Chapter 1: Beginning

A/N: This was originally supposed to be a one-shot but I'm gonna lengthen it to 4-5 chapters. It's a short fic :P about Nalu :). I should really get my thinking cap on about my other stories. T_T Well I hope you enjoy :) Feel free to comment! Thnx ^^

The last few weeks have been excruciating hard for Natsu. His mind had endlessly thought about girls—Lucy specifically. He was trying his best to sort out his feelings for her but it had been clouded with his carnal desires. This has left him with restless nights and moody days. It took all of his willpower to stay away from Lucy and what made it worse is that she noticed his recent behavior but had done nothing about it. Frustration, anxiety, longing, all these range of emotions were literally going to be the death of him one day, or so he thought.

The dragon slayer mage was lost in thought as he sat alone at the bar. He wasn't participating in the current bar fight nor did he touch his fire flakes. Mirajane had also noticed his odd behavior and every time she tried to approach him, her words never reached his ears. So she decided to leave him alone just like how everyone else ended up doing.

Natsu continued to just stare blankly at the back wall until he caught the familiar scent of the woman who haunted his thoughts and dreams. It was only then that he snapped out of his daze and dashed to the request board. His eyes skimmed the pinned papers but time was running out before she even reached the door. So out of panic, he snatched a random paper and handed it to Mirajane.

"Mira, I'm taking this job." He said without even looking at her. Instead his eyes were focused on the front doors of the guild.

"But Natsu it's a— eh?" She couldn't even finish her sentence because he was already out the back door. "This will be a hard mission for him." She whispered to herself.

Then she heard the front doors open and it was Lucy. For the last couple of weeks, Natsu seemed to be in and out of the guild before Lucy could event enter the guild. Maybe something happened between them. The only way to find out was to talk to Lucy or even better, trick her into taking the same mission as Natsu.

"Luccyyyy!" Mira smiled.

"Mira-san, how are you today?" Lucy dropped herself on the bar.

"I'm alright. Are you going on a mission?" She asked.

"Well, no. I need to go on one for the rent but the thing is…" Lucy hesitated. "It's Natsu."

"Oh you can tell me anything. I'll get you some orange juice first." The barmaid quickly got her regular drink and served it to the blonde mage.

"Yeah… well Natsu's been acting weird lately. He doesn't come over anymore, he's just been keeping his distance and I'm not sure why. I thought he might need some space so I didn't confront him about it. But now I'm getting a little worried." She complained softly.

"Hmmm think about when he started doing this. Do you remember what happened?" Mira pried. For some reason, Mira had an inkling feeling that Lucy knew a little bit more than what she was letting on.

Flashback Incident #1

Lucy was getting ready to go to the guild and as soon as she got out of the washroom, Natsu and Happy were there on her couch and table.

"EH? Haven't you two ever heard of privacy?" She scolded them.

"C'mon Lucy, this isn't the worst we've done. Remember that time where I dropped by and you were only wearing—a…"

"OKAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY I GET IT! NOW GET OUT!" Lucy was about to kick Natsu in the head but he caught her leg and pulled her in.

Natsu was holding her leg up next to his outer thigh and his other arm snaked its way around her waist. His eyes were staring straight at Lucy's face. She could feel the heat rise up to her cheeks but she froze once her eyes locked onto his. By this time, Happy had flown away saying something like how he was going to buy a nice fish for Carla.

"Nat—su.. " Lucy whispered.

Natsu snapped out of his gaze and dropped her leg. He shifted awkwardly away from her.

"Oh uh, hurry up Lucy, we need to find a job." His child-like grin came back.

She nodded as she went to go look for her things. Had he just shrugged it off like it was nothing?

Lucy was sitting nervously in front of Mirajane. She knew that the take-over sibling was keen about these things but she didn't want to tell anyone just yet.

"I really can't pinpoint when Mira-san. But maybe it'll come to me randomly." Lucy smiled back.

"Well, can you do me a favor?" Mira asked.

"Yeah sure."

"This should be an easy mission for you on your own." Mirajane handed the same job posting as Natsu.

"Oh it's just escorting a rich lady to a town." Lucy said. "Seems easy."

"Yeah but the thing is we've had this client before and she's taken a liking to our fairy tail men, so I'd like you to accompany Natsu."

"Huh?" Lucy was confused. "What do you mean?"

"There was one time, Elfman was supposed to accompany her to a benefit dinner—and he almost married her. Also there was this time where Gajeel found a lost family heirloom and he was almost forced to marry her. Then there was Gray. Oh boy. That woman really likes our men. If it wasn't for Juvia, Gray would have been locked away in a tower."

"So she falls in love with them—all?" Lucy deadpanned.

"Not really, she's a very charming lady. Smart, beautiful, rich, kind…they're attracted to her too."

"Then what's wrong?"

"We have this thing in our guild where we don't have intimate relationships with our clients."

"Oh… so I'm gonna be the third wheeler, the cock-blocker." Lucy sighed. "But…"

"She's not looking for love, what the boys feel and what the she feels is just fluff, nothing more than a slight attraction." Mira stated.

"I think you're hiding something from me… still."

"Fine, she's actually 83 years old. Someone casted a spell on her, she'll never age pass 20."

"Wow, but if she looks young…"

"No… I'm a matchmaker at heart so I'd give her the benefit of the doubt but I cannot allow her to date a teenager. Enough of this now, I think I discussed in more detail than necessary. Please accompany Natsu." Mira gave her innocent smile.

"But wait what about Gray? I'm just curious because he never mentioned it before." Lucy asked shyly.

"Sorry Lucy, client privacy, disclosed information." She smiled.

Lucy sighed and took the job paper. She realized that the town where that lady lived was 2 hours by train and the place she wanted to go to was a day's travel. Then she'd have to escort her back home. It might be an easy task but it was going to be a long mission.