Lucy sighed for the 5th time in a row. She closed her eyes and rested her head in the crook of her elbow and she slumped down in the bar seat. She hadn't found a job she liked or payed enough, it was the 4th day in a row and she was getting stir crazy. She'd cleaned her house spotless, she finished off the latest chapter of her novel, read the books she bought a few weeks ago and now she had nothing to do. Mirajane noticed and smiled down at her.
"Ne ne~ Lucy, why so glum?" She asked sweetly. Lucy lifted her head to look at Mirajane and sighed again.
"There's no good jobs right now Mira, I think we finished them all off last week." She replied before straightening up slightly and resting her chin on the palm of her hand. She watched as Mirajane cleaned and wiped some glasses before shelving them upside down. Mirajane turned to her and tapped a perfectly manicured finger to her lips before smiling.
"Why don't you do some small jobs for the mean while and if I spot any good jobs I'll pass them on to you?" She smiled wider when Lucy stood up.
"You know what? I just might, thanks Mira!" Lucy smiled at her before heading over to the request board and searched for something small and within the relative area. She passed over a large request before blinking and turning her gaze back to it. The request was quite vague but the reward held a lot of promises.
'700,000,000,000,000 Jewel, a rare white gate key, and a hint on where to find dragons goes to the one who can save our village, must be accompanied by at least 2 S-class mages and a celestial spirit mage. Our town in located just on the other side of Mount Hokabi'
"What kind of request is this?" Lucy whispered to herself before taking it off the board and walking back over to Mirajane.
"Hey Mira? Who sent in this request?" Mirajane frowned and took the request from Lucy's outstretched hand. She read the request over and frowned deeper. She shook her head and passed it back to Lucy.
"Let me check our records but I don't remember seeing that request before." Mirajane sent searching for the record book in the back, so Lucy took a seat and waited.
"What's that, a new job for us?" Lucy let out a small scream of surprise before whipping her head around to look at her pink haired companion.
Natsu was currently holding his hand over his mouth trying to stifle his laughter. She scowled at him and turned her body around to face them.
"That wasn't funny Natsu. You scared me." At her words he burst into laughter and tears rolled down the side of his face as he rolled around on the floor at her feet. She ground her jaw and glared at him. With a huff she turned away from him and went back to waiting for Mirajane to come back.
"Sorry Luce." He chuckled and sat next to her. He picked up the request and read it over. He nearly choked on his spit when he read the part about dragons. He snapped up and grabbed her hand, dragging her with him towards the guild doors.
"W-what? Natsu, what are you doing?" She struggled to regain her footing but he was moving pretty fast.
"To save the town, duh." He gave her a confused smile and continued on his way. She dug her heels into the floor and tried to stop him in his tracks.
"Did you even read the whole request or did you stop at the dragons part?!" She yelled and finally yanked her hand out of his grip. She stood there huffing and rested her hands on her first cocking a hip out.
"What more did I need to know? They know where the dragons are." He stood in front of the guild doors and frowned at his obviously angry partner. She smacked a palm against her forehead and went back over to the bar.
"Natsu, the request says we need at least two S-Class mages with us along with a spirit Mage. Besides Mirajane is checking to see if it's an actual request or a joke. I mean it's a really weird request. What are we saving the village from anyways? Bandits, a dark guild, demons? And why is the reward so big, if they just needed a little help saving the village 700,000,000,000,000 Jewel is a lot of money. I guess that it could be so high because they are requesting 2 S-Classes, they are pretty powerful..." She began to lower her voice as she read and reread the request over and over to herself. Natsu followed after her.
"2 S-class? It's a pretty dangerous mission, it should be up on the second floor, not down here." He scooped up the request against Lucy's protests.
"Natsu's right, but I can't find any record of that request being made. I'll have to talk to the master about it. A request like this should be handled very carefully, there isn't much details about it is there?" Mirajane reappeared from the back room holding a red binder, it was flipped open to a half full page full of writing. Lucy crossed her arms over her chest and began to try and piece together a clearer picture of what the request was. Natsu looked bewildered and handed the paper to Mirajane. He took a seat next to Lucy.
"Why can't we just go? We'll grab Erza and Grey, we already have you. We can leave tomorrow." Natsu asked after a moment of silence. Lucy turned and gave him an exasperated look.
"Gray's not an S-Class Mage, out of our group we only have Erza, we'd need Laxus, Gildarts, or Mirajane to go with us. Laxus is away on a mission with the Thunder God Tribe and Gildarts is with Cana catching up. We can't just drag him away from that, it'd be wrong." She leaned against the bar and smiled slightly when she thought of Cana and Gildarts finally getting some bonding time. They sorely needed.
"Why not just bring Cana along too then? Problem solved." Natsu smiled widely and Lucy shook her head.
"No, let's let them have their time alone. They need it Natsu, wouldn't you want some time alone with Igneel if you ever saw him again? Wouldn't you want to take a few days to just be with your dad again?" She asked him and he looked down at his lap.
"Yeah, I see your point." He whispered and clenched his jaw.
"We'll wait for Laxus to get back in two days before we go. Hopefully the village will still be there." Lucy nodded and smiled at Natsu. She went to speak but was interrupted by Master Makarov.
"Lucy, Natsu, could you two come to my office please. I'd like to have a word with you about this request." Natsu jumped up of his seat and began to make his way to the stairs. Lucy hung back for a second, frowning, they couldn't be in trouble could they? Mirajane smiled sweetly at her and patted her shoulder to let her know she wasn't in trouble but it didn't do much to quell her fear.
"Yes Master?" Lucy asked when they approached the Guild Masters desk. It was littered with paperwork with the odd bits and bobs poking out.
"Mirajane tells me you found the request on the first floors Request Board correct?" He asked and gestured for them to sit down. Natsu flopped down in the chair closest to him and Lucy sat down more graciously.
"Yes, I almost missed actually. I was looking for a small job, something in town when I passed over the request. I don't know why but I found my eyes drifting back to it. I couldn't help but be curious and took a closer look, I read it over and handed it to Mirajane hoping she would know more about it. I mean, shouldn't that kind of request be on the second floor with the rest of the S-Class jobs?" Makarov hummed under his breath and tapped his fingers against the armrest of his chair.