This is my submission for r/fairytail's Fanfiction Contest.
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Magnolia nights
It was a calm evening at the guild hall. There was only one job left on the board. The job was to catch a thief in Magnolia and the prize was 50 000 jewels. There were three wizards in particular interested in this mission.
"It's mine, I need the prize to buy more clothes!" Gray shouted and struggled to grab the poster.
"Why? You'll strip and lose them soon anyway!" Natsu yelled back and tried to stretch his hand towards the board.
"Neither of you know how to spend money, I need it for a new guitar!" Gajeel said and pushed two of them away.
Since the fight wouldn't end, Happy stepped in and made them an offer. "Why don't the three of you make it a contest? See who catches the thief first and winner gets to keep the reward."
"Well I guess it would be okay. But don't get crying over it when I win", Gajeel accepted Happy's idea.
"Well I'm in only if the two of you keep out of my way", Gray applied. "Speaking of which, where'd Natsu go?"
They both looked at the empty quest board and then quickly turned around to see Happy flying away with the poster and Natsu running laughing. "If you wanna win you have to catch the thief and us!"
All three of them ran from the guild hall to pursue the culprit and none wanted to lose.
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It was almost midnight when Gray was walking down Magnolia streets sighing. "I bet a flying cat would be really useful right now, I can't keep track of the whole city on land."
"Maybe Juvia can help Gray-sama to find the robber. It would be fair if they are getting help from others too", Juvia commented behind him.
"Yeah, I guess you're right!" Gray realized,"but wait, how long have you been following me?"
"Don't worry about that, Juvia has an idea of where the robber might appear" Juvia said and showed him the way.
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Natsu wasn't actually getting any closer to winning either. His "ninja" movements were so loud that any criminal would hear them and run away.
"Look Natsu, I see someone!" Happy pointed out.
"Great, let's catch them!", Natsu got excited.
"I feel like that someone is going to catch us first!" Happy warned as he realized Gajeel was running towards them.
"Salamander! I need the culprit and that poster if I wanna turn in the mission!" He shouted aggressively.
"No way! I'm collecting the reward!" Natsu yelled back and jumped into a fight with him.
Lily arrived shortly and tried to reason with them "Shouldn't we worry about the thief before fighting each other?" But neither listened.
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The clock pointed midnight as Lucy was sleeping in her apartment. Then suddenly someone crashed through the window waking her up screaming, "Is it you again, Natsu!? I told you not to bash in here like that!"
But the trespasser wasn't anyone familiar. It was a man wearing a disguise and she was sure that was a thief, probably the one Levy had been warning her about. Quickly she got up and tried to reach a table she had her celestial spirit keys on.
"Don't try anything, girl!" The robber warned and grabbed the keys before her. "Now what do we have here? I was expecting some valuables but Zodiac keys and this many? I'll be so rich after selling these I don't have to steal anymore."
Just as Lucy was going to reply, someone else rushed in. Before the robber could even realize it, he was held against a wall by a half-naked man. It had to be Gray!
"Wow, Juvia. Your instinct really was right that he would target Lucy's apartment", he praised while keeping his arm on the man's neck.
"Gray-sama is too nice to Juvia. It was obvious considering his attack pattern", Juvia explained blushing while climbing in from the window.
But then Gajeel and Natsu flew right in to fight. Except they were fighting each other at the same time. In the midst of chaos the disguised man managed to slip from Gray's grip and jump out of the window.
"You idiots, look what you did!" Gray yelled after apprehending what had happened.
"We!? You let him escape!" Natsu replied while still grabbing Gajeel's hair.
As they started fighting among themselves again, Lily flew in and tried to calm them, "Guys, I think you should come outside to check, you might have missed something."
Confused all three watched out of the open window and saw what he was talking about. The disguised robber was laying unconsciously on the street with Levy, Juvia and Lucy standing around him.
They climbed down still unclear of what exactly had happened and Gajeel asked, "Levy, what are you doing here?"
"Lily brought me since he knew you wouldn't manage to clear the mission while competing with each other", she cleared, "I caught him off-guard as he was fleeing. And while you were fighting among yourselves Lucy and Juvia came to help me finish him."
"He was pretty strong but I got my keys back", Lucy added proudly.
"Dammit, this stupid contest was a failure to start with", Gray said frustrated, "whose idea was it?"
"I think it was Salamander's cat-buddy who stole the mission poster", Gajeel remembered turning his gaze on Happy who had just arrived there.
He managed to respond, "Lol, I guess you just weren't good enough for it. Juvia, Levy and Lucy managed to catch the criminal so the reward should go to them."
"You traitor, I thought you were on my side!" Natsu claimed and started chasing Happy. Luckily Happy had left the poster to Lucy so that she could turn in the mission even as he was fleeing from Natsu.
"Well I guess we should have seen that one coming", Gajeel admitted.
"Yeah, you girls deserve it so just split the money", Gray said, "I really wanted to win though."
"Gray-sama will always be a winner for Juvia. In fact, she will share all of her prize share with him", Juvia comforted hugging his arm.
As Gray was struggling out, everyone else started laughing happily. The first sun shined from the horizon as another night at Magnolia came to an end.
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And that's the end. This was my first try at doing a fan fiction so I hope you enjoyed it. I definitely enjoyed writing it.