Chapter 11

An Understanding

"I really am sorry." Lucy said, hot with awkwardness and tense with nerves. "But with everything that has been going on, I think it is in everyone's best interest to keep the Coronal Contests as brief as possible. I regret that I don't feel like either of you is the correct fit as my husband. I'm going to have to let you go. I'm sorry."

Her well-rehearsed words were met by the blank and stilted faces of Prince Jet and Prince Droy. The larger of the two just sat in his chair, allowing his mouth to hang open in confusion while the other let a slight frown settle across his face.

Lucy tried to tell if their expressions held any anger, but she couldn't be sure. Surely these two didn't actually think she may choose one of them, did they? The fact that they were royalty was the only reason they were still around, but perhaps that was why they may not have seen this coming. Would they be angry? Feel betrayed? Complain to their father? Nullify the alliance between Fiore and Bosco?

Perhaps her words were too harsh. What was she thinking, saying things like "I'm going to have to let you go"? What kind of break up line was that? It sounded like she didn't respect their station-

"Alright." Jet said.

"We'll need some food for the trip home." Droy added, rubbing his belly.

"Oh- of course." Lucy quickly said. "I'll alert the kitchens immediately. No expense will be spared."

"Good." Droy said.

"Come, brother, we must oversee the servants as they pack up our things. My favorite purple shirt was wrinkled on the way here."

"Finally we get to go home." Droy said. "Our castle's food is much better."

"Um, goodbye, then." Lucy said, raising her hand in a polite wave. However, the two princes were already walking away and didn't see her gesture. Lucy smiled a very confused and forced smile.

She wasn't expecting that.

I really need to work on reading facial expressions.

XXX

"Tell me one more time why you can't just magic up a potion cure?" Natsu asked stubbornly with his arms crossed. Mavis rolled her eyes.

"I can't directly interfere in something that would change the course of so many lives." She repeated the same statement for what seemed like the millionth time.

"But you aren't directly curing them, you'd just be making the cure-"

"For the last time it doesn't work like that!" Mavis snapped, growing very weary of this circular conversation.

"Why the hell not?" Natsu shot back.

"Because loopholes don't exist with Fairy Magic. There are only a few rules but those rules are absolute."

"They're lame."

"They're necessary."

"Why can't you just break the rules? This is important."

"I've been around for over 400 years. This is not the first time I've heard someone say that."

"But-"

"I can't break the rules. I am physically incapable of it." Mavis sighed, sitting down on one of the cots in the same closet-like attic inside which Wendy and Natsu slept.

"It's alright Natsu." Wendy said. The small blue haired girl had been listening to the conversation in silence, allowing her big brother to vent will she observed with thoughtful brown eyes. "We already knew before this that we were going to have to find a cure ourselves. Give Mavis a break. She'll do all that she can to help. I'm sure."

"I just thought she'd be a little more useful." Natsu muttered.

"Say that again and I'll turn your hair green." Mavis threatened.

"Let's think." Wendy encouraged. "If Mavis can't create, conjure or locate a cure herself, then we are left with at least three options. Either we locate a preexisting cure, manufacture the cure ourselves, or find someone who can."

"But we hardly even know exactly what it is that we are curing." Natsu said, ruffling his hair with a twitchy hand. "We don't have much to go on."

"And that's why our first step should be gathering information about the disease." Wendy said.

"Right." Natsu nodded. "I'll be sure to ask Lucy about her mom."

"And I'll use a little magic to procure some doctor's reports on patients with EIV." Mavis chipped in.

"Oh, so now you say something useful." Natsu said with a smirk.

Mavis snapped her fingers. Natsu's hair turned green.

Wendy let out a squeal of laughter as Natsu's face went blank as he wondered what she could possibly be laughing at. Fumbling around the messy pseudo-bedroom for a hand held mirror, Natsu examined his appearance. His shock of messy hair was now a vibrant shade of lime green. He yelled.

"WHAT THE HELL MAVIS?!"

Both ladies roared in laughter while Natsu threw his temper tantrum.

"I warned you." The Fairy God Mother said slyly, gathering her breath to shoot a calm, superior stare at the young wizard.

"Turn my hair back right now!"

"Perhaps if you apologize."

"No way!"

"Then I hope your Lucy doesn't mind the color green."

Natsu outwardly prickled at that statement, but on the inside he melted a little. She had said his Lucy. He didn't mind the sound of that at all.

"What Lucy wants is for her mom to be okay." Natsu said, surprising both ladies with his serious tone. "Learning more about this magic disease is one method, but it doesn't guarantee that we will be able to find a cure 100%. It's a good place to start, but I also think that we need to try to find the ultimate reason behind the disease. We all know magic isn't dangerous like everyone thinks."

"What are you saying, Natsu?" Wendy asked in a soft voice. "Do you think… do you think that someone created EIV on purpose?"

"I'm not sure what to think." Natsu said grimly. "But it's hard to believe that the assassination attempt on Lucy and the disease that is killing her mother are unrelated."

Wendy gasped in realization. "Maybe the person behind the assassination attempt is the same person who created this disease."

"Exactly." Mavis said, nodding her head. "That is definitely a possibility we cannot rule out. However, it also won't do us any good to jump to conclusions not supported by hard evidence. That is why we must begin by learning everything we can."

"Fine." Natsu said with a nod. "But after we learn what we need, I'm not holding back."

"I wouldn't expect you too." Mavis said with a smile. "You won't let anything stop you. Not even green hair."

Natsu gaped and pulled on his strands of hair when he remembered what color they were.

"Awe come on, turn it back! Please! I'm sorry I said you were unhelpful!"

Mavis smiled in satisfaction.

"Fine." She said. "But only because you have a visitor."

Natsu raised an eyebrow in surprised and then walked over to peek out the tiny window out onto the grassy field below. There was a person emerging from the forest surrounding the ranch house, walking around the barn, turning her head in uncertain curiosity.

It was Lucy.

Mavis snapped her fingers and Natsu knew his hair was back to normal.

"Thanks."

"Have fun." She replied. "But do remember to ask her about her mom."

"Will do." Natsu replied. He bid farewell to Wendy and hurried out the door to meet Lucy on the fields below, wondering what the Princess of Fiore was doing here.

XXX

"I don't know." Lucy said softly. "I guess I was just feeling sort of lonely. Sometimes the castle starts to seem really big and I start to feel really small. And after everything that's happened… I just wanted to see you."

"It's pretty dangerous, you know." Natsu replied as he finished settling Lucy's horse into a spare stall in the barn. "To ride here by yourself."

Lucy shrugged with a guilty smile. "That's why I didn't ask permission."

"I would try to scold you for it, but I'd do the same thing myself if I were you."

They left the horse behind in the barn and walked out into the sunlight. They traveled aimlessly towards the vibrant green fields of blueberry bushes and began to walk down a narrow row, brushing shoulders as they passed between the tall walls of shrub that grew taller than their heads.

"So do you and your sister live on this farm by yourselves?" Lucy asked. Her question sent a momentary panic through Natsu's bloodstream. Eldia and her two sons took a trip into town today and wouldn't be back until nightfall. As per his agreement with Eldia, he wasn't supposed to let Lucy know his relation to Sting and Rogue. But he didn't want to lie either.

"We live with my stepmother." He said simply. "She's took a trip into town today though."

"I see." Lucy nodded. Natsu changed the subject quickly before she could ask any more questions about his family.

"You've ever had fresh blueberries before?"

"The kitchens at the castle always have fresh fruits."

"Not fresh like this." Natsu said. He plucked a blueberry- plump and round- off of the bush and offered it to the blonde girl.

"I'll be the judge of that." She replied and accepted his offering, popping the blue morsel into her mouth without hesitation. Instantly her eyes lit up with surprised and her lips spread into a large smile after swallowing. "That was incredible!"

"Told yah." Natsu replied. He grabbed a blueberry himself and chomped it quickly. The blueberry was still warm from the heat of the sun, but somehow that just made the natural sweet and tang of the berry play more prominently in his mouth. "There's nothing like eating fruit straight off the plant."

They continued to stroll down the rows of blueberry plants, stealing berries and eating them with smiles and laughter. The sun felt good on their backs and the company wasn't too bad either. The stress of the past few weeks seemed to lift off their shoulders as their easy conversation flowed from random topic to random topic.

When their bellies were full of blueberries, they settled down in a small clearing that was shaded by a moderately sized tree. They had avoided it for as long as possible, but eventually the inevitable subject came up.

"So how are you doing?" Natsu asked.

"I'm fine." She said. "My dad has ordered there to be constant security on me at all times. It gets a little suffocating sometimes."

Natsu laughed. "So then how did you manage to escape the castle?"

"It wasn't too difficult. I said I wanted to go riding in the woods and, of course, three of my guards offered to go with me. About an hour in I said I needed to relieve myself. They of course didn't question or follow me when I distanced myself from the group. I wonder how long it took them to realize I wasn't coming back."

They both laughed. "Respect." Natsu said. "Alright so you have some extra security, but what else has the guard been doing? Are they any closer to finding the person who controlled Elfman?"

"No." Lucy sighed. "No one has any clue where to start looking and frankly most are scared to try. Whoever this person is, he or she can use magic. That's not something easily dealt with."

Natsu nodded as a particularly strong breeze rushed over them. He waited for it to pass.

"And your mom? How is she doing?"

"The same." Lucy said in a small voice. "Still sick. She's growing weaker every day."

Natsu hated seeing the sadness in Lucy's eyes every time the subject of her mom came up. He wanted to talk about something else to cheer her up, but he had to keep pressing further into the matter.

"When did you first start to notice her getting sick?" Natsu asked. If Lucy thought the question was odd she didn't show it.

"Around two months ago."

"Was she traveling? Do you think that's how she was infected?"

"She was actually… She was visiting a town that had recently been damaged by a bad storm."

"Anything unusual happen on the trip?"

"Well… Why are you asking all these questions?" Lucy asked. She wasn't angry; she was just confused. Natsu again opted to go with the truth.

"I just thought that if we could learn more about this virus, then maybe we could find a cure." He said. Lucy's eyes sparkled with hope for a moment before they faded once more.

"I appreciate the thought, Natsu, but there is no cure." She said, shaking her head. "This is just what magic does. It's dangerous and does nothing but harm. It's a horrible pestilence that can't be controlled. That's what makes it so lethal."

"What if it's not?" Natsu said, uncomfortable with the bitterness in Lucy's voice when she spoke of magic, an integral part of his own existence. "What if magic isn't as bad as everyone thinks? It has been around for years and years, yet this EIV disease is pretty recent. Maybe the catalyst is something else."

Lucy's eyes narrowed in confusion.

"EIV is caused by exposure to ethernano. It's caused by magic."

"It's caused by an abnormally high concentration of ethernano particles in a person's body." Natsu said with a shake of his head.

"Exactly." Lucy responded. "People shouldn't have any ethernano in their bodies at all. Wizards spread the particles and infect innocents with it. That's why magic is banned."

Natsu sighed. He wasn't winning this fight. Lucy, like everyone else, grew up with the belief that magic is evil and dangerous. The only way to fully convince her would be to reveal his own magic to her, but something told him that would not go over well.

"Does this have to do with the secret you are keeping from me? You're acting pretty strange, you know." Lucy said when Natsu didn't respond for a while.

"The point of having a secret is that I can't tell you about it."

"Yeah, but you're also supposed to keep the fact that you have a secret a secret too. Or at least that's how the practice generally works."

"Guess I'm not a general guy."

"You're most definitely not." Lucy agreed. Natsu let out a deep breath.

"I'm really sorry for pestering you about your mom. But, I just don't think we can just write off this disease as incurable. If there's any shot, I need to take it. Not just to save your mom, but to save everyone else infected too. So Lucy, if there really was anything out of the ordinary that happened around the time your mom fell ill, you got to tell me."

Lucy looked at him with wide sparkling eyes. Tears were pooling up beneath them, threatening to escape in droplets of tears.

"I've never- I've never considered the notion that there might actually be a cure out there for her." Lucy said softly, her voice coming out in tiny whispers. "It was all painful enough without getting my hopes up… I can't thank you enough for trying Natsu. I truly appreciate it."

Natsu smiled, but didn't push her. It took her a moment, but she continued on her own.

"There was something weird about her return home that time ago. Her carriage was ambushed by thieves. They weren't wizards though. And our family's guards fended them off easily enough. That's why no one thought anything of it. They still don't but… well it was definitely unusual."

Natsu nodded, processing the new information, wondering what it could mean.

"Thank you." He said. He reached out and grabbed Lucy's hand, seeing that the tears were rolling freely down her cheeks now. "And Lucy? Hoping for what everyone tells you is an impossible outcome isn't always bad."

She looked up at him. "How do you know?"

"Because I do it every day." He replied. "I live with my stepmother because my real mom died twelve years ago and my dad disappeared not too long after. One day he was here and the next he was gone. I don't know why he left, where he went, or if he is even still alive. Most people say that he is probably dead. But I don't. I think he is alive out there and there isn't anything that could stop me from hoping that I'm right."

"Natsu… I had no idea."

"I don't know your mom, but if she is anything like mine was, I don't think she'd want you to give up hope either. I think she'd want you to believe that you still have a future together."

Lucy couldn't hold herself back anymore. She threw herself into Natsu's arms and he happily wrapped her up in them, holding her tightly against his chest as her tears soaked his shirt. He rubbed comforting circles onto her back and rested his chin on her silky sheet of blonde hair.

"Thank you." The girl mumbled into his chest. "I don't know what I'd do if we never met."

She felt so warm and soft in his arms, so fragile that she may break if he squeezed too hard. But at the same time he was holding her, she was holding him too, making him feel just a little stronger, just a little braver.

"Me neither." He said.

XXX

The sun was on its descent in the sky when Natsu walked Lucy back to the small barn to her horse.

"I don't want to go back." She complained.

"I don't want you to go back either, but you got to leave before night falls." He said, still holding her hand protectively in his.

"I'm going to be in big trouble."

"Massive trouble."

"It was worth it."

"I think so too."

"I guess I'll see you again for the second contest?" Lucy asked.

"Wouldn't miss it." Natsu replied. "Any hints on what it is?"

"Not a chance." She said. "I want you to be surprised. Although… I will tell you that I think you are going to enjoy this contest a little more than the last one."

Natsu raised an eyebrow.

"That sounds promising." He said as he placed the saddle on Lucy's horse, tightening the straps and making sure it was stable.

Lucy hesitated before she climbed on.

"Look, I never apologized to you for before… I got really angry at you for keeping a secret from me, but I didn't have the right. This whole Coronal Contests thing makes everything seem so much… bigger than it really is. The fact is that we haven't known each other for long and you are well within your rights to not tell me everything. I understand."

"Lucy, it's not that I don't trust you or don't want you to know-"

"You don't have to explain." She said quickly. "I understand."

"Then why do I feel like you aren't okay?" Natsu said, noticing the strain of her smiles and tapping of her foot.

"It's just… alright I need to ask you something. Whatever your answer is, it's okay. I'm not going to be mad or disappointed or anything. I just need to know the answer."

"Shoot." Natsu said, hoping a smile would ease what was suddenly starting to feel like a very tense situation.

"At the end of the Coronal Contests," Lucy said with a deep breath, "Is there even the slightest chance that you would agree to… marry me and become a king?"

Natsu's heart froze. He couldn't respond for a moment.

"My father thinks I should chose Gray or Laxus." She said, not surprised by his lack of answer. "And my mind is telling me that they would be the more logical choice as well. But my heart is telling me something different. I never thought in a million years going into these contests that I would actually find someone that I could fall in love with. But now… I think I have. I know you don't have any interest in being King. And I know the last thing you want to do is get married. But I just need to know… is there any chance that you may change your mind?"

Natsu's mouth dropped open. His heart was beating awfully fast. He had been so consumed with finding a cure, with protecting Lucy, with keeping up his deal with Eldia that he hadn't even considered what Lucy was feeling. He knew they got along well. He didn't quite understand what exactly it was that they had between them, but he knew something special was there. But he never would have considered that she would want to pick him above someone like Gray or Laxus to marry. Did she seriously want him as a husband? Was that even what she was saying? Or was she just covering all her bases and thinking about different possibilities in the future?

Lucy was patient, but Natsu had stood silent for too long. Lucy swallowed and nodded her head once, taking his silence as an answer. Her eyes watered once more, but she leaped on her horse before the wetness could manifest into tears.

"I understand." She said stiffly. "I wouldn't expect you to want this."

Natsu shook his head. "Lucy…"

The princess grabbed the reins and urged her horse forwards.

"Lucy." Natsu grabbed her wrist and looked right into her eyes. There was so much he wanted to say, but he just didn't have the words to get any of it out.

Lucy smiled a sad smile with perfectly round eyes.

"I know." She said simply. "You don't have to say anything. I know."

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Hey guys! I have such great plans for this story. Everything is going to come together like a beautiful symphony in the end. That means my greatest concern is actually getting to the end. I really want to finish this story and that means I'm going to start moving the plot along towards its climax. Don't worry. There is still a lot more chapters yet to come, I just wanted to let everyone know that A.) I WILL finish this story no matter how slow my updates are and B.) This story isn't going to be one of those crazy long fics.

I can't thank you guys enough for sticking with me this long. You are incredible.