I do not own Fairy Tail. If I did, I probably wouldn't be sitting here at my computer writing this, now would I? ;-)

Chapter 1

"The Mission"

"HELLO, FAIRY TAIL!"

"Aye!"

Natsu and Happy burst through the guild doors, nearly shattering them off their hinges in the process. Lucy and Erza, having a rather serious discussion about an upcoming job, looked up from the various maps and documents scattered across the table in front of them.

Erza sighed. That's Natsu for you, she thought. The idiot would sooner drop-kick an open door than figure out how to use a doorknob. She dismissed his entrance with a quick wave of her hand. "Yo, Dragon boy," she called. "Judging from you expression, I take it things went well?"

Natsu was grinning from ear to ear. "You'd better believe it did! Those bandits didn't know what hit them!" Erza raised an eyebrow but made no further comment as he stood on one of the many vacant tables and started describing the battle with animated hand gestures and movements.

A week ago, a lot of jobs had suddenly sprung up in large numbers. The job board was overflowing with requests from near and far villages and provinces. Naturally, Natsu had been the first to take one up. The other guild members had also taken up the jobs rather enthusiastically, which was surprising since most of the time they would rather sit around the guild lazily and order more beers than what was good for them. Even Master Makarov seemed more on edge than usual.

The interior of the guild, however, remained as it always had. Cobwebs coated the corners of the room, left there for god-knows-how-long. The wooden tables were unbalanced, rough and unpolished with stains from sloppy eaters and heavy drinkers, and most of them had a patch-work feel to them, wood colors not corresponding and rusted nails held the boards together just enough for them not to fall into a pile of splinters at the slightest touch, most likely from the result of having to reconstruct them multiple times after the guilds' notorious brawls that Fairy Tail had become known for. The room had a lingering smell of beer and grease; but nonetheless, it was a home away from home.

The room usually had large numbers of people, chatting merrily and describing their days' adventures and happenings going on in town. Today however, the room seemed rather the opposite.

Natsu, noticing for the first time the lack of people in the room, leapt off the table and went to join Lucy and Erza. "Hey, where is everybody?" he asked.

"Off on their jobs still, most likely," Lucy said, not looking up from the document in front of her. It appeared to be a very detailed, hand-drawn map. Natsu was puzzled by her rather serious expression. Normally, Lucy was an upbeat person who seemed to lighten the mood of those around her, but lately she seemed as grim-faced as Erza. Even her apparel seemed more serious, he thought, noting her black jeans and T-shirt. She still wore her keys on her belt though. At least that hadn't changed.

Gray came over at that point, shirtless as always. Why he chose to be that way, nobody really knew. It just felt… right; to Gray at least. He had never been one for shirts. He preferred to show off his well muscled torso whenever he felt the occasion arise, which just so happened to be 24/7. He yawned. "You guys get any more info yet?" he asked Lucy.

She shook her head and slid the map away from her, discouraged. "I made a detour to the area a couple days ago, but I couldn't get close enough to the village's borders without getting detected, so THIS is the best I could come up with." She passed the paper to Gray and he chewed his toothpick anxiously as he examined it.

"Wait wait wait!" Natsu yelled loudly, flailing his arms around. They all looked over at him as if noticing him for the first time. "What the heck are you guys talking about?" He hated being left out of the conversations, especially when he had no idea what the conversation was about.

Impatient as ever, Erza thought. She knew they would have to explain all of the details to him eventually, so now was as good a time as ever.

"Master's given our team a job. An S-class one, to be exact," she explained.

Natsu's expression went from irritation to confusion to joy and repeated itself in the matter of a couple of seconds. "An S-class!" he asked in disbelief. "Seriously? For real? Like, an official S-class?" he stammered, jumping up and down like a small child. Happy flew in circles above his head, muttering something about fish.

"That's what I just said, you dolt." Erza muttered under her breath.

"Here's what we know so far," Lucy said, back to business. "There's been suspicious activity in the desert province of Kelvin, near the mountains far west of here." She indicated the position on her map. "The province has had a loose government to begin with, being it's such a small area, but their government officials, what few they had, have suddenly disappeared."

"It's turned into a gang-war down there," Gray chimed in as he took up a chair. "The townspeople are forming societies to try and override the military and each other. It's every person for themselves."

"Yeah," Erza agreed, her mind working overtime. "And they've closed their town border to outsiders and have set up checkpoints on the path through the mountain range, which is the only way through the terrain." She pointed to a thin, jagged line cutting through the mountain. "They've totally cut off all access for extra military reinforcements to be sent in. That is, if there's any left…" She felt no need to finish the sentence. She knew the others had been thinking the same thought as well.

"Anyway," Lucy said, in an attempt to break the silence and keep the group from thinking negatively; though the situation did seem rather impossible. She pushed the thought aside and continued where Erza had left off. "Erza, Gray, and I have been taking turns scouting the surrounding area to try and find an alternative path to the village so that we can gather more information." She drummed her fingers on the table and gazed at the map for the umpteenth time. "So far," she said slowly, "the only solution I see is to take the long way around the base of the mountain range." She indicated it on the map with her index finger. "It'll take more time, for sure. Though I can't see any other possibility." She put her elbow on the table and propped her head up on her hand, lost in thought.

Erza nodded several times. It made the most sense. The terrain was too unpredictable, and people rarely traveled it, so they wouldn't expect four wizards and a cat to be sneaking in right under their noses. "The only tricky part," Erza prompted, "is remaining undetected once we near the village."

"Well," Gray said, standing up. "We'll figure that out when the time comes, I suppose." He turned to Natsu, who seemed up be taking in all the details they had given him. "Get all that, hothead?" he snickered.

"So," Natsu said slowly, "basically, we go in and find out what's happening behind-the-scenes?"

"Uh-huh. That's pretty much it in a nutshell," Lucy confirmed, starting to pick up papers. "Just try not to blow anything up this time…" she muttered.

"Wait." Natsu said suddenly. "One question: Since we have to stay under the radar, that means we won't be driving or riding anything, will we?" he asked, his face turning slightly green just at the thought of vehicles.

"Nah, I was thinking we could just waltz in on a horse-drawn carriage like a circus parade!" Gray said, sarcasm heavy in his tone. "Pfftt, what'd you think, numbskull?" he asked incredulously.

Natsu appeared not to have heard him. "Well in that case, I'm in!" Natsu cried, once again jumping up and down. Flames shot out of his nostrils, though he didn't seem to notice.

"Aye!" cried Happy.

Erza finally stood up. "I'm going to go ask Master when we can leave, since Natsu is finally here." Before she left the room, she turned and addressed the group. "Until we get word, I suggest we all get some rest. We don't know when we'll get another opportunity to do so." And with that, she turned and headed up to the second story.

After Erza left, Natsu decided to stay and help Lucy pick up the many papers scattered about the table. He couldn't help glancing at Lucy as he did so, and he felt a small pang of concern. It wasn't like her to be so serious or tired looking. He could understand how sneaking around in a hostile territory for a few days could affect you both mentally and physically, though he had a feeling she was pushing herself. There were times when she would voice her concern of believing herself to be weak, but nobody in the guild thought that was true.

"So..." Natsu said, trying to make small talk. He had always had soft spot for Lucy, though he'd never voice it out loud. It took him a couple seconds to come up with a topic for conversation, finally settling on one. "First official S-class, huh," he said, grinning at her.

"Yeah, pretty big news," Lucy agreed, adding a paper to a stack on the table. "Although, something has been bothering me…" she said as she leaned against the table.

"And what would that be?" he asked with concern, stopping in front of her so that he could read her expression.

Lucy seemed to think about her response for awhile, finally settling on a response she thought sufficient. "Well, it may be nothing, but don't you think its weird how around the time the Kelvin province started having issues, job requests suddenly started pouring in?" She jerked a thumb at the job board across the room. There weren't any more thumbtacks to hold up all of the notices, and papers lay strewn across the floor.

Natsu let that sink in. It did make sense in a way that they might be connected somehow, but at the same time there could be a plausible explanation. Or maybe they were just overlooking something. He shrugged. "I suppose so," he said slowly. "Did you talk to Erza about this?" he asked as the thought occurred to him. Surely Erza would come up with something to explain it.

Lucy shook her head. "No," she said. "Like I said, it may be nothing or maybe I'm just paranoid. Besides, we have enough on our plate to worry about right now. I don't want to get everybody worked up over nothing." She paused briefly. She didn't want Natsu to worry about this, either. "If it comes up again, I'll tell her, kay'?" she said.

Natsu seemed reluctant to let it go, but finally, he nodded. "Okay then." He looked around the room, noticing all the papers were cleared off of the benches and floor. "I guess we're done here until Erza gets back." He yawned. He hadn't realized how tired he was until now. It was getting late. He hefted his knapsack over his shoulder that he had deposited under the table when he had arrived. It jingled as the contents inside it were shaken and bounced around.

"Well, I'm off to-" he began, then hesitated. He didn't know where he was going to go next. He didn't have a home; or at least, a permanent one. He could stay in the guild, but it wasn't exactly the most comfortable place around. His mind searched for other possible locations, but eventually, his mind ran blank.

Lucy, seeming to read his thoughts, came to a quick decision. "Say, how bout' you stay at my place for tonight?" she offered.

Natsu was caught off guard for a second. Lucy had never invited him to stay in her apartment before. He had normally just let himself in unannounced. It took him a moment to contemplate that the words had been said to him, and stuttered a quick reply. "Um, actually, that'd be great!" His features broke into a wide grin.

Lucy made an attempt to return the smile, but it was a dismal failure. She was both mentally and physically fatigued over the past couple of days. All the preparation for the job had taken its toll on her, but she was determined not to let it get to her. Natsu, oblivious to her reaction, lead the way out the doors. The damp night air hit their faces as they made contact with the outdoors. Natsu breathed it in appreciatively. It sure was a nice night.

Together they walked down the road to her apartment. They walked in silence, but it was a comfortable one; one between friends. It was a relatively short distance, so they arrived in quick time. When they entered the room, Gray was already there; having left after Erza had told them to go get rest, he lay fast asleep in one of the armchairs. How somebody could sleep comfortably sitting up, Lucy had no idea. Right now, she was too tired to care. Still fully dressed, she dragged herself over to her bed and fell facedown onto it, asleep instantly as soon as her eyes closed.

Natsu unrolled his sleeping bag and lay down on it, his arms linked behind his head. He stared up at the ceiling for awhile, trying to clear his head. His mind was still swimming from the conversation in Fairy Tail. He knew the danger of the whole thing, traveling into the unknown desert region was a daunting thought. He heard the slow, steady breathing of his companions on either side of him, and eventually he fell into a troubled sleep.

End of chapter 1! Whew, I worked hard on this, and there's going to be a lot more to come. My goal is to make this fanfic ongoing for awhile, and I have plenty of good ideas to keep the story interesting. Sorry if I didn't mention Happy too much; I'll try and add him in more during later chapters. :D

Too long? Too short? I accept ANY constructive criticism or ideas that you would like to see later on. All reviews are welcome!

I'm currently working on writing the next chapter. I don't know when I'll have it done, but I'll get it up ASAP!

THANKS FOR READING, AND STAY TUNED FOR CHAPTER TWO!