There was no sleep to be had. For a long, long time Natsu stared at the golden halo of Lucy's hair and imagined what he could say to dispel the sadness that clung to her like fine dust. When her breathing changed, signaling her fall into unconsciousness, and he still could think of nothing that he thought she'd find suitable, he raised himself from the ground and went back to his lumpy bed. The mattress squealed beneath his weight. Happy grumbled, Lucy made a soft sigh. Natsu scrubbed his face, remembering again Igneel's death. It had been months and months, but at times it still felt raw. He imagined it would for a long time.
Lucy woke to the sound of pen scratching over paper. Lifting her head, she peaked over the side of the couch and found Natsu sitting at the kitchen table, pen in hand, the piece of paper he brooded over ink-stained. His brow was furrowed in concentration and his lip was jutted out. She watched him for as long as she dared, memorizing every bit of his face from the straight slope of his nose to the arch of his brows to the lively onyx of his eyes. Several feet away, Happy still sprawled out on the bed, snoring.
The cat snorted particularly loud, drawing Natsu's attention away from the paper. He looked around the room. Figuring she was caught, Lucy said, "Hey." It came out quietly so she wouldn't wake Happy.
Natsu startled badly enough he dropped his pen. When he found her he sent a sheepish smile her way.
"Hey." Under his eyes were slightly bruised, like he hadn't slept well. Guilt stabbed Lucy.
"You look tired."
"I'm fine." The dragon slayer bent and picked the pen off the floor.
Lucy dismissed the lie and pushed the blankets back, rising from the couch. The floor was cold beneath her bare toes. She tiptoed to the table and sat down beside him, tucking Natsu's oversized shirt around her legs as best as she could. She leaned in, shoulder bumping his in a silent apology. "What are you doing?"
Natsu pinched the pen hard, breathing her in. She smelled sweet. "Just..."
"Working on your apology letter?" Lucy asked, reading his familiar chicken scratch.
"Yeah," Natsu replied. "Listen, Lucy..."
She turned her head just enough that she could see him out of the corner of her eye. "What is it?"
"I'm not sorry I left," he blurted.
Lucy stilled.
"I am sorry I only left you a letter, though. I should have come to talk to you."
Lucy stood stiffly. "I'm sorry, too."
Natsu grabbed her hand, sensing his apology didn't go quite as planned. "Lucy—"
"I have to get ready, Natsu," Lucy said, pulling out of his grasp. "I'm going to see if I can find us some work."
"Wait—"
She tugged again, forcing him to release her. Defeated he watched her disappear into the washroom.
"You want help with your letter?" Happy asked.
Natsu faced the cat; he hadn't even realized Happy was awake. His neck heated, embarrassed that he had a witness to his dismal apology. He tried to bowl ahead and forget about it. "Yeah." Maybe if it went well he'd know what to say to Lucy.
Gray Fullbuster sat at the kitchen table in the small cottage he and Juvia rented and crushed a newspaper in his hands. No matter how he bent the pages the words seemed clear as day. 'Fairy Tail Revival?' they said, accompanied by a picture of familiar flames scrawling over the king's castle in Crocus. He didn't need to read any more to know which idiot did that. His guts twisted with something like guilt. That same feeling that had nearly burned him into the ground months ago was back; his lungs were tight and his skin was on fire. His head spun. He had spent a lot of nights outrunning that feeling. There was no place to go now, though.
"Gray-sama." Juvia's voice was husky and sleep choked. She sounded sexy and sultry. Lifting his gaze, he found her leaning against the doorframe, an aqua blue nighty hugging all of her plentiful curves.
"Juvia..."
"Why aren't you in bed? It's early still." She came to him when he didn't move. With every step the first rays of sunlight lit upon her true-blue hair and set it to glittering like the deepest sapphire gem. Her toe nails, painted tree-leaf green, looked stark on the clean white tile.
"Gray-sama?" She was in his lap before he realized, his one leg between hers. First she took the paper from his hand and dropped it to the table, then she grabbed his chin and tilted it skyward. Her dark eyes ate him up, seeing far more than what he wanted to show.
"What are you worrying about?"
Gray allowed himself to touch Juvia's thighs. It wasn't the first time, but her eyes got heavy-lidded and her skin rose in goose bumps like it was. He'd come to like the way she responded to him, all happy sighs, clasping fingers and words of praise. "It's nothing." Or at least he wanted it to be.
"Gray—"
His fingers tracked upwards to the tops of her hips. It was no secret she wore nothing beneath that nighty, but it was still thrilling to feel all that smooth skin. He slipped around and grabbed her behind, pleased when the sound of her croon pushed out his thoughts of Fairy Tail. He pulled her close, finding her waist and kissing it, then closer still, so she was firmly pressed into his body. He could feel every breath she took. Migrating north, he flicked his tongue over the peak of her breast and listened for her pinched moan.
It didn't come. He leaned back to see why. Juvia's eyes were fixed on the newspaper she'd discarded.
"Fairy Tail?" She met his eyes. There was a shadow behind her gaze, but she did well to hide it.
Gray loosened his hold on her body, erection withering some.
"This is what you were reading, Gray-sama?"
He scrubbed his hand behind his head. "Doesn't matter."
"If Fairy Tail is getting back together, it matters," Juvia reprimanded.
"It's just an article, it doesn't mean anything," Gray said.
"That's Natsu's fire," Juvia replied.
Gray opened and closed his mouth twice. In the end he fell silent.
Juvia reached out and touched the ink-stained paper, fingers tracing the letters thoughtfully. She was experiencing an internal struggle, Gray could tell. He always wondered how much she knew and how much she guessed about that night they left. She'd never really said and he'd never gotten the guts to ask.
"When do we leave?" Juvia asked.
"We don't," Gray replied.
"What? Why?" Juvia asked. "Don't you want to go home?"
He chewed his cheek hard. "No." That's the coward's way. He never thought he was afraid of very much, but apparently hurt feelings topped the list, snugging up right close to Zeref and END. Lucy's keys seemed to mock him from inside the wallet tucked into his pocket.
Juvia got serious. "Why are you being like this, Gray?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," he replied steadily.
"Is it about—"
"Stop." He didn't want to know what she was going to say.
Startled, she wavered, on the brink of letting it go if only he pushed a little more. Gray gathered the dexterity to do just that. Then Juvia dug her feet in. "I think we should go even just to look, Gray-sama. How will we know for certain?"
I don't want to know. But part of him sort of did, too...
"I'll pack up," Juvia announced. "You start on breakfast." She disappeared without giving him any time to respond.
The sun was hot. So hot in fact that Lucy sweated badly enough that she didn't want to talk to anyone, let alone a man that seemed interested in a date. Going back, however, wasn't really an option. Sucking up her pride, she let her grumbling stomach bring her through Magnolia to the guard barracks.
It was a large building that reminded her of Fairy Hills before it was ruined, if the dormitories were more drab. Tall and grey, it was rectangular with almost no character. The windows were dusty, dirty from all of the construction happening, the doors were thick and scratched. Coming up the ill-kept walkway, she knocked briskly and waited impatiently, wondering all the while it this was actually a very good idea.
The door swung open, answered by a tall man with a head of gingery hair. He looked at her in confusion for three long seconds, then asked, "Help you?"
"Um... I'm looking for a guard, Riley Ackles," Lucy said with a smile. "We met on the train to Magnolia yesterday. He said he'd be in town for a little while—" She trailed off as the subject of her visit sauntered from the shadows behind the redheaded man.
"You came, Lucy." His smile was just as nice today as it had been yesterday.
Lucy found herself wanting to flush. She stamped the feeling out right quick, remembering why she was really there. "Of course. I wanted to see if you wanted to get dinner maybe tomorrow or something?"
"Get out of here, Bessel." He pushed his fellow guard out of the way and came to lean casually in the doorway. His shoulders were wide enough he almost didn't fit. As he leaned into the light Lucy saw that his five o'clock shadow was still there, leading her to believe he did it on purpose. "Why not tonight?"
"I need to find some work, actually," Lucy replied. "I thought I'd spend today looking around, ask some of the locals if they need any help or anything..."
He popped out his bottom lip and considered her. "The guard might need a hand. We've been pretty busy lately. What kind of work are you looking for?"
"Anything," Lucy said immediately, pleased that she didn't even have to try that hard. "I'm a celestial mage, so if you need help rebuilding, or guarding, or anything really—"
He considered her. "A mage, huh?"
Lucy smiled nervously, remembering Natsu's 'Fairy Tail' message on the side of the castle. "Yep."
"Belong to a guild?" The look he was giving her was definitely suspicious.
"Nope—I'm too nomadic for that." It was only half of a lie. "I like to travel around for work—just freelancing, you know? It makes for interesting tales."
Riley relaxed a little. "I get that. You're a celestial mage you said?"
"That's right." Lucy grabbed her keys at her hip and wiggled them around. "I don't want to brag, but I'm pretty awesome." If she ignored the nagging voice that told her almost every day for the last year that her team ditched her because she wasn't good enough, it almost felt true.
"I'm sure you are. Let me talk to my supervisor, Lucy, but I'll let you know now, we've got a criminal that's still at large and to be honest, we don't really have the time or resources to catch him."
Lucy's stomach dropped away. "The one that wrote on the castle?"
"Eh? Nah, not that guy. I mean, if we run into him then yeah, but we've got bigger fish to fry. This guy's been hanging around the senior's homes on the west end and robbing the old folks in there. Really dirty stuff, eh? You'd think they'd be easy to catch, but they use transformation magic. The guards stationed here full-time have no idea what the thief looks like. You think this job is something you'd be up for?"
"Yeah," Lucy agreed after only a moment's hesitation. "Definitely."
He said, "Hey, don't feel like you have to take this job. It's only if you're comfortable doing this kind of stuff. If you're tight on cash and want some easy money, we're really behind on our paperwork—"
"I'd prefer to catch the criminal," she said too fast.
Riley raised his brows. "Yeah?"
"Yeah, of course," Lucy told him with surety. She wasn't nearly as confident as she sounded, it had been a long time since she'd done a job like this, but she'd been training a lot in the last year, trying again and again to just be better so she could outrun the dangerous train of thought that said if she had have taken things more seriously the year before, then maybe Aquarius wouldn't have had to sacrifice herself and Natsu...
'I'm not sorry I left.'
'He's an idiot.'
She didn't ever think she was wretched, but she hated herself in that moment.
"Lucy?" Riley asked. "Hey." He waved his hand in front of her face. "You alright?"
Lucy blinked, realizing she'd been staring into space. "Sorry, I was just thinking about the last job I did like this," she lied. "It was a cakewalk. I'll have your criminal caught in no time."
He smiled. "Well… let me talk to my supervisor before I officially offer you the job, just to make sure it's okay."
"Sure," Lucy agreed.
"In the mean time, I think you should take the night off to have dinner with me, my treat. I'll catch you up on everything we know about the suspect, and tomorrow, if everything gets approved, you can get to work."
"That sounds like a plan," Lucy agreed. All she had to do to get some work was go out for dinner with a guy; that wasn't so bad, right?
"You're staying in the Briar's Lock?"
"The only place in town," Lucy said with a depreciative laugh; it wasn't at all because she was totally broke.
"Which room, so I know where to pick you up?"
Lucy thought of the fugitives she was hiding away and felt a twang of panic. "I'll just… meet you outside, if you don't mind?"
He did actually look a little insulted, but he weathered it well. "Sure, no problem. At six?"
Lucy checked her watch; it was just after eleven. That gave her enough time to scare up something to wear, maybe. "Sounds like a plan."
After Natsu finished his letter to the best of his ability, Happy offered to deliver it to the post office for him, which meant that Natsu had the room to himself. He thought it would give him plenty of time to sleep after his restless night, but really it only gave him plenty of time to think; plenty of time to consider how much he missed his hammock, for sure. Plenty of time to think about Lucy's 'go to sleep, Natsu.' She sounded so
disappointed
He'd never encountered that kind of despondence before, not from her. It made him mad—because really, did she not understandwhy he left? Obviously not—and it made him sad because he'd never seen her so guarded before.
The motel door opened and the object of his plight came through, bright eyed and full of smiles, radiant in a way that he'd missed for months and months.
"Natsu!" Lucy's voice was high and singsong. She bounced over and smacked him playfully on the shoulder. "I maybe just got us a job."
He sat up, unable to hold back his own smile. "Yeah?"
"I talked to Riley just like you suggested."
He faltered. "Riley?"
"Ackles. The guard," Lucy said. "He told me there's this douche that's been robbing seniors on the west side of town. The guards are too busy to catch him and he keeps giving them the slip, but I think with your freaky nose and my amazing abilities, we can sniff this guy out. Riley just needs to okay it with his supervisor first."
A little more of Natsu's funk dissipated. "Awesome work, Luce."
She smiled at his appreciation, giving herself a moment to congratulate both her tenacity and good fortune. "Yeah. Now I just need a dress to wear."
Natsu screwed up his face. "A dress? What for?"
Lucy gave him a plaintive look. "Riley is going to give me the details of the job tonight over dinner."
"You're not going to hang out with me and Happy?" He didn't much care for how disappointed he sounded.
Lucy shook her head apologetically. "Sorry, Natsu, I would but I think this is pretty important."
"Why? He already told you pretty much all you need to know. Just get his supervisor's name and talk to him yourself," Natsu argued.
Lucy shook her head again. "The King's guard pays really well for this kind of work, you know that. A good word from Riley could mean more jobs like this in the future."
"When Fairy Tail reunites, we won't need handouts from the guards."
Lucy's smile inched down. "In the mean time, we need work."
Natsu tried to keep his scowl to a minimum and attempted to stick to the facts. "Well, how am I supposed to sniff out this person if I have guards looking for me?"
Lucy gnawed on her lip. "You're right. I'll handle it on my own."
"Lucy—" That was not his intention.
"No, Natsu. I got this."
His ploy totally backfired, the dragon slayer was overrun by irritation. She was supposed to say, 'In that case, we'll find something else, Natsu.' Not, 'I'll do it on my own, thanks.' "Fuck. Come on."
Looking at his pinched, aggravated expression all of her sharp edges softened. "Hey." She bent so she could more clearly see his eyes. "I know you're frustrated, but it's only for a little while." She hoped.
He blew out a hot breath and scrubbed his face, telling himself all the while to calm down. It wasn't the end of the world if he wasn't involved; it wouldn't kill him to sit out of the action for just a bit, even if it felt like it would.
Seeing his shoulders ease Lucy asked, "I hate to ask, but do you have any more money, Natsu?"
He met her eyes, hands still pressing his cheeks together. "For what?"
"For that dress for my date," Lucy said as she took out her pigtails. Her hair was still damp from her shower that morning. She laced her fingers through it, brushing it straight.
"Thought it was just dinner so he could tell you about your thief?" Natsu asked. His voice sounded bitter, even to his ears.
"Yeah, yeah," Lucy said dismissively. "Call it whatever you want. It's our ticket to being able to feed ourselves again."
Natsu, wearing a severe frown, took off his boot and pulled up the insole. There, shoved into the bottom was his last bit of emergency money. "That's all I have. This job better fucking be worth it."
Lucy leaned in, coming closer to the dragon slayer than she'd willingly had in days, and took the money from his hand. Looking at him from beneath her thick, dark lashes she said, "I'm going to take half of this and get us our room for another night, then I'm going to buy the cutest dress you've ever seen. I'm going to charm the hell out of Riley Ackles and I'm going to land us the best paying job Magnolia can offer. Then I'm going to catch our thief and I'm going to give you all your money back." Having no debt between them would be a preferable thing.
Natsu pushed past the hot wave of something unpleasant that welled inside of him. "Are you sure you have to go out for dinner with him?"
"Yes," she said positively.
Natsu tried again. "And you're sure you won't need my help?"
A lick of irritation almost took away Lucy's smile. "I can do this job on my own."
"Yeah, sure you can," he agreed. "But wouldn't you rather have me there as backup?" He knew he'd definitely feel better about it.
"I'd rather you stay out of jail right now, actually," she replied. "You and Happy just hang out in here. Speaking of, where the heck is he?"
Natsu admitted, "He went to deliver that letter to the King."
"Good. Hopefully he'll be in a forgiving mood."
"Yeah. Okay, but Lucy—"
"Seriously," she interjected. "Stay out of trouble until we know for sure what's going on. I'll handle this."
Her voice was so sharp, Natsu actually recoiled. Lucy had never felt meaner, but the idea of him going away for even longer made her chest clang with that old familiar hollowness. "I don't want you to disappear again." The last she offered as a bit of an apology as well as an explanation. His stricken expression melted into one that she could only call pained. So she didn't have to look at him wearing that betrayed and forlorn face any longer, she stood and said, "I'm going to head out and get that dress. I'll be back."
Natsu watched her hair swirl around her shoulders as she stood straight, then he watched her back as she walked away. He kept looking long after the door closed, trying not to think about Lucy having dinner with other men while she wore the dress that he bought for her.
