Despite how fun this is, I own nothing but the new keys.

"This is a bad idea," Bickslow said.

"She's the one that wanted this back. And she'll probably want these." Lucy heard a faint jangling as Vander opened her door.

"Rise and-" He was interrupted by a pillow to his face.

"Told you. She's got an arm," Bickslow said laughing.

"Go away." Her voice was muffled as she snuggled up into her bed.

"It's noon, Starfire."

"Go away."

"Cristoff jumped home and brought back cooking from Mr. Elan. There was an emergency at Pelerno though," Bickslow said.

Lucy lifted her head and sniffed. Even without dragon senses, she could smell the strawberries. Bickslow arched an eyebrow at the glimpse of Lucy naked. The dragon was looped around her neck sleeping and she didn't seem particularly perturbed by the fact that her door wasn't closed. That was until he was smacked in the face with a pillow as she walked into the dining area of the apartment with nothing but a silk robe on.

"Did you like view?"

"That's a stupid question," he replied, tickling her sides as his totems echo around him.

"I haven't seen your babies around lately." Lucy piled her plate full of chocolate chip pancakes with homemade strawberry syrup and whip cream and moaned happily.

"Seith magic was outlawed here. It's how I ended up in Fiore. A lot of people still don't like it, so I prefer to leave them at home where they're safe if I'm leaving the guild."

Lucy gave him a smile before reaching up to cup Pipi gently. "Where's Erik?"

"Meredy dragged him shopping. She was yelling at him for nearly getting arrested." Bickslow looked sheepish for a moment. "Why-"

"Have you gotten in his pants yet?"

"Wha'?"

Lucy arched an eyebrow. "You have. That took less time than I was expecting. Van, pass me the juice."

Bickslow continued to sputter before finally saying, "You said we couldn't."

"And naturally, the first thing you do is ignore me."

Vander's first thought was that the evil little smile was one of the sexiest things he'd ever seen. Especially when paired with her general excitement over Mr. Elan's cooking. The next thought was that she was the kind of trouble he didn't want. She was the kind of trouble that would have him sleeping with one eye open if he pissed her off.

"How long were you two going at it?" Vander asked.

"Until four this fucking morning. I may be a dragon slayer but I don't have this kinda stamina yet. Speaking of which, I'm gonna go back to bed after this. I still have two more days."

He took it back, Vander decided. She was exactly the kind of crazy he liked.

The guild didn't nearly destroy itself like it nearly did the last time we didn't get Cris warded in time so the theory that you could smother his moonlust pheromones was accurate.

If you want to participate in a conversation you could, you know, actually participate instead of eavesdrop, Lucy thought.

This may have escaped your notice, but I have a guild to run.

You have time to eavesdrop.

I'm multitasking.

Lucy had realized that the conversation had stopped but hadn't paid any attention to the fact that the two men were watching her. "Shut up."

"Didn't say anything," Vander said with a chuckle. "Oh. Here."

Her jaw dropped and the fork clattered to the table when she saw the key ring that he was holding. She landed in his lap in her haste to get to them.

"Monoceros. Canes Venatici. Lupus. Pyxis. Nikora. Ursa Major," she murmured breathlessly as she ran her fingers along them. "Where did you get these?"

"They were with the information I was gathering. There was a note that they were intending on selling them to the Joyan warqueen. They belonged-"

"Contracted," she corrected.

"The wizard they were contracted to was in the last group sold. If you don't want them, we can-"

"It's more complicated than that. If their contracts are still active, then-"

"Maybe I can help with that." The spirit that appeared was a woman. She wore a bodysuit that tied behind her neck that was made from a fabric that seemed to flow as she moved. Her white-blonde hair was long and feathered. Her eyes were black. Wrapped around her head was a silver circlet with a circle in the center where Lucy imagined that her horn would be.

"You're Monoceros, aren't you?"

"Call me Ceros. Everyone does. Under normal circumstances, we would not consider our contracts voided, but he wasn't a pleasant master. Therefore, we are within our rights to consider it voided. Now, I know that you already have a contract with," she paused and a clipboard appeared in her hands, "Pyxis and one of the Canis Minors that you call Plue. Interesting name.

"Now, according to my records, you're in Bosco. I, personally, have no opposition to becoming contracted to you though my last master stole my key from a Sudehpah in Ceillis. I will allow you to decide if you want to keep my key or return me. Pyxis and Canis Minor are both aware that you'll probably give their key away and request that they are donated to the Acadame.

"The last master preferred keys that always made contracts regardless of if the wizard was dark or not. I was the only exception."

"Wait. Stop," Lucy said, standing. "He was a dark celestial wizard?"

"Yes," Monoceros replied matter-of-factly.

"What was his name?" Vander asked.

"Simon Ambers."

"I remember that. Nearly beat the Sudehpah to death."

"Why did you make the contract with him?"

"He threatened to break my key. My other keys are lost. If he broke this one, I could be trapped in the celestial realm. I am very old and my realm gets boring. It's why we agreed to these contracts in the first place."

"Which would you prefer?" Lucy asked.

Monoceros froze. While she'd heard about this wizard, she hadn't expected to be asked that question. "I would prefer to stay with you. I enjoyed working with Sudehpahs but even that gets tedious."

Lucy nodded. "I understand."

"Shouldn't you have a horn?" Bickslow asked.

"A horn is a safety hazard. Why would I choose to have a horn when I don't need one? I use my other form when I'm called into battle," she said snippily to the seith mage. "As I'm sure you know, I'm a battlefield healer and I can summon myself in the event that you're knocked unconscious. Good day."

Lucy took the time to make contracts with all of the spirits except Pyxis and Canis Minor. Monoceros took note of everything that she said. Canes Venatici were two large dogs named Caroli and Superba, whose heads came up to Lucy shoulders. They communicated telepathically and spent most of the time arguing with each other over their availability. Lupus could smell Cristoff on her and decided he liked her before rolling onto his back and demanding belly rubs.

Ursa Major was a hulking man that would give even Cristoff a run for him money in size. His chest was bare, and he wore leggings but no shoes. On his back was a bear pelt with the head over his own and the paws attached to his wrists and ankles. The coldness in his gaze almost made her change her mind about making the contract. The only thing that stopped her from changing her mind was that he looked excited for the amount of trouble she got into.

"Thank you," she said to Vander, kissing him lightly.

"Celestial spirits are weird," he commented. "And I thought Bix's were strange."

"Yeah, yeah. Now go away. I'm going back to bed." She kissed both of them goodbye before ushering them out of her apartment and dragging her feet to bed.

*.*.*

The next two days followed a similar pattern. Lucy and Cristoff spent all night having sex. As much as she griped in the morning, she wasn't immune to his pheromones and was as insatiable as he was when they hit her. During the morning, he doted on her. Helped ease the aches in her muscles.

Then, he ignored her grumblings and forced her train. The first day, the two ended up in a stand-off in her living room. They'd trained together during that week in Pelerno so he was frustrated with her refusal. On the other hand, she was trying to pace herself with the sex-a-thon that she knew would happen that night.

He scooped her up and threw her over his shoulder. Loke, sensing her distress, popped out of his gate. It took him a moment to recognize Cristoff as Nurem's dragon slayer. Then, to Lucy's loud annoyance, let him pass by despite the fact that Cristoff was hauling his mistress off like a sack of potatoes.

Cristoff's idea of training ended up not being as bad as Lucy had feared. He'd commandeered part of one of the stadiums and set up targets for her to hit with her star blasts.

About an hour into their training the first day, Erik came storming into the training grounds.

"You- You tricked us."

She gave him a smirk and tilted her head to the side as if she couldn't decide if she was mischievous or cute. "Yup."

He'd expected some resistance to that claim.

"You two would be perfect together, but you're Fiorian. I figured that if I told you that you couldn't do something, you'd do it just to spite me. How'd I do?"

"Uh… You're not wrong."

She made a shooing motion with her hands. "Go mate. Have fun. Don't destroy anything."

Erik picked her up, swung her around, then nuzzled her neck. "Thanks, your highness."

"Yeah, don't call me that."

He ran off with the intent of finding Bickslow and claiming him. Lucy turned back to Cristoff with a sigh.

"Let's get back to it."

By the end of those two days, she was glad that Kaleb had already lined up jobs for her with the Thunder Legion. The damage was fairly extensive, but Kaleb kept reminding her that she was only responsible for ten percent of the repair costs since that was what the training fields were for.

Freed had gone with Farron on a diplomatic mission to Sin. While Kaleb wouldn't acknowledge it when Lucy needled, part of the reason he'd wanted her with the Thunder Legion was that he wanted to ensure that there'd be a tactician replacing Freed.

Lucy enjoyed her time with the Thunder Legion. Laxus was often an overprotective big brother that she'd learned early on was fun to mess with. When Bickslow returned with Erik in tow, the small pranks they pulled usually involved how many of his buttons they could push. Her and Evergreen were immune to the shocks that he sent after Bickslow and Erik.

"You're giving me gray hairs," Laxus said as he slumped over the bar. They were back at the guild after their last job before Freed and Farron returned.

"Really? Where?" she asked trying to climb up her kin to find the strands of hair.

"Stop that."

Lucy giggled. "Lucky for you, Kaleb wanted to see me when we got back."

"Is that why you're all dressed up?" he asked glancing at the short, purple dress that was cinched at the waist and revealed a lot of cleavage.

"Nope. It's just comfy." She hadn't knocked yet when Kaleb told her to enter. "Hi. How are you?"

Kaleb was still looking at the tablet when she entered. His gaze roved over her before snapping to her face. The amusement in her gaze had him swallowing.

"Sit," he said, gesturing to the chair opposite him. "Freed is returning today."

"I know."

"I have no problem with you staying with them or going solo but even the pay on their jobs is going to start getting tight with as many people. As you know, our system allots for independent mages to be teamed up for specific jobs. That'll give you a chance to work with multiple magic types. I've also spoken to Meredy a few times since the full moon and told her that she's welcome to consider a place here."

"What about the rest of Crime Sorciere?"

"Meredy was not directly implicated in any crimes and I was able to use Erik's participation in defeating the dragons to allow him entrance. The others…"

"I understand."

"My other offer is to stay here and work at the guild. There are many jobs that help keep this guild running and from what I understand, you were key in saving the Heartfilia Konzern. I could use your help in accounts. It would also mean that you wouldn't have to call in every day to see if the program has figured out what language your symbols are."

She hmphed before asking, "Can I do all the above?"

Kaleb smiled and shifted the stack of papers from the corner of his desk in front of her. "I'd guessed you'd say that." He watched her as she went through contracts, listened to her thoughts as she'd made modifications and addendums to them, and remembered her question about if he judged people solely on their thoughts and not their actions. Except, she didn't understand that minds like hers made her one of the most beautiful people to him. Especially when she'd glance up with a warning look at him the moment he'd tried to intrude on her mind palace again.

"Share pleasure with me?" he asked as soon as she finished. She smiled and he immediately heard Havasi's 'Rise of the Instruments' shielding her mind from him.

"Sorry, but that wasn't one of my impossible thoughts today."

I keep being mean to poor Kaleb…