It's me again! Sorry it took so long! I don't have a lot of free time to write, but I do try to get a little bit down whenever I get the chance! (whether that's during science class or not doesn't matter) I'm going to be honest and say that I had absolutely no idea how I wanted to move forward from the last chapter, so I'm starting something and I'm just going to see where it goes so bear with me!

I own nothing but the plot

XxXxX

Sarah remembers running around the gardens with Sawarr. He would get away anytime he could and run out to the gardens to where she was helping her parents out. Sawarr would grab her hand and they would sprint away laughing. Sarah wished that it could have stayed like that forever. Even when they got older, and each had their own responsibilities, they would dedicate every ounce of free time they had to each other. Sarah wished things could have stayed like that forever.

But then Lucy showed up.

When Sarah had first heard that Sawarr was going to be married to a woman that he'd only met once, she was devastated. Why is it that this Heartfillia gets to marry the man that she's been in love with since they were kids and not her? How is that fair? But she didn't say anything when he told her. The wedding would be two days after, there was nothing she could do. Sawarr seemed content with it, and arguing would only damage their relationship, so she didn't. Sarah only attended the wedding because she was required to and Sawarr would be sad if she didn't attend. She remembers looking down Isle and seeing this radiant girl in an eloquent white sleeveless dress, white gloves were pulled up past her elbows. Her blonde hair was let down around her shoulders. She was beautiful, rich and… and everything Sarah wasn't.

But… there was something in her eyes.

They were distant and fuzzy. She seemed to be taking her sweet time getting to the podium where Sawwar awaited her.

She was sad.

It took Sarah a little bit to wrap her head around it. Why would someone as privileged as her be sad? She's had everything handed to her on a silver platter… whatever, that platter was probably gold. So why was she sad?

But the more Sarah had thought about it, the more dumb she felt. There have been times where she has comforted a crying or upset Sawwar because his parents weren't paying attention to him or they won't let him do something he wants for a change. So why would this girl be any different? She's known Sawwar long enough to know that he doesn't want to do this, that it's all for his "parents sake" as he had put it, it's very possible that this Heartfillia girl is going through the same thing. From that moment Sarah had decided to be a welcoming servant the best she could. No matter how much she disliked her.

But it was hard to dislike Lucy. No matter how much Sarah wanted to.

She was kind to everyone, making sure that they were doing all right, that they had enough breaks. She did many things herself too. One thing that Lucy would do is sit by the fire in her room, even in the summer when it was scalding hot outside. She would sit there for hours. Too many times to count has Sarah walked in in the morning to find Lucy fast asleep in the armchair by the hearth, the fire reduced to embers.

"It's just a bit too big for my tastes," she would say when they asked her why she never slept in her bed. Sarah would just shake her head and place new firewood in the hearth. She never said anything because she didn't want to push her and Sawwar together and have them end up sharing the same room. Selfish, she knows, but she couldn't help it.

Lucy always wore gloves, which Sarah couldn't really understand. She understood not wanting to get your hands dirty from mud or something, but she wore them all the time. She's never seen Lucy with them off. But at this point Sarah has just accepted that the young Heartfillia daughter was a little weird. Once, Sarah had thought she heard a cow in the young duchesses room. She walked in a second later, but nothing was there. Sarah still wasn't sure whether it was her imagination or not.

They've never been close, but Sarah knows that Lucy understands the relationship that her and Sawarr have. While Lucy spends most of her time in the garden, library, and of course by the fireplace, Sarah would spend whatever time she could with Sawarr. Lucy knew to. There have been few times where Lucy had been walking in the garden, just to find Sarah and Sawarr playing in the stream. In those moments the two girls would make eye contact, and an understanding was passed between them.

She always seemed sad. She rarely laughed and even then it wasn't a real laugh. She always had this look in her eyes, like she had something only to have it ripped from her grip.

So when she heard that Lucy had run out of the ballroom crying with one of the mages that they had hired calling after her, she ran to the duchess's room as fast as she could. Sarah wasn't a runner, so she arrived in time to hear only part of the conversation.

"-that we each didn't want this… because there was someone else."

Sarah froze, stopping just around the corner. That was Sawarr talking, but what was he talking about?

"I don't get it. If you each love someone else then why are you forcing yourselves to be unhappy."

Oh, that's what.

Wait.

Wait

Is there a chance? Sarah thought, there's still a chance. Could he be… could he be talking about me?

Sarah knew that she should't get her hopes up, but she couldn't help it. When she focussed back into the conversation they were talking about something different.

"-If you used to know her, would you mind telling me why she always wears gloves?"

Hold up

WHAT

That's probably why she didn't want any Fairytail wizards. There's no doubt that they are talking about Lucy. How on earth had Lucy met Fairytail wizards. This was all getting way too complicated.

"No Natsu!" There was a thud, and Sarah risked being seen as she peeked over the corner. The pink haired mage was now unconscious on the ground. Sarah stared in shock as the redhead picked him up and flung him over her shoulder. "He wouldn't have stopped if I didn't." she says shaking her head. The red head, Erza she thought it was, started walking away. "We'll be going now." but then she paused. "You better take care of her." she threatens quietly, turning back and staring straight at Sawwar."She's family, whether she chooses to acknowledge that or not." Then she walked away.

Erza turned the corner, the other mage and flying cat followed silently after her. Sarah watched shocked as they walked right past her, too wrapped up in what happened to acknowledge her being there. Sarah didn't mind though, she herself was having a rough time wrapping her head around everything that just happened.

Sarah stayed hidden behind the corner thinking about what she had learned. Lucy knows who the Fairytail members are. Why? How? Why did she react that way?

Sarah was taken from her thoughts when Sawarr came around the corner and nearly ran into her. Sawarr looked up at her, panic evident on his face. "Uh…" Sarah stumbled, trying to think of something to say, "Hi?"

Sawarr groaned and looked towards the ceiling. "Please tell me you didn't hear any of that." Sarah just gave him a nervous smile.

"How much did you hear?" He sighed. Sarah paused before telling him everything that she had heard in the past few minutes. She avoided his eyes as she talked about what she had heard him say, a blush creeping onto her face. Sawarr sighed again when she had finished.

"Sawarr," Sarah started hesitantly after a long silence, deciding to voice the question that was haunting her, "why didn't you tell me?"

"I guess I just didn't want to ruin what we had." Sawarr gave a cold chuckle. "But then… Lucy."

Sarah looked down. Right, it always came back to Lucy. "But… Lucy has someone else too, right? Is it the pink haired one?"

"That's what I'm thinking."

"How do you feel about it?"

Sarah braced herself for the answer that he might give.

"Honestly," he started, "I'm relieved."

That was not the answer she was expecting. "What?" Sarah questioned.

"I've been married to this girl for an entire year now, both of us being in love with someone else." He looked her in the eyes, "she knew mine, and supported me, but I never knew hers, I never knew who she had to leave behind, but now I do, and I'm going to support her like she's supported me."

Sarah stared at him. What a wonderful man. "I know you will. You're a great guy Sawarr" she says. Then, with a quick peck on the cheek, Sarah rushed away down the echoey halls, leaving behind a dubstruck and red faced Duke.

XxXxX

Lucy woke up to the sound of knocking on her door.

"Miss Lucy? May I come in?" a voice sounded from the other side.

Lucy groaned and rubbed her eyes. "Yeah," she grumbled sitting up. Well trying to. Something was keeping her from getting up. She slowly opened her eyes to see a tuft of pink hair.

Wait…

Pink hair…

"Wait!" Lucy frantically yells before the maid could come in.

There was a pause on the other side of the door, "Is everything alright, miss?"

"Yeah, yeah, everythings fine! I'll… uh… I'll come down for breakfast later."

"Are you sure? I could bring something up for-"

"No, no, it's fine."

"Alright, if-if you say so."

Lucy listened for a minute, making sure that they really have left. Once she was sure that the maid was gone, she relaxed back against the boy in her bed. Lucy doesn't remember ever falling asleep, but here they were. It seems that they slid down from where they were before, though Natsu's arm was wrapped around her waist, his hand lightly resting on her stomach, holding her close to his chest.

Lucy inwardly panicked. They weren't supposed to be here, Natsu wasn't supposed to be here. It was bad enough that she had run out of the party crying with him following her, but if people found out that he had snuck into her room and slept with her, which sounds all kinds of wrong that it most definitely isn't, she would be the talk of...well… everything!

But… she was no doubt more comfortable with him in the bed then she has been in a long time. Warmth radiated off of Natsu as his arm softly tugged on Lucy's waist, pulling her closer. She could feel his heartbeat on her back. Natsu's breath tickled her ear. She hadn't realized they were so close. Natsu nuzzled his head into the back of her neck making a blush creep up after.

"Lucy…" Natsu sleepily mumbled into her ear, "stop moving around so much."

Lucy's blush deepend. He was still as oblivious to the world as ever. A year hasn't seemed to have changed that. "I-I need to get up Natsu." she stumbled.

"Hmm, can't you wait until later?"

"N-no I need to get up now."

"But Lucy…"

"Let me up."

"No."

"Come on Natsu, let me go."

No response. Just quiet snoring.

Lucy sighed, frustrated by the position that she's been put into. Honestly she didn't really want to get up, she was far too comfortable laying with Natsu, but Lucy knew that Sawarr would come knocking on her door soon to check on her because she missed breakfast.

Well, since everything else about Natsu seems the same, then…

"Natsu," Lucy said quietly, slightly turning her head so she can speak more to him. Her face was directly in front of Natsu's, 'Don't think about it Lucy,' She told herself. Then with her blush still deepening, she whispered, "How would you like to have a really big breakfast with eggs, waffles, pancakes, bac-"

Natsu shot out of the bed, looking around he said "Well what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Lucy couldn't help but chuckle at the familiarity of it all as she climbed out of the bed. She stood and looked at Natsu. It still seemed unreal that he was here… He's not supposed to be… He was never supposed to be in her room, be on the estate. He was supposed to forget about her.

Natsu noticed Lucy's smile drop as she turned away from him. "Lucy what's wrong?"

Lucy stared out onto her balcony. The window was still melted and had small creases on the side where a soft breeze blew in.

"Lucy?" Natsu walked up to the young duchess. She continued to stare out of the room. The sun was already up, the birds were finishing up their morning songs.

"You're not supposed to be here Natsu."

The dragonslayer was taken aback by this. He had thought that she was over that. He was here now, they were happy, why is she going back to forcing herself to be sad? "Well it doesn't matter anymore cause I'm here now and so is Happy, and Erza, an-"

"But you're not supposed to be!" Lucy exclaimed, turning to face him.

"Well there's nothing we can do about it now." Natsu says with a shrug. Lucy wasn't listening though, pacing back and forth in front of her window. "Uh, Lucy, you're going to make a hole in the floor if you keep pacing like that," Natsu warned.

She stopped abruptly, spinning towards Natsu. She stared into his eyes and said, "I told you to forget about me."

Was she really going to go there?

The look in her eye said yes.

Really?

…

Fine.

"And I told you that I wouldn't." Natsu countered.

"It was my last wish, all I wanted was for you and the guild to move on. It's been better with me gone. Admit it." Lucy turned away from him. She held her right hand closely.

"I can't."

"And why not?" Lucy snapped.

"Because you know I'd never lie to you Lucy," Natsu took a slow step towards her. "So you can believe me when I say that it hasn't been the same without you there." he took another step. "Levy spends more time with her books and doesn't talk about them as much." Another step. "Erza's more stiff, Gray doesn't talk to as many people." Another step. "Mira gets lonely at the bar not having anyone to talk to in the mornings." Step.

Natsu was standing directly in front of Lucy now. He stared into her chestnut eyes. They watered slightly as they stared directly back into his onyx ones. They were only inches apart.

"What about you Natsu?" Lucy whispered, her eyes demanding a response.

What about him?

Natsu knows that he hasn't been that same since she left. There weren't words to describe how badly he wanted to go back and get her. Bring her back home.

Many times when Natsu was asleep, he dreamed that he was sitting in her apartment eating her food as she came out of the shower and yelled at them for barging in again. They laughed it off and ended up having a really good time hanging out at her apartment. He would later pretend to go home, only to wait until she fell asleep to creep back through her window and slip into her bed with her.

Natsu would always wake up after this. He would run out of bed and sprint to the apartment that he had continued to pay for. Natsu would climb through the window, with hope that Lucy would be there, sound asleep as always. But she wasn't. Natsu remembers laying there, not being able to fall asleep without the presence of her by his side. Her scent was long gone and he missed it. He missed it so much.

Being able to sleep next to her last night was so relieving. He had missed her much more than he thought he had. It reminded him of something that Mira sometimes said, something about distance and growing stronger...

Without realizing it, the two bend closer, their faces inches apart. Natsu opened his mouth to answer, to tell Lucy what it had been like without her, tell her just how much he had missed going on jobs with her, her laugh, smile, even when she yelled at them for breaking into her apartment again, when there was a knock on the door.

"Lucy?" a voice sounded from the other side. Both Natsu and Lucy froze. "Lucy it's me, Sawarr."

Before Natsu could react, Lucy pushed him towards the balcony. "Just a second Sawarr!" she called behind her as she opened the partially melted balcony door. Shoving Natsu outside she said "Hurry before someone sees you." Lucy then quietly shut the door behind her and shooed Natsu away. She then pulled a curtain in front of the glass door, blocking Natsu's view.

Natsu heard Lucy open the door as Sawarr walked in. He didn't know why, but didn't like the idea of the two of them being alone together. Whether they were married or not didn't matter, Lucy hadn't even wanted to get married. It made Natsu angry every time he thought about it.

Natsu listened in on the conversation they were having. "How are you doing?" Sawarr said.

"I'm doing alright I guess," Lucy replied.

"If you want me to tell them to leave I can…" Sawarr offered.

Lucy gave a sad chuckle laugh, "You could try, but there is no doubt that they aren't going anywhere for a while."

'Well… she's not wrong.' Natsu thought. He was about to listen in again when something slammed into his back. Natsu fell to the ground, having not been prepared for the impact. "Natsu!" a whiny voice sounded from on top of him. Natsu rolled over as Happy flew off of him. "I've been looking for you everywhere!" the little blue cat exclaimed. "Erza was so mad this morning when she found out that you were gone! It was scary!"

Natsu gulped. He wanted to stay by Lucy's side, he wanted to run back in there as soon as Mr. High and Mighty Duke leaves. But Natsu also wanted to live to be able to see Lucy tomorrow. And so with that, Natsu reluctantly grabbed onto Happy as the blue cat started to fly away. "I'll come back Lucy." he whispered, turning away from the giant building.

Maybe he would survive Erza's wrath.

Maybe he could still bring Lucy back.

Maybe if he was paying closer attention, he would have noticed that Sawarr didn't smell exactly right.

XxXxX

"I can't believe we botched it!"

A group of 6 men sat around a fire in the woods. The big one was poking at the fire frustrated. They had planned it all out. No mages were supposed to be coming, but then did. And they had to be Fairytail mages! They're lucky that they got away.

"Why is it so hard to just grab some keys and kill a girl?" he boomed.

"Quiet Damion, we don't want to be found do we?" a small man with a blanket wrapped around him grumbled. "We've got everything under control now."

"But it took way too long!" the big man, Damion, whined. "Why is it so hard to get some measly keys from a little girl!"

"You said that already," the blanket man sighed.

"To answer your question Damion," a man came out of the shadows bringing a shiver down the backs of the other men. "This is a rare occurrence. A single person now holds 5 of the golden keys. All we need to do is find the keys and kill the girl. After that the keys will be ours. We can get 5 in one shot and then search for the other 7. But this is a chance that we can't let go.

"Besides, with our new ally things should be a lot easier."

The men laughed. Deep in the shadows next to the fire, a man was tied to a tree. A man who has been there since he left Lucy's room last night after returning to his own chambers. A man who is believed to be with Lucy right now.

Sawarr looked up into the sky. "Help her Natsu." he whispered. "Please."

XxXxX

Welp… That's not how I thought it would end. Oh well.

I just wanted to explain to anyone who may be confused. Lucy only has Taurus, Cancer, Sagittarius, Virgo, and Aquarius. Because the whole Leo/Loke thing happened after this, Lucy never talked to Leo so…. Yeah. Sadness. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed!