unison raid overtaking him, but he had, and now Lucy had no real way to fight back.

"5 minutes remaining!"

Cursing, Haru's thoughts raced in search of any possible strategy to get Lucy away from Gray and finish the match in under 5 minutes, he did not want to leave the S class promotion up to subjective judgement. All that stood between his and Lucy's total undeniable win, was Gray, there had to be a way.

"HARU!" Lucy screamed, she had wound Gray up with her whip, but he had her with icy chains as well and the two were so tangled up at this point, it would be near impossible for Haru to separate them. Gray's jaw was tense as he gripped the leather of her whip, freezing it until it was brittle enough to break apart, Lucy growled and smashed a fist into Gray's cheek trying to buy more time. Haru's eyes met Lucy's, her face set in determination and his eyes widened in recognition.

"NO! I WON'T!" He yelled back at her angrily, Gray had caught another punch she'd thrown at him, and her arm was frozen up to the elbow now. The ice mage's head whipped over to look at him, eyes searching his face for a clue to figure out what the two teammates were arguing about.

"Just do it! It's a guaranteed win, I will be fine!"

Gray's eyes snapped open, jaw dropping, having likely figured out what the blonde was demanding of the dragon slayer. He shattered the whip binding him and gave a sharp kick to Lucy's side trying to separate himself from her, grunting in pain she threw herself forward into the kick, wrapping her arms around his leg tightly, and jumped to tackle him to the ground again. Haru's mind spun, a headache sparking behind his eyes from the increasing tension of his muscles and the clench of his jaw, he couldn't, not to Lucy, he wouldn't have gotten this far without her. He would succeed WITH her, or not at all, there was no way he'd blast them both over the edge to secure his victory.

Lucy screamed then, and Haru's head snapped up to see Gray swing around with a spin kick that caught her under the ribs and sent her flailing back and over the edge. "LUCY!" Haru dissolved into arches of water closing the large gap between them in an instant, he materialized just next to Gray, and grabbed the other man's ankle as he dove over the edge. Completely unsuspecting, Gray shouted in alarm as all three fell over the edge, and the S class mages framing the island all darted over to lean over the side to watch with bated breath. Haru managed to catch Lucy's hand and at the same time, Gray summoned an ice make grappling chain, swinging the weapon up to catch on earth above, just as Haru had counted on. The chain snapped taut and all three were jolted to a sudden stop, Haru's shoulders screamed in protest at being pried apart between the two he maintained grips on. Screwing his eyes shut as he tried to block out the resulting stabs of pain running through him. Gray glared down and began trying to kick Haru loose with his free leg, not that that was a surprise either, if Gray could get knock Haru off him, he'd win, but that had been a risk the water slayer had no choice but to take. His water magic didn't have the same explosive power that Natsu's fire power had to be able to propel himself and Lucy all the way back to safety, Gray had been his only option.

Another kick to the head, and black spots painted Haru's vision, he vaguely registered Lucy shouting at him to let her go so he could get himself back to the island. She must be crazy if she thought he'd drop her now…

"TIME!"

That was it, Haru heard Gray dissolve into a string of curses above him, but with times-up they weren't competitors anymore. When his cursing died down, he broke into a slightly hysteric laughter instead and reached a hand down to grab Haru by the elbow, "stay with me man, can't go passing out now… not after that insane move!"

Haru grinned up at him, and then the S Class were on them, Natsu whipped by in a usual storm of fire and snagged Lucy from the bottom of the chain, laughing all the while. Mira and Erza each appeared to pull one of each of the guy's arms around their shoulders, wrapping free arms around their waists and flew them back up to the upper island. When Mira released him, Haru let out a deep exhale and dropped back on to the ground, shutting his eyes and attempted to even out his breathing. It was over and they'd done all the could, he'd just have to wait and see what conclusion Makorav and the S class came to now.

Gray, or him.

. . .

Natsu sat with his legs splayed in front of him, leaning back on his hands, he had his head tipped back to watch over his shoulder as Lucy half-heartedly smacked at Haru about not just letting her fall—he'd be S class now, if it wasn't for his stupid chivalry she was yelling. Chuckling, Natsu knew it had nothing to do with chivalry, his partner would never have sacrificed a teammate, regardless of whether it was just a simulated challenge or not, it just wasn't him. Wasn't either of them.

"Natsu, would you pay attention?!" Erza barked in admonishment, and the fire mage slowly turned back to the group with a sigh.

"You already know where I stand," he stated flatly, but his fellow judges just narrowed their eyes at him, except Gildarts who laughed outright. Natsu rolled his eyes, "they both put everything on the line, worked well as teams… Gray deserves props for that, he and Juvia only had a month to really get to know each other's strengths and weaknesses. Both teams pulled out high level, crazy awesome, unison raids. Both Haru and Gray thought strategically under pressure, and often in the midst of taking attacks. Hell, I'll admit Gray managing to freeze part of that last big attack around himself and Lucy to take her with him, was fucking impressive." He paused, eyes drifting over the group, pursing his lips as he considered their likely reaction.

"So, understand, that this is NOT a personal bias, I respect our position and my guildmates too much for that…" he eyed Laxus in particular, "Haru and Lucy took out more competitors than anyone else in the battle. They never lost sight of their teamwork, and constantly built on each other's strengths and protected each other right to the end—"

Makorav held up a hand to silence their discussions, "we all know the decision is already made."

Leaning back on his hands again, Natsu tipped his head back to look at the calm night sky, a small smile on his lips, he was proud of all his comrades. Even if he was still a little sore that he didn't get his own battle royale… that got him all fired up.

Base Camp

The competitors all sat around a large fire, Makorav, Gildarts and Laxus were still off discussing whatever they were discussing, but the rest of the S class had returned to join them. Wendy was doing her best with the various injuries the competitors were all sporting, everyone had taken the Trial very seriously, you'd never know they hadn't just been through a big battle with a major enemy. Erza and Natsu had requipped their first aid gear, and the three S class had divvied up the supplies and were making the rounds bandaging everyone up. When Wendy removed her glowing hands from Lucy's abdomen, Natsu appeared over the girl's shoulder, eyeing Lucy with a speculative look. "Alright Luce, you're up," he told her stooping to run an assessing hand over the torso that Wendy had left exposed, peeking over her shoulder to get a look at her back. Lucy swatted him away and attempted to pull her shirt back down into place, but he hadn't moved his hand, he caught the offending hand pushing at his shoulder and glared back at her.

"You can let me take a look and bandage ya up, OR—" his glare remained in place, though mischief danced through them now, he removed the hand on her torso to making a sweeping gesture around the basecamp, "or we can make a scene."

Her brown eyes narrowed, "you wouldn't dare."

"I wouldn't?" he asked with a playful thoughtful expression, "now that doesn't sound like me at all." Looking toward Haru who he'd bandaged up just before reaching Lucy, the water slayer had also tried to fend off his help, though Natsu had a sneaking suspicion he would have just preferred Mira's attentions to his. "Haru? Does that sound like me?"

"Nope," Haru said flatly.

Natsu's eyes flashed, his face split in a wide grin and with a quick movement that Lucy couldn't even process, he was up, with her thrown over his shoulder and moving across the camp to disappear into one of the supply tents. The guild's whistles followed after them, and Lucy could feel the heat in her cheeks immediately. He set her down to sit on one of the supply boxes in the tent, eyes moving over the skin that was more bruising than flesh at the moment, he sighed, "shirt off," he instructed.

Lucy begrudgingly complied, pulling the fabric over her head, "sport bra too," he added simply. Flushing, she turned an incredulous look on him and he rolled his eyes, "ohhh come on. I'm all for public sex—the anticipation of getting caught is hot—" he added for good measure, "but you're injured, and Gramps'll be back soon." She still chewed on her bottom lip, eyeing him suspiciously as she removed the bra, shivering as the night chill hit her. But Natsu made no sign of any other hidden motivations outside methodically wrapping the bandages diagonally from her ribs to left shoulder. That didn't stop her from biting her tongue every time his fingertips ran over the flesh of her breast though, he smirked up at her, "don't go getting turned on here, Luce."

She snapped her jaw shut with a clack when she realized her mouth had dropped open slightly and glared indignantly at him as he chuckled softly and finished wrapping the bandage lengthwise around her chest and upper ribs. Lucy snagged her shirt and pulled it back on, growling as she stood and made to escape the tent and the alluring heat of her infuriating boyfriend, but Natsu snagged her wrist. She turned, her irritation palpable and a 'what' on her lips, when he just leaned in with a gentle kiss, "you were incredible today, I'm so proud of you."

A subtle blush coloured her cheeks, her eyes traced over his face as he released her wrist and she caved, closing the space between them without another thought. Snaking one hand under his vest to trail up his back, Lucy brought the other to the back of his neck to guide him down to slot her lips over his, quickly running her tongue along his lips which parted to deepen their kiss. His hands came to rest gently on her hips, clearly being mindful of the injuries and bruises that littered her body, and she let the hand on his neck fall to graze down his chest and over the ribs on his side. Stepping closer, Natsu dropped his hands to the generous swell of her bottom and pressed into their kiss more forcefully than before. Lucy moaned softly, though the commotion beyond the tent still kept her grounded and then a sound interrupted, "Nats—" followed by a distinctly female squeak.

The couple parted slowly, and Lucy looked back over her shoulder at the swaying tent flap that had been dropped in a hurry, "Erza," she asked.

"Mmmhm," Natsu chuckled, taking her hand and guiding her out of the tent, they found all their comrades gathered now, so the pair quickly found a vacant space on one of the logs around the fire. Lucy rested her hand on Natsu's thigh as her eyes raked over the group, they were all staring, some blatantly and others attempting subtlety, but clearly curious about what had Erza so flustered. "See something you liked, Erza?" Natsu teased, and Lucy exhaled and dropped her head, sure, fuel to the fire, very Natsu...

Erza launched into a sputtering mess of denials and apologies for interrupting, when Natsu laughed again, "chill Red, it was just a kiss."

"These kids…" Makorav grumbled, "for Mavis' sake."

"Oi! Be respectful, idiots!" Laxus barked, zapping both Natsu and Erza for good measure, both sources of disruption cried out in shock at the sudden static racing through their nerves.

"Sorry Gramps," Natsu apologized, even as he glared at the impassive lightning mage.

"I apologize Master, I have been rude, please strike me!"

"No need Erza… please sit back down."

Makorav stood on a box, arms crossed and eyes sweeping over all the candidates, their partners and the S class mages eagerly waiting for his speech to conclude the annual S Class trial. He made none, with his stoic face splitting into an abrupt grin, he stated simply, "please welcome to our S Class ranks, Haru Marius!"

The guild erupted into various sounds ranging from congratulations and cheering to Juvia's blubbering, and everything in between. Lucy burst with excitement and threw herself at Haru aggressively, forgetting both of their injuries, and as he was numb with shock and not expecting the action, they both fell backward off the log and fits of laughter followed shortly after. "We did it, Haru! We won, you're fucking S class!" Lucy cried exuberantly and he continued to stare blankly as his mind reeled to register the news.

Finally, with a good shake of his head, he focused on her and hugged her back, "yeah, Gods Lucy, I couldn't have done it without you, thank you!"

A tap on her shoulder had Lucy turning away to look up at Mira who wore a bright smile but said nothing, Lucy's lip quirked in a knowing smile and she let Natsu pull her back and into his arms. Mira offered Haru her hand and pulled him back to his feet, taking in his slight smile before she took his collar in her fist and pulled him to her to claim his lips in a heated kiss. Lucy squealed and clapped loudly, nudging Natsu enthusiastically as hugged her tighter to him, "'bout fucking time!" he shouted, reminiscent of their training camp.

"What the fuck, how long has this been going on?!"

Elfman just floundered with words and looked like he was short circuiting.

"First Natsu and Lucy, now Haru and Mira?"

"Well this actually is new… sort of…" Natsu clarified the various questioning and comments, as their friends weren't paying any attention to anything outside one another at the moment.

The two pulled apart, both looking a little flush in the dim light of the fire, Haru's lips parted in wonder, "congratulations," Mira told him with a small smile.

"Mira, I think you shocked him more than his promotion!" Natsu joked at his partner's expense, Mira added her giggles to his, and Haru shot a ball of condensed water at Natsu's head in revenge. Unphased, Natsu was dry again in seconds with a flare of his magic, just continuing to grin like an idiot.

Unimpressed with romantic developments, Gajeel was busy complaining irritably about how he'd have won if Gray hadn't thwarted his last attack, and Gray countered that if he hadn't hit him in the first place, they could have taken both Haru and Lucy out.

Laughing with an arm now draped around Mira's shoulders Haru said, "we'll never know now."

Gray stopped arguing with Gajeel at that, and turned with a sigh, "good job man, congrats, you deserve it," he said offering his hand in a handshake.

"Screw S Class! Congrats on landing Mira!" Gildarts threw in boisterously and Mira's eye twitched leaping up from her spot to point an accusing finger at the crash mage.

"No one lands Mira! I'm not a damn prize to be won!" Mira growled, and Gildarts put his hands up in surrender to her for the second time that day, even as she let Haru pull her back down, murmuring calming remarks.

Makorav watched with a smile, his pride in all of them apparent and when his rowdy children had slowed in their debates and congratulations, he gestured for their silence. "This year's trial was one of, if not the closest battles for S Class we've ever had, any one of you final four could have won just as easily, the strength of our guild is unsurpassed," he announced cockily to cheers of agreement from the mages present. "Haru tipped the scales when he was unwilling to allow Lucy to sacrifice herself, even if no harm could really come to her, he embodied what it is to be a Fairy Tail mage. We are comrades first, family first and rivals and competitors second, never forget that my children. Congratulations Haru, Lucy, you were both spectacular."

Sharing beaming smiles, Haru and Lucy accepted another round of their guildmate's praise and applause, Natsu watched the unfolding events with surprisingly contained excitement for once. Some strange feeling settling on him that itched at the back of his mind, something he couldn't quite grasp like a fading fever dream. The alcohol was being passed around freely now, and the Fairy Tail mages would be partying away the rest of the night before packing up the ship to head home the next morning. But even with all the incredible energy of his comrades around him, even enjoying the drinking and the brawling and the light-hearted banter with Gray and Gajeel and Laxus, something was continuing to pick away in the peripheral of his mind. Refusing to be ignored. A muffled sensation that was becoming more and more distinct and seemingly demanding his attention even as he danced around the fire with Lucy.

And then a voice, crystal clear bloomed in his consciousness, 'Anna,' Natsu thought, jaw going slack in surprise.

"He is coming."

A/N. Alright! So, the Trial is a wrap, and OMG people, I usually think battle choreography is a pain to write but keeping track of eight separate fighters is a recipe for a total mental meltdown. What did you all think? How'd I do?

For those of you wondering, I have other plans for Grimior Heart, but they will show up sooner or later.

Thanks to Valerioux and EternalFlame for their input, I agree that the in-between GMG days would be fun and the interaction between all the guilds is always a good time. I think you've tipped my scales of consideration, probably just not a big fight-focus except for our MCs. Hmmm. If anyone has any ideas to play with, drop me a line or PM! :D

Okay! Shout outs to: FireShifter, SuperSaiyajin4Vegeta, Valerioux, EternalFlame and a couple guests for dropping a line or two, your support fills my heart!

PS. Chapters 33-36 might actually be my favourite run of chapters so far, I am weirdly low-key nervous and super excited to share them at the same time haha. :P

'Till next week!

R&R

xx. LokaMuse