The night Natsu and Lucy got into a screaming match just outside of the train station had not been a good night for him, not at all. For the first time in years, he cried. He found himself to be a horrible of combination of depressed and restless as he watched the sun rise over the treeline.

After his near rage had dissipated with the disintegration of a few rather large trees around his home, all he was left with was a sadness that felt crippling.

Dammit he shouldn't have yelled at her! He was just so frustrated that she didn't know what was going on and even more pissed that he couldn't really tell her about his Lucy/Lisanna Dilemma without making everything fucking weird. And he wanted to tell her so much because, aside from the part where she was a potential mate for him, she was his best friend and they told each other just about everything….or at least, they used to.

And since that all had happened, he really hadn't been up to do just about anything and that had tipped Happy off that something was wrong. Natsu didn't even want to go fishing! Natsu always wanted to go fishing! Okay, well maybe it was Happy that always wanted to go, but Natsu always went with him, and all of yesterday all he wanted to do was sit in his room and ignore everything.

Happy didn't know what to do! He'd tried everything he could think of to grab Natsu's attention. Fishing, fire...fishing, maybe some more fire, then a job! A job; Natsu didn't want to go on a job! He even suggested they go over to Lushy's and see if she'd cook them dinner, but Natsu had almost flinched when he'd said that. So that was out too.

He really did try everything, but all he'd get back in response was either a "Not right now" or a "No thanks, Little Buddy."

He didn't know what else to do! His first thought was to go get Lucy, but Natsu didn't want to see her and he wouldn't say why. All he knew was that his best friend was sad. He hadn't eaten since they'd gotten home from their job and he hadn't even left his room once.

And so, as he sat on the edge of a fountain in the middle of The Magnolia Market, tail twitching worriedly and his ears drooped dejectedly, he could admit that he needed help. Maybe he should tell Master...or maybe he could call Gildarts? Wherever he was…

"Happy?" A sweet voice called called to him.

The blue Exceed snapped his head up in an instant upon hearing the first voice he could ever remember. He flew to her immediately after finding her kind face in the evening crowd and latched onto her neck as he cried his overly large tears.

"Lisanna!" he cried, nuzzling her for comfort, "Its awful, I don't know what to do!"

"What's the matter?" She asked him, not sure if she should be concerned or laugh because sometimes he acted like this over the smallest of things, like losing a fish, but the way she'd just seen him sitting so brokenheartedly, she figured he was genuinely upset.

"Lissy, its Natsu! He won't come out of his room or eat. I tried everything, he doesn't even want fish!" He wailed.

Lisanna frowned. Come to think of it, she hadn't seen a whole lot of Natsu this past week. She knew that he and Happy had gone on a job with just Lucy several days ago because she'd run into Natsu at the guild that morning they left. Maybe something happened on their mission? She hadn't seen either of them since then and Lucy almost always came to the guild in the mornings to talk to her, Mira and Kinana…but she hadn't been in either.

She couldn't help herself for hoping, maybe just a little, that something had happened on their mission to make them a little irritated with each other, just a bit. She knew that it was wrong and petty for her to feel that way, but by Mavis' Gravestone, she was so hopelessly in love with Natsu and she knew everyone knew it.

It was honestly just humiliating at this point. She felt ashamed of herself for her feelings of jealousy towards how Natsu and Lucy acted together, how close and how at ease they were with one another. It was even worse when she could feel the eyes of guild members watching her watch them.

She didn't want people to pity her like they had when she'd first come home and ugh! The way they would look at her when she came back...it was just so annoying! Not the 'Oh, Lis, we're so glad you're alive' look they'd give her with tears hanging from their eyes, because she had quite enjoyed that look, but the look like she was some ticking time bomb that was going to explode around Natsu and Lucy. She'd heard on one occasion, Wakaba and Macao whispering about her and Lucy like they were going to cause some sort of dramatic scene about Natsu and she smiled as she remembered she'd done exactly that. She'd promptly marched over to where Lucy was sitting at the bar talking to Mira and loudly asked her to go clothes shopping with her because none of her clothes from before fit her anymore. To the guild's initial shock, Lucy had immediately accepted, forbid a pouting Natsu from going along, and they had left the guild arm-in-arm to go to the markets. They'd been fast friends ever since. But now...now she was spending more and more time debating with herself on what she was supposed to do.

She really did love Lucy like a sister and wished for her all the wonderful things in the world! ...but she didn't want to give her Natsu. She could pretend all she wanted to, but she was still holding out hope that he would notice her the way she did him.

But the one thing she'd always failed to notice was that he already did and that he always had. It was just, that now, that look held more than just admiration. It held love, sadness and worry. It held his lust for her and his joy that she was in his life. When he looked at her his eyes held conflict deep within them, but they did the exact same thing when they would look upon Lucy too. However, Lisanna truly was oblivious to this being directed towards her.

Even if she didn't want to give up Natsu, she knew she would if that's what it came down to, if Lucy was who could make her Dragon Slayer happiest in the end, but she knew it would break her heart.

It already did.

When she'd gotten home from Edolas, what seemed like forever ago now, she'd immediately noticed how close Natsu was to the impossibly gorgeous blonde woman that was this world's Lucy Ashley. He clung to her arm and her waist at every chance and for the most part, she let him do it. Initially, she'd thought they were a couple because, well...they'd kind of been in Edolas, sort of. She remembered she'd tried so hard to be cold towards Earthland Lucy, but she just didn't have it in her. Both Edolas' and her Mira had raised her better than that and Lucy was just...the sweetest. She even heard the rumors about Natsu sleeping with her frequently and it had made her cry a few times, even after Lucy had explained very angrily and very loudly to a meddling Mirajane that all they did was sleep. Nothing more or less.

She craved that kind of simple intimacy with The Fire Dragon Slayer, the kind he so easily gave to his teammates; constantly punching Gray in the face, excluded.

He would play games with Happy, go fishing with him and spend every possible spare moment with her favorite Exceed. When Carla would reject his advances, Natsu would pat him on the head and say something to always make his smile bright again. On occasion, Natsu and Happy would take an easy job, just the two of them, so that Happy could complete it. Something along the lines of entertaining a kid's birthday party or delivering an important document that needed to get somewhere fast; any job suited to Happy's skills to remind him he didn't have to be a powerhouse to be an asset to their team.

For Erza, he would bring her new knives from towns he went through on his way to and from jobs. Occasionally, when even The Great Titania was having a bad day, he would make up some excuse that had them both either going on a job together so she could vent her anger when she wouldn't admit that she needed to or sometimes he would convince her to just walking around town and he would secretly sniff out the freshest baked cakes in Magnolia and take her to those bakeries. When they would come back to the guild, Erza would always be in a better mood than when she left.

For Lucy, he would hold her when she cried and they'd talk and joke until she was laughing again. Then he'd spend the rest of the day with her and when she finally dozed off to a content sleep, Natsu would hold her through the night to keep her warm. He'd sling an arm over her shoulder when they had to take a mission in a chilly climate because he knew Lucy always got cold. Lisanna knew Lucy didn't realize, but when Natsu went overboard on a job and they lost a lot of their reward because of him and Gray, Natsu would manage to sneak in some of his portion of the Jewel into her's just to make sure she had enough to get by; knowing she would say no if he offered.

For Gray, they would fight and they would brawl. It didn't seem like that was kind or loving to the outside eye, but Lisanna knew Gray could really get stuck in his own head sometimes. It was his biggest weakness and Natsu was always there to pull him out of his funk by letting Gray use him as target practice; Someone he could put a few misplaced negative feelings on and would still stick around. He tried not to make it too obvious, but occasionally, Natsu would pick a mission that was more suited for Gray's skill set rather than his own, just to make sure his "rival" wasn't left brooding at the guild bar.

And even though she wasn't technically part of Team Natsu, for Wendy, he would throw her over his shoulder and run around the guild until she was a laughing mess, even when she wasn't in a bad mood. The times when The Sky Dragon Slayer felt inadequate in her magic in comparison to the other slayers surrounding her, Natsu would drag her off to some secluded part in the forest and train with her for a few days, just to prove to her that she was strong, that she was an important pillar in their guild, and that she was loved by her nakama.

With Natsu Dragneel, it was in all of the little things he did that showed you he treasured you.

Lisanna noticed all of these things because she watched them all closely, but from a bit of a distance. Its not that they wouldn't include her if she wanted to go with them on a job or a trip somewhere, but she found it hard not to feel out of place when she knew all of the things they did for one another and all she could think about was how she wanted Natsu to do those things with her.

But for once, it seemed it was Natsu who was upset. Maybe it was about time for somebody to do something to cheer him up? Why not her?

"It's going to be okay, Happy." she said to the still crying blue Exceed in her arms, she patted him on the back as she suggested, "How about I come over and we cook some dinner? Maybe try to drag him out of his room, hm?"

Happy sniffled as he rubbed his eyes, "Really?"

She shone a megawatt grin at him and said, "Really really! I'm thinking we make some of his favorite spicy noodles, what do you think?"

"Oh, that'll work for sure!" Happy yelled enthusiastically as he spread his wings in his excitement and floated in the air, "Natsu loves spicy noodles!"

"Well, come on!" Lisanna called behind her as she jogged away, "We've got to get to the market before it closes!"

"AYE SIR!" Happy saluted before he sped off after her.

"Natsu?" Happy called into the dark house he came home to. He received no response so he sighed and walked the rest of the way inside with Lisanna trailing right behind him. "He's probably still in his room…"

Lisanna nodded and first made her way to the kitchen through the obstacle course of junk to put down the groceries and then she made her way towards where she knew his room was.

"Hey, Natsu?" she knocked gently on the slightly ajar door and upon not receiving a response she pushed it open the rest of the way and slowly walked into his dark room. "You in here? Happy's really worried…"

But, again, no response came. So she walked a little farther into his bedroom and after a few steps she tripped over something in the middle of the floor and she fell. When she was certain she was going to hit the ground, she didn't and instead found herself falling several seconds longer than she'd expected. When she finally did meet the ground again she let out a pained groan. That was going to leave a nasty bruise on her hip. Her shoulder popped as she pushed herself back up to a sitting position and when she felt what was beneath her fingertips she finally opened her eyes from when she had clenched them shut during her fall. Dirt? Why was she sitting in dirt? She looked up and was met with floor of Natsu's house. She fell through a hole in the floor...no, a...a door? Yeah, she must of tripped over the open door on the floor...why was there a door in the floor?! Only Natsu…

"Lis!" she heard Natsu's worry laced voice cry, "What the hell, are you okay?!"

She felt tentative hands hover over her, not quite touching her. Not wanting to cause her pain if she wasn't okay, but wanting to touch her to make sure she was.

"I think so…"she rubbed the side of her face, "just...why the hell is there a hole in your floor?"

"I uh...well no one was ever really supposed to find out about that." he rubbed the back of his neck bashfully after he pulled her up to her feet again.

"Why not…" she trailed off as her eyes fell upon the candle lit room before her. The surprisingly large room was a hexagon shape and the six tall walls were covered in letters and notes, pictures and mission requests. Shelves holding souvenirs and books...was that a maid's outfit?

"Please don't freak out. I know its kind of weird, all this stuff...Luce found some of these things when I used to keep them in the house, but that was years ago," he was rambling, trying to fill the silence until she would say something, "and I kinda ran out of room up there about two years ago and I didn't want to get rid of anything so I kinda of...well...dug a secret room."

Lisanna gently ran her fingertips over several job flyers pinned to the wall, "I think this is amazing…" her quiet voice showing her surprise. She didn't notice his shocked expression.

She looked a little closer and noticed that each wall had a theme. The one she was standing in front of now had pictures of the guild hall and of various Fairy Tail members lounging around the guild, partying, drinking. There were news clippings of when the guild had been destroyed by Gajeel and then a painting of him scowling and Juvia beaming done by Reedus that had a note pinned to it that said "Metal Head and Gray's Stalker join the guild". There was an article from the local Magnolia paper that was reporting on hundreds of strange orbs floating in the sky all around the city that Natsu had written on with big back letters, "Thunder Palace, Battle of Fairy Tail. I know Laxus will be home before we know it." Attached to the article was a picture of Natsu bandaged up like mummy at the Fantasia Parade. The entire wall was filled with anything that had to do with Fairy Tail news and events. Layers upon layers of materials. Anything from a Fairy Tail mage blowing up a building to the Magazine cover that featured all the returning members of the Tenrou trip that were thought to have been dead.

She slowly pulled her eyes away and moved to look at the next wall. It was filled with all things Erza. Her becoming an S-Class mage, many pictures of her eating cake, a picture of her teaching a Young Natsu to read, the spelling tests she'd made him take in the process. There was the article from the Grand Magic Games about her incredible power and the sheer finesse she possessed as she slayed one hundred monsters. The destruction of The Tower of Heaven. There was a shelf hung on the wall that held a shattered magical staff that she must have broken at some point and Natsu had decided it was worth keeping. There were also several article clippings that vaguely sounded like they were referring to Jellal or Crime Sorciere.

The next wall for Happy; mostly just tons of pictures and job request from their earlier years. The one after that for Gray; lots of pictures of them brawling, but a few of them actually posing for them. He even had one of Gray's many lost outfits that had no doubt just been stripped off without a thought at some point or another, folded neatly on a shelf.

Lisanna walked past them and continued around the room. There was a wall dedicated to Lucy and it seemed like Natsu had saved almost everything. Pictures, clothes, books...a pile of..rocks? He had hung several of her modeling shoots and framed a few of the articles she'd written for Sorcerer's Weekly during the guild's disbandment. It also looked as if Natsu was trying to create a map of where he might find Celestial Spirit keys. Adventures the two of them had taken together and things they hadn't done yet that he wanted to. Lisanna could have probably spent days sifting through all of the things on that wall, but a side glance to the wall directly next to Lucy's made her jaw want to hit the floor and her breath hitch in her throat.

That was...that was her! There was a painting of her on Natsu's back as he gave her a piggyback ride through the park. She was laughing as she was clutching onto his scarf and he had a huge dopey grin on his face. She plucked it from the wall and held it to her chest as she continued to look. There was an article about the win she'd gotten one year in the games, her own mission requests that she'd taken with him and Happy over the years. Her sitting at the bar laughing with Lucy so hard that tears were trailing down her cheeks. Her decking Elfman in the face during a guild brawl.

...Her obituary.

The day she came home, her S-Class Trials she almost passed last year, all of the moments they'd shared together, gifts she'd given him. They were all right here.

"Why..why did you keep all of these things?"

"Its stupid…" he muttered as he blushed up a storm.

"This is so far from stupid! It beautiful and thoughtful, anything but stupid…" Really this seemed like such an un-Natsu-like thing to do, but she'd always known him better than most people so she was more in awe at how many things he'd managed to collected rather than that he'd done it in the first place.

She watched his gaze shift to a rather large picture of them with Happy and Gildarts on a riverbank, fishing; the biggest smiles on all of their faces.

"...Because they're important. All of this stuff is, I don't want to forget."

She stared at him, confused, for a moment before she asked, "Why would you forget?"

"I...well I really don't know...its just..well...it sounds weird when I try to say it out loud…" frustrated, he dropped down onto the small couch sitting in the middle of the room.

Lisanna gently sat beside him and rested her hand on his forearm in encouragement, "Try."

So after what felt like an eternity of silence, he did, "I've just always felt...like I'm missing something. In my head, ya know? Memories or something important...I don't remember anything before I was with Igneel and the day I lost him is super fuzzy. It feels like there's kinda a wall in my head; like I should remember something, but I just can't. I guess I'm just scared that if I don't keep proof that I did all of this stuff, that I'll lose the memories and...I don't know..leave or run away or... I don't want to lose my family and my friends. I lost Igneel...and for a while I lost you. I know you came back and you never really died, but to me you did and I can't lose anyone else. I don't think I could take it again..."

She frowned before a small smile graced her lips and she interlaced their fingers with one hand and with the other she brushed his hair out of his eyes while he stared down at his lap.

"You're not gonna forget about us, we'd never let you."

He blushed a little but didn't try to hide it when he rose his gaze to meet her's.

"But what if it can't be helped? What if it happens anyway?"

She gave him a bland and tasteless look to tell him he was an idiot before she knocked his shoulder with her own in a comforting gesture.

"Maybe you've never met us Fairies, but we kind of do what we want and change the inevitable all the time." she half laughed, "Besides, your team would totally kick your butt back into shape. Haven't you ever seen what happens to someone who tries to ignore Erza? Can you even imagine what she'd do if they forgot about her?!"

He laughed a little bit so she teased a bit more, "and I'm pretty sure Gray would be so angry that you forgot about that he's won one more brawl than you that he'd freeze you in ice so cold it would take you a whole week to melt yourself out, all so that they could buy Wendy some time to figure out a way to bring back the memories."

She laughed when he whined, "That score isn't fair! The Ice Princess cheated during our last brawl!"

"And don't forget about Lucy," She definitely took note of the frown that immediately came back at the mention of his best friend, "she'd kick you so hard and so far that when you landed back on the ground all your memories would come back by themselves and then she'd drag you back home by your scarf kicking and screaming."

When he didn't say anything back she asked him, "Is Lucy why you're so upset? Did something happen?"

He just shrugged his shoulders coldly and they sat in silence for a while. Then he asked her, "What would you do, Lis? Ya know, if I disappeared."

She didn't even have to think before she responded and quickly said, "I would search all over Earthland for you and wouldn't stop until I'd brought you home."

Her heartbeat increased when he smiled warmly at her and squeezed their still intertwined hands together as he opened his mouth to speak, but before he could get a word out, he was interrupted.

"What's taking you guys so long!?" Happy yelled from somewhere in the house, "Are you guys kissing or something? You must liiiiike each other!" He teased even though he couldn't see them.

Natsu watched as Lisanna awkwardly cleared her throat and refused to look at him. The candlelight flickering against her porcelain skin and the blush from Happy's teasing made her look sexy and he couldn't stop himself from pulling her into his lap with her legs straddling his thighs and leaned up to capture her lips in a kiss he'd long wanted to take from her.

At that moment Happy found them in the room and gasped with a paw over his mouth before he shouted, "I knew it!", and then ran back to the kitchen, no doubt scheming how he was going to let this little tidbit of information slip to Mira in a way that would get him the most fish for his efforts as her little romance spy.

"Wha..what was that for?" She asked breathlessly.

"I just thought it was about time we gave him something to actually talk about." He smirked up at her from where she hadn't moved from his lap.

She blushed harder but she laughed and stood from his lap to pull him to his feet.

"Come on, I'm gonna make you dinner. The time for moping is over."

As the night went on and he ate dinner with Happy and Lisanna, he felt better a little at a time.

He decided that tomorrow morning he would catch Lucy at the train station before she left so that he could apologize for yelling at her and for being so weird. If she gave him the chance to, maybe he would explain to her why.

The next morning, Natsu woke up before the sun. He quickly hurried through his morning routine and left a still soundly sleeping Happy and scrawled note as he left the house to go apologize to Lucy.

However, the closer he got to the train station the tighter the knots twisting in his stomach got and by the time he was there all he wanted to do was leave. He wasn't sure why he thought this would be easy, he'd never been good with apologies...or using words in general.

Just as he was about to convince himself to leave and deal with this whole problem later, he spotted his partner sitting on a bench by herself. He knew she was just sitting there and enjoying the quiet. She liked to do that when she could actually find it, but that was a hard thing to come by when you were a Fairy Tail member.

Even from the ways away that he was, he could tell that she was really tired. She probably hadn't slept last night and he was left feeling guilty again. He knew it was because of him.

For many minutes he just stood there watching her every move and face expression. What could he possibly say that could make this even the slightest bit better, he didn't know and he certainly didn't want to make it worse. Gods if she were to actually hate him because of this whole thing...he couldn't take it.

He watched her as the sun slowly rose and the light crept up from her boots to her knees all the way up to her golden hair. He studied her as she smiled brightly and opened her eyes, only to have the sun make her beautiful eyes seem five shades lighter. She summoned Plue then and they talked for a while, apparently Virgo was being weird again.

Just as he was trying to steel his nerves and go look her in her glowing eyes to beg her forgiveness and try to explain, he took a deep breath and his nose was flooded with the smell of an electrical storm.

"Shit…" he cursed under his breath. Laxus was here. There was absolutely no way he was going over there now. The whole point was to say sorry and if he was in the same place as the other Dragon Slayer right now all that would happen would be a fight that would get him into even deeper trouble with Lucy.

He saw Laxus walk into the station from the opposite end that he was on and was going to turn and leave before Laxus could scent him out, but the look he saw on the eldest slayer's face was one that he had never seen there before and it had him rooted to the spot.

He studied intently as he tried to decipher what it was. He was just standing there, staring at Lucy, and she had no idea he was there yet.

His eyes were soft and his body relaxed. All the tension that Laxus always held in his face and in his shoulders was absent and his seemly permanent scowl was replaced with a gentle smile as he observed Lucy's interaction with Plue. He'd never seed Laxus like this, like he was at complete peace.

For the first time, Natsu was seeing Laxus...unguarded.

Natsu could admit that he was the smallest bit amazed and in that moment he realized, Laxus was in love with Lucy. He didn't want to admit it, but if going by his body language and the way the eyes of the man who never broke were so soft while they were looking at her, he had a feeling that Laxus might love Lucy even more than he did.

As twisted and as messed up as all of this felt right now, Natsu knew that they were all still family, still guildmates and comrades. He was upset that Laxus had a serious interest in Lucy, that hadn't changed. However, there was a voice somewhere in him that reasoned if he was willing to lay his life on the line for the man, which he knew he was because Laxus was family, that he should be willing to give him a real shot at happiness, too. He'd never seen Laxus look at anyone that way and he didn't want to be the one to screw up what could very well be his friend's one chance at happiness. Being a Dragon Slayer himself, he knew how difficult it was to find a potential mate and Laxus was so unearthlandly strong that it was near impossible he'd ever find someone else that could both appease his dragon and be in love with. And Natsu...well he'd been astronomically lucky enough to find two amazing women his dragon could be in agreeance with.

He watched as Laxus called out to Lucy and the look in her own eyes was just as soft and her body just as at ease. He listened to their easy banter and the way their voices lilted and the way that they laughed.

As he stood out of site, leaning against a wall, he came to the decision that when Lucy came back home, he would apologize to her and then try to give her the space she was asking for. He couldn't un-love her all at once, so he wouldn't try to, but he could try to give her the opportunity to find what would make her happiest. Maybe it wouldn't be Laxus, maybe it wouldn't be either of them, but if he only knew this one thing it was that Lucy hated being treated like a thing or a prize to be won. It was why she had run away from her father in the first place. So a tug-of-war with Laxus would only serve to piss her off and Lucy was too precious of a friend to Natsu to even risk screwing that up. And who knew? Maybe if things didn't work out with Laxus, maybe she would come to him.

But as he thought all of this, as his heart accepted that he was essentially giving up his claim on Lucy, his Inner Dragon purred in contentment at their internal war being over and happily settled on Lisanna and their intended mate.

So Natsu left the station quietly as Laxus and Lucy boarded their train, neither of them aware he'd been there at all and he decided to go to the guild early to see if he could spend some time with Lis and try to figure out the best way to break the news to her. Hopefully she'd accept and hopefully this would all be worth it in the end.