Always and Forever

Nalu Week Fanfic

Background: Natsu and Lucy have been married for ten years now. Over the years, Natsu finally became an S-class wizard, and takes on countless jobs to support his wife and two kids, Nashi and Neel. Lucy on the other hand, works her celestial magic part-time and has recently published her novel that she's been working on ever since she was a teen. Though the two have been very successful, they have been growing apart over the years. It's to the point where only a few words are said to each other on the daily.

Summary: Lucy looks for her 'wedding day' box, in hopes to regain how much she and her husband once loved each other.

Always and Forever

"Here it is." The golden blonde mage said to herself. "Our Wedding Day box."

Lucy-Heartfilia Dragneel decided to look for her old Wedding Day box in the basement of their house. She thought that if she could look upon what was inside that box, it would bring back the love that is now lost.

She flopped the box onto the floor, sending dust flying everywhere. As she crawled down the ladder, she knew deep in her mind, she shouldn't be doing this.

"You're only hurting yourself…" her inner thoughts called to her.

Ignoring her thoughts, Lucy picked up the box and headed back upstairs. As she walked, she could see her little pink-haired monster grinning at her.

"Mommy!" the little girl beamed

"Hi sweetie!" Lucy smiled as she slightly struggled with the weight of the box. "Whatchya doing Nashi?"

"Nooooottthinnngg"

"Where's your big brother?" the blonde mother asked

"He's outside playing with Happy." Nashi said

"Oh yeah?" Lucy said, now walking inside her room

"Mhmm!"

Nashi gazed at the box with wonder. In her sweet innocent mind, she thought the box held a big toy for her and Neel to both play with.

"What's that?!" Nashi asked as she poked the withered box.

"It's ummmmm…A time machine!" Lucy stammered

Her daughters eyes widened in amazement. Never in Nashi's whole life did she think they had a time machine kept inside their basement.

With such curiosity and wonder, the girl asked if she could see it, but Lucy shook her head.

"Not yet, sweetie…I need to fix it." Lucy explained to her little girl

"It's broken?"

"Yeah, kinda." Lucy sighed, now thinking of her marriage. Nashi could hear the ache in her mother's voice so she gave her mother a hug and told her she would leave her be to fix the time machine.

"When I'm done, we'll go on an adventure back in time!" Lucy shouted as her daughter ran out the room.

"Yeah!" She could hear little Nashi's voice squeal in delight.

Lucy smiled, "She's so much like her father…"

Now that Lucy had some privacy, she began to gaze at the box herself.

"Why am I doing this?" she uttered to herself. The Celestial mage knew that her relationship hit rock bottom when Natsu stopped wearing his wedding ring. In return, Lucy stopped wearing hers. The two no longer spoke or even touched each other. Natsu would run out the door whenever he was given a chance to fulfill a huge JOB request. It was like he never wanted to be home with Lucy.

"What was the point of opening this box," Lucy now began to thought, "our marriage is hitting rock bottom for us…"

After moments of thinking, Lucy sighed to herself, "I at least have to try…"

She began to unpeel through the ancient tape that kept the box bound. She could feel herself get nervous with each tape that ripped off. When the box finally opened, a familiar perfume puffed out from the box. Lucy unfolded the box's flaps only to reveal a white lace and tulle gown.

"My dress…" Lucy mumbled to herself.

She picked it up by the sleeves, holding it ever so delicately. "I remember when Virgo brought this dress back from the Celestial world."

Lucy clung to the dress as she brought it closer to her face. She closed her eyes and started to remember how everyone awed at her when they first saw her in the gown. Lucy could even recall the face Natsu made as she walked down the aisle.

"I'm the luckiest guy alive." Natsu had said to his bride.

Lucy snapped out of her daydream and fell back into reality.

"Enough of that, let's move on." She said as she set her dress aside. She rummaged through all the old wedding cards and decorations until she felt a small board at the bottom.

Lucy picked it up, only to unveil Natsu and Lucy's wedding portrait.

She could feel the lump in her throat grow bigger and her eyes began to water as she stared at the smiling newlyweds.

Natsu had a huge grin as he clutched onto his bride. Lucy, in her beautiful gown, blushed as she looked at her smiling husband. In the background, all of the Fairytail members were cheering and clapping. Lucy could remember Elfman being the one to cry the most as he saw the two get married.

She smiled as she gazed at the portrait.

"We were so happy…"

She put the painting back inside the box, but noticed something odd. There was an envelope taped to the back.

"That's weird. I don't remember putting this there."

Lucy snagged it off the portrait and started opening it. It wasn't until she unfolded the old paper when she remembered what it was.

"Our wedding vows…" She stuttered

Lucy looked up, tears flowing down her cheeks, as she brought the papers to her chest.

"…give me strength…" she whispered to herself.

Lucy began to read through the vows she made to Natsu. She remembered every line she wrote and had said to him. Nothing she said about the way she felt towards Natsu changed. Lucy was so in love with him for many reasons. For his strength, bravery, and dorkiness. It was Natsu's vow that made time seem to stop for Lucy.

Lucy unfolded Natsu's vow to her.

"Luce…" she began to read, "Today I don't just get to only marry my guild partner, I get to marry my best friend. I know I can be kind of a jerk sometimes and I can get worked up over nothing, but just know that I love you…truly and sincerely…Lucy, you have always been there for me whenever I needed someone. You're the first person I think about when I wake up and when I fall asleep. When I met you…I had no idea how drastically my life was going to change. Our love…our bond we share…happens once in a lifetime. Just once. When we were young, and both going on crazy adventures, I realized through your laughter and kind-heartedness, that you are the love of my life. The one who I want to protect. The one who I want to spend the rest of my life with. So today, I give myself to you in marriage, to honor and cherish you. To love you know matter how much we tend to bicker or tease each other. To protect you, and to stand by you, until the day I die."

At the sight of these words, Lucy began to uncontrollably sob. She longed for the same love and passion her husband had once given her.

"Come back to me Natsu!" Lucy cried out. "Come back!"

Lucy lay on her bed, crying for what seemed quite a while. She released all the hurt that was pent up inside.

"I need to tell him…" Lucy trembled, "I need to tell him how much I love him still."

Pulling herself together, she rushed outside to her backyard where the kids and Happy were.

"Neel!" Lucy shouted, grabbing the attention of her blonde-haired son.

Neel rushed over to his mother's side. Lucy could tell he had been playing in the dirt with Happy since his shirt was covered in mud.

"What's wrong?" The brown-eyed boy said

"Take care of your sister, I'll be right back in a bit."

"What? Where are you going?!" Neel exclaimed

"I'm going to the guild hall, I have to talk to your father." Lucy explained briefly, "I'll be right back."

Lucy then looked over to Happy. "Keep an eye on them while I'm gone!" She smiled

"Aye!" chirped the blue exceed.

Lucy began to run out the door until she remembered something.

"Wait!" she yelled to herself. She scurried over to her room and picked up the only significant jewelry she had, her wedding ring.

She put it in her pocket and ran over to the guild hall.

When Lucy arrived at the Fairytail guild hall, she burst right through the doors.

"Natsu!" She yelled out, grabbing the attention of others.

"Hiyah luce, long time no see!" members of the guild called out. She waved hi to them, but continued looking for her husband.

She spotted him at the bar, chatting and drinking with Gray.

"Natsu." Lucy patiently said to him

Natsu spun his bar stool around and was shocked at seeing his wife's presence.

"Lucy?!" he exclaimed, "Why aren't you with the kids?"

"Because…" she said, "I need to talk to you."

Natsu was a bit stunned and confused on his wife's sudden behavior. Lucy never came into the guild hall unless it was for work. Furthermore, she never barged into the guild demanding to talk to him.

"Lucy, I'm about to go on a job request with Gray." Natsu complained, "Can't it wait?"

Gray chuckled as he rolled his eyes and went back to his drinking.

"No, it has to be now." Lucy demanded.

Now annoyed, Natsu began to raise his voice at her. "Well, it can't be here…not with everyone around!"

"Fine, then let's go home…if I can't talk to you, at least let me show you."

Natsu rolled his eyes, "Fine, let's go."

The couple walked back home together. Lucy was dying to tell him right there and then about how she felt towards him, but she knew going back to the house to talk about it was a better idea. The two walked in silence, having awkward tension between them. Finally Natsu began to speak up.

"Mirajane read the book." He finally said.

"The book?" Lucy said a bit confused

"Yeah, you know the one about Fairytail back when we were kids."

"ohh! My book."

"She said she loved it, and it reminded her of the good old times." Natsu added, "It seems like yesterday when we were rebuilding Fairytail back." He said glancing at Lucy a bit.

Lucy shyly smiled, "Yeah it does, doesn't it?"

When they reached back home, the parents heard tidbits of giggling coming from their bedroom. Curious, the two walked over to see what their mischievous children were up to.

"Nashi, Neel?" Natsu said as he peeked inside the room.

"DADDY!" the two squealed in delight, as the rushed over to their father.

Natsu picked up the kids and nuzzled them. This made Lucy's heart swell.

"What are you two doing huh?" He laughed as he set them back down.

Nashi began to explain that she was going to help her Mommy by rebuilding the time machine for her.

"A time machine?" Natsu said a bit confused.

"Yeah! But all we could find were pictures of you and Mommy!" Nashi beamed.

Natsu took a step forward to see what she was talking about. His heart throbbed when he saw it was the stuff from Lucy and his wedding.

"Kids…" Natsu finally said, "Can Mommy and I spend some time alone? We have to talk."

Lucy nervously gulped at those words. She knew Natsu wasn't going to be happy with her.

The kids dashed out the room shutting it behind them. When Natsu thought they were gone, he began to talk.

"What's all this?" he asked

Lucy walked up to him, now beginning to shake.

"I…I need you to look at this…"She said, "And tell me what you think."

"Luce, c'mon…"

"Please!" Lucy begged.

Seeing that there was no way out, Natsu agreed and turned to the box. He saw everything his wife saw. The pictures, the decorations, the gown. He even laughed as he recalled some of the memories. It wasn't until he read his own vow he made to Lucy, when his attitude changed. When he finished reading, Lucy could hear her husband sniffling, trying to hold back tears.

"Lucy…" the dragonslayer began to say, "I still mean every word I said in this vow…I still love you, we need to-"

"Change." The blonde mage interrupted, "We need to change, for the sake of our marriage. We have to do something."

She could feel the warm tears begin to fill her eyes, "You come home every other night from a JOB…and you don't say anything to me! You just say hi and that's it…And when you are gone, I'm just left here by myself or with the kids…" Lucy began to clench her fists. "That's no way for anyone to live…to be constantly waiting and worrying."

"Do you know how much that hurts?" She continued, "How it feels to be treated like a stranger?!"

Natsu walked up to her, trying not to cry himself. He could see the hurt and pain in his wife's eyes. He gently tried to hug his wife to console her, but she broke free.

"No…" Lucy said now crying, "You promised me that you'd never leave me like you did that one year…you said you would be here for me, always by my side…so please…please just tell me why I feel so mistreated…" Lucy cried, "Why do I feel like such a stranger to you?"

Lucy now bawling, held onto Natsu. "I just want you back…I want the same guy who looked at me with passionate eyes…like he did on the day of our wedding."

"I'm still here Lucy, I've always been here…" Natsu said quietly. "I go on these job requests to help provide for us, for the family. I don't take you or the kids with me because they're so dangerous and I don't want you or the kids to get hurt. I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you guys."

"But, I've hurt you in a different way…and I'm sorry." Natsu said as a tear went down his cheek. "I stopped talking to you because I was either busy on a job, or because I didn't want to talk about how the JOBS went because they can be traumatizing…sometimes I can't even make sense of it,but I know… I haven't been here as much, for you,or for Nashi and Neel…and I'm deeply sorry."

Natsu began to weep as he reached out for his wife's embrace. Lucy hugged him tightly,crying as well.

"Why did we stop wearing our rings?" she asked him

"I thought…you didn't love me anymore…that's why I stopped." Natsu said as he pulled himself together.

"No…I could never stop loving you." Lucy said still crying, "You're my best friend."

"Me either." Natsu said as he wiped the tears from Lucy's face.

"Here," Lucy said, as she pulled back her ring from her pocket. "I'll put this on, if we both change how we treat each other…I promise i won't hurt you and to always be there for you. I'll hear you out, even if the stories are too horrifying.I just want you here by my side."

Lucy put her ring back on as Natsu went over to grab his.

"I'll make things right." Natsu continued, "I won't neglect you anymore. I'll be right here Lucy. You're still the most beautiful woman in the world, and I'm still here crazy in love with you. I'm here for you…to hold you and to love you…I swear." he said as he put back his wedding band on.

Lucy gazed at him with loving eyes. She was so overwhelmed with love, she gave her husband a long passionate kiss.

"You came back." She whispered.

"I'll always be here Lucy…Always and Forever"