Hello, everyone !
I'm back with the thirty-fifth chapter :D
I hope you enjoy reading this one as well~
Disclaimer: I only own this plot
Natsu didn't join for breakfast that morning because he had a guest. Lucy had no idea who came looking for him in the morning like this, but maybe she could ask him later. A part of her protested, saying that she shouldn't pry into Natsu's personal business. But another part of her defended, saying that she had the right to ask because she was his fiancée. Besides, what she wanted to know wasn't exactly a taboo question.
Lucy shook her doubts away. She didn't want to leave any regrets for these three years, and she did have the right to ask. Besides, it's not like Natsu was obligated to answer. If Natsu didn't want to answer her, then she wouldn't pry either.
Since today was Gray's turn to supervise the railway project, Lucy decided to visit the training centre for the glass-shard project. She was heading back to her room to change her clothes when she met Natsu on the way.
"Natsu." Lucy called as her face lit up.
"Hey." Natsu walked towards Lucy and greeted her with a gentle kiss on her forehead. "Are you done with your breakfast?"
Lucy nodded. "Who was the guest that came to see you this morning?"
"Mirajane."
Lucy's face became a bit worried. "What happened? Did something happen to Lisanna?"
"On the contrary." Natsu broke into a smile. "She came here to give us good news as soon as possible."
Lucy's curiosity was intrigued. "Which is?"
"Mirajane just told me that Lisanna is going away to one of the houses owned by the Strauss family in one of the cities near the border to fully recover. She's leaving in three days."
"That's wonderful!" Lucy's face instantly beamed with relief.
"And do you know what's better?" Natsu grinned.
"What?"
"Bickslow is accompanying her." Natsu said. "For the first time ever, Lisanna didn't reject the idea either."
"They're going together?" Lucy said. "Oh, I'm so happy for them! I hope the two of them can get to know each other better!"
"This is all thanks to you." Natsu smiled as he gently rubbed Lucy's head.
"I didn't do anything."
"You managed to return Lisanna to the Lisanna we all treasure." Natsu said. "And for that, I'm forever grateful to you."
Lucy blushed in embarrassment. "I'm glad I could be of help."
Natsu gave a chaste kiss on top of her head. "By the way, are you going somewhere?"
Lucy nodded. "To the training centre for the glass-shard project."
"I'll come with you." Natsu said. "Wait, I'll change my clothes first."
"It's okay, Natsu." Lucy shook her head. "You have to monitor the gold mine today, right? I can go by my own."
Natsu was hesitant. He did have to monitor the gold mine, but he couldn't just leave Lucy going somewhere alone. The idea of not seeing her for the rest of the day didn't sit well for him.
Lucy seemed to understand Natsu's hesitancy and smiled with a soft blush coloring her cheeks. She would never get used to Natsu's sweet attention and the way he cared for her. "I'll be fine, Natsu. Besides, we do have a separate responsibility."
Natsu raised an eyebrow as the corner of his mouth was tugged upwards. "Oho… Seems like you're finally accepting the role of becoming my wife-to-be."
Lucy's blush instantly became more prominent. "I—it's not like I actually reject it…"
"Reject what?" Natsu teased.
"…That." Lucy averted her gaze away in embarrassment.
"What?"
"That."
"How am I supposed to know what you're talking about?" Natsu chuckled.
Lucy lightly hit Natsu's arm. "Don't tease me!"
"I'm not doing anything." Natsu said. "I'm just asking you a question."
Lucy mumbled something incoherent.
Natsu laughed a bit, then wrapped his arm around Lucy's waist while his other hand placed itself under her chin. "So? What exactly you don't reject?"
Lucy could never escape from Natsu's dark green eyes. One second staring at it and she found herself not being able to stop staring. Added with Natsu's warmth, his smoky smell, and his sexy voice, Lucy found herself was completely entranced and trapped.
"…Accepting my role as your wife-to-be." Lucy muttered.
Natsu's smile widened and he dipped down to claim those addicting sweet lips his fiancée possessed.
The glass-shard project was doing really well. The workers from the Sand Country were very thankful for the learning opportunity Lucy gave them. They diligently followed the training program, dedicated to polish their skills as much as possible. If these glass-shards could turn into something valuable, then the Sand Country would have an additional financial source which surely would make the country more prosperous.
However, it wasn't that easy to turn the glass-shards into something as beautiful as jewels. Lucy thought the program would be done in days or at most, weeks, but seemed like her prediction was wrong. The workers from the Sand Country clearly didn't have any basic skill to craft a jewellery, so Lucy decided to extend the program after some discussing with Gray.
Today, it was Lucy's turn to supervise the railway project. It wasn't easy to convince Natsu nor Gray to let her go alone, but Lucy could make as many reasons as she wanted to convince them. At the end, they were at loss of words and finally let her go albeit reluctantly. Natsu made a mental note to himself to never challenge Lucy into a battle of words.
Besides, he knew Lucy wouldn't back down due to her status as one of the supervisors for the railway project. Natsu knew that this was a part of her responsibility and he didn't have any right to stop her. Even though he wouldn't get to see her again for the whole day, he complied with Lucy's all sorts of reasoning.
Although if this wasn't something she had to do, Natsu would kiss her right there right then to win the argument.
Mm-hmm, Natsu did have a trump card in his hands—or more precisely, in his mouth.
So, after convincing both Natsu and Gray for the umpteenth time, Lucy was finally back at the Sand Country. She only made a brief greeting towards Scorpio and Aquarius and then headed straight to the mines. After taking a look around the half-done railway path, Lucy returned to her desk which had been set up not too far from the site.
She sat down and started to read Natsu's and Gray's previous reports. She didn't handle this project right from the start, so there were quite a lot of things she needed to catch up. She didn't stop reading the reports even when lunch time came and ate her lunch while still reading the reports. She was finally reading the last of the reports made by Natsu the day before when one of the servants from the Sand Country's palace came to her.
"Your Highness."
"Yes?" Lucy lifted her head.
"There's someone waiting for you at the palace, asking to meet you." The servant reported.
"Who is it?" Lucy asked.
"My apologies, I am not informed of that as well. But your guest said she came from the Blue Pegasus Country."
"She?" Lucy raised an eyebrow but stood up nonetheless. She put the reports down on the desk and followed the servant as they went back to the palace.
Someone from the Blue Pegasus Country? Her acquaintance from that country was only the Dreyar family. Oh, perhaps Laxus's grandmother, Rita Dreyar? Lucy was quite close to her back in the Celestial Country. Rita acted as her grandmother and sometimes also doubled as her mother. Or maybe Laxus's younger sister, Evergreen Dreyar? She was two years older than Lucy—the same age as Lisanna—and they were quite close too. Lucy saw her as a big sister figure.
The servant brought Lucy to one of the receiving rooms and opened the door. Lucy's eyes immediately caught the figure of her guest. Lucy blinked twice as her brain processed the slender figure of her guest. Like the servant said, her guest was a female. But the hair color wasn't yellow like Laxus's nor brown like Rita's or Evergreen's. It was green. The color with a shade that actually wasn't foreign for her.
You're so easy to tease, let's be friends!
Lucy's eyes widened a bit as a smile quickly formed on her face.
"Brandish!"
Brandish Spriggan turned her body around and her eyes instantly lit up upon seeing Lucy. She quickly walked over to her and hugged her.
"Lucy!" Brandish smiled. "Oh, I miss you so much!"
"I miss you too, Brandish!" Lucy smiled in Brandish's hug. "How have you been? It's been years since the last time we met!"
"Almost 11 years to be exact." Brandish let go of their hug and smiled apologetically to Lucy. "I'm sorry it took me so long to reach out to you."
Lucy shook her head. "I'm just glad you're well."
Brandish smiled and gently ran her hand on the side of Lucy's head. "I'm glad you're well too."
"Come, let's sit down and talk." Lucy said.
"You're not busy?"
"I have some free time." Lucy smiled.
Brandish smiled as well and sat down on the sofa with Lucy. The tea and the snacks had been kind-heartedly prepared by the servants of the Sand Country's palace.
Brandish was the only noble friend Lucy had ever had back in the Celestial Country. She was three years older than Lucy and both of their mothers were good friends back in the capital of the Celestial Country, before Lucy's mother—Layla—landed a job as one of the queen's personal maids. After Layla worked at the palace, she lost contact with Grammy—Brandish's mother. Not long after that, Grammy fell ill and died while Brandish was adopted by August Spriggan to be his granddaughter. August was one of the counts in the Celestial Country, but he had no family of his own.
Even though he was quite an influential figure, he was still being discriminated for being only a count. The discrimination went worse after he decided to adopt Brandish—who was known as 'some unknown girl August picked up from the streets of the capital'. He hated the way Jude ruled his country, but he still showed his support to the king. However, after Brandish was being constantly bullied and shamed by other noble children, August deemed the country was no longer suitable for Brandish to grow up in. He then decided to relocate his family to the Blue Pegasus Country.
The first time Lucy met Brandish was when August visited the palace and he brought Brandish along. Lucy was only seven years old back then. While August left Brandish in order to take care of his relocation documents, Brandish walked around a bit and met Lucy who was doing the laundry. Lucy didn't know Brandish at all, but the latter knew her. She instantly knew Lucy was Layla's daughter because she was the spitting image of her mother's best friend.
Brandish took an instant liking on Lucy, teasing her for a while to melt the awkwardness between them and eventually asking her to be friends with her to which Lucy agreed to. Ever since then, Brandish would always visit Lucy and played with her whenever she visited the palace with her grandfather. But when August's relocation documents were approved, they had to say goodbyes to each other. Brandish never exactly told Lucy where she was moving to, although she did tell her she was going to move away. And just like that, their short friendship came to an end.
However, that was only Lucy's opinion. After arriving in the Blue Pegasus Country and finally settled down, Brandish actually used every free time she got in between of her lessons as the next Countess Spriggan to find any news about Lucy. It was not easy for her because she gradually became busier and there was almost no news about Lucy. She spent almost 11 years in her attempt to reach out to Lucy again, but to no avail.
Until she met Laxus Dreyar, the next Marquess Dreyar. They accidentally met when they were attending a fundraising party in the Blue Pegasus Country and Brandish finally found out the truth of Lucy and her whereabouts from him. None of that mattered to her anyway. She genuinely loved Lucy as her friend, and she felt bad for leaving her without telling her where she was moving to. She didn't want to end their friendship in any way, which was why she did everything she could to connect with Lucy again.
And finally, all of her efforts and waiting were paid off.
"How did you find me here?" Lucy asked.
"I met Laxus on a fundraising party in the Blue Pegasus Country." Brandish answered. "He told me about the peace treaty offered by the Celestial Country, and he told me that you're currently living in the palace of the Dragon Country. So, I decided to spare some of my time to come. I met Coco there and she told me that you're in the Sand Country for the rest of the day today. And just my luck, there won't be any sandstorms today, so… Here I am."
Lucy felt moved with Brandish's efforts to look for her. "Thank you for looking for me…"
Brandish let out a little smile. She put down her teacup and cupped Lucy's cheek, a gentle smile adorned her face. "Are you okay?"
Lucy blinked in response. "As you can see."
"Lucy, I know about the truth of the peace treaty offer." Brandish confessed. "Laxus told me everything, including your identity."
Lucy's breath choked and she panicked. What if… What if Brandish decided to cut off all the ties with her due to her status? "B—Brandish, I…"
"Whoa, stop right there, silly." Brandish lightly flicked Lucy's forehead, her smiling face turned into a stern expression. Seemed like she knew what Lucy was panicking over. "I don't care what kind of background you had, you're still Lucy. That's what matters the most to me."
Lucy instantly breathed out in relief. "Brandish…"
Brandish's smile returned. "So, answer me. Are you okay?"
Lucy nodded. "I'm doing great. The Dragon Country is a very beautiful place and its people are all very wonderful."
"I'm so glad to hear that." Brandish said. Her expression then turned into a stern one again. "But, Lucy… Coco told me that you're postponing the real marriage for three years?"
Lucy nodded. "I and Natsu agreed to postpone it so that we can get to know each other better. And to be honest, I didn't know what kind of a person Natsu truly is back then. So… I agreed to postpone it because I thought I don't have to marry the rumored sadistic second prince right away."
Brandish didn't response right away. She stared at Lucy for a few more seconds, before letting out a small scoff.
"Those are might be the reasons you told Coco, but you can't fool me." Brandish said as she took Lucy's hands into hers and gently squeezed it. "Tell me, Lucy. There's another reason—the real reason—why you agreed to postpone the marriage for three years, isn't it?"
Lucy instantly stared at Brandish in silence, she suddenly couldn't find her voice. How did… How did Brandish know?
"I know you long enough to read your mind." Brandish said, as if she could really read Lucy's mind. "You're such a smart kid, I know that from the very first time we met. It's impossible that smart brain of yours would agree to postpone the arranged marriage for three years just for getting to know your partner better."
Lucy's breath hitched. She had never thought there would be someone who can read through her. Staring back at Brandish's stern eyes and feeling her warm hands made something deep within Lucy's heart burst. Tears started to trickle down from her eyes and Brandish readily pulled Lucy into her hug.
A second later, Lucy told Brandish everything. Including the real reason why she agreed to postpone the marriage, something which she originally thought she would never tell to anyone else.
There !
I've been aching to write down this scene of Brandish and Lucy ! I actually really like their friendship and I hope to see more of it in the manga :D
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