Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or any of its characters.
A/N: My second fic in a day! God, I can't believe this! This one is more centric on the Lisanna/Natsu friendship, because I think that their bond is really precious and that's what Fairy Tail is about. BONDS. You can support NaLu and love Lisanna at the same time. Try it. Believe me, it is possible.
Sorry in advance for any mistakes or OOC-ness!
I hope you like this!
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Bonds That Last
In which, Lisanna is tired of explaining that she and Natsu are just friends, despite being married and having a child. But everybody thinks that it's impossible. Slight NaLu and Laxus/Lisanna.
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The first time, it's her who is at fault.
It happens just after she has come back from Edolas, courtesy of her friends. It's been a really long time since she's seen them and she knows one night isn't enough to catch up to everyoneything There is a celebration party, of course, and Fairy Tail, being Fairy tail, never misses out on a chance to drink and celebrate.
Perhaps it happens because she has had one too many to drink, but she isn't sure.
Snapping her out of her frozen stance, as she tries to piece her thoughts together, Natsu grins and drags her into the crowd. Someone hands her a drink and then everything just gets dizzy from there on.
After all the laughs are over and everyone is just dancing, she shoves her way into the middle of the crowd, towards Natsu. He's dancing, or at least, trying to, doing some weird jiggle with his hips.
He really hasn't changed at all.
She tries to smother the giggle that threatens to burst forth and tugs on his scarf.
At his confused look, she just shakes her head and pulls him out of the crowd, and outside the guild doors.
Just before they exit, she catches the mischievous and knowing look that her sister sends her and answers back with a giddy smile of her own.
Boy, she really doesn't have a clue as to what she is doing.
Once they are out of the smothered atmosphere and into the open air, she realises, slightly sober now, what she's about to do. Natsu, to her surprise, looks a little dazed and oblivious, his poor situation sensing skills painfully obvious now.
She shrugs. It's now or never.
It's been years, she knows, but she just wants to test this. Wants to see if that little schoolgirl crush on he pink-haired best friend is still going strong.
She doubts it even before doing it.
Perhaps, she muses later, she had known from the start that it would never work out.
She kisses him anyway.
It doesn't even last for a moment.
To his credit, Natsu doesn't really do something to ruin the kiss. At least, not purposely. She really can't blame him if he has been an idiot naturally.
But, oh, there are just so many things wrong with the kiss.
First of all, there's no spark. Nothing. Not even the slightest hint of one. Second, it feels too comfortable. It's like kissing her family member.
Though, she sighs, that is the truth, after all.
"Uh," she says, finally looking at Natsu. Any thoughts of worrying about hurting Natsu with her response disappears once she glances at his face. He still looks confused, as if he isn't sure what to think of the previous moment. She sighs again. She wonders how he can still remain oblivious.
But there is that faint spark of understanding in his eyes. He did, after all, agree to marry her all those years back.
But, she guesses, best friends end up with the main characters only in books. In real life, the main characters have pink hair and are not at suitable for the best friends.
Natsu suddenly leans forward, pressing his hand against her forehead.
"Are you alright?" he asks, voice slightly worried. His cheeks though, she notices, are slightly red.
She bursts into giggles right there.
"Just let it be," she manages to say.
"About just now," he starts to say, voice curious, but she interrupts him.
"Let it be," she repeats, reaching her hand out to him, "friends?" Because, she muses, that's all they are meant to be.
After a moment of confusion, he grins, raising his fist.
"Family," he says, voice clear and firm and she is reminded of that evening, years back and that promise and realises just how much she has missed him till now.
She bumps her fist against his and really, it feels as if all those years have never happened.
… … … … … …
The second time, she can put all the blame on Natsu without feeling any guilt.
It happens four days after the previous incident, on an ordinary morning, when she's just sitting at the bar table, sipping coffee, calmly listening to the voices of her guildmates, loud and boisterous just like everyday. She smiles to herself, feeling content.
Natsu is fighting with Gray again, but this time the fight actually has a reason. A rather toublesome and mature one, rather.
"I bet you have never kissed anyone, prickly eyes!" Natsu shouts out loud and she humms to herself.
"I could say the same thing about you, fire breath!" She hears Gray shout back. No sounds of danger yet.
"Ha, I am already way ahead of you! Oi, Lisanna," Natsu suddenly says, sounding smug. She turns at the sound of her name, mug in hand. "tell him about it!"
She freezes between the process of taking another sip.
Because Natsu just has to be loud enough for the whole guild to hear him.
Gray looks shocked and scalded, looking at her with wide eyes.
She knows just what her sister is going to say.
Good lord.
Though, she is grateful that Lucy isn't in the guild at the moment. In four days, she has picked up the slight vibes between Natsu and the blonde woman.
She places the mug down, massaging her forehead with her hand, feeling the headache come up.
"Uh," she says, forgetting how to speak for the second time in four days. "well, yes, it happened, Gray. But-"
Juvia interrupts, of course. Because someone just has to.
"So, you guys are a couple?" she asks, her face slightly red.
A moment of silence follows.
"No!" Natsu shouts, looking incredulous, "how did you come to that conclusion?!"
She almost wants to laught self-deprecatingly. Seriously.
It her own fault, she admits inwardly, for kissing a moron.
"...Don't worry, Gray," she says, finally getting to continue what she had started to say."He is a really bad kisser."
When she turns around, her ears take in Gray's cry of victory, followed by Natsu's indignant sputter.
She laughs despite herself.
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The third time is the most surprising, yet a bit expected, really.
It happens when she is standing in front of the mission board, looking at requests, in a pretty good mood.
A sudden shriek of her name makes her turn around.
The first things that she takes in is Lucy's startled expression and her red cheeks. Her first instinct is to grab her, because she is swaying slightly, looking ready to faint any moment.
Her next statement blows all the worries away.
"Natsu kissed me," she says, voice low and leavy, as if announcing the end of the world.
"Oh," she shrugs in relief, briefly reminded of her own advice given to Natsu last night. Something about telling him to man up and stop being oblivious. Well, she is glad he took it, but why is the result like this? Did Natsu bite her tongue or something?
She knew she should have given him proper instructions. Did he think all kisses were like the one, she thinks, a shiver along her spine, that they had shared that night?
Well, his bad.
Realising that Lucy is still standing in front of her, in distress, she shakes her head. "Why are upset? Isn't that what you wanted?"
Her sister's matchmaking signals can never be wrong.
"B-But," Lucy stutters, "you and him are-"
Ah, not this again.
"There's nothing," she says, firmly.
"But-"
"Look, he can be with you and still be my husband, okay?" she says strictly, waving her hand. "Don't worry about it."
Lucy looks as if she doesn't know whether to laugh or scream.
"So, it's okay?" she asks, voice careful.
"Yeah. All the best," Lisanna says, cheerfully, before her turning her expression grave. "Be careful, though. It's gonna be tough. Try not to break anythig, ok?" She makes sure to give the blonde a suggestive smile.
The expression on Lucy's face is priceless.
(Three days later, when Laxus comes to Natsu with a similiar query, he gets a dumbfounded expression as a response, before he is punched in the face for his "inappropriate" behaviour. Lisanna just stands in the corner, one step away from destroying the both of them)
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Later, after the day is long over and everyone is sprawled over the floor, after the party in celebration of Natsu and Lucy finally "stopping to run around each other", she makes her way towards a more comfortable spot to sleep.
She spots Natsu on the floor and she smiles at the sight. Lucy is sleeping beside him comfortably, his arm around her waist, protective even in sleep.
She leans over him and can't help but think that he is cute.
She frowns when his expression contorts slightly, almost a tad bit painful.
"No," he softly says, voice heavy with sleep.
It's clear what he is dreaming about.
He's lost her before and had to suffer for two painful years. He had seen Lucy, albeit it being her future self, right in front of him. He had learnt of future without any if his friends.
She shivers.
A future without Fairy Tail was really a dark one. She knows how much Natsu hated not being able to protect his friends.
"It's okay," she says, voice soft. "I am here, she's here and everyone is here."
He mutters something incoherent.
When she turns to stand up, she finds out that Natsu has grabbed hold of her wrist with his other hand, all in an unconcious state.
After a few fruitless atempts at escape, she just smiles and takes her place beside him.
She's pulled closer almost instantly.
And, sleepily taking one last look of the room and all of the people sprawled around, meaning so much to her, she thanks god for not making her lose them.
… … … … … … …
The fourth time, Lisanna is just tired of explaining the same thing to everyone and besides, the offender is really old.
Her and Natsu, along with Happy, are on a mission together, remisencing about the old days, after much reluctance on Laxus's part and pouting on her own.
There is a festival going on and they are just visting the stalls and strolling casually (it's just her who is visiting, thought, Natsu and Happy are practically raiding the food stalls). She has just spotted a teddy bear at the shooting stall that she likes and so, drags Natsu towards it.
Of course, a request for the toy somehow transforms into an all-out challenge for Natsu, the poor boy shooting with so much force that she is afraid that he'll rip the bear apart before winning.
And Natsu, the fiery idiot that she loves anyways, will obviously not rest till he wins.
On their upteenth attempt, Natsu finally hits a small teddy bear, but the woman hands them the bigger one anyways, taking pity on them.
Just when they are about to leave, the old woman drops the bomb in a warm voice.
"You two make such a cute couple."
She blinks.
"Wha-" Natsu tries to say.
"They liiike each other," Happy, the dreadful child that he is, says, rolling his tongue, flying above their heads.
Controlling her growing irritation, she politely declines the assumption.
She wonders when will the time come when people finally believe her.
She may have to start wearing a shirt that said "I am not dating Natsu Dragneel" before that happened.
What a ridiculous thought.
… … … … … … …
"Why," Natsu says, moments later when they are walking away, Happy dropoping behind dejectedly, a bump on hsis head, muttering something about "dreadful parents" and "poor kids". She ignores him. "does everyone always misunderstand?"
"True," she agrees, sighing, "who would marry an idiot with motion sickness and pink hair?"
It takes Natsu a moment to understand that she is actually insulting him.
"It's salmon," he says, hotly, "and you agreed to marry me!"
"When I was five," she says, giving him a long look.
He stares right back.
She feels her eye twitch.
They both burst into laughter.
… … … … …
Hours later, they are sitting in a carriage, Natsu's face in her lap, green in colour. Happy is beside her, head drooping with sleep.
"I'll kill you if you get my skirt dirty," she says in a low voice, bending low.
Natsu mutters something, muddled by fabric.
Moments later, he rolls over, hand reaching out weakly, shaking.
"Friends," he asks, but it's more like a statement.
And even though he looks pathetic, face green and quivering and he may throw up any minute, she leans low, bumping their noses together.
"Family," she says, and this time, it is firm.
And, she admits inwardly, she knows, years later, even when the two of them say vows to someone else, they wilk remember that evening and that promise and will cherish it forever.
My first proposal, she thinks and something stirrs within her chest and she suddenly throws her arms around Natsu.
The poor boy tries to return the hug, but chokes instead.
And then Happy flies over sleepily and joins them in a three-way hug and it has never felt any more perfect than this.
They are, she muses, along with the rest of Fairy Tail, her only family in the world.
More precious than anything else.
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So, how was that?
Review if possible!
Ja ne!