Hey guys, just trying something new, hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I own none of these lovely characters, but this plot sure is mine

Monday Mornings

The apartment was in no way small. Had it been used for its original purposes it would have fit a normal person easily. But they were not normal, and they were not using the house for it's intent for housing two, maybe three people. They had squished, packed and crammed so all of them could fit.

The apartment had started out as Lucy's and Levy's. They bought it when going to school and soon discovered that they couldn't pay both the rent on the apartment and student fees. So they invited Juvia and Wendy, who with them brought Gray and Gajeel. It wasn't too long after that, that Natsu was knocking on their door- or more accurately breaking through the window- begging for a place to stay. So the seven of them lived together.

If you looked down the hallway there was a line of tape that marked the exact middle because Natsu and Gajeel couldn't live in the same room as each other, so it was marked on the floor with a line that neither could cross. Now with both of the bedrooms occupied, that left the rest of the occupants to claim their own spot. Levy and Juvia pushed a bunk bed into Gajeel's room and handed him a contract that said if the door was closed, he knocked first. Lucy and Wendy decided that rooming with Natsu would be better than not having a room at all, so they set up their camp in his room with his promise to always ask before entering. That left Gray the couch to stake claim to.

Now with seven people in the apartment, one would think that they couldn't fit any more, but somehow they also squished in three cats- Pantherlily, Happy, and Carla, Lucy's dog Plue, and an aquarium for Juvia's fish.

This might be the point that someone would ask why all these people would choose to live together. It was more for the practicality of it all. All of them had certain habits, or hobbies, that made it hard to keep a steady flow of income coming. Levy spent her money on stacks and stacks of books. Gajeel was always tinkering with some machine or something. And Natsu was forever breaking things. Each of them had their own reasons for being unable to afford an apartment of their own. So together they lived.

Bedrooms were not the only issue of living in the house though. The other problem was that it only had one bathroom. You would think that with four girls competing for space on the counter, the bathroom would have been a disaster, but they kept it pretty clean. Each girl had filled a drawer with their toiletries and left the guys the counter. But this still left the issue of trying to work out morning routines with one another. So Levy took it upon herself to make them a schedule.

It only took hours of arguing and fighting to decide who took a shower at night and who took one in the morning. With Juvia volunteering to use the shower at the pool she worked at, and Gray saying that he would use the one at the gym, Levy managed to fit everyone into her schedule. Now bathroom time was often a form of currency in the house, being traded for home cooked meals, choice on movie night and other such things. It worked well for everyone- except for when it didn't.

"What are you doing in there, Luce? You've been in there for hours," Natsu whined, knocking on the door for the third time in the last two minutes.

"I've been in here for twenty-six minutes. It's not your turn for another four," Lucy called back, running a brush through her hair. "And if you bang on that door one more time, I'm not going to make you that curry I promised you."

"But Luuuuuuuce, I have to go!"

"You have four minutes. Hold it!"

"Three minutes," a new voice added as she walked past the pink-haired boy in his flame printed boxers, nose buried in a textbook. "And he traded bathroom time for that curry. It would against rule 14 to break that promise." Levy continued on her way to the kitchen, never once lifting her eyes from her book as she stepped over the dog that lay sleeping in the doorway.

She heard Lucy call from behind her. "He's violating my bathroom time. That is against rule 14 B. It means I can choose any legal, non harmful act as my punishment."

"Please! Anything but that!" Natsu begged.

Levy ignored the argument, balanced her book on one hand, and filled the kettle with water with the other. Picking up pillow that she had placed on the counter last night, she tossed it behind her- without so much as a look- and heard a muffled groan that said it had hit its mark. "You have a bed you know."

"If I wanted ya to throw something at me, I would have asked."

"It's 8.30"

"Aw, shit," Gajeel cursed as he pushed himself out of the chair he had slept in last night and rushed into his room.

She heard a muffled shriek and his apologetic mumbling as she grabbed bread from the fridge and put four pieces in the toaster.

"Gajeel has to knock before entering! It is in the contract," Juvia cried through the door, as she rushed to put the shirt she had been holding on.

Three loud bangs followed her statement. "Juvia is decent," she responded as the door flew open and Gajeel came storming in.

"I'll remember next time."

Juvia just blushed and went back to making her bed, carefully tucking in the sheets and rearranging the Gray doll that sat by her pillow.

"Ya know that's creepy," Gajeel muttered as he changed his shirt.

"But Juvia made this with love," she said, picking the doll up and cradling it to her chest.

"If you are talking about the doll, I agree with you," a voice sounded from outside the room.

Rushing to the door, she spied Gray as he made his way down the hall. "But Gray-sama! It is a symbol of our love!"

Gray just groaned and continued on his way to the kitchen where Levy was buttering her toast. "Yours is in the toaster," the blue haired girl told him as she flipped another page in her textbook.

He opening the cupboard to retrieve the peanut butter when he heard one of his roommates down the hall.

"Finally," Natsu huffed. "I thought you would never get out."

"Oh stop your whining. I'm out a whole minute before I need to be," Lucy snapped, storming to her room and closing the door.

Wendy looked up from the work she had sprawled across her bed. "Is everything okay Lucy?"

"Everything would be if Natsu could read a clock," she sighed, unplugging her phone from the wall and checking it for messages. "Isn't it a little late for you to be doing homework?"

Wendy looked away and stroked the white cat that was curled up beside her. "I meant to do it last night, but I was helping the strays in the alley. One of them had gotten into a fight and needed some medical attention."

"Didn't you say you ran out of supplies?"

"I just got my paycheck last night. I bought some more after school."

Lucy sighed as she tucked her phone into her pocket and turned to face the younger girl. "If you spend all your money on them, you'll have nothing left for yourself."

Wendy just laughed and went back to her work. "I would look out for myself first."

Lucy flushed hot as she gave Wendy one last look before heading to the kitchen where Natsu now stood with his head in the fridge looking for something to eat.

"Close the door, Flame Breath. You're letting all the cold air out," Gray snapped from the table where he was eating his breakfast.

Natsu either chose to ignore him, or the more likely explanation was that he didn't hear Gray. He was totally immersed in his search of the fridge.

"Top shelf," Lucy advised as she walked behind him and started the coffee maker, taking a seat next to Levy at the breakfast bar as she waited for her drink to be done.

Natsu smiled as he pulled out the hot pepper and cream cheese sandwich he had asked Lucy to make for him earlier. "Thanks Luce," he said as he unwrapped it and stuffed his face.

Lucy just shook her head as she reached into the cabinet for a mug and a travel cup. Into the travel cup she poured straight coffee and into the mug she mixed it with some cream. As she worked, she pulled out her phone again and was surfing the web, looking at the latest trends. She heard rushed steps from behind her and she held out the travel mug without looking up from her phone.

Gajeel snatched it from her hand on his way to the door, not bothering with a thank-you or a goodbye. Lucy just went back to the Instagram page she was on, not bothered by his rushed retreat.

It was Juvia who walked into the kitchen next, pouring herself a cup of boiled water from the kettle and setting it aside with a tea bag to steep. In the same motion, she reached across the counter and dropped one into Levy's cup, as she had once again forgot to put one in herself.

Wendy was the last one to make it to the kitchen, a small white cat sitting on her shoulder, a blue one tucked under her arm and a black cat doing figure eights around her legs.

"Happy!" Natsu cried, which caused the blue cat to eagerly leap from Wendy's arms onto the counter to make his way over to the boy waving his half finished sandwich at him.

"You can't feed him that. There is some fresh fish in the fridge. I picked them up last night," Wendy ordered, picking up the black cat and putting him on the counter. "Get some for Lily and Carla too."

Shoving the rest of his sandwich into his mouth, he dutifully made his way back to the fridge to pull out the fish and feed the cats. With the cats satisfied and eating their treasure on the counter, everyone gathered at the table- except Gajeel, who had just left, and Levy, who was too impressed in her book to move.

"Stop looking at me like that."

"I'm not looking at you at all."

"You sure were, Ice Princess!"

"In your dreams, Flame Brain!"

"Was that a challenge?" Natsu roared, causing the three girls to groan. With Natsu, everything came down to a fight.

"Bring it on!" Gray responded, shoving his chair back from the table. And Gray didn't help at all.

It was no sooner that it was out of his mouth then Natsu launched himself across the table. Soon the two of them were nothing more than flying fists. Lucy sighed and made her way to her feet, grabbing her coffee from the table as she dodged a wild kick and made her way into the living room, the other girls following close behind her.

It was nothing more than a morning ritual, either he fought with Gray, or he fought with Gajeel, whoever happened to be home at the time. And people wondered why they had to buy so many new dishes.

So please tell me how I did. Favourite or follow, but above else review! Maybe I'll make a couple more stories about all of them living together. We'll see if people like this or not. But I love all my readers and I hope you all have a great day!