Lucy sniffled, feeling as if the world had decided to kick her while she was down. The young girl used the long sleeve of her new black dress to wipe away at the tears and snot that were messing up her usually cheery face.

The blonde sighed, feeling more tears coming on at the sight of the gravestone before her. Lucy had chosen to remain behind after the funeral processions were finished, wanting to be alone with her mother one last time before she had to say the goodbyes she was never able to before, "Mama," Lucy whimpered in between her quiet sobs, "I miss you so much."

The young girl felt incredibly frustrated at her inability to express her misery at the loss of her mother. Being a lover of words, Lucy was surprised at how weak and feeble her vocabulary had become and how many times she had simply repeated the same miserable phrases over and over.

"Lucy?"

Said blonde jumped at the unexpected voice behind her. Lucy twirled her head towards the new person, her hair splaying across her face at the sudden jerk of her head, "Natsu what are you doing here?" She exclaimed while awkwardly fixing her hair and pulling it back into place and away from her face.

The young boy gave her an almost disgusted face at her question, "What do you mean what am I doing here?" He shoved his hands into his dress pants that his foster mother had forced him to don on for the occasion before walking the rest of the way to Lucy, still sitting at her mother's grave, "What kind of friend would I be if I didn't come back? You weren't inside so I figured you'd be out here still."

Lucy had already turned back to the stone before her and only nodded once Natsu was finished. She knew it had been a stupid question but having the boy standing just behind her only seemed to make her feel worse.

Natsu was the last person she wanted to see and for him to see her crying her brains out. Having lost both of his parents only a few years ago, Lucy definitely felt like her pain was not worth this many tears compared to the amount this boy had already suffered. Trying to seek comfort from her pink-haired best friend was not on her list of things to do.

Lucy wiped up her tears once more and forced the biggest smile on her face before standing up, turning to face Natsu once more, "Well we better head back before my father worries about me too."

With that, she started skipping joyfully back to the funeral house where many had gathered for snacks and further mourning. But before Lucy could make it even a few steps away, Natsu had roughly grabbed her wrist to stop her. The blonde immediately frowned and furrowed her brows, sending a glare towards her friend; her patience was ready frayed as it was without Natsu's rash behaviour, "What is it now?"

Her voice had come out harsher than she had meant it to but Natsu was not even phased by the blonde's attitude. He merely matched her anger with a scowl of his own, "What's wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me?" Lucy ripped her hand from his grip before crossing her arms across her flat chest, a deeper glare now in place, "Nothing's wrong with me, jerk."

"Jerk? And there's definitely something wrong with you if you can be all smiling and happy after your mom died."

Lucy sucked in a quick breath, feeling the sting of hot tears hit the back of her chocolate brown eyes once more at Natsu's bluntness, "Oh? Is it a crime to be happy? I have to be a big baby and cry for weeks on end just cause someone died? Who made you boss of crying or whatever, stupid?!"

Lucy realized she was fighting like a two year old but she did not care two cents about it at that moment in time. Her arms fell to her sides and her tiny hands were balled into fists, ready to strike this boy down if he continued to press her buttons; why were they even friends in the first place? All they did was fight it seemed.

Natsu's frown deepened even more so. He was not impressed at the girl's behaviour and was beyond frustrated at how stubborn she could be, "I ain't no stupid boss of crying you weirdo. There's nothing stupid or babyish about crying when your parents die."

That was the last straw for Lucy as she wound her fist up and let it strike her friend in the face...or what was supposed to be his face. Her fist only made it to his shoulder but still managed to cause the boy to lose his footing and fall to the ground. She huffed and held her hand to her chest, realizing only afterwards that punching hurt the puncher too.

Natsu's eyes were wide but only for a brief moment before he was back on his feet, glaring at the girl, "If you weren't a girl I'd..." He shook his head and sighed, "What's wrong? Why are you being so stupid? Just cry already!"

"Why are you so bent on me crying, huh?!" Lucy was practically shouting at this point, "Why should I even listen to you when you never even cried once when BOTH your parents died?!"

Lucy suddenly gasped and covered her mouth, realizing that her anger had gotten her carried away again. Neither of the two had spoken of that day when the boy's parents had died since. Of course Lucy had been worried but she had respected her friend's wishes and decided it would be best to let Natsu bring it up if he wanted to talk about it. Only problem was that he never had. Lucy had waited and waited for Natsu to finally crack and talk or at least cry but he did nothing; he only smiled and kept walking. Of course, she never knew what the boy did behind closed doors but she definitely felt hurt that he never felt comfortable enough with her enough to be honest with his feelings around her.

And that was why Lucy was feeling the anger she was feeling now. How could Natsu think it was fair to demand she cry when he never had with her?

But now the girl felt awful. Natsu's eyes had widened before the boy bowed his head, hiding his face almost all together from Lucy with his pink and wild bangs, "Natsu I...I'm sorry I didn't mean it-"

"No it's true," Lucy frowned at being interrupted but held herself back from saying something, realizing Natsu wanted to say something, "I know how you're feeling, Luce, and it sucks," Natsu finally looked up at and Lucy gasped a little when she noticed the watery twinkling in his charcoal eyes, "When my parents died all I wanted to do was cry forever. The pain never goes away. But no matter how long or often I cried or talked or thought about 'em," he paused and sniffled, "they never came back."

A small tear escaped, tracing its way down the boy's face. Lucy, on the other hand, was already a mess, tears pouring out of her brown, doe eyes at the boy's confession, "Natsu...I'm sorry."

Natsu could only smile his infamous carefree grin, the few tears he had marring it a bit of its true joy, "It's okay."

Lucy rubbed at her eyes furiously before looking back at Natsu who was doing the same, "But why are you telling me this now?"

He shrugged, trying to act nonchalant, "Cause I wish I had cried more and talked more...I guess. It's important...I still miss 'em...so much-" he wad interrupted by a choked sob of his before continuing, "and I had a friend like you who wanted to listen and I still didn't say nothing, so I'm not letting you make the same mistake," he wiped his face before looking at Lucy with a much more determined gaze, "So when I say you should cry, you should listen stupid."

And with that, Lucy lost all of her lady-like composure and ran into Natsu's arms, knocking the two over onto the ground before finally letting the waterworks flow.

Lucy would never forget this day, the only time her pink-haired friend cried more than she had...even if he made her swear to never tell a living soul about it as long as she lived or he'd punch her even if she was a girl.

A/N: Long time to see! I'm back from my trip to Peru and ready to write a ton more fanfiction when I get the chance. I'm moving to Japan in a month so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to post but I'll do my best! I had to get something up so I actually wrote this using my phone...haha. It was hard.

I want to thank everyone for the continued support even while I was gone; it was super nice coming back to an inbox full of new followers and reviews. :)

Love you all and hope you enjoy this one...let me know your thoughts!