Lucy Heartfilia stood outside of a large white brick building, staring upwards at the large black block letters that graced the side of the edifice with wide brown eyes. She carried a small cross-body shoulder bag and a black case with a single pink ribbon in her right hand.
“I can’t believe it... I’m finally here!”
She quickly pushed open the glass door, dashing into a room filled with tables set up like a dining area.
“This must be the reception area...” she ran ahead, footsteps echoing loudly off the soft red floor.
She pushed through another set of glass doors, entering a finely paneled lobby with grand oak doors. Mavis Vermilion Hall! Seeing no ushers around, she pulled open one of the doors. It swung open surprisingly easily for its size.
A melodic tune quickly flowed out. Lucy recognized it immediately as Schubert’s The Bee, a piece she’d played years prior. But this tone was much richer, the pitch much lower...
She poked her head inside just enough to sneak a peek at the musician playing inside. She hypothesized that it was likely a cello, or possibly even a bassoonist that was just incredibly good at replicating a string tone.
The first thing she saw was an unruly shock of pink hair. Pink. Wasn’t this place supposed to be a classical music conservatory? Not a place for those dumb hipsters with rainbow hair.
As soon as she looked closer however, there was no denying that the sounds of Schubert she was hearing came from the pink-haired teen. He was sitting in the middle of the stage, the spotlight was shined on him, and his fingers were moving impossibly fast across the fingerboard, faster than Lucy ever imagined playing it back when she was learning it.
Noting that the auditorium was empty, Lucy waltzed right up to the front row and took a seat. She also noted, however, that the cellist’s eyes were completely closed as he played. It was interesting, she thought. To close one’s eyes while playing was the highest level of trust one could place in oneself. It meant that this cellist trusted his bow arm to stay on the right “highway,” to never brush to far over the fingerboard or, heaven forbid, run over the bridge. And he also trusted his fingers enough to never miss the exact mark on the string, without even giving himself a visual marker of where he was.
It was with a little bit of admiration and just a bit of jealousy that she stared at him. She knew she’d never be able to trust herself enough to be able to do something like that. Not after everything she’d gone through, in her performances, with her teacher, and her audience. Not with that.
“Hello? Yoohoo? Anyone there?” a large palm waved in front of her eyes as she jolted with a start.
“What that f—heck?!” Lucy stood up abruptly, staring down into a mass of pink hair. Pink. She still could not get over that.
The cellist straightened up, grinning. “Sorry, did I scare you? Well, yeah, sorry. My name’s Natsu! What’s yours?”
“I’m Lucy,” she answered, shaking Natsu’s outstretched palm. Ew, sweaty. “Lucy Heartfilia.”
“Hi Luce! You don’t mind if I call you that right? Okay, so, why are you here? Are you lost?” he barreled on, ignoring Lucy’s frustrated attempts to tell him that she did indeed mind if he called her Luce.
“Well, maybe a little, I was exploring okay? It’s my first time here! I was invited by the headmaster of Fairy Tail Academy for the Performing and Visual Arts to participate in his selected Magnolia Quartet,” she replied with a certain air of snobbery, Natsu’s past violation forgotten. Nothing could knock her off her pedestal of being invited to THE Magnolia Quartet.
“Oh, cool! Me too!” Natsu grinned cheerfully, completely oblivious to Lucy’s sputters and shocked expression. “C’mon, I’ll take you! Let me pack up...”
Lucy trudged up onto the stage where Natsu gingerly placed his instrument into its red case and hoisted it onto his back.
“You look like a turtle,” Lucy remarked drily.
Natsu just grinned again. “Oh, Luce.”
“Don’t call me—HEY WAIT UP!” Natsu had ignored her again, and had already disappeared backstage into the folds of the red curtain. Lucy sighed.
She picked up her violin and began to chase Natsu through the school. It was always his pink hair or huge red case that caught her eye, but she never saw him for more than a split second.
Then-
“Ouch!” Lucy fell to the ground, before quickly turning to her case and unlatching it to see if her precious instrument was okay.
“I’m so sorry! Here, let me look over that,” a white-haired girl in a long red dress stooped down next to Lucy and plucked at the strings. “They’re all relatively in tune. The A’s at 444 though.”
Lucy had quickly glanced over the girl, but now that she knew her instrument was okay, she did a double take. The white hair, the red dress, and with that incredible pitch ability...“It can’t be... Mirajane Strauss?”
The girl giggled good-naturedly. “Oh, I see. You already know of me.”
“Who doesn’t? You’re only the most featured person in the Weekly Musician, Magnolia Chronicle, and even Fiore’s Finest!” Lucy gaped at the person in front of her, who was only lauded as the most “fantastically beautiful music-maker in the nation.” And her perfect pitch was the stuff of legend! “How can you not expect me to know you?”
 “Well, my abilities have taken a beating recently,” Mirajane smiled gently. “But it’s nice to know that I’m still popular.”
“LUCE! WHERE’D YOU GO?” Natsu’s insistent voice could be heard echoing through the hallway.
“Oh my, Luce,” Mirajane chuckled. “You’d better go.”
“Don’t call me that!” Lucy fumed as she snatched her violin off the floor and set off again. “And don’t you get any funny ideas!”
-----------------------
“Dammit Natsu, could you go any slower?” Lucy sighed, slumping down into the first chair she saw in the room and setting her instrument down- very gently- on the ground.
“Dammit Luce, get out of that chair, or...” Natsu trailed off, but his voice was serious enough to make Lucy wonder.
“Or what, Natsu. Is there something that can wipe even your ever-present grin off your face?” she retorted snarkily, resting her head on the table.
“Don’t worry, Natsu. Erza just contacted me. She won’t be back for a while,” a short, aged man walked into the room. “The hall offered her twice the pay to stay for a few more weeks. It’s a pity you don’t get those offers.”
“Gramps, I’d get them if I practiced my ass off like Erza does, but who wants to practice?” Natsu grinned his signature grin.
“How can you get better if you don’t practice?” Lucy butted in. Natsu’s chill attitude was bothering her, especially with the fact that he, quite honestly, seemed to be a lot more talented than she was.
“Oh, this must be Miss Lucy Heartfilia!” the old man smiled at her, cutting Natsu off. “Welcome to Fairy Tail Academy for the Performing and Visual Arts. I’m Makarov, the headmaster, and the conductor of the Magnolia Quartet.”
“I would say good morning, but then I’d be lying. Nice to meet you, Mr. Makarov,” Lucy replied with a pointed glare at Natsu, who simply shrugged and grinned. Idiot.
“Ohoho. He’s already made that bad of an impression?” Makarov chuckled. “And you can just call me Makarov. Welcome to FTAPVA, Lucy. I know you’ll love it here.”
Lucy glanced at Natsu before turning back to face Makarov. “I sure hope I will.”