Hey guys! I'm back with another fanfiction! I've had this idea in my head for a while now, and I was itching to get it out of my head and see what you guys think! For those of you who are still waiting on my 'Hocus Pocus' fanfiction to be updated, no worries! The new chapter is already in the works! I'm a big fan of Fairy Tail and I want to contribute to the fandom! I hope you all like it and don't be afraid to send me reviews! I'd love to see what you all think!

Summary:

When Levy invites Lucy and Natsu on a mission to translate wall carvings from an ancient temple, they accidentally invoke the "Trials by Nature", a series of tests that an ancient tribe used as a way to initiate members into adult hood. They must conquer the twelve basic animal instincts, while trying to reign in the feelings that the trials invoke in them.

...

Lucy smiled as Mira sat down her ordered smoothie. "Thanks Mira."

The eldest Take-Over sibling smiled back at her as she grabbed an abandoned plate and beer mug, putting under the bar to be collected later.

"No problem Lucy, if you need anything else just call me and I'll be here."

Lucy nodded, then sighed as she sipped on her strawberry smoothie. If Mirajane had seen her sigh, she hadn't thought much of it as she moved down to the other end of the bar to fulfill more orders from her thirsty guild mates. Looking around her at the eternally jolly guild, Lucy couldn't help but think that things had gotten a bit stale lately. Its already been two years since Tartarus's defeat, and everything thing has been peaceful. While she was glad there wasn't another madman hellbent on world domination at the moment, things had become a little too peaceful for her tastes.

Now that's not to say that she actually wanted trouble to come, that was more or less her pink haired partner's line of thinking. She just wanted something more, exciting to come along. Then again, this was Fairy Tail. There was always something exciting happening; the novelty of guild brawls never fell out of style, along with their never ending tradition to find a reason to party all night long. Last week, Wendy had gotten a good check up from her dentist and they'd partied for 2 days straight.

True, while things at the guild never failed when it came to all things lively, the missions however, were the same old things time and time again; "Help! Exterminate giant monster!" "Bandits are terrorizing our village!" "Take out a dark guild!"

It was the same thing over and over again, and unfortunately for her, those were the highest paid missions they could take without it qualifying as an S class request. But even while they tended to be high paying they were also high risk, and because of her destructive teammates, highly destructive. That meant a lot of buildings and expensive things got destroyed.

And that usually meant little reward for Lucy.

Taking another long sip of her smoothie, she looked around and sighed in relief when she didn't see the pink head of her partner, Natsu. Going on missions with the destructive Fire Dragon slayer has been exasperating lately. While he always had a thing for coming to her rescue, lately he's prevented her from even joining in on the fight. Every time she tries, he gets in her way and takes out her enemy, turns around and gives her that megawatt smile that he's always known for, then dashes off to find the next unlucky villain.

She knows he means well, but she can't help being a bit offended by his recent attempts to keep her out of danger. She could damn well handle herself, thank you very much. Not to sound arrogant, but she was the only one who'd escaped the Alegria spell that managed to trap everyone else while they were battling Tartarus. In the end, she was the one who freed everyone, though it wasn't without a sacrifice on her part.

She smiled bitterly and fingered the seashell shaped locket around her neck, that contained the remains of Aquarius's key encased in a lacrima crystal. While she understood that without her sacrifice she and her friends would no doubt have perished in that battle, it still hurt that she could no longer see the irritable mermaid spirit who practically helped raise her after her mother died. Loke and her other spirits often told her how Aquarius was doing, so that lessened the pain somewhat, but she knew that the pain would never truly go away. Hearing about Aquarius would never make up for her absence, and Lucy often blamed herself for not being strong enough at the time, so that Aquarius wouldn't have had to make that sacrifice.

The Spirit King, sensing her enormous grief, was nice enough to turn Aquarius's power into magic power for her. Now, along with her other keys she could use Water Magic. For that, she was glad. It made her feel closer to the mermaid, who was her very first friend. Even if Aquarius claimed to have always hated her, Lucy knew that Aquarius loved her just as much as Lucy did her. After Fairy Tail was reunited after a year of being broken up, she asked Juvia to secretly teach her how to use her new gift, and after a bit of reassuring the Water Mage that she wasn't trying to learn just to steal away Gray, she agreed. Lucy was proud to say that after a year, she was just as proficient in Water Magic as Juvia was. She hadn't told her teammates about her new ability yet because she wanted to surprise them, but because of Natsu's interference, she hasn't had the opportunity to yet.

Finishing her smoothie and stretching, she figured now was as good a time as any to pick out a mission before Natsu got the chance to send them on some kind of suicide mission. Putting a few jewels on the counter for her smoothie, she hopped off of her stool at the bar and made her way to the mission board, dodging various objects like chairs and bottles and even guild members, more than used to the constant playful warfare of Fairy Tail. Finally arriving, she quickly glanced over the board and her hopes dropped when she couldn't find anything that would even remotely interest her, let alone Natsu. Letting out a disappointed sigh, she began to make her way to the door, intent on finding a book or something at home to entertain herself with.

'I should start my newest chapter, but I'm kind of stuck. And since there's not much else I can do here, I'll just have to wait until tomorrow to see if some new missions come in-'

"Lu-chan!"

Lucy halted her journey home and turned around to see the smaller woman jogging towards her from the second floor stairs, with, unsurprisingly, Gajeel trailing behind her at a slower pace. The moody Iron Dragon slayer could usually be found hovering around the book loving blue-nette most days. In fact, his presence around Levy nowadays was nearly constant, to the horror of her Shadow Gear teammates. The blue haired woman didn't seem to mind, in fact, Lucy more often than not found her smiling happily with her nose in a book, with the Iron Dragon slayer right beside her, silent but content just to be in her presence. Sometimes Pantherlily would join them; often holding a cup of kiwi juice or even resting in the Solid Script mage's lap, snoozing as she idly stroked the feline warrior's head. Though Lily was nowhere to be seen around them this time.

"Hi Levy! How's everything going?"

Levy panted a bit when she reached her, taking a moment to catch her breath before straightening up to give the blonde a wide smile. "I'm glad I caught you! There's a mission I want you to do with me and Gajeel!"

Lucy's interest peaked. A mission with Levy and Gajeel? That certainly would switch things up, maybe enough to give her the excitement she's been looking for.

"Oh yeah? What kind of mission?"

The bluenette searched through the bag at her hip for a bit, before retrieving and holding up a crumpled mission poster, its bottom end still partly folded up. "Its to translate some wall carvings in an ancient temple! Master said the client requested me specifically but said that I could bring help!"

Lucy's interest promptly wilted. Of course it was a research mission. How could she forget Levy's love of anything literature? Then again, Lucy also loved literature and could even admit that she could be just as rabid as Levy sometimes when it came to books. However, the mission she was offering just wasn't what she was looking for at the moment and she decided to decline. Besides, maybe if Levy and Gajeel went alone they could finally get over this awkward sexual tension that's developed between them and finally move their relationship to the next level.

She saw Gajeel's eyebrow twitch a bit, before he promptly rested his large arm atop the much smaller mage's head. Its a habit he's had yet to break, and one that Levy didn't seem to mind as much as she used to. "Oi, Shrimp, the flier's still folded up. She can't read the whole thing."

Levy glanced down at the flier in her hand and her mouth made an 'O' shape in realization. "Oops! Sorry Lu-chan!" She then used her other hand to grasp the folded end of the paper and straightened it out, allowing Lucy to see the entire description. As well as the part about the 2 million jewel reward in big bold text, making it impossible to miss.

'Cha-CHING'

That was the only thought in Lucy's head as she eyed the generous reward. All that money just for translating some ruins? "T-Thats..."

Levy giggled at what Lucy knew was an incredulous expression on her face. "I knew you'd like that part Lu-chan. And," Levy came closer to speak lowly in her ear. "There's a 1 million jewel bonus if we can find some ancient relic that's theorized to be in the temple."

And with that, Lucy's brain promptly short circuited, and after a moment, her senses came back and she grinned. With all of that money, plus the possibility of the bonus, she could pay her rent off for just about the rest of the year and still have loads of spending money after the fact. Just the thought of not having her landlady on her back about rent was the final puzzle piece falling into place.

"I'll do it!"

"Do what Luce?"

Lucy's thoughts of financial bliss were quickly halted when Natsu promptly butted into their conversation, putting an arm around her shoulder as he looked over the details of the flier.

'No. Nonononono! If Natsu comes the whole temple will be destroyed, and we'll never get the reward!'

Natsu frowned as he looked over the mission and her hopes started to rise again. Maybe he won't be interested and find something on his own!

"Eh? Translate some ruins? This is boring, why would you want to do that Lucy?"

She heard Levy huff and she looked away from Natsu to see the bluenette glaring at the pink haired Dragon slayer. "For your information, Natsu, these ruins happen to be from an ancient tribe, that may have had ties to a powerful Lost Magic. Its not boring!"

Natsu's attention, however, was no longer on Levy but on Lucy as he tried to urge her toward the mission board to find another mission. "Come on Lucy lets find another mission, one where we get to beat something up!"

Oh no, Lucy thought. She wasn't gonna let this happen again. He would choose something dangerous, stuff gets destroyed, and they end up paying most of their reward back to fix the damages. With that in mind, she stood her ground and crossed her arms, hoping that he would take the hint that she was not giving in, not this time.

"No way Natsu. Besides, don't you mean you get to beat something up? I haven't been able to contribute anything during our last few missions because you keep beating them up for me!"

As she glared at him she noticed that he seemed, unusually focused on her. And, maybe her eyes were playing tricks on her, but she could of sworn she saw his expression change into something devious before he gave his familiar grin, showing off his fanged teeth. Whatever it was, it was familiar. Something she'd never seen before in him but in someone else, but she couldn't think of who. "What? I thought you didn't like to get down and dirty. I was doing you a favor."

She blushed briefly at his choice of words and turned away from him, arms crossed under her generous bust. "I can handle myself just fine Natsu, but I want a change from our usual missions, so I'm going with Levy and Gajeel this time."

She'd thought that would be the end of it since he thought the mission was boring but of course, Natsu always has this nasty little habit of proving her wrong.

"Okay, then I'm coming too."

She swiftly turned back around, eyes wide and mouth open in shock. "N-No! You can't!"

His grin immediately dropped into a frown, and for some reason his expression was intense enough to intimidate her, just a bit. "Why the hell not?"

She opened her mouth to respond, but thought better of it. What could she say? That he was a destructive moron whose tendency to light everything on fire always made any reward they get dwindle down to nothing? She heard Gajeel and Levy snicker and turned to them to see what was so funny, before feeling someone poke her in the head. Turning back to Natsu, she saw that he had a slightly hurt expression, if the small pout on his face was anything to go by.

"Oi, that's not nice Luce..."

Putting the pieces together, she realized that she'd voiced her internal monologue out loud and covered her mouth in shock and guilt. "Oh my goodness, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."

Gajeel sucked his teeth and rolled his eyes. "Its not like you weren't telling the truth. I'd be worried too if this fire hazard was anywhere near something valuable."

Natsu removed his arm from Lucy and his fists lit up. "You wanna go screws for brains!?"

Gajeel too removed his arm from Levy's head and smashed his fist into his palm. "Anytime you're ready, Pinky."

Levy jumped between them, her arms outstretched. "This isn't the time for that! Besides Gajeel," she said, turning towards him and pinning him with a glare. "You're just as bad as Natsu is, but I'm still bringing you along."

Gajeel flinched a bit before turning his head away, a small blush on his face. "Che, Its an old temple so there's bound to be some broken off parts. Some areas might even be unstable so its extra dangerous. You'll need me for the heavy lifting, and to help keep the predators away. That area is known for Dire Wolves. Its not like those two weaklings can do all of that."

Before Levy could reprimand him for insulting her teammates, Natsu cut in. "That's it! I can help with the heavy lifting and stuff. It doesn't hurt to have a little more extra muscle eh? Let me come Luce, I promise I'll be good!"

Lucy averted her eyes from Natsu's begging face. He seemed to have forgotten what she said about him, which was a relief, but now he was trying his best to tag along on the mission she had hoped would give her a break from him. While she didn't mind him being around most of the time, his recent clinginess was becoming a bit too much for her to handle, and whenever she resisted, he resorted to using dirty tricks to snuff out her irritation and put himself back in her good graces, just like right now...

'Damn him, he knows I can't resist that face...'

She blushed a bit and bit her lip, embarrassed to have his gaze so focused on her. If she were completely honest with herself, he made a good point. While Gajeel was strong on his own, it definitely wouldn't hurt to have two dragon slayers on their side. It was an ancient temple, and because of the extremely high reward with an added bonus, there was no doubt some danger involved. She'd learned in the past that nothing was ever that easy. The temple could have traps or other hidden dangers. If they found the relic, who knew if it was cursed or not? Logically, having them both there made sense...

But it wasn't worth it if Natsu couldn't control his destructive tendencies, and she didn't want Levy's mission to be ruined by her or Natsu's presence.

Turning to Levy, she sighed. "Its your mission Levy, ultimately the decision is up to you."

Levy thought for a moment, Natsu watching her. When she nodded her head, Natsu grinned victoriously and once again put his arm around her. "See? Everything will be fine Luce, I won't destroy anything, you and Levy get to do the wordy stuff, and we get the reward! Its that easy!"

Lucy sighed and smiled a bit. She didn't get to have time away from him, but maybe Natsu was right. If he could reign himself in, maybe this mission would be good for all of them. She got to do a mission with her best girlfriend, Gajeel and Natsu would do all of the hard work, and if they were lucky, they'd find this relic and get an even bigger pay out. She began seeing the brighter side of the situation and in return, her enthusiasm for the mission quickly rose. "Okay, I guess you're right, but no destruction! Its a temple so its a valuable part of history."

Natsu scoffed and grinned even more, smug because he'd gotten his way. "Of course I'm right, Luce. I'm always right."

This time it was Gajeel who scoffed, and Natsu quickly turned toward him, his fists lit aflame once again for an impending fight. "You wanna go Bolt Breath?!"

"Lets do this Flame head!"

"Stop fighting!"

Then again with Natsu in the equation, things never went as planned.

...

Thanks for reading guys! What do you think of it so far? Do you have any questions? Send me a review!