Disclaimer : I most certainly do not own Fairy Tail.

The story is beta read by an awesome friend and I'm very thankful to her ~

When the sun has set, no candle can replace it - George R.R. Martin

The morning sun was shining brightly down on the forest of Hyugru. Birds were tweeping songs and happily feeding their younglings. The sight was peaceful and calm, until a certain salmon haired idiot strolled by at the speed of light, destroying the quietness, dashing to who knows where. After his long nap he was totally filled with energy or his usual catch phrase. He is all fired up. He zigzagged through the plants and dodged or jumped over tree stumps. Little did the idiot know that the animals were all giving him a deadly glare, telling him to disappear.

"Natsuuuu!" his blue exceed called after him with a worried expression, flying after him at max speed.

"What's the matter Happy?" Natsu questioned him, still dashing through the forest. The small wind breeze was nice against his warm body and he surely enjoyed it, though it was more a storm than a breeze. As expected of a fire dragon slayer and his abnormal body temperature.

"I think we lost Lucy," and to these words Natsu came to a halt. He vigorously glanced around him, again and again, hoping that Happy was just joking. He frowned his eyebrows, being sure that their blonde friend was still beside him a few seconds ago.

"So that means we're lost?" Natsu asked his exceed even though already knowing the answer himself. He might be dense and sometimes an idiot, but he is most certainly not this stupid. Though these three words mix well together, but you would rather not blend them into someone's personality. Sadly enough for Natsu he already got infected by these three words.

"Aye!" Happy replied. Natsu groaned, face-palming before inhaling a deep breath to calm down his brain or something close to calming down. Then he started sniffing around, hoping to sniff out the exit of this forest or maybe catch the scent of his favorite celestial mage. Unfortunately for him he had no luck. All he could smell were the trees and the green plants around them. The smell of nature was nice, but not exactly something he needed at the moment.

"I can't seem to find the exit Happy, maybe you could look for one in the sky?" the dragon slayer requested his friend, scratching the back of his head in frustration.

"Aye sir!" Happy replied and flew up into the air.

"You see anything yet?" Natsu yelled at his partner. All he got in return was a shake of his head. Natsu let another groan escape again and start kicking random stones he found on the ground, mumbling softly,"It's really no fun without Luce." Then he started walking around aimlessly through the forest, hoping to find a way out.

She had been walking for more than an hour. The map that had been given to her was not only unclear, but also not correct. She wondered if they ever considered that the environment could change throughout the years. When was it again that they drew this map? Like hundred years ago... She let out something that sounded like a mixture between a sigh and a groan. Her feet were hurting real badly and not only that, she also lost sight of her idiotic friends. Fate could be cruel sometimes. She should have known that they would run off to who knows where and get lost in process, but the thing that really frustrated her was that even she was lost. How could she be so careless? She should have questioned more about the map, isn't she usually suppose to be the collective and cautious type? Well it seemed that she wasn't alert earlier the day and now she had to pay the price for her carelessness. After another few steps she decided that it was time for a small break. She scanned the area with her eyes to find a nice place to rest. Her eyes landed on a tree, under the tree was a nice layer of grass for her to sit. She smiled at the perfect outcome and walked to the tree. With a content sigh she leaned against the firm tree and closed her eyes, a small smile tugging on her lips. The peaceful and quiet environment sure were calming her. Lucy loves Fairy Tail and all her friends and she wouldn't trade anything in the world for them, but sometimes they are way too noisy. She wasn't always alone in her apartment either when she really wanted to be. A certain pink haired idiot really enjoyed barging in her house and it really didn't help that he would always bring his blue exceed with him who couldn't stop teasing her twenty four seven.

"Peaceful... calm... quiet...lost...mhnm..., maybe I could use these scenes in one of my stories," she nodded in agreement and dozed slowly off. Here and there a yawn would escape her lips, but soon she was defensively asleep.

"What? Luigi? What's that for a weird name? Gaw," A salmon haired small boy of five years old questioned her. She puffed her cheeks and crossed her arms.

"No. Not Luigi! LUCY!" She snapped at the boy. The small girl with blonde hair had decided that she should try strolling into the forest once in a while. She had written that down on her to do list for the next ten years. And if this list was finished within the ten years she would make a new one for the next ten years. When she wrote it down she thought it was a great idea and maybe also a way to gain some experience in life, but oh boy was she wrong. She knew that her luck in everything was horrible. She knew it and yet she ignored her conscious and decided to stroll into the forest. As you can see, she is all lost now, middle in a forest with a pink, no scratch that, the boy told her it was salmon colored hair. He came to her 'aid?' when he heard her crying and he requested her kindly to shut up like a real prince charming, because her crying was really loud, even though she thought it was pretty quiet.

"Alright alright, Luigi, don't get your p*nis in a twist gao," he said as an attempt to calm her down.

"Pardon, my what?" she asked him, eyes going wide, ignoring the fact that he just called her name wrong again.

"P*nis gao?" he said with a look of pure innocence in his face. Lucy grabbed her stomach with both her hands and laughed uncontrollably. The pink haired boy gave her a weird look.

"What's so funny? Gaw?" he asked her not getting the joke if she just told him one. "It's panties Salmony, not... you know," she told him as she slowly calmed down from her laughter.

"What? No no, Igneel taught me it was P*nis! Gaw!" he argued, steam fuming out if his ears. She couldn't figure out if the steam was from anger, because she corrected him or that he was fuming because she just basically told him that he had been taught wrong by the Igneel person. It seemed like he is someone important to him.

"Well, I am sorry, but it's really panties," she said and let out a sigh.

"No no no! I am going to ask Igneel and prove you that I was right GAAAOO!" he shouted before running at full speed towards a direction where he came from, fire roaring out of his mouth. Lucy stood there dumbfounded by the disturbing sight, but quickly shook her head. Oh great, she was alone again. Well it was about time she would stop moping and look for the exit, maybe the enthusiastic boy pepped her up a little? Maybe. With a determined look plastered on her face she dashed towards a random path.

"Yosh! Exit here I come!" she yelled. She stumbled a few times and almost got hit in the face by a branch, but finally she saw light ahead. Bright, white light. With a big smile she jump-skip-dashed to the light.

"Oi! Luce! Luce! Wake up!"A voice called at Lucy. She mumbled some words under her breath which came as

"Just a few more minutes," to the extreme hearing of the dragon slayer. When he shook her again she moaned softly as an attempt to stop the shaking. When it didn't stop she snapped her eyes annoyingly open and her brown eyes met a delightful pair of onyx colored eyes, warmly staring into hers.

"N-Natsu?!" she yelped in surprise, eyes going big. Then as if it was automatic, "Get out of my room you pervert!" she yelled Lucy kicking him without a warning.

"Boughuaaa!" Natsu yelped not seeing this kick coming. Then Lucy realized that they weren't in their room. They were middle in a forest, looking for an exit. She glanced around her, seeing that the place changed from where she had been sleeping. There was a calming lake and a big tree hovering over it. Its leaves hanging down on the lake like curtains. It was a wide and open area though and the oddest thing was that there was an apple tree beside the lake. It was really weird, since she had been walking aimlessly around for something like hours and hadn't even encountered any trees with fruits, let alone an apple tree which was in full bloom. She stared flabbergasted at the tree, the thing beside the tree also caught her attention. There was a big stump, which resembled a table and two smaller chairs stumps around it. Did people actually live here?

"Luce! What was that for?!" Natsu whined snapping her back to reality.

"Neh, Natsu where are we?" she asked him, ignoring his question and eyeing the place curiously. A small smile formed on Natsu's lips.

"This is the place where Igneel and I stayed! I just remembered!" he grinned at her. She blinked her eyes a few times.

"Eh? Right here?" she asked him dumbfounded, not believing dragon would fit here. It was spacious, but still, a whole dragon? She shook her head in denial.

"Yeah, but it was more spacious when Igneel and I lived here, we would always burn down some trees so he could fit, hehehe!" and there her explanation was.

"Natsu! Burning down trees is a crime! Wait, did you guys even considered that you could burn down the whole forest?!" she questioned him or more lectured him. Natsu gave her an odd look as if he never considered that.

"Don't worry, Igneel would just flap his wings and a windstorm would carry the water from the lake to the trees," he explained to her. She just face palmed and let out an exasperated sigh.

"Alright, never mind," she gave up trying reasoning with him. She shouldn't even have tried. A small silence overcame her. No squeek-squack feet walking or flip flap wings flapping in the air. Then it hit her that it was suddenly really quiet for some reason. Quiter than usual.

"Natsu, where is Happy?" she asked him, realizing the missing thing. Natsu turned around, face stuffed from the apples in the apple tree. "I dunno," he replied, continuing to munch on the apples, saying I don't know was more a reflex. The question simply just didn't run through his mind as he was preoccupied with eating the apples. Lucy groaned and stamped her way to Natsu.

"You idiot! What if they are poisonous! You want to grow an apple tree on your head this time instead of a mushroom?" she scolded him. Again he gave her that look like a trillion times before telling her that she was weird. Her eyes shot back at him answering 'says the guy with salmon colored hair'. But he obvious didn't understand her and frowned his eyebrows.

"Geez Luce, why you so worried? The tree was planted by Igneel, it's a magic apple tree and it grows the healthiest apples!" Natsu grinned and continued eating, "You should also eat some Luce! Oh right, Happy went to look for an exit. He will be back soon." Lucy narrowed her eyes, wondering why the question just rung through this thickheaded idiot's head. With a sigh she looked down at the apple in his hand and sighed. It was too tempting, the color was beautifully red colored and seemed incredible ripe. Also the way that the juices were practically leaking from Natsu's mouth didn't help keeping herself sane. She had to fill her stomach with something or she might starve and she is not about to die from starvation middle in a forest, being lost. Finally giving up she reached out her hand and took the apple. "Well... bon appetit then," she said and was about to take a bite when Natsu got abruptly up. Distracted by his sudden movement she couldn't help but to neglect the growling feeling in her stomach a little longer, "Natsu?" she questioned him worriedly. His eyes were wide and he was sniffing the air like a wild animal going overdrive.

'Did the apple break him?' she questioned before slowly moving the apple away from herself. When tears came to Natsu's eyes she knew that the apple definitely broke her best friend. She quickly tossed the apple aside before going to her friend's aid.

"N..Na,-" before she could finish her sentence, Natsu turned towards her.

"I smell... I smell..." he stuttered to her, he really wanted to tell her, share his excitement, but the words weren't coming out, because of excitement. Lucy cocked her head to the side, a question mark popping from her had, "Huh?" With a deep inhale he swallowed back his tears, corners of his mouth twitching upright and turned into his signature grin.

"I smell Igneel Luce!"

I hope that what I wrote in italic was clear that it was a flashback xD If not... I failed as an author TT^TT
Oh well! I still have years to practice :3
Anyways ~ Was the story enjoyable? I hope it was, because... yeah... just because. Gawd I ought to stop rantling, is anyone even reading this though xD?

Well ~ -Cough- I wanted to thank the 2 guests and SilverWolfFlight for the review v It really helps knowing your opinions so I could maybe improve some points and structure the rest of the story.

Well ~ Time to work on the next chappy, cyaaa 3