Sovereign: I would like to thank zeprincelini, ShiningStellar, Assault Godzilla, wendyvel and sNoWaNgL for reviewing! Thanks guys!

Chapter 4: Invitation

Four days later…

"Here you go, Levy. Here are all the articles for next week's paper." Natsu said as he places his thumb drive which contains all the articles he's assigned to write on Levy's desk.

"Thank you Natsu. You really have been doing well for the past four days." Levy smiled, taking the thumb drive.

"Thanks." Natsu said, nodding his head.

"You may go back home now if you want. Your job is done. I'll do the editing for the paper." Levy said as she inserts the drive into her computer.

"Yeah, I should be going home now. Erza and Wendy are waiting for me at the cafeteria."

"You three always walk home together, huh?"

"They never like walking home without me." Natsu smiled. "Bye."

"See you on Monday!" Levy waved goodbye. She watched Natsu grabs his schoolbag and leaves the office. She sighed sadly as she takes a look at Natsu's articles. 'His writing is really good. He reminds me of Lucy.'

"Thank you so much for your hard work, Lucy!" Levy smiled as Lucy hands her her thumb drive containing all the articles she has written.

"No problem, Levy-chan!" Lucy smiled back. "Now then, I better get going! Gareth is waiting for me!" Levy looks worried as she watched Lucy walks back to her desk and grabs her schoolbag.

"Lucy…" Levy said. Lucy turns to her. "I'm still not so sure about Gareth. I still don't trust him. He's not even in the same school as us."

Lucy sighed. "Levy, Gareth is a really nice person! I should introduce him to you one day. You will like him." She looks at her watch and widens her eyes. "Oh God, I'm going to be late! Bye Levy!" She quickly runs out of the office. Levy sighed as she slumps in her chair. Ever since Lucy has been hanging out with Gareth, she doesn't have a lot of communication with Lucy anymore.

She turns to her cup of ice tea placed at the side of her desk and grabs it. Maybe a drink will make her feel better.

Levy was unaware that a tear is rolling down her cheek. 'Where are you now, Lucy?'

"Hooray! Our first week of school is over and the weekend is here!" Wendy cheered as she, Erza and Natsu walks down the pavement.

"Great. Now I can finally go back to playing Resident Evil 5!" Erza said, smiling in determination.

"You still haven't beat Wesker on Hard difficulty?" Natsu asked her.

Erza sighed sadly. "Sadly yes. He's really one tough son of a bitch."

"Why don't we also all continue watching the rest of Season 22 of The Simpsons over the weekend? We only got 7 more episodes to watch." Wendy suggested.

"Nah, sorry Wendy but I'm really losing interest over that show." Natsu said.

"Awww." Wendy said sadly.

"It's okay Wendy. How about we watched Real Steel this Sunday? It's coming out this weekend." Erza smiled.

"Great!" Wendy smiled.

"Sounds good to me." Natsu agreed. Suddenly, he bumps into a woman, making him, Erza and Wendy stopped.

"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry!" Natsu said.

"We all are!" Wendy said. "We were too busy-"

Before Wendy could continue, Natsu widens his eyes and shouted, "You again!"

Lucy gasped and quickly runs over to the road. Suddenly, a car honked loudly as he quickly stops right in front of her.

"Watch it!" The driver yelled angrily at her.

"Sorry!" Lucy yelled to the driver before running away. Natsu narrows his eyes and chases after her.

"Natsu!" Erza shouted as she and Wendy watched him ran away.

"You guys go back home first!" Natsu yelled back at them as he ran.

Natsu follows Lucy down the pavement. He is breathing heavily as she runs faster.

'Damn she is fast.' He thought. He sees Lucy turning and running into an alley. He got her now. Natsu arrives at the alley and he widens his eyes. Lucy was sitting next to a dumpster and on some sheets of newspapers. There is also a chicken bone and an empty Chinese noodle box laying next to her. Her hair is not tied, but hanging freely. Her face and arms are covered in dirt.

Natsu slowly walks over to her. "Are…are you okay?" He asked her.

"Please…leave me alone." Lucy buries her face in her arms.

Natsu opens his school bags and digs into it until he took out an egg sandwich wrapped in plastic. "Here." He hands it to Lucy. I was supposed to eat it for lunch but I preferred eating the beef steak and broccolis the school served today.

Lucy looks up at the sandwich Natsu is holding. She sntaches and quickly unwraps it. Natsu watched in amazement as she quickly swallows the whole thing within seconds. After eating, tears swelled in Lucy's eyes. Natsu sits down next to her as she sobbed.

"Thank you…" She said to him. "I haven't eaten anything good for the past few days."

"Lucy…what are you doing here?" Natsu asked.

Lucy remained silent for a minute until she finally had the courage to say to him. "I was…abandoned on the streets. I was kicked out of the house…by my family. Since then, I tried to survive living outside of the house. I had to eat food left behind in the garbage and sleep every night with newspapers." Lucy closes her eyes, regretting that she lied to Natsu at some parts. She couldn't tell Natsu that Gareth kicked her out because she knew she will get into trouble if she were to mention him to anyone.

Natsu couldn't believe the words she just said. He narrows his eyes angrily. How could a family kick their children out of the house? Mirajane always taught him, Erza and Wendy that a family should stick together no matter what. He was also a bit hurt in his heart because her story was similar to his past.

'She's just like me.' He thought. He once again painfully remembers how he became an orphan and had to live in the streets. When he was five, he had an alcoholic father. Every night, he would go on a rampage and abuse him and his mother by beating them up senselessly. Finally one night, when Natsu was almost strangled to death by his father, he watched his mother walks up to his father from behind and shot a bullet through his back. After his father was dead, Natsu looks up at his mother. She smiled at him before shooting a bullet through her head with a gun, committing suicide right in front of him. Natsu was forever traumatized by their deaths and until he met Mirajane, he never feels how it's like to feel real love from your parents. He turns to Lucy.

"Lucy, you can't go on like this." Natsu said to her.

"I have no choice." Lucy said, a tear trickling down her cheek. "I have no one left to turn to."

"Lucy…" Lucy looks up and sees Natsu getting up and reaching out a hand. "Would you like to live with us?"

END OF CHAPTER

Sovereign: I hope you all enjoy the chapter. Read and review!