Team Natsu's Mission

Hooves galloped over water.

Laxus' ears twitched. He caught a scent in the air as he was traveling down a dirt road. He stopped in the middle of the road. He looked back over his shoulder to see a dust cloud quickly approaching him.

A few seconds later, hooves stopped beside him. He looked over to see Lucy on top of the horse. She was staring back at him with little interest. "Blondie…," Laxus stated.

"It's Lucy," the celestial maiden responded.

Laxus smirked. Without thinking he pulled Lucy off of the horse and into his arms, pressing her up against his chest. "Laxus, what are you doing!?" Lucy shouted. She struggled in the man's arms, trying to escape.

Laxus kept a firm grip on the girl and lowered his chin onto the girl's slender shoulder. He shut his eyes, being as comfortable as possible. "You had me worried there for a second, Blondie."

Lucy's face turned red. She felt her body grow hot in embarrassment as smoke came out of her ears. She didn't know that Laxus could act like this. "I-I'm fine, Laxus you can let me go now."

Laxus opened his eyes, realizing how he had suddenly started acting. He putted Lucy down on the ground, unwrapping his arms from around her. He placed his hands on top of her shoulders and looked over her at the pony she had been riding. "So who's the horse?"

The doors to the Fairy Tail guild hall opened.

Gray entered in with only his pants and necklace on since he had already stripped out of his shirt somewhere along the way. The ice make wizard's appearance instantly got a certain water wizard's attention. "Oh, my beloved you're back."

Gray walked down the steps toward the bar where Juvia, Erza, Wendy, and Carla were all sitting while Mira was off serving drinks to the other members of the guild. "So how did your mission go?" Erza questioned.

"It went." Gray had his head hung in defeat with his eyes being covering by the shadows of his hair. He sat down in the closest seat at the bar that happened to be beside Juiva.

"Did something go wrong?" Juvia asked with concern for her self proclaimed ice prince.

"Hey, Erza I found a job for us to do," Natsu suddenly shouted out that got everyone at the bar's attention. Natsu ran up to the group along with Happy flying by his side. The pink hair dragon slayer held a flyer in his hand.

"Natsu, hold on a second," Erza said. "Gray seems to be upset about something."

"Huh?" Natsu crossed his arms across his chest. "What did you screw up your mission or something?"

Gray slammed his fist on his counter and clenched his teeth. His whole body trembled with anger. "I didn't mess up my mission you, fire lizard." Even though over a day had pass since Lucy left to find her old partner he still hadn't gotten over the lost of their spilt. He really liked her. She was the first girl he really wanted to think of more than just a friend.

"Then what happened?" Happy asked.

"Nothing." Gray stood up and turned back toward the door. "I'm going home."

"Fine, whatever," Natsu responded back still wanting to focus on the mission he decided to go on. He turned back to Erza and stuck out the flyer he was holding. "Let's go on this bounty hunting mission."

"Why would a bounty hunting mission be sent to a wizard guild?" Carla questioned.

Natsu took the flyer in both his hands to read off what the paper said. "According to this, she's some magic girl with super cool stars powers."

"According to the description the girl has mid length blond hair, a really well curve body, brown eyes, stunning looks, and uses magic similar to celestial wizards," Happy spoke. He rested himself on Natsu's shoulder and pointed his paw at the flyer.

"By the description it sounds like it could fit a lot of people other than the magic of course," Erza stated.

"According to this her name is Lucy," Happy responded. "She's nicknamed the Celestial Maiden."

Gray stopped walking and lifted his head up at what Happy just said. He looked back at the group. "What did you say?"

Happy and Natsu looked over at the ice make wizard. "The girl we're going after is a celestial type wizard called Lucy."

Gray's eyes simmered.

Natsu focused back on the flyer. "According to some rumors, it's said she's been seen with a dragon. Maybe it's Igneel." Natsu smiled to himself.

"Natsu, I don't she's actually traveling with a real dragon," Happy said.

The dragon slayer looked back at his flying friend. "Huh? Then why did they say she was traveling with a dragon."

"Maybe they mean a dragon slayer," Happy said.

Gray had fully turned back around to face the group with his eyes staring down at the floor. He knew something was different about Lucy, but he never thought it was this. He remembered what she had said about her partner and in many ways it was similar to a lot of Dragon Slayers he knew, but he had thought all the dragon slayers in the kingdom were apart of Fairy Tail or Sabertooth.

"Look it also says that this girl can strengthen Dragon Slayer's magic," Natsu exclaimed. "Maybe she might at least know something about Igneel."

"Does it say why they're after this girl?" Erza asked.

Natsu quickly read over the length of the flyer. "Um, oh here it is. It says that this girl has some private information the employer needs."

Erza wrapped her hand around her chin. "Some private information that's strange."

Natsu thrust his fists into the air. "We can just ask the guy when we go see him."

"I suppose you're right," Erza responded.

"Wait," Gray said, getting their attention. "I'm coming with you."

Natsu crossed his arms across his chest again. "I thought you said you were going home."

"I've seen her," Gray stated. The others looked at him confuse. "This girl, the celestial maiden name Lucy I've met her."

"Seriously!?" Natsu's eyes went white with shock.

"What!? When did that happened?" Happy shouted.

"On my way back," Gray said. Gray balled up his fist so tightly they trembled. "I knew there was something different about the girl, but I just couldn't put my finger on it at the time."

"Where did you see her?" Natsu asked.

"The last time I saw her she was heading back toward Clover Town," Gray answered bitterly.

"Then we don't need you then," Natsu said confidently.

Gray brought his fist up to chest level. "I can spot her a lot faster than you, besides you might end up grabbing the wrong girl."

Juvia seeing Gray's desperation for this other woman felt a need to come along as well. She placed her fist up to her chest. "Juvia would like to come as well."

"I want to come too," Wendy said. "Maybe she might know something about Grandine."

Gajeel stepped up to the group along with Lily. "I'm going too."

Natsu looked over at the iron dragon slayer. "You want to find out about Metalicana, right?"

Gajeel folded his arms across his chest. "Oh, please I just want to see if this girl really has the power to boost dragon slayer magic like the rumors clam."

Gray turned back around to face the door. "Then let's get going." Gray had his hands in his pockets as he walked toward the door. Looks like we'll get to meet again sooner than I first thought, Lucy, he thought to himself.

A smile appeared on his lips.

Lucy held out her key ring toward Laxus.

"So you got another key to the seven star families?" Laxus repeated the words she had just told him. He looked at the sight of the four keys. "But what's with that other key then?"

Lucy putted the key ring back on her belt. "It's a key that was thrown in for a deal by the owner. It's the shield constellation." Lucy's pony spirit had already returned back to its own world.

Laxus folded his arms across his chest. "So what's next, Blondie?"

"Stop calling me that, you damn dragon," Lucy said with balled up fists. "Urgh, I should have just left you behind."

Laxus got a smug grin on his face. "Oh, yeah then why didn't you?"

Lucy looked away from him annoyed. She folded her arms across her chest. "None of your business." She remembered the words Gray had spoken to her. She really hoped she could see him again someday.

Laxus reading the air around his partner decided to stop his teasing. He let out a breath. "So what's the plan, Lucy?"

Lucy looked at him surprised that the man had called her actual name this time. "I still need to get five more keys. So we need to get some work."

"I still have that Wyvern scale as proof of our skill," Laxus informed her.

"Actually I heard that taking out Dark Guilds can generate good money," Lucy spoke.

"Yeah, who told you that?" Laxus said.

"A guy I was with before I found you again."

Laxus became flustered. "Wh-what you hanging out with another guy for, Blondie? We get split up for-…did anything happen with him?"

"That's none of your business," Lucy stated. She then started to head down the road with Laxus slowly following.

Laxus narrowed his eyes. He felt himself suddenly filled with rage. He didn't like the idea of Lucy hanging out with some guy when he wasn't around and even more so that she was keeping it as some kind of secret. If he found the guy he might have to ring his neck.