Lucy

With Gray carrying the sick Natsu, Erza took lead in walking through the front, sliding doors might I add. I heard the building was an old abandoned hotel so the likelihood of ghost is almost 100%. If I were Blue Pegasus, I'd call up that Ghost Adventures crew to check this place out but hey.

The main lobby was neatly decorated as well as the stairs leading up to the second floor where back in the old days, the customers would go up to register and everything. Other than that, was completely empty...

"Where are we?" Natsu finally groaned.

"We're here," Gray replied, setting him upright.

It took the wingman a few seconds. We waited for him to come to his senses and when that did happen, his senses were on 100%.

"Woah!" He backed up a bit, looking up as he went. "This is some big ass building for some rendezvous point."

That's what I said... was what I wanted to say but I do remember we weren't exactly on speaking terms quite yet. So I just stuffed my hands into the new very warm warmer pockets.

After his little surprise, Natsu's eyes finally returned and focused on me. Immediately, he turned away and mumbled under his breath, "Hey..."

I gave him a smile, "Good morning to you, too Natsu."

We continued walking for a few seconds before Erza called out, "We're from Fairy Tail."

Suddenly, the lights dimmed, making me shiver a bit. What is going on here?

Three shadow like figures appeared at the top of the stairs, clapping and chanting. At first, they looked exactly like shadow figures of evil demonic spirits and dammit I need to stop watching Ghost Adventures... not good for my health.

They clapped twice more as three lights finally landed on them.

"Welcome Fairy Tail," the three very attractive figures said simultaneously.

Three guys, let's start with that. The one on the far right was a blonde, only an inch taller than me maybe with blonde hair kept in a neat , with a few wayward strands covering his forehead, and dark eyes. I couldn't tell the color from here. Next to him, the man I presumed was the leader of their little idol group, gave us a low smirk. He had average height with spiky, somewhat messy brownish blond hair framing his face as well as dark eyes and noticeably long eyelashes. And the final man was the tallest. His dark charcoal hair gave him the bad boy look and his dark pearl eyes didn't help.

My jaw dropped alongside Erza's.

Their elegance separately put the elegance of all the men in Fairy Tail to shame. I glanced behind me at Gray and Natsu, both scolding themselves for not wearing suits or at least a decent attire in their own little corner.

As long as they know I guess we're getting somewhere.

"Wow," the youngest out of them ran down the steps, taking it two at a time. "I cannot believe this! The beautiful captain of Fairy Tail, Titania Erza Scarlet is here and in the flesh!"

Erza took a step back, diverting his attention to me. If his eyes weren't sparkling earlier, they're definately sparkling now.

"And the great beautiful goddess," he suddenly grabbed my hands. "Miss Celestial Striker, Lucy Heartfilia."

"Just Lucy's fine," I chuckled nervously, taking that one step back as well.

"Yes," the leader came down the steps. "We must've done something good in our past lives to be able to work alongside such beautiful players."

Erza and I visibly flinched...

"But how rude of us," the leader said just as the last guy came down the stairs. "Allow us to introduce ourselves. I'm Hibiki Lates of Blue Pegasus FC."

The boy was next to go, "I am Eve Tearm, it is such an honor to be in your presence."

"And me," the final guy finally spoke, his voice fitting his cold persona. "Ren Akatsuki."

That's it?

Erza recovered before me, "So, are you the -"

Eve cut her off by appearing in front of her again, "I'm sorry for interrupting you again, Miss Titania but I just can't help but notice you are beyond beautiful."

Seriously, what the hell is wrong with these guys?

"Would you like some tea?" Hibiki grabbed her hand, walking her over to a sofa that was not there before! What are they, wizards?!

Just as she sat down, Hibiki and Eve gave her offerings from tea to her favorite strawberry cake. Which she turned down...

A hand suddenly wrapped around my waist, scaring me shitless.

"I'll take you, I guess," he slowly guided me over to where Erza was and sat me down. The whole time, Natsu's eyes followed him the whole way.

When I was beside Erza, we both sat rigidly still, afraid if we moved, Eve would have a mental breakdown.

"Now that the Queens have been properly served..."

"What do you mean queens?" Gray asked. "Are you implying that we don't treat these ladies with respect?"

Hibiki met the winger's eyes, "Yes that is exactly what I am implying."

"I'll have you know I treat Lucy not as a queen but as a goddess so you best stop all this stupid shit," Natsu was getting angry.

"Really?" It was Ren's turn. "Miss Lucy's body is all stiff from stress and hardly any sleep. If you actually did care about that, you would've noticed."

And he got all of that from escorting me to my seat?! Damn he's good.

It's true I didn't get enough sleep last night. I was actually busy refilling my thoughts on what to do to get Natsu back not only as my best friend but as my man. He doesn't know Lisanna gave us her blessing and that she's planning on fixing everything today when she goes to Denver to speak with her uncle and aunt. Hold on... isn't that where we're going, too? For the little tournament I meant, we're going to Denver as well! Hopefully there's another Denver hidden somewhere and not the capital of the Rocky Mountain state...

Anyway, back to reality.

Gray and Natsu looked like they were going to punch the living wits out of the pretty boys just by the way they're standing.

"Now, now," a smooth, very smooth silky voice making my whole body crawl with complete chills stopped what seemed like could've been an outbreak of a war between Blue Pegasus and Fairy Tail. "Let's not let a fight upset this team."

"Ah, Master!" the three men said simontanously, completely ignoring their mini face-off against the guys of our FC seconds ago. They we're bowing, too!

"You have arrived Master Ichiya," they continued with their in-synced talking.

I felt Erza immediately stiffen more than she already was. Glancing over, I could visibly see her shiver in her boots right where she was. No way... is she afraid of this Ichiya dude or something?

He has dark eyes and thick eyebrows, with a pair of lines pointing towards his nose below them, plus some stubble around his mouth and a prominent chin. His orange hair was initially kept in a wavy style with many curved spikes jutting outwards, with one acting as a fringe on the left side of his face. Just looking at him screamed creepy.

Instead of taking the stairs like normal people, he slid down the railings until he landed right in front of us.

"Man ~" he sang almost.

Erza's chill transferred off to me now.

"Who's the elf?" Gray murmured to Natsu. "Our coach or something."

"How dare you disrespect Master Ichiya?" Hibiki gasped, a little dramatically in my opinion. "He is the mighty captain of the Blue Pegasus FC!"

Natsu walked over and crouched so he's eye-levelled with the little man, "Oh yeah! I remember you! You kept slipping between me because you're so tiny."

"Man ~" Ichiya did a weird crossed sign thingy with his hands. "Salamander, your perfume is always welcoming."

Natsu chuckled, "I have no idea what that means but I'll take that as a greeting."

With that, the tension from before slowly dissolved. It returned a few seconds later when Ichiya was suddenly sitting on the armrest very close to Erza.

"Man~" he sniffed her twice, causing her whole body to shiver beyond control. "Miss Titania Erza Scarlet. I can never forget how your perfume radiates like the bright summer afternoon."

Before Erza had time to say anything, the door slid open again; revealing three more players arriving. Each wearing the same warmer Fairy Tail had on.

"Looks like Lamia Scale is finally here," Gray smirked.

A tall and massive man with a heavily muscular figure, distinguished by his bald head, a pair of oval-shaped black marks just above his black eyes, and by his seeming lack of eyebrows gave us all a warm smile, "I am Jura Neekis. It is an honor to be meeting my new teammates for this competition. I hope we can all get along."

Holy... Jura Neekis is here! And in the flesh! I cannot believe this! I need to take a picture of him! I need to right now. No wait, I have two months... I'll just ask for his autograph later.

There was a guy our age standing to his left. Unlike Jura, he looked less happy to be here. "I am Lyon Vastia. Good to be here." He has bluish silver hair, most of which are spiky strands that jut upwards on top of his head. Lyon's eyes are slanted, with dark round pupils and surrounded by similarly dark lines.

He kinda looked like Gray if Gray had silver hair. That's funny.

"Great," Gray murmured. "I actually thought you'd sit this one out because you'd lose your street cred for working with me."

Lyon's interest perked right there, "And let you hog up all the fun? I don't think so my friend."

"Come now, where's all the love here?" Finally another girl! Here I thought Erza and I were the gonna be the only ones with a sane personality. Besides from Jura of course...

The girl was also our age. She has blue eyes, pink hair, and just the perfect body that would go on the Fiore top teen magazine.

"Hello everyone," she waved with a huge smile. "I'm Sherry Blendy. One of the better defenders of Lamia Scale."

"Oh, then what about me?" Lyon looked at her. "Last I check, my statistics are better than yours."

"But my tackles are always filled with love for my opponents," She continued.

"Alright, alright," Jura sighed. "That's enough. Is everybody here?"

"Cait Shelter has yet to arrive," Erza said, standing up.

"Man ~" Ichiya nodded. "It seems like they're running a little late."

"With all the slippery roads," Jura admitted. "I'm surprised Fairy Tail was able to make it right on time."

Natsu sighed, "Erza's our driver. She has no idea what a speed limit is."

The door opened behind the Lamia players again. Oh, that was fast.

The scrambling of feet sounded than a giant thud, surprising everybody in the room. Our eyes widened at the sudden intruder. A petite girl with fair skin, long blue hair and dark brown eyes similar to mines rubbed her head as she sat up. She was no taller than a little kid.

"Excuse me," Hibiki walked up to her. "Are you okay, little miss?"

"Ouch sorry," she said. "I'm usually a klutz so tripping and falling like that is a normal everyday thing."

Erza and I exchanged a look of confusion. Who is this little kid?

"I should introduce myself," her eyes wandered to where we were standing. With a wide smile she spoke, "I'm Wendy Marvell of the Cait Shelter FC. It's such an honor to be working alongside all of you during this competition and I promise I won't slow you down."

"WHAT?!" Everybody exclaimed.

Has Cait Shelter lost their minds?! Why send in only one player, correction one little girl as their representative?! Is this some kind of joke? Are we all getting the Punk'd or something?

"Wendy Marvell," Erza played with the name for a second. "Of the great Cait Shelter FC? Have I heard that name somewhere before?"

"I guess not considering you'd probably remember her as a player because she'd stick to your mind so well," I said.

She would've punched me on a regular basis but she was too busy with pondering on who Wendy was.

I'm just surprised such an adorable child like her has actually went up against guys like those players from Quatro Cerebrus without dying yet.

"Good," a final intruder arrived. "It seems like the major players are here. It makes the job so much easier for coach when all his players are present."

Wait a minute that voice...

Erza completely stopped pondering, Natsu and Gray nearly flipped out. I'm just glued to my place.

C-coach?!!!! Did he actually say coach?!

"I will be your Coach for this tournament," he saluted us, wearing his own warm-up. "My name is Jellal Fernandez. Just Coach Jellal will do."

Who the fuck...