Knights on a Winged Horse

Authors note: Sorry about the crapy start, i don't want neither Lissana nor Natsu to be the bad guys so yeah…

Disclaimer: i own no FairyTail

Chapter 1 - Weak

Lucy POV

It has been over a year since I joined FairyTail, no, eight if you include Tenrojima.

When we first got back from our holy grounds, we partied for weeks, and I had to tell my adventures at least 20 times! After about a week, the attention aimed at me died down, at first I was glad to have the space and time to myself, but its been two months since then, and i'm beginning to feel lonely. The guild was spending a lot more time with Lissana and the rest of team Natsu. Don't get me wrong, I love Lissana just as much as I love the rest of my guild mates, but for some reason I don't think she has gotten used to me being a part of the guild yet.

I lay my head on the bar and sighed, deciding to think of the new chapter for my book and wondering what Levy thinks of the one I gave her last week. Usually she'd be done by now, I guess she's been to busy going on missions with Gajeel, the stupid baka finally made his feelings known last week! I guess i'll ask her about it when she gets back. I lift my head as Mira comes my way.

"Mira? Can I get a strawberry smoothie?"

"Sure Lucy, i'll just be a minute." After a minute or two behind the bar she comes back with my drink. "Thanks" I say before she goes off to get Canna another barrel of beer. I'm halfway through my drink when I feel an arm sling across my shoulders.

"Yo, Luce! Lets go on a job! All of as with Lissana!" I smile as I turn to face him.

"Sure Nastu! But first, tell me what the job is so I know what to pack." He hands me the leaflet and I read it.

Defeat the bandits raiding the road into town

reward 100,000 jewels

Flaba town

(I just made all that up, haven't a clue what a request looks like.) "20,000 jewels each, not bad, not far enough to pack anything either, ok, lets go!"

Natsu calls the others before grabbing my hand and dragging me out of the guild, the others not far behind.

He lets go once we're at the station and Erza goes and gets our tickets. Natsu get sick as soon as we board the train, half hanging out the window, with only Happy keeping him from slipping out. After half an hour of torture for Natsu, we get off at our destination and Natsu goes through his usual rants about never using transportation again.

Once Natsu gets over his nausea, he stands up straight and puts a flaming fist in the air. "I'm all fired up!" he shouts and runs down the road to town. Erza and Grey start running after him, shouting threats and insults at his back. Happy and Lissana equip themselves with wings before flying after the three of them, leaving me to catch up. I sigh and run after them.

I, being slower than the rest of them, catch up after about ten minutes of flat out running. I see their figures in the distance but soon realise that they are fighting the bandits we we're sent to defeat. I take out my whip and sprint over, determined to be of assistance to my comrades. Once I get there however, there was nothing for me to do. The others had swiftly dealt with the evidently weak enemy and no one had even broken a sweat. We go into town and hand over the bandits and collect our reward. I swiftly tuck my share away, remembering all the times Natsu tried to knick some of it. As we head back to the station, we start chatting about the mission, everyone bragging about their own fights.

"Did you see when I got rid of three of them on one fire punch? I mean, how weak were they?"

"They had no sense of balance either! I put a little bit of ice on the ground and they fell over and knocked themselves out!"

"Cowards too, they just ran away from me as soon as I started to requip!"

"Yeah! I mean I just stood there in my rabbit for and they just fainted! No guts at all!"

They laughed with each other but I stayed quiet. What else could I do? I don't have any victories to brag about.

"Lucy! What did you do? Why are you being quiet and not joining the fun?"

I looked at them, each with a grin on their faces, Gray looking at me expecting an answer to his question. I looked at the ground as I continued to walk.

"Nothing."

Lissana snorts at me. "You shouldn't be so lazy, making us do all the work."

"Lissana's right Lucy." Erza said. I shrank slightly at her tone. "It's not fair for you to get a reward if you didn't do anything."

"I'm sorry guys, its just, by the time I got there, there wasn't anything for me to do, you guys had already defeated them all."

"Come to think of it, thats probably right." Erza said nodding in understanding, "You aren't a very fast runner so you wouldn't have arrived in enough time because we finished them of pretty quickly too."

When Lucy got home that night, thankfully without much drama, or having to kick anyone out with her 'Lucy Kick' she went to the bathroom to get ready for a bath. She'd been tense since the conversation earlier and she decided that a nice hot bath would be the perfect way to help her relax. She stripped down and lowered herself into the bath with a sigh.

"You shouldn't be so lazy, making us do all the work."

She's right, I'm not all that helpful on missions, always being saved.

"It's not fair for you to get a reward if you didn't do anything."

I don't do anything on missions. It's a wonder I ever get any rent money. Its probably cos they don't like it when I get cranky over my rent so they give me some of the reward money to sedate me.

"You didn't do anything."

Erza's right I don't do anything, all I ever do is tag along and complain about my rent or something.

It's because i'm weak.

I need to get stronger, I could take solo missions. No,…that wouldn't work. The whole guild thinks I'm too weak and they won't let me, they'll make my team go with me and them I won't be able to do anything again.

I decide to get out of the bath before I begin to prune up. I go to my dresser and get dressed for bed. I lock the window before sliding under the sheets. I lay they for over an hour tossing and turning, unable to get to sleep, thoughts spinning around in my head like a hurricane. How can I get time alone? I won't be allowed out of the guild alone if I decide to go on a mission or train. The only way to get out of the situation would be to leave the guild…No! Don't think like that Lucy! But if I only left for a short while…I would definitely come back, I could never abandon my family. Perhaps for a year or two. I could cut the ties and go out in the world solo. Besides, it's not like they would miss a weak little tag along like me… Maybe it would be good to leave the guild for a while, get away from all the brawls.

I keep thinking these thought for hours on end. By three in the morning, the idea of leaving sounded very appealing. I decided that I would go on a training break for three years. After that time I would come back to the guild stronger, take solo missions and prove that I wouldn't be as weak as I am now. Maybe if I trained hard enough, I could even qualify for the next S class exam! Within minutes of making my decision I fell asleep with a smile on my face.