A one-shot inspired by my personal theories about a short film of the same name~
Warnings: Strong language and mentions of suicide
Also, heads up: This fic was written purely for Nalu, so although Jerza and Gruvia do play a very very very minor role in it, their relationships kind of get sabotaged, so yeah…just know that this fic wasn't meant to please fans of those ships.
Alright, this is gonna be a bit weird and different, so prepare yourselves
Natsu let out a heavy, bored sigh as he watched the blue haired woman dash across the road, her hands held above her head in a fruitless attempt to protect her hair as she sought refuge from the pouring rain.
He briefly glanced at his watch when she finally made it to his side of the street and found shelter under the awning of a nearby apartment building.
It was 4:36 pm. She was right on time, just like he knew she'd be.
He thought over the assignment he'd received earlier in the week, mentally running over the details of his task as he slowly made his way down the sidewalk towards the girl.
'Today at 4:37 pm, Juvia Lockser meets Gray Fullbuster for the first time.'
He'd knew about it all…The moment that was fast approaching and every moment the two would share after that.
Gray would walk out of the doors to the apartment building on his left in under a minute, and with only a second of hesitation after seeing the soaking wet girl on the building's steps, he'd offer her his orange umbrella. She'd give him a small, nervous smile, their eyes never breaking contact as her fingers accidentally brushed against his when she tentatively took hold of the handle. They'd exchange names and numbers after chatting for a bit, and one week from today, they'd go on their first date. He'd take her to a small café, and after that day, they'd start to fall hopelessly in love with each other, slowly at first but then in an endless downward spiral.
'One year and four months from today, Gray proposes to Juvia on the same beach where they shared their first kiss.'
Even after their marriage, Juvia would giggle every time Gray thoughtlessly traced his fingertips over the lines of her palm, still finding it cute despite having been the subject of his mindless habit countless times. They'd bicker and fight from time to time like nearly every other couple, but they'd always come back to one another in the end.
'Two years and three months from today, Gray and Juvia have a baby boy.'
Natsu tiredly sighed through his nose as he came to a stop next to the blue haired girl, uncaring of the bright, joyful future he was about to ruin. He'd done this kind of thing plenty of times, more than he could remember, and he'd long since grown immune to the regret. Besides, the last sentence of information on his assignment was more than enough to justify his actions, at least in his mind.
'Twenty-seven years and eight months from today, because of their child…two hundred ninety-four people will die.'
He'd been sent photos of the wreckage, a large passenger ferry dissolving into decay at the bottom of the ocean. If his mission briefing was correct, some of the bodies had never been recovered, and the families of those who died were left without any sense of acceptance, haunted by the fact that their lost loved ones would forever be at sea.
He had no qualms about ruining a relationship if it meant those people got to survive. And it wasn't like he was really ruining their relationship, he was simply preventing it from happening in the first place.
So he tapped the blue haired girl on the shoulder, his face completely blank as he held his own black umbrella out to her.
She took a moment to get over her slight shock at what he was doing for her, hesitantly taking the umbrella from his hands, "Oh…thank you." She thanked him again and again, and with nothing preventing her from continuing on her way, she stepped back into the downpour and headed south on the busy street.
Natsu only gave her the smallest of head nods in response to her thanks, simply reaching over and retrieving the umbrella he had leaned against the wall earlier in preparation for losing his own.
His work done, he started home with his hand in the pocket of his suit's trousers, the other holding his umbrella, not caring enough to stick around and watch as Gray came down the steps of his apartment building. The raven haired boy paused briefly on the landing, taking a moment to open his orange umbrella before he started north, with every step moving further away from his fated other.
'The big important moments in life that you remember are merely the sum of all the small, unmemorable ones.'
Natsu reached into the compartment of the metal contraption he had brought back with him once it finished flashing and beeping, retrieving an envelope that was still warm from transport. He wafted away the smoke that had spilled from the compartment when he'd removed the lid and tore the file open, the contents of his newest mission scattering across the table before him.
They were mostly photos, though there was a paper filled with written information amongst the various images. He skimmed over it, not surprised to find out he'd been tasked with preventing another mass loss of life.
This time around, the pictures depicted a plane crash, the burnt and twisted structure of the aircraft baring no resemblance to how it had appeared upon take off.
He looked at the last photo he'd been sent, a couple smiling brightly on their wedding day. They were his newest targets: Jellal and Erza Fernandez.
'How do two people, crazy in love with each other, become enemies? How does divorce, something completely unimaginable on their wedding day, become their only escape?'
Natsu waited around the corner as the couple exited their apartment and started their walk to work, a soft laugh escaping Erza's lips as Jellal swung his arm over her shoulder and planted a gentle kiss on her cheek.
The salmon haired man approached their apartment once the sound of their footfalls had faded away into silence. He'd have to do a bit more work this time around instead of simply altering a few seconds like he had with Gray and Juvia. Jellal and Erza were already married, and they seemed to be quite happy with their marriage if the interaction he'd seen moments ago was anything to go by.
He pulled the key he'd received in the envelope from his suit jacket's pocket, sliding it into the lock of the Fernandez's apartment and setting to work.
He wouldn't alter anything drastic and make his modifications blatantly attributed to an outside force. They'd be miniscule, but significant enough to bring about agitation that would build and eventually lead to altercation.
'Everyday, little by little, their relationship will start to change.'
Natsu grabbed the TV remote first, hitting a few random, important looking buttons before stuffing it into the couch cushions. He wasn't sure that his button pushing had changed the settings like he'd hoped it would since the TV was off, but the fact that the remote was out of sight was good enough for him, so he moved on.
He pulled his screwdriver out of his trousers' pocket, heading to the fridge and kneeling down to loosen the bolts on one of the shelves. He left it secured enough to continue to the support the shelf for at least a few days, but with time it would eventually give out, just as he intended.
He snatched a cookie from a Tupperware on the side of the fridge, leaving the container open a small fraction for good measure, before making his way to the bedroom, uncaring as crumbs fell to the ground and created a trail on the previously spotless floor behind him. He pulled the comforter and sheets down before taking a seat on the bed, purposefully eating extra sloppily and leaning over as he finished his cookie so that the crumbs piled onto the mattress.
The salmon haired man made sure to make the bed neatly again before he made his way to the bathroom, lifting both the lid and rim of the toilet seat. He took a tube of toothpaste from the cabinet next to the mirror, smearing a tiny glob of the blue gel across the sink before splattering some water on the meticulously cleaned mirror.
Natsu left his alterations at that for the time being, fully intent on returning a few days later to make sure his modifications had had their intended effect and to further encourage the continuation of this destructive path.
He wouldn't stop until Jellal and Erza were divorced. It was his duty, so he would see it through.
'Choice is an illusion. If you could move to the past or future as easily as you move to the left or right, this truth would be self-evident. But most can't, so this principle is difficult to accept.'
Natsu loosened his tie as he rounded the corner that led to the door of his house, pulling out his keys and unlocking the five latches in record time. When he'd first arrived here, he'd fumbled with the antiquated method of security. But now, he'd been here long enough to have grown used to it, not to mention the fact that he had to deal with the five locks on a daily basis.
He snatched a package of ramen from the stack on the shelf just inside the entrance, filling a pot with water and setting it to boil just like he did every night. He changed out of his stiff suit, hanging it next to the others in his closet and heading back to the stove in only his boxers. He dumped the stiff ramen into the boiling pot, cracking a single egg and emptying the shell of its contents into the mixture for flavor.
He plucked some canned tuna from the shelf once his ramen was done, switching on his TV and settling at his small table. He didn't care to grab a bowl, instead eating his meal straight from the pot and can with his chopsticks.
The old, square TV had also taken some getting used to as well, and it was considered antiquated even in this time. But he'd grown to find it somewhat endearing with its pixelated frames and beyond poor sound quality. It was something that had lost its purpose in the world it'd been placed in, constantly being replaced by inventions that were newer and better.
And it was just like him before he'd arrived here.
'Time travel isn't that difficult. Going back in time is the hard part, but going to the future is actually quite simple. You just wait. Just live day by day, and soon enough, a year will pass, then two. But, you must be careful. The outside world is like a spider web. Everything is connected.'
Natsu sighed to himself as he straightened his tie in the mirror, preparing himself for another mind-numbingly boring day of work. He repeated his superior's departing words in his head every time he got the urge to break code, reminding himself of his orders.
'You'll make the necessary changes for a given mission. All other interactions are forbidden. A single mistake can lead to dire consequences.'
Natsu quirked a brow as he watched Jellal and Erza leave their apartment. They exited a few seconds after each other this time instead of together like they had before. It was a small change, but Natsu knew it was the little things that held the power to shape the future.
Jellal still waited for his wife, a soft smile gracing his features as he gently took hold of her hand. She returned his soft smile, a trace of what Natsu identified as forgiveness and apology passing between their gazes.
They must've had a fight. Probably a small, seemingly insignificant one, but a fight nonetheless.
The salmon haired man let himself into their apartment again once they were gone, lifting the toilet seat once more before moving on to new methods of increasing agitation. He tore away the last of the toilet paper while he was still in the bathroom, leaving the empty roll on the holder before turning one of the bottles in their shower on its bottom so that the conditioner puddled there instead of at the lid. He unplugged a phone charger from behind a nightstand and left smudged fingerprints on the stainless steel of their dishwasher too before he vacated the space, choosing to take the stairs back to ground level instead of the elevator like most would have.
He was fully confident that he wouldn't encounter a single soul on his descent from the fourteenth floor. No one used stairs anymore, at least not in buildings that had three fully functional elevators like this one did. That was one thing he was sure of.
He'd endure the lengthy task if it meant he could be in solitude. After all, he existed in this time solely for the sake of completing his missions, and a single unplanned interaction could cause a catastrophe down the line.
Natsu chose to take a less popular path back home for the sake of avoiding others. It was walkway that ran parallel to a highway bridge over Magnolia's bay, the cars speeding past only a short distance away making the walkway unfit for a pleasurable stroll.
It was perfect for him though, even making his journey from his own house to Jellal and Erza's apartment quicker and more convenient than if he were to take another path. He'd been at it for a little over two and a half months now, sneaking into their abode at least twice a week to mess with things, his alterations getting more and more obvious the longer he kept at his mission. And he was satisfied to note that his changes had had their desired effect. They hadn't reached the point of divorce, but from watching them interact in the mornings he could tell that the tension was building in their relationship.
He slowed to a stop when he realized he wasn't completely alone on the walkway like he had thought, a yellow blur soon turning into a head of golden blonde hair as he got closer. The girl stood on a part of the walkway that extended away from the highway and further out over the water, a rest point of sorts if he were to guess by the benches that were bolted to the cement in the small, square space.
Her blue and white striped backpack rested in the corner of one of the benches and the skirt of her school uniform fluttered in the breeze, the strands of her golden hair tangling together as they were swept from her shoulders. Her feet were slipped through the bottom of the railing and clad in only knee-high stockings, her hands clutching the top of the railing in a death grip as she peered over the edge at the water that rested over forty feet below them.
It was blatantly obvious to him that she was going to jump.
He should have just ignored her and walked past, but Natsu couldn't help but stop and stare. All of the simple, seemingly meaningless particulars that he obsessed over were what decided what was to happen in this moment, or in more general terms, how and when every individual died. He found it breathtaking, because this was it. This was the moment where every small detail in her life coalesced into one final end.
He was drawn out of his reverent state when she moved, her head naturally shifting in his direction as she swung one of her legs over the railing. He dove behind one of the bridge's support pillars, pressing his back against it and praying that he'd moved fast enough to avoid her gaze.
"Hey! I know that you saw me, so there's no point in hiding."
"Fuck," he swore under his breath. As he tentatively stepped out from behind the pillar, he resolved to try and get out of this as quick as he could so she could carry on with what she'd been doing, even though he knew any other normal and decent person would never leave someone who was about to commit suicide. But he wasn't a normal person, so he figured he was fully justified in his choice to leave her to face her end.
"I…I didn't see you," he mentally cursed to himself when the words stuttered from his mouth, debating on whether or not he should have just ignored her and continued walking home even after she had called out to him.
She quirked a brow in incredulous disbelief, her hands still clutching the railing as she straddled it, "You're kidding me, right? And even if you didn't see me before, you're blatantly staring at me now."
"Well, I…I didn't mean to see you," he quietly mumbled, finally realizing the consequences of being deprived of all social interaction for a year and a half. This was the first time he'd had a conversation with someone that wasn't part of one of his missions, and his heart was pounding with anxiety as his lack of context about her past left him scrambling for words, "I…I'm sorry…I guess."
The blonde let out a light scoff, "What are you sorry about?"
"Well, I'm not really sorry…I just thought it'd be the best thing to say."
She clenched her jaw and the light of the sun glinted in the angry tears that began to gather in her eyes, "The world is a mess because of people like you, people that don't know the right thing to say at the right time."
He let out a small scoff, quietly remarking to himself, "If only you could see the messes I've prevented."
She peeled her gaze off of his and looked back out over the sea as she got her tears back under control, her inner dilemma apparent in the way she bit her lip. After a few moments, she huffed out a breath through her nose and began to climb down from her perch.
He rushed over to her before she could fully dismount the railing, her sudden movement somewhat spurring him out of his anxious state and reminding him of the rules he was required to follow as an agent of time, "Wait, wait, wait!"
She furrowed her brows in confusion, "What?"
"I didn't influence your decision on whether or not to jump, did I?" he hurriedly blurted out.
She incredulously quirked a brow again, "If I said you did, would you feel guilty?"
Natsu huffed out a quick breath, "It's not that…Listen, is it because of me or not?"
"I don't know!" she haughtily shouted back.
"Well then think about it real hard, 'cause I need an answer!"
He drew back a bit when it suddenly looked like she might cry again after he'd yelled at her, letting out a deep sigh, 'People think they have a choice...but her choice right now is just the sum of billions of factors. Every influence she has received throughout her life. Every person she has met. Every little success and failure. The hormones affecting her mood. The digestion of today's lunch. The wind blowing her hair. The angle of the setting sun as it hits her face. And of course…me.'
Natsu swallowed heavily, thinking his options over. It was his duty to save people's lives. He had a chance to save a life here, and not just as a person who manipulated small factors in the past that would lead to great changes in the future, but as the direct source of salvation for someone in the moment. Maybe now, at least for a little while, he could forget about his duties and start to be real human being again, one that wasn't about to leave this girl to kill herself.
He was sure to be damned for it later, but he resolved to deal with the consequences at another time. So he held his hand out to the girl, offering a gentle smile, "You hungry?"
Natsu cracked two eggs and poured the insides into the pot of boiling ramen on his stove instead of just one like he normally did, the small pot nearly overflowing because he had doubled all of the ingredients.
He pulled at the collar of his white shirt, the long sleeves heightening his suffering as he stood over the hot stove. He was reluctant to sacrifice his own comfort and eat dinner in his suit, but he figured the blonde would probably much rather prefer it if he were fully clothed as opposed to adorning only his boxers like he normally would.
When their meal was ready, he took the pot over and set it on the table, sliding a pair chopsticks across the surface towards her and starting to dig in with his own utensils. He didn't have any bowls, but the blonde didn't seem to mind, eating from the pot with just as much comfort and ease as he did.
Her eyes wandered as she slurped her noodles, her gaze lingering on the cement walls, barred windows, and the shelf just to their left that held the stacks of ramen packages, tuna cans, and bottled water, "Soooo…what do you do for a living? Why is this place so weird?"
The salmon haired man paused momentarily, a few noodles still hanging from his mouth as he thought over how much he should tell her, knowing that any attempt at a lie would fail miserably. He hadn't lied in over a year, not because he was devoted to honesty but simply because he hadn't had anyone to lie to. He inhaled a few more noodles before answering, "It's a bit difficult to explain. So…to put it simply, I work for the government."
She hummed in thought and nodded her head as she continued to look around, "Oh…makes sense."
There was silence for a moment, the only sound being the slurping of noodles.
After getting lost in her thoughts for a few seconds, the blonde suddenly leaned across the table towards him, eagerly asking, "Are you married?"
Natsu was a bit taken aback by the inquiry, but her expression made it clear to him that she really wanted to know, and he had a feeling that this question wasn't nearly as random as he had first perceived it to be. His answer clearly meant something to her, and he had a feeling that it had something to do with why she'd been standing on that bridge, having resolved to take the leap that would end her life. So he answered honestly, "I used to be."
The blonde quirked a brow as she repeated, "Used to be?"
He nodded, "A long time ago."
Her brows furrowed, "But…you don't look that old. You can't be more than a few years older than me. How young were you when you got married then?"
"Actually…" Natsu bit his lip, making the split second decision to throw all of his commands to hell, and before he could stop himself, he was admitting, "…I'm from the future." Part of him wanted to slap himself as soon as the words slipped from his mouth, but this was the first conversation he'd had as his true, genuine self in years. Something about her made him let down all of the walls he'd built up over the years, the truth spilling from his lips before he could think to restrain himself. And he had to admit, it felt good to finally throw all of his secrets out onto to the table after holding them inside and living in isolation for so long, "You know what a time machine is, right?"
She slowly nodded her head, her cheeks still full of ramen as she stopped chewing and turned all of her attention on him, obvious disbelief in her gaze.
"Twenty-two years from now, I got married at nineteen. A bit young, but…we were in love, so I didn't think that it really mattered. We lived together for a little less than a year, then we got divorced. Six months after that, I got in a time machine and came back to about a year and a half before today."
She stared at him in silence for a moment, her brain trying to work over the mass of information he'd just spewed at her. She briefly glanced to the side before curiously looking back to him, "But…" she leaned forward again, quietly asking, "…if you were in love, why'd you get divorced?"
He quirked a brow in disbelief that after all he'd told her, that was the question she had chosen to ask. He answered her anyways though, solemnly admitting, "Because I loved her enough to let her go to someone else when she got tired of me."
"Oh…I get it," the blonde slowly nodded her head, backing off of her inquiry when she heard the traces of sorrow in his voice.
They went back to their ramen, and nothing else was said.
After they'd finished their dinner, Natsu excused himself to shower, expecting, or rather hoping for her to have left by the time he was done. The longer he'd chatted with her, the more he felt his self-control slip away, and with each second of his disobedience to his commands, the chances of the future being altered grew.
Having had time to think over the consequences of his actions, he was completely lost as to what he should do next. Had he not been there, she might have killed herself, and the fact that she still lived would be a drastic alteration in itself. Or maybe she wouldn't have ended up jumping anyways despite him not being there. Then she wouldn't have gone with him and her presence would have existed elsewhere, possibly influencing the happenings of countless other things.
That's why he hoped, prayed with every ounce of himself that she'd just disappear while he was showering. That way, he wouldn't have to deal with the mess he'd created.
Despite his hopes, he returned to find her drooped over the table, her hair puffing away from her face with her heavy breathing as she slept. He froze still in his steps, the heavy weight of his decision about what to do with her weighing heavily on his shoulders once again. Though it had never really left in the first place, constantly crushing down on him and forcing regret through his veins.
His superiors would advise him to kill her, to completely rid himself of the threat of her knowing about the fact that he belonged to another time. But he was stuck with the same question that he had been before: would she have jumped if he wasn't there to stop her? If she had, then his choice was clear. He'd have to kill her quick and set things back on the correct course. But if she hadn't, then killing her would most likely drastically alter the future.
He had to know whether or not she jumped, and that meant he had to get in contact with someone from the future.
But he needed to know the blonde's name first in order to get the information he wanted.
Natsu snatched her striped backpack from where it rested against the back of her chair, gently lowering himself onto his mattress so the old springs wouldn't make much noise. He was careful to be as quiet as he could while he unzipped the front pocket of her bag, a small feeling of victory flowing through him when he spotted the pink wallet that rested amidst the pencils and pens.
He undid the latch, not surprised to find that her only form of identification was her high school student ID card. Even if she seemed far more mature than the norm for someone her age, she was wearing a school uniform after all.
Lucy Heartfilia
Date of Birth: July 1, 2000
She was only seventeen, five years his junior. If she had succeeded in killing herself today, it would have been a horrible end to her short life. She was far too young to have experienced all the world had to offer.
But he supposed he had no right to come to any conclusions on her decision to end her life, not when he knew nothing about her or her past.
That was about to change though.
He wrote her name and birthdate on a sheet of paper, sliding it into the small compartment of his transport and pressing all the buttons necessary for his message to get to the future.
It wasn't uncommon for him to request information on people. He had to do it quite often in order to complete his missions, so he hoped that his superiors wouldn't notice anything strange this time around. Though, since they were in the future, maybe they already knew that he'd met the girl. He wasn't sure how the whole time continuum thing worked now that he'd traveled back in time and messed with things. He didn't know if the people he was communicating with were the same people he had left in the future he was from or if they were people living in the new future he had created with his alterations. All he knew for sure was that for now, the missions kept coming, and it was his duty to carry them out.
While he waited for the information to return, he turned back to the girl, Lucy. He didn't know much about her, but he had already decided that her name fit her, with her sense of curiosity and honesty, but also with her fiery passion and good-natured stubbornness.
Her neck was bent at an odd angle as she laid splayed across his tabletop, a rather uncomfortable position if he had to guess by the looks of it.
Before he was really aware of what he was doing, he was crouching down next to her, slipping one arm beneath the bend in her knees and the other across her shoulder blades. She let out an unintelligible mumble as he lifted her from the chair, and he could have sworn that he felt her head nuzzle further into his chest as he carried her to his bed.
He laid her gently across the mattress before pulling one of the sheets over her sleeping form, and when she was settled, he stayed kneeling by the bedside for a moment to observe her face, intrigued by the effect she had over him. It was almost like instinct, the need to make her feel comfortable, and she had broken down all of the walls he'd built up over the years since his divorce in the matter of only a few sentences. He'd told her everything, and he should have felt the upmost regret for it. But he didn't. He felt only a sense of relief.
The transport suddenly started beeping, and he rushed to shut it off before it could wake the blonde. The air above the compartment was flooded with smoke as soon as he removed the lid, and he eagerly reached for the paper inside, desperate to find out whether or not he would have to do the unspeakable and repent for his mistakes.
The same information on her school ID was stated at the top, but her name and birthdate were followed by two new pieces of data, and those two lines sent frustration and reluctance rushing through his veins.
Date of death: May 24, 2018
Cause of death: Suicide
"Fuck," he hissed out, crumbling the sheet and tossing it into the trash can beneath the desk.
That was today.
She was would have jumped if he wasn't there.
He'd royally fucked up, and his next move was clear. He'd have to kill her, both for the sake of his mission and for the sake of the future.
Natsu swallowed heavily as he broke the capsule of the pill apart, dumping the powder inside into the glass of milk he'd poured only moments previous. His superiors had given him the suicide pills in preparation for if he ever compromised his mission, and although they were meant for him to take himself, he figured that this was the best way to make up for his transgressions. He wouldn't have to do the deed himself, at least not directly, and she wouldn't feel any pain. She'd simply fall asleep and never wake up again, and then things would go back to the way they were supposed to be.
He quickly crumpled the capsule and shoved it into the pocket of his basketball shorts when he heard the mattress shift behind him, and he turned to find Lucy sleepily rubbing her eyes as she shuffled towards him before tiredly slouching into one of the chairs at the kitchen table.
He took a seat across from her as he strengthened his resolve, ready to have this whole mess over with as he slid the glass of milk across the table towards her, "Here."
Her lips quirked a bit at the corners in gratitude, and she took the glass between her hands, staring down into the milk as she slowly escaped the dreariness of sleep.
Natsu swallowed heavily to clear the tightness in his throat as he tentatively asked, "So…how do you feel today? Have…have you changed your mind?"
Her expression froze up when he asked the last question, knowing exactly what he was getting at without him having to say it directly. Her gaze slowly lifted to his before it quickly dropped back to glass of milk in her hands, "I…I'm not sure."
The salmon haired man nodded his head slowly, not really sure what answer he had expected. He knew she must be incredibly weirded out by the fact that he hadn't said a word to try and dissuade her from ending her life, and now that he thought about it, he might have even come off as encouraging.
Although it went against his orders, he truly didn't want her die. His whole reason for existing in this time was to save lives. It seemed counterproductive of him to be sending her to her death, even if he was only attempting to put fate back on its predetermined course. That seemed rather counterproductive of him too though when he thought over it, considering that he saved lives by messing with people's fates.
His entire body froze when she brought the drink to her lips, his breath catching in his chest when the glass touched her bottom lip.
She hesitated before pouring the milk into her mouth though, her eyes sliding to and from him multiple times as an idea formed her in head.
Natsu let out the breath he'd been holding when she lowered the glass back to the table, but he was soon tensing up again as she leaned across the wooden surface towards him.
"So…do you live here alone?"
"Um…yeah," he reclined back in his chair to put as much distance between his face and hers as he could, blinking several times at her sudden shift in demeanor, no longer appearing miserable and dejected, but rather seeming somewhat bold and mischievous with a trace of smugness in her expression.
"Well then…" she pulled back a bit as she thought over her response, her lips pursing for a moment before she leaned towards him again, "…wouldn't it be nice to have someone to cook and clean for you?"
He numbly shook his head, feeling uncomfortable about the way this conversation was headed, "Not really. I can manage." He couldn't let her get to him. He needed to fix his mistake, so he'd hold firm.
"Don't you get bored?"
"Nope."
"But aren't you lonely?"
"Not particularly," that was a lie, but still, he wouldn't give in to her.
The blonde huffed out a breath, dropping her focus to the milk for a moment before raising her gaze back to his and giving him her best pout as she begged, "Can you please just let me stay here for a bit? Like…maybe a month?"
His eyes widened as he stuttered out, "Here? For a month?"
She leaned even closer to him, her attempts at softening him up growing more desperate, "Please! I promise I won't bother you!" Her gaze dropped again, her voice suddenly a lot smaller than before, "I…I need time to figure out what I'm gonna do next…and…whether or not I even still want to live in the first place. I don't have anywhere else to go…"
Natsu swallowed heavily, scrambling to find another means of deterring her pursuit. He could feel his own resolve crumbling the longer this conversation went on though, the sorrow and uncertainty in her eyes speaking volumes of the trials she'd undergone and piling pity onto his shoulders.
The blonde bit her lip, "How about just one week?"
"One week?" he numbly repeated.
"Yep. Just one week. I promise," she held out her pinkie finger.
Natsu swallowed heavily as he looked down at her outstretched hand. Having her stay with him didn't sound like a bad idea at all. He'd been craving human contact for years, but he'd forced himself to set his desires aside for the sake of his mission.
He glanced down at the glass of milk in her hands before looking back up at her pinkie.
But maybe she could be the exception. After all, neither of them were supposed to exist in this time, so what was the harm in them existing during it together? And it was just for one week. One week of ignoring his responsibilities for the sake of spending more time with her, then he'd let her decide her next move and she'd be out of his hair.
He hesitantly wrapped his pinkie around her own, sealing the deal.
A bright smile spread across the blonde's lips, and she raised her glass to him before bringing it to her mouth.
"Wait!" his eyes widened and he lunged forward to swipe the milk from her hands before she could drink it, bringing it under his nose and forcing a sour expression onto his face, "It's gone bad."
He exchanged the drink for a glass of orange juice, sending the drugged milk down the drain and making his way back to the table in record time.
Lucy still had a bright smile on her face as he took a seat across from her again, and it never once faded as she took a small sip of the juice.
For the first time in months, Natsu felt his lips quirk in a small smile without his volition.
'Yeah…spending one week with her doesn't sound bad at all…'
"So…what exactly are we doing again?"
Natsu knew he'd made the wrong choice in allowing Lucy to come with him, but she'd refused to just stay at his home, using her best pout to get him to cave in. And it had worked, the salmon haired man incapable of ignoring the way her lips puffed out and the way her eyes shone.
He'd tried to explain to her how he went about his job, how he made adjustments to the present to change the future for the better. He couldn't really blame her for not understanding right away, it was certainly a lot to take in. But it was still bothersome to have to explain it all again.
He sighed heavily to himself, "We're trying to cause a divorce. I told you before, the child of this couple is responsible for the deaths of over two hundred people, so we're going to make sure he's never born in the first place."
Her lips twisted distastefully as they rounded the corner and began to climb the stairs, "Isn't that a bit harsh? Couldn't you just stop the kid from becoming a pilot or something instead of ruining a happy marriage? Do you really have to go to such extremes?"
He pressed his lips into a grim line, "Before I was sent here, the government did some experiments with their new technology. Turns out, fate has a strange way of correcting itself when tampered with, so yes, we do have to go to such extremes. The only way to make sure the change goes in our favor is to stop the person from being born in the first place."
The blonde accepted his answer with a grain of salt, moving on to another concern of hers, "But…don't you think they'll get suspicious? Jellal and Erza, I mean?"
"That's why we only make small changes. They're small enough to pass as something they did themselves without fully realizing, but noticeable enough to make them agitated. All of that tension will eventually build and then hopefully we'll get them to divorce each other. We'll only have to make big changes if the stuff I'm doing now doesn't work."
"Oh…okay," her voice trailed off after that, and he could tell by the look on her face that she still wasn't completely okay with what he was doing. He couldn't blame for that either. When he first got here and started messing with things, it'd taken him a while to get over the feelings of regret for the lives he was changing and, in some cases, completely ruining. He'd had to keep telling himself over and over that he was doing it to save lives, and by now, he'd grown immune to the uneasiness of messing with fate.
Once they made into the apartment, Natsu went about making his changes, lifting the toilet cover and seat again before leaving more water spots on the mirror. He moved the TV remote again too, this time sliding it into one of the drawers in their entertainment stand. Lucy didn't do much herself, simply following him around and quietly observing his actions as he continued to mess with things in their apartment.
Natsu couldn't help but feel a slight sense of guilt now that someone was actually there watching him do his job, but he hoped that she'd eventually grow to understand his reasoning. He was doing it for the sake of the future, and he was saving hundreds of lives in the process.
In his eyes, this couple's happiness was a small price to pay for the lives of the people who would eventually die at the hands of their child, so he kept at it, pushing them further and further towards divorce as time went on.
The days passed by with ease, and Natsu found himself quickly falling into a new rhythm with Lucy's added presence in his life. The only downsides to their deal so far were the clumps of blonde hair that gathered near the drain of his shower and the moments where he cursed the fact that he only had one bathroom, when he snuck in while she was showering because he couldn't hold it any longer and the showerhead turned to its hottest setting became her greatest weapon against him. The fact that she'd stolen some of his clothes without asking was also a bother at first, but he'd admitted to himself after only a few hours of seeing her in one of his plain white t-shirts and a pair of his black basketball shorts that he liked to see her wear his clothes.
When they weren't out wreaking havoc on the Fernandez's relationship, they locked themselves up in Natsu's little concrete corner of the world, passing time by losing themselves in the few methods of entertainment that his home provided, doing anything and everything they could to keep their minds off of the inevitable decision Lucy would make by the end of the week, as stated by their deal.
Most of the time, they distracted themselves by playing Mario Kart on an old, though still fully functional GameCube that he had happened upon by some miracle a few months ago. That was how Natsu found out that Lucy was a mischievous cheat, making up for her lack of gaming skills by kicking his controller out of his hands, sliding in between him and the screen, or turning the TV off with her toes just when he was about to win.
But Natsu's favorite pastime by far was the hours they spent seated next to each other on the bench of his piano, the blonde unsuccessfully struggling to show his bumbling fingers how to gracefully move across the keys.
A light smile tugged at the corners of Natsu's lips as he watched Lucy finger away at the stained keys, slightly envious that she could play so well.
He'd been trying to teach himself to play for nearly a year, ever since he'd found the old thing abandoned in one of the alleys he often used to get home. It was chipped and worn beyond repair, and it was grossly out of tune. But its imperfections only made it all the more endearing to him, and he cherished it even more now that Lucy sat on its bench beside him, crafting something beautiful using an object that had been deemed worthless.
The music slowly faded into silence, the blonde's hands suddenly falling from the keys to wrap around the edge of the bench. From the way her fingers gripped at the old wood, he could tell she was deep in thought.
He hunched down to try and get a better look at her expression, their difference in height making his task quite difficult, "What're you thinking about?"
She lightly shrugged her shoulders, "I was just thinking about what you do. You came back in time to fix the future, and there are countless people who wish they could do the same thing. People always say that they wish they could go back and change the way things went, but…no one ever thinks that maybe they should just make the changes in the present so that they don't have to feel regret in the future. I know it's a lot more complicated than that and we don't always realize we're heading down a destructive path with the choices we've made until after the fact, but still…people don't think things through. It's just…strange. We're so concerned with the future that we don't worry about the present."
Natsu didn't know what to say in response, shocked into silence by the personal revelation her words had brought about. Even though the circumstances were a bit different, he was just like all of the people she had been talking about, so concerned with bettering the future that was he blind to the things that really mattered in the present, or more specifically for him, the people that mattered in the present.
Lucy.
Everything about his present life concerned her. She had been by his side every second since he had encountered her on the bridge that day, and the greatest uncertainty he had about his future was whether or not he'd give in at the end of the week and let her take her own life if that was what she decided to do. And even if she chose to live, he didn't know whether or not he'd let her go, having grown accustomed to the way things were with her around. He liked his life more this way, with her by his side every moment.
But if the things his superiors had told him really were true, then did either of them have a choice in the matter at all? He'd been told countless times that choice was an illusion, conditioned to believe that all of his decisions had already been made for him, determined solely by the things that happened around him every day.
He supposed he'd have to wait until the end of this week to see if those things were true.
He was drawn out of his thoughts when Lucy suddenly let out a small chuckle, spinning around on the bench before heading to his bed and entangling herself amongst the sheets, "Sorry…I'm not really sure why I brought that up. I just think that maybe our lives would be better if everyone could forget about the future for just a few seconds and pay attention to all of the things that are right before their eyes in the present."
Natsu silently watched her as her breaths grew heavy with sleep after a few minutes, quietly observing her as he thought over all that she had just said. He'd already spent a few days with her, but he was still trying to figure her out, specifically why she seemed so wise about the world and said such profound things when she was only seventeen years old. She must have been through some tough trials to have gained the sort of knowledge she had, and he found himself wishing he could do something to make up for all the misfortune she had endured.
He was caught in an endless struggle between his head and his heart, his commands and responsibilities ringing through his head every time he thought that maybe, just maybe, he could let her stay, not just for one week, but for as long she wanted.
Natsu grabbed Lucy's elbow as she made to press the button for the elevator, yanking her away from the lift and towards the stairs.
"Oh, come on, Natsu!" She complained, digging her heels into the floor to resist his pull, "They live on the fourteenth floor, and I've already made that climb two times this week! Can't we take the elevator just this once?"
"Nope," he shut her down simply as he continued to drag her towards the stairs. "Too risky."
She yanked her arm from his grasp, and he turned to find her with a pout on her lips, folding her arms under her breasts and standing as tall as she could, though he still towered over her by more than a head. Her fierce gaze made up for her lack of height, her voice firm as she insisted, "Then carry me."
"What?"
"Don't pretend like you didn't hear what I said," she bickered back haughtily. She turned her head to the side, her nose held high in the air, "I'm not going unless you carry me."
Natsu stared at her in silence, surprised by how easily he felt himself giving in to her wants. He caved with a heavy sigh, "Fine." He needed to see how his changes were affecting the Fernandez couple, and they were leaving for work soon, so he didn't have time to mess around. That's the excuse he came up with in his head, because there was no way that he was doing it because he wanted to…or at least that's what he told himself.
Lucy's eyes widened in shock when he got down on one knee with his back to her, having not expected him to give in so easily. But her surprised expression was soon replaced with a pleased smirk, a light, content hum escaping her lips as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
He slid his hands under the crooks of her knees and started up the stairs, trying to ignore how smooth the skin of legs was and how good it felt to have her pressed against his back.
It was time to take things to the next level, to make the change that would finally bring about the breaking point of Jellal and Erza's relationship. Natsu could tell that the tension between them had reached an all-time high just from observing their interactions over the past couple of days, and now the only thing left to do was to release the floodgates.
But he had no ideas, immediately dismissing every thought that came to mind for not being good enough or being too obviously attributed to an outside force.
Lucy suddenly perked up from her place next to him on the couple's bed, making her first contribution to his schemes, "You said that Erza was at a conference over the weekend, right? And she's coming back today? Does she get back before Jellal?"
Natsu quirked a brow at the devilish grin that had spread across her lips, not used to seeing such an expression on her, "Um, yeah…I think so."
Her eyes lit up with a spark of mischief, "Then how about…an affair?"
Before he could even process the idea, she sprang into action, heading straight for the bathroom. She brushed her fingers through her hair a few times, taking the blonde strands that came loose and dumping them into the sink.
As she walked back into the bedroom, her hands dove under the hem of her shirt, and she brought her hands behind herself and up to her mid back. After her hands had finished their task, she pulled her left arm back into her sleeve, working at something under her shirt for a few seconds before sliding it back out.
His cheeks warmed as her bra came loose and she pulled it out from her right sleeve, stuttering out, "D-don't you think that's a little extreme? Jellal will obviously deny it."
"But isn't that always what the guilty do?" she argued as she moved to slide her bra under the skirt of the bed, positioning it so that only one of the straps was visible. "They never confess, so Erza shouldn't be surprised when he denies it. And since they've been fighting a lot lately, we can hope that Jellal will think the whole idea of him having an affair was something Erza came up with to use against him. And then they'll argue about it, and boom: there's their divorce, just like you wanted."
Natsu watched on in awed silence as she entangled her fingers in her hair again, this time sprinkling the blonde strands on the bed.
For someone who had been so reluctant to accept his actions in the past, she sure was getting into it now, and even though she had only been with him for a little under a week, she seemed to already be a master of manipulation.
She was a natural.
Natsu sat across from Lucy on his bed, a checkerboard laid out before them. They had been silent for quite some time, but it wasn't uncomfortable for either of them, at least not until Lucy decided to break the silence.
"Natsu…" the blonde quietly started, moving one of her pieces to a new square, "I've…I've decided that I still want to kill myself." She swallowed heavily when he didn't say a word, nor did he even seem to have a reaction at all, not even flinching at her decision. He simply kept his gaze trained on the board as he quietly moved one of his pieces.
"It's been a week. Our deal's over, so…I'm going to kill myself tomorrow morning. Thanks for letting me stay-"
She cut herself off as Natsu suddenly stood from the bed, the salmon haired man silently setting a pot of water to boil on the stove before heading over to retrieve two packages of ramen from the shelves just inside the door.
He still hadn't said a word.
He didn't know how to deal with her decision, so he distracted himself by occupying his thoughts with one of the few things he did know how to deal with: making food. He figured that maybe if he ignored her decision, then it'd just magically disappear and he wouldn't have to deal with it. That had been his coping method ever since his divorce, and it had worked without a hitch up until this point. So that was what his immediate reaction was in this situation, making the split second to face the weight of her decision later, when it was too prominent for him to ignore.
After all, he'd been conditioned to believe that choice was an illusion, so he figured that there was no choice to be made. He simply had to step back and let things run their fated course.
Lucy was silent as she took a seat at the table, her hands nervously clenched in her lap and her eyes dedicated to staying focused on the floor. He glanced over at her once after he had dumped the stiff ramen into the now boiling pot of water. It was obvious to him that she was waiting for him to do something, to respond to the fact that she still wanted to die.
He mentally berated himself, battling with his mind to come up with something, anything to say. He wanted her to live. He wanted her to stay, to be by his side every day like she had been for the past week. He hadn't realized what he was missing out on until she had arrived, and he wasn't ready to let her go.
But his orders. He couldn't forget his orders. He had already let her remain alive for far too long, so he should have been relieved that she wanted to do the job and end her existence herself.
He dug out a special can of tuna from the back of the top shelf, sliding it towards her before bringing over the pot of ramen with two sets of chopsticks.
Her eyes quickly scanned over the can's label before darting up to his face to figure why he had given it to her.
But still, he was silent, his face blank and unreadable.
Natsu numbly watched on as she tentatively peeled back the lid and sunk her chopsticks into its contents, and if the situation were different, he would have chuckled at the way her face crinkled at the sharp flavor of the spicy tuna. It was his favorite thing, something he saved for special occasions.
He wasn't quite sure why he had given it to her either, it had just happened. Maybe some part of him realized that this might be the last meal she ever ate, and so his subconscious had deemed it a special occasion. Or maybe his subconscious was fighting to get her to stay by giving her something that was special to him, then maybe she'd realize how much he cared about her, and that there was a reason to keep living.
Either way, his emotions were in complete turmoil, anything that he might want to say kept getting trampled down by the other words that fought to escape his throat.
So they ate in complete silence, the slurping of noodles the only sound that echoed between the concrete walls.
Natsu blankly stared at the ceiling as he lay in bed that night, the blinking, luminescent red light outside the window setting the concrete room aglow. Lucy was less than a foot away, her head resting atop her hands as she curled onto her side, facing towards him. He couldn't remember how they had ended up in this position without saying a word since she had made the choice to end her life earlier, though he supposed that when he had distracted himself with his routine, Lucy had followed suit and passed the time like she normally would. She'd even played the piano for him again, the salmon haired man fully aware of but still ignoring the fact that it might be the last time she did such a thing. They had somehow wound up lying next to each other, occupying the same sides of the twin sized bed that they had every night for the past week.
"Hey…" the blonde started softly, breaking their evening of heavy silence, "…what are you thinking about?"
"Just…the past," Natsu answered quietly, his voice hoarse from all of the emotions raging inside of him. "For some reason, I keep thinking about the way my life was before I came back to this time."
There was silence for a few more moments, and then the sheets crinkled as Lucy shifted a fraction closer to him, tentatively asking, "Do you miss her? Your ex-wife?"
"Not so much anymore," he answered truthfully.
"Then…why are you thinking about her?"
"I'm not really sure. She just…came to mind."
Silence overtook the room once more.
When Lucy spoke again, her voice was barely audible and laced with traces of sorrow, "Will…will you think of me when I'm gone?"
Natsu answered without hesitation, "Of course."
The traces of sorrow in her voice were replaced with hope, and he didn't have to look to know that a soft smile had appeared on her lips, "Is that because you love me?"
"I'll think about you because I'll remember…I'll miss you. I'll want to see you."
"When you think about someone because you miss them and you want to see them," the blonde tiredly mumbled, "it means you love them."
"I…I guess," he breathed out.
She nuzzled her head further into the mattress, her soft smile still adorning her features, "Its okay, Natsu. You don't have to say it. I know." She swallowed heavily, "There's one thing I regret. Do you know what it is?"
"What?"
"I never got to go on a spaceship."
By now, Natsu knew that she was just rambling on tiredly, probably unaware of the things that were slipping from her lips as she gave in to the pull of sleep. But he let her continue on, because he liked the sound of her voice and after today, he might never get to hear it again.
"In the future, people will go to space stations all the time and travel amongst the stars. I really wish I could go." She quietly chuckled to herself, "But I guess I'll be wrinkled and old by then. They probably wouldn't let me on anyways. If only I could have been born in the future, then maybe I'd get the chance to go." She scooted closer, nuzzling into his bicep, "Natsu…if you were born in the future, what would you want to do?"
It was his turn to smile gently, "I'd get in a time machine and come back to a week before today."
"Why?"
"So I could spend more time with you."
She let out a tired giggled, half-heartedly accusing him, "Liar."
Natsu lifted his arm away from his side in invitation, and she scooted closer to him without hesitation, burying her head in his chest and nuzzling into his warmth. He wrapped his arm around her back once she had settled, holding her close as he let the weight of the uncertainty of tomorrow pull him into unconsciousness.
Natsu felt panic begin to grip his chest when he watched Lucy take a step closer to the railing, her fingers clutching the metal in a death grip as she looked down to the churning ocean waters below. She'd been ignoring him ever since she'd woken up, not even casting him a glance over her shoulder as he numbly followed behind her on her way to carry out her deed.
They stood on the same outcropping of cement that they had first met upon, the soft breeze sweeping Lucy's hair from her shoulders and fluttering her maroon skirt against her legs once more. There wasn't much traffic on the highway behind them like there had been the first time they were here, Lucy's golden hair aglow with rising sun this time instead of the setting.
As she mentally prepared herself to jump, he took note of how similar this moment was to the moment when they had first met, when he had stopped in his stroll to regard her in awe as her life coalesced to an end.
And just like before, all of the simple, seemingly meaningless particulars of her life were what decided the outcome of this moment. The amount of sleep she'd gotten the night before. The angle of the rising sun as it hit her face. The wind as it tangled the strands of her hair together. And of course, the largest factor was him.
This time, however, as he watched her stare down at the water that would bring about the end of her life, Natsu wasn't in awe. His mind was running over all of the details about her that were influencing him in this moment, her mannerisms and the effect she'd had on him during their every moment together over the past week.
The tune she always unwittingly hummed while she brushed her hair. The way she played the piano for him and the feel of her fingers over his as she helped his hands move across the keys. Her unabashed curiosity. The laughter and tiny squeals of delight that escaped her lips while they played his video games. The taste of the ramen she made for him, because for some reason, despite using the exact same ingredients, it always tasted better when she was the cook. Her stubbornness and intelligence. The way her body had felt pressed against his last night as they slept.
He loved it all too much to let it go, and as he came to that realization, he finally concluded that choice wasn't an illusion. He had a choice here, one that was blatantly obvious to him. And so he gave in to what his heart wanted.
To hell with his commands.
Just as she moved to swing one of her legs over the railing, he dove forward, grabbing one of her elbows and yanking her backwards, sending her stumbling into his chest. He wrapped his arms around her small frame, all of the emotions that he had kept bottled inside for hours suddenly breaking free and sending tears streaking down his cheeks without his volition.
She started sobbing as soon as she was in his arms, her hands instinctively fisting into the stiff material of his suit jacket. She had been praying for him to stop her ever since she had first let the words slip from her mouth last night, because even if she did want to die, there was the smallest part of her that wanted to keep living her new life, the one she had begun with him a week ago. The weight of what she had almost been allowed to do was too much to take.
They sat like that for a while, her in his arms and both sobbing with no end in sight. Neither of them realized when they had fallen to their knees, Lucy somehow ending up on his lap as he continuously pulled her closer to him.
When Natsu finally spoke, his voice was choked with tears. Physically stopping her from committing suicide wasn't enough for him. He had to explain to her why he'd done what he did, and why life was still worth living, or rather why he needed her to want to keep living, "Lucy…that day I stopped you from jumping…you…you were supposed to die."
"W-what?"
"Right now…in this time…neither of us are supposed to exist…" he pressed on. "But we're still here anyways. If you go, I'll be all alone again…Even if you were supposed to die, it doesn't have to be like that. We can keep living and screw fate together…So stay with me…please…"
"I was waiting for you to ask, you dummy," Her hands slid down his chest, her arms wrapping around his waist as she nuzzled her head into his frame and softly smiled despite the tears still sliding down her cheeks, "Okay, Natsu. I 'll stay."
Natsu pulled back from their embrace, finally looking into her misty eyes, "For forever?"
She hummed in agreement, nodding her head as she wiped away her tears, still sitting in his lap.
He held out his pinkie, "You promise?"
A light smile spread across her lips again, "Promise."
She wrapped her pinkie around his his, sealing the deal.
AN
Yeah, that kind of ended abruptly, but I didn't see any point in making it any longer...Plus I was just really eager to finally get something posted XD I broke one of my fingers a few weeks ago, so now that I'm finally able to type again I'll hopefully be able to post more soon. The last chapter of Winter's Blight will hopefully be up sometime within the next two weeks for those of you who read that as well.
Anyways, this was just kind of me taking a break from all of the other stories I'm working on, so I hope you enjoyed my little drabble. As I said at the top, it was inspired by a short film of the same name. I kind of just borrowed the setup and some of the dialogue, but the ending's completely different, so check out the original if you feel so inclined.
Thanks for reading!
-McSquidster