DISCLAIMER: Of course, the marvelous characters and some places featured in this story belong to the fantastic Hiro Mashima, with a few personal twists on them. I do NOT claim ownership over anything that may belong to him.

This is a little tidbit that started playing with my mind and so I decided I would write it. It might be a while before it is completed, but it's a start at least.

So, allow me to introduce my newest work:

Infinitum

"Loke!" the pink-haired woman whined, "Loke, wait up!"

"Come on, Arielle!" the orange-haired man called for her, laughing. "We'll miss the wagon!"

The woman stumbled slightly, panting as she tried to keep up with the energetic young man. At the same time, she couldn't help laughing softly because she knew there was no way she'd catch up to him like this. He was always a fast runner, really fleet-footed and agile, and though he acted like he didn't care about leaving her behind, she knew he wouldn't go too far ahead without her. He had a really kind heart. It was probably why he had light-type magic, and although they didn't know exactly what he could do with it since wizards were feared in their hometown, she thought it might be strong.

Besides that…today was the day they were leaving this town for the one place they might fit in better, and nothing was more exciting than that.

"Last call for passengers to Crocus!" a voice rang out from just beyond the trees ahead, where a light was shining. The wagon was ready to leave.

"Wait for us! We're almost there!" Loke shouted at the top of his voice as he burst from the woods into the light, ten feet in front of Arielle. He took a few ragged breaths, then turned to beam at the breathless girl behind him. Her heart fluttered at the wide grin that only the purest form of joy could ever bring to his face, and she couldn't help but smile back at him, stumbling from the trees.

"Two of you? That's twenty jewels," the driver's assistant drawled, holding out his grubby hand expectantly. Loke grinned in his usually beastlike manner and fished out the coins from a tattered pouch on his belt, gesturing for the pink-haired girl to come over. He passed over the money and the man, almost grudgingly, grumbled, "Alright, then, get on."

Loke beamed at Arielle excitedly and gave her a boost onto the wagon before leaping into it himself. His grin seemed perpetual today, and she couldn't blame him. She was just as excited.

There were nine other people on the wagon, and only one from their village. It was an elderly woman who just smiled at them softly before returning to her knitting. She had never shunned them for his magic, and she didn't seem likely to tell the other passengers about it either, for which the pinkette was exceedingly grateful. The other eight just acknowledged their presence and went on doing whatever they had been doing, whether it was observing the scenery, talking quietly to their companions, or little hobbies like the village Granny's knitting. Most of the people on here were dressed almost as poorly as they were, and another thing that the girl noticed was that all the hay bales for sitting on were taken. When she pointed it out softly to her companion, Loke just laughed and slid down to the floor of the wagon.

"Don't worry too much, Ari!" he teased. "We'll be there in no time at all! We can handle sitting on the floor for that long, can't we?"

He left out the, we've been sleeping on floors our whole lives, anyway that she felt was on the tip of his tongue. He didn't like to remind her of that, because he had always tried to get better for her, providing her with their best blankets unless he was sick and almost always refusing to sleep on their worn out straw mattress.

She couldn't find a good response to his optimism and his unspoken words, so she just nodded shyly with a soft, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry," he grinned, slinging an arm around her shoulder. "We're going to be in Crocus by tomorrow night!"

Crocus…going to Crocus was perhaps the best choice they could make. Because of his power, many of the locals were afraid of him, so the capital was, perhaps, the one place where they wouldn't be afraid of his magic. The one place where they could be accepted for who they were, especially Loke, magic and all!

Aries let out a soft groan as she woke from her dream.

"What…was that?" she asked herself softly, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She had never known Loke to dress like the man who looked like him in her dream, and the girl who looked like her had a completely different name. Aries didn't know what to make of it, other than to try to pass it off as a dream from her lovesick heart.

It was true that she cared for Leo the Lion as more than a friend aught, but she hadn't expected it to seep into her dreams. And for it to be a dream of that nature…it had been hundreds of years since the days when magic was feared throughout the land. Why on earth should she have a dream of a time she could scarcely remember? And one in which she and Loke were worried about how the rest of the citizenry should have to worry about people fearing his magic, when they wouldn't have been seen if their master hadn't called them out…it was just strange.

"Something wrong, Aries?" came a voice from just a little ways away, and the Ram gasped and looked up at the Lyre quickly.

"I'm so sorry, Lyra!" the pink-haired woman apologized softly. "I'm sorry for waking you. I just had a strange dream."

The Lyre smiled at her kindly, "It happens, Aries. Don't worry about it. Did you want to talk about it?"

The Ram ran a tentative hand through her messy pink locks, lips turned down in concentration. Did she want to talk about that dream? As much as she hated to admit it, she felt like her feelings for Leo were just an open book that almost everyone but the Lion himself could read. So her hesitance didn't stem from the fear of what Lyra would think about her feelings for their fellow celestial spirit, but from her own shyness. She still had never admitted her feelings out loud, in all the years they'd been in each other's company.

And now she'd had this strange dream from a time long past, where people still feared magic. She had no indication of who the holder of her key had been, nor even any clue that she herself had magic powers. No…her dream counterpart, this Arielle, had been concerned for Leo's counterpart, who coincidentally went by Loke, a name that their master, Lucy, had met him under and which most of Fairy Tail and the current wizarding world still called him.

Even in her dreams she loved him from afar.

"Aries?"

"I'm sorry!" at the sound of Lyra's voice, the timid spirit quickly apologized, her fluffy curls bouncing when she turned to face the harpist. "I-I'm not sure if I want to talk about it yet or not. It's so strange, I can barely wrap my head around it…"

She received a gentle smile from the musician. "Shall I play a song to ease your nerves?" was the cheerful suggestion she then received.

Aries couldn't help but smile back at her friend. Lyra always knew how to calm a frantic heart—it was her talent, after all, to know what's in the heart of her audience and to play a song that either matched it to increase the emotion or countered it to put their fears at rest.

"Please do," the pinkette nodded, settling herself more comfortably on her bed for the song as Lyra readied her harp. The Ram took a moment to admire, not for the first time, the various harps and lyres that the musician had collected over the years. Her gate was indeed the Lyre, but she knew many other stringed instruments. In fact, a mandolin peeked out from the top shelf of her bookcase and a violin was displayed proudly among her array of harps on the wall.

And then her friend started to strum, and Aries was lost in the melody.

Her tired brain couldn't help but go back through her dream, but her thoughts were sluggish as she tried to process them, and eventually her eyes drooped closed again. Aries fought with the sleep that threatened to take her, wanting to stay awake and respect her friend's amazing musical talent, but it was too difficult. She realized that calming her enough for her to go back to sleep was probably Lyra's intent, and part of her was thankful. The other part of her was silently repeating a mantra of apologies in her head for falling asleep during a performance.

They do tell you to sleep on your problems, a tired thought drifted across her mind just before the Ram returned to her slumber.

When Aries woke up next, the light was streaming in through her window and she felt well-rested. She stretched her arms wide as she sat up, glancing over to where Lyra was still fast asleep, a lyre cradled to her chest. The pink-haired woman knew that lyre had been with Lyra the longest, so she was more attached to it than any of her other instruments. Briefly, she wondered how long the Lyre had played after she herself had drifted back into dreamland. Upset at the thought, she murmured silent apologies in her head for causing a disturbance to the sweet, childlike harpist in the night.

Slowly, to prevent her fluffy bed from creaking overmuch, Aries slid her legs out from under her covers and over the side of the bed. She pushed herself gently but quickly to her feet and made her way to the bathroom for a morning shower. Her steps slowed slightly when a thought wormed its way into her head and made her recall the reasons she'd woken in the night.

The dream.

Sleeping on it had cleared her thoughts, but only by a little. She could now list the major factors that made the dream so strange to her: the time period, the names, the lack of a master, her constant closeness with Leo, and the fact that she had no recollection of her own magic.

The time period was easily four hundred years ago, or more, when people were still afraid of magic in rural areas but slowly becoming accustomed to it in busier parts of the world. It was probably before the great wizard Zeref had wreaked so much havoc with his powerful dark magic, as that had caused another period of non-wizards fearing wizards. Aside from that, she had little knowledge of the time period because she couldn't recall being called upon back then.

Their names were perhaps a little more simple, though still unnerving. Leo went by Loke in her dream, and whereas she had always called him Leo, there were many who called him Loke. Everyone but the spirits, it seemed, knew him as Loke, of Fairy Tail, and the spirits knew him as Leo, leader of the Zodiac. As for Arielle and Ari, she could only assume her subconscious had assigned that name and nickname to her because they were similar to Aries. In fact, she had been called Ari a handful of times in the past, though it always took her by surprise.

Aries could think of no conceivable reason for her not to have a master, even if many people were afraid of magic, but for her dream to have no mention of a master, or even the lurking suspicion of being watched, made her uneasy. She didn't wish to be free from her master—Lucy Heartfilia was the kindest, bravest, and most powerful celestial wizard she had ever met, and Aries loved her dearly—so not having a master in her dream was like a slap in the face.

Without a second thought, Aries wrote off her closeness with the Lion as her mind projecting her feelings. It couldn't be anything but that.

Perhaps what worried her the most was that her dream didn't have any indication that she, herself, had any magic power at all. Deep inside, she hoped and prayed that this wasn't some sort of premonition as far as her magic went. If she could be so close to Leo, she would be fine…but to be without her magic was a scary thought indeed. Her magic and her friends were all she had ever known.

When the Ram finally realized what she was doing, she was already stepping out of her shower and drying her hair. Somehow, even with her analysis of the elements of her dream, she had still gone through all the motions of her normal morning routine. All she had left was to dress, eat, brush her hair and teeth, and decide what to do for the day. She had a sneaking suspicion that her day's entertainment may have already been decided, though, because puzzling over her odd dream seemed infinitely more interesting than many of the pursuits she engaged in every so often.

"M-mornin', Aries," Lyra yawned widely, stretching, as the pinkette stepped back into the room clad shyly in just her towel. Since it was just the two of them, she felt comfortable enough leaving the bathroom in a towel, but sometimes the embarrassment still hit her if Lyra had been asleep when she first went into the shower but awake when she came out. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, thank you. I'm so sorry for falling asleep in the middle of your playing!"

When she bowed her head slightly in her apology, her damp pink locks bounced around her face.

"Don't worry about it!" the Lyre waved her worry off good-naturedly. "I meant for you to fall back asleep, anyway. It was way too early to be up, and you looked a little frazzled."

"Thank you," the Ram said again, looking down at her toes. It was hard to bite back the apology that bubbled up in her chest, but she did.

"No problem!"

Soon after, Lyra disappeared into the bathroom and the shower started up again. Aries chose her clothes for the day and proceeded to start breakfast for she and her roommate, a thoughtful expression stuck on her features.

Even if the idea behind the dream—her hidden feelings for Leo—was rather simple, the dream itself was complex, and she couldn't stop wondering if there was meaning to it.

After her pancake batter was mixed, it struck her that she was actually remembering every detail about the dream. Normally, she'd forget her dreams nearly as soon as her feet touched the ground, on the rare occasion that she had a dream at all. This time, however, everything stuck out like a sore thumb. Even the color of Leo's ratty tunic—a sandy brown stained over time in several spots to dark amber—was visible in her mind's eye.

It was all very strange, but she couldn't keep mulling it over all day. It was likely to be her biggest source of entertainment, but if she didn't make some attempt to socialize with someone today, Leo would tease her about being antisocial again. After that, she would undoubtedly apologize and obscene number of times but never be able to just say she didn't speak to many people, all because she was an extremely shy and timid creature. And today of all days it would be hard to endure his good-natured teasing because of the strange, almost real, dream she'd had.

Aries sighed softly to herself as the shower clicked off in the other room. The first pancakes were done and on a platter to the side as she put the next two on to fry.

"That smells delicious!" Lyra's cheerful tones snapped the pinkette back into the present, and she turned her torso to look at the Lyre, spatula in hand.

"Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes," Aries smiled at her roommate, "I'm sorry it wasn't ready when you got out of the shower!"

"It's okay," Lyra giggled. "Nothing so simple as that could ever upset me!"

Lyra's cheerfulness and the timidity of Aries had always gone well together…much better than the period of time that the Ram had shared an apartment with the Water Bearer. Aquarius was just…scary. And for someone with water powers, that woman had the strongest aversion of anyone to doing the dishes. And then there was Libra, who was almost obsessed with perfect symmetry—something about her being the Scales, so she had to have balance—and the two of them rooming together hadn't lasted very long at all when Libra had realized all of Aries' magic was fluffy and random fluffiness at that.

"Sorry," she murmured, for lack of anything else to say. Lyra, knowing her roommate well, just giggled away her concern. Aries didn't take it the wrong way in the least, because there was no way the gentle Lyre would ever laugh at her expense.

After a few more minutes of cooking pancakes while Lyra hummed a soothing song and set the table, Aries could announce, "The pancakes are done!"

"Yay!" Lyra practically chirped, waltzing around their small kitchen space. The teapot she had put on started to whistle, and while the giddy spirit put the tea tray on the table, lid off of the teapot awaiting the water, the Ram carefully removed the kettle from the flames with a potholder. She carried it to the table and when Lyra pranced happily away to allow her more room to pour she did so, putting the lid on to let it steep. As soon as that was done, the two sat down to their first meal of the day with little more chatter.

And as soon as she had a few quiet moments, chewing her bite of food absently, her mind wandered back to the image of Leo in his ragged tunic and trousers. He had never looked so shabby…but from all of her memories, she didn't think he had ever seemed more happy.

It had to just be the strangeness of her dreams affecting her memories of Leo, but the bright smiles he had directed at her dream's version of herself could find no parallel in her memory. Just the thought…she didn't think she'd felt this strange tingle in her limbs ever before. It was like a burning sensation but it also made her giddy, and she wasn't sure exactly what it meant. Was it her infatuation leaking through to the surface? She thought she had more self-control than that.

"The market is in the square today!"

The Lyre's cheerful remark once more cut through to Aries, and her pink, fluffy locks bounced as she lifted her gaze to meet her roommate's cheerful smile.

"S-sorry! I'd forgotten about it. Is there anything you particularly want me to pick up today?" the pinkette asked softly, realizing that Lyra was starting to pour the tea, humming while she did so.

"Just the usual!" she grinned. "Our favorite—strawberries!"

Aries smiled shyly, nodding vigorously. "Of course! I would never forget that. Besides, sorry, but isn't there a party tomorrow that we promised to bring a cake to?"

"Mhm!" Lyra bobbed her head cheerfully. "A party Scorpio cooked up to celebrate two hundred years of being with Aquarius! I've been so excited that I've written twenty-three new songs since he told us about it last month! It's such a cute idea, and I can feel his excitement and his love for her from wherever I am! It's touching, don't you think?"

"Wow," Aries had to take a moment to be shocked, "sorry, but you've written twenty-three new songs? You're amazing, Lyra."

"Thank you," her perpetual blush widened, "but you didn't answer the question I asked! Don't you think it's just so touching that two people can love each other so much that they've stayed together for over two hundred years? And that he still cares enough to try to surprise her with little things like parties and gifts? Scorpio is just too cute!"

"D-don't let him hear you call him cute," Aries giggled slightly, finding a few seconds to be appalled at her unusual forwardness—but she was with Lyra, so it wouldn't do any harm to be a little more outgoing than usual. Her features softened and she turned back to her food when she finally offered the cheerful young spirit the answer she'd been waiting for. "Sorry. I do think it's touching. I-it's something I always wonder about, and something I'd like to find if it's possible for me."

The Ram looked at her usually cheerful roommate when the gentle clank of a fork being placed on the edge of her plate was heard. Lyra wore an uncharacteristically serious face as she contemplated the wool mage. After a few seconds, which seemed longer than any single minute ever had, she finally said in her soft-spoken, genuine tone, "Of course it's possible for you. Love is possible for anyone."

The fiery orange mane of the Lion flashed through the pinkette's mind, and she couldn't check the blush that seeped into her cheeks.

"I think the only person who doesn't see it is him," the musician's voice was soft, but the news, while not wholly unexpected, still shocked the wool user. The heat burned more fiercely in her cheeks and she looked down at her hands.

"S-sorry," the shy spirit murmured, although she wasn't quite sure why she was apologizing. Maybe this time her apology was because it might be uncomfortable for the others to see her so much in love, when he didn't return the sentiment?

She peeked back up to see that the smile she received from her roommate was a much more serious smile than she usually saw before shyly turning her eyes back down. "Being in love with someone isn't something to be sorry for, Aries. It's something to rejoice over, to revel in, even if it's not returned right now. It's a beautiful thing, and even more so if it works out in the end. So don't apologize…but most of all, don't you ever give up."

Lyra had never had such fierceness in her sweet tone, and Aries looked up at her to meet her stern, unwavering gaze. She would never have expected the piercing look she was receiving from her normally cheerful friend.

"I—I'm sorry I—"

"Not 'sorry'," the Lyre cut her off, leaning across the table, where their food had been all but forgotten. "You mean to say that you won't. You won't give up."

The Ram spent several moments stuttering incoherently and finding no alternative to saying just what the musician wanted to hear. Her watchful eyes didn't leave the pinkette's face and in turn, the stuttering got worse.

"I-I w-won't!" she finally burst, standing up so quickly that her chair fell over with a crash. "I won't g-give up!"

"That's the spirit!"

The cheerful smile was back, and Lyra returned her attention to breakfast, taking a sip of her tea first. Aries looked at her, astonished that she could change gears so easily when she herself still felt the blood pumping through her veins. She couldn't remember a time when the sweet, musical girl had gotten to her so badly. For the time being, the spirit decided her nerves were completely shot, and she rolled her shoulders slightly.

"I-I'm sorry about that!" she picked up her chair. "I'll clean up later, but I-I'm getting a head start on the market today!"

And without even pausing to hear if Lyra had anything else to say, the embarrassed and shy Aries rushed out of their home, almost forgetting her coin purse on the way. Her pink curls were bouncing furiously as she all-but ran away from the confrontation she had just experienced. She wasn't one for confrontation, and she fled from it whenever she could.

But this…it wasn't really a confrontation of the negative kind. It just put her on edge…it scared her.

Aries didn't know what to do when her heart was so plainly visible on her sleeve.

If everyone could see it, how long would it be before Leo finally realized her feelings, too? And what would happen when he did? He was such a womanizer…would he just ignore them and pretend he hadn't noticed them, or would he play with her for a while, or would he address it bluntly and tell her that it wouldn't work? She didn't see him as the type to play with a girl who was sincerely attached, though. The pinkette had that much faith in him.

Strangely enough, she felt almost like she'd been in this situation before, but she couldn't imagine when. Her feelings for Leo had always been just a little more than friendly, but she didn't think—no, she had hoped, in vain—that they were more subtle. The current situation shouldn't particularly stand out, then, since it hadn't changed any for as long as she could remember. In other words, she mused as she continued distractedly down the street, it had always been like it was now, and she shouldn't be so out-of-sorts by it all.

No…it wasn't by all that Lyra had said, or the worries about her feelings for Leo that were ingrained in her character after, well, centuries of admiring him from afar…it was because of her dream.

Her steady pace faltered, and the Ram wondered how she had managed to forget about that dream in the midst of everything. Of course, the knowledge that her feelings were more obvious than she'd dared to acknowledge was kind of startling, and the Lyre's seriousness in addressing the feelings that she'd been hiding for all that time had been sobering, but was that enough to make her forget? The dream itself had been another shocking event for her, but her feelings had permeated it so thoroughly that maybe she had just lumped it together as part of what Lyra had been saying?

"It doesn't make sense…" she mumbled aloud, pausing and looking back down the street towards their apartment. She remembered waking up in her bed, confused about the dream, and now she felt that same sense of confusion.

Aries sighed in frustration and forced herself to keep walking toward the market. She pulled out her coin purse and opened it to peek in. She frowned a little.

"I'm running low on Spirit Jewels," she pursed her lips, which looked more like a pout, "I should have asked Lyra to borrow some…"

"What, low on cash, Ari?" an arm fell around her shoulders and she squeaked at the name, spinning to look at the perpetrator more quickly than she had ever done before. Seeing the familiar orange locks and sunglasses put her in a daze. He had used the name that he'd used in her dream, and she'd only ever heard it from anyone a handful of times in the last several years.

"L-L-Leo! Don't surprise me like that!" she exclaimed, and then she gasped, covering her mouth. "I'm so sorry for shouting!"

The Lion just chuckled and ruffled her hair, almost like an older brother. Her heart felt like it was being squeezed, and she did her best to hide the—what, disappointment?—as she turned her flushed face away from him.

"Sorry, sorry," he brushed her apology off with his own. "Here, take this and buy something special for yourself and Lyra this week."

Without even waiting for a response, at least ten coins fell into her still open coin purse. With a smile and catlike agility, he was gone, leaping onto a roof and running along it before hopping off to the ground on the other side. She let her open mouth close and sighed dejectedly, her cheeks burning and her heart racing. "I'm sorry for taking your money, Loke."

She spun back around and, after a chime from the town's clock, started to rush towards the marketplace. Aries had to put her fluttering heart and that strange dream out of her mind, because Lyra was counting on her…and if she didn't get there soon, all the best strawberries would be gone!

The Ram didn't even realize that his other name had slipped past her lips.

So…what do you think of the beginning of Infinitum? I've tried to make it nice and long just in case my updates are delayed, but I'm afraid much of it is establishing the character of Aries and a little of the way she thinks.

And while I did start this, please note that I have several other stories in the works, and as this is my latest it is likely to be my last priority. I will not abandon it, but updates may be slow. Please bear with me!