Hi guys! Me again!
First order of Business. I appreciate those few who read the last chapter almost as much as I'll appreciate the ones who read this one. Sursly.
Second, To my Reviewer, I thank you. I'm glad you liked my portayal, and I hope that you continue to.I also hope many more join you in their approval. As a gift to you, I upload this chapter. (Note: I was planning to anyway, but your review made me want to.)
More Notes! Honestly, I swear I'm not shamelessly padding my word count! I invite you all to review! I need to know if anyone is out of character, or my grammer is off, or if I'm a big stinky doodoo head who doesn't know plot from a hill of beans.
Now... Back to the Price of Bonds.
Fairy Tail and all associated concepts are propert of Hiro Mashima.
Chapter 2: The Price of Bonds
While Natsu was at the guild, stomping on Elfman's face and punching Wakaba in the beard, Lucy Heartfilia was at home, navel-gazing.
She lay prostrate upon her bed, with a tarnished piece of metal held delicately between her fingers. She cradled the ruined gold object, attempting to fill it with all the love she had failed to express when it was still possible. She bathed in the memories, seeing interactions with friends, now out of reach, in a new light and feeling an even greater loss because of it.
It was her father all over again.
The repetition of events only served to compound her grief. The similarities reminded her of her failure to tell her father how much he meant to her, reopening an old wound she'd tried to forget. She could have salvaged their relationship somehow… If only she'd been less egotistic. Her father had died, without knowing his daughter loved him because she was too proud to tell him. The incident with the dragon was not an excuse. It was an example. She took for granted that he'd always be there, and that she could tell him whenever she wanted. And then, one day, he wasn't, and she couldn't.
She hadn't learned anything.
She flopped over onto her back, sighing heavily. A week and a half had passed since Tartarus' assault on Magnolia. They'd rebuilt the guild hall again and tried to pick up all the pieces after that disaster. She'd been given eleven days to heal, to recover. But mending disrupted lives was proving a lot more difficult than replacing a guild hall, or repairing a town.
She lifted the golden remains of the key into the sunlight shining in through her window, twirling it between her thumb and pointer and studying it meticulously with a neutral expression. It glittered weakly in the light. Her hand closed around it before letting the chain pull it back down to her neck.
The key was never so precious to her before that she'd wear it like a pendant. It was even less valuable now that it served no function. But she cherished it more than anything else she owned, because it was all she had left of a friend. Of Aquarius. And in that way, it also became a symbol of all the other people she lost, like Aquarius and like her dad. So she held onto it dearly, so she might still hold onto them.
Was this the price of bonds? Was such brief happiness worth such suffering and grief when they were severed?
She twisted again, this time with much less energy, and curled into a loose fetal position, arms and legs left limp and lifeless in front of her. With her back to the window, she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. She had planned to go to the guild today, maybe see how everyone else was doing….
..but she was just so tired.
The fight had been awesome, and Natsu loved every second of it.
And then Wendy began to cry.
A tiny girl, blubbering into her hands, was all that was required to send the guild's mightiest heavyweights back to their tables, grumbling in shame and disappointment. Elfman kept his head low to avoid any chance of catching Mira's disapproving eyes. Macao apologized under his breath and Wakaba nodded his own sentiments before they both slunk back to their table. There was an expression of regret, in triplicate, echoing from Bickslow's 'babies,' and Freed gave a production of an apology, complete with kneeled declaration of remorse. Gajeel just stalked out the doors, growling incoherent slurs to himself.
Natsu, however, had decided that it was prudent to pout.
He sat, sprawled out with his back to the table and his feet in the aisle, chewing on a cigar. The tobacco stub was something he could abuse without drowning in pre-pubescent tears, after all.
He puffed on it, wondering what was so pleasant about inhaling smoke when the fire tasted so much better. It was in that moment that Wakaba appeared before him, looking downright murderous.
Natsu chuckled nervously, slowly removing the cigar that he'd taken during the fight, and offered it back to the man. There were some battles that you didn't fight and some lines you did not cross. He'd crossed one.
Wakaba snatched it from him forcefully and then lowered himself to Natsu's level, forcing him to make eye contact. "You get away with a lot of shit here, kid," He whispered slowly and clearly, "But touch my cigar again, and I'll… Oh! Hey there, Lisanna!"
He returned to full height and sent the girl a subdued wave before giving Natsu a meaningful look and trudging back to his table.
Lisanna plopped down beside him. "What was that all about?"
Natsu gulped in response. "He was just promising me something."
"Like..."
Natsu shivered a bit. "I dunno. He didn't finish. But I don't think I would've liked it."
Lisanna chuckled at his melodrama. "Well, then don't take his cigar again. I may not be here to save you next time."
"Gloating isn't very heroic, Lisanna." He grumbled out.
"You gloat all the time!"
"I don't gloat! I just tell people how it is. 'How it is' just happens to be that I'm awesome!"
He threw up his hands emphatically. She slapped his thigh lightly to admonish him with one hand, and cover her snicker with another.
"Don't laugh! It's true!"
"Yes, I know. Now stop acting like a baby and tell me about this dream that's bothering you so much."
Natsu examined her face for a second. Her eyes were curious and her smile was soft and reassuring. And she'd known, too! She'd known that, despite all he'd said and done to the contrary, there was something about the dream that had really upset him.
Lisanna's smile grew a little. "Oh c'mon, Natsu! I know you! Bad dreams aren't enough to send you running to the Master."
Crap.
"And then there's the fighting. It had to be bad, to make you so desperate to have it knocked from your head by Gajeel and my brother. God knows, you can't afford the head trauma"
"Gah! Will you stop already?" He threw his hands up in a placating gesture before looking down and appreciating his sandals. "I was gonna tell you later, anyway."
He trusted Lisanna. She was kind, and she was gentle. She teased because she cared, and she would listen to Natsu vent for days if it would help him. And he really needed her ears.
He was shaken up by the dream a lot more than he'd like to admit. And he really needed to talk to someone about it, if only to help him sort it all out. Lisanna was his best option.
When Natsu needed to have a more…vulnerable conversation, he went to Lisanna. It had been like that as kids and it was like that now that she'd returned. He thought Lucy was great fun, whether it was with her or at her expense, but she was not one he'd go to when he needed to talk. She had enough to deal with, and she was never overly tolerant of his presence to begin with. Gray, he would never approach outside of a fight and he only went to Gajeel to get into fights. Erza was not even an option, and Gildarts was never here. That left Lisanna.
She was still smiling. Like so many situations before, he took the plunge. Consequences, be damned!
"In my dream… Igneel was fighting Acnologia. It looked like they'd been fighting a long time, too."
He stopped to let her absorb that before continuing. With a silly, worried expression like the one she sported, she'd need the time.
"They were fighting in this burned-down forest… dead trees and ash everywhere. Igneel was worried and tired."
His eyes turned away from her and drifted downward.
"He was losing. Acnologia was gonna kill him, Lisanna."
He closed his eyes.
They shot back open when he felt a squeeze around his hand. She'd taken it. She was looking at him with eyes overflowing with compassion and fire.
"Natsu," she said softly, but with undeniable firmness. "Dreams tell us lots of things. They tell us about ourselves, about our desires and our fears. Sometimes they tell us nothing at all. But they rarely tell us the future."
Her gaze was dragged away by something else. He followed it and saw Mira, struggling with all the drinks she was attempting to ferry to keep up with the sudden jump in demand. She let go of his hand and stood up.
"Don't read too much into this. Igneel is fine."
She left him then, off to help someone else who needed her.
Natsu hoped she was right.
Lucy awoke to the sound of someone breaking into her house.
She didn't move. They couldn't know they'd woken her up. The element of surprise was her only weapon, and she'd only get one chance to use it.
The shadow of the villain draped over her and extended into the room. Her eyes buzzed furiously within her skull, and her heart raced. One chance.
There was another sound, before the latch that held the windows closed made a soft plink, where it had hit the pane when falling. A slow, soft, eerie creak followed, as the windows were pried open slowly. The shadow's hand moved, raising a small, pointed object to about eye level.
A knife. He had a knife, and he was going to murder her. One chance, onechanceonechanceonechance!
She sprang into action, putting her elbow right into the sick bastard's face. She saw a brief salmon-colored blur before it was gone, toppled out the window.
And then it hit her. Only one person was dumb enough to invade a home in broad daylight, while the owner was still home.
"NATSUUUUUUUUUUU!"
"I don't know how much more abuse I can take today."
Lucy rolled her eyes. The idiot was really going to play the victim? He'd gotten what he deserved for scaring her like that. "That's what you get, you punk. Next time, knock like a normal person."
After getting his ass thoroughly handed to him (Lucy was extremely self-satisfied with this fact and would make sure to tell the rest of the guild later), Lucy was forced to go drag his sorry butt up two flights of stairs to her room. She didn't think the rest of the neighborhood deserved to hear his moaning.
"I thought we were friends, Lucy. Friends don't elbow each other out of windows."
She had already had enough of this. She didn't have the energy to deal with Natsu's childish games. "What do you want, Natsu."
Natsu stopped what he was doing (READ: Getting Dirt on her Coffee Table and Messing Up her Couch Cushions) and offered her a perplexed stare. "You weren't at the guild," he stated slowly.
"So?"
He said it even slower this time. "You weren't at the guild and its 4:30. You always come to the guild before one."
He had been worried. He had been worried about her and he'd come to check on her. Was this really Natsu? Her heartbeat quickened a little.
"I got bored of waiting, so I decided to come to you!" He said, foolish grin back in place and hands behind his head.
Or….not? He was just trying to alleviate his boredom? Typical.
"I'm tired, Natsu."
His eyes grew a bit desperate and he jerked into a more alert position. "But, Luce! I…"
She kicked his feet off her coffee table, perhaps a bit more viciously than she should have, before putting a finger in his face.
"Listen, I'll say this real slow. I'm TIRED. It's why I was in bed, it's why I wasn't at the guild, and it's why I'm throwing you out of my house. Go be bored somewhere else."
His eyes went cross, trying to lock on to the finger hovering just in front of his nose. If she weren't so pissed, she'd have found it funny. As it was, she wanted to slap him for looking so stupid and cute. But mostly stupid.
His eyes left her finger and found her own. Then the stunned, open mouthed gape that was occupying his stupid face twisted into the most malevolent grin she'd ever seen.
He grabbed the hand and gently pushed it out of his face. "No."
"What."
"No. I'm having too much fun irritating you to give it up now."
"Natsuuuu…." She practically was growling it.
"Luceeee!" He grinned. He thought he was clever. It infuriated her.
"Natsuuuu!" She was getting louder. He was standing now, hand still around her wrist.
"Now get ready, okay? We're gonna go have some fun; get you out of this mausoleum for a little while."
But she liked her mauso…room. She wanted to stay here, in a Natsu-free zone. But he just kept pushing her. She was not in the mood for this. She was just about to open her mouth when she felt him jerk on her arm.
"NATSUUUUUUUUU!"
He went sailing out her window, hand still firmly around her wrist.
Next time... Why wasn't Happy with Natsu? What does Natsu have in store for Lucy? Plus... MOAR GAJEEL!
