A few days after the Macao's misadventure, Lucy found herself stretching after waking up in the bed of her newly acquired apartment.

'70,000 jewels of rent is so cheap. It's such a good place, so spacious and with so many closets. Not only that, but it also has a slightly retro fireplace and a kitchen stove! But, the best part of it all is my room!' she thought while taking a bath and drying off.

She was interrupted by a knock on the door and she went to open it, forgetting she was wearing nothing but a towel. When she opened the door, she saw her new pink-haired guildmate and his blue-furred companion. Upon seeing her, Natsu raised an eyebrow and Happy placed his right paw on his mouth to keep himself from laughing which was a real struggle.

When he took note of Lucy's confused look, Natsu decided to explain their reaction. "Are you trying to copy Gray?" he joked, pointing at her only piece of clothing.

When she looked down and realization hit her, Lucy developed a huge blush and slammed the door shut, screaming. "KYA~!"

This was all too much for Happy who burst out laughing uncontrollably. So much so that he fell off of his pal's shoulder and landed on the floor but he was so caught up in his laughter that he didn't even notice and just continued mocking the girl's misfortune, clutching his stomach and rolling on the floor.

Shortly after, Lucy reopened the door, now fully dressed but a faint blush still visible on her cheeks. "Why are you two here?" she asked in an annoyed and embarrassed tone.

"Because Mira told us you had picked out a place. We wanted to see how you were doing." Natsu explained.

"Aye." the blue cat confirmed.

"As nice of you as it is, did you really have to show up this early?" the blonde sweat dropped, letting her two guildmates in.

"Maybe but for one thing, that isn't the only reason why we came. And for another, Happy didn't want to knock, he suggested it'd be faster to climb through the window."

This prompted Lucy to look around her apartment in search of the blue feline in order to punish him for his idea of barging into her place. She freaked out when she found him scratching the wall with his claws.

"It's a very nice room." he complimented.

"Sure isn't as nice now." Natsu retorted.

"Don't sharpen your claws on the wall, stupid cat!" Lucy yelled.

A little later, Natsu and Lucy were having tea with Happy sitting on the table. The girl was looking rather impatient for her guests to leave.

"Look, I just moved in so there isn't anything for us to do. So how about you two just drink your tea and leave?" she suggested.

"Jeez, talk about a cold welcome." Natsu commented.

"Aye, ice cold." Happy added.

"Cold, you say?" Lucy repeated.

"But anyway, if you want us out of your home, I suppose it's your right. Therefore, I'll be brief and direct. Is your last name Heartfilia?" the pinkette asked and the shocked face the girl made was all the answer he needed.

"H-How can you know? I made sure never to say it. D-Did my father tell you? Because I won't-" Lucy stopped when Natsu raised his hand as a sign to let him talk.

"I know because I met someone named Heartfilia before and you two have a striking resemblance. Nothing more, I promise." he reassured her.

"O-Okay. But please, don't tell anyone. I don't want people to know as some rich girl." she pleaded and was relieved when Natsu nodded in agreement and so did his blue partner. If Lucy wanted to keep her last name a secret, he would respect that.

Truth be told, the Celestial Spirit mage was very curious about that relative of hers Natsu mentioned but she just wanted to change the subject. Something Natsu picked up on and decided to help her with. And he knew just how.

"Oh yeah! Why don't you tell us more about your Celestial Spirits? How many do you have a contract with?" he asked and successfully cheered the girl back up.

"Six! And of different types: 3 silver and 3 gold. The silver keys are the ones that can be bought in magic shops. I have Horologium "The Clock", Crux "The Southern Cross", and Lyra "The Harp". However, the gold keys are super-rare. There are only twelve of them and they open the Gates of the Zodiac. There is Taurus "The Golden Bull", Aquarius "The Water Bearer", and finally Cancer "The Giant Crab"." she explained but her last spirit really enthused and excited Happy.

"A crab?!" he repeated.

"There he goes with food again. Now that I think about if, I still need to make a contract with the key I bought in Hargeon. Since you're here, I'll show you how a Celestial Spirit wizard makes a contract with a Celestial Spirit."

"I hope it isn't some sort of blood pact." Happy whispered to Natsu.

"Shouldn't be buddy." the pink-haired mage reassured while chuckling and patting his blue companion on the head.

"Alright, pay attention. I call upon thee, in the world of the Celestial Spirit. I beckon you to my side at once. Pass through the gate. Open Gate of the Canis Minor! Nicolas!" Lucy recited and summoned a short, stout, white creature with a stubby tail. Nicolas had a pair of bland black eyes and a golden horn-like nose. His body shook nervously.

"Nice try." Happy said.

"Shut up! That's what I meant to do!" the blonde girl screamed. She then grabbed her newest spirit and brought it into a hug. "You're so cute."

"Is he?" Natsu wondered.

"It doesn't actually take much magic power to open this gate so a lot of wizards keep this spirit as a pet." Lucy explained.

"I don't like that whole pet thing one bit, Natsu." Happy whispered to his best friend again.

"I mean, Lucy doesn't strike me as a responsible pet owner either." Natsu concurred.

"You know I can hear you, right?" the newest Fairy Tail member asked rhetorically. She then turned back to the Celestial Spirit and sat down on the ground. "Well, let's move on to the contract." she told him and the spirit raised his hand in confirmation.

"How's Monday?" she asked. The white creature shook its head no and Lucy wrote it down.

"Tuesday?" He nodded yes.

"Wednesday?" And so on. All the while Natsu and Happy were staring at the interaction, not really seeing what was so special about that contract thing.

"Okay, that just about does it." Lucy declared when they were done and Nicolas jumped in celebration.

"Looks pretty easy." Happy commented.

"It may seem that way but it's crucial. Actually, a Celestial Spirit wizard's contract with a spirit relies on the promise made between them. Which is why I make it a point never to break a promise. See? Okay, now I need to pick a name." the blonde elaborated.

"Isn't it Nicolas?" the blue-furred cat asked.

"That's the name of the species." the Celestial Spirit mage clarified. "Oh, I know! Come here, Plue." she called out and hugged the snowman

"Plue?" both males said simultaneously.

"It's the cutest name ever. Right, Plue?" She then set the now named Plue on the floor and he started to do some sort of weird dance which caught Natsu's interest.

"You think so Plue?" he asked and the dog nodded frantically.

"You can understand him?!" the girl asked, stunned.

"To a degree. He suggested you, Happy and I form a team." the pinkette translated.

"A team?" Lucy repeated.

"Aye. Everyone in the guild is ally to one another, but the people who get along really well get together and form teams within the guild. That way, if a job is too hard for one person, it can get done by a team." Happy explained.

"That's awesome! Let's do it!" she exclaimed enthusiastically while Natsu was holding his chin in thought.

"Alright. I guess it can't hurt to give it a try." Natsu accepted and the two shook hands. "And it's good timing. We already have a job ready." he added as he pulled out a job request which Lucy snatched from his hands with excitement.

"Let me see what you got there. It's in Shirotsume town, huh? No way! 200,000 jewels just for taking a book from a rich guy called Duke Everlue!"

"Is that what this is? Happy's the one who picked the job." Natsu thought aloud, finding it quite odd, knowing his blue-furred friend's tastes by heart.

"Be aware: Everlue is a dirty old pervert who's currently looking to recruit blonde-haired maids." Lucy read aloud, the pitch of her voice getting higher at the end.

"Aye. And we know a blonde-haired girl who I'm sure we can find a maid's uniform for." Happy mocked and the girl got depressed and fell on her hands and knees.

Natsu would have scolded his feline partner but the amused smirk on his face would have made it rather hypocritical so he didn't. "Sorry Lucy but since Celestial Spirit wizards never go back on their word, I guess you're stuck with us."

"But he tricked me!" she yelled in protest.

Back at the guild hall, a short blue-haired girl and her two teammates were looking at the request board for a particular job that they couldn't find.

"Ugh darn. Did someone already take that book-stealing job? It paid rather well." she complained.

"Sorry. I guess Natsu and Happy got to it first." Mirajane informed.

"Natsu and Happy? Why did they take it? It doesn't seem like the kind of thing they usually do." the bluenette wondered.

"Don't despair, it's probably better that they are the ones who took this job, Levy. It's changed." Makarov told her.

"How so?" the girl, now known as Levy, asked.

"The client has just contacted me. The reward has been increased to 2,000,000." the old man clarified which shocked everyone around except Mirajane who was just curious and Gray who started smirking.

"Sounds like this job just got interesting." he said to no one in particular but Mirajane felt the need to comment anyway.

"Hey Gray. Nice outfit." she joked with her usual smile. Upon looking down at himself, Gray freaked out, seeing he was only in his underwear.

On the road to Shirotsume town, the newly formed team was in a carriage with Happy doing his best to annoy an already upset Lucy and Natsu deep in thought as usual.

"Hey Natsu." Lucy called to get his attention, which she did when he hummed in response. "I was just wondering why you picked me to join your team."

"To help you get started in the guild and because you seem like a nice person." he answered which surprised and flustered her a bit. "Although your flaws can be really annoying."

"Anyway, I'm totally excited for my first real job." she declared.

"Really? I thought you were upset about it." Happy responded.

"I was but then I realized if this jerk likes pretty girls I'm perfect for the job, right?" she declared with confidence.

"See what I mean? Your vanity gets on my nerves" Natsu commented.

"All humans kinda look alike to me." Happy added. Both comments bringing the girl back to earth.

"About the pay scale, since I'm doing all the work I think we should split the reward 80,10 and 10." Lucy established.

"You only want 10%?" Happy questioned.

"I'm the 80!"

When they arrived at the town, the group started looking for their client's house and Lucy took the opportunity to ask something she had been wondering for some time.

"By the way Natsu, why don't you ever eat your own fire, water, ice or gravity energy? Wouldn't that make you invincible?"

"I can't, it's kind of forbidden. It would be like you eating Taurus or Plue." he responded which convinced the girl to let go of the subject.

When he saw a restaurant, Happy got excited and requested that they go eat something. Knowing he wouldn't get his friend's mind off of food, Natsu relented with a sigh but Lucy decided to stay behind. Some time later, Happy was stuffing his face and Natsu was eating next to nothing when Lucy showed up in a maid's outfit and started practicing to act like on.

"What do we do? I was joking about the costume but she took it seriously." Happy whispered to Natsu, not quite low enough.

"YOU WHAT?!"

Later on, the three were in their client's house. Well, mansion might be a better word. They were greeted by a middle-aged couple and brought in a living room where they seated on a large couch. All the while, Natsu could feel something didn't add up. Or more precisely, he could smell it.

"My name's Kaby Melon. Pleased to meet you." the man introduced himself.

"Melon? You have a tasty name." Happy commented which didn't sit right with his first comrade.

"Happy, behave." Natsu ordered in a calm but authoritarian tone which seemed to work. "Sorry about that." he apologized to their client.

"Don't worry. I get that a lot." he reassured. "But first thing first, allow me to tell you about the job. It's pretty simple actually. Duke Everlue has a book called "Daybreak" in his possession, I would like you to burn it for me."

"For 200,000, we'd burn the whole place down for you." Happy affirmed.

"Don't you know? The reward has been raised to 2,000,000." Kaby Melon clarified which shocked Happy and Lucy but only served to raise Natsu's suspicion.

"2,000,000 divided by 3? How much is that?" Happy wondered.

"Around 666,666." Natsu provided.

"No I don't think that's right. I think I get 1,000,000, as do you and Lucy gets the rest." Happy argued.

"But then there wouldn't be any rest!" Lucy shouted.

"Anyway, I think we have everything we need now. We'll see when we're done." Natsu declared as he stood up and pulled a reluctant Lucy out of the house.

Once they were gone, Melon started talking to himself. "Daybreak, it must be burnt. It cannot be long to exist any longer."

In front of Duke Everlue's residence, Natsu and Happy were hiding behind a tree and Lucy was about to go and put her plan into action when Natsu stopped her and handed her a pair of white gloves.

"Why are you giving me those?"

"Your guild mark is kind of an obvious tell." he observed and the girl blushed and smiled in embarrassment while taking the gloves and putting them on. After that, she made her way to the heavy double steel door of the residence's entrance and the two male hid behind a nearby tree.

When she reached the doors, Lucy called out, screaming. "Excuse me! I heard you had an opening for a maid position! Hello!" While thinking, confidently. "All I have to do is wow this pervert with my looks, burn a book and I get 2,000,000 jewels. This will be easy.'

As soon as she thought that, the ground behind her erupted and another girl in a maid outfit jumped out of the hole it created high in the air before landing in front of Lucy, startling her in the process. She had short, pink hair tied up in two pony tails and blue eyes and was of an extremely tall stature and overweight with a brutish face.

Shortly after, Everlue himself jumped out of the same hole. He was a short, plump man with skinny arms and legs. He had a formal black suit, with his jacket fastened with a large gold button and adorned with a decorative red flower. Beneath his jacket was a white collared shirt, a blue necktie and dark blue boots. He also sported a curled mustache which directly protruded from his nostrils, as well as a bushel of wavy hair atop his round head.

Upon landing on the ground, the Duke started examining the blonde girl who was amazed by his ugliness, internally referring to him as "monster" but put on a front nevertheless, trying to appear as appealing as she could. "I hope you like what you see."

If the stare he was giving her was anything to go by, he didn't. "I'll pass. Now go away, ugly." And so, it was confirmed.

Those words struck Lucy the same as a knife in the heart would. Moreover, she looked life less when she got picked up by the pink-haired maid. "You heard the man. Get going ugly." she said and Lucy felt stabbed a second time.

"Sorry but a man of my standing as standards to uphold." the short man declared as four other maids just as ugly erupted from the ground behind him. "That's why I only hire the best of the best." he added and Lucy hallucinated at the ugliness of his maids.

Some time later, Lucy was sulking and sobbing, sitting on the ground with her back against a tree and holding her knees to her chest. Natsu and Happy were in front of her, looking at her.

"Well that was a waste of time." Natsu commented.

"It's not my fault! That idiot wouldn't know beauty if it hit him in the face!" she contested.

"Excuses." Happy accused which got Lucy to start crying again.

"Well, I guess we're going to have to do it the old-fashioned way." Natsu declared.

"Yeah! That big jerk is gonna pay for this." Lucy proclaimed with a clenched fist and an angry expression while greeting her teeth. After a short pause she started talking again. "Wait a second, what's "the old-fashioned way"?"

"Break in and fight our way to the book." Happy supplied.

"That's a terrible plan!"

Later on, the three of them were on the mansion's roof courtesy of the flying blue cat and the pink-haired wizard was melting his way through a window.

"This feels like a waste of time." Natsu complained.

"Anything else would've gotten us straight to jail." Lucy countered.

"Uh huh. And how to you plan to get revenge on this guy like that?"

"Oh I'm gonna get revenge alright. I'm gonna clean the toilet with his toothbrush." she answered, proud of her plan.

"That's a lame revenge." Happy commented.

"Never mind that. It's one of the grossest things I've ever heard…and that's saying a lot." Natsu corrected.

As they stepped inside what looked like a store room, Lucy was eyeing the various boxes, armors, vases and weapons. Unfortunately for her, Happy found a skull just the right size for him to fit his head inside which he did and then screamed at the top of his lungs, almost giving the Celestial Spirit mage a heart attack.

"Check me out!" he said to his partner.

"You're looking fierce Happy." Natsu complimented, amused by the feline's antics.

As they were making their way through the house, searching every room they came across, Everlue's five maids jumped out of the floor, ready to attack the intruders. But Natsu, his patience being almost non-existent thanks to the tedious searching made quick work of them.

Finally, they found the library and started looking for the book they were tasked to destroy. But once again, another problem arose: they were a lot of books. Not to mention Happy getting distracted by literally any book he inspected.

"Ugh. How are we ever going to find-" Lucy started but got cut off.

"Found it." Natsu declared, holding up a yellow book with dark blue letters spelling "Daybreak" on it.

"H-How?" Lucy stuttered, astonished.

"It was sparkling so it caught my eye. Pretty convenient." Natsu explained. "Well, guess all we have to do now is burn it." he added, igniting his fist and was about to set the book on fire but was interrupted when Lucy noticed something and snatched the book from his hands.

"Wait a second! I didn't realize this was written by Kemu Zaleon!" she exclaimed in excitement.

"Who?" Natsu asked though he soon regretted it.

"Kemu Zaleon was a great wizard and an amazing writer. I'm such a big fan of his and I'm positive I must have read all of his books but this must be an unpublished novel!" she rambled while cuddling the book.

"Uh, whatever. It all burns the same to me." Natsu shrugged and Lucy got horrified and hugged the book in a protective manner.

"Don't you dare touch it! This is a great work of literature! You better stay away from it!" Lucy refused.

"But what about our mission? Failure is not an option." Happy insisted in a creepy way.

"Come on guys. Let's just say we burnt it. I'll never tell a soul, I promise." the blonde pleaded while slowly walking backwards and away from the two.

"Lying to our client? Some nerve you've got."

"Aye."

"Well, well, what have we here?" a voice called out, interrupting them and Everlue broke through the library's floor. "So you thieves are looking to take Daybreak from me, are you? I knew you all you lowlifes wizards were coming here to steal something of mine but I never would've guessed it was that stupid book."

"This works out great! If it's so stupid, I guess it's no trouble if I keep it!" Lucy exclaimed.

"That's not the point! No matter how stupid it is, it's still mine!"

"Would you two stop bickering like greedy children? I can settle this in two seconds." Natsu stated, lighting his hand on fire once again.

"No way!" Lucy refused. She then felt a cold chill run down her spine when Natsu sent her an angry look.

"Lucy, this is our job." he said, his voiced raised slightly.

"Well, at least let me read it first." she pleaded, sitting on the ground and opening the book.

"Right now?!" Happy and Everlue exclaimed and Natsu began feeling seriously exasperated and annoyed by the girl's attitude.

"I've had enough of this! Come forth Vanish Brothers!" Everlue called, enraged and two of the library shelves separated, revealing two very different men from the Southern Wolf, a mercenary guild.

"Natsu, try and hold them off. I think this book holds some kind of secret." Lucy asked and ran away with the book. Upon hearing this, Everlue went after her, disappearing in the ground.

"Happy. Go on and help Lucy." the pink-haired mage commanded and the cat immediately flew off.

"You seem very confident for such a little guy." the bigger man stated.

"Perhaps we should put him in his place." the other one suggested. "So you're a fire wizard?"

"Yes. What about it?" Natsu responded.

"We are specialists in fire mages." the older man declared, pulling out a monstrous frying pan.

Then there was a bit of an awkward moment when Natsu just sent the two men a bored look before sighing and lazily calling out. "Water Dragon's Wave." and sweeping his right arm from left to right, sending a wave of water that filled the whole room and sent his two adversaries through the door into the hallway, unconscious.

"Well, I guess I have to go and find the others now." he stated, shoving his hands into his trouser pockets and heading off in the direction his nose suggested.

Deep in the house's sewers, Lucy was using magic glasses to read the book at the speed of light.

"That's amazing! I knew this book held some sort of secret!" she exclaimed before her left wrist was grabbed and held from behind.

It was Everlue who came out not from the ground but from a wall for a change. "In that case, you might want to share it with me."

"No way! A man like you doesn't deserve to know what it is! You're an enemy of literature!"