Author's Note:

Hello all! It's Sunday! And you know what that means... a new chapter!

As always, HUGE thanks to all my wonderful reviewers out there. Big hugs and kisses to: Izzy088136, stranger1999, Sele de la Luna, Starstruck-MJ, Lucinda sakshishetty3003, SistershoOk, valerioux, Moon'n'Tide, Bookwork129, Leomea2.0, FireShifter, NarukoSon, MajorPain67, Byrd3-13, Cino2K, Anna5949, Ninja-Turtle Charlie, and Copperreign12. You guys are all the best!

(Oh, and for everyone who celebrates this holiday season, I hope you all had a good time on Thursday. ;D)

Well, anywho, let's get right to it shall we? On with the show!

The next day, Natsu headed to the guildhall early, 'cause he was eager to see Luce again.

She'd promised to actually hang out with him today and take a break from all the star charts and stuff – and he was gonna hold her to it. He figured they could just chill, maybe watch some lacrima-vision tv and eat junk food… or play some board games in the guildhall… or challenge some other guildmates to a round of poker or something. There were lots of great things they could do.

He was all fired up and ready to have some fun, so he hunted Lucy down the second he got downstairs. She was super easy to find – sitting at the kitchen bar chatting with Mira and Cana – and he jogged over and snagged the stool next to her.

"Hey!"

"Good morning," she said with a big smile – though she looked kinda tired. He'd bet she stayed up late working on her star charts.

Before he could ask her about it though, Mira distracted him with food. "Do you want breakfast, Natsu?"

She sounded a little stiff, so she was still probably pissed…. But at least she wasn't giving him death glares anymore.

"Yeah! I'm starving!"

"Alright," she kinda huffed, and disappeared into the kitchen to grab a plate of whatever she'd made for breakfast.

While she was gone, Cana leaned around Lucy and shot him a smirk. "You sure came in early today, Natsu. Did you miss Lucy that much?"

"Yep!"

He didn't care if he sounded like a sap or whatever, so it was easy to just own up to the truth.

Lucy flushed, which was cute, and Cana rolled her eyes. "Of course you'd say that. You're no fun…"

She obviously lost interest in him and turned back to Luce. "So, how about it?"

"Huh?"

"Come on, remember? What were we talking about before your boyfriend showed up and distracted everyone? Have you thought about joining Fairy Tail for real yet?"

"Oh, right… um…"

That got Natsu's attention real fast, and he immediately jumped into the conversation. "Yeah! You should definitely join!"

"Don't pressure her," Mira scolded with a disapproving sniff as she came back out with his plate of breakfast.

Then she went ahead and told Lucy, "You should definitely consider it though, we would be happy to have you."

Natsu scowled at her for being hypocritical, but he was too busy stuffing his face to complain.

He still definitely payed close attention to what Lucy said though.

"Um… I've been thinking about it… but I'm still not sure I want to do anything illegal."

"You wouldn't have to. There's plenty of jobs that don't break any laws," Cana pointed out.

"Yeah, remem'er I told ya tha' we do all kindsa stuff here," Natsu said through a mouthful of food, and all the women shot him a disgusted look.

"So… I could choose which jobs I wanted to do and which ones I wasn't comfortable with?" Lucy asked a minute later, when she was done giving him the hairy eyeball.

Mira nodded, and Cana said, "Yep, you wouldn't have to do anything you didn't want to. Some of us rarely even leave Magnolia at all and just work here most of the time… like me and Mira. Depending on what kind of help we need around the guildhall, you might be able to do that sort of thing as well."

Hearing that seemed to make Lucy feel a lot better about it, and Natsu was super excited to see her eyes light up. He really wanted her to join…. It would just make everything perfect in his book.

"Come on, Luce! Please? I think you'd really like bein' part of Fairy Tail!"

"Oi! Didn't Mira just tell you not to pressure her?! That could turn her off from joining, Numbnuts!" Cana barked, bonking him on the head with her fist, and he winced a little.

"What the heck? But she also told Luce to join! Why can't I?!" he huffed back at her with a frown.

"I didn't pressure her to join. I gently urged. There's a difference," Mira said in a prissy sorta tone.

Cana laughed and added, "Yeah… something an idiot like you wouldn't understand."

That kinda ticked Natsu off a little, and he scowled at them both. "Oh yeah?! Are you two trying to pick a fight with me?!"

"I wouldn't mind having another spat…" Mira said with a sweet smile that sent a chill down his back.

It didn't have a chance to get ugly though, 'cause the sound of someone laughing interrupted them. Natsu, Cana, and Mira all stopped griping and turned to look at Luce – who was giggling and wiping her eyes with a napkin.

"What're you laughing at, weirdo?"

"Hm? Oh, nothing really…. just you three…. Haaa… I can't get over how ridiculous you all are…" she snickered.

Her silly response got a snort outta him, and he sent her a big grin. "Well, see? We always have lots of fun here. So why don't ya go ahead and join already?"

Cana groaned, and Mira shook her head, but Lucy didn't seem upset at all. She just chuckled again, which seemed like a pretty good sign to Natsu.

After a minute, she sighed and asked, "Just give me a little time to think it over, okay?"

"Sure!"

He gave her an even bigger grin, super happy that she was gonna think about it. Just hearing that was good enough for him right now.

And since he felt good about it, he switched his focus back to his food and tuned outta the conversation for a bit. Of course, the girls kept on talking, but he pretty much ignored them while he stuffed his face.

He kinda wished he'd been paying a little more attention though when he tuned back in, 'cause Luce was saying something that sounded interesting.

"- been thinking about it for a while now actually. Do you think Master Makarov would approve of it?"

"Yeah! Absolutely! That sounds like an amazing idea, Lucy! I can't believe we haven't thought of it before!" Mira said, acting all excited, and Natsu wondered what the heck he'd missed.

"Huh? What's a great idea?"

"Oh jeez. Were you zoning out the whole time Lucy's been talking? Seriously?" Cana asked.

"What? I was eating!" he huffed, not really seeing the problem. "So, what'd I miss?"

All the girls kinda scoffed at him, but after rolling her eyes, Luce said, "I was telling Cana and Mira about an idea I had. I don't know if it's possible… but I'd like to organize some sort of relief program."

"A relief program? You mean like what you set up back in Lampro Capnia?"

"Exactly! That way, while Fairy Tail is working to fix a particular queen or king, the people who are suffering under their rulership can still have access to food and medicine."

"Hey! That is a great idea! Good one, Luce!"

Her eyes lit up in that way he loved, and she gave him a big grin. "You really think so?!"

"Well, yeah! I wouldn't've said so if I didn't. You should definitely talk to Gramps about it; I bet he'll love it too."

"Alright… I will. But first, I need to decide whether or not I want to join, and then I'll talk to him."

That made sense, but he hoped she decided pretty quick, 'cause he didn't know how long he could wait. If she took too long, he'd just have to start pestering her until she gave in.

…

.

…

Lucy spent the rest of Monday thinking about whether she wanted to join for real or not, and she ended up mulling it over for a good part of the night too.

By Tuesday morning, she'd decided to take the leap. Even though it was a little crazy and scary to jump headfirst into a huge decision like this, she didn't have any real reason not to join anymore. The main thing that had held her back was her fear of being forced into a job that would compromise her morals… and those concerns had been taken care of the day before, thanks to Cana, Mira, and Natsu.

Now, since she didn't have anything holding her back anymore, the question had become – did she want to join Fairy Tail? And would joining Fairy Tail be a good path for her?

After a lot of soul searching, the answer seemed very simple and clear… 'Yes.' For several important reasons, joining Fairy Tail was something that she wanted to do.

First of all, these past few weeks that she hadn't been Lady Luck, it had felt like there was a small hole in her life, which she suspected would continue to grow the longer she didn't do something productive. She wanted to continue helping people, and she knew that being part of Fairy Tail would give her amazing opportunities to do just that. It was almost like fate or destiny had stepped in and put her in the perfect place to continue doing the thing she'd always loved.

Only an idiot would pass up a chance like this.

Aside from that though, an even bigger reason she wanted to join was the fact that she'd made such close friends here – not to mention a boyfriend – and at this point, she couldn't imagine leaving them. Fairy Tail already felt like 'home' to her… much more than Lampro Capnia had after her mother died, and she wanted to stay indefinitely.

There were other factors of course, but those were the two largest things that cemented her decision to join Fairy Tail, and she was so confident in that decision that – once she'd made up her mind – she was determined to go through with it as soon as possible. So, when she woke up from her fitful sleep Tuesday morning, she went straight to the main hall to find the master. She had spoken with him some over the past two and a half weeks, and he'd turned out to be very nice and almost grandfatherly… not at all what she'd expected from the master of an illegal rebel guild.

As for this morning, she was able to track him down quickly, since she'd noticed that he often spent his mornings drinking coffee at the kitchen bar.

"Master Makarov? Can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Ah, Lucy. Of course you can. Have a seat," he said with a smile as he gestured to the stool next to his. "Actually, I wanted to talk to you as well."

"Ah… oh, okay. Um, what did you want to talk to me about?" she asked hesitantly as she sat, suddenly feeling a little nervous.

"Age before beauty, eh?" he asked with a chuckle, but didn't turn down her offer to go first.

Pulling a folded-up piece of paper out of his coat, he handed it to her with a serious look on his face. "I wanted to show you this."

She took the paper from him and gingerly unfolded it… feeling slightly nervous about what she might find, considering the severity of Master Makarov's expression. However, that was nothing compared to what she felt a moment later.

The instant she identified what she was looking at, her stomach tensed so hard that she immediately became queasy. It was a wanted poster with her face plastered across it, labeling her as a 'runaway' and offering a hefty reward for her return to Balsam Island. Apparently, Eisenwald wasn't planning to take 'no' for an answer, and he still wanted her… very badly if the reward was any indication.

For a second, she became lightheaded and thought she was going to pass out. Just the idea of that man hunting her down was enough to make her sick, and all of the dark memories that she'd been working so hard to manage threatened to overwhelm her.

Luckily, the oncoming panic attack must have been fairly obvious, because Master Makarov interrupted her downward spiral. His gentle pat on her shoulder startled her a little – making her flinch – and she turned to look at him questioningly.

"Don't worry. He won't find you here…. We'll keep you safe. I only wanted you to be aware of it, so that you'll know to wear a disguise if you do leave Magnolia at any point," he said soothingly. Then, after a moment of thought, he also added, "Though, for the time being, I'd strongly suggest that you stay in town as much as possible, and certainly don't leave alone."

His reassurances helped snap her out of the danger zone, and she managed to pull herself together – just barely – and refocus. Not wanting to look at the poster anymore, she hurriedly folded it up and shoved it into her pocket… and mentally tried to do the same to all of her unpleasant thoughts.

"Thank you, sir…" she said simply, hoping that he understood she was covering the whole conversation with that one statement.

"Of course. You're very welcome. Now, what did you want to talk to me about?"

Lucy was happy to take the offered distraction…. It was exactly the sort of thing she needed right now. She would much rather talk about the future and focus on the positives in her life, rather than stew on the negatives from her recent past.

"Oh, right… um…. Well, I've been thinking a lot about what I want to do with my future, and… I've decided that I would like to join Fairy Tail. If I may. Is there anything in particular I have to do to join?"

"That's wonderful news! Let's go to my office, and we'll talk about it in more detail there."

As they got up and Master Makarov led her towards the left-hand hallway, he said, "There's nothing in particular that you need to do to join. But there are some requirements you need to meet in order to be an active member."

About twenty feet down the hallway, they reached a door on the right – which he opened for Lucy and gestured her through. Inside was a fairly good-sized office, with massive filing cabinets taking up the entire back wall, bookshelves along the righthand side, and glass cabinets filled with various magical artifacts on the left.

A desk sat in the middle of the room, and Makarov hopped up to sit crossed-legged on top of it, then waved his hand at the three chairs in front of him.

"Welcome to my office. Make yourself comfortable."

She gingerly sat in one of the squishy armchairs, feeling both nervous and excited. "Thank you. Um… so… what sorts of requirements do I need to meet?"

"First of all, do you have any magic?" he asked seriously.

"Yes, I do. Though I haven't trained, so I don't really know what I'm capable of…"

"Good! That would have been the most difficult requirement for you to meet, and as long as you have it, you can always learn how to use it. We are technically a mage guild, and if you hadn't had any magic at all… well, it would've been very hard for you to be an active member. So! What sort of magic do you use? Or, will be training in, I should say."

"Celestial magic…"

His eyebrows shot up with obvious shock. "Well now! That's a very rare talent you have there! I'm glad you decided to join us; we can definitely use someone with such special magic." He paused for a moment to just smile brightly at her… then continued with his next question. "And once you've trained your magic skills, what sorts of jobs would you like to take?"

"I'm… not comfortable with the idea of doing anything extremely illegal, and I wouldn't ever want to take a mission to hurt or kill anyone…"

"I see. Killing, I think we can mostly avoid, but it'll be a problem if you can't hurt anyone. You don't have to take any of the assassination missions or anything that specifically requires you injure, torture, or maim someone… but a lot of the jobs we take on do require a certain amount of fighting. For instance, how would you feel about taking a job to capture someone?"

She thought carefully about it for a moment, and slowly said, "If the person deserves to be caught because they've done evil things, then I think I would be okay with hunting them down and catching them. I wouldn't ever want to do that to someone who ran away for a good reason though… considering my own situation."

"Perhaps it would help you to know that we do have something like a 'code of conduct' when it comes to these jobs. We do the research and make sure that whatever we're hired to do is morally justifiable. For example, if we're hired to hurt someone, we make sure that person actually committed the crime they're accused of and that the crime fits the punishment. So, if you were on a capture mission, and your target turned out to be a victim, then we would simply refuse that particular job."

Hearing that did help her feel much better about things, and she found it easy to say, "Oh! Well if that's the case, then yes… I'd definitely be able to go on one of those missions."

"Good. Though, as I said, most of our jobs usually involve fighting, so you'll need to toughen yourself to the idea of hurting someone in battle."

"That… I think I could handle. What I couldn't do is hurt someone just for the sake of hurting them, especially if they can't fight back."

"Then that's something you won't ever have to do. We already have plenty of members who are fine taking care of those sorts of jobs."

She was a little unnerved by that statement, but decided not to comment or voice any of the questions that immediately occurred to her. Instead, she asked, "Do you ever get jobs that don't require any fighting at all?"

"Oh yes, we get those as well. They just aren't as common, and sometimes they require a very specific skill-set. But you're welcome to take as many of those as you'd like… once you're properly trained and can use your magic of course."

"Oh, okay. That's good to know. And um… Is there a minimum number of jobs each member of Fairy Tail has to go on?"

"Something like that. The only real requirement is that everyone needs to pitch in and help out. Of course, a big part of that is going on jobs and earning money for the guild. For every completed mission, half of the reward money automatically goes to the guild to pay for supplies and other expenses – which is only fair, considering we offer all our members free food, board, baths, and so forth at the guildhall."

"I see. And… what would happen if someone doesn't earn the guild enough money? Are they kicked out?" Lucy hesitantly risked asking, wincing a little as she did.

The grandfatherly master blinked and looked horrified, quickly responding with, "No! Of course not! Fairy Tail is a family first and foremost. A good father wouldn't abandon his child just because they aren't contributing enough…. but I might have to have a very stern talk with them. Of course, earning money isn't the only way to help out around here, as I'm sure you've already seen with Cana, Mira, Warren, and Wendy for example."

"Oh good…" she sighed, relief making her limp for a short moment; then she continued. "Um… I'm not sure how much I can contribute monetarily until I've learned more about my magic, but I can help out around the guild."

"I'm perfectly happy with that. Just ask around to see who needs any help."

"I'll do that then! Thank you for your understanding! Ah… and also…" she stalled, wondering how to bring up and explain her idea to him.

"I don't know how much Natsu told you about what I was doing back home as Lady Luck… but I was wondering if… maybe it would be possible to do something like that on a larger scale."

"He told me that you were handing out food and medicine to people who didn't have enough… but how do you plan to expand that concept?" Makarov asked, looking very interested.

"I'm not entirely sure, but the way I did it back home was by finding nobles who were willing to donate their leftovers to the cause. So… maybe I could just essentially do the same thing in each of the kingdoms that you're working to change or replace the ruler?"

"You know, that's an excellent idea!"

"You think so?!"

He nodded and smiled at her. "Yes, I do. Though of course there are a lot of factors we'd have to take into consideration…"

"I'd be delighted to hear any advice you can give me! I've never done anything this extensive before," she quickly said, excited and eager to know what he thought about her idea.

"Well first, I'd suggest collaborating with Warren. He can use his contact network to find people in each kingdom who'd be willing to help collect and hand out goods…. But locating enough donors will probably require you to visit each kingdom in person. I'd be happy to make a priority list for you of all the kingdoms who are worst off at the moment, and you can tackle them in order of need."

The first and last suggestions thrilled her, but the second was a little disappointing – even though she knew he was completely right. Still, it would take a lot of time to personally visit every kingdom on his list… not to mention all the time that would be eaten up by finding enough willing food donors in each one.

"You're right. And, knowing how many nobles' kitchens it takes to supply a food pantry, I have no idea how I'll locate enough donors without spending at least several months in each kingdom…. Though, that isn't exactly feasible."

"Warren's contacts can point you towards sympathetic nobles – which will speed up the process – and if there just aren't enough of those around in a particular kingdom, you can always target the richest nobles in the area and convince them to donate," Makarov suggested mildly with a terrifying smile.

"Ah… um… right…" Lucy stammered and nearly choked, having forgotten for a second that she was essentially dealing with a mob boss.

He smoothly continued without paying any attention to her stuttering. "Naturally, I wouldn't recommend doing that until you have some practice with your magic – just in case things get ugly – and you'd probably want to take some competent companions with you. I'd recommend Erza, Gray, and Jellal for political reasons. They're all excellent at keeping a cool head. Natsu, Elfman, and Gajeel are powerful… but they tend to run a little off-script, if you know what I mean."

Makarov's side comment made her cough out an explosive laugh. Thinking about Natsu's impulsiveness as going 'off-script' was like describing a tsunami as a 'little wet.'

"You can say that again! I don't know about Gajeel or Elfman… but Natsu is the definition of a bull in a china shop," she snickered, and then paused after a sigh, really thinking about it. "But still… even though it might be a bad idea, I'd like for him to come with me whenever that time comes. Assuming he isn't busy with his own mission of course…"

"That's fine. You can take whoever you want… I certainly won't stop you," the grandfatherly master said with a knowing smirk that made Lucy flush a little. She still wasn't entirely used to everyone knowing about her and Natsu's relationship… it was a very new experience for her.

"Um… great!" she said with a slightly embarrassed chuckle. "So… anyways, I guess the most I can do at the moment is talk to Warren about finding people who might want to participate. Right?"

"That's about it – until you've learned how to use your magic. If I were you, I would get started on that as soon as possible."

"Yes, absolutely! I'll work hard and get stronger as quickly as I can!"

"Good girl. I think you'll fit into Fairy Tail just wonderfully. Did you have any other questions you wanted to ask me before joining officially?"

He hefted a small, important-looking leather book onto his lap and opened it up. If she had to guess, it was probably a roster of all the Fairy Tail members, and he was about to write down her name – which prompted some very spastic butterflies to flutter around in her stomach.

"… No. I think I'm good," she said after a second's delay, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly to settle her nerves.

"Excellent. Then, welcome to the family, Lucy Heartfilia," he said with a kind smile and scribbled something in his book.

"Thank you…" she murmured, actually feeling a little tearful.

However, her warm fuzzy feelings only lasted briefly… thanks to Makarov saying, "Oh, and you can go get your guild tattoo whenever you're ready."

The unpleasant reminder immediately made her wince. She'd completely forgotten about being tattooed… and it certainly wasn't something she was looking forward to. The idea of having the guild's mark on her body for the rest of her life didn't bother her at all, thanks to being so convinced that this was where she belonged, but she was dreading the pain that would be involved.

"Right… thank you for reminding me. I'll go do that right now."

Makarov blinked, looking surprised, and quickly said, "You don't have to do it right this minute, you know."

"That's okay. To be honest… I've heard that tattoos hurt a lot, and I'd rather get it over with sooner rather than later," she chuckled weakly, trying to sound strong and probably failing miserably.

"Ah, I understand. Good luck!"

She expressed her gratitude with a slightly feeble, "Thank you," and turned to leave his office.

Sneak Peek

At first she looked like she was okay with it, but as soon as his lips touched hers, she flinched and pushed on his shoulders in a clear, 'nope.' Her eyes got all big and worried – not scared luckily, just a little unsure – and he figured that she must've realized she wasn't ready for kissing yet.

So, he gritted his teeth and focused insanely hard on exerting the kinda self-control he usually never bothered with and forced himself to put her down – with some space between them.

It took him a second to remember the thing they'd been talking about before, but luckily he came up with the answer quick enough. "That's awesome, Luce! So… you, uh, said that you're gonna go get your tattoo right now?"

Author's Note:

Woohoo, alright! Looks like we're finally making some progress here. ;D Lucy's gonna join Fairy Tail! XD

Oh, and I can promise plenty of NaLu fluff in the next few chapters. Never fear. XD