"Look, Lucy's tongue has forgotten Yumi, and if she learns that foul vocabulary."

Said my mom, raising her voice, already a bit irritated.

"IF YOU CAN!"

Shouted my niece, finding it all amusing.

"My love, don't say that word, it's ugly."

Said Mirajane, while picking up my niece.

"And you."

Mira continued, now pointing to my brother with a serious face.

"Stop it."

After giving my brother, a piece of her mind, Mira let out an irritated sigh over the situation and turned to me.

"Lu-chan, don't listen to him. You know you're beautiful."

Mira said, trying to comfort me.

My father, who had been silent until that moment for a fraction of seconds, lifted his eyes, and finally, I could understand why he hadn't said anything from the beginning. As a protective father, he didn't want me to go, but he also couldn't deny that the benefits we would gain if I stayed in the contest for a day would help our family a lot.

"Lucy, I'm going to make you win this contest. And I won't be called Layla Heartfilia if I don't get you to sign this form."

Declared my mother, slightly irritated, while taking her napkin from the table and then heading to the kitchen.

Mira, following my mother's example, also left, but not before taking my niece to take a bath. While I cleared the table, my brother and father still remained at the table, sipping tea in that uncomfortable silence until I decided to break it.

"Dad, I'm sorry for everything."

Murmured Lucy, trying to break the uncomfortable silence.

"Don't be silly, my princess. I'm not angry, and I'm not blaming you; you're not at fault."

Said my father, getting up with some difficulty from his chair and walking towards me, planting a loving kiss on my forehead.

"I think I'd better go to sleep now, since tomorrow I have to go back to tending the plants in Mr. Lockser's garden."

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

After my father left the room, everything there returned to pure silence. The only sound I heard was my brother cutting his meat.

"I don't even need to state the obvious, but you know we need this."

Commented my brother without looking at me, still focused on his plate.

After hearing that from him, the last drop of patience I had disappeared, and I got annoyed, glaring at him with a face full of anger.

"So why didn't you sign up?"

Lucy replied, slightly annoyed, glaring at her brother.

My brother raised his eyes from the plate, looked at me before saying something.

"If I could, rest assured, I would have done it already. After all, I would do anything for my family."

After my brother said that, I let out a small laugh with a hint of sarcasm. Not believing what he just said.

"I see, you do everything for the family, just like when instead of finishing your college, you decided to quit to flirt with the professor's daughter?"

When I realized I had said too much, it was already too late. My brother silently got up and didn't say anything as he left the kitchen, but I could tell from his expression that he thought, 'thanks, Lucy, didn't need that.' I knew I had said something I shouldn't have, but I was nervous and ended up speaking too much, as I always did.

After finishing tidying up the kitchen, as a way to clear my mind, I left the house and sat outside, to be more specific, on the small porch we had.

While I was there, thinking about everything happening in my life, I didn't even notice time passing, and when I realized it, it was almost midnight. Before I could go inside, I heard a noise and a car engine turning off. After deducing who it could be, I ended up feeling apprehensive, but I composed myself by running my hands through my hair in a clear attempt to make it look as neat as possible and rushed toward the rosebush.

When I was younger, I used to play picnic a lot near those rose bushes with my friend Juvia, Zeref and my brother Laxus. Before it got boring, we spent so much time playing there that we forgot about our problems. We played a bit of everything there, but if there was one game, we liked best, it was when we pretended to be pirates.

Zeref always played the role of the typical cruel pirate, the one who would do anything to try and kidnap the helpless princess, which in our case was Juvia. I was always left with the worst role, sweeping the deck, and when he wanted to eat, I was forced to prepare the meals. Our dinner was always a pile of dirt and twigs in a pot that Zeref pretended to eat (and rightly so), but to give me more work, he threw it over his shoulder, thus forcing me to sweep the deck straight afterwards. But I didn't think it was a bad thing, I did it proudly, until Prince Laxus (only not) arrived and put up an epic fight against the evil pirate, using a broomstick.

As it was very dark that night, it was a bit challenging for me to reach the rosebush, but I was relieved because I knew I wouldn't be alone there; someone was waiting for me.

While I walked further into the rosebush, someone ended up pulling me by the wrist in a quick and precise movement; after that action, our bodies collided with each other. I knew it was him, the person who made me unable to sleep properly and also the reason I didn't want to sign that letter, let alone go for that selection.

After our bodies stuck together, I could finally see his eyes as black as the night, and unable to take it anymore, I ended up giving a small smile as I stared at him. To make me even more infatuated, he brought our faces closer and spoke.

"Hey there, beautiful!"

Said the unknown person with a mischievous smile on his face while squeezing my buttocks.

RECOGNITION TO MEMBERS:

Matthew Jimenez🤝 - THANK YOU FOR ACTIVATING THE DOMAIN EXPANSION "MAHAYANA PRISON".

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