The Armor (Prince Harry fanfic #1)

Chapter Fourteen

Harry and Lucy sat in the back, almost falling into the surroundings. Neither of them had attended a wedding before like this, and it was best to go with the flow of some things. Lucy had pulled on Harry's arm to go forward, to join the rest of the group, but Harry wanted to wait back and watch. His blue eyes watched the crowd and the back of the heads, and Lucy glanced at him. He never even noticed. Lucy was quick at him, only glancing out of her peripheral vision. His features burned in the bright sun. Lucy focused on the wedding again.

Harry glanced over to Lucy, less than a second, catching her looking casual for a second. The armor was off. She wasn't focused on protection. No one was coming for her. No one was coming for them. He should relax, go with her, but when he was so focused on her, he kept himself up. He wanted to look better for her, and he thought she didn't even look. He decided whenever she did look, if she ever looked, he would be ready for her.

Lucy told herself to stop. He was Prince Charming, but she wasn't a commoner. Almost laughing outright, she thought about the Cinderella wedding, with the glitter and fame. She didn't want that, and there wasn't a commoner involved. Granted, there was one person who wasn't royalty, but they came from money. She had enough money, never really having a job for minimum wage. Lucy screamed for herself to stop. Harry wasn't part of her world; well, she wasn't apart of his. She didn't want to be, she told herself.

Harry, the Prince Charming of young girls' dreams, caught sight of Lucy from the corner of her eye. She had been watching the wedding casually, away from the eyes of the world, but he knew she wasn't really paying attention to the wedding in front of her gaze. Her eyes shined a little brighter, something happy, something funny, which amused her. Her features softened again, not a happy thought but like a cliff dive, slowly falling through the air. Then her armor came up again, suddenly ready for a battle. Her eyes shined hard, thinking about something for a little too long. Harry focused in front of him again, aware that she might catch him.

Lucy had noticed him glancing, even though he trained himself forward. He was getting harder to watch, as well, as he was having a hard time watching her. He almost caught her looking, and she didn't want that discussion. She wasn't just another one the girls who followed him around. She wouldn't be like that. But he might think of her like that. She was no one's second choice, and she surely wouldn't have been lumped into a group like that. She wouldn't be known as the girl he married. She was a woman. She wouldn't be on his arm, quiet and polite.

Harry noticed Lucy had grown tense, still, like something completely bothered her. Anger radiated off her in waves. He felt as if some of it was directed at him. There was mistrust in her eyes. A defining silence almost swallowed him up whole. With the whole world around him, he felt alone. All he wanted to was reach out and touch her. He wanted to hold her hand. He wanted to ask her if she was okay, if he was daring, what was wrong. He wanted to make her happy again. But his hand wouldn't move. He told himself to go, to make the move, but he didn't. He wasn't brave enough, not bold enough.

Lucy knew his eyes watched her carefully. He saw her anger. He probably felt her angry, and she had done this to herself. He hadn't done anything to her, yet. Lucy told herself to shut up, to stop feeling pain, nothing happened. She had stabbed out of her own heart at the moment. She decided Harry probably didn't even feel that way about her, like she was just another girl to him. She wouldn't just be another girl who crushed on him.

Harry wondered how Lucy saw herself in the room, as she grew tense, slowly coming undone from the happiness she once had. Harry saw Lucy clearly in the world: one in seven billion, more unique than that really. She could have started World War III and she could have solved all the problems of the world. She was strength. She was bravery. But she looked at herself just as another human being, what he always wanted to be, but would never accomplish. He told himself to let her go.

She told herself to stop. He wasn't worth it. But her mind always came back to him. She heart was already there. Lucy scolded himself.

He muttered to himself to stop.

With the awkward sound that hit Lucy like a truck, she turned to him, wondering what he spoke. His eyes met hers, and neither of them looked away. She was power in the best way, changing hearts and charging the injustices. He was human, always human and class, breathing and beating. Her eyes were calculated, measuring him. Her mind pondered him, how he looked today. She couldn't think of the words. As for Harry, his eyes were wide, screaming at himself for being so stupid and talking aloud. He told himself to not look away, but Lucy was the one with all the power.

The crowd started cheering, and they were forced out of their even gaze. The two went back into the world of now, not tomorrow, joining everyone else to cheer for the happy couple under the sun. Lucy was the first one to look away, to join everyone else, and Harry swore under his breath. People moved around them, swallowing them up whole. Their bodies were torn apart, going in opposite ways. When Harry looked back, Lucy was lost in the crowd.

His eyes searched for her, and he caught her hair in the sunlight for a second. She walked away, maybe taken away or maybe rushed away. Either way, she moved farther away from him.