"Click"
Lucy opened the door and went inside. Her happy face instantly fell.
"Oh, you're back, one two one, one two one," Natsu was doing sit-ups on Lucy's bed at the time, and greeted Lucy happily without any hesitation.
They didn't even notice how terrible Lucy's face looked.
"Ugh, ugh~ such a strong smell of sweat!" Lucy kicked Natsu off the bed with a flying kick, roaring, "If you want to build muscle, go home and train there! Why are you in my house?"
"Don't say that, Lucy. We're on the same team, and look, I even brought you a gift."
Natsu, with a grin, suddenly pulled out a pink dumbbell from somewhere and handed it to Lucy, then happily covered for Lucy, explaining how to use it.
"To defeat Laxus and Erza, training is unavoidable; focus on improving your stamina."
"This has nothing to do with me!" Lucy was even angrier, but Natsu didn't care.
"I've made up my mind, Lucy. Let's go on S-Class Mission, Lucy."
"Ugh, I don't want to!" Lucy immediately refused. She had just heard Levy talk about the dangers of S-Class Missions, and she didn't want to do such a dangerous mission, even though she thought Natsu was already very strong.
However, for safety's sake, we should proceed step by step. At the very least, we should have an S-Class Mage guiding us.
"Hey! Happy, take out the mission sheet and show it to Lucy. The mission is pretty simple!" Natsu wasn't discouraged and happily urged Happy to take out the sheet.
"Um, um, I don't know, I remember taking it, hey!"
Happy searched his body for a long time but couldn't find it. He raised his hand innocently and answered.
Natsu's face immediately fell, looking dejected. He had clearly instructed Happy to steal the mission sheet.
"Seriously, you guys are really bold. Alright, Natsu, go back to sleep, we'll talk about it tomorrow, haha."
Lucy looked at the two clowns with a helpless expression. They really did whatever they wanted. After finishing her sentence, she yawned, feeling a little sleepy.
"Lucy, wait for me, I'll come pick you up tomorrow, Happy!" Natsu jumped out of the window, stood on the windowsill, turned around and smiled at Lucy. Before Lucy could get angry, the two of them had already jumped out of the window and left.
Lucy ran a few steps, leaned against the window, and watched the person and cat walk away. She breathed a sigh of relief; it seemed the two really hadn't gotten the mission order, so she was at ease.
"Well, time for a nice bath, la la, home is definitely the most relaxing place," Lucy sang happily as she filled the bathroom with water, clearly in a good mood.
However, she didn't know that Natsu was serious and had already obtained the mission order, which Zorn had secretly taken away.
Meanwhile, the two thieves were still reviewing their actions as they ran, trying to figure out which step had gone wrong.
"Happy, have you really forgotten?"
"I don't know either, could it have fallen on the second floor of the Fairy Tail?"
"Then let's hurry back and look for it; this is S-Class Mission that we finally managed to get."
Just as Natsu and Happy were about to reach the Fairy Tail, they suddenly braked hard, with Happy grabbing onto Natsu's clothes to help stop them in mid-air.
Standing before them was someone who should not be here at this time.
"Haha, Brother Zorn, what are you doing here?"
"Yes, yes, Natsu and I are going for a run to exercise! Zorn, are you too?"
Natsu tried to evade the question, while Happy covered for him, though his voice sounded guilty. Seeing Zorn's serious expression, Happy's voice trailed off, lacking confidence.
"You two are running, not bad, not bad. But why did I hear something about the second floor and an S-Class Mission? Can you answer that for me?"
As Zorn spoke, he approached the two step by step. Natsu and Happy looked at Zorn with some fear and slowly backed away.
"Bang bang!"
Zorn gave the boy and the cat an Erguotou a type of Chinese liquor), instantly causing large bumps to appear on their foreheads. Ignoring their expressions, he continued, "You two are really bold. If the Fairy Tail Guild Master finds out about this, who knows if you'll even be left in Fairy Tail anymore."
Upon hearing this, Natsu and Happy's expressions froze, as if they had suddenly realized that they had been so focused on completing the S-Class Mission that they had forgotten about this.
"Moreover, your strength is not enough to complete this mission!" Zorn pointed it out directly. Natsu was somewhat unconvinced, but seeing Zorn's serious expression, he swallowed the words he was about to say in rebuttal.
"Understood!" After saying that, Natsu and Happy hung their heads and turned away dejectedly.
"Really, I didn't say we couldn't do it!" Zorn suddenly spoke up, and the man and cat, who had been feeling dejected, turned around and looked at Zorn with surprise on their faces.
"Leave this task to me for now! Meet at the Fairy Tail gate first thing tomorrow morning, and remember to call Gray and Lucy."
Zorn picked up the mission sheet in his right hand, folded it up, put it in his chest pocket, and then reminded Natsu.
"Ugh, we still need to call Gray. If we go, we can definitely get it done!!"
Natsu was initially quite happy, instantly turned sour upon hearing Gray's name. He jumped up and down in displeasure, unwilling to take Gray along. He wanted to give Gray another good provocation, just like during the Beast King mission, to see Gray's unhappy, envious, and jealous expression upon returning.
"No, that's not acceptable. I'm leaving now."
Zorn ignored him, simply dusted off the dust from his clothes, and vanished from the spot in a flash of golden Magic Circle beneath his feet.
Zorn naturally wanted to call Gray, since this mission was of great importance to him, and it would also be a good opportunity for Gray to dispel the gloom in his heart. After all, this mission might still allow Gray to realize his deepest wish.
The empty streets were left only with Natsu and Happy's frustrated shouts. In the end, Natsu also returned to his hut in a huff.
--Separator--
The next morning, Natsu arrived at Lucy's room on time, and was staring at Lucy's sleeping face with a smile on his face.
The intense gaze made Lucy sense something, and she opened her eyes.
"Yo, Lucy, good morning!" Natsu greeted her with a big smile, flashing his white teeth.
"Ah~, Natsu, die! Watch my Lucy Flying Kick!"
To be continued~