As Lucy reached out towards his hand, he firmly grabbed her's in his. Her soft delicate hands fit perfectly in his large ones. He rubbed the backside of her hand slightly with his thumb as he held her's, making her blush and look down. But eventually she looked up at him and smiled. He smiled back.
"Let's go," Zeref said.
Lucy nodded her head. They turned towards the palace where the banquet was to be held. The two walked stride in stride, their cape trains following closely behind. Nagi held onto Lucy's hand and the three first walked in, followed by the Spriggans, then the officials and generals, and eventually the guilds and the rest of the people. They all settled down in the vast banquet hall, Zeref and Lucy situated at the head on a cushioned throne with Nagi on Lucy's side. The 12 Spriggans settled down on each side of the banquet hall. Six of them on Lucy's side and six others on Zeref's side. Following them were the guilds and the officials.
"I, Ren Kouen of the Kou Empire, congratulate you on your wedding, Emperor Spriggan," Kouen said while Koumei beside him bowed. Kouen was wearing clothing of a relatively similar design to Zeref's but instead of white and gold, it was crimson red with gold and slightly other colors. His crimson cape fell to his ankles.
"It's been only a few months since I last saw you and as expected...you didn't change a single bit," Zeref smiled.
The two glared at one another as Lucy laughed nervously.
"Thank you, Kouen. I hope the Kou Empire is doing okay," Lucy said.
"It's doing fine, thank you for your concern. Next time, please come visit the Kou Empire. We will welcome you with the utmost respect," Koumei said with a smile.
"I will. Thank you," Lucy said smiling.
Kouen and Koumei sat back down, satisfied and relieved to see her smile so happily.
Following them were a bunch of other officials from other countries offered their respects to the two consummated couple. Zeref and Lucy greeted them pleasantly as they each had words to say.
"Did they remember the names of all those people?" Lisanna whispered to her sister.
"It seems so," Mirajane whispered back. Zeref and Lucy had stated all of their names with ease and it seems as if they knew the circumstances and political situations within their respective country. The guilds looked on in amazement as they thought about just how knowledgeable and how many connections Lucy had.
"We the masters of the guilds of Fiore pay our respects," Makarov, Minerva, and the other guild masters said. "Congratulations on your wedding."
"Thank you," Zeref replied, motioning them to stand up. "Makarov, I assume that your guild is doing well?"
"Quite so," Makarov huffed, shooting a glare at Fairy Tail. "We're quite grateful to you."
"The one you should be grateful for is Lucy. She's the one that provided everything for the guild," Zeref replied.
"Yes, if it weren't for her, the Magic Council would've already torn the guild down!" Makarov laughed. Zeref chuckled.
"Sabertooth and Blue Pegasus," Zeref said turning to them. "I thank you for taking care of Lucy these past three years."
The guild masters looked up with bewildered expressions. Never in their life had they expected the great black wizard Zeref to thank them. Nevertheless have a smile on his face!
"The honor is our's," Minerva said bowing. "Lucy has been a great comrade to us. We couldn't have asked for anything more."
Sabertooth nodded in reply.
Zeref smiled and each of them went back to their respective seats with the rest of their guilds. They all raised their glasses of wine in front of them. Zeref and Lucy raised theirs'. Everyone in the banquet had wide grins and smiles on their faces as they clanged their glasses with one another and the feast began.
"Hey Lucy," Kouen said holding his wine. "Are you sure you're going to be happy with him?"
Lucy looked at him perplexed but soon nodded her head. "I'm sure."
Zeref blushed and squeezed Lucy's hand, looking at her. His lips had formed into a wide smile as he heard Lucy's answer.
"I really can't believe you're going to be that girly-like person's empress," Kouen said stoically, his eyes dead as he saw the flowery and pink atmosphere that had appeared around Zeref.
"Hey! That's rude!" Zeref heard and replied back.
"It's not too late, you know. To become the official empress of my Kou Empire," Kouen said, ignoring Zeref.
Lucy looked at him, a calm and unreadable expression on her face. She closed her eyes and shook her head. "I wish to be with Zeref. Throughout these thousand years that I've wandered this Earth, it was Zeref that had always stayed with me and accompanied me. To me, he's someone irreplacable. He's the man I wish to spend the rest of my life with. He's the one I chose to love," Lucy finished with a radiant smile.
Kouen sighed and smiled knowingly. "I knew you would refuse," he said, drinking his glass wine. "But still...he sure is a girly-boy."
"You want to fight, Kouen?!" Zeref said, a murderous aura coming from him. His eyes had turned red as he clenched his teeth and curled his hands into fists.
"Just what I wanted," Kouen replied with a giant tick mark on his face as he cracked his fists.
"They sure look like two crazy people. Even their eyes have gone crazy," Nagi commented as he drank his apple juice.
Lucy laughed hysterically. "Well said, Nagi. Well said!"
Nagi smiled cutely at his mother as she stroked his head.
"Lucy~!" Mirajane squealed. "Look here!"
On instinct, Lucy turned to where the voice had come from and a camera shutter clicked.
"Mira? What was that for?" Lucy asked, pouting.
"If I asked to take a picture, you probably would've said no so...this is the alternative," Mirajane said, winking. "Besides, it's a waste not to take a picture if you're wearing such elegant and beautiful clothes."
"That's right, Lucy. You need to take pictures to commemorate the moment," Lisanna jumped in.
"For once I have to agree with the folks from Fiore," Irene said, nodding her head.
"You're going to make our hard work and effort go to waste if we don't take pictures," Brandish said, standing up.
Lucy gulped. The sharp stares of the four girls in front of her scared her. Their eyes were shining and by now, she was sweating. If she knew them correctly, this would turn into a picture frenzy party.
"Now, say cheese!" Mirajane commanded as the camera began clicking away. "Lucy, Nagi! Get in the picture together!"
As they began dragging Lucy and Nagi down to take pictures with everyone, Kouen and Zeref were still busy fighting. However, Zeref's clothes were rather hard to move in and so he lost balance and tipped over. In a moment, Zeref's lips were on Lucy's cheeks. Both of them widened their eyes in shock as the camera shutter clicked.
"Oh my god~" Mirajane, Lisanna, Irene, and Brandish said squealing, hearts in their eyes.
Zeref and Lucy immediately pulled away from one another, blushing, as they looked the other way.
"What the hell are you guys doing?" Laxus said, coming up from behind them.
"Oh, Laxus! Isn't this so cute~" Mirajane squealed, holding up the pictures that she had taken.
Laxus cringed. "How do you guys find pleasure in taking these things?"
"I've got to ask that, too," Kouen added, witnessing what had just happened. "The two of them are still in shock."
"Ah....true that," Irene said. "Lucy! Zeref-sama! Look this way!"
As they looked her way, Brandish grabbed Happy, Lily, and Carla into the picture. With her other hand, she pulled Wendy in and threw her at them, too. Nagi, knowing what was going to happen, held up a peace sign as he grinned at them. The camera clicked and what was in the picture was a rather surprised Lucy and Zeref as they caught Wendy, Happy, Lily, and Carla with a smiling Nagi.
"Now this looks more like a family picture," Irene smiled to herself, proud of her work.
"Ohhh, that looks nice. Print one out for me," August said as he and Dimaria looked at the photos.
"I want one, too!" Larcade said, jumping in.
Everyone laughed whole-heartedly at the rowdy banquet. Even though they had planned it to be formal, such a loud and noisy one actually felt much better. Even Invel couldn't help but agree. Fairy Tail looked on, glancing at Lucy now and then and seeing how happy she was laughing with all these people around her. They remembered how it was them that surrounded her and laughed with her. It was them that accompanied her everywhere. But now...regret was all they could feel.
Natsu stared hard at Lucy. He felt his heart clench up, gritting his teeth. Lucy...he thought.
The only people that had gotten along at the banquet with the others were Makarov, Laxus, Mirajane, and Lisanna. How jealous they were witnessing the interaction between Lucy and her friends.
"Blondie! Congratulations!" Sting said as he fooled around.
"Sting, you can at least try to look nice in those clothes," Lucy said.
"Are you trying to insult the great Sting Eucliffe?!" Sting said as he stuck his face in hers.
"You're drunk," Lucy said, pushing him away.
But instead of backing off, Sting came even closer to Lucy. He was eye to eye with Lucy and his face had turned red while Lucy was just standing there surprised.
"Hey, back off, Sting. You've had too much to drink," Rogue said. "Sorry for that, Lucy."
"It's okay," Lucy smiled as she shook her head. "He's tough to handle when he's drunk. Good luck."
"Come on, let's go," Rogue said as he dragged Sting off.
Lucy chuckled. Turning around, she came face to face this time with Zeref. He was looking at her with narrowed eyes.
"Zeref?" Lucy asked.
Suddenly, he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her. Kouen and Laxus stood up on reflex while the girls squealed even more as more pictures were taken. Nagi smiled to himself as he ate away at the cake with Wendy, Happy, Lily, and Carla.
"W-What's wrong?"
"You two don't have anything going on, right?" Zeref asked, his eyes gloomy.
"Of course not!" Lucy replied rather angrily. "I love you and that's all I know. There's no other man I love more than you! Zeref!"
Zeref blinked in surprise and soon, he was blushing and smiling again. "I'm so glad to hear that. I love you, too, Lucy."
He squeezed in one last long hug before letting go. He held Lucy's hand, not bothering that he was showing off a lot of affection and attracting stares and glares from others. All he knew was that this was the happiest he had ever felt before.
"I won't ever let you go," Zeref whispered into her ear.
Lucy blushed and nodded slightly. Zeref chuckled light-heartedly at how cute and adorable Lucy was.
Meanwhile outside~
Natsu walked outside of the palace, wanting to get out of the place. Though he loved rowdy and noisy events, this one just didn't seem to irk him much. Based on the looks that he had received, he could tell that he, along with the others, were not welcome. They were only allowed to come because of Lucy's insistence. Maybe it was her revenge on them to make them feel left out. As he breathed in the cool crispy air of the night, he heard someone talking. Near him, about two feet away, were two dragon slayers. It was Sting and Rogue.
"Sting, stop acting like this already. Get it over with," Rogue said.
"Shut up! You don't know anything!" Sting shouted.
Boy, does he sound drunk, Natsu thought. But, he continued eavesdropping on their conversation.
"What? The fact that you love Lucy?"
Sting looked up at him, a stupid expression on his face. "How? How did you know?"
Rogue sighed. "I've been your partner for so many years. Do you really think that I didn't know you liked Lucy?"
"Then are you here to make fun of me? I knew Lucy was out of reach the moment I saw her. But..." Sting began breaking down. "I love her..."
Rogue looked at him in pity and sat down beside him. "Well, all I can say is, welcome to the 'rejected indirectly by Lucy' club."
"Want me to kill you?" Sting glared at him with tears at his eyes.
"Sorry," Rogue immediately replied.
"It doesn't matter anymore," Sting said, staring at the moon. "I'll just cry myself out tonight."
Natsu, who had been watching, turned on his heel and headed back. Somehow, he felt as if he had found the answer. He loved Lucy. But now, it was too late. She belonged to someone else. As he realized this, tears began streaming down his face. He truly regretted what he had done.