Stress. That was all Lucy's past few days had been.
Wake up, eat, head to the guild, spend the entire day poring over books, go home, sleep.
She didn't even realize that her rent was due that weekend until it was almost too late.
I don't have time to go on a job! Lucy wanted to scream, but she couldn't because life was always unfair no matter what she did. She didn't want to borrow money from anyone - she'd have to pay it back double, most likely.
And so there Lucy was, living in Natsu's house. It was still a pigsty, and the blonde-haired mage immediately set to work cleaning, pushing down saddening thoughts. Where'd Natsu, Wendy, and Gajeel go?
Gray had reported being knocked out - he was clearly frustrated that he couldn't do anything for his friend and rival. Lucy had tried to tell him that it wasn't his fault, but he'd stormed out of the guild hall.
What was even more shocking was the fact that Natsu was tricked by a forged letter. A forged letter of her writing! Lucy couldn't get over the fact that someone had dared pretend to be her.
And why did Natsu have to diappear like the others? He, Wendy, and Gajeel were all gone now, with no traces left behind. Laxus was still there, but he couldn't sniff out anything - Natsu had simply disappeared into thin air.
Lucy sighed as she scrubbed the side of the old wooden desk with a ragged sponge, watching the water and soap suds leave dark stains in the wood, then fade out. Grabbing a cloth, Lucy began to dust the top of the desk of the desk off when she spotted something interesting.
On Natsu's desk sat a small, wooden picture frame. The picture inside was slightly blurry, and the people in it were small, as if the picture had been taken from far away.
Upon closer inspection, Lucy realized that one of the people were circled, with a messy scrawl underneath.
"New member, Luigi"
Normally Lucy would've fumed, but this time she simply laughed, so hard that tears sprung to her eyes, and the next thing she knew, she was crying. It wasn't unhappily or happily - it was just something to let the stress and fear trickle out slowly with her tears.
The note continued;
"Luigi is really weird, but she's also nice. She reminds me of Lisanna."
Lucy took the picture and polished it needlessly, for it was already quite clean. She smiled sadly down at the picture, smiling sadly at the people in it. Then she carefully placed the frame back on the desk and walked out the door.
Extremely short, sorry, I just...wanted to tell you guys that I'm not dead, neither is this story, and it shall continue.
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