AN: I just want to apologise for… well, everything? For taking so long to update, but long story short I was in hospital for like six months just after the last update and right after I got out my grandfather died and I just completely lost the passion to do anything, to be honest. It's taken this long for me to sort myself out, especially considering I have to repeat a year of high school because I only got through, like, half of it last year. Annoying, but understandable. Anyway, I just want to thank anyone who is reading this, to be honest, for being so patient. I'm so sorry for taking this long, but I had some issues I needed to work through before I could get started on this stuff again. But I'm all better now (mostly) and I'm starting again! Please note; updates will be sporadic and unreliable, and for that I apologise one last time. All my love to my readers, you guys are the greatest in the world and I'd be lost without you!

Now… with all the depressing shit out of the way… on with the story!

-Kodochi

There was a large room in which there was a large number of large groups of people, all staring firmly at the ground. A clock ticked, seconds to ending the countdown, and the people's brows furrowed as they tensed, stood on tiptoes, and took deep breaths to prepare for what was to come.

-DING!-

"We dibs purple!" Luciana shrieked at the top of her, apparently, sky-scraper lungs, making several others groan in dismay when the man with the clipboard nodded dutifully and wrote it down.

"Turn around touch the ground we bags red!" Natsu thundered, to be received my more dismayed groans when his dragon-slayer shouting capabilities finally came in handy.

"Kings, queens, bags no returns on gold!" Hibiki called out next, the next guild name to be written down.

It was several hours and more than a few brawls, though most were fairy tail mages and for no apparent reason, before everyone finally slumped to the ground in exhaustion. All except Luciana and Keita and a few other chosen mages with both the brains combined with the abilities to allow them to hover above the mosh pit that was the annual uniform colour assignments for the Grand Magic Games.

"I hate you…" Adrian groaned tiredly.

"I offered to hold you up as well…" Luciana replied in what could only be described as the sing-song voice women adopt when they are decidedly less than pleased with something.

"I know!" he yelled as loudly as he was capable of over his shoulder, before crushing his face into the floor again.

"Shhh…" Caroline made an indiscernible motion with her hand which involved lifting her fingers up and down, barely a centimetre off the ground. Luciana puzzled over it for a moment, mimicking it herself before smiling happily as she came to the conclusion that it had been intended to be a 'lower the volume' movement.

"So, Luce!" Natsu crowed happily as he bounced over, endlessly energetic.

"Natsu!" she replied in an identical tone of voice, meeting him halfway in a hug before moving on to give Gray and the others hugs as well.

"Any new members?" Makarov asked.

"No…" she pouted.

"That's because you are holding them to ridiculously high expectations." Adrian inputted, voice slightly muffled by the wooden flooring.

"You lot managed just fine." She retorted stubbornly.

"That's only because you practically killed us for two freaking years." Yuki added from his position, spread-eagled.

"And we're still learning!" Melody said, her tone exhausted and not just because of the day's events so far.

"You mean we're still being taught lessons." Kenshin quipped with a boyish grin, chuckling as some of his friends huffed out laughs.

"And even then, we still don't know where all the pixies get their energy." Ren groaned, eyeing the particularly bouncy Levy with distaste.

"They only have that energy when it's unnecessary." Rosemarie snorted. "It disappears in every other situation. Or have they forgotten how quickly they got their butts handed to them?"

"We may have to remind them." Konran nodded solemnly, both smirking internally at the rapidly paling fairy tail mages.

"Ugh… I suppose I could find some time out of my schedule to do so, my dear." Rose sighed in mock irritation.

"Th-that's okay! Don't go out of your way for us!" Mira laughed shakily, waving her hands in frantic denial.

"Oh… I don't know… you all seem to be acting like you own the bloody place recently…" Konran said, raising one eyebrow and putting on a face of deep concentration.

"Well, maybe if you-"

"Shut up! Can't you see I'm thinking?!" Konran snapped, silencing her with a glare before turning back to her contemplation.

"Konran, Rose, stop teasing our friends." Luciana said firmly, though her eyes betrayed her mild amusement at seeing Mira, a mage she had once looked up to, admired and, in a small way, feared, reduced to a quivering mess behind her mountain of a brother, along with her sister, by a decidedly short teenage girl.

"Teenage girls are forces of nature." Victoria informed her, and Luciana was only slightly taken aback before remembering that her friend had been training to read minds. Apparently, she was making rather good progress.

"I am, thanks."

"Would you please stop that?!" Luciana snapped in exasperation, clutching at her head as though to protect it from being rifled through by the deceivingly devious guild master.

"No, shan't."

"You better! Or else…!"

"Or else you'll do what? I know you better than that to know that you would never hurt me because I haven't done something unforgivable yet. I think, however, that I may surpass that were I to begin a conversation on your… late night exercise regime."

"I'm going to fucking kill you." Luciana growled, revitalised by her anger as Adrian blushed a bright red behind her.

"My hero." He murmured softly.

"She is kind of like a knight in shining armour…" Natsu mused.

"Or a devil…" Happy added.

"But wouldn't that make you the damsel in distress?" Gray asked.

"A title I shall wear with pride." Adrian replied.

They looked over to where Victoria was teleporting all over the room in an effort to escape the inhumanly fast, murderously pissed-off Luciana, before sighing and shaking their heads.

"Cheesecake?" Erza asked, popping up with Lisanna on her arm. "There's a really good café just down the road, and they sell all sorts of things."

"Do they se-"

"Including fire chicken. They even have an inferno option for it."

"Sold!"