A/N - You know when you get really depressed every time you look at your growing older puppy and realize your time is short with them? And then you find out they have tumors all over their body, so you know that time is even shorter than you originally thought? Then you think, I should get another dog to learn from my old pup!

I adopted a 4 month old puppy...she is a handful, but super sweet and loves to cuddle with me. Unfortunately, she can find everything you thought you hid like a toddler with a super nose, and she ate an entire tube of toothpaste. The poop does not smell very minty coming out, I will tell you, and it makes a mess-so that is why this chapter is a day late. Spent most of yesterday, last night, and this morning with her, taking her outside, cleaning up messes, and trying to get sleep as I could.

Sorry for the delay!


RE:Script

Episode One: Hargeon

By Genavere

Chapter Two

Sitting in the diner, Lucy was dying on the inside as she watched the boy who saved her, one Natsu Dragneel, consume plate after plate of food. Next to him, sitting on the table, was his cat, Happy, who had caught up with them in the alleyway with her hat in hand. A plate piled high with raw fish sat in front of him. To the side was a plate holding just the bones.

Why had she agreed to pay for their meal, she lamented silently. Growing up, she had always been told to pay back favors and to never owe someone, and he had saved her. But with how he consumed everything set before him, all the money she had saved when purchasing the silver key would be spent on this bill alone. And that meant no staying at an inn until she earned a decent amount of jewel back.

If she were honest with herself, not being able to stay in the port town another night could be a blessing. After the scene she had made and not knowing when exactly she had lost her hat, more than just Natsu and Happy might have seen her hair. Staying in the same place would not be safe.

A heavy weight settled in her stomach at the thought she would have to ask Cancer to cut and dye her hair.

Pushing her own food around on her plate, she instinctively pulled her hat down further and sighed. How much longer could she do this? Running from spies and mercenaries. Finding work and relying on the kindness of strangers to give her a chance. In the end, would she have to go back just to stop the fear of being dragged back?

No, going back would never be an option. Not only would she lose all the freedom she currently had, but she would have to give up all her keys. That was something she would never do, willingly or not.

"So, Luigi, was it?"

A muscle twitched above her eye. "The name is Lucy! How many times do I have to tell you that?"

"Probably another five, if you ask me," Happy said, munching on another fish.

Pursing her lips together, she took in a deep breath and tried to calm herself. Her anger had gotten away from her once already; it would not be proper to allow it to happen again.

"Oi, what does that mean?" He glanced down at the cat—a blue cat, something she had never seen even with pampered noble girls who sought everything. "I can remember things just fine!"

"No, you can't."

"Yes, I can!"

"Nuh uh, even Teacher says so!"

"T-that's beside the point!"

Happy looked at her and tilted his head over. "You do look awfully familiar, Lucy. Are you a wizard or something?"

Natsu turned to face her again, his nostrils flaring as he audibly sniffed the air. His face scrunched up in disgust. "Oi, Luigi, when was the last time you washed?"

Clenching her teeth, she dug into her pocket and slammed down a some jewel. "Thank you for the save earlier." Sliding out of the booth, she grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder. "Good luck with finding work with that Salamander guy here."

"H-hey! Wait! Looney!"

Count backwards from ten, she told herself without looking back and pushed open the door to hurry along the cobblestone path. It was time to move on, start toward the next village, town, or city she came across and keep a low profile. Have Cancer change her hair color—even if it would hurt not to see the golden locks of her mother—and find honest work.

Closing her eyes, she tilted her head back and when she silently reached zero, she gazed up into the clear blue sky. From the position of the sun, it had not even hit noon yet, which meant there were several hours until nightfall.

A deep ache pulled at her muscles and settled heavily into her bones. Exhaustion pulled at her shoulders and pushed the thought of collapsing against a wall to the forefront of her thoughts. To sleep and forget the real world.

Footsteps came up behind her and she sighed.

"Look, Natsu," she said as she turned, not willing to put up with being called Luigi or be in debt to anyone anymore, "thank you for your help, but—"

A fist caught her jaw and knocked her to the ground. Stars danced before her eyes and a groan slipped between her lips before she could even grasp what happened. Had she offended Natsu by leaving like that?

Rough hands pulled her up and her hair was yanked back along with her hat.

"This is her," an unfamiliar voice blurred in her head. Wait, she blinked, could voices blur? "Bora said to bring her unharmed."

"She'll heal before we get to Bosco," another voice rumbled behind her. Too close…they were too close! "That's if Bora decides to sell her."

Laughter swirled around her and a cloth pressed against her face. A cold smell filled her lungs before she recognized the familiar scent of a sleeping potion. Limbs refused to move, too heavy to fight gravity or listen to any commands. For the briefest moments before everything went black and the world disappeared from around her, the memory of a bright grin and warm laugh came to her.

Maybe, just maybe, she had walked away from someone who could have been a friend.

#####

"Man." Natsu let out a loud belch and patted his full belly. "I can't believe that weirdo actually paid for us to eat like kings."

"Natsu, her name is Lucy!" Happy flew up from the door of the diner and landed on his shoulder, much too full to fly or walk. If he tried to do anything that involved moving too much, he felt all the food he had consumed would go to waste. That would be a crime to all the yummy fish!

"Eh, who cares, it's not like we'll see her again," he said with a shrug. "But she did seem pretty cool. I kinda wish she hadn't stormed out like that."

"Yeah," Happy agreed. "Didn't she say something about that fake Salamander guy?"

"Yeah, she did." He stopped in the middle of the road and frowned. "I wonder what she was doing here."

Happy shook his head. "You really are hopeless. She said she had been trying to find work."

"But what would that have to do with the fake me?"

He shrugged, hanging over his friend's shoulder, his tail twitching. "Beats me. She didn't really say much."

Natsu frowned. Most of dinner had been spent with small talk and consuming food. Neither of them had revealed much about each other, but it was strange that the odor on her kept him from getting her real scent. It made him wonder if the clothes that she had were from someone else.

That made no sense to him. Every woman he knew loved to shop or dress up in some way. Even Erza proved that by filling her spacial storage to fit every type of clothing she could ever need.

That made him think.

"You know, Happy," he said, lifting his nose to sniff the air. "Loony seemed pretty nice, even when she lost her cool."

"Yeah, she was." Happy snuggled closer to Natsu's neck and closed his eyes. "Even willingly getting me fish without complaining."

Catching a scent, he turned and started after it.

They should have gone after her right away, he knew that. He knew that Teach would be disappointed in him if she knew they hadn't. But, true to their nature, they were not ones to waste food. Many plates still were piled high, and even her plate sat with untouched food on it. No way would they leave all that, especially if someone else paid for it. It had to have been no more than five minutes for them to finish the rest...then another five minutes when the last few plates they had ordered came out.

Thankfully, the amount of Jewel left on the table had been enough. Sure, he knew they could have paid for any extras easily, but searching for it through his bag would have been a nightmare. After Teach had found some of the magazines Gildarts had given to him while gathering dirty laundry, she refused to clean it out for him.

That left him with being in charge of his own bag, and Gildarts punished with serving maid duty in the guild hall for a week. Outfit and all.

"Hey Happy," he asked, turning down a side alleyway, "did Luigi ever say she was a wizard or anything?" The scent was close and he began to look around the area. but he could not sense any magical energy. Everyone had a bit of it, even those who did not use it in any way. If she had some, he could not remember sensing it or what it had felt like. Sheepishly, the only thing he seemed to remember had been all the food, and laughing whenever her socking that phony came up.

Still, something about her threw him off. It was familiar but different.

"Nat~su!" Happy dragged his friend's name out in the biggest sigh. "Her name is Lucy!"

Down the road, a group of what looked like dock workers stumbled their way up. Some laughed and cheered. Others held their friends up, clearly the designated sober ones of the group. A few of them grumbled and swore, shaking their callused fists in the air.

"Calm down, old man," one of the younger men complained, trying to keep his older companion upright even with every launch of a fist. "Just enjoy a day off and some free earnings."

"All ya young boys are still wet!" The oldest of the men complaining slurred his words and stumbled. "That ship…bad omen, that is!"

"Whatever you say, gramps."

"They take the women away!" His voice rose up in a tune that carried each word. "Away they go, to Bosco town. Where gold be weigh' and tears be laid. To Bosco town, they go, ne'er a hair—" His lips pressed together around green skin.

The younger man barely had time to yank him to the side, where he proceeded to throw up all of what he had drank earlier. "Geez, gramps!"

The others laughed, pointing fingers and falling over each other. "Why would Fairy Tail steal our women? The Legendary Titania would easily cut them down if they tried!"

Natsu and Happy watched the group continue on, both frozen in place. They had heard Lucy talk about the ship a bit while they ate, but they had not thought of it as anything other than a party ship from her description. There had been other impersonators of Salamander in the past; all had been easy to deal with and scared away with a flash of fire. They had thought this would be the same.

"We need to hurry," Natsu said, spinning around to follow the scent again. They would find her first, then go and check out the ship. A wave of nausea crept up the back of his throat at the thought of stepping foot on it. The rocking motion…the sway of the horizon…

"I might be sick…"

"Natsu!" Happy gripped his scarf and shook him. "Stop thinking about it or we'll get nowhere!"

"Stop…shaking me…" He dug into his pocket and pulled out the peppermint cloth and slowly took in a breath. Nothing would cure the nausea, but it did help. When he felt like his stomach would not flip inside out on him, he continued in the direction of the scent, hand on the wall next to him.

Looking further down, Happy perked up and pointed. "Hey, look! It's Lucy's hat!"

"That's strange." In the short time they had known the girl, he had been able to tell she felt uncomfortable without it on. Another contradiction to every other woman in his life. Even he could say his clothes were better than hers.

Walking to it, he bent forward to pick it up, wondering why she had left it in the street. His nose twitched, the peppermint clearing enough that he realized there were other scents clouding over hers. Suddenly, the reason why he could not feel her magical energy hit him.

He swiped up her hat and clenched it. Straightening, he turned and narrowed his eyes in the direction of the harbor. "They have Lucy."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. And we're gonna get her back."


A/N - So...I apparently got ahead of myself and put the 3rd chapter up, instead of chapter 2.

Due to that...I will be posting the next chapter next week for anyone who might have already started reading it. Sorry about that!

See you next week, and thank you for reading!