Fairy Tail had arrived in force the day before the Grand Magic Games were to start. Everyone split off to explore Crocus, and as usual, Lucy ended up with Natsu. Also as usual, the two became separated. Lucy swore she'd only stopped for a moment to look into a bookstore, but when she emerged back into the flower-strewn streets, there was no sign of her pyro teammate or the annoying blue cat.

She spent the rest of the day wandering around on her own. She hadn't realized how huge the city was, but judging from the fact that she didn't encounter a single guildmate for the rest of the day, clearly it was enormous.

Lucy started looking for the guild's inn as the daylight mellowed to a golden glow. She turned onto a wide avenue before jumping back in fright as she was nearly crushed by a stampede of girls screaming incoherently. She decided to go the opposite way down the avenue even though it was the opposite direction from the inn. At least, she thought it was. To be honest, she had spent so much time wandering aimlessly that she wasn't even sure what part of the city she was in anymore. She idly glanced back at the mob, wondering what had garnered such attention.

'Hopefully it's not another charm spell like that fake Salamander in Hargeon,' she thought. Despite the odious man who had used the spell, the memory made her smile as she thought of her first meeting with Natsu and joining the guild so many years ago.

Actually, come to think of it, the man in the middle of the swarm of girls kind of reminded her of Natsu. Except he was blond and for some reason he was wearing a crop top. She grimaced at the odd choice of clothing, though she had to admit the abs left bare were kind of worth showing off. The mob moved again to block her view. Lucy shook her head to clear the image before heading in the opposite direction.

She finally found the inn by following the sound of Natsu yelling something about 'stupid morons' and 'we'll show them!'

Natsu and Gray were lounging in front of the inn. Well, Gray was lounging. Natsu was rampaging. With anyone else, it would have been pacing, but Natsu didn't have the restraint to do something as calm as pace when agitated.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Lucy asked.

"Flame Brain ran into some competitors in the city and in his typical moronic fashion, he's letting them get to him," Gray said with a smirk.

"They are not getting to me!" Natsu said. He stamped his foot. "I just can't believe how little people think of Fairy Tail. I'm all fired up to show them just how awesome our guild still is. No one can keep a fairy down! I'm going to give anyone who says otherwise a meticulous beating."

"Do you know what meticulous means?" Gray asked.

"Do you want to go, Popsicle?"

"Bring it, Pyro!"

Lucy watched as the two butted heads. Their auras swirled around them dangerously. Normally Lucy would try to calm them down or get Erza to knock them out, but she realized what Gray was doing. Natsu was obviously upset, and a fight with Gray might just calm him down enough for him to forget what had sparked his anger in the first place. Leaving them to it, Lucy entered the inn.

"Lucy!" Cana exclaimed as she wrapped an arm around the blonde. "It's time to celebrate our eminent victory! Come drink with me."

"It might be a little early for celebrating. We don't even know who we're up against, and the games don't start until tomorrow," Lucy said as she pulled away. But she said it with a smile.

"Like there's anyone in Fiore who could beat us," Cana replied. "Come on, we'll get a bunch of the others together and play a game."

A/N: Hello! I hope this first chapter whets your appetite. I have most of this story written already, so updates should be super quick, though I'm also open to new ideas to include. After all, community interaction is one of my favorite things about this site. That said, final pairing (which is still undecided) will only be determined by me, though again I welcome input on that.

This story grew out of my love for crack pairings and it was inspired by the song 'F*ck You Betta' by Mister Chase. Specifically a Sticy vs Nalu/Graylu video using the song. Just search "Sting x Lucy" and the song title to find it. It's quite well done, so I recommend checking it out if you're into that kind of thing.

Anyway, next chapter will be the actual game.