Thanks for those who reviewed/favored/followed.

Please enjoy this new chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own fairy tail

Chapter 2 : Meeting the new member

Lucy Heartfilia officially wanted to die at this moment. No, that wouldn't be enough, she had to completely disapear in order for her embarrassement to be dealt with. Now, what was it that people always expected from the earth at moments like this? Oh yeah, that it would open up and swallow them whole, or something like that. Yeah, that would probably do the trick. But unfortunately, that wouldn't be happening any time soon. And here she was, at the doorsteps of a guild filled with her gasping wide eyed friends, as she stood in front of complete stranger she had kissed merely a few seconds after he stepped through the guild doors. Her mind slowly wondered to the events that lead her to this embarrassing moment, as she tried to recall what kind of stupid thought ran through her thick skull before she—a maried woman holding her child and thinking about her husband— blindly launched herself at a man she still had yet to meet…

Now, if she recalled correctly, she was simply watching, with a smile, as her son marvelled at Erza little re-equip show. The little one seemed fascinated and completely caught up by all the glistering armors of the Fairy Queen. Nothing could've made him turn his gaze away at that moment, for all Lucy knew. Nothing but one thing. His father's return… So it was only logical for her to jump in glee, the second she noticed her squirming son yelling nonesense and pointing at the closed guild doors while reaching out for them, with all what little strengh he had—a reaction he made every time his father was about to burst through the guild doors after returning from a mission. The boy was allways able to notice his father's return before he even made his presence known. And Lucy didn't fail to notice that her son was, actually, gifted with the same keen sense of smell as her husband. Being used to this reaction by know, she didn't think twice before making a mad dash to the guild doors and as soon as they opened and that she was able—despite the blinding sun—to catch a glimpse of pink hair, her lips crashed on her husband's own ones. Or, at least, that's what she thought…

Regaining her senses, Lucy looked up at the man, expecting confused, maybe even offended eyes, as she tried to keep the blushing at minimum. She had by know shrugged off the fact that he had the same pink locks—though shorter—Natsu himself had. To her surprise, he rather had a bored expression, as if he didn't even notice that she just kissed him, a moment ago. He, suddenly, looked down at her with a pair of jade green eyes. Eyes, that she oddly felt extremely familiar with…

"Da! Dadaa!" She looked over her shoulder to her son squirming against Erza's hold as he reached out for this man yelling with all his might. Then it clicked. The reason why she felt so familiar with those eyes, was that they perfectly mirrored her son's own pair. What were the odds? This man had the same hair color as her husband and the same eyes as her son! Curiosity took over, as she completely forgot about the accident that happened moments ago and started taking in the man's appearence. His skin was quite pale—reminding her of Gray's own one. And The tight T-Shirt, he was wearing, was showing a lean yet muscular body. He was actually very attractive, should she be honest.

"What's wrong with that brat?" He whispered irritatedly, probably more to himself. But it didn't go unnoticed to the slightly angered mother.

"Excuse-me, but calling other people's sons brats isn't exactly a good way to greet them. Especially when you just barged into their guild." Her tone was rather lecturing but he didn't seem to flinch in the slightest.

"Nor is kissing strangers a proper way to great them, if we're going to be talking about manners." He responded with an amused smirk reminding her of everything that happened. By the time her mind processed the situation, she was, again, a walking tomato. The guild members were all still silence, still trying to figure out what the hell was happening. For all they knew, Jaiden was crying and pointing at the door before Lucy run like a mad woman toward it, only to end up kissing yet another pink haired man.

The stranger slowly made his way to the scarlet haired woman trying to contain the still crying todler. Holding out his hands, he looked at her before asking her to hand him over. She didn't exactly have a choice since the boy practically jumped to the man's open arms, before finally calming down. He made his way back to Lucy, whispering something to the little boy before handing him to his mother. "It's a bit late for official meetings, after you know… Having already kissed-" Is he doing this on purpose?! Thought the blonde as she fought another wave of heat threatening to reach her cheeks. "-but you're Lucy Heartifilia right? I've heard about you on my way here. My name is Ricon-" He trailed off for a second as if thinking his words through. "Rick, just call me Rick. So, where can I find this guild's master?"

"I'm over here, my boy. How can I help you?" Makarov, who's been observing the whole scene, finally decided to make his presence known.

"Could we speak in private, please? I was hoping I could have a word with you." He answered with a serious tone. It was clear that this man didn't drop by to simply say hello, but Makarov concluded that he wasn't of any threat concidering how Jaiden took a liking to him so fast. The todler might be very young, but just like his father, he had really sharp instincts.

"Of course, follow me, my office is just upstairs." And within a few seconds after that being said, all the guild members could hear the clicking of the door leading to Makarov's office, as he closed it behind the both of them…

Lucy droped her head on the counter, again, before shifting her head to look at the blue haired girl sitting beside her. "I feel horrible! I just cheated on Natsu!"

Levy, who was sitting beside her blonde friend, simply rolled her eyes as she replied "You're making a big deal out of nothing Lu-chan, it was just an accident."

"Accident or not, what am I supposed to tell him? He'll be furious anyway!"

At this, the blue haired woman abruptly turned to look at her as if she was growing a second head.

"What? Is there something on my face?" Was the blonde's answer to her friend's strange glare.

"You're not telling him anything, Lu-chan! Have you forgotten what happened to that poor client who failed to notice your ring, the last time you guys went on a mission together? We don't need another article about 'Fairy Tail sending innocent peoples to the hospital' and he sure as hell don't need to know about this."

As much as she hated to hide even the tiniest things from him, Lucy could only admit that Levy was probably right. So she simply droped the subject and decided to completely forget about the matter. She simply hoped that this man would've left by the time Natsu came back home.

As if on cue, the door to Makarov's office finally opened again, gaining the attention of all the intrigued mages scattered arround the guild hall, including the local stellar spirit mage who was partially the main cause of all the commotion. A clearing of his throat was—for once—all it took Makarov to gain the attention of everyone present in the guild.

"I'd like you all to officially meet Rick over here. Starting from today he'll be a new member in our guild. I trust you all to treat him as a part of our family, from now on."

Of course he was joining the guild! With the luck she's been having lately, she was surprised she didn't run into a speeding train by now! Well… Maybe she was overreacting, but seriously, she just wished for him to leave, for god's sake! Not that she already hated him or anything, but the guy sounded only as more trouble then she could handle, right now.

"Where do you want your guild stamp to be printed?" Mira, who had in the meantime slowly approached the 'new member', asked the later with a gentle smile gracing her lips.

"I don't know, you tell me. Right or left? Which one of your ass cheeks do you want me to stamp with that shit you're holding?"

Lucy's jaw—as well as everyone else's—almost hit the floor as she looked with wide eyes at the angry looking pink haired man, who was by now storming out of the guild after practicaly ripping the door out of it's frame. Yep, he was definitely trouble. Now that she thought about it, he seemed rather suspiciously angry from the moment he left the master's office. What did they even talk about in there? Why did he even want to talk in private if he simply wanted to join the guild? Why was he acting so rudely? Where was the smug man who kept on teasing her earlier? Wasn't he the one to have the decency to introduce himself before addressing her earlier that day? The questions kept on swirling inside her head as she yelled out with no regard to her irritated tone "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH HIM?" She then made her way to Makarov, intending to squeeze what happened inside the office out of him.

Makarov, in the other hand, was, himself, looking at the door with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth. "Anger must be a family gene, or something like that." He muttered lowly to himself as Lucy—who was by now standing next to the old man— frowned at his remark.

"What was that?" She asked looking at him with slightly suspicious eyes.

"Nothing, dear. Would please wake Mira from her shock and tell her to just postpone the stamping for later?" He said pointing at the still frozen white haired barista.

"Yeah… About that, why was he angry in the first place? What happened in there ?" She asked quickly, failing to hide her eagerness and the curiousity eating at her insides.

"Nothing that needs to be mentioned. He simply told me about his little… Story. Then I told him he was wellcome to join the guild. I simply didn't see any reason why he couldn't, so… You know the rest…"

Needless to say, that this answer didn't convince the young mother yet along satisfied her raging curiousity. Not in the slightest. She took a quick glance at the white haired bar tender whom she was recently assigned to 'take care of'. Noticing that the said bar tender's siblings—Lisanna and Elfman—had already taken it upon themselves to calm their sobbing older sister, she decided to keep Makarov her main focus, for now. Though, this time, she decided for another approach.

"You still don't see any reason he couldn't after this ?" Her tone was rather sarcastic, as she hinted to the recent events that took place leaving two siblings tending to their depressed sister.

"Gray already made Mira cry countless times before, she'll get over it don't worry." He looked up at her with a grinning face saying clearly drop the subject you're not getting anywhere.

Curse stubborn old geezers! Fine! She'll give up, for now. But she'll sure as hell get to the bottom of this, somehow… Though steeling a saint wizard's, such as Makarov, thoughts using her spirit Gemini was certainly out of the question—considering his way much higher magical power compared to her own—but that didn't mean she couldn't try with the cause of her struggle himself. Even if it was by force, she won't stop until she get what she wants…

Dropping her head on her pillow, Lucy let out a muffled scream of exasperation, before rolling on her back and staring blankly at the roof of her room. Her plan was a complete utter failure. Gemini wasn't able to be of any help, probably because this 'Rick' person was stronger then she was. She had found him wondering arround the city while she was making her way home along with Jaiden. Of course, the later was again the reason she's been able to notice the pink haired man. But this time, she didn't fall for it, avoiding her another unwanted kiss with a stranger, but that was beside the point.

More importantly, He had quickly noticed her little attempt with Gemini and asked her—and she's quoting—to 'mind her own business'. Stubborn as she was, she of course kept on following him. Much to her surprise, they quickly found themselves engaging in some idle chit-chat. It's not that his company was unpleasent or something like that, it just took her by surprise for she never would've guessed—considering his cold demeanor—that he was the talkative type. Soon enough, she was so caught up in her own yapping that she ended up forgetting why she was following him to begin with. She hated to admit, but the damn bastard had actually outsmarted her with his little 'friendly chat'. He was able to vanish quickly after excusing himself and all she did was wave dumbly at him before resuming her way home…

As she continued to count all the reasons that made her question her own intellect, Lucy's eyes trailed througout the room she shared with her husband. All negative thoughts were slowly forgotten and her scrunched up face soon turned into a serene expression, as she recalled the day Natsu had brought her to this new appartement. He had grown astonishingly more mature, ever since they had their first born. Their new appartement being bigger, with an extra-room for their growing son, was of course more expensive. But he simply took it upon himself to go on more missions and even made an extra effort not to destroy anything in order to allways get the full reward. No matter how she would look at it, parenthood had radically changed the both of them, but they wouldn't have it any other way. Jaiden was a gift given to them from haven. Too bad her late mother didn't have the chance to meet him, she was sure she would've loved him.

She stood up making her way to check on the toddler sleeping in his room but ended up switching her track as the knocking on the door made known the presence of her late night visitor. Who could be knocking at her door at such an hour? Could it be that Natsu finally came back and wanted to surprise her? She quickened her pace until reaching the door before yanking it open. Pink! That was all she needed to see before Launching herself at the man in front of her while yelling "Natsu!" with no care whatsoever. She just missed him way too much to give a damn.

"You just never learn, do you?" She quickly pushed back and took in further the features of the man standing before her. Pink hair, check! Onyx eyes… Oh dear lord…

"What the hell are you doing here at such an hour? How did you even know where I live?! " She all but yelled as he looked at her with amused green eyes. Oh, how she wanted to wash that smirk out of his face with good old punch, right now…

"Greetings to you too. Thanks for inviting me in, I won't take long of your precious time. I'm sure you were busy doing something productive and not just wondering arround and moping about your husband before I arrived." His tone might've been sarcastic, he actually had a point. With a sigh, Lucy stepped to the side while mentioning for him to come inside.

After he settled in her couch, she excused herself to go get them some drinks. They might've started from the wrong foot, she was still a well mannered lady and felt the obligation to be the perfect host when she had to entertain a guest. However, he quickly stopped her from heading off to the kitchen. "That won't be necessary. I wasn't joking when I said that this won't be taking too long."

She took a seat in front of him and looked at him with expecting eyes. "Well? What do you have in mind? Don't get me wrong, but you don't exactly seem to be the drop by kind of guy."

A chuckle escaped his lips, before he answered. "And you don't seem to be exactly the straight forward kind of girl, considering how you've been… Sneeking arround instead of directly asking what you wanted from me this whole day. Yet, here you are asking me to get straight to the point… Well, by all means, I just want you to stop being so curious about me, to put it simply."

"I'm sorry, you just came here to tell me to stop being curious? You know people can't just change who they are just because you don't like it." She was smiling rather proudly at her smart comeback. He, on the other hand looked at her with a raised eyebrow, before sighing and mumbling something about nosy women and how she was lucky he couldn't kill her. Of course, she knew he was joking about the last part. Or at least, she hoped so…

"Fine, if that's the case then I guess I'll have to satisfy your curiosity. But first, you'll have to promise me something. I don't know where I heard about that crap, but apparently stellar spirit mages can't break their promises, for some reason. Can they?" Indeed, vows and promises were the key—no pun intended—of stellar spirit magic. Contracts were merely a manifestation of that principle. He already knew that. Besides, he wasn't really going to tell her anything compromising in the first place.

"Well, you seem to know us well. So what's the deal?" She was literalry at the edge of her seat by know. She didn't know what it was about him that made her so curious—well, maybe the pink hair—but she was itching to know anything about him. And here he was, ready to satisfy her curiosity. How could she say no to that?

"First, you won't tell anyone anything about what I'm going to tell you. Second, You'll ask whatever you want but I will only answer the questions I deem fitting. Third, and this is the most important part, you will completely drop the matter concerning me once we're done. You won't be asking anymore question and you'll simply leave me be. Am I clear enough?" His tone was rather demanding and she even noted a slight irritation and maybe a bit of anger in it. Maybe she was, indeed, prying on other people's business. Maybe she even went a bit overboard with her constant attempts to figure him out. Maybe she should rather apologize and stop being so nosy. Well… Key word is 'maybe'. She knew it was maybe wrong, but she'll get what she can and then, just like he asked, drop the topic for good.

Noding her head slightly to signal her understanding, she took a deep breath as she thought about her first question. What did she want to know about him in the first place? Now that she thought about it, she knew nothing about this man and was simply intrigued.

"Who are you?" The second her question left her lips, she felt like the dumbest person to ever have stepped inside this living room—and that was saying something considering that she was sharing the place with Natsu, of all people.

"Seriously? You were following me arround like a lost puppy the whole day, just so you could ask me that? I think I should be going then." He was beyond exasperated, she could clearly see it. But he couldn't just leave now! Not before she got something out of him first!

"N-No! I meant why is your hair pink?" What is wrong with me ? Was the first thought to crossed her mind as she realized that she probably made things even worse…

He started to make his way to the front door but she quickly stopped him. "Just three questions. No more. And you don't have to answer them." She was—much to her own surprise—starting to grow desperate, at this point.

With a sigh, he sat back. "You have ten seconds to drop the first one. And you better don't ask me why my eyes are green." The sarcasm in his voice didn't go unoticed and so was the fact that the said question actually crossed her mind, at some point. Thank god, he warned her…

"Why did you want to join Fairy Tail?" Of all the questions swirling inside her brain, this seemed, in her opinion, to be the most apropriate one to ask. It was a simple question, yet it could lead her to knowing more then she was asking for.

"I didn't, that old geezer asked me to join and I presumed it wouldn't hurt." Now this made her even more suspicious. Why would Makarov invite random people to join the guild when they clearly—judging by this man's reaction about the guild mark, earlier that day—didn't give a damn about it?

She thought about asking him about his conversation with the guild master. But considering that he specificly asked for it to be in private at that time, she presumed that she would be only loosing yet another question with no satisfying response—if he even answered at all. So she opted for another approach "Why did you come to Fairy Tail, then?"

He kept silent for a moment. He seemed deep in thought, before he looked up at her. The expression he had on his face was rather suprising for a huge smirk was dominating his features. His eyes were shining with something she couldn't put a finger on, but it definitly wasn't good. But the mischief he was showing wasn't even close to the shock his next words left her in.

"I came looking for my brother." The words were pronounced as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. But that didn't keep the sentence from looping inside her head over and over again, as she finally put the pieces together. The pink hair. Her son's reaction to his smell. The reason why that same son had eyes that didn't even start to relate to his genitors. The reason she kept on having this feeling in her guts that made her so curious about this man… No, there's no way that he is the brother this man was looking for… Right? She kept on recalling everything that happened from the moment she met him, trying to find if she has missed any clue, anything that could lead to another potentiel 'brother', until her mind wondered to the words that were partially the reason for her struggle "Anger must be a family gene, or something like that".

"Oh my god…" She said as she finally started to regain her composure.

He turned his gaze—that by now was lingering in bordom on the window—back to her, before smirking again. "Oh, you're finally back! I was starting to-"

"YOU'RE NATSU'S BROTHER ?!" No, she couldn't keep it down any longer and she was thankfull that her son was—just like his father, again—a heavy sleeper. This was HUGE for her. Her husband was an abandonned child raised by a fricken dragon! She already grew accoustumed to that idea. But NEVER, did she even think that his family would show up one day, compeletely out of no where!

"Geez… Couldn't you yell a bit louder? I think half of this city still have to heard you yet." His voice was, once again, laced with sarcasm. But he seemed to be enjoying her reaction considering his smirk and the amusement that suddenly regained his features.

"Is this why you were able to track down my house? You're another one with a freaky dragon sense of smell?!"

"Okay, first of all, I did follow your sent here, but what's with the dragon crap? And What made you think that I was talking about him of all people? This Natsu's your husband right?" He added, deciding to toy with the young woman for the time being. Though, he really didn't understand what she meant with the dragon part. She, on the other hand, was far from amused by this situation. Was he joking or something? She looked at him with a face that said clearly are you serious?, before she practically snapped at the man sitting across from her.

"YOU HAVE PINK HAIR, FOR GOD'S SAKE!"

"Good for you, two plus two… I think we're done talking, so I'll be taking my leave, now." His voice might've been low, his tone wasn't less snappy then Lucy's. The later quickly took the hint and started to apologize.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude or mention your hair color. I know Natsu hated when people talked about this subject. 'It's salmon!' he would yell at anyone who brings in the topic." She trailed off with an awkward laugh. "I guess I was just shocked about this… revelation…" She trailed again looking at the man who was supposedly related to her husband.

"It's not that. I'm not him and I couldn't care less about what people say about my hair. It's just that… My hair color reminds of someone I'd rather forget."

"You mean… Natsu?" Of course, that was the only person she could think of. Hell, he was the only pink haired person she knew! Well… One of the two only persons, from now on…

"No, it's not him, it's…" He trailed off with a confused expression on his face. Why was he telling her this? He didn't know it himself. When he decided to tell her that he was Natsu's brother, he only did it because he thought it could help him later on with what he was planning for the said 'brother'. He never intended to start opening up to her and he sure as hell wasn't going to! "Just… Forget about it. And yes, the answer to your third and final question is yes, I'm Natsu's brother."

"I never asked you that question! I still have a third shot!" She didn't, she only meant it in a retorical way and there was one last thing bothering her so she absolutely needed her third shot!

"You didn't? You actually asked the question so loudly, I'm pretty sure any living soul in the neighborhood could testify for my cause." He was getting tired of all of this and starting to seriously regret his decision to fill her in about his relationship with Natsu.

"Okay, fine! But I'll be asking anyway. Feel free whether to answer or not."

He turned back on his track to face her compeletely. "Did you already forget your promise? You oh so honorable stellar spirit mage?"

"I didn't! And I won't tell anyone about this. But if your Natsu's brother then you are my friend and Jaiden's uncle for that matter! I won't be prying on your life anymore, but as your friend I'll be requesting your honesty. So… Why did you lie to me about your real name?" She was a hundred percent positive about this. The hesitation he was showing when he told her his name was all the proof she needed. She looked at him and noticed the slight widening of his eyes and she knew it… She was right!

"Lucy Heartfilia… You're really an interesting character, you know that? But you're way too smart for your own good. The name I go by is, in fact, no other then 'Rick'. That's actually the name my… Friends used to call me. So if you really want to be my friend, I suggest you to live with that." And with that being said, he quickly left the house before she even had the chance to utter another word.

Lucy just stood there for a moment, looking at the closed door, as she tried to process everything that she discovered. Natsu had a brother! A brother that was now a new member of the guild. She, then, started wondering what would be his reaction if he were to know. Not that she was going to tell him after her promise, but still. She knew family, real family, was a touchy subject for her husband, even though he made a great job at hiding it.

With a sigh, she droped down on the couch. She knew she should be happy that Natsu's 'long lost brother' came back looking for him. But for some reason, a voice, deep inside of her, kept on telling her that this was nothing to be happy about. That, in reality, something terrible was about to happen…

She quickly shrugged the feeling off and started making her way to her initial destination before she had this unexpected visitor. Her sleeping son had waited enough for his mother to come check up on him, in her opinion. Besides, if Makarov himself was trusting Natsu's 'brother', she shouldn't question it any further.

Needless to say that, at that particular moment, the young mother had no idea about what fate was planning for her. Nor did she know that she'll be, in a near future, cursing, with tears strained cheeks, the day she had met her newly found brother in law…

So? How was it?

Oh and by the way, I'm sure you guys are itching to see Natsu step into the scene. But this developpement between Lucy and Rick had to happen before Natsu's return.

Don't worry though, in the next chapter, we'll finally get to meet Natsu!