A/N: They're in Lucy's old room to hide from the guards...and they got caught? Who could it be?
(Thanks for the review, fanficlove2014!)
*Content Warning*
Not to spoil anything, but there's some discussion of abuse, pedophilia, and childhood sexual assault. It starts here: "They both lay face-up, staring at the patterned ceiling." And it ends before the line divider thing. So, after the divider is fine. It's briefly referred to in one of the paragraphs near the end so you can get the gist.
*End Content Warning*
"Miss Heartfilia."
Lucy flinched as if struck, eyes wide with shock. Seeing her reaction, Natsu jumped to his feet, ready to fight whomever it was.
In the open doorway was a tall blonde man with slicked-back hair and a moustache. His attired was extravagant, even more so than all the councilmen they'd encountered so far. A red fur-lined cape draped over his shoulders and brushed against the floor.
"What do you want?" Natsu demanded, hands open, ready to burst into flame if needed. It was obviously someone whose voice Lucy recognized, and not in a good way.
The man ignored Natsu, instead keeping his gaze trained on Lucy. "Miss Heartfilia. How kind of you to return home."
Lucy's eyes flashed with anger. "And whose fault is it that I left in the first place?" she said, voice seeped in venom.
The situation was beginning to dawn on Natsu. "Is this the king?" he asked, looking between the man and Lucy.
The question only earned Natsu a glare from the intruder. "You are irrelevant here, boy."
"That is not for you to decide," Lucy said, standing up. "So you know I'm here. What is it that you want?"
"I am simply welcoming my daughter home after a long absence."
"You and I both know that's bullshit."
He clicked his tongue. "Language, Lucy. You have been away too long; I know you were taught better than this."
"I'm hardly planning to stay," Lucy said.
The king's eyes narrowed. "And what makes you think you can leave?"
Lucy glared. "You wouldn't."
"Wouldn't what?" Natsu asked. He turned to the king. "What did you do?" he growled. By the look on Lucy's face, she knew something was up, and Natsu wasn't sure he wanted to find out what it was. If even the Celestial Spirit was concerned, there might be a real problem.
Again, Natsu was ignored. "Do not even think of leaving. I will summon you at some point. We need to have a little talk. Be ready for it." With that, he turned and left, closing the door behind him.
"Hey," Natsu shouted, running after him.
"Natsu!"
He stopped.
"Don't leave."
Natsu whipped around to look at her. "Dammit, Lucy. You mean you're actually going to listen to him?"
"No. Look, Natsu. Running away the first time was hard enough; it's going to be even harder now that he knows I'm a flight risk. Plus I have you in tow."
"I'm not a liability," Natsu said.
"True; in some ways, you're an asset. But one person can sneak around more easily than two."
"So he's got a lot of guards. So what?"
"They're mages."
Natsu plopped himself down on the floor. "Wait. For real?" He thought the government hated mages; after all, they'd been the ones to ban mage guilds and made use of magic a despised art form.
Lucy sighed and sat down across from him. "Now that you know my big secret, there's a lot of other things I need to tell you, too."
"Apparently," Natsu said. "So? What is it?"
"It's kind of a long story," Lucy said, "but I guess we've got plenty of time before my father comes around again. Probably days. We'll have to figure something out before that happens. Observing guard routines, planning— I'm getting sidetracked. What was I going to tell you about again?"
"I don't know. You said it was a long story."
"Ah. I think it was about mages, right?"
"Yeah. The guards are mages. But I thought the government hated mages."
"The government, yes, and especially my father. See, Mom was a mage."
"So you got your magic from her?"
Lucy shook her head. "I don't know. I don't even know what kind of mage she was. I guess she did pass down a capacity for magic, but I couldn't use any until I met Plue. I should tell you more about that story sometime, too."
"How'd you know she was a mage, then?" Natsu said. He was raised with magic, thanks to Igneel, so he couldn't imagine having a magical parent not teach their child magic. Parental figures were whom you learned your magic from. Period. It was like that for most of the people at Fairy Tail.
"I only know Mom was a mage because of my father's hatred for mages. When Mom died early, he…well, I was so young that I can hardly remember if he was like this before she died or not, but in any case her death made it worse. You saw how he was just now, right?"
Natsu nodded.
"He's cold and strict. And after Mom died, he didn't want me to learn magic. That's actually a major reason why mage guilds were banned; if magic were frowned upon in the kingdom as a whole, there would be no one to teach me how to use magic for myself."
"Then why the guards?"
"Because even if I wasn't taught, there was still that chance I would somehow learn how to use magic on my own. It didn't happen, but just in case, Father selected a few elite mages to secretly work as palace guards. They were among the best before the ban, so I know they're powerful. It will be hard to fight them all off at once, let alone evade their notice. It happened once, so now they know better."
"Hmm…." Natsu rested an elbow on his other arm and cupped his chin in his hand to think. Lucy knew the palace well from her time here as a child, and if she said it would be hard to evade them, she was probably right. But she'd managed to escape once, so she could do it again with his help.
"I don't know all of their abilities," Lucy added. "And it's been so long that even if I remembered their guard posts and routines, they probably changed them now that I'm back. We'll have to be quiet for a few days and observe them so we can figure out the right strategy."
"How many days exactly? Your dad said he was coming back for you at some point."
"Yes. We will have to escape before then. I'd give us about a week; once he makes an appointment he keeps it for sure, but I am never a priority so it will be several days before he makes the time to see me. Honestly, I'm surprised he even came in person just now."
"There will probably be more surprises," Natsu said.
Lucy deflated. "Yeah. I'm just trying to be optimistic."
"No, you said a lot. Thanks for telling me." He flashed her his signature grin, and she smiled meekly back.
"By the way, will Happy be okay?"
Natsu grimaced. "This is just like when we first met. Something happens and I end up leaving him behind."
"Well, this time it was my fault."
Natsu pouted and put his hands behind his head. "Are you saying it was my fault last time?"
"Are you saying it was mine?"
"Yes."
Lucy laughed a little. "Typical Natsu," she said.
Natsu stood up suddenly. The fact that she already found him predictable after the few weeks they'd known each other was embarrassing somehow.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm gonna try the door," Natsu said.
"The guards might—"
"I can feel magic around us already. You can too, right?"
Lucy bit her lip. "A little," she admitted. "It might be a magic barrier. I've been inside one before and it felt like this. It's been here since my father left. That's the other reason I stopped you; trying to pass through one is dangerous."
Natsu had never been within a magic barrier before, but he did feel the hint of magic in the air, a vague shimmery sense of something that wasn't quite right. Whatever this magic barrier was, he didn't like it. It made him feel…trapped.
"You can try the door, I guess, but…be careful," Lucy said.
"Okay."
The door handle was huge and looked like brass but was probably actually made of gold considering their location. It was carved with the intricate floral motifs Natsu noticed also decorated the rest of the room. Was the whole palace like this? He didn't remember; he hadn't been paying much attention to the architecture before, other than noticing how fancy it was.
He reached forward to grasp the handle. But before he could even touch it, something zapped his hand.
"Ow," he complained, shaking it off. There had been a short flash of light when his hand hit whatever invisible barrier was there. He reached forward again to test its exact limits.
There was an invisible wall made of strange runes before him, and it glowed green to the touch. He wanted to bust through it, but he recalled Freed having a similar magic that was not to be messed with. And if he tried breaking it with fire and it didn't work, Lucy would get hurt in the backfire, not to mention the actual room would probably burst into flames as well.
He looked back at her. Yeah, not worth risking it. The fact that she was his friend and ally was enough reason for him to be cautious, but now that he knew she was the princess, he also had more practical reasons to want to protect her. Such as an entire army coming after him for harming a royal body.
"I'll figure it out," Lucy said. "We both will. It'll take time, though. And patience." She said that last word with a pointed look at Natsu.
"I can be patient," he said.
"Good. Because I think we should turn in for the night."
Natsu blinked. "Already?" It was sunset not too long ago; the night was still young, and they had to figure a way out of here.
"Natsu, I hardly got any sleep tailoring these outfits for tonight. Being back here is kind of sudden and I can't remember everything all at once. I…I'm trying to be calm and collected, but my mind is a mess right now. Let's go to bed early and we can figure it out in the morning. Father won't be back for me so soon."
Natsu hesitated, but ultimately complied. He was feeling a little sleepy now that his adrenaline high was fading, and now that she mentioned it, Lucy did look extra tired. There were bags under her eyes that weren't usually there even when they spent all day hiking through forests.
"Okay. If you need rest, then now would be a good time, before we attempt any escape plans."
She smiled. "Thanks. Natsu, how about you sleep on the—"
Natsu put a hand up to stop her. "Don't worry. I know. I'll sleep on the floor."
"Oh, no, I was about to say that we can share."
"The floor?"
"No, idiot. The bed!"
"Are you sure?"
Lucy nodded. "It's certainly big enough. Or would you rather not?"
"I don't mind," Natsu said. He more than didn't mind. It was hard to stop the smile from spreading across his face, but he somehow managed. He didn't want Lucy to think he was creepy.
Natsu crawled under the blankets and lay stiffly as Lucy got in the other side. The bed was actually really, really comfortable. It was soft and fluffy and warm, like he imagined sunlit clouds to be. But sharing a bed with Lucy for the first time, he was nervous. It was Lucy, after all. As much as he felt comfortable being with her in general, he was hyperaware of her proximity.
With a pang, Natsu noticed that she seemed awfully relaxed about this whole thing. It's almost like she wasn't aware of him at all.
Also, why wasn't her dad concerned with leaving her alone in her bedroom with a boy? Adults usually didn't care about girls being with girls for whatever reason, but a girl with a boy always seemed to set people off.
They both lay face-up, staring at the patterned ceiling. Natsu was just about to fall asleep when Lucy broke the silence.
"The last time someone else was on this bed," she said, "it wasn't this quiet."
Natsu looked at her. In the darkness, her face was unreadable.
"You're wondering whom I shared it with," she stated.
"Well, yeah," Natsu said. "You look all serious, so it must be important. Your mom?"
"Maybe when I was little, before she died. I don't remember her, though."
"Ex-boyfriend, then?"
There was a long silence.
"Was…I right?"
"No." Her voice was quiet and controlled, but through the vibrations in the mattress Natsu realized she was starting to tremble.
Oh. Oh.
"Shit. Fuck. I'm sorry. I can sleep on the floor if—"
"That's not why I'm telling you this," Lucy said. "If we're going to be partners, you should know the full truth about me. I trust you. So I need to tell this story."
Natsu didn't know what to say.
"It was the trigger for me running away. When I say I had to entertain my father's allies, I mostly mean that I served them tea and cookies and talked to them for a while. But this guy…he was nice like the rest of them, but looks can be deceiving."
"Who was he?"
"It doesn't matter," Lucy said.
"No, it does matter," Natsu pressed. "I'm not that dense. I know what you've implied. And if it's one of the people we encountered here..." Well, he'd tear that person apart first of all, but he'd also want to protect her from him. So he wouldn't accidentally say or do something awful.
"He was a business tycoon from Clover," Lucy said slowly. "My father used his funding for political purposes, and he came to the palace often for negotiations. I entertained him as I usually did. But I soon learned that he had asked my father for my hand in marriage."
"How old were you?"
"12. Needless to say, I was terrified. He tried to talk to me, my fiancé did, and he almost…well, he assaulted me here in my room. He stopped because one of my servants heard the commotion and knocked to ask if everything was all right. He wasn't a stupid man; 'deflowering' the child princess before marriage could get him killed. So nothing worse happened, but I was shaken. Once I became his wife, he could do whatever he wanted without repercussions, regardless of my age."
"So you ran away."
"Yes. I refused to become married to such a man, especially so young. As naïve as I was, even I knew that it was wrong."
"Did your father find out? About him attacking you."
"Probably. The servants always tell him everything."
"And he didn't do anything?"
Lucy clenched the sheets below her. "No. He did nothing. My well-being was never a priority for him; after all, he was the one who was about to sell his preteen daughter to a pedophile."
"That…" —he struggled to find a word— "…sucks."
Something like a laugh escaped her throat. "Putting it lightly, yes. He'd always been neglectful, but that was the last straw. Thus I ran away, and the rest is history."
Natsu was about to speak again, but Lucy turned to look at him, hands tucked under her head. The expression in her eyes stopped Natsu short. He couldn't place the emotion in this dim moonlight, but he knew that he wasn't supposed to speak. He waited.
When Lucy finally spoke, he wasn't prepared for the words that left her mouth: "I killed him."
Natsu's jaw opened. "What?"
"That was the first thing I did with my new magic, months before I became the Celestial Spirit. I went to Clover and killed that man."
That was…surprising, somehow. Natsu couldn't see Lucy killing anyone. But then again, she had a furious gleam in her eyes during battles, so maybe it wasn't that unlikely after all. It was one of the things he liked about her, her ferocity. He never imagined how deep it ran.
"My spirits weren't involved, of course. I strangled him in his sleep with the whip." She laughed a little and looked back up at the ceiling. "Some days, it's hard to convince myself that the whole thing wasn't my fault," she said. "After all, even when he tried to assault me, I didn't fight back. I didn't protest. I vocalized my opposition to getting married, but one stern look from my father and I was cowed into submission. But I was only 12, and I was scared and helpless. Well, he's dead now. And I have more important things to do, like saving the world and all that."
"You're…strong," Natsu said. He knew there were better things he should be saying, but those were the only words that didn't choke in the back of his throat.
"Not really."
"No, you're really strong."
"I'm not. After all, I killed the guy because I was too weak to handle his existence. But Natsu…"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks."
"For what?"
"Listening, I guess. You know I've been alone all this time, so you're the first person to hear my story other than my spirits. And being back here brought up some memories, so I'm glad I got it off my chest."
"Of course," Natsu said. "Thanks for trusting me." And maybe someday he'd be able to tell her about his own trauma. But he wasn't sure he was ready for that quite yet.
"So, now you know the real origins of the Celestial Spirit. How's that for a tragic backstory?" She grinned, and Natsu smiled back. Her eyes were glistening, but there were no tears on her cheeks.
"Let's sleep now," Natsu said. He wasn't actually tired anymore, but Lucy looked exhausted.
"It was a long day," Lucy agreed. "Goodnight, Natsu."
"'Night."
He woke up sprawled flat on his back like a starfish, Lucy curled up against his torso, somehow having stolen all the blankets so she was wrapped up like a little cocoon stuck to his side. Well this was awkward.
He tried to move, but anything he did would disturb Lucy and he wanted to let her rest a little more. He wasn't great at planning or long-term strategy, so she'd be doing most of the work trying to figure out the magic barrier. He would help, of course, but the strategic part of his brain only seemed to kick in during immediate emergencies. This was an emergency, but it wasn't immediate. Lucy would be the one to get the two of them out of this mess.
There was also the issue of what he heard last night. He'd said it before, but Lucy really did fit right in at Fairy Tail. Almost all of the members his age had tragic childhoods, to the point where it was almost comical. Erza was one of few survivors from a camp for child slave labor. Gray saw his entire village massacred by Deliora. Natsu, Wendy, and Gajeel were all orphans raised by dragons only to be abandoned again. And Lucy was neglected by her father and almost became a child bride. They all had blood on their hands.
She fits right in, he though, only half sarcastically. Now all she needed was the mark.
Natsu put a hand on his upper arm where his own guildmark used to be before the ban. It was still there somewhere, but Makarov had rendered all Fairy Tail marks invisible so members could live out normal lives without having to leave the guild. His used to be red, the same color as Igneel. Now the only thing there was his skin, the color of sea-soaked sand.
Lucy stirred, and he took the chance to move himself over a few inches so she wasn't leaning on him. She mumbled something incoherent and reached out to the warm space he left behind, but didn't awaken.
Dappled sunlight filtered through the large window. Natsu swung his feet off the side of the bed, found footing, and stood up to wander toward the light. There was a balcony outside, and a large tree growing beside it. It would be perfect to climb down, except for the feet on a tree branch that quickly disappeared after Natsu's eyes caught them. The guards were out there for sure. They were watching.
Scowling at the hidden person in the tree, he turned his eyes back to the horizon to watch the sunrise. The sky was so colorful and so clear, he wished he could be with Igneel again and ride on his back, laughing and doing flips like they always did. Instead he was trapped inside this magic barrier that didn't even let him open the window to breathe in the fresh air.
It was stifling. Even more so than the itchy suit he still wore, not having any clothes to change into. There was nothing to be done about it except to move forward. He just wanted to get out of here, and soon.
A/N: Their backstories weren't tragic enough so I made them both kill people. Ahaha I'm terrible. (For anyone who skipped, she later killed her would-be-husband after she learned magic, and after that is when she decided to become a vigilante. Getting rid of bad guys, but with less murder this time around.)
It took me a while to hammer out exactly what Lucy's story would be. I wanted to avoid rape-as-a-shock-factor tropes, but as a survivor of sorts (not csa though), abuse is the thing that makes me hurt and angry enough to want to physically harm a person, so I couldn't seem to get away from the assault storyline. After a lot of careful thinking, this is what I decided to go with. It's kinda inspired by canon, but a lot more terrible. If it's still offensive, let me know. If you haven't noticed, I get nervous whenever I write about serious topics, even if they're personal. I should probably get a beta to ease my concerns but ldfja;lsdkfa
Well, that's that. I could talk forever about why I make certain decisions, but I'm sure that's all pretty boring haha. Thanks for reading!
