It's been a while but I hope you all enjoy the update! Sorry for it taking so long!

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03| JEWELS

It had been one month since Lucy found out the Sakamaki brother's secret, how they were vampires and that she was legally bound by contract to the six of them. Even if the way that contract came to be was completely illegal and out of her hands, due to the fact that she signed it in messy cursive of her six-year-old self, but what was done was done and there was very little she could do about it.

Yet she was a celestial mage, she kept her promises no matter how they came to be, and apparently, it extended out to vampires. Bound by contract, Lucy couldn't do much to protect herself from the bloodlust of the Sakamaki brothers or their aggressive ways. Hell, she could only yell at Laito when he decided to grope her, but she could do very little to stop them from feeding off her. Yui though, Lucy tried to protect her in every sense because, in a way, it gave Lucy some sense of purpose in this new life she found herself in.

Reiji had to explain it to her once she woke up from the first bites Ayato and Laito had given her, explaining she lost a little too much blood due to Laito's lack of control and gave her a glass of cranberry juice with one of Kanato's cookies. He then further explained that the contract was put into motion for the next year until she chose one of them for a husband.

"I don't get it, just a year?" Lucy questioned, taking a sip of her cranberry juice warily. "I thought my father made this contract since I was a child."

"He did." Reiji nodded in agreement. "The contract clearly stated that after a year of knowing us, you would choose who to wed. It could have been when you were five, you could have lived with us as a child and whoever you chose then, even as a childhood fixation, that would be your husband now. Do you understand?"

Lucy did understand, she understood she never escaped that life. Yet a part of her did know her father wanted to spare her at a time, maybe that was why he never did send her as a child or maybe he was just waiting. With a soft sigh, Lucy could only nod her head. She had been shown the official contract already, where her childish handwriting scribbled in cursive as an agreement.

She was locked into this arrangement, and due to her morals, she would not run, she would not defy her promise. If she broke a promise now, what kind of Celestial Mage was she?

"Just so you understand, Miss Heartfilia, you belong to each one of us until you choose who you will marry in a year." Reiji continues to advise.

Lucy frowned. "How will I know any of you will want to marry me?"

Reiji gave a humorless smile as if the question seemed to amuse him. "Anyone of us would take you as a wife, you're powerful and possess a magic that seems to be rare in this world. Imagine the children you'd have with one of us."

Only Lucy didn't want to envision children with anyone else, only a certain pink haired man, the very man who left her. She never voiced how she felt about Natsu, but she knew deep down she loved him and craved something more. Yet it was a high possibility she would never see him again. She would have to let those feelings and him go, along with the rest of the guild.

"As part of the contract, since you belong to us, just like Yui, you're blood is ours to take when we want it." Reiji watched as Lucy's brown eyes narrowed at him, amused that this girl still had some fire in her. Then again she was a mage, she wasn't as human as Yui was.

"I'm not some object for you all to use at your beck and call." Lucy quipped, crossing her arms under her chest with the same defiance she had with her father burning in her brown orbs. "I'll let you feed, but I want the same respect in return as you expect of me."

Reiji gave her a leveled stare, and in that moment Lucy didn't waver as she stared him back down with her brown eyes into his light red eyes. It was clear she wasn't backing down because in every sense Lucy did not fear the six vampire brothers.

"You can have that." Reiji agreed, dismissing Lucy from the study that once used to be her father's.

After the disbandment of Fairy Tail with everyone going their separate ways and Natsu leaving with Happy days before leaving only a note behind, Lucy had been rather lonely. In a way, she had been depressed, losing her second family, Aquarius, and the very person she held dear to her heart.

Hell, had she been able to explain her situation to the blue-haired siren, Lucy knew that she would wash them away. Even if doing so would have great consequences, but Lucy would pay them in a heartbeat. She would give anything to see that scornful expression Aquarius always had on that caused people to cower in fear on the spot. She couldn't call her beloved siren ever again.

Now the Heartfilia Estate was legally owned by the Sakamaki's, which didn't particularly bother Lucy like she thought it should have. It was a bit nostalgic to be living in the mansion again, with the miles and miles of empty roads with no one around. She spent her time in her old room, looking out the very windows she did as a child, only this time she lacked the yearning of leaving the grounds of the Estate.

Why would she anyway?

She had nowhere to go, no one to find or to see. She had her spirits, she had her magic, she had Yui to protect now. The blonde had seen how the brothers treated the platinum blonde, and so far Lucy had taken some of the aggressive behavior from Yui. If she could handle Jackal and everything else she had been through with Fairy Tail, she could handle the six pure blood brothers.

"Miss Heartfilia." Reiji had become accustomed to calling Lucy by her last name, insisting that it showed good mannerism to refer to a lady by her birth title even in another world.

Only the second eldest Sakamaki hadn't been happy with Lucy resenting her title, resulting in giving her a punishment. That punishment being that she would continue her studies she stopped when she ran away, since it was required anyway seeing as she was to be one of their wives.

"Yes, Reiji-san?" Lucy asked softly, looking away from the window she had been looking out of from the window seat she sat in. He stood by her door, watching her every movement. She learned over the month that  Reiji wanted her to act like a lady, address him correctly, and it was easier to just agree than to arugue over something so meaningless to her.

"Can you tell me why none of the shops in town take my money nor my brothers?" Reiji questions the blonde, who looked confused as to what Reiji was speaking of.

"Money?" Lucy really didn't think it was all that complicated. "They should just take the jewels."

"Jewels?" It was Reiji's turn to be confused. "Is that you form of currency?"

Reiji then continued with pulling out a few twenty dollar bills, handing them over to the curious blonde. She took the paper bills, turning them around in her hand and expecting them with a hum as if the green paper was something alien and interesting. Mostly everything in Fiore was paid with jewels, the paper form of currency was new to her.

"So this is your form of money." Lucy peered up at Reiji. "We don't use this here, we use jewels from jobs."

"Do you have a job Miss Heartfilia?" Reiji asked yet another question, his ruby eyes calculating.

"No, I don't have a job as of now. Well, not an everyday job in town at least." Lucy admits to him, going on to explain how mages worked once again. "I already explained this before. Since I was a Fairy Tail mage I went on missions, jobs- whatever you want to call them, with my team. Once we completed the task, the client would pay us the reward money and we'd go back to the guild after splitting the reward evenly among us."

"Is that a normal for a job here? To do the bidding of others?" Reiji was intrigued, Lucy could tell. "Do you have jewels now?"

Lucy shook her head, "Not enough for everyone in this household. We'll have to go on solo missions, jobs. Though I don't know how useful you'll be besides having the speed, super strength, and fangs." Lucy was positive that a Dragon Slayer could defeat the brothers, despite how much Ayato and Laito would boast about being indestructible against any mages. "Maybe it's time to get day jobs."

"Or you can just become an exotic dancer, Ore-sama would certainly like that very much, Melons." Ayato cut in with a seductive purr as he teleported into her room on her bed.

Lucy's cheeks puffed out in annoyance at the redhead who stared at her with his piercing green eyes. He held no boundaries and was just as bad as Laito when it came to getting handsy. She thought that men in the guild were perverted, but Ayato and Laito had gone to show her that just the two of them alone were worse.

"Ore-sama can shove that idea in a can and toss it in the trash." Lucy quipped at him, not on board at all with that idea. "I can go on a solo mission and come back with jewels afterward."

By the look on the two brother's faces that idea wasn't an option. Ayato was staring at her as if she was plain stupid, and the Reiji was just frowning at her, successfully letting Lucy know her ideas were bad.

"And give you the chance to run away without a trace?" Ayato smirked at her, tsking and teleporting in front of her to grip her chin while leaning in close. "Do we look stupid? You aren't leaving our sights, let alone this house without one of us escorting you."

Lucy's brown eyes narrowed in anger, standing fast enough to push Ayato away from her and stand her ground. "I'm not going to be stuck in this house for the rest of my life waiting for permission to do things." Lucy crossed her arms, looking at Reiji now. "You talked about respect, well let's talk about trust. How can I trust you, when you all clearly don't trust me enough not to come back."

Yet of course Lucy originally was planning to run and never looking back, but she couldn't leave Yui alone here to endure the brothers and she couldn't just break a contract, not knowing what consequences there was in the said contract. Then, of course, her word was her binding.

"Then Subaru and Ayato will accompany you on a job." Reiji's words were finalized by the tone he used, leaving no room for either the redhead or the blonde to object as he left the room to get Subaru.

"Oi! Tableware freak! I didn't agree to go on a job with Melons!" Ayato called after him. "What the hell is a job here anyway?!"

"Well, I didn't ask to get stuck with your loud mouth either!" Lucy yelled after Ayato as he yelled after Reiji, both running out of the room. "I would think it wouldn't be much different than how you earned money in your dimension!"

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Subaru wasn't happy to be chosen to go on a job either, in fact, he kept muttering how it should have been Shuu since he was the oldest. Other than that it was Ayato and Subaru arguing all the way to the train station with Lucy growing annoyed rather quickly with each step they took.

"I didn't want to get stuck on babysitting duties," Subaru added on, only egging Lucy on further into her annoyance.

"Like I wanted to be stuck with a tsundere like you." Lucy retorted as they got to the train station, successfully ignoring the low growl that came from the said vampire.

The blonde celestial mage had successfully gotten a job request from one of the local bars just outside the town over from the Heartfilia Estate, which was easy to get to with Ayato's and Subaru's ability to teleport, which took Lucy by surprise at first. Yet it came more in handy than Lucy would care to admit. Ayato was arrogant enough as is to be told he was actually useful.

"What is this mission about anyway?" Ayato tried to ask the question as if he didn't care, but Lucy could still hear the twinge of curiosity from the redhead.

"It's a simple job." Lucy started out, glancing over at Ayato, who flanked her left side while Subaru flanked her right. "We are going to the mountains to collect a rare herb for one of the medical practitioners that lives in the village we just came from."

"A herb?" Ayato hissed out, coming to an abrupt stop as they walked into the train station, which Lucy had been pretty adamant about going on to travel. "I feel like a misheard you when you just said we were going all this way for a stupid ass herb."

"Nope." Lucy popped the 'p' with a shake of her head. "You heard me right. The herb holds rare healing qualities that only grow every twenty-five years, and have a short lifespan if not harvested and preserved correctly. Which means after we obtain the herb, we have exactly forty-eight hours to get back to the client before the herb dies and we fail the mission."

"We still get paid right?"

"Are you an idiot?" Lucy asked while Subaru gave him a look as well. "If we fail the mission then we have nothing to get paid for."

In that moment, Ayato merely grumbled as Lucy grabbed his arm and dragged him onto their designated train. As far as they were, things were going pretty smoothly, surprisingly. Subaru hadn't really snapped at anyone, only dishing out a few glares here or there to anyone who came close to them or Lucy in general when she wasn't paying attention ( the blonde wasn't as observant as she let on to be). Ayato had been complaining about everything, which wasn't far off what Lucy had been expecting.

For a second Lucy had stopped at the cart they were seated at by ticket, her brown eyes locked on the seat by the window. She used to sit there, in a cart just like this with Team Natsu, happy and looking forward to the next adventure while Natsu groaned with motion sickness and Wendy apologizing profoundly.

Now it all seemed so cold, the warmth of the memory did nothing but lower Lucy's mood. Maybe it was time to finally allow herself to accept her family was truly gone. There was a time she contemplated tracking everyone, all their movements. Yet what kind of life was that?

The guild was gone, and so was everyone in it. They all went their own ways with burdens in their hearts and inner demons to deal with. Erza left, Gray left, Wendy, Carla, Mira, Laxus, Happy, and Natsu. They all simply left, taking a piece of Lucy with them.

Of course, there had been that childish thought that they just needed time and they would come back, so she waited. One week turned two, and then the weeks turned into months and by the third and a half months, she had enough. Loke had to be the one to encourage her it would be healthier for her to leave as well, and maybe one day she would meet them again.

Yet Lucy had no hope of ever seeing her previous family again. They wouldn't come the Heartfilia Estate, there was no reason to when they would be taking missions and training to get stronger. The irony about everything was that she ended up in the exact same place she originally ran away from home and joined Fairy Tail for.

No one was going to come to her aid anymore. She didn't expect Natsu or Gray or Erza or even Happy to come. The days where they would break into her apartment and invade her personal space were over. They wouldn't climb through the windows of her room at the Estate. They wouldn't come check on her. She was alone in this with her spirits, her forever loyal spirits she held so dear to her heart.

The very spirits she sacrificed one for her family, the guild that disbanded and strayed away. Yet she held no ill will towards them. Her predicament was not her fault, and by the sounds of it, it was something that was to inevitably happen sooner or later. Lucy, was in every sense, a debt to be collected.

"You okay there, Melons?" Ayato called, snapping the celestial mage out of the trace she had been staring at the train window.

Lucy, looking over at Ayato, nodded. "Yeah, sorry. Just a bit sleepy."

"Then sleep," Subaru muttered, sitting down in the seat across Ayato, leaving her window seat open. "From I understand, the more rest you have the more alert you'll be later if you have to use your magic."

Lucy hummed in response, silently sitting down without actually commenting on what Subaru had just said. He wasn't wrong in the slightest. Leaning back, Lucy let her brown eyes stare out the small window as the train came to life with a loud whistle.

Only this time the ride wasn't filled with Natsu's groaning, or Happy curled on her head, or Erza and Gray speaking about how they should go about the mission. It was filled with a tense silence between the three of them with Ayato leaning back at watching Lucy intensely with his green eyes and Subaru looking as if he smelled something unpleasant that caused him to be annoyed.

The memory of the train cart had officially gone from warm to cold. 

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