Chapter 7: The Truth (Part 2)

As the sun began to set, the two teens decided they should make their ways home.

"Okay, well, it was really fun today talking with you," Natsu said, rubbing his neck.

Lucy shifted on her feet, hands clasped together, "Yeah, it was a lot of fun, ya know, after the whole meeting debacle," She stopped moving, remembering that her father is probably only home right now, and will lecture her as soon as she walks through the door. That's the only time he's ever there, "Actually, I'm not sure I want to go home," She said, rolling her head back and groaning.

Natsu chuckled and said, "I mean, you could come to mine since we're engaged and all," he winked, "But I think you should probably go talk to your old man," he said, offering her a sympathetic smile, "Talking is better than allowing shit to fester, ya know?"

"I could say the same to you," she joked, "You did only find out about me this morning,"

"Well, I feel like I could do a lot worse than a beautiful Fairy Princess, and you definitely could've done better than an idiot Dragon Prince," he thought for a second, "But I will talk to him later, I do have a few questions,"

Lucy heaved a big sigh, "Well, we should get going, it's getting dark," but before she could leave the alley, Natsu's hand grabbed her arm, lightly, to stop her.

Not looking her directly in her eyes, he said, "Hey, promise me next time, we'll fly together?" He sounded so unsure, but the fact that there was a next time made Lucy ecstatic.

"I guess," she said, hoping he'd eventually forget.

He finally looked her in the eye, "Awesome."

And with that, she started the walk home. I may have flown here, but I was in a hurry. No hurry to get home right now. She heard a loud whoosh behind her and turned in time to see Natsu's wings rip through the air with such force there was wind running through her hair and ripping through the thin fabric of her dress.

And then he was gone.

Lucy walked back to her castle, taking her time as the sun steadily disappeared below the horizon. She sighed as she opened the gate, walking up the path to the double doors where she let loose a loud groan in protest. As she was reaching for the door, it swung open to reveal a mad king.

"Where the HELL were you?" the king gave Lucy room to get in, before slamming the door loud enough for probably the entire kingdom to hear.

"I was just hanging out," she said lamely, "I'm sorry, I was angry, and still am if you must know," she felt a tug in her stomach, her anger pushing and boiling, begging to be let out.

"Lucy, I'm sorry you heard it from rumors and I was going to tell you but-"

"Dad, I'm not mad that you arranged a marriage, it could've been much worse, but I'm pissed that you never even told me yourself, how can you call yourself a leader if you don't have the balls to actually do anything or say anything!?"

Jude's face contorted, going from anger to sadness.

"Do I get an answer? Or are you just going to be silent like you always have been?" Lucy's voice mimicked her father's expression. She hung her shoulders after what felt like an eternity of silence and turned around to leave.

"Your mother wanted this." He said, "I think we have to talk, and it won't be very fun." he sighed and wiped his hand across his face, "But it's past time. We need chairs,"

Once they got to the table, Lucy rested her head in her hands, looking expectantly at Jude.

"Alright, you're ready?"
"The whole truth, nothing less?"

"Promise." She nodded her head vigorously.

He took a deep breath before beginning, "I wasn't your mother's first choice." Lucy's head shot up, "I wasn't even in the picture until about five years of her and Zeref's courtship,"

"Woah, woah, my mother dated the Zeref? The same Zeref who tortured and killed our kind? Why?"

"Zeref wasn't always bad, the power persuaded him and morphed him into something he wasn't. His love for your mother- Layla- was true, and undying. Even today. They had been in love, or at least, they were at first, until Zeref began changing. Your mother told me that he once left to do errands late at night before coming back drenched in sweat and blood, none of it his own, and was never "her Zeref" again. He died that night. Nobody's quite sure of what happened in the forest that night, but we know it had something to do with Acnologia." He paused to rub his temples before beginning again, "You know who he is, yeah?"

"The creature who was a little too much Dragon, he was Zeref's right hand man in slaughtering the Fairies," Lucy said, rage evident in her voice, and undeniable sorrow filled the room at the memories of their fallen people.

"Not quite, Zeref was controlled by Acnologia. It doesn't excuse him by any means, but the true villain was Acnologia, he was the brains and the brute of the operation. At this time, Layla was still in love with who Zeref used to be, searching for pieces of him that were nowhere to be found. She started making deals with him for the safety of the Fairies. One of them being binding the Fairies and Dragons together forever, the bind of a marriage between her child and the next generation of the Dragons." He looked up to see Lucy's eyes on fire staring at the table, he went on, "Zeref was the Prince of Dragons," At this, Lucy looked up,

"He was Natsu's brother?"
"I'm not completely sure of biological-ness, but, in theory, yes. He was exiled after he was found putting our people in those-those things, 'war treason' the council called it. He had to kill thousands of our people in order to be deemed dangerous," Lucy saw her father's' eyes welling with tears.

Unsure of what to do, her father had never cried in front of her, she stretched her arm out over the table to place her hand on his, "Dad, it's alright, I know this part, history class, just skip it." She flashed a small smile at him, to which he returned a watery grin.

"Alright," He said, sniffing and dabbing at his eyes before continuing, "Layla wasn't going to go through with the marriage for you and the Prince, but after the war evolved into a Dragon versus Fairy war, she didn't have a choice. It was the only way for peace between us," He bit his lip and patted her hand, "I'm so sorry Lucy,"

"So, I have to marry him for peace? Not for love?"
"I'm so sorry, I wanted to give you a normal life so I never mentioned him and you never hung out after-"

"After mom died, yeah I know. Father, I'm a Princess, I'm not exactly normal" she chuckled and looked down at her hands, "I know that much at least."

"I could get you out of it, somehow,"
She looked up at his face, glaring through unshed tears at the table, thinking of the past and how it contributed to her future, "I don't want out of it," she spat. "I-" She broke off with a sniffle, "I want it to work," she mumbled. Then she looked up at the King with wide eyes full of realization.

She wouldn't mind spending the rest of her life with him. For peace, of course.

There we goooooo. It's late, but I really have been busy this time, and hey! I didn't go away for too long! Also sorry if there are any errors or parts that don't make sense completely, just let me know and I'll fix them, I wrote this one really fast today because I really needed to update :D

Enjoy!