I realized that I seem to update every few days, which means you guys might get confused on which chapters to read, if you only get on this site once a week. For the chapter titles, I'm going to start putting the date it was uploaded.

I hope you enjoy!

"Oh. My. God," Gray and Lucy said at once. They entered a huge ballroom. A large area was cleared in the center of the room, and people were dancing. A DJ was in the back, playing popular music. Tables were in the front of the room. The adults were all there, talking with each other. At the left side of the room, there was a door open. Lucy could see a bunch of kids playing inside.

"Go ahead," Layla laughed. Wendy smiled and ran off. "Lucy, behave. Gray, I want to go introduce you to a few friends of mine."

Lucy walked into the crowd. A few guys smiled at her, but they didn't say anything. They were definitely looking at her, though. A few girls even scoffed and glared. She almost laughed at them. With their flat chest, they were clearly jealous.

She felt someone grab her arm and pull her away. She looked up and saw Sting. He pulled her to the side of the room where they could actually talk.

"You know that you should wear clothes to these events, right?" Sting asked. Lucy could see that he was trying not to look anywhere but her face.

She looked at his black dress pants. He was still wearing his flip flops. His white dress shirt was buttoned up, aside from the first three and last two. She could see part of his chest and abs.

"Hey, if I can't look at you, you can't look at me," he said, pulling her chin up to meet his gaze.

"I was just looking at your gay sandals," she said, poking his chest. "And you do realize it is almost winter, right?"

"Does it look like I'm cold?" he asked. She shrugged and looked over at the DJ. "I never asked you what school you went to."

"Shit, what school do I go to?" she asked aloud. She never really cared enough to ask what school. "Fairy Tail?" It was more of a question.

"Sabertooth," Sting said. Lucy didn't bother asking where that was. "You don't really want to be here, do you?"

"Hell no," Lucy laughed. "I'm glad I came thought." She smiled up at Sting.

"Lately I been, I been losing sleep

Dreaming about the things that we could be

But baby, I been, I been prayin' hard

Said no more counting dollars

We'll be counting stars

Yeah, we'll be counting stars."

(A/N; I do not own Counting Stars by One Republic.)

Sting started singing along as the song continued. He stopped when Lucy laughed. "What?" he asked.

"I didn't realize that people around here listened to Black Willow," she admitted.

"People around here? What, you aren't from Fiore?" he asked. She shook her head.

"It's complicated, but I spent two years in Rome. I wasn't from there, but I still consider it my home. That town made me who I am today," she said. She smiled as the song ended. She just loved the ending. A slow song came on next.

"Hey, let's go dance," Sting said. He grabbed her hands and dragged her towards everyone. He put her hands around his neck and moved his to her waist. She slowly followed his steps, staring at the floor the whole time.

"You don't have a boyfriend, right?" he whispered into her ear. She wouldn't be dancing with him if she did, so he knew she didn't. She bit her lip and shook her head. He smiled and leaned his face closer to hers. She smiled back at him, silently telling him the he could kiss her. Right before their lips touched, she was rudely yanked away.

"Eucliffe," Gray hissed.

"Fullbuster," he said back with a smirk. He could see the jealousy and anger in Gray's eyes. Lucy said she didn't have a boyfriend, so he didn't feel a bit guilty.

"Lucy, just what do you think you were doing?" Gray asked her. She shrugged her arm away from him. "You shouldn't be talking to him."

"I can talk to whoever the hell I want. You aren't my fucking father. Actually, I wouldn't listen to you if you were," she snapped. She ran away from her father, so that says how many shits she gives to that man.

"You're going back to Layla. I'm not going to stand here and let you dance with this scum," Gray snapped. He was wide awake now.

"Layla? You're Layla Star's daughter?" Sting asked. He smirked when Lucy rolled her yes and nodded. He could tell she didn't like her.

"Why don't you go back over there?" Lucy asked. Gray grabbed her hand and started walking away. "Let me go!" she yelled. No one heard her over the music.

Layla stared at the two as they walked over to her. Lucy was trying to get away from Gray, but he wasn't letting her go.

Layla sighed. "What are you doing?" she asked. The woman she was talking to laughed.

"I'm removing her from a bad situation," he hissed towards Lucy.

"What was she doing?" Layla asked, preparing for a glare.

"I was dancing with someone! I'm so sorry for dancing at a party!" Lucy yelled sarcastically. Layla looked at Gray with a questioning gaze.

"Gray, let her go. It's not her fault if you don't have the balls to dance with her yourself," Layla said. Lucy burst out laughing. Although she didn't like her, she did seem like the coolest mom ever. She bought her a skimpy dress and told someone they have no balls.

Lucy patted Gray's back before running off. She found Sting leaning against a wall in the back of the room. He nodded towards her.

"Hey, what's up with you and Gray?" she asked.

"You could say that our parents have a personal competition going on. The students have never got along. I'm surprised Gray didn't start fighting me right here," he laughed. He stepped forward and grabbed her hands, pulling her slightly closer.

"If the fights between the dojos, why would he fight you here? Wouldn't it make more sense to fight later at the actual competition?" Lucy asked, not even noticing that she was almost flat against him. She never was one to worry about personal space too much, anyways.

"Our conflict goes on a personal level." Sting leaned closer to her. "And I think it just got a little more personal."

"Lucy!"

She groaned and looked behind her, wondering who was interrupting her this time. Couldn't she just enjoy her night without disturbed?

"What is it, Wendy?" Lucy sighed. She moved away from Sting and leaned over to be at the girl's level.

"I wanted you to meet my new friend!" she said happily. Lucy nodded. "I'll go get him!" She smiled and ran back to the playroom.

"I can totally see up your dress right now," Sting said. Lucy blushed and stood back up. She forgot that the dress was short. She wasn't used to wearing skirts, let alone short ones.

"Him?" Lucy asked.

"What are you talking about?" Sting asked, draping his arms over her shoulders.

"She said him. Her new friend is a boy," she said. Wendy ran ran back up to them, dragging a boy with brown hair behind her.

"This is Romeo!" she said happily.

"Hi Romeo, I'm Lucy," she said, leaning down to his level. She blushed and stood back up, completely forgetting about her dress. She cursed her weakness around kids. She didn't even realize why she was letting this side of her show, anyways.

"H-hi," he stuttered. He blushed and looked back at his feet.

"L-Lucy?" Wendy asked nervously. "Wh-who is th-that?" Lucy looked behind her at Sting.

"Why?" she asked sceptically.

"Get away from him!" Wendy yelled. She grabbed Lucy's hand and pulled her closer. "He's bad!"

Lucy couldn't help but laugh. "Listen, kid," she said, ruffling Wendy's hair. "I'll be fine. Why don't you go play with Romeo?" Wendy looked back at Sting. He smiled and waved at her.

"Actually, I'm kind of tired. Will you go up to the room with me?" She rubbed her eyes for effect.

"Go tell Mom. I'll be right there," she said, standing back up straight. When did she lean back down?! Wendy smiled and ran off with Romeo. Lucy could see through her lie.

"Do you want me to see your underwear or something?" Sting asked. If she didn't, she should really stop talking to kids. He figured she got that from Layla. He would always see her leaning down to talk to little kids.

"I'm not used to dresses, okay?" She blushed and crossed her arms. Sting could just tell by the way she acted that she wasn't a dress person.

"Why don't you give me your number?" he asked. "We'll meet up some other time. Maybe I'll sneak out and buy you some cigarettes. I noticed you only had a few left."

"How can you buy them?" she asked while putting her number in Sting's phone.

"I'm eighteen. You're seventeen, right?" He put his phone back into his pocket.

"I'm sixteen." She was going to say something else, but Wendy appeared. She grabbed her hand and started dragging her away. She smiled at Sting before turning around. She didn't trust the little girl to navigate her through so many people without looking foward.

When they got up to the room, Lucy jumped on the first bed, not even bothering to change. She wasn't awake long enough to see where Wendy went to sleep.

X

"Gray!" Layla yelled. She just watched her student get punched in the face. His first assessment was taking place, and he wasn't doing too well. All he had to do was fight one of the judges as long as he could. He seemed too distracted to fight, though. He kept getting punched and kicked.

"I'm fine," Gray said. He stood up and wiped the blood from his mouth.

"You're not fine," Layla sighed. She turned to the judges sitting at the table beside her. "Could you have Gray fight later? He seems a little distracted."

"Only because you're students are usually in the top five," the one judge said. Layla thanked them. She walked over to Gray and grabbed his collar. She swiftly dragged him back to their room.

"What is wrong with you?" she asked, through in him on the bed. She sat down beside him. Her face didn't show anger, but concern.

"I just have a lot on my mind," he said, looking anywhere but the woman beside him.

"You can't still be upset about Lucy dancing with a random guy," she sighed. She really didn't understand why he was so jealous.

"Sting Eucliffe," he said quietly. Layla gave him an angry look for mentioning him. "She was dancing with Sting," he clarified.

"I'll kill her!" Layla yelled, standing up. "No, I'll kill him!"

"Miss Layla?" Wendy asked. She came out of the mini kitchen, holding a cup of juice.

"Where is Lucy?!"

"She left about an hour ago," she explained. "She didn't tell me where she was going, though."

"Gray, go find her," Layla hissed. He ran out the door. He knew better than to make an angry Layla wait.

X

"Lucy!"

The blonde quickly his her cigarette behind her back. She sighed in relief when it was only Sting. She put the stick back in her mouth.

"I got you something," he said. He leaned on the wall behind him and pulled something out of his pocket. A small box, to be more specific.

"God, I love you," she said happily. She held the box of cigarettes to her chest. She didn't know he was serious about getting them for her.

"I just finished my evaluation, so I'm don't have anything to do for a while. I figured we could hang out," he said. He grabbed her hands and smiled at her. She let the cigarette fall from her mouth, stomping it out.

X

"Where is she?!" Gray asked to no one in particular. He had been searching the large building for almost an hour. The blonde was nowhere to be found.

He put his hand on the door before him. He doubted that she would be outside, but he had nowhere else to check. He sighed before pushing it open.

He came face-to-face with Sting.

"Gray," he said, honestly surprised.

"Is Lucy out here?" Gray asked.

"Yeah." Before Sting left, he leaned to Gray's ear. "You know, Lucy has a tongue piercing."

"I could kill you," Gray hissed. He didn't even want to think about how Sting knew about Lucy's tongue ring. He only knew himself because Layla told him, for some unknown reason.

"Lucy?" Gray asked, walking through the door. He watched her hide something behind her back.

"G-gray?" she asked nervously.

"Come on, I want you to watch my fight," he lied. Okay, he did want her to watch, but that wasn't the reason he wanted her back inside.

"Whatever."

Gray ended up winning his fight, which wasn't suppose to happen. The judge was suppose to beat him, not the other way around.