Taste my Pain

Leaving

Taste my Pain

Chapter 2

After Lucy was gone from sight, Natsu turned around with a bright smile plastered on his face which irked Mirajane for some reason. "Now you're on Team Natsu, Lisanna! We can call each other teammates and go on jobs together," he cheered without any doubts or regrets lingering, nor showing on that face of his.

"But Natsu, if you were to ask Master about it, I'm sure that he would've allowed an extra member or two. Lucy's been the voice of reason for your team for such a long time," Mirajane said where Natsu shook his head to her input. "That's not the same and too many members mean too much hassle. She agreed to it anyway," he replied which made Mirajane look at him horrified.

Lisanna stood there for a moment of pure shock but quickly snapped out it before shaking her head in disapproval. She couldn't force herself to believe that Lucy was just kicked out of the team. Just because she came back here...

Regret slowly eating up her heart, she felt the pain slowly engulfing her body where it soon became numb. But when no one was looking over towards her direction as everyone around them were too busy watching Mirajane reason it out with a stubborn Fire Dragon Slayer, she quietly grinned to herself.

When someone did turn their head to talk to Lisanna about the current situation though, she faked a small pout with crocodile tears ready to fall as she played the part of having to see her family sister walk up to Master's office in silence which broke her oh-so heart. 

For everyone else, however, to see Lucy even ignore Lisanna when she's pleading not to, they all knew that the situation was bad. For some reason, however, there was this invisible force that was preventing them to do something.

Lucy was hurt, depressed and betrayed.

To Lisanna, Lucy was like her in the past. When being told that she couldn't return to her true world was something devastating! She couldn't meet her Natsu, her love, but the feeling of betrayal was much different in comparison to not being able to reach out to something.

On the outside, Lisanna didn't want the blonde to get kicked out of the team since she really didn't want the bond between them to shatter because of Natsu's stubbornness of being together. Sighing on the outside, she knew that it'll be awkward after all of this but deep within her heart, the dark swirling storm continued its wrath.

And as she continued to play her little act, Mirajane was awfully disappointed with Team Natsu for their lack of communication and poor decision. She knew that the team was inseparable and truthful to one another, but she guessed that it was her personality and mind playing her. Natsu can be stubborn, but he's gentle like everyone else here in Fairy Tail. He was idolized by many of the younger mages and wizards here in the guild and he's often the rowdy one who breaks the silence so the building was never quiet where it was always so lively and energetic, and prevented anything from grieving silences whenever a complication had arisen.

Seeing him like this was like a punch to her face by Erza, or perhaps Laxus. She had never seen him act like this during her entire stay within Fairy Tail.

The day she had met him, to the day she watched him control his flames properly, and yesterday where he has overcome so many problems internally and externally, she had never seen him act in such a manner which opposed his usual. That carefree demeanour was gone. There were no invitations to temporarily join the team.

Only removing a member.

Shaking her head, she had to keep her mouth shut because last time, Lucy painfully had to interrupt her to keep the situation at bay. She never really liked or supported the whole "I will talk to them and try to resolve the issue" image that Lucy had carried out while being in the team, but then again, without her playing that role then Team Natsu would have to continuously deal with legal issues of them damaging private properties, towns, and cities.

Not liking how Team Natsu suddenly changed, Mirajane gave out a cutesy huff and walked away. She didn't want to see any of this anymore. She couldn't stand herself standing there and being unable to do anything, and while she was silently imagining herself strangling Natsu for the sake of her shipping slowly sinking, Lucy was just carefully raising her hand to knock on Master's door as she forced herself to remain composed and strong for her own sake.

"Come in," she heard from the other side as she stood there awkwardly with tears in her eyes. Hesitantly, she opened the door to see a busy old master look up at her with a frown where instantly he removed his previous expression and gave her a welcoming smile. "Oh, Lucy... What's wrong my child?" he asked worriedly, wondering what has brought their cheerful Celestial Spirit mage into tears.

She slowly walked up towards his desk and stiffly stood in front of him, about two meters away from where she averted her eyes from him and lowered her head to look down at her fiddling fingers. "I wish to leave Team Natsu..." she answered in a saddening tone without noticing that she had taken in a short sniff in which she regretted and covered her nose where it was too late. Forcing herself to look up, she gave him such a saddened smile which didn't reach her ears like usual.

Sitting behind his table with large files of complaint forms sitting in dominance, Makarov jumped out of his seat to stand in front of her with concern written in his eyes. He had to know Lucy, the original member of Team Natsu, was calling sudden quits to the team. It was too sudden and such a rash decision out of nowhere. "Before I do that, why would I let one of the original team members of Team Natsu be asking this?" he asked with his voice betraying the emotions in his eyes.

She looked away before answering as she had to gather up her emotions and keep them at bay. Her voice trembling as she recalled the moment, she looked away as her heart still throbbed in pain as the wound was still fresh and stinging. "I was called weak – A weakling. Not only that, my heart was torn apart by Natsu's choice of words. If they w-were to do that... Can't they think of a nicer way to do so? They practically kicked me off the team to have Lisanna join and take that free space," she stated as she soon broke down.

Quickly, Makarov jumped down to the floor and pulled the crying blonde into a loving hug as she sank to the floor. Thank goodness that she went on her knees though, he wouldn't know what to do if she remained standing as she cried. No way would he be able to hug her unless he jumps.

"If they did such a bad thing to you, why didn't you stand up against them? Lucy, you're confident in standing up for yourself. Remember all your past experiences? You were the fighting against the enemy, and sometimes even Natsu wasn't there nor anyone else to support you. What happened to the confident Lucky Lucy of Fairy Tail?" he said in a gentle voice.

Lucy looked up at him in disbelief. "They pitied me for my magic. I'm not some lost puppy in the streets, vulnerable to the savage world of reality... How they approached it was too surprising for even someone like me, and I just didn't know what else I could do," she answered weakly before her eyesight began seeing red in fury and embarrassment. 

Even Makarov was being supportive of her, so why couldn't they do the same?

Makarov pulling her into another hug, he cooed her to slowly calm her down. Not liking where the conversation was slowly steering into, he had to take the most appropriate action. "There, there my child, even though the group should've told me about this before this rash decision was made, if you believe that it's best to do so, then I'll gladly grant it to soothe your pain. From now on, you're not on Team Natsu but a soloist. Know that I can always expand the group and allow another member to it?"

She nodded to his words before shaking in disagreement with his last sentence. Feeling slightly better that she was now not in Team Natsu after what they've said, she smiled at him with a smile not reaching her eyes and bowed her head. She was feeling relieved, but not enough to ignore those lingering throbs to the heart.

Standing up, she looked at Makarov directly in the eyes. "Thank you, Master. I'm sort of glad that you didn't just drag them up here to talk once more but rather listened to me." With a small bow to him, she walked towards the door in silence, where without her knowing, Master Makarov couldn't but help himself to feel disappointment towards Team Natsu.

Just how could a team abandon a friend to bring in another?

He would've allowed the additional member in ease, but their way of handling things was too thoughtless and cruel. When it came to team numbers, he wouldn't mind an extra one or two members...

As he went back to dealing with the forms and documents within his office space, Lucy was walking down the stairs to only see everyone refreshed from their hangover. Her brows furrowing as she saw how strange the guild was acting, she watched as they were all crowding around an uncomfortable Lisanna who kept shuffling from side to another as she tried to maintain her personal space.

Taking the final step down from the staircase, the chattering died down and so did the happy atmosphere within the guild. It was as if, the flame within their hearts all died within that very last step. Like as if her footsteps blew away the happy atmosphere within the building.

Lisanna turning around to notice the silence, she met eyes with Lucy. "Lucy-san!" she called out. Getting up from where she sat in which she began running toward Lucy, she wrapped her arms around the blonde where she smiled softly. "Are you alright... With everything now?" she whispered.

Unfortunately, Lucy's faint smile towards Lisanna broke when someone yelled out something which made her want to believe that something was wrong. "What a weakling! She made poor Lisanna hang around her since she was kicked out of Team Natsu! What a disgrace to the guild!"

Lucy snapped her head towards the member in disbelief. This was the first time for her to experience such a thing, but within perhaps twenty minutes, a rumour about her had emerged out of nowhere. Soon the guild was filled with emotions of hate and resentment. 

Not knowing what to say or do, she just stood there before feeling a shaking hand tighten its grasp around her arm. Looking down, Lucy saw a tearful Lisanna.

"Lucy... Because of me –" She was cut off by Lucy who then gently pulled her towards the bar as she avoided touching anyone that were participating in this sudden hate festival to herself.

Not having a choice, Lisanna followed and decided to sit next to the blonde before looking over to her in worry from time to time as she scanned the main floor of Fairy Tail.

Mirajane came walking over to them to join in with their silent talk at the bar that was happening by conversing with their eyes. Leaning over to whisper something to Lucy, she frowned at herself for what she's about to do. "Natsu really wants you off the team. I'm sorry but he was the one who started the rumours while you were upstairs. Don't worry Lucy, it'll die down soon," she stated.

The blonde sighed and hugged herself uneasily. She well-damn hoped for these rumours will die down because all this sudden hate towards her was slowly killing her heart even more.

Hoping that everything would return to normal, she couldn't do anything else other than to play the waiting game.

Sooner or later, weeks had passed and nothing good came out during the wait. It didn't stop in which resulted in Master Makarov getting overly concerned about the rumours being told throughout the guild, and Lisanna staying around Lucy with Wendy, Levy, and Mira where she forced herself to act normal when around those that have been saying nasty things about her blonde sister.

Over time, the guild began to ignore her existence. Whenever she was to request for a job, someone would snatch it away from the post and would either burn it or take it up for themselves before laughing at Lucy's sadness.

Team Natsu started to go on jobs more often, simply ignoring her as they brushed by her whenever they were to leave or return to announce their completion to Mira. It was then when they left for their job. Her chosen job.

She finally had enough of this nonsense.

Every single day of being ignored, gossiped, rumoured and a newly assigned practice target had made her regret choosing Fairy Tail. All the anger and hatred were slowly building up in her heart. And with a heart that's no longer pure white, she finally had enough.

While the "new and awesome" Team Natsu, including Lisanna, was looking at the job bulletin board, Lucy stood up and stormed into the Master's office with balled fists.

Opening the doors without any given permission, she stormed towards the old man's table and slammed her hand down where her insignia had scratches all over from her anxiety fidgets. With eyes that held so much hate and anger, she glared at Makarov straight in the eyes where she yelled at him without haste or proper thought towards her rude actions.

"I want to leave this place, now!"

He was indeed shocked but closed his open mouth, completely understanding the pain that she's been through. Those that were still sane could see and feel that pain without question.

Remembering her running through the hallways with fear etched on her face made him recall many of her other horrendous moments within his guild.

Sighing, he examined expression and posture. It didn't take long to see how exhausted she looked from the lack of sleep and the lack of self-maintenance which was something she cared about. "When will you return, child?" he asked, closing the document in front of him to stare into her eyes.

The anger within her soul that was reflected in her eyes never faltered. Enough was enough for Lucy. She played the waiting game and nothing good had come out of it.

"When the time is right. I need time to think about my future and everything."

He solemnly nodded to her words and placed his hands on the back of her hand and began chanting something she couldn't recognize. His hands glowing brightly, it soon faded where he frowned at what he had done.

Removing his hands, Lucy stood there in awe as she looked at her hand with no pink Fairy Tail insignia. 

The thing which had bound her to the guild for all these years was now gone.

Feeling slightly foreign to look at the place where an insignia once sat, she still couldn't hold down a relieving smile which overtook her anger for a moment. Walking around to pull her ex-Master into a loving hug, she smiled when he returned the embrace. "I will be back when the time is right. Thank you for being a second father who filled up the hole that was in my heart after the conflict caused by my father. I'll never forget the things you've done for me and I will walk down these streets with my head held high," she thanked before pulling away.

As she walked towards the door, she heard his final plead. "Please come back soon. Safely." She sighed as she exited the room and closed the door behind her. With her head held high, she walked down the stairs where she encountered the start of the nightmare of her ordinary life, Team Natsu.

Continuing to walk past them, she slowed down her pace to brush pass Natsu. "I will make your lives a living nightmare. I'll prove to you all that I'm not a weakling," she said with a smirk as she felt her anger take a sudden change in determination and confidence.

She had meant what she'd just said, and she'll make them regret their actions that they've done during these horrendous months. 

Fairy Tail's like a family? 

A place filled with lovely people of all ages.

Oh, how much she would like to laugh in front of her old self when she'd often think about the fun of joining such a powerful guild that had her idol, Mirajane, working as a bartender there.

She'll be back, and she'll let them experience all the sufferings she's been through. And that was a promise that she'll be keeping until the very end.

Natsu watching her walk confidently towards the front doors that towered over them all, he pondered to why she was being an i***t who'll attempt to prove themselves worthy to a group who's way out of her league. Chuckling, he called out to her. 

"Lucy!" He smirked when she turned around with anger in her eyes. He wasn't that dumb to not know that she was annoyed at him calling out her name. "Good luck doing that, Weakling of Fairy Tail!" She gave him a death stare and turned around to exit. 

Smirking at the taunt that he's given her, he walked up to the old man's office with the team where they met an angry Makarov who's been waiting for their arrival after the blonde's departure. "Whatever you're here for, I disapprove." 

With a push of magic kicking them out of his office, they were rejected for their stubbornness without even saying a word to negotiate. Hearing a long string of swearing, they all looked at each other and shrugged as they assumed that he was annoyed about their most recent job at a city located roughly three hours away from them currently.

"What's gone up against his ass?" Gray asked. The pinkette merely shrugged and walked down to the main floor. "Lucy getting stronger? Puh-lease, what joke are you trying to tell to make me laugh?" Natsu grumbled before feeling a sudden stab in his chest.

Ignoring the feeling, he ran up back up to the bulletin board. "Guys! Let's go out on a job!" he cheered, feeling happy that the blonde was out of their lives.