Save for the weird clothes that appeared after the big burst of light, Lucy was unchanged. Well, mostly. She smelled a little odd, but Natsu couldn't tell if it was a her-thing or a touching the magical-artifact-thing. On second thought, the magical cube thing smelt like metal, and only the tips of Lucy's fingers smelt like metal, so he didn't think it had that much to do with it. Suppose he could get a little closer to her, but he didn't want to get Lucy-kicked again this morning. Then, instead of complaining about her change of attire, Lucy fell right on her ass. Or she would have, if Natsu wasn't so quick and hadn't run to catch her just on time.
"Tsk, show off." Natsu turned to scowl at Gray, Lucy still in his arms and very much not conscious.
"Wanna go, ice princess?"
"Whenever you like ash for brains."
Natsu snarled at Gray and almost let Lucy fall as he instinctively went to strike a guard. He figured he could not do that with Lucy still there. So he started scanning the guild for a place to let her rest.
"You two!" Cold sweat dropped down his neck, the telltale of the she-devil's influence. Slowly, and hoping very much not to see Erza, both him and Gray turned their heads to see (yep) Erza glare at them from her chair by one of the tables.
"Yes, Erza?" Natsu forced a grin for her and hoped it would please her so she would not decide to behead him on the spot.
"Enough."
"Heard you loud and clear!"
"Aye, sir!" Vent on not dying a cruent and painful death, Natsu stopped fighting before he even began. Which reminded him that Lucy-with-the-weird-clothes was still unconscious in his arms. Huh. What should he do with her? Maybe put her down on a table? Or like, a couple of chairs? From behind him, Levy started approaching him, although he heard her light steps before he saw her.
"What happened to Lu?"
"Dunno. She was fine couple minutes ago, she just touched the magical thingy that's on the floor near Charle and Happy and now she's like this, but she's breathing fine to me, so guess she'll just wake up in a few."
"You should really put her down." Levy said, grinning at him as if they were privy to some sort of inside joke that Natsu was absolutely certain he had no part in.
"Ya. Jus' dunno where."
"Natsu!" Erza called and Natsu did not shake in fear, he just, uh, vibrated from how fast he turned towards her. Yeah. "Maybe put her down on the table next to me, it's empty for some reason."
"I can do that." So Natsu walked in between tables, the multiple conversations between the guild members started to die down as more of them started noticing the unconscious Lucy he kept carrying like a baby sack of potatoes. He steadied Lucy on one arm, then used the other to swipe off the condiments and napkins from the table and gently laid Lucy down on its surface.
Happy flew to him very soon after he laid her down.
"Is Lucy alright?" Happy asked. And Natsu did not know, but she seemed alright, so he wasn't about to worry Happy.
"I guess so."
"What do you think happened to her?" Tsk. As if he knew.
"Didn't you see when the magic thing fell off its box? The fuck you think I know that you don't Ice Fuck?"
"Well, I don't know, it was you who took the request. You should know." Gray was asking for it, he better watch it, cause Lucy not waking up in the last five or so minutes was already stressing him out and violence was a question Natsu tended to answer affirmatively.
"Well I don't." He bit out.
"Obviously, idiot."
"Who you calling an idiot, idiot?"
"Who you think, idiot?" Oh that's it, that was fucking it.
"Gray, Natsu. Enough." Okay, maybe it wasn't. Natsu had some modicum of self preservation left in his body to know that if Erza said enough, it was enough.
As a small crowd started gathering around Lucy's sleeping body. Vaguely, he heard Erza call Wendy. Natsu began eyeing her curiously, she was wearing a skirt, like always but normally she didn't wear gray skirts, or cardigans, and most weird of all: no neckline. She was wearing a shirt not unlike the ones Erza wore sometimes, with a baggy light yellow cardigan, some mid calf gray socks (another abnormality, since when magic clothes did not come with a low neckline or thigh highs of some sort?) and some brown flat shoes that were kinda ugly and that he knew Lucy would never voluntarily wear. Her hair was all short too. She hadn't worn it short in a long while, so she'd probably get upset when she woke up to that. He'd have to get her something to cheer her up about that.
She still smelled odd. Just to check, Natsu lowered his head over her to better sniff her out.
"Oi, creep, what the hell are you doing?" Gray elbowed him, but Natsu ignored him. She smelled like Lucy but weirder. Like different soaps from the ones she owned and just something different.
"She smells weird but I can't pick why." Gray and Erza looked at him as if he were the one who smelt weird, but then Wendy stepped next him and nodded her head.
"I wanna smell her too, I think Natsu is right."
"Really?" Erza put on that face she put when she was confused but decided to just accept the information she was given. So she and Gray must have gotten over their weird confusion.
Wendy bent over Lucy, gave a good sniff and said, "She smells like Lucy but it's all wrong, it's like the things in her scent that should smell thick are like really thin? If that makes sense?"
"Yeah! Like her scent normally has this really sharp thing to it because of all the perfumes and scented lotions she uses and then underneath all that she smells like something thick you know?"
"I know! And now the lotions are all different and the smell under that is just thinner."
"What do you guys mean thinner?" Gray said as he took off his shirt.
"Wouldn't know how to explain it. Smells are just like that."
"I see." Erza nodded her head solemnly.
"Wendy, can't you heal her?"
"Oh, I almost forgot." Wendy put her hands over Lucy and produced her green glowy magic, then she frowned and looked up at them. Natsu looked at her expectantly, "Nothing's wrong with her, she's just really asleep." Natsu breathed out in relief. That was good. Everyone around them was glad to hear it too, so the little crowd started dissolving and everyone went on their merry way, save for Erza and Levy who stayed with him watching over Lucy.
"When do you guys think she'll wake up?" Levy said, grabbing a chair from the table Erza had been sitting at before.
"It better be soon, 'cause I wanna hand out that magic thingy already and I can't do that without her." Erza grabbed a chair too, but Natsu did not feel like sitting, so he stayed standing. After ten more minutes of boring himself to death as Erza and Levy chatted about books he did not care about, he thought it would be hilarious to tickle Lucy with her hair to wake her up. Snickering to himself, he grabbed some of Lucy's (now shorter) tresses and started tickling her face.
And it worked! Natsu Dragneel, certified genius to the rescue. Natsu barked a laugh in triumph as Lucy squirmed, opening and closing her eyes to adjust to the light. Erza and Levy stood up next to him.
"Lu!"
"Lucy!"
"Are you okay?" Lucy opened her eyes fully and started sitting up almost as soon as she did so.
"Moo, my head hurts." Her voice was slightly off too.
"Lu-chan! You woke up!"
"How do you feel, Lucy?" Lucy looked around as if she were lost, then she focused on Erza, and she could have had question marks over her head for all he knew.
"Huh? Erza, why are you in cosplay?" Then she inspected Levy from head to belly (there she zeroed in) and screeched like a banshee. "Ehhh! Levy what's up with your belly? Are you having an allergic reaction?"
"What do you mean cosplay? This is my normal armor Lucy."
"Allergic reaction? Lu I'm pregnant! Why are you being so mean?" Natsu did not know what was up with Lucy, but she was being so weird it was even weirder than normal.
"Pregnant!" She screeched again, as if she had not been the first to find out like a month ago. "Don't worry Levy! It's not too late! We can get to a clinic," what's a clinic? "Oh my god, did you tell your mom??" Mom? What was Lucy talking about? Levy had no mom. "No wait, don't tell her, she's gonna murder your ass. And since when?? I thought you and Redfox hadn't gotten that far!"
"Redfox?" Natsu repeated, convinced something was very wrong with Lucy but unable to quite put it in words yet. "Since when do you call him that?" Lucy looked at him for the first time since waking up, and then rolled her eyes fondly, as if he were the weird one.
"Since forever, babe." Okay, what was up with that. "And where are we?" She asked, then she grabbed Natsu's shoulder, which was beyond abnormal since she never initiated contact so casually with him.
"This is definitely not the club's sports center... are you guys pulling a prank on me?" The more Lucy spoke the closer she got, and Mavis, he was really weirded out by this behaviour of hers. And it was kinda pissing him off because she was not acting like herself and it made him uncomfortable. She passed an arm over his shoulder and stepped as close as she could to him, pressing half her body to his side now.
"Oi, Luce why ya gettin so–" but then, mother of all fucks, he did not just imagine that: Lucy kissed the corner of his lips like it was the most normal thing in the world. Natsu, who was apparently not yet out of his mind, pushed her so far he fell on his ass. " OI, OI, OI, LUCY WHAT THE HELL YA DOING?"
"Natsu you jerk! Since when can't I give a kiss to my boyfriend? Are you cranky cause I caught you in your prank?"
"They liiike each other." Happy flew over them, cackling with laughter in what seemed to be the most justified teasing he had ever done. Natsu would have ignored him, like he typically did but he was so shocked he just stared at Happy, mutely asking him if the last few minutes had truly happened.
"Master!" Natsu yelled over in the direction of the bar. "I think Lucy's broken!"
"Did that blue cat just fly and talk?" Lucy was still looking at Happy, apparently. But she looked at him as if she had never seen Happy before.
"Duh, that's Happy, Lucy."
"Oh, of course, yep." She said very seriously while Natsu stood up from the floor. "I think I know what's happening." She said, looking at Erza's armor, then at Happy and then at him. "I think someone got me high and I'm tripping. Yep." And before Natsu could ask what the hell she meant, Lucy fell soundly on her back and this time did hit her head pretty hard on the edge of the table.
Lucy woke up to pain pulsing dully in the back of her head and in her back. Just what the hell had she done? Had Natsu bad-influenced her into another stunt combo? She'd kill that goofy ball of chaos if (when) she found out this was his fault. Her next move would have been to incorporate herself but she heard people speaking and she was curious so she decided to repress a giggle, pretend to be asleep and eavesdrop like a pro on whatever gossip she could catch.
First she heard Cana's voice.
"Guys she's not possessed, the cards would have told me." Okay so just who did this band of idiots think was possessed? And why was Cana's solution always asking the cards?
The next voice that spoke was Macao's, and he sounded weirdly as if he had smoked about forty cigarettes that very morning. "Yeah, but it's not like she went anywhere either, Miss Two Of Wands." Lucy fought the urge to google two of wands. She could google it and find out the context later.
"Maybe she did go somewhere." Natsu said pensively, and what was up with that, since when did Natsu think.
"Why you say that Natsu?" Now it was Levy who spoke, and Lucy was bombarded with the image of Levy from her weird dream. Pregnant Levy. Just thinking about her made Lucy's skin crawl. Thank goodness it was just a weird dream, Levy would literally die if she became pregnant before graduating high school.
"She smells different, I don't think that's our Lucy." Wait a minute. Wait a fucking minute. These idiots were speaking about her? Man she just passed out from doing some… thing? She couldn't really remember what, but the fuck? And they thought she was possessed? Or that she was not 'herself' because Natsu thought she smelt weird? Trust Natsu to come up with the most ridiculous things. Lucy just could not keep herself from smiling just the tiniest bit, that idiot.
"But she knew who we were." Levy said, and Lucy pictured her trying to be the voice of reason, maybe agitating her hands as she tried to explain to the idiots from the club that there was no way Lucy was possessed or not herself. Oh man, her back hurt. Well, at least she could focus on how she hurt and memorize how to use it for a description, at some point she was sure she could use it for her writing.
It was like a dull sort of pain but it radiated from the center of her back to her sides. And the same went for the back of her head. She hoped she didn't have a concussion, because if she had a concussion and her idiot friends were discussing possession theories instead of calling an ambulance she'd be mad.
Lucy went back to her eavesdropping when she heard Natsu raise his voice.
"She called Gajeel 'Redfox'!" You would think Natsu believed she had no manners or something.
"Maybe she just learned to respect me."
And then, Natsu said the most outrageous thing. "She kissed me! Lucy would never kiss me, she literally made me kiss Happy that one time I lost a bet to lil' Asuka and she told me to give Lucy 'a big smooch'" Okay so maybe everyone knew she was awake and were playing a prank on her or something. Natsu had been her boyfriend for one whole year, she didn't know any Asuka and what he had just said just made no sense. Whatever was happening, it was a very badly timed prank, but Lucy would be smarter, she had caught them all beforehand.
"Asuka told you to what?" Al sounded truly horrified, Lucy did not know he could be such an actor.
"Oh my gods, I'm so sorry Natsu, I don't know why she would–" now came Bisca, who maybe sounded more embarrassed than horrified, so perhaps this Asuka person was meant to be their mutual friend. Lucy was sure they were going to pretend like Asuka had always been there or something.
"It doesn't matter, really."
"He liiiikes herrr." Now that voice Lucy did not recognize, it sounded really high pitched and kind of reminded her of the flying cat from her dream.
"Maybe we should question her?" That was Levy again, and by then Lucy felt betrayed, Levy was in on it too? She had expected it from Natsu, but Levy? That was low. Then she heard some light steps approaching her, and a really loud sniff, that Lucy struggled not to react to, because she was really committed to acting as if she was still unconscious.
Wendy's voice spoke over her, "I agree with Natsu, she does smell different."
"Maybe it's a thing from the magical cube? Maybe it'll pass by the time she wakes up." Gray said, thickening the plot of their prank. A magical cube. And they thought she was going to buy that? She could have a concussion and they were happily discussing magic items for their prank.
"Let's hope so, but if not maybe we have another Edolas situation and it'd explain Cana's two of wands." Now Lucy did not have time to process all that, because after Gramps finished, —cause of course he had gotten into this stunt too— Redfox blew her cover.
"You guys did notice that Bunny Girl's copycat's been awake for a bit right?" Silence followed his words.
"Yeah, why." Then Natsu agreed, and after him Wendy.
"Yep." More silence followed Wendy's voice for a couple of seconds and then everyone started acting all surprised, as if they had been caught off guard that only Wendy, Gajeel and Natsu had known. So Lucy decided it was time to put an end to their little prank.
Ah, jeeze. She had not expected to get all dizzy when she sat up. Maybe she did have a concussion. Lucy blinked three times, trying to focus her eyes. Both her plans of asking for medical aid and of ending her friend's prank were forgotten instantly. Those walls looked really familiar. And since when could they afford tapestries with the club's logo? It looked like it had been embroidered on some really nice fabric. Where had they brought her? And hadn't they gone a little overboard with this prank of theirs?
"Guys it's over I know you're pranking me. But seriously what is up with your clothes? And where's this place? How far are we from the club?" Everyone was wearing weird clothes. No one's attires matched, as if they were all dressed for completely different places. But her eyes were naturally driven to Natsu who was wearing this weird sort of coat with an arm off that looked like some fantasy knock off, his signature white scarf and white baggy trousers. Oh gods, when in hell did he get a tattoo? Igneel was going to murder him. No, wait, everyone had tattoos. Fairy Tail tattoos. They had to be fake. They better be. "You guys had enough budget to pull this off, with the embroidered tapestries and the fake tattoos and those clothes but we couldn't save the old dance building?"
"Yo, guys, it's confirmed, we have another Edolas situation." Natsu said, completely ignoring her.
"Natsu I don't know what an Edolas situation is and I don't care, can't you guys just stop? I already figured you guys out." Then, the cat from her dream appeared from behind Natsu and flew to his shoulder.
"Is Lucy broken Natsu?" The cat spoke again and Lucy reached for her wrist to blindly pinch herself.
"Okay," Distantly, Lucy eyed Levy, backing out from the crowd, carrying a leather bag that had to be the least Levy thing she had ever seen. If she had any doubt that this was not real, this confirmed it, Levy would never carry such a formless horrible thing. Levy liked cute things. "Freed!" Levy called, shaking her ugly bag in the air, "I'm going to the library to investigate this thing, you coming?" Then Freed with green hair, which might as well happen, came from a corner of the room (a place she had not been seeing, but oh shit, there was a bar there! With alcohol bottles and everything!).
"Coming right behind you." He said, and disappeared behind a door with Levy. Why had Levy just abandoned her to go to the library with green-haired Freed of all people? (Why was Freed's hair green?)
The crowd closed in on her, while Lucy attempted to take everyone in in silent panic.
"I am not high, am I?" Cana, who was wearing only a bikini top and a long skirt, snickered.
"Not that we are aware of, oi Wendy, can you check if Edo-lucy is high?" Wendy looked at her frowning (and now that she looked at her from up close, Wendy's hair was a dark blue) before nodding and walking towards her.
"I don't think she's Edo-Lucy." Natsu said, sniffing the air around her, "Edo Lucy smelt a lot more like sweat and she'd be trying to beat me if she were Edo Lucy."
"And didn't Edo-Lucy have short hair?" Gray perched in.
"Now that you mention it," Erza with the armour top and the mini skirt also stepped closer to her. Then she grabbed her hair with brusque hands.
"Ow! Erza!"
"Ah, sorry, Lucy. But, I think you're correct, Edo-Lucy had short hair."
"Who's Edo-Lucy?"
"The Lucy from Edolas." Natsu said as if it were obvious. Everyone around them nodded.
"Where's Edolas?" Lucy asked. It was an inertial sort of thing. She was barely processing the green glow coming directly from Wendy's bare hands (no LEDs, no nothing) in front of her, least of all the information.
"She's, uh, sober, but I fixed her back and her head, you're going to feel a little tired not-Lucy."
"But I'm Lucy! And where or what's Edolas?!"
"In another dimension." Natsu said, again with that matter of fact voice that made her feel like she was the dumb one.
"Ah, of course." Lucy nodded dumbly. She was in some other dimension, where she didn't have her actual friends, and her boyfriend was not her boyfriend. In her mind, she saw her real friends as if through broken glass, their faces distorted, their shapes growing further away from her until she could barely make them out in the distance. Slowly, as if afraid her own friends would vanish from her memory if she took them in completely, she eyed fantasy-knock-off Natsu, then Gray and Erza.
Then she started crying.
There is one thing that Natsu knows for certain. Lucy is Lucy. Even if she is from another time or another world. So when he sees her start crying, his body moves on autopilot. He's just there, kneeling before this weirder version of his best friend and trying to reach her eyes.
"Yo, Lucy, issokay," oh, man, Gray is so going to get him for this. Lucy's irises drop down to her feet and then up to his eyes, no, actually, maybe she's eyeing the wall. She has little tears dangling from her eyes and her nose is already red. He can't help but think that she must come from a very different place than his Lucy.
"I–I don't know where I am and I don't know how to go home". Well, that's something he can solve, he thinks. Wendy observes quietly beside him, Natsu guesses she's not really used to seeing Lucy cry like this.
"You are in Fairy Tail, and don't worry, Levy's investigating the magic cube that got you here, so you'll probably be back soon."
"This place's really called Fairy Tail too?"
"Yeah, it's a Mage's guild. Is it one too where you come from?" Natsu made an effort to keep his voice gentle.
"No, where I come from it's a community club, it offers sports and a library and that sort of stuff." Well, that was similar enough. He thought. "Also why do magicians need a guild?"
"So that they can find jobs that the magic council approves of, I think." when he was younger and the most the council had ever done was bother him about property damages, he too had asked himself why did mages need a magic council. Funny that.
"The what council?"
"The magic council."
"Right. The magic council in the magical dimension with the magic cube portal." Lucy pinched her wrist and Natsu fought the urge to snap her hand out because he felt like she was pretty close to either bruising herself or drawing blood.
"Yeah." Natsu shrunk his shoulders, he did not know what else to say. Lucy proceeded to dry some of her tears with the back of her hands and started nodding at him.
"Okay."
"That's it? No more crying then?"
"No more crying, if you are sure I can go back soon and this place is magic, then it's okay. I'm not stuck here forever, I'll go back to my Natsu and my friends." Before Lucy can change the topic, Natsu gets stuck on her wording. It makes sense that the one time he gets to hear Lucy say 'my Natsu' it's not the real Lucy. Well, his Lucy, the Lucy from Earthland.
Life has that way of giving him the things he most wanted and then twisting them. He wanted to find his father, done, but half an hour later he's dead. Hurray! The girl he likes says 'my Natsu' and it's a girl from another dimension. Ha ha. Very funny universe.
It's not like he doesn't like other girls. Natsu has always liked girls. It's just that he didn't like them in the Loke way of liking girls. He just liked girls. They smelled nice and calming.
He supposed between growing up with Erza and Mira as the paramount of strength and the fact that he has always had a very sensitive nose that often ended up hurting when exposed to too many bad scents, it was only natural that he would gravitate towards girls.
They were cool and strong and smelled good.
He also grew up with his best friend being a badass girl and was now currently best friends with another incredibly badass girl (he's a little too in love with Lucy but that is not relevant... Yet). It's impossible not to like girls. What's not to like? Girls tended to be soft skinned (except Erza who had more calluses in her hands than he ever will) and they also tended to be squishy. Natsu liked squishy, it made hugs warmer and nicer. Even Erza is a little squishy, but she covered that with a plait of armor 'cause it made her feel vulnerable.
So, yeah, Natsu really liked girls. But normally it's only in the company and friendship way, not in the I-want-to-give-you-babies way.
And now's when him being in love with Lucy became relevant: 'cause Lucy smelled heavenly, especially when she forwent her perfumes and scented lotions. And she was so smart, she always figured everything out. Lucy also gave the best head rubs, and she was nice, caring and insanely resilient and strong and she's also soft and squishy. And fuck. He had never noticed girls could be so pretty, but sometimes he looked at Lucy and it physically ached.
And this Lucy kissed him on the mouth today, and said the words "my Natsu" which kept playing in his mind like a broken lacrima record and damn, he never thought he could be jealous of himself.
But would you look at that. Fuck this other Natsu for being able to be with Lucy. Why could other Natsu's be with their Lucy's and he couldn't? Not fair universe!
Natsu was glad no one could read his mind. Unless Warren decided to be an asshole or Cobra was somewhere in the vicinity. He hoped they were not. He'd rather no one ever know how fucking sappy he can get.
Out the corner of his eye, he spied Warren pondering the request board and started sweating just a tiny bit. Think normal. Uh. Platypus! Platypus! Platypus! Banana river! Governor parking lot! Mount Hakove. Uh, food. Mm, food, maybe he should get some. Wonder if his Lucy ate something yet?
Oh man, he was trying to get somewhere with the reasons he liked girls and how that connected with Lucy, but now all he could think about was a giant bowl of fried rice and meat.
Wait, shit, Warren just left the request board and headed off to Mira by the bar. Okay. Don't panic. There's no way Warren was reading his mind. Mira is the biggest gossip in the guild but Warren wouldn't choose to spy his thoughts just when he was being the sappiest little prick on earthland. And he wouldn't run off to Mira right after. Right, fuck, please talk about the job you're taking, please just talk about the fucking job, I can hear you Warren, he thought, you say shit about my thoughts and I'm burning your ass.
Thankfully Warren went on about some lame lacrima business thing and did not spill any potentially incriminating details about his previous thoughts, unless his lacrima investigation and development project was a secret code for gossip with Mira. It wouldn't be that, right? Mira would so do that, but would Warren? Yeah he'd probably but it would not be his idea and by now Natsu would have known if anyone had thought of it. So he was in the clear.
Just to be on the safe side he shouted across the room to Mira to ask her if there was still some fried rice. There was, would he like a bowl or the pot? The pot, of course, so Mira went back into the kitchen to bring him the pot with fried rice and chicken.
So, contrary to popular belief, Natsu was a big fucking sentimental bitch. And, also, Lucy-from-the-other-dimension had been asking him something and he had absolutely ignored her in favour of his own thoughts.
"Whatcha said again?"
"I asked, where are you on the aro-ace spectrum?" Lucy-from-the-other-dimension repeated slowly, her eyes were still puffy but she was smiling softly now, much calmer than she had been before.
"What's that?" To that, Gray started snickering.
"She just called you a virgin."
"Eh?" First came confusion, then the inescapable urge to hide his embarrassment in teasing, "why'd you ask that, you perv?!"
"No! That's not what it means! Ace people can have sex, you idiot! If they're not sex-repulsed. I only asked 'cause you don't seem to, you know, like the Lucy from this world…" ha! if only he didn't like the Lucy from this world. Apparently, Happy did not buy that, nor Erza, or Gray or Mira who had been eavesdropping from the bar, cause they all started laughing and contradicting her.
"He loooooves her." Natsu ignored Happy, unwilling to confirm or deny anyone's claims on the subject.
"I dunno, it's just that, in my world, Natsu is demi, so I thought, maybe the reason you're not with the Lucy from this world is cause you don't like anyone that way, either sexually or romantically." Natsu's cheeks tinted red just the slightest bit.
"Er, no. I never even, uh, thought about it?" Gray smirked at him while Erza put a solemn hand on his shoulder and Natsu thought, fuck it, he could kill these pair of idiots. Maybe not Erza. But definitely Gray. Although, then Erza would obliterate him. Natsu settled for discreetly elbowing Gray hard on the ribs.
"Oi! The fuck's wrong with you? Did the flames finally melt off your virgin brain?"
"Wanna go, ice bastard, huh? Want your ass beaten that bad?" Natsu proceeded to grab Gray by the shoulder and push him to the side forcefully. And if Lucy-from-the-other-world remarked on the low to Erza that he hadn't answered, Natsu made no move to let her know she had been heard.
After handing Gray his ass back on a platter Natsu was in a great mood. Actually, up until he inertially walked back to Lucy (like he always did after brawling) he had all but forgotten about the switch. When she was in front of him, the air around smelled different than it should and her clothes were all wrong and it clicked that, yeah, 'course, that wasn't Lucy. Still, she was a Lucy and she seemed friendly. At least friendlier than Lucy Ashley.
"Yo, Lucy!" Natsu sent a toothy grin her way.
"Hey Natsu. Done with your fight?"
"Yep, Gray ate the floor, everything's as it should be." Natsu grinned again, enjoying the burn in his knuckles and the memory of the punch that did Ice Dick in.
"I'm, uh, glad? I never know if I should, like, stop you guys, but usually where I'm from you guys only push each other around, you never all out– you know. Here I'm not even sure if I'm allowed to intervene."
"You heard that Salamander? You guys are a bunch of weaklings in Bunny Girl's copycat world."
"Whatcha said iron breath? You wanna go too?" Natsu said, voice as sweet as it would go, he even blinked sweetly at the bastard. Besides him, Switched-Lucy grumbled, probably irritated. For what, he had no idea.
"You know, my world is not a copycat of this."
"That's what got you grumbling like that?"
"I don't grumble!" Switched Lucy said indignantly and Natsu eyed Happy who instantly looked back at him with the same evil glint. So that's what made her tick, huh? Happy flew towards them at top speed, requesting to be the first to tease her with his eyes, Natsu tipped his head. Permission given. Natsu snickered in anticipation, this Lucy was not so different from his!
"No Lucy! You roar! Like an angry Vulcan!" Happy circled the air in front of Lucy laughing at her, "She's just like our Lucy! Just as weird! Roar Lucy!"
"What did you say you little piece of shit? I don't know what a vulcan is here but your vieja por si acaso!"
"Natsuuu, Switched Lucy is cursing mee!"
"Yo Lucy one thing is grumbling like Vulcan but you can't curse Happy, besides, your world's magic is no use here."
"Natsu you dummy! That's not a curse that's Spanish!"
"How you expect me to know that, Luce?" Natsu said, still enjoying rattling her nerves.
"Yeah!" Happy chimed in, lest he be forgotten from this conversation, batting his wings just out of Lucy's reach. Actually, was this Lucy shorter than his Lucy? "How do you expect us to know that Weird Switched Lucy!"
"I'm not weird! You're weird! You floating cat!" Didn't they speak Spanish in Bosco or something? Earthland Lucy was not from Bosco, though.
"Ayo, Lucy."
Lucy turned her head from over the chair she had climbed trying to catch Happy. Natsu suppressed a giggle. She was gonna fall right on her ass if she kept doing that. "Are you from Bosco?"
"What part of I'm from another world haven't you gotten?" She sent him a glare but just as he had been anticipating: the chair gave a d she fell down, sending him through a fit of giggles and her grumbling insults again.
"Well," Natsu said, still battling for breath as he wiped a small tear from his eye, "whatever," switched Lucy sent him the Lucy look, the one you're enjoying this entirely too much and I'm gonna Lucy-kick the joy out of your throat. Natsu's smile only widened. "somewhere where they speak Spanish in your world?" This Lucy was pretty snarky. But he couldn't tell if his Lucy was any less snarky. This Lucy lacked his Lucy's obsessively well-bred composure. She didn't seem to stand up as straight either, now that he paid attention to that.
"Yeah, I immigrated from Argentina when I was a kid. My mum's from there and, and initially she wanted to raise me there, my dad's a gringo, but a few years after la crisis del 2001 my father was like no, this place is no good for business, and we up and left back to the land of capitalism. Hurray."
"What's a gringo?" Natsu said. From behind him, Erza appeared and grabbed a chair next to him. Well, shit, there went his possibilities to bother Switched-Lucy.
"What's la cris-crishis? Del dousmil wuno?" She asked.
"Well, uhm, we call gringos the estadounidenses.. They like to call themselves Americans, I don't know what's the name of this continent–
"Ishgar." Erza supplied.
"Well, imagine some country decided to call itself the United States of Ishgar, and then all of its citizens called themselves Ishgardians, and then everyone in the world thought that they were the only Ishgardians. So yeah, they call themselves Americans, as if they were the only ones, but we call them gringos 'cause when they were invading the Mexicans they said to them green-go! But in Spanish it sounds like gringo, and it stuck with the rest of the continent." Natsu yawned loudly. Not at all interested in half the stuff because he was kind of absentmindedly looking at the bar and also, he didn't care that much for a history lesson from another world.
"And the crishis thing?" Erza on the other hand seemed to differ.
"I don't really know that much about it. I was really little, Argentina has this sort of cyclic economic crisis that comes 'round every couple of years, and after ten years of economic fallacy it all sort of fell apart, there were like 5 presidents in a week or something. Wait, this fantasyland has democracy or do you guys have kings and queens?"
"Kings and queens." Where was Gray? He felt like picking up another fight with him. Elfman was chatting with Mira and Lisanna and they were too far away.
"Oh. Yeah, no, I'm not gonna explain democracy."
"Actually, I've been meaning to ask," Erza said, "how are we in your world?"
Now, Natsu did not want to know that. But also he really wanted to know. One half of his brain was curious to know about this other world and how his other self had gotten with Lucy. The other really didn't want it rubbed in his face. Besides, he was growing restless just sitting and listening to everyone talk and Lucy be not-Lucy. Natsu decided to sulk in his chair and glare at Happy, 'cause he echoed Erza's question, the little traitor.
"Well, uh, back home Natsu is my boyfriend. His hair is still pink, he's third generation Japanese, which is a country on the other side of the world in my world, wow I said world like three times." Not-Lucy eyed him nervously, as if asking him if he felt awkward. No shit. "He's actually a pretty great artist, he likes drawing dragons and he's always doodling on his hands. Happy is a grey cat there but he doesn't talk. Cana is from Colombia so we speak Spanish together and we usually are the ones to smuggle the booze cause latines usually start drinking way younger than gringos, so, yeah, hey don't look at me like that Erza! My Cana doesn't match yours but I'm still nowhere near her either! If you were to ask my cousin Mica, though, I think she and your Cana would really get along!"
"Lucy, I was hoping you would tell me a bit about my mother?" Oh shit, Erza really wanted to go there? This Lucy probably wouldn't notice how hard that subject might hit Erza.
"Oh! Your mom's awesome! What's up with you asking about her? Also, uhm, can we visit her maybe? Her cooking is so great and I bet fantasyland her must have magic recipes!" Natsu felt his stomach drop. He could hear Erza's pulse going up and she definitely looked pale. He was gonna have to tell Lucy about everyone's parents, wasn't he?
"So, she's alive there?"
"Oh, oh my god, I did not know she wasn't alive here!"
"No one's parents are alive here, Luce. Except Romeo's and Asuka's. But that's just 'cause Alzack and Bisca are her parents, and Macao's right there. Lucy's dad died a few years back." Well, now the room felt all gloomy.
"Oh. Oh, I'm so sorry!"
"No, it's okay, I actually want to know how she is when she's alive."
"Oh, uhm, okay, she's really cool. She's a single mother, but she's really nice, she's always taken care of you, or, well, my you, my Erza. They are really close, and once when you were a kid you were kidnapped by this weird cult and she literally tracked your location to a big mansion and set it on fire. Legally we're not allowed to say that, but we are not bound by the laws from my land here!" Natsu eyed the cracks forming on the wood next to where Erza was digging her fingers, then Gray walked back from the kitchen where he had apparently been before and joined them on the table.
"So in your world my mother is nice."
"Did you not know her much here?"
"No. I only met her last year and a few hours later she was dead."
"Oh."
"Why are we talking about this?" Gray asked.
"Erza wanted to know about us in her world. But Not-Lucy didn't know we're all orphans so it got all gloomy."
"All of you are really orphans?"
"Well, yeah, mage guilds exist so that mages can find jobs that are legal but they also exist to take in children who are alone in the world, they provide magic training, guidance and help them feed themselves."
"Sounds better than in my world. We don't have magic there. And orphans go to orphanages and they are not really the best places, the adoption system is pretty corrupt and unreliable, kids are left in the system for too long and you know, it's all around not great."
"There's orphanages here too," Gray said as Natsu balanced himself on the chair, already bored out of his mind, "but kids get to decide."
"I hope they are better than in my world."
"Well, I wouldn't know much, but maybe you could ask Cana, she goes to play with the kids from one pretty regularly. I think she takes Wendy too sometimes." The conversation might have piled uneasy topics onto boring topics one on top of the other until time itself screamed, but luckily the main door burst open to reveal Levy, Freed and Gajeel.
"Attention everyone! We bear answers!" Levy exclaimed. Instantly, Natsu stood from his seat, grinning madly, he could not wait for some good old fucking answers. Without thinking, Natsu grabbed not-Lucy by the wrist and dragged her up to the doors. Not-Lucy whined at him but Natsu just ignored her. In his haste, he almost ran over Levy. Luckily, Gajeel tucked her in by his side just in time to let Natsu crash into Freed, Lucy tumbled once more unto the ground and Levy screeched.
Now, normally, that would be enough of an offense for Gajeel to offer Natsu a piece of his mind. With his fists. But in the balance of things, Natsu's impulsive ass weighed nothing against the benefit of teasing the ever living hell out of Levy for her squeamishness.
"Oh, my fucking god, Natsu would you take some fantasy adderal?!"
"I do not know what that is but sure!" Lucy made a sound in between groaning and screaming.
"What's that Shrimp?" Gajeel snickered, making his best imitation of Levy's high-pitched voice.
"Gajeel! It's not fun, let me tell everyone." Levy tried to push his shoulder in retaliation.
From over the floor, where Natsu had not-Lucy in a headlock because she had the mistake of trying to fight him for her troubles, Natsu interrupted "Oi shut up dickhead, munch on some nails or something, I wanna hear Levy." Gajeel almost felt sorry for not-Lucy. She clearly did not know that in play-fighting with Natsu, 'play' went in inverted colons.
"Okay," Levy began, "er, Freed and I found a book on relics that can be used to change dimensions. Ours is called a Quantum Jumper. They're mostly used for trade, but they are easy enough to understand. There aren't that many of them so we should be careful with it."
"Gotcha," Gray said, nodding and taking off his shirt, "Fire Breath don't get near the thing."
"Whatcha trying ta say ice dick? Huh?" Natsu scowled at Gray, absentmindedly tightening his hold on not-Lucy, man she was taking her time on giving up. "I can be hella careful!" Not Lucy whined and Natsu registered that it was her giving up.
"Got yet to see that." Gray taunted, walking up to them, Natsu stood and prepared himself to punch the droopy eyed bastard as soon as he got close enough. He heard not Lucy gruffly agreeing with Gray from the floor. Fucking traitor.
"You gonna see it real good when I hand ya yar ass back" then, he added "but carefully."
"Would you two knock it out already?!" Levy's voice interrupted what was gonna be a good fight.
"Starting these fights is not manly!"
"He started!" They said simultaneously.
"No, he did!" Natsu was getting inertially pissed, if Ice Dick kept copying him, Levy was gonna have to suck it up 'cause yeah, no, they could not 'knock it out', he could knock Gray out, though.
"Stop copying me you bastard!"
Then, Erza got involved, saying "Gray, Natsu" very softly and suddenly fighting was not a fun prospect anymore.
"AYE SIR, WE LOVE EACH OTHER."
"Listen to Levy." The she-devil said.
"Aye, sir!"
"Anyways," Levy glared at them, "the Quantum Jumper is pretty rare but Hibiki sent us a really useful guide on it from the archive once we figured out what it's description matched." Levy went on to explain how the cube thing worked to take their Lucy and replace her with this weirder version of her. Natsu grew bored almost instantly.
"Oi Levy, can't you get to the point?"
"Natsu!" Not-Lucy exclaimed indignantly, "Be nicer!"
"Ha? I was being nice."
"No you weren't, you big jerk, that was rude!"
"Oh? Sorry Levy." Natsu really did not mean to make her feel bad even if he did not understand why that would make her feel so. It always seemed like Lucy ended up being right about something being rude and shit, so he'd give it to not Lucy.
"It's okay, Natsu." Levy said, "Um, the main thing with the Quantum Jumper is that its lacrima is really delicate but it has to be charged with a lot of mana, so you gotta charge it slowly." The blood drained from Natsu's face.
"How slowly?" He asked, pretending to be unaffected.
"It's gonna take a couple of days, three days tops but that should be it." Oh. It wasn't going to be a slow moon-drip on Galuna island. Just not right now. Thank Mavis for that.
It turned out that people made of flesh and blood could have fire dance upon their fingertips, pull armor out of thin air and sculpt ice from nothing. Lucy was going to use that as an introductory sentence at some point. The Request Board and it's requests for fire mages, script mages or mages that 'specialize in monster extermination' was a wonder in and of itself, but after arriving at the conclusion that the thing that had brought her onto Fiore, she had started asking everyone to show her their magic.
As expected, Natsu's fire had made her little brain melt into a pile of hypnotized goo. Maybe it was a mix of the man with her boyfriend's face (actually his muscles were bigger than her Natsu) and the fact that fire literally burst from his naked fingers. After Natsu's magic, she saw Erza's, Gray's and Levy's and most of everyone at the guild. Her second favourite was Mira's transformation magic.
Then, she asked what her double's magic was and it turned out she could summon celestial spirits. Like. The zodiacs. On the one hand it was not as cool as transforming into whatever she wanted or being a literal firebender, on the other: Lucy was an astrology bitch through and through. She felt so validated just now.
The awkward stage in which she found out everyone was an orphan (including her double) gave way to an incredibly enjoyable tête a tête. Conversation between the fantasy counterparts of her friends came easy. Almost as if they had known each other, right? Okay. Lucy still had to work on her comedy skills. Nevertheless, she felt pretty comfortable, sitting across Natsu and Erza, and tracing the ways in which they resembled her own Natsu and Erza. They smiled the same, their eyes seemed to follow the same sort of glint. Even if in her world Erza's hair was more orange and Natsu's dark roots were almost always visible, they still spoke with the same voices.
It occurred to Lucy to check her phone. To take a few pictures of everything she could bring back home. The tiktok app greeted her the first among her other apps, as it made the most contrast with her Kirby background. Lucy bit her lip, pulling on the slightly dry skin that indicated she should be drinking some water. Lucy ignored her body's biological needs in favor of the most important realisation of the evening:
"You guys don't have tiktok here!" Someone asked if she believed they had no clocks. Lucy thought it was old Macao. But then Natsu answered, possibly forgetting clocks were a thing too or he would have teased her with an incredible amount of misplaced smugness.
"No…?"
"I don't know whether that's a curse or a blessing," Lucy said, barely containing excitement before going off about her world again. It was so fun to teach them all about it! "On the one hand, you don't have to deal with any of the regurgitated Tumblr discourse, on the other you guys can never experience all the memes, I'm so sorry for that– wait, oh my fuck, if you guys don't really have internet, then you also don't memes! Or Tumblr, how's it feel not to have experienced the hellsite? I almost wanna stay."
"… hellsite?" Erza asked, eyeing Lucy with a mixture of confusion and worry. It filled Lucy with a soft fondness. Her Erza would pull the exact same face when Lucy confused her too. It was so endearing! "Is that a really bad place to be? Like a jail or something?"
"You know, you might be onto something." Lucy grinned, all teeth and fake shivers. "It's like a virtual jail, but the abuse is mostly psychological, there's the occasional death threats but I don't think anyone's gone through with them."
"I'm really worried about this internet thing," Erza said, to which Gray nodded. "I think the archive is not that bad."
"Wait, you have an archive? Like an Archive Of Our Own archive? Or like a web of files?" Lucy was aware no one would understand her reference, nevertheless, confusing people about it was being very entertaining.
Unfortunately, Gray cut through her nonsense, not unlike the way he did back home. "Like a magic web of files on mostly everything you can think of that some mages can conjure and explore."
"Right, so like the internet but less accessible and probably way less cool."
"Pretty much." He nodded.
"Wait no!" Levy cried out, "Archive is really cool! It can telepathically transfer information and spells!" While that was infinitely cooler than the internet, as a citizen of the earth, Lucy felt she had a duty to defend the internet.
"Well, where I come from magic doesn't exist but anyone can send info through the internet to anyone they want to."
"Do you guys at least have lacrimas there?"
"Like tear in Italian? You know we can cry too, right? Sheesh, Mira, not you guys doubting my humanity."
"No, I guess you don't. It's these crystals that store magic energy, and sometimes they can transfer images and sounds or they can serve as communication devices."
"Ohh, like TVs and phones, gotcha, gotcha, can I see one?" Lucy watched Mira dig into the pocket of her red dress for the lacrima.
"Sure, here ya go." It was a crystal. The kind of crystal that looked like it would cost a fortune back home. It was polished, and it emanated a sort of brightness that had nothing to do with its smooth, reflective surface. With a flick of her wrist Mira made it light up even more and it showed Lucy something like the screen of a smartphone, only with apps designed completely different from the ones she knew and a thousand times fancier.
"Oh my gods that looks so much cooler than my phone! Hold on, lemme grab it. Ah here. Oh hell yes, look at that, I still got battery! Through here I can go through the internet, record and take pictures and I can talk with all my friends, and also receive school emails which are not as fun… I JUST HAD A REALISATION, C'mere you guys, do some magic, Imma become tiktok famous real soon!"
Normally, Lucy felt no need to fill the silence with unnecessary words. But she was walking home with Natsu. Who was not Natsu. Not her Natsu at least. A Natsu that was not her boyfriend. Who seemed to only feel comfortable with her when he forgot she was not the Lucy from this world. It was hard to walk beside him, minding a certain distance. She was so used to walking beside Natsu while holding onto his hand or his arm, or just peppering him in random displays of affection. It sort of felt like rejection, the way he studiously kept his hands in his pockets and walked silently watching the canal to her left. Lucy tried not to feel hurt by it, tried to remind herself that this was not her Natsu. This one eyed the edge of civilization between water and vereda with absent longing, as if it lacked something. Lucy could not tell what.
"Not risking it today, Miss Lucy?!" A man's voice said from the other side of the canal. Lucy wondered what they could mean. But found she was renuent to let silence dominate their path any longer now that the men on the other side of the canal had spoken. Briefly she tried to reach for any topic of conversation that she could share with this sulky stranger that wore the face of her boyfriend.
"Hey, Natsu," Natsu turned to look at her, Lucy tried to find anything at all to comment on and locked her eyes on his hair. "I was just thinking, that even in another dimension you dye your hair pink." Natsu did not react. "Consistency is awesome," she added, with a small pathetic giggle. "Though," she began again, in a quieter, more defeated voice, "you do a much better job covering your roots in this dimension than in mine." That seemed to do the trick. Suddenly Natsu's face transformed into a playfully sharp grin. Literally sharp. All his teeth were sharp. Especially his canines.
"What ya mean dye? This is my hair." This was a magic world. Of course. But giving up after she had just gotten him to talk to her was not an option. Okay. Think, Lucy, play dumb but say something witty!
"Yeah, sure, and my dad's not abusive." Smooth.
"Your dad's abusive?" Oh, no. Quantic Natsus seemed to be all equally protective and she had just activated Protective Natsu Mode. Lucy had to make light of the situation or this conversation was going to get too dark for the sun to still be out in the sky.
"Duh?" Admittedly, a small corner of her soul wondered if she was the only Quantic Lucy to have to deal with an abusive father. She should probably feel good for all the other luckier Lucies. And she kind of did. But also no. Because it was not fair. But she ignored that selfish corner of her soul, she was better off now, anyways. "Where's that consistency I was talking about? Does this dimension's me not have to deal with mister Emotionally Stunted Mc Dictionary Manipulator?"
"Your surname in your dimension is McDicshona– dictina–"
"No silly! I was just being sarcastic. 'Cause I hate my dad."
"Oh. I don't know much about it, our Lucy doesn't talk much about her dad," well, would you look at that, maybe she wasn't the only quantic Lucy to suffer through Jude Heartfilias's temper, "especially since his death, but they did not really get on before." Okay, time to bring up something lighter, something that didn't resonate today's earlier awkwardness.
"So, er, anyways, how do you dye your hair here? Do you use magic for that too? Or is there normal dye?"
"I told ya, this is my hair, always has been."
"No way! Hair doesn't grow that sort of color… right?" Maybe it could be a special Natsu thing, even if they were in the mystic magic realm of Knock Off Fantasyland not everyone could have those sorts of hair colors naturally.
"Have you seen anyone here?"
"Everyone's hair is like that naturally? No way! Oh, my dimension's Natsu would be so jealous! Isn't there like a charm or something I could bring my Natsu to make his like that too? He'd be so happy."
"Dunno, maybe ask one of the girls? I really never looked into it."
"Wow, you're just so different from my Natsu." Lucy looked out into the charming street they were walking by, rows and rows of picturesque and vaguely renaissance. She was resigned to Natsu's sulkiness.
Then lo and behold, the dude broke the silence without further encouragement.
"Hey, can I ask about something?" Lucy was surprised that he would ask anything, but she was more than eager to keep an easy conversation going.
"Yeah, sure, shoot!"
"Is my dad there? Like. Here, he disappeared when I was a kid and I spent years looking for him and then it turned out he had hidden in me or in my soul or something like that to seal the dragon seed inside me from turning me into a dragon." Well, holy ravioli, that was one monster of an info dump.
"Woah, slow down, what do you mean dragon seed," Lucy started laughing. Naturally, Lucy only processed the last bit because it sounded raunchy. And because it was easier to poke fun at shit rather than going through the mental mechanics that psychoanalyzing everything about this Natsu would bring about. She had already put her metaphorical psych hat on but still, she could only process so much at a time. First fantasyland, then the complex trauma of her fantasy knock off friends.
" I don't think I've told you, but I use dragon slayer magic, cause my dad, who was a dragon, taught me dragon magic, but that would have turned me into a dragon if he hadn't done whatever it was he did to hide inside me"
"Do you have any idea of how bad that sounds, Natsu?"
"HEY! YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THE PERV HERE!"
"Oh look! We made it, Strawberry Street! Haha"
Her counterpart's apartment was many things. Well cleaned, well lighted, in a nice place and had a really cool dark academia meets chic vibe to it, with the plants and the books and the hyperfemininity of it. That is to say, Lucy loved it there. The place, however, was not, by any stretch of the imagination, big. It was a one bedroom apartment, no real living room, a small but decent kitchen and a bathroom whose only redeeming quality was that it had a pretty big tub.
"I didn't think the other Lucy's house would be so small." She said as an afterthought. Her apartment was not really all that big either. Unexpectedly, Natsu got instantly defensive.
"It's not so small, it's a really great apartment?!"
"Yeah," Lucy smiled lamely, trying to placate him. She almost tried to hold his hand, like she would to her Natsu. Her hand was left hanging awkwardly for a few seconds after she realised this was not her Natsu. "But, um, I don't know, I thought mages going on risky missions all the time would afford bigger places..." Natsu looked at her as if he were looking at an innocent child. Her Natsu would have served a Oh you sweet summer child with that look. However this Natsu only shook his head.
"Being a mage is hard work and it doesn't pay as much as whatever your dad or real Lucy's dad makes… made."
"Touchè I guess."Thinking about her dad's business left a sour taste in her mouth, so Lucy awknowledged it and proceeded to throw herself on her counterpart's comfy bed. It smelt a little like perfume and clean smoke, like wood smoke or something like that. Pretty nice altogether. Maybe Natsu from here smelt like that. But wouldn't that mean that he slept with lucy? Hmm. Were they at the 'best friends that slept next to each other stage'? She was pretty sure Natsu's body language would have been different if they were beyond that. One could only assume.
No, actually " Hey Natsu," one could ask. Natsu looked up from the stack of papers he was reading while lying on the floor.
"Yeah?" Okay. Okay.
No, she couldn't. She'd keep assuming. Think of something else, la puta madre que me parió. Oh! That's it!
Lucy made a show of looking pensieve "You know who I haven't seen yet?
"Who?
"Erza's boyfriend." That seemed to spook the soul out of him. He looked like he was experiencing some sort of empathetic pain, like when she bit the tops of her ice pops and all the guys near her complained about having 'felt it'.
"Erza's wHAT?!"
"Erza's boyfriend, you know, a lil tall, has face tattoo, el Geral, he's part of our little latine squad back home"
"You mean Jellal?"
"That's a weird way of pronouncing it, but given that Gerardo is an ugly ass name, I can understand it."
"Do you enjoy messing with my head?" Lucy gave him a toothy smile.
"Yaa I do."
It was way too dark out. Lucy's phone had already died but she knew it had to be way past midnight. They had eaten fish for dinner and it had been more filling than she had expected it to be. Then she had taken a nice bath and changed out of her sweaty outfit and into one of her counterparts clothes. She was kind of tempted to steal some of her clothes just because they were so nice. Her own self would understand. But then, Lucy knew she would never dare to do that, she could still daydream, though.
After that, Lucy put herself to do the lord's work: she taught Natsu how to play truco. So far he had been beating her round after round for about an hour. Fucking consistency of the multiverse. Could she not win against one Natsu?
Very unfair of the universe if you asked Lucy.
Lucy looked down at her cards, decided to try and trick Natsu, chanted "I want envido" and was surprised to find that Natsu's eyes were eyeing down but not at his cards. "You got it or no?" She said impatiently, and sort of hoping he would be distracted enough to fall for it.
"Huh? Uh, is 27 worth something?"
"Fuck, that`s a point for you. I hate you, I don`t wanna play anymore. Lucky bastard." Natsu snickered and started teasing her, like the cocky brat hijo de puta he was in every single dimension. Wanting very much to shut him up, Lucy chose violence.
Lucy looked at Natsu with a completely straight face and in her most serious voice said, "You know I could see you, right?"
"See me what?" He said, still smug.
"When you were staring at the mommy milkers." Simultaneously, he paled and blushed. Take that.
"The what the what?!" Ah, revenge. Lucy smiled evilly.
" You know, the mommy milkers, my huge badonka bonkers, my huge double magumbos, my gomas if you will." Lucy cackled at Natsu`s horrified face. He wasn't having such a good time at her expense now, huh?
Natsu buried his face on a pillow then whined. "Why are you like this?"
"Dunno, I suppose your Lucy is like this too, maybe she's just not like this with you yet." Maybe she had gone too far. This was fine with her Natsu, but once again, Lucy had to remind herself that this was not him. She felt a little guilty now. "I guess I'm used to being like this with my Natsu, I can't help but feel a little too at ease with you too. Sorry I guess."
"Don't call her my Lucy." Lucy could have asked many things, why of all the things she said that was the only thing he'd answer to. In fact that little part of her that had been feeling rejected wrapped its roots a little tighter around her throat. Which was ridiculous, this was not her Natsu, she knew that, it didn't matter if he rejected her.
Still "Why not?" She choked out.
"Because she is not mine." This Natsu's voice surprises her. It's not sulky, not cheerful, it's quiet and full of broken edges.
"And that… upsets you?" Natsu fell silent once again, and Lucy felt the rejection transform into tiny little bubbles, "it does, doesn't it! You liiiike her!"
Natsu says "So?" as if he were pointing a gun (maybe fire would suit better or a sword to fit the knock off fantasy theme better) to her chest. But it was not a firm hold. It was trembling, uncertain, unwilling to take life but unwilling to let himself be vulnerable. So Lucy did what she did best. Dodge Natsu's misplaced attempts at bullshiting her in the language he could understand best.
"Aha!" A small smile glittered on Natsu's face, not quite toothy yet, but it could get there.
As if sighing, he said "You both are such weirdos."
"Maybe a little. But if you like her, why aren't you guys together?" That was perhaps the wrong word choice, Lucy had to accept she was not perfectly fluent in this world's Natsuspeak. Following her words, Natsu threw himself back on the bed, covered his ears with a pillow, muffled a loud whine and then he grumbled out.
"I don't know. I don't think she feels the same and I don't really like change." Now that she could deal with. Natsu's unwillingness towards anything that smacked of change was, thankfully, universal.
"Sheesh, you really are like my Natsu. Pure of heart and dumb of ass."
"Oi!" Natsu threw his pillow to her indignantly. "What's that supposed to mean!"
"It means of course Lucy likes you," Lucy said very gently, "I like mine and he's just like you."
"You don't know that."
"I'm literally her."
"No, she's really different. For one, she's not a perv like you," Lucy hit him playfully on the shoulder, "oi! She's really different so you can't know."
"Okay, but what if she does?" Lucy insisted, ready to tackle down his insecurities, well practiced in rationalising his fears of change.
"What if she doesn't?"
"I did not ask that. What. Would. Happen. If. She. Liked. You. Back?"
"I don't know."
"You can either tell me how does that make you feel or try to imagine what it would be like."
"I don't wanna talk about this."
"Tough luck, I'm going either tomorrow or the day after and I'm gonna set you idiots to rights."
In an attempt at deflection that Lucy saw coming from a mile away, Natsu exclaimed, "Ha! You just called yourself an idiot too."
"'Tis a badge of honor I'll wear gladly." Deflection cancelled, suck it Natsu!
"Okay, weirdo." He grumbled again, in that sulky voice she was rapidly growing used to.
"Now c'mon, you have your two options." Lucy pressed on.
"I could get out, you know?"
"You could but you aren't going to."
"I guess it wouldn't be much different. I'd still sleep here most nights, maybe we'd cuddle more, and Lucy wouldn't try to kick me out of her bed at mornings."
"Just say you'd have sex for the love of Gaga." To that, Natsu grabbed his pillow once again and attempted to end her life through asphyxiation. "Stop! Fucking–" Natsu ignored her, took the pillow out of her face, lulling her into a false sense of security that lasted all of two seconds and then rained pillows on her face for a good minute.
"I want Lucy back, she didn't try to force me to think about this and she wasn't a complete pervert."
"Shut up you kinky motherfucker the things my Natsu's into would put tears in a nun's eyes and I bet you are worse than him– no please not the pillow again, mercy! I'll behave!" But then, unable to resist teasing him, she lowered her voice and giggled out, "I bet you use the dragon thing to excuse the primal kink."
"What was that?" Natsu raised the pillow back again, having heard her clearly.
"What do you got dragon hearing or something? I didn't even say it that loud."
"Yeah I do. Tch. What ya thought dragon slayer magic meant?"
"Magic used to slay dragons?"
"Well yeah but also, turns you into a dragon. Remember the dragon seed thing? Parts of my body work like a dragon's." Instantly, Lucy dropped her gaze down to his crotch, then felt her cheeks aflame and averted her gaze, fearing she had gone too far again, this was not her Natsu. When was she going to understand that? Luckily this Natsu hadn't noticed.
"Okay, okay, no more distractions. What little you said about being with this world's Lucy was good. What's stopping you?"
"If she doesn't like me, everything will get ruined, I won't have her as a partner, we won't be able to hang out 'cause she'll feel awkward or some shit. And everything's gonna change and be horrible."
"Okay but how do you know that she doesn't like you?"
"I dunno. That one time little Asuka told me to kiss her, and I had to do everything she told me cause I lost a bet, Lucy made me kiss Happy."
"Maybe she was embarrassed, before I started dating my Natsu I would have died of embarrassment before doing something like that. Or I would have over-thought and thought that you didn't value your kisses, so you'd kiss anyone so of course you weren't into me so I could not bear to kiss you if you didn't feel for me like I for you." Natsu looked at her as if she had given him a new insecurity. Puta madre.
"You think that's what she thought?" Lucy grimaced. Well shit.
"I mean, I don't wanna say it and make you feel like shit, but if she's anything like me, yeah that's what she thought but you said we were really different so, who knows."
"This is too complicated, nope. Not even gonna try."
"I can hit you with a pillow too, maybe it'll make you grow a pair."
"I wish you didn't have Lucy's face."
"Why?"
"Cause then I could throttle you without feeling bad."
"Ha, sucks to be you."
"Keep going, we'll see who laughs when I make you bite the fucking pillow." To which, Lucy started cackling, feeling legitimate tears falling from her eyes. "Why are you laughing?" Natsu asked, looking pretty insulted. Lucy could not breathe. "Oi, weirdo, why are you laughing?!"
"You're so innocent I can't–" Natsu probably decided she was a pervert again (which, fair), and then proceeded to beat her with the pillow again. "Mercy!" But Natsu started laughing too, deriving great joy from shutting her up.
"No." But after a few more hits, he finally let her up. "Why did you laugh?"
"Cause what you said is so sexual. Like, so sexual. And the consistency never ceases to amaze me, your threatening voice and your bedroom voice are all the same in every universe," Lucy started laughing again, "I can't I'm sorry, it's so funny." Natsu didn't appear to find it so funny, perhaps he had understood his own little faux pas.
On the way to the guild the next morning, Natsu was in a pensive mood. It was not a common occurrence and neither was it one he enjoyed. He could not stop thinking about Lucy. And normally that was background noise in his brain, but right now it came with a hoard of guilt and uneasy feelings twisting up his gut. He would like to stop now.
Switched Lucy took her time walking, which was a pain in the ass too. But she wanted to look at the canal, and since he figured it was not like she would be able to come back, he would not complain too much.
In fact, he himself started watching the rippling blue water shake with the morning chill. It was sort of cool, pretty easy to get absorbed in the movement. After a moment, the calming spell of the water broke, he wanted to keep walking and he was going to tell Switched Lucy time was up, something about her whole demeanor reminded him of the Lucy from back when he first met her and instead of 'hurry up, weirdo' "I promised Lucy we'd always be together," came out instead.
Switched Lucy fell on her ass in front of the canal and Natsu started snickering. She elected to pretend it didn't happen.
"That's sweet Natsu." She grumbled. Natsu's smile fell.
"I guess."
"Why'd you tell me?" This Lucy was as perceptive as the real Lucy but ten times nosier. Natsu already regretted opening his big mouth.
"Because."
"Because what?" She insisted. Despite how much Natsu did not want to talk about this, he also really wanted to tell someone so the thoughts would stop banging up the walls of his brain. So he sat next to Switched Lucy and stared at the water.
"I dunno. Lucy's been really alone for a long time. The first time I met her she smelt lonely."
"Loneliness has a smell?" Of course she would ask the dumb question.
"Guess you could say that." He said, playing with a pebble. " People normally smell like other people. They smell like their family or like their friends, or the houses where they live. Lucy smelt mostly of herself. She smelled like the air of Hargeon, that's the city we met at, she didn't even smell like house."
"What does house smell like?"
"I dunno, like spices and food and wood and the floor and shit like that. And bed. Lucy smelt like a traveller, travellers usually smell like the place they are staying, but underneath there's always like the smell of other people and homes on them. But Lucy smelt like a permanent state of transit. Like she hadn't been around anyone in a long time." Natsu crushed the pebble between his fingers without looking at Switched Lucy.
"That's really sad." she hmmed sympathetically, "I guess my childhood was a bit like that too, we were always moving in and out of places, and I only really settled down after I blackmailed my way out of my father's clutches." Natsu was suddenly very interested in that, he had to know more.
"Hold on, tell me more of that, you? A Lucy Heartfilia did what?"
"Well, my dad's on shady shit back home, and I wanted out of his clutches so I spent some time collecting evidence from everything from tax evasion, to fraude, his own blackmailings, and uh, some more ugly stuff he did, told him I wanted an immediate allowance or I'd send everything to the press, and that he better pray no one ever finds me because I would sink him to the underground if someone asked me and then fucked off to the other side of the world," Lucy's voice began weakening, "we had been living in Europe for a year then." By the time she said that she was only barely moving her lips. She seemed much less cheerful than before. "Europe is a continent back home…" She began again but promptly gave up again, "it really doesn't matter that much." Natsu felt he had to make her feel better.
"That's so badass! Lucy just ran away."
"It's not, it's pretty selfish, I bet your Lucy doesn't feel as guilty as I do. I don't really like to talk about that, though. What were we talking about before?" Well, shit, at least he tried.
"Dunno, I forgot."
"I think it was something about how Lucy smelt like a lonely person."
"Oh, yeah, yeah, Lucy used to smell like nothing but herself, and like two years and some months ago the guild disbanded while I was off training with Happy and when I came back, I came to no guild and Lucy smelling like a lonely person again." The wall from her apartment in Crocus flashed before his eyes, and Natsu felt that guilt resurface again, with a knot on his throat that he did his best to swallow. "And she was different," he croaked, "I could tell, she had this wall tracing everyone from the guild but she had not contacted anyone in a year and she was mad at me 'cause I left her alone again."
"Oh, wow, why did you leave if you knew she was gonna be all alone?" Smoke and Igneel fighting Acnologia. His father crashing onto the earth from the sky. Face. His chest felt so fucking tight.
"There had been a battle." He began,words started spilling, leaving his mouth like vomit without bringing any of the relief that came with vomiting when one was ill. "It was a tough one, I got my dad back only to lose him the very same night and I needed to get stronger. I wrote a letter to her and then Happy and I went to the mountains to train." Natsu crushed another pebble in his fingers, and fought the slight mist that came over his eyes. "I thought she was gonna be fine, she was gonna be with our friends at the guild. I didn't know the guild was gonna disband while I was away. But it did and she was alone and sad and quiet and and and what if she's like that now too? I promised we'd always be together but now she's alone again."
"Oh wow." Silence followed for a few seconds, then Lucy stood up. Natsu didn't feel like standing yet. She spoke again, "That's a lot, I don't even know if we have time to unpack everything in that suitcase." Lucy kneeled next to him, grabbed a pebble of her own and threw it onto the canal. "But listen to me, if I'm here then she's with my friends too. I'm sure she's not alone, and it wouldn't be because of you if she were. Come on," she offered her hand to him, "let's get going, I bet we'll know when she's coming back and it will be soon. Maybe you guys will be able to sort out what you guys got going on..." Lucy smiled a sunny smile at him.
Natsu took her hand and stood up.
Author's note:
Micaela is the Spanish version of Michelle so I thought I'd leave that little Easter egg there
Puta madre: literally it means whore mother, but its more used like fuck it
Jellal's name is meant to be Gerard so... given that his surname is Fernandez I took the liberty to make him Gerardo and even though it's not stated, chilean. If i come back to this Im going to find a way to have him say weon somehow
La puta que me parió: literally it means the whore that birthed me, but it means fuck my life