Secrets - NALU

Chapter 21: Busted

Lucy's POV

Sweat trickled down my forehead and the air inside the concealing mask I was wearing was humid.

Yukino placed her hand on my shoulder, "Don't be so nervous. We're doing the right thing."

I gave her a thumbs up, despite being anxious and frightened by what might occur.

Why hadn't Natsu told me he had a brother? I thought we had established and cleared up all of our secrets. I guess I didn't have a say in this since I hadn't told him I was a general.

It had been fifteen minutes and they hadn't opened the door. However, it was clear that there were people in the house since the lights were bright as day light and talking could be heard.

"If you don't open the door this instant, we're going to have to unlock it." Kagura's voice echoed into the darkness behind us.

The door was busted open.

We walked in, and I hesitated with each step I took. The living room was nostalgic and the wooden smell of the floors infiltrated my nostrils.

We walked in upstairs and upon opening the door, five pairs of wide and terrified eyes turned to look at us.

One of them screamed, and guessing from the raspiness of the voice, it must have been Gajeel.

It was understandable. The sight of us would terrify anyone. We had acted as intruders and we were wearing simple white ball masks that covered our noses.

It was dead silent for a full minute and nothing could be heard.

Natsu's features were sharp and his eyes instantly changed from one of horror, to anger. He glared at all of us, but I felt as if it were specifically at me. I had never seen him this furious before.

It scared me.

As he stood up, they followed after and tried lunging at us.

"What the hell do you want?" he asked.

I nudged Yukino to speak up, since I didn't want to risk him detecting my voice.

"W-we were sent from the capital. We've come to investigate on behalf of the king-"

"Butlers! Maids! " Jellal called, and with that maids and butlers came running in the room and gathered around us.

I nudged Yukino once more. "Zeref Dragneel is under arrest for kidnapping this girl," she showed them all the missing person report, making the butlers and maids gasp, " Where is he?" she demanded in an ordering voice.

"How are we supposed to believe you're actually from the capital?" Laxus growled as he stood next to Natsu in a defensive form.

I pointed at the patch on my left collar bone. It was a stamp mark that distinctly proved we were the generals. Our matching outfits consisted of a long navy blue trench coat that ended below the hips with a white running stripe on the right shoulder, with a white blouse underneath, straight black slacks and brown combat boots.

"Anyone can wear that." Natsu glared.

He was wearing a navy under armour shirt with some black sweat pants.

I turned to look at Erza for help, she stared back at me and tried shrugging but her shoulders were too tense to really do anything.

In desperation, I took out my ID from my trench coat pocket and placed my thumb on the picture. My fingers were sweaty as I placed it in front of Natsu.

With a flick of his wrist he smacked my card making my arm stagger back and tip my mask back, making it fall on the floor.

I don't know why I did it, but as if on instinct, my eyes wandered to Natsu.

The color drained from his face, and the anger disappeared from his face, disappointment replaced it. I had never seen so much disappointment in someone's face before.

"Why?" was the only thing he asked.

I opened my mouth to say something but my heart beat was increasing by the second and I couldn't properly think.

"Were you just using me?" he asked unsure, but his eyes slowly looked down.

"N-No! Of course not!" I stuttered. I looked at Erza for help.

He rubbed his temple with his right hand, "I knew it was all too good to be true,'' he looked up at me, "I would of never thought you would betray me like this."

He turned around getting ready to leave, I tried going after him but tripped in the process making me fall on his back.

"I'm not letting you go!"

"Get off." he calmly stated.

I got off him took his hand and ran with him outside.

"Wh-" I  clamped my hand on his mouth and kissed his forehead to try and shut him up.

"I can't tell you everything right now, but for the moment what I can tell you is this: I would never betray you."

He rolled making him hover over me. He smiled, a genuine one. "I'm sorry." He hugged me, "It's fine. When you feel comfortable, you can tell me about it," he took a deep breath, "As for my brother, I don't know where he is right now. I never would of thought he'd kidnap someone."

He sat up, I stood up. I offered him my hand, "Why don't we go back inside?"

He nodded his head and we walked back inside, hand in hand.

Upon returning though, I saw that all my fellow friends had their masks off and a sight stood out that I would of never imagined witnessing.

Erza was crying.

Not intensely but she clearly was. Her cheeks were stained with tears and as I looked around I also noticed Jellal wasn't in the room.

Natsu patted my shoulder and slightly pushed me towards Erza.

"Sorry for the commotion everyone." Kagura bowed in front of the maid and butlers.

With that the four of us walked out arm in arm. 

I could tell everyone was still a little unsure on whether to talk about the conflict or not. 

"We can solve the conflict tomorrow." Yukino said trying to brighten the mood.

We all agreed, except for Erza who didn't say a word the entire time.