A cool August breeze glides through the leaves of the overhead tree rustling its evergreen leaves and throwing the shadows underneath them into a frenzied dance. Birds chirp their joyous songs in the forest nearby while the soft bubbling of the nearby lake plays its own lulling melody. The occasional plop that disturbs the calm water can be heard from time to time as well as the sound of youthful laughter in the background.
"I CAUGHT A FISH!" Etsuko cheers, his loud voice breaking through the blissful silence of nature.
Chapter 7 - Island of the Brokenhearted
POV: Lucy
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail
Looking over at the ecstatic boy, I watch as he raises his line high above his head to show me the fish dangling at the end of his line. His sister claps in admiration at her brother's triumph as said boy prances around gleefully, his prize still exposed for the world to see over his head under the light of the descending sun.
"Did you see Mish Ashley?! I caught it all by myself!" he asks as he splashes water from the dripping fish onto himself and his giggling sister who continues to clap for him.
Watching them both causes my chest to swell with a warmth I am not too accustomed to. It blooms from my chest and races down to my curling toes and tingling fingers in a rush. It somehow makes me feel like I am floating with elation at a simple accomplishment the young and innocent child before me has committed and watching them only causes the warmth to intensify.
Their innocent light that radiates off them brighter than the evening sun leaves me nearly blind and envious. How easy they could forget the scene that we had witnessed this morning when I can all but brush it off as if it were nothing. My mind swirls with the enraged image of the king and my heart pulls in painful thrusts at the memory of his equally vicious words.
What could have made him so spiteful towards the Heartfilia's, I wonder?
So deep in thought, I don't notice the silent presence that stands beside me until a deep voice seems to clear their throat.
"Why are you sitting here all by yourself?" comes a familiar deep voice that causes me to jump from my seat under the large tree I am currently sitting under.
Looking up, I find the king's dark eyes looking down at me from the corner of his eye with his usual solemn expression. He's standing over me with an impressive ominous presence that only a king can portray. He stands tall and straight with his hands casually slipped into the pockets of his trousers looking regal and laidback. It's a sight I'm only quite used to seeing from high-class bureaucrats that love to show off their money and power.
"I-I-I'm j-just enjoying th-the view from the shade," I stutter as I quickly look away once I start feeling the familiar burn that comes when looking deep into his ebony eyes.
My sight quickly attaches itself towards the children still fishing on the nearby dock who are now accompanied by the man that had greeted me when I arrived yesterday to the castle. The raven-haired male crouches down to get to the children's level and seems to be instructing Etsuko on how to remove his fish from his line without hurting himself in the process. The young boy's unblinking eyes watch the older male with attentiveness eating up all the new information he must be receiving.
Sneaking a glance up at the king who is now watching the children, I clutch my hands on my lap as I look down at the grass that peeks up around the picnic blanket that I am sitting on. I watch the blades of grass sway with the soft breeze that caresses them, clearly mesmerized with their dance as I take a deep encouraging breath.
"The children thought you weren't going to come," I declare loud enough for the male to hear and I can't help to look at his eyes darken.
His expression casts a shadow over his face and I can feel a dark tension roll off him in waves causing me to feel even more uncomfortable than I already am. Memories of what had transpired in the library resurface in my mind causing me to want to stand up and create as much distance between this man and myself as much as I can.
Of course, the discussion about the Heartfilia house should not concern me in the slightest, but hearing him talk ill of the family leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
"I wasn't going to come," Natsu admits as he moves to take a seat on the blanket beside me. I give him an incredulous look as he settles himself in his seat beside me with a heavy sigh.
"What made you change your mind, if I may ask?" I prod wanting to know what was on his mind.
"Mirajane convinced me to come against my will," he states while stacking his hands behind his head and leaning onto the tree behind us heaving another much heavier sigh while closing his eyes, "She said that if Igneel was always able to make time for me when I was younger that I should also be able to make time for my own kids."
"Igneel was your father?" I ask, although I already know the answer to that question.
"Yeah," he whispers, a prominent frown etched on his tranquil face, "He was the best dad any boy could ever have, and an equally righteous king."
I hum trying to sound understanding as I continue to watch his relaxing face in the golden glow of the afternoon sun, "the children do seem to be happier when you are around," I confess as I reach out towards the picnic basket Mirajane had given us before we had set out towards the lake as Natsu grunts a reply, "Are you hungry your majesty?" I ask as I pull out a plate with a few sandwiches on it out of the basket to pass to him, "Mirajane made us sandwiches for a late lunch, but the children already ate their share some time ago and set this plate off for you."
The king opens one of his eyes and looks at the plate I am holding with a calculating look, "Nah, I'm not hungry," he says as he recloses his eye and basks in the warm afternoon sun while allowing the warm summer breeze to rustle his pink locks, "What?" he asks after a few beats of silence and pops his eye open again to look at my astonished expression.
"N-Nothing," I mutter while placing the plate of sandwiches down on the blanket feeling my head reeling once again as my cheeks burn from embarrassment.
Hey Natsu, don't you ever stop eating?
Not as long as there's always food around.
You're going to get sick if you eat too much, or worse, you're going to get fat.
Well, being fat and full is better than being skinny and hungry is what I always say!
Man did that boy know how to eat, which is why it surprises me to see him reject food, especially since I'm more than certain that he hasn't had a thing to eat since breakfast.
Down by the dock, both Etsuko and Rosalind wave towards me and call out excitedly when they notice their father sitting next to me. The older man waves back while I do and resumes his position when both children turn their backs to us and cast out their lines back into the water in hopes of catching more fish.
It feels surreal watching the children from where we're sitting. Although they are only meters away down the small incline from where I'm sitting it feels as if they are so far out of my reach. Sitting on the dock, it almost seems as if they were on a boat floating aimlessly over the outstretch of water that blazes in the colors of the setting sun. A fire that doesn't scald surrounds us, enveloping us in a warmth that reaches our very cores, but even then, I can't help but shiver from an unknown chill. I suppose the warmth of the world does not fully reach the lonely stagnant island from which I sit upon.
When I look back over at Natsu I can't help but notice that he is staring at me with a fixed curiosity.
"Your majesty?" I ask as the male's eyes roam along my face seeming to be searching for something and I have to fight the urge to look away from him.
Finally, after a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, he asks, "Tell me Miss Ashley, why is it that your eyes look so sad?"
The question takes me off guard as I consider his eyes that burn with flames under the glow of the setting sun. I don't know how to answer him. It's such a strange question for him to ask a total stranger that he has just met and it makes me wonder when such a dense young boy became such an insightful man.
"W-what do you mean?" I ask utterly confused to his strange question.
"You smile, but somehow the light that you try to portray never reaches your eyes," he says nonchalant while continuing to look intently at me while asking, "What caused you to see the world with such remorseful eyes?"
Don't cry Luce, your face is much too pretty to be looking so sad like that. You should always smile so big that even the sun will be jealous of your radiant beauty!
Looking away, I feel my lip quiver and my eyes burn slightly as I watch the children laugh along with their raven-haired companion. They continue to sit at the edge of their dock, their secure little boat continuing to float lazily over the imaginary water that surrounds my lonely island. As I continue to watch them I then close my eyes for only a second and then opening them again to find a girl with golden hair and a boy with rosy hair replace Etsuko and Rosalind.
The children's laughter rings around me in a tantalizing song. Their smiles glow as bright as the fire that the descending sun casts on the world, and their happiness seems to never leave their floating haven. They look so happy and carefree in their small enclosed space of time that seems to want to last forever, and perhaps it does exist. In another world, in another long forgotten time.
A time in which no longer exists for me.
"Well your majesty," I start in a hushed, almost choked, whisper, catching the attention of the male sitting beside me on my lonely island, "What caused you to see the world with such hateful eyes?" I ask while looking away from the scene before me to stare into the beaten eyes of the male beside me. His broken eyes leave my own and stare at the floating scene before me clearly seeing his children rather than our younger counterparts like I had seen.
"Years of people that I loved and cared for leaving me behind," he says without looking at me and I feel my heart shatter from the pain radiating off his somber words, "That is what caused me to look at the world so bitterly."
Blinking rapidly, I look down at my shaking intertwined hands as I whisper, "The same goes for me," before looking back up at the happy sight of naïve innocence we wish to be a part of.
But unfortunately, that ship had been sunk a long time ago.
First of all, for clarification, the children aren't on an actual boat in case you guys got confused with what I was trying to portray. The whole "floating on the water" is a metaphor (not sure if I'm using that word correctly) that Lucy is using. Also she isn't sitting on an island. This is just to explain the rift that she feels between herself and the joy the children exude that she herself cannot convey.
Also, Natsu has no memories prior to being adopted by Igneel. All memories of his childhood before being taken to the castle are gone which means that he doesn't remember who Lucy is. The thing he says about him saying "Years of people that I loved and cared for leaving me behind" does not pertain to Lucy whatsoever, though she believes it does, but it doesn't. It mostly leans towards Natsu's biological parent's, whom he does not remember and thinks that they abandoned him, Igneel, and Lisanna.
HOWEVER! Natsu will be regaining his memories in the long run. I'll leave you with that, but I won't reveal when that will be happening *wink*
Anywho, I want to apologize for not updating on Friday like I had said. I had finished my Finals by Thursday and I didn't have work on Friday which meant I spoiled myself and read a buttload of stuff I've been meaning to catch up on. Not once on Thursday night or on Friday did I realize that I needed to update. It had literally flown over my head and all through the end of the week I had thought I had already updated... whoops...
It wasn't until Saturday night that I realized that I hadn't updated like I had meant to, and trust me when I say that I stabbed myself with an imaginary Katana. BUT school is finally over which means that I get to dedicate myself to planning and writing more of this story when I'm not at work until I start summer school. Yeah, I'm a nerd so I'll be taking summer classes without a break. Kill me now.
Anywho, Shout Outs and date of next update will be either on chapter 8 or 9 later on today.
Apologies once again.
