Cover by Kimbeekitty, and posted with permission.
Hey there folks, bit of an important announcement here. After this chapter, this fic is going on a temporary hiatus. I need to get working on my CoLu week fics, and also I came up with a really big thing that I want to work into this fic, but it'll take me a little bit of time to implement, correct continuity errors, and polish. So it's best that I get that done and out of the way so as to not have to repost chapters later on if they get rewritten. Updates will probably resume in August.
I hope you enjoy this new chapter in the meantime!
The Passage Of Time
They ended up settling down to eat not too far from where they were staying at the hotel. It was a modest family-oriented restaurant, nothing fancy but definitely still more crowded than they had expected at this hour. Lucy couldn't help but smile and wave at the little kid in the booth behind Lyon, the child giggling and retreating to loudly exclaim to his parents about the lady that had waved at him. Lyon, for his part, sighed in relief that the kid had stopped kicking the back of his seat.
"Not a fan of kids, I take it?" Lucy asked him, picking up her menu.
Lyon let out another sigh, this one weary. "It's not that I don't like them. They're fine. In general." Flashbacks of when Chelia first joined Lamia Scale filled his mind, threatening to render the statement a lie. She'd been… a handful and a half, and that was as mild a description that Lyon could dredge up for the rambunctious girl. "I just don't like having my spine assaulted, that's all."
Giggling, Lucy lifted the menu a little higher in a futile attempt to cover up her mirth. "I have to agree with you there, just a bit. Natsu and I once babysat Asuka – that's Alzack and Bisca's daughter – for an entire afternoon, and let me tell you, that was more exhausting than when we fought a wyvern. And Asuka was still going strong by the time her parents came to get her. I don't know how in the world they managed to do that all on their own for five years. Let alone how they survived the terrible twos." Lucy shuddered. "I don't even want to imagine what those must have been like."
"I think the biggest mistake Lamia Scale ever made was in letting the Trimens babysit Chelia for an afternoon," Lyon confessed, starting to smile as well. "She came back with… ideas. Not good ones." And, somehow, a rampant crush on Lyon. To this day, he still wasn't sure just what could have possibly happened on that playdate to get that outcome, but now he was (unfortunately) stuck with it until her affections decided to move on. Admittedly, with Wendy in the guild it had been a quiet year for Lyon on that front. But with her return to Fairy Tail, and Sherry's impending move to Blue Pegasus, Chelia had become even lonelier – and therefore clingier – than normal. Gods, he missed Wendy being at Lamia Scale.
Lucy flinched at the mere thought of the consequences that could arise out of letting a child spend an entire afternoon with the three playboys extraordinaire, let alone the circumstances that would even lead to such an occurrence. "Wow. I gotta ask… how did that even happen?"
"Sherry needed someone to babysit her while she went shopping, and she wanted Chelia and Ren to bond," he explained. "It made logical sense at the time, but in hindsight it was a terrible decision." In so, so many ways.
"I can imagine!" Lucy laughed, and the sound of it drew a chuckle out of Lyon as well.
"Welcome!" greeted the waiter as he approached the table, drawing the pair out of their conversation. "Are you ready for me to take your orders?"
"Not yet," admitted Lucy, crimson spreading across her nose and lifting her menu even higher in order to avoid eye-contact with the waiter. "We need a few more minutes." Much to her chagrin, they'd spent too long talking, and not enough time in actually looking over the menu.
"Not a problem!" the waiter replied. "Can I get your drink orders while you decide?"
After a split-second of hesitation, Lucy said, "Just water for me, thanks." Coffee ran through her veins, she was sure, but she needed to be hydrated in order to be prepared for all of the climbing she was about to do the next day. And she also wanted to get a decent amount of sleep that night, too. She'd stock her blood with caffeine in the morning.
"Same here," Lyon stated.
"Got it. I'll be back with those shortly."
As soon as he left, Lucy eyed the menu in earnest, lowering it to a more respectable distance from her face. "We need a lot of calories for the cold and for hiking, right?"
Lyon nodded, his own gaze now fixed to the laminated menu. "That's right. The effort of keeping our bodies warm burns through fat reserves like nothing else, and the strenuous exercise will also exacerbate that reaction. I'm surprised that you know that, though."
"Well, like I told you before, even though I lack a lot of firsthand experience, I'm not a complete novice at this."
It was Lyon's turn to flush a little in embarrassment. "Sorry, I should have remembered that you'd been mountain climbing before." How had he forgotten that she'd told him that just the day prior?
"It's no biggie," she told him. "You're still the more experienced of us two at the end of the day. We should make sure to get enough calorie-packed snacks to take with us, huh?"
"We can do that right after lunch," Lyon agreed, thankful that she wasn't too upset with his blunder.
Lucy had actually already forgotten about it, her mind now occupied by what she should eat. Something high protein, definitely, with lots of fats and carbs on the side… Basically something that would have Capricorn steaming over how much she was "wrecking her diet." Honestly, she wasn't sure what the old goat and Happy had against her weight. Lucy's weight was well within acceptable parameters for her height and body type. Most of her weight was in her breasts, anyway – not her belly. Most people considered that a good thing, even a desirable trait. Besides which, she'd never been one to really consider dieting seriously anyway. She needed her calories just to keep up with her team! Honestly, nothing burned through the weight faster than a mission with those insane people. Magic and stress ate through a good deal of calories too, so Capricorn's insistence on a diet really, really perplexed her. But even though she was confident about being in the right over this issue, she would take the excuse to down as much good food as she could.
When the waiter returned with their drinks, the pair both made sure to thank him when they sent him off with their orders. It was rather pleasant to have meals with someone so courteous as Lyon could be, Lucy mused. A far cry from her team's rambunctious… enthusiasm, or from the entitled guests at her father's dinner parties who couldn't be bothered to utter a single thank you or please to save their lives – no matter how hard the servants worked on their behalf. It had set Lucy's teeth to grinding on more than one occasion.
Lucy loved her team, and her father, but both had their faults and one of the things Lucy had had to learn over the course of her year away from Fairy Tail was to stop making excuses for their bad behavior. They were all adults now. It was high time they acted like it, and learned how to be a little courteous. Especially with Erza now in charge of the entire guild's welfare and the possibility of war looming on the horizon. With the tumultuous times in store for them, a little goodwill would go a long way.
"You look like you're deep in thought," Lyon commented mildly, curiosity getting the better of him. Normally he would be content in the quiet, but a shadow of… something passing over Lucy's face prompted him to break the peace.
"Huh?" she asked, blinking rapidly as her gaze refocused on the man sitting across from her. "Oh," she muttered half a beat later, a little embarrassed to be caught in her daydreams. "It's nothing much. Just reflecting on the past year, is all."
He nodded in understanding. Suddenly, he asked, "Does it bother you, leaving your team behind like this?" The argument he'd witnessed the day before was still fresh on his mind. It clashed so hard with what he'd known and seen before with Natsu and Lucy that it was difficult to banish.
Lucy raised an eyebrow at him. "That's an unusual question from you. Why do you ask?" In all the time that she had known Lyon, she had never pegged him for the prying type. But then again… she hardly knew him at all, didn't she? Maybe it was time for her to do some growing of her own, and look a little harder at the people she thought she knew. They had certainly surprised her before, she thought with sorrow heavy in her heart.
The man shrugged slightly. He wasn't entirely certain why he'd asked about her team, if he were being honest with himself. Or why the prior day's argument had come immediately to mind. There was just something… incredibly lonely about Lucy at the moment. Lost, too, maybe. And Lyon was all too familiar with those particular emotions.
"I guess it bothers me a little," Lucy finally responded, her eyes sliding to the window, watching the people outside walking past bundled up tightly in their coats. "Or more than a little. I mean… It's hard, sometimes. To be around them. You know?"
"You did look a bit… tense with Erza two days ago," Lyon admitted. "And then there was your argument yesterday with Natsu…"
She sighed, and returned her warm eyes to his icy ones. "The rhythm we had… it used to be amazing. We were all perfectly in sync with each other. We didn't even need to fully plan out our moves with each other, or call out when we needed help, or to tag team a bad guy, or…" Her voice dropped as she continued, becoming quieter and quieter with each thing she listed off. Then her voice faded entirely, deep sorrow etched across her face. "We all lost a lot when Tartaros attacked." Her fingers curled around her glass of water, the beads of moisture gathering on the cool glass now trickling down the back of her hands, over her Fairy Tail guild emblem. "But that year took more from us than the demons did, I think." One fingernail, trimmed so as not to get destroyed in the course of mage work, tapped pensively against the glass she still gripped. "I just don't… know how to be around them anymore. They're different than they were a year ago. And more importantly… so am I. We're going to have to learn to deal with that."
She finally released the glass, taking her napkin and wiping her hands free of the gathered moisture self-consciously. "Sorry for unloading on you like that, all of a sudden." Her mouth twisted a little, and she let out a self-deprecating laugh. "I spent too much time in my own head last year – I need to relearn how to talk to people again!"
"No, I asked," he told her. "Thank you for telling me."
Lyon's heart went out to her, for the troubles with her team which for all intents and purposes was her family, but also for the hollowness in her last statement. Lucy had been a reporter. Talking to people was always something that she'd done well. But Lyon understood what she hadn't said, as well. That although her job had consisted of a great deal of socializing and people-oriented skills, Lucy hadn't really had anyone to talk to about her troubles, to lean on for support. He had assumed that her spirits would have filled that void, that she had never really been alone the entire year. Likely, the majority of her guild believed that as well, but perhaps he and they had all assumed incorrectly. Was Lucy the type to bear her painful things in silence, all alone without leaning on a single soul?
Not even Lyon had done that. He'd searched out other people who hurt the same way he did over Deliora. People who left their lives to join him on Galuna Island for the entire three years while he put his plans into motion. Although they had been isolated from the world at large for that period of time, Lyon had never once felt alone. His dream had crumbled, but there were still people at his side. Even after Ur's demise, he had adults that had taken him in, helped him get to where he wanted to be. Friends that he could rely on.
But the same couldn't be said for Lucy.
Lucy was a lot braver than she gave herself credit for.
"Now who's the pensive one?" Lucy teased him, and Lyon laughed lightly at being caught wrapped up in his thoughts.
"You've got me there," he replied. Emboldened by how readily she'd shared with him, he felt compelled to add, "I was thinking about when I was on Galuna Island with my friends."
Lucy laughed brightly. "Oh, yeah, that's right! How long were you guys there, again?"
"Three years." It had passed in a flash, though. A solid goal and friends to work beside had made it seem hardly long at all.
"Actually, now that we're on that topic… There's been something I've been meaning to ask you for a long time."
"Go for it," Lyon urged, in a sharing mood, and curious about what she wanted to know.
"How in the world did you convince all those people to go along with your plan?" Lucy asked him, incredulity lacing her voice. "I can barely convince a shopkeeper to give me a discount," she continued, gesturing with one hand towards herself, and then at him, "and here's you – who managed to convince scores of people that it was a good idea to move to a tropical island with you out in the middle of nowhere and defrost the demon that had ruined everyone's lives. Seriously, how did you manage that? When you were…"
"Fifteen," he admitted. "Took a little time to get it all together, though."
She practically choked at that. "Fifteen?! Seriously?! What kind of charisma does something like that even require, and how can I get some of it?"
Lyon couldn't help but laugh at the way she said it. When she put it like that, it did seem a little ridiculous. "It wasn't particularly difficult, it just took a lot of time. You have to remember that I'd been trying to convince people that this was a good idea for at least five years. It wasn't until I met Yuka, and Toby, and Sherry that anyone actually started listening seriously to my plans. And then I had to convince them that I was capable of accomplishing any of it. Not to mention the amount of effort and coordination it took to haul Deliora to the island in the first place." His smile fell, but in thoughtfulness. "In hindsight, it was a good thing that Gray tried to stop me, and that Ur had managed to kill it after all. That monster, if it had been as strong as it was in my childhood… I wouldn't have stood a chance against it. I know that now. Gray and the rest of you… you were trying to save all of our lives."
Frantically waving her hand back and forth in denial, a blush crept up Lucy's neck. "No! No, we should apologize for destroying your dream! …Again. That was technically the second time, wasn't it? I mean… you deserved a pummeling for trying to kill the island villagers, but other than that I can see where you were coming from. Your heart was in the right place on that part, if nothing else. You just wanted to erase the chance that Deliora would ever do something like this again, right?"
With a sigh, Lyon shook his head. "No. I was in it purely for myself. Whatever justifications I may have had, it doesn't really change the fact that I selfishly wanted to hold onto my dream, even if it meant that my potential failure would result in the unleashing of a demon that had already claimed thousands of lives. And as for my actions with the village… They may have been demons, but they were nothing like Deliora. I really don't know what was going through my head at that point. That was beyond reprehensible of me to order."
Lucy laid a hand atop his. "You weren't thinking straight. You were there to kill a demon, remember? That the island you chose was also occupied with demons was an unfortunate coincidence. And you've paid for your actions, right? Gray beat you pretty soundly, as I recall."
He nodded, unable to quite meet her gaze and all too aware of her fingers laid atop his own. They were burning hot against his cool skin and seemed to take up a vastly larger portion of his attention than they rightly should. "I actually went back. To Galuna Island. After you all… on Tenrou…" He trailed off for a second, and then cleared his throat. "I went back, a year or two later. Apologized properly to them for what I did."
"And?" Lucy prompted, her eyebrows raised high in amusement.
"And those are the most cheerful demons I've ever seen," Lyon confessed, still flabbergasted even after all this time. "The most cheerful people I've ever seen in general, to be honest. I would have thought that there was something in the water, but I lived there for three years and I'm pretty sure I'm not that chipper." Then he shrugged slightly. "Toby, maybe. But not me."
Lucy giggled in response, well remembering the strange group of villagers. "They are definitely… something, that's for sure. Their mayor, in particular. I'm still finding it hard to believe that you never once investigated them in all that time you were there. Didn't you need supplies, or something?"
"We had a ship we used to ferry to the mainland for anything we needed," Lyon explained. "And there was just… no need to seek them out. They seemed pretty content to ignore us, so we ignored them. And besides… there was always the chance that they'd seek out a magical guild to oust us if they found out what we were trying to do."
A long, loud laugh burst out of Lucy. So great was her mirth, that she released Lyon's hand in order to hold her sides. "Joke's on you, they sent a request anyway!" Although that did bring up some interesting questions about how, precisely, they'd managed to do that without attracting an insane amount of attention, but that was probably a rabbit hole best left unexplored.
"Maybe a fifteen year old isn't so good at making these sorts of plans," admitted Lyon.
"Probably not," Lucy agreed.
The waiter returned with their food before Lyon could say anything further on the topic. Watching Lucy immediately tuck in was a bit of a spectacle for him. She hadn't exactly been delicate at the coffeeshop, either, now that he thought about it. Wasn't she supposed to have been nobility, or something? Lyon would have assumed that an upper class girl would be a little more… dainty with food.
Noticing that Lyon had yet to begin eating, Lucy glanced at him with concern. "Something wrong with your food, Lyon? You're not eating."
Startled by the question, Lyon shook off his wandering thoughts. "No, it's nothing." He began to eat as well, intent on packing in a good number of calories for the journey ahead of them.
Maybe Lucy had picked up her eating habits from her teammates. Either way, it was none of his business.