AN: The final chapter is here, thanks for reading guys :)

The skies darkened, remnants of Juvia's clouds came clustering back, overshadowing the mountain once more. A sphere began encasing the peak in its center. The span was 2 miles long; Natsu's arm grew brighter as the Fairy Tail mark plastered itself onto the side of the globe.

Mavis was perched on a tree from a distance, watching the sphere even surround her. She was confused, why Fairy Sphere? Before watching with shock at the guild mark disappearing. The dragon slayer began changing the globe from a soft yellow to a scarlet red, replacing the guild mark with the dragon seal.

Lucy looked around her, remembering this was the same spell used after Acnologia's attack. The Dragon Sphere had finally been complete, the keeper froze searching around him. When did he become so powerful…

Fireballs and sparks were emitted from the clouds, raining down onto everyone in the sphere. The keeper's eyes widened, before laughing boisterously. "You're going to kill your friends along with me!"

Natsu stood unshaken, he watched his comrades be set ablaze with the falling fire. Lucy looked up at the pinkette in desperation, "Natsu put out the flames!"

He didn't listen; he simply kept letting the clouds continue their action. Fire and brimstone collided into the side of the mountain, making it rumble violently.

"He's using an illusion, Luce." Natsu calmly replied, the dragon keeper clenched his fists realizing this wasn't the same dense fire mage from before.

"This is my version of Fairy Glitter, but I'm going to need your help for the last one."

Lucy was puzzled; puzzled at the fact that Natsu had learned all three of Fairy Tail's most powerful spells, that he manipulated them using his dragon slayer magic, and that he needed her help for Fairy Law.

The pinkette walked up to Lucy. And pointed. "The Dragon Keeper we see right here, is also an illusion. He ran when I punched him in the face."

He stuck out his hand, with his stupid grin on his face. Lucy gladly took it, and he pulled her into a tight embrace, they faced the direction of the keeper. Their bodies were tightly together, and their hands grasped, both directed at the warden. The keeper shuddered, realizing this was the end.

The real keeper was below the mountain, but he knew that ever since he got caught inside the sphere, it was all over. "Unison Raid: Celestial Flames!" Both their voices pierced through the air fiercely, as a huge golden flame washed over every single space within the sphere. The Dragon Keeper only smiled, Natsu's gotten stronger, it'll only be a matter of time until he catches up to you… Zeref.

His body was engulfed in the purifying inferno, burning up every cell within his being. Nothing was left of the dragon keeper except ashes.

Natsu collapsed from all the magic he used, feeling a hand on his shoulder as soon as the battle ended. Mavis looked down with him with enthusiasm. "That was amazing! You used all three!" Her small form jumped up and down, praising the pinkette for his effort.

"Well I can't take all the credit; you're the one who taught me!" He smiled at his eager master, who tried imitating his smile. Then she turned to Lucy, "And you helped perform Fairy Law! Well, sort of! What'd you two say it was? Celestial fire? Yeah!" Mavis clapped excitedly, waking their comrades.

"What happened…" Gray rubbed his head as he sat up from the rocky ground. He saw Natsu, but hesitated calling out to him. "Oi! Did you beat him?" The ice mage had stood up and walked over to him. "Of course I beat him, popsicle!" He yelled back, earning himself a huge smile from Gray.

"Damn I can't believe I missed the fight." Gajeel was helping Juvia up,

"Good job Natsu-san!" Wendy lightly praised, before her demeanor shifted. "Everyone, Erza's still not waking up."

The group turned their gaze to the unconscious redhead, watching her abdomen rise and fall slowly.

"We should just bring her back to the guild and-"

"ERZA WAKE UP!" The pinkette shook her violently, before coming up with an evil idea.

She began squirming at Natsu's new action, before laughing really hard. "Natsu stop it! It's not funny! Ahahaha!" She woke up as the dragon slayer stopped tickling her. He smiled softly at the red head, who narrowed her eyes at his new appearance.

"You look older…" She said to him, sitting up but not taking her gaze off him.

"Yeah I know, it's all this hair!"

Mavis smiled softly, "Natsu and I trained inside a fairy sphere. I was able to extend the time to 6 months given the time we had."

Everyone watched in disbelief at the first master's power, writing a mental note to never make her mad, if that were possible.

Natsu then focused his stare on Lucy, smiling at her. She wanted to hug him so badly, thank him for everything that he did, but she didn't want to pull him away from the group.

"Natsu-san did really well!" Juvia clung onto Gray's arm, smiling wildly. They all sighed,

"Let's go home everyone."

Back at the guild, Natsu didn't feel right. The fact that he tried to leave them for a long time without alerting anyone was still present, so he decided to do the one thing he resented most: apologize.

He walked up to the middle of the guild, standing on one chair. "Oi, everybody listen!" Alternatively, nobody paid the dragon slayer mind, they kept up their conversations.

"EVERYBODY SHUT THE HELL UP!" He immediately got responses after that.

"I wanted to say…" His voice was losing strength, and he began quaking under the pressure.

"Yeah, yeah, we know you're sorry hot head." Gray sat across from him, smirking at his best friend's face.

"Don't interrupt me, Snowman!"

"You paused in the middle of your sentence, Flame brain!"

"You trying to start something?!"

"Yeah let's go!"

And with that, the two mages began throwing fists at each other, collectively picking up other fighters in their quarrel. The pinkette didn't notice that Lucy had not been at the guild.

The blonde stellar mage made her way back to her apartment, the sun already gone down. She bit her lip at the thought that she wasn't able to thank her fire mage, that everyone was going to start wanting to be around him more, meaning less time with her.

She sighed as she walked into her room, dropping her things at the doorway. She was beat, but was still going to take her daily bath.

The blonde made her way over to her bathroom, not even checking her room for her intruder. She turned the knob on the tub, rushing hot water into it. Her clothes dropped as she tiptoed into the warm water, feeling a relaxed sensation once her body was fully submerged.

She dipped her head down into the water, closing her eyes fully to think of a certain dragon slayer. And like magic, she felt something or someone land on her head, while hairy legs rubbed against her own.

"Hiya Luce!" Natsu's stealth was like any other. She opened her eyes, seeing Igneel's scarf wrapped around like a headband. Then below that was the boy she loved, grinning at her with his hand up.

Happy sprawled out on Lucy's head, kneading his small claws into her scalp.

"Hey Natsu." She murmured, still a bit sad that she wouldn't see him as often now that he was the most powerful mage at Fairy Tail.

"Hope you don't mind if we bathe with you!" His tone was back to how she was used to.

"I don't mind."

She saw his hand place on her shoulders, before turning her around and pulling her small frame into his. She jumped faintly, before leaning into the dragon's chest. The steam in her bathroom only grew denser as the body's met. They both began falling asleep.

Lucy was the first to wake up, realizing that her Natsu were still in the tub. And when she looked down, it got worse. The water had evaporated all into steam, leaving them completely nude with their bodies pressed together.

The blonde's face burned a million shades of red, slowly turning around to see if Natsu was awake. He wasn't; a wave a relief came over her as she struggled to break from his grasp. She couldn't, much to her dismay.

She just sat there, almost breaking down and crying at her predicament.

Should I wake him?

She shook her head at the stupid thought, knowing either way that she was going to be exposed anyway.

Suddenly, Natsu wrapped around Lucy's waist tighter, and heaved her up as he climbed out the tub. Lucy was frozen with shock, thinking he was awake. She turned only to see his eyelids still shut.

He sleepwalks?!

Natsu carried her out of the bathroom, and walked straight for the bed. Lucy shuddered and squirmed against his grasp, but gave up realizing it was futile.

He pulled back the covers and laid the stellar mage down first, on her side away from him. He got in soon after, instantly falling motionless as soon as his head touched the pillow. A small smile came across his face.

"Natsu you better not be awake!" She loudly whispered, his soft snores alerted her that he wasn't faking.

She wanted to get dressed but there was no way of getting out of bed without waking the dragon, so she scooted as far away as possible, not wanting to feel any contact.

Natsu responded unconsciously by scooting closer to the source of warmth. Lucy's mouth went agape as she tried to compress herself against the wall.

The fire mage reached his destination and wrapped his arms around her curvy waist. She stifled a yell of shock from his calloused hands rubbing against her belly button.

Her eyes flew behind her to watch Natsu, biting down out of anger and embarrassment. She kept watching, and shook fiercely when his eyes opened.

"Oh, hey Luce." His voice was soft, just like before.

"Happy birthday." He kissed her cheek softly, making her blush wildly.

He remembered…

Lucy had even forgotten today was her birthday. She was surprised Natsu didn't though. Her anger vanished into thin air, and she turned her head more toward him. She looked up into his eyes, before crying tears of joy.

"Thank you for everything, Natsu." She turned over completely, and hugged him with force. Natsu pulled her into a tight embrace.

"Of course, you don't know how special you are to me."

He smiled and she pulled away to look at his face once more, slowly closing the gap between their lips. Natsu crashed his lips into hers, immediately trying to open Lucy's mouth to fit in his tongue. She let him in as her tongue went to meet his.

He pulled away; a blush appeared on his cheeks.

He curled his arms around her more, and she wrapped her arms around his back.

Tell him! No I can't… Yes you can!

"Natsu…"

He made a hushed 'hm' at her, signifying her to continue.

"I lo-… I love you." Natsu felt the spirit mage's body begin to shake with fear, so he relieved her instantly.

"I've always loved you."