**DISCLAIMER** I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters. They Belong to Mashima **DISCLAIMER**
So... I write these one shots every so often when they come to me. Help me to clear my mind and get psyched for my other stories. That said, this is a NatsuxMavis (Navis) fic. Not as light-hearted as most of my one-shots, but hopefully you'll enjoy it anyway. Cheers!
It was over. Finally over.
It put him through hell. It claimed the lives of many of his dearest friends. It stripped the few that remained of their joy and left them aching shells of their former selves.
But it was over.
And he was alone.
Here, in his little refuge that not even his best Fairy Tail friends could find, he could drop the smile. The cheerful grin that never disappeared because those who remained so desperately needed it. The mask that hid his heart from the world.
They were gone. They weren't coming back.
A tear rolled down his cheek. Solitary. Alone, like him. Though many others begged to follow, they were withheld by some unseen force. His will wouldn't allow him to cry, even for the friends that died so he could have a chance.
Their images came vividly to his mind as he recalled how they pitted themselves against enemies they knew they could never survive. Enemies whose power dwarfed any they'd encountered before. His minds' eye captured the deaths that he'd only heard described. He hadn't even seen them go out. They were protecting him, and he remained unconscious through it.
Yet, holding on to hope, they stalled the enemy long enough. They gave him time to awaken.
And miraculously he had awakened. Not a demon. Not a dragon. Perhaps not fully a human. But something better, stronger than all three.
In the end their hope paid off. With his power fully awakened, even the magic king and the scarlet despair were unable to stand against him. When he learned of the deaths of his friends he'd killed both without mercy. Perhaps, given enough time, he could've become a Spriggan himself. In those moments when their confident faces were replaced by surprise and the fear of death, he felt a sort of fascination with killing. One that he could have pursued.
But he chose not to. Despite the thrill of it, the kills left him with a sour feeling in his stomach. Even to avenge his friends, they were unsatisfying. He sensed that if he continued, only an unquenchable thirst would remain. Then he would be no better than Acnologia.
He did have to kill again. The beast forced it. Unable to persuade him to give up his quest to destroy the world, Natsu was forced to kill one more person with his own hands. Though he could hardly be considered a person anymore. Not a real human, nor a real dragon. His mind set only on one thing: destruction.
And then, when that was over, He had to face him. His confrontation with his brother was by far the most taxing moment on that battlefield. He was determined not to kill him, afraid that staining his hands with another person's blood would sear his conscious forever. But that made it very hard to win. Extremely hard. And when he finally did win, it wasn't in the way he expected.
No. He broke the curse. His brother's curse left him, and he returned to a normal person. Capable of death.
And that was when Natsu became truly alone again.
Sure, it hit him hard when his team died. Lucy. Erza. Even Gray. It tore him apart when his adopted little sister was destroyed after her body was taken by that witch. But who would've thought that his greatest victory would be what left him truly alone? With Zeref's curse gone, nothing now stood between him and a life. And love.
Another tear fell from his eye, rolling slowly down his cheek before dropping to hit the ground below. He had lost all awareness of the world around him. Struggling through the depths of the sorrow that consumed him, even the voices of the animals were lost to his ears. The eyes that gazed out on the beautiful forest bathed in the bright white moonlight saw nothing.
And that was how he sensed nothing till a pair of small arms snaked around his waist from behind. A lithe, warm body pressed against his back, and hot breath tickled his ears.
"My Natsu-kun shouldn't be so sad… It doesn't become you…" The sweet feminine voice sent shivers down his spine, but also broke the dam that was holding the tears back. They started flowing then, freely, as he turned, barely able to speak through the sobs.
"You… You came back… I thought…."
"You thought what?" Vermilion eyes locked onto his, sadness and love mixing in their intelligent gaze. "That I would go back to Zeref now that the curse is gone?"
Natsu nodded, unable to get any words out through the lump that formed in his throat.
Mavis Vermilion, the first master of Fairy Tail, brushed a few tears from his cheek. "I could never do that. What happened between us is in the past, Natsu. Whatever I once felt for him is in the past. I don't dislike him or wish evil on him, but I can never love him again."
It amazed him how the same words could bring such aching and such gladness at the same time. Unable to find words to express himself again, he instead pulled the blonde guild master into his arms. The tears slowed as the light of a fairy pierced the darkness that hung over the heart of the dragon.
"I love you Mavis…" He whispered when he finally reclaimed control of his voice.
"I love you too Natsu," the girl replied, her face buried in his neck. "I have almost since the first time we met."
Natsu didn't say anything. Nothing more needed to be said at the moment. His mind returned to that instance, that day when he first encountered Mavis Vermilion.
~~~~~~x782~~~~~~
Natsu lay on the ground by her gravestone, too exhausted to even rise. It still didn't seem real to him. A week later, and he hadn't eaten a bite the entire time.
If the others could see him, they would surely have a laugh. His toned muscles were faded, his cheeks sunken. His body, though not yet looking like a skeleton, was beginning to look like he was Anorexic or something. The saddest part was, if somebody did find him and laugh at him, he wouldn't even have enough strength to do something about it.
Hell, he didn't even have enough strength to punch the stripper right now. Even if he were just standing there and taking it.
"She was one of my favorites too you know." Natsu looked up, startled, at the voice. He didn't think his senses were that far gone! A little weaker, sure, but he should've heard, or at the very least smelled, her approaching.
"How did you find this place?" He asked, as gruffly as he was able in his condition. "And who are you?"
"Oh it wasn't that hard," the girl replied, her large green eyes scanning his face. "I've followed you here on several occasions. It is one of your favorite spots after all."
"Who are you?" He repeated, suddenly suspicious. Was she some kind of dark mage? No. He dismissed the thought instantly from his mind. She felt too safe to be a dark mage. She felt like someone he could trust.
"I'm the first master of Fairy Tail, Mavis Vermilion," she replied, a small smile on her youthful face.
"First master…" Natsu trailed off. "Shouldn't you be older? Like, even older than gramps?"
"For your information I'm a spirit," the girl replied, her lip suddenly quivering as though she were about to cry. "But this is just what my real body looks like!"
"You mean looked like?" Natsu said, certain that no body could stay like that for 80 years, even if it was just a corpse.
Suddenly the tears started coming, and Natsu momentarily forgot his weakness as he rose to his feet. "I'm sorry! What did I say?!"
"My body is still like this," Mavis said, still in tears. "It's just sealed away right now! I want to be able to live in it again though…"
"Why can't you?" Natsu asked.
"Like I said, it's sealed away!" She replied, her tears 'drying up'. "Maybe someday I'll figure out a way to break free…"
"Sealed away huh?" Natsu said, falling back to the ground as the reality of his exhaustion overtook him again. "Can I see it?"
"NO!" Mavis flushed crimson, and Natsu recoiled at the harshness of her tone. She then softened her tone a bit as she added, "it's kind of embarrassing…"
"I doubt it could be that embarrassing," Natsu said, feeling a small smile return to his face. "If it really looks like this, it's really cool."
"Well you still can't see it, at least until I figure out a way to get it free," she said with a slight pout.
"If you say so," Natsu sighed, returning his attention to the grave. Not the one that was set up in the church yard, of course. Her real grave. The one he made in the memory of his best friend in the guild.
"She wouldn't want to see you like this you know," Mavis said from right behind him.
Natsu turned toward her again, not speaking a word.
"Lisanna would want you to be happy. There's nothing wrong with mourning, but you have to move on. You have to eat something and recover your strength. You know Happy's gonna wake up soon and try to bring you fish again."
Natsu just scoffed, looking away with a frown. But Mavis was suddenly in front of him again. "You shouldn't look so sad, Natsu. It doesn't become you."
He didn't know why, but for some reason those words struck something deep within him. He imagined Lisanna, the happy smile on her face that he knew was there even to the time she disappeared from the world, and knew that she was right. Lisanna wasn't coming back, but she wouldn't want him to waste away at her grave side. She would want him to keep living. To be strong, and to help her brother and sister get through their grief.
Natsu found a small, slightly sad smile coming to his face. "I'm sorry Lisanna," he whispered toward her grave. "I'll try to live the way you would want me to from now on."
"That's the spirit!" Mavis cheered. "Now eat that fish Happy's bringing you. Gotta' get your strength up so you can go punch that ice stripper in the face!"
"Yeah!" Natsu grinned as Happy appeared in the distance, carrying a plate of fish. "Thanks Mavis!"
She just smiled at him as she faded away, causing a slight frown to come to his face. He was just starting to get to know her! But before he could say anything, she was gone, and Happy was standing there, a plate full of fish, staring at him.
"Who were you talking to Natsu?" He asked, seeming to forget about the fish.
"I'll tell you some other time buddy," Natsu said, grabbing the fish and starting to eat. He was all fired up now!
~~~~~~End Flashback~~~~~~
After that Natsu had seen the first master many times. She came on July 7th every year to sit by him. She came on the anniversary of Lisanna's death. By the time she had 'officially' met him on Tenroujima, she'd taken to slipping into his house and 'sleeping' in his bed, even though she couldn't actually sleep. Well, many times she would actually 'sleep' in Lucy's apartment, but Lucy couldn't see her since she chose not to reveal herself.
They decided to keep it a secret, but if Natsu was honest, acting like he never saw her before was the hardest thing he ever had to do. Then, during the war, she'd found the way out of her crystal prison. When Natsu heard that he was ecstatic. They could finally really be together. But then he broke Zeref's curse, and he was sure that she would go back to him. Back to the first man she loved.
But she didn't. Instead she was here, in his arms. Her lithe form pressed up against him as she lifted her face to meet his lips in their first real, physical contact.
It was at that moment that Natsu realized something. His hands, planted firmly on her small waist, weren't holding cloth. They were grasping bare skin, which meant…
"Your clothes are only an illusion" he gasped out the realization, his surprise preventing him from keeping it inside.
"How perceptive Natsu-kun," the first master said, winking at him before pulling back and heading toward his house. Now that he was aware of the illusion, it shattered. He watched, mesmerized, as her small hips swayed seductively in the moonlight.
"Well?" Her tone was questioning as she turned back toward him, her perfect white skin looking angelic as it reflected the white light of the moon. "Are you coming, Natsu-kun? Or do I have to take care of myself tonight?"
A little blood trickled out of his nose as he quickly moved to follow her. They would have to barricade Happy's door when they got in, but it was going to be one amazing night.
~~~~~~END~~~~~~
So there it is. Drop a review if you liked it. Happy Late New Year to everyone!