Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

Chapter 1

It had been two years since the Tenrou team got back – the guild has yet to release the title of number one in Fiore.

"Requests sure are shooting up, especially, right after our first win in the GMG." Nab said, as he was staring at the request board seemingly considering the request in front of him.

"It seems so, and look! there are also new clients giving us requests," said the blonde girl beside Nab intent on looking for a job herself.

"Yeah, it sure is nice not to be the laughing stock anymore." Nab answered as he put back the request he was holding to the board.

"I'm sorry we had to go through that, but look at us now, we're a family and we're still fighting! That's what's important, right?" Lucy grinned at Nab, and then turned back to the board. "Now I just have to find a good request to pay my rent." Just when she was about to grab a paper from the board, Natsu came flying towards her knocking her down with him.

"Mmmph Mmmmph!" Lucy fell face down. She tried to push herself up against Natsu, but to no avail.

Natsu, not noticing Lucy's position chimed, "Luuuuuccccy! I have – wait, what? I can't understand you." He got off Lucy, and picked her up by her shoulders to make her face him when –

POW! Natsu flew out of the guild through the roof.

I wonder who I'll charge the repairs on this one now. Mira thought as she wiped the bar clean of the dust from the now open ceiling.

"Are you seriously trying to kill me, you idiot?!" Lucy yelled to the sky where Natsu flew.

"Woah, nice uppercut, Lucy. Serves that Flamehead, right." Lucy didn't notice Gray walk up to her until he spoke. After regaining her composure, she turned around to face Gray with a smile on her face.

"Oh, Good morning Gray!" Gray couldn't help but smile back at her.

"Yeah, same to you Lucy. Now, Natsu actually had something to say to you, and now I guess I'll be the bearer of the news." Gray said casually, scratching his head.

"Well, Gray, maybe you could tell me when you're dressed." Lucy said softly as she pointed to Gray's almost naked body.

"What?! Where did my clothes go?!" Gray ran around frantically as he tried to find his clothes. Feeling drained from the sudden adrenaline outburst earlier, Lucy decided to sit on one of the empty tables of the guild.

After a few minutes, a fully-clothed Gray joined Lucy in the table and sat across her. "Well, your rent is almost due, and it has been a month since you went on a mission, so we know that you needed money; and we found just the perfect mission for us." Gray said almost proudly thinking that he and Natsu actually landed on something after several hours of arguing on which mission to take, which thankfully didn't end up in a huge guild fight where the damages would just be deducted on their next mission's pay. He handed the request paper to Lucy. He and Natsu decided to give this mission's pay to Lucy.

"Well, if I think about it, I don't want Lucy living in another house. Her home is already comfortable; Happy and I are already used to it." Natsu said during their little discussion.

"Yeah, and it's pretty close to the guild too. If she couldn't pay her rent she might transfer to a less accessible place. That's too troublesome for us." Gray pretended to go along with Natsu's reasoning.

It's just a little payment for all the damages the team inflicted on Lucy's furniture, and most of her apartment, Gray told himself. His train of thought was disrupted when Lucy spoke.

"'We'? You could not possibly mean Natsu and you?!" She was trying to hold back her laughter. Gray just shrugged, "Yeah, yeah. Flamehead and I worked together; get over it. So, are you alright with the request or not?"

Realizing she had not read the request yet, she hurriedly scanned through the paper. Rescue a girl captured by a dark guild. 1000000 jewels… "Woah! This big?! We're gonna…What? Are you really..?!" Lucy just started blabbering about the huge amount, and the possibility of it being very dangerous. Gray already stopped listening, and then the guild doors burst open.

Natsu came through the doors with a big grin on his face, with not even a single scratch from Lucy's previous attack. He rushed to where Gray and Lucy were sitting, and settled himself beside Lucy slinging his arm around her shoulders. "No worries Lucy! I will be helping you do the job; even stripper right here would help, too." Gray shrugged off Natsu's snide comment as he placed his elbows on the table and rested his head on the back of his hands; leaning closer to Lucy. "Think about it, Lucy. We have to go against a dark guild here, like we haven't done that before; I'm sure Erza wouldn't mind coming with us. It's a rescue mission; it's practically a job requesting us to destroy things, the dark guild's, that is…"

"And of course, rescue the girl. Right Gray?" Lucy cut in, raising an eyebrow at Gray.

"Of course." He answered coolly before continuing. "The best thing is…"

"You can keep all the jewels for this mission Lucy!" Natsu interrupted. Lucy stared blankly at Natsu, then to Gray, then to the paper stating the reward amount. Her eyes widened as Natsu's words slowly sank in. Natsu grinned widely as he waited for Lucy's reaction.

"Hey, who told you to interrupt me while I'm speaking, you idiot?!" Gray, about to stand up, slammed his fists on the table making Natsu look up to him in annoyance.

"You were taking too long with your yapping, I think I almost fell asleep listening to it. I decided to butt in before I could actually snore. Got a problem with that stripper?" Natsu stood up and bumped his forehead on Gray's.

"You wanna go, flamebreath?" Gray hissed.

Lucy, oblivious to the brewing fight beside her, mentally computed how many months' worth of rent the reward would cover. Putting the paper down the table, she finally stood up, eyes shining with determination; this caught the attention of the two mages, cutting their argument. Lucy looked at her teammates, and with so much gratitude, held each of their hands, "Thank you."

Gray looked down and scratched the back of his head with his free hand, "No problem, Lucy."

Natsu gave Lucy his widest grin, pumped his fist into the air, and said, "Yes! Let's go first thing in the morning! I'm getting fired up!" He then turned his back to his teammates, facing the bar where Happy was munching a fish. "Happy! We've got to pack!" With this, he proceeded to the guild's door; Happy flew following him.

"Wait Natsu! What about Erza?" Lucy tried to reach Natsu's shoulders to stop him.

"You go tell her Lucy, we've got to pack," said Natsu, waving his arm, without looking back.

"What? Gray…wait, where? Gray?!" Lucy turned to where Gray was supposed to be standing, but found no one there. Hmpf, they're giving me the task of asking the Titania to help on a mission where she wouldn't be paid. Well, this is Erza, it's for a nakama after all; it's just, that nakama is me! *sigh* I hope she agrees to it.

End of Chapter 1.

Yay! What do you think?

Heads up! Some facts would be different, since I drafted this fic just after the GMG Arc started - so that would mean no future Rogue and future Lucy visiting to change the course of history (although I thought that was cool!), nor the current arc. Oh! And Sabertooth might be less evil in this fic - by only a bit - although I haven't started up on this part, yet, so it may change in the future ;) We'll see.

Another heads up! Texts in italics would mean different things throughout this fic.

Italicized word - spoken with emphasis

Italicized phrase - may mean thoughts or flashbacks