Summary: Loosely based on the Grimm Fairy Tale 'Mary's Child', Layla tells Lucy a story about a Girl who was once favoured by the Celestial Spirits until she broke the biggest rule.
Pairings: Parental Layla/Lucy, Natsu/Lucy, and implied past Celestial Spirits/Lucy friendship.
YouTube Prompt: Natsu/Lucy video to 'Run' by Snow Patrol.
Like all little children, Lucy hated bed time, and when her maids and governess tried to get her to sleep she would play up and run off and do anything but settle down into bed. Sometimes, the servants would be able to persuade her to be a good little girl and go to sleep but more than often enough, they had to go to Layla and tell her that the little mistress was refusing to go to bed, and then, much to Lucy's happiness, Layla would come down herself and tuck Lucy into bed.
And with Layla, there was always a story.
"Settle down then," Layla said as she sat down on the bed, she patted the mattress and Lucy immediately scrambled off the floor where she had previously been playing with her doll to climb in beside her mother. "And I will tell you a very important Celestial story."
"A Celestial Story?" Lucy's eyes widened with excitement. "From the Spirits?"
"Yes," Layla said solemnly, "it is very, very important and therefore you must listen to every word and remember it," she tried her best to impress the seriousness of the situation by staring into her child's eyes. Her dark, flat, ones were reflected in Lucy's shiny, bright, eyes. "Promise?" she asked.
Lucy nodded eagerly. "I promise to listen and remember every word," she vowed with all seriousness a five year old could muster.
"Good girl," Layla patted Lucy's shoulder and smile, "well then….Once Upon a Time," she chanted the familiar words in a sing-song voice, "there lived a perfectly normal girl who was so good and kind that the Celestial Spirits took her into their hearts. They loved her so much that they wanted to save her from the devastation her home was going through and therefore they took her back into the Celestial World."
The plague had come so swiftly.
A Merchant had collapsed in the market, and then suddenly some of the stall owners were sick, and their families, and then nearly all the children. Her best friend was one of the first to go, there was an empty, Natsu-shaped, hole where he used to reside in her heart, and she wasn't quite sure how she could carry on living.
Her parents were next, and her aunt, and all of her cousins, and before she knew it, she was sitting alone in the graveyard.
It was just her now.
"Get up!" the mermaid snapped impatiently. She was one of her imaginary friends, along with the lion warrior, the virginal maid, the giant axe-wielding bull, the sophisticated goat, and oh, so many more. She had hundreds of them that came and go. The mermaid was the least patient and the least kind but she was here now which is better than no one. "Don't just sit there. What happened to fighting? You wanted to be an adventurer, didn't you? Fight the bad guys and save innocents?"
"What's the point?" she mumbled as she clutched her knees. "I have no one now." A beat of silence. "I have no home to protect." She said louder. "They're all gone."
"You have us!" the mermaid hissed. "And if you want a home, I will give you one. Get up." She looked up at the met the blazing, passionate, eyes of Aquarius. "I said," Aquarius snarled between gritted teeth. "Get up."
She does so.
She is surprised when Aquarius pulls her close and picks her up. "Hold on tight," Aquarius ordered, "and don't let go until I tell you to."
"Where are we going?" she asked.
"Home," Aquarius said softly, "I am taking you home, Lucy."
Lucy's eyes widened in awe at that. "A human went into the Celestial World?" she asked fascinated. "How? I thought the Celestial World was dangerous to humans."
"Yes she did, they dressed her in beautiful Celestial clothes to protect her," Layla explained, "and then they presented her with thirteen special gold keys."
"The Zodiacs!" Lucy squealed excitedly.
"That's right," Layla smiled fondly as she reached out and tucked a lose strand of Lucy's hair behind her ear. "The Celestial King told her that she can go wherever she pleases and that as their special friend she can stay with them for as long as she liked but she must follow some rules." Layla held up one finger, "first, she must not bring the Celestial Spirits into the human world on certain days," she held up a second finger, "secondly, she must not place them in danger," a third, "thirdly, she must not summon more than one," a fourth finger, "she most certainly not allowed to break a key," Layla's thumb went up as she held up her entire hand, "but most importantly, the biggest rule of them all," she stressed, "she must never speak to a Demon."
"Demons?!" Lucy gasped. "They're real."
"Oh yes," Layla said sorrowfully, "for where they are angels Lucy, there are demons too."
"There are demons in the world?" Lucy asked fearfully.
"That's another story for another day," Layla said quickly, dreading the inevitable conversation about the Books of Zeref and END they will one day have. Lucy trembled and Layla immediately reached out and pulled her child close to her chest, her arms wrapped round her as she rubbed her hand up and down soothingly her daughter's back. "They cannot hurt you here," she said gently, "Mama will keep you safe," she promised. Lucy sighed and relaxed in Layla's embrace and Layla gave her one last squeeze before she pulled away and pushed Lucy gently down onto the bed so her little girl was lying on it. "Now then," she said firmly as she pulled up Lucy's duvet, "back to the story the little girl obeyed the rules for many years, until one day, one day when she was adventuring in the Human World, she met a demon."
The Celestial World wasn't made for humans.
All the crystal, stars, and never-ending bareness of it all made it difficult for Lucy. There was no home house, there was no sunshine, there was no soft grass and pretty flowers, and no one ever slept.
The time differences were weird too. Have you ever slept for six months straight? Lucy had. Because two days, after what felt like a week of no sleep, were six months in the Celestial World.
She had spent seventy five days in the Celestial World.
That was three hundred years in the Human World.
Her world, the place he had been born in, had changed entirely and she wanted to explore. She wanted to see and to experience and quite frankly, she would like to grow, and make new friends.
So she left, just for a day, which would only be an hour or so tops, and she took in the sights of this new exciting town.
It didn't go very well, she was soon chased out of town by some horrible bratty boys, and in her rush to escape she quickly tripped over a root of all things, and rolled down into the dark, dank, woods.
She landed on top of another boy.
"Oof!" a boy cried out. "Watch where you're going you weirdo!" he snapped.
She took in his demonic markings, the horns, the wings, the scales, and those black symbols and almost screamed. A demon! And then his insult registered in her mind. "Who are you calling a weirdo?" she snapped.
"You!" the boy said with childish indignation. "Who the hell goes rolling about in the woods like that unless they're a weirdo?"
"I'm not the one that's lurking in the woods like a weirdo!" she retorted. "That's you! So you're the weirdo!"
"I'm not a weirdo, you are!"
She angrily pushed forwards so her face was in his. She shot him her best menacingly furious look, the one that she has seen Aquarius give Leo all the time, and saw staring back at her…
…..a pink haired boy under the demonic trappings, with dark green eyes that could be mistaken for dark with his dilated pupils, and tanned, rough skin, with a strong jawline, and something so childishly innocent.
"Natsu?" her voice wavered.
"Lucy?"
Lucy sat up at that. "She spoke to it?!" she exclaimed.
"She did more than that," Layla scowled slightly, "she became its friend."
They laid on the soft grass in a forest clearing where the sun shone on them. It had been three years since they had encountered one another in the forest and thanks to her choice of staying in the Human World, Lucy was finally growing into a young woman as Natsu, just as slowly, was leaving his boyhood.
They had spent the day playing hide and seek, and then tag, and finally, after tiring Natsu (who always shad more energy than everyone else) out, they were watching clouds as they took in the springtime sun.
"That one looks like a bunny," Lucy declared as she pointed to one cloud, "and that one is a carrot."
"Pfft!" Natsu snorted. "They look nothing like a bunny and carrot unless the bunny was being boiled alive and the carrot was hideously deformed. Nah, it's obviously a witch's cauldron with something nasty being thrown in."
"Is not!"
"Is too!
"Is not!"
"Is too!
"Is not!"
"Is too!
"Is not!"
"Is too!
"Whatever," Lucy muttered, "it's changed now into a blob."
"Paint," Natsu agreed sagely. They fell into silence and Lucy flinched ever so slightly as she felt his boiling hot, calloused, hand take hold of hers. She closed her eyes blissfully as she squeeze his hand back. It had been so long since they had even this with all those wars going on. Guild wars, dragon wars, demons and celestial spirits fighting one another, it was nice to just have a bit of peace and not think about whatever battlefield she and Natsu would be expected to join in the near future. "That cloud looks like my best friend," he declared, "after she fallen down a ditch like the weirdo she is."
Lucy kicked him for that.
Unsurprisingly it started a round of roughhousing that ended with Lucy begging for mercy as she was pinned to the grass and Natsu held up a spider close to her face threatening to put it down her dress.
"You're my best friend too," she murmured eventually, "and I wish there wasn't this stupid divide of demons and spirits between us."
She looked up to meet his dark, intense, eyes. "…..there doesn't have to be," he said quietly. "We could spend every day together if we really wanted to."
Her eyes widened at the implication.
"Why?" Lucy frowned. "Why would she do that if it was against the rules?"
"Why would any child do something they were told not to?" Layla replied pointedly and Lucy smiled sheepishly. She hadn't exactly behaved to get this story told to her. "The point is she did it and soon enough she began to sneak away to see the demon. She did it so often that her friends in the Celestial World became suspicious and soon enough she was brought to the Celestial King who asked if she had spoken to a Demon."
"What did she do?"
"She lied," Layla said flatly, "And when asked again, she lied once more. When the Celestial King gave her one last chance to redeem herself by being truthful…. She lied again."
"I ask you again, Child," the Celestial King's voice boomed, "have you or have you not been associating with a demon?"
Her hand curled into a fist. Natsu might look like a demon, and he might even have the magic of one, but he wasn't a real demon. She had seen real ones, the people that call him Master were the heartless pits of evil that demons were supposed to be, and that wasn't Natsu.
Natsu cared.
Natsu genuinely smiled and laughed.
Natsu hated hurting people.
Natsu cried for all the evil his brother and his demons were wrecking on the world.
There was nothing demonic about him.
"I have not," she said defiantly, "I have had no associations with demons."
Aquarius' eyes blazed furiously, Virgo's looked empty, Leo, Capricorn, and Libra all looked disappointed, Taurus and Aries looked away, Sagittarius, Scorpio, and Pieces all looked at their feet, while Cancer sighed heavily, all the Plues cried, and everyone else muttered darkly.
The Celestial King turned to Gemini, who was transformed into her body, and the blonde replica looked directly in Lucy's eyes with the same furious spark that Natsu said she had when she was pissed at him.
"Liar," Gemini said flatly, "she is lying."
That seals her fate.
"And so, she was casted out of the Celestial World," Layla struggled to continue at that, her voice wavered as she tried not to think about it as real, "Abandoned, left alone, naked and penniless," her voice shook slightly, "and her keys taken away so she could never call for help."
"What happened to her?"
"The Demon found her and he took her in."
Lucy's eyes widened at that. "He helped her?" Lucy asked incredulously.
"He loved her," Layla replied instantly, "or so he claimed." She shrugged. "It's hard to tell with Demons if they truly love or not but he did take her home, marry her, and took care of her."
A glamour spell made Natsu look like the man he was supposed to have grown into. A regular, if very handsome, man with a healthy tan, pink hair, and green eyes. There was no hint of scales or horns or anything else…..but Natsu and Lucy knew otherwise and they tried their best to not laugh as the priest chanted his blessing over them.
Natsu squeezed her hands, his finger rubbing the gold ring he had placed there himself mere minutes ago, and she replied with her most radiant smile and a loving squeeze back.
"…I now declare you husband and wife," the priest said, "you may kiss the bride."
Natsu pulled her in close, tilted her head, and placed the best damn kiss they have had yet to date right on her lips.
She laughed delightedly into it as she entwined her arms round his neck, her fingers playing with the curls that met the back of his neck as she desperately tried to forget the fact the only family she had were not here to witness this happiest event of her life.
"And then one day, they had a child. A little boy and that was when the Celestial Spirits visited the girl." Layla's voice went quiet, cold, and sad. "They told her that she had sinned worse than when she had lied about her misdeeds, but if she told the truth, recanted her love for the Demon, then they would take her and her child home again."
"And did she?"
"No, of course not," Layla said derisively, "and so in punishment of her sins, they took away her child."
Natsu roared furiously as Libra kept him pinned to the ground. Their son, their first ever child, was curled up in Aquarius' arms as she carried him towards a gate.
Lucy screamed as she struggled against Libra's gravity magic. "You have no right!" she cried out, her voice hoarse, she had screamed and screamed all night to bring this beautiful boy in the world, and now her voice was breaking under the need to scream as he was being taken away from her. "He is my child!"
"And is innocent," Libra said softly, "we must protect the innocent from such corruptive forces if we are to salvage the world from such darkness."
"Please," Lucy begged as she drank in the sight of her baby. His dark hair (from Uncle Zeref, undoubtedly), his little chubby fingers, his small face peaceful and ignorant as he slept through his own kidnapping, hiding the silver eyes she knew he had (would they change when he grows up, she wonders?). "Please," she pleaded, "give me back my child."
"You should have recanted," Aquarius said flatly, "then you could hold him"
Natsu broke free just as they disappeared into the gate and ran straight into the wall. His anguish screams of swear words had nothing on the sound of Lucy's heart breaking.
"But that's so cruel!" Lucy protested.
"Is it?" Layla questioned, bewildered. "Is it cruel to rescue a child from a Demon?"
"The Demon was the baby's father," Lucy said simply, "he wouldn't have hurt the baby!"
"Perhaps," Layla shrugged, "the girl and the Demon mourned for the loss of their child but soon enough they had another boy, and once again the Celestial Spirits came and asked the girl to tell the truth and recant her love for the Demon, and once again, she refused. They took the other child away and left her alone."
Natsu broke free of Libra's hold much more quickly this time but unfortunately Taurus, Leo, and Capricorn had appeared to keep him distracted as Virgo carried her new baby towards the gate.
Virgo was more sympathetic. Virgo could be pleaded with. "My baby!" Lucy scrambled across the best and tried to grab hold of Virgo. The pink-haired maid stepped away quickly and into the gate. The last she saw was the tuft of red hair (inherited from Lucy's grandmother, if Lucy recalled the tales of the scarlet haired mage that deigned to marry her grandfather correctly) as the golden light enclosed on her child. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" she screamed.
Natsu punched the floor so hard that the wooden slabs hit the ceiling. "SHIT!" He swore. He punched again. "Damnit! What gives them the right? We're not fucking doing anything wrong!" he sobbed. "Why can't we keep our children?"
"I don't know," she wept, "I don't know."
Lucy frowned furiously at that. "That's not right at all!" she muttered darkly.
"The Girl and the Demon lived in the woods, nearby a village," Layla continued, "and the village increasingly became suspicious of them. Especially the Girl, whose babies kept disappearing. They suspected that she ate them and that she was a Demon Bride sent to plague them." Lucy groaned in disgust at that and wrinkled her nose, revolted that people could think such things. "Quite," Layla agreed, "The Girl ignored the gossip and stares as she was blissfully happy with her Demon Husband, once more she was with child, and this time, it was a girl."
"Did that stop the Spirits from taking it away?" Lucy asked warily.
"No, of course not," Layla shook her head, "for the third and final time they offered the Girl another chance to tell the truth and once again she refused, and so once again they took away her child."
Natsu had left town to search for a rune or something to keep the Celestial Spirits out of their home. It was, of course, then her child decided to enter the world and Lucy, exhausted for doing everything on her own with no comfort, help, or support from Natsu or a midwife, barely had time to admire how identical her child was when the gate opened again.
"Not Layla!" she begged. "Please. Not Layla! Let me keep just one child. Please, I am begging you!"
"If you truly loved your children you would be glad we're doing this," Capricorn said stiffly. He didn't sound as if he truly believed it. "We are taking them to a better time. One free from demons and guild wars and dragons."
She knew time worked differently and using the Celestial World could potentially lead to actual time travel, Natsu once told her all about Zeref's gate, but she didn't believe they were taking her children to a better place.
After all what place could be better than her own arms?
"Hime," Virgo said pleadingly, "all you have to do is say you were wrong. That your husband is a demon and you no longer wish to be with him. That's all, and you could be with all of your children. We'll take you to a better place away from all of this and with your children."
Lucy trembled with barely suppressed fury. Her dark eyes met the wide, empty, blue eyes of her so called friend. "Go to hell," she snarled.
She didn't even have time to lunge at them when the gate closed and took her baby girl away….forever.
Lucy nibbled her lip. "Then what happened?" she asked nervously.
"Losing her third child had persuaded the villagers that they were right in their suspicions," Layla said loudly, "and when her husband was away, they attacked. She was tried as a Demon Bride and found guilty, they cast her to the flames where she would burn to death. She cried and pleaded, and her prayer was immediately answered by the Celestial Spirits. They offered her, one last chance to tell the truth and recant everything. A magical seventh time."
The flames licked at her feet and, unlike Natsu's, these actually burned her. She was in utter agony, her mind was a haze as smoke filled her lung, and despite all of this she could still meet Leo's eye with an incredulous look.
"Recant?" she choked on a laugh. "I have nothing to recant." She coughed and wheezed as the smoke almost strangled her. "There is no sin in being in love."
Leo looked down mournfully before he melted into the crowd. The mob around her got louder and more excited as the flames danced higher and higher, Lucy's stared round blearily unable to recognise anyone but some vague familiarity of neighbours that she never spoke to. The Zodiacs obviously decided that even though they were refusing to rescue her and it was their fault she was in this mess, they could not watch her burn.
Her eyes meet dark, remorseful, and sad eyes.
A pale man with dark hair dressed in black and white watched her mournfully as if she meant something to him. "I'm sorry," he mouthed, "it's for the best."
And then he threw something in the fire that made it burn all the more hotter and far more quickly.
It was a mercy.
"And she did?"
"No, no she did not," Layla sighed heavily at that, "There is no sin in being in love, she said, and then she allowed the flames to consume her."
There was a long moment of silence and then Lucy suddenly punched her bed with both fists angrily. "That's a horrible story!" she declared furiously. "What was the moral in that?" she demanded to know. "Abandon your friend?"
"No, of course not," Layla said instantly, "the moral is Lucy that you should obey the rules, always tell the truth, and keep away from Demons."
"Well I disagree!" Lucy said passionately. "A person should stand by the person they love no matter what. They shouldn't allow the opinion of someone else effect how you feel and treat a person. I think the Girl was brave and right to die in the fire for her husband."
"Yes," Layla's voice took a strange tone as she eyed Lucy with the strangest of stares that Lucy would never be able to place, "but you would think that."
END's screams of anguish, grieve, and fury at the loss of his wife echoed throughout the Celestial World as it haunted Earthland and, very likely, other worlds.
Leo trembled as he tried his hardest to not cry. Aries sobbed pitifully and everyone else were either openly crying or trying not to, even Aquarius.
"We were wrong," the Celestial King closed his eyes, "we were wrong and our old friend had paid for it."
"Well that's just damn great!" Aquarius snapped. "But what can we do about it now?"
"Simple," the tip of the Celestial King's staff glowed a pure white gleam, "we give them a second chance."
It takes a hundred years for their oldest and dearest friend to be returned to the Human World as a healed, healthy, child with no memory of her previous pain. A fresh start from the very beginning..
It ironically means that she reunited with her youngest child in this new, peaceful, and better age….
Aquarius said that she felt like she had been punched in the stomach when she meets the eye of the little girl she once rescued from the plague-ridden village for the very first time.