Day 4: Nightmares
Word Count: 1k
Summary: Flashbacks are one hell of a nightmare, especially when Lucy's fear is being abandoned.
A/N: My other entry for NaLu Angst Week, just moving it here.
Heavy footsteps pounded against the cement sidewalk in the quiet night of Magnolia. Rain poured down hard against the ground soaking the soil to turn into mud and making the roads almost flood with run off water.
The dark obsidian skies were clouded making the night all the more gloomy and the pounding of rain seemed to block out every single sound in the area.
The girl hastily running down the street threw her soaking blonde hair over her shoulder, out of her face to try and see through the dark streets. Her half lidded brown eyes blinked through the raindrops to see where she was even going, but she had no idea herself.
Tears quickly streamed down her face and blended in with the downpour hitting against her face painfully. Loud sobs choked their way through Lucy's fragile voice as she continued sprinting against the wind.
As soon as she turned a sharp corner, her foot caught in a pothole in the road of the alleyway. Her heel of her shoe got stuck, and her whole body twisted causing a sudden halt to her movement. Body weight thrown towards the ground, Lucy felt pain shoot directly to her newly broken ankle.
A loud scream erupted from the depth of her being in complete utter agony. The intensity of pain she was experiencing was unbearable. Her hands flew out to protect her body from the road, scraping her palms on the gravel. Once the young woman landed, her loud crying turned into uncontrollable sobbing and bawling tears.
She didn't even hesitate to stay in that position, so she pulled all her strength into reaching her scraped and bloody hands outward to pull her body forward on the ground. She did her best to continue crawling forward, away from what she was running from or towards.
Lucy didn't get far before she gave up and collapsed from the pain. She dropped her head down, with her head with an ear to the ground, low on strength. Her sobbing finally slowed as she closed her eyes letting her mind wander to the darkness of her thoughts.
"Natsu… don't leave me alone." She whispered to herself in a hoarse voice.
The image of Natsu and Happy's departure letter fresh in her mind. She just couldn't accept the fact that they were truly gone. The two that had been her family, and had been by her side since the very beginning. How could they just leave like that?
As she laid on the road, she was oblivious to the state of her physical appearance. Her blonde hair had since turned a light brown due to the water soaking it and the mud from the road tangled and mixed in.
Lucy's mind wandered to the time when she last saw Natsu before his farewell address. She had no clue that the last time she saw him during their tartarus would be their last. She regretted all the words caught in her throat that she never said while he had been at her side.
Memories of the two together flooded her thoughts, causing her heart to clench in pain being heartbroken with loneliness. She was finally alone, like she had always felt since her mother passed. The feeling was practically her worst fear, isolation.
"Natsu…" Her weak voice croaked out before coughing through the sickness slowly getting to her. She was sure to have a cold the next morning due to the cold rain soaking her thin blouse and short white skirt.
"Please don't leave me." Lucy called out once more to the emptiness of the sleeping town. Not a single soul was outside to hear her broken wailing in the midst of the night. Her soft pleas for Natsu were just her talking to herself in her fragile state.
She pondered the last memories she remembers sharing with the boy she'd grown so close to. Every thought so vivid she could practically still see his slightly faded white scaled scarf and his crazy pink, spiky hair. Everything about him that made him so different, so Natsu.
The image of his warm smile was burned into her brain as a sense of comfort she was currently lacking. She was in solitude once more since the years of living within a family mansion lacking love. The feeling pulling her apart like string unraveling off a spool.
"Natsu please. Not again...no." She cried, staring at the emptiness of the gloomy valley, imagining his retreating figure leaving her behind. She would have done anything to never feel that emptiness of being by herself again.
"Lucy." The now dirty blonde girl could hear Natsu say in her mind. Her memories replayed nonstop that she could practically feel his warmth engulfing her, and his familiar scent fill her nose. Too bad it was all her imagination, because she wanted nothing more than for him to be beside her.
She could remember the last time she held on to him, the many times his comforting arms stitched together her broken pieces.
"Lucy." Her mind replayed the reminiscence of his voice that she could still remember, hoping she could never forget the sound of his voice.
She'd always loved when he had called her name, it always made her feel important to him. Whenever Natsu had said those four letters, it's as if he brought the name to life to describe her. He made her Lucy of Fairy Tail, not Lucky Lucy Heartfilia. He gave her name such a new meaning that it became who she truly was.
"Lucy!" His tone seemed to shout in her head as if he was in front of her in reality.
Suddenly her mind snapped out of her flashbacks to become aware of her surroundings once again as another crack of thunder echoed through the sky. No longer freezing in the downpour, her thin body had finally stopped shivering. That's when she came back to the real world truly.
There was Natsu's tanned arms wrapped around her thin waist, holding her smaller body against his. Confusion and anxiety bubbled in her chest as she realized it was truly him. That's when the memories of last year flashed through her mind.
He had returned from his training, and the broken pieces had been put together from the guild. Everything was okay, and she was just there looking pathetic as she relieved old flashbacks from him abandoning her after a battle. The nightmares were getting out of her control, and it frustrated her to no end that she couldn't even control her own mind completely.
She just gave into his embrace, pushing away all her negative thoughts to a later moment. She just wanted to enjoy the hug she was being held in as it still lasted before the cycle began again. The many events of trauma she'd experienced from battles caused her to get sprouts of random flashbacks leaving her in many states of confusion. Most situations causing her to feel as if she was reliving each memory, and making her act almost irrationally.
"I'm right here, Lucy," He said in calm voice to reassure the blonde girl. He just wanted her to calm down and nothing else in that moment.
"Please don't leave me alone again, Natsu." She wailed against his chest, not caring how she appeared to him.
He didn't reply to her comment, unsure of what to say. He just leaned his body over hers to catch the rain pouring from above in his pink locks to try and protect her already drenched figure.
She slowly began nodding off into slumber as the rain finally began slowing down. The both of them remained seated in the alleyway for what seemed like hours before she fell asleep with Natsu watching over her protectively. It wasn't until she was lightly snoring due to her clogged nose before he said another thing to her.
"Sorry, Lucy. I can't promise that."
