6: knight in shining armor.
I still can't believe it...Natsu's story was...true the whole time...? We were a thing...? And I died and came back to life because of Natsu? Lucy thought as she looked at Natsu.
The blood on his hands were washed off and they were currently walking around the village. They haven't said a word to each other after the whole Dimaria incident. Lucy had no idea what was going through Natsu's head or if anything was going through his head at all. Meanwhile, a lot of thoughts were going through her head.
I'm not supposed to be alive... Lucy realized.
"Lucy. You're doing the whole not-talking-to-me-after-I've-done-some-demon-shit thing again," Natsu said, frowning. "You're scared?"
"No. Just...surprised. That girl..." Lucy trailed off. She had to collect her thoughts before she could continue speaking.
"Oh, Dimaria, right? She's one of the Spriggan 12," Natsu answered.
"The Spriggan 12?" Lucy asked.
"They're my brother Zeref's minions but he likes to call them his shields. Trust me. They're his minions. Each one of the are actually guardians. Dimaria is the guardian of time. I've never actually talked to any of them before so I don't have much to say about them except for the fact that I can take them all on with no problem. But I've heard that you have to watch out for Larcade, Irene, and August," Natsu explained.
"But they're all coming after me because I let you out of the Book of END and because I'm supposed to be dead, right?" Lucy carefully asked.
They both stopped walking and looked at each other.
I shouldn't have opened that book...but that doesn't matter anymore. The fact I'm not even supposed to be alive matters more, Lucy thought.
"I won't let them take you, okay?" Natsu reassured her. He reached out to put his hand on her shoulder but she backed away from him.
"Yeah," Lucy said, looking away.
Although it was a small action, its meaning was huge. Natsu respected the action and put his hands into his pockets.
From the corner of Lucy's eye, she saw Sherry Blendy, an actress who was signed with an entertainment agency called Lamia Scale.
"Oh my gosh! Sherry Blendy! Why's she here!? Oh wait, she's in that movie!" Lucy cried.
Sherry was typing something on her phone when Lucy quickly made her way towards her. "Hi! I'm Lucy Heartfilia! I'm your fan!" She cleared her throat. "I'm also a journalist. What are your thoughts on the time on this island being frozen?"
Sherry blinked. "Sorry, what? Time was frozen?" Then she laughed obnoxiously loud. "Oh, you silly reporters! Making up everything they can just to put some news out there! Time can only freeze if there's magic involved and there's no such thing as magic!"
She glanced at her phone for a minute then dramatically gasped. "OMG! Time was frozen here!?"
"Well, it makes sense that you don't have any memory of it. You were stuck in time, after all," Lucy said before pulling out her phone and going to the record app. "Tell me. How do you feel now that time is unfrozen? You have anything to comments about the incident?" She pressed record.
"L-Lyon. I must go find Lyon!" Sherry cried before running off.
Lucy blinked. "Why are you running!?" She shoved her phone back into her purse and ran after Sherry. Natsu, completely unsure of what was going on, followed the girls.
They ran out of the village and into the forest. Sherry looked behind her and saw Natsu and Lucy chasing after her.
"You persistent paparazzi! Stop following me!" She cried.
"I'm not paparazzi! You know something and I'm going to find out!" Lucy cried.
"Lalalalala! I'm not listening!" Sherry cried, covering her ears and closing her eyes. However, running through a dark forest with her eyes and ears covered was a bad idea. She tripped over a branch and rolled down a hill that happened to be next to the path she was on.
"Wait!" Lucy yelled, running down the hill so she could catch Sherry. Unfortunately for her, she tripped over her own foot and rolled down as well.
Both girls ended up rolling into a nearby river, causing a huge splash in the process. Thankfully, the river was shallow.
Lucy quickly stood up in the shower water and quickly pulled out her electronic belongings from he purse. "Now look what you did! If you had only stayed still, my stuff wouldn't have gotten wet!"
Sherry crossed her arms and stuck her nose up into the air. "You did this to yourself!"
Lucy groaned in annoyance as she stalked over to the shore. Suddenly, I'm no longer her fan anymore!
Natsu, who was standing at the shore, took off his jacket and put it over Lucy's shoulders the minute she was on dry land. Lucy grumpily dumped her items out of her bag, praying that nothing got affected by the water. As she emptied out her bag, her Aquarius, Cancer, Taurus, and Virgo keys fell out. Sherry noticed.
"You're one too!" She cried.
Lucy and Natsu looked at her. "One what?"
"A wizard, like me. Like the rest of us," Sherry answered as she slowly walked over to the dry land. "Then I guess it's okay to tell you."
"Tell me what?" Lucy asked.
Sherry looked a little scared but she pushed down her fear and sat down. "All of us signed with Lamia Scale are wizards. The same is with our rival agency Blue Pegasus."
"Whoa. That's unexpected," Lucy commented, sitting next to Sherry.
"I had no idea that time was frozen on this island. All I know was that I was making my way down to the village to get some selfies with the villagers so I can post them on my social media. When I looked down at my phone, I'm seeing all these texts and articles that time on this island was frozen for a whole day. Obviously, magic is involved. I don't know much about magic but Lyon does so I was hoping he has the answer," Sherry explained.
"A guardian came to this island and froze time. But don't worry, I put her in her place," Natsu answered as he attempted to skip stones across the river.
"A guardian? You mean one of those guardians from the legends that guard the Underworld?" Sherry asked.
"Yep," Natsu said. At the same time, he was feeling frustrated that he couldn't skip any stones.
"Why would a highly respected being come here in the first place?" Sherry asked.
Natsu and Lucy didn't say anything and instead stared at the river.
"So you guys don't know either?" Sherry asked.
Lucy picked up her golden keys and showed them to Sherry. "Have you seen a golden key that looks similar to the keys I'm holding? I'm a Celestial wizard and I'm trying to collect all of the keys."
Sherry studied the keys. "I've never had a chance to scout the island, but Lyon has. He's filming a scene right now but I can take you to him."
Lucy smiled as the two of them stood up. "Thanks," she said as she shoved her keys into her purse.
Lyon Vastia stood in front of a cave in the middle of the forest. The torch that he was holding in his hands lit up the entrance of the cave.
"This demon, the very demon who killed so many people, killed my master, resides in this cave trapped in a shell of ice." He clenched his fists together. "I will bring this demon to justice."
"And...cut!" The director cried.
A few stylists ran over to Lyon to touch up on his makeup. As they did, Sherry proudly nudged Lucy on the shoulder. "That's Lyon, the best actor in all of Lamia Scale, for you!"
Lyon walked over to Sherry, Lucy, and Natsu. "Ready for the scenes that have you in it? The nigh sky is clear so we want to get as many scenes in as we can."
"That can wait! I brought two other wizards that could use your wise words of love!" Sherry cried, folding her hands together and moving towards Lyon.
Lucy blinked. "Are you two...?"
"She's actually secretly married to Ren Akatsuki from Blue Pegasus. She just respects me too much," Lyon answered, pushing Sherry away from him. "Let's go somewhere private?"
They walked a few feet away from everyone. Once they were certain that they were far enough, Lucy got down to business. "I'm Lucy Heartfilia, a journalist. First of all, Galuna Island was frozen in time, but since you were affected by it, you wouldn't know. Long story short, magic had to do it with but we dealt with it. I don't know what story I should make up though since I can't expose the fact that magic still exists."
"Just say it was promotion for my movie, the Freeze Emperor. I 'froze' time or something," Lyon answered. Then he put his hands into his pockets. "You know Gray Fullbuster, right?"
"Yeah. Why?" Lucy asked.
"He told me he had a wizard friend named Lucy Heartfilia who's a journalist," Lyon answered before bowing. "It's nice to meet you."
Lucy bowed. "Likewise." She straightened. "I was told that you've scouted the island. I'm a Celestial wizard ad I came here both to report on the frozen island incident and to get the Zodiac spirit Sagittarius' key. Have you seen the key anywhere during your scouting?"
Lyon thought about it. "Nope, not at all. But, I know that the chief of this island's village collects treasures. Maybe the key is among them. Even better, he might know where the key is."
"Okay, I see," Lucy responded.
"How's Gray by the way?" Lyon asked.
Natsu, who's been silent for a while, stepped in. "Why must she tell you shit about Gray?"
"Hello, and you are?" Lyon asked him with sass in his voice.
Lucy pushed Natsu out of the way. "He's Gray's housemate. Their relationship is...um...in progress."
"I see," Lyon said.
"I don't mean to sound rude, but how come you and Gray know each other? You're a celebrity once you get off this island and Gray is...well...not," Lucy asked.
Lyon laughed dryly. "I guess you could say we're brothers. I was an orphan and a woman named Ur adopted me. She knows ice magic so she taught me. We'd travel from time to time and during one of our travels, we encountered a demon named Deliora. I don't know what had gone down, but there was Gray all alone in that burning town. Ur saved Gray just in time before the demon killed him. She took Gray in and I became his older brother. A year later, she went missing. I don't know what had exactly gone down but she never came back and nobody's heard of Deliora again."
He sighed as he looked in the sky. "We were close like brothers. But, brothers sometimes have falling outs, like now. Gray wasn't happy that I'm staring in a movie where I bring back a deadly demon like Deliora back to life, fight it, and kill it. Maybe it was wrong of me to star in that movie knowing damn well how bad Deliora's affected him. Lucy. Can you do me a favor?"
"What is it?" Lucy asked.
"Make sure he sees my movie when it comes out. I know it's a bad idea, but I think it could help him heal his trauma. I'm an older brother looking out for his younger brother so I want to help him," Lyon answered.
Lucy smiled. "Sure."
"Okay. I need to get back to my movie. Have a nice night!" Lyon cried as he ran off.
Lucy and Natsu were left alone with each other.
"Lu-" "We should go to the village and visit the chief!" Lucy cried, interrupting Natsu. She began making her way to the village and Natsu reluctantly followed.
Even under the moonlight, the village was still bustling. Children were chasing each other while their mothers bought all sorts of items from the outdoor market place. They told each other the latest gossip as they haggled over prizes. Based on the conversations Lucy overheard, they had no idea that they were frozen in time. Soon, Lucy and Natsu arrived at the chief's house.
Lucy knocked on the door. "Wonder if he's even home...?"
The double doors let out an obnoxiously loud squeak as it slowly opened. In front of them was a short man with white, long side burns. "Oh. Outsiders." He looked at Natsu and Lucy for a full minute. "Goodbye," he said as he proceeded to close the doors.
Natsu quickly held the doors back. "We need to talk, old man!"
The chief glared at Natsu. "Why are the youth of today so disrespectful!?"
"All we want is to check your inventory. There might be a golden key there," Lucy said.
"Oh, you mean this key?" The chief said, reaching for something onto the side next to him. Natsu and Lucy couldn't see what it was since it was inside of the house but when the chief was done looking and showing them an object, they immediately knew what it was.
"That's Sagittarius' key! Please, sir! I need that key!" Lucy cried.
"Let me think about it," the chief said, tapping the key on his chin as he thought about it. "No."
Lucy blinked. "No?"
"You heard me," the chief answered.
"Why?" Natsu asked.
"Because why should I?" The chief asked.
Natsu glared at him. "We saved your village."
"No you didn't! My village is perfectly fine!" The chief cried.
"What day is it today?" Lucy asked.
"Simple. Friday," the chief answered.
Lucy turned on her phone, relieved to see that it was working, and showed him her home-screen where the time and date were. "Actually, it's Saturday."
The chief blinked. "No way."
"Yes way. Give us the key before we make you," Natsu demanded.
"I-I-I-I must have mistakenly thought it's Friday!" The chief cried.
Lucy pulled up all of the articles on the frozen Galuna Island. "What about these?"
She handed the chief her phone and he scrolled through the articles. "No way..."
"We saved your village and your island so in return, please let us have that key," Lucy told him as he handed back her phone.
"S-Sure..." the chief answered, also handing Lucy the Sagittarius key.
Lucy smiled when the key was in her hands. This whole key-collecting thing has been doing really good so far!
The chief cleared his throat. "You may also stay in my house for the night."
"Why?" Lucy asked.
"I saw the time on your phone. There are no boats that can take you to the mainland," the chief answered before grumbling. "I can't believe it...I lost a whole fucking day...!"
Although the chief's house looked big on the outside, it was anything but on the inside. Laying on futons on the floor, Natsu and Lucy were forced to share a room. They laid next to each other with a small space in between them. They were to leave the island on the first boat in the morning.
Natsu was wide awake. He couldn't sleep. Something was bothering Lucy but he couldn't put his finger on it. The more he thought about it as he stared at the ceiling, the more panic he felt rising inside of him. As a result, he turned onto his side and stared at Lucy who was also wide awake and staring up at the ceiling.
"You awake?" Natsu softly asked her.
Lucy didn't answer.
"I'm a demon, not a mind reader. You gotta talk to me or I wouldn't know what to do. I don't want to hurt you or make you think that I'm trying to hurt you cuz I'm not," Natsu said softly.
Luc continued to keep her eyes glued to the ceiling.
"You've avoided eye contact with me ever since we dealt with Dimaria. Does it have to do with me attacking her?" Natsu asked.
Still no answer from Lucy.
"Don't lie to me. Are you scared of me?" Natsu carefully asked. The last thing he wanted was for Lucy to be scared of him. Anything but that.
Lucy turned so she was facing Natsu. She reached out and lightly caressed his face. "Why would I be scared of you?"
Natsu frowned as he subconsciously nuzzled his cheek in her hand. "I'm END. That's enough of a reason."
"But you brought me back to life. It would be wrong if I was scared of you," Lucy said.
Natsu sat up and looked at Lucy with wide eyes. "You...believe me now?"
"I'm still processing everything," Lucy said as she sat up. They were now sitting across from each other.
Natsu pulled her into a tight hug. Lucy, completely caught off guard, hesitantly hugged him back. "Let's go to Tenrou Island. I should get my memories back."
Natsu was about to agree to Lucy's suggestion. However, he stopped himself. Mavis' words echoes in his mind. I can't make her suffer. He pulled away from her and put his hands on her arms. "Nah. You made a good point the night you let me out of the Book of END. You're living this life so why should you get memories of your past life?"
"But Natsu," Lucy started. She nervously looked down into her lap before speaking again. "I'm not supposed to be alive. I..." she trailed off.
"When we get back into the city, you're going to forget about this whole Spriggan 12 business and the fact that I dragged you out of the Underworld. You are Lucy Heartfilia, a beautiful Celestial wizard who is working on getting all 12 Zodiac keys," Natsu said, taking Lucy's hand. "If the Spriggan 12 attack, I'll take care of it." He kissed her hand. "I'm your knight in shining armor. It's my job to protect my princess."
Random Fact: That awkward moment when your ex texts you out of nowhere and says he's sorry for everything he did. Alexa, play Nothing To Me by Snoh Aalegra
Wassup!? It's ya gurl sugarsugarrush!
This woulda been out sooner but I had a long list of things to do today so I didn't have time to sit down and type up a chapter...until now!
Reviews:
TheBicyle- Lol!
FairyTailWorld- Thank you so much!
Amanny- Thank you so much!
MaraDragneel3113- Lol!
Got like three people saying how badass Natsu is lol
So, since I kept on falling asleep as I typed up this chapter, ima close this chapter. Ya gurl really needs some sleep. Don't forget to PM me or leave me a review! Later, yo!
Edited: 05/10/21
