Dear Readers,

I am so glad you've all liked it so far. Here's the next, but seriously, this time it will be a few days. I need time to rest... lol

Quick reminders: Desna owns the Pradesh Family, Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail.

Everyone give a shout out to my wonderful beta, GoddessxNyte2, for her constant and valuable input and effort into this story. It wouldn't be the same without her.

Enjoy!

"Ow, ow, ow… damn it, that guy…"

"What's wrong, Van?" Cris called to his brother as he made his way to the couch, and the shadowquip seated on it waving his hands in front of him.

"Oh, just got burned a little, is all. My amazing, dragon-y brother feeling up to a little healing?" he asked him with a raised eyebrow.

Cris rolled his eyes, but went to heal him anyway, "This isn't a little, Van," he said, examining the scorched and blistered fingers, "Mr. Elan doesn't even let you in the kitchen. How'd you manage this? Did you jump hands-first into a volcano?"

Vander shrugged. It wasn't exactly what he'd done, but it was close enough. He imagined the damage would be similar.

Cris eyed him warily, "Did you piss off Emzadi again?"

Vander snorted, shaking his head, "No. Not that dragon slayer."

"...Cobra deals with poison, not fire… Fire… Dragon Slayer… Oh fuck, Van, tell me you didn't."

Feeling better now that Cris's magic was working on his scorched hands, he leaned back and smirked proudly, "Tell you I didn't what…?"

Cristoff stopped his magic and glared at his devious little brother, "Tell me you didn't go off and find the one dragon slayer on Earthland known for his wanton destruction. Tell me you didn't bring him here, to the same location where his former best friend and supposed 'betrayer' is currently staying, without explanation. Tell me you didn't leave her alone, out on the beach, with said dragon slayer to defend herself from his literal fiery rage?"

Vander pouted at the lack of healing magic, but responded, "I would be lying if I denied sentence one. Or… sentence two. But, I definitely did not do sentence three."

Thinking back, he confirmed, "So you didn't leave her alone with him on the beach?"

Smiling, he answered, "Nope! There was a little blue cat, too. It had wings."

"Shit. KALEB!"

"LUSHIE!"

Happy, surprisingly, was the first to act. He threw himself into her arms so hard that if she'd spent any less time training, she'd probably be on her ass. As it was, she stumbled back a step as the blue fur ball buried his crying face into her cleavage.

Unable to help herself, she held him tightly, and rubbed at his little blue head. She never took her gaze off of Natsu though, and as she watched his look of confusion quickly morphed into anger.

"What are you doing here? Hell, what am I doing here? Where is here?"

"Uh, well…" she rubbed the back of her neck, but realized it was an expression she'd learned from him, and quickly stopped herself, "I, umm, well. I'm not sure why you're here. I mean… I know why but I didn't think Van would just go find you… And that little shit is gonna pay, by the way, but I do need to-"

"Lucy, shut up."

She stopped abruptly, and looked up at him with a saddened gaze. Lucy. He was still mad.

Not that she could blame him.

Happy noticed the tension, and looked up into her face in question, "Lushie…?"

"Go on, Happy. Go stand next to Natsu, for a bit. I think he'd feel more comfortable if you did."

Sniffling, the blue cat looked over his shoulder to the angered fire mage, "Yeah… okay."

He floated slowly back toward his partner and landed on his shoulder, putting a little blue paw on top of his longer pink hair.

"So…"

"Where are we?"

Sighing, she answered, "Bosco."

One word answers were probably best, for now. She was surprised the flames hadn't returned, to be honest. After what she'd said to him….

"Where in Bosco?"

"Just outside Palerno."

"...Why?"

She looked at him. His eyes held a sadness and vulnerability in them that she'd not expect from a question as innocent as 'why were they in Bosco'.

"I… wanted to see you, and explain, and I guess Vander took it upon himself to find you…"

"No."

"No?" Lucy was confused. She'd not asked a question. What was he talking about?

"No, that wasn't my question, Lucy."

Lucy reminded herself of her earlier conviction to not apologize for her decision. To move forward. To be true to the person she'd become over the last year.

Speaking up a little more strongly, she asked him, "What was the question, then, Natsu?"

"Why…" he crossed his arms over his chest in an almost defensive manner, "Why did you lie to me, Lucy?"

She flinched at the pain in his voice, "I have to tell you about that, actually…" she said in a small voice, "I… was never in Fallen Star, I just-"

"Save it, Lucy, I already know."

She gave him a curious look, but did as he said and stopped speaking.

"I want to know why you lied to me, one year, two months, and six days ago. You sat in Fairy Tail's infirmary and lied to my face. Do you have any idea how confused I was, how badly that hurt? I want to know. Why?"

Lucy crossed her own arms, and sat down on the sand with a heavy sigh, looking out over the sunset reflecting on the Grass Sea, "I thought it was the only way."

"The only way for what?" he asked her bitterly, sitting as well, but far from her. Happy sat somewhere in the middle, looking between his two friends sadly.

"To protect you."

"From who? Those stupid bastards who attacked the guild? Are you saying I wasn't strong enough to help you?"

"Yes," she stated evenly, looking him directly in the eyes, "I'm saying you weren't strong enough to defeat them. I'm sorry, but that's true. And you know it as well as I do."

Fire danced in his eyes, but he didn't challenge her on the assessment, "So, what, you were?"

"No."

He just looked at her, confused.

She sighed again and grabbed a fistful of sand, "I wasn't strong enough either. None of us were. That's why I left, why I lied to you, to everyone. I was scared, terrified that if you knew all that they had done to me, and that they were still after me, you'd chase after them and die fighting my battles for me."

She watched as the sand trickled through her fingers, and waited for his reply, "Your battles were my battles, Luce. We were a team."

She let the last of the granules fall from her hand, and looked over at him sadly, "That's the thing, Natsu. We were. But… You never let your battles be my battles. You took your battles on your own, and then piled mine on top. Eventually, it would have killed you. At some point, I had to grow the fuck up and take care of myself."

He frowned, "That's because I could handle it."

"And so can I," Lucy answered, "Well, I can now."

Natsu seemed to think that over, and after a long moment, he spoke quietly. She almost didn't hear him, "I was scared of losing you, you know. When you were gone. And I'd have broken my promise."

She furrowed her brows, "What promise?"

He summoned flame in his hand and tossed it around, distracting himself, but he answered her, "To Future Lucy."

Lucy paled. "Natsu…"

"I… don't think I could live with myself. If I failed. If I didn't protect your future."

She stood up, scooped up Happy, and walked over to him, sitting next to him. She carefully placed her head on his shoulder, gripping his bandaged arm tightly with one hand and a loose hold on happy with the other, "Natsu, you don't have to be bound by that promise anymore. That's not a burden I want for you. I'm responsible for so much more now, you can't fight everything for me. And I don't want you to. Do you understand?"

He didn't answer, instead he put a hand on her knee and squeezed lightly. As if assuring himself she was there.

"I… I loved you, you know," he said quietly.

Lucy didn't answer. She'd loved him too, once, but she knew he didn't need to hear her say it. She'd always known him well enough to know what he was thinking, and that hadn't gone away. And she knew he wasn't done talking.

"You aren't my mate. I knew that. I've always known that, but… I couldn't bring myself to claim you as kin. To give up the chance to be with you, because fuck if I didn't love you anyway. Now… things are different."

"I know. I… betrayed your trust. For whatever reason, good or bad, that won't change. I'm sorry I hurt you, Natsu, but… you think we can be friends again?"

He turned to her, and gave her a toothy grin. It was a few degrees dimmer than she was used to, but it gave her hope nonetheless, "I think we can, do you?"

She smiled back at him, "Yeah, and good thing too."

"Huh? Why?"

"Well, everyone's here and we are tracking down that guild. Gonna teach them a lesson. You in?"

He hopped up immediately, snatching Happy from her and dancing around with him, "Oh yeah, I'm all fired up. How 'bout you, Happy?"

"Aye, sir!"

Lucy watched the pair in front of her nostalgically.

'Everything okay out there?' Kaleb's voice sounded in her head, 'I heard Van's done his stupid thing for the day, and you're the victim.'

'Yeah, all good here. Thanks for checking. Oh, and can you tell Van something for me?"

'I can. Cris is withholding healing until you come back inside safe, so I doubt he's going anywhere.'

Lucy snorted. Thankfully, Natsu didn't notice, 'Tell him to watch his back, his ass is mine for dumping this on me.'

Inside, Kaleb shivered. He could see some of the ideas rolling through her head, and the moment her snake spirit joined in, he got out of there as quickly as possible.

'I'll tell him,' he informed her, before making a quick retreat from her twisted thoughts.

Back on the beach, Lucy smiled, calling out to Natsu, "Hey, tell me something?"

"...what is it?"

"How did you know? That I lied?"

Natsu smiled at her again, "Virgo. I was out training and she found me. I was in Iceberg, I think, trying to see how much of the mountain range I could thaw."

Lucy laid back in the sand. She remembered when Virgo asked to go to Iceberg, when they had first started moving and she got good enough at remote gate opening that she could direct them better. That sneaky little maid.

'Punishment, Princess…?'

'No, Virgo,' Lucy sighed, physically and mentally, 'In this case, I think I owe you one.'

'Are you sure I don't need punishment…?'

'...Fine. Later. Okay?'

'Thank you, Princess!'

Lucy closed off the bond to protect herself from the excited squealing.

"Hey, Luce…?"

"Hmmm?"

"I did have a couple conditions for helping you out…"

She sat up, "...what's that?"

He ran over and sat down in front of her, holding out his hand as if for some kind of high five, "The Kin bond… I never claimed you before, but now… I think we should. Will you…?"

Smiling, Lucy accepted, "I would like that," she said, placing her hand on his. It wasn't necessary, it was their souls connecting, but Natsu was very tactile.

She felt a warmth in her soul, and she smiled as she felt the bond established.

Natsu looked at her somewhat sadly, but smiled back.

"What's the second thing?"

"Oh! That's easy! Fight me!"