Category: Friendship Fluff

Characters: Lucy Heartfilia

Requested by: Anonymous User

Lucy couldn't help but smile elatedly as she stepped off the train, stretching her arms above her head and working out the stiffness in her legs before exhaling deeply.

"Ahhhh~ We're finally home!" she exclaimed. All she got from Natsu and Wendy were a pair of identical labored groans, while Gray was indifferently staring off into space. Erza, at least, came up behind her to clap her in the back with an affirmative nod, but the woman's absurd strength caused Lucy to lose her balance and stumble forward with arms pin-wheeling. "Ack! Ow! That hurt, Erza…" she pouted as she looked over her shoulder at the red-haired warrior woman. Erza had already turned her attention on Natsu and Gray, who were bickering like usual, but a pair of whacks over their heads shut them right up. Lucy tried to ignore the burning between her shoulder blades as she absentmindedly picked up her bag and began walking toward the station exit; as she was, she accidentally walked to closely to someone and bumped them in the arm. "Oh, please exc- Huh?" There was no one there, at least not anyone close enough to have bumped into- only a man further down the line walking briskly toward the platform. "How odd…"

"I'm hungry!" Natsu suddenly roared so intensely that a small bit of fire burst from his mouth, catching the end of poor Wendy's pigtail on fire. She wailed in fright and ran around in circles with tears streaming down her cheeks until Gray caught the flaming hair between his hands and instantly quelled the small fire with his ice magic, leaving the wind dragon-slayer whimpering and lamenting the burned ends of her pretty, dark hair.

"Cut it out! You're making a racket!" the ice wizard scolded Natsu, who puffed out his cheeks defiantly.

"Nuh-uh! You're making a racket, so shut the hell up!"

"You tell him, Natsu!" Happy quipped thinking he was being supportive. Charlie rolled her eyes and shook her head at the hopelessly optimistic cat. Gray and Natsu began bickering again, pressing their foreheads together as they ground their teeth, until Erza once again knocked them upside their seemingly empty heads.

"Both of you are making a racket and can shut the hell up!"

"Sorry, Erza," they chimed begrudgingly in sync as they placed a large amount of distance between themselves and the woman, and rubbed the growing lumps on their heads.

"Now, then, I suppose we are all hungry and should therefore find someplace to eat," Erza smiled magnanimously and put her hands on her hips, now that her scolding was finished.

"Oh! I know! Let's eat at Lucy's house!" Happy offered, and before Lucy could argue, they all chimed in agreement that Lucy's home cooking was exactly what they needed. Lucy remained in the station with her head hung and her mood somber as they strutted off to break into her house while she ran to the store to buy enough food to satiate the overpowered mages- all by their decision, of course. Oh, man… There goes all my reward money, she lamented miserably and began shuffling off towards the market district, practically watching the money fly right out of her pockets.

It was a short walk to the local grocery store, and like the train station the streets were quite empty. Normally it didn't bother Lucy, but for some reason during that evening in particular, she was feeling watched; all throughout her walk and her shopping she glanced over her shoulder, expecting to see someone standing behind her, but just like at the train station she was greeted with only empty air. As she walked down the road alongside the harbor towards her home, carrying two shopping bags full of food for the waiting mages, she could not keep the shivers from traveling up her spine.

What's wrong with me? Why am I so paranoid right now? Their mission hadn't even been particularly dangerous or involved renegade guilds, so it wasn't like she was expecting to be targeted for any reason. Biting down on her lip nervously, she again cast a glance over her shoulder towards the end of the street expecting to again be met with only shadows; except, this time she wasn't. There was someone behind her- and not far behind her, either. Lucy screamed in fright as a cloak-clad man seemingly emerged from the night to grab her by her arms, and she dropped the grocery bags and sent various meats and vegetables scattering into the street. Before she could scream again, another pair of individuals, apparently his comrades, sprang from an alley to subdue her, one of them pressing a rag over her mouth to silence her screams. A sickly-sweet smell wafted up her nose, one she supposed to be that of a sedative, and she tried her hardest to resist breathing in the fumes. However, with her struggling movements and agitated state, her breathing rate was far higher than normal, and she could not break free of their grasps long enough to escape the noxious odors. Over several minutes, Lucy's jerky movements transitioned into weak, languid ones, and her mind muddled as her vision began to fog up as she suffocated under the liquid-soaked rag. The last thing she could remember thinking of was that she wasn't going to make it to dinner, before it all faded into darkness.

Lucy's transition into consciousness was slow. Her eyelashes fluttered as her vision refocused in the dark, gloomy atmosphere around her. Gradually, her body stopped feeling numb and her senses returned, and she found with alarm that her arms were tied above her head and her precious Celestial keys were not hanging at her waist. Even worse, she realized that her clothes had been changed; her typical attire had been replaced with a very revealing outfit, a band around her bust and a slitted skirt decorated with plastic jewels and dangling decorations. Her shoes were gone, too, replaced with a pair of gold ankle bracelets, and glittering jewel earrings hung from her ears. It was oddly reminiscent of the attire she had worn during their operation concerning the Dragon Cry, when she had danced in a bar. Her face instantly flushed like Natsu's fiery breath when she came to the conclusion that someone had changed her clothes. As she looked around wildly, rapidly descending into a mixture of fury and fear, she found that presumed someone sitting in a chair at the other end of the room. He was shrouded in the gloom. Lucy instantly shut her eyes when he reached up to flip on the lights, blinded by its intensity, until they adjusted enough for her to crack one open and glare at him.

"I'm so glad you're awake."

"Who are you, you creep? What have you done with my keys?" she demanded, her anger taking over for a moment. She gritted her teeth as he swung them nonchalantly around his fingers, their jingling filling the small, plain room. "Stop that! They're not a musical instrument, you know!" He just laughed and caught them in his hand, tucking them into his pocket before standing up. He was a handsome man; Lucy could even see that in her dire situation, with luscious brown hair, piercing blue eyes, and chiseled features, dressed in a suit. Well, a handsome creep is still a creep! "Where's your two lackeys?"

"Oh, they're nothing to worry about. Their job was finished, so I sent them on their way," he answered vaguely.

"Who are you? What do you want from me? Are you a part of a dark guild? I'm warning you, Fairy Tail won't take this lightly!"

"Oh, no. I'm not associated with any guild, and Fairy Tail means nothing to me." As he said that, he vanished from Lucy's sight, and she recoiled in bewilderment as she looked around the now empty room. What? Where did he go? She gasped as he abruptly appeared right before her eyes, lighting putting a finger beneath her chin. "I'm still a mage, though. I get offers all the time, as you can imagine; invisibility magic is highly useful for things like assassinations and kidnappings. I did mess up at the train station, though. I was just so flustered by you touching me like that." Lucy's red face instantly paled to the color of snow, not ignorant to the insinuations behind his remark. She swallowed slightly, trying to keep her composure. Showing weakness in front of him would mean he had already won.

"Some mage you are, then. If you're not with a dark guild and aren't after Fairy Tail, then what do you want?" She wasn't even sure why she asked the question, because she just knew she wouldn't like the answer. He chuckled softly, and under normal circumstances, she might have thought that he had a very nice laugh.

"Oh, Lucy, dear, isn't it obvious? I want you." Though she was beginning to panic on the inside, lacking her keys and no idea where she was or if her friends were going to be able to find her, she remained composed enough to glare acidly up at him. "Oh, my. What an ugly expression on such a pretty face," he tutted and patted her cheek. When she whipped her head in an attempt to bite him, he hastily pulled back his hand and laughed heartily. "Such a spirited one!"

"Take these ropes off me and I'll show you how spirited I am, mister."

"I think not," he mused and vanished again, only to reappear across the room. She narrowed her eyes as he pulled out her keys again, and then they widened as he gripped Leo's key tightly between his two hands, in the position to snap it right in half. "Oh, yes, you realize what a position you're in now, don't you? You keep acting like that, and I'll have to punish you." Losing one of her keys, especially Loki, with whom she had been through so much, was more than she could bear, and her tough person instantly shattered.

"No! Please! I'll do whatever you want! Don't break my keys!" Loki had the ability to make his own gate, so she expected him to appear in that moment, but he didn't. Tears stung her eyes as she strained against the ropes tied around her wrists. "I'm begging you!"

"That's more like it," he smirked at her, but relaxed his grip on the key a little. "Your little Celestial friends can't save you. I have a special spell in place that suppresses Celestial power, so that's why your little lion friend can't come through the gate." How the hell did he know about that? "I know a lot about you, Lucy." She recoiled, pressing back against the wall. It was almost like he read her mind, though it was probably just that her face was showing all her emotions right now. "I'm so in love with you, you see, that I just have to know everything about you."

"I've never even met you!" she growled. There was more tremor in her voice than she would have liked.

"I saw you dance in Stella." What? That's what this is all about? This creep wants to see me belly-dance again? she thought incredulously. As she debated struggling, her eyes landed on Leo's key clutched in his hands, and all thoughts of defiance vanished completely. Her shoulders sagged as she hung her head, not wanting him to see her bottom lip wobbling as the tears flooded her eyes. What do I do? This situation is hopeless… Even if he takes the ropes off, I can't risk him breaking the key… I can't lose another one of them again… Losing Aquarius nearly broke her; she couldn't imagine having to part with another one of her spirits. My only hope… Is Natsu and the others… Surely, they had realized that something had happened when she hadn't turned up, and Natsu and Wendy's acute senses of smell would hopefully lead them to her. However, she had no idea how long she had been unconscious or how far away from home she was. She raised her head miserably, wearied by the hopelessness of it all.

"What do you want?" she asked again, feebly, fearfully.

"I just want to see you dance again, my dear Lucy." I can't fight him, not when he's holding my keys hostage. I just have to do what he says, and hope they're coming for me… She nodded obediently, and he procured a small dagger to walk over and slice the ropes around her wrists. While her arms dropped and she rubbed the red, scraped areas of her wrists where the ropes had chafed her, he plopped down in the chair again with a darkly eager expression, the golden key still trapped in his fingers as a reminder for her to stay docile. She had no music, but Lucy still fell into the dancing pose anyway; thankfully, it hadn't been that long since Stella, and she remembered the steps.

The plastic jewels and gold, dangling accents on her outfit jingled faintly as she glided in her bare feet across the dirty brick floor, and she felt sickened, reminded of the way he so carelessly jangled her beloved keys. She fought the nausea, sensually moving around the small room, moving her arms here and swinging her arms there, with the occasional seductive swish of her hips or dramatic toss of her head. All the while, she could feel his eyes boring into her and exploring every part of her body. It made her even more sick to her stomach, and she tried to keep the expression of acute disgust from forming on her face, for fear of retaliation against her spirits. Just focus on what you're doing, Lucy. "Won't you come a bit closer?" Lucy's step faltered, and her arms hung in the air for a brief moment as her heart rate skyrocketed. She didn't want to go anywhere near him. He smiled thinly, tapping his finger against the end of the key, and so she smiled serenely back at him before dancing across the room to stand in front of him. Now, she danced slowly in a circle around the chair, and was even more aware of his pervasive staring. As she came around the side of him, his arm shot out to encircle her bare waist and stop her in her tracks. "Magnificent. You dance like the stars are at your feet, Lucy." As he pulled her closer to the chair, the key shifting in his hand in such a way that the low light flashed across its golden surface, Lucy's anxiety threatened to boil over. Oh my God, what is he going to do to me? He must have felt her fear mounting, because he reached around with his other hand to hold the key in a breaking position again, leaving Lucy trapped in the circle that was his arms. "Careful, now." His voice was breathy, full of threat and desire. "Come, Lucy. Show me what it's like to be among the stars."

That's when Natsu came crashing through the brick wall.

"I'll show you the stars, asshole!" he howled as he drop-kicked Lucy's aggressor in the side of the head. As he lost his grip on the keys and they went sailing through the air, jingling wildly, Lucy jumped up to catch them. As her hand wrapped around Leo's key, she could feel the power humming within it, and it began to glow. Without her even reciting the invocation, Loki appeared in front of her, his hands in his suit pants pockets and a vicious scowl on his face. Apparently Natsu landing such a blow on the man had deactivated his preventative magic.

"I'm gonna kick your ass for touching Lucy like that, you scumbag!" he shouted, then shot a grin at her. "By the way, you look lovely~" Hearts were practically beating in his eyes.

"Who cares? Get to kicking his ass already!" she demanded angrily and pointed at the creep, who was picking himself up out of the rubble of the other wall, which Natsu had sent him crashing through. As he struggled to get to his feet, Gray appeared through the dust and jerked him up by the back of his jacket.

"You messed with the wrong people," he frowned.

"How are you already shirtless?!" Lucy cried and face-palmed, while Gray cried out in shock and looked down at himself. With the momentary distraction, his captive was able to use his vanishing magic.

"What the hell? Where did he go?" Gray cried as his jacket appeared in his hands. Apparently, the magic only pertained to things directly touching him.

"He uses invisibility magic!" she answered, and Loki stepped back to shield her with his arm, anticipating that he would target her first. Wendy had also clambered over the half-collapsed wall to run to her side, and stood behind her with her arms spread on either side of her to likewise shield Lucy with her body. She wrinkled her nose and narrowed her eyes.

"Natsu-!"

"Yeah, I know! Vanish all you like, asshole, I can still smell you!" With that exclamation, Natsu sprang at thin air, but rather than land on the ground he remained hanging in the air with his arms and legs wrapped around what she figured must be the mage, cloaked in his invisibility. After a second, he dropped the spell and angrily tugged at Natsu, who was clinging to him like some sort of monkey on his back.

"Get off me!" he demanded, and managed to grab ahold of the back of Natsu's shirt and fling him into the wall. Natsu's curses were buried under the pile of bricks that came crashing down on top of him. However, this provided enough time for Erza to step onto the scene.

"That's quite enough, you villain!" Though she whacked him over the back of his head with the blunt side of her sword, Lucy still knew that there was enough power behind the attack to be immensely effective- and painful. He crumpled like a rag doll at the knight's feet, moaning in pain even though he was completely unconscious. "There. That takes care of that." As she primly put her hands on her hips, Natsu's head popped out of the rubble, coated in brick dust.

"No fair! I wanted to sock him!" he whined loudly.

"That's beside the point, Natsu!" Wendy cried and whipped around to face Lucy. "Are you okay, Lucy? Did he hurt you?"

"No," she shook her head, but her expression was sad as she held her keys against her chest. "I couldn't do anything… He held my keys hostage…" Lucy was just now beginning to realize how completely powerless she had been. I relied completely on these guys to come save me… After all this time and everything that's happened, I still depend on them so much… Tears crept back into her eyes and flowed down her cheeks.

"Eh? Natsu, you made her cry!" Gray accused.

"What? How? Why? What did I say?" he stammered quickly in confusion and wriggled out of the pile of rubble to scramble over to her and grab her hands, bringing his face close as he looked down at her with a serious expression. "Don't cry, Lucy! I didn't mean it!... Whatever I said," he said as his expression morphed into a perplexed frown.

"No, it's not that… It's just how powerless I was," she sighed, shoulders sagging. "I should have put up a better fight."

"Nah, you did your best!" he grinned brightly at her, making her look up with wide eyes. "It's okay! Sometimes you just can't win, and that's what we're here for, right guys?"

"That's right! We'll always come for you when you need help! Isn't that right, Charlie?" Wendy giggled, her pigtails swishing as she looked to her beloved partner for agreement. The pretty flying cat nodded in agreement, to which Happy chirped, "Aye!"

"Yeah. We know how important your keys are to you. It was a jerk move, playing like he was going to break them like that," Gray agreed, then looked at Loki. "Also, thanks for your help- oh, wait, you didn't do anything."

"Shut up! I came to my lovely Lucy's aid!" Loki pouted while wrapping an arm around her shoulders, which made her sigh deeply and sag her shoulders out of weariness, not in the mood to deal with his flirtatiousness.

"Thanks, Loki, but you can go home now."

"Aw, Lucy! You're so cold!" he whined but obediently let her go. He then flashed her a wink. "If it hadn't been for that magic barrier, I would've been here in an instant! I'll always protect you, Lucy, no matter what!" he snickered before returning through his gate. It did bring a smile to Lucy's face.

"Yes. We are all here to support you when you need it," Erza nodded, but it was hard to take her seriously when she was sadistically stepping on the unconscious man's back, making him continuously squeak in pain. Lucy chuckled and shook her head at the antics of the dysfunctional but fun group. In their weird way, they did make her feel better.

"Thank you, everyone." It's okay to rely on them sometimes. After all, there are times that they'll have to rely on my power, too. That's what friends do.

"By the way, are you still making dinner?" Natsu asked hopefully. Lucy's mood did a one-eighty.

"This time you'll be the one seeing stars, Natsu!"

Lucy had found the most destructive, crazy, dysfunctional, altogether outrageous family ever- but no matter how much they got on her nerves (particularly a certain pink-haired dragon-slayer) and how much they bickered, she knew they would always come together to protect each other when it counted. Lucy was proud to be a part of it, and couldn't think of a better family to be a part of.