AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey everyone! Thanks again for the reviews and everything! Sorry, I would have updated earlier but I've been enjoying the sun, writing outside in the old fashioned pen and paper way, before typing it up and adding to it! I will be publishing another chapter later today, but I need to share the computer, so you'll have to wait a few hours! Please enjoy, there are some cute moments here for you, and a bit of a sad ending, but I'll make it better, don't you worry! ;) xx

Evergreen's POV

'This town's amazing! I love the houses!' I said, staring in awe at each of the beautiful buildings and their immaculate gardens. Lucy suddenly started chuckling beside me, and I frowned at her.

'What?' I huffed, crossing my arms in annoyance and giving her a haughty look.

'This isn't a town Ever, this was where the servants used to live. You've been walking on the Heartfilia grounds for over twenty minutes now!' I felt my mouth drop open as I turned and looked around me, taking in the large expanse of countryside, before looking back to see Freed, Bix and Laxus's faces were expressing their own form of surprise- though Laxus tried to hide it. We'd never realised Lucy had been this rich.

'Wow. You were loaded cosplayer!' "Loaded! Loaded!" Lucy giggled at Bix and his dolls, who'd come forward to dance around her head as they repeated her words. She reached up and petted the heads of his babies, making them giggle in their high pitched squeal, before they flew off to Bix's side.

'No, my parents were rich. Besides, it's not mine now, all the lands and stocks and stuff belong to the Junelle family or the government, though most of the house is still mine, and all of the furniture and stuff inside it.' We looked at her curiously before Fred asked what was on all of our minds.

'What do you mean by "most of it" being yours?' She smiled before skipping away, calling out to us over her shoulder.

'You'll have to wait and see!' She laughed again, throwing her arms out as she ran to the top of the small hill we'd been climbing, and stopping at the top, turning back to face us with a wide grin on her face, her eyes sparkling with excitement as she waited for us to catch up to her.

We stood beside her, looking down in astonishment at the huge, glittering white mansion that was still over half a mile away.

'Welcome to my old home!' She said, grinning, before grabbing mine and Freed's hands and pulling us down the hill, Laxus and Bix quickly following behind. We just followed her, still in shock.

We'd known she'd been rich before she ran away and joined Fairy Tail, but seeing all this... it just made it all too real. How could someone raised in this kind of environment be so nice? I'd developed my own snobbish attitude to deal with the rich assholes we usually took jobs with, so I knew how people who were raised with a silver spoon in their mouths treated people "beneath them". But Lucy had never acted like she was better than us. She seemed to even look up to us.

I smiled gently, and tightened my hold on Lucy's hand and joined in her laughter as we ran forwards.

I made myself a promise then; that I would always be there for Lucy, even if she didn't become a member for the Raijinshuu, I would make sure our friendship would carry on, and I'd protect her from any sadness.

Laxus's POV

Who knew blondie was this rich when she was a brat? No wonder she liked shopping so much. Then again, according to Bix, every girl liked shopping. Don't know how, it's so damn boring.

I looked over to blondie, seeing her grinning from ear to ear like an idiot, and couldn't help but allow my face to twitch with a small smile.

She seemed to have gotten over the loss of her letters, but if I looked at her when she didn't notice me doing so, I could still see the fresh pain and sadness from their loss.

Normally, I'd have scoffed at such a pathetic reason for being sad. I would have seen it as a weakness, and wouldn't even have considered helping blondie. But for some reason, I understood her, how she felt. When Gramps threw my Dad out of the guild, I hated him, and all of Fairy Tail. I understand now he did it to protect everyone from Ivan, and now I didn't even consider him as my Dad, just the evil guy who shoved a lacrima behind my eyes when I was a kid.

But back then, I had no one I could talk to, so I understood blondie's loneliness, and the need to have someone to understand; the desperation to just let everything out.

If I'd have thought of writing it all down, maybe I wouldn't have turned out to be such a jerk and ruin things for the guild, before realising they were my family.

Tch! Shut up Laxus. Now you're thinking about crappy feelings and nakama. You're gonna end up like the pink headed flame idiot if you let this carry on. Jeez, blondie's getting under my skin already.

'Hey Sparky! Hurry up!' She shouted out to me, laughing as she dragged Freed and Ever down the road, Bix's babies hovering around her head, turned to face me. "Hurry up! Hurry up!" I blinked in shock, they usually only copied Bix unless he felt close and comfortable around the person... I grinned at my team mate, who looked shocked before blushing to himself.

Seems blondie's getting under his skin too. I thought to myself, and growled slightly, before forcing myself to stop.

What the hell Laxus? Since when do you care about who Bix likes? Especially blondie! You just want to see how strong she is, find out if she'll fight you. Jeez! Don't grow a fucking heart now you blonde headed idiot! I groaned almost silently, and ignored the questioning look Freed shot at me before he was jerked forwards by blondie again.

We were now walking up the circular drive and had reached the front door, blondie was grinning like an idiot as she threw the doors open.

I grunted as I looked in the huge entrance hall, and pulled my sound pod over my ears, drowning my raging thoughts in the steady beat of my music.

Lucy's POV

I watched their jaws drop as they took in the huge entrance hall and smiled. I could tell Laxus was impressed, though he hid it really well.

'Okay guys, I'll show you what I meant by owning most of it.' I smiled as I lead them upstairs and down the right of the upper floors.

'My Father had gotten in over his head in debt, so he owed a lot of people money, most of which was from the government. Not really known for loans, but Dad was very charismatic, and had friends in high places. So after his death, they said they could seize the house, or I could do something else with it. I decided to convert one half of the house for use by a department of the government.'

I stopped before the nursery door before throwing it open.

'Hey guys! Look who's here!' I shouted out, before being swarmed with a tonne of kids calling out my name.

'Lucy-sama! You're back!' I laughed as they climbed up my legs and pulled on my clothes.

'Lucy-sama, can we play with Plue, pretty please!' A small girl with silvery blue hair pleaded, her small face pouting. All the other kids faces lit up and shouted out that they wanted to play with Plue as well, and some people call out for Loke and Virgo, who were both surprisingly good with kids. I smiled and called out all the requested spirits, who moved off to play with the children.

I looked up as the supervisor walked over to me and hugged me tightly to her chest.

'It's good to see you again Miss Heartfilia.' She smiled warmly as she clutched both my hands.

'Please Julia, call me Lucy. These are my friends, Freed, Evergreen, Bickslow and Laxus. We'll be staying in the private half of the house tonight, I hope you don't mind?' She shook her head, before smiling warmly up at my team mates.

'Any friend of Miss Lucy is welcome. It is your home Miss Lucy, please don't ask me permission. We are all indebted to you, and the children adore you.' She smiled again before running off to break up a fight that had begun between two of the older children.

'So this is what you meant! But Lucy, who are these kids?' Ever asked, looking around the huge nursery that was twice the size of my apartment.

'I had this entire half of the house converted into an orphanage. It can take up to 300 kids maximum, and keeps them till they reach 16 or so, then I help them find jobs, or if they have magical abilities, I introduce them to mages that specialise in that field and put in a good word for them when they want to join a guild. So far, only this half is converted, but I'll probably convert it totally into an orphanage.' I looked up at their shocked faces and smiled.

'What? I did inherit some money from my Mother. Did you think I spent it all on clothes and crap?' I laughed as I led them towards the private section of the house. One of Bix's dolls was floating by my head, and I whispered something to it, before it hovered back to tell Bix, who grinned, sticking his tongue out and winking behind his mask as he held a thumb up.

'Okay, here it is.' I said, stopping before a couple of doors and turning to Freed, before smirking.

'Stay calm Freed, ok?' He seemed to be insulted at my comment, and confused.

'I have no idea what you're talking about Lucy. I'm always calm.' I grinned and looked up to Bix.

'Dinner says he faints in 5 seconds.' Bix shook his head.

'Nah, make it two.' Everyone else looked puzzled, before I opened the doors and allowed Freed to see behind me into my Fathers old study.

His eyes widened, sparks seeming to shoot out of them, before his mouth flew open before he fell backwards in less than two seconds, right into Bix's waiting arms.

Bickslow's POV

I laughed as I grabbed Freed, stopping him from smashing his green head against the marble floor, and looked up at cosplayer.

'You owe me dinner queenie!' She laughed with Ever, who was trying to wipe tears from her eyes at Freed's over the top reaction.

'I guess I'm cooking tonight.' She said, smiling as I carried Freed over to a sofa and lay him down on it. He woke up, looked around him, before collapsing again after squeaking like a mouse.

'Wow, you sure know how to handle Freed blondie.' Laxus muttered, throwing himself down in a chair, raising an eyebrow and smirking at cosplayer.

'You do realise, he's going to worship you as much as he does me now, right?' Cosplayer frowned, before shaking her head.

'I just wanted to thank him, for trying to understand my magic, and explaining it to you guys for me. There's a lot I can't say, so I was grateful he did it for me from what he got from my books... so yeah.' She blushed slightly and I smiled at her embarrassment.

I watched as Freed sat up straight, waking up again and looking around him, his eyes wide and literally sparkling as he stared at the ceiling to floor book cases, before his eyes rested on cosplayer.

Before he could say anything, she smiled evilly, and pointed up. We all looked up to see a balcony above us, with even more book cases filled with books and papers.

I heard Freed starting to hyperventilate as he spotted the second floor filled with books, somehow managing to stay conscious this time around, though I could see his eyes roving across the books like a hungry wolf, calculating how long it would take him to tear his way through them.

Suddenly, I heard cosplayer squeak as he threw himself across the room, and grabbed onto her, encircling her tightly into a bone crushing embrace. I glared at him and felt my hands form into fists, before I stopped myself from launching myself at him.

What the fuck Bix? Clam the hell down! He can hug cosplayer for this. Jeez, this is that guys HEAVEN! STOP THINKING ABOUT HIM HUGGING HER DAMNIT! I gritted my teeth and forced myself to calm down, and glanced at Laxus to see his own fists clenched, and his face averted as he ground his teeth together, adamantly listening to his sound pod.

'Lucy-sama, I am and forever will be your loyal servant! You are the kindest most wonderful woman I've ever met! I now hold you in as higher regard as Laxus-sama!' He blubbered as he knelt and grasped her hands, staring up into her face as though she was a goddess.

I heard Laxus growl and I turned to glare at him. I stopped, suddenly shocked at myself.

Bix, you love Laxus! Not in that way, but he accepts you, was the first to accept you! If he likes cosplayer, you gotta back off man! You owe him that much at least-I cut off my train of thought and stared at Laxus, carefully watching his reactions to cosplayer showing Freed the books and explaining the sorting system.

Within five minutes, Freed was sitting on the floor with huge piles of books surrounding him like a fort, happily devouring through them with Cosplayer's gale force glasses after he'd used his magic to make them high-speed.

I watched as Cosplayer grabbed Ever and dragged her out, leading her out of the room. Me and Laxus followed, knowing Freed would happily live and die in that room.

Cosplayer lead us down another long corridor and into a large bedroom and to a door.

'Ready Ever?' She grinned before throwing open the doors.

Ever screamed and ran in, screaming even more as she spun in circles. Me and Laxus stepped forward to look in.

'Tch. It's just clothes.' Laxus muttered, turning away uninterested.

'These are not JUST CLOTHES!' Ever screamed at him, grabbing at the material and stroking it reverently, she was in a daze and her green eyes were glazed over, and tears of joy leaked out of the corners of her eyes. Me and Laxus exchanged a look; neither of us had ever seen her this happy.

'This material was imported from Enca; a country ON THE OTHER SIDE OF EARTHLAND!' She screamed again, before running down the never ending closet.

'LUCY I LOVE YOUUU!' She screamed over her shoulder, grabbing at several different dresses as she squealed happily. She smiled sheepishly before gesturing for us to leave.

'Sorry guys, I don't have a treasure trove for you, I didn't own any dolls except Michelle, and my Dad despised magic, so there's no artefacts I can offer. Want to help me start making dinner? We'll be eating with the kids if that's alright?' Laxus grunted his agreement and I grinned at her.

'No worries cosplayer, could never replace my babies. Besides, I'm a pretty good cook.' "Good cook! Good cook!" My babies repeated as they circled her head, making her laugh as she tickled them gently, making them laugh again.

'Well come on then!' She laughed, grabbing one of my hands and one of Laxus's, yanking us out of the room and down the stairs to a huge kitchen that seemed to shine.

'Okay, lets get started!' She said, rolling up her sleeves and pulling a huge metal pan out of a cupboard, grunting under the weight of it.

I quickly stepped forwards, bumping into Laxus as we both moved to help her.

He glared at me, and shoved forward after giving a quiet growl. I felt my shoulders drop in defeat.

You've gotta let him have her Bix. You owe him, everything...