a/n: ...okay, so with 2014 being the last time this fic was updated there might be a slight gap... haha but honestly, i never updated because I didn't think there was much interest in this story. I wrote this my sophomore(?) year of high school up until about chapter 5ish? Oddly enough however I've actually been getting some questions as to why this was never added on to, so I figured, heck, why not give it another shot. (btw the journal excerpt is a real quote from the show)
disclaimer: I own nothing
"Honestly, Lucy," the woman said, sounding concerned as she rubbed her daughter's back as her coughing began to finally subside. "Ms. Ceppetto said you were acting off this morning when she came to check in on you, but I thought she was only exaggerating."
"Mom," Lucy repeated, relishing the sound of her mother's voice as her coughing fit began to finally subside. Without warning, she suddenly threw her arms around the woman's middle and hugged her tight, not caring that it wasn't ladylike to show affection when in the presence of others, though Lucy highly doubted that Ms. Ceppetto cared.
"You're here," she continued, her voice muffled in her mother's neck. "You're really here."
"Yes, sweetie," the woman laughed, hugging her daughter back just as tight. "I returned from the business trip a few days early. If I had any idea you would miss me this much I would have brought you along."
Nothing about this was making sense to Lucy, but there was no way she was going to question it when her mother was standing right in front of her. However, as she tried to blink away the remainder of her migraine, the girl couldn't help but feel as if she was forgetting something really important.
However, despite the premonition, Lucy dusted the thought aside. This whole thing must be a dream then, if her mother was truly here. Though, her headache most certainly felt real. Lucy didn't even have to pinch herself to know that.
Ignoring it, however, Lucy pulled away only enough to look around the rest of the room in search of another face.
"Where's Father?"
A hush fell over the already nearly empty room as Layla Heartfilia released her daughter, concern coloring her features as she pushed a piece of hair behind Lucy's ear.
"Oh, sweetie," she said gently, swallowing around a visible lump in her throat.
"I told you she's been acting off this morning, Madam." Ms. Ceppetto offered from the doorway, leaving Lucy looking back and forth between the two-confused.
"I, I don't understand," the ex-heiress wanted to kick herself for making her mother upset so soon after seeing her again.
Removing one of her long, white gloves and tossing it dismissively onto the tabletop, Layla Heartfilia used the back of her hand to feel her daughter's forehead.
"Doesn't feel like she has a fever," the woman mused softly before turning her attention to the elderly woman. "Perhaps you should phone that doctor after all, Linda."
Linda? Lucy wondered, before realizing that must be Ms. Ceppetto's first name. Lucy, Layla, Linda… way too many L names going on.
"Dad?" the teen questioned once more, not liking the pained look that flashed in her mother's eyes.
"Sweetie," she managed around the lump in her throat as she pulled the young girl against her once more. "Your father has been dead for over a year now."
Lucy picked at the ugly, puce colored fabric of the chair she was seated in. Her corset hugged her figure too tightly in her current position, slouched down with her head resting on her hand. The wood of the arm of the chair was beginning to make permanent indentions in her elbow, but the girl was too annoyed to care.
"I'm not sick, mom," the girl whined, still loving the little rush it gave her to actually be able to address someone as so. However, all she wanted now was to leave the room where her mother and the call-in doctor were discussing her as if she weren't even there.
"It's hard to say, Ms. Heartfilia-"
"Mrs." the woman corrected almost instantly, a little force behind her words.
Lucy found herself grinning despite it all.
Go mom, she silently cheered.
However, the man continued on as if he hadn't been interrupted, though Lucy did note how he seemed the slightest bit disappointed now.
"Lucy here doesn't seem to be running any sort of fever, nor does she show any visible signs of a virus. Though, after a brief discussion between the two of us, it does seem as if there is a problem."
"That is why I called you, after all."
Her mother only kept catching her off guard. If only Natsu could meet her, Layla Heartfilia would have the time of her life going back and forth with the dragon slayer. Lucy would most certainly pay money to see that show.
However, the sudden thought of the pink-haired fire mage put a damper to the girl's otherwise suddenly good mood. Where was that idiot?
She had woken up that morning alone, and not to mention back in her old home. Hadn't they been on a mission? Were they worried about her? And why was her mother even here to begin with?
Why couldn't she remember anything?
"I talked to the maid who was the only one, besides you, of course, who had any interaction with your daughter this morning when the symptoms first appeared. She said Lucy called her, oh, umm-" he flipped through the papers on his clipboard, seeming to find the notes he was looking for. "Seems she called her Erza?"
Her mother's head tilted, turning slightly to glance at her daughter with a questioning frown on her face. "Erza?" She wondered aloud, allowing an open response. When she received none, she rephrased her question. "Isn't that one of the characters in that novel you've been working on, Lucy?"
The girl's blood ran cold, feeling exactly like when she'd accidentally been caught in the cross fire of one of Natsu and Gray's fights and she'd been struck by Gray's ice maker magic by mistake…
But that was a story for another day.
"Novel?" Lucy questioned, and her mother misinterpreted the worried look in her daughter's eyes.
"I'm sorry, darling. I didn't mean to pry, but you're always holed up in that room of yours slaving away at that book you've insisted on writing ever since before your father's passing."
"My book." Dread began to set in, everything beginning to click into place as she repeated her mother once again.
"Yes," her mother frowned, exchanging worried looks with the doctor. "Your book. I didn't read much, but I remember seeing the name Erza and… Gray? I want to say I remember a boy with a color for a name, but maybe it was Greg. And then there was a rather odd one you had come up with." Her mother pressed her lips together as she racked her brain for the name that was on the tip of her tongue. "It began with an N, I'm pretty sure. Nahli? Natalie? All I know is that the hair was purple." Turning to the doctor, her mother continued, "I can't remember the names exactly, but Lucy wrote them all so well. She could really go somewhere with her writing one day."
Layla turned to smile proudly down at her daughter, but grew alarmed by the steady stream of tears falling from those large, brown doe eyes she had inherited.
"Lucy?"
"Natsu," Lucy sobbed, not caring that her white gloves were currently being stained by her mascara. "His name is Natsu, and his hair is pink."
"I'm sorry, sweetie," a flustered Layla fluttered her hands over her child's weeping frame, not really understanding why her slight blunder had her so upset. "I'll try harder to remember next time…"
"No," Lucy argued, shaking her head something fierce and only making her headache worse. "No, you don't get it!" Standing, Lucy felt for her whip once more. She felt no need to use it, but it always offered a sense of security just to feel it under her palm.
"Damnit!" she shouted, ignoring her mother's gasp. "Where is my whip?"
"Whip?" Layla was at a complete and utter loss, choosing to ignore the foul language that had slipped from her daughter's mouth for the time being.
"Yes!" Lucy was becoming impatient as the doctor scribbled furiously on his notepad. "My whip and my gate keys!"
"Keys? What gate?"
The blonde's eyes widened once more at an entirely new realization.
"There's no magic here," she said, feeling so stupid for not noticing such an obvious thing as soon as she had woken up that morning. Now that she was aware of it, however, it was painfully obvious that there was a lack of energy running through the air.
"My keys," she sobbed, "Your keys that I got after you-" she broke off her sentence, hiding her face behind her stained gloves as her headache came back ten-fold. Nothing was making sense anymore.
"Lucy, you're scaring me. Whip? Keys? Magic?"
"Oh my," the doctor chuckled to himself despite the glare that Layla shot him. When she turned back around, however, Lucy wasn't there.
Throwing the door open to her room, Lucy hurriedly slammed it shut once more and locked it behind her. She stumbled on the long hem of her dress as she crossed the room, coming to a quick halt in front of the desk with its scattered papers.
She picked one up at random, hand coming up to cover her mouth as her eyes scanned the crossed out passage.
About a week after we defeated Phantom, we started rebuilding as everything seemed normal again. But it wasn't long before things suddenly took a turn for the worse. We were confronted by the Rune Knights, the Magic Counsel's army. They rounded everyone up and took us to a military post for extensive questioning. We had to endure a week of daily interrogations, but everything seems to have blown over now. From what I can gather, the council has decided to make a ruling at a later date-
"No!" Lucy shouted at the already crumbled piece of paper, throwing it over her shoulder and hurrying to pick up another one. "These aren't stories I made up," she insisted to an empty room, sniffing and sinking down onto her knees as her eyes scanned the random page. "These were letters I wrote to her!" She cried, referring to her mother.
With tears still dampening her lashes, she picked up another.
Her first time meeting Natsu, back when he was nothing more than the Salamander and still had the potential to be mysterious and cool, all documented right there in black ink. Back when he first saved her from the imposter who had all those girls under the effects of a love spell…
"Natsu," tears fell in a steady stream down the girl's flushed cheeks as she hugged the torn, scribbled paper tightly to her chest. "I didn't make you up, there's no way I made everything up." Her shoulders shook with her silent sobs, crying too hard now to make any noise.
"Mom's still alive, and I don't remember anything about this room! I have to be dreaming, but," the girl whimpered, "why can't I wake up?
Natsu, Gray, Erza, Happy… where are you guys?"
Please review! I always love hearing what you guys have to say(:
(also I've kinda really missed writing in-verse fics? didn't even know until now, haha)
