I'm sorry. What was that? This chapter is late? Well, my darlings, something very important came up that kept me from writing this when I should have. What was that something? Pure laziness, my friends. I honestly have no other excuse.

Please, forgive me.

To make it up to you, I wrote this extra long, extra exciting chapter!

Here is chapter 14 of My Guiding Flame!

Enjoy!

Chapter 14:

Say something, I'm giving up on you

I'll be the one if you want me to

Anywhere I would've followed you

Say something, I'm giving up on you

Say Something- A Great Big World

Where has the time gone?

Natsu felt as if he had been brought to the castle only yesterday, but that wasn't the case. Day in and day out, he woke up, ate, trained, then went back to sleep. This was his permanent schedule now and he has learned to accept it no matter how tedious and sad it might have been. It wasn't like there was much he could do about it. Where else could he go? Back to Igneel? He wasn't there. He wasn't here either. He probably would never see him again. He had lost all hope that his father figure would rescue him from this purgatory.

It'd be to years tomorrow since he was stolen from his home. Two years of loneliness. Two years of disgusting, prison food. Two years of being confined in cell that seemed as if it was becoming smaller with each passing day.

He had officially ran out of people to talk to. Lucy had made herself more and more scarce soon after Gray left for whichever reason. He would ask her, but that would require them actually sharing the same space for more than five seconds. The most she has done was offer him a little wave when they passed each other in the halls of the castle or in the courtyard. Beyond that, he might as well not exist to her. He had come to think of her as his best friend, if not the only one. Unfortunately, Lucy didn't seem to feel the same way.

Which was fine with him. The less attachments he made in this place the better. It would just make it all that easier when he bails the first chance he gets.

Gray wasn't an option for obvious reasons. Him and his family left without a trace and never sent so much as a letter to make sure they weren't dead in a ditch somewhere. Natsu had grown to like Gray as a friend he likes to punch in the face and it sort of hurt that he never attempted to maintained contact. Natsu supposed that it was just something he had to live with.

As for Erza, he rarely saw her either. When he did, she was too spaced out to ever notice him. Once he saw her crying in a secluded space in the courtyard, clutching her choppy hair tightly in her hands. He knew better than to approach someone when they were in such a state, especially Erza. Natsu may have been miserable, but he did not have a death wish. Any other time, she was uncomfortably stoic and reserved that Natsu was usually too afraid to try and speak to her.

His last option was Gildarts. Unfortunately, Gildarts wasn't much for conversation unless they were training together. Natsu didn't know where he stood with the man anymore after Gildarts had snapped at him, but he missed lightly joking with his mentor and feeling able to share anything with him. Now, Natsu was sure Gildarts only saw the boy as his pupil and nothing more.

Needless to say, Natsu had very little people to talk to beside himself.

It was a sad existence, but it was officially Natsu's.

"That will be all for today, Natsu." Gildarts announced after a few hours of training.

Natsu stood and brushed dirt off his hand-me-down clothes that were a size too big for him. He had grown out of all of the other clothes the king was generous enough to give him, but, of course, he wouldn't bother giving the little mage clothes that actually fit him and smelled decent enough to wear. Natsu didn't mind, though. Before this, he wore pants made out of dried grass tied together with vines and nothing else. It was very itchy. If anything, smelly hand-me-downs were a major upgrade.

"Fine." Natsu mumbled off-handedly. "See ya tomorrow."

As Natsu began to walk away, Gildarts watched on.

He sighed sadly at the boy's downtrodden posture and expression. As Natsu had said before, it wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that they boy was taken from the only home he had ever known and be forced into being built into some kind of war machine for King Judas. Gildarts wished to pull the boy into his arms and ruffle his hair like he used to do, but he was under strict instructions not to get any closer to the boy and to only engage with him whilst training and nothing more. It was infuriating to watch Natsu draw more and more into himself and not being able to do a thing about it. Gildarts felt as if he played a part in the boy's withdrawnness.

He shouldn't have gotten so close to him in the first place. He came here to train Natsu, but it was his conscious choice to befriend the kid to make him feel more comfortable with his situation and to pull away without any warning probably hurt Natsu a lot. With Gray gone, Lucy busy, and Erza traumatized, there was absolutely no one for Natsu to go to anymore.

Once again: It just wasn't fair.

"Say, Natsu!" Gildarts called out before he could think better of it. He didn't know what he was planning to say. He just had to say something.

Natsu stopped and turned. "Yeah?"

"Um…" Gildarts mumbled and scratched at the hairs on his chin. "I was just going to say…make sure to get plenty of rest tonight. We're going to start earlier than usual tomorrow so…"

Gildarts heart clenched when he saw Natsu's shoulders droop in disappointment.

"Yeah, sure." He muttered then turned back away.

FTFTFTFTFTFTFT

Lucy looked at herself in the mirror.

Aquarius had told her that she looked exactly like her mother, Layla, but looking at herself right now, Lucy couldn't even see herself.

What she saw was a sad, little girl with too much makeup on her face and an ever-so-present frown marring her typically pretty face.

Behind her, Cancer combed her long, blonde hair and spun her locks into tight curls faster than Lucy could see. She sometimes liked to think that he used magic on her hair, but that ridiculous notion was thrown out the window.

"Is something wrong, ebi?" Cancer questioned her as he brushed out her bangs.

Lucy bit her lip as she thought. "Uh, not really. But…have you heard anything? About my father?"

Cancer shook his head as he snipped some hair. "I could not tell you, ebi. As far as I know, he's still in his office."

Lucy shook her head. She should have known. Why would she expect him to pay any special attention to her today? To him, it was probably just any other day.

"All finished." Cancer announced after another minute.

Lucy looked back into the mirror to review Cancer's newest creation. Her hair was significantly shorter in the curls, but she loved them just the same. She shook her head slightly just to see the curls swish around and spiral out then spring back into themselves. It was all topped with a red bow that matched her dress.

"It's lovely, Cancer." She offered the servant a small smile. "Just like always. Thank you."

"Keep that smile on, ebi." Cancer winked and smiled at her. "It completes the look. Happy birthday, Princess Lucy."

FTFTFTFTFTFTFT

If there was one thing Lucy hated more than bad grammar and cliff hangers, it was parties.

She didn't know any of the people she was surrounded with besides the servants and was terribly uncomfortable with socializing with them without her father there to introduce them first. She knew that they were royals from neighboring kingdoms and they were all here to celebrate the anniversary of her birth, but, beyond that, she had no knowledge of who they were. They all seemed the same to her. Snooty, stuffy, self-centered, and materialistic shells of people.

"You look just as gorgeous as usual, Princess." An older woman said to her. Lucy already didn't like her. She was blocking her path to the buffet table. "Although, I haven't seen you since you were just a baby. My, how you've grown."

"Thank you, Miss…"

The woman laughed. "Oh, I didn't expect you to remember me, dear. I am Alavia. Duchess of Pergrande. It is a little ways from here, but I couldn't pass the chance to see the lovely Princess of Fiore."

"I see…" Lucy mumbled. She caught a movement out of the corner of her eye and leaned slightly to look past the Duchess. Just behind the wall, Lucy caught a glimpse of blue hair and the swish of a skirt. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but someone else requires my attention at the moment. If you would please excuse me."

Alavia blinked in surprise, but smiled gently down at the girl. "Of course, dear. I'm sure you have plenty other guests to greet. I hope you have a great birthday, Princess."

Lucy bowed respectively then skirted around the Duchess and headed towards the wall. Sure enough, Aquarius stood behind it, waiting for her.

"Aquarius." Lucy sighed with relief. "Thank goodness you're here."

"Well," Aquarius huffed. "It's not like I have anything better to do when you're not around. Besides, I have something to give you."

"A present?!" Lucy squealed. "For me?!"

"Don't get too excited, girl! It's not nearly as glamorous as what most of these nobles have brought for you."

"I don't care about those! Your present will mean more to me than anything they might've gotten."

Aquarius smiled softly at the girl. She pulled out a small box wrapped in pink and topped with a red bow from behind her and presented it to the little princess. Lucy grabbed it greedily and tore it open. Inside was a velvet box and a film canister. Lucy shook it close to her ear, but didn't hear much beside something brushing against the sides. She deposited the canister and opened the velvet box. Inside laid a beautiful necklace with a moon-shaped pendant that had diamonds embedded into it.

Lucy's eyes sparkled as she held the piece of jewelry in front of her. "Oh, Aquarius! It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen!"

"It was your mothers." The nanny replied calmly.

Lucy looked up in surprise then back down at the necklace. She held it in her hands, imagining her mother doing the same and felt a bit more connected to her. Lucy was overjoyed and threw herself at her caretaker, wrapping her arms around the woman's waist.

"Thank you so much, Aquarius! It's the best thing I've ever gotten!"

Aquarius reached down and patted Lucy's blonde hair, being careful not to ruin her curls.

After a moment, Lucy pulled away. She looked back at the canister in her hand and started to open it.

"Not here!" Aquarius hissed, placing her hand on top of Lucy's. "Open it when you're alone later on. This is for your eyes only."

Lucy was skeptical, but nodded in agreement. Aquarius was trusting her with something and she was not about to make her regret it. Lucy allowed Aquarius to help put on her new necklace then proceeded to tuck it into the collar of her dress. She wasn't sure how many people would recognize it as her mother's, but she wasn't about to take that chance.

Lucy returned to the party without anyone even batting an eye at her sudden but short disappearance. Of course, all of them were there to socialize and boast about their power and money to each other.

Lucy noticed her father drifting through the crowd, smiling and greeting people as he went on. Lucy knew better to think that he was here for her. This was nothing more than an excuse to flaunt what he had.

"There she is!" He exclaimed excitedly once his eyes fell onto her. Lucy automatically jumped at the sound of his voice. She didn't mean to. It was just a knee-jerk reaction at this point.

Judas waded through the crowd until he reached his daughter then grabbed onto her hand, pulling her into the sea of awaiting faces.

Lucy sighed inwardly.

This was going to be a long evening.

FTFTFTFTFTFTFT

Lucy laid restlessly in her bed that night, her necklace settled on her collarbone and the canister sitting unopened on the table beside her. She had met so many people that she'd never care to know if any other situation, but it was what was requested of her by her father and she knew better than to disobey him. The Duchess of Pomegranate…or whatever it was, tried many times to start up conversations with Judas which he held respectively, but Lucy could tell that he'd rather talk to anybody else.

Lucy opened up all of her presents which turned out to be even more dresses, expensive paintings, less meaningful but equally expensive jewelry, and books. Lucy should've been happy with the last gift, but, after skimming through them, she concluded that they were nothing but boring old stories made to look exciting because of the pretty, embroidered covers. This just goes to show that the judging a book by its cover phrase should always be kept in mind.

Lucy grew weary of it all and made up some excuse to head to bed while the party went on without her. She could still hear the classical music if she listened hard enough. Judas was probably in his element. Surrounded by all of these adoring nobles who kissed his feet and praised him for his wealth and graciousness.

If they only knew.

That's it. Lucy decided. I've got to get out of here.

This wasn't the first night she laid awake thinking of escaping this hell. She couldn't even count on both hands how many times she wished to leave. The only problem was that she didn't know how to escape, where to go, or even how to survive outside of the castle. The only times she's been out of the castle is when she went with her father to meet and greet the citizens every now and then. Even so, she mostly stayed seated in the carriage and waved as they rolled down the streets. She never physically interacted with her citizens no matter how much she wanted to. She was supposed to be their queen someday, wasn't she? What kind of queen never takes the time to get to know her people?

Once again, Lucy wondered about her mother. Do the older citizens remember her and often speak about her or was her name a taboo just like in the castle? Lucy wondered why that was. Did Layla do something horrible? Lucy found that hard to believe with how Aquarius talked about her. But, Lucy's father was adamant about keeping every facet about the former queen a secret.

Whichever the reason, Lucy was determined to know.

She looked over at the canister once again then reached over to pick it up. She sat up in her bed and looked down at the object in her hand with curiosity. She did want to open it, but something inside of her was keeping her from doing so. But, why not? It was hers now, wasn't it? Aquarius told her to open it when she was alone and there was not another soul in sight at the moment. All she had to do was pop open the top and pull out what was inside.

So, why couldn't she?

Growing frustrated with herself, Lucy threw off her covers and hopped out of bed. She deposited the canister in the pocket of her nightgown and exited the room. Taking a walk usually got her mind off things and there wasn't anyone to bother her since nearly everyone was still downstairs. Only a few guards lingered around, but they had greater concerns than the wondering princess.

As she walked, she came across the largest portrait in the castle. A portrait of her and the king standing beside each other. Lucy was only three at the time and yet she still looked so unhappy. Judas was still as stern as ever, his hand laying lightly on Lucy's shoulder as she attempted to smile at the artist, but anyone could easily tell that it was forced.

Lucy sighed and moved along.

Before long, she found herself walking in the direction of the dungeons. She frowned, recalling the last time she paid Natsu a visit. She felt horrible that she's been ignoring him for so long, but she just didn't want him to see her in this sort of state. He was well aware of her father's treatment towards her and didn't want to concern him further. Unfortunately, she became too busy with all of the lessons her father was throwing at her to visit him anymore. Her piano lessons became longer, her History lessons became more complicated as well as her English lessons, and her homework load kept her up nearly all night. At the end of the day, she was far too tired to visit her friend.

She hoped he understood, but that was probably asking too much.

Before she could stop herself, she was descending the steps once again.

FTFTFTFTFTFTFT

Natsu's eyes popped open as the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs reached his ears. He remained still, trying to decipher who the intruder was by the sound of their steps. They were short and soft. Almost like…

"Lucy?" Natsu sat up to confirm his suspicions. Sure enough, there was Lucy standing just on the other side of his cell. He noticed that she was a bit taller and her hair was much longer.

Lucy fiddled with her gown as she looked everywhere but at Natsu.

"Hi." She greeted him shyly.

"Uh, hi." He replied. "What are you doing here?"

"I, um…I was just walking around and I thought it's been a while since I've seen you so I just…y'know."

Natsu narrowed his eyes at her. "No, I don't know. You've kinda been ignoring me for a couple years now, Lucy. You can't just come down here and act like nothing happened."

Lucy flinched visibly and tightened her grip on her gown even more. Natsu watched as her knuckles grew white, fearing that she was going to tear her clothes.

"I-I'm really sorry, Natsu. I wish I could tell you that I have a really good reason for not talking to you, but…I can't because I don't. I've just been…scared."

"Scared of what?!" Natsu snapped at her. His face fell. "Of me?"

"No! No, of course not! It really has nothing to do with you."

"Gee. Thanks."

"That's not what I-"

"Just tell me what you came down here to tell me, Lucy. Otherwise, just get out of here."

Lucy was startled by the cold way Natsu was acting towards her, but she supposed that she did deserve it.

Lucy sighed wearily. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for how I've been treating you. I should have just told you that I'd be too busy to see you sometimes instead of stopping altogether. I don't expect you to forgive me, but I just wanted to get it off my chest. If you never want to talk to me again, I'll understand."

Lucy waited a moment for Natsu to respond. He kept his face turned away from her as she spoke and his expression remained impassive. If she learned anything from people's body language, he was either thinking or pretending she wasn't there at all.

Either way, Lucy decided that he wasn't up for a conversation at the moment and began to turn to leave.

"Wait!" Natsu called out suddenly.

Lucy stopped and looked back at Natsu in surprise.

Natsu stood up from his mattress and walked closer to the bars of the cell. Lucy walked closer as well, almost magnetically gravitating towards him. Natsu fed his hand through the opening and grabbed onto Lucy's.

"He's still doing it, isn't he?" He mutter ambiguously.

Lucy furrowed her eyebrows as she attempted to decipher what he meant by that. Her eyes widened as she came to a realization. Of course Natsu would be the only one who'd be able to see through her. Through all of the makeup and the false smiles she puts on in front of others. How he did it? Lucy did not know. Perhaps she didn't put on as good of a show as she thought she did.

Lucy squeezed her eyes shut, focusing the warmth in her hand. She nodded silently.

Natsu's face hardened, though she couldn't see it. Any normal person wouldn't be able to see a difference in Lucy's features, especially in the dark. Luckily, Natsu wasn't a normal person. Without even squinting, he could see the thick layer of that dusty material Lucy liked to put on her face whenever she wanted to cover something up. The problem was that she had never used this much before.

"It's getting worse." Natsu stated. He reached up and ran a finger along her cheekbone, most of the dusty stuff came off as he did so. Underneath it was an older, yellowish bruise that she winced at when he put slight pressure on it.

Lucy watched as hatred filled Natsu's eyes and pulled away from his hand. "It's not that big of a deal, Natsu. I deserved-"

"Don't."

Lucy blinked. "What?"

"Do not say that you deserved it." Natsu hissed. "Lucy, I can't even begin to tell you how messed up this is! You can't honestly say that you deserve it every time he hits you!"

"But, I-"

"Stop making excuses for him! He's supposed to be your dad and good dads don't hit their kids for no reason!"

Lucy made a face at his statement and shook her head. "I don't want to talk about that right now. Can we just…talk about something else? Anything else."

Natsu sighed, but grudgingly gave in.

Fortunately, due to the two years they missed out on each other, they had plenty else to talk about. Natsu talked about Gray and Erza's absence and Gildarts' standoffishness. This only caused Lucy to feel even more guilt over practically pretending that he didn't exist. She honestly couldn't remember why she thought it was a good idea in the first place. Natsu was quite honestly the only one she was able to talk to about anything besides Aquarius, but even them Lucy had some limitations when it came to her nanny. Lucy was sad over the fact that both Gray and Erza's fathers died and that caused them to be reclusive. She never personally knew the men, but could relate to having a parent taken away from you despite the fact that she never even got to meet her mother.

Lucy didn't have much to speak about herself besides her lessons, but once she began talking about her birthday party, Natsu grew more interested.

"People have parties for their birthdays?" He asked curiously.

"Sometimes." Lucy shrugged. "But, for us nobles," Lucy scoffed at the word. "it's just an excuse to get together and brag to each other about our wealth. It's actually really boring."

"Did you get anything neat?"

Lucy smiled brightly and reached down into her gown to pull out her necklace. "Aquarius gave me this. She said that it was my mother's. Isn't it pretty."

Natsu didn't really care much for jewelry, for obvious reasons, but the look on Lucy's face caused him to smile as well. "That's really cool, Luce. Did you get anything else?"

Lucy wrinkled her nose. "Just a bunch of materialistic stuff from the others. Except for," Lucy reached into her pocket to pull out the canister. "this. Aquarius gave it to me, too."

Natsu stared at it in wonder. "What is it?"

"It's a film canister. But, I'm pretty sure it doesn't have film in it."

"Open it!"

Lucy looked dubious. "I don't know. Aquarius told me to only open it when I'm alone."

"You can trust me, Luce. I won't even look at it if you don't want me to."

Lucy looked over at him, finding no dishonesty. She knew she could trust him, but it was the principle of the matter. Aquarius gave her strict instructions and she didn't want to betray her trust. But, how would she be able to find out if she did open it in front of Natsu? It wasn't like Natsu had anything to gain by telling anyone what the canister held even if she was afraid she couldn't trust him. Besides, who would believe him?

Lucy shrugged to herself. What's the worst that could happen?

Having her mind made up, Lucy popped open the top and reached inside.

Oh my goodness!

What's in the film canister?

I know what y'all are thinking.

Bunny-chan, when are they going to grow the hell up? or Bunny-chan, when is Fairy Tail going to come into the equation?

Be patient, my dearies. This story is a slow burn, but we'll get to the good stuff soon enough.

Until then, please bare with me.

Until next time, my lovelies!

Kisses!

(I do not own the Fairy Tail)