A/N: Okay, here id my next chapter! I hope that you like it, and I have a nice little scene in here that I believe most of you will like. Thank you guys for Reviewing. Again, I love it when you do. It makes me want to bake all of you guys cookies, but with my luck they would end up as charcoal...Please read, review, fav, follow, and of course, enjoy the story!

I Do Not Own Fairy Tail!

Chapter Nine: Training Confessions

At the end of the first training day, Lucy was utterly exhausted, Gray and Natsu were both covered bandages, and the other three girls looked like that had seen better days. Over all, the group was quite worn out when they entered the meeting that Erza had demanded they come to when they were all done training for the day.

"Wendy, Levy, what did you accomplish today?" Erza asked them to begin the conversation.

"We both worked on the attack aspect of our magic and the defensive properties by sparing with each other." Levy answered as smartly as she made it sound like they did more than they actually did when she phrased it that way, and it boosted her own ego a bit.

With a nod, the scarlet knight looked towards Gray and Natsu and shot them a glare that did the exact same as asking them the same question. Lucy almost giggled at the fact that Erza had both boys trained with glares and threats. It was kind of adorable in a way that the two strong boys would have fallen like that.

"We worked on our endurance," Gray answered unsurely.

"Speak for yourself stripper, I worked on my speed," Natsu proclaimed with one of his fists raised above his head in a fist pump.

"And you, Lucy?" Erza asked before the boys could get into an argument. She had seen quite a bit of flashes from the Celestial Spirit Mage's section of the beach, and she was highly curious to know what she had been up to. She also remembered what her friend had said earlier about learning new spells and what not.

With a proud smile Lucy announced "I learned the two lesser magic spells of the spirit world, and I have begun to work on partial summons. I can show you my progress on the latter if you want me to." There was a happy tone in her voice, and everyone was curious to see what she had meant by a partial summons. None of them had ever heard of it before.

So when they showed her the interest, she took out one of her golden keys and called out "Gate of the ram, lend me thy power, Aries!"

As she finished the incantation, she was engulfed in a golden light. They watched with excitement for the light to disperse, and when it did, they all gasped. There was Lucy, but she had a set of horns on her head that resembled the ones that were from Aries. Also, her once blue outfit now had pink edges around it that looked as if it was from Aires's wool.

"That's not the best part," Lucy said as she faced away from them. Her voice was still the voice that they knew, but it had almost blended with the voice of her soft spoken ram spirit. "Wool Bomb!" She spoke, and from her hands pink wool came out.

Turning back to her friends, she dismissed the zodiac spirit and looked up with a smug smile on her face. What she was not expecting was the Titania to run up to her and smash the spirit mage into her armored chest for a hug.

"Lucy, that was simply amazing!" The armor clad woman said. "Clearly you are taking this training very seriously, and I am so proud of you!"She was gushing praise that Lucy had wanted before, but now really didn't based off of the reaction that Erza gave.

Trying to calm down her friend, Lucy patted Erza on the back as she begged the others to save her. But they just smiled nervously and watched as they were too afraid of Erza's wrath to try and pry her off of the suffocating celestial mage. Not that Lucy blamed them much. If the roles were swapped, she would have done the same.

Finally released from the death grip, they all said their goodnights. But Lucy wasn't really tired. Physically and magically she was out, but her mind was still working on processing everything. It was amazing what had happened in three short days. She had never expected to learn so much and to gain so many new spirits in such a short amount of time. And on top of that, she had been chosen once again to represent the guild in the Grand Magic Games. At this point, if Makarov had told her that she was going to be in the next S-class trials, she wouldn't have been surprised in the least. That was just the kind of week she felt that she was having. It was almost too much if she was being honest with herself.

"Can't sleep?" A relatively calm voice asked from behind her.

Not bothering to look, she nodded her head. She knew that voice anywhere. It was the voice of the one who was always there to save her. It was her partner and best friend. The voice belonged to the one and only pink haired dragon slayer named Natsu.

Taking a seat next to her, the dragon slayer took moment to just sit there in silence with her. It was something that the blond was not completely used to seeing. She knew that he had something to say, and so she took the opportunity to rest her head on his warm shoulder as a cold ocean breeze blew through their hair.

"It was just like when Lisanna died." He finally said as he looked at his hands. "Only, this time I was right there. I was right there when it happened, and I couldn't protect you. I know now that you didn't need to be protected, but at the time I didn't know. And then you vanished. Just like she did, you left without a trace. Just like Lisanna, just like Igneel." His voice was so soft compared to what it usually was.

Lucy could feel the emotion as they rolled off of him. And it only made her feel guilty that she had caused him so much anxiety and anguish when she disappeared. "Natsu, I really am sorry. I didn't know that was going to happen. If I did, I would have warned you. I'm sorry Natsu, it won't happen again." She whispered to his sensitive ears.

"Lucy," He mumbled her name. She waited for what seemed like hours before he spoke again "It was worse than when she died. It was the same feeling, but stronger. When you left, it felt like half of me went with you. Nothing was alright. Lucy, don't go anywhere that I can't fight alongside you, okay? Don't go where I can't protect you."

Lucy felt something stirring deep within her at his words. Never would she have thought that he would be the one saying them. Never had she ever thought that hearing those words would strike her so deeply in her heart. "Natsu," she whispered, "we will always fight alongside each other," she promised as she pulled away and smiled at him.

Just like that, the normal Natsu with his goofy grin came back as he happily said "So here we are going to train extra hard so that never happens again. I will always be there to protect you Luce and you will be there to support me to. We are partners after all."

"Yeah," Lucy agreed as she laughed. Part of her wondered if he even realized what he had confessed to her earlier. He could be so innocent at times, so child like. It amazed her whenever he said something so serious like that. Not that she didn't think that he was able to, but just the fact that he let all of the sides of him show was amazing in itself.

"We should get some sleep before Erza finds us out here." Lucy suggested. At just the mention of the S-class wizard, Natsu visibly shivered and stood up.

"Good thinking Luce," He smiled as he ran towards the place where he had been ordered sleep. Lucy stayed there a moment, watching as his scarf swayed behind him like a tail. She couldn't help but think of the number of times that he had been there for her. Yes, he was her best friend, but maybe there was something more than even that.

Deciding that she had to focus on training, and not the confusingly simple mind of Natsu Dragneel, she went to sleep with a smile on her face.

For the rest of the two weeks that they spent training, the three girls seemed to be getting the most out of it while the boys and Erza kept getting into skirmishes that completely put a halt on their own training. Lucy at one point wondered if they spent a third of the training time completely unconscious due to the blows that Erza kept giving them.

She had nearly perfected most of the partial summoning with her spirits. The one that she was almost too afraid to try it with would have to be Aquarius. And so after one attempt where the mermaid spirit yelled harshly at her and swept her into the ocean, she had decided that it just wasn't going to work with her. Lucy was disappointed, but she shrugged it off. It was just the way that the water bearer was.

She had discovered how loyal the thirteenth key was. Ophiuchus seemed to be just as loyal and committed to Lucy as Loke or Virgo was. It was very reassuring that she had another spirit that she could trust with her life like that. And she found that when she partially summoned him, it was a very intimidating sight. The first time she had done it in front of the others she had accidentally scared Levy and Wendy into hiding.

Well, that was one form that he could use when she wanted to scare her opponent half to death. And she loved to powers that she was given while in that form too. It was partly fear magic, party unhindered strength. It felt amazing in a way. But then again most of the partial summons felt amazing to use. It was like she was strong enough to fight instead of just watching the fight.

When it was finally time for Erza to help her out in training, she called out the sword and shield spirits and had Erza teach her how to properly use them. With the knight's help, along with the knowledge that Dorado seemed to pass on to her, Lucy was able to learn to use them effectively in a few days. Though, she was defiantly not on the same level as Erza by far, she could fend off Gray for a little when he was using his Cold Excalibur.

He somehow always managed to get her at the physical strength and overwhelmed her, but Loke had told her that if she just added Stella Accessurum to her sword fighting, there would be a major improvement. Sadly, Lucy was not given enough time to try and master that aspect. Two weeks really was not enough time for training of this sort. She had to promise Capricorn that she would continue the training after the GMG for him to even allow her to leave the beach.

Once they hopped on the train, all eight of the beings present couldn't wait for the games to begin. It would not only tell them just how powerful they had gotten, but it would also tell them how much they could still improve on.

They were meeting everyone inside of Crocus at the bar that they had stayed in the time before. Lucy found that funny. If one ever needed Fairy Tail, all they really had to do is look for the loudest bar fight in town. They were usually the ones behind it.

Once off the train, Lucy felt a comfortable weight settle on her shoulders. With a smile she kept walking, ignoring the new gazes that were not running over her. Draco had made a habit of coming out on his own whenever Lucy got off of a train. The spirit mage wondered if he waited because just like with the slayers, dragons also got motion sickness on transportation. It was one funny weakness to have, that's for sure.

They had barely made it off the train before someone yelled "Hey, Blondie, how's it going?"

Lucy swung around to see the one and only Sting Eucliffe. Though she was almost glad to see him, she did not appreciate his nickname for her. Seriously one would think that they silly dragon slayer would learn after the 'Lucy Kick' that she had given him.

"Ah, it's the idiot," Draco noted from Lucy's shoulders. He didn't bother to hide the fact that he wasn't very impressed with the light dragon slayer.

"Draco, that wasn't very nice!" Lucy lightly scolded the small dragon that was resting lazily on her shoulder. She did agree with him in a sense, but that still didn't mean that it wasn't a nice thing to say. Her upbringing made it so that she didn't approve of speaking about people that way.

"Forgive me, Princess, I do not mean to offend, I am simply speaking what I think. I will attempt to curb my honesty around him in the future, Princess." The dragon spoke so formally that it was almost difficult for her to catch the sarcasm, but it did make her laugh, along with the other five behind her; Gray snickering while Wendy and Levy giggled, Erza chuckling while Natsu just laughed openly.

Even Yukino lightly giggled at the young guild master's expense. Lucy, seeing her friend rushed over and gave her a hug. This caused Draco to take flight to avoid being thrown off. He came to rest on Erza's shoulders, liking the cool metal of her armor. He didn't ask permission, but Erza didn't mind the dragon. She was kind of honored that he would chose her to rest on.

"Lucy, I assume that you got my note?" Yukino asked with a smile.

Lucy nodded, "Yeah, and I wanted to thank you so much. I really didn't want you to, but now that you did, that are really great. If you ever want to speak with them, just tell me and I will summon them for you." She said with a warm smile.

"I might take you up on that one later!" Yukino promised with her own warm smile.

Erza cleared her throat as Sting complained loudly to no one in particular. "Come along Lucy, Master is waiting for us with the rest of the guild." Erza said in her softer voice.

With one last smile to Yukino, and a promise that they would catch up later, she really did love having a friend like Yukino. Lucy was kind of sad that Yukino had given her keys to her, but at the same time, she was so grateful about it, and the fair-haired mage didn't seem to have any regrets about it either.

So Lucy skipped over with her team, Levy and Wendy, and pretty soon they all had made it to the destination they had been told to come to right after Draco and flown back to her shoulders. With Natsu kicking open the doors to announce his arrival, they were greeted enthusiastically by the others.

When master eyed them, Erza gave a subtle nod that made his break out into his big toothy grin. Just looking at it told where Natsu had learned his own grin from, maybe. As they were pelted with questions about their training, they had already agreed that they were going to keep their progress a secret until they got to show off in the actual games.

So Erza made the announcement "If you want to see how much our magic has grown, you will have to watch us participate in the games!" There were a few complaints, but they all happily agreed anyway. It felt so good to be home again for the mages that had been training.

A/N: Ah, I enjoyed that chapter. And I kinda love writing Draco. He can be such a smart ass. I only hope that I made the Nalu moment satisfactory. Like I said before, this will be a slow romantic build up, and I want to focus on getting the bad guys in first. This is setting the stage. Please let me know what all of you thought, and if you liked it. I really like knowing what everyone thinks of the story!