Chapter One: Let's Mix it Up!

Lucy loved sitting in the guild hall watching everything. She was watching a fight that was starting to heat up when Mira came up to Lucy with one of her world-famous strawberry milkshakes. Lucy gave a her an award-winning smile and began to sip on her milkshake. Today was a day for her to sit back and do absolutely nothing. Team Natsu had just gotten back from a long mission and she needed to relax for a day before the hotheaded mage dragged her out on another ridiculous mission. Erza was following suit by staying in her room at Fairy Hills. Lucy looked around the guild hall and began to look at the relationships that had begun to form. They had defeated Xeref and Acnologia about three years prior, and in that time so much had happened. Jellal and the rest of Crime Sorcerie had been given amnesty. Because of this, the former guild members decided to split up and join legal guilds. Jellal and Cobra had joined Fairytail. The remaining members decided to join Sabertooth.

Lucy watched Jellal order two servings of strawberry cake before discreetly leaving the guild. She chuckled to herself knowing that the heavenly body mage was about to drop in on a sweet loving redhead. Next her eyes drifted to Gajeel, Levy, and the bundle of pure energy that was being protected between them. They had been an official couple for a while, but what had surprised everyone was how a single year after the fall of Xeref and Acnologia Levy had become pregnant. They ended up having a little girl named Lexi with Levy's blue hair and Gajeel's red eyes. She had quickly become the joy of the guild; her first birthday having passed not that long ago. Lucy gave the family a warm smile before drifting her eyes up to the second floor to watch a tall and brooding lightning dragon slayer. After the scare with his grandfather he had begun to take his role at the guild more seriously, helping Makarov in any way that was possible. At the same time Mirajane had been trying to get the thick-headed slayers attention. Lucy chuckled a little at the thought of someone not seeing all the glaringly obvious signs Mirajane had attempted. Next on her list was to check-in on the odd couple, Elfman and Evergreen. When her gaze drifted to them all she could see was a very upset Evergreen whacking Elfman with her fan. Lucy shook her head and was about to return to her milkshake when Makarov wheeled himself to the edge of the second-floor railing. His voice boomed over the guild ceasing all talk and fighting.

"ALRIGHT BRATS! Listen up! It's that time of year again where we travel to Tenroujima and conduct our S-Cass trails. The trails themselves will be in one months' time. Because of how I'm having the trails preformed this year, all current teams will be split up."

Gasps could be heard throughout the guild. It took a moment for everyone to collect themselves enough for Makarov to continue.

"That right! All official teams are being temporarily split up. You'll still be in teams, just not your original ones. For the next month your task is to show me who is the most adaptable with new teams. The people who impress me the most will be the candidates for the S-Class trails this year. Now listen up so I can callout the new teams!"

Everyone was deathly silent while Makarov began to call out names. Each team was made up of three or four people. With only one or two having less. Lucy zoned out until she heard her name called.

"Alright here's the last six teams. We have Lucy, Levy and Freed in a team. Next up is Mira and Laxus. Then it is Evergreen, Elfman, and Erza. Natsu, Wendy, Happy and Charla. Gajeel, Pantherlily, Grey, and Juvia. Lastly is Cana, Lisanna, and Bickslow. I want each team to decide on a leader and then have them come to me with your temporary team names."

At that Makarov turned around and wheeled himself back into his office to wait for his children to recover. Lucy quickly grabbed her milkshake and walked her way up to the second floor where a frazzled Freed was sitting, Levy was not far behind her. Everyone else in the guild was doing something similar by gathering up in their new teams. Lucy sat down next to Freed and Levy sat on his opposite side. She gave another of her award-winning smiles and started to happily talk to Levy and Freed.

"Well that was unexpected! I never thought Master would ever split up the teams like that."

"Me either Lulu! Though I'm not too mad about it since I'm paired up with you."

"Even though Gajeel is on a completely different team?"

"Its probably for the best. Though I'll need to work with him to make sure theres always one of us in Magnolia. There may be times where I can't go on a mission. I don't want to leave Lexi alone."

"Well duh! Lexi's too precious for a babysitter. So back to the teams and everything who's going to be the leader?"

"Oh Lulu, it definably cannot be me! I can't lead Lexi let alone you guys! I think you guys should play rock paper scissors for it. I think you both would be super awesome as team leader."

Lucy let out a light chuckle right as Freed snapped out of his shock at the mention of a game to determine their team leader. Lucy gave her focus back onto the subject at hand, giving her opinion on it.

"Actually Levy-chan, I really don't want to be team leader. Erza was technically team Natsu's leader and I don't think I could do that. Freed, what do you think?"

"Well Ms. Lucy, Ms. Levy. To be perfectly honest I'm in the same boat as both of you. Laxus always took charge with the Raijinshuu, so none of us got any actual leadership training."

"What about when he went solo, I know he did that a lot. What did you guys do then?"

"Well we voted on decisions. There was never a leader per se if Laxus wasn't there. I guess you could call be the closest to being second in charge though."

Levy and Lucy looked to each other with a smirk and both spoke in unison.

"Then it's decided! You're our team leader Freed." Levy broke away as Lucy continued, smirking at Freed's reaction. "So, team leader, what's our team name going to be. I vote for it to NOT be team Freed."

"I could not agree with you more Ms. Lucy.

Levy and Lucy both began to crack up again, getting obvious joy from the predicament they were all in.

"Well Lulu you're the writer here. Maybe you should make our team name!"

"Ms. Levy I think you have a wonderful idea. Ms. Lucy I believe you are the most suited to creativity here."

"On one condition. Drop the Miss this and Miss that. Makes me feel like I'm back at the Heartfilia Kozern."

"Very well… Lucy."

"Same here Freed. Just call me Levy. That miss stuff makes me feel old."

Freed blanched at the comment and Lucy laughed lightly as her mind began to think of possible team names. After a few minutes her face lit up and she began to lightly hop in her seat.

"Oh guys! I got it. What about The Scholars? I mean Levy you have your Soild Script magic, Freed Rune magic is your primary magic, and even though I'm a Celestial mage I know a lot of translation skills. No one else on team Natsu took the time to learn."

Freed and Levy looked at each other and nodded before Freed stood up.

"Well I do believe we have our name. I'll go inform Master then we can possibly look at some jobs that fit our skill set."

Lucy and Levy smiled and nodded while Freed walked away from the group. Lucy continued to slurp on her milkshake while they waited for Makarov's approval. Levy had quickly buried herself back into her book. Lucy began to think of all the types of jobs that fit their skill sets. They could do translation jobs, and jobs requesting runes. But at the same time doing only those types of jobs would get boring. Lucy tapped on her chin as she thought about it. They could also do ruin excavations and exploration. It wouldn't be too far of a stretch. Her head was starting to hurt when Freed returned with a couple of different job fliers in hand.

"Master approved of our name, as for jobs here are a couple that I believe would maximize our skills." He placed the four fliers on the table as he described each one. "The first is a translation job in the next town over. It would be beyond easy for our group and has a high payout at seven million jewels. The second job is in the same city as the first job and is to use a magical text to locate an ancient ruin. Apparently, the text has some sort of decoding that is needed in order to read it properly and the city's scholars have been unsuccessful. The payout for that job is a little less than the translation job at only five and a half million jewel. The third job is in Hargeon and requires documenting glyphs in an underwater ruin. The payout is room and board, plus six million jewel and a silver gate key. Lastly, we have a job in Crocus that includes that cataloging of new material in the royal library. This is the one with the largest payout at seven and a half jewel. We could effectively do all of them since all of the mages capable of doing them are in this group."

Lucy's jaw dropped at the amounts stated on the fliers. It took her a minute to recollect her thoughts.

"Do translation jobs normally pay this much?"

"Not usually Lulu. Most translation jobs are closer to the one to two thousand jewel range."

"That is correct Levy. However, Master is still allowing all members of the Raijinshuu to complete S-Class missions if it is within the skill of the team they are on. Some people specifically request for their mission to be labeled as S-Class with a higher payout if they feel it will garnish them a better result. This happens quite often with translation and decoding jobs. Hence why you have the two extremes on payouts."

"Oh wow, that's good to know. As for what mission I would like to do, I think its pretty obvious. The one in Hargeon had a reward item of a gate key. Also, I'm sort of broke so room and board is nice."

"Yeah that is a cool looking one Lulu, but I really like the idea of working in the Crocus Royal Library. Even if it is just for a moment or two."

Freed pushed the two mentioned job fliers forward just a little before he made his own comment.

"These are most appeasing of the two jobs listed. If I personally had to choose between them, I would have to agree with you Levy, however since we are the only ones capable of completing these jobs, I suggest we accept both."

"Um, can we though? I thought we could only do one mission at a time."

"There is no stated rule about that. The Raijinshuu usually takes two to three missions at one time as long as they are close together. Miss Mira just holds the flier and does not contact the employer until the first is completed."

Lucy shrugged and looked at Levy. Levy's face was light up with excitement at the prospect of working in the Royal Library.

"Oh Lulu, lets do them both! The worst that can really happen is we stay away from Magnolia a little longer than expected. I mean these jobs have to do with documenting and cataloging. Theres no danger."

Lucy finally gave in with a laugh. She was still nervous about accepting two jobs at one time, but at the end of the day Levy was right. The worst that could realistically happen was a paper cut.

"Okay I guess your right, theres no real harm."

"Very well. I'll go inform Mira. We'll do the mission in Crocus first since we have a better idea of what we are getting ourselves into. It will probably be best to leave tomorrow that way we are all well rested."

Levy and Lucy gave an excited nod while Freed went to go inform Mirajane of their plans. Secretly Lucy was overjoyed that Freed had said they were leaving the next day. She still wanted to relax before her next mission. After a few minutes Freed returned to the table. Gajeel and Wendy ended up following the green haired mage up. The group began to talk and goof off as they day went on. After a couple of hours, the rest of the Raijinshuu joined them. At some point Bickslow challenged Wendy to a cake eating contest and lost. Lucy laughed as Wendy got to smear icing all over the seith mage's face, or at least what was exposed of it. Laxus chuckled along with them and told Bickslow he should have known better than to challenge a dragonslayer to a food eating contest.

"But Boss she's just a kid. I should have won!"

"Well obviously you didn't, and now you have icing all over your face. That by the way made my day."

Everyone, including Bickslow, burst out laughing. Slowly people began to call it a night. Lucy hadn't realized how late it had already gotten. She excused herself as well and headed home, a nice warm bath calling her name.