Okay guys, I'm gonna need some help. I have a poll put up on my profile page, and the following questions are this: In my other story, 'Fairy Tail's Vampire' should Mira's personality when she's growing up stay the same daredevil rival of Erza, or the kind barmaid poster girl, or perhaps maybe possibly if I can think of a way… A bit of both? Like I said, it's on my profile page so please vote

(Makarov's POV)

Knock

Knock

Knock

"Come in," Makarov answered. The door to the guild master's office slowly creaked open to reveal a young girl. Her attire consisted of a skimpy gothic-like shit that only reached a bit before her stomach stitched with a skull and wings by it's sides, a single magenta ribbon tying her hair in a ponytail with stands of hair to the sides of her face, and dark leather shorts. In other words, the very definition of a tomboy. Grunting, she slammed the door shut.

"So, what is it you wanted to talk about old man? And make it quick, I was about to eat and I just came back from a mission. I'm starving and you know how I am when I get hungry"

The elderly man gestured at the stool in front of his desk.

"Hello Mirajane, and welcome back. Thank you for coming on such a short notice. Please, sit. I promise to be as brief as possible" Mirajane shrugged, giving a lazy hop onto the chair. Makarov handed her a plate of steaming chocolate chip cookies.

"Cookie?" The girl gave a deep-throated growl. "You said this would be short" Makarov sighed.

"Indeed I did. But it still might take a while and I suggest eating them while they're still hot" She glared at him, but nonetheless accepted the offered pastry, munching somewhat darkly, but immediately brightening when she tasted it's cinnamon goodness. Spinning in circles on the rotating footstool, the young female began to hum cheerily. Clearing his throat Makarov continued.

"As you pointed out, I did say I would try to be brief. We have a problem. A potentially large one that may even possibly lead to war" Mirajane stopped spinning, attention now completely on her guild master.

"Whaddaya mean war?" Makarov pinched the bridges of his nose, letting out a breath reeking stress and impatience.

"I dare not tell you all the details right now, for fear that I am wrong and put you in harms way. But what I can say is that someone has gained a lot of power, and we have no idea whose side he's on. I want you to find out, and tell me, under the pretense of a simple guild request. Normally I would go myself, but…" The guild master swept his hands around his office, every square inch covered in paperwork that required reading over, signatures, and other tedious jobs that demanded working on. A few fake tears slide out his eyes. "I'm trapped and haven't been out in months…"

Mirajane let half of her cookie hang limply from her mouth, eyes skimming over the parchment, lazily gleaming the basic information.

"And exactly why am I not allowed to know everything?"

"Because should I be incorrect in my assumptions, and I pray this is so… Let us just say you will be able to sleep better at night. Will you accept this job?" Finishing off her food, Mirajane belched.

"And why me exactly?" Makarov smiled. Time to lay the bait that would feed the girl's already huge ego.

"Well, you obviously are the strongest in the guild, so isn't it natural that I entrust such an important mission to you and your team?" He handed her a dry scroll that contained the details of her cover mission. Of course, while the fact that Mirajane was strong was undeniable, Makarov could've just as easily given the mission to Erza or Laxus, but the redheaded knight had her own mission, and his grandson had disappeared to the heavens knew where again, so the only one left was Mirajane, but she didn't need to know that. Straightening out her back, the child smiled arrogantly and pointed to her chest, happy to have someone she recognized as a superior compliment her.

"Pfft! Atadamarideshou! Obviously! Glad you finally figured that out old man! `Course I'll do it! When do I leave?" The trap had been set, the bait had been laid, and the prey had been caught. Too easy.

"Whenever you want" Wasting no time, Mirajane raced back to the entrance her voice ringing "I'll go right now then! Don't worry now gramps! I'll be finished in no time!" Makarov chuckled, hearing echoes of the young girl disturbances as she ran to her siblings.

"Wait, wait, Nee-chan! Where are we going? Oh no! My lunch! Nee-chan, how could you! That was mine!" Laughter.

"I'll treat you to food later Lisanna. I just got us another job to do so hurry up and get ready and be snappy about it!" A male voice spoke up.

"Nee-san, do we really need to leave it right this instant? I still haven't eaten either and Lisanna—"

Thwack

"Shut up! When I say we leave, we leave! We'll go back home and pack, then we'll take the train! Got it?" A heavy sigh.

"Yeah, okay…"

"BWAHAHAHHA! IN YOUR FACE ERZA! I GOT THIS MISSION, NOT YOU! I'LL SHOW YOU HOW MUCH BETTER I AM THAN YOU!" Sweat dropping, Makarov wondered if he had really chosen well.

'Is she really going to be all right? Oh dear, I hope I haven't made the wrong choice…'

(Natsu's POV)

'Concentrate, concentrate… C'mon…'

BOOM

The apple in front of him blew up, the force of the explosion knocking him backwards. Groaning, Natsu picked himself up and sat, legs crossed face in his hands.

"CHIKSHOU! DAMNIT! WHY DOES IT KEEP DOING THAT!?" He screamed into his palms. The exercise Igneel had set him was simple: Burn the apple from the stem to the seeds, leaving everything else untouched. But why was it so hard? He slammed his head against a tree stump, as if the pain would somehow make the task easier. Igneel sat nearby, laughing at his son.

"Pathetic. You really expect to beat me like this?" Weeks ago, Natsu had declared, as his first act of learning the ancient form of Dragon-Slaying magic, that his goal would be to defeat Igneel in any sort of challenge, whether it be combat, victory by insults, or any other insane competition, the enthusiastic boy had sworn to win. So far however, not much progress to this goal on the 'concentration' side had been made. Igneel admitted the boy did have an incredible amount of strength and power, but if he couldn't control that power or touch his opponents, then it would be useless.

"Will you cease your useless attempts and admit your loss?"

"YADA! Hell no! I'm going to finish this even if it kills me!" Natsu shouted in frustration. The dragon snorted.

"Sure, whatever you say kid. By the way, if you can't do this by the end of the hour, no lunch for you"

"Nani!?" The boy whined. "That's not fair!"

"I don't care. You have an hour, better finish fast, or just give up now and get me some apples, so you can have lunch" Mind in turmoil, Natsu weighed his options. On one hand, his pride would never admit defeat, but on the other hand, his stomach would never stay the same if he missed his lunch. His dilemma still sat in front of him, large and evil as ever. Igneel decided to help speed things up.

"We're having fish for lunch" That did it. Grumbling, Natsu finally gave in.

"Wakatayo! I get it! Fine! I'll go get your stupid apples!"

"Oh, and they had better be from the Amai Orchard" Natsu grit his teeth. That was at the other side of town! Even at top speed it would take him half an hour to get there.

"Or you could miss out on the fish…"

"Karyuu No Hoko! Fire Dragon's Roar!" Blazing hot fire cascaded from Natsu's mouth, aimed at Igneel's face, but the dragon simply arched his neck, easily moving out of the way.

"Nice try. I think you should get me an extra batch of apples. Take this basket and fill it up before I make you take two" Forcing himself to take the basket and leave before anything else happened, Natsu hopped off, springing from tree to tree.

(Mirajane's POV)

"So, remind me exactly what job this is?" The triplets of the 'Take Over Trio' sat in a private car of a train, set up simply with a small table in the center and cushioned seats on it's sides. The view whizzed by, people, trees, mountains, and animals all a blur of colour. Mirajane bored, stared out the window; while her little brother and sister were playing the foreign card game 'Jian Hong Dian'. Normally, Mirajane would have joined them in for games like Go-fish, or Egyptian Ratscrew, or her favourite game, Slap Jack where you could slap everyone else's hand as hard as you wanted.

The game went like this: Basically you tried to get the cards to add up to ten by pairing up a card from your hand and one of the six cards laid out. Red cards were worth points, and black wasn't worth anything. King, Queen, and Jack had to match up. But unfortunately for the eldest of the trio, this also meant doing math, which she considered the most annoying thing on earth. Why couldn't everything be solved with a bit of smashing and violence? Other humans were so weird.

"Just a simple job of stopping some thief. He's been stealing from a couple nobles, so I thought 'Hey, we're really good at hiding and pouncing on people, why not? Easy money' Why?" Lisanna rolled her eyes.

"Well, for one, you kind of left in the middle of lunch. You NEVER do that. Even if you took mine, you would always chow down and eat the entire bar out of buis— OUCH, OUCH, OUCH!" Mirajane had put her little sister in a headlock and stretched her mouth to painful proportions. Elfman remained silent, contemplating on his next move, accustomed to the usual catfights that occurred between his sisters.

"Lisanna, your move next" He said in his usual baritone voice. Shoving her elder sister off, Lisanna swiped up the rest of the stray cards.

"Game set and match!" She proclaimed triumphantly. Her celebration was cut short when Mirajane attacked her with a successive attack of the tickles. The two fell onto the floor underneath the counter, laughing and gasping for breath, Lisanna fighting back with a rapid barrage of her own fingers. Elfman calmly gathered the cards in a pile and shuffled them, sliding them back into their case. A robotic pre-recorded voice crackled to life over the train's speakers.

"Attention all passengers. Please gather all your belongings and head to the closest exit point of your cars. Thank you for choosing the Madan Express, and we hope you enjoy the rest of your day" The girls stopped their brawl and the boy stood up. They gathered their belongings and hurried to the doors. Just managing to scrape past the closing doors, both girls fell to the floor panting and allowing a short rest, while their brother simply examined their mission scroll that had mysteriously appeared in his possession.

"So… Where do… We go next?" Mirajane asked between breaths. Elfman gazed at the scroll for a second longer, then raised his finger to their left.

"It says that the person who employed us is a man named Yataka Morbis," A pause. "Oh, and it also says he lives at the top of that hill" Mirajane groaned and slapped her face.

"More walking? But I'm still so tired from that train ride!" Lisanna snatched the scroll from her brother, trying to find something he had missed.

"Lemme see this… Oh wow! Says here he's also the president of my favourite apple company! Oh my god! Their apples are the juiciest, and completely natural! No added sweeteners or anything" Mirajane waved a hand in front of her sweating face.

"Yeah, sure, fine, whatever. But exactly what's the name of this company?"

"Amai Orchard's of course!" Stuffing the scroll into her pockets, Lisanna clapped her hands, making a loud smacking sound.

"Alright then, Nee-chan, Onii-chan, we should go now while it's still light out. C'mon, we have a long walk ahead of us" Elfman silently followed her, Mirajane whining and complaining the whole way.

All good stories need a bit of slightly boring beginnings to really make the rest stand out, so without further ado, I present the official start of Natsu incorporating with Fairy Tail! YAY!

- Justin, Lover of anime, enemy of haters, and family to all my otaku brothers and sisters. Welcome to my world! XD