"Team Natsu's done it again!" proclaimed a pink-haired boy loudly, his face into a wide but contented grin as he put his hands behind his head. There was a skip in his step, presumably from the easy yet rewarding mission they had just completed (and successfully, as in no major destruction).

"Aye!" cheered Happy, a small winged, cerulean cat who floated alongside him.

"For the last time, why is it Team Natsu?" said the raven next to said mascot of their team, his white coat billowing around him with each step. Sneering, he stuck his hands into his dark pants and said, "If you ask me, Team Gray sounds a helluva lot better."

"Well, nobody was asking you, droopy eyes," snapped Natsu.

"Obviously, nobody asked you when you were naming the team either, slanty eyes."

"Natsu...Gray," began a voice menacingly, resulting in both boys clamping up immediately as they exchanged looks and hesitantly glanced back at their powerful redhead comrade, Erza. Her sharp mahogany eyes peered intently at the two, sending them a very clear message.

"But uh it's okay because Team Natsu is a great name! It's the best in the world and you couldn't have picked a better one!" laughed Gray quickly, slinging an arm around Natsu's shoulders.

"Nah, Team Gray sounds just as good if not better, you know!" exclaimed Natsu, equally quickly and nervously as he returned the gesture and began skipping, which Gray copied.

"You know, Lucy, I don't get why you say Natsu and Gray don't get along well. They usually seem fine to me," remarked Erza to the blonde beside her, who laughed.

"To you," said Lucy, bemused, knowing well the difference between their normal behavior and their facade in Erza's presence. Erza shrugged and carried on lugging her massive cart of suitcases.

"Well, anybody want to go back to Fairy Tail for a celebratory drink?" asked Gray, walking normally now and having already unhinged himself from Natsu.

"What's there to celebrate?" said Erza, genuinely confused.

"Two hundred thousand jewels in less than a day for protecting an old rich fart from the Jiggle Butt Gang? That's plenty of reason to celebrate," said Gray with a smirk as he looked back at the two girls.

"It could've been easier with Wendy," mused Lucy, stepping up onto the stone railing separating the sidewalk and a free fall into the canal that divided Magnolia.

"Ah, well, that couldn't be helped," said Natsu with a small shrug. "She was with Romeo on his first mission today, right?"

"Yeah," said Lucy, smiling at the thought of the young Sky Dragon Slayer and the aspiring mini-Natsu. Despite Wendy's protests that there was absolutely nothing between them, Lucy knew them too well (and perhaps had also read one too many romance novels) to let them off so easily.

"They liiike each other," giggled Happy, voicing Lucy's thoughts aloud. The Exceed's teasing resulted in a few eye rolls and small smiles from the group.

"So, you two comin' back to Fairy Tail with us?" said Natsu, directing his words to Lucy and Erza.

"And get insanely drunk?" said the blonde, to which the Fire and Ice Mages nodded enthusiastically. She rolled her eyes. "Thanks, but I think I'm going to head home."

"It's only eight," protested Natsu.

"I'll take a long bath and catch up on some writing."

"That's fine," said Gray, cutting off Natsu who opened his mouth to undoubtedly try to talk her into getting completely wasted with them. The Ice Mage flickered his gaze to the redhead. "What about you, Erza?"

"I'll meet up with you at Fairy Tail after I drop my luggage home," she replied as they approached a crossroad. She and Lucy looked up at the signposts and the street names printed on them.

"Then I guess this is where I'm leaving you guys," said Lucy breezily as she hopped down. She took a few steps west of the direction the rest of her friends were heading before turning back to them, a grin on her face. "See you tomorrow!"

"Aye!" chirped Happy.

"Yeah!" called Gray and Natsu simultaneously, though the raven was the one to continue with, "Good work today!"

"You too!" replied Lucy, her back already turned towards them as she began the lonesome trek back to her apartment. A short moment later, the rest of Team Natsu resumed their traipse back to Fairy Tail.

The Fairy Tail building was rather empty with about an hour left until midnight. Natsu and a half-naked Gray (whose shirt had mysteriously disappeared) were sitting at the bar with drinks in hand (though Mirajane had already refilled their glasses at least eight times each and was now closely watching them), and the fact that they were quickly on their way to wasted (if they weren't already) was evident. Erza left a while ago when she reached the point of tipsy, and now, the only other people left on the first floor of the guild were Cana, Macao, Wakaba, and Mirajane.

"Sooooo, Natsuuu...talked to any girls lately?" slurred Gray, clapping a hard hand onto Natsu's back, making him jerk forward violently.

"O' course," mumbled Natsu, his eyes slightly out of focus. "There's Luceh, 'nd Erza, 'nd Mira...'nd I talked ta Levy a few days ago."

"Yuh blubberin' idiot!" drawled Gray, laughing loudly. "Did ya get any of 'em into bed?"

"No..."

"Did ya wanna get any of 'em into bed?"

"No..."

"Then it doesn't count," said the Ice Mage with a tone of finality and another chortle before he lifted the glass of alcohol up to his lips again.

"Why not?" demanded Natsu, glaring up at Gray through his drunken stupor.

"'Cause I was talkin' about if you slept with any of them," said Gray loftily, "which you didn't. 'Cause ya suck."

"I slept with Luceh the otha night," said Natsu indignantly.

"Ya dense doof, that doesn't count 'cause literally all ya do is sleep," snorted Gray. "I'm talkin' 'bout the other def'nition of sleep."

"You mean—ohhh," slurred Natsu, realization slowly dawning on his face.

"Get it now? Geez, by the way ya think, ya think ya'd be a virgin."

Natsu was silent at that, only staring determinedly at his glass as he gently swished the alcohol inside back and forth. Gray stared at the Dragon Slayer for a few long moments as the pieces came together in his intoxicated mind.

"Hell, yer a vir-!" he yelled, but he was abruptly cut off by Natsu's fist that had made hard, fast contact with his face.

The sound attracted a few curious gazes—namely, Cana and Mirajane, but the former was just as drunk as them and the latter had a task of cleaning a mountain of dishes. Besides, Natsu and Gray getting physical was nothing surprising or even concerning.

"Ya bastard," Gray eventually grumbled, rubbing the spot on his cheek where Natsu had punched him.

"Only if you don't shut up," muttered Natsu.

"You're eighteen," continued Gray, though more quietly. "And yer a virgin."

"Missions," mumbled Natsu but dejectedly setting his chin on the bar counter as if he knew that his string of excuses wouldn't be worth much. "Trainin'...findin' Igneel..."

"Excuses," scoffed Gray.

"And you?" said Natsu, narrowing his eyes.

"Been 'round the block a few times," he replied, lazily swirling his drink around in its glass. "One of my best was on a mission, so no excuses for yuh there. All I can say is...you're missing out."

"Not everyone has as little self-respect as you to be strippin' the moment y'see somethin' breathing."

Ignoring the crude implication, Gray allowed a mischievous smirk to grace his face before continuing, "I have a proposition."

"What?" grunted Natsu.

"Land a girl. A bar, a mission, whatever—I don't care. Catch is that she's gotta come back the next day and ask ya for a round two, and you only get a month. If ya do this...then I won't put up a job on the request board sayin' 'Client: Natsu Dragneel; job: get my virginity'." Gray snickered at his clever and hilarious idea and at Natsu's paling face.

"Y'strippin' bastard," the Fire Dragon Slayer finally spit out after a few seconds.

"Ain't up to it?"

Natsu snorted. "Nah, just wonderin' what I get if I win."

"Hm...how's fifty thousand?"

A wide grin spread across Natsu's face, and he reached out his hand with drunken imbalance. Gray's eyes followed the pink-haired boy's arm before it finally registered in his inebriated mind somewhere that it was a handshake and not an act of violence. With an equally wide grin, he clasped Natsu's hand and shook hard.

"Deal."

Lucy sighed contentedly as she lowered herself into her bathtub, her eyes fluttering shut when the fragrant and soapy bathwater embraced her body. Ever since she joined Fairy Tail all those months ago, it had been one large mission/adventure/enemy requiring her to be away from home for long periods of time after another. At the end of the day, she only appreciated more the sensation of a soapy, blissful bath soothing her tired muscles.

She positioned herself so she was sitting but able to rest her head on the rim of the tub. Her mind quickly returned to thinking about the story she had just worked on for three hours. Plue sat on the opposite end, shakily supporting his pale frame while kicking his feet in and out of the water. Lucy smiled softly at the Spirit before dunking her head underwater. She stayed there a little while, relaxing, before there was a sudden, loud, explosive pounding on her apartment door.

Lucy jolted up out of the water in time to hear a voice that was unmistakably Natsu's holler, "Lucy! Lucy, Lucy, Lucy, Lucy, help!" her door being unrelentingly battered.

There was a moment of shock for the blonde, but she quickly composed herself again. In a blur, the Celestial Spirit Mage climbed out of her bathtub. She dripped water on every tile she hurried across before she reached her hanger but damn it, did it matter? Natsu never does this, she thought in a panic as she hurriedly wrapped a fluffy white towel around her body. It's got to be urgent! With her hair still dripping wet, Lucy ran to the banging still frantically abusing her apartment door.

A small corner of her mind hoped that her neighbors hadn't been disturbed as she shouted, "Alright, I'm coming!" and unlocked the door. She turned the doorknob and pulled back her arm in one jerky motion, revealing a very familiar Dragon Slayer who was frozen mid-knock and had some sort of surprised expression on his face.

They stood there for a second, her heaving and clad in nothing but towel, water, and eyes filled with nothing but urgency and worry while he stood there with his fist in a statuesque way, his regular clothes, and a blank look despite the fact that he had been the one knocking so savagely.

"Natsu, what's wrong? Is somebody hurt? Are you alright?" she recited, quickly scanning over his body, immediately a tad relieved that he, at least, seemed fine.

There was another pause before Natsu's expression fell, molding first into shock, then into enormity. "Eh? Something's wrong? Who's hurt?!"

Lucy blinked as confusion flooded her mind. Eventually, though, it started coming together... "So...nobody's in trouble?" she asked, just to make sure her mental sigh of relief was justified.

"Why would 'nybody be in trouble right now?" said Natsu, cocking his head.

Lucy could see that he was genuinely confused by the situation and, therefore, he was not a bringer of bad news. She released a physical sigh of relief before burying her face in her hand.

"Just...never mind," she said when she looked up and saw that Natsu was still wearing bewilderment all over his face. "What do you want? Do you even have any idea what time it is?"

"Oh!" exclaimed Natsu, his face seemingly lighting up at her questions. "I wanted ta ask you a favor, Luce!"

"Natsu, are you...are you drunk?" said Lucy hesitantly upon closer inspection of him and his speech patterns at the moment. Remembering what he, Gray, and Erza had said earlier about having a nighttime celebratory drink at the guild, Lucy lightly sniffed him. "You kind of smell like alcohol."

"Prooobably," drawled the Dragon Slayer happily, pushing past her and making his way to the middle of her living room and spinning around a few times.

"Stop!" she reprimanded, shutting her apartment door and moving over to Natsu. "Stop, stop, stop, I don't want to end up cleaning your vomit out of my carpet again!"

"Fiiine," mumbled Natsu, pouting as he sat down on the floor, his legs crossed.

Lucy sighed again though this time was out of mild irritation. She bent down so she was at the same height as him and affixed him with a stern gaze. "Now, Natsu, why are you here at my apartment? At eleven thirty? Drunk?"

"Told ya 'ready, Luce, I wanted ta ask ya a favor!"

"And what is that favor?" she asked wearily with a feeling that it was probably nothing good.

A puppy-doggish twinkle entered his glazed, onyx eyes. He smiled a smile that would've been so sweet and innocent if not for his next few words that were spoken ten times more steadfastly than they should've been.

"I need ya to teach me how ta do that with a girl!"

Silence filled the room.

Lucy's face was blank, her mouth slightly agape. The hand holding up her towel stayed slacked slightly. The only sound became the faint splashing of Plue's feet in the bathtub that suddenly seemed so far away.

And all Natsu was doing was staring at her with those godforsaken puppy dog eyes and grin.

Lucy stared.

"W-w-whaa what?" she finally stammered, fully aware of the blush creeping up her entire body and suddenly feeling incredibly self-conscious about being clad in only a towel around Natsu. Standing up abruptly, she continued to sputter, "How could I possibly—...but you're my—...why would you even—!"

Natsu frowned as he began swaying back and forth. Lucy wasn't sure if it was due to the alcohol or his own will (which, at the moment, probably would've resulted from the alcohol anyway). "Why nooot?"

"Because I—I'm not...I can't do that with you! We're friends, we're on the same team, and I just really can't be the person to teach you something like that!" she rambled, throwing up her free hand for added effect. "There's gotta be someone better you can ask if you have to do this! I'm really not the right person for the job, and...and you're drunk! I don't know what came over you for you to decide to get wasted and then march over here in the middle of the night just to ask something like this but you can't! We're not even in that kind of relationship so it'd be...it'd be wrong if we did it and I just—" She stopped abruptly when she suddenly registered a soft snoring wafting up to her ears and then, mechanically, she looked down to see Natsu slumped over and a small line of drool already creeping down the side of his mouth.

Baffled.

Tiredly, Lucy meandered over to her bed and slowly sat down, her eyes never once leaving Natsu's unconscious figure. A long minute passed before she sighed and rose from her mattress. Eventually reasoning that she wasn't strong enough to lift him onto her bed, the Celestial Spirit Mage reached for the stack of folded blankets in her dresser. With one hand, she threw open a quilt and laid it over him. She gently inserted a folded blanket between his head and the floor to serve as a makeshift pillow. When she was done, she stood up again and looked down at Natsu again.

He's pretty cute when he's sleeping and not shouting crazy things, she thought, her eyes crinkling as she smiled at the sight of the Dragon Slayer so vulnerable. However, his "favor" suddenly returned to the front of her mind again, effectively erasing the smile and crinkles and all. With that, she turned off the light and quietly crossed the room back into the bathroom.

Once Lucy was safe within the confines of another room again, she locked the door, slipped off her towel, and returned to her bath. Hardly noticing Plue's confused smile, the Celestial Mage picked up where she left off, submerging her entire body underwater again.

This time, however, all thoughts of her book were put aside as she instead contemplated what on Earthland had just happened.

-*-x-*-

:) review/follow(/fave?!111/?/1?!1/1?!1/) if you'd like, especially since there's more to come! Yes, this story is probably going to enter danger zone as far as T rating goes, but I'm going to try to keep it as classy as possible (if that's the right word haha)

Thanks for reading!

-Apheleia