PART I – Resolution
Chapter VII – Black fire
"She is a soft, deadly creature. Kind and timid and terrifying. She's completely out of control and has no idea what she's capable of. And even though she hates me, I can't help but be fascinated by her. I'm enchanted by her pretend-innocence; jealous, even, of the power she wields so unwittingly. I want so much to be a part of her world. I want to know what it's like to be in her mind, to feel what she feels. It seems a tremendous weight to carry.
And now she's out there, somewhere, unleashed on society.
What a beautiful disaster."
― Tahereh Mafi, Destroy Me
"I'm getting out of here," Lucy declared, leaving no room for discussion.
She tried to stand up in the booth despite the low ceiling and push past Mirajane, both attempts proving to be useless as the grinning colonel caught her wrist and forced her back in her seat.
"I don't think so," she purred.
Lucy stared at her friends as if they had suddenly become completely nuts. She pointed an accusatory finger to the left of the gallery, behind the wall of their booth, in the general direction where she thought Natsu and his friends were.
"There is an officer in the room," she whispered furiously, and the girls wondered how they could hear her despite the loud music, "and I'm not dressed as a man anymore! Do you want me to die that badly!?"
Erza snorted and the blonde glared at her, so she lifted both hands in a sign of appeasement and explained herself.
"You want to run away from the club right after we got noticed by an officer," she summed up, "what a good idea! And it absolutely won't attract said officer's attention to see someone escape from my booth a few minutes after he talked to me!"
"But..."
"God, Lucy," Erza snapped, "I'll make it simple for you: if you try to run away, I'll tie you up."
"And that won't look suspicious," Lucy retorted.
"Let's get her drunk," Mira suggested, "she needs to relax."
"I don't drink alcohol."
"There's a first time for everything," the colonel cheered.
"I'm non-consenting."
"You're a recruit and I'm a colonel," Mira countered, "I don't need your consent."
"Erza!"
The red haired doctor averted her eyes to look out of the booth.
"I can't see anything, I can't hear anything."
Traitor...
A few glasses of vodka cocktails later and while listening to a new song intitled Volcano with a heavy and fast beat matching the speed of the spinning colored light beams, Lucy felt indeed sensibly more relaxed.
"The special effects here are really amazing," Lucy approved, "the walls are undulating in such a beautiful way!"
Mira giggled and caressed the young woman's hair.
"Yes, yes," she agreed, "maybe we'll get you some coffee now."
Erza waved at the waitress that had soon come to understand that the girls of this booth would be generous with her tonight. She smiled sweetly and bent down so she could hear Erza, despite the loud music.
"Bring us three cups of coffee, ple..."
"No!" Lucy protested, her voice squeaky, "I want another cotckail!"
Cot... ckail? Erza sighed and shook her head.
"Just bring some water," she asked.
The waitress smiled again and nodded before leaving to go get their – free, alas – drinks.
"What did you tell her?" Lucy interrogated Erza. "I couldn't hear you..."
Lucy's voice when drunk sounded so childish it was adorable, even if she looked very much like a mature adult dressed as she was. The military doctor giggle, which was more than rare, and patted the blonde hair that was starting to get a bit messy.
"Nothing," she said, "don't worry about it."
Lucy didn't even listen to her answer as she was trying to get up once again.
"Where are you going?" Mira asked, amused.
"I'm bored," Lucy explained, "I want to dance."
"I don't think that's a good idea," Erza objected with an amused smile. "Maybe you should wait for the waitress to bring our water."
"But I'm boreeeeed!"
"Alright, alright," Erza sighed as Mira watched the scene, grinning. "Just wait a moment, we'll go dancing in a few minutes."
"Why wait so long?"
Erza saw Mira's horrified face before she could even turn around to face the person that had talked. Even without the word doom written all over Mira's face, Erza would have understood, when recognizing the voice, that they were in deep shi... Even Lucy stopped talking and stared at the seat across hers, not daring to move.
"Natsu," Erza greeted, "aren't you supposed to keep company to your friends?"
"I'm bored," he said, sporting a strangely scheming smile. "So I came to sit with you."
He slumped on the upholstered bench beside Mira and in front of Lucy, who averted her eyes and looked at Erza instead.
"When did you get here?" Mira asked, smiling politely.
"I just did," he assured. "So, aren't you going to introduce your friend to me?"
Erza and Mira exchanged an embarrassed glance and the doctor improvised.
"She doesn't understand us," she lied, "she's a foreigner. A distant cousin of Mira."
Natsu, who had been staring at Lucy with far too much interest, suddenly turned his attention to Mira.
"Really?" he asked, not sounding convinced in the slightest, "how strange. I've known you for so many years and you never mentioned any foreign cousin before."
"Yeah, well," Mira smiled, "I never felt the need to tell you. There are a lot of things that I don't tell you, you know."
"Of course, of course," he agreed, "but what about the fact that I heard her talk in our language just before you saw me?"
Lucy flinched, he really had heard her after all... The temperature in the booth rose drastically and she found herself having difficulties not to look at the commander. She wanted to see how he was dressed, if he had done anything to his hair, if there already was the thin layer of sweat on his skin that was starting to appear on Lucy's neck. Maybe she should go dance with him, if he got hot enough, he might take his shirt off so she could ogle him to her heart's content. Maybe he would let her touch him. Maybe getting so many vodka drinks wasn't such a good idea, after all...
"She knows a few words," Erza admitted, "but not much. And she can't understand everything we say either..."
"Then, I'll use simple words," Natsu said, his attention back to Lucy again, his smug smile still present.
For some reason, this last sentence made Lucy turn her head to face him. She wondered if the vodka was altering her perception. She couldn't see his legs, so she focused on the half of him she had in front of her eyes. He wore a dull black mask, a tight, deep black T-shirt that enhanced the bulged muscles of his arms, his dog tags hanging around his neck by a thin silver chain and had his hair flattened. Well, not really, but still flatter than usual. In short, he didn't make any effort to look good, he wasn't even wearing any perfume. There were tons of men in this club wearing expensive looking silk shirts, shining jeans, leathered shoes, with their hair nicely done to the side, and you could probably track them by smell thanks to the overuse of Eau de cologne. And they all, without any exception, looked like buffoons compared to him. There was only one man in this club and he was sitting in the seat in front of Lucy.
She noticed another rise of the temperature and felt a drop of sweat travel down her neck until it disappeared in her décolleté. Where was this waitress with their water?
"Are you okay, Lucy?" Erza whispered in her ear to make sure that Natsu couldn't hear her.
The blonde nodded and finally managed to look at something that wasn't Natsu, her empty glass, en l'occurence.
"I'm hot," she whispered back, "and I need to get out of this booth..."
Erza glanced at Natsu, who was talking with Mira, and nodded to Lucy.
"Alright, come."
She took the blonde's hand and slowly guided her out of the booth.
"Where are you going?" Natsu asked, looking genuinely interested.
"Um..." Erza hesitated, "she wants to dance. It's a pain, but you're both busy talking, so I'll go with her."
Erza understood right away that she had screwed up, and it was confirmed in the very next second, when she saw Natsu's signature smug smile appear and strecth on his lips.
"Busy?" he repeated. "No, not at all!"
He practically jumped out of the booth in the very next second and took Lucy's hand in his. It surprised her. It was not the first time that she was touched by the commander, he had even punched her and pinned her to the ground. But he had never touched her gently, like he was doing now.
"I'll dance with her," he declared, "you can stay here and talk with Mira."
"But..."
"Don't worry," he interrupted her, "I'll take good care of her."
Erza turned her eyes to Mira to seek help, but the colonel was grinning madly at them, completely satisfied with this turn of events. The doctor glared at the colonel and turned her eyes back to Lucy, who suddenly looked very pale.
"But... uh," she stuttered, trying to find a way out, "me not sure... tired after all..."
"Don't worry, I'll keep you awake," he promised.
Lucy had no doubt that he would. And she probably wouldn't mind if he were to do that all night long.
"Ugh," Lucy internally grimaced, "what are you thinking, Lucy. You've never been closer to death since that night. Only one dance and we leave."
Lucy agreed with her voice of reason, it was dangerous, they had to get away from Natsu, not get in bed with him.
"What do you mean 'get away from him'?" the voice of vodka protested. "Our life has been filled with nothing but pain and fear since that night, we need to have some fun! And I'm pretty sure we'll have a lot of fun with the commander!"
That was true, too. In the end, Lucy decided that it was unfair to only listen to one voice and chose to dance with him for as long as she wanted, after what she would quietly go home with Erza and Mira.
"That's," the voice of reason hesitated, "reasonable..."
And Lucy thought so, too.
"Reasonable?" the voice of vodka mocked, "you're just scared of letting it go for one night because then you'd have to admit that it was stupid to live the way you did!"
Lucy didn't agree with the voice of vodka, not entirely. She was scared, indeed, of Natsu, of him being an officer that had the power to stop her. And it wasn't stupid to live the way she did, it was necessary. This voice of vodka was a bit of an idiot... But it had a point about the need to let it go for tonight. The commander was holding her hand and guiding her down the carpeted stairs and toward the dance floor. He saw her face and didn't recognize her, she would be safe for the time being.
"So, miss foreigner," Natsu called loudly over his shoulder. "I still..."
She knew from experience that the commander had a powerful voice, but with the deafening sound of the music it was hard to understand his words. As a result of what Lucy wasn't able to hear his last words. Wow, "his last words" sounded pretty macabre...
"What?" she asked.
He sent her a bright smile over his shoulder and Lucy almost froze. What was he doing? Was he always like this when he wasn't on duty? Was he like this with all the girls he met?
"I was asking you what your name is," he repeated. "You understand, right? Your name?"
The dance floor was a platform embed in the ground, you had to go down two or three steps to access it. Lucy almost tripped when she missed the first step and Natsu held her up, laughing.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
She nodded and blushed, feeling glad that the only lights were provided by colored light beams in the very dark club.
"So?" Natsu insisted. "Your name?"
He wasn't going to drop the subject, huh? Lucy obviously couldn't tell him her real name and wasn't good at coming up with lies on the spot. So she told him the first name that came to her mind.
"Michelle," she said.
Natsu stopped dead in his tracks and turned to stare at her with dumbfounded eyes. What was wrong? It's not like he could know her, she was dead... She tilted her head to the side and his face relaxed, his bright smile coming back to enlighten his attractive traits. Lucy never knew he could smile like that, he looked younger when he did. She didn't know if she liked him better when he was on serious mode or when he was smiling at her as if she was the most adorable little creature he'd ever seen.
"Sorry," he smiled, "I spaced out. Michelle, huh? That's beautiful."
Lucy smiled, genuinely this time, she liked this name too. She probably only liked it because of the precious sister that once answered to that name, though. Natsu's smile narrowed a bit, but she still could see that playful glint in his eyes. Maybe he was drunk, too? That would explain a lot of things. He guided them through the crowd toward the center of the dance floor and his grip on her hand tightened when he felt her being pushed around by the revelers. There were way too many people here, maybe she should go back to the booth after all...
"Don't do that," she heard Natsu raise his voice so she could hear him even in the middle of the crowd, "don't stare at the gallery. We'll have fun, I promise you!"
Lucy obeyed, surprised with herself about how docile she was. It was because of the vodka, surely. He turned around when he found a spot that wasn't too crowded and grabbed her other hand to pull her to him.
"I can't dance at all," he admitted, still smiling like a normal being, and Lucy couldn't seem to get used to it, but she still smiled back, "so I'll just make stupid moves, like this..." his hips swung left and right, not following the rhythm of the music in the slightest, "or this," he spun around with quite some speed and actually managed to turn three or four times before he tripped and had to grab onto her arm to steady himself.
Lucy laughed, she wasn't looking at the crowd or the gallery anymore, Natsu was doing the show all by himself. He took her hands once again and made her do stupid moves much like what he was doing himself. They probably looked like amateurs trying to dance a weird mix of french cancan and hip-hop, but Lucy couldn't bring herself to care. Natsu was strong, he could lift her, spin her around, dip her, it looked easy to him and he was still smiling. Lucy didn't think she'd have the strength to go back to the booth as long as he kept smiling like that. And, to be perfectly honest, she was having the time of her life. The voice of vodka was right, she needed this. And she couldn't seem to get enough of this euphoria-inducing moment.
"Hey, hey, what's up, guys! Everybody havin' a great time?"
The crowd cheered loudly when the DJ addressed them through his powerful mic. Lucy thought their screams had deafened her.
"Alright, alright," the DJ went on with his sluggish, deep voice – wasn't the DJ supposed to be the most energetic person in the club?, "one o' my pals here just asked his girl to marry him, and guess what? She said yeah!"
The good thing was that Lucy was sure that the crowd hadn't deafened her after the DJ's first intervention. The bad thing was that she was pretty sure they had managed to do it this time. Seriously, was it normal for human beings to scream this loudly? People clapping and cheering, that was normal, but a lot of them were actually crying and screaming with their hands around their mouths so the sound was louder.
"Right?" The DJ laughed. "So, I'm gonna play their song, as they call it. I know this ain't the house's style, but bear with me, will ya?"
Lucy expected the sound that would be played after this to be much slower than the ones that preceded it, much softer. And it really was different, but it was different from what she had imagined too. It was indeed slower and the pulse was lower too. But it was by no means softer. Each beat resonated strongly within her and made her blood boil for some reason. Natsu's smile narrowed again and he pulled lightly on her hand to get her attention back.
"You're not gonna back off, are you?"
His smile was teasing, provocative, and she had no desire to go back to the booth. She knew she wouldn't leave the booth again, her voice of reason would remind her of how dangerous her behavior had been and order her to leave the club. And the voice of vodka was still the dominating one. She shook her head as he took a few steps forward to close the distance between them.
"No," she assured, "are you?"
His smile didn't get any wider, but she saw his eyes turn visibly darker behind his already dark mask, as if his pupils had dilated. Was he drugged? No way, he was an officer and an instructor of the Academy, he'd never take the risk to be caught. The young woman was pulled out of her thoughts when the commander's arms went to encircle her waist. He was gentle, giving her the chance to push him away if she thought he was going too far, but she didn't. He felt warm against her and her arms developed a will on their own so they could reach up and settle around his shoulders. The sound was slower, but not really slow either, they still had to move according to the rhythm, feeling each beat a bit more clearly now that they were so close.
If Lucy had turned her head toward the gallery, she would have seen Mira practically jumping over the gallery's railing and pointing at them with one hand while shaking Erza's shoulder with the other. But Lucy didn't turn her head and kept staring at her partner's dilated pupils. At some point during the song, the beats started to be accompanied by vibrating effects that did strange things to Lucy's legs and lower belly.
Ok, saying strange things sounded really childish, but Lucy was no writer, she couldn't find the right words to describe this sensation. But since I'm a writer, I can give you a more precise description. It started with a tingling feeling in her stomach that seemed to spread to her chest and quickly turned into a tingling kind of warmth that settled in her lower abdomen. The warmth then spread to her chest once more and continued to travel through her body until it reached her thighs, neck and face, making all those areas pretty sensitive to the touch. In short, it felt awesome and she was really starting to want more.
She felt the commander's hands slide down to settle on her hips and noticed only then that he wasn't smiling anymore. He didn't look sweet and carefree anymore. An image came to her mind when she saw his eyes: she saw him crouching in the tall grass, staring at a spot in front of him, all his muscles tense in apprehension. Looking like a predator. She wished he had camouflage paint on his face, he looked even more dangerous like this. Her arms tightened around his shoulders and his own arms pressed her closer to him. Suddenly, there was no space between their bodies anymore. She soon could feel the soft touch of his nose and mouth brushing against the sensitive skin of her neck and shoulder, his hands gradually falling a bit lower, their grip on her never weakening. Her own hands left trails of fire every time they caressed his skin and she felt all his muscles contract a few times. She smiled, still swaying lazily to match the slowing rhythm of the song. She felt his fingers dig into her skin when she accidently, though she never came to regret it, brushed against his crotch.
Suddenly, he slightly pulled away from her and one of his hands left her hips to go cradle her face, his large hand enveloping both her cheek and neck. He looked feverish, his breathing was labored. He hesitated, obviously searching her face for any sign of reluctance. Lucy didn't know what kind of face she was making at the moment, but she most definitely wasn't feeling reluctant. Hell, she couldn't remember a time she had felt so thrilled in her life before. Whatever it was that Natsu found in her eyes, it seemed to satisfy him and he immediately bent down to kiss her. And he WOULD have kissed her if not for that stupid, idiotic, moronic alarm! They both flinched when it started to ring loudly in the club, overpowering the sound of the loud music. Better yet, the fire sprinkler system switched on and everybody started to scream and laugh when water fell down from the ceiling. It seemed that a fire had started in the kitchen and the security teams started to evacuate everyone out of the club. Natsu grabbed her hand and guided her out of the dance floor and toward the gallery, violently pushing everyone out of his way. It didn't look like he was amused by this situation.
Mira and Erza were already running her way when they found them. Natsu ran away before they could get their hands on him, he knew them enough to know that his dance with the blonde foreign girl probably had them go crazy. Lucy's eyes followed him as he reached a group of young men, all of them waving at him hysterically and pointing at her. She smirked even his friends were impressed to see how much she had affected him that night. Her smirk froze and melted like snow under the sun when she noticed that one of the guys were staring at her with a very smug and very worrisome smile. Gray Fullbuster. His smirk widened when he noticed she had seen him and she tried her best not to look like a panicked little rabbit. She nodded politely and he imitated her, looking very pleased with himself. She had just spent hours dancing with Natsu and he never recognized her, there was no way Gray could see through her disguise.
She was shaken out of her thoughts by Mira, who was clinging to her like a giant leech and screaming in her ear that she was so proud of her and other idiotic things. Erza was waiting by the door and they were all drenched in water by the time they got out and into Erza's car.
"Natsu's never done that before," Mira exclaimed, jumping in her seat, "he never even looks at other girls, he just sits in a corner and pouts until we leave!"
She continued to rave about their hot dance and about how they were totally made for each other and Natsu would totally need a cold shower when he got home, but Lucy stopped listening. She understood her friends' enthusiasm about the whole thing and she was still feeling pretty thrilled, drunk with both the alcohol and his smell. But then, water fell from the security device incorporated in the ceiling and the cold drops hit her face and body until she got out of the club and was met with the cold wind. The voice of reason overpowered the voice of vodka at that time and reminded her that, even if she wasn't in danger since the commander didn't recognize her, she had nothing to be happy about. If she hadn't met the commander that night, if she hadn't danced with him, it would be easier to accept the fact that such a thing would never happen again.
She woke up nine hours later with a little fellow playing with a jackhammer inside her head. "That's what you get when you drink more than you can stand," Lucy mentally scolded herself. She groaned as her eyes found the traitorous, curtainless window that let the sunlight enter the small room so it could burn her retinas and give more energy to the little man playing with the jackhammer. The comforter was too warm, so she kicked it out of the bed and dragged her sorry self out of the soft mattress, leaning on the walls to guide herself out of the room. In the living room, Mira was sitting on the sofa, watching TV while Erza was in the open kitchen, making them pancakes.
"Hello, little sunshine," Mira sang when she saw her. "Slept well?"
Lucy groaned in response.
"My head's killing me," she deplored.
"We're lucky you didn't throw up everywhere," Erza commented.
"If I had, it totally would have been your fault," Lucy accused.
Mira giggled.
"Maybe," she admitted, "but thanks to us you had more fun than you have had in years. You should be thankful."
Lucy snorted.
"Thankful," she repeated, "for what? I have a huge headache and I don't even remember what happened yesterday."
Erza's fork stopped as she was arranging the pancakes in the plate and Mira gaped at the young blonde woman.
"You..." she breathed, "you're joking, right?"
Lucy frowned. She was used to Mira's strange and overdramatic behavior, but Erza's reaction was pretty worrisome. What had she done yesterday that was so extraordinary?
"No..." she hesitated, "why? What have I forgotten that's so important?"
Mira looked like she was about to cry.
"Well," Erza started, "you should sit down."
oOo
Lucy glared at her pancake and stabbed it with her fork for the hundredth time. She believed everything her friends told her about the dance with Natsu, what she couldn't believe was that she had actually agreed to play along. And, from Mira's description of the scene, it seemed like she had actually been very willing to play along. She stabbed the pancake again. Why was she angry? The commander didn't recognize her, she was still fine. But she couldn't remember any of it...
"Oh, wait!" Mira exclaimed.
She jumped to her feet and ran toward the bar where her bag was. She rummaged through it for a moment and finally found what she had been looking for.
"Natsu dropped this during the evacuation," she explained, "maybe it will help you get your memories back!"
She forced the black mask in Lucy's hands and the young woman stared at it, frowning, actually trying to remember something. She didn't have to wait too long as hazy images immediately started to play in her mind. She saw a man with pink hair wearing this black mask, he was wearing a tight black T-shirt. He was smiling at her. In the very next second, she saw him pressed flat against her own body, his hands slowly, but surely traveling down her waist. She remembered the warmth of something soft, lightly pressed against the sensitive skin of her neck and blushed. Her friends weren't kidding when they said that they had seemed very close.
They spent the weekend watching TV and occasionally playing video games or going for a walk in town. Images of the party at the club would keep going back to Lucy at times when she was absolutely not expecting them, like in the shower, or when someone bumped into her and she fell in a fountain. But all in all, she had a lot of fun and almost felt disappointed when Monday came around. She was glad that both women would go back to the Academy with her.
Lucy once again fell asleep in the car and woke up a few hours earlier, while Erza was looking for a parking space in the underground parking. They had to take the elevator to get out of the parking lot and separated once outside. Lucy had enough time to take three steps toward the gates of the Academy before someone tall and heavy jumped on her back.
"Luc!" Loke exclaimed. "I missed you so much! Those days spent away from you were hell on Earth..."
Lucy shook him off her shoulders and laughed when she saw his bright eyes and big smile. She ruffled his hair and smiled back.
"I missed you, too," she admitted.
Loke froze and stared at her. She frowned in response.
"What?"
"Well..." Loke hesitated, scratching the back of his hair, "it's just that if you start being so nice to me I'll really fall for you head over heels."
"Right..."
"You don't believe me?" he cried. "Don't take my feelings lightly! You're the cause of them, take responsibility!"
Lucy glared at him when she realized that he was doing it on purpose: everyone was staring at them. She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and dragged him away from the other recruits.
"Oh, yes," Loke approved, "I like when you're rough with me like that."
She immediately let go of his collar.
"I'm not being rough with you," she countered, "I don't even know you anymore. Leave me alone, stranger."
Loke burst out laughing and threw his arm around her shoulders as they walked toward the main building.
"So cold...," he smiled.
They finally reached the dormitories and found most of the recruits in the hall, talking about their weekend, their families, friends and stuff.
"How was the weekend, guys?"
Gray wasn't really smiling when he joined them, but he still looked like he was in a good mood.
"I don't want to talk about it," they answered as one.
The dark haired boy snickered and buried his hands in the pockets of his cargo pants. Lucy observed him with very attentive eyes. She remembered the way he looked at her back at the club, his smug smile when she had noticed him. As if he had just discovered the truth behind some kind of very interesting secret. And it still worried her.
"Right..." he trailed off. "Well, I might have heard of something interesting just now."
With the attention of his comrades back to him, he smirked and went on.
"The general is gonna make an announcement today, an important announcement."
Lucy snickered. It didn't look like he recognized her as the girl that danced with Natsu, so she allowed herself to relax a bit.
"Last time something like that happened, you got arrested for Attempted Rape," she reminded him with a smug smile.
He glared at her, but his glare quickly disappeared in favor of a smirk easily matching Lucy's.
"Yeah, well," he snickered, "maybe someone else will get arrested for this same crime today."
Lucy frowned.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Gray's smirk widened and he pointed at his neck.
"A few recruits noticed that the commander had a bite mark when he got out of the barracks last week. He didn't have any mark before entering it and rumors say that you looked pretty pissed when you ran out of his barrack."
"This is stupid," Lucy retorted.
She turned around and walked toward the stairs leading to her bedroom with Loke following her and begging for some gossip. This could become a problem, she needed a stronger cover for her soldier character. She glanced at the whining idiot running up the stairs behind her and the thought hit her like a train: Loke had girlfriends. Gajeel had his strange relationship with Levy. Gray was more than likely being stalked by Juvia Lockser. And almost all recruits in general were talking about having or getting a girlfriend. She needed one too. But where was she supposed to find someone willing to play along despite her more than dangerous situation? Erza and Mira were out of the question, for obvious reasons, and the nurses-in-training would be forced to turn her in to the higher officers. But there weren't any other girls around. She would need to find a nurse-in-training with a strong personality, who wasn't afraid of officers, trustworthy and who'd be fine with risking her life to help Lucy with her plan. Lucy sighed. Where in the world would she find such a person?
She suddenly heard screams and curses from outside, so she stopped in front of a window to have a look at what was going on. An old, chubby lady holding a broom was running along the corridors of the building right in front of her, the medical unit, where the nurses had their classes. Perched on a rather narrow rocky ledge, the brown haired chick with the tattoo on the hip was visibly trying to escape the old dragon's wrath. She sat down cross-legged on the ledge and opened a green bottle, looking very unimpressed with her situation despite being sitting at least 15 meters above the ground. She smirked when she saw that Lucy was looking at her and winked before emptying her bottle in a few gulps.
Dinner time came much faster than Lucy had expected, she wasn't even done unpacking when it was time to go. The first thing Lucy noticed when she entered the refectory with Loke was that Natsu wasn't sitting at her table. She got a bit nervous, but quickly remembered that Luc had nothing to do with what happened at the party, there was no reason for the commander to avoid Luc. Luc was a normal recruit that had no idea what the commander did on Friday night. And it was none of Luc's business anyway. She sat down next to Gray and the conversations were difficult to follow because of all the noise inside the refectory.
"Won't they shut up," Gajeel grumbled.
He was intently focusing on a newspaper and even the guys of their table wouldn't stop bothering him, teasing him and trying to snatch it from his hands. Lucy squinted at the headline: "Terrorist attack in P..., the 'Rose's Tear' incriminated. The army once again saved the day." Lucy frowned. Terrorists again. Even though she was planning to betray the army as soon as possible, she still couldn't understand how some people could go to such lengths. The doors of the refectory opened again and a deafening silence suddenly fell upon the room. The headmaster Makarov was here, accompanied by the commander Dragneel, the lieutenant Dreyar, the lieutenant-colonel Clive and Mira. The small general walked to the center of the room and all heads turned to him, all first and second years captivated by his every movement. He lifted a hand in front of his mouth and cough, not like he needed it to get anyone's attention at that moment.
"Hello children," he greeted. Such a formal way to address recruits, Lucy thought, amused. "Almost everyone knew that I had an announcement to make tonight and I'm glad to see that everyone is present. Well, I won't make you wait anymore, I came to give you the official date of the game of Capture the Flag."
All recruits cheered loudly and clapped, whistled, high-fived, even though Makarov hadn't even said anything really important yet.
"Yes, yes," he smiled, not bothered in the slightest by the interruption, "now, pay attention. As you all know, we were supposed to have the Game much earlier, but some unexpected events happened and we had to postpone it."
Lucy's heart was beating crazily fast, she was surprised with herself at how eager, how excited she was. "Get your shit together, Heartfilia," her inner voice ordered, "you're not here to play. These people will try to kill you very soon." Lucy gulped and her smile melted like snow under the sun. Her eyes involuntarily switched to the commander and stayed there for a few moments. He was standing straight and had his arms behind his back. He looked like a proper officer, powerful and disciplined. Loyal. Something akin to a hand made of ice gripped her heart and squeezed it mercilessly when images of their dance came back to her. He'd never be an ally, after all.
"Kids, start getting ready," Makarov cheered. "Because the Game will be held in a week exactly. Next Monday."
If the first round of cheers and applause had been deafening, it was nothing compared to the second. And, even though the icy hand was still encircling her heart, Lucy felt it beat madly with excitement and hope.
End of chapter 7
The chapter is a bit shorter, even though I have more time and a lot of inspiration... But I really have to work on Lazarus, too...
I'm sorry I didn't know that you could only comment once even if I delete the preview, so instead of posting an independent preview, I'll add it at the end of each chapter. BUT, I almost never start writing a chapter right after I published the previous one, so you won't have the preview immediately, you'll have to come back later to see if the review has been added. Was my explanation clear?
Also, I had a pretty freaking awesome idea while writing this chapter and I can tell you that one particular chapter that I'll be writing in the future will leave you with the cruelest cliffhanger ever! And I won't warn you beforehand!