"Come back quick! We don't have all day!" Mest shouted after the girls.

They had wanted to go shopping and see what the village they passed by looked like after hearing that it was called Sakura Village. Since they were already camping nearby for tonight the boys decided that it wouldn't hurt to let them explore.

It had been a few hours since Lucy had received Loke's key when they had come across the village. The villagers told them about the mountains and the group decided to train there.

To keep the boys from being bored Lucy allowed Loke to keep his gate open and have bonding time.

Lucy, Wendy, and Reina and Carla in their human form headed to the village enthusiastically.

The villagers seemed nice, the village was teeming with sakura blossoms, and they wanted to buy some souvenirs for the boys too. They also wanted to get some information about the mountains if they were planning to stay there for a while.

"Ah, it's such a nice day today isn't it?" Wendy sighed as the girls entered the village gates.

"Of course! It's near summer now." Lucy answered.

"Remember we can't spend too much time here. The boys will be worried." Reina said for the tenth time since they left.

"Loosen up Rei! We're here to have fun! We'll head back before the sun goes down." Lucy replied.

"Whoa! Lucy look at this!" Wendy shouted, pointing to a pair of earrings.

"Hey, Rei when is your birthday?" Lucy asked.

"It should be around a few days from now," Reina replied, looking at a necklace with Carla.

"Here! It's your birthday present from Lucy and me!" Wendy handed Reina the earrings she was looking at.

"Thank you! I wasn't expecting a gift this year!" Reina exclaimed as she beamed at the girls.

She put on the earrings immediately. They were in shapes of raindrops and completely clear with a small black flower in the middle.

"Look! Matching rings!" Carla exclaimed from another store.

The group rushed over to where Carla was looking at the rings.

"Wow! They're beautiful!" Wendy exclaimed.

"We can buy some for us and the boys!" Lucy said as she smiled.

"Loke probably won't be receiving anything if it's all for the boys! He's the only single one there!" Reina replied, giggling.

"Oh, I doubt that! I'm sure he has someone special that he's waiting to reunite with." Lucy stated.

"A-And all of us are single anyway!" Wendy exclaimed.

"We all know who likes who here," Reina replied, arms crossed.

"Rei-San do you have anyone special?" Carla asked.

The group turned towards Reina, all waiting expectantly.

"W- Well. There isn't anyone! I've actually never been in a relationship before!" Reina confessed, blushing furiously.

"What? No way! You must've had a bunch of admirers! You're so pretty and you're so amazing!" Lucy shouted in disbelief.

"I'm serious! Really! I've always been too busy for stuff like that!" Reina exclaimed.

"There must have been someone!" Wendy insisted.

"Well, there was a boy I liked. But that was in the past! Now there's nobody!" The girls sighed in disbelief.

"Well, I still want to buy these rings! When you see him again you can give it to him! Same to Loke." Carla replied as she stared longingly at the rings.

"Okay then let's pick out the rings!" Lucy yelled out enthusiastically.

Lucy picked out black promise rings with the words 'king' and 'queen' written on them with a dark blue, almost black, and pink diamond.

Wendy picked out silver rings with the words "Love Only You" in cursive on the side.

Carla bought a simple silver ring with a heart and another silver ring with a heart-shaped cutout.

They picked out a black and silver ring that said 'Beast' and 'Beauty' for Loke and Reina bought a black ring in the shape of a crown and silver ring in the shape of a tiara.

"Hey, won't this technically be you guys confessing? I mean Yuuji already knew about my feelings and reciprocated them." Reina asked as they headed out of the store.

"Natsu already knows about my feelings too," Lucy said nonchalantly.

"Well, Happy and I are already in a relationship," Carla added on.

"When did these events happen?!?" Wendy and Reina shouted in unison.

"The dates don't matter. The only person is Wendy and Mest. Basically, everyone knows that you two have a thing going on." Lucy said, waving off the question.

"Things between me and him are impossible. He's 18 and I'm turning 15. It's a 3-year difference." Wendy sighed heavily.

"You never know. Think about it this way, when you're 18 he's going to be 21. That doesn't seem so big to me." Reina stated as she smiled at the blue-haired girl.

"You already bought the rings you might as well just give it to him anyway! Just say that everyone received rings so it makes sense to give him one too or something!" Lucy added, smiling reassuringly at Wendy.

"Okay!" The younger dragon slayer beamed.

"Hey, I've never seen you around." The girls heard as Wendy felt someone tap her shoulder.

Meanwhile, the boys were having an... Interesting binding time. One with Mest trying to hold Natsu back from attacking Loke while Happy laughed from the sidelines.

"You liar! I actually believed you! I'm going to kill you!" Natsu exclaimed at Loke.

"Calm down Natsu! It was just a joke!" Mest said, trying to settle the dragon slayer down.

"It's called a magic trick! Everyone does it!" Loke shouted.

"Hmph! If you can't do a magic trick right then don't do it! You can't just throw a spoon over your shoulder!" Natsu crossed his arms, glaring at Loke.

"So we're good now?" Loke asked nervously.

"Yes," Natsu replied, pouting like a little kid.

"The girls have been gone for some time. I'm getting kind of worried." Mest stated as he looked towards the direction the girls went.

"It's getting late, should we look for them?" Loke suggested.

"Yeah, let's go." Natsu agreed.

With Natsu's words being the final decision, the group left the campsite. That is after Natsu put some wires around the site to set off alarms if someone intruded.

They seemed to be able to sense when the girls were in trouble.

"Ah, sorry we're just travelers passing by," Wendy replied to the boy who tapped on her shoulder.

"Oh? I'm interested. How about we get to know each other more. You ladies are pretty cute." The boy said as he smiled at the group of girls and grabbed Wendy's hand.

"Sorry, we're busy," Lucy stated, taking the boy's hand off of Wendy.

"We'll be going now. Goodbye!" Carla crossed her arms and the group walked off.

"Hey wait! What about staying for another day? I'll show you guys around!" The boy insisted, grabbing Lucy's arm.

"We're in a hurry. We're traveling with other people." Wendy said, trying to deny his request nicely.

"Let go. We're leaving now." Reina ordered as she glared at the boy.

The boy shrank in fear and let go of Wendy quickly.

"Oh look I see them!" Lucy exclaimed, waving her arms towards the direction of the village gates.

The girls walked off, leaving the teen alone. Unluckily for them, he was VERY persistent.

"W- Wait!" He shouted, running after them.

"Nii-San! What are you guys doing here? We were just going to head back!" Wendy exclaimed as she beamed at them.

"We were worried so we came to find you guys," Natsu replied, smiling at Wendy.

"Hey, Rei who's this guy?" Loke asked, noticing the boy that followed the girls.

"We told you we're leaving," Reina said as she glared at the boy again.

"Why not stay for a night? My name is Kane." The boy said, drawing up to his full height.

It seemed like he was challenging the boys to say something since he was at most an inch taller than them.

"Hey, brat you better scram before something happens," Mest warned.

"I just want to have fun with a couple of hot girls what are you gonna do about it. Even one is enough. I'd prefer her but the others are fine." Kane said, nodding at Lucy.

"Big mistake buddy," Loke replied, just about ready to punch someone.

"You won't do anything." Kane challenged smugly.

"Yeah, we won't. But he will." Mest said, gesturing to a seething Natsu.

"You don't seem so tough." Kane walked up to Natsu, grabbing his shirt roughly.

"Hey! Let go of him!" Lucy exclaimed as she tried to separate the two.

"Oh so she's your bitch, isn't she?" Kane said, letting go of Natsu and grabbing Lucy's hand.

"Hands off." He heard Natsu mutter.

"What? Speak up, wuss." Kane sneered.

"I said take your filthy hands off of her." Natsu snarled, lashing out at the boy.

Natsu knocked him off balance and grabbed his shirt before punching him right in the face.

"Natsu! Stop! We don't want to start anything with the village!" Lucy exclaimed.

Natsu threw him away from the group and they walked away. Happy turned and stuck his tongue out before running and turning into a cat to fly onto Lucy's head.

Hey guys!! It's been a while since I talked to all of you!

So what do you guys think of Wendy and Mest's situation? I get that not everyone supports the ship and I respect that!

Leave your opinions on their situation in the comments!😊