A few days had passed since Natsu and Lucy's fight and the Tenrou Team knew better than to ask more of Macao and the others about Lucy's situation. After learning about Jude's death, they knew better than to mention anything about him around the blonde. Though it was hard after Lucy learned that Cana had told Guildarts about her being his daughter, the blonde immediately congratulated the two and kept going on about treasuring one another - making them feel awkward.
Natsu had woken up a few hours after the fight and was immediately met with Happy's teasing about how he completely lost to Lucy after using his Lightning Fire Dragon Mode out of nowhere, causing the dragon slayer to demand for a rematch almost instantly. But Lucy didn't want to hear it and just punched him in the head, making Natsu lay back down from the pain while Nashi just laughed at him for trying to disobey her mother. Instead, after her little laugh session, the child just hugged the slayer.
What Natsu, Lucy and Happy didn't expect though, was for Nashi to ask if Lucy was going back to Natsu's house with them for the night now that she returned. Natsu didn't seem to see the problem with the idea whereas Lucy could already feel the eyes of a certain white haired matchmaker burning holes into the back of her head. Then there was Happy, who was already laughing his butt off and saying the signature teasing line of 'You like him~' behind the duo.
The blonde guild master wanted to deny the request so badly, but because of the soft spot she had for the peach haired girl, she had no choice but to give in. Under the condition that they all stay at her apartment since she had a feeling that the trio had been very messy back at Natsu's place. Of course, Natsu and Happy had no problem with that. In fact, they were practically excited to go to Lucy's apartment and most likely eat all the food that was in her fridge which made the blonde sigh.
The entire situation already caused major teasing on Lucy's end, but what made her the most uncomfortable was the fact that every night since then, Nashi insisted that she sleep in between Natsu and Lucy since her bed was big enough to fit the 3 of them. Happy didn't have to worry since he always had a spot at the foot of the bed. And because she could never deny her daughter when she was being cute, Lucy gave in and just like that, they all slept in her bed as a little family.
"If any of the others knew of this, I wouldn't hear the end of it..." Lucy thought. "Especially THEM of all people..."
On their way to the guild hall, Nashi sat on Natsu's shoulders while Happy was being carried by Lucy. While the two dragon slayers messed around, the blue exceed noticed that the celestial mage was deep in thought. She only looked straight ahead and didn't utter a word. He wasn't used to Lucy being so quiet, but he also knew that she was only ever that quiet when she was thinking about something really important and there was no way he was going to disturb her thoughts.
When they got to the guild, Natsu brought Nashi down from his shoulders and she immediately ran to play with Asuka. Once Nashi met up with the cowgirl, he looked over to his partner only to finally notice that she seemed unaware of the world around her. She was perfectly fine the day and night before so he wondered what got her to look like that after they left her apartment. When Natsu looked at Happy, the exceed only shrugged in response to his confused expression.
"Luce?" Natsu asked, waving his hand in front of her face which brought her back to reality. "You okay?"
"Huh? Oh yeah!" She replied almost instantly, waving her hand as a means to ignore her behaviour. "Guess I didn't get a lot of sleep last night, no thanks to you Natsu."
"Huh!? What'd I do?"
"You snore like a raging pig is what!"
"What'd you say!?"
"Aw c'mon you guys!" Happy whined. "Can't you guys just cool it!?"
As the two bickered with Happy trying to calm them down, everyone else couldn't help but feel like they were watching a comedy show. It was refreshing, like the past seven years never happened and the core members had just gone on a very long mission or something like that. And most of all, those who stayed behind were glad to see Lucy back to her positive self, unlike the tough and stern persona she's held up since becoming master after a year.
"You know what!? Let's settle this the old fashion way!" Natsu suggested while going into an offensive stance and surrounding his fists with fire, a smirk on his face. "I've been asking for a rematch for a couple of days now, so how about it Luce? You up for another fight or are you too chicken to face me again?"
"No way." Lucy said as she was already sitting at the bar with a strawberry milkshake in hand.
"She shut him down quickly." Everyone thought.
Natsu just stared at his blonde partner with a flabbergasted expression as she crossed her legs without another thought. Lucy tried hard not to laugh at the boy's reaction and couldn't help but feel bad that she kept making him sad like that. But it couldn't be helped since she didn't fight just because someone asked her too, she needed a reason to fight them. Plus... she had more pressing matters to think about concerning the Vetani incident from before and Nashi believing Natsu is her father.
She didn't want to leave the guild since it had been quite awhile since she had a chance to relax, but she knew that she had to update a certain old man about Vetani and give that same old man a beating for making Nashi think that Natsu is her father. And there was also the fact that she knew everyone else had been keeping the Tenrou Team in the dark about her activities and secrets for her sake, so she should get around to telling them everything soon enough.
Luckily, she didn't have to figure out a time when to tell the rest of her nakama. As Lucy finished her milkshake, both she and Nashi began to sense and smell a familiar presence and scent approaching the guild hall. Both Natsu and Happy were still at the centre of the guild, the exceed trying to convince Natsu to move where the rest of Team Natsu was seated. Nashi looked to her father as she realized that the scent was getting closer to the guild and could hear a spell be casted.
The peach haired girl immediately ran to her father and hugged him tightly, causing Natsu to regain his composure. "Papa!" Nashi cried in a worried tone.
"Huh, Nashi?" He asked as he could feel her shaking.
The next thing that Natsu and the rest of the fairies knew, Lucy had dropped her milkshake glass on the bar counter and dashed past the group of three while running out the guild at rapid speed. But before she could cast her golden barrier spell, she received a kick to the face and collided against the wall next to the front doors of the guild. Standing a meter and a half away from the entrance was a man who seemed to be in his early to mid 20's, acting as though nothing had happened.
His black hair was brushed down clean and neat with dyed blue ends while his almond shaped eyes shined a majestic ocean blue. He wore a plain white shirt under a black leather jacket and army brown cargo pants tucked into black combat boots. His body was well toned and resembled that of Gray's and had a noticeable scar on the left side of his jaw. He looked at Lucy, who held her head in pain, trying to stifle a laugh and also ignoring her intense glare.
The Tenrou Team began to shake in fear at the level of magic power he was letting out, while everyone else seemed unaffected by his presence. If anything, Makarov was surprised to see Macao and Wakaba looking at the man with complete annoyance as if this was not the first time he had come to the guild in that fashion. Erza, Gray, Wendy and Carla were even more shocked to see Nab complain about how he and the other guys have to fix the guild's wall again.
Before Natsu could make Nashi move so that he can protect Lucy, the blonde in question just groaned and looked more pissed than hostile. "Damn you jerk! That actually hurt for once!" She shouted, the core members left dumbfounded at her response. "Not only did you nearly hit Nashi, but now we have to fix the wall... AGAIN!"
The man couldn't contain his laughter any longer and just fell to his knees with tears in his eyes as he looked at Lucy like Natsu and Happy when they tease her while laughing, holding his gut since he couldn't stop. "Like that even matters considering that you actually let yourself be kicked by me, majesty!" He teased.
By that point, Lucy was royally pissed so she got up and punched the guy in the head while her fist was surrounded with her golden flames. The guy immediately face planted the ground while his bottom remained in the air, Jet and Droy now trying to hold in their laughs. "Call me majesty one more time and I might just turn you into sushi!"
"Those two actually know each other?" The Tenrou Team thought.
"Welcome back, Kai!" Kinana greeted, earning a wave from the dark haired man.
"Kai?" Gajeel asked with curious expression.
"Oh he's just a really immature friend of Lucy's." Jet replied. "But honestly he's more of an immature subordinate at this point and I'm honestly surprised that he was able to actually land a hit on her."
"He always wants to see how good her reflexes are keeping up whenever he visits, but I guess with Nashi being so close to the attack last minute, she got distracted." Droy asked, making the iron dragon slayer, Pantherlily and Levy look at the two males with wide eyes.
"Well Nashi did rush in to protect Natsu." Laki remarked.
After Kai recovered from Lucy's punch, Nashi began to run up to them. Thinking she was going to give him a hug like she usually does, Kai spread out his arms but ended up receiving being hit by a punch surrounded with fire from Nashi. "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"
The Tenrou Team's jaws were down to the floor by this point, since none of them knew of Nashi's magic until now. Surprisingly, to Natsu and Happy, the others seemed relatively proud of the girl and weren't surprised at all. "Ah!" Kai screamed as he summoned water to his hands to put out the fire that was leftover. "Now Nashi is angry at me!? What am I to do?"
Nashi only crossed her arms, copying her mother as she glared at the man before her. "Serves you right for almost hurting Papa."
"Papa?" Kai questioned, until he saw Natsu right behind the peach haired girl and immediately recognized him. "Right~ Papa."
Lucy just rolled her eyes and gestured for him and Nashi to follow her inside. "Right, anyway Kai, this is the rest of my nakama I told you about. They've been stuck in a spell for the last seven years which is why they went missing. Everyone... this is Kai, a useless fool who doesn't know how to behave in public."
"Now that's just cruel, milady!" Kai said in an overdramatic fashion.
"Sounds like two people we know in the guild." Warren said while turning his vision towards a certain raven haired ice mage and pink haired dragon slayer.
"Hey! You better not be talking about me, Warren!" Gray said, hearing the telepathic mage as he somehow ended up in his underwear.
"Gray-sama, your clothes..." Juvia said.
"What the heck!? When'd that happen!?"
"Pretty sure you came to the guild like that, Gray." Cana said, taking a break from her booze in a barrel. "Now... if only I can get my hands on the good booze in the cellar..."
Kai chuckled at the scene before him and he watched as Nashi asked Natsu to carry her, which the slayer complied. "Thanks for the introduction milady but the others and I already heard of their return." The man said as Lucy looked at him with a taken aback expression.
"You all know already?" Lucy asked. "But how?"
Kai just scoffed before smirking and pointed to Natsu, though everybody assumed he was pointing at Nashi from their point of view. "Do you honestly think that old man would have been kept in the dark about them forever?" He asked, making Lucy sigh at the realization. "It's the only reason why I came here in the first place."
At those words, Lucy blinked twice before crossing her arms. She should've expected this sooner or later and it definitely made it easier on her to explain her situation to the rest of her nakama. When was the last time she brought the rest of her guild with her to that place anyway? She was sure the others wouldn't mind taking a little trip. "Very well." She said as she turned to Nashi.
When the child saw the smile on her mother's face, she returned it with an even larger smile and began to pull on Natsu's scarf excitedly. "Papa! Papa! We're finally going to visit Grandpa!" She cheered.
"Eh?" Natsu and Happy asked.
"It's not just us, sweetie." Lucy said as she looked to the rest of her guildmates. "I've kept all of you in the dark for awhile now and I wanna say thanks for being patient with me, so I think it's time I showed you all why time has been weird on me."
"You mean we're all going?" Bisca asked.
"Aw c'mon honey, it's been awhile since the entire guild went." Alzack reassured.
"Aw yeah! Immense training, here we come!" Max cheered.
"I can't wait to work on my magic when we get there!" Laki said. "I should go home and pack for a week!"
"Wait now Lucy, you plan to bring us all!?" Makarov asked, not liking how the guild will be left unattended for however long this trip was going to last. "Is that wise?"
"Oh don't worry Master, we won't actually be gone for very long." Kinana reassured, making him and Mira raise an eyebrow. "We told you, didn't we? Time there is weird and it'll be like we never left."
"Where exactly are we going, Lucy?" Erza asked.
Lucy looked at Kai and the two just laughed, thinking about how she and the rest of the core members were going to react. "Where's the fun in a little surprise, Erza?" Lucy asked as she turned back to Kai. "Come back in three hours and prepare the rooms, that should be enough time for all of us to pack and close the guild for the next few hours."
"We anticipate your arrival, milady." Kai replied, bowing as he faded away and disappeared in a blue light.
Once he was gone, Lucy went up to Nashi and spread her arms out. The peach haired girl immediately jumped out of Natsu arms as Lucy caught her and the two faced the rest of the guild. The non core members seemed to already know what they're going to do, but the rest all just stared at her at a complete loss. The two girls just chuckled at their clueless expressions and Lucy just cleared her throat to bring them back to reality.
"Your answers will be delivered soon guys, so go on home and pack for at least a week and meet back here in three hours so I can take you all to where we have to go." Lucy announced. "Let me show you what I've been doing for the last few years."