XXXIX.
It was tense. That was the only thing she could conclude with any amount of assurance as she sat at the conference table quietly as Kaleb broke down the mission for each team he'd assembled based on the knowledge Lucy had surreptitiously stolen from Grendance.
The goal: Simultaneously secure five sites situated across Ishgar that held free Boscan citizens prisoner as leverage to force their loved ones into continuing to work as unquestioning Bloodhunters for the Steel Council without alarming the council members.
Not an easy task but with the insider knowledge they had, not impossible either. This plan would provide the necessary window of time needed to inform the effected Bloodhunters that their loved ones were now safe and secure before shit truly hit the fan and hopefully minimizing collateral damage.
Only then would they get a new piece of legislation introduced that required government employees in high risk positions, i.e. spies, analysts, soldiers after seeing action, ect, to undergo assessment by an independent panel of mind healers to judge their fitness to continue serving in their current capacity. The panel participants would have to be licensed healers and would have the ultimate authority to indicate whether their charge could return to serve, be reassigned or take further counseling before returning to service, or retire.
While the Steel Council Members scrambled to cover their own asses this would give key individuals in various positions of power opportunities to investigate and purge the current corruption in not only the Steel Council but in the upper echelons of the military as well causing the least amount of upset for Bosco as a whole.
After what the prior Crown Princess had done, Bosco's citizens were already nervous about their monarchy, the last thing they needed was the elected officials to prove suspect as well.
It had been unsurprising that the once Crown Princess Kurino had helped the most unsavory individuals on the Steel Council get elected and that she'd done it to cover up her own less than legal manipulations of the law in her attempts to entrap Farron Pradesh into marrying her.
She'd been obsessed with the oldest sibling of the Pradesh brood since before her induction and while Kurino was finally getting the help she'd desperately needed years ago, her fanatical morally suspect decisions were still felt everywhere she'd held previous authority.
Lucy nibbled her lip unconsciously as the meeting started to conclude constantly aware of harsh steel colored eyes boring into her. She hadn't intended to avoid a certain celestial summoner after the "incident" 4 days ago, not really, and especially not for the reasons people – mainly Kaleb and Erik – thought. It wasn't that Hestor was generally a bastard and completely underserving of an explanation into what Lucy chose to do or how she acted no matter how true those sentiments were.
Hestor was not her friend, her superior, her guildmate, her anything; full stop. He was just another man who happened to share the same magic and who happened to be acquainted with her lover, a term that she was not fully happy with, and his family. Frankly, she owed the man nothing and been more preoccupied with her own concerns than his own.
How many times has she railed against people for their assumptions about her intelligence, her personality and her capabilities as a mage all based off of their preconceived notions of her hair color and bust size? And now she'd essentially done the same thing when Hestor had confronted her and she was disgusted with her hypocrisy, was upset she'd let someone completely unrelated to her have that kind of power over her.
Though ignoring the prickly man wasn't intentional. When Lucy wasn't brooding on her slight mistake that day she was kept incredibly busy. Vander had only recently returned from his mission so she was enjoying clandestine meetings with both of the men she most desperately wanted to be with more openly in the future.
"Alright if there are no more questions you're all free to go. Just make sure to check in before you leave for your assignment." Kaleb nodded and greeted each of his mages as they exited half his mind focused on the explosive tension continuing to build up between the two mages that had yet to move noting the way Vander's eyes locked briefly with both Freed's and Lucy's before he slipped from the room.
It marveled him the way the three communicated silently without the benefits of telepathy but apparently Vander and Freed knew as well as he that this was coming, knew Hestor hated being ignored and had finally reached his limits. He also hoped they didn't go far so when Lucy inevitably broke down from Hestor's vitriol she didn't have to go far for comfort. Surreptitiously Kaleb locked eyes with Cobra.
I think this is our queue to leave.
And miss all the fun of Tink bringing your boy to heel? Hell no.
No chance of that happening. Kaleb snorted internally. As loath as I am to admit, he's going to make your girl cry, scream or all of the above.
It was Cobra's turn to roll his eye. Thousand jewels says Tink won't even raise her voice let alone shed a tear.
You're on. Kaleb settled against the wall next to his hopefully soon to be mate to watch the "festivities" secure in his opinion.
Women, in general, were far more emotional creatures and through experience the Mindbending mage has seen even the most grounded females brought to tears for any number of reasons: fright, hate, sadness, frustration, joy. Likable excitable Lucy when compared to the ice-like ill-tempered Hestor with his penchant to offend everyone around him was no contest.
Hestor's eyes narrowed on the blonde still ignoring him as if he meant less to her than the dirt on her shoe, as if he couldn't possibly pose a threat even if he tried. Fists clenched so hard he was sure to bruise Hestor stood.
"Who do you think you are?" he lashed out. "Just because you're everyone's favorite little doted on pet everywhere does not give you the right to ignore people! Especially someone better trained, better disciplined and more knowledgeable than you! I bet everything you have, everything you're known for was just handed to your silver spoon fed over indulged fat ass. All the acclaim you hold a mage? Likely only due to the spirits you hold. I bet all you ever do is stand back and make them do all the work while you pander to the masses. Tell me, who was it that actually wrote the novels you claim to have written because anyone who's met you knows you fucking aren't capable." He ranted spewing everything he thought about the woman in front of him and still she just sat there completely unaffected. What the hell was wrong with her?!
"Listen to me you cosseted little cunt!" he grabbed her chin to force her to look at him. "I'm not going to fall for your goody two shoes little ac-" Hestor's rant cut short with a hiss as he pulled back his hand, fingers pink and sensitive as if he'd been burned.
"Get over yourself asshole." Lucy stated calmly brushing her hair back standing tall and making full use of her heeled boots to look down on the man even if it was only by the scant half inch they afforded her. She'd been surprised at first that he'd actually touched her but didn't let the opportunity go to waste to gain some insight and let Gemini's magic copy the man.
Nothing he was saying was new. She'd heard it all before, was pretty sure he'd likely been assaulted with similar rhetoric for the better part of his life and was now regurgitating most of it back at her while venting his spleen. It wasn't until his grip started to hurt that she'd decided to shut him up by letting some of Loke's light magic concentrate in her chin forcing him to let go.
"The whole world doesn't revolve around you, doesn't care two shits about you, your opinion or anyone else including me and the sooner you learn to stop looking outside for acceptance the better off you'll be." Lucy turned and left the room.
She'd only stayed in the room this long because Van promised to show her something exciting if she finally let the little bastard confront her. It was hilarious that he was accusing her of being cossetted when it seemed like even one in White Sea went out of their way to make his life easier.
Honestly this whole situation was offensive. Just because they didn't understand his magic the entire guild let Hestor behave worse than Natsu did back when she first joined Fairy Tail. What would it take before Hestor finally got treated like everyone else, which was, oddly enough, all he really wanted?
What she'd gleaned briefly from Gemini's initial perusal was a tender-hearted boy completely starved for affection driven to levels of achievement based on threats. Where her father mostly ignored her after her mother died letting the private tutors and staff care for her he'd been trained so hard it was honestly surprising he hadn't been broken of his individuality completely.
Saddled with a magic common underestimated, his personality made complete sense but that didn't make the way he treated others acceptable. Honestly she wasn't sure whose response to their childhood was more destructive; Lucy's old tendency to let people walk over her in a desperate need to be accepted or his completely cutting people out by being as offensive as possible afraid to be rejected.
It was still a trial for her every day to not backslide in her behavior and hold her ground with people she considered family. The hardest lesson she'd learned over the years of being seemingly out-classed by her old team at Fairy Tail was to stand up for herself without becoming an emotional mess. It wasn't until she understood her true worth and by extension her ability to be happy with life and loved by anyone could only be achieved if she accepted and loved who she was, quirks, faults and all. That meant being who she was and standing her ground. If people couldn't accept her as she was, they weren't worth her time.
It didn't matter if people thought she was or wasn't a destructive beast, prissy, helpless damsel, crazy, ignorant, or fill-in-the-blank. At the end of the day they were going to think what they wanted no matter what she did so why should she even care. Erik, helped her with that. Lucy knew her truth and worked toward that each and every day losing no sleep to the outspoken critics of Earthland.
Hestor, on the other hand, needed to learn that not everyone was out to manipulate and use him. If he really wanted to connect with people he needed to think a little less of himself and a little more of others, needed to open up and take a chance of getting hurt knowing that even if they were different than he initially assumed, that he was - heaven forbid - wrong on occasion, or he was rejected that didn't change his value as a person or theirs.
The room was silent as Hestor stared after the frustrating woman his mind even more in chaos. She made absolutely no fucking sense to him and he was starting to think she never would. Rolling his shoulders, ignoring the three eyes watching him, Hestor walked out of the conference room heading to his rooms. He had a lot to think about and first on the list was why he even cared about Lucy's attention or opinion. Outside of what he'd seen that day, what was it about her that had him obsessing about the woman? There had to be more to it than him having his initial views of her upset by her incongruous actions. So what if she turned out different than he'd imagined her to be from the rumors and stories his spirits had told him? Why should he care if that was the real her, which was looking more and more likely from his brief one on one interactions with her, or if she really was an air-headed bimbo? He'd seen for himself that her spirits were happy and not at all mistreated.
Why did he fucking care? What the hell was wrong with him?
"Told ya." Cobra smirked wryly as he watched Kaleb transfer the jewel into his account. "You might be able to get into people's heads, Pretty Boy, but no one's soul can lie. Prickly there craves to be acknowledged as competent, powerful, and worthy like Tink is from someone like Tink. Needs it like air because of his fucked up family." Cobra openly sneered. The glimpses of the man's past hit far too close to home to be comfortable.
"I don't think it's that simple." Kaleb mused.
"It's not." Cobra looked up eye full of hidden understanding and Kaleb couldn't help but reach out and let his fingers trace the scar over his right eye ignoring that alluding comment for the moment.
"Have you thought about getting it healed or replaced with a magical implant?"
Cobra tensed slightly under such unwavering attention but decided to answer honestly. This was not just anybody who'd asked. "My magic metabolizes the drugs for sedation too quickly and the work is too intricate to do without me being in a prolonged controlled state of unconsciousness."
"I think my brother Cristoff can help with that. He has a powerful sleep spell he could use…"
"Oh?" Surprised, Cobra felt hope well up and not just because of the possibility of having his full depth perception back. The eye was more cosmetic given his abilities with sound magic. It was more about another thing, a thing he'd long since thought he'd come to terms with now potentially being fixed. If Kaleb's brother could keep him sedated there was a chance Brain cruelest injustice could be reversed… Though with a male as his prospective mate that hardly mattered now, still it would be one hell of a final fuck you.
End of Chapter
Soooooo, Lucy and Hestor finally "talk". Given this is fanfiction I'll not apologize for essentially having my way with fictional characters since that's what we all do all the time be they Mashima's creation or other well known published authors. I do try to respect their creations and I hope I'm doing that as well as making a story meaningful to people. I'm not subtle though I think I've a defter hand than Ayn Rand does...Any who's read "Atlas Shrugged" will know what I mean by that. That's not to say I think I'm even close to being as accomplished or as well written as her. I mean, the way she worked, Who is John Galt?, through the massive work shows a skill and intelligence I do not have. Full stop. It's just that, man, her philosophical and political musings in that novel were as subtle as a jackhammer to the brain yet I can't help thinking we could all use a little more of the Galts in the world today... Oh and the movie?...does not do the book justice even though the book is long and hard to read given said above comment about politics. I know I had trouble reading the freaking thing.
Wow, that was a tangent. Sorry if I lost some of you there. With the inability to get out of my apartment during the weekend I guess my brain went a little crazy... Hmmm, am I crazy if I can still recognize my behavior as out of the ordinary?
Much Love - Blas
