"Lucy…"

I heard a voice call out for me. It was familiar… like I had known it all my life. I felt a pair of arms encircle my waist, holding my tightly against a toned, solid form behind me.

"Lucy, I love you." The voice whispered into my ear. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain on the back of my neck.

A mirror appeared before me. I saw myself first, then the head of blonde hair kissing the back of my neck lovingly. I didn't want to scream, in fact I was relaxed. I was sitting on a white velvet couch between his legs. I felt safe.

"I love you, too, Sting."

I woke up to the loud pounding on my door. I bolted upright and threw a pillow at the door. "Shuddup! I'm sleeping!" I growled. Gajeel, Laxus and Natsu barge in with happy faces.

"Happy Birthday, Lucy!" They shouted.

I threw another pillow at them, successfully hitting them in the face. "I'm going back to sleep."

"Oh come on, Princess. You've been waiting for this day!" Gajeel laughed. "It does only come once."

"Get up, Lucy! We want to celebrate it with you!" Natsu shook me gently.

"Go get dressed, you don't get a say in this." Laxus smiled.

I whined and complained about my lack of sleep and how much I hated the sun and wished it to be night. They laughed and pushed me to get ready in nice clothes, a simple gold colored dress with white shiny metallic stars. Wendy and Gajeel made it for me. I groaned as they dragged me to the guild. Literally dragged me to the guild.

"Natsu!" I sung. "Carry me please?" I batted my eyes at him, in hopes he would comply with my request.

"Sure thing, Lucy!" He swept an arm under my knees and wrapped the other around my shoulders, picking me up bridal style. "Better? It's befitting someone like you."

I scowled. "I don't like it."

"Look here, Princess, this isn't all sunshine and rainbows for us either." Gajeel said quietly. "Besides, you worried us shitless this past week. You should have taken one of us with you. What if they found out, eh? Every Dark Guild would be after you. That's more work for us."

"Have you found a mate yet, Luce?" Natsu asked seriously.

I sputtered and growled him. "What the hell are you talking about? Of course I don't! You three won't ever let me go anywhere!" I screeched at them flailing my arms around. I made Natsu put me down before Gajeel scooped me back up.

"Look the little princess is all flustered. You should just pick Natsu and be done with it." He poked my forehead.

"You're so disrespectful, Gajeel-san! Now put Lucy-hime down before Levy-chan sees you!" Wendy snapped, stopping us in the middle of the street. "You should be ashamed to be treating Lucy-hime like that."

I smirked. "At least she is reasonable." Gajeel put me down and growled at Wendy. I punched him lightly in the arm. "You have Levy. Stop it."

"Well, no offense to the Shrimp, but you come first. That's law. Your safety is priority over all else. Deal with it."

I growled. "Well maybe we should go back to the good ol' days when it was just me, Laxus-nii, and Natsu. Of course Wendy-chan can stay." I assured her. I didn't want Gajeel to go away, hell; I didn't want any of them to go away. "And you should know better than anyone we just don't pick our mates! It's something we can't control you know that! It's a feeling you get when you see them the very first time and you know that they are meant for you."

"Oh? Color me impressed. You found a mate then? Tell me who it is, so I can beat his ass." Laxus smirked and cracked his knuckles.

"Shut up! I just said I don't have one!"

"What about that guy that challenged me to a fight last night? He's a dragon slayer, too. I think he'd suit you just fine. You're both arrogant and quick tempered."

I glared at him. "Sting-san is not my mate!"

"She's too young for that!" Laxus shouted. "So stop talking about it…" He was always pretty sensitive on the topic, since he discovered that as an artificial dragon slayer, he lacked dragon instincts. Or at least he's convinced that's how it is.

"My, my, just the little girl I've been looking for." I turned around and a smile made its way to my face.

"Erik-san!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. I leaped towards the Artificial Poison Dragon Slayer. "You finally made it! Welcome to Fairy Tail. Let's go. Let's go!" I pulled him by the arm inside the guild.

"Oi! Oi! Let me go! I can walk on my own!" I laughed.

"Who told you, you could call me Erik? It's Cobra."

Though Erik was an Artificial Dragon Slayer, he still had all the instincts of a Dragon Raised Slayer or First Gen. Once he realized what my true magic was, he volunteered to stand by my side and take me home. I refused, saying he'd be arrested if he were to board a train. Reluctantly, he agreed to meet me in Magnolia on my birthday, seeing as how he knew who I was he had to come.

My mind began to wander to Sting. Since he sort of knew who I was, was he going to come, too?

"Lucy? Lucy?" Laxus waved a hand in front of my face. "You still here?" I blinked a few times before giving him my famous cheery smile.

"Yep!" I grabbed Erik's wrist and followed the rest of my slayer friends to the guild. Once we were inside, everyone let out their cheers.

I was greeted with "Happy Birthday, Lucy" and warm hugs. It was awkward with Erik remaining vigilant by my side and every time someone hugged me, he'd let out a growl. I'd just laugh and drag him to the people who wanted to wish me a happy birthday.

The real excitement didn't come until nightfall. The stars were beginning to make their appearance. All the dragon slayers moved outside, both first gen and second. The arranged themselves in a semicircle with me in the center. We still had about ten minutes to spare when there was a loud noise that resembled the clearing of a throat.

I whipped around to the source of the noise was Sting Eucliffe. We locked eyes for a solid two minutes before he knelt down onto one knee with his right fist over his heart. I blushed hard. It was a sign of loyalty to the female dragons, something you only did when you wanted to be with someone forever.

He was dressed in black tuxedo with a black tie; something I didn't think suited him well. A dark blue seemed to fit him better. I gathered a small amount of my magic and formed it into the color I saw him wearing yesterday. I laid a hand on his shoulder and changed his black tie to a blue one.

"Much better, Sting-san." I smiled.

He moved to the center with me, my arm hooked in his. "The Princess's 18th birthday. That's something I never expected to see." He paused and looked me in the eyes. "I hate to spring this onto you all of a sudden, but you do know that on your 18th birthday you need a drop of your desired mate's blood in the wine to complete the ceremony. It's only for females though. Men don't go through it."

"I'm not getting married, Sting-san. I'm just graduating from my training as the Celestial Dragon Slayer." I watched him curse slightly. "Don't tell me that…" I started to put his questions together.

"Yeah. I mean it. Call it love at first sight or whatever. I know you're the one." I knew what he was referring to; his dragon instincts. The guild's clock struck midnight and I began to glow, Sting did as well. I was breathless. It couldn't mean-

"There's no way that bastard's your mate!" Natsu and Laxus yelled. "You just met yesterday."

My magic capacity expanded tremendously. I could feel all the possibilities and ranges, the new spells and a lot of white.

My vision grew brighter, white instead of black. It was radiating off of Sting. I could feel is magic pressure something I could never do with anyone before.

"My one and only…" He breathed, while I was having trouble doing just that. He gripped my hand tightly as we intertwined our fingers. "Lucy…"

"Sting…" I breathed, taking my first breath as my world came crashing down.


What do you guys think? Did you think that it would be Sting originally?

Well the results are:

1. Sting - 12

2. Rogue, Freed, Cobra - 9

3. Bixlow - 6

4. Rufus, Orga - 5

5. Natsu, Gray, Lyon - 4

Well What do you think will hapen next? How will the guild react? What will Sting do about Sabertooth? What will Lucy and Sting do?

TUNE IN NEXT TIME TO FIND OUT

-Jay