A/N: So, this is my take on what should've happened in chapter 419. It was just such a good opportunity for some NaLu fluff, and I couldn't pass it up! Editing credits go to my fabulous friend, acacciadistelle. Please go check out her stories! She's the real writer out of the two of us and the only reason this story happened. As I said earlier, the opportunity for NaLu fluff couldn't be denied.
As always, I don't own anything.
Also, this is my first story, so feedback is much appreciated. Just food for thought.
Natsu sighed. He was lying on Lucy's couch trying to fall asleep, but his mind was too busy to properly settle down. Too many things were different. Fairy Tail didn't exist anymore, and that was not something he had been prepared for. It was downright weird, but more than that, it was painful. His home, his family. They were both gone. There was also the fact that this wasn't Lucy's place, not really. Sure it was technically hers, but it wasn't the same apartment he'd crashed at so many times before. It was different. She was different.
He had thought that she would be thrilled to see him after over a year, and mostly she was; yet there were moments when she thought he wasn't looking when her smile would falter, and the light in those chocolate eyes would dim just a little. Had it been someone else, the near imperceptible change would have gone unnoticed.
Had something bad happened? Was it because of the guild? Was the guild actually, truly gone? A part of Natsu vaguely wondered if he had gotten strong enough to beat the hell out of Gramps for disbanding it. He sure as hell hoped so.
These thoughts bounced around in his head relentlessly. He heaved another sigh.
"Happy?" he asked, hoping the little guy was still awake.
"Aye," was the half-asleep response he got.
Deciding half-asleep was better than fully unconscious, the dragon slayer forged on. "Is the guild... really gone? I can't believe it is." His companion sat in silent agreement. "Only one thing to do..."
Natsu sat up abruptly and grinned with childish delight. There was nothing better he could think of to lighten his mood. "Let's go draw on Lucy's face while she's asleep."
Happy, always ready for such occasions, immediately perked up. "I've got the pens ready to go!"
The two made their way quietly into her room and held their pens at the ready.
"Kukuku," Natsu laughed, "She's asleep! She dares to sleep..."
"Natsu..." Happy scolded. "Make sure you don't wake her..."
As if, thought Natsu. "Sooooooftly... Geeeeeently..." He paused as a piece of paper fluttered in his peripheral vision.
"Hrmm?" He turned on his heel to look behind him. "What's all this?" Slowly, he walked up to a wall amassed with journal entries, newspaper clippings, even hand written notes. And every single one was about one of their former guild members. "Everyone's locations," he breathed, looking at two separate clippings of Lissana and Mirajane side by side. "These are incredibly detailed notes."
Happy bared a similar expression of disbelief, Natsu saw with a quick side glance. He then looked back to the wall. "Information on sightings, and the dates they were seen." His eyes were then drawn to the sleeping figure in the bed. "Lucy..."
"Lucy..."
Lucy stirred slightly. She knew that voice, didn't she? But it had been so long since she'd heard it... Was she dreaming? That had happened more than a couple of times over the past year. She had dreamt many times that she was back in Magnolia, enjoying the rambunctious chaos that was Fairy Tail.. That could not be the case, however, because it was pretty quiet. And dark.
Groggily she opened her eyes to see a very familiar face peering down at her. Why did Natsu's eyes look so... somber? That never happened in her dreams. He was always his bubbly, goofy self. Then she noticed where he was standing. He was in front of her "Guild Wall" as she had come to call it. Her eyes snapped open as she remembered events from the previous day and that this was not, in fact, a dream. Natsu was truly there, in her room, and he was definitely looking at what was easily the most personal part of her life. She gasped and threw a pillow at his face. Naturally (and frustratingly, she thought), he caught it one handed.
"Out!" She yelled.
"Hey, I-" Natsu began.
"Out!" She said again. "Get out! I told you not to come in my room!" Her voice was thick with unshed tears, but she refused to let them fall. This situation was embarrassing enough as it was.
"Lucy, I'm sorry."
"You couldn't even respect me enough to do the one damn thing I asked you to do." She was really struggling with the tears now; her voice was low, her throat was constricting, and she couldn't seem to get enough air. And she was desperate, so desperate, to have him stop staring at her as though she were weak, as if she were some poor, helpless maiden in distress. And of course, desperate times result in desperate measures.
"Get the fuck out of my room!" she screamed and pointed at the door. Natsu, who seemed to be in a state of mild shock, gave no trouble as she rounded him and Happy up before shoving them out her room. As they stumbled back into the living room, she slammed shut and locked the door behind them. Thank God for small mercies, she thought as she slid down against the door and collapsed. She found herself wanting nothing more than to crawl back into her bed and pretend the whole thing had never happened.
"Natsuuuuuu," came Happy's sniffling voice through the door, "Lucy's being so mean! Why is she still so meeeeean?" He cried. A resounding crash followed the cry, and she assumed he had flown straight through her living room window. She winced. That was going to cost her.
"Lucy..."
She felt the blood rush to her cheeks, heating her face. He had said her name with that same, unacceptable tone just a moment ago. She could hear the pity in his voice, picture a similar expression on his face. She couldn't handle that. Anything else, but not that.
Lucy had been able to deal with the fact that she was far from the strongest mage in Fairy Tail, because she had been proud that she could at least hold her own against their enemies. After Natsu had left and Fairy Tail had disbanded, she had been left alone before she quite realized what had happened. Even then, she'd been able to deal with reverting to the weak, lonely little Lucy who had been so afraid of her tyrant of a father all of those years ago. Now, of course, there wasn't even him.
Eventually she had found that keeping tabs on her friends helped keep the sadness at bay, hence her Guild Wall. With such detailed notes on her former guild mates, she had known they were all training. She knew everyone was getting on with their lives, each one working towards becoming stronger, better mages.
And then there was her, the one who could not even bring herself to even live normally without them, let alone train. Without everyone else, without her friends... she had been so lonely, so depressed. Somehow that was still okay, because she could handle being alone again. She could handle only knowing her friends from afar. She could even handle her new, boring life of being a journalist (wow, never thought she'd say that); but what she could not handle was Natsu knowing any of that. She could not handle his knowing just how lonely and pathetic she had been over the past year.
She was startled out of her thoughts by a rough rattling on the door. Her eyes flew open and she was vaguely surprised that everything was blurry. Ah, she thought, I'm crying. She decided it didn't really matter anymore, anyways.
"Luce, come on, don't cry. I was just gonna draw on your face with markers. What's the big deal?" He whined.
Damn his dragon senses, she cursed. Of course he had to know she was crying. And damn his small attention span. Of course he had to not know what he did wrong. Could he seriously not remember one thing? She sighed. If he didn't even know, then there was no point in getting into that whole can of worms. She cleared her throat and willed her voice to remain steady. "You're right. Sorry. Just go back to bed."
"Luce, I'm sorry."
"Yeah I know. I said it's fi-"
"No, about.." he hesitated, "leaving."
So he did know. The bastard. "It's alright... I know you just wanted to become stronger. Just like... everyone else." She couldn't completely retain the bitterness in her last sentence.
His response was so long in coming, she half wondered if he had walked back to the couch and was halfway to dream world when she heard his voice through the door once more. "Lemme in."
"Lemme in."
"Natsu, really, just go back to bed." The weariness in her voice was evident as she spoke. He hated it. This wasn't her. This wasn't the headstrong, busty blonde who joined Fairy Tail those short two years ago. This was not his Lucy.
What he hated even more, however, was that he had done it to her. Just as he and all of Fairy Tail had given her the family she'd always wanted, they had also snatched it all away. He was so stupid. How had he not realized earlier what was wrong? She must have felt so forgotten, so left behind. He had felt guilty for leaving her, but he had counted on the guild to take care of her.
How was he to know that this would have been the result, though? Her living all alone in the capital city, doing boring journalism with that fanatic, Jason. The thought alone made him sick. He had to make this right somehow. And that started with getting the stubborn girl to open up. That at least hadn't changed.
"You can open the door, or I can break it down." Threatening damage to her property was the most efficient way to go, if she was anything like the girl he'd been so close to a year ago. The assumption was proven right, for the door unlocked moments later and he was standing face to face with a tear stained Lucy. The sight made him feel that much worse. This time though, it was Lucy that stood in a state of shocked submission, and she didn't even offer a protest when he pushed the door the rest of the way open and slipped inside. He looked back at Lucy, confusion still clearly written on her face. Their eyes met, and she quickly looked away.
"Why didn't you just tell me?"
"Why didn't you just tell me?" He asked, genuine curiosity permeating the question.
"Tell you what?" She smiled without a trace of humor. In fact, she felt like she was about to cry again. "You want me to tell you that after you disappeared, leaving nothing but a letter, I was a mess; that it got worse after the guild disbanded? That even though I knew everyone was going their own way and doing what they thought was best, I could barely motivate myself to get up every morning? That I realized without Fairy Tail..." Her voice cracked and she felt herself lose the ability to reign in the tears, "I have nothing?" She glanced back up at him. "How could I tell you any of that, knowing that you, and every other member of our guild, were being independent and becoming stronger? I didn't want you to know-" she bit her lip and tried regain control of her voice. "I didn't want you to know how hard it was for me, since it seemed to be so easy for you." She gave one more attempt at a smile, but it turned out more like a grimace. "I'm sor- eep!" She squeaked as he scooped her up bridal style, walked over to her bed, and dropped her onto the mattress. "Natsu, what-"
He sat down beside her, facing her Guild Wall, and heaved a big sigh. "You know why I left the way I did?"
She watched him cautiously for a moment before replying, "No, I don't."
"It was because I knew if I tried to do it face to face, you'd end up coming with me." He turned to face her. "Because you wanted to, and because I wanted you to." He grinned, adding, "And because Happy would have talked me into it."
She chuckled at that. When he seemed fairly certain she wasn't going to start crying all over again, he continued. "So I just left the note and went off. I figured it would be okay, since I'd be coming back eventually. The last thing I expected was for the guild to disband."
She gave him a warm smile. "Yeah, you and me both."
He gave her his trademark grin once more. "Everything'll turn out in the end though. It always does for Fairy Tail."
She didn't bother to point out that technically, Fairy Tail didn't exist anymore. Instead, the reveled in what seeing that grin made her feel, a feeling she hadn't had in months: hope. It had always given her hope, was always her light at the end of the tunnel. In the wake of that, rather than correcting him, all she said was, "Yeah. It always does."
His eyes softened and he leaned forward to rest his forehead against hers. "Ready to head back to bed?"
She smiled at him. "Mhmm." How, she wondered. He hasn't even been back in my life more than twenty four hours, and already everything is okay again. Assoon as he drew away, she felt him clamber into the bed beside her. She didn't protest or question it, she simply accepted it. Just like the old times, she mused. Not, of course, that it was ever willing all those previous times. "Good night, Natsu."
The pillows muffled his resounding, "Night, Luce," and then there were only snores.
She gazed fondly at the pink haired dragon slayer before leaning over to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Thank you," she whispered. Soon after, she rolled onto her side and drifted into the best sleep she'd had in months. The soft smile on her face displayed her contentment.
She was so immediately lost in her sleep that she didn't feel the extra body leave the bed, nor the soft brush of lips on her forehead or the soft words spoken in the dark. "No, Luce. Thank you for waiting on me. Your wait is over. I'll make amends, I swear it." As he walked away, another bright grin made its way to his face.
Lucy had just finished her daily morning routine when she heard shouting outside of her window. "What in the world?" She walked over to glance out of the window and saw the royal army mulling about outside.
"This is the house!" One voice called.
"Should we bust in, Captain?" Came another.
"Huh? What's going on?" Lucy exclaimed, hardly believing her ears. "What the hell is the army doing in front of my house at the crack of dawn?" She screeched.
"Man," came a voice from behind her. "Did they sniff us out already?"
"Aye," Happy declared.
Her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "Is this your doing?" Of course it was. Why on earth was she so surprised?
"Time to haul ass, Lucy!" Natsu grinned maniacally. He grabbed her hand and made a mad dash for the closest exit, which just so happened to be her very closed window.
"What the hell did you do?" She demanded. Instead of answering, Natsu tugged her to him and swept her into his arms; he then jumped through her window, the glass shattering around them as it gave.
"KYAAA!" She screamed, clutching his shirt for dear life.
The guards, hearing the ruckus, spotted them almost immediately. "There they are!" Several yelled. Others shouted, "He's the culprit!"
"How did I get sucked into your shenanigans?" Lucy cried plaintively. "You can put me down now!" She yelled when they landed. He did so, and they ran. "What did you do Natsu?"
In answer, he gave a big, toothy smile and told her, "I raised the beacon for Fairy Tail's revival."
He said it so matter-of-factly, she had a hard time processing what he'd just said. That is, until they came to the capital commons and she got a clear view of the castle. No further explanation was needed than the big fiery letters that spelled out "FAIRY TAIL."
As if he had read her mind, Happy quickly told Lucy, "Don't worry, that flame is the kind that will disappear soon on its own."
"That's the least of my worries!" She pulled her attention from the flame inscribed letters back to the two boys. "Even if you say you want to revive Fairy Tail..."
"We can do it if we just believe." Not a trace of doubt marred Natsu's words. "We are gonna go gather everyone up and bring back the guild! Come on!" Once again, the full force of that trademark grin fell on her.
She suddenly saw herself and Natsu, both in Hargeon Harbor, the very first time he'd given her that grin of his. Still running from the authority, and still with promises of a guild to come home to. She had put her trust in him then, so why not now?
If it's with Natsu, she thought, then it can happen. If it's with Natsu, I believe we can do it! She felt herself catch that contagious grin, and answered with an enthusiastic, "Yeah!"