Born Without A Heart

Chapter4

Levy sat quietly as she listened to her friends laughing and talking around her. She wasn't in the mood to socialize. She hadn't had any sleep the night before and she was utterly exhausted. But she had already committed to a dinner to celebrate Natsu's birthday, and she wasn't the type of person to flake out at the last minute.

The group was crammed into a small booth in the corner of an all-night Indian food place down town. It was kind of a dump, but it was Natsu's favorite.

"I still can't believe you actually went for Ivan like that Luce," Natsu said to the lanky blonde sitting beside Levy. Natsu's pink hair was wild, free of the hat he usually wore. His jacket had been thrown over the back of the seat and he had rolled the sleeves of his red shirt up past his large biceps. He glowed with pride at the Lucy. "She straight knocked him to the floor during the sting. My girlfriend's a badass," he smirked.

"Maybe you should come work for Fairy Tail Lucy," Gray said, taking a swig of his beer. They had arrived straight from work and Grey still wore his slick black blazer and starch white shirt, though his narrow tie was loosed and slung low around his neck. "Sounds like you'd be better at the job than flame-brain over there."

Lucy laughed musically at Levy's side as Natsu and Gray exchanged a round of insults.

Watching her friends laugh Levy couldn't help but think how refreshing it was to see Natsu so happy. Over the last few years Natsu had slowly seemed to pull away from them. The job had been getting to him, Levy could tell. Burnout was common in their line of work, especially for people like Natsu and Gray. Their jobs took them to dark places and left haunting memories. Seeing the things that those men had seen... it left invisible scars on your soul.

But now here was Natsu, as cheerful and rambunctious as ever, and Levy knew it was all because of Lucy.

"Do they ever stop arguing?" Lucy asked Levy, her blonde hair shimmering as it trailed over her shoulder.

The girls laughed, both already knowing the answer.

Levy had liked Lucy immediately. She was beautiful, which was a little intimidating as Levy felt even plainer sitting next to her than she usually did. But she was also sweet and down-to-earth. They had become fast friends.

"Does this place serve anything besides beer and wine?" Lucy's friend Cana asked from across the table as she downed her third bottle of the cheep brown ale. "We should go somewhere where we can get the hard stuff."

Lucy's friend Cana was awesome. Bold as brass and even Levy could admit the girl was hot as hell. Brunette locks fell in waves over her shoulders. The high collar of her leather jacket swept up her long neck, somehow accentuating the bare skin leading down to her very low cut top. She had a bold, don't-fuck-with me personality that would normally intimidate Levy if it weren't for how warm and welcoming the girl was.

Canna and Lucy had both worked at that club, the Blue Kitten, before Natsu had gone undercover to expose it. Apparently during the raid Lucy had actually attacked Ivan, the club owner, in order to help Natsu take the guy out.

Ivan had been selling women. The dancers at his club, girls like Lucy and Canna, had been killed or sold when their value had been depleted. He had planned to start using them as drug mules and had made a deal with Tartaros to move Lullaby across the borders.

The thought made Levy ill. That a person could do something so vile made her loose some small amount of faith in the goodness of people.

But then she looked over to see Cana and Lucy's smiling faces. How could they have experienced such horrors and still be able to be here with them, laughing and smiling and living life?