Lucy sighed as she felt her body quickly heating up. The sun was merciless, and it was only ten in the morning. Glad she had remembered sunscreen, she rolled over on to her stomach. She decided to take her previous day's idea to sunbathe next to the pool, and she was enjoying it to the fullest.

Despite waking up alone that morning, she didn't feel the least bit upset about it. She wasn't lying when she told him he could leave and she wouldn't mind. What bothered her about the whole thing wasn't that he managed to leave, it was that she woke up alone, and was still okay with it. the words of Loke a couple days before and run through her head, and he was right. She wasn't the type of girl to fuck around with just any random guy, and, even though Zeref wasn't random, she thought she hated the guy. She still did, right? He was a stuck up asshole, thought he was better than everyone else, smarter, the most good looking guy around.

She hated people who acted like that. So why was she constantly thinking about him? Why did she kiss him instead of punch him yesterday? He didn't say one word of pleasantry, romance, or anything nice at all to her, and she ended up spending the whole day with him. She'd told him stories that not even her friends knew about. Granted, she was trying to hide her family life from her friends, not wanting them to know just who she was, but the words just spewed from her mouth, and all he did was ask how her morning was going.

Maybe it was because he already knew who she was, family-wise, and he didn't care. At first, she knew, he absolutely hated who she was - a Heartfilia, spoiled princess who could do anything she wanted, and Daddy dearest would never say no to her, though Zeref's imagination was greatly exaggerated because Jude Heartfilia says no pretty often - and even now he still seemed completely indifferent about her social standing.

Sighing again, she willed herself not to think about him anymore, knowing she'd just hurt her head the more she tried to reason what was going on. Sitting up on her lounge chair, she took her hair out of its ponytail, with full intent on jumping in the pool. However, as she stood up, a voice called out to her, and she turned to the house to see her father, followed by a large, muscular man and Loke, all of whom were walking up to her, rather quickly. Sighing deeply, she put her hair back into a ponytail, knowing her time outside was now done.

"Lucy, I need to talk with you," her father stated as he approached. His tone was strict, and she knew she was either in trouble, or someone else was and she was just taking the blow for it. She crossed her arms over her chest, wishing she had something to cover up with - the two bodyguards were giving her looks of appreciation for standing there in just her bikini - but she kept her face in a frown.

"What do you want?" she asked.

The moment her father reached the poolside, he copied her stance, crossing his arms over his chest. "Where were you two nights ago?"

"What is this, an interrogation?" she scoffed. "Where were you on the night of the fifteenth at 4:14 in the morning?" She dropped her voice as low as she could make it, making fun of her father, who wasn't amused at all.

"Answer me, girl," he barked, causing Lucy to jump. She glanced at Loke, but his face was blank, and he shook his head at her, signalling her to not piss Mr. Heartfilia off.

She shrugged. "I went to town to cool off," she answered easily, lowering her arms and sitting back on the lounge chair.

"Did you see Macbeth?"

"Do you really think I'd go see him, voluntarily?" She lay back down, closing her eyes.

"Why can't you just answer my questions without giving me a smartass response, you insolent brat." Jude stood in the way of her sunlight, making her look up at him. He couldn't tell, but her eyes were wide. She realized he was mad - beyond anything she'd ever remember seeing before - and she was a little nervous now. She couldn't even remember a time when he'd called her anything other than her name - or girl - before.

She leaned up on her elbows. "What's the matter with you? Why all the questions in the first place?" She glanced at the two silent guards, but they weren't paying attention anymore. The big man was practically blowing smoke from his nostrils as he admired her body, and she really wished she could cover up.

Jude took a moment to decide whether or not if it was a good idea to tell her the details, but he thought she'd deserve to know.

"Macbeth was found dead yesterday morning in an alley by that bar in town," he said carefully, gauging her reactions.

Lucy's heart nearly stopped. Dead? No, when they left him, he was just unconscious. Well, neither of them physically checked, but Zeref didn't kill him, right? Sure, he threatened to kill a bunch of people lots of times, but never actually carried any of it out.

Her eyes widened. What if his beating actually killed the poor, fragile, narcoleptic freak?

"I did go to the bar, but I don't remember seeing him at all." The lie flowed from her tongue, flawlessly. She was able to play ignorance by her shock. Who wouldn't be surprised to hear their ex-fiance was just found dead, in an alley behind a bar that everyone knew he wouldn't step anywhere near.

What shocked her the most was why she was lying for Zeref. There she went again, contradicting herself. She hated his guts, so why did she say she never lay eyes on Macbeth that night? Besides, even if she told the truth, it was all in self defense. He was hurting her first, and Zeref just came to her rescue. They didn't know he died.

But she couldn't bring herself to tell him the truth.

After mulling this information in his mind for a moment, Jude dropped his arms and latched his hands together behind his back.

"Very well. That's all I needed to know." He turned to leave, but stopped. "You wouldn't lie to me, would you?"

Lucy flinched at the sudden accusation. "What? Seriously?" she shrieked. To be honest, she'd never lied to the man a day in her life, but she knew immediately denying it would pretty much be a confession. However, just those two words seemed to be enough for him, and he nodded and walked off, the big man following.

Loke grabbed a chair and pulled it close to her, sitting in it. She hadn't moved an inch, glaring at the back of her father's head. Not that she was claiming complete innocence in the whole thing, but it was a little insulting how he'd just walk up and ask her about that night. He should automatically trust her, right? She'd never done anything remotely close to actually killing someone, and, technically, she didn't kill that boy.

"They found him behind Cubellios," Loke explained. "The coroner said it looked like he was in a fight, but he lost, and then they set him on fire."

Lucy choked as she gasped. "They set him on fire?!" That was both a blessing and absolutely terrible. A blessing because then they weren't the ones who killed him; absolutely terrible because he had been burned to death.

Loke nodded. "Naturally, the investigators suspected the ex-fiance, but since you lied through your teeth to make yourself innocent, you'll be fine."

"Loke - "

"I've known you since you were a baby. Maybe he can't tell when you're lying to him, but I can." He nudged his sunglasses down his nose and stared at her from over the top of the lenses. "Look me in my eyes and tell me you didn't have anything to do with that."

She blinked a few times. A few minutes ago, she would have failed his test, but with the information he gave her, she was confident in her innocence. "I had nothing to do with it." Her gaze never wavering, Loke nodded and leaned back in his chair, pushing his glasses back up.

"But you did see him," he concluded.

"He tried to get me to explain myself," she muttered, lying back down. "I wasn't going to tell him anything. It wasn't his business, but he got rough with me."

"Rough how?"

"He hit me."

"He what?!" Loke jumped up from his seat, nearly falling into the pool, but he regained his balance. His fists clenched as his nose twitched in anger. "That little bastard is lucky someone else got to him before I did."

Lucy shrugged. "I'm over it."

Loke immediately relaxed, sitting back on his chair. "You've changed," he mused.

"What do you mean?"

"A few years ago, if someone told you that a person you knew had died just moments after you saw them, you'd be freaking out."

She shrugged again. "People grow up, Loke. Don't worry, you'll get to it eventually."

"Maybe." He breathed deeply as he stood up and stepped up to her. He gently placed his hand on her head. "Try not to change too much, kid," he said before walking off back to the house. "Oh!" He spun around as he remembered what he actually wanted to tell her. "So word is there was a mysterious, handsome, dark-haired stranger sneaking out of your room this morning."

She blinked at him as he leaned closer to her. She looked away, unable to hold his scrutinizing stare.

"Care to tell me about it?" He poked her cheek, and she swiped him away.

"No."

"Aw, please? This is big news for us! First you're having sexy dreams, and now a man is sneaking out of your room? I don't know what to think anymore!"

"How about rethinking your choices of sneaking into my room every morning? He didn't seem so pleased to hear you do that."

Loke's mouth slowly grew, a devious smile appearing on his face. He nodded and patted her head again. "This isn't over, Lucy." He stood and left, pocketing his hands and whistling as he went.

Lucy turned her head and watched him leave. Was he right? Had she changed that much for him to be aware of it?

Briefly, she wondered if Zeref knew about what happened, and if he had gotten home safely, before she lay back down and tried to relax in the sun.


AN: So, I know I haven't posted in awhile, but I've been having work troubles - troubles, as in, we just found out that my pharmacy is going out of business, and so I've been trying to find a new job, figure out how I'm going to support my family, stay in our apartment, etc. Not to mention my router and my internet modem both died within a few days of each other. First the router, so I had to wait a week to buy a new one, then, the modem started acting up, and we had to wait to for a free moment to take it in to get replaced...ARG! Anyway, here's a little short snippet, more to come! Please review, and don't forget to follow/fave, if you haven't already.

Coming up next chapter: Natsu and Lucy finally meet again! Whoo, exciting stuff.