Wander

There was a gentle breeze caressing it's way through the thick grassy plains, creating what looked like a sea of green. It was drawing into the evening, and the sun hung low in the sky, casting a orange glow on the world below. From the large sakura tree above her , Lucy felt the dainty petals fall on her hair. Looking up Lucy could not help but be reminded about the time Natsu had sailed one of Magnolia's rainbow Sakura trees past her house. The was no comparison in the tree's, the rainbow sakura was still one of the most beautiful things Lucy had seen. Of course to this day Natsu still denied his gift, but Lucy knew in the way that he averted his eyes and slightly blushed every time she mentioned it he was still quite embarrassed about such a sweet act. Sighing deeply to herself and closing her eyes Lucy sat there trying not to think of the hollowness she had felt in her chest since arriving in town the day before. Considering this was a mission it was the most tranquil she had ever had. That was until a band of mages charged through causing birds to flee their perches, animals to scurry into their underground homes and Lucy to snap open her eyes. Leading the group was her pink haired teammate and a blue exceed.

"Lucy?" he called out, with his nose in the air inhaling the air around him. He quickly spotted her sat underneath the tree, where he then proceeded to bound over to her clearly pleased about something. Pushing herself up from the grassy ground, Lucy staggered over her numb legs, forgetting how long she had sat there. Two strong hands caught her by the shoulders, and she looked up to meet the wide toothy grin of Natsu the she couldn't help but return with her own smile.

"We caught it Luce!" Natsu and Happy cheerfully announced together.

"Wait what? When?" she responded disappointed. The whole reason she had spent the whole afternoon in the plains was to scout out the large monster their mission had required them to capture. The plan was to spend a few days tracking its movements and behavior so that when they did make a move to secure the monster it wouldn't go rampaging of into the town.

"Well we sort of accidently got in it's way.." as his sentence trailed of Lucy knew that wasn't the whole truth.

"Natsu" Lucy said narrowing her eyes at him.

"It was that stupid Ice freaks fault! He was blasting ice everywhere and then I slipped into the monster's cave! But you should have seen it Luce! It wasn't happy about woken up" he snickered. Part of her felt left out that she had missed all the action, but Lucy couldn't help but giggle at the thought of Natsu skidding right into the sleeping monster. Natsu and Happy seeing that Lucy wasn't angry laughed along with her.

"What are you guys laughing about?" Gray called out as he walked over to join them, followed by Erza, Wendy and Carla.

"You ice popsicle" Natsu muttered under his breath.

"What'dya say flame brain?" he snarled back.

"Are you two fighting?" Erza said threateningly. Clearly neither boys wanted to anger the scarlet haired mage and both kept their mouths shut and shook their heads.

"Well seeing as we have finished earlier than expected" Erza said as she shot a disapproving look at Natsu "I think we should go explore the town a bit". As everyone made a move to follow Erza in agreement with her suggestion, Lucy stood in her place.

"What's wrong Lucy-san?" Wendy said, casing everyone in the group to stop and turn at Lucy.

"Erm well I just thought I might wander on my own for a bit" she replied quietly. Lucy could feel their quizzical stares on her, especially Natsu's.

"Well we will meet you back at the inn later then Lucy" Erza said with a smile as she turned to walk. The rest followed except for Natsu and Happy who were both looking at Lucy with concern.

"I'm okay, you go with everyone else" Lucy said, smiling at them. When they still didn't make a move to go, Lucy turned on her heel and briskly walked in the opposite direction. She faintly heard Erza call Natsu and Happy and assumed that they finally followed the group.

Alone again Lucy's smile faltered and she stared solemnly at her feet as they walked through the thick grass that she knew lead to a path which would lead her into the town. Ever Since she realized that the mission would take her to the town near by where he parents graves were Lucy felt like their was a tight pressure on her chest. It felt as if she were hollow, like there was something missing, and there was. Her parents were missing in her life. There were so many times that Lucy wanted her parents to be by her side so that she could share her adventures with them. Although she was never close with her Father throughout her life, from his last words to her in the letter he had left Lucy knew that if he were still alive they would have been able mend their relationship. Lucy's mother Layla however was the brightest part of Lucy's childhood. For a child to only get a handful of years with their Mother is such a overwhelming sadness. Many times Lucy wished Layla was there to see her grow as a women and as a mage. Lucy often thought of if she had her own children she would not have her Mother's guidance, and Lucy's children would never get to meet their Grandparents. Feeling a lump in her throat and swallowing hard to rid herself of it, Lucy looked up and realized the town was only a few feet away. When they had first arrived in town, Lucy had made a mental note to look for a florist. Luckily there was a small one, right by where the path Lucy was on. Surveying through the various clusters of flowers, Lucy finally found what she was looking for. Yellow lilies, which Lucy remembered her Father telling her Mother were his favourite because the colour was like her hair. Glancing at her own hair, which was exact to her Mother's, Lucy could see that her Father was not wrong.

"Just those my dear" the elderly shopkeeper asked.

"Yes please", Lucy replied handing her the money.

Setting back on the path the she had originally been on Lucy walked slowly trying to dwell on her listlessness before she visited her parents.

He still couldn't understand it. Why did Lucy want to be on her own? Natsu tried to think back on what he had done that day that could have upset Lucy. She could be upset that they had captured the monster without but she had laughed about it with him. Thinking back Natsu had noticed since they had taken this mission Lucy had been somewhat quiet. When she smiled and laughed along with the group Natsu could tell it wasn't Lucy's usual smile. When Lucy really smiled it lit up her whole past two days her smile didnt reach her eyes. Growling quietly in frustration to himself Natsu dropped his head onto the table. After begrudgingly following Erza and the rest of the group, they had decided to find somewhere to eat first. Although this had initially perked Natsu up, it was as if he couldn't fully relax without having Lucy there. Of course he had quickly devoured his food, but with that gone all he could think about now was Lucy. What if she ended up getting lost, or what if there was another monster in the area. Feeling a furry paw on his arm Natsu lifted his head up from the table and met the face of the little blue exceed.

"Natsu.." Happy said quietly. Natsu knew too that Happy was worried about Lucy too.

"Okay Happy, stay here" he responded as he quickly got to his feet and made a dash for the door before everyone else could question him. Natsu knew that Happy would come up with some excuse for him. Although Natsu knew knowing Happy it would be some exaggerated story about how he was going to get fish for him. Inhaling deeply Natsu tried to distinguish Lucy's sent from the many that surrounded him. Had it been anyone else he probably would not have been able to find it, but because he knew Lucy's scent so well he caught it very faintly, in the direction of the other side of town. Taking of in that direction Natsu knew if he ran at full throttle he could be there within minutes. The issue was the people in his way were not all too accommodating for the running dragonslayer. As he kept charging into many of the townsfolk Natsu decided the better alternative was to run along the roofs. Turning down one of the deserted alleyways Natsu scaled some stacked boxes before his ised to power of his flames to boost him through the air onto one of the roofs. Grinning to himself at his cleverness Natsu took off again leaping from roof to roof. In no time he quickly drew close to Lucy's scent, and caught a glimpse of golden hair below. Ducking quickly on the roof he was currently on Natsu peered over the edge and saw Lucy heading towards a shop full of vibrant coloured flowers. Why would Lucy want flowers? Personally Natsu had never liked flowers, with his dragon sense of smell flowers were somewhat nauseating to him. Lucy had picked up a punch of yellow one's and weirdly brought it up to her hair to compare. Chuckling to himself at his friends never ending weirdness, Natsu watched her pay an old lady and walk back in the direction of the plains they all had originally come from. Why would be going back in there? Lucy should know that it was going to get dark soon. Scaling down the building he was currently perched on Natsu slipped into the trees that lined along the path Lucy was taking. He kept some distance, not wanting Lucy to realize his presence and also kept his nose in the air in search of any threats that may cross Lucy's path. He trailed her all the way to the outskirts of town, until she took a left and then stopped. Silently emerging from the trees Natsu saw that they had come to a graveyard and he realized he had been here before. When Lucy had learnt of her Father's death he had been with her when she had came to this very grave yard. How could he have been so stupid to not realize this was the same town! With a fierce growl at his own stupidness Natsu crept closer to Lucy but kept himself hidden behind the graves.

Kneeling down before her Father's grave, Lucy separated the flowers into even halves. Her Mother's grave was only a few feet away. She was glad that in the end they were buried together, it had always been clear to Lucy even as a young child that her Father had loved her Mother eternally. Now that she was older Lucy couldn't imagine the difficulty her Father went through. At first it seemed like he didn't care at all that her Mother had died. He was always consumed in his work but Lucy saw now that he was trying to be strong. The pain he must have felt to lose his wife but to try and continue with life without breaking down made Lucy's chest feel even tighter. Placing her Father's half of the the lilies gently on the grave Lucy slowly got up and made her way to her Mother's grave.

"Mama I miss you" she spoke quietly whilst kneeling down, "I came here on a mission, I guess I haven't really been able to tell you that I joined a mages guild. It's called Fairy Tail, it's the strongest guild in Fiore. I have so many friends now too. There's Levy-Chan, she loves books like me and she is a solid script mage and then there's Wendy. She's only 12, but she's very strong. She was raised by a dragon named Grandeeney, so she's she Sky dragonslayer. There's Gray, he is a ice-make mage and he has a stripping habit. Erza is known as Titania, she is a requip mage, she can be scary but she is amazing. I also have a flying blue cat as a friend. His name his Happy, he likes to tease me alot. And then there is Natsu. Like Wendy he was raised by a Dragon, his name was Igneel. Natsu is a fire dragonslayer and always amazes me with his strength. He was the one who brought me to Fairy Tail, without him I wouldn't be as happy as I am now. He can be an idiot sometimes but he would protect anyone in the guild with his life. Him and Happy like to break into my apartment a lot but I don't really mind, it's get's lonely when he is not there.. I wish you were here Mama" and finally after holding it it Lucy's tears began to fall. At the sound a leaves crunching Lucy spun around. A pair of white baggy pants were the first thing her eyes saw, and Lucy didn't need to look up to know who they belonged to.

"Natsu, what are you doing here?" she mumbled quietly whilst getting to her feet and quickly wiping her finally looked at him and was taken aback at the expression on his face. She had expected a smug mischievous grin that he had managed to find her but instead his onyx eyes were full of remorse.

"Natsu?" she asked concerned.

All of a sudden Natsu's solid arms encircled around her as he brought her into a tight hug. Before Lucy could question what he was doing he spoke

"I'm sorry Lucy! I forgot!" he exclaimed whilst tightening his grip.

"Forgot what?" Lucy replied clearly confused, whilst still stood awkwardly in his embrace.

"The graves, I forgot this is where you parents where" Natsu said miserably.

"Natsu" Lucy said as she relaxed in his arms, "it's okay, you don't need to apologise for that".

"But you came on your own, if had remembered I could have come with you. And then you started crying and I'm an idiot! You can kick me if you want to".

Lucy couldn't help but smiling at his last statement and somehow as if Natsu knew pulled away from her but kept his grip on her shoulders.

"Wait why are you smiling?" he questioned clearly confused.

"It's just that I can always depend on you to cheer me up" Lucy smiled at him. She could have sworn he slightly blushed but he pulled her into a tight hug once more before she could confirm.

"Sure you don't want to kick me?"

"Im sure Natsu" she laughed lightly. They stood together for some time before Natsu broke the silence.

"So" he began. "You don't mind me going into your apartment" he replied darkly. Feeling the heat rise to her face at the fact he had clearly heard everything she had said Lucy groaned loudly. Natsu laughed at her reaction which caused her to blush even more. When his amusement finally subsided she felt him loosen his arms. One of his arms dropped, whilst the other stayed on the back of her head. He pulled his body away but placed his forehead on her own. He kept his eyes closed which Lucy was grateful for because she was sure her face was the colour of a tomato now.

"Hey Lucy" he murmured quietly

"Hmm?" she responded not trusting her voice to show her embarrassment.

"Don't wander off on your own again". Lucy smiled contently and closed her eyes.

"Kay" she simply replied.