Icy Love~A Fairy Tail GraLu Fan-Fic

Secrets and Confessions

Wendy's POV

I eventually decided to start a conversation of some sort. I hated it when nobody would talk and it would make me feel uncomfortable.

"So.....where exactly are you going?" I asked lightly, looking at Aramantha.

She blinked slowly, her breathtaking eyes meeting mine, "I cannot tell you that."

I surpressed a sigh, and smiled instead. Aramantha seemed rather surprised by it, and I felt a stab of pity for her. Had her parents ever smiled at her like that before? Or were they the kind that would just tell her to study, and leave her a bunch of books and money? Then, they would go off to work and not think another second about their child?

"But aren't we responsible for guiding you to your destination?" Lucy reminded Aramantha playfully. Aramantha didn't laugh or even smile, but she did hesitate for a bit.

"Fine. I'm going to Hargeon Port," Aramantha muttered after a pause.

"Oh! Isn't that a beautiful place?" Natsu asked, grinning. Lucy shot him a glance, and I had no idea what was going on there, but I felt like those two had been there before.

"How do you know of that place?" Aramantha asked stiffly, stealing a look at Natsu. At least she was talking to a boy now. That was a small improvement.

"Let's just say....Lucy, Happy, and I met there a long time ago," Natsu replied, his grin getting bigger.

Aramantha's eyes turned to Happy, who was sitting on the floor of the train. When he noticed her staring at him, he jumped a little, and then attempted to cover that up with a wave.

Aramantha smiled warily. Her smile was rather nice.

"I get that a lot. When I want to talk to people, they always jump up as if they were scared of me. Then, they would try to hid what had just happened either by starting a conversation with me about a random topic, or by smiling and/or waving like you just did," She explained.

She was really observant, I'll give her that. That must've been one of her special talents.

"Really? Sorry..." Happy apologized with a sheepish smile. He then wagged his tail, and stuck out a paw, "friends?"

Aramantha blinked, "you want to be friends.......with me? I'm not sure I'll be a very good friend. After all, I am rather busy. I do not like to play, or any of those stuff that other kids my age do. I would much rather study."

By now, I had concluded that because Aramantha had lived under her parent's rules for her whole life, she would obviously follow them without question. She was a really obediant girl, and her parents were actually pretty lucky that they had such a obediant girl. I had to admit, Aramantha was brought up quite well in someways. For example, she was really truthful. She also knew that she couldn't trust strangers, so she wouldn't give out personal information to people who asked her. This was about as good as a girl her age would get.

"It's okay! I like you just the way you are," Happy replied...well....happily. He beamed at Aramantha, and she hesitantly smiled back. It was a real smile this time. It really made her look beautiful and innocent, like a girl like her should be. She really was a nice girl.

"Really? Thanks," Aramantha replied rather shyly. She gazed out the window, and her eyes swept over all of us, "can I tell you all a secret?"

"Of course," Lucy replied smoothly, smiling reasurringly at the little girl. She didn't seem particularly happy, but at least she wasn't glaring at us like she was before.

"There's just one thing that I really, really don't like," She began, and I couldn't help but raise my eyebrows slightly. So even her couldn't take all the rules and expectations that her parents had set her. I was rather impressed. If I was her, I doubted I would even be able to last a day with her family, by what she had told us so far.

"What is it?" Gray asked kindly. It was actually one of the first times I had heard him talk in that tone, I could tell that Lucy was as surprised as I was, if not more. She shot a shocked glance at Gray before turning back to Aramantha.

"My parents don't want to know something. But one day, I accidently overheard something. I'm really sad that I overheard it, because I know I wasn't supposed to hear it. It probably would've been better if I didn't hear it. But I did hear it, and I've been wondering about it ever since. It's really bugging me.....and I really want to tell someone what I heard. But I don't want my parents to know I heard it...I'm sure that they kept it a secret from me for a reason," Aramantha said seriously, not a hint of a smile on her lips.

If everyone in the world was like her, the whole world would be a better place. People would get suspicious too easily. It's never easy to trust someone, but it's just so easy to not trust someone in a heartbeat. Most people (including me, probably) automatically assume that if any of the people they had trusted were keeping secrets from them, it meant that they were talking behind their back, and couldn't be trusted anymore. Only selective people, like Aramantha, would believe that those people must've had their reasons for keeping the secret. It was people like her that wouldn't end up doing something that they would regret for the rest of their life.

"So you want to tell us that secret?" Natsu concluded, looking at Aramantha kindly. She nodded, and met his gaze.

"You are all different than anyone I've ever met....so I think I can trust all of you," She confessed to us hurriedly, looking down at her hands that were in her lap.

I looked around quickly. Thankfully, most of the people that were staring at her before had focused back on whatever they were doing, so not many people were still taking note of our conversation. But there still was some, and they would all look away quickly when I met their eyes.

"It's that...." Aramantha took a deep breath, as if afraid to say it. Lucy nodded encouragingly at her, and it seemed to help her in some way. She nodded determinedly, and bit her lip before continueing, "my parents were talking about my brother. I never knew that I had a brother. My parents had told me all my life that I was an only child, the only person to inherit the company. But....."

That was met by silence, and we all had no idea what to say. What were we supposed to say? She didn't know that she had a brother until now? And she wasn't even supposed to know about it? Why would her parents keep that from her? Why would she be seperated from her brother?

"You....you've never seen your brother before?" Lucy asked, which was kind of a pointless question because Aramantha had already said that she never even knew that she had a brother. How would she be able to see her brother if she didn't even know what her brother looked like?

"No. I do not know why my parents wanted to keep it a secret from me but......I think I know why my brother is not with me right now. My parents do not want my brother to inherit the company. He would be a natural heir, as he is a male and the oldest of the family. But something about him made my parents very unhappy, so they, I guess, forbade him from coming home," Aramantha replied, still observing her hands.

"Your parents did that?" Happy blurted out, shocked.

Aramantha nodded, "I know of the power that my parents hold on our entire household. That is why...I never dared to go against them before. I've never disobeyed them, I have never went against them, I have never spoken up against them, I have never exactly voiced my opinion before, and I have never talked about my brother before."

"Are you...scared of your parents?" Lucy asked hesitantly.

Aramantha nodded slightly, "I'm afraid that.....they'll forbade me to return home, just like they did with my brother. My brother was probably very smart at that time, so he knew how to survive on his own. Me however.....I feel like I would not know how to live on my own, without anyone by my side. I would not know what to do."

"I'm.....we're sorry, " Gray replied softly, rubbing his arms as if he was cold. However, he did look deep in thought.

"It's okay. I get used to it. As long as I follow all the rules, and excel at all my studies, I will face no problems," Aramantha replied as confidently as she could, but I could still detect a slight tremer in her voice.

"Yeah, your parents would never forbade you to return home! You are an amazing daughter, for sure," Lucy agreed quickly.

Before anyone could agree or reply to that, the bell rang, and Aramantha jumped up. She looked out the window, and sighed, "I have arrived."

"Sh-should we go with you?" I offered, not knowing what to do.

"No, it's okay. My parents, or at least, their servants, must be here somewhere to pick me up," Aramantha replied, though she sounded scared. She walked slowly to the door, then turned around at the last second to bow to us, "thank you all for your company. I hope that we will meet again soon."

We hastily bowed back, but by then, she had already stepped out the door.

"I'm worried about her," Lucy muttered, and I couldn't help but nod in agreement. We all exchanged a silent glance, before reaching to a conclusion together.

We all walked off the train silently, and started looking for where Aramantha went.

~~

Thanks to everyone who's reading this so far! I'll definitely update this sooner as I am done my HoH fan-fiction, so you won't have to wait that long anymore! Thank you so much for all those that did wait for that long, though.

Please vote and comment!

~Heather <3