In Memories We Keep
A Fairy Tail Fanfiction By The Stuffed Dog
Introduction
Once upon a time... How many times has a story began with these four words? It's an overused writing technique for a beginning, and yet people all over the world have used it for hundreds upon thousands of years. Some stories are similar to each other, while others are radically different, but the one thing they have in common are those four persistent words at the start:
Once upon a time.
What is within this sentence that wills people to use it over and over again in a never ending cycle of repetition? Is it just an easy getaway from coming up with something different or unique? Or could it be part of an unspoken tradition that many do not wish to see broken? The answer is as enigmatic as what those four beginning words imply.
Once upon a time…
By this point in time, you, the reader, are probably wondering when I'll stop all this monologuing and actually get on with telling the tale. Rest assured, this little beginning of ours will soon make its way to an end. I just felt it was necessary to prepare you for how the real story will start. For if you couldn't tell by now, this tale will, in fact, begin with a "Once upon a time". You may now take your leave if you so desire, but think for a moment how fitting it would be to begin a story about a certain wizard guild in Magnolia called
Fairy Tail.
Chapter 1: Lucy
Lucy Heartfilia woke up that morning with a very specific task in mind. Today was the day she would go on a solo mission.
Grinning to herself, Lucy scrambled out of bed and padded over to her shower. The celestial wizard had been planning this personal rendezvous for herself ever since the last mission she was on with the team ended horribly. With half the town either burned, frozen solid, or sliced up to bits, whatever reward they were going to be getting went into repairing the wreckage. To say Lucy worked her ass off to pay that month's rent would be the understatement of the year.
But this time, there would be no one there to cause property damage and deduct from her paycheck. No one. She would be on her own. Unattended. An individual. ALONE.
That meant no Natsu to fight with Grey, no Grey to fight with Natsu, no Erza to kill them all for fighting, and no Happy to comment on her weight, love life, talking habits, etc… Lucy considered taking Wendy along with her. The little sky dragon slayer was good company and usually kept damage costs to a minimal. And a little more experience would be good for her, with her being new to the guild and all. Unfortunately, that would contradict the idea of going on a 'Solo' Mission.
She had chosen the job she wanted to do the previous day, early in the morning to assure not many of the guild members would see her. Trying to get past without talking to Mirajane was a bit tricky, but the barmaid was always up to talking with her, even at the worst of times. Luck was on her side, however, when Mirajane needed to go into the back and re-stock on mugs, seeing as the other guild members were so fond of smashing them on other people's heads. The other reason she came in the morning was to ensure that she could find a good job; ideally one with easy work and large pay. And a good one she found! The description for the request was as stated:
Help!
Mayor in need of an extra pair of hands for decorating home for harvest festival on Goethe Island. Free room and board at the Mayor's mansion as well as unlimited access to the festival's attractions and food stalls. A weeks worth of work for a grand total of
500,000 Jewels for all of the hard work.
When Lucy first read the request, she was sure this was someone's-namely a certain cheeky blue cat-cruel idea of a joke. But, after a thorough look from front to back and no sign of any kind of forgery, Lucy ripped the job from the Guilds Job-Board and high-tailed it to her apartment to pack and plan. Everything was set and ready to go, and now all Lucy needed to do was head out to the harbor and catch the next boat bound to Goethe Island.
Stepping out of her shower, the Celestial wizard felt ready for anything. Monsters? Piece of cake. Rogue wizards? Any day. Natsu, Happy, Erza and Grey lounging in her room waiting for her? Everyday.
Wait...
Natsu sat cross-legged on his favorite spot (HER bed), excitement pouring out from him in literal waves. Grey relaxed on the recliner, his clothes being as absent from his body as ever (he still had yet to discover this little tidbit of information). Erza leaned on the wall, looking over what seemed to be the very slip of paper Lucy had snuck away with just the other day. And Happy flew overhead, chanting about how much food he was going to eat.
It took Lucy approximately 0.5 seconds to fully process what was going on.
"What are you doing in my room?!" she screeched at her uninvited guests. The question fell on deaf ears, however, just as the other 258 times that came before that (42 more times and she can redeem her 'Unexpected Guests' card for a free slushy!).
"Took you long enough! I can't believe you forgot to tell us about such a cool mission, Luce!" The fire dragon slayer scolded in good humor, "We could have left sooner if you did!"
"I agree; a little warning before-hand would have been appreciated. We could have had some more time to prepare." Erza said from her spot by the wall. Her attention was still glued to the job request.
Lucy could only imagine how many bags upon bags of suitcases would have been needed to be toted around if that were the case. But the fact still stood that none of them were supposed to bring anything, because none of them were supposed to go!
Grey took this moment to pipe in. "I gotta say though, its not like you to just spring a mission up on us like this so suddenly. That's usually Natsu's job. Is something up?"
Everyone took this moment to stare expectantly at Lucy, though Natsu made a quick glare to Grey for the jab at his ego. They all wanted answers. The blonde stayed quiet for a moment, thinking of the best way to say, 'You weren't even supposed to know about the job!' without disappointing her friends, or the more plausible scenario: Erza getting violent about it.
Lucy was just about to tell them she was planning on going solo on this one until she saw the look in everyone's eyes. It was a kind of light reflected on their faces that was a mix of excitement and determination that Lucy so often saw. It wasn't one that appeared when they were in battle, but, rather, one that was absolutely set on a task, and would finish it with all of their power.
There was no force in heaven or on Earth that could stop them when they got that look in their eyes, and Lucy HATED it. So damn much. Its was almost as bad as a puppy-dog pout, if not worse. It meant that Lucy wouldn't be going on any solo-missions anytime in the near future. Sighing in defeat, she answered Grey in what she hoped to be an honest tone.
"I just...thought it would be a fun surprise to show you guys. You know, a good change of pace from all the crazy stuff that's been going on." And it was true, to an extent. It WAS going to be a nice change of pace. HER change of pace… The others, however, seemed to accept her answer and began to make their way out, the plan being to meet at the harbor at 6:00. Just before they were going to leave however, Erza turned around and addressed Lucy sternly, albeit a slight teasing tone to her voice.
"I expect you to be wearing more than just a towel by the time we meet back up, Lucy." Raising her voice as she then called down the hall, "The same goes for you, Grey!"
The Ice-Make wizard's cursing and Natsu's laugh at his expense were all Lucy heard as Erza shut the door to her apartment. She could feel the blood rushing to her face and ears, up to the point that you could mistake her head for a big, blonde strawberry.
She was SO going to get better locks after this mission was over.
30 Minutes Later, after throwing on a pair of clothes
Lucy sat waiting at the docking bay with a bickering Natsu and Grey at each other's throats and a jolly Happy munching on a fish that a kindly fisherman had given him. They were all waiting on Erza, who said she still had a few things to take care of before they could set off for Goethe. The celestial wizard was getting a little anxious; the boat was going to leave at any minute, and Erza was no where in sight. Besides, said swordswoman wouldn't be pleased in the least if they missed the only boat heading for Goethe for the next eight hours.
"I wonder what could be keeping her?" Lucy mumbled under her breath. "Its not like her to take so long…" She could only hope that, whatever the scarlet-haired woman was doing, it wasn't packing an unnecessary amount of baggage. Thankfully, the tell-tale bright red hair that the other woman was so well-known for was spotted on the horizon. However, in tow with her was a very familiar twelve year old girl and her flying white cat. Lucy was just glad it was them and not Erza's small army of luggage.
"Wendy and Carla! I didn't know you two would be coming with us!" Sure, Lucy had considered inviting the young healer, but ended up deciding against it, being next to positive that Carla would pitch a fit at the lack of warning. At the mention of said white cat, Happy dropped everything in favor of 'wooing' the object of his affections by offering the half eaten fish he had been munching on not five seconds earlier. As expected, Carla rejected the 'gift', turning her nose up at him.
"I'm so sorry to pop in so unexpected like this, but Miss Erza insisted that I come along on with all of you!" Wendy's apologetic tone was also laced with a hint of fear; apparently the knight wouldn't take 'no' for an answer.
"Yes, well, I don't think a little more experience would hurt in your case, Wendy. Besides, we needed someone to even out the pay."
Well, leave it to Erza to prioritize things like that. But Lucy couldn't help but think that maybe there was more to Erza dragging Wendy along for this mission than just giving her more hands on experience. Almost as if she was back-up in case anything were to happen and someone be injured. True, the pay was a bit much for just decorating and elderly person's house, but that didn't mean anything BAD was going to happen. Right?
A sinking feeling soon made its home at the bottom of Lucy's stomach. Could there be more to the job than what was written in the description? No, that would be impossible. And yet…
Lucy didn't have time to finish that thought, seeing as the captain of the ship bellowed that it was time to set sail. Choosing to deal with her uneasy emotions later, she and the others prepared to board. Natsu, though, stayed behind, looking incredulous.
"Wait, you mean to tell me we're NOT swimming to the island?!"
End of Chapter 1
Author's Note: Oh thank the man upstairs, IT'S DONE (the first chapter, at least). I've been wanting to write this story for about a year now, but up until this point, I never got off my butt to actually WORK on it. I had a plot map and everything set out, man! The location of said map is still in question, but I wrote one, dammit! I really did!
In all seriousness, I had a lot of fun writing this. You wouldn't think that Lucy would be a fun character to write, but she is! Oh, and a fair warning to all of you LucyxNatsu shippers out there, THIS STORY HAS LITTLE TO NO ROMANTIC ENDEAVORS WITH CANON CHARACTERS. FORGIVE ME, BUT ITS HARD ENOUGH JUST GETTING THESE BUTTS INTO CHARACTER WITHOUT TRYING TO HAVE THEM GET INTO EACH OTHER'S PANTS. And yes, there WILL be oc's in this story. They won't be paired up with any canon characters, so rest assured.
And a special shoutout to my beta, Venric66. Without her help, I literally could not have gotten this far without her constant support and ever present grammar and spell checking.
I hope to see you all in the next chapter!
-TSD