Hello everyone! Third chapter is here! *dances* I had a writer's meltdown and I am very thankful to Peanut61654 for pulling me out of my slump. I dedicate this chapter to you, sensei, because I doubt I'd have gotten this far without you. *hugs* Thanks for being so awesome! :D
Thanks to all who reviewed and favoured.
Enjoy.
Chapter 3
Lessons I
Dedicated to Peanut61654 for teaching me what's really important
Someone splashed water into his face.
"Gah!" Gray shot up in his bed, wet and wide awake. "Erza! What the hell?" He glared at his personal guard.
The crimson haired knight dropped the empty bucket. It clattered to the floor, the sound stabbing straight into Gray's brain. She pried open wooden shutters on the nearest window. The prince winced, shielding his eyes from bright sunlight behind the knight. "Do you want me blind?"
"It's your fault for not waking up when I knocked and called your name. I came to deliver your daily schedule. Hurry up." She threw a pair of pants at his face. "Get dressed. Eat. Your first lesson starts in twenty minutes."
Gray groaned, rubbing some life into his face.
"By the way, you might want to change your lock." She held up a broken door handle.
"Just great," Gray muttered. "By the way, where's—"
He stopped, noticing the pink-haired Dragon leader behind the woman. He clutched a tray of food in his arms, a scowl on his beaten up face.
Gray's eyebrows shot up. "That the hell happened to him?"
"Why don't you ask him yourself?" The knight crossed her arms over her breastplate.
Gray stared at his slave, trying to come up with the right words. He had snuck to the library last night, after hours of restless tossing in his bed. He couldn't sleep, the memories of screaming, writhing slaves replaying in his mind. Rather than chasing sleep that wasn't coming, he retrieved a book on Tribal and read by candle light until he passed out sometime when the light came up and the first birds chirped in the garden. The image of Natsu, bound by Gray's own blood, was particularly haunting.
"What did you do?" Gray asked carefully.
The slave's left eye was swelled shut, the whole area from his brow to cheek a dark purple colour. He had purple bruises on his jaw and near his ear. His pants were dirty with blood splatters, and were torn at the knee. His knuckles were crusted with dark brown scabs.
The slave stuck his chin up. "I gave him what he zasluzil." He sneered, the expression at odds with the bruising on his face.
"Gave who?" Gray prompted.
"The man with sinemi volosami. Vida-chto-to his name is."
Vidaldus Taka, the head cook.
"Why?"
Natsu's expression hardened. "He hurt Mirajane."
An uneasy silence settled over the room.
"What happened to the cook?" Gray asked Erza in common.
"I don't know. I haven't seen him this morning."
Gray proceeded to get dressed, the knight politely looking away. He then went to the bathroom to splash some water into his face and arranged his hair into some semblance of order.
"You have ten minutes to eat and walk to the library."
"Yeah yeah." He picked the food tray from Natsu, who glared, and sat at the low table in the front room.
"Last night was pretty good. Only two slaves tried to run while their masters were drunk." Erza launched into the city report while Gray ate. "They gave a good chase but I caught them before they reached the slums."
Gray'd run too if Erza chased him, sword drawn like she did with the slaves. He'd run for his life, not just for freedom.
He noticed Natsu picking at the scabs on his knuckles. "Stop it."
Natsu raised an eyebrow, and stuck out his chest. "And what esli I don't?" He taunted.
Gray's hand gripped the edge of the table, hard. A dozen retorts were at the tip of his tongue. He opened his mouth, and promptly clenched it shut. Damn it! If only Natsu understood common! He angrily bit into his bread, crumbs flying everywhere.
To Gray's surprise it was Erza who answered. She faced the slave, a sword materialising in her hand. "Stop otkavirovat' ruki. Ili I will otrezy them for you."
Natsu actually trembled, taking a step back and shielding his head with his arms.
Gray's jaw dropped, the piece of bread clanging back onto the plate. "What did you s ay to him?" He said in wonder.
"Nothing much." She dismissed the sword and half-turned back to Gray. "I just said I'd cut off his hands if he keeps doing that." She waved a hand in the air like she was cracking a joke.
Gray just stared. Suddenly her eyes narrowed at him. "Gray." She growled.
The prince gulped, taking a drink of water to quench his suddenly dry throat. She approached, face furious. The hairs stood up on the back of his neck. "So what? I never needed to use it before!"
"You insolent brat!" She reached for him. "I taught you myself!"
He scrambled to get away from the table.
She was faster. A sword reappeared in her hand.
"Eeep!" Gray shielded his head and torso with his arms. At that moment he understood how Natsu felt when faced with the knight.
SLAM!
The sword struck the floor, a hair width away from his butt. His shorts now sported a long vertical cut at the seam.
"This is unacceptable, Gray Fullbuster!"
The prince swore, his speech putting most cobblers to shame before he got a grip on himself. He nearly peed his pants. "Erza! You want to maim me?"
"You will speak Tribal or die trying!" He knew she wasn't kidding. "I'll cancel your lessons. Three days!" She held the sword to his chin. "I will teach you Tribal in three days. You're not allowed to eat or sleep during that time."
He backed away from the woman. "You're crazy! Get away from me!"
She huffed but then her posture relaxed and she dropped to one knee next to him. She offered him a hand up. "Look what's become of you. A prince shouldn't be huddling on the floor."
Gray stared at her like she grew a second head. Freaking hell, he should punish her for threatening a royal! Too bad he could already picture his father looking at him with raised eyebrows when listening to Gray's request. Alastair would scoff and tell him not to bother him with such trivial matters.
Damn the king for assigning the devil woman as his personal guard and head teacher! The guard bit he could deal with but making her in charge of his education was sheer hell.
His shoulders dropped, recognising the futility of the situation. He accepted her hand, and she dragged him to his feet. "The three days will start tomorrow. Now finish eating, we leave in one minute."
Gray noticed Natsu staring, and the raven's face heated up. Damn Erza, making a fool out of him in front of his slave! What will his slave think? Way to go destroying any chances he had of earning Natsu's respect. To Gray's surprise, the pinkette actually looked at Erza with fear written plainly on his face.
"Time's up! Let's go!"
Gray gulped down the rest of his water and followed the knight to the door, wiping his lips with his wrist.
Natsu followed, but Gray held up a hand. "I'll leave him in my rooms out of harm's way."
"No." Erza blocked the prince. "He comes with us. He must be there in case your father decides to check."
The chances were small that the king would check on them, but if he did and Natsu wasn't there to serve Gray… The prince grimaced. He didn't want to make Natsu take any more punishment to his already badly wounded body. "All right. Tell him to behave or I'll freeze him to a chair for the remainder of the day."
Erza translated, and Natsu narrow his eyes at him in response.
The three walked down the corridor, Erza in the middle and Gray and Natsu on the sides. "You must not let the king find out about your Tribal."
"You don't have to tell me that." He cringed just thinking about possible punishments.
"How'd you not learn in the first place?" She asked.
"I kept drifting off to sleep. You enjoyed your lectures too much to notice."
The female knight blushed and looked at the floor. "You could have told me."
He would have thought it cute if she wasn't a monster.
"I did. You just smashed with your ruler more."
They arrived at the library entrance. "Your first lesson is mathematics, then history and rhetoric. The afternoon is for self-study."
Gray nodded, about to open the door.
"Lyon said he'd visit at the change of shifts."
She began to walk down the corridor when Gray suddenly remembered something. "Oi! Erza, Can you translate one last thing for me?"
She waited.
"Tell him he'll be sleeping in my quarters from now on."
She did, and Natsu gave him a strange look.
"And can you please find out what happened to the cook?"
The knight sighed. "I will. Now go and make me proud."
She was so strange sometimes. Maybe that's why his father saved her from death in the desert thirteen years ago.
xxxxx
It was the break between lessons. "You look like Erza just tried to strangle you," Lyon said.
Gray gave his brother a sour look. "Don't even joke about it. I'm just tired because math is boring and because Natsu was distracting me."
"Who?"
"Or right. Salamander." Gray motioned lazily to the former Dragon leader who was sitting cross-legged on the floor, back propped against a book case, eyes closed in sleep.
Lyon frowned. "You didn't have to beat him up."
Gray stoop up, his chair skidding across the mosaic floor. "I did not beat him up!"
"Hey, I was joking." Lyon held up his hands in the air.
Gray clenched his firsts. "Do not joke about that! It's not like that!"
"Then what happened?"
Gray retrieved the fallen chair and told Lyon what he knew. Somehow, Natsu remained asleep through the commotion.
"Those bastard Phantom Lord. I hope they don't come back," Lyon said. "There's something off about them that sets my teeth on edge."
"More than how their eyes are whole black?"
"They reek of blood."
Gray frowned. "Reek? Were they bleeding or something?"
"Not that I could tell, but they stunk of it. It's the same smell when the battle is over and you notice all the corpses that've been cooking in the sun."
"Thanks for the image."
"You're welcome."
Instead of laughing, Lyon sighed, his face suddenly becoming pensive. Gray knew something was up. Lyon looked out the far window, mind seemingly elsewhere, fingering the edge of Gray's books. Then he stared at his own hands for a while. Gray didn't mind, grabbing an orange from a tray on the table. Lyon got up and ran a hand through his hair. He paced the room.
Gray decided to start a topic. "Do you know if the Fleetfoot tribe was found yet?"
"Them? Yeah, we ran into them while escorting the Phantom clowns. They apparently ran into a sandworm and had to take it out."
"Do you know when the audience—"
"This afternoon."
Gray grumbled. One more audience he had to go to. However he noticed that Lyon was obviously distracted about something. "Long shift?" He prompted.
Lyon run his hands over his face. "Ugh. The worst."
Gray just waited, knowing that his brother would eventually spill what was bothering him. Natsu rolled his head to the other side, still asleep.
"I thought I trained my men better than letting savages into the city just because it was Tribute day." Lyon's posture crumbled.
Gray waited.
"I had to whip my own men." Lyon looked at his hands. "The king personally oversaw that I did the exact amount."
Gray put the orange on the table. He had no idea what to say. 'That sucks' didn't seem to cut it.
"What would you have done instead?" Gray asked.
"The captains I'd demote to city patrol. Others I'd assign to graveyard shifts for a few months. The worst case I'd assign them to the watermill for a week – they'd be eager to improve themselves after that. Not freaking whip them till they passed out."
Gray bit his lip, wishing he hadn't asked. "When's you next shift? The audience in the throne room?"
Lyon nodded.
More uneasy silence. "Go to sleep. You look like a camel ran you over," Gray said.
"I can say the same to you. What's with the red eyes? You've been crying?"
"Shut up!" Gray huffed. "I was reading all night."
"Sounds suspicious." Lyon walked towards the door. "You were probably making out with Juvia until early hours in the morning."
"You know it's not like that!" Gray's face reddened.
Lyon snorted. "See you later at the usual place. Or at the audience if you're coming."
Gray grumbled. "Of course I'm coming."
Then the history teacher, a hunched middle-aged man, walked in.
"Just don't forget your pants." Lyon said and shut the door.
Gray looked down. Damn! Where the hell did he throw them this time?
xxxxx
It was the short break between history and rhetoric lessons, and Gray finally had Natsu alone in the room. The Dragon leader had woken up after his little nap earlier, and sat on the floor, boringly looking around the room, fingering a tattered book with no real attention.
"Natsu."
The pinkette's head whipped in his direction at the call of his name.
Gray slowly walked up to the pinkette and sat in the same cross legged position a few feet away from the slave, but still close enough so that no one overheard them. Gray took a steady breath. He's been reading all night to compose what he was about to say.
He pointed to the slave's forearms. "I will remove the bracelets and give you your power back if you follow my directions and don't make any trouble. Do you understand?"
Natsu looked at him a little surprised. Then he scoffed, not looking convinced.
"I will give your magic back if you are good."
The pinkette studied him again with his one good eye, arms folded over his wounded chest.
"Do you obeshaesh?"
Gray bit his lip. "I do not understand."
Natsu frowned. He pursed his lips and looked away.
"My Tribal is not good." Gray sighed, leaning his arms on his knees. "I do not understand many. I better Tribal tomorrow." Or Erza'll kill him.
"You govorish you'll give my powers back if I do what you prikazal. Will you pravda do it? If I'm good?"
"Yes." Gray said with the most serious tone he could. He stared Natsu in the eyes. "Yes I will if you are good."
"Kodga?"
"I do not understand."
Natsu clutched his hands around the book.
"Don't trouble and I will."
The teacher entered the room and Gray rose to his feet. Natsu watched him with an unreadable expression as he left.
xxxxx
Gray sighed, stretching his sore limbs from sitting so long bent over books in the library. Time to have lunch.
He tore off a small piece of paper off his scroll and jotted down instructions about what he wanted to eat. "Natsu."
Wincing, Natsu rose to his feet. His eye still looked terrible, but the other bruises took on a yellowish hue, which weren't as noticeable. "Give Mirajane." He handed Natsu the note. "Don't make trouble."
Natsu flipped the note over in his hands, a slight frown on his face. Gray motioned to the open library doors. "Give Mirajane," he repeated.
Natsu looked a little surprised at this, looking between the door and him. He clearly didn't expect Gray to just let him leave. The prince waved him to go. He wasn't worried about Natsu running away. Lyon had stationed extra guards and patrols especially to stop the new slaves from making a break for it. Natsu hesitantly stepped towards the door, watching Gray as if he thought that the prince would change his mind any second.
The slave got to the door, Gray's note clenched tight. He turned a corner, and Gray heard the patter of running feet. For a brief moment he was worried that Natsu would make a run for it, but then dismissed the thought. There was no escape from the palace. He just hoped that Natsu wouldn't try to take on the guards again and get more beat up.
Besides, he couldn't keep Natsu with him all the time. That'd be bad for the slave, who already looked bored to sleep, and for Gray, who found it harder to resist smacking the slave when he did something irritating like flipping a book over and over. Maybe it was a bit too early to let him run all over the palace, but he could at least fetch food and talk to Mirajane to relieve some of the boredom.
The prince walked to his rooms. He had written in his note to bring the food to his quarters so he wasn't worried about Natsu not finding him.
Reedus bowed as the prince entered, a polishing rug in his hands. A basket with work tools laid at the slave's feet. A new working doorhandle graced the door, and Gray couldn't distinguish where Erza's sword gash had been. The slave hurriedly threw the cloth into the basket and, still hunched, tried to edge around Gray.
"Thank you, Reedus. You can stand if you want. I won't hurt you." Gray let the slave pass.
Reedus, still bowed, dashed to the door as if his life depended on it. His hands shook so bad, he missed the door handle on the first two tries. He got out, but left his tools behind in his haste.
Gray sighed. He had no idea how Macao persuaded the ex-concubine to enter royal quarters each time. "It's all right. You can come back."
A hand shot through the door and pulled out the basket.
"I appreciate you fixing my room. I really mean it."
Gray didn't expect a reply, and there was none. He didn't hear the man's retreating footsteps either. It was as if Reedus ceased to exist.
But Gray remembered him and hoped that one day, people like Reedus would stand tall and pridefully showcase their work.
He wrote out several new Tribal words to memorise while he waited for his slave to come back with his meal. He wondered what Natsu meant by a couple of words earlier. He clearly remembered the first one. Kogda.
He flipped to the back of the book for the list of words. Kogda – when.
When he would remove the binds? Well, only Natsu's good behaviour could tell.
The second word was harder as Gray hardly remembered it. Obesha-something.
He looked at the words starting with obe. Some words Gray could easily discard like 'white', 'fat' and 'monkey'. But that still left him with a few words that could have fit. Bullying, adoring and promising all started with obe.
Gray dismissed the adoring meaning. Do you adore? Doesn't sound like something Natsu'd say. Bullying…well, after their fight last night, the answer to that one should have been clear. As for the last one…
Do you promise?
Gray paused, his mind momentarily loosing focus. He looked about the room, not really seeing anything, just thinking. His eyes landed on the spot, where through the wall, the window the dragon slayer liked to perch in was. Did Natsu really ask him that? Did he really believe that whatever Gray said had any value?
Would he believe if Gray had said yes?
The prince kneaded his bottom lip, thinking of the rebellious Dragon leader. How he challenged everything Gray did. How he had to press him to the floor just to make him listen… How hot and smooth his skin was when he held him down last night. Gray's hands tingled at the memory. It felt so good to watch him struggle to catch his breath, those pink lips parted in surrender…
The door to the rooms opened and Natsu walked in, balancing a tray in one hand as he closed the door with the other. Gray sat up straight, his face flushing with heat. He had not just fantasised about his slave!
Natsu approached with the tray, his eyes narrowed a little. More heat flooded Gray's face, and he focused on the sights and smells of the food instead. Freshly baked bread. A slice of veal, steam still coming off the meat. Sliced cucumber and tomatoes, watery hard to grow vegetables. Granata puree was for desert, an exotic cross-breed between orange and mango, brought from Fairy Tail's closest neighbour city, Goat Horn ruled by king Gildarts. Gray's mouth watered at the delicious treat.
He reached out to take the tray, when Natsu suddenly lifted it up and dumped its contents on Gray's head. The prince was too stunned to react at first, instead watching the granata slide down his chest and into his lap. It wasn't until Natsu burst out laughing, doubling over and clutching his sides, that Gray registered what had actually happened.
"You idiot!" He rose to his feet. "Do you have any idea how much that fruit costs?"
Natsu looked at him and laughed harder. He wiped a tear off his good eye, holding his middle.
Gray grit his teeth, his vision going black at the edges. He marched over to his slave and yanked him by the wrist into the corridor. Natsu hissed and tried to pry open Gray's grip, then beat at his hand with a fist, but Gray hardly felt the sensations. He didn't turn to check if his slave could keep up or not. He felt the blood pounding against his temples. If he couldn't explain to him how unacceptable such behaviour was, he'll take him to someone who will!
Gray kicked open the kitchen door, sweeping the startled slaves for Mirajane. She was at the far corner again, swirling boiling liquid in a large cauldron. Gray yanked Natsu to stand next to the woman.
"What happened?" She asked, eyeing Gray's appearance and Natsu, who was still trying to pry open Gray's fist, a pained expression on his face. Gray yanked his wrist again, to make him stand still.
"Explain to him that wasting food is not tolerated in the palace!" Gray said.
Her eyes widened a little and she carefully said what Gray hoped was a direct translation.
"To drill that into his stupid brain, I forbid everyone from giving him food. He will not eat or drink until I say so! I swear it on my father's name, if anyone gives him food or water I will have them whipped for disobedience!"
Mirajane gasped. "Prince Gray, please reconsider—"
"No," Gray said.
She looked at him with hurt or sadness in her eyes.
"Look, I'm sorry, but he needs to understand this. He won't get it any other way, and I don't want to beat it into him."
She still looked sceptical, but translated anyways. Natsu stuck his chin up, jaws tight, gaze defiant. Gray hummed, narrowing his eyes. Natsu had no idea what he just got himself into.
"Get me something to eat," Gray said, feeling a headache settle behind his eyes. He sat on a stool next to Mirajane. His shoulders slumped, and he suddenly felt drained.
Mirajane brought him warm bread and a bowl of soup that she'd been stirring. Sticky dates were piled up in a platter for desert. No veal. No vegetables. No granata. Gray seethed angrily at Natsu, who folded his arms over his chest once more and looked away from Gray eating. The king's orders were clear regarding meals. Everyone got a certain amount of rare fruit per day, and his slave had just ruined Gray's share. He watched Natsu dry swallow and an evil smile crossed Gray's face.
"Has he eaten lunch yet?"
Mirajane shook her head.
"Perfect."
"Gray…" Mirajane pleaded.
The prince ignored her.
She looked between the two of them, her hands clutched over her chest.
Gray frowned and motioned to the yellow bruises and nail marks on her wrist. "When did you get those?"
Mirajane looked away, swirling the soup some more. "Today," she said after a while.
"Who?" Gray's tone darkened. He looked at the other slaves milling about the kitchen. Two other girls spotted similar marks on their wrists.
"Vidaldus Taka."
The head cook.
"Again?" Gray yelled. "He's never been violent like this! How long's this been going on?"
"Not long." Mirajane's voice was small. "He got really angry after Natsu beat him."
It may have been recent, but Gray knew that it was too late. It seemed that Vidaldus finally discovered the taste for violence.
"Gray, you're not thinking of punishing him, are you?" Mirajane whispered.
"I can't punish him. The king chose him for the role. Even if I did, I think he'd just take it out on you later."
"Then what—?"
"We'll just have to persuade him that Vidaldus is no longer the best man for the job. Where is he?"
"He's at the markets—"
"Good. I need to talk to you and a couple of your girls. I have a plan."
What is Gray's plan? What has Natsu gotten himself into? Hehe, you'll have to wait to find out!
Check out Peanut61654's awesome story titled 'The Slave'! It's the same basic idea as this story but the plot's different and is much faster paced than this one! xD
Type fanfiction address followed by /s/9853377/1/The-Slave
Thank you to everyone who reviews. Your comments mean a lot to me.