A/N – disclaimer. I don't own Fairy Tail. This will be the only time I mention that.

So I am posting a new story on here. I enjoyed getting into Fairy Tail and had the idea for this story ages ago. I have finally got to writing out some of this and have plans for more. The next chapter is already mostly written and all updates will be placed on my pat-re-on early.

The updates won't be as regular as my ME story at this time. I will be posting it when I have time but I still have a job and responsibilities. I have this one planned quite far ahead but I don't have unlimited time for writing. Which is the whole reason I have a Pat-re-on. If you feel like supporting me as a writer and want me to keep going then please look me up there under Bored Peasant's Written Works. Join up to get all my story updates early and you will also find original works on there too. Every little bit helps.

Anyway, enough of the advertising. On with the story.

…

CHAPTER 1 – A RETURN

The Fairy Tail guild hall was a centre of cheerful conversation and Lucy couldn't help looking around and smiling at the happy countenances of all her guild mates present as they talked amongst themselves. It had only been a little over a week since she had joined the guild and she was still feeling the satisfaction of her decision… despite the loss of the two million jewels that she would have got from the Everlue job with Natsu.

Her mood turned sour again at the idea that so much rent money had slipped through her fingers. She still had another week before her rent was due so that was something, but still…

"Hey Mira," Macao called out. "Three more beers please."

A stunningly beautiful blonde woman in a pink halter neck dress turned around in Macao's direction. "Be right with you!" she replied in a cheerful voice.

Lucy couldn't help but feel completely out of her new friend's league in the looks department. Sure, Lucy knew that she was cute and had taken advantage of that fact whenever she could. It helped get discounts from plenty of merchants (not including the old and clearly beauty impaired magic store owner from Hargeon and that weird guy Everlue). But Mirajane Strauss somehow made Lucy feel… inadequate.

Oh, she knew she was attractive, definitely above average, but Mirajane was Mira! Sorcerer Weekly cover girl! Not to mention kind and sweet and just perfect!

"Excuse me miss," a slightly gravely voice behind her said, interrupting her thoughts. "Is your guild master here?"

Lucy turned around, slightly startled as she hadn't heard anyone coming up behind her. Standing there was a man who, honestly, looked pretty scruffy. He was about six foot three tall, wearing a dark brown coat, similar to the white one that Grey wore, whenever the pervert actually wore clothes, and seemed to be pretty broad shouldered as the coat fit him well. But his face was unshaven and even with the facial hair he looked gaunt, like he had been on the road for weeks without enough food, his sandy blonde hair was long, unkempt and very scraggly, his pants, which looked heavy duty and were tucked into some form of combat boots, were dusty and crinkled, as was the blue shirt he wore under the jacket. He smelled like he hadn't had a shower in a couple of days, which, going by his appearance and the smudges of dirt and stains on his blue shirt that looked suspiciously like blood, was entirely possible.

For a second, his face flashed with something that looked like recognition. It was so quick, Lucy wasn't sure that it had been real.

"Miss?" he asked again, his face now looking uncertain as he stared at her.

Lucy felt herself blush as she realised she had been staring at him.

"I'm sorry," she stammered as she looked away in embarrassment. "I don't know if Master Makarov is in. I'll check with Mira."

The man's eye twitched slightly as Lucy turned away and looked over at where Mira was carrying three pints of beer on a tray towards Macao, Cana and Wakaba sitting at their table.

"Hey Mira, is the master in?" Lucy called out.

Mira turned around to face Lucy with a smile on her face. Then she saw the man behind Lucy and dropped the tray with a squeak. The glasses shattered and the amber fluid splashed on the floor to Cana's cries of despair.

"Zack," she breathed out, her hands climbing to stop in front of her mouth.

"Miss Strauss," he replied coolly.

All around the guild, things became unnaturally quiet as everyone started to notice the arrival of the unknown, to Lucy anyway, man.

Lucy watched as Mirajane walked slowly up to the new man, whose hand moved closer to his belt for a second before he stopped himself with a visible effort.

Mira stopped right in front of the stranger, not paying attention to anyone around her. The man was visibly tense as he stared unblinking at the silver haired girl. The whole guild seemed to be frozen as they watched the two of them.

Then Mira leapt on the man and threw her arms around him in a desperate hug.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I am so sorry," she babbled into his shirt.

The man looked understandably shocked for a moment before his arms returned to his sides. Lucy noticed that not once did he attempt to comfort her crying friend, he just stood there and endured her tears. All around them, the other guild members relaxed slightly as they watched.

Finally, after what felt like several minutes, Mira's crying slowed down and she leaned back from the one-sided embrace to look up at the scruffy man.

SMACK!

The man's jerked to the side from the power of the slap that Mira had put across the left side of his face. A bright red hand print now glowed where her hand had made contact, showing clearly through his scruffy facial hair.

Lucy couldn't help raising her hands to her mouth and squeaking in shock at the actions of the usually very composed barmaid. She had not yet seen the beautiful older girl ever use any violence, even when caught up in the sporadic brawls that occurred in the guild hall. To see her actually slap someone shocked her more than a little.

"You left," Mira said, her tone accusing the stranger.

The man absently ran hand softly over his reddened cheek as he gave the white-haired girl a narrow-eyed look. "If I remember rightly, you weren't all that upset about it. 'Get lost and die' were your words, I believe."

She flinched and Lucy couldn't help but look at her friend with disbelief. Surely not! Mira would never say something that cruel, right?

"I know," Mira said, her voice very small as she looked like she was going to be in tears again as more unshed tears sparkled in her eyes. "I am so sorry. Those words haunted me the moment I said them."

Great, even when she cries she looks gorgeous, Lucy couldn't help grumble to herself. Still, to hear that something so callous could come out of her mouth was shocking to Lucy.

Mira moved to hug the stranger… Zack, again but this time he took a step back, staying out of reach. Mira stopped short, a look of hurt and misery flashing across her face. Lucy couldn't help but feel sorry for the older girl, while also understanding how Zack wouldn't want to stay too close. Not everyone likes getting hit after all. Except a type of perv she had no desires to think of… ever.

"Hey, Grey, who's that guy?" she whispered to the ice wizard who had moved up next to her.

"That's Zack Brown," he whispered back in a low voice. "He used to hang around here years ago but… uh… he decided to go his own way. He went to fight for Iceburg in the war against Bosco a couple years ago and no one heard from him since."

"Really?" she asked. "But that war finished a year ago!"

"Yeah. To be honest, most of us thought he had died seeing as we hadn't heard anything from him. Master Makarov was pretty upset about it all."

She couldn't help but wince that. Still, the now named Zack was clearly alive and seemed healthy enough, other than probably needing a good few meals and a proper shower.

"So back to my earlier question," Zack's voice cut in to her thoughts, "is Makarov here?"

"The master ain't here," Wakaba said, standing up with Macao and moving to stand behind Mira, who was clasping her hands and looking down at the ground.

Zack nodded to the two men. "Wakaba, Macao," he said, acknowledging their presence. "Would you be able to tell me where he is, please?"

Both men looked at each other for a moment, clearly sharing a silent conversation that the old friends would understand. "He is at a guild master's regular meeting in Onibus," Wakaba revealed, looking back at Zack. "He won't be back for a couple of days."

"Thank you," Zack said with a nod. "Now, Miss," he turned and looked at Lucy, to her surprise, "am I correct in guessing that your name is Lucy?"

Lucy felt shock running through her. "Uh-h-h yes," she stammered. "Yes, that is my name," she repeated, her voice clearing up.

"Wonderful," he said, giving a small smile. "Might I ask if you would be willing to meet with me in a few hours? Purely for business, I promise you."

Oh no! Lucy thought to herself in terror. He knows who I am! He knows about my father and that I ran away! AAAHHHH!

Clearly some of her thoughts must have shown on her face because Zack immediately raised both hands in a placating gesture. "Sorry miss, I should clarify. I need to talk to you about your magic and your spirits," he explained.

"Oh," she said, immediately feeling sheepish. "I thought that… I mean, I had assumed that you were looking to do business with my… father."

He shook his head. "Not at all," he denied. "But tell you what, if it makes you feel more comfortable, you can bring anyone you want to have with you when we meet. Bring the whole guild for all I care, but I would like to speak to you later, if you are willing."

"Oh," she said again, now feeling really foolish about how she reacted. "Uh sure, I guess. Where would you like to meet?"

He named a café that Lucy had seen not far from the guild. It had stood out because it was quite a nice, upmarket sort of café that Lucy would have gone to if she still had access to her father's money, but not a snobbishly upper-class one that she would avoid at all costs.

"Sounds like a plan," he said once she had agreed. "I will see you in four hours." With that, he turned and started heading towards the door.

"You got some guts coming back here," Macao said, frowning at Zack's back. "I thought you had left the guild for good."

Zack stopped and looked back at the older man. Then he turned his head and spat on the floor, much to Lucy's disgust. Though, she couldn't help but notice that there was a little bit of blood in the spittle on the floor, evidence that the slap from Mira had done more damage than she had thought.

"If I recall correctly, my lack of association with Fairy Tail was not really my decision, but more of a request." His eyes shifted over to the third person that had been sitting with Macao and Wakaba.

Lucy followed his look and saw Cana flinch guiltily. What's that about?

"But regardless, I am not looking for anyone else here, other than your guild master," Zack continued. "At any rate, I shall see who ever comes to the café later. Goodbye to you all."

And with that, he left the guild hall.

It felt like the whole guild let out a breath once he had gone. Lucy hadn't realised how high the tension had gotten until it had left.

"What was all that about?" Natsu said cluelessly.

"Yeah, who was that guy?" Lucy asked. "It didn't look like too many of you were happy to see him."

"It's kinda a long story," Nab muttered as he scratched his head.

"The short version of it that he used to hang out here a lot," Grey said, taking over the telling of it. "He was never a member though."

"Why not?" Lucy asked. It didn't make sense to hang around a magic guild and not join it, in her opinion. Especially not one as cool as Fairy Tail.

"Because he can't use magic," Elfman said. "Like a man."

"But still, he was here a lot and had nowhere to go so Master Makarov let him to some D-rank jobs to get some money so that he could at least feed himself," Macao said, joining the conversation. "He even set it up so that he could do some minor jobs for a few other guilds too."

Lucy could see that. As pervy as the old guildmaster was, he always seemed to be willing to help when it was needed.

"Of course, not everyone was really happy with that," Wakaba said. "To a lot of the newbies, he was taking easy money that they could have been earning. But he did try to help out people as a way of making it up to them?"

"Oh," Lucy asked. "How did he do that?"

"He helped us train!" Natsu shouted.

"Keep it down, fire clown!" Grey shouted, ignoring that he was now only wearing his underwear as he pushed Natsu out of the way. "But the flame head is right (Screw you, stripper!). He couldn't help us with our magic much but he was able to come up with training programs to let us get stronger."

"It worked pretty good too," Happy said, floating above the crowd. "It helped Natsu, Grey and Elfman to build up their physical strength quite a bit. And even if he couldn't use magic, he was able to give some pretty good ideas on how to help others use theirs."

"Yeah, he was a real man about it," Elfman declared.

"But eventually," Grey continued, "it was when he was trying to stop Cana from drinking when she first got drunk things got ugly."

"Cana?" Lucy asked, looking over at the brunette, who was staring into her mug with a scowl. "She was friends with him?"

"They were very close," Mirajane said softly. "Zack was always trying to help her with her magic, or just keeping her spirits up about her problems. He was very encouraging all the time. Then one day, some of the older guild members saw that she was having a bad day when she was about thirteen and Zack wasn't around to help. They bought her some wine, thinking it would be fine, because that's what they would do. By the time Zack got to the guild hall, she was really drunk."

"Zack went over to her and tried to grab the glass out of her hand," Grey said, taking over again. "She didn't want to let it go. Zack kept calling the old guys that got her drunk paedophiles and predators. In the end Cana yelled at him. Told him that to leave her alone and asked why he was wasting his time hanging out at a guild, pretending to be a wizard. Then she told him to leave; said that no one wanted him here."

"It was pretty bad," Happy said in a sad tone. "They were probably the closest to each other out of everyone in the guild. And no one else in the guild said anything against it because he had been taking so many D-ranks over the years so a few people didn't like him hanging around. It made it seem like everyone there hated him except Makarov."

More than a few people in the guild looked a little guilty at that. Elfman mumbled something about being 'unmanly'.

"Then Zack just stopped," Natsu cut in. "If it were me I would have punched their faces in, but not him. He just stopped, even when gramps started telling off Cana and the old guys. He just got this weird look on his face, like he was hungry or something."

"He was thinking, you idiot!" Grey shouted.

"Whatever," Natsu shouted back. "Put some clothes on ya weirdo! Anyway, after a few minutes he just says, 'you're right'. Agrees that he doesn't belong. Says he only hung around because Makarov let him and he thought he was paying gramps back by trying to help us out. Turned to Makarov, thanked him for everything, tells him he will still come around to visit if he needed to. Then he just left."

"Walked right out the door without looking back," Happy agreed. "He did come back a few times over the years to pass messages on to Master Makarov but he didn't really stick around."

"We would hear rumours from time to time about what he was doing," Macao said, taking a swig of his drink. "Apparently he used some of that money that he earned from guild jobs and bought himself a guitar. Then he started writing some of those songs of his."

Lucy frowned, feeling confused. "Songs? What songs?"

Everyone in the group blinked, clearly knowing something she was expected to know.

"Well, there were quite a lot of them," Wakaba said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Somewhere over the Rainbow, Yesterday…"

"Wait!" Lucy screamed. "You mean that Zack is Dave Grohl, the famous musician?!"

Natsu and Happy both grabbed their ears. "Gee, Lucy, not so loud," Natsu complained.

"But yes," Mira said. "Zack performed under the name of Dave Grohl. He apparently said it would be better to have a separate name to perform under so that he could still mostly live without being thought of as famous. That's also why he wore that long black wig and glasses."

"Wow," Lucy thought, her eyes sparkling. She never thought she would be able to meet her all-time favourite musician. She blushed a little. She'd had a bit of a crush on him only a couple years ago. "I need to get his autograph!" she squealed.

"Not the time to fangirl, Lucy," Happy deadpanned.

"Sorry," Lucy said. "You were saying?"

"Anyway," Grey continued, "so one day he gets attacked at a gig by some dark wizards. And he managed to beat them back."

"That's amazing!" Lucy exclaimed, as she hadn't heard about this. And it was. Magic made the body stronger and faster. The more powerful someone was with magic, the stronger their body was, even when not using any magic at all. So for someone without magic to beat a wizard, they had to be either really strong or the wizards had to be really weak. But even the weakest wizard was stronger than a normal person.

"Not really," Macao scowled slightly. "He ended up killing two of them."

Lucy gasped, her hand over her mouth. "He killed people? How come he isn't in prison?"

"He appealed to the king in Crocus," Wakaba growled. "Somehow he convinced the king that if dark magicians were able to kill him even if he didn't have magic, then he should be able to defend himself against people killing him even if it killed the attackers."

"The Magic Council were really unhappy with that," Macao added. "But once the king gave his ruling there was nothing they could do. While they may have pretty much total control over all magic users, they don't outrank the king, especially when it comes to non-wizards."

"Woah," Lucy breathed. "So that's why he wasn't really welcomed here?"

"Not just that," Elfman said, his voice serious. "About three years ago, he started to come around a bit more. Then, there was an accident. We…" He cut himself off.

"The guild lost someone on a job," Grey said softly. "Lisanna."

"Mine and Elfman's sister," Mira said shakily.

"On no!" Lucy's hand shot to her mouth. "I'm so sorry!"

"It's ok," Mira gave her a watery smile. "You didn't know and while it's not exactly a secret, we don't exactly advertise it. But afterwards, I was a mess. Elfman blamed himself for everything and didn't trust his magic and I… I lost the ability to use most of my magic."

"Things were pretty hard for us," Elfman said, his tone extremely somber. "I was a wreck and Mira could barely get out of bed. No one knew what to do. Then one day, outta nowhere, Zack shows up at the door with a bunch of groceries. Says he was there to help."

"It was really sweet," Mira said, smiling through her tears. "He didn't need to be asked. He just knew that we were in pain and that he was able to help us. Even though we were hurting so bad that we didn't appreciate it at the time, he never stopped helping us. He came over every morning and helped clean, cook food, fix up some of the stuff. He even made sure that Lisanna's stuff was taken care of. Not taken out of her room, just that it was kept tidy and cleaned up."

"Yeah," Elfman mumbled. "It was really manly of him."

There was a long moment of silence as everyone took everything in. Lucy could barely believe that a guy who had basically been run out of the guild would do so much to help people that didn't really like him and couldn't help speaking up. "But I thought you guys didn't like him?" she asked, confused.

"Hmmm, it wasn't really like that," Grey clarified. "He was never mean about the whole fight. It was more that he wasn't a wizard and shouldn't really be taking wizard jobs that should go to wizards. There are plenty of low level magic users that rely on D rank jobs and quite a few people were getting annoyed that this guy without magic was taking money that they could have earned themselves. But there were some older members back then who didn't like being called out for letting Cana drink."

"Yeah, he still came by every now and then to see Master Makarov," Macao said. "And he was still polite to everyone and said hello. It was just like there was this big wall between us now that wasn't there before. He was even friendly with Erza of all people."

Lucy blinked, not having heard of Erza sinced she joined Fairy Tail. "Who's that?"

A collective shudder ran through the whole group, except for Mirajane.

"She's a monster!" Happy wailed.

"She's scary!" Natsu cried out.

A mental image of a horned monster flashed into Lucy's mind. "Oh no!"

"She's not that bad," Mira objected. "She's just strong. But she loves Fairy Tail and is really lovely."

"Ok," Lucy said slowly. She would just have to wait to meet her. "So if Zack was looking after you guys, why was he no longer welcome around here?"

Mira and Elfman shared a look before they responded. "Well," Mira took over, "he had already signed up to go to fight for Iceburg so he knew he was leaving in a few days. But he was trying to help me get my magic back and it wasn't working. So he and Elfman came up with a way to help me but it was pretty extreme."

"It wasn't very manly," Elfman admitted. "We pretended that Zack was able to incapacitate me and that he was torturing me. That Mira was too weak to stop him without her magic."

"The idea was to force me to use my magic to defend Elfman from Brock," Mira explained. "While he doesn't have magic, Brock had enough strength and experience to defend himself from low level magicians, which is all I could manage at the time. Long story short; it worked. Brock was able to force me to use my stronger magic and I…"

"She hurt him pretty badly," Elman finished. "I was able to stop her from killing him but because he doesn't have magic to protect him like a mage would so her hitting him was more damaging than it would be to a man… I mean wizard."

"We were happy that he was able to help Mira get her magic back," Wakaba cut in. "But we really don't like how he did it. She had just lost a sister. She didn't need to think that she was losing her brother too."

"And it made me too angry," Mira confessed. "I would have kept trying to hurt him if Elfman hadn't literally jumped in front of me."

"He ended up going to war with a broken jaw, dislocated shoulder, shattered eye socket and a broken arm," Grey supplied. Mira winced and Lucy couldn't help but feel her jaw drop at hearing how much damage Mira had caused to someone. "He was lucky she didn't break his legs so he could still walk away."

"Ever since then, I don't really go out on jobs," Mira said. "I can use my magic fully now but I prefer to be around the guild and help out around here."

"Everyone felt that Mira was hoping Zack would come back but she didn't want anyone to know," Happy 'whispered' loudly enough for everyone to hear it.

WHACK

Happy was sent flying across the guild and smacked into a wall. Lucy blinked and stared at Mira who was blushing as she retracted her hand from where she had slapped him.

Lucy's head was spinning. There were so many revelations today, just from asking who one random stranger was. There was clearly more to the story but everyone had been so open about this she was afraid that asking the wrong question would just make everyone clam up again.

Strangely, she did notice that Wakaba had a nasty frown on his face from what Happy had said.

"So anyway," Grey said, as if nothing unusual had happened, "that's the basic story about Zack and how he is connected to the guild. He burnt a lot of bridges with the people here for how he acted to get Mira's magic back, but we do realise that it helped her. Between that, his killing some dark wizards and taking guild jobs, there is still some weird feelings about the guy around here. Plus, he just appears outta nowhere after disappearing during a war where we thought he was dead. Honestly, I don't think most people know how to feel."

"Combine that with the amount of people here that got some good training tips from him, people that like his songs or his books, and there are plenty of things that people would be happy to see him if it wasn't for the bad stuff," Max spoke up from behind Macao.

"It makes a pretty mixed bag of emotions," Reedus said behind Grey.

The books thing caught Lucy's attention and was something else that she wanted to ask about but she was prevented from saying anything by the sound of stomping coming towards the guild, distracting the group from their heavy conversation.

The front door of the guild crashed open, the suddenness of it making everyone jump. A darkened silhouette of a person carrying something massive over their shoulder was visible in the outline of sudden sunlight coming through the front door.

"AAAHHH!" Natsu, Happy and Grey screamed in terror. "It's Erza!"

Lucy desperately wanted to see who Erza was but didn't feel like she could if the woman was just standing there. Still, as the woman stepped into the guild properly, she became visible for all to see.

Despite the terror that was suffocating the entire guild hall, Lucy couldn't help but notice something. "Wow, she's really pretty!" she said to herself. And she was. A tall, leggy, beautiful redhead, with greyish brown eyes, but wearing armour on her torso which covered a generous chest, and wearing a blue skirt that stopped at mid-thigh. She also had armoured gauntlets on her hands. But despite her stern expression, she was still exceptionally beautiful.

Erza put what looked like a claw or something down and stared imperiously around the guild hall. "I have returned," she declared. "Where's Master Makarov?"

"The master's away at a conference right now," Mira replied. "He won't be back for a couple of days."

"I see."

"Hey Erza," Max said, moving closer. "What's that humungous thing you have there?"

"It's the horn of a monster that I defeated," she replied, her armoured hands on her hips. "The locals were so grateful that they decorated it for me. Do you have a problem with it?" her tone turned demanding.

"No! NO!" Max whimpered out, shaking in fear.

"Good." She turned to face the guild directly. "Now listen up! When I was on the road I heard a few things. Some people have been giving Fairy Tail a bad name. master Makarov may not care about it, but I most certainly do.

"Cana, stop drinking on your jobs and no more stealing client's alcohol!" Erza ordered. "Wakaba, quit smoking so much. Vegeta…" said man flinched but Erza never followed up as she spotted something on the ground. "Who spat blood on the guild floor?"

Half the room flinched back in fear and Natsu cried out in terror. "It wasn't us! It was Zack Brown! He did it, blame him!"

"Aye!" shouted Happy.

Erza blinked before she frowned fiercely. "Is this true, Mira?" she asked the blond barmaid. "Zack is alive and came back?"

"Yes," Mira said softly. "He came in not long ago looking for Master Makarov. He is meeting up with Lucy here for a job in a few hours and said anyone from the guild can go too.

"I see. Then I shall join you," Erza declared, looking over at Lucy.

Somehow, Lucy got the feeling that Ezra wasn't making a request.

"For the rest of you, stop acting foolishly!" Erza barked. "Now I must go. I need to be ready for meeting with Zack."

With that the armoured young woman picked up her horn and walked out the door to the stunned silence of the guild.

"That was… strange," Lucy offered, nonplussed.

"That's Erza for ya!" Happy replied.

As life started to slowly return to the guild in the wake of Ezra leaving, Lucy couldn't help but look around. "At least things here will never be boring."

…

A/N Please Follow/Review/Favourite as you please.

Reviews are appreciated, trolls are ignored.

Special thanks to Ranger and Kushtacah for their support.

Anyone wishing for more, any and all new chapters will be posted on my pat-re-on first. Look for Bored Peasant's Written Works to get early access to updates and original works. Until next time!