So, I know I have a couple of stories that are unfinished. But, my grandfather died so I don't feel like writing happy-ish scenes.
I will resume those stories when I feel better.
However, I've been twirling with the idea of the What if...
I've always felt that Natsu and Lucy were quite implicit in a lot of their interactions. Like they just get each other.
Idk, I just empathise a lot with Lucy's character and I just felt like this is what she would be feeling if Fairy Tail would expand their more mature themes.
Hope you enjoy the angst. Don't worry, it does end on a happy note but things will get a lot more complicated before they finally start looking up.
This is just my take on what could have happened with these characters, sorry if at times they seem too OCC. I would give it a try and see if you like it.
Enjoy!
Chapter 1: The End
They didn't have a talking-type of relationship.
He hadn't told her about Igneel.
She hadn't told him about Aquarius.
He understood though. The last time he had even smelled Aquarius was in Tartaros and, it irked him; something was up. Then he had seen it. Whilst looking for a marker to, once again, paint her face while she slept. He opened a small box. It contained one thing: a broken golden key. The moment his eyes landed on it his heart had burned. Was this why he had smelled the Celestial King back in Tartaros? He wasn't sure of the details but, he knew. He knew the pain she had to have endured until now. Giving up Aquarius meant that she had given up her oldest friend, her first friend and one of her only connection to her mother. That was another thing Lucy didn't talk about; her mother. Natsu understood, nonetheless.
She also understood. She knew first-hand what losing a father felt like. What's more, she knew what watching a parent die felt like. She was seven when she had watched her mother rot in a matter of days. Watched as her mother succumbed to her sickness and her father scrambled around the country to find anyone that could even prologue her life for an hour. It had broken her. Even to this day, thirteen years later, her mother's death was the source of many of her issues. So, she knew. She knew Natsu had seen Igneel, his father, get murdered. Because that's all he could do. Simply watch. He was impotent, just like she had been. She knew it had broken him, just like it had her.
They, however, didn't talk.
They remained silent. Wordlessly encouraging one another to improve and overcome. That had apparently, not been enough. He left her for a year.
He had left her.
Just like both her parents did, just like Aquarius did and just as the whole guild had. This, he didn't understand and possibly never would. He would never fully understand how much that had hurt her.
She, conversely, did try to understand him. She understood that it would have been a difficult decision and that ultimately, he had needed some time away. Time away from her. He needed to pull himself together. In a very Natsu-like fashion, he wouldn't freeze to the realization of how little he could do, he would break through it. Except, even if she knew, it was still painful and she was still scared. When her mother had died, her father morphed into a different person. The once gentle man became obsessed with work, too engulfed by his own grief and sorrow. Would Natsu be the same?
But, then, he had burst through the Domus Flau and melted it. All with his signature grin. She knew that history wouldn't repeat itself. Natsu wasn't her father. He had taken that time to piece himself together, at least enough so that he could face everyone.
That's perhaps how everything had begun: implicitly.
Those small unverbalized gestures, that, throughout the years had accumulated. From her pushing his head on her lap during train rides as she combed through his thick untamed locks, to him unconsciously putting himself in front of her at the sign of any type of danger. It was natural and it didn't need words. They were simply drawn to each other. He had a need to be around her and she had grown accustomed to his presence.
They had been best friends for years and, with every year it seems they would accumulate more and more layers. She just had to give him one look and he would know exactly what she meant, from "Let's go", to "Stop it". Even a twitch from her right eyebrow was enough to know what she was thinking about. And, perhaps after years' worth of indirect gestures and implications they had grown to be something more.
It had started with a drunken kiss. One that she wouldn't remember. But, to him, it was the moment where everything changed. An event that had turned what seemed a candle flame to a forest fire. That night she had awoken something within him that he hadn't been aware of. Natsu thought he had known fire but, she had incinerated him, scorched him raw. If his fire was red and untamed, hers was blue and directed.
Despite the thousand thoughts he had, he still said nothing to her.
What could he say?
So, he remained silent, painstakingly waiting for, well, anything. And, arrive, it did. This time, contrary to the forgotten kiss, they were both sober. It seemed that his habit of breaking into her apartment and sneaking into her bed had finally paid off.
He had sneaked, again, into her bed with another lame excuse. He had begun sneaking into her apartment because, in all honesty, he had never rested in anything more comfortable. But, now? He did it because she was there. After the kiss, he needed to feel close to her. That night, however, she had turned to look at him with big brown eyes and he knew. They had both leaned in.
That's all it took.
One simple kiss.
One simple kiss that turned into two and three.
They had found a new way to communicate un-verbally. It unravelled their friendship to its bare bones, it set them both on fire. And, burn they did. Wordlessly. They didn't need to talk. Not when their bodies could say the things that they couldn't bring themselves to say.
Perhaps this is why it hurt her so much.
Like a ghost, a small letter with her name appeared on her table. It was stamped, like it had been once, with an 'N', Natsu's N.
It hadn't even been a week since he had killed Acnologia.
Lucy fell to her knees.
She knew what that meant.
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A week passed and she hadn't opened it.
She couldn't bring herself to do it. Reading how he had left her again would destroy her, especially now.
Lucy looked down at the two lines.
It was positive.
She was pregnant.