Hello everyone! I'm sorry it's been so long, I've had so much work to do lately! ! As a present, I'll give you a nice long chapter (not really that long though lol) and a one shot later this week/next week (link in the next "chapter" aka announcement) with NaLu fluff and Christmas themes. I'm not forcing you to read it, but if you want to or get interested in it, then be my guest. Hope you guys like the chapter! I'll start posting more each week now. 3

WARNING! This chapter contains major adult themes such as hints of rape and abuse. Don't read if you can't handle it/underage!

ANOTHER WARNING! This chapter has not been edited. This has been posted for the purpose of posting a new chapter for you guys and I will try to edit it as soon as possible.

Also; this is not LucyxFreed, it's just a mutual acquainted relationship I'm creating because they both are fancy af and Freed is just a little cinnamon bun.

"Somebody make me feel alive and shatter me…" -Lindsey Stirling & Lizzy Hale

Lucy watched the old grandfather clock sway with her calm heartbeat. The minutes

were ticking away as she waited for what seemed like ages. When Madame Rochelle said a couple of minutes, it meant a couple of hours. Lucy was splayed across her mother's bed, slightly messing up her hair and ruffled her dress. Her dress, designed and created especially for this occasion, was charcoal black, curving around her wide hips and fraying out over her legs and covering the bed. Lucy breathed in the warm timberwood smell of her mother's scent and looked at the blank ceiling, thinking. It was thirty minutes until the guests would come flooding in, twenty minutes until she would be criticized and fixed up again. She pulled the fragile clear elastic out of her hair while carefully taking out her comb and threw the elastic across the room. Lucy took the comb and looked at it in the glint of the room chandelier light. It was covered with seashells and seahorses, adorned with gold swirls like the ocean. Her mother got it from Aquarius and gave it to Lucy as a child.

Aquarius.

Her only friend. Her mother's friend. Taken. She was gone.

This had happened only a couple of months beforehand.

*Flashback*

Gate of the Water Bearer, I open thee! Aquarius!

Lucy held out her hand that was engulfing her golden key in the pouring rain and slashed it through the air while falling down.

A ship. That's right, a ship. It was sinking. Thousands of residents of Magnolia were going to die. She had to do something. She had heard about it on the TV lacrima and had rushed over there as soon as possible, climbing the mansion wall in the thunderstorm and ran through all the alleys, praying to the gods that no one had drowned yet, until she reached the wharf. Lucy summons Aquarius as she plunged into the freezing cold water, and begged her spirit to help her just this once. Her spirits had not been used in a while. Aquarius gathered a giant wave that pushed the ship to shore. Aquarius left, softly saying her goodbye as she dissipated into nothing but lost magic energy. Lucy collapsed in exhaustion but smiled because she did something for once.

Her.

A meaningless little daughter of a giant corporation only to be forgotten about after she was married off to some suitor.

She ran to the scene of the crash and found only minor injuries, of the people, all of which had survived because of her. She gleamed with pride as she cared for their needs and nourished them back to health, sending children back to their families, who almost died. As she was dabbing a young child's cut, she was grabbed by a large arm and dragged out of the temporary hospital. Lucy's smile disappeared and was replaced by a frown full of knowing and fear. Her father's bodyguards. Her bodyguards, to be precise. She was thrown into a horse-driven carriage, and was brought back home in silence.

Her father was furious.

Lucy had never seen him this angry, not since her mother died.

Jude brusquely tore off the ring of keys off her belt as she stood there, helplessly sobbing. He threw them across the room, and picked her up by the scruff of her collar.

"Why?! Why do you need to leave?! Are you going to leave just like her?! You'll never be a hero! You'll never be anything! You'll just be Lucy. And Lucy is nothing. Lucy is just a useless piece of shit that nobody wants. NOBODY WANTS YOU! NOT EVEN YOUR MOTHER!" He pushed her to the other side of the room and slammed the door after picking up her keys and glaring at her torn form.

*Flashback End*

Lucy twirls the comb in her hands and picks herself up, putting her on the edge of the bed. She did a final intake of her mother's smell and pulled herself out of the room.

*Flashforward*

Lucy stood in front of the giant door of the ballroom, fixing her hair, and implementing her silver comb into her new hairstyle of a french braid bun with few strands of hair letting loose and framing her makeup-free face. Her stylists and makeup artists failed to find her before the party, and she was triumphant in sneaking through the servant's passage to the ballroom. She heard the guests flooding in and chattering away. Calming herself, Lucy pushed open the door as the hubbub stilled and the room was silent except for the footsteps of the bodyguards behind her. Inside the drawer of the pedestal in front of her, there was a handwritten speech from herself, looked over, and edited multiple times by the mansion staff. She quietly pulled the paper from out of the drawer, and placed it on the stand, clearing her throat, and pretended to smile.

"Welcome to the annual birthday ball of Heartfilia Manor. I would like to first thank you all for spending your time here and coming to celebrate my 17th birthday party. I hope you find your hours here splendid and more than what you expected. Thank you, again."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her father step up to the side of the entrance.

"Allow me to forward you to my father, Jude Heartfilia, owner of the Heartfilia Konzern."

Lucy stepped backwards and off to the side, and listened to her father drone on and on about his company. She peered into the crowd, looking for familiar faces, when she spotted a head full of green hair. Lucy almost gasped on the spot, but restrained herself after her father glared at her as she almost tripped herself up. Freed Justine, leader of the famous Thunder God Tribe of renowned mage guild Fairytail. Fairytail was Lucy's ultimate dream, her heaven. Her mother had wanted to go there, and she wanted to follow in her footsteps. Freed was the son of Sara and Crian Justine, the owners of Junelle Co. the second largest corporation in the world, right under Heartfilia Konzern. Freed used Rune magic and wrote spells with his sword, which he always carried around with him, or his fingers. Even now, in his red clad suit and pants, his sword was safely attached to the side of his hip. Freed realized Lucy was staring at him, and they met eyes even though they were quite a ways apart. Lucy tried to smile, but afterwards, Freed looked shocked and confused. Lucy frowned and wondered if she did something wrong, but looked away as her father's lecture wrapped up.

"... and please, do enjoy our complimentary refreshments and dinners that are on the opposite side of room. Thank you, and have a nice time here at the Heartfilia Manor."

The ballroom erupted with clapping as all the women went to find men and the orchestra on the floating platform above the entrance started to play. Lucy's fingers itched to play the large grand piano up there. She hadn't seen or played one in forever. However, she had to keep that to herself. Piano's were Layla's. And Layla was not to be ever mentioned when her father was around.

Magic was usually banned from the household, but Jude had to make an exception for the new up to trend styles and to keep the popularity of his company growing. The platforms were circling the room, with dinner tables and servants, jostling up in the air to get all the orders from down below. Lucy looked around the gargantuan room, finding her father talking to a couple of young men. Jude looked around cautiously and dropped something into their hands, and nodded, speaking of something she couldn't make out. It was quite confusing, but before she could find out more, they all disappeared into the mass of people. As soon as Lucy stepped away from her bodyguards, she was surrounded by boisterous men. Lucy apologized as she pushed her way through the crowd, and arrived to see the living Christmas Tree. Lucy curtsied before him, and lifted her dress skirt.

"Good evening, Mr. Justine. How are you this fine night?" Freed slightly bowed and closed his eyes.

"It has been splendid so far, Ms. Heartfilia. And if I may I ask, why are you so unhappy?"

Lucy tensed at the unexpected question. Unhappy? Did she look unhappy? Afterall, she was. Unhappy with her life. Every. Single. Day.

"Sir, if I beg your pardon, why would you implement that I am unhappy on my birthday?" Lucy tried to smile, but it was weak against her questions bouncing around inside her mind.

"Your smile is obviously fake. Anyone who knows anything about happiness would surely know that you're not happy with the current situation."

Lucy was taken aback. She had not expected anyone to see through her daily mask. No one had ever questioned her about it. Not even her closest maids. Not her spirits, when she had the chance to talk to them.

"M-M-Mr. Justine, I assure you I am very happy with my lifestyle and I am quite joyful today. I bid you goodbye for now." She curtsied once more and hurriedly walked off into the crowd again, clearly shaken. As she walked around the ballroom, she felt a clammy hand grab her wrist. Lucy whipped around and saw a man that seemed familiar.

"Excuse me Ms. Heartfilia, but would you like to dance?" The man looked with pleading eyes, as she was shot desperate looks from all sorts of men from all around her.

"I'm very sorry Mister, but I'm not currently feeling like dancing, so if you would pardon m-" Lucy started to back away, but the man just grabbed her shoulder. She didn't appreciate all the body touching today, not at all.

"Please Ms. Heartfilia, just one song." Lucy sighed.

"Of course."

Just one song right? It's not as if it will take much time. Hopefully it's over soon.

Lucy grimaced as the large man put his hand around her waist a little too close to her gluteus maximus. A waltz came on, and Lucy just closed her eyes pleading to whoever was out there this would end. When she opened them, they were already on the other side of the room. How? They were getting suspiciously close to northwest exit. Wait…

As soon as she was pulled out of sight, the man forced his hand over her mouth which she tried to pull off and thrusted her onto his broad shoulders. Lucy tried to scream, and looked around frantically for someone to help, when she saw her father looking right at her. Burning tears welled up in her eyes as she understood. She was being sold off as a toy. Lucy pounded on her kidnappers back, but the man only clenched on her waist even harder. She was thrown into a dark storage room that was already occupied with two more men. Lucy pushed herself up, gasping, but was then pushed down by another man. As she struggled to break free, they held her down and tied her up with rope. Tape was smashed over her mouth, and her breathing was quick and short. Tears were streaming down her face.

Stop! Please Stop! I'll do anything…

Her mind was a mess and she couldn't think straight. Lucy was dizzy and the world around her was getting blurry. She felt her dress being torn from the bottom down. The dark room opened to a light seeping through from the doorway and male cries. Her breathing slowed and she looked upwards hopefully.

Mr. Justine dragged her from the ground of the tiny room, and started to run. He pulled her by the hand and she strived to keep up to him.

"Wait! Please… My celestial spirits…" Lucy's voice was raspy from her constant sobbing as the wind blew against her frozen skin. Freed looked surprised at the fact she was a mage, but then relaxed with concern, but understanding. They both circled the mansion once more, finding an unmanned servant entrance, and Lucy pushed her way through the familiar passageways and slipped into the maid room. She wasn't ever allowed to talk to the servants, as long as her father was around. Maya, her personal maid gasped at her current state and took her in. Lucy pleaded Maya to tell her where the keys were, but she didn't know. Maya encouraged her to go talk to her father's butler, who was mostly friendly to her. Peering into the ballroom, she saw her father's butler entering the opposite hallway. Lucy grabbed Freed's hand and pulled around the manor, finding the butler. The butler directed Lucy and Freed into her father's room, where her keys were hanging on a necklace stand. She ran towards them and pulled them close to her chest, attaching them to the belt she always had under her clothing. . It was all going so quickly, she couldn't tell what was happening. They were suddenly out of the Heartfilia Estate and in an unrecognizable forest. Lucy laid her back against a tree and looked out to the moonlit sky and stars, breathing heavily. Freed rushed over to her, but she put a hand up and looked at him pleadingly.

She just wanted to be left alone.

Like always.

WELL, that's a wrap.