I walk into the guild, full of energy, happy as I could be. People were waving and greeting me in, and I responded everytime with a radiant smile, sometimes giggling. I don't know what it is, but I get the feeling I'm gonna have a very good day today. I don't even have to worry about my rent, for once. I paid it off thanks to a high-paying job we went to, and, very surprisingly, Natsu didn't destroy that much this time, so the client gave us the full reward of 450'000 jewels! Split between the three of us, including Natsu, Happy and myself, then I get 150'000 jewels, plenty enough to pay the rent for the next two months! But I'm in the mood to go on another job. First I got to find Natsu and Happy though.

Slowly, I walk through the guild, still waving back at people every so often. Turning my head from side to side, I search the guild thoroughly for them, but nothing comes up. I don't get it, it shouldn't be that hard to find a pink haired fire freak and a big-headed blue flying cat, right? I stop near the bar, taking one last look around. Red hair, blue hair, green hair, flying hair, but no pink hair. That's really strange. I keep looking around the guild as I blindly feel for a chair and sit on it. I don't even hear either of their voices anywhere, and their normally the loudest in the guild.

"You okay there Lucy?" says a sweet voice from behind me. I turn myself around on the sweet to see a beautiful white-haired barmaid.

"H-hey Mirajane," I reply unsurely, still glancing back every so often, "Have you seen Natsu around by any chance?"

"Hm? Oh yeah, he went on a mission with Erza. Happy went too," she explains while wiping down a glass. I cock a brow up in in question to that.

"With Erza? Just the three of them? Why would he do something like that?" I ask. Like seriously, Natsu going on a mission with Erza? Not really something he'd do voluntarily.

"Well, it wasn't actually his decision more than he was litterally dragged into doing it," she says while smiling.

"Aaah, I see what it is." I turn in my chair and lean back on the counter. That's great, I just lost my partner, so much for having a good day. I should've known it would end sooner than later. What am I going to do now?

I get up and walk to the request board. Maybe there's a solo job I could find. I browse through all the papers, some ripped from the trip, some looking brand new. There really are so many types of jobs, but not one that suits me. I keep searching around until someone steps beside me. Looking to my side, I see and unfortunately too familiar bare chest.

"Hi Gray," I grunt at the chest, "It seems you've forgotten you clothes again today." Not seeming to care anymore, he looks through the request bored for a job like me. He doesn't seem to have a partner, but lately he's been going with Juvia, and rarely with Erza. Erza's already out with Natsu, so I know that much, but where's Juvia. I was expecting her to be clinging on his arm... or something. Thinking that... bothered me. Anyway, I look around, trying to find the familiar squealing water wizard. Also nothing. When Gray's around, she's either the second loudest of the guild, or the quietest, so it's possible that she's just hiding and stalking him. I've seen her do that once before... many times before. "Where's Juvia?" I suddenly ask, gazing up at the chest-owner's face. He then looks at me, no actual expression on his face.

"Lisanna dragged her into a mission with her," He explains, "According to Lisanna, ever since they were partners at the S-Class trial, she wanted to try it again. So she brought her on a mission."

"Oh, I see," I paused for a sec, turning my attention back to the request board, "So, takin' a solo mission?"

"Yeah. What about you? Where's the flame brain freak off to this time?" He chuckles.

"Dragged on a mission with Erza. No idea why though," I answer, placing both arms to my side, hands flopping so my palms are up and at shoulder length. I then put my hands back down as I spot a certain request, a super easy one with an amazing reward. I shoot my hand towards it, grabbing the paper, and I yelled "This one!" I stop when I realize that my voice doubled. As if there were two people that yelled it or my voice suddenly went hoarse. But the second voice didn't sound like mine at all. It was almost the opposite. Thinking of that, I suddenly look at my hand, realizing that it's bigger than usual. And colder than usual.

"Hey," the voice shocks me and I look up at it's possessor, "If you don't mind, I would like to take my job now, so if you could let go, it would help." I growl at his statement. Gray sure is a stubborn one. If he thinks he can get away with taking my job, he has no idea how wrong he is.

"Yeah right! That's my job, you're the one who needs to let go!" I screech, trying to tug the paper away.

"I saw it first, so it's my job!" he tugs it back towards him.

"You're hands the one that's on top of mine! So I obviously grabbed it first!" Once again, I pulled it towards me.

"But this job suits me more! There's no reason why you would want it!" He says, more irritated and pulling it back towards him.

"No! This job is perfect for me! You're the one who shouldn't be taking it!" I bark back tugging it towards me. He then grunts, obviously annoyed with me. Hah! I won! There's no way I could lose an argument! He says, seeing the victory on my face, automatically turning into a scowl. "What the hell was that for?!"

He shakes his head and huffs out, "This is stupid. We've worked as a team before, and if this job is perfect for both of us, we should do it together, shouldn't we?" He asks, looking at me as if I was hopeless.

"Yeah I guess so," I pout looking down at the paper. But I've never been on a job alone with Gray. I wonder if we'll even know how to work together.

√ ∂ ∆ *_..._* ∆ ß √

Completely disapointed and frowning, I walk back home beside Gray in the afternoon. I really thought this would be a good day, and now it's ruined because of my own team seperating on me. And then I was left with the freezing Gray who keeps turning into ice. At least he kept the promise I made him abide to on the train and he's still wearing his clothes. Jeans with a blue turtle neck and a light automn jacket. I'm surprised he hasn't melted yet in all his clothes, even with the chill of fall.

"Hey, what's wrong Lucy? You look upset," Gray remarks, making my shoulder tick.

"What? No, I feel fiiine~ Just fine. Especially considering that you froze the entire town before actually catching the villain, destroying half of it." I answer in a sarcastic way.

"Well, that wasn't only my fault," He retorts. I abruptly turn to him with an annoyed look.

"Well, I didn't ask Taurus to break down the belltower!"

"Which toppled over and destroyed ten houses and a restaurant." he states. I just huff and look away. I can't believe we once again lost our reward because we were too destructive. It's getting so annoying! And even though I was just in the mood for a job, I also wanted to use this money for food and clothes, but now I have to take the money from the second month of my rent to pay for that!

I'm forcefully stopped when I feel a hand grab my arm. Looking at Gray, I give him a questioning look. "Wanna take a walk in the forest?" He asks, tilting his head to the forest and back, "I'm sure it'll clear our minds from the mission. Plus it'll be our own little reward," He smiles.

"I'm not in the mood to be hanging out with you right now, so if you'll escuse me, I'm going home," I grunt, trying to pull away, but he still has a graasp of my arm and pulls me the other way. We walk deeper and deeper into the red and orange coloured trees of the peaceful forest. I guess it wouldn't be so bad to go for a little walk. He finally stops us once we get on a path, walking the direction we were going before to go home. I take in all the pure crisp air of the trees, smelling the sends of plants and cold. It really is nice here. I feel better already.

We keep walking along the dirt path, stepping over treeroots and rocks when needed. Except, after twenty minutes of walking, my nose starts to get cold, turning a slight red as I get a chill through my pink sweater, only wearing a t-shirts underneath. I think it got colder than before. Shivering slightly, I rub my arms to warm myself. I can even see my breath in the cold air. All of a sudden, I feel some kind of warm material draping themselves over my shoulders. I shoot my gaze up at the only possible reason for the new cloak. Gray gave me his jacket, now only wearing his shirt. And his pants too. Slightly blushing, I notice his little smile on his face, a sweet smile, genuine and caring, nothing I've ever seen on him before.

"Uh-, You don't have to do that," I say, trying to push off the jacket. But he gently puts his hand on my own, restraining me from pushing it off.

"I don't need it, keep it," he says flatly, but the same smile on his face. I smile up at him and nod once cheerfully. Pulling the jacket over my shoulders more, I pull the hems in front of me to keep them from falling. We keep on walking along the path, more peaceful than before. I place my arms in the sleeves to keep it from dropping. I wrap my arm around Gray's, hugging it tightly and resting my head on his shoulder. Not seeming to mind, we keep walking along. Peaceful and happy. This day was very good after all.