Hey this is my first fanfiction story. I hope you'll like it. You could comment and criticize my work all you want, both of them helps to improve my writing By the way, please point out my grammar mistakes so that I could change it. Thank you and enjoy!

Chapter 1: Leave For The Better...or Not

Normal P.O.V.

Lucy was sitting at the bar talking with Levy about the newest book that she just bought. "Ya, ya, and then Samantha was saved and Mark confessed his undying love for her!" Levy squealed, eyes bright with excitement. Both girls sighed dreamily, each thinking about their own dragon slayers.

"Oi, shrimp!" Gajeel yelled from the request board. Levy waved at him and said a quick goodbye to her best friend before coming over to him. The blonde smiled at the two of them and her thoughts soon wondered to a certain pink haired dragon slayer. 'Not this again!' She scolded herself for always thinking about him for no reason, when truly she already knew that she's falling for that dense idiot. 'It's not like he'll feel the same way, dense or not dense.' Her mood immediately turned sad.

"Hey everyone!" The guild doors burst open and there stood the person she was just thinking about with Happy. Some greeted him back and others just raised their hands at him with a smile. Gray – who only had his boxers on – popped up beside Natsu and dragged him outside with his scarf, telling Happy not to follow unless he doesn't want fish.

Later they came back and sat at a table the closest to where Lucy was sitting on her stool. They started a conversation and everyone in the guild stopped to watch them. "What? We can't talk?" Gray asked and everyone resumed whatever they were doing before.

"So what do you think of Lucy?" Lucy froze, eyes widening in surprise. Natsu was fidgeting under the stare that Gray was giving him, urging him to answer. "Well, uh, she's nice she gives me food – " 'More like you just eat whatever you see in the fridge without my permission.' She scowled to herself, back still turned from them.

" – but sometimes she yells too loudly." Natsu said, "And then she likes to complain a lot about needing a break in missions when she herself didn't do much. Then she would complain about me destroying stuff when she knows I would do it." He continued to ramble, getting a bit too caried away. "All in all, in truth she's not exactly strong, she needs to be watched over all the time."

Lucy's heart was crushed, she knew that she was weak, but she didn't need to be treated like a baby. The stellar mage stood up and left the guild, heading for the park.

Meanwhile inside the guild, Natsu stared at the door with a broken-hearted look on his face. "You sure that was a good idea to get Lucy?" He asked to the ice mage beside him, still staring at the door. "Yeah, I was pretty sure." Gray shrugged and went to the now empty bar, waiting for Mira to come back from the supermarket. 'I'm sorry buddy, but I want Lucy to myself. And I don't want her to fall more for you. I'm just glad that you're dense enough to fall for my trick.' Gray thought, glancing once at Natsu who is sitting down with a sad and confused face.

~At the park~

Lucy's P.O.V.

I was sitting under the large tree at the middle of the park, staring down at the grass below. 'Maybe I should go and train for a while.' I thought, shifting my gaze to the blue sky specked with white clouds. 'It's not like I'm running away from my problems, I just need to get stronger. To protect myself and others too, so I won't be a burden.' A tear slipped out of my eyes and I didn't bother to wipe it away. 'All this time I was always a burden. I'm weak.' I thumped my fist gently to the ground, smiling sadly as another tear slipped out of my closed eyes to the grass.

'It just hurts more to hear it straight from him. Yeah he didn't exactly say straight out weak, but it's the same. Weak, not strong, what's the difference?' I bit my lip to keep a sob inside, remembering the painful feeling in my heart when he said what he thought about me. I wiped my eyes and my choice was settled. "Yeah, well the decision's made up. Now I have to search if there's any stellar spirit mages that needs an apprentice." "But why would you do that for?" Erza asked in front of me. My head snapped to her face, wondering why I didn't hear her coming. "Nothing." I smiled as cheerfully as I can to her. But she frowned at me, clearly saw through my mask. "Lucy, you could tell me what's bothering you. Is there someone messing with you?" She asked in a serious tone, making me smile genuinely this time.

"No one is Erza, thank you." 'I don't want to be a bother to anyone anymore.' I added in my head. I stood up and brushed grass off of my blue mini skirt and said goobye to the redhead mage.

On my way to my apartment, I started to wonder if Natsu was there and realized that it was still too early for him to come over. He was probably still fighting the guys back at Fairy Tail. I walked to the front door, opened it, and continued my way to my apartment. Fishing out my keys, I unlocked it and stepped inside, closing the door behind me. I dragged myself to the bathroom and stripped off my clothes. Preparing a hot tub, I decided that would go with a vanilla scented body wash. I laid in the hot tub for around twenty minutes and stepped out before my skin began to prune.

Changed to a comfy black cotton T-shirt with a picture of a cat on the front; and blue shorts, I wrote to Mom about my problems, releasing every pent up emotion I had today to the letter, pen moving vigorously. After that I put it inside the box I kept for the letters I wrote to her and put it aside, moving on to my novel. But unlike the letter, I was slow and stopped often to think. Deciding that I'm not going anywhere with a troubled mind, I decided to just go to bed.

I walked towards my bed and pulled back the covers and slipped in, pulling the blanket back up again over my body. 'Tomorrow I'll search around town. Hopefully I wouldn't bump into someone from Fairy Tail.' I thought and soon drifted to sleep, dreaming about the fire mage.

And the hurtful, but true, words he said.