The Train Ride

The group arrived at the train station and boarded. As the train began moving Lucy and Wendy noticed Natsu, who sat opposite them, was lying on Erza's lap. The pair then looked over to Gray, who was sitting on the seat on other side of the aisle next to Juvia, but opposite of Levy and Gajeel. Lucy leaned to over towards Gray.
"Natsu is sleeping on Erza's lap." she whispered with a smile "That's so cute.". Gray looked at the pair in question, then turned to Lucy apathetically.
"No he's not take a closer look." He said pointing at Natsu.
Lucy looked back at her pink haired friend and saw that his eyes were completely white, devoid of pupils. She then nervously looked up at Erza whose hand was lying on Natsu's face. She was looking out of the window until she noticed Lucy staring at her. She turned to face the blonde, who was looking at her with slight fear in her eyes. "Something wrong Lucy?" she asked slightly concerned. Lucy then backed to her seat and waved her hands as she shook her head left and right.
"No, no. It's nothing." She laughed nervously to herself and looked back at Gray. "What happened to him?"
"You must have missed it when you went to the bathroom. As soon as we boarded the train Erza knocked him out. She said it was so Natsu wouldn't have to deal with his motion sickness."
Lucy laughed nervously, "Oh…that's…considerate of her." She then sat back in her seat and looked at Wendy who was also looking out of the window.
Lucy placed her hand on the young girl's shoulder, as she turned around. They smiled at one another and began talking.
"You still nervous?" Lucy asked her
"Yeah…I haven't been a job with this many people before, it's kind of overwhelming." She looked down at Carla who was resting on her lap and shifted her eyes to her feet, nervously rocking them back and forth as she sat in her seat.
Lucy reassured her, "It's okay to be nervous. I was on my first big mission too."
"I just hope I don't get in the way."
"Don't worry about that you're a Fairy Tail wizard." Lucy then showed Wendy the back of her left hand where her guild mark was and clenched her fist tight. "We're the strongest guild in Fiore, and we don't give up." She said smiling wide.
Wendy looked up at Lucy in amazement and looked at her own mark on her shoulder, she then smiled at Lucy and nodded. "You're right thanks Lucy."
"Don't worry about it."
Wendy then looked over to Natsu, whose head was still lying in Erza's lap. She then looked at Lucy and with a confused look on her face asked: "Is Natsu sleeping?"
A panicked look washed over Lucy's face. She nervously looked at Wendy and nodded. "Ye…Yeah Natsu's just taking a nap. Heh heh." She continued to laugh nervously as Wendy looked at her quizzically, she then returned to looking out of the window, Lucy sighing in relief.
On the other side of the train, Gray, Juvia, Gajeel, and Levy were sitting across from one another in uncomfortable silence. Juvia's face was blood red from embarrassment. Her heart pounded in her chest with incredible speed.
Gray asked me to come on this mission with him. What does this mean? Does he want me to…?
She began to move closer to him without realizing it. Before she knew it, Juvia's chest was lying on Gray's arm, her heart racing even faster. Noticing the added weight on Gray looked down at Juvia. "You need something?" he asked slightly irritated. Juvia instantly noticed what was going on and her face grew red again, and she violently shook her head back and forth.
"Well then do you mind? You're kinda close." He said with an annoyed look on his face.
Juvia slowly back away and returned to the space she was originally in and sulked ashamed, "I…I apologize."
Opposite of them Levy continued looking at Gajeel as he stared out of the window. He caught her glance and looked at her. "What? You want something?" He asked in his usual annoyed tone. Levy blushed even more as she began to speak "Umm…well…I…" she was struggling to get the words out.
"Spit it out already." he said his voice growing more agitated
"Well…I wanted to ask, why did you ask me to come with you?"
Gajeel looked at her for a second and then returned his gaze to the scenery passing by outside. "I don't know, you looked bored. Try not to make a big deal out of it."
Levy's blush faded as a sad look began to gain hold of her face, but she knew she wouldn't expect a different answer out of him. She then looked up at him again, this time a small smile gracing her face.
Well, at least he asked me to come. That means something right?
Erza sat in silence, looking out the window as she lovingly stroked the unconscious Natsu's hair. She looked down and smiled smiled at him as the train pulled into Hargeon.
Erza shook Natsu to wake him, but it was no use. He still laid unconscious. After shaking him one more time, she slammed her fist into the side of his face. "Natsu wake up!"
The hit startled the rest of the group and woke the Dragon Slayer instantly. He quickly sat up, clutching his face in pain.
"Ahhhh! What's the deal Erza?"
"We've arrived in Hargeon, it's time to disembark." She replied as she collected her things.
Natsu's face changed from anger to surprise, "Oh we're here? Finally!" He collected his stuff and then looked at his friends who were giving him awkward stare. "What?"
Lucy and Levy laughed at him as the disemebarked, Wendy giving him confused stare before she was pulled away by Carla; "Come on child let's go. Stupidity os contagious." They walked off the train with Happy following behind them.
Gray grabbed his things and walked off next, Juvia eagerly following behind him as Gajeel turned around to look at the still confused Natsu. "Moron." He said under his breath as he exited the train.
Erza finished gathering her things and began to leave the train "Come on Natsu."
"Right." He followed her off of the train wondering why his friends looked at him so weird earlier.
What was their problem? he thought himself as he stepped off the train. Little did he know that his friends were looking at the hand print glowing red on Natsu's face, which was a result of Erza's "wake-up technique."
Once they had all disembarked the train the group made their way into the center of Hargeon. Once there Levy pulled out the map to show their next route. She placed it on the ground and everyone huddled around as she began pointing out their destination.
"Ok, if we head north through the marketplace we should make it to a field outside of the city." She moved her finger along the path she was explaining. "When we reach this clearing we head east and it should be to two day trip to Lumina if we take this path through the forest." She stood back up and rolled up the map, placing it back into her knapsack and looked around at everyone as they nodded in agreement. they then began walking to twards the marketplace, Erza leading the way.
As the group followed behind her Gray moved to the front of the group to talk to Erza once they reached the market place. "I probably should have asked earlier but who requested the job?" he asked.
"Apparently it was the mayor of the town."
"The mayor? Why didn't he just ask the council to take out the dark guild?"
"After the scandal with Siegrain and Jellal-" Erza lurched a bit when she said his name aloud. "most people are heistant to trust the council again. That's why they requested guild assistance as opposed to the army."
Gray placed his hand under his chin and pondered as he walked, "That does make some sense but still…"
"You have some reservations?"
"Yeah. Even if the mayor was hesitant to ask the council for help, it still doesn't make sense that they would just sit on their hands while one of the country's biggest cities was taken over by a dark guild."
"I'm thinking the same thing. What do you think is going on?"
"Well maybe-"
Natsu interjected himself between them, hearing the entire conversation. "Why does it matter? A job is a job right?"
"It's important to get all the facts before running into the things dummy." Gray said annoyed.
Natsu looked irritated at Gray, "What did you call me streaker?" he asked insulted
Gray met his gaze with equal annoyance, "You heard me you pink haired loser or are you hard of hearing too?" They angrily stared at each other and stopped walking.
Lucy sighed, "Here they go again."
Gajeel smirked, "Finally something exciting. I was getting bored with all this walking crap."
Erza stopped walking as well and spoke with a commanding tone in her voice.
"Natsu. Gray."
The two wizards turned white with fear and looked at Erza who still had her back turned to them.
"Y…Yes ma'am" they answered in unison.
"Is there a problem?"
They looked at each other and smiled nervously, they then put their arms around each others shoulders and walked in step as if they were the best of friends. "Nope no problem's here right Natsu?" Gray asked as he awkwardly smiled at Natsu.
Natsu smiled back, "Nope, no problem's here Gray." They both laughed uncomfortably at one another as the rest of the group stared at the two awkwardly.
Erza then looked back at the two and smiled, "Good. Now let's continue, we've almost made it outside of town."
"Aye!" they once again said in unison as Erza began walking again.
The rest of the group followed behind them. Wendy looked at Lucy confused, "What happened?"
Lucy looked down at her and smiled, "Oh that? They're just afraid of Erza kicking their butts."
"Oh I see." Wendy giggled to herself and resumed walking.
Gajeel crossed his arms in annoyance as he walked, "Man I thought we were going to see a fight."
The group made it to the field outside of town and headed to the woods. As they trekked forward night began to fall, seeing that everyone was growing tired, Erza stopped and turned around.
"We'll set up camp here for the night and continue in the morning."