Author's Note:

Hello people! Here's the new chapter. Yay! :D

There are no announcements that I can think of to make, so we'll just skip to reviews.

As always, a huge fiery Natsu hug in thanks for everyone's wonderful reviews! Thank you so much WisdomDragon27, dihan, Missy63, and Elphaba 818 for your repeated reviewing, you are all totally awesome super stars! And a big thanks to bluecat76 for your first review! Welcome!

Also, as you can see, we got five reviews for chapter 3, so there will be a sneak peek at the end of this chapter! Stay tuned! As always, if you want me to post early, be sure to review. If I get eight I post early, and five gets a sneak peek of the following chapter.

Now, enough pontificating, on with the story!

~ about 1 month later

Lucy woke slowly…to the feel of something incredibly warm in her bed. It was heavy and halfway on top of her. A few breaths later, her still half-asleep brain recognized the feel of hot scales brushing one foot. By the time her eyes blinked open, she already knew that Natsu was in bed with her…AGAIN.

With a fairly draconic growl of her own, she woke fully and sat up, with a bit of a struggle since the still sleeping dragon tried to snuggle. While she simultaneously set about scrubbing her eyes clear of grit, she yanked off the sheets and began her normal morning greeting of, "NATSU DRAGNEEL!"

The bellow woke up her uninvited bedmate and he jerked awake.

"Get your butt out of my bed!" she yelled, and gave him a solid Lucy kick to toss him out on his ass.

He groaned and sat up, gingerly rubbing his butt upon which he had landed rather hard. "Oh come on Lucccyyyy." He whined. It had taken at least two weeks to ween him from calling her Loony, but at least that was one bad habit he had dropped.

"No! How many times have I told you that it's unacceptable to sneak into a girl's bed in the middle of the night while she's sleeping?! You have lost house privileges for 2 hours! Now out!"

With a pout he poofed out of existence in a puff of smoke, and Lucy sat down hard on the side of her bed to scrub her eyes some more.

Her new spirit was absolutely ridiculous. If she'd known she was signing up for a new housemate, bedmate, and all-around playmate, she might have thought harder about her decision to make a contract with him about a month ago.

The very first time he'd popped into being out of nowhere without her summoning him, she had nearly fallen over out of pure shock. It had been a day after she first summoned him, and the first words out of her mouth were, "Wait…what are you doing here? I didn't summon you did I?"

She'd been pretty well drugged at that particular moment, so she hadn't been entirely sure.

He had quickly explained to her that, no, she hadn't summoned him … and didn't need to for him to show up.

"I'm a mythic celestial spirit! We have super powerful magic, so we can come and go as we please, but only when we have a contract with a wizard of course. Although…some of us don't even need a contract…" he grumbled the last bit, sounding a little jealous and slightly put out.

The fact that he could come and go as he pleased had freaked Lucy out at first, and she hadn't responded too well. "Wait! You can't! If you do that, it'll use up all my magic power and I won't be able to do any jobs. How the heck am I supposed to summon any of my other spirits with you using up all my magic?"

He just blinked at her. "Uh…Looney? I just told you that I use my own magic to come here…it doesn't use up any of your magic at all."

To her shock, he'd been proven correct. No matter how often or how long he came, there was never any drain at all on her magic. In fact, the closer they became and the more he hung around her, it almost felt like his magic was seeping into hers somehow and bolstering it to be even stronger. She didn't know how that was possible, but it seemed to be a side effect of having a contract with a mythic celestial spirit. When she asked about it, he confirmed the theory and said he'd been giving her a little of his as payment for letting him come out. Of course he had also given her that puzzled look that said he was confused about why she didn't know that, as if it was common knowledge or something.

And then he'd made his typical comment of, "You sure are dumb Lucy!" And she had kicked him.

Insults and violence seemed to be a big part of their relationship, but she was never truly offended by any of his rude comments, and he was never particularly hurt by her kicks or swats. He had incredibly thick dragon skin after all.

It was hard to believe that it had only been one month. She knew him so well by now that it felt kind of like they had known each other for years. That was probably since he seemed attached to her at the hip. Spending that much time with anyone was bound to get you to know them super quickly.

She was distracted from her thoughts as Happy finally trotted over to her. He'd been sleeping on his own bed next to hers, but her yelling had obviously woken him up too.

"Luuucy, do you have to be so loud when you kick Natsu out in the mornings?"

"Sorry Happy. But that jerk deserves it."

He just sighed. They'd had this conversation before, so he dropped it at that and wandered off in the direction of the kitchen, leaving her to her thoughts again. With a sigh she got up and made her way to the bathroom to take care of getting ready for the day. Even as she brushed her teeth, she couldn't quite keep her mind from wandering back to Natsu.

As this morning had just underlined, he was terrible with rules. He knew she didn't like it when he snuck into her bed, and yet he insisted on doing it for some unknown reason. She didn't freak out about it nearly as badly as she used to, since she had quickly realized it wasn't anything sexual and he wasn't being a perv. In fact, she wasn't sure the guy had a sex drive at all. She'd never seen him look at her in any kind of weird way…even when he had popped in during truly inopportune moments, like while she was in the middle of dressing.

He tended to do that…poofing in on her at all hours of the day. Thankfully he hadn't done it yet while she was bathing or using the toilet, but she just knew it was going to happen one of these days. It was like she didn't have any privacy anymore.

Not to mention he ate so much…she'd never known that celestial spirits even ate human food, but apparently mythical spirits had no problem doing so. It was a good thing he helped pay her bills by going on missions with her – allowing her to take many more single missions – because otherwise he would be a complete pain in the butt.

Speaking of food, she made her way into the kitchen and putted around a little, finally deciding on making an omelet for breakfast. Happy was already contentedly munching on his morning fish, and she knew from experience that he would probably go back to bed for a little bit after that while she dressed for the day.

While she cooked, once again her brain veered to thoughts of Natsu as she mentally gave in and stopped being quite so irritated at him.

If she was honest, there were a lot of reasons why she didn't complain nearly as much as she could about his ridiculous antics (although she complained plenty). Weirdly, she didn't mind having him around all the time. In fact, she kind of liked it. It wasn't like she was lonely or anything – after all, she had all her friends in Fairy Tail – but he'd found a little hole in her heart to fill somehow.

At first she'd been strictly irritated with his unplanned visits, but lately it hadn't been just irritation she felt at having him around. It was still aggravating sometimes, especially when he popped up in her bed or when she was dressing, but mostly it was starting to be a welcomed surprise. More and more, she was happy to see him. He'd become a friend without her knowing it, despite all his faults – of which there were many.

Along with barging in whenever he wanted and eating all her food, he was also impulsive, had precisely zero patience, possessed way too much energy for any person to handle, and tended to barge into any fight with guns blazing – whether or not she wanted to engage. At the very least, his aggression was innocent; he didn't have any malicious anger in him, just fighting spirit. Still, that – paired with a competitive streak a mile wide – was a pain in the ass to keep up with. Not to mention his mental prowess, which was sorely lacking in some key areas. Oh, he was smart, but in a way that was based more on animal instinct than higher thinking. Which meant he was seemingly incapable of strategy, and that posed some problems for Lucy when stealth was necessary on a mission.

In essence, he was actually quite simple to understand. He liked to fight, enjoyed a good competition, and was loud and boisterous to a fault. Nothing seemed to upset him … at least not really. He'd get pissed for sure, especially at Gray. The two had butted heads as soon as they met, and Lucy had a theory that it was because Gray possessed ice magic, while Natsu was a fire dragon. Still, she'd never seen Natsu truly angry. Whenever he got mad at Gray (or anyone else) it was more of a jovial competitiveness, like he just couldn't wait to beat them. And as easily as he was angered, that anger was harmless in the end because it never stuck around. He'd fight, and then he was back to normal Natsu – happy and loud. He was as quick to forgive as he was to get pissed.

No matter how annoying he could be, his good qualities greatly outweighed the bad somehow. Not only did he forgive almost instantly, but he was generally good natured to everyone. There was this strange innocence about him, as if he didn't have a suspicious bone in his body. He was loud sure, but it was happy and somehow always brought a smile to her face. It was very appropriate that his element was fire, because he was such a warm person – his personality was like the sun itself. She found it impossible to not like being around him most of the time.

It was lucky that he and Happy had also hit it off right away, because otherwise things would have gotten very difficult. But as it was, they had become fast friends, to the point where they sometimes even plotted mischief behind her back. It was like mothering two rambunctious toddlers sometimes, which did get exasperating.

By this point in her internal consideration of her new partner, she'd eaten and gotten dressed, and was working on putting on her shoes when the source of her consternation popped back into existence.

"Yo!"

The sudden voice behind her made her lose her balance out of surprise, and she teetered on one foot, the other held up as she worked to get her shoe on while standing. With a yelp of surprise she tried to right herself by cartwheeling her arms through the air. Her flailing limps managed to catch the nearby table, and knocked over a pitcher of juice, but did absolutely nothing to stop her fall. She continued to fall despite her best efforts. Up until an exceptionally warm arm wrapped tight around her middle and stopped her downward momentum in its tracks.

Lucy wheezed at the tight grip and abrupt compression of her lungs, but ultimately sighed in relief. It wasn't like a fall was really a big deal, but in this case it might have been bad given her location. She could have easily bashed her head on the table, or the hard floor if she hadn't been able to fall right.

Once she caught her breath, she instantly squirmed in his grip and yelled, "Natsu! Don't surprise me like that!"

"Sorry!" he responded cheerfully, and Lucy sighed, letting more of her weight rest on his arm as she slumped in defeat.

He was ridiculous.

After a moment of abject defeat, she pushed away and turned around to give him a stiff glare. "It also hasn't been two hours!" She reminded him of her previous punishment.

He just shrugged, gave her an unrepentant grin, and wandered over to the fridge. Lucy face-palmed and simply let him go. He was impossible to control.

After he had eaten way too much of her food, they were off to the guildhall with Happy in tow.

As they approached the mostly rebuilt structure, Lucy felt a swell of pride. Everyone had worked their butts off to get the hall back up and running after the Phantom Lord incident. It was a miracle that they had managed to do so much in such a short period of time.

As she walked through the doors, she caught a flash of blue off to the side and grinned.

There was a blue haired woman that had taken a liking to Gray. Apparently she had been a member of Phantom Lord but had managed to escape when the members had been rounded up by the Magic Council. Most had been captured though, and their castle had been disposed of by the Magic Council as well, which was nice. That broken up hunk of junk really ruined the view of their lovely lake.

Stalling at the doorway, Lucy shooed Natsu and Happy on into the hall ahead of her – which they were happy to do – and she turned to investigate the bushes. Sure enough, she found Juvia crouching there, right next to a window that had a great view of Gray.

"Hey there…found a good Gray watching perch?"

Juvia jumped at the sound of her voice, and her head whipped around to stare at her with wide blue eyes. When the water mage saw who it was though, she relaxed.

"Oh, hi Lucy." she greeted. Then she flushed, and her eyes brightened. "Yes! I have found the perfect spot!"

Her eyes turned back to the window and she swooned.

Lucy laughed lightly. She didn't know if anyone else had spotted Juvia hanging around, but she'd quickly seen her and made friends. The bluenette seemed really nice…if more than a little crazy.

"Well, have fun!" Lucy waved to her as she made her way inside, and Juvia waved back with a slight smile.

Her first stop was at the mission board, where she located an easy one-day mission for them to whip out for a little grocery money, and then she made her way to the new bar. As usual, Mirajane was wiping it down and tending to everyone's drinks and food.

As she perched on one of the tall stools, Lucy jokingly called out, "Oh barkeep! The usual!"

Mirajane laughed and smiled at her before quickly putting together a strawberry smoothie. It was Lucy's favorite.

With a happy sigh, Lucy tucked in. After the first deep swig, she surfaced and started to make conversation. "So how are things today, Mira?"

"Going smoothly! Elfman is helping Erza finish the upstairs now."

"Wonderful!" Lucy sighed happily again, feeling like everything was right with the world. That feeling was shattered as Mira leaned on the bar and fixed her with a familiar glittering look. Lucy groaned and leaned back.

"So…did Natsu sneak into your bed again?" she whispered conspiratorially, and Lucy regretted ever letting it slip that he had a habit of doing so. Mira kept bringing it up and using it in her eternal plot to get Lucy properly paired off with a man.

"…yes."

Her grin broadened. "And?"

"And what?"

"When are you two gonna get together!? Come on…you'd make such a cute couple!"

Lucy sighed. "Not happening Mira…we've been over this. Natsu is way too big a pain in the ass to be boyfriend material."

"But he's so attractive! I mean seriously! If you don't snap him up, some other cute girl is gonna come along and put a move on him."

Lucy glanced at Natsu. She guessed she could see what Mira was talking about. His muscles were nothing to sneeze at, his pink hair was strangely hot, and his grin could be downright devilish sometimes … especially with that little hint of fang. But despite his positive physical attributes – which Lucy couldn't quite say she'd never absentmindedly admired from time to time – she was absolutely resolved to never be attracted to him. Sure he was cute, but there was no way she would ever consider pursuing a relationship with him. He was waaaaay too destructive and hard to handle.

"Mira. He's pretty. But he's also pretty dumb." she stated and sent Mira into a fit of laughter.

"He can't be that bad…" she protested though her tears of laughter.

"He is though!" Lucy exclaimed, swinging around to give her friend a serious look. "He's impossible to handle! He's got too much energy for anyone to keep up with, he destroys absolutely everything, and we usually have to take a pay cut to cover damages on every job we go on! He rushes into every fight without thinking or talking about it first, and…"

Suddenly a fight broke out behind her, and the voices definitely belonged to their resident ice and fire users.

Instead of listing more reasons, Lucy just gave Mira a look and jerked her thumb over her shoulder without looking. If that sort of ridiculousness wasn't reason enough, she didn't know what was. He was a great friend sure, but she couldn't possibly ever be attracted to, or want to be with someone like him romantically. He was just way too big a pain in the butt.

Mira just laughed a little more and wiped her eyes. "Oh yeah, he's a handful alright."

A new voice sounded from her right. "But that just means he'd be a blast in the sack."

Lucy groaned extra loud and turned to give Cana a baleful glare. The brunette had gotten in on this little, 'let's bug Lucy,' venture with Mira a couple weeks ago, and now they both wouldn't stop pestering her about it. Lucy suspected that in Cana's case it was simply due to her being bored and single - and was using Lucy as entertainment.

"Ew."

Cana wiggled her eyebrows. "What's ew about it? He'd probably have great stamina. Could probably keep you going all night long. And just think about what all that tail could do…"

Lucy blanched a little. "Okay…double eww. Can we not go there Cana? Not all of us are pervs like you."

"Aww, what's wrong Lucy? Are you shy?" she teased, knowing full well that Lucy was a virgin and was somewhat easily flustered by mentions of kinkier things.

Lucy pursed her lips. "I'm not shy. I just don't like talking about sex. And why'd you have to bring his tail into it? That's just gross!"

Cana shrugged. "What's gross about it? He's got a tail. He's hot. Might as well use what he's got, right?"

Lucy just shook her head and sighed. Cana was impossible.

And then things got much worse as Mira joined in and showed her pervy side too, which was a rare occurrence, but never boded well. Lucy quickly had to leave the bar as they discussed all the potential pros and cons of having a tail during sex…explicitly. It put images in her head that she really didn't need in there.

As far as Lucy was concerned, she was just glad that he could wrap his tail around his thigh under his pants to hide it. It was lucky that he wore such baggy pants and that almost skirt-thing on top of them, although he didn't always wear that. Even without it though, there was plenty of loose material to cover up the shape of his tail. It was useful when they were in populated places because his tail had proven a deterrent to getting some of their jobs done. People tended to freak out when they saw it.

Of course there would be absolutely no way for him to hide it when he transformed, since it thickened and lengthened so much, but then again there would be no hiding his wings or horns either, so it didn't really matter.

One time she'd asked if it was uncomfortable to keep it wound up so tightly and confined, but he'd just shrugged. So apparently it wasn't too bad, though they occasionally had to find a secluded place for him to allow it some freedom when he had to keep it wrapped up for long periods of time.

And that was the most she had ever thought about his tail. She had never needed or wanted to think of it in the ways that Mira and Cana were currently discussing. With a shudder, she sat herself next to Happy as the blue cat munched on another fish and cheered on Natsu.

…

Speaking of Natsu, the celestial dragon was fighting on half a brain. A large part of his concentration was busy processing what he had just overheard.

He didn't know why he was kind of offended and hurt by what his mage had said about him, or why being "boyfriend material" – whatever the hell that meant – would even be important to him. It wasn't like it made him less of a friend to her, which was the really important thing in his book. Friends were everything, friends were family to him – especially after spending so much time isolated in the celestial realm for the past however many years. Being lonely had not sat well with him at all. Some dragons had a very social nature, and Natsu just happened to be one of those dragons.

And the number one person in his book, when it came to friendship, was his mage – the one who had freed him from his prison. Everyone else in the guild was great too, but Lucy was the person that he considered to be top priority.

So really, maybe he was just offended that she thought so little of him in general.

…

Of course Lucy had no way to know that dragons had incredibly sensitive hearing, or that she had just offended a certain fire breathing creature. All she knew was that she needed to distract herself from what had just happened and refocus on their new job. She would tell the others as soon as she could, but two of them were preoccupied with fighting each other, and the third hadn't shown up yet.

It was a while before she updated her team to the mission she had found for them. Thankfully as soon as Erza showed up, she set the two guys straight and stopped the fight, which made it easy for Lucy to give them all the info. It was strange, but somehow Erza had managed to scare Natsu early on, and since then he seemed to obey her without much fuss.

Lucy had asked him about it at one point and he'd given her a look and simply said, "She's scary. I mean, I could totally take her…but…yeah…" and ended with a wince.

Apparently Erza had the power to instill fear in even the most powerful of beasts. She just had a way about her.

After Lucy had told her team about the mission, they all eagerly agreed with her that it sounded cool. Erza in particular was intrigued by the location…a famous hot spring and spa village totally aimed toward tourists. The mission itself was to locate and apprehend a mage, who apparently had the ability to turn themselves invisible. They had been terrorizing the bathhouse – both the men's and women's baths, since this person apparently swung both ways. Nobody knew what they looked like, or even their gender for that matter.

Along with payment, the owner of the establishment had promised to provide them with full access tickets to every amenity offered at the hot spring as thanks for services rendered. They seemed very interested in getting this problem sorted out.

Natsu and Gray weren't as interested as Lucy and Erza in the idea of having access to all the spa's amenities, but that didn't really matter in the long run. Since Lucy had gotten Erza on board with the plan, the boys didn't really have a say in the matter. Originally, she had planned for just her and Natsu to take it, but after listening to that perverted discussion, she was strangely averted to the idea of being alone with him, so she'd invited the rest of their team. It would cut down the pay significantly, but at least it would also cut down on her discomfort.

After showing them the mission, and Erza took a keen interest in it, everyone packed up and headed out rather quickly. Of course Natsu pulled a disappearing act as they boarded the train. He had serious motion sickness when it came to any sort of vehicle, so he always poofed whenever Lucy was on a train, boat, plane, whatever.

As they settled in for a long ride, Lucy couldn't help but look forward to getting there and starting their mission…hoping that it would distract her and make her forget the irritation and discomfort brought on by Mira and Cana's unwanted interference.

They arrived not too long later, and immediately headed for the hot spring/spa where they were being hired. On the way, they noted that there were all sorts of attractions packed into the little village, which was gaudily decorated in an fantastic mish-mash of styles that Lucy had never seen before. Dragon statues were everywhere, as was bamboo and beautiful buildings. It was very touristy for sure.

"We're gonna have to try some of this stuff guys." Lucy said as they passed by some little shops and spas that advertised all sorts of services.

"Yeah! Look at all the food!" Natsu chimed in, and Happy seconded it eagerly.

"Oh wow…so much sushi…" The blue cat cooed, his mouth already started to produce a string of saliva.

"I'd be down to try some of those fancy bars…" Gray added. He wasn't a heavy drinker exactly – though of course everyone in the guild drank to some extent, especially during celebrations – but he did enjoy going to a bar more than the other members of their team.

Even Erza looked interested. As for her, she was very much a fruity cocktail type of person. She also loved desserts, so naturally she was seriously eyeballing all the bakeries they passed…. as well as any costume store or armory.

Soon they had arrived at the largest establishment, which happened to be the one they were working at. As soon as they stepped through the doors and announced their presence to an attendant, they were swept into the back to meet with the manager, who explained the situation to them. Sure enough, he was at his wit's end trying to deal with this pervert who was chasing away his customers.

They promised that the issue would be resolved quickly, and the manager gave them profuse thanks and promised all sorts of free services if they successfully managed to eradicate the problem. He had an attendant show them to a super nice suite, where they were served a first-class meal.

While they ate, they came up with a plan of attack.

"So, let's go over what we know." Erza stated, and then started listing things off. "This person always attacks in the bathing areas, or anywhere where people are partially or completely naked. He, or she, goes after both guys and girls, but only the attractive ones."

"Don't forget that the manager mentioned that the perv seemed to like busty girls and muscular guys."

Ezra nodded. "Indeed. So, here's the plan, if everyone agrees. We split up and spend time in each of the bathing areas and saunas. We will wear these-" She produced little round devices and held them out for inspection. "They are small radio lacrima that will allow us to communicate. That way, as soon as one of us has lured the perpetrator out into the open, they can signal it to the others."

"Uh, aren't they just going to run away as soon as we go after them? How are we supposed to catch someone whose invisible?" Lucy asked.

"Well I'll be able to smell and hear them, so that'll be no problem for me." Natsu boasted, and the others gave him a look.

"Well that's great Flame-for-Brains, but what about the rest of us?" Gray snarked.

"Actually, it's not a bad idea." Lucy pointed out. "If we can pinpoint the perv and keep them busy long enough for Natsu to come and get them, it might be our best shot."

"Two things. One, how are we supposed to keep them "busy" without scaring them off … and two, if they show up in the girl's bath, Natsu's not going to be able to come and help without freaking everyone out." Gray said in a deadpan.

"We'll have to lure them in, and if they touch you, grab them and don't let go. I doubt they'll be expecting that. I'm sure all their previous victims just freaked out and ran away, or maybe started throwing punches or slaps, but they probably wouldn't have grabbed for them."

"Yeah. And even if they get away, I can track their scent. You just have to try and figure out what door they left from. So you're gonna have to chase them and watch for doors opening on their own. Or windows." Natsu added.

Happy just munched on the fancy sushi that had been provided and pretty much seemed to ignore them all. But then he suddenly said, "You know, since I'm a cat, I can go between the girls' and boys' baths. So if one person is getting attacked, I can chase them between baths and keep an eye out for them from the air."

"Good idea Happy!" Natsu agreed with one of his easy grins.

Lucy also smiled at her blue friend, but then turned to her pink haired partner and fixed a firm expression on her face. "The only problem left is that you can't get into any of the bathing areas…because of your tail. You'd start a freak-out for sure and it could scare them off. So you'll need to wait in the areas where you can keep a towel wrapped around your hips."

He shrugged and nodded.

"Oh, and Natsu," Lucy added for good measure. "Do not destroy ANYTHING. I mean it."

He winced. "Sure thing Luce."

Gray snorted at her comment but otherwise ignored it in favor of continuing their strategy meeting. "If the perv goes after me, I'll ice the floor and he won't get very far without falling on his ass."

"Actually, if you entirely sealed off the room with ice, that might work even better." Erza suggested.

Then suddenly Happy voiced a thought that brought them all to a temporary halt. "Isn't all this stuff gonna scare everyone else there? What's gonna happen when a bunch of naked people all panic and start running around?"

Lucy winced at the picture he painted for them. "Maybe we should subtly tell everyone in the room what we're doing so that they can leave one by one?"

"That could scare off the enemy though. It would be best to act first. Once we've caught the culprit, we can explain the situation to the other patrons." Erza decided, and they all nodded in agreement.

After a few more minutes of discussion, they solidified the plan and retreated to their respective bedrooms to change into the wonderful kimono-like robes provided for spa use. Once they were all equipped, they split up to go to separate baths and areas of the spa. Happy kept a low profile in the comfy sitting area outside the spa/bath zones, because a cat in there might raise suspicion or cause a scene. He had his own little lacrima radio thing in his ear though, so they could maintain contact at all times.

As for Erza and Lucy, they went into the women's bathing area together, stopping in the dressing rooms to switch their robes out for towels. Both Fairy Tail mages then started at the preliminary washing area, where they set their towels aside and showered in a large tiled area that had handheld shower stations all along the wall. You could sit or stand while doing so, and luxurious soap was placed in little cubbies all along the wall.

Lucy had seen Erza naked before and vice a versa on several jobs where they had to bathe either in a river or a communal situation such as this, so it wasn't too weird. As always though, Lucy felt a little inferior next to the slightly older redheaded woman, because she had an absolutely fantastic body. Lucy was no slouch by any means, but she didn't have the kind of defined abs and muscular definition of Erza, who looked like a warrior goddess. Lucy, on the other hand, had a pretty good amount of toning but also had some jiggle in her thighs and butt that she just couldn't get rid of.

As they washed, Lucy asked, "By the way Erza, I've been meaning to ask. How do you keep your legs in such great shape? For that matter, how do you keep your arms so well-toned?"

Erza shrugged. "Not much really. I just do one hundred squats every day with weights, and one hundred pushups."

Lucy's eyes nearly bugged out of her head. No wonder Erza looked the way she did. "…right."

After they had finished scrubbing any grime and sweat off, they stepped into the next room, which was a large mineral bath. There were a few women around, and they got a few glances – some of them sharper and more jealous than others – but otherwise they had no contact with any of the other patrons.

Both women settled into the lovely water. It was warm and smelled very minerally, but in a nice way. Erza soon split off and went to the next area as they had decided, which would double their chances of running into this person. Meanwhile, Lucy let herself relax into the warm water and soak. It wasn't nearly as hot as her normal bathwater, in fact it was somewhat tepid, but the temperature was supposedly perfect for the minerals in this water to work on the skin and be absorbed.

It wasn't long before Lucy felt like she was being watched. A distinct creepy skittering sensation down her spine alerted her to it and she cringed. On the one hand, she hoped it was the perv so she could catch them, but on the other hand…it was still incredibly uncomfortable.

She gingerly got out of the bath and picked up her towel. With it draped over her arm, she made her way to the next area, hoping that if she was right, the person might follow her. There were probably too many people in this first bath for them to get close. The next area was much smaller… a little sauna that instantly had Lucy sweating. It also happened to be empty of people at the moment. If the perv was going to make a move, it would probably be in here.

Lucy wrapped the towel around her and sat on the bench. Sure enough, that creepy feeling of being watched had followed her in here, and as she leaned her head back and closed her eyes, she heard a barely audible click of the door opening and closing. When she opened one eye slightly, it showed no one in the room with her.

So she patiently stayed still and intentionally let her towel droop to show plenty of cleavage. She sat and waited, biding her time until they made their mistake. Since they were obviously in here with her, Lucy jumped a little when the earbud squawked and Gray bellowed, "I found him!" and then she heard a grunt and some cussing.

This came a shock, since she was sure they were in the room with her. Instead of reacting though, she stayed quiet and still, because now she was starting to think that there was a second perv at large…unless she had completely psyched herself out and there really wasn't anyone in here with her.

Sure enough, only a few moments later, she felt a bad touch on her boobs. Her towel had been pushed down roughly and her bare boobs accosted with a simultaneous hard squeeze on both sides.

Undoubtedly, this was precisely the sort of handsyness that composed the problem they were here to fix. Lucy suspected that the person expected her to freak out, scream, and run away, but instead she just popped open her eyes and grabbed for where they were copping a feel. She managed to snag what felt like a wrist and heard her target gasp in shock.

"I caught one too!" Lucy quickly said into her ear piece while wrestling with the now-fighting invisible perv in her grasp.

The invisible perpetrator was strong, and her palm was sweaty, so right as Erza barreled into the room they managed to slip from her grasp. With an oath and a wild grab that landed her nothing, Lucy snapped, "They got away! Quick shut the door!"

Erza slammed the door closed, and there was absolutely no way the person could have snuck by her in the short span of time it took her to do so. Their opponent now only had one escape route…the door to the mineral bath.

Lucy stood and tightened the towel around her as she dashed to the other door, quickly saying into her earpiece, "Happy! We need you in here if you aren't busy on the other team!"

"Aye Sir!"

The invisible person got to the door first, and Lucy grunted as what felt like an elbow was thrown into her stomach to shove her aside. The door was thrown wide. Of course there wasn't any way to know if the person actually went through it or not, so Erza stayed by the other exit just to make sure while Lucy barreled through the open door. Panting, she looked around frantically for any odd occurrences that would alert her to their presence.

Happy then burst in through the opposite door, getting a few wild sounds from the patrons who were shocked to see a magical flying cat.

"Stay by that door Happy and block it!" she called, and saw him nod in acknowledgement. He closed the door shut firmly behind him and wrapped his tail around the handle, making it impossible for anyone to get out without getting past him.

A yelp had her head swiveling around and she saw a woman get shoved out of the way of what looked like thin air.

"They're out here!" she called back to Erza, and the redhead quickly ran and blocked the entrance to the sauna instead. Since the spa was arranged with only one entrance and one exit in each bathing space, it would be easy to corral the person, as long as they didn't lose them. Lucy rushed to the entrance, apologizing as she ran into a couple of people.

Through her headpiece, she could hear Gray cussing vibrantly, and the sound of Natsu as well as he joined the battle on their side.

"How's it going guys?" Lucy panted as she finally slid in front of the entrance to the ladies' bath. Once she was there, Happy flew up and started circling the ceiling with his eyes peeled for anything unusual.

"Shit I lost them!"

"I got them!" Natsu chimed in, and then yelped. "What the fuck!? Don't grab me there!"

Lucy winced.

All she could do was wait by the door and hope that Happy could somehow locate their perv wherever they were hiding in the bath. Her eyes darted around frantically, trying to see any sort of movement. Suddenly one woman shrieked and then went stiff in an unnatural pose, as if she was being held with her arms behind her back.

"Let me through the door, or I hurt her." A bodiless female voice sounded, and the hostage sobbed, looking understandably upset.

Lucy saw Erza step away from her door and start to make a slow approach from the rear. Thinking fast, she raised both hands in a universal sign of surrender and adopted a fake scared expression.

"Easy…just calm down, okay? I'll open the door for you …" Lucy said placatingly, then glanced up at Happy and gestured with just her eyes. He grinned and dove down, landing on the invisible person's head and digging in his claws. The enemy yelled and screamed, obviously shaking her head judging by the way Happy suddenly spun around back and forth.

By that point the hostage and invisible person were closer to Lucy than Erza, so she lunged and grabbed for the empty air. The invisible woman shrieked as Lucy snagged her, and the hostage was released in the ensuing chaos. She hadn't gotten a good hold – actually, awkwardly enough, she had managed to grab the woman's boob. If there had been any doubt as to this person's gender, it was now solved, because the soft mound in Lucy's grip was definitely female.

Normally she would have released her, but in this case Lucy kept a tight hold on the breast in her hand while she grabbed for some other body part with her free hand. They got into a very strange wrestling match as Lucy struggled to hold her, quickly trading the boob for a handful of hair. Her opponent screamed bloody murder and shoved Lucy, throwing them both off balance and toppling through the doorway. Lucy kept a firm grip on the hair in her fist even as they fell.

They hit the ground and her captive broke free, but Lucy managed to snag an ankle in passing and held on for dear life, dragging the other woman back. She scrambled to her feet, clawing up her opponent's body as she went. A fist to her face had her seeing stars and spitting a little blood out from where she had bit her lip, but she kept hold of her quarry. As Lucy tried to get a good hold of her, they slipped and slid through the bathing room, skidding and falling more than once on soap as the perpetrator slowly made her way towards the outside, attempting to shake Lucy off as she went.

By the time they reached the dressing room, they had both been knocked to the floor again, and were in the process of scrambling for top position, rolling around on the ground… and always towards the exit. Lucy almost didn't realize that she had let her opponent drag her all the way to the sitting area until they tumbled out of the exit and landed amongst clothed people, who all made a fuss and scrambled to get away from what looked like a mostly naked woman wrestling thin air. Lucy still had her towel…but only barely, and it wasn't exactly in place anymore.

Erza and Happy had followed the two closely, but their target was crafty and had always managed to put Lucy between them and her like a shield…up until they landed in the sitting room with the crazy invisible person sitting on top of Lucy and doing her very best to claw the celestial mages eyes out.

In short order, Erza was standing over them both and an armored fist came down hard on where the invisible head of their target should be. It took her several tries, but after playing whack a mole, she finally got her. With an oof, Lucy felt the body weight of their opponent land on top of her, and she slowly turned visible.

"Nice one Erza!" Happy cheered as he floated above her head and then landed near Lucy's shoulder to get a closer look at the person they had just knocked out.

Almost at the same moment Erza had knocked their enemy out, the doors to the men's bath burst open and Gray came barreling out in a towel with Natsu hot on his heels. Natsu was still fully clothed in the spa's robe, though it was thoroughly soaked and gaped open, leaving a deep V that showed off his chest and stomach. Thankfully it looked like he was wearing boxers or something underneath, based on the peeks of black material that showed as he ran at full tilt. His tail was also out and about, wagging like a happy dog or an angry cat.

It made a funny sight and Lucy found herself watching the chaos speechlessly. Gray was wrestling thin air and Natsu was brandishing flaming fists and dancing around waiting for an opening with a big shit-eating grin on his face. Gray was accumulating a set of scratches all down his face and chest – which Lucy probably also shared.

And then, to Lucy's shock, Gray's towel was whipped off. Apparently his opponent thought that would distract him, but he didn't even seem to notice. Typical…he stripped so often, of course he wouldn't give a fuck. Lucy did her best to avert her eyes from his junk, though it wasn't like she hadn't seen it a million times before.

He couldn't quite seem to keep hold of his opponent as they gave him as much trouble as Lucy's had given her. Ice was sprouting everywhere as he tried to pin them down. When his target apparently got away from him, ice walls suddenly sprouted into being all around them, inclosing Lucy, Erza, and Happy as well. A grunt of pain and the sound of a body slamming into the ice near Lucy alerted her to the invisible person's presence and she yelled, "Over here!" and pointed.

Both guys looked at her, and then their eyes stuck. Lucy flushed and glared back. Yes, she had a totally naked woman sprawled on top of her, and her towel was…basically nonexistent, but it was totally unnecessary for them to stare with that expression on their faces.

"Stop staring and get to work!" she snapped.

Natsu was the first to snap out of it, and apparently he glanced at Gray, because with a loud laugh he cackled, "Totally uncool man! Don't pop a boner in the middle of a fight!"

Lucy rolled her eyes. She wasn't looking so she hadn't noticed, and now she definitely wasn't going to look. In fact, she averted her eyes entirely. The sound of Happy snickering near her ear didn't help either.

"Just catch the perv would you?!" she shouted at them

"Sure, but which one? I'm down for fighting Ice-Dick over here." Natsu joked and the sound of fist meeting flesh sounded through the space.

"Shut it, ya fiery mouth breather!"

Thankfully, Erza snapped them both back to attention with a clanging sound as she smacked them both upside the head, and very quickly their opponent was apprehended. Meanwhile, Lucy worked on getting the unconscious woman off her, while preserving both of their modesties as much as possible.

Once they had captured the second perv, it became clear that the two were twin girls, who apparently could both turn invisible. They were both turned in to the local authorities for proper punishment. In thanks, as promised they received tickets to all the spa treatments, and they all decided to stay for a day or two and take advantage of the perk.

Sneak Peek:

Lucy was on her way to an almost asleep blissful daze herself when suddenly she was shocked back into full alertness as a splash indicated the sudden appearance of someone new. Out of habit, she reached for the towel she had folded next to the bath and slapped it across her front within a few seconds.

As it turned out, it was a good thing she had covered her private bits, because her bathing buddy was none other than the pink haired pest himself.

"NATSU!" she whisper-yelled, not wanting to alert the staff that a boy was in the girl's bathing area…that would get them all in trouble. "What the hell are you doing here?"