Blue Stars, a Fairy Tail fanfic.
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PhoenixedDragon: I was also thinking about putting this fic for my beloved ship -NatZa- [sorry for all the NaLu fans out there.], but I'm currently writing a mutli-chaptered fic for their pair so, I decided to give it a try for the NaLu pair. And BOOM! 6 reviews in an instant? [Not bragging guys, o-kay? =)]
About this line: "I'm really looking forward to read about Sengoku Japan." Well... I'll try to keep this story with hints of Sengoku Japan, but I'll be telling you in advance that I maybe focusing on NaLu, primarily. But I'll try. [Not making promises for hints of Sengoku Japan. =)]
Chapter 2: The Lonely Stargazer
Shivering not from the morning cold, Lucy turned over onto her side, silently pressing a hand to the bruise that marred the soft alabaster skin over her ribcage. The fight had gotten a little out of control and the butt of a thug's sword had managed to give her a good whack in the chest. She had not realized it then but now the ache was just slightly overwhelming.
Oh god, she hoped she didn't fracture a rib.
"Your highness," her lady-in-waiting, Milliana, greeted her as the woman pulled back the silk curtain that hung across the alcove of her bed, "It is time for you to get up and get dressed. The royal tutor will be here soon."
The royal tutor, Lucy wanted to scoff, royal pain in the ass more like it. The ancient old man likes nothing better than to hear the sound of his own voice and he can drone on and on and on about the most boring subjects without even realizing his student, i.e. herself, was half asleep and nearly kissing the table as she nods off.
"Tell him to leave," she grumbled, pulling the covers back over her head, "I am in no mood to listen to his ramblings today. I'm going back to sleep."
"Oh no you're not," her lady snapped quite firmly, yanking the covers away, "You've missed lessons for the past three days. What am I suppose to tell your father?"
"Milliana!" Lucy complained, sitting up now and staring at her friend in exasperation, "I could have you beheaded for this!"
"Really?" Milliana grinned, throwing an under slip to Lucy as she dug through the princess' clothes to help her get dress, "And pray who are you going to find someone that puts up with you the way I do?"
She had to laugh at that. Milliana was right, there was no way she would find another lady in waiting as good as her. Milliana and her family had been serving the Heartfillia Royal Family for as long as she could remember. Milliana's mother had been Lucy's nanny and Milliana who was older than her by five years had been her lady in waiting since she was twelve. Only Milliana treats her like a person and not a glass doll that might break at the slightest provocation.
Only Milliana she could trust.
As she got out of bed and shrugged her sleeping robes off her shoulder, she heard her friend gasped at the sight of the purple bruise blooming on her side.
"You went out again last night, didn't you?" Milliana said accusingly.
Lucy shrugged, picking up the slip her friend had toss to her earlier and pulled it over her head, tugging it down and shaking her hair out behind her before sitting at the dressing table.
"Why do you do this to yourself Lucy?" sighed Milliana, coming behind her to comb the princess' hair with a tortoise shell brush, "You're endangering yourself for no reason."
"You know why I do it Mi-mi," Lucy replied, calling Milliana by her childhood nick name, "When I go out, it is the only time that I feel truly alive."
"Yes but…"
Milliana's voice trailed off as she shook her head partly in despair, "But what if something bad happens to you your highness?"
"I'll be fine," Lucy answered confidently, "You know I can take care of myself."
Milliana bit her lips, not wanting to defy her princess. No matter how close they were, Milliana never forgets that she was a mere servant and Lucy was the crown princess. She did however worry dreadfully about Lucy.
Somewhere a couple of years back, Milliana had heard a thump coming from the princess' chambers in the middle of the night and when she went in to check, had found Lucy sitting at her dressing table, bandage clenched between her teeth as she tried to wrap it around her bleeding upper left arm. That was when she found out that Lucy had been going out at night, patrolling the city and nearby country side. Although she knew that the princess was an accomplished fighter, Milliana still worries terribly of the day that the princess might run into a situation which she could not handle. She was, after all, merely a twenty year old woman, a woman who was still a girl in many ways.
"I didn't really do anything last night," Lucy said, observing the look on Milliana's face, "All I did was go up to the shrine at the top of Kangoku and on the way back I ran into a group of bandits who was trying to rob the shrine. I couldn't very well sit back and watch can I?"
"You shouldn't have even been there in the first place," Milliana grumbled, knowing full well that Lucy would ignore it.
"There was a shooting star shower last night so I wanted to see it for myself. The shrine is the best place for star gazing, you know that Milliana."
"Yes, but it doesn't mean you need to go tramping through the night just to watch some stars!"
Lucy laughed, her laughter tinkling like the silvery chimes of bells and the morning chorus, "Oh Milliana, Milliana; you have never seen a shooting star shower from the top of the mountain have you? It is a sight that I am sure you will think is worth the trouble I went through and more."
Her lady in waiting clucks her tongue in annoyance, feeling as though nothing she says gets through to the princess. Princess Lucy is the most head strong woman she had ever known in her lifetime, royal blood or none. Perhaps it stems from the fact that her father has no sons and thus had broken every known tradition and decided to educate his daughter as he would a son - sending her to the civil school and teaching her how to fight. Or maybe it was the absence of a mother as the queen died during the childbirth. Or maybe that is just the way she is and no amount of effort was going to change her.
Somewhere in her sixteenth birthday the king had probably taken a look at Lucy and done a double take when he saw the fact that she was a girl, a princess, not a son. The realization was, perhaps, also prompted by the not so silent disapproval of his ministers and palace staffs about the liberties he had allowed her. Whatever the cause, the king suddenly decided that Lucy would now be treated like a princess and with that stopped all her martial arts training and sending her to school no matter how much the princess raged at the injustice of it.
The king also sent over a tutor, old man Iemitsu, to teach her the courtly etiquette and instructed Milliana and her mother to groom Lucy to become a proper lady of the court. Needless to say, the bright energetic princess soon became drawn into her shell; growing sullen and pale. Until one day, Milliana had come to wake the princess up and found her to be in the most cheerful mood. Initially she had not chosen to question the change in demeanour of the princess - until she found Lucy's secret.
The princess had taken to wandering out at night, doing her own brand of vigilante justice for her city. When Milliana first found out about it, she had nearly thrown a fit and it was only at sword point and much begging and tears from Lucy did Milliana relent to keep her friend's secret. As time passed, Milliana had to admit that Lucy became much more agreeable since she began her nightly excursions - all her negative energy spent that way. She was even willing to sit down and listen to her old tutor and allow Milliana to teach her how to embroider and weave.
That did not mean Milliana stopped worrying though. Especially at times like these when the princess returns with bruises or wounds. What if one day she run into someone she could not handle? What if she gets kidnapped? Or raped? Or killed?
The very thought made Milliana shudder. She must not think about it, she instructed herself, but be damn if she is not going to continue to try and talk the princess out of continuing with her nightly adventures.
"Did you know that in the west, there is a saying that if you wish upon a shooting star, then your wish will come true?" Lucy said suddenly, looking up at Milliana who had just finished putting the last ornament into the princess' braid.
"Now that's silly. If every wish made upon a shooting star comes true than why would we need to do anything more with our lives? Every time a shooting star shower comes along we would just need to go out en-mass and make wishes," Milliana scoffed, causing Lucy to laugh again.
"Oh Milliana, you are such a cynic."
"No your highness, merely a realist. It's a dog eat dog world out there and it's best you bring your head down from the clouds and back to earth where you belong."
Lucy didn't reply to Milliana's chiding, merely looking pensively at her own reflection, chewing the corner of her lips as she contemplated on matters which she thought best not to share with her lady in waiting. Last night as she sat on the roof of the shrine watching the stars and ruminating on her life thus far, she had remembered a poem that she had once read in her mother's diary.
"The lonely wanderer gazes up at the night sky and counted the stars.
He finds solitude in them, found silence in them.
He counted the red stars, the yellow stars, the blue stars;
And he thought on the desolation of life; wondering what the stars knew
Which he didn't…
And he went on wandering… wandering… wandering…
Till the blue stars called him back
To send him home to the arms of his beloved."
Red stars, yellow stars and blue stars… Lucy wanted to laugh to herself. She had never seen stars of different colours before. Especially not blue ones.
Whimsically, she had thought to wish upon a shooting star too. A futile effort but a momentary remedy to the cold loneliness she had come to recognize as her life. The lonely wanderer… Lucy wondered if her mother could have meant herself when she wrote that poem.
She wondered if her own mother had felt the loneliness she feels now?
TBC in Chapter 3: Nocturnal Warpath
The next chapter may take a long time to write since our summer vacation's going to be over soon. [T_T Two weeks left before 2nd year college classes comes...]
But I'll try to keep it updated as soon as possible. =)
Auf Wiedersehen!
NxE427-FT / Daisuke