Chapter: 3

On a warm summers day Lucy Heartfilia sat cross-legged in the clearing of the forest on the outskirts of Magnolia. She was meditating, eyes closed, hands resting on her knees. She breathed in and out slowly as she felt the cool breeze passing her under the radiant sun over-head. She began to clear her mind, a wind picked up around her as magic welled within her, the dirt that got picked up in the wind swirled around her until her focus was broken. She opened her eyes and looked around. There was Natsu, she had thought she sensed someone nearby or at least heard him.

"Natsu, what are you doing here? How did you even know I was here?" Lucy asked,

"Mira told me you were training somewhere," Said Natsu with a bright and lively grin,

"And I followed your scent here." He finished as he plonked himself down next to Lucy.

"Can I help you train Lucy?" asked Natsu who leant toward her shoulder with a wide grin and bold eyes looking up at her.

"No." she said as she shoved him away.

"Awwww please Luce!" he pleaded, "It'll be fun!"

"I doubt that!"

"Pweeeaaase!"

Lucy sighed, "Fine."

"Yay!" Natsu was so happy he quickly hugged Lucy and left. Natsu hugging people? that's odd. Maybe Lisanna's personality had rubbed off him a little too much. They had been hanging out lots recently, especially at the party last week. Come to think of it, it is kind of odd that Natsu is all of a sudden giving up his time with Lisanna at the guild to be training me. Oh well I'm just glad he hasn't forgotten about me entirely! Thought Lucy.

She continued her training until about four in the afternoon and then left to go home and make dinner. She entered her apartment to see Natsu asleep on her bed. Classic. She hoped this wouldn't become routine, she walked over to her bed and kicked him hard in the face. For once Natsu actually woke up.

"You know Luce, if you kicked like that when you fought, you'd be the strongest in Fairy Tail by now." Muttered Natsu who was yawning in between his words.

"Hmmph," Lucy didn't seem impressed by his smart remark.

"I'm serious Luce if you're stronger than you think, you just need a bit of training Natsu-style!"

Lucy didn't like the 'Natsu-style' part of it, he could kill her!

"Don't worry Luce I'll start it off easy for you,"

"That's reassuring," said Lucy who rolling her eyes and had started cooking dinner.

"Can you cook some for me Luce?" asked Natsu.

"Fine but not every night, I can't afford it Natsu."

"Consider your training fees paid for!" said Natsu grinning ear to ear as usual.

The next day Lucy headed for the forest accompanied by Natsu. They started the day with some Natsu-styled training. Natsu got her to do push-ups and crunches to start with which got her warm but she was already tired afterwards. Next up Natsu insisted they did some hand to hand combat training.

"Okay Luce, pretend you are Erza-" began Natsu.

"What does Erza have to d-"

"And I stole your strawberry cake. What would Erza do?"

Lucy screamed in Natsu's face and punched him in the nose, Natsu stumbled backwards spinning out.

"How did I do?" asked Lucy.

"Sugoi…" replied a crippled Natsu.

Eventually Lucy had picked up a few combat skills she had now combined with her whip. Natsu had to admit if he were any weaker he'd be a bit scared of her…. Soon enough she could turn out like Edo-Lucy. And that was what scared Natsu most.

The next thing on the training schedule was to run to the guild, eat lunch there and then walk back to the forest for the afternoon training. Lucy and Natsu ran to the guild leaving Natsu all fired up and Lucy absolutely exhausted. They socialized with other members of the guild and ate for about two hours. It was no surprise to see Natsu talking to Lisanna majority of the time with the exceptions of when he was picking a fight with Gray. Meanwhile Lucy sat at the bar with Levy and Mira.

"So what's training like Natsu Lu-chan?" asked Levy,

"It's definitely full on, but it's not bad," replied Lucy.

"What are you going to do about rent when your training though?"

"Oh no! I hadn't even thought of that its due in a few days!"

"Just go ask Natsu to go on a job with you Lu-chan, it can be a part of your training."

"That's actually a good idea Levy-chan, I'll go ask him!"

Lucy approached Natsu who was talking to Lisanna.

"Lucy! I was just about to tell you that you should take a couple days off training,"

"Oh okay, why's that?" asked Lucy,

"Lisanna wants me to go on a job with her since it's been so long!" Natsu answered.

"You don't mind do you?" Lisanna asked sweetly,

"Of course not, go ahead," Lucy smiled and walked away.

When her back was turned from Lisanna and Natsu her smile faded and she walked over to the request board. Her eyes scanned the variety of jobs. There was two in particular that caught her eye, each were 40,000 jewels. She couldn't afford her rent if she only took one so she took both. She informed Mira explaining she would do one and then the other straight afterwards.

"Are you sure you want to go alone? Not with Levy or Erza or Gray? Even Juvia might-" said Mira.

"No, I'm fine, it'll be good for my training. Besides technically I'm not going alone, I'll have Loke with me." Lucy said.

"You called Princess?" Loke asked appearing out of nowhere.

"Tell Mira you will be accompanying me on my missions and I'll be fine please Loke," said Lucy.

"Mira don't worry, I won't let anyone hurt her." Loke assured her and Lucy and Loke walked out of the guild.