So this one is a continuation of yesterday's "Firsts." The prompt: Nervous.


"Just tonight, I will stay, and we'll throw it all away; when the light hits your eyes, it's telling me I'm right. And if I, I am through, then it's all because of you, just tonight." -"Just Tonight," The Pretty Reckless


Lucy sighed, hesitating in front of the guild doors. She had to tell them. It was typically considered pleasant news, so why was she so anxious? She didn't want to do it, sure, but there wasn't another choice, and she managed to work out a deal, so it wasn't really all bad. At least she wouldn't have to leave…but that didn't make her want to do it any more. When she ran away from home all those years ago, she always knew that it would somehow come back to bite her, but the incident with Phantom Lord had pushed her to walk away from her old life permanently, and she'd thought that would be the end of it. Plus, she'd nearly reconciled with her father before he died, so she didn't expect any more fuss about it.

Or, at least, she never would've expected the old hag to pop up in her life again.

Now, she didn't have much of a choice. Even when Lucy was a child, she remembered Regina as a stubborn, bull-headed, materialistic woman who never took no for an answer. That seemed to run in the family, unfortunately for Lucy, who had acquired a personality more like her mother's.

Lucy took a deep breath, her jaw set. She had to do it, and that meant she was going to have to tell her friends. There wasn't a way out of it, not that she could think of, so what was done was done.

That didn't reassure her much, though, and in the end, she was only worried about one reaction in particular.

She pushed open the doors of the guild and was greeted by hushed, suspicious voices rather than the usual chaos. "Lucy," Erza called, perking up at the sight of her friend. "You're here. We were starting to worry; you never come later than nine." Lucy glanced down at her watch. It was almost noon. "Oh…" She muttered. Had it really been that late when she'd left the house? With everything that had happened the evening before, she'd really lost track of time, not to mention a lot of sleep over the matter…

"Hey, Luce, you okay? You look a little pale, are you sick?"

Lucy jumped, slapping the hand away from her face on instinct. "Oh, sorry Natsu," She spluttered. "I'm a little distracted; you startled me." Natsu shrugged. "It's fine. You don't feel feverish, but you don't look so good. Are you feeling okay?" Lucy clasped her right hand on her left arm, her eyes downcast. "Yeah, I feel fine, just didn't get mu8ch sleep. I, uh, I have something to tell you guys."

A murmur or interest swept across the guild before everyone gave Lucy their full attention. she cleared her throat, finding it difficult to make eye contact with the boy next to her. "Well, as you all know, I ran away from home before I joined the guild. See, I knew that would backfire, but I thought the whole stint with Phantom was the end of it. Turns out, it's not."

A chorus of confused questions followed. Natsu was still standing right next to her, a trace of concern in his eyes. "Lucy, is everything okay?" Lucy fidgeted, her eyes darting from place to place around the room, landing anywhere but on him; she didn't dare meet his gaze. "Well…apparently, my grandmother is working on restoring the mansion and starting up the company again. I got a letter from her last night. She's furious with me. She demanded that I go back home immediately. Without a guild mark."

There was a sudden uproar, the entire guild shouting their protest.

"Can't we convince her to let you stay?"

"We'll even fight her if we have to, Lu-chan!"

"Just don't listen; screw that old bat! Who the hell does she think she is?"

"She's nuts if she thinks we won't put up a fight!"

Lucy threw her hands up in front of her as if to defend herself, waving them frantically. "No, no, no. you didn't let me finish. I'm not goinganywhere. But my grandmother is a snooty, traditional, controlling old woman. Not really a good combo. She wouldn't let me say no, so I made a deal with her," Lucy's friends were all staring at her expectantly, and she swallowed. "Seven years ago, my father arranged a marriage for me. As it turns out, I was the only girl available to marry, and, since I left, he's still not married. My grandmother agreed that if I go through with the marriage and continue to support the company through that, I can stay in the guild."

Everyone was silent, seemingly shocked by the news. "Yup. So…I'm getting married, apparently. And I want you all to be there."


Natsu blinked, once, twice, three times. For the first time in…well, actually, for the first time ever, he was the only one in the guild not involved in the chaos. He watched quietly as Erza crushed Lucy against her armor, tearfully accepting her offer to be the maid of honor. They were all so…excited. Even Happy was flying around Lucy's head, probably asking some silly question that Natsu couldn't quite hear. He was happy that Lucy wouldn't have to leave the guild, of course; he was ecstatic, really. But…he couldn't quite bring himself to celebrate.

How was he supposed to be happy knowing that she was being forced to get married to someone else?

Natsu continued observing his friends, unsure exactly what he was missing. All of the girls were crowded around Lucy, asking her how she would want everything. That was nice, he supposed. Lucy have never met the man she was going to marry, so obviously it wouldn't be the perfect wedding she wanted, but it was nice of the girls to try to make everything else as close as possible to make up for it.

Natsu wondered if Lucy really be happy with her betrothed husband. He was torn between hoping that she was, just in case there really was no way out of the arranged marriage in the end, and hoping that whoever this guy was turned out to be awful and sent Lucy running back to him…not that she'd ever been with him. They'd come pretty far; he'd finally pulled himself together and told her how he felt, but that was about as far as it went. It hadn't been a particularly successful endeavor on his part; he'd ended up jumping to conclusions, not really letting her respond, and deciding that maybe it was better to at least wait a few weeks, months, maybe, like, years until he tried anything again. But maybe, he thought, partially hating himself for wishing such a thing, the betrothal would be a complete and utter disaster and Lucy would realize that there were much better guys out there who she could turn to the second she got out of her marriage. Guys with, say, pink hair and very sharp canines, and maybe even a troublesome tendency to blow things up. Yeah, that sounded right to him.

He had to be better than some entitled, rich pretty boy right?

"Natsu, are you pouting?"

"Huh?" Natsu broke from his thoughts, looking up at the blue Exceed hovering over his head. "What? No! I'm not pouting!" He protested, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm just not celebrating either." Happy smiled, his eyes shining with something akin to mischief. That couldn't be good. "It's okay, Natsu. I know," He winked at his partner, causing Natsu to glare. "Happy, don't you da—"

"You llllllllllllike her!"

Natsu shushed the blue cat furiously, snatching him out of the air and clamping a hand over his mouth. "Shut up! Everyone thinks I'm over it; let's keep it that way." Happy giggled, his voice muffled by Natsu's hand. "So you do like her?" He teased. "Well, I wouldn't say that," Natsu scoffed, rolling his eyes. "It's much more complicated."

"Is that why you're sad about her getting married? Because you looooooooove her?"

"Shush!"


"You look beautiful, dear."

Lucy sighed, offering a soft smile to the curt old woman. "Thank you, grandma," She whispered, fiddling with the chain draped around her neck. "The necklace is gorgeous. How much did it cost? Must have been a fortune." Regina Heartfilia smiled stiffly at her granddaughter; it was such a forced smile that it could barely even be called that. "Oh, I don't know, darling, you'll have to ask Aiden. He bought it, not me. You're lucky dear; your fiance has wonderful taste." Lucy looked down at the diamond necklace, suddenly finding it very plain. "Yeah," She mumbled, her expression falling. "I guess he does."

"Well, sweetheart, we've got minutes to spare. I'll see you when you're walking down the aisle!"

Lucy grunted her acknowledgement to her grandmother, turning to the mirror and examining herself closely. Her dress was simple yet beautiful, not a hair on her head was out of place, her makeup flawless, and her jewelry noticeable but not flashy. Everybody would be staring at her, no doubt.

Because it was the ugliest she'd ever seen herself.

Hot, angry tears welled up in her eyes. She wanted to rip the dress to shreds. She wanted to throw all of the expensive jewelry on the floor, to toss her heels and veil out the window, to smear the makeup, to pull her hair back down and mess it up for good measure. She didn't want any of this. There were two options for her: be forced into leaving her beloved guild or be forced into marriage. The second one was an improvement, because she'd still have her friends and her identity as a Fairy Tail wizard and maybe, maybe she'd still have at least some of the life she'd always dreamed of. But none of that meant she would be happy with someone she didn't want anything to do with.

There was only one person Lucy Heartfilia wanted to be with. And Ethan or Aaron or whatever wasn't him.

He wasn't Natsu. He wasn't the boy who brought her to the guild, who gave her a home and a family, who became her best friend. He wasn't the man she'd fallen in love with. And for the rest of her life, that was all she would think about when she was with her stupid, rich husband. But it didn't matter, she thought, because she'd messed up so badly with Natsu anyway. It was a year ago now that he kissed her on the way back to her house to prove that he wasn't in love with Lisanna, only to mistakenly think that she rejected him and never talk about it again. He seemed over it, but she was far from it. She fucked up. She fucked up whatever chance they had together and that was it.

The tears began sliding down Lucy's cheeks. She was beginning to have second thoughts, but she couldn't back out…

"Hey."

Lucy gasped, twirling around a bit clumsily at the sound of the voice. "Natsu. It's you," She placed a hand over her heart as if to slow it's beating. "You know, if you get caught in here, my grandmother will probably kick you out…" Natsu dismissed her warning with a flick of his hand. "Yeah, okay, that's fine. I just wanted to come and wish you luck. You look amazing, by the wa—are you crying?" Lucy lifted her hand to her eye, attempting to wipe the remainder of her tears without concerning him. "No, I…" Her breath hitched; she felt another wave of tears coming on. "I can't do this."

Lucy plopped into the nearest chair in an unladylike way that her grandmother would have wrinkled her nose at. "I can't do it, Natsu. I want to stay in the guild, I want to be with everyone…but I'll still be miserable if I do this. I can't." She sobbed into her hands, her shoulders shaking. "I don't love him. I've only met him once and I can't even remember his name. And he's probably going to cheat on me anyway; my friends who lived on the estate were all cheated on after they were betrothed. Either that or they were the ones cheating." Natsu placed a hand on her shoulder cautiously, unsure how to comfort her. He could usually find a way to at least console her a little, but in a situation like this, he felt completely useless.

"Luce…" He mumbled, kneeling down in front of her and moving her hands away from her face. "I know. I know you don't want to do it, we allknow that. If it's really that bad, then don't do it. We'll all understand." Lucy shook her head, looking up at him with a mixture of sadness and conviction in her face. "No. I have to. I don't want to, but I don't have another choice. You, Erza, gray, everyone…you're my family," She smiled tearfully, her voice trembling. "The guild is the only real home I have."

Natsu reached out to brush her bangs out of her eyes, letting his hand linger on her cheek. He stared at her for a moment, and before he was fully aware of what he was doing, he captured her lips with his own.

He'd tried this before. He tried this a year ago and she didn't respond at all. What, exactly, did he aim to accomplish this time?

But this time, she did respond. Lucy, who was about to be married, was kissing him back passionately.

…Was it bad that he had absolutely no qualms about kissing her mere minutes before she was going to get married?

They pulled apart eventually, their breathing labored. "What," Natsu breathed, looking at her the same way he had when he'd first kissed her a year before. "Was that? I thought you weren't interested." Lucy smirked slightly. "Then what did you kiss me for?" She whispered, her breath hot on his lips. "Because I wanted to."

"Look, Natsu, you never gave me a chance to respond the first time. The truth is, I—"

"Lucy! Everyone's waiting on you, dear, do hurry up!"

Natsu and Lucy scrambled off of each other, putting a good amount of distance between them. "I'll be right out!" Lucy called. She cleared her throat, glancing furtively at Natsu and wringing her hands. "As I was saying, Natsu, I've been wanting to say—"

"You don't have to say it."

"Huh?" Lucy looked up at him, genuinely confused. "Everything you were trying to say came through just now, and I…well, me too." Natsu offered her a soft smile and took her hands in his once again. "But I'd rather not say it. Because…you know. Wouldn't that just make this whole thing worse? Nothing can really happen between us now that you're…"

He trailed off, his eyes downcast, and a bittersweet smile crossed Lucy's face. "We don't know for sure. Maybe I can find a way out of this and we can…you know…" Natsu returned the smile, letting go of her hands slowly. "Yeah…you'd better get out there. Everyone's waiting." There was a hint of disappointment in his voice, which Lucy didn't miss, but she decided not to think too much of it. If she were to dwell on it, she'd only end up hurting herself. "Yeah. I'll see you out there?"

He nodded, silently wishing her luck, as she left the room in silence.

Natsu exited the room some time later to avoid suspicion and took his seat next to Gray, trying his best not to look like he was up to something as he straightened his tie. "You were gone for a while. Was she okay?" Gray whispered. Natsu waved a hand dismissively. "She's fine. Just nervous."

That was a lie, and as the bride dragged herself miserably down the aisle, casting not-so-discreet glances at a certain Dragon Slayer all through the ceremony, everyone present knew.


So I guess that was pretty open ended. I've been asked to do a continuation, so I might, but I'm not sure how to go about doing so, so it could be a while. Oh well.

On a side note, if you've never listened to The Pretty Reckless (the lyrics at the beginning are theirs), I highly recommend doing so. Taylor Momsen's voice is flawless, I tell you. And come to think of it, a good amount of their songs just scream NaLu.

Hope you enjoyed it :D