Chapter twenty one

"Natsu-"

"No."

"But Natsu-"

"Lucy," the dragon slayer whined out, praying she would just accept his pleas. "It hasn't even been a month! Why d'ya wanna go out on a job?"

"I need money, Natsu," she sighed out. "As much as I love living with you, my landlady is very strict about paying on time."

"If Natsu does not wish to accompany you, I shall be honored to go on a job with you, Lucy," Erza hummed out, not even pausing in her trek to the bar where a fresh piece of cake sat, topped with a beautiful strawberry. The dragon slayer let out a low snarl at the implication that he wouldn't want to go out on a job with Lucy- he was the only person fit to go out on a job with her, after all, especially when she was still so fragile over her last injury- and Levy used that moment to drag the blonde towards the request board.

"What a great time to be needing a partner!" the bluenette cheered out, shooting a scathing look to her usual team. "I'm in the mood to take a nice long job away from them right now. Why don't you pick something out, Lu-chan?"

"'Cause she ain't healed 'nough ta go out on a job!" the roset huffed in exasperation, trying to throw his arms around the blonde only to have her duck away with a gasp.

"Look, a silver key as a reward! On top of almost two hundred thousand Jewels? Oh, this is too good to miss out on!" Lucy chirped out excitedly, spinning to face the pair bickering silently with such bright enthusiasm that they both lost the words they had been in the process of spitting out. "We need to go on this job! Imagine what spirit I could meet! It's a silver, of course, but it could make me so much stronger! Natsu, please?"

"It's not 'is problem if ya go 'r not," Cana slurred suddenly, falling heavily against the blonde with flushed cheeks and a cheeky grin. "Girl only mission. 'N lemme tell ya some'in'-" Cana's lips brushed the blonde's ear as she whispered, Natsu snarling dangerously in front of them with both Elfman and Gray holding him back- "all mah cards 're tellin' me ta go."

"A mysterious creature, hm? I've heard of something like this before, of course, but I've never faced a gender specific creature before this," Levy chirped our enthusiastically. "I'll definitely be coming along, Lu-chan!"

"No way! Think 'a how dangerous it'll be!" Natsu choked out, sending Gray skidding away with a bloody nose and laying Elfman out quickly. He grabbed the celestial mage's hands with urgency, her eyes wide and shining in uncertainty. "C'mon Luce, we can go on a job, any other one."

"Nonsense!" Erza declared suddenly, slinging her hand around the blonde's shoulders and dislodging Cana from her spot. "It will do Lucy and I good to work together. Perhaps you could take Gray on a job and bond as well. I promise to keep Lucy safe." Without waiting for a response, the redhead lifted her hand above her head and caught Mirajane's attention. "Levy, Cana, Lucy, and I shall be going on the female mage job in Froebeli."

"Of course!" the barmaid chirped back enthusiastically. "Have fun out there girls!" With that, the requip mage sent a withering glade and a powerful threat to the dragon slayer before pulling the blonde out of the guild hall, yapping on about how she had a surplus of clothes she wanted to see the celestial mage try on at some point during their job- a trick from Mira that helped the redhead's hoarding habits considering she mainly wore armor.

"Mira-"

"Don't start with me, Natsu Dragneel," the ivorette began, her crystalline voice sugary sweet. "Lucy will have to learn to do solo jobs, and to work well with other guild mates. Eventually, you will go on an S-class job and she won't be able to go. Do you expect her to just sit and wait as you take weeks, months, or maybe even years to come back? She'll be kicked out of her apartment and depressed. No working mage wants to stop going on jobs, even if they are dangerous and exhausting. It's the thrill of traveling, of exerting themselves that catches us. You know that." Her sapphire eyes, though stern, were not unkind. "I won't be able to stop you from marching after them, but I do ask that you be careful. Gender specific jobs are rare and deadly in some cases, and Fairy Tail wouldn't be the same without you."

A rare smile, soft and understanding, crossed the roset's face as he backed away from the bar. "Thanks, Mira. Hey Stripper! C'mon, we're bonding!" Grabbing the dark haired man's arm- and leaving him to choke on his cigarette smoke as the butt fell to smolder on the floor- Natsu marched out of the guild hall and began speaking softly to his nemesis.

"You speak Encan?" Levy cooed out eagerly. "I didn't even know you could learn Encan in Fiore!"

"I learned Encan as a child because my mother taught me," the blonde giggled out. "She always believed that you should speak as many languages as you can, so I know most of the Ishgarian languages along with a couple others. I've been struggling with Carmadian."

"Carmadian is pretty difficult," the bluenette agreed easily, pouting her lips. "Took me almost a full year to become fluent, and I'm a linguistic mage."

"I'm so jealous. To be able to use your magic to help you with foreign languages must be an asset."

"It's not all that great. I mean, you can summon spirits designed to help you in every aspect of a job and then some! And you'll never be truly alone because you can just use your magic to have someone with you. That must be useful."

"Ya 're worse than Alzy and Bisc. Jus' kiss already," Cana slurred out, smacking her head against the window of the train and snapping her eyes shut. "Yer flirtin's makin' me sick."

"Then, I guess I shouldn't ask if you would be willing to teach me how to read tarot cards," the blonde purred teasingly, quirking an amuses eyebrow when mauve eyes slowly parted.

"Only if ya teach me ya read the stars."

"Deal!"

Across the train, Happy snickered as Gray, once again, shoved Natsu off of his shoulder, which prompted the roset to throw up in his bare feet. "This better be one good fuckin' job," the ravenet hissed darkly. The bile around his feet froze, the dark haired man glad for once that he had kicked his shoes and socks onto the other bench so they were safe from vomit. "Why are we even following them?"

"What if the client is a sex trafficker?" Happy chirped our helpfully from atop Gray's socks. "Lucy already tangled with them. Or another pervert!"

"Erza's there. She won't let anything happen."

"My hoard," Natsu choked out, whining as he slumped further into the seat, "my responsibility."

"Holy shit. Natsu just said 'responsibility'."

"Look, it's actually quite convenient," Lucy prodded, stopping to pull off her boots and slip on a pair of sneakers, all eyes trained on her as ribbons of fabric seemed to dance to life from her shoes and curl around her, leaving her in a pair of running shorts and a loose tee shirt. "My original outfit has traded places with this one, and is now hidden away. When I take them off, they'll trade places again, and it's easier to pack shoes than it is entire outfits." Shoving her boots into her bag, she slung the straps back over her shoulder and jogged to fall back in line with Levy, jumping when Cana fell heavily against her back.

"Lulu, ya look fine in those shorts," the brunette purred silkily, running her hands down the blonde's arms and giggling. "'M not a fan 'a the shirt, though. Hides yer massive jugs."

"Cana!" the celestial mage squealed out, swatting her wandering hands away as they slathered towards her breasts. "Cana, it's been over a day since we left the guild, how are you still drunk? You slept the whole train ride!"

"Imma drinkin' god. I don' get drunk. This 's how I always 'm." The shriek that sounded when Cana smacked Lucy's butt left Gray struggling to hold Natsu back from where they had been trailing behind the quartet for the better part of two days. In fact, the ice mage was beginning to suspect that the card mage's advances on their newest guildmate would make the dragon slayer commit a murder.

"Calm down, chili freak," he gritted our as he gave the roset a particularly nasty shove. "You know as well as me that Erza will kill us both if she catches us. Lucy's a big girl, she can smack Cana's hands away for a while longer, okay?"

"She shouldn't do that," the dragons slayer whined out, his childish and clingy demeanor freaking out the ravenet. "She could jostle her bone, an' then it'll never heal right. If her arm's hurt, she can't do jobs as easy."

"Aye, but if Erza gets ya, you'll never do jobs with her," Happy chimed out from the air. "You should listen to Gray this once." Finally, the cat decided to just lift the roset off of the ground, shooting Gray an unamused look as he mumbled out, "This would be so much easier if there was a girl dragon slayer in the guild to watch Lucy during those girly events."

"This would be easier if explosion lacrima here could control his damn instincts. He's gonna get us in trouble one of these days." Peeking around the cluster of mwerebi trees, Gray saw Erza's scarlet hair disappear through the hanging foliage and let out a large breath. "Why did I agree to help you stalk them?"

"Finally," Levy groaned out the moment they set foot in Froebeli, a quaint little fishing town to the west of Magnolia. "It's pretty uncommon to have such a self reliant town ask for help."

"Gardenia is a regular town for working mages to be called to, though," Erza informed Lucy. "You can tell due to which towns and cities have train stations, magic powered carriages, and other quick means of transportation."

"That makes sense," the blonde hummed out, eyebrows furrowing as she cast nervous glances around her. She was far too close to where she had been little over a year prior, only about a day's walk from the prison she had run away from days before her sixteenth birthday. For a moment, eyeing the climbing foliage that stained the village varying shades of green, pink, red, and white, Lucy was sure she had stayed in the town when she had first started off, nerves eating away at her heart.

"Let's find a bar!"

"I agree, Cana," Erza hummed out, nodding curtly, "we should check into an inn before meeting the client." Pouting about being ignored, the hickory haired woman draped herself over the blonde and began whining in her ear, something Lucy was far too accustomed to.

"Lulu, I need a drink! Gimme a drink!"

"If you knew you would want drinks, why didn't you pick alcohol in your bag? You know the enchantment I taught you, so you could have an endless supply of alcohol at your disposal." Silence reigned on for a moment before the card mage jumped and began to cheer, hugging Lucy closely and praising her in coping tones she could barely decipher.

"I'm surprised Cana didn't think of that," Levy said, warmly eyeing the brunette and the stressed out blonde who kept her eyes scanning their surroundings. After a long moment of observation, in which a little goblin snapping a twig a couple meters over left the blonde to jump and stare at the tiny rodent as if it were a weretiger come for a meal. "Hey Erza, have you noticed-"

"Yes," the requip mage said, her mocha eyes moving from the goblin to their teammate. Levy watched, awed, as the redhead's features softened and she began urging Cana away from the paranoid celestial mage, Erza wrapping her own hand around Lucy's wrist and sending her a reassuring look once panicked topaz eyes landed on her. "I have a beautiful green skirt I think you would enjoy. Will you try it on when we get to the room?"

"Of course," the celestial mage breathed out, pressing her arm firmly against the redhead's and trying to ignore the paranoia screaming in the back of her mind. "I hope you guys don't mind, but I'm going to summon Nyra. Something about this place is giving me chills." Eying each of her teammates as they warily agreed, the blonde yanked out the silver key and quietly summoned the dragon, who appeared in the crook of her neck and began rubbing her head against Lucy's neck. "Let's get going." They began towards the small village, eyes peeled for an inn or a motel they could stay in.

"Lookie 'ere," the drunk of the group crooned out, pointing towards a rather rustic building with complete giddiness lining her features, "t'sa bar!"

"Some of us don't plan on sleeping on some tavern floor, Cana," Levy giggled out, adjusting the strap of her bag further up her shoulder. "What good is going to some place called Frosty Freddie's going to do us?"

"His wife runs an inn behind the bar," Lucy hummed out, her eyes tight with worry once more and shifting to peer behind her time and time again. Smooth scales flicked against her cheek, sending a wave of ease through her anxiously hammering heart, and she forced herself to relax as Nyra watched behind them. "It's the cheapest in town, but it isn't shabby. They only offer rooms to those who know about it."

"How do you know about it, Lu-chan?"

They watched her fold in on herself, subconsciously tucking herself closer to Erza while also trying to close herself off, as if she was unused to the idea of leaning on someone else so she was fighting her own bonds. "I had to stay here when I first started out as an independent mage," she said slowly, cautious and hesitant. "One of the patrons promised me a place to stay when I asked, and Freddie kicked him out with apologies and a free room. I stayed in Froebeli for about a week, doing small tasks for money."

Cana knocked the tavern door open with her hip, eyes trained on where Erza was leading the blonde with an arm around the blonde's shoulders, though she peered over her shoulder at the silence that reigned over the building. "Holy shit," she breathed out, mauve eyes wide with concern as she took in the barren area, a single woman with silver streaking her rosy curls stationed behind the bar.

"Hello, how can I help ya today?" she asked, voice brittle and heavy.

"Lamise-san?" All eyes were on the blonde as she stepped around the group, her eyebrows furrowed. "It's Lucy. I'm a part of the team who accepted the request for female mages."

"Lucy dear, of course. You've come for a room, yes?" The woman was quick to usher them behind the ratty bar and down a slender hallway. "I'll call Marianna here while you girls get comfortable. We'll talk everything over in the bar. Take as much time as you need." The blonde felt her heart pang with sorrow at the tears lining the elder woman's lashline, threatening to spill over and streak down her wrinkled cheeks.

"How the hell are we lost?" Gray hissed our in irritation, kicking a sizable rock with enough force to send it skidding for a couple meters. "We were right behind them. Happy can fly. We have a fuckin' dragon slayer."

"What have I told you about using that language, Gray?" an eerily familiar voice hummed out teasingly, shocking the trio into looking past the trees to their left, praying for a glimpse of something. They saw nothing, the ice mage taking off without a second thought while an unwilling dragon slayer hesitated before cursing his luck and following the ravenet. He just hoped nothing went too poorly with the quartet they had lost.

Hey guys! I'm back again! Thank you so much to my Beta for helping me through this chapter. It's kinda lame, but I have grand things planned and I want to leave you on a cliffhanger. Before we go anywhere, I just want to let you guys know that regular updates probably won't be set on a time schedule. I just graduated high school, I'm looking for several jobs, I have a friend who was kicked out of her house living with me, and I have literally no money. Writing isn't my top priority at the moment. That being said, if anyone would like to help me be able to clear up more time for writing, you can donate to me at pay pal. me /cafepassionne and I would be so grateful to you. Really, you have no idea how much that would mean to me. Enough about me, though.

Littlest1, as if I would ever just have the mighty Titania and She Devil sit quietly and read books to talk about later. Not to mention, Levy would read every book they picked out before anyone could finish the first. I figure that Natsu isn't as open all things considered, so to see him freaking out so much over anyone would freak everyone else out. Honestly, I don't even know how I pulled that off. My friend and I decided while we were brainstorming sleep deprived that we wanted all of the guys to freak out for no reason. I will definitely have Freed and Lucy be friends, so your backstory works wonders. I think the longer Lucy is around the loving people of Fairy Tail, the more she'll learn to accept herself and work on what she doesn't like. It's just going to be lifelike, so it will take time and she will relapse, but it will ultimately leave her happier and glad that she fought through it all. I have so many ideas for both Igneel and Zeref, both with Natsu and without him.

Therashae, I love Natsu's panic as well. He'll get a good reward though.

Alice, I missed you too, honey! If you want to keep in touch, you can email me at cafepassionne gmail. com or private message me. They are adorable.

Lucinda, thank you so much!

Guest, oh goodness no! Lisanna and Lucy are going to be friends. I feel like it may be awkward for them at first, but they definitely won't hate each other over Natsu's decision. Besides, Lisanna's going to have a crush of her own.

Melancholy's Sunshine, I love protective Natsu. I had to spare everyone of Natsu's beatdown.

GoddessxNyte2, thank you so much for the continued support and for all of your ideas. You're the best!

Kitty-cat989898, I agree. Hoarder Natsu is the best, though. I make them up for the most part, though the names are just translated from a list of languages I've set aside for each country (Fiorean is Italy if I ever do a story where Fiore isn't the main country). I also look at pictures, shows, listen to songs, read stories, etc. for spell inspiration. If you have any you want to see in the story though, let me know.

Naru285, thank you. I mean, I feel like some of the girls are trying to make Natsu's life harder on him, but at this point, it's a mixture of outside influence and her irritation at being locked up keeping Natsu on his toes. I love the Thunder Legion!

Guest, yes!

SllytherinAvengerPrincess, you're so cute! I bet you'll be less excited when you see where it's going. Levy is definitely going to be huge in this story, bigger than in the manga and anime for sure. There will definitely be Miraxus because our little demon match maker needs love, too. Thank you. Rogue and Sting will make an appearance.

Fairy. Rains, thank you so much love!

PrettyPansexual, great name! Thank you so much! Alright, I'll definitely look more into who I think will fit. Anywhere specifically you want the job, or is whatever I decide good?

Song Reccomendation: Partition by Beyonce