I do not own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does.

Chapter 1

"NATSU! YOU OVER DID IT AGAIN!" Lucy shouted at the fire dragon slayer as they watched half of the town they were in fall to ashes and rubble.

~3 hours earlier~

It was a sunny, peaceful day in Fiore. That morning, team Natsu decided to take on a job from the request board. As it was Happy's turn, the feline had decided to take the job with the highest jewel count; at 500,000J, the mission was to capture a band of thieves that were terrorising a port village on the eastern coast. At first the gang thought that the blue haired cat had chosen the job for the money; that was until they realised that he had an ulterior motive. "The town is supposed to hold the hugest fish in all of Fiore! They're so big that just one could fill up this carriage!" Happy exclaimed excitedly to the others as the train they were one rolled through the country to their destination. "And they're supposed to be super tasty! Just thinking of them is making me drool…" and sure enough, the cat had spit hanging from the corner of his mouth, the liquid almost touching the floor of the train. "Hey, Happy? Can you stop all this talk about fish? It's making me feel-" Natsu started to say before closing his mouth tight with his hands as his whole face turned a violent shade of green. Lucy, who had been gazing out of the window whilst Happy gave his non-stop speech on fish like always, looked over to her partner, sighing in both sympathy and annoyance. Every time he goes on a vehicle, his motion sickness seems to just get worse Lucy thought as she watched Natsu jump up and run for the outdoor compartment, albeit swaying in the process, making his already green face go greener if possible. She kept on staring even after Natsu had disappeared behind the compartment door, biting her lower lip lightly; even after all this time, she still worried about him when he was in this state; she hated seeing him like this. Even as she stared, she could sense a pair of eyes staring into the back of her head. Turning around, Lucy realised it was Happy staring at her. "Hey, Lucy?" Happy asked her as she focused her attention on him. "Yeah, Happy?" she asked.

"Why do you always do that?"

"Do what?"

"Stare at Natsu when he goes to be sick?"

Lucy paused for a moment, trying to come up with a plausible answer. In retrospect she only ever did it out of concern for her partner, but there was something deeper to it she knew, but just couldn't put her finger on it. "I just worry about him, is all. It's still weird to see him so weak and defenceless like this when normally he's rampaging through the streets trying to pick fights with everyone." Lucy settled for this answer, feeling like it expressed her concern enough.

"Hey, Lucy?" Happy asked again.

"Yeah?"

"You liiiiiiiike him," the cat sniggered.

"Shut it, cat. Or you'll end up looking like Natsu's insides when I'm through with you"

"But, Lucy, how do you know what Natsu's insides look like?"

"Let's find out, shall we?" Lucy replied maliciously as she took a swing at the cat.

"AAAAAAHHHHH! LUCY, PLEASE! I'M TOO CUTE TO DIE!"

Two hours later and the train had finally stopped in its final station, which also happened to be the teams' destination. "Come on, Natsu. The trains not even moving!" Lucy huffed at her partner who clung on weakly to the rail that had been his friend for the last part of the journey, as he had clung on to it for dear life whilst he watched his breakfast make its reappearance; 17 servings of bacon, eggs and sausages was never a good idea, especially before going on a vehicle. "I can't help it. My head's spinning. Are you sure we've stopped?" Natsu asked in a pathetic, feeble voice which sounded so much smaller to the usual boastful Natsu. "I'm sure. Now get off, or we're leaving without you," Lucy replied, crossing her arms over her chest. "There's no need to be so mean, Lucy," Natsu muttered as he slowly crawled off the train onto the platform. The fire dragon-slayer rested there on the cool, grey, concrete platform as he waited for the spinning to stop, which didn't take long; in a matter of minutes, Natsu was back on his feet with his usual mischievous grin plastered on his face. Bumping his fists together, he said "alright! Who's up for grabbing something to eat?"

"Aye!" Happy exclaimed a bit too enthusiastically. Lucy could tell that the cat was already thinking off fish again. Does that cat ever think of anything else? Lucy wondered to herself as she followed her two teammates, trusting on their acute sense of smell to guide them to a decent place to eat. She had to admit that she was feeling a bit peckish herself so didn't argue with them like she usually did. Not even five minutes later and they were at a quaint little café that faced the sea shoreline. It was a little beaten up in parts, some damp planks needed to be replaced and the peeling paint could use a new coat, but other than that the place seemed nice and peaceful: perfect for something to eat. As soon as they crossed the thresh way, multiple mouth-watering scents hit their noses. From the spiciness of soups, to the sweetness of cakes, the individual scents intertwined with one another to create one big overwhelming smell that hypnotised the trio further into the café. The three were so focused on trying to decipher each scent that they could smell that they didn't even notice the waitress that stood in front of them. "Welcome to Marigold Café. Table for 3?" the waitress asked a warm smile on her face. Startled, it took all of them a moment to realise what she had said. The waitress was a busty brunette, her locks tied up in a loose, messy bun; frizz was flying all over her head. Her face was plastered with make-up, giving her a cartoon-like appearance. Although she was small in height, she was quite curvaceous even though some would describe her as plump. There was nothing about the woman that screamed danger so the three calmed down quickly, before Lucy finally replied to the question the waitress had asked. "Um, yes please," she said timidly.

"Right this way, then," the waitress replied, and led the trio to a round table seated next to one of the front windows. They had a clear view of the sea-line as well as a glimpse of the port below. The sun was high in the sky providing enough light to light up the inside of the café. Natsu, Lucy and Happy took their designated seats at the table as the waitress passed each of them a menu before leaving back into the kitchen.

"Whilst we have this time, let's go over the mission," Lucy said, placing the menu on the table. Natsu took out the poster and handed it to Lucy. "We're supposed to capture this band of thieves known as the SettŌ Bandits. Apparently they've been causing havoc by stealing the ports fishing supplies and damaging the boats," Lucy read out. Along with the information, the poster provided mug shots of some of the members of the SettŌ Bandits; none of them would be on Lucy's 'perfect boyfriend' list any time soon. Each of them looked like rats, which fitted their characters well, as they were described as vermin several times in the poster by the mayor of the town, Mayor Nori, who was the person that had put up the request. One of the males had a rather noticeable and hideous mole on the right side of his nose, big bunny-like teeth, and what looked like whiskers. Lucy handed the poster back to Natsu who looked at the pictures of the bandits. "Man, they're ugly," he said before stuffing the poster back into his backpack. There was a comfortable moment of silence between them all when the waitress brought over a jug of water and 3 glasses. "Complimentary water as a taken for choosing our café as your choice of eatery," the waitress explained at their looks of confusion. As she walked away, Lucy gladly took the jug and filled each of their glasses with the clear liquid. Instead of drinking it however, Lucy played with the quickly forming condensation that was sliding down the side of the glass. "After we've finished here, we'd best go to the customer before looking for the bandits. If we get the job done quickly, we might be able to catch the last train back to Magnolia. But just in case, we should look for a hotel for the night," Lucy said to the two, who both nodded in agreement.

Once again the silence from before fell across them as they all thought about various things. It was evident that Happy was probably thinking of the fish he was going to eat. Smiling to herself, Lucy turned her gaze from Happy and Natsu to look outside the window. It was a beautiful, sunny day. The sea was still other than the few ripples created by the moving ships; seagulls were soaring through the air gracefully, looking down to the port in the hopes of scavenging fish parts; townsfolk were strolling along the street outside the café. However, one character took Lucy's eye in particular. A shady looking figure, with his identity concealed under a brown, shabby hood was loitering around one of the stalls which were selling various fishing supplies. The figure seemed to be waiting for the stall keeper to look away; this was very suspicious.

"Earth to Lucy. Hellooo," Nastu said, waving a hand in front of her face.

"Huh?" Lucy replied, startled, as she looked back to Natsu and Happy.

"Did you even hear what we said?" Natsu asked her, slight annoyance visible in his facial features.

"No, sorry. What did you say?" Lucy glanced out of the corner of her eye to look at the figure, who had not moved since she first looked away.

"We were going to order, but we needed to know what you wanted," Happy said to Lucy. "Lucy? Hey!"

"Huh? Sorry," Lucy muttered again. As Happy spoke to her, she noticed movement out of the corner of her. She looked over to the figure again but he had disappeared from his spot. She noticed that the stall keeper was shouting angrily towards someone who was causing a ruckus, shoving people as they past. As the person bumped into someone, his hood fell off and the box he had in his hands dropped to the floor. Lucy suddenly got a good glimpse of the persons face and was surprised she recognised them, even though she wasn't sure where, though you'd have to be blind to have not remembered such a large mole, big teeth and- the penny suddenly dropped in her head as she made the link; it was one of the guys on the wanted poster: he was from the SettŌ Bandits. Without thinking, Lucy stood up; knocking over the still full glass of water that she had forgotten was in her hands.

"Hey! What was that for? You got my scarf all wet," Natsu complained.

"My fur too," Happy moaned quickly after.

"It's one of the bandits from the poster. Looks like he's stolen something from that stall," Lucy pointed at both the fish supply stall and where the bandit was. However the bandit had managed to pull back up his hood and pick up the box and was already on the move once more, this time cutting down a side street. "Come on!" Lucy said before running out the café, past the startled waitress that had served them.

"But I wanted fish," Happy complained sadly with a glum look, his belly rumbling in disappointment.

"Looks like the fish will have to wait, Happy," Natsu said to his feline friend, sympathising with him with a rather loud grumble from his own stomach. He was running on empty since the train had made him puke up his big breakfast. "Come on, Happy."

"Aye, sir," Happy replied before the two followed Lucy's golden locks bobbing through the crowd. "Wait up, Lucy!"

Natsu and Happy were barely keeping up with their blonde comrade. When she wants to run, she really runs Natsu thought to himself as he tried to catch up to Lucy. It was only when they had been running for what felt like twenty minutes straight when the two males finally caught a glimpse of the figure Lucy was running amok after. The figures hood had long since fallen off, it seemed, and he wasn't wasting time to put it back up. When the figure looked back round, Natsu saw his eye widen in horror when he saw how close Lucy was to him; but it wasn't his look of terror that made Natsu scrunch his face, but the guys face itself. He really was one ugly figure; the guys features made him look more rat than human. Natsu recognised the guy from the poster; now knowing who it was that he was giving chase to, Natsu's pace quickened until not a minute later, he was running side by side with Lucy, Happy trying to keep up with them from above.

Turning his attention from his comrades to the guy, he barely registered the line of washing in front of him before he crashed into a red bed cover, some overly large floral under garments, and a very pink brazier clinging strong to his head. He heard the stifled laughs coming from next to him and turned his head to look at Lucy, annoyance clearly visible on his face; he didn't need a mirror to guess he looked idiotic. But what really made him mad was when he heard the guy in front laugh at him. "ARE YOU LAUGHING AT ME?!" Natsu yelled at the guy, before his whole body lit up in flames, the various items of clothing disintegrating from the heat. The bandit's eyes widened in shock and horror once more before he ran harder and faster through the street they were all running down, passers-by jumping to the sides to avoid collision. They had run to the other side of the town, far away from the sea. This side of town was much less crowded and more peaceful, no shops or stalls here, just rundown houses, flats and the odd pub. In fact the whole area seemed abandoned. "STOP RUNNING SO I CAN BEAT YOU UP!" Natsu continued yelling at the bandit's back.

"I don't think that's going to work, Natsu," Happy said overhead, breathlessly. Looking up, Natsu noticed beads of sweat on the feline's forehead as he strained his wings to keep up with them. He felt sorry for Happy, knowing that he was almost at his limit. It was this that gave Natsu his second wind. But when he turned around, he barely saw the bandits' hood run into a small, dark building. As the trio came closer to the building, they could hear a croaky, hoarse, male voice yell from within. "WHY DID YOU LEAD THEM HERE?! YOU IDIOT!" It was clear that the guy they had been chasing was being yelled at, and at a guess, the three of them easily concluded to themselves that this was probably the bandit's hideout. Wasting no time, Natsu kicked the door down before walking into the building. It was dimly lit by candles precariously spread around the room. There were about a dozen men here, all with looks of surprise and shock at the cherry-pink haired guy.

As Natsu took slow, intimidating steps further into the room, each bandit's expression turned from shock to fear. They were all frozen in their spots, just staring as they waited for Natsu to make a move. "Huh, so who's first?" Natsu asked the room as he bumped his fists together, each lighting on fire. As soon as they saw the flames, the room went from still silence to wild havoc as each bandit ran in search of a means of escape from the fire dragon-slayer. "Hehe, this is going to be fun," Natsu said before grabbing wildly for his first victim.

As Natsu beat each and every bandit to a pulp, all Lucy and Happy could do was watch their teammate as bodies went flying across the room, breaking tables and windows. Some of the tables that had been broken and knocked over still had lit candles; the building was made out of wood; soon enough the inside of the room quickly caught on fire. Lucy ran out the quickly burning building, grabbing Happy who hadn't noticed the fire, but rather was concentrating on cheering Natsu as if the scene in front was just a game of wrestling. "GO NATS- hey, Lucy!" the cat whined as Lucy took him outside of the building. Once outside, Lucy saw that the building was almost completely aflame. She knew that Natsu would be fine, but the bandits weren't flame-proof like him. However, before she could worry, the bandits were jumping out of the broken windows and the door to avoid catching on fire, Natsu quickly following behind them, sucking in flames as he moved. "Aw yeah, now I've got a fire in my belly!" Natsu exclaimed as he looked for his next victim. Noticing a long and lanky fellow trying to run down the street, Natsu ran after him, Happy, who had managed to get out of Lucy's bear hold following. Meanwhile, running in the opposite direction was the original bandit that the trio had been chasing, Lucy noticed. Wasting no time, Lucy ran after him. She was quickly upon him and before he even had a chance to take in what was happening, Lucy gave him a well-deserved Lucy Kick to the backside. The guy fell face first and skidded along the floor. When he groggily looked up, his face was scraped and bruised and his nose was crooked, his hideous mole covering his vision in his right eye. Nevertheless, the bandit feebly clung on to the box that he had stolen from the fish stall guy, looking up at Lucy, whose whip was in her hand. "Pl-please! Don't hurt m-me," the guy whimpered to her, but Lucy just drew closer. The bandit quickly took something from his pocket, causing Lucy to lift her whip high in to the air, waiting for an attack. "W-wait! Y-you wouldn't hit a g-guy with g-glasses, w-would you?" He said as he shoved a pair of glasses onto his face, the lens in his left eye already cracked from his fall. The feeble attempt to stop Lucy just annoyed her even more. This guy is such a wimp Lucy thought to herself before cracking her whip menacingly at the guy. "Please! I'm too beautiful to die!" It was this remark that caused Lucy to finally attack, landing a punch squarely in the bandit's face, his nose more crooked and broken than it was before, one of his buck teeth flying out of his mouth. "You wouldn't know what beauty was, even if it struck you in the face," Lucy muttered, even though she knew that there was no point as the guy was obviously out cold. Lucy wiped of the grime and blood off her fist on the bandits hood before tying him up, using her whip as an alternative to rope. Content in thinking the guy wasn't going to get out of her knots any time soon, Lucy picked up the box before standing up and turning around to see how Natsu was doing. However, what Lucy wasn't expecting to see was half the town on fire, fire of which had been caused by Natsu, who was breathing his flames aimlessly as the bandits, who kept on dodging his fire. Although the bandits weren't roasting, the buildings that were taking the full blast of Natsu's flames definitely were. The scene in front of Lucy caused her jaw to drop comically to the ground, her eyes also popping out of her head. There goes my rent money Lucy sighed to herself before running towards her comrade, her fist clenched.

Natsu, it seemed had given up on spewing flames everywhere, going back to brute force. By the time Lucy got to him, Natsu had captured the rest of the bandits, who all lay battered and bruised in a bloody pile. "Oh there you are, Luc- OW! What was that for?!" Natsu complained, rubbing the spot on his head that Lucy had just whacked. "NATSU! YOU OVER DID IT AGAIN!" Lucy shouted at the fire dragon slayer. "Wha-?" Natsu replied before looking at the town, half of which had been transformed into burning red, orange and yellow torches. "Oh, crap. My bad. I'll get rid of the fire." Natsu moved towards a nearby burning building and inhaled deeply, the fire flying into his mouth. A few minutes later and the fire had be extinguished, evident from the smoke coming of the burnt black and crumbling buildings, as well as Natsu's very big and full belly.

"I wonder how much reward money we'll have after we pay for the damages," Lucy said sadly, already counting in her head how much the damage was going to cost them and the guild. "Well, we should probably go and take these bandits to the mayor of this town and let him decide what to do with them," she sighed before going back to grab the bandit she had caught, whilst Natsu dealt with the others.

It didn't take the gang long to find that mayors home; being a very large pristine, white building, it stood out in the town. Once inside the building, the trio waited as the butler went to get the mayor from his study. A few minutes later and the butler came back along with a squat man with a very curly moustache and a wispy brown quiff brushed atop his head, a monocle over his right eye, and a very expensive looking suit with a tail coat that brushed the floor. "Ah, you must be the Fairy Tail members that took up my request. Thank you so much for that. Now I hear you've caught the devious SettŌ Bandits, yes?" he asked, adjusting his monocle as he looked at the pile of bandits on his floor. "It looks like they won't be doing any evil deeds any time soon. Good job. Now about payment," the mayor started, but Lucy quickly intervened here. "We are so sorry, Mayor Nori. The fire damage to the northern part of town was entirely our fault," Lucy bowed to the Mayor, before looking over at Natsu with an annoyed expression; it seemed whenever he caused damages, she was always the one that was apologising. "What? What happened to the northern part of town?" the mayor asked quizzically.

Lucy bit her lower lip before saying, in a rushed manner, "during our fight with the SettŌ bandits, one of us, " Lucy quickly gave Natsu another dark look, "used fire magic to stop the bandits but accidently caused all of the buildings to catch on fire. There's nothing left to salvage really." The last sentence came out a bit quieter than the rest of her short speech, as Lucy remembered just how bad the damage was.

"Is that so?" the mayor asked, his face expressionless. Instead of replying, Lucy just nodded her already lowered head. "Oh! Thank you so much! You don't know how much this helps me!" The mayor said happily, clapping his hands together. This remark caused Lucy's head to snap back up. She looked confused, which the mayor noticed so quickly explained. "The northern side of the town is all ruins, and the buildings were in need of being knocked down so new ones could be built. We were going to have builders come to come do the job, but it looks like they won't need to come now." At this, Lucy couldn't help but sigh in relief; she would still have her rent money. The land lady wouldn't be trying to get her head on a spike any time soon. "Well, I must reward you for helping me out with my rebuilding predicament, oh, and the bandits of course. Let's see… ah, I'll pay you the original reward, plus the jewels I would have paid the builders. How does that sound?"

"ONE MILLION JEWELS!" Lucy shouted with joy as the trio got on to the last train back home. "I won't have to worry about rent money for months!" Lucy exclaimed before dropping down into her seat by the window, Natsu sitting in the seat opposite, whilst Happy sat next to him. Natsu was starting to look a little green as he waited for the train to start, but that didn't stop the smile on his face.

The mayor had given them the 500,000J for capturing the bandits, but then gave them the same amount again for burning the buildings, making their overall reward total up to 1,000,000J. "You burning stuff down came into our favour for once huh, Natsu?" Happy purred happily as he munched down on a fish he had been given; on their way to the train, the trio gave the box that the original bandit had stolen back to the fish stall guy. He was so happy when the team brought back his box that he gave them a crate full of fish "on the house" he had said. Needless to say, Happy kept the crate; there was less than half of the original amount left, but the cat had been starving so it wasn't much of a surprise. The five minute warning call from the speakers sounded, telling everyone that the train would be departing soon.

"Hey Natsu, what are you going to do with you part of the reward?" Lucy asked to distract him from his thoughts of the train moving. "Uh, not sure," Natsu replied.

"Hey, guys?" Happy asked the other two.

"Yeah?" they replied.

"What if we went on vacation for a little while?"

Both Natsu and Lucy had to pause for a moment. True, it had been a long while since they all went anywhere just for pleasure instead of work, and they could do with a break from missions; they had been on non-stop missions for the last few months, so a vacation would be good on all of their bones. Plus with all of the money they now had, not only from this mission but from previous missions too, they could easily afford to go on a nice long holiday.

"You know what? That sounds like a great idea, Happy," Natsu said, his smile spreading even further as he began to think of going somewhere warm and sunny and Gray-free.

"Yeah. Mavis knows we could all do with a break," Lucy added.

"So it's decided. When we get back, team Natsu is going on vacation!" Natsu said, jumping out of his chair, fist raised in the air.

"The train is now departing on its journey back to Magnolia. Please stay seated and have a pleasant journey," the speakers said as the train began to move.

"Uh-oh," Natsu said as his face went a solid green, his hands tight over his mouth as he ran straight for the outdoor compartment once more.

Every time Lucy sighed, watching Natsu go.

Next chapter: the gang arrive back in Magnolia with their reward money. The guild hears about their decision to go on vacation, and some of them like the idea so decide to go with them. How will team Natsu react to this?

Hi everyone!

So this is my very first fan fiction that I have successfully published. I hope that you enjoyed the first chapter. I know that it's a little slow going, but trust me, it's worth the wait! I wanted to have NaLu happen gradually over the story, so don't expect much shipping for the first few chapters. As this is the first chapter, I wanted to get the story started and get the layout sorted for the rest of the story, which is why the chapter is so long. I don't know if all of my other chapters are going to be as long, but knowing me they probably will. If you liked chapter 1, a review would be most appreciated! Any criticism is welcome as well. Mavis knows there is always room for improvement. Chapter 2 will be out as soon as I've finished writing it, so hopefully you won't have to wait too long.

Thanks for reading!

AnimeTookMySoul