Found & Forgotten

Chapter 3

"Here's the key." Levy pressed the key to Lucy's apartment into her hand.

"Arigato," Lucy smiled slightly. "Look, Levy-san, do yo-"

Levy gave her stern look.

"Gomenasai. Levy-chan," Lucy corrected. "Do you mind if I just...?" she trailed off.

"Have a moment alone?" Levy finished for her. "No problem, Lu-chan. I need to get home anyway. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Hai." Lucy replied. "See you tomorrow."

"Ja ne!" Levy waved goodbye cheerfully.

"Ja ne." Lucy responded, placing the key on her bedside table, beside her celestial spirit keys.

Lucy stared at the book in her lap for a moment, then leaned her forehead against it and sighed heavily.

"What's going to happen to me?" she whispered to herself. "I don't know these people. How is this going to work?"

She heard the door creak and jerked back up.

"Everything OK, Lucy?" It was Mirajane.

"Hai, I'm fine." Lucy responded.

"I see Levy brought your novel." Mirajane noted.

"Hai. Wait, you know about that?" Lucy asked, astonished.

"Obviously." Laughed Mirajane. "The whole guild knows! Natsu and Gray are constantly trying to read it. Only Gray has succeeded. You guard more diligently against Natsu's attempts."

"What?" Lucy gasped. "Levy-san told me only she had read it."

"Well, Gray's only read about half of it - you keep taking it off him." Mirajane explained.

"No wonder." muttered Lucy. "Novels are private!"

"Then why are they written, if not  to be read?" pointed out Mirajane. "Ja ne, Lucy."

Lucy blinked a couple of times, puzzled at a sense of déja vu Mirajane's sentence brought. She knew someone had said that to her before. But who? And when? By the time she looked up to respond, Mirajane had already left.

Alone in the infirmary now, Lucy leant back in the bed, flicking on the bedside light as she noticed how dark it had become. She turned to the first page of the novel in her lap.

My Fairy Tail - Lucy Heartfilia

Foreword

In fairy tales, there is always a princess locked away in a tower guarded by a dragon. In fairy tales, there is always a prince who comes to rescue the princess. In fairy tales, the prince and the princess get married and live happily ever after. But not in my Fairy Tail.

In my Fairy Tail, there is no prince to rescue the princess. In my Fairy Tail, the princess and the dragon go on adventures together. In my Fairy Tail, the princess falls in love with the dragon.

And in my Fairy Tail, the dragon and the princess stay together forever.

"So cliché. Pathetic. I wrote this?"

Lucy shook her head and started to put the novel to one side when a slight glint on the paper caught her eye. Bringing it closer, she saw words written in faint pencil underneath the few paragraphs in pen.

"What's this?" she asked herself, straining to read the writing.

"Dedicated to...what is that word?" She cried, frustrated, holding the page closer to the light.

"N...Na...Nats-" Lucy broke off. "Wait, what!?"

But now that she'd deciphered the word, there was no unreading it.

DEDICATED TO NATSU

"And there's no denying that that is my handwriting," Lucy told herself, putting the novel in the top drawer of the bedside table and sweeping her apartment key in after it.

"So what did this Natsu Dragneel mean to me?" She asked herself, lying down and pulling the duvet up round her neck.

Staring up at the ceiling, Lucy tried to find the gap in her memory, but to her it simply seemed like she'd fallen asleep one day and woken up the next in a strange place surrounded by strange people, almost as if she'd been...kidnapped?

The more she thought about it, the more that made sense. The Heartfilia fortune was large enough that her kidnappers could demand a large ransom for her safe return. Her father would do anything to get her back.

But the rational side of her pointed out details that condradicted this - the lack of restraints, the novel in her handwriting, the expanded collection of celestial spirit keys. All of these seemed to back up the memory loss story.

The thing that confused her most was why they would tell her her father was dead if he wasn't. They hadn't offered proof of the matter either way.

Tossing and turning, Lucy tried in vain to fall asleep as these thoughts chased each other in circles around her head. Eventually, she fell into a shallow sleep filled with strange images.

—-

Lucy was back at the manor, curtseying in front of her father. As she straightened back up, he placed his hand on her shoulder. She bowed her head respectfully...

...and was pulled in for a hug, in an undignified fashion most unlike her father. Looking up, she saw Natsu's pink hair and wide grin. Realising she was close enough to feel the heat radiating off of him, she flushed and looked away. A finger under her chin coaxed her head back up and she was staring into the eyes...

...of her mother, who was most definitely dead. Layla had passed away some years before, but her death was still fresh in Lucy's heart. She felt tears sting her eyes and then they fell, blurring her vision. As a comforting hand was placed on her head, Lucy blinked her vision clear and saw...

...Natsu again, in the act of pulling her in for another hug. She resisted this, so he settled for placing his hands on her shoulders instead. His mouth was moving and he was trying to tell her something, but Lucy didn't want to hear it, so she covered her ears with her hands. Scrunching up her eyes to avoid accidentally lip-reading, she reopened them to see...

...Levy, hands on Lucy's shoulders, shaking her hard and also saying something. Lucy removed her hands from her ears.

"Wake up!" Levy was saying, but something was wrong with her voice.

Lucy pushed Levy away and stared at her.

"Come on," Levy was still saying. "Wake up!"

Then it dawned on Lucy that Levy was speaking with Mirajane's voice.

—-

Lucy's eyes flicked open and she saw Mirajane gently shaking her shoulders to wake her up.

"Morning, Lucy." She said, kindly. "I've brought you some breakfast." She placed a tray of food in Lucy's lap.

"Arigato," Lucy yawned.

"No problem. You'll need your strength to recover. And no doubt most of the guild will visit to see how you are today." Mirajane replied. "I hope you're up for it."

Lucy groaned internally, but smiled at Mirajane and said, "No problem," before starting her breakfast.

Konichiwa minna-san!

I'm treating you, really I am! I tell myself to choose a specific day to update on, but I'm writing this so fast I just can't resist uploading!

I already have three more chapters fully written :3

Anyways, I won't make this too long as I don't have too much to say.

Only, PLEASE COMMENT! I really want to know what you think!

So, without further ado:

Happy reading, minna-san! Sayonara!