Crystal Flowers

Author's Notes: Since I got bored, again, I decided to make a StiLuRo fan fiction! This time, I'm determined to finish this. Here's the first chapter of Crystal Flowers For now, I don't know who Lucy would end up with so I'm actually planning to base the pairing from you guys. Tell me if you want a StiLu or a RoLu in the reviews. I do not accept PMs and I'm too lazy to make a poll, sorry...So, here's the first chapter, hope you like it!

Important Notes: Set a few months after the Grand Magic Games and that dragon festival thingy about Future Rogue.

Summary: It all started from boredom, wherein our favorite celestial mage, Lucy Heartfilia, takes a solo mission. During her quest, she bumps to two people who she didn't think would change her life in an instant: one arrogant and one trustworthy friend. And with certain circumstances, she becomes very close friends with them. Yet something's telling her that befriending them is a wrong choice, but too late, because she's already falling in love.

Genre: Romance, Drama, Hurt/Comfort

Disclaimer: Fairy Tail is the property of Hiro Mashima and not mine to take.

Chapter One

"It's so boring nowadays..." Lucy Heartfilia, a celestial spirit mage of the famous guild, Fairy Tail, mumbled as she rested her head on the counter of the guild's bar. The barmaid and a magazine model, Mirajane Strauss, looked at her fellow guild mate as she wiped the porcelain plates with a damp white cloth. Lucy sighed, sending more worries to the white-haired woman in front of her. After a few minutes, the blonde sighed again.

Mirajane sweat dropped and decided to ask about the sulking blonde's frequent sighs. "Lucy, why don't you just go on a mission with your team?" she asked gently.

Lucy, who seemed expectant of her query, popped her head up to answer. "I would, but then again I wouldn't" she replied, another sigh escaping her lips. "I don't want to see another city blow up because of Gray and Natsu. It's just really, really, frustrating" the blonde added, resting her head on her palms. Mirajane nodded understandingly. She knew exactly what Lucy meant.

"Ah, then why not go on a mission alone then?"

The blonde squinted at the cheerful barmaid in front of her, then smiled at the idea. "Maybe I will. Thanks a lot Mira! I'll be right back, I have to pick a request now!" she happily chirped, feeling good with the idea, standing up from her seat and rushing to the Request Board.

Lucy studied each request carefully and found an easy one with a good pay. "Hmm.. Just to find a crystal flower to a young ice alchemist for 35,000 jewels. Might as well take it. Plus it's just over Mt. Hakobe, the carriages from the mountain should be arriving a few minutes from now " she muttered to herself, snatching the paper from the board and walked back to Mirajane, who recently just confirmed a mission another Fairy Tail mage had shown. Mirajane turned her attention the celestial spirit wizard, who was now holding a piece of paper with a request's details written on it.

"You're taking this one?" she asked.

Lucy nodded. "Okay then, be careful, Lucy! Good luck!" Mirajane said with a warm grin.

"Thanks, I will! Goodbye Mira!" Lucy hollered as she ran off the guild, hoping that she'd catch a carriage to take her to her destination.

Lucy reached Mt. Hakobe, but called out Virgo to give her a jacket so she doesn't have to call out Horologium. She payed the carriage driver some jewels and went on to search for the young ice alchemist's residence. She walked, shaking a bit even if she has a jacket on, and finally found a small wooden lodge in sight. Lucy grinned victoriously but weakly and ran unsteadily to the lodge, the cold wind blowing as she stepped.

She knocked twice on the wooden door and waited patiently. She heard quick heavy footsteps from inside and saw the door open, revealing a tall, handsome, white-haired boy, who was about the same age as her. He had striking blue eyes which matched the blue hooded sweater and black jogging pants. (A/N: Kind of like, Jack Frost but with just black jogging pants). He was holding a long wooden staff, wrapped up in a white clothing, which helped him steady himself from the strong wind. He eyed at Lucy with a pleasant, welcoming smile.

"You must be the mage who took the request. Lucy Heartfilia, right?" he asked and Lucy nodded in response. "Come in, you'll freeze over there. A simple jacket like that isn't helping" he added, opening the door wider, letting Lucy in. The blonde willingly got in and dusted off the thin snow that was on her head, feeling slightly embarrassed by the fact that this guy was so mesmerizing.

The young man closed the door and breathed, hanging the staff back on the wall. "Thank you for taking this job. My name's Winter Canter. Call me Quite typical for a guy who lives in a snowy mountain, I know, but I don't blame myself, so call me Wint. I'm an ice alchemist, a rare career, I must say. But it runs in the family" he explained, "And right now I'm currently looking for a crystal flower but the wyverns of this area are too strong for me. I figured that a strong mage from a strong guild would do the trick"

Lucy blushed a little, he actually thought that she was strong. "I'm honored to do the job, Wint. However, why do you need a crystal flower?" she reluctantly asked. Not a really stupid question, but she shouldn't have asked anyways. It was just to make her look like she's not a girl of few words.

"I need it to perfect a potion I've been trying to whip up for a couple of weeks now," Winter said coolly, "It's a potion on how to instantly cure colds. Believe me, the tonics that the people in the village are selling are fake. Potions brewed by a real alchemist, such as me, can tell that our works are authentic and very effective. I raised the reward for it because it's located exactly beside a wyvern's nest, a really tough job for a homebody like me"

"Oh..." was all Lucy could say. 'And here I thought those tonics were already super effective' she thought. Silence filled the air for a few seconds but Lucy decided to speak up to get the job done. She wanted to finish this job by the end of the day so she could run to a coffee shop and drink hot chocolate. "Well I better go and get your crystal flower now" Lucy stated quickly and headed for the door.

Winter smiled and opened the door for her. "Good luck, Lucy! I'm counting on you" he said encouragingly as Lucy already ran off his house. She certainly is quite a weird girl.

Not far from where Lucy was venturing out to search for the so-called crystal flower, two dragon slayers and their exceeds from the guild Sabertooth, easily stood on the mountain top doing their job. At least one wasn't really working too hard, but the other was going all out as if he was really enjoying himself in a blizzard while in the midst of a battle. Rogue Cheney, a quiet man of his own, just watched from the sidelines with the two exceeds as Sting Eucliffe, his partner, defeat one vulcan after another. A red cat wearing a small blue vest cheered for Sting, shouting praises here and there every so often. The other was green in a pink frog costume who just unconsciously smiled at the scene.

"Hey Rogue! Come and join the party! You're missing out all the fun!" Sting called as he dodged a vulcan's enormous arm.

The called man blinked. "Not interested..." he said with a blank expression on his face.

"Oi, you might wanna change you catchphrase, man! You've been using that phrase since we were kids!" the White Dragon Slayer teased, who just emitted a strong roar that easily defeated two vulcans. But more kept appearing and attacked Sting as they did.

Rogue, who seemed quite offended by his best friend's comment, sighed. "Fine then," he growled lowly, "I'm not in the mood to join in what 'fun' you're talking about. I'm perfectly capable of watching you entertain yourself with useless fights"

"Sting! You're the best!" Lector, the red exceed, shouted, unaware of the current topic. Not that it mattered to Sting and Rogue anyway.

Sting snickered as he knocked more vulcans down. He sweat dropped as more appeared but then turned his attention back to his black-haired friend. "And that's short for...?"

"Still not interested" Rogue replied bluntly and crossed his arms.

The blonde dragon slayer rolled his eyes and continued on his fight. Sting sent out an enormous roar as he jumped up the air, unaware that he had hit a small creature from a far because of his attack. Rogue, who got bored, walked away. "I'll be exploring the mountain. You go meet me and Frosch at the bottom once you're done" he said as he turned his back on his partner, the said exceed flying after him. Lector ignored them while Sting just nodded to himself. His partner's really complicated...

Meanwhile, Lucy sighed as she was on the middle top level of the mountain. She had been walking for hours now and she had no idea where the wyvern's nests are. Plus she was now thinking of how to steal a crystal flower in the habitat of those dangerous beasts when they are known for being extremely overprotective of their territory. But she has her spirits with her and she trusts them more than herself.

She walked a little bit further and stopped in her tracks as she heard a loud rumbling sound. Lucy's head turned to all directions, her hands already clutching to her keys and prepared for a sudden attack. The rumbling sound turned to a small pained whimper and a sweeping sound that came from straight ahead. Lucy walked a bit more, her jaw dropping as she found a small wyvern with a gashed arm.

"Rrrrmmpp" it grumbled in pained as it wiggled to stand up, but failed due to its wounded part. The young, white, wyvern shot a worried look at Lucy but didn't seem to plan on attacking her whatsoever.

Lucy felt sorry for the little creature and rushed to help it. Even though that this wyvern would grow up into a strong, mighty beast, it's still a living thing nonetheless. The blonde wizard took out a cloth from her rucksack and some water from a plastic bottle. She poured some water to the small piece of cloth and reached out for the wyvern's arm. The beast looked at her in horror but didn't move to react. Instead, it let out a small wail.

"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you" Lucy said convincingly.

She carefully pulled the wyvern's small but meaty arm out with one hand and wrapped the bleeding wound with the cloth, tying it to a tight knot. "There," Lucy breathed, "It's going to be fine now. Just be careful next time, okay?". She felt like she was doing the craziest yet rarest thing in the world. She never helped a deadly creature before, but this one was not exactly deadly since it's injured.

Lucy watched in worry as the wyvern who licked the cloth and managed to carefully stand up. Eventually, it fell again, emitting a pained snarl. She shook her head in disappointment and tried to put an arm around the wyvern's spiky back. "I'll help you up so please trust me on this" Lucy said beyond any doubt and lifted the white creature up a little. Lucy's arms slid away and both failed.

"You're too heavy for a small guy like you. But then again, you're a wyvern, considered a strong beast, except for your wound and all" she commented with a chuckle as she panted.

"Heartfilia?" someone said from somewhere behind them. Lucy and the wyvern turned to look. It was no other than the Shadow Dragon Slayer from Sabertooth, who looks amazed by the fact that she was in a cold place such as this. Lucy stared at him in wonder, glanced at his exceed who stared back, then to Rogue once more.

She tilted her head to the side. "Um...Rogue Cheney, right?" she asked.

He nodded and took a step closer to them, Frosch mimicking his actions. "It's been a while, hasn't it? And what brings you here...alone?" Rogue asked, which was quite unusual for Lucy, because she knew that he doesn't talk very much.

"Oh I just thought that doing a solo mission might help me get the proper reward, without my team destroying a city and all. And yes, it has been a while" Lucy replied with a smile

Rogue nodded at her, a faint smile forming and stepped beside her and the injured wyvern. He looked at her, safely asking for an explanation. "I was on my way to the wyvern's nests to look for a crystal flower. Then I just stumbled on this little fellow so I tried helping it" she explained, fidgeting a bit, which Rogue noticed but shrugged off.

"You're really thoughtful, despite the fact that you're helping a very dangerous creature right now" Rogue remarked nicely.

Lucy felt her cheeks heat up a little. "Thank you. But it's a shame if I ignore it and leave it here to die. It just looked so helpless" she said.

"In that case, I'll help you out. Sting is too busy suiting himself out and I do not want to get in his way" he offered, his exceed nodding in agreement.

"Oh I appreciate your h-help but really, I don't w-want to bother you" Lucy stammered, who fidgeted with her jacket.

Rogue sighed and looked at the poor wyvern laying on the cold snow. "No, I insist. I've got nothing to do since Sting planned on finishing the job himself so I might as well do something productive as I wait for him to get done with it" he urged. Lucy paused and thought about it for a moment. But what could go wrong? There's nothing wrong with Rogue helping her out anyway.

"A-Alright" she replied quickly, earning an assuring look from him.

Author's Final Ranting:

Waaah! I'm sorry I have to finish it right there! I finished at exactly 11:25 PM plus it took time for me to edit the cover for this story. Anyways here's a little something you should know~

Basically, the pairing for this story was originally RoLu, but seeing that you'll already know the pairing if I say that this story is indeed RoLu, the thrill isn't there. So now, vote for the pairing you want, okay? I'm too lazy to set up a poll and have no time for private messages, so I'm expecting your answer in the reviews.

I will not be accepting votes after the last three or four chapters of the story. But anyways, tell me what you think and drop a review? It motivates me to update faster.

Also, don't forget to check out: Learn to Love Again by yours truly~! I'll be needing some support with it, since I lost my plot for it when I forgot the e-mail I used here. That's probably all...

Oh wait, but if I were you, I'd vote for RoLu because we need more of it. But it's really up to you anyways~! That's about it. Thanks for reading guys and if you want the chapter word count (excluding the Author's Notes) here it is: 2217.