It had been nearly a month since the confirmation of Lucy's novel being published. It had started off with a few books per library in Magnolia to needing several hundred copies for the entire country only in a few weeks. Of course, Lucy ended up getting a lot of profit from her book however she knows little about how and when she will be paid so she has been going on countless jobs with Team Natsu just in case she ended up being paid after rent was due for the month. Now she faces a new situation.
Lucy was startled awake by a loud pounding noise against the door followed by an older woman's howl and demand for the door to be opened. The blonde knew exactly who it was and feared the rent payment date had been moved up and had slipped her mind all together...again. Preparing for the worst, Lucy shielded herself with her bed pillow and slowly opened the door.
"Good morning, I-I'm rEALLY SORRY I WILL PAY YOU AS SOON AS I CAN!" Lucy shrieked facing a look of death directed toward the cowering mage behind her pillow. Her landlady was not amused in the slightest and was nowhere close to being in a good mood. The wrinkles on her face made her expression seem darker and unhappier with the bags under her eyes and scowl across her face. She was the literal visual image of what a wicked witch would be pictured as in fairy tales. Almost as if she really could cut out the tongue of a small child and devour the small soul left behind, Lucy wondered where the hell this woman's broom stick and black cat were. She takes a slight step forward causing Lucy to flinch though lowering her pillow to see the small old lady's face. Before the young girl has time to react a large bag is thrown in her face causing her to lose balance and fall flat on her ass. It is in this moment she notices her clock. "4 AM?" she murmurs to herself noticing how early it was. Why is this woman even awake right now?!
"I've been meaning to give those to you for awhile now but haven't had the time. However, when it's 3:30 in the morning and a dozen more flood my apartment mail slot, there is no better time than the present!" The old woman snickers with her hands placed firmly on her hips. Lucy now notices the curlers in the woman's hair and the purple silk night gown and slippers presently on the old woman's tiny figure. She had seriously come over to Lucy's apartment in the middle of the night out of pure annoyance and that frightened the blonde. The woman lived in Magnolia, but the other side of town.
Sitting up and removing the bag from on top of her, transferring it to the carpet in front of her, Lucy inspected the large bag. There were many pointed edges coming out of the sides which would definitely be annoying bumping into you every step you took if you carried the bag. She couldn't help but wonder what was inside. Then, pulling the string that held the bag closed, Lucy peered into the bag to see mailed letters. Tons of them. She tilted the bag and dumped it's contents to be displayed before her. Letters upon letters upon letters came flowing out of the bag until it was empty after a few shakes. Lucy looks up questioningly at the tired old woman still standing in front of her.
"I didn't open any of them. They're all supposed to be to you. Your name is on every last one of 'em." She stated while pointing a wrinkled old finger at the pile before her. "I want you to tell me why they were all sent to my place when we live so far apart."
Lucy nervously glanced from her back down to the letters. She carefully picks up a random envelope and precisely opens the seal. Looking past the thin paper envelope she could see a note neatly folded and placed inside. Her fingers pinch the corner of the note to loosen and remove it from it's confines. She unfolds the paper and lets her mind skim the lines of neat handwriting which explained the love this person had towards her book she had written. It states how this person feels she should continue the story and has vast explanations on their feelings during specific parts of the book. Lucy could feel her heart flutter at the wonderful comments this person had written and quickly drops the letter to her lap before she could let herself become completely immersed in the fans letter. The thought then occurred to her. Are all of these fan-written letters? She gazes at the large pile once more before opening another letter. Different handwriting but had almost the same message as the other but with a few added personal comments that couldn't be rewritten by anyone. She could finally understand what was happening. Standing from her spot on the ground, she turns and walks towards her desk where she has multiple copies of her printed book stacked on the shelves. She flips to the back with the About the Author strip. There it was, she had put the wrong address for mailing her any opinions and such. Though they lived on two different sides of town, the names of the apartment buildings are the same. Lucy recalls having to put down the address at one point when she was multitasking in finishing up some necessities from the publishers.
Releasing a sigh, Lucy brings the book over to the old woman and points at the wrongly written address. "I'm very sorry if this is too much to ask, but can you please forward me any of this mail you get?" Lucy pleads silently to herself that this woman can dig deep enough inside herself to understa-
"I'll be raising your rent a bit for the mailing fee." Says the landlady with a smirk planted on her face. "I hear that book has become pretty popular lately. And if all of them have that address written in it, I guess it's inevitable they'll send the mail to me instead."
This woman! Lucy mentally cursed this woman for trying to squeeze more money out of her when she can barely afford what she has now. She gave up on the thought quickly, reminding herself that she will be getting money from her books soon anyways. The celestial mage releases one last sigh before agreeing the the landlady's conditions and bids her (what's left of) a good night.
After closing the door, Lucy leans back against the hard wood and stares at the large, longing pile of unread letters, all written to her. "Every last one of 'em," she repeats the landlords words. One of the two opened letters lay on the carpet written in neat pen, this one she hadn't finished reading earlier. From the distance she was at she could barely read the last sentence on the page. Squinting she managed to make the sentence visible, vaguely.
D-Do... Tess and... she couldn't read it and succumbed to walking the short distance over to the letter. Tess is Natsu's character... I'm kind of curious. Grabbing the paper between her two nicely manicured and moisturized hands, she held it up enough to read the last sentence as her goal. She read through the sentence thoroughly and slowly. She paused, her eyes widening ...Wait, what? She could feel herself breaking out into a warm and nervous sweat. Rereading the line over and over again, Lucy had definitely read it correctly. She could feel her face become slightly warm. The blonde read the sentence again,
"Do Tess and Astri like each other in a romantic sense? I really feel like they do love each other in some sense where it can be romantic! (/∇＼*)｡o○"
Well I never thought I'd ever get around to this ever again. These updates have really been going by schedule and inspiration and I guess I just haven't really had any! Hopefully that changes to where I can get back to updating this on a regular basis! Okay, I doubt any of you really care but, I'm 16 now! Also, I have once again made the Varsity team for volleyball and last year we made it all the way to county finals! So far we are undefeated and even beat the team that beat us in the finals last year. What's funny is I recently watched Haikyuu! and the main character, Hinata, has the same number I've been wearing for years now. I find a weird sense of accomplishment in that haha. I'll hopefully get back to you with the next chapter soon!