Two Years, Too Long
A/N: So hopefully I actually continue with this one! ^^'. Sorry I haven't posted anything in a long while. Hopefully the ending doesn't seemed rushed, I was trying to get this out as fast as I could! Hope you enjoy!
This is for Nalu week, Day 1 & 2: Longing and Reunion
Background: Two years have passed since the Alveraz war, and Fairytail is blossoming with couples all around. Jellal and Erza decide that they want to get married and invite the entire guild, except one would be missing. After finding a way to get back Aquarius, Lucy took off to search for her key, leaving Natsu behind. Since she left, Natsu hasn't felt the same anymore. The same goofy smile and child-like wonder left him when Lucy disappeared. He's distanced himself from his friends at Fairy Tail, and typically occupied himself by going on solo job requests. Natsu is not the same anymore.
"You look like shit, Natsu," Gray says, giving him a weird look. Natsu dragged his feet to the empty stool next to him.
"You always look like shit." He tries to insult him, but all Gray did was roll his eyes back at him."
"Were you nervous about the whole wedding thing or something?"
Natsu began picking at the little splinters of the wooden counter. What reason did he have to be nervous about? It wasn't like he was the one marrying Erza. "No, just a bad dream. I couldn't fall back to sleep after waking up in the middle of the night." He explains, feeling sort of pathetic on how his nightlife had become.
"I know the feeling." Gray sighed, putting aside his drink. Nightmares were nothing new for the mages.
"Well, we can't really slack off today." He continues, now getting up from his stool. "We have to be dressed in half an hour, help set up for the wedding, and then before noon we need to both be with Jellal by the Alter. I already got word from Erza that everything needs to be in perfect position before she arrives."
"But I'm so tired!" Natsu yelled just before he banged his head on the bar.
"Just leave me here to sleep, would ya?"
"No c'mon, we've got a lot to do today." Gray grabs him by the collar, and drags him off the stool. Natsu let his groggy body weight drag him down to the floor. Natsu could hear Gray mumble something under his breath, but he didn't care. All he wanted to do was just sleep. The ice mage lifted Natsu's head up by his hair. "Stop acting like such a baby, we need to get ready."
"Can't I just stay in these clothes?"
"No, Mira picked out our suits for the wedding, and we're not letting them go to waste."
"Why does everything have to be so formal, and perfect?" Natsu grumbled into the floor, "I mean it's just a wedding."
"Hey you can choose to opt out, but don't be too surprised when Erza comes looking for your ass."
"Alright, alright."Natsu got up from the floor, sounding annoyed. Gray was pushy when he wanted to be. "Let's just go and get ready."
He got up and followed Gray into the back of the guild where they had a little changing room set up. Mira had already put all the boys' suits in the back ready to go for them. Natsu grabbed ahold of his and began to get dressed. Being in formal wear felt foreign to him. His first problem was the dress shirt. He could feel himself get agitated at the measly buttons whenever they didn't cooperate with him. First, because he didn't button it right, the second because the middle button decided to pop off. He nearly lost it when it came down to the tie.
He held the slender fabric between his fingers. "How in the hell does this thing go on?" Natsu thought to himself. He kept trying to loop it around him life a scarf, but it just wasn't working for him. "To hell with this thing!" he yelled, making the tie go into some tangled mess.
"Dude, you don't know how to do your own tie?" Gray asks, adjusting his own jacket.
As if Natsu didn't feel irritated enough already. There was only one person that ever helped him with his tie, and she was gone.
"Lucy used to tie it for me." his voice sounded cold. Natsu slips out the tie from his collar. He opted for Igneel's scarf instead, it was easier and was less of a pain to put on. He could feel Gray wince a little for making him ever speak about such a touchy subject. It was practically taboo to say her name around Natsu.
"Oh." He coughs out, turning away from him.
When they were both dressed, they walked out of the room together. A couple of the girls had already arrived to help set up, but couldn't resist gushing over the boy's appearance.
"Oh look you two boys look handsome!" Mira gushed, putting her hand on her blushing cheek. "See, I told you two you boys would look nice in some suits."
Natsu could feel his cheeks warm up from embarrassment. There was a reason why he didn't like dressing up.
"Hot-Damn Natsu, I didn't think you had it in you!" Cana burped. She slapped her knee, making her morning beer spill a little.
Then as if on cue, Juvia sprang up from her seat, tackling Gray down to the floor. It didn't take more than three seconds for Juvia to get all crazed up from seeing her boyfriend, especially in a suit.
As Mira tries to unstick Juvia off Gray, Natsu looked all around at the guild. A moment ago, there was nothing but booze and old job requests lying around. Now everything seemed to be taken over by flowers and some kind of frilly girl material.
"We set up the decorations for the altar and for the reception," Mira says, pointing all around. Natsu eyes widened on how big the guild hall really was. On one end, they had all the chairs facing the altar, which was now decorated with roses and vines. At the two ends of the altar, a big vase of roses was placed on a long pedestal.
"Are we expecting the king or something?" Natsu wanted to say.
"It's a shame we couldn't have it at the Rainbow Sakura tree. It would have sure saved us a lot of time putting those flower arrangements together."
Natsu scoffed a bit on the inside. If they had planned the wedding there, he wouldn't have gone. He would rather take Erza's ass-beating then go back to that place of a reminder.
"Oh well." Cana says, putting her drink down. "Elfman already helped set up most of everything."
"Well, I guess it means you won't be needing us then!" Natsu started making his way out of the guild.
"Oh, no you don't." Gray pulls him back by his scarf, making him gag.
"Hey, get your icy hands off me!"
"We're not done yet. Do you see that table?" he says pointing to an empty table across the guild. "That's where you'll be setting up the welcome table."
"The welcome table? 'The hell do we need that for?"
"It's Erza's orders, how the hell should I know?"
Gray took his hands off the dragonslayer, letting him go. "You just have to put a couple picture frames and a sign-in book. That's it."
"Fine, I guess I'll set it up." Natsu rubbed the back of his neck. It had been awhile since anyone grabbed him like that.
Walking to the table, he could feel his eyes get heavier. All he wanted to do was crawl back in bed, and fall asleep. All last night, he would wake up, then fall asleep, then he would wake up again and again. It was the same bad dream like years before. Natsu didn't like talking about it too much. He mentioned it to Happy several times, but he would regret it whenever he saw how much it bothered his furry blue pal. Happy took off right at the crack of dawn to help Wendy and Carla with some errand. He was always doing stuff like that these days. It seemed like now these days everyone was leaving him behind.
"What do we got here." He picked up a dusty photo album from the chair. It was pretty ancient looking and packed on a lot of dirt from the attic. "What exactly am I supposed to do with this?"
He flipped through trying to find some kind of photo to put up. Each page had a different photo. There's was one with him and Guildarts fishing for the very first time. He remembered the old man telling him his old request stories. This was before Happy was born. The next picture was a guild picture taken from the 24-hour race. He couldn't really remember much about that day, except for the fact that Happy won the damn thing.
"What picture does she want me to put up?"
He flipped to the next one. It was a picture of Alzack and Bisca holding a baby Asuka. Their kid sure grew a lot over the past two years. Just recently, the couple started taking their daughter on more serious missions.
He scanned the next one photo, and the next seeing how much time had passed by. Things had sure changed after the Alveraz war. Gray and Juvia got together and of course, Jellal and Erza did too. He always sort of called for that one, even though he didn't see eye to eye with him. Gajeel and Levy had also become a thing too. When he first found about the two he nearly choked on his food. "GAJEEL? YOU?! And, and-"
They shook their head, "Yepp, we're together." Levy had smiled brightly at the Metal Dragonslayer. Even though Gajeel's face look sickened about the whole guild finding out, Natsu could tell he was very happy.
It seemed like, after the war, everyone went off to do what they wanted to.
Everyone except him.
Natsu nearly lost his breath when he turned the next page.
"Lucy…" he sighed.
He traced out with his fingertips, trying to remember just the sound of her voice. It was a picture of them all at the Grand Magic games celebrating. It was the day Lucy lost her fight to Flare. Mira was going around with a camera, and though she didn't feel like it, she agreed to take a picture with the guild.
"Awh, c'mon Lucy. We'll get to show off this picture to all the guilds once we win." He had tried cheering her up. The blonde had simply smiled at him.
"Yeah, you're right." She nodded. Ever since then, it had practically become a mission to keep Lucy safe and happy.
Still, did it have to cost him his happiness?
"Whatchya looking at?!"
Natsu jumped back and turned around. "Cana, really?"
"Sorry, just came to check if you were sleepwalking." She said, her hand with a cup of coffee. She placed the mug on the table. "I thought you might need this."
"It doesn't have any rum does it?"
Natsu didn't want to play out a rerun of what happened last time Cana had given him coffee.
"No, this one doesn't." She laughed a little. Natsu could feel her peeking over his shoulder a little for a better look at the picture.
"That's a nice picture of all of us." She smiled. Natsu only nodded his head, not knowing what to really say.
"You know, I miss her too."
"Yeah." He frowned, "We all do."
"The guild's been worried about you."
Natsu scoffed a bit. He loved the guild with all his heart, but they really haven't done anything for him these last couple of years. Or so he felt.
"Really?"
"We've just been noticing that you're not your old self." Cana sighed out. "We get the whole…Zeref thing, and the whole Lucy thing, but that's all in the past. I think it's time to move on."
Easier said, than done.
Natsu shrugged his shoulders. She wasn't wrong about not being himself these days. He sensed it too. Ever since she left it felt like a part of him had gone missing. He didn't care for games, or for fighting. He stopped getting into brawls with Gray when he and Juvia got together. Happy had always been there beside him, and always will be, but nothing just felt right without Lucy. Since she came into the guild, everything just felt more like a home than it did as a workplace. He loved seeing that angry expression whenever he barged into her apartment. Best of all, he just loved making her laugh.
Just then, Happy burst through the guild doors, flying circles around Natsu.
"What's wrong with you, did the market start giving out free fish or something?" he asked, seeing how energetic he was.
"Erza wants to see you!" Happy blurted.
"What? Why me?"
"She says it's urgent. She needs you right now!"
"What's wrong? Did her dress catch fire or something?" Cana said, raising a brow at the exceed. Happy landed himself on the floor. "Can't tell ya. It's a secret." He smiled.
"Alright then. Let's go." Natsu put the pictures down. Whatever it was, it better be something quick. Natsu didn't want to get caught up with Erza on her wedding day. If he thought she was bad giving orders for a party, imagine her on just her wedding day. Natsu turned his head back, noticing
Happy was whispering something into Cana's ear. She looked excited for some reason.
"You coming, Happy?"
"Aye sir!" he answered following after his friend.
"Alright Erza, what's the big deal?" Natsu burst out the doors. Nobody was outside but him and Happy. "Where'd she go?" he said, his tone sounding more annoyed.
"She was just here a minute ago." Happy looked around. There were balloons and little arrows pointing to the guild for the wedding, but no Erza.
"This is a waste of my time." Natsu tch'd. Just as he moved to go back inside, he felt someone's presence. It was familiar, and almost calming. He began to sniff the air, trying to catch onto their scent. It had a vanilla trace, like the same shampoo Lucy used. His back stiffened when he thought about it closely. Lucy had always been so keen on her buying her products. She was the only one with that shampoo. Natsu felt like his whole body had gone numb. It felt like the air had been sucked out of his world.
"It can't be…"
Happy looked at his friend and smiled.
"Lucy?"
Natsu sprinted towards the corner, following after her scent. "Where is she?
Where is she?"
"Watch it!"
He was caught off guard, slamming himself into someone in front of him. The two fell, hitting themselves hard on the ground. "Ow! Sheesh that hurt!" He said, rubbing the back of his head. "You really oughta watch were you're going."
"Wait a sec." he stopped for a moment and sniffed the air again. Her scent was close!
"Lucy?!" he yelled, looking around left and right.
"I'm right here." He heard underneath him. He looked down, and there she was. Chocolate eyes met his as they stared each other. "You know, you could get off me."
"You're back!" Natsu gave her a big embrace, bringing the mage closer to him at last. He didn't want to let her go. Here she was, still looking exactly the same as when she left. Her eyes were as bright as ever, and her blonde hair stayed the same length. Everything about her was still the same, and for Natsu, he couldn't feel any happier.
Lucy wrapped her arms around the dragonslayer, letting herself into his warmth. He wasn't the same. He may have had the same hair, and the same dark eyes, but something about him just seemed different.
Natsu stayed on her lap, not letting go. "How long are you staying? Did you see Erza?" His mind was going a million miles per minute! There were just so many things to ask and to catch up on. Two years had been too long for him.
"Yeah, she's the one that invited me after all. Oh, hey Happy!" she waved her free hand at the exceed.
"Maybe I should leave you two lovebirds alone." Happy gushed.
"YOU'RE STILL NOT OVER THAT?!" Lucy hissed at the cat. Natsu laughed, making the blonde smile. Everything felt just the same to him.
"Happy, could you give us a sec?" Natsu said, getting off the girl. He nodded and fly right back into the guild. "What's wrong?" Lucy asked, taking Natsu's hand for help up. His head lowered, making his eyes looking tiresome.
"Natsu?"
"I'm sorry about what happened the day you left." He said suddenly.
Lucy felt her heart skip a beat. Damn, how she wanted him to forget about that day.
"You don't need to apologize." She tried waving it off.
"No, I do." He insisted, "I picked a wrong time to tell you about everything. Especially after I…you know…with Zeref."
No one ever really talked about what had happened to Natsu.
"It's not your fault. You just didn't know."
"But I should have known." Natsu jaw became clenched. "You lost Aquarius, You were put in danger because of me, you nearly died because of me. I don't really blame you for leaving."
"Stop it." Lucy's voice became strict. Natsu lifted his head up at her.
"What?"
"Stop it. This moping around, It's not like you to be this depressed. I didn't leave because of what happened, or because you were E.N.D." she was the first one to say it in a long time. "That doesn't matter anymore. It never did. Natsu, the reason I said no was because I needed to look for Aquarius, and I didn't want to drag you with me."
",but you know I would have gone with you in a heartbeat!"
"I know, but you belong here with the guild. It was going to be a long journey and I needed to do it on my own."
"At least we could have been together," Natsu said, his voice almost hurt.
Lucy gave a sympathetic smile, "But we're here now."
"Yeah, we are." He agreed. He opened his hand out for hers, and Lucy didn't hesitate to take it. Her stomach fluttered as he tangled his fingers into hers. "C'mon, don't we have a wedding to attend?" Lucy grinned at him.
"Hell yeah, we do! Just wait till Mira see's you!"
The two walked inside, hand in hand.