Chapter 5 finally! December has come, dearies, and that means this story is back on tracks! I'm sorry for the month with no updates, but NaNoWriMo is already hard as it is, so there was no way I could write new thing for it.
Anyways, I hope you guys like this chapter!
Disclaimer: FT belongs to Mashima-sensei.
The Thirteen Keys
Chapter V – Enters the Dragon
Lucy sat quietly on a table on the guild's second floor, looking down to the children playing on the first. Erza, Jellal, Sho and Miliana. The Strauss' siblings had also already arrived, and Erza and Mirajane became instantly rivals – just like Lucy remembered Natsu and Gray being. Cana had also joined, after her mother passed away. And there was Laxus, that was now pretending to be all superior and such, but actually just loved to play with the rest of them. The Shadow Gear team had also showed up on their doorstep one bright sunny day, crying and hungry, claiming that they had no one else to go, but were already learning how to deal with their magic. Lucy immediately fell in love with child Levy.
Twelve children filling the guild with laughter and screams. Lucy felt an utmost happiness, as if all her wishes had come true. Yes, she still had some business to attend to, but those would take a little bit more time.
"Why aren't you downstairs playing with them?" Sara's voice suddenly asked.
Lucy turned to face her friend, smiling tenderly at her.
"Well, we already take care of all of them in the Hills, so I guess I was in desperate need of peace and a drink."
She raised her glass of vodka with lemon to Sara, making her laugh.
"Okay, I totally understand that. I had one kid, you know. I sure wasn't ready to take care of twelve."
"And soon the boys will have to live on their own quarters. That makes me a little sad."
"Don't. We'll have to go check on them anyways."
Lucy chuckled.
"Yes, I guess you are right. It is a nice job, though. And Master actually pays us, so…"
"Absolutely! That's the good part of it all! Planning on bringing any other kids to the mess?"
"Actually…"
"Oh, no. I was just kidding, I take it back, I take it back!"
Lucy laughed hard at Sara fake despaired face.
"There are some other children I'll eventually go find. But it will be even more difficult with them. I'll have to really search them in this vast world of ours, and it definitely won't be easy."
"How many more, Lucy?"
"Three. And there are also two other, but they belong in another guild."
Sara didn't say anything. She knew Lucy was, somehow, especial. She couldn't tell exactly what was going on, but it was already pretty obvious Lucy knew more than the ordinary mages of Fairy Tail. It was like she could foresee what was to come their way.
"Will you ever tell me how do you know all this?"
Lucy looked at her with guilt on her warm eyes.
"I'm sorry, Sara, but I really can't explain it. I wish I could, but Master told me not to."
Sara sighed.
"Well, I guess if he knows it, its fine." Then, she smiled. "I really like you, Lucy. I feel I can trust you all the way down to your core. It feels like you were always part of the family, even when you were not here."
"Thank you, Sara, it means a lot to me."
Just as Lucy gave another gulp of her drink, a pink hurricane appeared to enter the guild hall, immediately picking up a fight with Laxus. Lucy was paralyzed for a moment, and tears started to form on the corner of her eyes.
"Hey, who is that one? Do you know him, Lucy?"
She just nodded, but Sara saw the tears and decided not to purchase the issue any further. Instead, she stormed downstairs, picking the boy by his strange scaley scarf.
"Hey, brat, do you think you can just walk into someone else's home causing such a ruckus without being invited? You better apologize, mister, or you will have to get your sorry ass out of here."
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, no need to hit me, oba-chan!"
Sara tried not to be even more infuriated with him for calling her "aunt". Who did he think he was?
"Come on, Sara, don't be cruel to the kid." Master Makarov asked her, a smile on his face. "So, who are you, little brat?"
"My name is Natsu Dragneel, I'm Igneel's son!"
"And who is this Igneel?" Makarov asked.
"He is a dragon, of course! But he disappeared some weeks ago, and I just can't find him anywhere! So I was looking and looking, and then I heard a lot of kids playing and decided I also wanted to!"
"So, Natsu, do you want to stay here with us?" Makarov offered, Lucy having already told him everything he needed to know about dragons and their slayers. "We can try and help you find your father."
Natsu raised an eyebrow.
"But how could you help me?"
"Well, we are a mage's guild, you know. We are Fairy Tail."
"Really? Cool! I didn't know! Now I'm all fired up!"
Lucy tried not to let her sobs be heard when he finished that sentence. So, Natsu said "I'm all fired up" ever since he was ten years old? It was so adorable, and still she couldn't help remembering her Natsu, the one that actually knew who she was, the one that kissed her before she said her final goodbye. Oh, stars, she still loved him as if not one day had passed.
"So, I get to have a mark too? That's just so cool!"
Makarov laughed.
"How do you want it, Natsu?"
"Red, of course! On my left arm."
Sara's blue eyes widened in shock. Red, in the left arm? Wasn't that exactly like Lucy's tattoo? And she was indeed crying when Sara left her upstairs.
"Master." She whispered to him, after he had already placed the magic symbol on Natsu's arm.
"Yes, Sara?"
"Do you allow Lucy to tell me some things? She is in real need of someone to talk to, you know. When this kid entered here, she started crying immediately. I know she is different, that she has some kind of power of something, but I also know she feels very lonely."
Makarov just nodded.
"Sure, of course. Go tell her she can confide in you if that's what she wants. You are the mother of my grandson after all."
"Thank you, Master."
She ran upstairs and took Lucy by the hand, pulling her outside the building to a quiet bench near Magnolia's commercial centre. She was sure they would look like crazy girls running down the streets, but she could care less.
"Okay, now spill it. Master gave me his permission."
Lucy was still crying, but tried to control her voice the best she could.
"I'm sorry for worrying you. I didn't think I…"
"Oh, shut up. That's what I'm here for! We are friends, right? You help me with so many things! And I just noticed I never helped you. Like ever! That's just so unfair! So spill it, who is that boy?"
Lucy wiped her tears, breathing deeply to control them.
"It will be a lot to assimilate, okay, Sara? Are you ready?"
"Just shoot it, girl."
"I come from the future. I joined Fairy Tail originally in x784. Erza, Mirajane, Natsu, Cana, they were all seventeen or eighteen by the time. A lot happened back there, and I was forced to go back, since it was the only way to destroy a very dangerous portal that would bring a hundred dragons to this world."
Sara was initially shocked, but then she started laughing.
"Oh, fairies! This is so exactly like Fairy Tail I can't even doubt your word. So, you were forced to leave your loved one behind?"
"Yes, it was the price I had to pay for them to have another shot at life. My time is frozen as well, I will never grow any older – I'll be forever eighteen. So I promised myself I would make everyone's life easier. Erza, Jellal and Cana were the most important missions for me. I saw their suffering up close and I loathed it. Now they are happy, and know they will be forever, because they are together. Erza will always have Jellal, and Cana will have Guildarts since childhood. And for me… that's everything I can possibly want."
Sara couldn't help herself. She hugged Lucy tightly. Lucy, taken aback, took a few seconds to hug her back, enjoying the warmth.
"That's very noble and beautiful, Lucy. I'm so sorry it came to this for you."
"It's okay. I've been around for a long time now. I'm getting used to it. Plus, I didn't come alone. A friend joined me. Yukino."
"I'm glad to hear. But what about Natsu, Lucy? Who was him to you?"
Her tears intensified once again.
"I love him. I had loved him for so long, but never found a right moment to tell him that. I thought he wasn't interested, you know? Finding Igneel was his only obsession ever since he lost his father, and everyone knew he had no other goal in life. So, I never told him anything. But in the end, he didn't want to let me go. And he kissed me before I did. It was our first kiss. But also the last one."
Sara caressed Lucy's hair lovingly. She couldn't even imagine how Lucy was feeling.
"Do Natsu need your help in this time too?" she asked in a whisper.
"No, not directly. And I don't intend to stay around him once he is grown up. I wouldn't be able to take it."
"And what would you do, Lucy?"
"There are two boys that really need mine and Yukino's help. They are Dragon Slayers as well, but ended up in a guild that raised them to be ruthless and cruel. Yukino was also a part of this guild in the past, and she is already working on making it better before it actually turns bad."
"What you two are doing, Lucy, is priceless. You have to know that."
Lucy smiled.
"Is the one thing that keeps me going, Sara. To know I really helped them is really all I have to believe on tomorrow."
"You'll make it, I'm sure. And do what you have to. When the time comes, I'll help keep grown up Natsu away from you. After all, you will be way too old for him, anyways."
Lucy chuckled.
"Thanks, Sara."
Sara smiled to her.
"Just out of curiosity, what happened to me, in this future you lived?"
"Oh, Sara, I don't know if it's a good idea."
"I knew it! You never met me before, did you? I was dead before you joined the guild."
"I-"
"Don't try to deny it, I know already. That day you saved me from Ivan, I would definitely be killed otherwise."
Lucy sighed, her eyes heavy with sadness.
"Besides, it always seemed like you've know Laxus all along, although I never felt this way about you and me. Laxus liked you in the minute he saw you, even though he was just a small baby."
"I'm sorry, Sara."
"Don't be. You saved me this time around, that's all that matter. I pity future Sara, though, for not being able to raise her child. I bet Laxus grew up a jerk without me."
Lucy laughed.
"Yes, he did! You just have no idea. He got himself kicked out of the guild for it."
"Ha! I knew it. That idiot did inherit some nasty traits from his sorry excuse of a father, after all. But don't you worry, he won't turn out the same now."
"I know he won't. He has you now. That was the most awesome surprise I had here. I didn't even think I would be able to meet Laxus' mother, and when I managed to change what was to happen to you… It was one of the best moments ever."
"You're such a sweetheart!" Sara teased her. "But I'm really glad you appeared her to us, Lucy. And I really hope you will find true happiness one day."
"Thank you."
Natsu was waiting impatiently for the two women to return. He had heard and smelled the tears on the eyes of the pretty lady when he walked in, and he never liked to see anyone crying. Crying was a very bad thing, since it meant the person doing it was sad.
He had cried when he realized Igneel was gone, and it felt pretty awful to him. He didn't' wish it for anybody else, not even if he grew to really hate someone. Crying was no good at all!
Finally, he spotted the two coming towards the guild. He rushed to them, and grabbed the crying girl on the hand.
"Hey, onee-san, are you alright now?"
Lucy took a deep breath before kneeling, so she could face him better, smiling sweetly to chibi Natsu.
"What do you mean, Natsu-kun?"
"I heard you crying. And I can still smell the salt of the tears, you know? Crying is a bad thing, crying means we are sad, and sad is a very bad feeling."
"Thank you for worrying, but I'm fine, okay? Just go play with the others. I'm sure they are eager to get to know you better."
He pouted, not really believing what she was saying. That was when he spotted the red Fairy Tail tattoo on her left arm.
"Hey, look! We have the same tattoo!"
She smiled to him.
"Indeed, we have."
"Such a nice coincidence! That means we are like… connected!"
Lucy just stood and messed with his hair.
"Just go have fun, Natsu."
He nodded and ran back to the other kids while Lucy watched. And from now on there was all she would be able to do. Watch.