A/N sigh, I really have not been doing a ton of writing, but this had been written for a while now. I know I should be updating my other stories too, but at the moment I am unmotivated. So here you all go. Thank you to the people who reviewed, you all made me very, very happy! And please review for this one too!

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail

Chapter Thirteen: Visitors

"Stupid humans and not stopping once they are out of magic." The strict voice of Porlyusica rang out in the infirmary as she started mixing things that she was going to have Lucy drink later.

"Why didn't she just stay down, I mean, it wasn't like she could fight anymore. I don't get it," Laxus said to the others. Good thing that none of them blamed him for hurting Lucy. They all knew that it was going to happen one way or another. Those were the rules they were forced to abide by during the games.

"Because it was Lucy; if she has any strength left in her body, even when she is out of magic, she will continue to stand and fight. If it means doing something to make her nakama proud, Lucy will do anything. She thinks of us like family. And she will never give up. Especially not while she can still stand!" Natsu said with his signature smile.

Everyone was shocked that the flaming idiot they knew and loved had just said something so smart. Gajeel was openly gaping at him while Mira had just gotten hearts in her eyes as she thought about pink haired brown eyed babies or blond haired black eyes babies. She had never heard of anyone else that Natsu would talk like that about. Meanwhile, team Natsu who had known this all along were beaming at the sleeping mage. They all loved her just as much as she loved all of them.

"How is she?" Erza asked.

Porlyusica thought for a moment before she said "She will be fine by tomorrow, but I want her resting and in here all day tomorrow. No excuses, if you all want her able to fight in the final battle, she needs her energy back, and in order to have that back, she needs rest."

The guild nodded and looked over the sleeping mage. They all were happy that she was going to be fine. Laxus was glad that he didn't severely injure her. He knew that he could have, but he was glad he didn't. Hurting guild mates left a bad taste in his mouth. He was hoping that he wouldn't have to do it again.

"Get out! This place is for the sick and injured, the rest of you humans can just shoo," The pink haired woman suddenly yelled as she muttered a few other choice insults under her breath at the mages who were assembled.

They did as she said and left as fast as they could. None wanted to feel the wrath of that angry old woman. Many had felt the end of her broom that she had seemed to have with her everywhere she went, and they could all testify that it did hurt to get hit with it.

Lucy ended up sleeping most of the next day away. It was well into the individual fights when she awoke feeling as if someone had just forced her to drink a gallon of pure caffeine.

"Oh, good, you're awake. I'm going now," Porlyusica muttered as she walked out the door. Lucy didn't see her put the vial down that she had been holding earlier. The older woman had just forced the contents down her throat.

Apparently no one needed healing from the Fairy Tail teams this far into the day. And that was fine for them; it meant that the pink haired woman would not need to work as hard. The old woman wanted to go ahead and watch the last few fights. She also wanted to talk to Wendy.

Lucy nodded, even if no one was around to see it. She didn't mind being alone, as far as she knew, they all thought that she was sleeping still. The mage also was pretty sure that her team had gotten chased off by Porlyusica at some point after they annoyed her too much. It had been known to happen.

As she looked around the young girl noted that she was in the bed closet to the door and then she could still hear the roar of the crowd. For some reason it reminded her of the time she was in this exact room last year. She still had nightmares once in a while of what Minerva did to her. It was hardly fair. But she also remembered that she knew how the fight was going based off of the noise coming in when Natsu and Gajeel were against the light and shadow dragon slayers. She remembered that Natsu won, and she was still confused about what happened with Gajeel.

A warm feeling came into her heart as she thought about that. She could rely on Natsu to always be strong enough when it mattered. That was one of the things that remained constant. Whenever they were in a bind or needed some sort of strength, they would all rally and Natsu would lead them to victory. Or at least that was what it felt like with her.

"Congratulations," a voice brought her out of her thoughts and back into reality. She hadn't even realized that she was spacing out. Looking to the voice she saw that it came from the man with the long blue hair that she had bumped into the other day.

"What do you mean?" Lucy questioned. Her brows had scrunched up and her eyes showed the confusion that she felt.

"Forgive me, it appears that you do not know," He said as he seemed to bow his head.

"Well, why don't you come in and tell me? I don't bite," Lucy smiled at the man. Her trusting nature was making it so that she fully trusted the man not to do anything.

He cocked his head to the side and questioned "Isn't there a rune barrier around your infirmary? Can I even get in to it?" What Lazarus did not indicate was that he could probably get through the barrier regardless of what the Celestial mage wanted. He also knew that he would be perfectly fine in any standard to get in now that she had invited him in.

"Yeah; Freed only wrote the ruins for people who do not have out mark and are not invited in. Since I invited you in, you can just pass through!" Her tone was cheerful and she smiled brightly at the man. It didn't even seem to bother her that she didn't know him.

With a small smirk that could pass of as a nervous smile, the male came into the room and sat in one of the chairs that was positioned next to the bed that Lucy was currently laying in. He found it most interesting that she would invite him in. After all, the first time she had met him they had run into each other quite literally. And on his part, he had done so on purpose.

"I was congratulating you and your team. If you have not already heard, Wendy, the blue haired Dragon Slayer of the sky, won today in the group round. And then your ice mage, Gray, won against Twilight Ogre right after that." He said with a half smile.

Lucy's face literally lit up at the news of her friends' victories. She knew they would do well. "How did Wendy win?" She asked curiously.

"It was an Air Battle this time. She managed to blow most out with the help of the Sky God Slayer. Then she managed to distract the girl long enough to push her out as well. It was a well fought battle, and in the end the two little mages went around and healed everyone involved." He said with fake amusement in his voice. Of course the two of them would do that; it was so like them.

Lucy didn't catch on to the fake quality of his voice. She was too busy smiling and thinking about how much Wendy had grown since she had first met her as the little mage of Cait Shelter. She briefly wondered what would have happened to Wendy if they hadn't taken her in. She shook those thoughts out of her mind. No, there was no way that it would have ended differently. Wendy was a part of Fairy Tail, and she was one of them. There were no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

"I also thought to congratulate you on staying in the fight with that Laxus guy. He seemed really powerful." Lazarus added. He was fishing, not that Lucy knew that, and he wanted to get her talking.

"Yeah, he is one of the strongest mages in the guild. I still can't believe that I lasted that long against him. If I wasn't so determined, I don't think I would have." Lucy blushed in embarrassment. She really didn't feel as if she should be praised for lasting that long. She had still gotten really beat up, and she could barely land a hit on him. The good ones that she had gotten were only because of the cleverness of her spirits and well thought out plans. If she had been anywhere else, Lucy knew that she would have been down in seconds.

"You did good," the man said as he placed his hand on her shoulder. This was the first time that their skin had touched.

Lucy suppressed a shiver. His words seemed well meant, and he seemed to still be praising her, but there was a feeling inside of her that said something about him was wrong. For some reason, the moment that he touched her, she wanted to step away from him. But she knew that it was not right to do that with someone who came to check on you. So she masked the shiver that went down her spine and kept a smile on her face. She also did not like the icy feeling that was starting to enter her stomach as well as the pulsating her magic seemed to be doing. Something was not right.

"Well, I better be going. Good luck tomorrow, I think that you are going to need it." He smiled and left, smirking once he had his back to her. He had managed to do what he had been sent to do, and now all that he had to do was to wait for the perfect opportunity to see if it worked!

Meanwhile, Lucy looked after the man, still wondering why he had stopped in. It wasn't like he had said anything really important, heck; she didn't even know what his name was. But there was still something really familiar about him. She really wanted to find out what it was. If anything, she figured that it would end up being about her father or mother. She had met a lot of people back when she was younger. Maybe that was it.

Lucy didn't realize just how wrong she was about all of that.

A flash of light came out from nowhere and Loke was suddenly standing by her bed. Even though he looked relaxed, Lucy did not miss how he seemed to be on high alert as he scanned the room before looking at his key holder.

"How are you feeling?" He asked with his trade make flirtatious smile.

Lucy giggled, deciding to ignore the obvious protectiveness that he had just demonstrated by scanning her room and answered "I am fine. I feel like I could do anything right now. But I suppose I will just have to wait until tomorrow to do anything. Porlyusica would kill me if I got up anytime today."

"Well I couldn't have that!" The lion spirit proclaimed as he stood straighter and tried his best to put on his prince charming persona on.

Giggling, Lucy begged him to stop. It ended in both of them dying of laughter as team Natsu ran into the infirmary hearing the sound that they had been hoping to for the past day. They all hated when the Celestial Spirit mage was unconscious. It made them feel as if they didn't do enough to protect her.

They all acknowledged that Lucy was a strong mage, but that didn't stop their feelings. Gray and Erza viewed her as a little sister they had to be there for. And although Natsu didn't know the extent of his feelings, he always wanted to protect her. She was his partner, best friend, and someone who seemed to be growing more and more important to him. He knew that he would do anything for her without asking a single question. Even if he did complain a lot about her, it was only natural.

Happy, of course, took this time to fly into Lucy's chest and start spewing unintelligible patter about fish and missing her. It caused her to laugh again as she once again felt loved in a way that only these people could make her feel.

"I am so proud of you Lucy; you held up against some of the mast powerful attacks out there!" Erza praised.

"Yeah, Luce, you did great. Though, I wanted to fight with Laxus! I would have won too!" Natsu childishly claimed as he spewed a bit of fire and raised his fist into the air. Lucy could only roll her eyes at him.

"You idiot," Gray sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose in between his thumb and pointer finger. He didn't know when the guy would learn. "If it was you, you would have gone running at Laxus and would have been unconscious in less than a minute!" He told the fire breather.

Of course that started a fight as Lucy and Erza shook their heads at them. But it didn't stop the smile that Lucy had on as Loke retreated to the Celestial World. He trusted that she was safe in the hands of her team. Loke had felt the presence that had been close to Lucy earlier, and he had been worried. But when he had arrived, he didn't see anything wrong. So he had decided that he would watch her until someone came.

He also liked to see her laugh, so it was no trouble for him to do that for her. Joking around was one of the fun things he could do with Lucy that his other masters hadn't allowed. It was actually sad how much the other mages that could carry keys had suppressed their personalities.

Leo had noticed since being with Lucy that all of her spirits were beginning to be themselves again. The hardest one that was having problems adjusting was Aries. Leo knew that she was not always so soft spoken. She was a general after all, but as her stars had aged, she had changed. She had been forced to change. The ram spirit had always had a heart of gold and a strategic mind, but now she seemed to be afraid to say anything to anyone. Leo was glad that Lucy seemed to be bringing out the old Aries little by little by not scolding her or abusing her.

Then there was Aquarius. Loke didn't know anyone else who would have dealt with that mermaid's attitude. But Lucy allowed it. It was within her rights to complain and change it, but she valued allowing her spirits to act how they wished over forcing them to be tools. Leo was even more surprised when he learned that she allowed Taurus to make perverted comments and only complained a little bit about it.

In his mind, Lucy really was one of a kind. And he had sworn to protect her with his very life. It was not a decision that he had made lightly, and through all of his time with her, it was also not a decision that her regretted. The lion; the leader of the zodiacs, was happy that he could make that promise to Lucy.

A/N: I hope that you all liked this, and please leave a review and tell me if you did. Thanks.