Enjoy!
Disclaimer - I don't own Fairy Tail, unfortunately
"Natsu. I'm surprised you still remember me." The white-haired female smiled sweetly but her eyes told another story.
"I'm surprised you still remember where I lived."
"Of course I do. Look Natsu. I'm not here to reminisce about us." Lisanna's blue eyes stared at him intently.
"What are you here for then?"
"Lexi. Where is she?" Natsu was taken aback by this comment. "I need to speak with her, now."
"W-w-why…?"
All of a sudden, Lisanna's facial expression became dark and serious. "Natsu. She's not who you think she is. She's using you. I'm warning you now, get away from her. You and Haruto will only get hurt. I'm only here to protect you, I still care about you guys so much."
"What are you talking about?!" The male felt heat rise up in his body.
"I'm telling you the truth!"
"So you finally come back after so long and the first thing you do is insult my best friend?! Oh wait no, she's my girlfriend now. How dare you!" Natsu exclaimed.
Hurt filled the girl's eyes. "So you don't believe me? Oh and I guess you've been sleeping with every girl you've met have you? After I broke up with you, this is what you do? Get with a whore?! Look here Natsu! Do you even know who Lucy is?!"
"H-h-huh…? How do you know her name?! Lisanna. Look at me. Who have you been speaking to?" Natsu grabbed onto her arm, holding her firmly in place.
"Let go of me!" Lisanna roughly swung her elbows at Natsu to make him let go.
"Lisanna… when have I ever lied to you?"
"I-I-I-I-I…" The female shook her head. "I will not believe a word that comes out of your mouth. You're conspiring with her!"
Natsu was about to speak when suddenly he lifted his head up and moved his ears around. "Lucy's coming."
"I don't care. I need to speak with her anyway."
Before Lisanna could do anything, Natsu shoved her out of the way and ran out into the street, stopping right in front of Lucy.
"Oh! Natsu! Where did you pop out from? I was just about to-" Lucy's eyes drifted behind her boyfriend to see the white-haired girl looking at her. "- come visit…"
"Luce. Look at me."
She looked up at him, her blonde bangs covering her eyes. "I… I guess Lisanna's back."
"It's not like that. It's a long story but you've got to listen to me. It's serious." Natsu tilted her chin up with his finger as he looked into her brown eyes.
"Yes…?"
"I think she might know who you are… No I'm certain. But I don't know who she's been talking to but they have been feeding her lies. She kept insulting you and said that you're using me." Natsu shook his head. "At first, I thought it was jealousy."
"B-b-but… if she did talk to someone… it couldn't have been my father… he's in jail." Lucy lightly shoved her boyfriend out of the way to call out to Lisanna when her eyes grew wide. "Where did she go?"
Natsu turned around.
At the same time, the couple looked at each other and breathed out, "Haruto."
Knock, knock
"Come in!" Haruto sang as he shuffled the papers in his hands.
As the door opened, it creaked loudly and Lisanna poked her head in. "Haruto!~ It's me!"
The little boy spun the chair around and let his jaw drop.
"Lisanna!" He jumped off the chair and ran to her, jumping into the female's arms.
"How have you been?"
"Good! What are you doing here? Coming to visit?"
"Of course!" Lisanna kept her head low as she looked around cautiously. "Don't tell anyone that I asked you this, but what do you think about Lucy?"
"I really like her! She's really nice and funny and weird and she helps me with my homework and daddy really likes her so that means I like her too! I think she would make a good mama!" Haruto beamed as he smiled cutely.
Lisanna fell back slightly. "W-what made you think that?"
"HARUTO!" Natsu called out as he ran up the stairs, Lucy not far behind.
The male slammed the door open to reveal Haruto in Lisanna's arms.
"Hi daddy! Look! Lisanna's back!"
"Yeah… I know."
"Lisanna, we need a word." Lucy breathed out through tired pants.
Looking back at Haruto, Lisanna kissed him lightly on the head and then stood up and walked out the door.
Lucy closed the door and turned around to glance at the other female.
"Have you explained yourself to Natsu?"
"There is nothing to explain. Your mind is clouded. Someone has told you the wrong information about me."
"That's bogus! Why would someone lie to me…? Especially about something as serious as this!"
"Just tell me, who did you talk to?" Lucy stepped closer to Lisanna, placing her hand on her shoulder.
"I don't know her name… and I barely remember what she looks like. All that I recall is that she had brown hair, she spoke quite formally and she was dressed in a ball gown, which was strange."
"Hikaru…" Lucy let out a long sigh as she rubbed her temples.
"Who?" Natsu tilted his head to the side a little.
"Hikaru. Do you remember that guy that came over a while back? He had blonde hair, blue eyes and a scar across one of his eyebrows."
The pink-haired male slowly nodded his head. "I think so… You guys seemed pretty close."
"Yeah. Him. The lady, that I'm assuming that Lisanna is talking about, is his mother. I'm guessing she's going around and spreading lies about me. But why?"
"I think she's blaming you for what Jude did. She probably thinks it's all your fault."
"Wait… what's going on here?" Lisanna inquired, her face scrunched up in confusion.
"A lot happened when you were gone." Natsu cautiously looked over and saw Lucy's solemn face.
"I guess it's something that I shouldn't pry into. I won't. Don't worry." The female smiled reassuringly. "First of all, I would like to apologise for my behaviour earlier. You were right, my mind was clouded. I can't believe that I could've said such things. I'm so sorry." Lisanna bowed, her hair covering her face.
"U-u-u-uh… It's ok! Really, don't worry about it."
The white-haired female glanced at Lucy's arm and saw the scars which freaked her out.
"Um Lucy…? Where did you get those scars from?! Oh my God! You poor thing!" In a blink of an eye, she was by the blonde's side.
"Well… there was a fire. This place had to be rebuilt. It was… intense." Lucy vaguely explained.
"You can say that again!" Chuckled Natsu.
"Thank god you guys weren't badly injured. You do have a nice battle scar though, Lucy."
"Natsu too." The blonde pointed to his leg in which Natsu lifted up his pants.
"Oh my… that looks intense. At least you guys made it out alive." Lisanna sighed in relief.
Then, like a lightbulb had gone off inside Lucy's head, she began jumping up and down. "We have to have a welcome back party for you!"
"Eh? Me? No… I'm only going to be here for a bit. And I really don't want to be a hassle."
Pouting, the blonde puffed out her cheeks and turned to look at Natsu for help.
In response, he lazily shrugged as he made his way down the stairs.
"Natsu! Natsu!" Lucy called out to him several more times but he made no effort to respond. "Argh! You meanie!"
"Don't worry about it Lucy. I've got to drive back home anyways. I should probably get going." Lisanna turned around and made her way down the steps, jumping over the last 3.
Lucy quickly followed suit as she rushed to see Lisanna out the door.
"Wait!" The blonde lunged at the door and stopped the female from leaving. Lisanna looked at her in alarm.
"Y-y-y-yes…?"
Lucy stood up straight and regained her composure. "I wanted to apologise for Natsu. He's just being a jerk right now."
"Don't worry about it. I totally understand why. Just do me a favour and please make sure you always stay close to Natsu."
As quick as she could, Lisanna swung open the door and ran out, leaving Lucy with wide eyes. Quietly, the blonde closed the door and then trudged into the kitchen where Natsu was eating spicy chicken.
"Natsu…" Lucy sighed as she slumped into a chair.
"What's the matter Luce?"
"Why are you so cold to Lisanna?"
Natsu chocked on his food and started coughing hysterically. "W-w-w-what…?"
"You heard me. Why?"
"You know why."
"But that was so long ago! Can't you move on?!"
"But what your father did was a long time ago. You haven't moved on either."
The profanities that Lucy had planned couldn't leave her mouth. Everything got stuck and she ended up letting out a gasp.
"I-I-I'm sorry Lucy. I didn't mean to say that. It's just-"
"No. It's ok. I was being heartless and blunt. People have their ways of dealing with things."
"But, we made a deal to not fight our battles alone. And since we're also a couple now, I guess we're never going to be alone."
"I think I'm going to get a cavity at how sweet that was. Natsu…?"
"Y-y-y-yeah?" A blush spread across his cheeks as a thought popped into his head.
"I think I'm going to tell Haruto." Lucy released out a sigh, her shoulders falling.
A small smile spread across the male's lips as he suddenly wrapped his arms around her body, feeling her tense a little.
"I think it's about time." Stepping back to look at Lucy in the eyes, Natsu continued. "He already wants you as his mother anyway."
"H-h-h-he does?" Relief washed over her as tears sprung into her eyes.
"He thought that we were getting married and that you were going to be my wife." Natsu chuckled as he saw the blonde blush and fidget around.
"We are not married!" Huffed Lucy as she crossed her arns around her chest firmly.
"Yet." Once more, that smirk of his made Lucy melt.
In a way… I'm kind of glad that all of this happened. Even if everything I went through was torturous, if none of that happened, I wouldn't have ended up here.
All of sudden, like always, Lucy burst into tears. Natsu, of course, freaked out and flailed his arms about, not knowing what to do. Running out of the house, Lucy burst through the front door and sprinted out into the middle of the street, the male hot on her heels. As tears streamed down her cheeks and onto her attire, the blonde looked up at the night sky and stared at the stars. Feeling snot beginning to run out of her nose, Lucy used the back of her hand to wipe as much of it away but Natsu suddenly appeared in front of her.
"That's a little gross, don't you think?" He chuckled.
Lucy smiled bitterly as the tears continued to fall. Everything was just crashing down on her at once, memories of her sweet mother and the cruel times of her father. It was traumatic to say the least.
Natsu ruffled her hair softly and passed her a handful of tissues. Lucy gratefully took and made a great effort to wipe her tears but to no avail.
"N-N-Natsu…" Lucy let out through hiccups.
"Whaddya need Luce?"
"Why… why do the tears keep falling…? Why don't they stop? I can't stop them!" Feeling her knees buckle, Lucy collapsed onto Natsu and she began to sob into his shoulder.
"Luce… We go together or we don't go down at all. I promised I'd protect you. At the moment, I'm not doing a very good job at it."
"It's not your fault… I'm the one that's crying… Why am I so weak?" Lucy gripped onto his shirt as if she was hanging off of a bridge, about to fall.
"You're not weak. If there's one thing that I've learnt ever since we've met, is that you're the strongest person I know. You've been through so much but you're still here, fighting."
The blonde shook her head, her shoulders still shaking violently. "What do I do Natsu?! What do I do? I don't know what to do…" She balled her hands into a fist and hit his chest. With each blow, it got weaker and weaker until all that was left was her sobbing.
"A wise woman once said: Most of the time, you don't get to know what you're missing or even that you're missing anything, that's not your role. So if your role here is not to understand, then what is it?" Natsu smiled softly as Lucy looked at him with wide eyes, her sobbing stopping for a few seconds. Then, everything exploded like a bomb.
"I get it! I get it… My role is to accept… I just have to accept…" The blonde looked up at the sky once more, the stars twinkling brightly. "Do you hear that Mama?! I UNDERSTAND! I… MY ROLE IS TO ACCEPT!" Her voice echoed into the night and Natsu stared at her, his mouth open.
Suddenly, houses in the street began to turn their lights on and a few swear words were heard. Natsu quickly ducked back down and carried Lucy before sprinting back into his humble abode.
And, even after all that, Lucy was still crying but all that sobbing wasn't for nothing. She finally understood that the best thing to do is to accept, and move on.
Hope you guys enjoyed! The very last chapter is coming soon! Thank you for reading!