Lucy ran down the street as fast as she could go, Happy flying behind her and giving her position away to Natsu. "Go away Happy!" Lucy yelled at him, tears streaming down her face, but Happy wouldn't stop following her nor telling Natsu things like "Over here!" or "She just turned left!" Lucy didn't want to talk to Natsu just now, she was mad and she was hurt and she was frustrated. She summoned Sagittarius and said "Take out Happy!"
The Spirit seemed stunned by her request, but followed her orders and shot an arrow at the flying Exceed. It hit him and down he fell, though not in pain for Sagittarius knew that Lucy wouldn't want him to harm the blue Exceed. This arrow put Happy to sleep and he floated harmlessly to the ground as Lucy continued to run from Natsu, sending her Spirit back to his world.
She ran out of town, hoping that the multitude of smells she had passed through would be enough to deter him from following her. But she wasn't going to leave that to chance. Lucy ran up a stream for quite a ways before leaving it and running through a field of flowers before finally collapsing against a tree, out of breath. She sobbed, as much as she was able to, amidst gasps for air. This was how Natsu found her just a few minutes later.
He didn't make himself immediately known to her, but held back. It hurt him to see her cry and not be able to go to her, but he knew she wasn't ready for him, even if all he had to offer her was a hug. Soon she was breathing normally, though a soft sound would escape her, showing him she was still crying. Still, he felt that now was the time to make his move. He walked over and settled himself beside her, not saying a word.
"Go away Natsu." she said through her teeth, not even looking up. "I'm not going to leave you like this Luce." He replied, a little more harshly then he meant to. "Why do you care?" she spat back. "Because I hate that I made you cry and I don't even know what I did." Natsu answered. Lucy looked up at him, tears both in her eyes and on her face. "Then why didn't you do what I asked and leave me alone today!" she almost screamed.
Natsu was taken aback, that was why she was mad? Why would that annoy her? They always hung out and he honestly didn't remember her even asking him to leave her alone. "Why did you want to be left alone today Lucy?" he asked. Lucy growled and said "It's not important." "Yes it is! I'm sorry I bothered you when you asked to be left alone, I honestly didn't remember you asking. It had to be something important if you asked Luce."
His tone was so soft and understanding that Lucy found herself overcome by new tears and she collapsed against her best friend, him pulling her into a hug. Several minutes passed as her sobs started anew, wetting Natsu's shirt though he hardly noticed as he rubbed a comforting pattern on her back, trying to get her to calm down so he could help. Finally she softly said "Do you know what today is?" She had spoken so softly that if it weren't for his hearing being better than the average human he wouldn't have heard her.
He thought for a second before replying "Not right off the top of my head." "It was two years ago today that I found out my dad had died. I've always hated that we never really made up, I was so inspired by Cana and Gildarts reconciling that I had hoped to do the same with my dad. I thought I was over all of that, but the past few days, right after I realized that the anniversary of that day was coming up, I just felt so overwhelmed with guilt for not making up with him when I had the chance. I knew today was going to be worse than the other days and…"
"And what Lucy?" Natsu asked gently. "And I didn't want to bother you guys with it. We've all lost so much and it felt so insignificant when I think of some of the crap the rest of us have been through. I didn't even feel this way last year, though I guess I did have the task of keeping an eye on where everyone was to keep me busy…" "Lucy." Natsu cut in, "Nothing you feel is ever less important then what another feels, just because they may have had it worse. You haven't experience that and it's not your pain. Even if you had, just because something seemingly less important bothers you doesn't mean that it's wrong to be hurt or bothered by it."
Lucy looked at Natsu in surprise before he pulled her closer in a hug, continuing "Please, don't ever hide your feelings from me Lucy. I want to help you through them." Lucy's eyes filled with tears, seemed like she had done nothing but cry today although these ones were happy ones, as she said "As long as you promise to do the same, don't shut me out either okay?" Natsu smiled against her head "Okay." They sat there for a long while, Lucy eventually falling asleep after she whispered "Thanks Natsu."