A/N – Hello. I'm back and I'm rolling like a rolling stone.
Lucy huffed as she sifted through more of her letters, ignoring the urge to whip out a pen and paper and write back. A copycat had been killing people the exact same way she had in her books, and the 13th Precinct, felt that due to profiling figuring out that this killer was indeed a sociopath, the murderer may have contacted her in the past, or may decide to.
She smiled at one of the cuter letters, looking up and catching Natsu's gaze, as he seemed to be staring intently at her. Wasn't she the one who was supposed to be studying him? She had deemed him interesting enough to base a character on at least. By the end of the day, or this case, she would have what she needed anyway. It would be a short story, maybe loosely based on real events.
"What?" Lucy asked, veering her attention back to Natsu.
"Nothing, you're just different than what I expected you to be, is all" Natsu observed. "You're actually pretty cool, Luce" He grinned,
"Well, thanks?" Lucy smiled back at him, albeit a bit confused.
Lucy continued to shuffle through papers as well as taking in her surroundings. The happy atmosphere was hard to miss, even when a case they had yet to crack was looming over the whole precinct. She could hear laughter, and feel the happiness, something secure. She could tell they went past just being colleagues, they were a family. It was the kind of feeling she hoped to give Coco, her sort-of little sister.
She studied Natsu, and when he caught her looking it was his turn to say "What"
"Nothing, your eyebrows just furrow when you're thinking" She giggled. "They look sorta like dancing caterpillars when you do that" She laughed, hiding her smile behind an envelope.
"Hey Luigi?" Natsu asked
"What?" Lucy responded her irritation suddenly skyrocketing as her brow twitched. Was it so hard to get it right? Her name was Lucy damnit!
"Why are you here?" He asked genuine curiosity in his voice, completely catching her off-guard. She was expecting another question as to why her hair was 'yellow' (mind you, it's more of a blonde colour, not yellow)
"I want to find out who's been copying my books. Why those people? Why those murders?" She asked trailing on. "I'm really just curious, the human psyche, is just..." Lucy tried to find words explaining what she meant, but could only make vivid hand gestures. Mystery, it was her element, her job, it was who she was, and it made her stronger. "I want to know the story behind it all… You know?" She finally said after a while.
Natsu grinned at her. "Weirdo" He said.
Natsu shuffled through more letters until he found a slightly disturbing letter with a clumsily drawn angel on it.
"Luce? I think I found your story" He told her "And our killer" He grinned, showing off his elongated canines.
"Gray!" Natsu shouted, thus gaining the attention of the raven haired man. "Lab got lifts off the letter yet?" Natsu asked impatiently, tapping his foot to a non-existent beat.
"Yeah," Gray answered shuffling random papers, as he concealed a smirk, waiting for Natsu to get excited.
"But, the systems backlogged, it'll take a week to get a match." Gray disguised his chuckles behind coughs as Natsu's face fell.
"A week?!" Natsu whined, falling into Lucy as she quickly pushed him off her. She already knew that a whiny Natsu would be exhausting.
"Welcome to reality, pyro" Gray chuckled. Leaving a smug Lucy and floored Natsu in his wake.
"What's with that look, H?" Gray teased "Happy that you'll be spending more time with our, oh so, interesting Natsu?" He said.
Lucy smirked, and to Gray and Natsu's surprise, took out her phone and quickly dialled a number.
Lucy placed it on speaker.
"Mayor's Office" The sound of a receptionist rang through.
"Yukino? It's Lucy, is Hisui there?" Lucy asked sweetly, smiling smugly when she saw the boys' jaws hitting the floor. "Hisui E. Fiore?" Gray mouthed, his mouth falling even further than the underworld when Lucy nodded yes.
"Oh my Gosh! Hey Lu-chan! I haven't seen you in so long! We need to get together, and have a girls' night! Oh I'm sorry, I'm being rude. No worries Lu-chan, Hisui is available" Yukino, conveyed many emotions during her soliloquy and ended with a giggle.
"Lu!" A regal voice exclaimed through the phone.
"Hey there Hisui! How are ya?" Lucy grinned at hearing the voice of one of her closest friends.
The response was unheard as Lucy placed her phone off speaker and continued the conversation elsewhere.
"And then you and Arcadios left!" Lucy laughed loudly, as she walked further away from the two detectives.
"Wow, she's got the mayor on speed dial, the rich really do live differently." Gray remarked, watching Lucy's disappearing form.
"Okay! We'll have the prints in an hour!" Lucy exclaimed happily, walking back to wherever the hell she had just been; Erza who had been watching them gave a disapproving frown, however her eyes shone with mirth.
"Lucy, half of these guys are waiting for prints too, you can't just jump the queue" Erza, scolded gently as she came into view. It was no use, Lucy would never hear her. She was buried underneath the weapon of mass destruction and heaviness, Natsu Dragneel, who had decided to engulf her in a big hug.
"Thank you so much Lucy!" Natsu shouted merrily, beaming at her.
Lucy accepted the hug, sheepishly and hoped for a distraction. The distraction came, and Lucy regretted it in an instant.
Macao came off the phone, his mouth set in a grim line.
"Natsu, Midtown. They just found another one." He said, confirming everybody's suspicions.
A woman lay face down in a swimming pool. Her tawny hair gave way, exposing her back where a knife had been wedged into her back. Rips in her emerald green, Greek style dress. A golden apple clutched tight in her bleeding hand.
"Fairest of them All" Lucy observed solemnly as she looked at the corpse.
"Michelle Lobster. 23. She lives in the building, maintenance found her an hour ago." One of the uniforms, informed Team Natsu.
"Okay Luce, we'll handle this" Natsu replied, feeling smug now that she wasn't in control. He really actually felt the need to show off. Natsu headed toward where the bod had been moved to. Meanwhile, Lucy who had just rolled her eyes at this statement, took another route to the body which had been laid on a piece of white cloth.
Levy, who was examining the body let out a startled laugh when Lucy crouched down beside her.
"Oh, Lucy still consulting?" Levy asked
"Of course Levy" Lucy told her, her smile quickly turned sour and she said, "I heard someone say that I was using these cases as material through my new novel. With a main character in mind." Of course she thought this was interesting, but she hadn't thought of making a new series starring Natsu. Lucy sent a glare to a sheepish Levy who had opened her mouth to explain herself before being rudely interrupted.
"Luuuuuccceeee." Natsu whined as he discovered she had already made her way to the body before him.
"I told you to stay over there" He sulked, pointing vaguely, into the distance.
"I got bored" Lucy replied matter of factly, still examining this corpse. "Do you have a cause of Death, Levy?" Lucy asked suddenly, looking up.
"Not yet Lucy, I will after the full exam, but this definitely wasn't a stabbing." Levy confirmed, taking out a pen from her white lab coat to write down some notes.
"She's got a knife sticking out her back," Natsu drawled lazily. Lucy rolled her eyes and decided to come to his rescue.
"There is a lack of blood around the wound, this suggests she was dead before it was inserted." Lucy explained. She then proceeded to gently roll the victim's head to the side so her audience would see what she would be gesturing to next. "Here we can see that she has no foam around her mouth, so she didn't drown. This leaves us at loss of a cause of death." Lucy continued, to the shock of everyone except for Levy, who was of course, used to her antics.
"You've not lost your touch, Deduction Queen" Levy smirked much to Lucy's embarrassment, which was evident as her face was stained a bright magenta colour.
"Wow Lucy, I'm impressed" Erza congratulated, she quickly snapped into business mode "Okay, it's clear that she was killed and posed."
"Wait…" Lucy spoke up gaining the attention of everyone in the room, after that show they didn't want to miss another. Lucy leaned closer to the point she was kneeling down as her eyes skimmed the body carefully.
"We're assuming it was a deranged, copycat fan, who committed these crimes, correct?" Lucy began, stopping only to stare at them for confirmation which she received. "Then why is the dress this colour?" She pondered, more to herself than the others
"What do you mean Lucy?" Erza questioned.
"The dress in my book," She said softly, "It was white." She said.
"Well that's certainly something. Reedus, see who's purchased a dress like this, and check if they asked for a white one also. Whoever this person is, we need to find them."
"Erza!" Natsu yelled, maybe he had no idea that he was standing right next to her.
"You know if there's any connection between Sorano Aguria & Michelle Lobster?" Natsu asked.
"There's no connection as of yet" Erza informed him, she saw that he was opening his mouth to speak and decided to answer his unspoken question.
"A serial doesn't need a motive Natsu" Erza said, abruptly as her phone began to ring. After a one sided conversation and a few, "Okays" here and there from Erza, the conversation was done.
"Let me guess," Gray came into play. "The lab results finally came" He smirked, knowing by Erza's subtle nod he was correct
"Midnight Lahki, he's in downtown Magnolia, we got him. Let's go team!" Erza commanded loudly.
As everyone raced by her, Lucy couldn't shake the feeling something was off; shaken out of her reverie by Natsu, who without warning grabbed her hand, giving her only a grin for an explanation. They ran all the way to his car, Lucy trying desperately to keep her scarf from flying off her neck. She was smiling now, but something still seemed so wrong.
Pounding heavily on the door, Gray shouted "MCPD! Open up!" Having been knocking for several minutes, upon receiving no answer they busted the door down. Heading into several rooms they all yelled "Clear!" upon seeing that it was empty.
The walls were a dark colour, faded shelves carried dozens upon dozens of Lucy's novels, her first manuscripts, her biographies, even books that barely anybody knew she had published.
"Hey Natsu," Gray called, "Maybe this guy can join you and Levy's book club" He said smirking at the annoyed detective.
Natsu turned away from Gray sulkily, hoping that if he turned around to ignore his smug expression, he wouldn't be bothered by it.
Tripping up into a tiny closet sized room Natsu gave a loud gasp, piquing the curiosity of his peers.
"Woah" He breathed softly. The room was covered from top to bottom with pictures of Lucy, features she had done in Sorcerer Weekly, interviews she had given, articles, she had written quotes and printouts from her blogs. It was a room entirely dedicated to Lucy and her career. Candle's kept the room dimly lit.
"Woah indeed," Lucy spoke from right behind him.
"Luce?" He asked "I thought you wanted to stay in the car? Well more like she forced you into giving her a "Girl Scouts Honour"" He inquired.
"I was never a scout" She said simply, her attention more focused on the room she was in.
"Hey Natsu," Gray shouted. Having gained the attentions of both Lucy and Natsu, Gray pulled out a blood stained blouse, two gunshot holes had clearly penetrated the piece of clothing.
"Just like Angel's murder, I'm guessing Midnight kept trophies" Lucy noted in a grim fashion.
"Angel?" Gray asked, confusion written all over his face.
"Sorano." Lucy told him "She's Angel because of the circumstances of her murder, the way the death was staged and after the name of my book, of course." She informed him.
"Oh" Gray said, he began to rummage through the trunk in which he found the blouse. He pulled out a gun.
"22 Calibre" were the only words he said. A noise came from the closet nearby as well as muffled screaming. Gray pushed Lucy into Natsu, who gripped her firmly and protectively as he lifted his gun from his holster, nodding at Gray who did the same thing. He gave a hand motion that indicated Gray should move forward and open the closet door. Approaching carefully, Gray did so; opening the closet in an abrupt movement. All there was to be seen was a young man possibly around 20 rocking his body slowly backwards and forwards.
"Get out of my house. Get out of my house" He repeated his voice growing shakier albeit louder with each sentence. He was rocking faster now, his onyx hair swaying, making the white streak he had in it, more visible, as well as the sweat plastered on his fore head. He was definitely a wild card, not the good type either.
Gray moved in slowly on Midnight, not as though to startle him.
"Alright kid" He spoke slowly "Show me your hands" He continued making brief eye contact with Natsu, this guy is unstable. His eyes seemed to say, Natsu understood immediately and gently pushed Lucy (who was struggling to see) further behind, much to her semi- annoyance. She appreciated the gesture though.
Gray continued to move in, his gun still ready. Placing handcuffs around a now screaming Midnight, Gray was struggling to contain a furiously thrashing Midnight. Something had to be done but he refused to place Lucy in the line of fire. His mind working at top notch speed, he formed an idea. A good enough one to ensure that Lucy wouldn't get hurt as he was helping Gray. They needed to inform Lucy that they had found the suspect anyway
"Lucy, go get backup" Natsu prompted, as he moved cautiously to aid Gray. Lucy did so, she still felt something was wrong though.
Natsu on the other hand was too busy helping Gray subdue Midnight so he couldn't see her growing apprehensiveness. Swallowing her bad feelings about this she ran to find Erza, shaking off her doubts. It was probably nothing anyway. Well she hoped it was nothing, she knew it was futile she was usually right about things like this, and she knew that her subconscious wouldn't rest until she knew what was causing her to feel this way and put an end to it.
A/N – So sorry I took so long with this, I even started it the next day I posted the chapter and everything, I'm so slow. Sorry.
BUT DID YOU SEE LUCY IN THE NEW MANGA OMG
I'll be seeing you guys 'round I hope
Blossom