Author's Note:

It's Sunday! And you know what that means! A new chapter! Yay!

As always, Huge thanks and sparkles and cheer for all my wonderful reviewers out there! Big hugs and kisses for my repeat reviewers: pixiecatost, Elphaba818, ravenqueen162, Donthedarkdragon26, xxIt'sAllAboutThemxx, Shadowslayer15, Lucinda, 19vanelkc, ThatOneAnimeGirl08, RabbitMelody, Wolves silver wind, KitsuneLover05, Ksta, TheJSmooth, WisdomDragon27, kilatails, Leomae2.0, silentlinkmit339, valerioux, thechani, Alice, Lady La-sara, Firefly9917, and MiseryWolf97. Equally big hugs and kisses to my newest reviewers: Syfenos U, lengthiest peepee, Anna5949, mr-simba-722-97, and Ikrani.

For once I have nothing else to say sooooo, on with the show! And be sure to stay till the end for a sneak peek. :D

The next day she woke up sore all over and quite honestly didn't even want to get out of bed. Unfortunately, she had to train, whether she wanted to or not. So, with a groan, she geared up for an attempt at dragging herself out of bed, which would involve rolling Natsu out first or else crawling over him. Neither option was easy when you felt like you've been run over by a bus.

She was on her side facing him and her face was buried in his chest. One of her legs had gotten caught between his, and – as usual – his tail had snuck between them and was coiled around the leg not caught in a dragon trap …. all of which successfully immobilized her lower half.

So, she had to resort to prodding his chest and mumbling, "Natsu…Hey. Natsu. Wake up."

He woke with a grunt and then stretched, releasing her leg from its confines. The leg that had been stuck between his was now asleep, so she gingerly rolled onto her back and stretched it out – waiting until the pins and needles passed. Meanwhile, Natsu propped himself up on his elbow and stared down at her.

"So what do ya wanna do for training today?"

"No more exercising, that's for sure. I feel like I was run over by Sagittarius, drowned by Aquarius, and then pounded by Taurus."

Her mental filters apparently hadn't woken up yet for such a thing to pop out of her mouth, and it got raised eyebrows from Natsu.

"Pounded by Taurus?"

"Er…I mean I'm really sore. Maybe that wasn't the best analogy."

"It was just fine. But make sure you substitute dragons for bulls next time."

It took a moment for her brain to catch the euphemism, and then she flushed lightly and slapped at his arm. "That's not the kind of pounding I was talking about!"

He didn't even seem to hear her because he was chuckling too hard and collapsed off his propped-up arm. Apparently being teased constantly by Gray had worn off a little on him, and now he was using euphemisms all on his own – although she somehow doubted he knew entirely what they meant. The thought amused her, and she chuckled along with him, but for different reasons.

By this point her leg was fully awake, but she indulged a little longer … just enjoying the warmth and comfort of their bed and snuggling. Something snaked over her thigh, and she glanced down to see the covers shifting as Natsu's tail slithered under them. She wasn't exactly surprised when his fifth appendage coiled around the nearest leg and then squeezed lightly.

The tail thing had really only started happening around the time they confessed their feelings to each other, and she couldn't help but wonder what it was about. Figuring now was as good a time to ask as any, she decided to voice the question.

"Hey Natsu?"

"Hm?" he hummed against her throat, which he was now nuzzling with his nose.

"What's this about?" To clarify what she meant, her hand snuck under the covers and wrapped around the first coil of his tail on her thigh.

As she grabbed him, she abruptly realized that she'd never actually touched his tail before … at least not like this. Sure, she had brushed against it, or it had touched her the way it was now, but she had never reached out and grasped it with her hands.

He flinched against her and hissed his breath in between his teeth as she gently squeezed, which made her think that either his tail was very sensitive, or he didn't like it being touched, or she'd just surprised him by touching it. For the time being she withdrew her hand, figuring that was a separate inquiry …. which she fully intended to ask after her first question was answered.

"Um, what d'you mean? It's my tail."

"Well yeah, duh. What I meant was, why've you been wrapping it around my legs like this? You only started doing it after we got together, so I was wondering if there was a special significance to it or something."

He shrugged. "Dunno. I've just wanted to do it. So I did."

"Oh. Does it feel good or something?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess. Sort of like hugging you feels good."

"Makes sense."

After a brief pause, she remembered her second question and reached down again to lightly grab his tail, waiting to see if he would react the same way as last time. Sure enough, he tensed against her and sucked in his breath.

"Sorry, do you not like me to touch it?"

"No, it's fine. Why?" Even his voice sounded a little tight.

"Because you get all tense when I touch it. Or else you flinch."

"That's not cause I don't like it. It's just different. I've never let anyone mess with my tail before."

"Oh. So this is okay?" She gave him a gentle squeeze, and he shivered lightly.

"Yep…" His voice came out a little choked, and she pulled back to get a look at his face.

His eyes were closed and there was a scrunch between his eyebrows.

"You don't look okay. You're frowning."

"Am I?" He sounded genuinely surprised, and his eyes popped open to meet hers curiously.

"Well you were…"

"Huh. That's weird."

She determined it must have been the kind of frown that came from concentrating really hard on something, and not the kind that came from displeasure.

Since it apparently wasn't a problem, she let herself curiously explore the bit of tail she could reach. The first thing that caught her attention was that it was incredibly warm, maybe even more so than the rest of his body. After a bit of consideration, she supposed the increased heat might be because it was from his original form – only much smaller of course.

The next thing about his tail that intrigued her was its texture. The scales were silky, lying flat and smooth. The underside was even softer, where the scales resembled the belly of a snake – but she knew even those were downright impenetrable. After a bit of exploring, she realized there was a ridge along the spine that had a slightly raised texture, like a line of subtle bumps. It took her a moment to realize that it must be the line of spikes that popped out when he partially transformed.

She was so involved with her investigation, that she temporarily spaced out and didn't notice how he was reacting to it all, until a shudder worked through him. At that, she paused and glanced back up at him. His brow was scrunched up again, and he seemed to be busy chewing on his bottom lip.

"You okay?"

"Hm?" His eyes opened and met hers.

Her breath stuck in her throat at the sight of him with glassy unfocused eyes that held something very similar to the look he got when they kissed, but even more heated. Perhaps the most shocking thing about it though, was how his normally black eyes glowed hot gold – the way they did when he went draconic.

"Um…Natsu, your eyes changed color."

He blinked, and then blinked again more rapidly. "Oh. Sorry, I thought I was controlling it better. Hold on." He squinted and bit his lip, and slowly his eyes flickered back to black.

"Controlling what exactly? Why did your eyes turn gold?"

"Uh, well, as you know, usually I can choose whether to get a boner or not, but my body was just trying to override my brain on this one."

For a long moment Lucy just stared at him, trying to absorb that candid statement of fact about his body processes and what was currently going on. She honestly had no idea how to respond to that.

"You…you're…um. Why are you…?"

"Apparently my tail is attached to my dick."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"My tail is way more sensitive than I thought, and you're touching it – which feels really good. So…yeah. My body's sorta getting fired up." He grinned a little when saying 'fired up,' and his eyes sparkled with both mirth and excitement.

She could feel her mouth making an 'o' as she gingerly released his tail from her grasp. "I'm sorry. I didn't know that your tail was an erogenous zone."

"Erogewhozzits?"

"Like, nipples or lips. Something that you touch to make you aroused." she clarified, feeling a little embarrassed about it and blushing, but trying to be as candid as Natsu apparently was.

"Oh. Cool." After a pause, he added, "You don't have to stop, you know. Like I said, it felt really good."

"Um…yeah, but we're not really doing stuff like that yet…" Although she certainly wasn't opposed to the idea.

"Stuff like what?"

"Like sexy stuff."

He blew a puff of hot air into her neck as he ducked his head to chuckle. "You're so weird Luce. I dunno what you mean by 'sexy stuff.' What we've done so far seems pretty sexy to me."

She supposed he was right, but now was not a good time to continue down that path. The sounds of Happy waking up was like a bucket of cold water dropping over her head, and as tempted as she was to continue and see where it led them, she bit her lip and shook her head, mouthing, "Happy," and pointing in the direction of his bed.

Natsu's eyes rolled and he glanced over his shoulder. With a sigh he turned back to her and nodded before mouthing back, "Yeah, he's waking up."

Then his brow quirked, and his eyes lit up the way they usually did when he'd had a brilliant idea … which generally got them in trouble.

"Get dressed." he suddenly demanded, and launched himself out of bed – leaving her to wonder what the hell just happened.

They promptly got up and got dressed, but Lucy didn't see any indication of what his idea might be until they were all sitting down for breakfast.

"So Luce, what kind of training did you wanna do?"

"Well…I think meditating to increase my magic reserves would be helpful for starters. Then we can work on joint attacks and stuff like that."

His grin widened. "Meditation huh? That's perfect. You know, I think we should go on a short trip, just the two of us. Get away from it all you know?"

"Just the two of you? What am I supposed to do while you're off training!" Happy squawked, his fur ruffling with indignity.

"You could stay with Wendy and Carla. If they're staying in town to train."

"We can go check." Lucy offered, and Happy was instantly on board with the idea. So, as soon as they finished breakfast, they headed to the guildhall.

She immediately spotted Cana drinking a barrel of wine on one of the nearby tables and headed her way. Since she was Wendy's partner, it would make sense that they would be prepping for the S-Class Trials together.

"Hey! Getting some good training in?" Lucy greeted as she approached, and the older woman lowered her barrel of wine with a grin.

"You know it! I'm just taking a short watering break here…. can't train on a dry throat you know!"

"Of course. Hey, I was wondering, are you guys staying in town to train?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Natsu and I are heading off for a short trip to train privately, and we were hoping Happy could bunk with Wendy."

"She's over at the bar getting some soda. I'm sure it'll be fine though. If they can't take him, I will. We'll have a sleepover and eat sushi all night, sound good Happy?"

She had him at sushi and he was already in love with the idea. She laughed as he hopped up next to her and placed his front paws on her knee.

"You kids take off. We've got this under control." She sent Lucy a knowing wink that made the blond flush, and then turned to the blue cat. "Right Happy?"

"Aye Sir!"

Chuckling slightly embarrassedly, Lucy gave him a hug, waved goodbye, and then headed out. She'd already packed her bag, so it was just a matter of heading to the nearest train station and picking out a destination.

"How about somewhere nice, where I can get some peace and quiet to center my mind…" Lucy murmured, scrolling through the pamphlets on a wooden stand.

"Sounds kinda boring to me, but I'm down for anything."

Eventually she settled on a spa resort/hot spring and booked herself tickets. Thankfully she had a little jewel saved up, so she could afford something nice – which she thought she deserved after the torture of yesterday.

The train ride itself was uneventful, and Amy summoned herself to keep Lucy company. She spent it cuddled up next to the fluffy wolf and writing in her latest book. It was over relatively quickly, and soon they were pulling into the station. Of course, she still had to walk to the resort itself, which was located further up the mountain than the village where her train had stopped.

The walk up to the resort was a bit long and tedious, but the scenery was so beautiful that Lucy didn't even care. Amy joined her for part of the way, but as soon as Natsu poofed into being, the wolf gave them both a smirk and disappeared.

The further up they went the colder and crisper the air got, which was pleasant for the rigorous walk, but she was glad she had brought a fluffy coat with her. By the time they got there, she was definitely ready to relax and enjoy this little vacation – even though it was technically for training purposes. Meditation was relaxing though… or could be at least.

Upon arrival, Lucy was immediately even happier with her choice. The grounds to the hot spring resort were absolutely gorgeous. It was perched in a clearing, and the front was beautifully landscaped – with lush gardens full of greenery that was currently frosted with a light coating of snow, and zen gardens made of rocks and sand that had been kept completely clear of any precipitation.

The first order of business though was to check into a room, so Lucy and Natsu passed through the gardens and entered the resort.

Unsurprisingly, the indoors were just as beautiful as the exterior, with gorgeously decorated paper screens, small potted flowering trees, and black bamboo furniture. Even more surprising and lovely were the water accents in the room – a small pebbled stream that ran through the lobby, a wall of windows made entirely out of falling water over glass, and a small waterfall that terminated in a pool full of koi in one corner. It was all perfectly arranged and not crowded in the least, and of course everything was impeccably kept, with not a speck of dirt to be seen.

After a few seconds of admiring the decor, Lucy approached the register. "Hello, I would like to rent a room."

"Of course, for how many nights?"

"Two?" She glanced at Natsu for verification, and he nodded with a grin.

"Alright. That will be 62,500 jewel."

That wasn't too terribly bad, considering this was an upscale place and it was for two nights. It was pricy, but this was a special occasion, and Lucy hadn't treated herself in a very long time.

Pretending like she wasn't gritting her teeth just a little, she grinned and agreed to the price. "Sure."

"Very well. Here's your key. Your room rate includes 24/7 access to the hot springs and all spa amenities and gardens on the property. There is also a complimentary breakfast between six and eleven o'clock in the morning. We have an excellent kitchen that provides for in-room meals if you wish, although that is extra."

"Thank you!"

After checking in, the first thing they did was find their room and drop off Lucy's luggage.

Their room was in similar décor as the lobby, with paper screens as walls – though it was obvious that there were actual walls behind the paper, because she couldn't hear the occupants of the other rooms through the walls. It was basically one large room, with an open sliding paper screen on one side that showed off a large bathroom. In the center of the room was a low table with cushions placed around it, where she assumed they could eat if they chose to order room service, and to one side was an enormous bed piled high with cushions.

A sliding screen on the wall opposite them was open to show a glass door, which led directly out into the extensive gardens and grounds behind the resort.

"So what d'you wanna do first Luce?"

She sighed. "Well, I'd really love to check out the hot springs, but I suppose we should do some training first."

"Sounds good. Lead the way!"

She dropped off her luggage and threw on a sweater, before venturing out through the door to the gardens. Thankfully, since this area of land apparently had lots of geothermal activity it wasn't quite as nippy as other parts of the mountainside, which made it extremely pleasant. A light mist of snow fell, and the flakes stuck to the leaves and branches of the surrounding plants, but once they touched the ground they melted. It was certainly amazing to be experiencing snow while not feeling bitterly cold.

They wandered through the grounds for a little while, admiring the snow-kissed landscaped gardens, but eventually Lucy picked a spot near a small waterfall to start her meditation. The waterfall was connected to the stream that seemed to wind through the whole property, and it fell into a larger, deeper pool of water that had koi fish in it. The stream continued flowing on the other side, but it was so shallow that the fish couldn't swim down it.

She parked herself on a flat stone next to the water and was a shocked when it felt mildly warm. When she took off her shoes and dipped her feet into the water, she was further amazed when the water felt mildly warm as well and supposed that it must be part of the hot springs. That explained how they had a koi pond up here on the mountain where it would otherwise freeze over. She left her feet in the water and closed her eyes, trying to center her mind and prepare to meditate.

To be honest, meditation wasn't exactly her forte. She didn't know the proper technique to do it exactly, she only knew the basics. So, she started by focusing on her breathing and quieting her mind.

Once her mind was basically blank, she tried to focus on her magic and the magic surrounding her in the outside world. Of course she knew that magic was in everything, and she could actually tap into that enormous source if she could just harmonize with it long enough – which was supposed to exercise her own magic and grow her reserves…somehow. Of course, increasing her reserves was highly desirable, because it would increase the amount of magic she could hold and expend at any given time. That would give her access to more powerful spells, like Urano Metria, which she still hadn't been able to cast since Grandpa Crux had downloaded it into her mind.

It was incredibly difficult though to find the magic, even her own. It took a great deal of mental focus to sense magic in this way.

The sensation of fish nibbling her toes suddenly snapped her out of the meditation and she snorted, jerking her feet out of the water and tucking them up under her.

"How's it going?" Natsu asked from his spot nearby where he was playing with his fire.

"I got distracted by the fish chewing on me."

He laughed and made a fish out of fire before sending it to swim in the air around her. "Watch out for the fish Luce! They're gonna eat ya!"

She grinned and laughed, then swatted his fish out of the air. "Okay, I'm gonna try again, so be quiet."

Closing her eyes, she focused again and sank into the meditation, ignoring the sound of Natsu getting up and exploring. She'd done this several times before in the past to train, but it was always tough. Magic flowed throughout the body, so there wasn't any one place to focus on, instead she had to focus on everything at once. Her magic had a specific feel to it, sort of tingly and light and warm, and she had always pictured it like golden starlight – which seemed appropriate since she was a celestial mage. By picturing it flowing through her veins, she was eventually able to tap into that warm, sparkly sensation…. though it took a good deal of time, and she kept getting distracted by Natsu as he tripped over various things, knocked over or dropped stuff, and generally moved around snapping twigs and kicking rocks.

Once she was able to center herself though and tap into that magic flow, things came a little easier and she was able to focus. By concentrating on the tingly feel of her magic, she was able to sort of 'flex' it, like a muscle, and reach out her senses to try and feel the other kinds of magic surrounding her. All magic felt different, and the naturally occurring kind in the air, earth, sky, plants, and water surrounding her just felt clean and pure, like perfect spring water compared to all the flavors that mages had. It was harder to harmonize with this wellspring of naturally occurring power, but after another solid thirty minutes of meditating, she was able to faintly feel it as well.

She couldn't just take the wild magic for her own, but she could tap into it with her magic. By harmonizing her magic with it, eventually the wild magic would start to seep into her own, making her like a sponge or plant absorbing water and air into itself and assimilating it. It took what seemed like a very long time, but eventually she could feel the return of the magic trickling in. It was so slow though, and she was left waiting and concentrating for ages before the magic she had expended was even replaced.

Eventually, after a great deal of patience, she matched the amount of magic she'd had when she started, and then began to push it further until her reserves were full. At that point, it turned into a different kind of training, as she actively worked to stretch her reserves as far as they would go…feeling the magic building up and tingling just under her skin.

Eventually she reached full capacity and had to stop before she popped. As she opened her eyes, the sight of golden light filled her vision and she looked down to see that she was glowing, though it quickly started to dim. The sight filled her with satisfaction, because it meant that she had done what she'd set out to do, and hopefully she had been able to increase her magic reserves even just a little.

As for Natsu… he'd been bored absolutely stiff for the first few hours and had explored the entire area several times over before Lucy caught his attention. She'd begun to glow, and something about it drew him in, until he was parked across the pond from her…watching the glowing aura around her increase slowly until she looked like a celestial spirit herself.

It was amazingly beautiful, and while Natsu generally suffered from attention problems, she somehow managed to capture his full and undivided interest. It was like watching a stunning sunset or sunrise…. Not that he'd ever bothered to stick around long enough to watch one, but looking at Lucy now, he could suddenly understand what made people want to do that.

He watched her for who-knows-how-long, before she eventually stirred, opening her eyes blearily as if coming from some sort of deep trance. She glanced around and smiled, looking pleased, and he couldn't help but smile a little himself, happy that she seemed satisfied with what she had accomplished.

He was a little sad to see the glow fading away from her.

"Hey."

Lucy's eyes turned towards the voice, to see Natsu sitting across the pond from her. He was actually quiet and still for once, and just seemed to be staring at her with something soft in his gaze that made her tummy flutter happily.

"Hey yourself."

"You done?"

"For now." she answered, then yawned and stretched. "I hope you didn't get too bored."

"At first yeah, it was pretty boring."

She rolled her eyes at his candidness. "Well come on. Let's go get something to eat."

He agreed enthusiastically and bounded across the pond in one leap. When she stood to join him, all her muscles protested. They were still sore from all the exercise yesterday, and after sitting still for so long they'd grown stiff. She groaned and staggered forwards a step, gingerly stretching out her back and wincing as muscles spasmed in complaint.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. Just sore from yesterday and tired from sitting so long. I need to go get a massage."

"A massage?"

"You really have been in the celestial realm for a long time haven't you? You've never heard of a massage before?"

"I've heard of it, but never really knew what it was." He shrugged.

"It's where someone rubs your muscles and gets them to relax."

He squinted at her. "That sounds kinda weird Luce."

"I guess…but it's really not. How about I show you when we get back to the room?"

He shrugged and grinned in response, but it was obvious that his brain was already focused on food.

…

Back in the room, they ordered food, and then while they waited Lucy investigated the amenities offered. As usual with these types of places, robes had been provided, and Lucy decided to change into hers since they probably wouldn't be going back out today for a while. The sun was already setting, and she didn't plan to check out the hot springs until later in the evening. She always preferred to visit hot springs at night, when she would usually have them all to herself.

By the time she was finished changing and inspecting the bathroom, their food had arrived. Apparently service here was exceptionally fast.

So, they dug into the delicious spread of food, and Lucy hoped it wasn't as expensive as it tasted, because – thanks to Natsu – they had ordered a lot. It was a good thing she'd saved up so much jewel…. she had the feeling she was going to need it when they got their bill at the end of their stay here. At any rate, she decided not to worry about it too much and just enjoy it while it lasted.

After eating and thoroughly enjoying the meal, Lucy sighed and started thinking about the next step in training.

"I think it would be good to have a baseline for my current level of magic. That way I'll know if the training is working or not."

"Okay. So how do ya wanna do that?"

"At the moment, I have a lot of trouble summoning more than one spirit at a time. I'd like to get to the point where I can summon two and not be out of magic power ten seconds later. So, I think the next part of my training should be trying to summon two spirits at once and see how long I can hold the spell."

Natsu belched and leaned back into the pile of cushions behind him. "Then I'm just gonna lay here and digest while you do that."

"Real helpful Natsu."

He flashed a broad toothy grin at her in response.

She couldn't help but chuckle at his cheekiness. "Alright, then I'll just be over here training while you digest."

"Hey, if you want me to fight 'em or something, you just let me know."

"It might not be a bad idea to have you and Leo spar, because having anyone use their magic powers while they're out is more taxing on mine. So we'll see."

So saying, she decided to pick Leo, because he was probably the biggest drain on her magic reserves, and Aries, because she was a relatively low drain. However, when she tried to open the gate of the lion, he wouldn't come, and she could feel the weird sensation of trying to open a door that was already open.

Blinking in surprise, she stared at his key. "He's uh…he's already out and about doing something under his own power."

"No kidding. He's probably off sexing up his girlfriends or something."

She shot him an offended look. "He would come if that was all he was doing. Our contract means more than some date. Besides, he knows that I would send him right back if it wasn't an emergency and he told me he was in the middle of a date! I guess I'll have to call him instead. Undoubtedly he felt me messing with his gate, so I'm sure he knows that I'm peeved."

Her hunch proved correct. Before she even had a chance to use her magic to call him, he called her. His key heated up and she felt a tapping on her magic – like someone knocking on a door almost – and she opened a link between her magic and his key so that she could hear him through it.

"Lucy, is this an emergency? Are you in danger?"

"No, I'm fine. I was just wondering if you could help me train for the upcoming S-Class Trials."

"Shit. I'm sorry, but I agreed to be Gray's partner. We promised to be each other's partners long ago, before you found out about me being a celestial spirit. So right now, I'm Loki of Fairy Tail."

The news surprised her, but she wasn't upset by it. "Fair enough I suppose. Then I won't bother to call on you during this time."

"Of course you can still call on me if there's an emergency and you're in danger outside of the trials, but yeah, otherwise…thanks Lucy."

"No problem. And good luck to both you and Gray."

"You too."

And with that, the connection was cut off.

"Well, as it turns out, Leo is working as Gray's partner in the S-Class Trials."

"What?!"

"It's perfectly legal. He's a Fairy Tail member just like you."

"Oh yeah … I guess I'd forgotten about that." He frowned for a moment, but as usual shrugged it off and went back to being cheerful.

Now she had to figure out who to summon instead of Leo. Aquarius was just as strong and took plenty of magic to summon, but if Lucy summoned the cranky mermaid here, she'd probably have to promise not to summon her again for a while… which meant Aquarius wouldn't be able to help during the actual trial. The next powerful was probably Gemini, Scorpio, or possibly Sagittarius.

In the end, she decided to summon Gemini and Aries to start with, because they were both really easy to get along with and probably wouldn't mind helping out.

"Open, Gate of the Twins! Gemini!"

With a puff of blue smoke, the twins manifested floating in midair. "Pirri Pirri! Hello, Miss Lucy!" they chirped in tandem.

"Hi guys! Would you mind helping me train for the upcoming S-Class Trials I'm going to be participating in?"

"Not at all! How can we help?"

"Um, I guess just turn into me … and then wait around while I summon Aries? I wanna see how long I can keep two gates open at once."

With a pink puff of smoke, suddenly there was another Lucy standing in front of her … clad in the last outfit she had worn when summoning them, which happened to be a towel.

"Sounds like a plan! Let's do it!" the other Lucy said with a grin.

"Hey, so, not to interrupt ya or anything but…. Why're ya wearin' a towel Gemini?" a laughing voice sounded nearby, and both Lucys shot Natsu a look.

He was smirking, and with a roll of her eyes, the real Lucy suggested, "How about you switch to what I'm wearing now Gemini…so we don't have to deal with the peanut gallery over there."

Gemini laughed and changed, blowing a kiss at Natsu while she did so.

Ignoring her cackling dragon spirit, Lucy proceeded with the plan and pulled out Aries's key. "Open! Gate of the Ram! Aries!"

With a 'baaa' sound and a momentary small explosion of pink wool, Aries popped into existence. As usual, she cringed a little and blushed with shyness. "I'm so sorry, Miss..."

"Thanks for coming Aries…and you know you don't ever have to apologize for anything."

The gentle spirit flushed even more, but smiled timidly and seemed to relax a little. "How can I help?"

"Well, you're already doing it to be honest. I'm training for the upcoming S-Class Trials, and I want to see how long I can keep two gates open at the same time."

Already she could feel an immense drain on her magic power, but it seemed a little less than previous times she had tried summoning two spirits, so maybe the training really had helped a little. The four of them sat and chatted about things as Lucy did her best to keep both gates open, but after about five minutes she finally reached her limit.

"All right guys, I think this is where I have to call it quits. Thanks for coming, do you mind if I summon you again tomorrow for more of this?"

"Not at all!"

After sending both spirits back to the celestial realm, Lucy drooped, feeling completely drained of all the magic power she had accumulated today.

"Phew…I feel so tired." she groaned, flopping back to lay against the floor cushions.

"I could have helped you keep them out way longer you know." Natsu commented, sounding just a little smug and cocky. Of course, he was always cocky, so that was no surprise. But she was confused about what he'd said.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh come on Luce. You know. I could have lent you some of my power."

He had indeed given her power from time to time when she needed it, but now that she was thinking about it, Lucy suddenly realized that she didn't really understand it.

"Yeah … I've felt you lend me power every now and then during a fight … but I still don't really know how that works."

"It's like when you talked to Leo. Our magic is connected, and I can choose to transfer mine through it. Want me to show you?"

"Um, sure?"

He grinned and then closed his eyes. For once, a serious expression crossed his face as he concentrated, and then suddenly she felt her previously drained magic reserves getting filled up.

She gasped and pressed a hand to her belly, feeling like liquid fire was being injected into her. It seemed to settle in her center first, and then the magic slowly transferred like burning molasses through her bloodstream. Just like when they kissed, his catch-phrase, 'Now I've got a fire in my belly,' ran through her mind, and she chuckled weakly, thinking that it was a very appropriate saying for his power.

Her entire body flushed with heat, and it felt like she had a fever. In some ways it felt good, like the fire of his kisses, but it was also uncomfortable and grew more-so by the second.

"Okay, okay! That's enough Natsu! I'm burning up over here!" she gasped after a moment, sweat popping up all over her skin.

He chuckled, and the transfusion stopped - much to her relief - but she still felt like a roaring fire was sitting deep within her just burning away. She liked the heat, but too much of a good thing was still too much.

"I think you went too fast…" she wheezed, fanning herself in an attempt to cool down.

"Oops, my bad. I guess I thought you could handle it since you've been swallowing my fire for a little while now."

"Well yeah, but that was like fire concentrate that you just pumped me full of!" she protested, and fiddled with her robe, trying to fan herself with it.

"I guess my magic is more potent than my fire," he mused. "Never really thought about it before."

"Well I can promise you that it is. For sure."

"Maybe it's something we can include in your training then … getting you used to my magic. It'll definitely give you a big boost in power."

"Yeah, it's a really good idea." After a long pause, she couldn't help but add, "I kinda feel like it's cheating though. I mean it's not my power, I'm just borrowing yours."

"If it bugs you, just think of it like this – I'm your spirit. You summoned me. I'm yours. So my magic's also yours."

She flushed and cleared her throat, not sure what to say after that for a long time. And then a new thought occurred to her.

"Why haven't I ever heard of this before? I've never come across anything that said spirits could transfer power like this."

"Mythic spirits like me are probably just harder to come by I guess." He grinned smugly. "We're on a whole 'nother level in case you haven't noticed. You can do stuff with us that you couldn't do with your zodiac spirits in a million years."

"So does that mean Amy could transfer power to me as well?"

"If she chose to, yeah. But it's totally up to her. This isn't a spell, or something you can control. And to be honest…most mythic spirits don't do it."

"Of course! I'd never ask for something like this. That would be super rude."

"It would be more than that. It'd practically be a breach of contract." he said seriously, but then a completely happy grin replaced his solemn expression. "Of course, you can have as much of my power as you want. You aren't just my mage, you're also my mate, so I'm happy to share. It's all yours as far as I'm concerned."

He said it so happily that she had a hard time comprehending what it was that he'd actually just said, so for a long time she gaped at him in astonishment. Warm, sappy emotions made her heart puff up and fill with syrup that tried to drown her.

She laughed lightly and wiped moisture from her eyes. "Yeah…same goes for me. If I could give you my magic of course, but I have no idea how I'd do that."

"Thanks Luce!"

He beamed at her, and then got up and walked over to plop down next to her. He leaned in to give her a cheerful kiss on the lips, and said, "…love you!" with a big smile.

She returned the smile and pressed a gentle kiss of her own to his lips before murmuring, "Love you too Natsu."

After a brief pause, he leaned back on his hands and cocked his head. "So now what? You wanna train some more now that you're all fired up with my magic? Or do you wanna take a break?"

"I'd love to take a break and check out that hot spring, but I'm already so hot that I don't think it'd feel very good right now. Making snow angels sounds way more appealing."

He chuckled. "Why don't you just go take a cold shower instead?"

For the very first time in her life, a cold shower sounded heavenly. "You know…. I think I may just go do that. Excuse me."

She left him there, laughing his ass off and completely unempathetic.

After cooling her jets in the shower, her exhaustion returned big time. The extra magic boost had replenished her reserves of magic energy, but not the ones that kept her awake. It was already pretty late, so as soon as she exited the bathroom she made a beeline for the bed and sleep. Natsu followed close behind and happily snuggled up to her, apparently cool with going to sleep as well.

Sneak Peek

He shrugged and shimmied off the robe from his shoulders so it pooled around his waist, then leaned back on his elbows to watch her as she reached over to the nightstand and snagged the complementary lotion they provided. Squirting a healthy dollop into her palm, she used her clean hand to shove his head down onto the bed so she could get to his shoulders.

He lay down with a grumble and crossed his arms over his chest. She worked the lotion into both palms and then placed them on his shoulders.

He flinched and instantly yelped, "That's cold!"

"It'll warm up fast, don't fuss so much."

Since he was so hot, the lotion warmed up even faster than she expected, and he relaxed again. Every time she had to reapply though he would flinch and yelp, making her laugh each time.

With firm fingers she worked the lotion across his skin and used it to make sweeping motions over his muscles to relax them without any unpleasant friction. It didn't take long to get him on board with the idea, and soon he was practically putty beneath her palms and fingers as she kneaded the tight muscles in his shoulders and neck.