I'm alive! I am sorry for such a long hiatus, but I got busy with classes and then I lost interest in writing for a while but now I'm back with an actual plot line for this story, so I'm excited! Thank you for all the support and patience with me updating. I really appreciate you all for the support and taking the time to read my work. I hope you enjoy this chapter! P.S, peep the new story cover!

Bloodstained Fairy

Chapter 04

Mission

When Lucy had woken up, it had been to the rough shake given to her Subaru who had stood over her scowling. The albino was impatient, which really didn't surprise the blonde, seeing as she was quick to pick up how easily irritable he was.

It was a fact that each one of the Sakamaki brothers had their limit when it came to her pushing their patience. As a heiress, and being put back into the very life she originally ran away from, she was doing her best. With one brother she had to act a certain way, and another with a different brother to best accommodate them and to limit their aggression.

It was a quick discovery that it was easier to be submissive to them, to a certain extent. Where she would usually fight back, like with Gajeel when he first kidnapped her before he joined Fairy Tail, or even with Jackal, or the Infinity Clock with the Oracion Seis, yet this time was different. She was bound by her word, plus she would rather it be her than Yui to suffer.

There was something about the platinum blonde that got Lucy into protective mode. There was the one time she had been woken up to screaming, quickly finding Ayato pinning the girl down and sinking his fangs into her neck on the very same couch she used to read on as a child. Since then Lucy tried to keep them at bay with her blood, enduring their words of abuse on how easy she was being, how she was a lewd, or even a slut.

Yet she knew that was their mechanism. They weren't humans, they functioned a different way than her and Yui. They didn't know right from wrong, just knew what to take and how to take it. They believed they were better, and given their status in their little world, it was true. It was just merely easier for her to cope with their biting, bad attitudes and word abuse than being actually abused, which lucky wasn't the case. They were just a little to rough when they got into it.

"Oi, Melons! Are we there yet?" Ayato went on to question her with that damn nickname she hated. It was so degrading.

"We've been walking for a total of five minutes and you're already whining?" Lucy questions, raising her eyebrow as she looked over at the red head who glared her way.

"Whining?!" Ayato snapped as if the idea was out of the question for him.

Lucy rolled her eyes, deciding not to entertain his childish antics. Subaru ended up having the same mind set, but he was in a bad mood. Mostly due to the fact the sun was out and shining in his eyes. It made sense why that would cause both Ayato and Subaru to be a little more moody, vampires and sunlight weren't the ideal mix.

"Who's Natsu?" Subaru asks, recalling the blonde calling for that name in particular the night that Ayato and Laito first feed from her a month ago.

In fact the Celestial Mage tended to call out that name quite often in her sleep. They were quick to discover that Lucy had frequent nightmares at night, the smell of salt from her tears and the aura or fear and loss gave that away, and in the middle of it all she called out that one damn name.

None of the brothers, including Subaru, liked whoever it was that held the name Natsu, because it was clear that Lucy Heartfilia's heart belong to whoever the hell that was. Strangely enough Reiji gave the strict rule that they should leave this particular issue of Lucy's alone. Never in their lives had they respected a human, but Lucy was clear in her demands of respect.

Subaru just never thought Reiji would give in and let Lucy have her personal space within her own room, which was another rule Reiji had set up- they were not to enter Lucy's room without her permission. Yui's on the other hand he could care less about, but Subaru had a hunch it was because Reiji was trying to keep this perfect image of Lucy up. The heiress that had good mannerism and was pure and innocent for the taking.

When in reality it was obvious that was who Lucy did not want to be. She had the same look in her brown eyes that his mother had, Subaru noticed when he looked at Lucy closely, the look of sadness and despair by her own inner demons.

They had known and lived with Lucy Heartfilia for about two months at this point, and yet knew nothing about her. Only her name, status and magic type. That fact didn't settle well with any of them.

"Natsu?" Lucy stopped walking for a moment, causing both Ayato and Subaru to stop a step ahead and look back at her. She wasn't expecting that question in this moment, but she knew it would come eventually. "He was my partner."

Ayato raised an eyebrow this time. "Partner? As in sexually?"

"No baka!" Lucy's cheeks burned a new shade of red, and for a moment she contemplated a Lucy kick before deciding against it this once since they were in the middle of the town of their client and she didn't want to risk damaging property or Ayato causing a scene. "Partner as in my best friend. We went on adventures together in our guild."

Her chest tightened at the use of past tense phrasing of her words, but day by day her pain was easing when it came to the thought of her best friend and the guild. Step by step, day by day. One day, she'd be okay- hopefully. She wasn't sure what to expect in the future now because of the Sakamaki brothers, where one would become her husband of her choosing. Yet could she really love one of them?

No. Her heart wouldn't be in it at all. A marriage without love, a life without happiness. She would rather be dead, but there wouldn't be a difference.

"Adventures in bed." Ayato slyly says, slinging an arm around Lucy's shoulder. "See I knew there was a kinky side to you, Melons."

Feeling her eyebrow twitch in irritation, Lucy was quick to snatch Ayato by the ear. "How many times do I have to tell you I have a name, Tomato Head? Now shut your mouth and lets get this job done so we can just go home."

Home. The Heartfilia Estate that was never home after Layla passed, but now it was where Lucy came back too. Where she lived and slept. How funny life was.

Ayato growled lowly, wanting nothing more to painfully sink his fangs into her neck but this was not the time or place. He'd make her pay later for daring to defy Ore-Sama, in public at that. Subaru would have to admit that the blonde had fire, she was able to stick up for herself and manage them just fine. For a moment, just a moment, he wondered what exactly this mage had endured to face them as fearlessly as she does.

"Where is he now?" Subaru kept his curiosity out of his voice, letting it slide that Lucy wouldn't tell them anything else about this Natsu person. Yet he had a hunch that if he pushed her a little to far with the topic, him and Ayato might actually be given a reason to fear the blonde, who was considerably strong physically for a human.

Lucy let out a soft sigh, looking at Subaru as she pulled out the job flyer to check where they were supposed to be going. "He left, along with the rest of the guild. Don't know where, don't really care."

Yet she did care. She cared too much that it made in hard to breath, because she sacrificed her dearest friend, the last connection to her mother to be left behind with nothing more than six vampires, a human girl who needed protection and an arranged marriage. Subaru had more questions, and Ayato was curious too but both brothers glanced at each other and silently agreed that they would drop it for now. They needed Lucy focus for this job, because they were not leaving without being paid.

"Here we are." Lucy announced, stopping in front of a building. Looking at Subaru with a stern look, and giving Ayato a point look she raised her fist to knock on the door. "Be on your best behavior, and whatever you two do, keep your mouths shut and let me handle this."

"Are you sure that this is even a good idea? Especially if that man is the one who wants it so?" Reiji inquired, tisking when he saw Shuu hadn't even moved an inch on the couch or even opened his eyes with the importance to this topic. A good for nothing he is.

Shuu on the other hand just wished Reiji would accept the news and go away, because in reality they didn't have a say in the matter. Their father had given his final words curtly and hung the phone up. It was already in the process of happening, and so they would all have to just deal with it, much to his irritation.

"Doesn't matter. Those half bloods will be here at daybreak tomorrow, moving in indefinitely." Shuu muttered, slowly opening his blue eyes. "I don't know what reason they would be coming here for, but no doubtingly that man has something planned for all of us."

Reiji had a grim expression, trying to think of any reasons why. Shuu had a point, which was rare, about their father having something planned for them if he was sending the Mukami's over here to live with them, knowing full well they don't get along. Not only that, but it would mean Lucy would have more distractions from them, which was a highly unpleasant thought.

"We'll have to keep a close eye on Ms. Heartfilia with them around. Perhaps move her into a room with one of us." Reiji suggested out loud, liking that idea very well.

"No." Shuu surprised Reiji, and himself. "She needs her own room. I don't know what it is about this damn human, but she deserves her privacy. She's different, and I know you sense it and are just as confused too."

Reiji sighed slightly. "There is something strange about her. She isn't the same prey as Yui, but she is prey nothingless."

Shuu didn't comment on it, because there was something about Lucy Heartfilia that had them acting more humane. He wondered for a second if perhaps it was because she was a Celestial Mage, bright like a star in the night sky that brought them the same serenity the moonlight does at night.

Sure they all had their episodes with Lucy though, were they would grab her and push her around like a doll. Especially when she defied them to protect Yui, which pissed Ayato and Laito off especially. Shuu actually enjoyed her fire, it made her more interesting and clear that she could put up with them. He wondered for a moment if she would eventually reach her breaking point, and who would have the pleasure of breaking her.

"Prey or not, we make it clear to those filthy half bloods that they are to stay away from Lucy or heed a punishment." Shuu chuckled, looking at Reiji from his spot. "Scratch that, she gets one warning to stay clear from the Mukami's, and if Lucy disobeys then she will receive a punishment."

Reiji, for once in a rare moment, agreed with Shuu about Lucy getting a punishment if she didn't stay clear of the Mukami's. "The others will be informed, as will Laito and Ayato when they come back."

Shuu merely closed his eyes as Reiji took his leave to make preparations for their unwanted guests. The blond himself was a bit curious how Lucy was with the two idiots on this job, and was highly doubtful they would actually complete the job knowing his brothers.

Lucy's eyebrow twitched in annoyance as Ayato continued to question the client, and so she grabbed the redhead by the ear- yanking hard enough to earn a hiss and gave a smile at the client. "I apologize for my comrade here. He doesn't know when to stop asking questions."

The client, an older man, smiled back with crinkles in his eyes. "It's not a problem my dear, quite refreshing around here. It gets lonely."

Subaru tsked, "Then why not just move if it gets so lonely?"

Lucy's eyebrow twitched in annoyance once again, and it was then she decided that she would not be coming on another job with Subaru or Ayato. Yet she also expected this. They were not from this world, they didn't understand how people here worked or the normalities of this world. It was clear to her that in their own world, each brother took what they wanted when they wanted it without so much as a breath of disapproval.

They were vampires, pure blooded at that, which Lucy had come to learn was the highest form of being a vampires and in their world people answered to them. They were the princes of their kind, which made sense but this was not their world. As much as they pushed her and hurt her with their fangs and advancements, she didn't think anything of the pain she felt when she with breaking Aquarius's key.

Pain like that was unbearable and something Lucy wasn't sure she could come out of. Especially when her family all left, and as much as she tried to convince herself she wasn't upset and she understood, Lucy didn't. Loke was mad first too, but Lucy made excuses until Loke had to literally shake sense into her.

Natsu could have taken her with him, he took Happy. Gray took Juvia, same with Gajeel and Levy with Lily. Erza was somewhere, more likely working with Jellal on the down-low. In retrospect, Lucy was mad. She was mad, and hurt and felt abandoned- these ugly feelings that Lucy tried her best to ignore.

The Sakamaki brothers offered a painful distraction, but in every term this was her family to be. The one person Lucy was protective of was of Yui, the girl who was so obedient it hurt Lucy to watch sometimes and was harder to hear her cries for help and to stop. Yet Lucy could do nothing but try to take most of the load of handling the brothers.

"That's none of our business." Lucy piped in, smiling once again at the old man. "Now let's get going to complete this mission and get home."

With that Lucy released Ayato's ear and walked out of the client's house with the map in hand where the herb would be for the client's medical pratices. The moment the door closed behind Subaru, Ayato had already pinned Lucy to the nearest wall with a loud thud, causing the blonde to cry out at the pain in her back and the pain threating her wrists that were enclosed by the redhead's tight grip.

"Don't ever reprimand me again." Ayato growled lowly, his green eyes flaring dangerously. She could see he was pissed, and a part of her wanted to be scared but she didn't feel it. She had faced more threatening situations, and this one was on the bottom of the list. "Know your place, as food."

Yet Lucy knew she was more than that. She was someone important if that man, their father Karl Heinz, had come back all these years for her. To make sure she kept up the part of the deal her father had made. It was a power play. Yet she didn't understand what it was a power play for. What did she have that this man wanted, and what was ultimate goal here in this world in Earthland.

"I'm speaking to you, and you dare defy me by ignoring me!?" Ayato snapped, shaking Lucy and gaining her complete attention.

It was the first time Ayato seen such dull brown eyes. Of course he'd seen them dull when other sacrifical brides were dead, but never on a living person. Yui's eyes didn't even lose their shine, and it was because she was completely and utterly human by holding onto her faith. Yet Lucy, it was like looking into the eyes of someone who had lost everything.

Honestly, for Ayato, it brought a sense of unease. Lucy was the only human who wasn't scared to defy them, and had it been anyone else but this blonde- they would have been dead by now. Did she had a death wish? Or was it truly that Lucy simply didn't fear them? It was because they knew nothing about her past besides bits and pieces that they couldn't break her spirit?

Would they even be able to break a spirit that was already seemingly broken?

"Oi, let's just get this dumbass job over with already so we can go home." Subaru muttered, pulling Ayato off Lucy. The youngest just didn't like how long the two were staring into each other's eyes, it wss unsettling and a waste of time.

"This way." Lucy says, looking at the map and pushing Ayato's words away. That look, the eyes of a killer and a monster.

Yet Lucy didn't flinch, not even with the abuse, because deep in her heart the only thing she truly feared was losing everyone she loved to the demons of this world. Which she already had lost, except her spirits, and besides that she truly had nothing left to lose but her very existence.

The mission itself went surprisingly well, up to the point of getting to the herb. Ayato and Subaru would bicker every now and then, the natural order of the Sakamaki brothers who could only be around one another for a very limited time. Which was why Reiji's monthly dinners always ended with insults and arguments.

On the other hand, Lucy had made sure to get a special casing to put the herb in to keep it alive until the client could grind it into his medicine. Kneeling on her knees to pick the herb, Lucy thought of Wendy, missing the blue haired sky dragon slayer. She wondered where Wendy and Carla went, and how the younger girl was doing.

She is more than capable of taking care of herself, especially if Carla is with her. Lucy reminded herself as she sealed the casing closed and bounced onto her feet, looking back over at the two vampires who were keeping guard of anything coming their way.

"All done. We can head back to the client's house, collect the reward and go home." Lucy tells them, earning a look from Subaru- who looked over his shoulder at her.

"That's it?" He asks, with a frown. "Seems a little too easy."

Lucy shrugged, "We were just getting a herb, not taking out a monster or dark guild."

"You actually do that?" Subaru questions, knowing Lucy had experience on this battle field. He read some of the articles of the Fairy Tail guild, more specifically the ones on Team Natsu, who seemed very destructive. Yet Lucy wasn't destructive at all.

"It depends on the class of the mission and who's requesting it." Lucy answered, a small smile on her lips reminiscing about her missions with her team, about how they ended up in the situations by pure chance.

Before anything else could be said, the three of them tensed up in union. There was a high level magic spike from somewhere near them, but coming from none of them- at least not from Lucy. Gripping her keys, Lucy gave Subaru a look with a frown.

"You just had to say something. I swear, no one can appreciate a simple job." Lucy muttered as a wolf jumped out of the wood area, followed by what Lucy assumed was it's pack.

The wolves them selves were black, but they seemed off. Wolves didn't possess magic, merely because they were animals who didn't need nor have magical capabilities. Yet these ones radiated off magical energy, or an energy that wasn't one of a wolf.

"What are these things?" Lucy asked, having a feeling Ayato and Subaru knew with how they were standing on either side of her ready to protect the blonde from the incoming danger.

"They seem to be familiar, from who? Don't know." Subaru answered her, scowling at the filthy things that dared growl and snap their teeth at them.

They are protecting me. Lucy told herself, and frowned more deeply. She didn't want to ever depend on anyone else to protect her, it made her weak. The last time she depended on someone, she was at a lost when she had to face the demons on her own with her spirits. Her friends.

She depended so much on Natsu and the others always being there, that it tore a deep hole into her when they were gone. She was lost and she'll be damned if she ever let someone else protect her.

"Open, gate of the Lion- Loke!" Lucy yelled out, twisting the key in the air and calling forth her most loyal spirit, and friend.

"My love, you called?" Loke teased before sensing the initial threat, that for once wasn't one of the brothers. Getting into fighting position, Loke had analyzed the threat.

There had been multiple times these past few months that Loke tried to force his gate open when he senses Lucy in distress, or her emotions spiking her magic. It wasn't a secret Lucy had been training her magic, and magic origins. Capricorn had mentioned it to Loke that Lucy called him every now and then for training.

Yet it was never training in combat, it was more spells and expanding her mind. It made Loke wonder what she was training her head for. Yet it also made sense, she was going to a place mentally to escape the real world.

For a moment a bright light engulfed Lucy, and then she was standing there in her stardress form that represented Loke's key. Pride swelled through the lion spirit, but he quickly refocused his attention.

"Look, it's the tamed lion." Ayato snickered, scrunching his nose as he shamelessly checked Lucy out and stared longer at her chest area, smirking when he felt Loke's eyes on him. "Smells like cat liter. Lucy, you should really take better care of your pet."

Scowling at Ayato, Lucy took a deep breath and gave Loke a look not to give into Ayato's baiting, knowing full well Loke wanted to defend his honor. "Can you all just focus and shut up?"? Lucy snapped, wanting to rub her temples. "I think it's safe to say we can divide and conqure here." Lucy tells the three males, feeling the testosterone rise more with Loke's arrival, knowing that Subaru and Ayato equally hated her friend as much as he hated them.

"The quicker we take care of these the quicker we can go." Subaru muttered, taking the first lunge to go and hit one of the familiars.

Only the weirdest thing happened, they simply disappeared. It left the four of them confused why they would intitate an attack, only to literally disappear into thin air. It left Loke feeling uneasy for Lucy.

"Are they gone?" Lucy asks, looking around and letting her starform go, looking around with her long blonde hair blowing in the light wind.

"Yeah, obviously." Ayato muttered, looking over at Loke and grabbing Lucy.

"Hey!" Lucy yelped as she was tossed over Ayato's shoulder.

Simply ignoring her, Ayato stared Loke down. "You can go with Subaru to collect the money for the job, and then go away."

With that Ayato teleported with Lucy back to the mansion after tossing the encased herbs to Loke that he grabbed from an unknowing Lucy who objected and squirmed in his hold, only causing him to tighten it. He had decided he would rather her be there in the mansion and not in the open.

Not when those familiars were ones from their own world. It only left the question on what the hell did those people want with Lucy.

"Next time I'm telling Reiji I want to go on a job with someone else." Lucy huffed out when she was put down, not even looking at Ayato as she walked into the mansion, leaving the vampire to glare after her.

I miss you, Fairy Tail.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please leave me a comment to let me know your thoughts on this chapter. If there is certain character interaction you'd like to see, please also let me know in the comment section! Love you guys so much, and thank you again for being patient with me!