Author's Note: Welcome to my new fic everyone! Like I don't have enough other fics to be working on...lol. Just a few notes up front, this will be a NatsuxLucy fic, with some mention of GajeelxLevy and a few other of my favorite couples. Also, more importantly, if you haven't watched the show up through episode 43 of Fairy Tail 2014, then THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS STORY. Like, right off the back, too. Don't say I didn't warn you!

I'll be trying to update this story weekly, but I'm not going to make any promises, as I'm rather notorious for failing to meet creative deadlines, lol.

One Wish

Chapter 1: All I Fear

"Ow!"

"Lucy! Are you alright?"

Lucy looked up and met Yukino's distressed gaze from her place on the floor and flashed her a rueful smile as the other young woman rushed over to check on her.

"Yeah, don't worry about it, I'm fine," the blonde said, waving off her friend's concern as she pushed herself to her feet, absently rubbing her abused rear. She'd hit the floor harder than she'd like to admit considering she was supposed to be taking fighting lessons from Yukino to help prevent this sort of thing in combat.

Smiling sympathetically as she picked up on her friend's soreness, Yukino suggested "How about we call it a day? Didn't you say you were supposed to meet Natsu and Happy later?"

"Oh shoot, you're right," Lucy said, looking anxiously around the training room for a clock. Spotting one, she was relieved to note that she still had forty-five minutes before she had promised to meet her friends at the guild. Still, it wasn't really enough time for her to go all the way back to her house to grab a shower and still expect to make it in time.

"Hey, mind if I use the showers in the locker room?" Lucy asked her friend as she turned to her and clapped her hands before her in a show of supplication.

Yukino smiled and nodded "Not at all. I was planning on heading that way myself," she said before leading the way out of the room they had reserved for their little training session.

The training room was perfect for their needs, one of many that Sabertooth maintained for their members to use. Though the once strength obsessed guild had undergone many changes since the Grand Magic Games months ago, they had chosen to maintain their workout facilities rather than convert them into something else. Honestly, Lucy couldn't help but think that Fairy Tail could benefit from investing in building a few of their own, assuming they could be made durable enough to weather the sort of rowdy, destructive magic her beloved guild was so notorious for. If so, maybe the main hall of the guild (not to mention the furniture) wouldn't have to be repaired so often...

This particular room was smallish, with exercise mats stacked in a pile to one side, shiny hard wood floors, and little else. It was one of the strictly no-magic rooms for training in martial arts, and it was perfectly suited for that, though Lucy certainly wouldn't have minded having some of those mats under her when Yukino's kick had sent her flying, resulting in her hitting the floor square on her tailbone.

The celestial spirit mage grabbed up her bag of things she'd dropped by the door as they exited the room and headed down the hall, trailing after her friend as she lead the way to the showers. She certainly needed one. Their workout had left her over-heated and dripping with sweat, making her glad she had thought to wear just a sports bra and a pair of shorts. At least this way the sweat wasn't as obvious, and would dry more quickly.

"Lucy?"

"Hm?" the blonde said, blinking as she was dragged from her thoughts of how nice a cool shower was going to feel as soon as they hit the locker room.

"Why did you want to start these lessons?" Yukino asked, slowing her pace just slightly so she could fall into step with her fellow mage, regarding her with curious brown eyes "Don't think that I mind, of course!" she hurried to add, waving a hand to dispel such thoughts before they could even form "It's been a lot of fun, and it's been really nice to have a friend to work out with,"Yukino continued, flushing slightly as she admitted how much she had been enjoying spending more time with her fellow celestial spirit mage "I just would have thought that maybe someone like Natsu, or even Erza, would have been your first choice. They're both so strong..."

The white haired woman's voice was a little wistful, but Lucy just laughed at the very idea of getting lessons in hand-to-hand combat from either of her team mates "Are you kidding me? What, do you think I have a death wish or something?" she asked as they entered the Sabertooth locker room and headed for the showers.

Yukino gave her a wide-eyed glance of surprise at the statement, pausing in the middle of shimmying out of her shorts "Oh Lucy, they wouldn't really hurt you, would they?" she asked, completely aghast at the thought.

Lucy's outright amusement gentled into a thoughtful smile "No, of course not," she reassured her friend "Not intentionally, anyways," she added, wrinkling her nose as potential scenarios played out in her mind's eye "Natsu's a great fighter, you're right, but...well, you've seen him fight," Lucy said with a chuckle as she shucked her sweaty clothes and got into the nearest shower "Half the time, I swear his entire thought process on the matter is 'maybe if I throw myself at it hard enough, it will die'" she remarked with a snort, tone exaggerated and decidedly silly sounding as she tried to mimic her partner's painfully straight-forward thought process.

In the shower stall next door, she heard a giggle escape Yukino, and Lucy grinned to herself as she turned on the water and rinsed her hair before proceeding to shampoo it.

"Not that he's not totally capable of more technical fighting, of course," she continued a moment later, wanting to give her friend credit where credit was due "At the end of the day, he really is a genius when it comes to battle magic," Lucy admitted quietly with a smile, though the tile walls and vaulted ceiling meant that her voice still carried easily. She sighed and admitted "Unfortunately, that's exactly why I can't ask him to teach me, you know? Fighting comes as naturally to him as breathing, I don't think he'd even begin to know how to explain how he does what he does to me. He'd just tell me to 'do the thing!' and expect me to know what the hell he's talking about."

Lucy couldn't see her friend, but she could hear the smile in her voice as she agreed "You're probably right. Natsu is certainly...straightforward that way."

The blonde snorted at this massive understatement before continuing "Erza wouldn't really work either, though I'm sure she'd be more than willing to give me lessons, but she's just so..." Lucy searched for the right word.

"Intimidating?" Yukino suggested.

"Definitely, but I guess I'm really leaning more towards demanding," Lucy said with a chuckle "If I asked her for help improving my fighting skills, she'd get going and just...not stop until she'd run me straight into the ground. Then she'd bandage me up and start the whole torture session over again," the blonde said with a shudder of horror. As much as she wanted to improve her fighting abilities so she could better protect herself, she wasn't quite willing to go to those lengths to achieve her goal.

"I begin to see why you came to me instead," Yukino said, amusement clear in her voice as she turned off her shower and stepped out to towel off while Lucy worked on conditioning her hair. It was times like these that she really envied her white haired friend's short haircut. "So, that explains why you didn't chose any of your other friends to help," the other girl continued "But it doesn't really answer why you're starting now. You've been a member of Fairy Tail for awhile now, but you never felt a need to train yourself like this until recently. What changed?" the other celestial spirit mage asked, tone quizzical.

Lucy was quiet for a long minute as she stood under the shower head, letting the water drum against her scalp and cascade down her body. They'd been training like this several times a week now for over a month and a half, and her body was more toned than ever, but thoughts of the events that had driven her to seek Yukino's help in the first place successfully dampened any pleasure she felt at the change in this moment.

"Lucy?" Yukino asked, a hint of worry coloring her voice as her question continued to go unanswered.

"It was-" throat tight, Lucy was forced to clear it before she could speak "It was the fight in the celestial realm that did it," she admitted quietly as she rinsed the last of the soap from her body and turned off the water. She took a moment to stand there and pretend that she was just wringing out her hair as she wrestled her emotions back under her control. No point in getting all weepy about what was already done, right? Especially considering everything had turned out alright in the end. She and her friends, especially Natsu, had seen to that...

"When you didn't have the spirits to help you fight," Yukino said, realization dawning on her. Obviously she had been in precisely the same boat, but for once in her life she had been glad of Sabertooth's previously strict requirements. The training they had given her in unarmed combat had meant the difference between her being able to stand her ground against Libra, and winding up a splatter at the bottom of a ravine.

"I had my whip, obviously," Lucy continued after taking a deep breath and snagging her towel from where she had hung it over the shower door and starting to dry herself off. Keeping her hands busy made it easier to talk "But Virgo had me on the ropes bad once she disarmed me. I couldn't...I couldn't do anything," she recalled, closing her eyes against the fear, pain, and frustration that the memories stirred within her "I never want to feel that helpless again," Lucy said grimly as she stepped out of the shower to find a fully clothed Yukino regarding her with a sad, sympathetic gaze.

She hadn't been able to watch Yukino's fight with Libra, but she'd heard from Hisui later that it had been quite impressive, particularly considering the setting. She had seen her fight hand-to-hand during the madness that had unfolded around the Eclipse Gate, though, and Lucy had felt so awed... and vaguely incompetent as she watched the other celestial spirit mage battle unhindered by her lack of keys at the time. Yukino had succeeded in driving home the fact that, just because they didn't wield direct battle magic like her friends, didn't mean that they couldn't still hold their own when robbed of their power or keys.

Lucy knew it was unlikely that they would ever have something as dramatic as their celestial spirits breaking their contracts again, but how many times had she found herself in the role of the helpless damsel in distress just because her keys were taken, or her power blocked? More than she liked to admit, that's how many.

She knew that Natsu and her friends would always come through and rescue her in her time of need; she trusted them one hundred percent in that. Things in the Celestial Spirit Realm, though, had been the last straw. While she trusted her guild family to save her if she needed it, she was utterly sickof needing rescuing. She'd left her life of wealth and privilege to get away from feeling like she had no control over her destiny...this was just the next step.

Lucy would never be as strong as Natsu and Gray, or as good with a weapon as Erza, but that didn't mean that she couldn't be better than she was. Every little bit helped, right?

"Oh Lucy," Yukino murmured as she hurriedly brushed a stray tear from her cheek and stepped forward to hug her friend.

"Don't you dare start crying, Yuki," Lucy warned, voice tight and threatening tears of her own as the other woman hugged her tight. The blonde returned the gesture, her worries and insecurities eased in the face of her friend's obvious support.

When Yuki released her and stepped back, she smiled at her friend and said "Don't worry, Lucy, you can do this. We've only been training for a month and a half, and you're already so much stronger!"

"You really think so?" Lucy asked with a weak smile as she adjusted her towel.

"Absolutely. I bet you'd really surprise everyone if you showed them your moves on your mission today," Yukino said with a smile that bordered on impish.

Lucy just laughed at the very idea, though a small, hopeful piece of her longed to think that maybe her friend was being truthful. Oh to see the look on Natsu's face when she took down a thug without needing her keys, or even her whip! That alone would almost be worth all the trouble. The blonde's smile grew stronger at the mental image and she said "Maybe you're right. That would be something, huh?" as she went to where she had dropped her bag and quickly got dressed, then braided her still damp hair since she wouldn't have time to dry it.

Glancing up at the clock on the wall as she tied off the braid with a hair band, Lucy grimaced "Gah! When did it get so late?!"

Yuki looked as well and said "Oh dear, I'm sorry Lucy. I didn't mean to distract you like that, my curiosity got the better of me," with an apologetic frown "I'll see you out to make sure you don't get turned around and wind up being late."

"Thanks, Yuki," Lucy said with a relieved smile as she grabbed up her bag and followed the other girl out. She'd been coming here regularly for some weeks now, but the halls in this guild were much more labyrinthine than Fairy Tail's open floor plan. Even now she occasionally got turned around if she wasn't paying close attention to where she was going.

They had just made it to the lobby when the front doors swung open and Sting entered with Lector tailing along behind him.

"Well well, what do we have here?" the boisterous dragon slayer called with a grin as he walked towards the pair of them, a smirk playing across his angular features "The fairy spy has returned!"

Lucy rolled her eyes, but stopped to greet the white dragon slayer all the same. As challenging as the comment sounded to someone who wasn't used to it, the exchange had become something of a tradition between the two of them whenever she came to train with Yukino.

"Oh you know me, just stealing all your top secret notes and what not. Got anything new for me that I might have missed when I searched your desk, Master?" Lucy replied jokingly.

Sting feigned a thoughtful expression before saying "Nah, not this week. Sorry, fairy girl."

"Oh well, maybe next week," she replied with a mock disappointed sigh as Yuki covered a smile with one hand.

"Hey, Sting, her hair's wet! Maybe she was spying in the pool!" Lector pointed out from down by their feet.

The observation brought a shocked expression to the white dragon's face "What? She wouldn't dare! Would you, fairy girl? That pool is for members only! I know you wish Fairy Tail had a pool and all, but you'll just have to make due with the public one," Sting said with a smug smirk.

"Will you cut it out with the 'fairy girl' thing already? You know full well what my name is," Lucy remarked with a good humored snort as she started for the door again "Thanks again, Yuki! I'll see you next time," she told her friend with a warm smile and a wave. She paused at the entrance, as though a thought had just occurred to her and glanced back over her shoulder as she opened the door "Oh, and Sting?"

"Eh?" the Sabertooth master said with a blink, clearly taken off guard by the almost coy expression on the celestial spirit mage's face.

"Fairy Tail does have a pool, and it's bigger than yours," she said smugly with a wink at the dragon slayer.

"What?! Get out of my guild, you lying spy! Quit trying to sow dissension in my guild's ranks, dammit!" Sting shouted at her retreating back, shaking a fist at her as she left, leaving her laughter echoing in his ears as the door shut behind her. Beside him, a giggle escaped Yukino, though she tried to hide the fact by clearing her throat.

"Oi! What are you laughing at!"

"Nothing at all, Master," she replied with a smile.

By some miracle, Lucy managed to make it back to Fairy Tail with five minutes to spare after running half the way. She was more than a little pleased to note that she had been able to run for quite some distance before becoming out of breath, and even then she was still able to push on, thanks to her training with Yuki.

Glancing around the big, open space, the woman didn't spot the familiar shock of pink hair from among the groups of mages, nor could she see Happy flitting about anywhere. While she wasn't late, she was surprised that Natsu wasn't early. Not that he was a particularly punctual guy, but he did tend to spend the vast majority of his time at the guild when he wasn't busy with missions or crashing at her house.

Lucy had almost resolved to get herself a drink while she waited for her friends when she spotted Mirajane approaching the quest board with a stack of new posters to add, and immediately changed direction. She wasn't the only one to spy the S-Class mage posting the new jobs that had come in, but luckily she was one of the first to reach the board. Talk about perfect timing!

"Now now, no need to crowd!" Mira chided her fellow guild members with a good-natured laugh as she tacked up the sheets of paper and quickly squeezed her way back out of the crowd, not wanting to get caught up in the press of bodies for longer than she had to.

Lucy's gaze flicked over the new missions, quickly discarding most of them as either not suiting her tastes or Natsu's. Both, in some cases. Being partners was all about teamwork and, in cases such as this, compromise.

She was starting to feel desperate when one poster in particular caught her eye. The word 'treasure' stood out big and bold, and so did the rather hefty reward listed at the top. Unfortunately, Droy seemed to have spotted the same one, and the pair shared a brief staring contest before both lunged. Lucy came out the victor, slightly crumpled quest sheet in hand as she fist-pumped happily.

"Yes! Sorry, better luck next time, Droy," she told the plant mage with a smile and a wink, making the man groan in defeat.

"That's so mean, Lucy," he complained, but refrained from arguing, knowing full well that the stubborn woman wasn't likely to give up her prize for his sake, even if he was Levy's teammate. Instead, he turned his attention back to the board in hopes of finding something else interesting for team Shadow Gear to do.

Unable to refrain from smirking a bit, Lucy turned her full attention to the slip of paper in her hand. She took a moment to straighten it out a bit after having crumpled it in her mad grab for victory. Looking at it more closely, now, Lucy realized that it was a job offer from someone looking for applicants that could find a particular treasure hidden in some ruins north of Magnolia. The celestial spirit mage briefly worried that maybe she had fought Droy off of this particular job offer for no reason. As much as she wouldn't mind exploring some ruins for a secret treasure, if there wasn't something to add more of a challenge, Natsu would likely balk, or at the very least complain about how bored he was the whole way through the job.

Lucy bit her lip, her brow furrowed as she scanned through the mission details. Natsu was always willing to just about any job with her if it came down to either of them (generally her) really needing the cash, but it was early enough in the month that she wasn't feeling pressed for rent, so she could afford to be picky for a couple of weeks yet...

Ah! There, her salvation!

At the bottom of the sheet was a small warning that read: 'Inexperienced fighters not encouraged to accept. Though unconfirmed, it is suspected that the treasure is being guarded by an Alphyn, or similar beast.'

"Alphyn?" the blonde murmured aloud, trying to recall if she had ever heard of such a creature before. It certainly didn't ring any bells...

"Alvin? What is it, a bounty job?" a familiar voice asked from directly behind her, making Lucy jump and yelp in surprise.

"Natsu! Will you quit that? I swear, you are seriously going to give me a heart attack one of these days!" she complained and glared ineffectively at her rose haired partner.

The dragon slayer just grinned and said "Nah, I don't have to worry about that, Lucy. Your heart's too strong to give up that easily," while Happy snickered from his place on his friend's shoulder.

Lucy rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the job posting, trying to ignore the blush she felt creeping across her cheeks. Natsu had a habit of saying things that, from a boyfriend or someone she had a crush on, would have come off quite romantic. It always caught her off guard, and made her wonder if he was really that oblivious, or...

The celestial spirit mage shook herself mentally. It didn't matter why he said those things, because she, Lucy Heartfilia, was most certainly not romantically interested in Natsu Dragneel. It didn't matter how dedicated to his friends he was, or how strong. It certainly didn't matter to her how genuinely thoughtful her best friend could be, nor did she care about the way he hated to see her cry. The way the hard line of his jaw would loosen, and his dark eyes soften when he tried to reassure her in the face of tragedy and hardship definitelydidn't ease her pain and sorrow like nothing else could. Most importantly, though, being wrapped up in his strong arms with her face pressed into the crook of his neck was not the safest, most comfortable place in the world for her.

Nope, not at all.

"So who's this Alvin guy?" Natsu asked, stepping up behind her and resting his chin on her shoulder so he could read the poster without taking it from her.

"What kind of name is Alvin anyways?" Happy chimed in, little wet nose crinkled disdainfully as he climbed up onto Natsu's head so he could also get a better look.

Heart pounding, and pointedly ignoring the warmth of Natsu's presence at her back, Lucy corrected him "I said Alphyn, not Alvin. It seems to be a monster of some sort. Apparently it might be guarding a treasure that some guy wants us to find for him." The blonde turned her head slightly in an attempt to look at him, her cheek brushing his in the process "Sound like something you're interested in? The reward is pretty good," she pointed out, offering up the piece of paper so he could get a better look.

"Sound's great," the dragon slayer said with another vibrant grin. He went to pull away from her, but paused when a familiar scent caught his nose. Leaning in again, he sniffed Lucy curiously.

"Oi, Natsu! What have I told you about the sniffing? It's weird!" Lucy complained, pushing against his chest and stepping away from her friend, a grimace on her pretty face.

"When did you run into Sting?" Natsu asked, blinking curiously, an unreadable expression on his face while Happy looked down at him with a strangely thoughtful look of his own.

"S-Sting?" Lucy asked aloud, flushing slightly. Oh boy, she was busted if she didn't come up with something. She still shied away from the thought of telling her friend that she was getting fighting lessons from Yukino, though, really, she knew it was illogical. No doubt he would fully support her when it came down to it, after all. Somehow, though, she just didn't feel like she could take the teasing that would inevitably come before the support yet "Oh, yeah, I bumped into him when I visited Yukino earlier at Sabertooth," she said with a casual wave of her hand "He was bragging about their new pool."

"Oh," Natsu said, and smiled, clearly accepting her story. Well, it wasn't a lie, so why wouldn't he? She just...left out why she was visiting Yukino. His grin turned wicked, flashing fang as he asked "Did you tell him ours is bigger?" as he rubbed his hands together villainously.

Lucy laughed and led the way over to the bar so she could tell Mirajane they would be accepting the job she had picked out "Well of course. What kind of Fairy Tail mage do you take me for?" she said as she playfully nudged him with her shoulder.

"The best, obviously," Natsu replied cheerfully, making Lucy flush happily "Well, except for me, of course!" he added after a moment's thought, making the girl roll her eyes and Happy laugh.

Author's Note: Well there's our first chapter, I hope you enjoyed! Please leave a review if you did, as they feed my muse and keep me writing! The adventure will really get going next chapter, I promise!

Also, didn't really think about it until I was already done, but I wrote the locker room more in an American style than a Japanese style...oh well, haha. Not like they're actually in Japan anyways XD