Old Friends (Erlu)

Chapter 1: She's Alive

[Flashback]

"Come on, Erza! We've gotta get out of here before we get caught!" Lucy said in desperation.

"I know, but I can't just leave the others behind, I couldn't live with myself knowing that I was able to escape while they all continue to suffer." Erza said with a sense of duty.

"Okay,  but make it quick, a group of us will be leaving this place in about five minutes." Lucy said.

"Got it, I'll be back soon. Wait for me." Erza said.

Erza turned to leave, but before she could, Lucy grabbed Erza's hand and looked into her eyes.

"Please don't get caught, okay? Promise me you'll come back." Lucy said tearing up from the worry she felt.

"I will." Erza said as she brought Lucy into her arms for hug, "I promise."

Lucy waited anxiously for what felt like ages, until she saw the familiar scarlet haired figure approaching her, immediately sighing in relief.

"Ready? Let's go." Erza said as she took hold of Lucy's hand.

[End flashback]

"I'm so happy I was able to join Fairy Tail a week ago, this is such a dream come true! Everyone here is so awesome, I can't wait to get to know all of them!" Lucy thought to herself. But this mindset was short lived as she heard shouting; sitting at the bar in the Guild Hall, Lucy watched her fellow guildmates go at it.

"Hey flame brain! Stop eating all of the food, Mira said we wouldn't be getting a shipment until next week!" Grey shouts in annoyance.

"Shut up, ice princess! A growing boy has gotta eat!" Natsu yells back at him.

"Aye!" Happy exclaims gleefully while eating a fish.

Lucy sighs, "Natsu, whenever you get done eating, do you think we can go on a job? As much as I like getting to know everyone here at the guild, my rent will be due in a few days."

"Yeah, sure Luigi." Natsu says with his mouth full of food. "Go ahead and pick one out." Waving her off as he continues to eat is fill.

Rolling her eyes after being called Luigi, she heads over to the job board and begins to look for one that is fairly close by, as she wasn't willing to travel very far due to the time she has left to pay rent. After a few minutes, her eyes fall on one pertaining to a group of bandits that have been lurking some roads on the outskirts of Magnolia that were targeting travelers and mugging them.

"Hey Natsu, have you finished stuffing your face yet?" She said teasing the dragon slayer. "I think I've found a winner!" Raising the flyer over her head.

"Ok, sounds good." Wiping his mouth with his forearm and chugging some water. "Let's head out, come on Happy!"

"Aye!"

- Lucy, Natsu and Happy make their way to the roads on the outskirts of town where the muggings have been taking place. -

"Hey!" A gravelly voice yelled out from behind the trees. Turning to look, they saw him. "You three look lost, do you think we can help you out? All we're asking for is a little... compensation." He said with a sly smile, as nine more men emerged from the forest brandishing their weapons at them threateningly.

Lucy immediately motions to grab her keys and prepares to call forth one of her spirits. But before she can do so, Natsu starts running towards the group of bandits.

"There are only ten of you? That's all you've got?!" Natsu yells as he readies his attack.

Fire Dragon Iron Fist!

In the blink of an eye, flames erupted from Natsu's fist and hit the men, resulting in them all fainting to the ground with some of their clothes showing burn marks on them.

"Wow, Natsu! That was amazing! Taking out all of them with one move!" Lucy said impressed. "You're really strong!"

"Eh. It was nothing," Natsu said with slight arrogance in his voice. "If you think I'm strong, you should see Erza."

"ERZA?!" Lucy said in surprise. Could this be the same Erza from her childhood? The Erza whom she had found comfort with all those years ago while being slaves in the Tower of Heaven? This whole time, I thought that maybe she had died. "Erza... as in Erza Scarlet?"

"Yeah, that's her. Are you a fan or something?" Natsu said with a joking smile.

"She's the strongest female mage in the guild!" said Happy.

"Hmmm... really? Wow. Erza and I have met before when we were kids, but I haven't seen her since then." Lucy replied, not wanting to reveal her thoughts to them, talking about her experience at the Tower of Heaven isn't something she likes to share with people. The thought of Erza being alive all this time made her want to cry, but she tried to control her emotions by forcing a smile instead. Lucy must've smiled a little too much while thinking of Erza, as Happy decided to begin teasing her.

"You liiike her!" Happy said flying around Lucy.

"Shut up, cat!" Lucy yelled in embarrassment as she felt her cheeks grow red from the teasing. "As I said, we were kids when we last saw each other!"

Lucy shook her head in an effort to rid her mind of her past. The group began making their way back to Magnolia to collect their reward.

After walking in silence for a few moments, Lucy decided to speak. "So, what's she like?... Erza, I mean." Lucy said with a hint of nervousness.

"Well, to be honest, she's kinda scary." Natsu said with a shrug trying to look as casual as possible to hide his fear of Erza.

"Aye! She's a monster! Just a word of advice Lucy, don't get in the way of Erza and her cake. She will end you!" Happy said with darkness looming around him as if speaking from experience.

From their description, Lucy can't help but giggle at her companions.

"What? You don't believe us?" Happy asked.

"Aw, come on you guys, she can't be that bad, right?" Lucy said with slight worry in her voice, unsure of the person that Erza has become since they had last seen each other. Lucy paused for a moment before speaking again. "It's just that... that's not exactly how I imagined her to be." (After all these years, is she really scary? Has she changed that much?) She thought internally.

"You'll see for yourself when we get back to the guild. This morning before we left, I heard that she's coming back from a S-Class mission soon." Natsu said.

Lucy's heartbeat accelerated in both nervousness and excitement as they made their way back Magnolia.

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End of Chapter 1. Hope you guys enjoyed. Again, this is my first time writing one of these so, hopefully there's no grammar errors. 

Please leave a comment if you would like. I will post the next part ASAP, I'm just making sure that it reads out properly.

Stay tuned for Chapter 2: The Reunion.