Trigger warning: Suicidal thoughts?, I'm not sure if it would classify, but better safe than sorry.

Thanks, SilverWhiteDragon, for your review.

Enjoy!

Chapter 13: Team Natsu Takes a Job

Happy knocked on the door, tears still on his face. A few moments later, a white-haired girl opened it.

"Happy?", she asked, looking surprised to see the blue Exceed in front of her house. Seeing the tears on his face, she asked fearfully. "Happy, what's wrong? What happened? Are you all right? Is Natsu all right?"

The blue cat could only nod. The girl, understanding that there was no imminent trouble, hugged the cat, and brought him in the house. "Come on. Shh, shh. Everything's going to be all right.", she consoled him as he cried. She carried Happy into the living room, sat down on a couch, and hold onto him tightly, letting him cry it out.

It was half an hour later, the cat still crying, that someone opened the front door and entered the house.

"Lisanna, I'm home.", a man's voice was heard. "Big sis said she-", Elfman began saying, walking into the living room, stopping when he saw Happy crying in Lisanna's arms. He looked at the floor, and quietly said. "I'm sorry, Happy."

"What are you apologizing for?", Lisanna asked, hearing her brother's words.

"Natsu came to the guild and-", he explained, but was cut off.

"Natsu's back?", Lisanna asked excitedly, before realizing what that meant. "Oh. Did he take it that badly, Happy? Want me to go home with you? We can talk to him together, make him feel better."

The blue Exceed shook his head, muttering, "He's fine.", between sobs.

That answer only worried the girl more, so she asked her brother, who was still standing awkwardly next to the door. "What happened?"

"We were sitting at the table, when team B came to beg for forgiveness since they lost the fight. As Laxus began, Natsu ran out of the guild. Gray went after him, but before he could leave, Laxus said: "And he said he wouldn't change.". Gray turned and asked Laxus how dare he say that Natsu changed when we are all terrified of him. He said he hopes this doesn't happened to any of us because he doesn't think anyone but Natsu is strong enough to get through this, before going after him.", he looked ashamed telling the story, and then he remembered something more, and added. "But that happened hours ago."

"Is that's why you're crying, Happy?", Lisanna asked compassionately.

The blue Exceed shook his head again.

The girl looked at her brother, signaling him to leave the room. "Okay, you can tell me when you want to.", she said quietly to the crying cat

It was another half an hour before Happy stopped crying. He still wasn't talking, but at least the tears stopped.

"Can you tell me what happened?", Lisanna asked gently. "Natsu didn't kick you out, did he?"

"Not yet.", the cat answered, looking miserable. "But he will, once he finds out what I did."

"Whatever you did, I'm sure Natsu wouldn't kick you out. He may want you out of the house for a while because he's sad, he may want to spend some time alone, but he would never kick you out forever. He loves you."

"Maybe now, but not when he finds out what I did.", the Exceed said miserably.

"There's nothing you could do Happy that would make Natsu stop loving you. A parent will always love his child, and people who lost their parents now better than anyone else how much a child needs their parents' love. If you did something really bad, he may be angry with you for a while, but I promise he'll never stop loving you. He knows how much you need him, and he needs you just as much."

"But this… After that…", Happy began talking brokenly, before he started crying again.

"Shh, it's okay Happy, shh. I know you were just trying to help. Natsu will know that too. It's all going to be all right, you'll see. Natsu will forgive you."

"But this…", the Exceed said with tears running down his face. "This will hurt more people than just Natsu."

"If it will hurt more people, that means it didn't happen yet. Can't you stop it?", the girl asked.

"Natsu said not to tell anyone, and I can't stop it without telling someone. Even if I tell it, one person will still get hurt.", the cat said, looking into the girl's face. He could see the confusion on the face, but he couldn't tell more than this without saying that Natsu and Gray were together.

"Are you sure there isn't some other way to stop it? Maybe there's something you haven't thought of?"

"No! I was just trying to help, and now people will get hurt. I don't want to do anything else. I don't want to hurt anyone else. I should have just kept fishing. At least I'm good at that.", Happy said angrily while crying.

"Is there maybe something I can do? Maybe there is something you can't but I can? Maybe together we can stop everyone from getting hurt?", Lisanna asked, trying to keep the hope alive in the cat.

"Can you make someone stop loving someone?", the Exceed asked, and as the surprised girl shook her head, he continued sadly. "Then there is nothing we can do. People will get hurt. Natsu will get hurt, and some people he loves will get hurt. And then he'll hate me. All of them will hate me.", Happy said starting to cry again. The girl could do nothing more than hold the cat, showing him that he wasn't alone, he'll never be alone, even if his prediction comes true.

Lucy woke up feeling amazing. The sun was shining, the day wasn't too hot or too cold, and the pleasant dream she just had was still fresh in her mind. The day started perfectly.

After lying in bed for a few moments, thinking about everything she would need to do this day, she got up, and went to take a shower. She brushed her teeth, put on some clothes (meaning she took half an hour to select what clothes she'll wear, and then taking that long to apply her makeup), took her Celestial Spirit Gate Keys and headed to the guild.

It was still early, about eight, the guild would still be almost empty, most of her guildmates still sleeping at home, so she was surprised when she saw a pink-haired boy turning around the corner.

"Natsu!", she yelled drawing the boy's attention. Could the day go any better than this? Then another boy came into view, being hidden behind the fire mage before. "Oh, Gray? Since when do you two go this early into the guild, and together at that?" They came towards her, continuing to walk together towards the guild. Lucy was glad to see that the dragon slayer had a smile on his face, not affected by the yesterday's events as badly as she thought he would be.

"Yea, well,", the pink-haired boy began, his face turning to stare at the ground. "I don't want everyone in the guildhall to be terrified of me, so I went and asked Gray to come with me." The celestial wizard heard the hurt in his voice. Maybe he was able to smile, but the way others looked at him still affected him.

"What about Happy?", she asked, noticing that the blue cat wasn't there. "He's not terrified of you, and he lives with you, so you could have gone with him."

Lucy saw she just made the situation worse. Sadness filled Salamander's face, sorrow greater than seeing his guildmates terrified of him. She saw that Gray knew what happened, the expression on his face clearly saying that it hurt him too. Whether it hurt him directly, or it hurt him seeing his friend hurt she couldn't know. "I don't know what's wrong with Happy.", the fire mage said quietly. "I told him something yesterday and he just started crying, apologizing over and over, until he flew off. Lisanna called me a few hours later, told me that Happy's at her place. She said that he thinks he did something that will hurt me and someone else, but he wouldn't say what he did. He thinks I'll hate him for it, and I thought he knew that there's nothing he could do that would make me stop loving him. I told Lisanna to bring him to the guild in the morning so I could talk to him. I'll talk to him, and hopefully we can sort this out."

What could Happy have done that he would think Natsu would hate him? And what did Natsu say that would make Happy think that? Could he have said something ambiguously and the Exceed just misunderstood? But Happy, although acting childishly, would never react to a misunderstanding like that, especially if he knew there could be a different explanation.

"Anyway,", the pink-haired boy said, clearly banishing the thoughts he couldn't do anything about at the moment. "I promised Happy we'd take a job together once Gray and I come back from our last one. We agreed on taking the whole team. Will you go?"

This was perfect. It's like this day couldn't get bad. She was just thinking she'd need to tell Natsu she needed rent money, so him inviting her on a job was perfect. "Yes. Of course I'll go. We haven't done a job as a team in a long time."

"Great!", the ice-make wizard finally spoke. "Then all we need to do is invite Erza, Wendy and Carla, and we can go. I'm sorry Natsu, but I don't think you'll get a chance to eat anyone.", the raven-haired boy said, and they laughed at some internal joke. Lucy noticed that the boys were a lot closer than they were before. The name-calling, the brawls, the insults were gone. She really liked it that they became friends. And she was glad that Master was right. What Natsu needed after the invasion was his best friend, the friend which was helping him get through the hardships, and although she would like to think she was that friend, the boys knew each other a lot longer than they knew her.

She was about to say something, when the fire mage spoke up. "Well, I can always eat Laxus so he won't be able to talk about me behind my back.", he said, and the boys laughed.

Laxus? Did he hear what he said, or had Gray told him? No! She shook her head. There was something she had to say. "Wendy won't come.", she blurted out, before either of them could speak and distract her again. The laughter died, and before the dragon slayer could get the wrong idea, she continued. "She and Carla went to Lamia Scale to visit Sherria. They probably won't be back for a week."

"Oh.", Salamander said. "Then it'll only be the five of us.", he said with a smile. "I really want Erza to stop being afraid of me, and if Happy thinks I would ever stop loving him, he clearly doesn't know me well enough!"

Lucy noted a proud smile on the ice-make wizard's face, clearly pleased with how his friend was reacting. It was weird to see the pink-haired boy act maturely as opposed to his usual childish self, but if he acted like he usually did, she guessed that they would have already heard that a town was burned to the ground. If even Natsu knew how dangerous the power he now had is, she wondered just how strong he is.

The celestial wizard was jerked out of her thoughts as they entered the guildhall. There were only a few people there, but any conversations that was going before they came stopped once the people saw that the fire dragon slayer entered. The fire mage, for his part, only put his characteristically wide grin, which put his sharp fangs on display, on his face. She would have burst out laughing, realizing their guildmates really looked like they were afraid the pink-haired boy would eat them and he was reading his teeth, if not for the complete silence in the guild.

Not caring for the looks he was getting, Natsu walked straight towards the job board, with Gray and Lucy close behind. Is Gray walking a little closer to him than me? she thought to herself as they walked. To anyone in here, it looked like the fire mage didn't care what people around him thought of him, but Lucy saw that he was trying really hard not to let his grin fall away. As the boys were looking for a job for them to take, she looked around the hall, looking for Erza or/and Happy. Neither of them was there, but it wasn't surprising since it was early. The people still eyed the dragon slayer warily, but the conversations started again.

It took them five minutes to find a perfect job in the forest of papers that was their job board. People all over Ishgar thought that Fairy Tail alone stopped the Alvarez Empire's invasion, killed Zeref and defeated Acnologia. The number of jobs they were getting was abnormal. And the jobs weren't just in Fiore. They were all over Ishgar. They heard from other guilds that, even though their job board was the fullest, they too got a lot of jobs. Maybe people just stopped trusting the Magic Council after so many failures, the last one being unable to stop the invasion, and decided to take the matters in their own hands, willing to trust the guilds, who even if they sometimes went a little overboard, always finished what they started.

They brought the job flyer to a scared looking Mirajane. Lucy couldn't really blame the woman for being terrified. She was an S-class wizard for a lot longer than either Natsu or Gray, so she must've considered herself to be at least their equal in a battle. Yet, her strongest Satan Soul was defeated in a single strike by the boys. It even looked like the white-haired wizard wasn't even a challenge. As Lucy watched those huge arms closing on the woman during their battle, she couldn't help but think of that not as an attack, but as someone squashing an annoying bug under their feet. But, her face clearly said, just like Erza's that she tried not to let that influence her relationship with a member of her family.

Lucy suddenly remembered Natsu's words during their fight with Hades. "Fear isn't 'evil'.", he had said. "It only allows us to learn our own weaknesses.". How could she have forgotten those words? They all saw how weak there were against the fire mage. There was no one strong enough here to beat him. All of them working together probably couldn't beat him. Why couldn't people here see that that didn't matter? For the first time, a person they couldn't beat wasn't their enemy. It was one of them, a family member, and having someone strong enough to make you want to become stronger, especially since that person doesn't want to kill you, is not something to fear. They would all get stronger, once they manage to get rid of the fear.

"We'll take this job.", Gray said, handing the job flyer to the white-haired wizard behind the bar.

"Sure. I'll let the client now that you'll be coming.", she said, not looking at Natsu. If Happy went to Lisanna, Mirajane must've seen, or at least heard from her sister how he was acting. She probably didn't want the dragon slayer to feel any worse than he already did, by showing that she was terrified.

"Hey Mira…", the pink-haired boy asked, making the white-haired wizard turn to face him, lest she offend him. "Do you know when Lisanna and Happy are coming?", he asked fearfully. The fire mage must've felt guilty for making the wizard in front of him scared.

Mirajane was trying to mask the fear she felt with a smile she usually wore. "Lisanna said they'll be here when Happy wakes up. I don't know when that will be, but Happy was crying really long. It was after midnight that he finally fell asleep. What happened?", she asked in genuine concern.

Lucy noted that Gray looked really worried again, and was that a hint of guilt in his face?

"I don't know! I told him something, and he just freaked out. He was apologizing, before he just flew away.", Natsu said, tears probably forming in his eyes.

The white-haired wizard asked a question the celestial wizard wanted an answer to, but didn't have the courage to ask. "What did you tell him?" The fear in Mirajane's eyes was gone, apparently, her need to help a family member far stronger than it.

Gray and Natsu shared a look, and a conversation must've happened between them, because the dragon slayer shook his head, before he turned to the woman behind the bar and answered. "I don't want to tell anyone else, not now. I could see how it could have made him sad, angry, happy. But I can't understand why he would apologize. He could have misunderstood what I said, and think that I may no longer love him, but Lisanna said he was afraid because of something he started, but couldn't stop, so he must not have misinterpreted it. I just want to know what he thinks could be so bad that it would make me hate him!", the pink-haired boy said frustrated.

"Who are you talking about?", Erza asked, coming close to them without anyone noticing.

"Hey, Erza!", Natsu said, turning around, a huge smile on his face. "Do you want to go on a job?", he asked, giving the red-haired woman the job flyer.

"So, you want to go monster hunting?", the requip mage asked after she looked at the flyer. "Master told me you faced tens of thousands of monsters on your ten-year job." Lucy was stunned. The fire mage wouldn't tell her how their job went, because he and Gray had some secret they had to tell everyone first. Of course, the celestial wizard immediately assumed they were together, and something on the job happened that would reveal that, and that's why he didn't want to share what happened. She felt extremely stupid she assumed that, after the battle, and was glad the dragon slayer didn't pick up her subtle questions. Now, she learned that they killed tens of thousands of monsters!? It wasn't surprising he didn't want to tell her anything. She would probably assume he was lying, trying to boast, but if she did believe him, she would soon figure out his secret.

"Will a few thousand even be a challenge?", Erza continued. "Won't this just be a waste of time for you?"

"Do you really think I can find something that would be a challenge for me?", the pink-haired boy asked, looking sadder then he was a moment ago. "To be honest, not even all of those monsters on the ten-year job were a challenge. I-", he wanted to continue, but the red-haired girl cut him off.

"But Master said you passed out! How was it not a challenge if you used so much magic you were unconscious later?" Lucy would have laughed at the expression on Erza's face, if not for the expression on Natsu's face. He looked ready to run away, just like he did yesterday.

"I used my Fire Dragon Slayer Magic.", the fire mage said, and the requip wizard gasped. "So, Gramps told you." It wasn't a question. "They had a barrier around their guildhall, so I used Fire Dragon Slayer Magic to destroy it. I had to disperse every bit of the excess power, or the whole dark guild would be dead, their guildhall, or maybe half of that mountain, gone. That's what drained me the most. And I still had to use my magic after that.", the dragon slayer finished, putting a smile on his face again, before continuing. "Since there's no job that'll be a challenge, I don't care on what job we go, as long as we go as a team. I want you to see you don't have to be afraid of me, because it doesn't feel right to see someone I was afraid of, be terrified of me."

Behind the boys, Lucy saw Mirajane smile. The celestial wizard knew that small things like this will help their guildmates get rid of the fear they felt.

"Then, when do we leave?", Erza asked.

"I need to talk to Happy, when he gets here. I want him to come with us. So as soon as he gets here, and I talk to him, we can go.", the pink-haired boy said.

"Then I'll go pack, and I'll wait for you on the train station.", the requip wizard said, leaving.

"I'll go wait for Happy outside. I want to talk to him without all this people hearing what we talk about.", the fire mage said, indicating their guildmates.

"Do you want me to go with you?", Gray asked. It surprised Lucy. She knew that the ice-make wizard already knew what was going on, either being there, or Natsu told him, but she never expected him to offer to go with his friend.

"No. He thinks I will no longer love him, so I think I have to talk to him alone, convince him that he's wrong. I'm sorry, but I don't think I can do that with you there. He may not believe me.", the dragon slayer said smiling (sympathetically?) at his friend. Then he looked at her. "Lucy, shouldn't you also get packed?", he asked. "The job will take us at least a week."

Only then did the celestial wizard notice that the boys had backpacks with them. "Oh right. Then I'll wait for you with Erza, at the train station.", she said, heading home to pack.

Her day started perfectly. The sun was shining, she was invited to a job, everything was going well, but there were just too many situations that made her question what she was about to do. She couldn't pinpoint anything, but there was just a feeling that she should wait, that she shouldn't do this now. In the end, she decided that she couldn't miss this opportunity, and she had someone to help or stop her if there was a need.

Natsu waited for half an hour, before Lisanna and Happy finally showed up. Happy was in Lisanna's arms, and his head looked down. When he greeted them, he saw tears forming in his friend's black eyes.

"Can I talk to you, buddy?", the fire mage asked gently. The cat just jumped out of Lisanna's arms, and walked to the dragon slayer. "Come on, follow me.", he said, silently thanking the white-haired girl.

They walked to the spot the pink-haired boy knew well. He sat down, leaned on a tree, and waited for the Exceed to join him, before he spoke.

"You know, this is the exact spot where I spent most of my days after the invasion.", the dragon slayer said, remembering those days, and thinking of what to say next. "I sat here, leaned on this tree, and watched the water flow. Just yesterday I told Gray how I was living after Zeref brought me back. I didn't want to eat, didn't want to sleep. I didn't want to be back, not until I met Igneel. After I got my memories back, and we defeated the Alvarez Empire, I felt just like I did back then. My parents just died in front of me. But this time, it wasn't Zeref who was left alone and me dead, it was the other way around. This time, he left me behind." Natsu already heard his friend crying. He didn't tell Happy any of this before.

"I was miserable, but I felt like I deserved that. I did that to him on purpose. Maybe I wasn't trying to hurt him, but I decided to leave him all alone. Then, with all that, I sensed my demon power growing. I felt worse than when Zeref brought me back. You know, I tried to kill myself back then", he heard his friend gasp, but he continued his story, blankly looking forward, wanting the blue cat know exactly how he felt, how he feels. "I probably would have succeeded, but Zeref put something in the book of E.N.D. that prevented me from doing it. I realized that after the invasion. I realized that that book was gone now, I no longer had to follow what it said, and I could probably kill myself now. I could've ended the suffering I felt.

"But, even thought that book was gone, I still couldn't do it. This time I wasn't prevented by a few words in some book. No. Even with my parents dead, Igneel dead, my brother dead, I found that all the love I felt for them was still there. Sure, there's no one I could love exactly as I loved them, but there were feelings strong enough to want me to live for them. I love Gramps like I loved my parents and Igneel, I love Lucy and other guild members like I loved my brother, I love Gray in a completely new way, something I never felt before.

"And I love you Happy. It's not something I felt before, but I'm sure it's what my parents felt for me. If they were here, now, if they learned that I'm a demon, if they learned I killed Zeref, I'm sure they'd be surprised, they'd be angry. Maybe they'd need some time to understand everything that happened, maybe they'd need some time to stop being angry with me, or maybe they never would, but I know that they would never hate me. I am their child, a part of them, and I know that they'd love me no matter what. I'm sure Igneel felt the same. And,", Natsu said, finally looking at his blue friend, a friend he considered his child, "I know that I feel the same for you. There's nothing you could do that would make me hate you. Nothing. Not even if you try to intentionally hurt me. Not if you attack me, not if you ignore me, not if you hate me. Do you understand? Nothing!", the pink-haired boy finished.

The blue Exceed got up, went to the fire mage, and hugged him as hard as he could. The dragon slayer hugged him back. "I-", Happy tried to say while crying, but Natsu shushed him.

"Shh. It doesn't matter. We'll deal with it when we get to it.", Salamander said.

"But, if you tell everyone, you won't get hurt.", the cat said, referring to his relationship with Gray.

"Will someone else get hurt without me knowing?", the pink-haired boy asked, guessing that his friend will answer positively, from what Lisanna told him.

The Exceed just nodded. "Then we'll deal with it when we get to it.", the dragon slayer said. "I don't want one of my friends to suffer without me knowing, especially if I'm the reason that they're suffering. When whatever you started gets here, we'll deal with it together. You know we can't let one of our friends suffer alone."

Some time passed before Natsu was sure that his blue friend was calm enough. "Erza and Lucy are probably waiting at the train station already.", the fire mage said.

"We're still going on a job?", Happy asked surprised, and a little fearful, but the dragon slayer ignored the fear.

"Of course! I said we'd go on a job after Gray and I got home, didn't I? Now, let's go. We'll get Gray at the guild and go meet the girls.", the pink-haired boy said, rising, and carrying his friend, heading for the guildhall.

"Natsu loooves Gray!", Happy finally exclaimed mockingly after a minute of walking.

The fire mage was glad that his friend was back to his old self, but he had to shush him. "I don't want anyone to know, so keep it down. And don't tell anyone either."

"Aye, sir!", the cat replied with a happy expression emerging on his blue face. "When did that happen anyway? You weren't keeping it a secret from me for a long time, did you?", he asked.

"It happened on our last job, after we talked to the dragons.", the dragon slayer answered.

"You meet dragons!?", the Exceed asked surprised. "There are still dragons alive?"

"Yea, but we have to keep that a secret too, otherwise people will want to kill them.", Salamander explained.

"Are they nice dragons? Can I meet them?", Happy asked.

"Yea, they are. We'll go there together one day, okay? I really like them, because they remind me of Igneel.", the boy said, with a smile on his face.

"Then I definitely want to meet them!"

"Meet who?", a voice came in front of them. Gray stepped from behind a tree he was leaning on, two backpacks at his feet.

"I was just telling him about a friend you made on our last job, ice-cream boy.", the fire mage said, laughing at the nickname Ulrug gave his boyfriend.

"You'll never let that go, will you?", the ice-make wizard asked, rolling his eyes. "Come on. We've made the girls wait long enough. If Erza weren't terrified of you, she'd probably keep you awake for the whole train ride there. Who knows, maybe she's angry enough to do it anyway.", he said as they put on their backpacks and headed for the train station.

Edit: "If Erza weren't terrified of you, she'd probably keep you awake for the whole train ride there", i.e. she wouldn't let him sleep, maybe keep shaking him or something, but because she's afraid she won't touch him.