"Come on, let's go meet everybody." Lucy said with a smile. She took his hand and walked to the guild hall with him. When they got there, they met all of their friends and talked about everything that had been going on lately. Suddenly, their former client, the jeweler, came through the door asking for.
"Hang on Luce, I'll be right back." said before walking over to the man. "How can I help you?" He asked.

"My boy!" The man said with a worried expression on his face. "They've taken it! They've taken it all!" He exclaimed with panic in his voice. He was about to break down on the spot and noticed tears in his eyes.

"Easy, slow down sir. Who took what?" asked placing a hand on the shorter man's shoulder. He lowered his voice to a whisper.

"The gang of thieves you and your lady friend took out the other day when they tried to rob my store. The ones that had been robbing the entire town! They stole my entire secret cache of rare jewels when I went to go fetch your ring. They broke out of prison and followed me to my secret cache to steal it as payback. I tried to fight them off and reclaim my prized possessions and especially yours, but they were simply too powerful. They beat me and left me for dead. My assistant showed up soon after and found me lying there and took me to seek medical attention. But that's not the point! Young wizard, I need you to go reclaim my possessions, your ring, and personally give those hooligans a good thrashing! I'll even reward you for it with Jewel." He said.

"That won't be necessary." replied. "I'll take care of everything. This is personal." He slammed a fiery fist into his open palm. He walked back over to Lucy who was looking at him questioningly.

"What was that all about?" She asked with a worried expression when she saw his serious face.

"Lucy, I gotta go take care of something. I'll be back in time to pick you up for our date. That gives me..." He had to count on his fingers. "A day and a half? Yeah. I'll be back by then. I gotta go get something from the next town over." His expression suddenly became cheerful. "Don't you worry about a thing. I'll be back in time for our date and it will be the best one you've ever had!" He gave her a wink and a smile.

"O-Okay." Lucy said. She suddenly gave him a look. "Don't destroy the town!" She said laughing. rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"No promises." He replied. "Just gotta go get your surprise and get back." He said with a sweet smile. Lucy got up from her seat and hugged.

"Don't take too long okay? I love you. I'll be waiting!" Lucy said with a big smile. She loved surprises. She loved them all the more when they were from her beloved.

"I love you too Luce. And don't worry. I'll be back to pick you up at lunch. We are gonna be heading out of town. See you then! Happy! Let's go!" He shouted as he left to go pound some skulls.

"Aye sir!" The flying blue cat shouted in reply as they walked out the door and headed to the train station. When they got to their destination, jumped out of the car and onto the platform fired up now that he was feeling alive again.

"Alright Happy. The man said the jerks who stole his stuff and Lucy's surprise had their base in a nearby cave just outside the town limits. Let's go get 'em! I'm all fired up!" shouted as he ran to the edge of town. Happy flew around the perimeter searching for the cave and soon enough, he led to it. As they strolled up to the entrance of the hideout, got an idea and smiled mischievously.

"Hey Happy watch this." He said as he took a deep breath. "HEY JERKS! COME OUT HERE! IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO GET YOUR BUTTS KICKED!" He shouted at the top of his lungs. Before he knew it, he was surrounded by more than fifty thieves with swords, maces, ropes with weights at the end, or spears. "Okay which one of you idiots stole the rarest ring in the world? Speak up now. I'm gonna beat you all to a pulp anyways." said looking around for anyone important looking. A very muscular looking man approached wearing a very unique looking ring.

"Oh you mean this?" He asked casually showing it on his finger and pretending to admire it. I stole this from an old geezer who has a nice shop in town. That loser. Didn't even bother to bring someone to protect him while he went to his little stash of goods. Wait a second. You're the one who sent a few of my crew to prison! Wasn't there a little girl with you?" He asked tensing up with the rest of the crew, preparing to attack.

"Yeah that's right you bunch of jerks. Me and Lucy sent your guys to jail. They were way out of their league when they tried to rob a shop protected by Fairy Tail!" said raising a flaming fist. The thieves' boss gritted his teeth and lunged at. grabbed his wrist before it contacted with his face. "I'll take that thank you." He said plucking the ring from his fingers. He tossed it up to Happy who was circling overhead. The mass of thieves started mumbling and murmuring amongst themselves in confusion and fear at way the pink haired mage from Fairy Tail had just stolen back their biggest prize ever like it was no big deal. He then grabbed the boss by the face with a flaming hand resulting in him screaming in agony and clawing at Natsu's hand to no avail. "Now that that's out of the way, I have something to say to all you criminals. Hey! Listen up!" He was clearly not getting their undivided attention. He let out a huff and squinted his eyes. "All of you around me murmuring and shuffling about not paying attention, if you could just stand still and shut up because I AM TALKING!" He slammed his hostage's face into the ground creating a small crater around his head. Silence fell on the hushed mass of thugs, all eyes on the crazy wizard who had just one hit ko'd their leader, the strongest of them all. "That's better! Now then. Here's how it's gonna go. All of you are going to attack me. You can fight me one on one, or all 100 of you can swarm me. I won't use magic so don't worry about getting burned. I'm going to beat you all to a pulp and then I'm taking your butts to jail after you give all your loot back! But before we begin, let me just say this. I'm all fired up!" He said this last part with a devilish look in his eyes. Someone in the back yelled out.

"He's only one person! We can take him!" And thus began the charge. The first one charged head on with a spear. sidestepped it and grabbed it midways. He pulled the spear up along with its wielder and tossed them both behind him causing him to crash into a bunch of his comrades. Another two rushed him from either side. He deftly stepped backwards and grabbed their heads before grabbing them by the helmet and plunging their faces into the dirt. A rope with a weight attached to it flew right in front of his face but he quickly grabbed it wrapping it around his wrist and threw the user into more oncoming attackers. His breathing room was getting less and less but he wasn't worried at all. A sword wielding thief had gotten behind him and had his sword raised to strike but leaned back and grabbed him by the throat and tossed him like a ragdoll. A baker's dozen rushed from all sides. did a perfect leg sweep knocking them all to the ground and then threw each of them into oncoming enemies. He flipped over a mace user grabbing him by the shoulders in a reverse grip mid flip and crushed the guy in front of the spot where he landed with him. broke another's knee and delivered a swift and perfectly connected uppercut to the jaw. He jumped as two more came from both in front and behind. He kicked the one behind and superman punched the one in front simultaneously. He delivered blow after blow like this for what seemed like hours. He took a spear from the ground, planted it into the ground vertically and used it to spin himself around with his feet out knocking nine more to the ground. He uppercut one, turned around and two fisted punched another in the gut sending him flying back, roundhouse kicked the next, threw the three after that, ducked a sword and threw him by the arm, broke a spear over a skull, and swung another around and around by the feet knocking fifteen more to the ground. There were only a few remaining now. was rushed by a mace user. He grabbed the mace user's wrist until he dropped his weapon and then punched his lights out using the mace user's own fist. He then gut punched the next one so hard he was sent several feet into the air where front flip kicked him straight down into the remaining four. The battle ended leaving winded, not very bruised, and feeling like a complete and total champion.

"What's wrong? That all you losers can throw at me? Haha! I just took on like a hundred or more without even using any magic or weapons! Happy, please tell me you were keeping count." He said as he sat down to catch his breath.

"Aye sir! You fought one hundred and fifty!" He shouted from a nearby log having just watched the entire battle from above.

"Holy crap. One hundred and fifty? It's crazy how pathetic these guys are compared to the usual saving the world stuff. I mean, compared to those guys with the Infinity Clock, Grimoire Heart, Master Hades, and Tartaros, these guys are sissies! Seriously. I just took out one hundred and fifty of these guys without using magic or weapons. And they all rushed me at once!" He laughed loud as he fell backwards laying on the ground. It was getting late in the day and he knew he needed to get all this loot back to the townspeople but he needed to get back with the ring.

", what's this ring for?" Happy asked walking over to.

"Oh, that's for Lucy. I'm gonna propose to her Friday on our date." He replied.

"You llllliiike her!" Happy teased flying around in a circle.

"Well of course I like her! I love her. And I want her to be my wife." He said rolling his eyes at Happy's antics. "The most important thing though, you CANNOT tell her! Okay? Happy, I'm asking you as your best friend. Do NOT let her find out about this."

"Aye sir! You can count on me!" Happy answered gleefully. They tied up all of the thieves and trapped them in the cave. Happy went to go get the town guards who came with a large number of reinforcements who then took the thieves away along with all the stolen property.

"Alright that takes care of that then. Let's get back to Magnolia." said as soon as they had finished up. They walked to the train station and boarded the night train to their home town. slept the entire way dreaming of the next day when he proposed to his beloved Lucy.

", wake up! You're gonna get left behind!" Happy yelled trying to wake a sleeping. bolted upright still clutching the ring Happy gave back to him. He jumped up and bolted through the train door right before it started to leave. They both tiredly walked across Magnolia past Lucy's apartment on the way to their house. hopped into the second story window of Lucy's bedroom. He sat there for a few minutes watching Lucy sleep. He silently walked over to where she was sleeping and kissed her lightly so as to not wake her. could barely contain his excitement and also his nervousness at the possibilities of tomorrow's adventure. He went to his house and collapsed on his bed. Happy landed on his head and they slept until morning. woke up and got ready for this, the most important day of his life. Today was the day he was going to ask Lucy Heartfilia to be his wife. He grabbed the ring from his dresser and headed out the door. Happy had already flown to the guild to meet Carla and Lily for their day off. strolled down the street with a spring in his step towards the guild to grab a quick lunch before he picked Lucy up to go on their date. After he was finished, he walked to Lucy's apartment building and saw her walk outside. He stopped in his tracks. Even though she was wearing something appropriate for a spring picnic, she still looked absolutely stunning. She was wearing a white dress with blue trim, white frilly cuffs around the hands and at the bottom of it, and yellow delta patterns across it and some tan sandals.

"Everything okay?" Lucy asked with a slight smirk, noticing staring at her for the past twenty seconds. "I know I'm pretty, but there's no need to stare." She teased.

"Y-Yeah. I've just never seen you wear that before. You look amazing." breathed as he forced his brain to work again. It was amazing that even though he had known her for years and had been in a relationship with her for two, she could still stop him in his tracks without even trying.

"You really think so?" She asked looking around at herself while spinning the dress around admiring it. "I bought this yesterday while you were gone. You said you had a surprise so I thought I would look nice for whatever it is you have planned."

"Yeah! You look absolutely amazing Luce." replied still staring. "So you ready to go? I can't wait!" He said excitedly.

"Yeah. Let's go." She said smiling. She took his hand and left to go board the train carrying their picnic with them. As always, laid his head in Lucy's lap but only after slipping the ring into his pocket. The lovely blonde mage ran her fingers through his hair the entire train ride humming softly to herself and looking out the window at the swiftly changing scenery before her. The train slowed to a halt as they reached the train platform and they disembarked. patted his pocket to make sure his precious ring was still in there and let out a breath of relief when he confirmed it was. As they got closer to their destination, Lucy began to feel something familiar about the place they were at.

"Hey, this place feels familiar. Where are you taking me?" She asked. took off his scarf and gave it to Lucy.

"Here, blindfold yourself. I don't want the surprise to be ruined before we get there." He said excitedly. He took Lucy by the hand and led her rest of the way to the hillside. He guided her up the hill with his hand on her back. He laid a blanket down and helped her sit down on it with the basket before removing her blindfold. When she opened her eyes, she saw the vast expanse of rolling plains before her. She could see mountains and forests in the distance and neighboring towns even farther beyond. She turned to look at who was just sitting there smiling a classic Dragneel smile at her the whole time.

"This is.." She began.

"The place where we shared our first kiss. Yeah." He finished. "I thought I'd take you somewhere special this time." He squeezed her hand for a moment. "What do you say we get this picnic going?" asked as he pulled a stack of sandwiches from the basket.

"Yeah. It's gonna be dark before too long." Lucy replied smiling. They unpacked their basket and began to eat and talk about life and everything that had been going on recently.

"So there I was, facing I kid you not, two hundred and fifty thieves! Happy can vouch for me! I slammed their boss's head into the dirt because they weren't giving me their undivided attention. I took them all on without even using any magic! You should have seen it Luce, I felt so crazy strong after beating them all up singlehandedly with no magic." told her the story of yesterday's super brawl and flexed his biceps. Lucy slapped him lightly on the back of the head.

"You took on that many guys on your own without even using magic?? What were you thinking?? You could have been killed." Lucy said only half believing herself. In all reality, she knew that Dragneel could never be beaten by any regular foes no matter how many.

"Oww haha Lucy that hurt. A guy got lucky with a mace and got me in the back of the head." He said playfully rubbing at a tender spot that didn't exist. "Lucy look." He whispered pointing towards the west at the now setting sun that was at rest behind the valley of twin mountains.

"It's beautiful.." Lucy sighed in a hushed tone, her eyes glued to the gorgeous scene in front of her.

"Not as beautiful as you are, Lucy." said lowering his voice. He reached into his pocket.

To Be Continued