Contract of Magic
I'm glad that people don't want this story deleted, so I'll be keeping it up and now the second chapter is here! Granted, it won't be updated as much as Lucy Power Project!, but it will still be there.
Enjoy, everyone!
Warnings!: AU. Violence. Cursing. Expect OOC.
2: Mark of the Contract
Everything that happened when she pulled him away from her guards was a blur. An absolute blur. Whatever he did, the beating, watching him go back, accompanied by guards. She didn't really know what happened to her until she decided to visit him once more.
"W-What did you do?" Lucy stuttered, pulling away as she steadied herself by holding onto Natsu's upper arms.
"S-Sorry," she heard him mutter, as he stepped away himself, his wrists bound. "It's starting to get late, and the guards are probably getting impatient. Let's just go, Lucy."
Slowly, she nodded, her eyes distant as she focused on nothing in particular.
The pink-haired male headed towards the door, and stopped to turn around as he heard no other footsteps than his own. "Lucy?" he questioned. The woman immediately looked at him, her eyes full on alert. "C'mon."
Nodding once more, she opened the door and grabbed his forearm, to show the guards she was finished with him.
"Princess," one of the two guards bowed, before the other roughly took hold of Natsu's shoulder, shoving him forward as he started to walk ahead. "Your Father is waiting for you."
The blonde nodded. "Thank you. Tell him I'll be there in a couple of minutes." She shot him a quick smile, before her eyes averted to the magic wielder who was currently being forced down the corridor, his pace quickening along with the guard's.
The guards had their faces covered with their helmets, and Natsu was glad that there was no one watching. Except His Majesty, Jude Heartfilia. And Lucy.
It tugged at his gut to just think about her standing there, staring at him as he was beaten to death. He gave her a quick glance, and she gave him a small smile. The smallest smile he's ever seen, before he caught eye of her father's glance being shot in his direction out of the corner of his eye. Returning to his previous position, he scowled a little.
He tilted his head up ever so slightly, his eyes catching sight of the object in front of him, nearly a metre away.
The male let himself get thrown around, his body starting to go limp. Finally, he felt pressure on his wrists as he realized they were being tied by rope behind the wooden stake, and he was beginning to get tense once more.
His eyes were barely open, and he wasn't paying all that much attention to the event. His mind was occupied with the crest on his shoulder and everything about it.
He belonged to the Heartfilia family. The Heartfilia royal family. The Heartfilia's army. It only consisted of magic wielders, and there were weaker ones, that could barely just survive war with another army. He, and other prisoners, were probably being held captive to get proven worthy to be part of the army. Of course they were worthy. He has taken this beating 1000 times by now, and he was still here, alive. He was possibly the worthiest all them all to join the army. The weaker members were assigned almost immediately after being tested of their magic powers.
Princess of the said family came to visit him earlier, and she was more pleasant that she expected.
And, she hated that cre -
"Ugh!" He groaned, clenching his fists that were trapped behind him. They were beginning to turn white, and he could feel his palms beginning to bleed by the strength he put into his fingers as he clenched his fist even harder when the weapon hit him once more.
He felt like screaming. He felt like screaming out so loud.
So, so, loud.
Instead, he started to pant, blood starting to be coughed up, slowly. Maybe if he was lucky enough, he would die right here and now, and Lucy wouldn't have to go through the trouble of sneaking around just to talk to him and see him. His mind and heart said differently.
They told him not to die. Anything could happen to Lucy, and if he wasn't there to protect her...
Inwardly, he scoffed. He barely knew her. But she was her mother's spitting image, and he knew her. The two women might as well be two sides of the same coin.
The guard in front of him kept on punishing him, and he kept on coughing up more blood than he should have.
His hands were covered in blood by the pressure of his nails, by now, unquestionably.
"Lucy..." he groaned, turning his head to the side to spit out some blood that had formed in the corner of his mouth. "Lucy..." he repeated, more loudly than he did before.
One of the guards took a glance at him, his glare menacing and threatening. "You bastard, keep quiet," he muttered, making sure not to get caught by the King.
Tightly, he shut his eyes, as he was hit once more. Just a couple more minutes. Just...
A couple more.
He could feel his previous wounds for years ago wanting to open back up, even after healing. This beating just felt so much worse.
Maybe it's because he knew Lucy was there, watching up.
After all, she was sitting right in front of him, in the stands, next to her father.
His eyes averted up, and he saw her father's state. He didn't look ill at all.
Was Lucy lying to him? Did she want to dangle false hope in front of him and just get away with it?
He wanted to focus his attention more on the mother-and-father duo, but he head was shot back down to the ground once the sharp pain hit his arm. Blood coated his vision, and he could barely see the ground any more.
This was the probably the worse session ever, he thought, digging his fingernails even harder into his palm, sticky liquid coating his hands. Blood, for sure. Blood coated his hands. Blood coated his vision. Blood coated his body, the corners of his mouth. It tasted metallic. It felt so horrible.
Everything felt even worse when he remembered Lucy was supposed to watch him die like this. She promised him.
She promised him that she was going to save him. And she was, right?
Maybe not. Maybe she was just dangling false hope, like with the father thing. He was beginning to get convinced, and he nodded inwardly.
There was only a mere chance that she was definitely going to save him, but there an even larger chance she wasn't. After all, she was right next to her father, and there were guards all around, last time his checked.
Groaning at the sudden escalation of pain, he realized that two people instead of one were now punishing him. Did His Majesty request this? Maybe he will die.
Maybe this was for the best. It probably was.
He ignored the hits from then, and only focused on one thing.
Resisting, until his death comes. Until he closes his eyes and never opens them ever again.
He smiled a little, not exactly reacting to the hits, like he usually would.
He could taste blood on his tongue, and took this chance to couch it up, spitting it out in the process.
Blood was scatted around him, and he turned his eyes to the ground, where he saw the state of his body from the waist above. Blood. Bruises. Re-opened wounds. His crest.
He felt like his blood was just oozing out of him now.
But this was just like any old beating, he told himself over and over.
Slowly, he closed his eyes, his whole world going black around him as the screams of the Heartfilia princess rang in his ears.
"Ugh..." he opened his eyes, pain instantly shooting through his body from head to toe. "W-What..."
What he saw around him was not expected by him. He expected darkness. He expected to be dead. He wasn't, for one.
In fact, he didn't know where the hell he was. His basement? Lucy's room? Outside? Hell? Heaven, despite the really low chance?
"He's awake!"
"Princess, you cannot go and see him! You might get infected!"
Princess? That meant Lucy, didn't it? Of course it did - there was nobody else!
"No! I have to go and see him! I... I have to make sure he's okay..."
"The medics are taking care of him. He's going to be fine."
Going to be fine. Bullcrap. He wasn't fine right now. She needs to know now. Not an hour later. Not 2 hours later.
Now.
"No!" he heard her cry from afar. She was probably just outside the room. "I.. I promised him! I promised him - I have to apologize and everything! I promised him and broke that promise!"
Promise... He inwardly smiled to himself. She would rescue him, he would rescue her.
The idea was laughable.
Why did he even say that?
To do what she did?
Dangle false hope in front of her?
Maybe.
He was sure he definitely wasn't thinking straight at the time.
The door burst open, and it snapped Natsu out of his thoughts as his eyes traveled upwards to meet with none other than Lucy's.
"Natsu," she breathed. He then saw her gasp, a horrified look as she looked over his injuries. He was quite literally bleeding everywhere. Even the old wounds that should have healed decades ago decided to join in the fray. "Y-You're... You're bleeding so badly," she whispered. Her eyes traveled to the medic on his right side, and she gave her a quick glance. "I'll treat your wounds," she offered.
"N-No, princess!" the medic denied, shaking her head. "You shouldn't. His Majesty will get angry."
Lucy furrowed her brows, starting to get angry herself. "I don't care! Father isn't bleeding. Natsu is. I care for my friends, and Natsu's one of them."
Sucking in a quick breath, Natsu clutched the bed sheets that were underneath him.
He hadn't heard that word in years, decades, even.
"No, Lucy," he didn't think he'd ever agree with a medic that was from the family he was working under, but he didn't care right now. "You shouldn't. I mean, just look at me. I'm in pretty good hands, if you think about it."
He saw Lucy pout at him, and he gave her a lazy grin. "It's fine! Just go before you catch anything," he started to urge, attempting to sit up straight, before wincing a millisecond later at the pain. "Shiit," he hissed, firmly closing his eyes as one of the other medics came over to aid him.
Lucy proceeded to stare at him, a worried look on her face. "Natsu, you should really take it easy. I mean, your injuries were so much worse than usual. I... I couldn't even watch the first attack. I knew something was going to go wrong, and when I saw that your body didn't react, I definitely knew for sure that something was wrong. But, father didn't allow me go off anywhere, so I just screamed your name. I wanted you stay conscious, but you didn't... I think that was the first time you ever became unconscious, though."
The injured male pressed his lips together, remembering the faint cries of her voice. So he wasn't dreaming that part. "Yeah, I'm sorry. I guess I thought I'd die there, or something."
"But you're not, right? That's the main thing."
Grimly, just like Loke, he smiled. "Yeah," he agreed, before starting to urge her back out of the room again, his pain shooting back in as the medics attempted to hold him down, albeit he wasn't listening.
A couple of hours later, Natsu was finally done being bandaged up and stitched up by the medics, though they said it was a close call, since they said that if his wounds were any deeper, they'd have to use surgery. And that made his skin crawl - he didn't surgery all that much. He's had it twice, both times he'd forgotten about.
As he exited the room, the same guards that accompanied him the first time around accompanied him the second, if they were actually the same two guards; he couldn't tell with their armor and whatnot. He was returning to his basement, and the corridor was practically empty except for two people.
Lucy, who he recognized, and a servant whose name, if he remembered correctly, was Loke.
He stopped briefly so he wouldn't get scolded for getting in front of the guards, and his and Lucy's eyes connected. Loke was oblivious to the two, and bowed to the guards, his greeting polite though tuned out by the other male.
"Hey," he finally said, breaking the tense in between.
However, before the Princess could reply, the guard on his left pushed him on the shoulder, shoving his forward. "Silence. And walk," he instructed, forcing the magic wielder to follow his orders.
Natsu scowled, his legs taking steps almost automatically. "I'm moving, I'm moving!" he yelled when he heard the guard repeat his instructions to him. "Jeez, you don't need to push me so hard, I'm an injured person, here!"
The armored men didn't reply, and it made him feel like he was talking to himself.
Turning a sharp corner, he hissed in slight pain when he felt his shoulder being pushed a bit too hard by the guard, before he was then led down the flight of stairs that had the lock on the door which he hadn't seen since the last beating. It made his stomach churn just by the sight of it.
He watched the guard unlock it the door, opening it and shoving him inside. "Get it. One of the maids will bring you some food. Don't cause such a ruckus."
The magic wielder just stayed mute, clenching his fists and unclenching his fists, wincing slightly as he felt his stitches start to reopen already.
"Ouch," he muttered, walking over to the rug by the other end, which was there by default. He was given the candles by Lucy's mother, and the scents of cinnamon and firewood was what he made himself.
Sitting down, he cursed under his breath, staring into the nearby brick on the wall, even attempting to summon lasers from his eyes.
He could summon flames from his hands.
Why couldn't he summon lasers from his -
"Natsu?"
He blinked once, the pain on his torso starting to act up as he hissed once more.
He slowly got up, recognizing the voice almost immediately.
He saw the agile face of Lucy Heartfilia peeking around the corner, and he saw her smile a little as she stepped into his line of vision.
"Are you okay?"
The male sent her a soft smile, nodding his head. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just that my wounds are gonna start opening up again in probably a couple of hours."
He saw her frown, but decided to act like he didn't see it. "So, why'd you come here? Did Loke really allow you here? Did His Majesty notice?"
Natsu was panicking for no specific reason, and he heard Lucy's giggle ring in his ears. "Shush. No, Loke knows I came here to see you before. Father doesn't."
Gritting his teeth, he nodded regardless, taking in the newly gained information. "So, did you come here to...?"
"I came here to ask you... uh, about the contract."
His mouth formed a small 'o' shape, as if he didn't expect that. "Oh," he simply said. "W-Well, what about it?"
"What did you do?"
Without thinking, his face immediately went red. "Uh, well..."
The tingling sensation that he transferred to her came back, and he was starting to slightly blush harder by the thought of it.
"Um..."
He wasn't sure what to start with. The ritual or the aftermath. Deciding to start with the aftermath and circle back to the ritual, he pointed at her shoulder. "Your right shoulder," he started, a factual tone starting to sink into his words. "There should be a dragon mark on it, and that means you're tied to my contract until we both complete it."
Lucy nodded, not bothering to look at her shoulder, though she would've failed either way.
"What's our contract?"
Maybe he didn't explain it fully.
"Oh, right. Yeah, I didn't really explain that much, did I? Well, um, if I complete my goal, we still need to complete yours. For example, if my goal was to find my father when he left, and I completed it, the contract wouldn't be gone yet. If my goal was completed, we would still need to complete yours, which is, for example, to free all of us magic wielders, like you said," he explained, his factual self starting to take over. "Once we'd completed both goals, the contract would be gone and dusted."
The blonde slowly nodded, realizing how critical the contract could be with a magic wielder. "Can you form a contract with more than one wielder?"
Natsu shook his head, his onyx eyes boring into hers. "No. That's the thing that kind of forbids the whole contract thing with magic wielders. Like I said, you can't get rid of the contract until you complete both goals, which means, if you want to form a contract with another magic wielder, or the same magic wielder twice, you'll have to complete the contract you already have."
"W-Wow," the Princess breathed, never knowing about all this. "S-So many rules to follow."
Chuckling, he shrugged. "I guess. You end up memorizing it either way. Besides, I haven't really contracted a lot of people, so it's nice to explain this crap to someone."
Nodding once more, Lucy gave him a quick smile. "Could you explain any more?"
"Oh! Crap, I forgot the most important part. Every magic wielder, when forming a contract with a person, will always have the mark on their right shoulder, and the mark is always different depending on the magic wielder they form a contract with. For example, one magic wielder, when forming a contract, would have a red dragon, whilst another would have a black dragon when forming a contract. They also have different ways of forming contracts, though most of the methods are pretty similar," he explained further, before inhaling and exhaling quickly to regain his breath, the factual side of him slipping away.
Lucy sat on her bed, her hands on her lap.
Everything was such a blur to her. Except the very last part. Where she spoke to Natsu about the contract.
It all happened in a day, so many things happened in a day in such a blur.
She was still thinking about the information she was given from the magic wielder, and was greeted by Loke when she exited the basement, who was standing at the top of the stairs to escort her back to her room.
Slowly, she lifted her hand to touch her shoulder, and didn't exactly feel anything that felt like a mark or tattoo or anything along those lines.
Standing up from her bed, she went over to the full length mirror by the wall, and she steadily rolled up her sleeve to show her right shoulder.
A red dragon was imprinted on her skin, and she ran her hand over it. It was possibly the most beautiful piece of art she'd ever seen in her life. Slowly, she breathed out, her eyes keeping on the red dragon in the reflection of her shoulder.
"I wonder how long..."
Lucy Power Project! chapter 11 will in about a couple of hours or so.
Anyway, about this chapter, review! c: