Lucy was worried about Natsu, he had been quiet most of the day, since they had left Extalia in fact. No one else really seemed to notice, they were all busy with their own conversations or distracting Wendy, who was also missing Carla deeply, so Lucy slid a little closer to Natsu and softly asked "Hey, you okay?" Natsu turned to her and tried to grin, but failed in doing so. Since they were already lagging behind the others, Lucy gently grabbed ahold of Natsu's arm and brought him to a stop.
When the others, including Gajeel and Wendy, were far enough away so they wouldn't be overheard, Lucy said "Natsu, please, tell me what's wrong? Does it have to do with leaving Happy behind?" To her shock, she watched some tears trail down Natsu's face as she softly said "Oh Natsu." She reached out and hugged him, one which he returned with a tight embrace as he tried to keep the tears from falling, which she noticed by his suppressed sobs what he was doing and so she said "Let it all out Natsu, it's okay."
Gut wrenching sobs started softly coming from him as Lucy held him tight, rubbing his back in small, comforting circles. Their friends by now had noticed they were missing and stopped to wait for them, but none of them moved to go back to the pair, seeing that Natsu needed a moment. His sobs went on for a few minutes before he quietly started to say around them "I'm just so worried. What if I lose the last bit of my family Lucy? Happy might choose to stay with his parents and I could never get in the way of that, but what if I don't find Igneel? I'll be all alone."
"I know Happy will come home to you Natsu, and we will find Igneel. But even if we didn't and Happy stayed in Extalia, you will never be alone. You've got Grandeeney and the other dragons, you've got Wendy, Gajeel, Sting and Rogue. And you've got Fairy Tail and me. There will always be someone there for you Natsu." Lucy replied gently, trying to pour in every ounce of belief that she had faith that her words were true into them. Natsu half sobbed, half hiccupped before asking "Promise?" Lucy nodded and said "Promise."
It took a few more minutes for Natsu to gather himself together, but then he was back to normal. Or at least that's how it appeared to most people. Lucy could tell he was faking it, but she played along with him, following his lead. As they walked, Lucy hoped that her promise that she had made to Natsu would never be broken, she would never want to hurt Natsu in that way.
XXX
Once they entered Tartaros, it felt like all eyes were on them. Whether people really were staring at them or if they were just on edge was hard to say, but one they didn't take time to stop and think on it. Instead, rather than breaking into smaller groups, they decided to go with safety in numbers than the possible obscurity the smaller sizes would offer. They soon reached the outskirts of the town that Brandish and her mother lived in and Lucy turned to the others and said "I think it's best if I go in there alone. It will draw less attention this way and if they don't want to house us we don't have to worry about people going after them just because they saw them interacting with us."
Erza frowned and said "I don't like the idea of you going in alone." "I'll go with her." Levy volunteered, sending Lucy a smile which she was about to return when Gajeel cut in and said "I don't think that's a good idea." "Why not!" huffed Levy. "No offense Shrimp, but we don't know what the people of Tartaros are capable, I don't think any girl or two girls should go off alone, unless one of them is Erza of course." Gajeel said with a shrug.
"I'll go with her." Natsu said quietly, he was still working through his thoughts but figured this could be part of his thanks to Lucy for just being there for him back in Edolas. Jellal nodded and said "Okay you two, get going, but be careful." Natsu and Lucy nodded and headed down the road into town while the others went into the woods off to the side of it to wait for them. "Do you know where this Brandish person lives?" asked Natsu. "Yes and no, I know where I send the mail to but I never visited her. We'll either have to ask for directions to the road or keep our eyes open."
They decided that as a last resort they would ask, but the less people who knew their destination the better, so after Lucy told Natsu the name of the road, he looked at signs on one side of the street while she looked at signs on the other. Finally he spotted it and took Lucy's hand as he led her across the road to it. They didn't have to go much further down the road before they arrived at the house and Lucy knocked at the door.
It was soon answered by a girl wearing black and deep purples, with green hair. "Brandish, it's me!" Lucy said with a smile. Brandish's face turned to one of shock as she questioned "Lucy? What are you doing here?" "It's a long story. Do you mind if we come in?" Grammi came into the room as Brandish closed the door behind their guest and was also pleased to see her daughter's friend. She too questioned Lucy why she was there, mentioning that Tartaros wasn't really a safe place to visit at this time.
It was Lucy turn to ask "What do you mean? Oh and this if my friend Natsu by the way." The two woman greeted Natsu, who responded in turn before Brandish explained "Not really sure why, but the king is on a major war path lately." Lucy turned to Natsu with concern and said "Do you think whatever they have had in the works all these years is finally coming to a head?" "What do you mean Lucy dear?" asked Grammi. "Well, that's part of the long story." Lucy said, before jumping into the story of why and how they came to be there.
When Grammi and Brandish heard that Lucy had more friends with her, they eagerly told her to go get them and that the rest of the story could wait until they had arrived. They came in groups of twos and threes until they were all there, nobody on the street having noticed just how full Brandish and Grammi's mid-sized house had become with people. Soon everyone was caught up in the tale of both the journey and about the unrest the country had been experiencing, as well as Grammi and Brandish's lives since Lucy had last seen them at the school.
After Grammi's husband had died, the business he had worked so hard to run, a shipping one much like Lucy's father's, had gone under. To keep the house that had been there home for so many happy years with him, the two had gone to work. Lucy knew that Brandish and Grammi had jobs because of the letters they had exchanged, but she hadn't realized how hard things had been for them lately. The two kept their part of the story brief, focusing mainly on the war-like comments the king had been making lately. It left the traveling group very disturbed.
"Maybe the reason for taking out Mystogan wasn't to stop him from joining Fiore, maybe they are just going to take over Edolas on their way there!" Romeo exclaimed. "If that's the case, we've got to move double time to find Igneel!" Wendy declared. "Do either of you have any idea where they would hold someone captive?" asked Juvia. Mother and daughter looked at each other, before turning back towards the group and Brandish saying "The only place they would hold someone that important for them to keep locked up would be the castle."
"How hard would it be to break in?" asked Gray, all of them knowing they wouldn't like the answer. "Impossible." replied Grammi, "But I might know another way in."
Apologies for the short chapter, I needed it this way to set up the next part of the story. Also some unplanned things came up in my life and since I am still in the process of writing this story while uploading (something I have been avoiding doing lately, should have kept it up haha), the chapters may not be coming as fast. I still plan on Monday and Friday uploads to keep going per usual, but Wednesday (especially if this is still going Christmas week) might get dropped if life doesn't slow down on my end.
If by the Sunday of each week I have at least four chapters in advance (and it may not run that much longer, it all depends on how long the rest of my plans take to come to fruition xD), then Wednesday will get an upload :D That being said, I've been feeling under the weather the past few days and I just don't have the energy to really write anything so I'm taking the next week off from uploads entirely so that I can just recover a bit. Sorry guys (heart, since fanfic won't let me make one my usual way XD)!
Answers to Reviews!
FireShifter: Thanks 3 Yeah writing them going their separate ways and the first part of this chapter was super hard, I hate being mean to the characters XD
I Live FairyTail: No worries, I figured I would lose some people with the holidays and everything :D I mean, we have seen Natsu drink as well in the anime, though I do agree with you on Rogue, something about him doesn't make me feel like he drinks. Lol I hope that was a good can't believe and not a bad one XD Glad you liked Chapter 5!
FTAnt: Gah, I know, the ending killed me a little, as did the start of this chapter. Glad you liked the change up of deduction from fists XD
CrazyZaika: Glad you liked it :D lol nope, not upset :D It's just how I write. There are times where I will go into more detail because I want to be super sure that people get what I'm meaning or "seeing", but generally I like to leave it with some bits a pieces for the reader to add their own emotions, so to speak, in it :D
