Dawn of Adventure {Book One of The Paths We've Traveled}

Chapter Thirteen: Nighttime Visit

Lucy closed her bedroom door behind her, leaning against the door with an exhausted sigh. Ten days they'd been here. Ten days of Mava working her to the bone, only sending her back to her room after eleven straight hours of bustling around the kitchen, carrying trays to the dining hall and to the separate rooms of nobles, including her friends. As much as she had wanted to, she only stayed for a few minutes, letting her aching feet rest before she was back at it again. And tomorrow she would have to do it all over again, although hopefully it wouldn't be as long. But she never knew.

Lucy groaned, stumbling to her cot of a bed. She longed to collapse and fall asleep, but she couldn't yet. Mumbling nonsensically to herself, she kicked off her shoes and shimmied out of her uniform. The heavy fabric slipped from her curvaceous form, hitting the cold stone floor with a soft thud. With the thick cotton no longer rubbing against her skin, the cold air of the room finally hit her. She shuddered, rubbing her arms to combat the goosebumps forming. "Shit," she muttered, digging through her still unpacked trunk for something warm to wear. But all she had was two other uniforms and then some satin nightgowns befitting a summer night in Benos. She cursed again, standing in her underwear and thinking quickly.

"I can't wear my uniform to bed, even though I have three of them. They get too messy during the day for me to risk messing them up more at night. Fuck," she moaned, taking in the thin sheet covering her bed. "I'm going to freeze tonight, aren't I? Why haven't I noticed the cold before now?" The answer was obvious; this was the first night she had taken the time to actually change out of her uniform. The past ten nights she had simply been too exhausted, or she had slept in Natsu and Wendy's apartment. But here she was, finally conscious enough to recognize just how freezing the servants' quarters were.

Lucy complained and moaned the entire time she pulled on one of the thin nightgowns, the cool satin only making her shiver more and more. Her only consultation was the woolen socks she discovered at the bottom of her trunk. She scrubbed her weary hands up and down her arms, rubbing her legs together in a hope that the friction would succeed in warming her frozen skin.

Even in the dead of winter, her apartment back home had never been this cold. The furnace had always been going, and she'd always had thick blankets or warm clothes. And, she begrudgingly admitted, Natsu had often been snoring on the couch or had forced his way into her bed. His body heat was so high that even being in the same room as him had kept her warm. But here at Grimstone, where the servants' quarters were underground and the nobles had no care for the comfort of their workers, the stone floors and walls retained no heat, even while the sun beat down viciously during the day and made everyone miserable. She shuddered to think what winter would be like. If they were even still here come winter.

She sighed, slipping into the firm bed. Lucy missed her bed at home. She missed her bathtub and her shower, her kitchen stocked with delicious junk food, her desk with notes and manuscripts and scraps of job requests. She missed the walk along the canal, the cheery fishermen warning her from getting too close, the bustling streets filled with gentle people going about their lives. And she missed the guildhall most of all, especially her friends. It had been months since she had seen Levy or Mira or Cana, the Thunder Legion or Team Shadowgear, old Master Makarov or even Gildarts. Lucy bit her lip, holding back a tired and unhappy laugh.

"Stop being so sentimental," she scolded herself, tucking the sheet around her chin. "It's not going to get you anywhere?" She scrubbed at her eyes, yawning widely. How was she supposed to fall asleep when she was so completely focused on her freezing skin?

She tossed and turned for several long minutes, pulling the sheet as close as she could in a search for the most warmth possible. It was pointless, but eventually her exhaustion overcame everything.