Nice and quick update isn't it? Don't get used to it.

Thanks to all of those lovely reviews and a special shout out to MEleeSmasher who has had stimulating ideas for this story. Thanks a bunch!

Now on with the story.

Disclaimer: PSHT! If I was writing this crap, would I own FT?

Warning: The usual of language and violence

3rd Person P.O.V.

A ponytailed blond with red tips hummed uncertainly as she stared at the job board in front of her. There was such a large collection of missions to do and she had no clue where to start looking. It was impossible to choose one best suited for her. Why wasn't there any jobs that needed bandits to be beaten up or killed? Tia knew she was good at that.

"This might be a job for you."

Lucy blinked as a flyer was placed into her view, a strangely tanned hand holding onto it firmly. Following the hand up into an arm and eventually to a face, Lucy gave a soft smile at the man who was holding the flier.

"Nab right?"

The man now known as Nab nodded and handed her the flier. "I can tell you're wanting something more based on violence from the way you're not looking at the mundane missions, this one is something that has been sitting on the board for some time."

Taking the flier, Lucy scanned over the information and nearly laughed at the coincidence. "I think this is perfect Nab. Thank you very much."

Nab laughed lightly and clapped her on the back, "it was my pleasure to help out whoever is in need. Jobs are what I'm best at helping out in, just don't get hurt okay?"

"I wouldn't dream of it."

A loud slamming of the door behind them drew the pair's attention to the opening of the guild door. A small boy's figure was framed in the doorway as he paused at the threshold before determinedly running past Tia and Nab towards the bar.

"Master! Master!"

Makarov looked down from the tankard of ale he was drinking to the dark-haired boy below. "Oh, Romeo, what is it?"

"My daddy." Romeo let out a choking sound and gripped his green shirt desperately. "My dad hasn't come home from his mission yet and it's been days! I want someone to go check up on him!"

"Romeo." Makarov closed his eyes as if in pain. "Macao will be fine. He's a strong mage who has taken it upon himself to finish his mission. He's strong enough that there would be no problems in his undertaking of this job, the idiot's probably gotten himself stuck in a snowdrift or something."

"No!" Now Romeo began to sniffle softly and cry. "My dad said he wouldn't take very long, a day at most. I'm worried he isn't okay. What if he's hurt?!"

Makarov went to reply to the child's questions when a slim hand grasped Romeo's shoulder gently.

"Romeo, right?"

The boy sniffled slightly and looked up at the blond who was crouching down beside him. He had never seen this member before, he would've remembered the red-tipped hair or her large brown eyes. He especially would've remembered an outfit as interesting as hers. More specifically, the wicked sword slung over her back.

"Yeah. Who are you?"

Lucy smiled reassuringly at the boy. "Mine name's Lucy and I joined recently. I was about to go on my first mission as a Fairy Tail mage and overheard your conversation." She stood upright and handed the flier in her hand to Makarov. "This mission would be best suited to my abilities and this situation."

Makarov studied the flier before handing it to a nearby Mirajane. "Write up this mission under Lucy's job log."

Mirajane also studied the flier, throwing a worried glance at Lucy before hurrying around the bar counter to write it up.

"I guess I'll be off to complete my mission." Lucy offered a wave at Makarov and patted Romeo's head before making her way out of the guild."

"What's happening with my dad?" Romeo was a bit confused at what had happened. That Lucy girl had said she was going on a mission but hadn't said much more than that. What was the point of informing him?"

"Lucy's job will give her an excuse to check up on your lazy father." Grumbled Makarov as he sculled more ale. "I'm too old for this crap."

Lucy P.O.V.

Humming an absent tune that I think I had heard Lyra sing before, I made my way out of Magnolia on foot. I didn't like transport that much and I had developed a strong liking of walking on my own two feet. Travelling around for ten months on foot gets you used to the concept.

Reaching a hand up to my pouch sewn into my belt, I withdrew a key at random before slashing it down the air.

"Pu-pun~"

Plue danced happily around my feet as I continued to walk. He was such a sweetheart. I finally knew why Lucy had always summoned him to walk with, he was a rather uplifting and comfortable partner to walk with.

Several people waved happily to me before I crossed out of the border of Magnolia and into the roads that led away from the town. Everyone in this world seemed a lot more trusting and kinder than those back home. Or that could just be the whole, trust no one or else you'll be backstabbed complex I have going on.

"Pun…"

I laughed as Plue spun around in circles and continued to dance. "You are an amazing dancer Plue!"

"You weirdo. Talking to things like that."

It took all my self-control not to scream and draw my sword. Instead, I flinched slightly and turned to see a grinning Natsu and a floating Natsu approaching me from Magnolia.

"Let me guess." I put a hand on my hip and settled for a disgruntled look. "Mira asked you to come keep an eye on me. Right?"

Natsu shrugged slightly and slung an arm over me, involuntary turning me and leading me away. "Something along the lines. She said something about keeping you warm but I have no clue what she meant by that."

I slipped out of his hold and crossed my arms, walking alongside him as Happy settled contently on my head. "You're a fire mage dumbass, your body runs at high temperatures all the time so you don't feel the cold. People like me don't have a built in heater so we need to have other means to keep warm."

Wrinkling his nose at my comment, Natsu replied. "Well you aren't wearing anything warm. That's just stupid."

"Says the guy with only a vest and pants on." I retorted.

"I have a scarf on! What's your excuse?"

Happy's tail tickled my neck as it drooped down, wrapping it around my neck I answered him. "I actually like the cold, heat totally sucks. I'll be fine, I've suffered worse."

"Worse than snow?" Natsu raised an incredulous eyebrow at me."

"Yep." I watched Plue attempt to keep up with us with his short legs before taking pity and scooping him up, mindful of the now sleeping happy on my head. "If you've ever slept on the street in only a shirt and shorts, you've had worse."

Ignoring Natsu's confused look, I quickened my pace slightly. "C'mon slowpoke. I would like to get to mount whatever-the-fuck-it-is before I grow old."

"You're already old!"

"I'm barely seventeen fucktard."

3rd Person P.O.V.

Natsu sent several sneaky looks at his travelling companion who was walking just in front of him. He barely knew this weirdo but he already thought her as a friend. She was now part of his Nakama and seemed like an alright person. If someone can like dragons nearly as much as him, they were alright by him.

"Quit looking at me."

Natsu involuntarily started at Lucy's sudden comment, but she hadn't turned her gaze from the path they had been taking up the mountain for the past hour. A blizzard had kicked in not long ago but the blond didn't show a sigh of slowing down. She just tucked her hands into her sleeves, put Happy in her leather vest and dispelled a more violently shivering Plue.

"Who the hell said I was staring at you?!"

Lucy shot him a knowing grin before squinting back into the onslaught of freezing snowflakes and forging on.

The Dragon Slayer wasn't cold at all, he could never feel the cold anyway, but he knew that other people had more of a problem with cold than him (barring Gray that little snowflake) and Lucy should've been frozen by now.

"Are you cold?"

The blond slowed her pace and dropped back to walk beside her companion. "Nah, I'm good. I regulate my magic all through my body and actually form a layer over my skin, it keeps the cold away to a degree. And I already said, I like the cold."

Now Natsu was confused, who in the name of Earthland liked the cold?!

"You're such a weirdo Lucy."

Again the blond shot him a grin, this time full of mirth. "I try my best…Natsu."

The two continued on in companionable silence, Natsu occasionally making passing comments about idle things.

"GRRRAAAHHHH!"

"Holy fuck!"

Lucy dived out of the way of the falling object and quickly rolled to her feet, drawing her sword as she did so. "Bloody, fucking Vulcan jumping out of nowhere!"

The object now identified as a mountain Vulcan roared at her before swinging a large fist at her. Lucy prepared to flip over the fist when a flash of black and pink blocked her view. "Damn it Natsu!"

The Dragon Slayer blocked the fist with his arms and lashed out with a flaming fist, launching the Vulcan a fair way back. "Fire dragons' fist!"

"I'm not a princess that needs to be protected!" Lucy clipped the idiot on the head as she dashed by, barely hearing the yelp of pain that followed through the howling blizzard. She hunched low to the ground and held her sword out wide, preparing for both attacking and defending if needed. "C'mon Macao you bastard," she muttered. "Show me what you've got."

The Vulcan roared in challenge again and leapt at the attacking blond. With quick reflexes, Lucy sprinted the last couple steps and then dropped into a slide that let her pass under the Vulcan. Before it could land, she quickly stepped up and spun, slashing at the creature with her sword.

There was a short scream in pain as blood flowed from a slice on the Vulcan's back. It landed awkwardly and brushed large fingers across the wound before roaring once more. This time, in pain.

"What's going on?"

Cursing softly, Lucy pulled the waking Happy off her head and threw it to a surprised Natsu. "Make sure you guys don't get caught up in this!"

Natsu went to answer but was drowned out by another howl of wind. He clenched Happy tightly so as to not let him blow away and settled for waiting for Lucy to weaken the Vulcan, then he would strike.

"Damn you stubborn bastard." Lucy spat to the side before sheathing her sword. "I can't use my sword because kill you, I guess I have to do this the old fashioned way." A smirk crossed her face as she lifted her fists in a brawler stance. "Finally, Tia style here we come."

Dashing forward, she met the mobile Vulcan head-on, powering her fist full of raw magic power before letting it smash against its face. The force of the punch carried her after the staggering Vulcan and she spun with the momentum of the punch, landing a solid roundhouse kick against its left leg.

The Vulcan lost its sense of balance and went down hard, a grunt emitting from its lips when it hit the ground. Taking advantage of its position, Lucy leapt into the air and raised her leg for a devastating axe kick that made its mark on the Vulcans' torso.

"…Damn." That was all Natsu could say as he watched his companion tear the Vulcan a new one with barely glowing golden fists. "What magic is that?"

Happy had no answer for him.

Lucy groaned slightly as she rolled off the Vulcan, "I think I tore a hamstring there. That'll hurt tomorrow." She wobbled a few steps before sitting down in the snow with a huff, not caring about the snow as she was already soaking wet.

"Lucy!"

She looked up at her waving companion, "what?!"

Natsu slid to a stop in front of her, his smile nearly splitting his face in half. "That was awesome! How'd you do that?! You were all like, 'bam! I'm gonna beat you Vulcan!' And the Vulcan was like, 'ROAR! NO YOU WON'T' But you totally beat him!"

The blond couldn't help but laugh at his excitement. "It didn't really happen like that, but okay Natsu, whatever you say!"

"Ugh, my head."

Both of the two Fairy Tail mages whipped around to see the Vulcan had disappeared, and in his place was a slightly gaunt man with purple hair.

"Macao you crazy bastard!" Natsu happily made his way over to the now not-possessed mage and hugged him. Or at least, tried to.

"He has serious injuries dumbass." Lucy held out an arm to stop him, "don't make it any more painful than it already is."

Natsu paused and took a moment to assess the condition of his fellow Nakama. He was covered in bruises and currently had blood dripping from between his hands that held his torso. The snow beneath him was slowly turning a dark pink, bordering on red. "Shit."

"Yes, shit." Lucy said patiently as she stood up and grabbed Macao under his arms. "Now can you find us a cave? It's nearly dark, we have an injured member of our party and it's still fucking snowing a storm!"

Nodding rapidly as to not anger her any more, Natsu turned to Happy for a lift. The cat sprouted wings and took off with the mage, managing to battle the storm in search for shelter.

"Are you an angel?"

Lucy grimaced at the delusional Macao who was burning up from fever. He had no shirt on and his pants were ripped, she had no clue how long he had been out of the Vulcan form on this mountain, but it was obviously enough to make him sick. She wasn't a medic of the gangs back home, that was the non-fighting chicks' jobs, but she knew he needed medical attention soon. He just needed to wait the night, it would be suicidal to try and get off this mountain in the dark.

"No I'm not Macao, I'm the newest member of Fairy Tail. My name's Lucy and I just joined…" Lucy began rambling to take both hers' and Macaos' mind off the situation at hand, if she could just get him on her back…

Not minding the blood she was getting on her clothes, Lucy shifted the man around so that he was draped over her back and supported somewhat comfortably.

'Don't summon your spirits Lucy.' She began to trudge slowly up the mountain and through the snow. 'You're not weak! Think of this as training! This is to help you get stronger for the events to come! This is physical training, so you can't use your magic! You've done it with your old body, you can do it in this one!'

Yelling her thoughts made Lucy feel more motivated, she picked up the pace and began to jog in the direction that Natsu and Happy had gone, mindful of her injured passenger who was staining her outfit red.

"If I wanted to, I'd kiss you right now Natsu in thanks." Lucy lay out across the ice floor of a cave Natsu had found and had led her to. She'd quickly fixed up Macao with Lyra's help and supplies before grabbing her animal skin blanket the spirit always had and set Macao up so he was warm and safe.

"Uh, no thanks?" Natsu didn't know how to reply to that so he left it alone.

"You like him~"

Lucy swatted lightly at Happy before curling up in a ball in the ground, "I could go to sleep right now."

She didn't care that her clothes were sticky with blood and that she looked like a crazy murderer, or that it was someone else's blood on her. When you've experienced this stuff before, you get used to it after a while.

"That's a good idea!" Natsu lit his fist and channelled a small stream of fire at the ground, melting a now warm dent into the ground. "Night Lucy!"

As he crawled into it, he was surprised to find Lucy tugging at his arm. "Make it bigger Natsu! You're meant to be my heater for this mission and you did jack-shit earlier so you might as well be useful now."

Natsu grumbled some things about how she hadn't let him do anything, but moved back out of the space and flared more flames into the dent to make it bigger. "Happy?"

Before Lucy could answer, he jumped into the now rather large hole, Happy fluttering down to curl up in his hair. Natsu made sure to take up all the room in the hole so that Lucy would be angry with him and maybe she would finally have a tantrum, but he was surprised when a warm weight lay on top of him.

"Night Natsu."

He peered down at the still slightly sticky blond that was now curled up on him, snuggling her head onto his chest. "What the hell are you doing Lucy?"

"Shhh…" Her eyes didn't open but her finger still found its way to his lips. "Heaters don't talk."

The fire mage was about to throw a fit to get a reaction from the blond when he felt Happy sleepily crawl off his head and wriggle down to her, curling up on her chest. The blond slowly stroked Happy and Natsu let out a grumble, "fine." He rolled slightly to the side so that the blond wasn't directly on top of him and closed his eyes, tucking his hands behind his head as a cushion.

Lucy hid her smile in Happy's fur and snuggled closer to the human heater and the fur ball that was keeping her chest warm.

'Best sleeping spot ever…'

Romeo stared down at the ground from the steps he was sitting on. He had waited until dark last night but neither Natsu-nii, that Lucy girl or his dad had returned. Upon waking up this morning, he had returned to the step that was near the outskirts of Magnolia.

'Dad mightn't be the greatest wizard, but he's better than all those other dads of those lame kids.' Romeo gritted his teeth angrily as he remembered the crude words of the bullies he had encountered before. "Dad'll show them! He went on a mission to kill all those Vulcans! I bet he took down ten! Or maybe twenty!'

"Romeo!"

The boy looked up to see Natsu-nii waving at him alongside Lucy, and both with their arms around…Dad!

"DAD!" Romeo leapt up from the steps and threw himself at his father's face, wrapping around it in a hug. "You're back! You're back!"

Macao laughed as he let go of Natsu and the new blond girl Lucy and returned his son's exuberant hug. "I told you I'd finish that mission." He leant in closer to Romeo with a gleam in his eyes, "and do you know how many Vulcans I defeated on Mount Hakobe?"

"How may?!"

"Twenty-nine, the last one slipped past me but these two helped me out." He nodded towards a proud looking Natsu and softly smiling Lucy. "Now you can tell those bullies that their dad's aren't as cool as yours! Your dad defeated twenty-nine Vulcans!"

The father and son began to chat excitedly among themselves, Lucy took the moment to gently tug Natsu away. "C'mon Natsu, we're not needed here right now."

Happy hurried after the two as they made their way back towards the guild in the early morning sun. "Are we going to find out what your mission was Lucy?"

The blond laughed as she looked at the cat floating beside her, "it was obviously to kill those Vulcans! Macao hadn't actually taken the notice off the request board, so we don't get paid!" She continued to laugh merrily and loudly.

"She's such a weirdo." Natsu muttered to Happy who nodded in agreement.

"NATSU-NII! LUCY-NEE! THANKS FOR SAVING MY DAD!"

The two mages and cat turned to an ecstatically waving Romeo, returning his wave just as cheerfully as he did.

"That was an awesome job. Don't you agree Natsu?"

"We're not getting paid for it…"

"Aye!"

Finished in one afternoon and I updated this on Saturday, Mimic yesterday and then this again today! I'm on a roll baby!

So Tia and Natsu walked the entire way and that's why they met Macao/Vulcan later on and had to stay on the mountain overnight. And in the canon, how the fuck did they bandage Macao?! It was like, 'magic! We fixed him with no repercussions even though we have no medical training that you know of!'

Fucking Fiore people.

I wasn't too sure if Macao killed twenty-nine Vulcan but ah well…

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it and all that jazz. Love y'all and stay coolio.

SunMoon.