At seven o'clock Lucy was sitting on top of the balcony of her house, sipping tea like she normally did in the morning when she was once again startled by the sudden appearance of Natsu.

"What are you doing here again?" She asked. "I thought you said that you wouldn't drag me into your vigilant justice."

"Don't worry I'm off duty."

"Then why are you here?"

"Can't a guy visit his friend?"

"Friend?"

"Yeah we are friends aren't we?"

"I think we're just acquaintances. I mean we barely know each other."

"And yet you're marrying a man that you hardly know?"

"Will you stop bringing up my marriage? Geez are you always this aggravating or just with me?"

"If it's any consolation I tend to aggravate a lot of people. Anyway I appreciate you keeping my secret and to prove it I would like to treat you for the day."

"How so?"

"Well I don't have a lot of money so I can't exactly give you everything that your usual wealthy friends would give you but it's equally as nice. At least I hope it is."

"Well what do you have in mind?"

"How does a picnic in the park sound?"

"Sounds like a date to me."

"Date? Oh no, no,no,no. No. Trust me I would never try to seduce a woman who was engaged to another man. No I'm just being friendly and trying to show my gratitude."

"Alright. I suppose a little picnic in the park would be alright."

"Great. Meet me at the park gate in an hour."

An hour later the two met at the park to enjoy a delicious lunch which included a bottle of champagne.

"My God this is delicious." She said after taking a sip from her glass. "How could you afford this?"

"Well I swiped it from Cana's private stash."

"Who's Cana?"

"A friend of mine who really knows her way around alcohol and if she knew that I had taken this she would kill me so let's keep this between us okay?"

"I have to keep another secret of yours? What other secrets do you have?"

"Do you really wanna know?"

"No. No I don't."

"So I'm curious what's gonna happen once you marry this guy?"

"Well Father will finally take his place among royalty and with my family fortune Loke won't be in dept in anymore."

"Wait a minute he's marrying you for your money?"

"Yes and I'm marrying him for his title and status."

"I know I'm not expert on marriage but shouldn't you love each other before you become husband and wife?"

"It's not that simple. The marriages in my family have always been arranged. It's to ensure that we remain rich or reach to a higher level of status."

"But what if you don't love each other?"

"In time we will learn to love each other. I happened with my parents."

"But what if it doesn't happen to you? Or what if you fall in love with someone else while you're still married to the guy?"

"That would never happen. I would be faithful to my husband."

"Even if you didn't love him?"

"Of course."

"I don't understand you rich people. You're supposed to be happier than us poor people yet you have loveless marriages."

"My marriage will not be loveless."

"How do you know that? You don't love him now so why would you love him later on?"

"You don't understand. You don't know how much pressure I'm under."

"Do you even wanna marry this guy?"

"It doesn't matter if I want to or not. If I don't marry Loke my father will never forgive me and he'll probably disown me."

"Just for not marrying a guy? Ouch, that's awful. What kind of father would do that? Then again I never knew my father so I have no room to talk."

"Oh right. I keep forgetting that you're an orphan. If I may ask do you know anything about your parents."

"No. Nothing. I was just found wandering around the church when I was three years old and when the soldiers couldn't find any families who were missing a kid they sent me to the orphanage. I tried to look for my parents when I was younger but what are the odds of an orphan ever finding their birth family?"

"Do you still look for them?"

"Sometimes but not as much as I did when I was little. I'm guessing that they either ditched me or they died. I know it's wrong of me to say this but I kind of hoped that they died because then that means that they loved me and wanted to keep me."

Do you think that you might have any other family out there? Brothers? Sisters? Grandparents?"

"If I can't even find out who my parents were, how am I supposed to find out who any of my other relatives were? I know that I shouldn't let it bother me-"

"Don't be silly. Lot's of people want to know where they came from. It's perfectly natural."

"Still I should be over this by now."

"I'm not an orphan so I can't say for that this is a true fact but I don't think orphans ever get over stuff like that. I know I wouldn't if I had never known who my parents were."

"Erza wishes that she never knew her parents were."

"Why is that?"

"Well she doesn't like to talk about it but she told me just the other day. Apparently her father was this abusive drunk who drove her mother to commit suicide when she was five and when she was ten she ran away from the maniac and has lived on the streets ever since."

"Oh my."

"In all the years that I had known her, I never knew that she had been abused as a child just like I did."

"You were abused as a child?"

He didn't answer her for five years.

"Yeah I was. The guy who ran the orphanage treated both me and all the other kids like crap. Impossible chores, barely fed us, daily beatings, and if we ever disobeyed him then...Then...Then..."

"Then what?"

"He...He would take us out into an alleyway where...Where he would hang us."

"Oh my God! He did that? To children? Innocent children?"

"Yep."

"How could anyone do such horrible things to a child?"

"It's called evil Lucy and believe it or not it exists in a lot of people."

"What happened to the other orphans?"

"I found out that sometime after Erza took me in my friend Laxus and all the other kids were adopted by his grandfather. The old man didn't even know that he had a grandson until much later. Last I heard they were all doing pretty well. "

"It's good that you all managed to get away and find homes but no child should have to live through abuse. I've never even heard of anything so horrible."

"I'm glad you feel that way. Not a lot of people care about what happens to orphans."

"Well I do."

She gave his hand a gentle grasp and smiled at him. He smiled back and the two continued to enjoy their lunch.