Author's Note:

Gah! Phoooey... I was doing so good, but a week snuck by me again. Sorry guys! That was totally my bad. .

I hope everyone enjoyed the little citrusy goodness last chapter at least! And now we have a bit of fluff... with a little twist to make things interesting. ;D

Thanks as always to my AMAZING reviewers! BIG hugs and kisses to: Natsulover89 and SistershoOk!

Alrighty! On with the show!

They stayed resting in her bed for a while after that. And naturally, as soon as Lucy's head started operating on a more normal level, a few thoughts and questions occurred to her – one of which she'd been wondering for a while now.

"How are you so good at this?" she asked out loud, still a little shocked despite everything they'd already done up to this point.

There was a long pause, and then Natsu started laughing. She snorted and turned her head to give him a playful frown, saying, "I'm serious!"

"Thanks, Luce. Glad to hear you liked it so much."

"Yeah, like I said earlier… it was amazing. But honestly, before we started getting intimate, I wouldn't have expected you to have the patience and delicacy for that kind of thing."

"Hey! What do ya mean?! I can be delicate!" he protested, scowling at her a little bit.

Now, it was her turn to laugh, and she managed to wheeze, "Like a bull in a china shop maybe. Come on, Natsu… you've got the energy of a bouncy tiger. You're wild and crazy, and I love you for it… but 'delicate' is not a word I'd normally associate with you."

This time, Natsu didn't even try to deny it, and he just smiled unrepentantly. "Yeah, guess you've got a point. Little fiddly stuff isn't usually real easy for me."

"Exactly. That's why I'm so surprised about how good you are at touching my clit. It definitely fits into the category of 'little fiddly stuff.'"

He shrugged and grunted, "Cana beat it into me that I had to be GENTLE and go SLOW and constantly check in with my girl to make sure it felt good. She had me practice with a fricken' pea on the table for hours, I think."

"Oh yeah… that's right. You told me a while back that Cana taught you how to kiss. So, I probably should've guessed that she also tutored you on sex…." Lucy hummed, blinking a few times as she wrapped her head around that information. About thirty seconds later, she started chuckling at the mental picture of Natsu rolling around a tiny green pea while Cana fussed at him.

Their bartender friend was usually so carefree and easy going, it might've been hard to imagine her as a strict teacher… if Lucy hadn't already seen it once before and knew that the brunette could be surprisingly tough sometimes.

The time she'd witnessed Cana's scary side, it'd been when a traveling salesman had tried to sell the brunette subpar wine at ridiculous prices. She had drunk him under the table, questioned his intelligence and integrity (with a pretty smile), and at the end of it all, he'd thanked her for it and apologized for trying to swindle her. He obviously hadn't been from around here, but after that, he actually stopped in for a drink whenever he passed through town. And apparently, he'd taken what she said to heart and had cleaned up his business – which resulted in better sales anyways.

So, given that, Lucy could easily picture her working Natsu around and around until he'd gotten certain things through his (somewhat thick) skull.

Still snickering a little, she asked him, "How did she keep your attention? I mean, you said she beat it into you, right? Why didn't you just give up?"

"Whenever I wanted to, she'd just remind me that I'd end up hurting Lisanna."

Lucy internally winced a little, the way she always did when he mentioned his ex-girlfriend, but she tried to just brush it off and keep up her line of questioning.

"I guess that means this sort of thing didn't come naturally to you at first?"

"Ha!" He laughed loudly and shook his head. "No way. I seriously sucked."

A few more chuckles escaped Lucy as she visualized a clumsy, virgin Natsu. She could absolutely imagine how uncomfortable and uncoordinated he would be… like a fish out of water, almost.

"And that's why you asked Cana for help?"

His laughter slowly died off, and he cocked his head, staring up at the ceiling like he was thinking back on it. "Yeah… that was part of it. But the biggest part was 'cause things were so awkward with Lisanna."

This seemed like a slightly more serious topic, and Lucy also quieted down in response, gently prompting him with, "Awkward?"

"Yep. Really awkward. We'd been friends for so long, ya know? I mean, she was almost like a sister. So, doing anything sexual with her just felt kinda… weird."

When he trailed off, Lucy wondered if she should let it go there… but now she was curious. So, after a few moments, she lightly prodded again despite her better judgement. "I guess you were hoping that sex-ed with Cana would make it less awkward?"

Natsu was quiet for a moment, and then he turned and looked at her seriously. "You really wanna know? I'm gonna be talking about sex and stuff with Lisanna, and that might be kinda uncomfortable for ya."

It was really thoughtful of him to warn her like that, and she considered what he'd said for several minutes before finally nodding. "I'm sure. I know it's part of your past, and I want us to be completely open and honest with each other about everything... as long as it isn't uncomfortable for you. I don't want to push you into discussing something you don't want to."

He shrugged. "It doesn't bother me. Just wanted to make sure you were cool with it."

"Thanks for that," she murmured, feeling her heart swell with warmth.

"No problem. Anyway…. So yeah, like I said, sex with Lisanna was super awkward. It was kinda tough for me to get into it. So, a big reason why I asked Cana for help was 'cause I wanted to learn how to get her off really quickly with my hands. I figured that way I could keep her happy, and my dick didn't have to get involved."

As expected, yes, it was strange and uncomfortable to hear about Natsu's sex-life with Lisanna. However, she also couldn't help but be a little happy to discover that he hadn't seemed to really enjoy it (even though that made her feel like a horrible person). And her moral compass took another critical hit as she gave in and asked, "I guess that means it was hard for you to… get an erection?"

Luckily, her question didn't seem to bother him at all.

"Yup. Pretty much. I mean, I could get it up if I had to… but it was just… I dunno. It took a lot of concentration and seemed like a lot of trouble for something that always ended up being so weird."

"That makes sense…." she agreed, trailing off for a moment. Until a new thought occurred to her. "But you two did end up having sex, right?"

"A few times. But I kinda tried to avoid it."

She nodded and this time didn't have a follow-up question. Everything he'd said essentially confirmed what she'd already assumed, and she filed away the information in a lock-box at the back of her mind… where the rest of Lisanna's 'file' sat.

Things grew quiet between them for a little while after that. However, talking about sex with Natsu resulted in something unexpected.

One thought naturally led to another, until something completely new (but not entirely unrelated) occurred to her, and she broke the silence with, "Shoot! I'm going to need to get contraception!"

The words had popped out of her mouth without filtering them first, and she blushed and quickly added, "Not that I'm quite ready for sex yet! But we do seem to be going in that direction fairly quickly, so… it's probably good to be prepared."

Being the master of short attention spans and abrupt topic changes, Natsu wasn't fazed at all by her sudden announcement. Instead, he sat up – suddenly full of energy and excitement – and said with one of his big, sunny grins, "Yeah! That's a great idea, Luce! Why don't we do that now?"

"You mean, go find some birth-control?" she asked, and when he nodded, she also sat up and thought about it. "But where would we look? Do you think Wendy might have something?"

"Maybe! Let's ask her!"

"Alright… it's a good place to start at least. Even if she doesn't make anything for it, she may know where to get something."

"And if she doesn't, I'll bet Erza, Juvia, or Cana would know. Those guys all do it like rabbits," he commented, startling a snort out of her.

"True. We have lots of options."

"Yep!"

…

.

…

Natsu was super excited that Luce wanted to go ahead and get some protection. It was a pretty big step and meant that she felt good about their relationship.

So, as soon as they got up and got dressed again, they tracked down Wendy. The first place they checked was her little med-room that'd been set up for her in the left-hall. She was only there half the time – the other half, she spent with Porlyusica – but they got lucky today.

"Awesome! You're here!"

She spun around, kinda looking shocked. That was probably 'cause he'd busted through the door a little roughly, and Carla gave him her usual frown.

"Can't you practice some restraint? You nearly broke down our door!" she fussed in a prissy tone.

Wendy immediately countered, "But he didn't break the door, Carla."

"Hmph."

The bluenette then turned to them and said, "It was a bit of a rough entrance though. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah! It's great! Do ya have any… urk!" He cut off on a grunt when Luce elbowed him.

"What was that for?!"

"Let me handle this… please. It's embarrassing enough as it is."

Sure enough, her cheeks were red, and she looked about ready to smack him. He wasn't exactly sure what he'd done to make it worse, but apparently this was something she wanted to take care of herself. Any other time, he might've been tempted to joke around and make her even redder – 'cause she was funny and super cute when she got flustered. But then she might change her mind about getting the protection, so he decided to go ahead and back off.

When he raised his hands in a 'you win' sorta way, she huffed a sigh and muttered, "Thanks, Natsu," before she turned to face Wendy. "Um, sorry about all of that. And sorry for coming in here so abruptly."

"It's okay. I don't mind…. um, did you need something? Not that I don't enjoy your company! But it just seems like you came here for a particular reason."

"Well, uh, yes, actually. By any chance do you make potions for contraception?"

There was a bit of a pause, and soon Wendy turned as red as Luce. Carla blinked a few times, looking surprised at first… then she glanced at Natsu and sorta shook her head. He was pretty sure he heard her mumble something like, "No wonder he was so eager. Hmph. What a horndog."

That was true, so he didn't bother saying anything about it. If anything, he thought it was hilarious….

But it was even funnier when she got bossy again and fussed at Wendy for sputtering around. "Wendy! Pull yourself together. It's a perfectly normal question, and it makes sense for someone to come to you for these types of things. You are a healer after all."

"R-right. Yes, um…" She looked at Luce and finally answered their question. "I don't actually have anything for that. Porlyusica probably does, but… I think there are other places you can go as well. Unfortunately, I don't know where those places are…."

"Oh! Okay, that's fine. I'll go ask some of the other girls and see if they know where to get them." Luce waved her hands around and blushed.

"Sorry I couldn't help."

"What? No! Don't worry about it! I just thought I'd check here first, but I don't mind going somewhere else. It's totally fine."

There was some more back and forth about that between the two girls – which Natsu kinda zoned out from until Luce grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the medroom with her.

"So, where're we going next?"

"To Mira. I want to ask her where Erza and Juvia are."

That made sense, and he nodded, following her back to the main hall.

They made a beeline for the bar, and Mira greeted them as they got there. "Hello, you two. Would you like a snack, or are you just here to visit?"

Natsu probably would've spilled the beans right then and there, but Luce stepped on his foot and took over. "Is Erza or Juvia around? I have a question I want to ask one of them."

"No, unfortunately they're both out on missions right now. Sorry about that."

Luce sighed and thanked the cook. And after they'd left, he pointed out the obvious. "Ya know, Mira could probably tell us where to get the stuff too."

"I know, but there are too many people around right now to ask something like that."

"You could write it on a note and pass it to her."

"I guess… but… Mira also gossips a little, and I'd rather not risk it."

He just shrugged and decided to quietly go along with whatever she wanted to do for once. That seemed like his safest bet right now. Again, as much as he wanted to get on with it already, he didn't wanna mess up and make her change her mind about the protection.

They headed to the library next, and Luce asked Levy the big question – which was as funny to watch as Luce and Wendy. But even though they both flushed bright red, Levy didn't get nearly as flustered as Wendy had, and she turned out to be a lot more helpful.

"Well, I could order you one, but then it would be on Fairy Tail's books. There's also an 'adult' shop called 'The Lion's Den' on 3rd Street that sells those sorts of things."

"I think I'd rather go buy it myself. If the master saw that on the books… I think I'd die from embarrassment."

Levy chuckled. "True. Oh, and uh… here. Cana gave me these when she found out Gajeel and I started dating last month, and I didn't use them all."

"Ooh, coupons. Thanks a lot."

Natsu thought about asking Levy what she'd bought at the adult store… but decided against it. Just 'cause he usually didn't keep his mouth shut didn't mean that he was actually dumb.

That was an easy choice. But when the girls started chatting about other stuff, his patience ran out real quick, and he couldn't stay silent for long. After a couple minutes, he swung his arm around Luce's neck and said, "Come on, let's go! You guys can hang out later, I wanna get the stuff."

She grunted (kinda staggering when he leaned into her) and then blushed and swatted at him.

"Natsu!"

Their book-keeper friend was a lifesaver though and immediately cut in. "You guys go ahead. I'll see you later, Lu."

"Thanks, Levy! You're awesome!" he called back over his shoulder, already dragging his girlfriend out with him.

They headed straight for The Lion's Den – which luckily didn't take too long to get to. 'Course, Luce griped at him for the first half of the walk, but after he apologized a couple times, she finally settled down.

Even if she'd still been mad though, he'd bet that the store would've distracted her from fussing at him. It was super obvious that as soon as they walked in, she was overwhelmed. From the door, they could see mannequins in super sexy undies and rack after rack of lube, sex toys, and all kinds of other X-rated stuff. He was kinda surprised that he'd never known about this place before… but not too surprised, 'cause he probably wouldn't have been interested in visiting before he met Luce.

On the other hand, now that he was here with her, everything he saw gave him some REALLY exciting ideas. He'd never thought about using toys before, but they all looked like they could be pretty fun.

He immediately wanted to explore the whole store, and in another situation, he definitely would've. However, Luce's well-being was way more important right now, and he focused in on her, worried that she'd been triggered or something.

She had frozen up at the doorway, and he sorta scooted them to the side when someone else came in after them.

"You okay?"

"Oh, um… I think so…" she answered, blinking a couple times like she was coming outta a trance. "This is just a little overwhelming, but I'm not afraid of anything in here. I don't think."

"Good! Then, let's go!"

Relief made him loud, and his energy came right back. He grabbed her hand and started walking towards the front desk. There were lots of fun-looking things on the way, but as much as he wanted to stop and take a look, he had his eye on the prize. Distractions could cost them. If Luce DID see something that upset her, they might have to leave before they got the thing they'd come here for, and that'd be no fun. Besides, he could always come back later if he wanted to.

"Welcome to The Lion's Den. Can I help you find anything?" the guy behind the counter asked as soon as they bellied up to it.

"Yeah. We want some protection."

"I'd be happy to assist with that. We have an extensive selection of condoms for full coverage. If STDs aren't a concern though, we also carry a variety of potions and charms that only prevent pregnancy. Also, if you would like to check for STDs, we carry a fully comprehensive test kit that will check you for every STD out there. We will do that here, and you'll have your results within five minutes."

Luce spoke up softly, looking a little embarrassed. "Um, I hate to look like I don't know anything, but… I'm a little new to all this. Would you mind explaining what a STD is, please?"

The guy helping them smiled in a nice way and didn't look like he judged her at all for asking (which got him some brownie points in Natsu's book).

"I don't mind at all. STD is short for sexually transmitted disease. There's a variety of them out there that can be passed from one person to another through sexual contact. It's always a good idea to check and make sure that you're free of any STDs before having sex with someone without a condom."

"Oh, okay. That makes sense. Thank you for explaining it," she said to the clerk and glanced at Natsu. "Why don't we go ahead and check… just to be sure. It can't hurt, right?"

He shrugged, not minding if it made her feel better. Unless Lisanna had been sleeping around with other people before they got together, he knew he was clean. But with Luce's situation…. things were a little more complicated. Even though it'd just been the one time, that bastard might've passed on something nasty to her. Natsu wasn't too worried about that, personally, but he could see why she might be.

"Sure, let's go for it."

"Excellent. I'll collect samples from both of you now, and by the time you're done shopping, the results will be ready for you."

The clerk scooted around a bit and got some stuff together, then came back to the counter. He had them both spit in a cup and drew some blood with magic vials that teleported the red stuff right into the glass containers. After that, he took the samples and put them in two different bowls, one for Natsu and one for Luce. Each bowl sat on a super complicated-looking circle, and all the magic symbols immediately lit up and started flashing a bunch of different colors.

"Alright, those will be done in about five minutes. In the meantime, I can show you our supply of contraceptive options, if you'd like."

"Sounds good," Natsu answered, and Luce nodded.

The guy pulled out lots of boxes and showed them all the condoms, then he said, "And if you end up only needing to prevent pregnancy, here are our contraceptive potions. This one can be taken once a week for a 98% effectiveness rate… while this one needs to be taken two hours before sex and is 100% effective. We also carry potions that can be taken once a month, but they only have an effectiveness of 93%. Or, if you'd rather wear a charm instead, we have a selection of those as well. I would recommend this one, personally. It has a 100% effectiveness. However, you do need to wear it constantly, and should wait a few days after putting it on before having unprotected sex. This other one, you only have to wear during sex, but it has an effectiveness of 89% and you need to put it on at least four hours beforehand to reach its full efficacy."

Luce listened closely to all the explanations and looked at all the stuff – while Natsu kinda tried not to think too hard about what they were talking about. He was leaving this part up to her.

"Hm… I think I'll go with this charm. The one that I'll wear constantly."

"Excellent choice. We provide it as a bracelet, anklet, ring, or necklace. Or if you would only like the charm and want to put it on your own necklace, you can purchase it individually."

"I have my own necklace I can put it on, so I'll just take the charm by itself."

"Very good. That'll be 10,000 jewel. You will want to replace it after one year."

Luce's eyebrows arched up, and she smiled, looking both surprised and happy. "Wow. I'm impressed. That seems very reasonable, especially considering how long it lasts."

"Oh, yes, ma'am. We try to make all of our products as affordable as possible."

The guy set the charm on the counter and put everything else away… and by the time he was done with that, their tests were finished. He dipped a sliver of (probably special) paper into each of the bowls, and the two testing strips turned bright blue.

"Wonderful! It looks like you're both completely negative for all STDs. Congratulations."

"Oh good… that's great news," Luce sighed and seemed to relax a little. "Thank you so much."

"It's my pleasure. Is there anything else I can get you before you check out?"

"Um… no, I don't think so. Natsu?"

After a second of rolling it around in his head, he added, "What about lube?" and the clerk was happy to take them to a tall shelf full of bottles. Natsu blinked up at it… shocked. There were a lot more kinds than he'd thought.

"Uh… huh. 'Kay."

Luce glanced at him, snorted, and sorta shook her head. Then, she got busy with the clerk and asked, "What would you recommend as the best everyday, basic option here."

"Personally, I would suggest choosing something that's water-based. This one here is our best seller…"

The guy grabbed a blue bottle off the shelf and handed it to Luce, who looked it over before handing it to Natsu. He took it and shrugged, 'cause one lube was just as good as another in his book.

"Cool. Thanks, man."

"Happy to help. Is there anything else you two would like to purchase before checking out?"

"Nope. I think we're good."

"Excellent. Then I'll ring you up at the register."

They followed him back to the front, and Natsu handed over the bottle of lube so he could add that onto their tab.

"All together, that will be 17,500 jewel."

Luce jumped and said, "Oh! Hold on, I have coupons!"

That knocked about 5,000 off their total, and Natsu told himself to thank Levy next time he saw her.

The two of them split the bill, paid, and the guy bagged up their stuff. After they'd left, Luce immediately pulled out her crazy invisible necklace and dropped her new charm onto it.

"I don't want to forget," she explained, kinda blushing, when he raised his eyebrows.

"Good thinking!"

He gave her a big grin and grabbed her hand, super happy that she wanted to start wearing the thing right away. She returned the smile, and they walked hand-in-hand back towards the guild, both of them still thinking about the shop they'd just been to.

After a minute, she huffed, "Sheesh, that place was crazy. I didn't know what half the stuff in there was for. No… scratch that, it was probably more like three-fourths."

"Heh. Yeah, I had no idea there was someplace like that in town. We'll have to go back and check out the other stuff sometime."

She turned a tad pink but didn't get all shy about it. Which was awesome. In fact, her expression and voice seemed kinda excited as she said, "Sure! I'd like that."

His smile probably got a little too wide, and for a bit he really had to clamp down on the dirty thoughts that kept trying to pop up in his head. So, he was distracted, and it took him a second to answer when she asked, "By the way, what made you think of getting 'lube?'"

"Huh?... Oh, I just figured it could come in handy. Back when Cana was teaching me stuff, she kept saying, 'It's always better to be wetter.'"

There was a long pause, and then Luce started giggling like crazy – almost stopping 'cause she was laughing so hard. "I don't know why that sounds so funny to me… but… hahaha… oh geez. She must've said it a lot for you to still remember it."

"Yep. She said it over and over and had me say it too. Just like… 'wetter is better, wetter is better, wetter is better, wetter better, wetter better, wetter better…' guh. It was fricken' stuck in my head for weeks."

"Oof…. Wow… that sounds rough…." she wheezed, still laughing.

"Uh-huh."

…

.

…

Natsu's story amused Lucy for the rest of the way home, and she was still in an excellent mood when they got back to the guildhall. Of course, part of that was also because of the outing itself – which had been successful as well as very interesting. She never would have guessed that a store like that existed, and she was really looking forward to when they could go back and investigate even more. Just the idea filled her with energy and excitement.

But that would have to wait for another day.

As soon as they got back to the guildhall, Natsu went to hang out with Happy while she headed to the communications office and checked in with Warren (after dropping off their purchases in her room.)

Dealing with the relief front took a few hours, as usual, and by the time she was done, it was already past when she'd usually eat. Happy and Natsu were still in the main hall when she went there for lunch, and they all visited as she ate. Then, once she'd finished, they followed her to the gym and joined her for training.

To her surprise, the three of them were also joined by Elfman and Max. The sand mage wanted to practice his magic against Natsu's flames, and Happy took the role of cheerleader from the sidelines as Lucy squared off against Elfman. Intrigued, she realized this could be a good chance to practice her new vessel, and when she told him her idea, the massive manly man agreed to help her out.

While he attacked her in one of his takeover forms, she tried to get close enough to touch him with her pocket watch and reverse his transformation… but that wasn't easy. Not only did she have to be really good at the hand-to-hand combat, but it also took at least thirty seconds of contact (and a lot of concentration) to completely turn him back into a human.

However, tough as it was, the training exercise ended up being extremely helpful, and she was able to discover some new things about her skills as well as level them up. The most important piece of information she uncovered was that she didn't have to actually touch something with the pocket watch itself to use her powers. As long as Horologium's vessel was on her, she could affect the time of anything in contact with her body.

So, during their sparring session, whenever she landed a blow or grabbed Elfman, she could steal some of his time and slowly whittled away at his transformation. Naturally, he could've fixed whatever she'd undone while she wasn't touching him, but he let her changes stay as a way for them to keep track of her progress. And with practice, she learned how to increase the potency of the technique.

For the first few rounds, it took her at least twenty minutes to complete the exercise, but by the time they were done, she'd cut that in half.

After several hours of hard training, Lucy left the gym feeling exhausted but very accomplished. She thanked Elfman and agreed to meet up with everyone again in the guildhall for dinner… then immediately made her way to the Fairy Tail baths, eager to clean up after such a long and intense session. It felt like heaven to scrub the sweat off her body and take a nice long soak, letting the hot water loosen up all of her tight muscles, and she probably stayed in the large tub a little too long.

The others were already at a table digging into their food when she walked into the main hall and joined them, and Natsu and Happy both teased her (as usual) for her tendency to get carried away in the bath. They also ran into Levy – which made for a very lively meal – and when they were all done, the bluenette joined Natsu and Happy in following Lucy back to her room.

She'd invited Levy to help her with some starcharting, and her fellow bookworm friend had jumped at the opportunity. Of course, the two guys were just along for fun, and they parked themselves on her bed with a deck of cards and snacks (even though they'd just eaten), while she and Levy got to work.

"Oh, wow… you've done a lot, Lu. This is amazing."

"Thanks! I've been working really hard on these lately, and I feel like I'm getting pretty close to finding some more celestial temples."

"Absolutely! It looks like it."

Lucy grinned, happy at the praise, and proceeded to show her friend the progress she'd made on the different charts. For the next thirty minutes, they both poured over papers, maps, and calculations as she explained what she'd found so far to the bluenette.

"… I'm fairly certain that with Venus in this position, it means these stars over here are in alignment. What do you think?"

"Hm… I'd have to agree. Though there's a slim possibility that it could mean Scorpio is also in the picture. See?"

"Oh! Shoot, you're right. Then, that changes things a little… hold on, let me get Scorpio's chart."

As she hurried over to the desk stacked tall with papers, a golden flash distracted everyone from their current occupations.

"Ooh, looks like you guys are having a party. Mind if I join?" Leo said as he solidified in the middle of the room.

Natsu called, "Hey!" from the bed, quickly followed by Happy's, "Hi, Leo!"

"The more the merrier," Lucy added and smiled at him. "The guys are playing cards over there while we do some starcharting."

The leonine spirit waved a greeting to the boys, but he seemed much more interested in what was happening on this side of the room. For once though, that wasn't just because he generally gravitated towards women more. In this case, it was obvious from the way that he stared at her wall of charting and all the papers scattered around that he was intrigued by what they were doing.

"Huh… this is impressive. How long have you been working on these?" he asked, nose to nose with her bedroom wall.

"Well, actually, I've only been doing this for a few months now. Some of these charts are ones that I did with my mother years and years ago, and others are ones that she did on her own. I've just taken all of those and put them together… and continued building on top of them."

"I see. That explains why this looks like decades of work, but I can also see how you've improved on the old and added new things. Both you and your mother are obviously very talented starcharters."

The compliment was one that made her flush and tear up a little with emotion, but she sniffled the moisture back to the best of her ability.

"Thanks, Leo. That really means a lot."

"Of course. It's the truth," he said seriously, for once not flirting at all. "In all my years working with celestial mages, I can literally count on one hand the number of mages who were this skilled with starcharting."

Lucy sniffled a little more and wiped her eyes as Levy took over the conversation for her.

"I know, it's amazing right? I love starcharting with Lu. It's always so much fun."

"I can see why," Leo replied, now elbow deep in the papers on her desk. "You've really outdone yourselves here."

"Well, thank you both so much. I really appreciate the votes of confidence," Lucy hiccupped, pulling herself together a little bit and getting back to what she'd been doing.

"You're welcome to stay and watch, Leo. We were just about to see if Scorpio messes up what I thought was going on over here."

He happily agreed and continued looking over the charting material as she and Levy compared notes on Scorpio. She'd noticed a convergence coming up soon, which might mean another temple would show up within the next month or two…. And if her calculations were correct, this one only happened every 15 years, so she really wanted to try and figure it out as quickly as possible. They'd managed to narrow down the possible locations to three different sites, and she was fairly certain by this point that it was either Capricorn's temple or Taurus's temple. However, if Scorpio's stars were also in the mix, that complicated things a lot.

"Well… two of his tail stars are overlapping here. I don't think that makes him a candidate, but it does alter this possible location by a few degrees south… I think. Let me double check that."

"You're right, this one isn't Scorpio," Leo added, surprising her.

She really hadn't expected him to help at all, assuming it was against the rules.

"Oh! Uh, thanks a lot. That helps," she said gratefully, quickly jotting down a note on the chart.

"No problem. Always happy to help a lovely lady. Also, your calculation here is off."

Both she and Levy quickly investigated what he'd pointed out and reworked it – which, after several very tedious minutes, resulted in one of the three potential locations being eliminated.

"Alright! Now we know for sure it can't be there. This is huge! All we have to do is figure out these two, and we're set!"

Levy grinned and commented, "If it all works out, you'll be able to get another contract."

"I hope so, but it'll depend on whether someone already has this key or not."

"They don't," Leo affirmed, which made a leap of enthusiasm unfurl in her chest. Up to this point, she'd been holding back, not wanting to get her hopes up too high, but now that she had solid confirmation something could come of this, she couldn't help but get excited.

"Really?! Fantastic!"

"Indeed…." her spirit said with a smile, but then his expression became incredibly solemn. "Can I ask why you want more keys? Is it because you want more power? Or something else?"

She blinked, feeling slightly blindsided, and had to seriously think about how to answer for a few moments. "Hm… well… there's a few different reasons. You're right that I do want more power…. I promised myself that I would become strong enough nobody could ever hold me prisoner again, and I suspect there will always be a part of me that wants to get stronger because of that. I believe we talked about some of those things during your trial. But now… I've also joined Fairy Tail, and I want to become powerful so that I can help people… the way my guildmates do."

Even Natsu and Happy had stopped playing cards to listen in, and everyone nodded with understanding after her explanation. "Makes sense to me!" her boyfriend bellowed from the bed, and Happy added, "Aye sir!"

She sent them both a grin as thanks, and then refocused on Leo as he said, "I agree. It does make perfect sense…."

The way he trailed off obviously had an unasked question in it, and his eyebrows hitched up a hair as he probed her with his gaze. He was clearly asking if those were her only motives, and she honestly told him, "Aside from that, there's only one other reason I want to collect keys and find temples…."

Looking at the wall full of her mother's starcharts, she lightly traced the edge of one, feeling a lump rise up in her throat. "I guess I… I just want to carry on Mom's legacy. Considering how much work she put into these, I think she must have really wanted to go on adventures and find more keys herself, so… I want to do that in her place. Maybe it's also my way of trying to still… communicate or just be closer to her somehow, even though she's gone."

"Aw, Lu…"

Levy hugged her from behind, and Lucy wrapped her arms over her friend's – returning the embrace. There was a long pause that felt like a respectful moment of silence for her mother's memory, and then she cleared her throat and sniffed back the few tears that had tried to escape.

Leo was the one who broke the silence first, and he gently told her, "Well, you have my full support. Of all the celestial mages out there, I think you deserve to collect as many keys as you can. Actually though… there was a reason why I asked."

His expression suddenly turned surprisingly grave, and a tingle shot up Lucy's spine, dread building in her stomach. "What is it? Is something wrong?"

"Yes, actually. We have a very serious problem on our hands… one that I'm technically not supposed to talk to anyone outside of the celestial realm about. But I think you might be able to help us."

"Of course! I'll do everything I can! What's going on?"

He sighed and sat in her desk chair, looking more somber than she'd ever seen him before. "Someone has collected a number of celestial keys. Normally, that wouldn't be an issue, except this person is not a celestial mage."

"… WHAT?! But that's impossible! Only celestial mages can enter celestial temples, and if someone without celestial magic tries to take a key, it'll just disappear and return to its temple, right?!"

"That's how it's supposed to work, but this person has discovered a way to capture the keys and prevent them from returning. They're using some sort of dark magic to bind the keys."

"Oh… crap. Are the spirits okay? It's not hurting them is it?"

Leo's smile was tired but warm as he looked at her. "I knew it was the right thing to tell you. You're immediately worried about the spirits."

"What else would I be worried about?"

"Unfortunately, most celestial mages just see us as a way to acquire strong magical weapons. They don't necessarily consider us as living creatures or think about our feelings or wellbeing."

The idea of that was so disgusting and foreign to Lucy that she immediately felt her blood boil with rage. She'd been taught from childhood that celestial spirits were to be respected… and after making such close bonds with Aquarius and Leo, she couldn't even imagine seeing a spirit as simply a means to an end. It was like making friends just so they would treat you to dinner.

"That's repulsive. I can't believe people would… well, no… actually I do believe that there are people out there who are that evil and selfish. I've seen plenty of them myself, unfortunately."

"Exactly. And in answer to your earlier question, yes, it's hurting the spirits. Their connection to this world is growing weaker, and because our magic is bound in both worlds, it's sapping their strength and making them very sick. Those keys have to be returned to their temples or else taken in by a celestial mage."

The added information definitely didn't help her calm down, and she felt herself growing increasingly angry as well as determined to help these spirits.

"I promise I'll do everything I possibly can to find them. I'll tell the master and Warren first thing in the morning and have everyone looking for them."

"Me too! I'll use all my connections to try and locate them as well. If they're being held with dark magic, someone might be trying to sell them on the black market somewhere… and if that's the case, I'll find them."

"Thanks, Levy," Lucy told her friend with a grateful smile, but then she winced as she thought about another potential complication. "I just hope we don't have to break whatever dark magic is on them… because that could get tricky."

"Yeah… and let's hope they're all together, too. Finding each one individually would be a lot harder," the bluenette added, pulling another wince from Lucy as she contemplated it.

"Agreed. Speaking of… Leo? Just in case they aren't together, could you please write down a list of all the spirits who are missing their keys?"

He nodded and grabbed a spare sheet of paper, scribbling on it for a few moments before handing it over.

"Oh… wow… this is even worse than I thought… " the celestial mage muttered, feeling slightly nauseous as she stared at the list.

Levy also looked shocked and horrified, and then her expression transformed into one of determination and confidence. "Don't worry. We WILL find these keys. Every single one of them. With everyone in Fairy Tail and all of our allies looking for them, there's no way they can stay hidden for long."

"Yeah! Let your friends know that we'll get them outta there soon!" Natsu told Leo and punched one fist into his other hand, the way he always did when he was getting fired up.

Both declarations helped sooth some of Lucy's ruffled nerves, and it also seemed to relax her leonine spirit friend. The tension visibly eased in his shoulders, and he smiled at all of them gratefully. "I really appreciate this, everyone."

"Absolutely! I'm so glad that you said something so that we could help," she said firmly, taking his hands and squeezing them to drive her point across.

"Me too. Also, as thanks, let me help you as well."

He got up from the chair and walked over to the starcharted wall. "This is wrong, and this is wrong. If you fix those two things, you'll be able to find what you were looking for earlier."

"What? Oh! Thank you! We'll do that."

"Good. I know for a fact that he's looking forward to forming a contract with you."

She blinked a little, surprised by that information, and then smiled. "I'm looking forward to making more friends in the celestial realm too."

Leo chuckled and gave her a short hug. "You know, you're becoming quite popular there. I hope you'll still make time for me when you have fifty spirits wanting your attention."

The way he whispered that into her ear was probably a little bit inappropriate, and she rolled her eyes at his shenanigans.

"First of all, don't be silly. There's no way I'd ever be able to find fifty keys. And secondly, of course I'll still make time for you, no matter how many other contracts I have…. as long as you behave yourself."

So saying, she smacked his hand as it dropped a hair too low on her waist, and he stepped back with a chuckle.

"Of course."

Sneak Peek

The celestial mage winced but kept her eyes focused on the massive creature opposite them. It truly was beautiful and awe inspiring… as well as completely terrifying. The bull stood at least twice their height (but probably more like three times), with enough muscles that he seemed like he could flatten a boulder with ease. He was pitch black from nose to tail, aside from bright glowing gold eyes, and his horns spanned a ridiculous width, the sharp tips looking downright deadly. If she had to guess, those were the points that had ripped Natsu's arms to pieces.

He stood there, pawing the ground and glaring at them, snorting angrily, and she could tell he was going to charge again very soon. When Natsu freed himself from Happy and stepped forward as though he was going to take the bull on again, Lucy stopped him with a hand on his chest.

"No. You stay here. Let me handle this."