notes: oh look. i updated something.
more notes: my little sister has been playing r5 over and over and over and they're so friggin catchy. why.
dedication: in hopes that one day this will become a legit story and i can stop naming every chapter and coming up with a summary for each one as well.
title: looks like a new transition
summary: Lucy decides it's high time to get her own place. Stuff happens.
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and it goes like this
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It takes Lucy approximately three days to figure out that these people are insane.
And Lucy has seen a lot of insane things, okay.
There are no words to describe what she witnesses in her two weeks of living at Magnolia's Headquarters, and she is frequently plagued with thoughts and doubts of how this sector of SHIELD is one of the greatest and strongest.
(And most destructive, she remembers reading somewhere in a few documents from a redacted file not open to the public. It was a dare, okay, and Lucy Heartfilia did not back down from dares given by impudent swine—read also, Sting fucking Eucliffe, who is admittedly her friend, but. So yes. She has broken into the Academy's record room around two in the morning. They don't call her top of the class and 'Lucky Lucy' for nothing, children.)
So, after fourteen days of constant arguing, things like heavy metal tables being thrown to and fro like Frisbees, having to room with a consumptive drunkard and a terrifying monstrosity with an affinity for water, sleeping down the hall from the incarnation of doom and high authority herself, and no forms of organization and propriety whatsoever, she decided it was high time to get a place of her own and get the hell out of Dodge.
She likes everyone, don't get her wrong—okay so maybe not Aquarius because the woman is scary as hell—but she needs her own space.
Which she finds in a small but charming cottage on Strawberry Street.
Lucy doesn't mind paying rent so much if it means she can have her own place to come home to after a long day of work. And that's really saying something because she likes to keep her money close to her. Also because she's maybe a cheapskate, but.
From what Lucy can tell upon first meeting, her new soon-to-be landlady is a greedy tyrant who hordes Butterfinger wrappers and uses too much cheap perfume. She also wears a live ferret around her neck which she croons over and calls in an annoying, superficial mother-to-baby voice, 'shnukums.'
This beady-eyed person takes it upon herself to show the blonde her 'perfect new home', and so they go on a tour. There's a wide entryway, a kitchen with nice appliances, and a comfortable living room on the first floor, and Lucy knows immediately that she's in love.
But.
As the overweight woman huffs and puffs up the steep stairs to the second floor, Lucy considers her options in life and contemplates on people's morals. She's just looking for a cheap but nice place to stay while she's on assignment in Magnolia. This cute cottage is perfect—it fits within her budget due to monthly rent, it's nice and clean and cozy, is located in a relatively safe neighborhood (she doesn't want to be robbed after coming home from a long day supervising a destructive hero and saving the world, thank you very much), and is right in front of a lovely canal.
It would give her the peace and quiet that she so desperately needs after a long day at work, as well. There is but one problem.
Obtaining the permission to move off HQ and into civilian territory. And to do that, she'll need a flawless cover story and a visit to Director Dreyar.
Which she is not looking forward to in the least.
"So," her maybe-landlady begins, flipping some of her dyed hair behind her back, "what do you think?"
Lucy glances around the second floor—a spacious bedroom with a balcony covered in roses, a bathroom with an unbelievable tub, a walk-in closet, and an extra guest room—and swallows the lump lodged in her throat.
She smiles.
"Um, can I get back to you tomorrow?"
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Director Makarov Dreyar regards Lucy with narrowed eyes, his fingers interlocked, hands resting neatly on the desktop. He looks completely composed, her on the other hand…
"So, Miss Heartfilia," he raises a brow, "you're here to request a transfer off-sight and permission to live in Magnolia, am I correct?"
Lucy is in the process of sweating bullets. "E-erm, yes sir."
A pause.
Then—
"Why, you should have asked sooner!" Makarov throws his hands in the air. "This place'll and the people in it'll drive you up the wall! I'm surprised you made it this long, Heartfilia. Heaven knows you've got some miraculous kind of patience and endurance."
"E-ex…cuse me?"
The elderly man grins at her. "Not all of the Academy graduates that are assigned here are able to stay. Rather, I should say that they can't find it in themselves to stay. Do you know how many transfer requests I've received in the past few years? I guess that's the price that comes with being this specific branch of SHIELD. Ya gotta be able to handle anything. They weren't."
The blonde gapes at him.
"You're a smart one, Heartfilia. Top of your class, so it would only be logical that you were chosen for this position and sent here. Of course, if you didn't have those traits I mentioned earlier, you probably would've only made it a month, two tops. Just like all the others. Then we'd have a real shitstorm upon us. Someone's gotta keep that Salamander in line, and Erza and myself can't do it all the time. I think you'll really do well here, Miss Heartfilia. People'll warm up to you in no time."
Lucy has no words left.
"Oh. What about that request? You're moving to Strawberry Street, am I right? Nice place. You have to keep up your sanity somehow. I'll have Miss McGarden work up a cover for you and—Agent Heartfilia?"
What have I gotten myself into, she thinks.
And so, SHIELD Agent Lucy Heartfilia becomes art director Lucy Ashley in a few simple keystrokes thanks to the help of genius intelligence analyst Levy McGarden. Lucy has to admit, she's a pretty cool—and mentally stable—person and they may have just become best friends for life.
"I'm not going to give you some lame cover story—I'm going to make it interesting." the blunette announces as she hands Lucy a thick envelope with her new cover—name, birth certificate, occupation, and new persona in whole. "I kept as much of 'Lucy Heartfilia' as I could, so don't worry. You're not a completely different person."
The blonde smiles at her new friend and looks down at the manila envelope. "I have a meeting with someone in an hour and a half." she smiles. "Guess I'd better read up on my personal history, huh?"
Levy grins.
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Home at last, Lucy closes her eyes and smiles to herself once all is said and done.
Suspiciously, once her respected landlady learned she was an art director, her rent went up to seventy-five thousand jewels. Ridiculous, the agent thinks to herself and snorts.
It takes her a week or so to move in—not like she had that much stuff in the first place but hello, she needed like a hella ton of stuff okay. Kitchen appliances and tools, towels, furniture, and so on and so forth are all put nicely in their place. The boxes that aren't yet unpacked are stacked neatly in a corner, just waiting to be opened.
Lucy mentally congratulates herself and decides to go out and get food to celebrate. Because she is starving and also needs to go grocery shopping due to her refrigerator being completely empty. That just won't do, so she grabs her keys and purse, and then she's out the door.
When she returns three or four hours later, unlocking her door and stepping inside, things seem perfectly normal at first.
Then she steps into the living room—
"Lucy, hey!"
—and is greeted with the sight of Natsu, Gray, and even the friggin' Titania herself seated on her sofa, watching a movie on her television.
She lets out a screech when something brushes up against her bare leg—freedom from the damned black suit at last—and looks down to see a blue cat rubbing up against her leg.
"THE HELL?!"
The blonde staggers back, grocery bags swaying and almost throwing her off balance. "WHERE DID THAT THING COME FROM?! I DON'T OWN A CAT! HOW DID YOU THREE FIND ME, LET ALONE GET IN HERE?!" she thrusts an accusing finger at the guilty parties lounging on her sofa.
Erza flicks some of her flaming hair over her shoulder. "Level Four security clearance, Lucy."
Gray grins lazily at her—with just a small side of dangerous intent. "Why have it if you can't use it?"
She—Lucy Heartfilia—was considered Level Four? As in, the level above Top Secret? Something that wasn't even supposed to exist.
Well damn.
She didn't exactly know what to do with that information.
"And this is Happy," Natsu corrects her, holding up the small bundle of blue fur and what she's sure is malicious intent that makes up the cat. "Not 'that thing.'"
Lucy narrows her eyes at him, and turns to Gray. "Whatever. Isn't that called, of I don't know—abusing your power?"
He shrugs in his 'I-am-not-a-SHIELD-agent-so-what-the-hell-does-it-matter' way. "Okay so maybe it's Erza's security clearance, what of it?"
In the extent of her two week experience of being an agent, Lucy has also learned that Gray Fullbuster is not an agent like herself, but rather an 'affiliate' of SHIELD's. Meaning that he's like Natsu—what one would call a 'superhero.' And he does not give a damn about procedure, much to most of the new cadets and also analysts' chagrin.
And probably Director Dreyar, but he wasn't ever as destructive as Natsu except when fighting with Natsu, so.
Lucy narrows her eyes. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Anyway Lucy," Erza cuts in before Gray can reply, "you have a very lovely home. I admire your taste in decoration."
The blonde sighs. Still doesn't explain how you even got in here. "Thank you, I am supposed to be an art director after all. So I figured I should probably look the part."
Erza nods. "Yes, yes."
Natsu throws an arm over the back of the couch. "C'mere Luce. Did you bring nachos?"
Lucy feels her blood pressure rising, but gets corralled into sitting and watching the rest of the movie—only after making nachos and salsa—and then she begins to relax. These people are trespassers, but they're her friends so.
"GRAY. DON'T HOG ALL THE TORTILLA CHIPS YOU ICY BASTARD."
"WHAT'D YOU CALL ME?! AND DON'T YOU FUCKING DOUBLE DIP!"
Lucy doesn't turn her eyes away from the tv, but the very air around her turns terrifying. "Shut the hell up and share, you ignorant morons. I can't hear."
She isn't looking to see the outcome, but the two bickering heroes quickly return to not speaking. Erza smiles to herself, and mumbles lowly, "I can see why they chose you, Lucy."
to be continued...
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end notes: the 'terrifying monstrosity with an affinity for water' mentioned in this chapter is aquarius, jsyk. not juvia. she'll come in later though. now yes. natsu and lucy will end up together (spoiler alert, like it's such a big one i know) just not right now. it is called relationship progression okay.