A young woman sat at her desk, writing furiously on a blank piece of paper. Her blonde bangs had been irritating her, getting in her eyes and such, so she clipped them back onto her head with a small, blue hair clip. Her light blue sleeves sat rolled up to her elbows because, very much like her bangs, they had been getting in the woman's way and had been seen as a nuisance that needed to be dealt with. Her pencil would not stop moving across the page until she reached the very bottom, after putting down her pencil, the woman sat back and surveyed her work before promptly crumpling it up tossing it into an ever growing pile of paper in the trash. Plucking a new page from the stack next to her, the woman wore her pencil nib down small, writing page after page only to be dissatisfied with her work and throw it away.

At last, she sat back and nodded gently as she read her words, taking the clip out of her hair and pushing her sleeves back down. The woman carefully folded the paper up, along with another, and put them inside a large envelope. Just as she was sealing it, a soft tapping on the window made her jump. Looking over, she saw a pink-haired man standing out on the fire escape, grinning like an idiot. The woman nodded, letting him know he was acknowledged before putting the now sealed envelope in the top drawer of her desk.

Walking over to the window, the woman unlatched it and stepped out onto the fire escape, small goosebumps forming where her arms were bare due to a strong breeze that had just blown by. She look at the man who stood alongside her, confusion written on her face, "Natsu, are you okay?" she asked, "Most of the time you just barge in, not even announcing yourself, much less knocking."

"The window was locked!" The young man, Natsu, defended himself, crossing his arms over his almost bare chest.

The woman raised an eyebrow, "That never stopped you before!" Before he could rebuke, she changed the topic, "Why are you here anyway?"

Now it was Natsu's turn to look at her in confusion, "It's 3. I'm picking you up for your afternoon shift, like I always do, Lucy. Are you sure you're okay?"

Lucy looked back into her apartment, her eyes searching for the clock, when they settled on the them, she swore softly, "Shit, it is 3. I must have been so caught up in writing..." She trailed off, looking at Natsu, "I'll be back in a moment. Just gotta get ready."

Lucy jumped back into her apartment, taking her bangs out of their clip and unrolling her sleeves. Opening her dresser, she pulled out her uniform and folded it neatly into the bottom of her bag. Throwing her bag over her shoulder, Lucy had started climbing out the window when she realized something, grabbing Natsu's hand, she pulled him into her apartment and closed her window. Lucy marched Natsu up to her front door and shoved him out into the hallway.

"We might as well leave out the front door." Lucy said, locking the door to her apartment as she walked down the stairs, Natsu following behind her.

The two young adults talked and laughed their whole way to work until they stopped in front of the building. 'Fairy Tail Café' was written in large letters above the gate. Fairy Tail Café has been in business for several decades. The current building is Fairy Tail's founder's, Mavis Vermilion, estate. All four floors are currently in use. The basement is a bar and lounge where you can play pool and bet on Grand Games teams. The first floor is the main café complete with a small stage while the second floor is more a gourmet restaurant. The third and final floor is a ballroom that can be rented out for parties. Fairy Tail is a booming business with over 100 employees, or at least it used to be. Seven years ago, it's current owner, Makarov Dreyar, and several key employee disappeared, stranded on an island after a boat crash for six and a half years and then had taken six months to recuperate. When the employees went missing, Fairy Tail became bankrupt and they had to abandon Vermilion's estate and move into a smaller building. Only recently, after they entered a partnership with Sabertooth Co., were they able to buy back the estate and reclaim their former glory.

Natsu and Lucy avoided the people dining on the lawn and walked into the back entrance. As they entered the kitchen, everybody erupted into "Hi Lucy. Hi Natsu."

Well, almost everybody. The employee who had transferred over from Sabertooth stayed silent as they continued about their work.

Natsu tied on his apron and grabbed a spatula before promptly pointing it at a young man with spiky black hair and proclaiming, "Gray! I challenge you to a cook-off!"

Gray pulled off his apron, where he was shirtless beneath and was about to reply, when the head chef, Erza, smacked both of their heads with a cupcake tin she had just finished cleaning.

"No cook-offs during customer hours. You two know that." She simply stated before going back to cleaning the dishes.

Gray and Natsu calmed down and went back to work as Lucy went into the girl's changing room and changed into her uniform. Coming back out, she grabbed her notepad and her pen before twirling out of the kitchen. As she swung the swinging door open, she made a little 'eep' noise to see a fellow waiter just about to push the doors open, a large stack of dishes piled on his arms.

"I-I'm so sorry, Rogue." Lucy squeaked as she ducked her head and made her way into the café.

Rogue remained impassive as he walked into the kitchen, "Table 17 is waiting for service."

However, Sting, Rouge's best friend, could not stay silent as he carried dishes alongside the red-eyed boy, "Rouge! How could you not be mad at the little Fairy?! You know we can just snap our fingers and Mr. Jiemma will make that stupid Makarov fire them! Sabertooth has the power to do that to stupid little Fairies!"

Lucy glared up at the Fairy Tail intruders, Sting and Rogue, two employees from Sabertooth, "I'm sorry, your highness." She said, poison honey dripping from her voice, "I just got in so I wasn't aware that you two were out on the field."

Sting was about reply before Lucy scuttled past them into the café. After he set down the dishes he had been carrying, he and Rogue went out back to take their break.

"Ah, I can't stand that slut!" Sting cried, punching his fist against the brick wall, "I actually can't stand any of these fucking Fairies! How can you put up with them, Rogue?!"

Rogue looked up at his friend and simply shrugged his shoulders.

Lucy breathed a sigh of relief that nothing too serious had gone on and that no dishes were broken. Now she could just sink herself into her work and forget about those Sabertooth bastards.

"Hello, I'm Lucy and I'll be your server today! Can I get you anything to drink?"