Disclaimer: The world of Fairy Tail and its characters belong to Hiro Mashima. I do not profit from the writing of this story and am a fan who simply loves the work.

Internal Thoughts in Italics

CHAPTER TWO

After Gray had left the guild that afternoon for his date with Juvia, the rest of the day had been rather uneventful. Levy had entered the guild hall shortly after the ice mage's departure and a thrilled celestial mage threw her arms around her best friend before dragging the solid script mage to the bar where she and Natsu had been sitting earlier.

Lucy chatted with Levy for a good part of the afternoon about how happy Juvia had to be about finally having some serious alone time with Gray. Time for them to spend together that didn't involve fighting to help save the world from total destruction at least. They two women agreed, much to Natsu's distaste, that Gray cleaned up surprisingly well. Who knew that the serial stripper could look like 'the prince type' while wearing a sharp suit. This prompted the conversation of having the guild host a formal party where they could make the guys dress up and possibly have a date auction, or something similar the Miss. Fairy Tail pageant but with the men, to raise some money for the guild.

With the girls on the topic of guys, clothes and his partner sending him short side glances, Natsu took Lucy's body language as an indication that it was time for him to leave. Standing, he loudly announced that he and Happy were going fishing, much to the Exceed's pleasure. Natsu was proud that he had become rather adept at picking up on the subtle tells Lucy would use to let him know that it was time for her to have some serious girl time and that he needed to leave, even if his dragon slayer hearing would let him tune in from anywhere in the guild hall if he wanted. Not that he would ever really would or want to listen to those conversations.

Noticing these silent hints had also started to help them communicate while sparing together against other guild members during their weekly training sessions. These sparing matches had really sharpened their awareness for one another and Natsu was keen on testing it out in some real fights as soon as they finished settling in.

He had actually been surprised, because Lucy had been to one to approach him about training. She had said that they were already seven years behind everyone and would become even rustier while they were taking a hiatus from work if they didn't. Natsu initially had a feeling that her desire to start training right away was more about taking her mind off the situation with her father. Not that he was complaining of course, because now they were able to almost silently communicate their intended actions to one another with just a simple look. Basically, he and Lucy were really becoming in tune with one another.

Natsu was grateful that the blonde decided to start using the cues outside of battle. He shuddered just imagining what the girls really talked about when he and the other men were out of ear shot. He did however know that Lucy was dying to ask Levy a little about how she was feeling concerning the other male dragon slayer in the guild. 'Gajeel and Levy,' Natsu silently considered the two mages. He pictured them standing next to one another. Tiny little blue haired Levy next to tall, rough and tumble Gajeel. The fire dragon slayer chuckled a little and silently contemplated with a grin, 'Now that would be a sight.' With that quip as the last thought that ran through his mind he and Happy exited the guild and headed off to their favorite fishing hole.

'Crap, Crap, Crap, I'm going to be late!' Was the mantra running through Gray Fullbuster's head as he pushed through the crowd in the busy city. 'Why did I sit around with Natsu and Lucy so long at the guild when I knew I had to be somewhere on time!' Gray had made lunch reservations with Juvia at Magnolia's most popular restaurant for this date because dinner seemed way more intimate than he was looking for right now.

'Actually that isn't completely true' he thought to himself.

In all honesty Juvia's intensity scared him. She gave her all in everything that she did, be it fighting or pursuing him, and Gray didn't want to be the one to screw her over if this didn't work out. Quickly checking his watch as he made it to the intersection in front of the restaurant Gray was relieved, '1:58, made it with two minutes to spare!' Scanning the adjacent street with his eyes he sought out the familiar blue hair of his date.

"Juvia!" Gray yelled out as he caught sight of her. Waving his arms above his head, in an attempt to try and get the water mages attention, he crossed to meet her in front of the restaurant. "Sorry I kept you waiting I got caught up at the guild and thought the major lunch rush would be back at work by now." Pausing to simply look into her eyes he finished with a, "Have you been here long?"

"Not long at all." Juvia answered shyly while casting her gaze to the ground before lifting her eyes up to meet his. "Of course Juvia would never mind waiting for Gray no matter how long it took him."

As she spoke the ice mage took the time to take in what exactly was standing in front of him. Juvia's once tightly curled hair style now hung in loose waves down her back. She still had it tucked under a hat, but it seemed that she had traded her normal cold weather wool one for a simple dark navy berate that was angled just to the right of her head. Letting his eyes lower he was momentarily stunned by Juvia's dress which was also the same dark navy blue that matched her hat. The neck line plunged almost to the bottom of her ribs and, well, he thought she filled it out nicely. Not letting his stare linger too long on her breast, that were somehow magically staying place, he looked back up to her expecting face. 'Crap,' he thought, 'She must have asked me a question and I was checking her out instead of listening.'

"Sorry Juvia, I... well you see... You look gorgeous and, I wasn't listening." Gray admitted honestly, throwing his hand behind his head as he scratched with a nervous laugh.

At his comment Juvia turned a deep red in embarrassment but in her typical quiet tone answered, "Juvia was just asking if you were ready to go in? And... um… Juvia thinks Gray look very handsome today as well."

Gray gave Juvia a small smile and extended his arm out to her. As she settled her hand in the crook of his elbow, the blushing couple entered the restaurant to start their first date.

Natsu lay napping, sprawled out in a ray of sun that was coming through a gap in the trees. The end of his fishing pole securely anchored in the ground next to Happy, who had so far been the only one to actually reel in a fish on this trip.

"Catch anything else?" Natsu asked as he stood then raised his arms above his head, stretching out his stiff mussels.

"Aye! Three more since you fell asleep. I think your worm got away though. Nothing has pulled on your line since you put it down." Happy answered without looking at the dragon slayer.

Natsu hummed a generic response and gingerly sat down, cross-legged next to the little blue cat. The two sat in silence for the next hour, taking in the scenery and meditatively casting their lines.

Natsu and Happy had been coming to this spot for years. It was a place that they considered theirs and only a few select people even knew of its well protected location. Today the weather had been perfect for fishing. The sky was a deep blue with only white, fluffy clouds around for miles. A small breeze kept the temperature at a comfortable level, although Natsu and Happy were rarely concerned with the temperature as fur and the ability to use fire magic kept them comfortable year round.

After a good while, when dragon slayer reeled in his fourth fish, Happy turned to his friend and shyly asked, "Um, Natsu, have you ever asked a girl out before?"

"W-What?" Natsu sputtered, as he almost dropping his fishing pole in the water, but managed to catch it at the last minute and gently placed it next to his right side. Taken off guard by the unusual question from his companion the dragon slayer slowly turned his upper body toward Happy. His eyes urging the little blue exceed to elaborate.

"You know, um... say that there is a girl that you like and you are pretty good friends with her already. Then say you decide that maybe just being friends isn't enough, but you don't know if she is thinking the same thing…." Happy trailed off at the end, not really knowing how to ask without rambling.

Natsu sat and thought about what his friend was asking, and for several moments the dragon slayer remained silent. Memories from his life so far flickered to the surface as he tried to decide how to answer to him. "Well, there was that time with Lisanna when I found your egg... but that was when we were kids and we were just playing house back then."

"Aye, but what if you didn't want to just play house with your friend anymore. Think about how we have been living with Lucy. What if you decided to make that more permanent than just staying with her while we repair our house?" Happy pushed. Using Lucy to get a straight answer out of Natsu could backfire on him but it was a risk that the exceed was willing to take because no one else could trigger Natsu's baser instincts than the blonde celestial mage.

Natsu quickly answered with, "Ok, we are partners and we already spend a lot of time together. I don't think that would be that big of a deal. Well, other than when Lucy wanted to have some girly time."

"Natsu, I know you way to well for you to play dumb with me." The Exceed accused in a rather serious tone. "You know what I mean." He proceeded by giving his partner a look that proved he saw straight through how intentionally dense the fire mage was being in regards to his questioning.

Happy's attitude caught Natsu off guard and all he could manage to do was cast his eyes to the ground in want to change the subject.

Sighing Natsu stood up grabbing his fishing pole and dusting off his pants he looked to his partner. "Come on buddy. Let's head back to the guild before it gets too late. I don't want Lucy walking home alone in the dark and since this is the first night we won't be staying with her since we got back…" The dragon slayer paused for a moment looking around before sighing, "Happy, I don't know. Let's just go."

Turning away from Happy as he left his thought unfinished Natsu missed the annoyed, yet knowing glance from the exceed that accompanied his customary, "Aye!" even if it was a little more lackluster than normal.

On several occasions Lucy attempted to pry the details of the bet out of her best friend but was only able to get information that concerned their 'punishments' if they lost.

"Well," Levy opened, "Gray's is pretty obvious after what you said you saw this afternoon. He came in late though because he walked in that morning and overheard us talking."

"That morning? How long have the six of you had this bet going?" Lucy interrupted.

Levy thought for a moment and answered, "About two, maybe three weeks now. It started out with just me and Mirajane talking about some random things. Cana had overheard what we were talking about and that's when the idea of a bet came up. After a while Juvia had taken an interest. I guess we were all being loud and it grabbed Gray's attention as he entered the guild which caused him to come over and see what was going on." Levy began to chuckle at her memory of what had happened next. "You of course know how Juvia gets as soon as Gray is within five feet of her. 'Juvia can never tell a lie to or keep things from Gray!' and she told him the entire thing."

Lucy was doubled over in laughter as Levy impersonated the overly emotional water mage's voice and movements. "It really must have been some bet if gray wanted to get involved I wish I had been there so I could have participated." Lucy said as she calmed down and wiped her eyes from her little fit of laughter. She knew that Levy would see right through this remark as an attempt to get her best friend to slip up and spill the details of what was going on with this seemingly ultra-secret bet. At least no one could say she didn't try and by this point in time she was pretty much dying of curiosity.

"You truly are a sneaky woman trying to guilt me into telling you." Levy scolded her friend with a smile, "Unfortunately, even if I wanted to tell you I couldn't. The five of us are bound by magic to keep the bet fair. It keeps the players from interfering since the conditions were that the event has to happen on natural terms."

"Fine," Lucy dramatically pouted as she crossed her arms across her chest, "Tell me what everyone else has to do when they lose then. Hopefully that will satiate my curiosity."

With a laugh at Lucy's over-acting Levy started to explain the individual "punishments" to the celestial mage. "Well, before Gray had joined us, Juvia's punishment had already been decided. It was for her to ask Gray out on a date but that quickly changed and became Greys punishment."

"Let me guess, Mirajane decide to switch that one up." Lucy smiled

"Of course, anyone could see 'Mirajane' written all over that idea. She actually wanted to make sure we invited Lyon over on the day Grey had to ask Juvia to go out but I told her that was taking the punishment too far. Oh," The script mage slapped her forehead with her palm before continuing, "I forgot to mention that there are also penalties if we don't go through with our end of the deal. Which, believe me, it can be as equally embarrassing as the punishments."

At this Lucy's eyes grew wide as she excitedly asked, "What would Gray have had to do if he refused to ask Juvia out?"

Levy started laughing so hard she almost fell out of her chair at the question. "Mirajane wanted to make sure he would never back out of the deal so she proposed that Gray would have to act like one of Natsu's fangirls for a 24 hour period without telling Natsu what was going on while he fawned over him. Of course he was horrified but the rest of us backed Mirajane up pretty quickly. You should have seen his face Lucy"

"I can imagine." The blonde giggled as her friend tried to mimic the expression the ice mage had done. "Although for some reason I would have loved to see Natsu's reaction to that as well."

"I admit it would have been amazing but I'm glad he decided to go with it and take Juvia out on the date." Levy smiled warmly as her friend nodded in agreement.

The two friends sat in silence for a moment wondering how everything was going for their two friends. But Lucy's face started to fall as it always did when thoughts of the events that occurred on Tenrou Island surfaced. "Levy, where do you think we would be if everything had gone smoothly with the S-Class trials? Look at Bisca and Alzack, not only did they get married they had a kid! A living breathing person that they are responsible for." Slightly manic the celestial spirit mage continued while her friend looked on with wide worried eyed, "That could be Gray and Juvia married, Elfman and Evergreen could also have a kid. Seven years is so long to be away. What if we missed our chances to… to… I don't know, to do something meaningful? Ugh, that's not the word I'm looking for Levy. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"

"Honestly Lucy, I don't know about all that, but at least we are getting a second chance rather than the alternative." The blue haired mage answered the blonde next to her with caution, not wanting to stress Lucy out more than she already seemed to be. "Hey, you know, Juvia's punishment ended up being pretty simple since Gray ended up with what essentially was her punishment was originally." Levy decided to quickly interject, attempting to bring Lucy's mood up and lead her thoughts away from what happened without them over the past seven years. "Now she will just have to refrain from talking in the third person for a day and Juvia's penalty is that she will have to wear bright colors for 24 hours."

"Well, that is surprisingly tame." All previous thoughts in the celestial spirit mage's head about the island moved aside.

"Oh, Mirajane had other ideas but we vetoed them as a group pretty quickly." The blue haired mage grinned mischievously, "And, since she is so concerned with pairing everyone up we decided that it was her turn to be at the other end of a matchmaker's scheme."

"Freed." The blonde stated simply. Nothing more really needed to be said about the way the two older members danced around each other.

"You got it." The two friends cackled uninhibited for a good five minutes as they both imagined a shy Mirajane confessing her undying love to the green haired dark écriture mage. This earned the two of them a glare from said female from behind the bar, which quickly put an end to their incessant laughter.

After a few minutes Mirajane finally became distracted as a small group of members who showed up hungry after just having returned from a mission. This now allowed for the two younger mages to continue their previous conversation without interruption or fear of retribution.

"So after Mirajane that just leaves you and Cana." Levy lightly blushed at Lucy's words and directed her friend's questions toward Cana's punishment.

"Well, since we assumed that Cana really only loved her alcohol, we first thought about banning her from drinking for two months." This thought caused Lucy and Levy to physically shudder. "However, for the sake of the guild, we decided that Cana with no booze would be way worse than allowing her father free roam of the city." The girls again paled at the idea of Gildarts frolicking liberally through Magnolia leaving a wake of destruction that could be rivaled only by Natsu's handiwork.

Levy regained her composure and continued, "Since none of us want that hell on earth, the group decided that Cana would have to accompany Gildarts on a decently lengthy mission for some father daughter bonding that they missed out on over all those years she kept her parentage a secret from us… I mean him."

Laughing a little at Levy's slip Lucy pondered, "I'm not sure who is going to be worse at accepting their punishment if they lose, Mirajane or Cana." Lucy thoughtfully pondered the reactions that would happen if either of the women lost this bet, "Both of them can throw a pretty good tantrum."

"Oh you don't know half of it. You should have been there when the conditions for losing were set." The solid script mage put her hands to her temples in remembrance. "It took us an hour just to get Mirajane to stop being pigheaded about the group decision for her punishment. Then another for the penalty. Of course we did find out that Cana is actually dating a mage from another guild called Quatro Cerberus. His name is Bacchus, and get this, he uses palm magic but to increase his power he gets drunk."

"A match made in heaven." Lucy smiled before adding, "I wonder who would win in a drinking contest?"

"Apparently he wins and has won. Cana told us a story about how he stole her top once after winning. According to Cana that's what made her fall in love with the guy."

Shaking her head in disbelief Lucy replied, "Sometimes I really worry about the members of this guild."

"Well, it did give the rest of us a chance to pick the perfect penalty for Cana. Apparently she hasn't told Gildarts about her boyfriend so if she refuses to go on a mission with him she has to tell him about Bacchus."

"You guys really can be evil if you want. But now that everyone else is out of the way, are you done avoiding what I really want to know? Well, other than what the actually bet is." Lucy said as she gave her friend a cunning smile and lightly elbowed her in the side

"I, you, well you see, it's like um…." Levy sputtered, as her face turned as red as Erza's hair.

Lucy laughed while patting her friend comfortably on the shoulder, knowing exactly what or really who Levy was going to have to approach as she saw her best friend gaze, still blushing at the empty table that a specific iron dragon slayer and his partner usually occupied.

"So Lucy, when are you going to finish your book?!" Levy teased as she regained her composure and quickly changed the subject. She hoped that talk about the blonde's novel would end further questions about the condition she had agreed to with this bet, "I think you are seven years behind your deadline so you should just let me read what you had!"

Sighing Lucy leaned back in her chair, two legs leaving the floor. The blonde successfully distracted. "I may have to scrap that project. I know it is still fresh in my mind but I worry that it is outdated now." The celestial mage looked down and wrung her hands in her lap with apprehension. She had worked so hard to get the book where it was so many years ago, but times and taste change so rapidly.

"All good reads transcend time," Levy encouraged as she placed a hand on Lucy's shoulder. "I'm sure that it is fine, in fact, you should let me check!" she finished with a sly smile.

"You are so unrelenting!" The celestial mage laughed in return, shooing Levy's hand away. Her frame of mind now brightened in a way only her best friend could help with, especially in regards to her writing. Distractedly, Lucy's eyes scanned the room and let her gaze settle on her salmon haired partner that had come back into the guild a few minutes ago after what seemed like a fruitful fishing trip. He was talking to Max and Romeo and laughed loudly at something that had been said. Lucy smiled at his exuberant outburst, the celestial mage was always happy when Natsu was happy.

She was pulled out of her trance by Levy's playful laughter "And you are giving me a hard time. I think you are in the exact same situation as I am."

"I have no idea what you are going on about." Lucy said, waving her hands franticly as she hurriedly got up and headed off in the direction of her partner and left the still giggling Levy behind her.

When she reached the table Natsu occupied, he was in the middle of a 'manly' arm-wrestling match with Elfman. Lucy knew that it could take a while before one of these two would give in so she silently sat down next to the fire dragon slayer to watch. She aware of the fact that Natsu wasn't struggling in the slightest since Elfman wasn't using his Beast Arm. She smiled at the oddly noncompetitive competitiveness the guys in the guild always demonstrated. Of course they also demonstrated normal competitiveness but camaraderie and fun always came first between the guild members of Fairy Tail.

As she studied Natsu's face the celestial mage noticed that he seemed to be completely spaced out, his thoughts in an entirely different place as he easily held the struggling takeover mage off. This worried Lucy a little because Natsu had been relatively quiet for his typical demeanor the past couple days. With the two week absence of Erza and Gajeel she knew Natsu had been rather restless without his usual outlets to dump his overactive drive to fight. Sure he still had Gray around and the two of them had been training together on a weekly basis but fighting the iron dragon slayer or the exquip mage generally satiated Natsu's fighting lust just a little longer than anything that wasn't a real life threatening fight.

Lucy had first noticed his increased frustration shortly after Makarov had sent Erza and Gajeel out on an apparently secretive personal mission. The fire dragon slayer had had a fit about that. He practically threw a massive tantrum about wanting to be included. Of course his conduct hadn't helped his cause, and he was denied involvement in the mission. Makarov later lectured him on behavior and explained that some missions needed a level head and more stealth than he possessed.

The night Gajeel and Erza left, his sleep was unusually restless. Natsu tossed and turned all night while unknowingly muttering about how he didn't want to be left behind again, how he had to continue getting stronger so he could protect all of his friends, and finally find Igneel. Needless to say Lucy and Happy had been up all night. Not because of his anxiety but because of their increased worry about Natsu's mental wellbeing.

However, when he woke up the next morning, it was like nothing that occurred the previous day had even happened. This made the blonde worry even more because she knew how well her partner could push aside and hide certain feelings. The fire dragon slayer might constantly feign ignorance but the happy grinning mask he wore almost every day wasn't always an accurate portrayal of his true emotional state. Lucy knew that the only thing that she could do right now was to be there to catch him when he finally cracked.

Suddenly a loud splintering was heard, which broke her out of her daze because the table she had been resting her arms on became a million toothpicks at her feet. Natsu yelled in victory but then noticed the irritation on his partners face. The fire dragon slayer laughed as he placed his hand on the back of his neck apologizing in attempt to appease the celestial mage. Lucy decided to just shake her head in disbelief and somewhere in the back ground she heard Elfman attributing the shattering of the table to his and Natsu's over abundant 'Manliness'.

Slowly, Lucy rose from her seat and stepped over the remnants of the destroyed table. She walked to the bar, with Natsu now in tow, taking the seats that they had held earlier in the morning and in similar fashion he ordered a pint of his favorite fire liquor from Mirajane.

Finally realizing that she was going to be alone for the first time later that night Lucy decided that now was the perfect time to broach the subject of work with her partner. As Mirajane sat a mug in front of the man next to her Lucy dove in with a blunt, "Natsu, we really need to find work." The blonde then reluctantly grumbled, "The money my father left for my rent is only going to last a few more months and I still need some to spend on food."

"I know we do. I'm bored out of my mind and no one is here to spar with in my down time either. That and all of our money had been stolen while we were gone." Natsu spat out the last part with dejection, "But, now that Happy and I have at least fixed our roof we can start to get really serious about finding a mission!" He finished with a grin.

"Unfortunately it's not really a matter of being serious. We just have to wait for a job to come in and since they seem to be scarce it has been next to impossible." The celestial mage sighed, "Believe me I even considered going solo while you and happy were rebuilding," Natsu shot her a look that she just rolled her eyes at, "but, every posting is gone as soon as it comes in! Plus you know the type of trouble Luigi gets into without you" She elbowed him in the side as she finished.

He chuckled slightly at her tease before grabbing and sipping the drink that Mirajane had set in front of him. Natsu considered their situation. For a few more minutes the two sat in a comfortable silence until Lucy had had enough.

"Bah, screw this, I'm bored. I'm going to head home. I didn't do anything at all today but I am tired!" Lucy exclaimed as she stood up from her chair and grabbed the jacket she had brought with her when she came in this morning off the back. She stopped and looked back at her partner that still sat in his seat at the bar and the celestial spirit mage was suddenly hit with realization again that Natsu had been staying with her for a total of five weeks now, and tonight would be the first night that she would spend alone since they had returned from Tenrou Island. With a frown she turned and headed toward the guild's entrance. Patting Natsu's back lightly as she past, Lucy proceeded to slip on her jacket as she moved to the door.

"Hey, wait up. I'll walk you home." Natsu called after Lucy as he downed the rest of his drink while the front door closed behind her. He quickly motioned for Happy to follow him out of the guild as he made his way to the entrance.

As the partners exited Fairy Tail that night neither the celestial mage nor the fire dragon slayer noticed the many sets of eyes belonging to their guild mates watch the entire interaction of their exit. They would also never know the buzz of conversation that started as soon as the door closed behind Natsu.