I'm just gonna jump straight into this chapter so... Enjoy!

Disclaimer - I don't own Fairy Tail

Lucy jumped onto Marnie, startling the poor girl.

"Wait. Question. Why do you have my mother's necklace?"

"I met your father! He helped me a long time ago, around 9 years ago actually and he gave me a lot of things to help him get over his past. He is a real saint... What a small world it is!"

"My... my father? Please! Lexi! You have to take me to him!" Marnie begged.

"Of course I will! Natsu, are you coming with us?" Lucy turned to look at her best friend.

"Of course I am Lex! Lemme get Haruto." Natsu ran out of the house, screaming the little boy's name.

Lucy, Natsu, Marnie and Haruto had been walking on a dirt road after the train dropped them off.

"Hey Lex... Mind telling me why you were in Acalypha 10 years ago?" Natsu asked, his hands resting behind his head.

"Um... That story is for another time Natsu." Lucy didn't feel comfortable talking about her past to him yet, she needed time.

"Auntie Lexi! What's the man's name?" Haruto looked up at her.

They're both just as curious and full of questions as each other...

"His name is Dustin but he lets me call him Dusty."

Upon seeing the barn in which she hid in so long ago, with a baby Haruto might she add, Lucy's face lit up. She saw a man with a horse, ploughing an area of soil not too far away. Tears sprung up in her eyes as she started running towards him, screaming his name and leaving the rest of her friends behind.

"DUSTY!" Tripping over her feet a few times, she finally made it into his warm arms. In fact, he was actually sobbing too.

"Lexi dear... I see you have kept your promise as you have finally come back." They took a step away at each other, Dusty examining her face. "My, my Lexi. You have grown up to be such a mature young lady. I'm proud of you."

Not far in the distance, he noticed the three people walking towards them.

"I've brought along some people for you."

"That boy... is that Haruto?" Dusty put his hands to his mouth. "He has grown so much."

"In fact, that is him. I dropped him off at a house in Magnolia after I left here. 9 years later, I found a house and then I realise Haruto is my next door neighbour! They don't know who I am yet... I'm sorry to ask you for so much but could you keep my identity a secret?"

"Of course Lexi. Haruto seems like he is in good hands with that man. Now, who's the young..." Dusty's eyes widened once he focused onto Marnie. "... lady..."

"I see you've already realised." Lucy smiled.

"Thank you for bringing her back to me... thank you."

The man dropped the horse's reins and ran to Marnie, limping along the way.

"Marnie!" He called out to her, tears streaming down his face.

"P-p-papa?" She stopped in her tracks, feeling her body going numb.

Dusty stopped a few feet in front of her, smiling warmly. "Welcome home."

"That was so touching..." Lucy finished wiping her tears as they walked away from the small farm. "I'm gonna miss them..."

"Don't worry Auntie Lexi! We'll come back to visit."

"I hope so."

"Alright! Where to next, Lex?"

"Back home I guess. Aren't you and your friends throwing some kind of party? What is it for anyway?" Lucy asked.

"Oh right! I never told you. Well today is actually the day when Haruto arrived on my doorstep so we kind of made it his birthday. Isn't that right?" Natsu ruffled the young boy's hair.

Ok... act dumb Lucy.

"Oh really? What do you mean on your doorstep? Oh and happy birthday little one..."

Haruto smiled up at her, making her heart explode.

"Oh well maybe I'll tell you the story tonight. It's pretty interesting actually and we usually have a story time kind of thing with a theme. Last year was: what is your most embarrassing story? And generic stuff like that. It's kind of like a truth or truth. Sometimes, we even throw in dares."

"Oh... ok cool. Well I look forward to it."

"You're helping me set up the party of course! Everyone else bailed out on helping so I guess it's just us!" Natsu beamed brightly.

"Of course it is..."

It was late at night and almost everyone had already gone home, except Lucy, Natsu and Lisanna (Haruto had already gone to bed). The 'story time' theme this year was legends and conspiracy theories which got Lisanna quite worked up.

At the moment, the three of them were just sitting around on the ground, talking about anything really.

"Natsu! I almost forgot! You haven't told me about Haruto's story."

"Oh right! Well today 9 years ago, or was it 10, Lisanna was over and she was playing games with me when someone knocked on my door. I went to go get it and saw nobody and closed the door since I didn't see anything. Then, someone rang the doorbell again and I got really angry because I didn't want to lose the next round. I didn't see anything until Lisanna told me to look down. That's when I saw Haruto. There was a note and of course, I read it. I actually still have it somewhere in this house... it... it was horrible... she was abused and beaten by her father and she forced her into an arranged marriage... She signed her name with 'L' so I'm not even sure what to get from that... it could be anyone! I mean, both Lisanna and your name starts with L so what the heck?! I did the most logical thing I could think of and ran out into the street. The people in the movies are all idiots 'cause they just walk inside and I didn't want to spend my life filled with guilt, thinking that I couldn't do anything. So I chased her down the street in broad daylight. It was hard because people were everywhere but I caught up to her and grabbed her wrist." Natsu closed his eyes like he was remembering the day. "She spun around and looked into my soul. I will never forget what she looked like. She had beautiful golden blonde hair and deep brown eyes. And then, she was gone. Well she elbowed me in the face and broke my nose so that was a weird day." Natsu opened his eyes again and looked at Lucy, in which she turned away, hiding her eyes.

Oh crap... I messed up that day didn't I? Stupid Lucy... stupid!

"Wow... that must've been tough. For her and for you. How did you adopt Haruto though? Aren't you like his legal father now or something?"

"Well yeah... Social services came to take Haruto to an orphanage but that poor girl gave me the responsibility. There were two guys and I beat one of the up, Lisanna stopped me from killing the other one. It's all good now I guess."

Lucy laughed. She couldn't help it.

After half an hour of more talking Lucy was really curious about something.

"Hey Lisanna, I saw how excited you got when story time came along. What was that all about?" Lucy pondered.

"Well I'm really into the legends and the conspiracy side of stuff and I find it really cool! I had a hard time picking my story since I have so many good ones up my sleeve..." Lisanna looked up at the ceiling, stars in her eyes.

"Well since you already told us about 'The Legend of the Parallel Universe: Edolas', do you have another favourite?" Lucy asked, genuinely curious.

"Actually, now that you say it, I have this one that comes into mind."

"Alright! Don't leave us hanging! Tell us!" Natsu looked at her like a puppy.

Lisanna laughed. "Ok, ok... Have you guys heard of the Heartfilia legend?"

Lucy tensed up. What is she talking about? There's a legend about my family? ACT DUMB LUCY! ACT DUMB

"No I haven't. I've heard of the family but not about the legend." She cautiously answered.

"Oh well you're in for a treat. It's quite mysterious. Legend says that the Heartfilia family had a daughter."

"Really? I thought it was only an old dude that owned the riches..." Natsu commented; Lucy tried to look surprised too but failed miserably.

"That's what everyone thought too but rumours began to fly around. The wealthy families of course knew the truth but the rest of us were left in the dark. Anyways, no one knows if it's true because no one has ever heard of her or saw her but the beautiful Layla Heartfilia apparently gave birth to a baby girl a few years before she passed away. People claim that she had beautiful blonde hair and chocolate brown eyes just like her mother, but no one can confirm because it was so long ago. Some even say, her name was Lucinda or Leslie or something rather but then again, no one has heard from her or her family in around a decade.

"A name that starts with an L... and blonde hair and brown eyes...? And the last time anyone has heard anything was 10 years ago? The same age as Haruto... I see a pattern here..." Natsu furrowed his eyebrows.

Oh crap, oh crap! I have got to do something!

"The legend also says, that she got engaged at the age of 17 and became pregnant soon after..."

Natsu's eyes went wide as he thought back to the note that was left with Haruto.

"How do you know if that is true?" Lucy quickly asked.

"I don't know; it is a legend after all. But it ends with the girl running away from her wealthy life. No one knows what happened to her and the baby. And what's even weirder, is that 8 years ago, a year after the rumours had stopped, the Heartfilia estate went bankrupt."

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh creepy! Everything must be linked!" Natsu declared.

"Um yeah... creepy. It's probably not true though. Rumours and stuff. I mean, if it was true, if she was the daughter of the 'oh-so-famous' Jude Heartfilia, then how did they keep her so secret for so long? From what it sounds like, no one knew about her till she got married."

"It doesn't matter though. All these stories probably aren't true anyway. I just read this stuff from magazines but you know the media."

"Yeah..." Lucy awkwardly laughed, relief washing over her. She looked over at Natsu as she saw he was in deep thought. Lucy unconsciously began playing with her hair as she looked down at it, checking to see if it was still brown. "Hey Natsu... what's the matter?"

"Uh nothing! I was just thinking that maybe Haruto's mother was the Heartfilia's daughter but that's impossible and there's no way that could be true so never mind." Natsu stood up and excused himself.

I'm so thankful that Natsu is so dense. That was close... that was way too close...

Next chappie in 2 days!