A/N: Kept forgetting to post this haha. A little on the short side, but things are about to get real exciting around here! Thanks for reading, everyone :)


In the wake of new developments, Fairy Tail was a flurry of activity. Authorities mostly left them alone, suspicion and anti-guild laws losing out to fear of another city-ravaging demon attack. Makarov's contacts came in and out of Magnolia freely, exchanging information and personnel. Fairy Tail wasn't the only guild to continue operating under the radar, and guildmasters offered to send their strongest to help Fairy Tail during the main strike against Tartarus.

They'd decided that the best course of action was to attack directly instead of waiting for the next demon to show up. They had to be preemptive if they wanted to take out the remaining members of Tartarus before the defeated ones got regenerated. Natsu was no good at all the strategic stuff, so he mostly stayed out of the meetings, letting Erza and Lucy and them take care of all the planning.

He had other concerns, anyway. Even with all these dramatic decisions being made, Fairy Tail was still Fairy Tail. Which meant the rumor mill had gotten ahold of the details of the experimenting he and Lucy had done the other evening. And nobody would leave him alone about it.

"Was the sex good?" Gray asked from the bar stool next to Natsu, looking smug.

Natsu took a sip of his drink. "Dunno. I've never done it."

"So she'll be your first, eh? Cute."

"Cute, my ass. You think this whole thing is something hilarious to tease me about."

"I won't bring it up in front of Lucy, if that's what you're worried about," Gray said. "But we've known each other long enough that I reserve the right to embarrass you about your sex life now that you finally have one."

"We didn't have sex."

"The point still stands. See? You're already grinning like a sap."

"Shut up."

Gray snickered. "You're blushing. Cute."

"Fuck you."

"But hey, so much for being asexual, right?"

Natsu leveled him a glare. "Nothing's changed. There have been exceptions before."

Gray's eyebrows shot up. "For real? You were always so adamant."

"It's happened three times," Natsu said, straightening up. He lifted one finger. "The first was some dude at a bar in Cedar when I was like fifteen. My eyes started checking him out before I even knew it. Weirdest experience ever. It was like, 'oh, this is what most people feel like when they see someone hot.' I hated it." Another finger. "Happened again outside Crocus. I shared meals and stuff with some girl whose camp was near mine. I got out of there real quick before I could get a crush to go with it." A third finger. "Made friends with this dude in Tuly, and it was his friend. She was cute. I think he noticed I kept looking at her because he tried to set us up, but I wasn't interested. It went away soon enough. I'd be happy if it never happened again, but I wasn't so lucky."

"Wow," Gray said. "A dude, too? Why do you hate it, though? It's your own feelings. It's normal."

"Might be my own feelings, but it's weird and I don't like it. I'm still ace by nature, so all that other stuff makes me feel like I'm not myself. But I can't just ignore it with Lucy like I did the other times. I tried, and it didn't work."

"So she's an exception, huh?"

"Something like that. All I know is that touching her feels nice." Natsu's face suddenly flamed red. He put his head down in his arms. "Why am I talking to you about this?"

"Nah, I'm glad you're talking about it. It's good to know that stuff about you."

"Even though you're just a Popsicle."

"And you're just a Flame Brain, but family's gotta look out for each other."

"Even if I have something to do with END?"

Gray's jaw clenched. "Fairy Tail is family," he said through gritted teeth. "You're still Natsu."

"I hope everyone else feels the same or I'll be in trouble once the news gets out."

Gray shrugged. "At the very least, it'll shift the focus away from you and Lucy."

Natsu laughed despite himself. "You're right about that one."

They both paused and turned to look behind them as the tavern door swung open and Gajeel sauntered in. "So, I heard you almost fucked Bunny Girl. You little liar."

Natsu smacked his forehead on the bar surface. After he'd finally finished talking about it with Gray, here came another one. "Not you too."

"Gihi. You should know by now that there are no secrets at Fairy Tail."

"Yeah, but a little privacy would be nice," Natsu mumbled as Gajeel settled in at the bar. It was useless, of course. Natsu could only hope Lucy was faring better than he was. Levy, Wendy, and Charle were pretty safe, but Natsu wasn't so sure about Juvia and Cana, who were probably the reason everyone knew about this in the first place. A love for gossip-mongering was practically a requirement at Fairy Tail, or at least it felt like it sometimes.

"We're starting the strike tomorrow," Gajeel said out of the blue.

Natsu looked up. "That's fast."

"Erza said sooner is better."

"Not gonna argue with that," Natsu said. "Lucy and I were thinking the same thing."

Gajeel snickered. "Still can't believe you two almost fucked."

"When are we leaving?" Natsu said, deciding to ignore the snide comments. As much as he was tempted to start a fight, he'd be playing right into their hands and he wasn't in the mood for that right now.

"Ask Erza," Gajeel said. He shrugged. "My guess is in the morning; you know how she is."

"Eh. Whenever it is, Lucy'll wake me up. …and if you dare make a joke out of that—"

"Yeah, yeah. But really, why didn't you go all the way? Could you not get it up or—"

Natsu cut him off with a flaming fist to the chin, sending Gajeel flying into the rafters.

"You deserved that one," Gray called up to Gajeel, who was coughing up debris.

"We didn't go all the way because we didn't want to," Natsu said, dusting off his fist. "Any more questions?"

"Gray, your turn," Gajeel said.

"Hey, don't look at me," Gray said defensively. "I'll tease him, but I'm not gonna be an ass about it."

"Fair enough," Gajeel said, removing himself from the ceiling and dropping neatly onto his feet. "I'll shut up now, Salamander. I went too far. My bad."

"Don't mention it," Natsu said, a little wary at the apology. Since when did Gajeel apologize when he messed up? Must be Levy's influence, he thought as he watched Gajeel wave to his not-a-girlfriend waiting at the entrance. She left the guild with Gajeel while Lucy, who had been accompanying her, strode in to sit next to Natsu.

"That's new," she said, looking up at the fresh hole in the ceiling.

"Gajeel was being an ass," Natsu said.

"How am I not surprised?"

"You two are the hot gossip of the day," Gray said.

Lucy immediately dropped her head to the bar with a loud thunk. "Erza can't keep secrets for shit. I just wanted to talk about my relationship, you know, like friends do, and now the entire world knows. It's not her fault people were listening in when she was telling Cana, but it's not like I needed her to talk to Cana about it either…"

"Erza likes to think she's above the gossip, but she's probably the worst of them all, save Cana," Gray said.

"At least Cana does it on purpose," Lucy said.

"If you guys keep up some sort of relationship, expect more of this kind of interest," Gray said. "This is all very new coming from Natsu, so everyone's curious. It's out of love, but Fairy Tail's version of love can be a bit overbearing."

"So I've noticed," Lucy said.

Natsu stayed quiet, holding his drink to his lips but not tilting it back for a sip. It's not like he couldn't understand the interest. After Lisanna, he'd made it clear to the others many times that he was in no place for romance or anything of the sort, and his attitude toward sex had always been one of disinterest. It was new for him, too, to see himself like this.

"Gajeel said we're leaving for Crocus tomorrow," Gray said, changing the topic.

"Makarov wants us out of Magnolia before sunrise, while everyone else in the town is asleep. It'll be hard to hide a group as big as ours, but every bit of secrecy about our actions helps," Lucy said.

"Are we just gonna bust into the castle?" Natsu said, somewhat hopeful but knowing there was probably a better plan than that.

"Sort of," Lucy said, to Natsu's surprise.

"Wait, really? So I get to just go in there and boom!"

Lucy laughed. "Not quite like that. Erza got in contact with Jellal. Remember that group he picked up after that first mission we did together?"

Natsu and Gray both nodded.

"That place under the castle you guys found me in that one time, Tartarus's main base is deeper inside there. There's a secret entrance somewhere the Tartarus members use to go in and out without arousing suspicion in the palace. Those Oración Seis kids found it for us."

"Jellal should rehabilitate criminals for a living," Gray remarked.

"Anyway, we'll use that to get inside the palace. We'll attack from the inside. The royal guard will notice eventually if there's a battle going on underneath the castle, but it should save us some time and effort not having to deal with them going in."

"Do we know anything about the inside?"

"Nope," Lucy said. "We don't even know what Tartarus members will be there besides Mard Geer. Or what abilities the remaining members have, wherever they are. We'll have to play it by ear. Erza will go over the plan in more detail when we're on our way to Crocus."

Natsu jumped to his feet and grinned. "I'm all fired up! I finally get to let loose on those bastards."

"You have to be careful," Lucy said, poking Natsu's bandaged right arm.

"Fuck careful. I just gotta stay away from that book, right?"

Lucy sighed and bopped Natsu lightly on the head. "You reckless idiot."

Natsu grinned.

"When does Happy get back from that exceed training thing Lily's doing?" Lucy asked. "We should head home for dinner and go to bed early. Get some sleep before we leave."

"Let's go get him then. I doubt he's doing much besides goofing off."

"You give him too little credit," Lucy scolded as they stood up and made their way out of the guild to fetch Happy.

"I raised the little guy. I give him exactly as much credit as I know he deserves."

Natsu was half right. Happy's attention span had reached its limit by the time they arrived in the alley where Lily was leading the training. They rescued him and together they all went home.

Natsu went to bed early. He swung lightly in his hammock, the faint sound of voices drifting from downstairs where Lucy was briefing her spirits on the latest news.

Natsu and Happy usually slept separately, so Natsu was surprised to feel Happy land on his chest and curl up comfortably.

"I'm gonna end up dumping you off in the middle of the night," Natsu said, reminding Happy why they didn't sleep in the same hammock in the first place.

"I'll be fine," Happy said. "It's been a while since we did this. Feels like a sleepover."

Natsu laughed, the motion of his chest bouncing Happy. "You're right, it kind of does."

"I'm worried about you, you know, Natsu," Happy said.

Ahh. So that was the real reason.

"I'm pretty nervous, too. Lily kept talking like I'd have to do actual fighting, but I'm better at support."

"It's just a precaution," Natsu said. "We don't know what these other Tartarus members can do. We don't want anyone left completely vulnerable if we get separated somehow."

"Or if you turn into END and we have to fight you."

"That won't happen," Natsu said definitively.

"Natsu…"

"You guys can plan for that if you want, but I don't even want to think about it. There's nothing I can do but avoid the book."

"Charle was saying they didn't want you to go at all."

"They wouldn't leave me behind. END or not, I'm one of the strongest mages we've got."

"Humble, too."

"The humblest," Natsu said, grinning. He scratched Happy behind the ears and elicited a warm purr that vibrated his chest. "Let's get some sleep, yeah?"

"You don't mind me staying here?"

"As long as you don't mind me thrashing about in my sleep, I'm fine."

"I don't wanna get in the way of you and Lucy. It's the last night before we all head out."

Natsu barked a laugh. "Thanks for the other night, but we're fine, really. You're never in the way."

"Okay." Happy's expression melted into contentment, and Natsu knew he was about to fall asleep.

"Goodnight, Happy."

"Night, Natsu," Happy mumbled before drifting off, just like that.

Natsu lay awake for a few more minutes, letting his eyes slowly drift closed to the low murmurs still coming from downstairs. The faint sound of Lucy's voice served as his lullaby. He fell asleep feeling warm.


When Natsu woke up, it was still dark. But his internal clock told him it was almost time to meet with the others, so he sat up in his hammock, effectively dumping Happy off his chest and into his lap.

Happy stretched and yawned on Natsu's legs. "Time already?"

"Mm. How'd you sleep?"

"Good. Short. You didn't dump me off. I don't think we were even asleep long enough to dream, so you were still as a log." A dreamless sleep. With such a big event approaching, a peaceful and dreamless sleep was the best thing Natsu could ask for. The last thing he needed was a nightmare adding to his anxiety.

"I guess that's good. Is Lucy still awake?"

Happy hopped to the ground with a soft thud, his tail curled behind him. "How would I know? I don't hear her."

After getting ready for the day, Natsu headed downstairs where Lucy was asleep after all. She must have fallen asleep in the middle of conversing with her spirits because a blanket had been draped over her back where she sat head-down at the kitchen table.

Happy jumped onto the table to poke her with his paw. "Lucy. Lucy. Wake up. Lucy."

With a grumble, Lucy lifted her head, eyes still closed and her face scrunched. Natsu laughed and poked the crease between her eyebrows.

"Rise and shine," he said.

"I had the weirdest dream," she said dazedly, stretching and rubbing her eyes.

"You can tell us all about it after we leave. Erza'll be mad if we're late."

After making quick work of a small breakfast, they headed to a field just north of Magnolia where the rest of the guild was already gathered.

Gray greeted them when they approached. "We're waiting on a few more stragglers."

"Mira was up late," Elfman said. "She'll be here soon."

"Looks like we made good time," Natsu said. He took Lucy's hand. "Ready for this?" he said, looking between her and Happy.

Lucy squeezed the hand in hers. "Very."

"Aye," Happy agreed.

At the head of the group, Makarov began to speak, and they turned their attention toward him. Lucy stood on Natsu's right, hand in hand, and Happy sat on his shoulder. Their little team. They had only been a trio for a couple months, but the experiences they shared made Natsu confident they could overcome whatever lay ahead.

This morning marked the start of what would hopefully be the last campaign to defeat Tartarus once and for all. The final battle was about to begin.


A/N: Sorry Gajeel, you're great but I wanted to write a friend being a bit of a jerk about it and you were the perfect candidate. I know in any other universe you probably wouldn't care one bit. That was just me venting. And that's the last pre-written scene I have shoehorned in here that I have to write around, so you'll all get a break from that talk. Now for the exciting part! For you guys. For me it's gonna be torture to write. But I need the fight-scene practice anyway, so here goes nothing! See you all next time!