A/N: I've yet to write for this pairing… I guess it's about time I did.

Chapter 525 spoilers, sorta. I guess. I wrote this the day the chapter came out, so… There's that. And even though I read chapter 526 before posting this... I'm not changing it. So, the "big reveal" and anything that happened in that chapter is not discussed in this story.

Restless
Larcade x Lucy
Rated T/M

He knew this feeling all too well, and though his magic had the ability to end the uncomfortable shifting across soft blue sheets in the darkened room, Larcade did nothing. He'd learned that it wasn't his place to do things like that unless she asked him to.

With his father gone and the war between their countries finished, Larcade had been alone. He'd tried so hard to be just who Zeref wanted, had sacrificed everything, even his own body, for his father's goal. And in the end, it was the lighter side of himself that had won out in the form of pale blonde hair and wide, calculating green eyes.

He could see how his father had fallen in love with her though. Mavis was beautiful, the embodiment of everything good in this world. She was everything Zeref wasn't.

A soft sigh brushed across his chest. His eyes opened to gaze down at the woman who had rolled to be closer to his warmth. She was the reason he had a place to call home now. A Celestial mage, of all things.

He didn't want to remember the end of the war, watching Natsu rip Zeref apart through a small gap in the pink wool surrounding him. He didn't want to think about the breathless moments he'd waited for his own uncle to fall over dead as well. But he'd seen it in his father's onyx eyes - the fact that they'd shifted back to that deep color instead of the deadly red they'd been before was telling enough - that sheer joy at Natsu's success.

Larcade hadn't known Zeref wanted to die all this time.

"Natsu… why are you in my bed?"

He found a smile lifting his lips only slightly at the tired grumble. "Not Natsu," he whispered. She tensed for only a moment, then seemed to recognize his voice and let her body melt against him.

"Why do you do this?" he asked.

"I sleep because I'm human," she smiled. Her eyes stayed closed. "And you should get some rest, too."

"I mean this," he said. His arm slid across her waist and he drew her closer. It wasn't that Larcade didn't understand the concept of holding another person. He did. He knew why people did it and the mechanics behind it. And she knew that he wanted to know why she did this with him.

"Because of who your family is," she said. Her arm wrapped around him in turn, slender fingers glided effortlessly up his spine.

"I don't understand."

"First told me, when I offered to let you stay here, that Zeref probably didn't show you much in the way of affection."

"... No, he didn't."

"Something so simple," she sighed. He was still and silent while she shifted higher so they shared the pillow and she could look into his eyes. "Comfort, Larcade. It's about being there for someone else. You love friendship, and now you're in Fairy Tail. But you still have a lot to learn."

He was fully aware of that. Just as he knew part of the reason he'd been sent to live with Lucy was so that his uncle - who had miraculously not crept into her room that night - could keep an eye on him. He didn't fault the guild for not trusting him. He would have done the same thing, had their roles been reversed.

He didn't flinch when her hand lifted and her fingers brushed across his cheek, as he had the first time she'd tried touching him. He let her move his head down to rest just beneath her collarbone.

"Can I just hold you?" she whispered.

"Why?"

She smiled and nestled her nose in his hair while he shifted to get more comfortable. He could hear the slow, steady beat of her heart, her even breaths. He tried not to shiver when her nails danced along his scalp. "Because that's what friends do," she whispered. "We take care of each other."

"And we're friends?"

"I'd like to think so," she laughed. "It's time to think about our next adventure though. I know Mavis told you that Fairy Tail is an adventure. And it is. We're all family, and we're all friends. We're nakama, Larcade, and that includes you."

Sometimes he wondered - though it happened much more often now that he had been with Fairy Tail for the past week - why he couldn't have been raised by his mother instead. He wondered how different things would have been if he'd felt love from those around him, and not just the fear of his power and cold disdain from his father.

Larcade had grown up loving Zeref with everything he had. He'd grown up hating the salmon-haired man who he'd believed was his uncle, all because he'd thought he would never be able to get out from beneath Natsu's shadow. But he'd been wrong, to a point. And it had taken being beaten into the ground by the man who had raised him to see the that.

"Don't get in my way."

Larcade tumbled out of the guild, feeling each step and stone his body crashed into. When he finally stopped, lying in a helpless mass on the ground just beneath the archway leading to Fairy Tail, he could hardly see. The pain of his father's attack was too great. The hole blown through his chest bled too heavily.

This was where it all ended for him. "F-Father," he whimpered. He could still be useful. He could still help. He'd crawled just to get here, and if he had to do it again, he would.

As long as he could help to finally rid the world of his uncle, then no one could stop them. Fairy Heart could be used to set them all free. His head lifted and his vision wavered on the open doors to Fairy Tail. Blackness clouded in around the edges, but he wouldn't stop trying. He would never stop trying to show that he was worth so much more than Natsu.

The ground rumbled beneath him, but Larcade simply held an arm around his bleeding chest to keep himself intact. He cried out in agony when he finally found enough purchase to slide forward, the dust and loose stones scraping viciously along his wound.

"Father, please," he whispered, his head dropping to the ground while he fought back tears. "Please let me…"

Thudding footsteps drew closer. Several shot past him, seemingly unaware of his presence. When Larcade looked up, his blurred gaze fell on a small woman with little white feathered adornments in her pale blonde hair, running barefoot up the steps. Closer to his father. Closer to the fire raging within the building that must have come from Natsu.

"N-No," he sniffled. Larcade tried to move again, faster this time, and coughed out a mouthful of blood. "Don't hurt him… I-I'm supposed to…"

"Oh my god…" Soft hands brushed across his shoulders and he felt someone drop to their knees beside him. Flashes of gold surrounded them, but Larcade didn't care as the lights dissipated.

"F-Father," he whimpered, shaking the hands away and trying to move again. But his legs trembled. He couldn't lift his head any longer. "Let me h-help… I can s-still…"

"Just stop moving, okay? Loke, you know the plan. Take Capricorn and Taurus with you. Gemini, I need you to turn into Wendy."

"Princess, I don't think-"

"Now!" she shouted. "Loke, we'll deal with it later. Natsu and Gray need you!"

"He's one of them!" Loke shot back.

"And he doesn't deserve to die! Loke, please! I'll be there in a minute."

"Piri-piri!" Twin, high-pitched voices swirled just in front of Larcade's face, and his eyes opened to see two small blue humanoid beings hovering before him. They touched his battered, sweaty cheek, and he frowned at the sight of them merging together, melding and shifting until his own face stared down at him.

"Larcade Dragneel," said the Other Larcade. It sounded just like him. "Son of Zeref Dragneel and Mavis Vermillion. Spriggan 12. Magic dealing with pleasure. Jealous of Natsu, and wants him dead. Wishes his father would see that he's powerful. Thinks-"

"Gemini, that's enough. Please, change into Wendy so you can heal him."

He'd never seen a look of confusion on his face before, but with this spirit mimicking him, Larcade could see it all. Petulance, narrowed eyes and a small pout. And then, in an instant, the spirit poofed into a small girl with deep blue pigtails.

"Lucy, I don't like this," the spirit said, no longer sounding like him.

Larcade groaned as two sets of hands carefully rolled him onto his back. He didn't realize the tears he'd tried to hold back were easily streaming down his face when he looked up at the sky filled with smoke.

"It's okay, Gemini," Lucy said. Her fingers sifted through Larcade's hair, a gentle touch that he shied away from. "If he's Master Mavis' son, then he can't be all bad."

His tired orange eyes turned toward the sound of her voice. "Wh-What would you know about that?" he coughed.

"Nothing, really," she laughed. "Let me help you, Larcade."

She surprised him by bringing his dirty, bloody hand up and clasping hers around it while her spirit sent warm, healing magic into him. Even though he could hear the battle raging in the guild, felt the earth quaking under the magic flying around so close to them, the blonde woman holding his hand didn't seem to be fazed by it. She simply stared down at him with her soulful doe eyes.

"Who did this to you?" she whispered.

"My father." He wasn't sure why her eyes went wide in horror, why she looked from his face to the injury her spirit was healing, then over to the guild. "I… got in his way."

"That's no way to treat your child," she said. "I hope they kill that bastard."

Cold fury leaked from deep within his soul and strengthened his grip on her hands. Her eyes cut back down to him. If he could have, Larcade would have lunged for her, taken her to the ground and subjected her to the worst torture imaginable. Except he still couldn't move. "Don't talk about him that way."

"You love him," she said, her head tilting to the side, "Even though he can never love you back?"

He stayed silent, still trying to find the strength to move away from her when the front of Fairy Tail was blown away by a bright flash of ice and fire and light.

"Princess, run!" Capricorn shouted.

"Lucy, get away from here!" Loke yelled.

Lucy's eyes went wide as a black, ominous cloud surged up into the sky. "What is that?"

"That would be my father," Larcade said. His eyes closed and a slow smile curled his lips. "It seems this fight is finished. No one will survive this."

"Luce, you stay safe!" Natsu roared. "Zeref, don't you bring them into this!"

Lucy gasped and closed Gemini's gate, then wrapped her arms around Larcade and rolled him away from the spot he'd collapsed just before the black cloud could decimate them both. He groaned while they continued rolling, her body over his, pulling him across her again. Over and over until he was pinned to a wall and her smaller body was pressed against him as a shield.

"What are you doing?"

"Protecting you," she panted. He stared as she pulled away from him and stood with her whip uncoiled and snapping across the ground.

"Why?"

She singled out a key and he watched her clothes change to black and white tights and with a short wool dress. Twin ram horns sprouted just above her ears. Her hands lifted and layers upon layers of fluffy, pink wool surrounded them in a dome. Finally, she looked over her shoulder and smiled down at him. "Because that's what Fairy Tail does," Lucy said. "We protect the ones who are precious to us. And we never stop fighting until the end!"

"... Precious?"

"Lucy?" he whispered, shifting where he laid on her breast to look up at her tired brown eyes.

"Hm?"

"Why am I precious to you?" He could still remember so clearly the day they'd met, when she'd saved his life even though he'd been her enemy. Nearly a year had gone by since then.

She smiled and brought her lips to his, guiding his hand from its place on her hip to the barely showing bulge in her belly. "Because you love me," she said. "You love us."

"Why was I precious to you before?" He pushed beneath her nightgown and gently caressed her thigh, hip, then stomach. "When you didn't know me…"

"You're thinking about the day he died again?" He nodded, letting out a quiet sigh when he was pulled to her chest once more. "I guess I saw a little of myself in your eyes," she said. "Wanting love, acceptance. You never had that chance because of Zeref, but I knew that if you could see the truth about us, you'd realize that it was possible for you too."

"You're precious to me, too," he said. His lips puckered just above her breasts, slowly gliding lower and pushing the soft fabric down with his chin.

"This is why I'm pregnant," she giggled. "You're hopeless."

Larcade smiled, letting his nose brush one way and another across her silken skin. "You make my restless nights bearable," he whispered, sending goosebumps across her flesh. "You see the good in me, even when no one else does. You'll always be precious to me, Lucy." He settled between her legs, sighing as her fingers mapped out every muscle on his back, from his shoulders to his hips. "Would you rather I use my magic instead?"

She whimpered when his lips captured hers and his fingers skittered along her outer thigh. "No," she gasped, breaking away from the kiss before his tongue could slither out to take away her senses. "Not this time."

"Later, then?" he smirked.

Her fingers anchored against his scalp and a breathy laugh spilled past her lips. "Later," she whispered. "You pervert."

"I can accept that."

.The End.