"LUCY!" Natsu and Happy cried as the exceed flew straight towards her at rapid speed, attempting to tackle her.

But right just as he was about come into contact with the blonde master, Lucy dodged him (she was not about to let him tackle her while she was carrying Nashi) so his body ended up crashing into one of the wooden pillars that Kinana used as a clothes line. The non core members couldn't help but stifle their laughs as Lucy brought Nashi to stand on the ground. The child looked at her mother with curiosity but she was only met with a pat and a gesture to go where Asuka was. The child said nothing more and ran to the cowgirl.

Happy had fallen to the ground after hitting the pillar, but when he composed himself again, Lucy had gone to his side and crouched down with a smile on her face. Even though the exceed knew she had gotten older, Lucy was still his and Natsu's partner and that was enough for him to jump in order to hug her. "Lucy~! We missed you!" He cried.

The blonde girl could no longer contain her happiness and began to cry too, hugging the blue exceed in return tightly as Natsu also joined in the hug. A sight that Romeo and the others found refreshing since Lucy had built herself to be a rock when she decided to take position of Master of Fairy Tail after she had come back from her training trip. They watched as the blonde stood up with Happy in her arms and ran to the rest of the core members, who had their arms wide open to embrace her.

"You're home! You're finally home!" She cried as they hugged her one by one.

"Says you, dummy!" Natsu retorted with his grin that Lucy could never forget. "We've been waiting for you for two weeks now!"

"Well how was I supposed to know you were coming home while I was away, idiot!" Lucy shouted as she kicked him all the way inside the guild, the sounds of a table breaking upon impact. "If Virgo had told me what the news was, I would've been back right away!"

"Wow Lucy, your kicks have gotten stronger." Gray said with a grin, as everyone began to go back inside the guild to catch up.

"Well I have to teach anyone who disrespects Fairy Tail a lesson." She replied, shrugging. "Being Master isn't easy after all."

"Hold on! You're the fourth Master of Fairy Tail, Lucy!?" Natsu and Happy exclaimed, the exceed flying out of the blonde's arms while Natsu got up from laying in between 2 broken table pieces. "When in the world did that happen!?"

"Are you just now realizing that?" Carla asked.

"I should've known that you of all people would take it upon herself to become Fairy Tail's master, Lucy." Makarov said as Lucy blushed at the compliment. "The others have told me that you gained quite a reputation despite going on trips often. But it seems that you can handle the job of master well."

Lucy just laughed as she scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "Ever since we became one of the weakest guilds, a lot of people laughed and looked down on us." Lucy said with a soft tone. When she noticed everyone stared at her with pitiful eyes, she became cheerful immediately. "So I took it upon myself to teach them a lesson!"

"I have to say I'm impressed with the way you fought today, Lucy." Erza said with a proud smile. "You've definitely become much stronger while we were away."

"Being the guild's master suits you well, Lucy!" Wendy said after her turn to hug the blonde girl.

Lucy just hugged Wendy again for the compliment, but then she felt a hand on her leg and looked down to see Nashi. Lucy chuckled and picked up her daughter, placing her to sit on her thigh. Nashi immediately began to hug Lucy tightly, her face turned slightly to glare at Wendy with jealousy, the two laughing at how cute she was. Wendy then explained that they already heard about Nashi's adoption from the others when they first met Nashi, the blonde grateful there were no misunderstandings.

"Oh, speaking of which..." Lucy said as she pulled Nashi away from hugging her, a stern look forming on the blonde's face. A look Nashi knew meant that she was about to be scolded. "Why don't you tell me who convinced you to use magic without my permission, hm?"

"Eh?" Natsu and Happy asked, their blood running cold.

"You've always been such a good girl at understanding why you can't use your magic unless me or Grandpa are around, Nashi." Lucy said in a lecturing tone, Nashi's head lowered since Lucy seemed disappointed in her. "So come on, out with it. Who did you trick into letting you use magic?"

Nashi only pouted before staring at her mother's eyes with certainty, surprising Lucy. "It wasn't my fault!" The child cried, making everyone except Natsu and Happy surprised by her outburst. "Papa was the one who kept urging me to show off my magic! He wanted to teach me since you weren't around!"

At the word 'Papa', Lucy froze and the rest of the guild realized that no one had told her what happened between Natsu and Nashi while she had been away. The celestial mage just stared at the peach haired girl. She knew Nashi wasn't the type to lie about her own fault, so that left the question as who was the one acting as her father. She knew Nashi didn't see any of the males who stayed behind with her the last 7 years as a father, so it had to be someone from the core members.

"P-Papa...?" Lucy asked, clearly still taken aback. "Who's Papa...?

Nashi nodded and turned to point at Natsu, who was hiding behind Wendy in fear of the blonde's wrath with Happy behind him. "See Mama look!" Nashi said as Lucy's eyes widened at realization that it was Natsu. "After Papa and Happy came back, I had to remind them what my magic was and he told me he could teach me!"

So many thoughts went through Lucy's head while Natsu and Happy prayed for their lives. The celestial mage thought back to see if there was any reason for Nashi to think Natsu was her father. Ever since she adopted the girl, she was never really told Nashi about Natsu or the others in detailed fashion. She only ever mentioned how crazy and chaotic her nakama was whenever Nashi saw her look through the old drawings from Reedus' sketchbook.

But when Lucy thought about Nashi's magic and how she was also a fire dragon slayer like Natsu, there was only one other person she could think of who could tell her daughter anything about Natsu. "That old man..." She groaned internally.

Lucy decided that it was better to deal with that later, she carried Nashi and stood up so that she could walk up to her two best friends with an irritated smile forced on her face. Wendy wisely moved to the side and before the duo could run away, Lucy grabbed ahold of Natsu's scarf. A raging fire suddenly growing around her body. Her aura grew immensely and the duo knew that Lucy was about to send them to hospital. Not even Acnologia could scare them this much.

"Not only does the guild fail to tell me that you've returned and that Nashi apparently believes you're her father, but you continuously urged my daughter, who knew the consequences of her using magic without me, to train with you."

At her words, the rest of the non core members immediately felt chills down their spines. "That's the last time we try to surprise her." They all thought.

Lucy couldn't help but try to hold in her laugh as she felt like the reality was surreal. She just couldn't believe that Natsu and the others were back and maybe with them, everything she had to deal with would be so much easier. She let go of Natsu's scarf, much to his relief, and smirked while placing a hand on her hip. The dragon slayer not expecting her to suddenly look so calm considering that it was technically his fault for nearly putting her daughter in danger.

"W-What?" He asked.

Lucy's aura died down and she looked at Nashi, who seemed to know what she was thinking. The mother and daughter seemed to communicate telepathically before Nashi's expression changed to one of excitement as she jumped out of Lucy's hold and grabbed Romeo and Asuka's wrists as she dragged the both of them outside the guild hall. When they realized where they were going, they also got excited and went to the guild's training grounds.

"Since it's been quite awhile since I last saw you, why don't I punish you the way I do all my foes?" Lucy suggested, making the non core members gasp.

"Aw c'mon Lucy! We just repaired everything since the last time!" Max complained.

"Why?" Levy asked. "What happened the last time?"

"You see, it was Twilight Ogre again." Alzack said with an empty laugh. "They ticked Lucy off and she nearly destroyed the guild."

"EH!?" The Tenrou Team cried.

"I just want to see if my partner is still as strong as I remember." She said, cracking her knuckles and neck. "After all, he's been asleep for seven years while I've had... uh... how long did I train again?"

The non core members just shrugged at her question. "You technically trained for seven years but you came back to the guild after one month so you choose the length." Jet said.

"Are any of you ever going to explain how the math and logic works with that?" Makarov asked.

"Hey it's not our fault that time has been weird on her." Droy replied. "Besides, you'll all find out soon enough since you're better off if she explains everything. The logic is still confusing to us sometimes."

Lucy just smirked at Jet's response and scoffed, Natsu liking how confident she was being. "Being this strong and only from a month's worth of training? I like the sound of that." She said as she raised her hand, making the core members gasp as it was surrounded by golden flames. "I wonder if you can take the heat, Natsu."

The fire dragon slayer brought his own fist up, surrounding it in his fire with excitement written all over his face. "Even though you got a few more years worth of training, Luce, that doesn't mean I'm about to go easy on you."

"I'm glad the feeling's mutual."