Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail
Lucy suppressed a sigh as she sat alone on her usual seat at the bar. She has been nearly invisible to all her friends since Lisanna "returned from the dead" from Edolas three months ago. The ones that actually still noticed and talked to her were Wendy,Gajeel,Juvia,the exceeds and Master as they have never known Lissanna and Master always made it a point to treat every Fairy Tail member equally. But even then Wendy, being a younger member, got along with Lisanna very well and still went along with Team Natsu for missions along with Charle. Gajeel, Pantherlily and Juvia were also on a mission together. If she was really honest with herself, she couldn't help but feel lonely and the tiniest bit jealous whenever she saw Lisanna laughing and talking happily together with the rest of Team Natsu. Especially with Natsu.
However, Lucy violently pushed these negative thoughts out of her mind. There was no way she could ever dislike Lisanna, she seemed like a really nice girl even though they never had the chance to hold a proper conversation. She had rarely heard anything about Lisanna before she returned but the rest of guild seemed to love her, she must have been really special to everyone. Lucy was truly happy for all her guildmates,particularly Mira and Elfman who missed their younger sister dearly for the past two years. Lucy could imagine having someone so precious coming back from the dead...the way they reacted was understandable.
Now, Lucy had another matter troubling her, she had to pay her rent soon and she hasn't been going on jobs as the rest of Team Natsu have been going on missions with Lisanna since she returned. She have used up most of her savings to pay her rent for the past two months. She had never been on a solo mission before and was nervous about going on one, she thought of asking Wendy to go on a mission with her, but Wendy have been going on missions with Team Natsu. Levy was someone else she considered. But Levy was also caught up in the Lissanna hype, she hasn't even asked about her book in three months and the rest of time she hangs out with Gajeel or go out on missions with Team Shadowgear. Lucy felt a pang of sadness at the thought that even her best friend doesn't pay attention to her anymore. Taking a deep breath, she made her way to the mission board.
Lucy stood before the mission board trying to decide which mission she should take. She tapped her finger on her lips, looking thoughtfully at each flyer, trying to find the perfect job for her first solo mission and enough to pay her 70000jewels rent. She spotted a mission to defeat a band of bandits who has been causing trouble at Shirotsume town, with a nice reward of 100000jewels and sounded relatively simple, the bandits are non-mages and the reward was pretty decent, enough to pay her rent with some money leftover. She was about to reach for the flyer when someone else snatched it off the board. Lucy turned around to see Natsu, along with Lisanna,Erza and Gray standing alongside him.
"We'll be taking this mission!" Natsu said cheerfully. "That's great!" I was planning to take that mission too, let's go together!" Lucy brightened up as she thought she could finally go on a job with Team Natsu. She really missed them. "Umm...about that Luce,I have been meaning to ask if you mind leaving the team? I want to add Lisanna to the team and we will have too many members if someone isn't removed." Natsu casually said. "So...that person is me?" Lucy asked, not believing her ears." Yeah...to be completely honest, you are the weakest link in the team. You were a replacement for Lisanna from the start anyway, we have agreed on her spot in Team Natsu since we were kids." Natsu's words broke Lucy's heart into a million pieces.
(Lucy's POV)
I couldn't believe it. I was the first member to join Team Natsu. I was Natsu's best friend, I was closer to Natsu than anyone else in the guild. We been through so much together...but to him I was just a replacement for Lisanna, a burden to the team? What exactly did I mean to him? And Gray and Erza, they were like big brother and sister to me...but they just stood there saying nothing...Tears stung the back of my eye, but I kept them in and instead gave him a brilliant smile.
"Sure! Its your team anyway, you can decide who is in it. I will leave the team. I am sure you will enjoy taking missions with Lisanna!" Lucy said, forcing a fake smile to be plastered across her face. "Thanks Luce, your the best! Yosh! Lets go Team Natsu!" Natsu cheered as they proceeded to give the flyer to Mira.
No one noticed when Lucy ran out of the guild, all the way back to her apartment, letting the tears that she was painfully keeping in fall. Loke, already sensing his mistress' despair, appeared beside her. "Natsu that bastard! I am gonna kill him for hurting my princess! How could he treat his nakama like this? And damn that Gray, he wasn't saying anything!" Lucy grabbed Loke's arm when he looked like he was about to rush out of the door. "Loke... its okay, I will be fine, please don't get angry with anyone. Just...stay with me..."Loke embraced Lucy comfortingly, as she cried in his arms, drifting off to sleep.
The next morning, Lucy woke up feeling terrible. She saw a note from Loke on the bed. "I have gone back to the spirit world first, please call me anytime you need me, my princess. Love, Loke." The torrent of emotions she felt the previous day crashed into her. She felt depressed all over again. Lucy went to the bathroom and glanced into the mirror, her eyes were puffy and dark circles formed under her eyes from crying last night. "Lucy get yourself together. Its not the end of the world." she said firmly to herself. She covered up the puffy eyes and dark circles with concealer and applied her usual makeup, which made her look better...by a tiny bit. After changing her clothes and pulling her hair into a side ponytail, she left for the guild, determined to go on a mission and stop letting being kicked out affect her mood any longer. She shall show them that she is not as weak and fragile as they thought!
Time skip
Lucy left the guild with a mission to catch a thief that has been stealing jewellery from the mayor's house in Hargeon with a good reward of 150000jewels. She walked to the train station, on her way to her very first solo mission.
Arriving at Hargeon, she was suddenly reminded about how she first met Natsu here as she walked through the streets. That was the day he brought her to Fairy Tail. Ever since the first time she met Natsu, despite being annoyed by him most of the time, her feelings towards him kept growing. She liked him from the beginning, even now after he hurt her for Lissanna, those feelings wouldn't go away. Tears threatened to fall again at the bittersweet memory. So much for not letting it get to me...Lucy muttered, she pushed the painful memories to the back of her mind as she quickened her pace towards the mayor's house.
Lucy finally arrived at a huge mansion rivalling the Heartfillia Residence. It was a white, four storey tall mansion with a fountain in the middle of a garden at the entrance of the house, red roses snaked around the large double doors, clinging to the white walls framing it. Tall red brick walls surrounded the mansion, with elaborate iron wrought gates at the front. Hargeon, being a thriving fishing port, the mayor must be pretty loaded. Lucy thought as she flashed her guild mark to the guard at the door and was lead into the mansion by a servant. Lucy entered an extravagantly decorated guest room. Inside, sat a short, tubby man in his sixties, he sat on a armchair smoking a pipe with a haughty look on his face.
"Good afternoon Mr Dorcastien,I am here for your job request, I hope you will give me more information about the job" Lucy greeted the mayor politely. "Yes, yes. I am glad you came, there are barely any mages left here in Hargeon to take the job. However...despite being from a famous guild and all, are you sure a weak looking girl like you can handle a job like this?" Dorcastien replied, in a snide and arrogant tone.
A vein popped on Lucy's forehead as she tried to keep herself from punching the arrogant man in the face and knocking him off his pedestal to put him in his place. The weak comment only added salt to the wound of what Natsu said yesterday. Instead, she evenly replied in a cold tone. "Mr Dorcastien, I can assure that every member of Fairy Tail is strong enough to hold their own, especially against a mere thief. I hope you are not doubting my abilities as a mage based on my gender, that would have been very offensive."
"Of course not, I meant nothing of the sort. Now, lets get on with the details shall we? That sneaky rat has been breaking into my house stealing my precious gold and jewels every week for over a month. None of my guards have actually seen how he got inside, but one of the guards saw the thief running away by scaling over the wall in the backyard after stealing my treasures just a week ago. The thief was wearing a black cape according to the guard. The door to the basement where I keep my valuables in is in the backyard with a guard guarding it but he always get knocked out before he could react." Dorcastien explained.
Lucy nodded, "Okay, do you mind if I take a look around the backyard?"
"Sure, feel free to look around my mansion. Seeing how confident you are, I am expecting you to catch the thief by tonight." Dorcastien granted her permission with a challenging undertone.
The thief must have been very skilled to get through all that guards unscathed for so many times...but why was he spotted the last time after being undetected for so many times? Was he careless? Lucy thought as she scanned through the backyard. She walked towards the door to the basement and examined its surroundings.
Suddenly, she noticed a small piece of black fabric caught on a nail at the side of the door. Lucy examined the piece of fabric, her eyes widened in realisation as she recognised that the fabric is used to make magical clothing such as invisibility cloaks and color changing tops sold in magic item shops. Everything clicked together and Lucy began plotting on how to catch the thief.
Time skip-later at night
Lucy have planned out everything. She hid in a dark corner of the backyard as she waited for the thief to show up. At nearly midnight, rustling was heard. The invisible thief has just scaled over the wall. He made his way towards the door to the basement. The wire hovering in mid air gave away that he was picking the lock. Lucy took the chance when he was preoccupied with the lock to run rapidly towards the door, lashing her whip through what would have looked like thin air in front of the door. A scream of pain escaped from the thief's lips as Lucy's whip tore through his invisibility cloak and slashed his back. The instance the cloak was ripped, the invisibility spell on the cloak was broken and the thief was revealed. "LUCY KICKKK! Lucy knocked down the thief easily and tied his hands behind his back.
Mission complete.
Lucy felt a sense of satisfaction as she walked back to the hotel she was staying at for the night, with 150000jewels in her pockets from her successful and first ever solo mission. The mission really cheered her up. 'But does this really make you strong?' a doubtful voice said at the back of her mind.
Tired out from her mission, Lucy wanted to get back to her hotel room as soon as possible, the dark empty streets was also starting to creep her out. God knows what perverts will be wandering around at this time of the night...Lucy shivered at the thought. As if on cue, a cloaked figure appeared before her in one swift motion.
"KYAAA!" Lucy screamed out of shock as she stumbled backwards, barely catching herself from falling. An unusually deep masculine voice spoke, not revealing his face, "Lucy Heartfillia, do you desire to become stronger?"
"Who are you and what do you want?!"Lucy bit out fiercely as she got into a defensive stance, fingers wrapping around the handle of her whip.
"Open this when you have an answer for me." the mysterious man handed Lucy an envelope and disappeared in a flash, leaving her standing in the middle of the Hargeon street, eyes wide with an envelope clutched in her hand.