#aquarius and lucy will argue PASSIONATELY but they are having fun trust me

[moeruhoshi]

Witch AU

I wrote so much of this that I’ve been on such a long fucking block bruh

~000~

“Lucy darling, are you ready for bed?” Layla hummed as she slowly peeked into her daughter’s bedroom, finding the little blonde tightly tucked in with a broad smile spread on her lips.

“Yes, mama! Virgo tucked me in!” The younger Heartfilia chirped as her mother approached her bedside. “Will you tell me the story now?”

“Yes, yes, I promised, didn’t I?” She giggled as the little girl nodded and beamed with bright eyes as Layla took a seat with a leather-bound book ready in her hands.

“Yes!” Lucy snuggled her doll close to her chest as her mother began her most favorite tale again. 

The Boy and the Witch.

It was a love story that began with the life of a young boy in a rural village devoid of magic.

It was entirely unheard of, a sin even. The world had yet to learn that magic was not as inherently evil as they’d all assumed; it was pure and light and brought happiness. Although, it wasn’t terribly easy to teach a concept to people too afraid to even speak of such a thing.

The boy knew of such things but found himself indifferent, neither scared nor obsessed. Magic had yet to even cross his eyes or pierce his soul, so where lied his worries? 

After the boy, would appear the witch. Every now and again, a little girl would be born into the world; one who was beautiful and charming, gifted, and blessed with the powers to do and create anything.

The witches coven existed to teach these girls how to manage their abilities. They were eventually given a choice; to stay in the safety of the coven or leave to live amongst humans.

One girl, in particular, left the coven when she became of age and happened upon the small but busy town amidst her journey. Her beauty allowed her to fall in the accepting arms of the people, a home soon built and full of mortal things she longed to have.

And it was there that she went to the market where she met a boy, the boy unafraid of magic.

Love at first sight, for the young witch. It was a witch’s curse to experience such a mad desire, intense and petrifying, one that clung to the very being of hers meant to be and would never let go. 

He too felt drawn to her favorable beauty, and sweet smile prepared to protect her secret and to hold her heart close always.

“Will I find my love like the good witch in the book?” The tired reflection of the sun yawned as she fell deeper into the fluff of her pillow, smiling softly as her mother placed a kiss upon her forehead. 

“You will, little one, I promise.”

As Lucy grew, she grew with the thoughts of hope and a heart full of the shadow of hers genuinely meant to be. It was not a curse to her but a blessing, to know one day she would be graced with the eternal love of another, somewhere upon the mortal earth.

But her faith shattered one day as she walked about her home, elder witches and sisters happy in the streets until the breakdown of one broke her dear dreams.

“Mama…what happened to Aquarius?” Lucy whined, afraid as she clung to her mother’s skirt, shivering at the sight of her dear friend raging by the stalls, others too afraid to restrain her anger.

“She’s upset, maybe it would be best for us to go home,” Layla quickly turned and held tight to her daughter’s small hand, pulling her through the overcrowded road. 

“M-Mama!” The older woman walked much to fast for the younger to catch up with her, their hands losing each other in the building disarray.

“Lucy!” Aquarius snatched her small body back, frenzied eyes staring at the poor child now stricken with an almighty fear. “It is a lie! The stories are not true!”

“W-Wha––”

“Men lie and kill, hurt for fun! There is no joy in the arms of a man who has no need to keep true to his beloved! Nonesuch rule exists in the mortal realm, love is not true! They love only themselves!”

And why would her sweet sister lie? Why would her most trusted and dearest friend lie? Madness filled her heart, and pulled her into its arms, destroyed her mind and tainted her powers. That was all that lied ahead of love; anger, hate, pain. Stories were only that, stories.

Humans surely had no knowledge of true love. Even if a witch found her destined one, he would not love her as she loved him, no. She would only be pining for a soul never meant to belong to her in the first place.

How dare a man to trick her sweet sister? How dare a man to ruin her most trusted and dearest friend? And how dare the thought of a man almost steal her pure heart as well?!

She would not stand for it! She would do anything to avoid that cruel fate, curse any human who dared even to think of leaving her in that devastating state. After Aquarius had spoken to little Lucy, Layla tried to clear up the misunderstanding with the truth, saying;

“It’s very uncommon for a man to ever betray his witch, please don’t think too much about what she said, dear.” 

But Lucy didn’t buy it. She had no longer had any faith in love.

Lucy bitterly ignored the soon-coming day of her future, the day when all young witches had to leave their coven. It was customary to at least spend a year traveling in the mortal world before settling on the decision whether or not they would return home. 

Lucy planned to begin her travels and move around as often as she could, hoping to avoid anyone that dared approach her too casually. Eventually, she would come right back home and perhaps begin teaching magic to the following generation as her mother had done.

“It’s much…brighter than I imagined,” Lucy sighed as she held her hand up to hide the sun from her eyes, taking in the full view of the field before making her way towards the rocky path sure to lead her into town. No longer trapped behind the faux wall hiding her people, she could begin her journey into strategic hiding.

She soon happened upon a village much like her own, full of busy people moving to and fro, all excited to sell and buy things.

The book she used to love so dearly at least got one thing right, the people were attracted by her masked aura and comparative beauty. She was given food, even money, and a place to stay at the inn free of charge for the next couple of days.

From there, she would charm her way onto the back of merchant carts with a smile or sob story, hiding her true feelings of disdain behind every word. She would ride into different towns with a wooed human taking her somewhere new every week, getting a general feel for how she should move about and interact, calmly moving from place to place as to avoid the man of her future.

Aside from her hassle to avoid her fate, Lucy lived a quaint life. She rarely used her magic outdoors, conjuring money or food in the safety of her own room. She was also efficient in attack spells, could transport and mind wipe; yet having a reason to use such skills.

These abilities proved to her that she was strong, stronger than her heart, stronger than the weak woo of a human. Her magic would be her strength, and she would not fall into despair.

But fate was fate, and fate had no plans of letting her escape its almighty grasp. Witches were meant to fall in love and painfully so. Avoiding fate would only result in its quicker approach, brewing a massive storm of meant-to-be’s. In other words, the day the witch dreaded came upon her suddenly and unfortunately; the day she fell in love.

It was in a seaside town, the name of which she hadn’t bothered to remember. There was a lively marketplace, and she wanted to enjoy some quiet shopping, luckily having found an empty cottage upon the hill to occupy. It seemed like a charming town, far away from other places and only the seventh or eighth rural city she had traveled to. She could settle in that house until it was time for her to go home without a broken heart or impaired magic.

It was only the third month outside of the coven, and no witch had ever met their beloved until the sixth, so she was positive such a meeting was impossible. But her plan to stay holed up quickly came crashing down once she set her eyes upon a boy just her age or possibly even a bit older. 

He was buying fruit it seemed, haggling over the price of honeydew melon with the vendor at a stall. There was a sword sheathed at his side, leather boots on his feet, pants tucked tightly into them, and a billowy tunic hiding his broad chest.

Their eyes met as the wind rustled his long bangs, filling the witch with an indescribable longing. Her heart pounded, and her skin turned hot, even her magic began to spark at her fingertips. His eyes were sharp and pierced her soul, forcing their way into her deepest parts, quickly violating her and melting away the ice that clung to her veins.

Lucy quickly dashed in the opposite direction, running back into her home, crying for the world to take it back.

She felt her mind had gone and was swiftly replaced with obsession. An obsession with seeing him, with touching him, with wanting to hold him close and never let go. But Lucy was quick to reject such a passion for this mere human.

“I cannot…I will not..!” 

But oh, how he’d looked so darling…so beautiful and perfect, absolutely enchanting. This is what the witch in her story felt, how her body burned with delicate flames when she met her true love. Even as her eyes had only set on him for the briefest of moments, it was all her heart needed to be swayed. 

Sleep finally graced her, thoughts calmed from the beautiful man; though dreams filled themselves with the immortal moment that the boy argued for his fruit.

…Maybe…hopefully, she would see him there tomorrow.

But no, he wasn’t there. Nor was he the next day, or the one after that. A week passed, and then another, he was entirely and absolutely nowhere to be found.

She was restless and oddly itchy, twitching with nervousness. Her body buzzed with a whirlwind of…whatever she was feeling; something that continued to build up and practically overboil inside of her. The frustration of being unable to find him grew unsteadily, her stomach twisting with nausea as she could not control anything within her heart.

Lucy would stalk the marketplace and mildly stare down each person who walked in front of her, making sure none of them could be the boy she had seen. As much as she hated to do it, she could not resist the urge that called her to continue a search for him. The swimming feeling reminded her of hunger, something that became rapidly natural for her body to do. 

How hard was it to find someone with such distinctive curly brown hair anyways?! In the wake of foolish desperation, she begged the fruit vendor to know if she knew the boy.

“Oh, that boy? Sure, he lives quite a ways away, though. Only stops into town every once in a while. Idiot that one is though, always paying triple the price for food and never lettin’ anyone return the money.” The woman chuckled and shook her head. “Why don’t you take a melon since he already paid for it? And it’ll be a good snack if you want to walk up to that house of his. Can’t say you’ll get very far even if you do, the fella’s second prince of this nation.”

Second prince, Natsu Atlas Dragneel, born to the King Igneel Atlas Dragneel and name omitted lowly maid of the royal palace. The first prince and rightful heir to the throne were Ignia Giltena Dragneel, born to the King and his Queen.

Such facts were easy enough for her to look up in the town’s library, but Lucy wished she hadn’t been so desperately interested to seek out such answers in the first place.

It was equally as easy for her to gain gossip on the royalty amongst other townfolks, no one was very tight-lipped when all she did was bat a soft eyelash.

“I hear the prince isn’t so interested in politics, too rowdy and energetic for that sort of thing,” A bartender spoke as he absentmindedly dried wooden beer steins with a dishtowel. “Don’t go tellin’ anyone, but I can’t let him back in here after the mess he made when a couple of us guys gave him his first sip of ale. Was pretty funny though, drunk youngins make for good entertainment,”

“Why does he live so far from the capital?” Lucy asked as she twirled her finger passively in the drink she’d ordered moments ago.

“I heard the first prince has a pretty bad temper, doesn’t really like the boy though he don’t care any for the throne. I’m sure Ol’ King Igneel ordered it as a precaution; his highness comes through town to visit the boy often. But I’m sure a lot of folks around here would like it better if he were runnin’ things in the future. A real smart one he is, even as a natural-born idiot,”

“Any reason, in particular, you’ve got an interest in the kid?” Another man snickered, drunk and flushed with red as he hiccuped in the barstool beside her. “Infatuated, are ya? Lot of pretty young things think he’s quite the catch,”

“I do not!” Lucy quickly snapped, although the men could see her apparent embarrassment, more than tipped off by her attempt them to push their thoughts in the ‘proper’ direction.

“Royalty marries royalty, I’ll have you mind. Loving that boy will get you nowhere,” The bartender offered her the advice as he continued his work until others shouted his way and asked for another pint.

Love, the curse, the horrific end of her life. It was already happening, her magic suddenly submissive to the feet of a man. He would tame her, crush her, and throw her away as had Aquarius’ man had done. She would soon become mad and unhinged, such an ending was inevitable. The bartender was right, loving him would get her nowhere.