Chapter One: Marooned

Lucy stood on the beach, staring out at the vast horizon; she wasn't even sure how they ended up on this god forsaken island in the first place. As she looked over at the sleeping Natsu she had a suspicion it was him. Natsu was always doing stupid things that got them into heaps of trouble, why should this time be any different?

"Lucy, I think this job would be perfect for our team!" Natsu was practically screaming at Lucy while he showed her the flyer.

"What team? Erza went off alone, and Gray is too injured from your screw up on the last job we did… It's no wonder that Erza wanted to take a quest by herself…" Lucy said as she stared at the flier. She sighed and took the paper from him, "All we have to do is deliver some crates to an island 5 kilometers from the coast? Sounds easy enough, why not…"

Lucy was unaware of the fate she put herself in. Little did she know that two weeks later she would be stranded on a deserted island with the frustrating Salamander, Natsu Dragneel.

As she remembered the moment her fate was sealed, Lucy felt herself grimace. She should have known better than to take a job Natsu had picked for them. Sighing, she walked over to the unconscious dragon slayer to shake him awake.

"Wake up idiot! How can you possibly still be sleeping in this situation?" She sighed again as Natsu just took the violent shaking and went back to snoring, maybe even louder this time. How was she ever going to wake this idiot up? She gave up and crouched next to him, as she looked over his sleeping face she started to blush. "Why am I blushing? I've seen Natsu sleep tons of times, why is this time any different?"

Anger began to well up with this new frustration. The more she looked at Natsu the more embarrassed she became, and that further irritated her. She grabbed Natsu by the scarf and dragged him towards the shoreline. Upon reaching the edge of the beach, she summoned an immense amount of strength and threw him into the ocean; she smirked as his body suddenly sprang to life in the cold water.

"Wha- th- hell ya doin' Lucy?" Natsu spat in between mouthfuls of water. Natsu was surely angry, but so was Lucy. Even if Natsu didn't know that she was angry he needed to pay for what he did, and then a thought came to Lucy, "What is Natsu paying for? He didn't do anything, he was just sleeping!" Lucy started to feel guilty.

"I'm sorry Natsu; I just needed you to wake up so we could figure out how to get off of this island. I don't like it here, it's cold, lonely, and in the middle of nowhere, and I really miss my bathtub!" Lucy started to tear up. What was wrong with her? Things like this didn't make her cry.

"Your bathtub, that's what you miss? Come on, of all the things for you to miss, you miss your bathtub the most? Don't worry Lucy, we will be home soon, don't worry about it so much and just relax." For some reason Natsu was enjoying the fact that he and Lucy were stranded on the island alone, no Gray, Erza, or even Happy. He liked the idea of being alone with Lucy, he almost wondered why, but shrugged off the thought instantly.

"Well I miss other things too, I just really miss being able to have a hot and relaxing bath, you wouldn't know anything about bathing though, would you? I doubt you've had a bath in your life." Lucy was starting to get angry with Natsu again, and she still couldn't figure out why. Natsu was being the same as always, nothing had changed; the only difference with him now was that it was just the two of them alone on the island. Maybe she was nervous to be alone with Natsu, but again, why would she be when it's only Natsu?

"Well, you just gave me a bath, didn't ya? Why don't you just do to yourself what you did to me…?" Natsu was now standing on the beach dripping wet. Lucy was acting stranger than usual towards him. She never threw him in water before, so why would she now?

"Don't be smug Salamander. Sitting in the ocean is completely different than relaxing in a hot bathtub…" Was he trying to make her mad? If he was, it was working. She felt like using Aquarius on his ass, she was willing to risk getting swept away in it as well. As Lucy was thinking about the punishment a thought suddenly came to mind. "Why don't I just use a celestial spirit to get us off of this island?" She reached to her side where she always kept her keys and found nothing.

"Waaaah! Where the hell are my keys? How could I have lost them again? Aquarius is going to have my head on a platter for this one! What do I do?" Lucy started to search everywhere for the keys, what would she do if she couldn't find them again? Loke, Taurus, Virgo, they were some of her best friends, how could she just lose them like that?

"So what if you lost your keys? We'll find them so fast; Aquarius won't even notice the separation!" Natsu gave his trademark smile, the one he always used when trying to give his nakama hope. He looked at her and knew at once… It didn't work.

"My keys, as in my source of magic, are gone. And you're smiling about it? Who do you think you are?" Lucy's hand clenched into a fist, she was going to hit Natsu harder than she had ever done before, even harder than a hit from Erza would be. She lost the only thing that made her a strong mage and he was smiling about it, smiling! He was going to pay for that. "You are so going to pay for that!"

"I-I-I- I'm sorry Lucy, I didn't mean anything bad by it, was j-j-j-just trying to give you hope, that's all, ehheheheh.." Natsu was starting to get a little frightened.

As Lucy stood over Natsu and looked in his big black eyes and suddenly forgot what she was doing, she sat down in defeat and confusion. "Why can't I hit him, there has to be some sort of magic or something" This made Lucy even angrier, she had to get her frustrations out somehow, so she walked over to a tree and started beating the crap out of it.

Natsu gazed at Lucy with a look of amazement, Lucy was hitting the tree so fast it was inhuman, and why was she so angry? Was it him, he didn't so anything, so it couldn't possibly be him.

"Lucy, calm down, I'll help you find them. Why don't we go for a walk first, then maybe you'll be calm enough to remember the last time you saw them?" Natsu was starting to get chills he only got in Ezra's presence run down his spine, and was really hoping a long walk would help her relax.

Lucy suddenly stopped hitting the tree and looked over at him, "No, we won't go on a walk, we will go on a mission. Natsu Dragneel, you will search this island for other humans, food, water, and shelter. We will have to be stealthy, just in case there are humans here, and they aren't friendly. Do you accept?" By this point, Lucy was posing with her index finger pointed firmly towards Natsu.

"Mission accepted." Natsu had already moved his scarf to cover his mouth and forehead. Ninja Natsu had once again made an appearance.