Thank you for all the reviews! It's so encouraging to read them. Today's chapter will be much shorter than the others, but it's because of the weird cutoff I had planned. I also was excited to get another portion of the story published after editing. Sorry, not sorry.

Guests: Thank you! I guess you'll have to keep reading to find out what is really going on! As for jealousy, I'm sure you'll see various personality flare-ups as it continues.

Claudiacorvo: I'm glad you're enjoying this! As for the jealousy, as the guest had mentioned, I'm sure you'll find your fill as the story continues :)

Dark shining Light: All the feels! The feels won't stop either! So be prepared :o As if Gray didn't save Lucy, I'm sure this story would be very different indeed. The ships are a little crazy, aren't they?

Chapter 3

"Gray!"

"Lucy?"

Lucy found herself taking in a few strong breaths after racing into the village before continuing, "I need to talk to you...about…" she took in a large breath, Gray blinked, concern crossing his eyes.

"-about Juvia and Natsu…"

Gray stared at the blonde then, turned to wave goodbye to the villagers who were thanking him for taking care of the demon. A young girl ran up to hug Lucy in thanks and she paused, hugging her in return.

"I don't want to talk about either of them right now," Gray stated bluntly, throwing the reward coin bag in his pack behind him with a frown.

Lucy crossed her arms, "It's not what you think, I just realized something."

Gray glanced at her, "that they've completely lost their minds?"

"Yes!" Lucy agreed and Gray rolled his eyes, taking a few steps forward and away from the celestial wizard.

"They have lost their minds, they aren't themselves one bit. Don't you find it a bit odd that right after the festival they just 'suddenly' fell for one another."

Gray cringed and Lucy folded her arms, blocking the ice wizard from continuing to walk forward and away from the conversation.

Gray sighed, "Ok, fine, do I find it strange? Yes. Do I find it impossible? No."

He continued to walk forward without waiting for her reply. Lucy hesitated and balled her hands together, chasing after the hard headed wizard outside of the town.

"It may not be impossible, but there is no way it would just happen overnight," Lucy stated loudly, trying to keep up with him.

"Gray would you just stop and listen to me!"

Gray sighed and stopped, waiting for her to catch up from her demand. Lucy slowed and caught her breath- they caught eyes.

"Just listen to what I have to say, will ya? You and Natsu are such hot heads sometimes. You wear your emotions all over your sleeves."

Gray tsked with a frown from the accusation and Lucy continued, seeing that he wasn't moving any further away.

"I know it seems unlikely, but the two of them must have got caught up in some type of love binding spell."

Gray glanced at her in thought but stayed quiet and let her continue.

"Back before I joined fairy tail there was a wizard who had an item that would cast a love spell to any women in the vicinity, and in turn, they immediately fell in love without even knowing who he was. It felt real. If Natsu wasn't there to knock sense into me, I don't know what would have happened." She rubbed her arm, "I think something like that is what is causing the absurd behavior. I don't know how, or why...or when. But it must have happened sometime after the festival. The two of them seemed themselves right up until they left."

Gray frowned in contemplation, "you know...you might have a point." He sighed, "I do remember Juvia saying she was going to come back...and she never did. I didn't think about it much until now really."

Lucy nodded, "we both know Juvia wouldn't just leave you hanging like that."

Gray slowly nodded and exhaled, "so...a love spell."

"Yeah," Lucy replied.

Gray threw a hand across his hair, "do you know how to...fix it?"

Lucy bit her lip and shook her head, "No idea...I'm going purely based on guesswork and experience alone."

"Great." Gray replied sarcastically then shook his head, "no...sorry...it is good...best to start somewhere rather than…" He trailed off then shook his head, disregarding what he was about to say, and instead muttered, "This damn day better end quickly."

"I second that." Lucy agreed then forced a smile, "but it's a lead, right? I know that Fairy Tail is a couple hours away by train, we can always go back and ask the others."

Gray nodded then glanced around, "speaking of those two...where are they exactly?"

Lucy hesitated, "I tried to convince them to come with me, but they said they would wait where they were instead."

"Oh?"

Lucy nodded, "I just hope they kept to their word."

Gray frowned, hesitating in thought before silently falling behind Lucy.

His eyes followed the back of the celestial wizard, pondering on the truth of what she said.

A truth binding spell? If it was a spell then it would have to be cast from another wizard, or an object. The latter, Lucy has prior experience with, but for her, it cast on all women; this one seems to be afflicting only two people. Like a bad game of matching making. As for a spell caster, that would be tricky. It would have to be a spell that either had a time limit, restrictions, or the wizard would have to be nearby at all times to keep the spell going. Neither seemed very plausible, but if I had to put money somewhere, I would put it on the magical item. But yet again, a spell with a time limit also made sense.

If it was ultimately a spell, can it even be broken? Gray shook his head.

Of course, it can. It was only a spell if it was a spell. Even if it was cast by another user, if the wizard who cast it fell in battle or grew unconscious- then the spell should lift on its own. If it was an item, then if they destroyed it, the spell may break as well. But how the hell are they supposed to figure any of that out between the two of them?

Especially when we have this bullshit to work with.

He was going to lose his mind before they can even make it to the next town. He's going to have to apologize to Lucy upfront, there was no way he was going to make it back to Fairy Tail without beating the crap out of the fire wizard.

"What the hell." Gray snapped, standing next to the blonde at the edge of the park.

Lucy stole a glance at Gray and he heard the nervous tone in her laugh as she played with her hair, staring at the two wizards she left behind.

"Come on, do you really think Natsu and Juvia would really act like that in public?" Lucy asked, throwing a hand forward in a knowing gesture.

Gray folded his arms across his chest watching the scene unfold in front of him with a cringe.

Natsu was carrying a giddy Juvia on his back, running across the park with her crying out "whoa" as if he was the steed, and she a knight. A village couple who was walking a path nearby also stared at the two wizards roleplaying, before quickly turning and rushing back to the nearby village when receiving a cold, threatening look from Gray.

Yeah, get out of here, nothing to see.

"Take it easy." Lucy muttered next to him.

Gray sighed, casting his eyes away from the strangers and back to the two other fairy tail wizards, hearing Juvia scream in the distance in delight, then watching them fall to the grass, rolling in laughter.

"Well, at least she's happy," Gray replied, casting a side glance at the celestial wizard.

Lucy laughed, "well, yeah, if you're ok turning a blind eye."

Gray frowned and Lucy placed a hand across his shoulder in reassurance as if to answer his silent uncertain thoughts, "it's a spell, I swear it has to be."

Gray nodded curtly, "I believe you, Lucy."

She smiled, letting her hand slide back to her side, hearing the ice wizard continue, "But I swear I'm not getting paid enough to deal with this shit."

Lucy smirked, "we're not getting paid at all for this."

Gray sighed, he looked up, feeling the blood rush to his face and brought his hand up partially covering his eyes, his chest lurching.

Lucy furrowed her brow in confusion from his sudden change in expression and stole a glance back at the two other wizards, seeing them share a passionate kiss on the grass.

"Uh, ah! Break it up you two!" Lucy cried out, waving her arms with sudden vigor.

Juvia and Natsu quickly sat up and looked over to stare at their guild mates who wore matching reddening expressions.

Lucy heard a cough then a laugh as Gray poked her side, "Come on Lucy, don't worry, it's only a spell!"

Lucy silently threw him the bird in response, which only sent Gray into a fit of laughter, his reddening face subsiding alongside Lucy. Natsu and Juvia exchanged equal confused expressions.

"Lucy, Gray!" Natsu exclaimed, he stood up and raced toward them, Juvia in tow with a smile across her face.

"I thought you'd never come back! It's been forever!" The fire wizard whined.

"It's been like 10 minutes." Lucy deadpanned and Natsu shrugged, "whatever, same thing."

Lucy sighed, Gray smirked, crossing his arms and staring at the two of them.

"A spell caught you right in the heart, huh flame brain?"

Natsu glanced at Gray and smirked, "yeah, you wish you were in love like me."

Gray tsked, "not a chance. Especially if it's not real."

"It is real!" Juvia cried out, grabbing Natsu's arm, almost pulling him down from the sudden force, "how come you guys don't believe us?"

Gray rolled his eyes then poked the water wizard in the shoulder, "because we know you better than that."

She blinked, staring at him, but didn't reply. Lucy clapped her hands, startling the three of them, in response they all stared at her.

"Ok, come on, we need to get back to the train station, it's getting late and I don't want to be walking back to Fairy Tail in the dark, it's been a long day as it is." She paused, "Hopefully we can find some answers back there."

Juvia and Natsu exchanged glances as she formulated the last minute battle plan, "the train?" They said simultaneously.

Gray and Lucy glanced at one another, "yeah, is there a problem?" Gray asked.

Natsu hesitated and Lucy sighed seeing where this was about to go.

"Natsu, come on, it's only for a little while...and no sympathy pain Juvia, Natsu is enough as it is."

Juvia frowned and gripped her shirt in anxiety, rolling it "Please, Juvia doesn't want to ride the train again either." She shuddered, both of them suddenly sat down and held one another, begging not to go.

"Alright, alright!" Lucy replied, crossing her arms with frustration laced across her stance. Gray folded his arms, "Damn, that means it will turn into a days time of a walk. Come on, are you two serious?"

"I'm not going on a train, and you can't make me!" Juvia hollered, tears daring to spill over.

"Fine, don't cry...we won't ride the damn train," Gray muttered.

Lucy sighed, "I'm used to Natsu acting like this, but this is a new one from Juvia."

Gray sighed and shook his head, "apparently it's contagious."

Lucy let her arms fall to her side, her plan now shattered, and a new one is needed to take its place immediately.

"Great, now what," Gray muttered and turned to Lucy who tapped her chin in thought.

"Well...we can start heading back to Fairy Tail, camp in the woods and be back by the late afternoon. Or...we can swing by Lamia Scale."

"Lamia Scale!" Gray exclaimed and frowned holding up a hand in refusal, "no way, we're not going there!"

"What, why not?" Lucy asked and shook her head, "don't tell me it has something to do with that one friend you grew up with, huh?"

Gray gritted his teeth and looked away, "so what. Why lamia scale anyway? Why not...SaberTooth or something?"

Lucy frowned, "Sabertooth is like two days away, farther than Fairy Tail. Lamia Scale is just an hour south of here."

Gray tsked as Natsu and Juvia scrambled back to their feet, hearing they were no longer going to take the train back to Fairy Tail.

"Let's go to Lamia Scale!" Natsu exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Juvia agreed with a wide smile.

"See, they agree." Lucy pointed out and Gray frowned, "their opinion doesn't count right now."

"Ouch." Natsu replied, "Come on ice boy, let's go have some fun at another guild...isn't your friends Lion there or something?"

"It's Lyon and yes, unfortunately," Gray replied, stuffing a hand in his pocket in agitation.

Natsu smiled, "well then, what's better than catching up with some old friends, am I right?" He turned to look at Lucy and Juvia who stood near one another.

Juvia nodded, Lucy smiled, That's my Natsu.

"You may be partly spellbound, but you're still Natsu, huh?"

He smiled in response. For a brief moment everything almost felt...normal.

Well, I guess they are going to be sidetracked for a little while- but they're all together again. Do you think that is for the best? Do you think anyone from Lamia Scale can be of help?

Leave your thoughts below and as always thank you for all the follows, favorites and reviews!

Kenzii