Two Years Ago

"Loke!" Natsu snapped at the lion decoration at the base of the stairs. "Where is Lucy?"

His large golden eyes swiveled to him. "What's it to you?"

The dragon growled deep in his chest, his brow furrowing. "I haven't seen her all afternoon. I'm worried. I think it's allowed."

"Tch," the lion scoffed. "Bring it on, Dragneel. If I wasn't part of this staircase, I'd totally challenge you for the princess' hand!"

"But you are," he deadpanned. "So - where is Lucy?"

"In the library," he muttered back.

The lion snapped at Natsu's leg as he passed, but the dragon easily avoided the swipe, bounding up the stairs. He made a right turn, bursting through the wooden doors to see Lucy standing there, caught in afternoon rays of sun that illuminated the dust particles and caught in her yellow hair, spinning it into gold. He swallowed the lump that formed in his throat as she turned to face him.

He immediately lurched forward as he saw tears in her eyes as her small white hand clenched a hand mirror so tight that they turned alabaster with spots of red on her knuckles. "Luce-?"

"Don't you dare Luce me," she said holding up a hand to stop him. Her brow was furrowed and red veins cut through the whites of her eyes. She was trembling, and her cheeks were a fevered scarlet.

His eyes slid back to the mirror in his hand, and his heart fell as he recognized the intricate, entwining snowflake design on the back of the mirror. It was Gray, the farseeing mirror, who could show you any truth happening currently in the kingdom. He could only guess what she had asked him. Natsu swallowed. "Princess-" he tried again.

"How long have you known that my mother is dead?"

"What?"

"You heard me," she said, crossing her arms as fresh tears welled in her eyes. Her gaze darted all over his face as though she could discern the answer there. She didn't seem to like what she had found because her hand rose to her mouth in disbelief. "Oh Mavis. Say it isn't true."

"Luce, I wanted to tell you."

"You've known this entire time?!" she cried. Her chest started heaving as streams of tears cascaded down her face.

"It wasn't that simple," he begged, stepping forward and trying to take her hands.

She yanked away from him, her lip curled up in a sneer. "Yes, it was! All it took was sitting down and telling me… that she… oh, Mavis," she repeated again, curling her arms to hug around her abdomen.

"Please," he said, holding his arms open and hoping she would walk into them. "I thought it was for the best. I was going to tell you."

"When?"

"When you were sixteen."

She brought her arms down, her hands balled up in fists as she glared at him. "I hate you, Natsu Dragneel," she said emphatically, running from the room.

He stood there, unable to move for a moment. At seventeen, he was certainly fast enough to chase her down and strong enough to hold her in place long enough to listen, but her words held him in place. They had lived together now for five years, and in that time, she had never told him that she hated him.

So it never occurred to him.

He'd always thought that she liked him - maybe even adored him - as an older brother type. That's why he'd had to swallow his own feelings in the last year about her. But the idea that Lucy could hate him - that he had irreparably damaged their relationship - made him feel like the biggest idiot in the world. His heart was aching painfully with every beat, his mouth was dry, and every swallow felt like he was trying to swallow a grapefruit whole.

"Go away, Natsu," Lucy grumbled, her face buried in her pillow.

"It's me," Mira's sweet voice filled the room. "Princess, you have to eat. It's been three days."

"I don't want to!" the princess shot back as the pitcher landed on the nightstand next to her. "I've just been here like an idiot for five years while everyone around me knew exactly what was going on. And nobody said anything. Especially… especially not…"

"Natsu?"

"How could he?" she sniffled, fresh tears staining her red cheeks. "I thought he cared about me."

"We all care about you," the pitcher said soothingly, pouring a goblet of water for her to drink out of. "Especially Natsu. Why do you think he did what he did?"

"To control me."

"You couldn't be farther from the truth."

"Well then he's just unfeeling!" she shouted.

"Princess!" Mira said sharply, silencing Lucy. "You can't speak on matters that you yourself do not know."

Her tears slowed down a little bit. "What do you mean?"

If pitchers could look sad, Mira achieved it. "Have you never wondered about Natsu's family?"

"I… he has Igneel, his father."

"His adoptive father," Mira corrected her. "Oh, princess, there's so much that you still don't know."

Lucy was quiet for a moment. "Mira… earlier, you said I couldn't be farther from the truth about why he didn't tell me about my mother. So why did he do it?"

"Oh, I thought that was obvious," the pitcher fairly whispered. "He loves you. Nobody ever wants to see somebody that they love hurt that much."

Natsu hadn't left his room since Lucy yelled at him because it was the one place in Fairy Tail Keep that she didn't venture to often. He sat on the edge of his bed. If she was that angry at him, he would keep out of her way. She wouldn't have to see him or hear him. He would just fight and fight and keep fighting for her silently.

How did Lucy feel about being here? She was the only one who had no choice in the matter. Even Natsu was asked if he'd like to guard Lucy. But Jude had decided to seal her away, and Igneel chose where she went. The servants volunteered for their place here.

How was Lucy supposed to feel? She just had to live with this bothersome beast who could only ever hurt her by keeping things from her. He kept her from a normal childhood. He even took away her choice about falling in love. She would marry whoever bested him and none other. How was that to make him feel?

He loved her. Mavis, he loved her so much it made his teeth ache. So there! He was disappointment: to the king, to Igneel, and especially to Lucy. He had fallen in love with the one person that he couldn't have, and he couldn't sleep at night because of it.

But he never knew how she felt… not until that moment when she looked into his eyes and told him that she hated him. Of course she hated him. Who could love someone who had subjected them to such a fate? She wanted nothing to do with him.

"Natsu?" a voice asked quietly.

His head jerked up and he stood quickly, swiveling towards the doorway where Lucy stood tentatively, in the same rumpled dress she wore three days ago with messed up hair and tearstained eyes. A knot worked its way into his throat.

"C-can I come in?" she asked.

He nodded, hardly even daring to breathe and risk her changing her mind and going away. Instead, she walked right up to him, her lips pursing and relaxing slightly as though she was at a loss for words.

"What happened to your family?" she finally asked.

Something in him deflated as memories of smoke stinging his eyes, his mother screaming his name, and choking on his own sobs came filtering into his mind, making him wince. "Sit," he said finally. She did, sitting right on the bed. He sat next to her.

"I was born in the northern province of Heartfilia back when bandits were still an issue," he said. "My father was a farmer, and my mother stayed at home with my older brother and I. We were poor, but things were happy. I don't remember much from those times - only that we loved each other a lot. Our village mostly just got by.

"One day after harvest, the bandits came and demanded everything we had. If we gave it to them, we would starve. So my father and the others fought back against them with just farm tools. My mother and brother and I hid. We prayed. The bandits were well-trained and ruthless. They killed my father and the others, stole the harvest, and set fire to the village to serve as an example. Our house went up faster than lightning.

"My mother carried me and my brother out of the house and told us to stay there. She was trying to get something from inside. But Zeref got scared, and he ran away. The fire covered the door and windows though. I could… I could hear-" he broke here as tears pricked his eyes, and he felt her soft hands covering his own where they sat limply in his lap. "I could hear them screaming. All of villagers, but especially my mother. I couldn't do anything. The soldiers arrived too late to do anything. Among them was Igneel. The other's thought I should be put out of my misery because I wouldn't survive my injuries. But instead of fighting the fire that was injuring me, he made it a part of me by performing the spell that turned me into a dragon.

"He is why I am who I am today. He raised me from there to be a fighter. Then one day, he told me I had an important mission: you," he said, raising his eyes to look at her face carefully where isolated tears were falling from her eyes as she listened to him. "I had to protect you from all harm. Lucy… I'm so sorry. I didn't know how to tell you. I just didn't… I didn't want to hurt you."

He looked down again, but she reached up and took his hand, bringing his head down so that their foreheads rested together. "You silly dragon," she breathed, closing her eyes. "You are never the one to hurt me. I'm so sorry about your family. I'm so sorry I never asked."

Natsu reached up and gently held her arms. "It isn't your fault."

"I don't want you to hurt either though," she replied softly.

He didn't know what to say to that so he just sat there silently until finally she shifted away, rubbing another tear from her eye. "Can I stay here tonight?" she asked. "I don't want to be alone."

"Of course you can."

Hours later, after dark, Mira came looking for the two of them, hoping that they'd made up. She found them curled up together, arms around each other, finally asleep.

"Hmm…" she hummed. "Those two are made for each other."