"C'mon, Lucy! You can do it!"
"Shut up!" Lucy shouted. Two days had passed and she had warned the guild about what Adrian had said (leaving out what Happy did). The master was worried at first but decided to have the members work harder in training. So for Lucy's morning training, she was to jog two miles instead of one. She wasn't happy about it, but no one was. Levy was counting Lucy's laps around the guild.
"Just three more laps!" Levy cheered Lucy on. When she finished, the laid out in the grass behind the guild, watching some of the members swim. "Good job, Lucy!" Unable to reply, Lucy raised her middle finger in annoyance. Levy smiled slightly before turning on her heel and heading back into the guild.
The guild was filled with members fighting, training, or doing both. The guild reeked of sweet, blood, and alcohol. It wasn't pleasant, but no one complained. Natsu and Gajeel were trying to see who could lift the most weights near the front of the building. Some members watched the two argue as they trained.
It wasn't much of an argument, really. It was just the two staring each other down and adding on more weight until one gave up. Neither gave up, both fainted at loss of oxygen. The members laughed before helping the mages into the hospital ward.
An hour later, Lucy was sitting in between the two beds they were laying on, her feet up on Natsu's bed. At first the two argued that they were fine but shut themselves up when they were handed plates of food. Lucy was reading Eleanor and Park and listen to a radio in a corner of the room. Pop music was playing through the speakers. It was either that or heavy metal.
"I'm fine! I don't need to stay in here!" Gajeel stated. Lucy rolled her eyes.
"Walk out of the room. I dare you." She said. Gajeel accepted her dare and stood. He took one step and fell to the floor, dizziness taking over. "That's what I thought." Lucy said as Natsu laughed next to her. She stood and helped him back up and into bed.
"Oi, Lucy," Natsu said.
"Yeah?"
"How 'bout I take you on a date?" If there was anything in her mouth, she would've spit it out.
"Wha-why?" She asked, her face turning a dark shade of red.
"Why not?" He asked. Lucy's mind raced, trying to process what he asked. Before Lucy could think of a reply, Mira stepped into the room, cutting into the conversation.
"Lucy, ignore him. He's on a medicine right now and it may make him say things he doesn't mean to say."
"I'm being serious!"
"Natsu, if you are serious, you can ask again later." Mira told him, he mumbled something incoherent and crossed his arms over his chest. Mira walked over and rested her hand on Lucy's shoulder.
"It'll be better when he asks you again later." She said with a smile. She set a pitcher of water on an end table and walked out of the room. Lucy returned her attention back to her book and watched Natsu out of the corner of her eye. He had a book in his hand, he aimed it at the radio and threw it. The radio flew off the table and onto the floor, breaking and cutting off the music.
"There, now I don't have to hear that crap."
***
Aurora was sitting out on her balcony, playing with a stray cat she had found the other day. Her father wasn't pleased with her but didn't stop her from keeping it, she wasn't annoying like her older brother. The cat was a young, calico cat with green eyes. It was skinny too, barely one pound. She kicked her slippers off and rested her feet up on the marble railing. The cat was pawing at her dark, flannel skirt as Adrian stepped out onto the balcony.
"What do you want?" She asked, petting the cat.
"I need your help."
"With your fashion sense?"
"No."
"Good, because I can't help you there." Aurora's style was more of an indie grunge, not what her royal family would like. She wore a flannel skirt, a old concert shirt with "Pink Floyd" written across the front, and a dark ivory colored cardigan. Her hair was braided and she had a round, rose gold colored pair of sunglasses resting on her face. "Did you come here to insult me?"
"No, I told you why I was here."
"And that is?"
"The Fairy Tail guild, I think they're going to plan a surprise attack."
"Why would you say that?"
"I heard them say so. Even though I shortened the amount of time they have to prepare, they may still attack."
"I think you're just superstitious. I think they would've before, but they have twelve days now. There isn't enough to train, plan a surprise attack, and win now." The cat had crawled up Aurora's chest and was resting on her shoulder. It meowed at Adrian.
"You're probably right, but-"
"This doesn't matter. This whole thing is dumb." Aurora was part of a well known guild, Lamia Scale, before the king shut it down days earlier.
"You're opinion doesn't matter, you aren't even eighteen."
"So?"
"So, I don't care about your input." Aurora shrugged. "I'll have the soldiers sent out Saturday."
"What?! That's five days from now!"
"That's their problem." He said. He turned on his heel and walked off the balcony. "And get rid of that cat, it'll die eventually." He said and left the balcony, the cat was about to jump from Aurora's shoulder but she held it back. The cat was distracted with her long, brown braids. She didn't care about her family's opinions. They all just criticized her, really.
"Asshole," She sighed and reached for her iced tea on the table next to her. As she set the cup back down, she thought of her guild members. They were her real family all she cared about was whether they were safe or not. She rolled her sleeve up and looked up at her secret, a green, Lamia Scale mark, under her arm. Even after the guild had shut down, her father and brother still didn't know about her second life.
She knew how the princess would feel if the guild were shut down. That couldn't happen. That night, she'd go out to Magnolia, and warn the guild.
• • •
That evening, Lucy was helping Natsu home. It was hard for him to walk on his own, so she decided to help him. The two stopped in front of a market. Natsu noticed a poster for fifty percent off chocolate.
"Lucy, I'm going inside." He said, she nodded and let him in. She was close behind him as he walked through the market. He grabbed a box a chocolates filled with various flavored cremes. He looked around the market. "Do you need anything?" He asked her.
"No, I don't need anything." He grabbed a box of youthberry tea. He paid for it and turned to her. He held the box of chocolates out to her.
"Here, take these." He said. Lucy blushed and accepted the chocolates.
"Thanks," She said with a smile. Afterwards the two continued their walk to Natsu's.
He considered asking her again. But he had spent most of the day rethinking. And he decided that it wasn't a good idea. Demons weren't supposed to fall in love with the princess. They were supposed to watch them until the knight in shining armor appeared to save them.
Unfortunately, he was the demon.
• • •
That night, few of the guild members were at the guild. Most had gone home for the night. The master was sitting at the bar when he heard heavy footsteps. He turned to the entrance and saw a tall brunette wearing heavy leather boots. The master smiled.
"Another royal daughter wanting to join the guild?" He asked. Aurora shook her head.
"I'm royalty, yes, but I'm not requesting to join your guild." The master noticed a light green mark on her arm.
"Lost your guild, I see."
"Only days ago. I promised that I would fix things soon if they listened to the king."
"Then why are you here?" He asked. Aurora sat next to him and explained.
"Adrian, my brother, knew you were planning a surprise attack on the castle. But he didn't know if you were going to continue to do so when the time was shortened, so he had it shortened again. You and the members have less than five days to be prepared." She said. The master was silent, staring at his cup. Aurora rested her hand on his shoulder. "I don't think you need to worry, though. I've seen what your guild can do. You have the strongest guild in Fiore. If I remember correctly, you also have one of Zeref's most powerful demons?" The master nodded. "There's nothing to worry about." Aurora smiled. The master chuckled.
"You know, you're so much nicer than that brother of yours." Aurora nodded.
"Yeah," She said and stood from the bar stool she was sitting on, "Oh, before I leave, you may want to prepare your members for another thing."
"That is?"
"When Adrian gets frustrated, he'll use words as a weapon. Making his opponent feel down about themselves, then attacking. The opponent won't fight as well."
". . . Thank you, uh."
"Aurora Carrio, sir." She said before disappearing in the night.
• • •
Author's Note;
I normally don't create new characters for fanfics, but I did for this story. It gives me practice for when I write something that isn't fan fiction. And I like Aurora more than Adrian, I'm pretty sure everyone can agree. I've known how I'm going to end this story for a while now and there will be mixed emotions about it.
Thank you guys for getting this story up to 19,000 reads, over 1,000 votes, and again for putting this story in the top 1,000 stories on wattpad! I've thanked you for that earlier but it's gone up since then and I wanted you to know that I'm seriously so happy about it.
Next update will be Monday, May 16th!
~Lucy
• • •
Extras:
Song of the chapter: Witchcraft - Bhones