AN/Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorite or followed this story, I hope you will like this second chapter.

This was Beta by Releina Artemis Rockfeller

Lucy was nervous. The chief editor had read and published her article. He had actually said, "That's not bad", and he had given her a band to interview. That's why she was now nervous. She had never heard of that band before. The name was Rust. All she knew was that she had to interview two of their members whose names were Gajeel Redfox and Juvia Lockser. The name Rust, made her think that it had to be a rock band, but the presence of a girl in the band made her doubt. Unless she was the singer, Lucy had never seen a rock band with a girl where she wasn't a singer. It still didn't tell her what this band did or who they were.

Her lack of knowledge made her uncomfortable towards having to do an interview. The thought that she made a fool of herself was the only thing on her mind since she had gotten the job. She had come up with more than a hundred ways she could make herself look bad and yet, she was still finding new ones. In between two impossible scenarios, she thought she could call Levy, who had given her her phone number after their interview. But the fact that she had only met the girl once made her think that maybe she shouldn't, but at the same time, Levy was the only person she knew in London.

Her need to talk to someone overpowered her fear and she picked up the phone. It rang once, twice, and by the third time, she almost hung up; after the fourth, she heard Levy's voice in the phone saying, "Hello?"

"Hey... um... it's Lucy."

"Oh Lucy! How are you doing?" said Levy with clear enthusiasm in her voice.

"I'm fine... more or less."

"What do you mean?" Levy asked with concern.

"Oh, it's just... I was given a band to interview and I've never heard of them before." Lucy explained.

"When are you supposed to interview them?" Levy asked sounding worried.

"In a week."

There were a few seconds of silence then laughter erupted from the phone. "You've got enough time to figure out who they are then." She gave a relieved sigh, " So just calm down. Who's the band anyway?"

"Uh... Rust?"

"Oh." The tone of her voice showed that she knew the band and didn't had the best opinion of them.

"They're bad?"

"Well, no... yes, uhm... it depends? Musically speaking, they're not bad... they're a bit like The Stooges." She paused, obviously waiting to see if Lucy knew them.

"I don't know them." She admitted.

"It's not for everybody. The problem with Rust, well, the leader at least, is how aggressive he is. A friend of mine was supposed to do their cover. He said something the leader didn't like and got punched in the face. He ended up with a black eye."

Lucy got tensed upon hearing this. Her job was, after all, to ask questions. Levy reassured her that it would be fine, but the photographer herself didn't seem to believe it. Lucy thought of asking her boss to give her something else, but: one, it would probably cost her her job; and two, she would never have the courage to actually do so. Resigned to her fate, Lucy ended the conversation. After promising that she'd tell Levy everything about how the interview went over drinks, Lucy headed to the record store.

The closest one was two blocks away. It made the corner of the street. The large window and great light allowed Lucy to see that it had a large variety of stocks and that there weren't too many people in. She walked through the glass doors of the store and was met by music she immediately recognised to be from John Fool's latest album. The inner walls were covered with posters of bands and record labels, some of them had been graphitised, as she noticed in particular the 'Great Tale Record' that had been turned into 'Great Tails Record'.

Her first instinct was to go toward the different shelf, but she stopped herself realising she didn't even know which genre of music Rust was. She had no other choice than to ask one of the attendants. She walked towards one who wasn't currently busy, repeating in her head again and again the correct question she had to ask. She then asked the attendant with a voice not as strong as she would have wished.

"Excuse me, do you have any Rust album?"

The man's eyes grew wide and he looked at her from head to toe. Then with a questioning look on his face he indicated that she'd find them at the back section of the store. Embarrassed, Lucy hurried to the back of the store. She went to the R section of the shelf and looked through the records. The first Rust album she found was entitled Noise. On the cover, we could see the upper part of a man and a woman in front of a white background. The man was on the right, he had rather long black hair and a threatening look on his face. He wasn't attractive, unlike the girl on his right. She had a very pale skin and hair was just as long as her partner's, but it was ruined by the inexpressive look on her face. She turned it around and was surprised to find that it only had eight songs. She bought it and hurried home to listen to it.

Levy was right, Rust's music was not for everyone. Lucy wasn't sure if it was for her. There had always been violence in rock music, but Lucy had never felt so much coming from it before. The guitar had been distorted to a level she didn't even know was possible, the bass was barely audible under the other instrument, and the percussions rarely actually used the drums and instead focused on the cymbals. After the first song, she had thought that the album was well-titled.

Her first listening left her feeling uncomfortable, but she noticed that her retreat towards the music had kept her from listening to the lyrics. She immediately put it back on, this time focusing her hears on the singing. The voice was very low which didn't really go well with the music. The lyrics weren't mindblowing either, but they had the same violence as the instrumentation. The songs were full of anger, spitting hatred on almost everything in this world. The last song in particular was far less subtle than the rest and was obviously against record companies. Lucy guessed they must have had problems with theirs, and she took note of that. The third song caused her trouble. The singer kept attacking 'the system' but she couldn't quite figure out what this word referred to; it could have been society, as all but the lyrics seemed to be attacking something in particular, but Lucy had no idea what that was.

During her third listening, Lucy took a look at the composition of the band, which was written with very small letters in the right corner of back of the album. She found the name of the two members she would be interviewing. She was a bit surprised, even though the low voice she had heard should have been an indicator, she saw that Juvia Lockser was not the singer of the band, but the bassist. The vocalist and guitarist was Gajeel Redfox, who she guessed was the man on the cover. The drummer was only called Aria. As he didn't appeared on the cover, she guessed he was just a studio musician. While she wasn't sure she liked their music, she had to admit she was quite intrigued by this band. She wanted to do research on them. She promised herself she would focus on that until the day of the interview.

The day came, and even with all the information she had gathered about them, Lucy was still worried that her questions might all be stupid and missing the mark. She hadn't known what to wear and had simply put on the same clothes as when she interviewed Levy. It went so well with her, so Lucy hoped the clothes could give her luck, if not comfort. A part of her wanted to stay a little longer on the floor of the apartment in which the interview would take place, but another part of her was a bit scared of the old man standing on the stairs behind her, who had not stopped staring at her since she got here. Also the crack right next to the door and the water that dropped from the ceiling onto the radiator under the window made her uneasy. The outside of the building was just as welcoming as the inside. She had checked the address three times before entering, and had only stopped thinking she had gotten it wrong when she saw the names 'Redfox-Lockser' on one of the mailboxes.

After two deep breaths, and realising the bell wasn't working, she knocked on the door. When nothing happened, she tried to listen on the door. She could hear the faint sounds of pacing, but nothing indicated that the door would be opened. She knocked a little stronger, four times, before the door swung open and the word "What!" was shouted at her face.

Lucy flinched and with a weak hesitant voice, she said, "I'm here for the interview?"

"What interview," answered angrily Gajeel Redfox. Lucy noticed he had a small Scottish accent.

A voice, coming from someone Lucy couldn't see, but that she guessed must be Juvia Lockser's said, "Jose told us there'd be an interview today for Strings'n'Drums."

Gajeel Redfox turned towards the inside of the apartment with a frown on his face, then with the corner of his eyes he looked at her. He let out an "Alright," before moving back in. Lucy took this as an invitation to come in, and with a great wariness, she passed through the door.

This looked more like a dump than an apartment. There were clothes everywhere; leftover food could be found on every furniture that was seemingly shaped like a table; she could actually see dust in the air, and the smell indicated her that the sink was clogged. Lucy saw Juvia Lockser sliding different garbages off a seat, before proceeding to sit on a dirty and garbage-marred couch, onto which Gajeel Redfox was already seated. Lucy took her seat, trying her best to not be squeamish. She took out her notepad and pen. She noticed her hands were shaking. She gave a strong squeeze on her working tools, hoping it to help her.

She looked at the two musicians sitting across her. The man was sitting lazily and giving her a mean look. His hair were a mess, coming out at every angle. There was a stain on his grey t-shirt, and his jeans were ripped off on the knees. Next to him, Juvia Locsker had her legs glued to each other, her hand resting on them. She wore a deep blue jumper, and wore simple black pants underneath. Her face didn't show any emotion and she looked right through her, not at her, which somehow made Lucy feel even more uncomfortable than the way Gajeel Redfox looked at her.

She took a look at her list of questions before looking up and saying, with more confidence than she had thought herself capable of, "Mister Redfox..."

"She knows respect," Mr. Redfox interrupted her, his eyes slightly wider.

"Mist..." she swallowed, "Mister Redfox, Miss Lockser, what exactly got both of you into music?"

Gajeel frowned. There were a few seconds that passed before Juvia answered, "It's the only thing we're good at."

Lucy wanted to press them into telling her that there must be something more, something of a greater importance that had gotten them on that path, but the looks they were giving her told her that indeed that was it. They were just two kids who, being good at literally nothing else, had found no other option than trying this direction.

"You must have had some apprehension towards this line of work. How close to reality were they?"

"Pretty close," answered the singer.

"Could you elaborate please?"

He rolled his head like teenager being asked to clean his room. he sighed heavily, then grunted, "They're assholes."

Lucy frowned, but before she could ask who he was referring to, the last song on their album came to her mind, and it made her ask, "You mean the producer?" The look he gave her indicated her that she had just stated something that, to him, was obvious. "Were they keeping you from including things you wanted or forcing you into putting things you didn't want in your songs?"

He made a sound of annoyance before saying "Both. Half the stuff I wanted to do, they didn't like and the other half had to be adjusted." He spat out that last word like a curse.

"Did it have a big repercussion on the final album?"

He sighed angrily then with a barely audible voice he said, "It's not what I wanted."

She knew he wouldn't tell her more, even though she would have liked to know what he would have liked to make. She knew it would have to be for another time. She looked back on her list of questions and crossed out 'what were you trying to do with that album'.

She looked straight at the girl, and it immediately sent shivers down her spine. She swallowed and looked to the other girl's emotionless eyes and asked "Miss Lockser—"

"Don't call me that," There was a slight anger in her voice which, oddly, relieved Lucy, as it proved that the girl did have feelings.

"Yeah, it's getting annoying." Added the man.

"Okay, uhm, Juvia?" the girl didn't give her any indication that this satisfied her, but as she didn't make any remark either, Lucy decided to go with it. "Did you encounter any problems with the producer due to the fact that you are a female musician? I know there aren't lot of them."

"I punched a guy in the face. It solved the problem." She said this as if she was reading the dictionary.

Lucy was a little shocked by this, her thought went back to the friend of Levy who had gotten punched in the face, but she remembered that the one responsible for this assault had been a man, she could guess who. Still, the part of her that had been raised to be a good little girl couldn't believe that a woman could be capable of punching a guy in the face, slapping maybe, but punching, no. Yet when she looked at the woman in front of her, there was no doubt that what she had given was indeed a punch. Lucy didn't know if she should feel admiration or fear towards her.

She recovered from her shock and decided to change the topic, "Where, I mean, how did you learn music?" she asked with a tone she couldn't seem to hold in place.

"In the attic." The answer of the man made Lucy frown, "There were instruments over there."

"You're self-taught?"

"Yeah."

Lucy marked a pause, she didn't really know what to ask next. She then realised that this answer gave her a way to move to another topic she had found during her research on them.

"When you say in the attic, you speak of the attic in one of your foster homes?"

The guitarist visibly tensed, and the girl didn't stay impassive. He was the one who spoke with a threatening voice, "Yeah."

"Am I wrong to assume that this is what you talked about in your song 'It's Broken'?"

"No."

This proved her hypothesis, which she had developed during her investigation, was right, and that the system they so violently attacked was indeed the foster care system. Happy that her conjecture was correct, she asked, "This moving around from one home to another must have been quite tough for you. Do you blame the government for it?"

"I blame the government for a lot things." The man answered coldly.

Lucy bit her lips "This must have been a terrible experience, can you tell me more about it?"

"No." He answered with an arched tone.

"But it must have shaped—"

"No." This time it sounded like a warning.

"Don't you want to speak about this experience?"

"Our lives weren't that bad," This time, it's the girl who answered, forcing Lucy to look at her. With no indication that Juvia actually cared, she continued, "Most people in Africa spend their entire life starving, with no hope of things ever getting better, and war coming to their doors every two months. So, our lives weren't that bad. I don't see what the fuss is about."

Suddenly Lucy felt very much ashamed. It hadn't occurred to her that they might not want to talk about those things. Whenever something bad happened to her, her first reflex was to talk or to complain about it. Lucy thought that it probably had to do with their different upbringing. With the easy life she had lived up until now, the smallest things were, to her, of the utmost importance. With the tough life they had lived, the hardest things were, to them, only basic inconvenience.

She didn't press on the subject. She asked them instead what their influences were. She wasn't surprised to hear that The Stooges' albums had been a revelation to them. They also told her they really liked Gildarts Clive, and quickly afterwards told her not to put that in her article because it could get them into even more problems with their producers. Lucy understood, after all, Gildarts Clive was a Great Tales Record artist, and Rust's firm was their competitor, but the glares she received were what truly convinced her to not mention this slip in her article.

She tried to ask more music-related questions, but she didn't write that many as she expected them to speak mostly of their childhood. No matter the question she asked, she was lucky if she got an answer of more than one word. She ended the interview sooner than she would have thought. The man punctuated this end with a "Finally" and the girl simply stood up and walked to another room without much life. No one walked her to the door and Lucy walked fast on the street. As she did, she thought of what she could write about them.

She didn't have that much material to work with. She couldn't help but think they had a great story they refused to tell. She could guess the great line from what she knew, but without the detail, all you get is a summary. She could describe them as poor souls trying to find their place in this world, but she knew they wouldn't like it. And when she thought more about it, they didn't really look like poor souls. No, they didn't take pity on themselves and didn't want others to do so. They were more like outlaws trying to turn a world who didn't want them into their own. Lucy smiled as she thought that she had found her title, "The Outlaws of the Music World."

AN/ I hope you like this chapter, you can leave a review to tell me your thoughs, what you like, dislike, what you think I could do to improve this fic, I'm all hears. You might have notice that Juvia doesn't speack to the third person in this, I only have one explaination: this is an AU, I hope you don't mind