Natsu hurried to his favorite celestial mage's home, a look of desperate determination on his face. His thoughts were frantic. I hope I'm not too late. I hope she hasn't left yet. Already out of breath, he used his last remaining strength to jump to her bedroom window—his favorite way of entering her apartment. He landed lightly on the windowsill, the window still open. Scanning the room quickly, he sought her out. There! There she was, sitting at her desk, her back to him.

"Lucy!" he yelled out, launching himself at her grabbing a hold of her ankle.

"Kyaaa!" Lucy screamed. "Natsu! You scared the shit out of me! What are you doing down there?"

A death grip on her ankle, Natsu panted out "Please...don't...go..."

"What in the world are you talking about? Go where? I already told you I was working on my novel today. " she said, perplexed by his behavior. "I don't even have to go shopping for food today." she added, a note of pleasant surprise in her voice.

"You're not leaving the guild?" Natsu asked confusedly.

"Leave the guild? Why ever would I do that?" asked Lucy, equally confused.

"Well...I heard something a few minutes ago...about how you thought that I thought you were weak...and I was going to kick you off the team...and replace you with Lisanna." he stated, his expression filled with bewilderment. "And that you were sad and you were gonna leave the guild." he added slowly and quietly.

Lucy stared at Natsu, not sure if he was being serious or not. He looked so earnest though and by the tight grip he had on her ankle, it seemed he really was trying to prevent her from going anywhere. She couldn't help it anymore; the situation was too rediculous. She started cracking up.

"What's so funny?"

"You!" Lucy giggled. "Natsu, that is a really old piece of gossip. It's been months since Lisanna's been back—well, years if you want to count the time skip. Is this really the first you've heard of it?"

Natsu shrugged. "I guess so." he mumbled, looking at the floor.

"Well, I guess you were too busy preparing for the S-class exams to pay attention then." She pasued, reflecting, then continued "In truth, no one paid too much attention to these rumors because for you, Mr. Nakama himself, to behave in such a horrible way would be unbelievably out of character. I know I didn't believe it for one minute."

"Really?" Natsu asked, brightening up.

"Of course!" she said, smiling at him and ruffling his hair.

"I know I'm not as strong as you or Erza, but I'm certainly not weak. I have ten golden keys, for goodness sake! Most of them I earned in combat! If god forbid, I had to fight Lisanna, I think I'd have a pretty good chance at winning. And hypothetically speaking, if I ever did leave the team, I doubt that Lisanna would want to join it."

Natsu frowned at this—mainly at the horrible thought of Lucy leaving his team, but still partially at the thought that someone would not want to be on it.

"Whadd'ya mean by that, Luce?"

"Oh, don't get all offended." she huffed. "I only meant that she works really well with Elfman and Mira. Why would she give up a functional team with them to join one that constantly leaves carnage and destruction wherever it goes? Why would she give up a team that earns the full reward amount, for a team that more often than not, has to pay back some if not all of the reward money to fix the damages?"

"Hey! You're making it sound like all's we do is wreck stuff!" Natsu said, mildly insulted by her accusations.

"Well, you have to admit, we're pretty good at it. Between Gray's freezing, your burning, and Erza's slashing and smashing, it's inevitable that "stuff" is going to get wrecked. And what's worse is that even I'm starting to be as bad as you guys—what with Aquarius causing flood damage or Virgo digging so many holes under a building that it collapses.'

"Don't forget about Taurus or Loke! They're pretty good at destroying stuff too..." A glare from Lucy quelled the desire in Natsu to point out her new destructive role on the team.

"Let's move on, shall we?" Lucy seethed. She took a few moments to get her temper under control, reminding herself that Natsu most probably liked that she was becoming more destructive like him. "Anyways," she said when calmer "I would never ever ever leave your team and especially not the guild of my own free will. You're always there for me whether I'm happy or sad and everyday is so much fun that I'm rarely sad. Everyone supports me. You guys believe in me even when I don't believe in myself. You're all the best friends and family I could ever hope for." Lucy smirked and shook her head slowly. "Fairy Tail is a wild and crazy guild, but I wouldn't want it any other way. I couldn't imagine joining another one."

At this Natsu finally let go of her ankle. Lucy settled her gaze on his widely grinning face. "So, even if you decide Lisanna is the one you want to be with, there's still everyone else in Fairy Tail that I would never want to give up."

Natsu furrowed his brow, frowning "Lisanna...be with? Whadd'ya talkin' about, Lucy?"

"Oh, um...well...this particular gossip started when she came back right? Part of it is that when she came back you realized you were so in love with her that you kicked me off the team." Lucy said, looking away in embarassment.

Now it was Natsu's turn to laugh heartily. "Me and Lisanna? That's pretty weird, Luce. She's like a sister to me. Who comes up with this stuff?" he chuckled, shaking his head in amusement.

"Don't ask me! I certainly didn't!" she said indignantly. "Besides, I wasn't the one who rushed over here..." she paused midsentence as she finally realized something. That's right. He had been totally out of breath when he got here as if he had just run as fast as he could. What could it mean?

Lucy's thoughtful expression was making Natsu nervous for some reason. Suddenly he thought it would be best if he were to leave.

"Whoa! Look at the time!" he said, glancing at his imaginary watch and quickly getting up and heading for the window. "I'd best be goinkkkhhh" The last part was strangled out as he was pulled by his scarf to fall backwards onto Lucy's bed.

Holding his precious memento from his father tightly in her hands and leaning closely over his face, Lucy looked curiously at him. "Not so fast, Natsu." she said, her eyes twinkling in amusement. "You hurried over here pretty quickly after hearing that rumor, didn't you? Should I be offended that you think I value our guild so little that I'd run away or should I be flattered that you care so much that you'd run after me so quickly to stop me?"

Now, Natsu could have tried to play it cool and remind her that Erza, Gray, and Happy had also run after her when they thought she had run away after the Phantom Lord attack. However, her face was so close that all he could think about were her pretty pink lips, her warm brown eyes, and her oh so delicious scent. It was making him so dizzy that he couldn't get a coherant sentence out.

"Hmmm...By that reaction, I'm going to go with feeling flattered." And with that, she planted a soft, chaste kiss on his lips.

Natsu lay still for an inordinate amount of time wondering what the hell had hit him. He was broken out of his reverie by the sound of Lucy's soft laughter. Still dazed, he looked at her questioningly.

"You're just so cute sometimes, Natsu." she said, shaking her head and smiling brightly. She then started helping him sit up. "Now, why don't you go back to the guild? I promise I'll be here writing. And if you want, you could come back later tonight and I'll make dinner for us."

"Should I bring Happy too?"

"Well, you could, but you just might have more fun if you come alone." she said, winking at him.

As Lucy sat writing and Natsu sped away towards the Fairy Tail guildhall, both mages couldn't help thinking that sometimes gossip wasn't such a bad thing after all.

Seriously, why do people still write this cliché story? 1. Lucy is not weak, especially when compared to Lisanna. How many fights have we seen Lisanna win? Why kick Lucy off to replace her with a weaker mage? 2. Everyone in the guild is Lucy's friend—she wouldn't leave them just because Natsu started going out with Lisanna (which isn't ever going to happen, by the way, since Hiro Mashima obviously ships Nalu). 3. Natsu is not a shithead and wouldn't ever kick a friend off his team. It's majorly OOC for him to be an asshole to his nakama. END RANT