Chapter two
If there was one thing most members of the Fiorean branch of the Magic Council could agree on, it was that they liked silence. A quiet conference room meant peace within the magic world, even if it was only the elderly mages of the Council ignoring the paperwork for a moment to enjoy a cup of tea together. That being said, with the integration of younger mages, they found themselves coming across it less and less. It was one of those rare moments of quiet, peace overtaking the room as the elderly mages flicked through their newspapers, magazines, and copies of official documents, though the noise came slowly- irritatingly slow. It began with long fingernails tapping softly against the granite tabletop, fractions of a beat passing between the drop of each finger, and the dark haired female kept the sounds soft enough that no one could snap at her for it, no one really focused on it. It wasn't until the tapping stopped- and the old mages heaved out an inaudible sigh of relief- that she dropped a crystal marble onto the table instead, flexing a miniscule amount of her magic to send the sphere rolling around the table. All eyes snapped up, glaring at her and that little cocky smirk she wore on her crimson painted lips, as the marble passed by them, several eyebrows beginning to twitch as the sphere shattered, pieces falling noisily to the stone tabletop and rocking for a moment. "Ultear!" a man snarled out when she silently mouthed a spell, hand tightening into a fist and melding the pieces back together, "Stop playing around during the meeting!"
"But I'm bored," she hummed out monotonously, her voice equal parts silken and fruity. She turned her dark eyes, shadowy pools with flakes of garnet and copper, to the cobalt haired man she always seemed to hover around, a playful look coming across her face as she batted her dark eyelashes. "Aren't you as well, Seigrain-sama?"He gave out a low hum as he dropped his own newspaper, the headline screaming about some fire or another that everyone in Fiore surely knew the origin of without reading the story.
"Yeah," he chuckled out as the papers settled, his fingers plucking up the marble and flicking it into the air. "I'm bored, too." He watched the carefully cultivated anger as it grew, throwing and catching the marble as a slow smile spread across his face, using years of practiced innocence to throw everyone off of his trail for just a moment. "I hope someone causes some kind of trouble."
The pair relished in the chaos that ensued. "Watch your mouth!"
"How could these brats become Council members?"
"It's 'cause our magical power is high," Seigrain hummed out, tacking on a near silent, "senile old buffoon," that sent the old man across from him reeling.
"Silence! All of you!" the chairman bellowed out, slamming the butt of his staff against the ground as the tassels decorating it chimed together inaudibly. "The magical world is always filled with more problems than we can handle, so let us begin with the ones we especially want to take care of." He let out a sigh, using his free hand to pinch the bridge of his nose as his features aged exponentially. "Those idiots at Fairy Tail."
A shrill whistle blared as the train pulled to a halt, the passenger cars rocking as a hoard of people stood and made their way onto the landing pad, men and women tugging their luggage from the overhead compartments and bypassing a young man with punch colored hair, a cerulean cat standing beside him and watching silently as he gagged on the floor of the train. They had decided to catch a ride to Hargeon as a very last minute decision and, as such, the train had already been packed by the time they had boarded, leaving the severely motion sick man to slump down near the door and curl in on himself as workers bustled past him. "Excuse me?" one of the workers- the conductor, by the looks of it- stuttered out, eyeing him warily. "Sir, are you okay?"
"Aye," the cat chirped out in a small voice, waving off his concern as a man went wandering past, whistling a tune and looking down in sympathy when the rosy haired man let out a pitiful moan. "This happens all the time." The conductor ducked out onto the landing pad, calling for riders headed to Akane, and the pair found themselves alone.
"I'm never ridin' a train," the man snarled out, smoky voice slurred as he fought back another round of bile that threatened to come up his throat. "Ever again."
"You say that every time, Natsu. Now c'mon. Let's go," the cat called out, practically skipping as he exited the train. "If the info we got is right, Salamander should be in this town"
"Just, lemme rest for a while." Neither of them seemed to notice as the bouncing of the car stopped, the passengers mumbling excitedly to themselves as they prepared for their vacations to Akane, the feline only really noticing when he stepped out of the train and was met with an empty landing pad, glancing behind him to warn his companion as another blaring whistle filled the air and the train began rolling forward, Natsu shrieking for help as he disappeared.
"It already departed," the cat hummed out, not too worried as he sprouted a pair of angelic wings and took off after the train.
Doe eyes lifted from the map in her hands, eyeing the building before her warily for a moment before flickering back down to the paper, noting the comically drawn building and the eerily similar signs before heading out a sigh. She folded the tourist map- she had quite a collection in her care at this point- and stepped into the building labeled as Magic Store 3ZX3 - Hargeon's only magic store. It was obviously a Council run magic store- they put one in every town with the same basic items to appease traveling mages when the town's population lacked the mages to run a thriving economy based on magic stores alone- but it was as good as she was going to get, and since it was her seventeenth birthday, she had saved up quite a sum to get herself some new material. "Hello, welcome in," an ancient old man croaked out shakily from behind the counter, waving with a kind smile on his face. "How may I assist you, young lady?"
"I'm currently just browsing," she hummed out, doing everything within her power to remain polite- it wasn't his fault Hargeon was a fishing town and not very magically advanced. She turned her attention to the shelves lining the back wall, skimming through the books with as much enthusiasm as she could muster, losing herself in the foreign text of a Desiertan book- a fire themed book, it looked like- before hesitantly snatching up a Perde nullification pamphlet as well, wrinkling her nose in distaste at the memories the language brought to her before placing a couple more books in the crook of her elbow and moving on.
"We have some new items as well, missy," the old man chirped out as she plucked up a pair of magically enhanced jeans, cautiously placing them over her forearm before turning away from the clothing all together. "This 'colors' magic is probably the most popular among girls. Depending on your daily mood, you can change the color of your outfit." He began to demonstrate, and she offered him a weak smile, having already purchased one of those little booklets a few months prior.
"I'm afraid I already have one, sir," she mumbled before picking up a small lacrima, inspecting it for a moment before swapping it out for a different one. "I'm actually looking for gate keys, powerful ones if you have any."
"Celestial magic? That's not very common," he said slowly, pointing to a few display cases in the center of the room regardless. "I don't believe we have anything strong, just-"
"Canis minor!" she cheered out suddenly, nearly dropping her purchase in her haste to sink her hand into the protective lacrima. "I've been looking everywhere for it!" She only retracted her hand when the silver key was in her grasp, spinning around and laying out her purchase with such pure joy that the old man- with features more boarish than human, honestly- was taken aback for a moment. "How much will this all be?"
"Forty thousand jewels," he stated confidently after a moment, not even reaching for the paper bags- not many teenagers carried around that kind of money.
"Forgive me, I must have misheard something. How much did you say it was, sir?"
"I said forty thousand jewels." She hesitated only a moment, leaning forward with only her forearm between her well endowed chest and the counter, her cleavage showing through the dangerously low cut top with a rather fancily embroidered neckline- something she was forced to stitch up after a particularly nasty fight a while back.
"I wonder how much it's really worth, mister," she purred out so silkily, a rosy hue sprouted instantly on his wrinkled features.
Lucy stood beside a crate, the bag with her purchase resting atop the wood as she began to transfer the objects into her bag, pausing to slip the silver key onto the keyring at her hip before folding up the bag and sending it off into the pocket dimension linked to her backpack and slipping the bag onto her shoulders once more. The spirit curled around the shell of her ear flicked her tail lazily, the heart hanging from the blonde's earlobe swinging when it was knocked into. "I can't believe I paid thirty five thousand jewel at a Council run magic shop," she sighed softly, yanking the waistband of her skirt up with a disapproving look towards the loose fabric. "And my skirt's too big? Great."
"I told you to eat before going to the magic shop," Nyra chided lightly, a low growl rumbling in her chest. "That stupid old man only knocked off five thousand jewels. He's probably never seen someone as hot as you are in his life! To think he had the audacity to only give you a five thousand jewel discount! He probably wasn't thinking because all of his blood was in his-"
"Nyra!" the blonde scolded gently, ignoring the strange looks shot her way as she continued along the cobblestone road. "It was kind of him to even give me a discount. He could get in trouble for marking everything as damaged, especially because he sold me a Celestial gate key." She heaved out a sigh as she passed by a diner, the scents enticing her for a moment before she turned the corner and found herself face to face with a growing crowd, every single person within the crowd screaming for attention. "What's going on over there?"
"There's a famous mage in town! It's Salamander-sama!" a woman squealed as she darted past the blonde, nearly knocking into her.
"Salamander? Isn't that the fire mage that began gaining popularity about a year back?" she asked her spirit, who huffed out that she didn't know. "I'm pretty sure they always blame those fires that sprout up around Fiore on him. Apparently he controls fire magic that can't even be bought in stores. Since he's in town, we should see if he has any tips for an independant mage, or maybe see if he'd be willing to lead us to a guild. Surely he knows the best one, right?"
"If you're so curious, just go check it out," Nyra grumbled, though they both eyed the crowd warily for a moment. "You can always walk away, you know. No one else will know you even thought about it."
"I can't run forever," Lucy sighed, making her way towards the mob with a tremble to her limbs.
It was uncomfortably humid in Hargeon, the pair realized the moment they had begun exploring their destination- even more so than Akane, and Akane was famous for its beach. The air reeked of mildew and salt, which meant the boy with an unusually sharp sense of smell was cursed to wander around with the nauseating scents and a still uneasy stomach. "I can't believe you ended up riding the train twice," the cat mumbled, eyeing a fish vendor as they passed by it. "You're really bad with transportation."
"I'm hungry," he groaned out, his stomach giving a noisy rumble as the restaurant on the corner sent delicious aromas into the air.
"We don't have any food money," the feline said solemnly, shooting an apologetic look to the roset. They walked around in silence for another minute or two before the cat shot a nervous look towards the scowling man. "Hey, Natsu. They probably meant Igneel when they said Salamander, right? I mean, I can only think of Igneel when I hear Salamander." For a moment, the man softened his facial expression, running a hand through his wild hair and nodding.
"That's what I thought, too," he mumbled out, a smile crossing his face as he readjusted the scale patterned scarf to sit below his chin once more. "I feel a little better now."
"We finally found him!" the cat chirped out as they stumbled across a crowd, his tail flicking around wildly. "See! Speak of the devil!" Without waiting for a game plan, the feline went darting off into the crowd, weaving through legs and crying out, "Igneel! Igneel!"
Across the crowd, Lucy found herself staring at the strange admiral haired man, her pulse beating erratically in her ears, the sweet tenor of his voice nearly making her melt where she stood. His laughter bounced around in her ears, and she found she didn't know enough languages- perhaps there weren't enough in existence- to describe him, to name how perfect he was. "What's happening to me?" she breathed out, forgetting for a moment that Nyra was on her ear, though the dragon nipped the cartilage of her ear, shocking her away from her fantasies.
"He has Charm," she hissed out dangerously, enraged that there was a haze over her mage. "We have to get out of here, Lucy, before he sees us."
"Too late," she squeaked, his honey eyes locking onto her as a disgusting smirk came across her face. "What do we do? We can't just leave everyone, Nyra. It isn't their fault he's using illegal magic."
"Igneel!"
"You have to worry about yourself, Lucy," the dragon pleaded, growing anxious as she crawled down to the blonde's shoulder.
"Igneel!"
"We can't leave them!"
"Igneel!" Everything grew silent in a heartbeat, the rosy haired male busting through the wall of adoring fans a moment behind his blue furred companion, who stared at Salamander in disappointment. "Who are you?" The admiral haired mage recoiled in shock, a few of the girl letting out heartbroken whines at his expression.
"Who am I?" he scoffed out, honeyed voice carrying a dangerous edge to it. "You may know me as Salamander." The blonde nearly snorted at his theatrics, her spirit huffing out irritably, though that didn't stop them from trying to move back through the crowd- though it became frighteningly apparent that Salamander had his eye on the blonde when he took a step to gain back some of the space between them. "Hey, where are you going?"
Lucy couldn't be entirely sure who he had said it to, the man lunging for her while his fangirls rounded on the feline and his rosy haired companion, screaming, "Hey, you're so rude!"
"She's right! Salamander-sama is a great mage!"
"Apologize to him!" A pair of hands caught the tail of his scarf, his warning growl- and it was quite literally a growl- dying in his throat as the girl yanked, choking him.
"That's enough, girls. I'm sure he really didn't mean any harm by it," Salamander cooed as his own hand caught the blonde's bicep, yanking her against his side and looking down on her with twisted excitement- a game, she realized quickly. She merely glared up at him as the women fawned over him, singing his praises like he was a god among man. "I appreciate your enthusiastic welcome," he paused to chuckle, the sound dangerous, "but I have some errands to run at the port, so please excuse me. Oh, and before I forget, I'm hosting a farewell party on my ship tonight. I would be positively delighted if you'd all come." He sent a lingering look to the blonde before releasing her and snapping his fingers, a spiral of flames growing beneath his feet and sending him soaring away.
"I can't believe that wasn't him," the cat mumbled, completely dejected and sitting like a child on the ground as the roset rubbed his throat. The fans had dispersed, running off to any clothing shop that sold formal dresses in search of something to wear for the party, and the blonde found herself drawn to the pair- and Nyra, it appeared, was interested as well given how still she had grown as soon as Lucy began walking towards them.
"That guy was all kinds of disgusting," she hummed out, hiding her intimidation as the pair looked at her- all intense dark eyes and unwelcoming features. "Thanks for earlier, you guys. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help you out."
There was something vaguely familiar about the blonde teenager in front of her- and it definitely wasn't the offputting fact that she had no scent- and Natsu just couldn't put his finger on it. At first, he had thought it was her perfume- someone in the crowd used a familiar perfume that made him wrinkle his nose in distaste- but as they walked towards the restaurant he had been interested in, he realized that there was nothing coming off of her, not even the salty tang that came with living so close to the sea. "My name is Lucy," she hummed out once they had taken a seat, startling into realizing he was a little light headed from how intently he'd been trying to scent her, the male falling back against the booth he was in with an impassive expression.
"I'm Happy and this is Natsu. He doesn't talk much," the feline seated on the table hummed out, scanning through the menu with eyes the size of the moon. It took a moment for Lucy to realize that neither of them were all that talkative, apparently, and she gave a smile as she decided to just get a mocha- a treat she hadn't indulged in for months.
"That Salamander guy was really something. He was using that illegal magic, Charm, despite it being banned several years ago. Could you imagine stooping low enough that you use a magic to attract other people's hearts to the caster? It's truly disgusting. I had just figured it out when you guys came through, and you gave me a moment to gather my thoughts before he was focusing Charm on me." She paused, determined to not be the only one talking- she was a nervous rambler, and the dark gaze pinned on her made her plenty nervous- and found that the cat only spoke again when firing away the man's order, the waitress turning to her after writing out a feast and gaping at her single item order. "I may not look it, but I'm a mage." Irritation became the prevalent emotion, so she snapped her lips closed and reached into her backpack instead. Pulling out that Desiertan book to keep herself from yapping on about how she was going to see if he could get her into a guild, she found her magically enhanced reading glasses and perched them onto her nose before cracking open the spellbook.
With her attention elsewhere, Natsu began studying her. He found out quickly that her lips moved as she read, mouthing out words almost too quickly to be entirely possible, and she was flying through the book quickly enough that he had to wonder just how expensive her scarlet framed glasses were. She was so lost in the words in her book that she didn't realize when the feast had come, nor did she realize how everyone spared them a judgemental look at how much food lay between them. Still, she had no scent, her name drew up no memories, even her face was completely foreign to him. He didn't have a smell to judge- it was very easy to tell when you could smell someone since, for example, Salamander had smelled like burning chemicals and body odor that couldn't be drowned out no matter how strong of a cologne he wore. "Why," he asked, voice faltering when she jumped hard enough to smack her knees on the table, big brown eyes flickering up to his face while her breath caught in her throat, "d'ya go see him anyways?"
"Oh, well, I was thinking earlier that I would have to join a guild soon, anyways," she hummed out, cautiously setting down her book and taking a long sip of her coffee. "Almost as soon as I'd thought that, some girls flew past me talking about him, and Salamander is a rather well known mage. Surely he would know a guild I could join." The smile slipped off of her face, her hands busying themselves by removing the glasses from her face and putting both them and the book in her suspiciously flat bag. "I guess I'll have to keep looking around myself. What a disappointment." She paused, taking another long drink of her coffee before her slender eyebrows furrowed. "Hey, weren't you guys looking for someone earlier?"
"Igneel," he answered curtly, glancing down at Happy to see him shoving as much of a fish into his mouth as physically possible. "He's the dragon that raised me."
"A dragon?" she mumbled, confusion clouding over her features for a moment. "What business would the first dragon in Ishgar have in Hargeon? Besides, wouldn't sight of a dragon be a bit more broadcasted?" Once she noticed the defeated acceptance on the roset's face- the cat looked comical with his shock, not that she could focus on that when there was heartbreak so clearly in front of her- she waved her hand dismissively in front of her face. "Don't mind me. What do I know of dragons?" A huffed snort sounded in her ear, almost making her squeal in shock- how could she forget Nyra was still there?- and she quickly finished her coffee, eager to leave to avoid offending them further. "I'd better be on my way. I have to figure out what move to make next- find a guild or head to another country. You two are free to stay as long as you'd like though." Fishing into her bag and missing the obvious panic that suddenly consumed Natsu- he was growing fond of her, and it certainly helped how closely to gold her blonde hair was colored- she threw down a wad of jewels and stood up. "This should be enough to cover the bill. Thank you both again."
"Wait!"
"Thank you for the meal!" Natsu had to focus on hiding the deadly snarl that wanted to rip out of his throat as Happy's small voice somehow overpowered him, and he reminded himself that he was grateful that Happy had some semblance of manners- Natsu was certainly rude enough for the both of them. The blonde waved off their gratitude, disappearing through the door as the cat looked back with a small question of, "Natsu?"
"I hate my dragon instincts," he hissed out, slamming his forehead against the table and scaring the occupants of the neighboring table.
Okay, so first thing's first, you are all amazing! Like absolutely, positively amazing! Honestly, this story has blown up, and I mean this whole rewritten and the original. When I first started writing this, I had a completely different idea in mind, but I've been going back and forth with a few people and we've all come up with new ideas that I think would help keep this from being too unrealistically happy. The support I'm getting for this is honestly making me emotional- I literally started crying when I read half of these reviews and I honestly can't wait to post this (it's getting posted at midnight so it's still technically Monday).
Secondly, I'm thinking of working on a couple different stories at once. Did you guys want me to do that, or would you rather me pour all of my creative effort into this story and do updates twice a week instead? I have some ideas already going (vampire, high school, zombie, island vacation, gangster, etc.) and I can start working on those more intently since I have a few chapters of this story already done, or if you guys want to see something specific, I could do that too. Or even just a collection of oneshots that you guys decide on. I'm up for whatever, and I'll let you guys know what music influenced chapters/ideas (this one is a mainly Natural by Imagine Dragons. That's such a Fairy Tail song).
Also, if you guys have any ideas for spells you think would be useful (I have to update the spellbook sooner or later) let me know! Just little things, and Lucy doesn't have to be the one to know them!
Let me know what you guys think!
By the way, you all should know that in a single week, this story has gotten over four hundred views, and that's a record for me and it wouldn't be possible without every single one of you! Thank you so much!
Reviews!
Arcadea333, thank you so much! Don't worry, you'll definitely be getting more. I have great plans for this story, and I'll be damned if try number two fails.
ProbablyEpsilon, it makes me so happy to hear you've been looking forward to this! Thank you so much! Is there anything in particular you'd like to see me write?
DreamWeaver2121, thank you so much! I really loved the first one, too, but I got stuck and tried to reread it to give me motivation, but I didn't get very far before new ideas started popping up. I have great plans for this story- though some of them probably won't seem too great for a long while.
Bakers28, thank you so much!
BookGirl18, I appreciate that so much! Be excited!
Nanami B, I'm glad you're happy to see this story! I'm happy to be back! Thank you so much for your concern! I figured Gildarts seems like someone to throw money at people living on the streets, because it's mentioned several times that he's ranked higher than an S-class, and even S-class mages are insanely wealthy due to how dangerous their jobs are. Gildarts has threadbare, ratty clothes and a really small, barren house, so what else would he do with his money? Obviously help other people with it! The part with Natsu is after Lisanna's death, it's after he had gone away to train to deal with his emotions- he does it when Igneel dies and he does constant jobs before he has someone to help mellow out his erratic emotions, so I figured he would train to deal with it- and he becomes an S-class mage. That was his first time on the second floor, his first time seeing one of the strongest kids his age hiding away and crying, the first time he realized his own strength- both emotionally and physically. Thank you so so so much! I love you!
PrettyPansexual, ugh you're amazing and I love you so much!
AlyDragneel, I would hate to delete the original, because it was my baby. This one is definitely already turning out better and I'm so proud of how many people think so as well! I'm definitely willing to put in more constellations because it's kind of weird how she goes from three gold keys to having ten but she only gets one silver key the entire series? And the gold are rare? Unrealistic. You mentioned Cetus and Canes Venatici, so I'll definitely try to include them! Are there any others you want to see?
AliciaCevbra, thank you! I worked on trying to better my writing while I was away! Thank you so much!
Melancholy's Sunshine, thank you honey!
LoVeStAr14, first of all, I cried when I read your review. I'm just gonna say that right off the bat. Happy tears, of course. I'm so glad that you enjoyed the original enough to check out the rewrite! Okay, and just imagine how great it will be, everyone's been talking about how dangerous he is, the whole town shifts to keep him from destroying anything, and Lucy just walks up and smacks him on the head with a big smile on her face before proudly declaring she made it into Fairy Tail and it takes him a minute but he demands they celebrate and starts dragging her out of the guild hall and everyone tries to beat his ass cause they don't know what's going on but they assumed he was perverse towards her before she came to the guild and she has to save him again. I don't think you're ready for Loke and Leo meeting, I really don't. I'm not even ready for their reuinion. I'm so excited but I'm not ready. I can definitely include dreams/flashback/stories, but I don't think I'll do anything like the first chapter again- I'm not that creative when it comes to jobs. Hoarder!Natsu is the best Natsu and literally everyone needs it in their lives. I am honored to help people come to that realization. Gajeel and Wendy are most definitely going to be more feral, along with Sting, Rogue, Cobra, and Laxus. Literally every dragon slayer is going to be an instinctual little shithead and you will all love them. I promise that.
Yoru no Nx, you're so precious! I was proud of the original of this fic, but I definitely am feeling more inspired by this one. I'm sure you guys will love it!
N.I, thank you for the welcome! You really don't have to thank me! You're support is amazing and I love it and I love you! I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting this long! Thank you so much! If you have any themes or ideas you want me to try out, feel free to let me know and I'll definitely try to get that going! I think her journey is extremely important, the same for Natsu and every other mage in Fairy Tail. There are little things I have established already- I have decided on or found the birthdays for most of the members and have them written down somewhere along with snippets of their pasts. I wanted this to be a more realistic story, especially emotionally. When I first began writing the original, I was in a terrible place emotionally, and I wanted something out there that helped assure others like me that they weren't alone, and that they could make the best of whatever situation they are in. It's hard, but it's possible, and that's all I want to convey. Everyone always seems to forget that magic is finite, that injuries take time to heal, that death will weigh on people for years- and not just family. Hoarder!Natsu is my favorite and I will always be up for Nalu! Here's the next chapter! Hope you enjoyed!