Chapter Three
It took Lucy and Natsu the better part of three days to reach the lively town that Cana was rumored to be working in. Natsu had insisted that they walk the whole way but after a day and a half, Lucy threatened to leave him behind unless he joined her on the coach she hired. Happy was more than willing to oblige, but it wasn't until they were on their way that Natsu ran after them and jumped on.
Their driver dropped them off a short ways out of the town, about an hour walk he told them, saying that his own destination was in another direction. Lucy whined about her feet while Natsu came down from his nausea and Happy floated above them careless to their woes.
They heard the town before they turned the last bend and it came into view. Cheering and cajoling rose to greet the darkening sky and the trio as they approached. It seemed like there was a festival going on in the town square.
"Excuse me," Lucy asked the first person they encountered. "What is happening here?"
A short elderly woman took Lucy by the hand and danced her around with more agility than Lucy had expected from the aged lady. "The town is throwing a party for the guild, m'lady! They just beat off another wave of the bandits that have been troubling us these past few years. It's always lively when we come out on top!"
Lucy arched her eyebrow and glanced in Natsu's direction. He shrugged and looked on towards the town square.
"Hey lady, are there any bouts at these things? I'd love to get my hands on a good fight right now." Natsu rolled his shoulders, stretching out his muscles.
"Oh certainly. The boys from the guild always end up in some sort of scuffle after they've had a few rounds. Head in to the Broken Window and you'll find our boys." The old lady toddled off on her own, leaving the two mages confused in her wake.
"Who names a bar 'Broken Window'?" Natsu asked rhetorically as they gazed up at the wooden sign. It had taken them fifteen minutes to elbow their way through the crowd before they reached the place the old woman had mentioned.
"It sounds like a bar that Fairy Tail could appreciate with the amount of destruction we cause on a normal day," Lucy quipped back. "I bet they replace fewer tables than we do."
Lucy pulled open the heavy wooden door and they were met with an explosive din. The bar was in the midst of a riot. Chairs were being brandished, heads were locked under arms, and magic was being cast about recklessly. A breeze crossed Lucy's cheek as Natsu dove into the fray, his bag dropped haphazardly on the ground behind him.
Loud, jovial laughter rose over the noise and a shout encouraged the newcomers through the door. There standing on the bar above it all, was Cana Alberona with a tankard of ale held high above her head.
"Cana!" Lucy cried. She pulled Natsu's bag through the door with her and headed towards the bar.
"Lucy!" Cana reached down and pulled Lucy up onto the bar to join her. Wrapping her arms around Lucy like a lover, she slurred, "I can't believe you're here! It's so good to see you!"
"Why is everyone fighting?" Lucy had to shout to be heard.
"Why not?" Cana cheered, lifting her glass as a rather burly man was launched into the front window. There was a boo from the crowd when the window remained in one piece. "How are we going to live up to our name if you don't break the damn window, boys? Put your backs into it!"
Lucy could only watch, awed by the spectacle before her. She could see Natsu's pink hair moving through the sea of brawling bodies only to disappear and reappear further in. Happy was hovering overhead, cheering on his fire-breathing companion. At least he hasn't burnt the place down yet.
Eventually, many of the fighters were either knocked unconscious or limped off to tend to their wounds and get another drink. Cana started taking small bets with other locals on who would come out on top. Lucy could not believe what she was seeing before her. It was like she was back at the guild but she only recognized a few faces. She saw Natsu take a massive punch to the gut only to swing wildly and knock his assailant across the room.
"He's not even using his magical power yet," Cana observed. They were sitting on the bar, legs dangling as men slumped beneath them. She took a gulp out of her mug of ale. "He really is something, isn't he Lucy?"
"Yeah." Lucy breathed and coughed, the stench of sweat and adrenaline settled in a heady fog across the bar. "You should have seen him at the Games. Took the whole place down in a matter of seconds."
"That was Natsu?" Cana crowed with delight. "Oh man we heard about that all the way out here! The whole arena is completely wrecked again! Ghaaa I missed this kid."
A loud victorious shout echoed across the bar as many conversations came to a standstill. Lucy and Cana looked back towards the fighting circle and saw Natsu standing atop a pile of unconscious, battered men.
"I am undefeated!" he cackled maniacally, fire spouting from his mouth as he spoke. He looked over at Lucy and raised his fists in triumph. "That felt amazing!"
Lucy rolled her eyes and smiled at him in return.
"Good job, Natsu!" Cana called out. She was counting her way through a wad of cash. "I knew you'd make me a ton of cash the minute I saw you!"
"CANA!" Natsu leapt off of his victory mound and trotted to their place on the bar. "I did not know you were here! Buy me a beer!"
"Buy it yourself! I have to keep this place afloat somehow." Cana smacked his hand from the bar.
Natsu pouted. "You just said I made you a load of money. That should buy me something!"
Cana rolled her legs to the other side of the bar and jumped down. She fiddled with a glass out of sight and handed him a cup filled to the brim with a bright clear liquid. Without a second thought, Natsu knocked back the drink and let out a refreshed sigh. "Water is great too."
Cana laughed and handed him a pint of ale. "On the house. One for you too, Lucy."
Lucy sipped on her mug and eyed Cana's natural stance behind the bar. She had not seen anyone else working there yet. "Is this your bar, Cana?"
"The one and only," Cana replied, toasting to Lucy and Natsu. She looked into her cup, curious at its lowering level of content. "It's a living, I guess."
"At least it is when she isn't drinking half of her own product," came a slurred voice from the other end of the bar.
A man with slick black hair pulled into a tight head knot sat a few seats down, a gourd hanging lightly from a strap at his waist. Dark blue armored plates covered his shoulders but exposed the rest of his stomach, chest and back where a black guild symbol stood out against his light toned skin.
"Back for another refill, Bacchus?" Cana slurred. Lucy noticed a dusting of pink brush across Cana's cheeks.
"Can't get the good stuff anywhere else in this town, sweetheart," he grinned and shuffled closer to the barmaid. Cana took the gourd that Bacchus held out for her and carefully tipped in an unnamed brown liquid into it.
"Only the best for you, chump."
Bacchus took a sip and then peered into the tiny hole of his gourd. "Hell, woman, this is foul."
"Bottom of the barrel, my friend. Drink up. I'm closing early."
Bacchus eyed Lucy and Natsu and nodded in recognition. "Understood. Come by later on, yeah?"
"Maybe." Cana sniffed indignantly and motioned for him to shoo.
Bacchus grinned and saluted to Cana with two fingers not holding his gourd. "Stay beautiful, bar maiden. Until we meet again."
Lucy laughed as the drunken fighter swaggered out of the bar. Natsu turned back to Cana after the door closed.
"Why wasn't he in the brawl? I wanted a match against him!"
Cana sniggered into her ale. "It got too predictable. I banned him from the fights because no one would be against him. If I had known you were going to show up I would have put him in. Not sure if you can hold your own against him yet."
"I could too! I wanna fight him! I'm all fired up now!" Natsu moved to chase after the S-Class mage.
"Natsu, we're not here to fight." Lucy put a hand on Natsu's shoulder, stilling his departure. "We're here to talk to Cana, remember?"
Natsu met Lucy's eyes and smiled, rubbing his hand at the back of his head. "Right. Sorry Lucy. I got carried away."
"You guys were looking for me?" Cana cut in. "Why?"
"We're trying to rebuild Fairy Tail!" Natsu declared, fist pumping skyward. "We want you to come back to Magnolia with us."
"We want to bring the guild back together, Cana, and you are the first person we wanted to ask." Lucy added diplomatically.
"No thank you." Cana grabbed some empty glasses from the bar and began to clean them, not meeting Lucy or Natsu's gaze.
Lucy was stunned. She knew it would be challenging to get everyone back on board, but a flat 'No' right at the start of their adventure was not what she expected. "But Cana..."
"I'm happy here and I have a good thing going." Cana turned her back to them and started wiping down and resetting the tables around the room. "Last I checked, the guild hall was still a pile of dust and the town is just getting back on its feet. I can't just ditch a good gig because you want to try for something everyone else might not want to do."
"It wasn't any of our ideas to break the guild up in the first place!" Natsu rebutted.
"You weren't even there, Natsu!" Cana spat, spinning to face them. Her cheeks were flushed with all the drink she had consumed that evening and the emotions flooding her body. "Master said we were done, so we're done!"
"We're not done!" Natsu fought back. "We're nakama! You can't just forget that."
Happy flew over to the safety of Lucy's arms. She had taken a few steps back to distance herself from the pending fight.
"Everyone else forgot me." Tears brimmed in Cana's eyes. "Even my old man hasn't come back to see if I'm OK. Fairy Tail is over!"
"Then why do you still have your guild crest?" Natsu pointed to the guild mark clearly imprinted on the left side of her exposed waist. Cana didn't respond. Instead, she hugged herself, bent over as if Natsu's words were hard lashes against her skin. "If you are done with us, then why don't you erase it?"
"Natsu, stop," Lucy said gently but Natsu ignored her.
"Stop pretending like Fairy Tail is over! I won't accept that!" he continued. "We're right here telling you to come home!"
"I can't!" Cana shouted, tears falling freely. "He told us to get lost and not come back! Old guild members wander through this town every few weeks but we can't even talk about it! You left before any of us so what right do you have to tell me to come back? I was one of the last ones to leave! What fucking right do you have, Natsu Dragneel?"
"I know I wasn't there," Natsu brought his tone down to a gentler volume. Lucy could see the muscles in his arms tensing like he wanted to hit something. "I'm trying to make my peace with that. Right now, all I can do is try to bring it back. To bring Fairy Tail back into action. I want to go on jobs with my friends again. I want my nakama to be whole again. I don't know why Gramps told us to get lost, but it's not right."
"What if no one else wants to come back?" Cana whispered but Natsu's sharp ears picked up every word. "I don't want to get my hopes up only to have everything I love crash down around me again."
"Then we will find the ones who want to come home." Natsu declared like it was a simple thing. He gave Cana a wide, toothy grin. "We'll drag the others back in chains if we have to."
"We can't rebuild the guild hall on our own, Cana." Lucy added with a soft smile. "We need you too."
Cana's tears fell swiftly. Lucy stepped forward, releasing Happy, and embraced her crumbling friend.
"We're nakama, Cana," Lucy whispered as she rested her cheek against Cana's brown wavy hair. "No matter how far away we go, that fact will never change."
Cana held on to Lucy as though her life depended on it and cried out in loud wracking sobs that echoed in the empty bar.
As her tears subsided, Cana tried to regain her composure but with the heavy night of drinking and the outburst of strong emotions, her energy was sapped. Lucy helped her up the back stairs and into the living space she kept above the bar. After making her drink a glass of water and making sure she would be okay for the evening, Lucy promised they would come back the following day.
"Take your time. Just promise to think about it after you wake up, okay?"
Cana nodded and headed into her bathroom, bidding Lucy goodnight.
Lucy, Natsu, and Happy left Cana's bar through the back door, ensuring that all entrances were sealed and secure before they departed. They wandered the streets of the town they were visiting and stopped at a food vendor to grab a bite to eat. The night was still young and the streets were still full.
The town's only inn was full, but the manager directed them to a small homestead on the outskirts of town that always offered a warm bed to weary travelers. The homeowners graciously opened their doors to the traveling trio but apologized profusely at only having one room left to accommodate them.
"It's no big deal," Lucy attempted to wave off their frantic apologies as they tried to offer their own room to her and sleep in the barn themselves.
Natsu grinned. "We're used to sleeping in the dirt, so four walls is good enough for us."
"But there's only one bed!" The lady of the house looked appalled.
"Natsu can sleep on the floor. It'll be fine!" Lucy was insistent and ignored Natsu's teasing glare.
After relenting to their guests, the lady's husband guided them to their spare bedroom. It was sparsely furnished, but after three days on the road Lucy was excited for the prospect of good night's sleep.
"Is there a bath that I could use? I don't mean to be intrusive." Lucy asked politely.
"Yes, this way," the man smiled. "The door directly across from here hosts our only bathroom on the second floor. The Misses and I sleep downstairs, so make yourself at home. Our other guests are out enjoying the festival so you should have some privacy for a while."
"Thank you very much!" A private bath sounded perfect.
After the man had shown them in, he apologized again, only this time it was for having unscented wick candles to light their room instead of 'fancy city lighting'.
"Light lacrimas just don't come along that often in this town so we save them for the streets and businesses," he explained.
"Really, sir, we do not mind." Lucy was itching to take her bath.
"Okay. If you need anything, we're just downstairs. We'll be up for a little while longer." The man bowed and headed back down the stairs.
Lucy closed to door to their shared room and looked around. The bed was a good size bigger than the one she kept at home and the sheets looked freshly laundered. It was positioned under a large window that arched up to the high vaulted ceiling. There were four candles spread around the room but the night sky was bright enough that they did not need to light one yet. Lucy set her things down on the desk set against the adjoining wall and pulled a small travel towel from her bag.
"I'll be back in a bit," she told them.
"Aye," said Happy from his perch on the bed. Natsu said nothing but waived a hand to acknowledge that he had heard her.
Lucy opted to take a shower at the last minute. The idea of a bath by candlelight seemed a little too intimate to take in a stranger's home. I'll have to try this out when I get back to my apartment. My new bath is perfect for it!
As she returned to their room, she entered to see Natsu leaning up against the edge of the window staring out into the night. He had lit one of the candles on the sill but ignored it. Lucy slipped a large shirt over her fresh undergarments and walked over to his side. Happy was already snoozing away one of the bed's pillows.
"I was proud of you today, Natsu," she said softly, leaning her head against his shoulder. The night was clear and she could see a pair of deer grazing in the outer fields beyond the property.
He looked down at her curiously. "Why?"
"You kept your temper with Cana," she replied with a gentle smile. "You told her what she needed to hear and understood that she was not saying no because she doesn't love us but because she's hurting and you backed off."
Natsu followed her gaze back out to the grazing pair. "I said what was in my heart, that's all."
"I wanted to acknowledge it anyway. You've changed a lot this last year."
"You're still as sappy as ever. Haven't changed a bit," he teased.
Lucy slapped the back of her hand against his chest with a laugh. He grabbed her hand and held it there. When he spoke again, Lucy heard a subtle tone of worry beneath the words "What if she's right, Lucy? What if our guild mates don't want Fairy Tail to come back?"
Lucy had rarely ever heard Natsu doubt himself so she pondered over her answer before replying. Tightening her grip on his hand she spoke, "I think you had the gist of it before. We'll bring them all back in chains if we have to."
"I'm serious, Luce."
"So am I. We're facing an uphill battle here, Natsu. Cana is proof of that. Everyone is in a lot of pain over the Master's decision and some are going to need more convincing than others. There has always been an open door in and out of Fairy Tail. They just need to be reminded that there is still a door to walk through."
Natsu released the air from his lungs in a long sigh. He felt Lucy flex the hand he held to loosen her stiffening joints. He noticed the awkward angle he was holding her hand at and released it but smiled as she grabbed the hand still hanging at his side. "Thanks for fighting this one with me, Lucy."
"It's what we do, Natsu. We're nakama and you're my partner." Lucy gave his hand a gentle tug. "Now come on. Let's get some sleep. We have a long day tomorrow."
They moved away from the window together but Natsu veered back to their packs to start unraveling his sleeping bag. Lucy contemplated his gallantry and suppressed a laugh.
"Come on. The bed is big enough for both of us without making it weird." Natsu raised an eyebrow at her. Lucy was grateful that the room was too dark for him to see her blush. "Plus, the room is cold and your body heat will help me sleep."
"You sure? I don't want a kick to the head first thing in the morning."
"I promise not to kick you."
"Okay." Lucy saw his teeth flash in a wide grin. "If you do, I'll exact my revenge."
Lucy shivered at the thought. His revenge plots were downright devious. "I promise."
Natsu shrugged off his vest as he watched Lucy climb into the bed and shift to the side that was flesh against the wall and window. She leaned across the foot of the bed and for a moment her face was illuminated by the light of the candle he had lit before she quickly blew it out and laid down.
Natural light from the night sky filtered in through the bedroom window and cast long shadows across the floor as Natsu made his way to the bed. As he settled beneath the blankets, he froze when Lucy turned in to get closer.
"Lucy your toes are colder than Gray!" he hissed as she pressed her feet against his shin.
"Shhh. Warm Natsu, let me sleep," she murmured with a giggle.
Natsu rolled his eyes before closing them, letting his exhaustion take over and sleep settled into his bones like an old friend.
A/N: Thank you for taking the time to get here. Please review! Your comments help me improve!
06/2017 - A/N: I have updated grammar and small details. -xoxo