Chapter Two: Past

"Natsu?" Lucy's soft call came drifting through his cell, rousing him from another rough night's (or it could be day's) sleep. It was impossible to keep track of the passage of time here. There was no natural light that filtered into the prison; it was constant darkness. Natsu measured his time through sleeps. Lucy had been here for five of them.

Though proclaimed friends Lucy and Natsu didn't really talk as friends would. Things changed when left to squalor, or incarceration (both in their case). As nice as it would be, Natsu reflected, having a real friend here meant opening yourself to them, it meant attachment, it meant an ultimatum of grief. 'Friend' became a title for a home comfort, the privilege of having a familiar being close by. Lucy was a blanket, a fireplace, maybe a pet goldfish. Anything else and the word friend would become something more.

So the two mages had rarely conversed across the course of the five sleeps. They talked, yes, but they did not converse. The talking was more so talking at than talking to. They spoke of idle things, things that could never inspire much meaning or fondness, things like dusty corners where spiders spun their webs or the type of stone that built their dividing cell wall. Once Lucy had began to describe the texture of her bread and Natsu thought about how right she was as he ate (yes, it is like sawdust).

After wiping the tiredness from his dark rimmed eyes Natsu stifled a yawn to reply, "Yeah, Lucy?"

"Those two people who brought me here, " she began and Natsu couldn't help but be somewhat startled by the fact the topic wasn't the bug-life of her cell or the peculiar patterns mould formed across her ceiling. "Who are they?"

Natsu shrugged, in (at first) his failing to understand the purpose and worth of the question, but quickly realised Lucy could not see him. "Dunno... They're just the servants of the Lord. What else are they meant to be?" The question met a lack of response, so Natsu carried on talking – though he really couldn't help speculating over what Lucy meant. Who are they? "I heard the last ones got on his nerves so he ate their magic; I was never around for their rein though. These two new ones haven't done anything to upset him yet. They should get out of here while they still can."

"I see..." Lucy said, tone unreadable, and fell back against the wall. What had she expected him to answer with? Perhaps she wanted to hear him say that they weren't really evil enough to have brought her here, that they were being threatened into Teivel's service, that he was controlling them with magic, that maybe they didn't even exist at all and Lucy would wake up in a warm bed to find out that this place had only ever been a nightmare. It was a nice sentiment, a hope that had once been Natsu's, but it was also an impossible sentiment. This place was a nightmare, one that you could not wake up from.

There was silence between them for some time after that, which was something Natsu would normally let extend onwards (much more content to listen to Lucy's gentle breathing rather than to partake in the intimacy that was communication) but today, as hard as he willed it not to be, the silence just felt wrong.

"Hey, Lucy? How did they get you?"

"What?" Her intake of breath was so sharp the sound could have been mistaken for a knife cutting through the air.

Natsu felt embarrassed for even bringing it up (poor Lucy was most likely reliving the memory of her capture that very moment) and moreover he felt stupid for initiating a conversation in which Lucy may really change from goldfish to friend. "Teivel's servants I mean." he said quickly, lamely. "I just— you don't— you don't seem like the type of girl who would fall for one of their traps."

He had really gone and done it this time. Lucy remained in her state of silence and Natsu grew evermore insecure. Please answer, he wished, if only to not feel like such an awful person. Surprisingly, she did answer. She looked down at her bare feet, which had once been covered by sturdy knee-high boots, and distractedly picked at the sack-like gown she had been put in upon her arrival as she said, "Compassion. My compassion for fellow human beings is what got me caught. I thought—" Lucy cut herself off just as her voice began to turn thick with emotion. She let out a shaky breath and continued, "I thought I had none of that left, but I guess I was wrong."

He knew he was pushing his luck but, before he could stop himself, he found himself asking, "What happened?"

Again, Lucy surprised him by deciding to respond (he really thought she would choose to ignore him by now) and, with a certain severity, she sighed and said, "They got me when I was on a job. I'm a freelance mage."

"No guild?"

"Not yet." she replied. Natsu could almost hear the rueful smile in her voice. "I wandered, took on jobs, payment in money or shelter would do. A lot of the time I just had to rough it."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," and now Natsu was smiling ruefully too, "Camping under the stars is— was one of my favourite past times. Way better than here."

"You're right about that. I'd take the sleeping in the rain any day over this. Being here makes me wish I'd never ran away from ho—" She stopped herself short.

"What, you ran away?" Natsu asked incredulously, "Why?"

This time a hush fell over Lucy that was unlike any before. There was a peculiar tension about her, something fizzling in the air, a grim force Natsu could practically feel pushing against them. Quickly enough he retracted his previous question. "If you don't want to tell me I understand."

He thought that would be the end of it but then Lucy said "You really want to do this?" and Natsu would have wondered what she meant if it wasn't for that sad, regretfully hopeful, tone of voice.

His mouth ghosted a grin. "I asked you to be my friend, didn't I?"

"You did, and I said yes."

That settled it. No more goldfish.

Over the course of what must have been hours (though he had no real way to tell) Natsu listened intently as Lucy took him through her capture, which then turned into the tale of her childhood and those lost to her (dead and alive). She slowly spilled out details of her life that she had never told anyone before (which she made sure to reiterate again and again, laughing almost disbelievingly each time and was often accompanied by the shedding of tears). He gave words of comfort when he deemed it necessary, but he had never been the best with the more delicate social situations so mostly he kept quiet and just let her talk. She told him about her mother, how she died. Lucy had been so young, terribly young, but her description of that day was as vivid as if she had only just lived it.

She created the image of a building, a building that had once thrived in its grandeur and familiarity, turned to ash under the flames of a dark guild. They rushed her family's estate, slaughtered everyone, and left without a trace. In the chaos young Lucy was left to the Heartfilia's one remaining maid – take her to safety, hide in the forest – and Lucy's mother remained. Her body was later found in a ground floor guest bedroom, her celestial keys clutched in her lifeless hand and a charred picture of her daughter in the other.

Lucy's father got back from his business trip to find his wife dead, his home devastated and his daughter screaming in the arms of a traumatized maid on the rubbles of his doorstep. "He was angry for a while," Lucy explained, "then he was nothing, then there was only him and his work."

"I'm sorry." Natsu said.

"That's a silly thing to say..." Lucy said and paused in a moment of wistfulness before continuing in the same languor, "There's a point where you just can't play the part of an estranged daughter anymore. I packed my bags and left just under a year ago."

"That's when you became the freelance mage," assumed Natsu, "and when they caught you... You said something about compassion—"

"Yeah. Yeah, compassion," she answered quietly, bitterly, "They tricked me. I came across a man who said his daughter had been caught by a beast and taken to its cave. I went to help, got there, found the girl and she was fine. There was no beast, just a crying little girl. She ran up to me, hugged me, then aged and before I knew it I was pinned to the ground by a grown woman. The man appeared, took my keys and blindfolded me."

Natsu was at a loss for words. What was there to say? Yet, he felt that to not say anything and to let Lucy linger in her silent reflections was unwise. He spoke slowly, waiting (hoping) for the right words to form. "Lucy, I..."

"I was so stupid!" she spat, in a sudden ferocity, "They were villains, kidnappers. The guy seemed shady but I just wanted to help so badly. For once in my life I wanted to fix something."

But swiftly her tone changed, as Lucy seemed to only just realise the intensity of her own feelings, and without waiting for Natsu to comment she adopted an unbefitting cheery tone. "But don't worry about me, I'm tough. I can get through alright."

"You are brave." he told her earnestly, willing Lucy to see the truth in it. "Look at what you've faced, with compassion all the while. That is bravery. Really, you're just like my friends back at the guild."

"You're... You're in a guild?" Natsu was struck by how hollow Lucy's voice was. "Which one?"

"Fairy Tail." he answered her, though there was a feeling of anxiousness niggling at him. Something wasn't right. He felt that there had been a shift. In what he didn't know but the change had left a sense of absence, like a dried out puddle that could re-fill at any moment.

"You're in Fairy Tail?"

"Yeah... I am."

"Fancy the chances of me being cell neighbour to a member of my dream guild," She sounded like she was about to break into tears. "I would ask you to help me get in but then that would mean getting out of here. How about it Natsu, do you think I could be a Fairy?"

She was crying. He didn't need to be a dragon slayer to hear it. Lucy didn't try to restrain herself like when she had first arrived; she openly wept. "Hey now, come on," Natsu implored her, "Don't cry. Please."

All he could think was, don't let this place break you. "Lucy, please."

So many were broken here, those who screamed or whose eyes fell vacant. Some begged to have their magic taken, they clamoured at their cell bars until they were swept away for their long awaited death. Some tried to kill themselves. They bit their tongues, tossed food from their cells, ran at the walls. Lucy couldn't be one of the many whose spirit died before their body.

Natsu had created these tears, this pain. He should have never initiated the familiarity.

He dragged himself up from his position propped against the wall and turned to the stone, willing it to disappear. "Don't Lucy, don't."

"Let me cry, Natsu!" Lucy said shrilly, the sound a gunshot between her sobs. "Please just... Just let me cry."

And so he did, for a while. Natsu let Lucy lament, realising it was not a force to break her but instead something she needed. He sat in a hush until Lucy's wet dirge died down into raspy breaths. "You would be a good Fairy. One of the best."

She didn't respond, but he heard her still.

"Everyone would love you, honestly. You're just what Fairy Tail wants." When the silence continued, Natsu sighed and his thoughts turned to his guild, their passion and warmth. With the painful notion that he had never truly appreciated what he had at the time, he murmured (more to himself than Lucy) "One of the best..."

Edited 04.11.15