The Fairy Tail guild hall's poor walls were being battered and shaken as inside, its members hit, bit, kicked, shouted, (FIRE DRAGON ROAR!- ICE MAKE HAMMER!) insulted, (YOU'RE NOT A REAL MAN!- FLAME FOR BRAINS!- STRIPPER!) and, of course, destroyed tables, chairs, small walls and personal egos.
As per usual.
And as per usual, Lucy was sitting at the bar, milkshake in hand, watching the 'fun' with Mira, who was polishing glasses.
As she watched the fists, legs, heads and jets of fire shoot from the cloud of dust, the guild doors slammed open.
The silhouette of a women stood in the rectangle of white light and the guild brawl froze.
Erza Scarlet strode into the middle of the room, a sword materialising in her hand. The guild hall was silent, as everyone waited for her next move.
"What is the reason for this fight?" Her voice was deadly quiet.
In a flash, the wizards of Fairy Tail formed a wide circle, all pointing to the centre, in which Natsu and Grey were standing frozen, each about to land a hit on the other.
"They started it!" the guild chorused.
Erza walked into the circle.
"You weren't fighting I hope boys?"
"Uh-" Natsu glanced at Gray.
"No Mam!" they shouted together, hugging each other like old friends.
"Good." Erza turned away with a small smile and her sword disappeared. Natsu and Gray dropped their arms and the whole guild sweat dropped.
The crowd gradually dispersed with mutterings of "I can't believe she bought that!" "How dense can you be?"
Natsu and Gray came up to the bar, Gray shrugging off a fawning Juvia and Natsu casually draping an arm over Lucy's shoulders.
Gray sniggered.
"WHAT?!" Natsu yelled, throwing his hands in the air.
"You were just flirting with Lucy, Flame-brains."
"I WAS NOT!" Natsu yelled.
"Were too."
"Was not!"
"Was too!"
"Was not!"
Lucy sweat-dropped.
"Ash head!"
"Ice Princess!"
"Fire freak!"
"Popsicle!"
"Pyro!"
"Boys." Erza had returned, her sword back in her hand.
"H-Hi E-Erza!" They stuttered, wrapping their arms awkwardly around each other.
"Hey Erza what's going on?" Lucy asked, taking a sip of her strawberry milkshake.
"I would like to invite you all to my Home town."
Lucy, Natsu and Grey stared blankly at her.
Natsu scratched his head. "But weren't you holed up in that freaking tower that was actually a giant lacrima?"
"She lived somewhere before that idiot. She didn't just spring up out of no-where." Gray pointed out.
"Who are you calling an idiot?!" Natsu head butted Gray.
"My Hometown is two days from…" Erza stated.
"Sure we'll go." Lucy said. "What should we pack?"
"Whatever you normally bring missions, but make sure you have some formal wear as well." Erza replied taking a cake from the plate that Mira was offering round.
"When do we leave?" Gray asked, shaking Juvia off of his arm.
"Four hours." Erza said, her mouth full.
"I'm all fired up!" Natsu yelled with a fist pump.
Lucy mentally face palmed.
Natsu would probably destroy the town.
And get beaten up by Erza.
Again.
Ah well.
"I'm going to go pack. See you later guys!" Lucy said, walking towards the door.
Happy flew into her face, just as she stepped outside.
"Ugh! cat!" Lucy yelled, her mouth full of fur.
Happy flew inside ("Lucy's a meanie!") and Natsu shouted across the guild, "Hey Happy guess what!" before the doors closed and Lucy spat the last of Happy's blue fur out of her mouth.
She walked home, Plue by her side, balancing on the side of the river and waving to the boat guys. (seriously, do they live there or something?)
She gazed up at her Apartment and sighed. They had just gotten back that morning from a short mission that included sorting through an astronomer's charts, bottles and random files full of paper that sometimes only had one word on them. Lucy had loved it, Natsu not so much. He'd ended up knocking over all of the shelves and broken four of the astronomer's telescopes.
Hence, the problem with Lucy's rent money. It seemed to be a never ending problem that kept coming back to haunt her.
Almost sixty percent of the jobs they took resulted with no pay, because of her team's knack for demolishing stuff.
Lucy sighed again and unlocked the door, then ran (fell- it had been a long way to the astronomers house and Natsu can't handle trains, so they had walked.) up the stairs towards a nice warm shower.
Lucy was sitting on the end of her bed, legs crossed. Aries was sitting on the floor, helping Lucy pick which clothes she was going to take. As it turned out, Aries had agreed to take which ever clothes Lucy would need back to the celestial world, and bring them back to earth land when she needed them.
"Yo Luce!"
Lucy fell backwards off the bed and into a pile of discarded clothing.
"I'm sorry Lucy!"
"Don't worry Aries. You can come back later. I need to deal with him."
The boy at the window dangled his legs inside and jumped onto her bed.
"WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE?!" Lucy yelled, slapping Natsu across the face.
"Hey! That was mean!" Natsu whined, rubbing his red cheek.
"What do you want Natsu?" Lucy sighed, while deciding she may as well get some writing done and sitting down at her desk.
"Well I was wondering if you had any clothes for me?" Natsu asked, fidgeting with the hem of his vest.
It was all Lucy could do not to slam her head into the table in front of her.
"And why Natsu," Lucy asked heavily, "would I own any clothing that is for you, or guys in general?"
"I just need some of that formal stuff Erza was talking about." Natsu said coming over to the desk.
"Pleeeeeeeease?" Natsu whined softly, resting his chin on her shoulder.
Lucy felt her face flush and she kept her head down, hair stopping Natsu from seeing her red cheeks. Stupid hormones.
"Fine."
"Yes!" Natsu jumped up and started dancing around the room.
"Open gate of the maiden, Virgo." Lucy said tiredly.
"Is it punishment time Princess?"
"No, Natsu needs some formal clothes for the trip. Is there anything in the celestial world that'll fit him?"
"Of course Princess. Shall I show you now or keep it with me until it is needed?"
"Keep it."
"Yes Princess, anything else?"
"No, you can go now." Lucy slumped onto her desk as Virgo vanished.
"Luce are you okay?" Natsu was looking at her from his position on her bed, his face worried.
"Yeah I'm fine Natsu, just tired."
"Aren't we walking to …?"
"Yeah. You can't deal with trains remember?"
"Sorry."
Lucy raised her head.
Natsu is apologising? That happens about as often as he blushes.
Natsu was fiddling with the hem of his vest.
Huh.
Then seeing the look on Natsu's face she softened.
"It's ok Natsu, I'll be fine."
"Lucy?"
"Mmm?"
"Do you have any food? I'm hungry."
So much for writing.
"I'll get you a sandwich. It's pretty much lunch time anyway." Lucy stood up and walked into the kitchen.
It always amazed her how Natsu could be so childlike in everyday life, then kill a demon without a second thought.
The way he acted sometimes made Lucy just want to hug him and tuck him into bed with a kiss on his forehead. The way he could be so naïve made Lucy feel responsible for him, as though he was her little brother.
Then there was the times that the only reason he kept fighting was for his friends, even when he was a bloody mess. And the things he said, things so sweet it made her heart melt, and things sometimes kinda…hot, that made Lucy's heart race.
Lucy fixed a couple of sandwiches, knowing full well that Natsu would eat both of them and went back to her room.
"Thanks Luce!" Natsu grabbed the plate with a fanged grin and started chomping on the food.
Lucy sat back and watched him.
Then again, Natsu in general was kind of hot, what with the usually open vest revealing a well-toned set of abs and muscled arms…not to mention the cute pink- ahem- salmon hair.
"-uce?"
Lucy blinked.
Natsu smirked and raised an eyebrow. "You were staring."
Crap.
Lucy blushed and hid her face behind her hair.
"I was…just thinking… about something."
Well it's not entirely untrue.
"What were you thinking about?"
Uhhhhh…
"The… uhhh…the mission! Yes- I was thinking about the mission."
"Really?"
"Well…well you obviously had to look at me to see me staring at you."
Natsu screwed up his face as he tried to get his head around this statement.
Now it was Lucy's turn to smirk.
Ha. Score one for me.
"So why were you staring at me Natsu?" Lucy put her chin in her hand and smiled playfully.
"U-um" Natsu sweat-dropped.
"They loooooove each other!" Happy smirked.
"HAPPY!"
Lucy face-palmed.
"What the hell Happy?" Natsu muttered through gritted teeth, his cheeks turning pink.
"Stupid ca- wait what?" Lucy started.
Natsu was blushing! Oh my fricken' celestial keys! NATSU IS BLUSHING!
"Lucy! Open up!" Erza's voice echoed through the house.
Lucy jumped up and ran down stairs to the door.
The redhead was surrounded by a background of luggage piled high, tied down by ropes.
"Are you ready to go?"
"Sure am!" Lucy gazed up at Erza's trailer in a state of awe.
"Where's your stuff Lucy?"
Lucy jumped.
Gray was leaning against the wall beside her, watching as Erza tightened the ropes around her belongings.
"Aries has it in the celestial world." Lucy looked at him.
He was actually wearing clothes, the usual white coat over pants and a shirt, crisscrossed with leather straps.
"How bout you?"
"Nah, Ice princess here doesn't need any other stuff because this is the most he's ever worn at one time. Stripper." Natsu sauntered out of Lucy's front door with narrowed eyes.
"You wanna go fire freak?"
"Yeah! Fight me!"
Maybe I imagined it.
Lucy shook her head and cleared her mind of Natsu's face, which suddenly seemed to be taking over her thoughts.
Erza pushed their heads apart, Gray's unfortunately slamming into the wall.
Lucy winced.
"Is everyone ready to go?" Erza asked, picking up the handle of her trailer.
"Aye!" The other three shouted, though Gray was still staggering around a bit.
"Then let's go!"