Pure Love

Summary:

Lucy falls into a coma after a car accident. To Revive, the Death Scheduler gives her 49 days to convince three people ( apart from her parents ) to shed genuine/ sincere tears for her to live.

Disclaimer: Fairy Tail isn't mine, also Idea fully mine, Plot half mine~ okay? ^^

Chapter 2

Lucy wakes up in Erza's body (and thank GOD for that), and cries in shock and glee at having corporeal form again. Not that this is the body she'd have chosen for herself. She takes a good look at Erza's bruised face, torn clothes, and unwashed hair, and wonders if she's a gangster. Heh. Maybe she is a gangster… meh~

She goes to the world's dirtiest bathroom to wash up (with nary a bottle of shampoo or conditioner in sight, to her utter horror) and wanders outside. She whines that she has to wander the streets looking like a hobo.

Reaper Boy suddenly appears behind her, but once she gets over the initial scare, Lucy greets him cheerily with, "Hey it's you! Scheduler!" I think he's more taken aback by her, truth be told, because he's used to being scary, but she's not at all frightened of him. I think I'm gonna like this Soul-Reaper relationship.

She eagerly tells him that she's Lucy Heartfilia, which flares his quick temper. He reminds her that he told her the Three Rules just last night, and she's already breaking one of them. She catches herself right away, and promises not to break them, she swears.

~FLASHBACK

In flashback, Lucy find out the rules ( A/N: and YAY for a drama that's clear about the rules ): (1) She cannot, under any circumstances, tell anyone that she is Lucy Heartfilia. Consequence: express trip on the Elevator of Doom.

(2) She can only use Erza's body when she's asleep. That'd be from 10 in the morning till midnight, since Erza works the graveyard shift. Reaper Boy: "You have a double-digit IQ, don't you? I said, you have to return to Erza's house by midnight every night, and not a minute later." Consequence: for every minute that she's late, that's one day out of 49 that gets shaved off. "Such a Snippy Scheduler" Lucy thought to herself.

(3) She's to earn any money she needs herself. "Nice…now I have to work?" Lucy thought again. "Plus, Lucy's got a perfect princess complex that's going to make this fun" The scheduler imagines her, and in the end brush it off. He reminds her that she's not to harm Erza in any way while she's borrowing her body. Check.

Lucy promises to follow the rules, and adds that she's got that three genuine tears thing in the bag. She's thought about it, and there's going to be at least five or six people who really love her, "so…is there some sort of incentive plan whereby extra tears equals extra years on her life?" She wondered. Hahaha. Reaper Boy scoffs at the gall of one delusional princess.

~END OF FLASHBACK

He hands her a cell phone, with a scary voice counting down her remaining time. It also has a panic button ( A/N: in the shape of a skull, natch) to call him, only in absolute emergencies. ( A/N: Heh, that button is going to be SO abused. And…can I get one of those? IN MY FREAKIN' DREAMS! )

He also gives her a loan to get her started: 49 dollars, of course, which she has to pay back later. He gets on his motorcycle to ride off in style, and she asks why he rides a bike if he can teleport. Good question. He tells her that it's one of the ways he enjoys his reaper life.

She tries to hitch a ride, but with a happy sneer, he reminds her that a reaper does not get involved in human affairs. I'm thinking that's going to change for you, and that you're going to hate it…which means I'm going to LOVE IT.

Lucy decides to take a taxi to the hospital ( NxL: way to blow your money, princess), and watches from outside her room as Loke and her parents sit by her bedside. She flashes back to when they re-met, by coincidence again a week after the mountain incident.

She apologizes for putting him through all this, and then remembers her tear necklace. She looks back at him, and he's upset, but not crying. She assumes that he's cried so much overnight, that there must not be any tears left.

She spends more money buying shampoo and lip gloss, which is just going to piss off Reaper Boy to no end. Although I'm thinking he probably spends a good deal of money on beauty products himself, judging by the looks of him. ( A/N: Reaper Boy is also a character in Fairy Tail, don't guess, LOL, you'll spoil xD )

She then heads over to the girls' apartment, where Lisanna is too upset to get out of bed, and Levy is trying to talk some optimism into her. Lucy listens at the door but can't hear anything, and wonders if maybe they're with Natsu. ( NxL: Do I smell Jealousy? )

Natsu is alone, brooding with a trinket in his clenched fist. He thinks back to their high school days when they first met, as a city boy who gets transplanted and bullied, and the local girl who rules the town because of her daddy. She cluelessly "saves" him from a fight, leading to adorable exasperation. ( A/N: Lucy saves Natsu? Oh My )

Back in the present, Natsu's broody times leads to a bout of head-desking ( NxL: And I do Face Palming ), so he decides to go to work. I can't tell if this place he owns is a café or an Italian restaurant, but basically, they make pasta and serve wine, so I'll go with Italian joint. And what's a 'genius' architect doing as a restaurateur anyway? Whatever, Drama.

Lucy arrives looking for her friends, and smiles when she sees Natsu, but remembers that she's not…herself. She realizes how hungry she is, and orders her favorite dish, scarfing it down like a pro. But when she goes to pay, she comes up short. Well, that didn't take you long.

The waitress shames her, and Lucy insists that she didn't realize she'd spent all her money, and that she was just so hungry. Natsu sees all this and tells them to just send her on her way.

Outside, she says to herself that she'll be sure to repay Natsu for the gesture once she's back to life, and sits down at the bus stop… only she just now remembers that she's completely broke. Slow on the uptake, this one.

She scans the jobs section in the paper, realizing that there's nothing she's qualified to do, and ends up right back in front of Natsu to ask for a job. He dismisses her since he's not hiring, and well, she hasn't exactly left a great first impression. But she begs for just a temporary position for 48 days…no, just a week, even.

He looks at her, bruised face and dirty clothes, and notices her nervous tick which instantly reminds him of Lucy. It tugs at his conscience, so he hands her two large bills, saying that it's instead of the job.

She looks up at him angrily, flaring up as she tells him that her daddy told her never to accept handouts. She stomps away, offended and hurt.

But Natsu sends a waiter to chase after her ( NxL: too prideful to chase after her himself, of course ) to give her a chance. He offers her a job from 11am to midnight, at 4 dollars an hour. Okay, that's like slave labor. She jumps for joy and thanks him, and then sheepishly has to ask to borrow bus fare.

She trudges home, wondering why she's so tired. Probably because you're using a body that's supposed to be sleeping right now. At home, she wonders where she'll hide the shampoo, and then discovers the boxes full of pretty things, from Erza's life pre-accident.

Her eyes brighten at the sight of non-hobo belongings, and she stashes her goods in there. It's early yet before she turns into a pumpkin, but she decides to lie down, and the second she goes to sleep, Lucy's soul pops right out of Erza's body.

Once she's out of her host body, she's surprised to find that she's not tired at all anymore. Side effect of death? She tries to get out, but finds her incorporeal self quite useless at opening doors.

So what does she do? She uses her panic button of course. I mean, it was YOUR mistake in giving her that thing, you do realize, right? Reaper Boy is busy getting his rock on at a club, when his phone goes off. Apparently a reaper's cell phone vibrates at a frequency reserved for torture devices, because it physically pains him until he answers it. So, mystical leash he can't ignore? Even better.

He appears, wondering what the emergency is, to which she cheerily asks, "Can you open the door?" Lucy asked. His face just says it all: A Handsome *cough* Sarcastic tone, wide eye, who was about to break-down, or poker fice, or even better 'DERP'. An Overly-Exasperated Reaper face. He asks, voice dripping with sarcasm, "that Lucy couldn't possibly have called him here for something so ridiculous as opening a door, could you?" The Reaper boy asked.

Lucy thinks she's quite used to being considered stupid, so she just explains that it's an emergency to her, since she can't open it. And why not, she wonders, since ghosts and such can move through spaces, or so she thought.

"Well, it's emergency to me, since I can't open it. And Why Not?, for all I know ghosts and such can move through spaces, or so as I think" Lucy retorted.

He explains, as if to a five-year old, that she isn't quite dead, really, so that'd be why she can't pass through things. She remembers at the hospital, that some guy passed right through her. He tells her that it's because to those people, she's considered dead. Interesting. Difference of perception? That means the rules are bendy.

Reaper Boy stirs, and Lucy asks him to take her out of there, since she doesn't really want to spend time with someone who's still a stranger to her. He reminds her that Schedulers don't get involved in people's lives, and that as a 49er, it's her job to adjust to life with her host. "And then poof, he's gone." Lucy said, as he vanished in front of her.

Lucy crouches in the corner and watches as Erza goes through her depressing routine of instant noodles before heading out to work. They stand at the bus stop across the street from each other, in a nice contemplative moment that mirrors their loneliness.

Lucy goes to the hospital where Loke continues to watch over her comatose body. He asks aloud what he should do, and she asks him just to cry, and not hold it back.

"Loke, Just cry, just don't hold it back" She said.

Meanwhile, Erza's mystery secret admirer comes to the store to buy a pack of his usual cigarettes, and he takes the opportunity to ask if she's feeling okay. He tells her to go see a doctor if she's feeling dizzy or anything. She realizes that he must be the guy who saved her that day, and just blankly asks him how much the hospital bill was.

He wonders that she doesn't recognize him, since he comes in there every day and buys the same thing, every day. But that would require her to be awake and take notice of the world around her, which she clearly hasn't done in years. She insists on paying him back and asks that he not interfere anymore. She hands him some money and he agrees to come back with the hospital bill next time. ( NxL: I Notice a Gray x Erza, any fans? )

The next day, Lucy wakes up in Erza's body, and washes up to her heart's content. She even happily discovers a blow dryer and pretty clothes in the boxes, and shows up for work looking like a new person. ( A/N: Natsu's restaurant is named Fairy Tail )

They're surprised to see her cleaned up, but even more surprised to find that she is the world's worst waitress. Natsu just watches her, mouth agape and eyes wide.

Back at the hospital, Layla Heartfilia has a nervous breakdown, and Jude Heartfilia yells at Loke to go home and wash up, while he takes the next watch. Lisanna and Levy come over to take care of Layla, and Lisanna wanders into Lucy's room, crying when she sees their old pictures and her wedding dress. Too bad it's not in Lucy's presence, because I'm dying to know what color her tears are.

Lucy starts nodding off at work, until Loke arrives, asking for a drink. She perks up instantly, being overly attentive to him, which Natsu picks up on right away. Heh, I know it's a sad situation, but it's still kind of amusing at the same time, since Natsu is in that hyper-aware-and-competitive mode with Loke, which he's been repressing for some time now.

She's also clearly overstepping bounds, but can't help herself because it's Loke. Natsu sends her home, but she ends up waiting outside for a full hour, until Loke gets carried out of the restaurant and put into a car.

She rushes over to help Natsu carry him, and the look on his face is like, what the hell, lady? He tells her that it's his friend's fiancé, and is about two words from firing her, when she realizes how late it is and rushes off in the middle of his sentence. Heh.

Loke goes home and angsts, and I'm getting the vibe that there's more to his grief than grief. I could be reading into it, but he seems to be feeling guilty, which means there's a good chance that whatever straying he's about to do is…already done?

Meanwhile Natsu shows up at the hospital, and mumbles insults at her for just lying there when she used to strong-arm the whole town. See, THIS is real grief, the grief that I'm used to, where people yell and then cry and then laugh and then yell again. He leaves her a single pink rose in a vase, and walks out.

Lucy arrives, with little notice of Natsu, and cries when she sees her Father sleeping by her bedside. She sits next to him, trying to offer words of comfort as she puts her hand on his, across the great divide.

The next day at Fairy Tail, Lucy spills water on a customer, and Natsu steps in to clean it up, and drags her away. He shows her basic things like water-pouring and setting a table, which she marvels that he's awfully good at.

…Only SHE's supposed to be good at them too, since Erza's resume clearly states that she worked at the Seoul Hotel, which should technically make her better than all of them. Whoops.

She stammers that she got into an accident and suffers from amnesia, of the task-oriented kind, where you forget how to do certain things. He doesn't believe a word she's saying, but she insists he can look it up on the internet, adding quietly that "It happens a lot in dramas". Heh.

Natsu thinks she's got pants on fire, so he tells her to go get proof of her employment history from the hotel…in an hour. She rushes off, after collecting yesterday's wages for cab fare, and asks HR for the document. One of the girls there recognizes Erza, but Lucy just rushes out of there, unable to acknowledge any connection.

She watches the servers at the café downstairs, and wonders what happened to Erza if she used to work in such a nice hotel. She turns to go, when she sees Loke walk by toward the elevator.

She just smiles and follows him, but doesn't catch the elevator in time. She watches it go up and wonders what he's doing here, as the elevator goes past the restaurant floor. She doesn't really think much of it, until she turns and sees Lisanna standing next to her.

( NxL: I KNEW IT. Gah, they've been cheating on her for god knows how long.! Meep! Jk~ hahaha )

She's startled, and then notes warily that Loke has gotten off the elevator on the 18th floor…where there are nothing but rooms. She follows Lisanna into the elevator, and pushes the button for 20 and waits… Lisanna pushes 18.

Scared but unable to tear herself away, she follows Lisanna and watches from across the corridor, as Lisanna rings the doorbell…

*Ding Dong*

…and Loke comes out to pull her inside.

She doesn't know what's coming the whole time, but that moment is done so well. The shock puts Lucy into a tailspin, as she stumbles down the hall toward the room. She looks at the door, and then all of a sudden it triggers her memory.

The day of the accident, when she had run out of the dress shop wearing the bridesmaid's dress to show Lisanna, she had already discovered the two of them, across the intersection in Loke's car. He was tenderly kissing her hand, not knowing that Lucy was seeing the whole thing.

And THAT's the reason why she got into the accident that day, because she was frazzled and trying to gather her thoughts, when that bike wiped out in front of her.

Back in the present, it all comes flooding back to her, and she falls to the ground.

NxL: Oh? Loke and Lisanna? ( Your Argument is Invalid ), That's the reason Lucy had that ACCIDENT! if ever ytime i put a story, and left at 3,000+ words that would be great!

DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW MINNA! ^^