This is based off the broadway play and movie Newsies. I haven't actually seen the play, but the movie was good, I recommend. I don't own that shit guys. The plot is pretty similar (obviously) but I put my own twist on it, so I hope you guys enjoy!
Newsie- someone who sells or delivers newspapers
Papes- abbreviation for newspaper
Lucy angrily threw her pen on her desk, slumping back in her seat and crossing her arms. She wanted to get this right; she had to.
Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm down and clear her head. "C'mon Lucy, pull yourself together. Those boys are counting on you." And they were. She needed to present this piece in a way that they'd get all the support they'd need. She owed them that, at least.
Lucy Heartfilia, daughter of Jude and Layla Heartfilia, was an aspiring writer—more journalist really. Not very surprising seeing as her family owned one of the most popular newspapers in the city, The Heartfilia Star. The problem was, her father was a power hungry, money-grabbing egomaniac who thought raising the prices of the papers was a good idea.
It wasn't.
But Lucy saw an opportunity and she grabbed it. She knew she'd be criticized, laughed at, called names, but to her that didn't matter. What mattered was the story, how raising the price by even 10 cents affected these boys lives more than her father knew, how they newsies came together to form their own union to fight back against the system. She wished her mother were here. She'd be able to talk sense into her father, to lower the prices back down to what they were. They had enough money, the newsies didn't.
If she were being honest with herself, there was something else that was driving her motivation even more so now than ever, and that something was a someone.
Natsu.
She smiled thinking about him. He was determined, funny, knew what was right and wrong and most importantly, he believed in her.
Thinking about him gave her all the motivation she needed and put her pen back to paper, knowing exactly what to write.
It was almost like fate, how they'd met. Well, how Lucy first saw Natsu anyways.
Lucy had just been walking around, notepad and pen in her pocket, not really expecting anything interesting to happen but prepared anyway—as a journalist should be. Then, as she was circling back towards her father's building, she heard a commotion, which seemed to be attracting many other people as well.
"I say we go on strike! They won't make no money if they got nobody to sell their papes! If they wanna raise the price of papes by 10 cents, then they'll lose their profit by ten times!" All of the newsies around the pink haired boy cheered, crowding around him like he was a personal messenger from the Gods.
Lucy just stared at the crowed for a bit, until it sunk in that these kids were going to go on strike, and without a union no less!
Her smiled widened, her hand reaching for her notepad.
She had just found the perfect story.
She didn't think she'd ever forget that pink hair.
"So you're saying we're gonna be in the paper?"
"Yes. What you are doing is pretty incredible, and it needs to be told." Lucy had approached the young men who seemed to be in charge of the strike, and had offered to bring them out to lunch to discuss her plan. "And to be quite honest, I think Jude Heartfilia is terrible for raising the price of the papers. He doesn't understand how hard you guys work, and that you all don't have a great amount of money like he does. He's just being greedy." She stabbed at her food with her fork in frustration, cursing her father. Sometimes she wondered how she could be related to such a monster.
"You seem to have a pretty strong opinion about him, miss." A dark haired boy stated, staring at her with an unnerving look in his eyes, almost like he knew exactly who she was and what she was thinking.
"Well, I just hear a lot of bad things about him." She almost spat, but tried to keep her composure. She wasn't going to tell them he was her father, they wouldn't trust her.
There was silence at the table until Romeo spoke up. "This is pretty brave of you, Miss Lucy."
"Yeah!" shouted Natsu, "standing up against that old fucker. People might not take you very seriously and all, as a woman."
"Maybe not, but that's not going to stop me from trying." Lucy stared determinedly at Natsu, as if she could overcome any obstacles that may face her with her head held high and a smile on her face.
And just like that, Natsu unknowingly started falling in love with a blonde haired weirdo.
"Hey, everyone!" Lucy greeted as she walked into the bar, Fairy Tail. It had become their regular meeting place, as Lucy learned that the older newsies would come here after they finished their work.
"Hi, Lucy, what do you have there?" The bartender, Mira, asked as she poured Natsu a shot of whiskey.
Grinning as she sat down, Lucy threw the paper onto the bar in front of them. "I have the first official article about the strike. Written by yours truly." She couldn't keep the grin off of her face. She was so proud of herself; she finally did it. She wrote an article for a newspaper, a pretty popular one at that, and she was taken seriously.
"This is really good, Lucy! I didn't think you'd be this good of a writer. Well done!" Gray congratulated as he finished reading. Natsu looked at her with a wide grin and bright eyes.
"Yeah, Luce. This is great!"
"Thanks! Hopefully with this, the strike will become more well-known, possibly gaining support from more and more people." Lucy was hopeful, since her article really showcased how mistreated the newsies were, and it pointed out how greedy the owner and higher ups were being.
"Here you go, Lucy! It's on the house, as congratulations." Mira passed her a shot with a large grin, before moving on to her other customers. Staring at the glass, Lucy debated on whether or not to take it. She didn't consume a lot of alcohol, so she had a pretty low tolerance.
Well, one drink can't hurt.
One drink did not, in fact, hurt.
But the many others that followed did. And who was left to take care of her but Natsu. And right now, Natsu was not happy.
"Natsuuuuu, why's your hair piiiink?" Lucy slurred from beside him as she played with his hair.
"Why's your hair blonde?" he retorted, crossing his arms and trying to ignore her.
Giggling, Lucy leaned into him, abandoning his hair to wrap her arms around his neck in a hug. "You're funny Natsu. I like funny. I like you."
Natsu felt his eye twitch.
How did he get himself into these kinds of situations?
"They think we don't matter, that we got nothin' to lose! Well I say this, we do matter. We—" mid-sentence he stopped as a commotion began in the crowd. Lucy turned around, eyes going wide at what she saw. Their rally hadn't been big that day; a crowd of fifty people at best.
But it seemed like Jude Heartfilia had had enough, because they were now staring straight at about thirty cops.
That was when all hell broke loose.
"Fuck," Natsu searched the crowd for a head of blonde hair. He had to get to her, to make sure she didn't get hurt. He didn't think he could live with himself if she got hurt because of him.
"Lucy!" he shouted, dodging most of the fists and baton's being thrown his way.
Finally, in the midst of screaming, fighting and a whole lot of blood, he saw her.
"Lucy!" he rushed over to her, hiding behind a wall with a look of pure anger and something else he couldn't pick out. "Are you okay?" Holding her head in his hands, he searched her face for injuries.
Blinking, she swatted his hands away. "Am I okay? Look at you, Natsu. You're full of cuts, and I can already see a few bruises forming." She reached behind his head, before her hands started travelling lower, finally resting on the side of his abdomen. "You're bleeding." She kept her hand on the wound, staring at it.
"Hey," he said, grabbing her face again, "I'll bleed, get cut or bruised, whatever. As long as you're okay, I'm fine. I'll live."
Blinking out of her stupor, Lucy nodded, wiping her face before bending down and tearing off a large chunk of her dress to wrap around his wound. "Okay, let's go. We can't get caught."
"'kay. We'll go back to Fairy Tail, yeah?"
"Yeah."
"How ya doing?"
"You know, I should be asking you that," Lucy stated as she wrapped a proper bandage around his abdomen.
"I told you, I'm fine. You're being weird, Lucy. I'm all healed already." Natsu grabbed her hands when she'd finished and started backing up from him. He was sitting on a counter as she fussed over him, even after she no longer needed to.
Because Natsu wouldn't deny he liked Lucy essentially hugging him as he sat shirtless while she treated him…
But enough was enough.
"You can stop worrying, Luce."
"No, I can't." Tearing her hands away from him, she turned her back and crossed her arms, wiping what he assumed were tears off of her face. "I can't stop worrying about you, stupid."
Hopping off the counter, he grabbed her arms, spinning her around to face him again. "Tell me what's going on."
Scoffing, Lucy averted her eyes and stared at the ground. "Nothing's going on."
"Like hell." He turned around. This time he needed to avoid looking at her. "Stop pretending that nothing's wrong. Because everything is wrong." He ran his hands through his hair, frustrated. "Don't you get it Lucy? It's over. The strike isn't worth it. Those kids getting hurt, it's not worth it. So stop pretending that nothing's wrong and face the fucking truth." Leaning forward onto the counter, he closed his eyes, tired of all of his emotions. He just wanted to turn the damn things off.
"Idiot."
Opening them again, Natsu turned his head to look at the blonde haired reporter, "What?"
"I said, you're an idiot."
"I heard you the first time. Why?" Facing Lucy, he looked at her with confusion. "Ten cents a pape isn't worth all the violence. And…and Romeo—"
"We'll get Romeo back."
Romeo had been taken away to a boy's home during the confusion and chaos. It wasn't a good home—Natsu had been there for a while before he ended up escaping. But Romeo wasn't very strong or big and Natsu was worried.
"You can't know that."
"No, but we'll try our damned hardest. If you give up on this, Natsu, wouldn't Romeo being taken have been for nothing?"
Walking up to him, Lucy rested a hand on his face. "You can't give up, Natsu. I won't let you."
Heart racing, Natsu placed a hand on top of hers, realizing she was right. "But Heartfilia won't budge. I don't know if we'll win."
The smile that appeared on her face was all he needed to realize that he was in love with her. He was in love with that smile, her eyes, her brain, her laugh, her everything.
God, he was so in love with her he almost felt sick.
"I believe in you, Natsu. I believe that you…we, can win this. I believe in you, so please believe in me."
Leaning forward, he rested his forehead against hers.
"Okay."
It was dark.
It was dark, but it was loud. There were voices all around him, and he felt rope wrapped around his wrists behind his back, cloth in his mouth, and blindfold on his eyes.
"Take the blindfold and ropes off him," a voice he recognized but couldn't make out said.
Suddenly light filled his vision, blinding him for a second.
"Heartfilia? What the hell is going on? "
"It's a pleasure to meet you too, Natsu Dragneel."
Eyeing him up and down, Natsu stayed silent. He didn't know what was happening, but he had a bad feeling about it.
"I've brought you here tonight to offer you a deal." Jude was sitting at his desk, hands laced together and on the table.
"What kind of deal?" Skeptical, Natsu crossed his arms in defiance.
"It's simple really. You stop the strike and I'll give you whatever you want. I'll even get that Romeo boy out of the home and return him to you."
"Lower the prices."
He wasn't going to fall for some low-life scumbag's deal. He knew better.
Sitting back, Jude crossed his arms. "You can't be convinced, can you? No matter what I offer."
"I can't trust you to keep your end of the bargain, sir." Even though it was a really tempting offer. He still hadn't figured out a way to save Romeo. But he would never place his trust in a person like him.
"Well if I can't convince you, maybe I can get my daughter to talk to you. I'm sure you'd listen to her." Smirking, Jude had a look on his face as if he had won, and Natsu's bad feeling intensified.
"Like hell I'd listened to some pampered spoiled brat."
"Not even if she was blonde with brown eyes, and was a reporter?"
No.
"And whose name is Lucy?"
"You're lying. There's no way Lucy is related to you."
But, for the first time that night, Natsu knew without a doubt that Jude Heartfilia wasn't lying.
Natsu didn't know what to do.
The women who he loved, or was it the women he thought he loved?
He didn't know.
He was confused and hurt.
He was broken.
He thought for once in his life that he had found something good, something that made him happy. And that something was blonde and full of life.
But he was wrong. He was so, so wrong.
"Hey Natsu! So I was thinking—Natsu?" Lucy called out as he rushed out of Fairy Tail. He couldn't deal with her. He couldn't even look at her.
"Natsu! What's wrong?"
Stopping in his tracks, he balled his hands into fists, trying to get himself under control.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Tell you what?"
Spinning around, he looked at her with hurt and defeat filling his face and eyes.
"You're his daughter, Lucy. Why didn't you tell me?"
Too shocked to say anything, she just stared at him, unable to form a proper response.
"Did you…was it all a lie? Were you working for him this whole time? Was it even real?" His voice cracked at the end, and he dragged his hands down his face, defeated and broken. "Were we a lie?"
"Natsu, I—no. No, none of it was a lie. We were real. So very real. I'm your Lucy, the same one you met from the beginning. I'm sorry, I am so, so sorry for not telling you." She reached out to him, but he just pulled away.
"I don't—why did you lie?" he wanted, needed, to understand her. He didn't think he could get through this strike without her, he didn't think he could breathe without her.
He wondered when that had happened.
"I didn't think you'd accept my help if you knew I was his daughter." She bit her lip, not looking at him. "I haven't felt like I was his daughter in a long time anyways."
"Look at me." When she didn't comply, he gently grabbed her face and turned her to look at him until her eyes met his. "How can I trust you?"
"Natsu…"
"How can I trust you, Luce? I want to, I need too. But I don't know if I can."
She gazed at him, wondering what she could say to convince him. She felt horrible; she never wanted him to find out from someone else. She didn't know what happened, but she could bet her father was the main cause of it.
"My name is Lucy Heartfilia, daughter of Jude and Layla Heartfilia."
"It's a little late to tell me that now, Lucy."
"Oh calm down, I wasn't done." Taking his hands, she placed them over her heart. "But my name is Lucy, just Lucy. A reporter who believes in the rights of all workers, and that just because someone is born into money doesn't mean they are rich. I am a reporter who wants to become successful because of my own skills and merit, not because my father owns a very successful and popular paper. I don't like him, I haven't for a long time."
Taking a deep breath, she moved her hands to his face. "And I was lucky enough to meet a pink haired idiot who calls me Luce and believes in me just like I believe in him. And it's the craziest thing; I fell in love with him. I think I loved him since the moment I saw him."
"Lucy, I-I… seriously?" Eyes lighting up, Natsu placed his hands on her shoulder.
Giggling, Lucy nodded. "Seriously. I love you, Natsu Dragneel. And I am so sorry. I'll do anything to repay you. I should have told you who I was."
"I love you too, Luce. God, I love you so damn much."
And their love was sealed with a kiss.
Throwing a full-force strike in front of the owner of the Heartfilia Star's house, in hindsight, wasn't the smartest thing they could've done.
It was going pretty smoothly at first; just some newsies on a strike for a just cause, wanting to prove they were worth something. But then Lucy noticed a few new guards approaching, guards she didn't know, and who didn't know her. She wondered, briefly, when her father hired them, but the thought quickly left her mind.
She was a bit star struck, in a way, of everything that was going on around her. It was amazing, for something relatively small to begin with ending up so big. It made her proud because she was there every step of the way with these boys, documenting it with her trusty notepad and pen.
"Hey, watch it!"
There was a commotion happening near the front of the strike, and some people started shouting and shoving.
"Natsu!" Lucy called, trying the push her way to the front. Desperation ate at her, not wanting to repeat the incident from a few weeks ago. She couldn't deal with that.
"Natsu!" yelling, she searched and searched but there were too many people and too much commotion.
Finally she found an opening and was able to squeeze her way to the front, finally seeing that head of pink hair and the man she fell in love with.
For a split second their eyes met, and in that spilt second everything seemed right in the world, as long as Natsu was there.
But then the second was over, and the sound of a gunshot rang out.
And Lucy screamed.
"You're going to be okay, you're going to be okay." Again and again Lucy repeated the sentence, hoping that her words would become true.
"Hey, 's gonna be okay Luce. I'm gonna be okay." Natsu reached out with his right hand, grabbing her shoulder. "Calm down."
Tears streaming down her face, she started to laugh. "Calm down? Natsu you just got shot. I can't calm down." She wiped her tears off her face, but more kept falling and she couldn't stop it.
"Lucy." Gray, who had rushed over when he saw what happened, moved her hands off of the bullet wound that pierced Natsu's right shoulder. "Cry later, we need to get him to a doctor, and fast."
"Right, doctor." Standing up, Lucy surveyed the area. She didn't have to look for long though, because the person she was looking for was making their way over.
Her father.
"Lucy! What's going on here?" Striding up in-between two guards, Jude looked first to her daughter then to Natsu laying on the ground. The rioting had gotten more chaotic from the gunshot; many of the Newsies stepping up to defend their leader.
"What's going on here?!" Outraged, Lucy stepped closer to her father, shoving him. "What's going on here is your guards just shot someone! They just shot an innocent man who was trying to make life better for him and everyone else."
"Lucy, this man—"
"This man is a better man than you'll ever be. You only care about money, that's all you've ever cared about. At least he cares about me. At least he loves me."
"Lucy, I—" glancing down once again at Natsu, Jude looked back to his daughter. "Bring him in the house and have our doctor see to him."
Nodding, Lucy instructed Gray and Gajeel, another Newsie who was on the scene, to carry Natsu into her house.
Once in the house, Lucy directed them to the infirmary, Jude and his bodyguards slowly following, not seeming to care about what was happening.
But Lucy knew better. No matter how much of an ass he was, he wouldn't have wanted anyone to actually get so seriously injured.
"Come on, Lucy. We should give the doctor some space." Gray tried to pull her away from Natsu's side, but she wouldn't budge.
"No, I'm staying right here and you can't make me go. Go let everyone know he is going to be okay."
"St-stop the riot." Natsu spoke up from the bed as the doctor tended to his injury.
Eyeing Natsu, Gray nodded, and then left the room, Gajeel trailing behind.
Grinning cheekily at Lucy, Natsu decided to lighten the atmosphere. "Whaddya think? Find scars attractive, Luce?"
"Oh shut up and get better already."
She couldn't sleep.
The doctors had been treating him for what felt like hours, but she really had no idea how much time had passed. The bullet had gone straight through, which apparently was a good thing, but Lucy couldn't help the ache in her heart at the thought of losing him.
"I'm sure he's gonna be fine. He's a fighter-he wouldn't leave you." Gray piped up from the door, leaning against the frame. "But I'm worried about him too. Don't tell him I said that." Smirking, he pushed off the frame and into the room, grabbing a chair and pulling it up beside her.
Nodding, Lucy gave him a small smile in thanks. She was glad for the company, and she was sure that was why Gray was here; for her but also for himself. Natsu was his best friend after all.
She reached out and grabbed his hand for comfort, wanting to be supportive.
He was shaking.
"Lucy-"
"Get out."
Jude huffed, not appreciating being told to get out of his own house. "But Lucy, listen to me-"
"No. I don't want to hear anything you have to say. Now get out and leave us be. In case you haven't noticed, someone has been shot." She spat out with venom. She just couldn't deal with him at all right now, not when she felt like she was going to be sick from all her worrying. She probably would have if Gray weren't there with her.
Gray lightly squeezed her hand, but knew enough not to say anything.
"Miss Heartfilia?" An older man came in the room that she knew to be the doctor. "I just finished working on Mr. Dragneel. He's going to pull through, the wound wasn't too severe."
Lucy's shoulders sagged in relief, letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding. "Thank you, thank you so much." She looked over to Gray, whose hand she was still holding, tears welling up in her eyes. "He's okay."
Squeezing her hand, he smiled gently. "Told you so."
"Lucy, I need to talk to you."
Lucy was currently sitting beside Natsu's bed as he slept, exhausted from the days events.
She responded, not looking at her father, "why?"
"It's about the strike."
Shooting out of her seat, eyes blazing, Lucy stood her ground. "Are you serious right now? Natsu was shot—I thought he was going to die, and you want to talk about the strike? Fine. I'll talk about the strike, father. Lower the prices back down and never speak to me again. Not everything is about money, you used to know that."
Jude sighed and sat down in another chair in the room. "If you had let me speak, you would have heard that I was lowering the prices first thing in the morning. This isn't worth it. I lost your mother. I know what it's like Lucy, and I can't lose you too. Please, give me a second chance."
Lucy fell back into her seat, surprised. She didn't expect that.
"That's great, old man." Natsu piped up, waking up from his sleep. "That means I won. Hey, what about Romeo? Can ya let him out?"
"Natsu! Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." Lucy reached out and stroked his hair.
"'S fine. Romeo?" he directed his question to Jude.
"I already let him go, he's back with your friends. I'm sorry, Mr. Dragneel."
"Call me Natsu, Jude."
Cracking a half smile, Jude agreed. And Lucy just stared, not believing any of this was happening, that is was just a dream.
"Oh, Luce! What did I tell ya before? You shouldn't get so worked up. If you're fine, I'm fine." She smiled at him and leaned over to kiss him, not having a care in the world at that moment.
Because suddenly her world was perfect.