Title: How Will You Know
Pairings: Lucy/Natsu, some Mirajane/Freed, some Gray/Juvia, some Elfman/Evergreen.
Rating: I'm gonna stick with M just in case of later chapters.
Plot: Lucy has had a rough time since coming back from Tenrou Island. To make matters worse, her and Natsu seem to have crossed over the line of friends. Confused and hurt, Lucy goes on a quest to clear her mind, with Natsu hot on her trail. (Bad Summary) R/R NaLu.
Hi everyone! Hope I didn't keep people waiting too long. Once again, thanks for reading this far :D
Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail. I just love it to death XD
Chapter 3: In Between
"I won't be caught between something and nothing when you know that nothing is for free. I'm the girl who needs it all or nothing. How did we become a one night stand?
Hanging on a thread just isn't something that I want in the end" In Between by BECCA
/
"Lucy…Lucy…." The blonde could hear several female voices calling her name gently.
"You girls should let her rest." She heard Erza speak softly.
"Erza is right…let me watch her for a bit." Mirajane nodded.
Lucy opened her eyes a bit to see the guild's store room and a few concerned mages looking at her. Lucy forced a small smile as she saw her friend Levy leave the room, giving her a small wave.
"Before I leave, let me cast Troia on Lucy-san, it'll help." Wendy urged.
"Wendy! You've already used Troia on just about every guild member today. You should rest." Charle protested.
"It's okay Charle. I haven't used it on Lucy before so it should be effective."
"That's not the point." The Exceed murmured before leaving the room herself.
"You don't have to Wendy, I'll be fine." Lucy assured the young dragon slayer.
"It's okay! I wish you guys would rely on me a little more" the girl replied a little hurt.
"Sorry Wendy. I didn't mean to upset you." Lucy sat up on the cot slowly and groaned, holding her head.
"It's okay, just relax." The girl smiled again and brought her hands up to Lucy's head. "Troia" she spoke as a pale blue light formed from her hands.
A few seconds later the light was gone and Wendy wiped some sweat from her brow. Stepping back a little she stumbled, only to be caught by Erza.
"Careful Wendy." The red haired woman smiled and scooped her up princess style.
"E…Erza…" Wendy blushed and protested. Erza is so strong and pretty. I want to be like her! Wendy thought in an embarrassed manner.
"I'll take you home." She gave Mirajane and Lucy a nod before leaving the room as well.
"So…how you feeling now?" Mirajane smiled and sat down next to Lucy on the cot.
"Better now thanks to Wendy." Lucy replied before her eyes widened. "Wait a minute! Why are you even here? What about your honeymoon with Freed?"
"Hey don't change the subject!" the newlywed blushed.
"No…tell me!" Lucy smiled.
"Freed had a mission he promised to do before we had decided to get married. We are going when he gets back. Satisfied now?" Mira placed her hands on her hips.
"Why didn't you have a proper ceremony? You strike me as a romantic type. Instead we just partied, got drunk, fought and broke things. Like always."
"Freed and I wouldn't want it any other way, besides. This is just a secret between us…but we had a private ceremony the day before at the church. Master gave me away." Mira blushed.
"Wait…Gildarts did?" Lucy asked confused.
"No…Makarov. Hehe I sometimes forget he's not master anymore." She explained before placing a hand on Lucy's shoulder. "Lucy…what happened? No more talk about me. Let's talk about you. You know you can confide in me"
Lucy sighed and buried her head in her hands, how was she going to explain everything.
"Everyone is worried about you…just take your time…speak at your pace…" the white haired mage encouraged her.
"Avery and I…I finally called things off." Lucy started.
"Is that why he wasn't at the wedding?" Mira asked and Lucy simply nodded.
"I was really surprised to bump into him again a few months ago. It felt like things had picked up right where they left off 7 years ago. We started dating and then two months ago things just changed. He was standing me up a lot and sometimes I would see him and he had cuts and bruises on him. He became…pushy, arrogant, he would bring Natsu into everything."
"Natsu?" Mirajane asked
Lucy buried her head further, her chest feeling heavier and heavier.
"Lucy…are you okay?"
"I…I…" Lucy started tearing up. "He would tell me he knew I was off doing things with Natsu, that I actually love Natsu and not him. It seemed like nothing I did or say anything swayed him. Everything in our relationship was going downhill. I felt so tired and miserable and I just wanted to believe…he was worth fighting for. He said a lot of painful things recently. Mira…I can't bear to think I've wasted all this time, being with someone so poisonous"
"Shh…it's okay. You gave it your best. You worked hard to make your relationship work. Sometimes love is not enough and sometimes you need to fail in order to succeed. It may not seem that way now but in the future you will look back and see this helped to make you stronger." Mirajane spoke with a soothing voice, holding the blonde mage in her arms.
"In the end I only proved his point..." Lucy sobbed.
"His point?" Mira asked.
"About Natsu…last night after the reception, I dragged Natsu back to my place since we were both drunk. But…we…we slept together."
Mirajane's eyes widened and she pulled Lucy away from her to look at her.
"Lucy!"
"I'm horrible aren't I? I just got out a of relationship where I told someone there was nothing between me and another guy and then I go and sleep with him in a drunken one night stand. He was right, I did something with Natsu! I feel so dishonest and miserable." Lucy sobbed harder, looking away.
"Lucy!"
"Last night was confusing, one minute I was crying, the next we were embracing, he calmed me down, he said he 'wasn't good at these kinds of things', he said he 'wasn't good with words', he said 'I will get rid of that guy's scent on you with my own'. I said I was scared, it was too soon, too fast. But he kissed me! All fear and worries just melted away. He said 'don't be scared Luce.' In the sweetest and most sincere voice and he gave me that childish toothy grin…"
"Lucy!"
"I feel miserable even thought it felt so right. I even feel a lot of pain when I heard Natsu tell me to forget about it and act like nothing happened. More pain then I felt during my break up. He was right, I love Natsu. I realized that deep down I do love Natsu…how else could I give myself away to Natsu but not to him?"
"Lucy!" Mira shouted again and grabbed Lucy's crying face, making her face her.
"Lucy…" she spoke again softly, smiling. "No one has the right to tell you how to feel or react to something…anything. These are your feelings Lucy. No one elses. Everyone discovers them differently."
"Mira…" Lucy managed to force a small smile, sniffling a bit.
"You love Natsu…isn't that wonderful?" Mira smiled more.
"But he dosen't love me, I don't think he ever has…" Lucy replied sadly.
"You'll never know if you don't try. Ask him what he meant, talk to him…"
A few minutes went by in silence, Lucy stared at Mirajane hesitantly.
"You're right…I'll find out and go from there…" Lucy became nervous and wiped her eyes.
"That's the spirit. You can use his scarf to help talk to him if you feel nervous." Mirajane could detect her uneasiness and placed the white scaled scarf in her hands.
"Thank you Mirajane…just thank you." Lucy hugged her tightly. "Freed is lucky to have you."
Mirajane blushed and smiled at her compliment, tearing up a little. Lucy let her friend go and stood up, fixing her bed hair.
"Thank you Lucy. Thank you for trusting and confiding in me."
Lucy smiled a little bit and then noticed the pile of books by the cot. "Can I leave those here for awhile…? I don't want to deal with them right now…"
"Yup. I'm sure Levy can find a spot for them somewhere, and if Avery drops off anything else you can leave it here."
Lucy was once again surprised at how understanding and perceptive her friend was. Lucy decided to wrap Natsu's scarf around her neck loosely and headed towards the door.
"Oh and Lucy, Gildarts, err…Master has a potential quest for you. He noticed it on the board. You should talk to him when you have time."
Lucy nodded and opened the door, walking through to see Erza, Cana, Levy and Wendy with her ears covered against the wall. Lucy sighed and felt anger boiling up.
"How much did you hear…?"
"Everything…with this armor I have" Erza boasted.
"Only a little" Cana winked and Levy merely gave her friend a guilty look.
"Erza wouldn't let me listen…" Wendy pouted, who had her ears covered by Levy.
"I thought Erza was taking you home." Lucy asked annoyed.
"They were…but Juvia insisted on listening. Juvia won't let Lucy have Gray-sama!" Juvia formed behind Erza, shooting daggers at Lucy.
"I give up…" Lucy sighed defeated and walked towards the stairs, intending to talk to Gildarts.
"Juvia doesn't think that cheered Lucy-san up. Was Juvia too convincing?" Juvia started to cry.
"Don't cry Juvia!" Cana shouted at her. "Last time you did you caused some of the wood floors to mold."
"Should we tell her we actually didn't hear anything at all…?" Erza became serious. "I apparently don't understand humor very well."
"My ears were plugged for nothing then?" Wendy protested.
/
Yay, chapter 3 done. Hopefully this was longer. I promise more exciting stuff will happen soon. Natsu will pop up again soon, so don't worry. :D Also, I hope the ending of the chapter isn't too weird. I wanted to throw in some Fairy Tail humor here and there. Once again, chapter title courtesy of BECCA. Thanks for reading and please R/R.
::hands out lucy plushies::