Skin Deep, Ice Cold

Summary: She's arrogant, and cold. He's awkward and shy. When Lucille Heartfilia struts down the walkway, Gray Fullbuster can't help but notice that she's beautiful, yet so grim - for there is a mask on her face, and ice in her heart.

Inspired by Skin Deep, Snow Cold by Kopai! I recommend you check it out if you ship Jack and Elsa from Frozen and Rise of the Guardians (ROTG).

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, and nor am I making profit off this.

Notes:

This may seem a little different at first. I am building up to her becoming a cold human being, and explaining her past.

The characters will be for the most part OOC.

This will definitely be a Lucy x someone? but for right now it is Gray. It will be either Natsu, or Gray that she ends up with. I haven't decided yet.

This is my first Fairy tail fan fiction. Most of my fan fictions were deleted off this site.

It might be weirdly formatted.

R&R Please. It makes me happy :)

Prologue (Part 1)

She always hated birds.
Soaring in the sky, they could fly away from the cage in where she was held, and all she could do was watch from the bars that were held on her windows.

Hate was a strong word for what she felt though – a better word to describe what she felt though was envy.
Envy because they were free, unlike she.

It's a prison, a maze, a hellhole – this place that holds her captive.
Gilded with fancy crowned ceilings, plated with gold fixtures, and adorned with masterpieces of art, it would seem anything less.

But there's another side to the palace in which she resides.
Deep inside the lair of her captor, lies the spiraling staircases into the dark unknown, locked rooms that hold horrors, and chilling screams of ghosts in the darkness.

She likes to believe that she is a princess.
In a sense she is one, but she knows that no princess would be neglected, caged and left to the darkness. After all, that's not what the fairytales say.

She wants to believe that she is escape.
But she knows, as long as her imprisoner is alive, there will be minions to guard her, servants to trap her in this endless spiral of life, and spirits to make sure she's locked.

Lucille Heartfilia is shackled princess, locked in a jeweled cage.

She can't remember when she was first locked up. She doesn't remember why she was locked up. All she knows is how she was first locked up.

Firm hands latched on to wrists, pulling her harshly to her rooms.

"Daddy? Why are you so mad at me? " a young Lucille cried, as tears streamed down her cheeks. Her wrists felt fractured from the force of her father's hands as they dragged her, and her legs and bottom burned being lugged on the carpets.

Her father's glare did not lower as he stared at his daughter, "You've been a bad girl, Lucille. You must learn your punishment." His heel turned and moments later, the door slammed shut in Lucille's face.

Close to her room, she heard her father instruct a servant, "Lock the door. Don't let her out, again." She could hear the scurries of the guards as they went to get the keys, and she knew that if her father's words were held, she would never leave the chamber in which she left. She ran to the door, and tried to open the down, but it wouldn't budge at all.

"Don't even try Lucille," her dad's cold voice scolded her, "You're not leaving until I find a way to rid of you in the most beneficial way possible." His strong build was pressed against the wooden door, holding the door from opening from the inside. Pounding of small fists resounded against the wooden doors, and screams of "Let me out, Daddy! Mommy! Tell Daddy to let me OUT!" were echoed out throughout the hall.

At the mention of his wife, Jude's expression turned murderous. "Don't mention that woman after what you did to her, Lucille. You have no right to talk about her."

Turning to the shivering servants in the hall, he roared, "Where is that key? How come you dimwits are taking this long to get a simple key?"

A male servant quickly approached Jude with a gold key, and handed it over to him. "Here you are, Lord Jude." His voice was hardened, and at no means sympathetic towards the little girl who now to be forever kept in her room. Jude snatched the key from the servant named Capricorn and continued on with his actions.

Pressing the key into the hole, Jude locked the door forever, ignoring his daughter's crying pleas and screams of agony. As he left the filled corridor, he addressed the servants, "No one is to enter that room, and let her out. The one who does will suffer the same fate."

With his presence gone, the servants cleared up – horrified at Jude for his actions and threats and sympathetic and saddened for the fate that Lucy would suffer. But no one ever tried to get her out, too fearful of Jude's threat becoming true.

And from that moment forward, Lucy, well she was the prisoner of her father.

And on that date, July 8th X777, Lucy's heart of gold, cracked and broke.

Lucy does however remember the next few years, to be precise 9 years, 3 months, and 15 days.

To what she can describe, it's all a pure clockwork hell.

A servant named Virgo opens her door at 8:30 every morning, bringing her a tray filled with her breakfast. It's different every morning but it's normally just a bland mixture of oat meal, an apple, and one measly serving of watered down orange juice. She normally just takes a bite of the oat meal, eats the apple, and takes a sip of the juice. She knocks on the door for Virgo collect it, and at 9, her door is opened and the tray is whisked away.

A stack of papers and books is appears where the gone tray is, along with a bunch or writing utensils. It reveals itself to be Jude's lesson plan on what she should teach herself for the day. It's normally takes up the whole morning to do, but she gets through it without many struggles.

At noon, when the clock chimes 12 times, a servant opens her door, just to bring her lunch. It varies depending on the day, but mostly consists of a crudely made sandwich, a glass of milk, and a piece of fruit. She eats half the sandwich, drinks the whole glass of milk, and eats the most of the fruit.

The afternoons are allotted to more school work, and two hours of free time. The school work appears in the lunch's stead, just like in the morning, and Lucille herself requests for supplies for what she plans to do in her recreational time. Once she finishes her school work, she opens up her journal, where she writes her daily thoughts and activities. There isn't much to keep track of, since her schedule is the same every day. So instead she writes down the days she's spent in the bedroom, and how she wishes to escape to find some place better.

Dinner arrives at 6 o'clock sharp. Once again, it's a simplistic meal – some bread, vegetables, a glass of water, and small serving of fruit. Lucy gingerly eats almost everything on the plate, before returning it to the front door of her bedroom.

She spends the next few hours doing whatever she wants. Sometimes, she reads some books, sometimes she sleeps, and sometimes she continues to write. After doing whatever she wants, she takes a shower and prepares to go to bed. Virgo knocks on her door at 10:00 signaling bed time, and Lucy closes her lights and rests in bed thinking and rolling around.

She can't help but think about how lonely she is. She can't help but think about when the last time she spoke to someone was. She can't help but think about why she's here.

She can't help but wish for someone to save her. Save her from the past, the present, and the future.

And so she dreams.

She dreams of Greece, a place that she's never seen, but she's heard of.

She dreams of white stone buildings with beautiful architecture, and stone walkways. She dreams of open sea and sandy beaches. She dreams of freedom.

She's heard of the stories and myths that come from here, and compares herself to Daedalus in the Labyrinth.

She's read about him in The Key to the Starry Sky by Will Neville, where Neville writes about how a harsh king traps an inventor and his son in a tower called the Tower of Heaven. He writes about how he's locked in the maze with the Minotaur to make sure he doesn't escape. But in the eye, he makes his own wings and he and his son fly to freedom. Though he makes it to freedom, his son dies.

She compares this to her life and realizes that they are similar. The king is her dad, the tower of heaven is her room, and Daedalus is her. The Minotaur are her servants, and maze is the mansion in which she lives in.

But there are differences between them. He gets to escape, he has some to talk to, and he builds his own freedom. He has a partner who helps him escape, but who is this partner in her life?

And so every time Lucille dreams about freedom (which is pretty often), she dreams of a figure with pink hair helping her out. But every time Lucy escapes, she leaves the figure behind, and she hears the person's screams of help as the King punishes them for letting Lucy escape.

(AN: This is the dream that she has that night, and also often)

"Hurry up, Lady Lucille, the guards will be here anytime now," a monotone voice urges the blonde. "The King has been putting extra measures out when he learned of our plan."

"Are the wings ready?" Lucille asked as she puts on the harness around her silk toga.

The figure hands over one set of wings to Lucy– a bronze frame of wire with feathers waxed into place. Lucy takes the wings and hooks them onto the harness. She tests out the mechanical wings, and then helps her companion with their harness. Before Lucille has any time to put on the wings, she hears the pounding of guards at the door.

"Open this door at this instant!" Lucille hear the king yell. "Come out or we'll storm in! You're not leaving this tower! You will be forever in my possession!"

"Lady Lucille, you must go. I will take care of this," the figure takes off her hood – and faces Lucy. "Please do not let my actions be in vain, Lucy. You must flee."

Lucy looked in awe at the figure. "Virgo… don't do this. We can escape together! I won't let anything happen to you. You've been my only companion these past 9 years. Who else was there for me when you weren't?

Virgo, Lucille's companion, looked at Lucy. She was had tears in her eyes, as she reached forward to hug Lucy. "I'll miss you Lady Lucy. But you must go… Please My Lady!"

Lucy wanted to stay there with Virgo, but the desperation in Virgo's eyes for Lucy to escape made Lucy hesitate. "I'm sorry, Virgo," Lucy said. "I hope we meet again."

Running towards the balcony in a sprint, Lucy slowly glided upwards with her wings. She reached a soaring altitude and gazed at what was below her. A magnificent jeweled palace was at her bottom, with an open maze and tower in the center of the courtyard. It would have been a beautiful place if she had not firsthand experienced the horrors that were located there.

Lucy continued to flap the mechanic wings, with the wind carrying her as she drifted across the sky. She saw hordes of men go into the tower, most likely to get them to not escape. She feared for Virgo, but continued to move on, hoping that Virgo's sacrifice would not be in vain.

As she drifted, she heard a blood curdling scream belonging to Virgo. By now tears wear dripping down Lucy's face. Tears of euphoria, yet tears of sadness. Tears of happiness because she had gotten out of the tower, but tears of sadness for her friend. '

For what seemed like eons, Lucy continued to glide in the sky. She had long made it past the island of her isolation, but she was nearing the mainland – the true land of freedom. She began her descent to the sandy cliffs of Greece, and soon enough she had landed. And when she landed, she realized that she was truly free.

She had flown out of the cage.

(AN:End of the Dream)

Lucy woke up the next morning, screaming. Tears where flowing down her cheeks from her dream last night.

Virgo unlocked the door, and peaked her head in. "Bad dream, hime?"

Lucy nodded her head. Tears still were streaming down her face.

"Was it the same dream, hime?" Virgo questioned her. "The Daedalus dream where you escaped, and left me behind?"

Lucy nodded her head again, and Virgo walked forwards to Lucy, and began to caress her head. "It's okay, hime. It will be alright."

Lucy choked and held back any further tears; Virgo was the only one who understood her pain, and had taken care of her all this time. Virgo smiled somberly, as she began to hold Lucy in her embrace.

"It's almost 8:30, hime. I'll get breakfast okay?" Virgo excused herself, and went to get the tray of food, and then placed it on Lucy's bed stand.

"Thank you, Virgo." Lucy acknowledged her. "Thank you for always being there for me, and thank you for taking care of me."

As Virgo left her room, Lucy smiled a tiny smile, and said, "Thanks for being my friend, Virgo."

Virgo smiled at the girl, and walked out the bedroom. Many things were going through her brain, but one thought especially echoed.

As she closed the door to Lucille's room, she whisper, "I'll make your dream true Lucy. I want you to experience true freedom."

And so the caged princess waited in her cage, wishing to be granted her wings. She wished to fly and leave her cage, and experience the true world.

And someone was building her wings, they were almost completed. And little did the little girl know that her life was about to change.

End:

Dear Reader,

I hope this make sense first. I'm very sorry if I was very ambiguous or just overly descriptive with my pronoun usage or description. It's still early in my fan fiction writing, and this is only the first part of the prologue.

But Please do enjoy, and wait for the other parts of the prologue and main story!

Also, rate and review please. It makes me happy and might actually speed up the writing/uploading time.

Sam