"A little help here!" I yelled as I violently threw shards of ice with one hand while holding my skirt up with the other. I was handing upside down because a monster was currently holding onto my leg with a slimy tenticle. Azami and Wendy were busy hacking off other tenticles that shot out to attack them, and Nex and Natsu were scaling the beast, trying to cut me down. I was getting dizzy from the rush of blood to my head, and I was swinging from side to side. This mission wasn't going at we had planned it. Natsu shot a slice of fire at the tenticle holding me up and it severed, sending me flying head first towards the ground. "Bad idea, bad idea, bad idea!" I shouted as I struggled to pull the tentacle off of me. Natsu jumped and caught me halfway to the ground, sending us veering sideways, and we crashed to a less than greaceful stop on the wet grass. We stood and brushed ourselves off. Mud stained my black shirt and his white scarf. "Let's go kill this thing." I said, and held up my hand. Natsu slapped it and we ran back into the fray.

Back at the guild, Wendy, Azami and I headed over to check out the message board. Natsu, Gray, and Nex were brawling as usual. "What about this one?" Wendy said, pointing to a job offering 20,000 to retrieve a lost treasure from a dark guild. "Are you sure?" I asked her, my hand resting on my hip. "It could be really dangerous. "I want to get stronger," Wendy said. "So I need to take on bigger jobs. And besides, you guys will be with me." "Okay." There's a huge crash from the background and we all turn. Natsu and gray have knocked over several tables, and are throwing punches. Nex is struggling to get between them. Azami and I shared a look and jumped in. I jumped on Natsu's back and Azami jumped on Gray's. We wrestled them away from each other.

"Get off Sylver!" Natsu complained, flipping me over his back and onto my feet in front of him. We gripped each other's forearms. "Don't fight with Gray," I scolded. "He's not worth your time." Natsu pouted. "But he's annoying!" I rolled my eyes. "That doesn't mean you have to fight." "Yeah, I guess."

Gray was talking to Azami, blushing and looking at the ground. Azami grabbed his hand and led him away, waving goodbye to me. I waved, and Natsu pulled me over to the message board. "Wendy and I picked out a job already," I told Natsu. "Oh," he said, not looking me in the eye. "What is it?" He glanced over. "I was just wondering if you wanted to go on a job with me. Just... Just the two of us." "No Happy?" He nodded. "Happy's busy with Carla, anyway." "I was wondering where the two of them were." I wanted to go on this job. I'd had a crush on Natsu ever since that day he'd rescued me from Blood Gate Zero. Wendy would understand, wouldn't she?

I decided to risk it and accepted. I could swear I saw Natsu blushing as he turned away and ran out of the guild hall.I settled down at a table where Wendy, Erza, Lucy, and Loke sat. Loke and Lucy had been dating for five months, and they were a really cute couple, sharing a milkshake with two straws. Wendy was sharing a slice of strawberry cake with Erza. I snagged a strawberry from the top of the slice and sat down next to Wendy. "I heard about the job you two were going on," Erza said, chewing on a strawberry. "Can I come along? I think it would be a vulable experience." I winced. "About that..." Wendy turned to look at me. "I kind of accepted a job with Natsu." Erza smiles. "Oh, I see." A blush crawled up my neck. "You see what?" The red-haired wizard popped another strawberry into her mouth. "That chu an Natchu are going ut lutar," she said around her mouthful of red fruit. "No!" We weren't, were we? I mean, sure he had been blushing. But that didn't mean that this job was a date, did it...?

"Itus totally uh date," Wendy agreed, swallowing a bite of frosting. I could feel my face reddening by the second. Loke and Lucy were holding hands, their wrists resting on the table. Lucy took her mouth off her straw and her eyes away from her boyfriend to say, "It's totally a date." I slapped my forehead and rested my head on the table. "It totally isn't," I said weakly. But even I didn't believe myself.