#04: The (worst) father of the year
October 15th, 1999
It might seem silly coming from someone with as many centuries lived as Erza, but she often worries about being too much. And it isn't just that she worries about her partners thinking she's clingy, she is also uncertain when it comes to new friends —even more so with soon-to-be friends—. The impromptu slumber party of their first night had been well-received by Lucy, however, she didn't want to overwhelm her with activities to do together while she was still getting accustomed to her new life.
Erza decided to approach it slowly and steadily, inviting her to watch movies in the living room on the weekends —the ones that bored Natsu and Gray didn't really care for— and offering to help her with some college-related projects —though she turned out not to be a big help, but Lucy appreciated the effort—.
They would also often do the grocery shopping together when it was the turn of either of them and the private time together that it offered served to get to know each other a little better.
Lucy would talk excitedly about whatever book she had been reading or a lesson that she found particularly interesting, while Erza would tell her some old stories about her life before she came to Fiore. She wondered if the fascinated looks that Lucy gave her were the same ones that she devoted to history books. They reflected a different kind of interest than the one she was used to, though not an unwelcome one.
Natsu had been the youngest in their little flock before Lucy, but they had never been as curious about her anecdotes —well, only the battle stories, but is not like she was complaining—. Gray had asked her some things upon their first meeting and he had continued to show interest for a while until he fixated on knowing about the places she had seen.
He would ask her to describe all of them and then attempt to paint them as accurately as possible. However, in current times, Gray had already seen enough of the world in several periods to paint from his own memory and experience rather than use her descriptions.
Lucy doesn't only ask about the battles or the places, she asks about the people and what life used to be like, in a tone that she thinks would be that of an archeologist, if she had ever met one. And Erza had never really met someone with that much hunger for knowledge nor did she expect to enjoy being the source of it as much as she did.
She wonders if Lucy will retain that curiosity over the centuries, even when she sees it all with her own two eyes and there is nothing left to discover.
She tries to avoid such dreary thoughts.
Lucy starts asking a lot about where their money comes from too and the intricacies of vampire living. Erza explains that their money comes partially from a pension given by the council, besides Natsu's part-time job as a firefighter and Gray selling paintings now and then. Lucy attempts to give her the money she makes working at a small bookshop but Erza reassures her that they don't need it at the moment and she should keep it for more personal stuff. Erza still notices her being nervous about it.
"Are we paying rent for the house?" Lucy asks, setting groceries out of paper bags and on the kitchen counter.
"Well, no. We just pay for the cable. The council manages everything else; electricity, water, heating..." Erza makes a mental note to check on the building heater later. It will start getting cold soon and their bodies tend to be susceptible to cold temperatures.
"Do they have the receipts?"
"I'm not sure, but I can look it up for you. Why do you need them?" She turns to look at her but Lucy busies herself by putting away food in the pantry.
"Oh just for college. I think I'm gonna have to let them know I've changes residences." She can tell that there is something going on, but she doesn't press on. Lucy will tell her if it's something important.
The very next day, she goes to the council's office. It only takes a meeting with Jellal and a couple of hours —well, half an hour of search, plus two hours of catching up— to get the receipts.
It's Friday in the early afternoon, and she knows that Lucy must be almost done with her classes so she chooses to visit her at the campus in case she wants to proceed as soon as possible. When she arrives, she realizes that the place is much bigger than she had imagined and, even worse, she doesn't actually know what building Lucy is in.
She wanders around, checking every few minutes with some random students that always seem to point to a different place when she asks for the literature building or whatever it is called. Instead of finding the blonde, she's the one being found.
"Erza?" She whips around to find Lucy hurrying towards her, backpack hanging from a shoulder. "What are you doing here?"
"I got your receipts." There's some hesitance and an unreadable expression on her face when she takes the folder from Erza's hand.
"Well, since I got them here. I'm gonna go to administration. I'll see you at home." Erza watches her leave and considers going home, but she can't shake the feeling that something is bothering Lucy.
Erza stays and follows the other woman's direction.
Lucy enters one of two buildings that flank a simple fountain, Erza decides to wait for her sitting at its ledge. She stares at her reflection in the water, the only surface that will return her stare, and admires the eyeliner that Natsu put on her that morning.
Minutes go by. She doesn't know what the process is but knows that bureaucracy is slow. It's been a little over an hour of staring at her own blank expression and twirling the water around with a finger, receiving weird looks from passersby.
A man approaches in the direction of the same building, yet makes a stop specifically to regard her with disdainful glare and remark, "You leaf-munching hippies are everywhere. Intoxicating her with your toxic ideas."
Erza gave him a menacing side-glance as he entered the building. She murmured, "Blood clot."
She continued sitting there a moment longer until the faint sound of commotion from inside the building caught the attention of her enhanced ears. She rushed inside, a man's voice thundering through the hallways.
"-ing you study in this stupid school because Aqua would keep an eye on you. Your mother trusted her family so I thought I could too, but I see I was wrong! Where are you even living right now? What kind of backward commune have you gotten in?"
The same man that had just insulted her was screaming at Lucy inside an office. Her chocolate brown eyes were fixed to the ground and she flinched at his words. She could even swear she saw her tremble.
"Hey!" She called for the man's attention and found also Lucy's relieved stare, half-heartedly pleading her not to say anything else.
But she will be damned if she lets her friend be spoken to like that.
"Who do you think you are, screaming at Lucy like that?" The man's rage deepens, looking between the two of them as if everything has become clear.
"I am her father and the one paying for her tuition. And I see she's wasting my money hanging out with hippies like you." He then ignores Erza and turns back to his daughter. "Is this the kind of people you've decided to surround yourself with? I knew I shouldn't have let you pick such a stupid career. You're wasting your time and my money! "
The spartan blood in her boils as he goes on with his tirade, insult Lucy's passions and diminishing her. She must remind herself not to snap, to keep a leveled head, and think of how to deescalate the situation, no matter how much she wishes to let her fury lose on this man.
"You're wasting your time and my money! Your mother would be disappointed in you. You're going to come back-"
Erza hears a growl, just quiet enough that only she could hear it under his yelling.
She focuses back on Lucy, whose fangs show just the faintest bit through snarling lips. She is trembling, but Erza realizes it isn't from fear and she tenses, ready to spring into action lest she must prevent that she does something regretful.
"Do not speak of her like that."
"What are you saying?" Lucy pinned the much taller man down with a stare.
"You have no right to speak about what my mom would or wouldn't think when you didn't even know her."
"You insolent brat-"
"I am not done talking," all of a sudden, her eyes shone bright red. Erza was speechless.
Hypnosis takes time, normally a decade, to manifest; yet Lucy had inadvertently managed to use her power merely a month after being bitten.
Jude was pale as a sheet, incapable to move even an inch or utter a sound under Lucy's control.
"My mother was the most amazing woman on this black earth and for some reason beyond my comprehension she loved you, and I think you loved her but as you've made it pretty clear after years and years of treating me like an asset that's taking too long to make a profit, you don't love me. Well, I'm sorry-Actually, no. I'm not sorry to tell you, I'm not an asset and I will not do what you want me to. I will not study what you want, marry a man, and pop up grandchildren that you will use to keep your legacy going like you're the fucking King of Fiore. I'm gonna do and live whatever way I want, happily away from you and without your money."
Her eyes stopped shining, but Jude remained frozen. Lucy walked up to Erza without caring about his possible response and made a sign for them to leave.
On their way home, Lucy tells Erza everything; how her father had been controlling and mistreating her since she was young, her mother being the only source of affection and her only support until she died, seven years ago. She tells her how she had learned to play the game and managed to convince him to let her study what she wanted if she promised to also get a business degree next.
The pieces of freedom that she had gotten the past years had made her see that she couldn't keep going like that, so she had been planning to leave his control, applying for a scholarship but she had been so worried about it being rejected and all of her efforts being in vain. Yet, right at that moment, all the worry was fading away.
"You know, it's odd," Lucy said as they reached the steps of their building. She sat down on them, Erza following soon after, and glanced up at the creamy clouds in the sky. "When you all told me I was a vampire I thought I was gonna be miserable. And, to be fair, I'm still getting used to this but...it helped me get a new perspective. I don't think I would've been able to break away from him or to be so sure about my decisions right now if I were the same woman I was two months ago."
Lucy leans her head on Erza's shoulder and thanks her.
"What for?"
"You guys have really been a great support lately. I'm so happy I found you."
Memories from over two millennia ago, from when she was in the same place as Lucy, claw their way out of Erza's mind and she can't stop a few tears from escaping her tired eyes. She's overcome; by sadness at that young Erza —back then, Charikleia—, struggling to survive and to find reasons to live, and by relief and joy at having made sure another innocent person doesn't go through the same pain.
She envelops Lucy in a crushing hug that's returned in full.
