His Fairy Tale
"Daddy?"
"Yes, Nashi?" He asked his daughter while he read the new Sorcerer's Weekly issue.
"What's your dream? Like your fantasy life, or dream life?" Natsu was put down the magazine and looked at his daughter with a raised eyebrow. He was actually shocked of the question. It wasn't something his eight year old daughter, or anyone's, for that matter would ask.
"Why do you ask?" He cleared his throat and turned to actually face his pink haired daughter by the question.
She would just shrug and giggle, "It's just a random question, but I want an answer!" She tried to make it sound stern but she looked adorable trying.
"Well..."
He looked to the blonde haired mage next to him sitting at the bar. She looked... Breathtaking. Her soft and lengthy hair flowed right beneath her shoulders. Her eyes, those damn beautiful eyes. He could stare at those chocolate-brown eyes all day and melt into a puddle.
She was his dream come true.
Lucy had always thought that the reason he always slipped into her apartment was because of her comfy bed.
But no, it was her. Just her, Just Lucy.
He loved sneaking in through the window at night, and cuddling with her. Her cold body received warmth from his heated one. The scent of her body when he buried his face into his neck at night. She smelled so sweet, the scent of strawberries and vanilla suffocated his nose. The way his arm was always tightly around her waist gave him the comforting feeling that she wouldn't get taken away from him, and that she was safe.
He didn't care if he got kicked or punched in the morning for it, it was all worth it. Sometimes if he was lucky, she would be okay with it, and snuggle with him longer. Whenever that happened, his heart was infused with warmth.
Everyone always thought that Natsu was oblivious to love. That he couldn't name a romantic type of love if someone spelled it out for him. Of course, there were times where he was perceived to look like he didn't have a romantic bone in his body, although that was only because he didn't think it mattered too much for expressing that emotion unless it was to the person he was projecting the feelings for.
But he knew, it wasn't the time to reveal his feelings. He couldn't be too sure of Lucy's feelings for him. He wouldn't do something as rash as confessing to her with the risk of destroying their friendship. He cared more about being around her than telling her what was truly on his mind.
One day, he would.
XXX
His dream was coming true. Natsu and Lucy walked together hand in hand over to the guild.
This embarrassed him since he thought that he would've asked her, not like there was anything wrong with that, but he just thought that she didn't have feelings for him. Yet she's the one who came running to his house, confessing her affection for him. Although she didn't say she loved him, he sure loved her. Early in their friendship he'd developed feelings for her, despite everyone's opinions of him being that he's so dense he wouldn't even know what the kind of romantic love is. Soon he began to fall in love with her. That positive attitude she always showed. Every time she walked into the guild, she brightened the room. She was the light of his life.
But Natsu knew what she'd felt on the inside. He'd known that even if she showed that she was so happy and energetic, she really wasn't. He could see right through her façade. The sadness that was kept deep inside of her, memories of the deaths of fellow guild mates, comrades, friends, family.
Sometimes when he would sneak into her apartment through the bedroom window, he could hear her sobs from the outside of the bathroom. When she comes out she pretends that everything's okay. But it's not.
That wasn't the only sadness that she keeps to herself.
Before they started dating, she'd have a few boyfriends here and there. Not many, maybe two or three, although they still hurt her. They still hurt someone so... So precious to me.
Their departures weren't seriously emotional or heart-wrenching. And she wasn't heartbroken. It was because she didn't love them, but they loved her.
Natsu knew that Lucy hated hurting others, even if it seems she enjoys it by the amount of times he's given him her special "Lucy Kick".
She'd feel guilty with herself.
Speaking of her special combat move, Lucy has always been the one that people would think of as weak, or useless.
It made him so angry that anyone would even dare to think of Lucy as weak, or useless. She was strong, and has been through so much pain. She was strong internally and externally. It was ridiculous to him that she could think so lowly of herself when she's overcome so much. She was stronger than anyone, way stronger than he could ever be.
People get everything wrong when they don't even know her. Her magic power is extraordinarily powerful. But Lucy… She always saw the best in everyone. She didn't fight or engage in real violence unless absolutely necessary. Of course, the occasional hits or kicks she gave him when he did something stupid were an exception to that.
There were so many reasons why he fell in love with her.
Their first date was one that could never be forgotten, during one of their jobs.
They had to go undercover as a married couple, which was pretty awkward for them since they'd just started dating a few days before.
Natsu would consider it a date anyway. It was at a wedding, and the groom was supposedly acting suspicious and the mother and father of the bride wanted us to check it out. They told Lucy and Natsu that they thought he was in a Dark Guild secretly.
Of course, things didn't exactly go as planned.
The plan was to just go there, converse with other people, etc. Then they would go on a walk with the groom before the ceremony, talk and stuff, then BOOM! We'd attack him. At least, that's what was supposed to happen.
Let's just say there were a few "small" fires here and there, and the wedding rings got burnt. Plus, the groom hadn't been involved in any sort of Dark Guild. But afterward, Lucy and Natsu stayed at the burnt ceremony area, and got "fake married".
They mimicked the priest in a mocking way, made objections. It was great. It felt like they weren't even dating and we were just good old goofy buddies.
But they weren't just "buddies" anymore, they were more than that.
Some nights were full of love and warmth, or love and lust. The memory of how her skin immediately shivered when he delicately touched her, even though his fingertips were filled with heat.
The way he touched her that night was as if she were made of glass. He was so scared he would hurt her, but at the same time he'd want to make love to her all night.
It made him chuckle to remember how impatient she got when he would go slowly and tease her. Sometimes they wouldn't even continue and just start laughing, other times they'd get complaints from neighbors.
But they didn't have a perfect life as a couple. No one did.
Lucy and Natsu would fight over so many stupid little things, sometimes bigger issues. Their first big fight was one he could never forget.
Lucy wanted to go on a job alone, and normally, Natsu would be fine. He'd worry constantly, and probably would get lonely and bored, but that wasn't it. He had a bad feeling about it, everything about it was suspicious. The strangely large reward of jewel, simple task, and the ominous location that was in the middle of nowhere. It was an obvious trap to him.
"So that's it, huh? Huh Natsu?" She scowled and shoved at him. "You think I'm weak, right? I'm right aren't I? You don't trust me that I can protect myself!" Lucy shouted as her eyes watered.
"No! You're not getting it! I know you can protect yourself-" Lucy cut him off.
"Then why won't you let me do this alone?" She muttered.
The glare she held, plastered on her face would make him want to just hug her and calm her down, but that wasn't the time. "I am not letting you go alone for the reasons you think. I know you can handle yourself, but I just have a bad feeling," he desperately tried to convince her.
Lucy's expression grew angrier, "Well what other reasons are there? What makes you trust your gut over my skill?" She whimpered, her mood changing completely while tears threatened to escape her eyes. "You always rescue me from harm's way. I fail battles because I'm not as strong as everyone else. I'm sick and tired of being the damsel in distress!"
His fists tightened into a ball while he gritted his teeth, "Shut up," he muttered.
Lucy was shocked to hear that from him,"W-what?"
"I said shut up! You're not allowed to say that!" He shouted at her. Immediately after he said that, he could feel sharp small pain in his chest when he saw the expression on her face. He regretted raising his voice immediately, but he couldn't allow her to beat herself up like that. It angered him, if anything.
"What the hell do you even mean?" He could tell that she was still angry. "Do you control what I do? Do you control what I say?"
"Luce, you know that's not what I meant-"
"Then what did you mean?" Her voice faltered,"You think I don't hear what people say about me?"
"Lu-" He was about to speak but then she cut him off.
"Natsu, I'm going. I need some space from you right now. Don't try and stop me."
That's when his fairy tale began to falter.
After the small, little fight, Lucy had gone missing.
"W-wait! Fairy tales are supposed to have happy endings!" Nashi pouted, and Natsu chuckled.
"But we haven't reached the end of the story. All stories have hardships." Natsu said, but quickly rephrased it when he saw the confusion on his daughter's face, "Stories have bad parts in it. Like... The villains. Except this story has no villains, it's just a bad part." He explained, but she still seemed confused, and to be honest, Natsu was getting confused himself.
"Never mind, the happy ending is at the end of the story," Nashi's face was filled with excitement, "When will Ustan find Ycul?"
Natsu had switched out the names last minute, and just put them backward, plus he took out parts that weren't appropriate to tell his daughter. He didn't think she should hear the details of their late night activities that resulted with his daughter.
It's been a month since Lucy had gone missing, and Natsu wasn't himself.
Although all the others in the guild thought he didn't realize it himself, he did. He was sulking because he knew this whole mishap was his fault even though Makarov told him otherwise.
Whenever someone walked by him in the guild, they gave him a sympathetic smile. He couldn't help but feel angered whenever someone would do that, but he never snapped at anyone. He knew that everyone was just as depressed as he was.
Lucy was the shining star of the guild, the light that always picked them up when they were down.
The day she went missing, right after she'd disappeared, Natsu searched the whole city of Magnolia, but he couldn't catch the slightest scent of her. The only thing relatively close to finding her was the strong smell coming from her apartment.
He, and the others ventured out on long missions to search for her… Yet they all ended in clues that lead them to absolutely nothing. Not a trace.
His hope was diminishing after each day. He searched the city every morning, hoping that her scent would come back to him. But it never did.
A couple more months past and there was still no Lucy.
But one day, the guild doors slammed open and two large buff men walked in with a (snobby looking, he'd like to add) lady in front of them.
"I'd like to see the guild master," she spoke.
Makarov stepped, or actually, hopped off of the stool at the bar and walked toward the lady with a smile on his face, but a hostile aura. "What can Fairy Tail do to help you and your... friends."
"Oh please, these two are hardly my friends, I just met them today," she laughed obnoxiously. "But no, there isn't anything Fairy Tail can do to help me, but I can help you," Master Makarov raised an eyebrow.
"Oh? No thank you, we aren't-"
"It has something to do with your little fairy. What was the name? Lucky... Lucas... Lucy! That's it!" she smirked.
The mood in the guild hall changed immensely once Ms. Snobby spoke the name that no one had heard in months.
Erza was about to stand up but Natsu beat her to it. He stormed up to her at lightning speed.
He held her up against the wall, his hand around her throat, immediately her bodyguards stepped forward with a warning look. "What the hell have you done with her?" he shouted angrily.
Dragon scales began to appear on the sides of his face, and his body heat leveled up dramatically, so much that everyone in the guild began sweating bullets, especially Ms. Snobby.
She gagged, and looked like she was about to pass out, but still had the guts to say one last thing. "If you don't let me go now, you'll never find her." she managed to spit out.
Natsu reluctantly let her go, but still held a strong glare toward her with his fists clenched.
"Where is she?"
"In a grave-" Immediately after those words left her mouth, Natsu's body burst into flames.
"What the fuck are you-"
"Natsu!" Makarov interrupted, and Natsu turned his head backward sharply with red eyes.
"What?" he snapped.
Erza shook in anger, but spoke calmly, "She's obviously trying to provoke you. Where is she?"
Ms. Snobby smirked, "If you can restrain the pinkette, then I'll think about telling you- Or maybe even showing you," she negotiated. He swore this lady had a death wish.
Erza and Gray immediately came and held Natsu in a way where he couldn't attack Ms. Snobby.
Gray had been quiet the whole time, but he was fuming with anger on the inside. Lucy was like a little sister to him and if anything happened to her he'd have a similar reaction to Natsu.
"Where the hell is she?" Gray snarled at her.
"Well, I'm not exactly sure that this levels up to my conditi-"
"What else do you fucking want? Some tea with sugar on the side? You're against Fairy Tail right now, ask any of our previous enemies and you'll run away like the coward you are," Laxus snapped at her. "Like what in Earthland is this? Bodyguards? We can easily..."
As Laxus spoke to her, Natsu, Gray, and Erza dragged the body guards away.
The two men in the suits were slammed against the wall outside of Fairy Tail by Gray and Erza.
"Where's Lucy?" Natsu growled murderously as he slowly stalked toward them with a menacing glare.
"Like we'd tell you," the guy Erza was holding up.
"Let me rephrase that."
Immediately after Erza said that the man's face started turning purple and his body was cold. "Okay, okay!" he backed down.
"I don't care how powerful you are! I could have her-" the lady paused, and looked around the guild hall confusedly. "Where's pinky and his sidekicks?"
Makarov raised an eyebrow, and scanned the hall, "He must've snuck out," the guild master shrugged carelessly.
Gajeel took in a big whiff of air," Salamander ain't here."
"What do you mean he isn't here? I thought we had a deal?" the lady asked confusedly," He could actually find-"
"Isn't that what we want? The only person who's got the bad end of the stick is you I'm afraid," Makarov said with a sip of his booze with a loud bark of laughter.
The trio arrived back at the guild only a day later with Natsu storming into the guild angrily, which caused there to be a sudden heat wave.
He came up to Ms. Snobby, grabbing her by the collar, "Your little guards gave us the wrong information about Lucy, so where is she? If you don't fucking tell me right now, I'll show you something worse than death," he threatened. "And when death comes to you, it'll be my specialty in magic," Natsu was shaking with anger now.
The horror on her face was soon replaced with a smirk.
"Oh... But she's been here this whole time."
"Liar!" Natsu roared," If she was here, I would've caught her scent immediately!"
The whole guild hall was silent with tension, and the only sound was the voices of Natsu and Ms. Snobby.
Her breath hitched when his grip began to tighten. "If you let me go, I'll tell my guys to bring her here, how's that sound?" she said, with an uncertain tone.
Natsu eyed her but let go.
She sighed with relief and took out a compact communication lacrima.
"Bring her in," she said to the person on the phone and immediately hung up so none of the dragon slayers in the room could hear anything the person on the other line says.
In minutes, a group of about eight men waddled into the guild hall huddled up in the shape of a circle. Once they reached the center of the room, they stopped, and there was a thud on the ground.
Natsu's eyes widened and he froze.
That scent... It was way too familiar not to know what it was.
Death.
As if he was sleepwalking, Natsu slowly walked carefully toward the eight men.
As soon he was within reach, the circle of men dissolved and they all back up.
There laid a lifeless Lucy.
Natsu screamed in frustration as he dropped to his knees. Tears welled up in his eyes and dropped onto the hardwood floor.
He sat there over her lifeless body, his loud sobs could be heard over the others quiet ones.
Natsu held Lucy in his arms, embracing her cold body.
"What... What happened," his voice sounded somewhat vunerable compared to his dominant shouts from earlier.
He felt broken.
The lady sighed in exasperation, like she was bored with this situation. "We didn't do anything to her, we simply kidnapped her and held her in captivity for a few months underground," she responded. "We provided her food, water, etcetera."
"Then how did she end up like this?" Natsu sniffled.
"She died giving birth."
Natsu's shock returned once again," B-birth? As in…"
She nodded," Looks like you two weren't careful enou-"
Natsu gently laid Lucy back down, handling her as if she were glass. Suddenly, Natsu stood up, looking down at the ground.
"...Is the baby alive?" He mumbled.
"Mhm..." She sighed.
"Where?"
Ms. Snobby gave a signal to the men and soon later on, they came back with newborn baby in the stroller.
The baby was crying, but instantly stopped when Natsu held her in his arms.
"And then we both together saw mommy float up to the sky," he smiled, holding his daughter.
"When will she get down from the sky and visit us?"
Natsu paused. "Soon," he said.
His daughter smiled happily and giggled.
"Come on, let's go on a short little trip."
Natsu and Nashi stood in front of a gravestone that couldn't even be seen because the big area was overflown with flowers.
Natsu moved some of the bouquets of flowers to the side more so the stone was in view.
LUCY HEARTFILIA
X767 – X790
THE LIGHT OF FAIRY TAIL
Natsu ran his fingers across the block of stone, and Nashi hugged it, smiling to herself. "Hi mommy."
Natsu watched her with a smile to himself.
"Never stop shining, Luce."
