Apologies for the delay in updates. I had a rough weekend of being sick, and then still being exhausted and sick while getting our house ready for our son's first birthday, and while I am still exhausted, I managed to get my brain to cooperate long enough to finish the next chapter. I hope you all enjoy!

As always, thanks for the love and happy reading!


"Wait, wait, wait," Gray said. "You dumped what into the lake?"

Lucy and Cana were laughing too hard to answer, and Juvia was hiding her cherry red face behind her hands, so Levy was forced to defend her actions on her own. "Well, she kept making fun of my boyfriend, and I warned her that if she didn't stop, I was going to throw her underwear into the lake."

"And then," Lucy gasped, "Juvia forgot-"

"So Levy- left dinner- after she made fun of his glasses-" Cana continued around more laughter.

"And threw her underwear into the lake before group swim time!" Lucy finished, falling into Cana as they continued to laugh.

Juvia spoke up. "I didn't make fun of his glasses, though!"

Levy scoffed. "You said they made him look like that weirdo from the show we used to make fun of as kids!"

"He said he liked that show!" Juvia tried to defend herself. "I thought I was being nice!"

Levy picked up her fork. "At any rate, they were floating around in the swim area when everyone came out and instead of admitting that they were hers, Juvia was too embarrassed and just spent the last three days of camp wearing the same pair." By this point, Gajeel and Natsu were laughing almost as hard as the girls, while both Gray and Lyon only chuckled along. Loke, having heard about the incident more than once, merely smiled.

"Actually, that's not true," Cana said as she caught her breath and went back to eating.

"What do you mean?" Levy asked.

Lucy glared at Cana. "Really? Did you suddenly grow a conscious?" Cana laughed.

"What are you guys hiding from me?" Levy asked.

Lucy sighed. "I stole Juvia's clothes from the lost and found and gave them back to her." Levy's mouth fell open, making Lucy snorted. "Your camp boy toy was a dink, and you know it. I wasn't going to let Juvia suffer because he was a pansy."

"You betrayed me?" Levy asked in a whisper.

"Hardly," Lucy said. "You still embarrassed her. I just got Cana to help me make a diversion so I could swipe her clothes back and return them to Juvia. Which was supposed to be a secret we took to our grave," Lucy growled at Cana, who's eyes were wide.

"Whoops," she said, putting down the bottle of wine she was drinking from. "I forgot."

Levy studied her friends, mouth opening and closing like a fish, as the others at the table laughed. Eventually the laughter subsided and Levy let out a long sigh. "I guess I don't blame you for not telling me." Levy stabbed her food. "He was kind of a pansy."

Lucy nodded. "Honestly, we would have told you sooner, but we still remember what happened to Nash when he interfered in one of your punishments."

"That was a fun camp year," Cana said with a smile.

"It was terrifying," Juvia argued.

"It wasn't boring," Lucy added. Gray, Lyon, Natsu and Gajeel all asked what happened, but the girls refused to share their secret. Lucy said, "Sorry guys, but that's a camp secret. If you wanna know, you'll have to go yourself. Last time we volunteered there, we still heard the tale being told. Levy's a legend there."

Levy merely grinned as she continued to eat. The remainder of the meal was fairly mellow, once the girls agreed to not talk about their other embarrassing stories at the dinner table. Later, once everyone but Natsu, who was finishing up most of the dishes, was done eating, Levy finally spoke again. "So, any ideas for what we're going to do now that we're done eating?"

Lucy smirked in Natsu's direction. "Well, we could play-"

"NO MONOPOLY!" he yelled, his mouth half full of food. He squinted at Lucy as she opened her mouth again. "Don't even think about it, lady."

The others laughed. "What's the matter?" Gray asked with a smirk. "Did she kicked your ass, hothead?"

Natsu refused to answer as he returned to his food. Lucy merely smiled. "Alright, that's one game ruled out. Any other requests or vetos?"

"Oooo, what about a trivia game?"

Juvia, Cana and Loke unanimously said, "Pass."

"Why?" Lyon asked.

Juvia pointed at the shorter woman, who was pouting now. "She always wins. No one else stands a chance."

"You guys could win if you'd just expanded your horizons a little," Levy grumbled.

"What about cards?" Lucy suggested.

"Do you have enough for how many people we have?" Loke asked. "We'd probably need at least a second, if not third, deck."

"Maybe…"

Gray, who had been leaning back to see her game shelf, sat up. "What about Pictionary?"

"Juvia thinks that's a great idea," the woman gushed.

"I'd play that," Cana said. Most of the others agreed, although Gajeel's grunt could have gone either way.

Natsu, having finally finished up the pie, got up and stood in the doorway to the kitchen as he watched Lucy go to grab the game. "What's Pictionary?"

Levy answered him as she stretched out her arms. "It's a game where teams try to be the first to guess what someone is trying to draw so they can advance on the board."

As the others started to pick teams, Natsu sidled up to Lucy. "I'm going to be very bad at this game."

She smiled up at him. "I'm actually really good at this game. Be on my team, it won't matter."

"I'm on Lucy's team!" he yelled.

"Me too!" Cana cheered. "We can do teams of three. The rest of you sort yourselves out."

"I'll be on Gray's team, so he stands a chance," Lyon said.

Gray glared. "What are you talking about? I'm way better at drawing than you are."

Gajeel grunted. "So does that mean-"

"Juvia wants to be on Gray's team as well!" Juvia gave Gajeel a small smile. "If that's okay? Then the boys can be spread out a bit."

Levy slid over next to Gajeel. "Gajeel can be with Loke and me."

"I think everyone is grouped up then," Lucy said. "We should probably move around a little so we can be with our teams."

As they were adjusting, Gray suddenly took a step back from the others. "Hold on a minute, how the hell did pinky end up as the only solo guy?"

Cana gave Gray a smirk. "Jealous?"

Lucy lightly smacked her shoulder before smiling at Gray. "I'm just popular, I guess."

Cana continued to smirk. "We just wanna be on the winning team."

Gray grinned in return. "Then I'm afraid you've chosen the wrong side."

"Juvia believes Gray will carry us to victory," Juvia said with conviction.

Loke chuckled as he stood. "Are we using the boards, Lucy?" When she nodded, he offered to help her carry them out. A few minutes later, all the teams were spread out with one large dry erase board in front of them. Natsu, brow furrowed, was holding onto Lucy's wrist as he dug around in her memory for any weird phrases or items he hadn't learned from her yet so he would be able to help. Cana, Lyon, and Loke had offered to draw first for their teams.

"Are we using the cards that came with it, or the other ones?" Cana asked.

"We should use the ones from the game," Lucy said. "Natsu, Gray, Lyon and Gajeel won't understand the other ones."

"What other ones?" Gajeel asked.

"We made some of our own," Levy answered him, "but they're all inside jokes and references to stuff we did together in the past."

"Original cards it is!" Cana pulled a card out from the box and held it out for the other two. "Yellow one, ladies." Lyon gave her a small glare but didn't say anything as both he and Loke nodded. Lucy counted down, and they all started drawing.

"Pool."

"Pit."

"Circle."

"Yellow is person, place, or animal, Gajeel."

"Cake."

"Seriously?"

A dozen answers later, Natsu finally spoke up. "Putting green."

"Ding ding ding!" Cana said. "Point for Team Lucy!"

Lucy squinted at Natsu. "How did you get that?"

He smiled at her. "Isn't it obvious? It looks just like a golf course, and it's where the hole is. She even drew in the flag."

"I suppose…" Lucy leaned towards him as the first three cleaned off the board. "Do demons play golf?" she whispered.

"Nope."

"Dragons?"

"Nope."

"Then how-"

"Isn't it your turn to draw?"

Before she could respond, Cana was sticking her marker in Lucy's face. "Here you are, captain. It's your turn."

Lucy continued to give Natsu a strange look as she stood. "Yeah, alright." She grabbed a new card as she joined Levy and Gray. "You guys ready?"

Gray grinned. "I'm totally ready to win. Let's do this!"

Levy smiled. "This is going to be interesting, I think. I have a feeling you're not going to be the one carrying the winning team, Lu."

Lucy glanced at Natsu, who was smiling serenely at her. "For some reason, I think you may be right," she murmured.


"Mutiny? How were we supposed to get mutiny from that?" Gajeel yelled.

"What are you talking about?" Loke yelled back as he looked at his drawing. "It's a pirate ship and the crew is tossing the captain overboard! How did you not get it?!"

"In what world is that thing a ship?!"


"How?" Levy whispered.

"Seriously, that's the worst drawing I've ever seen," Lyon added. "How did you get that?"

Natsu shrugged. "She looks embarrassed to me."

Cana laughed as she erased the scribbles on her board. "Get on our level kids!"


"No."

"Nope."

"No way."

"Uh-uh."

"Don't believe it."

"Yeah, no way."

Lucy frowned as the others. "What are you guys talking about? He got it right! That means we get the point!"

"There's no way you didn't cheat that somehow," Gray said.

Cana leaned just a little too close to Gray as she pointed her finger in his face. "You're just jealous we're winning."

Gray gestured at Lucy's drawing. "Seriously, you don't think it's fishy that he managed to get beatnik out of that? What even is a beatnik?"

"A young person in the 1950s and early 1960s belonging to a subculture associated with the beat generation." Levy blinked a few times as people gave her incredulous looks. "What? I know things…"

"Well, I don't buy it," Gray said.

"Fine, we won't take that point," Lucy said as she erased her board. "Let's just move on."


"Alright, that's it." Gajeel set down his marker. "I'm done. I don't know how you guys are doing it, but it can't be legal. None of us stand a chance."

"Not with you drawing like that," Loke mumbled, earning him an elbow from Levy.

"Guess that means we win!" Cana raised her beer. "Good work everyone! I believed in all of you equally."

"Cana, I think it might be time to go home," Lucy said.

"Hey!" Cana stuck her finger in Lucy's chest. "You promised you wouldn't-"

"I'm not cutting you off," Lucy said. "I'm saying go home and drink your own booze. You've already finished all the stuff Loke brought and you've almost finished the last of what I had in my fridge."

"Well I had fun," Levy said as she stood and moved to clean off her team's board. Most of the others grumbled as they rose and began to clean up their cups and cans.

"Except for that devastating defeat at the hands of Team Lucy, this was an enjoyable evening," Lyon said. "Thank you again for inviting us, and next time you have a gathering here, I'd love to attend, if that is alright with you, Lucy."

Lucy smiled as she shook the offered hand. "Of course! I'm glad you enjoyed yourself."

"How'd you do it, hothead?"

Lucy turned to see Gray staring down at Natsu with his hands on his hips. Natsu was leaning comfortably back against the couch with his arms and legs folded. "I don't know what you mean, droopy eyes. I guess I'm just better at the game than you are."

"Not likely."

"Hey Natsu, can you come help me?" Lucy asked as she separated from Lyon. "I could use a hand putting these away," she said as she started grabbing the white boards.

"Sure thing," he said, his eyes never leaving Gray's as he stood up.

As most of the guests began to say their goodbyes, Lucy took a moment to give them her farewells and thank them for coming before leading Natsu back towards her bedroom. After the boards were put away, Lucy caught Natsu before he could leave and pushed him against the wall with a hand on his chest. "Alright, out with it."

"Out with what?"

"How'd you do it?"

"Do what?" he asked innocently.

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Seriously, words like beatnik and paddy wagon haven't been used in years. How did you even find those in my memory?"

Natsu's grin widened. "I think if you think about it a little bit, you'll figure it out."

"Natsu, so help me, if you don't tell me right now…"

The half demon flinched as Lucy glared at him. She really was scary when she wanted to be. "Alright, alright, I'll tell you."

Lucy took her hand back and crossed her arms. He sighed as he rubbed the back of his head. "I was looking at the other times you've played the game to get an idea of how the game worked, and I found the first memory you have of opening the game. You were with Levy and Juvia and you guys-"

"Went through all the cards," Lucy finished for him. With Natsu's ability to see the memory exactly as it was, he would have been able to see all the cards in the box. Then she groaned. "Natsu, that is obviously cheating!"

"That's not cheating! I was utilizing all of our resources. Besides, we beat Gray, and that's what's most important."

"Natsu, you can't do that again," she scolded. "I know you let the other teams get a few points, but you still cheated and we destroyed them. That's no fun and it's not how I want to win a game. Promise me you won't do that again."

"What about-"

"No. Cheating. Promise me," Lucy demanded.

He crossed his arms as he grumbled. "I still don't think it's cheating."

"Natsu!"

"Fine!" He threw his hands in the air. "I won't use my impressive abilities to their fullest potential to win at any more games against your friends and the boy band."

Lucy sighed. "They're not a boy band, and I like to think that they are also my friends."

"Sure. Whatever." Natsu was obviously grumpy, but Lucy didn't feel bad in the slightest. "I'm going to bed," he grumbled as he left. "We have an early morning."

"I'll see you bright and early then." When his door shut behind him, she let out a long sigh. Natsu was a handful some days, but she wasn't going to let it get to her. She smiled as she made her way towards the kitchen. She could hear that not everyone had left, which meant she had goodbyes to say before she could clean up the last of the dishes. Excitement thrummed through her as she made her way to the kitchen. Their plane was leaving before the sun rose the following day and she was very much looking forward to getting away. Nothing was going to spoil her trip away, she was sure of it.