Author's note: Well guys, the third chapter is here! I want to leave a speacial thanks here for MaidenWarrior and Casey10rok. You guys are wonderful and give me the motivation I need to write! As regards the chapter, I'll just say this was pure self-indulgence, from start to finish. Also, my ice-cream passion lets show. I am not sorry.
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or any of its characters. They belong to Hiro Mashima. The only profit I make from this fiction is the feedback I get from my wonderful readers! As always, this chapter was beta-readed by soshoryuu.
Chapter 3: 15 years old
There was a time when Fairy Tail members could go to the guild to just drink something and chill, relax after a long mission. That time had been forgotten long ago.
"Come back here, flame-brain! Give me my pants back!"
Ice spikes flew through the guild, chasing after a particularly boisterous pink-haired mage. Said mage's laughter echoed through the guild hall as he waved Gray's pants like a flag. Ice was piling up in the corners from the excess of magic Gray was emitting, much to the rest of the guild members' chagrin. Whenever those two started fighting, it was impossible to rest.
"You want this, ice princess?" Natsu taunted, stepping over a table to give himself some extra-height.
"Of course I do, stupid ash-breath! Give it back!"
Natsu swiftly dodged the punches directed to him and jumped off the table to keep running around.
"Natsu! Gray! Stop this circus, I cannot eat my cake in peace!" Erza's protests fell on deaf ears. Natsu was having too much fun tormenting the black-haired wizard.
A hand grabbed his ankle, throwing him off balance and face down to the floor.
"Ha! I got you!" Gray sang in victory, straddling his back. But Natsu wouldn't be defeated so easily.
"Happy, catch!"
Blue lightening flew past Gray's head, grazing his hair, but too fast for him to react. His pants were snatched away from Natsu's hand and a second after, Happy was fluttering over them with the cloth in his paws, laughing mockingly.
"Gray lost his pants and he can't get them ba-ack!" The cat sang.
"Oh, come on guys! Happy, you too?"
"Enough! The three of you!" Both boys' heads were crushed under Erza's fist, and they whined in protest. "Happy! Come down here and give Gray's pants back!"
The flying cat cowered under Erza's authority. He lowered until he was only feet above the floor and offered the piece of clothing to the red-head.
"I-I am really sorry, Erza-sama."
"Give that back!" She snatched the pants from him and threw them over Gray's aching form. "Here, Gray. Don't let this happen again. You are far too weak, you need to train more!"
"Understood, Erza-sama!"
"And you, Natsu! Stop pestering around!"
"A-aye, Erza-sama!" Both boys embraced each other with fake smiles, pretending like there was nothing wrong with the world. Erza smiled satisfied and walked away.
As soon as she was out of sight they punched each other's faces.
"Stupid flame lizard, what the hell's wrong with you? Are you five years old, that you feel the need to steal my clothes?"
"Shut up, you dumb stripper!"
"Hey!" Gray walked away, awkwardly trying to dress himself.
Natsu sighed and went to sulk at a guild table. Happy landed on his shoulder and joined him in his moodiness.
Natsu was bored. Lisanna was out in a mission with Mirajane and Elfman, and he was here, alone, with nothing to do and way too much energy to spare. He was fidgety, and that could never mean anything good to the guild.
"What do you want to do now, Natsu?"
"Dunno, Happy. Stealing Gray's clothes was my last plan to kill time."
Happy sighed.
"We really should have gone to that mission with the Strauss siblings."
"Yeah, we should have. We can ask them to go on their next mission, right? What do you think?"
"I like the idea!" Happy chirped.
Suddenly, the guild doors busted open and a very confident white-haired demon walked in. Mirajane oozed power, imposing respect with just the sound of her high-heels clicking against the wooden floor, and a sinful smirk playing on her lips. Behind her, Lisanna and Elfman followed, less striking but still strong in their own ways.
"Mirajane! You are back, my child!" Makarov greeted them from the counter.
"Yep, and the mission was a success, Master!" She said as she poured the reward money on the counter beside the man to divide the percentage that belonged to the guild. "Weakling monster, village was saved, easy pissy task!"
"Natsu! Happy! I'm back-!" Lisanna's greeting was interrupted by just average guild's confusion.
"MIRAJANE, FIGHT ME!"
A wild Natsu appeared behind Mira, but the girl sent him flying back with a small punch.
"Not now, Natsu, I need to discuss matters with Master. You can show me your new moves later. Go play with Lisanna, she missed you a lot during the mission." She winked at him.
Natsu's next attack was halted when he heard that. Lisanna missing him wasn't that big of a deal. He had missed her too, and it was just normal to miss your best friends when you spent long times without seeing each other, wasn't it? But there was something in the way Mirajane said it that didn't sound quite normal. Something in the way she quirked her eyebrows and the way she smirked. It had his skin crawling for some reason.
"Mira-nee! What are you saying?!" A very mortified Lisanna shrieked.
"Nee-san is right." Elfman appeared from behind and took sit on the counter. "Lisanna wouldn't stop complaining because she said she missed Natsu and Happy. That was not manly at all."
"Elf-nii! Of course it wasn't manly, I'm a girl!" Saying that Lisanna was as red as a tomato was an understatement.
Natsu was still quiet, processing what Mirajane had said, trying to figure out how he felt about it.
"Anyway," Mirajane interrupted. "Go, Natsu, make your girlfriend happy."
To that, he did react. Strongly.
"She's not my girlfriend!" He cried out, feeling his cheeks starting to burn.
"Awww, but you always hang out together!" Said Macao, from his sit at a far table.
"That's right, and you look really cute together," Wakaba agreed.
"That doesn't mean anything!" Natsu was spluttering, unfortunately drawing the whole guild's attention to the matter in hand. Just wonderful.
"Well, you two do look cute." Erza stepped forward, not missing the chance to gossip. "And it's obvious that you care about Lisanna a lot."
"W-well, of course! She's my best friend! Right, Lis?"
Lisanna was silent in her corner, looking more embarrassed with each passing second.
"Are you sure you are only friends? Isn't there something more…?"
"No! There's nothing about it!"
"Natsu, be a man and accept your feelings for my sister!"
"Shut up, Elfman!"
"Well, look at the fire lizard!" Gray raised his voice from his place at the bar, not missing the chance to take revenge on the dragon slayer. "You really are a stupid flame-brain, aren't you? A girl seems to like you for once and you just bluntly ignore her feelings. You are definitely gonna die a virgin, Natsu."
Natsu's face grew unbearably hot and that was saying something, considering he regularly ate fire for breakfast.
"S-she doesn't like me, and I don't like her and you are one to talk, popsicle! No girl would ever want to be with you, they would freeze cold!"
"When are you guys going to make your relationship official?" Another random voice in the guild interrupted and that was it.
"We are just friends! There's absolutely nothing between us and there will never be! Now shut up all of you! This is none of your business anyway."
Natsu was way past his limit of standing bullshit. Lisanna had been silent during the whole ordeal, biting her lip and blushing to her ears. She was emitting a distressed scent, putting Natsu's every protective instinct on alert. He growled at no one in particular, but at everybody at the same time. He was so pissed off, and he so wanted every fucking member of the guild to know it.
He snatched her hand and dragged her out of the guild walking with long strides.
"N-natsu! What are you doing?" A very confused Lisanna asked. The flush still hadn't faded from her cheeks. If anything, it grew bigger with the guild's reaction.
"Yay! And the couple leaves together!"
"Where are the newlyweds going?"
"Stay for a while longer!"
"All of you fuck off!" was the last thing Natsu said before disappearing behind the guild door and starting to run, sweeping the girl along so fast that not even Happy was able to follow.
"Where are we going?!"
"Somewhere nice!"
Well, that answer didn't seem to be the correct one because she shrieked, "What?!"
Natsu finally pulled to a stop when they were almost at Magnolia's main square. At this point Lisanna was breathless, not being used to running as much as the dragon slayer who in turn hadn't even broken a sweat.
"Na-natsu…" she panted, "why are we here? Why did you have to drag me all the way…?"
"You were upset." He answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I had to take you out of there. Now, let's see, what can we do to change the mood…?"
Lisanna blinked at him with a mixture of surprise and bewilderment. Then she looked aside and sighed, shadows dancing in her downcast eyes, her hands playing behind her back. Natsu scowled. Why was she still smelling so distressed?
"Hey Lis, what's wrong? It's okay, those jackasses are only out for trouble, and you shouldn't be bothered by what they say. Come on, let's go eat ice-cream, it'll be my treat!"
"Did you really mean what you said?"
Natsu stopped mid-sentence, clenching his jaw. Lisanna looked so beaten. She should never look like this.
"Mean what? What are you talking about, Lis?" Natsu needed to find the reason of Lisanna's unhappiness and deal with it immediately.
"You know, that thing you said. That there could never be anything between us… and all that stuff."
"W-what? That's the thing that's bothering you?"
Her eyes snapped to his and oh Lord. It was like the ocean in the middle of a storm. Restless and deep and you could fucking drown in them. Well, at least Natsu kind of felt he was drowning under that stare.
Yes, this was the thing that was bothering her. A lot.
"Hey, those assholes wouldn't stop teasing us, and then that idiotic stripper just had to jump and make everything worse-"
"Did you mean it?"
Natsu's tongue halted once again. He seemed to be having trouble finding what little eloquence he normally had. In his defence, anybody would, when faced with those cerulean eyes. Those eyes that tied his stomach in knots and left his face burning with a blush that wasn't of shame or embarrassment, but of something else. Something that pulsed from his stomach to his face, passing through his chest and leaving everything warm inside. Something Natsu couldn't quite decipher yet.
"I…"
Did he mean it? Did he mean what he had said?
"I…"
Did he actually see no possibilities of being in a relationship with Lisanna? What were his feelings for her to begin with? Well, the answer that question was obvious. They were best friends! He cared for her, and spent so much time with her, and they always had fun and laughed a lot together, and they were raising Happy, weren't they? She made him feel mature, and was the only person in the guild who actually took him seriously. The only person to mean the question when she asked how was he.
She was nice, and pretty, and a lot of fun to be with, and Natsu felt understood and cared for when he was with her, and he wanted to protect her and spend a lot of time together, and she was so sweet and cute and-
"I don't see why it is so important, Lis," he mumbled, escaping the trap of her eyes. "We… we are friends, aren't we? We care for each other."
He heard her sigh and risked a peek at her. She was hugging her arms and looking aside, a look of almost… disappointment in her features. Natsu bit his lip, feeling useless. What could he do to help? Who did he need to fight to take that expression away? What was the problem? She seemed frustrated… at whom? At him? Was he the problem?
Wait… was he?
"Err… Lis…?"
"It's okay," she exhaled finally, looking up to him with something akin to resignation in her smile. "I don't mind waiting."
"Eh? Waiting for what?"
She laughed then, and it was so genuine that Natsu could only feel relieved that she didn't seem to be upset anymore.
"Hey, are you still going to buy me ice-cream?"
He lit up at that, feeling in his domain again.
"Sure, let's go!"
They were silent as they walked through Magnolia's main street, but that was okay. They had always been fine with silence. Sometimes words were useless anyway. Some traces of sadness still lingered in her eyes, though, and Natsu vowed to erase them.
"What flavour do you want? This is my favourite ice-cream shop, they have so many different flavours…" Natsu babbled as he held the door for her.
"Hmm, dunno. There's so many! I don't know what to choose…"
Natsu paid for two cones and they approached the counter where a young lady asked them for their flavours, and Natsu immediately answered with what obviously was his standard order. He asked for Super Chocolate and Oreo Cream, while some minutes after his was delivered Lisanna settled for Kinder Chocolate and Strawberry Milkshake.
Natsu gawked at her, a somewhat horrified expression in his face. Lisanna returned the look with a raised brow.
"What?"
"Kinder Chocolate? Seriously? When you can have Oreo Cream?"
"What's the problem?"
Natsu felt disarmed, almost deceived. He dramatically looked aside as they made their way out of the shop to sit at the outdoor tables. The day was shining with a cloudless sky as blue as Lisanna's eyes. The summer was reaching its peak and every day was as wonderful as the former.
"I honestly feel betrayed. I don't know you anymore, Lisanna Strauss."
"Oh, such a drama queen! I love Kinder, and I never knew there was an ice-cream flavour of it. I had to try it!" They sat down across from one another, leaning their elbows over the table for comfort.
Natsu smiled. Any hints of her previous unhappiness were completely gone from her face, and he felt rewarded with her smile. He quickly changed his expression to one as comically serious as possible.
"What the fuck Lis, everybody knows Oreos are so much better than Kinder."
"Hey! Kinder chocolate is like, a hundred times better, so creamy and sweet-"
"Yeah, okay, I think you need to go to the doctor and have your taste buds tested because there's something really wrong going on inside your mouth."
"How rude! I'm never speaking to you ever again!"
She reclined backwards on the back of her chair, crossed her legs and looked aside with a petulant look.
"Same thing here, Lis, you are hurting my feelings! How could you choose Kinder over Oreos, that's just insane." Natsu sighed, looking down with a thoughtful expression. He was angling for her curiosity, and smiled internally when she twitched her eyes to him. Capturing her gaze with his greenish stare, he said in the most serious tone he could muster: "I want the divorce. You can tell Happy this was your fault."
"What?" Lisanna was taken aback for only a couple of seconds before she was pouting, puffing her cheeks and wiggling her shoulders with haughtiness. "You know what, I want the divorce too, and I'm staying with Happy from Mondays to Saturdays. You can have him on Sundays."
"Tch- So unfair!"
"Everybody knows the mom gets to stay with the kid most of the time, and the dad sees them on weekends." She said as she took another spoonful of her ice-cream.
"Well, that's totally biased." Natsu reached across with a dexterous hand and started poking at the girl's stomach. The white-haired mage instantly exploded in laughter, trying to back away as much as the chair would allow. "I'm demanding shared custody!"
"I won't grant it!" She said in a fit of giggles. "And if you don't stop with the tickles I'll demand sixty per cent of your properties!"
"Oh, you just try, you sneaky girl! There's only garbage in my house anyway, so good luck getting something of value out of it!"
"I could get your savings!"
"You wouldn't dare."
"Of course I would!"
"Oh, you want war, don't you?"
Natsu scooped as close as he could with the table separating them restricting his movements. But his hand still found its way to poke at the most sensitive of her stomach, while his other hand carefully held his ice-cream cone out of reach. Lisanna squealed and laughed and her giggles mixed with his. She tried to snatch his hand and stop his attack, but Natsu's arm was strong and wouldn't stop its relentless assault.
An old couple passing by whispered and chuckled of "young love" when they saw them, but Natsu was too busy watching Lisanna laugh to pay attention to anything else around him.
"Natsu! Stop it! You'll make me drop my ice-cream!"
"It's Kinder ice-cream anyway!"
"I'll make you buy me another one!"
They wiggled closer, struggling against each other while trying to save their cones from falling to oblivion.
"Kyaa! Stop it!"
Finally, Lisanna grabbed his wrists and managed to tug it away from her stomach. Desperate to get his hand far away from her belly, she pulled it aside without realizing she was pulling his body towards her.
"I said stop it!" She panted breathless.
"You started it." Natsu was drunk with laugher, and Lisanna was in no better state.
But then their eyes met and they noticed just how close they had actually gotten to one another. The giggles slowly faded into nothingness as they stared into each other's eyes, so close that their breaths mingled. Lisanna was panting, pale face flushed and white eyelashes fluttering over her lapis lazuli orbs, lips parted to let her breath out. Angelic. Something glistened in her bottom lip drawing his attention, and he found himself staring at the pearl of cream that was resting there. Wondering how that Kinder chocolate would taste like from her lips.
Wait, what?
He willed his eyes upwards only to find her staring at his lips in return. The sight was doing weird things to his chest, like his ribs couldn't contain his racing heart. Lisanna's eyes fluttered up, meeting his again and suddenly she was leaning forward ever so slightly, and he found out that he was leaning too. Lids suddenly heavy, trembling close. Lips calling to each other in a song Natsu was still unable to understand, but was willing to dance along.
So close.
"Natsuuuu! Lisannaaa!"
The spell was broken and both captives dumped back into reality. They jumped away from each other as if kicked by an electrical bolt. Lisanna looked aside and ducked her head under her shoulders, biting her bottom lip. Natsu had to virtually tear his eyes away from the way her teeth worried at that pink lip.
Happy was flying towards them with an angry look on his face.
"You two totally abandoned me at the guild! And…" He suddenly took notice of the tense air around the wizards. "What's happening here?"
Natsu opened his mouth to answered, but he realized he was speechless. What had just transpired between them?
"We were just eating ice-cream, Happy." It was Lisanna who answered and Natsu could just stare at her as she spoke. "Natsu said he would invite me, so here we are. Maybe you should ask him too, right?"
"Lis, what…?"
"Natsu! Why didn't you invite me too? I also want ice-cream!"
Natsu grumbled, not sure of how many jewels were left in his pocket. There was something nagging at his chest, leaving his throat sour. If only Happy hadn't interrupted, what would have happened?
He glanced at Lisanna, confused at her easy reaction and found her smiling. She looked at him, and the grin in her face was relaxed and genuinely happy. His eyes must have been a clear reflection of the questions that swarmed in his mind, for she sighed and said in a reassuring tone:
"Natsu, it's okay. I already said I don't mind waiting."
She didn't mind waiting. Waiting for what? For him?
In a sudden gust of enlightenment, Natsu realized that he was the problem. She was waiting for him.
"Are you going to buy me ice-cream or not?"
His irritated glare snapped to Happy again and he made his best to keep his temperament levelled.
"Yes, your royal highness, I'm buying you ice-cream."
"Oh, Natsu, you don't need the titles, you can just call me Happy!"
"You little sh-"
The sound of Lisanna's laugher beside him cut him off, and suddenly he wasn't angry anymore. They entered the shop again, Natsu bought the ice-cream and walked outside, this time strolling away from the shop. The girl had finished her treat and was currently licking at the missing drops that had melted on her fingers. Natsu watched her for a moment before throwing what little was left of his dessert and shoving his hands in his pockets.
The comfortable silence that settled after that was only broken by Happy's giggles of delight as he ate his own cone. That is, until Natsu decided to break it on his own.
"You don't have to wait, Lis."
She looked at him with question sin her eyes, but he was looking straight ahead. The questions melted into a pleased, understanding smile and she looked ahead too. His hand slowly discovered itself from his pocket and their knuckles brushed. The way their fingers found each other was as natural as breathing. Simple. Uncomplicated.
She grinned and wrinkled her nose, and when Natsu thought that it was the cutest thing he had ever seen, there was no more doubt in him.
"I'm right here."
"Oi, Lisanna! We got a job to do!"
"Huh? Elf-nii-chan? Mira-nee? But didn't we just come back from one?"
"It's an S-class! We'll back Nee-san up on it."
"No fair! What kind of job is it? Can I come too?"
"No! I'm against it. A man should protect his family on his own!"
"Aw, don't be so stuffy! Take me with you!"
"Sorry, Natsu. Maybe next time you can come."
"So mean, Mirajane! I really wanted to go!"
"Calm down, Natsu. We will talk about the… stuff we were talking about earlier when I come back. Okay?"
"… I really want to go with you, Lis."
"It's alright. The mission shouldn't take more than a couple of days. I will see you by the end of the week."
"… okay…"
"Goodbye, Natsu."
"Goodbye, Lis."
As soon as Natsu woke up, he knew it was bound to be a bad day.
Sweat accumulated on his forehead, ran down his face and got lost under his vest. He was throwing kicks and punches, running around, doing push-ups and abdominals, anything to work out the frustration that had currently possessed him.
It was a really hot day, abnormally so. But it wasn't the kind of heat that Natsu enjoyed, the fire that charged him up and left him full of energy. No, this heat was heavy like it wanted to smash him against the ground, and humid. Damn, you could practically inhale the water in the air. Clouds were covering the sky, locking up the heavy atmosphere in, and he could just feel the humidity bubbling up, waiting to explode. It had to rain sometime today, or at least tomorrow. One could only stand so much heat for a while.
It was taking its toll on the dragon slayer. He was sweaty and twitchy and snappy and felt as heavy as a potato.
Worst of all was the sour feeling in his gut that wouldn't leave him alone. It had bothered him all day, screaming at him that something was terribly wrong. His instincts had never betrayed him before, so he looked for the source of his distress but aside from the bad weather, everything was fine.
His gut disagreed with him. And it drove him mad all day, accumulating energy inside of him to the point his skin was itching him and he wanted nothing more than to tear it out to get free from the feeling. He was so insufferable that he was literally kicked out from the guild by an angry Erza.
So he gave in a came home to train. He had a punching bag at the back of his house that was currently being punished with his excess of energy. Happy had stayed at the guild eating fish, since he had done nothing wrong and Natsu insisted that he should stay. He didn't trust being near living creatures in his current state. He was angry, and restless, and he couldn't figure out why. No, he was better alone, working out his rage where he couldn't hurt anybody.
"Natsu!"
The dragon slayer stopped mid-punch and turned to face the flying cat that was approaching with desperation in his face. Instantly, Natsu stiffened. Something was wrong. That thing that his gut had been warning him about the whole day.
"What happened, Happy?" He asked as he ran to meet the cat.
The kitten collided against his chest, a wreck of gasps and sweat. He must have flew as fast as he could have for a long time to end up like this. Meaning something must have definitely gone wrong. Natsu's bad feeling only worsened.
"Okay, easy buddy. Breathe in and out and tell me what happened."
"It's-" Happy was crying. He had fucking tears in his eyes and now Natsu was beginning to get desperate. Just what the fuck had happened?! "It's the Strauss siblings!"
A void swallowed up Natsu's stomach.
"Wh-" Come on, speaking shouldn't be a difficult task. Just unroll your tongue and spill you thoughts out, goddammit. "W-what is it with them?"
"They came back from their mission!" Happy was legitimately crying out now. The tears were running freely down his face. "They're at Magnolia Hospital!"
Somehow, the world became silent after Happy said that. So silent that he could hear his own heartbeat, growing out like an oppressing tambourine threatening to crush his ears.
And the next moment he was running, running as fast as his legs would allow, using only his nose and his instincts as guidance as his head spun a hundred miles a minute. The Strauss siblings had come back from their mission. And they had gone straight to the hospital. If they hadn't gone to the guild's infirmary, that could only mean their wounds were too severe to be treated there. And that meant they were extremely hurt.
"Natsu! Wait for me!"
Happy was struggling to keep up his pace in the air, but Natsu could not afford to slow down. He could not afford to lose one minute. Was Lisanna okay? Was she safe? Mirajane would never allow her to get hurt, right? Surely, the injured one must have been Elfman. Lisanna would never come out hurt from a mission.
Right?
The white building appeared in front of him soon enough. He stormed in, not bothering to stop at the receptionist's desk to ask for information, choosing instead to let his nose lead him. He could hear the protest of nurses and security guards who were following his tracks, but he ignored them. He was a dragon slayer, a hunter by nature, and once a scent was stuck in his nose he would track it down to the end.
He was led to a door in the extensive care section and suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. Dread was eating his stomach away. Why was he at extensive care? Who was the one who needed this kind of treatment?
His nose provided him with the scent of Mirajane, Elfman, Master Makarov and Erza from the other side of the door. But no Lisanna. Where was she? Maybe in another room? Now that he thought about it, he hadn't caught her scent ever since he entered the building. Where was she?
Gritting his teeth, he steeled himself to find out. He turned the knob and entered the room.
Three pairs of eyes turned to him, mournful expressions in their faces. His nose hadn't lied to him; but then again, it never did. Mirajane was resting on one of the beds, her head and torso covered in bandages, but she was awake and that was the important part. Erza and Makarov had been speaking with her before Natsu had interrupted the peace of the room, and were now staring at him with serious eyes. Elfman was in a much worse state. Practically mummified, and apparently in an induced coma, for the amount of drugs he could smell coming off his body.
But Lisanna was nowhere to be seen, and that could only mean one thing. Whatever monster they must have faced during their mission, her elder siblings had protected her with teeth and nails. It was only natural. Both Elfman and Mirajane would die before letting something happen to their baby sister. A whole story was taking form on Natsu's mind. Of strong wizards that fought bravely to protect their sister, but at the cost of their own physical integrity. Strong wizards that laid now in hospital beds to slowly heal their wounds. And Lisanna must be at the cafeteria getting a tea for Mirajane that surely just woke up and asked for something like that.
Natsu's muscles relaxed and he released a breath he had been holding unconsciously. Everything was fine. Lisanna wasn't hurt. He almost felt stupid for having panicked like that.
"Natsu." It was Master Makarov the one who spoke first. His tone was lacking its usual cheerfulness, but that was understandable. Two of his adopted children were hospitalized with critical wounds. Any parent would be worried. "My boy, you got here fast."
The old man was grimacing, like he had eaten something sour. Natsu wondered about that.
"Yeah, Happy told me you guys were back," he said as he looked at Mirajane. She didn't return his gaze. Natsu wondered about it too. "He seemed really worried, and told me you were in the hospital so I… ergh… I kind of freaked out… and came here running all the way."
"Natsu." It was Erza this time, and even thought there was pain in her face, she looked like the one person in the room who concealed it better. "You are going to need to be strong."
…What?
"Why?"
"Something… happened… during the mission." Erza's gaze fell, and the way her fist clenched didn't go unnoticed to Natsu. Just what was happening here?
"Yeah, I… I can see something happened. I mean, whatever you guys faced must have been really big, because it left you in pieces." He laughed awkwardly. The air in the room was humid and oppressing, almost suffocating. There was a fan trying to fight the heat out of the room, but with poor results. Natsu could feel beads of sweat running down his face. "Where… where's Lisanna?"
Heavy silence and frowning expressions were his only answer. Nobody seemed to be eager to talk. They smelled anxious. Nervous.
There was something in the room. Something in the air. Natsu didn't know if it was the heat, the sharp and antiseptic smell of hospital and drugs or what the fuck, but it was driving him insane. His stomach was eating itself away once again. That feeling in his gut, the one that told him something was terribly wrong returned with full force, and he had to grab the door knob just to stay steady.
"Natsu, this is difficult to say, but you need to be strong…"
"Strong? Why?"
"What we are about to tell you is going to be hard to accept."
"But why? What is it so important and whe- just where's Lisanna? Is she at the hospital? I need to see her."
"No, Natsu, she's not. Just. Calm down and let us explain you."
The old man and Erza were undoing themselves trying to talk him into compliance, but Natsu didn't want to calm down. He wanted to know where Lisanna was, needed to know. Every instinct inside of him was screaming at him, warning him not to trust these people. Everything was wrong, he just knew it deep down inside, as well as he knew he had to find Lisanna.
"Look, just tell me where the fuck Lisanna is and then I'll listen to whatever you have to say." His tone was way too loud for a hospital, but Natsu didn't give a damn.
"No, Natsu, you don't understand-"
Why weren't they telling him? Just what the fuck was wrong? Natsu was getting fidgety, violence building up inside of him, aching to come out.
"I don't give a damn if I don't understand, I want to know where Lisanna is!"
"Natsu, please calm down." Erza attempted to step forward, but something in his stance, in the raw energy he was barely able to contain, must have told her not to get too close.
"I don't want to calm down! Where's Lisanna?!"
"If you don't calm down I'm gonna have to force you, Natsu!"
"Just tell me where Lisanna is!"
"Lisanna is dead." Silence fell over the room. Natsu's eyes turned to the person who had spoken. Mirajane was looking at him for the first time since he entered the room, and her gaze was unwavering. Merciless. Cold.
It took him a couple of second to process what her words meant. He repeated them over and over in his head, trying to find the secret behind them but still, they made no sense.
"…What?"
The gaze of the demon softened ever so slightly, and suddenly her face was the one of an old woman who had lived through a hundred years, not the one of the young lady that sat in front of him. She sighed and her eyes fell, as if it was too difficult to keep them staring in front of her. Natsu thought that she looked tired. As tired as one could possibly be without being dead.
Finally, she seemed to gather enough strength to at least face the boy's gaze again. Her eyes were lifeless, red and dry. In that moment, Natsu knew those eyes were completely worn out and incapable of crying anymore, because they had already shed every single tear inside of them.
"An accident happened during the mission. It was nobody's fault." There was a firm set in her brow at the mention of these words. "Lisanna died to protect us. She's… she's dead, Natsu. She's gone."
For the second time that day, the world fell completely silent around him. A bell started ringing in his ears. He could see Master trying to talk to him but no words reached his ears. They were on a second plane, unimportant right now. He didn't even realize the moment Happy came flying into the room, crying for him with worry. He detached from everything, unconsciously locking himself up in his own world and then he only had one certainty.
Mirajane smelled like truth. There was no lie in her words. His mind tried to deny it. This could not possibly be true, there- there was no way it could be true!
If anybody else had told him, he wouldn't have believed them. He would have believed it was a sick joke, and demanded real answers. But Mirajane had talked, Mirajane who freaking loved and adored her sister, Mirajane who would never lie about something like this, Mirajane who smelled of truth.
There was no way of denying it.
He was falling.
And then he was running out of the room, storming his way down the halls, fucking escaping like a coward. He needed to run, needed to get away. But the words were following him, taunting his ears, haunting him as he made his way down the halls and out of the building.
Lisanna is dead. Lisanna is dead. Lisanna is dead, Lisanna is dead, Lisanna is dead Lisanna is deadLisannaisdeadLisannaisdeadLisann-
As soon as he came out, a wave of heat hit him, shaking his entire body and the crushing sun blinded him for a second. But his feet kept moving on their own accord, taking him far away, to where nobody could find him.
He didn't know where he was going, just knew it needed to be away. Soon enough his house came into view, but he kept running, as if Hell itself was chasing him because it was. Hell had broken loose in Natsu's life and now he was scrambling to escape it.
His vision was a blur, but his nose guided him. The scent of trees and wild life surrounded him. Roots invaded the floor, and branches hit his face as he raced through the woods. His lungs burned but it was okay. His soul itself was burning, a little ache in his lungs wouldn't stop him.
A tree came into view and he wasn't fast enough to dodge it. He crushed against it, a hundred splinters sinking into his flesh. But Natsu didn't feel pain. He was too numb, far too gone to feel any of it. He needed to escape, but this stupid tree had gotten in the way.
White clouded his vision, hot, and burning and blinding and before he knew what he was doing his fist slammed against the bark. It was not enough. Not nearly enough, he needed more! One after the other, his fists started to rain on the tree, punishing it with all of Natsu's pain.
Fury. Slowly burning inside of him, bubbling like sticky tar, scaling up his guts. He wanted to scream but felt it wouldn't be enough. Wanted to crush, destroy, grab something between his hands and squeeze until only blood and entrails were left.
For the first time in his life, Natsu felt true need to kill something.
Punch after punch after punch and blow after blow after blow and still it wasn't enough. His knuckles dripped carmine; his hands were bloody, his skin moved out of the way to show raw flesh. He must had have broken one or two phalanxes, but Natsu did not feel pain. He only felt fury, fury that was eating him alive, fury that choked him, locking him inside a black mass of frustration he couldn't escape from.
He groaned, powerless. Why wasn't it going away? No matter how many times he punched and beat the bark of the oak tree, the fury wouldn't go away. It only grew, burnt him, swelling his stomach until no space was left inside. It was born in his chest, spread like a cancer, infecting every cell in his body, snaking up his arm and enveloping his fist until with a scream and the most scorching flame he had ever created, Natsu teared a piece of trunk the size of a human skull with a punch.
The wood creaked in agony. Thousands of splinters jumped into the air ignited with flames, dancing like fireflies.
All the energy in his body abandoned him with that punch, leaving him prostrated against what was left of the oak tree. Gasping to recover air that never seemed to reach his lungs. He stayed still looking at his doing for a couple of seconds. The piece of broken log was burning and spluttering sparks. He swallowed through a dry throat. Placing his palms over the tree in order to straighten up, he noticed that, indeed, his hands had transformed into a bloody pulp painted with flesh and blood. In some places you could even see an aching bone showing up.
For some reason, the gory scene didn't cause him repulsion or disgust, not even pain. It was almost as if his brain had disconnected from the rest of his body, abandoning the ship to observe like a mere spectator. He didn't feel a thing. Not sadness, not anger. As if the simmering rage that had lightened up every cell in his body had flown away to leave a cold and still apathy instead.
He almost couldn't feel his body. Limp, like a puppet, his head fell down and splinters sunk in his forehead. It didn't really matter. It wasn't as if he felt pain anymore.
The wind started to pick up around him. Leaves started to dance, and trees began to shake and whistle, almost as if the fury that had possessed him until some minutes ago had left him to seize the forest. A forgotten voice in his brain told him that rain was forecast for today. A storm. One of the big ones.
You should go back home, that forgotten voice kept whispering to nhim. It isn't safe here. Storms bring death. You know that better than anyone.
For a moment, everything was silent.
The wind, the trees, his own mind, were lost in a sepulchral stillness.
In front of him awaited a cave he knew he didn't want to enter, but he would anyway. A winter day abnormally strong and cold, cold that froze the soul and stole away your life. Cold that left blue skin and bloody lips in its way. And in front of him a frozen girl, alone, with wide open blue eyes that would never see again.
Where were you, Natsu?
The silence was replaced by an eternal whistling inside his ears. Natsu felt livid, tar creeping through his veins. Floating with the heaviest body in the world.
And like a bolt of lightning that destroys you in place, the fury exploded everything inside of him, burnt his skin and his bones, came out through his mouth and eyes in the form of screams, tears and fire. Especially fire.
It was just a second. A second before, there was trees, and animals, and life in the woods. And the second after there was nothing. Only fire and death. Fire that flowed from Natsu. Fire that greedily devoured everything around him, leaving nothing but ash and darkened flesh behind.
Natsu fell on his knees, incapable of holding his bones up any longer, and buried his mutilated fingers deep into the soil as he inhaled shallowly, yet it felt like no air could reach his lungs. The first drops of rain splashed over his skin, sizzling as they caught up in the fire. Tears flowed freely, automatically, independent from his owner. Sobs shook his body, and his throat was tearing itself apart. Those bloody fingers went to fist in his hair, pulling as if trying to rip off his scalp and liberate his soul from its prison of flesh and sorrow.
Then, like an abandoned rag doll, his body fell to the floor wrapped in the flames that were eating away the rest of the woods. He curved over himself, hugging his knees close to his chest.
A chill snaked up his spine, shooting his eyes wide open in fear. He was cold. He was freezing. Like that day in the cave. He was freezing in the middle of a fucking inferno.
He shuddered, from fear, or cold, or both, and hiccuped like a small child.
Lisanna was dead.
Nobody would take the cold away. Never again.
Author's note: As I said before, I am not sorry. About anything. Don't worry though, this isn't the last chapter! We still have a long way to go ^_^
Feedback me, please, and tell me about your thoughts!
