Summary: Join one of the strongest guilds in Fiore as they go on new journies, experience unexpected betrayals, and save their nakama from various troubles. Natsu x Lucy, Erza x Jellal, possible Gajeel x Levy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, only the OCs, and, to a certain extent, the plot.

Thank you for the review(s)!

ShiningStellar: Gray is, more or less, getting fed up with his rival getting so far ahead of him so quickly. He is starting to feel like extra baggage, or dead weight to the team now. Obviously, his suspicions are wrong and he isn't dead weight, but he doesn't know that. He is starting to feel like he's on a losing streak.

Here is Chapter Two!

The Beginning to it All

Makarov's fiery glare was starting to get burned into Gray's mind, and was, albeit slowly, starting to fry Gray's brain. "Well?" the Guild Master requested sternly but not unkindly.

Gray rubbed the back of his head and averted his gaze, glancing at the walls on either side of him sheepishly. "I've already told you; there's nothing more. Just a friendly fight like we always do."

Makarov remained silent and unmoving before he let out a sigh. "I hope it is nothing, Gray. I'll let the both of you off of punishment for now, but don't do this again." Despite Porlyusica telling Makarov not to exercise his powers unless necessary, he felt that this situation could potentially require forceful repairing.

Natsu, who had remained quiet for the main portion of the conversation whooped. "Alright! Thanks Gramps!" he shouted before sprinting out of the private room the three of them were inhabiting inside of the guild. Gray followed him silently. He was without a shirt, but he surprisingly had kept his pants on.

Makarov sighed, rubbing his temples in an attempt to console this rather perpetual headache.

Lucy felt a soft tap on her shoulder, and she around to view it's source, which was none other than Natsu Dragneel.

"What are you doing, Luce? You're standing in front of the mission board but you aren't picking a mission. Kind of like Nab. Weird," Natsu murmured. Nab, upon hearing his indefinite habit being mentioned, stalked away, his shoulders slumped.

Lucy huffed indignantly. "I don't want to be called weird by a man who eats fire!" she retorted with a bit of humor and turned back around to face the mission board. "I want to pick a job, but I'm not sure which one I want to pick. If we choose one with all four of us, the price has to be more than 280,000 Joules (sp?)."

Natsu nodded and began stroking his chin in a thinking manner. Lucy laughed upon seeing this, the words 'thinking' and 'Natsu' hardly ever went into the same sentence.

"What?" he questioned, temporarily stopping his pondering pose.

"Oh, nothing," Lucy giggled, looking away.

Natsu continued his search, and thrust his hand forward, ripping one of the jobs off of the board. "We'll do this one," he murmured, shoving the sheet into Lucy's hands, causing her to yelp and almost drop the sheet.

She examined it closely. Band of thieves continue to steal from shop. Will pay 800,000 Joules if they are defeated. "I don't know," she said tentatively. "That's a little high for just dealing with some thieves, don't you think?" Lucy said logically.

Natsu pointed to a further description halfway down the sheet. "The band of thieves have actually been stealing from the entire town, and they can use magic. But with you, me, Happy, Gray, and Erza, it should be a cinch," he gave his trademark smile and jerked a thumb towards his chest. "We are Team Natsu!"

Lucy couldn't help but smile at his optimism. "Ok, let's talk about it with Gray, Erza, and Happy first," she said, and began scouring the guild for the three other members of Team Natsu.

One of them - an unmistakably blue cat with wings - landed on Lucy's shoulder as he held a fish in his mouth. "Sounds good to me, Lushy!" he piped in, calling her what he usually called her.

Lucy nearly jumped in fright as a voice spoke from her shoulder, but she quickly recognized the figure as Happy. "Oh, Happy, you scared me for a second," Lucy let out a sigh of relief.

Happy remained silent and still for a moment, before dropping his fish and flying away. "Natsu! Lushy was being mean to me, and she made me drop my fish!" Happy whined to his best friend.

Lucy's mouth was agape as she watched Happy snitch on her for actually doing nothing. She hadn't insulted him, and he on his own had dropped his fish. She threw her hands up in the air exasperatedly and found Gray and Erza. They were both sitting at a table, the former of whom talking to Juvia. Erza appeared to be going over several documents. Lucy sat in the only available chair and slid the job paper across the table to Erza. "Natus picked out a mission for our team," Lucy stated as Erza went over it.

Erza nodded as her eyes skimmed the mission, her eyes slightly widening at the amount of Joules awarded. She handed it to Gray, who, after reading over it as Erza had, nodded his acceptance as well. "We'll leave in the morning at ten," Erza declared and went back to sorting her documents. Lucy nodded and make her way to Mirajane to get confirmation for the job. However, Natsu stood in between Lucy and the bar, where Mirajane was located, cleaning various glasses.

Natsu stood there for a moment, Happy perched on his shoulder. "Lucy, someone told me that you were being mean to Happy," Natsu said seriously with his arms crossed, a disapproving expression on his face. Happy, from behind Natsu, stuck his tongue out at Lucy, mocking her.

Lucy sighed; she had a feeling she knew just who this source of information was. Not very reliable, either, she thought in her mind. "Yes Happy, I am sorry," Lucy said sarcastically before pushing past Natsu and reaching Mirajane.

"Excuse me, Mirajane. Team Natsu would like to do this job," Lucy spoke, eying Natsu and Happy talking vividly out of the corner of her eye.

Mirajane nodded, giving Lucy permission, and gave a soft chuckle as Lucy eyed Natsu. Well, Lucy was really eying both Happy and Natsu, but in 'Mira's world', Lucy only was eying Natsu. "They're so cute, aren't they?" Mirajane sighed smiling at Lucy.

"I guess," Lucy felt a small smile tug at her lips as she watched the two of them just mess around. Apparently, Happy was rather annoyed that Natsu hadn't gotten Lucy to apologize genuinely. "Well, thank you Mira!" Lucy chimed happily before taking the job and making her way back to her apartment. Upon reaching it, she pulled out a key that was hooked into a separate key chain from her Celestial Spirit Gate Keys. Oh, Aquarius would piss a fit if Lucy had put her "humble, unworthy" housekey on the same chain as Aquarius' own key.

As Lucy walked inside, she realized the lights were already on. Berating herself for leaving them on, Lucy walked to her bedroom and began to pack. However, when she entered the room, she noticed a familiar Dragon Slayer and Exceed perched up on her window.

"Get out!" Lucy snapped to Natsu and Happy, both of whom only shrugged their shoulders and did the opposite of her wishes; they came in. Lucy sighed, wondering why she even tried to force them out of her own home. Could it really even be considered her home when the entire time visited, no, invaded it on a daily basis.

Natsu leaned towards Lucy and began whispering in her ear. "Happy won't stop until he you apologize to him, so apologize!" he whispered, and Lucy grimaced at the blue cat that was tugging on Natsu's trousers and whining.

Lucy growled, forcing herself to apologize through seethed teeth. "Happy...I am...sorry.."(she said this particularly weirdly) "...for being mean to you," she finished quickly, and was satisfied to see Happy quit his wailing almost too quickly, which left her wondering if he was ever crying in the first place.

"Great! Now that that's done, we can stay here for the night!" Natsu grinned, raising his hand and inviting himself over.

"As if!" Lucy huffed, kicking at him.

He dodged it and put on a pouting face. "But Lucyyyyyy. It's so far to my place, and me and Happy are really tired," he whined as best as he could.

Well, he was right. His house was actually quite far away from hers, completely on the other side of the city. However, his house was closer to the Guild, which left her quite confused as to why he came to her apartment all of the time. Lucy slumped her shoulders, depressed. Why did it have to be her that housed several people at one time? "Fine." But before Natsu and Happy could get into her bed and take up all of the space, she added, "But you are sleeping on the couch!"

Natsu and Happy were whispering to each other loudly. "See Happy? I told you it would work! All you had to do was act sad."

"Aye!"

"I can hear you two," Lucy murmured, but shrugged her shoulders in defeat. "Now please go to sleep. I am planning to read, and for that, I need peace and quiet," she requested.

"Aye sir!" Both Natsu and Happy saluted her before walking into her living room. She peaked around, making sure that they were completely out of her bedroom, before sitting at her writer's desk. She pulled out a stack of papers from one of the drawers, labeled 'Lucy's Story'. 'DO NOT READ!' was labeled under the title as well. She flipped it to her current page and began writing, her mind working up all kinds of inspiration.

She was so focused into her story, she didn't notice two figures, one much taller than the other, sneak up behind her. "Nin-Nin!" Lucy shrieked before turning around and slapping whatever was behind her. It took her a moment to recognize both the previous voice and the person she was slapping at as Natsu.

Lucy sighed, "What is with you two and scaring me!" she demanded. Natsu's eyes wandered to Lucy's story, and Lucy blushed, waving her arms frantically around her story. "No, no, no! It says 'Do not read' on the cover for a reason Natsu!" She said.

"Why can't I read it?" He pouted.

"You should count yourself lucky I haven't kicked you out of my place yet," Lucy retorted, standing up with her hands on her hips.

"But we want to read your story! Me and Happy can't play 'Nin-Nin' here because we know the place too well!" Natsu begged.

"You know the place too well because you visit here all the time," Lucy corrected. "And you can't read my story because I'm not done with it."

"But you let Levy read it!" Natsu pointed out.

Damn him! That was supposed to be a secret! "Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Not!"

"Not!"

"Too!" Lucy replied, but then she felt confused. "Wait! No, I meant not!"

"See! You admitted it!" Natsu smirked.

"Look, I can't let you read my story yet just because it isn't finished!" Lucy said, sitting down in her chair and grabbing her pen. Expecting her pen to write down on soft paper, she was quite surprised when she heard the thud of her pen hitting the wood of her desk. "Where's my story!" She wondered aloud.

"Run, Happy, run!" Natsu shouted, making his way to the door. That blue cat, which Lucy had all but forgotten about, was now flying away into the city, with her book in his mouth.

"No!" Lucy shouted, grabbing Natsu by his scarf and throwing him back into her apartment. He landed on the couch, rather dazed, and she stood over him. "Nat~su," She growled menacingly, and Natsu felt the familiar fear now that he often felt from Erza when she was angry.

"I didn't know, I swear! Happy just grabbed it while we were talking, and I..just..." Natsu lost his train of thought, which was unfortunate for him.

That morning, when Natsu woke up on the couch in Lucy's apartment, there were various bruises on his body.

It's more of a filler. The mission will start and progress some in the next chapter. Thanks for reading folks!