'I wonder what flowers little Ema and Lucy like. Lucy had roses last time and was happy. For little Ema, she had lavender, and she was delighted with them."
Do you know what happened to the princess if she acted like that?" – Louis questioned the blue cat, who was flying towards Ema's room with Julie. Happy ignored him as Loke appeared out of nowhere.
"Princess is just being reminded of past cruel events. Back then, there was only one person who called her that. She was the reason why Princess and Happy left Fairy Tail after everything they had done to her. Probably one day she will tell you herself all about it." – Loke answered as he bowed in greetings.
"You are going to apologize to Lucy when you see her. The actions you have done today are not to be tolerated." – Masaomi stated in his serious tone.
"Isn't she going to get any lecture with all the things she called me, and how about the others too?!" – Fuuto exclaimed in disagreement.
"She isn't wrong in anything, since you became a damn idol you changed into a smug arrogant jerk about your reputation, and you don't hold back on anyone. Yet, you dared to do it to a dragon, who could've gotten you killed in a split second." – Tsubaki said ever so serious and intimidating, making chills run through his spine, imagining his ugly death, getting shredded into pieces.
"Whatever, I'll do what I want." – he started walking up the stairs.
"Do whatever you want then, because when you look back someday, there will be no family and friends supporting you anymore. Only your fans who look up to you because of your fake persona," – Kaname said
"Damn idol." – Yuusuke scoffed.
"Tsubaki wasn't wrong, if Lucy wanted to kill him, she would've because of her anger, but she didn't because she sees all of you as her family now and she cares and loves all of you equally, even that jerk. By the way, my name is Loke, or the Leo the lion, leader of the zodiacs and the princess's most trusted spirit."
"How is she?" – Hikaru asks with worries swirling in his eyes.
"Did she make it to the gym safely?" – Kaname added to Hikaru's question.
"She sees us as family..." – Subaru murmured under his breath with a faint smile on his face.
"My princess has made it safely, and she's coping with things well, right now. Of course, she does, you all have accepted her reality into this world and treated her as another human being, not as a freak or monster. With that, she has been extremely grateful, even though she worries about certain people not accepting her predicament."
"Wait, then why are you here? Wouldn't you go and comfort her or something?" – Yuusuke raised an eyebrow in confusion, which made the brothers tense slightly in their seats.
"I merely came to say the princess will be home a little late as a new friend has appeared in her life." – he chuckles in amusement.
"Wait...and you left her there by herself with a stranger, don't you know something called stranger danger?!" – they shouted at the same time, some stood up to express their feelings of anxiety, forgetting that Lucy is a powerful mage.
"No need to yell or worry because the rank of this person in this world is not to mess with." – he glanced at the group of brothers before disappearing in gold dust.
Lucy arrived at the gym, locking her car, then greeting the person at the front desk and entering the locker room, changing into a black sports bra with matching fitted shorts, tying her hair into a high ponytail, and wrapping his hands and feet in bandages, deciding to deal with the punching bag today.
"There's no one else here, so I might as well not use my headphones," she sighed heavily to herself, locking her locker, ensuring that nothing would get stolen.
She remembers what happened at the residence, what Fuuto uttered those words, which triggered a chain of memories at the back of her mind, being hidden and locked from reminding her painful past with Fairy Tail. She punches the punching bag with her human force as she is scared and afraid that if she uses her dragon strength, then everything will be destroyed, and that can't happen in this world. As she started swinging and punching the bag with a force of her scrambled feelings, anger, sadness, pain, betrayal, stress, and uselessness.
'You're useless'
'Pathetic, you are always being saved like a damsel in distress'
'Why are you even a member of the strongest guild and in the strongest team?'
'What a weakling, why can't you do anything right?'
'We're kicking you out of the team.'
'You can die for all we care'
'Just leave, you're already ruining Fairy Tail's reputation.'
'Get out, you blonde bimbo, you were only a replacement till I came back.'
With one last forceful kick, Lucy sent the punching bag off the chains into the wall, creating a slight crack. Her teeth were clenched in anger as sweat dripped down on her immaculate face full of pain.
Every adventure and happiness she felt together with the Fairy Tail guild is covered by those painful and hurtful memories. It hurts. It's suffocating, all Lucy wants is to be happy and be with her family like before. Lucy knows that she isn't alone anymore, even Fairy Tail left her to succumb to her demons and let her light succumb to darkness. Even now, Lucy could still feel the pain of being beaten to death with magic, punches, or kicks, like it happened just yesterday.
"Woah, what strength you got!" – a deep voice whistle making Lucy turn around in surprise to find a shirtless muscular man, who was, of course, taller than her. The strange man interrupts Lucy's train of painful thoughts, as she stares at the man with blank eyes, as she does not know how to react to him. He had messy black hair and purple eyes, wearing only dark gym shorts and running shoes, making him look like a hunk.
"A-Ah, how long have you been there?" – Lucy stuttered, blinking her eyes multiple times.
'Seriously, what is with these random times of meeting extremely good-looking men, am I that lucky?' - Lucy thought to herself mentally.
"Well, I got to the gym not that long ago and heard someone in the boxing area, I didn't think it would be a beautiful and enchanting, fierce girl." – he tilted his head, making Lucy slightly blush at the show of his neck and sexy collarbone, making her chuckle nervously.
"I just needed to let out some steam from being reminded of the past...So, I decided to come to the gym away from home a bit." – she sighed sadly, placing a hand on her right hip.
"Are your parents okay with you out in the middle of the night?" – The tall, handsome man scrunched his eyebrows in suspicion.
"I am currently staying with a close family friend right now, well practically their children." – she chuckles, seeing how dark it was getting outside of the gym.
"Then you are new here (he grins) would it be fine if I took some of your time to explore a bit to release that stress on you?" – Lucy looks at the man weirdly, but yet she doesn't sense any evil intent or bad sense towards him, to Lucy he seems strong and yet at the same time trustworthy. Then again, he is weird for asking a girl he does not know to go out with his spot on and the sun isn't out yet.
"Sure, I'm down," she replies, watching him wear a Cheshire grin, making him look like a creepy man.
"Did you drive here in possible way?" – they started walking in the direction of the lockers.
"I walked here since I wanted to see the stars at night, it calms me." – Lucy lied not really wanting to come back to the gym to fetch her car, she silently gives a mental note to Loke, who was more than happy to drive it home knowing the man was somehow trustworthy too.
"I see, well, we can go to mine...I'm Ichinose Akagi."
"Lucy...Lucy Heartfillia."
After introducing themselves to each other, they enter their respective locker room to change and get their things in the bag. Ichinose Akagi is intrigued by the woman's shrill strength alone; he thought at first, he would meet a woman who is both rough like her strength and fierce like her muscles. However, what he saw and heard was a woman in pain. Akagi could see the melancholy eyes of a person who has seen and experienced death many times and has been betrayed by her loved ones. How could a frail but strong, beautiful young woman handle such a heavy burden on her shoulders?
The young woman in front of him at that time draws him towards her, even now he could still feel the pull of wanting to comfort and embrace the frail, strong, and young blonde woman.
"There you are, I thought you ended up ditching me or something?" – Ichinose laughed, opening his trunk to his Lamborghini, making the girl's eyes wide for a bit before placing her bag down beside Ichinose's bag.
"First of all, Ichinose-san, I am a girl... (she pouted, putting both hands on her hips) ...I don't want my hair all smelly, so I washed and dried it."
"Gomen." – he chuckles, opening the door to his midnight blue car, allowing the girl to get in before he gets into his side.
"Normally, people are shocked by the car, yet you seemed unfazed by it." – she glanced up, watching the sky sparkle with her friend's constellation, reminding her that she is never alone, they are always there for her; watching and become the beacon of light to her darkest moment.
"It's because I have one in the shop right now, it's matte black with gold linings, most of my cars are that color."
"A person who owns rich cars and yet walks to the gym, you are an interesting young woman, I must say." – he chuckles, not noticing how she frowned a bit.
"You have no idea... (she whispered) ...so where are you planning on taking me, Mr. Asking-a-girl-out on their first meeting?"
"Since it seems you like to stargaze, there is this spot, I know... (he smiles with his eyes still on the road) ...on my stressful days, I would often drive out here and find peace."
Lucy feels safe, and for once in her days in here at the human world, she had this feeling of acting like herself before when she was still together with Fairy Tail. For once, just one night to forget all that happened for the past years of pain and betrayal.