Confessions

Lucy followed Grandeneey out of the house to the back where she saw her friends playing around with Igneel. They were happily passing a soccer ball back and forth between each other at tremendous speed, even Wendy was able to pass the ball with enough speed and force to make Jellal flinch when she kicked at him. Natsu was the first to notice them, but as soon as he did Igneel had already started off in a run in their direction, which of course, Natsu followed him. Both father and son came at the two like speeding bullets, pushing and shoving each other to get ahead in the slightest way. She watched as Igneel tumbled into them using Grandeneey as a resting place to catch his breath, Natsu on the other hand completely took her in his arms and spun her around like a circus attraction.
"Luce! You're okay!" he said as he pulled her into a hug.
"She won't be if you keep spinning her like that," Grandeneey said, gently rubbing Igneel on the back as he gasped for air.
"Luce is tougher than she looks," Natsu said proudly, placing her down and placing his hand on the top of her head.
"You would know how tough she is, wouldn't you Natsu?" Erza said, smirking at them. Both Natsu and Wendy went red in the face.
"What me and Luce do in private is no concern to you Ane!"
Before Lucy knew it she was giggling. Natsu cast a questioning look at her.
"You're talking with an accent."
"No I'm not!" He shouted out.
"Oh yes you are, it gets worse the longer you hang around dad, or as you would call him 'Oton'."
"Not a thing wrong with the way we speak," Igneel said laughing as he watched Natsu fluster at the attention he was getting.
"Don't be mad, I think it's cute. Luce, Ane, Oton, is this how he spoke when he was little?"
"Oh no it was much worse when he was younger the conversations would have sounded like they were spoken in a different language."
"It wasn't that bad, don't listen to them Luce, I mean, Lucy," Natsu turned toward her and recoiled. "Why are you crying?"

Lucy reached up and touched her cheek, which was damp with the same tears that were, unknown to her flowing down her face in a steady stream.
"Uh sorry I guess I am. It's just this place brought up a lot of memories," she brought the cuff of her jacket to her hand and attempted to wipe away the tears that were treading down her cheek.
"Lucy, are you gonna be okay?"
"I hope so," as hard as she was trying, she couldn't completely stop herself from crying. Natsu cringed, making the face that obviously meant he was trying think of something with all his might.
"Lucy, quick! Brightest star in the Leo constellation?"
"Regulus. Etymology is Arabic it means Little prince."
"Equation for solving the mass of a planet?"
"M equals ar squared over g. G is the universal gravitational constant.
G is equal to 6.6726 x 10-11N-m2/kg2."
"What are the two types of comets?"
"Dust ion and gas ion."
"Good, you're all better now aren't you"
To her surprise she was, the tears had stopped falling, her heart had stopped beating fast and even her breathing was natural again.
"Onii-chan how did you do that?" Wendy said.
"Lucy really gets into stuff about space. This one time we stayed up really late to watch this special on the universe she really wanted to watch, but I didn't really get a lot of it so I was trying to mess with her but nothing I did worked, she was so completely invested in it she didn't have time to think of anything else," he smiled at her, "She's too nerdy for her own good."
"But how did you know all of those terms?" Jellal said, finally returning from the field.
"When she's really busy studying she has me read out these little note card she made. I don't get any of it but I know what to say at least," he turned to Lucy and put his hand on the top of her head softly and looked her right in the eyes. "You have something to tell us, don't you?"
She nodded at him.
"Well then, why don't we go inside? I put the kettle to slow boil before I left so I'll have tea prepared in just a second." Grandeeney said, walking towards the house. "It's lavender tea infused with eucalyptus honey, it always helps me whenever I'm stressed out. Isn't that right dear?"

"You betcha it is. I swear, but after we fight we drink a barrel and a half each, we're perfectly fine after that.

"Erza you have your purse with you don't you?" Lucy asked as she sat down in the leather armchair. She looked around the nook they were sitting in, aside from the chair she was in there were at least three other chairs just like it, as well as an assortment of couches, loveseats and even some bean bag chairs, all with at least two others that where exactly the same. The room itself was odd, after walking through an airport like tunnel they came out in a glass dome that was more like a greenhouse than a sitting area, which would explain why the plant in there had gotten so lush.

"Yeah, why?"

"Can I dig through it, and if by chance Erza doesn't have one then, Wendy or even Grandeneey -san could I see yours."

"Um sure," she handed her the large black leather bag.

"You can look through mine, Lucy-chan," Wendy stood up handing her the small pink bag she had.

"Thanks if you both have one it would be great," Lucy opened up Erza's first and was able to quickly grab a couple items she wanted out, she did the same to Wendy's bag. "Great you guys had some." She laid the small items out on a glass table in front of them. "What are these?"

"Ah, my concealer and mascara," Erza said taking them and looking at them.

"And my lip gloss," Wendy said.

"Good, now what do those have in common?"

The two girls looked at the others hands, Natsu being curious as he was took the items from their hands to look as well.

"They're both Heart Filler brand. Why should that be so surprising though? They're a good brand, even Heart Kreuz advocates for them," Erza said taking the makeup away from her pink haired brother, "I mostly use their products."

"That's right, that's how widespread it is. Twenty years ago if you had told my dad that he would be in charge of the largest name brand line of makeup and beauty supplies he would laughed and called you an idiot."

"Your dad runs the company?!" the three dragneel kids shouted out in surprise.

"mhmm. Hence the name Heart Filler, it's supposed to be how Heartfilia sounds."

"So you're the heir to Heart Filler?"

"I would have been, if it wasn't for that," she tightened her fist till she was able to see the white of her knuckles, she dared not look away for them."When I was about 7, there was this doll I really wanted. It was just at the time Heart Filler was starting to get popular and my dad was super busy so he wouldn't get out to get it for me. Lucky for me my mom was always super nice and the second I asked her we were out and going downtown. I had a lot of fun with her that day, not only did I get the doll but we went out to eat and she even took me shopping for new clothes. By the time we were done it was already dark and we were late getting back home so..." Her voice caught. "So I suggested we cut through the park that was there. As we were going through, a man came and knocked my mom over the head and hit me hard enough that I passed out, by the time I had woken up we were in some warehouse in who knows where, tied and duct tapped to chairs. The man had taken us hostage and basically asked for all the company was worth, he said if we didn't pay within 24 hours he would kill us. A few hours into he started getting restless, every few minutes he would come over and... run his hand all over me. After doing it a couples of time my mom had enough when he was about to do it again, she tipped herself over and bit his leg. When she did that he lost, in an Instant he had cut her free and had started..." again her voice caught, this time being stopped by a loud sob. "He had started raping her, all the while he was doing that he would take the knife he had and-and make cuts along her face and arms and legs. Eventually he got tired and tied her back and by then *hick* I couldn't even recognize her, he had taken whole pieces of her face off and she had bled so much that her hair had turned red. All I could do was sit there crying and it got to a point that he was so fed up with me that he was about to do the same to me. Luckily right as that happened the police came, he ran and was killed by them when he fired at them. The one to untie me was your dad. After that all I know is I sat with him crying for what seem like a lifetime. He took me away and he brought me to my dad. I thought we were gonna be okay, I thought everything would be fine. I was wrong. The second I got to him all he did was push me down and start yelling at me. He called me selfish and irresponsible and a lot of other words I didn't get at the time. It was all because he found out that mom had died on site. Everything after that was a blur. Nothing felt important any more, I was living life day by day, faking being happy when I was at school but when I got home my caretaker basically had to force feed me to make sure I was eating. Eventually I got tired of it, at the age of nine I was caught trying to commit suicide. To be honest the only reason I'm still alive is because I forgot Levy was coming over that day and she, somehow with and with an even smaller body then she has now, lifted me out of the noose I made. After that Levy and my caretaker helped me get help, I saw psychiatrist and therapist and we made sure I was okay. Up until I was sure I was okay. I guess I'm gonna have to go back to therapy, I can't go having break downs like this again." She finally looked up, Natsu sat there quietly, the tea cup and saucer in his hands trembled, Wendy was crying into her hands, her small shoulders shuddering softly, Erza was looking down but she saw her hand crawling up looking for Jellal's hand, even Grandeneey, who usually look stoic had a sick look to her face.

" wh. ... you ... .." a small noise came from where Natsu was sitting.

" What was that?"

"I said," he slammed his teacup in to the the table, shattering both," WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US?" He looked at her dead in the eye, his obsidian eyes appeared softer, almost brown, his lashes had large tears holding on to them. He stood up and went to her and brought her into his arms. "You didn't have to suffer by yourself like this Luce, we are here for you too! I might not have been the one to help you then but I could do what I can now, I'll go to therapy with you if you want, I listen to you tell little stories about your mom, I'll do whatever it takes." As he spoke she could feel him crying into her. "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry, I can do anything for you."

"You'll do anything?"

"Without a seconds doubt."

"Okay," she laughed, "you said Luce again."

"Um, I'm sorry if I'm disturbing," Jellal said, "but Natsu's hands are bleeding a lot."

"Ah, you idiot, not only did you break one of my favorite tea sets and you shatter a good table but you couldn't even get away without hurting yourself?" Grandeneey said and took Natsu by the collar and started dragging him away. "You better hope you don't have glass in your hand or even worse, if you need stitches, you'd be in trouble then."

"Can't I just put super glue in them?" he asked, struggling to free himself.

"No way, your little fireman tricks won't cut it here. Wendy, do you wanna help?"

"Eh? Can I?" she asked, immediately perking up.

"I wouldn't be asking if you couldn't. Are you coming? Your idiot brother is getting white in the face, if you don't hurry we might actually have to take him to a hospital."

"You mean he's not going to a hospital?" Lucy asked, watching the three Dragneel's walk away.

"Why would he need to? Sure my patients are usually dead, but I could handle the small stuff too, I am a doctor after all." Grandeneey turned and smiled at them. "I won't have time to make dinner so get some take out, don't worry about us." The mother and her children disappeared through the darkness of the tunnel.

After a short amount of time had passed Igneel finally said, "so, burgers, pizza, or Thai?"

Lucy sat on the inflatable mattress stretching out the sheets over it. Natsu walked in and promptly fell onto it, the sheets popping up and engulfing him. "I can't believe they turned my room into a yoga lounge. I know for a fact that okan doesn't set foot in here and that if we start looking we would find Otons hard liquor stash.

"Natsu! I just put the sheets on! And is it okay for you to be moving around like, what about your hand?"

He stuck his hand out of the cotton cocoon that he was in. "All stitched up," he pointed at the several small sutures with the finger of the same hand. "Doesn't it look like Aires?"

She laughed as she straightened out the sheet. She gently took his hands and ran her fingers over the now sewn up wounds.

"I think it looks more like Vulpecula."

"Ahh dang, well, I tried."

"I think you always try too hard for me," Lucy said falling back next to him.

"Really, cause after today I know I haven't tried enough."

"What do you mean Natsu, there's nothing you could have done."

"I know that. It's just, sure I got to know you, I know what music you like, I know your favorite stars, constellation and celestial bodies off the back of my hand, I know you hate radishes and that you only order bloody Mary's for the celery, but I never bothered to ask about the important things. Not about your mom or dad, or your past and I can't change that I didn't get to know about this. But I promise from now on I will get to know you better."

Lucy rested her forehead against Natsu's chin, simply listening to his breathing, "Natsu?"

"What is it Luce?"

"I love you."

"I love you too," he placed a soft kiss on the top of her head, "now sleep."

"Okay."