Scars

No More Hiding

"Lucy," Natsu said, his voice slightly hoarse, his normally childish face serious and determined. He cleared his throat quietly. "Lucy, we need to talk."

The mage in question swallowed. "Do we?" She answered in a small voice, and even to herself it sounded like a whimper. She wanted to kick herself. She was Lucy Heartfilia, celestial mage and member of Fairy Tail, not a crying, flinching little girl who was scared of her father and heartbreakingly alone.

Natsu swallowed.

"Yes."

"Oh." Lucy said, absently irritated with herself that her voice hadn't changed. "Alright."

Gray spoke up. "Are you okay?" He asked, and the question was so simple, so unexpected, that Lucy felt the rising urge to laugh.

"What - me?" Lucy blurted. "Oh, uh, me, I'm, uh, fine." Oh, Mavis, just stop. Stop talking. "Um, fine, yeah, uh, what about . . . uh. . . what about you?"

Gray smiled softly, a gentle, fond look Lucy had only ever seen him give to Juvia when the rain woman wasn't looking. "I'm fine." He said, his voice laced with something - was that amusement?

"Lucy," Erza said simply, and Lucy's head twitched around to look at her. "we're not stupid."

Lucy flinched. It wasn't her intention to make them feel like they thought they were stupid - oh, Mavis, I've messed up - but maybe this was what her father had meant when he had yelled at her that one time when she was six and a half - "You're a disgrace to humanity, girl, you hear me?! A f***ing disgrace. Doesn't matter what you do, you always get something evil out of it, don't you? An evil" - hit - "twisted" - hit - "satisfaction -" - (that was when he had started attacking her, accusing her of murdering her mother with each blow. . . Lucy didn't like to remember her father for obvious reasons).

"I didn't -"

"We know." Erza assured her. "But. . . why did you hide it?"

Lucy felt her eyes harden a little. "I didn't hide anything." She snapped, rising up to her full height and glaring at the team, turning away and gathering the perishables she'd bought in her arms before making her way to her fridge. She kicked herself internally. Way to make yourself look like a stroppy teenager.

"That's a lie." Natsu said, suddenly right behind her. Lucy jolted a little as she put things away but otherwise continued to studiously ignore the flame mage.

"Whether it's a lie or not doesn't matter." Lucy said coldly, but she still wasn't quite sure why she was getting so angry. "What matters is that you leave me alone. I think I've had enough socialness" - (was that even a word?) - "for one day."

She felt a warmth radiating out from somewhere behind her and to the left, and her scarred hand clenched around the packet of bacon so hard that it was squished beyond recognition. She tutted angrily, smoothing it out as much as she could before stuffing it carelesssly into an available space.

"I don't agree." Natsu informed her.

"I don't care." Lucy declared.

"I don't agree with that either."

"Again, I don't care."

"Maybe you should stop." Gray offered, and the statement was so seemingly random and vague that Lucy spun around to look at him. The ice mage was leaning against her doorway; Erza was hovering across the island from Lucy, looking tempted to start helping her unpack the shopping; Natsu was standing behind her, his expression a mixture of annoyance and worry and frustration and something else that Lucy couldn't read.