Two Days Later
Natsu
Natsu hadn't gotten sleep since Lucy was brought back to the guild unconscious. He had finally found her. He found his friend. The person he had been longer for, for three years! She looks so different. She looks nothing like the Lucy Natsu remembered, except for her big, brown eyes and full, pink lips. Her hair is now down to her waist, and she is much thinner, much stronger. She looks almost deadly, now.
His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a creaking of a door, and the voice of the bartender saying, "You should really get some sleep, Natsu. Lucy will be fine. She is stable, and the lacrima in her hip is gone. She won't be hurting anymore." Natsu sighed and turned around to her, saying, "I can't leave her alone. She is my best friend and I don't want to leave her side ever again. Look at the hell she has gone through. A LACRIMA placed in her hip? What the hell is that even for?" Natsu faced Lucy once again and said, almost painfully, "When we found her unconscious, she looked like she was hurting. I don't want her to hurt again." Mirajane sighed and left a plate of food, a blanket, and a pillow, in case Natsu did want to sleep.
When Mirajane left the room, Natsu focused back on Lucy, looking for slight changes that have happened to her since she left, three years ago. He noticed that, even though they looked the same, her lips were slightly different. He saw small cracks and scars on them. They looked as if she neglected them. He looked at the rest of her face and saw the same thing. She hadn't been fully taking care of herself. He didn't know why he thought she would be the same, he even knew she would be different, but it still shocked him that she hadn't protected her body like it should have been. Natsu reached down and touched her face, as if familiarizing himself with the new Lucy. He knew that the old Lucy would never come back, so he would have to take in the new Lucy, every detail he could: from a small scar at her hairline, to her defined cheekbones, to her lips: chapped and scarred.
Natsu brushed a piece of stray hair away from Lucy's face and rested his hand on her warm cheek. As if his body moved on its own, he leaned down and softly touched his lips to Lucy's. He lingered there a moment, contemplating what he just did, and he realized something and whispered, "So, I love Lucy. This is interesting." Natsu lifted his head back up and put his head on his hands. He smiled and closed his eyes, taking in the moment.
Fairy Tail
Lucy opened her eyes and glanced around, trying to see where she was. She slowly sat up and looked around the room. She realized she was at the guild's infirmary. Moving her feet to the edge of her bed, she touched the floor and slowly stood up. Lucy opened the curtain to her right and found someone she longed to see, yet wanted nothing to do with at the same time. She gasped as tears threatened to flow and covered her mouth to muffle the noise, yet that was enough to disturb the sleeping dragon as he had sensitive hearing. She stepped back, hand still over her mouth and tried to hide, but it was too late. He was awake, and he saw her. He looked overjoyed, yet devastated at the same time. She sat on her bed, waiting for the barrage of questions asking why she left, why she never came back, or why she was hurting so much. Instead, she just saw Natsu walk over and kneel on the ground. Lucy had trouble comprehending what had happened. Natsu, the upbeat and fiery dragon slayer, was now on his knees, holding her hand, and crying over her. She couldn't figure out what to say, so she just sat there, letting him cry until he couldn't anymore.
After about ten minutes, Natsu looked back up at her with red eyes and said, "I thought you were dead." This time, it was Lucy's turn to cry. She kneeled down and hugged her friend, and he wrapped his arms around her tight: "I'm sorry, Natsu. I shouldn't have left like I did, but I didn't mean to be gone that long. I was captured and I had no way of leaving." She pulled away and looked at him, smiling a sad smile: "I missed you. A lot." Natsu smiled at her, wiping a tear away and said, "I missed you too. These past three years were hell without you. Everyone was depressed and didn't want to do anything." Lucy frowned at this as a new set of tears began to flow: "I'm sorry. I truly am. But, I need to leave again. I'm physically strong, yes. However, I'm still the same magic level I was before. I need to get stronger. I NEED to." Natsu hugged Lucy tighter and whispered to her, "You're strong enough! Please don't leave!" Lucy sighed at his desperation and whispered, "I can't stay." Natsu pulled away to arm's length and looked her in the eyes: "At least spend a week with us again. I just got you back and I don't want to lose you right away." Lucy crumbled at this. She dug her head into his chest and couldn't answer.
Next Day
Natsu
Natsu woke up in the morning laying in one of the infirmary beds and looked at the bed next to him and saw that Lucy was missing. He sat up and looked around the room for a familiar face, yet he found none. He put on his vest and walked into the guild hurriedly: "Good morning, Natsu! I'm glad that you got some sleep!" cheered the guild's bartender, Mirajane. Natsu walked up to her and asked, "Where's Lucy?" Mira looked puzzled at the sudden question: "Lucy? Well she's in the infirmary, isn't she? I looked in there an hour ago and she was sleeping on one of the beds. Is she gone?" Natsu kicked the bar and ran back into the infirmary, frantically searching for a note from Lucy, wondering where she could go.
He looked on her bed that she slept in and saw a slip of paper folded on her pillow. He slowly picked it up, not looking forward to what was written down:
Natsu,
I need to go. I need to get stronger. I will be going to a place left by my family and I will be back. I promise you this time. I don't want to leave your side either. I don't want to leave anyone's side again. But this needs to happen. I want to be able to protect myself. I want to be more than a range fighter. I ask your forgiveness of this selfish request. I will be back in no more than five years' time. You can count on that. I will see you when the time comes.
~Lucy
Natsu crumpled up the note and threw it on the ground. He lost her again.
Lucy
Lucy was on the train to a piece of land her parents had left behind for her. Her mother had trained there so Lucy believed she would be able to benefit from training there as well. It was North, in the mountains. Very secluded, from what the map had shown. Lucy looked at the map again and tried to estimate her time: "The train ride itself will take about four or five hours, and it seems I'll have to get off at this stop here and then walk from there to the mountain. That will take a while. Six or seven hours altogether." Lucy folded the map and put it back in her bag. She looked out the window and thought of everything that happened this past day. She and Natsu talked again, they cried together, and she left him with only a note. She not only left Natsu, but she left Fairy Tail with only a note. She got interrupted from her daydream by the tapping of the ticket man, gesturing for the money so she could buy a ticket. Lucy told him her destination, earning a skeptical look from the man, handed him the money, and he put the ticket on the back of her seat.
Lucy sat on the train for what seemed like forever, watching as many different people got on and off. She liked watching people. She liked seeing how many different personalities there are in the world. She saw an old man with a cane who offered his seat to a young pregnant woman who looked like she was going to pop any second. Lucy also saw a teenager, either extremely shy or mute because he looked at each person who came on and he had an expression saying that he desperately wanted to talk with them. People watching is definitely amazing to her. It calms her and gets time to flow somewhat faster.
Lucy finally arrived to her stop. The end of the line. The train had been empty for the past five or ten stations, so she sat alone for the last hour or so. Lucy stood up, gathered her items, and walked off the train, ready to walk to her final destination. One foot after the next, she walked into the town to use the restroom, buy something to eat, and then started heading out to the mountain where the property was.
It took her a total of two and a half hours to reach the mountain. What she saw was breathtaking: the cherry blossom trees were still in bloom with a beautiful color, which was odd for the current season, and there was a small stream running throughout the forest. Lucy walked around the area, looking for any sort of special entrance to anything. She walked around a while and soon she found a crevice in the side of the mountain that looked almost like a door. She walked up to it and pushed, opening the door. She walked inside and felt an overwhelming presence, just like before. She was freezing cold, yet felt like she was in the middle of a desert. She felt so energetic, yet exhausted. She knew this could only mean one thing: the girl she was sent to kill was in this very… cave. She didn't know what to call it. Lucy turned in fear to try and leave the place, but she found no entrance. She turned around once again, and felt as if she should walk towards the source of all the contradictions. While her conscience kept fighting her, Lucy's body kept moving, step by step. The force became so strong that she could barely handle it. Lucy fell to her knees, gasping, unable to move any further: "Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Lucy looked up and saw the same face: steel eyes, platinum blonde hair. The girl smiled at Lucy's reaction: "Welcome back, Lucy."