Ch 5: Day One of the GMG

July 1st, X791 in the main hall of Honeybone Lodge:

"And then we finally came back just before Natsu had to compete." explained Aries with a nervous smile as she looked over at Natsu who had his arm wrapped around her during her entire explanation of what happened since they had last seen them.

"I thought you looked older and more handsome." chirped Mira while giving the new couple one of her angelic smiles, causing a few of the other guild members to look at her with incredulous looks. But then again it shouldn't have been surprising for any of them that the guild's self-proclaimed matchmaker would be completely okay with all of that so long as there was a new couple in the guild at the end of it.

"I can't believe that you got two years' worth of training while the rest of us only got three months." mumbled Gray, leaving out the main reason that he was really upset with the dragon slayer. Just one more thing his rival seemed to best him at without evening trying, and that is exactly how he and the rest of the guild was viewing all of this considering what they all just heard.

"Makes me want to have a quick spar with you right now." commented Laxus with a little smirk as he and Natsu locked eyes with each other. Both of them sizing each other up and more than likely already coming up with plans on how to deal with the other one.

"Neither of you are going to start a fight while we still have the games to compete in!" declared Makarov while extending his hand in between the two of them just in case they decided to not listen to him like usual.

"Fine by me." replied Natsu with a little smirk as he quickly scooped up Aries and placed her on his lap. Him just turning down a fight would have caused most of the guild to look at him as if he was someone else, but add in how upfront he was currently being about his relationship with the spirit on his lap. Well let's just say that about half of the guild was no longer conscious and those that were really couldn't blame them.

"Ahhh you're both so cute together!" squealed Mira with her hands grasped tightly together as she watched Natsu nestle his chin into the crook of Aries' neck.

"So does everything you just told us apply to all dragon slayers?" inquired Levy as she quickly glanced over at a certain dragon slayer currently munching on a few bolts.

"At least with the whole having just the one mate thing and them getting some of our abilities, yes." he answered with a knowing grin coming over his face as he looked over at the guild's resident bookworm. "As for everything else… I'm fairly certain that we are one of a kind on that." he finished while giving Aries another huge smile as he nuzzled against her, causing a few to let out their awes while others felt the need to look away from the loving couple.

"That only makes your story even better, it sounds like it could have only happened in a book." stated the oldest Strauss sibling as her matchmaking side seemed to be on overdrive at the moment. "Leave it to Natsu to once again do something that none of us could have ever guessed." she said with hearts in her eyes.

"Back to the whole dragon slayer thing…" said Makarov after coughing to get everyone's attention. "Do these rules apply to all generations of dragon slayers?" he inquired while looking over at his grandson with a concerned look.

"Have you ever had any sort of romantic relationship with anyone before?" he asked while looking over at the blonde with a questioning look.

"What in the hell type of question is that?" replied the lightning mage in an irritated tone as he glared back at the pink haired couple.

"A perfectly logical one." he stated with a little smirk, that Laxus knew right away was his way of taunting him.

"Of course I have, but honestly it's none of your business." he finally answered after the two of them stared at each other in silence for a few moments.

"Then nope, it's probably just a first generation thing since we were actually taught by dragons." Natsu said with his usual smile as he put his head back into its spot on Aries' shoulder.

"What about third generation dragon slayers?" asked Levy as her thoughts drifted back to when she and Lucy ran into the Twin Dragon Slayers of Sabertooth.

"I didn't even know that there was such a thing." he replied with a slightly shocked look coming over his face, only for it then to switch into one of pure excitement. "But I sure as hell can't wait to see what they're capable of." he said as his right fist rose into the air while being completely covered in his golden flames.

"I'm sure you'll face them in the games." said Aries in a loving tone as she reached up and grabbed his fist and brought it down to her waist. Not even slightly bothered by the flames coating it as she did so, this was something that the rest of Fairy Tail was still having a hard time wrapping their heads around.

"So other than not being burned by his flames, what else can you do now Aries?" asked Macao, slightly concerned that another person might be better with his magic than he is.

"Not much." she replied in a shy tone as she looked down at her lap, still not used to having so much attention on her.

"Don't sell yourself short like that." stated Natsu in a tone that surprised most of his friends. Not because it sounded mean or anything like that, but because it was really stern for him while somehow being gentle at the same time as well. "You are now able to ignite any of your wool whenever you want, not to mention how strong you've gotten in hand to hand combat. And that isn't even including how you're also able to use those chains of yours as if they are just another part of your body." he said while now smiling at her proudly, fondly remembering all of their spars together over the past two years.

"But even after all of that I still can't beat you." she declared while looking up at him with a determined look that once again caught some of the guild off guard. Since for most of them their only interactions with the spirit before all of this indicated that she never would have openly challenged someone like she currently seemed to be doing, to Natsu of all people no less.

"Yeah, but what type of mate would I be if I let you get stronger than me when it's my job to make sure that you're safe and sound?" he said while giving her his signature grin.

"Did I hear that correctly Natsu?" asked Erza, finally speaking up for the first time as a deadly aura surrounded her. "Did you just say that it's a man's job to protect women?"

"Yeah, but I didn't mean it like you're making out to be." he said in a completely calm tone, which somehow shocked the guild even more than everything else the newly announced couple had told them over the past few hours. Most of the guild believed that Erza would always be able to make Gray and him cower before her even if they one day matched her in strength or possibly even passed her.

"What he meant by that is that mates are always striving to be the strongest in their partnership." Aries quickly chimed in, seeing that the scarlet haired Knight was about to attack Natsu for his previous comments and possibly other reasons. "It's my job to also make sure that no harm comes to him as well." she said while giving him a loving smile. "In a way it ensures that the both of us will continue to grow stronger so that in the future we'll definitely be able to protect our child."

At the mere mention of a possible child Mira let out a squeal so loud that most of the guild had to cover their ears so that they didn't go deaf. That was then followed by the beautiful barmaid having a slightly disturbing expression coming over her face before she all of a sudden passed out. As her siblings rushed over to her, Natsu and Aries both noticed that said woman had an extremely happy look as she lay on the floor.

"Y-you… Have you t-two… D-d-did you both…" stuttered out Erza as she looked at the both of them with a completely shocked look taking over her usually stoic one.

"What she's trying to ask is have the two of you had sex yet!" shouted out Gajeel from his corner as he continued to eat his scrap metal. Trying to act as if he didn't care about what happened to Natsu when he disappeared, but that was obviously a lie seeing as how quick he was to help Erza out.

"That's none of your business." Aries shouted back with a noticeable blush as she glared at the dragon slayer.

"Yep." was Natsu's simple answer, causing most of the gathered mage's jaws to drop to the floor while the poor spirit on his lap became a few shades darker than their shared hair color.

"That's a fucking lie!" shouted out Gray, with a few other male members of the guild joining in soon afterwards.

"Why in the hell would I lie about something like that?" asked back a clearly confused Natsu as he looked to his mate for an answer.

"Because most people are not so upfront about things like that and also males for some reason find it as something to brag about." explained his mate while glaring back up at him. "And how exactly am I the one that needs to explain this to you when I'm completely new to all of this?" she asked with a little growl at the end of it.

"Me too." he answered defensively only for his usual grin to reappear soon afterwards. "And you all do realize that I was raised by a dragon for crying out loud. Their views on such things are slightly different than most humans and therefore so are mine." he stated as Gajeel nodded his head in agreement while Wendy on the other hand was blushing up a storm. This caused the two first generation dragon slayers to start wondering if she was taught differently than they were, but that was something they could find out later.

"So have the two of you… You know?" asked Laki as the rest of the guild quieted down to hear their answer since some of them were still fairly certain that Natsu didn't even know what sex was still. This caused Aries to once again start blushing and looking away from all of them, which was pretty much impossible since they were in the center of a circle that formed around them.

"I've already told you guys, which apparently isn't enough for all of you." replied Natsu in a dry tone, chalking it up to another thing that made his odd family who they are. "You're going to have to tell them babe, otherwise they'll just keep asking." he whispered into his mate's ear, causing a noticeable shiver to run through her.

"So did the two of you bump uglies?" asked Cana in an extremely interested tone that slightly surprised the pink haired duo as she seemed to just appear out of nowhere next to the two of them. She wasn't the only one interested in finding out if the two's relationship had progressed that far, thus for the next two minutes Aries was continuously asked if they had.

"YES, WE HAD SEX!" she shouted out in frustration as she hopped off of Natsu's lap and glared at all of them. Causing most of them to quickly back down, not because of the look she was currently giving them which in its own right was downright terrifying. No they backed away from her because of the look their usually fun loving dragon slayer was giving them at the moment, which said quite clearly that pain was going to come to anyone that continued to upset his mate.

So the once loud and rambunctious guild settled into an uncomfortable and tense silence, that was lifted by a completely unexpected source. "That a boy Natsu, I knew you had it in you!" cheered Cana as if she was just given the best news in her life.

"Thanks I guess." replied said dragon slayer in an awkward voice as he looked at the guild's resident drunk as if she were crazy.

"God damn it Gray!" Macao and Wakaba suddenly bellowed while giving the aforementioned ice mage a deadly glare.

"What the hell did I do?" he asked back, honestly having no idea what he could have possibly done to upset the two of them so much.

"You were supposed to get laid first." declared Macao before bursting into tears, causing the already confused members of Fairy Tail to only grow more so.

"What in the literal fuck is going on?" asked Gray as he quickly glanced around for someone to answer him.

"We bet on which one of you would get laid first." Wakaba answered only to follow in his best friend's footsteps and start crying.

"That still doesn't explain why the two of you are crying." he pointed out with the rest of the guild nodding their heads in agreement.

"They're both crying because the loser has to pay for the winner's drinking expenses for an entire year." explained Cana with a huge smile as she flagged over the barmaid and ordered an obscene amount of liquor. This of course caused the two already crying mages to cry even harder as the rest of the guild came to the realization of how serious of a bet the three of them had made.

"Soooo… How exactly does your relationship work since he's also apparently your Master now as well?" asked Jet in a slightly awkward tone, wanting to move past the scene of two of their older members currently weeping like little babies.

"That's one of the reasons that I said it was a little complicated." Natsu chuckled out nervously as he rubbed the back of his head with his left hand.

"No it isn't, you're my Master and Mate, even if you weren't the former I'd still do almost anything you'd ask of me." replied Aries as she looked up at him with a loving smile that then turned into a loving kiss.

"So now you're also a celestial mage?" asked the speedster with a confused look coming over his face, and he definitely wasn't the only one in the guild sporting that look at the moment.

"No, he already told us that he's now part spirit and Natsu being Natsu he tried to get rid of her key so no one could control her. But instead of it turning out like he thought it would he now has her key tattooed onto him, which I'm honestly still a little confused about. Not just the whole tattoo thing but you now being part spirit as well." stated Levy as she looked over at Natsu with a questioning look directed his way.

"You and me both." he replied while letting out a tired sigh as he looked at his mate with a concerned look. Not because of what he was just asked, but because of a certain someone not speaking up this entire time and then slipping out of the lodge unnoticed by the rest of the guild. So with a quick nod towards her, Aries politely excused herself from the current conversation and followed after her former Master.

"So far this is the best explanation that the Spirit King and I could come up with." he started to explain as he watched his mate head out into Crocus.

With Lucy a few minutes later standing on a bridge:

"Are you mad at us?" Aries asked hesitantly as she approached the blonde gazing down at the water underneath the bridge the two of them were now standing on.

"Why would I be mad at the two of you?" she asked back while not even looking at her former spirit.

"Because I stole the man you were growing to love." replied the spirit as she hung her head in shame, only for it to snap back up after hearing the response that she got back.

"You didn't steal him; he was never mine to begin with. Something that was made evidently clear when he explained what happened that day when you almost died." replied Lucy as she turned back to look at Aries with a tear stained smile.

"Lucy…" she whispered while bringing her hands up to cover her mouth.

"I know that I should be happy for the two of you, which I am. But for some reason I can't stop crying even though two of my best friends are safe and sound, not only that but are fortunate enough to have found the one they were destined to be with." said Lucy as she choked back a sob from escaping at the end of it.

"It's okay…" she started to say, trailing off at the end since she honestly couldn't reply to that as she started to think about it.

"No it isn't, I'm just so confused right now." shouted out Fairy Tail's only celestial mage as she went back to staring out over the water slowly flowing underneath the two of them. "Part of me knows that I honestly never thought about Natsu that way until recently. But another part of me is telling me that I'm just saying that because I always believed that he'd be waiting for me if I couldn't find anyone else." she said before openly crying. "What kind of friend am I to think about someone like that?" she finally asked while turning to look at the stunned Spirit.

Aries honestly didn't know how to answer such a question without possibly making it harder on the girl she still cared deeply for. So instead she just stood there in silence, only for Lucy to let out a sad laugh as she turned away from her and went back to watching the water.

"A terrible one." she mumbled to herself, before jumping slightly as she was brought into a warm hug from behind. A hug that felt oh so warm and familiar to that of a certain pink haired dragon slayer that was causing her so much confusion at the moment. But instead of it being him, it was none other than Aries hugging her at the moment and smiling back at her.

"No you're not Lucy, you're just confused." stated the spirit in a knowing tone as she continued to smile at the blonde. "You and I both know that he'd be the first one to tell you otherwise on that. He'd probably then go and do something stupid to just prove it, something like screaming it as he battled against a monster terrorizing a town." she finished with a little smirk, that only grew when she heard a giggle escape the girl she was trying to comfort.

"He would, wouldn't he." she agreed while whipping away the last of her tears.

"Yep, or something even more outrageous because you mean that much to him Lucy." replied Aries as she released Lucy from her hug so that they could look each other in the face. "Not only to him, but to me as well." she continued as her old self started to resurface. "Just because Natsu and I are mates now doesn't mean that things are going to have to change between the two of you. Or between the two of us either…" she finished while nervously twirling her finger tips around each other.

And now it was Aries' turn to be surprised by an unexpected hug being sent her way. "Thank you Aries." whispered Lucy as the two of them continued to hug each other. "I know that you honestly mean that, but unfortunately I know it isn't true." this caused Aries to pull away from the blonde and look back at her with an aghast look coming over her face. But before she could deny and argue that the celestial mage was wrong about it Lucy spoke up again.

"I'm not saying that either of you are going be responsible for it changing, but it will. You two are now pretty much married and might even start to consider having children soon. While I on the other hand am still single and will hopefully find someone that makes me as happy as Natsu clearly makes you. It's just another part of life." she stated while giving the spirit a sincere smile.

"We'll all still be friends, right?" asked Aries in a slightly scared voice.

"Definitely, and that's a promise." she replied almost instantaneously as the two of them were once again hugging each other. "I still just need a little more time to sort all of this out. One moment I learn that Happy and I almost died only for the next second to think that you died to save me. But hearing what you and Natsu went through I can't really complain now can I?" she asked while smiling at the pink haired spirit.

"I don't know about that." replied Aries as the two of them shared a quick laugh together before they both went back to watching the water in silence. "I'll leave you to your thoughts then, but I want to make sure that you know Natsu and I will always be there for you whenever you need us." she said before heading back to the Honeybone Lodge.

"I know." Lucy said to herself as a small smile slowly spread across her lips.

"Well wasn't that a touching moment." came the voice of Sting before he dropped down from a nearby roof.

"What the hell do you want?" she asked while glaring at the cocky blonde with a look that would cause most men to cower in fear.

"I was hoping to run into this dragon slayer of yours that you have so much faith in, so I could size him up before the games. But imagine my surprise when instead of running into him I happened to stumble across his mate and teammate having a heart to heart with each other. Not only that but also finding out that you actually have feelings for him as well after he's already given his heart to another. What a shame, but that's just his loss I guess." replied Sting with a smug grin as he made no attempts to hide the fact that he was currently checking her out.

"You're an idiot if you think that I'd let an arrogant pig like you ever touch me." she said with venom dripping from every single word she spat out at him. "And besides, don't you dragon slayers only get a single mate!"

"Is that what that idiot told all of you?" he asked back, completely ignoring the insults she threw at him just moments ago as she nodded her head at him. "Well he's wrong, yet right in a sense as well I guess." he said while stroking his chin in thought.

"And you're saying he's the idiot." Lucy replied while giving him a deadpan expression.

"From what I've gathered that isn't really up for debate." he said with a smirk as Lucy started to glare at him once again. "But that really isn't the point I'm trying to make here, now is it? What he didn't tell you is that if his mate should die, then he'll more than likely move onto one of his other possible mates he's sure to have chasing after him. Like you for instance." he explained while giving her what she could only describe as a creepy grin. But unfortunately that didn't stop her from listening to what he had to say to her, which then caused her to think about if something like that did eventually happened.

"Even if what you say is true I wouldn't want to end up with him if it meant that one of my friends has to die." she declared with absolute certainty, or at least what she thought was absolute certainty.

"You say that, but I can tell that you at least imagined what it would be like if his current mate was out of the picture." taunted Sting as his grin only grew in size as a conflicted look came over the blonde before him.

"So what if she thought about it?" came the stern voice of Erza Scarlet as she came up to Lucy's side as she glared at the blonde dragon slayer.

"Nothing, I'm just pointing out to her that she isn't as high and mighty as she likes to make herself out to be." he commented while still grinning at the two of them. "Just like that fake dragon slayer of yours." he finished, enjoying the noticeable twinge of anger flash across the scarlet haired knight standing in front of him.

"Oh, you must be one of the Twin Dragon slayers Lucy was so upset with last night." Erza remarked as a smug grin started to spread across her own face. "Doesn't really matter since you're definitely one of those people who likes to make a big show out of the small feats that you're actually able to accomplish. Always telling everyone else that you're the greatest mage to ever grace our world while Natsu on the other hand… Well let's just say that he constantly does things like that and lets others decide what they want to think about him." she replied while gesturing to a screen that was replaying the highlights of the Preliminary Event from the night before.

Being the arrogant man that he was, Sting twirled around thinking that what he was about to see wasn't going to be much of a sight. But boy was he wrong, first he watched as the announcers analyzed Natsu's first move which they correctly identified as a way for him to get an incredibly accurate lay of the land. This alone wouldn't have caused the smug dragon slayer to think twice, even he couldn't deny how impressive it was as the footage then showed Natsu's roar tear straight through the labyrinth and stop just a few feet away from hitting Mato. The announcers then went on to say that this showed that not only did he have immense power but also fine control of such a powerful magic since the labyrinth was supposed to prevent someone from doing exactly what he did.

At this point Sting's jaw was hanging open in complete disbelief as they once again showed footage of the roar blasting through the labyrinth from different angles. And they continued to show the footage over and over again while commenting that he was definitely a mage to watch out for in the games that were about to start in less than two hours. After hearing that last part he snapped back to his usual cocky self and had one final comment before leaving the two Fairies alone and heading back to his own guild.

"Anyone can destroy something that can't fight back, let's see if he can do something like that when he's up against someone like me." he said with his back to the two of them.

"I can't wait to find out." replied Erza as she smiled at the retreating dragon slayer.

"Thanks Erza." said Lucy in a quiet voice after she was sure that Sting was gone.

"Don't mention it Lucy, we're Fairy Tail which means that we're always there for each other when we need it." she said with a smile that the Celestial Mage couldn't help but think was fake.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she hesitantly asked the scarlet haired beauty.

"About the Games and what the first event might be?" Erza asked back as the two of them headed back to their lodge. Both of them not really sure what to think about everything that they learned over the past few hours about their pink haired teammate and close friend.

Back at Honeybone Lodge:

Most of the Fairy Tail members were rendered speechless as they all continued to watch the replay of Natsu's roar from the previous night. The announcers were now speculating that an attack of that magnitude could easily be ranked on the power level of Wizard Saint, which only made them even more curious about the Fairy Tail wizard and what he might do next. They were also assuring their viewers that as soon as they found out more about the pink haired mage that they would pass it onto the rest of the country.

"You just can't help but be the center of attention can you?" asked Gray with a little smirk as he looked over at his rival who wasn't even paying attention to the broadcast of himself. Instead he was scarfing down as much food as he physically could, almost as if he hadn't eaten any of it in the past two years.

"Whatever Stripper, give them a day or so and I bet they'll be talking about something I destroyed a few years ago." replied Natsu while giving a dismissive wave over his shoulder.

"You might want to slow down there Mr. Dragneel, you're going to be competing in a little bit." replied a barmaid as she set down another tray piled high with food for him. As she was about to leave she noticed that the room somehow got even quieter than it was before as all of them were looking at her with stunned expressions. "Did I say your name wrong?" she asked him back in a nervous tone as she started to fidget under all of their gazes.

"No you didn't my Dear." replied Makarov while giving the confused barmaid a reassuring smile. "I just think they are surprised to hear someone address him so formally." he explained as a lopsided grin spread across his face as he watched said dragon slayer finally snap out of his little trance.

"Thanks for your concern; I just haven't had any of our food in a really long time." Natsu said with one of his signature grins before tearing back into his food with the same vigor as before. And because of this he didn't notice the strange look he was getting from not only the barmaid but also from the rest of his guild mates.

"Are you saying that you didn't eat anything while you were in the Spirit Realm?" asked Levy, once again not being able to control herself when a key bit of information was within her grasps.

"No…" replied the dragon slayer with a full mouth of food that he then somehow shoved even more into before continuing on. Unfortunately for the blue haired bookworm, what then came out of his mouth was complete and utter gibberish for any normal person. But as fate would have it a certain Exceed was an expert at deciphering Natsu's incoherent mumbles.

"He said that he ate their food, which isn't bad by any means, it just doesn't taste nearly as delicious as the food here." chimed in Happy with a huge smile spread across his face. Only for his partner to shout something else out while spraying a few unfortunate guild members with half chewed up food.

"Or fire of course, nothing beats that." stated the Exceed while nodding his head in agreement. That is until he finally processed what Natsu said and rounded on the pink haired dragon slayer and started to argue with him about fish being the best tasting thing known to man.

"Still the same old Natsu and Happy." pointed out Mira as she and a few other guild members watched the two with fond smiles.

"At least Flame Brain didn't change in that area." said Gray with a little smirk as Natsu's and Happy's argument seemed to only increase in intensity. That is until a loud shout from the lodge's entrance stopped Natsu dead in his tracks since it was his name being shouted out.

"What have I told you about talking while you're still eating?" inquired Aries as she stalked over to him with a menacing look. Not having a problem with making her way towards him since most of the members of Fairy Tail knew how stupid it was to get in the way of an upset woman.

"Not to." was his quick reply after swallowing the last of the food in his mouth and giving her a nervous smile.

"Correct, and just because we're no longer in the Spirit Realm doesn't mean you can go back to your old and quite frankly disgusting eating habits." she said while poking him in the chest until he was back in the seat he used to be sitting in.

"It won't happen again, I promise." he said while holding his hands up in defeat.

"It better not." she replied with an angry huff as she turned away from him. Only for her to then let out an adorable squeak as she was pulled down into his lap and wrapped in his strong arms. "So how did it go with Lucy?" he whispered into her ear so no one else could overhear them.

"As good as we could've hoped for… She just needs a little more time." she whispered back to him as she twisted her head so she could see him.

"Would you two love birds cut it out!" shouted out Wakaba and Macao only for both of them to then start glaring at Gray again. Which was something that the two older mages started to do after they were done bawling over how many jewels they would be forking over to a certain brunette.

"Don't listen to those two old coots you two!" cheered said brunette with a giant mug in hand and her other arm wrapped around an open barrel of wine. "If anything you two should start thinking about popping out a few little brats!" she declared before downing the rest of her mug and instantly filling it up from the barrel right next to her. Needless to say this caught most of the guild off guard making it once again become uncomfortably quiet.

"That's a great idea!" squealed Mira as she started to fantasize about how cute the children of the pink haired couple would look. "I just can't wait to watch over them as you two go out on missions together." she stated while holding her hands together in front of her chest.

"Them?" asked Aries in a slightly nervous and confused voice.

"Yep!" answered the platinum haired beauty as she gave the two of them a huge smile. "You two are bound to have a few kids if even half of Natsu's stamina translates to the bedroom." she explained while still smiling at the two of them, not caring in the slightest that her last comment caused a few of her fellow female guild members to start blushing.

"Do you two want to go double or nothing if you can guess correctly on the number of kids?" asked Cana as she walked over to her two usual drinking buddies and sat down with them.

"HELL NO!" shouted out both of them as they stopped glaring at the guild's ice mage.

"Will you guys quit making bets about us!" yelled Gray, knowing that he was more than likely going to be involved in this bet as well.

"Sorry Gray, no can do since they've already been made." she replied while giving him a smug smile and a quick wink at the end. "And besides, Natsu seems to be completely okay with it." she pointed out while gesturing over to said dragon slayer who just shrugged his shoulders in response.

"How in the world are you okay with this Ash for Breath?" asked his rival as he stomped over to him.

"Probably because they've been doing this for years and I also know most of the bets they've made in regards to me and other guild members." he answered to the shock of the ones making the bets, which then made him realize that he would most likely have to explain himself. "How many times do we have to keep reminding all of you that we're dragon slayers and can pretty much hear everything that is going on in the rooms that we're in." he explained after letting out a tired sigh.

"Apparently about the same number of times as you told me." replied Aries as she started to giggle at all of the slightly embarrassed looks they were currently getting from everyone else.

"As fun as it is to watch all of you remember to watch what you say even if you think no one is listening. Unfortunately we've got the games to prepare for that start in about two hours." chuckled a smirking Makarov, this caused everyone to go back to their rooms and get ready.

Ten minutes before the opening ceremony outside of the booth Makarov rented out for the rest of the guild:

"What is it my boy? You've never been one to be nervous about pretty much anything." stated Makarov as he looked up at a fidgeting Natsu.

"Yeah I know, but I usually don't ask for anything." he replied while coming to a complete stand still.

"True, even though you're the first to run and help someone else with any sort of problem they might have." said the elderly guild Master as a proud smile spread across his face. Wondering how he got so lucky to have someone like Natsu in his guild, even if he is constantly destroying things and upsetting the Council.

"It's not actually for me… But it would mean the world to me if you said yes." he mumbled just loud enough for Makarov to hear him.

"For crying out loud Natsu, just spit it out." he quickly said back, knowing full well that it would get the young mage before him to stop fretting over whatever he was about to ask and just ask it.

"Will you let Aries join Fairy Tail?" asked Natsu as he looked down at his guild Master with a pleading look that quickly turned to an angry one as said guild Master burst into laughter. "This isn't a laughing matter Gramps." he growled out as the temperature rose a few degrees.

"Sorry my boy, but I thought it was going to be something a little more serious with how you were acting." explained the Master of Fairy Tail as he whipped away a few stray tears. "And before you start arguing about it being serious, which it is, I already considered her a member when she was just one of Lucy's Spirits. So it should go without saying that she could become a full-fledged member whenever she wants since she's now your mate." he explained with a warm smile as he watched a few different emotions flash over Natsu's face in the matter of seconds. With the last emotion settling on pure joy at finding out Aries could join the guild he saw as his family.

"But before we go about making it completely official, there are a few things I'd like to point out to the two of you." stated Makarov as Natsu's happy expression quickly changed into a slightly confused one.

"Like what Gramps?" he asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Like the advantages of having her appear as just another Spirit in the eyes of everyone else for these games." replied Makarov only to let out a sigh seeing that he'd have to explain for Natsu to get where he was going with this. "Just think of what the two of you can do together in these games; something that I'm certain will be a sight to behold after what you showed you were capable of doing by yourself in the preliminaries."

"She could still do that after joining the guild." he pointed out after thinking about it for a little bit.

"True, but I'm fairly certain that more than just one guild might see it as an unfair advantage since there will technically be two of our mages out there. Which could possibly force the judges of these games to prohibit the two of you from fighting together." responded Makarov as his expression switched to his serious one.

"So Lucy might not be able to use Loke?" he asked back in a slightly panicked tone, not wanting to know how the blonde would react to having two of her usual spirits being unable to help her like they normally would.

"If you were to use Aries…" Makarov started to say only for a slight growl from the mage in front of him made him rephrase it. "What I meant to say is if the two of you decided to fight together, it would make an already hard opponent become almost impossible to beat for most of the competitors. While Lucy on the other hand, well let's just say I'm fairly certain that most of them will underestimate her and not care that Loke is still technically a member of our guild." he finished explaining, expecting for his hot headed member to instantly start arguing with him like he used to but instead was shocked to see a thoughtful look coming over the pink head as he stood there in thought.

"I can see what you mean Gramps." replied the dragon slayer as he looked down at him with his signature grin. "Unfortunately for us it's up to Aries if she wants to wait until after the games to become a member or not, but I'm sure she'll see your side of things once I tell her."

"And what way do you think she'll do?" inquired Makarov, hoping that she would wait so Natsu would be more of a powerhouse then he already was.

"She'll wait until we win Gramps." he answered while still grinning at the elderly guild Master.

"How do you know? Wait, I forgot about you two being able to telepathically communicate with each other." sighed Makarov as he headed towards the door to the booth with the rest of Fairy Tail waiting in it. "You better hurry and meet up with the rest of your team Natsu." he said while coming to a stop in front of the door.

"Sure thing Gramps, and I can't wait to have a rematch against Laxus." he replied while turning and heading down the hallway.

"How did you find out about that?" asked Makarov as he twirled around to look at the retreating figure of Natsu.

"I got a glimpse of everyone participating in the preliminaries, and considering that he and Gajeel weren't moping around it was pretty safe to assume that their team made it." was his simple reply before he turned down a different hallway and disappeared.

"I think I'm going to have to thank the Spirit King if I ever have the honor of meeting him." Makarov mumbled to himself before opening the door and stepping into the booth with the rest of his guild.

"Can I ask you one more quick question Aries?" asked Levy with a notepad in hand that she clearly had been using to take notes in for the past few minutes.

"Sure, so long as it doesn't deal with you know what, like some of the earlier questions we were getting at." replied Aries as she continued to play with Asuka who was sitting on her lap. Who seemed to instantly take a liking to the Spirit and was very adamant about sitting on her lap to watch the opening ceremony.

"It doesn't." Levy hastily replied while shaking her head back and forth to hide her faint blush after remembering Natsu's completely honest and very vivid answers when asked earlier in the day. "Since Natsu is now your Master aren't the two of you concerned about using up too much of his magic by being out here?" she asked with a concerned look sent the Spirit's way.

"I was actually wondering the same thing and just didn't know how to ask the two of you." voiced Lisanna from the row behind them and sporting an equally concerned expression.

"Before our training with the Spirit King it definitely would have eventually become a problem for him." she answered while looking at the two of them with a small smile. "But now it is no longer a concern for a few different reasons, the first one being he's got enough magic energy for me to be out here for several years." she stated as a few jaws fell open at hearing this. "Part of that is because I'm no longer just a Spirit anymore and can keep myself here at a very small fraction of magic energy when compared to before. And another reason being the Spirit King giving me a different contract considering my unique circumstances." she explained with an even bigger smile than before.

"Mama said you're Uncle Natsu's wife, is that true?" Asuka suddenly asked while looking up at her with an inquisitive look on her adorable little face. This caused Bisca's and a few of the other women's mouths to drop open in shock and slight embarrassment. But before the sharpshooter could even get a word in, Aries surprised them even more with her very simple answer.

"Yes we are honey, are you okay with that?" the Spirit replied with a warm smile while looking down at the little girl sitting in her lap.

"Yep, but only if you promise me something." she replied as her expression turned to a serious one, or at least as serious as she could make with such a cute face.

"Asuka! You can't say such things to her." stated Bisca in an aghast tone, clearly mortified that her daughter was up to something.

"It's fine Bisca, so what is it that I have to promise you darling?" said Aries as she continued to smile down at the little girl.

"That you'll protect him like my mama does for my papa." answered Asuka, causing most of the members listening in to let out some awws.

"Of course." she responded while bringing her in for a big hug.

"And that you two will also have a kid so we can become best friends." the little girl declared in the middle of their hug. This caused a few members of Fairy Tail to start choking on their drinks while a few of the others couldn't help but find it completely adorable.

"That's something me and Natsu will have to talk together about." she said as a slight blush started to dust the edges of her cheeks.

"But it's something that he wants." stated Asuka as a pout came over her face as she looked up at Aries.

"Asuka, don't start telling lies like that." scolded her mother as she got up to take her away from Aries before she made it even more awkward than it already was.

"It's not a lie, Uncle Natsu told me so after we played together." she declared while crossing her arms in front of her and defiantly looking up at her mother. "He said that he wished he could have his own family like we have. And it was after we pinky promised that we would never lie to each other."

"Asuka…" Bisca started to say until Aries spoke up.

"If that's the case then it's a promise Asuka." the Spirit said to everyone else's sheer and utter surprise as the two of them then proceeded to make it a pinky promise.

"Yea!" cheered the young cowgirl before hugging the pink haired Spirit with all her might.

"Looks like we're up next." chimed in Makarov, causing everyone to finally start paying attention to what was happening in the middle of the arena. This caused some of them to have confused expression wash over their faces as: Gajeel, Laxus, Mira, Juvia and Mystogan came out instead of the team they were all expecting. And they weren't the only ones confused by this, most of the crowd was wondering where Natsu was since he was the only thing the media seemed interested in talking about recently.

Unfortunately for Fairy Tail the crowd's confusion quickly switched to slight anger that then turned into them booing at the current Fairy Tail team. Shouting out things such as they cheated to even get into third place and that they didn't deserve to be there at all. This would have more than likely gotten to the mages of Fairy Tail if a certain part of the crowd wasn't cheering their hearts out for them at the moment, making the rest of the crowd not even matter.

It was during this time that the cheering members of Fairy Tail found out that they had an unexpected guest with them, Mavis Vermilion, the First Guild Master. She quickly explained to all of them that she was bored sitting around on Tenrou Island all by herself and decided to come and cheer them on, and that only people with their guild mark on them could see her.

"Why are you so shocked to see her Gramps?" asked Aries in a confused tone as she looked between Mavis and him.

"He told you to call me that didn't he?" Makarov growled out only for his tone to switch back to his normal one. "And you can see her?" he asked while pointing up at the smiling young blonde floating in front of them.

"Yes to both, and she's been here for a while now." she replied still sporting a perplexed expression.

"But that shouldn't be possible." he said while looking to the First for answers.

"She and Natsu are bound together by a bond so strong that she is also included in that group even if she doesn't have our mark just yet." explained Mavis as she gave him a knowing look.

"Well you see we were…" he started to explain only for Mavis to ignore him as she and Aries were the only ones to continue to cheer for the team that took first place in the preliminaries.

In the Arena:

"Not really the reception I was expecting to get." stated Erza as they slowly made their way to the middle of the arena where the rest of the teams were gathered.

"I think it's great, we were so awesome they're left speechless." replied Natsu with his usual grin as he waved back to Mavis and his mate. That soon turned into the rest of their guild cheering them on after coming out of their slight shock of having two teams competing in the games.

"You know that's not why they're silent." said Lucy with a small smile gracing her lips as they continued on their way.

"I can't believe we all had to wear these get ups just to match you." mumbled Gray as he gestured to all of their new outfits that were mainly white with gold as the accent color.

"I think they're manly!" bellowed Elfman as he started to flex in the small coat that clearly didn't fit him.

"You say that about pretty much everything." he mumbled to himself since he knew it wasn't going to change how the Strauss acted in the slightest.

"Gray, I know for a fact that you have a few different white coats in your wardrobe so stop complaining just because Natsu now has one." said Erza in a commanding tone; that meant it was the end of him whining about their new uniforms.

"So there are two Fairy Tail teams competing this year, quite interesting." stated Jura as he and Lyon made their way over to them.

"There's another Fairy Tail team?" asked all of them except for Natsu.

"Did I forget to tell you guys about that? Sorry." chuckled out said dragon slayer as he started to rub the back of his head and grin at all of them glaring at them.

"Still the same old Fairy Tail." stated Lyon with a small grin sent their way; this of course caught the attention of his fellow childhood student as the two of them started their own heated little discussion. And he wasn't the only one to quickly splinter off from the group; Erza and Lucy were soon being smothered by the members of Blue Pegasus. This unfortunately meant that Erza had to deal with Ichiya as he kept calling her honey and trying to woo her.

"I had heard that all of you were in some sort of stasis for the last seven years, which seems to be true for the majority of you, well except for you that is." said Jura with an eyebrow raised as the only ones still standing there were him, Elfman and Natsu.

"It's a long story Jura, one that I'd be more than happy to fill you in on later." he replied while locking eyes with a certain blonde male from Sabertooth that had been staring him down since they entered the arena.

"I'm going to hold you to that, I'm just glad to finally see for myself that all of you are okay." responded the Wizard Saint before heading back to the rest of his team minus Lyon.

"You're so going down Salamander!" shouted out Gajeel as he and the rest of his team made their way towards them.

"Yea, Yea, just save it for the games." he replied in a dismissive tone as he side stepped him and the rest of Fairy Tail's second team and made his way towards Sabretooth's team. But before he could get even close to them Raven Tail decided to get in his way.

"One of Makarov's little brats thinks he's all that after his little stunt in the preliminaries does he?" asked the one standing in the center and in a complete suite of gold armor with a black cape on his back.

"I don't know who you are and I honestly don't care." replied Natsu as he tried to make his way past them but was stopped by the weird short one with violet colored skin. Causing the already fed up fire dragon slayer to become even more pissed off with them then he already was. Unfortunately that soon turned into disdain as the other odd ball of their group with blue skin stopped him once again. But it wasn't because of being stopped yet again that Natsu was on the verge of attacking them right then and there, no it was because he could smell the faint smell of Wendy on him and the small creature sitting on his shoulder.

"You'll soon realize that Fairy Tail is nothing when compared to us." the armored one said in a cocky tone before letting out a deep chuckle. A chuckle that was quickly cut short as an enormous amount of magic pressure descended on the entire arena, while at the same time it became extremely hot. With both of them combined together most of the contestants and spectators were finding it hard to breath, with the members of Fairy Tail being the only ones not affected by it.

"Is that so?" asked Natsu as he tilted his head sideways to look at the armored man who was the only one from his team still on his feet, and just barely if his trembling legs were any indication. "Well I think I should make something crystal clear for you and everyone else watching. If you mess with Fairy Tail then you'll have to deal with me, and I'll make sure to return whatever you did by tenfold." he finished saying now just a few centimeters away from him.

"Oh and Ivan, you're a fool to think I wouldn't recognize the scent of a Dreyar. So if you ever attack one of my friends like you did with Wendy last night I'll expose your little secret." he whispered into his ear in a deadly tone. "But of course that will only happen after I've hunted you down and beaten you so badly that even your own son and father won't be able to identify you." he finished in a slightly louder voice so two certain dragon slayers could definitely hear him.

"Natsu! That's Enough!" shouted Erza as she grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away from the cowering Raven Tail team. As soon as he was spun around the temperature dropped back down to normal and the overwhelming pressure was gone.

"What, did you think that was me Erza?" he asked her back with his usual grin and a little chuckle that quite frankly made him even more terrifying to the other contenders.

"Of course it was you Salamander." stated Gajeel as he shook his head at him, even though he clearly had a smirk spread across his lips since he overheard most of his little conversation with Ivan. But luckily he knew that letting the rest of their teams in on everything would only guarantee that they were kicked out, which they already might be after Natsu's little stunt just now.

"No kidding Ash for Brains, what other fire mage could possibly do all of this." declared Gray as he motioned to all of the sweaty contestants and spectators.

"Zancrow." was the pink heads quick reply before an armored gauntlet smacked the back side of his head rather harshly. This caused him to slowly turn and look the scarlet haired knight directly in the eyes, where he could see how shocked she was that he was still standing there as if she hadn't just hit him.

"We don't need your smart aleck remarks right now, especially after you just might have gotten us kicked out." she said while glaring him down, which unfortunately for her wasn't having any effect on him like it used to.

"Calm down Erza, if they were going to kick us out for that then they already would have done it." responded the pink haired dragon slayer as his signature grin once again came over his face. "Isn't that right?" he asked while turning to look up at the booth with the day's three announcers in it. All of which looked slightly disheveled and confused at how to respond to him since it really wasn't their job to make decisions like that.

"Considering that you haven't actually done anything other than letting out your magical pressure, I'd assume that you're still fine." answered former Councilman Yajima as the hints of a faint smile could barely be seen on the corners of his lips.

"Are you kidding me, that maniac just attacked me and the rest of my team!" shouted out the armored mage of Raven Tail in disgust.

"Actually Alexei, we all just witnessed the exact opposite." replied Chapati Lola in a rattled voice as he continued to mess with his tie that he slightly undid during Natsu's little outburst. "As my fellow announcer pointed out to you just moments ago, Mr. Dragneel never laid a finger on you and only stated that anyone who is foolish enough to make an enemy out of his guild will have to deal with him." he finished in a normal tone by the end of it.

"And man did he sure make an impression while doing it." chimed in Jenny Realight as she fanned her face and gave said dragon slayer a sly wink.

"Fine, but it should be obvious to everyone here that Fairy Tail having two teams competing gives them an unfair advantage." argued the violet skinned member of Raven Tail that went by Nullpudding.

"He does have a point there." replied Fiore's current top model as she brought one of her fingers up to her mouth and looked as if she was now in deep thought.

"Like hell he does!" shouted out Natsu, once again causing everyone's eyes to turn on him. "It doesn't matter if they're from the same guild or not because as soon as these games start I'll destroy anyone that stands in my way. Which I'm confident is the same mentality of the rest of my team and it's probably the same for Fairy Tail's B team as well."

"Who in the hell decided that we were the B team?" asked Gajeel with a snarl as he got right in front of Natsu.

"I did, and it also kind of makes sense since we came in first as well." he replied with a smug grin before ducking underneath a swipe at his head.

"You don't get to make those kinds of decisions Salamander." growled out his fellow dragon slayer as Laxus suddenly appeared in between the two of them so they were no longer in each other's faces.

"Easy there Gajeel, he's just trying to rile you up." stated Laxus in a calm tone as he locked eyes with his teammate. "And besides, just think of how satisfying it's going to be when we wipe that smug grin of his off his face." he finished as he turned to look at Natsu with a determined look.

"I've been dying to have a rematch with you Laxus where it's just the two of us." said the still grinning dragon slayer on the other team.

"I also wouldn't mind going up against you once again Erza, it'll be just like the good old days." chirped Mira as she gave her usual angelic smile, which to the entire crowd didn't seem to match what she just said.

"Are you sure you really want to let the entire country know that I'm your superior?" asked the scarlet haired mage as a red aura started to form around her. Something that was happening to most of the members on both teams, except for each of their colors matching their form of magic.

"Easy now Fairy Tail, save it for once the games actually start." said Jura as he slowly made his way in between the two teams now staring each other down.

"As you can see, your concerns won't really be a problem." announced Chapati, effectively getting everyone's attention back on him. "And even if they did decided to use this to their advantage there is nothing wrong with that since they haven't broken any of the rules." he explained as Yajima nodded his head in agreement.

"Aren't we supposed to announce the first event?" asked Jenny before quickly posing for a few photos.

"That we are my Dear." answered Yajima before he and Chapati went back and forth explaining all of the rules for the games overall. After which they then went on to explain the first event this year, known only as Hidden to all of them until each of the teams chose one participant.

In the booth of Fairy Tail Team A:

"Natsu, you better have a good god damn reason for pulling a stunt like that and don't you ever tell me to calm down again." was the first thing Erza said to him in a shockingly calm voice as they stepped into their booth.

"Of course I do." he replied as he walked past her and headed to the railings so he could get a good view of the event Gray was about to compete in.

"Natsu…" she growled back at him.

"And what was it Natsu?" asked Lucy in a slightly timid voice since it was always risky to cut off Erza like she just did.

"Those bastards are responsible for what happened to Wendy and Carla last night." he answered just above a whisper that the other three almost missed due to the sounds of stones being crunched under extreme force. Stones that were unfortunately making up the railing of their booth and just happened to be where he came to a stop at.

"Those bastards." hissed out both of the women as they started to glare across at the Raven Tail team. That just happened to only be a few booths away from theirs but still close enough for them to see all of them smirking back at them right now.

"That's definitely not manly." declared Elfman as he too joined in on the stare down.

"How could you tell?" asked Erza as she looked over at the clearly still pissed off dragon slayer next to her.

"The bastard with that weird creature still had her scent on them." he answered through gritted teeth.

"Then you did a great job of holding yourself back." stated Lucy as she gave him a concerned look, knowing just how hard it must have been for him to not go ballistic on all of them as soon as he realized it was them. And to make it even worse, the bastards had the audacity to pretend like none of it happened and are just smirking at them right now.

"No I didn't." he spat back in disgust. "I'm confident that he purposely left her scent on himself to see how I would react."

"You probably did better than anyone else would have if they were in your place, definitely better than what I would have." stated Erza as she continued to watch the smirking members of Raven Tail, not taking her eyes off of them for even a second.

"I still messed up." was his simple reply.

"How so?" asked Elfman as he looked at his pink haired friend with a bewildered expression.

"That was the second time I let everyone see what I'm capable of, something you should really try to prevent when you don't know who you can trust." he said while finally letting up on his tight grip of the railing, letting the now crushed stones fall to the floor.

"Well at least now we shouldn't have to worry about them anymore." said Lucy in a cheery tone that petered off towards the end as he gave her a blank look.

"Outside of the games, yes… But I'm fairly certain that they'll still be coming after us whenever they can in these events and they won't be playing fair. That is something I can guarantee." he finished just as the First Event finally commenced.

"We should inform Master of this as soon as possible." stated Erza as she along with the rest of them intently watched the lacrima screens displaying all of the competitors.

"Aries has already informed him and he's passed it on to the rest of the guild." he replied before clicking his tongue as Nullpudding taking Gray out for the first time. Only for him to keep targeting Gray even when other contestants would have been easier for him to go after, and unfortunately for Fairy Tail Team A he was succeeding at it.

"Oh come on, he's not even going after anyone else!" shouted out Elfman in frustration.

"I had a feeling they'd do something like this." mumbled Natsu, causing the rest of his team to look at him expectantly. "They're trying to make us look bad, which if they succeed will pretty much mean the end for us and also prove everyone else that has looked down on our guild correct." he explained as a small smirk started to make its way across his lips.

"And what exactly about all of that makes you so happy?" inquired Erza as she gave him a stern look.

"Nothing, except for the fact that it's going to make it that much more satisfying when we utterly destroy Ivan and the rest of his guild." he said as he took a seat. "Also the fool has already made his first move and by doing so he's revealed to us his overall intentions, meaning he's already lost. As for why he's deciding to do it right now of all times is slightly confusing." he finished with a contemplative look washing over his face as he gazed up at the ceiling.

"No offense Natsu, but when did you start being smart?" asked Elfman before he realized what he said right to the dragon slayer's face.

"None taken Elfman, and I've always been this smart I just didn't really understand how most of the world thinks." he answered with a little chuckle at Elfman's shocked expression.

"But you do now?" asked Lucy while giving him a skeptical look.

"No, not really, but that's because each person is unique." he replied with a cheesy grin directed towards her. "Although, after training with the Spirit King I'd have to say I definitely have a better grasp of what drives the average person into doing what they do."

"So your training with him wasn't just combat focused." stated Erza with a small smile gracing her usually stoic one.

"Yeah, but most of that stuff we discussed during our spars since that seems to be the best time for me to learn something." he said before suddenly getting up and heading towards the exit.

"Aren't you going to wait until the end?" asked Lucy as she was torn between going after him and watching the event wrap up.

"Nah, it's obvious that we've got last place this round since Ice Princess let that little grape looking man into his head." he answered as he opened the door.

"And you're not going to be here to support Gray once he returns?" asked Erza in a deadly tone as she gave him a disapproving look.

"Do you really think Gray would want me of all people to see him like this?" he asked back while not even waiting for a reply from her. This caused the other two occupants of the booth to start backing away from the red head hesitantly as to not become the new focus of her wrath. But to the sheer disbelief of both of them, Erza actually had a faint smile on her face as she turned back to watching the end of Hidden.

"Are you okay Erza?" asked their Celestial mage hesitantly.

"Of course I am Lucy, those two would never admit it out loud but they are as close as any two people can be to being brothers that aren't actually related." she answered just before the time ran out and the contestants were sent back to the middle of the arena, where most of them then went back to their teams.

In one of the tunnels leading into the center of the arena:

"Damnit!" cursed Gray as he slammed his fist against one of the walls, leaving a small crater in his wake.

"That was pretty pitiful." came an oh so familiar voice from the other end of the tunnel.

"What the hell are you doing here? Did you just come here to rub it in?" he asked while visibly shaking in rage.

"Nope, but you can't really blame me for getting in a few jabs when you made it so ridiculously easy." replied Natsu as he made his way towards his teammate. "I just wanted to remind you that each mistake is just another stepping stone on this journey we call life. Also that when a Fairy Tail mage gets beaten down… They pick themselves back up and come back stronger than anyone else could have ever predicted." he finished as Gray's head hung so he couldn't see his expression.

"Well that's all I had to say, so I'm going to go talk to Gramps now." stated Natsu as he turned around and went back the way he came.

"I already know all of that you Moron." mumbled Gray to himself as his hands and the rest of his body stopped trembling.

A few minutes later in a random storage room:

"Hmm." hummed Makarov as he stroked his mustache in thought. When Aries initially informed him that his son was actually masquerading as one of the contestants known as Alexei, he almost informed the judges right then and there. The only thing that actually stopped him from doing so was the fact that Natsu didn't expose his son for some unknown reason.

"I can't figure it out either." stated Natsu as he hopped off the box he used to be sitting on just moments ago.

"I've got a pretty good idea what he's after." he replied in a solemn tone as he looked over at the pink haired boy, which if he was being honest with himself wasn't really a good way to describe the dragon slayer anymore.

"I'm guessing that you can't fill me in on what that might be if I'm reading your facial expression correctly." the dragon slayer said in a cheery tone as he started to dust off the bottom half of his coat.

"Correct, but it's not because of me not trusting you…" the elderly man started to explain.

"No worries Gramps, I've recently come to understand that some things are better off kept a secret. And the best way to make sure that it stays that way is to not needlessly go around telling others that don't need to know." pointed out Natsu as he grinned at the slightly taken aback guild Master.

"I like him." giggled Mavis as she floated down in between the two of them.

"Weren't you only here to watch and cheer on our guild?" asked Makarov as he looked up at the smiling spirit of their first guild Master.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean I can't help out when you're all in trouble." she replied while never losing her bright smile.

"Then what do you think we should do about Raven Tail?" asked Natsu as he leaned against the doorway of the cramped store room.

"Exactly what the two of you are currently thinking… Wait until they make another move, but this time we'll make sure that they will come to regret it." she answered as her smile got even bigger, making the two other men look at each other with slightly frightened expressions.

"And if that doesn't work then we can just expose him and that will be the end of it, for these games at least." stated Natsu while smiling at the other two. Only for his expression to then become quite grim all of a sudden.

"What's the matter Natsu?" inquired the other two as he without a word left the storage room and headed back to their booths at a hurried pace causing them to chase after him.

"Lucy is fighting one of them as we speak and until just a little bit ago looked as if she was going to win." he answered through clenched teeth. "Now she just seems to be letting the red haired one attack her while she isn't even trying to defend herself."

"Ivan!" growled out Makarov as he clenched his fists in rage. He was about to tell Natsu that he needs to remain calm, but was shocked to no longer see any signs of the pink haired mage.

In the arena:

"Please don't, anything but that!" begged Lucy only for Flare's hair to once again cover her mouth.

"Didn't I tell you to remain quiet?!" replied Flare as she gave the blonde a deranged look while the flaming brand of Raven Tail edged closer to the blonde's Fairy Tail emblem.

'I'm sorry everyone.' thought Lucy as tears started to flood from her eyes. 'At least they'll both be fine.' she thought to herself as she spared one more quick glance at Asuka and Aries. Both of them looking at her with disbelieving eyes, neither of them having any idea that she was only letting this happen to her so they wouldn't be hurt.

The brand at this point was only just a centimeter away from her hand, so she closed her eyes in anticipation of the upcoming pain. But instead of feeling fire burning away at her right hand, she was shocked to find all of the hair that used to be confining her gone. When Lucy reopened her eyes she along with the rest of the arena didn't really know what they were watching.

The once proud and albeit crazy, Flare was now face first in the ground, which by itself would have been very confusing for everyone that had been watching their match so far. But to everyone's surprise she seemed to be being pulled by her own hair and drug across the arena like a rag doll, leaving small trenches in her wake. Seeing this took Lucy only just a second to have a good guess at who was responsible, and as she looked back to Fairy Tail's booth she was proven correct when another mop of pink hair could be seen amongst them.

"Thanks Natsu." she whispered to herself as she got back up from where she was dropped.

"This can't be happening." shouted out Flare in fear as she too turned her head to look up at the Fairy Tail booth. But unlike when Lucy looked up there and got a sense of warmth and protection, Flare on the other hand felt heat like nothing she had ever felt before and along with that heat she felt anger being directed towards her.

Anger that was clearly coming from the pink haired mage from before, who to her shock had her hair wrapped around his arm as if it was nothing. Her fear only grew as the two of them locked eyes and she would have sworn on her life that a menacing red dragon was standing behind the man. Fortunately or unfortunately for her, it really depends on the person you ask, she didn't get to dwell on this because what the man did next shocked her to her very core. He started to suck up and eat the fire that was gifted to her before she left her home village, fire that was supposed to rival that of a dragon's.

Flare couldn't hear what he said to her after devouring a good portion of her magic, but she didn't need to because his eyes said it all. If she tried another stunt like that again, then there was no one that could protect her from the pink haired monster glaring down at her in disgust. She was frozen in fear as he continued to glare at her that is until a shocked gasp from the clueless crowd reminded her that she was currently in a duel with blondie.

"What is this?" she asked in complete terror as the two Lucys finished their incantation and opened their eyes while looking directly at her. The next second stars started to appear around her as she was then overwhelmed by an impressive amount of magical power as more stars showed up. Now it was her turn to close her eyes and wait for an immense amount of pain to be sent her way.

"Wha…" asked Lucy before suddenly falling to the arena floor and barely being able to lift herself back up if she even wanted to. While at the same time her impressive spell vanished into thin air and left a trembling and confused Flare as the winner of the fight.

"Flare wins." came the lackluster voice of Chapati from the announcer's booth. The arena was silent for a few more seconds before the crowd started to murmur, which quickly turned into full on ridicule being sent at Lucy and Fairy Tail in general. It was too much for the Celestial mage as she tried to hold back her tears as she laid there in the middle of the arena in shame.

"Don't listen to them." said a voice that she would always recognize, causing her to look up and see Natsu standing over her with his hand held out to her. "You did great and would have won if they hadn't cheated yet again." he said while pulling her up to her feet and then promptly bringing her into a hug that she definitely needed.

As he hugged her his once warm expression turned into one of complete rage as he looked up at the crowd that until right then continued to trash talk Lucy and his guild. Needless to say it became deathly quiet as he slowly looked at all of them, seemingly able to zone in on each and every individual that said anything terrible. His gaze lingered on Sabertooth's and Raven Tail's booths longer than anyone else's, with it finally falling on the still trembling Flare just a few feet away from him and Lucy.

"You're lucky that you had nothing to do with this." he told her in a cold voice that sent a shiver down her spine as he picked Lucy up and carried her out of the arena.

"That was definitely an odd match to say the least." chimed in Yajima as he looked over at Raven Tail's booth skeptically.

"That it was, but still a very entertaining one to watch." said Chapati before moving onto the next fight and announcing who would be fighting.

In Fairy Tail Team A's booth:

"I don't think I've ever seen him like that before." stated Mira in a hushed tone as she and the rest of her team watched Natsu carry Lucy out of there.

"You're telling me, it looked as if he was about to attack every single person that opened their mouth." said Cana in a shocked tone that was only reinforced by her not having a drink in hand at the moment.

"The only other time I've seen him make a face even remotely similar to that one was during the whole fighting festival incident." replied Laxus just so they could barely hear him, clearly still ashamed at his foolish actions from back then.

"I know what you mean, he gave me almost the same look back when I was still with Phantom Lord." agreed Gajeel while shaking his head to try and get rid of the memory. "I honestly feel sorry for whoever pushes him over the edge next."

"And what do you mean by that?" asked the eldest Strauss sibling while raising an eyebrow at the iron dragon slayer.

"Most of you probably haven't noticed this, but Salamander is even more protective of those he sees as his family than he was before." he started to explain as a slight smirk made its way across his lips. "Which just proves that my suspicions about those two were spot on gihi."

"That doesn't really help us understand." pointed out Cana before she poured herself a new mug of beer.

"It wasn't supposed to since it's a dragon slayer thing." he replied with a smug smirk sent both of the women's way. "All I'll say is that once a dragon or dragon slayer actually completes the mating ritual with their mate they will pretty much do anything to protect them and the rest of their nest." This caused the rest of them to sit there in silence as they pondered over what he just told them.

"So are we part of his nest?" asked Juvia as she looked over at her longtime friend.

"What do you think?" he asked her back while rolling his eyes and going back to watching the next match of the day.

End of Chapter

Author's Notes:

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. So I'd like to now take the time to apologize for being absent for so long, and I could give all of you the reasons behind my absence. But I'm fairly certain that most of you won't really care so I won't. With that now all out of the way I'm happy to say that my updates should be coming out at more regular pace then what they have over the past few months. With my next updates most likely coming out for Thundering Inferno and Master Dragneel. So as always feel free to drop me a review or PM and I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible, which I will also hopefully be better at then what I have been over the last few months as well.

Oh and feel free to check out my profile page for other information.

Until the next Chapter

Digem Out!