8 years have passed and Natsu and Lucy are both 14 years old but today is Lucy's birthday and she had to spend that day in a rotten wooden chair because apparently she hit a guard with her shovel.
'I didn't do it. I didn't do it' that was all that was going through Lucy's head, Lucy could bare being hit and whipped but not the electric chair they seem to put her on that chair often and she hated that chair.
"So what are we going to do with that one" A man said on the other end of the door,
"What number 3173? I don't know I'm just having fun punishing her" Lucy could feel a wicked smile coming her way through that door,
"If you're going to kill me then you better get on with it" by this time Lucy had worked up courage and having no trust in anybody and forgetting her past. The doors opened heavy feet were heard this is what Lucy was waiting for, she already undone the rope behind her and on her feet all she needed was the perfect moment.
"Hey old man can I eat now?" Natsu said sitting on the floor with his hands holding his belly.
"NO, KEEP SCRUBBING!" Makarov said making scrub the whole house and it was pretty big, but luckily for Natsu he wasn't the only one doing it, he had some stripper dude called Grey, a guy with piercings all over his face called Gajeel, a little angel called Wendy and a beautiful bar maid who just served them drinks but she didn't do any work called Mira-jane.
"But master..."
"No buts Wendy"
"Hey gramps my back aches"
"So does mine but you don't see me complaining do you Grey"
"Ghehehehehe"
"Don't know what you're laughing at Gajeel" with that he hit all the boys' heads with a stick and hit the girl's bottoms. Makarov was making them do all his work in exchange for training, I mean nothings free.
"Hey, Natsu why are you doing this again?" Wendy asked whilst getting looks from the other guys
"Here we go again"
"Wendy, I am doing this for my old friend who was taken by those weird bandits and I plan on bringing her back and the others."
"I wanna help to" Wendy said grabbing his arm, "And to get to training quicker I'll help you clean as well" Natsu smiled in agreement and they were helping each other so they can train to bring back everyone who was taken.
"I think they're getting it Mira"
"I think you right master" Makarov smiled that his training was paying off and how he had grown over the 8 years he took care of him.
"Hey my friend Erza was taken by them as well"
"Don't tell me you're gunner do that thing as well Grey?"
"Yeah I am, but I am not helping that ash brain get his girl I'm just getting her them I'm out."
Gajeel just shrugged his shoulders and rolling his eyes to this idea but he went along with it as well, soon they were helping each other finish their cleaning and were eating, resting and training.
"If I were to kill you the boss man wouldn't like it, so we are just gunner do it slowly" They came real close to Lucy's face grabbed her chin and lifted her head up noticing she was grinning,
"What the..." and with that Lucy kicked them both got out off the chair and hit them both over the head with it, then grabbed their keys to let out everyone else. She walked out with a sac of something,
"Lucy over here" Erza yelled
"Did you get it?" Loki said
"Yeah I got it" Lucy said showing them the sac and letting them see inside
"We mustn't forget about these Kay, we need them for when we are older when we are manlier" Elf man said looking at everyone who nodded. They put the sac in the whole they dug and buried it back up, then putting a mark on the wall next to it so they knew where it was.
"Now Lu-chan you know you're gunner get court"
"Not if others find them in a different cell with a broken chair in that one and a fixed chair in my one" She said that with a straight face while others smiled at her. They walked of laughing then went back to sadness when guards were looking at them but they didn't care they had a way of getting out and it was perfect.
"HEY BOSS SAID TO MOVE SOME OF THE BRATS TO THE OTHER PLACE" One guard said and made the five of them sticks their heads up to listen.
"OKAY, TAKE THE 6TH AND 7TH NUMBERS 1005 TO 4008"
They were glad the 5th group wasn't picked now their plan can work. (Remember the sac guys)
Natsu and the others were training so hard and already began getting muscles Gajeel already had a 4 pack and Grey too, no one knew if Natsu did because he would never take his top of or brag about it, he was determined to find her, he swore on the dagger he would find her and bring her back, he still trains with that dagger he doesn't want to lose it.
"Natsu do you have any muscles under that top" Grey said smirking.
"Probably not, from all the food he's been eating" Gajeel said laughing at the kid.
"Ha-ha, very funny, maybe I do maybe I don't" Natsu said and was back to throwing the dagger at the target. Everyone had their own weapon Gajeel has a steel blade, Wendy has a bow and arrow, Mira-jane has guns and Grey has well no one knows what he has because no one has seen him train with it.
"Hey ice princess why is your room always cold"
"Isn't that way of task?"
"Yeah, well I wanna know"
"Well I like it cold. Why is you're room so hot?"
"Because I'm hot" by that moment everyone was laughing at the tone he used it was like a smug way, but it got pay back from calling him fat.
Night came and the moon was whole and Natsu just stared up at the sky remembering how Lucy loved the stars and the tales Layla told her and him. His favourite one as the one about the crab well any story about the crab because it sounded like food to him.
"Natsu not every tale has to be about crabs" little Lucy said
"Why not, they the best ones" Little Natsu said rubbing his tummy
"You always think about your stomach" Lucy flicked him on the fore head and giggling when natsu pretended it was so powerful it knocked him of the bed.
Natsu just laid there looking up at the sky giggling to himself with his finger on the spot where Lucy always flicked him. Wendy saw this she was about to say something but she didn't want to stop his happiness she just smiled and walked down the hill.
"Wendy what are you doing up?" Makarov said drinking his tea
"I was going to see if Natsu-san was okay but when I saw him giggling and smiling I just left him to it" The little girl said joining him. Makarov just closed his eyes and took a deep breath,
"What's wrong master?" Wendy said with wide eyes
"Nothing, I'm just remembering the day Natsu said that he would do anything for this girl but to be honest I think she's..."
"Master don't say it, if you say Natsu could hear you and you know how good his senses are"
"I know it's just the way he talked about her made me think that she couldn't last." They both looked up to the hill wondering if he could take it if she was what they all thought.
Natsu sat there listening to their conversation, 'They don't know anything, Lucy is strong and alive and she is going to be okay' Natsu eyes began to tear up but he held it back because of Lucy he had to find her and prove them wrong.
Lucy sat there in her cell looking through the hole in the wall thinking about the day she would go back to her home town and run home to her mother and make her tell her all the stories of the stars. All of a sudden crying was heard from the cell opposite them it was a little girl who had just been brought in.
"I need to get home to my mother she's sick and I need to help her"
"SHUT IT NOW OR I WILL ICE YOU"
"I need to get home" she began to cry harder and footsteps were coming closer towards the door.
"Hey little girl, look you need to be quite or your gunner get hurt" Lucy crawled to th bars trying to sshhhh the girl.
"Lucy just leave her let her find out for herself" Erza said to Lucy, Lucy just looked down and began to sing the lullaby her mother sang to her,
"Sleep now my baby please don't you cry
I'll keep you safe with my lullaby
No one will hurt you so please sleep tight
The stars will watch you so just close your eyes
And you will be safe and sound under the moon.
The footsteps by the door stopped and began to go away and the little girl was drifting off to sleep, Lucy couldn't bear to see a little child get hurt just because of what they did.
"Lucy, where did that come from?" Lucy just ignored her friends and went back to her spot and look at the moon shine through the hole in the wall.