A/N : Okay... Plan change each week is a bit too fast, I'll update as soon as possible Q-Q; ...

Beta read by an Awesome Friend

Disclaimer : I do not own Fairy Tail and its characters

"Think about the jewels Lucy, think about the jewels!", a certain blonde haired girl kept muttering to herself under her unsteady and heavy breathing, struggling hard to set another step of her own. After being dragged by Natsu for a good five minutes they had finally arrived at the designated mountain. To say it was huge was definitely an understatement. It was simply gigantic. Lucy wondered if one day was even enough to climb to the top of this oversized piece of rock. Natsu was care free, happily walking forward step by step whilst Happy was effortless floating beside him. And Lucy? She was dangling, almost crawling behind them. Her usual clothes lacked a lot of fabric, which was exactly the cause of her lack of body warmth, so she was having a hard time keeping up with the pace of the two boys in front of her, who weren't bothered by the cold at all. The fact that the degree was dropping by one each ten steps they took, was also not helping her circumstances. She wanted to call out Horologium so badly and let him carry her all the way up, but she couldn't effort to tire out her magic powers yet and she was planning to make Horologium her trump card. She would summon him when she had reached her limit.

Puff. Puff...

Puff...

Puff!..

"I open thee, the gate of the clocks, Horologium!" she summoned him the second after thinking to use him as her trump card, deciding that she already had reached her limit. The place they were walking at right now contained a snowflurry and she was one-hundred percent positive that the flurry will soon turn into a storm and eventually when they almost reach the top a blizzard will most likely haunt them down the mountain again. If snow tornadoes existed, they would probably also make an appearance on the top of the mountain. Now she wondered why the hell would a bird do on the top of this freezing mountain.

Natsu turned his head, checking on their friend only seeing a shivering celestial mage inside a clock. He sweat-dropped at the sight and let out a soft sigh. He waited for the clock to approach them before halting it and opening the glassed door. Lucy feeling the cold breeze entering immediately opened her eyes and glared at the cause, the thing who took away her building warmth. She couldn't help but to soften her gaze when she saw the worried expression on her salmon haired friend. She shot him a reassuring smile.

"Geez Luce, if you were cold you could've said so, here," he told her slowly unwrapping his scarf around his neck and wrapping it around hers. He also volunteered to take off the blanket in his backpack and gave it to her. Lucy's eyes widened for a second and blinked a few times. With a smile, he closed the glass door again and kept walking forward with Happy. For split second Natsu caught a very mischievous glint in Happy's eyes, but brushed it off, thinking he might have just imagined it. Thinking he might have imagined it. Horologium also marched forward behind her friends. All she could do was stare at him. It was rare to see Natsu without his scarf, willingly. Last time they went up to a mountain and she told him she was cold he just told her simply to go back, but now... She decided she shouldn't question about it too much and just enjoy the warmth the scarf was radiating, just like Natsu. She nuzzled her face in the soft fabric enjoying the scent, it smelled like him which assured her a lot for some reason. She chuckled softly, thinking if Natsu was a manga character, he'd definitely be the shoujo hero type, slowly, without realizing she dozed off to lala-land.

/

"Noooo! It's too cold Salmony! I don't wanna go!", a little blonde girl said or more whined, shivering in her spot. The boy, who was walking in front of her, had turned around and gave her a pleading look. He really wanted her to meet the most important creature in his life, but since it was winter they had to take a long cold stroll through the forest to get to his foster dad. Sadly enough the girl's body temperature wasn't abnormal like his own so she was now shivering, while he was standing there in his plain shirt, sloppy shorts and sandals as if it was a dead normal summer day.

In. The. Cold. White. Snow. With a beautiful gushing blizzard. The small ice crystals were grazing against his skin but melted at the slightest contact. He scowled at the tiny ice picks, he seriously hated blizzards, it always felt like a swarm of flies coiling around his body.

The little girl narrowed her eyes at him, lips in a thin line. She really envied him. She would do anything to become a fire dragon slayer right now. She didn't exactly know what a dragon slayer was, since this is the first time for her meeting one, but his magic was surely spectacular in some ways and very handy at times when the two friends went hunting or were having a bonfire. He would also do small tricks with his magic to please the girl whenever she was on the edge of dying of boredom.

Suddenly the salmon haired boy approached her and slowly unwrapped the scarf around his neck. All the little girl could do was stare at him in awe. He never took off his scarf and would always hold on to it as if it's his baby, maybe even his life. With a smile he wrapped the warm scarf around her neck and gave her a toothy grin.

"Let's go meet Igneel Luce! Gao," and reached out his hand to her. She placed her own tiny hand inside his warm, slightly larger one and nodded in response. A big smile plastered on her face, glad she got even closer to her first and best friend.

"Thanks Natsu!"

Together they dashed towards Igneel like a bundle of happiness, making her forget about the cold for the time being.

Her eyes lazily opened, all she could make out were blurry colors being mixed into each other. When she narrowed them and still couldn't make out anything she closed them and opened them again. This time she could make out a drop of the color salmon and a dragon slayer with a way too high body temperature. She blinked in surprise and looked vigorously around her. A moment ago she was sure that she was in Horrologiun and now she is suddenly out here and being carried by Natsu.

"Eh?" was all she managed to say, catching his attention. They were somehow moving forward, but she wasn't walking and neither was she inside Horologium.

"Oh, Luce! You're awake!" he grinned at her. She couldn't help but to blink her eyes again as a dumb person. She glanced down and saw Natsu's feet moving step by step. Simply conclusion.

She was being carried in bridal style by...

Natsu. Dragneel.

She kept blinking at him, wondering if this was some sort of sick, weird dream. Natsu doesn't know how to carry a lady properly! That's Natsu! She could still remember how he just simply had slung her future self over his shoulder and carried her all the way just like that. She really wanted to yell at him at the time, but she knew it wasn't really the right moment for her to do it so she could only endure.

"Oh, you're awake?" Natsu asked, looking down at her. Lucy gulped softly but nodded nonetheless.

"Uhmoo...Natsu?" she asked eyes slowly trialing upwards to meet his eyes. She couldn't help but to clear her throat awkwardly.

"Mhnmm?" he hummed, but didn't gave her a glance. His eyes were fixated on the road, which to his opinion won't change anytime soon.

"W..why am I being carried?" she questioned hesitantly. Natsu cocked his head slightly to the left, thinking for second why it was again.

"Right! Your clock ran out of time so you fell face flat into the snow, you seemed to be freezing while still being asleep, since when I called out to you, you didn't wake up and I have a really high body temperature, so Happy suggested me to carry you and that's why I'm carrying you," he finished with one of his innocent smiles, there over no attempt or any signs to let her down. He wouldn't let his dear nakama freeze in this blizzard whilst he knew he could do something about it and they weren't far from their destination anyways.

"I..I see... " Lucy stuttered, mentally slapping herself hard. Why the hell would she be stuttering? She does feel awkward being carried bridal style, she also felt embarrassed when Loki did it, even though she knew he is an huge playboy. But being carried by Natsu gave her a weird feeling. Se frowned her eyebrows, deep in thought trying to put the puzzle pieces together and came to three simple conclusions. First one is that Natsu is acting weird because of the cold weather. Him being a fire mage is probably not good with the cold and him being an idiot mentally isn't helping him, his mental level is most likely even lower in this cold, snowy blustery weather. Lucy blinked once after summarizing her first theory and decided that it was just stupid. Her second hypotheses was that Natsu might li... she mentally slapped herself twice and also face-walled in her head relentlessly. She knew that Natsu liked her as a nakama as a partner as a great friend but that was about it. He doesn't understand the definition to the words 'like like', used in a sentence between two different gendered people. Her third guess was simple and most likely the right one. Happy just made Natsu do it, because... he would most definitely tease her about it later. She quickly noted herself to shave the cat bald later. She snuggled back into the blanket and the scarf as she slowly dozed off again. The warmth that he was radiating was to her really comforting and she couldn't help but to feel tired.

"Say Luce," Natsu said. The girl in his arms hummed as response, waiting silently for his question, "have you gained more weight lately?" he then asked. A vain popped out of her head and she glared dangerously up at Natsu.

"Pardon?" she asked him threateningly. Natsu shivered and sweat dropped vigorously. He should've known better than question about her weight.

"N..Nothing..." he replied while trembling. Lucy gave him a soft hmpfh and went back to sleep.

Natsu stared down at the girl inside his arms and raised an eyebrow. He seriously wondered why the heck this girl likes to sleep so much. His eyes went back to the road and he grinned. They were close, he could sniff it. The smell of a bird, or kind of a bird actually. He knew that a crow is a bird, but what kind of little bird would live in this weather? Natsu assumed that the villagers were probably not a fan to this weather and that was perhaps the reason why they didn't feel like fetching the feather. To him this mission sounded really boring, but the reward was an amazing sum and he couldn't wait to have the jewels in his pocket and Lucy would be able to pay her rent. The said girl stirred softly in her sleep, trying to get into a comfortable position, Natsu sweat dropped at the sight, he shook her slowly awake though all he got back was a soft mumbling saying, 'Just five more minutes.' He wasn't having that and shook her awake again, but this time a tad more violent. She lazily opened her eyes and reached one of her hands to her right eye, making a fist and rubbing the side of it on her eyelids, as an attempt to rub out the sleep of them.

"We're here Luce," he simply said and slowly set her to the ground. Lucy being still a bit drowsy from her sleep couldn't keep her balance and fell on top of Natsu, who was standing in front of her.

"Uuuuf, what are you doing Luce?!" he groaned, getting up quickly again. Well, every normal person who stands up after falling down, have the habit to brush of the dirt, just like what Lucy was doing right now under a soft mutter that sounded like an apology. Natsu, who is most likely an alien from planet phorofene, didn't even inch an finger to brush off the dirt. All he did was roaming his eyes through the area, looking for the bird. He could clearly smell it, it was a bit mixed with the smell of fresh snow, which made it hard to smell out the direction. Lucy only hugged the scarf around her neck closer, hand reached down to her keys.

"You see anything Natsu?" Lucy asked him, eyes darting from left to right and back.

"Weird... I can't seem to track it down..." he replied, the small whiff he caught before also disappeared. The two friends made eye contact and both nodded. Natsu was the first one taking a step into a random direction, Lucy soon followed after. She could still remember the time when she loved playing in the snow and could enjoy it for hours, but right now she wished all the snow would just disappear from this world.

"Natsuu! Natsuu! Lushyyy!" came out Happy's voice from somewhere. The two friends turned around, seeing a blue exceed flying at high speed towards them.

"Happy! Where have you been?" Lucy wondered, just noticing that the exceed wasn't here with them.

"I went ahead to look for the birdy," he replied, slightly shivering.

"Something wrong Happy?" Natsu asked with concern. Happy slowly looked up, sweat was drilling slowly down his face and he gulped.

"It's... it's not a birdy," he said. Lucy and Natsu gave him an odd look.

"What do you mean Happy?" Lucy wondered also getting a bit frightened.

"Well, let's find it out ourselves Luce!" Natsu replied going ahead to the direction where Happy came from. With a sigh Lucy decided to follow him and Happy flew hesitantly after them. After all the Crow wasn't what he expected it to be. His mainly reason to fly to there was to eat the bird and return to them with a feather, but he didn't only return with empty hands even his stomach was empty. His storage of fish was already gone for today and he wouldn't have liked snowed in fish anyways.

"Inside there!" Happy yelled, pointing out his index finger at the entry of a huge cave. Natsu scratched the back of his head, wondering what a small bird would do in such a gigantic cave. Lucy also couldn't help but to blink once or twice to make sure about the seize of the cave and why there was one here. She had a gut feeling that this won't turn out as they expected it to be.

"Natsu, maybe we need a strategy to approach this bird," Lucy suggested. Happy nodded off characteristically at her comment and hoped Natsu would agree with her. Natsu gave a huff and laughed loudly, his laughter echoing through the cave.

"We don't need a strategy to defeat a bird! Let's go Luce!" he said and once again decided to storm ahead into the cave. With an exasperated sigh she ran after him, calling out for him to slow down and a floating Happy, who was whining softly, followed after the duo.

The cave was clouded with darkness, neither of the two mages could even see their hands. Lucy started to feel more anxious and clutched both her hands tightly to her chest. Natsu, who could sense her fear, reached out to -what he assumed was her hand and lucky enough it was- and held it in a tight grip.

"No worries Luce! I got cha!" he told her. He couldn't see it, but he was certain that there was a smile of reassurement on her lips.

*"It's dark in her and I am scared Salmony," a girl voice echoed softly through the cave. The soft thuds of her steps were hesitantly and her shaking legs were slowly becoming jelly. The little girl was never too fond about the darkness and this dark cave was most certainly not helping her fear out.

"Hei, gao, no worries Lulu, I gotcha," his warm voice just gave her a feeling that she could trust him no matter what. Even without light she could tell he was holding his hand out to her and with delight she reached out to his hand and grabbed it.

"En, I trust you Salmony!" she replied him. *

"Natsu! Natsu!"

"Huh? What?" He said, looking from left to right and vice versa. All he could see was darkness, but he could still feel Lucy's hand inside his.

"You suddenly went silent and stopped moving forward, something wrong Natsu?" Happy questioned him.

"Yeah, are you feeling unwell maybe?" Lucy asked worried. Natsu let out an awkward laugh.

"N...nothing at all!" he replied them and started walking again. The two behind him both gave him a suspicious stare.

There it was again, he started to wonder what they were, memories? Or was he just daydreaming? He wasn't sure anymore, but he was sure he wouldn't forget about any of his friends. Yet, this girl seemed to be his best friend, then, what happened to her? Why did he forget about her. He just couldn't figure it out and the weirdest part was, the fact that he just started remembering them now, why not earlier?

"Say Natsu,..." Happy suddenly said, breaking the silence.

"What is it Happy?" Natsu replied him.
"Couldn't you just lit up the cave with your fire?" he suggested. Suddenly all movements stopped altogether and the two mages turned their heads slowly towards the flying exceed. With his eyes he could clearly see the two giving him a murderous look.

"Aye?"

"Said that earlier idiot cat!" Lucy suddenly yelled.

"Aye!" Happy wailed back and fled before the blonde could end his life. Obviously she wouldn't give up without giving a chase. Natsu ran after them, this time fire lit up from the tip of his finger. Suddenly Happy came to an abrupt stop, making Lucy, who was tagging him, bump into him. The blue fur ball shivered, knowing very well what the object blocking his way was. With the speed of light Happy turned around and flew out of the cave.

"Happy?" Lucy sweat dropped, blinked a few times before moving her glance at the only source of light in this cave. To her surprise the salmon haired guy stood there flabbergasted, staring at whatever was behind her. With wide eyes she quickly turned around, her eyes staring right into the big red eyes of a certain thing.

"Kyaaa!" She squeaked loudly, falling on the ground with a thud from surprise.

"Luce!" Natsu yelled, quickly dashing over to her to pull her away from the mysterious creature. The creature suddenly spread two big things out of his body which seemed to be wings and let out a loud ear deafening shriek. The two mages covered their ears quickly, making sure to not get deaf by the creature.

"I... I think we found the bird," said Lucy with a gulp.

"Hehehe, I am all fired up!" Natsu roared excitedly eyes holding the gleam of his usual battle spirit. His two hands were balled into a fist, clouded with fire. Lucy let a soft sigh before getting up and reaching her hands out to her keys. His fighting spirit was just too contagious. She let the corners of her lips go up into a smile and nodded at her partner's enthusiasm.

"Let's do this Luce!" he roared furiously, before charging into the creature. Though all the creature had to do was a flap of his wings and the two friends got toppled out of the cave, being carried by a whirlwind into the cold snow. It didn't end there though, the big creature flew after the two friends, with his rest being disturbed be wouldn't leave the two mages so easily off the hook. Within a few seconds the birds manage to get out of the cave, glaring daggers at the duo.

"Eeeeep!" Lucy squeaked, feeling uncomfortable under its glare, she forgot the cold around her for the time being. Natsu at the other hand jumped up in the sky, charging right at the bird, without any mercy, while Happy was hiding behind a tree.

"Wing attack of the fire dragon!" his fist collided on the head of the bird. He grinned at his direct hit, thinking that this was enough to K.O. the bird, but instead the bird gave out an even more deafening loud shriek than before. Natsu having the enhanced hearing senses couldn't bear the shriek and got knocked out instead. Lucy had covered her ears and closed her eyes. When she was sure it was safe to at last open her eyes she saw the knocked out (idiot) dragon slayer laying in front of the bird.

"Natsu!" Lucy yelped in surprise, kind of speechless staring at the guy. The dragon slayer was certainly not easy to knock out, but being so close to the bird, his eardrums must've gotten some damage. She shook her head and with a sigh as she uncovered her ears and got up. Ready to face the bird. Not that she had a choice to begin with.

"Happy!" Lucy yelled, "Get Natsu away from the bird." she told him. The blur exceed nodded and dragged his father figure, who was now snoring in lala-land, behind the tree that he was hiding behind.

"Open! The gate of maiden! Virgo!" With a swift movement she turned the key of her always reliable maiden inside a pretty much imaginary lock. Virgo poofed from the spirit world to the human world in a blink of eye, bowing to Lucy, her master, even though Lucy prefers to see her spirits as her friends.

"What do you need me for princess?" she questioned her.

"Please Virgo, can you dig a hole big enough to fit the bird inside it?" she questioned her maiden.

"Of course princess," she bowed once more before starting on her task.

"I open thee! The gate of archer, Sagitarius!" The horse archer also arrived to the human world to help out his contracted one.

"Moshimoshi! How can I help you Lucy-sama?" he saluted her in his usual way, wearing that elegant horse kind of costume of his.

"Sagitarius! You see, I am planning to provoke the bird to that big hole there, once he is above the hole, I want you to arch his wings, so I could make use of the amount of snow on the trees to keep him inside the hole, " she explained her strategy to him. He nodded at her, understanding the circumstances.

"Understood Lucy-sama!" he replied her, readying his sharp arrows.

"Princess, the hole is ready, do I get my punishment now?" Lucy laughed awkwardly, but shook her head slightly.

"No, thanks for your help Virgo, you can go back now," she told her spirit. Virgo bowed once again before disappearing into the spirit world.

"Here we go!" Lucy said, pulling out her whip, already forgetting the cold weather that clouded her as she sprinted towards the beast.

/-/-/-/

"Say Natsu," the little blonde girl stared with her big brown orbs at her salmon haired friend.

"Hmmm?" he hummed his reply, but not taking off his eyes from the woof piece he was cutting up.

"Why do you always end your sentence with gao?" she questioned him suddenly. This caught the boy's attention. He looked up at her with an odd expression.

"All dragons say gao," he replied to her. She sweatdropped at his statement. Even though she wanted to tell him that he isn't a dragon, instead he is a human like her, but she had already given up to argue with him about that. He was way too stubborn and kept thinking that he was a dragon.

"Igneel... What are you teaching him..." Lucy instead say, while slowly turning her head towards the huge dragon that was watching over the two kids. The red dragon swallowed and started whistling while looking away.

'I have no idea what you talking about,' he replied to her. Lucy raised an eyebrow. She shook her head lightly. With a huff she got up from the tree stump she was sitting on and pointed suddenly a finger to Natsu.

"You! Salmony! Be ready for 3 hours a day lesson from me! Hahahaha!" she grinned. The boy, who was quietly working on his piece of wood, looked up at her with a disturbed face.

"Eeeeh?! Gao?" he replied her, turning his head hopefully at Igneel. The fire red dragon actually nodded in response.

"Oooh, I think that'd actually work, go ahead and teach this idiot son of mine Lucy-san," he roar-laughed. Lucy smiled evilly when Igneel agreed and turned back to Natsu. She dragged him away from the place they were sitting at.

"Let's get started!" she cheered, while Natsu was struggling, kicking around, even whining and disagreeing with her.

"No Luigi! Don't do this to me gao!" he whimpered.

"Lesson one! Stop saying gao after every sentence! From now on you say one time gao, you'll lose 1/10 of your dinner," she told him sternly.

"What?! G..gao..." he yelped. Lucy quickly took her notepad from behind her pocket and a pencil. She drew a line on the paper, to count his screw ups. Natsu, not believing that his father would agree with this system, didn't stop using the word gao. In the end of the day he wasn't allowed to have his dinner.

With a small grunt, Natsu opened his eyes. Only seeing his partner huffing and puffing with her whip in the hand. She wasn't in critical condition or anything, but did have a few scratches on her legs and arms. The creature was still flying in the air, unharmed and still full of energy. It was readying his next attack and duck-flew to his partner. Without losing another second, Natsu got up from the ground, dashed towards the bird, in the middle he jumped into the air.

"Happy!" he yelled.

"Aye sir!" with his max speed he caught Natsu mid-air, flying towards the beast.

"Roar!" he roared, as they came close to the beast. "Of!" he continued when the gab got even enclosed more. "The!" Now they were just literally 3 meter away from the bird. "FIRE DRAGON!" he finished as he roasted the bird with his flames. It fell out of the air, landing millimeters away from Lucy. The blonde gave another shriek, while taking a big step backward.

"Sorry Luce," he grinned. She shook her head and smiled at him. It was really a mystery how this boy always manage to save her at the most critical times. Lucy lowered her glance and stared at the roasted bird. She sweat dropped, thinking they have to find at least one piece of unburnt piece of feather on his body.

Once the two friends arrived back at the city, Lucy couldn't help, but grin happily while thinking about the reward. And since they were in a snowy and windy place, Natsu couldn't do any fire damage. So the full reward was inside their pocket.

"Natsu, Lucy is being creepy," Happy whispered to his partner. Natsu nodded in agreement and whispered back :"You think the cold got to her head?" Instead of reacting, like she would usually do, she just ignored them. Taking a quick walking pace towards the requestor's house. She pressed the doorbell and waiting patiently for the person to open the door.

"I am coming," the person opened the door, already expecting the two younglings back. The requestor let them all in and told them to wait as he was getting his reward.

"So the feather?" he asked once he returned. Natsu quickly took off his backpack and pulled out a big black feather out of his back. Instead of being enthusiastic to give them their reward he just stared intensely at the feather.

"That's not what I requested," he told them. For one second there was a deadly silence in the air.

"Eh?" Lucy suddenly said.

"This is the feather of the big bird that protects the snow crow's nest, but that bird isn't one, that bird is just a giant dazed blackbird, but since you defeated the hindrance I can now go by myself ,"

The two friends stood there dumbfounded. The requestor just laughed, as if he just saw the most hilarious thing in the whole world. Lucy couldn't help but to twitch her left eye as she awkwardly laughed along, though before they left he did offer Lucy the silver key as a thank you for at least taking down the annoying big bird that was blocking his way.

"This is so unfair Natsu, we didn't get anything out of this!" Happy whined, while look envious to Lucy who was staring happily at her new silver key.

"Awh man, I was hoping to eat a big course after getting the reward money,... " he whined with a unsatisfied expression on his face.

"Nastu, let's rid Lucy's fridge then," Happy whispered, making sure their blonde partner won't hear them. Natsu got a delightful glint in his eyes as he agreed to Happy's plan.