The Hunt Begins

(A/N: I don't own Fairy Tail)

Lucy stretched and yawned as she got up out of her bed. She had finally been able to find a nice apartment and move out of Fairy Hills. Not that there was anything wrong with the place. No, Fairy Hills was fine… the fairies in the hills on the other hand? They were a little too wild for her. Sure, Lucy knew how to have fun and she loved to party. But the others that she lived with were extremely over the top 24/7. Especially Cana. She couldn't remember ever seeing that girl sober. So the blonde was extremely grateful for her new pad. It provided the nice quiet break from the guild she required every once in awhile.

Lucy made her way into her kitchen and sighed when she saw the barren state of her refrigerator. She needed to go grocery shopping again. But she didn't have enough money left from her last mission to pay for those and her rent. It looked like her small vacation was over, the time had come for more missions. But who should she take one with? The blonde scratched her chin as she walked around her small but nice apartment. Who should she go with though? She didn't know a lot of her guild mates that well. She could wait until Natsu got back and see if her overflowing sex appeal would be enough to get him to go with her. And by taking him she'd be able to take a higher paying S-Rank job...and watch the pinkette do all the actual work of course. There were other options though just in case Plan A fell through-which it inevitably would.

Finally the Celestial spirit wielder decided that it was a problem best left for later and made her way back to her bedroom...and nearly fainted at what was waiting for her.

"Yo," A half naked Gray said with a wave. "Wanna do a mission?"

Natsu sighed irritably. This mission was going to be a long grueling process considering they had to track the creature that was causing all this damage before they could beat it to a pulp. Yet instead of being up in the mountains searching for a place to start, they were down in the city… shopping for winter clothing.

"Hmph, just because you aren't affected by the weather doesn't mean me and Happy aren't." Erza said as she tried on what seemed like the 100th jacket. Natsu groaned.

"I don't see why I have to be here for this though! And Happy has fur!" Erza simply puffed her cheeks indignantly.

"I want you to see the jacket I pick too." The Knight responded as she checked herself out in the mirror. "And a jacket would look cute on Happy." The pinkette growled, his anger starting to get the best of him.

"Why the hell do I need to see your jacket! And Happy doesn't need to look cute!"

"Aye!" The blue cat interjected. Natsu spun around to thank the cat for agreeing with him but fell on his face at what he saw. "I'm always cute!" The muffled voice came from beneath the collar of a jacket. The winged kitten was also wearing a scarf, hat, gloves, and little booties. Natsu roared angrily as he leaped back to his feet.

"Damnit, I can't take this anymore! I'm leaving!" The pinkette began angrily storming for the door but an ominous feeling stopped him. He turned to find Erza with an evil aura surrounding her and her eye's glowing white.

"You're not going anywhere," the redhead whispered though it seemed to carry the strength of a yell. Ashbel had beaten the fear of a lot of things out of his rose haired disciple. But the fear of an angered woman was one so ingrained into his very DNA as a human male there was nothing that could be done.

Natsu immediately sat on a bench and forced a smile. "That color suits you very well."

Two hours later a very irritated Natsu and his two smiling companions walked out of the clothing store. The latter two decked out in their brand new snow gear. Natsu looked up at the sky, his scow growing deeper when he saw the position of the sun.

"Because of your little shopping spree we've lost half the day." He growled without looking back at the source of his anger. Erza simply shrugged.

"The jackets were necessary. And the two hours spent looking were definitely important as well." Natsu's' eye twitched.

"You just picked the first one you had already tried on.." Erza made to reply but Natsu threw up a hand to stop her. "Shut up. You've already wasted to much of our time. Let's get up to the forest already." The Titania followed as her partner began walking in a seemingly random direction.

"How do you know which way to go Natsu?" Said man continued walking while he answered.

"I can smell it. This snow doesn't smell like regular snow. It has a strong undertone of someone's magic to it. And while it's faint I can just barely follow the scent to it's source."

"So… you're like a dog?" Natsu's' eye twitched again. It seemed Erza had a knack for pissing him off unlike anyone else in the guild. Except maybe Lucy.

"No.. I'm not like a fucking dog." At this point Happy cut in.

"Yeah cause dogs suck!" The blue cat stuck his tongue out. Natsu sighed. For the umpteenth time that day Natsu wished he'd just fought Erza outside his house that day.

The trio continued on in silence for awhile before finally making it to the tree line. At that point Natsu raised his hand stopping them all from continuing forward.

"The stench covers these woods like a cloak. I won't be able to pinpoint his location in there." Erza nodded her understanding.

"So we split up," Natsu and Happy responded simultaneously.

"Yes.

"No" The two looked at each other with matching confused expressions.

"You want to split up?"

"You don't want to?"

"Why would I?"

"I kind of figured you'd go off to find fish or something instead of actually searching." Happy nodded and scratched his chin.

"You know you're right. But all the ponds are probably frozen over."

"You always find a way when there's fish involved." Erza watched the two's exchange confused. She didn't know it was possible for Natsu to have an extended conversation with someone else. He was usually so cold. Seeing him with Happy made her… jealous in a way. She wished that the Pinkette would open up to her in the same way.

Erza shook her head as if to shake away the thought. She hadn't thought of Natsu in that way for a long time. And she planned to keep it that way.

"Boys," Erza snapped. The two turned back to her ending their conversation. "Shouldn't we be looking for the Blizzardvern?" Natsu nodded.

"Yeah you're right. I'll take Happy with me." Erza accepted this plan and the two groups began to split up.

"I'd turn back now if I were you."

Lucy looked over the job board with a (surprisingly) fully clothed Gray next to her. She wasn't sure why the Ice mage had searched her out to do a mission together. They hadn't interacted much during her short time at the guild. In fact she hadn't been around many members of the guild at all. Most avoided her as if she was plagued since she spent so much time with 'Asmodeus'; King of the Nine Hells. Or as she knew him, Natsu. The Alias, Asmodeus, was one the clever journalists at Sorcerer's weekly had come up with. The blonde would freely admit this one was definitely better than the 'Demon of Fairy Tail' cliché nickname he had before. That one sounded like a poorly thought out name come up with by some terrible fanfiction author.

Nothing like the novels she wrote. Those were works of art. Grade A masterpieces if she did say so herself.

As she stood there with Gray at her side Romeo pushed past them heading for Master Makarov. A vein bulged on Gray's forehead.

"OI! Bastard! You trying to start something?!" But to both Lucy and Gray's surprise Romeo continued as if he didn't hear him.

"Master!" Makarov looked up from his attempt at flirting with Lisanna.

"Whaddya want?" Romeo puffed out his chest and pointed at the shorter statured man.

"I've waited two day's like you said! I tried it your way now I'm doing it the way I want too! I'm going out after my dad!"

"Are you sure he'll be ok?" Lucy questioned Gray as the two walked along a magnolia road heading for the train station. The raven haired man waved her off.

"That charbroiled idiot will be fine." They had finally found a job to take and set off for it, but not before offering to accompany Romeo to go rescue his father from whatever trouble he had gotten into in the mountains. Of course the prideful young man had rejected their offer claiming a 'snowman' wouldn't be any help and that Lucy would just slow him down.

Lucy could acknowledge that half of that statement was true- An ice mage would be the opposite of helpful in the freezing mountains- but she still felt bad about leaving him alone.

"I sure hope so. What mission did you pick?" Gray waved a job poster around in the air.

"Oh it's this easy high paying job. All we have to do is steal some book from this mansion."

Natsu, Happy, and Erza were seated in a cottage near the edge of the forest. It was a cozy little one room building with a small fire burning in the fireplace. Around a table in the living room with cups of hot cocoa sat the three mages and a small brown haired boy.

The child had a downcast look as he spoke with Erza. "...don't have any parent's. They died over a year ago. Them and my… my little sister." Erza frowned as she placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. Her and Happy were seated close to the child as if offering protection. Natsu on the other hand had downed his cocoa and was sitting disinterested across the table.

"If you don't mind me asking what happened?" Erza said softly. The boy clenched his mug so tight his knuckles turned white.

"They were murdered." The little bit of warmth in the room seemed to get sucked out. Natsu 'acked' as he picked a particularly big booger.

"By who?" Happy whispered.

"By my brother. Jack." He looked up from his cocoa and looked each of them in the eye. "Stay out of those woods. Don't go up there no matter what. Those aren't the villages woods anymore there his." Natsu scoffed at that.

"Who the hell are you to tell me what to do? Are you going to try and stop me?"

"Natsu!" Erza snapped but the Pinkette shrugged her off.

"No, It's fine." The young boy shook his head and removed his hat. As the trio watched his hair began to lighten, turning a light almost white frosty blue, his eyes becoming a sky blue. The remaining cocoa in the mugs all frosted over. Breath was suddenly able to be seen. Even Natsu felt the nippiness of the cold air.

"You asked who I am? I'm Julian. Julian Frost."

A/N: So yeah I changed Natsu nickname from Demon of Fairytail. I realized how unoriginal that name really was hehe. So instead I did with him what Mashima did with Erza's nickname. Also I do realize I can barely keep up with updating this story but I have some other story ideas that are begging to be written. One's a Naruto story that's set in a slightly altered universe. The other is a Naruto x Tokyo Ghoul. I just finished watching the seasons up on Hulu and I definitely recommend it. 10/10! Ken Kaneki is a beast! He bat shit crazy tho.