Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)

Love and Betrayal

Lucy had arrived at the Fairy Tail guild this morning to meet up with her boyfriend Natsu for a job that she would go on with him and Happy, but she looked a bit surprised to see that the fire dragon slayer and the cute blue Exceed were nowhere to be found. It was not like them to miss the daily task of going on exciting jobs, having fun new adventures that might end in disaster, and Lucy Heartfilia was really surprised to see that her friends were not in the guild right now. Things were really quiet on this sunny morning with a clear blue sky, but perhaps things were a little too quiet.

As the blonde mage began to walk into the guild, after having looked around the guildhall with her cocoa brown eyes while she had been standing in the doorway, the various conversations between many of the mages had abruptly come to halt when their eyes took notice of Lucy. Some people even looked a bit shocked to see her here, but the expressions on their faces did not show that it was a bad kind of shock. They seemed more surprised in a curious manner to see her still having a soft smile on her face, almost like they knew something that she certainly did not.

She tried her best to maintain the small smile, not wanting to break the awkward silence for any kind of drama to ensue, and Lucy walked over to a table near the bar where her friend Cana had been sitting. The two girls had become great friends, ever since Lucy volunteered to help Cana with the S-Class exam that had taken place on Tenrou Island back in X784, and Lucy was hoping that her brown-haired friend would be the one to tell her what the silence was all about. She had always taken a shower every morning, so she couldn't possibly smell bad. Lucy had always dressed in a stylish manner as well, and no one had ever been jealous. What was going on?

Even if she and Natsu had met up at the guild today, the quietness of the other people in the guild would still ensue while the pink-haired dragon slayer would laugh happily as he went on a job with Lucy. The eerie silence had been going on for twelve months now, and let's just say that Natsu admitted something to the guild twelve months prior to the start of the silence. He had admitted this little secret to the guild when Lucy had been too sick with a cold to go out on a job one day, and this was a pretty big secret that the guild was keeping from her. It hadn't really been that big of a deal to people, until Natsu actually started dating someone else while he had been dating Lucy for 13 months as well.

See, after the Grand Magic Games of X791 had ended with Fairy Tail winning, Lisanna Strauss had come clean with her feelings about Natsu. She had really liked the way that he was always so strong, never wanting to give up in tough situations, and the white-haired mage had found herself attracted to his goofy grin. Natsu's dense but fiery personality had been something that made Lisanna love him, and he had always loved how good she looked in swimsuits. Natsu had also loved how kind and gentle Lisanna had acted, even being caring enough to soothe ferocious animals. He was on a job with her right now, but could he possibly show up right now for Lucy to see that?

Lucy had also loved how Natsu could be so fierce and determined at times, and the blonde mage had always found herself blushing a light shade of pink when he would rescue her from dangerous monsters or save her from bandits. Natsu and Lucy had even shared wonderful kisses of love when the jobs were done, and they would even sleep in Lucy's bed together on some nights. The fire dragon slayer would keep her warm with the heat from his body, but she also did not know that he had been sleeping with Lisanna as well. He had also been sharing kisses with her after missions, and Natsu had even bought Lisanna gifts while buying nothing for Lucy.

She had always thought that he was too busy spending all of his jewels on food, always using up his cash so fast, but that was definitely not the case. Lucy had been in love with a guy who she thought was the best guy ever, but her assumptions were wrong. She had trusted Natsu enough to never assume that there were any problems that could cause trouble in their relationship, and the possibility of him being a cheater had never even crossed her mind. She loved Natsu with all of her heart, but he had been loving Lisanna more and more with each passing day.

The blonde girl would even wake up to her bed feeling really cold with no warmth, obviously meaning that Natsu had left her apartment, and he had always told her that he goes out for hot coffee from the cafes in Magnolia every morning. The part about the coffee was actually true, but he only used its sugary deliciousness to meet up faster with Lisanna and continue their relationship. When Lucy arrived at the guild every day, Lisanna had pretended to walk out of Fairy Tail's entrance doors to supposedly go out on a job. However, she would simply turn into a bird while Natsu had wanted her to never feel left alone when he was making Lucy happy to give her a false sense of security.

Really, Natsu was a total cheater for doing this. He had told Lisanna to stalk him and Lucy from afar while they were on jobs, and the fire dragon slayer would sometimes go to a different part of town to make out with his blue-eyed girlfriend. He had always loved that calming look of sweetness in Lisanna's eyes, loving how her skin felt so smooth and warm while they would hug, but cheating on Lucy was not the right way to move on to someone else. He had not wanted to tell Lucy about how her performance on missions was nothing compared to how Lisanna was so fast and strong, and Natsu knew that breaking Lucy's heart would just cause total emotional chaos to break loose.

Lucy asked Cana in a calm manner while smiling softly, her ears taking in the fact that people were starting to chat again while discussing topics that were different from the ones that were being talked about before the blonde mage had entered the guild today, "Hi, Cana. Did Natsu show up to the guild today, or do you think that he could be running late? He knows that we do jobs together as a team, right?"

The brown-haired mage replied kindly, putting on a happy smile to not ruin Lucy's seemingly cheery mood while they sat down together at the table, "Natsu hasn't shown up to the guild at all, Lucy. Maybe he's just really busy with some things that he has to take care of, or maybe he's busy fighting off a group of bandits. After all, you know how he loves to fight in exciting battles. He could also be trying to find the right present to give you as an added bonus for a trip that's coming up, and you hopefully won't have to see him be having double the excitement if he or a certain someone wins the prize to be at the resort."

Cana quickly covered her own mouth after saying that last part, really hoping that Lucy had no clue about what that meant, but the card mage also could tell that her own purple eyes were showing a look that swayed between shock and guilt. She felt really horrible about not being able to tell her own best friend about how Natsu had been cheating on her with Lisanna, and it was mainly because Lucy was really sensitive with her emotions. Cana did not know how Lucy could ever handle the news of being deceived by the guy who she really loved, and trying to say comforting words after revealing such a big secret would only make things worse.

She could see on the corner of her left eye that Mira also looked nervous about how Cana had nearly let the news slip right out of her mouth, and the white-haired barmaid also knew that Lucy might not take it too well. Even though Mirajane was happy that her younger sister had finally found a boyfriend, she did not exactly expect it to be the guy who had already been dating Lucy. She wanted everyone to be happy, but Natsu was being totally deceitful to Lucy. Besides, it's not like fate was going to let Lucy be in the dark forever.

As she looked down at the cute black top that she was wearing, along with an orange miniskirt, Lucy gasped in shock while realizing that she had left her Celestial Spirit Keys at home by accident. The blonde mage had gone out of her apartment so fast to meet up with Natsu today, clumsily leaving her keys behind, and this would mean that she would now have to run back home to get them. Even though this was a slight setback to Lucy's chance of seeing her pink-haired boyfriend show up at the guild today, it would actually give her some more time for fate to make a way to let her see the truth about Natsu.

With happiness in her cocoa brown eyes, Lucy smiled a bit while telling Cana that she would be back after getting her keys from her apartment. She got up from the table, before proceeding to run out of the guildhall to go back home. As Lucy was about to run down the guild's stairs, however, she found herself suddenly having to jump down into a blueberry bush that was on the left side of the staircase. She wasn't exactly trying to practice her skills in hiding, but she had seen something very strange in that one moment before she decided to hide.

Natsu had been walking up the dirt path towards the guild, laughing happily about something, but Lucy narrowed her brown eyes while she had no interest in what was so funny. She wanted to know why her boyfriend had been holding hands with Lisanna, and she seemed to be blushing happily while he had licked some cake icing off of her cheek. She had rested her head against his left shoulder while they kept getting closer to the Fairy Tail guild, looking like a couple that was happily in love, and Lucy looked miffed at the sight of Natsu tickling Lisanna's rear with his other hand to get her blushing excitedly. He never did that for Lucy, and he certainly wasn't planning to.

Lucy could not believe how they were acting so cute together, but she wasn't paranoid enough to assume right away that there was something going on between Natsu and Lisanna. She needed to gather more information about this matter, and it had to be the correct info. Disinformation was something that had a tendency to be worse than having no information at all, and Lucy was going to find out exactly what was going on. Her smile had turned into a rather stern look, and Lucy's brown eyes had followed the duo while they were now walking up the stairs to the Fairy Tail guild. As they wasted no time entering the building, Lucy was glad that they kept the doors open.

Being around the blueberries had definitely had an effect on Lucy's scent, especially since these were magically-created blueberries that gave off the strong heavenly aroma of blueberry pancakes, and that would surely help her stay hidden from the sensitive nose of Natsu while she would be doing her best to listen in on every single word that would be spoken in the guild. Natsu had to have some reason for coming back to the guild with Lisanna, and Lucy was pretty sure that there was no job simple enough to where cake just needed to be eaten. It was pretty obvious that they had been out somewhere, but Lucy would have to come back later to ask about what they were doing.

Ten minutes later...

After retrieving the ten Celestial Spirit Keys from her home, moving quickly to get a chance at seeing what Natsu was doing with Lisanna, Lucy had returned to the guild of Fairy Tail to see that the doors were still open. That was good for Lucy, since they would not creak open loudly to let anyone know that she had come back, and she walked into the guildhall to see that people were now talking to each other. They weren't being so quiet and weird like before, mainly because of the fact that Lisanna had come back to brighten their spirits with her kind personality, but it seemed like Gajeel, Juvia, and Wendy were still out on their jobs.

They were actually the only people who would even see that Lucy existed, since they had joined the guild of Fairy Tail before even knowing about Lisanna, but the blonde mage was now alone while she had to deal with the fact that people would now be ignoring her. They would always ask Lisanna for opinions on various things, not even caring that Lucy would be the nearest person in the room, and the blonde girl hid behind a nearby table quickly as she saw Mira turn her head towards the entrance doors of this rowdy little guild. After all, having Mira announce that Lucy was back would just cause a few lies to hastily be made.

Her eyes slowly looked up from the chair to see the sight of Lisanna sitting next to Natsu at the bar, giggling with joy as she loved what he was telling her, and Lucy's brown eyes widened in shock from seeing that there was only one large cup of hot chocolate on the counter. It was situated perfectly to be in between them, filled with sugar that was sweet like their personal love, but seeing the fire dragon slayer and his white-haired girlfriend put two straws in that drink had made Lucy feel pretty bitter. Natsu had told her that putting two straws in a drink was something that only they would ever do together, but he was definitely lying.

As Lucy kept watching the happy couple be cheerful, Mira put a large chocolate ice cream cake on a plate for them to share as well. It was made to look like a giant Oreo cookie that had peanut butter ice cream in the middle instead of the typical vanilla flavor, looking so incredibly delicious, and that made Lucy clench her fists in anger. Natsu had said that the only desserts he'd share would always be with her, never going to split the sweetness with anyone else, but that was certainly another lie. He had been lying to Lucy about promises, something that should never be done, and this new relationship of his had really made her feel blindsided.

He had taken a bite of the ice cream cake, using a spoon to feed some of it to Lisanna, and she blushed happily while he fed her like she was his princess. Lucy had never been fed by Natsu before, nor did he gently give her a kiss on the cheek to show her how much he had loved her. Lucy felt totally disgusted from seeing them together, especially since that little kiss on the cheek let her know that he had really been asking for a breakup, but what happened next would surely make Lucy want to scream. Really, she would not even go over there to slam that ice cream in Natsu's face because of what he would say.

"Hey, Lisanna. Not having you on the team just makes me feel down, since you're so strong and smart, and I really think that we would work very well together. You'd be the perfect addition to Team Natsu, and Erza would love having you go out on jobs with us! Even that ice stripper Gray told me that you'd help us keep the team strong, so please join up with us. I'd be so happy to fight by your side, working so very hard to please you, and even your Tigress outfit totally gets me fired up! You can take Lucy's place on the team, and she'll be happy to know that there will be no more missions where she gets kidnapped. I always have to end up saving her, and she's so weak. By the way, I won't tell the others about ousting Lucy at all." Natsu told his new girlfriend in a loving tone, chuckling a bit while giving her his signature grin of confidence.

The blue-eyed girl replied in a sweet manner while she took Natsu's hands in hers, happy to accept his offer, "Of course I'll join your team, Natsu! I'm so glad that you all want to work with me, and I would love to help you all on jobs! Erza and Gray are definitely strong like us, and we'll make the team become even stronger! By the way, I'm sure that Lucy will be very happy to know she's been kicked off the team. When she comes into Fairy Tail, she'll even get to hear the good news about us being a happy couple as well. She can even watch our team set off on the boat to that resort you told me about, since all four of us entered the contest, and Lucy can see us kiss like we always do."

Upon hearing what Natsu and Lisanna had just been talking about, Lucy could only hide behind the table while feeling crushed. Natsu was planning to make Lisanna have a spot on the team while ousting his first girlfriend? On top of that, he had thought that she was weak and bringing the team down? Also, the pink-haired male had the nerve to enter a contest to a resort while he and Lisanna wanted to take that trip together with Erza and Gray? She could not believe that her nakama had not even asked her about coming along, nor did they have the decency to ask her if she wanted to be off the team.

As she looked over the table to see Natsu kissing Lisanna's lips while both mages were blushing with affection, Natsu standing up to now have Lisanna in his arms, tears welled up in Lucy's eyes. She could see why people mostly ignored her, preferring to share their times of joy with Lisanna, and it was all because they loved seeing her be Natsu's girlfriend. They looked like a cute couple that anyone could admire, but Lucy certainly didn't like seeing them together. She felt hurt by the basic fact that her boyfriend had just cheated on her, lied to her, and he thought that she was only bringing the team down.

Lucy had really wanted to reveal herself to Natsu, being angry about the fact that she heard every word that him and Lisanna had just said, but would that really change anything? She quietly wished that the girl in Natsu's arms was her, really wishing that he had not broken their relationship like this, but Natsu cared more for Lisanna. She got out from behind the table to quietly leave the Fairy Tail guild, her cocoa brown eyes letting the tears fall while she wanted to cry far from Natsu, and she ran down the stairs to go home. Lucy was feeling so betrayed right now, and Natsu's actions had definitely not made her feel happy in any way.

At Lucy's apartment...

Lucy had ran all the way to her apartment with tears in her eyes, and she angrily opened the door before quickly slamming it shut. She was feeling hurt, angry, confused, jealous, distraught, and Lucy's heart had broken. She was emotionally hurting right now, and Lucy even took a photo of herself and Natsu out of the frame to tear it up into pieces while she screamed in pure anger at the fact that he had kissed another woman while being with her for nearly twelve months. Those were the months where he had been leading Lucy on, only loving her for truly one month, and he had been lying to her while forming chemistry with Lisanna. The guild had lied to her, and all of those people were supposedly her friends.

Her cocoa brown eyes widened in shock upon remembering when Cana had covered her mouth after saying that Natsu would be happy twice on his vacation, and that is what she had meant. He would just leave without Lucy to spare her the times that he would be lying to her, but he would certainly be enjoying his time at the resort with Lisanna. The thought of those two even eating together or cuddling together had made Lucy feel complete sorrow, but she still felt anger at the fact that they would be having such a sweet and happy relationship while she had meant nothing at all to Natsu.

In fact, Natsu and Lisanna had even gotten friendly before Fairy Tail had won the Grand Magic Games. They would always be having discussions about the movies that they liked, the favorite kinds of music that they enjoyed to hear, the video games that they had both enjoyed playing together, and Lucy remembered it all. Natsu and Lisanna had even gone to a bookstore for manga in Crocus one morning, and Lucy could only watch through a glass window while they were drinking lattes as they giggled to each other about certain things. Lucy slammed her fist against the wall of her bedroom for missing so many signs of foreshadowing, and she hated herself for trusting Natsu for so long.

She shouted angrily while throwing a blue vase at the wall, tears continuing to make their way down her face as her body trembled with wavering emotions, "I was so stupid to never notice how he always had to leave me in the mornings, and he always had to leave me after we got jobs done to go somewhere else! I even smelled perfume on him one time, but I mistook it for cologne! How could I be such an idiot to not notice the signs that had been coming my way?! All this time, he had been wanting her! He never wanted me as his girlfriend, and they were probably kissing at the beach! He was always out of money because he always spent it on her, I bet!"

The blonde mage was breathing heavily while her eyes had turned red and puffy from crying so much, and she was really upset about the way that Natsu had cheated on her with a woman who he thought was better than her in every way. What did Lucy ever do to deserve such harshness from her own boyfriend? She had been so nice and caring towards Natsu, and now he had made his choice. The pink-haired male wanted the younger Strauss sister to be his true girlfriend, and he had always been spouting lies to Lucy. If she wasn't needed by him or a bunch of people who chose to keep secrets from her, then why would she need to deal with Natsu's lies anymore?

Heading straight to the kitchen, Lucy had a plan to get her revenge on Natsu. She was going to let him know that his actions had caused bad karma to befall him, and Lucy was also going to disappear from the guild of people who had totally given her the impression that everything was fine in her relationship. She had truly thought that Cana was her best friend who could tell her anything of importance, no matter how big the matter truly was, but Lucy had been wrong. Her poor judgement had now shown its consequences, but she was going to make up for them by showing Natsu that he was about to regret what he had done.

Lucy had been looking at the knives on her kitchen counter for a few minutes now, having the idea that taking her own life would make Natsu and the guild feel incredibly horrible for what they had done to her, but the blonde mage actually began to have a few little thoughts in her mind. What good was it for her to stick around in Fairy Tail, if she was being lied to by her own friends? It would probably do Lucy some good to take a vacation out of Magnolia for a while, not really interested in seeing that jerk Natsu happily cuddle with Lisanna, and maybe she would end up finding the right person to be with. Of course, she would be leaving a note for her cheating boyfriend to find while she would leave overnight.

If he had seen it, he would definitely throw a fit. However, the current situation really did not give him the right to really gripe about anything. He had cheated on Lucy with Lisanna, wanting to be with the girl who had seemed to be much more fun and enjoyable to him, so Lucy was going to leave his life for a while. She was also going to leave the lives of everyone in Fairy Tail for keeping her in the dark about Natsu's new love, and she didn't even want to know if the guild would give a bunch of presents to the happy couple for the possible chance that they'd win that great trip. If Lucy was there to see them off, her only presents would be a kick to the groin for Natsu and a push into the sea for Lisanna. Natsu had been making things hot for Lisanna, but what he had done to Lucy was totally cold.

How was Chapter 1? Sorry for being away for so long. I was sick with the flu, and my boyfriend recently dumped me and cheated on me. It's such a shame that my recent story got reported while I was thinking up new ideas for the next chapter of "Love Is Bright Like A Light", but you know what? That will probably give me an opportunity to improve on some aspects that were poorly done in that story. It could end in StiCy or NaLu, based on what happens. The more you guys read and review this story, the more I'll update. That's fair, right?