Seven things left undone
Chapter 2
It had been 14 months since Lucy died. Well actually almost 15 months. Just two weeks and then she would have been gone for 15 months. Natsu knew this because he counted everyday that went past without her by his side.
It had been almost 8 months since the guild got over their loss. At least so everyone claimed. But in all actuality nobody accepted it. Wanted to believe it. Could live happily with it. But they tried. Levy had opened all eyes from the darkness 8 months ago.
"Lu-chan. She's gone. I know. Everybody knows. But she wouldn't have wanted us to live like this. She wouldn't..." Her voice broke before she could finish what she wanted to say. A lump forming in her throat and tears in her eyes. But the message was delivered.
Since then the guild was 'happy' again. Not the same as before the incident. There would always be a Lucy shaped hole, but all the guild members tried to fill the gaping hole with the happy memories of her.
And so did her team-mates. Filling the hole as much as possible, but it was never nearly enough. She still was a official member of team Natsu (Natsu had thrown a tantrum when someone suggested it to be changed.). But the loss was great. The teamwork had been rusty without Lucy to oil it up.
But in the end they over came the death of one of their closest friends. Team Natsu did jobs again. Mirajane smiled again when serving people. Levy read romantic novels again. Cana drank again. And the rest of the guild? They laughed, drank, loved, fighted and broke stuff again. Everybody picked up life again. In memory of Lucy.
But there would always be a Lucy shaped hole in their hearts. And there would always be one empty barstool. The stool were the blond mage always drank her lemonade, while reading her book, on was always empty.
\/\/
Her death hit Natsu the hardest. First Lisanna and then Lucy. Really, could life be this cruel?
After her burial Natsu kept getting into fights with everyone. At some point he angered both Mirajane and Erza at the same time. Making the two strongest women of Fairy Tail team up. The fight was short. The winner was clear even before it started. But it somehow learned him something. Nobody knows exactly what only that after that particular fight Natsu stopped with angering people on purpose.
He got over his fighting phase but ended up in a slightly depressed phase. He couldn't bring himself up to gather the pieces of his old life. Not with the biggest piece missing, forever unfindable.
The missions kept going wrong because the team worked was gone. Just gone. Natsu, Happy, Gray and Erza just fought for themselves instead of working as one.
Happy didn't act like his name. He got slightly depressed. Over the year Lucy was with them he came to see Lucy as a sort of mother. She was always there for him.
And Natsu? he couldn't handle any of it. At some point he was just gone, he left. Even Happy didn't know where he was. But none of the guild members wanted to look for him. After his continuous fighting and his grumpiness they were kind of glad he was gone. And Erza thought he just needed some time for himself.
Two months later he came back. Seven months after she died. He only said he went back to the place Igneel trained him. Nobody said anything about it.
In this month he became more like himself again. Picking small fights with Gray again. Going on adventures with Happy again.
Immediately after he got back he took Happy fishing in the town where they met the stellar mage. Nobody knows what exactly went down on that particular trip but both Happy and Natsu seemed happier. Like they got a big load of their shoulders.
They both still missed Lucy. Just like they both missed Lisanna when she was gone. But this was different. How hard in might seem in front of Lisanna, they missed Lucy more. If that is because in the past year with Lucy a lot happened. Or because they were older now. It just is. Sometimes it is better to be left in the dark.
After Levy's words Natsu gathered the team together. Together they made new plans, a whole new battle lay out. They became even more tight knit.
Natsu and Gray becoming even more like brothers, still fighting but always understanding the other with just one glance. Their fights still destroyed the whole guild and the only one who could stop them was Erza or Makarov(but he didn't even bother).
Erza became even more like a sister to them. She was always there for them. But she was still harsh, hitting them for a lot of things. And not a slight slap. Full out hitting them.
In the end they got closer. But at what cost?
\/\/
After the death of her Lu-chan Levy was devastated. For a long time she refused to read any romantic novels, Lucy's favourite books. It just made her think of all those times with Lucy. All those time Lu-chan told her about the dates she went on, all of them which were rubbish.
Levy got such good friends with the blonde mage in such a short time. They just clicked. It was just there. When Lucy first stepped through the door Levy might have been really happy to see a girl from her age in the guild. All the other girls were older or more grown up. And she just wanted a 'Best friend. Not that it wasn't fun with the boys. But it's different, she couldn't talk about boys and books with them. She could with Lucy.
They loss was heavy. Now she had no-one to talk to about those things. She closed off. Talking to nobody. Only saying necessary words to the other two members of Shadow Gear and Mirajane.
She immersed in her books. Only reading, reading and reading. Only reading horror stories. Lucy hated them.
Untill Gajeel came along and picked up her pieces. With careful precision he placed them back. It took him quite a long time to get her saying but just one word to him, but he took his time. Slowly helping her back together.
Taking her out on dates. Not romantic dates. Dates to places Levy visited with Lucy. Places she had good memories of, memories that were drenched in darkness now. But the iron dragon slayer helped her shed light on the memories by talking.
He make her talk about the memories for hours. And after every trip he would hold her while she cried. He would hold her when she cried.
The goodbye of Lucy was long and painfull. But thanks to Gajeel, Levy came through it. And somewhere along the lines, when all her pieces were back in place, he became more to her. The dates became more romantic and less and less about memories of the stellar mage. The blonde wasn't forgetting, Levy was just giving the loss a place.
And now almost 15 months later she and Gajeel had been dating for almost 6 months. She had started reading romantic novels, starting with reading Lucy's shelves.
She gave her grief a place. There was still a hole but she filled it up with memories of Lu-chan and Gajeel's love and care.
\/\/
The guild still griefs about their loss, but now they do so by being their boisterous selfs again. Everybody stills thinks about her, but less. People start to move on. They start to use the past as bricks to build on. They learn from it.
That's why what happened two weeks later was such a shock. That's why it made everybody angry. They just moved on before being harshly reminded of it again.
TBC