Lucy looked her best friend over with a teasing smile, the pads of her fingers pressed against her lips as she smirked. "You've been spending allot of time with them," she said teasingly, directing her comments to the four dragon slayers behind Natsu. It had been two months since she had started doing job requests with the five slayers, either as a group or one-on-one. At first it had solely been her tagging along with Natsu, the pink haired male who just wasn't okay with leaving his best friend behind all the time. Lucy hadn't expected to bond with the other slayers during their odd jobs, becoming close with all of them.

"Yeah," he laughed nervously, looking over his shoulder to the four males who discreetly watched the two talking. Lucy wanted to laugh at how bad they hid their eavesdropping, wanting but denying to offer them lessons with Mira. "So, listen, Luce." Natsu said slowly, hand scratching the back of his head as he looked anywhere but at the blonde haired female. She tilted her head in curiosity, hands now behind her back she leaned closer, wanting to get a better look at his face. She gave him credit when he didn't lean back, letting her invade his personal bubble, unlike all the usual times.

Was he blushing? "Yeah?"

Natsu, acting so uncharacteristically shy, kicked at invisible ruble on the ground. "Me and the others," other dragon slayers, "were going on a bit of a vacation. Would you like to come?" Lucy wondered at why he seemed so embarrassed by asking her seeing as Team Natsu had been on many vacations, more than she thought they should, but vacations nonetheless. She looked over his shoulder once more, it was clear the others had listened in, but none of them made eye contact either.

"Are you sure?" She questioned doubtfully. Was they asking her just because they felt she should be included? Because she went on job requests they thought they had to include her into all their activities? Lucy pulled back, retracting into her own personal bubble once more, her time of playfulness and games gone and replaced by a hesitation.

She watched as the Fire Dragon Slayer snapped out of his shyness, coming back to the knot head she knew and loved, in turn bringing her out of her own. He smiled widely at her, showing off his trademark grin that always seemed to calm her down. "Of course, Luce. You might not be a slayer but you're definitely part of the group." She took his comment as an honor, the slayers, while friends with everyone, didn't let many people into the group. They hadn't even let Wendy in yet, saying they were waiting for her to be older for the taxation and stress of their group, something Lucy found out was notjust an excuse. At the time Lucy hadn't known how truthful their words were until she had become part of them, the stress weighing on her all the time even with the five slayers taking most the problems, they just did stuff that was out of her league. Taking on the tasks Lucy just couldn't compete with, her mind and body not strong enough to deal with the after effects.

The five slayers she traveled with did more than anyone had realized, good and bad and terrifying. Lucy doubted she would ever be as strong as them, in any way shape or form.

Natsu had already brought her to Fairy Tail, acceptingher into Team Natsu without her even knowing. This pink headed fool had done more for her than she could ever ask for. She loved him, he was her best friend, and she was thankful that he wasn't running off and leaving her behind. Lucy knew she was holding him back, though. Every time he took easier missions, or brought her along only to save her when she messed up; and now that she was with Team Slayer she was even more of a burden. She was the weak link, constantly needing saving from one of the five males, thankful that they didn't just let her die. She had seen the cold masks they wore, knew that an unimportant death was nothing to fret over. While she would cry for days over and accidental death on a mission, they would act as if nothing had even happened. Even strong, fearless, and loving Natsu. She had been afraid the first time she had seen the coldness that surrounded him, that was when she first knew, she would never trulybe one of them.

Thankfully they didn't take her those types of missions anymore, not wanting her to see the sight of death unnecessarily. As she grew closer to the five she noticed they didn't even take those jobs anymore, jobs strictly for S-class mages.

"I'd love to go with you guys," she replied slowly, rubbing her arm nervously, "but I don't want you to feel like you have to include me. I'm not a slayer, Natsu, and I know that. I'll never bee like you guys, never be on the same par, and I'm not stupid enough to think otherwise. I know I'm weaker, and that I won't ever really be accepted into your group, so you don't have to go out of your way to invite me to things." She smiled happily at him, face hiding no emotions as she opened herself completely to him and the others watching and listening behind him. "I'm happy just taking part in the jobs with you guys."

She heard scraping of chairs, not surprised when she looked over his shoulder to see four glowering slayers standing up. Natsu held his hand up, not bothering to look behind him, as he motioned for his friends to calm down. "Lucy," he said seriously, something he had become more inclined to do after hanging out with the other males. "You'll never be a slayer, it is physically impossible. However you're an incredible celestial mage, one of the best the worlds ever seen, I'm sure. We aren't asking you to be slayer, we're asking you to be /you/."

Lucy didn't care about all the people bustling around her as she cried, throwing her arms happily around Natsu as she embraced him in a bone crushing hug. She didn't find in weird when he wrapped his arms too gently around her waist, picking her off her feet as he buried his face into the crook of her neck, inhaling her scent. "I would love to go with you guys," she laughed happily. She smiled at the other males, happy when her small gesture was returned with their own smiles and kind eyes, another thing she had become oddly accustomed to.

Reverting back to the old Natsu he laughed loudly, hand held to his stomach as little spurts of fire fell out, "You didn't even really have a choice, Luce." The blonde laughed as she wiped a stray tear from under her eye, now embarrassed that she had cried in the middle of the guild. She was happy no one seemed to be paying too much attention to them, or at least use to the sight of Lucy crying by now.

"So Bunny's came through?" Gajeel asked teasingly, baring his sharp teeth at her as he smiled at her. "I was sure you would have turned down Salamander, he can be so annoying at times."

"Wanna go metal-head?" Natsu sneered at his now-close friend.

Laxus laughed as he placed an arm around Lucy's shoulder, pulling her closely into his side. "Don't worry blondie, I'll protect you from the ignorant males of our team."

Lucy laughed at his flirting, not bothering to disengage herself from him. While she had grown comfortable with all of them, she still found it a bit odd with how they treated her which was now much different than before. Laxus was far more flirty then she would have ever thought possible, something she easily ignored, especially when he was lavishing her with crude comments. Gajeel joked openly with her, more oftenthan not, making offensive jokes that she later regretted laughing at. Sting, unsurprisingly flirty, was much clinger than she would have ever suspected, and when on long jobs she would often find the blonde curled in her bed along side her; something they all did from time to time. Rogue, while he still was conservative, he was the one she assumed was assigned to her, he was always the closest one to her in battles, he was also the one he complimented her for no reason. Then there was Natsu, while he didn't change much, he was much more domineering than he use to be, always going out of his way to protect her and keep an eye on her. She found it both endearing and irritating when all five slayers crowded her, one if not all, always somewhere near to keep a close eye on her.

She sighed as Sting started pushing against Natsu, ignoring Rogue's warning to back off because they were in Fairy Tail guild and he didn't want to deal with everyone brawling for no reason. Which was stupid because it was bound to happen sooner or later. Lucy sighed dramatically, maybe going on vacation with them wouldn't be such a good idea, she consideredchanging her mind. Nah, she wanted to go, wanted to spend more time with the males who were growing to be a big part of her life.

"Where are we going?"

Natsu looked at her as if she had sprouted two new heads. "Where do you wanna go?" Laxus asked with a wiggle of his eyebrows, giving a small shimmy of his shoulders. Lucy couldn't contain the laugh that exploded from her at the sight of the large man shimmying his shoulders, aware of the hidden suggestion.

"Leaver her alone, lightning boy." Lucy couldn't tell if Natsu was playing, or being serious.

Gajeel rolled his eyes at the two already butting heads, "We already decided Lucy could decide, Salamander." Lucy had been beyond surprised at how level headed Gajeel, more than once being the ref to the others fights. That didn't make up for all the other fights he started and entered into, even dragging Rogue into said fight. An ability on Gajeel and Sting seemed to have, Natsu and Laxus never being able to irk the Shadow Dragon Slayer like the other two.

"Why am I picking?" Lucy questioned with suspicion.

Rogue gave his best smile, directing the gesture at Lucy. "You are the only girl. I don't think you'd want to go on the vacation the others picked."

"Was it your idea to let me pick?"

"I wish," he said sincerely, "but nope. It was Laxus', we just all agreed with his suggestion." Rogue laughed at the tilt of her head and the look in her eyes, "I know, I know. Surprising."

Said Lighting Dragon Slayer walked up to the two, draping in arm over both of them. "Hey now, I can be thoughtful." Lucy didn't know why she had even been surprised, especially after having come to known the hardcore slayers.

She pressed the palm of her hand to his chest, giving him her best smile. If she didn't know any better she would have thought he was blushing. Was his heart normally this fast? "I know, blondie. You're one of my number one's."