Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)
The Fiery Past and The Bright Future
Lucy had pressed her lips against Sting's with such gentle ease, making the white dragon slayer feel how soft they were while the kiss had taken him by surprise, and the blonde mage wanted Sting to know that she had small feelings for him. He had closed his eyes after a few seconds, enjoying how Lucy's mouth made him taste the cake that they had shared, but then the blue-eyed male gently broke the kiss when he needed some air. Lucy had intended to just verbally confess to him about her feelings, but fate had chosen to intervene. The blush on her face was at the median between pink and red, but Lucy gasped a bit while she knew that the other customers were watching the romantic scene.
After a few more seconds, she got off of Sting and held out her hand to help him stand up. He accepted her hand while getting up on his feet, and Lucy noticed the calm look in his blue eyes while a pleased facial expression formed on his face. Had he realized her small feelings, or would he laugh and say that Lucy was just trying to desperate move past Natsu by ending this first date with a kiss? Sting told Chelia to make another one of those special cakes with a coffee to go, and he handed her 6,500 jewels. Lucy used this chance to run out of the café, and she looked really embarrassed.
She couldn't believe that she had just done that, not even asking Sting if he already had an interest in someone like Yukino or Minerva, and Lucy felt really bad for kissing him with the thought of her own feelings. She hadn't considered his feelings, and Sting might not even like her that way. She even thought that he would say that being flirty like Shelly was not the way to go, and Lucy did not even look back inside the cafe because she thought that Sting ordered that food to get the taste of her lips out of his mouth. She was really hoping that he would not say that she was moving too fast, and Lucy just wanted to explain everything.
It was not her fault that she had been charmed by the beauty of Sting's eyes, falling into a state of bliss like how she had done with him when they were in Shelly's hot spring, and Lucy had truly been attracted to him. He had been such a nice guy, and he had even saved her earlier in the week when a tree branch broke as she had to climb up a high tree to retrieve a treasure chest. She had screamed in fear while falling from a high height, but Sting had caught her. When he was holding her in his arms, Lucy could only blush and sigh happily from noticing that their lips were only a few centimeters apart.
However, now their lips had truly connected. The blonde mage had only wanted to inform Sting that she had a crush on him, but looking into his beautiful blue eyes had caused Lucy to just let her actions speak louder than her words. Would Sting approve of what she had done, though? Even though he had seemed really pleased by the warmth of her kiss, Lucy did not want him to reject her. She wanted to let her attraction build up to being a relationship, and Sting was the guy who she wanted to be dating. He was much better than Natsu in many ways, but Lucy still berated herself for letting herself lose her head in that moment.
"Why in the world did I act like a flirtatious idiot back there? I was so ready to just blurt it out and tell him exactly how I felt, but I kissed him! What if Sting already has a girlfriend, and I got in their way? I hope that my first impression was good, but the chances of a positive response from Sting might be really low because of that sudden kiss. He must've found my order of that heart-shaped cake to just be friendly and amusing, so I made the worst move in the history of romance!" Lucy thought to herself while twiddling her thumbs, blushing a light shade of pink while she looked inside the cafe.
As the white dragon slayer exited Café Kawaii with a large brown bag in his left hand that was containing the cake and the sealed cup of coffee, he handed the melon green book to Lucy and she quickly turned away from him while taking it. Sting narrowed his blue eyes for a moment, realizing Lucy must be uncomfortable after that accidental kiss, and his eyes became calm afterwards for him to say something. She definitely needed to hear this, and it would make everything become more clear. It may also make everything better as well, and Sting was ready to say it.
"Look, I know that was somewhat of an accident. I'd tell you to be more careful, but I guess that you were just lost in the greatness of our date. It was so awesome to talk with you and eat cake with you, but the best part about it would be that I had gotten my first kiss. That was totally shocking, but you know what? The shock let me know that my flirty hints got through to you, Lucy. I loved the kiss we shared, and your lips are awesome." Sting told her while calmly smiling at her, as he attempted to hold her hand in an effort to offer her comfort if she wanted it.
Lucy's cocoa brown eyes twinkled a bit when Sting had told her that he loved the kiss that she had given him, and she blushed happily while hearing that it was his very first kiss. Lucy wanted to jump for joy from knowing that she truly had made a great first impression on the first date, but she had calmed herself down enough to respond with a gentle hug while having her head resting against Sting's chest and feeling his rock-hard abdominals with her hands. Fate had made Lucy actually show Sting how she felt about him, and the odds had definitely been in her favor. They paid off nicely, and Sting put his arms around Lucy.
Sting looked down at her with a smile on his face, enjoying the fact that his friend was now happy, and the white dragon slayer's charming blue eyes had been filled with some happiness while he was glad that his strategy of flirting with Lucy had worked. Sting had even smirked in a confident manner while thinking that his chocolate chip pancakes from earlier had good way to seal the deal with the brown-eyed girl, and he was happy that his efforts paid off. Sting didn't know that Lucy had been sending hints his way as well, and the fact that he loved her kiss had shown Lucy that Sting finally caught on to her flirting.
As Sting and Lucy ended the hug, the blonde girl gasped in shock while she looked at the pink guild insignia of Fairy Tail on the back of her right hand. She had not paid much mind to it for the past week, but Lucy knew that she had to officially part ways with Fairy Tail. It was not just because she wanted to be with Sting in the guild of Sabertooth, but thinking about her old guild had brought back the recent memories of how she had been lied to by the people in Fairy Tail. They were all sneaking around behind her back, hiding Natsu's affair with Lisanna, and Lucy wanted to make them pay for that. Besides, the more that she stayed away, the more likely it was for them to start checking for her in Rustboro or its nearby towns.
Needing to sever the ties with her former friends, since Lucy no longer wanted to carry the guild mark of a place that had made her feel hurt and betrayed, she had explained her situation to Sting. Even though he seemed a bit worried about the fact that Lucy had to keep her emotions under control, she smiled softly while assuring him that everything would be all right. This wouldn't be like the time where she went all-out on a Water Clone at the Oceanic Museum, before Shelly had taken advantage of the blonde's girl to kick her in stomach with tremendous force.
Lucy also promised Sting that she would be back before he knew it, and the blonde girl was suddenly met with Sting giving her a soft kiss to her lips. Lucy blushed pink for a moment, letting it get brighter while it warmed up her cheeks, and she kissed back while enjoying the taste of the white dragon slayer's lips against hers. Lucy began to feel her body warm up in the heat of the moment, making her blush more, and all of these feelings made something heat up blissfully within her heart. After breaking the kiss and telling Sting that there was no need to worry, Lucy ran on the water while heading towards Magnolia to get this important errand over with.
Meanwhile, at the Fairy Tail guild...
Lisanna had been trying to calm down Natsu while he seemed pretty miffed at the fact that Lucy had been helping out people from Sabertooth, especially since they were the rivals of people in Fairy Tail, and the fire dragon slayer also could not fathom how Lucy had helped Sting take down dangerous criminals from Aqua Kyogre. Those people were said to be very strong, so not could not believe that the newspaper had even informed everyone that Lucy was able to be evenly matched with Shelly before the tanned thief had escaped.
While Natsu felt like beating up Sting, there was one problem. He did not exactly know where the guild of Sabertooth was located, and going into someone else's guild to start a fight would just make Fairy Tail look like a bunch of bullies. Natsu had actually been the person to bully Lucy on the last day that their paths had crossed, and he had referred to her as being someone who would be a crybaby that threw tantrums when things did not go her way. Lucy would have been crying and seeking attention from if Natsu was the writer of her fate, but he was thankfully not. Natsu thought that Lucy was still the same, but she had changed.
Trying to look at what he had while taking his mind off of what wasn't needed anymore, Natsu kissed Lisanna on her lips while they had been standing by the bar in the guildhall. He knew that being mad over Lucy helping his rival would not really help his relationship right now, and the pink-haired male smiled a bit while looking at the white-haired goddess that he was dating right now. Lisanna had always looked pretty good, and she had been wearing a two-piece blue plaid bikini while Natsu had promised to go with her to the beach today.
Lucy's absence had also caused Natsu to be more nonchalant about it, but Happy and Lisanna had been worried about the blonde mage. While it was good to take down criminals, Lisanna knew that taking down a crew from an infamous organization would make the mages responsible become a threat. Even if Lucy had lent her support with a few simple punches that had been on par with Shelly's, Lisanna knew that getting involved would make Lucy be seen as an adversary to Aqua Kyogre. Just because Lisanna did not want Lucy being in the way of her relationship with Natsu, she did not want anything bad to happen to the Celestial Spirit Mage.
Lisanna had returned the kiss to Natsu, enjoying the feeling of his heated lips against her soft ones, and she was glad that a whole week had gone by with almost no drama involved. The happy couple was now a week closer to their seven-month anniversary, the day that would be full of joy while giving them another month of fun, and the white-haired mage was glad that things were going well. Even though Natsu still wanted to know who told Lucy about him cheating on her while being with Lisanna, neither of them knew that the newspaper article from yesterday was Sting's way of trolling Natsu for how he hurt Lucy. The real paper delivery was always on Friday, three days from now, something that mostly everyone in Fairy Tail had forgotten about.
The blue-eyed girl told her boyfriend in a calm tone, happily smiling as she broke the kiss with him, "Natsu, you're the best guy in the whole world. Please don't get worked up over Lucy helping out the Sabertooth guild, and she will probably still come back here to do another job. Mira-nee-chan told us all how Lucy had taken a job to the town of Cerulean, and she must be getting better with her skills. I mean, no one can survive alone on the other side of Fiore. Anyway, Lucy is probably closing up her heart and dyeing her hair to represent her sadness. That's what you thought she'd do, anyway, and-"
Before Lisanna could finish that sentence, the entrance doors to the guild of Fairy Tail had opened wide. Everyone turned their heads to see that Lucy stood in the doorway with a blissful look on her face while she had been blushing a light shade of pink, and the warmth inside of her heart had caused the spell book to turn red. No one had noticed that, however, and they were focused on the fact that Lucy had been seeming so cheerful. She had been gone for a week, making everyone think that something had happened to her, but they still believed Sting's trolling newspaper to be the absolute truth.
Lucy had been thinking about the kiss that she shared with Sting while walking into the Fairy Tail guild, keeping her emotions under control as she made her way over to a table where Master Makarov was sitting with Laxus and Mavis, but the blonde mage did not let the affections in her heart end up being the words that she would say. Lucy was going to get her pink guild mark removed, in order to be free of it for when she would join the guild of Sabertooth, and then the blonde mage had simply planned to walk out while leaving her old life behind.
However, let's just say that fate had other plans for her. Before Lucy could get walk past the bar area, Natsu quickly moved in front of her to act like a barrier while he gave her a pretty angry look. Lucy's cheerful smile began to turn into a glare while the blush on her face began to fade away, showing that she now knew that a tense situation was about to come up, and the blonde mage narrowed her cocoa brown eyes as she was wondering about what Natsu wanted to tell her. Knowing how he was such a big jerk to her when she had first tried to leave for the town of Rustboro, Lucy could tell that the fire dragon slayer was definitely not pleased to see her.
"Well, look at who came crawling back to Fairy Tail. I never expected you to go far away from the guild, since I know how you're just so weak like the crybaby you are, and it's pretty rude to not even greet me or Lisanna while you walked by us. I guess that it's your petty little way of showing me how you don't want to be with me anymore, but you just love to be a traitorous bitch who teams up with those guys from Sabertooth. After how Minerva hurt you last year, Lucy, I can't believe that you'd even think of going against our guild like this. You have no respect from me." Natsu told her in a harsh tone while glaring at the blonde mage, pushing her away from him.
Lucy responded in a cold tone, chuckling a bit while she smirked before looking stern, "I find it really funny that you're harassing me about doing something behind your back, yet you and the whole guild kept me in the dark about your little relationship with Lisanna! Don't even try to call me a traitor for helping Sting and the others, Natsu, because I'll have you know that those guys are actually nice. Maybe you're just envious of how Sting was mainly the one who chased off those guys from Aqua Kyogre without destroying the museum, and that's a perfect example of how smart you aren't. You get worked up enough to act like I'd cry over your words, but you're nothing more than a cheating hypocrite who didn't have the guts to tell me about your little affair from the start. Maybe you'll eventually get more affairs, you promiscuous degenerate."
She stood her ground while not being in the mood to deal with Natsu anymore, but it looked like the blonde mage would actually have to give her dense ex-boyfriend the beating that he deserved. He had no right to insult her like that, and the fire dragon slayer also had no business judging the Sabertooth guild based on only Minerva. She looked extremely annoyed and irritated by the fire dragon slayer thinking that she was the same girl who was so saddened and could be broken down easily by hurtful actions, but Lucy was tired of being pushed around by this dense jerk.
Gray and Cana stood at a table near the area where the drama was transpiring, both mages ready to apologize for being secretive about the affair and help Lucy defend herself, but Erza faced them with a stern look in her brown eyes. She wasn't going to let them intervene right now, especially since she had caught sight of the red spell book pulsating while it was in Lucy's left hand. Steam even rose from the book, so would these spells be hot like Lucy's current anger? She narrowed her cocoa brown eyes at Natsu, determined to show that jerk how she had improved since being away from him, and she quickly opened the red spell book.
The blonde mage noticed that four spells were written in their section of the book, and the spells were written in cherry red text. The unreadable words were written in scarlet red text, and Lucy wasn't able to use these spells yet. Despite the readable words being in cherry red, an underlined sentence in the book told Lucy that she could only use these four spells for power and creativity that was sharp like an arrow. She didn't know what that meant, but Lucy smiled a bit from also knowing that each spell had its own purpose. Still, what hint was the book trying to give her? Did she have to use the spells in a certain order or in various ways?
Before Lucy would even attack with one of the spells, she pulled out one of her Golden Zodiac Gate Keys to summon a Celestial Spirit. Natsu frowned at the thought of her possibly summoning Gemini, but the fire dragon slayer was surprised to see her pull out the key of Sagittarius from the right pocket of her blue jean shorts. Natsu thought that this would not be much of a fight against an archer who used arrows, but let's just say that the book's spirits and the Celestial Spirits were learning how to work in unison with each other. After Lucy had summoned Sagittarius, she was ready to use the first spell from the red book.
"I call upon thee, the first spell, Fiery Embers!" Lucy shouted angrily while she leaped back to get some distance from Natsu, as the words in cherry red text on the pages began to glow.
This spell caused Lucy to spit out five small fireballs from her mouth, and she couldn't believe that these spells were for Fire Magic. She knew that Natsu was a fire dragon slayer, capable of eating any kind of fire that was not his own, and she looked a bit disappointed at the thought of these spells being useless against him. She saw him quickly unleash Fire Dragon's Roar, producing a spiraling beam of red fire that headed straight for Lucy, but his attack suddenly split into five different beams! They merged with Lucy's fireballs, strengthening them exponentially in power and size, prompting the fireballs to harshly strike Natsu.
Five fiery explosions occurred, and Natsu had surprisingly taken damage from Lucy's fire attacks. The spell book's elements had belonged to species that were not in the categories of a dragon or a god, so neither Natsu or Zancrow could eat Lucy's flames. That first spell had the power of taking an enemy's fire attacks and absorbing them, before multiplying the power exponentially to do some massive damage. The side effect of this spell allowed Lucy to inhale all the flames like Natsu could, and she felt a bit more powerful. (Lucy's Fire Magic belongs to the spirit of a phoenix, just so you know, and she is not a Bird Slayer.)
Not wanting to be shown up by Lucy, Natsu saw her first spell as beginner's luck. It definitely was not luck, however, and her spell book was working in her favor. The Fire Magic was certainly hurting Natsu, and he looked a bit angry about being shown up by his own element. The fire dragon slayer proceeded to use Fire Dragon's Sword Horn for the chance of striking Lucy from up close for her spells to not strike him, and Natsu engulfed his entire body in flames before he propelled himself towards Lucy at high speeds. This move could really hurt someone, and Natsu snickered confidently from seeing Lucy remain perfectly still.
Gray yelled at Lucy to get out of the way of Natsu's attack, thinking she would getting badly burnt, and the blonde mage tried to dodge at the last second. However, Natsu angrily grabbed her hair with his right hand before smashing into a wall with her! An explosion of fire occurred, the smoke clearing up fast, and people could hear Lucy screaming while her ex-boyfriend made flames engulf his fists to angrily punch her in the stomach seven times. He had made Lucy begin to burn while she was in pain, and Lucy could feel the intense heat on her skin.
Natsu proceeded to pull Lucy up by her beautiful blonde hair, and he threw her behind the bar area. The fire dragon slayer angrily glared at her while he ran over there, but what he did next was beyond cruel. Natsu picked up a large keg that was filled with alcohol, and he laughed in a heckling manner while dumping it all on Lucy. She was now covered from head to toe in brown alcohol, and Lucy screamed in fear when Natsu used Fire Dragon's Roar to let his flames mix with the alcohol in an effort to create a large explosion that would defeat Lucy for good. The large burst of flames transpired, blinding everyone's eyes, and Lucy was feeling the most pain while she was inside of it.
The blonde mage was perspiring heavily while she was in the center of the bursting flames, and her skin was now charred while she could not stand the intense heat. Lucy was really angry at Natsu for being so rude to her, criticizing her for helping out people from Sabertooth, and Lucy was panting heavily while these flames were hot like her anger. At that moment, she remembered how Shelly told her that letting her emotions take control would only result in getting defeated. Lucy also remembered how Sting had been waiting for her, cheering her on with whatever she did, and he had even given her a kiss on the lips as a way of thanking her for giving him such a sweet kiss on their first date. Not wanting to lose out to her new rival, as well as wanting to show Sting that there was no need to worry, Lucy took a deep breath while closing her eyes to create the second spell.
Everyone had looked shocked to see the copious amount of large flames that Natsu had created by the bar, but then all the flames had suddenly sunk down into what appeared to be bubbling red liquid. Natsu looked curious while taking a few steps back, and he gasped in fear while seeing this red liquid come from Lucy's charred body that was lifeless. It was not blood, so she wasn't dead. The blonde mage's body began to melt from the heat, turning into a pile of bubbling red liquid as well, and the liquid itself began to latch on to the body of Natsu. The fire dragon slayer yelled in pain while the goop was at the temperature of volcanic lava, burning his skin to give him the karma that he deserved, and six fiery explosions transpired as well! While they sent Natsu flying back against the wall, where had Lucy gone to?
Erza's brown eyes caught sight of her blonde friend rising up from a small fire on the ground, and Lucy had looked completely unharmed while her skin was now fair again. The spell that she had used was known as Flame Shell, and Lucy had created it while using Shelly's Water Clone technique as a bit of inspiration. This move allowed Lucy to have her body consumed by flames, but those flames would allow her to heal by using the heat as she would hide in a distant flame without getting hurt. Lucy could fully recover while a shell of her would be getting burned, and the liquid from that shell was capable of combustion to strike its foes.
"What in the world is going on?! Lucy, you can't use Fire Magic like that! Seriously, using that level of smarts with flames is not fair!" Natsu told her with a protesting facial expression, pointing at the brown-eyed girl while not believing that it was possible for her to use his flames in such a tactical way.
The blonde mage replied with a confident look on her face while running over to her Celestial Spirit, ready to have Sagittarius work in a combination with her flames, "It's always fair to play smart when you have a book of Molding Magic in your hands, Natsu! Besides, you shouldn't act like I cheat when you were the one who cheated on me with Lisanna! You played me for a fool, as we both play with fire right now, but you're the one who will get burned by my next move! There's someone in my life who is better than you, and he ignites my feelings to where my attraction was hot like the kiss I gave him!"
Refusing to lose against all of Lucy's fierce confidence, Natsu was about to resort to using Crimson Lotus: Exploding Flame Blade to end this fight. However, he was suddenly met with six small flames dancing in a circle around him. While Lucy had been responding to his statement about not playing fair, she had also been moving her left hand around in a circle to command some flames in the background to move near Natsu before dancing around him. The flames were also capable of ingesting any fire attacks that were used on them or their master, so Natsu was nothing more than a sitting duck right now.
Narrowing her brown eyes while putting six arrows in the bow of Sagittarius, Lucy also spat out some of her boiling red volcanic goop on them to make those metal arrows become volcanic flame arrows. This was her third spell, and it was known as Fiery Accuracy. Sagittarius looked pretty confident while pulling the bow backwards to increase the tension and striking power of his arrows, before firing them one at a time to hit each flame that danced around Natsu. The flaming arrows hit the flames with such accuracy while they had been moving fast, and the collisions resulted in six large red blasts of Fire Magic transpiring around Natsu! He screamed in intense pain from the blasts, feeling these flames to be even hotter than his own, and the fire dragon slayer fell to the ground with a hard thud.
Sagittarius told Lucy in a calm tone, as he looked proud while giving her a salute before going back to the Celestial Spirit World, "It looks like the fight is now over, Lucy. Your creative technique with my arrows just shows once again that even flames are just child's play for them."
The red smoke had cleared up quickly to reveal that Natsu was unconscious, and Lisanna ran over to his side while she looked very alarmed. The white-haired mage checked her boyfriend's pulse by placing her index and middle fingers on the inside of his wrist, and it did feel like he had a heartbeat. Natsu was alive, but he was just really knocked out with a comical facial expression. Lucy did not enjoy fighting him like that, since she had not wanted to get into drama today for a simple matter to be completed, and she could see that everyone had looks that ranged from being glad to being really surprised by what she had done.
Even if people would praise her for being so powerful, however, that did not excuse them from hiding Natsu's affair from the blonde girl. Lucy was still upset with them for doing such a thing because they thought that she was really sensitive, and Lucy may have cried about it when she was deeply in love with Natsu. However, Lucy had no more attraction to the fire dragon slayer. She felt no love towards a guy who had cheated on her in such an arrogant way, acting like he had no chance of ever getting caught, and the fact that he led her on for almost thirteen months was enough for her to make a statement to the guild.
"I know that you all think I'm so fragile to the point where you can't say a thing to me, I really thought that you all were my friends. Really, you guys followed Natsu's plan to the point where it felt like you betrayed me. I'm really hurt by how every day was full of random gossip to cover up the fact that Natsu was cheating on me, and that's why I'm leaving Fairy Tail. It's very unethical of Natsu to cheat on me, but it's also wrong for all of you to not tell me anything and lie to me. If you guys really call yourselves a guild, look out for your comrades and don't leave the doors wide open for people hiding in the blueberry bushes to hear everything." Lucy told everyone with a stern look on her face, before leaving the Fairy Tail guild in a bad mood while she walked out of the entrance doors.
While the members of the Fairy Tail guild had been looking unhappy to see Lucy leave, some of them near tears like how Cana was, nobody had known that a secret camera near the doorway had captured every single piece of video and audio. It had been set up by a spying female grunt from the guild known as Aqua Kyogre, this girl being one of the best technical experts for the organization, and she was also the same person that Shelly had made a clone out of when she had been testing Lucy's skills at the Oceanic Museum.
This girl had long teal hair that was tied back in a short ponytail, and her spy attire had been composed of a blue midriff shirt with some black jeans to match while she also wore some short beaded purple bracelets on her wrists. This grunt with the task of espionage was named Marina Kasumi, and her eyes were pale green while she wore some brown flat shoes as well. They were part of Marina's disguise, and she had been watching everything from inside an air duct above the guildhall. She was glad that the camera recorded everything, since Lucy was definitely more than just a Celestial Spirit Mage.
She whispered softly into a black transceiver, glad that the guild's ceiling had a good signal to where no static could be heard, "This is Marina to Commander Shelly. The subject has left Fairy Tail for good, and she seems to be headed back to Sabertooth. I rephrase to repeat, Lucy Heartfilia is heading to Sabertooth. She is continuing to become stronger through tough battles, and you were right. She could be your biggest rival, Shelly. This girl is very creative, but let's hope that she will join us when we are legal."
How was the 8th chapter? Did you like it? Sorry if it sounded bad to have Lucy leave Sting, but I wanted to get Natsu out of the way for a bit. He'll return, but not too soon. The romance between Lucy and Sting will also have more development in the next chapter, since they aren't officially boyfriend and girlfriend yet. Anyway, what will happen to Lucy's guild mark? Where shall her new insignia be stamped? Who does she finally meet up with again after saying goodbye to a very close friend? Standby for the update!