Chapter 1 - Lucy & Natsu : Part 1

At Hargeon Station.

A train pulls into the busy station.

A guard checks in on one of the passengers, hesitantly, "Ex-excuse me, ma'am? Are you okay?"

"Aye!" A white cat answers instead of the blond teenager next to her. The cat is wearing a cute little pink frock. She is carrying a small bag on her back. "This happens all the time. She has motion sickness."

The cat and the conductor look at the blonde with sympathy in their eyes. The blonde is wearing a black tank top with white shorts which has black trimmings. On top of that, she is wearing a long black half sleeve jacket, which at the moment is unbuttoned. She has brown, strappy and flat sandals on her feet. Around her neck is a white scarf that looks like it's made out of scales. She is carrying a backpack and a sleeping bag.

"Impossible!" The girl chokes out the word. "I will never ever ride a train, again…"

"Let's go, Lucy! If the info we got is correct then Salamander must be in this town." The cat tells her partner as she makes her way out of the train.

"But l-let me… rest for a while." The blonde begs.

"Okay!" She walks out without a care in the world. She looks back to tell her partner something. "Ah! Oh-ho!"

She finds her partner hanging out of the train. The train hoots and starts departing. Panic draws on her face.

"It departed already." The cat states.

"Hhhheeeelllllpppp mmmmeeeee, Ccccchhhhaaarrrllleee!" Lucy shouts from the departing train.

The white cat called Charle sprouts wings on her back and rolls her eyes in the general direction of the train, "This has been happening a lot lately." She flies back to the window, from which her best friend is hanging out and proceeds to pull her out. Lucky for the cat, the train had not yet picked up speed.

"Lucy, are you alright?" Charle asks with concern.

Lucy just grunts something in response. Charle gently drops Lucy on the ground. Lucy takes a few deep breaths and stands up suddenly.

"Yes! Nothing is moving anymore!" She exclaims. "Let's go and ask around the town about Salamander!"

"Aye!" Charle agrees.

They follow the tracks back to the station and go into town.

"Tsch! I can't believe I ended up riding the train twice." Lucy says angrily.

"You are so bad with transportation."

"I'm so hungry." Lucy ignores Charle's comment.

"We have no money." Charle states plainly.

They walk in silence for a short while.

"Hey Charle, they probably meant Igneel when they mentioned Salamander, right?" Lucy asks doubtfully.

"Yup, I can only think of Igneel when they say Dragon of Fire!" Charle says.

"That's what I thought." She rejoices. "I can't believe I'm going go to meet Igneel after so long! I feel better now."

"Aye!"

They hear some noise up ahead.

"Oh man! She is hot!" A man says.

"Yup!"

"Who knew the Salamander would be so cute!?"

"OMG! Speak of the devil…." Lucy rushes towards the crowd.

"Aye!" Charle rushes behind her.

In another part of the town….

"What! There's only one magic store in this town?!" A young boy, with pink hair wearing a white t-shirt and dark blue knee length shorts with black sneakers, asks in surprise. He is carrying a backpack.

"Well, very few people in this town are mages. This is majorly a fishing town. My store mainly targets travelling mages." Says an elderly lady nervously.

The boy sighs, "I think, I wasted my time here."

"Why don't you look around you might find something you like?" The woman says hopefully. "I got some new stuff, a few days ago."

The boy walks around the store with a small frown on his face.

"Look, we got these new sneakers that will change colour depending on your mood!" The woman says cheerfully.

"Got it." He says absent-mindedly looking around.

"The robe that manipulates light so you can turn invisible."

"Got it already. But it doesn't last long." He sighs again. "I'm looking for keys of the Gates. Strong ones."

"Gates? Those are not common."

His eyes brighten, "Canis Minor. But it's not strong at all." He ponders on it for a moment, "I'll still take it. It'll be a nice addition." He decides. He turns towards the shopkeeper and points at the key, "How much is it?"

"20,000 Jewels."

"Oh come on, how much is it really?" He asks again.

"20,000 Jewels."

He pulls on a sexy smirk and gets really close to her to her face, "How much is it really?" He asks in a low voice.

Minutes later, the young comes out of the shops with a deep frown on his face. "Gah!" He runs his hand in his hair in frustration. "Only 1,000 jewels! Only 1,000 jewels discount! Man, she is shrewd." He hits is his left palm with his right fist, "My sex appeal is worth only 1,000 jewels?"

The boy sees some boys run towards a small crowd a little ahead.

"Wonder what's going on there?" He wonders.

"It's Salamander-sama!" A boy as old as the pink haired boy says excitedly.

"Salamander? You mean the mage who controls fire! Magic that can't be bought in stores. She's here?!" The pinked haired boy says excitedly. He looks at the crowd ahead, "She's seems popular! I wonder if she's hot."

Slowly, the boy pushes through the crowd to get to the center. As soon as he looks at the dark haired girl wearing a calf length white dress with a purple cape and purple sandals, his heart beat speeds up. She looks a little older than the boy. She smiles coquettishly at the boys around her.

'What is happening here?' He wonders, 'Why is my heart beating so fast? Is it because I'm meeting a famous mage? Why?'

The boys in the crowd fawn over the girl when she looks over at the boy. His heart beats even faster.

'I can't hold back any longer.' He starts moving towards the girl.

From the other side of the crowd, Lucy cries out, "IGNEEL!" She roughly pushes the boys to the side, "IGNEEL!"

The pinked haired boy's eyes fall on the blonde on the other side, stops mid-step and looks at her.

Lucy looks at the older girl for a few moments and blinks, "Hmmm… Who are you?"

The girl chuckles and says, "You may know me as Salamander!" She says with confidence. But her jaw drops when she sees that Lucy and Charle turn around and go back dejectedly. "Gone already!"

A few of the boys from the crowd shout at Lucy.

"How rude can you be!"

"It is The Salamander-sama!"

"You better apologise to her."

"What the heck!" Lucy wonders.

"Boys, it's fine! You don't have to so rude to her." Salamander says.

"Ahhh, you are so kind!" The boys give Salamander a dreamy eyed look.

By now, the pink haired boy realizes what happened and eyes the proceedings suspiciously.

Salamander takes out a photo of her herself from her bag hidden under her cape and signs it, "Here, I'll give you my signed photograph. You can show it to your friends."

"I want one too." A boy says.

"I'm so jealous of him."

"I don't want it." Lucy says and sighs.

She suddenly feels a many glares on her. Lucy is quickly pushed to the back of the crowd.

"So, it wasn't her." Charle says sympathetically.

"I appreciate the welcome!" Salamander says in a crisp voice. "But please excuse me now." She snaps her fingers and flames appear around her, she steps up in the flames and hovers over the crowd. "I'm having a party on the ship tonight. Please come." She flies away.

The crowd accepts in the invitation.

"What is she?" Lucy wonders out loud.

"She is really disgusting." The pink haired boy is standing behind Lucy and Charle. Lucy and Charle turn to look at him and he says, "Thanks for earlier."

Lucy's jaw drops, "You have pink hair? Did you dye it?"

Cold sweat forms on his forehead, "N-no. I didn't dye it."

"By the way, who are you and what are you talking about?

"Name's Natsu."

"I'm Lucy and this is Charle." She points at the cat.

"Aye!"

Natsu's jaw drops, "A talking cat."

"Aye!" Lucy and Charle say at the same time, enjoying the reaction on his face.

"Are you both hungry?" He asks.

Lucy and Charle look at each other, back at Natsu and say, "Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!"

The two teenagers and the cat go to a nearby restaurant.

Natsu is amazed by the amount of food the two strangers ordered while he just ordered himself two big sandwiches.

"You'll be able to finish all of it?" He eyes them dubiously.

They nod happily. "Yuubbb ah naize purzzon." Lucy says with her mouth full.

"Yuup Yuup!" Charle agrees.

"I didn't understand a word you said. But you can eat slowly. No one is going to take the food away from you." He reassures them. "Besides, you splashing all over the place. All the discount I got for my sex appeal is gone." He adds in a whisper.

"Salamander was using a magic called 'Charm'." He states. "It's a form of magic that attracts people's heart to the caster. It was banned several years ago. But using such magic to attract men…how disgusting!" He sighs in disappointment. "Though, when you both pushed through the crowd, the charm wore off on me."

"I zee." Lucy says with her mouth stuffed with food.

"I may look like this, but I'm a mage too." Natsu continues proudly.

"Hmmm…"

"But I'm not a part of any guild right now." Natsu tells them. "I'm not sure if you know this but a guild is an association of mages. It mediates jobs and other information for the mages. Mages are not considered full-fledged mages unless they are a part of a guild."

He bangs his hand on the table with excitement making Lucy and Charle eye him weirdly, "But there are many guilds all over the world. And it is hard to get into guilds that are really popular. I really want to get into a guild. Wonder if it is too hard to get into one!"

He looks at them, "Oh sorry. You probably don't understand anything about mages. But I'll definitely get into a guild. I bet I'll be able to do big jobs and earn a lot of money."

"Ohhhh…"

"You sure talk a lot." Charle says pointedly.

"Anyhoo, aren't you guys looking for someone?" Natsu asks.

"Aye, we're looking for Igneel."

"I heard that Salamander was in town, so we came here. But it was the wrong person." Lucy sighs sadly.

"This Salamander didn't look like a salamander." Charle says in a straight voice.

'How can a human look like a salamander?' Natsu thinks.

"I totally believed it was Igneel." Lucy sighs again.

Doubting himself, Natsu decides to voice his thoughts, albeit hesitantly, "How… how can a human look like a salamander?"

"Igneel's not human." She answers like it was the most obvious thing. "She's a dragon."

Natsu's eyes widen and jaw drops. "There's no way a dragon would be sashaying around town!"

Lucy and Charle look at him like the possibility of that just dawned on them.

"Don't tell me you didn't think about that!" Natsu shakes his head in disbelief. 'Well, it's better if I get away from these two. They are probably insane.' He places a few jewel notes on the table and gets up, "Well, I should be going. But you guys take your time."

Lucy and Charle look at the notes on the table and then up at Natsu in surprise. Moments later, their eyes well up and they cry out in happiness. They kneel on the floor and bow their heads, "Thank you for the meal!" Both of them say in unison.

"Whaaaaa…. Hey! Don't do that. You're embarrassing me." Natsu looks back at them in shock. A bashful expression comes on his face, "It's fine. You helped me out earlier. So, we are even."

"But I don't feel like I did anything." Lucy says, head still bowed.

"Aye, it doesn't feel right." Charle agrees.

"Yes, I know." Lucy takes out the signed picture of Salamander and offers it to Natsu, "I'll give this to you. Now we're even."

"I DON'T WANT THAT!" Natsu yells and walks out of the restaurant.

Natsu settles down on a bench in a park and takes out a copy of 'The Weekly Sorcerer' from his backpack.

"Looks like Fairy Tail caused trouble again." Natsu reads the article and bursts out laughing. "Fairy Tail always over does it!" He stops laughing after a few minutes, "But how do I join Fairy Tail? Do I have to learn some strong magic? Give Interviews? Fairy Tail sure sounds like fun."

"So, you want to join Fairy Tail?" A woman speaks up behind Natsu.

Natsu's heart skips a beat but when he turns to look behind him, he finds Salamander. "Oh, it's just you."

She steps in front of him, "I've been looking all over for you. I want to invite a handsome man such as you to my party on the ship."

"What?"

She smirks seductively at him.

"Listen, your charm won't work on me anymore. The weak point of Charm magic is 'understanding'. As long as a person is aware of it, the magic is useless."

She smiles genuinely at him, "Hmmm… I suspected that you might be a mage when our eyes met. Just come to the party and enjoy the evening."

"There's no way, I'd go to a party of the girl who's tricking people."

"Tricking people?" She giggles, "I'd never do such a thing."

"Right! So, why else would you be using Charm magic?"

"It's just a trail. I wanted to feel like a celebrity at the party." She says nonchalantly.

He turns around to leave, "Whatever!"

"Hey wait! She starts panicking. "You said you wanted to join Fairy Tail, right?"

Natsu stops mid-step and turns to look at her again.

She smirks, satisfied by the look on his face. "Have you ever heard of Salamander from Fairy Tail?"

He nods. His eyes wide as saucers. "You are from Fairy Tail?" He asks in disbelief.

"Yes and if you want, I'll talk to the master for you."

Natsu looks at her, then cracks up a seductive smile and takes her hands in his, "The party is going to be wonderful."

She grins, "Your personality is easy to understand."

"You'll get me into Fairy Tail?" He asks happily.

"Yes! But don't tell anyone about the charm." She brings a finger to her a lips, "Shhh…"

"Alright!" He agrees happily.

"See you at the party," she says as she walks away. "I'll still have to be take care of some things."

"Yes." A moment later a frown appears on his face, "Damn it, I fell for a pseudo-charm!" He pauses, "Well, if she can get me into Fairy Tail, then so be it. I'll just have to be friendly with her until I join and then I can distance myself from her." He jumps happily, "Woohoo, I can join Fairy Tail!"

So, this is my new Fairy Tail story. Shiranai Atsune asked me to do this story. Thank You for asking me, I hope you like it! As everyone knows - Fairy Tail doesn't belong to me... :-(

Please read and review! I really hope you like the story!

Did you guys hear? Fairy Tail is ending in another 10 chapters. I'm really sad about that. But Mashima-san has hinted at spin-offs. Let's see if that happens.

Enjoy! Neepa :-)