Disclaimer: I (unfortunately) do NOT own Fairy Tail or any of the characters. I only am responsible for the (albeit poorly written and devised) plot.
So guys...
This month has been really hard for me. Sorry. But, I promise I'll try and do better with updating for the next chapter. Okay?
Also: WARNING- THERE ARE SOME MENTIONS OF SEX {SORT OF, IT'S IMPLIED BUT NOT ACTUALLY} AND IF THAT MAKES YOU UNCOMFORTABLE MAYBE READING THIS CHAPTER IS NOT THE BEST THING FOR YOU
I love all of my readers, ut in particular I want to mention everyone who supported me since the last update:
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Scooping her into his arms, he twirled her around, just to hear that cute little laugh.
The stands were practically deserted, as all the audience had been ushered out, and all the relevant Guilds (and by that I mean relevant to Lucy) had been called to stay. At that very moment, the last people were exiting and the gates were being shut.
Lucy looked embarrassed out of her mind, though she didn't seem to mind as much as she usually would. Not with Natsu spinning like a top and the only people to witness it were her friends. Levy was gushing, along with Mira who was daydreaming about little fire-breathing blonde babies.
Master Makarov clapped his hands, once, and the booming sound caused all the idle chatter to die down. All attention was called to the little man descending from the sky, as he leapt from the Fairy Tail section of the stands. He, of course, landed gracefully on his two feet, and brushed off his shoulder.
"Children," he greeted. "And friends," he said, nodding to the other people who had stayed.
"Today we have had a miracle bestowed upon us," he announced. "And while we, the most grateful of all, to have a member of our family returned to us. But... before celebrating, like Fairy Tail is so well known for," a few chuckled at that, looking at Cana in particular. "...we must think of the consequences of this miracle."
They went silent.
"...what?"
"Lucy here has been raised from the dead," Master said. "And while I am thrilled that we have recovered a lost nakama, we must step back and think about it: Miss Heartfilia has cheated death." He enunciated the last two words slowly. "People, all throughout history, have tried to do this. Zeref himself managed (spoiler in case you're really far behind) to make himself immortal, but even that doesn't really get to the solution people want. He avoided the problem itself entirely, but it wasn't solution."
"So how is it that Lucy has been brought back from the dead? As far as I can see, there is no Necromancer controlling her, she is no ghost, as she seems to be perfectly solid in the arms of that idiot over there-" Lucy did flush this time, and Natsu grinned unabashedly back. "-and we all know that resurrection is impossible. So it begs to ask: Who. Is. That?" Master asked.
No one knew how to react.
"It's her," Gajeel finally spoke up, breaking the silence. "And I'm sure those two idiots," he nodded his head at Sting and Rogue "-and these two-" he jerked his thumb at Wendy and Laxus "-will agree with me."
Master made an inquisitive noise, for them to carry on.
"No two people ever have the same scent," Sting explained, shaking his head. "No way our noses would ever be fooled. And we've got seven of them here, to verify." They all nodded, save for Natsu. He was too busy looking torn between joining the other Dragon Slayers, or starting a new argument.
"Illusions, morphing magic, even ghosts, don't smell exactly like the people they replicate. Ghosts, while they are the same person, don't have the same physical body anymore. And Lucy," Sting said, pointing at the blonde girl who had since been let down and had crept closer to join the circle. "-smells exactly the same."
Master nodded, scratching his chin. He was satisfied. Partially.
"So then, how?"
"I'm a Spirit," Lucy said. "I'm a real, actual Spirit now, like with a key and everything. This isn't some wardrobe change, it's not like I've dressed like this for fun. These are-"
"They're part of her battle outfit, is what she really means."
It was Loke.
"Lucy woke up in the Spirit World, four weeks after her death, in her landmark (the structure that becomes their home) with no idea how she'd gotten there. In our time, that was maybe eight hours and ten minutes ago that she woke up. She's been through a lot today. So if you could please, not push all this on her right now, that would be lovely."
"I'm just saying-"
"You're just saying what? That maybe she's not really Lucy? That maybe she just believes she is? Well I'm telling you that it's not true."
"I know that now, but I just wanted to consider all the possibilities-"
"While she was here? In front of everyone?"
"I just thorough perhaps-"
"Perhaps if she was a fake and went rogue, then we could all contain her? Was that it?"
Now he looked like he wanted to punch Gramps in the face. Lucy looked like she was torn between crying and protesting in her defense.
"Natsu," Loke called over at him. He repeated what Gajeel had just done moments ago. He jerked a tub at Lucy, and caught his glance for a second.
"Get her out of here."
Lucy stared up at the sky; at the twinkling lights staring right back at her. Leaning over the balcony of the hotel room, on the twelfth floor no less, she wished she could just be... closer, to the stars. The dark velvet of the sky against the glinting diamonds embedded in the sky... it was beautiful.
Maybe it was because she was a Spirit now, and the stars and the sky stood for everything she was, but... She was entranced by it. She'd been a little obsessed before she'd... died, but maybe she'd always been enraptured because she had been a Celestial Mage. A huge aspect of her life revolved around the stars, the planets.
Her Spirits really.
Or rather, her ex-Spirits.
She felt a hand on her hip, and a chin coming to rest on her shoulder. Breaking away from her train of thought, she sighed and relaxed into the body pressing against hers. Her wings had disappeared into thin air as soon as she had stepped out of the arena. Though, she was sure they'd e there if she suddenly decided to dive off the balcony.
"I love you," she said. Natsu didn't respond, feeling that she wasn't done.
"I don't think I'll ever get used to saying that," Lucy said after a moment. She bit her lip. "I still can't believe that you... You chose me."
Lucy laughed in disbelief, shaking her head.
It was all hitting her now, the long chain of events that had transpired in the last few Earthland hours. She was exhausted now, and she just... felt drained. It all felt so surreal, with the quality that made it all so... much like a fantasy.
"It feels like a dream," Lucy said.
Natsu could smell the tears.
"It can't be real, or at least it feels that way," she confessed. "That you'd chose me over Lisanna, that you kissed me and that you want me as your mate." She shook her head, laughing.
"I'm so afraid," she whispered.
"I'm so afraid that this isn't real and I'll just wake up in that arena, and you won't want me anymore," she sobbed. "I'm so scared that after this has been a dream, that I passed out after the fight with Juvia and-" she hiccuped. "Or that I'll wake up, and I'll be in heaven or hell or wherever it is dead people go because I never got a second chance."
"I don't want to be dead," she finally whimpered, turning to bury her face in his chest.
"Shh," he said, rocking he back and forth. If she had looked up to see him, perhaps she would have caught the taken-aback look on his face. Aside from concerned, he was almost... surprised?
"Lucy," he said, cradling her shivering form. "Lucy," he repeated, his voice more insistent. She looked up at him, eyes glassy and miserable and his breath caught as he looked down at her, and an overwhelming wave of misery crashed into him. It was intense, so strong and unexpected, that it almost knocked him off his feet.
Mates, he internally marveled. Ah, so that's what it's like.
Mates would be connected, always, in more ways than one. That was what Igneel had always told him. And Gajeel, and the twins. And this, their emotions intertwined, just made the whole ordeal more intimate. It was part of what made them closer than married people,
"I love you," he said, grinning, his canines sharp. "Lucy Heartfilia, I love you, more than you'll ever be loved, ever again," he swore.
"But what if you don't?" Lucy cried, weakly pounding her fist on his chest. "What if you don't love me? What if this isn't real, my second chance wasn't and isn't real. Natsu I'm not ready to die," she said brokenly, hiccuping. She was clinging to him, crying into his scarf almost hysterically now. He twirled a strand of her golden hair around her finger, eyes saddening.
"Lucy, you're ridiculous, but I love you anyway. If I love you? can you even hear yourself? Lucy, I swear, I'll prove it to you if I have to, that this life is real, that this," he gestured at the two of them "-is real."
"And even if it is real, Natsu..." Lucy said, interrupting, with her greatest fear just on the tip of her tongue. He felt it too, the way the hairs on the back of his neck sudden;y stood on end. Her feelings wavered on the brink of sadness and apprehension, before plunging into pure fear.
"What about us?" She asked.
"What about us?" He asked back, now a bit unsure as to where this was going.
"...I'm a Spirit, Natsu. I can't stay here, not all the time anyway. I'll have to go back sometimes, and when I go I'll be gone for what feel like an hour, but will be three and a half days for you."
He snarled. He hadn't even thought of that and being separated from her for that long, for any interval of time really.
"I don't know if I can even leave you for an hour, Natsu, but the thought of you having to wait almost four days kills me a little bit. How... how will we do this? How can you do this? i'm asking you to wait for me Natsu, I'm asking you to wait for me. And, that's a huge sacrifice that-"
"That I will make when the time comes to it," Natsu said.
"But Lucy, I'll just... What if I just come with you?" He asked. "When you go? What if I just go to the Spirit World with you? We know from that one time we lost three months at that party, that the Magic in the Spirit World won't kill humans."
She choked.
"Natsu, that'd be... Crazy. You'd be giving up like, half your life here. You would be leaving Fairy Tail behind, missing huge chunks from your life here at a time and I-"
"You are my life, idiot," he said, rolling his eyes, though with a smile. "Mates, you big dummy. I'd give up everything for you."
Lucy was crying again. Harder now.
Jeez, what was it with girls, it was like they could go from anything to crying with the flip of a switch!
And Natsu was panicking.
"What did I do? Lucy, tell me what to do and how to make it better!" Natsu was almost working himself into hysteria at this point. "What did I say? Gah, I'm such an idiot, Lucy I promise I didn't mean to make you cry!"
And oh Mavis, did that only make her cry harder.
"What did I ever do to deserve you?" Lucy cried into his shoulder. Natsu was still completely lost.
"...can we go to bed?" Lucy asked, quickly changing the subject, almost pouting. His heart just about melted at that.
"Yes," he said, kissing her forehead. And then he went lower to capture her lips, his tongue almost immediately invading her mouth. She separated them much too early, for his liking, pulling away with a knowing smirk.
And so, she twirled on her toes and gave him a wink, before turning to head back inside.
"I do believe I said go to bed, not go to sleep."
Natsu smirked back, beginning to unwrap the scarf from his neck.
"Yep, I heard you..." He clambered over onto the bed, hovering over her. She giggled, reaching up to unwrap the strip of shite material from his neck. He nuzzled his face in her neck, pressing kisses into her skin starting at her jaw.
"Loud. And. Clear."
He woke up, the bright light filtering through the window, shining right into his eyes. He blinked, blearily turning his head from side to side. He shook his head, waiting for sleep to release its hold on him. He yawned, stretching his arms out.
Or at least, that's what he tried to do.
His right arm had that unpleasant fuzzy feeling, which always came with one of his limbs that had fallen asleep being jolted. He groaned before looking down, ready to chastise Happy for sleeping directly on top of him.
But instead, there was a pretty blonde, her head resting on his bicep, with her face pressed into his bare chest. Natsu didn't react, and could only stare, dumbfounded at the sight in front of him. She was sound asleep, with her bra and underwear on, clinging to his hand. He was shirtless, in his boxers and his bare arm wound around Lucy. His scarf was hung around the bed post, where it had been haphazardly tossed during the events of last night.
(Not sex. Just... very intimate, let's put it that way.)
He just kind of stared at her, in awe, his hand automatically going to stroke her hair.
She made a noise, and her eyelids fluttered open.
"Shit," he cursed. "Lucy, did I wake you?"
She just blinked at him, her head buzzing. When the sleep had cleared from her vision, she looked once down at herself, and then once at him.
Strangely enough, she reacted to her almost-naked body pressed against Natsu's almost-naked body in a very un-Lucy-like manner. Instead of making an embarrassingly cute noise and squealing some nonsense about putting their clothes back on, and then scrambling out of bed, she was rather calm.
She smiled at him, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Mmm, g'morning Natsu," she said, stumbling over her words. He kissed her forehead, cradling her closer to him. It was a pleasant surprise, that he wasn't going to have to deal with her hurting herself whilst frantically clambering out of bed, and then coax her back into said bed.
"Morning, beautiful," he said. She pulled back and gave him a surprised look.
"Oh, and when did you become such a sap?" She teased. He rolled his eyes.
"Oh, tell me you don't love it," he finally said. She laughed, pulling him in for another kiss, this time a proper one on the lips.
"I didn't say that," she admitted. Natsu was silent for a moment, before delving into more serious territory. He sat up, and she followed suit.
"When you died, I think," he said. Lucy went silent, her smile slowly being wiped from her face. "I didn't like confronting emotions, Lucy. Especially my own. I was just... kind of 'going with the flow,' or at least that's how Mira put it. But then you died and I-"
"...you saw my body, after the accident, didn't you Natsu?" Lucy asked, a bit afraid of the answer she was going get.
"I carried you out of there, Luce," he said. "I carried you out of there and I just remember screaming with your blood on my hands and your dead body in my arms."
"Oh," Lucy breathed. "Natsu you- I'm so s-"
"If you so much as try to apologize to me I swear I will-"
"I-"
"Nope, don't want to hear it," Natsu deadpanned, and his tone was final.
"It was after that, that I knew living in the moment, pushing it all off for later wasn't going to work. I was going to have to just.. get it all out in the open. I don't want to go with regrets, Luce. I'm going to damn well tell you how much I love you every minute I can because I'll never know if it's the last time I'll be able to say it."
"Natsu, I-"
"Just let me finish. I mean Lucy, I knew you were the only one for me a long time ago. But that didn't mean I was the one for you. Mates... Fate is cruel like that sometimes; when your mate doesn't necessarily have to love you back. And I... was so sure, I thought I knew, that that was the case for me and... all of a sudden it wasn't, and you weren't there anymore."
"I'm sor-"
"Lucy!" He burst, lauging. "Just lemme finish, okay?" She nodded.
"I love you, and... I'm going to let the whole world know now. Alright?"
She nodded, biting her lip, with happy tears in her eyes.
"Okay."
Lucy groaned.
You've gotta be kidding me right now.
A parade.
They were throwing her a parade.
I. Swear. To. God.
She'd known it was a mistake to get out of bed this morning. But Natsu had insisted, saying that Erza had told him there would be a 'surprise' for Lucy outside of the hotel.
Apparently, he had been left out of the loop as well, as he looked about as surprised as she felt. His eyebrows were slowly rising, climbing up his face just a bit more with each passing second. He didn't know whether to laugh, as Lucy wore an expression slightly resembling one of someone who had just been whacked in the face with a frying pan, or demand what the hell were they thinking?
It was a frenzy of bright colors, grandiose magnificent floats that were so extravagant they bordered ridiculousness. Oh, who were they kidding? Ridiculous was a line that had long ago been crossed. It was like one long line of celebrations, filled with people she'd known, people she'd never met, and people who she'd barely spoken to in passing.
It was insane, though this was coming from Fairy Tail, so what else could the outcome have been? With this bunch, it was go big, or go home.
Lucy swore.
Well, fuck.
They had demanded a speech.
The parade had stopped in front of the beach, where all the people had quieted enough so all that was heard was the occasional crashing of the waves on the sand. There, Lucy was (forcibly) brought to the front, her hands nervously twisting her pretty silk dress and crushing one of the pink roses she'd picked from one of the floats.
"You need to make a speech," Erza had breathed into her ear before casually flouncing back into the crowd.
So Lucy cleared her throat, and straightened her spine, the habit all her tutors had eventually pounded into her, and began to speak.
"I owe you a great thanks, all of you, for what you did for me and for my family in their time of need. Thank you for watching over them when I couldn't, though me watching over them has never made much of a difference anyway," Lucy said, eyeing Erza in particular. Some had the guts to laugh outright. Other didn't. It was a joke, one that Lucy was now regretting, as she had apparently executed it wrong.
"I know that word around here spreads fast, but I am not of this world anymore. I have become a Spirit, and my key has been put into service under my old friend, Yukino of Sabertooth," Lucy said, gesturing at the Celestial Mage in the crowd. "And I have found my mate, Natsu Dragneel. I have my friends, well, my family really, and my now fellow Spirits."
So she raised her glass to the stars, hoping her fellow Spirits were watching. And then began the dancing.
As the sky had begun to shift from orangey-red to blue-indigo, they stumbled off the floats with enough grace and poise for people passing by to think they were drunk. And in a way, they were. Drunk off of pure happiness and pansy feelings and just overwhelming joy, in a sickening cliché, movie-montagey way.
They were high off relief, relief to be able to celebrate the return of someone they had lost. They were complete fools, giggling and stumbling over their words and slurring their words. Not all of them were actually drunk, though those who were embraced it and wore it like it was theirs. (aka Cana)
Lucy, however, was a different type of tipsy.
There was a faint buzzing in her ears, the strange hazy yellow film over her field of view, and her mouth tasted of ash. She tottered in the shoes she wore, though they were nothing compared to some of the colossal heels she'd easily run in before. It was strange, but suddenly her stomach lurched and her vision was swimming with black dots and oh look here comes the floor.
Lucy's knees buckled, and she didn't even have time to even brace herself for the fall. She nearly hit her head on the cobblestones, and would have bashed her head into the street had Natsu not swooped in to cradle her fall.
"Lucy?" He said, tapping her face, worried.
He'd seen his guild mates pass out on the streets after parties like this, drunk off their ass and then snoozing on the sidewalk. But Lucy hadn't even had anything to drink, to his knowledge, so what on earth...?
But then her body began to convulse, and he would swear that her hand has begun to go transparent around the edges.
"Loke!" He bellowed over his shoulder. "Yukino!"
Both rushed over, completely sober (in actuality, the only big drinker from Fairy Tail had been Cana, as expected), and completely worried. Loke's look of panic was completely replaced.
By something bearing resemblance to wild, uncontrollable fear.
"Give her to me!" He shouted, with increasing urgency. Natsu handed her over, as he was completely out of his depth with this one. "Yukino," he nearly screamed back over his shoulder. "I don't have enough magic for the two of us, I've been out too long! Call someone, anyone!" Yukino nodded, knowing exactly what was happening. So she brandished the key from her belt, the golden key of Virgo.
"Open! Gate of the Maiden: Virgo!" Yukino screamed shrilly, nearly hysterical as Lucy began to fade around the edges. They knew what this was, Yukino and Loke. Though Yukino had never seen it personally, Lucy had told her all about it. (Not that she'd needed to; it had become sort of a legend among Celestial Wizards.)
Lucy was fading from existence. Her magic was running out. It was evaporating into the Earthland air, and soon she'd disappear. Loke had been an old Spirit, with a lot of practice and endurance to the strain of being in the human world. Lucy, however, was a newborn Spirit. She should have been running on empty since the end of her duel.
"She's disappearing," she frantically shouted at the pink haired maid who had seemingly materialized out of thin air. Virgo didn't even waste time nodding, she simply grabbed the unconscious (presumably, as she seemed to be unmoving). Virgo just grabbed Lucy from Loke, hefting the limp figure into her deceivingly strong arms, and began to shimmer, as her Gate was closing. Loke himself, pale from the stress and his magic slowly running out (his fight with Juvia had been quite taxing), began to glow too, as he began to close his own gate.
Natsu, in the split second before they disappeared, made his decision. He lunged and latched onto Loke's arm.
All four figures vanished, leaving to trace behind in the dimly lit street.
Hey guys! I am so sorry that it took me so long to update! Again! Man, I hope you all had a seriously Merry Christmas! I meant to update then, and leave it as a Christmas present to all of you. :( I'm so sorry about that. Anyway, I hope you have or had an awesome New Year, and best of luck to you in 2016!
See you next year!
-Pyro