"Stupid just, stupid." Natsu said as he sat in the Lamia Scale guild hall. He looked at Lucy then to the feline she was holding in her hands. "What's stupid?" Lucy asked scratching the cat's chin. Natsu looked down at his lap and didn't say anything. "What is it Natsu?!" She pressed. Natsu shook his head and finally blurted out, "how is it fair that he gets all the attention and I don't!" Lucy leaned back at the sudden outburst and then tilted her head in confusion. Then a smirk appeared on her face, "Oh jealousy, thy name is Natsu." she said coyly.

"Hey I'm not stupid I know where that came from!" He snapped. Lucy giggled and said, "I didn't say you were stupid. You said it yourself." Natsu put his hand to his face and shook it. "Don't be a smartass." He said to her. She smiled and took her hand away from the cat for a second to pet Natsu on the head instead. The instant he felt the warm of her hand he froze. "There are you happy now?" Lucy said looking at Natsu. His face was red and the tips of his ears were pink. His mouth drawn into a thin line and his eyebrows furrowed.

Lucy giggled and tended back to the kitten in her lap. A pair of light brown and blue eyes were watching them from across the guild hall. "Want to bet that Natsu makes the first move?" Chelia said. Wendy simply giggled and went back to eating the food that was set in front of her. "He might just break and admit it to himself." Wendy said. Nearby Grey jumped and slowly turned his head to the two teenagers and walked over to them, "Wait flamebrain liking someone?"

The two looked at each other and laughed with Grey looking confused beside them. "What?"

"Nothing just what's with the nickname?" Wendy said hiding her smile behind her hands. Grey scratched the back of his head and said, "well he has a weapon that can summon fire right and he is as dense as a rock so flamebrain." Wendy and Chelia both nodded their heads and looked over at the pinkette and the blonde.

"So what are you going to do after the festival?" Wendy asked. Grey looked at her lopsided and said, "I planned to go searching for my sister Ultear but now I think I want to do something else."

"That something else being?" Chelia said raising a brow. Grey looked at Lucy and said, "I think I'll search for something else." Chelia nudged Wendy and smirked. Love is in the air.

-^/\^-

"In love please when hell freezes over." Grey said as he sat down next to Lyon. "What's your deal?"

"Chelia spouting her love nonsense at me. Even dragging poor Wendy toward the dark side." Grey shuddered, Lyon shrugged as well and went back to talk to Lucy. "So you're planning on taking on the nearest tower is that right?" Lucy simply nodded and went back to looking down at the book she was reading. "You know that's the tower of Silver right?" She nodded and said, "I know that's why we're taking Grey." When he heard his name he swiveled his head to look at the blonde sitting in front of him. "I wanted to thank him for helping me a while back."

"So you're going to get him a Slayer vessel?" Lyon said as he stood up abruptly. She nodded seeming unfazed by Lyon's odd reaction and said, "Well I'm also going there for my own reasons too. I just thought that he would want a break from the guild to go on an adventure with us. Plus the more the merrier" Lucy said as she smiled. "Right so when are you planning on going?" Grey asked. "Well we were going to leave today but you said there was a festival so we decided to stay till it ended. Also we were gonna leave in the morning." Gray nodded and stood up. Lucy and Lyon looked at him and finally asked, "Where are you going?" Grey turned around and said, "To go pack up we're leaving tomorrow morning right?" Lucy nodded and Grey ran through the front doors of the guild.

"Where's stripper goin?" Natsu asked as he sat next to Lucy. "He's coming to the tower with us."

"What!?" Natsu exclaimed he stared at Lucy with widened eyes. "He's doing what now?!"

"I said he's coming with us to the tower. Do you have a problem?" Lucy said not paying him any mind as she picked up the blue cat sitting next to her. Natsu glared at him and slouched and finally said, "No I have no problem."

"Good" Lucy said. She shuffled closer to Natsu and handed the Blue kitten to Natsu and asked, "What should we name him?" Natsu started at the blue feline for the longest time and finally blurted out. "Chad G. Augustine Au'Leopold III!" Lucy sat there flabbergasted and shook her head. "No it has to be something that we'll all remember not just some random names that sound fancy." Natsu pouted that his name idea was shot down and Lucy patted him on the head for the effort and then Lucy said, "Happy. What about we name him Happy?" Natsu tilted his head and looked at her confused. "Why would you name a cat 'Happy'?"

"So when we think about Happy we'll think of happy thoughts." Lucy said and didn't even give Natsu a chance to protest. She dashed over to where Lyon and Grey were sitting and practically scared the shit out of them. Natsu chuckled when the two brothers jumped in surprise. He looked back down at the cat and sighed happily.

-^/\^-

The festival was tonight so when Natsu, Lucy and Wendy walked around town there were booths and food stalls being set up. Natsu looked at them excitedly while Lucy and Wendy started planning what they would see first. Happy walked in between Lucy and Natsu occasionally nudging their legs, urging them to pet him. After the twentieth time bending down to pet him Lucy picked him up in her arms so she and Natsu could pet him freely.

During their walk around the town everyone was busy, even Lamia Scale. Grey and Lyon were setting up ice sculptures that were scattered around the port town. Then Natsu noticed women were dressed in mere cloths with gold jewelry and beads to complete the look. It looked like the clothes he saw women wear in his old town. Then he snuck a look at Lucy. She would look nice in that type of thing. He thought he would ask Wendy to help him with that. Lucy noticed Natsu looking at her and decided to shrug it off. "Hey Lucy can I ask you something?" she nodded silently too captivated by the scenery surrounding her. "Have you ever been to something like this?" Lucy shook her head. "No I was never allowed to go. But my employers always encouraged me to wear something for the occasion." She pointed to one of the girls wearing little next to nothing, to show what she meant. Natsu nodded started thinking again only to be interrupted by Wendy, "You have that look on your face again." Natsu swiveled his head in her direction and said, "Wendy can you help me with something?" the bluenette looked at him curiously and eventually nodded. Natsu looked to his left to make sure Lucy wasn't listening and quickly told Wendy his plan. She nodded in approval of his plan and pushed Natsu over to Lucy and ran in the opposite direction. Lucy looked at the disappearing figure with a confused look and looked at Natsu with brows knitted. Natsu simply shrugged and tried to find something to keep her distracted while Wendy did what she had to.

"So Lucy what do you want to do?" Lucy simply shrugged and pet Happy as she continued to walk. Natsu had forgotten about the feline. "Well I think we should get something to eat, I think its afternoon already." Lucy looked at him then to the sun and said, "But it's only ten o'clock by the looks of it." Natsu blanched as he suggested a late breakfast. Lucy's stomach gave a low growl and her cheeks reddened ever so slightly. She turned to Natsu and accepted with a pout on her face. Natsu grinned and practically dragged Lucy to the nearest restaurant.

By the end of the day Natsu had basically dragged Lucy all over town but stayed clear of where Wendy was. Lucy started to notice this and asked, "Why are you dragging me all over town?"

Natsu flinched and turned toward the Heartfilia. "U-uh well ya see…-"

Luckily at that exact moment Wendy came rushing up tugging on both Natsu and Lucy's arms saying in a panicked manner, "Natsu, Lucy come quick!" Natsu secretly sighed in relief and eagerly followed Wendy. The bluenette stopped at the inn and raced to their room. Lucy followed suit careful not to drop Happy as she was carrying him the entire day. She opened the door and there stood a mannequin with an outfit on it. It consisted of a simple white cloth to cover her hips and chest with separate blue ribbons attached to them and a loin cloth to cover the rest. On a cart was a tray of assorted jewels and hair ornaments. Lucy stared in shock and asked, "is this all for me?" Natsu nodded and so did Wendy. She grabbed Natsu and Wendy, drawing them into a big group hug. She said a simple thank you and headed to her room to change, Wendy followed in pursuit. Natsu smiled and sat down on the couch as Happy joined him.

He could faintly hear the girls as they got Lucy ready. Then he thought of the dungeon and what would happen next. Would Lucy get a vessel and become a candidate or would Grey? Then he thought back to Mavis and her offer when he got his sword. "Will you become my King's candidate?" Was all she said. He wanted to mull over it a bit more but his thoughts were interrupted with Lucy stepping foot out of the room. Natsu's mouth dropped as he eyed her top to bottom. She looked absolutely beautiful, the clothes were absolutely gorgeous. Her hair was styled, one side her hair was cut so two front pieces were longer than the rest and one side was held up by a pink feather, revealing five unnoticed piercings and the other side was curled and laces with small silver chains. She also had another feather clip attached tucked underneath her hair. Then his eyes traveled to her face. He hadn't noticed until now that the eyelashes at the end were longer, it's that or else she was wearing makeup. Her brown eyes shined with positivity and light.

It was at that moment when reality hit him with a brick wall. He was staring too long and his face reddened almost matching the pink hair hiding beneath his turbine. "Is it weird?" Lucy asked as she check herself. Natsu shook his head no. "N-n-no it looks really, ugh really good on you." Lucy's face lightened up and she ran up to hug him. Natsu almost past out as her giggles reached his ears. "Thank you guys so much." They stayed like that for the longest time till Wendy interrupted and said, "Guys the festival started! We should head out." Lucy released Natsu and ran toward the door leaving Natsu in the middle of the room shell-shocked. She paused her fast pace and peered at him through the door frame. Natsu noticed her and said, "I'll be down in a bit I just need to get something. You and Wendy go on ahead." Lucy nodded and left him following Wendy who was standing next to Grey, Lyon, and Chelia. Chelia ran up to Lucy stared in awe of her outfit. "My, my Lucy I didn't know you had the guts to show that much skin. Especially in front of these two strippers." Lyon and Grey blanched but didn't deny it. Her face twisted into a disgusted look and Wendy quickly bailed from her position next to Lyon and ran to protect Lucy. The two brothers said, "hey what the hell was that for?!"

Chelia and Wendy simply laugh as Lucy's face turned into a smile. Lyon and Grey joined in on Wendy and Chelia's laughing when Natsu came barreling down the staircase. The party turned toward him, seeing the black box with gold trim he had in his hands. The pinkette stopped in front of Lucy and handed her the box his hand resting on the pummel of his sword. Lucy took it gingerly and opened it. As if her day couldn't get better, in the box were a refurbished set of chains and shackles. Grey looked over Lucy's shoulder to see what was inside. "Natsu where did you get these?" Natsu rubbed his head in embarrassment. "Well…"

He remembered how when he released Lucy from her chains he later removed them for her. Lucy said she would keep them but she had nothing on her to carry them in, so Natsu offered to carry them until they found something to hold them in. He ended up carrying them through the trip to Hargeon and decided to get them refurbished for Lucy as a surprise. "Now you can use them as vessels for when we go to the tower." Natsu said as Lucy stared at them. And for the second time that day she hugged Natsu and his face turned a darker shade of pink. Grey smiled as he's never seen Lucy this happy.

"Ok now that that's over, can we go to the festival already?" Wendy moaned. Lucy giggled and nodded. Wendy led the way with Chelia next to her and Lyon and Grey close behind them with Natsu and Lucy following in the back. The festival was amazing it seemed as though the city was illuminated with glitter. The booths had food, games and prizes. Grey and Natsu offered Lucy, Wendy and Chelia if they wanted anything and they immediately declined. Lucy navigated through the crowd of people to the center of town where there was a banquet and dancers. They all separated either wandering around more or eating. Natsu literally abandoned everything and made a beeline toward a banquet with Grey in close pursuit. Wendy, Chelia and Lyon went back to check out the games and Lucy was spectating as the two boys had an eating contest. Lucy sat there contently till she heard music start. It was a beautiful sound she had never heard before, it was exotic and it made her heart race. She found herself racing to cut through the sea of people to get to the stage where performers were dancing. Luckily the costumes they were wearing were similar to the outfit she was wearing so she hopped on stage and started dancing.

Twirling and kicking her legs to the beat of the drums. No one had any complains, instead they all cheered. Lucy was ecstatic, and wanted this moment to last forever. The world around her turned into bright flashes of color she felt like she was the only person up on stage and danced and danced. "Your beautiful, Lucy!" she heard from the crowd. She briefly saw Natsu cheering from the back of the crowd. Her feet moving faster than ever before

Natsu sat back down and Grey patted him on the back. "So what's your plan?"

"What do you mean?" Natsu asked. Natsu looked at him and Grey set his hand inside one of his pants pockets and drew out an object the pinkette was very familiar with. Grey showed him a knife. It was more like a dagger with a flat face that had an intricate design on it. When he touched it if felt extremely cold. "What is this?"

"It's the dagger Ur gave me. She was my mentor on sword play. But she passed away and gave this to me. Now I want to go to the tower and get a Slayer vessel."

"Why are you telling me this exactly?" Natsu said with confusion on his voice.

"So you and Lucy won't get any funny ideas." Natsu's eyes hardened and glanced toward Lucy who was still dancing. "Alright we won't get in your way." He held his hand out and Grey took it shaking it then going back to watching Lucy. They watched blissfully as she danced the night away

-^/\^-

The following morning Natsu and the gang were up at the crack of dawn and started to head toward the tower of Silver. Lucy observed her surroundings and thought it odd that the area was cooler than it was back at the port town. Even so there were still living animals and plants so she thought to leave it be 'cause there was no cause for concern. They traveled onward the tower getting closer to it. Lucy noticed the plant life start to freeze over, questioning what kind of tower it was. Eventually they were at the base. Or what they thought was the base of the tower; everything around the area was frozen over, the ground, surrounding water, the plants, even animals that weren't lucky enough to get away. Natsu and Grey had already started to look for the entrance when Wendy pointed to a small opening in the tower. "Hey Lucy think you could jump up their!" Lucy nodded. She knelt down placing her fingers on the ground, it was iced over. She looked like a lion ready to pounce on her prey. Lucy dug her bare feet in the ground, breaking the ice beneath her bare feet lowering her back and jumping into the air. She left behind a crater and a large gust of wind, little ice shards following her with unimaginable speed. Natsu and Grey swung around in time to see Lucy in the air. They stared in shock not knowing the Heartfilia was that powerful.

Lucy looked at the entrance barely able the look at it while looking straight ahead. She felt the wind blow at her face telling her she was falling. She braced herself as the ground got closer and closer. She landed near the original crater she created and said, "Wendy you were right the entrance to the tower is up there. So I'm gonna have to carry you guys up there in order for us to all go in." So she grabbed Grey and Natsu and jumped to the entranced. Lucy ignored their screams of fear as she quickly made her way to the entrance. Wendy followed with a sky dragon roar. She removed the hand that was keeping Natsu in place on her shoulder and tapped the entrance with the pad of her finger. Before they knew it the party was being sucked into the tower.

-^/\^-

Admittedly Grey had never been in one of these towers and it was kind of trippy. The only thing he remotely remembered before he entered the tower was Lucy hoisting him over her shoulder and jumping about forty feet off the ground and being sucked into the tower. Yep, his day started off great, know he was in the tower it was darker than he expected it to be. And more wet. He opened his eyes to see Lucy making her way over to his with Wendy in tow. She had a frantic look on her face. "Grey come on get up we need to get out immediately!"

"What we just got here!"

"NO! Not that I mean get out of the pool of nitroglycerin!"

"NITROGLYCERIN!" Lucy impulsively took Grey by the collar and flung him to Natsu who was already out of the pool. He watched as Lucy sprinted to them as fast as her legs could carry her, with Wendy on her back. As soon as she was on land again she forcefully stomped the ground and propelled herself toward Grey and Natsu. Grey could only watch from Lucy's arms as the pool of explosive chemicals erupted growing smaller and out of blast radius. He felt himself being set down on the hard ground as Wendy jumped off Lucy and collapsed beside Natsu who had Happy in his hands, how Natsu snuck him in he didn't want to know. Lucy keeled over coughing like crazy. Natsu pasted off Happy to Wendy and rubbed the blonde's back in an effort to make her stop coughing. It eventually worked and Grey spoke up. "Lucy, thank you for saving us. How did you know it was nitroglycerin?"

"The smell. One of my former employers used to transport it to mines and military officials as a means of making explosives. Granted it was hard to recognize the smell considering it was transported in its frozen state to avoid a mass explosion." Lucy said. Natsu looked at her and helped her to stand up. "Well that certainly just excessive. Just like the other traps in the tower of Igneel." Wendy said observingly. Lucy nodded and said, "Let's keep moving."

"Right." Everyone chorused as Lucy lead the way deeper into the tower.

As they started walking Grey had noticed that the walls changed their appearance. First it was like walking in a cave the place was dark and cold. The tunnel curved ever so slightly and that's when it started changing, the walls turned into bricks of sandstone perfectly lined against the wall and had weird looking symbols on the walls the ceiling started to rise too and it looked like torches were placed every so often. "What are these symbols?" Wendy asked. Lucy responded with "Ancient Fiorian." Natsu swiveled his head to look at Lucy. "You know how to read it?"

"Some of it." Grey observed as Lucy traced her slim fingers along the inscriptions, she must have picked it up when she was employed to the salamander. Her brown eyes scanning the symbols tensively and he sworn he could hear her mutter the words, 'skill' and 'test'. Man, he thought as he inspected the hall further, what the hell have I gotten myself into know, this is beyond what is thought I'd be doing on a Saturday morning.

A/N: Hello again!
Just so you know I not dead! Great news right?! Sorry it took me so long. But exams slapped me in the face at the end of the year and it stung like a b*tch. And I couldn't upload or write for a week because my laptop was updating and then I feel behind in my virtual class. And I'll be changing my profile name to Shu_Kai. Ok now that that's out of the way I'll be uploading the next chapter on August 12.