Magnolia, Year X784, October 29

Today wasn't a good day for Natsu. Wasn't really a good day for anyone who remembered the way Fairy Tail had been eight years ago. Plus it was raining, which really only made it that much worse for the Dragon Slayer. Not because he didn't like the rain, but because Sora never had.

"Stupid rain... Stupid clouds... Stupid Earth Mage..." He muttered.

Something made him stop as he was walking though, and he glanced off to his side. There was a girl standing under a tree not far from him, with short dark hair that spiked out like Gray's did.

"Sora...?" He blinked before smiling and running over, "Sor-!" He stopped, realizing that she was gone. He knew this tree though. Sora would hide his scarf here when she got mad at him. Natsu's shoulders dropped and he began his walk through town again, until he saw Sora once more. He didn't think it was really her though, not this time. She was starring at a bouquet of flowers in the window of a shop he was nearing. Yellow ones, with splotches of red. The Earth Mage's favorite. He stopped inside and bought them, deciding today was as good a day as any, and changed his route when he got back outside. He wasn't headed to the guild now, Natsu was going to the place where one almost always was able to find Sora.

It was a little ways into the woods outside of town, but he knew what to look for so it wasn't hard to find. A small pond in the middle of a clearing with a rock that jutted up sharply on one side. If she wasn't on a job, at home, or at the guild hall, this is where Sora would be. Training. Probably harder than she should've been, like always. He sat down in front of the sharp rock, despite the mud, and laid down the flowers.

"It's been eight years, dirt-brains, and you still owe me a fight." He sighed, "...By now you owe me an explanation too." Natsu glared at the flowers in front of him, feeling hot tears mixing with the cool rain running down his face. She wasn't coming back, was she?