Note: Hi! Guess who's back?

A lot has happened in my life while at the same time, nothing seems to have happened at all. I got writer's block, lost inspiration and motivation to continue, and couldn't focus on writing because I felt down on life and hence stopped writing. Then after taking a break, I was planning on coming back around last December, but then all that A(I) happened, which effectively scared me half to death, and I didn't write. It's just been a long journey but I'm trying to slowly get back into writing again.

I've changed a lot internally, including mentally, for the better but for the better, but I'm back baby! I lowkey feel like my writing has kind of gotten worse due to the lack of practice but I still hope you guys get some enjoyment out of this. I was totally stoked to find out that there was an official Nalu week for 2024! So maybe I really did come back at the right time lol. Well, without further ado, here's the first prompt!

Prompt: Day 1—Nightmare

Summary: He was always a nightmare, whether or not he was there, he always was.

Warnings: Post-Tartaros Arc, so there are potential spoilers.

Nightmares

He came into her life like a living nightmare.

With dark onyx eyes, wild pink hair, and a wide toothy grin with sharp canines while his body was covered in flames, ironically, he looked more like a villain than the enemies they faced off at times. Especially when he was scheming, his eyes becoming slits like those of a snake, filled with nothing but mischief. Lucy should have known from the day he grabbed her hand, as they ran away from the Royal Guards, that her life would never be the same again.

Though calling him a nightmare would be putting it lightly.

He walked as if there was no care in the world, with loud thumping steps and a boisterous laugh to match. He shook the ground just as he had shaken up her whole world. Or the whole world for that matter.

His blood-lust for a good battle always left her battling her crippling self-control to not choke him out. They always barely scraped by with just enough rent money by taking on a few extra quests and sometimes she felt he could feel her murderous intentions if scooting a little away from her after a mission was any indication of it.

There was also the fact that he could eat her out of a house. Often uninvited, he took it as a liberty of being official teammates to scour through her cabinets on impromptu visits. She tried placing locks on drawers but it was a pain to remove molten metal fast enough so it wouldn't stick to her hard wood floors. She, more than once, had smacked the man across the back hard enough to leave him briefly choking on her snacks. She would have also delivered her signature Lucy-kick had he not always jumped out the window just as fast. Just like a cockroach skittering away with all her food, he was hard to get rid of. Begrudgingly, she always had to wait to restock during next week's grocery visit.

That was if they even made it home in time with his reckless nature. Quests that should have been easy always turned into natural disasters, and suddenly they go from trying to find the sweet oba-san's missing cat to taking down an organized crime gang for some big clients. Sometimes it was even worse with the whole gang together, with Lucy, often the voice-of-reason, being ignored while they proceeded to destroy everything in their sight.

It always gave her a heart-attack when he just jumped into battle like it was nothing. Honestly, if Natsu wasn't in a guild, she bet he could be a professional at starting fights. His snarky laugh and upturned nose are enough to want to commit murder at times, so it's no wonder the bad guys they fight against find it even more annoying. He always knew how to get under someone's nerves, in part due to carelessness and lack of delicacy, to put it mildly, at times.

Though probably the worst of it all was when he would barge into her little apartment and scare the living daylights out of her. An actual nightmare with his dark silhouette in the window, sharp fangs glaring in the light. She almost stabbed him with a pen one time. His feigned moans of pain and accusations of Lucy being scary made her want to push him out her window to ease the growing headache. Though despite all her empty threats, he grinned like there was no tomorrow.

He was a nightmare that kept her up at night, eyes wide and body drenched in sweat after gasping awake to her dark, quiet, room. The only light came from the soft glow of the moon seeping through her window as she remembered the warmth of his body, the scent of smoky wood that screamed his name, and the cooper aftertaste of blood on the tip of her tongue.

The humid air felt suffocating, hugging her too tight in comparison to his dry, warm heat. The crickets chirped quietly and she stayed sprawled on her bed, blanket and pillows thrown askew as her chest felt like it was fire from trying to breathe. Brushing away her bangs sticking to her forehead, she breathed out before closing her eyes.

She could hear the distant hollering of a group, rambunctious with their loud chortling and cackling and for a brief moment she was confused. Till she realized she was in Crocus, not Magnolia. She hadn't been for a while now.

If she so wished, she could have turned her head to the right to look at the calendar that was on the wall, but she kept her eyes closed as she inhaled again. It always stung to see how much time had passed since the guild disbanded, but she counted the days, always had. It couldn't have been a few months now, but the hurt hadn't faded just yet.

Sometimes it felt better when she tried to steer her mind to other endeavors, like her burgeoning career as a writer. While not official, she was interning with Jason from Sorcerer Weekly. The work was much more rigorous than she was expecting but that had brought a kind of joy in her life she hadn't experienced in a long time. It gave her something to fight for. Everyone else was probably achieving their goals, and so would she.

But the memories would creep up on her late at night, exhausted from reviewing and editing articles, heels thrown aside as she gets ready for bed. It's then where she almost feels like she can see an indentation of the mattress where he would have lain. Or when bathing, she wonders if the creaks she hears is him looking through her apartment for any hidden snacks. She never closes the blinds despite it being a terrible way to wake up every morning.

And just like nights like these, he comes to her like a nightmare with everything burning and red painting her vision before she forces herself awake just to make sure it's just a dream. A silly little nightmare that shouldn't hold the weight it does. But of course it does, because this is Natsu Dragneel and there was no way her life would have ever been peaceful even without him.

He came to haunt the very premise of her soul. Leaving his grubby little fingermarks on the surface of her heart with each mess he made at her apartment during late night round housing with Happy. With each victorious grin after a hard battle, despite the bruises and cuts that littered his body, his hand reaching out towards hers. When at late nights, where she couldn't fall asleep with the adrenaline still rushing through her body from a quest, she felt peace just hearing his rumbling snores as they rested under the stars.

It was in the slow intermissions before another quest that she would ease into the comfortable routine they found themselves in, his heat never too far. Far too comfortable, she realizes now as she opens her eyes, to an empty and quiet apartment.

He wracked havoc even when he wasn't there.

Note: So how was it? ;) This was originally going to be a lot sadder but decided to change it last minute since I just wanted a happier vibe I guess? Even though it's still kind of sad but I promise it gets happier-ish. I'm probably a little rusty from the break and since I haven't really had the time to delve back into the fandom for anything I forgot, a lot of this is going off my ever-evading memory. I also can't promise super long chapters since I don't have much time, and sadly didn't prepare in time. I was actually planning on pre-writing everything so I could post it in time but I guess we're doing it all over again like last time! We're in the wild west now haha! But in other news, I've got a pile of stuff I've just never posted that have just been sitting sadly in my folders for the past three years that may once again see the light. Not all are Nalu related, but hopefully this will get me back into my writing mojo. Hope you guys are enjoying this so far!

~writingamongstars