"That's Hargeon?" Lucy said, unable to believe what she was seeing. The Hargeon of her time was a huge and immensely populated area, well-known for its beaches and businesses. A popular location to live, almost as big as Crocus. "You've got to be kidding me. It's tiny."
Natsu stared at her, squinting, and tried to figure out if he should be insulted or not. It wasn't his home, but it was his time that they were both standing in – or sitting in, he supposed, reminded of where he was when the stag he rode upon lurched irritably beneath him. "It's still pretty big," he said, deciding on a calm protest. "It's bigger than Magnolia."
"Still," she muttered, and he fought back the irked glare he wanted to give her. He was still bothered by the fact that she'd be wearing something that didn't belong to her, that he knew would make Igneel even angrier with him than he already was. Even if he'd given her the order to take it, it still felt wrong. That had belonged to what was the equivalent of his family, even if he didn't remember a thing about the queen his father had loved so dearly.
Lucy ignored his grumbling and looked to him with shining brown eyes. "Can we go explore a little? After we've delivered the package? I'm tired of riding, I want to walk around a bit, and we could get something to eat. Not that I have any money," she muttered guiltily.
Despite his agitation with her, Natsu's lips kicked up at the corners. "We'll have to stay the night here," warned Natsu, though he knew that Lamia Scale wouldn't hesitate to offer a place for them to stay. Well, at least they wouldn't hesitate to offer Lucy a place to stay.
"That's fine." She gave an eager squirm in the saddle and Happy meowed in agreement from the basket he'd been sprawled out in for the hours it had taken them to get from Magnolia to Hargeon. Natsu snorted, unintentionally allowing smoke to curl around his face as her excitement crept through his veins again.
He considered that as they started forward, following the main road towards the port town. It was strange to him, still, the fact that he could feel everything that someone else felt. But it wasn't strange enough to make him uncomfortable. It was as easy as breathing, which he thought strange considering he knew little about Lucy. He eyed her at that thought; he'd pry some information from her later.
He knew that his quick change of moods made her uncomfortable, though, and he felt a little bad about it though he didn't care to change his attitude or even try to stop those changes. They were a part of who he was, and she'd have to get used to them. He'd always been odd in that regard, he'd been told by many people. Igneel had been at the top of that list throughout the years.
"So quick to anger," he remembered the old dragon once commenting. "Yet just as quick to appease. So easy to excite, yet just as easy to calm. So eager for fights, yet just as eager to help. You expect much, and live up to expectations in return. And yet…despite all of this, Natsu, you lack in what matters most. You like, but you don't love. Your vengeance knows no bounds, and you lack the ability to forgive those who fail you, or hurt those you view as 'yours.'"
Igneel wasn't wrong, he supposed. He remembered that he'd once felt things like normal people, but he supposed that had come to an end when he'd become what he was now. He liked things. He could laugh and truly feel the entertainment and amusement. He could have fun. He even liked helping people. But he didn't care for them, not like he'd seen Mirajane care for her siblings or Levy for the iron dragon she'd managed to wrap around her finger. And he didn't forgive those who betrayed him. He felt no desire to try and understand the motives of others. It just wasn't something he could do.
He faked it fairly well, to avoid uncomfortable situations. He didn't want others to feel discomfort towards him about such things. He wanted them to like him, too. He didn't take pleasure in hurting others, like others he'd prefer not to mention. He just…didn't feel what others felt.
So sometimes, despite being perfectly at home with Lucy's weird emotions radiating through him, there'd be moments. Things he didn't understand. The fear and confusion he understood. He felt both of those, although the fear was rare. But sometimes, there were glimpses of other feelings. Something that came from something he didn't have in the core of himself, and he was quickly finding himself invested in understanding it, because it was interesting and almost like a game. He wanted to figure out things that Lucy was feeling, so he could pick at her brain and figure out what made her feel them-
"Natsu!" The exclamation of his name dragged him from his thoughts and Natsu patiently looked to Lucy. She was waving the map she'd been keeping in the pouch at her hip around, her lips curved into a smile. Despite the fact that she had claimed to want to leave consistently, she looked entirely at home with her situation.
That was another odd thing, Natsu thought, squinting at her. She couldn't decide if she was happy to be there or not.
"I can't figure out where we are," she admitted, thrusting the map towards him. He narrowly grabbed it before it fell to the ground below. "Hargeon looks different from the one I know, and there are a bunch of different shops that don't exist in my time."
Natsu rolled his eyes a little and expertly skimmed the map. It had been included with the flyer, meant to lead them to the delivery location. "The shops in an alley off of the main street," he said, knowing precisely where it was upon looking at it. He tucked the map into his pocket and turned his stag away from the direction they'd been heading. "Come on, this way's shorter."
He guided Lucy down the main street of Hargeon, people moving aside to make way for the stags that trotted past. No one seemed bothered by them, even as Lucy nearly steered Salutem right into a person, too busy looking around. Natsu kept an eye on her after that, knowing Makarov and Mirajane wouldn't appreciate such a thing actually happening.
"There it is," Natsu said, pointing to a shop front. He'd never been to the shop himself, but it looked decent enough. A small bakery, although Natsu couldn't for the life of him figure out what they would have ordered from an antique shop for a bakery. Some kind of decorative piece, perhaps?
He swung off of his stag and took hold of the reigns when it tried to bolt, temperamental and glaring at him. Natsu scowled at it, admitting he probably should have taken a different one that wouldn't have caused so many problems.
He turned to Lucy, watching carefully as she swung off, too. She hissed softly when she hit the ground harshly, knees stinging from impact. He winced when a stab went through his legs, as if he'd been the one to do it. A slight frown encompassed his face; that wasn't supposed to happen, he thought, narrowing his eyes. He'd have to see if that was normal when Wendy got back from whatever job she'd taken.
"Ow," she grumbled, and Salutem swung his massive head around to inspect what she was doing when she squawked, having been subjected unexpectedly to Happy's weight. The feline sprang lightly from her shoulder and straight into Natsu's waiting arms.
"Hey, little buddy," Natsu said quietly and then snatched Salutem's reins from Lucy's hand, expertly tying the pair to a ring attached to the outside of the bakery for that reason in particular. "Got the package?"
"Of course." Lucy shifted through the saddlebags and withdrew the package. She tucked it securely under her arm and then glanced over her shoulder when Natsu moved around her to duck into the bakery. She followed close behind him, looking around the small building as they stepped inside.
"I like it," Lucy murmured under her breath, barely audible even to him. Natsu snorted softly, silently agreeing. His stomach rumbled at the smell of freshly baked bread and pastries, and he eyed a display case longingly before tapping the bell that would bring someone to the counter.
As expected, a young man ducked out. He faltered at the sight of the odd-looking pair, but locked his gaze onto Natsu's Fairy Tail armband and smiled warmly. "You must be the ones bringing my artifact," he said aloud, leaning on the counter. "My grandmother sent word you'd be here eventually."
Natsu nudged Lucy forward with his elbow and she offered a polite smile to the man, who suddenly smiled even brighter. Natsu's lips twitched when a hint of wariness appeared in the back of his mind. "Yes," she said, gesturing for Natsu to pull out the paper they needed to get signed. She gingerly placed the wrapped package onto the counter. "And here it is. If you'd mind?" she asked, gesturing now to the paper when Natsu put it on the counter.
"Of course." The young man quickly found something to write with. Lucy's eyes followed the quill with fascination as he scrawled out a signature. It made Natsu roll his eyes. She was so interested in everything. It was just a quill, and she was acting like someone had presented her with the rarest of gems.
"Here you are," said their client, pushing the paper back towards Lucy. Lucy plucked it up and folded it neatly, pushing it into the pouch at her hip with a quick word of thanks, eager to get out into the port town to explore. "Is that all?"
"Yes," she said. She glanced to Natsu to double-check, and he nodded. They were done. They'd give the signatures to Mirajane, who would deal with the financial aspect. "Thank you." She turned to leave and Natsu turned to go with her, but both were stopped when he spoke again, this time sounding rather hopeful.
"Are you going to be in Hargeon for long?" he asked.
Amusement spilled through Lucy, and Natsu furrowed his brow in puzzled confusion, looking between the pair. The hell was going on now? He couldn't even begin to understand why Lucy was feeling so playful as she leaned forward a little bit.
Then the young man's eyes lit with a spark that Natsu had seen before and he immediately knew what was going on. He didn't bother to muffle the groan of annoyance that left him. They didn't have time for flirting! He was hungry, Lucy wanted to explore, and he still had to track down someone from Lamia Scale and make sure a few people weren't around so that he could hang out at their guildhall for the night without causing problems.
Lucy sent him a glare when she felt his impatience and Natsu glared right back, trying to shove more of it at her. They didn't have time for this. As if sensing that there was no point in pushing him too hard with the matter, Lucy smiled kindly at the man and said gently, "Sorry, but no. We're leaving first thing in the morning. We were just here to drop off this delivery."
Natsu didn't think he'd ever seen someone look so disappointed as they left.
Natsu decided it would be best that they tracked down Lamia Scale first; better to get that situated before they did anything else. It'd make it less pressing later. He guided Lucy through the streets, rolling his eyes as she studied the buildings as she had in Magnolia.
It was only when she caught sight of a beautifully built stone building that he said, "That's Lamia Scale's guildhall. They're the guild here. You're gonna have to go in and see if I can go in."
"Why?" Lucy demanded, looking at him in confusion.
Natsu shrugged and admitted, "They've got a goddess and ice spirit who don't like me. Lyon doesn't like me because Gray doesn't – they grew up together," he added, when Lucy frowned. "And I offended the goddess a while back. You're gonna want to find her though. She might know something about what happened, even if Gildarts and Jellal don't."
In other words, Lucy thought, perking up, she might know how Lucy could get home.
Natsu suddenly stopped his stag and stared sharply at her, those onyx eyes becoming irritated slits as he shifted through what she was feeling. She blinked when suspicion and a sharp jab of fury that vanished as quickly as it had come slammed through her. "You know you're not leaving, right?"
"Excuse me?" challenged Lucy a little angrily in response.
He met that challenge head on, a glint appearing in his eyes, and Lucy realized he was likely looking for an argument at this point. Too late, she'd fallen head first into the trap. "You're not going home. You can't. You have a piece of my soul, magic, whatever. You can't just leave. It'd either destroy that part of me or do what it did to my dad. He rampaged for weeks and months after his Marked One died."
Lucy stared at him for a few moments, and Salutem shifted unhappily beneath her at the change in air about them. Lucy even felt it, and she briefly wondered if it was Natsu as she said evenly, "You can't make me stay here. There's two of us in this equation, Natsu, and I have a time to get back to." She had no one, really, to be with there, but it was her time, and she couldn't say she wanted to stay in a time where carrying a weapon was considered necessary.
Natsu glared openly at her, a shadow crossing behind his eyes. Lucy felt true anger sweep through her, a rage that seemed endless, but it vanished as quickly as it had appeared. He suddenly stilled, and then slowly turned in his saddle, growling.
"Natsu?" she questioned, and he shushed her, his gaze narrowed. Lucy would have normally been insulted by such a thing, but this time, kept her mouth. She could hear nothing. No sign of people out and about, as if they'd all vanished. The streets were empty, and she and Natsu were the only ones out and about. Happy hissed in his basket, and Lucy turned to look around, too, as Natsu scanned the area around them, wariness flooding them both.
A piercing scream suddenly filled the air, and dread crept through Lucy's chest. She instinctively reached out to catch Natsu's wrist, fingers trembling. "What's that?"
He shook her off, letting flames curl between his fingers. The sky was darker, he realized, eyeing the setting sun. "A banshee, maybe," he said, listing mythics under his breath. "Vampire? No, it's daytime still…s'a bunch of possibilities… the hell is one doing in Hargeon like this though? Normally Lamia Scale would have-"
A screech was suddenly ripped from Lucy's chest as she was yanked rather sharply from Salutem's saddle by the shadowed hand that took hold of her ankle. Salutem balked, bellowing, and Lucy's scream cut off as she hit the paved ground hard enough that the breath was driven from her and she saw stars. Salutem cried out again and then bolted, disappearing down the street in a series of bounding leaps.
A breathless shriek of terror left her when the black, shadowed figure leaned over her, parting its jaws to show off rows and rows of long jagged teeth that were stained. Hot breath that reeked of rotting flesh washed over her as jaws parted unbelievingly wide, aiming to bite off her head.
Rage seeped through Lucy's veins, blocking out her fear, as Natsu instinctively threw himself from his own mount, which fled after Salutem in an instant. He hit the ground, fire blazing around his body in every direction. The heat was sweltering, and the shadowed figure flinched away from the light, hissing.
Natsu amped up the heat, snarling right back at it. Instincts he'd not dealt with in some time began to threaten to sneak out of the compartments he'd shoved them into centuries ago, and he took just a second to shove them down before dropping his jaw and unleashing a jet of sweltering flames from the back of his throat. He kept a close eye on Lucy, who sobbed and threw her arms up in front of her face to protect them from the flames. He winced when blisters formed along one arm simply because of the heat.
The shadow person screamed as it dissolved into nothing, vanishing from sight.
There was a moment of silence as the sky lightened to what it was supposed to be, and Natsu let out a gust of air, proud of the work he'd done even as he felt Lucy's fear driving a stake through him. He found he was no longer too angry at her as he moved to stand over, peering down at her. "You good?"
Tears streaked her cheeks, her dark eyes wide with shock. She was as white as a sheet, her lips trembling, and when she accepted the hand he offered to pull her up, he could feel her shaking like a leaf.
"Lucy," he prodded after a moment, gently poking her arm. "Are you good or not? Bites from shadow people get nasty infections, so-"
"I'm not hurt." She breathed the words, her voice cracking. "I just…oh, my." She looked as if she was going to pass out. Natsu hoped she didn't. He didn't care much for people who couldn't handle themselves in situations like this. She took a few more heartbeats to gather herself, and he could feel that fear that drove a wedge in her sanity being shoved back, replaced with reluctant acceptance he didn't understand.
"What was that?" she finally got out.
"Shadow person. Kind of like evil spirits," he mused, scratching the back of his pink-haired head thoughtfully. "Dunno what they're doing in the middle of Hargeon…you tend to find 'em in shadowy places. Used to be kept in check by the Celestial Realm, 'cause they're enemies, but when the Celestial Realm closed off a few centuries ago, they got out of hand. Still. Weird to see 'em out here." Natsu narrowed his eyes in the direction of Lamia Scale's guildhall, which was way too close to where the attack had been for it to be normal. He could see people emerging from the building, someone running down the street towards them to investigate what had happened.
"Okay." Her whisper had him looking back to the girl he'd supposedly Marked. Her voice was soft, her eyes still round with fear and shock, although it was fading. "That's not normal?"
"No. Stuff like that doesn't show up in towns." He didn't know why he was trying so hard to make her feel better. She'd really annoyed him with the realization that she'd intended to leave, no matter what Makarov had said about her being unable to.
"Oh, thank the heavens," she breathed, "I don't think I'd leave the Fairy Tail guildhall ever again if that was the case."
Natsu's lips twitched when he saw her shift so that her hand was touching the blade Lisanna had given her. She'd mentioned not liking it on their way to Hargeon; he could feel the relief that flooded her at the comforting weight of it now. "C'mon," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder and pushing her towards the guildhall. "Let's go."
Her hand didn't leave the hilt of that blade for a second as they walked towards Lamia Scale.
The shadow people! I've used them in several pieces of writing and always bring them back as my worst nightmare (Shattered Dreams and To the Stars and Back in particular). You haven't seen the last of them. ;)
Blood and Angst Lover, regarding the dragons...that should be revealed at some point. I don't want to spoil too much, but I know it pops up eventually. :D
XHallowedFangirlx, regarding mounts...just to clarify, they're riding stags! :) The guild has horses, and Lucy has ridden them previously (well, in the future, lol), but Natsu (and others) favor the deer.
Thanks to reviewers (xHallowedFangirlx, PinkFireandGoldenStars, stranger1999, Kerasi, AlaskaHolmes90786, Blood and Angst Lover, 19vanelkc, Anna-Mae1242, Inky-Paws, KJacket, Yoru no Nx, Off topic, Forbidden-Hanyou, and itsxoi!) as well as those who favorited and followed!