A/N: WHAT'S THIS? AN ACTUAL UPDATE ON SUNDAY? Now if only it were a chapter instead of an interlude… ah well. PROGRESS!

Just as a warning, FEELS AHEAD!

Or at least for me, I literally cried writing this interlude. I'm a crier tho. I cry all the time. Sooooo that's probably not too big a deal. Still. I'm gonna try and write chapter 19 tomorrow but I can't make any promises cause lemme tell you this Interlude wasn't supposed to go that hard but it DID and I'm not sure my brain can eke out anything else for a bit.

This takes place between chapters 16 and 17, as part of the one-month time skip.

Also, just to gush about my little sister some more, SOMETIMES AT COMIC CON SHE COSPLAYS MAVIS AND I COSPLAY ZEREF AND SHE IS THE CUTEST MAVIS YOU EVER SAW FITE ME.

*ahem*

That is all. Carry on.

Thanks for reading!

Mebuki laces her fingers together tightly, trying not to fidget. It's not an issue she normally has, being patient, but for a week now she's been living with a stranger wearing her daughter's face and it hurts. Inoichi whips through handsigns quicker than her husband ever could, and it still takes far too long for him to reach out, touching her forehead gently. She clenches her eyes shut through a wave of dizziness, and when she opens them again, she's sitting in a grassy field, surrounded by sakura trees. Inoichi sits across from her, but despite logically knowing the truth, when she looks to her right, to the pink hair in her peripheral vision, she's still surprised to see someone other than Sakura sitting there.

He doesn't look at all what she expected. She and Kizashi didn't talk about it, she never even really considered it, but if you'd asked Mebuki what Natsu looked like, she would have just assumed someone who looked more like Sakura. Inoichi-san wondered if they were related after all, so when she thought about it at all, she imagined her Sakura-chan, just more masculine. Maybe a narrower jaw, a little bit taller, shorter hair if only because Natsu-kun really has no idea what to do with Sakura-chan's tresses.

Everyone said that Natsu was a boy.

Mebuki wonders if they failed to mention he was an adult on purpose. He never really acted like one, perhaps a little more mature than her daughter but not so much that she ever would have placed him older than perhaps fourteen at the latest. The young man, clearly somewhere between eighteen and nineteen, spiky hair messier than even Kizashi's, with narrow black eyes and tanned skin, is perhaps the absolute last thing she ever would have expected. She feels lied to.

He tilts his head, looking curiously at her. "Sakura-chan's cabin is that way, Mebuki-san. We were gonna wait here, give you guys some privacy…"

Somehow, looking at him, she expected his voice to be deeper.

She doesn't know why, but she pushes herself to her feet and looks away from him. "Take me there."

She meant it to come out a question, but-

At least he doesn't seem offended by the demand.

"Okay?" He tosses his hands behind his head and laces his fingers together, already walking away.

It looks more natural than when he does it in Sakura's body, somehow. He's more casual than her daughter, and it's easy to see when he looks like himself.

Mebuki wonders if the silent walk to the cabin only feels awkward on her end - she's never seen Natsu so relaxed, in the short week she's known him. The cabin comes into sight some uncountable time later, and Natsu jogs forward.

"Oooooi! Sakura-chan, you have guests!" Natsu vaults over the porch rail, stopping in front of a window.

"Wha-? Did Inoichi-san come back…?"

Mebuki can recognize her daughter's 'just-woke-up' voice from a mile away, and as she gets closer she sees a pink-haired shadow walking toward the other side of the window, rubbing at her eyes.

Mebuki's breath catches, and she leaps up the porch, ignoring the stairs entirely, and throws herself in front of the window, pushing Natsu out of the way. The young man goes easily, backing off almost before she even reaches him, but Mebuki barely notices as she practically throws herself against the glass.

"Sakura!"

The window's open a crack, and Mebuki drops to her knees, shoving her fingers under, tries to lift up but the window doesn't budge -

"K-kaa-san!" Sakura lurches forward, scrabbling at the window sill until she wraps her hands around Mebuki's fingers, and starts crying.

Mebuki has never hated a window so much, as her daughter weeps and no matter how hard she wishes, she can't wrap Sakura into a hug, can't hold her, can only barely touch her with the very tips of her fingers-

Mebuki starts crying herself, forehead pressed into the glass, and she wishes she could just- slip intangible, slide through the wall and-and! She curls her fingers, trying in vain to pull her daughter closer, Sakura pushes herself into the other side of the glass, and it's nowhere near close enough.

Can never be close enough.

Mebuki never imagined that being unable to hug someone could hurt so much, foolishly thought that just being able to talk to her daughter would be enough-

It feels like her heart is breaking, with every sob that shakes her daughter's shoulders, with every moment she can't wrap Sakura in her arms and promise everything will be okay-

Sakura cries, and Mebuki cries with her, and wonders if anything has ever hurt quite so much as this thin sheet of glass that's cracked open just enough to let them touch and not an inch more.

It feels like mockery.

It's pretty obvious, the moment Mebuki-san lays eyes on her daughter. Natsu steps away, because he doesn't know much about mothers but he does understand love, and Fairy Tail's a family all its own - he's not quite fast enough, still gets shoved aside as she throws herself at the glass but he just moves with it, keeps backing up until he's clear and out of the way.

Somehow, the crying takes him by surprise. First Sakura-chan, and then Mebuki-san, and Natsu wants to ask why she asked him to come with her - he knows it's not his fault, knows that however this happened it was an accident, but the guilt is still overwhelming, he feels like he's drowning - but he can't, can't bring himself to interrupt, can't bring himself to even watch-

He backs up until he hits the porch rail as it curves around the cabin; Mebuki-san may have asked him to come along but it doesn't make him feel any less like an intruder, like he doesn't belong, doesn't deserve to be there, and all he can do is wait, because he doesn't know what to do-

He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, tries to call fire to his fingers just for a distraction, something to do other than listen to tears that feel too much like they're his fault - and realizes, with a deep-seated horror, that he can't feel his magic.

His panic surges nearly in tandem with the Harunos' emotions as he scrabbles internally, trying to reach for the magic that was so easy to call last time he was here-

And then he remembers.

Inoichi said it was weird, that I could still feel my own magic underneath Sakura-chan's, and everyone agreed that being able to use it in the mindscape was unnatural.

Did that door locking take it away?

He slides down, back against the rail as he settles into a sitting position, and concentrates. He doesn't do it very often, not much for sitting still and meditating, but he knows how, and even in a place as weird as someone else's mind the theory is still the same.

And it's not that the power is gone, he realizes. Eyes closed and thoughts turned entirely inwards, he can still feel it - but it was like being in Edolas, before Mystogan's pills gave them the ability to use their magic again, just deeper. Like some sort of barrier, keeping it locked away, but not stripped off entirely. Out in the physical world, with Sakura-chan's chakra everywhere, Natsu wonders if he'd even be able to feel the slightest flicker.

For the first time, Natsu thinks of that odd blood-and-bone path, with its mysterious woman, and wonders if it really did lead towards his own mindscape. But he's not a monster, or a murderer, and maybe his early childhood is fuzzy and indistinct before Igneel, but he's pretty sure there's nothing there worth a mindscape like that, all death and destruction and something so painful he can't quite put it into words.

Or maybe it's like that because I'm dead, because nothing exists over there but death, because that spell didn't work and I don't have a body to go back to-?

No!

I can't think like that! Everyone's fine! They have to be! A-and it wouldn't make sense for something like that to happen anyway! Souls don't just get thrown into other worlds if you die!

Natsu pulls himself out of his thoughts, away from that thin flicker of magic, and shakes off lingering memories of that path because there's no point speculating when he'll never know for sure. He turns his attention back toward the outside world - or as outside as it gets in a mindscape, anyway - Sakura-chan is hiccuping, she and her mother talking quietly. Natsu can hear every word, despite the low tones, and he deliberately tunes it out as best he can, giving them as much privacy as possible.

He realizes though, as he watches, carefully refusing to listen, that he'd never be able to live with himself if he went through with his plans to run away from Konoha. Inoichi-san has no idea how to help, is clearly teaching him things only on a distant off-chance that they'd be useful but with no real confidence, and Natsu's a lucky sort. He's sure he'd be able to find someone capable of getting him home if he looked, and yet…

Sakura-chan hiccups and sniffles, wiping at her nose with one hand, the other tightly laced around her mother's fingers, looking desperate and happy and heartbroken all at once, and Mebuki-san looks even worse, and Natsu realizes he can't. He can't leave, can't get up and walk away and look for solutions elsewhere, because he'd never be able to look in a mirror again without hating himself for doing that to Sakura-chan, to her family, taking away their ability to have even this much contact with each other-!

Natsu doesn't want to stay in Konoha, stuck training with a couple kids and an annoying teacher, feeling like he's doing nothing to get home, but for all that he doesn't want to, Natsu thinks…

Even if getting home takes so much longer because of it, at least Natsu could live with himself, doing it that way.

As Inoichi slowly makes his way up from the clearing, stopping by Mebuki to tell her that if Kizashi wants a chance to speak with Sakura-chan they'll have to leave now, Natsu knows for certain.

If he left Konoha now, he'd be betraying everything he stands for, as himself, and as a member of Fairy Tail.

Igneel is gone, somewhere Natsu can't find, and he doesn't know why, but he knows he won't do the same to Sakura-chan. Won't take her from her family, from her parents, not even if it meant he could get home tomorrow, guaranteed.

He thinks everyone at Fairy Tail would understand. They wouldn't hold it against him, even if he ends up really late because of it.

He'll find a way home. Natsu has no intention of giving up, and if Inoichi tries to he'll just punch the man in the face until he comes to his senses. But Natsu swears to himself, as Inoichi and Mebuki slip out of the mindscape, as Kizashi arrives, that no matter what, he won't take any route home that sacrifices Sakura-chan's family to do it. In any way.

She shouldn't have to say goodbye to her family just for him to get his back, and he'll find a way to manage that if he has to invent it himself! Even if he's not good at stuff like that - at thinking instead of fighting, he'll become good if he has to!

It's a promise he won't break, as undeniable as the phases of the moon and the changing of the seasons.

Natsu and Sakura will both get their families back, or they'll die trying.

And Natsu grins, ferocious and bright, because dark wizards and yami guilds and Zeref's own demons have tried to kill him, and none of them have succeeded. He's not about to let anything in this world manage it either.

Kizashi looks up, catches sight of him and waves him over, trying to rope him into conversation, pulls him into a one-armed hug as he smiles at his daughter and teases Natsu for his scary face, and Sakura laughs, still a little teary-eyed but more than happy to trade jokes with her father and-

It's weird, looking into the glass of the window, seeing both Sakura on the other side, and reflections of himself and Kizashi, side-by-side, superimposed over her.

Just three pink-haired people, laughing together, and Kizashi reaches over, ruffles his hair, and Natsu doesn't slap him away because somehow, looking both at the reflection and the girl beyond it, something in him hurts.

He doesn't need any family other than Igneel.

And yet.

For a moment, Natsu wishes he could remember them.

Sakura-chan, her father, her mother… him, even if he doesn't really belong. Somehow four feels right.

He wonders if he had a brother or a sister.

Wonders what they were like.

Wonders why he can't remember anything before Igneel.

…

He wonders if Igneel knew them, his family.

It hurts, just thinking about it, because if Igneel knew then he didn't say anything, but if he didn't then there's no one who could say where Natsu comes from, and Natsu's never cared before but. There's a family here, small and unusual and hurting, and in their own way they're still trying to make room for him.

For the first time in his life, Natsu wants to know.

Maybe, when he gets home… he can ask. Fairy Tail would help him look, they've always been willing to help look for Igneel after all, even when they weren't sure if they believed him about his father being a dragon.

Until then…

Inoichi sweeps up the steps to the porch a second time, gentle as he tells them it's time to go. Natsu flashes a grin to Sakura, throws his fingers up into a peace sign. "We can do this next week too! Promise!"

Sakura laughs, a little watery, but returns his grin with one of her own. "I-I'll hold you to that! I'll see you later, dad…"

Kizashi reaches out, hand colliding with the glass above her head and Natsu realizes he tried to ruffle her hair.

If it hurts him, it doesn't show on his face, he just shifts until his hand is pressed against the glass palm-first.

"See you, blossom." Kizashi smiles softly, then looks to nod at Inoichi.

Sakura-chan's mindscape vanishes with that tugging feeling he's beginning to grow used to, Inoichi guiding them out, back into the physical world. Natsu's got a lot of things to figure out, like how to get his magic back and how to get Sakura-chan's body into better shape since he's gonna be expected to fight eventually, if Team 7 ever gets around to working together, but Natsu's got a good feeling about it.

Things'll work out.

And he'll just keep moving forward, even if he can't see the end of the road, cause he knows he'll get there eventually.

Cause I'm Natsu Dragneel! And I'm not gonna give up! Not ever!