Author's Note:

Hello everyone! Here's my newest story!

Before we get into it, I want to just say a few things. First of all, there will be lemons eventually in this story (it's rated M for a reason) so stay away kiddos. Second, No, I don't own Fairy Tail. Disclaimer. Big surprise right? And third, I will be posting every weekend - Saturday or Sunday - unless something major comes up and I just can't.

And finally, I have a reviewing policy. If I get five reviews on a chapter, I put in a little sneak peek at the end of the next chapter I post - which will show a little piece of the following chapter. Make sense? Also, if I get ten reviews on a chapter, I will do my very best to post the next chapter on either Thursday or Friday (instead of Saturday/Sunday). So if you're really eager to read the next chapter and want it faster, review please!

If you have any questions, send me a review or PM. I'm happy to answer. :D

Alrighty, that's all! Hope you enjoy!

Lucy Heartfilia had never in her life seen or heard of a red celestial key before… and yet here she was, picking one up off the ground and staring at it in bemusement. Flipping it over in her hands, she eyed the strange design, wondering if it was a celestial key at all … or some other kind of artifact. However, with the key pulsing in her fingers and making them tingle with warm familiar magic, she had to admit that, yes, this was indeed a celestial key despite being such an odd color.

Really, she shouldn't be getting this distracted in the middle of a battle though, even if she'd stumbled upon something so fascinating, and her teammate Erza sharply reminded her of that fact from across the forest clearing.

"Lucy! Behind you!"

With a gasp she spun and then dove for the ground as the person who had previously owned the key made a mad grab for her.

"Happy!" She yelled out for her blue cat, and before she could say, "help!" she was already being whisked into the air right out from under the guy's outstretched hands.

"I got ya Lucy!"

"Thanks," she wheezed to her companion, a little out of breath from being yanked so roughly off the ground, but grateful for her friend's quick reflexes.

"Aye Sir!" he chirped happily as usual.

They did a sharp turn in the air before diving back down for a landing – aiming to put a little personal space between Lucy and the creep, but still setting her down close enough that she could speak with him at a reasonable volume.

As soon as her feet touched down on solid earth once again, she fixed her opponent with the hairiest eyeball she could muster and addressed him sternly. "What is this key?" she asked, waving it around.

The man first stared at her, then at the key, and finally started to laugh in a very patronizing way that grated on Lucy's nerves. "There's no way you can use that key, Honey, so how about being a good little girl and handing it back over, eh?"

With a scowl and some teeth grinding for good measure, she yanked her whip free and cracked it through the air, popping the upside-down heart shaped tip dangerously close to the man's face. With a ridiculously high-pitched squawk he fell back on his butt, and his expression of unadulterated shock did a lot to sooth her ruffled feathers. As amusement briefly replaced her temper, she barely stopped the snort that wanted to escape her nose and kept her stern expression in place with pure will power.

"I'm a celestial wizard…just in case you didn't know. So, I have a much better chance of being able to use it that you!"

Her opponent had already proved to use some sort of teleportation magic, so she highly doubted he could open the magical gates that these sorts of keys did. It was a pretty rare skill after all…one that Lucy herself took great pride in possessing.

No sooner had she made her statement challenging his capabilities than he had disappeared, and his voice suddenly sounded from right behind her. "I don't need to be able to use the damn thing to sell it!"

A grabby hand locked onto her neck and the other made a swipe for her hand and the red key. Before he could steal her prize back though, she had already pulled out one of her own keys and yelled, "Open! Gate of the golden bull! Taurus!"

With a bang and flash of bright golden light, a huge Minotaur type creature suddenly popped into being in response to her summons.

Taurus was one of her go-to spirits in a pinch, and it certainly helped that he was scary as heck. This particular spirit was easily ten feet tall if not more, possessed the head of a bull and the body of a man – aside from his bull's tail and cloven feet – and his black furred body rippled with thick muscle. His clothing did little to hide his impressive stature, considering he only wore a gladiator-style speedo. His adornment of a thick gold belt, matching gold cuffs on each wrist, and a golden ring through his nose somehow added an extra edge of exotic danger to him as well. He also wielded an ax of massive proportions along with a pair of impressive shiny horns that could be just as dangerous.

"Reporting for duuuuuty, miss Luuuuucy." He lowed.

His appearance freaked out the guy behind her so much that he jerked back with a high pitched, girly scream….it was just a shame that he dragged her with him. It also sucked that the arm around her neck suddenly compressed, probably from shock and fear.

Even though Lucy couldn't really give Taurus any instructions, aside from a choked, "T-t-tau…rus…ple…hel…me…" her loyal bull spirit got the message loud and clear…. and given his suddenly flared nostrils and furious brown eyes, he wasn't pleased in the slightest.

"Get your hands off my Luuuucy, you baffoooon!" the bull-man yelled, and all his muscles bunched up as one cloven hoof pawed the ground – digging a deep trench and cracking the ground a little in the process.

If he hadn't been her friend, she would have been absolutely terrified, but as it was she was relieved as he suddenly sprung forwards, much faster than his bulky body would suggest him capable of. He came barreling towards them, head lowered and arms stretched wide. The enemy behind her was apparently frozen stiff with shock and forgot to teleport, or else didn't have time to, because Taurus was on top of them before his presence disappeared from behind her.

She yelped as one of Taurus's arms wrapped around her and scooped her up onto his shoulder, yanking her rather roughly from the enemy holding her, and then plowed his meaty fist into the guy, sending him flying. It came as no surprise when she felt the large hand at her waist relocate to her butt, but under the circumstances she didn't scold him, since she was too busy hacking and coughing up a lung. Her throat felt like it was on fire and gasping in breath had really aggravated it.

Thankfully, Taurus seemed to realize that having his shoulder pushed up into her solar plexus wasn't helping her to get her breath back and he set her down gently on the grass, where she quickly collapsed to her knees and continued to cough and wheeze. He hovered around her anxiously, but she waved him off and angrily gestured towards the man who had so thoroughly choked her, and Taurus was more than happy to oblige her unspoken request. He went barreling off after the cretan, while Lucy finally managed to get enough air back into her lungs and stop herself from coughing.

Gray and Erza joined her soon, after finishing off their own tomb robbers, and with Gray's ice they were able to snag the final target – which was the teleporting jackass that Lucy had been dealing with. Taurus had chased him around in circles up till then, but when Gray created an ice floor right under the guy, he slipped and fell – which messed up his teleportation – and Taurus finally landed a blow that knocked him out cold.

"Finally, all wrapped up." Erza said with a note of satisfaction in her voice. "Now we can go get paid."

"It's about time…" Gray yawned, stretching for a moment before shoving his hands deep into what should have been his pockets…. but of course his pants had disappeared some time ago and instead he almost took off his only remaining article of clothing - his underwear.

"Gray, where are your clothes?" Lucy rasped exasperatedly, and he cussed before running off to locate his missing pants, shirt, socks, shoes, and coat – leaving the two ladies to finish up.

Erza and Lucy shared an annoyed and amused glance, while Happy snickered behind a blue paw.

This particular job had been really basic. All they had to do was catch these tomb robbers and turn them in to the local authorities. So, after Lucy and Erza popped some anti-magic handcuffs on them – and Gray had redressed – the four of them carted their targets off to the nearby village that had made the request and turned them over. They received payment and profuse thanks, but turned down the offer to stay the night since they could make it back home before dark.

It wasn't until they were on the way home on the train that Lucy once again brought out her strange new key to examine more closely. As she held it up close to her face for a detailed inspection, Erza happened to notice what she was doing and commented.

"What's that?"

"Oh…it's just a key that I got off one of the tomb robbers." Lucy mumbled absentmindedly as she flipped the ornate red piece of metal over in her hand to look at the other side. "I've never seen one like it before…"

"Me neither. Lucy's keys are all either gold or silver!" Happy announced from his spot next to her. He was happily munching on a fish he'd just snagged from inside the backpack he always carried around with him.

"Oh? Do you know anything about it?" Erza asked Lucy, as she too leaned forwards to get a closer look at it.

"No…I've never even heard of a red key before. Much less one that's so ornate." It was true, the top of the key looked like a stylized dragon and the teeth looked like flames.

"What're you two talking about so intently?" Gray asked as he rejoined them after taking a bathroom break.

"We were just discussing this fascinating key Lucy took from one of the tomb robbers. Have you seen anything like it or heard of a red celestial key before?"

He shrugged as he sat down next to Erza and leaned back in his seat before crossing his arms across a once again bare chest. "You know I don't know anything about celestial magic besides what we've seen Lucy do. But if I were you, I'd do some research on it before you try to open whatever gate it controls."

Lucy nodded at the sound advice. "That's what I was planning to do. I thought maybe Master Makarov or Levi might have an idea about it."

"That's where I'd start." Erza agreed with a nod of her own.

After looking it over thoroughly, Lucy put it away with a sigh. Understandably, the ride home seemed much longer than the one to the village, because she was impatient to get home and ask her guildmates about this new key. Gray even had to tell her to chill out a couple of times when her constant fidgeting got on his nerves.

As soon as they disembarked, she was off, heading to the guild at top speed. Erza and Gray followed at a slower pace, and she could hear them talking and laughing – probably at her – as she practically ran away. Happy naturally followed her, but chose to fly since she was walking too fast for his short legs to keep up with her on foot.

She was out of breath by the time she made it to the guild hall.

"Oh! Lucy, you're back already. The mission was a success then?" Mirajane asked from the bar as Lucy leaned against it to try and catch her breath a little.

"Yep, we got the tomb raiders just fine." She reported first, and then asked, "Where's Master Makarov? I have something I want to show him."

"Oh, he's over there." Mira pointed, and Lucy followed the gesture to see the small guild master laughing and drinking with Cana on the other side of the guildhall.

"Thanks Mira!" she called over her shoulder as she trotted over to Makarov. Happy hung back with Mira at the bar to get yet another fish. Sometimes Lucy thought that cat had a bottomless stomach.

"Welcome back Lucy!" Cana greeted as she approached, and she waved back with a smile, then turned her attention to Makarov.

"Master Makarov…"

"Ah, yes Lucy? You look like you want to ask me something."

"Would you mind taking a look at this?" She asked eagerly before producing the red key and laying it on the table in front of him. "I got it off one of the tomb raiders, and I've never seen a celestial key like it before."

"Hmmm…" he hummed as he picked it up and looked at it. "This is a mystery. I'm far from an expert on gate magic, but I've certainly never seen a key like this before. Perhaps you should consult the guild library. In fact, I think Levi's there now. I'm sure she'd be thrilled to have her fellow scholar pose such a fascinating new topic of study."

"Thanks! I think I'll do that now." With a wave, Lucy was once again off in search of answers.

Walking at a brisk pace, she trotted through the halls towards the large, book lined library private to their guild where her best friend Levi tended to hang out in her spare time.

Sure enough, the bluenette was leaning over a book when Lucy burst through the doors. Her head came up at the louder than usual entrance and - judging from the fierce scowl on her face - she was gearing up to scold whoever had just come in for being so noisy. As soon as she saw Lucy however, her face melted into a broad smile and she put her book down before rushing over to give the blond a big hug.

"Lucy! It's so good to see you! How did your mission go?"

"It went well. Those tomb raiders were no match for us." Lucy answered with a big smile of her own before she joined Levi at the table her friend had just been sitting at.

"Actually, I came across something really strange on the mission, and if you're not super busy I was wondering if you could help me do some research on it."

Instantly her friend perked up visibly at the sound of 'research.' "Of course! What is it?"

Lucy presented the odd key, which – if she wasn't mistaken – was starting to get warmer and warmer every time she touched it.

"Oooooh…" Levi cooed as she took a look at it. "That is weird! I've never heard of a red key before!"

Without any further ado, both bookworms were thoroughly engrossed in hunting down any book that might tell them about this oddity. Before long, the once mostly clear table was strewn with books of all shapes and sizes as they methodically worked through Fairy Tail's library collection on celestial magic and gate magic.

It was a relatively small collection because celestial and gate magic were rare, so they had to expand their search to include astrology magic and summoning magic as well. It took quite some time before they turned up anything useful, but eventually with an excited exclamation, Levi suddenly jerked to attention. Happy – who joined them a while back and had been taking a nap – yelped and fell off the table when he was startled awake.

Lucy was instantly by Levi's side peering over her shoulder. "What is it? What did you find?"

"Look here!"

Lucy read the passage Levi indicated with her finger. "Though most all celestial keys are silver or gold, there are rumors of different keys that open the gates to powerful mythic creatures of legend. They are known as mythic keys."

After reading it, Lucy breathed out a pent-up breath. "Wow…mythic keys, huh?

"Maybe you can summon a unicorn…" Happy joked with puffed up cheeks and one paw over his mouth to hide his smirk.

Lucy swatted at him lazily. "Don't be ridiculous."

Shortly after that discovery, they had to call their investigation to a halt as the now awake Happy demanded that they get some food. Lucy tried to talk him out of it of course. He had, after all, ingested a fish on the train and another one after getting to the guild, but he insisted that he was starving and wouldn't let the matter rest. She suspected a larger part of it was boredom though. Either way, he wasn't going to let them continue their research in peace.

With a sigh, Lucy reluctantly helped Levi put up all the books and soon left with Happy in tow. Levi called after them that she would continue doing research on it.

"Okay! Thanks again for all the help!" Lucy said with a wave as she made her way through the hall, following her little blue companion.

Happy and Lucy returned home after that. As soon as they entered their apartment, Happy made a beeline for the fridge, and Lucy headed towards the bathroom and a long hot soak. Before long the large tub was full of steaming water and she was sinking into it with a sigh as she contemplated the newest addition to her key collection. There still wasn't enough information for her to safely open that gate, no matter how much her curiosity gnawed at her. She'd never had to wait before to summon a new spirit and make a contract with them, and it rubbed her the wrong way.

"Hey, what's wrong? You look sad…" Happy asked as he trotted through the door.

"Oh…nothing's wrong. I just hate having to wait to figure out who that key belongs to. It doesn't seem right to make them sit around like that."

"Do they even know that you have the key though?" the blue cat inquired as he hopped up onto the rim of her tub.

"Good question. I don't really know."

"Then don't worry about it."

Happy sighed as he hopped into the bath with her and swam up to lay on her belly. It had come as a shock that he liked baths, being a cat and all, but then again he was far from a normal cat. He was a talking cat with magical wings who had hatched from an egg after all. By now Lucy was used to his furry presence in the bath with her, since he often joined her.

After a while of soaking, they eventually exited the now tepid water and dried off before heading to bed. Without making the conscious decision to do so, Lucy found herself sitting on the edge of her mattress, holding the red key in hand and staring down at it once again. It was definitely getting hotter – the thing was warm to the touch now.

On a whim, Lucy pulled out Crux's key and summoned the Southern Cross. With a puff of smoke, an odd looking spirit popped into being, floating midair with his legs crossed. He appeared to be an owl person of some sort, with the head and neck of an owl and scruffy long feathers sticking up and out from his shoulders sort of like wings, but the rest of his body seemed like that of an old skinny man. He was dressed in a dark gray vest tailored with gold designs, a plain white shirt, dark green breeches, and on his beak he wore a pair of old-timey spectacles. Once summoned, he always floated cross-legged in midair, which Lucy had always thought a little odd but had never commented on.

With a hoarse clearing of his throat, he straightened his spectacles and blinked at her with tired looking yellow eyes. He always looked tired.

"Hi Grandpa Crux." Lucy greeted with a warm smile. The Southern Cross and she went so far back, it was no wonder she called him 'grandpa.'

With another wheezy sounding cough and a sniff, the ancient looking spirit gave her a slight smile in return and his exceptionally long, white, owl-whisker mustache twitched upwards. "Ah, Lucy my dear, it's good to see you. How may I be of assistance?"

"Well, I was wondering what you could tell me about this?" Lucy asked, and produced the perplexing red key for him to see. His eyes widened and he stared at the thing with a truly owlish expression. She wasn't sure she'd ever seen his yellow eyes as round as they currently were, and it worried her a bit.

"Hooo my goodness!" he hooted, and then coughed a little bit more. "Where in the world did you find this?!"

"Well, um, I took it from some grave robbers on a mission. I'm guessing from your reaction that you know who it belongs to?"

"Oh yes indeed." The owl-man nodded sagely. "It's the key of the celestial fire dragon, Natsu Dragneel. If I were you, I would go and bury it in a very, very deep hole somewhere and forget where you put it."

"Wha…what in the world?! Why would you say that?"

"That creature is dangerous! And the last time he was in this world, he caused so much destruction that he was locked away by the Spirit King! Only an extremely powerful celestial mage could open his gate now. No offense my dear, but I'm not sure you could summon him, even if you wanted to. And if you ever did manage to…" He paused to shudder. "He'd be impossible to lock back up. I really recommend you get rid of that key."

Lucy was absolutely shocked. Never had she heard Grandpa Crux say something so negative and descriptive about another celestial spirit. Grandpa Crux had a type of magic called archive, and could look up any information she wanted, but when it came to the spirit world he was incredibly tight lipped. On the few occasions when he had shared information about another celestial spirit, it had always been stuffily polite and brusque. It was a bit annoying sometimes to be honest… especially when Lucy needed extensive information about a spirit or celestial magic.

So, she was understandably shocked by how forthcoming he was being about this Natsu dragon person.

"You um…don't really seem to like him all that much."

He cleared his throat and smoothed his owl mustache back down – which had become a little puffed up in his perturbation. "It's not that I don't like him. He's perfectly fine...where he is. But I'm afraid for your wellbeing and safety if you summon him here."

"Well…thank you Grandpa Crux. I'll take your words into consideration." She replied, not really sure what to make of it.

"Please do." He said in parting, and then disappeared in a puff of gray feathery smoke.

Happy crawled out from behind her, where he had already snuggled down into the bed covers. "That spirit sounds scary Lucy. I don't think you should summon him."

She mostly agreed. But there was still that niggling curiosity in the back of her mind, and it was because of that that she refused to throw away the key. Instead, she put it in a little tiny lock box that she could carry in her purse, promising herself that when she found the appropriate place to hide it, she would.

…

Meanwhile, in the celestial realm, a certain pink haired spirit was pacing back and forth.

Natsu Dragneel, otherwise known as the celestial fire dragon, was positively vibrating with energy. Just a little while ago he had felt his key fall into the hands of someone who might actually be able to open his gate…which hadn't happened in….well, longer than he could remember. He just couldn't wait to get out of here and go on some adventures again. Especially if he got to fight.

The celestial world was a different sort of place, each spirit had their own "home," which was basically like an isolated floating island. Sure, they could transport themselves to other islands or the mainland and visit other spirits that way, but it took some doing, and for Natsu it was all but impossible. His was a special case.

After the last time he'd been free to roam the mortal realm – which had ended with a lot of destruction and chaos that he had mostly been responsible for – his visitation privileges had been cut short by the Celestial King as a punishment. His gate had also been sealed and locked tightly, which meant only an exceptionally strong wizard would be able to open his gate….the idea of course being that someone so strong might be able to prevent him from creating a mess like last time.

Whatever the case, Natsu was beyond stir crazy. He was an exceptionally energetic being and simply couldn't stand being cooped up for any length of time. So now that he could sense his key being held by someone who might open his gate, he was biting at the bit to be let out.

"Damn it! Just let me out already!" he bellowed, and fire exploded from his body to burn anything nearby. Thankfully most of his surroundings were flame proof. For precisely this reason.

He stomped around some more and the ground let out puffs of steam as the clouds under his feet evaporated. Of course they reformed as fast as they evaporated, but it left quite a steamy situation. Growling at it and swatting the steam away from him, he retreated into his private courtyard which was grassy and surrounded by thick trees that were also flame resistant in a way. All the plants here grew back as fast as he could burn them.

He paced that space for a while before eventually stomping up the black volcanic rock path that lead to his front door. His home was a small cottage built of cobblestones and had a massive tree growing around and in it. The tree was a celestial elder tree that had taken a shine to him and decided to park itself next to his home. Over the years it had grown thicker and thicker and eventually enveloped his home entirely. They had argued about it for centuries, but eventually Natsu had tossed in the towel and accepted the leafy presence, especially since it was one plant he couldn't even light on fire. Its bark had adapted to his fiery nature and turned black and hard – like volcanic rock – and even held a glassy shine to it that he had to admit was kind of pretty. So now his walls were lined with roots and a branch poked through his ceiling – but he had used it to hang a hammock, so it was all good in the end.

Right now though, he stomped through his home and barely even glanced at the spot he spent most of his nights. Instead he headed for the spiraling stone stairs leading down into his bathroom, and tromped down them, growling under his breath the whole way. He headed straight for the huge black glassy tub sunken into the center of the room that boiled with lava and hopped in, submerging himself up to his eyeballs and blowing bubbles in aggravation.

There he sulked for a long while, wishing his new mage would just go ahead and summon him already.