Fairy Tail Angst Week

Day Three (Family)

AN: This one isn't as angsty as I'd hoped. I was reading some Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfics earlier, and I noticed that a lot of Kaiba-centric stories mention Seto's fear of turning out like his adoptive father. I think that, for a long time, Lucy might've had a similar fear. And thinking about that got me to write this. Sorry for this not-as-angsty-as-it-should-be-but-still-technically-angsty-enough-to-count thing.

Title: Family

Pairings: N/A

Character(s): Lucy Heartfilia, Brandish μ, mentions of others

Summary: She stands by the graves of the people she thought she knew and wonders if she'd ever really known them at all.

Lucy had always assumed that, when her parents had married, her mother had taken on her father's name. It had never occurred to her that it could've been the other way around, but, when she thought about it, it did make sense.

Her father had always been the businessman – the one focused on work, who almost never had time for his daughter after Layla had passed. Jude had not come from a wealthy background, Lucy had learned, and he had done everything in his power to ensure that his daughter never had to experience poverty. But Lucy would've greatly preferred wondering when her next meal would come over wondering whether or not her father really loved her.

Her mother had always been the compassionate one – the one who cherished (and sometimes even spoiled) her family. Layla had come from a long line of rich folk, and it had never occurred to her that the Heartfilia name would lose its money and prestige, so she hadn't felt the need to put work first, didn't bother to continue as a practicing mage. In the end, Layla had made a mistake and had sacrificed her life because of it.

Lucy didn't remember very much about Zoldeo. Aquarius had taken her to Star Memory, which had jogged a bit of recollection, but most of what she knew about him came from Capricorn and Mrs. Spetto, both of whom were a tad biased (although Mrs. Spetto much less so). And then there was Grammi, who she'd never really met and only knew at all through Brandish.

But they were gone now, all of them. Layla had given her life to open the Eclipse Gate, Grammi had been murdered by a half-mad Zoldeo, Zoldeo had eventually gone completely off the deep end and accidentally ended his own life (Lucy still wasn't quite sure what had happened there, but she didn't like thinking about it), Jude had died of an illness while patiently awaiting his estranged daughter, and Mrs. Spetto had finally passed away in her sleep, with Lucy and Brandish by her side.

The two girls – women now, really – stood by the graves in the yard of a mansion that was far too big to be practical.

"What are you going to do with this place?" Brandish asked. She already knew Lucy wouldn't be moving in. There was no way the blonde would leave Fairy Tail, especially not for some silly house, and Brandish wasn't particularly interested anyway (of course, she could make any building obnoxiously large by clicking her fingers, but that wasn't the point). "Open an orphanage? Hospital?" Lucy shrugged.

"In the long run, I have no idea," she replied, honestly. "For now, though, I think I'll use it to house people who lost their homes because of the war." Yes, Lucy decided, that would be the plan for now. She would figure out how to use the house and the property, probably rebuild some of it, definitely renovate a lot of it, and other things like that. She would also need to find people who could help her. Gildarts' Disassembly Magic could come in handy, certainly…

Brandish watched her friend muse over plans for the future. Grammi had always told her that Layla's daughter was "just like her mother", but Brandish wasn't looking a soft-hearted, naïve woman who didn't always think things through. She was looking at someone who was planning years in advance, who was dedicated to her work.

Lucy Heartfilia was more like her father than anyone realized, but maybe that wasn't really a bad thing. Maybe that was just… that.