Quest for the Eighty-Eight Keys

Chapter Eight: Setting Out

WARNING: BRIEF MENTIONS OF TORTURE
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Freed watched as Lucy said goodbye to her friends, a smile on her face. He looked to his side, seeing that Rufus was watching as well, his eyes locked on the blonde woman. Freed crossed his arms over his chest, digging his nails into his clothed arms, as he turned back to Lucy. He and Rufus had already said their goodbyes, now they were waiting for Lucy.

She hugged each of her friends in turn, assuring them that she would be back before they knew it. She was smiling and seemed happy, but Freed couldn't help but to suspect that maybe she wasn't as happy as she seemed.

He couldn't put his finger on it, but Lucy had seemed a bit off before her capture. There was something about her smile that wasn't like how it was in previous years. He had tried telling himself that he was seeing things. He was sure that if there was something wrong with Lucy, then her teammates would notice.

The green-haired man looked closer at the celestial wizard. She seemed happy. She was smiling and comforting her crying friends. But, something was off. Something was wrong. Why was she so happy? Why did she seem to not be bothered by everything that had just happened?

She had been tortured, almost lost her keys, witnessed three of her friends die, and was being sent on a quest that would result in her facing more hardship and her torturers. She wasn't even wearing her usual attire of revealing clothing. Instead, she was dressed in pants and a long-sleeved shirt that covered her midsection. Her usual belt and weapon from the Celestial Spirit World were on her hips and her fingers were still bandaged.

After everything that she had been through, why was she still happy and smiling? She wasn't showing any signs of being negatively affected by the things that had happened to her. Why? Did she think that she couldn't show how everything had affected her? Did she think that she would be showing weakness?

Freed furrowed his brow, unable to figure out what was going on with Lucy. She wasn't behaving in that way that any of their guildmates would. She wasn't showing any trauma responses. It was strange. He didn't understand it. Was she not traumatized at all?

He then thought back to the previous day. He and Rufus were going to walk Lucy to her apartment, but when the celestial wizard reached for the doorknob to open the door, she had frozen. Freed had noticed that she seemed to be trembling and looked as though she was spaced out. He had shared a look with Rufus, the two of them silently telling each other that they were noticing the same thing. Lucy didn't appear to be okay.

He had spoken up, asking her if she was alright, and when she broke out of her thoughts and looked back at them, he had noticed a mixture of emotions in her brown eyes, emotions that told him that she was not alright, like she had claimed. He was tempted to ask her if she was sure that she was alright, but quickly decided against it, knowing that he wasn't in the right to press further. She had been through something horrible. She surely needed time to process the hell that she was put through. Lucy was obviously being affected by the torture that those three celestial wizards had inflicted upon her. So, why was she hiding it? And why was she so good at it?

Freed was brought out of his thoughts when he heard the blonde woman's voice call out to him, "come on, Freed!" He turned around to see Rufus and Lucy standing at Fairy Tail's doors. He noticed that Lucy was smiling brightly at him, gesturing with her hand for him to follow her. He also noticed that Rufus had an arm lazily wrapped around her. The rune mage walked toward the pair, sending a glare at Rufus when Lucy turned her back to them. The blonde man responded to his glare with a smirk.

As he followed Lucy to the train station, Rufus walking on the other side of the blonde woman, Freed decided to keep a close eye on her. He had a feeling that Lucy wasn't doing as well as she seemed to be. He suspected that she was hiding a lot behind a smile. He was going to figure out what was going on with her, and he was going to help her. He couldn't let the woman he was in love with suffer, now could he?

Rufus sat across from Lucy, Freed sitting next to him on their train seat. As the train pushed off, he asked, "what keys are in Gardinia Town?"

Lucy looked up at him, rolling the scroll in her hands back up and retying the ribbon of starlight around it. She answered, "the Celestial Spirit King told me that they're the keys of Auriga and Monoceros. He said that they are important spirits to have since Auriga provides fast traveling and Monoceros uses Healing Magic."

Rufus nodded in understanding. Considering that they were collecting keys, it made sense to assume that they wouldn't be able to take a train to their destinations, nor would walking be easy. Having a celestial spirit that could quickly transport them would be very useful. A spirit that used Healing Magic would also come in handy. It was more than reasonable to assume that they would end up getting injured fairly frequently, so a Healing Magic user would be a must.

He looked out of the window next to him, only to turn back to Lucy only moments later when he heard her summon Virgo. He watched as the blonde woman hand the scroll to Virgo, instructing her to keep it safe in the Celestial Spirit World with their things. She then turned to Freed, asking, "Freed, can I see the slip that Master gave you?"

The rune mage reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. He handed it to Lucy and she gave it to Virgo, telling her that it was to also be kept with their things. Virgo bowed before she disappeared in a flash of golden light and a puff of smoke.

The piece of paper was given to them by Makarov, with the instruction that they were to use it in place of money. Whatever they were paying for would be charged to him, so that they wouldn't need to worry about money or paying for anything.

He looked back at Lucy, seeing that she was looking out of the window. He noticed that her smile had fallen, seeming to be lost in thought. Rufus couldn't help but to notice the off look on her face. She didn't look sad, nor did she look particularly distressed. She simply looked like she wasn't happy. He had noticed this before. When he and Freed were leaving Fairy Tail's infirmary when Lucy had stopped and seemed to become lost in her thoughts, her body trembling. He was going to approach her, thinking that she was about to have a trauma-induced panic attack, but stopped when Freed asked her if she was alright and she broke out of her mind. When she had turned around to assure them that she was fine. However, Rufus could tell she was lying, and it took only a single, shared look with Freed to know that he wasn't the only one to notice.

He was sure that Lucy was experiencing negative aftereffects of the torture that she had been through. She was surely still trying to process everything that had happened to her. But, for some reason, it seemed that her unhappiness had more to it than just her week-long torturing and loss of friends. What was it that she was dealing with? He was concerned that she was struggling with trauma and wanted to help her. But, how could he do that? He and Lucy were close, not as close as he wanted them to be, but still close. However, they weren't close enough for him to simply ask her what was wrong. He knew that she would claim to be fine, but he already knew that it would be a lie. Maybe this quest would help in making Lucy trust him enough to confide in him.

Rufus continued to watch Lucy, moving on to silently curse the fact that he would have to wait longer to ask Lucy on a date. He supposed that he shouldn't be too annoyed about it, though, and should accept it. Considering everything that Lucy had been through and was dealing with, it made sense that she likely wouldn't be sure about having a romantic relationship. Helping her through the trauma that she was going through and getting closer to her was something that he wanted to do. It would take a while, and he was fine with that.

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This chapter is shorter than I thought it would be, but I'm sure that many of the following chapters will be longer. I hope that you enjoyed and don't forget to vote!