Sorry that this is a bit shorter than the rest of the chapters, but it's mostly a bridge to the final one. There will be one more chapter after this, then this project will be completed. I hope you enjoy this new chapter.

On another note, since this was originally written for the first CoLu week, this year's CoLu week details are listed on my profile. Have fun!

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

Kinana was… stuck. Well and truly mired in this situation of her own making.

It had been four days since she had spoken to Erik and his team, and Kinana was no closer to finishing up her list of ships than when she'd hung up with them. The barmaid was starting to worry about them a little. They weren't picking up their lacrima, which either meant that something had gone horribly wrong, or something new and urgent had come up requiring their attention. The worrier in her insisted it was the first option, but the more logical part of her brain told her it was more likely the second, given how often it had happened in the past. She would just have to have a faith in her best friend and his teammates to pull through just fine.

It wasn't like Kinana didn't have her own problems to occupy her, anyway. At work, Mirajane had started shooting her smug looks. Well, okay, they didn't exactly look like proper smugness, but on Mirajane a polite smile could speak volumes and Kinana was adept at reading them by this point. So there was no doubt in Kinana's mind – the other barmaid was well and truly smug about the upcoming ship competition. She had grown up with most of the guild members and she knew exactly how to read them.

Something that Kinana was having difficulty with herself right now. She had been trying to keep an eye on the other guild members, but she was having a lot of trouble picking out romantic feelings from the general din of chaos. Friendships she could spot relatively easily – Fairy Tail was chock full of friendly people that tended to show their affection with everything that they had. But romance… The only real experience she had in that department was her own, and having watched Alzack and Bisca fall in love and start a family. Even the two secret couples that Erik had confirmed for her weren't particularly romantic. In fact, if she didn't know better, Kinana would have assumed they disliked each other intensely. Especially Elfman and Evergreen. If there was romance happening there, it was in a language that Kinana definitely didn't understand.

Cana was making things her own brand of difficult, of course. Word of the betting pool had begun to spread, and even the people who were being shipped were getting in on the action. Laxus had taken one look at his proposed pairing, shared the largest, most incredulous laugh Kinana had ever seen with Cana, and had then bet for it… but more against it. Those who had seen the first, but not the second, promptly dumped all their money into the Laxana pairing. Kinana suspected shenanigans. Cana and Laxus teaming up to game the odds wasn't exactly out of character for either of them, especially if Cana had agreed to cut Laxus in for a percentage of the profits. Worse than that, though, was the fact that it was prompting the gambling-loving members of the guild to approach Kinana with their own suspicions regarding their friends' romantic lives, and Kinana had no method of parsing what was truth, and what was them hoping to tilt the odds in their favor on the betting pool (though she did dutifully take down notes anyway).

What had surprised Kinana about all of this, though, was that only one of people being shipped had approached her themselves. In fact, that was what was largely on her mind at the moment.

Wendy had pulled her aside as she left the guild, just a few hours ago, to ask her to talk to Cana and Mirajane to take her pairing off the board and out of the competition. Although now sixteen, it was still deeply embarrassing to the Sky Dragon Slayer to have her personal life dissected like that. Kinana had agreed to speak with the other two, of course, much to Wendy's visible relief. But now it had Kinana rethinking the consequences of this little game. Wendy's heartfelt, "Thank you, thank you so much!" earlier had been almost heartbreaking to the purple-haired woman. Were there others involved in this game that felt the same way as Wendy, but hadn't come forward about it? Or was this really just business as usual for the rest of them, who were more used to Mirajane's conniving? As far as she could tell, Kinana didn't think they were all that upset by it. Tired, in the case of Gray, but that was about it. Then again, Gajeel and Levy were a thing, and so were Elfman and Evergreen and Kinana had had zero idea about it. So clearly she wasn't very good at reading people after all.

It was incredibly frustrating. Especially since whatever pleasure Mirajane got out of it was absent in Kinana herself. And the punishment game… Kinana had already discussed with her boyfriend what to do if it came to that. Luckily he thought it was amusing. The only reason they had kept their relationship quiet in the first place was to avoid the inevitable teasing that their friends would inflict upon them. And it was… a little awkward to just… announce formally. They were in different guilds after all. It had gone on for so long now, too, that Kinana didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings by revealing the fact that she'd hid an important relationship from them. When she voiced those concerns, her boyfriend had been very understanding, and had done his level best to be comforting. But the doubts still remained.

Kinana shook her head furiously, trying to clear it of the cobwebs of anxiety that had taken hold there. She was probably overthinking this. If her other friends had a problem with this, then they would speak up about it. And if they didn't… well, Kinana wasn't a mind reader. She could try to be mindful of their opinions, but they would have to communicate it to her in some form or another. Not much else she could do, honestly.

Which left her with the remaining pairings to figure out. Even with RoWen off the table, it still left her with three others to figure out. And all three were just trouble waiting to happen. Especially since Laxana was still one of them. The chief conspirator herself and the grandson of the guild master. Laxus was not someone that Kinana wanted to piss off under any circumstances. Cana would probably find whatever pairing she came up with hilarious and not hold a grudge, but she was such a raging bisexual that it was difficult to pair her off. Her preference for girls was abundantly clear, but there weren't that many girls to choose from. Fairy Tail was inundated with men, after all. But Cana didn't seem to have many close relationships with men – in fact, the only ones she did seem to get along with were Gray, Loke, and Macao. Macao was definitely off the table. Kinana was leery of putting kindling to the man's fire. Gray was already out for this. Loke… Kinana just didn't get that vibe from the two of them, especially since both were the same… type? Was that the word? She didn't really know. As for girls to pair with Cana… again, there weren't that many. Juvia and Lucy were the obvious choices, but Juvia was already out as a choice, and since Natsu had already been shipped as well it left Lucy to break up the NaLu ship. Laki was the only other one she could think of off the top of her head. And… Laki did not like this sort of thing. At all. She'd tolerate it from Mirajane, and tolerate Cana's desire to profit off of it, but Kinana wasn't sure that courtesy extended to her. Laki was probably assuming that Kinana would pair off Max instead in that pairing, and wouldn't appreciate being brought back into the mess.

Ugh. It was such a mess. Erik was right. How did she get herself into these types of situations? Even if she managed to not offend anyone or destroy any of her friendships, it was still going to put her through the ringer on anxiety and stress alone.

There was no way she could win this. No way at all.

Still… Kinana would be disappointed in herself if she backed down entirely. If she had no spine to stand up to Mirajane now, she would only get bowled over later on down the road. She had to stand up for herself here.

A thought sparked, bright in her head.

Kinana glanced down at her notes, a plan starting to form. She already had the basics down. She would probably have to alter a couple of the existing pairs to make it work perfectly, but that wouldn't be too hard.

And she had the perfect pairing in mind to break up NaLu. It would also throw Mirajane for such a loop that it might knock her off her pedestal for a bit.

Kinana furiously began to write in her notebook. She only had a couple more days, but she would be ready for whatever Mirajane and Cana's betting pool threw at her.