📝Lucy's Diary, stardate... oh, who cares? Today!
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Officially, I am a Fairy Tail mage. It feels like a lie when I write it. But it's here, on my skin, on my hand. A symbol I've dreamed of having since I learned to read my first rune. Incredible, isn't it?
In less than two days, my life has turned into a mad adventure story with a dubious budget. I was almost kidnapped by a cheap charlatan, rescued by a hyperactive fire mage who has a dragon for a father, joined the loudest and most destructive guild in the entire kingdom of Fiore, and was stamped on the back of my hand by the most beautiful, and possibly most dangerous, woman I have ever met in my life.
Seriously. Mirajane Strauss looked at me, smiled with those perfect lips, and BAM—a pink magic mark on my skin. I swear on all my celestial spirits, when she touched my hand... I heard bells. Or maybe it was just the sound of my heart desperately trying to escape through my throat. The possibility of both events being simultaneous is considerably high.
And that's when everything changed. That old life of mine? The debutante balls, the etiquette lessons, the golden loneliness of a mansion that was more a museum than a home? Lovingly tucked away (and with a bit of relief, I confess) in a drawer of the past.
Now I'm Lucy Heartfilia, a Fairy Tail mage. A 2.0 version. With a bit more glitter, mild trauma, and a daily, almost guaranteed risk of explosion and dismemberment (not necessarily in that order).
My first mission was… unforgettable. In every sense of the word, including the ones I'd rather forget. Me, Natsu, and Happy went off to rescue Macao, a veteran mage who had gone missing in the snowy mountains. I thought it would be a simple adventure, like in the books I used to read, you know? A cave, a generic monster, a heroic victory, and a happy ending. Instead, I faced a Macao possessed by a Vulcan, which is basically a giant demonic gorilla with terrible table manners, hung from frozen cliffs that would make any mountaineer cry, took a beating from fireballs (thanks for the dodgy aim, Natsu), and nearly died a couple of times. But, in the end... we did it. We saw Romeo, his son, crying in his father's arms, and at that moment, with a tight chest and frozen lungs, I realised that maybe, just maybe, I had made the right choice.
Oh! And to top off life's little twists, I found a flat! It's on a charming little street with cobblestones and a delicious smell of bread coming from the bakery on the corner, right near Kardia Cathedral. The rent was so incredibly cheap that I was immediately suspicious, thinking the place was haunted, cursed, or built on an ancient burial ground of some old, grumpy creature. But apparently, the previous tenant was just an elemental mage who mysteriously vanished one day, leaving behind only a faint aura of ozone and some unpaid bills. No one has wanted to live there since. Perfect for my budget! It's spacious, has a decent bathtub (the highest priority!), a kitchen with a cute oven for baking bread (a new hobby?), and even a perfect corner to organise my books and write my mental screenplays.
I moved in yesterday. And today, for the first time... I woke up with a real smile on my face. Even with the sound of a distant explosion that probably came from the guild at seven in the morning. This is my new life. Fairy Tail. Where even the nightmares come with glitter and a dubious sense of humour.
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I closed my diary with a long, satisfied sigh, the kind you let out when your heart is as light as a feather and your brain hasn't quite caught up with what's happening. The wooden chair, which I'd bought at a second-hand furniture fair and probably had a longer history than I did, creaked softly as I stretched. Arms up high, a yawn that nearly dislocated my jaw, my blonde hair a glorious mess, and my body still adjusting to the new bed, the new air, the new life.
The morning sun crept lazily through the living room window, painting my small and newly organised sanctuary with that soft, golden light that makes even the yet-unpacked cardboard boxes look poetic. I looked around. It was mine. The bookshelf with my books, still smelling of new paper. The little table where my diary rested. The vase with a single flower I bought yesterday. My place. My home.
"Hmmm… what shall I do today?" I murmured to myself, spinning in the chair. The possibilities seemed endless and exciting. Pick a mission from the board? Spend the day in the guild's library, maybe chat with Levy about rare books? Or maybe, just maybe, go out for a juice and casually bump into Mirajane at the guild bar, as if I just happened to be there... and maybe she'd wink at me again?
I smiled to myself, feeling my face grow warm. I shook my head, pushing the thought away. (Focus, Lucy. One step at a time.) I stood up, determined to make some tea and perhaps plan the decor for my bathroom (a task of extreme importance). I walked through the short hallway that led to my modest living room, and that's when I realised something was wrong.
Very, very wrong.
There was… a smell of fish in the air. Not fresh fish. But grilled fish. In my house. Where I was certain there were no fish. Unless one of the previous tenant's old spells involved the spontaneous materialisation of seafood.
"Why does it smell of fish?" I asked aloud, stopping at the entrance to the room with a bad feeling growing in my stomach. And that's when I saw them.
"GOOD MOOORNING, LUCY!!" Natsu shouted, sprawled on my newly-bought sofa as if he owned the place, with his dirty feet up on a cushion I had spent hours choosing.
"Aye!" said Happy, perched on the back of the sofa, the tail of a considerably sized grilled fish hanging out of his mouth.
I… froze. Reality seemed to be folding in on itself, like in one of those bad science-fiction novels. The loveliness of waking up happy in my own flat had been brutally murdered by a fish-scented home invasion.
"WHAT. ON. EARTH. ARE. YOU. TWO. DOING. HERE?!", my voice rose in a crescendo of disbelief and horror, each word punctuated by a nervous twitch in my right eye.
"Well, we came to get you for a mission!" Natsu grinned, with the excitement of a puppy that has just torn up your favourite shoe and thinks you'll love it. "And your door was unlocked! You need to be more careful, Lucy!"
"MY DOOR WAS LOCKED WITH SEVEN MAGICAL LOCKS! I CHECKED THREE TIMES!"
"Oh..." he smirked, a glint of guilt and amusement in his eyes. "Then maybe it was the kitchen window. Yes, it was the window."
"YOU CAME IN THROUGH THE KITCHEN WINDOW?!" I was on the verge of a breakdown.
"It was fun!" said Happy, finally swallowing the rest of the fish and discreetly burping up a bone. "The view from up here is great!"
"I LIVE ON THE SECOND FLOOR!!!"
"Aye! I flew up. Natsu used the drainpipe. He's good at it."
I took a deep breath and tried to ignore the mental image of Natsu climbing the wall of my building like a giant pink gecko, and the fact that my sanity was detaching itself from my mind with an audible creak.
"Okay. Let me rephrase," I said, with the patience of a saint. "What are you two home invaders doing in my house at eight in the morning?!"
"I already told you! I found a great mission for us!" Natsu said, all excited, leaping off the sofa and waving a piece of paper in my face.
"A mission?" I repeated, already with that dark premonition that usually preceded something very stupid and dangerous.
"A rich lord is hiring mages to destroy a book that's in a rival's mansion!" Natsu announced, as if it were the best news in the world. "The bloke's name is Kaby Melon!"
"Kaby... Melon?" I repeated, trying not to laugh at the name. "Okay, that already sounds dodgy."
"But it pays 200,000 Jewels!" said Happy, his eyes turning into money signs.
"And you think you're just going to knock on the door of the bloke's mansion and say 'excuse me, good morning, we've come on behalf of a fruit-named lord to burn one of your books'?" I asked, crossing my arms.
"Of course not, Lucy. Don't be silly," Natsu replied, with the expression of someone explaining the obvious to a small child. "That's why we need you. You're going to infiltrate as a maid!"
Silence. A deathly silence, broken only by the sound of Happy chewing on another fishbone he'd produced from somewhere. I stared at him. He was deadly serious.
"What?" my voice was a thread.
"It's just that the mansion is only hiring pretty girls as maids to work there," Happy added, with an innocent smile, as if he were paying me the highest compliment in the world. "And you're perfect for it! Aye!"
"Oh, brilliant. Just wonderful," I said, sarcasm dripping from every word. "My first official job as a fully-fledged member of Fairy Tail involves an apron, a feather duster, and breaking and entering for the purpose of destroying property. I'm living every mage's dream."
"It's a disguise! It's infiltration! It's super cool!" Natsu insisted, his eyes shining. "Think about it, Lucy, it'll be just like a spy film!"
"What would be cool is if you two dressed up as maids and went in my place," I retorted, the mental image giving me a wicked satisfaction.
"Aye!" said Happy, already picturing the scene and probably starting to laugh. "But Natsu doesn't look good in a skirt."
"I'VE NEVER WORN A SKIRT IN MY LIFE!" yelled the pink-haired mage, almost too offended to breathe fire.
"Exactly. And it wouldn't match your hair colour."
I ran a hand over my face. Why? Why did everything in my life now start with shouting and end with absurd plans involving questionable crimes and arguments about men's fashion?
"So, just to recap," I took a deep breath, trying to organise the chaos in my mind. "You broke into my house, ate fish on my new sofa, and now you need me because I am, apparently, a woman, reasonably presentable, can read, and presumably, know how to use a feather duster."
"That's it!" Happy confirmed, with an enthusiastic nod.
"Perfect. My usefulness in the guild has been defined. And it's slightly depressing."
But deep down… really deep down, where the dreamy girl still refused to be crushed by insanity…
A part of me was smiling.
Because even in the middle of the chaos, even being dragged into a ridiculous and dangerous mission by two idiots with the planning capabilities of a goldfish...
...I was no longer alone in my silent flat. I was with friends.
And, to be honest, I was starting to like it. More than I would ever admit out loud.
"Okay," I sighed, adjusting my pyjamas. "Give me ten minutes. And clear those fishbones off my sofa, or the next book I burn will have a picture of you two in it."