Hey guys! I'm finally back! I'm so sorry for making you all wait, but I hope this chapter's worth it! Once again, a big thank you to all the people who faved/followed/reviewed my stories! And yes, you read that right - stories, as in plural. XD Yep, for those who haven't checked out my other fic, here's a heads-up. I've written a Fairy Tail Nalu one-shot called Appendicitis. So if you're interested, please try it out and tell me what you think! Okay, this author's note is getting a tad long... so without further ado, I present to you - Chapter 3 of Mercy.

perseus2760 - Well, I wouldn't say that Lisanna's the bad guy... yet, since I'm trying to potray her as a neutral character. But, do check your PM, I may or may not have given you a little spoiler. ;)

Fanfic Lover & JenCakeLover - Thank you so much for the positive feedback! I hope this chapter will live up to your expectations. :)

lucy dragneel550 - Yes, this story is a confirmed Nalu. But, there will be some side pairings, like Jerza and Gale. The other pairings shall remain a secret for now. ;)

Typeyournamehere - Me too! But don't judge Natsu too fast, eh? Who knows what's going on in that thick skull of his. XD And thanks for giving me the push I needed to continue this story. :)

Disclaimer : I do not own Fairy Tail. It belongs to Hiro Mashima. A few parts of this story are also based on Jodi Picoult's novel - Mercy. Do check out her books - I assure you they are worth reading. :)

Chapter 3

Erza, who had a talent for eavesdropping, told Natsu that Lucy's greatest rival in the publishing industry – Sorano Aguria – has recently published a book on the image of hell. 'You know, chief, it's not like it used to be,' she said, tracing the edge of her coffee cup. Her question invited a quirk of Natsu's eyebrows. 'Hell, I mean. No more fire and brimstone and all.'

Natsu let out a bark of laughter. 'Don't tell Father Purehito; he's looking forward to that stuff.'

Erza smiled at Natsu. 'Sorano says that instead of physical pain, it's more mental. Like, you know, if you marry this gorgeous guy only to find out in hell that he really married you for your money.'

'I wouldn't worry,' Natsu said. 'I don't pay you nearly enough.'

She smirked. 'And suppose that in order to marry this hunk; you gave up someone who was really in love with you. The pain you'd feel knowing you picked the wrong guy is supposedly so devastatingly heart-wrenching that it'll feel like hell.' Erza dramatically said, flailing her arms wide to emphasize her point. But immediately scrunching up her nose afterwards, she continued, 'Not that I can see how Sorano Aguria would know what hell is like at all.'

Natsu's full-time sergeant, Gray Fullbuster, stuck his head into the office. 'You forget, Erza that Sorano used to date the chief.' He reminded, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively at Natsu.

Natsu threw a stack of mail at him. 'It was a one-time fling. And don't you have anything better to do?'

'That depends,' Gray replied, grinning. 'You taking me out to lunch?'

'No,' Natsu said. 'I'm taking Lucy out.' He surprised himself; this wasn't something they planned when she stopped by earlier, but he knew she'd love spending an hour with him. He pulled on his heavy blue coat and locked his office door behind him.

'If the town comes under siege,' he said to Erza, 'you know where I'll be.'

At the flower shop, Lucy was absolutely loving Annalisa's creative way of arranging flowers. She was right to let Annalisa help out; that girl was a wonder with flowers. Her fingers seemed to fly from one flower arrangement to another. Her style of arranging was also like nothing Lucy has seen before.

Lucy smiled from her place at the counter. Although Annalisa spoke little and had a weird habit of wearing large hats that covered her face, she was nice enough. Apparently, Annalisa had read one of Lucy's books before and was a huge fan. So that itself was enough reason for Lucy to like her.

Who wouldn't?

She considered inviting Annalisa to dinner with her and Natsu, seeing as her new assistant was still new around town. Maybe she would invite some of their friends too. It's always more fun with everyone there, after all. Plus, it would give Annalisa a chance to meet some new people.

Lucy stood up and strode towards Annalisa's workbench. 'Annalisa?' she asked, 'Would you like to come over for dinner tonight?'

'Lisa.' Annalisa muttered. Her hands were flying around the table, fixing the flower arrangement for a customer's dinner party with the agility and grace of a hummingbird.

Confused, Lucy asked, 'I beg your pardon?'

'Call me Lisa,' she replied, stilling her hands for a moment and tilting her head to look at her employer. 'Annalisa is a mouthful.'

Lucy smiled brightly and chirped enthusiastically, 'Well then. Lisa it is! So, would you like to join my husband and I for dinner tonight?'

Lisa pondered over the thought for a moment before hesitantly replying with a smile, 'If it's not too much trouble, I would love to.'

'So, what type of foods do you like?' Lucy asked, wanting to make something that her guest would love.

'Chocolate,' Lisa answered without hesitating. Only after hearing Lucy's laugh, she realized that Lucy was asking what she would like for dinner. Immediately blushing, she said, 'I mean I love Italian food. And Chinese food. But I usually eat take-out and not the gourmet type so I don't really know. Oh, and I'm not allergic to anything, so no worries.' Damn it girl, you're rambling! Lisa mentally slapped herself.

But Lucy's smile just got wider and wider with every word that spilled out of her mouth. Hearing Lisa talk somehow reminded her of herself – as in the old Lucy that would keep on babbling when she got nervous. It was very cute and endearing. Her thoughts then flew to her friends. They were quite the odd bunch. They were loud and boisterous and very talkative. But they never failed to make Lucy laugh.

Glancing back at Lisa, who had continued arranging a new batch of flowers; Lucy walked over to Lisa's workbench and took the remaining flowers that needed to be sorted to her own workbench. Lisa looked up in surprise. Lucy smiled and motioned her to continue her work. Lisa nodded and bent her head down again, but not before returning Lucy's smile with one of her own.

I think we will get along very well indeed.

Walking down the half block to Lucy's flower shop, he started to smile. He'd step into the store and tell her he was looking for a bouquet, dahlias and lilies in her favorite colors – pink and yellow. He'd say it was for someone special and she'd play along and give him a give card and he'd write, What are you doing for the rest of your life?

Humming, Natsu unconsciously played back to their first meeting. He remembered it as clear as day.

It happened on the day of his break-up. The day he was dumped by the woman he had loved and been with for five years. Oh, he'd been through tons of break-ups, but none of those relationships were real, unlike the one he and Lisanna were in. Plus, he was usually the one dumping the girl – not the other way round.

But that wasn't the case, the thing that hurt him the most was that he was preparing to propose to her that very night. Heck, he'd even rented a small restaurant by the beach and learned how to play the guitar (and he was Natsu for god's sake, the guy who could barely last five minutes into a romance movie) for the big event.

He remembered leading Lisanna to their candle-lit table; he remembered feeling butterflies fluttering in his stomach; he remembered how fidgety and uncomfortable Lisanna was. But most of all, he remembered the pain he felt after her rejection. And by the time Lisanna had broken the news to him about how it wasn't 'working out'; he suddenly had the urge to get hit by a car so he could get amnesia and justforgeteverythingabouthergoddamnit.

And as if it wasn't enough already, she even stated that she'll be moving to Edolas and hoped that he would move on. But how could he? How could he ever forget the feeling he got every time she smiled and laughed, and just move on?

After that, she just turned tail and left, unknowingly leaving with half of his heart. She left him all alone, sitting there surrounding by candles that were slowly burning out… dying – just like his heart. He didn't remember how long he sat there. But when he finally stood up and walked away, the candles had all but extinguished.

When he had started up the engine, he realized that there in the passenger seat – her seat – was the bouquet of flowers he had specially bought for her. He'd given it to her earlier, when he picked her up.

He glared at it, suddenly feeling the need to get rid of everything that would remind him of her. And so he drove. He drove home and took all the memorabilia that he'd collected since their relationship started and walked to the nearest garbage disposal.

As he chucked the memorabilia one by one, he heard a girl gasp. He turned around, surprised and slightly startled, only to be met by a pair of chocolate brown eyes. He stared at her, realizing a moment too late that he was currently holding on to his girlfriend's – no, ex-girlfriend's – spare clothes (and underwear), next to a garbage bin, in the middle of the godforsaken night like some sort of freak. Immediately both he and the blonde girl blushed.

The blonde girl walked forward and bent down, grabbing some of the memorabilia that he hadn't thrown yet. He looked at her, puzzled. What surprised him was the smile that she gave him…it was as if she knew. He had opened his mouth to say that it wasn't what it seemed, but she was quicker.

'She must have been pretty stupid, huh.'

Natsu had laughed. He couldn't fathom how this girl managed to cheer him up do easily. After throwing the rest of the garbage, she introduced herself and invited him over to her house, which was only a few blocks away from his place, and treated him to ice-cream (mint-chocolate – which was his favorite)and jalapeno chips (also his favorite) and horror movies (which also happened to be his favorite. Man, is this woman his soul mate or what?). By the end of the night, they were talking and laughing as though they'd known each other for years.

He'd even asked himself during his post-break-up-slash-impromptu-celebration why couldn't he have fallen for her instead? What did he ever see in his ex, besides the pretty face and nice body? And most importantly, how could he have never noticed that this amazing and wonderful woman has been right there, two blocks away, his entire life?

Though Natsu would never admit it, he was kind of – okay, really – disappointed when he was about to leave the next morning. He had already known since the moment she walked into his life, that she was going to walk out of it just as easily. Of course, he felt weird for thinking like that, seeing how he's had tons of one night stands (although this wasn't anything like that) and has never felt that way before.

Somehow, this girl – this Lucy – was different. The girl with the bunny pajamas who made him want to laugh and cry and hold her at the same time, had sauntered into his life and was preparing to leave him as suddenly as she came. She'd unknowingly mended what was left of his heart in just one night…the best night of his life.

After bidding her farewell, he looked at her one more time and savored the last, fleeting moments of their fateful encounter. Fateful encounter. That was all it was – nothing more. And Natsu's heart started to break once again as he smiled at her and prepared to walk out of the door – and out of her life.

That is, until her voice called out to him, causing him to pause and turn around. His hopes immediately skyrocketed.

'I'm preparing sweet and spicy chicken wings tonight!'

And she promptly slammed the door after that.

He forgot what happened after that, but Gray said that whenever Lucy's name was mentioned, Natsu's face would turn red and he would start smiling like an idiot. Yeah, it sounds real sweet when you put it like that, Gray.

It was a no-brainer that the dense duo would get together after 3 years of being 'friends'. But according to the She-Devil(*cough* Erza *cough*), they could have been together long before that if they weren't oh so determined to stay in the friend-zone. A year after being in a steady relationship, he had finally gotten the guts to propose to Lucy. She said yes and they were married a few months later.

His friends always said that they had the perfect relationship – trust, friendship, romance…with the occasional arguments, of course. But Lucy being Lucy, would try to end the argument and lighten up the post-argument atmosphere; and Natsu being Natsu, would end up buying tons of flowers, from his wife's flower shop of course (god forbid if one day the situation was so dire as for him to buy flowers from her competitor's flower shop) to get on his wife's good side again. Other than that, they rarely fought… unless it was over the last jalapeno chip. Then, it was war.

Oh, and did he mention that they had the perfect relationship?

Natsu chuckled as he turned the corner that would lead to his wife's flower shop. Ah, despite how ridiculous he may sound, he always enjoyed thinking of his wife. A bright smile made its way across his face as he neared the flower shop. His Luce was truly one of a kind – she was unpredictable and quirky; being by her side was never boring.

Grinning brightly, he opened the door of the flower shop and came face-to-face with a stranger. Lucy's name died on his lips as he stared at the tangle of platinum blond – nearly white – hair that were hidden under her hat, the swollen curve of her lip, the blush that coated her cheeks. She was not beautiful; she was not Lucy. But her face was… familiar… and foreign at the same time. It was like déjà vu.

As he grasped the hand she extended in greeting, he realized that her eyes were sapphire-blue, the shade that he'd dreamed as the Bay of Edolas; the shade that haunted his dreams at night. Those eyes…he could still see them staring at him in mock pity as he was rejected.

'Lisanna?'

Phew! That was longer than I expected! Hopefully you all enjoy reading it! If you don't, please leave a review or PM me about the parts you dislike - constructive criticism is always appreciated! (Of course, a few nice reviews won't hurt either. ;) )

Please leave a review! It means the world to me. :)

Countdown 5 days till Christmas! I may post a few Christmas one-shots until then, so keep an eye out for them. Clary out.