Summary: Lucy needs to pay her rent somehow….

Pairings: Natsu/Lucy, Gray/Juvia, some Happy/Charle, Gray/Lucy friendship, Natsu/Gray friendship, mentions of Lucy/Juvia friendship, mentions of Natsu/Lisanna friendship and Natsu/Happy/Lucy friendship.

YouTube Prompt: General Fairy Tail tribute to 'Marching On' by One Republic.

"For the last time," Natsu growled, "I won't fucking do it!"

It was a typical evening in Fairy Tail, and Natsu and Gray were fighting over who will be doing Erza's laundry that night (the redheaded member was not there as she had to go on a 'mission' but no one has ever known anyone to go on a mission in a black, slinky, dress….well apart from that one time with Elfman but no one wanted to remember that), Gray was determined that Natsu would be the one to do it since he had better things to do with his life, and Natsu refused because he wanted to spend his evening playing with Lucy and Happy not washing Erza's weird underwear.

"You will do it," Gray snapped back, "or I will have this photo not only on display in the guild but plastered on Sorcerer Weekly's Hair Don'ts" It was then Gray revealed a picture of Natsu with his hair styled in strange ringlets.

Natsu's mouth dropped open as he remembered that hideous hair style. Somehow, someway, Yukino's evil-fied spirit had managed to give him the ridiculous and nauseating look. Happy also suffered the same makeover but miraculously the cat wasn't captured in the photo which meant it was just Natsu who would suffer the humiliation if that photo ever went public.

"Where the fuck did you get that?!" Natsu roared furiously.

Gray shrugged uncaringly as he hid the photo back in his personal space pocket (where everything went seeing as his clothes disappeared all the time and therefore he couldn't keep things like his wallet in a normal pocket). "Lucy gave it to me," he said as if it was nothing.

Natsu whirled round and pinned his so called best friend (after Happy...and Lisanna, no wait, Lucy comes first, but then Happy and Lisanna feel more like friends than what Lucy feels like to him…..oh this was confusing) with a betrayed look.

"Lucy," he whined pathetically as he pouted, "How could you?"

Lucy shifted under his stare, her cheeks bright pink, her eyes focused on her shoes rather than meeting his directly. "He pays my rent every time I give him embarrassing material on you!" she blurted out eventually.

"What?!" Juvia shrieked. "Gray-sama pays for Love Rival's rent? Are they now a couple living together?!" she wailed loudly for everyone to hear. "Oh, how Juvia's heart is broken. How could you, Gray-sama? How could you, Love Rival? I thought we were friends!"

"What!" Gray shouted horrified. "It's not like that!" he grabbed Juvia by the shoulders and shook her hard. "Stop thinking crazy stuff! Love Rival and I – I mean Lucy and I are not a couple."

"Oh Gray-sama!" Juvia cried out ecstatically before she tackled Gray.

"Gah!"

Natsu barely paid attention to the stupid, moronic, Gray and his weirdo girlfriend. He was still trying to get over the betrayal of Lucy. "Lucy!" he exclaimed for the fifth time as Lucy still looked down shame faced.

"Wow," Happy said with wide-eyed wonder, "I always knew you were greedy, Lucy, but not this greedy."

"It's not like that, you stupid cat!" Lucy snapped. "You two keep destroying things on our jobs which means we rarely get the full reward and I don't make my rent payments. You guys might cope barely being able to afford food but I need somewhere to live. If I had any other choice that didn't involve crime or selling my body, I would take it. I don't like giving him that sort of stuff on you."

Natsu relaxed at that. The fact that Lucy didn't enjoy giving this ammunition to Gray, and that she didn't want to do it but had to, meant a great deal to him. He swore, right there and then, he would do better to not destroy things on their jobs.

After all he couldn't have his Lucy dealing with that snow fairy every time she needed to pay her rent.

Natsu might be ready to forgive Lucy but that didn't mean Happy was. After all if this was where Gray got all his material on Natsu from then it was also the likely source to that embarrassing photo of Happy fishing a fish out of the bins that Gray had shown Charle….his chances ruined! "I'm sure you sold your body before," Happy couldn't help but put in one last sly jab.

Lucy snapped at that. She might feel guilty selling embarrassing photos to Gray in order to pay her rent but that didn't mean she was going to let such an insult go without punishment.

"LUCY KICK!"

Happy screamed as he flew out of a window, Charle sighed exasperated and decided to go find him before he did himself further injury.

Lucy panted slightly as she struggled to get her temper back under control. The furious look on her face caused several members to disappear from sight as none of them wanted to be on the wrong end of Lucy's temper. Eventually though, she returned to her calm, quiet state, and when she caught Natsu's (slightly horrified and in awe) eye, she flushed with shame once again.

"Look, Natsu," she said softly, "I'm really, really, sorry. I-"

"Don't worry Luce," Natsu shrugged it off with a grin. "I forgive you."

Lucy blinked at that. "You do?" she asked hopefully.

"Yeah," Natsu nodded. He then reached out and slung an arm round Lucy's shoulders before he brought her closer to him. "And don't worry about your rent either. I'll sort it out."

"How?" Lucy looked up at him curiously. He tried to smother a grin when he realised she was pressed up against his with her hands flat out against his chest, they must look like one of those couples on Erza's weirdo books. "You can't even afford to eat half the time."

"Oh that's easy," Natsu said as his grin came out at full power. "Just come and live with me."