Lucy stepped out of her bedroom to see a snoring Natsu draped across her couch and sighed. She walked into the kitchen to start making breakfast when she heard a quick but loud knock at her door. She crossed the room to open the door but found no one behind it; thinking it strange, she poked her head into the hallway and looked around to see if she could catch a glimpse of her mysterious visitor, but still found no one. She was about to close her door when she saw a small white envelope on her floor. She picked it up then closed the door to her apartment and locked it for good measure. On the front of the envelope was her first and last name scribbled hastily without her address or a return address. Clearly the letter had been hand delivered by the person who wrote it, but what Lucy found strange was that it had her first and her last name but it didn't look very official and those were usually the only ones she received with Heartfilia on them. Sliding her thumb into the envelope to tear it open Lucy grew curious as to what she would find and who would be sending her a letter at all. She pulled a folded up piece of paper from the inside and opened it up to read what was inscribed.
They're coming for it. Then for you. Get ready.
Lucy stared down at the strange letter in confusion and blinked a few times. She turned the paper over to see if there was anything else and found it to be blank.
"How strange…"
"What's strange?"
Lucy jumped into the air and shrieked at the sudden question in surprise. Lost in her thoughts, Lucy hadn't realized that Natsu woke up when she closed her apartment door and was now staring at her with a curiosity and impatience clearly displayed on his face. Lucy placed a hand over her chest to feel her racing heart and took a breath to calm herself.
"Jeez Natsu, you nearly gave me a heart attack."
Natsu smiled at that in amusement and got up off the couch reaching for the envelope in Lucy's hands.
"Hey Luce, what's this?"
Lucy turned to see Natsu holding a picture that he had pulled out of the envelope. She took it from him and looked at it to see some sort of strange tablet. It was gold and had an odd language written into it, one that Lucy had never seen, not even in Levy's ancient language books.
"What is it?"
"I'm not sure, actually. I've never seen it before. Do you think maybe the sender had the wrong Lucy?"
"Maybe"
Natsu watched Lucy's face wrinkle in worry and confusion.
"Look Lucy," he said taking the letter from her, "don't worry about it, it's probably some stupid prank from one of your fans."
"Natsu this looks a little too specific to be some random prank."
"Whatever, I just don't think you should worry about it k?"
And with that the letter, the envelope, and the picture inside went up in a small ball of flames and then crumbled to ash within Natsu's fist.
"There, see? Like it never existed, let's head to the guild alright?"
"Alright, I hope you're right."
"Course I am. Have I ever steered you wrong Lucy?"
Lucy scoffed at his question and the large smile that accompanied it. He really was such a fool sometimes.
The walk to the guild had been quite enjoyable. The sun was out, birds were chirping, Natsu kept her entertained with his antics, and Magnolia as a whole felt incredibly lively as they passed shops, trader's markets, homes, the church, and the town's main square. Happy found them half way and happily flew next them and fooled around with Natsu, enjoying the beautiful day and the slight breeze under his wings. It was as they were passing a well-known jewelry shop that Natsu's suddenly jumped into the air with an excited shout of Lucy's name. Lucy giggled at him and asked him what he was so excited for.
"I forgot to tell you why my solo mission was such a secret!"
"Natsu, what are talking about?"
Natsu hastily reached into his bag and dug around for a bit before he fished out a gold chain necklace with a thin and delicate gold disk attached, engraved with the name Lucy in elegant script.
"Oh my- Natsu what in the world?"
"Well, I knew your birthday was coming up soon and just wanted to get out of town to get your gift without you knowing. Do you like it?"
Lucy grabbed for the necklace excitedly and smiled brightly at her partner.
"Natsu, I love it! Thank you!" She jumped at him and granted him a large hug as thanks, feeling him wrap his arms around her.
"Good, I'm glad," he said as he released her, "Why don't you try it on? I wanna see how it looks."
"Sure, could you help me out a bit? I've never been good at these things."
Natsu stepped around Lucy and brushed her long blonde hair to the side of her neck then reached over her to place the chain on her neck.
"Agh! Natsu don't pull so hard, you'll choke me."
"Sorry Lucy."
He fastened the clasp and moved her hair back into place then stepped back around her to get a good look at it. Lucy blushed under his gaze because it felt like he was inspecting her and perhaps determining whether he liked it.
"How does it look?"
Natsu smiled large and gave her a thumbs up.
"You look great Luce!"
Lucy blushed at his comment on her entire appearance instead of just the necklace. It wasn't everyday Natsu was complimenting her. It was usually some joke about her weight or creepy smile or how weird she was so the compliment happened to catch her by surprise. She gave his shoulder a light shove and continued walking.
"Whatever… idiot."
"Youuuuu liiike hiimmm!"
Lucy swore she'd skin that cat one day.
When they arrived at the guild it had been as lively as ever and Natsu immediately left her side to go pick a fight with Gray and Lucy looked around to see if she could find Cyrus or Erza. She failed to find either but did manage to spot Levy sitting down with Gajeel at their usual table. It had been days since she'd seen the pair so she decided to go sit down and chat with them for a bit.
"Levy!"
"Hey Lu! How's it going?"
"Really great, actually. How about you?"
"I'm doing alright I guess."
Lucy heard Gajeel snort at that and looked over to see him munching on a plate of bolts. Levy gave him a glare that clearly said she didn't appreciate the sound and he rolled his eyes and went back to focusing on chewing.
"I'm sorry, did I miss something?"
"Oh no, Lu, well actually, I don't know. Do you remember that artifact that I was researching?"
"Yah, you lost like weeks of sleep."
"Yup, well as soon as I had actually started to stumble across some information on the damn thing, the magic council caught wind of it and stopped by to collect every inch of research that I had collected."
"You're kidding?"
"Nope, I wish I was. It's a little maddening to be honest but they'll be coming by today to pick up[ the artifact itself and lock it up, so I guess it must be pretty important. I think they just don't want it and my research to somehow fall into the wrong hands."
Lucy nodded in understanding at Levy's reasoning.
"I don't know. Shrimp did all that work and they get to just come by and steal it all away? If you ask me, the whole thing sounds a like big load of shi-"
"Gajeel, if you don't shut up, I swear I'll have to shut you up myself."
Gajeel patted his girlfriend's hand in an attempt to calm her temper that he didn't mean to ignite. Levy was clearly done discussing the matter and the three went on to discuss other topics. Despite the occasional snide or crass comment from Gajeel, the conversation was fairly mundane, telling each other what they'd been up to lately. It felt nice to finally take break from the crazy life of a mage and just have a normal conversation on a normal day. Suddenly everything felt slowed down and the air became thick as a low hum of magic went through the guild, a magic that left a bad feeling in the pit of Lucy's stomach and then everything came back to reality as she heard
Natsu shout from the other side of the guild.
"Get down!"
Author's Note: Who left Lucy the mysterious letter? Why does the council want the artifact? How are things about to change for Fairy Tail? Find out in the next chapter!
Alright so I hope you enjoyed this chapter, since I had a lot of fun writing it. I'm finally jumping into the main plot line. I've got so many ideas and events in store for everyone and I can't wait for you guys to read them! Once again, don't be afraid to review and let me know what you think of the story. I want to hear from the readers. I'll also start posting the chapters on tumblr. You can follow me at celsetialprincesstrash. Go ahead and message me as I'm looking to meet people within our awesome fandom! Thanks again for reading!
