Chapter Two: Show Your Hand

Lucy felt like she was holding a seance.

After she had ran home, she shut the door, closed all the windows and turned off the lights. It wasn't her intention to set off a spooky vibe in her usual cheery, cozy apartment. What she wanted was the illusion of her not being home. Her friends should have no reason to casually come barging into her apartment like they usually did. Or so she vainly hoped.

Plopping down at her desk, Lucy carefully laid out the rolled up requests.

Then she immediately felt the need to bawl.

The idea had sounded so good in her head. There were three main points that had caused Lucy to throw caution to the wind and swipe the first five job requests she could reach: point one, to prove to the people of Magnolia that she wasn't just some pretty poster bimbo, two, to stick a finger to those cocky guildmates of hers and three, to show up Natsu for once because it wasn't his job to be her knight in shining armor and nobody should think otherwise.

As she eyed the requests however, the growing knot in her stomach started to twist uncomfortably.

What if she had to slay three-story monsters?

Kill elite ninjas?

Infiltrate a dark guild?!

Marry an old pervert??!!

Didn't she just see a screwed up request like that just the other day??

Lucy tentatively reached out her hands over the scrunched up papers and paused as if she were making a prayer over them. Then taking a deep breath and holding it, she unfurled the papers and spread them out before her.

Not a marriage, not a marriage, not a marriage...

Lucy slowly surveyed the first request: Teach and play with kids at the Magic Academy as a Teacher's Assistant

A huge sigh of relief. Hadn't there been a request like this at Fairy Tail before? Perhaps those kids just love Fairy Tail mages. No one could say a bunch of hooligans didn't know how to party, right?

Second request (another rush of adrenaline): Pet Retrieval-Dalmatian breed- Name: Honeybunchkins

Being a literary enthusiast and therefore a lover of words, Lucy couldn't help but cringe at the lack of taste in pet names. Actual ones, that is. On second thought, it was rather nauseating for the other variety as well.

Third request: Assist Elderly on Field Trip

Piece of cake. How many times did she help her aged loved ones at the Heartphilia Mansion? They didn't call her an 'Angel to the Elderly' for nothing!

Fourth request: Security Guard- Graveyard Shift- Raninbourg Museum- One Night Only

Lucy weighed her options and concluded that it was definitely doable. She wasn't such a pushover that she couldn't handle your normal thugs. She could even take them out in her stilletos if need be- stellar spirits free too!

Fifth request: Hostess...?

Lucy leaned back on the two hind legs of her chair contemplating this last request when she was suddenly very aware of a heat source radiating near her shoulder.

"What the hell does 'hostess' mean?"

Lucy screamed bloody murder and would have toppled over had Natsu not caught the back of her chair. Looking up into his boyish face breaking into laughter, Lucy grit her teeth and felt an overwhelming urge to let loose a flying fist into the dragonslayer's nose. Instead, Lucy decided against violence (and blood on her new carpet) and settled for untangling herself and stumbled awkwardly onto the floor.

Fuming, the blonde pushed herself up and stood on her tiptoes in an attempt to tower over her teammate/personal trespasser but only made it to his chin.

"Natsu! Didn't I just say you weren't my knight in shining armor?! Now, GET OUT!"

Natsu thought Lucy looked rather funny standing there pouting with flushed cheeks like a child denied of candy, but his laughter was overcome by his confusion. "What are you talking about? You didn't say anything!"

As a response, Lucy grabbed the beloved white dragon-scaled scarf around his neck and dragged him to the door.

Before he was shoved out, Natsu held onto the doorframe, attempting one last time to reason with the girl. "Wait, Lucy! We're a team! We always do jobs together don't we?!"

Lucy eased off for a bit as Natsu turned around and gave her his winning smile complete with shiny white canines and all. And although Lucy would never admit it, Natsu's charismatic grin made her want to accept his offer wholeheartedly. Pride and stubbornness checked her impulse however and she immediately proceeded to push him out the door and shut it.

She leaned against the door and massaged her temples while trying block out Natsu's echoing grumblings about getting kicked out for trying to do something nice.

Lucy sighed deeply. Although she seemed to have lucked out on her reckless pickings of requests, this was already shaping up the be a very long week.

A/N: Who thinks that the current FT arc is cool but very much lacking in more NaLu moments? The whole going-down-a-waterfall-together thing was classic and most excellent but just waved to the side as usual. Then again, I guess that's part of the charm of FT- not focusing too much on love (for now....)! That's why we have fanfics.

I will try to update every Friday so that it'll give me a schedule and no excuse to slack off. Oh, and thanks for all of your reviews guys- they keep me motivated!