Hello hello hellooo! Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving and stuffed themselves full with turkey and rolls and mashed potatoes and then dessert! If not, well… at least you have Christmas (or whatever you may celebrate).
S/O to Karih2012- I'm only a little obsessed with writing this, I swear.
Now, on to the chapter- did I mention it was Chapter 21? If I haven't, it is. Just sayin'. Chapter 21.
Gray looked over to Juvia. Then back down to the man who lay at her feet, bleeding and curled in the fetal position. And back to Juvia.
She calmly continued to file her nails.
"That was… unexpected." He glanced at her to see her reaction, or even if she would have one.
"I wanted my nail file back." One perfectly manicured nail was held up for inspection.
The man on the ground groaned and rolled over onto his stomach. "I think you succeeded." Blood dribbled out of his mouth.
Juvia made a small sniff and moved onto the left hand.
"So, uh, about this new information…"
"What of it?"
"Aren't we going to do anything?" Disbelief colored his voice.
The nail file stopped mid-scrape. "What exactly do you propose we do? I don't believe we have many options in this situation."
That was a very good- not to mention true- point. "We can't do nothing!"
"We won't be." She sighed and stared at her nail file, as if it could give an answer. She looked just a little bit lost, and it wasn't an expression he'd ever seen on her. He decided he didn't like it.
"What then? We just go along with their-"
"We do what we have to," She snapped. "And we stick to the plan."
He stalked over to her and snatched the file away. "But it's not our plan!"
"It is now!" A large breath entered and exited her lungs, making her chest rise and fall deeply. "I know it's a lot to take in, and I know it's not what we originally planned, but things have changed! We have different variables now, more variables, and so we need a new equation."
"It's not the equation I don't like- it's the variables." It was pouting, what he was doing, and he knew it. He still couldn't help it. Stupid variables. He never liked math anyway.
Daggers flew out of her eyes and pinned him against a tree. "B-but I'm sure I can learn to tolerate them!"
A pleased smile crossed her face and she held her hand out. The nail file was quickly placed back in her palm. "Thank you. Besides, we were ultimately working towards the same goal; now we merely work together towards that goal instead of separately. Perhaps this is a gift in disguise."
Gray looked around and wrinkled his noise. "Disguised in blood, maybe."
"There is a price for everything. Nothing comes free in this life, we both know that." Though her words indicated otherwise, her eyes still held regret when she looked at the bodies littering the ground.
"Yeah. I know." The nail file scraped against her nail again, and he spied a small drop of blood on the top right corner. "But sometimes I wish I didn't."
Jessica looked down at the letter in disbelief. She couldn't- what was this?
How dare he!
She'd given him everything, everything! How dare he throw her generosity back in her face? If it weren't for her, he'd still be wasting away in some gutter. He'd be digging through trash, begging for food. He'd be wearing rags instead of armor, sporting ragged holes instead of shining medals.
This wouldn't do. It wouldn't do at all.
If that little ingrate thought that he could just turncoat on her like this, then he was wrong.
Anyone else would have passed him by, ignored his desperate cries. She hadn't though, no, she'd been smarter. Where others saw premature failure, she saw potential. She took him off the streets, cleaned him up, and taught him how to be strong.
Those who had originally scoffed at her soon realized their mistake. The higher her boy rose through the ranks of society, the more they flocked to her.
If he thought she would take this laying down, that she would just accept this and move on, then he was wrong. Dead. Fucking. Wrong.
He couldn't do this to her and get away with it. She'd considered him her brother, her only family. She'd loved him as her own.
Her eyes scanned the letter again, growing angrier with every word.
That ungrateful little shi-
No.
Stop.
Real women didn't cry, they got even. Wasn't that what her own mother had told her? And it had held up before, it would hold true now.
This would happen, whether she had his help or not.
Lucy nodded her head. "I swear she did. It was so weird."
She'd just finished recounting her story to Natsu and her and Yukino's conversation in the dressing room. Originally, she hadn't meant to tell Natsu about it. It hadn't much to do with him, and she'd pushed it to the back of her mind as just a strange occurrence.
Perhaps Yukino had just been a bit freaked out by the thought of pretending to be a royal fiancé, maybe she'd been stressed out before and this acting job had broken the proverbial camel's back, it was possible she had had a bad marriage experience before. All plausible excuses. All perfectly acceptable.
But two days later, the conversation was still rattling around in her head. It would pop up randomly, little phrases and sentences.
So when Natsu came in and started talking to her about some random discussion he and a kitchen girl had, she followed up by telling him about hers. They were about evenly matched in strangeness.
Actually, they were about evenly matched in everything. Natsu had gone into the kitchens to 'sample' the wedding cake choices, and some kitchen girl had started randomly talking to him, asking about 'his girl.' Apparently, this was Lucy. In the middle of their chat, the girl started screaming and then walked out suddenly.
Natsu lost his appetite after that and went back to his room, where he found Lucy and promptly told her everything. She in turn told him about her encounter a few days ago. They both sagely commented on how freakish people were becoming.
"Why can't people be more normal, like us?" Natsu looked up from rolling cake on Happy's whiskers.
"Who knows." Lucy took a bite of red velvet before handing it over to him.
He scooped up some cake and icing and covered another whisker. "Maybe we were sent from the future to show people what sophistication is supposed to be like." Leaning back to examine his work, he frowned. "Pass the toasted coconut, please."
After eating some of the browned topping she complied. "Sounds plausible."
Two more cake samples later and Natsu was running out of whiskers. "What exactly are we doing?"
"Tasting cake samples." He looked at her strangely. "Duh."
"By putting them on Happy?" The German chocolate was a bit too rich for her tastes, though Natsu seemed to like it.
Happy meowed and licked a slice of yellow cake nearby. "I have to make sure that Happy likes them too! After all, how bad would it be if we got this big, nice cake and it clashed with his fur?" He pushed the marshmallow forward for inspection. "You should understand, you're always talking about color coordination."
"There's a difference between color coordination and cake-and-fur coordination." The plain vanilla was too bland. "I think we've crossed that line." Maybe it needed a different filling?
"Nah." His eyes narrowed as he scrutinized his work. Happy sat patiently, occasionally taking a quick swipe of his whiskers. "Alright, I think I've got this figured out."
Lucy scooted closer and tried not to upset any of the precariously placed cake plates on his bed. Of all the places for this experiment…
"Okay, so here we have the top contenders." He pointed to each whisker as he listed the flavors. "Red velvet, coconut, German chocolate, yellow, vanilla, marbled, raspberry, almond, and lemon."
"Happy only has nine whiskers?"
"What? I guess so. Why does it matter?"
"I thought cats had to have an even number of whiskers." She pulled Happy over to her lap and examined his head. "Now that I think about it, his ears look a little off-kilter too."
"Hey!" Natsu gently pulled him back to the middle of the bedspread. "Less cat bashing, more cake deciding."
She rolled her eyes and huffed. "Fine. What do you think of the top nine contenders?"
"Red velvet is gross and looks awful against blue fur." He stuck out his tongue and gagged.
"Duly noted." Lucy cleaned off the red velvet whisker with a rag.
"The coconut tastes okay, but has a weird aftertaste. Aftertastes are gross." Lucy nodded and wiped that whisker off too.
"Vanilla and lemon are too boring, but raspberry is too exciting. It made my mouth numb." Three more whiskers were cleaned and freed of cake.
He contemplated almond for a seconds longer before nixing it. After another swipe of the rag, there were only four flavors left: the German chocolate, yellow, marbled, and lemon.
"I don't know… what do you think Luce?" He fluffed Happy's whiskers.
"You already know I don't like the German chocolate, and the lemon's too tart for me. I like the yellow and marble, though." She took another bite of the two to emphasize her point.
"Yeah, the lemon does kinda suck, huh? Okay, that one's officially out." Three flavors left.
They tasted the other three again and tried to pick out the best piece.
"I thought that-" Lucy swallowed the chocolate, "this was already done. Wasn't the cake already decided on?"
"Mf-hm." He smacked his lips and mumbled around a mouthful of marble. "Ma'hl af die."
She assumed he meant, 'marble is dry,' and went from there. "Chocolate and yellow, then."
Natsu swallowed. "I like 'em both. And it was, but then the chefs called me down to taste it and…"
"You didn't like it, huh?"
"It was awful." He stated bluntly. "So I told them I'd pick something out myself and have the winner back to them by tonight. Hence this," His arms swept out to encompass the bed and all its current sugary occupants.
It made sense, she supposed. Natsu had kind of a unique taste, something most people (outside of his family that was) didn't get. It had even taken her awhile to understand it.
"Okay, enough procrastination. Which one do you want?" She held up the two flavors, one in each hand. "German chocolate," The left hand rose, "or yellow cake?" The right hand rose.
"Uh, I don't know." He bit his lip. "I like the German chocolate, but you like the yellow." Flashes of white peeked out from his mouth as he gnawed.
Lucy held out her left hand. "It doesn't matter which one I like- it's your wedding. German chocolate it is, then." She went to set the plates down, but Natsu stopped her.
"You're right, it is. The problem is, I don't want it. I don't want any of it. But you know what I do want?" He leaned forward until their foreheads touched. "You. So forgive me if I try to incorporate as much of you as I can, but I have to. 'Cause I'm pretty sure that's the only way I'm gonna be able to get through this." He leaned back and took her right hand, raising it slightly.
She looked at him and smiled. "Yellow, then."
And end scene. It's shorter than some of the other chapters, I know, and sorry 'bout that.
Some things for this chapter:
#1. NALU ALL THE WAY! Sorry, had to get that out first. Back to the topic at hand. Yes, there was some slight Natsu x Lucy in this chapter, though it wasn't very much. I was hoping to convey the fact that they were growing even closer, and I hope I managed it. If not, sad face.
#2. If you don't understand what exactly happened to or is happening with Gray and Juvia, then that's okay. More than okay, since I didn't want to give too much away anyway. Don't worry, more will be explained later (hopefully in a more coherent way).
#3. Yes, yes, I know, CLICHÉ. Jessica gets a letter (I'm fond of those, aren't I?) and gets all mad and weird and typical-evil-villain. Please, stick with it here. Try to get past it.
Characters we've met so far:
Lucy Heartfilia- Daughter of Jude and Layla Heartfilia, only child. Lady of Magnolia. Engaged to Natsu Dragneel, First Crown Prince of Fiore. Assistant/ wedding planner to Natsu Dragneel, First Crown Prince of Fiore. Living.
Levy McGarden- Orphaned only child. Employed by Jude Heartfilia. Companion to Lady Lucy Heartfilia. Living.
Juvia Lockser- Orphaned only child of Jose Porla and OC. Employed by Jude Heartfilia. Companion to Lady Lucy Heartfilia. Assistant/wedding preparations fetcher to Gray Fullbuster- Dragneel, Third Crown Prince of Fiore. Living.
Jude Heartfilia- Husband to Layla Heartfilia, father to Lucy Heartfilia. Lord of Magnolia. Living.
Layla Heartfilia- Wife to Jude Heartfilia, mother to Lucy Heartfilia. Lady of Magnolia. Deceased.
Jose Porla- Father to Juvia Lockser. Deceased.
Erza Scarlet- Orphaned adopted only child of Grandpa Rob. Former Royal Army soldier. First Bodyguard to Lady Lucy Heartfilia. Living.
Natsu Dragneel- Second son of Igneel Dragneel, King of Fiore, and OC. First Crown Prince of Fiore. Engaged to Lucy Heartfilia, Lady of Magnolia. Living.
Gajeel Redfox-Dragneel- First son of Igneel Dragneel, King of Fiore, and OC. Second Crown Prince of Fiore. Escort to the Royal Search Party. Living.
Gray Fullbuster-Dragneel- Third son of Igneel Dragneel, King of Fiore, and OC. Third Crown Prince of Fiore. Assistant/ wedding preparations fetcher to Natsu Dragneel, First Crown Prince of Fiore. Living.
Jellal Fernandes- Supreme Commander of the Royal Army of Fiore. Head of the Royal Search Party. Living.
Happy- Pet to Natsu Dragneel, First Crown Prince of Fiore. Breed: Exceed. Color: Blue. Living.
Jet- Castle runner/messenger. Living.
Droy- Castle runner/messenger. Living.
Mr. Sakinawa- Husband to OC. Owner of a flower shop in Fiore. Living.
Wendy- Assistant at a fabric shop in Fiore. Employed by Lacy. Living.
Lacy- Owner of a fabric shop in Fiore. Living.
The Lookalike Leader- Owner of a glass shop in Fiore. Supposedly living. Undetermined if she and her employees are actually robots.
The Cleaning Clones- Employees of the Lookalike Leader. Employed at a glass shop in Fiore. Supposedly living. Undetermined if they and their boss are actually robots.
Oliver Cottonwood- Right hand man to Erza Scarlet. Bodyguard to Lady Lucy Heartfilia. Living.
The Belkbroth family- Two men and one woman that have some medical association and are employed occasionally by the royal family. Living.
Nurse Welde- a nurse in the Royal Infirmary.
Lily- Pet to Gajeel Redfox-Dragneel, Second Crown Prince of Fiore. Breed: Exceed. Color: Black and white. Living.
Marie- Servant in the Dragneel Royal Castle. Best friends with Katie. Dislikes Jessica. Living.
Katie- Servant in the Dragneel Royal Castle. Best friends with Marie. Got her job by sleeping with Henry. Dislikes Jessica. Living.
Jessica- Servant in the Dragneel Royal Castle. Unknown: background, history, family, friends, past jobs, how she gained her current position of employment. Living.
Henry- Head of the kitchen staff in the Dragneel Royal Castle. Is known to give positions to those who sleep with him (Katie is included in that not-very-exclusive list). Living.
Anthony- Soldier employed by the Royal Army of Fiore. Living.
Yukino- Woman from Sabertooth currently employed by the Dragneel family to act as a stand-in fake fiancé until Natsu's real fiancé can be recovered. Living.