Chapter 12

Natsu sat up high in the tree in the park. The cherry blossoms were blooming as it was spring again. He watched some of the petals fall around him while others on branches lower than his bloomed. He loved coming to sit here to think about things. It was one of the places he could truly think. And with Kairi at Lisanna's for the weekend, it was just him.

The past year had passed him by as if he had lost track of time. And he had. After the night Lucy had watched Kairi and he had come home in his drunken stupor, he hadn't heard from her again. When he tried to get an answer out of Gajeel a few weeks later, he hadn't gotten much other than she was focusing on herself and getting her life sorted out. He had no idea what it meant, but guess that she was just too busy with her work.

He'd been so busy with Kairi and work that he really hadn't had a chance to focus on much else until the holidays came around. At one of the gang's gatherings where he had expected to see Lucy, he didn't see her at all even though he knew she was supposed to be going. Gajeel had said so. The only thing he'd heard then was Erza mentioning that Loke wouldn't be showing up because Lucy and Loke had called off their engagement and separated. He guessed that she had arrived after he'd left or he was too drunk to remember.

Why? They looked so happy. I did hear Loke was always working though.

Natsu watched a Sakura petal drift delicately towards the lake, letting his mind drift off of the past year and drift somewhere else.

"What were you and Lucy talking about?" Natsu asked Lisanna, both in their high school uniforms.

"Oh… she just thought I liked you is all."

Natsu, his high school self being as dense as he ever had been, replied, "But of course you like me. That's why we're friends."

"Yes. That's it. We're just friends." Lisanna smiled at him, the soft glint of pain unnoticeable to Natsu in her eyes. She turned away from him, taking a big breath. "But I do like you, Natsu. You're funny, exciting, and so caring. I…" She turned back towards in and leaned in to kiss him.

Natsu sat shocked on the bench for a moment, comprehending what Lisanna meant before pushing her away. "I'm sorry Lisanna. But I like you as a friend, and that's it."

"Ah." Lisanna flushed and turned away. "I figured as much." She closed her hands together behind her back, rocked to her toes, and stood for a moment. When she finally turned back around towards Natsu, she bowed. "I'm sorry. I think I'll head home now."

Tears clearly streaming down her face, she grabbed her backpack and started walking away before breaking into a run.

Only minutes later, he had found Lucy sitting in the very tree he was in now. "I really had no idea…" Natsu muttered to himself. "Ahhhh!" His screaming scared a couple of birds away, and maybe a couple of park-goers too. He rattled himself so much so that he found himself falling out of the tree again, just as he had the year before when he'd bumped into Lucy for the first time in years.

As he picked himself up off the ground, a voice called out to him, "You know, you really shouldn't make a habit of falling out of trees. It's rather dangerous."

He looked up to see Lucy, holding a bouquet of flowers, smiling at him.

"Rough day?"

"Nope. Falling out of trees is nothing." He chuckled.

"Oh, I bet."

A pause of awkward silence occurred for a brief moment.

"Are you going to visit your mom?" Natsu asked, breaking the awkward silence between them.

Lucy nodded. "You're," she paused. "You're welcome to join me if you'd like. That is..." She looked around. "Kairi would be welcome to join, too."

"She's at her mom's this weekend."

"Oh." Lucy sounded surprised. "Is that so?"

"But I'll still join you if you'd like some company."

Lucy smiled softly. "I'd like that very much," she said, her voice barely audible.

"Well, then let's go."

The two walked in silence to the cemetery just letting the sounds of the wind, the birds, and falling cherry blossoms absorb them. When they arrived, another bouquet of flowers already sat next to the gravestone.

"Those flowers look just like mine…"

Natsu smiled. "Yeah. I figured your mom could use some. She'd always been a good mother figure to me after I had met her…"

Unable to see Lucy's face as she stood in front of him, he only heard some sniffles. She sat her bouquet next to the one already sitting there, before slowly standing up and turning around. Even though there was a wet line down her cheeks, she smiled at him. "Thank you for remembering." She hugged him.

And after a moment of realization, Natsu hugged Lucy, too, with no intention of letting go this time. "I still love you, always have, and always will." He pulled her tighter towards him.

Lucy nodded into his shoulder and the crook of his neck. She sank further into the hug and murmured, "I still love you, too."

A/N: Only the epilogue is left! Stay tuned. It will be posted by the end of the month! If you have any questions about this story that you'd like answered, please send them my way. I'll answer any questions you have in the final Author's Note on the Epilogue if the Epilogue itself doesn't answer any questions for me. Anyway... thanks for either picking this story up or coming back to it after I came back after a hiatus. :) I hope you've enjoyed the fluff! 3