Insane

STORY TIME!

After hours of excruciatingly painful beat downs and takedowns, the four finally managed to take Lucy down. And even when they did, they only had a five second window before Lucy got back up again, rushing to stop them from ringing the bell. But they finally did it.

"Yes! Thank you, lord! I knew you were listening!" Gray shouted as his knees hit the floor with a resounding thud. He let his body go loose and he flopped down onto the grassy green field.

The girls laughed at his behavior while Lucy and Natsu just chuckled.

"Hey Lucy, you want a water bottle?" Juvia had asked. After the training session, they seemed to take a liking to Lucy, and despite the tiny bit of disappointment and anxiety in their eyes when they looked at her, they seemed relaxed around her.

"Nah, I'm good. This was just a warm up for me. Once you train with the big leagues, this seems like child's play."

Erza uncapped her bottle and took a big swig, letting her words sink in. Once she swallowed, her questions surfaced. "And who would the big leagues be?"

"Well, the Zodiac Gang, for one. Then this one league in a place called Nanda Parbat. I doubt you've ever heard of it though and if you have, you'll never find it. And then this one huge Russian gang. That one was a doozy! I got into a lot of trouble with that one," she trailed off with a chuckle.

"You know you talk about your past and the things you've done so causally, it feels like your taking about a date you went on," Lisanna added.

"Yeah, well, what's the point in hiding things? I'm pretty sure that guy," she pointed towards Natsu, "has a file of all of the things that I've done and that involve me."

"Well, you're not wrong."

"See?"

Gray nodded his head in understanding. "So if it's no big deal, you mind telling us some stuff about yourself?"

Lucy stiffened, but she realized that if she wanted to get these people to trust her she had to open up to them. She's learned that that is the only way to get someone's trust. If you want someone to be vulnerable, you have to show them your vulnerability.

She let out a chuckle and said "Why the h*ll not? Gather around the fire kids! It's story time!"

Everyone made their way surrounding her, even Natsu. He turned on the bug he had planted in his jacket so he could write her side of the story down and add it to the file later.

"Okay, well I guess I'll start with the crappy times. You guys choose. Prison or torture? You got two seconds."

Their eyes widened. They looked at each other, as if the other could decide for them.

"Times up! Prison it is! Let's see. Everything about it was crappy. The put me in a cage with no real bed. It sucked. And the food?! Blargh! It wasn't even real solid food! They stuck a tube up my nose and fed me flavoring!"

They looked at each other, not knowing how they could keep the conversation going. Lucy was playing it off as if it was no big deal, but they all saw the pain in her eyes.

Erza patted her back awkwardly -still not being completely comfortable around her and not knowing how to comfort people-, yet understandingly. She could imagine what she went through. She went through something similar, after all. But she had people to help her through it.

Lucy had no one.

Erza had people to guide her to the right path while Lucy only had her thoughts, memories and nightmares to pull her deeper into the dark side.