Forest of Folklore chapter 2
~The Next Morning~
Lucy awoke to the feeling of the blanket moving and the sound of someone leaving the stone bed they were on; Lucy opened her eyes and saw a head of pink hair bobbing up and down and the boy that owned it getting up to leave the bed. Lucy reached out her hand and grabbed his arm before he could leave. "Don't go yet… c-can you stay with me f-for a bit?" Lucy asked slowly and groggily due to her just waking up, Natsu gently smiled, nodded his head and laid down next to her and wrapped his arms around her frame. Lucy gasped at the contact but then melted into the embrace after awhile, letting her senses drown in the oddly comforting scent of burnt wood and pine tree radiating off of the pink-haired snuggle monster cuddling her. Her eyes drifted closed and soon she fell back asleep, and that's when a certain blue cat decided to wake up to spy on the two and saw them cuddling with a look of peace and happiness upon both of their faces. Happy smiled, because he couldn't remember the last time he saw Natsu smile like that since his father, Igneel, left.
"Let's get some breakfast before we meet my friends 'kay?" Natsu questioned to Lucy once everyone was up and ready, "I also think we get you some new clothes…" Natsu gestured to Lucy's torn up orange dress that went down to her knees; Lucy blushed and nodded her head. Natsu then took her hand and led her to a lake where he and Happy grabbed some fishing rods and sat down by the lake and started to fish. Natsu looked at Lucy and he handed her a rod and Lucy looked at him in confusion. "Do you not know how to fish?" Lucy looked down at the ground, "No, I was never taught… dad didn't want to teach me because he thought that fishing was for the men of the house, so only Luke Onii-chan was taught." Lucy said and sniffled a bit but quickly stopped her tears from falling, "Well Happy and I will teach'cha then! Right Happy?"
"Aye sir!" Natsu and Happy attempted to teach her how to fish, although it seems like it might take a while for her to get the hang of it…
~After breakfast~
Natsu took Lucy's hand and they intertwined fingers, "Hey," Natsu asked looking towards his blonde partner, Lucy turned her head in question; "What's your name? I forgot to ask earlier…"
"Oh, it's Lucy, Lucy Heartfilia!" She said with a smile. "Lucy… Luce!" Natsu exclaimed like he hit eureka, "Luce?" said girl questioned cocking her head to one side, "Yeah, it's a nickname. Do you like it?" Natsu asked hopefully; "Yeah! I love it!" Lucy said with a grin. They continued walking in a comfortable silence until they reached a grassy plain surrounded by trees, and a brilliantly shining pond in the middle. Lucy's eyes brightened up and her smile grew, Natsu looked at her face and his smile grew. He loved seeing her happy, it made him happy. But when she was crying his heart broke, and he hated how that felt, so he promised himself to never let her cry again. He pulled out a communication lacrima and called his friends; "Hey guys, come to the 'meeting place'." Gray responded; "Why flame brain?"
"'cause I got somthi-*cough* someone to show you guys" Natsu corrected, "ooh~ someone made a new friend!" Levy sang, "You better not have killed something and called us all here to see it did you?" Erza sternly asked, "N-No ma'am." Natsu stuttered, "Good."
"Ha! Flame brain's getting scared! You wuss-" Gray was insulting Natsu but was cut off by Erza; "Is this a fight I hear?" Erza asked threateningly, "N-No ma'am!" both boys responded like scaredy cats, "Good. We'll be there soon Natsu."
"Hai, see you guys soon" Natsu hung up then he looked over and saw Lucy covering her mouth with her hand giggling. "Y-you heard that?" Natsu asked, his face burning with embarrassment when Lucy nodded.
"What do you want fire face?" A voice came from the shadows and Lucy hid behind Natsu in fear, "Gray! Look at what you did! You scared her you stupid perverted snow cone!" Natsu yelled at the voice, Lucy poked her head from around Natsu to see a young boy, around the same age as Natsu, with raven black hair, and navy blue eyes. He had a sword necklace over his bare chest, and on his left peck he had a weird mark in dark blue. (A/N: The Fairy Tail guild mark) And instead of pants he had furry wolf legs, the same colour as his hair and eyes. Lucy slowly moved out from behind Natsu as she was building up courage, "Sorry Luce, this stupid snow monkey is Gray, he's my frenemy."
"Who are you calling a 'snow monkey' you overgrown fire lizard!?" Lucy looked scaredly at Natsu who was growling at Gray and looking ready to pounce, "Gray-sama?" Gray visibly paled as he shut up and Natsu burst out laughing, Lucy's eyes followed the sound of the voice to look at the empty pond. But then ripples appeared in the water and a burst of blue jumped out of the pond and landed on the shore. Lucy rubbed her eyes but when they opened she saw a mermaid, Lucy eyes light up, "A mermaid! Whoa!" and she ran towards it. "Gray-sama! Help Juvia!" the mermaid called out, Lucy sat down next to her and asked her questions; "What's your name?"
"J-Juvia's name is J-Juvia, w-what's yours?" The mermaid, Juvia, answered when she realized Lucy wasn't a danger to her, "my name's Lucy, you are so pretty!"
"A-Arigato Lucy, no one's ever told Juvia she was pretty… you are quite pretty yourself!" Juvia blushed and so did Lucy. After a little bit of talking and getting to know each other, the two girls were almost best friends. "Minna! Ohayo!" a small voice called from the sky and everyone looked to see a small little fairy flying towards them, "Hey Levy!" everyone else called but Lucy looked in awe at the little fairy's orange wings, and bright blue hair. When she landed she waved to Lucy, "Hi my name's Levy! I'm guessing you're the one Natsu wanted us to meet?" Lucy just nodded her head and walked around her studying her wings; "C-Can I touch them?"Levy nodded and Lucy felt the soft feathers beneath her fingers as she pet her magnificent wings. "Gomen'nasai for being late minna," A stern voice called from behind Lucy and she jumped back and hid behind Natsu. "Erza!" Levy jokingly reprimanded the voice, "you scared her!" Levy giggled. "Gomen'nasai" 'Erza' said and Lucy stuck her head out from behind her saviour to see who the voice belonged to, she saw a gust of wind surrounding where the voice had come from as it seemed to change shape, (A/N: Erza is a shape shifter) when the dust cleared there stood a little girl with scarlet red hair that she wore in a braid, but some of it hung on either side of her face, framing it. Her bangs almost covered her beautiful brown eyes. She had a chest plate on overtop of her white long sleeved dress with navy leggings underneath and ankle high boots on her feet. And for some reason she also had a holster with a sword in it. "You must be the one Natsu wanted us to meet," Lucy just nodded, "I see, well I'm Erza, Erza Scarlet."
"Hello Erza, I'm Lucy, Lucy Heartfilia, and this-" she froze while turning to her left, where Natsu was, and looked at him and stated to tear up. "EH? Lucy?!" Natsu looked worried, "Why are you crying?"
"HA! Stupid flame face got Lucy to cry! I guess you really are that ugly-" *BANG* *FIZZ* Erza hit Gray on the head. "Gomen'nasai, I thought you were Luke-nee…" Lucy sniffled to Natsu "Luke-nee?" The others repeated, "Her older brother, here, let me explain;" Natsu explained how he found her, all while he was hugging Lucy tightly to comfort her. When he finished explaining Lucy was also calm and everyone looked sad, but then Erza came and patted her back reassuringly; "We will help you find your brother."
"Really?" Lucy gave Erza a tear filled look of hope. Erza nodded and Lucy looked at everyone else and they all did the same thing. Lucy started to cry again, but they were tears of joy because she smiled and said; "A-A-Ariagto g-gosaimasu, A-Ariagto! Arigato!" which made everyone smile.
~End of Chapter 2~