Hardened Hearts and Tiger's Teeth
Lucy never really thought about what she would do if she wasn't a member of Fairy Tail, or best friends with the lovable Natsu. She didn't have to because she thought her life couldn't get any better than it already was. She loved her friends so much that they were basically her family, her best friend she loved more than anyone else, possibly even more than she was willing to admit right now. She had her spirits with her and knew she could always count on them to help her out. Lucy was so content with her life, so happy with everything, that she simply couldn't fathom any sort of drastic change in it. Perhaps that's why she didn't believe what was written on the note in front of her the first few times she read it.
Lucy arrived at her house one evening after spending some time at the guild. She noticed that Natsu wasn't in the guild hall like normal, but shrugged it off to a possibility that he and Happy went fishing to fill the cat's never-ending fish obsession. Lucy started to unlock her door and secretly hoped that her pink haired friend was asleep in her bed and that's why she hadn't seen him all day, but after entering in her hopes were let down to an empty apartment. Shaking her head and putting her stuff down, the blonde noticed the window was cracked and there was an envelope on her living room table. Picking it up, she remarked about the horrible handwriting, barely being able to make out that it said 'To Lucy'. Ripping it open, it took a few times to read through the entire letter partially due to ineligible writing and partially due to disbelief.
"Natsu… leaving? What? No. He wouldn't just leave and not tell me. He wouldn't just pack up Happy and himself and take off with just a sad excuse of a letter to say goodbye. This has to be some sort of a joke." Lucy mumbled to herself while reading it an 8th time. Putting the letter down and grabbing her keys, she left her apartment to head out to Natsu and Happy's house to confirm that it was just a silly joke that they were playing on her to get her attention or something. There's no way that her best friend in the entire world would just leave her a note and take off on some stupid journey to become stronger.
The walk to Natsu's house was about 20 minutes since he and Happy lived on the outskirts of town in a forest clearing. During the walk Lucy went from disbelief to anger over the situation.
"What a horrible prank to pull on someone, when I get there I'm not even going to knock! Just barge right in and demand answers to why they would pull something like this, it's not even funny! Pretending to leave and not tell me, it's inexcusable!" Lucy angrily spoke to herself before walking up to the front door. Pushing it in, not caring about proper knocking, Lucy expected to see pink and blue hair flying around but instead was greeted by a vacant, and surprisingly, clean house. Lucy has only been over here a few times, but every time she visited the house would be in total chaos with little to no floor visible through clothing, treasures, and just plain junk littering the areas. Seeing the house so clean caused the pit of Lucy's stomach to drop out beneath her and the reality of the situation slammed down. They really were gone. Lucy dropped to the floor and wrapped her arms around her stomach as the tears began to stream down her face.
"…Nat..su… Happy… No. How… How could you? How could you just…. L…leave me?" Lucy struggled to cough out between tears. Not caring about appearances or who happened to stop by to check up on the dragonslayer, Lucy dragged herself over to Natsu's hammock and pulled herself up. Still holding onto her stomach because she felt like it was attempting to tear her body apart, Lucy curled up into a ball in the hammock and allowed the tears to flow freely. Lucy stayed in that position until her body became numb and the tears she cried long dried up, slowly drifting in and out of sleep. Her heart felt like it was physically breaking every time she thought of her best friend, every time she heard a noise and thought they were home only for it to be the wind, and every time the scent of firewood would assault her nose. She hasn't felt this bad since her mother died years ago, not even when she found out her father passed away.
The sun slowly started to rise and with it the light that illuminated the rest of the small house. She got off the hammock and started to slowly walk around, inspecting the house. Natsu's memories were pinned and posted and preserved everywhere, little reminders of every mission that he and the blonde had taken in the past. Each and every one stabbed a new knife into her heart as she combed over the papers and tokens from the jobs, remembering little snippets of every one. Her maid outfit was in the corner, perfectly cleaned and dust free. It was almost like Natsu valued this one memory over the rest since it was the first mission the two had taken together. The start of a beautiful friendship that the blonde obviously held in higher regard then the pink haired dragonslayer. Lucy wasn't dumb, she knew her best friend was dense at times and didn't always think things through. But she thought he was smart enough, or at least cared enough, to let her know about his life changing plans before just going and doing them. Last night's pain hit her in full force again and she fell back to the floor in agony. It was like the life she loved crumbled before her, nothing else held the same amount of happiness as it did before when he was with her. She flipped between pain, rejection, and finally anger. Angry at her idiotic friend who would just leave her behind when they were supposed to be a team. So he wanted to train and become stronger, why couldn't she have joined him? Why did Happy get to go but she was left behind? It wasn't fair and the blonde decided that if she meant so little to him, then she would just pick herself up off his floor and push her feelings to the side. Besides, who knew if he had left anything for the guild, or even told Master about his grand plan of leaving all his friends behind and venturing out alone? She had a duty to inform the rest of the guild about her friend's ugly departure, ignoring the feelings raging war inside her.
Putting on a fake smile she perfected in her childhood, she picked up her things and walked out of the house, closing the door behind her without a single backwards glance. Walking towards Fairy Tail she refused to dwell on the fact that her life was basically over. She loved her family at Fairy Tail but she just couldn't imagine a happy life without Natsu, her one constant, beside her. He had been with her through so much pain, suffering, happiness, joy, grief, struggles, bliss. He was her everything and she never got a chance to even tell him that. Sure, Natsu would be back eventually. That's what his note said. But the question is if she could survive without falling into pieces before he did return. She's not a weak girl emotionally, magically she's not the strongest but she does pride herself on her emotional strength. However, this was just too much to take, she needed to walk away from it, lock it into a cage in her mind and throw away the key or else the sadness and depression lurking below the surface would overtake her. Losing track of time while struggling to lock her emotions and feelings away, she barely noticed when she arrived at the front doors of the guild. Pain swelled inside her chest and she heard lots of voices inside, she really didn't want to deliver this message in case they hadn't already heard but she felt like she had a duty to do so.
Pushing open the giant doors, Lucy stepped inside only to notice that nearly everyone in the guild was already present.
"Oh good, Lucy, you're here. Where is Natsu so we can begin the meeting?" Erza said from the front of the room. Lucy noticed that nearly everyone was in attendance. Her heart speed up a bit as Erza asked where Natsu was, tears starting to pool in her eyes as she replied back to the requip mage.
"Na…Natsu left me a note yesterday. He. He said… He said…" Lucy started to choke up and tears were freely streaming down her face at this point. So much for holding it together, she merely thought to herself and she struggled to continue. "Natsu left me a note saying that he and Happy took off to go train by themselves. He claims he needs to be stronger in order to protect us, he didn't even tell me in person."
At this news the entire guild fell silent. No one spoke as Erza and Gray slowly walked towards the blonde. Gray reached her first and pulled her into a cold embrace, his shirt long lost. Lucy leaned into her friend and allowed him to hold her as more tears streamed down her face. She felt a hard figure at her back as she and Gray were pulled towards a metal chest and two more arms wrapped around her back. Erza leaned in and whispered in Lucy's ear, "Don't worry. We will find him. I promise." Lucy started to cry even more. A few murmurs went through the crowd as people started to awkwardly shuffle, starring at the breakdown of a team in front of them. People left to go on long missions all the time, but never has a duo like Lucy and Natsu been broken up, and never has one member left without asking their partner and best friend beforehand.
Interrupting the heartfelt scene, Master Makarov stood on the bar and shouted, "Alright listen up you brats. Natsu took off without a word and that sucks. He's a dense idiot who doesn't know the good things he has in front of him if she hit him with a stick. Which she probably has, numerous times." At that, a few chuckles were heard in the guild hall over the silent tears being shed in the back by three friends. "I'm afraid I have some even worse news. I'm disbanding the guild. From today forward Fairy Tail is no longer a guild." At that, silence wouldn't even be the appropriate word to describe the lack of noise in the guild hall. Almost immediately every single mage in the guild started screaming, turning to each other and asking questions. The master simply turned his body, jumped down and walked out of the guild, not looking back and not answering any questions.
Mira tried to take control of the situation, stating that Fairy Hills would stay open for one remaining month to allow the residents proper time to find new housing, and that guild marks may be removed if requested but she won't force anyone to remove theirs. Fights started to break out, no one listening to Mira as everyone was blaming everyone else for the state of their guild. Confusion and shock spread like wildfire. If Natsu had been present, the guild probably wouldn't have stood another day, destroyed by his fire. But Natsu wasn't there, a painful fact that the blonde remembered at that moment.
Lucy refused to accept the fact that Fairy Tail disbanded right after her best friend had left her. The words just never took a foothold in her brain as she began to shutdown for the second time in a week. Gray and Erza were attempting to shout over the voices in the hall to each other, wondering what happened and what to do. Lucy simply slipped out the door in the chaos and slowly started to walk home. Her keys warmed up as the spirits sensed her discomfort and pain. Lucy half expected Loke to pop out and demand to know what was wrong, but he never showed up. She walked back to her apartment, a small part of her hoping that today and yesterday had all been a bad dream and she was about to wake up to a blue cat by her feet and a pink haired boy on her bed with her, but she never did. Instead she walked up to unlock the door and started to process everything that had happened the past few days. Natsu and Happy leaving really sucked, her heart broke again as she thought about that. But at least she had the guild to rely on, and then that too was ripped away from her in a blink of an eye. Lucy was left standing alone in her apartment, no one was coming to get her and no one would be there tomorrow morning. Depressed at these thoughts, Lucy made a split second decision to pack a bag with some basic belongings, grab enough money to pay her land lady a few months rent in advance, and walk out the door. Leaving the envelope with a short note explaining her absence and the money under her land lady's door, she started the short trek to the train station. Not caring about the destination, she purchased a random ticket and boarded the train, blocking out any noise or thought. Shutting down emotionally had once been a practice that Lucy perfected while living with her father. The past few years with Fairy Tail allowed her to be genuinely happy, but she didn't lose the ability of forcing all her thoughts to the back of her mind and locking them away. Focusing only on the next step she would take, Lucy sat down with her bag and shut her eyes, planning on waking when the train stopped or she was kicked off. It didn't really matter to her where she was going, she didn't have a guild to call home anymore and she didn't have Natsu following her around like a shadow. Her life, at this point, was in one of the lowest places since her mother had died. Struggling against the tears that were trying to fall, Lucy blocked out everything and began to doze while awaiting the next destination of her horrible life.