Chapter 9:
Lucy woke early the next morning. She smiled when she saw all the siblings had slept in her room with her. It was really too early to be up but she knew she wouldn't be falling back asleep anytime soon. Instead she gently pried herself from Vander's arms and snuck out. It was still too dark out to really see anything but she didn't need the sun to find her way to the ballroom. Once there she stretched a little before summoning Loke and turning on some music. They started off easy with a waltz before switching to a quickstep and then a jive. By the time they got to tango and paso doble they had an audience, but only Loke knew about it. Everyone stayed as quiet as possible so they could continue watching Lucy dance.
Foxtrot, swing, contemporary, hip hop. All followed, Lucy singing along with each song. After hip hop though Lucy's knee started bothering her so she decided to wind down. She put on "Shake Your Tail Feather" by the Blues Brothers and she and Loke just had a good time and goofed off, no routine needed. At one point she did a backbend and noticed her audience, she just smiled and waved before coming back up and finishing her dance.
"Alright Loke, one last dance? We can try to goad our audience into joining us."
Loke nodded his head and put on Walk the Moon's song "Shut up and Dance". Lucy smiled and started jumping around and singing. Eventually she gave up on the Pradesh family joining her on their own and decided to pull Vander and Bixlow out to dance with her. She would have brought them all out but she only had two hands so she would just have to settle for the two of them. Laughing Van and Bix spun her around and goofed off with her. When the song finished Lucy walked over to her stereo and sat down, turning the music off.
Virgo popped out with a bottle of pills and a brace and Lucy thanked her before sending her home.
"How long have you been watching me?"
"Since the tango. Are you alright?"
Lucy quickly swallowed her pills and slipped on her brace while answering.
"You could have let me know. I would've ended early so we could go get breakfast. And yes I'm fine."
Cris looked at her with a raised eyebrow but chose not to say anything else at the moment.
"So are y'all ready for breakfast. I was thinking about making biscuits and gravy with sausage on the side, eggs too if you want them."
"That sounds amazing, lead the way."
Lucy got up and took a step with her bad knee only to fall over.
"Oof. That hurt."
Vander quickly got her back up and Lucy thanked him before continuing with what she was doing, though he refused to leave her side.
Concerned, everyone watched as she walked past them, the slight limp not going unnoticed.
"So Mia Sorella Stella, you wanna tell me again that you're fine."
Lucy turned around to look at Cris.
"I am. There's nothing you can do about my knee, sometimes it just flares up."
Cristoff gave her a skeptical look and she sighed.
"My slight, barely noticeable limp is the result of years and years of injuries piled on top of one another. Some were allowed to heal properly and others weren't. By this point there has been too much damage done for even your incredible healing abilities to fix."
"I can still look at it and probably ease any discomfort."
Lucy sighed.
"Fine once we get to the kitchen you can look at it."
Lucy turned back around only to notice Vander was still right there.
"You can stop fretting you know. Save it for an actual injury."
"You limping does not seem fine and healthy to me starshine."
"This is nothing, this is something I have had to live with for many many years. An actual injury is when I've been kidnapped and tortured for the latest dark guild power attempt. When that happens you can fret over me all you like, but until then it is completely unnecessary."
Lucy walked past him while he and most of the other Pradesh members were slightly frozen from shock at how nonchalant she was about being kidnapped.
"You could have broken the news to them a little more gently than that Cosplayer."
Bixlow quickly caught up to the woman who just shrugged her shoulders.
"Honestly Bix I would've thought you had complained to them by now about how many times I've been kidnapped. Or they would've heard about it some other way. It's not like it's a big secret, pretty much all of Fiore knows how many times I've been kidnapped."
Bix just shrugged.
"Ehh. It never really crossed my mind. I guess it's just happened too many times to really think about it. It's just normal."
That seemed to break the others out of their shock because they quickly caught back up and started asking questions.
"What that fuck do you mean 'it's just normal'? How can someone being kidnapped just be normal?"
Lucy giggled.
"Spend enough time around me and you'll understand that it is normal for us. I get kidnapped, Fairy Tail tracks me down, and we take out another dark guild. Simple as that."
"Just how many times have you been kidnapped?"
Lucy shrugged and looked to Bix who also shrugged.
"Too many to count. I'd say the most notable ones were Phantom, and the infinity clock. Then there was that one time Hisui had her knights kidnap me. There was one time before I ran away. And then another shortly before I joined the guild. Plus countless times when Team Natsu were going on missions."
Vander looked at her like she had lost her mind.
"How can you act so calmly about being kidnapped!"
Lucy just shrugged.
"It just happens a lot, so you learn to roll with the punches and keep a level head. It was also fun learning how to pick a lock and get out of handcuffs."
Bixlow rolled his eyes
"If you wanted to learn those things I'm sure poison dick would have taught you all that and a bag of tricks."
Lucy grinned at him with a twinkle in her eye. She was about to say something when she arrived at her destination.
As everyone entered the kitchen, all but Lucy sat or stood around the bar. Lucy on the other hand started getting out ingredients and pots and bowls. As she prepped breakfast they all chatted though it wasn't about anything in particular.
Well that had been the case until she fell.
"Damnit. Stupid knee."
Lucy got back up and was about to get back to work when Cristoff appeared in front of her.
"Oh no you don't. I'm gonna take a look at that knee."
"Hmmphh"
Cristoff picked her up and set her on one of the barstools.
"I could've walked over here myself. I'm not a child."
All Cris did was grin before kneeling down to get a better look at her knee.
When he saw all the damage her knee had taken he was surprised she was able to walk at all.
"How did your knee get this bad? You shouldn't be able to walk, let alone dance."
"Like I said years and years of injury stacked on top of each other."
Figuring that the woman wasn't going to say anything unless specifically asked Farron took it upon himself to make sure they asked.
"How many times has your knee been injured, when, and how bad?"
Lucy was quiet for a minute before sighing.
"I don't even know anymore. I know I broke it at least three times before running away, all three were because of my father. Then it broke again when Gaj tortured me during Phantom and I hit it pretty hard on a rock during the Nirvana incident and again at the whole Tower of Heaven thing. Fantasia sucked and I spent the next couple weeks with minimal movement afterward. Tenrou and GMG were both pretty bad as well, though both of those times Wendy helped it heal. The worst and most recent would have to be Tartarus. It was completely shattered, ligaments and muscle torn. Then with the guild disbanding and needing to train I never let it completely heal because that would have left me a sitting duck for months. I just push through the pain. There is always an ache but I never notice it anymore. Unless I over work it or it just flares up it doesn't bother me."
After hearing about how bad it was after Tartarus Cris glared at Bix.
"Why didn't you bring her to me?"
Bix sighed. "Yeah I knew how bad her knee was after Tartarus. How bad it still is. But she refused to come to Bosco. And before you ask why I didn't have you come to her, I was watching her soul. The introduction of another dragon slayer in her life could have been catastrophic. The three she was closest too left her behind, one going as far as breaking a soul bond. I know you and I know you would've probably been able to help her in more ways than one. But she was struggling just looking at Laxus and they had already formed a kin bond. Two new dragon slayers could've broken her if she wasn't able to ease herself into it.
Trust me if I had known about her bond with Zen and that you would be siblings I would've had you come."
Lucy decided to ease things for Bixslow.
"Cris. Bix isn't at fault here. I've been in a bad place. The only way he would've gotten me to let you heal me back then was to use his Figure Eyes on me and unless I beg him to he will never attempt that on me again."
Though she had been speaking to Cris she kept her eyes on Bix. When he looked away from her she hopped up despite Cris's growling and wrapped Bix's arms around her before wrapping her own around him.
Lucy didn't say anything and neither did Bix. Bix already knew she had forgiven him and his team just like Lucy already knew he still felt guilty over it. Instead of talking about it she hugged him and then that was that.
Lucy walked back around the counter to finish up everyone's breakfast, waving everyone off when they offered to help or in Cris's case told her to sit her ass down.