Lucy shifted uncomfortably in her seat. It was hard. Like, really hard. She sighed, moved again, and kept wiggling around until she gave up. She'd deal. It was way, way better than flying anyhow. The girl would rather have to sit in hard seats for the rest of her life than get on an airplane. Those things scared the hell out of her. Sure they were safe or whatever, but the first time she'd ever gotten on a plane was when she was a little girl and they had experience severe turbulence. Needless to say that experience left an impression on Lucy.
She groaned for the millionth time that day, grateful her cart was mostly empty, and took out her phone. Her eyes squinted at the sudden brightness.
Zero calls and zero texts.
Figures.
It'd already been six days since she left home, having decided upon her destination on the fourth, and it was little surprise to Lucy that her father hadn't tried to contact her. Well, in actuality, she had no clue how her dad was going to respond to her absence. On one hand she thought he wouldn't care at all, and on the other she thought he'd be enraged by her "disobedience". Once, she had tried to go into town by herself, feeling like a change of scenery that day would be refreshing, but he'd blown up about it. And as the days went on with no word from anyone, she assumed that the correct answer was the former.
"Hello Missy," and elderly man, who was clad in the attendants uniform spoke up, bringing her back to her surroundings, "is there anything I can do for you?"
Lucy looked up and almost gasped at the appearance of the man to the side of her. Both of his arms were covered in tattoos, of various things, and she could also see some budding out underneath his collar. His lip was pierced, his eyebrow, and so were both his ears. The color of his mustache and beard were also very unusual. He was unlike and old man Lucy had ever seen.
She wondered for a moment if she really had been out of touch with the world outside her previous one. Was this common among old folk?
Quickly realizing she was staring at the man, Lucy put on her best smile, conditioned by the many parties she'd been to, and replied, "No I'm good. Thank you though." For a moment she hesitated, thinking it might be rude to inquire, but then continued, "Did… uh… I hope you don't mind my asking but, your tattoos…"
"Ah." the attendee made a noise that made the girl think he'd been asked about them a thousand times, "No," he smiled down at her, the corner of his eyes crinkling as he did, "they didn't hurt all that much. Well, except maybe the ones around my neck."
Lucy laughed, "I've always thought about getting one but, everyone told me that it wasn't worth the pain…" which, when she thought about it, was probably a lie her maids told her to avoid Lucy becoming a "rebel".
"Well it depends on the person Miss." He brought his hand to his vested chest, "Are you sure there isn't anything I can do for you? You've been on this train for quite some time now and haven't asked for anything…"
"O-oh no, really," she waved her hands in front of her, "I'm visiting someone in a town nearby," it wasn't a total lie, "and we've made plans to go out when I get there, but thank you. You're very kind."
"It's my pleasure." he curtsied and Lucy giggled, "If you end up changing your mind, the service cart is the one to your right."
And with one last eye crinkling smile, the man walked off.
Well that was nice… Lucy idly thought to herself. It wasn't often that she'd been able to exchange a genuine conversation with someone. Most of the people she would talk to were trying to suck up to her to get into her father's favor, which was a dead end, though she did talk to some teens her age pretty often… a lot of them were extremely vain, but they were conversations nonetheless.
She brought her phone up to her face and looked at the time, sighing when she noted that there was still an hour left until she reached her destination. After a few days of panicking and wondering if she had made a wrong choice, she remembered that her family owned a large vacation home in the town called Magnolia. The last time they'd been there was when her mom was still alive, so it was the perfect place to stay for the time being. Lucy was one-hundred percent confident her father would go nowhere near it.
While her logic might've been a tad harsh, it was sound. She didn't have to be closed-mouthed anymore nor did she have to sugarcoat her feelings.
With an hour left of uncomfortable seating and a nagging fear in the back of her mind, Lucy closed her eyes and decided a short nap would be helpful.
Almost a week had passed since the encounter with douche number one and two, and Natsu was finally free of unwanted sympathies. Again, it wasn't that he didn't appreciate their worry, but he'd rather not have a reminder shoved down his throat every time someone so much as looked at him. To him it was much better to work off his negative feelings or… whatever, than have to talk about them. It wasn't his strong suit.
Since the "anniversary" had passed, and he had successfully dodged any and all contact with his friends, saying he some housework he needed to tend to, which is what he actually did, Natsu was in fairly high spirits. That morning he went down to the warehouse, received "long time no see"s even though it'd only been about two days, and gotten his favorite breakfast from Lisanna, another longtime friend of his.
Immediately after Gray had walked in they started a fist fight, but it was quickly broken up by Erza who had a headache, which was the worst state for her to be pissed off in. The two of them went to opposite sides of the building afterward. Gajeel and Levy had arrived together causing a rouse of "ooOoOoOOOOohhh~"s, Mira's heart to speed up. The old man had been in a drinking contest with Cana, who was the only person Natsu had ever seen drink so much and stay alive, since eleven the prior evening and had shown no sign of stopping. Once most everyone had arrived, the warehouse was it's usual bustling self.
Like he had hoped, things were as they always were.
Natsu finished his poppers, he hadn't had them in what seemed like forever, and hopped off the bar stool, deciding a job was a good idea. He could just stay at the warehouse all day and fool around with everyone there but he liked working just as much.
He strode up to the wall, there was an entire wall dedicated to job postings, as well as a website but he preferred looking at the wall, and skimmed through everything there. Some jobs were from locals, some from the actual city itself, they asked for help at official businesses when they were understaffed, and some jobs required traveling, which he didn't want to do at the moment. The jobs were rotated every week and the people who didn't have their jobs accepted were notified, though that was rare. So, there was always a good variety of jobs waiting to be accepted, in turn making the old man very happy.
"Let's see…" he murmured to himself, bringing his hand under his chin, "Cook… no. Tutor? Pff hell no. Bouncer…? Maybe… Assist in climbing one of the nearby mountains…? That sounds fun but… Help find a lost dog….? I do like dogs…" Natsu's eyebrows furrowed. Choosing jobs wasn't normally hard but for some reason he couldn't fine one he really wanted to do.
He turned around and yelled over to Makarov who was sitting on top of one of the tables, "Hey old man!"
The drunken elderly jerked his head toward the teen, "WHA?!"
"You got any good jobs for me?" Sometimes he would receive jobs directly from the boss and that saved him the trouble of having to pick.
"YeAH!" the man stood up, "I goT *hic* a good oNE fER yA!" he turned down toward Cana and whispered something in her ear, causing her to spit alcohol from her mouth, "GO oUT aNd *hic* geT URSelF a gIRLf- *hic* ohh man…" he paused for a moment, looking like he was going to puke, but continued, "A gIrLFRiEnd!"
When he finally finished his sentence, the old man doubled over in laughter, falling straight into Cana's projectile spewing of liquor.
Natsu grimaced and shouted over their noise to the bartender, "Oi, Mira! Cut them off!"
The woman's eyebrows went up with her apologetic smile, "I already did!"
"That old man…" Natsu spat and walked away from the board, having changed his mind about the job thanks to a certain drunken bastard.
He spotted Gray over next to Juvia who was also laughing his ass off and yelled, "What the hell're you laughing at you damn stripper!"
"Nothing man, nothing." Short as his sentence was, it was full of snickering. Natsu guessed the only reason he didn't reciprocate the yelling was because Erza had already broken up a fight of theirs once and didn't want to experience that twice in the same day.
"Tch. Whatever." Natsu got over it quickly. It wasn't like that kind of thing didn't happen often. People asked him all the time if he would ever get a girlfriend and though he wasn't adverse to the idea, there was just no one he saw that way. And there was no way in hell he was just going to pick up a random girl like some people he knew used to do. If he was ever going to be that way with someone it was going to have to be someone he knew, trusted, and of course, liked.
That was all.
It seemed fairly simple to him, love, and he had been told that once/if he experienced it his point of view might change, but he didn't see why people had such a hard time with it. If you love a person, and they love you then what could be so difficult about it? Love was a big deal, he knew that, but from the way he'd seen some of his friends react to it, it kinda seemed more like a bad thing than good. Romantic love that is. Anyway, he didn't have a clue and wasn't particularly looking to figure it out.
"I'm heading out then!" He called out to the people behind him who were all caught up in their own activities and exited the warehouse.
"Well…"he spoke to himself as he stepped onto the pavement, "choosing a job was a bust…"
Natsu was at a loss. He didn't have work to do, and having no girlfriend was making him a joke starter at the moment, so what was there for him to do?
He stilled on the sidewalk for a moment, combing through the possibilities in his head until it felt like steam was coming out of his ears.
Screw it… I'll just walk around and see if anything fun happens.
The teenager began walking once again and idly thought about random things, remembering he needed to buy Happy, his cat, some more food.
Lucy stepped off the train and onto the station platform, lugging her one suitcase and purse with her as she waved goodbye to the old man she'd befriended. The girl looked around, and was surprised at how barren her immediate surroundings were. There wasn't a complete lack of people, but it was the fewest she'd ever seen in a place of transport. Again, she wondered just how out of touch she was with towns like those.
The blonde haired teen walked out of the station and onto the streets of Magnolia, nodding her head in understanding as she saw that all the people she thought were missing were already in the town.
Must not be very tourist-y… she thought. Lucy couldn't really remember how the place had been back when she was younger, so she was practically new to the location. Despite the fact that everywhere she looked gave her an overwhelming sense of nostalgia. It was almost like she had somehow traveled back to her childhood days.
"If only…" Lucy sighed and then slapped both her hands on either side of her face, causing her to gain weird looks from strangers, "Alright Lucy… No more "miss sad, lonely, wanting to go back to the good ol' days" girl." She raised her head a little higher and exhaled deeply, settling her nerves.
"Now I gotta find someone who knows where the house is…" she laughed a dry laugh in spite of herself. Even after deciding where she was going, she remembered that she had absolutely no knowledge of the city whatsoever. Running away was much harder than they made it look in the movies.
Okay, okay, she looked around for someone who looked like they lived there, time to find a local… … … … AH!
Lucy grinned as she saw a middle aged woman attending to a flower cart outside a cute little shop just across the street. Who better to ask than someone who works in the area?
She looked both ways before crossing the road, a rule almost every mother in the world had drilled into their children, and half-jogged her way over to the woman, "Excuse me!"
"Hello!" the woman replied in earnest, "Would you care for some flowers? We're having a sale today!" She gestured to the beautiful arrangements she had spread amongst her cart.
"Um… sure!" Lucy replied thinking it would be rude asking for help and not buying anything in return, "But first I was hoping you could give me directions."
"Oh?" she looked curious now, "You must be new in town!" Her hand stuck out at lightning speed and grabbed Lucy's, "Nice to meet you! I'm Lisa and this is my shop!" And it was true. The small building behind them had a sign on it that said "LISA'S FLOWERS" on it. Simple and to the point.
Lucy, a bit shocked at the friendliness, smiled and said, "And I'm Lucy. It's nice to meet you too!"
"Mhmm!" the woman kept grinning and shaking her hand until her face made it seem like she thought she was overdoing it, "Uh-right! What was it you needed help with again?"
"I was wondering if you knew where this address is." Lucy grabbed a folded piece of paper with the house' address on it out of her bag, she scribbled it on the train, and handed it to the lady, "I need to find my way there."
"Hmmmm…" Lisa brought her finger to her nose, tapping it slightly as she thought until suddenly a shocked expression covered her face, "That place hasn't been asked about in years!" her voice had a hint of nostalgia in it, "A looooooong time ago there had been a frenzy of tourists coming to the town looking around for that land!
Land…? The last Lucy had seen of it, it'd just been a house with no big "land" to speak of… Was her memory that hazy?
"Yeah yeah," Lisa nodded as she brought her attention back to Lucy, "I remember my mother talking about it. She was always complaining that those people only wanted to talk and not buy any flowers." She giggled, "But yeah! That land is a kinda far from here… Probably about ten miles I'd say. Which would be around two hours by foot… I think? Here let me write down the directions for you- one second."
Lisa scurried inside to find a paper and pen, leaving her temporarily by herself.
Lucy groaned loudly, not bothering to hide her frustration. Great now I have to walk for two hours… and really! what is this "land" she's talking about…?
"…. Whatever." Lucy gave up and decided to pick out what flowers she wanted to buy instead. She'd figure it out once she got there.
"Sorry for the wait!" the woman apologized and jogged out of her store, "I hope this'll help you."
Lisa gave the yellow paper to Lucy and she looked it over, "Yes thank you!" she looked up at the helpful lady, "This is a big help! Oh and," she brought the arrangement of flowers she put together to the shop owners attention, "I'll be taking these!"
"Of course, of course!" Lisa beamed and took the bouquet from Lucy, sizing it up and searching for the price, "That'll be… eight dollars!"
Lucy was shocked, "Wait… really?" Out of all the places she'd been, never had she bought flowers that cheap. Hell, she had bought less for more than double that price and they were of lesser quality on top of it…
"Hm? Do you find that overpriced?" she looked genuinely concerned.
"Oh! No no!" Lucy replied, "It's just… that seemed a bit… underpriced to me, if you don't mind my saying."
Lisa laughed, "Well I don't know how other flower shops operate but I like to make my arrangements affordable! There are a lot of people around here who buy my flowers daily." She positioned her arm as if she were flexing and place her other hand on it, giving Lucy a grin, "My business is flourishing!"
The teen was stunned for a moment before she finally returned the smile, quickly gathering and giving the eight dollars Lisa had charged her.
"Well then, I'm off. Thank you for your help!" she waved to the woman and began to walk away.
"It was no problem! Let me know if you need anything again, Miss Lucy!" Lisa called after her, waving enthusiastically.
Lucy laughed and turned forward, feeling like a two hour walk wouldn't be so bad after all.
Natsu sighed at his current situation…
How the hell did you end up like this…? You just had to go and follow that fuckin stray dog didn't you. You just HAD TO.
He was pissed. The guy had already decided not to work that day and yet as soon as he spotted the stray and was reminded of that job posting, he went after it. He didn't even know if that damn dog was the one the job was talking about. He sighed again, and grimaced.
Currently, he was stuck in some random house' window, a house he thought the dog had gone into but was apparently wrong, and was starting to get really thirsty... The thing felt like it hadn't been opened in a decade and when he finally lifted it up some he thought it was enough room for him to fit through. When he stuck his head in it seemed like he was going to make it but, he was wrong yet again.
Natsu had resigned to the fact he was going to be stuck there forever. The house he was half in, which was huge by the way, was a few minutes out of the towns' limits and was well hidden by the ton of trees surrounding it. He didn't even know the place existed until today and if he didn't know any better he would've thought the place was haunted.
"Oh man… I'll never get to eat anything spicy ever again…" he groaned and hung his head, not even wincing when it hit the floor.
Natsu stayed like that for thirty minutes until he heard a bark sound from right in front of him. His head snapped upward and saw the dog a few feet from him, "You bastard! You're just messing with me now aren't you?!"
The dog, which seemed to be a Great Dane puppy now that he saw it up close and not the dog that was on the poster, barked again then laid down, seemingly teasing him.
"That's it! Just you wait! I'm getting out of this damn window and coming for your ass!" he grunted and continued making a series of odd noises, unknowing that he was about to have more company.
Lucy had been wrong. So. Wrong.
A two hour walk was hell.
Pure literal hell, especially since it was the middle of summer. It was like walking through the devils backyard.
"Oh.. my god.." she panted and slid her shirt off, leaving her in only shorts and a tank top. She didn't care. It was too hot to worry about how she looked and thankfully she was covered in shade due to the abundance of trees around. A sunburn was the last thing she wanted.
The girl stopped on the side of the dirt road, having been on it for six minutes since she left the towns limits, and set her bag and suitcase down, plopping herself next to them.
Well, I see what that woman meant by land at least…
A few minutes into beginning on the road she was on, she spotted a small wooden sign that "Heartfilia Home", and everything she forgot had come back to her. The house was built on a little more than 2 acres, surrounded by nothing but land, forest and a nearby lake. She remembered it was meant to be a gift for one of her mom's birthdays. Layla had always gone on and on about wanting to own a small piece of land she could do whatever she wanted with. It had made her mother ecstatic and the first thing she did was plant her very own garden.
Lucy smiled fondly at the memory.
Of course they didn't live there year round, so they had to hire a live in house sitter while they were gone. She didn't expect them to still be there considering how her father banned all talk of the place.
Fanning herself with her hand, Lucy stood back up and grabbed her belongings, knowing it was bad to slow down for too long.
Alright! A little farther to go!
She toughened up and started her walk again. A few more minutes passed and Lucy had started to panic at how thick the trees were getting until she saw they suddenly thinned out a bit. It was confusing to her until she came upon the beginnings of an iron gate, one she remembered.
Lucy sprinted forward until she was able to see the gates' entrance, "YES!" she cheered and jumped into the air, "I FOUND IT!"
The girl donned a proud grin and went to open it. Her smile disappeared then, "Wha..?"
She tried pushing it open again but the thing wouldn't budge, "Oh come on…" It looked like it was rusted shut.
"Damn it…" Lucy cursed under her breath as she positioned herself to hop over it, the top only came up to her waist after all, "Okay years and years of gymnastics, don't fail me now." And with a single jump she cleared the gate.
"Alright!" she pat herself on the shoulder and turned to get her things, only she had no idea that her shirt had hooked onto one of the gates rounded spikes and as she turned, the shirt almost ripped in completely in half from the back.
"??" Lucy made a confused noise, one she hadn't ever heard herself make, and reached toward her back, feeling around, "Oh great! Just great!" She was already limited on clothing options and that was her favorite undershirt.
She huffed as if she were an angry bull and reached over to grab her stuff, so not wanting to care about her back and bra strap being exposed. There wasn't anyone around to see her anyway. Once she got everything over to her side, she began walking the almost maze like path to the house, until she finally reached the front. Lucy might've cried a little at the sight.
The house was just as gorgeous as she remembered. It was completely wooden on the outside and it would be called a cabin if it weren't so big. It wasn't anywhere near the size of the house back where her dad was but she knew by normal standards it was still fairly huge. One section of the left side of the home was completely made up of windows from top to bottom, one thing she absolutely loved as a child. It was a two story house and with an extremely open layout one the first floor, not so much like where the bedrooms were on the second. Also the kitchen had been tailored, to the very last detail, around her mother. She loved to cook and in result of that her father, with the help of professionals , had created an amazing space for her.
Lucy couldn't help but miss the way her father used to be…
Well, anyway, it was a beyond gorgeous home, even now with its unkempt condition.
Lucy walked up the steps to the house and came upon its lilac door, it had been painted that color at her child self's request, and reached to the top of it, remembering her mother had kept a spare key there. Her hand searched for it, feeling around, until she came upon it. It was covered in rust, no doubt from the countless times it must've rained over the years.
"Okay…" she mumbled to herself and stuck the key in the lock, turning it as soon as she did.
With little effort the door unlocked, and opened with a creak.
She was about to go into a fit of tears as she walked in but didn't have the time to do so as she immediately heard a dog barking and the sound of a man's voice yelling unintelligible words.
Wait someone didn't buy the house did they?! Lucy panicked and remembered she'd forgotten to ask the flower lady what she meant when people were asking about the house.
Oh noo oh no… what do I do…? Her body was stuck in a weird position as she thought about her options, ultimately deciding there was no harm in telling the person why she was there… right?
Without much of her brain functioning, she continued forward until she reached the vastly open living room, just the same as she'd remembered. Her eyes scanned for the person but he was nowhere in sight.
SHIT… what if he knows I'm here and thinks I'm and intruder!? I'm no intruder! The teen began to sweat, forgetting that calling out to the guy was the best thing she could do.
"Ha! I got you, you damn mutt!" the male's voice shouted and Lucy snapped at the name calling.
"HEY! I know you might think I'm a thief but I'm not a mutt! How dare you!" she shouted back and didn't register the sound of speedy footsteps coming closer and closer to her until she rounded the corner and collided harshly with the name calling man.
A/N: I know I said this took place in the town from the ED but.. whoops. just think of it as a different version of magnolia i guess... (: anyway ya. I hope you enjoyed this one! It was much longer than the first two, which I didn't expect tbh. I also said they would meet in this one, and they did, but next time they'll interact. Promise. Thanks for the reading! I appreciate the reviews a lot!