Summary:There's nothing worse than the sound of nothing. (Nalu, a pinch of angst but happy in the end)
Author's Note: It occurred to me that for someone as kinetic as Natsu, being on the receiving end of the silent treatment would probably be lot worse than having someone freak out and scream in your face. This might've gotten a bit too wordy, as is my tendency when I'm writing stuff without much dialogue, and if so I'm sorry. I don't have an excuse for this one other than an over abundance of Nalu feels.
Natsu had once thought Erza's scary face was the worst thing he had ever encountered. It was terrifying. It was the sort of experience that scarred you for life and led you to pretend you were bestest friends with a guy whose face you regularly wanted to smash into the floor. The last week, however, had taught him there was something infinitely worse: Lucy's silence.
Despite his best efforts, his partner had reduce her interactions with him to monosyllabic responses and blank facial expressions. At first, assuming she was just in a funk, he'd performed his usual routine of acting ridiculous to restore her mood and possibly provoke an comical shrieking fit.
There'd not been even one single half-hearted twitch of the eyebrow from the girl, so he'd continued for a few days with progressively more outrageous actions. Natsu had even been so daring as to gobble down Erza's slice of cake and put himself in mortal peril - all for Lucy's amusement. But there was nothing. Not even a look of horror to match the faces of everyone else in the guild hall.
After recovering from a brutal beating at the hands of Titania, the dragon slayer had moved on to touching and invading her personal space. It was one of his favorite tactics since it never failed and, well… her skin was just so soft. He'd leaned on her, crowded her as she made food, laid his chin on her shoulder while she was writing… Ordinarily that would get an easy rise out of Lucy, especially if she was trying to be productive, but this time all he got was a dispirited elbow to the ribs and a shrug of disinterest.
The silence started to rattle him, so he'd enlisted Happy's assistance to double the pressure. They'd started by asking her pestering questions, expecting to either spark her interest or make her mad. When that didn't work, they'd progressed to teasing - a sure fire way to bring out the wrath of Lucy and help her shake off whatever was causing her blues. Happy freely discussed those secret items of her wardrobe that normally made her chase them out of her home when they came up and the dragon slayer nettled her about her personal hygiene routine.
He'd been especially shocked when his bold suggestion they shower together so she could wash his back hadn't even gotten an eye roll let alone a hilariously glowing red face. That definitely wasn't right considering Cana had started choking on her barrel of whiskey and Wakaba fell into a coughing fit after he inhaled his smoke too quickly in shock.
Natsu belatedly realized that continuing to escalate the harassment hadn't been the wisest decision he'd ever made when he finally did managed to get a reaction out of her… Just not the one he'd been hoping for. The fire wizard had foolishly, and very loudly, proclaimed that maybe the silence was preferred to the girl's usual shrill and brainless blabbering and was rewarded by a genuinely hurt shine to her eyes. Lucy had surged to her feet and stalked out before he could retract the callous statement.
As if her wounded expression hadn't been enough of a punch in the gut, the rest of the guild had descended on him like a school of ravenous sharks scenting blood in the water. What was he thinking? How could he be so cruel? He should go apologize right now - or else! Even knowing full well he'd gone too far in his pursuit of the celestial wizard's attention, Natsu instead fled the hall for the solitude of his own home and didn't return till the next morning.
Happy tried to console him, reminding the human that Lucy always forgave him for the dumb things he did. The words only served to make him feel worse, and something chilled and hard in his chest started to ache. As much as he didn't like his partner giving him the cold-shoulder, he hadn't really felt the familiar sting of loneliness until his bag of Lucy provoking tricks utterly failed him.
Was she mad at him? Had he done something wrong? Was she sad and he hadn't even known? Maybe his antics had only hurt her more when all he'd really wanted was to see her smile again. Maybe she'd finally gotten tired of him...
All at once his brain upended a deluge of worries into his bloodstream like a bucket of icy water. His limbs felt heavy and numb as the doubt filled mental sludge slithered through his body, and he couldn't even summon up the energy to properly explain himself to Happy. Since the moment he'd met Lucy back in Hargeon they had rarely been apart and for no more than a few days at a time. Not having the blonde with him felt unnatural somehow. Like the universe had gone lopsided and now he was free falling into oblivion.
By the time he returned to the guild the next morning, he'd worked himself into such a foul mood that even Happy abandoned his side at the earliest opportunity to trawl for Carla's deeply buried affections with a fish he'd caught. Gray didn't have to do more than open his mouth for Natsu to throw a full force punch right into his face, and it became quickly clear that the dragon slayer wasn't really playing around this time.
Which was how he found himself sitting cross legged in a corner with an enraged, and admittedly somewhat concerned, Erza staring down at him. Behind her the other guild members were righting the furniture that wasn't smashed in the brief but violent brawl and carting off the remains of the rest. Master Makarov had put a decisive end to the fighting, not wanting to see any of his children seriously injured over something inane, and he was currently bemoaning the anticipated expenses for repairs to the first floor.
There was still no sign of Lucy.
"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" the Titania demanded, fists propped against the steel armor shielding her hips.
He turned his head away and folded his arms across his chest, not wanting to meet her formidable and disappointed eyes. "... No."
"Well, too bad! I think you need to explain what happened this time."
With a desperately casual shrug, Natsu muttered, "I just didn't like how Gray -"
"This is about Lucy, isn't it?" The aforementioned Snow Cone jumped into the conversation, a self-made ice pack laid against his swollen jaw. "After you pissed her off yesterday, I should've figured you'd do something stupid."
Natsu bared his menacingly sharp teeth at the ice make mage. "Fuck off." He really, truly didn't want to be talking about this. At all. Ever.
The excessively rude response made Erza's crimson eyebrows rise. "I know she's been rather quiet lately. Did something happen between you two?"
Hunching his shoulders as if it would ward off the uncomfortable clenching in his stomach, the fire wizard looked away again. He said nothing for a moment before reluctantly admitting, "I dunno."
"You don't know?" Gray pressed incredulously. "How could you not know? If you did some-"
"I don't know!" Natsu snarled, leaning forward threateningly even though he was still seated on the ground and glaring up at his meddling guildmates. "I don't know why she's mad! I don't know why she won't talk to me! I don't know what I did! I-I don't even know if she still wants to be-"
"Did you ask her?" Erza's practical question brought an abrupt end to his anxiety riddled tirade. He almost reflexively answered yes, but a quick survey of the past week made him reconsider. In all his attempts to crack her shell, had he really not just asked her what was wrong? Could it be that simple?
Lurching up from the floor, he darted in between the two well meaning friends and sprinted blindly towards the door. He called a hasty apology but didn't wait to be given leave of the scene before he was barrelling towards Strawberry Street, flying down the walkway along the canal fast enough to whip up a breeze that ruffled the clothing of the people he passed. Limbs on autopilot, he scrambled up the side of the building and wrestled the window open with a glass rattling bang.
A salty, damp scent greeted him and ratcheted up the soul swallowing dread he was feeling a thousand times. It was probably his least favorite smell in the world, and it never failed to drop the bottom out of his stomach. Staggering forward towards it, he found Lucy seated in a chair at her kitchen table with fat tears tracking down her cheeks, head bowed and shoulders shaking from the piteous sobs she was emitting.
She gasped when she spotted him through blurry chocolate eyes, wiping roughly at the freely flowing drops with the heels of her hands. "N-Natsu-"
"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" He dropped to his knees, skidding the last foot between them on the tile floor and gripping her kneecaps with desperate fingers. "I didn't mean it! I'm sorry for what I said, and whatever I did to make you so sad. Please, please forgive me…"
Lucy stared at him blankly, momentarily startled out of her sorrow. When she failed to reply, he continued to babble. "Whatever you need - anything you want - just tell me! Tell me what you want me to do, and I'll do it! I just… I just want… to see you smile…"
Her laugh sounded weak and choked, but it eased the pinching in his chest just a bit. "Natsu… This isn't…" She stopped and touched his worried face with her fingertips, tracing his downturned mouth. "You didn't make me sad. I'll admit that what you said yesterday hurt, but I knew you didn't mean it."
Brows furrowing, the fire mage peered up into her lovely, blotchy face. "Then why are you crying? Why wouldn't you talk to me?"
"Oh," she whispered. "I'm sorry… I didn't realize that I…" Pressing her fingers against her eye sockets, the girl sighed shakily. "I didn't mean to shut you out like that. It's just that today is Mother's Day, and for some reason this year just hit me really hard…"
"So… you don't hate me?" he asked cautiously, reaching up to gently pull her hands away from her face. Just hearing her voice like this was making him feel warmer, but having her hide her pain from him was no good.
"No! Of course not." Lucy's watery little smile made heat finally bloom back into his body. "I'm sorry if you thought that-"
Shaking his head, Natsu continued to carefully tug on her arms until she ended up on the floor with him, nearly in his lap as he sat back on his heels. "I'm the one who's sorry. I should've just been here for you." He wrapped his arms around her, holding on till she stopped fidgeting and relaxed against him. "I didn't even know it was Mother's Day."
"I guess… since you were raised by Igneel, maybe you didn't have a reason to celebrate it." Lucy's words ticked up at the end questioningly, not wanting to accidentally tread into an uncomfortable topic for him.
"No, not really." He tucked her head under his chin, feeling immensely relieved that his worst fears were unfounded. Still, her grief was real, and he wanted more than anything to ease it. "Hey, Lucy?"
"Yeah?" she mumbled against his throat, tickling his adam's apple pleasantly.
He hesitated but quickly pressed on before he had a chance to second guess himself. "Since I didn't have… Since I don't remember my mom… could you tell me about yours?"
Lifting her head to look at him, Lucy graced him with a breath stealing smile and punctuated it with a noisy sniff. "You know… I think she would've liked you, Nastu. I'd be happy to share her with you."
She started to speak, weaving a vivid story about a woman he had never met but quickly could picture as if he'd known her all his life. Her voice settled into that mesmeric cadence that dedicated storytellers always seemed to have, and Natsu swore he could feel his universe fall back into place.