Hah, at last. Caught up with the Tumblr posts.
~Soprana
Lucy sighed as she shifted in the plush armchair that was once a decorative item in one of her father's many useless rooms. It was not like he wanted guests over, ever. So,she took it upon herself to practice the art of thievery on the particular seat that now was her 'throne'. The smooth cloth felt nice on her bare skin, library days meaning she could wear shorts and whatever else she liked as long as she remained inside at all times.
Nobody from the outside dared intrude on Heartfilia property, especially on Sundays.
At her side, a fresh cup of tea rested on its cup plate, in turn sitting on a silver platter with crumpets and other small snacks. The teapot was the only item that did not match the clean flowery looks of the china, the spout cracked and aged with constant use and wear.
The set Lucy used had been a gift for her thirteenth birthday, but the pot belonged to the set her mother received as a wedding present. After Layla's passing, Jude tried to smash every last piece of the beloved set in his pained rage. The little teapot was the only thing Lucy managed to save.
All around her, books were stacked in order of topic, becoming more like a wall of literature that shielded the blonde from the cruel world. Not even Levy dared to disturb the organized chaos of the leather bound books, knowing Lucy had a plan for them and would return them to the shelves after the items served a purpose.
Speaking of, the blue haired woman coughed as she glanced up from her massive desk in the center of the library, the light of the sun casting through the giant windows at her back. Lucy glanced up from her tome of Fioreian history, pulling off her red rimmed reading glasses in amusement. "Yes?"
The petite librarian rose a brow, setting down her quill and crossing her arms over the paperwork; eyes leveling with the blonde heiress with serious knowledge behind her lips. "You have been in here for the past five hours, Lu-chan. Is something else troubling you?"
Something else, referring to the morning after Jose's party when Lucy came barreling in with nothing but her sleepwear on and asking about the assassin caught that night. Levy, fortunately having heard about such an incident along the grapevine just hours earlier, informed the blonde that in a strange upset: the assassin broke out and vanished. Jose was clearly upset, claiming that the assassin had help and clearly was a threat to his safety.
Hence the doubling of his guards.
Lucy shook her head with a smile, grabbing the handle of the dainty cup and blowing on the hot liquid. "No, just doing some reading to pass up my writers block. That prisoner escaping Jose's grasp was quite a distraction. Knowing Sir Jose, he must certainly feel embarrassed about his prisoner escaping, but that is none of my business." The woman mused with a light giggle, sipping her tea with great poise and airy care.
Levy giggled, rolling her eyes. "No, never." Her arms unfolded, fingers pinching a quill as the librarian began to bury herself back in the paperwork. "Though, I do wonder about your little meetings in the gardens..."
Lucy choked, nearly dropping the delicate cup back on its plate as she breathed, face turning bright red. "Wha- I do not- what do you speak of?!" she spluttered, not at all graceful or totally inconspicuous. Her face burned under the blush, her whole head feeling hot.
The librarian chuckled, pressing her hand to her mouth to hide the grin that was so obviously there. "Right. My eyes have deceived me. You were not going to the gardens for a boy. Not you."
Lucy scowled at her friend, huffing. "Levy, I do enjoy the company of nature-"
The blue haired woman grinned wolfishly, hazel eyes sharp for the kill. "Oh? You seem to favor that one bush at the corner of the garden-"
A crash of books cascaded down from one of the nearby bookshelves, startling both women to stand and take up arms with heavy atlas' or dictionaries prepared to throw. Out of the mountain of fallen books, a pained groan sounded before a head of pink hair slowly emerged, teeth grin in pain as he hissed.
"That did not hurt! Not at all!" His voice trembled, his shoulders shaking as a single book tipped and crashed on his crown.
"Natsu?!" Lucy yelped, Levy sending a knowing smirk to the heiress that just set the blonde off in an embarrassed squirm. "What- Why are you here?!"
"Ah, sorry. I told him not to lean forward because I had to move." A new voice called, a figure dropping down to land with a quiet clack of boots on tile, crouched like a feline before he straightened and revealed his face.
Lucy's jaw dropped. "It's you!" She exclaimed, pointing toward the orange haired assassin that she had seen near death not two days ago. At the sight of her, the man's hazel eyes widened. His jaw became slack as he stared, and Lucy tensed when his gaze trailed up and down her body much longer than necessary.
What really threw her off was his dramatic bow as he slid to her on his knees, taking her hand and kissing it without looking from her eyes. "The angel that saved me! I am forever in your debt, sweet goddess of mercy. Tell me, what is your bidding for I, the daring Loke, shall see it through!" He placed another kiss to her palm, starting to trail kisses up to her wrist and beyond.
Blushing madly, Lucy hesitantly tried to pull her arm away.
Natsu beat her to it.
With a yank to Loke's hood, the pink haired Dragon Assassin held the man up with an un-amused stare. "Yeah, you were not supposed to be in that situation in the first place, stupid." He snarled, giving the orange haired assassin a rough shake of reprimand while looking to Lucy with a happy grin.
"Yo, Lucy!" He greeted lightly, all the irritation gone from his face.
The blonde woman giggled, nodding slightly. "Hey Natsu." With a look to Loke, she sighed, "I am glad my message was received." Her hands pressed to her heart as her gaze returned to Natsu with a warm beam. "I feared no one would get it in time."
Both assassins and librarian blinked at Lucy's concern before they all smiled softly at her compassionate confession.
"You did good, Luce. We managed to bust this idiot out with no problems thanks to you." The Dragon Assassin praised, punching Loke harshly in the shoulder after releasing the hood.
"Go on." He prompted the former prisoner with a much more stern expression.
"I wanted to thank you, Lady Lucy. I did not tell my fellow brothers where I had gone and if you had not interfered...I would be dead. So, I truly owe you my life. If you ever need anything, just ask." The orange haired man spoke seriously, surprising the blonde with the change.
"If it is a date you desire, I certainly can-"
Natsu snorted, hooking his arm around Loke's neck and proceeded to drag him towards the open window balcony. "Yeah, yeah, you did your gratitude thing. Let's go." He grumbled, pushing Loke in front of him before kicking the man clear off the balcony with little remorse.
Ignoring the reprimands from both the librarian and noblewoman, Natsu glanced over his shoulder with a childish grin. "Lucy, I will see you in the market place tomorrow, okay?"
Without any delay, Natsu barreled off the balcony wall, disappearing into the shrubbery that surrounded the property. Both women stared silently before Levy turned with a smug smirk on her face.
Lucy blinked dumbly before slowly looking to her friend with a small blush. "Levy...was...was that Natsu's way of asking me on a d-date?"
"Father, are you going to a meeting with Sir Jose? I thought we agreed about my involvement." Lucy said swiftly, following her father's quick steps through the manor and took the stairs two at a time while hoisting her ridiculously gaudy dress up as to not trip.
Jude regarded her with a quirk of his brow and a slight curve of his mustache as he neared the awaiting carriage. "Lucy, you can come soon. Just not today. I have a few fine details to wring out before I want you on the scene." The man did not slow, hoisting himself into the wagon and fixing his daughter with a stare.
"Brush up on your history of trade deals and I shall be home late tonight." He continued before slamming the door, signaling the driver to coax the horses into a trot.
Irritated beyond reason at his continuous dismissal, Lucy scowled after the carriage before huffing and returning back inside, clearly more interested in pranking her father's favored personnel than continuing her study hours.
Jude's carriage wove in and out of side streets with little respect for the pedestrians. On command from his master, the carriage driver occasionally struck his whip at those who strayed too close to the convoy for comfort. Not a smudge was to be placed on the esteemed coach of Lord Jude!
From the rooftops, two figures trotted along the gutters and clothing wires that decorated the buildings, swinging from the rafters to lunge clear across emptying streets in pursuit of the nobleman.
The chase continued silently until the carriage coasted to a halt before the Grand Meeting Hall of Magnolia. Two pairs of eyes watched like predator owls over a single mouse as Jude emerged and took a jog up the many stone stairs to the column hall. Together, two lone men scurried to the hall, scaling the walls using the concrete lips and edges. Not a sound could be heard over the breeze and the scrapes of boot soles on stone and grunts of effort as each man pulled himself up with extraordinary upper body strength.
Black and blond hair swayed in the wind as they gained altitude, only stopping once they reached the great dome that topped the hall, taking two gulps of air each before setting to work on pulling at a particular stained glass pane, carefully and efficiently removing it without damage to the artwork.
"Gray, you first." Laxus whispered, gently propping the colorful image of Saint Yuri Dreyar to the side of the ledge with respect. The black haired assassin nodded, quietly slipping in with great caution not to bump any of his weapons on the glass panes or metal encasement.
His superior followed just as cautiously, both men crouched and waddling along the thin lip of stone that gave them a mere two feet of room before the long drop to the rotunda. It would be certain death on impact with the floor.
As if that were not daunting enough, both Laxs and Gray stiffened as the amount of people situated inside the vast hall. There were over a hundred.
A hundred; and Laxus easily picked out thirty known Templars.
Beside the blonde Dragon Assassin, Gray swallowed thickly, pulling at his collar nervously. "Laxus...what do we do?" He shifted his crouch to settle his balance, eyes skirting around to the faces of those not yet accused of associations with Templar. Memorization of each one was difficult, but there was one face that set both spying men off.
Jude Heartfilia, wearing a red pin that symbolized the Knights Templar, was up and speaking loudly with Sir Jose at his side.
"No way..." Gray cursed, straining his neck to hear the words flowing from the well known noble's lips.
"-and I am immensely honored to be accepted as a member. Soon, my daughter, Lucy, shall be one of us as well. She has demonstrated exceptional promise that I am sure will benefit the Order of Knights."
All throughout the hall, murmurs of agreement echoed, and Sir Jose waved his hand with a sneer of a smile on his lips. "Yes, yes. We are all excited for our newest member. For now, Jude has come with a complete list of his stocks and sales to compare with the rest of the merchants-"
Gray glanced to a stoic and muttering Laxus, watching his trainer's eyes flicker back an forth in thought. "This is serious. Can Lucy be completely trusted with this task? If she fails...it means death and torture until she spills info on the Assassin Order." The blond man whispered darkly, thumb brushing at the stubble under his chin. "It's not that I do not think she is strong...it is-"
Gray placed a gentle hand on the older man's shoulder, careful not to compromise the precious balance maintained. "Lucy's efforts saved Loke, no matter how we look at it. Look, if it comes down to it...I believe in her just as much as Natsu does. She has proven herself."
Dark eyes slid to inspect the mass below, voices now hushing softer than they could hear.. "I think we should tell Master immediately, anyway. We are not getting anything useful up here."
Laxus hummed, glaring down at Jude and Jose before nodding and waddling his way back to the open panel.
"What?!" Natsu snarled, slamming his palms flat on the old table so hard that the wood groaned. His dark eyes burned with an inner wildfire that threatened to explode beyond his inner thoughts, teeth bared carnally with little care to how monstrous he looked.
"Natsu, control yourself." Master Makarov grumbled over the lip of his pint, slowly sipping his ale with loud sloppiness. "Though we should have expected this, it comes as no surprise." He continued with a tired tone.
Instead of calming down, Natsu's lips raised like hackles on a wolf. "Calm down? Calm down? How can a man that sired someone like Lucy be a traitor to everything she stands for?! She has been lied to and misguided! Hoodwinked! She believes he is too clueless to understand what he is messing with but in reality, he's our enemy. He is her enemy! Lucy does not even know-!"
With a crash, Erza slammed Natsu's pink haired head to the table roughly, silencing him with a pained yelp. Makarov watched the scene from across the pub table, his lips turned in a frown. "Lucy must remain in the dark about this discovery, for her safety. It seems that she is well on her way into being inducted, and we would not want her chances to dwindle."
With a slow sip of his liquor, he gazed at each assassin gathered in the tavern. "We will protect her ties with the Templar Order, for she will become our inside source, thus endangering herself. She is a high priority civilian as of now."
With that tone of finality, Erza released Natsu, allowing the man to straighten and crack his neck and jaw with a scowl. With a stern stare to his guild master, the Dragon Assassin turned on his heels and marched to the bar. "Mira, could I get a platter of chicken?" He grit out, slapping down a handful of coins in an effort to work off the raging fight inside of him.
Jude Heartfilia will make Lucy cry...and Natsu knew keeping this secret from her would make himself responsible as well.
Those who made Lucy cry, Natsu clenched his fists at the thought, deserved much more than a hard boot to the face.