Lucy woke up, turning off her alarm clock at the first screeching note. She sighed before rolling onto her back again.

She stared at the ceiling absent-mindedly. After a year of evading her tycoon rich father, Jude Heartfilia, and a huge, climatic confrontation where she had found herself disowned and on death's doorstep, Lucy expected peace to be a treasure; not this.

Life had become a complete bore. Every day was a repeat of itself. This wasn't what she signed up for when she ran away from home. She was expecting something; she didn't know what it was, but just something.

Lucy shook her head, scattering her useless musings before swinging her legs over the side and pushing herself to a standing position. She did her ritualistic things; bathe, eat a rather sloppily made breakfast, and brush her teeth before rushing out of the apartment.

She was down the second flight of stairs when she heard a tiny voice calling out to her.

"Lu-," the person gasped for breath,"-cy."

Lucy turned to watch as a very fragile built woman ran down to her.

"Morning Lev," Lucy greeted cordially. Levy Mc Garden was one of the two good things that had resulted from her escapade.

Levy was the type of person who lit up the room as soon as she entered with her warm brown eyes, almost ever-present smile, and candid but gentle personality. Lucy had always wondered if Levy's uncontrollable blue hair was natural but didn't dare ask since she herself was always faced with the question of whether or not she was a natural blonde, something she grew quite irritated with.

Although in some minuscule rational part of her mind, Lucy figured that it was extremely illogical for a person to have natural blue coloured hair but being acquainted with Levy for almost a year and meeting the group of misfits that Levy dared to call her family, Lucy was pretty sure that Levy's hair colour was the least of the irrationalities.

The second of the two aforementioned good things to arise from her disowning was the meeting of Fairy Tail. Fairy Tail was one of the most popular restaurant-cafes in Magnolia. It was renowned for having the weirdest bunch of employees who were sure to lift your spirits if ever you were down.

The Fairy Tail employees were Levy's family as she had put it when Lucy had queried about it a week after they had met. Levy had had a distant happy look on her face as she spoke about them. She said something about a connection through all their souls. At first Lucy thought that these people were probably just getting high together in some sort of hippie-party but after she had met them, everything made sense.

Fairy Tail was the place where Lucy got her own family, and for that she was grateful. But even though life at Fairy Tail was unpredictable and most times a hazard to her life with what went on in those kitchens, Lucy felt the insatiable longing for something; and that scared her.

"Hey Lev," Lucy interrupted the woman who was chattering so fast that she didn't even realise that it was a monologue, "Don't you ever feel…bored?"

Levy looked at her weirdly before laughing.

"Of course, everyone feels bored at some point."

Lucy frowned, struggling to find the right words to express herself, something that was rare since she was gifted with a way with words; one of the reasons why she was currently completing her first novel, not that anyone besides Levy knew.

"No, I mean like every day is the same and you feel like a routine."

Levy frowned, looking worriedly at her friend.

"Lu," she started jokingly, hoping to eliminate the tenseness that Lucy was exuding, "I live with Gajeel, every day can never be the same with that guy."

At the mention of Gajeel, Lucy blanched slightly. Gajeel Redfox, the man with the most horrible lyrics in the world had somehow managed to snatch a darling like Levy away. Not only was his singing downright painful for her ears but the man was uncouth, bordering barbaric, something which was quite new to the blonde who had grown up going to fine tea parties with the most courteous people in Magnolia.

Lucy forced a smile on her face, something she never had to do around Levy before.

"It's alright Lev, even I don't know what I'm talking about."

Levy watched Lucy carefully for a little while before resuming her monologue as if nothing happened.

Lucy exited the warm, homely building that was Fairy Tail after bidding good night to the other shift workers and battling her hand away from Loke's playboy clutches with much less enthusiasm than usual. She had seriously considered accepting Loke's routine advances towards her, if only to spice up her life a little but had wrestled the thought into submission immediately after, deciding that it wasn't worth it.

Lucy reached up and covered her ears with her mitten clad hands. Now that it was night it was much colder than before, even though they weren't even in the heart of winter yet.

The streets were fairly empty, the few people who Lucy did happen to pass were too engrossed in their own worlds to even glance at her, not that she wanted them to. The blonde decided to take a detour to the super market to buy a tub of ice-cream to soothe her confused mind. Lucy relished in the ability to do what she pleased, something that she had recently been recently blessed with. Her father had practically stifled her, leaving no room for choices in matters concerning herself.

After she had finally gained her liberty, the girl had gone wild. She stayed up late at night, if that could be considered going wild, which it did in Lucy's books, spending the little money she received weekly from work, wearing extremely short clothes, and drinking booze. The first time she had gotten drunk was terrible, filled with memories of clinging to an equally drunk Loke and making out with him, something she would rather not think about.

Lucy smiled to the cashier politely before paying and leaving, hiding the misery she felt behind a perfected façade. Deciding that she was much too tired, physically and psychologically, to walk the long way to her apartment, Lucy took a turn into an alley as a shortcut. She briefly thought that it was dangerous to be walking in an alley at night but couldn't find it in herself to care.

She absent-mindedly stared at the moss clinging to the graffiti-sprayed walls, and the small puddles of sludge that she had to dodge every now and then, while humming. Her attention however riveted to a nearby bin as she heard a scratching noise echo in the now absolutely silent tenebrous alley. The noise increased as Lucy took a tentative step forward, refusing to turn back.

Her hair was on end and her heart was thumping loudly as if to burst out of her chest and escape.

"Hello?" she whispered, voice trembling then felt extremely foolish after, it was something that the bound-to-die protagonist of a crappy horror movie would say before getting torn to bloody pieces.

Well shit, Lucy thought, swallowing the sudden flood of saliva in her mouth.

Gravel crunched beneath her boots as she took the final brave, or stupid, step to the mystery.

"Oh!" she exclaimed suddenly and couldn't help but stare at what was there with a blush on her face.

There was a naked man scratching at the bin frantically, ignorant to his nudity in the weather. Lucy frowned slightly, was his hair pink?

"Hey," Lucy called out unobtrusively, "Are you alright?"

The man twisted his body to face her, body crouched and muscles taught and ready to launch. His face was savage, what could be handsome features warped into ferociousness. He growled at Lucy, exposing gleaming white teeth.

Lucy took a step back instinctively.

What the hell have I gotten myself into?!