The soft taps of boots pattered on tiled floor as a lone agent made their way through a large shopping complex. It was dark and quiet, the stale air barely shifted as the agent moved through the thick shadows, their clothes rustled slightly, the form-fitted fabric shifting against their body as they pressed against pillar.

'Damn it, Natsu. Why did you make me blind…'

The agent glanced around the pillar and through the darkness, her vision enhanced by the contacts she wore. There were no signs of life ahead of her so she shifted her gaze to the balcony on the floor above, running her eyes along the short glass barrier. No one, still. They were blinded, but it wasn't their physical vision that had been robbed but their mutated sensory perception. And it put them on edge far more than they'd like to admit.

'I guess he made a good point…' They sighed quietly; their blonde hair trembled slightly as her gaze flicked around to the storefronts. 'If I don't keep my basic skills sharp, if I rely on Traverse too much, I won't be able to perform perfectly in the field.'

The agent in question was Agent Celeste, Lucy Heartfilia. It had been a little over a week since their assault on Phantom Lord's Head Quarters and a few days since they had buried those who had fallen during the mission. The woman was currently in the middle of a drill, she only had the ammo she could carry on her thanks to the portable Magic Suppression Field generators blocking her Requip magic, and her Esper power had been blocked by Natsu's Macro curse. All she had was her physical skills and training.

'Is this what it was like for you, Natsu?' She closed her chocolate eyes and rested her head against the cold pillar. She needed to give herself a few seconds to bring her stress levels back down. Usually, she could see everything around her in her mind, but now she couldn't even see a metre or two away from her. She hadn't actually had Traverse taken from her, but Natsu had clouded everything beyond a certain distance and prohibited her ability to pass through the upper dimension. With these restrictions, Lucy had to be extra vigilant of her surroundings and use her eyes and ears to pick up on any hostiles around her.

With a quiet huff, the blonde pushed off of the pillar and moved through the shadows. Her objective was to disable a large bomb in the mall. In the briefing, she had been informed that it was a large-scale Improvised Explosive Device created from diesel and fertilisers. It was brought into the mall in 44-Gallon drums and placed somewhere within the structure under the cover of darkness, ready to blow during peak shopping hour.

Her ears perked up; a squeak had drawn her attention to the balcony directly above her head. She stepped out of the shadows and crouched low before leaping up to the next floor and landing as quietly as she could. To her left stood a woman with her back to the blonde, a rifle in her hands; a hostile, one of the would-be terrorists.

Lucy quickly and quietly closed the distance. She her left arm up under the woman's own arm and pressed the muzzle of her suppressed 92FS training pistol between her shoulders, aiming for the heart through the back. Her left hand clasped over her mouth as the blonde began to pull the woman into the shadows of a storefront's doorway. Once she was certain that they were out of sight, Lucy moved her hand down to the throat and leaned close to the woman's ear, hissing her questions quietly. "Where is the bomb, and how many of you are there? Keep it quiet."

"Why should I tell yo—gwuak." The woman choked and coughed lightly as Lucy squeezed down on her throat but she released it after a couple of seconds.

"Don't toy with your life. Tell me now and the worst you'll get is a little bit of bruising."

"Okay, okay…" She coughed quietly and swallowed, making the hand around her throat bob slightly. She turned her head slightly and turned a bronze-yellow eye to the agent, looking past her short rusty-red hair. "Basement storerooms. There are thirty-six of us…"

"What are your positions?"

"Six roaming around on this floor, ten on the ground floor with most of them by the main routes to the basement, and the rest are down below."

"Thank you." Lucy whispered before tapping the muzzle against the woman's back twice. "Bang, bang." She took her hand away and stepped back, allowing the now 'killed' hostile to relax and turn to face her. "I'm sorry if that leaves a bruise, maybe head to medical to get it checked out after this…"

"I'll be fine, Ma'am. Thanks for the concern but don't worry about me." The woman smiled while giving the agent a salute. She carefully sat down and rested her back against the shop's entrance, closing her eyes and playing dead. "Good luck."

A slight smile curled the edges of Lucy's lips as she gazed down at the Operative at her feet. She shook her head almost unperceptively and stepped out from the heavy shadow. While her hostiles had padded vests on to soften her shots, Lucy herself only had her combat fatigues—which had taken on a stealthy shadowy-black theme—and a mask to protect her face. She wasn't meant to get into firefights and she believed that this was the best way to influence her own behaviour and make herself avoid getting shot at.

Pain sparked in the woman's midsection and she ran her hand over the bottom of her rib-cage, just below her bust. The hit she had taken trying to help Natsu had bruised her ribs, though she knew that if she didn't have her armour on then she would have had many broken ribs. Once they had returned to the HQ, they had been sent to the medical centre attached to the building for a check-up. It made her realise just how tough Natsu's body really was thanks to his hybrid nature. Even without armour he had managed to tank powerful hits and come out with a few cracked ribs, some small cracks in the bones of his arms, and lots of dark-red bruises littering his body. What shocked her even more than his physical resistance was his restoration rate; by the time the funerals were held his bones had healed and his bruises were an already fading yellowy tinge which was barely noticeable against his tanned skin. Though, the sheer amount of bruising still made things difficult for him, even if it didn't appear so to most people. She noticed that when he forced a lid on the pain, he would tense his jaw and bare his fangs slightly. But he never limped or jerked when moving or using something.

In the days following the mission, after she saw how wounded Natsu really was, she invited herself to stay at his house. Both of them had significant mental strain from overusing their Esper abilities, so once they had gotten back to his home and got to sleep both of them slept for almost a full day. And the following day had them moving around the house sluggishly, their minds slowly returning to normal but their bodies were still catching up to it. All she wanted to do was lie in bed with him and be held while they recovered.

"Focus, Lucy."

She blinked and brought herself back to the present, she had been sticking to the shadows and didn't know if it was by sheer luck that she hadn't run into anyone or maybe they just passed by without noticing her creeping along.

"Sorry, Natsu. Was lost in thought. Continuing with the mission."

"Try not to make that mistake out in the field. Though… I do understand the reason, we did recently return from a hell of a night."

"How did you…?" Lucy gazed around at the darkness as if she would have been able to find the cameras tracking her and looking through it at the man.

"You've been rubbing the same spot on your chest for the last few minutes. And I know that's where you took the hit."

"Hmm…" She lightly patted her hand on the healing injury and shook her head lightly, smiling softly under her mask at the man's gentle voice. It was a brief but welcome change from his 'strictly business' tone he carried during work, a change that set off butterflies in her stomach. "I'll be ok. I may not heal as quickly as you, or can take as much damage as you, but I can still recover quick enough to return to active duty soon."

"Alright. I'll give you a little refresher in case you've accidentally pushed it out of your mind. You need to find the way down to the basement storage rooms where they are keeping the bomb and secure the area, preferably without any risk of them triggering the bomb prematurely."

Coming out of the shadows, Lucy moved to the glass railing and gazed down at the floor below, scanning the area for hostiles. In the back of her mind, she was a little annoyed that she couldn't just use Traverse to locate the hostiles and the bomb. It would have trivialised the training mission and she had to remind herself that this was to keep her skills sharp. As Natsu has told her, she'll be in situations where she wouldn't be able to use Traverse effectively and would have to fall back on her training. Situations like a full stadium or train station, where she wouldn't be able to pick out her target within the crowds. Her two different senses of sight had pros and cons; her natural sight was high clarity—she had perfect vision after all—but she could only see what her eyes could take in. Her sight provided by her Traverse mutation was omnidirectional but lacked definition, she could make out fine physical features with ease within twenty metres, but the further away someone was the harder it was to see them clearly. After a point they basically became three dimensional shadows, like heat hazes on the horizon. She could improve the sharpness by actively focusing the sight in a specific direction, but this dulls her omnidirectional detection ability and diminishes her situational awareness.

Shaking her thoughts from her head once more, Lucy vaulted over the railing and landed near-silently on the tiled floor below. She quickly darted to the underside of the balcony floor, getting out of the moonlight drifting in through the skylights. There were two direct ways to get into the warehouse section of the mall; going through a store and into the back or going through the service routes. The first risked setting off alarms, and the second would likely be patrolled, both would be tight quarters so she'd have to move quickly and quietly and dispatch any hostiles in her path before they could send out an alert.

A sly grin tugged at the corners of her mouth, between the two options there was only one real answer; both. So, her mind made up, Lucy grabbed a nearby silvery steel bollard from a café's rope barrier and hurled it like a javelin though the glass front of a store. As the alarm blared through the complex, the blonde raced out of the shadows and made for the service corridors.

The door opened and a pair of hostiles started to exit, only to be blindsided by the blonde. Taking inspiration from her mentor, she dived headfirst into hand-to-hand combat and hip-checked the first hostile into the wall then quickly drilled the second between the eyes with a paint round, splattering it against the mask, before turning her pistol on the first contact and putting a round into the side of their head, striking their mask.

Lucy charged down the hall, her footsteps muffled due to her rigorous training. She raced down to the store rooms but slowed down as she approached some voices, there was nowhere to hide in the narrow corridors. Taking another leaf from her mentor's playbook, she dashed into the room and levelled her pistol with the contacts. The blonde had caught them off-guard and had put two paint rounds into all four targets with a matter of moments, it wasn't as fast as Natsu but she was happy with it nonetheless.

Moving on quickly, Lucy backed into the hall and raced to the largest storage bay. She stopped by the large double door and cracked it open, looking through the narrow gap and spotting numerous 44-gallon drums with each one wired to a control box near the front of the cluster. "I've eyes on the explosive device. Looks to be an ANFO bomb, lots of drums hooked into a detonator. I count… twelve hostiles in this room, if the Intel is correct then there are four more somewhere down here and the rest in the main part of the building."

"Take down those closest to the detonator first, then prevent contact from the rest. The last thing we want is the entire mall becoming a crater and taking one of our agents along with it."

"Yes, Sir." Lucy took a quiet deep breath and launched into the room. She grappled the first contact and twisted them around to provide herself with a shield. Her muzzle swept across the closest target, delivering 9mm paint rounds into the. As the weapon became lighter in her hand, she dropped her left hand to her hip while her right arm kept her human shield pinned against her. She dropped the mag from her pistol as the last round entered the chamber, quickly replacing it with a fresh mag while lining up the sights with another hostile.

Once the last hostile fell to the floor, she pushed her shield to the ground and put a round to his chest and mask. When she was certain that all hostiles in the immediate vicinity had been eliminated, Lucy couched down by the detonator and examined it, quickly running it through the library of devices she had drilled into her memory by Natsu and Mira. Her heartrate spiked but she forced herself to calm down, if she panicked now then she would panic in the field and she wouldn't have that. She began cutting wires with a ceramic knife to prevent short-circuits, slowly moving through the plan laid out in her mind to disarm the detonator. Once she had isolated the power supply and removed it, she disconnected the leads to each of the drums.

"Bomb disarmed. Should I retreat or eliminate the rest of the hostiles?"

"Ensure that the bomb cannot be rearmed and then exfil."

"Yes, Sir."

0=0=0=0=0=0

Natsu was waiting within the ready room when Lucy returned and began removing her gear. "Good work in there. Not sure I'd have gone for the false alarm, but it did pull their forces away from the bomb."

"I hoped it would." Lucy smiled and placed the vest and mask on the bench. She took a bag from a nearby locker and placed it down next to the gear. "Can I have my sight back?"

"Sure." Natsu came up behind the woman and placed a hand over her eyes while his other arm snaked around her waist, he leaned in and whispered the command phrase into her ear. "Et lux in tenebris lucet."

Lucy shivered in his arms, the fog in her mind began withdrawing and allowed her to see everything in the building. She wiggled playfully in his grasp and peeked out from the top of his hand, gazing up at the man. "Sensory deprivation seems like something fun we could toy with~."

"Of course, you'd want to make a training aide into something sexual." Natsu chuckled softly and stepped back, earning a small disappointed mumble from the blonde at the loss of warmth.

"I can't help it~!" Lucy whined softly as she turned to face the man, a small grin tugging at her lips. "You somehow tug at my subconscious and I can't help but want to be touched by you, to rub against you."

"What happened to that shy protégé of mine?"

"She got railed by her boss and now it's all she can think of."

"Wow, no hesitation." Natsu laughed and waved the woman off. "Go on, get changed out of your combat clothes. Oh, your phone was going off while you were down there, it was Layla."

"Hmm? What did Mother want?" Lucy asked, curiously. She turned back to her bag as she pulled her top off and replaced it with a black halter top which left her midriff exposed, then slid her pants down her legs.

"I didn't ask, I just let her know that you were busy with some training and that you'd call back."

The blonde looked over her shoulder while she was bent over, a small playful smile graced her beautiful face when she noticed where the man's gaze was. "Something catch your eye, Natsu?" She asked with a wiggle of her hips. "You know, we are alone down here~."

"Hurry up and get dressed." Natsu grumbled as he spanked the woman's ass, he couldn't stop the small smile from appearing on his face thanks to her mischievous antics. "You shouldn't keep your mother waiting for too long."

"Yes, Sir~!" Lucy purred seductively. She quickly slid a pair of slim black pants over her long legs, followed by a small pair of heeled boots. Looking thoroughly like a model that could rival Mira, she straightened up and grabbed her phone from the bag. "I'll call her once we are out of the sub-levels." She swung her bag over her shoulder and offered the pinkette her hand. "Should we take the fast way?"

"Just this once." Natsu conceded, taking her small hand into his. His vision flashed white and he found himself in the middle of his office. "Smells like Mira was just here, probably left for lunch."

"I've… been meaning to ask you about that." Lucy looked away, somewhere between bashful and unusually self-conscious. "I know that you have a rather, um, free… lifestyle. But, what kind of relationship do you have with Mira and Lisanna?"

"We're just friends who have sex to blow off steam." Natsu replied, bluntly. He shrugged softly and sat down on the couch against the back wall. "I have a feeling we have been over this?"

"We might have… before you and I started to, you know…" Lucy gazed down at the floor by her feet, her skin slowly taking on a light shade of pink. "I, um… I wanted to ask you something but it's kind of selfish, you've known those two for much longer than you've known me…"

"Lucy…" Natsu slowly leaned forward, his voice softening as he gazed at the timid blonde. "You know you can ask me anything, and ask anything of me. I have no secrets from you, you already know my darkest."

"I… I want you…" Lucy struggled to get the words out, she hugged herself and raised her resolute eyes to meet the man's dark-green pair. "I want you to be mine, Natsu. I know you may need to sleep with other women for work, to get them to loosen their tongues, or to keep your cover, or get you into places you normally wouldn't be able to through normal means – even for a man of your skill. But I want to be the only woman you think about, the one you think about when you have to do those other women…" She dropped her gaze again, her confidence wavering once again. "I know I'm being selfish… but… I want to be the only one you love..."

Before Lucy could continue, Natsu had rose to his feet and gently grasped her chin between his thumb and finger, raising it up to look into his eyes. "Lucy, stop." He said firmly, but his soft smile held no sign of anger or annoyance. "It's ok. In all truth, this matter has been on my mind for a little while now. I've been running over these thoughts and feelings that race through my mind." He let go of her chin and slowly stroked her cheek. "I always thought it would be tough for someone like me to find love and settle down with someone. I've always been volatile, and I didn't think anyone would accept me for what I am."

"But I do!" Lucy blurted out, unable to keep her voice down. She was silenced by Natsu's thumb sliding over and pressing on her lips, shushing her.

"I know, and you don't realise just how grateful I am for that. Even when I had used my demonic release and decimated those monsters piled on top of me, you came up beside me without hesitation, stood shoulder-to-shoulder with me. Ready to dive headfirst into hell by my side."

Water began to leak from Lucy's eyes as she gazed into the warm onyx eyes looking down at her, warmth spreading throughout her chest. "Then…?"

"Guess what, Lucy... It seems you've gotten what you desire, you've managed to claim my heart."

The woman hiccupped and whimpered softly before she flung her arms around his neck. She clung to him tightly as her lips crashed against his in a passionate mess. Her bountiful chest compressed against his hardened muscled and filled with his warmth as his arms snaked around her hips to draw her in even closer. They tumbled back and fell down upon the couch in a mess of limbs, Lucy slowly pushed up and separated just enough from the man to be able to talk although her voice came out heavy and breathy. "I would say that you don't know how that makes me feel, but knowing you, you know exactly how good I feel."

Natsu chuckled and slipped an arm behind his head to prop it up while his other hand rested on the small of Lucy's back. "Right now, you seem brighter than the sun itself. So yeah, I'm guessing you feel very happy."

"Extremely happy." Lucy smiled brightly but her eyes narrowed as the corners of her lips quickly tugged up into a playful smirk and her voice lowered into a sultry purr. "And unbelievably horny."

"Of course, you feel horny…" Natsu shook his head lightly. "When are you not horny, when you're sleeping?"

"Nope, I get horny then too." Lucy admitted honestly as she shimmied down a little and rested her head on his chest, discarding the bag at the front of the couch. "You're in my dreams fairly often, whether they are wet dreams or not, but I still get horny at the sight of your sexy body. It gets tough training with you sometimes; I always want to get my hands on you and get you in me. And I've come to love how rough you get with me; you don't treat me like a fragile little girl. You throw me around the ring, and pin me to the ground or walls. You grab and squeeze delicate places without a care in the world, hehe oops, I think I'm starting to get wet."

"You know, there is such a thing as being too honest." The man chuckled softly. "You better call your mother before you decide you want to mount me."

"Oh, I've already decided to do that. It's just a matter of time~." Lucy purred softly as she slowly sat up on his lap, bringing her knees up along his sides. "Maybe I'll sneak into your house later and tie you to the bed while you sleep." Her warm chocolate eyes darkened as she narrowed them playfully, but she pulled her phone from a pocket in her pants and called her mother. She quickly rearranged her face and smiled as her mother's face appeared on the screen. "Hello, Mother. I'm sorry I couldn't pick up earlier, I was doing some training."

"What was it? Natsu didn't really elaborate when I asked."

"Umm, I had to go into a mall and prevent an attack. I don't think I should get into detail over the phone, I could call back over a secure line if you would like to know more?"

"No, that's fine, you can tell me when you come visit." Layla smiled at her daughter then tried leaning side to side as if she was looking around the younger blonde. "Speaking of Natsu, where is he?"

"He's here." Lucy answered quickly, smiling widely and sitting up a little straighter to hide the fact she was currently straddling the man's hips. "We're in his office."

"Hello, Ma'am." Natsu chimed in quietly to make it seem like he was at his desk, and to add to it, Lucy smiled over at his empty desk.

"See, he's here. But he's just busy right now."

"Well, I was wanting to know if you two were free over the next few days?" Layla asked curiously, raising her voice a little to try and project it across the private office.

"Mother, you don't have to talk louder, Natsu would be able to hear you just fine even if you whispered into the microphone. I bet he can hear my heartbeat right now too."

"I can, and your stomach rumbling."

"Oi!" Lucy pouted at the phone as her shoulders slumped. "He's in a good mood because I did well in my training. But yes, we are free." The blonde grabbed a cushion and placed it down on Natsu's chest to hide him a little better as she laid down on top of him while keeping her legs curled up. "We're still in a recovery phase from our last mission, so I don't think there will be any issue with us heading out into the country for a few days."

"Well, I have nothing on my schedule for the next few days if you want to come out to the estate for a tomorrow and stay a couple of nights?"

"I'd love to, Mother. And I'll drag Natsu with me whether he likes it or not, some fresh country air would do good for him."

"Yay! I'll let the staff know you are coming so you can come through the gate quickly. I'll see you tomorrow morning, Lucy!"

"See you then, Mother." Lucy smiled at her mother and ended the call. She placed the phone back into her pocket and pulled the cushion out from under her, instantly revelling in the intoxicating warmth given off by Natsu. "It'll be nice to see her again, it's been too long."

"We should take your car; I don't think it'll be great if we took my Black Mamba."

"Yeah, you'd just upset the wildlife." Lucy giggled softly as she folded her hands under her chin and gazed at the man's face with a smile filled with adoration.

Cerulean Freeway 8:47 AM

Lucy reached into a small wicker basket that sat between her feet and pulled out a small bottle of orange juice. After she took a sip, she held the open bottle out for Natsu. "Want some?"

"Thanks." Natsu took the offered drink without taking his eyes off the road. He quenched his thirst and held it out for the woman to grab. "How far out are we?"

"If we head through the town near the estate it'll take us about fifty minutes but we can cut that down to about thirty if we take an earlier exit and cut through the preserve." Lucy placed the bottle back into the basket and leaned back in her seat, allowing the sun to soak into her body through her short yellow sundress and warming her up. The dress stopped around her mid-thigh, exposing her long beautiful legs, it was also cinched around her waist by pastel-pink ribbon tied into a bow at her right side. A similar ribbon was braided into her hair to decorate it and secure it from the wind. "Ahh~ it's finally beginning to become nice and warm again."

"Maybe you'll stop clinging to me for warmth now?"

"Hmm…?" Lucy rolled her head to the side and gazed at the man through her large pastel-pink sunglasses and tilted her head a little more in though before smirking playfully. "Nah!"

"Yeah, I figured that'd be your answer." Natsu chuckled quietly and shook his head. He felt a pair of arms slip around his and his upper arm suddenly disappeared between two plush mountains. "No bra again?"

"I'm also going commando~." The busty blonde whispered sensually into the man's ear. "You know what they say… easy access~. We could pull over in the preserve and you can bend me over the bonnet, no one would hear us even if you made me scream~."

"You didn't have enough when we woke up?" Natsu glanced at the woman and couldn't stop his eyes from dropping down to her chest but he dragged it back to the Freeway. "You woke me up early because you had a wet dream and wanted to be filled."

"It's not my fault you always make me horny." Lucy giggled and nibbled along his jaw but she kissed his cheek and sat back in her seat. "You know how hard it is for me to keep my hands off you when we're in bed, and your warmth sets me on fire while I sleep."

"Maybe I should start wearing clothes to bed…" Natsu pondered, mumbling it just loud enough for the woman to hear it clearly over the road noise.

"If you do, then I'm just going to have fun stripping you every time I sneak into your bed. And then rubbing myself all over you so when you wake up, you know exactly who did it." Lucy giggled as a faint perverse blush coloured her cheeks. She took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. "Take the next off-ramp, it'll loop around to a road that goes under the freeway. You'll want to turn left at it."

They pulled off and went around the sweeping bend, coming out from under the freeway and entering a thick forest after a few minutes. The road narrowed to a rural styled road but it was well-maintained for being a road-less-traveled. There was no sign of damage or degradation on the edges and it was perfectly smooth with a gentle crown to allow water to run off the road.

"This is the preserve I was talking about." Lucy informed the pinkette, a vibrant smile lighting up her face as she gazed all around. She undid her seatbelt and stood up on her knees, leaning out the side of her S2000. "Something is coming to greet us!"

Natsu glanced at the woman as she bent over further, leaning out of the car even more. And whether it was intentional or not, her dress was riding up and revealing her delicate womanhood. Judging by the innocent giggle she gave when a large flightless bird came running out from the treeline and came up alongside their car, she wasn't intentionally flashing him but it was more of a result of deciding to not wear any underwear. "What is that?"

"It's a Dumoa." The blonde looked over her shoulder, her smile never leaving her face. "It's related to the Emu, Ostrich, and Cassowary, but is capable of running over a hundred kilometers an hour. You could sometimes find them running along the highways, racing cars and trucks while diving in and around them like they owned the roads."

"Sounds like the Road Runner." Natsu chuckled softly as he reached out and grabbed the hem of Lucy's dress, making sure she wouldn't tumble from the car. "Let's hope there are no ACME explosives or some cunning coyote up ahead."

They were only doing about 80km/h but it seemed that the bird decided that it wanted to race them as it lowered its head and sped up, racing off ahead of them and causing Lucy to giggle and slide back down into her seat. "After it, Natsu! You're supposed to be some badass street racer, right? Are you really going to let a bird show you up?"

The man looked at the giggling woman like she was crazy but shook his head as a grin slowly grew. He dropped down a gear and planted his foot to the floor. As they gained on the Dumoa, he shifted up and gained more speed until they were level with it. But the bird didn't give up, leaning even more into the sprint and putting more distance between them.

"Hahahaha!" Lucy waved to the bird as they once again came up alongside it. They lingered for a little bit but she had a feeling that Natsu wasn't about to let the animal win.

"MEEP MEEP!" The pinkette shouted as he put his foot down once more, taking off and accelerating away from the large flightless bird.

As they sped out the other side of the preserve, Natsu slowed the car back down to an acceptable speed. Lucy turned in the seat and faced the man, folding her legs in an open cross in front of her as she leaned back against the door. The light began to catch her summer dress at just the right angle to illuminate her body within, but she didn't care that she was exposed to him, if anything it made her core tingle with need. "It's been so long since I've been home. But I doubt that anything has drastically changed." She yawned and kicked her legs out slowly, resting them in a loosely open V on Natsu's lap. "Maybe there would be some new staff but that'd be it."

"How much further do we have?"

"Umm… I believe if we head over this hill, you should be able to see the perimeter fence. This road should start to bend as we crest the hill." Lucy replied as she shifted in her seat. She turned and rested her head atop her hand on the door; gazing out across the lush green grass. She brought her knees back to her own seat and curled up as best as she could. "I should have gotten a car with a bench seat… So, I have more room to lie down when you are driving."

"Eh, I was after a second car as more of a daily." Natsu admitted casually. His eyes were drawn to the woman's milky white thighs by the small hand that began to rub the underside of them. "I can look into getting one with a bench seat?"

"The only problem with that is that I can't park inside your garage whenever I come over." Lucy whined softly, turning her warm chocolate eyes to Natsu and smirking when she caught him staring. "Whatcha looking at?"

"Something delicious."

Lucy giggled and spread her lower lips, teasing the man with her moist pussy. "Now if only you could slip your tongue into there."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Natsu teased lightly as he reached over and spanked her.

"Mmm, like it? No, I'd love it."

"Maybe if we can slip away from your mother for long enough, then I'll indulge you."

"If we do that then I won't be stopping at just having your tongue in me." Lucy purred and wiggled her hips enticingly. "We'd be going all the way." She was about to tease him some more with her sensuous body when they crested the hill and her attention was drawn away by a large wrought-iron fence. "This is the edge of the mansion grounds. Follow the road around and you should come out at the front, the gatehouse will be on the left."

"Alright."

Lucy sat up properly in her seat and made quick adjustments to her outfit so she looked like a prim and proper woman from a high-class family, instead of the lewd woman she loves being around Natsu. She glanced down at her dress and grimaced softly, her body was moving too freely to be acceptable, and she didn't want to risk showing off what was reserved for Natsu to other people, so she acted on her better judgement and requipped a set of yellow lacy lingerie onto herself. "Sorry, Natsu, looks like I'm closed for now…" She giggled softly as she leaned over and kissed his cheek, but she lifted her dress just enough to reveal the sultry lace garments to him. "But I know you'll have more fun unwrapping me later on."

Natsu chuckled softly and nodded at the small building ahead of them with a barrier lowered across the road. "Just pull up at that?"

"Yep, and just let me say 'Hi', we'll be let in immediately."

As they slowed to a stop at the barrier, a well-dressed man in his sixties stepped out from the booth and came over to the car. "Good morning, how may I…" The man blinked slowly as he got a better look at the blonde in the passenger seat. "Lady Lucy, is that you?"

"Good morning, Gerald!" Lucy beamed at the old man. "I didn't think it would be you at the gate!"

"By the gods, my Lady." Gerald broke out into a happy smile as he pushed his glasses back up his nose and took his flat-cap off, holding it over his chest. "You've grown up to be a beautiful young woman."

"How's your heart?" Lucy asked, caringly, as she opened the door and gracefully exited the car. "I know it was dicey for a little bit a few years ago and you had to take medical leave…"

"It's better now, I had to have a transplant. I was at the Royal Magnolia Hospital for the operation." The man ran a hand through his grey hair as he smiled at the kind young woman. "They ended up growing a new heart from some kind of cells, I've never seen such an advanced medical facility in all my years."

"Oh! That place is connected to the place I work!" Lucy whipped around and placed her hands on the door as she leaned over closer to Natsu. "You might have met Gerald before, then?"

"Can't say I have." Natsu replied. Lucy's infectious smile tugged at the corners of his lips and he found himself smiling too, almost becoming lost in her sparkling brown eyes. He turned his attention to the gatekeeper who was looking at him with a very curious expression. "I see a lot of faces coming in and out of that place."

"But you have a fantastic memory…" The blonde whined softly, slightly bouncing on the balls of her feet. It was an act, both she and Natsu knew it, she was putting on the airs of a young playfully-ditsy blonde.

"Yes, but I get very busy at work."

Lucy sighed softly and straightened back up as she turned to the old man. "Has Mother told you I was coming?"

"Yes, but I didn't realise it was you until I got a closer look. My eyes aren't quite what they used to be. I'll lift the barricade for you." Gerald replied sadly as he made a show of adjusting his glasses. He ducked back into the small building and the barrier lifted up, clearing the path into the Mansion Grounds. "I'll call ahead so they know you've arrived."

"Thanks Gerald!" Lucy beamed and waved energetically. She slipped back into the car and stretched out; it wasn't until they were about a hundred metres away that she let the mask drop with a long sigh.

"You're not a big fan of him?"

"It's not that…" The blonde murmured softly. She gazed at the man next to her and leaned closer, resting her head against his arm. "I'm not the woman they expect me to be. Some happy, airheaded, and stubborn girl… Yeah, I'm happy and playful… and lewd, but that's only shown to those I'm very comfortable showing it to. But I mean…"

"You want to show them the more professional side of you but don't want them to be worried about you?"

"Something like that…" Lucy closed her eyes and placed her left hand over Natsu's left, curling her fingers around his larger hand a little but made sure not to disrupt his gear shifts. "I just want to be me, the me that you know, that our friends and co-workers know. But I think they would definitely be worried if they found out what I do for a living."

"If there is anything I've learnt from taking you under my wing, Lucy. It's to not hold back who you are, be who you are and don't give a shit about what people think about you."

"So that hard-ass I met on the ship was just for show?" Lucy giggled softly as she looked up at the man from his arm. "You were such a prick back then, but I know you were just trying to keep your objective safe. Right up until you decided to ramp your bike off a car-truck and into the back of an Osprey…"

"Hey, it was a desperate time, I had to take a desperate measure to get you to safety."

"Hehe, I know~." The blonde nuzzled her cheek into his warm muscled arm and squeezed his hand lightly. "But after all the hard-ass-ness had run its course, you ended up a big playful softy who loves to tease people, and give me a good squeezing." Her voice lowered into a seductive whisper as she brought her lips to her ear. "Do you want to know how much I masturbated to the thought of you while you were training me?"

"Going by what I could smell, it was literally every session after the first few weeks. Hell, when I was building your resistance to torture, I could smell you start getting turned on…"

"Hmm, now that I thin about it…" Lucy murmured softly. She grinned playfully at the man as she moved back into her seat. "I think that's what tipped the scales and made be extra lewd; I just couldn't separate the torture from the torturer and I kept getting horny from it. That's probably what made be love getting roughed up so much during sex, because I had that strange air you give up stirring me up while you were torturing me. But afterwards, you were always so gentle and made sure I was ok, and patched me up."

"And it turned out to be all for nothing." Natsu laughed. "Since that mutation of yours basically renders you impossible to restrain, and if someone tried torturing you then you'd just send them or whatever they were using off somewhere else."

"Not if it was you doing it~. If you tied me to a chair and made be beg and whimper, I wouldn't run away~." Lucy's sensual whispers returned full force; it didn't have to be very loud either since she knew he would be able to hear it perfectly anyway. A thought popped into her mind; she could use that to tease him, whispering the horniest, lewdest, downright sluttiest things she could think of under her breath during dinner or whenever over the course of their stay and there would be nothing that he could do about it. She giggled softly and grinned devilishly. "I want to be tied up and have candle wax dripped onto my boobs, and thighs too, or wherever you would like to drip it. I'll be completely under your mercy~."

"I hope you haven't packed sex candles…" Natsu glanced at the woman in slight disbelieve, but all he got in return was a wicked grin and a perverse giggle. "Bloody hell, woman. You're going to give me a limp trying to conceal the damn hard-on you keep giving me."

"Well, if it gets too uncomfortable for you then we can always have you empty your balls into me~? I don't care if it's in my pussy or in my mouth, hey, I'll even let you do it all over my tits~ I bet you'll be able to give them a very thorough coating~."

"Yeah…" Natsu grunted softly. "This wood isn't going away any time soon…"

"Don't worry, Natsu." Lucy giggled playfully. She rubbed her thighs together softly, trying to get a little bit of friction going. "I've already soaked this pair of panties, so you aren't alone in that boat." She tried her best to compose herself as they cruised around a large roundabout in the driveway, it had a massive water feature that shot water ten metres into the air then shot six more around it at half the height. They pulled in under a large marble carport where they were greeted by another middle-aged man in a fine suit, and a woman also in a suit but without a jacket, she also had driving gloves over her hands.

"Good morning, Lady Lucy. It's a pleasure to see you again." Said the man as he bowed to the blonde woman and opened the car door for her.

"Good morning, Arthur." Lucy smiled. "It's good to see you are still the head butler?"

"I am, my Lady." The orange-haired man smiled and tipped his head to the woman beside him. "This is Henrietta, she's Lady Heartfilia's new driver."

"A pleasure, my Lady." The woman's satin-black hair slipped over her shoulder and hung down in front of her as she bowed. When she straightened back up, her blue eyes darted from the young Heartfilia to the man exiting the driver's side of the car. "Allow me to take care of the car."

"The keys are sitting in the cupholder." Natsu informed the woman as he traded spots with her, joining Lucy at her side.

"Do you know where Mother is, Arthur?"

"I believe she is in her office, Ma'am. Though she has been acting rather strangely this morning, so she may be up to some kind of prank."

"Thanks for the warning. Natsu and I will try and find her." Lucy smiled as she walked to the door. As they entered, she sensed a familiar being lurking nearby, hidden behind the stairs. She smiled devilishly and turned to face Natsu, placing her hands on his chest as she leaned in close and brought her lips up beside his ear. "We're being watched by an old friend, it seems."

"Who?"

"The spirit who stayed by my mother's side; Leo the Lion. He's a big flirt but if he tries to hit on me, don't worry, I'll deal with it." She turned and rested her back against the man's chest. "Leo~, I know you're hiding over there. Come out and say hi to Natsu. He may bite, but he won't bite you."

"It really is impossible to hide from that sixth sense of yours, Princess." The lion spirit grumbled as he came out from his hiding spot and adjusted his suit. "Welcome home. And it's nice to finally meet you, Natsu. Virgo and the other spirits in Lucy's possession have a lot to say about you."

"Should I be worried?" Natsu narrowed his eyes at the spirit and rested his arms over the shoulders of the woman in front of him, putting a little bit of his weight onto her.

"Aside from Virgo, no. She's a masochist and has been raving on about how rough your training is with the Princess. Soon she might start begging you to punish her."

"Well, I hope she doesn't find out that Natsu is a very competent torturer…" Lucy muttered under her breath, but made sure the two men were able to hear it clear enough. "I can't imagine how she'd take it if she found that out."

"Oh, and Princess, before I forget. Remember that I prefer being called Loke instead of Leo, I'm your mother's protector and I prefer keeping the fact I'm a spirit under wraps." The orange-haired spirit smiled at the young celestial mage and swept his hand across the room in a grand gesture until he was pointing up the stairs. "Speaking of whom; Lady Heartfilia is waiting in her office."

"She's not there." Lucy informed the bespectacled man, who pushed his blue-tinted sunglasses up his nose and sighed.

"I did tell her that it wouldn't fool you that easily… She left a note on the desk, but I'll give you the short version. She's hiding somewhere and wants you to find her; an innocent game of hide and seek."

As the blonde in his arms let out a small grumble, Natsu looked to the ceiling, extending his senses in a wide net around the large building. "I guess she wants to test us, Lucy?"

"It's not much of a test for us…" Lucy shook her head lightly and focused her Traverse sense like a beam and scanned the building. "There is someone on the third floor, to our ten-thirty. Can your ears pick them up?"

"Barely, sounds like shallow breathing. But the emotions I'm picking up are excited with a twinge of longing and impatience."

"That'd be her. She's in the armoury." Lucy smiled softly at the spirit in front of her and held out a hand. "Come, Loke, I'll take us there." Once the man took her hand, she transported them to where she could sense her mother.

In an instant, they were surrounded by suits of armour, various swords, spears, shields, and other historical weapons. In an alcove near the door was a small room with various guns mounted on the walls, some looking like collectors' items, others looked ready for use.

"Hmm, she's expanded her collection since I was last home." Lucy murmured in slight surprise as she let go of the man's hand and reluctantly moved away from Natsu's delicious warmth. She moved over to a suit of armour and flipped up the visor, revealing a shocked blonde underneath. "Hello Mother."

"Aww~! I was hoping that would've taken a little longer." Layla whined. She was about to start removing the armour when Lucy placed a finger to the tip of her nose and she suddenly found herself standing in front of a tough looking pinkette. "Oh! Oh, hello Natsu."

"Hello Ma'am."

"Hmph." The older woman pouted childishly and crossed her arms under her sizable bust. She was wearing a simple pink shirt and a short black skirt with a pair of knee-high boots, the outfit seemed very much like something Lucy would wear but Layla's youthful looks made it possible for her to make the outfit seem perfectly natural for her. "You could at least stop calling me 'Ma'am' while you're here as a guest, Natsu. Just call me Layla, or you could call me…"

"Nope, he's not calling you mother or mum, Mother." Lucy grumbled as she walked to the blonde's side. They were practically a spitting image of each other, with Layla easily being able to pass as Lucy's older sister but her body was noticeably softer than Lucy's due to her more relaxed lifestyle.

"How about mommy?"

Natsu raised his eyes from the two bickering women to the other man in the room, getting an exasperated sigh and a slump of his shoulders as a response. Both of them didn't really want get in between them and break up the family reunion.

"Lady Heartfilia, if you'll excuse me, it's training time for the guards." The golden spirit tiredly informed his mistress as he readjusted his glasses. "It's nice seeing you again, Princess. I look forward to hearing about what you have gotten up to since you were last here."

Layla wrapped her arms around her daughter and smiled brightly as the spirit disappeared in a small burst of golden particles, giving off the same radiance as the younger woman usually did with her smiles. When an almost identical pair of arms wrapped around her and pulled her closer, she turned her attention up to Natsu. "Have you two had anything to eat yet?"

"We had a small breakfast before we left my house, but we're still recovering from our mission so we'll need some more food to help our bodies restore faster." Natsu replied. He was finding it hard to stop his eyes from dropping to the two pairs of large breasts that were pressed up against each other, and when he returned his gaze from the two sensual bodies to their faces, his breath was getting stolen by the two gorgeous near-identical women. It wasn't hard to see where Lucy got her looks from.

"How about we head back to the study?" Layla suggested as she dropped one of her arms from her daughter and half turned to the man. "I can have some food brought up to it."

"Sounds good to me." Lucy smiled brightly. She reached out to the man but pouted when he was just out of her reach. "Come here, Natsu~."

Natsu took the woman's hand but quickly found himself tugged into the hug and stuffed between two soft bodies, and before he knew it, they were no longer in the armoury but were in the middle of an office with a large wooden desk sat in front of a large window.

"Wow, I didn't think he would be this warm. I bet he is perfect for cold nights."

"He is." Lucy backed away from the man and waited for her mother to do the same. But she pushed him down on the couch and sat down on his lap, smiling happily as she got comfortable. "We had a mission where we were on an Island during winter, it got very cold there so it made snuggling up to him even better."

Layla laid down on the couch opposite them, separated from the two lovers by a mahogany coffee table. She stretched out her body and got into a relaxed position on her side, with her head resting on the armrest and her hip-length hair collected over her shoulder and down her front. "What was that one for?"

"We had to take out an Etherious, so we had Natsu's brother come along to help destroy it."

"I think it was the first mission Lucy did with my team outside of training." Natsu tacked on. He hooked an arm around the blonde and lifted her slightly, getting a sharp gasp from her as he laid them down on their side to mimic Layla's position. Lucy had instantly brought her legs up a little, giving him room to spoon her and from her increased heartrate small burst of delectable scent, he could tell that something naughty briefly crossed her mind.

"We also had to deal with a bunch of cultists and help some demons native to the island."

"Native demons? What did they look like?" Layla asked, her brown eyes sparkling with curiosity.

"Not as good as Natsu does." Lucy looked over her shoulder at the man. "Are you the only good looking Etherious?"

"No. Mard Geer looks normal, so does Seilah. Some of the others look mostly human, like me using demonic release, but there are some that look like monsters, Deliora for one, you saw him. The others aren't as big though."

"What about the mission you were just on?" Questioned Layla, she glanced up at her desk and groaned softly as she picked herself up from the couch and walked over to it, bringing up a holographic display with the Manion's internal message system. "You couldn't say much about it last time I asked."

Lucy grinned cheekily at the man now that her mother's back was turned, her undergarments glowed faintly and vanished, but once the glow faded, her dress looked normal. "Natsu, did you want to give her the rundown?"

"I was contacted by one of the high-ranking members of the Phantom Lord Private Military Company, he wanted to overthrow his boss who was committing acts of terrorism against the nation, but he needed our help and connections to make it possible. So, we supplied them with the communications gear we use and linked them into our data link. When we got the message that they were moving at midnight, we all assembled and flew out to assist them. I'm sure you've seen the News recently?"

"Yes, Jose Porla's trial would be happening soon, right?" Layla replied with a question of her own. Turning as she hit send on her message and gazing at them. "Was it you two who caught him?"

"My team was the one who did it, yes. But we weren't the only ones out on the field. Though, I believe Lucy should be the one getting the credit for denying Jose's escape and capturing him, she put on a hell of a show."

"It wasn't that spectacular…" Lucy blushed bashfully, her eyes following her mother as she laid down opposite them. "But that night wore me out pretty badly. I fell asleep once we all began to settle down, I don't even remember the trip back. I woke up in Natsu's bed."

"I bet that wasn't the first time that happened." The older blonde giggled behind her hand and shifted slightly, giving more emphasis to her hourglass figure. "Waking up worn out in Natsu's bed."

"Mother!"

"So, why don't you tell me about how you met. I bet that's one hell of a story?"

I think I'll cut this one here, I hope you've enjoyed this chapter. I hope you've enjoyed. Follow and favourite if you haven't already. And please leave a review, right now there is a bug with the traffic stats so I don't see how well my stories are going. So, if you're also reading The Fallen Dragon (my new story) or Continued Life of a Dragon Slayer (my first story, a new update is coming soon btw) then please leave a review on those ones too.

I'm sure a lot of you would know of CLoaDS by now, but let me introduce The Fallen Dragon:
It starts out in a world at war. The Pergrande Kingdom had invaded all the countries south of it and were in the middle of taking Fiore when Alakitasia joined the war and began to push the Pergrande military back through the countries. You join Natsu and his squad of elite Shock Troopers about to drop into Pregrande's capital city, where they must take out objectives on their way to the Government Palace. But as the allied forces are surrounding the building, the world's fate is sealed. Pergrande launches all of its WMDs and wreaks havoc on the world, decimating all life on the planet. But Natsu managed to survive, alone in a harsh wasteland, after a month of wandering he meets a woman too beautiful to be human. She is the Goddess Ceres, who takes pity on the man and decides to help him find a new home for himself in another version of his world.

I hope to see you over there, good-bye for now!

(I came back after going over the story as a whole, ended up retconning some things I did in this chapter. Nothing major but it fits the overall theme better.)