Minna! I'm back with another chapter!
Enjoy!
I have no beta reader, I proof read myself, so ther may be a lot of mistakes and such.
To Pandawaziri, yes, I wrote these songs myself (please don't judge) and thank you everyone for your support towards this story as well.
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The band sat silently in the taxi –minus the sounds of Natsu's grumbling stomach. The windows were wide open, letting in the fresh night air.
Trying to ignore his stomach, Natsu looked out the window and saw a figure walking up ahead. Since his hearing was better than anyone else's and was on par with Gajeel's, he heard the soft voice that came out of the person's lips.
'Is she singing?' he asked himself recognising a girl's voice.
"Everyone… can you hear that?" he asked, pointing to the girl walking dangerously close to the edge of the road.
"Hear what?" Gray asked.
"Just shut up and listen." He hushed.
"She has a really nice voice…" Jellal said absent mindedly.
"You're right. We need her. Stop the car!" Natsu ordered.
The taxi halted to a stop and the five of them scrambled out of the car, making their way towards the mysterious girl. The girl suddenly stopped… looking at them for mere moments before running back the way she came.
"Quick, run after her!" Erza said, taking off her heels and throwing them off to the side.
The band all broke into a sprint, chasing after the girl.
"Why is she even running away?!" Natsu groaned.
"Maybe because we're chasing her like we're a pack of wolves hunting her down. Or maybe she thinks we're police cause she's done something illegal." Jellal pointed out, huffing.
"True." Gray shrugged, running faster, slowly catching up to the poor girl.
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Lucy held back a yelp as she felt a strong hand clasp around her shoulder. Stopping, she fell to the ground, the stranger losing grip of her.
The rest of the group suddenly came up and she scrambled back further.
"Hey, calm down." The first person took off his glasses and cap. He had messy, raven hair and deep blue eyes.
She shook her head furiously and stared at him wide eyed. He was extremely familiar, but she couldn't quite place her finger on it.
The others around him took off their disguises too.
'Holy guacamole… i-it's those guys from the movie… who were they again?' she thought. Looking up at them in confusion, she tried to open her mouth to speak.
"W-w-w….." she closed her mouth, fuming at her 'stutter-around-strangers-disease'. Trying again, she spoke brokenly.
"Wh-wh-w-who a-are-y-y-y-ou?" she questioned and saw the whole group surrounding her, jaws drop.
"We're IGNITE. You know, they famous boy band?" one of them – the boy with a tattoo on his eye spoke.
"N-no… I-I dd-don't actually…" she frowned.
"What were you singing?" the pink haired boy asked.
"S-s-singing? M-me? No…." she tried to deny.
"No! We heard you." the pinkette said, then broke out into song,
They don't see the walls they broke down
And now I have to build myself back up again
"That was you, wasn't it? There's no one here but us after all."
"Idon'tsing." She blurted out.
"Yes, you do, and you can. We all heard you. Now, let's get straight to the point. Join us." The boy with piercing all over his face grunted.
"No." she said firmly, grateful she didn't stutter.
"Please… we're begging you." Lucy now looked over to the scarlet hair woman who stood with a desperate kind of look on her face.
"I… don't e-even know you g-guys… s-s-s-s-so, w-w-why should I?" she looked away from their menacing stares.
"I'm Gray, pinky over there is Natsu, tattoo guy is Jellal, piercing dude is Gajeel and that's our manager Erza." The raven haired boy spoke, partially annoyed at the fact that this girl didn't know IGNITE.
"I –" Lucy started but was cut off by the ring of her phone.
"Lu-chan!" a worried voice spoke, "where are you, you should have arrived 5 minutes ago at the latest."
"Levy-chan? I'm sorry, I'm okay, I swear. Just got caught up in something." Lucy glared at the five puppy dog faces.
"I'll be there soon. Gotta go, bye." She flipped her phone closed and stood up.
"G-g-goodbye… I-I'll beleavingnow." She pushed through them and started walking off.
"Hey! Wait! Please, just join us." Natsu ran forward and blocked her off.
"I-I d-don't have any b-business w-with you." She tried to push past him, but he held his ground.
"Please!" he whined, "we can't do it without you!"
"Natsu. Forget it, let's go. She'll never agree, and besides. Just look at her, we'll have to find someone else." One of them called out.
"But! We have a day. A DAY to find someone else!" he emphasised.
The group behind Lucy cursed.
"We'll give you money." Natsu tried.
"M-money?" she asked, interested.
"Yeah, heaps." He nodded vigourously.
"Is it r-r-really hard?" she asked, slowly accepting. It was very tempting after all.
"Nope! It's really fun!" he grinned. She considered it for a moment.
"D-do I get a trial?" She asked, curious.
"If you want! Here, meet us at this place tomorrow at 1." Natsu handed her a business card, "I gotta go! I'm absolutely starving!"
He quickly hailed a taxi and the others sighed and jumped in, zooming off down the road leaving Lucy standing there, staring at the small card.
"W-wait!" she called out after a few seconds. Realizing they were gone, she sighed and once again started trudging towards Levy's house.
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"Levy-chan?" Lucy peeped into the petite bluenette's room.
The small girl had fallen asleep on her bed with an open book lying across her chest. Rolling her eyes, she quickly left a note, leaving the house and making her way toward the address printed in large font on the card she had spent all night looking at.
"Ugh, I have no idea what I'm getting to… do I?" she asked herself, walking toward the entertainment company anyway.
Carefully dodging the people walking around the city for the lunch rush hour, she finally saw the big SPARK company sign up ahead.
She'd done some research that morning and found out that the founder of the company was a young girl named Mavis Vermillion, and the boss was now named Laxus Dreyar. He was big and buff, the kind of guy who seemed to like money and fame.
Sighing quietly, she entered the busy building, only to be greeted by the members of IGNITE.
"You really came!" Natsu said in excitement, while the others just nodded in appretiate.
"The boss wants you to sing so he can judge whether or not you'll be fit enough for the job… and don't you have anything other than those… baggy clothes?" Gajeel wrinkled his nose.
"W-w-what?! B-but I-I have severe s-stage fright!" she looked at them wide eyed, scared.
"How come you didn't tell us that earlier?!" Gray exclaimed.
"W-well, I thought I was just going to do some modelling thing or something." She muttered, amazingly only stuttering slightly.
"No way! We need you as a singer!" Natsu said desperately.
"O-okay, fine, I'll d-do my best?" Lucy became nervous, beginning to feel a cold sweat down her spine, "B-but if I h-have to do it, I-I w-want to wear m-my own clothes."
The group looked at each other.
"Better than nothing right?" Gray said sighing, causing the others to nod.
"We need to meet him in half an hour." Erza said checking her watch, "We should use this time to try and get… oh my! We don't even know your name yet!" she shrieked, causing a people to look at them.
"I- uh… I'm Lu-Lucy Heartfillia." She bowed down extremely low.
"Well then Lucy." Erza went straight back to business, "we should use this time to help you get over your stage fright."
"Alright, we can start with this. Every time you stutter, you become our slave for a day. Dressed as a bunny." Gajeel smirked.
Lucy opened her mouth to say something but then closed it and took a deep breath.
"Fine. As long as you cut out the bunny costume." She managed to say.
"Gihi."
"Great start!" Natsu said, grabbing Lucy's wrist and running off, the others close behind, "Now, let's go to the Spot so we don't catch attention."
"The Spot?" Lucy questioned, pretending that in her mind, she was only talking to her best friends to stop her stuttering.
"Yeah, it's actually just our personal room in this building, but we call it the Spot." Gray explained.
The group reached their personalized room and squashed onto the couch, looking at Lucy, who was standing in the middle of the room, expectantly.
After moments of silence Natsu finally spoke.
"Soooooo…." He drawled out, "are you gonna sing or what?"
"I would… if I knew what to sing." Lucy shrugged.
"Hey does that pause count as a stutter?" Jellal asked.
"Nah, she wasn't like; a-a-ah, g-g-gah, or anything." Natsu said robotically, causing Lucy to blush and the others to laugh at his imitation.
"How about you sing one of our songs?" Gray suggested.
"I don't know any of them." Lucy said bluntly.
"Figures, you didn't even recognise us yesterday." Gray pouted.
"What about that song you were singing yesterday, what's it called? I've never heard of it before." Natsu said, trying to recall if he'd heard previously.
"N-no, it was just some random thing I made up…" Lucy tried to explain.
"One day." Gajeel smirked, while Lucy realized her mistake and cursed inwardly.
"Sing it then." Erza urged, "We don't have much time."
"But it's not finished! And there are no notes or chords for it." Lucy said exasperatedly.
"Then make the rest up. It can be your debut song or something." Gray said.
"Fine…" she huffed, remembering the lyrics from yesterday.
Taking a deep breath, she started out shakily.
I'm just a clumsy little girl
Living in a lonely world
Without a future
Without a dream
There's nowhere that I need to be
Time passes by
Without no light
Just the days going by
And darkness pulls me in
She suddenly gained confidence and sung louder and clearer, her power house and smooth voice resonating throughout the room.
Have I lost myself?
Are the walls closing around me?
Am I drowning in a pool of shame?
People don't care
They don't see the walls they broke down
And now I have to build myself back up again
Now I'm back on my feet
And was offered a chance
Could it be fate
Could it be destiny
Was it written in the stars?
Colours came to fill my world
With hopes and dreams
(Woah-oh-oh)
Now I've found myself
The walls opening to freedom
He came to pull me out of this lonely world
And now there's someone who cares
They saw the walls that were broken down
And now….
AND NOW
These walls. Are. No. Longer. Needed.
Lucy belted out the second last line, and then ended in a soft note in her voice.
The room was silent and Lucy fidgeted nervously.
"If I'm going to join the band, I need a less depressing song, don't I?" she said.
The boy's and girl we're about to tell her it was great and that it was okay when Lucy cut them off.
"Wait! How about this?" Lucy said, taking another deep breath.
Fire, fire, burning my heart
The love you make me feel
Don't let me go
You are my world
You see, you're the light inside of me
You bring me sunny days
My heart breaks when you're away
I need your hand held in mine
Tears shed of happiness
Going out to my favourite places
I do what it takes to make it right
(Yeah!)
Fire, fire, burning my heart
The love you make me feel
Don't let me go
You are my world
You see, you're the light inside of me
She suddenly stopped.
"Keep going." Erza said.
"I can't think of anymore." Lucy groaned, falling to her knees, but jumped when there was a knock at the door.
"Crap! It's Sparky (the nickname Gajeel gives Laxus, the company name is SPARK after all)!" Gajeel grunted as the door slowly swung open.
The bulky man stepped in and they all greeted (minus Lucy) him
"Laxus." They all said.
The man merely spared them a glance and the room fell into silence as he looked Lucy up and down.
"Get out." He sighed after a while, pointing to the door.
"E-eh?" Lucy said as Gajeel grumbled 'two days' under his breath.
Laxus turned to look at the band.
"Seriously, out of all the presentable girls, you pick her?! Even Erza's better than that." He growled.
"Hey!" Erza exclaimed as Lucy's face fell and she huddled up into a ball.
"Oi, don't insult Luce like that!" Natsu noticed the blonde's reaction.
"Yeah, she's probably the best girl who'd ever join our band." Jellal contributed, and then added under his breath so no one heard, "Unlike any other slutty fan girl that you'd pick. At least she dresses decently compared to how some other chick dresses that makes you horny."
"I don't care! No one will like her if she doesn't have looks." Laxus continued ranting.
"At least give her the chance to sing." Gray reasoned.
"But she doesn't have anything yet, remember?" Gajeel hissed.
"Right. I knew that." Gray hissed back sarcastically.
"I already heard her. She's okay, but she doesn't cut the looks." Laxus snorted, "Give her a makeover or something, then you can come running back to me. But remember, you only have until tomorrow. At. 3. P. M. I have other things to attend to, call my secretary if you need something."
He walked out of the Spot, slamming the door behind him.
"I'm so sorry Luce." Natsu felt really bad for reeling her into joining and went over to comfort the blonde, who was still huddled in a ball.
"It's ok, this is the ninth job in the past four months and the second job in the past two days I've either been fired from, or haven't been accepted into." A muffled laugh came from the depths of her woollen sweater.
"D-did you just say your NINTH job in the past FOUR months?!" Gajeel exclaimed.
"That counts as minus a day. So now I'm only a slave for one." Lucy looked up, pointing out the fact that Gajeel of all people, had stuttered.
"I didn't actually mean it." Gajeel smirked playfully.
"I'm still doing it. I'll never break a promise, even if it costs me my life." She held up her pinky finger for exaggeration.
"Fine then, if you agree to do a makeover, then we won't make you a slave." Jellal said.
"I'd rather be a slave." Lucy said, looking dead serious.
"O-kay… you do realize as our slave we'd make you do it anyway?" Natsu smirked.
"Ugh, I hate you all." Lucy huddled up into her ball again and grumbled.
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CHAPTER TWO