Disclaimer: I never understood why this must be put on each page…you'd think just having it on the first page of your story is enough, but oh well, I don't want to get in trouble. Therefore, for the 9th time, I do not own Fairy Tail….but wish I did :P


Celestial Ties

Chapter 9: Decisions and Gajeel


Lucy had been trying to sleep all night, but with all the thoughts going through her head, she had failed. Even though she looked awful, she had decided something that sleepless night. With new determination, she silently made her way out of the tent.

"Where are you going Lucy?" Natsu had woken up from her moving around, she guessed, but he looked like he could use a couple more hours of sleep.

"Bathroom," Lucy falsely stated causing Natsu to fall back asleep. She didn't want him to know what she was doing yet due to the fact that he would probably get really sad about her decision.

Guessing that her father, the spirit king, would be up and working by now, she walked to his office with the help of Virgo.

Knocking on the big oak door, she silently went over what she was about to say.

"Come in, Lucy," the king's voice sounded through the door. Lucy didn't even think twice about how he knew it was her and relocated herself inside the room, standing only half way in the room.

"You look like you didn't get much sleep," the king commented with concern, "Is something wrong?"

"No, I just had a lot of thinking to do and missed some sleeping hours."

"Have you finally come to a decision on whether you will accept the marriage to Loki or not then?"

"Well, yes that as well, but first I want to tell you something that I've made up my mind on," the king motioned her to continue with a curious look on his face.

"I have decided to take your place as the next queen of the Spirit World," she said with a stoic face. After Loki had told her about the spirit king wanting to see her mother again and live with her in the stars, Lucy had felt sad for the lonely king. She felt it was her responsibility to take over the throne so he could be happy again.

"That is good news," the king smiled sadly, "I know it took you a lot of thinking and courage to admit this out loud and I know how much you don't want the responsibility, but I thank you for accepting your destiny, my daughter."

Lucy felt a rush when he called her his daughter. She had never felt recognition or pride from her real father and it was such an overwhelming feeling to have a dad that loved her.

"I have also decided that even though I am not ready for marriage yet, I will marry Loki," She showed her new engagement ring with a smile, "I understand that it is a tradition to marry young in royal families and I have realized that I really do love Loki."

"That is a decision that I will have to respect," the king said with a frown, "He's not my favorite, but I have seen that you have changed his ways, plus he is the most powerful spirit other than you and I. I approve this marriage."

Lucy beamed, happy that her father's dislike for Loki, since he was once a playboy, wasn't causing him to make her marry some different spirit of his choosing.

"Now go and get some sleep, my child," he said with a laugh, "You look like you've been hit by a galloping spirit horse."

'Galloping spirit horse? They have those here?' Lucy thought with wonder while she walked out of the king's office and back to her room.

She climbed up into her comfy bed instead of the fort and fell asleep, knowing that she wouldn't wake up for at least 6 hours, even if someone decided to play a musical instrument in her ear.

'Gotta tell Loki I accept his marriage proposal when I wake up,' she thought briefly before her eyes shut and she was dead to the world around her.


Gajeel was dreaming about Iron. A big heaping pile of Iron stood in front of him as high as a 6-story building and as wide as a merry-go-round. His eyes started to tear up as he looked at all his food.

'Wait,' he thought in confusion, 'I don't cry. Why are my eyes tearing up?'

That's when something came flying at his face….and splat!

Gajeel woke up with a start to find himself flying over the country side at lightning speeds.

"I'm flying?" he asked in confusion as he wiped off the bug that had hit him in the face.

"Aye!" a voice came from his back, "Ezra wanted you to get there as fast as possible."

"What?" Gajeel couldn't believe that they had dared to go into his room and take him from it while he was sleeping, not to mention fly him out on happy.

"They didn't want to wake you up because they thought you might not agree," Happy explained.

"Alright then," Gajeel was actually enjoying flying through the air, "So how long until we get there?"

"We're already here!" Happy exclaimed as he came down and dropped Gajeel on the ground, "I can't believe you slept through that whole ride."

"Here," Happy handed him the golden Aquarius key, "Have the girl named Lisa open up the Spirit World and bring Natsu and Lucy back."

Happy lay down and went right to sleep; it had been a busy morning for him.

Gajeel knocked on the door.

"What do you want?" a girl opened the door and stood with her arms crossed. Gajeel did not like her attitude and decided that he wouldn't be nice to her.

"Summon Aquarius with this key," Gajeel threw the golden key at her which she caught quickly, "In about 15 minutes after I enter the spirit world, summon her again. Come on."

"Alright then," Lisa said with hearts in her eyes. There had never been a guy that had treated her so harshly, and she liked it, even if he was a little funny looking.

Lisa walked out to the middle of the forest, followed by Gajeel, and she summoned Aquarius.

"You again?" Aquarius was so furious she could see her eyes lighting up with fire contrary to her main element, "I'm not going to do anything for you so you better just send me back now!"

"My pleasure," Lisa said with a grin as the water spirit looked at her with shock. Gajeel grabbed a hold of Aquarius's arm and then Lisa closed the gate, causing both Aquarius and Gajeel to get flushed back to the spirit world.

"Another hitch hiker?" Aquarius was still fiery mad and was about to wash him away when Gajeel ran away.

He had caught the scent of Natsu, following it to a glorious garden and then to an amusement park and then finally to a big castle.

"Found you both," Gajeel said with a grin. He didn't know it'd be this easy to find them. Jumping up onto a balcony where their scents radiated from the most, Gajeel stepped into the room. He found Natsu in the fort and frowned, he really didn't want to save this one, and then he picked up Lucy from the bed. He ran back to Aquarius's mansion quickly and found her enraging to summon over the phone.

"15 minutes are up!" Gajeel exclaimed as he rushed in and just barely got a hold of Aquarius's arm before she was sucked into the human world again.

Lisa immediately closed the gate again before Aquarius could say anything and Gajeel started walking away.

"Wait!" Lisa called after him, "Take this cruddy spirit key back with you too."

Gajeel turned around and caught the key that had been thrown to him.

"No thanks or anything," Lisa admired, "I don't even know his name."

"But I know he's a part of Fairy Tail." She grinned mischievously as he was flown away by the blue cat she had met the first time.

Lucy woke with a start. Something was wrong. She felt weak, like she had been sleeping for a week or something. She slowly stretched out her arms to stretch and found that she couldn't move them as freely as before.

Slowly, she stood up and looked around. She was back in her room; her real earth room.

"What?" Lucy was stricken, she couldn't believe that she was back. She thought about her time in the Spirit World.

"Maybe it was all a dream?" She thought out loud in horror. Maybe she had been asleep for those three days instead of in the spirit world.

"It wasn't a dream," Lucy looked over to see Natsu beaming at her, "We're finally back in the human world, Lucy. Now you don't have to worry about taking over the throne and having a ton of responsibilities. You can stay here with us!"

"yeah," Lucy smiled slightly as she thought about all the good times she could have with all her friends now. It sounded good and she quickly decided that she wouldn't tell them anything about what happened.

"Natsu, please don't tell anyone about me," Lucy more asked then demanded.

"Why not?" Natsu scratched his head in confusion, "Don't you want to brag to everyone about how you're a royal?"

"No, I don't want anyone to know," Lucy smiled strangely, "Let's just go and see everybody now."

Natsu was very confused by this new change in Lucy's attitude. She was usually so lively and funny, but something in her had changed. She was still fun to be around, but it was almost as if she had grown up some over the past few days.

Natsu followed Lucy out the door and they headed back to Fairy Tail.


AN: This was a shorter chapter, but I got everything that needed to be done in it. I'm going to try to update tomorrow because then I'm going to take a 4 day weekend for the fourth of July.

Coming up: What does Loki do about this development? What will happen to Loki?

Stay tuned! As always I want to say thanks for all your wonderful reviews and thanks to GakuenAliceGRL for letting me know that I had the right name for Gajeel! Also, huhsmile, I can't believe my story is book marked on your phone! That made my day =D

Well everyone, have a great day and look forward to tomorrow's update!