Sinopse: AU - Lucy couldn't remember the last time she was truly happy. All the tragedies involving her family and the fear of the unknown couldn't let her live her life. However, everything could change in a single moment: the moment she met her new neighbor, Natsu Dragneel. Could Natsu teach her to be happy? Or fate wouldn't let them reach even that?

AN: Please give this story and the author a chance! I promise that you will not regret it :)

Oh, and I'm not used to write things in english, so If you see any grammar/spelling mistake, you can warn me (be gentle, please! :D).

Part I – Her 20th birthday

Disclaimer: Fairy Tail don't belongs to me, unfortunately.

She would never forget her 20th birthday.

It was a sunny day, with the sun shining brightly and with the sky colored in a beautiful color of light blue. The air was humid like any other summer day at that region, and the shades made by the trees at that garden were refreshing. Her blond silk hair was flying with the breeze and her chocolate orbs were closed, savoring the feel of the nature around her relaxing being. Lucy Heartfilia couldn't feel lonely at that place even with her current situation of orphan, because she could certainly feel her parent's presence at each caress of the wind or at each warming sensation from the beams of the sunlight. Her simple clothing could have offended her strict father if he was still alive, but she couldn't care about that at that precise moment.

The huge mansion could be seen with perfect clarity from where she stood, but she didn't find any satisfaction in being so close to that haunted place. The house, which she couldn't call home, was the place where her mom had withered away slowly and painfully; it was the place where her father had closed himself away from her after Layla's death, treating his only child like a burden not worthy of being loved; it was the place where her only family perished with all the money, the status and the elegance that the high society had required from them. In fact, she kind of hated that house with all her being, something that wasn't really common of her personality: a forgiving and caring kind of person. If only she could let her memories of the few happy moments she lived there go…

It was midday, and she couldn't think in anything she could do. Her birthday wasn't a celebrating kind of day for years already, and she couldn't put her mind to think otherwise now that she didn't have anything worthy left.

"Miss Lucy!" The calling came from the house, but she didn't want to stand and go there. If Lucy had the courage she would sell the place so she could never have to go back there ever again. "Miss Lucy! Where are you?!" She could hear Ms. Spetto calling with some urgency, but she didn't know if she wanted to answer. Lucy could tell by the tone of the old woman's voice that she would have to make a decision about a situation she didn't have any knowledge of.

Or something like that.

"Oh, Miss Lucy, there you are!" The relief was evident in Ms. Stupetto's voice when she reached the blonde at the garden. The petit woman was gasping like she had run a marathon, supporting her hands on her knees and staring at Lucy in a disapproving way. She knew the young Heartfilia well to understand that the blonde could have helped her if she wanted to. "Miss Lucy, please answer me if I'm calling for you." Ms. Stupetto said with a motherly tone.

Lucy ignored all the commotion and kept her chocolate orbs closed. If she tried real hard she could still feel the breeze and the beams of sunlight in despite of the disturbance caused by the old woman.

"Miss Lucy, please don't ignore me, it's rude." The maid chided the young Heartfilia without real heat. Her grey eyes softened a little when she finally noted the peaceful way Lucy was laying there. "I only called because there is a couple at the living room asking about the house." She said, knowing that that subject would gather Lucy's attention without any sweat.

And it did, indeed.

Lucy opened her eyes and looked at the old woman. She couldn't tell if Ms. Stupetto's words were a relief or a curse at that moment. It was her birthday, for God's sake! She couldn't really think about selling the house at that date!

… Right?

"Tell them I'm not interested in talking about the house." She answered in a bored voice. The blonde couldn't let Ms. Stupetto take notice of the way that the idea was growing more and more inside her. It would only take a couple of years to make Lucy change her heart and sell the place, because for now she still couldn't think about living in a place that didn't hold any good memories of her short lived happy family; but later, she could totally see her hate for that place taking control of her decision. "Tell them to search for a normal house, not a haunted one." She completed, closing her eyes again and trying with all her might to suppress all the bitterness from her thoughts.

The maid sighed with exasperation. The young Heartfilia could be so difficult sometimes! "You know it's not haunted, Miss Lucy. The house has nothing with the way that Ms. And Mr. Heartfilia died." If she wasn't a motherly figure at Lucy's life, Ms. Stupetto knew that that kind of liberty wouldn't be permitted. She couldn't help but take notice of the way the blonde stiffened with her words, knowing that she had made the whole story short in a way not totally fair. "And the couple said that even if you said no, they wanted the house either way." She completed, regaining the young Heartfilia's attention.

"Well, too bad that I don't want to sell it!" Lucy answered with anger when she didn't have the force to suppress the hurt that those words had brought upon her.

"They insist." Ms. Stupetto retorted, almost getting worried with the way Lucy was getting red of anger.

"Oh my dear Lord!" Lucy shouted frustrated, and soon she was marching lividly to the house, with a stunned Ms. Stupetto behind her. The maid didn't get to see the blonde so infuriated frequently.

When Lucy reached the living room, she wasn't surprised to see a lovey-dovey couple sited on her couch. Only two loving birds would want to buy a mansion up the city hill with a ghostly appearance and a huge mistreated garden to build their soon-to-be-huge-family. The guy had a dark blue hair and grayish eyes; and, for some odd reason, wasn't wearing any shirt. The girl also had blue hair, but lighter, and dark blue eyes. She seemed really sweet and totally in love with him - if you take count of the possessive way she was clutching his arm with her tiny hands.

"How can I help you?" She asked, trying to keep up the education her father insisted in bestowing upon her even if she only wanted to kick them out of her house. The couple stood up and faced her with determination written in all lines of expression of their faces.

"We are fascinated with the house." The guy answered promptly and Lucy humpf'ed, really doubting the taste of the couple in front of her.

"I don't know how you can feel like that, because this mansion is in ruins." She voiced her opinion, gaining a quizzical look from the other girl.

"Well… I really don't think so." The guy commented slowly, looking at the blonde with confused eyes. Lucy could understand their reactions, because maybe, just maybe, the ruins were only seen by her.

The ruins of something that at some past time was just perfect.

"Look, I don't have any interest in selling this place. I'm sorry." Lucy said tired, only wanting to go back to the shades of the tree she was sitting under.

Until that moment, her birthday was proving to be a bad date just like in the previous years. She only wanted to find peace when happiness was so far away.

"Juvia can sense that you are not happy here." The girl spoke for the first time, proving Lucy's perception of her sweet personality correct. Her voice was soft and her features were so friendly. The blonde never had friends of her own age and never missed the absence of such a thing. During her life, she didn't have the time to miss this kind of stuff, not if her father had anything to it; so now, at that moment, that some random girl was reading her like an open book and was offering a friendly look in despite of the blonde's rudeness, she didn't know what to do. At all. "So why do you keep living here?" Juvia, the way the girl called herself at that third person speech, looked at her with a sincere questioning look, like someone that could relate to her and couldn't understand her reasons to keep hurting herself like that. And for some reason, Lucy understood that the other girl too had lived a lonely life and that she had took the chance to change it, probably when the guy beside her appeared in the blunette's life.

The young Heartfilia felt all the happy memories flood her mind, blinding her of the reality she was living at that precise moment and taking her to a time when she was completely happy. The moments with her mother, an adult copy of herself, reading stories and singing to her to help the little Lucy sleep; the moments with her father when he was a good dad, playing with her at the garden and teaching her how to swim at their pool. Moments with both of them, lunching and dinning and talking and playing and doing everything together. All the parties, all the lessons and all the business conferences being held at that house, with her parents alive and well, treating her like a loved daughter would be treated.

"… Miss Lucy?" And then all her memories shattered like a big wall of glass, and Lucy found herself being helped by Ms. Stupetto to sit on one of the couches. The couple was looking at her with worried eyes, almost making her smile with the goodness inside them. "Are you ok?" The maid asked with trepidation.

"Yeah, yeah… I'm fine." Lucy answered weakly, feeling drained all of a sudden. "Can you please give me time to think about it?" She asked, noticing the way Ms. Stupetto gasped with surprise and feeling like gasping herself with her new initiative. After all, she knew that she wasn't ready to let the memories in that house go; but she couldn't help but admit to herself that maybe, just maybe, it was time to put everything in the past, because the happy memories she was holding to her heart with so much force were killing her slowly even before her mother's disease could manifest within her too.

The way their eyes brightened with hope couldn't make things any easier to Lucy.

"Of course! Here is our numbers. You can call as soon as you decide." The guy handed her a piece of paper with their names – Gray Fullbuster and Juvia Loxar – and their numbers. She took it with trembling fingers, nodding her understanding and watching how the other girl smiled at her in an approving way.

"I'll accompany you to the door." Ms. Stupetto smiled happily to the couple, leading them to the front door. The blonde kept looking at the numbers with a lost gaze, without really knowing what to do. She knew she needed to get out of that house, she knew that she had to live a little so her life wouldn't be a complete waste. She also knew she had to make new happy memories and put her past memories in the past, like they should be.

But she was afraid.

She was afraid of changing her life so suddenly without a way to go back. She was afraid of the outside world, one that she didn't know at all. She was afraid of making a decision she would later regret, without a way to make things right. She was afraid of forgetting her mother if she got away.

She was so damn afraid.

Ms. Stupetto returned to the living room without making a sound, only preoccupied with taking care of the young Heartfilia, especially now that she was a mess again. For years of her life she watched after the blonde, always trying to make things easy to her when everything in Lucy's life kept being complicated; but she failed so many times. First with the death of Ms. Heartfilia, a huge blow to the happy little girl and to Mr. Heartfilia too; second, with the way Jude started to treat the poor child, like she was the plague; and then, years and years later, when Mr. Heartfilia died too, leaving the girl behind without a family to call her own. The maid could understand why Lucy kept the house even with all her own suffering in keeping it; she could see in those chocolate orbs the fear of living outside of that place, in places she didn't know if they could do worse to her than her own house did; she could see in those big and still childish orbs the lonely and the desperate way Lucy clutched to the memories that the mansion hold within its walls, as a way of keeping her deceased parents with her at all times. She could say that if Lucy chooses to move out she would go with the girl. She just couldn't fail anymore.

"It's your decision, Miss Lucy." The maid said quietly.

Lucy looked at the old woman, seeing there the loyal way the maid always treated her and understanding in her words the simple fact that that Ms. Stupetto wouldn't let her alone even if she moved to another house.

And maybe, just maybe, that was the nudge necessary to make the blonde force herself to let go of the past; because in truth, she would never be prepared to start a new life.

But she could try.

Lucy would never forget her 20th birthday, because in that day, she decided to take the chance of changing her life.

AN: So, how was it? I know it's only the beggining (and no, it won't be this depressing all the time hahahaha Natsu will change that real quick), but please do let me know what you all thought! :D

Next chapter - "Her new neighbor":

"Come here Happy, let's help the new neighbor!" He cut her off without mercy - oblivious to the way she was almost hyperventilating until that moment - calling for a blue cat (!), getting both her and Ms. Stupetto's bags and entering Lucy's apartment - completely uninvited. "Geez, she kept the ice-prick's furniture!" Still at the outside of her new house, the blonde heard the man complain about her new place. (...)

Natsu looked at her with a huge grin, making her doubt her own suggestion. "All right, then. Now I'm all fired up!" He agreed, and a meow came soon after his explosion of excitement.

She really, really couldn't understand the blue cat.