Okay, so I'm going to admit something kinda embarrassing right now before we go any further. I cried writing this. Like, a lot. And I don't really know why, but I find that when I cry while writing something, it usually ends up being crap. Melodramatic C-R-A-P. I am not kidding. So, I'd like to apologize in case this turns out to be the case.
Anyway, this is a special oneshot dedicated to Kosmotius, who asked me to write this. So I did, and I have to say, it was a lot of fun (despite the weird crying. Maybe it's because before I started this last night I was watching this One Piece amv about Luffy and Ace and Sabo... But no, it's probably just my issues. Ignore me, please). This took longer than expected, because I had technical difficulties, but I think you'll really like it, so enjoy!
Wait.
Don't leave me alone.
I'm scared.
It's dark.
It was the first time I'd woken up crying since last year. The time on the clock blinked at me – 3:24. My fingers reached out and traced the numbers.
So it's today, huh?
I wiped away the tears clinging to my lashes and climbed out of bed. No point in trying to sleep. My bare feet touched lightly on the cold floor of the my room in Fairy Hills, the warmth of my skin seeping into the stone. In the bed, Carla turned over, mumbling in her sleep, and I froze. One, two, three... I counted out thirty seconds and kept walking, slipping into clothes and shoes. Taping a note to the door, I left.
The air was warm, even though the sky was dark and the moon still drifted through the shadowy clouds. It was July, after all. I walked down the streets of Magnolia, following a familiar route out of the city into forest. It was eerily calm, even the leaves not daring to rustle. It really was a mysterious day.
I settled on the edge of a cliff, staring into the murky darkness below. It terrified me, not because of what it was, but because it wasn't. Darkness is the absence of light. It is the opposite of seeing, of knowing, of understanding. It is the opposite of safety. It's easy to get lost in the darkness; it's easy to lose someone else. It's even harder to find them again, especially if they don't want to be found.
It's easiest to lose yourself.
"It was dark that night too," I whispered, listening to the shadows swallow my six-word memory without a sound.
Dark enough to lose the world.
"You know, it's dangerous to get depressed on the cliff," a familiar voice warned cheerfully from behind me. I spun around, startled. I hadn't sensed anyone coming. "They say," Natsu continued easily, sitting next to me and laying back to stare at the moon, "That a wizard cursed it a long time ago, so that it manipulates your thoughts. It's supposed to make you suicidal if your feelings are already weighing down on you. A few people really have jumped." I shivered. Natsu closed his eyes and chuckled softly. "But I say that's a load of bull." I stared at the ground next to his elbow. A tiny flowering weed was growing there, struggling up from the dirt.
"Natsu, why are you here?"
He closed his eyes. The lines on his face stood out in stark contrast to his moon-pale skin. "Because today is July 7th. Why are you here, Wendy?"
I considered the shadows reaching for my dangling feet. "To be alone." Long black fingers stretched, scraping the soles of my shoes. "To confront my fears." Liquid hands rippled and gripped my ankles, tugging on me. "To forget." Whispers dripped into my soul, wet and foul and tempting.
She's waiting for you, Wendy.
She's down here, in the obsidian palace we made for her.
Come join us.
"Because today today is July 7th." I backed away from the gaping pit and grasping hands, swinging my legs onto solid ground. "Because I'm alone." The tears slid down my face, defining my cheeks and erasing my eyes.
"You're not alone." A warm hand closed firmly over my cold one, pulling my gaze to his. "You have never been alone," Natsu reiterated. "And you never will be."
"Never?" I whispered, not quite daring to believe him. Not giving myself the chance to hope. Instead of answering, he wrapped me in a tight hug. He smelled like smoke and soap. It was a weird combination, and it comforted me beyond words.
"I will never let you be alone, Wendy."
Natsu took me home a few hours after sunrise. Carla was pacing back and forth across the room when I walked in. "Wendy!" She jumped into my arms, snuggling close. I held her, smiling a tiny bit.
"Sorry to make you worry, Carla," I apologized. She just frowned.
"Rather than that, child, are you alright?"
I nodded. "I'm fine. I talked to Natsu, and I feel a little better now." Carla smiled. Something about it struck me as sad.
"Then I'm glad. How about some breakfast?"
I showed up at the guild around noon, hoping to see Natsu. I didn't want to deal with the day alone. But he wasn't there.
"Lucy, was Natsu here?" I asked my golden-haired friend. She frowned slightly.
"Come to think of it, I haven't seen him–" She cut off, biting her lip. "But I guess not. Not today." She looked at him. "He's probably out in the woods somewhere. Did you need him for something?"
"Nothing important," I said, shaking my head.
That's right. Natsu lost someone too. This isn't just about me.
I left the guild quickly, trying to hold back tears. There had already been too much crying today.
"Wendy!" Warren came running out of the guild after me, waving and smiling. When he caught up, he said, "Natsu just contacted me. He wanted me to tell you that he had something important to do and he'll be back in two days."
Two days dragged by, slower than a turtle swimming through honey. I woke up sluggish and went to bed exhausted, despite not doing anything the whole day. I was suddenly lonely without Natsu.
What happened to never being alone?
Carla was getting worried about me, following me everywhere and repeatedly asking me if I was okay. I pretended to smile and laugh normally, even as the shadows started appearing in the corners of my vision. They mocked me, promising that Grandeeney was waiting for me on the other side of the cliff. They begged me to join them, to come see my precious mother. I tried my best not to scream.
Get out of my head.
But they wouldn't, and the waking nightmare continued. The day Natsu was supposed to get back, I woke up early. It wasn't like I was sleeping well, anyway. Carla was still asleep on the other side of the bed we shared, making me think of my early-morning disappearance two nights ago. She sighed in her sleep, and I rubbed a hand across my eyes. She was obviously worried to death about me, and here I was moaning to myself about how alone I was like a spoiled brat. I stood there for a minute, staring into space, and then crawled back into bed. He'd be back eventually. It was useless to get up early – he wouldn't get back any faster because of it. I might as well try to sleep some more.
I closed my eyes and drifted slowly into a dreamless sleep.
All too soon, however, I was interrupted by a loud knock on the door. Carla didn't stir, so I dragged myself out of the bed with a groan and opened the door, yawning. Lucy stood there, smiling uncomfortably. "Lucy?" I said sleepily. "Did you need something?"
"Um, well, sorta," she said, making me even more sure that I should have ignored the knocking. I was too tired to deal with incomprehensible requests. "See, Natsu's back and he's at my apartment right now–" That slapped the sleep right out of me.
"Natsu's back?" I exclaimed, excited. Lucy nodded.
"And he wanted me to come here to get you, since guys aren't allowed in Fairy Hills. He said he had something to show you. It sounded important." I was already ushering her inside and slamming the door shut.
"Give me five minutes," I said, leaving her on the bed next to Carla, who was just waking up.
"Wendy?" she questioned sleepily. "What's the matter, child?"
"Natsu's back," I informed her briskly, stepping into my dress and tying up my hair. Running to the bathroom, I brushed my teeth in record time and ran back into the main room. Total time: four minutes nineteen seconds. "Let's go!" I practically carried Lucy out of the room in my hurry. Once we left the building, I broke into a run, speeding down the path to Fairy Tail. Lucy appeared after me several minutes later, wheezing and gasping.
"It's not... a race... you know," she panted, resting her hands on her knees. "He's not going anywhere." I nodded, forcing my heart rate to slow. Calm down. Lucy smiled, straightening and offering me her hand. "Then, shall we go?" I took her hand and we walked down the street in the direction of her apartment together. Her hand was bigger than mine, but smaller and smoother than Natsu's. It was warm too, and the heat traveled up my arm and into my body.
"You have never been alone."
Looking up at Lucy's gentle smile, I realized he didn't just mean Carla. I had Lucy, Gray, Erza, Juvia, Romeo, the master – I wasn't alone because I had Fairy Tail. Before them, I had Cait Shelter, and before them I had Jellal. And so long ago I almost couldn't remember, I'd had Grandeeney. I'd had a mother.
I have never been alone.
We walked into Lucy's apartment to the sound of cracking wood and shouting. Lucy screamed. I screamed too, even though I didn't quite understand what we were screaming about. "MY BED!" Lucy shrieked, rushing forward. As I registered what had happened, my eyes widened. Natsu was sprawled on the floor in a tangle of limbs next to Lucy's bed. Or, what used to be Lucy's bed. The frame was in splinters, the mattress falling off the pile of shattered wood. Lucy grabbed Natsu's shoulders and shook him violently, probably giving him whiplash. "NATSU, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO MY BED?" He laughed sheepishly and scratched the back of his head.
"Haha, my bad. Sorry about that, Luce." Then he caught sight of me out of the corner of his eye and leapt up from the floor. "Wendy, you're here!" He came towards me, grinning. Suddenly he was lifting me into a hug, tucking his chin over my shoulder. I hugged him back as hard as I could. I took a breath, his scent filling my heart and calming my jumping pulse.
"I missed you," I whispered. He chuckled, the sound rumbling in his chest.
"I missed you too," he replied. "Sorry I took so long – there was something I had to do."
I nodded and closed my eyes. "It's okay."
He put me down and pulled something out of the back of his waistband. Handing it to me, he smiled shyly. I hadn't known he could even be shy. "This is for you." I looked at the thick scroll of paper he had given me.
"Thanks, but... What is it?" He averted his eyes, staring intently at the space on the wall just above the doorframe.
"Just open it, okay?" Hesitantly, I complied, untying the wide blue ribbon. Unrolling the scroll, I read the words covering the page. And read them again. I flipped through the other pages – they were all saying the same thing. And at the top of the first page, there was one particularly eye-catching sentence that I read again and again.
I, Natsu Dragneel, hereby adopt Wendy Marvel as my sister.
I stared up at Natsu – my brother? – in wonder. "What?" He grinned down at me, tousling my hair with a hand.
"It's just what it looks like. You just have to sign." He took the stack from me and flipped to the last page, setting it on top. There were three lines at the bottom. The first had Princess Hisui's signature on it, and the second was blank. The other was an unintelligible scribble. "I mean, if you want to. I guess I probably should have asked you first, but I was just thinking–"
"No," I said slowly, staring "This is perfect. I love it." I glanced up at him, not bothering to hide the tears in my eyes. "Thank you so much, Natsu." He turned away, and I noticed that the tips of his ears were bright red.
"Yeah," he said. Then he turned back and smiled widely at me, the kind of smile that was impossible not to smile back at. "Love you, Wendy." The papers fell out of my hands and I wrapped my arms around his waist, burying my face in his chest and trying not to sob.
"I love you too, Natsu."
Needless to say, I signed the document and sent it back to Crocus. Fairy Tail had a congratulations party for us (although I'm not really so sure about that being the right term – congratulations on becoming siblings? Weird) and we slowly settled into being a family. Natsu demanded Carla and I move into his house with him and Happy, which I agreed to eventually after much discussion. Carla wasn't as against it as I expected, for reasons I suspect had less to do with me or Natsu and more to do with a certain not-quite-feline. Lucy showed up frequently, and Natsu went to her apartment almost as often. I had fun watching them dance circles around each other.
I still saw the shadows on July 7th. I still heard their vicious pleas. But I wasn't doing it alone anymore – Natsu always stayed up with me until they were gone, talking about nonsense or not talking at all, just playing with my hair. (He had a strange fascination with it, for whatever reason. When I asked him once, he mumbled something about Lucy and I dropped the subject.) My ghosts didn't ever disappear, didn't let go, didn't pass on. But they had faded, because I once again had someone to call family.
So what'd you think? Was it good? Bad? The best fic you've ever read? Haha not likely... But anyway, make sure to leave a review! It's the big text box with that button that says something like "Post Review". Type in that, and then click. Yay buttons! (Girl with button-clicking addiction right here...) Click it. Click click clickclickclickclickclick it. Cliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick it. Don't forget to follow (ME, NOT THE ONE-SHOT - THERE WILL NOT BE ANOTHER CHAPTER) and favorite, too. Oh yeah, you're welcome Kosmotius. Hope you liked it! (Of course you did, what am I saying? Well, I will hope anyway. You can never be too sure. Btw, sorry about the technical difficulties...) Love you guys! Catch you later~
Giselle