The (Not so much) Replacement
"Ne, Natsu?" Lisanna asked the pink haired male, keeping her eye on the blonde female celestial wizard that had sat herself all the way across the room from the rest of her team—plus Lisanna—all by herself at a table.
"Wazzit, Lishama?" Natsu asked the white haired girl, his cheeks stuffed and puffing with food, his lips having trouble forming the words around the food.
"I was told that you and Lucy are close, is that true?" she asked with genuine curiosity. All throughout the few weeks that Lisanna had been back, she had been hearing tales of the blonde wizard and all the adventures she had gone on with Natsu and how the two had been practically joined at the hip. But she had never seen it for herself, yet. Whenever Lisanna came to the Guild, Lucy would apparently be out on solo missions or on a mission with Levy, or would be sitting at a table different from her best friend and teammates. So she wasn't entirely sure what to believe—what she's seeing or what she's heard.
"Oh yeah!" Natsu said with a large grin, wiping his lips after swallowing the large amounts of food in one go. "She, Happy and I made a team after I brought her here!"
"And she went on every mission with you?"
"Pretty much, yep! And whenever she tried to go by herself, we tagged along just for the heck of it. It's not like we had anything better to do." Natsu said, stuffing smaller portions of food in his mouth so he could continue to eat, but answer Lisanna.
"Then … why is it that she always turns down our offers to go on missions? I really want to get to know her, since apparently she's almost nothing like Edo-Lucy, but ever since I got back, she seems to avoid any sort of confrontation with me." Lisanna said, leaning cheek against her hand, looking over at the girl who was indulged in a novel. She had talked rather briefly with the girl after they got to meet, finding that Lucy was in fact a very sweet girl with a kind smile and good heart. Though Lisanna hadn't been the closest with the Lucy in Edolas, she knew that the dominatrix girl had been actually very kind at heart, but she kept that heart guarded with the tough exterior. So, in Lisanna's opinion, earthland Lucy was the inner Edo-Lucy brought to the surface. Sort of confusing, but Lisanna had always been good at keeping her thoughts in order.
"I … don't really know. She's never at her apartment when me and Happy go over either." The pink haired man said, his face turning slightly serious. The first time they had gone to visit her at her home since she hadn't been at the Guild that day, they had found the home vacant. They hadn't heard a thing from her until she showed up again two days later, beat and tired, but with a full reward from a mission she had taken on her own. Natsu and Happy had reigned hell down upon her for not telling them where she had went, and now, she at the least leaves them a note on her desk when she goes off, but never tells them face-to-face, which Natsu preferred she'd do.
In all honesty, he hadn't seen much of the girl. She spoke little to him and their hang out time had become nonexistent since they got back from Edolas. Team Natsu had begun bringing Lisanna on jobs to help her get back into the run of things, and she'd always be welcome with them if she didn't want to make another team. But whenever they confronted Lucy about the job, she would turn them down with a soft smile and go off on her own. It confused the hell out of everyone and concerned most of the members to the brink of tears.
"Yeah, I haven't seen much of her either." Gray added in from beside Natsu, opening one eye to read their expressions.
"The same for me." Erza tossed in, never removing her gaze from her plate of strawberry cake.
"Aye." Happy said simply, gnawing on a fish on top of Natsu's head while keeping his large black eyes on the girl. Happy was really worried about Lucy, she was beginning to look … worn down and thinner. She had large bags under her eyes and even now as she stared at her book, looked as if she was about to pass out on the table—then again, maybe she was sleeping but with her eyes opn, since she hadn't turn a page in the last twenty minutes. She looked thinner, and not the good kind; not the kind of I've-been-working-out-and-burning-the-fat-I-had-on -my-body, but the kind that says I-haven't-eaten-in-a-few-days-because-I've-been-so -busy-working. Everyone knew that Lucy would never under any circumstances skip out on meals without a real reason, she loved food, no matter how often she denied it.
Their table went silent as they all looked over at the girl, who they could all deduce was in fact sleeping sitting up. Their staring was disrupted when the unfortunate small blue haired script fairy walked through their line of vision.
"Levy!" the entire table called, making the slumbering blonde jolt slightly before slumping completely over her table into unconsciousness and nearly startling poor little Levy into a heart attack as they all rushed her. Her eyes searched her comrades' faces with frantic eyes before taking a deep breath to calm her racing heart.
"H-hi guys, what's up?" she asked a little nervously with all their intense stares.
"Do you know—" "Tell us what's going on—" "Why's Lucy acting so—" "Why's your hair blue—" "Stay out of this rookie—" "Don't just go interrupting people like that—" "Everyone shut it—" "Don't you tell me to shut—" "Can we get back to the main point—"
"What's wrong with Lucy?!" They all finally concluded, settling the confusion that had seeped into her usually organized mind from their constant talking at the same time.
"U-uh, nothing's wrong that I know of." Levy offered awkwardly, not sure what it was they meant. She had spoken recently with the girl, them having a very in depth talk about a recent novel they both had read. But she had left Lucy at her table to let the girl read and catch up on her sleep since she had been so busy on missions and having a slight case of insomnia because of her jittery nerves.
"We mean, do you know why Lucy has been 'avoiding' us as of late?" Erza asked, deciding she'd be the one to speak for them all. Levy blinked up at the red haired warrior with wide eyes before a small smile broke out on her face.
"She's not avoiding you guys, at least, not on purpose I think. She's just been really busy lately. She's been working on her novel, mostly because I'm pressuring her to hurry up. I mean, she left me at a cliffhanger in the last chapter! She can't do that and expect me to wait forever for her take her time and—"
"Levy!"
"—right, sorry. So she's been busy with her novel and she's been going out on a lot of missions because her rent got raised. I offered to help and all, but she said that she'd rather work by herself with the easier missions and that if she needed any help, she'd ask." Levy finished explaining, hoping that she had summed it up briefly enough.
"But we've been asking her to come on missions with us for weeks now, but she never wants to come with." Gray added. Levy turned her big eyes to his and her smile faltered a little, confusion yet understanding filling her brown orbs.
"Yeah, I noticed and asked her about it. She just said that she wanted to give you guys to catch up with Lisanna." Levy said with a slightly sad smile, knowing that Lucy distancing herself from her friends was hard, but was a temporary measure she wanted to make to let Lisanna get caught up with the people she had grown up with.
"Levy-san!" Jet and Droy called from the front doors, waiting for her to join them on the mission they had picked out for the three of them.
"Sorry guys, I've got to go. If you can, take Lu-chan home, she's exhausted and I think this is first time she's been able to sleep in the last couple days." Levy said with a wave before turning and running to meet her two partners, exiting out of the building with a smile.
Natsu turned his dark orbs towards his female partner, narrowing them in thought while the others conversed about what to do. So, that's what she had been doing. He'd have to talk to her, before Erza got her hands on the blonde and made the situation possibly worse, or solved it in a terrifying way.
"Happy and I will take her home." Natsu said, his eyes opening with a smile spreading across his face as his mind conjured up an idea. "Have a mission ready, too."
(V)V(V)V(V)
The next morning, Lucy woke up in her bed, not really remembering how she got home, but assumed that someone from the guild must have brought her in. She sat up with a groan, her back muscles aching from slouching over her table the day before and from the missions she had piled onto her schedule the past week. She finally finished them all and had the right amount of money to pay her rent, buy groceries and do a little shopping for a new outfit or two. So, in other words, her schedule was clear other than writing her novel and relaxing a little bit.
She sighed deeply, longing for the days to fly by faster. She had told herself that she would give the others a month with Lisanna without her nudging her way into their time. Lucy had heard stories of Lisanna and how the two of them were actually quite a bit alike. She wanted to get to know the girl, but she also wanted to give her time to adjust to coming back home after two years. Just another week, and then she would bring herself up and confront the girl, try and befriend her on a more personal level, and get back to doing missions with her friends—that is, if they would still have her. She had her concerns that once Lisanna came back, she would be pushed aside and forgotten about. But those ideas had been turned down over and over again every time they invited her on a mission with them.
She stood up from her bed, stretching her muscles in her legs and arms before setting about her morning routine. She did it a little slower than normal, not in a particular rush to get to the guild and wanted to savor the fact that she could actually take her time in the morning instead of rushing around and making sure she had everything she needed for wherever it was she had to go for her jobs. And because her morning muscles really wouldn't let her move any faster than she was.
When she was finished getting dressed, she walked down the stairs from her apartment and opened the door, preparing to step outside into the fresh air when she heard a faint noise. It sounded like a rustle, or possibly a whisper, but she couldn't really pinpoint what it was or where it was coming from.
And then she heard possibly one of the worst bird imitations that she ever had the displeasure of knowing before being thoroughly knocked off her feet and into a nearby bush.
"I got her down!" she heard an all too familiar voice yell before the words became an echo in a higher pitch when another form came crash landing on her face.
"Natsu! Happy! I told you, no tackling unless she shows resistance! I swear, I don't understand how you work with them so well, Lucy." A new female voice added in, yet did nothing to remove the weight of the two boys that was piled on top of Lucy's frame. The hot arms that had wrapped themselves around her upper body, pinning her arms to her sides with no room for escape, tightened slightly, cutting off even more of her air supply. Not to mention that Happy's furry stomach was pressed across her face, fur blocking her nose and mouth.
"MMMPHHHFFF—NFFMGG!" Lucy's muffled holler rang out, struggling to free her limbs to very little avail.
"C'mon, guys, let the poor girl breathe." Lisanna said with a small giggle. Happy backed away from her face, but only enough to let her breath, sitting a few inches away from her nose. She gulped in as much oxygen as she could greedily, thanks to Natsu finally easing his hold enough that her rips weren't being stabbed into her lungs. He sat up, still not entirely released her from his hold and sat her in his lap. "Sorry about that, Lucy. We came to talk you into going on a mission with us, but this idiot decided that Plan K was the only way to go." The white haired woman said with a small smile, squatting down in front of the two teammate and hugging her knees.
"P-plan K?"
"Well, technically, it's plan B, but Natsu wanted to call it K for 'Kidnap Lucy and make a run for it'."
Lucy threw a glare over her shoulder at the Dragon Slayer who gave an innocent grin before turning to look at Lisanna with a small smile.
"Uh, thanks for the offer, really. But I just got done with a whole ton of jobs and I sort of just wanted to relax for a few days—"
"Natsu! PLAN K!" Lisanna suddenly cut in, startling the blonde mage and kicking the cherry haired boy into action. Lucy squealed in surprise as she was suddenly thrown over Natsu's shoulder, the strongly muscled body part digging into her stomach.
"Let's go!" Natsu cheered gleefully.
"Aye!" Both Lisanna and Happy added in, all of them jumping into motion.
"B-but, wait guys! I—"
"We're not taking 'no' for an answer, Lucy!" Lisanna smile, running behind Natsu so the two girls' heads would be level. Lucy's wide brown eyes met the excited and amused blue orbs of Lisanna, and couldn't hold back the slight giggle. The two shared a smile, that is until Lucy broke it in favor of smacking Natsu on the head for putting his hand a little too low on her back.