Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters.
So people are already starting to ship Freed x Lucy, so that might end up being what I decide to do. xD I've always thought that Freed, with his knowledge of magic, would be interested in Lucy because of how rare Celestial Spirit magic is. But this chapter will have a bit of insight into the secret that Lucy's keeping.
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
Lucy smiled as she sat down on the grassy hill. Almost six hours of travel and the group of five had finally decided it was time to stop for the night. So here she was, at almost midnight, staring up at the stars. Using her index finger, she traced the constellations that adored the sky. It calmed her greatly and it made her feel closer to her spirits. Although she was already a lot closer to them than other celestial spirit mages. And she always would be.
"Lucy?" Glancing forward, she spotted Freed standing a few feet away from her.
She gave the rune mage a once over before beckoning him forward. "Come sit with me Freed."
The Rune mage hesitated for a moment, having seen how peaceful the blonde had looked while sitting alone on the hill. But maybe that was because she was watching the stars. Somehow the beautiful blonde had looked even more radiant with that content smile playing on her lips. Under the moonlight, Lucy looked as if she was glowing. For a moment, Freed had thought he might have been looking at a celestial being. Walking over, he placed himself at her side on the hill.
"Tell me about the constellations." He whispered, knowing the blonde would hear him.
Lucy smiled at the request and started recounting all the stories she had heard over the years. Ancient stories that could only be heard now from celestial beings and then the ones that could be found in books. All the while, Freed was smiling. The blonde sounded truly happy when she talked about the stars. He tilted his head to the side to watch her. The way her eyes lit up when she was talking about something in particular made his smile widen. He could tell that the two of them would be great friends once she was an official member of Fairy Tail.
"I'm sorry if I bored you." Lucy said with an apologetic smile. "I just get so caught up when I'm talking about the stars that I sometimes can't stop myself."
Freed shook his head, a small smile playing on his lips. "Don't apologize. I enjoyed every minute of hearing you talk."
"R-Really?" She asked, her eyes wide with surprise.
The green haired Rune mage's smile widened. "Really."
Lucy and Freed fell into a comfortable silence, watching the sky turning orange and pink with the rising sun. The blonde didn't mind staying up all night but she felt a tad guilty that Freed had too. Though it seemed that the green haired mage hadn't minded one bit. Butterflies erupted in the blonde's stomach, and she inwardly cursed. She was not going to start crushing on this man just because he listened to her talk about the stars once.
"We should return before my teammates wake up." Came Freed's soft suggestion, which she agreed with.
Rising from her spot, the blonde followed the mage back to where their three companions were sleeping. Laxus was as still as a statue, one of his arms thrown over his eyes. Bickslow was sleep talking, muttering something about his babies, much to Lucy's amusement. Evergreen, well she was laying with one arm tucked underneath her head and the other held against her chest. Lucy watched Freed rustle around in his bag for his clothes and couldn't help but bite her lip. The man was definitely gorgeous. Especially with his hair pulled up in a ponytail and wearing that black tank top. Heat rose to her cheeks when she realized she was openly gawking at him. It was a damn good thing his back was to her.
Grabbing her own clothes, Lucy made her way behind some trees to dress. Slipping off the pink silk tank top and shorts combo she quickly placed her arms over her chest and glanced around before she started dressing. She pulled on the pair of dark washed jean shorts and tight black muscle shirt she had grabbed hastily. As an afterthought, she slipped on her tan trenchcoat as well. Stepping out. Lucy noticed that Freed was close by. His hands were working on buttoning up the white dress shirt he always wore. This gave her a nice view of his muscular torso and she bit her lip. She really was a sucker for an intelligent, handsome man.
Shaking her head, she walked back over to the trio of sleeping mages. Looking at the sky, the blonde sighed once and started nudging Laxus with her foot. He growled once but didn't move. She nudged him again. This time, however, she found herself on the ground with the blonde lightning mage hovering over her. "Never wake me up like that again."
She raised an eyebrow at him mockingly. "Or what?"
"Or I'll fry your cute little ass." He snarled, moving off her.
Before she could say anything in retaliation, someone cleared their throat. It was, of course, Freed, and he looked none the happier. Laxus grunted and grabbed a pair of black pants and a purple muscle shirt. Before anyone could say anything, he actually just pulled his sleep pants off and started dressing in front of them. Freed flushed darkly and whipped around to look at a tree. Lucy, however, just stared at the blonde mage with a raised eyebrow.
"Didn't know you were an exhibitionist Laxus." She quipped, smirking when he glared at her.
He scowled at her. "I'm not Gray blondie."
"Who's Gray?" She asked curiously.
A new voice joined in the conversation. "Gray's an Ice-make mage from our guild. He's got a habit of stripping his clothes off without noticing."
"Sounds like a fun talent." Lucy snickered, imagining what kind of guy this Gray person was. "Oh and good morning Bickslow."
His only response was another one of his weird tongue smiles. The commotion had apparently woken up Evergreen because she whacked Bickslow with her fan. The brunette groped around in her green bag for her clothes then disappeared somewhere to get dressed. Bickslow, unlike Laxus, also decided to go dress behind a tree. With all of them ready, the group of five continued on their way to Flintwood.
uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
A couple hours had passed since the group had set out for the town to get Lucy's new key. You could tell by looking at them that only three of them were actually enjoying the journey. Those people were Lucy, Freed, and Bickslow. The blonde's smile hadn't disappeared at all as she talked about Fairy Tail with the two mages on either side of her. The Seith mage was giving her the rundown of all the prominent guild members while the greenette to her left would chime in every once in a while to tell her about personality quirks that each of them had.
"So he really can eat fire?" She asked with amusement.
Bickslow guwaffed. "Eat and breathe it."
"Now I really want to meet him." She grinned impishly.
Freed was giving her an amused smile, and Bickslow was grinning alongside her. Every once in a while, the blonde's hand would brush against the man to her left's. Heat rose to her cheeks, and she glanced over at the green haired mage. At first she didn't notice any hint of pink on his cheeks, much to her disappointment, until she caught a peek at his ears. They were bright red. She felt her lips pull back into a smile, and tilted her head to glance behind them where the other two Fairy Tail mages were walking. Evergreen was flushed, probably since it was probably about eighty degrees outside. Laxus was just downright scowling, staring at the ground as he walked. This caused the blonde to roll her eyes. He was so grumpy.
"So who's the guildmaster of Fairy Tail?" Lucy asked.
Freed gave a wry smile. "Makarov Dreyar. Laxus-sama's grandfather."
"He's the master's grandson?" Lucy asked incredulously. "Mister grumpy pants back there?"
Bickslow barked out a laugh. "Yup, he's master's grandson." "Grandson!Grandson!" Chanted the dolls around the Seith mage's head.
Lucy glanced back,locking eyes with her fellow blonde. He was glaring at her again. Wrinkling her nose, she turned back around to watch where she was going. Another three hours went by without any problems when they all noticed a small town coming up in front of them. The sign was so worn down that they couldn't read it. Smells of fresh baked goods wafted towards them from the open door of a nearby bakery. As if on cue, three stomachs growled. Freed's face turned bright red, Laxus scowled, and Bickslow gave a nervous laugh.
"Hungry boys?" Lucy asked, amusement dancing in her eyes.
Evergreen smirked. "I guess we better get some food in their bellies."
The group walked into the nearest diner and took a seat. Looking through the menu they all decided what they wanted. After a moment a cute bluenette waitress came bouncing up to them with a huge smile on her face. "Welcome! What can I get for you today?"
"Five of the specials." Laxus stated simply.
The girl nodded quickly and scurried off before the blonde could make her even more uncomfortable. Lucy resisted the urge to kick the rude man underneath the table. There was no reason to scare that girl half to death. That, and he ordered for her. Which she hates. It reminded her too much of how high class society treated her. Like she shouldn't have a say in what she wants. It was the reason she left that all behind.
"So how about we get to know each other?" Evergreen suggested, glancing at Lucy. "After all, we don't know much about you, Lucy."
The blonde let a smirk play on her lips. "And what do you want to know?"
"Where are you from?" Bickslow asked. "Where! Where!" His babies chanted afterwards.
Lucy stiffened,"I can't tell you that."
"Why the hell not blondie?" Laxus asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
The blonde clenched her fists from beneath the table. "It's not safe to talk about my past to the wrong people. That's all I'm going to say on the subject. Now next question."
Freed cleared his throat. "How old are you?"
"I'm seventeen." Lucy answered, giving the man a grateful look- happy that he changed the subject.
Evergreen tapped her chin with the fan in her hand. "How did you learn Celestial Spirit magic, and what is it exactly?"
"Celestial spirit magic is the use of keys like these," She pulled out the gold zodiac key, "to summon spirits from the Celestial Spirit world to fight. It's not a particularly strong magic but it is rare." She smiled sadly, tucking the key back into it's place. "My mother was a Celestial Spirit mage, and when she passed I inherited her keys."
They could all see the sadness in her brown eyes when she mentioned her mother. From that look alone, they knew to drop the subject. An uncomfortable silence fell over the table, making everyone tense. But a moment later the bluenette waitress was returning with a silver platter filled with food. She set down the food in front of Lucy and Evergreen. "Here you go ladies." They thanked her. She placed another plate in front of Bickslow and Laxus with smiles. "And here is yours." Finally she laid the last plate in front of Freed. "Here's your food handsome."
Freed's face flushed at the blatant flirting from the waitress. He wasn't used to getting such praise. Lucy, however, was a little agitated by the obvious interest the woman held towards Freed. She didn't understand why she felt that way though. Frustrated, she pushed the omelet around on her plate with her fork a little. Evergreen smirked, having realized what was upsetting the blonde.
"Well, well, well, looks like Freed has an admirer." Evergreen thought, taking a bite of her food to hide her smile. "He could do much worse."
It didn't take long for the group to finish eating. As they were leaving the waitress handed Freed her number, much to the irritation of the blonde, making her all the more ready to complete this journey. The Lightning Dragon Slayer, who was walking alongside her, was privy to the blonde's growing irritation and made note of it. Bickslow, Freed, and Evergreen trailed behind the two blondes, talking quietly.
"Freed, do you like Lucy?" Evergreen asked, flicking her fan out in front of her face.
The greenette blinked in confusion. "Yes, don't you?"
"That's not what I meant." The brunette groaned.
Bickslow gave a hearty laugh at the confusion on his teammates face. "I think she wants to know if you have a crush on blondie!"
"W-What?" Freed's face turned bright red. "W-Why do you want to know that?!"
Evergreen smirked. "The two of you get along so well and she seemed to get a little jealous when that cute waitress was hitting on you."
"You're imagining things!" Freed hissed, his face becoming so red that it resembled a tomato.
Bickslow and Evergreen laughed at their teammate's growing embarrassment. They both knew that Freed wasn't really good with women, so he didn't interact with many of them. But somehow Lucy had wormed her way into their normally stone faced friend's heart for him to become this flustered adolescence once more. The two looked at each other with amusement, silently agreeing on one thing. He could do worse.
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
Yeah, so this is where I'm going to end this chapter. Love it? Hate it? Neutral? Review and tell me what you think.
I know I'm going a bit fast with the romance between Freed and Lucy but I'll tell you this- Something big is going to happen that will cause a rift between them and everyone else soon.