Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

Prologue: The New Job

Lucy Heartfilia arrived at the Fairy Tail guild while a cute smile was on her face, and she felt very happy about the fact that this was a new day where she could handle a new job with the other members of Team Natsu. Lucy walked over to the table in the guildhall where her pink-haired friend named Natsu Dragneel was sitting with a woman known as Erza Scarlet, and Lucy happily sat down next to Natsu. He gave Lucy a kind smile as he felt very psyched up for this particular job, since the fire-breathing dragon slayer found out yesterday from Lucy that she would only need to complete one more job with the team to pay off her apartment's monthly rent of seventy-thousand jewels.

Lucy watched her black-haired teammate named Gray Fullbuster stand in front of the request board with a calm look on his face while he wanted to find a good job for the team to handle, and her cocoa brown eyes shifted back to the table for a moment. This month of May had featured some of the most fun jobs for Team Natsu, and they ranged from completing the act of bringing back fruit from a far-off town for someone in Magnolia to taking down bandits who were part of a dark guild in Fiore. All of the jobs were giving Team Natsu good amounts of money, and this next job would hopefully not be an exception.

As Lucy happily smiled about the prospect of handling another great job with the other members who were part of Team Natsu, Gray calmly smiled for a moment while unpinning a light green flyer from the request board. Gray headed back to the table where the team was sitting, and he lightly held the flyer in his hands. As he walked towards the table, Gray's dark blue eyes glanced down at the light green flyer to make sure that this job was perfect for the team. After all, he did not want to accidentally make the team take on an S-Class job that could end up being way too difficult.

Gray reached the table, and he placed the flyer down on the table's center before sitting down in the chair that was next to Erza. Lucy gently pulled the flyer towards herself, and her eyes started to be filled with the feeling of delight from seeing how this task came with the reward of 300,000 jewels. Not only would Lucy have enough money to pay the rent for her apartment, but she liked how this particular job would have to be handled in the distant town of Tokiwa. That town was rumored to have some cute clothes, and Lucy wanted to have one or two new outfits to add to her closet.

"Gray, you picked out a great job! All that we have to do is catch a thief in Tokiwa Town." Lucy told him with a very happy smile on her face, before her smile became somewhat softer.

Gray responded to Lucy in a calm tone, as he smiled at her, "Thanks, Lucy. Yeah, we're going to take down someone who stole an artifact called the Emerald Star."

Erza nicely told her teammates while gently smiling and folding her arms, "This job could be exciting, but let's not get careless during our fight with the enemy."

Natsu merely let out a happy cheer while raising his arms, ready to run out of the guild as he had thoughts of fighting this enemy with his powerful flames, and he hoped that Gray would quickly go get that flyer stamped by the white-haired barmaid known as Mirajane Strauss. Natsu turned to Lucy while softly smiling at her, and the fire dragon slayer felt very confident about the team's chances of succeeding. Not only did Natsu consider himself powerful enough to take down any thieves, but he liked how Lucy could summon her Celestial Spirits to make the group have an advantage in numbers.

Lucy looked down at her pink T-shirt and dark green jeans for a moment, and she double-checked herself by gently patting the left pocket of her pants to make sure that she didn't leave her apartment an hour after sunrise without her golden Zodiac Gate Keys. Lucy's keys were on a grey ring that was thankfully in her pocket, and she started to smile confidently about how this job would end in success for Team Natsu. They would get to retrieve a stolen artifact that a museum curator really wanted to have in his gallery of sacred treasures, and getting that crucial reward would seem like treasure to Lucy.

As Gray went over to the brown counter of the bar for Mirajane to stamp the flyer and make the job officially be for Team Natsu to handle, Erza slowly got up from the table before requipping a sword and a small guidebook into her hands. Erza placed the sword down on the table for a moment, and she smiled at Lucy while turning some pages to find some more information about Tokiwa Town. Erza's brown eyes had a bit of satisfaction in them from finding the guidebook's page about Tokiwa Town, and she read the information to Natsu and Lucy.

"Tokiwa Town is a place that is eternally green, due to the trees and plants that are constantly grown there. The town sits near Tokiwa Forest, which was initially just an area of grassy plains before the town's creation." Erza read in a calm tone while nicely smiling.

Natsu confidently said to Lucy and Erza, before chuckling a bit, "The town may have many trees, but we'll defeat that thief easily to where they'll run away crying into that forest! I'm fired up for this job!"

Lucy thought to herself as she softly giggled at her friend's confidence, "I'm a little curious about the type of person that we'll be dealing with, but Natsu's so confident to where he could probably take them down in one shot with a powerful attack."

Lucy and her teammates soon saw Gray come back to their group with the flyer now having the stamp of Fairy Tail's guild mark on it, so they walked towards the front doors of the Fairy Tail guild while they all felt happy about how they would get to handle this job. As the wizards in Team Natsu were heading to what they hoped would be their best job, Lucy looked at Gray while she smiled with happiness. Lucy felt like she would really have to thank him when the job was over, since she had been slightly worried about the possibility of being a few jewels short to pay her rent, and she would probably treat Gray to some dinner at a restaurant.

Gray noticed that Lucy was smiling at him, which made him just decide to smile back at her, and he believed that Lucy was extremely psyched up for this new job. If completing this job would allow his stellar friend to continue being in her apartment, then Gray would definitely provide the most amount of backup for Lucy if the enemy wanted to fight against her first. Gray would also make sure to use his Ice-Make Magic to free Lucy if she got tied up by the enemy, and he proceeded to look down at his blue plaid shirt and his black pants for a little moment as the members of Team Natsu all walked down the steps of the grey staircase.

After about a minute of going down the stairs, the team of mages walked down the dirt path that led straight into the large town of Magnolia. As the team walked past a few houses, Lucy's eyes noticed that someone had green roses in the flower pots that were near their doorstep. Since Team Natsu was headed to a town that really liked plants, Lucy started to smile at the possibility of a place such as Tokiwa Town having green roses everywhere. If Tokiwa Town had a flower shop with green roses on sale, then Lucy would make the act of buying them be another goal for herself to fulfill on this day where sunlight shined down on Magnolia Town to make today be even more bright.

How was the prologue? Feel free to share your thoughts on it. I'm finally back with another StiCy story! Just to be clear, Gray and Lucy are only going to be friends in this fanfic. It's just minor and friendly GrayLu. I'll update soon. :)