Chapter 7: Am I gonna bend, am I gonna break?

"I… want to apologize," Natsu mumbled.

Lucy looked shocked. She'd been expecting an earful of him going on about how much he hated her, not an apology. Maybe… this guy wasn't as bad as she thought.

"I'm sorry. What was that?"

"I said I'm sorry!" He hissed. "That's all. Look I don't wanna be friends, but I don't wanna hate each other either cuz that's not what Fairy Tail is about. I should never have played dirty in our fight and I apologize."

Lucy smiled.

"No worries. I totally understand." Now, Lucy had thought that was the right thing to say and she was right.

"Did you have a sibling?" Natsu asked.

"Sort of...She was really my cousin, but we acted like sisters."

"Is she still alive?"

Lucy winced and suddenly regretted telling him that. No... not now... the barricades were falling down, both in her mind and in her eyes. Tears threatened to attack and she to do something quickly. She promised not to cry.

Natsu sensed hit struck a nerve.

"Look… I'm sorry.. I-I"

"Get out."

"I didn't know."

"Out."

Natsu left Lucy, who was now struggling to hold back the memories. Damn, it why couldn't she be normal?

Wendy and Erza walked in.

"Looks like that didn't go too well," Wendy said. Lucy calmed herself down.

"And you said we would get along."

"Ehh… you'll warm up to him. Anyway, you know, if you're up to it, there's someone I'd like you to meet."

"Who?"

"Her name is Levy."

"Ok." She sounded nice...

Five minutes later, a short blue haired girl walked in.

"Are you Lucy?" She asked.

Lucy nodded.

"Good. My name is Levy McGarden and Jet and Droy were my best friends. You killed them, right?"

Lucy suddenly regretted saying yes as she did not fancy going through another emotional rollercoaster. She slowly nodded, bracing herself for an onslaught of shouting. Instead, she got a tight hug.

"Thank you. Thank you for putting them out of their misery." The girl sobbed into her chest.

Suddenly Lucy felt very tired.

"Well, it was the most humane thing to do."

Levy stepped back and sniffled.

"I hope we can be friends from now on. No… Best Friends."

Lucy smiled and nodded as Levy gave her a room number.

"Visit me if you need anything!" She called as she walked out.

Lucy sat on the bed and announced that she was going to take a nap.

"We'll wake you up in time for dinner," Erza said as she readied a card game to play with Wendy.

Lucy mumbled a thank you before drifting off to sleep.

She was woken up all too soon by Erza and trudged to the dining hall. It was huge.

"Whoa!" She breathed.

Erza chuckled and Wendy pulled both of them to meet Mira.

"What a great surprise! Lucy, right? Welcome to Fairy Tail!"

Lucy sputtered. "I KNOW YOU!" She shouted.

"Oh my gosh! You're Mirajane Strauss, Sorcerer's Weekly top model! I used to buy an issue each week! It was my dream to meet you in person!"

Mirajane chuckled. "I'm glad somebody recognizes me. To everyone else, I'm just a really good cook."

"Yup! Her food's to die for and don't get me started on her beer!" A very drunk woman said, stumbling up to them.

"I'm Cana!" She said proudly and proceeded to cop a feel on Lucy.

"I can't believe those are real." She said before sauntering away.

The other three chuckled awkwardly as Lucy's blush began to gradually deepen until she was bright red.

Lucy quickly grabbed her food, said a quick thanks to Mira, and rushed to an open table.

Erza and Wendy quickly followed to make sure no one bothered Lucy too much.

"Yeah! And Ice Princess got knocked out in like 3 seconds by a girl." Natsu shouted.

Erza didn't like the way he said girl and broke away to defend her gender. Lucy, on the other hand, regretted choosing this table and tried to scooch further away, but a cool voice stopped her.

"Look. I'm really sorry about what happened earlier. I honestly had no idea you saved Wendy." Gray said.

Lucy forced a smile and brushed it off before trying to get back to eating.

"And please forgive Pinky over there. I don't know what he said or did, but really... He lacks a lot of brain so he can be stupid 95% of the time. Scratch that. Make it 98%. But that 2% is worth it in the end."

Lucy nodded and went back to eating her ration of soup as Gray sighed. Turning to Wendy, Lucy asked her how things at Fairy Tail were run.

"Well there's the obvious: everyone needs a job if you want to shower or eat. Except for children of course. There's a few different types of jobs: Runner, Guard, and Maintenance. Runners are the people who risk their lives to clear out sectors and bring back supplies. Guards are in charge of enforcing rules, keeping zombies away, and keeping everyone in check. And maintenance simply does things like laundry, water gathering, cooking and etc.

"Clothes, and weapons are usually distributed evenly throughout the base. Of course, you are the exception, but all weapons are supposed to be locked up unless we go off base to prevent fighting between us. The real problem is food. That's why we are working so hard to clear sector 3. It has a bunch of mini marts to feed us."

Lucy nodded.

"How far are you guys in clearing it?"

"Not that far. There was a big difference in population between sector 3 and sector 4, so there's wayyy more zombies." Wendy said.

Lucy nodded. "I'm going on a limb here in saying that Akane Resort is located in Sector 4."

Wendy nodded. "Many of the zombies there were tourists. At least, that's what I heard."

Erza returned and the three fell into easy conversation while they ate.

"Yup. I'd sleep for like 6 hours if it was secure enough and then I'd go a couple days without sleep until I find a new secure place." Lucy laughed.

"Wow. I don't think anyone here could do that." Wendy said.

"Rest assured, Lucy, that you will never have to live like that again." Erza decided.

Lucy smiled. Maybe she could finally find a home. She frowned, thinking about the last time she had felt that. She couldn't get her hopes up.

After dinner, Makarov had requested Lucy's presence, so Mirajane was kind enough to show her the way. Lucy knocked before entering.

"Good! You're here!" He said. "We are going to need to talk about your role here."

"Are you assigning me a job?"

"Spot on! So have you decided on something?"

"Runner. Definitely. It doesn't feel right sitting here when there are zombies that need to be exterminated."

"Very well then. As soon as your ribs are healed, then I'll assign you to a team so you can get the gist of everything."

"I would like that very much," Lucy replied.

"Anything else you'd like to tell me?" He asked.

Lucy cocked her head, but shook her head.

"Very well then, Miss Heartfilia. Until we meet again." He said smiling as he showed her out the door.

It wasn't until the door closed that Lucy realized what he had said.

"Interesting." Both mumbled at the same time.

Lucy spent the rest of her recovery hanging out with Wendy, Erza and Levy in their spare time reading, talking, training in secret, or playing cards. Lucy began to learn more about her friends and was shocked to hear that they all attended Fairy Tail Academy before the apocalypse.

"Yeah. I was that one nerd no one would talk to. Erza was the Student Council President. She's still very bossy. Oh! And Wendy! She had skipped a few grades and was a freshman during my junior year." Levy explained.

"And then there was Natsu, Gray, and Gajeel. The most popular seniors. They pretty much ruled the school. There was one time where a new student was shadowing. I forget her name, but she was pretty famous. Anyway, she accidentally walked into Natsu's prank for Gray and started screaming at him. It was hilarious because she was drenched like a rat and Natsu looked like he kicked a puppy. I think it was the first time he was sorry for getting another person... The school didn't stop talking about it for weeks!" Levy shrieked with laughter.

Lucy laughed. That did seem pretty funny. Perhaps Natsu wasn't so bad after all. Eying a certain pistol, Lucy excused herself from the conversation and grabbed the pistol. Maybe she could forgive him for Wendy's sake, who was ignoring her brother for the most part.

She realized her mistake when she got horribly lost. Cursing her incapability of planning ahead, Lucy tried to look for anything recognizable. There was nothing. Predictable Lucy.

"Are you lost, pretty lady?" A nasally voice asked.

"No. Just walking."

"Then why don't you come and join us?" Another asked.

Sleazebags. How did so many good people die only for these pieces of shit to survive?

"No thank you. I'm good."

"Awww. Don't be like that." The first one said.

"I said no."

"You don't know what you're missing."

"Are you deaf? The lady said no." A new voice said.

"Oh yeah? And whatcha gonna do about it?"

Lucy was surprised to see Natsu standing there.

"Whatever I have to do. No means no and it's about time you learned that."

"Ha! Ya, hear this guy? He thinks he can beat us on a 2 on 1 fight."

"Did you hear yourselves?" Lucy asked, offended. "To think you forgot about me already."

"Please. You're a girl. All you're good for is maintenance work."

"Wanna try that out you bastard?" She called, hiding her gun. Oh, that comment had really offended her if you couldn't tell...

"You asked for it."

Lucy didn't hesitate to dodge her offender's punch and slamming his head against the wall, effectively knocking him out.

She turned to fight the other guy to find him already knocked out.

"Hey! I could have handled that myself." She said.

"Oh trust me. I know. My nose can attest to that," Natsu replied. Lucy cringed, remembering that she'd broken his nose.

"I just couldn't stand to see these scumbags harass any more women. What was it that you said earlier? 'Can't let the apocalypse take anything else away?'"

"Ehhh. Close enough. Well... I guess it's good that I ran into you. I need to talk to you about something." Lucy said.

"Well, I'm all ears."

"Unfortunately, so are these punks. Let's go somewhere more private."

Natsu agreed and they walked to what appeared to be a library.

"So you're a bookworm, huh?" Natsu said.

Lucy looked a little alarmed.

"The look on your face when you entered. I've seen it before on Wendy and Levy."

Lucy nodded. It made sense. Gray was right. That 2% did count for something, but what is was really confused Lucy.

"Well, now we have some privacy. What did you want to talk about?" Natsu asked.

"Well, first, I wanted to apologize for lashing out at you earlier today. I was out of line. I am sorry."

"No worries. It was partly my fault. I shouldn't have prodded at your past. It's your business, not mine."

"Second," Lucy started, reaching into her back pocket. "I picked this up a while ago when 'scavenging' for food. Wendy said it had belonged to you, so I just wanted to give it back."

Natsu stared at the pistol in her hands. Was that- There was no way...

"I-I-I thought I had lost it for good. Thank you so much." He said quietly, carefully taking the pistol in his hands and rubbing his thumb over the dragon emblem. Lucy expected their encounter to be over, so she started slowly walking away, a small smile on her lips.

"This was the last thing my father gave to me before he disappeared during the first few weeks of the apocalypse. I had lent it to Gray once during a hunt, but he dropped it while stripping. I can't say how much this means to me." Natsu said tears forming in his eyes.

He suddenly hugged Lucy tightly. At first, Lucy was surprised, but then she relaxed and returned the hug. Yet, something was bugging her.

"Stripping?" She questioned.

"Yeah. Ice Princess strips every second he can. Claims it's a habit, but I think he just enjoys the attention."

Lucy raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"It's true! You'll see soon." He said, taking his arms off of her and she laughed.

"I'm sure I will." Lucy wasn't sure if she should believe Natsu.

"Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow!" He sang as he ran to check his weapon in before Max left for the day.

Lucy watched him as he left and was about to head to her room, but a certain book caught her eye. She took it off the shelf and started flipping through it.

"I didn't peg you to be a manga reader." A squeaky voice peeped. Lucy turned around in surprise. It was Levy.

"Well, I had started the series, but never got to finish it. It was pretty good." Lucy explained.

"Obviously! You're holding a copy of Rave Master! It was THE BEST manga, especially according to the old high school. Haru and Ellie were all relationship goals and Plue was -more or less- the mascot of our high school." Levy fangirled.

"Then I guess I'll have to hurry up and finish this during my free time!" Lucy said excitedly, happy to finally have someone to talk to about books. Her father hadn't really cared and her mother never understood her fascination with books.

"Ya know… You're different than I thought." Levy said suddenly. Lucy's eyebrows rose.

"Is that a good thing or bad thing?" She said cautiously.

"A good thing. Definitely. I just mean…. Never mind. Let's go head to your room. I think Erza wants to play Monopoly or something." Levy said.

"Alright then! Let's go!"

(2469) oh yeah! is that my highest score yet?

To keep it short and sweet: THANKS! Imma skip the comment answering and push it off to the next chapter because its really late and I just rewrote the entire chapter... So please rate and review and stuff while I take a nice and long nap.

G'night!