I don't own Fairy Tail.

Wow, it sure has been quite a while. I'm giving up on promising ANYTHING cuz I clearly can't keep it, even tho I promised to work on my fanfics DURING my holidays, I didn't. I suck lol

Well, this was unexpected. No matter what timeline, not once had Natsu asked her so early, then again, she'd never expressed her desire to join until later. She was likely changing the timeline, which could prove slightly risky if she changed too much. However, it was not necessarily a bad thing; she had future knowledge, and she didn't come back to the past to sit back and do nothing. And being stronger than before or wanting to help Zeref or meeting Aurora, all of it was the little things she planned to do to change things.

Slowly, but surely, she was making a new future; and her instincts said it would be okay this time.

"-cy? what a weirdo." Natsu shook his head. "Do you think that's a yes, Happy?' he pondered out loud to the blue-furred creature. Happy stared up at his friend and nodded. "Obviously," he provided.

"Sorry," lucy giggled nervously, "I was kind of shocked. But, yeah. I-" she thought of Bora, and suddenly, it was more of a struggle to keep her smile intact, "actually have some business to attend first. You're heading back to the guild, right?'

'The guild' fell from her lips so naturally, it scared her. It was their guild. She couldn't afford to create attachments. She knew for a fact that anything could happen; things changed and as much as she wanted to create a family within the guild, she could lose them too easily. It would never be her family, anyway.

Her heart clenched painfully in her chest, and she gripped her white shirt, wishing she could throw these unwanted feelings away.

"Huh? Business? you?' Natsu scrutinised her, Happy snickering.

Lucy ignored the jib, "Actually, this concerns Fairy Tail. Remember the blue-haired guy? He was wearing a ring that made women fall in love with him," she explained, "and he said he was from Fairy tail."

Natsu got serious all of a sudden, and Lucy had to restrain herself from smiling fondly. She wondered whether someone else should've been here. She'd always needed to be protected, and even after all these lifetimes, she hadn't yet saved anyone. Maybe she should've been the one to die because it was people like Natsu that truly would go to any extent for their family, not her. She was so useless, why her-

Natsu cut off her train of thought, oblivious, "That bastard's asking for a beating," he gritted his teeth.

"Yep! He invited me to his party."

"Eh, I don't need his invitation. I'm inviting myself." Natsu declared proudly.

"You can't-" Lucy paused, it was Natsu, he probably could. "It's on a yacht."

'Shit', she thought to herself. She slipped up.

"So?' Natsu asked, scratching his head. Lucy felt a moment of relief.

"You get motion sick on ships and stuff," Happy pointed out. Lucy's stomach dropped in dread. "But, how'd you know?'

"I didn't," Lucy calmed herself internally. She had never been the best at lying, and since she'd lost most of her memories each time she travelled to the past, she'd never really needed to lie either. The panic had bled into her voice, but only slightly. "I just assumed..."

Happy got distracted by fish and had not even listened to her finish her sentence. Lucy sagged in relief, immediately tensing in case Natsu had heard her with his hearing, but he was talking to Happy about food.

She needed to stop.

"We just ate," she called out, ignored. Well.

There was a light tap on her shoulder.

"Hello," a suave-disgusting disgusting disgusting, lucy's brain supplied-voice said. The blue-haired slave-trader, Bora.

Lucy smiled, anger trembling beneath the surface. But as tense and rigid as her muscles were, as hard as she was clenching her fists, she kept her smile carefree and confident. "You're the mage from before. Wow, kind of low, using charm magic,"

The man smirked, and as she predicted, replied, "So, you're a mage. I knew you were different as soon as I saw you. I didn't wanna be by myself at my party. I'll release them from my charm afterwards, no harm done,"-no harm done, my ass-"wanna come?" he shrugged as if he could care less if she didn't. He probably wouldn't, she supposed, but he was probably thinking about getting more money by selling her, so it would still be advantageous. Not to mention, she was beautiful, if she said so herself.

"Sure."

"will there be lots of food?' Natsu asked. If this had been the Lucy from years ago, from the original timeline, she would've been startled or jumped. But she could hear his steps, as light as they were. Natsu was, funnily enough, the type to storm around, creating a mess, but sometimes he could be so quiet. Like when he wanted to sneak up on someone.

"Lucy, I'm coming with you, too!' He grinned.

Bora immediately started to shake his head. The head shaking got even more frantic when he noticed Natsu's red guild mark.

"He charmed girls for a reason, Natsu," Lucy smirked. "You'll ruin the party with your vomiting, anyway."

It was half-true. He would get in her way if he came to the party.

"But I want food." Happy whined with Natsu. "Can I come?'

Natsu swatted at him, betrayed.

"No, my god." Lucy chuckled. "You two sure are annoying. I'll meet you tonight."

Lucy noticed, out of the side of her eye, Bora smirking. She would bet a million jewels he was thinking that she wouldn't. Oh, she would show him.

This is pretty short. I actually wanna maybe re-edit all the chapters first for this fic, so yeah. MAYBE.