New story guys! I'm so excited for this one since it's a first proper NaLu I'm doing besides oneshots.
Just a few notes on this story, I was inspired to write a superhero fic before I started watching Fairy Tail and this just seemed too perfect so hence this baby was born. Umm so basically this is modern day with a load of big office buildings. New York is Magnolia so just imagine Magnolia being really big because I'm not sure what the size is anyway and other towns will be mentioned in too.
And ummm… just use your imagination I guess.
Noise buzzed in the small office and commotion was spewing every crook and corner of the floor of the building. It was only 7:45 am and something big occurred. Lucy came out the elevator with a coffee in the one hand and a bagel in the other, yawning loudly she strolled her way passed her fellow co-workers who were all in a tizzy of the gossip spreading around.
This wasn't Lucy's first pony ride in one of these situations. Many rumours go around this office; it is to be expected since this was a newspaper company. She slurped her coffee and proceeded onto her story about the recent drug bust. She had all the reliable sources she needed thanks to her friend Gray who was the best detective on the force, he was also one of the most brutal and cold too.
While typing into her laptop she almost fell off her seat with a very loud greeting,
"Morning Lu-chan! Have you heard the news?!" it was her best friend and fellow co-worker Levy McGarden.
Lucy rubbed her ears and winced at the bluenette "What? That my best friend is overly hyper at 7 in the morning? I knew that for a long time."
Levy stuck her tongue at the blonde out of cheekiness "No silly. Someone last night spotted a thief getting justice served on him and the guy who was serving it can breathe fire! Not only that he can make his fists light up on fire too!"
Lucy rolled her eyes at such a ridiculous rumour; sure at first when she started here she might have believed it but gotten over it. Lucy now only believed in something if it had hard evidence.
"And were did this information come from?" Lucy asked while typing into her computer.
Levy tapped her chin to try remember "Oh yeah Mira said she heard it from policeman who heard it from an insurance broker."
"And that seems plausible to you?" Lucy said smiling humorously to herself.
"Lu-chan whether or not it's true, Mr Dreyar is going to hand someone the story to write for the first page. He said the person who gets it can prove if the rumour is real or not."
That peaked Lucy's interest, she spun on her swivel chair to face her small friend who was now smirking. "Not such a stupid rumour now?"
Lucy stuck her tongue at her friend and laughed at the opportunity. She wanted to write a story for the front cover for over a year and now Makarov is about to hand it on a silver plate to some lucky bastard who she hoped it was her.
"So who's he gonna pick?" Lucy said excitedly.
Levy again tapped her chin again to try remember "Oh he's going to announce at 8"
Lucy looked at her watch and it was 8 on the dot-
"Listen up Brats!" a loud booming voice echoed the room. Everyone's eyes turned to the tiny man standing on his introduction stand.
"I'm assuming by all the ruckus in here is because of the job notice posted earlier. Unfortunately for the most of you there is only one candidate. So congratulations Lucy Heartfilia, you got the assignment."
Everyone's happy tone from earlier changed from anticipation to disappointment since they didn't get the job. But Lucy and Levy were ecstatic, Lucy let out a girlish cheer and Levy laughing at her friend's excitement for something she had no interest in 30 minutes ago.
Lucy grabbed her notepad and went to Makarov's office. His assistant Mira let her in the large office looking over the large city. Lucy sat down at the chair in front of the large Mahogany desk were the small man was sitting.
"Well done Lucy, I am very impressed with your progress at the paper. They are hard hitting, interesting and reliable. But…"
Lucy was smiling at the beginning and her face dropped at the 'but'.
"This is going to be hard assignment, not only will you have to gather all you're resources, you'll have to be ready for any dangerous situation. And another thing is if this story were just a rumour I expect an amazing article on how the rumours were false, trust me, a story this big is hard to compete with the truth. So the truth must grab the audience."
"Yes Mr Dreyar." she nodded compliantly.
"And I'll be kind on you and give you till 16th of June. Which gives you a week Lucy."
"Yes thank you!"
Lucy made her way out the office literally glowing from happiness, she reached her desk and Levy decided to play with her desk ordainments. "I'm going to start this right away! Levy…" Lucy said in a cute voice
Levy looked at her with a sceptical look "Yes…"
"Could you finish this drug bust story of mine? It's basically done, just needs a brush up" she explained and batted her eyelashes.
Levy tried not to look at her while she asked. She knew her friend was manipulative but this was... just sinister. Levy kept silent for a bit waiting for bribery.
She knew her friend too well because Lucy gave the bluenette a flash stick "My new chapter is in here. Now will you do it?" Levy nodded rapidly and grabbed the flash out of her hand.
"Okay so I'll be off then to the police station." Lucy said grabbing her bag and her press badge just in case.
"Why the police? Why not go to the insurance broker who saw the incident?" Levy said emphasising 'insurance broker'.
"Because I know the chief of the police and she can hopefully let me talk to the thief that was attacked."
Levy 'ohhhh'ed at the smarter approach and watched her friend exit the room.
Lucy got to the police station by taxi and entered the busy building filled with agents, detectives and cops. She knew a majority of them like obviously Gray and Erza, Gildarts who was a lone cop most of the time, his daughter Cana the drunk desk jockey, Juvia who worked in the DNA analysis lab, Elfman Mira's brother who was a local cop in the eastern sector of Magnolia and many others.
The building smelled like strong coffee and cake, Lucy giggled to herself knowing that Erza must've ordered strawberry cake again. She walked up to Gray's desk to say hi but saw him being harassed by Juvia.
"Gray-sama! Juvia thinks you go out of the station too much!" Juvia moaned.
"Juvia I'm a detective I have to leave the station most of the time. Come on let my arm go now!" Gray frustratingly said pulling his arm out of Juvia's grasp.
He noticed Lucy walk up to his desk "Look Juvia its Lucy!" he said to distract the girl. Which it succeeded in doing but Juvia was up in Lucy's face growling "Love Rival!"
Lucy cringed back putting her hands up in defence "Hai hai Juvia I don't love Gray"
Gray face palmed himself "Juvia leave now and I'll take you to coffee later."
Little hearts surrounded her flushed face and skipped or more like floated away to her lab. Gray groaned at what he just told her and looked at Lucy sternly.
"You owe me big time" he told her and she nervously giggled "I don't have any more information on the drug bust case Luce." He continued.
She shook her head no furiously with her hands in the air interjecting "Oh no no, I have a new story now. I'm just here to speak to Erza.
"Oh on the thief who got attacked by that freak last night?" he said with the expression of curiosity.
"Yep! And this time my story is going on front cover" she sang and did a little dance.
Gray smirked a bit and leaned against his desk "Well Erza's in her office" he informed her.
She smiled and waved bye. She walked to Erza's office and knocked on the door and waited for her response. She tried again and heard ruckus behind the door. Erza opens the door quickly to see who was knocking. She looked flustered with her cheeks painted pink and her hair a bit frazzled.
"Oh Lucy just one sec." She closed the door and heard her whisper to another in her office. The door popped open again.
"Thanks for coming past Chairman Jellal. We can continue or negotiations tomorrow, go well" she stepped aside letting a blue haired man who has a tattoo on his face out, he was in fact one of the chairman's of Fiore and served as a supervisor over Magnolia.
"Thank you Miss Scarlet. Sorry for taking too much of your time" he said winking at the redhead woman who blushed at the action.
Lucy was smirking; Erza looked at her face and couldn't stop blushing. She pulled the blonde in quickly. "I-It's not what you think!"
"Erza I'm happy for you!" the blonde squealed and threw her arms around her friend. Erza was wiggling out of the blondes clutches.
"Nothing is going on!" Erza said in a high pitch.
Lucy smirked at her "Oh you were just having a meeting without your underwear?" Lucy pointed to a little friend behind the desk.
Erza couldn't take the embarrassment and buried her face in her hands. Lucy patted her on the back trying not to laugh. "I won't tell on one condition"
Erza's head shot up out of her hands and looked at Lucy "Name it!
Lucy couldn't help but giggle, she sat down and settled down "Well I need to speak to the thief that was attacked last night"
Erza stared at her with a scowled look, contemplating in her mind before answering "You didn't have to Blackmail me for that, Lucy… That's fine but only if I'm in the room with you. Station's policy." Erza lead the way out of her office.
She followed Erza to the west wing of the station were they keep criminals for interrogation. She let Lucy go in first and Lucy felt a shiver go up her spine because of some of the looks she got from the men in their cells. She heard them all wolf whistle and yell inappropriate things. Lucy kept her head down while she followed Erza to the last cell.
"Bora, you're needed in the interrogation room." Erza barked at the man.
Bora chuckled "You brought me a playmate Chiefy?"
Lucy gulped and Erza unlocked the cell and walked up to Bora and hissed at him "You're going to answer some questions for the Paper. Comply or I'll have your head."
"Scary…" he said still was smirking and was pushed out his cell by Erza and the three got into the interrogation room.
Lucy got her notepad out and looked at Erza for permission to start "Bora was it? I'm from Fairy Tail Daily Bugle. I'm here to question you on what happened last night."
"Ask away sweetheart" the man said flirtatiously.
Lucy rolled her eyes "Well is it true that the man had… other abilities apart from societies?"
He chuckled loudly "I have the burns to prove it; the freak of nature is real all right. And he was no stranger to combat. I'd say he knew kickboxing or something or some other."
Lucy wasn't buying the fire story "Are you sure this man didn't carry a dangerous weapon?"
"HELL NO. It was light enough to see if he were carrying something. He wouldn't be so nimble if he were carrying a flame thrower."
Lucy hmmed at Bora's point, she decided she would get to that point again later "So what did he look like?"
"Didn't really take note since he was burning my ass sweetheart. But all I could see was that he had spiky fire red hair and had a god damn evil laugh."
Lucy wrote down the findings and nodded her head and asked her final question "Did he say something at all that would give us any clues."
Bora sat up from his slumping position "He calls himself 'Salamander'."
Lucy was at her apartment looking over the notes she wrote down. It just didn't add up in her mind. She can't comprehend the thought of someone having the ability of breathing fire, nevertheless having their fist aflame too.
Maybe she needed to get more details of what the man looked like. I mean there were a good handful of redheads in Magnolia, one in which including Erza and she needed more details.
She closed her Laptop and sighed, her white Maltese dog Plue barked to get her attention. She scratched his head and pondered over what to do about this story. She wondered why though she was given this kind of assignment, was Makarov trying to torturing her? Or maybe he had confidence in her abilities to get the story that lived up to the bugles reputation and stature? Well she will have to pursue either way, but where does she go from here?
She lay on her bed and was dosing off until something Levy said earlier "Why not go to the insurance broker who saw the incident?" She sat up immediately; of course he could've seen the guy better than Bora.
She hasn't hit a dead end yet! Not even close…
The next morning Lucy got up as usual and headed to the office first. She reached her cubicle and saw a certain Orange haired man who was sitting on her swirly chair holding some flowers. Lucy clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes.
Loke was the biggest player in the whole building and she always brushed his flirts off but he was becoming more eccentric.
"Morning Lucy, you're looking beautiful as usual" he complimented and handing her the flowers which she shoved back.
He still smiled at her; despite how blatant she can be about how she isn't interested he still tries to make his advances on her. Lucy saw it as him being creepy.
"Loke I'm busy, go bother some coffee girl." Lucy said bitterly.
Loke got off her chair and she took her seat and opened up her laptop. He 'tsk tsk'ed her, she turned around on her swirly chair to glare at him but he said something before she could.
"Is that any way to talk to someone who got details to a witness of a certain fire breather?" he said waving a piece of paper with details in her face.
She frowned, and he laughed "Lighten up Luce, I'm only fooling around" he said and handed her the paper.
Her face softened "Sorry, been up all night, I spoke to the thief yesterday at the police station yesterday and I'm still trying to process what he said."
Loki became more serious after Lucy's explanation "What did he say?" he asked
She looked around to check if others weren't listening in "He said this guy is the real deal, no weapons or tricks." She rubbed her head "But it's impossible, unless he's some experiment gone loose. But then why would he stop a thief?" she continued
Loke put his hand on her shoulder for reassurance "You don't have to figure out all of this in one night Lucy. You got time to crack the truth wide open."
She smiled at his kind gesture and statement. She was going to thank him before he noticed a girl walk passed "Oh Aries hold up! See ya Lucy!"
She shook her head in disappointment and looked down to the slip he handed her. She looked inside to see the address "22 Valley way, North Magnolia."
She rode in the car for 30 minutes to the North side of Magnolia. This side of town made her a bit nostalgic. The area hadn't changed a bit in 7 years; it was the same neighbourhood where she ran away too after her Dad had tried to marry her off to some railroad company, and it was the place where her new family took her in.
The girl was shivering from the cold rain, trying to cling to her own body heat that evaporated a long time ago. She cried just to feel the warmth of her own tears while she sat in an abandoned alley.
She heard multiple footsteps and voices of people. The 17 year old girl found herself staring at a pair of Blue orbs "Makarov! I found her!"
The woman yelled, she took off her jacket and put it over Lucy's shoulders. The old small man walked in the direction of his assistant's voice.
Lucy took in the man's appearance and noticed the tag hanging around his neck. She scowled "Reporters eh… you're the worst" she said bitterly.
He raised his eyebrows "And why so Miss?"
"I know why you're here. You found the missing Heartfilia girl who ran away from home and take pictures of her snivelling in the cold and writing how petty I am." She spat.
"Why would I do such an inhumane thing?" he asked. She blinked at the words "I can assure you miss Lucy, that type of news is for a gossip magazine. I run a newspaper and I search the truth. I seek the reason of why you ran not how you look in the rain. Which is… a bit distracting for me actually"
Lucy looked down to the condition of her clothes which clung to her body tight. "Ewww old man you're a Perve!"
The old man laughed loudly "Sorry. Well any way Miss Heartfilia, seeming you're not going back how about I do you a favour?"
"Which is?" she asked sceptically.
"Work at my Newspaper, earn a living."
"You do that?" she asked bewildered. He smiled at her as a yes.
"And the article about me?"
Mira who was standing behind him answered "Already in the furnace. Policy in at our Bugle, we don't write about our Nakama"
She remembered that day just like it was yesterday. She was accepted nonetheless and they refused to let her go since then. She also learnt that day about writing the truth. They weren't a gossip magazine, and Lucy since then wanted nothing but the truth. And now this new story has gotten her in a tizzy, she can't go on to think there's a man who can use fire to his luxury. If it were true, she wants to be the first to discover
She arrived at the insurance office and stepped out and walked in her black heels which were clicking against the floor. She reached the front and saw the receptionist.
"Hi I'm looking for this person" Lucy showed the receptionist the paper with the name on.
"Oh he's in room 7 over there" she pointed. Lucy thanked her and walked up to the door and knocked twice. She heard a "come in"
"Hi there you are Natsu Dragneel right?"
Oh cliffy's how I love thee. Haha, first of all thanks to everyone who read this first chapter! You guys rock!
You know how much more you'll rock? If you review (^o^) and the level of rock will proceed if you follow and favourite hehe.
Will be updating this during the weekend. Till then neh!