Now That It's Over: Part 4
Pairing: NaLu
"Hey Luce."
Fifty years. Fifty years since he had laid his best friend and beloved to rest in a battlefield grave.
His hands wiped the grass and leaves away from the words carved into her grave. Slowly, the words emerged from the decay. He smiled softly. He had been the one to carve them before she was buried, weeping the whole time. Happy had stayed by him, offering silent comfort the entire time. Natsu had carried the stone back to the battlefield to place over Lucy's grave. He couldn't bear to exhume her body just to carry it back to Magnolia and the Kardia Cathedral graveyard.
Besides, she wasn't the only one buried on that battleground. She had good company.
"You know, Frosty Pants once told me about this thing called survivor's guilt. He said it was the feeling you got when you survive something that should've killed you and someone else didn't."
Natsu frowned softly, his fingers absently toying with the flowers he'd brought. How long ago had Gray told him that? If he remembered correctly, it had to have been right after Lucy's death. He had been falling apart, half mad with grief and guilt over the loss of his partner and his inability to save her. Gray had pulled him aside and talked to him, despite suffering just as much from both Lucy's loss and Juvia's. But how many years had it been? Actually, how many years had it been since he'd seen Gray? He must be an old man by now.
"I know that's what I have. Because I couldn't save you. I wasn't strong enough, wasn't fast enough, I wasn't enough."
After Lucy's death, Natsu had begun to grow closer to his guildmates, his friends who were happy to support him through his grief. No one could replace his Lucy, though. Sting and Rogue, who had both lost the women they loved in the battle as well, were almost always around. They didn't want to be left alone either. Eventually, though, they had disappeared and Natsu never saw them again.
"You told me once that you felt like you were never strong enough to be a member of Fairy Tail. I didn't understand what you meant, because to me you were the strongest person I knew. You don't have to be physically strong to be strong. But after you died, I understood. Strength doesn't have to be physical. You showed me that more than anyone else could."
The guild didn't disband but they were never quite the same after the loss of three of their beloved members. Gray eventually became the guildmaster, much to his shock, and led them on into the future. If he was still the master, Natsu knew he'd be an old man. A tiny smile crossed his face at the thought of Gray with wrinkles and gray hair. It'd be kind of funny, especially seeing as Natsu still had his bright pink locks and his face was still unlined.
Natsu rose from his crouch to look down at the graves of Lucy and Happy, his best friends, his family. Slowly, his right hand rose, the fingers curling from muscle memory into the familiar symbol of the Fairy Tail guild.
He might be the only one left, but he'd honor his friends to the very end.
They were Team Natsu.
And even death could never change that fact.