Lucy huffed angrily as she rode the train to her first solo mission. She still couldn't believe that Natsu had kicked her off the team! She'd been on his team ever since she joined Fairy Tail, and it wasn't like it'd been her idea to team up with him in the first place. He just used her for a mission and after that things just started to happen. She would hang out with him more and more and, well, she thought that they had become good friends, maybe even more than that. After all, as hopeless of an idiot Natsu was, she couldn't help but admit to herself that she'd had, no, still had, feelings for the pink haired goof.

She realized that a while ago, just before they went to edolas, but ever since Lisanna had come back she hadn't found a good time to bring it up. She knew Lisanna and Natsu had had a thing as children and well, who was she to break that apart, especially since there was certainly no guarantee that Natsu reciprocated her feelings. Maybe though, maybe if she'd had enough courage to tell him how she felt, things wouldn't have turned out like this. She wouldn't be in a train car by herself feeling lonely and pathetic and she'd be walking somewhere remote with Natsu and Happy since they refused to take any form of transportation.

Maybe though, they were never meant to be together. After all, it was just a coincidence that they had met in the middle of the gathering centered around that phony Salamander. He probably wouldn't have even been there to save her and wreck the port if she hadn't insisted on buying lunch for him. Heck she probably wouldn't have even been in Fairy Tail, she would probably be a sex slave for some creep she was sold to. The more she thought about her meeting Natsu, joining Fairy Tail, everything really, the more lost and lonely she felt.

She was always really alone, wasn't she? All of the companionship she'd felt, it was all fake, it had to have been. After all, she'd just barely met all of them, and she barely knew anything about any of them. And the one she knew the most about, the one closest and dearest to her, had just told her she wasn't good enough. Her whole life had come crashing down around her, not surprisingly. Perhaps this was karma for all of those years of running away from her problems, or for not having an honest start to her dream. Maybe it was karma for being selfish and wanting to stay in Fairy Tail, even though she brought trouble and misfortune to everybody there, and for wanting to stay there and to be with Natsu even though she definitely couldn't, even though he didn't want her there. For relying on everybody else far too much because she didn't have the courage it took to face her problems and fears alone.

Maybe if she'd been more courageous she could have gotten a fresh start at Fairy Tail and she would have been able to reinvent herself as a stronger person. She was so weak though. She was too afraid to face the rejection of not getting into Fairy Tail so she had relied on Natsu to get her in and to take her there. And now, well, now she was alone. She'd ended up the same old Lucy as always, relying on people. She hadn't really gotten the chance to form the bonds of real friendship, she just met all of the people close to Natsu. She'd forced strength upon herself and forged a fake identity based on the assumption that she was strong enough to be on Natsu's team when that wasn't who she was.

Until now, she had always considered herself to be pretty well off in life and in the guild in general. She wasn't that strong but she could still help out and she managed to defeat her enemies. It wasn't until she'd been kicked off of the team that she realized all of her power was forced, it was fake. She'd gotten lots of the zodiac keys, but she'd never really unlocked all of their secrets, there was still so much that was unknown to her. She had pretended to be powerful, and through luck she had succeeded, even though she had no real power of her own. Everything she'd managed to do, every feat she had accomplished, it was all thanks to Natsu or her spirits. Besides just the other day when she had beaten him up the strength wasn't truly her own. She hadn't truly been herself. Besides he didn't even use his magic.

Lucy was spared any further investigation or thought into the matter at hand as she realized this was her stop. It was probably just as well because she didn't think she could spend much more time on the train. Maybe it was just her imagination, or even just a coincidence because she'd been thinking about Natsu, but while she was riding the train she had felt a little queasy. Perhaps the train was something one needed to get used to and she was too far out of practice? She brushed it off however, it was likely nothing that couldn't be solved by a little more practice. Besides, it was a beautiful day, walking in the fresh air outside and a little exercise would be good for her. Besides, if it came down to it she could ask Wendy to help her out a little. Therefore, satisfied for the time being, or at least as satisfied as she could be, she got off of the metal vehicle and sautered up the hill to the mansion that lay on top.

The mansion was huge, almost as big as the main Heartfilia manor. Seeing its size brought up a few memories of her childhood, especially when she got to the large, groomed yard where she could practically see herself playing as a child. She smiled at the fond memories before her mind brought up darker ones. Lucy's life at the Heartfilia manor, as perfect as it should have been, was quite far from just that. Even her childhood had been riddled with misfortune and misery. There had been a reason, after all, that she had run away from such a life in the first place. She had mostly been wandering around aimlessly, searching for power, when she'd found Natsu, or rather, he'd found her. After that, well, she really felt like she'd stopped wandering, she felt like she'd never run away in the first place, she was home. Fairy Tail had become her home. Or at least it had been back then, now she wasn't so sure.

Seeing the manor here almost seemed like some sort of symbolism. Now that Natsu had thrown her off of the team, she was back to old, wandering Lucy, with no real place to go or call home. She was old Lucy all by herself, on her own, and there was nothing she could do to change that. Back then, just before finding Natsu, she was really considering going back home. She had her pride and all, but being on her own was incredibly lonely, and her days were filled with almost as much misery as they had been before. In fact, if it hadn't been for her pride, she probably would've gone back much sooner. Hell, if she had never met Natsu, she would even have gone back with no questions asked at the whole phantom lord incident, although she supposed she really wouldn't have had another choice then, not that she'd wanted to go home. Somehow though, that's exactly what this felt like. She was poor, pitiful Lucy; downtrod and disgracefully returning back home after she'd failed.

It took her a moment before she was able to enter the mansion, but once she did, she was filled with relief. The interior was much different than the old Heartfilia mansion used to be. It almost had a look of fake decadence to it, but Lucy ignored such thoughts as the butler asked her to what they owed such a pleasure. She quickly stated that she was the one who had accepted the mission, and after a look of skepticism, he led her into a more formal sitting room where the owner of the mansion was lounging. The particular piece of furniture he was lounging on was a loveseat made of a fake gold silk fabric, and she felt he seemed entirely in his own place what with his crazy attire. Instead, she just held her tongue and sat on the edge of a small chair by the edge of the room despite the man's invitations for her to sit at his side.

Lucy was taken aback by the creep, and that was part of the reason she was currently sitting on the edge of her seat. The other reason was because she was particularly eager to get outside and on the mission. She wasn't quite used to sitting for this long since Natsu was so blunt, and she certainly wasn't used to getting hit on by her employers. After all, this guy must've been at least ten years older than her! Not to mention the fact that she was still too young to even drink, well, at least technically. If Natsu were here, none of this would've ever happened. And if it did, well, the guy would be lucky if he didn't have to be sent to the hospital and his house was still standing. After all, Natsu had always been really protective of her, she loved that about him, and she assumed he had done it out of love. Apparently, he hadn't, it was just standard courtesy or something, maybe he was just protecting his partner, or ridding the world of one more creep. It was wrong of her to read into it further.

Lucy, jumped out of her seat the moment she heard the man stopped talking. The job she had taken required her to retrieve a stolen item from a group of three bandits. They had stolen the said artifact while it was being delivered to the mansion on a train. Somehow, the story seemed oddly familiar, and now as she was walking she realized why. An incident like this had occurred before the whole tenroujima incident, before the whole Natsu incident. Now that she thought about it, Lucy had a feeling she knew exactly who the bandits were. They were likely a group of weaklings who relied on their power of farting at supreme intensities to help them steal that they'd met a few years ago. They were incredibly weak, and even a simple mage could defeat them as long as they were smart enough. Lucy could easily do the job by herself, no Natsu needed. It would be a piece of cake and certainly not at the price that the requestor was offering, it seemed despite all the bad things that'd happened, Lucy had had just a bit of luck come her way. However it seemed the requester didn't know the actual power of the thieves because he was offering 100,000 for it. Either that or whatever he had was seriously important.

Lucy couldn't be certain though as she was half asleep while asking her questions. "where were they last seen?" she'd asked. Near the river, great. "Did they seem to possess any magical powers?" No? Great. It had seemed like forever before Lucy had finally finished all of her questions. It had been a totally different atmosphere from when she was yelling at Natsu for being too loud. This time it was quiet and strictly professional, and honestly, she missed the old rowdy meetings that she used to have back with the old teams. Lucy walked out of the mansion and headed to the cliff, happy to finally get some fresh air away from the stuffy mansion. She soon found the river in question, and was able to reach it by foot in less than an hour. After she gotten to the river at the bottom of the valley, all she had to do was follow the very obvious separate pair of tracks to catch the thieves. By the time Lucy had gotten through most of the tracks, it was about two hours past noon. Lucy decided to finish up quickly and get Lunch or whatever you could call it at that point.

After what had seemed like hours, Lucy had finally gotten to the end of the new tracks where she met the jiggle butt gang as they called themselves. She made quick work and had quickly beaten up two of them when the leader decided to make a comment. "I've seen you before! You were with the flame devil and with our air goddess! So, where are they now?" Lucy did not want to talk about this. Her wounds were still fresh about getting kicked off of the team and she didn't really feel like explaining why. She couldn't believe she was already getting questioned about this. Somewhere inside of her, anger stirred and her separate personality was brought to light. "They. Kicked. Me. Off. The. Team! Lucy shouted, and she could swear she could hear her words echo as the combined into each other, bouncing off of the valley walls. All of her anger was finally let loose as she threw the leader onto his other two minions before taking the item and leaving. At least now, without Natsu to mess anything up, she would get all of her pay, she thought bitterly.

Lucy had forgotten all about the old team as she walked into the guild. Well, not forgotten, but she'd gotten over them, she didn't need them anyway, so they were as good as gone the way she figured. She decided that she could do fine by herself. In fact, maybe even more so than with them, after all, she had gotten the rent money she had needed, and for once she had enough to spare. Maybe this is what it was like to be anybody else in Fairy Tail. Maybe this was what it was like to live in financial security. She was happy, and since she figured she finally had enough money to spare, she sat down at the bar counter. "Hey Mira," she called "Can I get a milkshake?" "Coming right up," cheered the white-haired mage. It was Lucy, after all, aka: her favorite person to tease.

Mira could barely contain her excitement as Lucy slipped into one of the bar stools. She had been worried about Lucy after all. I mean, it wasn't like her to go on a mission without her team, or even without Natsu, not to mention the fact that Lucy had looked so sad, even depressed at the time. Now, however, Lucy wore a bright smile one her face and she looked as if she'd never had a care in the world as she slipped into the stool. Mira was glad her friend seemed to have found happiness, even if it was momentary. She called out a cheery reply as the blond mage asked for a milkshake and she rushed into the back of the shop to create the drink for her friend. After all, even Lucy deserved to be able to indulge herself in something like this once in a while, and Mira was glad she was finally allowing herself to.

Although, before she gave the cold drink to her, she wanted to have a little fun first. After all, Lucy was probably one of the most innocent people in the guild, in a cute kind of way. I mean, she knew about stuff, but whenever Mira tried to talk about it, even the soft stuff like kissing, Lucy would get really flustered. This also made Lucy one of the most fun people to tease in the guild however, at least that's what Mira, and a few other people, thought. Besides, now that the mage was feeling a lot better, she couldn't resist, I mean, what kind of harm could it really do to play around just a little? Besides, Lucy was really happy. Like, happier than Mira had seen her in a while, not that Lucy hadn't been happy before she was sad, today she just seemed special. And if Mira knew one thing about dating and guys, it was that they evoked this special feeling in women. Especially really cute and deserving women who underestimated their own self worth like Lucy.

Now that Mira thought of it, lately Lucy had been really stressed about her and Natsu's relationship. After all, she said she'd realized that she really liked Natsu but she didn't know if he felt the same way. It'd been bothering her for a while and she'd been doing her best to try to seduce Natsu but none of it had seemed like it was working. In fact, that was one of the reasons Lucy hadn't had a milkshake in a while; she'd been trying to watch her figure. Now that she thought about it, the scene the other day where Lucy had beat up Natsu had set up the perfect scenario for a confession too! In fact, the other day Gray had even said that Natsu needed to talk to her. She was almost certain one of her favorite ships was finally coming to life as she set down the milkshake. I mean, how else could Lucy be so happy?

"Be careful, have to many of these and you'll lose that perfect figure that Natsu confessed to. You have to tell me all about it." she teased. Instead of getting the cute, embarrassed reaction out of Lucy that she had expected, all Mira had gotten was silence. "Come on, you can't hide it from me, he needed to talk to you earlier today, privately," se hinted. Now, Lucy lost the smile she'd had on just moments prior, "Actually, he needed to tell me I'm off of the team. I-I've decided to give up on him. It's clear that I don't mean anything special to him, and there are plenty of people who I'm sure I could grow fond of." Lucy buried her head into her arms and on the bar counter as she cried. Mira could do nothing but stare in horror at what she'd just done. She'd made one of her best friends cry, and she felt terrible. She should've known that when Lucy was hurt most was also when she smiled the most, she'd seen it many times. And now, she'd just failed at being a good friend. Mira just made her way to the back room and focused on her job, comforting Lucy when she had the time and occasionally refilling her drinks, wishing she could do something more for her friend.