Sorry this took so long. Ive been having some family problems and just haven't been in the mood to write, but hopefully this was worth the wait for you.

Lucy POV

The client was the mayor of melody town and when we got to his house we were welcomed by a very large staff. The butler that greeted us first was older and looked very strict.

"Welcome. You must be the mages that were sent for. Fairy Tail I presume?", he asked curtly.

"Yes sir, we are", I replied with a smile.

"Good", he said "follow me". With that we followed him into a large room where a young man was sitting. The man was handsome and had an air of regality around him. He didn't seem mean but maybe a little stuck-up. When he looked up and saw us there he stood-up and smiled a warm smile. "Ok so maybe he isn't stuck up", I thought.

"Please sit down", he said as he gestured to a sofa across from the one he had been sitting on. We sat down and he smiled again as he looked us over. He looked a little startled by Gajeel but didn't linger on it for long.

"As you know," he began " bandits have been attacking our town and it has become very tough on the citizens. I know their hideout is in the woods and there seems to only be a few of them. Please go after them and capture them quickly." We nodded to him and left the house.

We reached the forrest he had been talking about and entered quietly. I looked around and it was clear even to me that people had been through here recently. I glanced toward Gajeel who was already sniffing the air to see if he could catch the scent. He stopped, looked over at me and nodded. He had the scent.

We set off at a quick pace, wanting to get this done as possible. He didn't go too fast and I didn't go too slow, it seemed like this partnership couldn't be more perfect. As I followed him I began to see a small building in a clearing up ahead. It had a flat roof and was painted so that it blended in with the rest of the forrest. Pretty smart for some stupid bandits.

Gajeel glanced at me and whispered," there are five in there, are you sure you're ready for this." I gave him a pointed glare and replied," there's only five, I could easily handle that much on my own, with you tagging along this will be quick work. Stop worrying over me like I'm some fragile glass doll, I can take care of myself and if I didn't think I could do this I wouldn't have gone on this mission. Now lets just go" I finished with a pointed look. He looked shocked at first but them he smirked and said "all right". We walked in side by side and looked around. I laughed to myself,"Well they sure don't look friendly".

Gajeel seemed to know what I was thinking and let out a small "gihi" as well. Looking around I could only see four. In the farthest corner there was a tall-ish man with jet-black hair and midnight eyes to match. He had tattoos all up his arms and as a person who normally doesn't go for that sort of thing, they looked sexy as hell. At a different table sat two girls. They looked similar but not identical so my guess was sisters. One had platinum-blonde hair and vibrant blue eyes, while the other had fiery-red hair and eyes so green they put the grass to shame. They looked at us and smiled at each-other as if saying," oh look at the fresh prey." moving on from them I saw a very large man standing by the bar. He had blue hair and sea-blue eyes. He looked pretty strong but not all that concerned with out presence. I searched for the fifth person but still couldn't find them when-

A knife flew fast my head as I just barely dodged it. I looked over to see the red-head giggling and assumed it came from her. That made me mad. She could have cut my hair.

Wasting no more time I summoned Loke and Cancer to take on the sisters. They rushed off to start taking them on and I drew my whip and joined them. They were both very skilled with their throwing knives but I knew my spirits would win out in the end. In the background I could make out Gajeel fighting with the two guys. The one with the tattoos was avoiding his punches and the bigger one was still standing by the bar looking bored. I focused back in on my own fight just in time to avoid the blonde's attempt to stab me in the gut. I nimbly got behind her and cracked my whip at the back of her head. She crumpled to the floor and with her gone my spirits made quick work of the red-head. I had cancer return and summoned virgo to bring me some rope and tie up the sisters. With my own fight having been won, I looked to see how Gajeel was. He had finally taken down the black-haired man and was close to taking down the man at the bar.

I still couldn't see a fifth person until I felt something cold on my neck. I looked down slowly and as Gajeel finished up his fight, he looked over and froze. The fifth member had come out of hiding and was now holding a blade to my neck. Although thankful he hadn't, I couldn't help but wonder why he hadn't slit my throat yet. There was one arm around my stomach and the other hand was holding the knife. I didn't dare try to see who it was for fear of being cut but i could tell by the build of the person that it was a male. I could tell as well as Gajeel could that this man would be able to slit my throat before he could reach us so he stood perfectly still, not daring even to breath.

I got tired of this stalemate. Very carefully I focused my power, pulling it into my body and building it up. I didn't have a spell that I could use, but I knew that if I expelled it harshly enough it would at least catch him off guard enough for me to escape. By now I could feel the power surging through me, building higher and higher, so I released.

With a yelp the man stumbled backwards and I ran towards Gajeel to put as much distance between me and the man as possible. I stood next to Gajeel and sized the man up. He was a tall white man with brownish-black hair and a bit of a five-o-clock shadow. He was wearing a black v-neck and dark-wash jeans. All-in-all he wasn't bad looking, but the whole "holding a knife to my neck" thing killed all attraction I could have felt towards him. He looked at us warily, obviously disgruntled that his plan had not worked. He started moving slowly and Gajeel and I tensed, waiting for his attack. But it never came. The man was raising his hands in surrender, thinking that with the rest of his team taken out he would stand no chance against us. I carefully walked over to him and tied him up, while Gajeel went to go look for the stolen items. We both finished our respective tasks quickly and started back for the town.

Gajeel Pov

I was surprised at how smoothly the job had gone. After we arrived back in the village, we turned the bandits in and returned the stolen things. The mayor was extremely grateful and insisted we stayed at his best hotel for the night, free of charge. I was about to accept it when Lucy spoke up.

"Thank you sir, but I would really just rather get home. Thank you for the offer though", she said politely, her inner socialite showing once again.

"Ah. I see", he said rather dejectedly "at least allow me to pay for your train tickets home".

She smiled happily and accepted. I just huffed in annoyance, bothered that she had shown such a beautiful smile to him and not to me.

"Maybe getting out of here sooner isn't such a bad thing after all", I muttered to myself. Lucy looked at me as if she had heard me say something, but I don't think she heard what I said.

We boarded our train and soon we were well on our way home. The ride back was calm and quiet. It wasn't an awkward silence, more like a comfortable one. There wasn't teasing like last time, we sat across from each other and stared out the window. When the train stopped I grabbed our things from the luggage compartments overhead and carried them off the train. She took her things from me and then reached into her pocket. She brought out the reward money and tried to give me half.

"Nah bunny girl, I don't want that", I said calmly.

She pouted," well I have to do something to thank you."

"No, I really don't need-"

"oh! I know! come over for dinner tonight. I won't take no for an answer. With that she walked off, obviously happy to be back in Magnolia.

"What the fuck just happened?", I asked myself.

Whelp. thats where I stop this chappy. hope you like it. I love hearing from you guys so reviews are welcome~