"So… what does one say to a stone?" A blonde-haired girl asked softly, almost in a whisper.
"You're probably supposed to say something like 'I love you and I'll never forget you'... But you knew that. 'You always knew that I cared, you knew because I told you and not your... " She paused for a moment and stared at the grey stone marking the freshly dug dirt as a grave.
NATSU DRAGNEEL it read.
It felt like she was lying buried too.
For a while she just stood there, staring down and trying to keep the tears away. Finally, she thought of something to say.
"I don't have to worry about crying now. With my Dad, I didn't, but things were complicated with him. With you, things were never complicated so I can cry. It doesn't take much, I just have to think of you and...and here come the tears. " She sagged to her knees, letting a steady stream of tears fall to the ground. When she calmed down enough, she leaned against the stone and looked into the sky.
"I know. I am a member of Fairy Tail, so I shouldn't cry. I always felt so loved when you would say that, then proceed to beat whoever made me cry to a pulp. It was never complicated, I was your partner and you were mine. I didn't have to worry about being lonely or offending you, because you were.. are… my best friend…. Speaking of best friends, I'm sure you're worried about Happy. He's awful quiet, not that we all aren't."
"But he's the quietest. He won't even cry. He floats around looking for something. I think he's looking for you, but he knows you're here and not…" She trailed off again, noticing the rain clouds coming in. They were on a hill. It didn't have a name and there wasn't anything very special about it, it just was. A grassy hill overlooking Magnolia with a gravestone on top.
"The others aren't doing so well. Erza is drinking more than Cana, Grey is taking more and more jobs, Lisanna hasn't been seen for days, and Master… Well he hasn't been much help either. We carried you and dug your grave and had your funeral, but that doesn't make you any less dead." She felt more tears, but she held them in.
"It's not how I pictured it happening. I always worried about you… this... You would be standing up to the bad guy one last time and I would hug you and… But it happened differently." She was shouting and trying to hold herself together, but she knew that piece by piece she was falling apart.
She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "No, that's not how it went down. It was so stupid… I guess I have to tell you because you didn't know when… it happened."
"I have pictured it so many times and thought of so many ways I could have stopped it from happening. You were at your house. You were sleeping after a long day. Happy and you didn't hear him in the middle of the night when he came in. You didn't know, you couldn't have known, when the assassin came and… and slit your throat." She was talking in a detached whisper. Only the tears leaking out of her closed eyes betrayed her true emotions.
"The next day… when you didn't come into the Guild… Grey went to find you. He knocked on your door and when you didn't answer he knocked it down. This is where he found you, he found what was left of you. Happy wasn't crying. He doesn't cry anymore. He…" Lucy wasn't able to continue. She sat there watching the clouds gather above her like the world was crying as well.
"...and here we are." She finished. "At your grave."