Ok, chapter three! I'm on a roll and I haven't broken my promise yet! This chapter is looking better than ever and as I'm always saying, I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters, I'm ust a fan. Which is why this is called FANfiction, but yeah. As always please enjoy! ~mathmaddy
Chapter 3
Natsu just layed there, staring blankly at the ceiling trying to wrap his head around what had just happened. The rest of the guild stood in silent awe of what they had just witnessed. Everybody was amazed by either Lucy, who managed to beat up all four dragon-slayers and Elf-man, or by Natsu, who had somehow, inexplicably, managed to send the blond mage away, crying. The silence seemed to last forever, turning from natural, to awkward as everyone had realized the silence, and didn't want to break it. Finally, the awkward hall devoid of noise was once again filled with sound as Happy came back from his fishing trip and offered the fish he caught to Charla(I don't really know how to spell her name). Everybody in the guild always knew that he was an idiot, but this was a whole different level, not only had he not noticed the silence, but the five boy mages who were completely beat up still lying defeated on the ground, either outside the guild or inside.
The guild was so shocked at this point that not much was really talked about. Nobody could really say anything other than a few small words, but that seemed to be enough for the time being. Soon enough, large crowds of people were formed to discuss the day's seemingly larger than life events. Never before had anyone seen Lucy with that much power and the entire mood and feel from around her had changed. They wondered if something was going on inside Lucy as she beat them up, because it was almost like she was a completely different person. And that's exactly what she was, an unstoppable person that even she couldn't control.
It seemed that Happy was the only one who didn't care exactly what was going on, because he approached Charla as if it was any ordinary day. After Charla had told him she didn't want his fish he wanted Lucy to comfort him. "Lushee!" he yelled, "What do I do?" The blue cat was so wrapped up in his troubles that it wasn't until then that he he had realised Lucy wasn't there. " Huh? Where's Lucy?" he said blankly, "I saw her here this morning." Happy decided to ask Natsu, he always knew where Lucy was. "Natsuuu!" screamed Happy.
The blue cat flew around the guild in his search for him comrade. After a while of flying in circles, he finally came across his half-conscious comrade. "Who did this to you Natsu?" mourned the blue haired cat dramatically. "It was...L-Lucy" the pink haired mage spluttered. After that he just meaningfully looked up at Happy for a few seconds before finally giving in to the darkness that lie ahead of him. Happy, it appeared, had totally misread the situation however, because next he started to shake Natsu furiously. "Don't die!" Happy whined while tears ran down his face.
It seemed someone would have to correct the poor cat before Natsu died for real. It was Panther-lily, Happy's former exceed pal, who first elected to tell the mistaken cat the truth. Lily just slid off of his high barstool where he had been holding quite a pleasant conversation with Levy before all of this ruckus was started. Panther-lily made his way over to happy before he bluntly said to the poor and confused cat, "He's not dead, he just passed out." The blue cat just dropped Natsu's pink head bluntly after hearing this new news as he continued his search for Lucy.
He decided to look for Lucy at her apartment, it was a pretty good guess as to where she was when she wasn't at the guild. Normally, Happy would never go over there without Natsu, but the pink-haired mage, it seemed, was in no mood to go over to her house, as strange as the idea seemed. After all, Natsu loved Lucy's house and he always wanted to be there, so he thought that after nearly a week of not seeing her at all Natsu would want to go. Happy however, must have been mistaken, because even though Natsu really couldn't sleep without Lucy, he had denied himself the pleasure of going over to her house at all, and had spent most of his nights holed up in his own bedroom, struggling to find sleep.
When Happy found her, Lucy was crying in her bedroom with her face in the corner covered by her hands. "Lushee, what's wrong?" the confused cat asked, the entire day had been strange for him, ever since he left to go fishing. Natsu hadn't been himself and looked like he was suffering from insomnia, he was passed out on the floor when he'd gotten back to the guild, nobody was talking loudly, Lucy was crying here, and even Cana hadn't been drunk at noon. It was almost like it was the perfect scene out of Edolas, well, but everybody still dressed the same. So this time, Happy was determined to get a straight answer as to what exactly had happened while he was gone.
After Happy questioned her, Lucy rushed to make up an excuse. "I was just writing a letter to my mom when…well..." Lucy trailed off, sniffling, knowing it would be enough to edge the cat away from the subject, at least for a while. "Oh" the cat replied, making sure to try to show his sympathies for what had happened. "Oh! I remembered what I wanted to ask you!" the cat shouted enthusiastically. "Did you forget?" asked the puzzled mage, after all, Happy and her hadn't really had any contact in a week and he'd never mentioned anything like this to her. "Why?" the cat asked. "Why what?" said Lucy, even more confused than she had been a few seconds ago.
Honestly, Happy could be talking about any number of things that had happened in the past, well, since she'd met him. He always had a way of bringing up things that happened months, even years, ago. It was anybody's guess as to what he was talking about, but the most likely subject probably had to do with Natsu, his life-long companion. And somebody she would prefer not to talk about right now. Unfortunately, she couldn't just come out and say that. "Why'd you beat up Natsu?" the blue cat asked like it was obvious. Now this, this she could do. She'd had a very simple reason for her actions and ones that she certainly felt were justifiable. "He and his little buddies over there almost knocked me out again, maybe next time they'll fight somewhere abandoned like they should" she retorted. "Aye sir" replied the blue cat.
Although she had found the catchphrase extremely annoying at first, well, even a little after that, she now found that the catchphrase seemed to make her feel at ease. She had been worried knowing Natsu and Happy hadn't been to her house for a while, especially because she was worried about what that would make her in Fairy Tail and even just to them, but hearing Happy's dumb catchphrase set her mind at ease. Nothing had really changed, at least not too drastically since Natsu had become S-Class. After all, he had contained the power to become S-Class before he'd actually taken the test, she supposed. Besides, it was probably just a coincidence that they hadn't talked much, I mean, they hadn't exactly really been remotely near each other until today.
After a lot of pleading from Happy, Lucy finally decided to go back to the guild, she needed a job if she was going to pay her rent anyway, she finally decided. When Lucy walked into the guild the first thing she noticed was that the five perpetrators had woken up and were now sitting at the few undestroyed tables in the guild. Everyone in the guild seemed to be staring at her, as if they wanted to see what she would do next. Unfortunately for them, however, Lucy was in no mood to put on another show, she'd had enough of those boys to last her a whole lifetime, not to mention she'd had her fill for today.
The second thing she noticed was that everybody seemed to be avoiding her, especially the dragonslayers in question. Luckily, Gray hadn't seemed to be as stricken with fear so she could still talk to him. At least that's what she'd thought, when she talked to him, however, she could sense him trying to handle her with caution and she thought she even saw him quiver once. Nevertheless, she still decided to call out to them, after all, with the guild like this she really didn't feel comfortable talking to anyone else. Besides, Erza was there too.
"Hey Erza, Hey Gray," the once again cheery mage called. The two said mages looked up at her almost immediately, responding to the sound of her voice. Erza immediately flashed her a smile and waved her over to the seat next to her, but it was only a second after she'd sat down that Gray interrupted their lively conversation. "Well," Gray said awkwardly, "I think Natsu wanted to tell you something,so... you should probably see him first."
Nothing about Gray's statement seemed to add up, Natsu knew exactly where to find her when he needed her, plus since when had he needed to talk to her. She'd been free all morning and he hadn't payed any attention to her since, well, she'd beaten him up. Lucy, however, ignored the strange statement and walked away, perhaps he was still a little too awkward around Lucy. Or maybe now Natsu hated her and her worst fear had come true. Without Natsu, she was a nothing with no real place or friends in the guild. No, that couldn't be true, she'd made real friends while she was here, right? No, there was just something wrong with the guild today, everyone was acting really strangely.
With her confidence back up slightly, she headed towards Natsu, who was in his usual seat as always. "So, I heard you needed to talk to me." she said. Natsu looked up at her, smiling briefly before it turned into something of a pained frown. His head fell back down on the tabled and it looked like he was at war with himself as he sat thinking for a moment before finally making his decision. With the pained look once again on his face, he gestured for her to sit in the seat across from himself. He had to do this, or else, well, he just had to. It would be what was best for Lucy.
"Lucy," he said, as soon as she'd taken her seat, and for once even she could tell he was serious, "I'm S-class now." Lucy didn't like the direction this conversation was heading, but she couldn't run away from it now. "Yeaahhh, and?" she asked, trying to play clueless. Just because he was S-class, that didn't make her any different. Why did everything need to change so quickly. She wasn't totally understanding his point, but she knew exactly what was happening at the same time. She just wanted to run away from it all. If she'd known it would turn out like this, she would've just gone with her father, or maybe never even left in the first place. She never would've wanted to meet Natsu in the first place. It wasn't fair, didn't he realize, well, didn't he realize that he'd made her fall in love with him?! Lucy's thoughts screamed for her to run from it all, to run from everything, but she was just frozen there in place, left to listen to everything.
"Well, now the team is doing harder missions and, well, I don't think you can be, I mean, I don't want you to be part of the team anymore." He blurted the last part out bluntly, trying to get it over with as quickly as possible. After he was done saying what he needed to, he turned around. He knew how much this would hurt Lucy, which was the last thing he really wanted to do but, if she was with him, she would only get more hurt. After all, for all the big talk they boast about being insightful, Lucy never really did realize that she'd made him fall deeply in love with her. Everything about her, and he knew that if he saw her face he knew he would give in to her. It wasn't until she had walked away and sat at the bar that he turned back to face the table.
Still, he couldn't help but feel a twang of guilt as she tried to hold back her tears as she left. "Of course!" she'd exclaimed. "I knew this day would come eventually, after all, not everybody can handle S-class missions, and you'll probably be doing a lot of those now. Besides, it's not like...it's not like we were ever going to be partners forever, you just happened to help me find my way here and then I tagged along with everything you did." As soon as she was done, she went over to the bar where Mira was and laid her head down on the smooth wood and Natsu knew she was crying.
The worst part about it was probably the way Lucy made it sound like it was all her fault. As if it was her fault for not being powerful enough to fight at the S-class level even though she'd done it with him before. Like she had been burdening him all this time when he was the one who had always been burdening her and getting her into trouble. Even the first day, when they'd met, there was something that he'd instantly loved about Lucy, but he knew someone like her could never fall for a guy like him. She was always complaining about him, and whenever she went on one of those stupid blind dates she went out with mature guys who fit her background, not with guys like him. He almost wished he hadn't done what he just had. Dismayed and trying to cope with the weight of how he just made her feel, Natsu too, lowered his head to the table.
It wasn't until he realized Gray and Erza were now at his table, in the two seats adjacent to his own, leaving Lucy's normal seat completely open that he looked up. Erza seemed confused as to what the situation was as she pointed and asked why Lucy had just given Mira her first solo mission to get stamped. Natsu unconsciously tried to turn around in his seat despite his minds protests, but luckily the blond mage was out the door before his body was fully turned. Thankful for his luck, Natsu turned back around and looked towards Gray. "I said it" he told Gray. "She's not on the team anymore." Natsu forced the words out as he silently added, she'll be safe now. "Why?" Erza was confused by the entire situation since she had missed his whole explanation to Gray, but right now he wasn't in any mood to explain. As if asking for permission to tell the scarlet-haired mage, Gray looked at him, but Natsu just shook his head before adding a few words. "I can't tell you." he said, "You're too close to her, the whole plan would be ruined. Plus..." he added, glancing around and eyeing Mira," You're too close to Mira, and I definately don't trust her. "Oh," said the female mage, trying to understand.