Cover by Kimbeekitty, and posted with permission.

I decided to post this chapter immediately rather than wait until later in the month like I had initially planned, but I figured no one would mind the rapid update.

Enjoy!

Invitations And Distractions

Lyon stared at the rebuilt guild hall of Fairy Tail. A wide smile lit his face at how the guild had once again risen from the ashes of defeat. With the destruction wrought in Tartaros's wake, and after a year of the guild dispersed to all corners of Fiore, he hadn't really believed such miracles as this were even possible anymore. Hell, out of respect for what had happened here, Lamia Scale hadn't even participated in this year's Grand Magic Games. Which was too bad in hindsight, since he'd heard that Natsu had party-crashed them in a rather spectacular way (sadly, most of the footage was damaged beyond recovery, so he couldn't witness the gloriousness for himself. A lost opportunity, that).

He wasn't at Fairy Tail's doors, to reminisce or to marvel at their return, however. Or rather… it wasn't the entire reason. Lyon did fully intent to give the guild his congratulations and well wishes, but there were other congratulations and well wishes that were at the heart of his objective today.

What he had was a stack of papers burning a hole in his jacket that he needed to unload. And he was looking forward to saying hello to everyone he'd missed seeing before (and possibly cajole Wendy into returning to Lamia Scale as Chelia was nigh inconsolable without her).

But first, he had to go inside. Grasping the handle of the door, he opened it and stepped into the main hall.

It wasn't particularly crowded, which was something of a surprise to Lyon. He would have assumed that the place would be packed with still-celebrating mages, even if it had been a week since Fairy Tail's official reinstatement. Also, prior experience had given him the (apparently false) impression that the guild was always full-swing into party mode or the site of a vicious, yet friendly, brawl.

A few curious gazes turned towards him, not the least of which being Wendy. "Lyon!" she greeted him cheerfully, standing up from her table and rapidly making her way towards him. "It's good to see you!"

He smiled back at her bright demeanor. "Hello, Wendy. It's good to see you, too." He approached the teenager and met her halfway. "Chelia sends her regards."

"Tell her I said hi, back!" Wendy said.

"Will do."

Before he could broach one of the subjects of his visit, his attention was called elsewhere by his name being shouted.

"Lyon!" a familiar voice called from the second floor. Lyon looked up just in time to see his former rival and fellow student take the short route down by leaping over the railing and into the main area. When Gray reached Lyon, he clasped his arm and pulled him in for a one-armed hug. "Good to see you, man!" He then stepped back and released his friend's arm. "What brings you all this way to Fairy Tail?"

"Yes, hello Gray," Lyon greeted. "You see, I was…"

"Lyon!"

Lyon almost didn't mind being interrupted again, if it was by this woman. "Juvia. Hello." His heart sang at her visage, a hundred times lovelier than any other. Lyon knew that he needed to let go of the idea of him and Juvia, and had resolved over a full year ago to do just that, but it was a lot harder to do so when she looked as if she'd stepped right out of heaven itself.

Juvia's eyes slid from him to Gray, deeply suspicious, as she sidled on over to her preferred ice mage, her arm intertwining with Gray's. To some disheartenment, Lyon noticed that Gray didn't move to shake her off. "What brings you to Fairy Tail, Lyon…?"

It seemed as if the couple had made some progress after all. It was good news – after all, Lyon did publicly renounce his interest. But for a more selfish part of him… it was a difficult sight to behold.

"It…"

"Lyon!" Red hair appeared above them, its owner leaning on the second floor handrailing. "What a nice surprise! Welcome to Fairy Tail!" The gathering crowd let out a whooping cheer.

Before he could even open his mouth, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Resigned, Lyon twisted to see who it was. Then he smiled upon seeing Lucy grinning back at him.

"Hey there, Lyon!" she greeted him. "So, what brings you all this way?"

"Hello, Lucy." He paused, waiting to be interrupted. When it dragged on for a few moments, Lucy's expression turned questioning. With a light shake of his head, Lyon continued, "I actually came as a messenger of sorts, today—"

"Lyon!" Natsu cried happily, entering the guild hall with his Exceed son in tow. "Hey there, man! Long time no see! How's it hanging?"

"Oh, for goodness' sake," Lyon muttered.

His reaction perplexed Natsu greatly, his expression twisting in his confusion. "Huh? What'd I do?"

"So many things," grumbled Lucy.

Shaking it off, Lyon responded, "It's nothing, Natsu. Good to see you, too."

By this point, Erza had reached them, having descended the stairs like a normal person. "We're happy to see you, Lyon. For what occasion do we owe the pleasure?"

"I have invitations!" Lyon blurted out, seeing his chance at last. "To deliver." He coughed and cleared his throat, his cheeks warming slightly. "For Ren and Sherry's wedding."

Erza raised a scarlet eyebrow. "For Fairy Tail?"

He nodded. "Yes; Sherry and Ren wished to invite their friends along, with everyone that was a part of the Oracion Seis suppression force from years ago. Something along the lines of that job bringing them together, or something, and wanting everyone involved to celebrate with them." Lyon had barely managed to convince Chelia that it would be a better idea if he delivered the invitations. She had only backed down (with minimal complaint) when Lyon had reminded her of her official duties as maid of honor for Sherry. If he'd let her have this job, then no one would have seen Chelia for days, with how badly she already missed Wendy.

With a smile, Erza nodded and held out her hand for her invitation. "I happily accept, both as an individual and as the guild master of Fairy Tail."

Lyon scrambled for the ribbon-bound invitations, relieved to be – well, relieved – of them. But her statement caught him by surprise. "You're the new guild master?"

"Yes." The very firm and curt statement led him to think that asking after Makarov might be a bad decision.

"Congratulations," he told her, instead.

She beamed at him as the invitation was wrestled out of its binding and placed in her gauntleted hand. "Thank you," she told him. Her cheeks were stained red, her gaze focused solely on the invitation now in her possession.

Seeing his confusion over Erza's reaction, Lucy leaned in close to Lyon and whispered into his ear. "Erza really, really likes weddings." She withdrew with a wink and a finger to her lips. "But you didn't hear that from me."

"Alright, then." He shrugged, accepting the knowledge without further dwelling on it. "Here's yours, Lucy."

"Thank you!" she chirped. Upon opening it, she made a strange face at the paper.

Concerned, Lyon asked, "Is there something wrong?"

"Oh, no," Lucy reassured him, closing the invitation and smoothly tucking it away before anyone else could sneak a peek at it. "Sherry just left an extra message for me, is all."

Lyon could well imagine. Sherry was never going to let her defeat at Lucy's hands on Galuna Island go, and he knew Sherry well enough to know that Sherry liked the blonde regardless, but there was bound to be some sort of well-meaning jibe in Lucy's invitation despite that. Or maybe because of it. Sometimes it was difficult to get a good read on Sherry's motivations and reasoning patterns, even with Lyon's vast experience with the woman.

He passed Wendy and Carla their invitations next. "I can't wait to go!" Wendy exclaimed, excitement bubbling out of her.

Even Carla seemed infected by her friend's mood, a rare heartfelt smile upon her humanoid face. "We'll have to go dress shopping to find something appropriate."

The Exceed's words seemed to light a fire inside of Erza. "Indeed. We should all go shopping together, don't you think?"

"Oh boy," Lucy intoned. "This is going to be an experience."

Lyon wasn't sure he wanted to know what it would entail, given the way that Lucy said it.

Gray grinned as he accepted his. "Be sure to tell them congratulations for me, alright?"

"Yeah, same here!" Natsu joined in. "From me and Happy, too."

"Aye!"

Finally, Lyon was left with only four more invitations in his possession. "And the last ones are for Laxus, Freed, Bickslow, and Evergreen. Are they around?" A quick glance around the guild did not reveal them to Lyon.

"They're on a job," Erza explained. "But they should be back in a few days. I'll hold onto their invitations for them."

"That's right," Gray remarked, a lightbulb going off in his head. "I forgot, they were a part of Ren's guild the past year."

"Yup. They made surprisingly good hosts, too," Lucy recalled with fondness. "Jason and I did an article or two about it."

"I can't imagine Laxus as a host," Natsu said, shuddering. "It's just… a really weird mental picture."

"Laxus took the longest to acclimate," Lucy recalled. "But he was pretty popular, if I remember correctly."

Probably because of his general aura of grumpiness, Lyon suspected. "Extremely popular, from what I hear from Sherry."

"So now that that's over, how long are you sticking around for, Lyon?" Gray asked, having discarded his shirt at some point during the conversation. Juvia released Gray's arm and began to gather his fallen clothing. She pressed them back into her beloved's arms with a fond smile.

"Not long if you can't remain dressed," Lyon teased, trying to take his mind off of the show of domestic familiarity.

Novelty worn off, the crowd gathered around Lyon had largely dispersed by this point. Natsu had wandered off, and Erza had vanished to her office, but Wendy still hovered nearby, probably to have him deliver a message of some sort to Chelia. Though Lyon knew very well that the two communicated on a near daily basis anyway with their new matching lacrima phones.

"Gray!" Juvia stated excitedly, already looking through the man's invitation. "It says you can bring a plus one! Oh, to be my darling Gray's plus one at a wedding! It'll be so romantic, don't you think, dear?" Her gaze misted over, her thoughts far away from her present location. "Sipping champagne, slow dancing, cutting the cake, Juvia catching the bouquet, and then Gray catching the garter! It'll be perfect fate, proof that Juvia and Gray were meant to be together forever…!"

Gray sighed heavily. "What makes you think I'm inviting you?" he questioned, though his tone lacked any real bite in it, and a half smile played at his lips.

Juvia crashed back to reality with moisture brimming in her eyes, and she pouted (cutely, like everything she did) at his words. "Gray!"

"I'm kidding," he told her. "Sure, you can come if you want."

"Hooray! We'll have to go shopping as soon as possible! We must match, after all!"

That was all it took for Erza to reappear. "Juvia! You must come shopping with me, posthaste."

This started a small, benign squabble between the pair of women as Juvia complained of Erza purposefully stealing away her precious bonding time with Gray, while Gray watched from the sidelines looking tired.

Lyon would have given the world to be standing in his shoes right then. To be the center of Juvia's world.

A light tap on his shoulder drew his attention away from the trio he was watching, and he looked into the saddened brown eyes of Lucy Heartfilia. Her lips were quirked in the sort of self-deprecating smile that Lyon was intimately familiar with seeing in his mirror.

He smiled tiredly back at her, unspoken understanding in the silent exchange. Lucy and he had become better acquainted over the intervening year, thanks in large part to her being Jason's assistant. Although he wasn't as close to her as say… Natsu was, Lyon still felt he was safe in calling her his friend.

After a few moments of silence, Lyon awkwardly stated, "So. Erza is your guild master now? That's an… That's an interesting choice."

Lucy let out a strained laugh, vivid memories of Erza stabbing the paperwork stacks on her desk rushing to the forefront of her mind. That the paperwork in question was specifically regarding Erza's instatement as guild master did not bode well for the guild's future, honestly. It seemed as if the long-standing tradition of being a pain in the Magic Council's side would continue on unabated through Fairy Tail's latest leader. "Yeah. She's… she's definitely an interesting guild master."

Silence fell between them again.

"I bet Sherry and Ren are going to have a beautiful wedding," she told him, changing the topic and trying to take his mind off of Juvia and Gray. "Please let them know that if they need anything at all, I would be more than happy to help out."

Lyon nodded. "I'll tell them. I'm sure that they'll appreciate the offer." He paused for a moment, and then added, "Not that they'll… say exactly that, but I'm sure they'll be quite happy." The chances were high that Sherry would affectionately call Lucy a nosy trollop, and Ren would pretend to be offended, and then immediately turn around and say something coy about the situation. By this point, Lyon had spent so much time around the both of them that he had them pretty much pegged.

"Figuring out what they mean to say is a chore and a half sometimes," Lucy wryly observed, recalling keenly one article in particular that she had to help write regarding the pair's extended engagement.

"It gets easier with time," Lyon reassured her.

"Does it?" Her eyes were full of doubt. "Does it?"

"…Somewhat," he amended.

"Tell her that I'll be happy to attend," Lucy said. "I'm really excited that she even wanted to invite me, if I'm being honest."

"She likes you a lot more than she says she does," Lyon admitted.

"Oooh," Lucy teased, pushing Lyon's shoulder slightly. "Careful. Spilling your friend's secrets there."

"I'm not especially worried." Lyon shrugged. "The worst she'll do is pull the rug out from under me again."

Sweat ran down Lucy's neck. "Glad to know that I'm not the only one she does that to."

Juvia's laugh rang out across the guild.

Both Lyon and Lucy looked over to the source of the noise. Opposite of them, Gray and Juvia were all smirk and smile, their arms intertwined. Natsu, in his curiosity, wandered over to the water and ice duo. Whatever he then asked them only made them laugh all the harder, and irritated the dragon slayer.

Then an evil grin spread across Natsu's face, and he leaned in closer to them, whispering something. Happy joined in, a smirk of his own on his fuzzy blue face. Whatever it was he said resulting in Gray decking him, sending the pink haired man flying into a table.

The familiar sight of Gray and Natsu trying to pummel the daylights out of each other, with Juvia cheering on her beloved from the sidelines, caused an intense wave of pain-filled nostalgia to well up inside of Lucy. She shook her head sadly at the scene. She'd missed her team greatly over the past year. But she no longer knew how to interact with them. Both of the boys had done a lot of growing out of her sight, and so had Wendy. Erza was guild master now, with all of the obligations and responsibility that came with that. Their team would never be quite the same again. Lucy felt that in her very soul. Another loss for her to mourn.

As the fight heated up and began to involve more people, she gently nudged Lyon. Once she had his attention, she jerked her head in the direction of the job board. "Unless you want to be a part of this brawl, we should move out of the way…"

Lyon nodded, not feeling up to joining in this time. The closeness between Juvia and Gray was a good thing, he kept telling himself. And yet… it was as if his heart hadn't quite gotten that particular message. Feelings couldn't be rationalized away, Lyon knew. No matter how much logic he threw at it, what he felt was involuntary, and therefore genuine.

His countenance was so horribly downcast, that Lucy couldn't help but take notice of it. It didn't take a genius to figure out what it was about, either. She knew him, and how hard feelings were to change. Her heart went out to the man, to her friend.

She looked away from him, feeling keenly as if she were intruding. Her eyes rested on the board they stood beside. Inspiration suddenly hit her, and she fully faced the board. Scanning over the job flyers, her eyes rapidly swept the board. Normally she'd ask Nab for a recommendation, but today she was on her own seeing as how the man had been pulled into the rapidly escalating fight. It didn't help that, following the rapid spread of news about Fairy Tail's reinstatement, they'd been drowned in new job offers. Lucy could recall a couple of days where Erza's shouts of frustration at all of the paperwork rang across the guild, and resulted in noise complaints from the neighboring businesses (which was saying something, as the fighting could get pretty loud and yet no one ever had complained about that. Or, at least… not to Lucy's knowledge, they hadn't). Lyon hadn't been too far off in his remark about Erza being an odd choice for guild master. She was really much better at slicing things than writing reports about the topic. But then, neither Gildarts nor Laxus had been present, and Mirajane had expressed zero interest in the job herself, so they were left with Erza, as it were.

When a posting finally caught her interest, it was one that was almost completely obscured by another flyer. Lifting the corner of the obfuscating paper, she quickly scanned over the summary of the job. It wasn't anything particularly amazing, so far as mage jobs went. It appeared to be a simple fetch quest. The reward was pretty high though, so maybe the terrain was dangerous or it was in a hard to reach place? Most interestingly, it was on a snowy mountain, and called specifically for a celestial mage! Written in tiny lettering beneath the main reward, Lucy spotted an additional reward posted – gate keys.

That decided it for her. She took it down from the board, holding it in her hands. The picture of the mountain drawn on the flyer reminded her of another mountain, Mt. Hakobe, and her and Natsu's rescue of Macao. Her first adventure as an official member of Fairy Tail, if not her first actual job.

She'd gone to snow-covered mountains on several jobs since then, with her full team and just with Natsu and Happy. But that first trip would always hold a special place in her heart.

Lucy steeled herself, and then turned back to Lyon, who was watching the scuffle with the same horrified fascination that one might wear while watching a mud mole perform a mating dance. Poor guy wasn't acclimated to it yet. Lucy understood fully. Eventually it would become a simple background irritant, much like swatting a buzzing fly. Clearing her throat, Lucy waited a moment for Lyon to peel his eyes away from the spectacle and focus on her. Once she had his attention, she presented the flyer to him.

Lyon took it from her and looked over it curiously. "A job flyer?" He looked up at her, confusion swimming in his eyes. "What's this for?"

"Want to go on that job with me?" Lucy blurted, her skin aflush with embarrassment. She wasn't sure why the simple act of asking a friend to join her on a potentially dangerous quest was so… uncomfortable.

He stared at her blankly. "You want to…"

"Double up on a job, yeah. Look it's…" Lucy pointed somewhat helplessly at the flyer. "It calls for a celestial mage, and it's on a snowy mountain. I figure… an ice mage would be really, really good to have along."

"Then why don't you ask Gray?" Perplexed, Lyon threw a quick glance over in the direction of his foster brother and Juvia, unable to help his resulting slight grimace.

"Because I'm asking you, Lyon." Lucy pursed her lips. "Look… I'm… I don't think I'm ready to… No." She sighed, and started again. "I don't want to go on a job alone. It'll be my first one since Fairy Tail split up last year." She hadn't really had the time to yet, what with rebuilding the guild hall over the past week. "But I don't feel ready yet to deal with… my team. Especially not without Erza there to keep Gray and Natsu from splitting the mountain in half." Actually, mountain splitting was more of an Erza move, but that wasn't the main point. "And besides… I couldn't help but notice that you're in some need of a distraction too."

Lyon wanted to deny her observation about him, but she had hit the nail on the head.

"Look, I'll be more than happy to split the money reward with you," she offered. "So what do you think?" Extending her hand to him, she gave him a tremulous smile. "Partners for one job?"

If anyone else from Fairy Tail had offered to go on a job with him, Lyon would have side-eyed the hell out of them. Except maybe Juvia. If Gray had offered, it would have been definite cause for suspicion. Regardless, although job sharing was common for mages in the same guild, it was almost unheard of for mages from competing guilds to team up. In fact, the only instance Lyon could recall clearly was when they joined up to tackle the Oracion Seis. (And that hadn't actually been officially sanctioned.)

But this was Lucy offering it to him. Lyon may not have known her as well as her guildmates, but he thought he knew enough about her to say that her intentions were good, and that they got along well in a professional setting like this job would be.

A final, forlorn glance at Juvia, and then back at the flyer, was enough to decide the matter for him.

He extended his own hand, and clasped it in hers. "I'd be happy to take you up on that. A job to a remote, snow-bound mountain sounds pretty great right now, to tell the truth."

Lucy grinned at him, and they let go of each other's hand. "Yeah, same here."

"So… how do we even go about getting approved for a two-guild job?" Lyon asked, peering more closely at the job flyer.

"No worries. I actually helped write an article about the 'growing trend' of multiple guild jobs," Lucy said, making air quotes. "Basically, both guild masters approve, one sends notification to the client to expect the both of us, the guilds split the brokerage fee, and the rest gets divvyed up according to whatever agreement we work out between the two of us. Though that's only if the job was offered at both guilds. If it's just one, then the entire fee goes to the hosting guild, which then sends the other guild its portion, instead of the client doing it. Basically, it's real estate. But, you know. With magic. And usually explosions of some sort."

"I think that last part's unique to Fairy Tail," Lyon observed with a wry smile.

Lucy considered it for a moment. "Yeah, you might be right about that."

"So who got the reward for Oracion Seis's defeat then?" pondered Lyon. "I certainly didn't see a single jewel."

Lucy grimaced. "Well, since it technically wasn't sanctioned by the Council, and therefore not a real job… our reward was not going to prison."

Accepting that logic, Lyon decided to change the subject. "Well if we're going to do this, then we should find your guild master before…"

"Before she goes on a hunt for the perfect wedding dress, I agree," Lucy finished. "On that note, we should also mention to her that it's not her wedding so a white bridal gown is a poor choice."

That garnered a laugh from Lyon, but his mirth abruptly cut off at the serious expression on Lucy's face and the slight shaking of her head. "Wait. She wouldn't really do that, would she?"

"Not if we stop her first. Come on, let's go."