The boys sat randomly in the messy space Natsu called his room.

They literally had to kick open the door to get in.

"Geez, Natsu, why must you be so disorganized?" Jellal commented, trying to walk into the room without stepping on anything. He failed. Miserably.

"Natsu, is that my necklace??" Gray yelled, pushing through a box that revealed to have a chain with a cross on it at the bottom.

"It was you who had my necklace?" Gray exclaimed, pissed off.

Natsu shrugged. "I didn't take it, man. I don't know how that got there. Anyways, why would I care about a stupid girly necklace?"

"It's not girly!" Gray yelled, balling his fists. "You wanna fight?!"

"Why not, Ice Princess! I always knew you were girly!" Natsu teased, clenching his fists in preparation for a fight.

"I'm fired up!" he shouted before charging at Gray.

"Flame Brain! You're going to get it!" Gray shouted back as he cocked back his arm for a punch.

Then, Gajeel was in the middle of them. He punched both of them in the head, which hurt because of the metal piercings in his hands.

"What the hell, Gajeel?" Natsu yelled, rubbing his head.

"Yeah, why'd you do that?" Gray ran his fingers through his hair and clutched his new found necklace in his hand.

"You two are stupid. What's the point of fighting over a stupid necklace?" Gajeel tched. "You're acting like spoiled girls."

Jellal nodded. "As much as I don't want to Gajeel but he's right."

"Hey. I'm right here you know." Gajeel stated, rolling his eyes at the tattooed boy.

He ignored him and continued speaking. "You two need to stop fighting everyday." he advised.

"Fine." Natsu said, walking to his messed up bed and flopping down like a lazy person.

Jellal opened his mouth to speak again when he was hit in the face with the door opening.

Natsu laughed as Jellal clutched his face and tripped over some of his old clothes.

"Hey!" He yelled.

"Tch. What a pain." Gajeel commented, putting his arms above his head.

"You wanna go, metal face?" Natsu riled up.

Gajeel felt a vein pop. "What did you say, Salamander?"

"Oho, are you turning into a scaredy cat now, Gajeel?" Natsu teased, folding his arms and giving his a look as if he had already won.

"Salamander..." Gajeel was overflowing with anger.

"You guys need to calm down." Jellal said, picking himself off the floor just in time for his face and Gajeel's fist to collide.

"You're going to get it, Salamander!" Gajeel shouted.

"Oh yeah? I don't think so!" Natsu grinned.

Just when the two were about to go on an all out war, a muscular man stopped them.

"You brats need to shut the hell up." Laxus threatened, dark bags under his eyes as if he hadn't slept in days.

"Eek! Laxus!" Natsu jumped back, conveniently landing on Gray, making them both tumble to the ground.

Gajeel just stood there, almost in awe.

"Didn't you brats hear me when I opened the door?" He said, voice full with authority and power.

"Um.." Natsu rubbed his head. "No?"

"Get off me Flame Brain, I'm not a pillow!" Gray shoved Natsu away since he was still sitting on him.

"Damn it, Ice Princess, watch what you're doing!" Natsu retorted.

"You watch what you're doing. I wasn't the one who was bumped into another person and not apologize." Gray rolled his eyes, giving Natsu a dirty look.

"Oh my," Natsu said, batting his eyelashes horribly. "I didn't now that Gray-chan was such a sensitive person."

This made Gray even more angry. "You little.."

"Both of you shut up!" Laxus yelled at the boys.

Natsu rubbed his head. "Sorry, Laxus.." he murmured.

"Sorry doesn't cut it!" he yelled back, obviously not in a very good mood. "I'm here busting my ass to get a goddamn job and you four idiots are here picking fights like its the end of the world."

"In all fairness, I wasn't the one-" Jellal began, as if trying to defend himself.

"I. Don't. Care." Laxus growled, veins popping all around his forehead.

The boys were silent, too scared to talk back to the raging blonde that stood in front of them.

DING DONG

The sound of the doorbell ringing filled the house. It was quite loud, making it so it could be heard through all the rooms of the house.

Laxus gave the teenagers one last dirty look before stomping off to answer the door.

Natsu let out the breath he had been holding in as Laxus exited the room.

--

Laxus continued down the hallway to the door. He groaned internally as he thought about the job his grandfather had just offered him.

He urged himself to forget about it momentarily and he placed his hand on the doorknob.

But before he could twist it and open the wooden door, it suddenly swung open, hitting him in the face with such force that he stumbled backwards a bit.

He groaned, putting his hand on his forehead.

He heard footsteps as someone entered the house. They spotted the man and a gasp escaped their mouth, allowing Laxus to realize the person was a female.

"Oh my! Are you alright?" A soft voice asked him and he felt a small hand on his shoulder.

Laxus let out a loud groan. "Geez lady, you got some strength.." he said, slowly raising his head to get a look at the visitor.

His eyes met with blue ones. Snow white hair tumbled over the woman's shoulders and a black dress was wrapped around her body.

"Are you alright?" She repeated, her eyes shined over with worry.

"You're a beautiful person..." He said before he could stop himself.

She blinked several times, as if processing what he just said.

Laxus seemed to finally understand what he said and was quick to defend himself. "No! That's not what I meant. No, wait, no I did mean it. I just meant I expected you to be ugly cause you have all that strength. Ah! Not that I'm complaining!"

The white-haired woman blinked again and Laxus knew he left a horrible first impression.

But then, she let out a loud chuckle, putting her hand on top of her mouth.

Laxus felt his cheeks heat up.

"Well, I am touched." She spoke, smiling, "it's nice to find unique people in this world."

"Y-yeah," Laxus muttered, finding himself entangled with the woman's beautiful blue eyes that held a purity in which he had never seen.

--

"Dang," Natsu murmured as he watched Laxus with the visitor.

"Who knew he would act that way around Mirajane-sensei," Jellal commented, committing it to memory.

"His face is really red." Gajeel said, pointing out the obvious.

"Well no kidding." Gray replied to him, taking his phone out to take a picture of the two.

"Ooh, send me the picture," Natsu told Gray, leaning in to see the phone.

"What are you boys doing?" a new voice came in, surprising the boys that were sitting by the door.

"Gramps?" Natsu turned to see a smaller and older man with his hands folded.

"Natsu, what are you doing?" He asked again.

He glanced over the wall to see what they were looking at. His eyes stayed the same as he saw his grandson and a white-haired woman standing by the front entrance.

He started walking towards them.

"Ah, Gramps! What are you doing, you trying to get us caught??" Natsu whispered urgently to the old man.

Gramps paid no attention to and continued walking.

"Hello there, Mirajane-san," he greeted, waving to the woman beside the blonde man.

She brightened up when she saw the older man. "Oh, Master! Hello to you as well." She said back, bowing to show her respect.

"Master?" Laxus and the four boys said in union.

"I see you have already met Laxus," he said, nodding to his grandson.

"Oh, this is Laxus?" She said, glancing once again at him.

"You're Mirajane?" He said back, staring at her with a different viewpoint.

"It's good that you two met." the old man said, turning to Laxus, "So, what do you think?"

Mirajane smiled. "Well, we still need to take the interview."

Laxus tched, now annoyed.

The old man grinned before turning around to the four boys behind him.

"Now, you brats," he addressed them, "it's time I talk to you four."

"Us four?" Gray questioned. "I thought you just needed to talk to Natsu."

"Well yes, but something has come up." He said, sounding very vague but clear enough for the four to understand that something big was going to happen.

"So what is it, Gramps?" Natsu asked as they followed him to his office upstairs.

"Yeah, what's so important?" Gajeel asked, hands in his pockets.

Without missing a step, the man began to speak. "I'm afraid that I'm going to be broke soon." He said, making my the boys stop in their tracks.

"Broke!?" Natsu broke the silence, jumping in front of the old man, although not surprising him.

Jellal was quick to follow. "But what about Fairy Tail?" He asked, eager to get some answers, as did the others.

"I might have to shut it down."

Natsu and Gajeel widened their eyes in shock.

"S-shut down?" Natsu stuttered, the thought itself terrified him.

"But Gramps, you can't do that! What about all the-" Gajeel started to speak.

"Listen up brats!" He shouted, succeeding in making them all shut up. "I don't want to close down Fairy Tail. It's my home, our home. But I'm not going to have much of a choice. It needs money to keep it running and we're running out of it."

"But, what if we were able to get money for it?" Gray offered, thinking of ways to save the home they knew as Fairy Tail.

"Well, of course that would save it but money doesn't fly down from the sky. Where'd you possibly get that much money from?"

Silence fell.

--

The four girls laughed as they watched the movie. It was supposed to be a horror movie but Erza was the only one scared.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. That poor boy.." She chanted as she suffocated a pillow.

"Erza, it's just a movie," Levy patted her back, trying to calm her down.

As she did that, the scene in the movie changed where the old lady had a knife in her hand and walked toward the room where the boy and girl were.

"Oh my god, they're going to die." Erza said and Levy sighed, knowing she wasn't going to be calm her down.

Juvia had her eyes glued to the screen, anxious to know what happened next.

Lucy, who had already watched the movie, watched the reactions of her friends as the old lady in the movie knocked on the door to the room of the two kids, knife in her hand.

"Don't answer the door!" Erza cried out to the two children, as if they could somehow hear her pleads.

She let out a sigh of relief after the kids didn't open up the door but still held onto her pillow like it was the end of the world.

Lucy chuckled at her friends' reactions and got up to refill her bowl of cherries that she had binge eaten.

"Where are you going?" Levy asked her, the only one that wasn't paying so much attention to the movie to notice her getting up.

"I need more fruit." Lucy told her, showing her the empty bowl.

Levy raised an eyebrow. "You know, when you're watching a movie, you usually eat some chips or popcorn. Not fruit."

"I wanna be healthy." Lucy countered, opening the door and walking to the kitchen.

She opened the fridge, getting out the bag of cherries and pouring some into the bowl.

As she put back the bag of cherries, she heard two voices. She recognized one to be her father.

"She needs to be taken care of." Her father said.

"Of course, dear, but how?" Another voice entered, a woman's. Lucy guessed it was the voice of her father's fiance.

"I have a plan but it won't be easy." Jude said and Lucy crept closer to hear more of what the two were saying.

There was no way the two could have spotted her being as there was a large wall separating them.

But, they were talking loud enough for Lucy to hear them clearly.

"Are you sure we need to do this?" The woman asked.

"Of course we do. You know how dangerous that girl can be."

Girl?

"Yes, I know but won't your daughter be heartbroken?"

This sparked Lucy's curiosity even more.

"I know what's best for my daughter. This girl has caused nothing but trouble since my late wife passed on. She keeps bugging into my business."

"I suppose she has. Would you like me to dispose of her?"

Lucy widened her eyes. D-dispose??

"Yes. As quickly as possible." Jude told her.

"She goes to Fiore High, correct?" The woman asked, as if getting information ready.

"Yes. She is part of a club called The Twelve Zodiacs." Jude informed her.

Lucy heard a muffled laugh. "Pfft. What kind of stupid name is that? Aren't they seniors?"

"Yes they are. But, will you get the job done?"

"Of course, darling. That Aquarius that has been causing you all this trouble is going to go down."

Lucy had a put her hand over her mouth to muffle the gasp that unconsciously came out.

Aquarius??

She ran to her room, forgetting all about the cherries.

She opened the door slowly to make sure her father didn't hear but as soon as she got in safely and closed it, she jumped in front of the TV and turned it off.

"Hey!" Juvia said, looking up, "I was-" She stopped after seeing the terrified face of her friend.

"Lucy-san?"

"Lu-chan? What's wrong?"

"Lucy, what happened?"

Lucy gestured for all of them to be quiet. Slowly, she turned back on the TV, making it resume on where it left off in the movie.

But none of the girls were watching the movie. They were focused on their friend.

"Lu-chan?" Levy spoke again, this time in a much quieter tone.

"Okay, guys, we need to talk quietly so my father doesn't hear us." Lucy told them.

The three nodded. "Okay," Erza said, her grip on the pillow in her lap loosening.

Lucy took a big gulp before telling the girls everything she had just heard her father and the woman talk about.

They were surprised to say the least.

"W-what??" Levy exclaimed, earning a "shh" from Lucy.

"How could they do such a thing to Aquarius-san?" Juvia asked, her mind still trying to wrap around the situation.

"I don't know.." Lucy murmured, folding her hands in her lap as she sat down on the floor.

"Wasn't she you're childhood friend?" Erza commented, remembering past conversations.

"Yeah, she was." Lucy answered. "She was the one who helped me through my mother's death.."

"We have to help her." Levy said as she clenched her fists.

"Then we need people to protect her." Juvia stated.

"I don't care what it takes." Lucy said confidently. "I'm going to help and protect my friends."

--

How's the chapter? Sorry for not updating in a while but, hey, did I make up for it with this long chapter?

Anyways, hope you enjoyed and please leave some comments and feedback. (and vote too please)

-EpicMelody