AN/: Hey all! Allie-K here! This is my new fanfic! I've been wanting to upload this for a while now but I wanted to finish my other story first. So here it is!

Disclaimer: DISCLAIMED!

Summary: Lucy felt like a replacement, to say the least. Natsu is upset that she does. But, there is so much more going on than that! When Lucy takes on a solo mission in an attempt to pay her rent, she'll learn more about herself and her partner than she thought was possible! Rated T for now for future chapters and language.

Lisanna was back. It wasn't like Lucy didn't like her; in fact, Lucy admired her. She was beautiful, and a kind, sweet girl. It was the fact that it seemed like she didn't exist anymore that Lucy hated. She hardly felt that the guild was doing it on purpose, but since Lisanna had returned from Edolas, they acted as if she didn't exist. And, sometimes, they completely ignored her. She figured she'd just let the excitement die down, since they did believe that Lisanna had been dead. Yeah, her return was kind of a big deal, duh! But, soon the days turned into weeks, and those turned into about two months.

That was where Lucy sat now. Two months after Lisanna's return and she still seemed to be completely invisible. She sat on the barstool in the Fairy Tail guild hall.

"Hey, Mira?" she called as the white-haired transformation mage passed by her behind the counter.

"Oh, Lucy! I didn't know you were here today. I haven't noticed you in the guild lately. Have you been sick?" Mirajane asked worriedly. Lucy let out a sad sigh.

"I've come to the guild every day for the past two months, Mira."

"…Oh." Mira made an 'o' shape with her mouth. "Sorry about that, Lucy. Do you want anything to eat or drink?" Lucy sighed again, but smiled kindly.

"Sure." Mira smiled brightly.

"What'll it be?"

"Hmm… I think I'll just have a chocolate milkshake," the celestial mage replied cheerfully. Finally, someone was paying attention to her. The former S-Class mage turned from her to prepare the milkshake.

"Here you are," Mira said turning back around and placing the glass in front of her.

"Thanks, Mira," Lucy responded, lifting the glass and straw to her lips. She took a small sip.

"Hey, Mira? Do you, uh, think that I might have been… a replacement?" Lucy asked quietly.

"A replacement for what?" the take-over mage asked confused.

"For Lisanna," the blonde replied hesitantly. "I didn't want to bring it up before because, well, she's your sister and all. I didn't want you to think I didn't like her or anything," Lucy rambled on.

"Oh, dear it's fine!" she said waving a hand in the air dismissively, letting it roll off of her shoulders and thinking nothing of it. "Tell me, what's on your mind?"

"Well," Lucy sighed yet again. "It's been two months already. TWO MONTHS since Lisanna came back. I figured that everyone was just really excited to have her back. It's like I don't even exist anymore! I tried to ask Natsu if he wanted to take a job the other day—"

"And how did that go?" Lucy frowned.

"He didn't even let me finish what I was saying before he walked away. He didn't even acknowledge I was there!" Lucy rested her head on her hand, leaning her elbow on the counter for support. "Everyone has been doing that to me. And for two months now!"

Mirajane only frowned.

"I just don't know what to do," Lucy muttered. "My rent is due soon and I don't have the money to pay it!" Lucy whined. She let her arms drop and placed her head on the counter.

"If you're that worried about it, you could try some solo missions," Mira suggested. "It wouldn't be a permanent thing, of course, but since we all know how dense Natsu can be, it would be easier."

"Yeah, I suppose. But it'll just feel kind of weird without the rest of our team there. Besides, I'll need to find a job that will pay enough to cover my rent!"

Mira beamed.

"That shouldn't be too hard. We've gotten some really good job requests this week!"

"Well, I guess I'll be doing a solo mission today," the celestial mage said laughing slightly.

"Great! Just let me know when you've found one you like and I'll let the master know," the white-haired beauty said, still beaming brightly with a huge smile stretched across her face.

Lucy smiled back and hopped off of her seat, making her way to the request board. There were always so many requests. It was Fairy Tail after, but it seemed like the number of requests had been increasing more and more. There were a few that really caught her eye; all of them but one being a reasonable candidate. Yet, it was that one that Lucy simply wouldn't put down. It was a simple enough request if you took away the note from the client. It requested to go into Symphonia Forest, which is at the foot of Mt. Hakobe, to gather some herbs. It paid 300,000J. The thing that made it dangerous was that the client had noted that there have been reports of a dragon-like creature wandering the forest.

"Hmm."Lucy grabbed the request looking closer at it. "I wonder why Natsu didn't take this one," she thought out loud. She would have thought that Natsu would've swiped the request at first glance, what with looking for Igneel and all.

She knew it wouldn't be smart to take the mission on by herself, but something in her head was just screaming: "Take the freaking mission!" and she had no idea why. It wasn't like she was the one who was searching for a dragon. That was Natsu. But even so, it was like the paper was softly calling out her name.

"Mira!" Lucy said waving the paper in her hand as she made her way back to the bar.

"Oh, have you found a mission you like?"

"Yep! I want to go on this one!" Lucy waved the sheet of parchment in front of the former S-Class mage.

"This one?" Mira shouted in disbelief. Lucy nodded. "B-but why? Lucy this could be dangerous!"

"Yeah, I know, but I just can't help it. I absolutely have to do this one!" the blonde explained excitedly.

"I'd feel so much better if you'd try and talk Natsu into going with you for the job, you know?" Mira said. Of course she was worried that Lucy would get hurt, but wasn't she the one who suggested a solo mission in the first place? Lucy's smile fell away and she frowned as she spotted Natsu eagerly chatting away with Lisanna and Happy. The bartender sighed. "Alright Lucy, you can go on this one. But, please, be careful Lucy!"

"I will! I swear I will, Mirajane!" Lucy shouted with gratitude. Her face lit up again. "Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Hai, hai! Just go," Mira giggled and then Lucy was sprinting out of the guild. Mira loved Lucy like a sister. She was so ashamed that she'd been ignoring her. She hadn't even realized that she was. But Lucy stayed calm about it and didn't seem to want to bother anyone about it. 'That Lucy is so sweet. Bless her heart.' Mira thought. She was an observant one, that Mira. Of course, she saw right through the act. Lucy was really upset about the whole thing, and seemed especially upset about Natsu ignoring her.

Of course, Mira being the devious matchmaker that she was, immediately assumed that it was because Lucy was jealous, seeing Natsu with Lisanna. But then again, Natsu was the one who brought her to Fairy Tail. He was the one to thank for giving her the life she had. Maybe Lucy was simply trying to repay him for that. Mira's face twisted into an expression of disgust. Natsu, that idiot was so dense sometimes that it sickened her.

"Natsu!" Mira shouted. Natsu skipped over to the bar where Mira stood.

"What's up, Mira?" he asked casually.

"What's up? What's UP?" Natsu could almost see the smoke pouring from her nose and ears. "We've been ignoring Lucy for two months! She's been trying not to let it show, but she's really upset about it! Not that we would've noticed! She asked me if I thought that she was just a replacement for Lisanna, and you have the nerve to ask 'What's up'?"

Happy flew up and landed on Natsu's head. The little, blue cat looked down at the Fire Dragon Slayer nervously.

"Natsu," Happy muttered.

"She thinks we thought of her as a replacement for Lisanna?" Natsu clenched his fists at his side. "She thinks… that we don't care about her?" he shouted.

"Natsu, she has to pay her rent soon. She tried asking you if you wanted to do a job. Would you like to hear what she told me?" Mira asked angrily. She folded her arms across her chest. When the pink-haired mage didn't say anything, Mirajane continued. "She said that she didn't even get to finish talking before you just walked away!"

"Wh- what? I don't remember that!" Natsu shouted defensively. Mira gritted her teeth in annoyance.

"Natsu, you are so dense!" she shouted and bonked Natsu on the head. Happy jumped off just in time. It was rare for Mira to get so violent nowadays.

"Alright, alright! I'll go apologize!" Natsu looked around the guild in search of the blonde, celestial mage, but didn't see her anywhere. "Say, where is Lucy?" he asked turning back to Mira.

"She took a solo mission," she stated simply. Her face got serious and concerned. "It was one that I would expect you to be excited to go on."

"Eh? Really? What was it?"

"It was a request for gathering herbs in the Symphonia Forest."

"Boooring!" Natsu exclaimed, pretending to yawn.

"The client put a warning note stating that reports of a dragon-like creature had been roaming in that forest had been made," Mira said sighing.

"Igneel!" Natsu shouted looking at Happy then back at Mira.

"Natsu, why do you think Lucy would want to go on a mission like that?" Happy asked quietly.

"Well, the reward was 300,000J, but that worries me even more." She frowned. "Natsu, she said that she absolutely had to go on that mission. I'm almost worried that you've rubbed off on her," Mira said trying to smile. Natsu frowned.

"Great! Now I feel like crap for ignoring her."

"You should, Natsu! She probably feels abandoned!" Mira shouted.

It was silent for a moment aside from the usual chatter of the rest of the guild. Oddly enough, the conversation between the two mages had stayed between them. It didn't seem to draw the attention of the rest of the guild. If others did notice, they were smart enough to stay out of it.

"Natsu," Mira began suddenly. "I want you to go with her."

"B-but, didn't she take the job by herself? If I show up she might kick me in the face!"

"Mean Lucy is scary," Happy cried, helping to prove Natsu's point.

"You've been ignoring her for two months. I think you deserve more than just a kick to the face," Mira snickered. "Even so, I'm still worried about her."

"You know, it wasn't just me ignoring her. Everyone else was too," Natsu muttered. Mira sighed, yet again.

"Yes, but it was you not paying attention to her that bothered her the most."

Natsu blushed slightly. 'It was only me?' he thought. He felt terrible, to be honest. He would never admit though, that he felt somewhat proud that it was him and only him that affected her like that. He didn't really know why, but he didn't want to go through the trouble of trying to figure it out either. Nobody knew, but when Natsu thought about things, he sometimes over-thought about them. He would sink into his mind and often had a hard time finding his way out. He was smart. He didn't want to brag, but he knew he had some intelligence. But how deep into thought he could get scared him sometimes, so he usually tried not to think about much for too long.

Natsu sighed. Everyone was doing a lot of sighing that day.

"Fine, I'll go help her," Natsu finally said.

"I'll go too!" Happy shouted excitedly.

"Right then, let's go!"

"Aye, sir!"

The two ran for the doors, only to be abruptly stopped by the hand of the Iron Dragon Slayer, Gajeel, while behind him stood the little blue-haired script mage, Levy McGarden.

"Ne, Natsu. You got a minute?" Levy asked. Gajeel yanked them over to a table and sat them down next to a book that Levy had been staring at intently for the past hour. "This is kind of important."

"Ookaay…" Natsu said hesitantly, throwing a nervous look at Levy then Gajeel, then back to Levy.

"Do you know what a Dragon Master is?" Levy asked curiously.

"D-Dragon Master! Wh-where on Earthland did you hear that term!" Natsu shouted in shock and surprise. The art of the Dragon Master was a Lost Magic, unseen for almost a century! It was the strongest form of Dragon Magic, where the mage was, as titled, a dragon master. Igneel had told him of such power, but also that there probably wouldn't be a human alive that knew of the art of the Dragon Master.

"In here," Levy answered, pointing at the page of what looked like a type of history book. Natsu scanned over the page, but it was like his heart froze in place as he read the name Heartfilia off of the page.

"Lucy," he breathed out subconsciously.

'Lucy… her family has something to do with the Dragon Masters?' Natsu thought. "I-impossible!" he breathed again quietly.

END NOTE: So how was it? I tried to make sure the grammar and all that was good because I've read some Fairy Tail fanfics that the grammar is just all wrong and it makes me want to tear my hair out. oh well though. who am i to judge others? Haha Review please and I'll continue the story. I wasn't quite sure if i wanted to put this one up or not so if you guys really like it i'll continue it! BYE!

~Allie-K