"The Man in the Photograph…"
I really, REALLY recommend all of my readers to hear the song— GHOST by Chelsea Lankes. This ONE-SHOT was inspired by it and I LITERALLY wrote the entire thing while listening to it LOL. So, highly recommend listening to it as you read or at least towards the end.
Fluffy ending as a way to compensate to all of you for the tragedy one-shot I had written. LOL
WARNINGS: NO beta so if there are grammar mistakes let me know.
ONE-SHOT!
ENJOY!
You know how sometimes you look at a certain photograph of a person or at a certain object and feel as if you knew it before or had maybe once owned it? Like it's familiar to you yet strange and unknown all at the same time?
You're left confused about it - wrecking your brain- trying but failing to remember from where you know that person, took a specific photo or owned a certain object.
It happens to all of us.
It could mean nothing but it could also mean everything.
And that's how it was for Lucy Heartfilia.
What had triggered such a moment for her? Well, she had currently been cleaning around her humble abode. Although her two bedrooms, one bathroom apartment wasn't a mess she still liked everything to be spotless. As she cleaned though, she passed by her guest room on her way towards her room. The closed door for some reason calling out to her made her pause in the hallway. She looked at the door and decided that since she was taking a chance to clean the house she would might as well clean the spare room.
See the funny thing is a year ago Lucy had had a terrible car accident. She couldn't really remember much of what had happened just that she had been on her way home to make an important call.
She couldn't remember – for the life of her- who the person was that she had needed to call that time; she only knew that that someone must have been someone important for her to had felt such an urgency to reach her house by eight pm so that she would be able to talk to them.
She had been in a coma for about a month and once she finally decided to open her eyes to the world again she had been informed of her current situation.
Apparently, a women in her thirties had been speeding down the road, Lucy, at that moment had been crossing the intersection when her car was hit directly on her side. The woman, whose name she later learned was Iris, had crashed into her car because apparently her brakes were broken and therefore the woman wasn't able to slow down.
The woman died on impact.
Lucy was hospitalized in critical care.
She suffered a serious head injury.
Apparently, she had lost her memory of the last five years of her life and could only remember the moment before she crashed.
When Lucy had awoken in the hospital she had thought that it was September 20th, 2008.
It had actually been February 11th, 2013.
Lucy had been shocked to learn about everything. It had taken her awhile to process the entire thing in her mind.
Five years of her life gone- Erased.
Yet she remembered all of her friends- Levy, Gajeel, Juvia, Gray, Erza, Jellal, Wendy. She remembered her mother and father- Layla and Jude Heartfilia.
Though what she had also forgotten was that in the year 2011, her father had lost a battle to cancer. He had been diagnosed with Kidney cancer late in the year of 2010.
He had only lasted five months before he finally kicked the bucket.
She relieved all of that pain all over again when her mother told her.
It had been agonizing because she didn't remember one single thing, not her dad's sickness, not how she had been there with him during his last moments or his funeral.
She tried so hard to remember the last memories she had shared with him that she had often hurt herself and tended to make her condition worse.
And regardless of how hard she tried her actions had been done in vain because she couldn't recall a single memory of her dying father.
As everyone around her noticed, they had been very aware of how she had also forgotten about her boyfriend of four years, who was in the marines, Natsu Dragneel.
Everyone asked her if she remembered having a boyfriend but Lucy always shook her head, telling her friends, family and doctors that the last man she remembered dating had been Dan Straight and she stated pointedly that that had been back in her university years and that she had broke if off with the jerk during her last year at the university.
Everybody wanted to tell her about Natsu but after seeing how she had reacted to her father's death they were afraid of the health consequences the new piece of information might have on her.
Levy- Her best friend, had been the one to break the news to Natsu - who had been during that time deployed to Iraq. The news destroyed the young marine overseas.
The one person who he had ever loved has completely forgotten about him.
His existence had been erased completely from her mind and memories.
What made it all worse was that he had bought a ring- Planning to propose to his longtime girlfriend once he finished with his mission, finished with his two year contract and was able to finally return back to the home they shared in North Carolina.
Natsu had never cried so much in his life.
He was left with a void in his heart.
Levy and Juvia said that they would try to help Lucy regain her memories before he got back in six months.
Except the six months had passed and they had no luck.
Lucy Heartfilia had no memory of the man named Natsu Dragneel.
She had no memories of the man who had once made her so happy, the man who she had fallen so helplessly in love with, the man who had once been her world.
Natsu had decided to let Lucy get better before he made an appearance in her life. He told Levy that before Lucy was to be discharged from the hospital to go to their shared apartment and clean their room. He asked her to get rid of all of his things and to take them to his father's house.
Although everyone had protested- telling him that he shouldn't do such a thing because maybe if she saw his belongings she would remember him- Natsu, decided that it was better for her to recover first completely before she was bombarded with the fact that she had a four year relationship with a man she didn't remember, a man whom she apparently shared her home with.
Besides, Natsu, although devastated at having to make such a decision knew how unstable his lover was at the moment. She had just re-learned of her father's death and Natsu could remember those dark times, the endless nights she spent crying and he had been unable to do anything because he had been deployed. He could offer her no comfort except the sound of his voice and sweet words during their calls. He knew that she needed time to grieve that part of her life that had been stolen from hers and he was not one to be selfish.
When he had returned back home, he had decided that since Lucy was faring better that he would visit her. Levy had arranged a little get together in the restaurant that Juvia owned, all of their friends and family were there celebrating the end of Lucy's treatments and therapy. Natsu arrived yet as he placed his hand on the handle and looked through the window he realized that he couldn't do it.
He couldn't make Lucy troubled and hurt all over again.
He saw how she was smiling and laughing with everyone around her. She was doing so well without him.
She was recovering and getting better from such a horrible near death experience who was he to intrude?
Why would he step inside her life and make a mess of it?
Besides, he was told that no matter how hard she tried during therapy she could never recall her memory of the last five years besides the accident.
He remembered how upset Levy was as she told him that Lucy would blackout and faint frequently trying to remember.
Why come back to her life out of nowhere and put him and her through pain because he knew she might probably never remember him.
Why do such a thing?
He couldn't and he wouldn't.
It was that day that Natsu decided to let go of her.
Sometimes, people aren't meant to stay in your life no matter how much you want them to.
Sometimes, you have to be selfless and let them go so that they can be happy.
Sometimes, letting go was the only answer instead of all the pain and torture they were bound to go through.
Sometimes, a broken heart just couldn't be avoided just confronted.
Before he knew it six more months had passed since he had last seen her through the window of Juvia's restaurant and as always she didn't remember a single thing still.
Lucy was still standing in front of the guest room door. She grimaced at the fact that she would have to give this room a cleaning but she knew she needed to- it's been a year since she has even gone inside the damn place!
See, she really didn't like this room that much because once she was giving permission to go home and return to her life this had been her room at the time.
She remembered when her friends had brought her home. The room at that time had been cleaned and organized except when Lucy stepped into it she felt wrong and like something was amiss. She felt like she should remember something, someone yet she couldn't put her finger on it.
It troubled her and she found herself feeling empty and missing something… someone she couldn't even put an image to.
She decided shortly after to move into the other room and to buy new furniture as well. For some reason getting rid of the furniture in the other room seemed wrong yet she didn't want to use the strangely half empty dressers and nightstands occupying it.
Why would she occupy only half of every piece of furniture in the room?
Was she that weird?
Had she developed weird habits the last five years?
She sighed as she placed her hand on the silver handle and did a hand movement downwards then moving her arm forwards to open the door.
As she walked in and looked around, she felt the same emptiness and void as she did a year ago.
Now don't get her wrong, it wasn't as if this room was the only time she felt like this, no, she often felt like she was missing something.
She would often find herself trying to remember a person who she didn't know- Trying to remember memories that didn't happen.
She couldn't help it but her mind and body just felt like she was missing something in the equation of her life.
But what was it?
If she couldn't remember how could she ever find it?
And this room in particular made all of those emotions stronger.
She sighed again as she grabbed her broom and began to work.
It was obviously not something that she was meant to learn any time soon in her life.
She began to broom by the farthest corner of the room, not forgetting to pass the broom under the nightstand when the broom hit something and out came a box from the right side.
She dropped the broom as she stared at the box in front of her. It was about the size of a shoe box and it was pink. Lucy, from her crouched position on the floor leaned over and with both hands grabbed onto to the box. She got up from her position as she walked over to sit on the bed with the box being held tightly in her grasp.
She sat down and placed it gently next to her.
She wondered what was inside.
This box… this object looked familiar to her yet unfamiliar all at the same time.
She slowly and gently took off the lid that had the word memories written in cursive in the middle.
Inside the box was a bunch of pictures, movie stubs along with some knickknacks.
She turned the box upside down letting all of the things inside fall onto to the bed. The pictures scattered all around. She gathered them and then picked them up. There were about thirty-five photos in total.
She smiled as she saw a photo from when her mother first got married to her father. She could see how happy they looked… they had been in love since the very beginning to the end.
She laughed when she came across a photo of Levy throwing Gajeel a whip-cream pie to the face. Lucy had been able to capture the face of absolute shock Gajeel wore as Levy held her stomach while laughing.
She felt herself get emotional and teary-eyed when she came across the photo she took of Juvia and Grays wedding that had been held at the beach. They were both starring into each other's eyes; Juvia had looked so pretty that day seven years ago. Gray looked at her with such adoration and love filled eyes it amazed Lucy.
Then she really cried as she came across the photo of Jellal and Erza's first baby born- Izack Fernandes.
The baby was so cute with his dark blue hair and chubby cheeks. Erza had proud tears in her eyes as she held the baby in her arms, Jellal standing next to her, he was sporting the biggest smile on his face.
She was glad that although she had lost five years of her life she didn't forget these precious memories.
But the photos went on and on until the last ten were photos with a man she didn't remember.
A man with a very muscular build, who had pink spiky hair and was probably, most undoubtedly the most handsome man she had ever laid her eyes upon.
He had dark, onyx eyes and sun-kissed colored skin. His hair although spiky looked soft to the touch.
Then her eyes landed on his smile.
He had the most captivating smile she had ever seen.
His lips looked completely kissable and desirable.
Who was this man and why did she have photos with him?
There was one of them in an amusement park where she could clearly tell he was holding her camera while he took the picture; Which was a surprise to her own self because her camera was her baby and she wouldn't let anyone hold it yet here was this man doing it.
His face was turned towards her as his lips were kissing her right side temple. Lucy was blushing, her cheeks a rosy-red and the man was clearly amused by this because you could see he was smiling as well.
The next one was one of them in the park. The man was hanging upside down on the monkey bars, arms stretching outwards with his hands doing the peace sign. He had the biggest grin on his face.
Lucy blushed when she noticed his shirt was pooling around his shoulders and neck showing off his sinewy muscles and abs sculpted to perfection.
Not to mention his v-cut.
Lord, he was sexy!
He looked delicious and ready to eat up.
Feeling embarrassed that she was behaving like a pervert she quickly went on to the next photo.
This photo was of the man wearing a military uniform.
A marine uniform to be exact…
He looked to be in a dessert and was currently crouched down in front of the river bank splashing water on his face. The camera quality wasn't the same as her own so Lucy knew immediately that it wasn't hers.
His hands were filled with water and his face dirty with different colored smudges of dirt.
The next photo was of him wearing a white tailored marine suit.
The suit was snug on his body showing of all of his defined muscles.
He was standing on a stage with more male and female marines behind him all which were wearing the same exact suits. He had his hand on his forehead in the form of a salute, his face serious looking out into the crowd as a man next to him placed a badge on his impeccable uniform.
For some reason, Lucy felt pride swell in her as she looked at the photo.
Just who was this man?
The next photo was of her and him. They were lying down on the bed, the same exact bed she was currently on.
She was on her back, head leaning on the white headboard; she had on a pink spaghetti string tank top with white boy shorts that had yellow and pink flower designs on them. The man was crouched on top of her. His arms and hands placed on either side. He wasn't wearing a shirt and for bottoms he only had gray sweats on.
She was looking up at him with a small smile as his forehead touched her own, his eyes closed while smiling softly.
Her heart constricted painfully as she stared at the photo.
She felt like a stranger inside her own body.
Clearly this man… this man right here was someone who had been of great importance to her.
Someone she still felt held importance.
Who was he?
Was he one of the things she forgot along with her memory?
Was he one of the things she would never be able to remember?
She wondered what was of his life right now.
There were only the two photos remaining.
One of them was at the beach.
They were both on the beach close to the shore.
She was clinging onto his body. Her legs wrapped around his waist as his hands held her up by her thighs. She had her arms wrapped around his neck loosely. She was wearing a yellow bikini that had pink stars on it while he had on a yellow bathing suit with a pink Hawaiian flower design near the bottom of his shorts.
Lucy was laughing with her head tilted back as the man looked up at her, eyes focused solely on her while sporting a grin.
He was looking at her with love and adoration…Something so pure and real.
She felt as if she was intruding into someone's personal life and that she had no right to be looking at such intimate photos.
The Lucy in these photos was not herself.
This was a different Lucy, a woman who was hopelessly, irrevocably in love with this man.
She felt tears prickling behind her eyes because for some reason looking at this man, the void she felt was suddenly gone.
What happened?
Why wasn't he here?
He was a marine… Did he possibly die?
That thought alone broke her heart, leaving her crying.
Why did she care?
If she couldn't remember him why was she feeling upset at the fact she possibly lost something important?
She wiped her eyes- trying to calm herself down when her eyes spotted the last photo.
It was of the man.
It was at the beach. The photo was only showing his upper body and face. He wasn't wearing a shirt except for a white, fluffy scarf. He was smiling, starring of into the distance. The sun was setting and the orangey sky up above was giving the man a warm, golden glow.
He looked beautiful.
And for some reason, Lucy found herself wanting to keep that picture with her.
He just looked so content and happy at the moment.
So warm and inviting…
She needed to know who this man was.
And she wouldn't stop until she found out.
Lucy blew a raspberry as she stood in front of the shore at the beach.
It has been month since she began her search for this man but so far no luck.
She knew she should have probably asked her friends but she wanted to find him herself. She wanted no one's help. Besides, maybe there was a reason her friends hadn't told her about him. Meaning that if she asked they might not help her.
She needed to do this herself.
She had revisited all of the places she had taken a photo of or with him.
Lucy thought that maybe if she did that then it would spark something in her memories but to no avail.
She stomped angrily on the sand, feeling quite petulant as she did it.
This was the last stop; if nothing happened here then she was screwed.
She had recognized the beach immediately.
It was Carolina Beach; it has a nice bridge stretching out into the ocean.
It was sunset and she had thought that maybe the scenery in which she had taken the last photo of him would trigger something in her brain.
She wanted to remember him.
She didn't know why she was obsessed with this but she needed to know what happened between them.
She carried that photo of him with her everywhere, Tucked nicely inside her wallet.
Speaking of the photo… Maybe if she pulled it out and looked it while looking at the sunset it might just let her remember something.
So she did just that.
She held the photo with her arms outstretched upwards, she stared at the photo of the man starring off into the distance then at the setting sun.
She did this for a minute or two but nothing happened.
Absolutely Nothing…
She groaned in frustration. She felt like crying wanting to kick the sand.
As a matter a fact just as Lucy lifted her foot to kick at the sand her eyes caught a silhouette on the bridge off to her left side.
It was a man…
With spiky pink hair and a white scarf wrapped around his neck…
He had on a white, long sleeve thermo shirt with black jeans.
He wasn't facing her instead leaning on the railing looking into the ocean.
That man…
Lucy mouth dropped open as she stared at him.
This man…
It was the same man…
NATSU!
After that her mind was assaulted with the most agonizing, mind-searing pain.
She couldn't even scream as she dropped the photo on the sand. Her hands went to her head, clutching at it desperately, trying to cope with the onslaught of pain.
A million memories hit her all at once…
All of them with the man she now knew as Natsu… Natsu Dragneel.
Her eyes were filling up with tears as she looked at the man standing at the edge of the bridge.
The first time they said hello…
He was friends with Gray, Gajeel and Ezra… they had introduced Natsu to Lucy.
The first time they went out…
They went on a picnic date to the park. Natsu ended up getting shitted on by a bird.
The time he told her that he has been a marine since he turned eighteen…
He had been showing her photos of when he was a baby and Lucy happened to stumble upon an album that his father and mother had of when he became a Marine thus him telling her his story.
The first time they kissed…
It had been at the park, he had been hanging upside down on the monkey bars and Lucy decided to do the Spiderman kiss thus making it their first official kiss.
When he told her he saw her in his future…
It was when Lucy had been the maid of honor for Levy's wedding to Gajeel and Natsu had been the best man. Lucy had caught the flying bouquet and when they were sitting down Natsu said he really hoped they would stay together forever because he could imagine their future together.
The first time he had said I love you…
It happened when they were lying in bed together and he crouched on top of her and whispered it into the air as his forehead touched hers… Lucy took a photo right afterwards to capture the moment.
When they celebrated Lucy's birthday at the beach…
He picked Lucy up in his arms as she wrapped her arms around him and he said that he could just spend the rest of his life with her before kissing her silly causing Lucy to laugh.
The time he received special recognition and got promoted to sergeant…
Lucy had never felt more proud of him than she did at the moment. She remembers how he briefly made eye contact with her and winked.
The time he had to be deployed once again for another two years in Iraq right after learning her father had cancer…
He had sent her that photo of him by the river bank to show her that he was alright and called her as often as he could to comfort her. And right before he had left she took that photo of him in the beach while the sun was setting.
She had missed him greatly during that time.
She still missed him.
She remembers him now.
He had been the person she had had such an urgency to speak with right before her crash.
Lucy remembers everything that happened during those five years…
With her head still hurting she slowly began to pick up the photo that on the sand and began to make her way towards the bridge… wishing she could run up the stairs.
With all the strength she could muster she willed the pain away and began jogging up the sand bands and up the stairs.
Her eyes where filling up with tears again except they were of happiness.
Not once did it cross her mind as to why he hadn't come back and told her.
She couldn't care less at the moment.
She was filled with so much relief and happiness at the moment because she finally remembered.
Natsu was at the edge of the bridge.
He was right there!
And she couldn't care less about the minor details.
She threw caution into the wind as she began to run.
Tears falling from her eyes as she screamed his name as loud as she possibly could.
"NATSU!"
Natsu still a pretty good distance away hadn't heard her so Lucy screamed again even as she almost tripped.
"NATSU!"
This time he did notice because he turned his head to glance over his shoulder.
As soon as his onyx eyes landed on her warm, brown ones he spun around so fast he thought he might have just broken his spine.
It couldn't be…
Lucy… Lucy was running towards him, her baby blue sundress with pink floral decorations swaying in the wind frantically the speed of her running not helping.
She was crying but what shocked Natsu wasn't the fact that she was crying as she ran, no, it was the recognition in her eyes as she looked at him.
She recognized him.
She remembers me…
SHE REMEMBERS ME!
His eyes burned with white hot tears.
He couldn't believe this!
"LUCY!"
"NATSU!"
He took a few steps forward as she approached him rather fast before she threw herself at him, throwing her arms around his neck hugging him tightly, the force of it all nearly causing them both to fall down on the floor.
He wrapped his own arms around her waist as he held onto to her tightly afraid she might disappear any time soon. Tears falling down his face silently as he felt Lucy planting kisses on his ear and neck before whispering softly.
"I remember, Natsu… I remember…"
"Is this reality?" He croaked the words out.
"Yes…" Lucy said with a hoarse voice.
"You really remember me? I'm not a stranger?"
"I remember you… You're my soldier."
"You still love me like you did three years ago Luce?"
"I'm afraid I fell even more in love with you…"
"I missed you so much… you don't even know how badly it hurt to know you didn't remember me… How agonizing it was to know you had gone through something so traumatic and I wasn't there to help…Couldn't help even I had been because you would just see me as a stranger. I missed you so much… But I didn't want to hurt you… didn't want you to hurt yourself trying to remember me."
Natsu whispered as he buried his face into the crook of Lucy's neck.
Lucy ran her hands through his hair as she gave his forehead a gentle kiss.
"I'm sorry." She whispered as she gave him another kiss to the forehead before pulling away to look into his eyes.
"No matter what happens please… please promise me you'll never stay away again."
"I promise…"
You know how sometimes you look at a photograph or object and it feels as if you know it from somewhere?
It could mean everything or nothing at all…
Be familiar and unfamiliar all at the same time…
Lucy was glad she saw the man in the photograph.