To start off, I want to thank all my lovely reviewers for how supportive they've been! It's really motivated me to write more, and I appreciate it so much! I'd also like to thank a very special friend of mine, Tia, who's helped me, in a way, beta my chapters, by reading them and picking out any typos. Still, if you see any mistakes, please let me know!
Lucy looked down at the address on the flyer, and then back up at the large mansion in front of her.
"Yep, this is the place!" she said, and made her way up to the large, double doors with the others following close behind.
"Wow! It's huge!" Natsu exclaimed, referring to the mansion, and indeed it was. In fact, it was almost as large as her father's mansion.
When they reached the doors, Erza raised her fist and knocked very loudly. A few moments later the door was opened, and a tall, skinny man who looked to be at least sixty years old stood there. He wore a monocle on his right eye, and his suit was black, with a white undershirt. His eyebrows were so far up and his eyelids so far down that his eyes didn't even seem to be open.
"I presume you're here to see the master." he said, sounding formal.
"That's right, we're here for the job." Erza said.
"Follow me." he told them, and turned away.
Happy whispered something into Natsu's ear and they both snickered. Lucy smiled at their carefree personalities, wishing she could forget all her troubles as easily.
She had been making more of an effort to seem happier ever since the train ride, where both Erza and Gray had been giving her weird looks, occasionally staring as though trying to analyze her.
Lucy thought she may have been imagining things, so at one point she had turned her head while both were staring and smiled at them. The two of them had quickly looked away, confirming her suspicions.
Luckily, Happy and Natsu hadn't appeared to have noticed anything different about Lucy. No, they were just as oblivious as ever, and Natsu was too busy dealing with motion sickness anyway, while Happy chattered on idly about random things, mostly having to do with fish.
So now, as they walked down the large hall, she smiled at things that Natsu and Happy said, commented on things that Gray and Erza said, and even laughed when Erza hit Gray and Natsu over the head once again for beginning to argue.
"This is not the time for arguing!" she'd bellowed. Lucy was surprised that the butler leading them hadn't ordered them out already.
At last, they came to the room. The butler reached up, knocked.
"Sir, the guests for the job are here."
"Come in." they all heard from inside. He opened up the door and ushered the rest of them in, before following after.
A dark haired man was leaning over a desk with papers scattered all over the top, pen in hand. He looked up when they walked in, and calmly put the pen down, before folding his hands.
"Thank you for coming," he started off formally, before continuing, "As you know, my son has been abducted by thieves who are holding him for ransom. They require 4,000,000 jewels, which I am not willing to pay."
Lucy stiffened, but kept quiet. Natsu, however, did not.
"But he's your son!" he yelled, receiving a warning glare from Erza.
The man turned to look at Natsu, and Lucy noticed that his eyes were like chips of ice.
Cold.
Selfish.
Merciless.
"That's why I hired you to get him back for me." the man said.
"Sir, do you realize that this could put him in more danger?" Erza asked. He shrugged, not seeming to care.
"Just make sure he's alive and not permanently handicapped. Fractures or broken bones are fine, as long as nothing's dismembered."
Lucy's fingers twitched, but she kept herself from balling her hands into fists.
Erza nodded curtly, she obviously didn't agree with the way this man was talking about his son, but she kept quiet about it. Gray was rigid, his face expressionless, but Lucy could tell he wasn't happy.
Natsu wasn't doing as good of a job of it, he was openly glaring at the man, and looked as though he wanted to say something. Flames were playing at his fingers, weaving in and out between them, going all the way up to his wrist.
Even Happy looked horrified at what the father had said.
He either didn't notice, or didn't care. Instead, he continued to talk.
"They sent a message, telling me to bring the money to the top of Sunrise Hill. I informed them I'd be there at midday tomorrow."
The group turned and walked out without another word, not even asking for directions.
Natsu was the first to open the door, managing to melt the handle partially, but Erza didn't even lecture him for it. None of them spoke as they made their way back down the hall, no longer needing the butler to guide them. In fact, the strange man had disappeared as soon as he had let them into the room.
When they were outside the room, they turned to walk down the walkway towards the town. Natsu was quietly fuming, but he didn't speak. The only one that said anything before they reached the town was Erza, who muttered,
"What a despicable man."
To which Lucy silently agreed.
As it turned out, Sunrise Hill was a tall, grassy hill that rose up out of the forest, and was void of trees, unlike the rest of the land. It earned its name because it was the best place to watch sunrises for miles around. No trees to obscure the view, comfortable grass to sit on, and high enough to see for miles in every direction.
It was about five miles from the town, meaning the group didn't have much time before setting off. However, they were all hungry, so Erza picked a random restaurant, and the five of them seated themselves.
Natsu had calmed down by now, and was very enthusiastic to start eating, Happy too.
Gray still seemed a little bothered, but he as well had calmed, and Erza didn't make any signs of something troubling her.
It was only Lucy who was still upset about it.
Just one more thing to bring my mood down, she thought glumly.
After they had ordered, and when the food arrived, all of them dug in happily, except for Lucy.
Instead, she picked at her plate, occasionally bringing the fork to her mouth and taking a bite out of her noodles.
"Hey Lucy, you gonna eat that?" Natsu asked, looking with interest at her plate.
She sighed and pushed it towards him.
"No, you can have it Natsu, I'm not very hungry."
Erza frowned at her.
"Lucy, have you even eaten today?"
"Oh yeah, I ate this morning." she told Erza.
A pang of guilt shot through her stomach, she hated lying, but she just couldn't stomach any food right now.
Erza looked at her intensely, before turning back to her own food. Gray was also looking at her, Lucy noticed, from the corner of her eye. She avoided his gaze and instead reached her arms up in a stretch, then changed the subject.
"Ahh I can't wait to see the sunrise from the hill, it sounds so beautiful." she said wistfully. Erza, surprisingly, agreed.
"Yes, I'm also interested in seeing that."
"Wow Lucy, you're such a girl sometimes." Happy told her.
"What do you mean 'sometimes'?!" she yelled, shaking her fist angrily at the blue exceed, who flew too far up for her to reach.
Everyone laughed at that, glad that Lucy was acting like herself again.
About two and a half miles into the forest, Lucy's stomach growled loudly, and she groaned softly. She was beginning to regret not eating at the restaurant.
"You should have eaten back there." Erza scolded.
"I wasn't hungry then."
"Now you're unprepared." came the reply.
"I can always eat when we stop." Lucy pointed out.
"Yes, but now you'll have to suffer for at least two more miles. We can't stop until it's time to set up camp, I want to set up before it gets too dark."
She did have a point, the moon wasn't even half full and the trees would obscure the little light that did shine through them, but at least the fire would be enough to see.
Lucy just sighed, but didn't argue. She wouldn't have asked for them to stop anyway, it would have been inconvenient.
After another hour or two, they reached a place that was about a quarter mile from the hill. Erza stopped there, and they all began to set up camp.
"I'll collect the firewood." Lucy told the rest of them, before turning to walk off into the forest.
Mostly, the celestial mage just wanted some time alone.
She collected various pieces here and there, before stumbling upon a pretty little circular clearing. It was completely covered with grass and had flowers popping up in random places.
It was beautiful.
She smiled softly to herself, before walking back to the camp.
It was nice having some time by herself, she didn't have to pretend to be happy. Of course, she wasn't pretending the entire time, she had mostly pushed the feelings of sadness into the back of her mind, and it was easier to concentrate on happier things, but her heart still nagged at her no matter what she did or thought of.
Behind every smile there was a hint of sadness.
Behind every laugh, a hint of force.
But nothing kept Lucy down for long, and even if her heart did ache every time she looked at Gray, she wouldn't let it keep her from being happy.
She didn't know yet, that in the next few days, it was going to get so much worse.
Well, I thought about putting part of Chapter 5 in here, but you guys might get mad at me for that - there's such a thing as too much suspense. Still, I think most of you will probably like that chapter a lot, at least I hope so. Reviews and PM's are always very appreciated, thank you very much again to everyone who reviewed. And thank you, Tia, for helping so much. Hope you enjoyed.
P.S. Told you my chapters get longer! Also, if anyone has a story idea for this chapter, please PM me. A few of you did give me some wonderful ideas for Chapter names, and thank you very much for that! I'm a little OCD, so I'll probably try to name each chapter with two words each. Sorry for rambling, Chapter 5 will be up on Saturday!