Maybe you wondered why I updated in this time of the week. Guess what ? I got chicken pox ! *curse you chicken pox !* so I took about a week off from school -_- Since I'm bored, I decided to upload this chapter :))

Anyway, I'm really happy that you enjoyed the story :D

And to Footster26 : About why Lucy didn't leave sooner : Actually, she reconsidered running away because of Ms Lily and Ms Noel. But, when Ms Lian took her keys (her only friends), she can't take it anymore. At the same time, Ms Lily was abroad so it was a perfect time to errm- run away. Lucy had always wished for freedom too, she had a really strong struggle. So..in the end she still ran away. I hope this explanation helps :p

So, here's chapter 4. Happy reading, hope you enjoy~

"...Hey, is she okay?" A boy's voice spoke with a worried yet curious tone.

"She's asleep, Natsu." A girl's voice replied, but doubt was clear in her voice.

"But she's injured!" The boyish voice insisted.

"But it's been treated. Don't you see the plasters?" The girl's smooth voice answered.

"Should we wake her up?" Another voice asked.

I turned my body a bit and regretted doing it. My body was still sprained from the fall. I tried hard to open my eyes to the mumbling sounds. What I saw was blurry colours of pink, silver, and blue.

"Look, look, she's awake!" The boy whispered.

"Hey, are you okay?" The girl's voice said with worry.

My vision became clearer. Eh? It's bright? Does it mean it's morning already ? I noticed three figures leaning to me. Their faces were close to mine. A boy with unusual pink hair and onyx eyes was staring at me. He's wearing a white scaly scarf around his neck, a black vest and white pants. Beside him, there stood a girl with short silver hair and blue eyes with face full of worries. She's wearing a pink dress. Both of them are about my age. I removed my gaze from them and my eyes caught the third figure. A blue cat with big eyes and...wings?

I sat up abruptly, startling the threesome as they fell on their butts. I said the first thing on my mind, "T-The cat can fly ?"

Then there was silence.

Suddenly the pink-haired boy laughed really hard, "Of course Happy can fly! You sure are weird."

"Aye!" The cat spoke. Weird ? It's not every day that I found a flying cat and..Wait, did the cat just said 'aye'? I must be delusional, is this some kind of weird dream? I pinched my arm and closed my eye. Ouch ! I opened my eyes back. The threesome was still there, peering amusedly at me. Okay, so this wasn't a dream.

The girl giggled and the boy continued his loud laugh. The girl tried to suppress her giggles as she repeated her question, "Are you okay ?"

I opened my mouth to answer, "I'm fine. I guess." I looked around. Where is this ? I thought. Then, I remembered last night. Oh yeah ! I was proposed by an ape, and I ran towards a pond and then... I fell asleep ?

"Wh-who are you?" My mind suddenly became aware that they're strangers. I clutched my keys in my pocket.

"Hi, I'm Lisanna," the silver haired girl smiled warmly. She seemed kind.

"Natsu," the boy said while grinning widely ,"and that's Happy," he pointed his finger at the blue cat, "Who are you? I've never seen you around before."

I debated myself whether or not to tell them my name. But my instinct said that they meant no harm. "Lucy," I finally spoke.

"What a cute name you have," Lisanna smiled warmly, and unconsciously I returned her smile, "So, you came here to fish?"

I stared blankly at her, she noticed and continued, "This is a fishing pond and-"

"We came here to fish !" Natsu cut in, still wearing his toothy grin, "Happy's always hungry for fish.."

I didn't realize it was a fishing pond. "Uh..." I stuttered. What should I tell them? Then I noticed something, "Are you two mages? And the cat too?" My eyes widened.

"Why...yes we are, how do you know?" Lisanna asked, one of her eyebrows rose.

"I have a hunch." I lied. I'm really sensitive with magic. Some powerful mages know if someone's a mage by feeling their magic force. But, I'm different. I can also detect what kind of magic someone possesses. Sometimes, it makes me wonder why do I have this kind of ability. I'm not powerful or even skilful. I knew that the girl has an animal take-over magic and the cat has a flying magic. But the boy's magic is a bit...odd. I knew that he uses fire magic, but it's different. His magic is more powerful and ancient.

Lisanna did not seem too convinced by my answer, but she shrugged it off. Stupid me, why do I ask them that? Did that make me suspicious? My thoughts were interrupted when Natsu asked cheerfully, "Wanna come fishing with us ?"

"Yeah, it'll be fun !" Lisanna added.

"Aye ! More people, more fishes !" Happy drooled.

I laughed at Happy's antics. "Actually, I must go..." Natsu and Happy's face turned into disappointment, even Lisanna had her puppy eyes on. Uugh, I really can't resist those kind of faces. You have another business Lucy, just say no. But instead I said, "Fine,it won't hurt to fish for a while. Besides it's been a long time since I fished." I smiled but secretly cursed myself inside.

"Yay !" The trio exclaimed.

5 minutes later~

"It' so boooo~ring." Natsu whined and yawned. He hadn't got any fish. None of us had.

"It's only been 5 minutes, Natsu. Be patient." Lisanna said when holding her own rod.

"How ?" Natsu asked, definitely confused. Whoa, this boy is dense. I sweat dropped.

But it seems that Lisanna is used to it. She sighed, "Just be."

"I don't get it !" Natsu pouted and Lisanna laughed.

"You two sure are close," I made a sly grin.

"They llllike~ each other," Happy rolled his tongue. How can he do that ? "They even said they're husband and wife, "he whispered the last sentence in my ear, but loud enough for Natsu and Lisanna to hear.

"WE DID NOT!" Natsu and Lisanna yelled simulataneously, their face reddened.

I giggled, "Oh denial? You two sure are cute," I grinned in mischief.

"Aye !" Happy agreed.

"I AM NOT," Lisanna yelled, blushing even redder. At the same time Natsu asked, "What denial ?" With his eyebrows twitched in confusion, absolutely clueless.

I laughed. I've never laughed this much since Mom died. How odd that these 3 strangers could made me laughed this much. I grinned to myself. They sure are something.

"So...," Lisanna tried to change the topic with her blush still visible, "Where are you going Lucy?" She pointed to my backpack.

It took me a while to answer. I stared at the pond, "Not sure..," I mumbled and smiled sadly.

The 3 of them stared at me for a while. Awkward silence engulfed us.

"Are you running away?" Suddenly Natsu broke the silence.

"N-Natsu ! Don't be rude !" Lisanna scolded him.

"It's okay, Lisanna," I told her," Well... You can say I am running away."Now that I think about it, I don't have a place to live. And my money will be finished in a month. After that, how can I live? And why do I think of this just now?

Again, there's an awkward silence and the atmosphere became tense.

Now it was Lisanna who broke the silence, "Are you a mage?"

I nodded, surprised of her sudden question. Her face lit with joy.

"How do you know?" I asked her.

"I have a hunch," She copied me and stuck her tongue out playfully.

"Wow. What kind of magic do you have? It must be cool!" Natsu glanced, his eyes shone.

"Nothing much," I said simply.

"Anyway, you should come with us !" Natsu suddenly grabbed my wrist and pulled me to stand up and ran when holding my hand.

"H-hey ! What about fishing ?" I managed to say.

But Natsu just smiled his toothy grin, "Fishing can wait !"

"But..." I reasoned.

"Don't worry, Lucy ! We'll take you to an extremely awesome place. I'm sure you'll like it. Right, Happy ?" Lisanna followed with Happy flying by her side.

"Aye Lucy ! You'll love it!" Happy yelled. But then his smile faded, "Where is this place?" he asked dumbfounded.

Lisanna just heaved a heavy sigh, "Don't tell me that Natsu's denseness has gone through you too, Happy."

"Hey ! Who's dense?" Natsu protested.

They continued to argue as they took me to God-knows-where.

"Whoa." I managed to speak. In front of me, stood a big white building with red roof. There's an oddly familiar symbol drawn on a banner.

"Come on, Lucy !" Natsu said excitedly and dragged me inside. He opened the door, or should I say nearly broke the door.

"Hey guys !" Natsu screamed. Slight replies of Natsu's greetings were heard, some of them waved or just smiled. I gazed around the room. It's quite big. There's a big bar with stools, dozens of wooden tables and chairs, a big board on the left and stairs heading to the second floor.

Then suddenly a errm- half naked raven haired boy in boxers walked to us. I could feel my face became slightly hotter.

"Where're your fish, flame head ? You didn't caught any? How lame." He snickered.

"Hey ! At least I don't strip every 5 seconds, you exhibitionist ! Natsu grinned slyly.

"What are you sayin-", he looked down to face his now bare chest, "Wahh ! When did that happen ?" He then ran around, maybe to search for his clothes which magically disappeared.

Natsu rolled his eyes and mumbled something which sounded like "stupid", when suddenly a pretty girl with long red hair wearing armour approached us.

"Do you mind to introduce your new friend?" She looked at Natsu, Lisanna, Happy, then looked at me.

Before Natsu could say anything, a long silver haired girl with blue eyes just like Lisanna appeared and glared at him,"Heh? You got yourself a girlfriend Natsu?"

She's wearing a gothic style outfit, a black tank top, black shorts and black boots. Her hair was tied in ponytail and she seems 1-2 years older than me. Natsu trembled, even Happy flew behind Lisanna's back,

"Don't make my lil'sis cry, you two-timer !" She then glared at me, looking at me from head to toe. I felt slightly embarrassed with my messed-up look, scratches, and plasters. Her glare scared me too. If eyes could kill, I should be dead right now.

"Mira-nee," Lisanna suddenly said,"Don't glare at her like that, she's just a new friend that we just met today. And Natsu's not two-timing." Wow. She didn't even deny the fact that her big sis thought she is Natsu's girlfriend, I thought, amused.

"How rude. Glaring at people you don't even know." The scarlet haired girl butted in.

"What did you say, armour fetish?" The silver haired girl turned her glare to her.

The red head glared back, "I said, have some etiquette, gothic woman."

Wow. These people sure loves to fight. "Where exactly is this?" I questioned Natsu, Lisanna, and Happy, ignoring the two with dark aura surrounding them.

"Fairy Tail." 3 of them grinned," The most powerful guild in Fiore !"

Fairy Tail ? Oh I've ever read about them in the newspaper.

"Do you mean this is the guild who destroyed half of Charlotte City? And the one who burnt Freesia Forest? And also the one who made a mess in a Cafe ?" I asked.

"Sadly, we are." A voice spoke behind me, made me jump a little. A short old man walked towards us. His hair and beard is white and he's wearing a yellow cloak. I felt an extremely strong force of magic emitting from his body.

"Welcome back Master." The red haired girl and the silver haired girl said, followed by Lisanna and the whole guild members.

"Hey, Jii-san !" Natsu and the half naked boy, now with his shirt on greeted.

"Well, it really was a shame that we destroyed some properties when doing missions," he scratched the back of his head and glared at Natsu, the stripper boy, Lisanna's nee-chan, and the red-haired girl.

Without thinking I spoke, "I personally think that your guild is really cool. You have...a strong bond here, like a family," I smiled. When I first entered this building, warm atmosphere engulfed us. When someone goes in, everybody greets. I can feel that they treated each other like siblings. Though they loved to fight, I know that they cared for each other. 'Family' huh ? It's been a long time since I heard of that. I wished I had a family like that.

The guild immediately fell silent on my statement making me snapped out of my thought.

I began to blush, "E-eh ? Did I say something wrong?"

The old man grinned, "No, it's just rare to hear someone address our guild as 'cool'. Usually it's 'destructive', 'trouble-maker', 'noisy' and so on," He waved his hand, annoyed.

Lisanna's big sis smirked and walked to me, "Hey, I like this girl," she ruffled my hair, "I'm Mirajane, just call me Mira."

"And I'm Erza," the red-haired girl smiled and shook my hand.

"My name's Gray." The stripper boy smirked at me.

"And I'm the guild master, Makarov," the old man said grinning, "You can call me Master or Jii-san."

"I'm Lucy." I smiled warmly. I'm really happy. This the first time people accept me the way I am. I saw Lisanna, Natsu, and Happy behind me. Natsu had his grin on, Lisanna smiled really widely, and Happy flew around with his thumbs up. I smiled to them.

And suddenly the whole guild came to me in turn to introduce themselves, like I'm already a part of them. I met Mira's and Lisanna's brother, Elfman who's always talking about manly things. Cana, a girl about the same age as me too, who always drink on the counter (is she even allowed?). Levy, a blue-haired bookworm just like me with her two comrades who had obvious crush on her, Jet and Droy, and so on.

After the 'meet and greet' session, the crowd went back to what they were doing leaving only me, Natsu, Lisanna, Happy, and other kids around my age. We were chatting, when Master approached me.

"What about joining this guild Lucy? You're a mage, aren't you?"

My eyes widened, "Can I ?"

Master nodded, "We'll be glad to accept everyone who's willing."

"B-but, I'm an inexperience mage. And I've only beaten a perverted vulcan so far." I said the last sentence with a low voice, almost whispering.

"What? You've beaten a vulcan?" Natsu popped beside me. I wondered how could he hear my low voice.

"Yeah. But it's not me that actually fight. It's my...spirit friend." I smiled.

"So, you are a celestial mage?" Erza also popped in.

"Mmm. Yeah," I said embarrassedly.

"What's a salestial mage ?" Natsu asked dumbly.

Mira hit him on the head, "It's celestial mage, you idiot. They summon spirits to battle."

"But still, for a newbie at your age, it's amazing to have beaten a vulcan," I blushed when the Master spoke, "Your skill doesn't matter Lucy. What matters is your will. With strong will, you can accomplish almost anything."

Anything ? Maybe...I can be useful here? And maybe I can get stronger?

"So, are you going to join, Lu-chan ?" Levy asked anxiously.

"Please join Lucy. I know you'd love it," I heard Lisanna plead.

I observed the guild. Erza smiled encouragingly at me, Gray slightly smiled , Natsu mouthed "Join, Lucy !", even Mira grinned and Cana stopped drinking for a while to wait for my answer. How can they do that for someone they've only known for less than 15 minutes? It's been a long time, somebody would treated me like that. I bit my lips, as tears of happiness threatened to well. I've made up my mind, "Sure," I heard myself said with determination.

With that, the whole guild cheered. They sure are lively, I thought and smiled widely.

Mom, is this where I belong? I asked in my heart.

You won't know till you try, right? I imagined what Mom would have said.

I'll try Mom, I'll make you proud. Just watch me.

I decided to make demonic Mira because I think it's quite amusing to see her fighting with Erza when Erza herself stop Natsu and Gray's fights XD Besides, I love the demonic side of Mira too *grins*. Well, because some of you prefer the kind Mira, I made her had a soft spot for Lucy. So, what do you think ? I'm sorry if it's a bit OOC, I'll edit if you don't like this Mira. I also made a little special ability for Lucy, maybe it will be useful in the story?

Please tell me what do you think by reviewing, and ideas are welcomed :)

~snowdrop03