AN: This is just a Prologue so you understand what's happened before the story begins. It is not required that it is read because the story makes perfect sense without it, but if you're interested this is a rough prologue. If this isn't important to you, however, feel free to skip right ahead to chapter 1!

Prologue

It all started about a month ago, it was a normal day in the guild, voices and cheers could be heard in every corner of the guild hall, the scent of smoke and the stench of alcohol filled the entire room. The exceeds would sit on one of the tables, usually with Wendy nearby, Gray would be sat at a table on his own, drinking, with a possessive Juvia watching over him and giving evil glares to any female that dared walk near him. Lucy and Natsu sat at another, Natsu stuffing his face with whatever food was to be found and Lucy bored of watching him. (And clearly sick of the food that was constantly flying around, often landing on her face, or in her medium-length, blonde hair.) Towards the bar, Lisanna Strauss and her brother, Elfman, were stood beside each other talking, with an often argument between Elfman and Evergreen, who was sat at the bar with Bickslow, and the occasional shout to Mirajane, the oldest of the siblings, for her approval on whatever was being discussed. With drink in hand, a drunken Cana Alberona wondered towards a naked Gray, to point out that he was no longer wearing his clothes. An embarrassed Gray would look down and wonder how it happened, as a jealous Juvia would make her way towards Cana, and tell her that 'Juvia's Gray-Sama' did not belong to her. A confused Levy would take a look around the hectic guild hall, before deciding that she did not want to get involved, and returned to the reading she was doing before. Gajeel,
however, would lean on her head and leave Levy puzzled as to whether he was trying to get her attention, or was just using her for something to lean on. She assumed he was just leaning on her.

It was peaceful, for the guild anyway, usually they would be almost ten times louder than this, and Lucy would complain constantly about how she thought Natsu was trying to give her a migrain. But that peace was soon disturbed when Cana passed out, hit her head on a table, and dropped her glass on the floor. The glass smashed leaving a puddle of wine on the ground. Then an absent-minded water mage decided to walk straight over this puddle. Juvia slipped up and crashed into Natsu, along with smashing the table; he and Lucy were sat at. An angry Natsu stood up, looking almost as angry as Erza was when you ruined one of her strawberry cakes.

'What's the big idea, Ice Princess?' A furious Natsu turned around and roared at the ice-make mage, who was still trying to find his clothes.
'What the hell are you talking about, fire head?' Gray shouted in reply.
'You know exactly what! What's the big idea, getting that love-crazy girlfriend of yours, to destroy my food!?'
'I did not get Juvia to do that! And she's not my girlfriend!'

Lucy stared at the two mages now beating each other up as usual.
'Why do I get the feeling this is just one big misunderstanding?' She mumbled to herself.

All of sudden the guild went up in a roar of random voices, shouting at either Gray or Natsu and taking bets on who was going to win.
Lucy turned around to see Juvia; still collapsed on the broken table, and covered in sauce from Natsu's food.
'Juvia is Gray-Sama's girl... friend?'
Lucy could've sworn she saw Juvia's face just turn into a giant love heart, shaking her head, Lucy removed the thought from her mind. It was too weird to really imagine, although it did have Juvia written all over it.

Levy then approached Lucy, her face beaming with the brightest smile.
'Hey Lu-Chan!'
Lucy turned around, the small, bluenette looked at the boys fighting and betting all around her. She turned to look at Lucy again. She was wearing the same orange dress as usual, as well as the same headband placed tightly around her head.
'Who do you think is going to win?' Levy laughed. 'I know what you're going to say, but I'll ask regardless.'
'What do you mean?' Lucy questioned, but then Lucy realized exactly what she meant. 'Oh.'
Levy gave her a devilish smirk, before repeating the question again.
'Well actually, I think Gray will win!'
'Oh! So it's like THAT, huh? Maybe I should give Juvia a heads-up.'
'WHAT? NO!'
'Oh Lu! I'm only playing!'
'You spend too much time around Gajeel!'
Levy looked at Lucy, the playful smile displayed on her face was wiped off and her cheeks went an intense red.
'What? You think so...?'
Lucy could tell Levy liked Gajeel from the minute they became a team on Tenrou island, it was so obvious! But clearly some people weren't as smart as Lucy was.
'Nah! I'm only playing too, Levy!' Lucy laughed, although she wasn't playing at all.

In the background, a rampaging Natsu was beating up Gray and vice versa. Natsu punched Gray in the face, and Gray would punch Natsu in the face. Gray would kick Natsu in the stomach, Natsu would kick Gray in the stomach, and so on. The sounds around were a mixture of cheers and groans when either mage got hit by the other; a groan if the mage they bet on, got hit by the other, and a cheer if the mage they bet on, landed a hit on the other.

Eventually both Gray and Natsu stopped landing kicks, punches and other attacks on eachother.
Gajeel was behind the rest of the men, when he randomly shouted;
'What's the point in even fighting? And betting as well? It's obvious that both of them are equal! Just shows what kinda idiots you guys are!'
Natsu turned around to face Gajeel, a large rebellious smile on his face.
'You're right. We're equal! ... Well, physically anyway!'
And with that, both of Natsu's fists were set alight, a healthy, amber flame rising from both of his clenched fists, releasing a tonne of smoke into the air.
'Whatever...' Gajeel muttered walking off, 'It's not like I give a crap about this fight anyways...'
Natsu smiled at Gray, who now had his hands to one side, both hands kept close together, emitting a cold aura.
'You ready to be frozen solid, flame head?'
'Depends if you're ready to be roasted alive!'
'Come at me, fire breath!'
'I will, Popsicle breath!'
Natsu smiled once more, but this time it was more playful than usual. 'Since when did Natsu and Gray play-fight? Usually they would beat the crap out of each other!' Lucy started looking around frantically, wondering if anyone else thought the same.
'What do you mean 'Usually,' Lucy? This is the same as ever! And Natsu's gonna win this time!'
Lucy looked up to see a happy... Happy, flying above her. Lucy looked at Natsu again and at his smile. She couldn't help but smile back. That was a face that gave everyone hope.

'I'm all fired up now.'

'Fire Dragon-'

'What do you boys think you are doing!?'

Both Natsu and Gray grabbed each other and hugged.
'Erza!' They both screamed. They looked at each other smirked, before looking away and remembering how much one hated another.

Mirajane walked over from behind the counter, and began to converse with the scary, requip mage.
'Oh Erza! I didn't realize you were back at the guild!'
'Yes, I arrived just about an hour, or so, earlier.'
'Oh, and to answer your question, this is just Gray and Natsu fighting like usual!' Mirajane laughed a little at the end of her sentence, and grinned at the two boys.
'Is what Mira said true? Were you boys fighting?' Erza shouted across the room, fiercely, and gave that look that makes you think: 'Nice knowing you!' to whoever she gives it to.
'NO!' Both boys said in unison! 'Mira's just... umm...'
'Drunk!' Gray exclaimed.
'Crazy!' Natsu exclaimed at the same time.

'Crazy!' 'Drunk!'

Both boys gave each other the 'you're an idiot.' look.
'If you say so...' Erza walked off with Mirajane towards the bar without a second thought.

'Don't you think that was a bit... weird?' Lucy asked, confused.
'Aye.' The blue exceed replied.
Lucy watched as Natsu and Gray parted ways. Today, just kept on getting weirder...

'Mirajane?'
'Yes, Erza?'
Erza looked down at the glass of water in her hand.
'I've been thinking...'
'Yes?'
'Why do Gray and Natsu fight? Is it because they need to train on something, so they use each other? Or is it just something stupid like 'I'm Ice, he's fire; we can't get along.' or something similar.' Erza questioned, doing her best impression of Gray, but really failing, which made Mira laugh a little.
'Probably, the same reason we fought.'
'True' Erza nodded.
Erza continued to stare at the now empty glass, thinking to herself, her red colored hair, falling in her face, and Erza brushing it behind her ear everytime it did so.
'What if... We sent Natsu and Gray on a really challenging job together?' Mira exclaimed, happy with her, what she thought, was a great plan. 'Probably sending Lucy along too though, considering their relationship isn't exactly the best...' Mira was now really happy with her 'perfect' plan.
'That's actually quite a good plan, Mira. But what about finding a good job for it though?'
'Well that's simple! You can go along too!'
Erza didn't understand what Mira meant. 'What do I have to do with any of this?'
'Well, you're an S-Class mage aren't you?'
Erza grinned. 'Great job, Mira. I'll go and tell the boys and Lucy now.'
Erza stood up, pushed the bar stool under the table and ran off to Lucy's apartment; a place she guaranteed she would find Natsu, when he wasn't at his home, or at the guild.

Once Erza had informed the team of the quest they were taking, they gathered their supplies and met at the guild hall, despite the fact that it was quarter past eleven at night.
The team consisting of Erza, Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Wendy and Happy, set off for the S-Class quest that night, and Mirajane, Lisanna, Juvia, Levy, Pantherlily and Carla remained at the guild until the team left. Mirajane hoped that everyone would become a lot stronger, and although she shouldn't really be sending Non-S-Class mages on an S-Class quest without the Master's approval, (even if Erza, an actual S-Class mage, was going with them,) she did so.
'I feel so naughty! I've basically disobeyed the master!'
'Don't worry about it, Mira-Nee! Everything will be fine! Promise.'
Juvia smiled at the sisters.
'It's not like the master's going to be back before they return anyway, so we could get away without him even knowing!'
Juvia attempted to cheer Mira up, but it didn't go to plan since Mira cried even more.
'That means I'd be disobeying him EVEN MORE! I'm already being bad enough!'
'Don't cry, Mira-Nee!'