Hello again! Just when I thought I'd never get around to actually writing this thing, inspiration came...finally, the epilogue/sequel to Scarlet Heart is here!
Lucy turned to softly smile up at Natsu, "If we had met in another world or another time…I was thinking about how great that would've been. If only that could happen…I wouldn't fear anything. Then, I could love you all I wanted."
Natsu stumbled to a stop upon arriving at an intersection of hallways, his eyes catching a glimpse of familiar gold at the end of one of them.
His eyes widened, his breaths slowing the longer he stared.
It was her.
A sudden chill raced down Lucy's spine when she felt eyes on her, and her eyes widened as she turned over her shoulder, her purse slipping from her hand and its contents spilling across the floor.
He was standing at the end of one of the hallways that branched off from the large waiting room she was in, his hand clutched tightly around an IV and his face slack, his eyes filled with a strange mixture of disbelief and hope.
Some small part of her conscience told her that he was probably just another doppelganger or reincarnation or whatever else one might call them. She, Laxus, and Gildarts had one, so was it that unlikely that he had one too?
But the look in his eyes…it told her that it was him. That it was her Natsu.
His name slipped from her lips, at first in a whisper and then once more in a desperate cry, and she started running towards him through the crowded hallway without a moment of hesitation, tears streaking down her cheeks.
He started towards her too, though it was more of a hurried limp, his IV toppling over and yanking from his arm. But he didn't seem to notice in his desperation to get to her, his eyes never leaving hers and her name repeatedly slipping from his mouth.
They collided halfway, Lucy wrapping her arms around his neck and Natsu wrapping his around her waist. In his desperation to pull her closer, he lifted the blonde from the floor, both of them toppling over as his weakened legs refused to support their weight.
But neither cared as they crashed to their knees, still desperately clinging onto one another and burying their faces in the other's neck, soaking their skin with tears.
"Oh god, Natsu," the blonde breathily choked out between tears. "You're here. It's really you."
He pulled back from her tight grasp to get a better look at her, his hand finding her cheek and his thumb running across her skin to wipe away a falling tear. He hadn't seen her face in over thirty years, and just like always, she was absolutely, breathtakingly beautiful. Her blonde hair shimmered his favorite shade of gold, her eyes shining the dark brown he'd fallen in love with a thousand years ago. She wasn't as thin as she had been the last time he'd seen her, her frame sporting healthy curves which served as a testament that her body was no longer inflicted with the illness of the heart that had claimed her life.
The blonde's eyes widened a fraction as she did her own fond study of his face, her fingertips lightly tracing over the skin where, in his last life, his scar had resided. Her lips quirked lightly at the edges as she touched the smooth, unmarred tan skin beneath his left eye, her gaze constantly dashing between her fingers and his eyes.
"Natsu?"
The salmon haired man glanced over his shoulder at the light call of his name, freezing in place when he caught sight of Wendy standing at the end of the hallway, her eyes confusedly traveling between his toppled IV and the blonde he had in his grasp on the floor.
His focus was drawn back to Lucy as she let out a small breath when his sister started towards them. Her grip on his arms suddenly tightened, her gaze urgently boring into his as she hurriedly whispered under her breath to him, "Natsu, listen to me. You can't tell anyone anything about who you are. About who you really are. You can't let them know that you're from the past."
Natsu's brows furrowed, "Lucy…what-"
"Trust me, Natsu. Just pretend like you don't remember anything." Her gentle grin returned, her thumb lovingly tracing over his jawline one last time, "I'll come find you later. I promise."
He kept his gaze trained on her as she stood and quickly wiped away her tears before heading back the way she came, because after thirty years of living without her, how could he not stare? Their relationship had ended so horribly, and he'd allowed her to slip away only to drown in the regret of that decision for the rest of his life. And even after he'd been so cruel to her, she'd still waited for him to come to her before her death, her stubborn love for him only making him yearn for her more.
After she'd died, he'd been slow to accept the fact that he'd never see her again.
But now, somehow, by some divine miracle, she was here in this time period, alive and healthy. He'd always been told that the heavens held him in high favor, but he'd never believed in that idea as strongly as he did in this moment. Maybe this new life was a chance to fix things, the chance he'd been hopelessly yearning for since he'd lost her. And he trusted that Lucy wanted to fix things, too. Her last letter to him before her death was proof of that fact.
She said that she'd come to find him again later, and so he'd wait for her like she had for him all those years ago. And when she came, he'd take his chance to finally apologize.
Wendy finally made it to him, gently helping him stand while her eyes remained fixed on where the blonde had disappeared to, "Natsu, who was that?"
He thought over his words carefully. Lucy would've been his wife if the laws of Ishgar hadn't prevented their marriage, and even if she'd never officially earned the title of his counterpart as king, he definitely still considered her his only queen.
If he was going to trust Lucy's words though, he couldn't tell his sister any of that, or anything about the happenings of the past and where he truly came from. So even though the blonde was his everything, he settled on a simpler term, a small smile on his face as he breathed out, "An old friend."
Natsu nervously twiddled his fingertips on his thighs as he sat in his hospital bed, waiting for the group of doctors outside the door to enter and begin their examination of him.
Wendy was seated at his bedside, her hands quietly clasped in her lap as she, too, anxiously waited for the examination to begin. The blunette had told him that she was there to fill in the gaps he left open, and he was grateful for her presence, the whole appearance and atmosphere of the hospital, plus the unsettling time travel situation he'd been entangled with, still putting him on edge even though it'd been a few hours since he'd first gained consciousness. Even if he had no memory of her being his sister, he still inexplicably felt comforted with her at his side.
The fact that Lucy was somehow in this time was another great source of relief, though he'd definitely be questioning her later about how the hell the two of them had ended up a thousand years in the future.
The two doctors finally brushed through the door, and Natsu was taken aback when he realized that they were both female. Doctors had always been male during the Ishgar Dynasty. Women had never even had the opportunity to access the knowledge that the occupation required.
Under Lucy's wishes, Natsu had strove for equality during his reign, not particularly between the genders but between all people, and if the two women before him were anything to go by, it appeared that such had been the goal for many years after his rule came to an end.
The older of the two women, her hair a light pink, grouchily came to stand at the end of his bed with the younger, more vibrant pink haired girl following in her wake, "I'm just going to ask you a few simple questions. Then from there, we're going to decide how to go about your treatment. Understand?"
He swallowed and nodded his head, preparing himself to follow Lucy's advice and act like he didn't remember anything. Though, he'd never been the best liar, so he was incredibly nervous. He'd always preferred more straightforward means of conducting business, namely intimidation and if it came down to it, threatening others with his sword. But his trusty blade wasn't at his side this time, and he was sure such conduct definitely wouldn't bring about anything good. So he'd do his best to deceive and hope that they fell for it.
The old woman cleared her throat, ready to take notes on a paper she'd somehow secured to a piece of thin wood, "Do you remember your name?"
At least that had stayed the same in the transition from past to present, as proven by his earlier conversation with Wendy, "Natsu Dragneel." Last names had never been commonly used during the Ishgar Dynasty, so it felt strange to identify himself as such rather than King or Prince. Titles were always the preferred method of address, and those that were close enough to forgo titles usually used only first names. But he had always like the ring of his full name, feeling particularly attached to the similarity of his last name and the word dragon, the zodiac of his birth year.
The doctor seemed to be somewhat in tune with his thoughts, her next question being, "What about your birthday?"
He almost answered that question truthfully, nearly letting it slip that he was born on the twenty-fourth day of the fourth lunar month in the year of the dragon. That date was so ingrained into who he was that it was hard for him to accept the fact that that date may no longer belong to him. Lucy had warned him about revealing who he was, so in case his birthday had changed during the transition from past to present, which it surely had because he certainly didn't physically feel like he was over a thousand years old, he hesitantly answered, "I…don't know."
"July seventh, nineteen ninety-three," Wendy quietly filled in for him, her eyes watching him in concern.
Natsu struggled to do the math in his head. In this time period, he'd been born in nineteen ninety-three, and the current year was twenty eighteen. So that meant he was…twenty-five?
"Do you have any memories of the crash?" The old woman pressed on with her examination.
He decided to answer her question truthfully, assuming that the crash she was referring to was the horrendous mess of twisted metal he'd woken up in the middle of earlier and determining that there could be no harm done in explaining the memories he'd made since his arrival in this time, "I remember waking up afterwards, but that's it."
When it became clear that he didn't remember much, the doctor addressed her next question more towards Wendy than him, "Does your family have a history of memory loss or any neurological diseases? Does your brother have a history of seizures, headaches, depression, or cancer?"
The blunette shook her head, her brows troubled and her bottom lip caught between her bottom teeth, obviously feeling upset at the implications of the doctor's questions.
"What about your brother's alcohol and drug use?"
Wendy shook her head again, more insistent this time as she replied, "Natsu's never taken any drugs other than for medical reasons, and he'd only ever drink casually on the weekend with friends. I don't think he's even been drunk before."
The old woman busied herself with scribbling notes onto her sheet of paper, mumbling over her shoulder to the other, younger woman every now and then. When she was done, she gave the patient before her one last glance over, "We'll have to conduct some neurological exams to check the physiological aspects of your brain and nervous system. You may have hit your head harder than we thought, Mr. Dragneel."
Without giving them a proper farewell, she strutted out of the room, Wendy hurriedly calling out a short, "Thank you!" before the door slammed shut behind the doctor and her assistant.
Silence filled the room in lieu of their exit, and not knowing what to do next, Natsu slowly turned his gaze to Wendy. He pressed his lips into a thin line when he saw the tears gathering in her eyes, her fingers clenching around the hem of knee-length skirt. He was supposedly her brother in this time period, and he definitely knew what it felt like to watch as a sibling endured a daunting trial. Of course he wasn't really her brother and his memories weren't really gone, but to her, it certainly had to appear like such was the case.
He really didn't know the first thing about her, but as he watched her try to conceal her face from his view as a single tear slipped free, he felt the unexplainable urge to comfort her nevertheless. So he awkwardly cleared his throat in the silence, swallowed heavily before he quietly began, "Um…everything will be okay, Wendy."
Her lips lifted in a small smile despite the tears in her eyes as she turned to him, "Of course it'll all be okay. Because you're you and nothing ever slows you down."
Natsu's attempt at a smile faltered as her last statement made him fully realize the weight of that fact that he wasn't the person she thought he was.
It was quite obvious to him that he'd be spending quite a large amount of time with Wendy given her relation to him, or rather her relation to the body he'd somehow wound up in, and there was a very high possibility that he'd even be living with her. And he knew well the weight of losing a sibling. He'd endured the deaths of six of his brothers, and although three of them had stood against him in the fight for the throne, he'd still felt torn apart inside by losing them. That crushing pain was something he'd never wish upon anyone.
So for now, Natsu resolved to do his best to fill in that hole in her life, and maybe, someday he'd work up the courage to tell her the truth.
Natsu let out a content hum as he shoved another piece of chicken into his mouth, loving the burning feeling on his tongue.
Wendy had taken upon herself the task of ordering his favorite food for him from something called 'the cafeteria' before she left for the day, hoping it might somehow spark his memory. He'd felt like he might start crying at the spicy taste of the chicken that had been delivered to his room shortly after. The food in this time was absolutely amazing, and he'd decided that eating was definitely going to have to become a new pastime of his.
He was drawn out of his appreciation for his chicken when there was a light knock on the open door, and his sauce-covered lips pulled back in a bright grin when he saw his favorite blonde standing in the doorway of his room.
Lucy knew she didn't need an invitation to come closer, quickly taking a seat on the edge of his bed and facing him with a laugh upon her lips. She giggled as she retrieved his napkin from the tray that had been placed over his lap, lightly dabbing away at the sauce on his lips, "I see you still have the same sloppy eating habits. I guess not even becoming king could fix them."
Her giggles died out as she mentioned the past, and Natsu knew right then that she'd come to fulfill the very same goal he had, to finally figure things out and start over if they were ready.
Natsu reached forward and grabbed one of her hands between his, threading his fingers through hers as his gaze thoughtfully traced the lines of her knuckles, which were no longer hardened by the callouses she'd had whilst they were in Ishgar, "Where did things go wrong? When did we stop spending our time like this?" He finally lifted his gaze to hers, "I know you'll be completely honest with me, Lucy. I don't want you to suffer because of me anymore. So tell me everything."
She swallowed heavily, hesitating for a second as she thought over her words carefully, "I…I think it all started when I stopped liking you. I still loved you, but…I just…didn't like being around you anymore. I hated constantly feeling like something horrible was about to happen. And that's when I knew my mind was preparing my heart for that moment…the one where I'd say 'I'm done' and really mean it." She ran the tip of her thumb over the back of his hand, "The hardest thing I've ever done was walking away from that palace, still madly in love with you."
Natsu dropped his gaze to his lap again, regret lacing his voice, "I should have chased after you the day you left, but I thought you might hate me for thinking I still had the right to love you after all I'd put you through."
"I never hated you, Natsu," her tone was slightly harsh, obviously upset that he would even think she felt like that. But she knew with the way she'd left him, it would be hard for him to believe otherwise, so she hurried to explain herself, "I hated the way you spoke and the things you did." Her lip quirked in a soft, reminiscent smile, her tone a lot lighter than it had been moments before, "But then I remembered the boy who took me to see the stars and risked his life to stand beside me in the rain. I remembered the man who saved my life more than once and comforted me when everyone else who stood by our sides' lost their lives," she respectfully bowed her head for a moment, thinking of those who had wrongfully been killed during her years spent in the Ishgar dynasty. After her moment of reverent silence, she lifted her head to the salmon haired boy in front of her again, "So no, Natsu…I never hated you. I might have told you that I despised you once, but…I never truly hated you. I hated what you'd become."
He nodded his head softly in understanding, his eyes downcast and his brows furrowed as he thought over her words and how he would respond.
Lucy let him take his time, feeling no need to rush the situation given how long she'd been waiting for this moment, the moment when they finally had the chance to set everything right between them.
Natsu swallowed heavily, his voice slightly choked and somehow full of both regret and acceptance as he began, "I did the things I did not because of who I was, but because of who I had to be. I had to be the King of Ishgar, not just the Natsu I was before when I could spend every second of every day with you."
Lucy quietly listened to him as he spoke, her fingers still comfortingly threaded through his. He didn't sound as if he was trying to justify his actions, but he did seem to yearn for her understanding.
"I thought that if I did the things I did, the nation would finally be at peace, and no one else would have to suffer like my brothers and I had," his lips pressed into a thin line bitterly, his brows furrowed together in pain as he thought about the past. "I was trying to be everything to everyone, and somewhere along the way I lost myself completely. And in the process…I lost you, too. I didn't realize how much wrong I had done until you left the palace."
Lucy quietly watched on as a few tears began to stream down his cheeks.
Hearing his words gave her an entirely new perspective on those last days she'd spent in the palace. His duties as King, and the pride that came along with his status, had never allowed them the opportunity to speak so openly at such a great length about their feelings.
She'd always known that too many hands had shoved and beat him down when they should have been lifting him up. It was terribly cruel that he had been forced to learn about love from those who had never loved him. His deceitful mother, his so-called 'adoptive family,' and even a few of his brothers had always treated him with disdain. That had made him trust in others a little less and selfishly cling to love when it was given to him to prevent it from leaving again. And with his need to cling to love, he'd turned into a monster in her eyes.
But now, as she looked at him long and hard, all she saw was a man broken by years of tragedy and pain, forced to do the unspeakable. She didn't see the demon that everyone else used to say he was, the monster that even she had grown to see him as. Now that the throne was long gone and his country had fallen only to give rise to a new one, she saw him as all he ever wanted to be seen as. He was just Natsu, and that was all she needed him to be.
He sniffled, trying to get his emotions back under control, "Lucy, why are both here now? How are we both here?"
She lightly shrugged her shoulders, wishing she had an answer for him, "I really don't know how you're here, Natsu. But as for me…this is the time period I was born in."
His eyes widened a fraction in disbelief, "What?"
She bit her bottom lip and lightly hummed as she nodded in affirmation, "Yep. I was born on July first, nineteen ninety-four."
His expression remained frozen in surprise, and so she continued to explain, "About two years ago, I drowned during a solar eclipse."
"What?!"
She lightly chuckled at the way his face paled at that piece of information, "God, you don't have freak out like that. I'm still here, breathing right in front you, aren't I?" She sighed and went back to explaining, "Anyways...I was certain I was going to die, but then I woke up in the middle of the royal hot springs of the palace, my consciousness in the body of a girl who looked exactly like me."
Fear laced his voice as he quietly asked, "Then...do you remember how we met? Or...or was that the other girl?"
The blonde smiled reassuringly, letting out a small laugh at the memory, "That was me. You saved me from falling off a cliff. And then you threw me off of your horse, like, five seconds later."
The tension in his expression faded now that she had set his concern at ease, and he went back to quietly listening to her speak.
Her tone shifted, suddenly a lot heavier than it had been before, "And then when I died because of my ailing heart…I woke up back here, with no memory of all that had happened while I was in Ishgar. It'd been a year since I'd nearly drowned, and I'd been in a coma that entire time. It's been about a year since I woke up."
Natsu's eyes searched hers, "Then…how do you remember me now?"
Her lips quirked in a small smile, "I had dreams about you nearly every night. And then yesterday…I saw a few paintings of you and it all just clicked back into place. I remembered everything." She turned to face him, "And now you're here."
She bit her lip as she gave him a moment to think over all that she'd just told him in silence, her own mind still reeling over the fact that he was really here. She let out a breathy, somewhat bitter chuckle, "I'm still trying to understand why the universe would bring two people together only to tear them apart. It's cruel." She'd spent a grim portion of her time in Ishgar witnessing every single relationship between her friends come to an early, horrible end. Sting and Yukino, Gray and Juvia, Erza and Jellal, Gajeel and Levy. And despite how much they'd fought to stay together, even she and Natsu had been torn apart in the end. But now they were here, together again. She turned to give him a small smile, "But for whatever reason, the universe decided to give us a second chance."
"Well then…let's make the most of it." He swung his legs to the side of the bed that was open and slid off the mattress, restraining a small wince as his bruised body complained at the movement. He quickly circled around the bottom of the bed and came to stand in front of her with a bright smile on his face, his hand extended out towards her, "Shall we?"
Lucy returned his goofy grin when the familiar action caused a memory to resurface in her mind, one from her birthday over a thousand years ago.
Natsu let out a sigh and held his hand out to her, "Let's go."
"What?"
"It's my present for you. I'll take you somewhere nice," he grinned softly at her. "So let's go."
With a small laugh, Lucy slid her hand into his, just like she had back then.
The universe had gifted them with a second chance, giving them new lives to recover from their past and set out on a new adventure together.
And just like Natsu had suggested, they were sure as hell going to make the most of it.
AN
I'm baaaaaacckkkk~ Yaaay!
I really thought I'd never get around to writing this, but like two days ago, I just suddenly got the urge to abandon the other fics I'm getting ready to publish and work on this instead. So here it is six months late...finally!
I'll be adding onto this randomly whenever inspiration comes and I have the time to write. I am currently working on two other fics that kind of have priority over this one, but I'll try and work more on this in the future.
Some notes:
In terms of tone, this will obviously be wildly different from Scarlet Heart. It'll have some semblance of a plot instead of just being a bunch of oneshots like I was originally planning and there will be a few bits of angst since I'm trying to wrap up some of the happenings in Scarlet Heart, but there will be an overwhelming amount of fluff, too, since these guys deserve it after all I put them through.
Since the plot of this fic is so open, I wanted to let you guys know that I am open to receiving suggestions for what you'd like to see. I think it'd be cool if we kind of collab on this as an author and her readers in terms of ideas for the events of this story. Whether you have a suggestion for something Lucy could take Natsu to do to give him the full experience of the modern world, or if you want to see other characters from Scarlet Heart make an appearance, please just pm me or leave your suggestion in the reviews! I can't promise I'll include all of them, but I'd like to be able to hear what you guys would like to see!
Before you leave your suggestions, I do have a few things about the plot of this fic that I've already decided on as an author, so make your suggestions with these things in mind: Unlike with Lucy in Scarlet Heart, a few people in this fic will eventually be finding out that Natsu is from the past. Also, the only people to have been brought to the future from the past will be Natsu, Lucy, and Gildarts, though I'm not entirely certain if Gildarts will show up again at this point. He probably will, but I just don't have specific plans for him yet. So, that means that even though people like Gray and Laxus will be showing up in this fic, they won't have memories of the past because they're entirely different people in this time period. Additionally, I already have plans for Natsu finding out about his daughter :)
As always, thank you for reading!
