Worth the Wait

April X791, Spirit World

One moment they were on the beach, training in preparation for the Grand Magic Games. Then their group vanished with Virgo and reappeared in the Spirit World. Gray looked around in wonder. He had often wanted to see Loke's homeland, but he thought it was impossible. Now here he was. He saw his lover in his full glory and... he was breathtaking!

Loke smiled at them. He had personally picked Gray's clothes to wear as protection while in the Spirit World. The cloak suited him, he thought. It looked bad-ass, if he did say so himself. He just hoped Gray could keep himself from stripping for one day, since those clothes really were the only things keeping him alive in the Spirit World.

Cancer nudged him, and suddenly Loke realized he was staring too hard. Of course, the Celestial Spirits knew who the Lion had been pining over since Tenrou Island disappeared. However, the mages of Fairy Tail did not know about their relationship, and Gray did not want them to find out yet. He needed to watch himself so he would not give away their secret.

Sagittarius beat him to greeting Gray. Loke chuckled that his lover was liked by all of Lucy's Spirits as well. So he smiled to Lucy, spread his arms, and teasingly told her to embrace him. Gray was privately glad she turned him down. Sure, the blushing was a little tattling, but at least she was still pushing him aside. Finally Gray came up to him. His eyes spoke the feelings he could not say surrounded by this party.

"How've you been?"

Loke fist-bumped him, acting as if nothing had happened. "Sorry about that test."

"Next year?"

"Definitely! And hopefully this time, we're not interrupted by a dark guild and separated by seven years."

There was drinking, eating, dancing, and singing. In the midst of it, Loke tapped Gray's shoulder. A small nod was all he needed. They left together, and Loke finally got to grab his hand.

"Argo!" he shouted to a passing Spirit. A large ship came up to him, the triple-Spirit Carina, Puppis, and Vela, which together made the glorious ship Argo. "To my house."

"Sure thing, boss," the Ship said in a taxi driver's accent.

Argo lowered the gangplank, and Loke helped Gray aboard. They sped away along a glorious river of stars, the Milky Way, that flowed through much of the Celestial Spirit World. In under a minute, they were at a large field of shining globes. Loke's mansion was on the largest one, a bright red globe connected to the other areas by shimmering bridges. The house was right by a golden road that encircled the heavens and connected the homes of the Gold Key Spirits, a shimmering highway called the Celestial Ecliptic Path.

"These are the stars of the Lion constellation," Loke explained as they stepped off of Argo. "Here is my home, Regulus, also the source of my power," he explained with a proud face. He looked over to Gray but realized most humans probably could not understand how Celestial Spirits got their magic. That was fine; Gray did not have to comprehend the details. "Argo, can you come back in... oh, let's say three hours?"

"Not a prob, boss," Argo said, and it sailed away.

Loke pulled Gray inside the mansion, but they did not get far within the house. Still in the spacious entryway, Loke grabbed Gray's cheeks and kissed him firmly. The ice mage shoved at him, pressing Loke up against the wall. He ground his hips into the Lion, getting him to growl softly.

"I never thought that stodgy old Mustache would let you come here," Loke said heatedly. "Damn, I want to rip these clothes off you!"

"If you did?"

"You'd die right away. The clothes protect you from the Spirit World."

"But," Gray smirked, tugging Loke's tie loose, "you can be stripped."