KEY:Egyptian

"Ahh~~" Natsu moaned, leaning back in his chair at the dining table. "Cana, I'm convinced your mother is an angel, sent from heaven to cook for us lowly humans."

Cana snorted at his comment as her mother laughed. "This boy eats more than my Gildarts!" She told the room, smiling.

"Mama, don't encourage him or he'll keep eating," Cana smirked.

Levy giggled as Natsu shouted about it not being funny. She was glad to see everyone having a good time. The last couple of days had been stressful on everyone, so they deserved this small relief. She glanced over at a grinning Gajeel, and she felt her heart speed up. He had seemed to take everything the hardest, so it was nice to see him smiling with the others.

As if he sensed her eyes on him, he turned to look at her. "What is it?" He asked, his grin disappearing."Nothing," Levy told him, shaking her head. "Just watching everyone. It's nice to see that everyone isn't as tense as they were yesterday."

"Well, we aren't being chased down and shot at today," Lucy chuckled.

"Unfortunately, we can't promise you won't be again soon."

"Erza!" Wendy gasped as the woman made her way into the dining room. "Should you be out of bed?"She smiled, lifting her shirt to reveal only porcelain skin underneath. "I'm fine now. There are only a couple of ways to kill a dragon, and a gun isn't one of them."

"Dragon?" Natsu asked, raising his eyebrows in shock. "A real dragon? Like knights, and fire-breathing, and princesses in towers, dragon?!"

Erza chuckled. "Those are all legends, I'm afraid. Well, apart from the fire-breathin'." She winked at him, and he gaped at her.

"If you're a dragon, why are you so...little?" Cana asked.

"I'm no' quite as young as I look," she explained, "so over the years I've learned how ta control my form, and can appear now in this human form. I've been in it so long that I've considered it my true form for centuries."

"How old are you?" Natsu asked.

Jellal smacked him on the back of the head as he entered the room. "Don't you know it's not polite to ask a lady her age?" He went to Erza, wrapping his arms gently around her waist and pulling her close to him. "How are you feeling?"

"Just fine," she smiled. "You know I won't stay down from bullet wounds."

"You should still take it easy today, alright?"

She nodded. "Aye, will do."

Before releasing her, he kissed her, saying quietly in her ear, "ana baħibbik."

Levy frowned, not understanding the language. She guessed it was Egyptian, since that was Jellal's native country, but she didn't speak the language.

Erza's cheeks turned a light shade of pink, realizing the others had been watching, and she nodded at him. "I love you too."

"Who would enjoy a tour of the family's vineyards?" Antonio asked, appearing from one of the hallways. "It is a lovely afternoon, and I'm sure you could all use a break."

"That sounds wonderful," Levy agreed, eager to get out of the house for a while. Although she was worried about everything with Etherios, she agreed with Cana's parents—they were safe for now. Lily would be arriving in just a couple of hours, so there was no sense in just waiting around and worrying until he got there. They might as well see a bit of Florence while they were there.

"I think that sounds like a good idea," Erza nodded. "Jellal and I will begin contacting everyone's families. Once Lily arrives, we will message you. There isn't much you can do until then, so go have fun."

"Was it just me, or was there a silent 'this may be the last time you get to have fun' at the end of what Erza said?" Gajeel murmured to her as they followed Antonio and Cana through the streets of Florence.

"I think we all heard it," Levy sighed. "But she's right. We should have fun while we can. Although we're safe now, Etherios won't give up until he finds us. And when he does, we'll most certainly have to fight again."

Gajeel placed his hand on her shoulder, and she looked up at him. "We're going to be fine, Levy. No one is going to get hurt; not while I'm alive and fighting."

"You can't promise that," she said, sadly. She wished more than anything she could believe that no one would get hurt, but she had seen how powerful Etherios was.

"Here it is!" Antonio announced, proudly. They stood before a large vineyard, a sign with the title "Alberona-Clive Vineyard and Winery" in bright red letters telling them they had arrived.

"This is awesome!" Wendy cheered, happily, as she ran into the field with rows upon rows of grapevines.

"We make the wine in that building," Antonio said, leading the group after her. "Would you like to taste?"

"Juvia would love to try some," the bluenette said, shyly, as she glanced at Cana.

Antonio held out his arm, offering her (what Levy would assume would have been, had Juvia not been preoccupied with Cana) a charming smile. "Shall we?"

"Oh, um, yes," Juvia nodded, taking his arm. Cana grabbed the woman's other hand, shooting her brother a look before walking together into the building with them.

Natsu snorted loudly, trying to hold in laughter. "Poor Juvia, stuck in the middle of those two."

"Come on, then! We can't miss the show!" Lucy giggled, grabbing his hand and going after them.

"Wen, you want to go with them?" Gajeel called to his cousin, who was still playing in the grapevines.

"No," she called back. "I can't drink, and I'd rather taste the grapes!"

Gajeel chuckled, turning to Levy. "Do you want to taste the wine?"

"I was going to tour the rest of the vineyard, actually," Levy said.

"Want some company?" He asked.

She nodded. She had secretly been hoping he'd offer to go with her. Since everything had happened with Etherios, she hadn't been able to be alone with him at all. Has it really only been two days since Etherios appeared in our hotel suite? It seemed like so much longer than that.

"How are you holding up?" Gajeel asked, quietly, as they walked. That seemed to be the popular question. She had been asked that probably five times since they left Australia.

"Fine," she answered.

He frowned at her, and she knew he wasn't going to accept just that.

"I am fine. Things were frightening at first, but I am better now. I'm mostly worried about my family," she admitted.

"They'll be fine," Gajeel reassured her. "Lily is on his way now, and Erza and Jellal are back at Cana's calling everyone's families. If everything goes according to plan, they'll all arrive by tomorrow night or the next morning."

"I have a bad feeling," she sighed, wishing she could believe in his words. As much as she trusted Lily and his organization, Etherios had been able to find them so easily. Couldn't he do the same with all of their families as well?

"Don't worry so much," Gajeel said, grabbing her hand and giving it a light squeeze. "It's going to be alright."

She nodded. Honestly, she was relieved that Gajeel was there. Had it been anyone else, she would have been more afraid, but she felt safe with Gajeel there beside her, his warm hand holding onto hers.

"When this is all over, you should come to Heihe to visit me, Levy," Wendy grinned. "We can go visit Gajeel in Blagoveshchensk, too!"

"That would be nice," Levy smiled. That's right. Once this is all over, we'll all go home. Although she had only been together with everyone for a few short weeks, she had grown used to the small group being around one another all the time. Glancing at Gajeel, she knew immediately who she'd miss the most once she returned to Kochi.

Wendy giggled, reading her thoughts, and her face turned scarlet. "W-Well, let's join the others," she said, trying to ignore Gajeel's curious frown.

"There you three are," Cana said, walking towards them with the rest of the group close behind her. 

"We were getting ready to leave for a tour of the rest of the city when we noticed you three were missing."

"Sorry," Levy chuckled. "We were admiring the pretty vineyard."

"Sure you were. More like admiring the pretty Russian," Lucy whispered, winking at her.

"Lu!" She snapped back in a whisper, hoping Gajeel hadn't heard her.She noticed he was looking at his phone, so let out a little sigh of relief.

"It's Jellal," Gajeel said, showing them all the message he had been reading. "He says Lily is here."

"We'd better head back, then," Natsu said. They all agreed, heading back to Cana's house.That fear of something being wrong settled in the pit of Levy's stomach as they reached Cana's house.

"Welcome back, everyone," Cornelia smiled as soon as they were inside. "Did you have a good tour?"

"They only got to see the winery, Mama," Antonio told her. "We were preparing for the city tour when Jellal called us back to the house."

"I apologize for cutting the tour short," came a deep, thickly accented voice from behind them.

"Lily," Wendy smiled, greeting the man who had brought them all together. The video call hadn't accurately represented how large the man was. Like Gajeel and Etherios, and seemed to be all muscle, but his smile was incredibly kind and put Levy at ease.

"We need to discuss your families," Lily said, getting straight to the point. "Jellal?"

"Right," Jellal nodded, stepping forward. "Erza and I have spent the morning contact each of your families. Most were easy to contact, and we purchased them tickets for the soonest flight to Italy."

"Most?" Levy asked, that feeling in her stomach growing heavier.

Jellal nodded again, this time a little more grimly. "Unfortunately, we were not able to contact everyone."

"It seems," Lily continued for him, "that Etherios caught on to our plan faster than we thought, and he cut communication with whomever he could."

"What does that mean?" Gajeel asked.

"It means," Erza said, "some of your families are in serious danger."

{Translation: ana baħibbik = I love you. Jellal is such a sweetheart. T~T}