[Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction using characters from the Fairy Tail world, which is trademarked by Hiro Mashima.]

Stalled in the chapter I meant to update in The Darkness Within and decided it was probably better to update something than nothing at all. I had originally had all five days of the GMG in one chapter, but I decided to rewrite it, and it ended up being far longer than I had anticipated so what was one is now broken apart into many. This one is lighter. To break the heaviness. There is a note at the end of this. .M.

"There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass-covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it."

- Alan Paton [Cry, the Beloved Country] -

.05. The Magazine

[Grand Magic Games: Day 1]

"There you have it folks! Our competitors for the x792 Grand Magic Games! Just listen to that roaring crowd, Yajima-san. They are going wild!"

"This year's Games will be a tough one for all our competitors, so it will promise to be a good show for everyone."

"Do you really think so? Many actually believe quite the opposite."

"Do you mean because last year's champions, Fairy Tail, is not here?"

"Yes. Other very powerful guilds such as Sabertooth, Blue Pegasus, and Mermaid Heel have opted out of joining the Games this year. Apparently they didn't want to participate if they couldn't compete against Fairy Tail."

"While there is no doubt that a heated rematch between Sabertooth and Fairy Tail would have been spectacular, this year everyone will be able to get to know Fiore's other guilds. It will be a good time for these guilds to showcase who they are and their power."

"Then, as you suggest Yajima-san, it shall be a hot-hot-hot competition!"

Natsu stared down into the large open arena as the competitors waved to the screaming spectators. His eyes narrowed at the smug looks that graced many of the competitors' faces. These mages had no right to be haughty as they drank in the deafening applaud of support from the crowd, not if they weren't facing off with Fairy Tail. The very thought had his annoyance growing with each passing second. Exactly where the hell was Fairy Tail? What was the old man thinking when he chose not to enter the Games this year? He released a low and heated growl of frustration.

His return was not what he had imagined and expected, each passing day only adding to the lonely weight that he quietly carried with him as he sought out his fateful reunion with his nakama. No Fairy Tail. No Team Natsu. No Lucy. The dragon slayer continued to stew in his irritation, the reason intangible and just barely beyond his grasp, as he flopped flatly onto his back. He stretched out along the scratchy stone surface of the outreached staff of one of the four gigantic statues. The surface was heated from the warmth of the summer sun that beat down upon them without a cloud to break up the rising temperature. Boredom quickly descended upon him as he scratched his head. There wasn't any point in jumping into the arena if Fairy Tail wasn't going to be competing. Where was the fun in that? There was a distinct lack of fun in the last few days, he decided miserably.

Happy jumped up and down by the dragon slayer's head. "Natsu! Natsu!" he squeaked excitedly, "I see Lucy!" The blue exceed pointed out into the arena, his head twisting back and forth between his view of the celestial mage and his pink haired friend by his side.

Natsu's eyes snapped open at the announcement, and he rolled over to his stomach to peer over the edge. His eyes followed the direction of Happy's paw and squinted against the brightness of the sun. The sight of her cheering over the railing had him instantly smiling, and it gave him a momentary reprieve from the uncomfortable stinging that lingered in his chest over the last few days. "What's that weirdo doing over there?" he mused softly as he tilted his head to the side.

As he watched her jumping and cheering, it dawned on him rather quickly that he had only seen her in more moderate clothing styles at every sighting. Yet there in the spectator area of the arena, as her heaving chest leaned over the stone railing, Lucy was dressed in an outfit he was more accustomed to seeing on the celestial mage. Her far-too-short cotton skirt flew up as she placed her weight onto the railing to allow her feet to kick up behind her. Her abundant chest threatened to spill over the low-cut crop top as she leaned forward and screamed. Natsu was sure he could hear her voice over the thundering crowd. Her arm was raised in a closed fist as she waved it excitedly into the air. Her skin glowed as sunlight drenched every inch of bare skin that she showed the world.

He decided that he rather liked this Lucy more than the ones he had seen the previous days. She didn't smile as widely, and her body seemed to carry a solemn weight that dimmed the very brightness of her soul. This Lucy was much more like the woman he remembered – the daring cheerful woman who was brazen in her appearance and with her actions.

"I don't know," the exceed's voice snapped Natsu out of his thoughts, "but it looks like she's in the press box." Happy smiled widely at Natsu as the pinkette turned to stare down at him. "Let's go see her now, Natsu! I'm tired of waiting! I want to see Lucy. I want her to rub my belly and give me fish! And, I bet she can tell us what happened to the guild!"

Natsu remained quiet, watching Happy dance on the tips of his feet. It was if the exceed's tiny form ached desperately to contain the overwhelming sense of excitement that threatened to implode. He turned his head back to look towards Lucy, watching as the blonde almost toppled over the railing in her exuberant cheering, her arms and legs flailing as she leaned off the railing to catch herself from falling. He snickered. A large side of him agreed with the blue feline. Seeing his partner would be exciting, and he was tired of hiding in the shadows of her life. It was so unlike him, and he berated himself that much at every instance he had remained at a distance. All he wanted to do was sling an arm over her shoulder and drag her on an exciting adventure where he'd show her everything he had learned in their year apart.

Yet, hesitation had him tensing his muscles as he watched from atop their perch on the stone staff. The Lucy he had watched from the shadows had undoubtedly moved on beyond their partnership and Fairy Tail. Natsu could undeniably see that he no longer fit in that Lucy's life. The very thought had him wanting to punch something. Again. "No," he answered glumly. He ignored the curious look that Happy shot him. "This isn't a big enough of an entrance," he half-lied to his friend as he pushed a wider-than-normal grin onto his face. Natsu reached out and rubbed the top of the feline's head a little more roughly than he intended. "We're going to wait until the last day when the winner is announced, and then we can challenge the entire guild!"

Happy only stared at Natsu, his head tilted to one direction as if he was trying to decide whether or not the fire dragon slayer would appreciate his curious prodding. The tone was a little too happy, a little too excited, and all too forced to be considered normal for the dragon slayer. He had watched quietly at the miniscule changes in Natsu's demeanor since their disappointed arrival in Magnolia, but the exceed knew when to give his friend the space he rarely requested. His big eyes watched as Natsu turned his head back to stare into the arena before he could answer, and Happy watched as the dragon slayer's eyes remained on the bubbly celestial mage. The look of sadness and uncertainly that played in the twinkle of his green eyes was enough to make the exceed mentally sigh.

. . .

Lucy brought the delicate cup to her lips and unknowingly released a soft contented hum of appreciation as the taste of her mint tea washed over her tongue. The sharpness mellowed as she felt the liquid warm her body and seemed to magically melt away the tightness she held in her shoulders. Her eyes remained over the pages of her leather-bound book, her irises moving quickly over the black ink that nearly filled the once empty pages. Her head tilted off to the side as her eyes lingered on a word sandwiched within the clause of her last written sentence. It seemed off to her, and her brain rushed through her vocabulary as she tried to pull at the picture that was painted so clearly in her imagination.

"Um. Excuse me?"

The nearly masculine voice was soft as it cracked between the youthful soprano of childhood and the developing baritone of manhood. She turned to stare at the young man who barely squeaked out the words through his lips and had to control the laughter that wanted to spill from her lips. The poor boy was a beacon of glowing red, the dark shade filling the entirety of his face and neck. Lucy was sure his toes were probably as flushed with embarrassment. She smiled kindly at him while she nodded a small acknowledgement. "Yes?"

He stammered as he clutched a rolled magazine in one hand against his chest and rubbed the back of his neck. The young man shuffled his weight from foot to foot. "Uh. Uh- you're Lucy Heartfilia, right?"

She nodded as she placed her pen in the center of her journal and carefully closed the book to prevent his wandering eyes from accidentally falling on the filled pages. Lucy folded her arms on the edge of the table and absent-mindedly folded her arms flatly against the edge of the table as she leaned forward. "I am." She failed to notice as his eyes dipped into the open view of her plunging cleavage of her deviously low-cut crop-top.

"And of Fairy Tail?" he sniffled and he tried to subtly moved a finger under his nose to wipe away any blood that threatened to drip.

Lucy's smile faltered only slightly, though it never disappeared. If the young boy saw it, he didn't say. "Yes?" she answered carefully, her voice dropping in volume as a brief moment of sadness overwhelmed her, as it often did whenever someone brought up Fairy Tail.

"I- uh-," he shuffled his feet as he quickly peered over his shoulder.

Lucy followed his gaze to a group of four teenagers who were huddled together across the street. She smirked as every single boy straightened their backs as her eyes met theirs for the briefest of moments before each boy's heads snapped to turn. The rubbish that remained by the potted plant was apparently very interesting to two of the boys. She couldn't help the light laugh that escaped her and her eyes settled on the ever increasingly red glow that darkened the young boy's face. She didn't know red could be any redder.

He took a deep breath as his body snapped forward into a bow as the hand that held the rolled magazine shot out forward towards her. In his haste he failed to notice how close his hand reached her. "Please sign my magazine! I am an admirer of your work!"

She squeaked in surprise as she snapped back into her seat to avoid getting smacked in the face by a rolled up magazine in a tense fist. She couldn't contain the vibrant laugh at the horror that flashed over his face at what he had done and his already tight grip on the magazine tightened to wrinkle the soft papers even further. Lucy reached two hands out, the slender fingers of one hand lightly pressing onto his fingers to lower his fist while the other gently grabbed the top of the magazine to pull it out of his grasp. "I will be happy to give you an autograph," she offered with a kind and forgiving smile. "What is your name?"

He stuttered a string of apologies incoherently as she smoothed the magazine onto the top of the metal table and he failed to see the crestfallen expression that dipped her smile into a frown as her eyes moved over the cover of the magazine. Her eyes lingered over the scantily clad body on the cover and her own face heated red as realization hit. The boy reached over the table and his hands shook as he quickly flicked through the thin pages until his fingers settled on the page she knew it would – as it always did since her photograph graced the pages of Sorcerer Magazine and she was stopped for the occasional autograph. She silently chastised herself for forgetting and for believing that the young man before her was star-struck because she was a writer.

"Aito!" his voice cracked as he nearly shouted his answer. He bowed again, low and deep, as he tried to hide his red face from her. "Thank you so much! I loved your first spread the most! You're so pretty and talented!"

She pushed an empty smile onto her lips as he prattled on about her talent, and Lucy did her best not to scoff at the idea. Her hand moved swiftly as her hands moved to create the characters of his name. She wrote an empty message of appreciate for his support, a message she had practiced many times during the height of her popularity as an underwear model, before she signed her name. The deep disappointment and frustration of her penmanship dared to rip through the thin paper and she slammed the magazine shut with more force than she had anticipated. "There you go."

He failed to notice, as he had failed to notice the other apparent signs of her emotions. Pure happiness blinded his senses as he took the magazine into his hands, and he handled it like a delicate treasure as his hands clutched at the papers. "Thank you! Thank you!" he nearly screamed as he bowed.

Lucy watched as he spun around with amazing control and dashed across the street to meet with his group of friends. She grumbled as the boy motioned in her direction and opened the magazine to show off what she knew was her scantily clad photograph and the newly acquired signature. Wide and not so innocent eyes settled on her, and she sighed even louder as the round of high fives were exchanged. The young man received several rounds of slaps on his back, and he beamed with pride. Lucy stared down at the closed leather-bound journal and her eyes drifted to the small notepad that she had placed near her teacup. She willed herself to pick up either, told herself that it didn't matter, and that she had work to complete. Deadlines needed to be met, embarrassment be damned.

Her eyes glazed over as she reached out for the teacup, wrapped her hands around the delicate curves of porcelain, and brought it up to sit near her nose. She let the aroma surround her and her eyes focused on the horizon, watching as the fiery red and orange of sunset grew bright to announce the departure of the day. Her breathing slowed and her body filled with the warmth of her memories. It wasn't the first time that day, though the colours in the sky didn't seem to incite the same heaviness as the Games. Lucy told herself that it had everything to do with the warm cup of tea in her hands and absolutely nothing to do with how the colours reminded her of her best friend.

. . .

Natsu watched quietly from the rooftop, his eyes narrowing at the frown that shadowed Lucy's face as she stared out into the darkening skies. He had listened to the interaction, known enough that she had gained a certain level of popularity for the young man to trip over himself for an autograph. The dragon slayer found himself proud and curious, wondering what she had written to gain such a reaction from a stranger. But when her body tensed and her lips curled down into a frown as she signed the page of the magazine, Natsu felt the every present protectiveness for his partner bubbling to the surface. Despite his enhanced dragon slayer eyesight, he never got a chance to even get a peek of the magazine. The awestruck teenager's head was always in the way. It bordered on aggravating.

His eyes fell to the young man who was surrounded by his group of friends in front of the building on which he perched. Even then, with the youth just a few stories below him, he couldn't see the page that he showed his friends, their heads closely hurdled together over the magazine that was wide open in their tight-knit circle.

When the group started to move as one down the street, curiosity got the best of him and he leaped from rooftop to rooftop in pursuit – but not until he shot one last look at the celestial mage.

A block away from the café, the group of five teenagers turned a corner to walk down a quiet side road. Natsu quickly glanced at the setting sun as the lacrima lamps flickered alive while the skies glowed a fantastic hue of orange and red. He moved fast, leaping lightly over the buildings as he raced ahead of the group. His eyes scanned the streets below quickly before he dropped into the alleyway. Carefully, he tugged at the edge of his cloak's hood and tucked any stray strands of pink into the shadows as he leaned against the brick wall. The dragon slayer listened as their approaching footsteps grew louder.

"I still can't believe I got Lucy Heartfilia's signature!"

Natsu smirked at the cracking voice as the group neared the alleyway.

The boys laughed at their friend. "Yeah. She must have taken pity on your sorry zit-covered face."

"Whatever. I didn't see any of you talking to her."

The dragon slayer listened to the murmuring grumbles of excuses.

"She's such a hot babe!"

The words had Natsu instinctively turning his loose hands into fists.

"Yeah. Shame she stopped modeling. She's so hot. I heard she wanted to be a writer."

"That's so dumb, but what do you expect from a blonde."

His brain only tucked away the given information before his emotions took over his actions. The words had him fuming, but it was the carefree laughter shared by the group that had him breathing out a puff of smoke. He pushed off the wall and exited the alleyway with a sharp turn towards the group as they approached him. Natsu kept his head down while he walked, though his eyes zeroed in on the open magazine held by one of the boys. He nearly tripped over his feet at the sight of a woman who looked like Lucy on the cover, barely registering the heat that suddenly overwhelmed his senses, when the distance between him and the boys disappeared.

The boys fell silent as their group hit a wall of heat, and they separated with loud grumbles as the cloaked figure didn't make way for them. The heat forced the four who noticed to give the man a wider girth, but the boy who kept his nose in his magazine slammed straight into Natsu's shoulder. In an instant, the magazine was ripped from his loose grip. "Hey! That's mine!" he exclaimed as he spun on his feet to glare at the retreating figure.

Natsu kept walking, not bothering to glance back behind him as he rolled the magazine and tucked the hand that held it into the safety of his cloak. "Little boys shouldn't be reading things meant for men," he told them, making his voice low and gruff. His eyes rolled at the sound of quickening footsteps, and he couldn't help but sigh as he ducked away from the hand that tried to grasp his shoulder. Natsu really didn't want to deal some hormonal boy. All he wanted to do was get back to his hiding spot to look through the magazine. Clearly his eyes were playing tricks on him; it couldn't have been Lucy on the cover. Though, he still needed to make sure and that wasn't going to happen out in the open.

"Thief! Give it back!"

The dragon slayer groaned loudly as he spun around and towered over the young man. His face remained shadowed by his cloak's hood, though his eyes shined through the darkness. The teenage boy's friends silently lingered behind their frantic friend, and they instinctively took a step back as their skins prickled at the aura that surrounded his cloaked body.

"Give it back!" he screamed once more as he formed a fist and aimed it towards Natsu's hidden face.

Natsu rolled his eyes. Really? Was this kid an idiot? His calloused hand shot out from under his cloak, and his palm landed flatly against the boy's forehead as the teenager continued to flail uncoordinatedly in some attempt to land a punch. "I don't have the time to deal with this," he groaned impatiently and his other hand moved out from under his cloak, magazine in plain view.

The sight of the rolled bundle of pages had the boy stilling his flaying arms. "That's mine!"

"Look, kid. I'm keeping this for your sake," he retorted. The pause in the boy's flailing allowed Natsu to remove his palm from the boy's forehead, and he brought his pointer finger and thumb together. "Go home." At that, the dragon slayer sent his finger out to flick the boy's forehead.

The sheer force of Natsu's finger against his skull sent the teenager flying back into his friends, and the group toppled over one another like a bowling ball to pins. He winced slightly and released a small embarrassed and sheepish laugh. Whoops. In his mind, he could already hear Lucy's heavy sigh and see the shake of her head before. Had she been there, Natsu was sure he would have grabbed her hand and would have made a swift escape. The pinkette turned, leaving the pile of boys to untangle themselves from each other, and disappeared into the nearest alleyway. Looking up, he leaped from wall to wall until he reached the very top and moved lightly and swiftly over the rooftops until he reached his original perch.

He smiled with relief to see that Lucy hadn't left the café. Her chin was resting lazily on the palm of her hand, her arm propped on the metal table, while her other hand moved the pen steadily over a notepad that sat on top of the closed leather journal. She seemed lost in thought, a muted and unrecognizable expression on her face while she chewed on her lower lip.

Natsu leaned against the chimney as he sat on the ridge, his body blending into the shadows as the dark sky started to overwhelm the hues of sunset. He removed the hood of his cloak and ran his hand through his hair. His eyes remained on the celestial mage, and a comfortable warmth filled his body at the familiarity of it all. It was hard to stop the smile as he remembered the many nights he would sit on her bed as she wrote at her desk. There were so many times when she scolded him for his inability to be quiet, but there were moments when he would feign sleeping just so he could give her the peace she required to work. It was on those nights that he would watch her without her knowing. He always thought she glowed when she wrote.

Would he be able to do that again? His smile fell to a thin line. Probably not.

Pushing the sadness aside, Natsu's cloak shifted as he pulled the rolled magazine from under his cloak and unrolled it over his knee. His eyes widened at the sight of her, and he sniffled as he felt his nose start to run. The photograph of her on the cover was innocent enough, with her in a gauzy long sleeve white blouse. The blue detailing on the creamy white bra and panty set was easy to see through the wispy thin fabric. The pose highlighted the thinness of her waist, with her arms reached up with the back of her fingers lightly brushing against the sides of her face as they lifted her hair from her slender neck. He had seen her in much less on countless missions, but his eyes couldn't leave the expression on her face. Her lips were curled in the faintest of smiles and her eyes held a demure little expression that had his heart beating unsteadily against his chest.

The dragon slayer glanced from the cover to the real woman. His head continued on the motion, his brain unable to comprehend what his eyes were showing him. Natsu's fingers gently grazed over the edge of Lucy's face on the cover before he flipped through the wrinkled pages of the magazine. The red glow and warmth of his face only increased with each photograph of her. He stopped at the center of the publication, his fingers gripping the edges tightly as he stared down at the two pages that was filled with the image of her as a barely clothed centerfold. His eyes grew as they raked over the pages, and he quickly skimmed the curves of her autograph. "Aito, thank you for your support. May your life be filled with adventure and laughter. Lucy Heartfillia"

His mouth dropped as his eyes moved back to the photograph of Lucy, her body taking up the entirety of the two-page spread. There, on her hands and knees, she seemed to move towards him as she neared the edge of the bed. Her blonde hair cascaded over one shoulder. The dark red lace of her bralette and panty set hinted at the skin under the soft lace, and her skin glowed against the dark hue of the fabric. A coy yet lustful smile shined through her eyes as her bottom lip remained barely pinned under her teeth.

His imagination flashed the image of him firmly trapped under her as she crawled over him, her barely covered body moving slowly as her face neared his. Heat moved swiftly through him and flared out as his body spiraled out of his control. It was enough to melt the tar under the wooden cedar shingles of the roof, and the shakes moved under him as the tar began to drip loose. Natsu didn't bother trying to compensate in the shift of his balance, instead allowing gravity to take him with the loose cedar shakes as they tumbled into the alleyway. He landed with a loud and ungraceful thud into a stack of empty boxes, blood draining steadily from his nose. A particularly sharp corner was digging into his back, but his body refused to move as the image of her made its way from the haphazard ease of short-term memory to lodge itself with concrete into the more perverted corner of his long-term memory.

I'm not going to lie. It really bothered me getting a pretty distasteful hate review that is just filled with unwarranted personal attacks. I toyed with the idea of blocking, but I'm not one to censor (no matter how much a person may deserve it). There was another note about Natsu getting hit by Loke, so I thought it'd be best to go ahead and respond to that since that was a fair concern.

Loke was able to land two punches exactly: the first because Natsu was happy to see his guildmate and the second when he was taken by surprise by what Loke said. He was simply too preoccupied with his feelings (the first being joy and relief from the loneliness of his time away and the second being doubt over Lucy) to catch the hits. Yes, Natsu is physically powerful and emotionally strong when it comes to a battle against enemies, but against facing up to possibly hurting Lucy or not having her as a partner? He's going to expect an enemy to hit him; he'll be on the ready, defensive, and offensive from the very beginning. What he didn't expect was to get hit when seeing his nakama (well, aside from his usual sparring partners, but that's different) or being told that his return would make Lucy unhappy. In other words, those physical hits were akin to the emotional hits he was taking. I stand by my belief that no matter how strong a person may be, they can still get hit, especially when something throws them off their game.

You certainly don't have to agree, and you can certainly stop reading if you really think I'm doing a disservice to the characters. However, this is my story. I'm claim it whole-heartedly, even if people aren't happy with it (which I suspect will happen relatively soon considering what I'll be revealing near the end). I'm not going to stop writing just because I'm getting bullied by a coward who chooses to cut down strangers over the internet. (Because seriously, how pathetically sad do you have to be to think that's doing anyone a service?)