Sad brown eyes followed her best friend from across the guild, watching as he took another mission and left after gaining approval. It tore at her heart to see him so changed. The older boy who she had grown up with, who she secretly harbored feelings for, was gone. In his place stood an anger filled nineteen years old. Ever since their master, his grandfather, had banished his father Ivan, Laxus had spiraled down a dark path, one darker than the one he was already slowly following.

It had started out small, growing gradually as the years passed. Makarov tried all he could to guide Laxus down a path of goodness and light, but Ivan was always there to pull him into the shadows. But so too was she. Lucy made sure to always be there for him. She comforted him after every beating, stayed by his side after he was rendered unconscious for two weeks when Ivan forced that Lacrima into his body, and helped him as he fought through the pain and trained with his new found powers.

But, it wasn't enough.

She knew he felt drowned in Master's shadow, like he wasn't his own person, a nobody to the people. As much as she tried to help him understand that that wasn't the case, for she knew what it meant to be a true shadow, having lived with her mother's memory being thrown at her by her own father, he fought her back twice as hard.

She knew he wished to make Ivan proud, to feel some form of affection from that monster. He wanted Ivan to touch him with fatherly love and pride, not anger and violence. Yet no matter how gently she tried to hold him and how much she praised him, it all fell to deaf ears.

Now he blatantly ignored his Nakama, disrespected Makarov, and ignored her. All his time went into training, taking jobs with the Thunder Legion, and sleeping around. That last one hurt more that anything.

She just didn't know what to do anymore.

She wanted her best friend back.

She wanted her love back.

Lucy may have only been fourteen, almost fifteen, but she knew she loved Laxus. When she first stepped foot into Fairy Tail at eight years old, her eyes catching his own curious blue gray, she knew he would become something special too her. She just knew it. Laxus himself had been twelve, and for some reason, the rebellious grandson of Makarov had taken a liking to sweet innocent little Lucy.

From there they were inseparable. Where one was, the other was close behind. But now it was different. Ever since Ivan implanted that Lacrima into Laxus during his thirteenth birthday and got excommunicated Laxus began pulling away from them all.

From even her.

Signing she stood up, deciding to take a job to help clear her mind. Being stuck at the guild was no more fun, not when Laxus was gone. Scanning the request board one particular flier caught her eyes.

Spiders, her eyes narrowed. I'm tempted to just ignore this request but...

"There's a silver key as a reward... Master, I'll be taking the spider job." She called out to her drinking master.

"Ah, yes yes, have fun!" He slurred out, holding his mug of beer out to her in approval.

Making her way out to guild she waved goodbye to Mirajane and Erza, promising to return in a weeks time.

How wrong she was.

oOo

When Laxus returned from his mission, he was greeted by a worried guild. Everyone was silent.

Brow raised he made his way up to the second floor and towards his grandfathers office.

"I don't care how tired your men are or how long it's been! Widen and continue the search! Find anything you can and report back to me!"

"This had gone far enough! Those spiders never left any trace of their victims, Makarov. It's most likely that she's dead. We very well may never find her body if that's the case. I'm sorry, but I cannot continue pushing my men to search for something that we may never find."

"She is not dead, I know it! Lucy is far to strong to allow herself to be killed by spiders! Find my daughter!"

Laxus felt his heart stop, his usual festering anger vanishing, dread fillings its place as he listened on on disbelieving horror.

So, this was in my files... pretty interesting to me considering I hardly remeber writing this lol. I'm just going to leave this here.