Hey there! I came up with this idea out of the blue, so I'd really like to hear your opinions if I should continue it or not. Enjoy!
The sound of the knife dropping to the ground echoed in her ears and alongside the empty walls of the house. She stared a moment longer with wide, shaky eyes at her piece of work. Her trembling fingers gripped her trousers, the blood dripping silently from her long nails. As if she could only just realize what she had done, she took her hands to her line of vision and stared blankly at them.
"What did I do…?" she asked herself in a whisper, her eyes falling fearfully upon the leap of flesh, the remains of what once had been her husband. The soft sound of a bell could be heard in the wind, which washed away the stink of blood in the room. The dark sunset would be her last recall before she would completely devote herself to the silence. That majestic silence that she could at last feel to the depths of her tired needs.
Yes, it was finally silent.
The dear had been a nice person, but too loud for her taste. No worries, no longer. He was gone and she could breathe in as much silence as she needed. Yes…
She took out a shaky breath and felt a smile playing along to her fulfilled desires. Yes… It felt nice… To stand in the presence of what had completed the struggle of two months of planning and lying, preparing the field for the game that had been to come. She stared longer, nailing her chocolate eyes into that shade of deep, dark red, a shade that had seduced her since the first time they had met. A shade that made her feel like pain was a bare pleasure. She took her hands to her white lips and tasted her juicy husband, grinning when that pleasure struck her senses like a stab into her heart.
Delicious… Simply…delicious.
"And…CUT!" the director's voice could be heard in the silence and then a murmur broke free through the smiling staff. "Good job everyone, the scene was perfect!"
Lucy found herself blinking surprised, breaking out of the magic of her role. Before she went and washed her red hands, she licked the rest of the sour cherry juice not going for such a waste. She studied the faces of the people around her and was surprised at their surprise.
Wendy, the youngest actress on the platform, approached her along with the others, congratulating the blonde kindly. She rubbed the chills off her arm when she said:
"Gosh, your acting gave me Goosebumps. I could feel the temperature drop when you grinned like that!" she chuckled flustered.
''R-really?" Lucy smiled even more flustered. ''I don't think I was that great."
Before Wendy could protest, Gray, a nice co-worker and one of her best friends appeared out of nowhere beside her.
''Wow, good job! You played perfectly!" he laughed and then added in a low tone: "Are you sure you've never murdered before?"
Lucy chuckled blushing from the praises, thanking the two and assuring them she never killed anybody. The director known as 'director Makarov', an old, short fellow with a white mustache congratulated Gray, the one who had played the murdered husband and then announced everybody on the platform to prepare for the scene in the rain.
Lucy gathered herself and tried to wash away the pride that forewarned to take over her acting. She couldn't allow all of the appreciation to mix in with her concentration on work. She shook her head shortly and did a double check to see if she knew all the lines to the scene she had done so many times before in front of the mirror. Yes, it was easy. She remembered this scene was set before Giselle, her character, killed her husband. Actually, it was set somewhere in the beginning of the movie, but this was the first rainy day since they had started filming, so they were to take advantage of it.
She entered the trailer and waited for the stylist –also make-up artist- before she told the driver to set out. A train of thought entered her brain and she started daydreaming about her character's story while half listening to the instructions of the woman while her make-up was wiped off and then done again. This time she wasn't supposed to be a pale, crazy woman holding a bloody knife. She was the stunning traveler that Peter fell in love with.
The story is set in the near future and it all begins one early morning when Peter, a handsome man with a boring life, is sitting in a bar, drinking to the sadness of being left by his girlfriend. And that is when Giselle, the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, enters the room only carrying a backpack and collapses to the ground due to a bullet in her shoulder. After the commotion in the bar fades away, Peter volunteers –thanks to his knowledge in medicine- to take care of her until it would be safe to abandon her at a hospital. But he slowly falls in love with her mysterious self and in the end he never lets go of her. He finds out she is one of those girls trained to kill ever since they are born and she escaped the training area, running away from the cyborgs set to take her down. Secretly she carries in her backpack an ultimate weapon that she stole before leaving, which is a reason in addition to get killed. Peter marries her and swears to her he will protect her with the price of his own life. And he actually manages to do so until that late evening, when Giselle turns out to be a smart psycho and she kills him. After that, she gets found out by the cyborgs and also dies. In the end it seems like Peter was never just a foolish romantic husband and he has an active past of his own; he used all his knowledge to make such a barrier around them that it would've been impossible to be found while he is alive.
The movie's genre is action and romance. It is very romantic, indeed, but only until that part with the murder, when you realize Giselle never loved Peter and all this time she was only just a great actress, using him and his love to her advantage.
Lucy didn't particularly like this movie. She was the happy-ending type and actually hated the director's choice for this kind of conclusion, but it was enough for her to play such a character as Giselle, whom she really liked for no specific reason. She was attracted by the mysterious, silent girl, who was in reality a strong, cold, mad woman. She didn't exactly sympathize with her, but she found out that she was really good at impersonating Giselle, and who doesn't like doing something they're really good at?
"Ouch!" she called out when the mascara brush poked her eyeball, waking her up from her daydreaming. She backed up from the stylist's touch and held her now crying eye.
"Oh, I'm sorry." the woman said half-heartedly. She felt a little satisfied for the pain of the actress assuming she had been talking for the past quarter an hour to the hand.
"It's OK" Lucy muttered trying to open her eye. The stylist rose up from her tiny chair and searched for the box of tissues on the messy little table of the trailer.
Lucy took the tissue that was offered to her and stuffed it in the round of the eye, wiping away her tears along with the make-up. After a couple of minutes while the woman waited for Lucy's sight to get back to normal so she could continue with the make-up, the trailer stopped and after a few more moments, the door was dragged open and the face of a staff popped out in their sight.
''Are you ready?"
The stylist answered telling him to wait a little longer. Lucy looked behind him and saw the other staff waiting under huge umbrellas while even further away, a huge group of people hiding under their hoods started yelling madly when their eyes met with the actress'. Fans. Lots of them.
"Look, it's Lucy! Lucy! Lucy! Look over here!" they screamed enthusiastically and Lucy couldn't help but notice they were mainly girls. Once again, she thought about how the movies she played in were really popular among girls but almost despised by males. Why? She considered for the thousandth time playing in more action movies. But then again, this fact couldn't make her wonder just how people would react when the new movie would come out. How will they react when instead of Lucy Heartfilia, Giselle will dominate the scene? For the first time, Lucy wasn't playing a minor role in a soap-opera. For the first time, she was playing Giselle, the girl that, despite the first impressions of being romantic, actually can't love.
To Lucy's surprise, that last conclusion she had drawn was completely wrong. Two hours later, she was taking the sixth break to get herself together because she couldn't pull out the role.
Yes, you heard that right. She couldn't pull out the one and only role in which she had to show her love. Giselle must've been a much better actress then the girl if she could look like she was in love and Lucy couldn't. She couldn't even look at her co-workers with the embarrassment of frustrating them for the sixth time for not being able to play Giselle. What in the world was happening with her?
She breathed in deeply trying to calm down and, again and again enter Giselle. She had to tell herself the story every time she felt like she couldn't do it.
My name is Giselle. I am 18 years old. I was raised inside the Hellerbough gates, born, grown and kept only for the purpose to kill. The only people that I know are my masters and the target that I have to murder. Thanks to the only consciousness that was left to be my own, I decided I can't take it any longer and ran away, carrying with me secrets that would bring me back dead if are to be found out. I met Peter, a man whom I can use and whom I have to make fall in love with me.
And this is where she loses course of the feelings, bringing her back to the reality of Lucy Heartfilia. It feels like some sort of short circuit inside the system that lightens up her character. When the word 'love' pops out, she finds herself not prepared.
She ruffled her hair frustrated and looked at Gray trying to picture him as Peter, trying to enter the Giselle mode without allowing herself to be tricked by that unknown feeling and be pushed away. She studied his raven hair and his dark eyes and wanted to make herself believe she loved them. But all she could feel was that they belonged to her dear friend. All those hours spent trying to read the people in love, her co-workers playing the main roles to a romantic film, or even those annoying commercials to shampoo in which he takes her hair gently and kisses it with love… Well, they didn't seem like they were paying off.
She had been aware of the fact that when 'love' appeared, she only lacked. And what was most frustrating was that she was impossibly dumb when it came to it. It somehow seemed inhuman how bad she was when it came to that kind of affection. Nobody could understand this about her. Even the group of fans who had jumped up and down enthusiastically a while ago were now waiting silently, not sure how to feel about the situation.
She rose up brutally and dusted herself with determination.
"Okay! I'm going to try one more time!" she hissed to herself and then screamed: "Let's do this!"
"Do your best, Lucy-sama!" a fan yelled being followed by others: "You can do it, Lucy-sama!"
She exited the protection of the big umbrella, approached Gray with big, heavy steps and the cameras turned on fast once the cameramen figured there was no reasoning with the new found determination. Lucy entered the Giselle mode so suddenly that Gray almost flinched. He also hurried to get ready for the scene and threw her a sad, longing expression.
''Giselle…'' he whispered hesitatingly.
Lucy looked deeply in his eyes, a little too robotic, lacking a real, necessary feeling, which met the director's reaction with a sigh. He decided to let it slip away so he could see what Lucy had prepared for them this time. The girl didn't stop her walk, which was now softer and unsecure. She tried to promise herself that Gray was more than a friend, that his eyes were making her taste such desires that she would just die if they were shut in a forever sleep. This presentation of love was a little off indeed, but this was the way a woman had described it to her once, which she never forgot. And even though this promise to herself seemed so real, she couldn't bring herself to believe it.
When she eventually got near him, the script told her she had to stop and look sadly, lovingly at him and then to throw herself in a hug, whispering to him one of her most bitter secrets and then start crying. Peter would hesitate but eventually decide that his love for her was too strong to abandon her. So he would kiss her and ask her to marry him.
But instead, to everybody's surprise, she hurried the course a little and did what nobody expected.
Gray dropped the black umbrella when he found out what she was about to do and the heavy rain started pouring on their heads. He widened his eyes honestly surprised but at the same time remaining in the skin on Peter.
Lucy wrapped her arms around his neck, rose on her toes and parted her lips the way she saw others do on the other side of the TV screen. Their lips touched and remained so for a while in front of the wide mouths of the staff. The director's jaw stood the lowest and not because of his height.
'Could this be…? COULD THIS BE IT?' he thought shocked, feeling his adrenaline and hope rise to the lever of bursting out in a squeal.
'Please let this be it! Please let me feel it!' Lucy thought at the edge of bursting out in the same sort of squeal.
And just when the staff watched amazed how everything had taken an unexpected turn of events, Lucy parted her lips from Gray's, both huffing softly, light steam exiting their mouths. She looked at him and had such a mild, sad look on her face, that the cameras couldn't let this moment escape and zoomed in to the point you could see the little shake in her eyes.
"Giselle…" Gray whispered, this time with surprise and delight.
"I love you…"Lucy whispered in his ear. And the staff's hearts skipped a beat only to start racing the next moment…
''… I think I do…" she then said out loud frowning confused. "I mean, for a moment there, I thought…''
A burst of sighs, groans and face-palms could be heard breaking free from among the staff and watchers and only then Lucy noticed how silent it had been a moment ago. The director moaned a "Cut" resting his forehead in his hand and not being able to understand how he had been able to actually hope for Lucy Heartfilia could pull out a role in which she was in love.
And then, the thought that everybody had was 'Don't ever let Lucy change the script when it comes to a love scene'.
Gray left to have a drink of water while the blonde couldn't put an end to the apology. "After all, I can't do it…" she cried desperately. "I'm sorry, director Makarov!"
"It's alright, it's alright. You'll pull it out somehow.''
But everybody knew this was impossibility.
"Why don't you take a break for now?"
"Again?" Lucy asked saddened and muttered "But I just took one a few minutes ago…"
The rain got heavier and the cameramen decided it was the most perfect moment either for the scene, either for a hot coffee back in the studio. Lucy begged them for five whole minutes to allow her to try it one more time, but they already started talking about how they would edit the previous scene and cut everything after Giselle whispers 'I love you' and replace the rest with something else. In the end they agreed to allow her to try something one more time, but obviously nobody had any interest left. Just when Gray's manager was about to tell him they were shooting the part after the kiss, a limousine pulled over close-by gathering the staff's attention. Gray seemed to recognize the car and grabbed the umbrella used in the film and ran over to the door in the back that was opening.
Lucy looked curiously at the person exiting the car opening a big umbrella before standing in front of Gray. She studied him shortly and couldn't help think she had seen him before. In her opinion, the only feature that stood out about him was that ridiculous pink, ruffled, hair. Well, she couldn't actually notice much due to the distance and the rain. She partly returned her attention towards the script while she got her make-up done for the fourth time that day.
Gray continued to talk to the mysterious man until they parted with a hug and he returned under the protection of one of the platform's huge umbrellas. The mysterious man threw a glimpse towards the group of fans taken by surprise with the sudden appearance and after he winked at them and waved, they began hysterically screaming and jumping up and down and for a whole half an hour they couldn't stop. Lucy felt a little jealous knowing that she had never gotten such a reaction from the audience and that only made her wonder just who the man was. When she had thought that he was going to leave after parting with Gray, she had been wrong. She watched surprised as he returned inside the limousine and then came out along with a tall woman under the same umbrella. They hurried towards the filming site and went under Gray's big umbrella.
Suddenly the script was of no interest to Lucy anymore.
She rose up ignoring the surprised stylist and hesitated before deciding to go to Gray. But just when she stepped into the rain, she stopped, watching wide-eyed how the director and the tall woman shake hands. This only made a huge question-mark rise from her head. What was going on?
She waited expecting director Makarov to yell at her to get back under the umbrella, but instead he sent her manager, a short young girl called Levy, to bring her the most devastating news. And suddenly she knew why nobody cared anymore if she got herself soaked or not.
She wasn't playing in the movie anymore.
Levy slapped her with the rolled script book with a frown on her face.
"Don't be such a drama queen! I said you're only not playing the part after the kiss!"
"And that means the entire rain scene!" she cried. "And they're letting a complete stranger play it instead of me! They're letting the manager of a pink haired creep play in a movie instead of me!" she blew her nose loudly.
''That's only because this is an opportunity! That manager looks a lot like you, you know? You didn't even see her and you're already crying!"
"Who's that creep anyway? Nobody knows him, nobody cares about his stupid manager!" Lucy continued crying as if she hadn't even heard her manager's words. Levy sighed and patted Lucy as the blonde started crying harder when seeing her reflection in a mirror. The fresh make-up was now all spread on her red face; the mascara befouled with black under her eyes had traced a black line down her cheeks. Before she would complain about this matter too, Levy hurried to prove her wrong.
"That's not true, you know? He's really popular. He's a singer."
"I don't know him, right? Then he's not that popular after all."
"That's because all you're interested in are movies and acting. You never listen to music other than the soundtracks to your own movies!"
"I'm a busy person, I don't have time to listen to music!"
"Well his music is really good, you know? Listen to it and you can only then comment."
"I hate it already!" Lucy cried harder burying her face into her handkerchief.
"Well it doesn't matter anymore, anyway." she continued. "I'm no longer a busy person, so I might as well listen to all the music and eat all the snacks I want until I get fat and lazy because nobody will care for what I become anyway. I'm just a boring actress that everybody has to deal with because I can't even play a dumb rain scene because I never loved anybody and nobody has ever loved me!"
"That's not true!"Levy screamed shocked. Lucy raised her face to look into her manager's eyes waiting to hear how it's not true that she's a bad actress and that her playing was actually good, or something like that. But what followed made her cry harder: "I love you!"
"See?" she asked, confusing the girl.
"Lucy?" Gray approached them shaking the water off his umbrella. "What's wrong?"
Levy could notice how the blonde's wiping tried to stop. Lucy turned her head away while saying harshly:
"Oh, as if you don't know."
"No, I don't. Are you angry because Hannah is going to play the role instead of you?"
"What do you think?" Lucy said bursting out crying again because hearing it coming from Gray's lips sounded so harsh in her ears.
"Are you kidding me? It's just, like, two minutes in the movie! And they're going to edit her face so that everybody will think it's you. They won't even guess that somebody else was playing your part. Hannah was nice enough to agree to that even though nobody's going to give her any credit and you're still crying as if you're some kind of victim!"
Lucy lowered her head sobbing. She was beginning to feel embarrassed with herself seeing things from that point of view.
"So stop your crying, sit up and watch and learn!" he said loud enough to get it in her head. He then made a pause to give her time to do so before sighing and saying: "I came here to tell you that we're shooting now and you might want to watch carefully a professional."
Lucy sniffed and looked up at him.
"A professional?"
Gray threw her an unforgiving stare.
"Hannah Elizabeth Feweek? Winner of Cannes Film Festival for three years in a row? How come you've never heard of her?"
Lucy's eyes widened to the point she couldn't blink and she stood up, turned on by new, unknown reasons.
"Wait, she's that Hannah?! She's my idol! I've wanted to reach her level ever since I began my career and now she's …" she suddenly gasped amazed, covering her mouth with her hands, staring at Gray and then staring in the direction of the woman "…And now she's going to play my ROLE! IT'S-"
She started running in the rain towards the other umbrella where Hannah was taking cover, while she continued yelling:
"-SUCH AN HONOR! I AM SO GLAD TO MEET YOU! THIS IS THE BIGGEST OPORTUNITY IN MY LIFE TO TELL YOU HOW MUCH-" she paused to breathe in and then continued normally shaking enthusiastically the startled woman's hand "I admire your work! I've been watching you ever since I was a child –because even if you were also a child, your talent was sublime- and you've always been my model at work and my source of inspiration and strength when things went bad and-"
Hannah watched the Lucy with red eyes and nose, the make-up spread on her face, glittering eyes and enthusiastic moves. She smiled taken so much by surprise that she wasn't even sure if all the praises were addressed to her or anybody else. Eventually, Lucy concluded:
"Oh, and I am so extremely sorry for only noticing now the situation! I'm sorry for not giving my regards any earlier."
And then she stopped as suddenly as she had started. As if she only just remembered how she must've looked, she ran back through the rain under her own umbrella.
"Oh dear, that must've surprised her. I hope I wasn't too pushy!" she exclaimed in front of Gray and Levy approached putting a jacket on the blonde's shoulders. "Thank you Levy. Oh dear, now that I remember, I must've said some really horrible things about her and the person she is a manager to. I wonder who he is, he must be a really important person if she is his manager. Oh, I bet it is so. He must be one of the greatest singers in this world. I think I'll listen to his music. If Hannah likes him, she must like his music and that means-"
Levy touched her softly making her flinch.
"Lucy." the blonde looked at her manager and seemed to only notice her then. "Calm down."
"Y-You're right, I should calm down."
She breathed in and out and massaged her temples while sitting down on her chair.
The stylist approached holding a hand of cosmetics. "Good, now let's fix that face of yours."
Back under Gray's umbrella, the pink haired singer was laughing while making fun of his manager.
"That was the weirdest thing I've ever seen."
"Stop it, Natsu. The poor girl was nervous and excited. You shouldn't make fun of her like that."
"I'm not making fun of her, I'm making fun of you." he chuckled. "And you shouldn't call her that. She's pretty popular herself, you know?"
"She is?" the woman asked truly surprised. "What is her name again?"
"Uh… Lucy Heartsomething." he muttered.
The woman snapped her fingers and then pointed at him.
"Heartfilia! It's Heartfilia, right?"
"Think so. How do you know?"
"She was on one of those TV shows about people starting from zero and raising to the point of being really popular. Well, don't tell anybody I said this, but she's still got a pretty long way to go. But assuming she began as a girl alone in the world with absolute zero support from anybody, I truly respect her for that. She's from an orphanage actually. It's really admirable."
"Wow, talk about an actor's memory. You remembered all that only thanks to a TV show?"
"Yes, thank you very much, but, um, hello? Didn't you hear the orphanage part?"
"Oh, I heard you." he replied with a fake smile. Hannah didn't continue and they just dropped the conversation leaving her wonder what he could be thinking about and what that cold atmosphere just now had been.
"Alright everyone!" the director called out lending Hannah the last few moments to look over the script after being told briefly the character of Giselle. "Get your bottoms on the set!"
The two newcomers – Hannah and Natsu, the singer- sweat-dropped while the rest of the actors and the staff didn't even notice anymore the weird way of addressing of Makarov. Gray and Hannah continued from the part in which she was having her arms around his neck, her lips whispering her love to his ears. She was told to suddenly turn her back to Peter and hesitate before telling him her darkest secret. Lucy didn't know this, so she just stared with her fists unconsciously clenching, wishing the best to her idol. She decided she would give her her entire attention so that she would learn directly from the woman's live talent.
The new Giselle whispered once more "I love you…", just to be sure. The way she had said it was so seducing that Gray found himself immediately caught in the grasp of her acting. He felt goose-bumps growing on his naked arms slowly surrounding her slim body in a hug. He smiled softly and was just about to say "I love you too" when Hannah's sublime acting took Gray and not Peter by surprise again. She pushed him softly and took a few quick steps away from him. Her head lowered and she took her hair behind her ears just the way she had noticed Lucy tended to do a lot.
Lucy was already aware of this fact so she noticed right away how Hannah was trying to get under the skin of Lucy and Giselle at once, assuming she was supposed to be Lucy playing Giselle, and not Hannah. And at the same time, Hannah proved her observation was sharper than expected. It only took Lucy half a second for her respect to grow considerably. Now she really wanted to become as good as this woman.
Hannah continued her acting. She stopped, hesitated and then spoke softly:
"But it doesn't matter anyway."
"Doesn't matter?" Peter asked with a confused frown.
"Can't you see, Peter?" she said turning around and threw him a pleading look. "We don't have a future. It doesn't matter how much I love you and how much I want to be with you, I just can't allow you to have a future with someone like me."
Peter approached her fast and caught her arm. "I don't understand. What do you mean? I love you, Giselle! I love you and nobody can do anything about that!" he said and then threw her a gentler look expressing his love not only through words but also through his touch and eyes.
"I want to be with you."
Peter leaned in to kiss her, but she threw herself at his chest, shutting her eyes as if in pain.
"Even if..!" she called out hesitatingly. "Even if you knew things about me that you wouldn't like?"
"Like what?" he asked grasping her thin waist and kissing her head, breathing in the scent of her shampoo.
The cameras zoomed in and caught Hannah's expression when her eyes suddenly turned so cold that you could feel the temperature drop a few degrees. She took advantage of him not being able to see her face and smiled softly, her smile devilish and cruel.
She approached his ear and in the sound of the rain her whisper could only be heard by him. Her lips move and Gray's eyes widen with shock. His immediate movements told everybody this wasn't his acting, but his own reaction to Hannah's words. He pushed her and stared at her fearfully, taking a few steps backwards.
Lucy frowned softly and couldn't help wonder what Hannah had said to him.
Peter turned his back upon Giselle and walked away holding his horrified face only to stop and walk towards her again.
"You're joking" he said staring with wide eyes in hers.
But looking at her face you knew she wasn't kidding. Even so, out of the blue, she smiled sweetly and let out a chuckle.
"Well, I wonder about that. You asked for an example, so I gave you an example."
Peter stared at her insecurely, looking as if he wanted to believe it was only just an example but somehow doubting it.
Suddenly, director Makarov shouted a "Cut" surprising everybody and then jumped off his chair and waved for the actors to approach him. Levy told Lucy to go as well. The three along with others walked under the umbrella and waited for an explanation.
"Director? Is something wrong?" Gray asked.
"No, no, child. Your acting was perfect. And so was Hannah's. Thank you for your help."
"Then…" Lucy asked with glittering eyes hoping for what was to come.
"Yes, I think it's time for you to enter the scene, Lucy."
The girl threw her arms in the air happily and ran over to her umbrella to grab the script only to realize nobody was following it anymore and returned. Everybody looked at her run around foolishly and some of them chuckled amused by her childishness. Levy threw them a glare because even though they had seen her act, nobody was taking Lucy seriously.
"Director" Gray asked the old man. "Why didn't you let Hannah continue?"
Hannah was paying attention to the happy Lucy and couldn't hear their conversation. After looking at her, Makarov replied simply:
"Lucy can manage the rest." He paused "And for what's to follow… I wonder if she couldn't manage it even better."
Gray looked at him with a curious frown and dropped the topic.
Hannah, was in reality very curious as to why the director had stopped her acting. She was never cut off while acting. She just pretended not to care and followed Lucy with her stare not expecting much from the childish blonde. She even told this to Natsu, leaning her head towards him:
"Honestly I look forwards to what's to come."
Natsu nodded shortly in return and they both fixed the young actress with their eyes.
Lucy skipped into the rain and Gray followed, looking for the exact same spot where he had stood and taking his place.
"And… action!"
The action board and the blonde's expression snapped at once. Once again drawn into the character of Giselle, Lucy's eyes looked blankly into Gray's, smiling creepily.
"Well…" she moaned approaching him with humdrum steps. She stopped a few centimeters away from him and fixed the collar of his long black coat, allowing her white fingers to fall over the surface of the rough fabric. Her narrow eyes then rolled up into his and they stood that way for a while.
"Whether or not you believe me is your problem after all."
He caught her waist in his tough arms again and looked accusingly down at her.
"Then I choose not to believe you."
"Even if it is the bare truth?"
A pause of silence fell over them and Lucy was glad she had to act strong but still regretful, and not lovely.
Hannah watched her facial expression attentively and kept telling herself: 'Yes, she's doing well, but I could've done the same, if not better'.
Director Makarov threw Lucy a glare. Lucy understood right away that he wasn't pleased. She had to do better than this. But why? Wasn't she doing great already? Only if… The blonde wondered once again how Giselle would be in this situation. Would she really try to win Peter's heart with kisses and declarations of war? Maybe she would win any other man's heart, but not Peter's. He was an unexpectedly smart man that wouldn't fall for a fugitive girl's seducing while he knew that all he had would benefit her well. Nobody smart enough would fall for that, no matter how beautiful the girl. So how would Giselle have to make him forgive her for her horrible sins? How would she make him go crazy for her even if she was so dangerous?
And then, an idea struck her head. Dangerous. Maybe this was the answer!
Hannah watched confused how Lucy had frozen and told herself that if the blonde was to really impress her, she would have to show an act of pleading, using all the gentleness and humbleness she was capable of using.
But even so, under everybody's eyes and especially under Gray's eyes, Lucy blinked lazily and approached him even more, smiling devilishly and for a second, the sparkle of madness appearing in her eyes, sending shivers to the ones watching them on the cameras' screens. Their faces were inches apart, but something told Gray he wasn't going to get kissed again.
"Even if it is the bare truth?" she asked again, this time almost chuckling creepily.
"Even if it is," Peter said talking a difficult decision to speak. "I choose not to believe you. Because I love you and-"
"And what?" she interrupted, glaring at him with disgust.
"And it's easier for you not to accept the truth?"
He looked at her with wide, shaking eyes. For what seemed to take forever, they stared at each other coldly, him fearing and her making him fear.
"But how could you, Giselle, "he suddenly began, taking her hands in his and kissing her cold wet fingers "…you, with these delicate fingers and these small hands that can't even cover mine… How could you kill someone…?"
Tears appeared in his eyes and you could read on his face his grimaced heart.
Giselle looked at him with blank, cold eyes.
"What, you think that it's about the hands that I can't end someone's life?" she asked taking his hand in her grip and placing it on her chest, making him feel the beatings of her heart. "It's about the heart, Peter."
"NO!" he yelled, breaking free from her touch. "No, you couldn't! Why would you do that?"
"See?" she spoke smirking. "You don't even know me, but you still dare to say you love me."
"But you couldn't have!" the tears were falling down his face. "Back then… you didn't even know how important she was for me. You didn't even know me…"
"But that doesn't wash away the fact that I did it, right?" she approached him daring him with her piercing eyes.
"You're lying." He suddenly fell down to his knees and his shoulders shuddered when he began crying for good. As if the weather could read his mood, the sky lightened up and a few seconds later a thunder beat the silence.
"You couldn't have killed my Ur…"
Lucy suddenly understood what Hannah had said to him. She knew that even though Ur didn't exist in the story, it could refer to someone dear to Peter that had died. She also knew that in the present, the one crying was now Peter, but Gray. She looked at him with pity and pain.
Ur was Gray's adoptive mother. Then the only surprise here was that Hannah knew the fact.
The next few minutes, all that could be heard was the rain and Gray's sobbing.
"Then can you see it, Peter?"
He kept silent.
"I'm not who you think I-"
"Why are you doing this to me?" he suddenly said taking her by surprise. She couldn't see his face but noticed the shade of harshness in his voice.
"You said you loved me. We both knew that all you had to do was hide these things from me. You could've only spoken a word and I would even die for you, but instead… You sound as if you don't want to be with me."
She kept silent for a while, and then spoke softly, almost motherly.
"And if I don't show you who I truly am… then who is the person that you are willing to love?"
The small camera that was slowly introduced under Gray's body facing the ground caught the expression of his face when he widened his eyes. As realization struck everybody on the set, this short explanation answering to their doubts regarding Lucy's off acting, Peter slowly lifted his head and his eyes found themselves caught in a soft, warm smile of Giselle's.
"You refused to see how cold my heart was in truth." She spoke lowly. "Now you know that you have fallen in love with the wrong person."
She let the words float in the air for a couple of moments and then turned around, preparing to leave with a bitter taste in her mouth. When her face was safe from Pater's sight, she let it grimace and the tears finally gather in her eyes. The feeling of loss, which she knew so well from her childhood, when she was left by her parents in a place where nobody would love her, overwhelmed her fiercely.
She was ready to run away and forget about everything, when she felt two strong arms catch her in an embrace. She widened her eyes. The cameras weren't missing a thing. Peter let his soaked head fall on her shoulder.
Lucy felt Gray's cold lips press heavily against her neck and she felt shivers going down her spine. In such a moment that took her by surprise, she desperately tried to hide her flinch and cheeks that were preparing to turn red. She pressed her lips together and held in a squeal of surprise. 'What in the world was that feeling?!' she thought freaked out. Hurrying to enter Giselle mode again, she tried to forget it.
But one of the cameras caught her reaction to the kiss and only one person seemed to notice anything special to it.
Natsu Dragneel, the singer, raised his eyebrows surprised to realize this person Lucy Heartfilia was more than not-acquainted to the word 'love'. This idea seemed to interest him more than the movie itself and he didn't even hear Hannah when the woman made a comment about Lucy's acting.
Everything happened in few seconds, so when Peter's lips parted with Giselle's white skin, she immediately opened her mouth to protest, when he interrupted her suddenly:
"Marry me."
Her eyes widened.
"Even if it is the bare truth that you… did what you did…" he paused "it is also a fact that I am in love with you and that I want to spend the rest of my life with you."
He kissed her heavily and then what followed was another short declaration of love and his oath to keep her safe and protected.
The rain scene eventually ended just when the rain ended and all the people present started clapping enthusiastically. Once again, Lucy Heartfilia had proven to them that she is talented, smart and quick thinking, giving a reason to all characters and their actions. On the other hand, Gray proved that he has a very soft and sensitive side and that in less than ten minutes, he can make a group of fans that had come to cheer another actor burst out crying touched.
Lucy was sent to have her clothes changed not to get a cold. But when she returned, she was greeted by congratulations from every side and even Hannah admitted that she was a tough opponent for any actress and that she wouldn't have thought of acting the same ingenious way. Even the director showed her a pleased smile and that weighted more than one hundred praises.
She was happy to have pulled the scene off somehow, even if not entirely. She failed when it came to love, but she excelled in all the others domains. And that was good enough for her.
The night eventually fell in and everybody was sent home with the taste of satisfaction to have completed a difficult task.
Lucy was the happiest of them all. She walked half way to her huge apartment along with her friends: Gray, the little Wendy, Cana, Levy and some other assistants that she was very fond of. It was a beautiful sunset and they all shared their same dream, to finish filming and for the movie to be a success. It was nice that they all had the same dream with every new movie they played in. It was actually the first time they all took part in the same film, so they tried to make it seem like an opportunity to spend more time together and have fun together instead of just work.
It was fun to be an actor. Stressful, indeed, but when they were all together like that, it seemed like a mere game of acting.
Lucy thought about all these things when she parted with them. She looked up at the dark, starry sky and wondered happily what could the next day be preparing for her. She was ready to take anything on! Challenges made her hungry, though, so she hurried home to eat.
She double checked the road in the light of the street lamps but she was alone. She took out her phone checking her mail while crossing the street. It was 9:34p.m. Her steps echoed in the silence.
She walked alongside a building. She then took a turn looking up from her screen to watch her step. Her apartment was a few meters away, just across that tiny street. Just a few minutes and she will be relaxing in the hot bath tub, surrounded by the perfumes of the soap and shampoo.
Out of the blue, she was fully taken by surprise when a black, short and narrow car cut her way just before she stepped down on the street. It braked so suddenly that she flinched and then froze. The door in the back opened and a hand came out, gripped her arm and pulled her, everything happening in a bare second. Her numb body didn't react to anything and only her heart was moving, beating like crazy. She found herself being pushed down on the seat and before she could protest, a hand pressed a white handkerchief against her mouth.
When she breathed in desperately, not being able to remove the hand, she felt her head heavy and dizzy and she was out before she could even realize what was happening to her.
The door had been shut and now the car was on the move. The person who had dragged Lucy placed her body in a better position while saying:
"President, are you sure this is alright? It's just an actress we are talking about."
The person sitting next to the driver tilted their head lightly while answering:
"An actress isn't an actress if she can't even act like she's in love." sounded a beautiful, manly voice.
"I don't see how anybody could learn to love at out training base." the other person replied doubtfully, but still with respect.
The person called 'president' grinned and from under the black guise covering his head, only a lock of salmon hair was revealed.
"Then I believe you will be surprised to see what I've prepared."