Dear Readers,

I hope you like chapter 27! I have a few more chapters done but I am still confirming exactly how I want it all to play out, so be patient, I'll have some more chapters out soon.

As always, I feel compelled to remind you, Fairy Tail is not mine (it's Mashima's), Pradesh Characters belong to Desna. Also keep in mind, if they aren't portrayed perfectly, that's because I'm not perfect and writing them isn't always easy. If you want to know exactly how they exist in Desna's world, check out her stories! They are awesome!

Another thank you to GoddessxNyte2 for being a wonderful Beta!

Enjoy!

Every day, Lucy felt stronger. Something she was extremely grateful for.

Really, she was.

But she couldn't exactly say she'd been enjoying herself. Especially not on days like today.

Her and Gil were supposed to be leaving Seven today, heading into Bosco and toward the Academe Cellestine, after having spent three weeks in the hot, arid country.

Not only was that not going to happen, she was now facing several more days of intense training when she'd prepared herself for the break that was travelling across the country.

And no, if you'd asked her two months ago, she would not have considered travelling across an entire nation on foot in the middle of a heat wave a break, but here she was.

This was her life now.

"Gil…. what do you mean, we can't go to Bosco yet?" she whined. She'd been trying not to whine so much, really she had, but even she had her limits.

Gildarts rolled his eyes at her, "Lucy. You're the one who recruited the most overzealous guildmaster in the history of guildmasters to 'fake' chase after you. Why would you not have predicted that he'd go far enough to make things somehow more difficult for you?"

Lucy, as much as she wished she did, had no answer for that.

When you don't have a well-thought and intelligent argument? Go for the next best thing: pouting.

"Don't give me that look, kiddo, it's not my fault that Sting decided to contact every major guild in every major country in Ishgar to look for you," Gil pointed out.

Lucy found that she still had no answer for that, so she decided to pout harder.

Gildarts rolled his eyes, and was about to yell at her to get back to doing the rest of the five thousand pushups he'd ordered her to do when he suddenly tensed and took up a defensive stance. He looked quickly toward the south side of their 'training grounds' (that was really another man-made clearing), tense and ready for a fight.

Instead of watching as a group of Rune Knights or other such authority figures enter the clearing, Gildarts heard a bark of laughter from a somewhat familiar voice, that then proceeded to berate him from several yards away, still hidden in the shadows, "Oh, relax, you old perv. I'm not here to arrest Bright Eyes."

Lucy, who had tensed as soon as she saw Gildarts doing so, instantly relaxed.

Then decided that squealing was the appropriate reaction.

"ERIK!" She shouted, earning a shouted, "Shut the fuck up, Tink!" from the sensitive-eared slayer, who was just making his way into full view.

He tried to rub at his ears, but soon found his hands full as a small blonde woman full-body tackled him to the ground in her excitement. Had… had she always felt like a fucking freight train when she did that?

Erik found himself dazed and confused, flat on his back on the ground, hands pinned to his sides and an overly excited, bouncing blonde woman with one eye perched on top of him. She was bracing weight on his chest and smiling down at him like he'd just saved the fucking universe. Twice.

"How are you?" she asked warmly, amusement dancing in her eyes.

"We are not starting that shit again. Not a chance. Now get the fuck off of me you crazy bimbo!" he protested, squirming under her enough to extricate his hands and pull her in for the briefest of hugs (that he would deny having done if asked) before pushing her harshly off of his person.

Lucy, unperturbed by his rather unhappy greeting, rolled off of him and hopped easily to her feet, and found herself saying the one thing she'd thought she'd never say aloud. To a dragon slayer, no less.

"Fight me, Erik!" she said, bouncing from foot to foot.

The poison slayer blanched, and stood to his feet quickly. Wasting no time, he strode over to his blonde friend and put a hand on her forehead as he stared into her eye intently, "...are you sick?"

Lucy pushed shook his hand off and laughed, shrugging, "Nope. I'm just ready to kick your ass! Gil's been making me train like a fucking crazy person."

Erik's gaze switched over to Gildarts, narrowing his eye. Apparently finding nothing in Gildarts soul that would cause Erik's dragon to commit murder, said slayer turned his attention back to the girl in front of him so he could eye her critically.

"...you sure about that?" he challenged, a hint of a smirk on his face.

"Of course, cyclops! I can take ya!"

Erik didn't respond, simply took a few steps back and took his own defensive stance (she'd never dropped hers).

Just as he was about to launch an attack at her, he seemed to process her words, "O-oi… what the hell? You only have one eye too!"

Lucy just grinned, "Yeah? Laxus and Sting are blonde, so what's your point?"

If Erik couldn't read souls, he'd have been very confused at the mention of the other two dragons. As it was, memories flooding from the mage explained that both mages frequently called her 'Blondie'.

Cobra sighed, "My point is that you're smarter than them. You can do better," he clarified.

Lucy grinned mischievously, "Careful what you wish for there, Sugar Lips…"

Four minutes later, on the dot, found Lucy crumpled on the ground, hardly able to move.

Apparently, one needs more than improved strength to win a fight. Like, some fighting skill. She had exactly one physical attack, and a Lucy Kick was less than practical in every situation.

She'd have donned Capricorn's stardress, but she… hadn't had time.

Lucy flipped onto her back from where she'd been sprawled on her stomach and kicked her feet in the air, "Damn it! I need to train harder!" she complained. Gildarts cracked a smile, but Erik looked a little unhappy.

The three fell into a brief silence while Lucy whined and rubbed at her various, newly-forming bruises, until something apparently occurred to the blonde.

"Wait."

She turned, fixing her eye on the dragon slayer who had crouched to her left, checking her over for injuries, "What are you doing here? How did you find me?"

Erik scowled at her, "I'm here because you left me with no fucking option, Bright Eyes, and you know it! You've been doing that pleasantries bullshit for weeks, just because you know I can't hear your fucking soul through a com, you sadistic wench!"

Lucy couldn't refute that. Her first conversation with the dragon slayer since leaving Fairy Tail was three weeks ago, and in all the com-feed conversations she'd had with the man since then had been, almost exactly the same as the first. She knew it was mean, that he just wanted answers and to possibly offer to help, but she had found that teasing him in such a way had become her main source of entertainment after a long, gruelling day of training.

She should probably apologize. Or look sheepish. Or at least show some form of shame.

At the prompting from Ophiuchus and Aries through their bond, she did none of those things, and went with the choice she'd really wanted to.

So she laughed. In his face.

He growled and plopped down next to her, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring as hard as he could (which was, typically, a terrifying thing - but unfortunately, he'd always struggled to glare properly at the celestial mage in front of him).

"What's so funny?" he asked harshly.

Gil, who had been standing a few feet away hugging a photo of Cana, decided he needed to join in the group. He plopped himself down next to Cobra and was about to pat him on the shoulder in a friendly gesture when said mage glared at him. It likely wouldn't have stopped him if not for the glimpse of a thin layer of purple mist surrounding the dragon slayer.

Gildarts decided to retract his hand. Slowly.

"I...I'm sorry Erik," Lucy giggled out, "It's just that I so rarely get to tease you, ya know? I couldn't help myself!"

"Tch." Erik rolled his eye.

Lucy reached over and patted at his shoulder in a 'there, there' motion. Gildarts looked affronted, as he'd almost been poisoned for doing that very thing.

Seeing this, the celestial mage stuck her tongue out at him.

"Oh, whatever. So now are you going to tell me what's going on, Tink? Or do I have to pull it from your soul?"

Thinking on that question, Lucy shrugged. She was actually kind of curious.

As Erik narrowed his eye and started listening in to her soul more intently, as she clearly was not willing to give him an answer.

After a few moments, Erik's brows furrowed in confusion. He closed his eyes, seemingly trying to focus harder on his listening abilities. When that didn't seem to work, his hands clenched into fists where they rested on the ground next to him.

"What… what the fuck did you do, Bright Eyes?"

Lucy's giggle was like a tap-dancing centipede on Erik's nerves. He was certain that this time, if she did one more thing to anger him, he'd actually get up and murder her just to be done with it. Kin bond be damned.

"You know," she said thoughtfully, "That nickname doesn't work anymore."

Gildarts snickered. Lucy stifled another of her frustrating giggles.

Erik realized his mistake. He'd thought his frustration would cause him to murder his kin. Now that she'd reached that ever-precarious tipping point and jumped right the hell over it, he realized that it wasn't a murderous rage he was feeling. It was utter, soul-crushing defeat.

So he gave up, falling to his back and sprawling over the ground, covering his face with his hand like it would help him block the smug satisfaction practically radiating from her soul. Radiating because not only was she smug, but so were every fucking one of her goddamn spirits.

And he could hear all of them. It was like some fucked up 'I am legion' shit, and if they weren't all sparkly fucking rainbow unicorn souls, he would have been convinced she'd been possessed by the entire court of hells demons.

He was still trying to decide if that would have been better or not.

And it didn't help his mood at all that they were so fucking jumbled around in that soul of hers that he couldn't pick up on any specific train of thought. Hell, he wasn't sure how she could hear her own thoughts.

When Lucy had finally gotten enough satisfaction out of Erik's frustration (she felt it was enough after she'd heard a muffled 'kill me now' from the slayer in question), she heaved herself to her feet and pulled Erik up by his limp arm and back into a seated position.

"Alright, alright, I'll tell you. Though why you didn't just listen in on Laxus is beyond me."

"He zapped me. I'm an asshole, but I'm not stupid. I decided my health was more important than getting answers from a walking thunder cloud," Erik informed her.

Lucy bit her lip to stop from giggling, and continued, "Well, what do you want to know?"

"Let's start with why the Snarky Feather Duster is running around Bosco looking for you, with the sole intention of tearing your heart from your body?"