Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima


ACT IV: Aftermath – Psychological Wounds

Approximately X793

~ o ~ O ~ o ~

Chapter 19: Haunted by the past

Natsu was holding the crying girl, when he felt her breathing starting to become more regular indicating, that she was calming down. A lot down actually, because it felt like her body was growing more limp in his arms.

"Luce?" he asked in concern, but didn't receive an answer.

Wait... did she just fall asleep? He thought before a small snore escaped her lips, answering that question. In all honesty Natsu was kinda jealous, because being able to sleep while standing up, was a pretty neat trait to have.

He looked down at her, his cheeks blushing slightly.

D'aww! She looked so darn adorable.

Uhm.. yeah that was a rather random thing to think all of a sudden...idiot... he thought and kicked himself mentally for having weird thoughts.

His blush increased as he slowly manoeuvred over to the bed, where he gently placed her on top of it. Fortunately Lucy didn't wake up by the procedure, but kept sleeping even when he placed a blanket around her.

Once that was done Natsu took a step backwards and glared at the sleeping girl.

In all honesty, he was rather curious what Lucy had read in her book, because evidently it was more than enough to make her emotional and exhausted. Besides she had indicated that there was something about his dad in it and evidently it sounded like something bad, judging from the celestial mage's reaction.

Open and closing his hands Natsu turned his head around, feeling somewhat restless.

"Mmm" he hummed to himself and spotted the book in question on her table.

He could just peek into it? Like if he just read the part about Igneel, then it wouldn't be so bad would it? Because if it was stuff relating to his dad, wouldn't he be entitled to read it?

"Mmm!" he muttered in a higher tone, deep in thought and clearly struggling with the dilemma.

Did he dare doing it though?

Who was he kidding, he totally dared doing it, no matter what consequences would come afterwards.

So with that in mind he casually strolled over to where the book was laying and snatched it, before he started whistling trying to sound innocent as he sidestepped over to the wall. Once there he leaned backwards and slid down, until he was sitting on the floor.

"Yosh!" Natsu said feeling victories, as he started flipping through the pages, immediately realising that it was sort of like a diary.

"Where should I begin?" he muttered to himself, his eyebrows furrowing in thought.

Not sure what else to do Natsu started from the beginning and before he knew better, he was reading the entire book. He didn't know why, but there was just something about the way Layla wrote, that captured his attention. So for him it didn't take before he got to the part where Layla wrote about her first encounter with the dark mage and revealed the fact that Zeref was his brother.

"... no way..." Natsu gasped and placed a hand above his mouth "... no freaking way..."

Well then he understood why Lucy said it was his family's fault, because it kinda was.

"Stupid Zeref..." the Dragon Slayer pouted in defiance, as he continued reading.

"... wow..." Natsu mouthed when he read about the gate and honestly he was rather impressed by Lucy's mom, who sounded like she had a lot of guts but also strength. In fact she reminded him a lot about another certain celestial mage who was currently sleeping.

Ohh well, Natsu shrugged and continued reading. As he did there was a sudden image of a woman with blonde hair in his mind, but he couldn't really remember it. Which was kinda frustrating and depressing, since Layla sounded like she had been really kind towards him.

It didn't take long before he reached the entry about how she had to leave a seal on him, making his eyes widen as he read the words.

"That's harsh..." he shook his head "... I'm sorry you had to do that" Natsu felt horrible, that she had to do something like that against a mere child. Really it made him feel slightly guilty, even if he knew it wasn't directly his fault.

This is so sad, he thought but still continued reading and ignored how his hands was starting to shake from withheld emotions. It didn't take long before he reached the final entry, which he kept rereading a few times, before he started flipping through the last pages in the book, desperately hoping that there was another entry somewhere. But it was a futile effort because it was completely empty.

No... no she didn't... please no...

Natsu felt something inside of him shatter into a million pieces, as the story replayed in his mind.

In some aspects the Dragon Slayer wished he hadn't read all of it, because he somehow got an intimate view on Layla's personality and honestly, he kinda liked her because she sounded like a super neat woman.

But then she died when she performed a seal on not only him but also the other Dragon Slayer's,

The thoughts made him feel somewhat guilty, because even if it wasn't his fault, he had still been a part of the ritual.

Including his dad... damn...

The strength in his hands vanished making the book fall, before it crashed on the floor.

"Talk about having a messed up family, huh?" he chuckled darkly and bend his legs, before placing his arms on top of his knees.

It wasn't fair... it wasn't fucking fair...

The feeling of sorrow was so strong that it felt like someone had kicked him in his intestines, making the muscles in his stomach clench painfully.

It hurt... it really hurt...

Natsu gritted his teeth hard against each other and placed his forehead against his arms.

So sad... and so tired...

His head was a maelstrom of thoughts and emotions, that was so overwhelming he wanted to vanish even if it was just for a few minutes.

Tears started streaming down his face, but he barely noticed that. Nope, Natsu just sat there in solitude and despair, until sleep suddenly overwhelmed him, leaving him snoring somewhat peacefully in his position.

~ o ~ O ~ o ~

"Mmm..." grumbling to himself Natsu turned his head to look at Lucy's sleeping body. It took a few seconds but eventually the Dragon Slayer realised where he was.

hang on a second...

He kept glaring at the blonde girl, when he noticed her lack of movement, indicating that she wasn't breathing. Her body was too still, but surely she wasn't...

Panic started to take control of his body as Natsu made his way over to the girl, where he placed his finger on her neck, but there was no sign of her pulse beating.

Lifeless and cold... no...

His eyes widened in fear as he leaned down, trying desperately to hear the sound of her breathing, but she was absolutely silent.

"This can't be..." Natsu started shaking uncontrollably "... no this isn't real"

"It's your fault" the blonde's eyes snapped open all of a sudden revealing orange glistening eyes, making the Dragon Slayer squeal before falling backwards in surprise.

"You did this" Lucy continued.

"I didn't" he shook his head in denial "I didn't do anything!"

"It's your fault, you did this" she repeated all of her body starting to glow, bathing everything in light.

"Please Lucy listen to me... I..." he crawled backwards and away from her, as the girl got up on her feet and took a step in his direction.

"You did this"

"I... no, I..."

"You did this"

For some reason black flames started to spawn and soon it engulfed the girl. It didn't look like it affected her at all, but that made it all the more terrifying, because he knew that it could change at any moment.

Natsu didn't want to hear her scream. Not if it was anything like the painful scream he had heard Igneel make.

It was coming though, he had a foreboding feeling it would, making angst ravage through each fibre of his body.

"Lucy please don't..." the Dragon Slayer pleaded, his breathing starting to become more irregular.

Her mouth opened and for some reason it was as if everything was suddenly in slow motion.

"Natsu... Natsu wake up"

"What?" bewildered he stared at the girl.

"Come on, wake up"

His neck snapped backwards in a quick movement, where Natsu sat blinking for a few seconds. At first he was really confused, but it didn't take long before he realised that he was back in the world of the living.

"Ohhh..." Natsu exhaled a shaking breath and sat panting as he took in his surroundings "... ahh..."

His body was drenched with sweat, making him shiver involuntarily.

The Dragon Slayer didn't know how, but for some reason he was still sitting in a crouched position on the floor, with both arms on top of his knees.

"Are you okay?" Lucy was knelling down next to him, where she sat eyeing him in concern.

"Yeah..." Natsu shook his head contradicting himself "... fine"

"You sure?" she started rubbing his back with her hand, leaving a warm and pleasant trail on his skin.

"... yes?"

"Wanna talk about it?"

"... no?"

Lucy nodded to herself before she sat down next to him and casually placed her arm over his shoulder. The fact that the celestial mage was so bold in her approach kinda shocked Natsu at first, but he tried to shrug it off as nothing more than a friendly gesture. Because sure they hugged each other when the other person was sad and needed comfort, so the gesture itself wasn't a big deal. However it wasn't like he was crying his eyeballs out, so it wasn't like he needed physical comfort at the moment.

Or did he? Natsu thought, a blush suddenly spawning on his cheeks.

"So uhm..." Lucy blushed as well as she sat staring at the wall "... sure you don't wanna talk about your nightmare?"

"Fine..." he started reluctantly telling her about it, but it didn't take long before he also told her about his other nightmares. How they all seemed to take something from the past, he presumed was from his demon's memories and mix it with current events.

"I'm sorry..." Lucy said in a comforting tone.

"Yeah... " the Dragon Slayer let out a moan before resting his forehead against his arm.

"Well hopefully it'll get better soon"

"Uh-huh..."

None of them said anything, but just sat trying to digest everything. That was until there was a loud growl from the Dragon Slayer's stomach.

"Wanna go get something to eat?" Lucy chuckled as she removed her arm from his shoulder.

"That would be nice, yeah" he nodded and smiled towards her.

And with that they found themselves on their next mission: acquiring food!

~ o ~ O ~ o ~

Since Lucy's fridge was miserably empty, they went out to fetch something to eat. It didn't take long for them to find a decent place and it took even less time for them to consume their food.

When they were done eating they went for a calm and nice walk around town, until they eventually reached the park. Here they bought two cups of ice cream, before they found a nice spot on the grass, where they sat enjoying their dessert.

"This is nice" Lucy said she scooped some ice into her mouth.

"Yeah" Natsu agreed and munched a few spoonfuls, before hungrily wolfing the entire thing.

"... yeah..." her eyebrow twitched mildly annoyed, because the Dragon Slayer's eagerness caused droplets of ice cream to spatter on her dress.

After consuming their ice, they both sat in silence when they spotted a small child and a woman passing by, both of them eating an ice lolly.

The sight made Lucy smile warmly to herself.

"Why are you happy all of a sudden?" Natsu enquired in curiosity.

"I just remembered, that my mama and me used to go for a walk like that in our garden"

"Ohh..." he narrowed his eyes and saw a flash of sadness flickering in her eyes "... well I'm certain your mama was a super nice lady"

"You think so?"

"Hell yeah" he grinned widely revealing his teeth "I mean she liked me, even though I was a shitty brat"

"That's..." her eyes widened briefly before she narrowed them and glared at him in suspicion "... wait"

"What?"

"I suspected you might have when I found the book next to you earlier today, but you actually read it?"

"No! Uh-uh!" he shook his head defiantly.

"How else would you have known, that my mama liked you?"

"Well I..." his mouth was wide open as the realisation hit him "... ohh..."

"You're an idiot!" Lucy clenched her fist and hit his shoulder.

"I'm sorry" Natsu rubbed his neck sheepishly "I know I shouldn't have done that"

"No you shouldn't..." she crossed her arms above her stomach and shot him a piercing glare "... you're really sorry?"

"Yeah..." he sighed in defeat "... I am..."

"Mmm..." Lucy smirked teasingly "... well not as sorry as you will be"

"What are you...?"

The Dragon Slayer was interrupted when he felt Lucy smash into his body, knocking him down on the ground, where he laid motionless from shock, as the celestial mage suddenly placed herself on top of him.

"Uhm..." Natsu blinked before staring at her with huge confused eyes "Luce what are you doing?"

"Nooothing" she sang teasingly.

"Reeeally?"

"Uh-huh..." Lucy snatched a piece of grass and eyed it for a few seconds ".. You know I could punish you in ohh so many ways with this"

"Like how?" he crocked an eyebrow, playing along with her little game or whatever it was she was doing.

"Like I could use this to torture your ear" the celestial mage chuckled and started tickling his ear with the straw, making him squirm and giggle.

"Oooor..." she smirked and stopped the so called torture "... I could punish your nose".

Lucy giggled and started tickling his nose with the straw, earning a large howling laughter from the other mage.

"St-stop it..." Natsu managed to say as he laid squirming on the ground.

"... you sorry?"

"Ye-yeah"

"Good" Lucy nodded and started pulling her arm backwards, but was stopped when Natsu caught her wrist with his hand.

"Now..." he smirked at the girl.

"Now?" Lucy blinked feeling utterly confused.

"Yeah now... the counter attack begins..."

"I... woooh?!"

The celestial mage's eyes widened in surprise, because in a mere second the roles had reversed and now she was the one on the ground.

"Now Luce..." his lips curled backwards into a devious smirk "... I have to punish you too"

"For what?"

There was a flash of sadness in his eyes before he continued "Because you... no it doesn't matter... the point is you deserve it"

"But... why?"

"As I said it doesn't matter. The principal of a counter attack is not asking questions" he curled his fingers for a few seconds, before bringing them down and tickling her rips.

The blonde immediately started squealing and squirming, but since his legs was on both her sides, it was easy for him to keep her in place.

"...s-s-s-sorry..." she managed to stutter making the other mage stop his actions.

"You mean it?"

"Ye-yeah..."

"Good" he nodded to himself and scooted away from her.

It took a few minutes but eventually Lucy gained her composure and sat back up.

"You're an idiot..." she pouted in defiance.

"Likewise!" Natsu smiled brightly before wiggling his tongue teasingly at her.

"So..." Lucy took a deep calming breath "... sure you don't want to tell me, why I deserved punishing?"

"Isn't that obvious" he turned his head to the side, avoiding her eyes.

"No..." she shook her head feeling confused "... so please tell me"

"... you..." the Dragon Slayer started and took a deep shaking breath "... you died again..."

"Ohhh..."

"Yeah..."

"I'm sorry..."

"Why are you apologising, it wasn't your fault..." he sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"No but..."

"Just..." Natsu was suddenly having a flashback in his head causing him to rub his eyes with the palm of his hands "... ugh..."

"I'm here" she said in a soothing voice before engulfing him in a tight hug "I'm right here"

"Yeah..." he sighed before resting his head against her shoulder.

They sat like that for a while, just seeking comfort in each others presence, until someone kindly interrupted them.

"Ohhh..." someone said while rolling with his tongue knowingly "... are you making kittens?"

"Happy" Lucy exclaimed and quickly removed her arms, a blush spread cross her cheeks.

"Aye!" the cat raised his paw in greeting.

"Ey..." the Dragon Slayer quickly wiped his eyes "... what's up?"

"Nothing really..." the cat answered ".. but I found something I totally forgot I stole"

"What?" Lucy asked and watched as the cat started rummaging through his bag.

"This!" the cat held a piece of paper in his paws and offered it to Lucy.

"Ohh..." she mouthed, sounding rather sad.

"What is it?" Natsu asked alerted by her sudden reaction.

Lucy didn't answer him, so he quickly snatched the paper out of her hands, to see what was on it. However he was not prepared for what the image contained, leaving him rather perplexed.

"Is this...?" Natsu said, his eyes darting from the girl, to the cat and then the image.

"Yeah it's you..." Lucy confirmed.

"Wow..." he gulped loudly "... I look kinda awesome don't I?"

"... that's not the issue here..." the celestial mage said, her eyebrow twitching in annoyance.

"Lucy's right" Happy nodded "Why is your arm wrapped around that Kyôka demon?"

"I dunno" he shrugged but flinched on the inside, because he wasn't sure if he wanted to know the background to the picture.

"Maybe... maybe you were an item?" Lucy suggested and smiled sadly.

"No way" Happy shook his head "Natsu is an idiot when it comes to women"

"Oy!" the Dragon Slayer snapped at the cat and unconsciously dropped the picture "I'm totally not!"

"Yes you are!"

"No I'm not!"

Lucy watched as the two kept bickering, but eventually she zoomed out of it because the picture on the ground caught her attention. Not knowing what else to do she crapped the piece of paper and stared at it.

A lot of emotions was ravaging through her leaving her oblivious to anything else. That was until she felt someone suddenly sitting down next to her, making her turn her head to look at whoever it was and to her surprise it was none other than Gray.

"That's a nice piece of art" the ice mage stated as he pointed at the picture.

"Yeah... guess it is..." the blonde answered trying to sound happy, however it didn't go by unnoticed by Gray.

"Cheer up" he smiled and casually placed his arm around her shoulders "We both know he ain't the sort of person who can score a lady, even if he grew some fancy horns"

"Oy, what do you mean by that?!" Natsu said in outrage by the accusation "If I wanted to score I could totally do that!"

"Sure you could" Gray smirked teasingly.

"Nnngh!" The Dragon Slayer growled as he sat squirming and twisting, clearly not comfortable with the situation.

"But..." Lucy narrowed her eyes feeling really sad "... item or not, they were clearly close to each other on some level. But now she's gone..."

"Aww, come on dry your eyes mate" Gray smiled and pulled her closer to his chest "They all knew they would die sooner or later, right?"

"Yeah... I guess" she answered a small blush suddenly spawning on her cheeks, from being so close to Gray's chest.

"Mmm!" Natsu grumbled trying to figure out what to do. As he did he unconsciously started rubbing the markings on his arm.

"Still haven't come to terms with the demon?" Gray asked and eyed the Dragon Slayer's movement carefully.

"Naw... not really" the Dragon Slayer sighed heavily and rubbed his neck.

"Ohh... that's too bad" the ice mage said sincerely.

"Yeah..." Natsu felt a wave of anger suddenly wash over him, making him jump into a standing position, where he stood with his back towards his team. As he did there was a flash of red shinning in his eyes, but none of the others saw that.

"Are you okay?" Lucy asked in concern.

"I'm fine" Natsu grumbled clearly not fine "I'm heading home, so see ya later"

All of them felt baffled by the Dragon Slayer's actions, so they all just sat watching in shock as Natsu waved dismissively with his hand, before he walked away.

"... he's such an idiot..." the ice mage facepalmed himself and removed his arm from Lucy's shoulders.

"Huh? Why would you say that?" the celestial mage blinked because she couldn't follow Gray's logic.

"If you don't know that, then you're an idiot too"

"What?"

"Nevermind... I should get going too anyway..."

And with that Lucy and Happy found themselves abandoned at the park.

As they sat there they noticed Carla walking by herself and Lucy could see how much the blue cat wanted to go to her, but she also knew that Happy was somewhat reluctant to leave her alone.

"It's okay, Happy go meet Carla" the celestial mage encouraged the cat "I'm going home in a minute or so too"

"You sure?" the cat asked, his eyes glistening with happiness.

"Of course" Lucy smiled and patted his head "Now go on before it's too late"

"Aye!"

Silly cat, she thought to herself with a smile on her lips.

It was nice just sitting there relaxing and enjoying the sun shining down on her.

"Ahh..." Lucy sighed as she laid down on the grass and closed her eyes.

It was so peaceful that she soon reached a state where she was really close to falling asleep.

Lucy didn't know how long she laid there relaxing, but her slumber was suddenly interrupted when she felt someone grabbing her waist.

"Waaah?!" Lucy exclaimed as she felt her body being airborne for a second, before her chest collided with something hard and warm.

"I ain't having it!"

"Na-Natsu?! What...?!"

Apparently he had come back and for some reason he had thrown her over his shoulder.

"I said..." his tone sounded rather impatient ".. I ain't having it"

"Having what?" she turned her head to glare at the back of his head "And why are you carrying me all of a sudden?!"

"Does... does it matter?" there was a hint of sorrow in his voice, so she couldn't bring herself to resist his actions.

"No...?" Lucy exhaled and relaxed as much she could in her position "... guess not"

The celestial mage didn't know what was wrong with the Dragon Slayer all of sudden, but hopefully she would get an answer when they arrived to wherever they were going.


A/N: Lucy! Gosh darn it girl, what the heck is up with you being so bold? o.O

I'm not sure when the next chapter will be posted, because I got this medicine from the doctor that makes me really, really tired. It's kind of annoying, because it's hard focusing on typing when it feels like I'm more dead than alive -.-'

Anyhow, remember this chapter and how nice it felt, as we start poking our finger into more dangerous and confusing territory. Consider yourself warned ;)

To guest reviewer Whisper: Thank you :) And yes Natsu and Zeref are brothers ^^

To guest reviewer frozem1: Thanks again for your continuing support :)

To guest reviewer Guest: Thank you so much for saying "NaLu is retarded and bad Death to Lucy!". Sincerely thank you, you're my first troll on this website and I'm grateful to know someone wasted their time just to type something so idiotic. So thank you, I appreciate it ^^