Hello ladies and gentlemen! I apologise for missing last week. Still having a lot of motivation issues, plus having other things take over my time. That being said, today is special!

This Monday as I'm posting this is actually 2nd Generations 4th birthday! On November 26th, 2014 I posted the first chapter to this behemoth. Little did I know that four years, 323 chapters and almost a million words later I'd still be here. But of course, I wouldn't be here without all of you guys. Without your support and continued reading, I'd have dropped this thing before fifty chapters. But we here, and we're here to celebrate! Today we'll be finally delving into Winter and Drake's shared backstory, so I hoped you're hyped for that!

Also, I may have enjoyed writing awkward tween romance and dialogue too much. I apologise in advance. Also, was really weird writing them as innocent kids. They've been not that for three hundred chapters.

Enjoy!

"C'mon Winter, I don't need Gray on my ass about being late!"

"Sorry Dad!" Winter shouted happily as she chased after her father through the streets of Magnolia. She knew that she was supposed to be training with Gray and his daughter today, but she was so distracted by the apparent festival going on in the city. Stalls were lining up and down the streets, preparing to sell everything from food to merchandise. She came to Magnolia often enough, as her dad liked to train her and Gray's daughter Ultear at the same time. From what she could gather, it was apparently because that was how they had learned their magic, so it was how they were going to learn too, Although she was ore natural for her to use the Sky God magic her mother was teaching her, Winter wanted to learn Ice Make as well. It was best a wizard cover all of their bases, after all. She could see the Fairy Tail guild hall up ahead, but she had to admit, it looked more like a castle than anything else. Honestly, why was it so big?

Once the pair reached it, they walked inside without waiting. Although she too spent a lot of time in a guild hall, Winter's nose was immediately assaulted by the smell of alcohol. She was growing more accustomed to it as time went on, but it was still pretty vile.

"You go and find the kids," Her dad said to her as he walked off. I'm going to go see if I can find Gray."

"Okay!" This left Winter by herself, but she wasn't uncomfortable. Like she'd said, she spent a fair amount of time here. Quickly glancing around the guild hall, Winter made sure not to miss anything. After all, she was looking for her friends. Soon enough though, she finally found them sitting at a table a ways away from her.

The group of four was in the middle of what seemed to be a hilarious conversation, Simon cackling loudly. Ultear looked pretty bemused by his side, but it was quite clear she was holding in her laughter in a vain attempt to appear mature. Nashi, shy as she was, was laughing as well.

And then there was Drake.

Winter hated that she was crushing on the boy so hard. She didn't know when exactly this had started, or even why, but what she did know was that he set her face alight and made her heart skip a few beats. She'd never even felt that interested in boys before, but she was smart enough to know that she was crushing on him.

"Winter!" Ultear called, causing the girl to snap out of her trance. "Come over here, you weirdo!"

"I'm the weirdo," Winter said casually as she approached the group. "At least I'm not laughing my butt off about something."

"It was funny!" Simon protested, looking amused still.

"I can bet it was," She said. "I've never seen you laugh so hard. Even Nashi was laughing."

"It was pretty funny," The pinkette said quietly, playing with her fingers. Winter knew that calling her out for laughing was going to make her self conscious, and it made her feel a little bad. That being said, the scarfed girl needed to get some thicker skin. Otherwise she was just a target. And as far as she knew, apparently that was the case to an extent. But she wasn't in a position to talk about that, it wasn't her business.

"You ready to train today?" Ultear asked, making her nod.

"Yep, I'm super ready to have to ditch my clothes and try not to freeze to death while our dads create a tundra around us." Ultear shivered at the thought, making Drake laugh.

"Losing your clothes huh?" He asked. "Can I come along?"

Yes

"Like hell, you can, Cyanide Breath." Ultear jabbed back, using Simon's fork to point at the boy. "Elise's ranting about you walking in on her was enough for me. If I catch you perving on us I'm freezing you solid."

"She was really mad about that," Nashi included, looking thoughtful as Drake's cheeks flushed.

"If that damn iron idiot knew how to lock her doors it wouldn't have been a problem!" He shouted, making Winter laugh despite the pang of jealousy in her chest.

"I'm sure you loved it," she threw in, making him scoff.

"What's to look at?" He demanded.

"Which is why you asked to go along, huh?" Simon asked. This clammed Drake up pretty quick, which caused another bout of laughter. Winter couldn't lie, the idea of Drake watching her undress made her cheeks flush. God, she was way to young to be having these thoughts. What the heck was wrong with her?

"Well, we better get going." Ultear said, standing from the table. "Else we have to spend an extra hour out there."

"Yeah, let's not do that." Winter said. "I'll see you guys later, okay?" The group nodded at this, and Winter heart skipped a beat as she looked over to Drake. "See ya Drake."

"Have fun," He said, smiling at her. With this she followed Ultear towards their arguing fathers, heart pounding way to fast for her own liking. If there was a festival going on today, perhaps she could stay for it? Maybe she could ask Drake out! No, she couldn't do that. She didn't have the guts to. After all, she doubted that he felt the same way she did.

Winter growled as her flashbacks began to distract her a little too much from the fight at hand. She needed to focus on taking Drake out, but she couldn't with all these thoughts muddling her mind. Why did this have to happen to her?

Thinking back to that day used to fill Winter with a melancholy feeling. She hadn't known at the time, but that day, at the age of thirteen, she have her first boyfriend. After training with Ultear, Gray and her father, Winter had begged him to allow her to stay for the Fantasia parade. Not one to turn her down, her father allowed her too stay for the festivities.

That was where this moron made her his own.

"I'm so glad Lyon let you stay for the festival!" Ultear said, kicking her feet back and forth as she hung them over the bridge in town. "Fantasia is always so much fun!"

"I'm glad too!" Winter agreed with a smile. "Maybe it'll help me warm up a bit. That training freezes me solid."

"I know right?" Ultear asked. "It's like damn, I know you guys are ice wizards but tone it down. Anyway! Let's get going, the others are probably waiting." Nodding, Winter happily chased after Ultear towards the lights and voices. She had never been to the Fantasia parade before, but from what she had already gathered it was incredible. On top of the parade going through town, the stores had set up streets full of events, games and food stalls, all for the citizens to enjoy. And as the girls got closer, she could tell she was going to love it.

She could see young children sprinting down the street, all the while looking for something to eat or do with their friends. A ways from them she could see Drake and the others, all standing around a cotton candy stand. Everyone had a stick of it already in their hands, and it made her want some too.

"Hey guys!" Ultear greeted as they reached them. "Aw, they got cotton candy?! Awesome!"

"I know right?" Drake asked through the fluff in his mouth. He offered the stick towards Winter, which made her blush. "Wanna bite?"

"S-Sure," she said. Brushing her hair behind her ear to avoid getting it sticky, Winter took a bite of Drake's cotton candy. Just like she knew it would, the fluff began to dissolve in her mouth immediately, the sugar soaking in her mouth. She'd probably think this stuff was gross in a few years, but for now she planned on enjoying it.

"Alright everyone," Simon said as he crossed his arms. "We've got about an hour and a half before the parade part starts, so..." At this, the redhead visibly shivered, looking shaken.

"What?" Nashi asked, tilting her head to the side. "What's the matter?"

"I sense a disturbance," Simon hissed under his breath. Drake snickered.

"That just means Mami is honing in on you." This made Winter laugh. Mami, the daughter of Blue Pegasus' master, had the hots for Simon. Not unlike her own feelings for Drake, except she was much more forward with them. Winter liked to keep it to herself.

"Why is she here?" Simon demanded. "She always has to come out during this and-"

"There you are darling!" A new voice shouted, making Simon wince. Winter turned to look as Mami ran towards them, a wide smile on her face. "It took me forever to find you!"

"Run!" Simon shouted, sprinting away as Mami got closer. Soon enough the entire friend group was sprinting through the crowds at top speed, their laughter being drowned out by all the other noise in the city. Winter could barely keep track of the others through the crowd and laughing herself silly, just barely able to keep up thanks to that. She finally stopped and took a deep breath, trying to regain her breath after laughing so hard. From the looks of things she'd lost the others, but that was okay. They'd regroup eventually, it was just how things worked.

"Winter over here!" Turning to look, Winter's heart skipped a beat as she saw Drake beckoning for her. She walked over to him, smile growing more anxious as she did so.

"Looks like we both got split up, huh?" She asked, hands behind her back.

"Yeah, but that's okay." He said with a smirk. "Simon's just gonna be annoying until Mami catches up with him. Let's go have fun!"

And so they did.

Winter let Drake drag her all over the city, looking at all the different stalls and what they had to offer. They stopped at barbecue stalls, ice cream stalls, game stalls, the works. Eventually Winter's anxiety worked itself away and she started to have a load of fun. How could you not? This was just so much fun!

"Hey look at that thing!" Drake said, garnering her attention. She turned to see some sort of ring throwing game. She didn't need to actually go over to know how the game worked. Obviously the 'contestant' would throw rings and try to get them around sticks to win prizes. It was easy enough, but more than enough people kinda sucked at it. That or it was rigged, either way. Regardless, the kids wandered over to look in curiosity.

"Hey Drake!" The stall owner, an older man, greeted. "How're the festivities this year?"

"Great!" Drake said, giving the man a thumbs up. "Gets better every year!" The owner just laughed at this.

"I'm glad!" He said. "Looking to win a prize for your friend there? I don't recognise her."

"She's not local," Drake said. "But good idea! Winter, do you want a prize?"

"N-Not really," Winter murmured, cheeks flushing. God, she really wanted him to win her something. But she wasn't going to say that!

"Don't be dumb, you need some memorabilia!" He said. "Old man, gimme some rings!" Winter watched as the man handed the throwing devices over, and Drake bit on his tongue as he focused. The first few throws were off, but he got better the more he threw. The last one in his hand nailed its target, making Drake smile.

"We have a winner!" The owner said. "What were ya looking to get kid?"

"I already know!" Drake replied triumphantly. "Old man, gimme that stuffed polar bear!" Winter watched as the man nodded, grabbing the polar bear and tossing it to Drake. Catching it, Drake whirled and presented it to Winter happily.

"T-Thanks..." She muttered, taking the gift. She clutched the bear close to her chest, beyond pleased to get a gift from him.

"Glad you like it!" He said with a smirk. "I'm sure he loves you too. After all, polar bears love winter right?"

Winter needed to thank the love goddess when she got home, because the boy she was crushing on was too pure and sweet for this world. Corny joke sure, but it made her heart flutter all the same.

"Ah crap, we're going to miss the start of the parade!" Winter was snapped out of her delirium as Drake grabbed her hand, hauling her away. "We gotta get going!" Winter remained quiet as she was dragged, focusing solely on her clammy hand latched to Drake's. God, she hoped he didn't notice she was sweating so much. Before long they reached a split in the road where the crowd was gathering, so they stopped. With how late it was getting, the lighting on the streets was setting quite the mystical mood.

Before long, Winter could see parades floats, but not just any floats. She knew full well that the parade portion was members of Fairy Tail using magic to excite the crowd, so she was excited to see what they had come up with. She could see Gray creating a winter wonderland, complete with some of the woman skating on the ice. Lucy was using her celestial magic to create a magnitude of different scenarios, from Leo's blinding yet beautiful light to Aries' fluffy fur cascading down on the crowd. Winter watched it awe as the older members did their things, surprised at how creatively they did their work. One thing stuck out to her though.

"How come you're not in the event?" She asked Drake, who was beside her. Drake shrugged.

"Not my thing," he replied. "Besides, it's more fun down here with you than up there embarrassing myself."

Winter would have agreed, but she was too focused on the part of his sentence where he admitted he was having fun with her. He really knew exactly what to say, didn't he?

As the pair watched the parade, Winter came to a realisation. This was her chance. She could do something slightly flirty and see how Drake reacted to it. At first the thought nearly gave her a panic attack, but eventually she tried to steel her resolve and came to the decision to try it. Slowly but surely she pressed herself into Drake's side, slowly enough that it appeared maybe someone was pushing her out of the way. After she got close enough, Winter took a deep breath. She was going to go for it, she really was. Okay, now or never. Now is the time. She could do it, she was strong!

She slowly reached for Drake's hand, grabbing it lightly.

At first she felt him jump a bit at her touch, and then for a moment nothing really happened. However, after a few seconds Winter felt Drake grab her hand back, and she felt like her heart was going to stop.

She was holding his hand!

She tried to calm down so her hand wasn't sweaty, but she knew she was clammy as ever. The two remained quiet for a moment before Drake coughed.

"Hey, Winter?" He asked.

"H-Hm?" She asked weakly.

"You wanna, uh..." He stumbled, face growing red. "You wanna, like, do something sometime?"

God, even in the heat of battle it was an awkward and cringy memory. How the hell had she gotten so excited over holding his damn hand? Seriously, that was nothing. After that, they had indeed gone to do something. Afterwards, they officially decided to start dating. It was nothing like a story book, and even worse a lot of the memories plagued Winter when she was trying to sleep at night. God, some of it was so bad.

"Stop blowing me away, you wench!" Winter snapped back to her fight as Drake began to force his way through the whirlwind, growling angrily. "This is supposed to be a fight!"

"Well technically we're fighting," Winter replied. "I'm just trying to think of a strategy."

"If you're having that much trouble then it seems you're trash talk really was just talk," He snapped, protecting his face from the debris that had been picked up by the wind. Winter ignored him and tried to make the memories go away by focusing on fighting. Manipulating the wind she picked up bigger and bigger pieces and debris, and before long the whirlwind was a massive tornado of stone and rubble. She flung it at Drake at random, and thanks to her oppressive wind a few of them hit their mark. Before long Drake allowed himself to get swept up in the wind, and Winter watched in surprise as he used the debris as footing in the wind. He rode the tornado for a while before he came back around towards her, and used the winds power to catapult himself out of it and right at her.

She had no time to use the wind to get him away.

Summoning her Ice Make Magic, she used her fathers style and summoned a tiger, which pounced at Drake and kept him at bay before he could reach her.

"You seem to hate it when I get close," Drake said as he worked to keep the jaws of the icy beast away from his neck. "How are you planning on defeating me?"

I"m still working that one out, you asshole.

Winter neglected to say this out loud however, as it would only elicit more trash talk. She was still too consumed by their past to really do anything of note in this fight. She could remember the times they'd trained together, the time they'd hung out alone and she felt so at peace with herself. The first time they'd kissed, the first time they'd said they were in love, all of it. She remembered the times he'd fended off bullies for Nashi or herself, defended them like he himself had been insulted. All these memories did was reinforce to her just how far Drake was willing to go for those he cared about, and why it pissed her off that someone had taken advantage of him to make him do this.

Hell, he'd even gone out of his way to make sure she wasn't hurt after they'd decided to break up over a year after they'd started dating. If that didn't make him a good person, she really didn't know what did.

Deep down Winter knew nothing good was going to come out of seeing Drake today. After all, it hadn't really been going well recently at all. Well, no, that was inaccurate. To anyone looking in, they seemed fine. Even for a young couple. But Winter knew that she and Drake hadn't seen each other a lot recently. Even when they did, it felt like they were forcing each other to do so out of some obligation to each other. She still felt attracted to him, but she could tell that the fairy tale relationship she envisioned wasn't really working out. So, of course, she kinda knew where today was going. She didn't like that she knew, but seeing it coming was easy enough.

Once she finally reached the guild hall, she was greeted happily by those who recognised her. She did her best to smile back at them, but she really wasn't that happy. Like she said, she knew why she was here. Looking around, she finally spotted Drake sitting by himself at a table. He was probably waiting for her, so she swallowed her pride and walked over.

"Hey," she greeted as she reached him. Drake looked over his shoulder and smiled weakly at her.

"Hey," he replied. Silence fell upon the pair before Winter took in upon herself to sit down across from her, tightly knotting her hands together. The silence was deafening, but she didn't know what to say.

"Where are the others?" She decided to ask.

"I asked them to leave me alone when you got here," Drake replied, staring at his mug as he swirled it's contents. "So we could talk." More silence fell upon them, and Winter started to dwell on what could have been done differently to prevent this. Maybe she should have made more time for him. Maybe she should have made it more obvious how much she liked him. She didn't know. There must have been something she could've done.

"We're breaking up, aren't we?" She asked.

"..." Drake's silence was all she needed to hear, and she just let out a laugh.

"I figured," she said. "We've been distant these past few months. Doesn't even feel like we're together."

"Yeah," Drake agreed. "I don't want you to get the wrong idea, though. You're fantastic, but I think it was foolish to think this would work from the get go. I mean, we're in different guilds cities apart. We're only young, there was no way this was going to work out."

"I know that," Winter said. "I've just been crushing on for so long I wanted to make it work."

"Do you still feel that way?" He asked. Winter really had to wonder. She still felt attracted to him, but it wasn't as intense as before. Perhaps being given the experience of being his girlfriend had given her insight. Perhaps that was why she wasn't fighting him to try and work this out. No matter how much she had enjoyed being with him, she knew it was foolish to think this would work out in any capacity. Maybe that was why she'd been subconsciously pushing away from him recently. To make this easier on herself.

"Not as much," she finally replied. "That's not an insult, I just think I got a dose of reality after all this time." This just made Drake laugh.

"I thought as much," he said. "You've been pushing me away for a while, I figured it was coming."

"That's nothing against you," Winter said hastily, hoping his feelings weren't hurt. "You're great, it's just..."

"Not the right time," Drake finished for her. "I guess it's just because we're young. Don't get me wrong though, you're great. Let's not let this ruin our friendship! We're strong enough to just be friends!" Winter pressed her lips together and nodded, knowing he was doing his best to make sure this didn't hurt either of them long term. And besides, he was right. They were being mature about this, so they could be friends instead. That was how adults worked things out, right.

"Right!" She said. "We can totally do that! And if we want to try this again sometime, we can! After we're older and have more options!"

"Exactly!" Drake said, standing up. "I'm glad we're in agreement on this. I was worried you'd try and fight me on this."

"I may be a girl, but I'm not blind to the truth." Winter said as she also stood. "I know when to quit." Drake just smiled at her, and walked over to her. She accepted his hug, burying her face into his shoulder. She knew it was selfish to enjoy his touch this much one last time, but she'd take all she could get. The hug didn't last though, as Drake broke it and smiled down at her.

"Now, let's go find the others and have some fun," he said. "Enough being serious." Winter just smiled back at this.

"Yeah, let's."

It wasn't often Winter thought about their shared desire in trying a relationship again if they wished. Deep down, she knew her feelings for Drake had not disappeared. She still found him attractive, and she still wished to be his. But she knew that they were still too young. On top of that, they were now in constant danger thanks to all the enemies he and the others seemed to make. Trying something like that right now would be foolish.

Oh how she wished it wasn't so, however.

She was snapped out of her thoughts as Drake punched his way through the icy tiger blocking his path, making his way for her once again. Winter was ready however, summoning a blast of wind too big for him to dodge. The gale picked him up and sent him flying back into a tree, causing it too break at the trunk and fall. Winter wasted no time, however.

"Ice Make: Eagle!" Her ranged attack appeared from her hands, and dozens of tiny eagle shaped icicles flew at Drake and collided with him as he tried to stand from the ground. She could hear him roaring in anger from the dust cloud it kicked up, but she didn't want to hear it.

I know this isn't you, you moron. I'm not going to let you hurt the people you care about. You're too caring to even consider doing that.

She watched as Drake stood up, covered it cuts from the eagles hitting him. He glared Winter down, but she returned his glare easily.

"You're an immensely annoying enemy," he said flatly. Winter smirked.

"Guess that's why you never outright beat me when we spared," she replied. "Did you forget that?" Drake smirked.

"I remember holding back," he said. "Maybe cause I didn't want to hurt your pretty face. But none of that matter now. I'm going to defeat you, and then go back to the others so I can-"

At this, Drake was cut off as he gasped, and nearly collapsed to the ground. Winter watched warily for a surprise attack, but one never came. After a few seconds of dry heaving, Drake looked up at her weakly.

"...Winter?" He asked weakly. "W-What're we doing?"

Huh?

"Don't try and fool me," Winter said. "We're fighting."

"What?" Drake demanded, raising an eyebrow. "Why the hell're we fighting?"

"Do you not remember?"

"No!" Winter took her own turn to raise an eyebrow at this. Surely he hadn't just forgotten, right? Had the controller been attacked? Was he free? "We don't have time for this! Let's go and find the others!" Winter's eyes widened as he sprinted off away from her, leaving her dumbfounded.

"Hey, asshole!" She shouted as she ran after him. "I don't trust you yet! I need to kick your ass to make sure!"

"Quit talking nonsense!" Drake shouted as he looked over his shoulder at her. "I need to save Luna!"

Yep, it was definitely Drake again.

Winter chased after him, just like she always did, as they rushed back in the direction of the fight with Hermes. As they did so, Winter spared a thought to wonder what had happened. How had the control over him been broken?

Elise stared down at the woman in confusion after Azzie had attacked her with her magic, making her fall to the ground in surprise. The two had still been riding the transport with an unconscious Luna when they encountered this woman, seemingly concentrated. Elise had recognised her from Mt. Olympus a year ago, so Azzie had used her Nullification Magic to attack her and break the spell she was using.

"What was she doing?" She asked. Azzie took a deep breath at this.

"I don't really know," she replied. "But I know she's the enemy. So I nullified whatever she was doing." Elise watched as the beautiful black haired woman struggled to her feet, casting them an irritated look.

"I just had to encounter the runaway from Devil Advocate, huh?" She demanded. "Great. And here I had two powerhouses distracted with each other. Are you two trying to fight me now?"

"If you're one of The Olympians, I suppose we have no choice," Elise replied as she hardened her body. The woman stood and brushed her hair back behind her ear, smiling at both Azzie and Elise.

"I'm going to enjoy toying with you two."

And with the backstory told and some plot progression, we come to the end of the anniversary update! I had to cut out some of Winter and Drake's backstory purely to save time, and it wasn't really that good to begin with. So, I deemed in unnecessary.

So like I said above, I wanted to talk to you guys! With this being the four year anniversary, I wanted to ask you guys something. How long have some of you been here? I know some of you answered this a bit ago when I asked why you liked the story, but I'm really curious how long some of you have managed to stick around. Let me know that, and also how yo're enjoying the story thus far! Cause I can attest, we haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet!

I hope you all enjoyed, leave a review! Let's try and get TEN for the anniversary! I know, asking a lot here lol.

Chapter 324: The Goddess Of Love