"It's you." Lucy breathed out. Her hazel brown orbs met with his onyx ones.

"Heya Luce." His smile is wide as can be.

"It's Lucy." The blonde corrected the man.

"Exactly, that's what I said." Natsu chuckled and pulled up a chair for him and his friends. "Meet my pals." He motioned over to the two figures beside him. "This is Gray, and that's Juvia."

Lucy bowed her head slightly to greet the two individuals.

"What are you doing here?" Lucy asked.

"My shift just ended and I was bored so I strolled around and I found you here." Natsu smiled. His lies are laced with a small hint of truth.

"Shift? What shift?" Lucy shifted her head to look him in the eye.

"Torturing souls duh." Natsu chuckled as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

"Right," Lucy sighed, "You're demons after all."

"You seem to be pretty interested in our kind," Juvia spoke as she flipped through the pages of one of the books on the table.

"Yeah, well. I have a paper to write that involves demons." Lucy replied honestly.

"What is it about?" Natsu perked up. "Is it about the ways of summoning us? How we're created?" He rambled on.

"No." Lucy shook her head. "It's not just demons, it's about the entire supernatural race and their relationships with humans."

"Oooh." Gray winced.

"That's gonna be rough," Juvia added, closing the book she was holding.

Lucy felt a bit anxious about their statements.

"I mean, not everyone would be cooperative," Natsu added.

"I see." Lucy lowered her head.

Guilt washed over Natsu's entire being as he witnessed Lucy so down.

"But we'll be willing to help." He suddenly spoke out.

"Really." Lucy's eyes sparkled with joy.

"Sure thing." Natsu smiled.

The demons then helped Lucy with her research and fed her information about the history of the human-supernatural relationship. They helped her form questions fit for each race.

------

Spring, 1810

The salmon-haired demon fixes his suit in front of a mirror.

"How do I look?" He turned around and posed in front of his friends.

"Get that thing off your head. NOW." Gray growled.

"But it's in style." Natsu adjusted his black tophat.

"It doesn't really look good on you," Juvia declared.

"You said that about the wig last time."

"Yeah, those things are a mistake and should burn in hell." Juvia ranted.

"Whatever, let's just go to the party," Natsu grumbled as he took his top hat off and placed it on the table.

------

The sound of classical music echoed through the large ballroom of the castle. Nobles filled the room as they mingled with each other, bragging about their ranks, accomplishments, and expenditures. 

"Your Highness." Natsu greeted the blonde king.

"I'm glad you could make it." The king smiled. "Care to come with me, I'd like you to meet my daughter."

"Why not." Natsu chuckled as the group followed the king.

"Meet my beautiful daughter." The king presented the blonde princess to the demons.

"Pleased to meet you." The princess bowed before them. "My name is Lucy, Princess of the Starlight Kingdom."

------

Back to the Present

"Are you sure about this? This topic is rather difficult to execute." Lucy's professor clarified.

"I'm sure about my decision and I'm aware that it'll be difficult but yesterday, I've acquired some help from my friends." Lucy smiled confidently.

The professor nodded. "If that's the case then I accept your topic, you can start working on it."

"Thank you, Sir." Lucy bowed and exited the professor's office.

"So how did it go?" Levy asked, her wings fluttering like crazy.

"Yeah, he accepted it." Lucy smiled.

"That's great." Levy smiled back as the two started walking towards the exit of the school.

Levy settled into the herbal potions for a much easier and more secure search of information. She passed her topic before Lucy's and was approved by the professor. Now, Levy and Lucy are currently on their way to a witch's house that Levy is friends with.

"Is she scary?" Lucy asked, worriedly.

"No, she's actually really sweet." Levy giggled as she rang the doorbell for the house. The house has a modern spin on it. It's nothing like a witch's house back in the medieval age. However, there are several plants and herbs that surround the porch, a few skulls littered around, and smoke coming out of the chimney.

The door opened to reveal a young girl with blue hair tied in pigtails. She's wearing a dark blue puffy sleeveless dress, with black lace at the bottom hem of the dress. Black stockings, and dark blue shoes.

"Levy-chan!!" The witch greeted the fairy with a wide smile.

"Wendy!!" The petite fairy smiled and gave the little witch a hug. "This is Lucy, she's my human friend from the university I'm in."

"Hello." Wendy greeted the blonde with a smile and Lucy bowed.

"What brought you guys here?" Wendy asked.

"Oh, we have a paper to write, it's our semestral project, and I thought you could help us," Levy answered.

"I'm happy to help, come on in." Wendy invited both Levy and Lucy inside her house.

Wendy's house is something you would expect from a witch. There's a cauldron, various apothecary tables, a bunch of jars filled with herbs and body parts, and of course a cat, but Wendy has a white cat instead of the usual black cat one would expect.

"I have orders to take care of, we'll talk later, just stay here for a bit," Wendy said as she guided the two towards the couch where three individuals sat, playing cards.

One glanced at the two and grinned.

"Shrimp!! Long time no see!!"

"Stop calling me that." Levy glared at the huge man with long spiky hair.

This interaction caught the attention of the other two.

"Lucy!!" A familiar blunette greeted the blonde.

"Juvia!!" Lucy gaped, shocked at her by this place.

"You two know each other?" Levy asked.

"We met yesterday, Natsu introduced me to her." Juvia smiled. "And you must be the cute little fairy Gajeel's been talking about."

"Her name is Levy but I call her Shrimp cause he's tiny." Gajeel grinned.

"Isn't that adorable." A voice spoke.

The voice comes from a man with blue hair and has red markings on his face.

"This is Jellal." Juvia introduced the man to Levy and Lucy. "He's a vampire."

Jellal grabbed a glass filled with red liquid and took a sip from a metal straw.

Levy and Lucy stood still in their positions at the simple sight of the man.

"Relax." Jellal chuckled. "I don't bite... not anymore."

"Hold on." Levy paused. "If you're a vampire, how are you walking around in broad daylight."

"It may come out as a shock to you but there's a potion that protects vampires from the sun," Jellal said. "It's very rare to find someone who can make it."

"I'm one of those people." Wendy walked in, holding a bottle of purple liquid.

"Here." She gave the bottle to Jellal. "I'll be getting my payment now." She stretched out her palm.

"No discount?"

"Jellal-san, that potion is incredibly hard to make and the ingredients are very tedious to acquire." Wendy reasoned out.

"I'll take that as a no then." Jellal sighed and gave the money to Wendy.

"Thank you." Wendy smiled.

"So, about that paper." Wendy shifted her attention toward the fairy.

"Well, Lucy and I have papers to write for our semestral project, mine is about the plants and herbs used by witches, so I thought you could help me with that." Levy start.

"Oh, I would love to." Wendy smiled.

"Lucy's topic is a bit more challenging," Levy added.

"Yeah, it's about the relationship between humans and the supernaturals, right?" Juvia butted in.

Lucy simply nodded. This isn't her first time being in the same room filled with other supernaturals but she's not stupid to realize that they have been around for a very long time, compared to her classmates at the university. She's scared and intimidated by them.

"I agreed to help you with this so Gajeel and Jellal will help as well. Jellal has been around more than I've been a demon, he has a lot of insights." Juvia chuckled.

"I'm very grateful for the help." Lucy bowed.

"Well it's settled, I'll talk to Levy first and Lucy, you interview Juvia and the others," Wendy said.

------

"So, where are we gonna start?" Gajeel asked.

"Uhmm." Lucy filled through her notebook for the questions. "Let's start with your thoughts and opinions about humans."

"They suck," Gajeel answered.

"They're interesting," Jellal answered.

"Yeah, humans are very interesting," Juvia nodded.

"Alright." Lucy sighed. "Next, do you have any background relationship with humans ever?"

"I have a vampire hunter on my tail 24/7 does that count?" Jellal said.

"Once, it didn't turn out great." Gajeel shrugged.

"I was once human," Juvia replied.

Lucy nodded. Back at the library, Natsu mentioned that Demons and Angels were once humans and were handpicked the moment they died.

"Alright, I'll proceed to the individual interviews now, can I talk to you, one by one?" Lucy asked politely.

"Sure thing, but I'll go first," Gajeel said.

------

Jellal and Juvia left Gajeel and Lucy alone for a bit and went over to where Wendy and Levy are.

"Alright, Sir Gajeel." Lucy started.

"Gajeel is fine."

"Right." Lucy nervously chuckled. "Gajeel, care to tell me a bit about yourself, no need to go too deep just tell me something you're comfortable saying."

"Okay," Gajeel said. "I'm a werewolf. I have no idea how old I am, I stopped counting at 50, but I'm pretty sure Juvia's older than me. Werewolves necessarily don't have a close relationship with humans as we spend most of our time away from them, so I don't think you'd be getting a lot of information for your paper from me. Anyway, I was born in a pack, my dad was the alpha. Some hunters killed him when I'm just a puppy and I was separated from the pack and was left alone but then a couple saved me and took me in."

"And that couple is the humans you told me you had a relationship with earlier."

"Yep." Gajeel nodded. "They raised me just like I'm their own but the people in the village aren't so nice."

"Is this the reason why you claimed that humans suck?" Lucy leaned in.

"Yeah, the villagers burned down the house while they're still inside, claiming that they're harboring a monster and should be punished and whatnot. I know good humans exist, but I tend to have trust issues when it comes to them." Gajeel spoke.

"Then, how come you're freely talking to me?" Lucy asked skeptically.

"Because you're Juvia's friend and I trust her judgment," Gajeel replied. "Is that all?"

"I have one more question," Lucy spoke. "Everything that happened to you was all in past and we all have grown passed our mistakes, some more than others. So, do you think there's a chance that humans and supernaturals can live together in peace?"

"I think it's possible," Gajeel spoke. "Although, I'll probably be dead when that happens."

"Why?"

"Back in the day, the supernaturals aren't at peace with one another, they clashed, they fight, and humans are just pieces of meat thrown in the middle of all the chaos, but now we arrived at a place where the supernaturals are somewhat at peace with one another, it's not perfect but it's definitely an improvement."

"I see." Lucy nodded. "Thank you for your time." Lucy bowed.

"Great." Gajeel stood up from his seat, just in time as Jellal walked in.

"Juvia just left, she said her shift is about to start," Jellal said.

"Did you ask her, who she should be torturing?" Gajeel asked.

"Some dude named John Wayne Gacy and Hitler," Jellal replied.

"She gets to torture Hitler?!" Gajeel screamed.

"Yeah, she's really excited about it." Jellal chuckled.

"Oh, dear." Lucy anxiously sank into her chair.

🍜🍜🍜🍜🍜🍜🍜🍜🍜🍜🍜🍜🍜🍜🍜

*inserts random emoji*

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