Author's Note:

Woohoo! Here it is! The new chapter. And why is it being posted today you may be asking yourself? Because we reached eight reviews! I was so excited I almost posted it yesterday, but exercised a little restraint. And since it's being posted today, I'll try to get the next chapter out no later than next Friday - so that it's still about a week between chapters. Unless of course we get another eight reviews, then I'll post on Wednesday or Tuesday and post another chapter that weekend to get back on schedule...which would of course mean two chapters in one week. :D So if you want an extra chapter be sure to let me know ;)

Anyways, on with the announcements.

As I've mentioned before, if there are any questions or comments I feel need addressing from the last chapter (or that were submitted during the last week), I'll do that here. So, I would like to address a comment left by an anonymous guest who made a truly excellent point about chapter 4. They commented that it is gross to downplay sexual harassment just because the victim is a guy and the assaulter a pretty girl. And I completely agree. Though I did portray things in a humorous light, it is absolutely true that the twin girls were sexually assaulting both men and women in the hot springs. Of course, when it came to Gray and Natsu, it was still technically sexual assault as well. However, I didn't necessarily see it as such, because they didn't see it that way and were not upset by it - since it was a battle situation. That was the only reason I felt it was appropriate for Happy to joke about it (though I will confess I actually almost cut it out when I was writing the scene, for the previously mentioned reasons). So, if anyone else was concerned about these issues, I hope this cleared it up and helped to put your mind at rest. If not, please feel free to let me know. I'm totally open minded and happy to discuss these sorts of things.

Also, I would just like to specially thank Gust Fire for letting me know that Natsu and Lucy's names weren't tagged for the story! Thank you so much, I somehow totally missed that! I fixed it as soon as I saw your review. :D

And of course a huge thanks to everyone else who reviewed as well! You guys are all absolutely, positively fantastic. :D Big hugs and cheers to WisdomDragon27, Elphaba818, and Wolves silver wind for their repeat reviews! And equally big hugs and cheers to erzagf, Gust Fire, and the three guests who reviewed! Cake for everyone!

Of course there will be a preview so stay tuned for that at the end. :D

Now! On with the show!

Lucy and the gang hung around an extra day so they could take advantage of the spa and bathhouse – which was more the girls' idea than the boys' of course. After that though, they headed back to the guild to report that their mission was a success.

For the next week everything went normally, Juvia continued to stalk Gray, Happy ate his fish, and Mira and Cana pestered Lucy. Near the end of the week Lucy and Natsu went on a one-day mission and returned with enough money to pay her rent, which was due the following Monday. Everything seemed just fine and dandy.

Of course, that was always when weird things happened.

Midway through the next week, Loki returned from his cat hunting trip – which really shouldn't have taken that long – and the sight of him nearly made Lucy drag him off to a hospital. He was pale, looked like he was going to pass out, and bruises dotted his face while a limp was visibly bothering him. There was no way in hell that he should be this beaten up just from going after a simple neighborhood cat thief of all things!

She hung back and watched as he reported in, but to her surprise her pink-haired partner made a beeline for the other mage and started up what looked like a pretty heated discussion right as he turned to leave. Eventually Loki just pushed past him and stalked – or rather, limped angrily – out the doors.

They didn't see him again…at least not in the guildhall. Strangely though, Natsu kept seeking him out over the next few days. At first, Lucy wasn't entirely aware of it, but it didn't take her long to notice how he was going off on his own more than he'd ever done before. Considering he was always following her around, the frequent absences were easy to note.

Over the course of the next week, Natsu continued to vanish for hours at a time, and Lucy continued to grow more and more concerned. It was easy for her to see that Natsu was upset, which was something she'd never seen before, and it worried her enormously – especially since he refused to talk to her about it. Eventually she resorted to following him. Normally she would never do such an intrusive thing, but given the worry that seemed to radiate from him constantly, she felt it was necessary – especially when he refused to give her a straight answer about it. The first few times she tried, he lost her easily, which made her even more suspicious and concerned.

Every instinct was screaming that something was very, very wrong…and something told her that it had to do with Loki. Even though she had no proof, somehow she just knew.

Finally, after a long week of fruitless worrying, one day Natsu announced loudly that he was going out. "I'm uh…going to take a walk. Again. By myself. Don't uh…follow me or anything."

"What?" she asked, momentarily stunned and confused by the strange statement.

Happy sat on the nearby couch and watched with equally confused eyes. "Lucy…Natsu's being weird."

For all the times he had disappeared over the past week, he had either not told her he was leaving, or else he'd tried to give some lame excuse about going to get some food. And while she had followed him before and even confronted him about it, he had never mentioned it after the fact. Sure, he had been angry at the time, but afterwards he'd simply gotten better about sneaking off without her realizing it…. so this new behavior temporarily took her aback.

"I'm uh…" Natsu coughed in a weirdly fake way. "Going OUT. By MYSELF. Don't FOLLOW me…so uh, yeah…BYE!"

She quickly caught on to what he was saying and would have laughed if she wasn't so worried. He was telling her to follow him, probably because he had finally run out of options or needed someone's help but couldn't ask for it directly.

"Oh! Right! Of course I WON'T follow you! Have a good time!" she said exaggeratedly, knowing he wasn't very good with subtle cues.

He looked a little concerned, but still turned and headed out the door…slowly. Again, she would have laughed if it weren't so serious.

After he left, she swiftly followed.

"Lucy! He asked us not to follow him!" Happy whispered as he followed her.

"The way he said it makes me think that he actually does really want us to follow him, Happy. I think he's got a problem he doesn't know how to fix and this is his way of asking for help." she explained as she snuck around the corner and then ducked out of her apartment building to follow Natsu across the street.

Happy hurried to keep up with her. "Really? Then why didn't he just come out and say so?"

"I'm not sure…but I think this might have to do with Loki, and maybe he asked Natsu not to say anything to me."

"Oooh."

And so, the two followed Natsu all through town, hanging back behind corners and walls like before. However, this time Natsu walked at a normal, easily followable pace and went out of his way to stall whenever she lost sight of him. He led her to a small run-down apartment building and jumped into an open second-floor window. They lingered back for a moment, and then once Lucy felt the coast was probably clear, Happy flew them up to peer into the window.

Sure enough, there was Loki…looking way worse than even the last time she'd seen him. His bruises hadn't healed even a little, in fact they almost looked like they were growing, and he had lost even more weight. She hadn't even the slightest clue what could possibly be causing such a dramatic and fast decline in him, but it shot panic through her.

"Oh no…" Happy whimpered as he took in the sight. "What do we do Lucy?"

"I…I don't know. Let's go home for now and wait for Natsu. Then we can see if we can get any more information out of him."

"O-okay…"

They rushed back to their apartment and waited for Natsu to return. As soon as he hopped through the window, she pounced.

"What's wrong with him?"

"I uh…don't know what you mean…" he answered slowly as he plopped down to sit cross-legged on the bed.

"Damn it all…" Lucy hissed under her breath, impressed that Natsu was still keeping his promise to Loki, but also incredibly frustrated. She was going to have to attempt it a different way, obviously.

"Okay…" she started slowly, eyeing him. "Then, let's say that if SOMEONE was really hurt … and seemed to be losing his strength and not recovering at all from some really mild injuries … what might be the cause of that?"

His eyes brightened as he caught on. "Well if this someone had been uh … trapped for years … and had his magic slowly sucked away … he'd start to die eventually, right?"

Lucy wasn't quite sure what to make of that answer, and she shared a confused look with Happy.

"Trapped?"

"Unable to go home." Natsu clarified.

That almost sounded like her own situation, and she immediately felt a pang of sympathy go through her. But what could possibly cause him to lose his magic to the point where it would start to suck his own life force?

"Could a curse suck out someone's magic over the years?"

"Well…yes, but…no."

She decoded that to mean, 'yes a curse could cause that, but no, it wasn't responsible for Loki's predicament.' Happy just looked lost by now and really worried. She turned to him and soothingly said, "It'll be okay, Happy. We'll figure it out and then we'll fix it."

He nodded, but the little frown between his big dark eyes didn't go away.

"So…is it some kind of illness?"

By this point Natsu looked like he was ready to pop. His lips were clamped shut, his cheeks puffed out, and he had veins bulging from the effort it was taking him to not just spout out what he knew. Given the amazingly short amount of patience he possessed, Lucy was frankly shocked he hadn't already given in.

"No! It's because he's…uh…" He coughed. "I mean, if SOMEONE TOTALLY RANDOM was TRAPPED outside of their HOME then…they might lose their magic."

He shouted a couple of the words, and Lucy flinched. "You don't have to shout!"

"Sorry Luce…but hurry up already and figure it out!"

"Fine, fine! Give me a minute!" She sat back to consider what he'd told her. "So…he's losing his magic because he's trapped outside of his home?" Natsu nodded vigorously. "How in the world…? Why would being unable to go home suck the magic out of you?" She leaned forwards and braced her head between her hands, willing herself to think. "Unless…your home was the source of your magic…"

Finally something clicked, and suddenly everything fell into place. The fact that he avoided celestial mages. His declining strength over the years. Being locked out of his home. His and Natsu's friendship. If she was right…

Grabbing for her keys, she summoned Grandpa Crux. "Open! Gate of the Southern Cross! Crux!"

As always, he popped into being with a drab feathery poof, and then sat floating midair and blinked sleepily at her. "Hello my dear, what can I do for … HOOO?!"

He hooted loudly and fell back as he saw Natsu, who grinned at him. "Hey there old man, what's up?"

She had been avoiding calling on him when Natsu was around, since he had so adamantly suggested she throw away the dragon's key. But now was as good a time as ever to let him know that Natsu was going to be hanging around for the foreseeable future.

"Y-you…ahem. I see." Crux straightened his spectacles and gave Lucy a somewhat disappointed look.

She decided to ignore that, not wanting to get into it in front of Natsu, and instead focused on her inquiry. "What do you know about Loki from my guild?"

He blinked, seemingly taken aback, and then cleared his throat. "I'll…do a search on him. One moment please."

Closing his eyes, he started to snore owlishly, with every exhale being a soft hoot, and ribbons of golden magic streamed out of him, carrying information that only he could decode. After a long moment he hooted a snort loudly – loud enough to wake Happy who had started to doze as well, and he started with a yelp.

Yellow eyes opened and the old spirit cleared his raspy throat once again. "Yes, Loki from Fairy Tail. There is no information about him past 2 years 3 months and 19 days ago. He has no last name, and there are no records of his past or family."

She pursed her lips at his stuffy answer. "Grandpa Crux…he's a celestial spirit isn't he?"

The old owl choked and Natsu yelped in a happy sort of way that told her she was right.

"As you know I do not give out information on other celestial spirits, Miss Lucy."

"His life could be in danger! You've got to tell me what happened!"

His beak clicked several times in aggravation and his feathers puffed out a little as he crossed his arms firmly across his thin chest. They had a short stare-off, but finally he deflated just a bit and his eyes dimmed. "There is nothing you can do my dear…even if you knew the sad story. It would do no good. Loki…will die."

She jerked back, her heart constricting, and Natsu also flinched. "No! There's got to be a way! Please tell me!"

Crux sighed and ruffled his feathers before smoothing down his mustache and pushing up his spectacles again. "Very well. I suppose it wouldn't do any harm. A little more than 2 years ago, Leo the lion spirit of the zodiac was banished from the celestial world. To a celestial spirit, this is a death sentence, because eventually our magic would run out and we would simply cease to exist. The fact that Leo has survived for two whole years is frankly astonishing."

"Wh-what…. why was he banished?"

"He broke one of our cardinal laws…. he caused the death of his mage."

"That was an accident and not his fault! Everyone knows that!" Natsu burst out finally, his fists clenched tightly in anger.

"Well yes, but it was still partly his doing, and that's enough to get him banished. You see, his previous summoner was not a pleasant woman. Her name was Karen Lilica…"

"Karen Lilica! I recognize that name! She was a famous celestial mage from Blue Pegasus."

"Indeed. However, she was incredibly cruel to her spirits, as some celestial mages are. She merely saw them as tools and used them as such. If one failed, then she would punish them, by forcing them to stay out of their gate with a pair of magical handcuffs. It was like starving and dehydrating someone."

He paused when Lucy gasped loudly, horrified at what he was telling her. At her incredulous look, he nodded and sighed sadly before continuing. "She particularly seemed to be fond of exploiting and punishing the celestial spirit Ares, who has a very timid personality and often failed at the more horrific tasks put to her – such as being forced to 'companion' men."

He had to pause again for a moment as Lucy absorbed that bit of absolutely disturbing information. After a short moment, when she felt like she wasn't going to heave from pure disgust, she nodded for him to keep going.

"Eventually, in a fit of righteous anger, Leo took Ares's place and refused to return, while still using Karen's magic to remain out instead of his own. Karen did not possess the ability to force a gate closure, and so her magic slowly began to deplete. Leo planned to return as soon as Karen promised to treat Ares better, but she refused. When her money ran out, she grew desperate, and despite her guild and Leo warning her not to take a job, she did so anyways and was killed."

The concise end to the story nearly blindsided Lucy, and she was left gaping at Crux in shock and dismay. "But…Natsu's right! It wasn't Leo's fault that she died! If she really went out on a mission when she was out of magic…that's just dumb! It's her pride that got her killed!"

"Yes…that may be true…but our laws are very strict and he is still considered her killer. As I said, there is no way to reverse or fix this. He will die…and soon."

"Not if I have anything to do with it!" Lucy said while springing to her feet. Happy, Natsu, and Grandpa Crux all looked at her with wide eyes.

Somehow, she knew that Grandpa Crux was right. Now that she was tuned into it, she could faintly feel Leo's signature within the magic of this world, and she could also feel it fading fast. He was dying this very minute.

"Where's Karen's resting place?" she asked, and Crux quickly gave her the information.

She rushed out the door, closing Crux's gate with a shouted thanks, and Natsu and Happy ran behind her. "Quick! Happy we've got to get there as soon as possible!"

"Aye Sir!"

His wings snapped open and he scooped her up while Natsu flickered out of existence. Her blue feline companion had heard the location too, so he immediately headed there at his ultimate speed, magic pouring out of his tiny body and lighting him up with a bright blue iridescent glow. Lucy closed her eyes tight to keep bugs and debris out – which at this velocity could be very bad.

They very quickly arrived at a beautiful location. A little outside of a small picturesque town, several large rivers converged right where an incredibly deep crater or sinkhole speared into the ground …which meant that the sheer walls were all hidden by glorious waterfalls. They circled it for a moment before noticing a small area of blank wall and a zigzagging staircase that led down to a single jutting spike of earth that poked out about halfway down the cliff face. At the very tip rested a grave or monument – which to Lucy seemed incredibly rude in a way. In her opinion, this woman did not deserve such a magnificent resting place … not after how she had treated her spirits and caused the death sentence of one.

They landed in a near skid, and Natsu poofed into existence behind her again. Happy collapsed to the ground, completely spent and panting with exertion, but his effort was not in vain. They had made it in time.

Sure enough, just as Lucy suspected, Leo/Loki had chosen to die at the grave of his previous master, and he had already begun to glow ominously. Normally Lucy would have considered such a warm golden light to be quite comforting or beautiful … but in this case it terrified her, because it was his very soul escaping him.

"Lucy! What are you doing here?!"

Scowling, he glared at Natsu as if he was accusing him of betraying his trust.

In reply, Natsu shrugged and shook his head. "Don't look at me, she figured it out on her own. Although if she hadn't hurried up and done it quick enough, I would have told her."

Loki sighed exasperatedly, closed his eyes for a moment while shaking his head, and then turned back to her. "There's no point in coming here…it's already too late for me."

At this point, his face smoothed out and he glanced at the grave that he was kneeling next to, then let his eyes slide closed in an almost peaceful expression. Ignoring his pessimistic comment, she rushed over and fell to her knees beside him. She grabbed his shoulders and shook him with a good amount of force, causing his eyes to pop back open, and he gave her a wide-eyed shocked look.

"You don't deserve to die Loki! Come on! Fight it! Surely you can return to the celestial world if you try hard enough!"

He just smiled sadly at her. "But I do deserve it Lucy. It's a punishment for my crime."

"It wasn't your fault that Karen died!"

At that he jerked back, his eyes flying wide again. "You know about that?!" His eyes once again traveled to Natsu, who shook his head.

"Still not me man."

Lucy got Loki's attention again by giving him another shake. "Like I said, it wasn't your fault! You were just trying to protect your friend!"

"It was still because of me that she died."

"No! She knew better than to go on a mission! A celestial mage as experienced as her would know that she couldn't summon another spirit."

"She was desperate. I had been out so long that she had no more money. She couldn't pay rent, couldn't buy food..."

"Well then she should have listened to you! Instead, she decided to throw her own life away because she wouldn't give up her own pride! And that's just because she saw you guys as her possessions!" With a disgusted click of her tongue Lucy added, "I can't stand celestial wizards like that…treating their spirits like pets or belongings. It's sick."

Loki stared at her as if he'd never really seen her before. And then he turned his head away and ducked down, but Lucy could see a few tears sneaking off his chin from under his fringe of orangey hair.

"It's still too late anyways…"

"No! It's not!" Lucy insisted. As if to prove her wrong, he started shining even more as his spirit faded, and she grabbed him close. "I won't let a friend die! Not when I can do something about it!"

She could hear his gasp in her ear as she hugged him to her, and his hands hovered out at her sides awkwardly.

Accessing her power, she dug deep and then cried out to the heavens, "Close! Gate of the Lion!"

She had no key to do so, but she had to try. No…she couldn't just try, she had to actually do it. No matter what!

Holding him, she could feel the tether between him and his gate with her power, and she tracked it back all the way to where the doors were lodged open. With everything she possessed, she leaned on it with her celestial magic. Normally, a wide-open gate like this would allow a spirit to come and go as he or she wished, but in this case Lucy could feel a powerful barrier at the gate, preventing him from returning. If she could just force the gate closed, barrier or not, Loki would return to the spirit realm. It was an automatic thing that happened to celestial spirits when their gates were closed.

Her magic dropped alarmingly fast as she leaned heavily on the gate, shoving with all her might. Despite that, she kept at it, intent on making that damn gate close, no matter what. It was GOING to happen, even if she had to Lucy Kick it into oblivion with her magic!

After a moment, she abruptly felt Loki's hands land urgently on her waist, and he grabbed her tight as he yelled in her ear over the roar of her powers, "Lucy stop! You'll kill yourself!"

"No she won't." A new voice chimed in, and she felt something akin to a furnace door opening as heat washed over her. "Use as much as you need Luce."

She gasped, shocked by the sensation of Natsu's magic saturating the air and the magic bond between them. Sure, he had lent her a little magic before, and seemed to let a little magic constantly flow into her, but he had never done this. It felt like he'd just opened up a thick IV between them and his magic flowed freely to her. Hesitantly she reached out and grasped that power, feeling unimaginable gratitude as she sucked it into herself and used it to replace the magic she had spent.

"I said use as much as you need, stop being so timid." Natsu chided, sounding both exasperated and amused, and she decided to take his word for it.

Drawing heavily on his magic, she used it to batter the gate like a tidal force and yelled once again, "CLOSE! GATE OF THE LION!"

Slowly she could feel the doors creaking, but it was taking massive amounts of power to even budge them. When her eyes opened, the golden light that surrounded them was blinding and the force of the power coming off her was causing their hair to whip around in an imaginary wind.

"Why are you going so far?! Just let me go Lucy, it'll be a relief!" Loki tried again, but she just grabbed him harder.

"Not happening! I meant it when I said I wouldn't let my friend die right in front of my eyes!"

Barely audibly, he murmured, "… friend…" and then a small chuckle escaped him.

The softness in his tone informed her that he was a mixture of happy and sad at the same time, and she imagined he was probably remembering his mage. With a small thud, his forehead met her shoulder.

She pushed that much harder at his seeming acceptance of her help.

Then suddenly everything stopped. Literally. The power coming off her was sucked away, the light blinked out, and the wind halted. But that wasn't all. Absolutely everything stopped. The waterfalls surrounding them went utterly silent and still, as if frozen. Time itself stopped as the heavens opened up and burst into radiant glory.

Loki's head popped up off her shoulder as he gasped, "No way…"

Natsu even sounded astonished as he whispered. "I knew you were special Luce, but this is something else…"

From above them, an enormous spirit formed. He was massive in both stature and the power he radiated, and Lucy had absolutely no doubt that this was the Celestial King. She stood in order to address him while Loki stayed on his knees, seeming frozen in shock.

"Celestial mage Lucy Heartfilia…" the giant intoned. "Leo the Lion has been sentenced to banishment from the spiritual realm due to a grievous crime he committed. You may not force his gate closed."

Most people would probably cower under the sheer power and authority of that unwavering deep voice…but Lucy wasn't most people. She was ready to have a full-on debate with the Spirit King himself if that's what it took to free her friend. In fact, after being so horrified and furious at the unjustness of Loki's sentence, she was eager to give the massive spirit a piece of her mind.

And so, her voice held conviction, strength, and power as she stood up to the behemoth towering over them. "He hasn't done anything wrong! His mage was the one entirely at fault! He was just trying to show her that he and Ares weren't possessions for her to torture!"

Loki sucked in his breath as she commenced arguing with his king, and out of the corner of her eye she vaguely saw him looking at her with bugged out eyes and a slack jaw. The sound of Natsu's chuckles told her that he was mostly finding the whole thing amusing, though there was a note of pride and awe in the laughter too.

The Celestial King crossed his arms and scowled down at her. "Whatever the reason, he caused harm to come to his mage. A spirit may never inflict harm upon his or her wizard master. To do so is the ultimate sin."

"But he didn't inflict harm on her! She inflicted it on herself by running off and doing something stupid. She knew perfectly well what would happen if she took a job when she had no magical power!"

"Being out of magical power caused her to die, yes. And it was Leo's fault that she was out of magical power." the Celestial King boomed back at her, and she growled in aggravation at his stubbornness. She would win this argument, even if it took all night!

"But nothing bad would have happened to her if she hadn't taken the job! Which was her own choice! I'm sure Leo told her not to go!"

"I did…" he muttered under his breath from where he was still kneeling on the ground. "I didn't actually think she would do it…"

"Still. She died. Which wouldn't have happened if Leo had not stayed in this world when she tried to close his gate."

"Yeah, but then she would have just kept on hurting Ares! Leo was just trying to make a point and stop her from hurting his friend! She never would have gotten hurt if she'd just been a decent human being and agreed to stop being cruel!"

The Celestial King glanced at Loki, and a look of sadness passed over the giant's face. "It pains me to see you like this old friend.…however, the fact remains that Leo broke one of our most sacred laws. Whether or not he intended to hurt her, and even though it was her own choices that ultimately caused her demise, he still played a part in it."

"And he's been punished enough! He's spent two whole years suffering for it!"

"The punishment for such a crime is permanent exile."

"You say he's your friend!? How can you kill your 'friend' for doing the right thing!? Everything about this is wrong!" Lucy screamed, crying in impotent fury and feeling her heart ache. Unbidden, her power rose up again inside of her, reaching a critical point as she yelled, "Friends care about each other! They protect and love each other! And it shouldn't be any different between a mage and her spirits! They should be a family! It's not Leo's fault that he ended up with a cruel, sad excuse for a mage! She never should have been allowed to summon him or Ares in the first place!"

As she cried out in protest, a brilliant golden glow began to surround her once again, and her spirits started to appear behind her, backing her up and supporting her claim as she summoned them all unconsciously to aid her. Aquarius, Taurus, Cancer, Horologium, Grandpa Crux, and Natsu of course all circled her inside the ring of gold that lit the ground around her feet.

For a long moment there was silence as the great king stared at her and she stared back, letting the tears flow down her face ignored. Eventually the glow ebbed and she felt an amazing drain on her magic, which didn't make sense to her since she wasn't aware she had summoned all her spirits. They all disappeared as her magic faded, but the point had been made.

"Hm…perhaps you are right." the Celestial King finally said to everyone's astonishment. "In this case, I believe that the law itself may be in error."

There was an echoing silence as the four stared up at the one in absolute shock.

"Very well. Leo the Lion. You are hereby released from your sentence of exile. But in exchange, you will be contracted to this mage who has saved your life, for the rest of her days. Do you agree to these conditions?"

Loki turned his eyes to her, and a big grin split his lips. "I do."

She returned the smile, and her tears changed to ones of happiness. She turned to the giant and smiled up at him. "Thanks 'Stashface. You're an alright guy."

Natsu had to quickly hide his laughter at her nickname for his boss, while Loki just gaped at her in astonishment as he disappeared in a burst of light. She felt his gate close behind him and sighed in relief.

The giant quirked a brow at her and then a broad sparkling grin appeared underneath his enormous, impressive mustache – which had served as the inspiration for her nickname. One of his hands came up to smooth said hair, and then he disappeared in a burst of light as well. Abruptly all the sound returned, and the massive boom of the waterfall restarting made Lucy flinch violently.

Since Happy was still too exhausted to carry her back, Natsu did the honors and carried them both back home. They were only too happy to return after all that excitement.

…

A few days later, Leo paid her a visit, once he had fully recovered his powers in the celestial world.

She was at the guild, parked on a bench and reading, when a sudden glow of sunshiny light had her flinching back and nearly dropping her reading material. When Leo appeared out of the light though, she happily smiled and stood to greet him.

However, her smile slipped somewhat in shock as she took in his new appearance. Everything about him had changed as far as she could tell.

Fuzzy leonine ears perched in his orange hair, which had grown longer. He wore an impeccably tailored black suit, instead of his normal almost punkish clothes, and his earrings had of course disappeared since he no longer had human ears. Thankfully the evidence of his punishment had also disappeared, leaving him looking much healthier than she ever remembered him, and he filled out his new suit extremely well. The only thing that stayed the same was his pair of blue-tinted sunglasses.

Over all, he gave off an air of power, grace, and elegance that she had never associated with Loki, and she could definitely see the Leo in him now. Before, the fact that he was Leo the Lion had taken her quite by surprise and she'd had trouble believing it. But now, there was no doubt who he was.

"Well…you look different."

"I hope you like it. Or, if you would prefer…" In the blink of an eye he switched back to the Loki she was familiar with.

"Um, I'm fine with either."

Giving her a slightly smug grin, he switched back and ran a hand through his hair, which was a luxurious length compared to his much shorter, somewhat spiky punk hair. "Very well. This is the form I usually pick when I'm in the spirit world, so I'll stick with this."

She nodded, and then raised her eyebrows as he took a few steps closer and leaned in. This was so unlike him that she wasn't sure how to respond. She was so used to him being absolutely standoffish with her that she didn't know what to do with this new Loki.

"Really, I came to thank you." His hazel green/gold eyes stared intently into her own and she shivered just a little. He really was quite attractive.

"Um…you're welcome."

He grinned and then edged in another inch or two, until he was almost nose to nose with her. She gulped and tried to decide if she was okay with this.

Then he abruptly leaned back and took her hand to give it a gentle kiss. "As your spirit, I will do absolutely everything I can to serve you."

She relaxed a little and scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Thanks, but I don't need you to 'serve' me. You're just my friend, like you've always been. But I do look forward to working with you."

His eyes widened, and then a softer sort of grin made its way across his face. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For still calling me your friend."

She blinked. "Of course. All my spirits are my friends. Heck, they're family."

That cause his grin to grow even softer, and then it suddenly shifted into a more mischievous expression. "Well I hope you don't think of me like a brother. That would make things awkward."

"Awkward?"

Really, she should have known better than to bite such an obvious lure.

Teeth flashed in something that turned sexual, and then he was once again leaning in really close. "Because I plan to make you mine in very non-brotherly ways."

Lucy's jaw just about dropped to the floor as she was exposed to the full force of Loki's – no, Leo's – charm for the first time. No wonder he got all the girls. With anyone else, the cheese factor of that line would have been through the roof, but somehow he managed to actually pull it off. Still, she wasn't about to have another horny spirit on her tail. That position was already filled by Taurus and she had no more available.

"Um…"

Before she could come up with some sort of comeback to that, Natsu did the job for her…with a fist. Suddenly Loki was out of her face, because his was meeting the ground.

"Oi! Lay off!"

That cued an impromptu fistfight between her two spirits, and she could already tell that they were going to be the biggest pain in the butt. With an exasperated sigh and a large drop of sweat, she backed away and gave them plenty of room to vent their testosterone … or whatever it was they were venting. Just as likely, they were simply expressing their level of stupidity.

Eventually she just left with Happy and headed home, leaving them to their own devices.

…

As for Natsu, he was thoroughly enjoying the scuffle with his old friend. It had been ages since he'd seen Leo and even longer since they'd fought. The lion spirit was still obviously recovering though, because his attacks were pretty pathetic compared to the ones Natsu remembered, or maybe he was just reigning himself back. Natsu didn't have a chance to find out, because as soon as he accidently set fire to a wooden table, Erza was putting a stop to the fight. That was probably due to the fact that – along with the table – he had accidentally set fire to her cake as well.

If there was one thing that would set off Erza, it was anyone messing with her cake.

So, nursing bruised skulls, both men slunk off quietly to sit at the bar. Mirajane sympathetically handed out ice packs, which they promptly put to good use on their new goose eggs.

As soon as they weren't fighting, Leo started in on questions.

"Soooo…you and Lucy huh?"

Natsu cut him a confused sideways glance. "What d'you mean?"

"It's obvious you're into her."

If anything, the dragon just looked more confused. "Uh…still dunno what you mean."

"You launched yourself at me when I came on to her. You're always hot on her heels everywhere she goes. Hell, you summoned yourself into her bath for fuck's sake! Don't even try to tell me you aren't interested."

"I didn't know she was in the bath!" he protested, and then lowered his voice when he saw Mirajane perk up. He knew she had been giving Lucy trouble lately, and he didn't want to give the demonic barmaid any more fuel.

Despite popular opinion, he did actually know when to keep his mouth shut… most of the time at least. Generally he said shit simply because he didn't give a fuck – not because he didn't know better. Occasionally his foot-in-mouth syndrome occurred on accident rather than out of his devil-may-care attitude, but he tried to keep that to a minimum. He liked to know when he was saying something potentially irritating or embarrassing.

In a much more hushed voice, he continued their conversation. "Look, I didn't know she was in the bath, and I had totally forgotten about the nakedness thing. So that has nothing to do with whatever you're getting at."

Loki smirked at him. "Did you really forget though?"

"Yes! I really did forget!"

That got a mildly surprised look out of his friend. "Huh. No kidding. How exactly does that happen?"

With a growl, Natsu exasperatedly ran his fingers through pink hair and then winced as he aggravated the bruise that still throbbed on his skull. "I already told you! I'm a fucking dragon! It's not like clothes are our top priority."

"I guess. But how do you explain the other stuff?"

"What, like protecting her against you? That's pretty obvious, Numbskull."

"I'm one of her spirits too now, don't forget. You don't have to protect her against me." Loki reminded him.

"Yeah I do. I'm not gonna have my mage pestered by a mangy cat in heat."

That got him a mildly pissed look. "Oh yeah? And it's better for her to be pestered by a flea-bitten dragon in heat?"

Natsu almost felt fire come out of his ears and growled, showing off pointy canines. "Dragons don't have fleas thank you very much. Felines like you have that covered."

They snarled at each other for a while before they both blew it off at almost the exact same moment.

"Whatever. Point is, you've got the hots for her, same as me."

Natsu rolled his eyes. "You've got the hots for everyone."

Leo just shrugged in response, and then continued, "Never mind all that. I just wanna know how into her you are. Have you kissed her yet?"

Natsu rolled his eyes. "Dude. You know I'm not interested in all that romantic shit."

"Kissing doesn't have to be romantic exactly…" the other celestial spirit said with a smutty grin.

"Ew. Gross. Not everyone is a perv like you, Leo. I'm not interested in any of it. Leave me out of the love fest."

Leo grinned. "So I've got a chance with her then! I guess I shouldn't be surprised … considering you've never actually bothered to date anyone."

"Like I said, not interested. I'll leave all that crap up to you."

"Just as well. If you ever did go on a date, they'd never want anything to do with you after you burned down their house."

A lick of flame was blown in Leo's direction and he had to put out his singed hair with a scowl.

"Asshole. If I ever actually wanted a girlfriend, I'd get one." Natsu said with a cocky grin, and then something sparked in his memory that felt like he should remember it. Wasn't there some sort of conversation about being boyfriend material? It had to do with Lucy too…

Before he could remember it, Leo distracted him.

"Suuure. Right. Because they would love to be with a big fire breathing lizard that could cook them with a kiss."

"Oh come on. It's not like I'd go around kissing anyone until I knew good and well they could take it. Unless you wanna clean up a pile of ashes for me?"

"You can clean up your own messes." Leo countered. "If you go burning anyone to a pile of ashes, it's gonna be your broom that gets put into the evidence bin, not mine."

"That's not gonna happen. Like I said, I ain't kissing anyone until I'm sure they're a dragon claimant and I've claimed them."

"Can't you just control your fire and not share it?"

Natsu shrugged. "Probably, if I wasn't too interested. But what's the point in that? If I'm so disinterested that I don't have trouble controlling my fire, then they aren't for me anyways. It'd just be boring." He grimaced and seemed to think about it a moment before adding, "For me to even want to kiss someone, they'd have to be pretty special, because right now all that shit just seems really dumb to me."

"To each his own I guess." After a short pause, Leo asked, "And what about Lucy? Do you think she might be the one?"

"How the hell should I know? But either way, you ain't gonna bone her."

"And why not?!"

Natsu grinned in an evil way. "Because you're a creepy pervert that dates about 30 women at once and breaks all their hearts more times than they can count. I don't care how great in the sack you are, it ain't worth it."

Leo scowled, but didn't have a response to that. It was sort of true, although he did try not to break anyone's heart. All his girls knew about each other and accepted it. In fact, he'd been in plenty of threesomes and foursomes with many of them. They were one big happy family…a pride you could say. And he'd love to see Lucy among them. Just imagining it was enough to make his blood burn.

As if Natsu could read his thoughts, he smacked him upside the head. "Get that pervy look off your face dude, it's gross."

"Damnit Natsu!" Leo cussed as he put out his hair once again.

He wasn't entirely distracted though, because a new thought had occurred to him. He was going to have to add into his contract that he'd be popping into town under his own power relatively frequently so he could continue to court his ladies. It would be a very slight drain on Lucy's magic, but negligible as long as he used his own magic…and maybe he could convince her to go out on a date with him too while he was at it…

Preview ~

"So what's the mission again?"

Lucy heaved a sigh. "You forgot already?"

"I wasn't paying close attention when you described it the first time actually."

"Fine." She sighed again, rolling her eyes and unlocking the door as they reached it. The conversation paused as Lucy busied herself with heaving her luggage onto the luggage rack, and then flopped back onto the bed with the paper for their mission clutched in her hands. Reading from it, she said, "Wanted: a mage to apprehend the fiend that took over the island of Florian Bark."

"Sounds interesting."

"Yeah, that's what you said last time."