An: I failed. =[ I got this chapter out a day late. Sorry all I was having way too much fun for my bday week and totally didn't leave enough time for the fic.

Hope you enjoy!

****Remember there will not be an update this Sunday because I will be away from my computer. ****

Rogue POV

Incredibly grateful that their Master's announcement interrupted my impending interrogation Sting and I gladly joined the rest of the guild in celebrating Lucy's safe return. Once the barmaid had recovered from her fainting spell she served everyone their drinks of choice in quick order and delivered the food I had ordered earlier. While Sting talked to Natsu and several other people, whose names I had forgotten, I ate and drank while watching Lucy interact with her guild.

Unlike the people at our guild, she didn't just stay at one table talking to her team. She was constantly on the move, bouncing from table to table hugging everyone and talking to them. Although I missed her smile being directed at me, I loved that she was so happy to be home.

It was strange how different our two guilds were from each other. It was like night and day. Whereas our member ranks were clearly defined, with the S-class mages sitting away from the rest of the guild, I wouldn't have been able to determine who was S-class and who wasn't by just looking at Fairy Tail. If it weren't for Lucy's quick run down before she had left to talk to everyone I would have assumed that there were no S-class mages. It must be nice to be this close to everyone. I thought as continued to follow Lucy's lithe body around the guild with my eyes.

After hours of watching her bounce around the guild I had lost track of how much I had, had to drink and was surprised when the room tilted when I stood up to stop Sting and Natsu from fighting. Either everyone was as drunk as I was, or they didn't care anymore because the moment the first punch was thrown, most of the guild joined in on the fight. Waiting for Erza or the master to intervene I was confused when all Erza did was continue to eat her cake, while their master dunk his head in a barrel.

That night was one of the craziest nights Sting and I had ever been a part of, and that included the first time Sabertooth had won the Grand Magic Games. The amount of alcohol almost every member of Fairy Tail drank was astonishing; barrel after barrel was emptied then stacked by the back exit to be refilled later. Cana's stack alone was twice as tall as the rest of the guilds, how they could afford all of this alcohol when they couldn't afford a better guild hall was confounding.

It was close to three in the morning by the time the party had died down to a competition of wills between Cana and Laxus. Almost everyone else had passed out from all of the booze yet those two were still going strong. Watching as they drank glass after glass of booze made me stick to my stomach. Incredibly drunk already Sting and I got up from the table to go to bed. Stumbling to our feet we weaved between the people who were slurring their words and falling out of their seats; we made it half way to the door when I pulled Sting to a stop, realizing that we hadn't made any reservations at one of the nearby hotels. Shit! What are we going to do now? I thought as I shoved Sting down at one of the tables. Groaning in frustration I turned around to go beg Lucy for mercy. Speak of the devil I thought when I saw that she had snuck up on me.

"Boo" Lucy said with a smile. "Going somewhere?"

"Uh, yeah… we forgot to book some rooms at the hotel and we, well I –"

"Haha, no need Rogue; you two gave me a place to stay, free of charge, so that's the least I could do for you guys. At the moment we don't have the space inside our guild so you can stay with –" Lucy stopped as a metal hand dropped onto her shoulder.

"Gray. You guys can stay at Gray's house." Erza said with a gaping Gray standing behind her.

"…wh…what? Why my place?" The Ice Mage wined.

Not the least bit offended that her team mates were worried about Lucy's safety, I patiently waited for them to decide where we would be sleeping, anywhere would be preferable to the outdoors.

Silencing him with a glance, Erza answered. "Because I share mine with Wendy, Lisanna and her siblings already have enough people living there, and Natsu's place is inhabitable - why else do you think he spends all of his nights at Lisanna's or Lucy's? And I'm sure you'll agree with me that you don't want two men, that we've just met sleeping at Lucy's place alone with her. Plus neither you nor Juvia would mind a sleep over. In fact Juvia was just telling me how she wanted to spend more time with her Gray-sama."

Now it was Lucy's turn to gape as she spun around to find Julvia among the guild. Spotting her she squealed and ran to her, jumping over the sprawled out bodies that were in her way. Reaching her within seconds Lucy grabbed on to her shoulders, shaking her into consciousness, shouting "How could you leave out that you and Gray are together?!"

"Juvia didn't want to make love-rival sad." The water mage said still half asleep, even with all of the shaking Lucy was doing.

Love-rival? I thought, eyeing Gray with jealousy, until I heard Lucy scoff.

"HA! How many times do I have to tell you Juvia, I am not your love rival! Gray is one of my best friends; he's like a brother to me!" Relieved to hear her say that I watched as she linked arms with Juvia and dragged her towards the door before turning around to look at us. "You guys settle the sleeping arrangements. Juvia and I are going to my place for some much needed girl time. Erza?"

"You go on ahead, I have to stay and make sure everyone gets home safely." Erza said as she waved them away.

"Okay Erza, we'll have to do a girl day soon! Night guys I'll see you tomorrow!" Lucy giggled as she waved.

"Bu.. but Gray-sama-."

"Will be at your house when I drop you off in a couple of hours," Lucy said pulling the resisting mage closer to the door.

"I'll come by your place to pick her up Lucy, that way you don't have to walk there and back so late at night."

Happy with that plan Lucy bobbed her head in agreement. "Okay! See you in two hours, not a minute earlier!" She shouted after successfully prying Juvia's hands away from the door frame and out of the guild.

Glancing towards Gray I saw his disgruntled face and spoke. "Uh… we don't want to put you out Gray, we can go check to see if the hotel will rent us a room if you'd point us in the right direction." I offered, trying to sooth Frosch back to sleep by bouncing her in my arms.

"No, no! It's no problem at all. Lucy would kill us if we made you go to a hotel. Besides I doubt any of the hotels are open. Magnolia isn't exactly known to be a party town." He chuckled.

Looking around the guild skeptically I raised my eyebrows in disbelief when I faced him again. "Yeah…right."

"Haha really, we're just the exception. You should see the stack of noise complaints Master gets on a daily basis."

"The fines!" was wailed form the little man on the bar, as crocodile tears poured out of his eyes.

Laughing at the Master's display Gray herded us out of the guild, leading the way to his house. "This way" he said following the path that the bluenette and blonde had just taken judging by their mingled scents.

Passing what I assumed was Lucy's apartment, because of her strong scent; we walked a couple more blocks down the street when Gray stopped to dig out his keys from his pocket. "Sorry about the mess I haven't been home a lot since we were all looking for Lucy, and then the days we were in town I spent at Juvia's place, only coming here to get clothes."

Entering the house I was amazed by the amount of clothes Gray owned. Everywhere I looked there was clothing strewn all over the place; there was hardly a clean area in the house, even the kitchen was buried underneath various items of clothing. If Erza thought that this place was livable I can't imagine what Natsu's house looks like.

"Whatever" Sting mumbled as he drunkenly stumbled to the couch and fell onto it with Lector landing on the arm rest above his head, both of them snoring within seconds. Tapping my shoulder to get my attention Gray jerked his head indicating that I should follow him.

"As I said, sorry about the mess, I'll pick up a bit before I leave. I have two bedrooms, one is mine, obviously and the other is a guest room that I mainly use for storage but it has a bed that you and Frosch can use for now until I clean up the master, then you guys can decide what room you want." Gray said as he began piling clothes in his arms as he went, quickly throwing them in his room before shutting the door and leading me to the guest room. Surprisingly the guest room was devoid of his clothes and was the cleanest room in the house. "Feel free to move the boxes around if they bother you, the closet and drawers are empty so you can unpack and make yourself at home."

"We won't stay that long, tomorrow we can find a hotel-."I stopped when his hand touched my shoulder and he began shaking his head.

"Have you seen scary Lucy? If you go find a hotel you'll be on the receiving end of her wrath and you don't want that. She will literally drag you back here, or have one of us do it. So do us all a favor and make yourself comfortable here for the time being."

Recalling how Lucy had looked when she had fought Yukino I shuddered at the prospect of her turning that glare on me and decided that listening to Gray was in my best interest. Gray, seeing that I had made the right decision gave me a look of sympathy and nodded his understanding. With one last pat he went back into the hallway and pointed to each door explaining where they led.

He was about to leave me alone to get settled, and to clean his room when he stopped. "I'm sorry we've been acting suspicious of you guys. We've just heard about how our guild has been treated by the other guilds and were worried when Lucy stayed away for so long. If it weren't for her spirit popping in and out, helping us search for her, we would have thought that she was dead. Even though we knew she was alive our minds ran wild with what could have happened, and what she could be going through.

"We don't blame you for keeping her so long, she has a way with people; making friends where ever she goes. It's just that our team...the whole guild loves her. We would have been lost without her. So thank you for finding her and taking care of her." Gray said as he closed the door to my room and left.

Exhausted, I followed Sting's lead and fell onto the bed and instantly fell asleep with Frosch at my side.

Lucy POV

Slamming the door behind me and locking the door, not giving the Water Mage any time to escape, I slid down the door and sat in front of the door, blocking it. "Spill Juvia!"

"Juvia doesn't know where to start Love-rival."

"Start with how long you've been together and how it happened."

Sitting across from me on the ground Juvia made herself comfortable. "Seventeen days, six hours, 31 minutes and 15 glorious seconds," Juvia said looking at the clock on my desk with a dreamy look in her eyes. "As always Juvia was following her Gray-sama, making sure that he had everything he needed. After two days of scouring the forest, looking for you he decided to make camp when something came over him and he came to Juvia. Wrapping his arms around her from behind" she said as she wrapped her own arms around her middle, reliving the moment. "He then buried his face into my hair saying how he had loved me all along, and was sorry it took him so long to tell me. Telling him I loved him two we kissed and then went back to his tent-"

"You did what?!"

Disrupting her dreamy state Juvia looked at my shocked face, realizing how it had sounded, she quickly defended Gray. "Oh no. We didn't do that, much to Juvia's disappointment. We spent the night talking in each other's arms, kissing every so often. It was better than Juvia had imagined." Releasing a sigh she went quiet as her eyes glazed over.

I smiled at how happy she was. "I'm glad that you two are finally together."

Looking at me warily she smiled. "Is Love-rival sure?"

Scooting closer to her I nodded emphatically "of course! I've had no feelings beyond that of a friend and sister for Gray. He's all yours. Maybe now you can stop calling me love-rival?" I chuckled.

"Juvia shall try. What about Lo- you Lucy? Is there anyone you like?" Blushing at the question I glanced down at my linked hands.

"Um...well there is someone." Seeing her giddy face as she closed the distance between us to sit in front of me with our knees touching I laughed. "I like Rogue... I like him a lot. But shhh" I said with a finger to my lips, looking around my apartment for any unwanted ears. "No one knows. I haven't figured out how I'm gonna tell him or even if I should. What if he doesn't like me that way?" Sighing I glanced at her "I wish I was as brave as you Juvia! Following the man you love all over kingdom come, professing your love to him every way you can think of. And look! It paid off because you're together now!"

"It's not that hard Lucy! First you must figure out his routine and then you follow him, watching to make sure that he has everything he needs. Ooo! I can teach you how to make rice Rogues and you can give them to him the next time you see him…" Stopping her with a hand over her mouth I shook my head.

"Ah… I'm not to that point yet."

"It takes years to become as proficient as Juvia, but when you're ready Juvia will help." She said.

"Uh… thanks…haha." I said moving our talk to the couch. "So what else have I missed? I saw Natsu and Lisanna together but that's it. Did anyone else get together while I was gone?"

"Much to Mira's dismay no one else has. But then again she has had her hands full with planning her sister's wedding."

"They are getting married?" I squealed in excitement, "Natsu didn't mention that… wait, come to think of it neither did Lisanna."

"Ah no. Mira is determined to get them married as soon as possible, Gray-sama and Juvia too. Nothing would make Juvia happier than marrying Gray-sama, but he does not think it's the right time, so Juvia shall wait and be happy that she is finally besides him."

"Oh Mira, always meddling in other people's affairs, we should give her a taste of her own medicine!" I laughed, half serious. Before I could get out another question there was a knock at my door, looking to my clock I saw that only an hour had past since Juvia and I left the guild. "Gray that better not be you I said two hours, not an hour." I mumbled angrily to the person on the other side of the door.

"Open up Blondie." said a voice that was definitely not Gray's. Opening the door at a leisurely pace I was surprised to see Laxus standing there with his usual scowl on his face and his arms crossed. Muscling his way in he locked the door and checked to see that all of my windows were locked as well. Grunting at each window that was unlocked, which was all of them, he jammed the lock into place and wedged something in between them so they couldn't be opened from the outside even if they were unlocked. "Freed is placing runes around the building as we speak, he'll need a list of people you want to be able to visit without permission. Get it to him by tomorrow." He said without looking at me, leaving a second later via his lightning.

Shocked at what had just happened Juvia and I looked at each other in mutual confusion. "Laxus has been acting strange lately, but Juvia hasn't seen this kind of behavior before. Ever since he was let back into the guild Master and him have split many of the duties."

Letting her words sink into my semi-drunk brain, I realized what she had just said. "When was he let back into the guild?!"

"Around the time of your disappearance. Master announced it after we got home from our initial search, saying that Laxus' help was invaluable to our survival on the island and that as long as he was willing to help search for you that he was more than welcome. A few people are still wary of his sudden change of heart..."

"That's ridiculous, Laxus is our nakama just as much as the next person. He learned that what he tried to do was wrong and it's time to let him move on from it so he can begin to forgive himself; along with his team, they need to forgive themselves too."

"I'm glad you think so Blondie." Laxus said from beyond the locked windows.

"...I thought you had left...?"

"No, just went to check the windows from out here. Gramps said he'd like for me to stay the night just in case someone tried to attack you again." Holding up his hand he stalled my protest. "Before you say anything Gramps said that this is non negotiable and that you have to deal with it at least for tonight until other arrangements can be made."

Resigned to my fate I turned to Juvia with a sad face. "We should postpone anymore gossip until after my guard is relieved of duty. I'll walk you -"

"No you won't, Freed is downstairs waiting to take her where ever. Now if you don't mind I'm gonna crash on your couch." With a flash of light he was on my couch with his eyes closed.

Seeing Juvia stare I Laxus, I urged her to the door before she began asking questions. "Night Juvia!" I said with a shove before I closed my door.

"Okay Laxus spill. What's with all of the protection." I said placing my hands on my hip.

"I interrogated the mage, before we called the council to pick him up. He said that he was supposed to meet up with several other of his colleagues in the next town over in a day. But when he doesn't show up they will come looking for him. That's where you come in. Everyone in Magnolia, knows that you're a Celestial Mage, the only one around for miles now-a-days. So they won't see any harm in pointing them in your direction."

Great, more idiotic mages coming to attack me. I thought as I went to my closet and pulled out the spare pillow and blankets my teammates used when they slept over. Throwing them onto Laxus' seemingly sleeping form, I crawled into bed with my clothes on, too tired to change, and fell face first into the pillow. Whispering to Laxus before I felt sleep grab a hold of me. "Thanks Laxus."

An: Hope you all liked it. Thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, favored and followed this fic!

Sorry for not responding to reviews, I need to go to bed so I can be up and ready to leave bright and early. Promise to find some time to reply individually. =]