Chapter 25
Lucy Heartfilia stretched as she walked barefoot down the marble stairs in her pajamas, yawning slightly while making her way to the breakfast table. Fatigue had really caught up to her over the course of the events of the last few weeks and endless amount of paperwork.
"Morning, Luce," Natsu greeted sleepily when she finally reached the kitchen, placing a kiss on her cheek.
"Morning, sleepyhead," she giggled as she took the seat beside him, ruffling his tuft of pink hair, "I'm surprised you woke up before me."
"Well, I couldn't sleep last night," he admitted, "I had way too much energy."
"That's why you should tire yourself out instead of sleeping all day," Lucy suggested, Natsu waving her off just as breakfast was served to them. Nothing ever seemed to tire him out.
"Good morning, Natsu, Lucy," Igneel greeted as he walked into the room, already formally dressed in his business attire and ready for work.
"Good morning," the couple chorused while munching on the meal that had been prepared for them.
"Oh, and Lucy," the businessman recalled while setting his briefcase on the table to give her the information she had received, "I got a call last night from your father. Apparently, you have a visitor coming over today."
"A visitor?" the blonde inquired, turning to Natsu, "Did you know about this?" He merely shook his head.
"She introduced herself as Sherry," the redhead explained as he leaned against the table, "and she said she was coming to visit you since she was in town, and because she says you never keep her updated with anything."
"Oh," the heiress said flatly with a bored face, "It's just Sherry."
"Well, now that I've given you that piece of information," Igneel grunted, picking his briefcase back up and walking out of the room, "I'm off to work!"
"Wait, old man," Natsu called out, his father stopping to look at him, "don't you want to stay for breakfast?"
"I already had breakfast a long time ago, Natsu," his father laughed as he waved goodbye, "It's just that you and Lucy wake up so late on your days off. Sometimes, I wonder if you two are doing something at night, if you know what I mean. Though, I wouldn't mind seeing grandchildren soon."
His statement made Natsu and Lucy turn bright red, making Igneel's hair pale in comparison. Chuckling to himself, he examined the looks on their faces.
"W-Well," his son sputtered uncontrollably, "s-stop assuming t-things!"
"We aren't doing anything, Igneel, I swear," Lucy rambled on in a state of shock, "Natsu and I aren't like that. I mean, we're not even married yet! Why would you think—"
"I'm just kidding," the businessman chortled, "but still, thanks for the laugh. I'll see you two later."
"Bye, Igneel," the blonde waved off, deadpan.
"Bye, Dad," the heir mumbled, his cheeks now the same color as his hair.
"Don't try anything while I'm gone," he warned jokingly, "or else what you've said to me right now will be a lie."
"IGNEEL!"
Walking out of the house without even getting a goodbye, Igneel couldn't stop laughing to himself. He was still laughing even when he got into his car to head off to work.
"Is everything alright, sir?" Gray questioned with a quirked brow after letting his boss into the limousine, closing Igneel's car door and then walking around to his driver's seat.
"Everything's just fine, Gray," the businessman replied with a grin when the ink-haired male sat down, "It couldn't get any better."
Who knew his son and future daughter-in-law could be so entertaining?
-X-
"Are you sure you didn't know Sherry was coming today?" Lucy interrogated for probably the fifth time that morning.
"Yes," Natsu grunted in frustration while rubbing his temples since he was already sick and tired of her frequent questioning, "I'm sure. And what's so bad about this Sherry, anyway? You've never talked to me about her before."
"That's because I don't want to talk about her," his fiancée gritted through her teeth, sighing shortly afterwards, "Sherry is my cousin, and I'll tell you right now: she's such a snob. I hate her. Once she visits, Natsu, she will look at anything and everything just to find something of yours to look down upon and criticize. She looks down upon everyone no matter the social ranking, not to mention she gets on my nerves every time something comes out of that mouth of hers."
"Well, then, why don't you just tell her she bothers you, and that you dislike her?" the pinkette suggested, "I bet she'll be nicer to you if you just tell her how you feel."
"It's not that easy, Natsu," the blonde explained, "You see, Sherry can manipulate her father quite easily. If I said something like that to her, most likely she will force him to cut ties with my father and me, and I couldn't do that to my father. Him and Sherry's father are quite close."
"Oh," the heir spoke in realization as his lips forming the 'o' shape, "so that's how it is. No worries, Lucy! I'll do everything I can to help you!"
"You will?" she gasped with excitement, "Oh, thank you, Natsu! You're the best!"
"Anything for you," he added with a smile, causing Lucy to smile back.
Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, Lucy pecked his lips before going back upstairs to dress up for the arrival of their unwanted visitor.
-X-
"Are you ready to see your cousin again?" Natsu asked as the couple sat on one of the couches in the living room, waiting for Sherry to arrive. He squeezed Lucy's hand gently, warmth radiating from his own as the blonde smiled unsurely at him.
"I guess," she sighed, "I have no other choice, do I?"
"You really don't," her fiancé admitted honestly before yelling to the entire house, "OKAY, EVERYONE! WE'VE BEEN OVER THIS! DON'T DO ANYTHING WEIRD!"
"Says you!" Gray retorted loudly from the top of the staircase, "You're the one yelling to the entire household to stop being weird when you're probably the weirdest one here!"
"Come down here and say that to my face, Gray!" the pinkette challenged.
"Gladly!" said male accepted until Lucy stopped him from even going down the stairs.
"ENOUGH!" she screamed at the two of them, "I don't need you two fighting any longer! Sherry is going to be here any minute, and if she walks into this room this very second to see you two fighting, who knows what she'll do?!"
"Sorry, Lucy," they mumbled together.
"And Natsu," Lucy hesitantly warned, "don't be surprised if she's mistaken you for one of your staff more than once. Also, no yelling."
"Why would she do that?" Natsu questioned and was slightly offended, "Does she live under a rock or something? Everyone in the business world knows who I am!"
"She could honestly care less," she added.
"What kind of rude stuck-up is this girl?!" the heir growled.
Lucy opened her mouth to reply when suddenly the doorbell to the Dragneel estate rang, causing her to freeze. Slowly, she walked over to the door and opened it to reveal a girl with dark pink hair and blue eyes, her hair left down and outfit that looked so expensive that she almost looked like a model that came right out of a fashion magazine.
"Lucy," the girl huffed when she finally saw the blonde, "the service here is terrible! How do you live like this!?"
Not even one single hello.
"I guess this is my life now, Sherry," the blonde sarcastically, "I must be so used to the place I never noticed just exactly how bad the service was."
Obviously, Sherry didn't notice Lucy's hint of sarcasm.
"Oh, Lucy, you poor, poor thing," the pinkette consoled as she shoved her way past the blonde and into the house, Lucy gawking at her for being so rude. Hadn't her father taught her anything about being etiquette?
Examining the mansion in almost a disgusted manner, Sherry scoffed seeing how simple the interior design of the estate was.
As Lucy closed the door behind them, she fought the urge to throw a punch square into Sherry's heavily placed-on makeup face. Her fists were curled balls that fell to her sides, and a scowl was starting to form on her pretty features.
"It's quite simple in here," Sherry pointed out as she faced Lucy, Lucy immediately relaxing and smiling as if she hadn't been wanting to plant one of her fists into the pinkette's face and Lucy kick her off the property.
"Well, it makes it easier to clean instead of having fancy and expensive pieces," Lucy explained with a small laugh at the end, "Actually, the staff and the Dragneels are quite destructive themselves, so it's best to keep everything simple since a lot of things are destroyed."
"Oh, really?" the pinkette questioned with a disapproving click of her tongue, "The Dragneels really need to get a better staff, then."
With that, it was now Natsu's turn to become infuriated.
"What's wrong with the staff here?" he snapped sharply much to the shock of both Sherry and Lucy, "I'll have you know they clean very well, and are probably the best friends you could ever have."
"Um, excuse me, Lucy," the blonde's cousin asked with disgust, "but who is this man, and why does he think he has the right authority to even speak to me?"
Clenching his fist, Natsu was about to say some very unpleasant words right then and there, but Lucy held him back. Nervously laughing, she gestured over to her fiancé.
"Sherry, meet Natsu," she introduced vice versa, "Natsu, meet Sherry."
"Hello, Natsu," Sherry greeted with a smile as she held out her hand. Hesitantly, Natsu took it, but then, immediately regretted it hearing her next sentence. "Now, why don't you run along and go back to your job? This place needs some major upgrades, anyway."
"Well, you see, Sherry, I think that you—"
Immediately clamping her hand over his mouth, Lucy prevented Natsu from speaking as much as possible. She let out sigh of relief followed by another nervous laugh.
"What he meant to say was," she explained, "that Natsu doesn't actually work here. He's my—he's my fiancé, actually."
"Him?" Sherry laughed, "Are you sure he's a Dragneel? And that he's your fiancée? I thought he would be more handsome like Ren. My husband, Lucy. Did you here that? I repeat, my husband."
"Sherry! You sound just like Aquarius, and honestly, I don't care that you have a husband! I'm getting married soon, anyways," Lucy chided, "And don't insult Natsu when he hasn't even done anything! And why would you say such mean things to his face!?"
"Why?" her cousin sneered, "Is there a problem, Lucy? You always used to agree with me. So why don't you be a good little girl and agree with me again? Unless, you want me to call your father and tell him how bad of a little cousin you're being."
"I'm not a little girl," the heiress stated as calmly as she could, "and you don't control my actions, Sherry."
"Well, you don't have to be so rude about it," she scoffed harshly, making Lucy gawk at her. After that, Sherry plastered another face-splitting grin on her face, "Now, why don't you show me around? I would love a tour of this...lovely estate of yours."
"Fine by me," Lucy grumbled, "Just don't make anymore comments about the interior design."
"Okay," the pinkette responded, "but I can't exactly promise anything."
Lucy was seriously starting to wonder about her life choices at this moment. She let out an exasperated sigh before motioning for Sherry and a very agitated Natsu to come follow her as she showed her cousin around the house, trying her best to ignore the constant whining, complaining, and criticism that seemed to come out of her mouth every five seconds.
"This is your wardrobe now, Lucy?" Sherry gasped as she peeked into Lucy's closet, checking out everything from Lucy's outfits to her underwear (much to Lucy's dismay) to her jewelry, "What happened to all of your expensive dresses? I loved them!"
"Fancy dresses have never exactly been my style," the heiress confessed.
"What about your father?" her cousin questioned, "What would he say about you?"
"He's perfectly content with the way I am," she huffed—annoyed—while she crossed her arms.
She was glad Natsu hadn't lost his temper, yet. Otherwise, Sherry would have been long gone by now.
"Are you staying for dinner?" Lucy asked after a moment of silence in the hopes that she would stay no.
"Of course I am!" she responded, "I would love to know about the plans for your wedding, too."
"Oh, okay," the blonde spoke with a fake smile in a disappointed tone, "Sure."
Why couldn't she just leave already and stop ruining her life!?
-X-
"I can't believe you would invite these lower-class servants of yours to the dinner table," Sherry scoffed in disgust as her eyes flitted from person to person, stopping at Natsu, Gajeel, and Gray with wide eyes as she watched them stuff as much food as they wanted into their faces before turning her head away, "Don't you have a separate table for them? Or let them eat in the kitchen? I mean, look at them, Lucy! Some of them are still in their uniforms!"
"It doesn't matter who they are," Lucy countered as she poked at her dinner, "We all eat together, so no one feels left out. It's only fair."
"This—this is so wrong," the pinkette disapproved with a shake of the head, "I don't know what happened to you, Lucy. Were you always like this?"
"Yes," the agitated blonde responded, "even back when I was living with my father, we let our staff eat with us. It was only when you came to visit when they would eat somewhere else, and it was only because your father requested it since you despise the presence of them."
"Really?" her fiancé chimed in with a scowl, "You despise the people that work for you? Even if they do all of your cooking and cleaning, you don't even appreciate them a single bit?"
"Why should I, Dragneel?" she challenged, "I pay them to work, not to praise them. They should be grateful I'm giving them a job, anyway. I could care less about them."
"But that's the point!" a fed-up Natsu shouted, standing up from his chair and pounding his fist into the table to everyone's shock, "You have no respect for anything but yourself, do you? I know Lucy told me not to lose my temper, but after this, for sure, you've made me lose it! I can't stand the fact that you criticize everything they do even though they put all of the hard work and effort into making our lives better, but what I really can't stand is why you would insult my friends because of their social status! It doesn't matter to me of what they look like; I don't care if they're rich or poor, but you should learn how to respect people no matter who they are!"
With his breathing heavy, Natsu looked around the table to see they were all staring at him with wide eyes. Erza, Mirajane, and a few others still had their fists curled in their laps, Levy looked like she was going to cry, and Gray looked down and tried to avoid the situation altogether.
"Lucy!" Sherry screamed angrily to her blonde cousin, "Are you going to let him speak to me this way?"
All eyes were now on Lucy. Her chocolate orbs flitted from Natsu's cold and unforgiving stare to Sherry's demanding one multiple times before she blinked. Natsu was right; why was she always so scared to tell Sherry how she really felt?
"Yes, I am," she replied, causing Sherry to fume, "because he's right, Sherry. I might have been scared to confront you in the past, but I'm not now. The reason I never invite you or tell you about anything is because every time, you always end up hurting someone I care about. You look down upon everything, as if the world revolved around your fingertips and at your command. I never tell you this because I can predict pretty damn well how you're going to take this. And for once, actually, I don't care! I thought not telling you this would preserve the friendships of our fathers, but I guess it's only now I realize I'm just hurting myself."
"Lucy—" Sherry croaked, "How could you not tell me this?"
"Because look at you!" the blonde pointed out, "You're selfish, manipulative, disrespectful, and spoiled! I'm sorry to insult you, but you should really know what your own medicine tastes like!"
"Lucy," her cousin snapped, "I can't believe you would talk to me this way! Don't you know how hard it is to be me!? Don't be an ungrateful little brat!"
"Because it must be so hard to be you," Natsu retorted with his arms crossed, "Do you go to work heading a ginormous business like Lucy almost everyday? Do you come so tired you can barely make it to your bed? Have you lived a childhood of neglect and only recently made amends with your father? Because I highly doubt it!"
And for once, Sherry had no words. She gaped at Natsu for a while before becoming angry, standing up, and stomping her way to the front door.
"You're fiancé is so mean to me, Lucy!" she screamed, "Don't be surprised if I'm not at your wedding, because I won't be!"
"I'll be happier if you weren't there!" Lucy yelled back from the dinner table, causing Sherry to let out a frustrated grunt before slamming the front door behind her.
Once they were sure she was gone, Lucy let out a laugh, covering her face with her hands.
"I'm just curious," Gray questioned, "but is she really older than you? She kept calling you 'little' a while ago."
"She is," she responded, "but only by a few months or so. Although, she acts as if she's my mother."
"Your cousin is really something," Erza chuckled, "Are you sure you're related?"
"Sadly, we are," the heiress laughed before becoming serious once again, "but really, thank you guys for putting up with her the whole day. I know it must've been hard. I'm really sorry about that."
"It's okay, Lucy," Lisanna assured, "As long as you won't turn out like that."
"Trust me, I won't," she guaranteed as she stood up and walked over to the other side of the table where Natsu was sitting at. Wrapping her arms around him, she leaned into the crook of his neck, "I'll have Natsu to make sure I won't."
-X-
"I'm proud of you, Lucy," Natsu declared as he walked over to their bed where Lucy was lying, "It feels good to tell what your feeling, doesn't it?"
"It does," his fiancée agreed as she scooted over to make room for him, "It feels good to finally get that of my chest. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted."
"Well, that's good," the pinkette spoke as he kissed her cheek, "but next time, don't be afraid to tell me when something's wrong."
"I will if you agree to do the same," Lucy offered.
"Deal," the heir accepted as he turned the lights off, "Goodnight, Lucy."
"Goodnight, Natsu."
"I love you."
"I love you, too."
And hopefully, they'll keep their promise. But for now, Natsu will go to the ends of the earth to protect and defend Lucy.
His Lucy.
Author's Note: Hi! Sorry I didn't update last week. I needed a break, and I wanted to enjoy what's left of my summer. I start school in three days from now. :(
Since I'll be starting school, I'm going to have to move the updates to every two weeks. This school year is a really important year for me, and I'm going to be really busy, so I hope you guys can understand.
I love how more towards the beginning of this story I said it would probably around twenty chapters long. I was so wrong. XD
Just a heads up, this story will probably be ending at about chapter thirty-five or less (or more; you get the drift). So, I hope you can enjoy this while it lasts.
And for the reviewers on the last chapter: I don't know how Juvia managed to knock out Gray with a snowball, but I just imagined how angry she would get, so...one thing led to another.
Don't forget to leave a review, follow, and favorite!
See you next time!