Gray shot up when he heard the train attendants calling for all those stopping at Onibus to please disembark in an orderly fashion. He made a beeline for the exit and hopped off with one hand in his pocket and the other holding his rucksack over his shoulder. The city council had made the request that Juvia was currently undertaking and with luck their chambers were just across the road from the train station. Gray was met by a cheery older man who remembered Juvia in fairly vivid detail. 'You mean that exquisite siren that came a few days ago? You work with her?! Boy you're a lucky man, if I were a few years younger! She was a bit cold but I imagine that was just her professional side. You know what they say, "you work hard, you play hard", if you know what I mean, oh, of course you do, you two would play very hard I'm sure of it!' The man was all winks and nudges but Gray only had one thing on his mind.

'So, do you know where I can find her?' his shirt was off and the man was momentarily stunned but managed to eek out, 'Dewfern Forest, to the east.'

The walk to the forest took the better half of a day so Gray arrived to the forest edge when the rays of the sun hit the world at low angles with a vivid orange glow. It only then began to dawn on him that he had no clue where within the forest she was.

'Fuck, where is she?' he thought to himself as he looked over the vast expanse of long-shadowed arbours. Just as he thought this a flicker of water splashed above the tree line and he knew it was her. It was impossible to miss the particular way Juvia's water glimmered in the light; the twinkles had a vivid rainbow quality that resembled the refraction of light through a diamond. He took of at a sprint as it seemed a fair distance to where she was and he didn't want to risk her moving before he got there. A mixture of nerves and excitement coursed through him as he neared the spot. A large lake began to reveal itself in the distance where spouts of Juvia's magic continued to dance through the air. Rather than burst onto the scene like a certain dragonslayer was wont to do, Gray chose to stay back and watch as the water elemental danced through the otherwise still water. He spotted her liquid female form lazily oscillating through the water creating smooth waves over its surface. She then began to move faster, diving down into the depths until Gray could no longer see her. Seconds later she burst out of the water and time seemed to stop as her fluid body arched backward in the sky then dived back down to remerge with the lake. 'Well, here goes,' Gray thought as he stepped out of the undergrowth. His foot crunched down on a particularly rigid stick to create a loud snap and the next thing Gray saw was a sharp jet of water heading straight for his abdomen. His reflexes were only just fast enough to freeze the jet a hair's breadth from knocking him far into the horizon. Looking up, his gaze followed the long geyser of ice as it began to crumble into the lake to reveal a gleaming ice sculpture of Juvia's naked body. Still in shock and not quite comprehending the sight that befell him, Gray just stared in dumb silence at what he had created. The sculpture's face was calm yet fierce, her stance powerful, her tits round and pointed, and her legs; slightly parted.

'Holy. Fuck.' Gray breathed out. His magic gave out, as all aspects of brain functioning were lost to him. Juvia sank back into the water and quickly swam away without looking back, she was crying and confused, never had she felt so utterly exposed. What on Earthland was he doing here?

The waters of Natsu's long-dormant subconscious were now beginning to stir after his brief submergence earlier that night. Memories began to bubble to the surface that now took on a whole new meaning. He relived Lucy's breasts being pressed into his face on multiple occasions, and the moment her towel fell down to reveal her naked body, also on multiple occasions. He felt her magnificent breasts beneath his hands as he had innocently tried to cover them up, boy had he been daft. He lay on Lucy's bed and let the memories wash over him but they were anything but calming. He felt himself become hot and feverish. Beads of sweat covered his face and chest that was rising and falling faster with every second gone by. His head felt light, like a balloon full of hot gas; slowly expanding, taking him high up into a place where there was only Lucy and the increasing pounding between his legs. In a drunken haze he stripped as he stumbled his way to Lucy's shower and turned on the cold tap. The water turned to steam the moment it hit his skin. He braced himself with his forearm on the tiled wall and when his other hand found its mark he let out a staggered breath. His movements were fast and desperate. The sweet smell of Lucy's shower products took him to another world and when it all crashed down he sank to the shower floor and leaned his head back on the wall. In the space of one afternoon everything had changed, he knew that very second that he would never be able to look at Lucy in the same way as before. Now that the true weight of his feelings was revealed Natsu couldn't help but think that Lucy may not be entirely safe around him when she returned, whenever that may be.

The three feminine snakeheads bobbed up and down as they regarded Lucy and her large party. 'Um hello, my name is Lucy-'

'Heartfilia, yes we know her, daughter of Layla,' the left head spoke briskly and matter-of-factly while the other two heads continued to bob up and down. The middle head then seamlessly took over the sentence in a mellow tone, 'member of the mage guild Fairy Tail and master of the zodiacs.' The remaining spoke in a disjointed hissing and her eyes darted around wildly, 'the ssspirit king, the ssspirit king he ssseems to like, really like her, like her a lot.' It sounded as if the heads were only speaking amongst themselves but they maintained eye contact with Lucy through the entire conversation.

Left: 'Yes, that he does.'

Middle: 'She has it in her blood see, Layla was known to be very kind to her spirits as well.'

Right: 'In, we ssshould ler her in, ssshe ssshould come inssside,' Hydra started slithering backward into her house and Lucy and the rest cautiously followed.

The heads continued to speak one sentence each in unison from left to right, left to right, left to right until Lucy began to feel a little dizzy.

'…and so that left me thinking, if the Spirit King looks upon her so favourably then we should also hold her in high regard, but not quite so high as Marlo.'

'Marlo! That's who I came to ask you about!' Lucy managed to get in before the next head took over.

Right: 'Our massster isss the great great great greatessst celessstial ssspirit mage there ever wasss!'

Left: 'It's no surprise she wants to ask about him.'

Middle: 'Well we could tell her how he has a beautiful wife, or how he can open ten spirit gates at once, but that may not be what she wants to know.'

Right: 'Or that he wasss asssked to be part of the ten, the ten wizard sssaints but refusssed.'

'I want him to train me! Can you please tell me were I can find him?' Lucy wanted to know all about this man but felt pushed to ask only the most crucial questions lest the heads get more carried away.

Left: 'So she wants to learn from him, should we tell her where he is?'

At this point Leo stepped forward to vouch for his own master, 'Lucy has been a kind and generous master, all of us and even the spirit king believe she is ready to take the next step that very few celestial spirit mages have proved worthy of over the centuries.'

Lucy raised an eyebrow at Leo and then her whole party as they all nodded at what Leo said. There was something all of them knew but her. Virgo leaned over and whispered, 'you will understand when the time comes hime-sama.'

Middle: 'Her spirits remind us of how we feel for our master, we think he will like her.'

Right: 'then tell, we will tell her where to find Marlo and then decccide, he will decccide if he wantsss to teach her.'

'Thankyou! Thankyou so much,' Lucy didn't feel like she deserved this much love from her spirits, for all that they had done for her she should be supporting them not the other way around.

Left: 'We will go and check where he is now, he may have moved since we returned.'

Without another word Hydra disintegrated into stardust, Lucy looked around.

'Where did they go?' Lucy stood shocked.

'She must be able to force her gate open, even when it isn't an emergency, that takes a lot of magic,' Caprico told her.

A moment later Hydra reappeared in front of them.

Middle: 'He is in the city of Solaris in Stella, the Kingdom north of Fiore, our group is helping the city build their first temple.'

Right: 'He will probably ssstay there for, for, for a while but if he leavesss then he will leave a messsenger to let her know where he hasss gone.'

Left: 'He knows of her from the games and seems quite excited to meet her.'

The next day, after managing to get his incapacitating emotions in line, Natsu walked cautiously toward the guild. He felt it was better to be around other people rather than letting himself be alone with these dangerous new feelings. As he neared the guild he thought that he could usually hear a general buzz coming from it but today there was nothing. He picked up speed sensing that something was wrong but when he burst through the doors it was not what he had anticipated.

'CONGRATULATIONS!' Streamers and red confetti in the shape of hearts rained down on him and he looked up to see an enormous sign reading, 'Natsu loves Lucy!'

'Heeeeh?' Was all that left his mouth. Males and females alike swarmed him and everyone wanted to have their say on the matter.

'So when did you finally realise?'

'Gihihi I didn't know Salamander had it in him.'

'Lu-chan's going to get a big surprise when she returns.'

'I am very glad, you two will make a good match.'

Mira sensed his confusion and steered him to the bar to pour him a drink. 'A few of us heard you finally realise your feelings last night and we got a little excited, so when are you going to tell her?'

Natsu looked down at the table, thinking of the night just past and replied, 'when she's ready.'

The women in the room squealed and sighed. The men either looked at him wondering, 'what happened to Natsu?' or grinned with fatherly pride that he was growing up. Mira saw the concern in his face, was he worried that Lucy may reject him, that he will scare her off? Either way she knew that he must deeply care for her because this was the first time she saw him put serious thought into anything. He jumped up on the countertop, 'if anyone tells Lucy before I do I'll beat you up to a pulp!'

The guild grew quiet for a few seconds, and then began the advice-giving.

'Just tell her, then she will realise her feelings.'

'Give her a fish!'

'Take her on a romantic date.'

'Be a man!'

'A good strawberry cake is the way to a woman's heart.'

Natsu sighed; this was going to be a long night.

The ripples left in Juvia's wake were all but faded away and Gray was left standing like a dumb kid with its hand stuck in the forbidden cookie jar. He was ashamed of how he had acted and for upsetting Juvia but this didn't stop the image of her naked icy form from penetrating his mind, or the downward change in his body's perfusion. 'This is going to take some time,' Gray thought as he began to walk across the lake in an icy path in the direction that Juvia had fled.

Horologium could feel his cogs wind tighter and tighter as his flying fish escorts continued with their idiocy. 'I think I feel something on my back, do you see anything on my back?'

The clock quickly responded, 'it is me, Horologium, you two are taking me to Hydra's house.'

'You've got a clock on your back.'

His ride was now swimming in circles trying to get a good look at him, he grabbed the sides of the fish's head and pointed it in the direction of Hydra's house.

'Swim. This way. Now. Please.'

'Yes sir!' They replied and jetted in the right direction so quickly that Horologium could barely hold on.

A moment later they stopped so abruptly that Horologium was almost thrown off again. 'Clock man, how much longer until we get there?'

'Yeah where are we going again? I'm getting hungry, aw look it's old Furnax's place, he's always got some food for us.'

'It is just there, I see it in the distance, only a bit further.' Horologium pleaded.

'Old Furnax always has the best pies doesn't he bro?' They had changed direction and were heading toward old Furnax's house where colourful smoke was puffing out of the chimney.

'Hydra can give us tea,' Horologium tried to convince them.

'Eww man Hydra's tea is always either too cold, too mild or too strong,' they continued to swim toward the rainbow smoke puffs.

'Oh that is enough, thank you for the ride,' Horologium hopped off the fish's back when they reached Furnax's house and began to run across the crystal bridges between the floating islands, up winding staircases and down long slides. This area was like a labyrinth of islands, Horologium had never understood why some spirits lived in here; it was absolute mayhem. He was stopped short when he reached Hydra's island for there were no bridges at all connecting it to the general cluster. He would have to jump. 'For Lucy-sama,' he thought then leapt out into the abyss.

One month following the "Natsu Loves Lucy" party, or three months since Lucy first left, Natsu seemed back to his usual self. Now and then the guild members teased him about Lucy, which was a sure-fire way to initiate a fight. Gajeel especially loved to provoke him.

'Gihehe Natsu you should write bunny-girl a song to profess your love.'

'What did you say metal-butt?'

'I said that you look stupid with that lovey-dovey look on your face all the time.'

'I don't have a lovey-dovey face!'

Such was the beginning of many fights in the guild. Surprisingly Gray shrugged off the news when he returned from his mysterious mission. He and Juvia had returned to the guild together a few days before and the air about them was vaguely different. Gray was his usual quiet self but if one looked closely enough they could see that he was now the one to seek Juvia's company, not the other way around. He had an amused, almost cheeky glimmer in his eyes but the rest of his body gave away nothing. Juvia seemed nervous and constantly flushed in Gray's company. They stood together looking at the request board and Gray leaned over to whisper something in her ear. She turned bright red, quickly looked around to see that nobody was listening, took a few deep breaths then over-casually strolled out the guild door. Gray chucked to himself and slowly followed her out.

Lucy and her spirits sat awkwardly on the scarce furniture in Hydra's house and sipped their tea. Lucy found hers far too mild and Leo beside her seemed to be shivering as he sipped his. Now that she had completed her objective she started to wonder where Horologium was. Just then they all heard a thud and scraping noises coming from outside. They ran toward the noise to see a pair of hands holding tightly to a spike of crystal that grew on the edge of the island.

'Horologium!' Lucy yelled and sprinted to him, she held out her hand and managed to pull him up with the help of Taurus.

'Lucy-sama I am sorry I am late. The four days were up some time ago.'

'Don't worry Horologium, I'm just happy you're safe,' she embraced the clock.

'Okay everyone I've got to go back, the guild might be worried about me. Thank you for that information Hydra, I hope we meet again in the future!'

She opened a gate and stepped through to return to Earthland.

Miles away a boy lifted his head off of the guild table as he sensed his other half return.

The sun shone brightly from her open window and Lucy noticed her bed covers all rumpled and thrown to one side, 'Natsu,' she thought. She didn't feel mad that Natsu was sleeping in her bed since she was a bit guilty for staying in the Celestial realm for too long. She looked around and felt her heart drop a little that Natsu wasn't there. All of a sudden the room became a little darker and she saw a silhouetted figure crouching in her window. Time seemed to stop for a moment as the figure looked at her; his shoulders were rising and falling from his panting. The figure stepped down and took a few purposeful strides toward her, then took her tightly in his arms. 'I'm home,' was all she managed to say.

Natsu was breathing deeply and didn't speak for a while and Lucy was a little lost for words. His fingers dug into her back like they never wanted to let her go.

'Why the hell were you gone for so long?!' he said finally.

Lucy managed to step back and look into Natsu's face, when he met her gaze his eyes seemed to widen for a moment and his breath hitched before he had to look away.

'How long was I gone for?'

'Three months and seven days,' he replied, now looking at the ground.

'Oh,' she was surprised, it felt like her time in the Spirit Realm had gone by in an instant and to think more than three months were over.

'I'm sorry Natsu, I let time slip away from me,' she felt the need to hug him again, they didn't usually hug like this but it felt like the right way to apologise to her friend. She put her arms around him and he sighed and hugged her back. Her heart was warmed that he had actually missed her this much. When they separated again Lucy began to ask if she had missed anything important and fussed about her house cleaning up the mess that Natsu and Happy had made. All that Natsu could do was sit on her bed and watch her, watch the woman he loved go about all of these menial chores like she had no idea that she was the most important person in the world. Thankfully she changed out of her tight bodice and short frilly dress, although the new casual outfit wasn't much better. He'd had enough trouble keeping himself in line with an imaginary Lucy but that simply paled in comparison to the real thing. There were so many things that he was only now noticing about her and her doe-eyes were the first thing to catch him off-guard. The way her hips swung while she walked, the way her head tilted slightly to the right when she was thinking, the way her incredible breasts bounced and jiggled with every little movement. How could he be so fundamentally changed and for her barely a day had gone by? Surely she could tell that he was different but he didn't know how to act normally anymore. This made him vaguely paranoid so that he found himself awkwardly changing his hand placement, posture and amount of eye contact in a robotic dance. Though Lucy too seemed a bit changed, her face had this determined look like a woman on a mission.

'…so then they appeared back again and told us that Marlo is in Stella. To think I'm going to go to another kingdom! I've never been out of Fiore before, my father always went to other kingdoms for business but he never took me along, have you been to other kingdoms before?'

'Aaah yep I went to a few other countries looking for Igneel, me an' Igneel came from Bosco. I'll come with you.'

'Oh yeah I think I remember you telling me that once,' then his final statement registered. 'Whaa? No you don't have to come with me, I have no idea how long it is all going to take.'

'Doesn't matter I wanna come with you,' Natsu's stare was intense.

'Well okay but you can change your mind whenever you like, I think I will stay here for a week to see everyone and prepare, then start off.'

'Okay, whatever you wanna do,' Natsu was being strangely accommodating, Lucy felt that this was just him going into things without thinking as he tended to do and that he will cool to the idea after a week. She was strangely aware that he was staring at her a lot and felt strangely self-conscious that he was putting so much interest into her journey. But one thing she knew to be true was that Natsu could do anything that he put his mind to, so with him by her side she could achieve anything. Midway through this thought a blur of blue shot through her window and knocked her back onto the bed. Happy was crying with happiness to see Lucy back.

'Luuuucy we missed you! It's good you're back because Natsu,' Natsu dived to cover Happy's mouth but the cat ducked out of the way, 'Natsu has been getting skinny without all of the fatty dishes that you feed us.' Natsu didn't look like he had lost any weight so Lucy knew that this was another of Happy's sly jabs at her.

'I do not cook fatty dishes!' Now both her and Natsu were trying to catch the snickering cat as he dove through the air.

The guild was alive with chatter at Lucy's possible return for there could only be one reason for Natsu to have left in such an intense hurry. Many had tried to rush after him but Mira was the first to make it to the door and she said with her demonically sweet smile, 'we should let Natsu welcome Lucy home by himself, ne?'

With that everyone backed away from the door slowly and sat in anticipation for Lucy's return. Some time later when many members had become restless and moved off to continue their day, a core group still sat around the tables when the guild doors finally opened. Mira watched as Lucy stepped in with Happy on her shoulder to be greeted by an excited hug from Levy while the rest of the group gathered around her to welcome her home. Lucy looked rather perplexed by it all, Mira supposed that she probably didn't spend much time in the spirit realm so didn't grasp what all of the fuss was about. Natsu strolled in after Lucy and perched on the edge of a table. He watched Lucy as she revolved around the group sharing her story and asking about the happenings over the past three months. Mira engaged herself in listening to Lucy's story but couldn't help glancing over at Natsu whom she saw as a changed man. He looked at Lucy like she was the power that made the sun rise and fall, but beyond that, he looked contented. Lucy was his other half and now he was whole again. Behind Lucy's turned back Macao, Wakaba and even the master were making silent smooching faces at Natsu. Bickslow even joined in with suggestive pelvic thrusting movements and flickering of his outstretched tongue. Natsu's Buddha-like aura was quickly dissolved when he noticed them and he gleefully lit up his fist and vaulted himself over toward Bickslow first.

His fighting was back to the playful, foul-mouthed violence that he was known for, compared with the agitated scuffs that he was prone to over the last three months. Mira saw that Natsu was acutely aware of Lucy's whereabouts no matter how much Bickslow's puppets chased him around the hall. The red string of fate had always connected the young dragonslayer and the celestial mage but now Natsu was feeling it's light ever-present tug.

'Happy are you coming to Stella with me and Natsu?' Lucy had been asked whether her and Natsu were going on their adventure just the two of them.

Happy looked around and noticed a few almost undetectable shaking of heads.

'Oh no Lucy, I've heard they eat cats over there.'

'They do not!' Lucy had never heard of such a thing.

'You didn't know that? I suppose that's to be expected of someone that has never been out of Fiore.'

'I-is that so?' Lucy began to feel a little uneasy about going to a kingdom that ate cats. She didn't want to ask anyone else to come as it could take a long time and there was no request reward.

'I would come Lucy but I have many urgent requests coming up,' Erza didn't like to lie to Lucy but she didn't want her thinking that her friends didn't even consider joining her.

Gray then stood forward, 'I'd offer to come too but Juvia and I have only just accepted an important request.' Lucy looked from Gray to Juvia and back again and saw how comfortable they looked standing so close together. 'What has happened between those two?' She thought.

'That's okay you guys, it'll be alright just me and Natsu, and I've got all of my spirits to keep us company too.' Her friends fervently nodded and offered their support for her and Natsu's journey. Mira could see that the girls were just about bursting with the information that they had over Lucy, she herself had already thought up a million-and-one different ways to push the pair together but it turned out that Natsu was already onto it. She was honestly a little disappointed that she wouldn't get the chance to meddle but this seemed like the most natural way. Judging by the way that Natsu was acting she could see a beautiful slow-burning romance unfold between the two friends. One that didn't just spark up in a puff of black smoke and fizzle out, but one that slowly grew into a roaring blaze then settled into comfortable embers. Mira sighed at these romantic thoughts. She looked over to Lucy and thought about how, unbeknownst to her, she was really about to embark on two journeys.