Natsu's P.O.V
"But why Lucy?" I asked, feeling a sense of pain pierce through my stomach.
"You have no right to ask me that after leaving with Happy for a year!" she retorted, obviously angry with my childish response.
I couldn't help it… how could I live without her? I know I had gone off with Happy for a year, and she should be entitled to her own adventure, but now it felt different.
"Fine!" I shouted back at her, not being able to contain my angry impulse. "Just leave Fairy Tail behind why don't you?"
I then turned around and stormed off towards the back of the guildhall and through the back door. I felt ragged and realised that my face was wet from the tears I hadn't noticed forming. I punched the stone wall, not being able to contain my own frustration—mostly with myself. Why was I having such an issue with Lucy and Wendy leaving. Of course, it was a give-in that we would all miss them, but I felt this surge of energy that wanted me to prevent her from going.
I looked up to see the crumbled brick that had bore the affects from my outrage. Then I noticed the fire escape and started to climb up. It was still quite early as I saw the sun just starting to reflect over Magnolia's port once I stepped onto the roof of the guildhall. Even though it looked like it was going to be a cheerful sort of day, my energy had all but evaporated and I felt drained. Maybe Juvia would get just as upset as me later on and it would start to rain, that would seem appropriate.
I heard the guild door shut and looked down to see Wendy holding Lucy's hand and leading her towards the direction of the train station. I felt the sudden urge to call out to Lucy, beg her to stay, but I knew it would only make her more upset. I knew her and Wendy had carefully thought this through and had come to the conclusion that this excursion of theirs was necessary. The tightening in my stomach worsened and I wrapped my arms around myself to try and will the pain to stop.
It must have been because of my sudden spiral into misery and the shooting pain I felt that I didn't pick up on his presence until he was already on the roof and approaching where I was sitting.
"What do you want ice princess?" I barked, already annoyed by Gray's presence.
He only sighed and sat beside me, the only time I could ever remember him not arguing against me and starting a fight. Too bad, I could really use an outlet and something to punch.
"You should have seen them off," Gray said simply.
He sounded sadder than he had downstairs and then I realized that maybe he was less supportive than he had shown about the two of our teammates going off on their own.
"I watched them go," I replied in a much quieter voice than I normally used.
Gray sighed again and continued sitting beside me in silence.
"I didn't realize how much you were against it," I said, still surprised by how sad I was sensing Gray being at the moment.
"There was no stopping them, you know that," he replied matter-of-factly.
"Yea, I know," I responded, feeling exasperated even further about the situation.
Lucy and Wendy hadn't really given any sort of timeframe, but I worried it would be at least a year that they would be gone. The first time they had mentioned it, they had compared their intention to when I had gone away. I had also been surprised at how much the girls must have collaborated before they had brought it up to the group. By that time, their minds had been made up.
The days seemed to drag on after that, each one blending in with the next. I noticed that Gray always seemed to be nearby somewhere, never letting me alone with my thoughts for long. It was kind of annoying, but maybe he felt lonely as well. Happy was also a little less, well happy, as we all carried on without the two girls. Natsu didn't know how long it had been by this point, but it seemed to be almost a year. He only knew this because it had been spring when Wendy and Lucy left and now he could sense it in the air that it was almost winter.
"Hey Natsu, want to go on a quest today?" Romeo asked his teammate.
After Lucy and Wendy had left the two guys had become even closer. They had both felt a sense of loss and loneliness without their usual partners at the guild.
"Uh, sure Romeo, why don't you go ask Gray if he's too busy to join us. I'm just going to sit down for a bit," Natsu said sounding exhausted.
Winter always seemed to make Natsu feel sluggish, but this time seemed even worse.
"What is it Natsu? Is something wrong?" Romeo asked, showing concern for his friend.
"Yea, it's probably nothing. I just haven't been able to sleep very well for the past couple nights and I have these pains in my stomach sometimes," Natsu explained.
He couldn't help remembering the last time he had felt like this, about nine months ago.
"What's going on fire breath?" Gray asked, coming over to the two guys who were sitting at one of the booths.
Gray had seen the look of concern across Romeo's face while Natsu was looking like he was in some sort of pain.
"I'm fine winter pixie," Natsu retorted with some effort. "Romeo says he wants to go on a quest."
"I think maybe we better try again tomorrow, I don't want to have to carry your sorry butt, and it's not fair to Happy if he has to fly you all the way to the mission," Gray said, trying to assess Natsu without being obvious.
The truth was, Team Natsu had sort of disbanded once the girls had left. Erza was often on S class missions that Natsu was sure Jellal was a part of. Lucy and Wendy had really left their mark being away so long, not that he wanted to blame them. Lucy had tried to explain it to them before they left; she had been tired of always needing to be saved. He and the rest had tried to convince them that they were wrong, that they had both earned their places in both the guild and their team, but they remained unconvinced.
"NATSU! Did you try and take another S class mission?" Master Makarov shouted from across the guildhall.
"What are you talking about Gramps? I just got here," Natsu retorted, confused this time as to why he was being reprimanded.
He couldn't remember breaking any rules in the last hour or so.
"There's a flyer missing from the board that I haven't approved and I just got a message that the task needed to be upgraded to an S class mission," Makarov explained seriously.
"Seriously gramps, I didn't take it," Natsu said, hoping the yelling would stop since it wasn't helping his newly formed headache.
"Why did it get upgraded anyway?" Gray asked curiously.
"Well, apparently there has been confirmation of some sort of evil presence. The locals are naming it a devil, and until anyone can confirm what it is we have to proceed with extreme caution," the master replied.
Just then, there was a gasp from the door as everyone looked over to see a horrified looking Carla.
"What is it Carla?" Happy asked in a concerned tone.
"Th-that's th-the job I just gave to Wendy and Lucy," she stuttered, looking as if she would faint.
"What?!" Makarov asked, looking horror-struck that those two should encounter such a fate on their own.
"Oh, no! It's all my fault master. I thought each of the jobs were ranked accordingly and told Carla she should take any one of them," Mira gasped, holding her hands up to her mouth.
"It sounded more difficult and the girls have requested I bring them more challenging jobs," Carla continued while Happy held onto her consolingly.
She was probably too distraught to even know he was there.
"Wendy?!" Romeo shouted, feeling his magical powers surge in anticipation for a fight.
"Lucy?!" Natsu added, forgetting temporarily about his pain and exhaustion.
"We have to stop them!" Gray chimed in, feeling his own concern for his friends.
"Calm down children!" Makarov shouted, watching as each of his children began to panic.
He surveyed the room and saw that Levy had a look of pure terror while Gajeel sat beside her with a menacing look. He knew Levy would be too emotional and Gajeel had been acting more surly than usual, probably not the best candidates to go after the two girls. His gaze then looked onto Gray and Natsu, their old teammates. The two men did make the most sense but they weren't S-class, even though they had completed an S class mission before, not to mention countless other life-threatening situations, but Erza was out on her own mission. He worried about how they would react if either of the girls were in true danger without Erza to guide them. Plus, he knew he wold have a difficult time convincing Romeo to stay behind, especially with the bond he had noticed had formed between the younger fire mage and the sky dragon slayer. This left his attention to turn to Laxus who was the only one who hadn't outwardly reacted. The rest of the Thunder Legion were out of town on business but this caused the master to look slightly to Laxus' left noticing Mira behind the bar. Sending two S-class wizards might be the perfect answer. Especially if there was a devil, sending Fairy Tail's very own she-devil may be exactly the right move. But before he could voice his decision, there was a cry of pain coming from the other side of the guild.
Makarov looked up to see that Natsu had fallen out of his seat and was clutching his stomach in pain. Romeo was knelt down beside him while Lisanna had run over to see what was wrong as well.
The master had known Natsu hadn't been fairing very well with the absence of his two teammates, but how could this have anything to do with it? Maybe he had just eaten something wrong—Mavis knows that boy eats everything.
"Lisanna. Romeo. Help Natsu up to the infirmary. Laxus, Mira, meet me in my office," Makarov ordered before taking his leave from the guild's common area.