~Because when he'd left, he'd taken half of her heart with him. And after one short conversation, it sounded as if he'd also left her half of his own.~

Half a Heart

It was nearly midnight, her desk lamp creating a small circle of glowing light on her paper, when she felt something warm brush against her calf. She looked up from her novel, readjusting the pen in her hand as she spotted Happy at her feet, looking curious. She blinked, trying to adjust her eyes to the darkness of the room as compared to the light on her paper.

"Lucy, what'cha writing?" Happy looked just about as tired as she felt, rubbing a paw at one of his eyes.

"Sorry, did the light wake you?" she asked, briefly glancing over her shoulder to her bed where Natsu was still snoring peacefully. She'd snuck off to write some more of her novel in the middle of the night. It wasn't something she usually did, but she figured it wouldn't wake or bother either of the boys. She guessed she'd been wrong.

Happy shrugged. "It's alright." In a fluid movement he stretched out his wings, easily floating up onto her desk before he let his magic go, and his wings disappeared again. "So what'cha writing?" he repeated. Happy didn't look phased when she quickly moved her arms to cover her work.

"I'm working on my novel, of course," she said, sounding a little more peeved than she'd meant to. It was a spoken and unspoken rule that she didn't want anyone but Levy reading her story. Although, Happy didn't exactly look like he was too interested in reading it at the moment.

Happy reached out a paw to the pile of paper, taking the corner and ruffling a few pages with a claw. "Doesn't look like you've written that much in the past year… it looked just like this the last time I saw it."

Lucy visibly flinched. She used to write on her story daily… in fact it had been hard at times to tear herself away from writing it. She'd racked up hundreds of pages, and the stack that was her budding book had gotten rather impressive but… Happy was right. It hadn't grown much, if at all, in the past year.

"Oh, y'know just a little writer's block." She forced a laugh and Happy's eyebrows pinched. "But these past few days my muse seems to have come running back." Her smile turned genuine. "I guess you guys bring inspiration with you, huh?" she said, chuckling to herself and giving Happy a wink.

She'd had eons of time over the past year he was gone. When Natsu had left, Happy in tow, she'd basically been given an open-ended sentence of alone time. With Fairy Tail gone… she could truly focus on her story. She could get it published. She could make her dream come true. But somehow it seemed the moment he left town, so did all of her motivation regarding her book. She had no inspiration, no gumption. She found herself pondering the very real possibility that her novel would never be finished. She'd had all the time in the world, and yet even writing one sentence seemed to be a struggle.

But here it was, one year later. He'd returned and with him everything she felt she was missing. Regarding her book and otherwise. Ideas suddenly started flowing so fast she found she couldn't keep up with them, hence the midnight writing session.

Happy looked rather downtrodden, his gaze making its way back down to Lucy's hands, covering her handwriting. He sat down carefully on the desk. He was a cat, a cat that sometimes drove her crazy, but sometimes she didn't give him credit for all he'd pick up on. Including this. "Did you miss us, Lucy?" he asked.

She snorted. "Of course I missed you guys. I missed you guys a lot." They were her partners. Natsu her best friend. It was only natural to miss them… especially when he'd left behind only a small slip of paper telling her he was leaving. She'd gone through a period of darkness after that, she wouldn't lie, and it still stung to think about, but it was over now… they were back and that was all that mattered.

It seemed her eyes were giving away far more than she'd wanted. Happy let out a sigh. "We missed you too, Lucy."

A smile tugged at her lips and she reached over to pat him on the head. "That's good to hear." Her eyes flickered over to the still-snoring lump in her bed and once again Happy seemed to read her mind.

"He really did miss you, Lucy." She couldn't help the catch in her throat as she quickly looked back to the Exceed. She knew Natsu had missed her, she knew it deep down, but still… something about hearing it made her heart jump to her throat. Maybe some part of her was worried he hadn't. He'd left so easily, after all. "Natsu was always talking about you." Happy offered her a smile.

"He was?" She'd meant for her voice to be near a whisper, but it'd come out much louder than hoped. Natsu's snores hitched for a moment and Lucy's eyes widened, but the buzz saw-like sound started right back up as Happy nodded.

"'Course he was. When we were traveling he'd always be like, "Oh wow, Luce would love this!" or "I wonder if she's trainin' like we are right now Happy" and stuff." He shrugged. "It was an entire year, y'know. We've all three been together so much that at first he had a real hard time with it. He kept calling out behind himself for ya to look at something, or asking you about something he was curious about… just from habit. When he realized you weren't there he got kinda embarrassed… but honestly for a few minutes afterwards when that would happen he'd get real quiet. He really did miss having you with us." Happy's eyes searched her face, and she wasn't entirely sure what he would find.

She was a little shocked, more than a little touched, and entirely unsure of how to process the information. No, it didn't sound like a big deal. They had been partners for seemingly as long as she could remember. But still… to hear that he'd do such little things, things that showed he was thinking about her even when they were apart felt like the biggest things in the world. Because she'd done the exact same things after he'd left. Her heart felt heavy, clenching painfully in her chest.

Happy watched her face carefully, noticing as she brought a hand to her heart. He smiled. "I know when we came back he sorta acted like nothing had changed… which might've seemed like he didn't care that you were apart for a year but… it did affect him." Happy looked to the side awkwardly. Lucy could tell that talking so seriously with her was a little uncomfortable for the normally cheery cat. "And I know leaving a note was kinda… just…," he frowned, trying to find the right word.

"Painful," she finished for him, her voice catching.

Happy slouched, seemingly guilty at how much emotion that word had held in her voice. "Yeah, it was probably kinda… painful for you… It was just that Natsu really needed that time. And I agree he probably could've warned you or gone about it a different way, but at the time… he thought it was the best option." Happy slouched further, his whiskers wilting slightly. "And I know he hasn't talked with you about it yet either, but he does regret not telling you we were leaving in person. There were lots of night when he'd talk in his sleep about it, and wake up in a panic, sweating… He just said they were nightmares, but from what I heard him saying… He said your name a lot anyway, and "sorry" and "note" and stuff so I kinda put two and two together after a while."

Lucy bit her tongue, her heart aching so badly it felt as if it could fall out of her chest. She'd vowed to herself she would put the past behind her, but with Happy talking like this, bringing up things she'd worried about, and wondered if had even crossed Natsu's mind, something felt just all too real about it. That while she was alone in her apartment, holding that note close and running her thumb across her guild mark as tears ran down her cheeks, he was missing her, too. She hadn't been the only one. She'd wondered if Natsu had even thought about anything but training in that year, and worried that he hadn't. But with this… he had. And it wasn't just about the guild, he'd missed her like she'd missed him too.

As she bit her tongue harder, trying to force back the tears she felt brimming in her eyes, Happy dared a glance up at her, his eyes wide and filled with guilt. It wasn't his fault, but it was apparent he felt he could've done something to make it a little less painful of a break.

"He hasn't talked with you about it, and I don't know if he ever will… so I just felt you should know," Happy said quietly. "Although, some of it really sank in for him when he saw the map of all our guild members on your wall. So I haven't lost faith that after all this… after this war is over that he'll say something… Y'know, try to repair whatever he's broken. Because he really does feel bad, and he really did miss you. We missed you."

Lucy wasn't sure what to say, and even if she had been, she was positive she wouldn't have been able to get the words out. It felt like all the repairs she'd done herself, trying to heal after he left came crumbling down, her resolve with them as she reached forward, pulling Happy to her chest and into a hug as a small and weak sob escaped her lips, along with hot tears that began to run down her cheeks.

It just all seemed so surreal. Her life at Fairy Tail was so carefree but with him leaving, Fairy Tail disbanding, the year alone, and now a war that had an impending sense of doom coming along with it, it felt like things wouldn't turn out alright. That people were drifting farther apart and things weren't going how they should be. But with this… this small amount of information that told her she wasn't alone, it felt a little less grim. Yes, he'd left, but he'd thought about her as much as she'd thought about him. He actually cared enough to think about her, which would've seemed so obvious in the past, but with him leaving without a trace, something so uncharacteristic of him, she'd begun to wonder if he'd completely forgotten about her.

And he also felt guilty about it. She wasn't sure why that made her feel so relieved, and she felt a little bad for thinking so, but it did. He was so carefree and headstrong, just like always, but to hear from Happy, his closest ally, that there were moments of seriousness, moments when Natsu, the one she was sure she could never tame, took a step back and let a deep emotion such as guilt, or regret pull at him… Something made her feel so relieved that it made the tears roll even more quickly.

Because this little bit of information gave her hope, and an odd sense of closure. It gave her a reason to believe that maybe he wouldn't leave again.

She took a deep, hitching breath. "Thank you," she whispered into Happy's fur. She felt his nod and the small squeeze from his paws as he tried his best to hug her back. She really underestimated this cat sometimes… "Thank you."

#45 - repair

Well, the second serious one. And the longest one yet, too. I said they wouldn't go over 999 but here we are at almost 1k past that, haha! They really will stay at 999 after this though. Hopefully I didn't spoil anything for anyone. I sort of feel like everyone in this fandom knows about Natsu leaving for a year and Fairy Tail disbanding even though the anime isn't that far yet... but sorry if I spoiled anything for anyone. I really didn't mean to if so. :D

I don't really have much to say about this one rather than the fact that NaLu in the latest chapters (including Natsu leaving) has been giving me some incredible angst. Which is why these are usually silly and stupid... gotta counteract those feels. XD Anyway, just a little headcanon of mine because Natsu's face held about a million words when he looked at that tracing map on her wall, and I thought Happy might say something because he really cares about Lucy.

Anywhosles, I hope you enjoyed! And thank you so SO much again for all the lovely reviews and whatnot. Chapter ten already! Around an eighth of the way through this collection! :D

Wow I rambled a lot... whoops ^^'

~Foxtail-chan