Protection: A Fairy Tail Fanfiction

Chapter Five: Direction

 "No solution can ever be found by running in three different directions." - Deepak Chopra

CHAPTER V: Direction

"HI."

Zeref nearly choked on the piece of bread that Mirajane – the demon mage – had given him. He'd stayed in Fairy Tail for a grand total of three days so far, and no one had come up to talk to him since. Not that he felt really sad over that—he was used to it, and it was better for him not to form attachments. Slowly, ever so slowly, he raised his eyes to meet the steady stare of the brown-eyed girl with blond hair—the Celestial mage, Natsu's friend. She had a white bandage wrapped around her neck still, but he figured that she was recovering since she was able to walk around already.

"Um..."

She smiled a little, her initial wary expression melting away a little into something a little more open. Friendly? Kind? He didn't know how to describe her face—it had been a very long time since he had been around people who weren't aristocrats trying to receive the most power.

"Don't worry. I don't bite. Well, until you break into my apartment, steal my food or destroy a building. Then you may get a Lucy Kick."

Lucy must be her name then. He didn't understand the list though, but he nodded as if he did. It was probably some Fairy Tail thing—Mavis had always been a bit crazy. (Not like him.) "Okay. I won't do any of that."

She groaned and sat down in the chair. "Ugh, don't say that. Now you probably will someday. Everyone has broken into my apartment just once, even if it's just to say they have."

That... was a whole new level of insanity. He knew there was a reason why he had been attracted to Mavis before her curse. She was just as insane as he was. Her guild proved it. The girl—Lucy—smiled widely, like a sunbeam maybe? If the sun could be in a person, that is. "You get use to it eventually."

"I... will?"

"You will."

He considered asking her more about that, but decided against it before he really thought it through. He wouldn't be in Fairy Tail long enough to anyway; they would probably turn him into the council long before he could understand them. Heavens know that was what he would do if he was in their place.

"All right," she suddenly sounded like she was preparing for some battle, which brought his attention back to her. "I need to recharge the suppressant."

He automatically lifted the sleeve of his toga so that the small metal bracelet shone in the sunlight. Lucy pulled out a silver key— Wait, was she the Celestial Mage? Before he could ask, or react, she was chanting, "Gate of the southern cross, I open thee! Crux!"

Later, if someone asked him to describe what Lucy's magic looked like, he would describe it as light. A golden glow lit up around the key she brandished in the air, and he could hear a hum that sounded like bell chimes. The air stirred around him.

A silver cross appeared out of thin air, floating up and down as if it were a boat. Part of him wanted to take the clock apart to see if it had some type of machine that enabled it to fly; the other part yelled at that part for thinking about technology that was long gone in the past. But then he realized that this nice girl had summoned the cross; that she was a Celestial Mage... and he had to physically control the urge to flinch away from her.

Slavery. Charisma. Danger.

"Hi Crux!"

"Hello, Lucy-sama!"

He was quite familiar with how fear sounded and looked like, and he could not hear it coming from Crux's voice. There was adoration in it, and an underlying fierce protectiveness that he couldn't quite understand. Oh, he understood protectiveness —he felt it toward Natsu, even now—and he certainly knew what adoration was thanks to Tartaros, but what he did not understand was why they were directed at this girl. She was, in essence, their master and they were her slaves; surely they would resent her for her cruelty?