"Lucy...Come on Lucy, time to get up." A distant familiar voice cooed into her ear.

"Idiot, you look like a pervert," a closer, even more familiar voice said.

"Why don't you try to wake her up then?" The first voice challenged.

"Oi, Lucy! Get up!"

Lucy shot up quickly, her eyes wide and spinning around frantically. She spotted Gray and Laxus standing in front of her, a little startled looking at her sudden movement.

"What?" Lucy said, frowning and pulling out a strand of hair from her mouth. "What are you guys doing?"

"We came to get you up. There's some people downstairs we want you to meet so look presentable," Laxus informed her with a smirk. Lucy glanced down at her attire uncertainly. Sure, the tank top didn't reach her pants, but surely she didn't look like a slut?

"You need to put on some outside clothes, we'll be going out," Gray corrected, glaring at Laxus.

"You need to put on some clothes," Laxus corrected him, drawing Lucy's attention to Gray's bare chest. She felt her eyes widen and face heat up quickly as she turned away.

"Wha? How did this happen?" Gray asked in confusion. Lucy closed her eyes and shook her head, her cheeks feeling as if on fire.

"Just put on a shirt and get out!" She yelled, shooing them away. She heard them grumble, but felt their footsteps as they left. She didn't turn around until she heard the door close. When she turned to look, the coast was clear of any half naked men. She sighed in relief, cupping her hot cheeks with her hands. Her palms felt cold against her blush, but thankfully her face began to cool. Lucy sighed and flopped back onto the bed, shaking her head against the sheets. "I'm going to die in this house," she said, silently cursing pectorals and Gray. She sighed again and got up to get ready and meet new people.

~

Lucy wasn't sure where the bathroom was at first, and it took her a few tries to get it. The first room she entered was the one besides Laxus', as she assumed her cousin would try to be as close to the shower as possible, but was wrong. Oh, so wrong.

She'd heard about boy's rooms, how they were messy and had clothes and video games all over the floor. She had thought that was just exaggerated for effects in books, but Gray's room proved her wrong. She knew it was Gray's room because she doubted that Jellal would have such a messy room, and she saw the Gray dolls in the trash bin.

Lucy approached the bin and picked up a doll lying beside it; the result of a missed basket and a lazy Gray. She tilted the doll in her hand, a little bit amazed at how the likeness of the black haired boy fit into the doll's wide, cartoonish face. The doll was shirtless with stitched in abs, a little bit creepy, and had a cold scowl on his face. Lucy blatantly wondered why there would be a scowl when all she'd seen Gray do was smile, but then she remembered the fave he made at the mention of his stalker the previous night. Lucy realized that girl-what was her name? Julia?-probably never got to see gray smile. Lucy found that to be a little sad. Her whole body seemed to warm up whenever Gray smiled at her and she didn't even like him romantically. She couldn't imagine what a smile from him would do to that girl's body. She was filled with a little sadness for this weird stalker girl, and decidedly tucked the gray doll into her clothes before heading off to try and find the bathroom. She thought of it as a souvenir for something she never wanted to forget...or for blackmail if the chance ever arose.

The next room she entered was across fromGray's and one over. She assumed that the one across from Gray's was Jellal's, and for once her intuition was right. Unfortunately, it wasn't the bathroom, but it also wasn't another dirty boy's room. This door opened up into a clean little office with a large mahogany desk and a big black swivel chair. Lucy was reminded of her father's office, but this room was a lot smaller and welcoming. Very much like her Grandpa.

She approached the desk, discovering that it wasn't as clean as she'd first thought. Papers scattered the glossy surface in a jumbled mess that had no orginazation pattern, and some had even drifted forgotten to the floor. Lucy picked the ones up off the floor and set them carefully on the desk. She resisted the urge to make a pile off all the papers, sure that there was some process she was missing and afraid to mess it up for her grandfather. She saw a lot of scattered entrance papers, and equal amount accepted as declined, and was relieved when she saw hers with ACCEPTED stamped across the top.

Lucy set the paper down and instead moved to the black picture frames. She smiled sadly at the picture of her Grandpa with his two kids; Lucy's mom, Layla, and Laxus' dad, Ivan. They were both young teenagers in this photo, and all three of them looked happy. That was before Layla fell in love with Jude, Lucy's father. Before Ivan became riddled with jealousy and involved himself in sketchy business.

The next photo was slightly darker. It was really a collage of photos, all with one thing in common; Layla. It was from her funeral, Lucy knee because she had the same one now set up on the dresser in her room. The photos displayed the beautiful blonde woman in all her best moments; smiling and laughing as she was with her husband, father, nephew, and cradling her daughter. Lucy's throat choked as she looked at the picture of her mother cradling her. Layla Heartfilia's eyes were glassy with happiness, but she wasn't looking at the camera. She was staring straight down at Lucy with such joy and love that it had brought tears to the young woman's eyes. Lucy quickly distracted herself by picking up the third and final picture frame.

The last frame held a photo of Lucy, Layla, Laxus, Grandpa, and Jude. Jude, Grandpa, and Layla were standing together and smiling. One hand of Layla's was wrapped around little Lucy's forearm, the other entwined around Jude's biceps like a vine. Grandpa had both hands placed on little Laxus' shoulders, holding the scrawny rascal in place as they posed for the picture. That's right, Laxus used to be scrawny.

All three adults were facing the camera and smiling, but little Lucy and Laxus were turned towards each other, flares in their eyes as they stuck out their tongues. Lucy remembered her mother fretting over it and saying they would take a proper one next summer, although they never did, but looking back at it now, Lucy felt that it was comical. She felt her lips turn up in a smile and the reminiscence warming her chest.

Slowly she crept out of the office and back out in her search for the bathroom.

~

After finally finding the bathroom-it was all the back next to her room-and getting a quick shower in, Lucy got dressed and headed downstairs to meet these new people. She had changed from her pajamas into a white shirt with a pocket over her right breast, and a pair of short jean shorts. She didn't bother with her hair, knowing she'd taken too long to find the bathroom already, so she just combed through the wet locks and let them hang out to dry. She deposited her dirty clothes and her newly squired Gray doll in her room before slipping down the stairs to meet the new people.

Lucy glanced into the living room but, finding it empty, headed towards the kitchen. Sounds of conversation drifted towards her as she approached and she couldn't help but smiling as she stepped in.

Nobody noticed her at first, which was fine because it gave her a chance to look at the new arrivals. There were three in total; two girls with white and red hair, and a boy with way too many piercings on his body.

The first girl she spotted was the one with white hair who, strangely, was sitting beside and holding the hand of Laxus. Her big tough cousin looked like putty in this girl's hand, which Lucy found amusing. The girl was pretty, beautiful even. Her long with hair had two sections taken from each side and tied around her head in an intricate braid, she had unblemished pale skin, and bright blue eyes that rivaled Laxus'. She had on no makeup, which made Lucy like her more, and was in a soft pink dress that accented her curves. She was smiling too, which didn't hurt her looks.

The second person Lucy noticed was the boy with the piercings. He was a big guy, his arms corded with muscle, and seemed to have a permanent frown on his face. He had thick, long black hair that sort of reminded Lucy of a porcupine and dark grey eyes bordering on black. What initially Lucy had taken for pierced eyebrows, was really just eyebrows made from piercings. He also had the metal circles decorating his arms and down the bridge of his nose. He was scowling at Gray and slouched in his seat, arms crossed. Lucy had the feeling he was one of the two who Gray had mentioned liked to come over often; Gajeel or Natsu.

The final person was probably the most normal of the group, but somehow the most intimidating. The girl had red hair and brown eyes. She wore a cream blouse and a skirt, but her posture was so straight a rigid, Lucy felt like she needed to shape up her posture as well. She looked like a vice principle, the way she had her hands folded across the table. Lucy was reminded of the proper adequate classes her father used to make her take.

Gray was the first to notice her. He stopped talking to the piercing boy and smiled, waving her over. This effectively stopped every conversation and resulted in all eyes on her. Lucy gulped nervously and smiled, waving a hand. "Hey everyone." Her greeting was answered by awkward silence.

"Wow Laxus, I had no idea she'd be so pretty!" The white haired girl sudden squealed, turning on Laxus with a frown. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You also forgot to mention that she was our age," The piercing guy, as Lucy had named him, murmured while examining her body. Lucy shifted, slightly uncomfortable.

"I told you she was ten when I last saw her," Laxus dismissed all their questions. "I haven't seen her in six years."

"That's right, you came from America, didn't you? What's it like over there? Are the boys cute?" The white haired girl giggled as Laxus sighed and rolled his eyes. Lucy chuckled awkwardly, smiling.

"It was okay over there, I never really left my house much though," she said bash fully.

"Oh, you were homeschooled?" The red head spoke up, her voice significantly less formal then her appearance. Lucy found that as a relief.

"Yes," Lucy agreed.

"How about you guys introduce yourselves to Lucy?" Gray suggested, cutting the white haired girl from asking another question. The girl frowned unappreciatively at Gray, but turned to Lucy with a smile.

"Hello Lucy, my name is Mirajane Straus, although you can just call me Mira. I'm Laxus' girlfriend and I'm so excited to meet you!" Mira squealed, smiling largely. Lucy blinked in surprise, glancing at her cousin, but the big guy just looked away.

"My names Gajeel," the piercings guy said in a low reverberating voice that shook Lucy's bones. The guy glanced Lucy over again but kept quiet.

"It's nice to meet you Lucy, I'm Erza Scarlet," the red head, Erza, announced. She extended a hand towards Lucy, much to everyone's surprised looks. Lucy reached out for her hand but stopped at last minute. She froze in thought and then, deciding that this girl was going to be her friend, reached forward and straight up hugged her.

She heard a few gasps from behind her and felt Erza stiffen in her grip. Lucy, afraid she'd done something wrong, was about to move away when Erza came back to life and wrapped her arms around Lucy. Her hug was tight and inexperienced, knocking the wind out of Lucy, but the blonde smiled and laughed through the pain. "It's nice to meet you too, Erza."

Finally Lucy pulled away and smiled at the red head. Erza smiled back, a bit of a blush on her cheeks, and she turned to see everyone staring at her in shock. "What?" Lucy asked in confusion.

"You just...you just hugged Erza," gray murmured in amazement, his eyes wide and mouth hanging open. Even Gajeel was too shocked to hide his surprise.

"Yeah, so what? Do you want a hug too Gray?" Lucy teased, opening her arms. She giggled at the opened mouth expression that painted his features.

"You are obviously insane," Gajeel murmured, but Lucy swore she saw some admiration in his eyes. Lucy frowned in confusion, looking at Erza for guidance.

"Why are they making such a big deal of me hugging you?" She said curiously, tilting her head.

Erza looked around the room and opened her mouth, but froze before saying whatever she was going to say. Instead she pushed herself up from the table and came up beside Lucy. Erza cast an arm around her shoulder and pulled the blonde into an awkward side hug, glaring at everyone else.

"Lucy is my friend," she pronounced loudly. "If you hurt my friend, there shall be sure consequences."

Lucy, although confused, felt touched by the red's gesture. She straightened in the intense hug and wrapped her arm over Erza's shoulder as well, smiling.

"Yeah, Erza is my friend."