A/N: Apparently I am very transparent person! I expected that revelation would cause a lot more surprise but then I remembered my readers pay close attention to the story. Bravo, my friends, bravo. The story continues, I am nto nearly done with it although I have no excuse for this long period without updates. I will try to fix that. As always, I am more than eager to see what you think about chapter, if there are any grammar mistakes I will correct them as soon as possible.

Final bell rang and classes were dismissed. Loke's lip was aching, pulsating with every heartbeat and every nerve in lip tried to make it feel as if lip was the size of a fist. It certainly felt like it. Day promised great many wonderful things when it started and somehow it got to this. Lucy… How long has it been? Months? No, years. He felt as if it was his job, his silent duty given to him by none other but himself. Tight feel in his chest that made even walking a task that only Sisyphus could endure. It was familiar feeling. Anxiety. Great anticipation of many questions that are to come from someone who barely has any interest in anyone else but himself. What an irony. Day is still far from ending.

He made his way outside of the university building and with a slow pace he made it out of the gate. Just as he passed it, there Natsu was standing beside, waiting for him. Loke sighed still feeling the sting on his lip "I guess I owe you some answers, huh?"

"Damn right you do." Natsu didn't even look at him. His voice was calm, covering the silent anger that he was beginning to gather in his guts.

"Alright, let's walk."

Natsu pushed himself from the wall he was leaning against and followed Loke outside of Fairy Tail premises. They made their way toward the park across the street, walking in slow pace… the entire time Loke looked down, gathering strength to speak his mind but Natsu was slowly losing patience. He pulled out a can of soda from his bag and handed it to him, uttering a low "Sorry" to which Loke replied with a nod and pressed it against lip. Finally, they sat down on bench a bit further from the pedestrians.

"What do you want to know?" Loke asked, holding still cool can against lip.

"Everything." Natsu replied swiftly.

"Everything…" Loke let out a snort, voice became silent as he rhetorically asked himself "Where to start?"

"From the beginning. Work your way to the bottom of this mess." Natsu added, sitting beside Loke, looking in the distance.

"What do you know about term corporate marriage?" Loke asked with now normal tone.

"Heard it once or twice." Natsu answered.

"Right… Well to explain, corporate marriage has two meanings. One is a marriage without love, where a couple makes an agreement to get married for the sake of marriage, be it to maintain certain appearance in public or to overcome economic difficulties. Times can sometimes be hard, everyone is looking for security and sometimes two people do it to overcome those difficulties. No love, no passion, no feel of requirement to be involved in making it work. They know what it is about and they just make a front story to make others believe they are actually in it for the love, while there is another side of the story underneath it. The second meaning is exactly what it sounds like. Marriage between two of their successors to strengthen their respective companies."

"So Lucy was married?" Natsu asked as soon as Loke finished sentence but orange-haired student waved his head.

"You are jumping to conclusion." He sighed as he realized entire issue is deeper and harder to explain to someone like Natsu. "Let's put it like this… When you make a company, you don't just make it to earn a bit of money and then close it. If you are going to make big company you intend to run it for long period of time. Often that period of time extends beyond lifetime and son inherits company from father and then passes it to his son. Those large companies are often run by one family who populate board of directors once it reaches certain size. If for example, a man has a brother and two sons, he will put them to be into such board to ensure the power to influence company remains in the family and not fall into hands of syndicate."

"Hold on a second." Natsu interrupted him "I get it you know this shit but what does it have to do with Lucy?"

Loke rolled his eyes "You wanted story from the very beginning, now be patient. I am getting there." He moved can from his lip and opened it, taking a large sip before continuing "Companies in Fiore and those who started their companies as family business are greedy bunch and they tend to see themselves as small kingdoms. If you have more profit than expenses, your kingdom thrives, if you have greater expenses than profits, you will bankrupt soon. Normal people constantly complain about 'economic crisis' but in truth companies are first ones to feel the heavy blow of economic depression. Hard times befall just about every company at least once in their lifetime; those with bad luck and bad competition are constantly under fire. If one company has monopoly on market, they control profit, but if they have to compete, it means lower profit and constant adjustments."

"This is where things get tricky. See, if company is ran by family, in order for it to stay in family you need to have heir, someone to continue the family business. If you have son, that son has to marry someone and trust me when I say this, they loathe possibility of their children marrying someone who is 'nobody' in corporate world. What they actually do is, arrange marriage with another company and this has multiple benefits."

"They do that?" Natsu asked in disbelief.

"It is not that surprising in world of corporations. I mean, arranged marriages are pretty much common thing."

"And people don't get a choice? Sounds a bit..."

"Cruel?" Loke chuckled "Why would it be? Young married couple practically bathes in money and will inherit both companies. All they have to do is pretend they are in love for the publicity and there is nothing they will lack in life. Perfect little golden cage. But, point of this is to unify two companies into one and thus strengthen your front in war against competition. Two companies pour their resources into common goal and share profit. Lesser companies are unable to compete with them and are forced to leave the game."

"Ok, I get that… how does Lucy fall into that?"

Loke lost his smile and sighed again, tip of his tongue went over the still fresh cut on the lip, tasting the saltiness of the now dried blood "Hearfilia family has always been involved in agriculture. Jude's grandfather Marcus owned a large land. He inherited gold from his father, which he used to invest in land. After some time, he bought more land and expanded his domain of interest to crops and lifestock. That is the moment "Heartfilia Konzern" was created and since that moment they managed to spread their influence in all agricultural industry. Today, there is no area of it that they do not have influence in or are not directly involved in. Agricultural machinery, genetically modified seeds, tools, livestock food… You won't make mistake to believe they literally owned the entire branch."

"But, such dedication to work means that you have less time for family." Loke continued, remembering everything he heard and was told "To counter the possibility of not having heir to the empire, arranged marriages were made with special prenuptial agreement. That is how it was done with Jude's father, that's how it was done for Jude himself."

"Wow…" Natsu said in low tone.

"That's not where story ends. See, Jude married Layla through same means, corporate marriage, although my father says that they were one of the rare ones who actually had luck to fall in love before marriage. And that's how Lucy was born. Heir of the family with silver spoon in mouth and responsibility to one day take over business. But… tragedy struck."

"Her mom?" Natsu asked, remembering what Igneel said. Loke just nodded.

"When Lucy was seven, Layla died and to make things worse… Lucy was there to see it. She was present in hospital when her mother died."

"You saw her?" Natsu asked and Loke waved his head.

"No, that's what Levy told me. Levy is Lucy's friend from mother's side; I came later from her father's side."

"The hell?" Natsu asked, again looking at Loke.

"Lucy's mother and Levy's mother were childhood friends so Lucy and Levy were pretty much together since, well always, actually. I came later because my father and her father were associates and friends."

"So, what happened?" Natsu asked impatiently.

"Well, her mother died and Lucy changed. She began to withdraw more and more into herself and Jude was not that big of an asshole to just ignore it. Levy told me they visited child psychiatrists but all believed that Lucy just needs a few more friends. I mean at age of seven she was already suffering from depression. That's when I came in. My father and Lucy's father worked together and he would frequently bring me over in hope that Levy and I would be sufficient to prevent Lucy from developing some serious mental damage from such depression. Lucy was quiet; she barely spoke to me or Levy. Over time we somehow managed to get to her and she allowed us to be a bit closer to her. We were friends ever since… But she hates me now."

"If you were with her for that long, why does she hate you?" Natsu continued with questions.

"I did something…" Loke responded with soft but sad smile "Something terrible."

"What did you do?"

"After we started hanging out and Lucy got to know me a little bit better, she managed to change. Slowly, but she did. She started talking more and more and would even smile… laugh. I swear, I could listen to her for hours. It was such… beautiful smile, honest and pure. We grew up together and became closer, all three of us. We went to same elementary school, same high school, had same friends too but… things changed. And they changed a lot."

"Heartfilia used to own their branch but in modern days they are not only ones anymore. They lost monopoly when other companies were made and they were forced battle for the dominance of the market. To be perfectly honest, times are rough and Heartfilia Konzern had to join with Heston Industries. Roughly seven years ago they managed to complete this and changed name into H-Tech Agricultural Industries that you probably heard of.

"I didn't." Natsu answered with slight frown.

"Do you read Jewel magazine?" Loke turned head toward Natsu as he asked.

"No, not really."

"I don't blame you. Jewel magazine is not something average knucklehead such as yourself reads." Loke chuckled, much to Natsu's displeasure but he didn't seem to mind it

"It is magazine entirely focused on world of economy. In it you can find any and all news that go public about companies, their CEO's, rumors and most importantly, stock value for just about all of them. If you own business, this is your weekly 'must-read'. Heston was small company but had some really progressive ideas and Jude saw the opportunity to improve his own company with them… which he did. It was listed as 'collaboration between companies for the better advancement in technology to bring you best products' but it was in fact just a takeover. However, even that didn't secured company's future and they got into pretty bad situation once foreign competition came into the game. Jude needed to have ace in his sleeve in order to secure more resources and more investments and if you are kin with large company owner or bank owner… you have it…"

"So… Lucy was to be part of arranged marriage?"

"Well, you may see her as 'heir to the empire' but in truth… she was just a bargaining chip." Loke answered, making Natsu immediately feel rock in his throat. His gaze showed sign of disgust. "To be used as means to an end."

"That's sick…"

"By our standards, yes. In fact, ninety percent of population will agree that arranged marriages are old institution which should remain in history books. Today, love is predominant factor for marriages for the middle and lower class but for high class… arranged marriages are normal thing. They openly accept the idea and practice it fully. Anyway, this is part you will be more interested in. See… Lucy didn't know about this until she grew up. Publically, she attended the school just like everyone of us but she also received lessons from her father in order to learn how to lead company and how to make profit. Upon reaching the magical number of sixteen, she was told all about her father's empire and what to expect in the future. To secure dominance on the market, contract was made between H-Tech Industries and another company with intent of arranging marriage once Lucy reaches 20 years of age."

"Is that even legal?" Natsu asked in disbelief, trying to digest all the information that was piling up.

"It's highly illegal but if you grease enough palms, no one bothers to question you. Corruption is rooted deep in our legal system and with right judge on your list no one stands a chance to raise case against you and win. Money makes all everything go smooth. If you own a company and you want to stay in the game, you have to keep up with competition or set the pace for them to follow. To do that, your company must be progressive, you must always bring something new, better and what is in the root of that?"

"Jewels." Natsu said and Loke nodded.

"Jewels. Your ideas require money and more money those bold ideas that can affect entire game. If you cannot finance it yourself, you need someone to invest in your company but that other person won't just give you the money and hope your plan works. They need something in contract that will allow them to prosper even if investment fails. Other way to deal with it is to unify companies into one through corporate marriage and acquire assets for your project. You again need, bargaining chip. For Jude that was Lucy. But things didn't work out well, see, Lucy found out about this and she did what most girls would do in such situation."

"What did she do?" Natsu asked, noticing the grin on Loke's face.

"She rebelled. She was against the idea of marrying some guy who was fourteen years older than her just so her father can secure more assets. First she refused to participate in lessons, then came phase of her skipping school and refusing to go along with just about anything Jude said. He didn't back down and neither did she and in turn… their relationship deteriorated fast."

"Now comes the point where you get to meet the main villain of the story."

"Let me guess…" Natsu added, standing up from the bench "She went out one night, you followed her to ensure she doesn't cause trouble, she got pissed drunk, you were pissed drunk and you two had sex until you knocked her up?"

Loke sighed, bowing head forward in exasperation "If that was true there wouldn't be any problem today. No, it wasn't me."

"Then who was it?"

"A guy named Sean. See, halfway through this rebellion stage, she met a guy from another class in high school. They hit it off quick and before you know it they were couple and this dude… I swear, if I didn't know any better I would say you two are mental copies of eachother." Loke chuckled a bit "He was cocky, arrogant, self-centered, narcissistic jock asshole who only had sex on his mind. Good guy though, popular, social and was playing basketball for the school. I look at you and I see him, without the ridiculous shade of pink." Loke chuckled again, making Natsu frown.

"Fuck you. Keep going."

"She… fell for him" Loke continued, smile on face slowly disappeared "Hard… it was literally painful to watch." Loke stopped for few moments, taking another long sip from the can, collecting his thoughts before continuing. "I knew her for a decade; I was there for her every single day… I fell in love with her almost immediately after I met her and I told her that I liked her but all I got was that she likes me too… as a brother. And what did I do? I swallowed my pride, my dignity and kept her secret."

"Secret?"

"See… her father didn't know about Sean. It was a thing that they wanted to keep away from him as much as possible. Afterschool time was out of the question, her bodyguards were shadowing her every step. However, during school… well during school she could relax a little bit more than usual and I was there to make sure they aren't watched by Heartfilia employees. You know how it goes, I see someone, I whistle and they break it up, wait for air to be clear."

"Must've been hard." Natsu said, watching as Loke's expression become saddened, pained with the memory coursing through his brain.

"You have no idea." Loke added "We were slowly approaching graduation and then… calamity hit."

"Something happened to Sean?"

"No, to Lucy. I do not know when it happened or how it happened. Maybe they forgot the condom, maybe it broke or maybe she miscalculated her days. She noticed few signs and out of pure instinct she decided to test herself. Test was positive. She was pregnant. From that point on, things went downhill in full speed." For a moment, he stopped, rubbing his face with hand, eyes slip under glasses to reach to his closed eyes. He collected his thoughts and continued "We both knew that it was just a matter of time before her father finds out and she didn't want to abort. She… loved the guy and this seemed like a ticket to new life, away from all that corporate bullshit."

"Lucy… went over to him one evening. Told him the news and since they just graduated, she wanted to run away with him, go somewhere far away. Son of a bitch not only refused to accept that he was father to a child but he immediately broke up with her, said that it's too early, he plans to go on college and not get a job with just highschool. Worst part is, his parents supported his decision, right in front of her and refused to accept any kind of responsibility, blaming her for the mistake that should've been his fault."

"You were with her?" Natsu asked "When she went to him."

"No, I was at home that evening."

"Then how do you know what happened?"

"Because she told me. After she left the house she came to mine, told me everything that happened… That, was the first time I ever saw her cry like that. Out loud, desperate… My heart was breaking apart with every moan and all I wanted was to break his teeth." Loke concluded, words became louder, mixed with growl.

"What did you do?"

"She…" Loke started but then he stopped, swallowing huge rock that appeared to be in his throat and continued "She told me that she still plans to run away. Abortion was out of the question and even though it was going to be child of a guy who didn't accept it… she still wanted to keep her. She was planning to run away next day but her father found out about that plan and basically kept her in mansion."

"Talk about bad luck…" Natsu commented, as if trying to ease the tension with a jest. In truth, he wanted to ease up the pressure in himself.

"It wasn't bad luck, Natsu." Loke said in louder, decisive voice, looking down at the point between his feet "I told Jude about Lucy's plan."

"Why?!" Natsu shouted suddenly, standing closer to bench, closer to Loke, towering above him "Why the fuck did you do that?"

"What was I supposed to do?" Loke barked, looking up at pinkette "She was about to run away from home, pregnant and soon she would be unable to do anything! No work experience, no knowledge on how to raise a child and all alone!"

"She ended up well." Natsu added, still glaring down at Loke. "You should've gone with her."

"If I knew then that things would end up like now I would have. I thought… even if she remains at home, she will be unhappy but she will be taken care of… she won't lack anything and her child would grow up in family that can provide all the best things in life."

"Is that why she hates you now? Because you told her father about her plan to escape?" Pinkette asked and Loke just nodded, making Natsu utter yet another Son of a bitch! comment.

"It wasn't exactly secret that I told Jude. Lucy felt betrayed. It was her chance to escape the cage and I… threw her back in. I was afraid, Natsu… I was afraid that she wouldn't make it, that she would end up on the wrong path and make wrong decisions that will haunt her for the rest of her life and… I couldn't bear to watch that. She yelled at me… told me never to speak to her ever again…" He stopped again, his expression showed obvious sign of struggling. His lips were quivering and all his might was focused on keeping his tears in.

"I was… frustrated, angry, enraged… I lost that one person whom I loved and all because of an asshole. I decided to see him, personally."

"You beat him up?" Natsu asked and Loke waved head, lips curved into smile. His eyes were still teary but he managed to look up at pinkette. The gaze was as cold as ice, he enjoyed every word that left his mouth.

"No, not just beat him up. I found him one day at the park along with few of his friends and I straight up went for his throat. I grabbed him and pushed him against the tree, demanding that he takes responsibility. He refused, had some explanation, excuses… I do not even remember what it was but when he called her slut… my mind went completely blank. I started hitting him, punching, kicking… I threw him down onto the ground and sat on him… I remember punching his face over and over and over… my knuckles were bloody, bruised from his teeth but I kept punching until his entire face was red and blue."

"Dude… you took down him and his posse all by yourself?" Natsu asked. He was amused by the story, surprised by the side of Loke he never saw before since the day he met him.

"No, not by myself… Gray was with me."

"Wait wait… Gray was with you? He never told me about that…"

"That is because I asked him not to." Loke responded "I begged him not to tell anyone what happened and he helped me a lot that day. Sean was admitted in hospital shortly after, took him month to just be discharged. I broke his nose, skull on his forehead, jaw, knocked out entire row of his front teeth, he nearly choked on them." Loke chuckled, remembering the event "Of course, his family pressed charges against me for serious bodily injuries, demanded full penalty of three years but my dad pulled a lot of strings and got me only six months in jail and restraining order for the rest of my life."

"What about Gray?" Natsu asked.

"I took full blame, confessed that it was my own plan and that Gray was not aware of the situation until we got there. The resulting fight was my fault and he was defending himself from the attacker. I asked him to come along, I couldn't let him take the blame for me."

"That's some serious shit there. Takes balls to do that." Natsu admitted, feeling respect toward Loke and his courage "What happened after?"

"After that I went to jail and Lucy ran away."

"How did she do that?"

"I cannot tell you that. Sorry Natsu, I hold onto that promise. I will tell you this…" Loke stood up from the bench, taking another sip before throwing can into nearby garbage can "Jude did something horrible and they fell apart completely. Lucy managed to run away from home and use whatever money was on her credit card to find a home and spend next… year and half taking care of Michelle. In the meantime, she managed to get into Fairy Tail with scholarship. How she managed that, I do not know but Mavis knows I am grateful she did. And now we are here."

"Now we are here…" Natsu repeated his words in lower tone "You really should've told me about all that."

"What would've changed? She would've been another random girl you know nothing about; learning about her history would benefit neither. Look… I get it, I am an asshole, I know I am and making that bet with you was not in my favor but… I have been looking out for her since we were kids and I had to look at her grow up and grow onto someone else… In all honesty, every time someone does try to make a move on her I get jealous and want to beat him up. My comfort is that if I behave like an asshole toward her… I can forget about all the feelings I have and I can sleep at night. Lucy will manage, I know she will because despite all the crap that happened in her life, she learned how to become a survivor. After Fairy Tail, she will find good job, raise Michelle properly and with luck, find a guy who will treat her well... treat her the way she deserves. What I wonder now is, what will you do?"

"Me?" Natsu asked, rising eyebrow. He was caught unprepared for the question that Loke asked.

"Yes, you."

"I don't know. I expected baggage but man this is heavy stuff."

"I know it is and in all honesty I don't expect you to stick around. Even I didn't see this far and… she is managing somehow. Beyond my expectations." Loke took deep breath and slowly exhaled, preparing to leave "Lucy is not your average girl, Natsu. She never was, never will be and her life was being guided by mistakes of others. Take my advice and just, move on."

Natsu watched Loke walk away, hands in his pockets with bag over shoulder. He wasn't confused anymore by entire situation but truth seemed heavier than he expected it to be. Small voice in his mind began questioning every promise he made to her. Is it worth keeping them? Should he continue? And even if he does… what would his goal be? Questions seemed endless and now only way to answer was right next to her, in a place he felt he can no longer reach.