For people who followed the previous version of this fanfic (New Adventures) welcome back and if you're new hello! As promised, here's the first chapter of the new version of NA. I've changed the plot a little bit, nothing too drastic, but I'm far happier with this than I am now about the original. The original will still be up if any of you want to read it but this version is going to be a lot better (I hope you agree with me). Again I can't thank you enough for continuing to stick with this story and for being patient with me.
Any other girl in Fiore would have killed for Lucy's life. If Lucy wanted anything she got it immediately. She had money, clothes fit for a princess, tutors, and a sprawling estate that could easily be mistaken for a town. Only a couple of years ago Lucy had loved being here, but that was when her mother was alive. Layla Heartfilia had been seriously ill for two or three years before her sickness claim her life. That was when Lucy's life changed dramatically, and not for the better. The graceful gates that surrounded the estate turned into barbed wire and the wealthy estate, a prison. Lucy's father had become the warden, never letting her leave the property without permission (which he never gave), or when she did leave, it was in an armored car going to meet a potential suitor that her father had arranged for her. Maybe if she wasn't alone her captivity would have been more bearable, but her only friends were the staff that worked at the estate. Some nights, Lucy still cried and mourned the life she had before her mother's death, when Lucy felt loved and well-cared for, not now when she felt like something you could use to trade with at a market. Layla had taught her daughter all there was to know about the stars, their positions, and their stories. Whenever Lucy was feeling particularly sad, she would go into the manicured gardens next to her mother's grave, lie down on the soft grass, and stargaze for hours before eventually falling asleep. The idea that the stars had once been living things that had been pinned up in the night sky made Lucy feel less alone, made her feel comforted.
The day that gave her the push she needed to run away was the day before her birthday. Everything had been normal until Loke told her to go to her father's office. A ball of lead coalesced in her stomach and she felt nauseous. Not because she was sick, but because of the fact that this would be another meeting for her father to demand that she go visit a business partner and his son. Loke gave her a sympathetic smile and a pat on the back before going somewhere else. He sometimes disappeared from days or weeks at a time. She had asked where he went but she always got vague answers. Lucy chalked it up to doing business for her father. As Lucy walked down the marble-floored hallway her footsteps echoed throughout the silent hall. Then, more than ever, she realized just how vacated this mansion really was. It was designed to house dozens of people and to entertain hundreds, but the only occupants were her father, the servants, and herself. Once Lucy reached the solid oak door, she gathered her courage and tried to curb her anxiety and knocked on the door. "Come in," called a gruff voice and the oak door slid open silently at the press of a button from her father.
"You called for me Father?" Lucy asked, not wasting time on pleasantries, they would just have been ignored anyway. She would have taken a seat on one of the leather chairs in front of his large desk but didn't want to seem disrespectful. After a couple of moments of Lucy standing there awkwardly while he looked through papers, Jude Heartfilia cleared his throat.
Jude Heartfilia owned one of the more powerful businesses in Fiore. He held a monopoly on transportation like trains and airplanes. After his wife passed away, work was the only thing on Jude Heartfilia's mind. The only time he ever spent with Lucy was if a marriage could be arranged to help benefit the family company. Based off of that, Lucy assumed that this visit would be about another potential suitor. She would argue back, and if he was angry enough he might even go as far to hit her, which he had done before.
"I received a message from one of my associates from another business," he began and Lucy internally sighed. Here we go, she thought. "He has a son five years older than you that is ready for marriage. If it's agreeable with you, we will visit them tomorrow." A bitter laugh almost escaped the Lucy's mouth, but she bit her tongue. The fact that he made it seem like she actually had a choice in this matter was laughable. Lucy could lock herself in her room and he would probably bust the door down.
"If I do have a choice in this, then I politely decline. I don't want to marry someone who's older than I am, let alone someone I've never met before." Lucy's indirect challenge to his authority caused a vein to pulse in his forehead. Preparing herself for the inevitable she backed up from where she was standing, planning a route to the door in case she had to escape. Jude stood up so forcefully, his chair flew backwards into the wall and Lucy's heart rate accelerated. In three wide steps, he reached where she was standing and mercilessly grabbed her wrist. If it were possible her heart rate skyrocketed and she winced at the pain, knowing a bruise would form by tomorrow.
"Whether you like it or not, you are going tomorrow evening and marriage arrangements will be made by the end of the night. This could be my one chance to expand our business into another region in Ishgar," he growled. "You will not ruin this for me. Now go to your room, I'll have dinner sent up for you." In a last-ditch attempt to persuade him Lucy collected her courage.
"Tomorrow is my birthday," she whimpered, her courage failing as tears flooded her brown eyes. The only response was a sharp blow to her face. Trying to quiet the sobs that were wracking her body she ran out of the room and back to her figurative prison cell. That's it, Lucy thought through her tears. I can't be here anymore.
Later that night, Lucy had changed into black leggings and a plain, black top. It sounded like what something a character in a book would wear. The first issue Lucy had with running away was disabling the camera in her room. She was pretty sure if she broke it then an alarm would sound and that would be the end of that. However, she did know that nobody watched the cameras at night unless an alarm went off. Based on that she grabbed her sheets off the bed and dragged her desk chair under the camera that was placed in the corner. It had a view of the rest of the room and the only blind spot was right below it. Once she covered the camera though it wouldn't make a difference. Lucy doubled the sheet up so it was harder to see through. Satisfied with her work, she got down off the chair and rummaged through her desk drawers. If she removed the screen from her window an alarm sensitive to pressure would go off, but nothing would happen if the screen was ripped. She needed to figure out how to make it to the ground safely first. Lucy decided to cut the screen down the middle and then she could shove a pillow out. Seeing as she had so many pillows on her bed that she never used finding one to push out the window was easy. Next came jumping out the window, which she wasn't looking forward to, but she had to do it.
The pillow did cushion her fall but that didn't stop the impact from jostling her knees and ankles. Lucy took a minute or two to roll out her ankles before getting up. Her last obstacle was getting past the gate. She had learned the hard way that the fence was electrified; what type of father was fine with his daughter getting burned hands from electricity, Lucy had no idea. Before she did anything else she picked some flowers from one of the many gardens and placed them at her mother's gravestone.
"I know you would support me," she whispered before turning around. When Lucy got back to the gate she ran her fingers over the brick walls, waiting to find a keypad she could enter the code of the gate into. Loke had mercifully kept her aware of what the passwords were and when they changed. The gate swung open and Lucy practically bolted through the gate. She didn't glance back at her childhood home as she ran down the street towards the city of Crocus, only a ten minute walk away from the Heartfilia Estate.
During the day, from what Lucy had observed, the capital was filled with flowers, laughter, and people swarming the streets at open-air markets buying food, and of course the flowers. Crocus was famous for its flowers and it attracted a lot of tourists. Now at night, the streets were deserted. Some restaurants were still open. Light, laughter, and voices spilled out of the windows and into the silent streets. As much as Lucy would have loved to find something to eat, she hadn't had the foresight to bring money or anything worth trading with her. Tired and running out of energy she stopped walking and rested against the side of a building. Lucy would have used this time to think but scuffling noises and voices distracted her. Quickly she flattened herself up against the wall and held her breath.
"Is this the place?" a male's voice asked.
"Yeah it is. Lay the explosives at the corners of the building, then we can just get out of here and activate them when we're farther away," another voice instructed. Lucy's heart raced. This had to be one of Fiore's notorious vigilante groups that people knew of but didn't know much about. Every now and then you would hear something on a news broadcast about how a group started a shooting or blew up a building. Lucy was frozen, if she wanted to move she couldn't. If she moved she probably would be caught. It was even more dangerous because she didn't know what group this was.
"Gajeel is something wrong?" the voice that was giving instructions asked. Lucy's eyes widened. Gajeel was a member of Fairy Tail, the most powerful group in Fiore.
"You don't smell anything off Salamander?" Lucy knew she was dead. Salamander was Natsu Dragneel's nickname and he was Fairy Tail's leader. But they couldn't smell her…could they?
"No, there's someone here." A sharp crack pierced the air and a "what the hell was that for?" in response.
"Idiot! I thought you told me the area was clear!" Salamander yelled.
"I did, don't blame this on me," Gajeel argued back. "Fine, I'll go find this person." Running would have been the safest option at this point but Lucy was shaking so much she couldn't move. From what she understood, Fairy Tail only killed people who either made them angry, posed a threat, or was just problematic whether it was just for them or for the whole of Fiore. Maybe she would be safe, maybe. Lucy's eyes were squeezed shut but she had the feeling that eyes were on her. Very slowly she opened them and saw a bulky figure with red eyes peering at her curiously. "Found her Salamander."
"No don't take the explosives away! We won't get this chance again! Don't give me that look Ice Princess!" Salamander yelled before making his way over to where Gajeel and Lucy were standing. The figure that was approaching them seemed to flick something on a lamppost and suddenly there was light. Lucy noticed that Salamander had dark eyes and the pink hair that he was well known for. His trademark scaly scarf was around his neck and he peered at Lucy curiously. "Gajeel go away, you're scaring her."
"How am I doing that?" Gajeel protested.
"Because you look terrifying and your creepy red eyes don't help at all," Natsu reasoned. "Now go make sure that they don't screw up please." Grumbling under his breath, Gajeel left Lucy and Natsu alone on the street corner. "Would you mind telling me your name?"
"Lucy," she whispered refusing to make eye contact. His eyebrows drew together.
"You're not going to tell me your last name are you?" Natsu asked softly and Lucy shook her head. "Can you at least take the hood off?" With trembling hands Lucy pushed the black fabric off of her head and waited for him to recognize her as the Heartfilia heiress. "You're Lucy Heartfilia right?" Natsu pressed through gritted teeth. Once Lucy gave a small nod Natsu continued his interrogation. "What are you doing here? I swear if your dad sent you here as a trap I'll kill him."
"Why would he set a trap?" Lucy questioned nervously. "He's never had any contact with Fairy Tail before, not that I know of anyway."
Natsu's mind was whirling. Jude Heartfilia's daughter was standing in front of him trembling from fear, and apparently she had no idea that her father was tangled in Fiore's underground system? "How much do you know about his work?" Natsu asked, as he began to relax. She might not pose as much of a threat as he initially thought.
"Nothing I swear! He doesn't tell me anything, unless there's a potential suitor," the Heartfilia heiress replied bitterly.
"What are you doing all the way out here?" Natsu continued his interrogation but now his voice was less harsh and Lucy slowly began to feel less threatened.
"I ran away from home," Lucy told him, "I couldn't take being there anymore."
"What happened to your cheek?" Natsu shot out another question and Lucy instinctively put her hand to cover the left side of her face. Natsu frowned and gently grabbed Lucy's hand and pulled it away from her face. With his other hand, he turned her face towards the light only to see a purple bruise. "How did you bruise it?" The question came out more tender and concerned than Lucy would have thought. Natsu's mind was working quickly, trying to put together all the pieces of the information that Lucy had given him. Obviously, she and her father weren't on good terms but Natsu hoped that even Jude Heartfilia had some decency to treat his only living immediate family well.
"My father hit me for not wanting to meet a suitor," Lucy whimpered and she felt tears come to her eyes. Natsu started to freak out, if there was one thing he hated dealing with, it was crying girls.
"Don't cry, you don't have to go back there if you don't want to," he quickly reassured her, and she looked at him with wide, tearful brown eyes. A pang went through Natsu's heart, and he felt bad for her. Yes, his father had disappeared a couple of years ago, but he and Natsu had an amazing relationship. The fact that there were innocent people like Lucy being hurt for no reason made him angry.
"Really? You mean that?" she sounded hopeful and Natsu smiled.
"I mean, I can't let you go regardless because the last thing I need is someone finding out that you met me. That would bring a lot of trouble that I really don't want to deal with. And besides, I can't let you go back to an abusive father. I always knew Jude was an asshole, but I thought he'd be above abusing his only family at the most. Anyway, you didn't have any plans did you?"
"No, I didn't. I wasn't thinking about that when I escaped," Lucy admitted.
"You're going to have to tell me how you did that, I'd love to hear that story. But you're coming with us." He stretched out his hand and Lucy grabbed it tentatively. "Guys get in the car! When we're ten minutes away activate the explosives." And just like that Lucy was forced to accept her new reality. Was she captured? Or was this a blessing in disguise? She wasn't entirely sure. At that moment Lucy was trying to combine what she had heard about the infamous Natsu Dragneel on the news with the person she had just met. Maybe he was their leader, but he seemed so angry at the fact that Lucy had been abused, even if it was just a little bit, that she couldn't help but think that he was, at heart, a good person.
"Where'd the girl come from? Did you find a girlfriend Flame Brain?" a teenage boy around Lucy's age teased.
"Shut the fuck up Gray, I'll tell you about it later. Right now just get us home," he ordered. "Go to sleep Lucy, it'll be a couple of hours." Lucy didn't need encouragement. She rested her head against the plush leather interior and drifted off to sleep.
And we're off!