Lucy had always wanted to visit Magnolia, but she had rarely been permitted to leave the confines of Crocus, and even on the rare occasion that they did venture away from the city for vacation, they always went to some high class resort where they were sure to be surrounded by the same stuffy nobles she had to put up with at home. Magnolia, on the other hand, was known as the home of the mages, a breeding ground for mage guilds and magic vendors alike. Simply put, it was no place for a lady and exactly where she wanted to be.
The city wasn't particularly large, but is was lively nonetheless. The whole place possessed a bright gleam that almost seemed defiant when one considered just how difficult Fiore had made life for its magical citizens, but they seemed undeterred in their quest for happiness. Of course, this impression of the city is only what Lucy could gather for afar, before the mages caught sight of her and her demonic companion. After that, the aura of the whole city seemed to change drastically.
Natsu flew straight toward what looked like a town square, where various vendors had set up little outdoor stands and mages wandered around peacefully. They landed in a whirl of wings and black silk, and it wasn't long before they were completely surrounded by mages with varying degrees of fear and hatred etched on their faces.
Lucy stood straight, emptying her mind as best she could of all nervousness. Natsu was reluctant to let go of her completely, wanting to keep his hand wrapped around her waist, but he knew he couldn't do that. She was here as Zeref's wife, not his.
Lucy surveyed the crowd, taking measure of the defensive stances directed right at her. Eyes of simultaneously curious and concerned mages sent silent messages to each other, as if they were trying to decide on a battle plan. The only thing Lucy could tell for sure was that her presence there came as a massive surprise. Before the crowd could make up its mind on whether or not to attack, she launched into speech, hoping that their shock would last long enough for her to start a dialogue.
"My name is Lucy Heartfilia," she began, her voice not nearly as strong and certain as it had been before the king. With him, she was able to pull from her very real feelings of disdain to mask her uncertainty, but these mages were something else. She respected these people, and – unlike that pompous royal asshole – their opinion was important to her. "I am here on behalf of my husband, Zeref, to offer a treaty."
"And what makes you think we're interested in hearing anything from that monster, Lady Heartfilia?" a voice from the crowd asked.
She turned her head to see a surly black haired man walk forward. He was shirtless, his dark guild emblem stamped on his ripped chest, and his face had a scowl that Lucy thought he probably had even when he wasn't glaring directly at demons. Privately, she applauded his bravery, but didn't miss the hoard of mages behind him sporting the same sigil: Fairy Tail.
Naturally, Lucy recognized them immediately. When she was younger and more apt to day-dream, she had hoped to one day join the notorious guild, known as the strongest (and most reckless) in the kingdom. As she'd grown, though, she realized she would never fit amongst them. Her magical power was less than impressive and they were destined to see her as nothing more than a pampered princess, so she'd decided to stick to working for mages in the realm of the nobles rather than as one of them. However, as she saw the group of nakama standing together now with their arms crossed and eyes narrowed, she felt jealous of that sense of community and belonging that was so strong it eradicated the fear they should have felt when standing only feet away from the black mage's most powerful demon.
Lucy took a shaky step forward, but resolved her heart. She could question whether or not she was doing the right thing on her own time, but now was the time to be more decisive. She took a deep breath.
"Because that monster is offering a way to end the war and establish peace," Lucy said, meeting the testy man's gaze head on.
The young man was about to retort with something the blonde assumed would have been appropriately offensive, but he was cut off by a small older man with a bushy mustache. Despite his almost laughable size, he seemed to command the respect of all those present, and Lucy could only assume he was the famed guild master: Makarov.
"Lady Heartfilia has always been a champion for the mages," he said not particularly loudly, though his words seemed to echo through the plaza. "We at least owe her the respect of hearing out her proposal. Though I must say, my lady, the presence of this demon makes it difficult for my children to listen well."
He gave Lucy a hard look and after a moment she nodded.
"Go, Natsu. I'll be fine on my own," she said, looking back at the fire demon.
"But Luce—" he began and she held up her hand stopping him. His green eyes met hers, worry infused in every scale on his face. She knew it was harsh, sending him away like this especially after what had just happened in the woods, but this mission was more important than any of their individual feelings.
He shut his mouth tightly, casting a last glance around for any immediate threats (of which there were many) and nodded reluctantly. Handing her the bag with copies of the treaty inside, he pushed off the ground harshly, launching into the air and soaring away.
The mages watched this interaction curiously. Half of them were surprised the demon possessed the capability to speak at all while the other half were distracted by the familiar exchange of names and his immediate compliance to her word. Many had seen the demon on the battlefield before and knew that he was a force to be reckoned with.
Lucy took in a few deep breaths as she watched Natsu leave, her heart begging for him to come back. As she turned back to the guild master, her cool façade crumbled and her nervousness was on full display. Luckily, it seemed that despite her reputation as a coddled noble, she had gained enough respect from the mages that they did not pounce on her immediately. Or perhaps it was just the respect they had for their master that kept them at bay…
"Now, my lady—" the guild master began, but Lucy interrupted.
"Please, call me Lucy," she said. This had been a suggestions of Zeref's, to endear her more personally to the mages whose hearts they would require to persuade the king. However, she only remembered that Zeref had told her to say that after she already said it; something about these people made her title feel like a burden rather than an honorific.
"Lucy," Makarov corrected, ignoring the scattered derisive snorts behind him. "I'm sure we're all very curious as to what would bring someone like yourself to Magnolia, and in the company of such an infamous demon at that."
Lucy smiled slightly as she reached up and undid her tight updo, which was beginning to give her a headache. She shook out her golden tresses, letting them fall around her shoulders before she spoke.
This was the easy part, the part that Zeref had trained her for. She recited a similar speech to the one the king had received, though this one was better tailored for the mages themselves rather than the borderline-condescending lecture from earlier. This was more emotional, dwelling longer on her invented relationship with Zeref than the one she'd provided the king. The story was a well crafted one. Lucy had always had an interest in writing, so it hadn't been hard to invent a love story for her and the black mage.
"First, I should explain how it is I came to be married to the most hated mage of all time," she said with a smile that could melt ice. She had mastered that far-away in-love look that now graced her dark, warm eyes. The other people in the square were so silent that if Lucy had shut her eyes she could have pretended she were alone.
"I grew up alone on my father's estate. My mother died when I was young, and my father was always too busy to bother with me except on the occasions he wished for me to meet some noble suitor, most of whom were around his age. I admit, I had fanciful ideas of love growing up, but they had been extinguished long ago. So when I say that I fell in love with Zeref, know that it was not something I was inclined to do," she said.
"When I met Zeref for the first time, I didn't recognize him. He was in my garden in the middle of the night and all I could see of him was his pale skin which seemed to glow in the moonlight. I asked who he was and he just smiled, saying that our estate had the best view of the stars in the kingdom. We spoke for a long time about the stars and I told him all about the constellations and their stories, like my mother had told me. Then as dawn began to creep over the horizon, he left, never telling me his name."
The mages listened, hanging onto her every word as her story unfolded.
"He came back the next night, and I went out to meet him again. I don't remember what we talked about, but I remember that talking to him was so easy. He was smart and kind and interesting. I was curious about him, but he never answered my questions, which only made me even more desperate to know who he was. But again at dawn he left," she said.
"This went on for weeks. Each night we'd meet in my garden and each night I would fall further and further in love with this mystery man, until one night I demanded he tell me his name. When he finally told me, I admit almost laughed. There was no way that the man I'd been talking to was Zeref Dragneel, the root of all of humanity's problems, the most evil mage to ever exist. It made no sense. Zeref was a monster and the man I met in my garden was anything but. It wasn't until he took me to his demons that I finally believed him."
The crowd was somber and silent as they watched her perform her story for them. Some of the faces showed acute distrust for her words, though most of them were too enraptured by her tale to question it just yet.
"After that I refused to see him. I've spent all of my short life devoted to fighting on the behalf of mages, and here I was falling in love with the man who was killing them in the first place. Zeref, however, refused to let me go so easily. He came to me one night and begged me to hear him out, much as I do to you now. So I listened.
"He told me about his life, his power, and the war. He told me how the war had begun, as he tried to defend himself against a greedy king who sought to use his power for his own imperial conquests. He told me how he cursed himself with immortality attempting to defend himself and his brother, and how he was tired of war and death, especially the death of mages like him who already lead such difficult lives."
There was a light murmur across the crowd at his point, but it hushed as Lucy pressed on.
"Then he told me the most shocking thing of all," she said. "He told me that he no longer cared about any of it. He had fallen in love with me, much as I had with him, and nothing else seemed to matter anymore, not if he couldn't have me by his side."
Lucy let a sad smile grace her face and she heard some of the crowd members sigh wistfully.
"As romantic as it was, I refused him. There was too much evil in his past for me to love him, and my love for my people, for all of you, was worth more than a single man ever could be. He left, and I didn't see him for weeks.
"Then one night he appeared to me again, this time with a proposal. He offered to work to end the war, and to establish a new kingdom alongside this one that would ensure full rights and protections for the mages I cared so much about. To be honest, it was the kind of proposal I'd have been tempted by even if I weren't in love with him. I spent a week carefully reviewing and considering the treaty he offered before I accepted."
Makarov spoke up at this point. "And what precisely does this treaty entail?" he asked.
Lucy reached into the bag Natsu had left with her and pulled out a stack of papers, each with the treaty printed clearly. She passed these around to the mages to read.
"You can read the whole thing for yourself. Zeref and I wish to establish our own kingdom upon the lands he already holds, which is admittedly not much. We would respect mutual cease of arms with Fiore and rule justly with our own laws which are designed to better accommodate the needs and rights of mages like yourself.
"This war has gone on too long, longer than Fiore can maintain. As the men and women of the frontline, you should know more than anyone that this fight can't be kept alive much longer," Lucy said.
"Is that a threat?" the shirtless mage asked, but he was quickly reprimanded by Makarov with a curt "Gray!".
Lucy frowned. "It is a fact. I love my husband, but my loyalties lie first and foremost with all of you as they always have. The king is content to let you die for him, but I'm not. If he will not stop fighting, Zeref will have no choice but to defend himself as he has in the past. Without peace, there is only more destruction and heartache, of which we have all had more than enough."
She stood a hundred feet tall and blazed like a thousand suns.
"You are more powerful than you know. Refuse to fight this king's war and you will have a place in our new kingdom, a place of respect and dignity. Help us end this war, and you will have peace."
Natsu scratched irritably at a tree, his claws gouging into its rough bark as he grit his teeth. He hated not being there with her, but he knew it was for the best. She was his brother's wife, even if that marriage was a sham, and she had appearances to keep up. Even more, he could hardly blame the mages for not wanting him there – he had killed many a mage in his day, even if the memories were fuzzy, like a bad dream he couldn't fully recall.
Still, he didn't like being without her one bit. He was hidden in the shade of the forest just on the outside of town. If he couldn't see her then he was pleased that at the very least he could still hear her. As she spoke the crowd was so silent, almost reverent, that he could hear her every word as if she spoke to him directly. While her story unfolded, he found himself almost wishing he couldn't hear it at all. He knew it was a lie, but it still hurt, the thought of her truly loving his brother like that, even in fiction. It certainly made more sense than her falling for the grotesque demon. Zeref was intelligent and handsome, and he knew how to be charming when he wanted to be. Natsu had never had the luxury of being charming. He had been changed when he was young, and had been scaring humanity ever since.
Before he had often wished that his brother had never changed him, that he had just left him dead. Death couldn't be worse than this torture. Everything about him – body, mind, and spirit – was corrupted, evil, monstrous. He had taken more from this world than he could ever hope to give back, and he resented himself for it. Perhaps he just wasn't strong enough and that's why he was unable to refuse his brother's orders. Or perhaps a dark part of himself actually enjoyed it….
He growled slightly. He couldn't believe that. He hated this existence more than anything. The only saving grace in his centuries locked in his scaled prison was that through all of that he had found Lucy.
He closed his eyes and listened to her voice as she spoke nearly half a mile away. She sounded much different now than she had a few hours ago. He hadn't liked her voice earlier – it wasn't right. Lucy was supposed to sound sweet and sincere and Lucy-ish, not like his brother, cold and demanding. He smiled slightly to hear her sound like Lucy again, though he frowned at her words.
If he wasn't so annoyed by her words he would have laughed. The idea that his brother could ever be so romantic was simply ridiculous, and it was clear that they were using the fact that nobody really knew what Zeref was like to help sell the story. It was a good thing that his brother kept such a low profile, because otherwise the lie would have been blazingly obvious.
As Lucy's story came to an end, Natsu could sense a shift in the crowd. They were curious, and as they hadn't decided to mob against her, the demon decided to let them ask their questions. It seemed that they weren't half as dumb as Natsu had thought they were, and they were quick to ask some questions that threatened to cut right through her tale. She handled it well, though, answering the questions with the kind of sweet patience and honest tone that was Lucy. Or at least, that was polite-Lucy. Natsu prided himself on having broken through that polite barrier, and getting to know the fiery, impatient, whirlwind of a woman underneath.
She spoke for what seemed like an eternity. The sun began to set over the horizon until all that was left in the sky were varying shades of dark blues and purples. The street lamps turned on and many of the mages whose curiosity had been sated began to wander back to their homes and guild halls. Natsu paced anxiously, waiting for a signal to come get her. He could barely wait to wrap her up in his arms, and he wanted to taste her lips again. Finally he heard her say - no louder than she had before - his name.
An obnoxious grin spread across his face at the call and he shot into the sky eagerly, swooping down to where she stood. When he caught sight of her he immediately noticed how weary she looked. It had been a long, taxing day for both of them, but at least he hadn't had to talk to anyone. He felt his body heat up at he small, genuine smile she gave him.
"Let's go," she said quietly. She gave a parting nod to the few mages that remained, who nodded in return. She wrapped her arms around Natsu's neck and leaned against his chest, giving in to his strength which he was happy to supply. He carefully took her in his own arms and lifted off.
They flew through the clear twilight, soaring high above the land spotted with towns full of people who just wanted to live their lives. Lucy smiled gently as she thought of them, finishing up their work for the day, preparing to sit down together for a meal, maybe talk about this or that and laugh. That's what they cared about – families, home, love, not the conquests of the greedy and powerful.
Then again, maybe she painted them a bit too idyllic. They weren't any different from those who fought for power except that they didn't have any to fight for. And the wars that raged on didn't leave them alone just because they didn't want to get involved. That was the problem with war – it didn't care if you were innocent.
"Natsu?" she said softly, knowing he would hear her over the rushing of the wind.
"Hm?" he hummed, his chest reverberating with the sound.
"I don't want to go back to that stupid cube," she said, pulling a short laugh from the demon.
"Then where do you want to go?" he asked, bending his face down to her ear so she could hear him without shouting.
"Nowhere," she said.
Somehow, Natsu understood what she meant, and he shifted his course to fly towards a smattering of trees and bulging rock in the distance. It only took a few minutes for him to land at the foot of a low, abandoned mountain. It was nothing impressive, but it had a cave system that would happily harbor them for the night.
He set Lucy down and held onto her while her legs regained feeling. When at last she was steady, he reluctantly let go, not wanting to crowd her too much, but she didn't seem to want the space as she moved back towards him, leaning against his chest. He stroked her hair which only his enhanced vision could see in the darkness. He knew that at the moment she was practically blind, and his heart swelled to know that she trusted him enough to be comfortable even without something as basic and comforting as vision.
"Stay right here, I'm going to gather some firewood really quickly," he said, guiding her to a large, smooth boulder to sit. He could hear her huff grumpily, but it just made him smile as he set off into the woods.
It took only a matter of minutes for him to collect enough wood for a fire, and being a fire demon, it took mere seconds to light it when he returned. Lucy seemed to appreciate the glowing flames greatly as she scooted towards them, drinking in their warmth. Natsu made sure she was safe before he headed back into the woods to hunt something down to eat.
He had stayed here a few times before, but it had been centuries since he'd last seen the narrow cave. Igneel had brought him here. It was their favorite stopping place when they would travel between the fire dragon's nest in the east and the metal dragon's nest in the west. Natsu's chest tightened at he walked through the familiar trees and brush. Igneel's death was the last clear memory he had before Lucy. That had been the last proverbial straw for him, the last bit of pain his mind could handle.
He felt a sudden wetness on his cheek and reached a clawed hand up to find a tear that had slipped out. He couldn't remember the last time he'd cried, the last time he'd allowed himself to feel anything at all.
He smiled lightly, wondering just what that blonde mage was doing to him.