Just Misunderstood
Chapter 25
Act 2
A Warm Night
Alright, kids, I'm late by a few days but I hope you can forgive me. It's officially CoLu week and I have been damn near drowning in amazing new CoLu stories so I have had some fun. I would like to specifically thank GemNika for her beautiful and deep CoLu one-shots and stories, I don't remember exactly but I think it was one of her stories that opened the world of Cobra and Lucy for me. So go check out GemNika on if you are looking for a good read.
"I guess I need to explain to Kara that I'm not staying," Cobra grumbled as he tapped his shoes off on the stone entrance way. He then slipped them off and tossed them to the side.
Lucy did the same as she entered the living area, the entrance way was large, with small wooden tables lining the two walls, lanterns and decorations adorned on top of them. Past a shoji door was the living room, which was pretty baren besides the table in the center, it held a vase of flowers in the center. On either side of the living room was shoji doors, that lead to their own hallways, Cobra's and the guest rooms being down to the right and Kara's room, the storage areas and kitchen being to the left. The house made a square shape with the middle of the house hollow for the courtyard that held flowers and some trees, along with a bench to the side. The house smelled of ginger and bamboo. The house held warmth, it had space heaters in every room but the house still resonated with the cold weather, leaving a certain chill in the air.
Kara was sitting on the couch, her hair up in a bun and a face mask on her face, her posture was rigid and her cheeks puffed out, she looked away from Cobra, her arms crossed in front of her. She didn't say anything. Lucy shut the door and prayed it would keep some of the cold out, Leo was long gone, going home on the walk back. So, Lucy stood there, as Cobra knelt in front of Kara, his hands going to her knees. Lucy wasn't far from them, but it was like they were underwater, she couldn't hear the words that came from his mouth. She only saw Kara's face fill with tears, her clay face mask running down her face with her sadness. She rubbed her eyes, Cobra's brows knit and he pressed his forehead to her knee, he shook his head and from where she stood Lucy could tell his eyes were glazed over. He stood and kissed her head, leaving her sobbing on the couch.
Lucy followed Cobra to the guest bedroom, he opened the door for her and went to the windows, closing the blinds and pulling extra blankets from the closet. He threw them on the futon, all of his movements were quick and angry. He pulled a pillow from the top shelf and his hands shook as he tried to shove it into a pillowcase. Lucy stepped forward, and laid her hands on his, stopping his movements and grabbing the pillow from him.
"Cobra?" She whispered, she watched as he pinched the bridge of his nose and looked up.
"I, told her, that I was going, and I wasn't coming back. And, I knew that from the start, and I was fine with it at the festival, but," he was cut off by his own breath.
"This is your home…" Lucy finished for him.
He shook his head but his lip trembled, "God! I'm so sick of crying! Who am I, when did I get so weak," he released a laugh lacking amusement and wiped his face.
"It's not about weakness, Cobra, you were taken from your home, a beautiful loving home when you were still a young child. Your father and cousin killed. You were… beaten, neglected, forced to work, and God only knows what else, at that damned tower. You were scared and desperate and manipulated by a cruel, cruel man. You did things you shouldn't be proud of, but, you stopped. You woke up one day… and looked in the mirror and saw yourself, and realized that you didn't want to be the monster everyone expected you to be. Then you came home and found out your mother was dead, and now, you have to leave this beautiful home once again because you are running for your life," she whispered, she pressed her forehead to his chest, "You are so far from weak Erik Tashirosaki."
He shook his head, "This was my home. I loved it here, but now, even now, I feel so out of place. Sitting in that living room, or walking around the shrine, seeing the festival, it just isn't me anymore. But I love it here, the smells and sounds, it reminds me of what happiness could be, but I just feel as though that happiness died with my father, with Ryian, with my mother. But my happiness isn't dead, not by a long shot, it just isn't the same one I held such a long time ago," he paused and wrapped his arms around Lucy's shoulders, "I found a new home within Sorano, Macbeth, Richard and Sawyer, and of course, within a snarky blonde with a temper and a soft side. She's warm and full of joy even though she has had her own share of hardships. One that didn't give up, one that is soft enough to offer life and tough enough to take it away," he whispered.
She smiled against his chest, she wrapped her arms around him and squeezed, "God we are getting mushy," she said as she pulled away. She wiped her eyes and smiled.
Cobra released a puff of air and let go of any pain lingering in his heart with it. He looked at Lucy's smiling face, with her cold stained cheeks and her chocolate dipped eyes. He smiled back, "Yeah, a week ago we were both just emotionless pricks, what happened?" He laughed.
Cobra soon left, leaving her to sleep as they would be leaving tomorrow after breakfast and she needed a lot of strength to make that trip to the port. As he walked out the door Lucy's smiled drop as she felt the quite literal drop in temperature as he took all the warmth with him.
~JM~
The struggle to find warmth in the middle of winter was always a great one for Lucy. As long as she could remember winter had a lonely, frigid chill. No matter how warm she would be in her blankets, in her room, at the age of ten or so, the lonely cold of those years alone at the estate always found her. Even after she joined Fairy Tail, on nights deep in the winter her team would sleep over, Erza and Gray sleeping on the couch or sleeping bag concoction, they had created. Natsu would often sleep beside her, and despite the burning heat he produced, Lucy shivered. She learned to hate the winter, regardless of the simple beauty it held.
When they had arrived in Rozu Lucy had dreaded the cold snow that came with it. But as she stood there, cold and alone, Cobra had engulfed her. For the first time in a while, she had been warm. Warm despite the chilling cold of the snow around her.
In her room, she was cold again. She curled under the blankets but couldn't stop the tremble that shook her, she sighed and stood slowly, wrapping her blanket around her and grabbing her pillow. She slid the shoji door open and stepped into the dark empty hall.
She felt out of place against the wooden floor and walls, with her bright pink blanket and purple pajamas, both provided by the lovely Virgo. The smell of bamboo and another scent of ginger and cinnamon lingered in the hall. The floor was cold through her socks. She followed a feeling she didn't know down the hallway.
Her heart beat hard in her chest and she felt like she was going to throw up, she hadn't felt nervous like this in a long time. She was scared he was going to laugh at her, to tell her to go back to her room. Which she knew he wouldn't but she couldn't slow the nervous flutter of her heart. Her footsteps were soft as she settled in front of his door. She shifted uncomfortably. What if he was asleep? She stood there in the cold hall for a while before a deep voice startled her.
"Are you coming in or what?"
She jumped and her face burned hot.
She slid the door open and quickly closed it behind her, Cobra was laying on his side, his head propped up on his hand while a book was on the ground in front of him. A separate futon was lying next to his own, not quite touching but close enough.
"I figured you would have one of the dreams so I asked Kara to set us both up in here, thought maybe you didn't want to or something."
"No!" She laughed, "Kara never told me, she must have forgotten," came her frantic reply. She kneeled down on the futon and glanced at the room around her, despite the wall the door was on, the room looked like drywall and wood. Paintings and childish sketches cluttered the walls, shelves and bookcases were filled with wooden animal toys. The floor was stained a dark brown. It was personalized, everything in their meant something to someone.
"Was this your room?"
"Yeah, both mother and Kara never had the heart to touch it," he gave the walls a sad smile and sat up, closing his books and brushing back his hair. He wore a navy blue loose kimono, it looked thick and warm. His hair was laying flat, it was still damp, his bangs nearly covering his eyes.
She settled into the futon and pulled the two blankets over her, keeping her eyes trained on Cobra as he read his book. She traced over him, his bangs, his eyes, his mouth, his shoulders, his chest where the yukata hung low. She thought about how they got to this point, everything that had happened, she kept her eyes on him.
Lucy in moments like this would forget about the dull ache in her chest, logically, Lucy understood the Brain situation, and the spell and everything. But she still trembles when she thought about that way someone was able to control her like that. The past week, Cobra and her had bounced from camping to shitty hotels, and no matter where they were Lucy would have the same dream.
She was covered in blood, her eyes gold and lifeless, as everyone she loved laid before her, dead and in pieces. It was a simple dream, one she knew was just some traumatic stress from the incident, but it still shook her to her core. She would wake up screaming, and Cobra would try and console her the best he could, but he was probably having the same dreams. In the morning his eyes were dark and his skin dull, like he had been up for days.
Lucy traced his eyelashes as she thought, she wondered if either of them would get any sleep that night. But Lucy knew that as she drifted off, she had never felt safer than with the poison dragon slayer just inches away instead of in another hotel room or tent, in another bed across the room, no, he was just a hand reach away…
Cobra glanced down as Lucy's fingers ever so lightly touched his wrist, her eyes were closed, her breathing even and deep. Her hand was cold, he smiled to himself and got up to turn the light off. As his eyes adjusted he pushed his futon just a little closer, and settled in, he rested his head on his arm as he faced her. He watched her face as she breathed, he looked at her hand as it stuck out from her blanket, he noticed the blushy tone to her fingernails and the small soft scars on her knuckles. He reached his hand out and intertwined their fingers, he smiled to no one and without any time passing he was asleep.
