Sweet Lord, I finished. I know it's been a gazillion years since I updated. Sorry. I had a period of uninspiration. Spellcheck is telling me that isn't a word, but screw it. It sounds better than uninspiredness. Which also isn't a word. Whatevs.
That isn't important! I did it! Yay for new chapters! Seriously, yay isn't a word? Stupid spellcheck. So. Um. Before you all start thinking I'm a nutball, let's get to the dedications.
Dedicated to gwb620! Special thanks to WhiteWinterStar, KillerCupcakes, FrozenFireLight, LeahMineStar, OtakuLover46, presley-chan, rebma426, and thunderbeany23! Yay for new reviewers! Love you guys! Huffah and all that jazz!
Speaking of all that jazz, you oughta know the drill. Review! Favorite! Follow! Oh, and for those of you who are lame (no worries, I still love you) and won't follow me cuz it's too much trouble to keep up with my story, check out ThatGuyYouMetOnce! He's got a great story that's basically finished, he's just gonna write an epilogue-y type thingum. Even if you are following me (extra luvs) definitely check him out!
AND NOW WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, I GIVE YOU THE LONG-PROCRASTINATED CHAPTER 13!
I woke up late next morning with puffy red eyes and a sore throat. I looked the same as I had last night – dirty, bruised, clothes torn. The bright sunshine cut through my windows and onto my face where I lay on the floor. Sitting up, I took in the carnage. It looked worse in the sunlight. It was going to take me hours to clean the whole mess up.
Instead, I took the easy way out. "Virgo!"
"Is it punishment, princess?" I rolled my eyes. At least one thing never changed.
"No, Virgo. Could you please clean this up? I'm gonna–" It then occurred to me that my bathroom was currently also in a state of chaos. I ran a hand through my hair. Or tried to. It got stuck in a snarl of knotted hair and mud. "I'm gonna take a walk. Make sure to get the bathroom too, please." She bowed.
"Very good, princess." I nodded, and throwing on some clean clothes, I went back outside. As soon as I left the apartment, an argument assailed my ears.
"I'm telling you, we should leave her alone! You don't even know she's living here anyway!" The familiar voice made my ears prick up.
"But she has to be living around here somewhere!" a second voice insisted. "And it's not like we're bothering her. I just wanted to ask her some stuff!" I followed the conversation to a bridge crossing the canal, where two boys sat on the low wall.
"Looking for someone?" They almost fell into the water.
"Lucy Heartfilia!" Sam exclaimed. "See, Holland, I told you!" I crossed my arms and noticed how their eyes widened as they took in my appearance.
"Um, Lucy, are you okay?" Holland asked hesistantly. "You look kinda..." I smiled.
"Like a mess, I know. That's what I get for not showering after practice. Thing is, my shower's not really working right now, so I was gonna go wash off at Saber." Holland nodded, training his eyes on the canal water. Sam looked slightly deflated.
"So you're not going on any jobs?" I raised an eyebrow.
"I never said that. I have one lined up for today, actually." I fished around in the pockets of my sweats until my fingers encountered a crackly piece of paper. "Um, I have to deal with a sea monster infestation out in the port town near here. Negry-something-or-other..." I squinted.
"You mean Negrinanthus?" Holland supplied. "I hear they have great fish out there." Unconsciously, my fingers tightened on the stiff paper.
"Oh?" Happy would love this more than anything. He'd be goofing off the whole time, fishing and trying to eat the sea monsters. For once, I didn't try to block the thoughts of Fairy Tail. Instead, I let them wash over me and clean my wounds. If they stung from the salt, so be it. "Fish, huh?" I sighed. "That little idiot would love this job." I smiled. Even so, I could still feel the sadness seep into the lines of my face. "Have you ever eaten a wingfish?" The boys shook their heads, eyes wide and cautious.
"Are they good?"
I laughed. "No, horrible. I wouldn't eat them even if I was starving. They're hard to catch too, a real pain in the ass. But..." I looked up at the sky, the changing clouds and smooth blue. "Those were the good times." I had lost them, I could tell. They watched me with concern in their innocent child's eyes. "Have you ever done something you really, really, really regret? And you would do anything to take it back, but you look back and you can't imagine doing anything different, because that was the only option that didn't tear you apart?" I'd gone crazy for the third time in two days, but I couldn't stop the words from tumbling out. I needed to say it, to make this my reality. I regretted leaving. I wanted to go back. I couldn't.
"Did something happen to you, Lucy?" Holland's serious voice was hard and flat. "Did something happen when you were at Fairy Tail? Because if it did, I'll kick those jerks' asses myself. You can tell me–" I laughed again. It was brittle, and I could picture it shattering to fragments on the ground. Already walking away, I ruffled Holland's soft hair with a muddy hand.
"Thanks, Holland. But this was already a long, long time ago." My hand lifted and I was off the bridge, ten feet away, thirty feet, fifty.
"Lucy!" I didn't turn around. "I'm going to be a wizard and join Fairy Tail! Definitely wait for me!" One hand lifted into the air, the same hand I used to pat his head. The same hand I had gotten marked, so many years ago, with the design I treasured more than the world.
"I'll see you around, Holland. Be a great wizard someday – make me proud, okay?" I felt, more than heard, when the tears started sliding down his cheeks and dripping to the stones at his feet. He didn't wail, just stood there and cried. And I walked away into the distance.
The Sabertooth guild hall was pretty much empty when I entered. It seemed that the Cyprus wizards weren't early risers. I went straight upstairs and knocked on Sting's door. There was no answer, so I just opened the door and stepped inside. His office really wasn't much of an office – it was small, and gave me the distinct impression that it had once been an unused broom closet. The mahogany desk dominated most of the space, and almost all of what was left was dedicated to wall-to-wall shelves of random junk. Even the floor was scattered with the overflow. A gleam caught my eye and I turned to see the lacrima Sting had contacted Natsu on yesterday. My fingers itched to smash it to glittering pieces on the wood floor, but common sense stopped me. What would destroying a lacrima solve? All it would do is get Sting mad at me, and I'd most likely have to pay for the damn thing. So I ignored it and picked my way carefully to the door that presumably led to the shower. Lost in thought, I went in without realizing that the shower was, in fact, already on.
I walked into the steam and came face-to-face with a wide-eyed, wet-haired, naked Sting.
My first instinct: to slap him as hard as was humanly possible. My second: to scream. Loudly. I only shut up when a hand clamped firmly over my mouth, forcing me to stop and breathe. I fought my third instinct with all my might, because I got the feeling that Sting would not react well to being bitten on the hand after a girl walked in on his shower, assaulted him, and screamed like he was the one who had invaded her privacy.
"Lucy," he hissed in my ear, still holding on to my mouth like I might start shrieking again if he let go. "What the goddamn hell do you think you're doing?" I peeled his fingers away and surged forward, away from him. I made sure to keep my back to him as I talked.
"I was going to borrow your shower, but I wasn't paying attention and I didn't realize anyone was in here. Yukino said you never used it."
"I'm definitely going to kill her." The sound of teeth grinding filled the tiny room.
"Don't–" I started to turn around, but I remembered Sting's state of dress just in time. I snapped back to position and stood like that stiffly, fiercely reprimanding myself. Sting sighed loudly.
"You can turn around. I put on a towel, it's fine." I was sure my face was twice as red as it felt. I turned slowly, still a little wary. He was wearing a towel, though, so I told myself to relax. It was just Sting, after all.
"Well, um, anyway..." I fidgeted. "Don't be mad at Yukino, it was my fault." He gave me the eye and crossed his muscular arms. He was in good shape, I couldn't help but note. As good as Natsu, probably. They didn't have the same charm, though. Sting obviously felt me checking him out, because a self-satisfied smirk landed squarely on his mouth. Natsu, however, wouldn't have noticed, or even if he did, he would have assumed I was assessing his fighting prowess.
Such an idiot.
"Anyway, Blondie, doesn't the place you're renting have a shower? Why the hell would you use mine?" I stared at the floor. I definitely couldn't say, Because I threw a tantrum last night and ripped down the shower curtains and completely trashed the bathroom.
"Um, because it's broken right now. The landlady says it won't get fixed until tonight and I really can't wait that long to shower." I tapped my toes on the tiled floor. "Please. I'll be out of your hair in ten minutes tops." Sting rubbed his head, ruffling his blond hair into a state of enormous disarray. He looked sort of like a blond Natsu, actually. The thought made me shudder. Gross, gross, gross.
"Fine," he groaned finally. "Ten minutes, and then I'm coming in here and kicking you out. Got it?" I rolled my eyes and shooed him out.
"Yeah, yeah. I got you. Go get dressed. I'll be gone before you're done." As soon as he was gone, I stripped off my t-shirt and sweats and stepped into the still-running hot water. It streamed down my back, cutting through layers of dirt and grease. Muscles tensed and relaxed, and bruises dissolved into faded yellow patches under my skin. I sighed and felt around for the soap. There was a ledge behind me, holding dozens of gels and shampoos and conditioners and body washes. There were exfoliants, scrub brushes, shower caps (weird) and razors all lined up or hanging from fancy hooks. I was alarmed to find that even the soap was extravagant – there were at least five bars of soap in all different colors, shapes, sizes, and scents. I grabbed the least eye-catching of the bunch and proceeded to scrub away the filth caking my skin. I repeated the process with shampoo and conditioner, eradicating tangles at lightspeed. After briefly considering shaving my legs, I decided it wasn't worth it and got out of the shower. I had five minutes to spare, and judging by his shower, Sting wouldn't even be close to dressed. Snatching up a towel, I dried off and slipped back into my clothes. They were soft and warm, and they reminded all the more of my usual mostly-skin outfits. I shook it off and left the room.
The office was empty, so I closed the door quietly behind me and crept to the shelves. I stared for a long moment at my reflection in the opaque crystal lacrima and then lifted it cautiously off the shelf. Every secomd that passed as I went through the steps to connect to another lacrima screamed that this was a mistake, that I was going to regret this, that I could still turn back. I tapped the top of the sphere and rings of white slid through the black.
A minute later, an achingly familiar face appeared, eyebrows shooting up when she saw my face.
"Lucy? What–" she broke off. "Are you alright?" I nodded, even though the tears on my cheeks obviously said otherwise. I hadn't been okay when I called her, but just seeing her was enough. Smiling at my friend through my clouded vision made me okay.
"Erza," I choked out, "I have to tell you something."
NATSU
"Happy, how much farther till we get there?" I asked for the fifth time in four minutes. Happy just groaned.
"Shut up. I'm the one doing all the work here. Lucy's gonna owe me a ton of fish when we get to Cyprus." I crossed my arms and swung my feet, immensely bored. Cloud-watching had gotten tedious after the first three hours, there was nothing to catch for food in the sky, and I couldn't get to sleep. Lucy kept popping into my head as soon as I started to drift off, waking me up.
Frustrated, I opened my mouth and roared into the horizon. I startled Happy, and he twitched so violently he lost his grip on me. I spiraled downwards, crashing through clouds and then tree branches before finally landing with a boom on the forest floor. Happy came down after me, screaming loud enough to wake the dead. I sat up, rubbing the growing bump on my head. "That hurt, dammit..." Slowly, I surveyed our surroundings. We were in a thick part of the woods, heavily populated by ancient elms and oaks. A deep layer of leaves had softened my fall and stuck to my legs as I stood.
"Natsu..." Happy's fearful voice drew my attention to his small form at my feet. He was quivering with terror, and his eyes were wide as saucers. "What are we gonna do about them?" I followed his trembling paw to the painted ring of warriors surrounding us. They leveled their enormous bows at us in a wave, each nocked with an arrow aimed straight at my head.
I whispered back, "Think they're friendly?"
I'm doing this really quick cuz I have to go but I want to get this posted. I'm not really sure why Holland's crying. Maybe he has a crush on Lucy or something. It works, so I'm rolling with it. Anyways, what'd you think of chapter 13? Hope it was worth the wait. I promise to try to update more regularly! People who are so ambiguous about this are annoying, I know. I'll do my best. You know how you can help? Take a wild guess.
REVIEW! FAVORITE! FOLLOW! Thanks so much to you guys who stuck with me through my inspiration-drought (poetic, right?)! I love you all! Bye for now!
Giselle