A/N: Eep, after this I only have one more chapter written, and then I'm gonna have to wing it. I need to catch up. I've kept a pretty regular weekly schedule so far, but the last couple chapters might require some waiting. I've been writing way ahead of my posting schedule to make sure I can keep updates frequent, but personal issues have slowed that down a lot.

Speaking of personal issues, I am doing fine! Ish. I should be able to graduate in May. Maybe. I hope. I'm trying. University is hard sometimes (or all the time, but yeah). Thanks for the support, everyone. I might be sick, but at least I can still kinda write! Your compliments mean a lot to me.

Anyway, that's enough of talking about myself. Enjoy today's chapter!

There was some good news on Friday.

I checked my messages after cheer practice — since I was in the unusual position of having been cheer captain as a junior, another senior had taken over the position — to find several texts from Natsu. The perpetrator had made a mistake with Wendy's mom; they left fingerprints.

I dialed Natsu's number. He picked it up after two rings.

"Hey, I got your texts. That's great news!"

"Yeah. Wendy was so relieved when they told us."

"I'll bet. Do they have any suspects?"

"They said no. But now that they have fingerprints, they'll have the person in no time."

"Well, if it's just fingerprints, it'll take a while."

"You mean the computers can't just do it for them?"

"Technology isn't quite there yet in real life."

"Well, fuck."

I grimaced. "Sorry. Maybe I should've let you keep your hopes up."

"No, I just...I told Wendy..."

"I'm sure she knows to take everything you say with a grain of salt."

"Hey!"

I laughed as I tucked the phone between my ear and shoulder so I could shuffle my bags around. "You mean well. Is she home now?"

"No, she went over to Chelia's. Wanna come over anyway?"

I paused. I was at the entrance to the school about to turn right to go to the bus stop, but I turned around and went left toward Natsu's house. If he was inviting me, might as well. "On my way. Get a towel ready for me; I need to shower first."

"But Gramps isn't home yet," Natsu whined. "Play with me before he gets here."

"Mm, I'll think about it."

"Lucyyyy."

"Today was auditions. I'm really gross right now."

"I had soccer, so I'm gross too. We can be gross together."

"Ew. I'll just shower."

"We could do that together too."

I nearly tripped over my own feet. I was about to scold him before I realized that's exactly what he wanted me to do. And since we were on the phone, I had the advantage of him being unable to see my face turning cherry red. "Oo, kinky. Let's do it."

I could practically hear him pouting on the other end. "What? No. You're supposed to get flustered." He paused as I heard some noise in the background. "Shit, Gramps just got back."

"Knew it," I said. "Sorry, Natsu, no showering together."

"Maybe next time."

I rolled my eyes. For someone who wasn't even interested in sex, he sure liked riling me up. "I'll be there in a minute. Try not to get too restless."

When Natsu answered the door, he swooped me up into his arms and went in for a kiss.

"What's with you today?" I said, giggling. As he mentioned, he did smell like sweat, which made me feel a bit better about my own sweatiness.

"I'm just in a good mood."

I smiled. "That's good to hear." I glanced over his shoulder, and he must've known what I was thinking because he laughed at me.

"Don't worry, Gramps is in the shower."

"Then I guess I can't take one."

"Sorry. I tried to tell him that you were coming, but he insisted he wanted to go first before you got here."

"Can I put my stuff down now?" My backpack and gym bag were getting heavy.

"Oh. Yeah. Sorry." He let me go and I went into the house, dropping my bags off in his room.

"How was practice?" I asked him.

He flopped down on the bed and growled. "Gray keeps bossing me around just because he's captain."

"Isn't that a captain's job? To keep troublemakers like you in line?"

"That snowflake is enjoying it too much," he grumbled.

"It is pretty fun being in charge," I said.

"But you're not captain anymore."

"No, but I did get reelected as class council president."

"Right."

"Meanwhile my boyfriend spends his free time dancing instead of doing homework."

"I had soccer today! And bboying counts as exercise," Natsu said, pouting. "It keeps my balance good." He rolled to his feet and into a headstand. After a moment of balancing, he removed his hands from the floor so he was only balancing on his head. "See?" He flipped back up to his feet.

"Careful not to knock anything over," I said, looking warily around at the furniture.

"I know what I'm doing," he said, folding himself into seating cross-legged on the floor next to me. I leaned over onto him, using his shoulder as a pillow. He moved, arranging me so I was resting with my head on his chest, his arms keeping me secure and comfortable.

"Wake me up when Mr. Makarov is out of the shower."

"Sure."

"Make sure you wake me up, okay?"

"Aye, sir."

"And don't call me 'sir,'" I mumbled. His chest rumbled with a low laugh, and I closed my eyes to get some quick rest after an intense day of cheer.

I actually did fall asleep. And he didn't wake me up. He claimed he tried, but given I woke up in the same exact position I'd fallen asleep in, I somehow doubted that.

I did feel well-rested, but by the time my nap was over, it was time for me to go back home and make dinner for Daddy. Wendy was still at Chelia's so I didn't get to see her, but Natsu said he'd pass along anything I wanted to say to her. I told him I'd just text her instead. He somehow managed to forget that Wendy and I were actually friends.

Then the next day was the day Juvia was planning to confess to Gray. She managed to get Gray to go ice skating with her in the afternoon, so once cheer practice was over I went over to Erza's apartment to wait for Juvia's "date" to be over. If it was bad news, we had plenty of ice cream and chocolates on the ready. And if it was good news, we'd eat all the sweets anyway in celebration.

We missed Levy today, but she said she had a family thing this weekend so she wasn't able to join our little hang-out. Instead, it was just me and Erza lounging around in her room.

Erza knelt on the rug with fabric laid across her lap, stitching metallic scraps of fabric in a plated pattern. Though she always seemed too serious to be into dressing up, Erza actually loved costumes and costume design. Right now she was on a mission to create the perfect faux-armor dress. Why? Because she was Erza, and Erza loved giving herself these kinds of personal projects.

While she was working on that, I sat with my laptop looking at college applications. Now that we were high school seniors, we had university to worry about on top of all the usual concerns. I had a whole ton of prestigious business schools to apply to. And I didn't tell my dad this, but I was paying special attention to those where I could double major in astronomy.

"Do you know what Natsu's going for?" Erza asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know. We haven't really talked about it. Well, we did a little over the summer, but he's carefree as usual. I think he'll end up going in undecided."

"Sounds like Natsu."

"You never did tell me what you think you're going to major in."

"History, of course."

"Of course," I said.

"How are you holding up, by the way?"

"Me? Or Natsu?"

"You. You were there when Natsu was given that letter, right? You haven't talked about it at all, so I can tell something's wrong."

I pushed my laptop away from me a bit. "To be honest, I was really shaken up by it. I keep having nightmares that that man is going to come into my room and kidnap me. It's like watching myself from the outside as I'm captured and mummified. It's nothing I can't handle, but...it does make it hard to get proper sleep when I keep waking up from that kind of dream."

"Have you talked to anyone about it?"

I shook my head. "I'm trying to focus on being there for Natsu and Wendy. If I let that dream get to me, I'll feel even more helpless. Supporting my friends is the only way to really feel like I'm dealing with those feelings properly."

"Still, you shouldn't keep it all inside. I'm not as close to Natsu and Wendy and Gajeel as you are, but I'm always here to listen. It can't just be you one-sidedly giving support to others. That's not fair to anyone."

"Yeah. Thanks for worrying."

"Erza!" came Erza's mother's voice. "Juvia's here."

We looked at each other, then at Erza's bedroom door.

"Juvia!" I shouted, jumping up to open the door, leaving the heavy topic behind. She was already running to the door and jumped straight into my arms.

"Lucy! Erza! Juvia is so happy!"

"Wait, does that mean he said yes?" I exclaimed.

"Juvia was not rejected," Juvia confirmed.

Erza and I cheered, the three of us squealing and jumping around in a giant group hug.

"I'm so happy for you," I cried.

"You said you were not rejected," Erza said. "What exactly did he say?" Leave it to Erza to pick up on the strange wording.

"Well, Juvia told Gray—"

"Let's go inside," I interrupted. We were still in the hallway, no doubt within hearing range of Erza's parents. They didn't need to be in on this conversation.

We moved back into Erza's bedroom and sat in a circle on the carpet. Erza's sewing project was pushed aside so we could focus all our attention on Juvia's story.

"Okay. So ice skating was wonderful. Gray is a very good ice skater. Juvia said he should go into hockey, and Gray actually did play ice hockey as a child."

"That would explain why he skates so well," I said.

"Yes, Juvia thought so too. Juvia is also good at ice skating and was looking forward to showing off, but Gray was too good for Juvia's talents to be impressive. We raced a few times and Juvia only won once."

"I'm sure he appreciated you being able to keep up with him," Erza said.

Juvia nodded. "Juvia hopes so. It looked like he was enjoying himself very much."

"So? Then what?" I prodded.

"After ice skating, we went to a coffee place to warm up. Juvia got hot chocolate and it was very delicious. Juvia and Gray were talking, and Juvia said she had something to talk about with him. Gray looked rather uncomfortable, but Gray always looks uncomfortable when Juvia tries to talk about personal topics. He said Juvia could go ahead."

"So you told him?"

Juvia nodded. "Gray said he already knew. Juvia had to ask him to give a proper response." She stopped talking and smiled widely.

"And? What was his reply?"

Juvia fidgeted. "Lucy and Erza might not think much of it, but for Gray it was actually a rather positive response. Gray said that as long as Juvia does not embarrass him in public it's fine."

"That does sound like Gray," I said.

"It's fine? What's fine?" Erza said.

Juvia squirmed. "Dating, I guess."

I squealed. "Juvia, that's great! So you guys are going out now?"

Juvia nodded. "Quietly, but yes. I– Juvia is very pleased."

"But he said not to embarrass you in public," Erza said. "That worries me."

Juvia just laughed. "Juvia pointed that out, too. Juvia asked if embarrassing him in private was okay, and he said turned very red and said sure. Gray is just shy in public and doesn't like attention. Juvia can be very loud sometimes without realizing it, so Juvia just needs to use her indoor voice and it'll be fine. Then Juvia can be as loud as she wants in private or when it's just friends."

"Well, then I am happy for you," Erza said. "Just be careful he doesn't try to control you too much or make you feel like an embarrassment."

"Juvia likes Gray a lot, but Juvia also likes herself and wants to be respected by Gray. If Juvia does not feel respected, Juvia will dump him for Lyon."

I laughed. "Poor Lyon doesn't even know he's been turned into a running joke around here. Have you talked to him properly?"

"Gray said he would talk to Lyon," Juvia said. "Juvia will also talk to him, but Gray should tell him first."

"Good girl," I said.

Erza clapped her hands together. "Now, who's ready to celebrate with some ice cream?"

"Me!" I cried.

"Juvia is!" she chorused.

Erza came back a minute later with ice cream for each of us and a bag of chocolates. We all chattered excitedly, getting high on sugar and laughter and Juvia's romantic euphoria.

"Too bad Levy couldn't be here," Erza said.

Things got quiet.

"Levy did not tell Juvia what the family matter was. Is everything okay?"

Erza and I looked at each other. I shrugged. "I don't know. She hasn't told me anything either."

"Not even you?" Erza said. She leaned back and crossed her arms. "Sounds serious."

"I know something's been bothering her. At first I thought it was something with Gajeel, but now I wonder if it doesn't have something to do with her family. Or maybe both."

"Whatever it is, it must be hard for her to talk about," Erza said.

"She'll confide in us when she's ready," I said.

"Now Juvia is extra worried," Juvia said, frowning. "Juvia thought that Levy didn't tell her because Juvia is not as close to her as Erza and Lucy, but if even Erza and Lucy don't know..."

I smiled a little sadly. "Juvia, you're an important friend to Levy, too. She wouldn't leave you out of the loop like that."

Suddenly Juvia's eyes widened. "Ah! But Juvia did hear something! Juvia's parents were talking to Gajeel's aunt and uncle the other day. Another shop went bankrupt so they are expanding and taking on that shop's employees."

I gasped.

"That couldn't be Levy's parents' place, could it?" Erza said.

"I haven't heard anything," I said despairingly. If Levy couldn't even trust me with the information that her family's business went bankrupt, what kind of a friend was I?

"Juvia hopes not," Juvia said.

"But it could explain so much. Oh my god. Guys, is Levy going to be okay?" I said.

"Don't panic," Erza commanded, putting a firm hand on my shoulder. "If Levy was in real trouble, she'd tell us. For now, we'll wait for her to say something on her own terms. We can speculate all we want, but ultimately she knows what's best for her."

I sighed. "You're right. I'm just so worried. I feel helpless."

"You can't do everything, Lucy," Erza said gently. "You've been there for Natsu and his sister these days, haven't you?"

I nodded.

"When Levy is ready to talk about whatever's bothering her, you can be there for her, too. That's all anyone can do. And trust me, it makes all the difference in the world."

"Thanks, Erza," I said, smiling at her. I grabbed my spoon and held it up. "More ice cream, please! It's time to celebrate Juvia's success and eat my feelings at the same time!"

"Huzzah!" Erza cheered, jumping up to get the carton.

A/N: I wasn't sure I was gonna have them get together in this story, but it was a fun little subplot and I wanted an excuse for the girls to hang out, so there you go. Nice little treat for those who want Juvia happy ^^

The conflict continues next chapter! See you then!