Hello, everyone !
I'm back with the eighth chapter :D
I hope you enjoy reading this one~
Disclaimer: My deepest gratitude to Mashima Hiro for bringing this wonderful Fairy Tail alive.
There weren't many changes after Natsu and Lucy became mates, although of course there were some things that obviously changed. Natsu wasn't shy to show to the world that he loved his girl and Lucy became more comfortable in showing it as well. They gave each other random kisses wherever and whenever they could—Natsu was the one who did it for 90% of time. They held hands and hugged each other more openly, and behind the closed doors, cuddling every night after one or two rounds of making love. The place depended on whether Happy was already asleep or not, or when he stayed over at Wendy's or Gajeel's.
Another change which happened was that Lucy decided not to renew her apartment's contract. The building was still being rebuild, but Lucy already talked to her landlady that she would no longer live there. She had permanently moved into Natsu's house. And because of that, Natsu took more solo missions to earn more money. Lucy actually told him he didn't have to do that because they weren't short of money, but Natsu insisted that they needed to save even more. Now that they are sharing their future together, Natsu wanted to prepare as best as he could. After all, raising a child—or hopefully, children—required lots of money. Besides, he had to renovate his house again to accommodate his family better.
His family.
Man, Natsu couldn't believe that it was finally happening to him. He has his own family right now, one that labeled him as a future husband and father. He thanked Lucy every single day, feeling so grateful for the chance she gave him. Lucy always laughed and kissed him back as her own way of saying how much she thanked him for the same reason. They wouldn't have any other person to have this chance with.
Although they were sharing their future together, but marriage hadn't been exactly a topic between the two. Lucy had brought it up for the first time a week after they became mates and the two of them spent the entire night talking about it. They both agreed that while they were mates already, marriage was a whole different thing. There were still plenty of things they could learn about each other and the two decided not to get married any time soon.
Regardless of everything, life was perfect.
Until one day, Natsu was found slouching on the bar's stool. His chin was lying on the bar table and for a day in his life, he wasn't interested in joining the daily brawl in the guild. Mirajane looked up from the glass she was wiping and tapped her fingers lightly on the table. Natsu glanced at her and she smiled at the pink-haired dragon slayer. "Lucy will be back before you know it, Natsu."
At the mention of his mate's name, Natsu instantly let out a heavy sigh. "I haven't seen her for a week, Mira."
Mirajane chuckled at the mage's love-struck whine. "She'll be back soon."
"I don't get it." Natsu groaned. "First, she took a three-day solo mission. After that, she didn't even go back home and took another three-day solo mission! Is she avoiding me or something?"
"Of course not, Natsu." Mirajane gasped. "Lucy will never avoid you!"
"Maybe she needs time to be away from you." Gajeel snickered as he teased his fellow dragon slayer and sat down beside Natsu.
Levy slapped his arm pretty hard. "Hey, that's a mean thing to say!"
"I was just kidding." Gajeel rubbed his arm in pain.
"This is not something to kid about!" Levy scolded back. "How would you feel if I was the one who took a three-day solo mission consecutively?"
Gajeel's eyebrows furrowed. "I don't like the sound of that. Don't you dare, Shrimp."
Levy huffed and sat beside her boyfriend. "I'm sure you'll be in the same state as Natsu is right now if I do that."
"Right. I'm sorry." Gajeel apologetically said as he stared at Natsu who just hummed back at him.
"Natsu, I'm sure Lu-chan is not avoiding you." Levy said, trying to keep her tone as upbeat as possible. "I think she also wants to earn more money for you guys."
"I'm the one who's responsible for that." Natsu retorted.
"I know, but I'm sure Lu-chan wants to help too." Levy smiled. "And I'm sure she's okay, Natsu. This isn't the first time she went to a solo mission, you know."
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Natsu sighed. "But… This is the first time she took another right after she finished. We're not short on money, so why is she taking solo missions consecutively?"
Lucy started to take solo missions about two months after they became mates. Natsu was confused when she suddenly asked his permission to take a solo mission, but he didn't forbid her. He knew Lucy wanted to help him to earn the money while she was still able to do it and Natsu didn't want to stop her from doing something she really wanted to do either. He was possessive, yes, but he didn't want to make Lucy felt she was being caged by him. As long as she didn't take any life-threatening missions, Natsu was okay with her going alone.
Natsu believed in her strength and he knew she was aware of her own limits. Besides, if something went wrong and her life was somehow threatened, Natsu would immediately know from his claim mark on her. The mark would send some sort of a telepathy signal to him, allowing him to know something had happened with his mate and would send a mental image to his brain about his mate's whereabouts.
For a month, Natsu was okay with Lucy taking solo missions. Of course he missed her like mad when she was away, but she would always make sure to come back before his longing became overwhelming. Natsu loved the moment when she was finally in his arms again so much. And for a month, Lucy had never taken a mission longer than two or three days.
Until she decided to take a three-day solo mission consecutively without saying anything to Natsu.
She only told him about her first three-day solo mission but not the second one. Natsu wouldn't have known she had taken another if he hadn't asked Mirajane. He felt odd, because Lucy wasn't home yet and he couldn't find her in the guild. When Mirajane told him that Lucy had set off to her second solo mission—just an hour before he got there too—Natsu felt his heart broke.
If claiming a mate had its own drawbacks, then it would be the dragon slayers' overthinking. Everything and anything their mates did and felt would heavily impact the dragon slayers' way of thoughts. In case of something unpleasant happened, then it would send them into an overthinking mode. Because of that, Natsu was thinking that Lucy took another three-day solo mission because she was avoiding him.
Although he had no idea what kind of mistakes he did that made her decided to avoid him. And that only worsened his overthinking.
Now that he thinks about it, he did find Lucy was acting a bit strange for the past month. Apart from how she suddenly asked his permission to go to a solo mission, she also seemed a bit more sluggish lately. Was it because of their nightly sessions? Did he exhaust her with his own lust and passion for her? But Lucy's responds to his touch and kisses were never any different. Did she make that up? Did she force herself to do that so he wouldn't be suspicious?
"Whoa, hold your trail of thoughts right there, Salamander." Gajeel raised an eyebrow and his voice brought Natsu's focus back. "You're overthinking again."
"Overthinking?" Both Mirajane and Levy blinked their eyes in confusion.
"It's a drawback from claiming a mate." Gajeel said. "It makes us overthink about pretty much everything and anything regarding our mates."
"How did you know Natsu is overthinking?" Levy asked.
"Instinct." Gajeel said. "Excluding the mates, no one understands a dragon slayer better than another dragon slayer."
Mirajane's eyes softened and she softly patted Natsu's head. "Natsu, I can assure you that Lucy isn't avoiding you."
Natsu's eyebrows furrowed as doubts filled his eyes. "But—"
His words were cut, however, as the guild's doors were opened and his nose instinctively whiffed the air. He instantly sat right up and turned his body around. His eyes widened in happiness as he looked at Lucy who was entering the guild. He got up from his stool and walked—half running, to be exact—towards his mate.
"Luce!"
Lucy glanced at Natsu while making her way to the request board. "Hey, Natsu."
Natsu's breath hitched upon hearing Lucy's somewhat passing-by greeting, but he still walked over to over. When her delicate hand ripped out another mission request, however, Natsu could no longer help himself.
"Luce."
"Hm?"
"What are you doing?"
Lucy looked up a bit from the mission request she just took. "Doing a solo mission."
"You just got back!" Natsu groaned. "And you were gone for a week! Why don't you take a break for now?"
"I'm fine."
"I'm not fine!"
Lucy rolled her eyes a bit. "What? Now you're forbidding me from taking solo missions?"
"I didn't say that!" Natsu retorted.
"Cool." Lucy simply said back and made her way to the bar to report to Mirajane. "Mira-san! I'm taking this—"
Her words were cut, however, because Natsu ripped the request paper out of her hand. He crumpled that piece of paper into a ball and tossed it somewhere behind him.
"Natsu!" Lucy glared at her mate. "What the hell are you doing?"
"What the hell are you doing?" Natsu retorted back, the way Lucy treated him was too painful for him to bear. If he truly did make a mistake, if he truly offended her in any way he didn't realize, he would immediately apologize after he get the answer out of her mouth right here right now.
"I said, I'm taking a solo—"
"Why are you avoiding me, Lucy?"
Lucy's breath hitched a bit upon hearing Natsu's low voice. Hurt filled his eyes and her heart was stung with pain.
"Natsu, I…"
"I don't get it." Natsu cut Lucy's words, keeping his gaze on his mate as confusion and frustration latched onto his voice. "I don't mind if you want to take solo missions, but why did you suddenly take another right after finishing the previous one? You didn't even tell me you're going to take a consecutive mission. And now, you're taking another right after you got back? You didn't even greet me the way you used to. Why are you avoiding me, Lucy? What mistakes did I do?"
A lump instantly formed in Lucy's throat. She took a step forward towards Natsu, reaching out her hand to hold his hand. "Natsu, I'm sorry… I…" Then her words were abruptly cut off, she lowly hissed when her fingers ghosted over his and she immediately pulled her hand away from him.
Natsu's eyebrows furrowed upon seeing her actions, hurt and confusion were getting more apparent in his eyes. Great, now his mate is appalled to touch him.
Lucy saw the emotions that were swirling in Natsu's eyes and she let out a sigh. She took a breath to calm herself down and looked straight back at Natsu. "Natsu, I'm sorry. You didn't do anything wrong, and I'm not mad at you. I'm just… Look, just let me take solo missions for a while, okay?"
"Why?" Natsu's voice came out in a weak croak, he felt his energy was being sapped out with what was happening between them.
Lucy bit her bottom lip. "Just… Let me do that."
Natsu's hands fisted on his sides, the frustration and the confusion he felt was kicking back in two-fold. Lucy obviously didn't make things any clearer to him and he was on the verge of his limit. "Tell me why."
"Just let me do that, okay?" Lucy dodged.
Natsu gritted his teeth. "No. Tell me why. I'm your mate, Lucy."
Lucy's annoyance started to rise. She let out an exasperated sigh and folded her arms in front of her chest. "I'm aware of that, Natsu."
"Alright, so I don't see any reason why you couldn't explain it to me."
"It's complicated."
"I wouldn't say that before you tell me."
"I know it's complicated, so just drop this topic."
"Just tell me."
Lucy's eyebrows twitched in annoyance. "Gods, Natsu! Why are you so stubborn?!"
"Because I have every right to know what's going on with you!" Natsu retorted, his own annoyance was also getting the best of him. He couldn't understand why Lucy didn't want to explain things to him!
"Not now, okay?" Lucy let out a heavy sigh. "Just let me sort this out first and then I'll explain things to you."
"Sort what out?"
"Not now, Natsu."
Gritting his teeth in annoyance, Natsu grabbed Lucy's hand. "Just tell me what's wrong with you!"
"Dear Mavis, just leave me alone, Natsu!" Lucy snapped and harshly yanked her hand away from Natsu's grip.
Lucy's response shocked the hell out of Natsu and the rest of the guild. Natsu's eyes widened and he tumbled back a bit, his hand was hanging in the middle of the air. The atmosphere became chilling and quiet, not only between the two of them but around the entire guild as well. Happy was sitting on a table with his Exceed friends, his eyes were widened and filled with tears upon seeing his foster parents were fighting again. The rest of the guild had ceased all of their activities when Natsu and Lucy started to argue. It wasn't like they enjoyed watching a couple's drama, but because it was so rare to see Natsu and Lucy argued. Of course they had complained about each other's behaviors—Lucy took the baton most of the time—but they had never argued before. Especially not in the public like this.
Wendy caught Happy's heart-broken face and was quick to soothe him. She scooped him into her arms and gently rubbed his blue head. "It's okay, Happy."
The guild was at loss of words, particularly Natsu. He just stared at Lucy dumbfounded, he was too shocked to muster any words. Lucy had never rejected him like this before, not even before they became mates.
She… She couldn't possibly hate him, could she?
"Gods, Natsu!" Lucy's exasperated sigh made Natsu flinched. She could no longer hold the annoyance that was bursting from inside of her. Her rationality no longer worked, her negative emotions had completely taken over. "Why can't you just leave me alone?! Why are you being so fussy?! All I ask is a bit of time alone!"
There was a reason why Lucy suddenly decided to go on solo missions. Ever since she had a dream—which she could no longer remember—on the night she and Natsu became mates, Lucy felt something was slowly changing inside of her. She started to feel annoyed for no particular reason and her body started to feel hotter than it was used to every time she was near Natsu. This feeling of annoyance was somewhat the same when she was facing Nirvana, the feeling of something dark was being pulled out of your inner self. And the heat that she felt all over her body was similar to the burning heat she endured when she rewrote the Book of E.N.D.
Lucy doubted that rewriting the Book of E.N.D was the cause for this because Gray had slain the demon's power from within her. She also doubted that touching the Book of Kurohei was the culprit because that book had been safely sealed away and Wendy had healed her hand. Lucy could only guess that the cause was that dream she didn't remember. Apart from that, all she knew was that her symptoms got better if she stayed away from Natsu.
Which was something that Lucy never thought would happen. Natsu's presence around her had been a constant thing ever since they met all those years ago in Hargeon. His presence was something she constantly sought out, something she dearly missed when he decided to leave her for his one-year training. His presence was something that always calmed her down, something that always boosted her courage. Natsu was the reason her adventures started and the reason she could have the future she had always dreamed of.
So, staying away from him was something that had never crossed her mind before. But Lucy couldn't stop her negative emotions from piling up. Before they could take over her mind, she decided to set some distance in order to control it. It only worked, however, when Lucy was truly away from her mate. Once she was back in Magnolia and especially went back home, everything crashed. She inwardly struggled to hide these feelings from Natsu, because she knew something was off with her and she didn't want to worry him needlessly. She truly enjoyed the way Natsu welcomed her back, although after that she felt she was being overwhelmed by those negative emotions she kept having. Anger, annoyance, frustration, irritation, sadness, fear, basically all sorts of negative emotions she could think of that mixed into one huge mess inside of her.
It was getting harder for her to keep her calm around Natsu and not to lash out on him without any particular reason, which was why Lucy decided to take a consecutive solo mission without telling him anything. Maybe if she could be fully away from him for a few weeks, she would be able to fully diminish these unexplainable emotions. She was positive that she could solve this by her own, until Natsu decided to butt in.
"Lucy!" Gray suddenly grabbed her shoulders and shook her body. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
Lucy's eyebrows twitched, she could no longer hold the anger that was bubbling inside of her. "Now what, Gray?"
"How can you treat Natsu that way?" Gray stared in disbelieve at his younger sister figure. "He's your mate, for Mavis's sake!"
"I know that, you don't have to tell me twice!" Lucy hissed back and slapped his hands away from her shoulders.
"What is wrong with you?" Gray urged. "You're acting weird!"
Lucy fisted her hands tight and gritted her teeth. "STOP!" she screamed. "STOP ASKING WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE! I DON'T WANT—"
Lucy's sudden outburst abruptly stopped as her body suddenly tensed. She let out a sudden hard gasp, bringing focus back into Natsu's eyes. Her body started to tremble, her figure became rigid.
"L—Luce?" Natsu blinked his eyes in confusion.
Suddenly, red veins started to appear on her body. Gray and Happy gasped in shock upon seeing it for they recognized that kind of veins. The same veins that appeared when Lucy rewrote the Book of E.N.D.
"Impossible!" Gray mumbled. "I'm sure I've slain them!"
"Lucy?" Natsu asked in utter confusion. He didn't like the appearance of that kind of veins on her body.
Natsu's voice seemed to have snapped something inside of Lucy. Her hands suddenly clawing her own neck, her breath became short gasps as if she was having a difficulty in breathing. The guild stared at her in utter confusion and shock, before they broke into a chaos as Lucy fell down on the floor and her body writhed in pain.
"Lucy!" Natsu cradled Lucy's body on his arms. Fear and worry gripped his heart tightly, wondering what on earth was happening to his mate. "Lucy! Hey!"
Lucy's body started to convulse which frightened Natsu even more. He turned his head to stare at a confused Wendy. "Wendy! Please help Lucy—"
"Natsu!"
The next thing he knew, Erza had grabbed his collar and yanked him away from Lucy. Something slashed just few inches before him and Natsu widened his eyes as he looked back at his mate.
Lucy was on all four, a hand was hanging in the middle of the air with sharp claws elongated from her fingers. Fangs protruded from her mouth, her eyes were completely white as she let out a low growl. It took Natsu a few more seconds to realize that Lucy had just tried to attack him with her new claws earlier.
"L—Lucy…?" Natsu was too confused to think.
Lucy roared and lunged towards Natsu. He was too stunned to react and Erza was aware of that. She quickly shoved him behind her and drew out her sword to block Lucy's attack.
"Lucy!" Erza gritted her teeth. "Get a hold on yourself!"
Lucy growled again and jumped back, before hissing at Mirajane who was standing in disbelieve behind the bar and lunged at her.
"Luce! Stop!" Natsu called.
Mirajane yelped, but Elfman managed to use Beast Soul on both of his hands to block Lucy's attempt in attacking his older sister. "Lucy! What the hell is wrong with you?!"
"Luce!" Natsu was about to go to his mate but Erza held his collar tight. Natsu whipped his head to look back at her and protested. "Erza! Let me go!"
Erza gritted her teeth and held Natsu's collar tight. Her eyes were plastered on Lucy who was trying to overwhelm Elfman to attack Mirajane.
"She's not Lucy, Natsu." Erza muttered, loud enough for Natsu's sensitive ears to hear. "She's not your mate."
Done !
I had some difficulties when writing this chapter, but I'm glad I managed to write it down !
What do you think about this chapter ?
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