I don't think my mind was processing everything right. What just...? Did Lucy just...?

I turned away from the hyper blonde, who was just smiling at the blue haired nurse as she walked out, and glared at the green haired man next to me and said, "Why did that just happen?"

Freeds' eyes darted around, avoiding my gaze, "I t-told you already-"

I growled, interrupting him, "I know what you said, but why are her hormones...," I put emphasis on the word and noticed how he squirmed just a little bit, "...all crazy and why did that cause her to kiss the nurse?"

He started flushing when I said the word kiss. Jesus, I'm getting nowhere with this guy. Smiling to myself on the inside, I decided to go middle school on his ass. I growled low in my throat, warning him what was coming, grabbed him by the front of his shirt, lifting him a good 2 feet of the ground, and slammed him against the wall. He yelped and tried, in vain, to free himself from my grip.

I growled again and he stopped struggling. The smell of his fear was rolling off of him in waves. Inwardly, I rolled my eyes. Weakling.

I raised Freed up a little higher, "What caused it," I growled.

Freed's eyes widened in terror and he started talking a hundred miles a minute. "It's common for strong mages to feel elated when their magic returns. For even stronger mages, they do things they would never normally do because their hormones are basically celebrating the return of their magic, something that's not supposed to be separated from a mage in the first place. She's not even aware she doing it because her brain is overflowing with hormones at the moment. Now, put me down, put me down, PUT ME DOWN!"

His yelling hurt my sensitive ears, so I dropped him flat on his ass to shut him up. He groaned from his abused backside, but remained silent. I turned to look at Lucy but noticed that the door was open and she was gone. On further inspection, I noticed that guy, Laxus, was gone and that there were loud noises coming from outside. I stormed out, and sure enough, Lucy was opening a door and yelling that she was finally leaving and saying goodbye to the patients inside then slamming the door shut to move onto the next one. Laxus was trying to catch her but she kept twisting out of his grip, her hospital gown tearing in some places and getting even more loose.

I ran forward just as she opened another door. Before she could say anything, I clamped my hand over her mouth and dragged her back towards her room. I taken about three step before I felt something slick and wet rub against the inside of my hand. I yanked it away and stared at her, dumbfounded. "Did you just lick me?"

She tilted her head back onto my chest, grinning, "Yep."

What the hell? How can she say that without a problem? "Why?" I asked, still stunned.

If possible, she smiled even brighter, "Because you had your hand on my mouth and I was curious if you tasted the same way as you smelled."

I arched an eyebrow, "What?"

She gave me an innocent look and said, "You smell like the earth and I wanted to know if you tasted like it too, so when you put your hand on my mouth I decided to try. And you do, by the way, but it has a metallic hint to it too. Kind of like when you bite on aluminum foil."

I was speechless for a while. Before I could say anything she said, "Can I leave yet? I really don't like hospitals."

For some unknown reason I asked, "Why?"

She said, all matter-of-factly, "Mom and Dad died here. I don't want to die here too, so can I leave?"

Again I was stunned at her statement. How could some hormones make her so open with her personality? How could she be perfectly fine saying it too? I shook my head, effectively shaking away all the leftover shock. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and guided her to the receptionists desk. "C'mon girl, lets get you out of here."

She giggled and said, "Okay," She then snuggled closer to me and sighed, "You're really warm, did you know that? Like a really muscled and pierced oven." I sighed. This was going to be long day.

)::*::(

"Would you STOP JUMPING for two seconds?" I yelled. I finally got her back to my place after being stuck in traffic for almost an hour. She kept trying to lean out the window to touch the other cars that were stalled out next to us. She eventually stopped when a very large, very angry German Shepard in the back of a truck tried to bite off her hand. She then proceeded to ask me every question known to man. It was safe to say that I was more excited than her when we pulled into my garage.

When I unlocked my front door, she shoved me out of the way and ran inside like a wild seven year old home after a week long vacation. I could feel a headache start to form in my temples. I need a drink, I thought as I headed over to the fridge. The moment my hand touched the handle to my fridge, a loud crash resounded from the next room over and an even louder, "SORRY!" followed shortly after. I growled to myself and walked out of the kitchen and into my living room.

My living room had glossy wooden floors, an old leather couch, metal coffee table, and a decent sized T.V.. It had had a glass floor lamp, but sadly, the only remains of it were shattered all over my floor. The culprit, on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen. She probably ran off to explore one of the rooms. I growled even louder and went to search for a broom. I came back with an beaten up, old broom and commenced cleaning. Once I was halfway done, I heard a shrill squeak that sounded suspiciously like, "Kitty," and a terrified voice yelling, "GAJEEL!" Shit, I thought.

I barley had enough time to let go of the dustpan filled with half of the broken glass shards, before a flying ball of black fur crashed into me. The force of it knocked me back onto the couch. "Gajeel! Who is that woman, what is wrong with her and why is she here?!" My terrified cat said before trying to crawl into my hair, probably trying to blend in with it's color.

The offending woman came running out of my bedroom. She clearly wasn't paying attention because she stepped on the pile of glass shards that I dropped. I saw her take a deep breath, but before she could yell out, her momentum carried her forward and she crashed into the couch landing on top of me, while at the same time, knocking the wind out of me; Even though she didn't weigh much, she still got the job done. It didn't stop there though. Nope. Apparently she was running so fast, she built enough force to knock all three of us off the couch. Luckily, I still had enough sense to wrap my arms around her and roll our bodies so she wouldn't be crushed by my weight.

I laid there for a moment, trying to open my lungs again, all the while glaring at the blonde in my arms- I tried not to think about her squished chest pressing up against my face- she had a look of pain in her eyes and a small moan of pain escaped her. I thought about it and remembered the glass. I groaned. "Lily... get the first... aide kit..." I managed to get out of my aching lungs.

I felt movement as Lily left the confines of my hair. He grew his white wings a flew into the bathroom. Lucy gasped, "You're kitty can fly! Cool!" She then started giggling to herself.

She tried to push herself off of me, but the moment she put weight on her foot, she cried out and collapsed on top of me. I grunted, "Just stay still, would ya." She whimpered, "It hurts," but stopped trying to get up.

A second later, Lily flew out of the bathroom carrying the First Aid Kit. I pulled both Lucy and me into a sitting position. I pushed her up onto the couch and grabbed her foot. Lily was sitting on the far end of the couch, out of reach of Lucy, and was digging through the Kit. He pulled out tweezers, a brown bottle of hydrogen peroxide, a wet wipe and a giant bandage. He handed all of this to me and said, "You need to get the glass out with the tweezers, clean the cut and bandage it. Luckily for her, the glass was pretty pulverized and not big enough to cause stitches." And with that, he tried to fly away but before he could I grabbed his tail.

He hung suspended from my hand and glared at me. "Why aren't you doing it?" I asked. "You're better at it than I am." Lily glared at me a moment longer before glancing at Lucy, who was trying to reach for Lily, with a look of terror. I looked between them and it finally clicked. I laughed so hard I actually fell back on the ground. Lily was let go and he stood over me, glaring daggers. "It's not FUNNY!" He growled.

"You're scared... Because... S-she pet you... Wrong!" I laughed. Lily was fuming. I knew he hated being pet on his stomach. He has some weird reflex that triggers fear when someone touches him stomach. He doesn't know why that is but it's still funny when it happens.

I rolled my eyes at his continuous glaring, and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, tossing him into Lucy's lap. For the entire conversation, she'd been trying to reach Lily from her spot on the couch. The moment he landed on her, she clamped down on him and giggled in victory. Lily was frantically trying to escape her grasp, but before I could tell him to stop squirming, Lucy started scratching behind his left ear.

Instantly, his body relaxed and a loud purring filled the room. Lily's eyes were closed in happiness as Lucy pet him. I laughed a little at this. What a push over, I thought. The same way he has a fear spot, he has a good spot too. I discovered all this early on in our relationship and have teased him since.

I grabbed Lucy's foot and raised it so that it rested on my knee. I then commenced pulling out shards of glass from her heel. There was blood dripping onto my pant leg. I pulled out a rather large piece that was stained red and dripping blood as well. I heard Lucy gasp in pain as it was removed and felt her leg tense up. I had to hold her leg down to keep her from squirming. I was about to check for another shard when a golden light filled my house.

My eyes were still adjusting when someone's foot connected with the side of my head. Luckily for me, I was kicked away from the pile of broken glass and skidded across the wooden floor. I bolted up into a defensive crouch and assessed the situation. I was immediately at a loss for words.

There was a pink haired woman in a maids costume with broken shackles on both of her wrists. She was bowing at the waist to a laughing Lucy, saying, "The man who caused Princess pain has been taken care of. Is punishment necessary?"

Lucy was still laughing as she said, "No punishment Virgo. Thank you. He was helping me get the stuff out of my foot. It still hurts though."

"That is no problem, Princess," Virgo said as she leaned down and started cleaning her foot.

Lily was still in Cat Heaven from Lucy's petting, and I was oh, so very confused. I stood up, glaring at the woman. "Who the hell are you?" She ignored me, but Lucy said, "She is the Spirit of the Maiden, Virgo. I'm a celestial Spirit, you know. Virgo has been with me for a very long time, like, eighteen years long. That's almost 3/4 of my life. She is an excellent healer, cooker, fighter, digger, and bedtime story reader. She is almost like another mother to me. I've never told her this but I've always thought of Virgo as my mom after she died."

At this point, Virgo stopped what she was doing and stared open mouthed at Lucy. I, too, was staring at her.

Then just as suddenly, Virgo turned to me, with an expressionless face and eyes that promised death. She stood from the ground and walked threateningly over to me. She grabbed the front of my shirt and threw me against the wall. I growled back as I tried to stand up. Virgo was glaring daggers at me. "What have you done to my Princess?!" She yelled. She threw a fast punch at my face that I blocked by turning my arm into iron. I felt a dull pain in my arm from the amount of force she packed into that. "Why is she acting like that!"

She tried to kick me but I twisted my body away from hers. Her foot crashed through the wall and looked stuck. But then she pulled it back out like it was nothing. The craziest part though, was that her skin was flawless; not a single scratch was on her leg. She started marching towards me and, thinking quickly, I dove for her feet. I grabbed a foot in each hand and created a metal cuff that dug into the floor, pinning her there. I then backed away from her hitting range and yelled, "Can you stop trying to kill me for two seconds?!"

Virgo huffed angrily and folded her arms on her chest. All the while, her face was expressionless to the point where it was a bit unnerving. I tried to cover my nervousness by growling out, "Does you ever show emotion?"

She let out a curt, "No."

I grumbled a bit as I walked over to Lucy and lifted her wrist- Virgo growled a bit at this. Lucy wasn't even paying attention to us as she continued petting Lily, who was also ignoring us for Lucy's ministrations. I turned her arm towards Virgo and I heard her take a loud inhale, then a loud crack.

I whirled around to look see Virgo pulling her feet loose from my trap. She ran over and kneeled down in front of Lucy. "Princess?" She whispered.

Lucy looked at her with wide, innocent eyes. "Yes? Wait. What's wrong? Your eyes look so sad. Did something happen? What did Gajeel do, because I'm sure he didn't mean it. He's a good guy. I know because he saved me from the man who put the runes on my arm. He still got away though. Loke and Capricorn helped me too. But Capricorn left early and Loke was hurt. Zeref was really strong. But not as strong as Gajeel," she said, smiling up at me.

Virgo went rigid. Then she whispered, so quietly that I almost didn't hear it with my enhanced dragon hearing, "He's back..."

She then stood up and walked over to me. I tensed and took another defensive position. Surprisingly she didn't attack me; She bowed at the waist and... apologized. "I deeply regret my previous actions of hostile intent towards you. Please accept my sincerest apologies."

I was shocked on the inside but glared at her, "Tell me, who's back?"

Her entire frame went rigid. She stood up and stared at me, without a single emotion she said, "The Spirit Killer."