Promise 2.0
"Close the shutters."
Levy paused and turned to Lucy.
"Lu-chan?"
"Please."
Levy reached up on her toes and tugged on the strings of the blinds as Lucy watched from her bed. Once her request had been completed, Lucy turned on her side away from the girl and curled up, her knees at her stomach and her arms wrapped around them.
She felt hollow. Empty. It was an effort to speak, much less move or smile. It was odd, though. All the novels had it wrong. Things hadn't changed, not really. The world wasn't black and white. She didn't stop wanting to be happy. She just...didn't feel like it. Sometimes she forgot about it completely.
Eventually her eyes closed. She didn't sleep, though she was tired, so tired, and her limbs felt incapable; like she was no longer physically able to use them.
She heard Levy close the door behind her.
Now she was alone she thought she would scream. She thought she would cry, beat her fists and hope to God that she could change something by doing that alone.
But she didn't.
She just lay there, waiting for something that would never come and breathing only for the sake of someone who could never breathe again.
"Get up."
Lucy looked up. As she had been every day, she was apathetic. Her eyes had lost their good humour and her face was pale. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail which lay out on the pillow, but was unbrushed and greasy.
"Natsu?"
Natsu couldn't smile, but he felt a spark of hope in the corner of his mind. As his name left her lips he heard emotion; not a lot, but just a little. She was surprised, though not quite shocked, and there was something like the beginning of self-awareness.
"Get up, I said." Natsu was still fuming, though the hope did not go away. "You've been in here for days."
"Leave me alone, Natsu." Lucy turned away, her body curled up towards the wall. She wouldn't listen to him. She didn't want to get up. She was perfectly content to lie in an eternal state of half sleep. She no longer cared for her hair or her clothes right now. She hadn't contacted her Celestial Spirits since...it. She didn't need any of that and she didn't need Natsu coming around and talking at her every five minutes.
Natsu scowled, irritated. He knew she had gotten bad but not this bad. He had only been gone a few days. A wave of guilt hit him like a punch to the stomach and to force it away he threw back Lucy's bed clothes and picked her up, slinging her over his shoulder.
"N-Natsu-no!"
Though her voice was rough from disuse, she sounded more like the Lucy he remembered.
Natsu, ignoring her protests that were still a little weak, took Lucy to her bath, already full, and dropped her in fully clothed.
"Get washed and ready.." He told her, beginning to walk out of the bathroom. "Or I'll come back and do it myself."
He didn't stop to see if she was doing as she was told, instead shutting the door and walking through to the living room of the apartment. Hopefully Lucy would listen to him and get herself ready. There was no way she was staying here another minute.
Natsu opened the windows and the curtains, letting the cool air of Magnolia infiltrate the stale tang of the apartment that held the ghost of the girl he knew.
"Lucy?" Natsu knocked on the door of the bathroom. "Can I come in?"
She had been in there for over half an hour. Natsu was not a patient person, so it was an achievement he had lasted as long as he had, but now he was borderline petulant.
There was some shuffling about from behind the door.
"J-just a minute." Her voice was quiet, but she didn't sound as lifeless as she had previously. Now there was a lukewarm feel to her voice; she was not happy, but her head could be turned.
The door opened and Natsu smiled. Now that was more like it.
Lucy was dressed in denim shorts and a pale pink t-shirt with a red heart printed on the front. Her hair was washed and brushed, back to it's golden colour, and a ribbon adorned the bowed head. One arm fell limp at her side, the opposite hand wrapped tightly around her elbow.
Natsu reached an arm around her back and tugged Lucy into his chest, his smile widening though his lips remained pressed together as she buried her face into him.
"Come on. We've got to get you outside."
She looked up at him and he saw everything in her eyes, even as she parted her lips to speak.
It hurts. There's a hole in my chest and it hurts. I don't know how to make it stop. Please...make it stop.
Natsu pressed his lips to her forehead, very deliberately choosing not to touch her mouth. Not yet, though he wished he could and had done for a long time now. But no, he wouldn't do that to her. She was still so fragile and he feared that any advances would not only break her but everything else they had.
"It's okay." His voice was quiet as he rested his hand on her head. "I know."
And he did.
"Thank you, Natsu."
"Hm?"
Natsu turned around and his eyes widened. Lucy was smiling at him.
"F-for today I mean." Her cheeks turned rosy as she realised he was staring at her. "I'm glad you did it."
They were stood outside her apartment, having spent the entire day wandering through Magnolia, to Natsu's house and back again. It had been a good day, and Lucy seemed to have perked up a bit. He was glad. He knew that this wasn't the end of anything, but maybe, just maybe, it could be a beginning.
"Good." Natsu grinned, his sharp teeth exposed in his excitement. Reaching up and in a quick show of affection put his hand on the back of her head, allowing his thumb one quick stroke of silky smooth hair, before letting it drop. "I'll see you tomorrow. Right?"
Lucy nodded and Natsu left.
It was weeks later that Natsu received his kiss. It was sweet and over within a moment, before he even had time to close his eyes. He stared at her, the girl, Lucy. The one whom he loved. He placed his hands on either side of her face and spoke in a voice like a lullaby, soft, low and quiet with words meant only for her.
"I'll always be here for you. No matter what you need. I won't pretend to understand all the time, but I'll never leave. I'll protect you. I promise."
