Chasing the Lion
Natsu X Lucy
Chapter One:
The cobble stone path was slippery from the slight rain and moss. It did not help in the least that his shoes had seen better days and lost the now necessary grip for running around in Magnolia in the middle of the night with an unsettling, if only slight downpour. His breath came in harsh pants, he was to stressed out to care that he was actually hyperventilating. Cold sweat gathered just above his eyebrows and his eyes dilated from time to time. In a flash of clear thoughts, he abandoned the main street and headed towards one of the alleyways. He was unfamiliar with this part of the city. This alleyway looked like any other. Containers filled to the brim with garbage and a stench barely bearable. Impossible to stand for him. His senses were better than the average human or mage. Desperate for an escape plan, he stopped his sprint. The chances to escape now were basically none existing. What he thought what was an alleyway, proved to be the backyard of a restaurant with Balam speciality, if he had to guess from the smell. There was only one way out of the situation and that was to turn around and run straight into their arms. He could feel them breathing down his neck. They would catch up with him any moment.
Why did they show up now? He had been living like a free man for three years now. Granted he hid and ran whenever he caught a whiff of them, but why couldn´t they just leave him be? He was of no use for them any more. Curse his luck. He was about to lose his hope. Maybe he should just surrender to them.
The clacking of boots made him refocus on the issue on hand. He turned around and spotted a figure, still hidden in the dark slowly making its way to him. He or she was not running. They knew he couldn´t escape. He was completely at their mercy. He just hoped, that they were in a good mood. A prissy Wähler was no one to trifle with. If they were indeed one, he knew he would just roll over and prostrate himself like a fucking dog.
His breath hitched, the hyperventilation taking its toll.
The shadow took another step forward. He was the prey, something he never expected to happen to him. If he wasn´t actually kind of scared, he might have found this situation hilarious. It got even less funny, when he noticed them closing in. A black laced shoe shone in the spare light of the restaurant. The rest of them still hidden.
A sudden creak of a window opening, broke the eerie silence that had enclosed them in a bubble, making them feel like they were the only humans on earth.
"I´ve gotcha, you fuckin´whore! So you´re the bitch who sleeps with my excuse of a husband!", an angry voice of a seemingly older woman shouted. A loud crash followed. It resembled glass hitting the concrete.
"No! This a misunderstanding!", another voice, female and much younger from the sound of it, replied. "I am just looking for a man, about -"
"So you´re a professional? I knew it! You look like a skank.", the lady yelled.
He was sure every person in a radius of three kilometres heard her.
"Excuse you? Being a professional is a very taxing job. I am not here for your husband, lady. I am sear-" "Like I would believe you! I know girls like you."
Unbeknownst to the two arguing ladies, he took his chance to escape. He didn´t want to be stuck with her out of all peoples. She was a nasty one. So he hid in the shadows and slipped by without anyone noticing. He heard another crash behind him, making him hurry up.
She only noticed his absence, when it was already to late. She could see the hem of his khaki jacket vanish behind the corner.
"Shit.", she muttered and was about to go and admit defeat for this night, when a porcelain tea cup headed towards her. Only a hair´s breadth she was able to avoid the flying object, that shattered into pieces seconds later. She had to run for cover or this madwoman would slit her throat open with flying saucer.
"If I see you here again-", the rest of the madwoman´s rant was left unheard as she high-tailed out of the backyard.
She just hoped not every citizen of Magnolia was like that or she would have an uncomfortable stay.
Lucy Heartfilia liked Magnolia. It was a cute city and known for several things like the Cardia cathedral or the eponymous flowers that blossomed all over said city. She especially liked the book store on a hidden street somewhere in the northern part of Magnolia. It was quite place, with a huge selection of rare books. Most people wouldn´t be interested in them, as they mainly contained knowledge about magic and beasts. No normal citizen would ever need to know, how to find a wyvern horn. While the immense knowledge stored in those books fascinated her, a small section dedicated to novels made heart beat faster and sent her into an almost delirious state. It did not matter, which book she would pick, all of them tended to be overwhelmingly good. Her mother always said, that she should be sparse with the good things in life or else they would become something ordinary. Nothing to cherish. While she usually abided the rules set by her mother almost religiously, she completely ignored it for the favour of reading the books.
She was only halfway through the first shelf, but she guessed it was okay. After all she had only been in Magnolia for two weeks.
Whenever Lucy entered the small store, she would first great the owner. Surprisingly it was a young man around her age. Not an old man, protecting his treasure. If this book store had not been her secret sanctuary, she would have flirted with him like there was no tomorrow. Johnny was a nice looking fellow after all. However getting rejected would make thing rather uncomfortable. Since she wanted to visit the store again, she refrained from doing so and simply watched him from time to time. She had priorities after all.
Lucy had a very specific ritual when it came to choosing and then reading her newly achieved book. First she would let her slender finger touch the backs of the books. Then she would take one with an interesting Title and open it in the middle. She wanted to be surprised by the book and sadly enough most synopsis at the back of the cover would tell her too much. Depending on whether she liked the writing style, she would either read it or shove it back into the shelf. That only applied to regular books stores though. Since she recently frequented this corner store, she could simply take a random book and had yet to be disappointed. After paying for her literature, - this time a local fairy tale-, and throwing one or two glances at Johnny Lemon, the store clerk, she headed towards a small café on the other side of the street. It was also fairly hidden and barely noticeable if you were not searching for this café. Lucy had been lucking enough to see a small girl with bright blue hair leave the book store -an insane amount of books in her arms- and enter the cute café. Around that time, her apartment had barely any furniture. It had been rather uncomfortable and cold. So she followed said girl and found herself in a little wonderland. A bit too pink, even for her taste, but it seemed cosy and friendly. She would choose the café over her apartment any day. Well not any more, but it became a habit to stay for another hour or so.
When she entered, a sweet smell wafted over to her. A waitress smiled at her, nodded and went behind the counter to start making the caramel latte. They knew her usual.
Lucky for her, her favourite place was still free, so it it was a no brainer, that she would settle down on the plush wing chair, that stood directly under a skylight. She loved being immersed in another world with the warmth of the sunlight on her back. It made the story feel even more magical. Her drink followed only seconds later. She looked up, to thank the waitress, that she noticed the blue haired girl on the other side of the room. She seemed to be just as immersed in her book as Lucy had been a few moments earlier. Smiling to herself, she took a sip and returned her concentration back to the book.
What felt like only a few minutes, but were in reality more like a few hours, she stood up and stretched her stiff body. Her neck made slight cracking noises as she rotated it. The sun from the skylight had dimmed noticeably, so she paid and was about to leave, when she noticed a thick book at the place where the blue haired girl had spent her time. Taking a look at the cover only told her that it was about dragon related species, but the rest was unreadable. It was probably an old or dead language. At least she did not recognize it.
"Ah, I think that girl is form Fairy Tail. She helped restoring the coloured glass panels of the cardia cathedral.", the waitress said and began wiping the slightly dirtied tables.
"I guess, I should visit them.", Lucy muttered, really ecstatic at the possibility to see the infamous Fairy Tail. She had no reason to go there up until now.
"You would do that? The book looks important, so I think they would appreciate it."
Lucy missed most of what the woman said, because she had already left the café.
Hopping along the streets, she made her way to the local magician guild, the book tightly gripped.
Her heels clacked loudly on the cobble stone as she made her way up to the guild. The big sign declared the huge building as the headquarters of Fairy Tail. Imposing figurines of fairies lined up, each one expressing another emotion. Lucy was already overwhelmed and she hadn´t seen the inside yet.
When she stood in front of the huge doors, studded with iron nails and branded with the Fairy Tail mark, she took a deep breath. She wanted to come across as nice as possible. After all Fairy Tail was probably filled with cool and outstanding people. While she could only remember the white haired Take over mage, she knew that there had to be at least one more person at her level. How was she supposed to stay cool, she wondered.
She pushed the door, it gave in after a strangled sound came from it. Someone should oil the hinges.
What she saw was not what she had expected. In front a her rowdy looking bunch fought each other, like the apocalypse was about to break out. She heard loud shouts, a few squeals and a groaning. She smelled sweat, blood and dust. She saw a few dozen mages beating the shit out of each other. Everything seemed to be fair deal. From throwing benches to flaming fists. One guy was even completely naked and a red haired woman seemed to chase him down with a winged lance. A flying cat for fucks sake nibbled on his fish and seemed to be highly amused. Lucy was not even disturbed by the odd colour of the cat. She was so distracted by the odd occurrence in front of her, that she did not notice the white haired woman approach her. Lucys mouth stood open, like a comic character. It was so cliché, it was not even funny any more.
When she felt someone tap her shoulder, she snapped out of it and came face to face with one of the more gifted persons in the universe. At least in the looks department for now, she thought.
"Why don´t you come over to the bar and I will make you something tasty. How does that sound, hun?", the female mage asked, Lucy belatedly identified as Mirajane Strauss.
She´s nice!
Mirajane took her by the shoulders and steered her still frozen mind towards the bar, where a few other female mages lounged around. Midway something unidentifiable flew towards them. Lucy cursed her luck. It seemed like she was a prime target for flying objects recently. Due to Miras quick reflexes she was able to avoid being hit directly. However there was now a boy lying in front her, seemingly dazed from the impact and tried to stand up. A light growl escaped his lips, when he rubbed over the already forming bump on his head.
"Shitty Icicle", he muttered. Blood trickled from the salmon hairline. With the same speed he came crushing down on the two girls, he stood up and was about to rejoin the brawl, when he noticed an unfamiliar scent. Turning around to Lucy, he started to gape at her. It was seriously creeping her out.
"I want 14 kids.", said the creep, looking at her with dazed eyes. His fall probably still made him dizzy.
"Good for you, I guess?", she replied, unsure how the weird boy in front of her to react. Was this some kind of initiation ritual? Seeking help, she turned to the bartender behind her, but the Take Over mage simply smiled and gave her a light push.
"I-I m-mean, I w-want- I- I would be o-okay with ten."
This is getting ridiculous!
While she could admit, that the boy in front of her was hot as hell, he seemed to be total nut case or the fall did real damage and he was really confused.
She watched him, how he ruffled his hair in despair and then slapped his palm against his forehead.
"Uh- I´m Natsu. Hi.", he said, but Lucy had already taken Miras hand to escape the strange situation. She was used to quite a lot, but it seemed that she would never stop learning something new about this world. She did not look back and therefore missed the stunned gaze of him follow her. Or how a naked man started to teased the brain fried Natsu.
Mira quickly began to work for the promised drink behind the counter, but kept smiling whenever she caught their resident salmon mage staring at the newcomer.
Lucy had made herself comfortable on one of the bar stools, at least how comfortable one could be, when a stranger started to burn holes in the back of her head.
"So hun, what brings you to our humble guild? I am Mirajane by the way.", said woman asked. The smile ever present, but seemed to be a bit strained for a moment. Lucy of course knew who the mage behind the counter was.
"Lucy. Uh- one of your mages has left her book at this café just a few streets away. It seemed important, so I- uh.", she stammered. What the hell was wrong with her? She was seriously behaving weird. Maybe she hit her head too hard?
"Oh! That would be probably Levy´s. She has been searching for it for the last hour or so.
I´ll call her, so please wait a second.", Mira told her and quickly dried her hands on the apron, before hurrying up to get to one of the lower levels.
Now Lucy sat alone, stranded in weird guild filled with even weirder mages and kind of wanted to go back in her cozy bed.
That is, until she spotted the man, who made her heart stop for second.
Without thinking her next actions through, she lounged across the hall. He would not escape this time.
"Take responsibility, you fucker!"