Summary: He's always given her a place to return to. (Or: I'm an emotionally compromised teenage girl who just read chapter 337)
Rating: T
Pairing: NaLu, if you look at it like that.
The meadow is broad, the sky is blue, and it is warm.
Lucy doesn't know where she is, but it feels like a place peppered with familiarity, like she's supposed to be here, like this is where she belongs. She remembers dying, distinctly, but something within her tells her that her friends at old Fairy Tail managed to save the day.
There's a bittersweet smile twitching at her lips when she realizes that she's not going to get to live again. But, it turns genuinely happy when she thinks of her other self, the one who still has her Fairy Tail, the one who still has a chance. She hopes that her future is bright and full of joy alongside her friends.
"Where… am I?" She stands up, feeling a gentle breeze. The golden plains spread out infinitely before her, reaching out, full of promise. She doesn't know why- perhaps she should feel scared, given that she has no idea where she is- but she only feels a bit confused, and perhaps even at peace.
And then she hears her name.
"Hey, Lucy! Get over here already!"
And she turns and she sees those two faces- a hope bubbles up in her chest and suddenly she's crying seven years worth of tears, letting go of the sadness and loneliness and fear and the tangible, horrid feeling of loss.
Natsu and Happy only smile at her as if it's the most natural thing in the world.
"Everyone's here waiting!" Happy says, and she sees them over that gold horizon, her guild, her family, all waving to her, beckoning to her, and she's hit with the feeling that this was what she was missing, this is the place her heart's been crying out for this whole time. They've been waiting. She's kept them waiting.
Natsu grabs her wrist in the same way he did all those years ago when they first met, offering her a new quest, a new reason to live. He pulls her towards that shining sun, forever laughing.
"Now… let's continue on our adventure." And she realizes at that moment that he's been waiting. He didn't want to leave without her.
Happy flies ahead, grinning, and the rest of Fairy Tail calls out to her. I'm home, something in her says, I'm home.
And she lets him pull her along like he always has.
"Yeah."
At the battle's end, as the dragons disappear, so does her future notebook and, she assumes, her future self.
The book turns to dust in her hands, and the moment it does something warm blooms in her chest, an aching sense of fulfillment hitting her being full force, and her heart constricts and she feels like she's finally found something she's been missing for a long time.
"Tears?" She whispers as her fingers touch her wet cheeks. She doesn't know why she's crying- she can't even begin to fathom it- but when she sees Natsu's back ahead of her she knows she needs to be close to him, to do something.
She crosses the distance between them in a few strides, tentatively folding her arms around his chest. He doesn't move. He simply lets her.
His voice is a rumble in his rib cage, and she feels it reverberate through her when he speaks. "Is something wrong, Lucy?"
No, no, nothing's wrong. Everything's wonderfully right.
"No…. not really…" She whispers against his scarf, pressing her nose against the fabric. The world comes back to life around them, people climbing out of rubble, Fiore reviving after the battle. But all she can focus on is the feeling of him there, and the sense that he's given her a precious gift. "Just… Thank you."
The words feel right on her tongue, and she knows that somewhere, someone else is saying the exact same thing.
"Thank you, Natsu!"
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Oh god my heart hurts really bad I didn't sign up for this it was supposed to be a cute manga with a girl and a boy and a flying cat NO