A/N: Disclaimer is at the end of the piece to hold back any potential spoilers. :D
The soft hair of the woman fell over his face, and he laughed softly. She's always being silly. Why can't she just kiss me already? the man thinks. But just as she's about to pull him in for a kiss, he's violently pulled away and his head spins.
Where soft caresses had been previously, his face stung furiously. His eyes blearily open to meet face to face with his bitter cat, who decides to sink his claws into the man's face, causing him to cry out in pain.
Just as he's about to gently pull off the aged cat off of his face, the alarm starts, blaring in a Skillet song. The cat hisses in fear, and jumps off the bed and out of the room.
The man rubs his face, and stiffens visibly as he processes what he's listening to.
"I've gotta live with the choices I've made,
And I can't live with myself today..."
But before the song can continue, he presses 'END' to the alarm button on his phone, causing all sound in the room to vanish in an instant. The air in the room stills, and instead of crawling back into the bed and lying there the rest of the day like he wanted to, he pulled himself out, and trudged on into what will always be remembered as the most awful day of his life.
"Heeeeey man! How's it going?"
"Good. As good as it'll ever be, I guess."
His dark haired friend's smile dims. The concern apparent in his friend's eyes distract from the pain he was desperately trying to push away.
Erza walks in and pulls Gray up by the collar, noticing the man next to him. "Hey, stranger! How're you doing? We haven't seen you in a long time."
But the man just shakes his head, and sighs. The brave face he'd been trying to paste on the whole morning crumbled, and Erza awkwardly pats his shoulder before giving in to her motherly instincts, and pulls him in for a hug. She looks off into the distance and finally looks up, tears hidden from the man as she whispers in his ear, "Go and see her. She's waiting."
He nods into her chest, and feels Gray squeeze his arm in brotherly affection.
The man straightens up his shirt, and plugs himself into the song, a lump forming into his throat as he walks down the last road they took together before everything shattered.
His tears fell openly now as he walked past the gates, letting the song take him back to the afternoon he drove them to her surprise birthday party, with the windows down and the sun streaming in, lighting her hair on fire. Golden fire.
"Hey Lucy, I remembered your birthday,
They said it'd bring some closure to say your name."
The stems of the flowers he had picked along the way were slightly crushed underneath his grip, as the song pushed him further down the pathway.
"I know I'd do it all different if I had the chance
But all I got are these roses to give
And they can't help me make amends…"
The tears catch in the back of his throat, and he sobs quietly. So as to not disturb the family plot.
And he goes back into the moment before the semi truck slammed onto the passenger side, when she smiled and looked down at her hand in amazement, to observe the ring that took hold of her left ring finger. The moment where he gazed at her with wonder and love, a moment that would last longer than infinity.
"...Me and Lucy walking hand in hand,
Me and Lucy never wanna end…"
With soft steps, he walks off the path to the headstone underneath a cherry blossom tree. He thinks back to the dream he had that morning. Where Lucy had aged in the twenty years since he saw her in the flesh, and had told him that she can wait. That he can finish their adventure, and that some day, they'd all be together.
Natsu drops to his knees and gingerly brushes away the fallen leaves that accumulated since last week. He then offers the wildflowers to the headstone, and with a watery smile, says, "Happy birthday, Lucy Dragneel. How ya doing, love?"
His headphones fall to the side, and his attention goes back to Lucy, and for the first time that week, he smiles his trademark grin.
"...Hey Lucy I remember your name…"
(A/N): So this was my first time trying out angst. I looove reading it, but this was really hard to write. I don't like seeing my OTP in pain!
Please let me know what you thought of it! Whether it be something negative or positive, I'd like some feedback.
Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to its creator Hiro Mashima, and this piece was inspired by the song Lucy by Skillet.