As we near the beach, Lucy lets go of my shoulders and we walk back to the shore, where everyone else is drying off.

Mira looks up at us with a strange smile, "I was wondering when you guys were gonna come back. Where'd you disappear off to?"

As I reply I keep my gaze steady, despite how nervous Mira's tone makes me. "We were racing along the side of the island, and didn't realize how far we had swam." I feel Lucy step up behind me and press her body against mine, silently thanking me.

"Natsu won by a landslide," she adds, surprising me. I feel her small fingers trace along my back, and feel the letters T H A N K S. I only got that because I'd play that game with my friends when I was younger. Apparently Lucy has too. Placing an arm around her shoulder, I trace C O U R S E with my pointer, and she laughs. Again, Mira shoots us a weird look, so we rush out of the water.

Levy hands each of us a towel, her face a little pink from the sun.

"Oh Levy, you're a little sunburned!" Lucy gasps, motioning to her friend's face.

Levy laughs a little, "not as bad as Gajeel though! He wouldn't let me put the sunscreen on him, so I had to catch him by surprise." Gajeel looks over at us with a slightly sour expression. Ignoring him with a smile, Luce and I head over to where Laxus has set up for lunch.

I take a seat on the picnic blanket and cross my legs. Rubbing my hands together in anticipation I ask, "what's for lunch?" Lucy sits next to me, allowing Cana to reveal the precious food.

Cana's eyes light up as she lifts one side of the lid. "Man, I can't remember the last time I had this. Flash from the past, Neko, thanks!"

"Comfort food," Levy agrees, looking over Cana's shoulder. Gajeel and Laxus also look into the basket and nod with satisfaction.

"WHAT'S IN THE DAMN BASKET?" I suddenly ask, unable to sit still anymore. Levy lifts something from the basket and holds it out to me with a smile.

"Grilled cheese!"

I immediately relax, and sit back down. "Thanks Levy. And thanks Luce," I mumble, taking the sandwich from Levy.

"You're welcome, dummy," Lucy says affectionately.

"I bet they're not as good as mine, though," I add teasingly before lifting the sandwich to my lips.

"They aren't burned, so I'll say they're better by a mile already!" Gajeel says, already finished with half of his.

I take a bite of my grilled cheese and smile. It's actually really good! The bread is crunchy, and the cheese is delicious. Not too much, not too little. Everyone grabs their own sandwich and little paper plates. Lucy hands me a plate, but I don't really need it. Looking at me, she places the plate on my lap, but then suddenly recoils, noticing something else.

"LEVY-CHAN, DON'T!" She exclaims, just as Levy brings a sandwich to her mouth. Confused, I look closer at the grilled cheese in her hands, and a wave of affection rolls over me. Quickly grabbing the sandwich flaked with red, Lucy places it safely in my hands.

"What gives, Lu-chan?" Levy asks with a pout, her tiny stomach growling.

"You can have mine, and I'll just have what's left of the plain sandwich Natsu started. I just saved you from a horrible fate, seeing as we don't have any milk or whatever Wendy-chan used." Lucy's face expresses the same kind of horror she must have felt when she first had lunch at my house.

Understanding quickly crosses Levy's face as she notices the red as well. "Thanks, Lu-chan," she mutters before biting happily into Lucy's untouched sandwich.

Everyone grows relatively silent, enjoying the food that Lucy prepared for us. There's still no sign of Gray and Juvia, but they're the water freaks, so nobody seems too concerned. My sandwich is gone in a flash, along with any traces of hunger, so I gently lean against Lucy's shoulder. She responds by sharing her weight, even less focused now on the tiny mouse bites she was taking. I want to tell her everything I'm thinking, all of the appreciation I have that she thought of making my meal just the way I like it, the way it feels especially nice that Lucy cooked for me, the way it makes me feel all warm inside. I just can't find the words.

So instead, I just lean in close to her ear and whisper, "thanks, Luce." Her body stiffens, before relaxing even more. I want to keep talking, however. I want to say more than just 'thank you', because it really touched me how much she cares. Even if she may have almost killed Levy...

"You're welcome, Natsu," Lucy replies, turning to look at me. I wasn't really expecting her to say anything in response, so it really surprises me when she gives me a smile, and then a kiss, as light as a feather, on the tip of my nose. A blush travels across my cheeks, while Lucy just admires her work.

This is new, I think, raising an eyebrow with newfound interest. Dangerous too, though.

Lucy knows the affect she has on me.

~

After helping to clean up the plates and napkins, we carefully put everything back in the basket, save Juvia and Gray's untouched sandwiches, which Lucy thoughtfully put on the top. The sun is still pretty high in the sky, but the wind started to pick up, so I think we're going back now.

"Where are Gray and Juvia?" Cana asks for the third time. "They better not be playing hide the sausage in such a beautiful and pristine place like this." Suddenly, she whips around in a flash, crying out to Lucy. "NEKO LUCY, GRAY AND JUVIA ARE TARNISHING YOUR CHILDHOOD!!!"

"Cana?" Mira says in a sickly sweet voice.

"What?" The artist replies in the midsts of her shouting.

Mira's sinister smile matches her new tone of voice as she says, "just let them be."

Seeming to understand Mira's underlying message, Cana nods and relaxes a little. Sitting back down on the sand with her shorts back on, she rests her arms on her knees and relaxes her head down. Suddenly, she picks her head up again, "if they are, you owe me fifty bucks, remember?"

Mira walks over to her friend and sits next to her. "Ahh, but remember you would owe me eighty for Gale over there."

"You bet two weeks after the Halloween dance. I bet three. Too bad we don't know for sure, huh?" Cana's grin rivals the one Mira wore earlier, and I start to fear for the sanity and safety of my friends.

Something else grabs the attention of my heightened senses, as three bodies approach the shore. Blinking to make them out in the sun, I quickly recognize the first to be Lucy. I could spot her a mile away, and then some. The other two I decipher as Gray and Juvia, because of the way she attaches herself to him.

"Where'd you find them?" Cana asks, nodding with approval at their messy hair.

Lucy rolls her eyes, "they claim they swam out to one of those tiny islands over there, and then raced back."

Standing up, Mira quickly joins them. She places herself between the pair, allowing them to put their weight on her. "Poor things, you must be starving. You missed lunch!"

"Oh, Juvia ate!" The blue haired girl pipes up without thinking. I wince with second hand embarrassment, even before looking at Gray's face. Man, I wish I could take a photo right now!

"Really?" Cana's immediate interest is noticeable to everyone, and Juvia realizes her mistake.

"Chill, Cana. I found a mango tree on the island, and was able to open a ripe one. Get your head out of the gutter." Gray tries to mask his embarrassment with disgust, making it hard to tell if he's lying or not.

Lucy finally shakes off her horrified expression and leads everyone back to where Laxus, Gajeel, and Levy are waiting with the clothing and basket. Juvia walks ahead, leaning on Mira, while Cana explains in hushed voices about her bet to Lucy. I walk next to Gray, trying to avoid getting any water on me now that I'm finally dry.

"Did you really find a mango tree? Because I can't imagine they grow on small islands..." I jab.

Gray's teeth clench. "Shut up Natsu, before I punch you."

"Wouldn't be the first time," I grin, "and it certainly won't be the last!" I walk faster, pulling away from Gray and beating the girls to the basket. Mira drapes Juvia's button down shirt over Juvia's shoulders like a towel, as she slips back into her flip flops. Laxus tosses gray his t-shirt, which he just uses to dry off his hair.

"Are we finally ready to leave?" Lucy asks, on the verge of sounding impatient. "I'd really like to take a shower to wash the sand off." Levy nods in agreement, so we all take off again, this time with Mira as the leader.

~

"What's on the agenda for the rest of the day?" Gajeel asks in a lazy voice as he reclines across the couch in the suite. We've all showered and changed into clean clothes, and now lay sprawled across various surfaces in the livingroom.

Lucy barely moves, but picks her head up gently from where it rests in my lap. "I don't know, do you want another activity? We could always just relax here. Maybe watch a movie, play a game..."

Mira sits up at that idea, and I can practically feel the regret washing over Lucy. The devil claps her hands together, sealing our fate for the evening. Before we know it, Mira has seated us in a circle on the floor where the coffee table used to be. Cana rummages in the fridge, and comes back with four six-packs of beer.

"I don't even want to ask," Lucy groans. Something tells me there wasn't beer in that fridge originally...

"Never have I ever...!" Mira calls out in a sing-song voice. Cana expertly pops the cap off nine of the twenty four bottles, and passes them around.

"You're actually bringing alcohol into this?" Gray asks with his eyebrows raised, looking at everyone but Mira and Cana.

"Why not? We're all responsible, almost-adults here," Mira smiles and takes her seat next to Laxus. Cana places the remaining bottles in the center of the circle. Starting from Laxus and to the left, who's sitting with his back to the TV, we're sitting Laxus, Mira, Gray, Juvia, Gajeel, Levy, Cana, Myself, and Lucy.

Already exhausted at the thought of this activity, Lucy rests her head on my shoulder.

"Who's going to start?" Gajeel asks lazily. Next to him, Levy eyes her beer suspiciously, although I'm sure none of us are strangers to alcohol.

"I'll go," Cana offers. Now I'm actually interested. What is there that Cana hasn't done? "Never have I ever... gotten my driver's license."

"Really?" Most of us, myself included, exclaim. Now that I think of it, I've never really seen Cana drive, nor has she offered to.

She shrugs, shaking her drink as if to remind us to take sips. "Never really needed one. I always got a ride to the places I need to be. I mean, I've driven without a license... but you didn't hear that from me," she finishes with a grin. Everyone except for Levy and Laxus take drinks. Funny, I kind of thought everyone would drink to that.

Suddenly, Cana elbows me in the side. "Wait, does that mean it's my turn?" Damn. What should I say? "Never have I ever... gone to a club," I finish hesitantly. Surprisingly, seven of my eight friends take swigs of their beer. My eyebrows raise immediately in question, especially at my girlfriend next to me. Juvia, the only other one who didn't take a drink also looks like she has many questions, but mainly for Gray.

"Well, I dragged Levy and Lucy to a club with me one night," Cana begins, offering an explanation.

"I'm not surprised about Mira, Laxus, or Gajeel to be honest," I add, looking at them as I name them. "I have some questions for Gray, however."

He shrugs with the same nonchalance Cana had earlier. "Freshman year I met three weirdos from the public school. I started tagging along with them on the weekends, to try and get a feel for the rest of the town, and more than a couple times that meant going to various clubs or parties." I think back to freshman year, and the three kids he might be referencing. I vaguely remember three boys who would appear at the gates sometimes, always with some air of superiority around them, along with some very, very strong smelling cologne.

"My turn," Lucy smiles, her breath already smelling of the two sips she's had. "Never have I ever... been on an airplane."

"Are you serious?" Laxus exclaims. "You must have traveled so much though!" Others express their confusion as well, but I just bite my lip, remembering what that means to Lucy specifically. I wouldn't know why her parents didn't bring her on airplanes when she was a child, but I can very well imagine why she wouldn't get on one as she was older...

I take a sip, along with Laxus, Mira, Gray, Cana, and Levy. I take quick glances at Gajeel and Juvia, but don't say anything. Next is Laxus' turn.

"Never have I ever... fallen asleep in class." I groan, taking a swig of beer, watching out of the corner of my eye as Lucy, Gray, Gajeel, Juvia, and Cana also drink.

Levy laughs, "who knows how many times I've had to wake Lu-chan in Mr. Gildart's class!"

The game continues as such for maybe half an hour. There's only one untouched bottle standing in the center of the circle, while empty ones litter around us. I don't remember how many bottles I had, but I do know that after a while we stopped taking sips and took honest to god, full-on swigs of beer. I think Gray downed half of his bottle one round. I lost track of how many sips I took early on, but it doesn't seem like any of us are particularly sober by the time Mira stands up.

"Nobody... Nobody has axed the queshoon I expected!" Her voice comes out as a whine, and she has to stand with one hand on Laxus' shoulder.

"What question?" Gajeel asks her, his face as hard as a rock and almost angry looking.

"Natsu, nya~~" Lucy nuzzles her head into the crook of my neck, distracting me from Mira's question.

"Re... repeat that?" I murmur, my eyes and focus on Lucy.

"EL SEXO!" She suddenly exclaims, falling to her knees. "I want my cash! Just tell us already!!!" Her voice gets angry as she crawls across the circle towards Gajeel and Levy. "Just tell us," she whines again, pouting.

Levy looks up from staring at her empty bottle, her eyes piercing. "Did I ask you to crawl to me?"

"N- no, Levy-san," Mira replies, hanging her head low. "I'm sorry."

"YOU BETTER BE!" Levy shouts, standing up. Gajeel looks between his girlfriend and Mira, still devoid of emotion. "Now crawl back to your own man, and leave mine alone!"

Yelping like an animal in distress, Mira crawls back over to Laxus and curls up in his lap, where he's trying not to fall asleep. Her voice hiccups as she goes through yet another switch, this time to sadness, "I just wanted to know... Levy-san yelled at me..."

Cana appears back to the circle after having disappeared for a minute. "Well, Mirajane, maybe nobody has never done it," she says with glee. Juvia looks over at Cana from where Gray is giving her a pony ride around the livingroom.

"What is the talk over there? Horsey-sama, bring Juvia to her circle." She hits Gray on the butt, and with a pathetic sounding neigh, he crawls back over to the circle.

"Natsu!!!! Nya~" Lucy adds at the end, with a giggle. I smile at her and rub her head. "Remember when you first saw this neko? That perverted ring, nya!" She collapses in giggles, rolling off my shoulder and laughing into my knee. I feel my face flush at her reminder of that day that feels so long ago.

"I remember, neko. Would you like a fish, pretty kitty?"

"Would I ever, nya!" Sitting up and back on her heels, Lucy moves in front of me and places both hands against my chest. Although she's not using force, I almost fall back.

"Here you go, neko!" I reach to the left of me and grab the first thing I touch, and push it in the direction of Lucy's face. The first thing so happened to be a flower from the coffee table where we moved it. Lucy sneezes from the flower shoved into her nose, causing the petals to scatter, and us to collapse into laughter.

"Nyaaa, that fishy was too sweet. I want something else!"

I tilt my head, trying to think of what kind of fish will satisfy my neko. "Something sour?"

"Something spicy," she says with a coy smile, her tone of voice changing entirely. She licks her lips, which for some reason sends chills down my spine, yet spreads heat throughout my body. Is it cold in here? I scrunch my eyebrows, wondering where in the world you would find a spicy fish, when Lucy gets off her heels and pushes me back. My head rests on the seat of one of the chairs, and Lucy places her hands on my cheeks, squeezing them together. "Natsu is like a fish!!" She giggles. "A spicy, spicy fish!!!"

"I'm a fish?" I mutter through my squished mouth, confused.

"Yeeee!" She squeals, pushing me down to the ground. The chair slides back, until I'm completely flat on the floor, with Lucy collapsed on top of me. Her blonde hair blocks my view of anything else, but I do manage to hear some of the things still going on around us.

"Horsey-sama, don't make me punish you!"

"CANA HAS STOLEN MY BOOKS FOR THE LAST TIME. PREPARE TO FACE YOUR OWN PERSONAL HELL."

"Levy-chan is my hero..."

"LEVY, PUT THAT BOTTLE DOWN OR I SWEAR-"

"My children have all grown up!!!"

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

AHHHH DO NOT HATE ME PLEASE I HAVE ALREADY LOST MORE THAN MY NINE GIVEN LIVES. I realize I have been neglecting my work on this book, as well as My Celestial Secrets, and it pains me, but I have not been as inspired to write recently. My midterms at school ended, but the levels of stress have not gone down- they seem to be increasing actually! But I haven't spent my free time as I usually would, writing my stories or writing songs or playing my guitar. Listening to music and stalking K-pop groups has taken a huge chunk of my time, along with thinking about doing my school work, and actually getting it done.

I want to apologize again.  I'm sorry D:

;-; Shadow