Natsu loved the freedom of the Great Plains.
It was always an adventure, just him and Happy, riding across the great lengths of grass, almost being killed by Indians or angry men with guns that they may or may not have upset, finding things, seeing new things…..
He had the best jobs as well.
Unable to keep to one, boring, job, all day, like Gajeel in the blacksmiths, or Freed with his boring paperwork, or Elfman basically being Mira's slave, Natsu took up temporary jobs.
He played messenger hundreds of times, once took up with some cowboys and gave it up when it turned out to only be herding cows from one place to another and eating nothing but baked beans, and did some trade for others.
He has been to places that most people haven't been. All the big cities in the East, and even San Francesco in California which virtually no one has been to in Magnolia.
He has found all sorts of cool treasures, some strange artefacts from the Indians (which was why they tried to kill him that one time), interesting souvenirs from the places he had been too, and the weird and awesomely shaped rocks that he found on his journeys.
But his best treasure, the thing he prized most, had been Lucy.
He had found her during one of his stints as a messenger, she had apparently ran away from an arranged marriage in Boston, thought she could navigate tha plains on her own to California, and instead got herself kidnapped.
Three times.
He is not joking.
("No," Lucy scowled each time he told someone this, "You're exaggerating. I had been coned out of my money by some men who then abandoned me, then the Native Americans had offered me shelter, and then some morons thought they were rescuing me and were trying to get me to show them 'some gratitude' when you finally came along. That is not three kidnappings. If anything it's one! Two if you count the fact you gave me no choice but to come with you!"
"You're right," Natsu agreed, he then turned back to Mirajane, "she was kidnapped four times by the time I found her. I was the fourth."
"URGH!")
Anyway, after rescuing her weirdo arse, Natsu took her back to Magnolia, introduced her to his friends including the Fairy Tail girls, and before he knew it she stayed, got hired by Mirajane, and had become the one thing he wanted to go back to every time he went out on a job.
She was sneaky like that.
This particular job had taken some weeks as he had to go all the way back to New York for fabric supplies of all things, Mrs Obaba had promised a fortune that he couldn't quite resist, and as he now neared home again, he urged Happy to go faster, and happily left dust flying behind him.
It was dark by the time he got back, and after making sure his stock was in a secure, safe, place (because the locals might not rob him – apart from Gray or Gajeel when they think they're been funny, the idiots – but the people that were always passing through, the miners, the rail workers, the cowboys, might.), he all but ran to the one place where he knew everyone would be (apart from Sheriff Laxus because he was a bore).
Fairy Tail.
Instantly he was greeted by light, warmth, and a lot of noise. Everyone was talking, everyone was singing, everyone was cheering as they drank deeply into their cups. Natsu could almost make out Levy's piano playing underneath it all as he made his way to the bar.
"Natsu!" Mirajane cried out delightedly. "You're home!"
"Hi!" he grinned back. "Is Lucy around?"
