A/N- Wow, so I meant to get this up over a week ago, but then the Chicago Cubs won the World Series which is a thing I've been waiting for since I was in diapers and then my country decided to elect Caligula 2.0: Now With Extra Bigotry, which understandably killed my will to finish the last couple scenes yesterday like I'd planned and basically what I'm trying to say is: I'm sorry this is late. Life got very surreal all of a sudden.

But speaking of impending apocalypses, I should mention that this fic takes place in a nice happy fluffy UA where Tartaros is not going to happen. Largely because I don't want to deal with an A-plot. This fic is about internal journeys. So without further ado...


Chapter 2: Unprecedented


The Fairy Tail guild hall had stood vacant for four years, ever since the guild had defaulted on the loans they'd taken out to rebuild after Phantom Lord demolished the original building. Nobody had been interested in buying it from the bank, so it had been unoccupied ever since, and it showed.

The people of Magnolia had obviously gone in and cleaned the place up in preparation for the guild's triumphant return from Crocus, but Laxus could smell the years of emptiness. Underneath the contrasting detergents and new furniture smells, the odor of dust and disuse lingered. It wasn't unpleasant exactly, but it put him on edge, and from the wince on Wendy's face when she had walked in the door with her team, he wasn't the only one who had noticed it.

He thought it might have bothered him more if it had been the old building smelling like that. The hall he'd practically grown up in. The hall his grandfather was born in. The hall, he'd just recently learned, that his great-grandfather and his friends had built with their own hands. The building Phantom Lord had blown to smithereens while he laughed and Mirajane cursed him with tears in her eyes after he…

Wow, he was an ass.

Laxus leaned back in his chair, a scowl unconsciously creeping across his face as he watched the guild carrying on in the usual way. His thoughts kept circling back to that… back to the way he'd been before. How little he deserved to be here was constantly on his mind, and he was torn between hating the feeling and knowing it was no more than he deserved after what he'd done.

Talking to Mavis had helped. For someone who looked like she was all of twelve years old, she was pretty damn wise, and he was glad he'd gotten to meet her. Hearing her stories about his great-grandfather had been… well, he was still processing that, how he felt about it, what Yuri Dreyar and his legacy really meant to him. But it had helped, in some weird undefinable way.

Still...

Mirajane swayed past his table, a tray full of drinks held high as she slipped between tightly-packed benches with a practiced swivel of her hips. Her hair was tied up, her fringe held out of her eyes with a jeweled clip, and as she passed, she turned and shot him a smile that made his gut clench.

"Anything I can get you, Laxus?" she asked sweetly.

"Uh…" His tongue felt paralyzed under her blue gaze.

She paused, tilting her head curiously. "Are you okay?" she asked.

Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit say something you moron!

"I'm… fine," he gritted out. "Just peachy."

Peachy? What the hell? Since when was he the kind of guy who used the word 'peachy?' Thank god neither Bixlow nor Evergreen was nearby, because if they'd witnessed this, he'd never hear the end of it.

Mira, to his infinite relief, didn't seem to see anything wrong with 'peachy,' because she smiled again.

"Okay. Well, let me know if you need anything," she said brightly. Then she turned and walked away, a wisp of black and silver gliding through the colorful crowd like a phantom.

After he managed to unglue his eyes from her retreating form, he sighed and forced his tense muscles to relax. This was getting ridiculous. Okay, sure, he wasn't really socially graceful on his best days, but tripping all over himself like this was embarrassing as hell and he needed it to stop. If he didn't take action soon, he was going to crawl out of his skin.

He looked around the room, trying to find Lucy. He spotted her sitting with her team and Shadow Gear, laughing at something the plant guy had said.

For the entire trip back from Crocus— three hellish days spent wallowing in the humiliation of being motion-sick in front of Mira, during which his only consolation was that Gajeel was enjoying the trip even less than he was— he'd debated with himself whether asking a near-stranger for help with his love life was actually a good idea.

That was his main argument against the idea, actually: the fact that he barely knew Lucy. He considered her a friend, he supposed. A member of the guild family. But he'd barely ever spoken to her— after the ass he'd made of himself over her during the Phantom Lord fiasco, he really didn't see how he had any business spending time with her. They'd exchanged greetings here and there, but that was about it. If he asked her for her help with Mira, he would essentially be placing his trust in someone he only knew by reputation.

But then… he did know her reputation in the guild. She was by all accounts sweet and kind and trustworthy. She was an heiress— former heiress— but she didn't act all uppity, and everyone said she was basically an unending fountain of sunshine and positivity or something. It all sounded kinda dull to him, but admirable enough. And people loved her for it. Cana, especially, worshipped the ground she walked on, so he supposed she must have something interesting about her. And with how everyone talked about her, he couldn't really think of anybody better to help him (well, maybe Lisanna, but owing her a favor was taking your life into your own hands).

And so, while he had to admit to being skeptical still, by the time the B-Team's carriage rolled into Magnolia around noon, he had decided that he would just throw caution to the winds and approach her. Laxus tended to act quickly once his mind was made up, and now seemed like as good a time as any. The noise and chaos would probably afford them some privacy.

He watched her, waiting for the opportune moment, the chance to approach her without arousing suspicion. It took longer than he expected; Lucy was well-liked, and it showed. People kept coming up to talk to her, and it took what felt like forever for a window to open up. Laxus liked to think of himself as a patient man, but by the end of an hour, he was getting twitchy. Watching her interact so easily with their guildmates reinforced his impression that she was the best person to help him out of his quandary, but seriously, how was it possible for a single person to be this in-demand? How was she not exhausted by now?

"You've been staring at Lucy for the last hour," a voice hissed in his ear.

Laxus would maintain until the end of his days that he absolutely did not jump.

"Spooked?" Cana asked slyly. "Thought nobody ever got the drop on you."

"No," Laxus growled at her, provoking a laugh as she plopped into a seat next to him.

"But seriously, what's with the rubbernecking?" she asked. "If you stared any harder, pretty sure Lucy's clothes would catch fire— not that anybody would be complaining if her shirt burned right off," she added with a saucy wink.

Laxus rolled his eyes. "You're a bigger perv than the old man, you know that?"

"So I've been told," she replied. "But you're not gonna distract me that easily— what's the deal with Lucy?"

He supposed he should have expected as much. Cana had known him too long to be put off or fooled by a misdirection.

"Just… tryin' to get to know people," he hedged.

"By… staring at them like a creeper from across the room?" she asked skeptically.

He shrugged.

"And since when have you ever wanted to get to know—" Her expression suddenly shifted, eyes widening warily. "Wait, you're not still interested in her, are you?"

Laxus winced. "Right. You were there for that." 'That' being his ill-conceived attempt to blackmail the guild and score with the hottest woman he'd ever seen all in one go. Not his finest moment, and the fact that it had been Mira he'd been speaking to at the time made it all the worse in retrospect. And while he still considered Lucy the most attractive woman he'd ever met, he really wished he hadn't made a complete fool of himself and let the woman he'd subsequently fallen for know about it.

"No," he said firmly in response to Cana's question. "She's too young for me." Not necessarily true, but he wasn't interested anyway, and it would stop Cana from asking questions.

Most of the apprehension faded from her expression. "Good," she said. "I've got dibs on her, anyway."

"You call dibs on every hot chick that walks into this guild," he said. "Leave some for everybody else, will ya?"

Cana grinned. "Come on now, you're selling me short, Laxy. When's the last time you actually saw me with a date?"

Well, when she put it like that…

"Don't ever call me 'Laxy' again, ya damn alcoholic."

She only laughed at that. "Really though, if you wanna be friends with Lucy— which, excellent taste, by the way— you're never going to make it happen from all the way over here."

The devious grin on her face spelled nothing but trouble. Cana had a devilish streak in her (when she was sober, anyway) and he tried to head off whatever mischief she had in mind before it started. "I never said I wanted to be friends," he muttered. "Just tryin' to figure people out, alright? So whatever you're—"

"HEY LUCY!" Cana shouted to be heard across the hall, cupping her hands over her mouth. "Get that cute butt over here! Laxus wants to be friends!"

One more raised voice didn't draw much attention amidst the crash and chaos that was Fairy Tail in full celebratory swing, but Laxus kind of wanted to die anyway. Somehow, Cana was worse than Ever and Bixlow combined.

"I think I remember why we stopped hanging out," he grumbled, watching in complete mortification as Lucy looked in their direction.

"We stopped hanging out because you hit puberty and morphed into a giant talking penis," Cana said cheerily as she waved Lucy over.

Determinedly ignoring the mental image that conjured up, Laxus settled back in his seat, arms crossed, as he watched Lucy say something to Levy before getting to her feet. When she arrived at their table, it was Cana she addressed, much to his relief.

"Did you call me over here?" she asked.

Cana nodded and scooted over, patting the bench between herself and Laxus. "Sure did, Lucy. Why don't you have a seat here with the grown-ups, huh?"

"You're barely seven months older than me," Lucy said dryly.

"Age is just a number, darling," Cana said, putting on a haughty accent. Then she dissolved into giggles and patted the bench between them again. "We're old in our hearts, Lucy, that's what really counts. After all, Gray's older than I am, and you don't see me inviting him over, do you? You should be flattered."

Laxus glanced over immediately to where Gray was sitting, stripped down to his boxers and arm-wrestling Elfman for some reason. Dumbass. Even he would be wary of challenging Elfman to a contest of raw upper body strength…

Yeah, he thought, no matter how old they get, I'm always going to see those guys as kids.

Lucy, for her part, didn't even bother looking over at her teammate. "Are you already drunk?" she asked, looking less than amused with Cana's speech.

Cana shrugged. "Party's been going for three hours. I've had a few."

"If you think she's drunk right now, you got a lot to learn," Laxus offered. The way she was, he figured Cana was barely even tipsy. She'd had enough to make her giddy and loosen her tongue, but it would be a long time and several bottles of liquor— more if she switched to ale— before she got well and truly drunk. He worried about that, sometimes. But now wasn't one of them, she was fine for now.

Lucy rolled her eyes, but sat down as Cana had urged. Her thigh brushed lightly against his as she sat, and he reflexively pulled away an inch or two. She gave him a curious look, but her focus was on Cana.

"So why'd you really call me over here?" Lucy asked. "Did you say something about Laxus?"

Cana snorted. "Yeah. Mr. Grumpy-pants over here is trying to make friends by not talking to anyone and hiding in his corner, I figured we could do our part to make it look like he has a social life."

"Hey!" Laxus protested.

"Do you or do you not hide in a corner and sulk literally every time fun is happening?" Cana retorted, leaning past Lucy to give him an amused look. "Don't even try to deny it, buddy, I've known you since you were prepubescent."

"Yeah, and you were barely out of diapers so I doubt you remember much of that anyway," he said snidely.

Cana grinned. "If you say so."

Lucy laughed at them. "I didn't realize you two were so close."

"We weren't," Laxus said.

"I followed him everywhere for the first year after I came to Fairy Tail," Cana informed her, to his infinite chagrin.

"Yeah, you were annoying as shit," he replied.

Lucy clapped a hand over her mouth, unsuccessfully trying to stifle her giggles.

"Alright," Cana said, "if you're going to be pissy, then clearly you need a few drinks in ya. First round's on me, yeah? Lucy, what do you want?"

"Uhm… banana daiquiri?"

Cana nodded, getting to her feet, and glanced at Laxus. "Beer?"

He shrugged. "Whatever's fine. Nothin' with gin."

"Sure. Now you two behave yourselves while I'm gone," she said, pointing between the two of them before marching herself over to the bar.

Silence descended in her absence. Extremely awkward silence. Despite the raucous background noise of the guild in full party mode, complete with breaking glass, Laxus was extremely aware of the quiet that existed between him and Lucy. It was the kind of silence that occurred between two people who had nothing in common and nothing to say to each other… except that he actually did have something to say to her.

He knew that now might just be the perfect opportunity to ask her for the favor he needed, but he had no idea how to bring it up. And Cana might be back any second.

He glanced over in the direction of the bar and immediately revised that opinion. He'd thought that Kinana was tending the bar with Mira bussing tables, the way they'd been working earlier, but it looked like the two women had traded off, because Mira was the one stirring up whatever fruity thing Lucy had asked for. And if Mira was at the bar, he figured it would be solidly twenty minutes before Cana got back with their drinks.

He looked down at Lucy. Once Cana had left and freed up bench space, she had scooted a little farther away from him, and she was fidgeting. Clearly she was as aware of the uncomfortable silence as he was.

Well, might as well make the most of the opportunity, right?

"Hey. Can I talk to you outside?" he asked abruptly.

Lucy looked up at him, making full eye contact for the first time since she arrived at their table. She looked entirely startled. "Huh?"

"I have something I need to talk to you about."

"But Cana will be back any minute," she said, still seeming very confused.

He snorted. "Nah. She's talking to Mira now. Once they get to gabbing it takes Cana half an hour to get anything else done," he said. "Your drink's gonna be melted before she remembers we exist."

Lucy looked over to where Cana was leaning over the bar, grinning at something Mira had said, and sighed. "You may be right about that."

He got to his feet and she followed suit. She seemed to think they were going out the front door, but like hell was Laxus having a conversation this personal standing out in the damn street.

He took long strides up the back stairs to the second floor, then the third floor, and then up to the roof door, with Lucy scurrying along behind him. Once they had emerged into the quiet of the summer sunset and the door swinging shut behind them had muffled the sounds of the guild below, he turned to face her.

"What's going on, Laxus?" she asked, looking at him with what seemed to be alarm. He supposed that was only to be expected. They'd never really had an interaction that lasted longer than thirty seconds, so suddenly pulling her aside for a private conversation was probably as weird for her as it was for him.

But that was all beside the point. Taking a deep breath, he said, "I need you to train me."


Lucy wondered if she was having a stroke.

"Come again?" she asked blankly.

"I said—"

"Yeah, I heard," Lucy interrupted. "I'm just having a hard time processing the idea that there's anything Laxus Dreyar, of all people, could learn from me."

"Don't be so sure," he muttered, glancing away. His tone was unexpectedly bitter.

Lucy frowned. "Being cryptic isn't going to help," she said. "What is it you need?"

He looked at her again, a long, intent look that made Lucy feel uncomfortably measured. She wondered if she was being found wanting. Determined not to be intimidated no matter how imposingly tall he might be, however, she held his gaze. As she watched, the cast of his eyes changed somehow, and he seemed to come to some sort of decision.

"Maybe 'training' isn't quite the right way to put it," he muttered, almost to himself. More loudly, he asked, "Lucy, if I tell you something, uh, private, will you keep it to yourself?"

Lucy had a very brief moment of indecision. She tried to be careful about the promises she made. Natsu had taught her that lesson very early in their acquaintance. And furthermore, this was Laxus, the man who had turned on his guildmates in a grab for power… but then again, he had also proved beyond doubt where his loyalties lay. She trusted him. She barely knew him, but that went for several of her guildmates, if she was honest. They weren't close, but she supposed she considered him a friend, of sorts.

Taking a deep breath, she said, "I'm a celestial mage, Laxus. My magic requires trustworthiness and honesty. I keep my promises, always. If you ask me to keep something confidential, I promise I will."

Laxus's eyes narrowed, considering her words. "Okay."

"So what is this big secret you're swearing me to?" she asked, now genuinely curious.

He glanced around, just a quick flicker of his eyes in the direction of the door and to the ground below, and Lucy realized that he really didn't want to be overheard. Lowering his deep voice even further, he said, "There's… someone I like. And the thing is, I… uh… ah shit, this is embarrassing." He ran an agitated hand through his hair. "The thing is, I don't really know how to go about getting a girl to like me, and you seem like the kind of person who would know about that."

Lucy stared. If before she had thought she was stroking out, now she was very sure she must be hallucinating. Unless she was very mistaken, she thought Laxus Dreyar had just asked her to—

"I'm sorry, did you just… are you asking me for advice about your love life?" she asked incredulously.

He rolled his shoulders in a very uncomfortable shrug. "Uh… yeah. Guess that about sums it up."

"I have a really hard time picturing you needing help with women," she said, because it was the first thing that popped into her head and she was too surprised to have much of a filter.

He scowled, and ran a hand through his hair again. "I… look, I'm not great with people," he said. "Never have been, but it didn't matter much 'cuz I had friends who stuck with me anyway. But now that I, uh, like somebody, I really don't know what to do, and everybody loves you so I figure you're my best bet for getting somebody to like me back."

Lucy pondered that for a few moments. She thought she should be flattered, in a weird way, but this was all too surreal to even process that. "What did you have in mind? I don't really understand how you think I can help you."

Laxus wouldn't meet her eyes, fixating instead on somewhere past her shoulder. "I don't really know, okay?" he said, voice low and rumbling and agitated. "I just know that I don't understand this shit and I need somebody who does to help me figure it out. Help me figure out what I need to do to get Mira to like me, that's all."

"Wait, wait, Mira?" Lucy interjected, latching onto what was clearly the most important part of this statement. "As in Mirajane Strauss? That's who you like?"

He shrugged. "Seems that way."

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes at his uncharacteristically non-committal answer, she mulled that over. Laxus… and Mira? It was an unlikely match, in her opinion. Lucy could totally understand crushing on Mira— god knew she'd had a thing for Fairy Tail's very own covergirl at one time— but the idea of it being reciprocated seemed unlikely. Laxus just didn't seem like Mira's type. Not that she really knew what Mira's type was, but she just didn't think he was it. And even if the feelings were mutual, the idea of Laxus in a relationship…

But as she looked at him, she realized that was just it. Taking in the discomfort in his posture, the defensive stance he had taken with his arms crossed over his chest, she suddenly understood what he was getting at with his request. Just because he didn't seem like the relationship type didn't mean that he didn't want that kind of closeness. She knew firsthand that the face people showed the world and what they were really like, what they really wanted, could be wildly different things.

"I think I get it," she said, speaking with great deliberation as this revelation washed over her. "You really don't know how to handle a relationship at all, do you?"

He finally made eye contact again, giving her a glower that would have curled a lesser woman's hair. "No, obviously, or I wouldn't be talking to you, would I?"

"So… you want me to teach you how to be a relationship kind of guy, then?"

"If that's what it takes," he said, still scowling. Or maybe that was just his face.

She mulled it over, but really, what was there to consider? One of her guildmates, one of her friends, needed her help. How could she turn him down?

"I'm still not sure I'm the best person for the job, but… if you really want my help, I'll do my best."


It was late when Lucy left the newly-refurbished guild hall— well after midnight, in fact— but the party was still in full swing. Given the circumstances they'd been celebrating, several prominent townsfolk had been welcomed into the hall. Outsiders were almost never allowed in, but given that the citizens of Magnolia had spent the last week refurbishing the place, it seemed only fitting to welcome the mayor and city dignitaries, as well as Erza's favorite baker and a select handful of other notables. Needless to say, the civilians had petered out relatively early in the day, but Fairy Tail could go all night and rise with the sun for another round.

Lucy, therefore, was one of the first of the actual guild members to leave. There was too much on her mind for her to be able to relish in the crowd as she usually did. The events surrounding the Grand Magic Games had left her with a heavy weight on her heart, and it was making putting on a cheerful smile difficult. She needed sleep in the worst way.

And then there was Laxus...

She kicked at a loose pebble on the cobblestones as she pondered their conversation earlier. They had parted ways on the rooftop and gone back to the party after agreeing that, starting tomorrow, she would help him win Mira's heart. Not that she had any idea how on earth she was going to do that.

After two weeks full of twist after shocking twist, with the fate of Fiore in their hands, Lucy really hadn't thought that she was even capable of being surprised anymore. Into that frame of mind had tripped Laxus, and somehow it felt like the most astonishing twist of them all. The idea of the Laxus Dreyar struggling with his feelings for someone astonished her.

From the first time she had seen him smirking down from on high, Laxus had seemed like an almost mythic figure. Granted, everyone in Fairy Tail had seemed like giants to her back then, but Laxus had retained some of that aura of untouchability in her mind long after she'd gotten comfortable with everyone else. So for a man she'd viewed as superhuman to approach her with a plea to help him land a date with a girl he was too shy to approach was, by virtue of sheer incongruity, absurd.

There were a lot of rumors about Laxus, a lot of stories that went around the guild about him being some kind of legendary ladies' man, and she'd always believed them because… well, it just seemed to fit. Good-looking, professionally successful, a former supreme asshole. It would only make sense for him to be a womanizer, too, right?

But the stiff-necked man who had floundered his way through petitioning for her help seemed at odds with that image. Wildly so. Lucy found herself suddenly wondering how much of his reputation was based in fact, and how much was pure fiction. She knew firsthand that the magical community's rumor mill could churn out some pretty extreme exaggerations, so it wouldn't be that much of a stretch.

Lisanna and Erza had both described Laxus to her, at different times, as being a very awkward man, but she'd never had the opportunity to observe it for herself until today. She hadn't disbelieved them, per se, but the picture of him they'd portrayed differed so wildly from her image of him that she had assumed they were exaggerating. After today, though, she really couldn't gainsay Lisanna's testimony anymore— she didn't think she'd ever seen a person look as profoundly uncomfortable as Laxus had during their little tete-a-tete.

It was nice, though, to see this side of him. To get a chance to see Laxus as a normal human man, with insecurities like everyone else, was something that she suspected was a pretty rare opportunity. And she had to admit, a small, devilish part of her found a great deal of amusement in the fact that Laxus Dreyar, of all people, had been brought to his knees by his inability to ask out a girl he liked. She wasn't sure where, but there was probably some enormous irony in that.

It was still a surprise that he sought her out, of all the people in the guild… but then, when she considered their other guildmates, maybe it wasn't quite so surprising after all. God knew that, given the choice, she certainly wouldn't go to Erza or Cana for love advice, to say nothing of the rest of them. She loved her guildmates dearly, every last one of them, but it had to be said that they were all a little… well… dysfunctional.

Lucy shook her head fondly, a rueful smile gracing her lips as she climbed the steps to her apartment door, pulling her house key from her skirt pocket as she went. For the most part, she found her friends' idiosyncrasies charming. Given the lives they'd lived, she could hardly blame them for having certain bad habits. It was only to be expected.

Though, she thought to herself as she unlocked the door, I could stand to see less of Gray's privates. And I really wish that Natsu wouldn't

Her train of thought ground to a halt as she stepped into her apartment and found the subject himself sprawled out on the floor next to her bed, an open bag of potato crisps and a circle of crumbs lying next to him.

"Yo, Lucy!" Natsu exclaimed through a mouthful, waving.

"Dammit Natsu!"

"What?" he asked indignantly, swallowing what he'd stuffed in his mouth. "What'd I do?"

"How many times do I have to tell you not to just invite yourself in?" she demanded shrilly. "Can't I have one night to myself before you start invading my privacy again?"

Natsu frowned. "But… I haven't been here since before we went to the S-Class exam," he said. "I didn't get to come over before we went to the spirit world. I've missed your place."

Her heart was still hammering from the shock of walking into what should have been an unoccupied apartment only to find it very much occupied. Lucy took several breaths to try to calm herself down. "And why does that mean you have to break in?!" she exclaimed, voice still raised despite her best efforts.

He shrugged and took another handful of crisps, popping them in his mouth. "By the way, Lucy, you don't have any food in here at all," he said.

Lucy let out her breath slowly, willing herself not to kick him face-first through the window. She looked to her left and groaned internally. Every door in her kitchen was standing wide open, and two of her baking trays were lying on the floor. Clearly, Natsu had gone rummaging.

"Did you stop to think that maybe that's because we've been gone for over three and a half months?" she grumbled. "Unlike some people, I don't leave things to rot in the lacrima cooler if I'm going to be gone for over a week!"

"Oh. That's smart!"

She rolled her eyes, but her ire was already fading. "Well, since you're here already, you might as well stay for a bit."

Natsu grinned. "Sure!"

"I don't have any food— obviously— but do you want some tea?"

"Sounds great, Luce!"

His smile grew wider, and that infectious grin of his made it so impossible to stay mad at him.

Lucy knew better than to ask what kind of tea he wanted; as far as Natsu was concerned, tea was tea, and it didn't matter whether it was darjeeling or pu ehr as long as it was hot. He seemed to enjoy holding the warm cup as much as he did actually drinking it, anyway.

She pulled down a box of tea bags, lamenting that she couldn't afford to buy loose tea anymore; the price had skyrocketed thanks to a border skirmish between Pergrande and Bellum that had disrupted trade routes two years ago. Her father, she had recently learned, had been working on establishing an alternate shipping line by sea rather than the expense of hauling through the mountains of Isenberg…

Her father…

She blinked hard against the stinging in her eyes and grabbed for the kettle. Her emotions had been so all over the place lately. Her mood could flip from joy to melancholy and back again so fast it gave her whiplash, and she couldn't seem to keep it together from one minute to the next. It was embarrassing. She didn't want to talk about it all… but at the same time, she did. She had no idea what was going on with her.

"Lucy?"

"Hm."

"What're you crying for?"

She turned on the water to fill the kettle, keeping her hands busy and her eyes turned away. "I'm not," she said, grateful that her voice didn't betray her.

"Then why d'you smell like tears all of a sudden?"

Lucy resisted the urge to give him an incredulous look over her shoulder. "It's so weird that you can do that," she muttered.

"No it's not," Natsu said. "You just can't smell for crap."

"Hey! My nose works just fine, thank you!"

"Nuh-uh, even Happy can smell better than you!" he protested, clearly pleased with this incontrovertible proof of his correctness.

Confident that her eyes were dry, Lucy turned to look at him as she slid the kettle onto the stovetop. "Happy is a cat," she said dryly. "Of course he can smell better than a regular human. Where is he, anyway?"

Natsu shrugged. "Still at the guild, probably. I think he was talking to Charla."

Lucy laughed. "That doesn't surprise me. But I'm surprised you didn't stay longer," she said.

"Eh. Juvia was all over Gray again," he said, his expression changing into something quite like a pout.

She tilted her head to the side, baffled. But this was Natsu, so who even knew why he did anything. Maybe even the most extroverted person she knew could get sick of people sometimes? "Oh. Well, that's not much different from normal," she said.

"Yeah," he said, crossing his arms with his shoulders slumped. He looked positively petulant, and Lucy couldn't fathom why.

"Well…" She cast around for a new subject because this one didn't seem to be going anywhere. So much had happened since the last time they sat here like this in her kitchen, five weeks or more than seven years ago, depending on how you counted it out. It seemed like everything had changed, and she suddenly wasn't sure what to say to the boy sitting there on the floor of her apartment. Her first human friend.

The kettle whistled and she turned away from him for a moment to turn the stove off and pour the boiling water into the mugs she had prepared. Then she crossed the room and handed one of the cups, which he immediately cradled close to his chest, his posture straightening up and his expression brightening.

"A lot's happened, hasn't it," she said thoughtfully, settling down across from him.

He nodded. "Yeah. Can't believe I didn't get to fight in the last day of the Games!"

She forced a smile at that, but the pensive mood that had crept over her wasn't alleviated by his response. "I really appreciate that you came with Mira to help me instead."

"'Course. I'll always save you, Lucy!"

She raised her cup to her lips quickly, warm porcelain pressed to her mouth to forestall the words she really wanted to say: "I wish I didn't need saving."

Once she'd scalded her tongue into silence, she said instead, "It feels like everything just changed overnight, doesn't it?"

Natsu tilted his head to one side curiously. "What d'you mean?"

"I mean… well, just everything." She waved a hand fruitlessly to try to illustrate her point. "With the Eclipse gate and the dragons and… and everything that happened with the Games, you know?"

His lip jutted out slightly as he pondered that. "Maybe. But we won, right?"

"Yeah. Yeah we did. But…"

"But what?"

She took a steadying breath, fingers gripping the handle of her mug tightly. "I can't stop thinking about what happened to that other Lucy. That other me."

It was amazing, watching his expression change. She could actually see the moment he shut down emotionally. His whole posture changed in the most subtle way, the lines of his body going rigid, and his eyes went hard as they sometimes did. Cold, like old charcoal.

"Natsu, I—"

"Don't," he said sharply, voice just as cold as his eyes. "Don't talk about it."

"But—"

"Lucy, I don't ever want to think about that again."

His tone left no room for argument. Lucy wasn't really surprised— she hadn't seen Natsu as distressed as he'd been that day since he had carried Erza out of the Tower of Heaven. It was obviously a painful subject for him. Everything had been too hectic for the last few days for them to really talk, but she had hoped that now that they were back in Magnolia and things had settled down that maybe they would be able to open up about what had happened in the palace that day.

Apparently not.

"Okay," she said. "I understand."

But she didn't. And that was the whole problem.


To my anonymous reviewer Ruevedette: This is definitely going to be a less-than-smooth ride, for sure, and a very confusing one for Laxus especially. He's about to have certain unquestioned assumptions thrown into doubt, which will hopefully be as fun for you to read as it will be for me to write. Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment!

Thank you as well to all my other reviewers, I know I responded to you all privately (and if I somehow failed to, I'm so sorry about that!), but I wanted to express my appreciation again. Your feedback is my lifeblood honestly, it means a lot. Thanks as well to everyone who favorited and followed this fic!