Lying was something she was told never to do. And she stuck by the rule while her mother was alive.
But then her mother had died, and she had found herself lying more than ever. "Did you study last night?" She would nod, even though she had spent the whole time last night reading about the tragic life of Oliver Twist. "Did you eat all your vegetables?" She would nod yes, even though she had discretely dumped them into her napkin.
They never found out, and she didn't expect them to. So, there was no harm in lying, right?
She was only lying to herself.
V - Liar Liar
"He's your friend?"
"Yes."
"Who has… crab arms?"
Lucy placed her hands on her hips in a dominating and angry demeanour. "You can eat fire! What right do you have to judge him?" Inside, she was trembling like the ground before a massive earthquake. The lying might end up blowing up in her face, and soon this will be bigger than an impending earthquake. Luckily, they would go their separate ways soon so he would never find out the truth.
Even if she had told him, he wouldn't believe her anyway. He'd probably end up running to the hills, screaming about the crazy girl who thought she could summon the constellations with Keys. Yeah, because that is believable, she told herself, prohibiting herself from blurting out the truth. She was a terrible liar. Fortunately, this wasn't a whole lie. Cancer the Crab really was her friend. She had known him for years and could rely on him.
"I thought you said you were travelling alone," Natsu stated and Lucy stopped herself from face-palming herself. He doesn't remember my name, but he remembers that! She restrained a groan.
"He was just visiting," she half-lied. "He's gone back home now," she added. She had been swift enough to open the portal to the Celestial Spirit world without Natsu noticing until Cancer had disappeared with the portal closing promptly behind him.
"Okay…" Natsu said, scratching his head in suspiciousness and confusion. "If you say so…"
"Hey," she said, looking back down to Natsu, "why are you here, anyway? Shouldn't you be at the circus?" It was a lame attempt of changing the subject, but she was somewhat curious too.
"Oh," he said, "I, uh, I just wanted to sat She noted how dark it was now, probably passed 1am. She wondered what time Hilda locked up the Inn. She was pretty old, and probably went to bed early, so maybe it was already locked up by now…
"I need to rush back!" she yelped in alarm, breaking into a run. If she ended up locked out, she would have to sleep out in the cold.
"Why?" Natsu asked, easily catching up with her.
"Hilda's probably locked up the Inn by now," she explained. Natsu nodded, understanding, and grabbed her arm. He started to run faster, hauling her with him like he had done all day. She felt like a rag doll being dragged around all day.
However, she was glad Natsu was such a fast runner because, in a matter of minutes, she was back at the Inn. Thankfully, the gates were still open. "Thanks. You can go now," she told Natsu.
"I'll walk you inside, I can't really trust you alone," he told her with amusement. Lucy swiftly gave him a punch on his arm before he could duck away. She pushed through the doors of the entrance, Natsu still with her. Hilda sat at the front, still wide awake but extremely grumpy. She glared at Lucy. "What time do you call this?" she asked with distaste. "It's dark, you could have been attacked."
"She was atta-" Lucy shot Natsu a menacing glare and he immediately shut up. Hilda looked up and down Natsu with dislike, her nose wrinkled in disgust.
"I think you better go now," Lucy mumbled to him, thinking of his welfare. Hilda didn't seem fond of boys.
"Yeah, okay," Natsu agreed. He let go of her arm and flashed her a toothy grin. "See you tomorrow!"
Hilda and Lucy watched him leave, both with different expressions. She turned back to Hilda, who was now scowling at Lucy. "No boys in your rooms, and no hotplates!" she shouted at Lucy.
"Yes ma'am," she solemnly nodded and made her way up the stairs to her room. She was careful not to make a sound as she tiptoed up the stairs. She didn't want to wake up any of the other occupants of the Inn.
When she reached her room, she quietly closed the door behind her. With fumbling fingers, she unhooked the Keys from her belt.
10 Keys altogether. 7 gold, 3 silver. 2 of them given to her from her mother. All of them were precious to her and held the magic that only fairy tales talked about. For years now, they had been her only friends and no one knew about them.
Now she had met Natsu, it was beginning to change.
… … …
The next day, Lucy skipped back to the carnival with joy. She had had so much fun yesterday. She wondered if there was anyone else in Fairy Tail whom she hadn't yet met. She hadn't officially met Master Makarov yet but feared meeting him in person. He was like the father (or grandfather) figure and if he didn't approve of her…
They're like one big happy family, she thought as she entered through the gates. Even though they fight, they love each other a lot, even Gray and Natsu.
Speak of the devil. "Luuuuuucyyyyyy," a familiar voice shouted and Lucy swiftly turned. A blur of pink was charging at her. Déjà vu, Lucy thought. Her eyes widened, remembering distinctly that she had landed on the floor yesterday. Oh no! Scared that the same thing would occur, she took a step to the left at the last moment.
Natsu landed face first onto the floor. A giggle escaped Lucy's lips and then she didn't hold in any more of her laughter. He deserved it for laughing at me yesterday! She thought, giggling even more wildly.
"Not funny," Natsu mumbled with a frown, pushing himself up. He scowled at her. "Seriously, stop."
"Okay, I'll stop," she said, stepping closer to apologize. "I'm sorry," she told him. He laughs at me all the time, even when I'm annoyed, but I can't laugh at him?
"C'mon, let's go," he said to her, brushing off his embarrassing fall. "Test your Strength."
"Do we have to?" she groaned.
"Aw, are you scared because you're too weak?" he teased her.
Lucy took the bait and followed him with a huff. Argh, why do I always end up giving in? she gritted her teeth as Natsu smirked with triumph. Like yesterday, he started dragging her along.
As expected, they were back at the Dunking booth in no time. While Natsu and Gray started to throw insults at one another, most of them ridiculous and stupid, Lucy watched from the sidelines with Juvia, who was the other person managing the booth (Lisanna had gone to help out her sister).
Unlike Lucy, who kept rolling her eyes every time the boys acted immature so much that her eyeballs began to ache, Juvia kept clapping every time Gray said an insult and was cheering him on. All she was missing were pompoms.
"Why are you cheering?" Lucy asked in outrage. "You're just encouraging them!"
Juvia glared at Lucy. "It is expected of Juvia to cheer for Gray-sama because Juvia is in love Gray-sama!" she hissed at Lucy. "Why aren't you~ cheering?" she condescendingly asked, eyebrow raised.
Lucy instantly tensed up. "I- I'm not in love with Natsu!" she insisted, her voice suddenly high pitched with nervousness and her hands were clammy. She felt herself go red and wondered when the weather had gotten so warm.
"Juvia didn't say that Lucy-chan was," Juvia replied, eyes studying Lucy in a way that made her feel queasy. "But if Lucy-chan is not in love with Natsu then you and I are love rivals again."
"What?" Lucy said in outrage. "Just because I'm not in love with Natsu, doesn't mean that-"
"Juvia does not believe your lies," she spoke in a cold tone.
"But- but I…" she spluttered, struggling to get her words out. Juvia was just so hard to talk to sometimes. "I just…"
Juvia unexpectedly smiled. Lucy felt shivers down her spine; that sly smile reminded her of Natsu's mischievous grin before he pulled a prank or followed through with a scheme. "Let's go see Bisca!" she told Lucy.
She didn't like where this was going. "But you're supposed to be giving out the tennis balls," she reminded her, trying to dissuade Juvia. Whatever the water girl had up her sleeve was sure to bring trouble upon Lucy.
"No problem for Juvia!" she chirped, approaching Natsu. "Natsu, take these!" she ordered, practically shoving all the tennis balls to him and he reluctantly took them. Juvia swiftly turned and bounced back to Lucy and grabbed her arm.
"Natsu!" Lucy called after Natsu as she began to be dragged away by Juvia. Why the hell does this keep happening to me? She wondered in annoyance. Natsu was too busy smirking with glee at the tennis balls. Lucy watched helplessly as he began to throw each and every one at Gray – not at the target, but at Gray himself - who failed to dodge the upcoming attacks. There was a splash, indicating that Gray had fallen in. The last thing Lucy heard was Natsu's whoop of victory.
"Here we are!" Juvia announced, pulling Lucy to the giant ferocious tiger.
"Gah!" she shrieked with shock, forgetting that all of Bisca's animals were tame and wouldn't harm any humans.
"This is Little Tyler," Juvia introduced the 'harmless' tiger to a scared stiff Lucy.
Little? Lucy thought in horror. How is this thing harmless? Juvia pushed her closer to the tiger but Lucy dug her heels deeper into the ground to thwart her. "Does Lucy-chan know what's so special about Little Tyler?" Juvia asked her in a playful tone.
"N- no," her voice trembled.
"He loves ~fish!" she drew out that last word with a sneer and then suddenly Lucy found herself hurtling into the large pile of stinky fish.
The pungent smell was atrocious. It assaulted her nose and her eyes watered from the stink. She looked up from where she lay to see Juvia spitefully smiling, a triumphant gleam in her sparkling dark blue eyes.
… … …
All in all, this day has so far not been the best for Lucy. At least Levy had been able to rescue her from the humiliation of having clothes stinking of fish all day by letting her borrow some of her own clothes.
"Thanks again for the clothes, Levy-chan," she thanked her with a grateful smile. The clothes fit her perfectly because their build was similar.
"It's no problem, Lu-chan," Levy told her. "I'm sorry you fell in."
More like was pushed, Lucy thought in bitterness but bit her lip. She remembered last night when her lip had started bleeding because she had bitten down extremely hard to cease screaming out in pain. "I really like your room," she said to distract herself from the awful memories of last night.
Levy's room was, as expected, packed with many books of all shapes and sizes and genres. Levi's entire room was full with bookshelves with books overflowing from them. "Did you read all of these books?" she asked in awe, drinking in the amazing sight she hadn't fully noticed until now.
"Yep!" Levi nodded. "But I had to clear away over half of my books because there wasn't enough space," she added, pulling a face. "But I gave some of them to our friends in Fairy Tail, so at least they'll be read."
Lucy didn't the miss the fact Levi said 'our friends' even though the blond had known them for no more than half a day.
She wandered around the shelves, glancing over the titles of the books. Wow, there really were books of every genre. It didn't seem like Levi had a favourite type of book, but a vast collection. "What kind of books does Natsu like?" she couldn't help but ask. She immediately froze after asking. What the hell? Why am I asking a question like that?
She opened her mouth to take back the ridiculous question when Levi said, "Guess."
"But-"
"Guess," Levi said again, this time with a laugh.
In all honesty, Natsu didn't seem like the type of person to read books. Or even willingly open one that didn't have pictures. But he did seem to love food… "Let me think, cooking books where he can stare at the food?" Lucy asked with her eyebrow raised.
Levi laughed. "Yep! He's the reason why all the cooking books have drool marks."
Lucy wrinkled her nose in disgust but couldn't help but also laugh. It seemed like Natsu. She wondered around the shelves some more and found the children's book of Alice's Adventure in Wonderland. She had always wanted a copy of the book as a child.
"Like the book?" Levi asked, bringing Lucy's attention back to the present. "It's Wendy-chan's favourite too."
"Really?" Lucy said, putting the book away. It was wonderful that Wendy had such loving people to look after her. "Speaking of which, where is she?" she asked.
"She must be with Charle somewhere," Levi shrugged.
Lucy was no longer paying attention; she was staring at the bookshelf on the far right that had caught her attention. Unlike all the other bookshelves, this one had all the books in a neat order with none out of place or looking scruffy. They didn't seem to have been touched for a while. The books were hardbacks and quite thick, causing Lucy to wonder what they were about.
"Hey, Levi-chan," Lucy called her friend. "What are those books about?"
Instantly, Levi froze. A shocked and nervous expression was etched on her face. "Er, what those books?" she said with a nervous laugh. "Oh, they're nothing special. Just, uh, dictionaries and encyclopaedias and boring stuff like that. You don't want to read that, you'd like books like Sense and Sensibility or teenage romance novels like…"
She was rambling now. And, although she had only known Levi for a short amount of time, Lucy knew that when Levi rambled in meant she was lying. It had been proven when Levi had started rambling last night when she had suggested that Gajeel liked her. But why would she lie about this, anyway? She asked herself as the blue-haired girl went on about how all teenage books nowadays were about hunky vampires. What's so special about those books?
In curiosity, the blond started edging towards that specific bookshelf. Levi was oblivious, now going on about how these books were giving the wrong ideas to teenagers, namely Juvia who had taken up the hobby of stalking Gray. Lucy added a 'yeah' and 'mm-hm' every now and then so Levi wouldn't think she was no longer paying attention.
Swiftly, Lucy grabbed the hardback black book with golden writing because it was the most intriguing. She hugged it to her chest and then placed the paper cover of Pride and Prejudice over the book.
"Hey, Levi-chan? Can I borrow this book?" she asked her friend, holding up the disguised book. She gulped down her guiltiness and desperately tried to hide her grimace.
"Of course, Lu-chan!" Levi told her with a smile. It was extremely difficult for Lucy not to give up and admit the whole truth to her.
"Thanks. I'll return it tomorrow, okay?" she said. "Oh wait, you leave tomorrow, don't you?"
"After sunset tomorrow," Levi told her. Sadness flickered over her face for a second, as if she too was realizing that soon she wouldn't see Lucy again. However, she quickly recovered and smiled widely. "We would leave earlier, but everyone always stays up late and, because there's no work the next day, they stay in bed until noon."
"I'll stop by before you leave," Lucy told her, finding it hard to keep her smile in place. "I better get going now," she added, turning to leave.
"You're going already?" Levy asked in shock. "Aren't you going to stay for the show?"
"I'm actually really tired," Lucy told her and then faked a yawn. "Plus I need to shower that fish stink off," she wrinkled her nose in disgust. I so hate Juvia right now. "I better get going now."
"Oh, but-"
"I'll see ya," Lucy hurriedly said, rushing out of the room. If she'd stayed just a second longer, she would have blurted everything out.
She started fleeing from the back of the carnival where all the caravans and etc were to try and make an escape without bumping into anyone else. She hugged the mysterious book to her chest in protection, pondering over what secrets it held as she ran at full speed, trying to get away as fast as possible.
But then she saw a flash of white hair. She ducked away where she would be out of sight and waited it out, only to hear a conversation which left her more question than she had started with.
If you didn't think the last chapter was awkward, this one definitely was. There were way too many breaks in between because the switching from one scene to the next was difficult too write. Thank you for the reviews, they really make my day!
Gah, writers block.