Hello, everyone !
I'm back with the fourth chapter :D
Enjoy reading !
Disclaimer: My deepest gratitude to Mashima Hiro for bringing this wonderful Fairy Tail alive.
The mission ended in a huge success. The dark guild was completely wiped out by Gray, Natsu, and Erza and the Book of Kurohei returned to the hands of the Woodler family. Fabian quickly placed a magic seal onto the book and had his servant brought the book back to the vault. He would do a ritual there to place a much stronger and firmer seal on the book.
"Thank you very much, Fairy Tail." Fabian smiled in satisfaction and handed the reward.
"It's a pleasure, Sir Woodler." Erza replied.
Fabian then turned to look at Lucy. "Lady Lucy, how about—"
"Let's go home." Natsu nonchalantly cut. "I miss Mira's cooking. We can get to the guild by dinnertime if we board the train now."
Wendy and Carla giggled knowingly while Happy snickered teasingly. Erza and Gray scoffed slightly, knowing Natsu actually didn't want to let their blond-haired little sister figure had any dinner or any private time with their client. Natsu wouldn't even mention the word 'train' or any other vehicles unless he really wanted to get Lucy away from there as fast as possible.
Fabian smiled regretfully. "I was just about to ask you to have a congratulatory lunch with me."
"Nah, we'll—"
"We'll take it, Sir Woodler." Lucy quickly cut Natsu's words and smiled politely. "You are our client, after all, and we cannot reject such a kind offer."
Natsu gawked at Lucy in disbelieve but she just glared back at him, telling him without any words to 'behave'. Natsu lowly growled in disapproval, but complied nonetheless.
Fabian's eyes lit up in excitement. "Please follow me to the dining room!"
The lunch was delicious and Natsu truthfully quite enjoyed it. Eating had always been his favorite thing to do, apart from getting into fights or starting a brawl in the guild hall. But spending time with Lucy topped all of his other favorite things to do.
From the moment the two met in Hargeon, Natsu and Lucy clicked with each other right away. She was so easy and fun to tease, a total easy-going person that got along with pretty much everyone. Sure she was loud and noisy and sometimes a total weirdo, but those were what made her 'Lucy'. Natsu wouldn't have her the other way.
Natsu's constant barging into Lucy's apartment without any announcement was also due to that reason. It was fun to tease her and to make her angry because of that, and it was also because he wanted to spend time with the Celestial wizard. Lucy's presence was something he unconsciously sought for since the day he met her. Don't ask him why, it just felt so right to have Lucy around him. Oh, a bonus, Lucy's cooking was also something to die for. Mirajane's cooking was delicious, but Natsu loved Lucy's cooking.
Natsu disliked the idea of seeing Lucy getting friendly with their client very much, but at least Erza sat between them. That way, their client wouldn't keep getting chummy with Lucy without taking Erza into regard. Natsu inwardly thanked his older sister figure. If he were the one to sit between their client and Lucy, who knew what he would do. Maybe he would fry their client out of jealousy.
Yeah, he was jealous. He was jealous seeing Lucy got all chummy with other guys. He could only tolerate the guys at the guild because he knew they wouldn't look Lucy like that. He wasn't shy to admit that he was jealous of other guys out there, at least not to himself.
What about Lucy's date, you ask? Well, after Natsu fried a guy for getting too close physically to Lucy just because he was her 'date', Lucy decided that she wouldn't try to date anymore. Natsu couldn't be happier.
Why would she date when she already had him? Lucy was a total weirdo at that topic.
Speaking of being a total weirdo, was her hand okay? Natsu wondered inwardly as he chewed his lunch and stared at Lucy's right hand. Wendy healed it perfectly well, her delicate hand didn't have any trace of being burned. Natsu's eyes then trailed up to look at Lucy who was currently talking with their client and Erza. She was sitting right in front of him, so it was easy for Natsu to stare at her.
She seemed fine.
Natsu breathed a small sigh of relief, before his eyebrows furrowed as he remembered what just happened earlier in that stone room. After kicking all of the dark wizards' asses, Natsu and the others quickly searched the entire guild to find the Book of Kurohei. Erza found a secret door leading to the guild's basement at the back of the guild and Natsu sniffed, picking up Lucy's faint scent from somewhere down there.
They quickly followed Natsu's sharp nose and found a huge stone room. A woman wizard was lying at one corner, out cold. Judging from the guild's mark on the upper side of her collarbones, Natsu knew she was the member of the dark guild.
"Lucy-san! Lucy-san!"
Wendy's desperate voice caught Natsu's attention and he whipped his head to look. He widened his eyes as he saw Lucy was standing there while holding a black book, completely unresponsive to Wendy's calls. Happy and Carla tried to rip the book away from Lucy's hand, but she completely didn't let go and the book couldn't be pried away either.
"Lucy!" Natsu quickly came over. "Wendy, what happened?"
"I don't know!" Wendy replied in worry and fear. "The moment Lucy-san touched the Book of Kurohei, she became unresponsive like this!"
Natsu stared at Lucy's blank stare, fear crept into his heart as the memory of Lucy lying there with blood on her head replayed. No. No! He wouldn't lose her!
"Lucy!" Natsu called and started to shake Lucy's body to snap her back.
She didn't move a muscle, just like back then. Natsu shook his head to get a better grip on himself.
Just then, Natsu's nose caught a scent of something burning. His eyes instinctively moved to Lucy's hand, then he gasped in surprise upon seeing her hand started to burn and sizzle.
"Lucy!" Gray called in worry. "Get the book off of her!"
"She… Won't… Let… Go…!" Happy gritted his teeth as he used all of his strength to pull the Lucy's hand away from the book.
Gray came over to help, hissing when he touched the burning book. He poured out his ice magic onto his palm and used his brute strength to take the book away.
"Natsu! Snap her back into her senses!" Erza urged. "She'll burn her hand away if this keeps up!"
"Isn't that what I've been doing?!" Natsu growled. "Lucy!"
Lucy was still unresponsive.
"Lucy!" Natsu's tone became desperate. No, please no! Don't take her away from him! "LUCY!"
Lucy gasped and her consciousness snapped back. "N—Natsu?" she called his name in confusion.
"What are you doing?! Let this thing go!" Natsu growled at her.
Lucy blinked in confusion but was quick to let the book go when she felt her hand was burning because of it. Wendy quickly worked her magic to heal her hand.
Natsu couldn't hold his annoyance. "What were you thinking, Luce? Didn't you know that your hand was burning because you were holding that book?"
Natsu was pissed off. He was pissed off at Lucy's recklessness in holding a dangerous book like that with her bare hand and he was pissed off at the situation. What if Lucy's consciousness didn't return? What if that book burned her hand away? What if she was taken away from him?
There were plenty of what ifs swirling in Natsu's brain and he didn't like any of it.
Remembering what happened back there made annoyance started to creep into Natsu's heart again. Lucy was supposed to be the smart and the sensible one in this team, how could she be so reckless like that? She supposedly knew how dangerous it was to touch a book written by a dark wizard without some protective spells! What were she thinking?
And Natsu's annoyance was something his entire teammates could feel, particularly after the congratulatory lunch ended and they made their way to the station to catch the train back to Magnolia. All of them understood why the fire dragon slayer was annoyed, and it made Lucy felt guilty. She knew Natsu was annoyed due to her actions.
"Natsu…" Lucy softly called.
"What?"
Lucy flinched a bit at his flat tone. "I'm sorry…"
Natsu just grunted in response and Lucy became silent as she didn't know what to say. When Natsu was annoyed like this, it would be better if she let him be for a while. He still lied his head on her lap though when they rode the train back, a signal that he wasn't that annoyed at her.
But when Natsu refused to go back to the guild and decided to head straight back home, Lucy knew his annoyance was back two-fold. She messed up badly this time. She smiled apologetically towards the rest of their teammates and quickly followed Natsu. Happy also tagged along, didn't know what to say.
Natsu didn't say a word during their walk back to Lucy's apartment and didn't respond when Lucy called him. His annoyance started to affect Lucy, making her own annoyance crept into her heart. After arriving at her apartment and closed the door,—Natsu always used the door when they returned to her room together—Lucy couldn't hold it any longer.
"Okay, what the hell is your problem?" Lucy spun on her heels to face at Natsu and dropped her bag away onto the floor. "What am I supposed to do for you to forgive me? Should I kneel and beg for forgiveness?"
Natsu's eyebrows twitched. "What the hell were you thinking back there, Luce? Why did you touch that book without any protective spells?!"
"Fine, it's my bad!" Lucy threw her hands up in admittance. "But I apologized for that already and Wendy healed my hand! Everything's over, so why the hell are you still annoyed at me?"
"Because you're too damn reckless!" Natsu replied. "That book was burning your hand Luce, and you were completely unresponsive!"
"It's not like I chose any of that!" Lucy retorted.
"You were supposed to know that could happen the moment you touched that book using your bare hand!" Natsu growled. "You were usually smart and sensible, what made you that stupid?!"
"Hey!"
"What?!"
Lucy groaned in frustration. "Ugh! Natsu, look, I'm sorry for touching that book with my bare hands, alright? Everything's fine so stop being annoyed like this!"
Natsu's eyes glared with anger. "What? Now I can't be annoyed?!"
"I didn't say that!" Lucy glared back. Goodness, why was he being so damn stubborn? "But I apologized and I'm alright, so what's your problem?!"
"G—guys…" Happy weakly called, tears started to fill his eyes. Natsu and Lucy very rarely fought like this and he didn't like the way their tones unconsciously went higher as their arguments became more heated. Happy took them as his own parents, and which child liked to see their parents fought?
"My problem is because you were so damn reckless!" Natsu growled, obviously didn't hear Happy's scared voice. "That book is burning your hand and your consciousness slipped away, goddamn it, Lucy! YOU COULD HAVE DIED!"
"BUT I DIDN'T!" Lucy shouted back, making Happy flinched in surprise and his tears rolled down.
"BECAUSE I MANAGED TO SNAP YOU BACK!" Natsu retorted. "WHAT IF I COULDN'T?!"
"ALL THAT MATTERS IS THAT YOU DID IT!"
"WHY ARE YOU SO STUBBORN?!"
"YOU ARE THE ONE WHO'S BEING SO DAMN DIFFICULT!"
"DON'T YOU KNOW I WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT YOU?!"
"BUT I'M FINE! WHY ARE YOU OVERREACTING LIKE THIS?! STOP BEING SO GODDAMN PROTECTIVE, NATSU! I'M NOT THAT WEAK!"
"OVERREACTING?! YOU THINK I'M OVERREACTING? AND FOR YOUR INFORMATION, I KNOW YOU'RE NOT WEAK!" Natsu gritted his teeth and clenched his fists tight. Happy's ears were down as he trembled in fear and sadness. Natsu and Lucy had never shouted at each other like this.
Both of them glared at each other, none wanted to back down as annoyance and anger took control. After a full minute of glaring, Natsu ruffled his hair in frustration and turned on his heels. "FINE! Have it your way!"
He then scooped the crying Happy into his arms and opened Lucy's windows. He then leaped out and walked away, didn't bother to spare anymore glances at his blonde partner. Lucy stared at the sudden emptiness of her room and sighed in frustration.
Stupid Natsu!
Happy fell asleep the moment they returned to their house. Natsu carefully placed him on his bed and then threw himself to sit on the couch. He ruffled his hair in annoyance as the argument he had with Lucy earlier replayed itself in his mind.
Damn it, he hated fighting with Lucy!
But he was so annoyed with her! Didn't she know how worried he was? How scared he was to lose her? And what did she say instead? He was overreacting!
Of course he would overreact! She was not just another nakama to him, she was everything for him! She wasn't just another family member to him, she was so much more. Losing her was something Natsu didn't want to go through—especially after he watched her future self died right in front of him. That was a totally hard blow for him as he felt fear like nothing he had ever felt before. The probability of not seeing Lucy anymore in his life sounded so much worse and much scarier than not meeting Igneel again.
Even if he was a total dense for anything else, Natsu knew himself better than anyone else. He wasn't that oblivious regarding feelings and romantic relationships, he just didn't want to bother himself with it. Meeting Igneel again was his current goal and he didn't want to let himself stray from it. Until he finally met Lucy. Slowly but surely, Lucy filled that empty spot in his heart. The special spot that he saved for later after he met Igneel again.
Natsu wasn't attracted to Lucy immediately when he saw her. She was cute and attractive, that was for sure. Natsu had seen plenty of attractive girls in the guild, such as Erza and Mirajane for example. Even his closest childhood friend, Lisanna, was also cute and attractive in his eyes. But when he saw Lucy, there was just something else about her. Her chocolate orbs, her warm smile, and her excited face. Those were the things that caught Natsu's attention and drove him to make a team with her as he wanted to see those more often.
Simply put, Lucy was his ideal type.
Not that he realized he had any before he met her.
They started off as friends. Then they quickly bonded as teammates and became best friends, something Natsu was also amazed of because he never had any other teammates before. Happy was his only teammate and partner. The guild also wondered why Natsu asked Lucy to be his teammate, something he had never done before with the other members. Natsu would just grin at them when that question was asked and never gave away any answers. He didn't know how to explain it to them, so he decided to just wave the question away. The guild respected his decision and decided not to pry anymore.
Lucy's magic was another plus point for Natsu. He was entranced with her celestial magic because he thought that was pretty cool. As cool as Erza's requip magic, Gray's ice-make magic—don't tell him that—, and his own dragon slayer magic. He had never seen anything like that before, which was also the reason why he wanted to team up with Lucy. Apart from feeling comfortable around her fun personality and wanted to see her smile more often, he also wanted to watch Lucy kicking some asses using her pretty magic.
Yeah, he admitted that he was being pretty a weirdo himself in that topic.
But that was what he truly felt. He greatly enjoyed Lucy's presence around him, feeling so comfortable without any definite reasons. It was as if he finally found a missing piece of himself. Igneel taught him the concept of soulmates and although he was a bit skeptical of it, he knew that was the only thing that could explain why he wanted Lucy in his life the second he met her.
She was his soulmate.
In every possible thing he could think of. As a best friend, as a partner, and as a lover.
At first, Natsu didn't realize that his feelings for Lucy had slowly changed. He saw her as his best friend and the closest guild member to him, even after Lisanna's return. But he realized that she was actually more than just a best friend when they battled against Kain of the Grimoire Heart and she refused to run away. 'It is more fun when we're together', she said. Her smile as she bore the pain of Kain's torture and said those words made Natsu realized that he needed her to be by his side. He wanted to spend his life with her.
Then when Lucy's future self died to protect her present self, Natsu only then truly realized that he had fallen in love with her. That was the first time he felt so scared at the reality of having Lucy taken away from him forever. Imagining a life without her around him made Natsu's mind only saw darkness. He didn't like that kind of imagination, and a part of him was still rational enough to somewhat feel relieved because the present Lucy was safe. If the present Lucy—his Lucy—was the one who took the blow instead…
Natsu didn't even want to think about it.
After Igneel appeared out of his body and passed away, he realized something else. How weak his current strength was and how incapable he was to keep Lucy and the rest of the guild safe. He fulfilled his goal of meeting Igneel again after all these years, but now he had another goal. To be strong, so strong that he could always protect his nakama, especially Lucy. He had lost Igneel, he couldn't lose Lucy either.
Leaving Lucy away for one-year lone training without actually saying goodbye to her directly was the hardest thing Natsu had to do. He wrote the letter to her instead because he knew that if he went to say goodbye to Lucy, he would drop the idea altogether instead. Once he looked at her chocolate orbs, he wouldn't want to leave and that was something he shouldn't do. He needed to become stronger. He had to defeat Zeref and Acnologia to give a safe life for Lucy. Even though he missed her so badly, he managed to hold himself from running back to Magnolia to see her. Although he couldn't stop his growing longing, as she was the first thing that came into his mind when he opened his eyes and the last thing he thought about before drifting off.
When he saw Lucy's body was completely still with blood flowing from her head, he thought he had failed. He failed to protect the one he wanted the most to protect, he failed to keep her alive and he lost her just like that. All of his rationality went out of the window, his demon side took control as he wanted to vent out his anger and sadness no matter what. He made Zeref as his target, because none of these would have happened if he hadn't started the war. He wouldn't lose Lucy if Zeref didn't invade Fairy Tail in order to get the Fairy Heart. He was angry at Gray for trying to stop him, but then inwardly thanked Erza for stopping them as he regained back his senses. He watched as Juvia appeared safe and sound, feeling envious as Gray went down in her arms. But just then, Lucy had her hands wrapped around him and Natsu almost choked out in tears upon feeling her warmth. She was safe and alive.
When he was taken by Acnologia's spirit to the time space, he wanted nothing more but to go home to Lucy's warm welcoming arms. He squeezed out every last drop of his magic power to defeat Acnologia because he wanted to see Lucy again. He could hear Lucy's voice reached out to him and he gave one final attack with everything he got.
Lucy was his home and would always be.
Natsu sighed and his body slumped on the couch. He hated fighting with Lucy, but he was still annoyed at her for being way too reckless. She had had several life-threatening situations, why couldn't she be more careful?
"Damn it." Natsu hissed.
Lucy opened the guild's door and stepped inside, her eyes easily caught Natsu at his usual spot at the bar. Lucy knew he was still pissed off at her, judging he didn't even come to pick her up even though she had been waiting in her apartment for a solid one hour. Lucy walked over to Natsu, she had made up her mind to apologize. She hated fighting with Natsu and she knew she was at fault, so it was up to her to make things right again.
"Lucy…" Happy's eyes widened as he caught Lucy's figure. Natsu was just staring at the empty air, knowing full well that Lucy was coming over because he could smell her scent.
"Hey, Happy." Lucy affectionately rubbed Happy's head.
Happy nervously glanced at Natsu, then back at Lucy. He knew both of them were still annoyed, but they wouldn't fight again, right?
"Would you mind going to Wendy and Carla for a while, Happy?" Lucy asked. "I have something to talk about with Natsu."
Happy smiled and nodded, he quickly flew away as he wanted to give his foster parents a chance to make up. Lucy let out a little sigh and sat beside Natsu. Natsu was still staring at the empty air, refusing to make any eye contact with her.
"Natsu." Lucy called his name softly and placed her fingers on his shoulder. "Would you look at me, please?"
Natsu gritted his teeth but turned his head to face Lucy. She then cupped his cheeks with her delicate fingers, effectively throwing all of Natsu's annoyance out of the window. "I'm sorry." Lucy said. "I'm sorry for being so reckless the other day and I'm sorry for shouting at you yesterday. I know you were so worried about me."
Natsu softly shook his head as he gently placed his own hands over Lucy's. "I'm sorry for being too annoyed as well."
Lucy chuckled. "We're good?"
"Yeah."
Natsu then shifted his head a bit, planting a warm kiss on Lucy's palm. Lucy's face instantly blushed and she pulled her hands away in embarrassment.
"I—I will look for Happy…" Lucy quickly stood up from her seat and scurried away towards Wendy and the Exceeds. Natsu snickered upon seeing her embarrassed figure, a huge burden was lifted off of his shoulders as they made up.
As always, it was so fun to tease her.
"Gate of the Lion, I open thee! Loke!"
"Yo, Lucy!" Loke greeted. "As always, you're so beautiful—"
"No time to flirt!" Lucy cut as she donned her Star Dress: Leo Form. She then pointed to the monster they were currently fighting against for their latest mission. "Beat that thing!"
"Your wish is my command." Loke smiled and lounged himself to attack.
Lucy fought the monster's minions along with Wendy and Carla, while Erza, Gray, Natsu, and Loke worked together to bring down the boss which proved to be quite strong. He was big, but he was hell fast too. The minions were a problem as well, they kept popping out because the boss wasn't down yet.
Lucy ducked an attack from one of the minions and that was when her sight blurred. She gritted her teeth and forced herself to focus, then kicked the minion away. Lucy huffed as her head started to pound, but she quickly shoved it away because she was in the middle of a battle.
It had been a few weeks since they defeated Apocalypse and retrieved the Book of Kurohei. Erza had notified Jellal of the dark guild and a week ago, he told her that the guild had been completely dissolved along with its smaller branches. Everything came back to normal after that mission, except for one thing.
Lucy was having trouble sleeping.
It had been going for a few days and now she is feeling more sluggish because of the lack of sleep. Her body felt so heavy too as it screamed in exhaustion. Her sight sometimes blurred and her head pounded too. But she couldn't exactly complain about that when she was in the middle of a mission.
It felt like forever, but the monster was finally down. The minions also disappeared the moment the boss was down, allowing Lucy to breathe in relief.
"Hey, Lucy?" Loke walked over to his master's side. He raised an eyebrow as he saw Lucy's face was pale. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah."
Loke was doubting Lucy's answer, so he placed his hand on her forehead. "Lucy! You're burning!"
"What?" Lucy blinked. "Are you saying I'm having a fever?"
"Wendy!" Loke called over the petite dragon slayer. "Can you check on Lucy? She's having a fever!"
Wendy and the rest of the team quickly made their way to Lucy. Natsu placed his hand on her forehead to check and hissed. "Luce! You're burning up! Why didn't you say anything?!"
"I didn't even know I'm having a fever." Lucy scoffed.
"I'll return now." Loke said. "Get plenty of rest, Lucy. Get well soon, okay?"
Lucy nodded and smiled weakly at her celestial spirit. "Yeah. Thanks, Loke."
Wendy worked her magic on Lucy while Gray placed his hand on her forehead to bring down her temperature.
"Gray!" Lucy hissed upon feeling Gray's cold hand. "That's cold—"
But Lucy's words were cut off as her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she lost her consciousness. Her body slumped in Gray's arms as everything became dark around her.
Done !
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