Disclaimer: Fairy Tail so doesn't belong to me. (If it did, I probably wouldn't be spending my free time writing fanfiction.)

Author's Notes: Okay, standard NaLuLi premise: Lisanna returns after the events of the Edolas arc and things change for Lucy. Lucy takes on her first solo mission when the rest of Fairy Tail is still celebrating Lisanna's return. I wanted to write this a little different than others because a lot of writers pass Lisanna off as kind of a bitch and I wanted to attempt something a little truer to the characters. I hope everyone likes this!

Lucy stared at the request board, her eyes flitting back and forth between two prospects but no longer seeing either one. She could choose between taking care of some nonmagical bandits near the mountain ridge or go two towns over to help a wealthy individual solve a recently discovered puzzle. She grabbed the puzzle request after a moment before turning to face the rest of the guild hall.

There was a crowd gathered around Lisanna, just as there had been every day she'd come by the guild hall in the week since her return from Edolas. It was usually the Strauss siblings or Natsu and Happy at the center with the youngest Strauss but the bulk of the guild knew Lisanna, remembered her and missed her in the two years she'd been gone, presumed dead. She was happy for the white-haired girl, really and truly, but that didn't change the way her heart felt like stone in her chest.

It was like jealousy but not, she knew. She didn't begrudge anyone in this guild happiness, not even those that had at one time hurt her more than she liked to think about. Like Gajeel, who had once beaten her quite badly all in an attempt to draw Natsu to his person, all so he wouldn't be… bored. However, like many things in her life, she tried her best to not think about it and turned her mind to other things.

Her first solo mission, something suited to her strengths. Oh, sure, she'd done a couple things on her own before but she'd never actively searched out something to do on her own since Natsu decided to be partnered with her. However, because her rent was coming up fast again, she needed to take a job. And this one… well, it would cover her for a few months.

Lucy walked up to the bar, where Master Makarov was perched and watching his "children". She waited until he turned to her, which thankfully didn't take long, and she handed him the job poster. "I'm going to do this one," she told him.

He arched an eyebrow at the request and then directed his gaze at the pink-haired Dragon Slayer across the hall. "Doesn't this seem a bit small for you and Natsu?" Not to mention the opposite of requiring force, Lucy knew he was thinking.

"Just me," she told him. "I'm going to go by myself."

He nodded silently and twirled his hand in the air in a complicated-looking pattern. A white bird appeared and the Master pressed a magic sigil into its feathers. "To the puzzle request," he murmured softly. He turned his serious eyes back to Lucy. "Are you sure about this, Lucy? What if something goes wrong?"

Her face faltered into a shattered frown before she managed to mold her face back into a bright smile. "I rely on Natsu and Gray and Erza way too much. I'll never get strong if I don't do things myself. Besides," she added with a sidelong glance at the Lisanna crowd, "I don't want to bother them."

"Lucy, why haven't you told them anything of your past?"

She looked back at himself, her brown eyes sharp. "How do you know I haven't?"

Makarov's lips curled into a slight smile. "I'm not the master of this guild for nothing, Lucy. You've been here for almost a year and even I know very little about your time as a Heartfilia."

Lucy shrugged, tilting her head down. "No one's really asked, I guess. It's not important, you know, not like Gray with Lyon or Erza with Jellal or Natsu with Igneel. It's just sad." She looked up at him again, memory-induced tears swimming in her eyes but not falling. "Is that all?"

The Master swallowed and nodded, watching with worried eyes as she took long strides out of the guild hall. "Do well, Lucky Lucy," he murmured to himself.

Lucy returned home to pack, looking down as she fumbled with her house keys. As such, she didn't see the person standing in front of her house until a slim hand reached out to pluck the key ring from her grasp. She immediately glanced up, her eyes hard and inhaling deeply in preparation to yell at the person, when she got a good look.

"Minerva," she greeted in a sigh that was the escaped air. Slowly, a grin blossomed across her face, her eyes sparkling with the sight of a friend, a friend that was neither Fairy Tail nor Heartfilia-related. Well, mostly… "What are you doing here?"

"The master is dying," she said. She lifted her eyes from the shadow of her bangs, revealing ice-blue orbs swimming in sorrow. "He asks to see you."

Lucy looked at her friend, her heart constricting suddenly. Minerva had always been smaller than her, her body trapped in prepubescence, but she was much older and it reflected in her face. She swallowed and held out a hand, which Minerva then dropped the keys back into. "Come inside," Lucy said softly. "I'll make some tea."

The small woman nodded, her spring green hair shifting slightly with the movement. She followed the blonde into the house while Lucy thought about this. She busied herself with the making of the tea, hoping the familiar and steady motions would calm her mind. She had known that her magic sensei would die soon – he had been a decrepit old man the entire time she'd known him. It was now that she regretted not asking her father what had happened to the rest of the staff.

"Where is he?" she asked softly when she set the teacups on the table.

"A couple of towns over, in Kunugi. He said he posted a request at Fairy Tail for you but he sent me just in case you didn't take it. He said it was your cup of tea." Minerva attempted a smile but the expression only made her face looked cracked.

"The puzzle," Lucy said with dawning realization. She looked down at the request poster in her hand, suddenly balling it up in a fist. "He didn't need to pay me in order for me to come."

Minerva held her hands up in a submissive gesture. "No, Lucy-san. There's really a puzzle and it has to be undone before he dies. He just wanted you to be the one to do it."

Allowing her fist to unclench, Lucy nodded silently and took a sip of her green tea. The job had already taken a turn she didn't like and she hadn't even left yet. She found herself wishing for Natsu's solid presence but shook her head immediately at the thought. Taking this mission was about being on her own, about holding herself up so that no one else would have to and proving to herself that she could survive without a support structure. After all, the guild was her family, deeply carved into her heart in less than a year, but she knew from experience that sometimes you can hate your family even as you love them. Worse than that, sometimes family may only keep you close as long as you are useful.

With a heavy sigh, she glanced at the window and saw the low position of the sun. "We can take the six-o'clock train. That way, we can get to Belo-jiisan's house just after nightfall." She darted a sidelong glance at the green-haired Minerva. "It's causing him pain, isn't it?"

The woman jerked then, her spine stiffening in surprise. "How did you know?"

Lucy allowed a small smile to grace her features. "The way you said it, like it's forcing him to stay alive. Binding magic, I'd guess. It causes pain when it fights your body's natural needs." She stood then, darting her eyes down to check the presence of her spirit keys and her fleuve d'etoiles, the spiritual whip container she carried on her side. "Let's go, then."

Minerva flailed her hands for a moment. "But… the cups!"

The blond girl rolled her eyes and gathered the tea set, dumping it gently and somewhat unceremoniously in the sink. "They can wait," she told her.

Minerva wilted slightly, following Lucy as they left the house. "You haven't changed at all," she complained softly.

The familiar words caused the celestial spirit mage to laugh aloud.

Erza Scarlet watched Lucy walk toward the train station from a partially shadowed corner. She felt a little like a stalker but was reassured when she reminded herself that she was just checking on the girl. After all, Lucy had been a little withdrawn since Edolas, something that the magic knight's investigative abilities revealed to be a likely result of Natsu's sudden disappearance from her side.

She had always thought it was a bad idea for Lucy to be in a team so early in her magic career. It led to her relying too much on someone that might not always be there. Erza herself was well aware of how people could disappear on you or force you to abandon others. But the fact was that Lucy and Natsu worked really well together, despite the huge differences in their magic. Magic type, not magic capability, because Lucy's capacity for power could rival that of the Dragon Slayer if she only realized how strong she was.

Smiling, she watched as Lucy blossomed back into her happy, animated self. Whoever that green-haired child was, she helped the young mage to return to normal, despite the undercurrent of despair she could sense from the two of them. Whatever it was, Erza could wait until Lucy returned to Magnolia to ask her about it. It didn't seem urgent, so she could be as patient as she needed to be.

Walking back toward the guild, Erza thought about the reason she'd been pretty much spying on Lucy to begin with. She wasn't nearly attached to Lisanna as many of the people in the guild, the weird conflict between herself and Mirajane and her own tendency to maintain a personal distance from others creating an impersonal gap between herself and the youngest Strauss. Additionally, with Natsu deeply preoccupied and Lucy's rent likely coming up again soon, Erza thought it would be nice to do a mission together, just the two of them.

When Master Makarov had told her that Lucy had accepted a solitary mission less than ten minutes ago, Erza immediately knew that the girl was likely accepting Natsu's current behavior as permanent. And why not? The boy was quite changeable in nature but had almost glued himself to Lisanna's side in the past few days, almost as if he was afraid she would disappear again.

Erza paused as she reached the guild hall, gazing bemusedly at the tall doors. Yes, that was probably it. After all, when someone comes back from the dead, it wasn't out of the ordinary to want to be reassured of their presence.

"Erza!" a small voice called frantically.

She smiled slightly at the diminutive figure of Wendy approaching her. "What is it?"

"Happy and Carla are arguing about something and I think it's about Lucy."

Frowning, Erza pushed open the doors and strode past the younger blue-haired girl. There was a small crowd in a corner of the hall, something that had become a semipermanent feature since Lisanna's return, but the knight concentrated on scanning the building for the small Exceeds. After a moment, she grinned, having found them on the railing on the second floor. "Come on, Wendy," she said softly, leading them up the stairs.

Smiling slightly, Wendy grabbed a hold of Erza's hand. "I hope everything's okay," she murmured.

"Lucy would never leave us!" Happy was hissing at Carla when Erza was finally in earshot.

"So you say. I heard the old man allowing her to go on a solo mission. She asked for it, Happy!" Carla hissed back, her white face contorted in anger. Knowing the small cat, she had probably said this a few times already.

"She wouldn't! Me and Natsu and Lucy are a team. We do all our jobs together now."

With a heavy sigh, Carla forcibly turned the blue cat in front of her and pointed an imperious paw at the crowd on the ground floor. "Does Natsu look like he even wants to take on a job right now?" She shook her head to further drive the point home. "But… I heard where she was going," she trilled in a singsong voice.

"No," Erza said, her voice full of the authority of a mage of her rank. "You will do no such thing."

Both Exceeds slowly turned to look at her, their eyes wide in horror and fear. "But, Erza," Happy started.

"I said, no," the magic knight repeated, her order like a steel vice. "Lucy chose to go on a solo mission. It's not our place to interfere with her jobs."

"He said something might go wrong," Carla interjected softly.

"Who?" the red-haired woman asked after a moment, her tone gentling slightly.

"Master Makarov," Carla answered instantly. "Do things go wrong a lot?"

Erza tilted her head slightly, thinking about how often a job – even a simple, low-paying job – could suddenly take a left turn. She inclined her head slightly. "I'll talk to the Master."

Shooting Wendy a warning look, she was relieved when the young Dragon Slayer stayed with the Exceeds instead of following her down to the bar. Makarov still sat there, staff in hand and a small smile playing on his lips as he watched the movements of his guild. Erza stood off to the side, her posture stiff as she waited for him to address her. It was not lost on her that her strict need of a chain of command likely came from those early years in one of the several Towers of Heaven.

"Erza," Makarov greeted softly, a single note of fondness thrumming through his voice. "I take it Lucy was well?"

Erza ducked her head, well aware there wasn't much that could be hidden from the Master. "She was," she agreed. "She has already left for her mission."

Arching an eyebrow, the elderly mage tapped the staff lightly on his knee. "That was quick," he remarked. "She must be eager to work."

Nodding once curtly, Erza moved on to her concern. "Are you afraid something will go wrong?"

Sighing deeply, Makarov shrugged his shoulders. "The poster didn't say it but the job was requested by an unaffiliated mage. With the problems we've had with the dark guilds, I wondered if it was a trap." He shook his head then. "I suppose I'm just an old man who worries too much."

Erza's face hardened, anger sweeping up her features at the thought of a dark guild trying to trap their Lucy. "Should I follow her, Master?"

Makarov shook his head firmly. "It's a simple job. Perhaps if she does not return in a few days, I'll allow it. Just give it time."

"Yes, sir." With a sigh of resignation, the armored mage tilted her head back to look up at the magical cats. They looked down at her, concern marring their feline features, and she smiled encouragingly, emptying her own face of all worry. Next would come the difficult part: keeping Happy from telling Natsu that Lucy had left on a job.

On the other hand, Erza idly wondered how long it would take for the fire mage to notice the blonde's absence.