Twenty years ago in the country of Stella, north of Fiore, high up in a sycamore tree, perched a bewilderingly beautiful young girl watching as her closest friend paced agitatedly across a branch close to hers. They made for an interesting sight whenever they were together. She, a nymph-like creature with olive skin, black hair that shone with a rich burgundy, and slanted jade eyes rimmed with thick sultry lashes. He, a bandy-legged, buck-toothed post-pubescent teen with wiry ginger hair that stuck up as if he just stepped on a live wire. A loop of gold and silver keys jangled on his belt as he chatted away to the girl.

Below them stretched colourful tents as far as the eye could see and people everywhere, all gathered around a central dial made of a multifaceted crystal.

'Anni whatever happens tonight we must agree that we'll always be friends, no matter if our soul mates come from the other corner of Stella!'

Annika looked over to him and he was staring at her, a serious look on his face. She looked back at him but didn't give him an answer immediately. She picked a leaf off of the tree and tested the wind; the leaf was flickering toward Marlo. She shrunk herself down to the size of a thumb's nail and jumped into the leaf. She surfed the wind to land onto Marlo's shoulder then made her self just big enough so that her head reached his ear. Marlo looked away from her with his eyes rolled like he knew exactly what she was going to say.

'Will you just admit that I'm right already? We are soul mates and tonight's ceremony is just going to confirm that.' With that she leaned forward and placed a prolonged kiss on his cheek. He blushed brightly so that even his chest became red and blotchy.

'I won't admit anything, the chance that we are soul mates are one in seventy nine thousand two hundred and five, that's how many people are participating in the ceremony this year, couples are almost never joined from the same guild! And you've got to stop kissing me like that Anni, it's not healthy for either of us to be having these feelings when we're both destined for other people.'

'Well you can't get annoyed when I get to say "I told you so", c'mon the sun is starting to set, we'd better get back to our tents.'

He sighed, there was no teaching her, she was the most stubborn girl in the kingdom, he was sure of it. He watched as she held each end of her leaf and raised it above her head then jumped off his shoulder, using the up-current of the wind to guide her down to the ground. His heart ached with how much he loved her but soon enough they would both be in the arms of others, the thought made him sick to the stomach.

'Open, gate of the Charioteer, Auriga,' he hopped into the winged chariot and flew down to his own little tent. It was one hour until the opening of the ceremony, he donned his ceremonial cloak and hood then sat cross-legged in the middle of the tent to meditate; it was the one thing he knew that would keep him from breaking down. His spirits could feel his heartache and knew they had to do something about it, they had to make sure that him and Annika would find their soul's mate in each other. Marlo's strongest spirit, then known as Cepheus, knew he had the power to do something. Cepheus opened his gate and entered the tent with Marlo who didn't notice him in his meditative state. Cepheus summoned all of his power and let it all gather around Marlo as he made his spell, 'I give this man power over fate to have his choice of soul mate,' a glow flashed out of the holes of Marlo's cloak then quickly vanished. Cepheus was gone.

Lucy hummed as she neatly packed her large backpack for the journey. Natsu was already packed with his bedroll and a suspiciously empty looking backpack. Whenever Lucy went to put something heavy in her pack Natsu would snatch it off her and put it in his.

'Hey I can carry that!' She would snap.

'Carrying this is much better than hearing you complain the whole way,' he retorted.

At one point during the packing Natsu had become suspiciously quiet and Lucy looked up to see his eyes staring intently at her chest, she followed his gaze to see that her singlet had ridden down and most of her bra and chest were showing. Usually she would instantly cover up and throw something at the perverted Natsu but she hated to admit to herself that she usually did that out of anger because he was so unaffected by her looks. Ever since entering Fairy Tail her vanity had been constantly shot down when most of the mages her age showed no signs of attraction toward her, the older guild members didn't count. Now her vanity stretched out like a cat after a long nap and whispered to her in her thoughts, 'it looked like Natsu was just admiring your chest, you've still got it after all!' Her rational self hastily replied, 'no surely not, Natsu has never looked at me like that in all the time I've known him,' her vanity sat back and continued to wave its tail. Meanwhile Natsu's mind was in a flurry of its own having realised Lucy caught him staring at her breasts, he blurted out something, he was not entirely sure what, to cover himself.

'Lucy I can see your bra,' he taunted.

Her vanity simply shook its head and curled back up to dream of a better time.

'Idiot pervert!' she yelled and threw all of her neat packing at him.

With her packing finished she sat down with Natsu and showed him the map and talked through their journey. He looked sick with the sheer amount of train and carriage rides they were taking. 'You know you can still back out now,' she told him.

'No, I'm coming with you,' the thought of being away from Lucy any more was infinitely worse than all of those train rides.

Lucy had used most of her GMG winnings to convince her landlady to hold her apartment while she was gone, so with the help of Mira she had mapped out a few easy appearance requests along her journey to help her with funds that she would exchange for the Stella currency at the border. They also had to cross Natsu's homeland of Bosco to get to Stella so they would need some of their currency too. Little did Lucy know that Natsu had brought the majority of his savings, leaving some at home for Happy, but he swore to only use it if completely necessary as he knew that Lucy would want to be self-sufficient on her journey. Lastly they made one last visit to the guild to say their final goodbyes. Lucy was so busy crying and hugging everyone to notice all of the secretive whispers in Natsu's ears and violent pats on the back.

At last they were on their way. Lucy hummed as they walked along the familiar streets of Magnolia, she took extra care to take in all of the details since she didn't know how long it would be until she saw the cute candy spiral above the bakery, or shared a few words with the worried boatmen. Meanwhile Natsu was experiencing something altogether different. He felt as if he was carrying a sloshing tub of his feelings over his head and he couldn't believe that Lucy couldn't see it. He was just twitching to pour the overflowing feelings right on top of her head and be over with it; just yell it in her ear for all of the world to know and he almost does it a multitude of times. He had rarely ever felt the need to restrain himself before and it was an itchy feeling that he didn't like at all. His fingers clawed resisting the urge to hold her hand swinging so closely to his. He used to be able to grasp her hand and pull her along behind him to the nearest restaurant but now all he wanted to do was hold it to feel her soft fingers intertwined with his. His thoughts kept coming back to the same repetitive heart-clenching ideals, 'argh she is so damn beautiful dammit I just wanna kiss 'er, I could just pull her into that alley and smooch her up against that wall.' The thought of pressing his body into hers made him let out a constipated breath. 'Stupid brain better get a hold of yerself soon or I'll have something more physical than feelings to hide!' He looked away from her and focused on the monotony of placing one foot in front of the other, left, right, left, right.

Their first stop was Onibus where they had organised to make an appearance at a local tavern called Opie's Inn to share their GMG experiences and answer questions. As they walked up to Opie's they could see posters all over the wall, "Come see Natsu Dragneel and Lucy Heartfilia of Fairy Tail tonight at 7pm, 1500 jewel entry." They were an hour early so decided to check in to the free accommodation at the Inn and then get their free dinner. The foyer of the inn opened up into the bar to the left then had a wooden staircase that spiralled up to the lodging to the right. When the owner saw the two he broke into a huge grin and dodged around the counter to greet them. "Natsu! Lucy! Oh it's an honour to meet you two, I'm Hyde Opie the owner,' as soon as he said his name all of the drunks at the bar raised their tankards and shouted, 'Dopey!'

Opie sighed and straightened his glasses, 'never mind my regulars, they've been calling me that for a few months now and won't tell me why, I can't figure it out, I don't think I've done a single dopey thing in my life! But anyway shall I show you to your room?'

'Yep! Bags the best bed!' Natsu shouted.

'No fair!' Lucy frowned as they followed Dopey, ahem, Opie, up the stairs. The twin beds were exactly the same. 'Aha they're the same!'

'So you think,' Natsu felt a bit cheeky so pretended to sniff the air like there was a difference between the two identical beds then said, 'I'm taking this one,' as he jumped on the bed on the left side.

'What do you mean? What's wrong with this one?' she sniffed around the bed and didn't notice anything.

'I can assure you the linens on both beds were changed just before you arrived and there is nothing different between them,' Opie said. Lucy still glared at Natsu.

'Can we have our dinner now? I'm starving!' Natsu asked.

'Sure just come down to the bar once your ready, here are your keys and I'll be downstairs if you have any questions.'

'Thankyou!' Lucy replied. They washed their hands and faces in their ensuite, changed clothes then headed down to the bar. After ordering they sat down on one of the long trestle tables with their drinks. Everyone on the table instantly wanted to talk to them; Natsu and Lucy were having a hard time hearing all of their questions.

'Hey all of you, be respectful to my special guests, don't scare them away please!' Opie called from the foyer.

'Like we could scare away the Salamander and Stargirl!' One of them said.

'Stargirl!?' Lucy wondered if she'd been given a special name like Natsu's.

'See they're not very good at coming up with names are they?' Opie quipped from the foyer.

'Get back to work Dopey! That's what we called you while we were watching the games on the lacrima, we learnt your real name but Stargirl just stuck,' the same lanky man explained.

'Well I don't mind it,' Lucy smiled.

'She's way too nice,' thought Natsu, 'that name is terrible.' But he didn't say anything. They talked with Opie's regulars while they ate their dinner and got along with them well once they learnt how to talk one-at-a-time. Lucy and Natsu's first drink had been free with their dinner but they found that they didn't have to pay for any of their following drinks with the regulars constantly topping them up from the seemingly never-ending jugs on the table. When it finally came time for the official appearance to start Natsu and Lucy were both quite tipsy, the bar was brimming with people and the two were ushered by Opie onto a wooden platform against the wall opposite the bar.

Opie stepped up to the microphone, 'ladies and gentlemen I am excited to present my special guests Natsu Dragneel and Lucy Heartfilia of Fairy Tail, the guild that went from nothing to winning this year's Grand Magic Games!' The crowd cheered.

'Thankyou for having us!' Lucy said.

'Ok to get the ball rolling I will ask the question that I'm sure everyone is hankering to know. What was the first thing you did when you got back from the games?'

'Boring!' one of the regulars shouted.

'Ok I give up, I'll hand it over to the audience then, raise your hand if you have a question.' He picked a man that had large shoulders and a small head.

'Did you train much for the games?'

Lucy answered that one and the crowd "ooo-ed" and "aaah-ed" as she described their trip to the spirit realm that robbed them of their training time. There were a few more standard questions then Opie picked a tipsy-looking young woman, 'are you two dating?' she asked.

'Nope, next,' Natsu answered rudely.

Lucy tried to cover for his sudden rudeness, 'sorry for him, no I can see how it could look that way but we're just good friends and partners on missions. Natsu and I have been close since I first joined Fairy Tail, he was the one that brought me to the guild!' Lucy smiled at the memory. As the questions continued rolling they kept sipping away at their drinks to ease their throats from talking so much. As a result they became more and more animated and exaggerating in their stories and the crowd loved them. Once the questions were finished they went around signing autographs with drunken skrawls then headed up to their room. Lucy leaned on the wall lining the stairs while Natsu hauled himself along the banister on the inside, 'you're going the long way haha,' Natsu mumbled.

'I'd get too dizzy doing your tighter circles,' Lucy slurred. It was true, despite Natsu having a 4-step lead on her he was starting to get dizzy. It had taken them a minute to get up the first flight of stairs and they were looking up at the second flight like it was a mountain. When they finally made it to their room Lucy looked at her bed then jumped onto Natsu's and ducked under the covers fully clothed. 'Hey that's mine,' he complained.

'But there's something wrong with mine, you said.'

'I didn't say anything,' Natsu replied, he longed to snuggle up to Lucy in the tiny single bed and the liquid courage urged him on. 'Looks like we both have to sleep in mine like old times.'

'You mean you slept in mine.'

'Mmmhmmm,' Natsu lifted up the blanket and sloppily slipped in next to her but immediately sobered up when he realised their position. He flopped out of the bed and crawled over into the other bed. His eyes were wide in realisation of what he had almost done. He had been dangerously close to entering into one of his fantasies as his drunken brain blurred the lines of reality. He somehow knew that if he had let the fantasy take control it would have been difficult to come back. The realisation was like a splash of cold water and as he looked over at the now slumbering Lucy he felt a pang of fear and guilt.

Gray got to the edge of the lake and could vaguely see Juvia's foot tracks in the sandy bank, he shouted out to her, 'Juvia! I'm sorry! Can I just talk to you?'

Juvia couldn't deny Gray's pleas completely so stopped where she was and morphed into an inconspicuous puddle then waited for Gray to catch up to her as she made a poor effort as covering her tracks. Not long later Gray arrived and when he couldn't find any more tracks he concluded that she had started covering them, or was hiding somewhere close by. Somehow he felt that she was there so he leaned against the closest tree and began talking just hoping it was reaching her ears.

'Look… Juvia… I don't know if you're there or long gone by now, but, well, it's been sort of weird not having you around at the guild, tchh,' he felt like such an idiot talking to himself like this but something kept him on. The thought that maybe no one was listening provided a chance to purge all of these thoughts from his system. 'I mean, I thought that I found it annoying, you always being close by, but since you stopped I...' he had reduced to mumbling to himself and Juvia's puddle had moved behind the tree he was leaning on so that she could hear his mumblings.

'When I told you I wanted to talk to you at the battle, I wanted to say to you that I thought we should do some missions together. Whenever you calm down from the obsessiveness I really like hanging out with you, I mean, you seem to have two different personas, when you treat me like some celebrity, how am I supposed to react to that?' He sighed, he was so lost in this forest and talking to himself, surely this had to be a whole new low for him. His eyes widened when he saw a glimmer of rainbow in the corner of his eyes. How long had she been there? He wondered, what had he said? He ran his fingers through his hair; he vaguely knew that this drove her crazy. He felt a bit sneaky now that he knew she was there but there was nothing wrong with pulling out the big guns if they were true. 'What it all comes down to is that…' he felt nervous again, he cleared his throat but it still came out like a whisper, 'I've missed you.' Juvia solidified on the other side of the tree and was bent over crying. Gray darted around the tree, he crouched down and took her into his chest, 'it's okay I'm alive, it wasn't your fault.'

Their train came out from underneath the mountains to reveal the vast plains engulfing their last stop before the border crossing, Clovertown. Lucy thought to try to wake Natsu up for the incredible view but decided against it, it had taken him most of the train ride to finally get to sleep. They didn't have any more appearances planned, which Lucy was very thankful for; her face was sore from all of the smiling over the past week. They did however plan to visit their friends in Blue Pegasus who had promised to escort them to the border to see them off.

When their train arrived at the station it was hard for them to miss the four matching suits, blue rabbit and tall blonde that awaited them on the platform. Natsu dived out the door the moment the attendant opened it followed by Lucy rolling her eyes as he kissed and caressed the solid ground. Lucy ran over to the Blue Pegasus team and they all hugged in greeting. Hibiki led them to their guild's magical vehicle, which was an elegant coach with horse-head and wing adornments on its front and sides. Eve and Ren managed to score the seats either side of Lucy and the rest sat across from them. Lucy noticed that Natsu wasn't complaining about changing over to another form of transportation, he was just frowning at Ren who already had his arm draped over the seat behind Lucy's head. The look didn't last long as the carriage began to move and he doubled over with his head between his legs. The hour-long ride to the border went very quickly as they all caught up on the past few months following the games. The last leg of the ride took them through a winding mountain pass until they saw a station that blocked their pass. Hibiki informed them that this border crossing was an easy one; the officers will barely check their identification especially since her and Natsu were now famous. The Bosco-Stella border however, he told them that it was well known for being very corrupt and the officers there will charge you a random fee depending on how much they like you. They said their goodbyes and just as Hibiki predicted the officer didn't even look down at Lucy's papers, just smiled and pointed toward opened the gates. The mountainous path in front of them looked no different to the one they just came from which perplexed Lucy a bit. They were in a new kingdom, surely the mountains and the rocks beneath their feet should be different not the same as she had grown up with all of her life.

'What's wrong?' Natsu asked her.

'The rocks look the same as ours,' Lucy replied.

'What are you talking about you weirdo?'

And so they set off toward the next town, waving off all of the toned, leather-skinned rickshaw riders offering them a ride to their mountain village. Natsu just laughed as Lucy kept pointing to each bird, shrub and tree remarking on how they were all just the same as in Fiore.

'Did you expect to enter a whole different planet Lucy?'

'I'm not sure, I just expected it to be different somehow.'

Natsu thought of how he was just like those rocks and birds and shrubs, appearing just the same as ever before but somehow altogether different.