-

Gray sighs. It definitely isn't the first time today– there's been a lot of sighing these few days, and generally, the situation isn't good for anyone.

The more outdoorsy types, like Natsu, Erza, Gildarts, and the Thunder Legion– they were getting restless. Being confined wasn't good for them, and no matter how realistic this expansive space was, it just didn't feel right.

The indoor types were doing better, but Levy was too invested in her work– as if she was trying to distract herself. Cana and the Strauss seemed fine, but downtimes were much too quiet. Loke was always an enigma, and now, it's gotten worse.

Gray sighs again.

"Fairies are dying, Gray!" Lisanna chuckles.

Gray jumps, straightening right up, whirling around to catch Lisanna behind the tree that was his resting spot.

"You surprised me," he says.

Lisanna grins. "So, what's eatin' ya, Gray?"

"You're really asking me a mundane question like that?" Gray chuckles. Lisanna hands him a cold canned soft drink, and he pops it open. Lisanna settles by a nearby stone, giggling.

"Well, you seemed really bothered by something in the last viewing," she says. "The others might never want to talk about their problems, but you're different."

Gray was reluctant to share his problems as much as Erza and Mira were, but unlike the others, he didn't actively hide them. He didn't bark back in anger when he was questioned– instead, Gray was almost hopeful to be heard.

To be told that things sucked, but things were better now. To just let it out for once.

"Mira-nee may have become the guild's barmaid instead of me, but everyone knows I'm the best sounding board around," Lisanna grins. "You can tell me anything! I won't tell."

And she really is.

Gray chuckles, taking a chug of his drink. "It's nothing much, really. Lullaby just reminded me of some bad memories, that's all. I'm just glad we defeated it before it caused any real damage."

Lisanna nods. "I'm glad too." And then, she takes a careful sip of her own drink. "What about the monster in your memories? Is it gone, too?"

Gray stills.

It takes him a long moment to admit, "as far as I know and hope, yeah."

Lisanna catches the unsure in that tone fairly easily. "If it ever shows up..." she spreads her arms, "will Fairy Tail be able to defeat it, too?"

Gray looks up, "no, I don't think so."

He didn't even hesitate.

Lisanna nods. "Then, if it happens, and we fail," she gives a confident smile, "all of us can think up a tactic, so we can win next time. Right?"

Because with their impressive Fairy Tail lineup, slowly planning through every bit of what they were to do in the future– there was really nothing they couldn't beat. Not a dark guild, not a demon, not even fate and destiny itself.

Gray manages to smile back. "I think so, too."

-

"Finally! What took you guys so long?" Levy whines when Gray and Lisanna come back.

"We found a beach and caught some crab," Gray says, gesturing behind them to a pulled ice cart full of crustaceans. "Anyone up for some?"

"What the– woah!" everyone runs over to look. "There's so much!"

"Awesome, I've been craving it since we saw Cancer a while back!" Happy cheers.

"But that's awesome!" Mira grins, "boys and bigger boys, help me out! We're going to move a stove over and have a huge crab party for dinner!"

"Oooh!"

"Why do I feel like we've done nothing but eat for the past few days?" Cana asks, feeling a little winded. "Is this what it feels like to be an utter bum of a human being?"

And she has a point, so Levy turns around and suggests, "okay then, let's play punishment games."

"...like what?"

"Anyone that swears in the next episode will have to run one lap around the room per swear. On a handstand," she says.

"I refuse!"

"Absolutely not!"

"This is stupid."

"I hope all of you eat a bar of soap when we get home!" Levy says, brightly. Then, "okay, how about anyone that says Natsu's name?"

"What the– what's wrong with my name?!" Natsu yells.

"Yeah that sounds good," Erza says. "Everyone agrees?"

"I guess?"

"Sounds interesting."

"HEY," Natsu yells, but he's ignored.

"Crab party, everyone!" Mirajane declares, tying an apron to her back. "Help me out, Cana, I need a ton of water. Natsu, I need fire."

"Punishment handstand lap count, Mirajane, one!" Lisanna declares.

"Huh?" Mirajane asks. "Wait, what? This isn't fair!"

"I'll go grab a board to keep count!" Levy cheers.

"This isn't fair!" Mirajane yells.

"Gah! Council again!" everyone despairs.

"What do you mean it solves nothing, we just saved the country!" Gray throws his hands into the air in exasperation. "Nothing we do can please these assholes!"

"Well, that's nothing new."

"We're never going to be in friendly relationships with the Council. I've resigned to it at this point."

"Seriously, I think they're only tolerating us as far as we're tolerating them," Gildarts says, "all things considered, that is a nice balance."

"You're half the problem!" a few voices yell out.

"Seriously, if they were that easy, we'd have done it ages ago. Are these councilmen thinking?" Cana groans, exasperated.

"Now now, Cana," Lisanna says. "They're old."

"Yeah!" Levy points angrily at the screen, "to begin with, the entire situation is their fault! They're complaining about us? Imagine the gall!"

"Boo to abuse of power!" someone yells, and there's a whole chorus of echoes.

"To begin with, the Council acts all high and mighty, but do they ever get involved in anything? They're just there to control peace but we're doing half the job anyways!" Mira complains, pausing in her speech to get off the handstand and dust her hands off. "They're either fashionably late or just missing."

"This guy again," Natsu grumbles. "How do I say this. He's fucking weird."

"You're one to talk, Natsu," Gray mutters right back. There's a pause before, "crap, I said his name, didn't I?" Before he went off to do the handstand lap.

"You guys are seriously doing this?!"

"Yes damn hell it should!" everyone yells at the screen in unison.

"Why are they making that sound so ominous?" Elfman groans. "Seriously, they're supposed to be the good guys, right? The responsible government? Why are they sounding like reluctant villains?"

"Seriously, even Kage was better at gratitude than this."

Drinks were immediately spat out.

"Natsu versus WHO?!" Gray yells, in unison with Loke, Mira, Elfman and Lisanna.

Levy immediately added that to the count, and the five of them despaired in unison. "Wait no, that wasn't fair! That was a sneak attack!"

"I wasn't even playing!" Loke complains. "I'm just surprised!"

Natsu, however, is entirely thrilled. So was Erza. "YEAH! It's finally time for us to fight!"

Erza grins, "come to think of it, we did promise to do so before we went on the entire Lullaby mission, didn't we? I'm looking forward to it, N–" Erza pauses. Everyone is staring straight at her. She clears her throat, "I'm looking forward to it!"

Everyone clicks their tongue. Foiled.

"Alright, I'm taking bets!" Cana cheers, setting up another board beside the punishment one and writing down Erza on one column, and Natsu on the other. "Hothead versus Armor Girl, who do you think will win?"

"Armor Girl! Armor Girl!"

"Is this even a question? All in on Armor Girl!"

"One pity vote on Hothead."

"Ah yeah. Can I bet like, one crab leg?"

"YOU GUYS ARE SO RUDE," Natsu might just cry soon.

Levy sighs contentedly. "At least we're back to the peaceful times."

"For now," Happy says.

"For now," Levy says, with a saddened sigh.

Lisanna chuckles. "Being in Fairy Tail really makes people get involved in headline news really quickly, eh?" she says. "I remember when Natsu–!!"

She pauses. And then she groans. But she continues her story.

"--destroyed that really big statue in Oshibana!" she says. "Man, Master was so mad at us!"

"Oh, I remember that," Gray chuckles. "There was also the time Bisca and Alzack destroyed a part of the forest with their guns."

"There's a highway there now, right? Since they couldn't figure out how to fix the trees?"

"Then there's the time we spray painted Kardia Cathedral and the church forced us to attend mass for months," Mira laughs at the memory.

"You guys did what?"

"Yeah, these people are the most blasphemous people you'll ever meet. I only took the picture, so I got let off with just three weeks of missionary help," Cana grins.

"It's never a boring day in this guild," Loke chuckles. "Unfortunately, we're infamous, not famous, so I can't say it's a good thing."

"Awh, just admit you love us already, Loke!"

"Heh, so he's going to spend some time in prison first before he gets to join a guild, huh," Gray says. He'd just come back from his handstand lap. Lisanna was still on her second lap.

"Well, that's inevitable."

"Huh?!" multiple people jerked back to attention at the news. Natsu even chokes on his mouthful of crab in horror.

"But he's the most important one!"

"What the hell, the council's useless!"

"...while I agree with everyone, I have a feeling our council slander is going to come back and bite us in the ass one day."

"Give yourself more credit, Lucy!" Levy pumps a fist, "you're awesome!"

"Yeah! Flame-brain doesn't deserve a mention, you do!" Cana agrees.

"Yeah, leave Motion sickness off that list, add me up higher!" Happy adds.

"Are you guys picking a fight? Just SAY MY NAME NORMALLY," Natsu yells.

"Don't be so dramatic, portable stove," Mirajane says, "anyways, everyone line up. Crab hotpot is ready for whoever wants a bowl!"

"Yeahh!"

"Did you just call me a portable stove?!"

"Mom...?" Cana asks, lifting her head from her soup. "She's writing a letter to..."

"Huh? Lucy's got family?" Levy asks, "that's strange. She's never mentioned anything like that."

All of them were orphans, so no one really thought otherwise of Lucy. The idea that someone would come to the guild, away from their family when they were still alive– it was just so strange.

But then again, Lucy was an adult (teenager? adolescent?) so perhaps it wasn't too strange. There were a few people like that too, those that worked here separately from their parents who were in other, non-mage guilds.

"But she moved here immediately upon joining, right?" Gray says. "Seems strange to me that she never went back at least to tell her parents about anything."

"Maybe she lived independently for a long time," Cana says. "I wouldn't know, but do people do that?"

"But she's so young."

"From the way she phrased that letter, it sounds like her mother lives quite a distance away, somewhere not convenient to visit," Levy says, "think it might be out of Fiore?"

"No way, her spoken Fiorean's too fluent for that."

"But she's educated, I wouldn't put it past her to be fluent in more than one language."

"Yeah, but there's no accent of any sort," Gray says. "Lucy's got that same South-Fiorean accent that only Cana and Laxus have."

"...then, why?"

There's a collective grimace from Cana and Laxus.

"Alright, a full family that isn't living too far, but she talks like her location's a secret and they can't visit," Levy sums up, frowning, "red flags! Red. Flags!"

"How many bets that those letters aren't even being sent out?"

A few hands immediately raise.

"You guys sure make a big deal about weird things," Natsu says, lining up for seconds of crab stew. "So she doesn't get along with her dad? Big deal."

"You have the healthiest dad figure in all of us, Nutcracker, you don't get an opinion."

"Half of all of yours don't even exist! Why do you all get to comment instead of me?!"

"Hey, enough, all of you!" Erza yells, "the only father that matters to all of us right now is Master Makarov. And Lucy's problems are her own unless she asks us personally– so end of discussion!"

Everyone huffs, miffed in some way, but Erza was technically right, so there was no argument to be made there.

There were several spittakes around the room. "What are you doing there?!"

"Home infiltration is a passion of mine," Gray says.

"You're joking, right?!"

"Yeah. But her house is nice."

There's a roar of laughter, "oh, poor Lucy! She doesn't live in Fairy Hills, so there's no round-the-clock boy-banning security," Levy cackles, wiping a tear away.

"Well, as we've seen before with me and Happy, we know what's coming," Natsu grins.

"Huh?" Gray asks. Then, "wait, me too?"

"Say it with me, Lucy–" Lisanna declares, and she's echoed by a couple other voices, in varying degrees of enthusiasm. "KIIICK!"

"Right on cue!" Lisanna cheers.

"Hey c'mon, I'm visiting! Is this how she greets her guests?!" Gray yells, chastised. "I don't deserve the same treatment as the Never-Braincell-Holder!"

"Actually, Gray, it's yes to both of those things."

"Why are you naked anyways? Have some tact, you're in a girl's house, don't undress in it."

"Hah?!" Gray whirls over, "hey, don't assume! Who do you think I am? A guy that would strip in a girl's house? I'm not that bad," he gestures at the screen.

"SEE?" Gray yells, like that proves his point.

Immediately and all at once, everyone chokes on some laughter or surprise of some sort. Their steaming bowls of crab soup had, unfortunately, become a mass murder weapon that took them all out at once, because choking on it burned.