A/N: Please enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own nothing
The town that needed protecting was pretty far away and the team was only about 5 minutes into their train ride. Naturally Natsu could not stop complaining. He was laying on Lucy's lap while she patted a cold towel on his head and rubbed his stomach in attempt to sooth him.
"Ughhhhh are we there yet." Natsu groaned in pain. Why didn't he pick a Job that was in walking distance?
Lucy sighed; she really hated seeing him this way. "I wish I could tell you yes Natsu, but we literally just left.
"UGHHHHHHH I'm gonna DIEEEEEE." Natsu groaned even louder.
Natsu was so loud that he was beginning to disturb the other travelers on the train. Worst of all, he was beginning to get on Erza's nerves.
Erza quickly struck Natsu on the side of his neck knocking him out cold. "There, that should knock him out until we get there. If not I'll just knock him out again." Erza closed her eyes, relieved to finally get some peace and quiet.
Lucy sighed. She knew it was necessary but she hated seeing Natsu get knocked out. "Do you have to be so rough with him?" Lucy asked while still rubbing Natsu's stomach.
"Come on Lucy, think about who you're talking about here. If you're not rough with him he'll never be out. He's had more concussions than any other person in the guild, while still trying to fight." Gray reasoned.
Lucy smiled. "Good point."
Meanwhile, in Juvia's mind: "Why is she smiling at Gray-sama like that? Oh no! Could she be trying to temporarily be with my Gray-sama while her love is knocked out? That is so selfish! How dare she?! I WON'T LET HER HAVE HIM"
Juvia began to squeeze Gray's arm to the point that there was almost no blood flow.
"Juvia!" Gray said snapping Juvia out of her psychotic daze. "Let me go! What are you doing?" Gray pulled at his arm trying to free himself from Juvia's grasp but he was wildly unsuccessful. Has she always been this strong?
"Juvia is sorry." Juvia quickly let go of Gray's arm, almost causing him to bump into Erza. Thank goodness he didn't.
Lucy couldn't help but laugh at Juvia's over affection. If only she knew what was actually going through Juvia's head.
A few hours later, both Lucy and Erza had fallen asleep and of course, Natsu was still knocked out cold. The only ones left awake were Gray and Juvia.
Juvia had been clinging on to Gray's arm smiling for about five minutes now. Gray figured she must be having another one of her insane day dreams and decided to snap her out of it.
"Juvia… Juvia… JUVIA." Gray said loud enough finally snapping Juvia out of her trance.
"Yes Gray sama?" She smiled widely
"Can I ask you something?" He said, slipping his arm out of Juvia's grasp.
"Juvia has an answer." Juvia then slipped into a day dream about Gray asking her to marry him.
"Dearest Juvia. Will you do me the honor of being my wife?" Dream Gray kneeled in front of Juvia grasping her hands.
"Oh yes I will my love!" Juvia grabbed Gray in a big hug. "Let us have 33 babies!"
"Juvia SNAP OUT OF IT." Gray said, successfully freeing himself from Juvia's embrace, causing her to snap out of her 4th daydream of the day.
Juvia quickly regained her composure. "Sorry… Again"
Gray shook his head. "Why do you gotta act so damn crazy all the time!? Gosh." Gray subconsciously scooted away from Juvia.
Juvia was a little shocked; this was not the question she was expecting. "You think Juvia is crazy?" In her mind, the picture of herself and gray with 33 babies was shattered.
"YES!" Gray said frustrated. "With the crazy fantasies and talking in 3rd person all the time. Why can't you accept that I'M NOT INTERESTED?" Gray didn't want to be harsh, but he felt it was necessary to truly get through to her. And it was working.
On the inside Juvia was crushed, but she decided to not let it show. "Juvia… I mean.. I understand. I will be nothing but your nakama from here on out." With that, Juvia faced forward with a regular expression on her face.
Although Juvia seemed okay, Gray new better. Right after he blew up at her, it started to rain. This was for the best though… Right? He didn't feel the same as Juvia so it was best to get her off his back. At least that's what Gray decided to tell himself. Deep down, he didn't believe it.
The rest of the train ride went by fairly quickly. Natsu woke up and fell back asleep a few times but Erza quickly knocked him out each time he did.
When they reached the city they were greeted by an old man with a long white beard.
"Hello, are you the Fairy Tail wizards?" The man said, vibrating out of control.
"Um, yes we are sir… Are you okay?" Erza asked the strangely vibrating man.
"Oh yes, this is normal." The man assured the team. "Lets get straight to business. There is a group of bandits that have been terrorizing my poor town I need you to capture them and bring them to justice." The man raised his vibrating fist with intensity.
"Will do sir; no task is too hard for a Fairy Tail wizard!" Lucy said with pride.
With that the group left in search of their target. However, they ended up wandering the city for hours with no leads.
"Maybe we should've asked the man what the criminals looked like. That would've saved us a lot of time." Lucy said while dragging her feet.
"You have a point Lucy, but it's too late for that. We've already left and I refuse to go back." Erza said dignified. "It will bring shame to Fairy Tail!"
"Plus that guy was really freaking me out" Gray chimed in.
Lucy's sweat dropped. "I don't think asking for a description will be all that life altering."
"Juvia thinks we should come up with a plan before walking anymore." Juvia stopped walking causing the others to stop as well.
"Alright" Gray agreed, oddly gaining no loving response from Juvia like he expected. "Um… well what at the habits of the bandits. Who do they target?"
"According to the complaints, they target young beautiful blondes." Erza recalled.
"Hmmm… too bad we don't have one of those." Gray deadpanned.
This caused Lucy to almost drop a half conscious, nauseous Natsu. "EXCUSE ME! I FIT THE DESCRIPTION PERFECTLY!"
"Oh yeah… Lucy is here. I guess you'll do" Gray brushed Lucy aside.
Lucy grumbled under her breath. No one appreciates her beauty but her.
So it was settled. Lucy would dress up in one of her more… Racy outfits accompanied by lots of jewelry to attract the criminals.
"Is all this really necessary?" Lucy complained while Cancer did her hair. "I was already cute enough on my own!"
"These split ends say otherwise… baby" He responded, snipping away at Lucy's hair.
Lucy just rolled her eyes and let Cancer continue fixing her hair into long thick voluptuous curls.
"All finished, baby" Said Cancer before closing his gate.
"All set! Are you guys ready?" Lucy asked walking into the room with her friends.
Gray, Juvia, and Erza were all sitting on a couch talking while Natsu was in the corner eating something, regaining his strength.
"Whoa Lucy, why are you dressed like that?" Natsu said, eyes bulging out of his head.
Everyone had forgotten that Natsu was knocked out when they had made their plan.
"Lucy is gonna be the bait." Gray shrugged like it was nothing.
Natsu sat there for a second. "NO! I'M NOT LETTIN THAT HAPPEN!" Natsu blew up.
Lucy rolled her eyes. "Oh hush Natsu, you make me the bait all the time."
"Well yeah! But that was before!"
Erza hit Natsu on the head. "We have a job to complete and this is necessary to get it done. We took an oath as Fairy Tail wizards"
Natsu agreed with Erza in fear and they were on their way. Lucy stood in the dark alley just waiting for trouble. Suddenly a group of guys walked up behind her.
"Bingo" Lucy thought to herself.
"Hey! Gives us all your money!" Said one of the bandits holding up a gun.
"AND YOUR HAIR!" another one of the shorter bandits yelled.
Lucy was taken aback by this. "Wha..? You sicko. OPEN, GATE OF THE LION LO-"
Lucy was cut off mid-sentence by an angry Natsu jumping down from a building. "FIRE DRAGON IRON FIST!" Natsu punched all three of the bandits, knocking them out instantly.
"Natsu! What did you do that for? I totally had them." Lucy crossed her arms over her ample chest.
Natsu shrugged. "I thought I'd handle this one. Those guys seemed kinda dangerous for you Luce."
Lucy glared at Natsu and walked away. Natsu decided to think nothing of it as he gathered up the bandits and met the team at the waiting point.
Once they turned the criminals over to the police, the group decided to go hang out at the bar, seeing how they got the full reward for once because Natsu didn't destroy anything for a change.
Lucy was giving Natsu the silent treatment, but he didn't notice. Lucy was growing more and more irritated because Natsu was ignoring her ignoring him. Erza was in the corner eating an entire cake, and Gray was jealously watching Juvia interact with Lyon, whom they had run into earlier.
Gray didn't think that Juvia was serious about being just his friend, but now he could tell she meant business. He couldn't believe he was witnessing Juvia actually flirt with Lyon. It was making him feel something toward Juvia he had never felt before. Jealousy. As soon as he saw Lyon lovingly embrace Juvia, something snapped. He quickly stormed over to the couple and shoved Lyon off of her.
"Get your hands off of her you jerk!"
Both Lyon and Juvia were surprised. Lyon quickly regained his composure. "Last time I checked, you weren't interested in the lovely Juvia. So what do you care?"
Gray glared at the man. "I don't! I just don't want her hanging with the likes of you!"
Juvia was getting annoyed and decided to step in. "Juvia wants to hang out with Lyon. Besides, you told Juvia you didn't like her and made fun of the way she talked. I am trying to move on. Please leave me alone Gray-Sama." Juvia crossed her arms over her chest.
This was very hard for Juvia and she was doing a great job of covering it up. So great of a job that it caused Gray to storm out of the bar and back to the hotel. About a half hour later, Natsu joined Gray at the hotel on the couch.
"I think Lucy is mad at me." Natsu said frowning.
"No duh. She's been trying to ignore you for hours. I think she's angrier at the fact that you didn't notice her ignoring you." Gray said bluntly.
Natsu stared ahead blankly. "That makes NO SENSE. Girls are crazy!"
Gray grunted at his frenemy in agreement. "When did you know you had feelings for Lucy."
Natsu looked at Gray in confusion, but decided to just answer the question. "Um… When I started to get mad when I saw other guys talk to her. When I wake up I think about Lucy, and when I go to bed I think about Lucy… Plus everything in between. When I'm around her I feel… Tingly. What really tied it all together was when I realized that I felt a different kind of friendship towards Luce than I did with any of my other Nakama. Even Lisanna" With that Natsu stood up and started to walk away. Before he did he slapped Gray in the back of the head. "Stop being so dense."
Gray sat there in shock. That was a true wakeup call; especially since it was coming from Natsu and he knew exactly what he needed to do. Gray left the hotel and made his way back to the bar. There he found Juvia right where he left her; chatting away with Lyon. Gray stormed over to the couple and without a second thought; he pulled Juvia into a kiss.
Lyon slipped away, smiling to himself. He knew Gray would come to his senses sooner or later.
"Juvia is confused." The girl said when the kiss ended. "I thought you didn't like Juvia."
"I lied." Gray said while pulling Juvia into another kiss that she quickly responded to.
Meanwhile at the hotel, Natsu was working on making up with Lucy.
"Luceeeeeee, can you at least tell me what I did." Natsu said while hugging a very unresponsive Lucy.
Lucy simply laid on the bed silently, trying her best to remain limp in Natsu's hug.
"Luceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" Natsu whined even louder.
In the next room Erza began to get more and more annoyed. "LUCY YOU WILL SPEAK TO NATSU AND END THIS PETTY SQUABBLE AT ONCE! I CAN BARELY ENJOY MY SOAP LACRIMA SHOW!"
That was all Lucy and Natsu needed to hear. "Yes ma'am!" Lucy yelled back to Erza. She remembers the last time she got in between Erza and her shows. It was not pretty.
"Just tell me what's up Luce." Natsu said quieter, being very afraid of Erza.
Lucy sighed. "I don't like it when you treat me like I'm fragile Natsu. We may be dating, but I can still handle myself like I always could."
Natsu hugged Lucy tighter, this time she responded. "I'm sorry Lucy."
Lucy knew she couldn't stay mad at him. When she really thought about it, he was only doing what he usually did and that was protect her. Lucy leaned up and kissed Natsu passionately and he eagerly returned that kiss.
Meanwhile, Erza was sitting in the main room, watching the Lacrima. She had witnessed both Gray and Juvia head to Juvia's room a little while ago, and from what she could hear, Lucy and Natsu had clearly made up. All she had was a couch, cake, and a soap lacrima. Erza sighed loudly and thought to herself; was she doomed to be alone?
A/N: I hope you liked it. I know this was kinda a Gray/Juvia chapter but don't worry there will also be plenty of NALU. There also may be something in store for Erza. Read and find out! Please review! Thanks for reading ^.^