The year was never properly recorded. Nobody really cared. The loss of one of the most famous mages in the world was enough to make society grind to a halt. But more importantly, it was the loss of a friend. The friend that went on missions with them, laughed with them, ate with them, and shared memories with them. Nobody knew her death would impact the guild so significantly. Enemies put aside their hatred as they came together to mourn the loss of a friend and rival: Lucy Heartfilia.
It did not rain on that day. It was warm and sunny, unfitting for a funeral. But nobody cared. Today was the day they put a dear friend and rival to rest. Those who came to the funeral stayed strong. Lucy would not have wanted them to cry over her. Natsu was the one who tried the hardest. As Lucy's coffin was lowered into the ground, he was visibly shaking. Gray and Elfman stood next to him, Gray finally wearing clothes for once. The two men helped Natsu walk up to the grave and look down at the coffin that lay in the ground, half covered with brown dirt. Not a single tear dropped from Natsu's eyes as he sighed deeply and turned away from the coffin.
The funeral had not been long. The guests had come, a speech was made by Gildartz and then the queen made a speech*. Everyone tried their hardest not to cry. Levy had died years before Lucy, but Lucy's death, was no accident. It had been a cold calculated murder. Her keys were stolen, and the entire guild had fallen into depression at this news. The other members of the guild were filing past the grave now, some tears falling as they passed. But Natsu stayed strong. Gildartz soon stepped up to give the final speech, all eyes turning towards the white and ginger haired man as he spoke the final words of the funeral.
"Lucy, if you were here to witness your friends grieving over you, your heart would be broken. We do not want bring sad memories when we say your name, we want happy memories. So we will keep our memories in our hearts and minds! Lucy, we pray that you are resting in a better place than this cold world."
The funeral was one month ago. The guild was slowly moving on. But Natsu was still out of it. He became detached to the rest of the guild and he had not left his house in a very long time. The whole guild was worried, but they thought Natsu would eventually come around…
Natsu Dragneel was very, very ill. It was not like him to be sick, but he was not sick in the body, he was sick in the mind. Lucy's death had greatly impacted him. He did not speak very often, he never smiled, and he never saw his friends after the funeral. He was beyond comfort. So when Natsu left the house to go into the woods behind the house, Happy was overjoyed. The Exceed thought that it was an improvement to Natsu's bad mood, but Natsu was about to get much, much worse.
Natsu's Forest
Natsu shuffled through the woods, barely there in his mind. His legs moved on his own through the forest. The branches and dead leaves created a path for him to walk through and Natsu shuffled on, carried by some invisible force. He knew deep down that he had to move on with his life, but he was grieving too hard to do anything but mope around. The fire dragon slayer suddenly stopped, Natsu's consciousness slamming back into his body, his head pounding as he let out a scream of pure anger, his face twisting with grief and rage as he slammed his fist into a tree. Natsu heaved as the tree fell, colliding with other trees.
"…It was my fault, wasn't it? It was my fault that Lucy died. I wasn't there to protect her." said Natsu, each word coming out of his throat like it was a punch to the stomach.
The world seemed to twist as Natsu fought to stay conscious. He was alone now, in a small circle of light, his voice echoing around him. Lucy's face was the only image he could see in his mind and then Natsu let out another cry of pure anger. The fire dragon slayer's fists ignited with flames as he swung his arms around, screaming in rage. Natsu jumped and slammed his fists into the ground and then stopped. He was back in the forest. The fire dragon slayer straightened and looked around the forest, his mind clearing as he did so. Green trees, forest floor, logs, house, safety. He took another step forward, afraid that he would fall into another temper tantrum. But he couldn't help it. All the anger he had felt for himself was finally leaking out. Another step. He stopped. He slowly looked down at the ground, a contrast against the dark brown of the dirt and forest floor. A pocket watch lay on the forest floor. Natsu bent to pick it up and looked at it silently. It was battered, rusted, and the hands did not even work. But the watch was enough to bring back the memory of one of Lucy's spirits. The grandfather clock who was always falling asleep. That made Natsu angrier.
He was about throw the watch when something stopped him from doing so. He slowly stopped and he felt his anger go down as he looked down at the watch and slowly smiled, a weak smile, but a smile nonetheless. The watch brought him, a certain comfort by invoking memories of Lucy's spirit. The watch was placed in Natsu's pants pocket and the fire dragon slayer quickly ran towards home. Upon reaching his house, he had dinner happily with Happy and soon, he went to sleep, placing the battered pocket watch on the nightstand and then falling asleep.
Click
The watch hand moved as Natsu snored.
…
Well, that was my attempt at anything sad. I probably failed. I honestly had this idea last night and I didn't really think about it throughout the day although I thought about the idea before I fell asleep. I won't be updating this regularly if people don't seem all that interested and I might just delete it entirely.
Be warned, there will be OCs in the future. Just deal with it. Also, some references:
*The queen is not the ruler of Fiore. She is the ruler of the Garlan Empire, the empire that took over Fiore. This takes place many years after the canon, Levy having grown old and passed away before the story took place.
Also, please remember that Natsu is actually eighty plus years old in canon so he can be a hundred something in this story and look virtually unchanged. I hope you enjoyed this. FF
