Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Luuucyyy” came the umpteenth whine from the stool at Lucy's side.

Lucy Heartfilia closed her eyes and took a deep breath, forcing herself to be strong and not give in the temptation to smack her partner's face through the wall. Who would have known Natsu Dragneel, the almighty Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail, also known as Salamander – because he was just that awesome, he said – could be so annoying and childish when he wanted to.

Oh yeah, she did. After all, she was the one who had to take the brunt of Natsu's mood swings more than any other, if you excluded Happy, and Happy didn't count on Lucy's book, not when the mischievous blue cat did nothing but act like a catalyst to Natsu's temper, amplifying to its maximum levels.

Right now, though, the blue Exceed was trying to flirt with Charle some tables away, and Natsu himself had just got back from one of the usual brawls that always filled the guildhall from morning to evening. Usually it left Natsu in a tired, but cheerful mood, and he'd know better than disturb her when she was trying so desperately to fight the bout of vicious writer block that had been plaguing her for days and force herself write at least one or two pages before giving in.

She managed to fill barely half of the first page.

“I said no,” she hissed, glaring viciously at the outrageously wide blank space. Natsu made a face she didn't see and slumped down on the stool until his head hit the table with a soft thud, his pink hair covering the written half of the page, refusing to move until Lucy actually punched him in the middle of his head to free her trapped notebook from beneath his cheek. He groaned in misery – as though she could actually hurt him, even if she wanted – and reluctantly pulled himself back to a proper sitting position. Lucy almost laughed when she caught sight of a splotch of ink smudged over his cheek.

“But it's been forever since we went on a job!!”

Lucy averted her eyes and closed her notebook with slow, careful movements, knowing well Natsu's eyes were following every move of hers, waiting for a moment of weakness he could pounce on. Lucy was very determined not to fall for his cheap tactics this time.

“Actually, you recently went on a mission with Gray, didn't you? It was an S-class too, so you really can't complain.” She inwardly pumped her fist in victory as Natsu's expression suddenly assumed a sick shade of green. He looked positively ready to vomit.

“Uuuugh, don't remind me, that was terrible.” he moaned weakly, clutching his stomach as he most likely remembered the time he was forced to spend alone with his rival, and the times he had to witness said rival stripping down to his boxers randomly, and even out of those maybe, if she had to make a guess from how he was pressing both his hands to his mouth, dry heaving.

Then again, to be fair Gray could very well say the same about Natsu and his motion sickness. There were some things that just didn't change, and Lucy was almost glad to see this particular issue would stay constant. She had been worried for her two friends' relationship after Natsu and Gray had gone for each other's throat with the intent to kill, but luckily she had no reason to be concerned. The two boys had just gone back to their usual bickering and fighting like nothing ever happened at all.

Sometimes, she wished she could just forget, put it past herself and move on, just as easily as they did, instead of dwelling on the past over and over again.

“I really didn't need to see that much of Gray.” Natsu went on, jerking Lucy's thoughts back from the edge of the dark abyss they were teetering on. Recently, she did that a lot.

“You've seen him naked countless times before.”

“It's not that I like it,” he retorted through clenched teeth. “Fucking stripper. I'm gonna have nightmares for weeks.”

Lucy snorted, her lips quirking up in a tired smile, and took a sip of the half-empty milkshake Mira had so kindly prepared for her while she was struggling with her story. The she-demon knew Lucy too well by now not to know what Lucy needed on the few occasions words failed her.

Natsu seemed to lighten up a little bit at the sound, as though he was glad his misfortune was at least proving to be useful to cheer Lucy up from the gloomy mood she'd been simmering in for so long. “So, you coming? Come on, just you and me and Happy, like the old times. I will also let you choose the mission. But get a good one!”

Lucy's amusement vanished suddenly, replaced by cold dread. Her free hand snaked down to her belt and curled tightly around her keyring. The smooth metal of her keys was soothing at the touch, and a relaxing warmth wormed its way from her fingertips to her chest when she stroked Leo's key, letting her know Loke was watching and reaching out to her. She kind of felt like a kid seeking her dad's hand when she was scared, but Lucy was glad to know that, no matter what, Loke would always be there for her should the need arise.

Still, there was nothing her beloved spirit could do to make her forget there were nine keys hanging to her belt.

“Natsu...”

“Come on!” he cut her off way too vehemently, and Lucy started, almost dropping her milkshake in the process. Natsu was now leaning forward, and they were suddenly so close she could feel his hot breath fanning across her lips, causing a shiver to run down her spine. His determined face, not unlike the one he sported during a tough battle that made his blood boil, didn't help with that. “We haven't taken a job together since before... since before...”

He darkened down suddenly and trailed off, letting his gaze fall onto a spot just a bit above Lucy's shoulder. Lucy didn't take long to make the math, and she too dropped her eyes back to her now closed notebook; it had been a long time now, and so many things happened after Fairy Tail reformed, but nobody had truly forgotten the massive blow Tartaros dealt to them.

Lucy sometimes saw Gray dig his nails across his forearm where his Demon Slayer magic had been engraved into his skin, leaving angry red trails in their wake that contrasted starkly against his otherwise pale complexion. She noticed Elfman sometimes sat alone at one of the darkest corners of the hall, gritting his teeth so hard Lucy was sure it must have been painful as thin, silvery strands of tears flowed down across his cheek, until Ever appeared out of nowhere and wordlessly intertwined their hands together. It was such a sweet and intimate moment, Lucy always felt like she was spying on something nobody else should be allowed to see.

Sure, Fairy Tail rose back from the ashes, even stronger than before, but that didn't mean they weren't still suffering, some more or less than others, from a wound that will probably never truly heal, not without leaving a scar. They had all lost so much that day.

Among the obvious pain and loss that the memory brought forth without fail, Lucy felt the bitter sting of betrayal piercing her chest like a small, but deadly, dart aimed at her heart as she recalled the day after Tartaros was defeated, when she woke up after a fitful sleep and suddenly she had nothing left. She remembered the laconic note Natsu had carelessly thrown together to tell her goodbye and left on her windowsill like an afterthought, just before Lucy found out she did not have a place to call home, to fit in, any more. That once again, she was alone, she had no family.

Lucy scowled and shook her head, wrong line of thought. She had decided to let go of the past when Fairy Tail came back, and wholeheartedly forgave Natsu and Happy for just dumping her for an year with just a handful of words scrawled on a torn page of a notebook that most likely Natsu had stolen from her at some point. She decided she would not go and plunge into that well again.

Now, if only her subconscious could listen and stop flashing her with nightmares – memories – of Aquarius and Natsu suddenly vanishing from her life, cruelly pointing out how weak she was, (she knew very well, she didn't need to be told) that would be sweet.

She hadn't taken a serious job since she lost Aquarius, even after the war with Alvarez was solved. It just... didn't feel right, to use the spirit's Water Magic without the key needed to summon her into the human world. She didn't like to abuse of a power she didn't earn on her own right. Not to mention Natsu and the others would undoubtedly notice the absence of the temperamental mermaid, and would ask questions about it. Lucy would rather die than let her friends know she had let her oldest, most trusted ally – friend? – be sacrificed for their sake. A real Fairy Tail member would have never stooped so low, would have fought tooth and nails to find a way and protect their family without letting anyone die.

Lucy was already beating herself up enough on her own every day, every night. She didn't think she'd survive if she saw Natsu regard her with the same disappoint and disgust she was used to look at herself on a regular basis.

She couldn't tell him.

Suddenly a warm, calloused hand enveloped her own, forcing her iron-tight grip on her keys to loosen enough to let blood flow freely back to the tingling tips of her fingers. She realized she had been spacing out, trapped within her thoughts once more, and had started shivering at some point, her breath coming out in quick and shallow puffs.

“Lucy, are you okay? You're quite pale. Did you eat something strange?”

With some effort Lucy lifted her head and met Natsu's eyes again, eyes that were wide as saucers and mildly worried by Lucy's very uncharacteristic reaction. He was still grasping her hand, tight but gentle, and he looked ready to scoop her up in his arms and run to Wendy so she could check on Lucy for eventual injuries or sickness.

She forced herself to smile, even though she could feel the corner of her mouth twitch and sting at the strain her muscles were begrudgingly subjected to. She just hoped it would be enough to fool Natsu and his unfairly sharp eyes. She carefully disentangled herself from his grasp and stood up, readjusting her skirt at her hips to stall and breathe.

She couldn't go on like this. She had to move on, and she did miss traveling around with Natsu, looking for adventures, and she realized he wasn't going to give up in any case until he had his way. It was better for everyone to just get this over with.

“Yeah!” she said too loudly, too cheerily. “Just thinking a bit. You know what, you're right, it's been too long. You said I can pick whatever I want, didn't you?”

She grinned maliciously and winked at the Dragon Slayer before she turned on her heels, giving her back to Natsu so he couldn't see the panic painted on her face as she crossed the hall and reached the quest board, where she found Mira busy pinning the newest requests that had come to the guild that morning. Gray and Juvia were there too, inspecting the board attentively and muttering to each other, occasionally pointing at a particular paper that caught their interest. All three turned when they heard her approaching, and Lucy waved in greeting.

“Hey, feel ready to go out on missions again?” Mira asked happily. Of course she, of all people, noticed the long hiatus Lucy took from any kind of serious mage work, she had been through the same thing as well.

Lucy opened her mouth to reply, but she was beaten to it by Natsu, who had quickly caught up to her and slung his arm across her shoulders, pressing her flush against his side, and pumped his fist in the air excitedly with his free arm. Lucy felt a blush creep up and dust her cheeks at the close distance, but the one thousand watt smile he flashed to her managed to melt her embarrassment and hesitation. Lucy found herself smiling back.

“Hell yeah!!” he roared, startling Levy nearby to the point of making her drop her drink and thus earning himself a glare that promised a long and painful death from Gajeel, glare that was pointedly ignored. “We're back on the road and ready to kick major ass! Ain't that right, Luce?”

Lucy laughed despite herself. “Of course.”

“Oooh, you're going together?” Lucy didn't like the dangerous gleam that suddenly lit up the beautiful barmaid's eyes, nor the twin, knowing smirks dancing across Juvia and Gray's lips, but she steeled herself and pretended not to notice.

“Yeah,” she confirmed, tucking a stray lock of hair back behind her ear. “I'm picking the mission this time.”

Gray's smirk grew even wider and dangerously amused. “I really don't envy you, Lucy. It must be no easy feat to find something even a flame-brained idiot like him can do.”

Natsu, predictably enough, snapped at the obvious taunt and accidentally confirmed it (although Lucy would not be so heartless to actually agree with Gray openly like that. She would never hear the end of Natsu's whining if she did). He released Lucy from his hold – Lucy knowingly stepped aside before any stray spark could reach her, talk about getting caught in the crossfire – and his fist tightened, a blazing flame engulfing his fingers as he scowled at Gray, leaned forward and pressed his forehead against Gray's, threateningly.

“Oi, snowflake, you wanna go at it?”

To his credit, Gray looked utterly unfazed and pushed back. “Whenever you want, firefly.”

“Oooh, this is so romantic,” Mira gushed at Lucy, royally ignoring the fistfight taking place just a few feet away. They had grown so used to it, nobody took it seriously anymore. “I'll help you find the perfect mission for the two of you. Let's see if there is something that involves love charms or you infiltrating a brothel incognito or...”

“Mira!!” Lucy spluttered indignantly at the older woman's not so subtle suggestion, her face now flushed of a vibrant red that would have put Erza's hair to shame. Even Juvia blushed furiously and covered her mouth with her hand, looking halfway between intrigued and scandalized as she muttered “Lucy, so bold.” at her expense. (Lucy still saw her eyes shifting to her side, just in time to witness Gray as he slipped out of his pants with practiced ease. The pot calling the kettle black at its finest.)

“No, it's... it's not like that!” Lucy defended herself, wishing the fight with Gray kept Natsu interested enough to not pay attention to what the girls were saying. “For all the gods' sake, Happy is coming along as well, so, really, it's not what you think! It's just a way to slip back to the old habits. Natsu won't leave me alone about it until I agree.”

Mira's shipping side retreated a little bit, obviously not happy that her two favorite victims were not going to spend many nights alone in a room of a love hotel any time soon, and her cheek puffed in the cutest pout Lucy had ever seen, but soon enough she recovered enough to flash Lucy a smile of sisterly affection.

“I guess that's Natsu for you.” she agreed lightheartedly, and then tilted her head to point at Juvia, who had been watching closely the battle between the two boys. Or rather, how close Gray was to lose even his boxers. “Juvia and Gray are making progress too. He finally agreed to go on a mission with her alone. They were browsing for something suitable before you appeared.”

“Oooh,” Lucy clasped her hands together tightly above her mouth at the piece of juicy gossip Mira was sharing with her. “That's why they were looking like a married couple earlier. That's great news Juvia!”

Juvia was startled back into the conversation and blushed furiously, lowering her head and twisting her hands nervously above her stomach, but didn't bother to hide the tiny, genuinely happy smile gracing her pale lips. Lucy beamed at the sight of her friend finally being acknowledged and happy.

“Yes, Juvia is very happy. It's very generous of Gray-sama to agree on accompanying Juvia on her quest.”

“Did you guys already choose what to do?” Lucy inquired. Juvia carefully pried a paper away from the board and handed it to Lucy.

“Juvia was intrigued by this request. However, she will do what Gray-sama chooses to do.”

“Juvia, don't put him before your desires,” Mira lightly scolded Juvia for her lack of self-assertion. “You competed for the S-class exam as well as he did, your input matters. Communication and equality are the key for an healthy relationship.”

Lucy laughed at Mira's sudden counseling session while Juvia kept sputtering that Gray-sama's wishes were her wishes as well, and finally read the note in her hand. It was a high-ranking mission, a request from the captain of a freight stationed at Hargeon asking for protection from a pirate guild that had been plaguing the seas between Hargeon and the town of Lilium for quite some time. She saw the hefty sum offered in reward and the specific demand for a water-user to be part of the escorting group. Lucy whistled, it seemed like Juvia and Gray had the job cut out for them this time around, they would make an unbeatable team in a naval battle.

She was about to give the paper back and praise Juvia for her eye and luck when she turned it around and read the detailed description of the gang they were supposed to face. It was known the captain and guild master, a man that went by the name of Aaron, was a dreadful and merciless summoning wizard able to call forth horrible monsters to maim his chosen victims, and recently had acquired a creature able to create massive tidal waves out of nowhere to sweep the ships out of their course and send them right into their trap.

Lucy felt herself freeze on the spot as she stared at the note in her hands. It couldn't be. There was no way. Her mind flew to the notebook she kept hidden into a secret compartment in her desk, with her personal journal, on which she had been meticulously taking notes of suspicious activities and abnormal tidal waves over the time she spent as a reporter, just in case they could somehow be related to Aquarius' key, hoping against all reason that they were.

However, ever since Natsu had come back into her life with the grace of a firework exploding in her face, she had stopped taking notice of such news, and the existence of this guild had slipped completely past her radar. How long had these guys been around? Could it be this Aaron came across Aquarius' key after it reformed? The modus operandi fit hers to a T.

Suddenly she was assaulted by a wave of nausea. If that was true, it had been ultimately her fault if those ships had been attacked and Fiore's economy had suffered so much at the hands of these pirates. If only she never lost Aquarius, the seas would probably still be as safe as they had always been now. If she had been stronger...

She had to know.

“Lucy?”

She remembered she was not alone, and upon lifting her eyes she was met by four equally concerned stares pointed right at her. Apparently Gray and Natsu had long ceased their usual display of friendly hostility and were waiting for her to say something, while Mira was worried, as though she was expecting Lucy to fall unconscious at any given moment.

Then she met Juvia's gaze, and she saw a weird mixture of confusion and understanding, and her blood froze in her veins.

She knows.

For the second time that day, she forced herself to smile, but this time it came out too weak and shaken to be ignored by the other four. She saw them stiffen, ready to catch her if she fainted, which was a scenario she didn't feel confident enough to completely exclude. She was feeling positively sick.

“Uh, I'm... I'm fine,” she blatantly lied knowing nobody believed her in the slightest. “Just... uh...”

She really didn't know how to ask Juvia if Lucy could do a little research at home before she and Gray formally accepted the mission and left for Hargeon, especially with Gray and Natsu this close and attentive to what she was saying. She didn't want them to know what happened with Aquarius, she was ready to bring that secret down to the grave with her if she had to.

However, Juvia leveled a serious, almost solemn look on her, one of those stares that left Lucy wonder if the woman could read into people's mind. She stretched her arm and closed her hand over Lucy's, forcing her to grasp the paper tight between her fingers.

“Even though Juvia doesn't like when Lucy leers at Gray-sama,” she said, and Gray groaned softly, sliding a hand over his face. Natsu pouted and glared at the ice-mage, as though it was his fault Juvia was spouting such obvious non-sense. “Lucy is Juvia's friend, and Juvia wishes her friend to find what she's looking for. Lucy is free to take up the mission instead if she thinks it will help her feel better.”

Lucy's eyes widened in panic at hearing Juvia's words, and she noticed Mira, Gray and Natsu (the latter was still holding the ice mage for the collar of his shirt, likely trying to choke him to death as quietly as possible, and Gray was returning the favor in kind) were looking from Juvia to Lucy and viceversa, confused by Juvia's strange speech and by the unusual display of friendliness between the two women.

Lucy clutched the request at her chest, her mind spinning at one hundred miles per hour. How much did Juvia know of Aquarius? And how did she come to know in the first place? A mountain of questions were tumbling over each other in her mind, drowning everything else, like a waterfall crashing loudly on a bed of pointy rocks underneath, deadly and unstoppable.

Still, even if tears were prickling her eyes and her head was swimming, barely fighting back a full-fledged panic attack, she felt a tiny, flickering spark of hope ignite in her heart. Maybe this was the chance she was waiting for, the chance to finally make it right again. She couldn't let it slip through her fingers. So she smiled.

“Thank you, Juvia.”

Then she burst into a mad dash to the guild door, pretending not to hear her friends calling her back.

Chapter Text

Natsu was busy trading blows with the ice prick when Lucy's happy squeal at something Mira was saying reached his ears, a sound he hadn't heard in a long time, and effectively pierced through his focus, distracting him enough for said ice prick to slam his fist squarely on Natsu's nose and send him flying five feet back. He crashed to the ground with a pained grunt.

“How about you pay attention instead of flirting?”

Natsu felt his face grow hot – a different, strangely uncomfortable kind of hot than the one he was used to deal with – and pulled himself back to his feet, glowering at Gray, who smirked back and narrowly avoided Natsu's fast retaliation. The jackass dared to wink smugly as his shirt flew off. Just to piss him off even further.

“Seriously, dude, you're so head over heels over Lucy, it's not even funny anymore. It's just painful to watch.”

“Shut the hell up.” Natsu hissed angrily, and this time he felt the pleasant vibration of his knuckles connecting with Gray's midriff, forcibly punching the air out of his lungs. Gray fell back with a low “oof”, but unfortunately the smirk stayed on, making Natsu glower even deeper.

As much a Natsu hated – no, despised. Like, 'I'd ride a train for three hours straight rather than to admit it' levels of despise – to agree with Gray on any matter, he also knew the ice mage was horribly right. Ever since he'd seen her die at the hands of the future Rogue he'd been wound up around her, even going as far as breaking in her room every single day to make sure she really was okay. Even now, after so much time, he could still see her lying there in a puddle of crimson blood that poured and poured from the horrible gaping hole in the middle of her chest, motionless and deadly pale, tragically beautiful even in death. It was a picture that had seared itself on the forefront of his mind, and nothing he did would probably ever manage to erase it.

Then Tartaros struck, and things only got worse.

The pain of losing Igneel right in front of Natsu's eyes as he stood there, watching helpless as Acnologia tore Igneel apart in a single blow, had been overwhelming like few thing Natsu ever experienced. It was like witnessing Lucy dying all over again, but possibly even worse. His own powerlessness gnawed at him from inside, consuming him, burning through him like the last spell Igneel had bestowed upon him with his final breath was seared into his arm.

Igneel was the strongest person – did he count as a person, even if he was a dragon? If Happy did, Natsu didn't see why not – Natsu had ever known, and his family just like Fairy Tail was. If Igneel lost to Acnologia that badly, he couldn't imagine what would happen to his guildmates if they ever happened to face him again. He had to keep them safe; it was his duty, his responsibility as a Dragon Slayer, a task that Igneel had entrusted him to complete. He had to get better in order to protect them all – Happy, Lucy, Erza, Gray, everyone – from the unavoidable danger that would come up in the future.

When the tears had dried up and the throbbing pain subsided enough for Natsu to actually think, he had already reached a conclusion. He had to go.

He didn't want to leave, and knew it would bring pain to his comrades, but it was something he had to do on his own. He barely managed to jot down a few words to leave at Lucy's place, so she wouldn't panic when she found him gone at the guild and then at his house, once she got tired of waiting and came actively looking for him there with the others. It had taken him a while and several crumpled sheets of paper before he came up with something that wasn't too sappy or too depressing. He needed time for himself, but that didn't mean he didn't plan to come back as soon as he worked his shit out.

Still, when Natsu came back, he was dismayed to find a rift had opened between them, wide and deep, a rift he didn't know how to cross. Even after they brought back Fairy Tail he could still feel something was different: Lucy's smile was too careful, guarded, didn't reach her eyes. She was a skilled actress when she put her mind to it and she often managed to fool most of their friends, but he could tell she wasn't glowing anymore with unbridled joy and energy, the ones that made her so dear to many of the guild members in such a short time, that made her so Lucy.

Even now, with all that happened afterward, there were still moments when he felt her distant, lost to him even when she was right by his side, where she was supposed to be.

It was making him crazy. And Gray calling him out so blatantly over his affections to his partner was just like rubbing salt on the wound.

Gray sidestepped Natsu's blazing axe-kick and deftly counterattacked with a icy punch that Natsu had to somersault away to dodge.

“At least I eventually grew the balls to address what I was feeling at some point.” Gray sneered, throwing a sidelong glance to the three giggling women standing by the board. Juvia's face was so red Natsu wouldn't have been too surprised if she just evaporated altogether, and if he squinted hard enough he could almost see thin trails of steam wafting from her ears. But more importantly, Natsu's attention was snatched away by the beaming smile on Lucy's face, a sight that had become so rare nowadays, he treasured every moment he could afford to just watch it and let its warmth fill his whole being in a way only Igneel had ever been able to do.

So, maybe the middle of a brawl with the Ice Princess was not the best moment to let his concentration waver and his mind wander off to beautiful blonde girls he might or might not have a crush on, because soon enough he was again slammed hard on the floor, and Gray pinned him down in a tight choke-hold. He gritted his teeth and somehow struggled his way out of the other man's grasp, but not before kneeling Gray right into his stomach. The pained “You bastard-” that followed was like music to Natsu's ears.

Natsu grinned wildly and stood up, ready to finally get his turn to tease Gray about how he was so making heart-eyes every time Juvia was nearby – not entirely true; Gray hadn't still sunken that low like his Edolas version had, but it was indeed true his eyes would drift to the water mage every so often, when he thought nobody else was looking – but then a different, acrid smell hit his nose, a smell that was terribly familiar and that should never belong in the middle of the guild, while everyone was laughing and chatting happily one with another.

Fear. Lucy's fear, to be precise. One of the smells he hated the most in the whole world. His victorious smirk died immediately like a candlelight being suddenly blown off, earning himself a confused look by Gray on the floor as soon as he caught on Natsu's sudden change of attitude. As Gray quickly rose to his feet and pulled his discarded clothes on again, Natsu turned sharply and went back to the girls.

He felt like Gildarts just punched him in the gut when he saw Lucy staring wide-eyed at the job note she was holding, clutching tightly at the paper like a lifeline. Something was off, horribly so. Mira and Juvia exchanged a worried look that Natsu's keen eyes didn't miss.

He hurried back to the three women, Gray hot on his trails. “Lucy?”

His call effectively snapped her from her frenzied reverie, and she looked back at her audience now closely huddled around her. She had the look of a trapped animal, and Natsu had to fight back the impulse to close the distance and envelop her in a tight hug. He had the feeling she would lose it if he breached her personal space right now, so he took a step back, gave her space to breathe. He was relieved to see the others catching on quickly and mirroring his gesture, although everyone of them was ready to react immediately in case Lucy fainted or snapped.

Only Juvia actually got closer, and pressed the accursed piece of paper tighter in Lucy's hand, saying something about Lucy's need to find something that Natsu didn't understand. Did Lucy lose something? When did that happen? And most importantly, why did Juvia know about it, when Natsu didn't?

Natsu scowled and glared at Juvia, not liking the bitter taste of jealousy on his tongue when Lucy actually relaxed a little bit at what Juvia was saying. Since when the two women were so close?

He really should have expected it when Lucy sprinted away, running fast towards the guilds doors and pushing them open, but he was still startled just as much as Gray and Mira were, and instinctively joined their chorus of “Lucy! Where are you going?” even though he knew it was useless. He knew Lucy too well to think just a call would be enough to stop her from doing whatever she was so set on doing. The only option was to catch up with her.

“Just what is up with her all of a sudden?” Gray wondered out loud, and then jumped out of his skin when Natsu suddenly bolted after her. “Oi, flame-brain, the heck?!?”

But Natsu wasn't listening. He whistled loudly as he made his way out of the guild doors, and onto the cobblestone road that led to the core of the town. A few moments later, Happy was at his side, flying at full speed to keep up with Natsu's mad dash.

“Natsu, what is going on? Why are you chasing Lucy?”

“I don't know, buddy,” Natsu replied without ever losing sight of the blonde head that was growing nearer and nearer as he kept gaining ground on her. “Something must be wrong with Lucy, though. She's scared, and I don't know why.”

That was enough for the Exceed to forget his displeasure at being forced to stop his daily attempts to woo Charle. His big, round eyes hardened in concern and went back to the other running figure in front of them without another word. It was endearing to see how his little buddy was actually very close to Lucy despite all the time he spent teasing her (to be fair, Lucy was also Natsu's favorite target. They couldn't help it, her reactions were priceless, and if they ended up with a few painful bumps on their heads or a black eye, it was still worth it).

Then again, Happy was the one that cried and voiced everyone's thoughts back when the Lucy from the future was about to exhale her last breath.

”No matter what world you are from... Lucy is Lucy!! Of course I am sad!!”

Natsu gritted his teeth, allowing the sting to distract him from memories he really didn't want to go through again. He and Happy kept following her through alleys and streets, occasionally bumping into people who did nothing wrong but being on the way and thus earning himself a few insults that he promptly forgot all about, but he always made sure to leave a good six feet of distance between them. If he really wanted, he knew he could easily catch up to her, even surpass her fairly easily, but again his instincts were telling him to keep his distance, not to push too hard, unless he wanted her to break for good.

He was used to a strong Lucy, a proud woman and mage in her own right, unwavering and unbreakable no matter how hard of a beating she took, always ready to stand back up and keep fighting. He didn't know how to deal with a fragile Lucy.

He went with his gut feeling and kept his distance, close enough for her to know he still was right behind her, but far enough to give her the privacy she needed.

“Lucy!!”

Again, the girl didn't heed his call; she hardly slowed down as she took a sharp turn and deftly opened the door to her flat-block on Strawberry Street; Natsu slipped his foot in the crack between the door and frame before it could slam closed after her. If it hurt, the pain didn't register with his brain.

“Lucy, wait up!”

He shot himself up the stairs, right after Happy, who had directly flown up to Lucy's floor and was following the girl inside her apartment by the time Natsu reached her door, panting ever so slightly. Lucy sure knew how to get a guy – that was not a Dragon Slayer, or a trained wizard in general – worn out and wheezing.

“Lucy, goddamnit, can you please stop already?”

Lucy barely registered her two pursuers had finally reached her in the safety of her home. Her head was spinning, her thoughts tumbling one after another, muddled and confused. She dashed to her room, blasting her door open without caring if the impact of the knob against the wall chipped off the paint. She opened her closet with the same recklessness and didn't pay any mind as her clothes fell and pooled at her feet in a rumpled heap in her quest to reach the topmost shelf, where she had placed her duffel bag.

She focused on the task as hand, trying to rein in her rampaging thoughts and emotions and finally get a grip. She picked up a dark green sleeveless top and a pair of fitting denim short from the mess on the floor and carelessly slapped them both into the open bag, instead of carefully folding them and placing them down like she usually would have done.

Unseen by her, Natsu and Happy exchanged dumbfounded looks as her toiletries purse was inflicted the same ungrateful treatment. This was not the Lucy they knew, who bravely faced the absolute mess the two boys' home regularly reduced to on a monthly base. As much fun a less order-maniac Lucy could be, it still did nothing to soothe their worries. If anything, it caused them to increase ten fold.

So they stared, horrified, as Lucy darted from place to place to collect everything she needed for the mission, wrecking havoc in her own home in her frenzy.

Finally, she slowed down and went to the desk in the bedroom. With all the delicacy she hadn't displayed earlier, she carefully pried open a thin drawer Natsu would have never guessed was there and picked up a thick, leather-bound notebook. It was fairly anonymous looking: the cover was dark, plain, and it was closed on the side by an elastic band that brought the signs of intense usage. If it wasn't for the band, Natsu was sure the thing would explode open, how stuffed with additional papers and clips it was.

Suspicious, Natsu thought. He made a mental note to go and sneak a peek at the contents of the mysterious notebook at the first chance he got.

Wordlessly, Lucy laid it down over the mess within her bag, digging lightly through her clothes to make sure it would stay safe even during a particularly bumpy trip. And then, finally, she collapsed on her knees and took a deep, shaking breath that was probably supposed to be calming, but that only succeeded to further aggravate Natsu, who still heard her heart pumping wildly against her ribcage, who still saw the fine shivers wracking her lean body.

Lucy was supposed to be scary, not scared. He swore that whatever was terrifying Lucy to these extents was going to pay dearly.

“Okay,” she said with the weakest smile Natsu had ever seen her pulling off. “I can do this.”

Only then she looked at her friends and her eyes widened almost comically, as though she wasn't expecting them to still be loitering around her house. Her smile died off when she caught sight of Natsu's grim face, lips pulled in a straight line and eyebrows scrunched together. At his side, Happy was hovering awkwardly just above Natsu's shoulder, and kept looking between his two human friends, worried like Lucy rarely saw him be.

Without warning, Natsu crossed the distance and in a few, determined strides he plopped himself onto her bed, sitting right at the edge of the mattress and leaning slightly forward so he could stare down at her easily.

“Natsu?” Lucy called quietly, unable to completely stamp out a light shiver from her tone. It was rare to see him getting this serious outside of a decisive battle that he just couldn't lose, when he was about to somehow manage to turn the tables on the opponent and claim victory. It was like he was trying to burn a hole in her skull with the force of his eyes alone.

Ironically enough, despite his magic, Lucy found that particular look of his positively blood chilling.

“What has you so terrified?”

His voice came out uncharacteristically deep, gravelly, not unlike a dragon's whose den was trespassed without its permission. But most of all, demanding. She barely suppressed another shiver and blinked owlishly as her brain started working again.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” he all but growled through clenched teeth, shaking his head impatiently. “There's obviously something scaring you, Luce, and I don't like it one bit. Tell me what's wrong.”

Lucy felt her pulse quickening she racked her brain for an excuse, even though she knew she would have a hard time to actually have him believe her. Natsu was as dense on some things – like what romance meant at all – as he was extraordinarily perceptive on others. It was just her luck that his friends' well-being fell into the second category

“There's nothing wrong with me, silly,” she laughed weakly, and Natsu's eyes narrowed to slits. She twisted a stray lock of hair between her fingers, all too aware of the almost creepy attention Natsu followed her every movement. “It's just the idea of facing off against a bunch of powerful criminals-”

“Lies,” he hissed. Natsu leaned forward, kneeling on the floor right in front of her, so close that to keep eye-contact she almost went cross-eyed. He kept staring at her, focused on her as though he could physically see what was going on in her mind if he was close enough. A warm, calloused hand wrapped itself around her freezing one, oddly delicate. “I know you're lying, and there's just no way it's simply those sea hoodlums to get you so wound up, so it must be something else.”

His grip tightened, but not to the point to actually cause her any pain. Of course not, because Natsu never allowed himself to hurt his beloved his friends, not even by accident.

Except when he did.

“I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong!” Natsu felt his anger melt away in fiery concern and frustration. He hadn't meant to raise his voice, but desperation was getting the better of him at an alarming rate. It always did when Lucy was involved.

He was not above imploring her to confide in him her woes, and Lucy knew it. He just genuinely wanted to help out a troubled friend, and if said helping somehow brought forth a few Fire Dragon's Roars and burning someone to a crisp, that was only welcome for Natsu's standards.

She inhaled deeply, trying to ignore the soothing circles Natsu's fingers were gently rubbing on the back of her hand. Needless to say, she was failing majestically at that.

For a crazy second, she considered spilling the beans to him. Everything that transpired with Tartaros, Aquarius, how she felt when he just up and disappeared from her life like he didn't care, the bottomless despair she plunged into when she turned away from Gray and made to address Natsu, but Natsu was nowhere to be seen. Gone. Again. Away from her, away from Earthland.

No. She couldn't do this. She would not saddle him with this burden. It was her failure, her sin, and hers alone.

With an inner strength she didn't know she possessed, Lucy gently pried away her hand out of his grasp. She didn't see the look of pained bewilderment flickering through Natsu's features for the briefest moment. She had never outright rejected him before.

“I'm sorry,” she whispered, avoiding his searching eyes with all her might, “I... can't.”

She stood up and took a few steps away from Natsu, looking everywhere but at the crumpled form of her dear friend still kneeling on the floor. She hugged herself tightly, as if she could somehow physically force herself not to shatter despite the cracks running across her hearts, threatening to deepen and break at any given moment. She walked to her window, where she had often seen Natsu perched shamelessly on the windowsill, waving and smiling at her as though it was completely normal to break into someone's apartment by their bedroom window. She opened with a swift movement and leaned on the windowsill, welcoming the chilly breeze threading through her hair, running through her skin, chasing away what was left of the loving warmth Natsu had left on her, like a portable embrace.

She took a breath to calm down before she felt ready to turn back, and when she did her heart constricted painfully in her chest as soon as she was met by two identical hurt faces gaping at her incredulously, as though they were looking at someone else – someone that wasn't one of their dearest friends, no matter how they looked alike.

Natsu's hand was still resting on his lap, where she had dropped it. It was almost painful to watch.

“Lucy,” Happy called out for her shyly once he perched himself on her bed, where Natsu was earlier. He looked no less hurt and confused than Natsu. “Why won't you talk to us? Don't you trust us?” His voice trembled so much, Lucy was sure he was barely holding back tears. She felt another stab of guilt running down her spine, and her own eyes were suddenly stinging at the corners. But she held them in by force, her point was moot if she broke down in front of them.

“It's... not that. I just...” she hesitated, though there was no way to sweeten the pill. “I need to do this on my own.”

“No you don't! You don't have to carry it all on your own!!” Finally Happy lost it, tears streaming down his face and drawing dark lines across his cheeks where the water caused the soft, blue fur to clump together and adhere to the tender skin beneath. Lucy was suddenly reminded of how much she actually hated to see Happy cry his big, round eyes out. She bit her lower lip, hard, so hard she felt the skin break and the coppery taste of blood dance on the tip of her tongue, but she managed to refrain from scooping up the Exceed in her arms and hugging him tightly while whispering comforting words in his ear.

Natsu twitched and grimaced seemingly out of nowhere, before she remembered how sensitive his nose was. No doubt he smelled her blood.

“We are your friends! You can rely on us!! Right, Natsu? Tell her!”

Natsu couldn't bring himself to answer Happy's desperate call for help. His mind was still swimming, no, drowning, and the lack of Lucy's warmth, so soothing, was sending freezing ripples from his empty hand throughout his whole body. He was shivering. It was almost laughable: Natsu Dragneel, the Fire Dragon Slayer, was actually feeling cold. He now understood why Lucy had sought out Horologium for shelter against the biting cold, back on mount Hakobe, all those years ago.

Feeling cold sucked big time.

“Is this about what Juvia was saying at the guild?” he found himself asking with a calmness he wasn't feeling. His mind was slowly moving again, recalling the very weird conversation between the two women. Natsu had chalked it up to girls being girls, but now he was positive Juvia knew something he didn't about Lucy, something that apparently caused Lucy a big deal of pain and suffering that she couldn't bring herself to share with him or anybody else, and it definitely didn't sit right with him.

Why? Just why had Lucy chosen to confide in Juvia rather than him? He was her best friend, her partner!

He felt the compelling urge to scream in frustration and set something on fire to vent his jumbled feelings out of his system. Why did everything need to be so complicated?! Fucking hell, the three of them had been through hell and back a ton of times, they shared everything: joy, pain, tears, anger. They always had each other's back, and he would readily trust Lucy with his own life with no hesitation.

So why? Why wasn't she trusting him like he trusted her?

He couldn't help but feel the nasty sting of betrayal, and soon enough he was trembling, fighting the need to reach out for her and grab her by the shoulders, demanding an answer.

Lucy's arms tightened even further around herself, and Natsu wished foolishly it was his arms holding her close now, safe and warm. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she nodded stiffly, and Natsu hands balled into fists.

“Then you can tell us too! We want to help you, Lucy!!” He instead was all but begging her again. He stood up as well, feeling lightheaded and dizzy as though he had just dismounted from a train after a twelve hours long trip. He wondered if Lucy knew just how much influence she held over him, how he hung from her lips, how her smallest gesture – her smile that put the sun to shame, her tears, her laughter – affected him so much, he felt like he would burst on fire.

How he would start a brawl just to get her out of his head only to be sent flying by some jackass because he got distracted when he caught sight of her laughing her heart off with Levy, Mira and Lisanna.

He even got knocked away by Elfman, once. Elfman. If that wasn't bad enough, he didn't know what was.

Lucy grimaced and shook her head, her golden hair catching the light filtering through the window and drawing ripples of pure sunlight in the air. “I didn't-” but then held herself off, only pouring fuel on Natsu's burning frustration.

Silence suddenly fell over the room, uncomfortable and stifling, which was definitely a first in both mages' memory. Lucy never felt uneasy around Natsu and Happy, even when they were teasing her or cracking a joke at her expense. She might act a bit peeved at first, but then she always melted in laughter along with them. And even on the few occasions the two friends actually happened to be quiet the silence was always pleasant, companionable, reassuring.

For the first time in all the time Lucy had known them, she truly wished they would leave.

She felt horrible just thinking about it, they didn't deserve the silent treatment she was inflicting on them, but she had promised herself she'd keep this secret of hers until solved the problem with her own strength, and Lucy was not one to go back on her word.

“I just don't get it,” Natsu finally broke the silence and sat back on her bed, beside Happy; he raised a hand and roughly passed it through his wild mop of spiky hair, making the pale locks even messier and more tousled than what they already were on their own. He pulled slightly at his hair, a gesture Lucy had long learned to associate to Natsu being very frustrated and confused. It pained her to see him like this. “We're partners. We're supposed to share everything. Let us carry your pain with you!”

Now, Lucy wasn't perhaps the strongest mage in the world, or even in the guild, and she was well aware of it, but neither she did believe she was the stupidest. Unlike Natsu, who had a one-track mind and just didn't see anything that strayed far away from his goal – not because he was dumb, but simply because he couldn't force himself to care enough – Lucy tended to absorb and process a wide plethora of events happening around her at the same time. She could forgive past mishaps, but she hardly could forget.

So she finally snapped.

“It's not like you cared much about that whole 'share your pain' thing when you up and left for your sabbatical.”

Lucy cursed herself at length when she saw Natsu going impossibly still, his eyes wide and his mouth agape as though she had just physically hit him and dealt him a fatal wound. She worried her lip again between her teeth; she had forced down the bitterness and dark thoughts that had plagued her mind during that time for so long, since she never wished to start a stupid blaming war with her best friend, to whom she owed so much. But now, under Natsu's persistent prodding, her walls were finally cracking and she knew there was nothing she could do to keep the words from flowing out of her mouth like a flooding river breaking from its banks, laying death and destruction upon everything the waves came in touch with.

“Lucy...” Happy whispered, teary-eyed, but it wasn't enough to prevent the floodgates from opening.

“You knew I was right there,”She pressed on, gritting her teeth and clutching tightly on her own arms. If there was something she had quickly learned during her time at Fairy Tail was to always make use of the opponent's fleeting moments of surprise, when their guard was down, and never let up. Well, nobody ever said it couldn't apply to other kinds of fights. “You knew I would always be at your side if you ever needed me. I would always help you carry your burden. I would have done anything to relieve your pain.”

I sacrificed my oldest friend for you.

She unfolded her arms and let her hands fall at her sides, clenching and releasing rhythmically in a quite futile attempt to regain at least part of her composure. Not even a deep breath helped in the slightest for that matter.

Natsu was absolutely floored; his eyes were so wide they were bulging out of their sockets, and his lips were still parted, unsure of what to say. Normally, Lucy would have deemed it a comical sight – normally, Lucy would have probably felt a bit proud. It wasn't everyday she managed to render Natsu that speechless. Unfortunately, she was too busy fighting back the nauseous feeling that assaulted her stomach and the tears welling up in her eyes to rejoice in her victory.

“But no, you just dropped me, everyone, and went your way. Without even saying goodbye.”

That remark finally seemed to push past the molasses-like substance Natsu's brain had seemingly turned into and kicked Natsu out of his stupor. Lucy saw the familiar flames dancing wildly in his dark, dark eyes. His lips stretched over bared, pointy teeth in a feral snarl. She had seen that face more times than she could count, but never aimed at her. She had to admit it was pretty terrifying.

Except it only served to call forth more of her own anger, which reared up like a massive tidal wave at the taunt, high and impossible to hold back.

“You know as well as I do I had to go. I had no fucking choice on the matter.” Natsu growled back, the temperature of the room rising of a few degrees with every word he spat out. He was riled up just as she was now. Good.

It sent her blood boiling.

“I saw my father die in front of my eyes after I spent more than half of my life searching for him without any success. Mercilessly skewered by another dragon. What was I supposed to do?!”

He stood up again. It was Natsu's turn to shake with barely restrained anger now. He had trusted Lucy to understand his reasoning out of everyone else at the guild, even more than people like Gray or Erza, who had known him since childhood. He had trusted Lucy's intelligence and enormous heart to know what Natsu was going through at the time, and to trust him in kind.

He needed to go, to train in order to exact his revenge and to be able to protect his family from a threat not even Igneel had been able to defeat. To protect everyone. To protect Lucy.

Why did she not understand that?!?

Happy had warned him Lucy wasn't going to be pleased when she found out he was gone overnight with barely a note as a goodbye, but Natsu feared his resolve might falter if he met her in person, that he wouldn't be able to tear himself away from her, from her comforting warmth. He had believed in the guild to offer her the support she needed to recover easily from the pain he was forced to deal to her.

Natsu couldn't possibly predict there would be no Fairy Tail the morning after he and Happy left.

Lucy was completely unperturbed by his outburst, or by the sparks flickering about the room in response to his flaring fury. Even as upset as he was, Natsu couldn't help but feel a pang of pride in the back of his mind, he had always known Lucy was gutsy as fuck, whoever her opponent was.

“I know,” she hissed the word with so much force, so much conviction, Natsu actually flinched as if her words had burned him. “I would have understood if you had the grace to actually come and talk to me before leaving, for fuck's sake! I understood eventually!!”

Natsu felt his scalding response being extinguished on the tip of his tongue like a small, tame bonfire being put out by a bucket of icy water when he saw a tear trickling down her cheek.

“But you didn't trust me with your pain,” she said gravely, now just plainly sad and, worst of all, disappointed. Disappointed in Natsu. “So why should I trust you with mine?”

Her words, although they lacked the heated bite they held before and were barely whispered, speared Natsu from side to side with the same strength and Erza's sword pierced through her enemies. All the fight he had was suddenly gone, nothing more than a heap of useless, cold ashes.

Lucy turned her back to him, her arms once again crossed protectively in front of her chest. She squeezed her eyes shut but the tears just kept flowing, searing a path down her face. So much for telling herself not to cry. She was suddenly thrown back to a year and a half ago, alone in her apartment the night after Natsu's departure, empty and quiet and devoid of any warmth or light. She could almost see her friends leaving one after another, taking a step forward to their future while Lucy was there, stuck in her own pain and solitude, unable to move on.

She remembered Levy timidly asking Lucy if she wanted to join her, Gajeel and Panther Lily at the Magic Council, but Lucy pointedly refused before Levy even was through with her offer. As she was, Lucy was definitely no help to the team. And furthermore, she still hadn't stooped so low to have the gall and go acting a third-wheel after Levy and Gajeel, especially if her broody mood caused Levy to focus all her focus on Lucy. It just wasn't fair for the two of them, they needed to spend some time alone. After all, even Metalicana had perished after Acnologia's attack, Gajeel was bound to be suffering even if he didn't show it, and depriving him from Levy's affections was just evil.

She had honestly prayed to all the stars she knew nothing but the best for her two lovebirds friends as she watched them wave her goodbye from her window.

“Lucy,” Natsu finally spoke up again, strangely somber, effectively jolting her out of her trip down memory lane. “do you want us to leave?”

When he put it that way, it sounded terrible. She didn't want to drive him away from her, especially since that whole E.N.D ordeal that had left her with the unshakeable fear she was never going to see him again if she let him wander off her sights once more. She didn't want him to leave her ever again.

No. “Yes, please.”

She was not able to look straight at him in the eye as she finally shut him off. There was a deafening silence, then the sniffling sounds of Happy wiping his tears with his paw and the telltale rustling sounds of clothing shifting, her cue that Natsu was pulling himself back to his feet, slowly and unsteadily. He nodded absently, as though the words barely registered with his brain, and he was only acting on autopilot.

“Okay. See you around, then.”

For once, Natsu and Happy actually decided to use the door on their way out. The noise of the lock clicking shut echoed eerily throughout the now void apartment, loud and deadly like a gunshot, carrying a heavy sense of finality with it. Exhausted and drained, she leaned against the wall and let gravity pull her down to the floor without offering any resistance.

Something had irremediably changed between them. Where once there were complete trust and blind faith, now there were secrets and doubts.

And neither knew how to fix it.

Chapter Text

"Well, that was a blast, I guess."

Lucy slowly, so slowly lifted her head to find a handsome man with a wild mane of bronze red hair and a pair of blue sunglasses over his golden eyes standing right beside her; he was languidly leaning on the wall with his arms crossed in front of his chest, and looked like he had just jumped out of a male-fashion special photo-shoot of Sorcerer's Weekly.

Lucy groaned softly. "Loke."

Loke looked down at her, the slightest hint of worry softening his features, and she couldn't help but agree: she really was out of sorts if she didn't even feel her most faithful and powerful spirit - friend - appearing at her side until he made himself known. Usually, she would know right away whenever he came around to visit her, accustomed as she was to his magic aura.

Over the time she spent alone without Fairy Tail, Loke had been her lifeline, and she had held tightly onto him. He always made sure Lucy ate enough and took care of herself even during her darkest days, when she could hardly be bothered to get up from the bed. He kept her company and patiently stood by her when she was in a foul mood and in dire need to lash out at something, or when she woke up screaming her throat hoarse in the middle of the night.

Lucy felt a pang of embarrassment as she remembered the shit she forced Loke through the past year. She really didn't deserve a good friend such as him, no matter how many times he vehemently objected and claimed the contrary.

Loke slid down the wall and sat cross-legged at her side, ignoring for once the wrinkles in his suit that action ensued. He absently admired the royal mess Lucy had turned her room into and sighed, picking his glasses and cleaning them with the hem of his dress shirt. Perhaps he should have appeared sooner to mediate the argument before it escalated out of control, but Loke had a feeling neither Lucy or Natsu would have appreciated his meddling. He might be a Celestial Spirit and thus technically unable to die, but he still cared for his safety.

He just fucking hated to see Lucy so down and empty, and he was utterly powerless to do anything to make it better.

"Lucy, look at me." Loke said, curling a finger under her chin and tugging it upwards and to the side so she was looking back at him. He saw the tears hanging from her clumped lashes, sparkling and shimmering like tiny stars, and delicately wiped them away with his thumb. Lucy closed her eyes and relaxed under his touch as he moved to her cheek, rubbing circles over the wet, smooth skin. She always liked it when he did this – and it was no small source of pride for one who had a fame such as Loke's – he wouldn't have been surprised if she started to purr like a cat. He had to force back an amused chuckle at the thought of Lucy with a nice set of cat ears and tail.

"You're too good to me, Loke." She sighed weakly, enjoying his ministrations. He had almost too much exercise at soothing her down, and he couldn't deny he liked it. He hummed in response, shaking his head.

"You're the one who is too good, Lucy. In my experience as a Celestial Spirit, I doubt I have ever met someone who loves as much as you do. And trust me, I've seen a lot of people come and go."

Lucy's eyebrows pinched together. "I didn't mean to snap that way." She whispered so quietly even Loke's feline ears probably struggled to make out the words. Natsu's hurt face kept flashing at the front of Lucy's mind, and her gut twisted painfully at the words she had thrown at him like they were knives.

"I know you didn't. But maybe it's a good thing you did. Natsu is a dense idiot, he'd probably never guess what you truly feel if you don't scream it to his face. Maybe."

That finally elicited a laugh, as weak and watery as it was, from Lucy. Loke heaved a relieved breath he didn't know he was holding; he dropped his hand from her face to her shoulder and gave it a little, encouraging squeeze. He felt the lean and toned muscles underneath, result of an year of rigorous training, and he couldn't help but feel proud of his beautiful master and how far she'd come. If only she could appreciate herself a little more.

"I really pushed him away this time. I don't see how can we go back to what we were after this."

"Lucy, this is Natsu we're talking about. He only learns when you punch him in the face. He's not gonna drop you for a small argument. And if he does," he closed his free hand in a tight fist and let his magic flow to his fingers, his rings flashing with a warm light in response. "He'd be nothing short of a criminal."

Lucy laughed again, with more conviction this time. Loke smiled and gracefully stood up, offering a hand to his master to take. Lucy stared at the proffered limb quizzically, but after a moment of hesitation she grabbed it and allowed him to help her getting back to her feet.

"Now, we're supposed to get ready for a mission, aren't we?"

He winked, and was actually relieved when she scoffed and rolled her eyes. Lucy's mood and honest feelings influenced directly her magic and the connection between her and the Celestial Realm, meaning everyone but Loke would have a hard time to get through if she found herself in trouble. As much as he was confident he could do a hell of a job keeping her safe, he didn't want to take any chances. Lucy had grown so important to him that he was swallowing his pride of old lion for her sake.

Together, they slowly tidied up the massive wreckage Lucy had laid all over her apartment. By the end of the day, Lucy was so exhausted she fell asleep the instant she hit the mattress, and for the first time in a long while, no dreams came to haunt her mind.

--

Natsu's blood was boiling as he stalked his way back to the guild. His lips pulled in a feral snarl that showcased his pointy fangs without even being aware of it, his cruel mind kept replaying Lucy's words over and over again, her disappointment and lack of trust in him - her partner - stoking the flames of his rage that again were growing from the pit of his stomach, furious and rampaging, fighting to get out. And maybe a few had escaped his control, because he saw people throwing him several worried glances, and even Happy was keeping his distance, floating slowly a few feet behind Natsu, but if that was due to his flames or if he was simply sad over the fight with Lucy, Natsu couldn't say.

Contrary to popular opinion, Natsu wasn't stupid. Sure, maths and literature were foreign concepts to him, and he might be a little dense at times, but fuck, even he could see something was horribly wrong with Lucy. Something happened to Lucy, his Luce, when he wasn't looking, and nobody told him a thing. didn't tell him a thing, and it was maddening.

A tiny, tiny voice in his head kept whispering that he should have expected as much, but he quashed it. Natsu Dragneel was not the brightest bulb when girls and their delicate emotional balance was involved - boy, did Erza and Lucy make that point very clear more than once - but he was nothing but determined, especially when something was troubling his friends. When he wanted answers, he wouldn't stop until he found them.

The guild door blasted open with a loud snapping sound that would have made him cringe any other time, but he barely took notice. The usual brawl in the center of the hall froze and several voices called his name, at first excited to have another competitor to trade punches with, and then confused - scared - when he didn't even acknowledge the fight. His dragon eyes roamed impatiently through the people at the bar until they finally landed on a familiar mop of wavy blue hair and the black hat topping it. His snarl grew and his magic flared, fanned by the pain of knowing Juvia, who had always mistreated Lucy for the stupidest reasons, was privy to Lucy's distress when he wasn't.

It was wrong, so utterly wrong.

The woman had felt the angry rise of the temperature, the blazing wave of heat that rippled from Natsu, pulsing through the air, and was startled out of her conversation with Gray and Erza. She shifted on her seat and eyed him warily, ready to dodge an incoming attack.

The somber understanding, sympathy peeking timidly from her cautious facade only served to make his fury grow hotter.

The problem was the other two mages - as well as the rest of the guild, but those did not matter as long as they didn't put themselves between him and his target - had felt it as well. Natsu saw Gray tense up, eyes wide and lips pulled in a snarl that matched Natsu's own, ready to bolt and put himself between Natsu and Juvia if the Dragon Slayer was so foolish to actually try and strike Juvia. Erza mimicked Gray's stance, but looked more concerned for her friend than outraged, more ready to just stop him from attacking the water mage than rip his head off altogether.

Not that it mattered to Natsu, he was more than happy to have an excuse to vent out some frustration on Gray, and if Erza chose to jump in, he would welcome her with open arms.

"Oi," he growled when he was close enough for Juvia to hear him. "I need you to tell me something. Now."

Juvia's alertness melted in some sort of sad concern and her shoulders relaxed imperceptibly upon learning Natsu only wanted to talk. At her side, Gray apparently didn't agree.

The obnoxious stripper finally jumped to his feet and aimed a quick punch at Natsu's face that would have been enough to crush his jaw into tiny splinters if he hadn't been fast to get out of the way. Natsu glared and bared his teeth at Gray when he felt the deadly cold air whipping painfully his skin in the wake of Gray's strike.

"You will respect her, fucking jackass." Gray hissed through clenched teeth, his fist glowing with icy magic that caused the temperature within the guild hall to drop drastically. Juvia even shivered and someone yelled to cut it out with these weather swings if they wanted to avoid falling ill, but both mages ignored the jab, having only eyes for each other. They might have settled their fight aside when Natsu's demon side was rewritten out of him, but that didn't mean the two mages didn't wish for another chance to gut it out, spurred by the constant twisting and taunting of their magic. He raised a flaming fist and lunged at the other mage, all but determined to scorch those annoying drooping eyes off his pretty face.

Fire Dragon Slayer and former Fire Demon, against Ice Demon Slayer, they were fated to fight.

Two gauntleted fists put an abrupt end to the squabble when they smashed painfully hard on the top of both mages' heads, causing stars to flicker in their vision. Immediately the tension was broken as the two fell on the floor, clutching their heads tightly and moaning loudly in pain.

"That's what you get when you behave like idiots," Erza commented dryly, seemingly collected as always, but Natsu could see she was pale and tense and sad. He felt guilty and ashamed as he remembered she had been the only one who had witnessed first hand the monsters Natsu and Gray had briefly turned into back during the fight with Zeref's army. If she hadn't stopped them in time before they completely lost themselves to their wild magic and killer instincts, risking her life to do so, who knew if Natsu or Gray, or both, would still be alive and kicking today.

"You didn't need to hit that hard, though." Gray groaned as he grasped Juvia's hand and let her help him out back on his feet, not without throwing Natsu a last dirty look while the latter was busy standing up. Natsu noticed and returned the favor in kind.

Erza ignored Gray's complaint, and addressed directly Natsu. "What the hell were you thinking, barging in here with your magic at full blast? You're lucky Master's not here to punish you." She reproached him sternly.

Natsu pouted and looked away along the bar countertop, only to see Mira shielding Lisanna behind her, as though they were scared he was going to snap and set them on fire on a moment's notice. The sight of Mira, usually so kind if not a little mischievous, being so wary of him and Lisanna, who had known him since they were kids, staring right at him, mildly fearful and worried, somehow managed to get under his skin and he felt his anger recede slightly to leave space for embarrassment and regret at his outburst. He scratched his neck nervously.

"Lucy is not well," he finally said after a while, quietly, so quietly that Erza had to lean forward to hear what he was saying. "I don't know what happened, but I know it's something big and... I can tell it's been gnawing at her for a long time, but she won't tell me what the fuck is going on."

He growled in frustration and clenched his fist so tightly he soon felt his fingertips going numb. Both Erza and Gray looked alarmed at the news.

"Lucy? That's quite strange, I don't recall her acting strangely as of late." Erza mused, scrunching her eyebrows in concentration while she tried to recall any instance their friend might have behaved different than normal, her frustration growing ten fold when she came up empty-handed.

"How the fuck don't you know if something happened to her?" Gray chided, but even his fiercest glare could not quell the twisted knot of anxiety that had lodged into his stomach. Lucy was his dear friend and someone whose company he genuinely enjoyed. "You're always glued to her side, even going as far as to break into her apartment every five minutes."

"I know!" Natsu all but yelled, and his friends were startled to hear the strain in his voice, as though he was desperately struggling not to break at the seams. "But..."

Happy chose that moment to flutter their way and perch himself on the countertop of the bar, looking just as somber and on the verge of breaking as Natsu did. "We think something happened during the year Natsu and I were away. Or immediately before that." The Exceed explained with a quivering voice, looking really grim for the usually cheerful cat.

All of them tensed as memories of Tartaros and the aftermaths reared back their ugly head, like a dormant snake monster being roused from its sleep at the smell of a prey for it to feast on. So many things had happened so quickly, nobody liked to talk about that particular moment. It was easier to just pick back from where they left.

"I suppose that would explain why you, or anybody at the guild, knows nothing about Lucy's problem." Erza nibbled her lower lip. Of all the people she could have expected hiding their pain for so long, the celestial spirit mage was maybe one of the last that came to mind. Then again, the girl had been raised as a noble lady, where lies and pretenses were everything. It would take nothing for her to fake a perfect smile. Perhaps Erza had been too careless.

"But why now, of all time? She was just fine when we regrouped." Gray reasoned. He understood Lucy was committing his same mistake, to internalize a deep wound and pretend she was fine until something finally pushed her over the edge and she snapped. Still, there must have been a catalyst to trigger the reaction.

Natsu finally locked eyes with the one person that still hadn't joined the conversation and had merely listened to the three friends getting uselessly worked up over something they couldn't even comprehend.

"I don't know... but you do, right, Juvia?"

Both Erza and Gray's heads snapped to the side, to better look at the object of Natsu's accusation. Unfazed, Juvia sighed.

"No, Juvia doesn't."

"Bullshit!" Natsu snarled, and almost went as far as to grab her by the collar of her jacket and shake her until she spilled the beans when he heard Gray growl a warning and he refrained, but not without some effort.

"Lucy doesn't regularly confide her deepest secrets with Juvia," Juvia went on, eerily composed, "Juvia thinks that is Natsu's role."

Natsu actually flinched at that. Was she implying he wasn't being a good friend? The fucking nerve!

He did leave Lucy out of the blue with only a note as a goodbye, and he knew that had hurt Lucy deeply. Heck, she even told him straight in his face earlier. He decided to shut up and swallow down the jab and his pride along with it. If Lucy could see it, she would be proud.

"But Juvia has her suspicions, and they're not good."

The grim words, together with the genuinely pained expression painted on Juvia's face were like a bucket of water on his rising temper.

"How do you know this?" Gray asked, and Juvia turned ever so slightly to give him her usual heart eyes before reverting back to her serious mode. She lowered her head and twisted a lock of aquamarine hair around her finger, over and over again, making it even curlier and resembling ocean waves. Her voice, however, was firm.

"Juvia prides herself on owning an excellent understanding of water and its properties," she said, and turned her hand into water to further make her point across. Erza smiled encouraging to the water mage.

"But of course, that goes without saying, Juvia."

Natsu said nothing, still waiting for her to finally get to the point where Lucy came into play. He cared of little else at the moment.

"However, Juvia can also feel the water, and the powers that draw their strength from it. Like a gigantic ocean in which every molecule is connected to the other. That day..." she brought her hand to rest on her chest, right above her heart. "That sorrowful day the seas and the heavens cried and mourned the loss of their kin."

She was met by four - three human, one Exceed - confused gazes. Then Natsu broke the eerie silence and voiced what everyone was thinking.

"'The hell does that mean?"

Juvia shook her head and stared at her hands, in the middle of which she formed two tiny whirlpools that danced wildly on her palms. "Juvia can't understand it clearly herself. It was just a feeling of pain and sadness at the loss of something. Even Juvia's magic wavered and for a brief moment didn't react when Juvia called it forth, in respectful grief. Of what, Juvia can't say."

"This is all fancy and stuff, but how the heck Lucy should be involved in this shit?"

"How about you listen for once in your life, flame-brain." Gray sneered, defending Juvia before she could even open her mouth to reply. "She said the skies and the heavens."

A flicker of understanding dawned on Erza's face. "Do you think it is something related to her Celestial Spirits? That would explain Lucy's sour mood. She loves her spirits more than anything else."

"Speaking of which, isn't Lucy now able to use Water Magic freely?" Happy threw in his own two cents. "Like the fish lady?"

"She's a mermaid, Happy," Natsu pointed out gloomily. "And there's no way something happened to her, Lucy would have died herself rather than let her spirit be harmed in any way. Luce and Aquarius are the same, tough as nails. Ain't no way they're going down."

Everyone but Natsu noticed the tight, but undoubtedly fond smile playing across his lips as he talked about Lucy and her relationship to the Celestial Spirits. Erza and Gray exchanged a knowing look that Natsu missed entirely.

"In any case, Juvia believes the mission she left to Lucy will give her, us, the answers we seek."

"Perhaps we should go and join her tomorrow. I don't want to leave her alone against something that is perturbing her so much." Erza mumbled to herself. Natsu was sure she was already going through the pieces of armors she would most likely need throughout the battle in her mind.

Gray looked conflicted, and kept shooting not-so-subtle looks at Juvia, who, to her credit, pretended not to notice and kept staring in front of her, the very picture of composure. Only the faintest dusting of pink on the top of her ears gave away how she truly felt about the sudden attention.

Natsu knew Erza's idea was reasonable, but something about this arrangement felt wrong to him. Lucy was not okay, and it didn't feel right to let the others know about it. It was something private, only between Lucy and Natsu, and he didn't like the idea of Erza and Gray meddling in, especially when Lucy had gone to such great lengths to keep her distress hidden from them. It felt like he was breaching her trust. Again.

"No," a voice saved him from somewhere in front of him, and he turned his head to see a very worried looking Lisanna standing behind the counter. "That would only hurt her further."

Erza looked surprised. "Hurt her further? But we're nakamas. We're supposed to have each other's back."

Lisanna shook her head vehemently. "I know but... if it's true something is on her mind and you just impose on her like this... you could end up truly breaking her. It's her business to deal with."

"What you're saying makes sense, Lisanna, but..."

"No, Erza, you have to understand. I'm not saying to leave her on her own but just give her the space she needs right now. As for you," the youngest Strauss suddenly spun around and jabbed a slender finger to Natsu's chest. Natsu spluttered and rubbed the offended spot of skin where her pointed nail had stabbed him. "You are the only one supposed to go with her. Don't you dare dump her again."

She was so passionate, Natsu was reminded of when they used to play together and she kept scolding him on the smallest things. It was strangely reassuring.

"She said she wanted me to leave, Lisa! I don't think she'll be too happy to see me!"

Lisanna, for that matter, rolled her eyes and placed her hands on her hips, in a gesture that indeed reminded him of Lucy when she was gearing up to give Natsu an endless and detailed tirade about how he was currently being an idiot.

"Oh Natsu, you're so silly sometimes. She might have said that, but deep down she doesn't want you to leave! A girl's heart is something complex and faceted, you can't just take what she said at face value."

This was rapidly becoming all too confusing for Natsu's tastes. He had come for answers and now he only had more questions than before, it was infuriating. He plopped himself on a free stool at Erza's side and slammed his face onto the hard wood with so much force the several glasses resting on the countertop shook. Frustrated that even literally headbutting a table wasn't helping with the growing migraine in his brain, he ran his hand through his hair and tugged.

"Aaargh, I don't understand jackshit! She says she doesn't want me around, but now you say she actually does... Why do girls have to be so complicated?!? Why can't she just be honest with me?!?"

"Welcome to the world of girls." Erza muttered over a spoonful of her strawberry cake as Lisanna and Juvia chuckled.

"Stay by her side," Lisanna instructed as she picked up the glass she had placed on the counter and resumed drying it with the rag in her hand. "But don't push her. Wait for her to open up. And don't annoy her too much, I know how you get when you grow impatient."

Natsu pouted at the remark as all the others snorted or straight up laughed (meaning, Gray). Lisanna, however, looked at him sweetly and grabbed his hand, disentangling his fingers from his hair with a gentleness and care he wasn't used to.

“She must be terrified right now, you know,” she whispered quietly in his ear, and Natsu lifted his head to see she was leaning towards him across the counter, and they were close, so close, he could make out every single, thick lash of her eyes and even the pale freckles sitting at the top of her cheeks. His nose was full of her scent, sweet but spicy, like lavender and rosemary, and he could feel her warmth radiating in soothing ripples, comforting and welcoming like Lucy's, but at the same time different. He gulped.

“What for?”

Lisanna laughed softly, and he felt it over his skin rather than heard it. “Because she pushed you away. If I know her well enough, she must be berating herself for shutting you out so crudely.” She took a deep breath. “She's scared you might never come back to her. That she lost you.”

“Well, that's fucking stupid.” the words were out of his mouth before he could even think about them. “I'd always come back to Luce, no matter what. I don't care how many times she pushes me away.”

The beaming, blinding smile that dawned on her pale lips even before he was done talking told him he nailed the test she was putting him through. She straightened up and patted him over his head, not missing the chance to mess up his hair a little bit further.

“You know what do then. “ she picked up the glass she was busy cleaning before she had hijacked into their conversation and resumed her work, looking oddly satisfied of herself. She tilted her head towards the guild doors. “Go!”

And Natsu didn't need to be told twice. He rose to his feet, knocking down the stool in the process, and grabbed Happy by his satchel, eliciting a startled cry from the tiny Exceed, as for the second time that day he raced out of the guild. He quickly made a mental note to thank Lisa once this drama with Lucy was over. Without her help and expert prodding he would have never figured out what to do about it before it was too late. She truly did know him better than anyone, except perhaps Happy. Lucy wasn't quite there yet, but she was fairly tied with Erza and Gray.

Certain experiences were just too big to be shared and not bond over, even in an objectively little window of time. And with all the close brushes with death Natsu and Lucy had lived through together over time, it was little to no surprise they had grown so close. He couldn't even imagine a life at the guild without Lucy anymore. With her warmth and contagious laughter, she had warmed her way in everyone's heart in no time. As long as she was here, at the guild, he could safely say he was home.

And now that she was slipping away, Natsu was more than determined to bring her back.

–

Lisanna could barely hold back her triumphant grin as she brought yet another slice of strawberry cake to Erza and another iced whiskey to both Gray and Juvia.

“You're having fun, aren't you?”

“Oh yes!” she happily replied but her cheer dampened down when Mira appeared at her side, carrying a empty tray and pouting lightly. Uh, oh, that was never a good sign. “I mean...”

“She's stealing your job,” Erza unhelpfully added, ignoring the betrayed look Lisanna threw her. There was something horribly mischievous dancing across those chocolate brown eyes, usually so serious and collected, as she addressed Mira, as though she was about to issue another of those stupid duels they would often have when they were kids. And they called themselves adults!

“I'd even dare to say she's even better than you at this whole matchmaking business. She actually managed to reach through Natsu and have him chase after Lucy.”

Lisanna briefly wondered if Erza had a death wish. For herself, and for the rest of the guild. She watched, waiting for her unavoidable demise, Mira stiffen and scan the guild, growing obviously displeased by the absence of either Lucy or Natsu. Only then she turned back to Erza and Lisanna and set the tray back on the counter.

Mira was rising up to the challenge and that was always, always a bad omen.

“Oh, yeah? We'll see about that.”

And without another word the eldest Strauss was flinging herself back to the quest board, where Juvia and Gray were again perusing the job requests, since Lucy had ended up snatching for herself the one Juvia had picked up. Two innocent victims that still didn't know what was about to befall upon them.

Like an eagle diving on its prey, Mirajane popped up from behind them and slung a slender arm across each their shoulders. And then she smiled at the two surprised mages, a smile that showed her perfect, pearly white teeth, a smile that could charm the most naive and easily influenced patrons, but that both Juvia and Gray knew all too well and made them freeze with fear as they finally realized the impending doom.

“Hello, my darlings. Need help to find the mission for you? Worry not,” her angelic smile suddenly looked a lot more twisted, and everyone got a glimpse of the true and only she-demon dancing on her beautiful face. “Aunt Mira is here to assist you.”

At least the sound of Gray's embarrassed spluttering and Juvia's subtly-not-so-subtly excited warbling at Mira's increasingly perverted ideas served as a nice entertainment for everyone else. Lisanna made sure to get it all on her recording lacrima, and then promptly sent it to Natsu's portable communication lacrima, knowing for a fact it would cheer him up and help him get in the mood for the arduous, two-way mission he had to go through.

Sometimes, life was nothing more than a bet, where you could just go with the flow and wager everything you had in the hopes you struck gold. Most people would have probably refrained from risking such a beautiful relationship such as the one between Lucy and Natsu, fearing it would crash and burn if something went wrong. Most people would have kept Natsu from chasing her when she so desperately needed space and time for herself. But Lisanna was confident in her bet, now it was the time to go and close the gap standing between them ever since Fairy Tail disbanded, the chance to leap across the rift.

This was Natsu and Lucy of Fairy Tail, the most compatible strongest team. There was just no way anything could go wrong.

Right?

Chapter Text

Magnolia's train station was just as loud and bustling with energy like Lucy remembered, before it was destroyed by Tartaros' and Alvarez's attacks; honestly, in Lucy's opinion, the citizens deserved an award for their patience and resilience after all they had to suffer through just because they were kind enough to host Fairy Tail on their grounds. In a sense, the guild and the town weren't that different: both were stubborn to a fault, and wouldn't call it quits even after being brought to their knees.

Lucy truly respected the inhabitants of Magnolia.

The train station, though, had always been one of Lucy's favorite places out of the whole town; she didn't visit it as much as she liked because Natsu usually went green at the mere mention of trains – or any kind of vehicle, to be fair – but she herself enjoyed it: there were so many people, so many different universes and stories running about, occasionally meeting and overlapping even for a single moment, it was thrilling. Lucy's inner writer loved to just lounge around and watch these stories unfold in front of her eyes, or be a part of them even if just as a fleeting figure, stories that no amount of ink or paper would ever be enough to properly portray.

For example, the lady that was just now boarding the train for Crocus with several suitcases in tow: she looked to be around her thirties, short, with soft curves and a round, kind face that made her look ten years younger than she actually was, and chocolate brown hair tied up in a loose bun.

Who knew who that lady truly was, what story she had. Maybe she was a nurse, loving and caring and competent, or maybe a teacher at an elementary school out of town, coming to Magnolia to visit her family. Maybe one of those suitcases was full of sweets to give to her tiny students upon her return, and she couldn't wait to see their surprised faces.

Lucy had no trouble picturing the scene, and she couldn't help but smile at the heartwarming scenario. This was the best thing about being a writer with a vivid imagination: she could sneak a peek into so many worlds and snap a picture, and it would always be true, it would always exist within her heart.

Perhaps she should add an elementary school teacher lady to her next short story.

The registered voice wafting from the speaker-lacrimas announced the impending arrival of her train, cold and uncaring, and Lucy was startled back to reality. Her hold on her ticket and bag tightened and she checked the big clock perched at the top of the station's entryway.

Twenty minutes until she was off to Hargeon, with the hope to come back as a better, stronger person. Hargeon, where Lucy met Natsu and her life finally started feeling like it was worth living. It was somewhat poetic, almost romantic, but definitely cruel, that fate would choose that place out of all Fiore – out of the whole Earthland – to make her relive one of her worst nightmares. But maybe she shouldn't have been surprised, her luck pretty much sucked since she was born.

She only wished she didn't miss Natsu so badly.

Stop thinking about him and focus!!

Right, she needed to focus. Still ten minutes to go. Heck, maybe she would get the chance to see the town properly if she ended the mission quickly enough. She hadn't been in Hargeon in four months, and the last time she visited there wasn't really a lot of time to for sightseeing, not with Acnologia flying above their heads and pelting the town with his powerful Roars. The memory still made her shudder despite the warm weather.

She wondered if the little diner she had brought Natsu and Happy to that fateful day survived the attack. She sure hoped so, it would destroy her to know it had been crushed and reduced to dust.

Five minutes. Maybe she could bring him a souvenir when she came back, as an apology. Natsu really cared about his collection of mementos, no matter how strange or monetarily worthless they were. She just hoped he would accept it.

Three minutes. For a second, the whistle of that train at the platform across to hers sounded like him and Happy calling her name at the top of their lungs. Ah, fat chance.

Wait...

“LUCY!!!”

This time there was no way she dreamed that. She turned around so fast she almost gave herself whiplash and vertigo and indeed they were there, clutching their tickets and panting like they had just run a marathon to arrive on time.

“That was mean, Luce, why didn't you come wake us up? We had to run all the way down here.” Natsu wheezed, holding his side. Happy nodded vigorously and draped himself over Natsu's shoulder, making a big show of being absolutely wiped out.

“Aye, evil Lucy is evil!!”

Lucy felt all air leave her lungs. She stared at her two friends – her favorite aggravations – like she wasn't sure if they were actually standing in front of her, in flesh and bones, or if they were simply a figment of her imagination, dumbfounded and unable to force her lips to move enough to form a word. But not for the lack of them, no, she had a lot that were fighting to get out of her mouth first. She just couldn't decide if she was supposed to start with the vicious insults or the tearful declarations of love.

“What on Earthland are you two doing here?” she finally managed to say after a commendable inner struggle, and she was pleasantly surprised at the stern edge her voice managed to retain despite the shock.

Natsu and Happy exchanged a serious look, as if Lucy was suddenly spouting nonsense in a foreign language out of the blue, before turning back to Lucy.

“We're coming with you.” Natsu calmly said, stated, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Which was not, and his attitude was starting to get on her nerves again. She thought she had been clear enough when she told them to leave, even by Natsu and Happy's standards.

”And yet you're glad they showed up.” Loke's low, purring voice whispered traitorously in her head. If she didn't know any better, she'd think he was amused at how her plan was spectacularly backfiring on her. No, scratch that, he definitely was entertained, the backstabber.

“No, you're not.” she grumbled, half of her words drowning in the cacophony the train brought with itself as it finally appeared around the corner and approached the platform. Natsu threw a glance at the moving vehicle and gulped, but bravely enough managed to keep his cool.

“Lucy, we're not leaving you alone ever again.”

Now he had the gall to say what she had wanted him to say for the longest time. She felt herself melting slightly against her better judgment, but immediately chastised herself for being foolish. She couldn't show signs of weakness now, she wanted to stay mad at him for a little more.

Then something clicked in her brain, and she didn't need to force herself to. For a brief second, she saw red.

“I don't need you to protect me!” she shrieked, her face now flaming with rapidly mounting, hot rage. A few of the people that had gathered around them and were waiting with them at the platform shot her confused or annoyed looks, but she completely tuned them out.

Lucy had enough of always being the damsel in distress, of being the one in need to be saved , even after all the training she went through to master the Star Dress technique. It didn't matter that Natsu, or any other member of her team or even of the whole guild, never made her feel guilty about it. This was her test, alone for her to take.

She needed this, and she needed to make it with her own strength.

Natsu's expression didn't change in the slightest, as though he was expecting that response. He truly knew her too well.

“I know you don't. But I want to.”

This time he was the one turning the tides on her, leaving her speechless and unable to come up with any counterargument. What did you say to a guy that wanted to stay by your side? A guy that you cared so much for that you lost sleep thinking of him?

There was no way she could turn him down now.

“It will take us an hour and a half to get to Hargeon with the train.” she tried halfheartedly, knowing it was a short lived attempt.

“No big deal.” He replied without missing a beat. She rubbed her temples and pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling a migraine coming up already.

“We're bound to get involved in a naval fight, you know, on ships.” This was her last trump card, the ace up her sleeve, if this didn't work nothing would. Lucy had never thought she'd find herself on the ropes in a battle of wits with Natsu, usually it was the other way around. She liked to think she could win an argument with him, at the very least.

Turned out he beat her to that too.

“I'll handle it.” Though this time it came out just a little less convinced than before. She at least had to admire his persistence.

Lucy finally caved in then, just as the train behind them whistled loudly in warning, if they didn't hurry and board up she would end up stuck in Magnolia for another three hours with only Natsu and Happy's company, and that was the worst case scenario ever. She huffed loudly and rolled her eyes.

“Fine! Suit yourself! But,” she waved a warning finger in front of Natsu's face like she was brandishing a sword. Natsu stiffened, as though he was expecting to actually be stabbed in an eye or something, but didn't move away. “I don't want to hear a single complaint about the vehicles until we get back to the guild!”

She spun around harshly and clambered onto the train before he could say anything else. She went ahead through the car, without checking once to see if the two mischievous devils were still following her, and didn't come to a stop until she found an empty compartment to her liking.

She rummaged through her bag for her notebook and carefully placed it on the empty seat before she settled her luggage on the net above the seats. By the time Natsu and Happy reached her – Natsu wobbling noticeably and Happy doing his best to help him stand upright – the train was already moving and she was comfortably sitting at the seat closer to the window, deep in her reading. She barely acknowledged them as they sat down on the opposite bench, closer to the compartment's sliding door, possibly the farthest spot in the small compartment from where she was. Happy immediately curled in a ball on the seat at Natsu's side and in a short while he was lost in dreamland.

It was weird. So, so weird. She was used to having Natsu heaving and puking and complaining loudly on her lap every time they took a train for a trip that lasted more than ten minutes, and now that finally he wasn't drooling and vomiting on her shorts for once, she was all too aware of the distance between them, of the emptiness on the seat beside her, or the silence that filled the tiny, cramped room, broken only by the occasional, choked groans that sometimes managed to escape Natsu's lips.

For what must have been the hundredth time in the last five minutes, Lucy risked a sidelong glance to her partner from behind her notebook. She pulled it half an inch higher so it better shielded her face from Natsu's view, but in hindsight she realized she shouldn't have worried so much: Natsu was still slumped helplessly against the door frame, green-faced and with his hair slick with sweat and plastered over his forehead. He was clutching his stomach with both hands like a lifeline and everything about him pleaded for mercy, for someone to put him out of his misery already. He wasn't asleep, but his half lidded and glassy eyes weren't too awake either, he was just floating in this weird state of half-consciousness that he got only when he was on a moving vehicle. It actually tugged at somewhere around her heart that she promptly silenced.

Still, he actually was being quiet. Lucy had to give it to him, Natsu's willpower was just insane.

She came back to her read, only to found herself staring at yet the same line over and over again as her concentration kept wandering to Natsu's soft whimpers, the few ones he couldn't hold back, every so often.

After another fifteen minutes of quiet torture, she finally gave up. She sighed and wordlessly closed her notebook with a snap, sealed it shut, and set it back on the empty seat in front of her.

Her movements startled Natsu out of his daze; he slowly straightened up and blinked at her questioningly several times. He even opened his mouth, probably to ask her something, but a sudden, quite violent lurch of the train car cut him off and had him lying back on the old, uncomfortable seat, trying to force down a surge of puke rising at a dangerous speed to his throat.

Lucy was still mad at him, and planned to stay so, but how could she, when he was struggling so much with his greatest, oldest archenemy just to keep close to her?

This was no earth-shattering news, but Natsu Dragneel was also probably the sweetest boy that walked on Earthland. It was just impossible not to be at least a little charmed by the sheer effort he poured to make his friends happy. But only when he wanted to, of course, which wasn't that often, all things considered.

Defeated, Lucy raised a hand and patted the empty seat beside her. “Come here.”

The way he stiffened up and looked at her like she was crazy didn't escape her notice, and she couldn't hide to herself that it stung a little bit. He usually reserved that look for Erza's insane demands, and while it was true she would have wasted no time to gloat and bask in her victory any other day – she kinda liked to strike fear in the hearts of her opponents like Erza did, alright – now she didn't know what to feel about it.

Peeved at the bundle of contrasting feelings he was forcing her through, she repeated the gesture, faster.

“Move before I change my mind.”

That seemed to do the trick. Natsu slowly, so slowly shifted and stood up, without letting her out of his sight even once, as though he suspected her to pull some terrifying prank on him now that he was vulnerable, thought that almost made her scoff as he settled down by her side, lying down so that he was stretched over both the empty seats on her left and his head now rested on her lap. She could feel he was as stiff as a board and he was barely leaning his weight on her.

Without a word, she immediately moved her hands to his forehead and delicately pressed on the two spot just above his temples where she had learned he was sensitive, rubbing lightly. She soon felt him relax and he closed his eyes, her expert ministrations working out most of his motion sickness away. He took a deep breath and emitted a satisfied moan that made Lucy blush slightly and cast a quick glance to Happy, just in case. The blue feline seemed to be still deeply asleep.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, listening to Happy's deep breaths and the monotone whirring of the train's wheels as they flew past the countryside stretching between Magnolia and Hargeon. Then suddenly Natsu spoke up.

“Thanks.”

Lucy blinked, once, then twice, because there was just no way Natsu Dragneel had just thanked her. He never thanked her for all the times she massaged his head during a trip, he usually simply kept moaning and complaining, like everything was just owed to him, a fact as natural as fire being hot. Caught totally off guard, she completely forgot she was supposed to stay pissed at him and ended up blurting out the first thing that came to mind.

“You're welcome.”

Natsu hummed softly, and Lucy was sure, almost hoped, he was about to fall asleep as well. Instead, he tilted his head slightly to the side and opened his eyes, just a sliver, just enough to look at her in the eye with an intensity she wasn't used to, unfathomable. She had to fight off the uncanny feeling she was being analyzed.

“Did I annoy you?”

He sounded so truthfully concerned, she had to bite her lip and look away until she was sure she would not break down and gush over how cute and tame he turned when he was on a moving vehicle. He waited patiently for her to get a grip on herself and reply.

“No,” she admitted in the end, and the worst thing was it wasn't even a lie. He had kept true to his word and never complained, it was just Lucy who couldn't get him out of her head even when he kept his distance at her request. “I was just... distracted. Apparently, you just can't help but hog up the attention all for yourself, even by accident.”

Natsu flashed her a slightly pained grin – they were still on a train after all, and the massages sure were a great help, but weren't miraculous – that managed to push past her defenses like they were made of paper. She found herself smiling back, softly.

“I like it when I get your undivided attention, Luce.”

“I can tell. And I'm supposed to be the drama queen, right?”

She cringed at her own reply. It had come out too fast, too natural. It was all too easy to fall back into their routine, full of playful jabs and bickering, even though so many things were different, so many things were still unsaid between them and both of them knew it, but neither dared to take the first step.

Natsu must have noticed her mood darkening; his smile fell, replaced by a tired grimace, and he lifted a hand to cover her own, the one with Fairy Tail's guild mark, pressing her palm over his eyes. Lucy felt like she had thrust her hand in an oven, he was so warm.

Natsu took a heavy breath, relishing in the newfound, comforting darkness. He had a clear idea of what he was planning to say, but somehow he found it strangely difficult to force the words out of his mouth when Lucy's beautiful eyes were pinning him down, making him drown. He squeezed her hand, trying to convey all he couldn't express by words with his touch. She felt her squirm slightly, but she didn't pull away, not this time.

Natsu, ever the positive one, decided to take it as a good sign.

“Hey, Luce.”

“Hm?”

“I meant what I said earlier.”

He heard her breath hitch in her throat, and the soft thrumming of her pulse grow faster like it did whenever he did something that made her flustered. Natsu always enjoyed when Lucy when he managed to turn Lucy into a red faced sputtering mess and never hid the fact he did, but this time her nervousness was affecting him too, making him strangely antsy. He never wanted to make Lucy that uneasy in his presence.

She didn't reply, so he swallowed the nervous lump lodged in his throat and took a deep, calming breath despite her less than encouraging silence. Never let it be said Natsu Dragneel was a wimp that fled when faced with a seemingly unbeatable challenge. He knew if he didn't grab the bull by the horns now, there was just no salvaging their friendship; sure, they might joke and laugh together at the guild, surrounded by everyone else, but there would be no more sleepovers at Lucy's place, or private jokes just the two of them were privy of. It was the last thing Natsu wanted to happen, and if he had to push past his own limits and make a fool of himself to avoid that, well, so be it.

“You're in control this time, Luce,” he almost grinned when he heard her soft gasp slip past her controlled mask. “Happy and I are going to follow your orders like two good soldiers, like you always wanted us to, right? You always complain so much when we disrupt your schedule.” He actually managed to choke out a laugh here. He felt her hand trembling ever so slightly, as though she was barely holding back tears, and he held it tighter.

“Are you really going to just trust me like this despite everything that happened? For real?”

There was a certain edge to Lucy's voice, stern, disbelieving, but most of all, full of self loathing, and that was probably what hurt him the most. Natsu would have gladly sat up and enveloped in a tight hug, like the ones Lucy always made a fuss about because they messed up her hair or clothes but in the end always relented to, if he wasn't absolutely positive he'd just empty his stomach on her shirt, and he had the feeling she wouldn't be too understanding about that. He always hated his motion sickness, but this time it was really getting on his nerves.

“What, you don't believe we can stay put? Just wait and watch, you're on!”

There was a moment of silence, and then a soft snort, followed by a chuckle, but at the same his sensitive nose picked up the stinging smell of tears welling up, most likely wiped out by Lucy's free hand before they could stream down her face. Lucy was crying so much as of late, he couldn't wait for this mission to just be over so he could finally get back his sunny and energetic Lucy once for all. There was still hope for the two of them, he knew it, he wasn't going to give up on her, not now, not ever.

A dragon never gave up on its most precious belonging, be it a piece of jewelry or a partner, that was a lesson Igneel had quite literally hammered in his brain back in the day.

“You are incredible, Natsu,” Lucy finally managed to say, not without a few sniffles that blew her cover away instantly. “I've been knowing you for so long, and yet you still manage to surprise me.”

Natsu just smirked like she had just made him the best compliment she could ever come up with. It was just so bright, guileless if not slightly tinged by childish mischief, it was impossible to just resist. So she didn't and let herself be swallowed by the wave of emotions surging up from within, sweeping her away, trusting he wouldn't be able to see her defensive walls finally cracking.

She hoped against hope, because Natsu whooped and pumped a fist in the air with so much force he almost toppled down from Lucy's lap and Happy was startled awake from his slumber, which was a grave mistake, because immediately the two friends got caught up in an heated argument over how legit Natsu's victory over Happy – he made Lucy laugh first, Natsu claimed, way too proud of himself for the occasion – was when Happy was asleep and thus unable to give it a shot. Natsu had conveniently turned temporarily deaf right in that precise moment.

Lucy couldn't help but laugh at the two friends' antics, knowing well that half of that ridiculous fight was actually just a big show put up for her sake, to cheer her up from her gloomy mood, and she was grateful for it. She had missed these carefree moments with her team more than everything else, and she was even starting to think that maybe not everything was lost. They could still reclaim their relationship, rebuild the bridges that had burned down in the storm that hit their lives so hard, more than an year ago.

Yes, they could do this, as long as they were together.

Her musings were cut short when the motion sickness finally struck back and she had to quickly get her legs out of the trajectory of Natsu's puking waterfall. She avoided the worst of it, but a few drops still landed over her shorts. Her very loved, very white shorts.

“NATSU!!!!

Chapter Text

As soon as Natsu's feet touched the solid, steady ground, life flowed back through his system again.

He laughed and pumped his fist in the air, proud he survived yet another trip on the hellish death trap on wheels called train, but then sensed the familiar itch at the back of his head he always got when someone was clearly trying to drill a hole through his skull and impale him to death with their eyes alone. Natsu would be lying if he said it was something that rarely happened.

He slowly turned around, and indeed Lucy was staring right at him, looking pissed.

Oh come on, that wasn't fair, he had just managed to calm her down and have her finally smile! He had behaved the whole time – or at least, almost the whole time – she surely could cut him some slack. It wasn't his fault if she chose to wear white shorts that really did nothing to hide the ugly, greenish splotches of puke along the hem.

Okay, maybe he could have shifted and tried to vomit his stomach out a little bit farther away as to avoid to hit her. Maybe it was, at least in part, his fault.

In a desperate attempt to tame her rising temper and avoid being sent back to Magnolia with a single Lucy-kick right in the ass, he plastered a smile over his face and reached out to her duffel bag with fake confidence, taking it and slinging it over his shoulder alongside his own, like he'd seen Loke do so many times before, although it lacked the most flamboyant flourish the Celestial Lion usually adorned every his movement when he was around Lucy, or the cheesy pick up lines. Natsu almost gagged at the mere memory of those.

He felt a little cheap, resorting to Loke's dirty tricks like these to get back in Lucy's good graces, but on the other hand Lucy always cooed at these small displays of chivalry as she called them, and never missed the chance to point out how Natsu's manners were lacking, even though she herself hardly acted like a proper lady, and apparently she was very proud of that.

Double standards were seriously bullshit.

Lucy's eyes narrowed to slits and she pursed her lips in a thin line, clearly suspicious of his strange, gentlemanly behavior, but didn't say anything and let him carry her bag. Like a real noblewoman with her lackey, she sidestepped him and briskly started walking, with only the briefest nudge of her head to tell him to get moving after her. He sighed and shook his head; the things he'd do to stay close to this woman, seriously. Obviously, he complied and caught up, keeping himself just a step behind her.

Thank all the gods Gray wasn't here to see this, he'd never let Natsu live it down until they were both six feet under the ground, and even then he wasn't too sure the ice mage wouldn't find a way to torture him after they died, he was just that much of an asshole.

Happy, like the real friend he was, snickered from over his shoulder.

“You're being tamed and ordered around like a domestic salamander, Natsu!” he teased quietly in his ear, obviously entertained by the situation. Natsu pouted and opened his mouth to reply accordingly, but his argument flew out of the window as soon as they stepped out of the station and the town presented in front of Natsu's eyes. What actually remained of the town, at least.

Saying it was a mess was a royal understatement: the entire block of buildings around the station seemed to have crumbled to nothing more than a pile of rubble. Everywhere he looked he saw tents under which people were hunched together, sharing they body heat to keep themselves warm under tattered sheets. There were kids, entire families, looking battered and worn out like only months and months of homelessness could cause. He felt his insides twist painfully.

“What the heck happened here?”

Both Lucy and Happy glanced at him like they didn't know what he was talking about, Lucy even forgot to keep up her annoyed facade. She also was the first one to understand the reason behind Natsu's confusion at the state the town versed into. “Oh right, you weren't here when the fight wrapped up.”

“Huh?”

“Acnologia kept shooting his attacks at the town,” Happy explained somberly. “Destroyed a good portion of the city, especially the harbor. It was terrible, there were flames and blood everywhere, and Acnologia was just so strong...”

Lucy bit her lip as Happy trailed off and sniffled; they both could hardly forget the terrible sight of the town engulfed in destruction and fire even now, after four months, the despair that enveloped when they saw the harbor and the ships being reduced to ashes, possibly alongside their friends. They went so close to lose everything all over again, that day.

Natsu, though, still wasn't satisfied. He had known Acnologia's physical form was still sowing death and waste all over Fiore, but he didn't know how comfortable he was to be aware of the deadly danger Lucy and the others had put themselves in to protect the country. He had hoped he and the other Dragon Slayers had managed to make enough quick work of the accursed black dragon in the Ravines of Time to spare their nakamas the pain to deal with it. It kinda sucked to know they failed on that matter, and the sight of more and more crumbled buildings and shops they passed as they made their way through the alleys didn't help the feeling of failure.

Still, he couldn't help but wonder about something.

“How did you stop him? Dragons can only be defeated by Dragon Slayers, and all of us were stuck in the Ravines of Time.”

Happy perked up, but before he could utter a word Lucy had half turned and threw him a look so vicious the Exceed almost literally withered, his words reduced to ashes instantly and even Natsu felt a shiver run down his spine. He wondered if she knew of how terrifying she truly could be when she didn't go out of her way to actively look scary. Probably not.

“Erza and Mira led him away,” she said, staring in front of her. Not even once she met his eyes, and that was so not Lucy-like, Natsu barely refrained from grabbing her by the arm and forcibly turn her around, she always held her interlocutor's gaze when she spoke to someone. “The rest of us prevented him to approach back throwing him everything we had.”

Obvious lie, Natsu was all too aware of Acnologia's resistance to magic in general, it had been a massive pain in the ass to deal with while the so called Dragon King was effortlessly wiping the floor with him and his fellow slayers. How his last blow even connected, he still didn't have a clue about that, but it was done, and as of now Lucy's weird behavior was much more important to him than anything else. He could see her shoulders stiff and taut as she walked in front of him, like she always did when she wasn't being truthful.

Something smelled fishy here, and Lucy wasn't telling him something. Again.

He frowned as a painful sadness washed over him, and the half step separating them suddenly felt like it extended for miles and miles, a distance that kept growing the more he tried to run and close it.

Just how many secrets was Lucy keeping from him?

Lucy felt the mood changing and cursed herself for her lack of preparation; she should have seen Natsu's inquiries coming from miles away, it was obvious he'd have questions about the state of the town and their role in Acnologia's defeat. She really should have prepared a cover up story in advance, it shouldn't have been a problem, she was a writer, for crying out loud!

Loke's key glowed softly and sent a ripple of soothing warmth through her body, sign that he was trying to communicate. Ever since they mastered the Leo Star Dress magic, the first one she managed to pull off – well, excluding Aquarius, but that didn't really count – their connection had grown incredibly deep and it took nothing for the powerful leader of the Zodiac spirits to pour a bit of magic and sync it to her own, allowing him to reach out and listen to what she was feeling, and vice versa.

It was really comforting to know he was always there, and undoubtedly he was it would prove useful during a battle in case they ended up being separated, but on the other hand it also meant her privacy was often in danger to be breached without a warning. Good thing she had grown used to it pretty soon, otherwise she'd have jumped when he spoke directly into her mind. ”I still don't get why you don't want to tell him what you did. You have nothing to be ashamed of, quite the contrary, in fact. It was amazing.”

Lucy scowled at nothing in particular and subconsciously picked up her pace, deaf to Natsu's and Happy's sudden protests as they were quickly left in the dust; she knew that Loke was actually making a fair point, again, but Lucy still didn't feel ready to just go and tell Natsu of her risky plan to trap Acnologia. After all, it hadn't been entirely her merit if it worked, she might have put in the idea and been the one to cast the spell, but the magic energy it required to work had come from all the mages in Fiore. In a sense, Meredy was the one who actually saved the day.

Natsu would know right away.

It was unreasonable, she was aware of that. She didn't want to pass for some kind of almighty hero or anything, she was more than ready to admit it was all of her friends' merit that they managed to stop the dragon enough for Natsu and the others to finish him off, she still wasn't that shallow.

But, still, for once...

”Oooh, I see, you're trying to impress him. I like it!” Loke said within her mind, sounding way too pleased with himself.

Lucy spluttered and felt her cheeks grow hot, but managed to keep her embarrassment under wraps by feigning a violent coughing fit. She earned a few curious looks by her two friends and the people who passed her by on the street, but otherwise she could deem herself successful. Too bad the flirty old lion was still going on about how she should change approach if she wanted to have Natsu at her feet, approach that, according to him, should involve more skin on display. That perverted feline! As soon as Lucy got the chance he was really going to have a chat with her, and a close meeting with the sole of her shoe!

Irritated and still feeling too warm to be comfortable, she took a turn into a side street and was met with a quite respectable-looking inn named, accordingly to the gaudy blue sign, 'Sea Anemone'. Like the rest of the town, the three stories building bore the signs of the fight and Lucy could clearly see the whole third floor had been rebuilt from scratch recently, but still looked solid enough.

She pointed at the door. “How about this place? Looks pretty nice.”

Natsu raised an eyebrow in that manner that always made Lucy want to punch him right in the face and flashed her a mischievous smirk. “What, you tired already? You're definitely out of shape, Luce!”

She glared daggers at the insufferable prick that dared to call himself her best friend as he cackled evilly with his worthy, feline partner. “I'm not going to meet our client wearing pants stained with your puke.”

The biting reply was like a well aimed shot at Natsu's heart, who stiffened and slumped, suddenly feeling guilty. He probably would have changed clothes too in her situation, and that spoke volumes of the actual severity of the situation. Add Lucy and her typical fuss about fashion and cute clothes and you had an apocalypse in your hands. He raised his hands in sign of defeat.

“Fine, just don't take too long. I want to kick some ass soon!!”

He saw Lucy roll her eyes visibly, but the corners of her mouth twitched suspiciously, like she was fighting off a smile. She was so easy to amuse, it was adorable.

“The ship leaves the port tomorrow, Natsu, we're still stuck in town for the whole afternoon and night. But fine, I'll be quick.”

Natsu and Happy followed her inside: the hall was small and scarcely furnished, with only a few potted plants near the door and windows and paintings of ships and waves and everything related to the sea hanging from the walls. It smelled a little old and salty, but otherwise pretty nicely.

A young girl was busying herself behind the counter, but promptly lifted her eyes and flashed a beaming, welcoming smile as she greeted them as soon as they made their way to her. She couldn't be much younger than Lucy or himself, maybe a few years older than Wendy, but her clever, dark eyes told Natsu she had lived through many things people of her age should never even know about. It was quite the unsettling feeling.

“Welcome to the Sea Anemon, the best inn Hargeon has to offer! What can I help you with?” She brushed away a stray lock of short, curly brown hair from her freckled face. Lucy fell in love with her quirky attitude in a matter of seconds.

“We are looking for a room to stay tonight.”

The girl – Sheila, her name tag said – immediately grabbed the massive tome sitting on the counter and opened it. She pursed her lips in concentration as she checked the free rooms.

“Hm, I'm afraid we only have a double.” she said, and for some reason Lucy wasn't even surprised. She had a feeling something like this would come up. Fate never passed up a chance to put her in embarrassing situations, after all. Thank all the gods she was used to it by now. She hardly could envision yet another way to embarrass herself in front of Natsu and Happy.

Natsu, on the other hand, was fully expecting her usual rant about the impropriety of the situation, which was always hilarious to listen to. It didn't matter that it would just more convenient for them to book a double room for them both than two singles, or that it would be a useless waste of money any way because he'd still find a way to sneak into her room, she kept throwing a fit and getting worked up about how 'it wasn't what it looked like'.

Not that he'd minded if other people got the wrong idea. If it was indeed wrong.

So he definitely was surprised when she accepted without nothing more than a defeated sigh and a wave of her hand. Even Happy stared at her, completely speechless.

“Okay then!” Sheila chirped happily, her eyes twinkling in a very suspiciously familiar way, and all three mages knew what was coming even before the girl wore her most angelic smile and spoke up again. “I don't want to be indiscreet but... Are you together?” she pointed at Natsu and Lucy, looking ecstatic. “You look so comfortable in each other's presence! It's lovely!”

Natsu and Lucy exchanged the briefest look, neither truly surprised by the sudden turn – and yeah, very indiscreet – turn the conversation had taken. Natsu crossed his arms behind his head and smiled; the temptation to say 'yes' just to mess with Lucy and see her spluttering reaction was actually very, very strong.

But Lucy surprised him yet again. She laughed light-heartedly, as though the idea was absolutely ridiculous and shook her head. “No, we're just siblings.”

If her dismissive laugh hadn't hurt so fucking much he'd probably have stared at her like she'd just grown a second head. What the fuck? When did she come up with that idea? They didn't even look alike, like, at all!

Sheila glanced between the two of them, clearly following Natsu's same train of thought. Lucy, however, had her countermeasures at the ready, like she'd actually spent time to come up with a believable story that covered all the points. It would be kinda impressive if it hadn't been so weird.

“We were adopted,” she said casually, “we live together at a mage guild. Right, brother?”

She looked so convincing, he actually almost believed it. It actually was kind of true, now that he thought about it. He nodded slowly. Sheila's starry eyes saddened as her shipping dreams were brutally sunken. She grabbed a pen. “Oh, I see. So, what are your names?”

For the first time ever since she started weaving that lie, Natsu saw her hesitate for just a split second, and a mischievous plan suddenly took shape in his mind. He was risking his life on this bet, but if he managed to live it would be glorious. “Dragneel. Natsu and Lucy Dragneel. And this little fella is our friend Happy.”

Lucy barely managed to hold back a surprised yelp, and even Happy did a double take, but Natsu didn't pay them no mind, because Lucy was now busy boring holes in the side of his face with her death glare and he could tell she was blushing furiously. Mission success!

Sheila didn't notice and dutifully scribbled down the given names and fished out a shiny, silver key with a wooden tag dangling from the keyring. “First floor on the right, room 112. Hope you'll enjoy your stay!”

He took it and smiled brightly at the girl, bellowing a “Thanks!” as he turned around and led the others to the staircase sitting right behind Sheila's back.

Much to his amusement, Lucy predictably exploded as they were barely halfway through. “What the heck was that about?!? There was no need to go that far! We could have used our individual names!”

He laughed right to her face, and she gritted her teeth in frustration, obviously summoning all her self control as to not go and beat him to a bloody pulp right there and then. Her fists were clenched and more than ready to go off right at his jaw. Payback for that whole secrets thing.

“You're the one who started that stupid thing!” He replied lightly as he led them through the hallway towards the door Sheila had pointed to them. “And Lucy Dragneel sounds better than Natsu Heartfilia! It's cool! Besides, I'm totally the big brother here, just so you know!”

Lucy flinched and, incredibly enough, blushed even harder. Natsu was tempted to put his hand over her forehead and compare her temperature with his own, this might have been the time she finally grew hotter than him. Only his self-preservation instinct told him to just open the door and get in the room before he got brutally murdered in a inn's corridor.

The room pretty much followed the same scheme of the lounge downstairs: it was simple, with cream colored walls and wooden floor, and a few paintings hung from the walls. The floor was covered with a quite old, but clean judging from the smell, carpet, and two beds sat side by side along the eastern wall, only a few inches apart. Clearly it had been designed to give actual couples the chance to cuddle together if they so wished once they pushed the frames together. To the side, a small, tiled bathroom completed the set. Luckily there was only a shower, not a bathtub, otherwise he knew Lucy would have never emerge from there.

Speaking of Lucy, only then he noticed she was standing on the threshold, impossibly still. All his cheer seemed to vanish in a second. Did he do something wrong?

“Lucy? Are you alright?”

He immediately dropped both their bags to the floor without ceremonies and the soft thud they made when they hit the floor made all of them jump in surprise. Natsu and Happy exchanged a look – he didn't like the slightly reproachful look on the Exceed's face, like he was trying to tell him he'd really gone too far with his teasing this time around. – and Happy floated back to Lucy's shoulder, nuzzling his face against her cheek in an attempt to soothe her. Ass-kisser.

“Is it really so silly? For me to pretend to be your sister? Is it so unreasonable?”

Lucy spoke quietly, knowing if she raised her voice it would have quivered too much. She remembered the etiquette classes she was forced through when she was a kid, on how to reign in emotions and always behave a proper lady. She followed the gestures that had been drilled into her brain, straightened her back up, folded her hands in front of her stomach. Eyes closed and face slightly tilted downwards.

The perfect stance of a demure, collected noblewoman, a true Heartfilia.

Natsu didn't like it one bit when she switched back to that persona, it didn't suit her at all. It always pissed him off more than what he was willing to admit. He scratched his neck and ran a hand through his hair, suddenly uncomfortable and uncertain. He wasn't good with words at all, and he didn't trust himself to explain why he got the weirdest feeling, like he'd just swallowed a bunch of butterflies and they were going crazy within his stomach, trying to escape, when he heard his own voice saying 'Lucy Dragneel' out loud.

He was being honest when he said he liked it. The problem was he really, really liked it. He definitely wouldn't mind if she took up his last name altogether in the future, that was for sure.

But Lucy didn't seem too thrilled about the idea. She was still stiff and sad and not meeting his eyes, and Natsu felt his mouth go dry as the vague sting of rejection burned at the back of his mind. He briefly wondered if Happy felt like this every time Charle turned him down. He made a note to himself to go and have a little chat with Wendy's Exceed once this was over.

Suddenly, Lucy sighed and her shoulders sagged, breaking her stance. She looked tired, and the smile that curved her lips did nothing to hide the sadness veiling her eyes. It was full of resignation, like she'd already been over this very same conversation. “It doesn't matter, it was a stupid question.”

With a dexterity she rarely showed around, she grabbed her bag and dug a little until she found the denim shorts she'd packed the day before. Struggling a little bit in the mess her bag had turned into, she finally managed to fish them out.

“I'll be quick, I swear.”

She said, and promptly disappeared into the bathroom, and if Natsu's ears weren't playing tricks on him, he could swear he heard a light sniffle as the door came close behind her with an all too loud slam. He made her cry again.

“That was going a bit overboard even for you, Natsu.” Happy scolded him quietly as Natsu started pacing nervously across the room to burn away some of his frustration. This delicate state Lucy was in was really getting on his nerves, he needed to find a solution, and fast, before he went crazy. He made a noncommittal sound, too deep in his own thoughts to pay attention to what Happy was saying, no matter how correct his scolding was.

Then he saw it, lying innocently atop of her mussed things: the mysterious notebook that Lucy kept reading over and over again, obsessively even. She treated that plain, unassuming thing like it held the secret of life itself, and it was frustrating to Natsu. He never took a particular liking to read like Lucy did, but that level of dedication seemed to be a little too much even for a bookworm like her or, heck, even Levy's.

Just what could be written in there that was so important Lucy wouldn't leave without it?

“Natsu...” Happy warned him quietly, uncharacteristically serious, but Natsu was already on his knees, extending a hand to grab the little book. He carefully listened to the soft, rustling noised coming from the bathroom and suddenly heard the water running and splashing, sign that Lucy was busy refreshing herself after she changed out of her dirty shorts. He didn't have much time, but he wasn't planning to spend too much on it, he'd just rifle through it a little bit. He was curious to know just what Lucy had confided into a bunch of paper that she couldn't tell to his face.

“Natsu, don't!”

Happy's final warning came just in time: he immediately jerked back and straightened up before he leaped on the bed closest to him and let himself bounce softly on the mattress – a bit bumpy, but he'd seen worse – just as Lucy opened the door and waltzed in the room, the tips of her hair still a little wet. She seemed to have recovered her spirit pretty fast, because she didn't notice anything strange and even smiled at Natsu, a smile that still was not as bright as her usual ones, but he was willing to take whatever he got.

Happy, on the other hand, was pinning him down from behind her back with a reproachful gaze that Natsu was sure he took from Charle.

“See, I barely took three minutes,” Lucy said cheerfully, blissfully unaware of Natsu's inner struggle. If only, for once, she had indulged herself and took a little longer, maybe he'd know just what was weighing down on her heart so damn much. “Shall we go meet our client?”

Natsu sighed in defeat, knowing that if he objected now he'd raise he'd be way too suspicious. He still needed to bide his patience a little more, and then he'd proceed to char all her worries away in a heartbeat.

He'd do anything to evaporate Lucy's sorrow. And if she wasn't telling him herself, then he wasn't above taking the matter into his own hands.

“Sure, let's go!”

Chapter Text

The docks were the part of town that suffered the most from Acnologia's assault, clearly: half of the port was still in shambles and there were nowhere near the number of ships that used to pass by Hargeon during its golden days, but it was a strategically and economically vital resource for the kingdom, and the king wasted no time to order it was restored as the remaining half kept the kingdom's economy floating. The pirates hanging around had been just the final blow to an already damaged city.

The mood around the ships was abysmal, both Natsu and Lucy could tell easily, sailors kept grumbling and cursing as they kept loading or unloading crates after crates, and they even caught a few of them praying to the gods just to let them live through this other journey. It was a depressing sight that directly contrasted with the vibrant, lively picture of Hargeon's port Lucy carried within her heart.

"Wow, it's gloomy here," Natsu commented quietly as they made their way through the docks.

"Yeah. I guess these sailors can hold their ground against one of their kin easily," she replied just as quietly, eyeing a particularly burly, tanned man that passed them by, not without casting them a suspicious look. His muscles rippled and glistened under the fine sheen of sweat covering his tattooed skin. He looked just as buff as Laxus or Elfman, it was hard to think someone that physically built could be scared of any pirate. "But once you pit them against a magic user, they stand no chance."

Both Natsu and Happy nodded gravely. Just like she did, they felt the subtle, hostile glances the workers were throwing at them, and at their guild marks. This was no place for mages, it felt like they were saying. It did nothing to raise their mood for the upcoming mission; they could only hope the one that requested their services would be more accommodating.

They kept walking, silently, until they stopped at the massive freight with three blue stripes running along the sides and the humongous ship name, 'Calypso', written in capital white letters that they were told to look for.

Natsu groaned softly at the sight of the ship rocking gently back and forth with the waves, but immediately pulled himself together at the withering glare Lucy threw at him. He had insisted on coming with her, now he was going to keep true to his promise. Happy snickered from Natsu's shoulder.

Lucy cleared her throat, ready to shout a warning of their arrival, but for once luck was on her side and her vocal chords were spared when she saw a ridiculously tall man wearing a long, tattered overcoat pop out from behind the gunwale and then make his way down the gangplank. He was so tall, his long legs covered the distance in a few strides, and it didn't get any better when he reached them. Both Lucy and Natsu had to crane their necks to look at the man in the eye, and when they did they found his roughed but handsome face completely unimpressed. Great.

"Hm," she started hesitantly, trying to get a grip and channel her inner Erza as she was suddenly left the reins of the transaction - very cowardly, if she might say so - by Natsu and Happy, who took a step back without warning her and effectively showed the man she was the leader. "You must be Captain Stark, right? We're mages of Fairy Tail. We've accepted your request."

"I see that." The man's voice was low and rough just like his face, or the rest of him for that matter, like the dark rumble of the waves over the shore, or the foreboding thunders announcing a sea storm. His eyes - eye, singular. The other was forced shut by a massive scar that ran across the whole right side of his face, from his jagged hairline to his curly, silver-streaked beard - were hazel brown, almost golden, but hard and cold, and Lucy was reminded of an old, cunning tiger, majestic and terrible, as he scanned them from head to toe. The man remained impassible, but Lucy had the distinct feeling he was none too pleased with them, and honestly, she couldn't exactly fault him for that; if she were him, she would probably expect someone like Laxus or Gildarts, not a tiny girl, a boy that wasn't much taller than her, even if he was well-built, and a blue cat.

Probably feeling her falter under the man's inquisitive gaze, Natsu stepped ahead and slung an arm across her shoulder, flashing a blinding smile to the man, whose scowl only grew in response.

"We are can guarantee our success! Our team never fails, satisfied or refunded, that's our philosophy. Ain't that right, Luce?" he nudged at her when she gasped at the blatant lie he was making on the spot, but when he threw her a warning look she understood what he was doing. When dealing with a sailor, always talk to their wallets first.

Lucy didn't like the idea of giving away her money, but she supposed she could make an exception in this case. She hadn't taken up this request for the reward this time around.

The man still didn't look too pleased with the hand he was dealt with, but at least mellowed down enough to offer a hand, calloused and lined after working under the sun and rain for years, for them to shake. "I'm Oliver Stark, captain of this ship. I suppose you're welcome aboard."

Natsu pinched Lucy at her side, prompting her forward. She took the hand and hid with a sunny smile the atrocious pain she felt when Captain Stark crushed her fingers in his grip. She tried to dish it back just as strongly, but she doubted he even noticed her efforts to destroy his hand. It was rough and dry, it felt more like a glove than an actual hand. "I'm Lucy Heartfilia, and these are my partners Natsu Dragneel," Natsu puffed up his chest proudly, "and Happy" the Exceed called forth his Aera magic and hovered above Natsu's shoulder, saluting the old sailor with all the seriousness of a soldier. "Aye!"

Stark actually looked surprised for a second at the reveal Happy could fly and talk, but soon enough his eye darkened and settled back on Lucy, who felt her newfound confidence sink to the bottom of the deepest ocean when she finally realized her tiny, fatal mistake. It had been so long since it had been relevant, she hadn't paid much attention, and now it was going to come back to bite her in her butt.

"Heartfilia, you say? Wouldn't you, by chance, be related to a certain Jude Heartfilia? Former head of the Heartfilia Corporate? A true piece of work, that man, let me tell you. Manipulative and cruel, a bastard that worked his men to the bone with an iron fist and got all the credit for himself. Bossy piece of shit." he spat angrily.

Stark took his hand back and scratched his chin, eye narrowing in suspicion. His voice dropped an octave. "And you are the spitting image of his wife Layla."

Natsu watched Lucy shrink back under the man's piercing gaze, looking up at him like she would usually stare at a monster she didn't know how to defeat. He saw her grit her teeth and bite the inside of her cheek, terrified and obviously trying to come up with a lie to cover up her blunder. If he focused hard enough, he could hear the clogs in her brain turning furiously, and the ghost of a curse hover just behind her lips.

Natsu felt his gut twist angrily in his stomach, he already didn't like this guy. He should be all teary eyed and thank them for even going through the bother to help him and his crew out. Heck, Natsu wouldn't even be here at all had it not been for Lucy, so really, Captain Stuck just needed to shut the hell up and kiss the ground Lucy was standing on.

He pressed her flush against him tighter and then narrowed his eyes at the captain (he was so huge, for real, Elfman had nothing on this guy). "Lucy here has been a mage for Fairy Tail for a long time and my valuable partner in her own right. Does it really matter what her last name is if she can easily kick your pirates' butts when you apparently can't?"

Happy snorted loudly, but managed to make it pass as a sneeze. Both Lucy and Asshole Cap were staring at him, wide eyed and with their mouth hanging open. Lucy had blanched so hard even her hair looked silvery, but that might have been the intense sunlight's fault rather than the shock.

After a long pause in which nobody said a word and the only noises Natsu could hear were the curses of the crew, the soft rolling of the waves, the screams of the seagulls and Lucy's heart beating wildly against her ribcage, though, Captain Asshole laughed. It started off with a rumbling chuckle, deep and throaty like a far off thunder, and then exploded in a full blown, booming laughter. Natsu grinned widely in response and let out a breathy laugh as well. Lucy was just lost at that point and didn't bother to hide it.

"I like you, boy. You've got the guts to be a successful sailor."

It was Lucy's turn to snicker in his ear this time, and Natsu thought he heard her whisper a bitter "Wait until he takes a step on the ship and watch him lose those guts." that had him throw her a side-eyed glance. Wow, that was a low blow, like, Gray-levels of low.

There was little to no trace of amusement on her face, though, no intention to make fun of him, just a deep frown and a light blush splotching her cheeks. Her hands were balled into tight fists at her sides and he could feel her tremble under his touch. He tightened his hold on her on instinct, but suddenly Lucy wiggled away of his grasp, subtly but firmly, leaving only a deep sense of loss and emptiness in her wake.

He would have loved to inquiry further on her defensive attitude, but Stark was still observing them with that attentive gaze that gave Natsu goosebumps. He really wanted nothing more than to drag Lucy away from there.

"We set sails tomorrow morning at six A.M. On the dot." Stark said gravely, gesturing at the Calypso. Natsu's boldness apparently restored a bit of the captain's faith in the team he was sent, but Lucy didn't seem too happy about it. She merely nodded silently. "Be on time if you want to be paid. I just hope you're ready, otherwise we all soon will meet our end."

Lucy shuddered and Natsu scowled. This party-pooper jerk really was doing nothing to gain points to his favor.

"Gotcha! We'll be there!"

He didn't really wait for Stark to turn around and reach his crew before he grabbed Lucy and forcefully carried her away from the docks, Happy in tow. Lucy didn't put up much resistance, lost in thought. Neither noticed the man's yellow eye following their retreating silhouettes until they disappeared behind a corner.

Obviously, Lucy had been careless once again; in her haste, she hadn't considered the possibility the captain had worked for the Heartfilia Corporation in the past. It had been years since the family finally went bankrupt and vanished from Fiore's main economic and politic stage, after all, and nobody seemed to have a problem with it when Lucy's last name was announced for everyone to hear at the Great Magic Games.

Of course she'd find the one person that still remembered about Jude Heartfilia, and that probably had a rocky relationship with him. Who didn't after all, even Lucy had her fair share of fights with the man back when she still lived at home.

Her cheeks burned in shame as Natsu chatted with Happy about where they could go eating and kept leading her back into the heart of the town. Once again, he had stepped in as soon as he felt her waver and blindly stood up for her. Her, easily kicking ass? His motion sickness must give him hallucinations, it was the only explanation.

She suddenly wondered if she really was up to this. Now that they'd met the man they'd be working for, all of a sudden it seemed a terrible idea, one of the worst she'd had in ages. There was no proof those pirates were actually in possession of Aquarius' key, the cause of those sweeping waves might as well have been simply a water magic user in their ranks.

Plus, these criminals were wanted by the Rune Knights all over Fiore, with a massive sum as a reward for anyone who managed to contrast their water magic and bring them to justice once for all. Natsu would probably be able to knock them down without breaking a sweat under normal circumstances, but he'd be little more than useless - worse, defenseless - if the pirates ambushed them during the boat trip, and they would be no doubt too much for Lucy to handle on her own. She wouldn't be able to protect him, even if he had always gone out of his way to protect her when she needed help.

She felt sick as realization finally hit her like one of Laxus' lightning bolts. With her selfishness, she was purposely endangering her two beloved friends, all for something that might not even be there in the first place, for her interest.

She was using them for her purposes.

She was just like her father.

Her chest constricted so hard she was suffocating as her stomach churned violently. She felt dizzy, like the world around her was spinning too fast, tumbling down and down, and she was falling with it.

"You're thinking too much." Natsu said suddenly, intruding shamelessly in her thoughts he'd read all too clearly within her terrified eyes or labored breath.

"What?" she hardly managed to whisper back.

"You're letting that scumbag's words get to you. Don't worry, we're gonna show him who's the real boss, like always!"

His never ending enthusiasm usually was like a pillar for Lucy's less than stable self-confidence, like a lighthouse in a stormy night, always there to guide her to safer thoughts. This time, however, his cheering only felt like someone just stabbed her with a knife and was twisting the blade in the wound.

"Natsu, maybe you and Happy should go back to Magnolia. I'll take care of this myself."

Both Natsu and Happy froze, and Natsu's grip on her arm tightened to the point it almost hurt. But she didn't feel it at all, too taken by the reveal she just had. He could have probably crushed and burned her arm to ashes and it would be nothing when compared to the pain she'd feel if she lost him because she was being an egotistical bitch.

"No fucking way."

"Natsu-"

"You heard me," he growled, "I ain't going anywhere without you, Lucy. I don't care if you suddenly choose to live on a boat or become a train assistant, I'm following you."

"We're following you!" Happy promptly corrected. Natsu nodded.

"So please stop spouting nonsense. You're supposed to be the smart one, right?" He concluded with a lopsided smile that Lucy barely had the nerve to even look at. She was too disgusted with herself to be able to defend her point.

"You're not going to get rid of us so easily, Luce."

"Aye! We're sticking to you like a fungus!"

Okay, Lucy definitely didn't need the picture of two shapeless blobs, one salmon pink and the other cerulean blue, attached to her arm that her mind automatically summoned after Happy's words. But she still had to admit it proved effective to snap her out of the spiraling mess of emotions she was entangled in. She made a disgusted face and stuck out her tongue with a loud "EWW" that had Natsu and Happy laugh to tears. Jerks.

Still, she soon joined in.

"So, what are we doing now, Captain?" Natsu asked after a while. The three of them had agreed to go grab a bite at some cheap diner they found nearby, and then had been roaming around the once beautiful town. The soft breeze blowing from the sea and threading through her hair had been a great help to calm herself down enough to think rationally again. She kept quiet for a little while, tapping her chin as she wondered how they could make use of the time they got until the morning after came around. Then an idea came to mind.

"We could split up and go around bars and pubs to say the Calypso hired mages to protect a massive load of precious silk."

Natsu stiffened. "I don't like the idea of splitting up." he immediately replied, which honestly annoyed Lucy a little bit. She was more than able to take care of herself against a few drunkards if she needed to!

"Why would we want to spread that rumor though? Wouldn't it be better if we kept quiet?"

Lucy shook her head. "If we want to solve this situation once and for all we need to lure them out," she explained to Happy, who had perched himself back on Natsu's shoulder and was watching her curiously, while his owner looked not too pleased with her plan. "I'm sure they must have informers somewhere. If we spread the rumors that the Calypso is transporting a rich load, rich enough to ask for a guild's help, and that just a bunch of kids replied to the call, I'm almost positive they will not be able to resist the temptation of an easy prey."

Happy's jaw dropped and he clapped his tiny paws, honestly impressed with her thinking. Natsu, on the other hand, was still frowning.

"But why do we need to split up?"

This time Lucy lost her cool, miffed by his unenthusiastic response. "Because it's more convenient. And you're the one who is more likely to cause trouble, not me!"

"She has a point here, Natsu." Happy deadpanned to Natsu, who only scowled more and crossed his arms tightly in front of his chest. Lucy sighed and readjusted her side ponytail.

"Come on. I'll go this way," she gestured to the alley on their right. "We'll rendezvous here by six, okay? The faster we get to the job, the earlier we finish."

Happy saluted with a serious "Aye" as Natsu simply grunted his reluctant approval. She smiled and tousled his hair playfully, eliciting a startled squawk from him - she liked how he styled his fringe backwards, but she preferred when he let it down. He looked really good - and then bolted away to her destination before he could follow her. In a second she had disappeared behind a corner.

"Goddamnit," he hissed angrily to nobody in particular, almost dislodging Happy from his spot as he harshly tilted his head to the side. "I don't like this."

"I think it's a brilliant plan. Her reasoning was solid. I'm not used to that."

"Hey! I take offense in that!" Natsu yelped, wounded in his pride. He wasn't going to claim he was a strategist or anything, but he wasn't a total idiot. He had his good plans too, like in the fight with Sting and Rogue. That had been his masterpiece. He never stopped gloating about it every time he happened to meet either, or both, Saber Tooth's Dragon Slayers.

Happy just rolled his eyes and flew off his shoulder, grabbing on Natsu's jacket and making use of his magic-enhanced strength to forcefully dragging away Natsu on the opposite direction Lucy had gone.

"Stop sulking. She can handle herself just fine."

"I know that." Natsu growled, definitely not sulking. Lucy was strong, nobody ever doubted that, and being a Celestial Spirit Mage also meant she'd never really be alone and left to her own devices, unless she somehow lost her keys, and that hadn't happened in ages. He knew she'd never hear the end of it from Aquarius if she did.

The thought was supposed to be funny, but instead he felt his pulse grow faster and his guts twisted with a newfound agitation, almost anticipation, something that he usually reserved for an enticing battle. It was like his subconscious was trying to inform him of something he stumbled on, something important, no, vital. The true key of the matter.

Key...

Speaking of keys, when was the last time he saw Aquarius around?

Happy startled when Natsu suddenly straightened up and started running like a bloodhound on a track. He called him back and immediately gave chase, but Natsu wasn't listening; all he could think of was Lucy, when she used her Star Dress in front of him for the first time, the Leo Star Dress. She had looked proud of her ability, and together they had fun and kicked ass massively with Light and Fire, but then Loke had to ruin everything with his insufferable presence. The spirit whose power she requipped on herself was still summoned along with their Celestial Robes.

He couldn't remember a single instance in which Lucy used her Water Magic and Aquarius was around, and it was hard to miss that batshit crazy mermaid woman. Usually the fools who tried to ignore her ended up drowned at the bottom of whatever body of water she came up from.

Ten minutes later Sheila welcomed him back to the Sea Anemone with her usual smile. Natsu heard her ask about his 'sister' but he paid her no mind. He was already fumbling with the keys to the room when Happy caught up, looking distressed and tired.

"Natsu, don't do it."

"Too late. I need to know."

"You said we would stay put and behave!”

"Out of sight, out of mind!" he growled as finally the key twisted in the keyhole and the lock clicked open. He didn't even close back the door behind him: wasting no time, he threw himself to the closet where he'd seen Lucy place her duffel bag, and indeed there it was. He rustled through her clothes, which should have probably make him feel a lot more uncomfortable than he actually was (was that a swimsuit? a bikini?? He actually liked that, orange and red suited Lucy), until he felt the smooth surface of the accursed book under his fingers. If part of him, the most honorable one, protested heatedly against this blatant breach of privacy and trust, he made quick work of it and silenced it permanently. This was going way beyond morals. He didn't care if he had to stain his hands or play dirty if Lucy's safety was involved.

He pulled it up and slid the band out. The little, overflowing book pushed itself open immediately.

He didn't know what he was expecting, honestly: maybe a diary, a personal journal. Maybe another collection of letters to her mom that were never going to be sent. Maybe an open confession of love towards a fellow guild member.

What he wasn't expecting was to get a faceful of newspaper clippings, all talking about floods and tidal waves and strange changes in the sea currents and routes, happening all over Fiore, each carefully pinned to the page with a metallic clip. Several quick, handwritten notes were scattered near underlined paragraphs.

He rifled through the pages, speechless. They were a lot, cut out of their pages with obsessive precision and carefully sorted by date. It covered the entire year he and Happy had been traveling through the continent on their own.

But the thing that stuck out the most to him was the symbol scrawled at the side of a few articles in the same blue ink Natsu recognized as the one belonging to Lucy's fountain pen, her favorite one, the pen she used the most for her writing; it looked like a M to his eyes, a curvy, elegant M shaped vaguely like a wave. Natsu had the nagging feeling he was supposed to know that symbol, but for the life of him he couldn't pinpoint where he had seen it.

Not that it mattered, though, because his research was suddenly interrupted by Happy's shrill warning and a flash of blinding light. On instinct, Natsu dropped the book and stood up, protecting his face and taking a step back. If that knee-jerk reaction hadn't kicked it when it did, he'd probably be nursing a broken jaw and nose right now. He felt the magic rippling through the air where his face had been just moments ago, and the tips of his hair sizzled, burned by the light. He glared at the unwelcome newcomer.

Loke had suddenly materialized right in the middle of the room. He looked annoyingly perfect as always, with his fancy suit and carefully mussed mane of hair, not to talk about those dumb sunglasses that didn't protect from sunlight at all. What was even the point for a Spirit that took his strength from a star and used Light magic to wear sunglasses? It made zero sense to Natsu.

However, his attention was fully snatched by Loke's fists, clenched tight and throbbing with scorching hot Light magic, ready to shoot at Natsu again, and this time he was sure they wouldn't miss.

On instinct, feeling the Spirit's blatant hostility, Natsu flexed his knees and assumed a fighting stance, ready to dodge or par or strike back. He bared his teeth, and Loke mirrored his gesture. That's when he noticed Loke's own pointed fangs and, most of all, his pupils turning into vertical slits behind the tinted lenses. Never had Loke looked so much like an enraged lion like he did now.

"Well, look at this snooping, coward apartment rat. No wonder the place stinks so bad."

Natsu growled, ignoring the jab. "What the fuck are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at Lucy's side?" The thought of Lucy strutting around from pub to pub without her strongest Spirit, and the only one who could help her without the need to be actively summoned by her, made Natsu's worry spike up. If something happened to Luce while Loke was here he called dibs to break that pretty face of his with Natsu's own hands.

Loke barked out a mirthless chuckle, his eyes never leaving Natsu, gauging him like a lion studied its prey before jumping it and neatly stealing its life. It was unnerving to say the least; Natsu could see why he was all chummy with Gray now, they both had this talent to annoy him with their presence alone. "Funny you, of all people, would say this. Especially after your cute little stunt last year."

Before he knew it, Loke had lunged at him. Natsu parred the blow with his forearm, but the strength Loke poured into his hit sent a jolt of pain run down his elbow and shoulder, and he let out a hiss as the Light-imbued rings dug and burned his skin. It was not enough to cause any serious damage – although he was sure Loke could have easily broken the bone if he so wished to – but that was definitely going to leave a nasty bruise.

"I need to know what the fuck is going on! I won't be able to help her if I don't!"

He aimed a powerful straight right into Loke's abdomen, deciding against using his magic as to not hurt the Spirit so much to put him out of commission for the rest of the mission, but Loke, with his feline agility, deftly dodged with an elegant, fluid movement.

The Leo Spirit, now beyond outraged on his beloved master's behalf, spun out of Natsu's range and made use of the momentum to kneel him right into his stomach. He had to fight back a satisfied smirk when he felt Natsu's pained groan as he fell back and hit the wall with a loud slam. Happy called Natsu's name, upset.

He didn't let the Dragon Slayer rest, though: outrage spurring him on, he pounced on Natsu's slumped figure and grabbed the collar of his jacket, holding it tightly in his fist and firmly pinning Natsu to the wall with so much force a fine cloud of cream colored dust rained on Natsu's head, painting his pink locks white.

Natsu growled angrily and grabbed Loke's wrist with the obvious intent to break it and get himself out of his grasp, but Loke didn't budge. He kept glaring daggers at the little shit that had caused so much harm to Lucy without even knowing, gleaming fangs on display. All his fury and rage he had to keep down for the longest time, while Lucy slowly recovered from her wounds this selfish bastard inflicted to her, now came back with a vengeance.

And Lucy was the one who kept blaming herself and dared to deem herself selfish. Unbelievable.

His hold on Natsu tightened until it almost hurt.

"Get off your fucking high horse, you egotistical piece of shit." He snarled, his face just an inch from Natsu's, who glowered at him. "And start considering not everything revolves around you."

"I know, fuckface. But all that involves Luce also involves me."

"No, it doesn't!" Loke roared. How dared this stupid idiot call her by that nickname after all he'd made her go through. He felt the urge to smack him hard across his face, but somehow managed to keep his self-control. If he slipped and used too much magic now, he risked to seriously injure Natsu and thus compromising Lucy's safety during the mission and most importantly, Lucy would probably feel the pull on her own magic core in response to his magic and would then come back to the inn to check what was going on.

He didn't want to think how devastated she'd be if she found Natsu and Happy looking through the secrets she so painstakingly kept to herself, going behind her back to reach a truth that belonged to her alone until she felt ready to divulge it. It would be like tearing open the flimsy scar tissue that kept the wounds close and let them bleed openly after pouring acid on them.

It would destroy her for good.

"Lucy doesn't need you an idiot like you in her life." He said after he managed to somehow swallow the bitter lump in his throat. He had placed all his faith in Natsu, decided to give him a second chance to redeem himself and take care of Lucy like she deserved. And this disgusting act of betrayal was all he got. He had always known Natsu was a dumbass, but he'd never imagined he'd fall so low.

Just what did she see in Natsu, Loke wondered. She could have so much better than him, if she just so wished. Why did she have to pick this dense motherfucker, of all people?

Suddenly, Natsu's hand fisted on his own collar and tugged violently, cutting off his breath and headbutting Loke squarely on the crown of his head so hard that even his long fringe did nothing to soften the impact. Loke clenched his teeth in pain.

"I don't care if she doesn't need me. I'll do anything to keep her safe."

Loke would be lying if he claimed he wasn't the slightest bit intimidated by the flames dancing wildly in Natsu's eyes. For the briefest moment, he thought he saw the shadow of the demon shift under the surface of those dark irises.

"You hardly have the right to interfere with her life. Not after what you did to her."

Natsu flinched visibly and his hold on Loke's shirt somewhat loosened, but he didn't let go completely. He hung his head low, looking dejected. "I know. I really fucked up back then." He mumbled somberly. Loke arched an eyebrow at the sudden change of attitude, but released him and took half a step back.

Natsu grimaced and rubbed his neck as he slid down the wall and messily sat down on the floor, criss-cross and hunched forward. Happy immediately flew to him and plopped himself on his shoulder, all the while glaring furiously at Loke, who ignored him, although with a little difficulty.

"Yeah, you did."

"Loke," Natsu held out a trembling hand and tugged at his hair, brushing off the paint dust that fell on the floor and on his clothes instead. "You know what happened that's hurting Lucy so much. And don't tell me it was just my absence. Both of us know she's stronger than that."

It wasn't a question. Loke kept silent and crossed his arms in front of his chest. Natsu took it as a 'yes'.

"It's killing her from within, like a goddamned parasyte, like a disease, Loke, and I can't do shit about it. I don't know what to do."

Loke tensed as shame for his violent reaction earlier rained upon his righteous irritation. He still believed what Natsu was trying to do before he stopped him was unforgivable, but even he understood Natsu was only moved by concern for his partner. Maybe even something else, if he was so willing to go the all way in for her sake, but Loke wasn't sure Natsu realized the nature of that deep attachment yet.

"Lisa said to stay by her side and wait patiently, but I can't, not when she shuts me out and keeps me at arm's length! It's frustrating!" Natsu yelled and punched the floor, hard. Loke heard the old wooden planks creak painfully under the strength of the blow.

"Lucy asked us to go back to Magnolia today. She was really close to a breakdown. I don't think I had ever seen her so terrified. She was struggling to breathe." Happy added, and Loke immediately was reminded of that moment he and her other spirits felt her magic rampaging wildly, out of control. So that was the reason why. And of course Natsu hadn't taken too well the idea of being benched. Typical Natsu behavior.

He sighed and shook his head. How ironic that he'd be the one saddled with the ungrateful task to push the lizard head to the right direction, after all.

"It's not my place reveal Lucy's secrets without her approval, so I won't," he said as he let his arms fall back along his sides and made his way to where the violated notebook laid discarded on the floor, open and forgotten. He picked it up, closed it and delicately placed it back into Lucy's bag. With a little bit of luck, she wouldn't notice it had been moved at all. "But I wonder... While you were travelling around, have you ever stopped for a moment to think if you actually were the only one who lost something, someone, very dear to you when Tartaros attacked?”

Natsu's head snapped up, a heated retort already on the tip of his tongue – of course he wasn't, Gajeel and Wendy had lost their dragons too, not to mention Sting and Rogue – but then Loke's words really sank in and words failed him.

He had, in fact, thought of Lucy several times during his travels; he often searched for the constellations she tried to teach him about in the starry sky above him, wondered if she was doing fine, if she had partnered up with someone else in his absence – maybe Erza, or Cana, he just hoped she wouldn't pick Gray because that would just be disgusting, he trusted she'd have better taste than that – or if she'd be surprised when he came back, stronger and more determined than ever to keep his family safe. But mourning? That never crossed his mind, and if indeed she was grieving a loss of her own when he made his choice and left...

Natsu felt himself grow cold and pale, forcefully repressing the urge to throw up. It was no wonder she wasn't opening up to him.

“Crap,” he heard Loke curse quietly from far, far away. “Lucy sensed me. I need to go, and you'd better scram as well. I'll say we had a disagreement while you were doing whatever she told you to actually do instead of rummaging through her things.”

Natsu nodded absently, only half-listening to Loke's hushed alibi, his mind still swimming. Loke rolled his eyes and readjusted his clothes with few, precise movements before he finally disappeared in a little explosion of golden sparks. What a show off.
He stayed there motionless despite what Loke had instructed him to do, sitting on the floor as his mind wandered off to an year before, and tried to recollect exactly everything that happened beside... beside the moment Igneel's life was snuffed off right in front of him. The memory still consumed his heart like a twisted, cursed flame that shone brightly and enveloped everything else in a cloud of dark, thick smoke. He felt like he was suffocating.

Happy's paw suddenly grabbed his hand and tugged delicately at it, saving him from the scathing pyre he was drowning in. He stared wide eyed at the little Exceed, who had known him since forever, who had seen him at his worst when nobody else was allowed near him and knew what to do when Natsu's heart was swallowed and burned to ashes by the smoldering pain.

Happy summoned his magic and floated on Natsu's back, grabbing his vest between his shoulder blades. “Come on, let's go before Lucy finds us here. We have a job she told us to do.”

Not that there was much chance they'd get back to that as of now, but it was an excuse just as any and Natsu was all too willing to grab onto the lifeline Happy was throwing him. He nodded and forced a weak smile on his face. Maybe a good brawl wouldn't be so bad after all, he could really use a beating to snap out of it.

“You're right, let's go kick some butts.”

–

"Guuaaargghhh!"

Lucy winced as Natsu yet again doubled over, holding tightly to the gunwale, and spilled the contents of his stomach in the deep blue sea beneath them. She curled her nose at the sight of what was once his dinner floating lazily among the waves until it was scattered and disappeared under the white foam the ship left in its wake.

"Would have thought you had long run out of ammo to throw up, by now." She pointed out evenly as Natsu slumped back on the floor of the rear deck, paler than a ghost. He was so miserable she had caved in and taken back her 'no motion sickness shenanigans' ultimatum. They'd been sailing for almost an entire day by now, and after the first two hours it was clear to everyone he wouldn't be able to hold it back for much longer.

Captain Stark and his crew didn't take the news too well. Lucy, Natsu and Happy had been sitting there at the rear deck for the last three hours - Captain's strict orders, he probably didn't want them to disrupt his men's work - and the sailors that occasionally passed them by never failed to throw them a disdainful glare. It was obvious the three mages weren't welcome on board.

A particular man, muscular and tanned, had taken a particular dislike to Lucy, and she was sure she heard him whisper to his mate something about a woman on board bringing only bad luck.

Well, she did wish for the pirates to show up, so in a sense he was right, she had reasoned. Natsu, who had a much finer hearing, hadn't been just as understanding as her: he had growled angrily and stood up, probably to go and give the man a piece of his mind, only to stagger and fall back as soon as he lifted himself to an upright position. That's when Lucy had decided to take pity on him and carry him to the gunwale so he could feel sick freely, without being a burden to anyone else.

Now, after eighteen hours of absolute calm, she was getting restless. What if the ship wasn't attacked? All of their efforts would go to waste, and she wasn't sure Natsu would last the whole four-days long trip to Lilium's docks. They had already wasted enough time and energy, they really couldn't afford much more.

Lucy sighed dejectedly and stood up, leaning over the handrail. The nightly sea breeze was chilly and gave her goosebumps that wouldn't go away no matter how hard she rubbed her exposed arms. She really should have packed a long sleeved shirt. And definitely a hat, her hair was all damp from the sea water occasionally spraying from beneath the ship's keel as it cut through the waves.

She squinted, but the moonless night was like a heavy veil for her tired eyes, impossible to see through. They were way too far from the coast to see any light, and even the stars were hidden, suffocated behind a thick curtain of clouds, like a toxic miasma. Lucy didn't want to dwell on how awfully foreboding that felt.

She shivered, and it hardly had anything to do with the cold outside.

Suddenly, she felt a hand grab at her leg, wrapping the calloused fingers around her knee. The warmth it radiated was impossible to mistake, and when she lowered her gaze she found Natsu still holding her limb, an unreadable expression on his usually cheerful face. She raised an eyebrow and he shrugged, but he didn't let go. Instead, it felt like his grip grew tighter, like he didn't want to let her go.

"It looked like you were cold." He said simply. "You hate the cold, even though you hardly have clothes fit to keep you warm. Weirdo." he snickered, but it came out too weak to be believable. He really was under the weather, and Lucy had the nagging feeling it was something bigger than the usual motion sickness. He had been acting weird ever since the day before, when they met up after they were done spreading around the rumors about the Calypso, and Lucy was going crazy trying to figure out what happened the one or two hours she didn't keep an eye on him. He and Happy had been avoiding her eyes all the time after that, like they were ashamed of something, and they both weren't willing to tell her what. They hadn't even tried to embarrass her once the whole night. It had to be something really serious for the two top pranksters of Fairy Tail to refrain from teasing their favorite practice dummy.

Being kept in the dark, she realized all over again, with even more clarity than last time, truly hurt, and the worst was knowing she had been subjecting her two friends with this same pain for days. She didn't ask what was wrong, not even once; she didn't feel she had the right to demand to be let in his private matters.

Still, she did notice the bruises on his forearm, bruises of the kind she was familiar with. She had interrogated Loke at length about the fight they had; apparently, he had materialized into the human world of his own volition because the Dragon Slayer had been on the brink of jeopardizing the mission with his running mouth, and Loke's astonishing sense of duty towards his gorgeous master - his words - just compelled him to appear and shut him up in time. His version of the facts actually fit with Natsu's own, but Lucy couldn't shake off the feeling her most loyal spirit and friend were keeping something from her. Loke's pick up lines had been even more awful than usual.

So many secrets, Lucy couldn't take this anymore. She just wanted to go back to how things were before Tartaros, when she and Natsu were so comfortable with each other that even sharing a bed wasn't that much of a deal anymore, it was just a natural progression of things. Now it felt like they were constantly scrambling, making something up on the spot as to not upset the other, forcing themselves to be something they weren't to appease each other. It was so, so wrong.

She sat back on the deck at Natsu's side, and he snaked his bruised arm around her shoulders, protectively. She felt a pang of guilt at the display of affection and love she didn't deserve, but she quickly silenced it and let his warmth wash over her, keeping her safe and sound, like a safety blanket. Who knew for how long she'd be able to be this close to him, if she worked up the courage and told him everything once this mission was over. He probably wouldn't even look at her anymore.

"I heard sailors used stars to navigate through the seas before compasses were invented," Natsu's voice, still raspy and shaking, whispered in her ear as to not wake Happy, who was peacefully slumbering on his lap. Lucy blinked, taken off guard by Natsu's unexpected knowledge.

"Yes. The North Star of the Grand Chariot was the main guidance for travelers, in the past. I'm surprised you know this."

Natsu smiled brightly, or at least he tried. It looked more like a pained grimace to Lucy's trained eyes. "It's so cool. I wish I was able to do that. It would have been a great help back when--" he trailed off, and Lucy took a sharp breath. Now it was not the time to remember those times. He leaned back and looked up at the dark sky above their heads, frowning slightly. "You know all of them, right? It fucking sucks it's so cloudy today, I can't see a single light."

Lucy nodded stiffly, oddly grateful for the bad weather hindering what would have been a very awkward star gazing session. Natsu never particularly enjoyed learning about the stars, and Lucy had soon given up trying to teach him. "Yeah, a storm is brewing ahead."

Natsu sniffed the air and winced. "I dunno. This feels pretty fishy to me. There's a weird smell in the air, one that wasn't there earlier."

Lucy disentangled herself from his hold and sat straight up, her hand shooting down to her keys instinctively. Natsu's nose was never wrong, especially when he was smelling trouble. He was the absolute best at that, and not only because he often was the cause.. Still, he didn't look to worried, although it was true Natsu's enormous self-confidence often caused him to downplay the actual danger until someone he held dear - usually Lucy herself - got hurt. At that point all hell was bound to break loose.

"Weird how?"

"I don't know," he shook his head, irritated by his inability to precisely pinpoint the nature of the threat. He was very proud of the accuracy of his nose. "But it's strangely familiar, and also foreign, like an old friend I haven't seen in a long time..."

Natsu never finished explaining Lucy what he meant by that: suddenly, out of literally nowhere, a huge wave crashed against the ship's keel, sweeping it powerfully to the side. Stark emerged from his cabin and shouted order after order to his panicked men, who managed to get a grip on themselves under his firm commands and stabilize the ship once again, even after yet another massive wave followed the first one.

Lucy barely heard Natsu curse loudly and Happy waking up with a shriek over the sound of her own heartbeat spiking up to impossible levels, her heart beating fast and hard like it wanted to break free of her ribcage and flee, much like she did. She knew that wave, the magic power running through the water, the particular sweeping movement from the right to the left, she had been caught in those death traps countless times.

She felt her throat constrict as it finally dawned on her. It was happening, at last.

And she wasn't ready.

As panic coiled around her limbs like a snake, keeping her frozen and still as her mind thrashed, Natsu grabbed Happy and held him close to his chest with an arm while with the other he pinned Lucy down, half covering her with his body. Lucy yelped at the sudden weight pushing her flat against the deck.

"What are you doing?!?"

"We need to stay close," he groaned softly but firmly, gnashing his teeth hard as to fight back the urge to throw up again. He couldn't afford to feel sick now, he had to stay strong and protect Lucy and Happy in case something attacked them. These waves were too strong and too sudden to be natural. The ship rocked violently under the pressure of another wave ramming hard into it. The freezing water reared over the rail and slapped in the three mages in their faces like a whip, soaking them to the bone.

"SWERVE TO THE LEFT!!" Stark bellowed to his helmsman, and Lucy jumped in surprise; in her shock, she hadn't realized the captain was standing so close. He was holding tightly to the mast to keep his balance, and all she could see were his shoulders, but Lucy could tell he was furious with them for their inability to protect the ship. Lucy felt her cheeks grow hot in shame and bit her lip, just as she followed the captain's line of sight and her heart sank to her feet.

They were heading straight to a massive, twenty feet tall wall of dark water. White foam glistened sharply as the wave started breaking and curving, pulled down by gravity, like a beast showing its fangs as it got ready to leap and sink them into its prey, beautiful and deadly.

They would never make it on time to escape the crash of that liquid concrete pillar on their heads, the loaded cargo ship wasn't fast enough, even if they deployed the lacrima-powered engines, which she was sure Stark already did. Looking to the side, she saw the crates of goods being thrown off the ship, in a desperate attempt to lighten the ship and make it faster.

She bit her lip, and the salty taste of the water mixed with her own blood on the tip of her tongue. This wasn't right, she had taken up this mission and Natsu even said she was in charge, so why was she lying there, shaking like a leaf, as Natsu laid on top of her, protecting her from the upcoming danger, even if he was the one in the most pain among all of them. It was supposed to be the opposite.

They had all believed in her, placed their faith on her, and now she was letting them down.

Gritting her teeth, she pushed Natsu away from her, for once grateful to his motion sickness for weakening him enough for her to struggle away from under his arm. Natsu rolled to the side, Happy still clutched tightly against him, and yelped in surprise.

"Lucy!! Where are you going?!?"

She pushed herself back to her feet, swaying dangerously with the rolling ship, but somehow managed to stand upright. Natsu wasn't so lucky and fell back to his knees. She sprinted ahead and grabbed onto Stark's coat, tugging it violently until he took notice of her. He glared at her with a ferocity that would have made her quail under normal circumstances, but she returned it in kind.

"Keep moving forward!"

"Are you fucking crazy, woman?!? It's bad enough you are no use to help us out, you want us dead? Know your fucking place, kid!"

Lucy clenched her teeth and let her magic flow freely through her body. Her skin started glowing, pulsing with starlight magic. Stark actually backed down a bit.

"I said, keep moving forward."

There was a moment of silence as the two kept skewering each other with their eyes alone, fighting with all their strength to make the other fall first. Lucy felt her blood pounding in her ears, loud and warm like it was on fire. She wasn't willing to back down. Then Stark lowered his eyes and spat angrily at the floor. Lucy was too angry to care or be disgusted by the crude action.

"CHANGE OF PLANS! MOVE FORWARD!" He yelled for his men's benefit. Several of them protested, but a glare from Stark proved to be enough to make them swallow their remarks and get back to work. Then he turned back to Lucy. "I really hope you didn't inherit only Jude's attitude at giving out orders, Heartfilia."

Lucy nodded, realizing this was the last time the weathered sailor was about to trust her. Not that there would be much more instances to do so in case she failed, they were all going to die here if her plan didn't work.

She wondered if Stark or his men had a family, something they wanted to protect, something they desperately wanted to come back to once they were through this hell. Suddenly she felt all the weight of the responsibility that had been thrust on her, that she had accepted to bear. She nodded and straightened to her full height.

"I'll bring you all out of here, safe and sound. I promise."

She ignored Natsu and Happy's calls behind her as she ran across the deck to the bow, as fast as she could on the slippery and askew floor. She saw the one sailor that talked bad about her slip to the side and miss the handrail, and in a second she had pulled out her whip and brandished through the air; the ethereal rope responded to her desires with precision and coiled itself around the leg of the man before he could fly completely off the ship and be lost in the crashing waves under them. With a violent tug that almost disjointed her shoulder and a strained groan, she managed to throw him back on the deck. Lucy ran past him before he was over his shock and could do much more than mumble a weak 'thanks'.

As she reached the bow, she knew that wave was way beyond her control, even if she was to summon all of her water magic to subdue it. Her power was a meager copy, a pale shadow when compared to the real deal.

The wave roared furiously and finally came down, furious and unstoppable, the white ripples tumbling and mounting as they made their way down on the ship - on her - like a snow-slide, ready to swallow the ship and its passengers whole. She had no time left. There was only one thing she could do, and only one chance to make it right.

Lucy dropped to her knees and brought her fist to her chest, clutching her wrist with her other hand to make it stop shaking so damn much . It had been so long since she took up a mission, she had never tried this in an actual battle, and now she was going to pay dearly for her cold feet. If she failed there was no chance to escape alive, and it would be entirely her fault. All these men, Stark, Natsu and Happy, herself... they all were going to die, all because she hadn't been strong enough.

She was tired to lose the people she cared about the most because of her weakness.

Her right fist glowed suddenly, like a beacon in the stormy night, and nine small lights floated around her wrist. If she focused hard enough, she could almost see them, all her Spirits, placing their hands on her own, giving her their strength and courage. Her magic soared in response to their call. The first few drops of water hit her face.

She smiled softly and raised her hand, held steady with the help of her friends, only to slam her open palm hard onto the wooden floor. The magic flooded through her arm and surged across the ship, rippling through the surface. For a second, she felt all the passenger's hearts beat as one within her chest.

"FAIRY SPHERE!!!"

Chapter Text

A flash of light tore the dark curtain of the night to shreds.

It was so intense, so blinding Natsu was forced to close his eyes shut and raise a hand to shield his face from the heat the pulsing light emitted, like a heart pumping fire. It was hot, scorching even, but what struck him the most wasn't its power, but its... kindness. It stretched out and enveloped him whole, seeped through his skin and reached his soul, soothing and intimate, loving, like a mother holding her beloved son to her chest, like a woman held a lover to her heart.

He felt strangely light, like he hadn't in forever; it was like he was wrapped in some sort of cocoon, cherished and safe.

It was a foreign sensation... no, not foreign, just forgotten. He hadn't felt so sheltered in a long, long while, not since Igneel had disappeared on him.

An unbidden tear pushed its way past his scrunched up eyelid. He hastily wiped it with the back of his hand.

The light slowly decreased in intensity, but the warmth stayed. And the smell, gods, the smell was overwhelming; his nostrils were full of the scent of lilies and wood and peppermint, sweet but strong, and for a second he thought he was back at Lucy's place, nodding off on her bed or her couch while he waited for her to come back home from the guild or wherever that weirdo was. It was Lucy's smell, intoxicating and addicting and relaxing. It was the smell of home.

Slowly, he cracked his eyes open.

He was met with a sight he was sure he'd never forget; the whole ship was surrounded by a giant orb that looked like it was made of solid, golden light. The temperature inside the shield was extremely pleasant, the icy breeze that bit into his skin just a few moments ago already long forgotten, and yet he knew, for some reason, that the outer surface of the sphere was likely burning, ignited by the overwhelming desire to protect.

That huge wave that threatened to split the ship in two had been reduced to a thick fog of scalding steam upon contact with the spell. It evaporated instantly, like a puddle under the ravaging summer sun, without even managing as much as swaying the ship inside the golden sphere. At the front, just above the bow, the massive Fairy Tail mark stood proudly like a defiant flag, flanked by three wavy wing-like patterns.

His mouth fell open as he took in the scene. It was like the night had prematurely given way to the day all around the ship as a second, new sun rose from the sea to chase it away. But the real focus of his attention was the girl – the woman – still kneeling down on the deck, her golden hair shining and dancing wildly in the wind, struggling to get free from her side ponytail. It looked like a liquid star, burning and radiant and fierce.

She was gorgeous.

Around him, the rest of the crew slowly came to and their awed gasps broke his concentration. They all jumped to their feet and started screaming – some were crying, some were thanking their stars for the protection proffered, some were yelling profanities – as Stark tried to rein them in, but failing miserably when his own voice cracked with marvel and shock. Their rudeness almost irked Natsu; couldn't they shut up and respect the enormous effort and love that Lucy poured into this spell? Why couldn't they feel how deep the urge to protect ran within the golden dome above their ungrateful heads?

Happy shifted lightly against his coat, and Natsu suddenly remembered he was still holding onto him. He hastily released him and the Exceed stretched out his wings and flew to his left shoulder. When he glanced around and his eyes adjusted to the bright light enough to allow him to actually see, he gasped loudly and whooped gleefully, suspiciously unsurprised by the turn of events.

“Oooh, it's Lucy's Fairy Sphere!!”

“Wait up,” Natsu choked out, his voice quieter and rougher than he expected due to the motion sickness and the surprise combined. Unlike everyone else on the ship, he wasn't comfortable with making too much noise within the shield. “You mean you knew she could do that?!?”

When did that happen? When the hell did he leave her side enough for her to learn one of the three Great Fairy Magics? If Happy was there, surely Natsu couldn't be too far away.

Again he felt a stab of jealousy, but if it was easy to aim it at Juvia and not to feel too guilty about it, the same couldn't be said about his faithful winged friend. Being the only one out the loop stung, but he couldn't bring himself to be actually be pissed at Happy.

Happy nodded, smiling proudly like he was the one who had cast the spell. “Aye! It happened during the fight with Acnologia's physical body. It was her idea, to use Fairy Sphere to restrain him. Meredy had to connect all the mages in Fiore to Lucy to make it strong enough, but in the end it worked. Then he just disappeared after you beat him in the other dimension. It was awesome!”

He clung to every word of Happy's explanation, drinking them in like a man gulped water from an oasis he accidentally stumbled upon after getting lost in a desert. He was thrown back to that final fight, he could almost feel Acnologia's rough skin and bones giving away under his smashing fist, ablaze with the hearts of all seven slayers together, Acnologia's eyes growing wide with shock and panic as, for some unknown reason, he was unable to move his body and dodge the blow... For months Natsu had been wondering why the black dragon had just taken the hit head on, without even trying to defend himself...

So it had been Lucy's doing, all along. The realization hit him so hard he would have likely staggered and fell down on his ass if he hadn't already been crouching on the floor, but nevertheless he felt the corners of his mouth twitch and curl upwards in a smile. Of course Lucy would break through despite the odds, with her quick thinking and a little help.

“Heh.” he laughed quietly, so that only Happy could hear him. “That's my girl.”

Happy chuckled but didn't comment on the peculiar choice of words. Instead, he flew off his shoulder and pointed at Natsu's guild mark. “Natsu! Your mark, it's glowing!”

“Wha-”

Without thinking, he brought a hand to cover his shoulder where the blazing red Fairy Tail guildmark was imprinted onto his skin, but instead he saw it had turned golden and emitted a soft glow. Under the touch it was hot, pleasantly so, and throbbed lightly with magic, following a heartbeat that wasn't his. Or rather, it wasn't only his.

Wordlessly, he gestured Happy to turn around. The Exceed promptly obeyed and Natsu could see an identical golden shine coming from his back, under the small satchel he kept tied to his neck. He hastily tried to recollect whatever he could of what First had said when she had appeared in front of all of them at Tenrou Island after she had protected them with Fairy Sphere. Something about the strength of their bonds being the source of the defensive spell's power.

In that moment, the three of them were connected down to their very core. The thought should have weirded him out, at least a little bit, but instead, against all his expectations, he only felt a deep calmness and sense of completion. It was comfortable and reassuring.

“Wow, it's incredible.” he couldn't keep out the awe from his voice, and Happy noticed: he snickered and wiggled his eyebrows, or what were supposed to be the Exceed equivalent of human eyebrows.

“You llliiiikee her.”

Natsu rolled his eyes, doing his best to play it cool, but he felt a weird heat pooling around his neck. He slowly stood up, stumbling a little bit when the ship rolled gently under his feet and his stomach churned violently in response. Lucy's familiar smell permeating the air somewhat helped keeping the motion sickness at bay, but not enough that he'd stop feeling like his insides were planning a rebellion against him from within. Holding his stomach, he took a wobbly step towards Lucy's straightening figure ahead. “Shut up before she hears you and kicks you into next week.”

Several feet across them, Lucy was finally getting back on her feet, staggering slightly as well under the violent strain the spell had put on her. It truly was one of the three Great Fairy Magics and now that she had been forced to sustain it all on her own she understood why it was so. She let out a shaky breath and made to wipe the fine sheen of sweat coating her forehead with her hand, but stopped mid-motion when she caught sight of her guildmark, now golden and shining and warm. Focusing intently on it, she could feel the light throb of other two magic cores that she knew all too well.

She studied her hand for a few seconds, interested, noting to herself to tell Freed and Levy about it the first time she saw them. She was sure they'd be thrilled.

After an moment that seemed like it lasted several centuries to her oversensitive brain, the fog of steam started to clear, just as she heard Natsu and Happy catch up to her.

“Wow, Luce, that was soooo c-”

She held up a hand to cut Natsu off. Squinting harshly against the rapidly thinning out white smoke, she climbed over the bow deck and leaned over the gunwale. She was sure she had seen something moving just a bit ahead...

A sudden explosion shook violently the ship, eliciting a surprised shout out of Lucy, who lost her balance and would have fallen off the ship if Natsu and Happy hadn't reacted as fast as they did and leaped after her, grabbed her firmly and effortlessly dragged her back to the deck. She made to thank them, but a voice coming somewhere in front of them made her blood freeze in her veins.

“Fool!” the voice – a woman's voice, powerful and full of contempt – yelled at whoever had caused that blast. “There's nothing you can do to the ship as long as this shield is up!”

Lucy's heart was hammering so hard in her ears she almost didn't catch the snarl the first voice got in response. Natsu must have had, though, because he hissed a curse through his teeth and snapped his head to the side, where a small corvette materialized from the night. It was fast and fairly small, black like the darkest night; it was no wonder the pirates were so hard to detect until moments before they struck, and at that point it was already too late. A ragged flag billowed threateningly from the mast, all black with three red slash-like lines running across the background, a promise of what was going to happen to the poor souls that had the misfortune to fall into the pirates' claws.

Lucy couldn't bring herself to care about the pirate ship closing in on them though, not now that the steam had finally disappeared and she could see a familiar silhouette floating over the surface of the water, her aquamarine hair flaring into the breeze. Half of her form was still shrouded in darkness, where the gleam of the shield couldn't reach, but when those piercing blue eyes, deeper than the ocean and harbingers of a storm, met Lucy's, spearing her from side to side, all of Lucy's doubts vanished.

Aquarius was there, in flesh and bones, gorgeous and bringer of death and destruction. Lucy's felt her knees go weak, like they had turned into jelly all of sudden, and had to grab onto the rail to keep herself upright.

There was a good distance between them, but even Lucy could see Aquarius' lips pull in a malicious smirk that showed gleaming, jagged teeth, and tilt her head slightly before she gracefully dived down into the dark depths of the sea beneath them, barely breaking the water surface. A clear invite to follow her.

Before she knew it, without even needing to tell her body what to do, she toed off her boots and threw them to the side. She saw a warning glow from her keys, but she ignored it. She was completely focused on Aquarius, on the spot of water where she had disappeared, too eager to go and reach her to heed her Spirits' warnings.

Deaf to anything else but the song of the mermaid beckoning her to reach her that filled her soul, Lucy swung a leg over the gunwale, ready to dive down. That is, until a burning hand closed on her forearm and forcefully brought her back again for the second time. This time, she fought against her captor, but soon enough she found herself lying on her back, Natsu hovering over her and pinning her down without hardly breaking a sweat.

“Lucy!” Natsu was yelling. He still looked paler than usual, but the strength he was clasping her arm with told her he at least recovered enough to render her thrashing and kicking useless. “Are you crazy? You can't go in there!”

“Let me go!!” she shrieked as she kept struggling against his iron hold uselessly. No matter how hard she clawed at his wrists, her nails painting scarlet crescents over his skin where they dug and drew blood, he wasn't budging in the slightest. “I have to go! I have to!!”

Natsu winced at the rawness of her voice, not unlike to the anguished cry of a wounded beast being held down and caged. He hated to see her like this, torn and desperate, and he most definitely loathed being forced to make use of his superior physical strength to restrain her.

And her eyes, blown wide with fear and mad fury and betrayal... he soon found out he couldn't hold eye contact for more than a second without feeling a deep pain stab him through his stomach.

But as much as he couldn't stand to force Lucy down and limit her freedom, he could stand even less the idea of Lucy wandering off somewhere he couldn't follow her to keep her safe. He'd sooner take her hate and scorn for however long it lasted than have her die under his watch. He knew the other ship was still around, waiting like a shark for Fairy Sphere to fade and give them a chance to pounce.

A couple of feet above their heads, Happy peered down at his human friends, wrestling with each other on the ship deck, looking troubled and uncertain. “Hm, wasn't that-”

Natsu knew exactly what Happy was thinking about, mainly because he had that same realization just a few moments ago, when the mysterious figure had spoken up and vanished through the waves.

It all fit perfectly together, like the missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle: Lucy's strained smiles, the scarce use of her newly acquired Water Magic, the clippings, Loke's overprotective attitude... the hints had been there all along, but he'd never stopped to take them into consideration. Would he ever have, hadn't this mission show up when it did? Or would he have simply kept turning a blind eye to it, thinking she would somehow get over her broody mood on her own, and dragging her around so he could show her how cool he was for the umpteenth time? Because everything that wasn't centered about him, and only him, was just boring or unworthy of his attention?

He didn't honestly know.

Natsu and Happy locked eyes for a moment, and he felt Lucy's heart beat even faster under his fingers, her breath turning fast and ragged, full of fear. She was aware that they now knew.

Lucy's sight went blurry with tears as adrenaline rushed through her system; with a surge of desperate strength she managed to throw him off balance enough to wriggle her hand free and elbow him hard into his side, pushing him away from her completely. He grunted in pain and rolled away, but she knew he'd be back on his feet in no time. And indeed, by the time her fingers closed over the gunwale's rail his arm was already shooting out to her, ready to grab her and pull her back-

SNAP!

For a moment, time seemed to stop.

Natsu stared at her, wide eyed, and took a step back, as the searing pain on his wrist where Fleuve d'Etoile struck him quickly seemed to spread and engulf his whole body like a wildfire. The blow had broken the skin and blood was lazily pooling in the gap, drawing a thin crimson line across his wrist and forearm. It prickled and burned, but it was nothing compared the ravaging pain into his heart, like someone had just stabbed him through the chest with a white-hot sword and was now proceeding to slowly pull it out.

Natsu and Lucy were not new to trading punches and kicks and throwing random stuff to each other when they got worked up. It was the Fairy Tail way and Lucy had immediately fit in the habit. He lost count of how many Lucy-Kicks in the face he got over the years, and he never complained about it. Instead, he liked how she fiercely retaliated to his antics, it was fun.

But never before now Lucy had felt the need to raise her weapon against him.

Lucy took an unsteady breath and covered her mouth with a hand, trembling like a leaf and blinking the tears away. Then she dropped her hand and lowered her whip, the watery rope that had coiled around her protectively shrinking back in response to her will.

“I-I'm sorry...”

Both Natsu and Happy didn't reply, still horrified by her attack. Because that's what that was, under all the fancy words she kept telling herself to justify her action. An attack, and nakama never attack each other. Fairy Tail members never wished to hurt their friends.

With a braveness she didn't feel, she pressed on. “This... is something I need to do on my own. Please, just stay away and protect the ship.” she gestured to her glowing guildmark. “As long as the caster lives and a Fairy Tail member stays inside the spell, the shield will keep working. So please, please stay here.”

Please stay safe.

She let her whip drop on the floor and made to hoist herself up and past the gunwale. The waves danced tantalizingly against the keel, dark and impenetrable to her eyes. She gulped, scared and yet attracted by the endless depths of the sea that were calling for her so loudly.

“Wait, Lucy!” Happy called, and Lucy turned to see the Exceed was hovering between the distance Natsu had put between himself and Lucy, and kept throwing quick looks at the Dragon Slayer from over his winged shoulder. “You can't go there! If... If that person is Aq...” poor Happy, he was struggling to get the words out without breaking down in tears. “She's your nakama! You can't fight your friends!!”

Lucy shook her head, barely able to hold back her own tears. “Please, just this time, I need you to trust me.”

“I always trust you.”

Natsu's tone was quiet and confident, but Lucy nevertheless felt like he had just punched her right into her stomach with his strongest move. His small, but honest, if not a little sad, smile just doubled the strength of the blow, making her unable to breathe, let alone speak.

Seeing Lucy was not going to respond any time soon, he quickly decided to just go with the flow and say everything he was feeling at the best he could, and shyness be damned. “I always know you have my back no matter how dire and dangerous of a situation it is.” A wave of dizziness crashed over him and almost made him double over, but he bravely managed to stay upright and choke back a pained groan. He had not time to deal with his stomach right now. “I can tell this means a lot to you... so, go ahead, we're not going to get in your way anymore.”

Lucy wanted nothing more to close the distance and throw her arms around Natsu's neck and pull him close to her, bury her face in his chest and tell him how glad she was to have him as her partner, as her friend, and just how important he was to her.

Yet, all she could manage was just a weak “Thanks” that only Natsu's fine ears could pick up. The blinding smile she got in return was disarming.

“Now go and give 'em hell! We're gonna stay here to hold the fort until you're back!”

Because obviously Lucy had to go back. He was ready to evaporate the whole sea if she didn't come back on her own.

She wiped her tears away and nodded. “Of course. I promise.”

His heart clenched painfully as he watched her lift herself up and push away from the rail, propelling herself in the air. Her body, lean and firm, flew with impossible grace and drew a perfect arc through the air. She barely made ripples when she hit the water and disappeared under the waves.

“You sure it was a good idea?” Happy asked uncertainly. Natsu nodded, feigning a sureness he was not feeling. Even if his logical side kept telling him there was no other way, and that she deserved this, his protective nature kept screaming to get his sorry ass down there too and make sure she was safe.

That is, until a buzzing sound caught his attention and he turned just in time so witness the dark boat emerge from nowhere just a few feet from the surface of the shield. They were so close he could easily see the whole pirate crew, and most importantly the blond man standing arrogantly at the bow deck. He was unexpectedly tall and lean, with droopy eyes and an unpleasantly large mouth permanently open in a sneering smirk. From what Natsu could see, considering the man's open shirt, his whole body from the neck down was covered in black tattoos. Gross.

“Ha!” The man laughed loudly. “So I just need to kill off Blondie to get this stupid ass shield down! Well, not that I don't think Aqua won't be able to tear her apart on her own, but... let's give them some company and speed things up a little!”

He rose a hand and aimed it at the water; immediately a tattoo on his open palm gleamed and the air rippled where an identical drawing appeared out of nowhere. Natsu promptly recognized it as a summoning circle, similar to Lucy's Spirit Gates, and in fact a horrible, huge creature similar to a shark appeared out of thin air. The man laughed again and pointed at where he last saw Lucy vanish into the water.

“Go and get her, hon'!!”

But the creature never made it to the sea. A flying, flaming fist smashed straight into the creature's stomach, boring a hole through the decaying flesh.

To his credit, Aaron didn't even flinch when his summoned creature was burnt to a crisp, nor when an enraged Fire Dragon Slayer and his weird flying cat that was holding him up hovered between the two ships, flames licking at his skin and ready to erupt and consume the smaller boat whole.

Because Natsu had accepted to let Lucy go and have her fight, but if this asshole thought he could just go and get in her way he had another thing coming. A fire dragon, to be precise.

“Over my ashes, pal.”

Chapter Text

Lucy had to bite back a scream when her body touched the freezing waters. She felt the air in her lungs freeze and struggle to get out of her mouth, but she somehow managed to rein the urge in and keep her lips sealed. Goosebumps were scattered all over her exposed skin, and chills were shaking her body violently. Once this mission was over she'd make sure to stay the hell away from any form of cold water, Gray and Juvia included.

Taking advantage of the golden gleam Fairy Sphere emitted, Lucy peered at the watery depths stretching open below her feet for miles and miles, until the light couldn't reach anymore and everything melted away in an increasingly darker spectrum of blues until it faded away. Lucy gulped as she couldn't refrain from comparing the darkness beneath her to the gaping mouth of a monster, open wide and just waiting for the foolish prey to fall for the bait and march straight between its jaws.

And there, right at the seams, Lucy's eyes caught sight of a tail, too big to belong to a fish and too little to belong to a sea monster, whipping about, calling for her as it plunged into the impenetrable darkness. The song of the mermaid echoing in Lucy's heart grew stronger.

The air in her lungs was burning now, pleading her to resurface and let it free, but it seemed like such a minor need right now, air and breath, to Lucy's entranced mind. The only thing she desired was to chase that tail where she'd last seen it vanish. She couldn't be bothered to breathe right now, which maybe could be a problem in the long run. Or maybe not.

Just a little, for once... just enough to get down there alive. She reassured herself as she reached out to the magic she'd vowed to never use if not under extremely specific circumstances. Aquarius' Water Magic flowed through her system, from her chest to her fingertips, and suddenly the need for air was gone, replaced instead with a weird sense of contentment at being surrounded and caressed by the now pleasantly chilly currents. Even her sight had improved, allowing her to scan a wider area. Feeling suddenly a lot more confident, enveloped in her element, she pushed herself off the bottom of the ship.

The water did not offer any sort of resistance to her as she swam towards the dark underwater abyss; she effortlessly plowed through the current, easily as though the water was actively parting and getting out of her way, happily greeting her as she passed through and pushing her forward from behind. Even the pressure wasn't creating any problems despite the rapidly growing distance she was putting between herself and the surface.

If she had been a little more observant, she'd have noticed she never saw a single creature swimming around on her way downwards.

She swam and swam for she didn't know how long, her sense of time was completely thrown off down there in that silent, watery world, completely detached from everything she ever knew. When was the last time she took a breath, five minutes ago? One hour? Three days? She didn't know anymore.

The only thing she did know for certain was that the silhouette she'd been chasing so desperately and that kept flickering in and out of her sight, driving her mad, had finally come to a stop and was floating a few inches above the muddy floor. Quietly, Lucy gave a few last strokes and touched the ground, leaving a ten feet long gap between them. It was cold and soft under her bare feet, the sand dipping lightly as she put more weight on her legs.

“Took you long enough.” Aquarius sneered coldly. When Lucy didn't reply, too overwhelmed to be able to form words, the mermaid swam gracefully towards her until she was close enough for Lucy to finally take in her whole appearance.

Lucy gasped and hastily covered her mouth with her hands, her eyes wide with unrestrained horror and disgust: Aquarius' once fair skin was now covered in thin, opalescent gray scales, matching the shark-like tail that made up her lower half. Her hair was longer than it used to be, and it curled into wild waves all around her face and lithe frame, swaying like living snakes into the moving waters. Only her eyes, hard and sharp like diamonds, had stayed unchanged at all.

Her choker necklace was gone too, Lucy was absolutely dismayed to notice, replaced instead by an actual collar, thick and heavy, with a short length of chain dangling from it, that matched the similar chained handcuffs that wrapped around her wrists, just above her now scaled, clawed hands. Lucy was sure the other end of the chains was in the tight grasp of the accursed bastard holding her into servility.

But the absolute worst, and the thing that most caught Lucy's attention despite herself was the black mark marring her skin above her breastbone. Where once there was the symbol of Aquarius now there was a huge black burn mark, with three red slash-like lines over the dark background. Just like the dark guild's mark. It didn't take long to Lucy to understand what it meant.

She'd been branded. Aquarius, one of the most powerful Spirits man could ever summon to Earthland, who always held dear to her pride and hated to obey to orders, had been marked and defiled.

Lucy felt ready to throw up.

“What have they done to you?” she breathed out, so shocked she didn't even register the little bubbles punctuating her every word. Aquarius's smirk grew wider and more twisted, but her eyes thinned. Lucy's instincts picked up on that subtle shift and sent a red alarm to her brain.

Deciding to trust those instincts, Lucy pushed hard against the sea floor and propelled herself several feet away just as a massive pillar of water slammed impossibly hard on the same spot she was standing on just a few moments before, rising a cloud of sand that obscured her view for several seconds.

“Not your business.” Aquarius replied coolly from behind the sand screen. “You don't have the time to worry about that.”

Another jet of highly pressured water shot itself at Lucy, who leaped to the side to dodge it but was just a little bit too slow to move out of the way, and the beam caught on her left foot. The strength of the blow was enough to twist her ankle, and she was pretty sure she heard the sickening noise of bones breaking. She screamed as the unbearable pain shot through her leg and up her spine, and fell kneeling to the ground. Aquarius laughed again, and for some reason Lucy thought the sound of her cold, heartless amusement hurt much, much more than any physical injury.

“Ever the weak, pathetic fool you are, Lucy. Glad to see some things just don't change.”

Lucy's fingers closed into fists, clawing at the cold sand, but did not reply. It was almost amusing, all the times she dreamed she could talk to Aquarius one last time, all the fancy speeches she had come up with over the last year, and now that she really needed to say those words her brain was drawing a blank.

Pathetic.

She slowly forced herself to stand up despite the pain in her messed limb. She glanced at her leg and noticed the purple swelling at her ankle. It hurt and throbbed like hell, but at least it wasn't actively bleeding like she'd feared.

Swiftly and silently, Aquarius swam closer until they were almost nose-to-nose. Lucy could see her pale, scared reflection in those deep, dark eyes of hers. Aquarius smirked and licked her lips, displaying a set of jagged and pointy teeth that were begging to sink themselves in Lucy's flesh and tear her apart. A clawed hand harshly seized her throat, making her gasp. She instinctively struggled against the firm hold she was trapped in, but Aquarius's scales were too smooth and slippery and she couldn't get any leverage to pry them off, no matter how hard she tried.

“I'll make you regret ever coming down here, Lucy.”

Lucy felt herself being thrown backwards, only for something – Aquarius's powerful tail, she belatedly realized – to slam hard into her stomach. Lucy spluttered as she was flung away, straight into a rock that cracked under the force of the impact. Pain flooded her body and her mouth filled up with blood. She screamed, blood pouring from her mouth and newly made wounds and floating lazily around her like a crimson cloud, and her vision swam dangerously.

Feeling her distress, Loke shouted in her mind and his key glowed, like it always did when he was about to force his gate open. She forcibly kept it close with her own magic.

“Come on, Lucy, fight back!” Aquarius jeered, amused. “Entertain me! Killing you is going to be so boring if you don't put up at least a semblance of a fight.”

Her signature, crystal urn materialized in her hands. With a mad smirk splitting her beautiful face, she swung it sharply, sending yet another wave of water crushing onto Lucy, pushing her further inside the rock, smashing her bones to splinters. Lucy shrieked in pain again and her consciousness wavered, in an attempt to shut away the pain to defend itself, but she willed herself to stay awake.

“Show me!!” the powerful spirit yelled, “Show me how strong you've become without me to save your sorry ass all the time. Show me you're worth Layla's sacrifice!”

Lucy slowly slid down to the floor and wiped away the trail of blood dripping from her lips. Everything hurt, like she'd been run down several times by a train at full speed, and she was sure she had broken something, maybe a rib or two, perhaps even punctured a lung or her stomach. Under Aquarius's twisted, amused gaze, she rolled to her side and scrambled on the sandy floor for purchase. Slowly, with a trembling hand she grabbed at the cracked rock and pulled herself up to her feet. The pain that simple gesture entailed made her feel like she'd been set on fire.

“I don't want to fight you.”

The amusement immediately vanished from Aquarius's face. Her lips twisted and pulled into a ferocious snarl. “Oh?”

“You... are right. Have always been. I'm weak, never able to stand on my own.” Admitting it out loud hurt, but she had plenty of time to reflect on that, and she'd long come to the conclusion it was simply the truth. It didn't matter what Loke kept saying to comfort her, she was not strong enough to keep up with the others. She only dragged them down, and her spirits as well.“You have all rights to be angry at me, to want me dead, and I don't blame you for that. My weakness is what cost you your freedom, and I'll take responsibility for it.”

She closed her eyes, and made to take a deep breath out of habit, but only a cold stream of water filled her airways. It was a strange sensation, inhaling water and not feeling the urge to cough it out, but not unpleasant. It was surprisingly regenerating, like the water itself was listening and somehow supporting her.

It was impossible, obviously, but yet she managed to straighten up despite all the horrible injuries she had already taken. Despite herself, she smiled. “You saved me so many times. This time I'll be the one to save you.”

There was a beat of silence, in which Lucy could see several emotions flicker through Aquarius's face – confusion, surprise but also... pain and fear? – before she laughed that loud, derisive laugh of hers.

“Saving me? You? Oh, please, I don't need to be saved, and even less by the likes of you!”

A bullet of water pelted the rock behind Lucy, punching a hole through it. The recoiling blast whipped Lucy's face and several pebbles grazed her cheek, drawing crimson lines where they broke her skin.

“And that's where you're wrong! All those innocents that lost their lives at your hands... You never wanted to kill those people, I just know it!”

A whip of water slapped her face hard, making her yelp in pain and stumble to the ground. She expected to hear the mermaid laugh at her again, but only silence met her ears. Surprised, she looked up and saw Aquarius had swam closer, no trace of hilarity on her face. She was trembling, holding on to her celestial urn for dear life.

“What I do is no longer any business of yours,” she spat angrily, “A spirit exists to serve its master's will, no matter what it is.”

“No, that's not true!!” Lucy bellowed, barely realizing her eyes were watering at the corners. Underwater, her tears were quick to fade, swallowed by the sea. Once again she pushed herself off the ground to a kneeling position. She didn't care if she had to crawl and beg Aquarius on her knees, she'd do anything as long as she managed to make Aquarius understand. “Spirits and humans are supposed to be equals, not masters and slaves! Celestial Spirits are made to guide the humans, not serve under them!”

“Look at what happened with Leo!” Aquarius cried out, cutting her off. “A Celestial Spirit is bound to its master's absolute wishes by strict laws set up by the King himself!”

“But we saved him!” Lucy felt the familiar pull of Loke's magic against her own, demanding her to open the gate and let him out. She knew he was listening in and his overly protective nature was commanding him to step in and defend his master in this argument, especially since it now involved him directly. But Lucy kept a firm hold of his gate and didn't let go. She needed to do this alone. “Just like I'm going to save you!”

“You CAN'T!!!”

Aquarius gritted her teeth and again lashed her urn down with a swift, smooth movement Lucy's eyes almost missed entirely, how fast it was, creating a sharp wave that hit Lucy squarely in her chest and sent her flying and rolling several feet backwards.

Whimpering, she scrambled to get back on her feet, but her arms and legs finally gave away and she flopped back onto the ground, rising a small cloud of sand in her wake.

Aquarius drew near once again, staring down at the crumpled form of her former master's daughter with unreadable, emotionless eyes. Slowly, she raised her urn above her head, that started glowing with energy. The pale blue light danced wildly on her iridescent skin and long, cobalt hair, and Lucy couldn't refrain from thinking she'd never seen anyone more beautiful than her. The chains binding her to the dark wizard's will floated threateningly around her, and never like now Lucy wished she was physically strong enough to forcefully tear them off.

Weak as she was, she could only cry for the suffering her oldest, beloved friend had been forced to endure just because Lucy hadn't been strong enough to prevent her sacrifice.

“As always, you disappoint me, Lucy.” she said, “If you're not going to fight for your life, then what was the point of all this?”

Lucy didn't reply, only kept weeping freely. She closed her eyes, waiting for the final blow, but she didn't bow down. She didn't see a tear slide off Aquarius' stormy eyes and fade away into the water surrounding them.

“Goodbye Lucy, I'll never forget you.”

Like the axe of an executioner, the now filled urn struck down.

Chapter Text

Crumpled on the sea floor and wounded all over, Lucy could only watch as the water started to twist and turn around them, pooling into Aquarius’s urn. Despite the deadly threat that the ravaging currents dangled above her head, Lucy couldn’t help to be mesmerized by the show of power that used to be so familiar, so comforting.

She had missed Aquarius so damn much.

She closed her eyes, letting the sensation flood her senses and drown everything else and she could almost feel the rivulets of water straying from their spiralling path to give a playful bump on her shoulder or her head, and whisper encouragement in her ear.

Don’t give up.

Stand up and fight.

Help me.

Her eyes snapped open suddenly. There was no way she heard that correctly, but indeed she took finally notice of the full urn, ready to strike and take her life for good. And yet she was still alive.

That’s when her magic, all on its own, started to swell within her. It raised and raised, engulfing all her other senses, and the more it stormed inside her, the clearer she could sense Aquarius’s own Celestial Magic, even if it was muffled by the accursed seal the pirate guild had forced on her.

She could feel Aquarius’s magic course through the waves, spiking up and down erratically, hesitant - almost fearful - to actually land the blow.

Another tear escaped her eyes and was immediately swallowed into the whirling streams.

Aquarius clicked her tongue in disdain. “Is that the only thing you can do? Crying when things get tough?” She spat out angrily. She hated the watery, gentle look in Lucy’s big doe-like eyes, so similar to Layla’s and yet so different. Oh, how much she loathed the girl for whom Layla gave up her life. “Pathetic.”

But she didn’t strike. Not yet, she wasn’t ready. She wanted to properly savour this glorious moment, she wanted Lucy to be fully aware of how inferior she was to her mother before punishing her. She wanted Lucy to understand how foolish she was to come all the way out here and then refuse to fight.

”Kill her.” the vile, oily voice of her forced master hissed through her mind. ”Now!”

No, not yet. She needed more power, she needed to utterly floor and crush Lucy. She wanted to see Lucy scramble to find a solution and try to fight, only to realize there was no chance for her to win.

Come on, Lucy, fight back. Let me see how much you’ve improved without me to save your ass

The choker sitting at the base of her neck tightened all of a sudden, burning her skin, while the free end of the dark chain, as though it developed a mind of its own, rose and started to slither up her raised arm like a black, shiny snake, and tugged hard downwards, pulling the urn’s brim an inch lower, ready to spill its magic onto Lucy.

Aquarius summoned all of her strength and held it back, panting slightly from the sheer effort.

Come on, Lucy, I won’t be able to hold it for much longer.

And Lucy simply stared, absolutely horrified by the sick display of power and submission unfolding in front of her eyes.

Fury and rage filled every cell of her body, and her magic rose further, begging to be released. More tears flooded her eyes, full of anguish and outrage, as she covered her mouth with a trembling hand.

That man was going to pay dearly for what he’d done to Aquarius. She swore it to the High Heavens.

But Aquarius was losing the battle. Inch after inch, the one-sided contract chaining Aquarius to her master was forcing her to unleash the attack without her consent. She pulled back and struggled, but to no avail, she could not oppose to his will.

If you have something up your sleeve now it’s the time to show it, Lucy.

“Goodbye Lucy,” sneered for Lucy’s benefit.. “I’ve always known you don’t have what it takes to wield the power of a Zodiac Celestial Spirit.”

Finally the pressure of Aaron’s will grew too heavy to bear, and Aquarius’s arms lashed down, hurtling the little sea storm she created towards Lucy.

But nothing happened.

All of a sudden, Aquarius felt her magic flicker wildly and wither away from the waves, that immediately calmed down to an almost eerie stillness. Her magic was forcibly walled and rejected back from the water into her own body.

“What?” she gasped and stared at the urn in her hands, now empty and not glowing anymore, genuinely astonished. Never, in the entire time she existed, a body of water - no matter its width - refused to bend its will to Aquarius Celestial Water Magic, nor it should ever be possible by definition. Celestial Elemental Magic was supposed to override any other Elemental Magic and take absolute control of it.

But then, why? Why in the Heavens her magic was being denied?

She looked back at Lucy, and she started so hard she almost dropped the urn: Lucy still on the floor, on her fours, clearly struggling to get back on her feet despite the many fractures Aquarius’ ferocious attacks had caused her, but what most caught Aquarius attention was the soft, pale blue glow emanating from her skin, and the whirlpool wrapped around her form, keeping her safe and supporting her. Her golden hair danced wildly alongside the streams, drawing golden streaks within the blue waves.

On instinct, she swung her powerful tail and rose a few feet up, staring down at Lucy as she slowly, so slowly, rose to a standing position.

It was impossible, absolutely outrageous. This was magic the likes of was strictly forbidden to any human. Not even Anna had ever managed to overpower the power of a Zodiac, and only the Celestial Spirit King had the authority to deny a Spirit’s power should the need arise. No, she reasoned with herself, whatever Lucy was doing was nowhere near that kind of power. It surely must have been a simple spell to temporarily block Aquarius’s channeled magic, but that’s all there was to it. Just a trick.

Somehow, though, her panic didn’t subside despite the explanation.

Despite herself, Aquarius found herself smirking. She laughed derisively at Lucy’s face, whose eyes were still closed, completely absorbed in her cheeky, cunning magic trick. She looked solemn, almost intimidating as she was so fiercely protected by the ocean, and even more infuriatingly similar to Layla and Anna than ever. She was torn between the desire to smash that pretty face to bits or bend to it.

“It’s useless, Lucy! Although I commend you for even trying, no trick is gonna save you now!”

She summoned all her magic again and once more she swung her urn, but just like before her power wavered and vanished. At the same time, Lucy’s magic power spiked up to impressive levels. Gritting her teeth and doing her best to ignore the terror - and something else… was it… pride? - twisting her guts, she tried again, and again, and again.

She failed again, and again, and again.

The weak waves she actually managed to summon and throw at Lucy stopped midway, and instead joined and increased the protective whirlpool around Lucy, that was swirling and spiraling harder than ever.

Finally, Lucy opened her eyes, and Aquarius felt speared from side to side from the sheer intensity and heat her golden irises emitted, like liquid fire. A name rose from Aquarius’ millennial memory and found its way to her lips.

“...Anna?”

Lucy shook her head and smiled, impossibly kind and warm, and Aquarius had to fight off the sudden, unreasonable desire to throw herself into her arms. A golden flash blinded her, and Lucy’s clothes morphed into an outfit startlingly similar to Aquarius’s own.

“I’m going to save you, Aquarius. I’m not backing away from that. It doesn’t matter what it takes, I promise you’ll be free again.”

That’s when Aquarius saw them, the tears streaming down Lucy’s face, glowing brightly like droplets of starlight, and swirling along the ocean waves, mingling with them.

She was thrown back to a decade earlier, in another place, with another blonde, beautiful woman looking fondly at her equally gorgeous young daughter across the massive garden of the Heartfilia Mansion.

--

”Hey, Aquarius, do you know what the One Magic is?” Layla asked, but her eyes never left the blonde toddler jumping and dancing around the perfectly manicured lawn. Aquarius threw a glance at the annoying brat and clicked her tongue.

“Again with that story? It’s just a legend you humans made up. There’s no One Magic to speak of according to the Celestial World.”

Layla chuckled, amused by the mermaid’s usual brashness.

“You’re probably right. But I want to believe it exists.”

Aquarius scoffed, but decided to play along with Layla’s little what if games. “Oh? Then what would this ever so powerful magic be, according to you?”

Layla took a moment to think, pursing her lips in that juvenile way she never truly managed to completely abandon. But her eyes lit up with understanding as she watched Lucy successfully raise herself into a handstand. The skirt of her dress started falling down, exposing her white socked ankles, but before it could show anything else her arms gave away and she tumbled down in a pink and golden heap on the floor.

Still, she immediately rose back to her feet and flashed a beaming smile to her mother.

“Momma, momma! Did you see? I did it!”

Layla cheered loudly and complimented the accomplishment as Aquarius scoffed again, peeved. That was no handstand, that was just a mess, like everything else this little girl seemed to do.

As Lucy set herself back to her foolish quest to perfect her handstand, Layla sighed fondly.

“I think the One Magic is--”

--

Love, huh?

Aquarius dropped the urn, which slowly floated down until it hit the sand beneath before it disappeared in a small shower of golden sparks.

Lucy stood proudly in the middle of the ocean that had happily bent its will to her, moved by her tears, her arms spread wide and her skin glowing brightly with a magic that surpassed Aquarius’ own. The whirlpool roared and screamed around her, obeying to the voice of her heart alone.

When the storm finally hit Aquarius at Lucy’s gesture and caught her in its vice, the Spirit didn’t even try to defend herself.

She let herself be swept away from waves of a force she hardly ever seen as the water wrapped itself around her body, around her choker and pushed, hard, so hard it was difficult to breathe. And then, finally, the choker and handcuffs broke, smashed into black splinters that were quickly shattered and scattered by the stream.

As the familiar pull of a Celestial Gate made itself known to her and inexorably dragged her to it, she found herself smiling.

This is your doing, you old man.

The deep amused snicker of the Celestial Spirit King filled her ears just before the Gate sucked her in, and everything turned white and warm like it hadn’t been in more than an year as she returned into the Celestial Realm, finally free.

--

“Natsu, watch out!”

Following Happy’s warning, Natsu inclined his body to the right and Happy steered the two of them in the foretold direction, just in time to dodge the attack of one of the swarm of dark, vile creatures that was holding the two Fairy Tail mages back in the air.

Natsu let the horrible winged Chimera sweep past him, and took advantage of the momentum to roundhouse kick it right into the gut. The ugly, distorted lion face twisted and groaned in pain and shot downwards, but just like its resilient companions, didn’t fade out and quickly recovered midair before hitting the stormy sea surface. On the contrary, the flames that had been enveloping Natsu’s limb immediately went out as soon as the blow connected.

“Tch!” he growled angrily as he dodged yet another beast, this one looking more like a giant, skeletrical vulture that gave Natsu the creeps just by looking at it, “This Water magic enveloping them is really annoying! My magic doesn’t work at all on these guys!”

“Natsu, look at the Calypso!”

Natsu promptly followed Happy’s line of sight and felt his stomach drop to his feet. The pirate corvette was just about to reach the now completely unprotected Calypso; any moment now and the cargo ship was about to be boarded, and there was no way the sailors would be able to go up against a bunch of mages, even of worthless level such as those.

“Crap! We gotta go help ‘em!”

Happy didn’t waste time to shoot upwards in an attempt to get rid of the vile creatures surrounding them, but the blasted things were fast in addition to their sturdiness, and in no time they had already caught up with Natsu and Happy, surrounding them.

“Get the fuck outta my way!! FIRE DRAGON ROAR!!”

A massive fire erupted from his gaping mouth and fully hit the entire swarm, but just as he thought the sheer force and intensity of the blast did the trick, the vulture jumped out of the flame, completely unscathed, and lunged at Natsu, who reacted too slowly and didn’t get out of its course in time to avoid it completely. The razor-sharp hooked beak latched onto his shoulder and cut through it like a knife cutting butter, and took away a good chunk of his muscles in the process. Pain ignited all his nerves and he let out a grunt as blood poured profusely from the wound.

“Shit!!”

With the desperation of a wounded beast, he rounded on the creature and thrust his good arm towards its thin, long neck, wrapping his hand around it, just above the massive black metal choker sitting at the base. Ignoring the sickening feeling of bones jutting out almost directly from the leather-like skin, he clenched his fist with as much strength as he could muster, harder and harder until he felt the unmistakable cracking sound of bones snapping cleanly in two.

The creature shook violently and then went limp, lifelessly hanging in Natsu’s hold. Clenching his teeth in disgust, he tossed it away, but in no time he was attacked again from another humongous wyvern, which managed to land a hard blow to his stomach with its thick, spiked tail that tore his jacket open and cut his breath short.

He and Happy were pushed back several meters away before Happy managed to regain his balance and stabilize them again.

“It’s no use, Natsu. They’re too many and too fast! They’ll never us reach the ship!” the exhausted Exceed cried in his ear. Natsu could almost hear the unspoken apology for not being fast or agile enough lining his words, and as much as he wanted to reassure his friend that he was doing a damn fine job already, and that their synchronized training alone was finally paying off, the pain in his arm and the utter frustration he was feeling at the entire situation was making it difficult even for a naturally positive person such as himself to come up with any kind of comforting words.

He could only grit his teeth as he dodged the stinger of a human-sized wasp and fended it off. He never realized he’d be so fucking powerless without his magic, and he was too scared to use the powers Laxus and Gajeel had lent him without the support of his flames. If he accidentally hurt Happy or his stamina ran out too early they both were a goner, and Lucy would be too.

His stomach clenched at the thought of Lucy, alone who knows how many meters underwater, fighting a battle too important to lose all on her own. He burned with the desire to just dive in and give her a hand, but as things were, he’d probably be more of a liability to her than anything else.

It fucking sucked.

Come on, Luce, come out already.

Panicked yells ahead of them told the two mages that the pirates had finally managed to catch up, and were preparing to attack the ship. Cursing loudly, Natsu shot a desperate fireball to the rough direction the voices were coming from, but from the way it was put off without a blast, he deduced those shitheads had covered themselves and the corvette with the same accursed, apparently impenetrable water magic that protected the Aaron’s summons.

Great, he had failed on all possible accounts. If he managed to somehow live through this whole ordeal, he didn’t know how the hell was he supposed to look at Lucy in the eye after this complete defeat.

Shit, he’d never felt more ashamed of himself like he did now.

Just as Happy flew them higher up in a desperate attempt to gain a few meters on the monsters blocking their path, though, something happened that had all of them stop dead in their tracks; for the second time that night, a blinding, scorching light brightened the night sky. Immediately the air felt heavier, warmer, and Natsu’s heart leaped back in his throat. He knew that kind of energy, in fact, he had found himself face to face with its owner just the day prior.

And while he’d rather swallow his own tongue and die than admitting that out loud, Natsu couldn’t help but rejoy at the newcomer’s arrival.

A glance at Happy’s suddenly excited face told him the Exceed knew whose energy it was, and he too was aware of what was about to happen

Loke the Golden Lion was back in the house, bitches, and he was all too ready to kick ass.

Chapter Text

Loke landed smoothly amidst the startled crew, barely making a sound as his polished shoes hit the boards.

He took in the people surrounding him: an unimpressive bunch of thugs who thought they were worthy a damn in life by bullying who could not defend themselves, their features and skin burned and distorted by the seasalt and hammering sunlight. None of them felt like a threat, and he could not possibly imagine how Natsu would have been defeated by these guys had they not had the protection of Aquarius’s magic.

And then, a little further away, as though he was using the rest of his crew as a shield between him and Loke, the loathsome guildmaster stood. The lanky, heavily tattooed man was smirking at Loke, not scared in the least by the sudden appearance of the Spirit. Quite on the contrary, he seemed to be rather excited by the unexpected turn of events.

Loke’s rage blazed up and he clenched his fists tightly, baring his pointed fangs at the man; he had never been more thankful that Natsu had been made unable to fight, if that meant Loke got a chance to cave that smarmy face in by himself.

He removed his shades and placed them back into the breast pocket of his blazer, and more than a few sailors gasped and instinctively took a step back at the sight of his inhuman, golden eyes, his pupils reduced to thin, vertical slits. He glared at Aaron, but the man didn’t seem to be fazed at all; he instead approached his frightened crew.

“Get him.”

Let never be known Loke didn’t give credit where credit was due. It was obvious the entire crew was more than terrified of him and absolutely reluctant to even come within a three feet radius from him, but still, at their captain’s words, they swallowed down their fear and launched themselves at him. A burly man turned his hand into stone and with a guttural battle cry made to punch Loke’s face as a wild looking woman raised her hands and slammed her open palms on the bridge’s floor; the boards rippled and several, thick roots sprouted from the surface, wrapping themselves around Loke’s ankles and calves.

“See how you like that, kitty cat!” she bellowed triumphantly. The other members of the crew felt encouraged by her success and jumped in the attack with renewed enthusiasm, surrounding Loke from every side now that they were sure he wasn’t going to move.

Loke didn’t react at his apparent disadvantage. Patiently he waited for the rock mage in the lead and the others to come closer, even closer… just a little bit more…

Just as the man’s fist was about to connect with Loke’s cheek, Loke released his magic power, that rose up and set the air alight. All of his attackers shrieked in pain, their eyes and body burned by the scorching starlight, and were blown away by the sheer force of the burst. By the time the light faded away and they fell back against the gunwales, they were already unconscious. Looking down, he saw the roots that kept him tied to the floor had turned charred and dry, and dissolved into a small cloud of black ashes as soon as he tried to step out of them. His lips curled down in disgust at the mess they left on his tailored suit pants.

The very few pirates that escaped the attack dropped to their knees and raised their hands above their head, begging for mercy. He didn’t pay attention to those cowards, focusing instead on their captain, who had barely moved at all and looked completely nonplussed.

The man chuckled and clapped slowly, derisively, never breaking eye contact. Loke held his gaze fiercely, but could not ignore the way his stomach churned at being so blatantly checked out and scanned.

“Very well done, hun. You truly are marvelous as the legends say, Leo.”

Loke’s scowl deepened. “So you know who I am.”

“Indeed.” Aaron replied airily, and then reached out to the thin chain dangling from his neck and that ended in his breast pocket, tugging at it until something came out of it. Loke, who had stiffened and sprung up in a fighting stance as soon as he saw Aaron moving, felt his blood freeze when he saw what was hanging from it.

The sacred Gold Key of the Water Bearer was not golden anymore: it was black and deformed, as though it had been molten and fused it back together several times over, and completely wrapped with thin, tangled chains. Aquarius’s celestial symbol was gone, overwritten by the three slashes printed on the guild’s flag. The mere sight was enough to make Loke sick. He hardly could believe someone worse than Karen existed at all.

“You see, I really like this gal. I just love when she’s so docile, never questions what I tell her to do. Just the way it should be.”

Loke gritted his teeth, disgusted. “You sick bastard.”

Aaron shrugged nonchalantly. “Perhaps. But I always get what I want… and as of now, I really want you!”

Before Loke had time to register what was happening, the other man had summoned a sword in his hand and threw himself at the Spirit, who had his feline reflexes to thank when he managed to narrowly avoid the stab coming at his face. He felt the dark sword slide across his cheek, tearing it, and an unnatural searing pain flooded his body.

Something deadly was sealed into that sword, and Loke didn’t need to think too hard to understand he really didn’t want to be hit by the cursed tip a second time.

Aaron laughed maniacally as he slashed and stabbed, forcing Loke to dodge constantly and pushing him backwards.

“What’s wrong, kitty boy? I thought you wanted to rip me a new one?”

Loke hissed through his teeth, his temper quickly rising despite the obviousness of the taunt; his rings glowed with magic and Regulus’s light shone brightly in his fist, which Loke buried right into the man’s solar plexus, taking advantage of a fleeting opening.

Aaron gasped and bowled over, crumpling on Loke’s clenched fist, weakly clutching onto his wrist. Spit and puke poured out of his gaping mouth, falling and splattering on the boarded floor. Loke did his best to ignore the drops of vomit that were now staining his shoes and the hem of his pants in addition to the ashes. He retracted his fist and the criminal fell to his knees in front of the Spirit.

It was his turn to smirk now, watching the spluttering man struggle to breath, and he took a moment to consider his options. Should he go ahead and kill the man? Surely Lucy wouldn’t like that, she loathed unnecessary violence and killing was a big no no on her book, no matter how deserving the recipient was; still, he didn’t feel comfortable knowing this pile of shit was still alive and ready to manipulate his way out of prison if they managed to deliver him alive to the authorities.

He settled for some serious damage. Not enough to kill the man, but hopefully enough to banish that sickening magic of his. He didn’t trust human justice to fully understand the crime it was to force a human’s will on a summoned magic creature like this one did, and as the leader of the Zodiac Spirits it simply felt natural for the grievous task to fall upon his shoulders.

Thinking back to all the pain this asshole caused to Lucy, he could not be more glad to fulfill his duty this time around.

He raised a glowing fist and swiftly brought it down on the snivelling man’s now exposed nape.

But midway through, he found himself go still.

“What the-”

A horrible sensation washed throughout his body, as though thousands of thin, cold needles were pricking his skin, leaving it inflamed and insensible. He struggled, forced himself to move, to back off, but his body felt like lead, heavy and unresponsive to his command.

His horror increased ten fold when he witnessed his poised fist unclench on its own and extend itself to the pirate, who immediately stopped choking and sputtering to grab it and pull himself to his feet. Seeing the shock painted all over Loke’s face, Aaron cackled madly.

The taller man bent slightly, levelling his face to Loke’s, and harshly grabbed the Spirit’s jaw, tipping it upwards. Loke snarled in disgust as his sensitive nose was assaulted by the vile stench of the man’s breath.

“Aw, I knew that you actually loved me deep inside, Leo. I’ll forgive your wicked punch if you stay put and be a good boy while daddy gives you a lil’ bit of restyling.”

Loke growled through his teeth and tried to bite the pirate’s hand off, but as of now the cursed paralysis had spread so far he couldn’t even move his head more than an inch. He was utterly helpless.

“How…?” he slurred like a drunkard, his lips and tongue slow and clumsy, forcing himself to stay vigilant despite the growing numbness that fogged all his senses. He felt tired and heavy, so tired, what would he give to just give up and curl into a ball and sleep...

Aaron chuckled, entertained by the sight of the almighty Celestial Lion being tamed at the likes of a domestic cat. He stroked Loke’s cheek in a deceptively tender gesture, and Loke’s brain - the part that was still fighting valiantly against Aaron’s controlling magic - was horrified to see his body was leaning into the touch. The other part purred in approval.

“I’ve been in the business for a long time, my darling. I don’t strictly need the physical summoning tool to take control of a spirit anymore. Just a touch is enough.” he explained with a cheeky grin and wink. Loke felt an unbearable urge to break his face beyond recognition, and his traitorous mind wondered if that was how he appeared to Lucy every time he tried to flirt with her. No wonder he got punched in the face every single time.

He made a mental note to step up his flirting game.

The caress treaded down along his jawline, and then down his neck. The long, calloused fingers found his shirt collar and nimbly made quick work of the first few buttons, exposing the upper side of Loke’s chest. And, most importantly, the golden Leo crest embedded into his skin just above his right collarbone. The man’s eyes lit up with a malicious glee and he licked his chapped lips in a slow, revolting motion that had all of Loke’s hair stand on end. Without warning, Aaron pressed his index finger on the Celestial symbol.

Loke’s world exploded. He gasped loudly and his eyes rolled back as a pain unlike any other he had ever experienced before in his entire life flooded his body like burning lava, coursing through his blood vessels. It spread and spread, setting every single cell of his body on fire.

Unable to resist, he screamed in pain and his legs shook violently until they finally buckled and he was sent sprawled to the floor at Aaron’s feet, his body convulsing and spasming on its own from the unbearable pain. Looking down, he saw the Leo mark growing dark and scarred, burned away under three black slash marks that kept growing wider and longer, like a spreading blight, out of control. He tried to claw at it, get it out of his sistem, but to no avail.

“Yes, Leo, let it all out now,” Aaron said, and even through the pain-induced haze clouding his mind Loke could hear the sadistic enjoyment in the man’s voice. “Don’t worry, it’ll be over soon, and then we’ll be the best of friends.”

He kneeled down beside the gasping form of the Spirit to better watch the infernal suffering on his pretty face. “And when you’re done having your little moment, we’ll go get your other friends from that blonde little chick of yours. You won’t be alone, so don’t come to me saying I don’t treat you well.”

The mention of Lucy somehow managed to filter through his dazed state, like a bucket of icy water flung at his face. He struggled to lift himself up on his knees and elbows, growling from the effort, and glared daggers at the pirate captain, even though he knew fully well it was a mere bluff. A bluff Aaron had seen through perfectly well.

“Don’t… you fucking dare… to even touch her…”

Aaron laughed heartily, as though Loke had just told him the most hilarious joke ever made. And to be fair, in the condition he was in at the moment, Loke failed to see how in the world he was going to stop him if the man tried to. It was maddening, a stain on his honor of Celestial Spirit, and even more so as Lucy’s trusted friend.

“I won’t! If that makes you feel better, sweetheart, I won’t. Though she is cute, don’t get me wrong, and I would love to add her to my collection as well-” he licked his lips lewdly, “- I don’t think Aqua will let me have her. You know, she likes playing with her food before gobbling it down. But now, my dear, it’s time we finish off with you. If you’re lucky, you’ll catch up on time and join Aqua to play with your little girlfriend.”

His hand closed around Loke’s neck, choking him as he effortlessly lifted the shorter Spirit to his feet, utterly helpless in the other man’s grasp. Loke quickly felt his consciousness slip away from him, like water through the holes of a sieve, as Aaron’s false and sweet words echoed in his head, louder and louder, lulling him to a deep, dreamless sleep he was all too happy to fall into… Surely Lucy would forgive him if he took a nap once in a while, right…?

Of course she will, a honeyed voice whispered in his ear. She’s always so weak and forgiving, not at all like a real master is supposed to be…

No, that wasn’t right-

Come to me, Leo, and I’ll offer you the greatness you crave and deserve… All the power your little, immature girl cannot give you, and you know it…

No, no, that was definitely not true-

Sleep, Leo, and relax… You don’t need to think and worry for her anymore now…

His eyelids felt so heavy, and the voice was so soothing, it was too hard to resist...

“LOKE!”

He started violently as Lucy’s high-pitched, stern voice cried loudly into his ear as though she were right here at his side, and at the same time something hot and sharp tugged at his magic, unbelievably hard. Suddenly the heavy veil keeping him trapped within his own body seemed to tear apart, and the world cleared up again in front of his eyes. He saw Aaron’s face twist into a grimace of pain and hiss through his teeth as the hand that held Loke captive quickly let go.

Loke fell back on the floor, but not before taking notice of the man clutching at his hand, the skin peeling off from where he had come in direct contact with Loke’s, burned.

“What the fuck!?”

Loke didn’t know what was happening anymore; one moment he was reduced to a mere puppet whose strings were pulled by his opponent with no chance for him to react, and the moment later those strings were being cut and burned to ashes, one by one. Slowly, but steadily he felt his body awaken and start to respond to his orders, the scorching pain receding inch by inch towards the spot he had been injected with Aaron’s magic. At the same time, a benevolent, reassuring warmth was taking its place and resonated with his own magic core, triggering it back to life.

Tentatively he twitched his fingers, and was immensely relieved to find they moved accordingly. Aaron didn’t seem to care about his control over Loke being shattered: he let out a strangled cry and hurriedly grabbed Aquarius’s key. It was glowing gold, bright like a true star and radiating sharp waves of heat that Loke could feel even from nine feet away.

“What the bloody fuck is going on?!?”

Desperately, the pirate snapped the thin chain in two and flung the white-hot key away. It fell on the bridge floor with a metallic clatter and skid away until it hit the base of the mast. As it glided past Loke, his feline eyes saw the black marks were vanishing, eaten away by the sparkling gold underneath. Two blue wavy patterns were engraved into the round metal surface.

But Loke’s attention was, all of a sudden, commanded elsewhere, far away into the open sea, where an oh-so-familiar magic kept growing and growing and growing to unbelievable levels. The waves started to curl around the rising magic power, creating a whirlpool.

Aaron yelped, his face ashen with terror and slick with both sweat and spraying seawater. “Shit, shit, SHIT, we’re gonna be pulled in!”

The helmsman struggled and put his whole weight onto the helm in his attempt to steer the ship clear of the whirlpool’s range, but the ravaging currents were simply too strong and all his efforts were in vain. Even Aaron, completely forgetting about Loke in the light of this new emergency, jumped up on the rear deck and roughly shoved the other man away from the helm to get a go at it himself, but no matter how hard he pushed and turned, the helm stayed firmly in place, leading the ship right in the middle of the seastorm.

With some difficulty and still feeling a little queasy, Loke pushed himself back to his feet. Just a glance to the way the waves seemed to dip down, digging a deep hole through the whole thickness of ocean told him that was no natural storm. And if his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him, a soft golden light shone through, growing brighter as the water kept bending and caving respectfully to it. Finally, a familiar blonde head appeared from within the water, standing straight and proud on a rock jutting out right in the middle of the twirling wall of water surrounding her. Her body was heavily battered and bruised, but her stance was firm and confident and proud.

Loke couldn’t help but smile at the human goddess his master had blossomed into.

”Loke, please fall back.” she quietly commanded. While normally he would have vehemently opposed the idea to leave her alone in the middle of the fight, this time he could only nod and accept the dismissal. There was something in her eerily calm and determined voice that just told him this was her battle and only hers.

He bowed his head as the Celestial Gate materialized at his back, ready to lead him back to the Celestial World, but not before he threw a glance to the now terrified captain, who kept looking from Loke to Lucy and viceversa, apparently very upset by the unexpected power oozing from Lucy’s form.

“Who the hell are you, you motherfuckers?”

Loke smirked tiredly, the soothing pull of the gate growing harder by the moment. He had to force himself to chase away the idea of his bed waiting eagerly for him just on the other side of the gate out of his mind.

“Me? I’m just a Spirit. And as for her-” and his grin grew darker and twisted, showing off his pointed fangs that gleamed ominously under Lucy’s light. He was pleased to see the man gulping heavily as he finally started realizing he messed up with people and powers he should have left alone. Well, too late for that now, wasn’t it?

“-She’s simply the one who is gonna send you to Hell.”

And with a last chuckle at the troubled pirate’s expenses, he let go and allowed the Gate to suck him away from the material world in a last flash of gold.

Chapter Text

The entire swarm of winged beasts stopped dead in their tracks all of a sudden, leaving Natsu a perfect chance to right-hook the wyvern right in its jaw, effectively blowing it several feet back. It shrieked in pain and fell down into the stormy waters with a deafening splash, and never came out.

However, none of its monstrous companions seemed to care about the unfortunate fate of the creature; they had all turned around, ignoring Natsu and Happy altogether, and were now facing the sudden, massive whirlpool that was drawing the pirate ship to itself. But they weren’t willing to attack, or celebrate; they looked like they were cowering away from it, scared shitless by whatever being was causing it.

Even Natsu and Happy, overwhelmed by curiosity, ceased their attack, utterly hypnotized by the regular, spiraling movement of the waters. It definitely was too sudden to be a natural phenomenon, it had to be of magical nature; still, the only people he knew had that much power to create such a huge storm were Juvia and Aquarius, but that meant Lucy had somehow lost to the Spirit, and that simply could not be, she had promised...

So they waited, with bated breath, both the mages and the mystical creatures, as the water spiraled and caved in itself, respectfully giving way to its acknowledged master.

“Lucy!!” Happy chirped gleefully, and indeed Natsu’s heart swelled and leaped up in his throat at the sight of the familiar golden hair, now partially tied in two pigtails with a pair of green ribbons, swishing furiously around alongside the waves, like the baton of a conductor leading the orchestra through a fast allegro.

She stood still and firm at the top of a jagged rock, her arms splayed wide in an almost reassuring manner, as though to keep the rampaging ocean calm, but the fire dancing in her eyes told Natsu a whole ‘nother story.

She was furious.

Lucy heard Happy’s call and looked up, turning slightly to better see them from where she stood. Natsu saw her eyes roaming across his body, lingering on his injured arm and bleeding stomach, and her mouth curled downwards in obvious displeasure and anger. The new, dark blue tattoo printed on her collarbone shone brightly as the roaring water increased its speed, outraged.

It was the very same, M-like symbol Lucy had scrawled so many times on her notebook.

Lucy’s eyes slid sideways at the now still group of magical, chained creatures that had given Natsu so much trouble, and all Hell seemed to break loose among them. Some shrieked and thrashed, as though they wished nothing more than to hightail it out of here, away from her, others bowed deeply, begging for forgiveness and trembling like leaves.

Lucy flicked her wrist, and several water arrows shot out of the ocean, effortlessly spearing each creature from side to side through the thick chained collar all of them wore at the base of her neck with a precision Bisca would be proud of.

The creatures quailed and emitted a long, suffering note that echoed eerily through the air, and faded away in small clouds of golden particles. Their harmonic dying chorus lingered in Natsu’s ears though, beautiful and creepy at the same time, sending chills down his spine with their haunting beauty.

Shaking his head, he focused again on Lucy, who now seemed to have eyes only for the rapidly approaching pirate ship. The furious screaming of the waves drowned the loud and panicked cursing Aaron and the few of his men that were still conscious were yelling at the top of their lungs, but if Natsu strained his ears a little bit he could pick up a few profanities of choice. He would have found the situation exciting and fun had he not been so stunned by the incredible power and authority Lucy was radiating.

It was like he was staring at a very pissed off Erza possessing Lucy’s body, and he honestly didn’t know what to feel about that. On one side she looked absolutely breathtaking and majestic, the very incarnation of the sea, radiant and powerful; on the other side, she was terrifying, the kind of fear Natsu - the ever so reckless and irreverent Natsu - rarely felt, the fear a man was paralyzed with when standing in front of a god.

All of his dragon instincts were screaming at him to look away from this creature that looked so much like Lucy but was not, for she was not a sight to be bestowed upon a mere human’s eyes.

She was beautiful and terrible, like rain that poured down onto the sea, locking sky and ocean in a tight, deadly embrace. Like the perfect tempest that never lets up, and never lets man live after witnessing its otherworldly beauty.

He could not help but stare at this new, unknown Lucy.

Standing right at the base of the ravaging whirlpool, Lucy had never felt more at ease in her life. Nothing could ever compare with the sense of utter comfort she felt now as she was completely part of her element, not her apartment, not even the guild and certainly not the Heartfilia Manor. But here, surrounded and embraced by violent currents screaming bloody murder on her behalf, shielded by the water scattered through the air, she felt like something had clicked inside her, like she had finally found the tiny, missing piece of the puzzle. She felt safe and warm, and ready to exact the Heavens’ vengeance.

She took a breath and spoke, knowing she wouldn’t need to scream to make herself heard from all the people present. The ocean was her body, the waves her fingers, the droplets suspended in the air her eyes, the white foam sloshing loudly at the top of the breaking tips of the waves her voice.

She was the ocean and the ocean was her, one and only and immense.

“How dare you,” she addressed directly the lanky captain, and she was not surprised to find her voice carried through the water like an electric current, a low, thunderous rumble of thousands smaller voices speaking as one. “Call yourself a summoner?”

The ship kept plunging across the whirlpool despite all the efforts of the crew to get away.

“You, who binds a spirit to himself and steals their freedom, don’t deserve to practice the sacred art of summoning!”

“See if I care of what you think, you bitch!!” he yelled back, but Lucy could feel he was scared, terrified, and that terror kept increasing as the ship inched towards her, trapped in her vice. He abandoned the helm and flung himself at the gunwale. There were only thirty feet between them now and Lucy saw the desperate determination of a man who knew he had no more aces up his sleeve.

He raised his palms together and the massive tattoo on his chest glowed brightly, and a moment later an enormous snake had materialized from thin air and was standing as a shield between Lucy and the ship, its mouth open wide and displaying two rows of fangs as long as swords. Its red eyes were glinting with maliciousness - a stark contrast to the deep blue of its impressive body, fully covered in scales as thick and wide as armor shields - like a beast that had been caged and starved for who knows how long, waiting for the chance to unleash its frustration on the first living being who crossed its path. Just like Aquarius and all of Aaron’s summons, the usual chained collar was firmly closed around its neck.

But Lucy didn’t feel the fear that normally would have assaulted her at the prospect of being shred to pieces by a twenty-foot long massive sea serpent; instead, all she felt was pity and a startingly deep sadness for the powerful beast that had been robbed of its freedom and identity, treated like a weapon by a master it didn’t recognize as its own.

“It’s useless, Aaron. Don’t you understand?” Now she did raise her voice, annoyed that the man was not getting her point. Her desire to squash him grew even more intense, but with some effort she managed to rein it in. “There’s no love or trust between you and your summons, no bond tying you together! None of your minions will work against me!”

Aaron laughed hysterically and spat at her direction, full of loath. “We’ll see about that, girlie. Die!!”

The snake lunged at her at the wave of its master’s arm, easily cutting through the waves surrounding her as though the weren’t even there, and in a second it was looming over her, its powerful, thick body arched and poised, ready to strike and tear her tiny form apart.

She heard Natsu and Happy scream her name in a frantic warning, and even though she wasn’t looking at them she knew they were about to dive down, either to stop the blow midway through themselves or to scoop her up to safety. Their undying love and dedication despite the mess she pulled them in sent a shiver down her spine and warmed her heart, like the sun shining brightly in the clear sky after a heavy rainstorm.

But this time, she would not cower behind them. This time, she would stand her own ground and fight till the end.

This time, she would be the one protecting them.

She raised her hand, and the massive snake stopped instantly, frozen mid-way. All the witnesses emitted sounds of surprise - dismayed or gleeful depending on whose side they were on - as the beast recoiled and slithered backwards, curling on itself defensively. She wondered if it had been conditioned to fear a human’s hand in its long captivity under that scum of a man.

“Worry not,” she spoke soothingly, stepping down her rock and onto the patch of sea floor that had been exposed by the rapidly rising wall of water that surrounded the small arena Lucy and the snake found themselves in. “Your suffering is over. You’re free.”

She closed the distance between her and the creature and placed a glowing hand on its body. There was a blinding flash and the snake hissed and reared back from the pain it without any doubt was in as the sacred Celestial Magic coursed through its body, neutralizing the spell that kept it trapped. Lucy gritted her teeth, feeling like her hand was on fire as golden tendrils of light wrapped around her arm and the creature, binding them together by their souls and the pain they shared, but did not retract her hand.

The snake thrashed dangerously, its tail missing Lucy’s head by a hair’s width, and again she heard Natsu and Happy calling for her, telling her to stop and fall back. She shook her head violently and a splash of water halted her two friends’ descent. She needed to do this, as a Stellar Spirit mage.

And then, with a last push, the last links of the chains broke and slid off. Another flash of light blinded Natsu and Happy, forcing them to look away. When the light subsided they a thick layer of steam wafted from the watery pit Lucy was in.

“Lucy!!!”

Something moved in the middle of the pearly white fog, something big and slithering around. Natsu’s heart skipped a beat as his blood froze in his veins, the horror of what just happened sinking in…

On the ship, Aaron laughed hysterically.

“She’s dead! All that talking and then she burned herself to a crisp! What a loser!”

But then a burst of energy scattered the pillar of white vapor, revealing an unscathed Lucy standing, and the snake bowing its massive head to her. To everyone’s surprise, she smiled gently and extended her right hand , delicately patting the hard spikes jutting out of the crown of the beast’s head.

“Go, now,” she whispered, “The chain has been severed. You belong to nobody.”

Slowly, as though it understood her words, the snake rose up and swiftly dove into the deep waters, disappearing into the abyss.

Before any of the other mages could process what the hell had just happened, though, Lucy’s power spiked up again, wrapping her form in a golden blanket of pulsing light. The waves roared louder and rose up into the air around her. A few splashes reached Natsu and Happy, whipping them painfully across the face.

Lucy stared intently at the dismay painted all over Aaron’s face as the failure of what had to be his last resort slowly sank in. She drank avidly in the way shock gave way to fury and then to despair, and her blood sang, craving for more. He deserved it. He needed to suffer for the crimes he committed, for the souls he defiled.

Lucy bit her lip, allowing the light pain to pierce through the blood-red haze that was clouding her judgment and to ground her back to reality. Her whole body shook violently as this newfound power kept growing, raging, struggling to get out of her system, to maim, to kill--

She needed to control it, not to get lost into it, but it was so hard when Aquarius’s suffering was still so vividly etched into her heart, and she herself wanted nothing more than to return the pain in kind. But she could not just give in, or there was the chance she could involve and injure Natsu and Happy, or even accidentally sink the Calypso, which had taken advantage of the commotion to escape and put a few miles between the two ships, but still not enough to escape the ravaging storm sitting at Lucy’s fingertips.

”The urn…” something whispered softly in her ear, making her heart skip a beat in fright. A deep, masculine voice that she had heard a long time ago…

The Celestial Spirit King?

”Take it, use it, for the stars of the Aquarius have deemed you worthy enough to wield it.”

The strangest feeling took control of Lucy’s body: an irresistible impulse ran through her arms to raise them high above her head, like a magnetic pull she could not oppose, and so she did as her magic flowed and pooled into the palm of her hands.

And her fingers closed on the delicate, ornate handles of what she knew, even without looking, was Aquarius’s crystal urn; Ganymede’s divine cup was in her hand.

Immense relief washed over her as the mind cleared, the walls of water cascading into the urn. The crystal started glowing gold, warming up in her hand. Lucy felt a deep sense of contentment as the storm inside her soul suddenly ceased, pouring instead into the item. She knew what she had to do.

In the end, you always help me out when I’m in trouble, don’t you?

A smile tugged at her lips as the vase vibrated slightly in her grasp; in her mind Lucy could very well see Aquarius scoffing at her, clicking her tongue and telling Lucy to get on with it already.

“Natsu!” she called out, and Natsu was so startled he almost jostled out of Happy’s hold. “Get ready! Things are about to get hot!”

“It’s useless, Lucy,” Happy replied worriedly, eyeing her as though she had gone mad. “Fire Magic doesn’t work on these guys!”

But Natsu’s eyes had locked with Lucy’s golden ones, and realization hit him like one train slamming him headfirst into the gut.

Fire didn’t work, but nobody said anything about heat.

Holy shit.

“Happy! Lift me up!”

“What, but Natsu…?”

Natsu looked back at his little friend, smiling widely. “Don’t worry, it’s gonna be awesome!”

Happy hesitated for a moment, during which Natsu could see the concern for his friends and his trust in them warring each other in his eyes. In the end though, he smiled.

“Aye, sir!”

Happy swiftly leaped upwards, Natsu in tow, until they hovered more than thirty feet above the battlefield. He grinned wildly even though he knew Lucy probably couldn’t see it from where she stood, so he instead flashed a thumbs-up as he started breathing heavily, stoking the dormant dragon flames Igneel had left him, burning hotter and hotter.

Considering how badass Lucy had been all the night, he couldn’t possibly slack off now and not give her his best shot, right?

At the same time, Lucy grabbed firmly the urn and fluidly swung it up in a slow arching motion. The waves reacted to it and followed her lead, rearing up until they were towering over the ship, stopping right in front of Natsu. The flames in his belly danced at the clear invitation, blazing with unbridled excitement.

“Fire Dragon Roar-”

“Aquametria-”

“-UNISON RAID!!!”

With an earth-shattering booming noise fire and water met halfway, intertwining in a tight spiral that lit up the sky and arched gracefully downwards, a pillar of liquid fire, of starlight in its purest form.

The flames twirled around the water, quickly heating it up, and followed it down, pulled by gravity, until it finally fell on the little pirate ship, tiny and insignificant in front of the power of nature.

The sea exploded, engulfing everything in a giant wall of white, scorching foam. The ship cracked and splintered under the unbearable pressure of the wave, and the agonizing screams of Aaron and his men echoed the furious roar of the sea. The recoiling wave spread for several yards, overturning everything it met in its path, crushing the occasional rocks to piles of rubble with little to no effort.

It was a terrible display of power, and yet so enticing.

“Look out, Lucy!”

His worry, however, was unfounded, and Natsu felt a little pang of embarrassment when the steaming white flood reached Lucy and simply parted in two smaller streams in front of her, leaving her untouched in a little alcove in the middle. Of course she couldn’t be hurt by her own magic.

Lucy didn’t catch Natsu’s warning, though; the loud, sickening noise of wood being shred to little more than dust and the screams of the men being scalded and crushed subsided to her ears, as though someone had just taken away the audio from a recorded tape. Confused and even a little spooked by the sudden sensory privation, she scanned the area, abd she saw a tiny, white glowing orb calmly float up from the wreckage and approach her.

It slowly reached and circled around her, in an almost playful manner and she was overcome by the urge to touch it, but as soon as she extended her hand her fingers went right through its gleaming core without feeling anything.

”Thank you.” Lucy heard its gentle voice speak directly to her soul. Immediately she realized it must have been one of the Spirits the pirate had forcibly taken control of.

It worked, she managed to set them free. She had succeded.

In a matter of seconds several others followed the first sphere, orbiting around her like planets around their sun. They twirled faster and faster, saying ‘Thank you’ over and over again, drawing white lines in her field of view. They were so many now, Lucy’s head felt like it was going to explode.

Thank you, thank you, thank you…

Stay with us, Lucy.

She clutched her head with her hands, covering her ears and scrunching her over sensitive eyes close, but it was a futile effort. The voices and lights grew in intensity, screaming loudly her name.

Lucy, Lucy, LUCY-

Suddenly, her body finally buckled under the strain of a magic she wasn’t supposed to wield alone, and the world turned white in front of her eyes.

Chapter Text

Natsu knew something was wrong the moment Lucy didn’t even acknowledge his call and then held out her arm to touch the air in front of her. He frowned, suspicious, and perhaps a little bit scared as he watched her curl in on herself, holding her head protectively, but from what Natsu, despite his superhuman eyesight, couldn’t say.

“What’s wrong with her?” Happy asked quietly, confused; Natsu’s gut feeling was rumbling in warning, keeping him on edge as his mouth went dry with worry, and could not bring himself to reply. Instead, he gestured at Happy with his head and the Exceed promptly lowered them down, slowly.

It was a good thing he was so focused on her, or he would have missed the moment Lucy’s strength gave out like a light switch being turned off, and her knees buckled, her legs folding under her weight. In a golden flash, her Aquarius Star Dress form went out, leaving her pale and unconscious. That was Natsu’s cue to spring into action.

“Happy! Fly down, hurry!!”

Swiftly the Exceed angled them downwards and dived down as fast as a bullet, both mages uncaring of the wind whipping harshly their faces as they ripped through the air.

Before Lucy could fully hit the floor, Natsu had her safely curled in his arms and firmly secured against his chest. He bared his teeth and hissed when a sharp pain ran through his arm as soon as Lucy’s weight fell right onto his injured shoulder, and shivered slightly as her icy, drenched clothes hit his bare skin. Damn, she was frozen alright. He ignored the sting in his limb and summoned a little bit of his magic, just enough to rise his temperature up a bit and keep Lucy from turning into one of those frozen fish Happy liked so much.

He had barely settled her against him, though, when the whirling waters around screamed loudly and Natsu looked up just in time to see the first, thin streams break form and trickle down, pooling on the floor they were standing on. His heart skipped a beat as a sudden realization sank in.

Shit.

Without wasting a second, Happy tugged violently at Natsu’s collar and the three mages soared back into the air, but with Lucy’s added weight his speed and agility had fallen drastically. As more and more water cascaded down like a river breaking its banks, reclaiming its rightful property, Natsu tightened his hold on Lucy and flattened her against him as much as he could without hurting her in an attempt to shield her from the rogue waterfalls with his own body. Natsu heard Happy yelp when a particularly hard splash soaked him whole, sogging his fur, but to his credit he didn’t slow down, twisting and turning midair to dodge the water pillars and save them all from a sure death by drowning.

“Come on, Happy, you can do it!”

Happy gritted his little fangs and his magic wings glowed white, growing even wider. He grunted and panted, but with a last, surprisingly powerful flap of his wings he sent the three mages hurling out of the whirlpool’s grasp.

Happy cheered loudly at his success, but Natsu committed the mistake to look down to the watery death trap they had just miraculously managed to run from, and he couldn’t deny he felt his guts churning uncomfortably when he saw the water twisting around the rock Lucy had stood on earlier, drawing a circle around it. Natsu felt his mouth go dry in atavic fear as the water morphed into a giant, dragon eye, staring up at Natsu threateningly, upset and that the boy had taken away its most prized possession.

The water rumbled in annoyance while it was wrapping furiously around the rock, rising until it was fully sunken in its depth, a clear promise of what would have happened to Lucy if she had lingered behind a second longer.

A beat, and at once the ocean surface completely smoothed out, deceptively calm and unassuming.

“That was too close of a call to be comfortable.” Happy commented soberly, after a while. He was slowly flying them through the now dawning sky. The sun had begun peeking timidly over the horizon, diluting the solid navy blue with strokes of pale pinks and oranges. Lucy would probably be able to name each and every shade if she were awake.

“Yeah,” he agreed wholeheartedly, “that shit was scary. You really went berserk there, Luce! That was awesome!”

He looked down at Lucy’s still unconscious form, peacefully sleeping in his arms. He grinned and shook her a little to see if she woke up, but she didn’t even stir. Her head lolled lazily against him, her wet hair tickling his chest, but her eyes stayed firmly closed. Her lips were slightly parted and stained of an unhealthy hue of blue that matched the rim of her eyelids and starkly contrasted with her pale complexion, too pale…

Panic quickly rising and heart suddenly drumming wildly against his ribcage, Natsu turned up his magic a notch, channeling it into his bare arms and chest area, enough to get them hot without setting fire to his skin so it didn’t burn Lucy, but Lucy kept growing colder and colder by the second, as though her body was actively rejecting the heat he was so desperately trying to pass onto her. It was like he was holding a block of that enchanted, unmeltable ice Gray’s dad had turned the Sun Village’s flame into. No matter how hard he tried to keep her warm, her body was becoming colder and cyanotic, her breath slow and shallow.

She was dying, and he was unable to do anything to prevent it.

He cursed loudly and readjusted her in his arms to press her flush against him as much as possible, to at least slow down the process. Happy groaned at the sudden shift of balance.

“Stop moving around so much! What’s going on?”

Natsu barely heard him over the sound of Lucy’s slowing and irregular heartbeat against his stronger, healthier one. He was sweating cold from sheer dread, although his already drenched clothes and hair didn’t show it, and his whole body was wrecked by violent rattles that had nothing to do with the outside cold.

“She used too much magic! She’s sick!” he cried, his voice rough and quaking with terror. “We need to get her to a hospital, and fast!”

The two mages exchanged a meaningful, yet terrified look: they were lost in the open sea, and even if they caught up with the Calypso ahead there was no way it had the means to keep Lucy alive until they reached a proper hospital.

Then Natsu saw Happy’s dismay slide off his face and morph into a determined expression he didn’t really often see on the Exceed’s face. A beat, and at once they were zipping across the ocean at such a speed Natsu felt his breath being cut short from the unexpected acceleration. He readjusted Lucy’s ominously limp form in his grasp to better hold her against him.

“Woah! What are you doing?!?”

Happy’s eyes, he noticed when he glanced back at his little friend, were watery, and he doubted it was due to their flying speed; nevertheless, when he spoke he sounded firm and focused, and Natsu briefly wondered if he had somehow switched bodies with Panther Lily in the span of these last few seconds. He wasn’t used to such a serious Happy.

“What does it look like? I’m getting you both to safety.”

His wings glowed brightly and grew larger than ever as he poured in more magic, spreading four feet wide on each side; Natsu saw the thin muscles and tendons bulge and tense painfully under the strain as they flapped harder and faster than they ever did, carrying the weight of two full grown humans. As impressive as it was, Natsu knew that if he kept going at this rate, Happy was seriously risking to damage his magic wings irremediably.

“Wait, you’re never going to make it back to Hargeon with both me and Lucy weighing you down!” he yelled over the wind howling in his ears. “Drop me on the Calypso and take Lucy back!” The thought of being forced to spend the next few days on a moving ship with an injury to tend to was enough to make his stomach lurch sharply, but it was a sacrifice he was willing to make if it meant his friends were safe. He fully trusted Happy to keep Lucy out of harm’s way during the trip.

Happy shook his head, tears now flowing freely from his eyes and drawing two twin shimmering trails behind him on each side.

“NO! I’m not going to leave behind any of you! I trained hard too! I want to protect my friends too!!”

Happy’s words came out strained and choked, heavy with deeply-rooted emotions and issues Natsu had been aware of for a long time but never knew how to address properly, instead choosing to turn a blind eye to them in favor of keeping Happy as cheerful and carefree as his namesake implied. Now, stuck in a race against time to save their friend, they cut through Natsu’s heart like a spear.

“I know,” he said too quietly, too soberly. “I know.”

He felt all the more acutely Lucy’s cold, unresponsive weight - he refused to call it ‘dead’, no matter how fitting of a term it was - in his arms, a physical reminder of what was bound to happen if he kept ignoring his closest friends’ feelings in his effort to keep them safe and sound.

He wondered if Lucy too ever felt smothered by his protective attitude. He… actually never thought about that, to be honest. He always went with the flow, throwing himself into the battle to protect his friends without a second thought, always assuming it would not bother them, because why would it be the case? It just made no sense at all to him.

But Lucy was different from him, that much he knew. Lucy was the smart and crafty type of person, that loves to read and study and more often than not gets shunned to the side during a fierce battle. But that didn’t mean she liked to be treated like damsel in distress, now, did she?

Flying at top speed over miles and miles of sea, the wind howling loudly in Natsu’s ears but not enough to drown the sound of the waves taunting him from beneath, Natsu felt tears burn at his eyes. If only he had stayed a day longer after Tartaros was defeated, if only he had bothered to go to Lucy and just talk to her, if he had trusted her like she used to trust him, maybe she wouldn’t be fighting for her life now, she wouldn’t have overexerted herself so much.

And now he wasn’t able to do anything to help her out. The thought was maddening to say the least.

Happy sailed past the Calypso when they caught up with it, not even slowing down to tell the crew what their plans were. He kept flying, ignoring the surprised gasps of the men on the ship. Natsu didn’t even know where they were going anymore, and just trusted Happy’s feline orientation skills to take over and lead them on the right path to the closest town they could find.

They didn’t know how long they’d been flying. Seconds felt like hours, minutes like days. All Natsu knew was that Lucy was lying as cold as unmoving as a marble stone in his arms and Happy was panting from exertion, forcing himself to keep going even if Natsu noticed they were lowering down an inch with every yard they gained, and there was still no land in sight.

They were never going to make it.

And then Natsu’s keen eyes caught sight of something approaching from far ahead, three little lights quickly edging closer and closer, revealing themselves to be three small, military ships. The Kingdom of Fiore’s flag billowed proudly over the mast.

The Royal Marine Force.

Relief washed over Natsu, who felt a grateful grin widen up and split his numb face in two; Stark had probably sent a warning via lacrima to the authorities while the three mages fought and kept the pirates at bay, and Natsu was almost positive the Rune Knights had something, anything, to keep Lucy stable until they reached an actual hospital.

He again shifted Lucy so he was holding her with an arm and raised his other one, bright flames engulfing his hand. Lucy had once told him of a communication system based on light signals that the military used a lot, but of course he had not listened, believing himself to be above these kind of matters.

Oh well, he had to try, and pray the guys were smart enough to understand.

Three short flashes, then three longer ones, and other three short ones to wrap it up, if memory served him right. Happy looked down at him quizzically. “What was that?”

Natsu smiled up at him. “I sent them an S.O.S. Lucy taught me how to, but don’t ask me more of it, because I don’t know how to signal anything else. Probably Lucy knows more.”

“Hmm,” Happy hummed in agreement. “We’ll just ask her to teach us later.”

“You got that right, buddy.”

The three ships had in the meanwhile effortlessly cut through the waves with the easiness only a latest-model lacrima powered engine could guarantee. A metallic voice echoed from what Natsu assumed to be the flagship of the small fleet, the one in the middle.

“Are you injured? Flash once for affirmative.”

Natsu flashed his open palm very, very brightly. His point must have gotten across well, because the voice wasted no time to reply a hasty “Permission to land conceded,” and harsh orders to prepare the stretchers and medical equipment were shouted on the ship on the far right.

Happy swerved slightly to approach the ship and start descending, but all of a sudden, with a sickening pop, his wings finally gave out under the stress and vanished, leaving the three mages awkwardly airborne.

Natsu had just the time to realize what was happening before gravity took hold of him, violently pulling him down. He cursed and watched the solid wooden floor of the ship getting closer and closer at an unreasonable speed.

With a last burst of energy, he pressed Lucy against him and shifted mid air so he was placed between her and the boarded surface.

He landed right onto his injured shoulder with a muffled thud. The impact sent a ripple of burning pain throughout his whole body; tiny dots of light filled his vision and blurred dangerously his eyesight as a scream sat at his lips, ready to tumble out.

He screwed his eyes closed and bit the inside of his cheek to ground himself to reality. He had more important matters to attend to now.

“Please,” he all but screamed blindly at the shellshocked crew, many of whom wearing a cross-shaped crimson pin to their lapels, weakly gesturing to Lucy in his arms. “Save her…”

That plea seemed to kickstart the doctors back into action. Natsu felt several strong, firm hands holding him up in a sitting position as others tried to gently pry Lucy away from him. He instinctively tightened his hold of her, reluctant to get her out of his sight a second more, but the hands worked his limb away, letting the medics load her onto a nearby stretcher. He could see they were whispering urgently one to another, but he couldn’t understand what they were saying, not until one of them half turned around and uttered a few words that froze Natsu’s blood solid in his veins.

Magic Deficiency Syndrome.

Natsu didn’t know much of medicine, but even he knew that one, and that it was bad.

He tried to stand up, to reach Lucy, but the doctors that had gathered around him pinned him down to the ground. The pain in his arm and chest flared up to unbearable levels, but he kept shoving the doctors’ arms away, fighting to get free.

However, a gloved hand managed to sneak past the chaos and cupped his mouth and nose. The stink of latex asssulted his nostrils, making his head spin.

He looked at the owner of the trapping hand wide-eyed, with half a mind to bite down into the soft flesh, and he was met with a girl’s face, looking grin and perhaps a little sad.

“Sorry, but it’s for your own good.”

And in a flash, nothingness swallowed him whole.

--

Lucy was floating.

She didn’t know where she was, nor how long she had been there, but she didn’t care. She was so comfortable and warm, lying with her eyed closed and spread-eagled amidst the water, with the waves gently massaging her sore limbs and playing with her hair, she could stay there forever as far as she was concerned.

For some reason, it reminded her of her mom. Layla’s sweet, comforting embrace, gods, she had missed it so much.

As though it heard her thoughts and approved of them, the waters tugged lightly, pulling her downwards a few inches. Yeah, they were meant to be one entity…

Somewhere directly above her, something harshly broke the water surface. Lucy frowned at the unwelcome intrusion, and her surprise increased when she felt something - a hand - wrapping tighly around her wrist, like a vice, and pulling up, hard.

Lucy tried to fight back against her captor - she didn’t want to leave the safety of this place, this embrace - but her body was not moving. Completely lifeless, she could only flap about, pulled up by the grasping hand and then dragged down again by the possessive water.

She was almost cheering for the water to fend off the attacker and win, when a very distressed voice called her out, making her heart stop.

”Lucy!!”

...Loke?

”Please, Lucy, I beg you! Hold on to me!”

She felt his grip tighten, his rings biting into her flesh, but nevertheless the rivulets of water curled around her wrist, prying off his fingers, that slipped. He called her name again, desperate. It was an heart wrenching sound, one that the never wanted Loke to make ever again.

She tried to move, to will her arms to reach out and grab onto Loke’s hand, but she could have tried moving a boulder with her thoughts alone for that matter. She was trapped, and to her horror she was sinking, inch after inch, more and more out of Loke’s reach.

Another hand wrapped itself around her other wrist, joining Loke’s quest.

“Mistress!” Ah, this was Virgo… it was so strange to hear such violent emotions in her voice. She usually was so calm and imperturbable, this fear and despair felt off, they should not be there, they should never be there.

And soon enough all the others had jumped in: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Scorpio, Sagittarius and even the stoic Capricorn kept trying to keep her afloat and bring her ashore, but with every try the pull of the waves grew impossibly stronger, forcing her out of their hold, without caring if Lucy got hurt in the process.

Terror grabbed Lucy, squeezing her already still lungs and filling them with lead. Was this the end? Was this seriously how she died, after all the shit she had been through?

She wanted to cry, to call for her mother for help, but she had never felt so abandoned and alone in her life, as she slowly sank deeper, slipping away in a world of liquid darkness.

Her downfall, however, came to an abrupt halt when two solid hands pressed against her back from underneath her. Warm and strong, they held her firmly on the spot, uncaring of the pillar of water bearing down on them. A voice, harsh but uncharacteristically rough and high-pitched, as though it had been crying a long time, spoke into her ear.

“Just get up already, you dunce.”

And then Lucy was pushed upwards, cutting through the water with unbelievable ease as the waves howled their anger around them, and up and up and up...

And with a violent gasp tearing through her throat, Lucy woke up.

Chapter Text

Lucy inhaled deeply, thoroughly enjoying the feeling of cold air running through her nose and mouth and then down, expanding her abused lungs. How long had it been since she actually breathed in some air? It felt like it was a whole lifetime ago, maybe two.

She blinked fast a couple of times, trying to will away the sense of utter exhaustion pushing her eyelids closed. Not that it worked much, but at least now she could focus on her predicament.

She found herself in a dark room, staring up at a blank, white ceiling, as she lay on her back on something really soft and fuzzy - a bed! She had really missed this particular piece of furniture alright - with something like a translucent mask placed over her nose and mouth and fastened to the back of her head with a rubbery string. Looking to the side, she could see the tank attached to the rubber tube connected to the mask, carrying oxygen straight into her airways. She also noticed someone had sticked an IV to her arm, dripping whatever thing that crystal clear fluid was into her veins. Several machines blinked and beeped to the side, filling the otherwise quiet room, their glowing monitors being the only source of light. They cast an ominous, sick blueish glow all over the place that made Lucy shudder.
She could see no clock, but she was sure it had to be very late into the night.

Well, that was definitely weird. How did she find herself in a hospital?

Still feeling a little dizzy and confused, she tried to retrace the last memories she had and then go from there; she remembered the pirates attacking, of course, as well as Aquarius (her heart grew heavy from the mere memory of how mistreated Aquarius had been, and her blood boiled all over again) but after that her memory grew fuzzy and blurred. She remembered feeling angry, like she had rarely been before, and a newfound power thrumming through her body. For an incredible moment she had felt invincible, and her fury had only increased when she saw Natsu’s grievous injury, his arm reduced to a bloody mess.

She startled violently. Natsu! And Happy too!

She slowly raised a hand, slid off the mask from her face and, with some effort, carefully lifted herself to a sitting position, wincing lightly when a sharp pain pierced her chest. Oh right, she had broken a couple of ribs down there.

Still, all the pain and discomfort were promptly forgotten when she caught sight of a familiar figure with spiky hair bonelessly slumped over a chair alongside the wall, a dark ball of fur sitting on his lap.

“Natsu,” she tried to call, but her mouth had turned into a desert, parched and rough, and all that came out of it was a pained croak. She coughed lightly and cleared her throat.

“Natsu!”

This time it came out stronger, and the dark silhouette jolted, straightening up a bit. “Huh? Another five minutes, Lushi, pleashe…”

Lucy could not help a chuckle at the Natsu-ness of the statement, completely disregarding the less than normal situation, even though she paid dearly for her mistake when her injured ribs protested, stinging her chest sharply. Jerks.

The sound carried over more than she had thought, however, because Natsu’s frame shifted and fully straightened up, combing a hand through his hair and succeeding to make it even messier than before.

“Wait, Lucy? Holy shit, you’re awake! Happy, wake up, Lucy is awake!”

The poor Exceed was gracelessly shaken by his now overexcited partner, and took flight from Natsu’s lap with an annoyed, intelligible grumbling. He stopped immediately when he saw that Lucy was, indeed, conscious and sitting up already.

“Lushiii!!!”

Happy turned into a blue bullet and shot through the air right into her chest, using her bosom as a pillow to cushion the impact - pervert - and making Lucy jolt in pain again at the sudden hit. Still, she let out a breathless laugh and wrapped an arm across the Exceed’s tiny shoulders, keeping him close. “Hello there, Happy.”

“Lushi, we were so scared…” the little Exceed trailed off, burying his face in her chest. Lucy felt his tiny frame shake and jolt, muffling his hiccups and sobs into her hospital gown, which soon grew moist with tears. “We thought we’d never see you again.”

Lucy let out a quiet laugh and held Happy even tighter. “Silly bean, you didn’t need to worry so much. I promised, didn’t I?”

“Yes, but…”

Natsu, who had been strangely silent the whole time and simply watched the scene unfold, abruptly stood up and with a few strides crossed the room to switch the lights on. An intense white, sterile looking light filled the room, blinding Lucy for a few moments. She instinctively shielded her eyes with a hand to ease the transition from semi-darkness to noon-time daylight.

Now that she could see him properly, she finally noticed the bandages wrapping all over his arm and chest - not exactly a new sight, in all the time she had known him she lost count of the times she had seen him covered in bandages and gauzes - but it was his expression that stood out the most to her: his face was pale and stretched, and his eyes, usually sparkling with unbridled, fiery energy, were instead red rimmed and circled, as though he had spent many of a night without getting a wink of sleep. Now, that was indeed a different show, for usually only an apocalyptic, world-shattering level of catastrophe managed to affect him so much that he lost his sleep over it.

She wasn’t used to Natsu looking so tired, almost defeated. Betrayed. Not-Natsu. It went without saying that she didn’t like it one bit.

Again, she felt the irrefrenable desire to ask Natsu what was wrong, to confide in her, but once more the words died in her mouth before they reached her lips. She couldn’t bring herself to ask for his trust when she had kept this many secrets from him. Secrets that now - Lucy could tell from the hurt in his eyes, in his hunched posture - he knew.

Gods, how did it come to this? How could she have let the situation get so out of hand like this?

Feeling Natsu’s inquiring, insistent look trying to burn a hole through her skull, she lowered her eyes, letting her gaze fall on the top of Happy’s head. She distractedly petted his soft fur just to give relief to the growing restlessness setting fire to her nerves.

Coward.

They sat in awkward silence for a while. Lucy knew Natsu was still entirely focused on her, but she didn’t dare to raise her gaze to meet his, afraid to see the scorn and disgust that she had been seeing in her reflection for almost two years as of now. That was the one thing she just couldn’t take.

“Say, Happy,” Natsu said, slowly coming over, and took the chair he had vacated earlier on, carrying it all the way to Lucy’s bedside before heavily sitting down again. Lucy shivered as a wave of scorching heat rolled off him and wrapped around her, effectively freezing her in place. “Why don’t you go warn the docs that Lucy’s up? I’ll keep an eye on her.”

To Lucy’s ears, that actually sounded more like a threat than a reassurance. Nonetheless, Happy - as the innocent and trusting little soul he was - didn’t notice how she grew stiff, and immediately jumped away from her arms, soaring up into the air.

“Aye, sir!”

He saluted and quickly flew out of the room - Lucy didn’t see the fleeting look her two friends exchanged as Happy glided past Natsu - closing the door behind him with a deafening click. Silence fell once more upon them, coiling around Lucy’s neck like a nooze and crushing her windpipe. She stole a glance up at Natsu, and saw he was not looking at her anymore: he was leaning forward, instead focusing on his hands in his lap. His bandaged fingers kept fidgeting nervously.

She waited, her heart hammering in her chest so hard her whole body shook with every beat, anticipating the confrontation she had wanted so desperately to avoid.

Without warning, Natsu leaned back and heaved a deep, tired sigh.

“You really went overboard, Lucy.”

Somehow, the irony of Natsu chastising her for getting a little carried away during a job managed to push several of her wrong buttons at the same time, and her sleeping temper flared back to life with a flourish. Her lips thinned in an attempt to physically hold what exactly she thought about that statement.

“It’s a little rich coming from you, isn’t it?” she replied dryly, if not a little snappishly. This was definitely not the way she wanted this conversation to go, but since when did things deign themselves to go smoothly for her, after all? Really, she should definitely stop getting all that surprised by now.

Natsu, unbelievably enough, actually acted like a mature adult and let the challenging tone slide. Instead he looked straight at Lucy, brows furrowed in concern, but Lucy kept staring at nothing in front of her, though she felt the tell-tale warmth of a shameful blush heating up her cheeks.

“You were about to die, Lucy! Even the doctors were half-sure you wouldn’t make it. You can’t imagine how fucking terrified I was! Both Happy and I were scared shitless.”

Oh yeah, she could absolutely imagine, no problem. The instances Lucy thought Natsu may have not made it alive were countless, with the most recent - and severe - one being just a few months ago. Tears welled up in her eyes as she remembered for the umpteenth time Natsu’s still, cold body pressed against her bare skin as Porlyusica tried to limit the extension of the mass growing inside him. She doubted she’d ever forget the terror of that moment for as long as she lived.

But of course, it was fine for Natsu to get almost killed on a regular basis, while Lucy was not allowed to get a strand of hair out of place that he was all over her to keep her safe.

The most frustrating thing was, though, that as much as that behaviour annoyed her, it also warmed her heart.

When she spoke again, it was with a lot less bite. “Thought I would try to compete with you on that field. How did I do?” she tried to joke, to diffuse the tension. Natsu was not amused.

“Startlingly well. Really got me worried there.” he said rather coolly. Lucy felt the urge to roll her eyes, but managed to hold herself back at the last second.

They sat there, quiet, each lost in their own thoughts. Lucy grabbed a lock of her hair and twisted it furiously around her fingers, even though it was still rough and patchy from the sea water and not pleasing or relaxing at all at the touch. Nerves tense and taut, she waited for Natsu to finally address the elephant in the room.

And waited.

And waited.

“Are you seriously not going to ask me anything? That’s not like you.” she finally grabbed the bull by the horns, after an agonizing wait that lasted an endless minute. Natsu shrugged with a nonchalance that caught her completely off-guard.

“You don’t have to confide in me if you don’t feel like it, Lu.” he said seriously, but then flashed her one of his heart-melting grins. “I don’t mind, as long as you let me be at your side.”

Lucy stared at Natsu, absolutely shellshocked, and wondered if she was still comatose and dreaming, or whether she had been somehow sent to an alternate universe by mistake (and with Edolas being a thing that actually happened, that was an option she could not completely rule out). What happened to her funny, juvenile, a little overbearing Natsu Dragneel?

With a bit of difficulty, she swallowed the lump stuck in her throat.

“For real? You don’t care to know how and why I lost Aquarius, why I dragged you into a job that nearly cost us both our lives?”

Her voice cracked dangerously and grew in pitch and volume as an hysterical laughing fit bubbled up from her chest, the first signs of a nervous meltdown coming up. But if Lucy’s grip on her sanity was seemingly slipping, on the other hand Natsu looked awfully calm and seraphic. The sheer absurdity of it all definitely didn’t help Lucy’s case in the slightest.

“You didn’t drag me, remember? I showed up and joined in of my own volition.” he said, smirking smugly for exploiting this loophole oh-so-smartly, in a way that definitely looked a lot more Natsu-ish that he’d been the whole time. Lucy was torn between the need to hug him or to punch him.

“But to answer your question,” he continued, quickly sobering down, “No, it’s not that I don’t care, I just… want this to be over with. To put it behind us for good and not let it coming between us again. Can… can we do this, Luce? Can we just go back to what we were?”

Lucy didn’t reply; she was stunned by his speech, strangely proper - as though he had spent hours composing and rehearsing it to perfection - and yet so heartfelt in that last plead, openly showing a vulnerability Natsu had always tried to hide behind his usual bravado.

It was another act of blind trust on his part, trust that didn’t ask anything in return, and Lucy didn’t deserve a lick of if.

Her eyes stung at the corners and her vision blurred with more tears; she ducked down her head, letting her hair cascade in front of her face, a thin golden shield between her and the rest of the world. She suppressed a sob and wiped her eyes dry with as much subtlety she could muster while Natsu respectfully averted his eyes, suddenly growing very interested in his bandages.

“No, we can’t.”

Natsu felt like he was just shot in the heart; he whipped his head up and stared at her, pain flooding his chest and numbing his limbs. Lucy, however, wasn’t looking at him, and kept her eyes steadily downcast. He could hear her breaths coming out in shallow puffs.

“But… why?”

Lucy shook her head slowly, struggling to breathe and keep her cool enough to explain. She needed to do it right if she wanted Natsu to fully understand.

“Natsu, we can’t deny we changed. The events and losses we all suffered changed us, you, me, Happy, everyone. It’s a fact.”

Feeling reasonably safe behind the curtain of hair falling over her face, she peered up at Natsu through her lashes and fringe. He was completely frozen still and Lucy could have sworn he was turned into a statue if his charcoal eyes hadn’t been so blazingly alive. She was positive the expression of pure pain etched into his face would haunt her dreams for a long time to come.

“We…” her voice shook slightly, and she had to break off to take a deep breath. “I just can’t forget and pretend it never happened.”

“Lucy, I swear, back then, I never meant-”

“I know you didn’t,” Lucy cut him off evenly, already knowing what he was driving at. “I told you, I wasn’t mad because you left. I know I would have probably done the same if I were you. It’s okay.”

She tried to smile reassuringly at Natsu, who looked like he was about to shatter in a thousand pieces, but her chapped lips twisted in little more than a grimace.

“I don’t get it, Lucy,” Natsu said after a while, hunched over as though the entire world was weighing down on his shoulders. He looked older and more broken than ever. “If it’s fine-”

“You kept a secret from me, and left without telling me straight to the face. I didn’t like it-” Lucy ignored the way Natsu started. “-but I kept a secret from you myself, I didn’t tell you Aquarius was gone, so we’re even. And, what’s more, I kept not telling you all this time, until I couldn’t hide it from you anymore, and eventually you found out in another way, getting severely injured in the process.”

Lucy waved vaguely to Natsu’s injured arm without having the courage to actually look at it. She just couldn’t help but feel it was her fault. Her spell had failed, and if she had been faster, more skilled she could have prevented Natsu and Happy getting involved at all.

Natsu glanced down at his bandages himself, frowning.

“You know it’s not your fault, right? Happy and I jumped out and broke Fairy Sphere on our own.”

Lucy blinked, taken by surprise at that confession. Her head snapped up almost on its own, her eyebrows knitted together in a reprimanding scowl. “Why the hell did you do that? You guys could have died!”

Natsu was startled by this sudden shift to her usual Lucy, the strong and bossy one that never passed up a chance to berate him when he messed up. It was weird to be feeling so happy and relieved to be scolded, but he’d take it. He laughed heartily at her, who grew even more outraged and resorted to puff her cheeks and purse her lips. He loved that expression of hers, it was adorable and hilarious at the same time.

“It’s a bit rich coming from you, isn’t it?” he replied, mimicking the tone she had used earlier on. When she realized he was mocking her she huffed loudly and crossed her arms tightly, pointedly looking away from him. Still, he could see the corners of her mouth twitching, fighting valiantly to rise up in a smile.

Lucy’s stamina, however, had never been the best, and soon the amusement took the lead over her outrage, leaving her giggling helplessly alongside Natsu. She even managed to ignore the pain in her ribs.

“See, that wasn’t so difficult, right?”

At Natsu’s hopeful remark Lucy’s laughter faded away and her heart grew three times heavier. No, it wasn’t hard at all, and Lucy would be lying if she said she didn’t want to return to how things had been.

But as she had said before, they could not. Too much had happened to be ignored.

Her gaze fell back to her hands in her lap as the lighthearted moment - one of those moments that used to be so common, she should have never taken them for granted - and she shook her head. Unseen by her, Natsu’s smile died off too, his hope crushed before it could truly blossom to life.

Nevertheless, he patiently waited for her to elaborate further, if she so wished. And indeed, Lucy took a shaky breath and spoke again, each word cutting like a knife being shoved and twisted in her throat.

“I lost Aquarius, Natsu,” she said dejectedly, “But it’s not only that, I willingly allowed myself to lose her.”

Natsu’s eyes widened, taken aback by the unexpected bitterness and self-loath that heavily poisoned her words. He saw her shoulders slump in shame and unbearable regret; his heart seized painfully at the sight of such a miserable Lucy, and he wished nothing more than to reach out and tell her everything was gonna be alright - they were Fairy Tail, there was just no way they couldn’t come out on top of whatever sticky situation they found themselves in - but instead he kept away, giving her space to work it out on her own. Lisanna’s words kept ringing in his ears.

“Natsu, I’m not as strong as you, or Erza, or Gray-” Lucy was now openly crying, tears streaming down uncontrollably from her eyes as sobs cracked her voice and rocked her body. “And I’ll never be. When all of you guys got sealed away within Alegria, leaving only me out… three of them rounded up on me, chasing me around. They were so strong, I could hardly keep them at bay even with Virgo and Loke helping me out at the top of their powers.”

Lucy felt her heart quicken madly as those terrible moments flashed in front of her eyes; she could feel the terror flooding her when she realized she was left alone to fend for herself against demons that were easily able to give trouble to veteran S-class mages such as Mira and Erza.

Natsu felt himself go cold with horror at Lucy’s tale. He remembered all too well how strong the Tartaros guys were; the idea of Lucy fighting them all at once on her own really didn’t sit right with him. His magic flared up almost entirely on his own, setting his blood on fire. Those fuckers were lucky they already kicked the bucket, or he swore he would have went after them and tore them apart, limb after limb.
He clenched tightly his fists, the tight bandages biting painfully into his flesh.

“So I tried summoning Aquarius as well, but alas it was useless, the water demon breezed through her attacks like they were not even there. Nothing I did was ever enough, obviously, and I was completely drained from summoning three Zodiac Spirits at once. I had nothing else to go on. And then… then-”

She fell silent all of a sudden, bending forward even further as she held up her hands in front of her chest and grabbed her right wrist with her left hand, tightly. Natsu saw her nails sink deeply into the soft skin of the back of her hand, where her pink Fairy Tail mark had been tattooed, drawing angry red crescents in their wake.

Before he even realized it, his arms shot out and his hands entangled with her own, gently unraveling the vice grip and intertwining her fingers with his to keep her from further hurting herself. She let him, too absorbed in her awake nightmare to care. On the contrary, she held tightly onto him, although he couldn’t tell if it was a conscious decision or simply an instinct to grab something to keep herself grounded to reality. He squeezed back, delicately but firmly, to let her know he was there, at her side, and he wasn’t going anywhere.

Lucy swallowed down with enormous difficulty; the bitter taste of bile and tears filled her mouth, suffocating her. She felt like she was drowning all over again, but now that everything she held to herself spilled over the edge of the barrier she had built around her heart to seal it away from prying eyes, there was just no way to stop it anymore. She let go, allowing herself to be swept away.

“Because of my weakness, Aquarius had to sacrifice herself to summon the Celestial Spirit King and dispel Alegria. Her key shattered in my hand as her magic vanished, her spirit dissolved into nothingness… she had to give up everything, her freedom, her identity as a Zodiac Spirit, everything, just because I was not strong or skilled enough.” Lucy finally straightened up and looked up at Natsu, her eyes shining with tears and red rimmed. “Do you get it now, Natsu? I had to choose between my dearest friends, between my family members, instead of fighting to the death to protect them both. How can I go back to what it was before, when due to me being so weak I’ve willingly broken the one and only rule Fairy Tail considered sacred and inviolable?!?”

Lucy fell silent, sobbing desperately like she had not done since those terrible days in the aftermath of Tartaros, when nightmares of Aquarius fading away kept plaguing her every single night, and would not go away until Loke reached out to her and enveloped her in his embrace, whispering sweet nothings in her ear all night long. She looked down again, unable to sustain Natsu’s gaze anymore. She felt raw and vulnerable, naked to Natsu’s eyes so they could see how ugly her true essence could be. Her whole selfish, pathetic, weak self. Was her father really right when he said she would never amount to anything great on her own?

“I don’t think you’re weak at all.”

Lucy’s heart skipped a beat in surprise. “What?”

Natsu leaned back on his chair, staring up at the ceiling as though the words he so desperately tried to say were written on it. Lucy waited with bated breath as Natsu seemingly struggled to give some order to his jumbled thoughts.

“You’re not weak, Luce. I don’t believe that, nor does any of our friends at the guild.” he said quietly, still not looking at her. After a beat, though, he met her eyes. Lucy could not help but to admire the way his eyes were ablaze with passion and conviction, or his jaw was set in determination.

That was the look Natsu reserved for a tough, important battle that he couldn’t afford to lose. There was nothing boyish or immature on his face.

“To be forced to choose between two things you care deeply about… it’s not a sin, it’s torture. Of the worst kind.” Natsu scowled deeply. Would the damage dealt by Tartaros to Fairy Tail ever end? It looked like everyday something new they did to his comrades popped up. He was so tired of those guys’s posthumous bullshit. “Nor it is weakness. Strength is not how hard you punch, Lucy. Come on, I thought you knew this already, you’re the smart one of our team.”

Natsu flashed her a wide grin, but Lucy’s brain was reduced to a pudding of grey matter, and didn’t succeed at easing her anxiety. Seeing as she was completely paralyzed, Natsu took the reins and kept going on.

“It took me a while to get that too. I guess I was too used to things going my way, so that when Igneel-” his breath hitched in his throat, his words - painstakingly picked and assembled, he really was no talker - stumbling on each other. “-when Igneel died I was lost, drowning into a sense of crushing defeat and grief the likes of which I had never experienced before. What was the point of my almighty magic if it couldn’t protect the ones I loved?”

Lucy kept quiet, stunned by this Natsu she didn’t know. How long had this insightful Natsu been around, and she never noticed?

“I thought long and hard about it when I was away. I trained, and trained, but nothing seemed to help in attaining new power, new strength. Every single day was frustrating, pushing myself to my limits to no avail. Then, Happy and I would collapse to the ground every so often, and have fun stargazing, making up our own constellations just to mess with you when we’d be back. Those moments were the whole reason I didn’t give up in taming the flame Igneel left me with his last breath.”

Lucy’s chest constricted painfully at the soft, fond smile Natsu was giving her. She found herself abysmally speechless, a shameful predicament for someone who made their trade with words, and hypnotized. She was all but hanging from Natsu’s lips.

“You didn’t sacrifice Aquarius, Lucy, she chose to sacrifice herself to help you survive, because she loved you more than she loved her freedom. After all, it wouldn’t matter to her whether you lived or died if she didn’t care, did she? She would keep existing, and would eventually end up in the hands of someone else. And you, Lucy, you took on her legacy, stood back up and kept fighting with all you got, making it worth it all. There’s nothing - nothing - weak about this.”

He squeezed her hand again, his warmth spreading from their joined fingers throughout her whole body, thawing out her heart from its frozen cage. More tears cascaded down, like miniature waterfalls with no apparent end. It seemed like the only thing she could do these days was crying.

“And if you don’t believe me-”

Natsu suddenly disentangled himself from her vice-like grip and stood up, rummaging in pockets of his pants. Even in her dazed state she could not refrain herself from noticing how cute he was with his brows furrowed and tongue peeking between his teeth in concentration. Then he brightened up and finally pulled out something in his fist.

“-Then you can try asking her.”

Lucy felt herself go dangerously faint: in Natsu’s outstretched, open palm a golden key glinted happily under the white lamp light, if not a little smugly. Lucy would recognize that delicate shape, those blue carvings everywhere.

Aquarius.

“How… where…” she stammered weakly. Natsu grinned wildly and delicately dropped the key in her hand. As soon as her skin touched the cool metal a sense of deep joy filled her heart. It was like she had been reunited to a long lost sister. “I thought it was sunken with the pirate ship. I thought it had returned to the ocean, waiting for a more suitable owner.”

With trembling hands, she carefully examined the key that has been haunting her for so long. Her fingers gingerly roamed across the whole surface, exploring, searching for the cracks that splintered the key under the spell she used, or the charred marks that marred the golden sheen under that vile man’s command, but she found nothing of the sort. It was just as perfect as she remembered.

“Well, when we docked and the doctors hurried you off the ship to carry you here to the hospital,” Natsu explained, scratching the back of his head. “All of a sudden there was this one bigger wave that covered the dock and rocked the ship imperiously. Only one. And when the waters retreated, something golden was glittering like crazy on the floor. A thorough investigation of the amazing detective Natsu Dragneel and his assistant Happy Watson revealed a golden key. It was rather elementary whom it belonged to.”

He puffed up his chest proudly and took a deep breath, pretending to be smoking a pipe. He even blew out a thin thread of smoke from his mouth to make it more believable. Lucy actually chuckled at the silly overacting despite how drained she was feeling.

In the short span of twenty minutes, too many revelations and confessions were made, she didn’t know what to think anymore. She still could not possibly believe Natsu had so thoroughly and easily dispelled the wrenching guilt she had been feeling for so long. She had forgotten how pleasant it felt to breathe so lightly and freely, without the constant doubts and secrets to chain her down. She was scared she would soon wake up and she would find herself back into her apartment in Magnolia, alone and too weak to accomplish anything.

But still, the weight of the key in her hand was just so real.

“It felt like it was calling for me, you know? Well, more like demanding me to go over there and pick it up. She sure is a bossy fella, isn’t she?” Natsu laughed airily, pointing at the key. Lucy held it close to her chest, smiling softly. A couple of tears fell from her sogged eyelids and splattered on the key with a little splash. The key glowed gently in response, a demand not to cry anymore, please. Lucy chuckled.

“Oh, she is bossy, alright.”

Happy picked that moment to arrive, a doctor and two nurses in tow. The medical staff berated them all lightly for not warning them sooner, since there was a bell right beside the bed just for that purpose. Lucy had honestly not noticed, whereas Natsu and Happy avoided looking at each other too carefully to be believable. Those mischievous tricksters! And Lucy had even believed Happy to be a naive, innocent soul! The nerve of him!

The medics shoved her two friends out of the room to quickly check on some vitals, in the meanwhile filling her in on those dark spots of her memory she hadn’t got to ask Natsu: apparently, she had overexerted herself and went dangerously close to totally deplete her magic reserves, to the point she had collapsed and remained comatose for three days straight. Natsu and Happy had bravely flew across the sea and carried her a good portion of the trip to Lilium, but had a lucky break when a nearby military fleet responded to the Calypso’s urgent request for assistance and crossed their path.

The doctor made it clear that, had they been even a second late, she probably wouldn’t have made it.

The doctor herself was absolutely astonished she had reached Lilium’s hospital with any magic in her body at all. According to the lady’s medical knowledge, she should have run out way before even getting on board, but she had surprised everyone when nine small lights kept hovering around her, keeping her stable as they injected their own magic into her system.

The doctor told her without beating around the bush it was all her Spirits’ merit if she was still alive, and indeed she later found her keys burrowed under her pillow, close to her. When Natsu and Happy were allowed to get back into the room, they found her holding tightly her keys - all of them, although Aquarius’s was still out of her keyring - to her chest.

She looked up at them, but her smile morphed into a puzzled expression as she took the bizarre picture in: Happy was staring scornfully at Natsu, his tiny paws crossed in front of his chest tightly, while Natsu kept avoiding locking eyes with everyone, shifting his weight from one foot to the other continuously. Lucy wondered what could possibly have Natsu acting so embarrassed, and whether all that swaying around didn’t trigger his motion sickness.

“Ahem,” Happy cleared his throat with surprising bite, still glowering daggers at Natsu, who slumped and pouted. “We decided we need you to tell you something. Right, Natsu?”

Natsu huffed, annoyed, his pout growing even more pronounced; Lucy, on the other hand, felt herself go still. Oh gods, what now?

“Natsuu-”

“Alright, alright, I get it!” the Dragon Slayer finally snapped at his little blue friend, but alas when he turned to Lucy his annoyance had subsided considerably, taken over by genuine regret and shame. “Luce, I-I’m truly sorry, I sneaked a peek at your notebook back at Hargeon when you were out, you weren’t talking to me and I was just so worried, I’m so sorry pleasedontbemadatme!!”

He said all of this very, very fast. He then threw himself down on his knees at her bedside, clasping his hands tightly above his head in a pleading gesture. His eyes were scrunched closed, the true picture of misery incarnate.

Lucy’s head tripped over this unexpected piece of information, and it took a few moments before her brain could fully process what it meant. He did what?

“Loke stopped him before he could see the entirety of it,” Happy added coolly; at least it seemed like the Exceed understood the concept of private space when he wished to, and didn’t approve of his partner’s brash behavior.

At his remark Lucy suddenly remembered the angry spike of Loke’s magic she had felt back when she was busy laying down their trap for their wanted criminals. Now the mysterious argument the two boys had finally made sense, and Lucy felt a surge of genuine gratitude towards her most loyal Spirit for looking out for her and jumping out to confront Natsu on her behalf, though she had to admit she was a little miffed he had kept the incident under wraps, an incident that involved her so directly.

As for Natsu, she definitely was angry. So, instead of working like she told him to, he was busy sneaking behind her back and breaching her privacy, huh?

As though summoned by her thoughts alone, the room blazed alight for a split second and Loke appeared at Lucy’s side, flawlessly handsome as always, although she could see there were still bruise marks peeking out of his shirt collar and sleeves, where Aaron’s magic had tried to take control over him. He bowed down to her with the ridiculously wide flourish that never failed to make her laugh and playfully roll her eyes. She had tried so many times to tell him he didn’t need to do that every single time, but did he listen? Of course not.

It was amusing how the more she cared about people, the less they appeared to listen to what she had to say.

“My lady has called for me?” Loke asked pompously, kneeling down beside Natsu. He threw a smug grin at the Slayer, who responded with a vicious glare. Sparks flew between the two young men, the desire to rip each other a new one written as clearly as day on their faces. She guessed a lion was still a big cat as a tiger was, in that sense.

Too bad Lucy was definitely not having any of their shenanigans, not today. She harshly cleared her throat, glaring daggers at both of them, who had at least the decency to look ashamed for keeping this secret from her.

“What do you two have to say in your defense?”

Loke looked up at her, clasping dramatically a hand over his heart. “My lady, it’s true this servant of yours has sinned, but only the purest love guided my actions!” he declared way too passionately. Lucy actually rolled her eyes this time and Natsu pretended to gag on the side.

“You’re gross as shit, cat.”

“At least I don’t go sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong like a bug, flame-brain.” Loke promptly retorted, all his flamboyant flare fading instantly into a startingly brisk tone as he glowered at Natsu, his eyes flashing dangerously behind his shades. Apparently, whatever agreement they had established was off the moment the job was over.

“Enough, you two,” Lucy snapped, sensing a migraine coming up; she wished acutely she had an a gavel at hand to bang against her tiny nightstand to restore order in the courtro- erm, hospital room. “And stand up already, my knees hurt just looking at you.”

The two boys exchanged a last defiant look, but otherwise obeyed, their heads hanging low. Quietly and dejectedly they waited for Lucy to deliver her verdict.

Lucy sighed as the sight of her two most treasured friends in the world looking so miserable finally took its toll on her irritation, toning it down considerably. Although what Natsu did was wrong, and Loke concealing it was as just as well, it really wasn’t worth to get upset about. Not now, after everything that happened. She didn’t want to take things for granted and commit foolish mistakes ever again.

“It’s alright,” she finally said, earning two identical surprised looks, three if Happy was to be counted. Squirming a little under the sudden spotlight, she smiled awkwardly. “I mean… I really don’t like what you did, Natsu. I thought you said you would behave and just trust me.”

Natsu ducked down his head again, a look of pure pain twisting his features. She had rarely seen him so ashamed and regretful for something he did. Loke glanced down at him and opened his mouth, clearly about to boast and bask in his victory, but he closed it shut when he caught sight of the warning glare Lucy shot him.

“But it’s okay. I understand you acted with the best of intentions, and it was also partly my fault for keeping you in the dark for so long.” She shuddered as she recalled her recent behavior. Ugh, what would she give to have a chance to slap her past self right now. It was strange how fast everything could change. “Let’s just forget about it, okay?”

Natsu looked up, his eyes wide as saucers and his lips curling up in a disbelieving grin. He kneeled down again and grabbed her hands, enveloping them in his own. “Ya mean it, Luce? Am I really forgiven? Are we friends again?”

His eyes were sparkling like the fireworks that lit up Magnolia’s night sky during the celebrations for Fantasia, vibrant and hopeful. Gods, how could she ever refuse him?

She carefully slid her right hand out of his grasp and placed it above his own, so that both his hands were sandwiched between hers. She squeezed lightly and smiled.

“Of course.”

What happened next was too quick for Lucy’s still pretty tired brain to fully understand: Natsu lit up - almost literally - and jumped high in the air, his arms stretched up high above his head in victory, and yelled a “HEEELLL YEAAAAHH!!” that was probably heard by everyone on the floor. She yelped and tried to shush him, but Natsu flung himself at her and wrapped his arms around her neck, pressing her flush against him in a tight embrace that almost made her melt on the spot. Before she knew it, she was returning it in kind.

“I promise I’ll never let you down ever again Luce! Ever!!”

Happy soon joined in, squeezing his tiny form in between the two human mages, bawling his eyes out and crying loudly about how he missed her. Overwhelmed by the sudden surge of garbled feelings swelling up in her chest and constricting her lungs, Lucy’s eyes blurred dangerously. She buried her face in the crook of Natsu’s neck. His warm breath tousled playfully her hair, calming and reassuring. Lucy felt like she could melt and die right there and then, and she would be happy.

“Oi, oi, let her breathe, lizard head” Loke said after a while, and Lucy looked up to see he was smiling too, his arms crossed loosely in front of his chest as he leaned casually against the wall.

“Oops, sorry!” Natsu said hastily, and immediately let go of her. Lucy frowned slightly and groaned at the sudden lack of Natsu’s smoldering body heat, but otherwise did not complain. As Natsu lifted himself to his feet, she instead addressed Loke, gesturing him to come closer. Loke nodded and took Natsu’s place on the ground beside her.

“Thank you for taking care of me, Loke,” she whispered in his ear as she hugged him tightly as well. Loke immediately wrapped his arms protectively around her, surrounding her with his warmth. It was just as intense as Natsu’s, but a little less smothering, more protective. She could feel his magic pulsing through his body, calling for her own, singing loudly for her alone. Karen had been really stupid for allowing herself to lose such a precious friend. “I always get you involved in the craziest trouble. You really are too good for me after all.”

Loke’s hold tightened ever so slightly. “Still going on with this bullshit, seriously?” He scoffed, though Lucy heard the light hint of a laugh in his tone. “You have nothing to be worried about. I, as well of all the rest of us, will always be there at your side, as your Spirits, but most importantly as your friends.”

Lucy smiled as more tears threatened to spill over - how did her eyes not dry out yet was a mystery to her - and Loke slowly pulled away and straightened up. On the background, Lucy saw Natsu and Happy roll their eyes and pretend to throw up in the corner of the room. Loke pointedly ignored him, his eyes landing instead on Lucy’s nightstand, where she had placed her keyring with all her nine golden keys attached and, just beside it, Aquarius’s key.

“Believe me, it applies to every single one of us. Now, I’m afraid I must go, my fair lady. I haven’t fully recovered yet and I really don’t want to impose on your already strained magic- don’t you dare,” he added warningly when Lucy made to grab his key. She pouted, that cute pout of hers that she knew always made him cave in, but nevertheless retreated her outstretched hand, placing it back in her lap. Loke looked at her sternly for a moment, but alas his reprimanding look soon mellowed down to a resigned, almost pleading one.

“Good. Please rest up properly and don’t tire yourself too much. You know we aren’t going nowhere without you. And you-” he sharply turned on the spot with a flurry of dark fabric, now addressing Natsu directly, who started visibly at the sudden shift of conversation. “Make sure she doesn’t do anything crazy in the meantime, or you will have to respond to me. Am I clear?”

Lucy gasped, a little irked at being treated like a little girl unable to take care of herself properly, and crossed her arms, her lips pursed. “You’re not my mom!”

“Might as well be, given your sense of self-preservation, or lack thereof.”

Wow, thanks a bunch for your undying faith, mom.

All three her so called best friends - traitorous little shits was a more appropriate term though - laughed at her outraged expression. Natsu and Happy saluted and accepted the incredibly difficult mission Loke entrusted to them with a loud “Aye!” that elicited even more laughs. Lucy might even have joined in too at some point.

Sure enough, though, everyone stopped laughing abruptly when the door shot open and a very not amused, disgruntled nurse stormed in the room and positively incinerated the three guests with her eyes alone. Lucy wondered briefly if they had happened across Erza’s long lost sister, and judging from her friends’ horror-struck faces, she surely as hell was not the only one.

“I allowed you to stay way too much. She needs to rest. Now OUT!”

Feeling a dreadfully strong sense of deja-vu, nobody really needed to be told twice.

Chapter Text

They were kept in the hospital for a couple of days longer, just as a precaution in case Lucy’s levels of magic happened to plummet down again without warning. However, soon enough it was clear all the three mages - Lucy heard even Happy got a little carried away at some point - were stable and steadily recuperating, and were finally released. Lucy in particular was under strict orders to cut off any serious guild job requiring magic for at least two months, and to get plenty of rest and food.

(“That’s it, Luce, you gotta eat a lot more than you normally do to get out that powerful magic again! I’ll make your portions from now on!” Natsu had said earnestly, slamming his fist into his other hand’s open palm, eyes as wide as saucers as though he had just found out the true meaning of life.

“Natsu, not everyone burns calories by literally setting them on fire like you do.” Lucy had deadpanned in response, mercilessly bursting his bubble in doing so).

It turned out the pirates had survived the crash and had been briefly hospitalized as well after they’d been fished up by the Rune Knights, and Natsu gleefully told her they all got burned by the flaming waters so badly they were completely unrecognizable. Aaron in particular was covered in thick scars all over the place, erasing all binding marks he had collected on his body, and had lost most of his eyesight. He had been reduced to a shadow of the menace he used to be, an empty shell, unable to use his magic anymore and helplessly imprisoned for the rest of his life.

Frankly speaking, Lucy just couldn’t bring herself to feel sorry about it.

“So,” she said, stretching her arms above her head and enjoying the fresh breeze caressing her skin as they slowly walked down Lilium’s main street. She had missed walking around this freely, between their time on the ship and her convalescence. “Our ferry back to Hargeon leaves tomorrow at 6PM, we have a whole day in front of us. Where do we want to go?”

“I don’t know,” Natsu said, crossing his arms behind his head and smiling brightly. “You’re the captain. What do you say?”

“Yeah, captain Lucy! What do you say?” Happy echoed gleefully, if not a little teasingly. Lucy threw them both a half-exasperated, half-fond look before looking down pensively; she grabbed her chin and tapped lightly her jaw with a slender finger.

“What about go get our stuff from Stark? We did leave our bags on the Calypso. Besides, I would like to cash in that money. Rent is not gonna pay itself.”

“You can tell she’s fine from the way she longs for that reward,” Natsu commented matter-of-factly, causing Happy to giggle in agreement and Lucy to whip around and protest that she wasn’t that much of a money grabber, she just wanted to be able to pay rent in a decent amount of time. Was that perhaps so bad?

Thus, they slowly made their way to Lilium’s harbor, taking their sweet, sweet time. It was a lovely town, pretty small and clean but nevertheless bustling with energy, with colorful stores lined up one after another, and busy people hurrying in and out of them.

They passed through the market, incredibly colorful and packed with people to the point it was hard to move at times, and Happy was forced to soar up above the crowd to avoid being squashed against Natsu’s shoulder. Yet, despite the less than comfortable arrangement, Lucy could not help but be amazed at the many different products on sale: bright dresses, jewelry, tapestries of all colors and kinds and more were shown for all too see and buy. She supposed such a rich array of goods was to be expected in the town that hosted one of Fiore’s most trafficked harbors. The idea that she somehow, as little as she could, helped this market to bloom to new heights warmed her heart.

Natsu and Happy almost had to physically restrain her when her eyes landed on a particularly beautiful dress, the navy blue satin cascading down like solid water over the mannequin’s hips to the ground, and the gold line rimming the heart shaped neckline and the very hem of the long skirt only completed the look. It was probably expensive as hell, and she’d probably never have a proper chance to don it, but damn she wanted it so bad! Only Natsu and Happy whispering constantly in her ear “Rent-rent-rent-rent-” managed to save her and her wallet from committing the sinful deed.

Still, Natsu ended up purchasing a pair of wristbands and gave her one as a present. So they had something to match, he said with a wide, guileless smile, and Lucy felt herself ignite as she stammered a thanks and slipped it over her left wrist.

Luckily, Happy unknowingly saved her from the awkwardness when he loudly complained that he wanted a matching wristband too - and thus they ended up with three pairs, one for Natsu and Lucy, one for Natsu and Happy and a last one for Happy and Lucy. Nobody apparently mentioned the ridiculousness of the situation, so who was Lucy to complain if she had three different bands on her left arm?

At least they were very pretty and colorful, red and gold and blue. She had the feeling she’d never take them off from now on.

They got something to eat - a sandwich for Lucy, four sandwiches for Natsu and some fresh fish for Happy - and then finally settled to go down to the harbor.

“Hah, there you are! The heroes!” Stark boomed when they finally made their appearance at the docked Calypso, “figured you guys would show up sooner or later!”

The man hurried down the plank off board and walked up to them as Natsu and Happy called and waved wildly. He wasn’t smiling, but his one open eye was sparkling with muddled emotions Lucy could not put her finger on as he stared insistently at her. She fidgeted under the intense scrutiny, especially when she recalled how she had acted the last time they had been face-to-face. Now that they weren’t in a life or death situation any longer it was hard not to feel embarrassed and ashamed of her own brashness.

Lucy felt herself go red and let her eyes fall down to the floor, staring intently at the concrete in front of Stark’s boots, begging silently for the ground to take pity on her and open up to swallow her whole.

Instead, much to her surprise, it was Stark himself the one who threw her a lifeline. “I gotta say I was impressed, Heartfilia. I was not expecting that power from someone as scrawny as you are.”

Lucy frowned at the ground, trying and failing not to be peeved by being called scrawny. She wasn’t that tall or muscular, but she could hardly be deemed small. If she was, then what were people like Wendy or Levy to be considered?

She was lost in contemplation when Natsu’s arm, the healthy one, wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him. “Aaaand that’s why you don’t judge a book from its cover. We’re the top team Fairy Tail has to offer, ain’t that right, Luce?”

Lucy had serious doubts about that, especially where she herself was involved; nevertheless, she had to admit that - almost dying aside - they did a pretty damn good job this time around. All of them, as a team. She could afford a tad bit of arrogance and self-confidence too from time to time, couldn’t she?

Feeling encouraged by Natsu’s words, she lifted her head up and nodded vigorously at the weathered captain. “As Fairy Tail mages, we always try our best to satisfy our clients.”

Stark snorted loudly, his thin mouth curling up in a half-smile. “Heh, like a true Heartfilia would say,” then his eyes softened, “You really remind me of Jude, he was a good man before Layla died and his heart withered away with her.”

An awkward silence befell upon them; Natsu glanced from Lucy to Stark and the other way around, noticing both were lost in their thoughts and memories, carefully avoiding each other’s gaze. After a couple of stifling seconds, he had already enough of his gloom, so he cleared his throat loudly, effectively startling both back to Earthland, and ended the angst fest. “Still, we promised you’d be satisfied. Are ya satisfied?”

Stark’s business sense kicked in, probably guessing where Natsu was going with this, from the way the man’s golden eye narrowed sharply, piercing Natsu from side to side. “Yes…?”

Natsu’s grin widened, utterly unperturbed. “Then we had a deal, right?”

Stark curled his nose, but when he spoke there was a clear note of amusement lacing his words. “I had almost hoped the beating you took made y’all forget about that.” he said as he rummaged through his coat pocket and took out a little piece of paper and a pen. He scribbled something and signed it before handing it to Lucy, who, a bit startled, took it and quickly read it. It was a request to the SeaStar merchant guild - Lucy gasped when she recognized the name, she hadn’t known Stark was a member of such a large and renowned guild - to deliver the money to the Fairy Tail mages asap, complete with indications to get there.

“Well, if that’s all-”

“Wait,” Lucy stopped Stark before he could fully turn on his heels and get back on the ship. “We left our bags on your ship!”

The man’s expression darkened and Lucy could clearly hear him grumbling something about ‘youngsters, nowadays’ - Natsu, who had a much more sensitive hearing, cackled madly at Stark’s mumbled rant - and in a beat their bags were delivered to them. A quick check of their contents confirmed nothing was missing.

Natsu grinned wildly at the now cranky old man. “Feel free to call us again for any trouble you have! It’s always a pleasure to do business with you!” he said as he slipped off the note from Lucy’s fingers and fanned himself with it, clearly teasing the captain, who rolled his eye.

“Salt to injury. Now scram, you tricksters, there’s people who gotta work here!”

Giggling at the rash outburst he elicited out of Stark, Natsu grabbed Lucy’s wrist and started running off, laughing madly as Lucy spluttered and protested in surprise before she too melted in a laughing fit that echoed through the whole harbor.

--

They were quietly walking back to the inn where they were residing for the night. It was unusual for Natsu and Happy to be so silent, but with the amount of food they scarfed down at the joint they hit after getting the money from the merchant guild, perhaps Lucy shouldn’t have been so surprised. She herself had given her all, feeling positively famished after days of parenteral nutrition first and sad-looking hospital meals, especially since Natsu said this time everything they got was on him, for once. She just
had to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime event and dutifully proceeded to stuff herself with the delicious seafood until she felt like she was about to burst at the seams. Needless to say, she still had a long way before she could even begin to compare to Natsu’s draconic appetite.

It really was a gorgeous night. There wasn’t a single cloud up in the sky, and the full moon shone like a timid, pearly sun in the middle of the thousands and thousands of tiny stars that dotted the velvety blue night. Lucy inhaled deeply, feeling their energy resonating with her own, calming and reassuring.

“Hey, guys,”

Natsu and Happy turned, noticing Lucy had stopped walking a while ago, and saw Lucy standing there a few feet behind them, her eyes on her hands. Something glinted between her fidgeting fingers.

“Can you go back to the inn without me?” Lucy asked quietly, her heart hammering painfully in her throat. “I will reach you there, it won’t take me long.”

“What are you-?” Happy made to ask, but Natsu gently poked at him and shook his head. He had a good idea of what Lucy was about to do, and though he believed it was still a bit early, he really couldn’t blame her for being unable to wait. It would be disgustingly hypocritical of him to deny her this. Besides, he had sworn he would trust her and her abilities unconditionally from now on.

He smiled at her. “Sure thing. Just be careful. Scream loud if you get in trouble, okay? We’ll be there in a heartbeat.”

Lucy was undeniably taken aback by the lack of protests he got from her two friends, Natsu especially. She was sure he knew already what her plans were, perceptive as he was, and she had no doubt he wouldn’t share her views. After all, he’d been the one saddled with the sad task to supervise her recovery, and Natsu was nothing but eager when it came down to protecting his comrades from any harm. His blind acceptance was a tad suspicious, and she twisted the key in her hands even harder.

Then their eyes met, and realization slammed hard into Lucy, cutting her breath short as her heart seemingly grew three sizes all at once and very selfishly took up all the space in her chest, leaving her lungs to languish.

He had faith in her, in her feelings and in her abilities to know when to draw the line, without him to breathe down her neck.

She had to fight the urge to run across the distance between them and throw her arms around his neck, keeping him close to her, never letting go of him ever again.

“We’ll be waiting for you back in the room,” he said when it was clear Lucy was in no condition to speak, her throat entirely clogged by the flood of tears she was swallowing while trying to prevent them from spilling down from her eyes. “Come on, Happy, let’s go!”

He turned ahead and began walking again, leisurely but still pretty fast. Happy threw her a last, mildly worried glance, but then steeled himself and flew after Natsu.

After a couple of minutes, they had already disappeared around the corner.

Now alone, Lucy felt a shiver run down her spine that had nothing to do with the chill breeze wafting from the sea. Or rather, not entirely. She took a deep breath, trying to calm the sudden nerves.

She could do this, she told herself. And kept telling herself all the way until she reached the beach. Her feet sank into the soft, cold sand as the waves greeted her happily, rolling loudly on the shore.

Lucy smiled as the gentle ebb and flow of the white foam lulled her nervousness away, replacing it instead with a strange, but enveloping sense of security. She hastily toed off her boots.

”You really should not be doing this, Lucy. I thought I was clear when I said you need to rest.” Loke, as the good mom he was, piped up tiredly. Lucy sighed; she understood where he was coming from, and in normal circumstances she’d agree with him in no time, but all the same she just could not wait until she fully recovered. This sense of… something horribly amiss would kill her first.

Loke seemed to understand, because she heard him sigh as well, defeated. ”Very well. Just be careful and don’t overdo it. Please, don’t let Natsu’s rashness and stubbornness rub off you completely.”

Lucy smiled broadly, grateful that nobody was around to witness her grinning to herself like a loon as she hastily made her way across the thin strip of sand keeping the road and the sea apart. She tasted the salt on the tip of her tongue.

Goosebumps pricked at her exposed legs and arms when her bare feet pressed against the wet sand, and her breath hitched again as the waves lapped gently at her ankles, almost welcomingly. Okay, it was definitely colder than she had thought at first.

Still, she pushed through, walking farther until the water level was caressing her knees. Once more, she took a deep, deep breath, inhaling and exhaling fully, and repeated the action a couple of time. This was it.

She raised the hand wielding the key and swiftly stabbed the water with the golden tip. Wide ripples broke the otherwise flat surface where the metal sank into the water, ripples that echoed through her arm, through her very magic core. Her eyes fluttered close.

“Open the gate to the Water Bearer, Aquarius.”

She felt the sudden, familiar tug at her magic as energy flowed through her body, pooling at the base of the key. Her brows furrowed slightly as she bit back a pained moan when she felt her magic core straining, thinning and stretching under the effort to summon the Celestial Gate and open it, though she kept pouring everything she had. She could sense the doors slowly sliding open.

Then this magic tug-of-war abruptly ended, and Lucy didn’t need her sight to know it had worked. There was a presence in front of her, familiar and dear.

She slowly, hesitantly opened her eyes, only to be met with razor-sharp aquamarine ones.

Once again, for the second time in this last week, Aquarius stood there, right in front of Lucy, so close Lucy could touch her if she dared to stretch out an arm ahead. But this time, Lucy promptly noticed as her heart jumped a little, everything was different: gone were the greyish, shark skin over her body and armored scales on her tail, just as gone were the chains and collar and cuff, replaced instead with her usual jewelry. But most importantly, the ocean blue insignia of Aquarius, the sacred Water Bearer of the Heavens, stood proudly against the fair skin covering her collarbones.

Lucy felt her mouth go dry, her emotions rampaging. Aquarius was back, she was free.

What would have she given to throw caution to the wind and just launch herself at the mermaid, crying her eyes out as she babbled about how sorry she was, that she’d never let that happen again, that she was stronger now, and Aquarius didn’t need to go out of her way to keep her safe any longer-

Instead, she kept to herself, smiling softly as she lowered her head, staring down at her own, pathetically pale reflection. “Hi.”

Aquarius didn’t reply immediately; Lucy could feel her intense gaze sizing her up, scanning her inch by inch. She wondered if the Spirit could find it within herself to be as glad as Lucy was to be finally reunites, or if she’s just be pissed like usual and try to drown Lucy in her tidal waves for the umpteenth time. She scrunched her eyes closed and hunched up her shoulders, fully expecting the splash of icy water any moment.

But none came.

Instead, Lucy peered up at Aquarius through her lashes and found her still imperturbable and stony-faced, her eyes still bearing holes into Lucy’s form.

For the first time in forever, Lucy really didn’t know what the mermaid was thinking about, and the thought was more unsettling than she cared to admit.

Then, all of a sudden, Aquarius imperceptibly relaxed. “You shouldn’t have called me so soon. You’re still recuperating, stupid girl.” She scolded Lucy, though Lucy noticed her words lacked the usual cutting bite, and her eyes were softer, as though she was more concerned rather than properly upset.

Aquarius flinched and crossed her arms tightly in front of her chest, breaking eye contact, but not without a click of her tongue that was probably supposed to sound haughty instead of embarrassed like it ended up being; Aquarius must have realized she sounded off, too.

For some unfathomable reason, a smile quirked up the corners of Lucy’s mouth without her apparent consent.

“I know,” she said so quietly she barely heard herself over the sound of the waves rolling gently over the shore. “But I had to talk to you.”

Aquarius scoffed, though it once again sounded weak and out of character, like she was forcing herself to follow a script she didn’t fully agree with. “Then let’s hear it already. We don’t have much time.”

No, they didn’t. Or rather, Lucy didn’t. She was already trembling from the effort of keeping the gate open, she didn’t believe she would be able to last for much longer. And they weren’t even fighting. It would be mildly embarrassing, to be struggling so much just to keep a single summon in the real world, if she wasn’t so busy keeping up and sifting madly through her inner vocabulary, searching up for the right words to express what she was feeling.

She heavily doubted there was a word to describe the maelstrom of emotions tearing her apart from within right now, but at least she would try. She nodded weakly.

And then she bowed, deeply, until her face was standing just a couple of inches above the water. Her bangs fell into her eyes and her ponytail slid off her shoulder, the tips of her hair falling into the water and spreading like a blooming, golden rose. Lucy’s reflection stared right back at her, her eyes watery but her jaw set and hard with hardly masked contempt.

“I’m so, so sorry.” She choked out breathlessly. “You were right. Have always been all along. I am weak and pitiful, never able to do anything on my own.”

Unseen by Lucy, Aquarius’s face darkened, her features hardening, irritated by Lucy’s broken babbling. However, she kept quiet. She could tell Lucy had been mulling over this issue for a long time, and now that he dam was ruptured there was just no stopping the tsunami from flooding out. Heck, Aquarius knew that feeling better than anyone, and in her case the flooding wasn’t merely metaphorical.

Lucy didn’t dare to look up, afraid she’d lose her courage to say what she needed to say if she did so. Unbidden, but welcome, Natsu’s encouraging smile flashed in the forefront of her mind. He was believing in her to sort her issues out once and for all. She couldn’t possibly falter now.

“I know I’m a disappointment as a master, I won’t deny that. As you always point out, I’m graceless, lousy-” she said, more strongly. If she focused she could feel Loke’s aura, in the far off distance, twist and spike in protest, but she ignored him, he was too biased to be reliable as a judge.

Finally, she straightened up, and Aquarius felt a painful stab somewhere around her heart when she found herself staring right into Layla’s golden, sparkling eyes.

“But, as much as I may look like her, I’m not Layla. And I don’t want to be. I’m just… Lucy. Plain and simple.”

And here Aquarius surprised Lucy: her form relaxed, her lips curling in a smile that held no trace of arrogance or derision, and she let out an amused chuckle. Not a derisive laughter, but an actual giggle.

“You’re right. You’re not Layla.” the Spirit said evenly, “And you’ll never be.”

Lucy had been prepared for this, even went actually asking for this conversation to happen, but hearing Aquarius finally lay down the words that nonchalantly still stung bitterly. They were final, the confirm that Lucy had been dreading all her life - that she’d never get close to what Layla had been - and Aquarius had always been the one whose approval she had seeked out the most. She had wanted to be just like her mom - beautiful, smart, graceful Layla - so her dad and Aquarius would be proud of her.

So, yes, hearing it out loud fucking hurt.

Lucy didn’t realize she was holding her breath until she felt her lungs burning in anguish and she was forced to take a shaky breath. She was shaking, she noticed, and her hands had balled up in tight fists where they were hanging by her sides. She carefully loosened her grip, her knuckles and palms sore and stinging where her nails had sunk into her flesh.

“That’s good,” she made a big show of being relieved, “Yeah...that’s… that’s good. I’m glad we sorted this out. It was really a long time coming, wasn’t it?”

Her voice was chipper, acute, suddenly foreign. She smiled brightly until her face hurt like it had been submerged in scalding water, but her eyes stung with traitorous tears that threatened to spill out. Aquarius wasn’t smiling anymore; she tensed up again and eyed her suspiciously. If Lucy didn’t know any better, she’d think the Spirit was concerned.

She was clearly seeing things.

She clapped her hands loudly to further strengthen up her ‘totally alright, cheery girl’ act, and Aquarius jumped a bit, startled by the sudden noise. “Perfect, so… I know this might be a little sudden, but I know this girl, Yukino Aguria, she’s-she’s a Celestial Spirit Mage, and she’s absolutely awesome, incredibly sweet and talented and…” her voice started to waver and crack, but she bravely pushed forward. Rip the bandaid off in a single go. “She also has Libra and Pisces, and you’re friends with Pisces, right? You’ll fit right in! Oh, and Ophiuchus too! I… I am sure she’ll take good care of you.”

Like I’d never be able to.

Aquarius had listened quietly to Lucy’s bubbly rambling, not interrupting once, but rather than brightening up, her face had clouded gravely when she mentioned Yukino, and grew darker and darker the more Lucy insisted on how awesome the Saber Tooth mage was.

She almost looked… sad. It wasn’t a good look on Aquarius. It reminded Lucy of when mom died, and of Tartaros. She had never seen Aquarius, so proud and boisterous Aquarius, break down in tears before.

She backtracked quickly from that dangerous train of thought before it could derail and crash in an explosive disaster, her head spinning wildly. But that was okay, at least it went too fast for the pain to sink in just yet.

“Of course, I can still place you back in the sea tomorrow when we set sail again. Although, please be more careful with who picks you up?” She tried to laugh, although it came out weak and fake. She almost cringed when memories of Aquarius, forced out of a proper Celestial Spirit Summoning, chained and subjugated, flooded her mind, and she was positive Aquarius was recalling those moments too.

She obviously said the wrong thing, though. All of a sudden Aquarius’s arm whipped out, and a small wave promptly followed suit, surging up and slapping Lucy right in her face quite hard. Lucy gasped when the cold water splashed her whole frame, soaking up her green tank top and denim shorts.

Aquarius had lost her uncharacteristic cool, and her face was now thunderous, a full-blown storm brewing in her eyes and furrowed brows and snarling mouth. Now Lucy recognized her.

“Are you fucking serious?”

Lucy blinked, both from the water dripping from her clumped lashes and from the surprise. Her lack of understanding apparently was the last straw, for Aquarius growled in frustration.

“Tell me when the fuck I mentioned to give away my key, you dumbass!”

Lucy took a moment to think, still stunned into silence. Sure, Aquarius didn’t openly say anything, but she had just gleaned it from that stinging comment earlier and well, it was the only reasonable conclusion, knowing the Spirit’s usual behavior. She had never made it a secret that she didn’t exactly like Lucy and hated being in her possession. Surely she was overjoyed to have this chance to finally end up in the hands of someone more capable, like Yukino?

Aquarius had to rein in the urge to go and grab Lucy by the shoulders and shake her until she heard her brain start working again. Clearly her clogs had gotten rusty from all that water and salt. Instead, she slapped a hand over her own forehead, hard.

“I didn’t, silly girl! Stop making assumptions from fucking nowhere! Gods, I fucking hate when you do that!”

At this point, Lucy’s mind had short circuited. She gaped at the now positively enraged mermaid. “But-but you said-”

“I said you’re not Layla.” Aquarius cut her off, deflating a bit. She still looked sullen, though much of her temper had simmered down. She propped her right hand on her hip, right above the dark cloth wrapped around where her human top half continued in her fish tail. “And it’s fine that you’re not.”

All of a sudden, the rest of the world seemingly froze around Lucy, probably just as in shock as Lucy herself, because there was just no way she heard it right.

She opened her mouth, but no words came out of it. Aquarius had the gall to even throw her a somewhat smug grin.

“Really, that’s all it take to make you speechless? That’s good to know for the future.” Aquarius said with no real maliciousness. When Lucy didn’t laugh - or react any way at all, for that matter, she looked like she had been turned into stone. Again - her amusement vanished as well though.

Aquarius took a deep breath, steeling herself to the ungrateful task she’d been saddled with. She really wasn’t good with words, that was Leo’s turf, alongside punching things and being flashy all around.

Your fault again, you shitty old man. She cursed inwardly at the Celestial Spirit King again, but this time she got no response. Still, she knew he was watching the exchange with avid interest from up there, she could just feel it in her bones. Figures, his favorite human granddaughter was involved, after all.

“Listen well, cause I ain’t repeating myself,” she began, cringing at the awkwardness of the situation. “What happened with Tartaros was not your fault.”

That seemed to thaw Lucy out of her frozen state. Her eyes regained their spark and focus, although Aquarius could still see the soul-crushing regret and guilt in the tired lines which marred her brows. She shook her head sharply and took a step back, splashing up even more water on her clothes. Aquarius saw the familiar glint of tears in her eyes.

There we go again with the waterworks.

“No,” Lucy breathed out, chest burning from the strain her magic was in, but also from the now all too familiar memories invading her mind. “It was. If it had been stronger, more skilled-”

“-I’d have done it all the same.” Aquarius finished for her, flatly. “Did you forget who was it who told you about that special summoning? Spoiler alert: it was me.”

Lucy scrunched up her eyes tightly, biting her lips. It was true, she knew, but she was also aware that Aquarius would have never needed to go that far if Lucy had possessed even an ounce of the power Layla used to wield. It was still her incompetence that led to that situation. Nothing Aquarius said could ever wash away that truth.

Aquarius could easily take a wild guess about where Lucy’s jumbled thoughts were leading her up to, especially when tears started streaming down out of control. The sight both irritated her to no ends and made her heart constrict painfully at the same time. To hell with this accursed storm of feelings!

“Lucy, do you know of the One Magic?”

Lucy looked up at her, taken aback by the sudden change of topic. Then she blushed, suddenly embarrassed. Aquarius waited expectantly until Lucy finally nodded.

“Actually, yes, mom always told me it was… well, love. Love as the source and power of every kind of magic,” Lucy chuckled soberly, “Kind of romantic and naive, right?”

Aquarius didn’t say anything, just studied Lucy for a few moments. Little, bubbly Lucy, who was not so little and bubbly anymore, who at some point took hold of her life and went on her own path. Lucy that had stumbled and fallen more times than she could count, and more times than she could count stood right back up. Lucy that had grown into a beautiful woman somewhere along the line, ready to give all she had to protect what she loved most.

Huh, that was indeed a new sensation Aquarius was feeling there, this pride swelling up in her chest.

Aquarius nodded, more to herself than to Lucy.

“Indeed. I used to think so too, back then. But then something happened that made me change my mind.”

Lucy looked at her quizzically, if not slightly skeptically. “What happened?”

Aquarius smirked knowingly, somewhat entertained by Lucy’s ignorance. It felt oddly familiar, comfortable. She pointed at Lucy and placed a finger on Lucy’s chest, right above the shallow dip between her collarbones, where the Aquarius emblem used to sit when Lucy channeled the power of the Water Bearer into herself. Lucy flinched, maybe expecting an attack, but did not pull away.

“This happened.”

Lucy jolted up in surprise as a sudden warmth spread from where Aquarius’s fingertip touched her bare skin and streamed throughout her chest. Surprised, she looked down and openly gasped when she saw liquid starlight was flowing from Aquarius’s finger, painting the now all too familiar Aquarius insignia in what looked like pure gold.

Satisfied of her work and delighted by Lucy’s stunned face, eyes wide and mouth gaping open, Aquarius stepped back, looking contemplatively at her artwork. She briefly wondered how long the shell-shocked silence would last as she watched Lucy slowly raise a hand to get a feel of her new tattoo, marveling at its pulsing warmth.

“It’s not a coincidence the Celestial Spirit King let you and Leo off the hook back then,nor when you were given my power to use freely without the need for a summon, and surely you must have noticed how your Aquarius Celestial Magic easily outclassed my own, just a few days ago.” Aquarius felt her smirk waver, replaced instead by an actual smile.

She had thought she would have felt bitter and pissed forever for being beaten n her own turf by Lucy, of all people, but… she didn’t. Quite the opposite, in fact, since she found herself lending Lucy her urn to further increase her powers.

Huh. She really grew attached to this girl more than she’d thought.

Lucy was still gaping at her, absolutely dumbfounded, her right hand splayed over the Aquarius symbol now etched onto her skin. It just didn’t make sense to her: Aquarius was supposed to be pissed at her, to throw well-deserved insults at her address. And of top of that, the magic Aquarius had infused into her throbbed frantically under her palm, pulsing and whirling like a tiny, newborn star, begging to be released and shine. The water pooled around her knees started spinning gently in response.

“There are bonds that don’t require contracts, Lucy.” Aquarius explained quietly. She wasn’t smiling anymore; instead, she was regarding Lucy with an intensity and solemnity Lucy was not used to be addressed with. “Nor they break just as easily.”

There was a pause, broken only by the soft whirring of the waves and the occasional cry of the perpetually hungry seagulls gliding gracefully around, pause in which Aquarius’s words slowly sank in, like water trickling down through oil. Then, just as Lucy’s throat went dangerously dry and started to sting, she was hit squarely in the face with something soft, covering her whole field of view. She yelped and grabbed at the foreign object, quickly pulling it off her face.

Paper?

She quickly skimmed through the text, stiffening more and more as she soon realized she was reading the contract for the Spirit of Aquarius, already filled in with the terms of agreement in Aquarius’s scrawled and slanted handwriting. It only required Lucy’s signature.

By the time her brain finished processing this last thought, a golden fountain pen was magically conjured in her trembling hand.

Lucy looked back at Aquarius, dazed and speechless. Her heart was thundering in her ears, drowning everything else that was not the Celestial Spirit. A little faster, and Lucy was sure it would soon break her newly-healed rib and burst out of her system. Aquarius smirked again.

“I believe we’ve never been properly contracted before, have we? After all, you got my key as Layla’s hand-down contract. I’m free on Tuesday and Thursday, though I can make exceptions in extreme situations.” Her face suddenly darkened, murderous, “You’d better not abuse of that, if you plan on not drowning.”

The otherwise blood-chilling threat flew right over Lucy’s head. She still could not take her eyes off the contract Aquarius had willingly offered to her.

Aquarius was asking her to become her Master. Not out of obligation to Layla like last time, but of her own will. If she hadn’t felt the cold, solid weight of the pen resting in her hand and the rough texture of the paper she’d think she was dreaming.

It was all she ever wanted her whole life. Still-

“I’m… I’m not Layla.” she repeated weakly once again, unconsciously making her point. Layla would never be found so utterly lost and dazzled. Aquarius rolled her eyes, unable to completely hide the flash of annoyance that tugged the corner of her mouth downwards.

“As I said, no you’re not.”

“I’m not worthy.” Lucy made to give back the unsigned contract and the pen, but Aquarius pointedly refused to take it, crossing her arms tightly instead and leveling an icy stare on her that would have frozen any lesser person.

“I’m the one who gets to decide that.” the Spirit said instead, no actual bite lacing her words. “Sign already, before you pass out. Gods forbid, I really don’t want to deal with Leo and that fiery friend of yours if that happens. I’m never going to hear the end of it.”

Lucy was indeed feeling dizzy and ready to faint any moment, though she was not sure if that was due to the summoning process taking up her energies. She honestly doubted that was the case, as she was feeling more emotionally wrecked and drained than physically tired. Still, that off-hand, familiarly rude comment at Loke’s and Natsu’s expenses actually elicited a weak laugh from Lucy. She gripped the pen - she noticed the Aquarius mark embedded on the cap as she carefully unscrewed it open - more tightly in her hand, the thin tip hovering an inch above the paper.

“Are you really, really sure?”

Aquarius clicked her tongue in faux annoyance. If she had feet she would have probably started tapping them impatiently. “Fucking positive, just hurry up.”

Lucy took a deep breath, taking relief in the cold and salty air. The waves slightly grew in intensity, as though they were urging her to seal the deal. If she had glanced up at the night sky, she’d have immediately recognized the Aquarius constellation shining brightly right above her head, even though it would normally be impossible to even see at this latitude and at that time of the year.

The whole sky was holding its breath above them.

Finally the tip hit the paper and gracefully slid across the surface, the ocean-blue ink drawing Lucy’s full name in elegant waves and spikes. A strange tingling sensation ran across her body, like an electric wave surging directly from the contract, as soon as the pen looped around one last time on the ‘a’ of ‘Heartfilia’. It was done.

The ink glowed gold for a brief second before the paper rolled up and sealed off all of its own accord and then disappeared in a little downpour of golden sparks, and the fountain pen with it. It had been a long time since Lucy had last contracted a Spirit, true, but she didn’t remember the process being so flashy and dramatically glittery.

Still, she found out she didn’t care, not when Aquarius was in front of her, safe and sound, and here to stay.

Her eyesight fogged up and she finally, finally shot herself at the Spirit, her head resting against Aquarius’s chest as her arms snaked around the mermaid’s waist in a tight embrace, and she wasn’t going to let go ever again, no matter what happened.

“I’ve missed you so much…”

She felt Aquarius let out a breathy chuckle before she returned the hug, so tight and strong it almost hurt.

Lucy welcomed the pain in her shoulders and ribs, undeniable proof that this was real, a bond stronger than any contract. High above them, unseen by both, the stars brightened up in celebration and glee.

Lucy didn’t know how long they stood like this before she felt her knees go weak and buckle; she would have fallen right on her butt in the water hadn’t Aquarius hold her upright with her strong grip.

Lucy smiled sheepishly at the Spirit, s tad embarrassed that she had so easily forgotten she was supposed to take it easy with her magic. Aquarius disentangled herself from Lucy’s grasp, and thus earned a pout from the mage, and instead threaded her fingers in Lucy’s hair, playing softly with the damp locks.

“I need to go, now, you’re not gonna last for much longer.” she all but whispered, as though she herself didn’t want to believe it; Lucy for sure didn’t, but when a wave of nausea twisted her insides and her knees trembled threateningly again, she was forced to see the truth in Aquarius’s words. Lucy nodded slowly, frowning down to the water.

“Don’t make that ugly face, Lucy. Considering your luck and tendency to get in trouble, I’m sure we’re gonna see each other again pretty damn soon.”

Again, true. Lucky Lucy always got sucked in the worst situations. Lucy nodded again, and then pointed at the golden Aquarius mark still shining on her chest. It was still thrumming with energy. “What about this?”

“Oh, that? Consider that as an insurance,” Aquarius said lightly, waving her hand, “Scatterbrained as you are, you might find yourself in no condition to summon, so you can use that power to get you out of trouble.”

“Like the Star Dress?”

Aquarius’s eyes hardened, something akin to pride and challenge swimming in those blue irises. She even squared off her shoulders, puffing up her chest defiantly.

“Like a Celestial Spirit.” Aquarius explained, oozing pride and a tad of her usual arrogance from every pore. “Hah, bet that kitten didn’t think of that, huh?”

It took Lucy a beat to get Aquarius was referring to Loke, and another one for the realization that Aquarius was starting a stupid ass competition with Loke over Lucy to fully sink in. Saying she was confused was an understatement if there had ever been one.

Apparently her surprise must have been more obvious than she’d thought, because Aquarius turned serious again and tapped at her own mark. “You’ll be able to summon forth my whole powers as your own, just like you did the last time we met, but be careful, it takes up a lot of energy.” She nodded at Lucy, “As I’m sure you already came to know.”

Lucy fell silent, her brain still struggling to process everything that was happening. It still felt too good to be true, but the warmth rippling from her new mark was too real to be a mere figment of her imagination. It beat steadily, calmingly, like a second heart. She covered it with both her hands, cradling it like an amulet.

“I’ll make good use of it, I promise.”

Aquarius nodded again, apparently satisfied with her answer. “Then I’ll see you soon.”

Aquarius’s form started glowing, and in a second the Celestial Gate had materialized at her back. The thin paper doors slid open, letting a flow of light stream out into the material realm, blinding and hot. Lucy had to hurriedly scrunch her eyes close and turn away to preserve her eyes from being burned off by the Celestial Light. Still, she felt a soft touch caressing her face, and a last whisper fanned across her ear, sweet and loving.

“I’m proud of you.”

Chapter Text

Natsu was lying down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling without really seeing it, his arms crossed under his head; the room was chilly and dark, the only source of light being the street-lamps’ orange glow that filtered through the open window and the three tiny flames that Natsu had conjured up at some point as a way to distract himself and now were hovering mid air, slowly drawing a circle above Natsu’s head, ticking the seconds away.

It had already been an hour and a half, and still no sign of Lucy.

He told himself over and over again that she was gonna be fine, that she needed her space, but it was no use; a cruel, sadistic even part of him kept replaying those terrifying moments over and over again, her body limp and lifeless in his arms, cold and without a pulse, every time he dared to close his eyes and try to catch a little of sleep.

She’d been so close to dying in front of his eyes, again.

He clenched his teeth and narrowed his eyes at the ceiling, as though it had just offended him on a personal level. The three flames twirled around even faster.

He strained his ears as hard as he could, trying to pick up sounds of a fight in the far off distance, or screams, but the town was too lively to catch on suspicious sounds, and bustled with people even this late in the evening, drowning everything else, much to his chagrin.

“You like her.”

Natsu stiffened, his breath hitching sharply in his throat as though someone had poked him hard in the ribs, but otherwise didn’t react to Happy’s comment. He stood perfectly still, pretending his little friend hadn’t even spoken at all from his spot at the end of the bed where he’d curled up earlier.

It wasn’t a question, after all. It didn’t really need an answer.

He heard Happy heave up a tired sigh and soon enough he felt his light weight shift and paw its way up to Natsu’s face. He sat down at Natsu’s shoulder and looked down at him. His big eyes were serious and focused.

“I’m right, am I not?”

Natsu let his eyes slowly flutter close, deceptively calm despite the raging turmoil that was taking place inside of him. Happy, with his sharp feline eyes, easily noticed the way Natsu’s jaw was set and tight, as it always did whenever he was caught out of his comfort zone.

It was a conversation Happy had wished to bring up for a long time, ever since they witnessed the Lucy of the future die, but with everything that happened immediately afterwards there had never been the right chance to. Now, though, now they were going to tackle this.

He was just so tired to see his two best friends dance around each other, brush close - so close - just to swiftly drift away, and then rinse and repeat time and time again. It was stressful to say the least, and Happy was sure he had already started getting white fur from all this back and fro of theirs. Besides, Lucy and Natsu had already come close to death way too many times as he waited for this chance to speak up. He definitely wasn’t risking another one any time soon.

“I don’t know,” Natsu finally replied, tiredly. It was unusual to see the always fiery and hotheaded Natsu so energy deprived. That was a dead giveaway of the actual intensity of what he was feeling; for some reason, the more Natsu Dragneel thought long and hard about his feelings, the more exhausted he became, on an actual physical level. It was like he physically tangled with the bundled mess of emotions stirring him from within, just like he would charge head-first against a foe during an actual fight, leaving him utterly wiped out at the end of it.

It was very unusual, because Natsu was a straightforward guy who wore his heart on his sleeve at any given time, and never made a secret of that, because in his opinion that was just dumb.

But Happy knew it well, oh if he did. He remembered just as clear as though it had been yesterday how Natsu had reacted when Lisanna allegedly died and vanished into thin air. He had been there when Natsu almost set their house on fire by accident, when his charcoal eyes were dark and lifeless like the scorched wood and ashes that remained behind after a bonfire was put out, when the jovial party was over and everybody set on their separate ways.

It had taken months to get them to spark again, gruesome mission after mission. And when they did, they were still lukewarm and frail, ready to go out at the first gust of wind.

Still, Happy was there, devotedly fanning the flames and gathering sticks to try and keep them alive as much as he could, even if there was no fuel anymore.

That is, until a new star arrived and spread its warmth around, relieving Happy from his arduous duty.

Happy had known something was different about Lucy from the get-go. He could not pinpoint exactly what it was; perhaps it was her liveliness, perhaps it was her wide smile, or how funny her reactions were when they - more or less purposefully - annoyed her and she always ended up laughing with them; she was a lot like Lisanna, but also just as much different, more energetic where Lisanna was sweeter. It was just the spark Natsu needed.

Somehow, she slipped her way in the void Lisanna had left behind, and gradually filled it up like water trickling down through the cracks of a cavern’s wall, carving a path for itself in the rock, drop after drop. Soon the empty space was morphed into Lucy’s own shape and form, as though she’d always been there from day one, like she was meant to be there.

After only two months they’d know her, Natsu and Happy were already orbiting around her, basking in her light without even realizing. Happy had thought the worst was passed, that everything would be fine from then onwards.

Boy, had he been wrong.

During their year long absence, Natsu was plagued by nightmares. Every other night he’d be waking up with a gasp, pale and drenched in cold sweat, his arm outstretched towards the night sky. Sometimes he screamed for Erza, Gray, Lisanna… but most of the time Lucy and Igneel were the names that tumbled out of his lips, choked and strained.

The two friends had never mentioned these episodes ever again after Fairy Tail was reborn, but Happy knew Natsu was still suffering from the several losses he was dealt with throughout his life.

The other day had been truly a close call. Natsu had barely left her bed while she was unconscious, not even to get his own injuries properly treated.

“Are you going to tell her?”

Natsu felt like his jaws had been glued together and had no intention to pry apart any time soon. He shook his head silently while his blood was thundering in his eardrums, so loud he couldn’t hear anything else. Happy frowned lightly.

“Why?”

Natsu himself could not say. He wasn’t against it, no. He cared for Lucy. Cared for her a huge deal, that much was obvious even to him. Still, he had been feeling like this for a long time by now, and with everything that happened, he wasn’t sure he wanted things to change again, after they had seemingly just narrowed the rift that used to stand between them, to rekindle the flame of their friendship.

He could tell the rift was small, barely more than a crack, and he would be easily able to leap across it in a single go if he ran up properly to it. But it was still as deep as ever, and one misstep meant falling into the bottomless pit with no chance to recover.

They could talk just fine even on different sides, couldn’t they?

”We changed.” she had said the other day. Natsu hadn’t wanted to believe it at first, but upon reflecting on it, he couldn’t deny it was true. They had all grown as they gathered more experiences, as they brushed with death time and time again. He needed to get his head out of the sand and just face that reality, accept it and adapt to it.

It was terrifying.

It was comfortable to just stay like this, having fun together without a care in the world, without all those annoying labels and stereotyped behaviors people deemed a necessity when being a couple. He wasn’t good with manners and proper, gentlemanly behavior like Loke was - as much as it pained him to admit it, even Gray beat him in that field. Ugh, so annoying - and that Lucy was taught to expect from her romantic partner while she was growing up. He didn’t know how he was supposed to ‘court’ her, as Igneel had put it back when he was trying to teach Natsu basic mating procedures, and honestly, all that stuffy jazz just looked stupid to him

But not to Lucy.

All Natsu could do was creating fire, punching and laughing his ass off with his friends. That was it, that was Natsu Dragneel in a nutshell, and he wasn’t sure it was enough for Lucy Heartfilia.

He couldn’t lose her, not for something as dumb as this.

“You’re thinking too much, Natsu.” Happy put an abrupt stop to his inner rambling. “It doesn’t suit you.”

Natsu made a face, Happy’s jab stinging him right in his pride. “I don’t want to lose her, not after I just got her back. I’m fine with things as they are.”

Happy stared at him, impassible, for a long moment, and Natsu fidgeted nervously under the Exceed’s unwavering gaze. Even Happy had changed, Natsu pointed out to himself, and he didn’t know what to feel about it.

“No, you’re not.” Happy stated evenly, seeing right through him effortlessly. Natsu opened his mouth to counter back, keep piling up lie after lie, but all words died in his mouth when his ears picked up muffled steps climbing up the stairs and making their way towards their room. He’d know those footsteps anywhere.

He placed a finger on his lips to silence Happy and turned off the flames with a snap of his fingers, plunging the room in the darkness again. He closed his eyes and let his body relax, though his heart was still pumping madly. He felt Happy curl in a ball at his side.

There was the soft click of a key being twisted in the lock, and then the door opened, letting a sliver of light flood the room and a familiar silhouette slide in with small, delicate steps that would have been quiet as a cat’s hadn’t it been for the high pitched squeaking of her wet rubber boots over the floorboards.

Natsu made a big show to roll to his side and rub his eyes as tiredly as he could. “Lucy?” he inquired, though he already knew from her scent alone.

Lucy yelped and started hard, comically even, and placed a hand on her chest, trying to calm down her heart. Another shock, and it was liable to just give up on her case for good.

“Natsu!” she hissed breathlessly, “I thought you were asleep!”

“Key word being ‘were’. You need to work on your stealth skills, Lu, I could hear you from miles away. You gotta be a ninja, like me!” he chortled as he sat up and quickly wrapped his scarf around his face so it would hide his mouth and jaw, doing a hand seal to complete the look. “Nin-nin!”

Lucy rolled her eyes and chuckled even though she was still feeling numb from the conversation with Aquarius and this whole nin-nin joke was so old, goddamnit, why did she keep laughing at it?

“It doesn’t count when you can hear a pin drop to the ground from fifteen miles away with your Dragon hearing. It’s cheating.” she replied as she flipped on the light switch. She could see even Happy had stirred awake from all their talking, so there was no point in standing into the dark. She already tripped over stuff under the sunlight enough as it was.

Natsu beamed, but his cheer suddenly dampened when he finally took notice of how utterly drenched from head to toe Lucy was. Her clothes - already thin and flimsy on their own because she’s Lucy, she seemed to be allergic to sleeves or long pants - were sticking to her body, hugging tightly around its every curve and leaving hardly anything to the imagination, and her hair was plastered all over her head, darkened by the water clumping the long tresses. She looked a total mess, but what a beautiful, beautiful mess she was.

His mouth felt suddenly, suspiciously dry.

“Took a dip?” Natsu asked as naturally as he could, cringing inwardly when his voice cracked and wavered at the end of the sentence. Lucy didn’t seem to notice though. She looked down and her hand trailed downwards to the keyring hanging to her belt, closing around a key in particular.

“In a sense, yes.”

Natsu followed the movement, blinking stupidly before finally it clicked. Oh. Ooh.

He quickly scanned her, trying his best to ignore how tantalizing she was, all lean, hard muscle and firm curves; she seemed positively drained and teetering on the verge of collapsing at any given moment, but otherwise she didn’t look to be injured. And she’d better not be, or he was ready to grill the fish lady and give her to Happy to feast upon for real this time around.

“I just got splashed a little bit.” Lucy said when she noticed Natsu’s expression cloud slightly and correctly guessed the reason why. “Really, I’m fine, just… tired.” she finished lamely with a short chuckle.

Natsu relaxed, still staring at her with that intense eyes of his that never failed to make Lucy’s cheeks burn, self conscious, and even more they did so now, with her wet clothes that barely hid her from plain view.

Then he spread his arms wide. “Come over here.”

Lucy, who was slowly inching towards the bathroom so she could towel herself dry - finally, her skin was freezing and she was covered in goosebumps everywhere - jolted midway, surprised. She glanced quizzically at Natsu, who simply shrugged and waved his arms lightly. She slowly closed the distance between them, utterly confused.

Natsu smirked impishly, and by then Lucy realized it was too late, the trap had closed on her, and indeed with a lightning fast motion he clamped his arms around Lucy’s waist and pulled her down hard, causing her to lose her balance and gracelessly tumble on top of him on the bed with a squawk. Her damp chest was pressed flush against his bare one - he always slept unabashedly shirtless, apparently even when they were sharing a room - and their faces were now so close she could feel his warm breath fanning against her lips, and see her own reflection in his dark, bottomless eyes.

Any concept of cold and ice Lucy might have had until that moment were suddenly incinerated. There was no way she was shivering from the cold just a few seconds ago.

It was warm. Too warm.

But that might just be because her face had seemingly burst into flames.

“What the hell, Natsu?!?” She tried to scramble back to her feet, but Natsu’s arms tightened around her, keeping her in place against him in that vice grip of his. She halfheartedly pushed against it, but to no avail.

Natsu flashed her a toothy grin. “Aw, come on Luce, aren’t you feeling better already? You were shaking like a leaf!”

Oh she was warmer already, for sure, but Lucy wasn’t sure Natsu realized it was also - and mainly - due to the ambiguity of the situation rather than his naturally high body heat.

“I can just towel myself off and dry my hair on my own.” she stammered weakly, but Natsu still didn’t let go. Instead, he readjusted her so he could hold on to her even more firmly. At this point, Lucy gave up any attempt to free herself, they were going to be useless any way. When he set his mind to do something there was just no way he’d be giving up so easily.

Besides, she was comfortable, maybe even too much. She could almost pretend she was lying down with her boyfriend, held against him protectively in his warm embrace after another long, tiring mission they had successfully completed.

She wondered how it would be to have Natsu as a boyfriend. He’d hardly be the princely type, that was for sure. But that was fine with her, she had quickly grown tired of that clichè while she was still at the Heartfilia Mansion, and besides, she still had Loke to supply her regular princely type fix, platonically speaking.

She was sure Natsu would be the boyfriend that is your friend first and foremost, not really one for sappy stuff in public, leaning towards pranks and teases instead, just in good fun. The boyfriend that laughed with you from the bottom of his heart and would always try to cheer you up and help, no matter how difficult the situation.

Honestly, she’d pay jewels to get a boyfriend like Natsu. Or straight up Natsu in the first place.

All of a sudden, the Dangerous Train Of Thought Derailment alarms went off in her head, startling her back to reality and making her realize she had gotten so comfortable within Natsu’s arms she had been about to doze off.

She immediately pulled herself up, catching Natsu by surprise to the point his grip on her slacked so much she was able to wiggle away from him. She sat on the back beside him, covering her blazing face with her hands.

What was she thinking?!? Those were S-ranked forbidden musings! And right while she was being lovingly cradled by him too!! What if her thoughts had somewhat radiated from her body, and he knew what she had been pondering? Oh gods, how she wished a lightning bolt would suddenly flash through the window and strike her down, reducing her to a pile of steaming ashes.

“Lucy? Wassup?”

Natsu too had been on the verge of passing out, with Lucy’s weight against him, pinning him down to the mattress, more pleasant than any comforter could ever be. Her sudden scurrying away, however, sent him straight into full alarm mode.

Unseen and apparently forgotten - which was totally fine by him anyway - Happy watched closely the stupid dumbasses stumbling around each other for the umpteenth time, having quietly flown off Natsu’s bed during the racket the other two were stirring up and chosen instead to curl down onto Lucy’s, pretending to sleep. Seriously, these two were going to be the end of him.

“Nothing,” Lucy said, racking her mind for something, anything, to say. “I just… need to change out of this clothes and dry out.”

She made to lift herself up to her feet, but once more Natsu had been faster and latched his arms around her, pushing her back on the mattress onto her side, all but spooning her. She shivered for all the wrong reasons when he nuzzled his head in the crook of her neck like a cat. All this time they had been in more than close quarters and she had never known his lips could be so soft. Perhaps slightly dry, but she guessed that was a small price to pay for being able to literally spit fire out of your mouth. A lip balm for the ability to breathe fire sounded a pretty damn good deal to Lucy.

“But I can dry you better than any towel can do, Luce!” Natsu drawled out, quietly, almost sultry, oh gods. “Let’s just stay here~”

She would love to, oh how she would. She was tired, drained emotionally and physically after the rollercoaster these last few days had been, after sorting things out with Aquarius once and for all; she would readily wish for nothing more than to just curl up to Natsu and let his warmth wash over her in gentle waves of heat, lovingly and protectively.

Who knew, he actually did have some princely type character traits. The realization definitely wasn’t helping her case at all, in fact, it made it just so much worse.

He was her friend, for the heavens’ sake, and to top it all, it was Natsu she was talking about, the epitome of clueless, obliviousness incarnated. Romance was to Natsu like ice was to fire and that was just how the way it should be. Lucy had just miraculously got to mend their relationship to what it used to be, and even more surprisingly the stitches seemed to hold well, but she was a little apprehensive about how much strain they could sustain. She wasn’t risking it.

He appeared to be hell-bent to make resisting to the temptation nigh impossible, though.

She placed her hand over Natsu’s entwined ones resting against her stomach, strong and calloused and gentle. “I’m dripping water all over the sheets, though.”

“So what,” Lucy could feel his lips curling up in a wicked grin into her bare shoulder. “it’s just a tidbit of water, not some gross stuff. It’s gonna dry up just fine on its own.”

Lucy hated when he actually used his head and made unfairly good points just to contradict her. Especially when he was throwing her the perfect excuse to just keep basking in his warmth without feeling guilty.

She should be the bigger person here, she really should.

The problem was, she didn’t really want to.

“Please,” Natsu said without a warning, barely louder than a whisper, leaning his forehead against the nape of her neck while tightening his hold on Lucy, careful to avoid hurting her. Lucy could see the muscles in his forearms tauten and bulge. It wasn’t a good thing because those damn arms of his were nothing short of eye candy to her, and seeing them so focused in trapping her between them was like throwing fuel to the fire, making so hard for Lucy to stay focused. Still, the note of anguish lacing his plea didn’t go unnoticed. She tried to turn around so she could face him directly, but his arms kept her firmly in place. “Can we stay like this for a while? Just this once?”

Lucy’s heart seriously threatened to stop at those words, uttered with a desperation that hardly suited always positive Natsu Dragneel. What was going on now?

“Natsu, what-”

But Natsu shook his head and readjusted his grip on her to lift up a hand and press his index finger against her lips, effectively cutting her off. “Please, just… don’t go away.”

He sounded so… miserable all of a sudden, it was disconcerting to say the least, especially since she recognize that particular kind of suffering she had detected in his voice, in the way he kept holding onto her, seeking comfort in her just like she had done with Loke. She had a pretty good feeling of what he was going through.

Her heart swelled in her chest and before she could think twice of it her free arm had snaked up and placed her hand over the nape of his neck, gently pushing his head against her.

“I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”

--

“Man, this is great!”

Beside him Lucy giggled, amused at how easy it was for Natsu to get excited, even over the smallest things. Once he got rid of that pesky motion sickness, with the help of a special potion he’d been given at the hospital, he seemed to genuinely enjoy travelling. Too bad his little stack of medicine was bound to deplete at some point, and then he would be reduced to the usual vomiting mess.

Still, she could not help but enjoy the sight of Natsu standing at the gunwale, arms firmly propped against the barrier, thoroughly enjoying the sea breeze that blew in his face and tousled his hair like a child in a candy store. He was absolutely adorable, and she had a half mind to study medicine magic just to be able to brew that miraculous potion again on her own.

Her puke-less clothes seemed to approve the idea as well.

They had already been sailing for two days as of now, slowly making their way back to Hargeon first, and then Magnolia. The journey up until now had been smooth, perhaps a little boring, but after all that action they had come across just the past week on this very same sea Lucy was really not going to complain about it. She was done with that stuff for a while.

Gods, she was still struggling to fully realize this calm, serene almost, sea was the same body of water that had so promptly and adeptly responded to her storming emotions, turning them in an actual tempest and even overcoming Aquarius’s own magic. It was hard to believe it, but if Lucy closed her eyes and focused intently, tapping deeply into her Aquarius Magic, she could almost hear the gentle song of the rippling waves as they bid her their respectful goodbyes. Her Aquarius mark throbbed gleefully in response underneath her shirt.

Still, she hadn’t forgotten Natsu’s little breakdown the other say, but the young man never mentioned anything about it the following morning and simply proceeded to behave like nothing ever happened. Lucy was dying of curiosity - it wasn’t often she got to see the frailer, more vulnerable side of him - but she kept quiet and respected his silence. She had been there before, she knew how it felt like. She would wait patiently for him to open up to her and she’d be there for him. Again. Just like it used to be before Tartaros, but better, their bond even stronger than before.

The tides sure had turned since they set up on this journey, didn’t they.

The third day flowed just as uneventful as the second, nothing remarkable happening if not Natsu gobbling down the buffet at a truly frightening rate. He claimed it was a side-effect of the medication, but Lucy really wasn’t buying it. She apologized profusely with the other passengers and chastised Natsu for his greed, but deep down she really couldn’t bring herself to truly be mad at him. He never got to properly enjoy food on a journey, she couldn’t blame him for getting a bit carried away.

Everything changed on the night of the third day, though, in ways she had never thought they would, not even in her wildest, most daring dreams.

She was leisurely standing on the deck, letting the breeze caress her skin and dance in her hair as the ship carved its path through the waves at a steady pace, a book in her hands. More precisely, her notebook.

Lucy liked to think she was a pretty down-to-earthland person - and thanks to all the gods she was, with the kind of friends she regularly dealt with - but even she, like many (if not all) other mages of Fairy Tail, had a certain flair for the dramatic she couldn’t quite suppress totally. So she had brought the notebook with her out on the deck, taking advantage of Natsu and Happy being busy inhaling whatever kind of food they could find.

It was over, for real this time. No lingering regrets, no soul wrenching what ifs. It was time to let go of what had been and move on towards what will be.

She took a deep breath, leaning the tiny book against the rail. These pages had been one of the few sources of comfort for her during her darkest time, her only spark of light in the darkness enshrouding her. All her researches and reports, they made her feel useful, as if she was actively doing something to get her life back on track, that she was taking control of it once more. Small step after small step.

It was hard to just unceremoniously drop all that work and feed it to the sea.

On the contrary, the more she stared down at the seemingly bottomless abyss, the more her resolve wavered, her arms clutching tightly the little notebook to her chest.

“Hey, so there you are,” Natsu’s voice suddenly spoke up, and she jumped out of her skin in surprise. The notebook almost slipped out of her hold, but she managed to grab it back before it could fall down in the water. She whipped around and there Natsu was, positively materialized out of thin air. “Couldn’t find ya anywhere, you just vanished during dinner.”

Yes, because she had thought food would be enough of a distraction for Natsu’s and Happy’s stomachs that they’d be going at it for a while. Still, she felt a small tinge of pride and glee that Natsu had stopped his food-stuffing quest to look for her. She apparently gained a little bit of advantage on food in Natsu’s top priority list, they used to be solidly tied.

It was already some sort of progress, and she was going to gracefully accept it.

“Sorry,” she said quietly, not really looking up at him rather than to a spot right beside his right shoulder. “I needed a moment to think.”

Natsu’s eyes trailed down and lingered on the notebook. He made a face when he realized what it was; he really had enough of that thing and everything it stood for at this point.

He looked up back to Lucy and found her fidgeting restlessly with a lock of hair that had managed to escape her ever present ponytail, looking down and biting her lip deep in thought. His eyes easily caught onto the faintest hint of pearly white teeth dipping into the plump, rosy flesh, enticing and tempting. With an enormous effort, he looked away, deciding instead to take the safe route and stare right into the sea, black and unfathomable where the light of the moon didn’t reach. It was creepy in its haunting beauty.

“Hey, Luce,” he said, snapping her out of her thoughts. “I’ve been thinking too.”

Lucy felt her breath hitch violently, an almost painful hiccup, in her throat. She didn’t like that tone, quiet and serious. He still wasn’t looking at her, his gaze wandering aimlessly towards the horizon line where the dark sky melted into the sea, his face unusually solemn as the soft moonlight danced on his features, sharpening the crisp lines of his nose and jawline and making them even more perfect than they were.

Lucy hadn’t even realized she was staring her with her mouth hanging open like an idiot until a particularly tall splash of water hit sprayed a white mist all over her face and her tastebuds were suddenly attacked by the salty water.

Natsu didn’t seem to notice, however. He leaned against the rail, still firmly staring in front of him while Lucy was silently squirming just a couple of inches away, mind racing at the speed of light to pinpoint what had she done wrong, how could she correct it.

All this suspense was going to kill her, she just knew it. “...And?”

Natsu startled and blinked, leveling a mildly surprised gaze on her that made her think he had actually forgotten she was there to begin with, let alone hanging from his lips like her entire life depended on it.

She loved him to bits and would never change a single hair of his, but he sure could be quite the jerk without even realizing when he wished to.

His shoulders slumped, his head now hanging low, tired and defeated. This didn’t bode well, not at all.

“You said we changed,” Natsu then said, a little more confidently, though still nowhere near his usual boisterousness standards. “It took me a while to process it, but it the end I managed to realize you are right. Things are not the same as before, and try as I might, I can’t pretend they are.”

Natsu dared a sidelong glance to Lucy, whose flawless complexion was brought to further heights by the bright moonlight highlighting her face and hair, so that she was positively glowing in the middle of the night, a soft halo enveloping her whole form. She was completely still, breathing softly through her parted lips, her big doe-like eyes wide as saucers and sparkling like the stars she was friends with.

“I thought we could just pick up from where we left, that if I was strong enough I could prevent things from changing ever again. It’s stupid, isn’t it.” he said with a choked, bitter laugh that Lucy found simply heartbreaking.

Actually, no, she didn’t find it stupid at all; in fact, she could easily see the logic behind that thought, and perhaps it was a little naive and childish, unrealistic, but it was undeniably solid. Especially after the number of times he lost someone dear to him and his world had so abruptly changed right over its head only to find himself powerless to do anything to fix it.

She didn’t blame him at all for clinging to what he had left so insanely tight.

She shook her head, and placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing the hard muscle underneath in what she hoped he understood was a reassuring gesture. She was hardly qualified to comfort Natsu, with all her own issues that still hadn’t been resolved, but damn, she’d do it or die trying.

“It’s not stupid at all. Change is never easy to accept.”

Natsu made a strange sound that sounded like half a scoff and half a chuckle to Lucy’s ears.

“Yeah, I guess. But cowering away from a challenge is not my style, not at all,” Natsu proclaimed proudly, suddenly not so somber anymore. Lucy could see the familiar embers sparking back to life in his eyes. “That’s not how Igneel raised me.”

Lucy flinched visibly at the old dragon’s name being so carelessly thrown out like that, though she did pick up on Natsu’s back stiffening ever so slightly. He really wasn’t as fine about Igneel’s demise as he wanted her to believe. Still, she decided against pointing that out, and simply stayed quiet.

“‘A dragon must be strong, and face the challenges ahead of them with their head held high’ the old geezer kept rambling on and on. Back then I just thought it was fun, you know? Being strong, never back down, all that jazz.”

Oh, so that was Igneel’s doing. As much as Lucy could reasonably expect that much, she had thought the dragon would be leaning on the wise and careful side more. Although Natsu’s natural hotheadedness surely played a major part in twisting every single one of the dragon’s teachings into ‘be strong and fight’ and making them lose every deeper meaning they might had.

Natsu seemed to have realized this now.

“But now I get it. I’m not going to run from reality any longer, I promise, Luce.” Natsu kept going, looking at Lucy in a way that made her heart melt in a puddle. “I’m going to stand and face this challenge head on. Will you stay with me and help me through it?”

Lucy could hardly breathe at this point. She blinked furiously to clear up her field of view and stepped forward, closing the distance between them. She gave his shoulder another hard squeeze.

“But of course.” she choked out, breathlessly. “We’re a team, now and always.”

Natsu nodded slowly as relief flooded him from within. His limbs were quickly going numb and jelly as they always did when he got his motion sickness and he was starting to sway on the spot, to the point he was forced to hold tight to the rail as to avoid crashing right into Lucy.

Step one was done. Now it was time to get on the real difficult part.

“That’s good,” Natsu said, smiling timidly, “Because there’s something I gotta ask you.”

Lucy barely let him finish. “Anything.”

Well, at least she didn’t lack enthusiasm. “You gotta be honest though. Like, one thousand percent, or it will not do. Can you promise me this?”

A flash of uncertainty softened her features for a split second, but it vanished just as quickly as it came, replaced by pure determination. She nodded firmly, her eyes fiery despite their wetness.

“I do.”

Okay, here goes nothing.

“Would you like to be my girlfriend?”

And the world stopped again.

All of a sudden, Lucy could hear nothing: the sloshing sound of the waves breaking against the ship, the endless chatters of the other passengers, the music wafting up from inside… nothing existed anymore except Natsu, and the words he had just uttered echoing and looping in her ears, tuning out everything else.

There… there was no way she heard that right, wasn’t it?

This was obviously a dream.

The notebook in her hands finally slipped through her numb arms and fell on the floor with a soft thud. The worn rubber band that had kept it close for so long finally snapped and the cover flew open, scattering newspaper clippings everywhere. But neither mage gave a single damn about that, lost in each other.

Lucy just couldn’t believe this was actually happening, and even more so that Natsu had been the one to breach the topic.

Yes, fuck, yes!!! All her organs chanted loudly from within her, but something went lost in translation around her brain’s language areas, because when she opened her mouth to reply, all that came out of it was: “Do you… do you even know what ‘girlfriend’ means?”

It was a legitimate question, Lucy reasoned with herself, posed without any malicious intent. She was genuinely wondering if Natsu was aware of what exactly he was proposing to her, to make sure he knew what he was getting involved into before she accepted. Regardless, she still cringed and cursed herself for the poor choice of words.

Natsu didn’t seem to be fazed by her outburst, however. Instead, much to her disbelief, he laughed softly, probably finding her shell-shocked face really amusing.

“A friend who is a girl?”

Was… Was Lucy really getting an etymology lesson from Natsu, of all people?!?

She felt herself grow warm, uncomfortably so. She honestly didn’t know if she wanted to kiss him or hit him, hard, because if this was a stupid ass joke, well, it wasn’t funny at all.

But then Natsu’s cheeky smirk receded, softened into a more genuine one. “I’m just messing with ya, Luce. Believe it or not, I do know what a girlfriend is. Trust me, it’s hard not to know about couples when you grow up around Mira and Cana.”

Lucy blanched all at once, she really, really didn’t want to know what kind of ideas those two perverts might have instilled in him.

“I’m not great at this kind of thing,” Natsu said with a shrug that was likely meant to be all smooth and carefully careless, but in the end just ended up feeling off and betrayed the stiffness of his shoulders. His eyes dropped down to the rolling waves beneath them. “I know being a couple involves a lot of stuff, like dating, holding hands, flowers and chocolates… I honestly don’t really get their purpose, they all seem stuffy and unnatural to me, but if you want, I can give it a try.”

Clenching hard the metallic bar of the gunwale to steady himself till the point his knuckles hurt, Natsu took a deep breath again and forced himself to meet Lucy’s eyes - watery and puffy again - one last time.

“Please, will you give me a chance to try?”

And at this point Lucy couldn’t take it anymore.

Feeling drunk and light as a feather, she all but shot herself against Natsu, who caught her and held her close to him just as she grabbed both sides of his face - perhaps a little bit too harshly, but Natsu definitely wasn’t going to complain about that - and smashed their lips together so hard it almost hurt.

A fire of the likes he’d never tasted before ignited his lips, sweet but spicy and intense, and set his blood aflame in his veins. Fireworks exploded in his chest as his heart spiked up its pace, pumping wildly, and his brain fogged up, all reasonable thoughts mercilessly turned to ashes and then scattered to the wind.

He closed his eyes and pulled her even closer, even tighter, as their clumsy lip crushing melted in a proper, tender kiss. Their lips melted against each other, moving slowly but steadily, like the fire in a hearth, quiet but reassuring. It felt so good, he wondered how he was supposed to let go ever again after experiencing this kind of heat. It was addicting, and he knew he was hooked already.

Lucy let her lids flutter close too and smiled in the kiss as she felt him gradually relax and give in to the feeling, moving his lips in sync with her own, a seamless ebb and flow that made her brain swim and drowned everything else. As she lifted herself on the tips of her toes her foot touched something soft. Ah, the notebook, right.

With a swift, fluid movement she kicked it right through the thin gap between the boarded deck floor and the barrier. The little notebook flew through the air like a grotesque seagull as a downpour of scattered papers flurried after it. and then hit the water.

The tiny object floated helplessly for a brief moment, as though asking for help, calling for her, but then a wave surged up and swallowed it up whole, and with it all its secrets. It sank helplessly in the fathomless depths, securely kept away from prying eyes.

But Lucy didn’t care, not when she had Natsu so close, closer than they’d ever been before The ship could have caught fire right there and then and she probably wouldn’t have noticed at all.

It was time to move on.

After what felt like an eternity, they finally pulled apart, flushed and panting slightly. Lucy smiled, noticing with a certain satisfaction Natsu was just as beef red as she was, and his pupils were dilated. She found out she liked this flustered look on usually shameless Natsu Dragneel, and was indeed proud of being the one to put it there.

“Clear enough of an answer?”

Natsu laughed, though he was indeed struggling a bit to catch his breath after that stunt Lucy pulled on him. He hoped future practice and thorough training sessions would eventually make up to it.

“A yes would have been enough for me, you weirdo,” he teased her without any actual malice behind it. Lucy rolled her eyes and shook her head in surrender, but she too was smiling.

“Had to do something that I knew would surely got through that thick skull of yours. It’s a harder task than you’d think, you know?” she said, leaning against him heavily and entwining her fingers with her own. Her scent completely filled his nostrils, flowery and vibrant, and Natsu could swear he could get drunk from that alone.

He squeezed her hand just as firmly. If he’d used a little too much strength in his excitement, she didn’t say a word about it; instead, she retaliated with even more energy.

“Yeah, I know.”

Chapter Text

As the train to Magnolia sped through the countryside, effortlessly cutting through the thick curtain of rain that had been pouring down relentlessly for a while, Lucy stared out of the window, watching absently as the droplets splattered and trickled sideways on the glass, though she wasn’t really paying attention to that or to the landscape sliding past. All she could think of was instead the pleasant weight of Natsu’s head resting on her lap while she took advantage of his sleep and absently threaded her fingers through his pink locks, making them even messier than before.

Just two weeks ago, they had sat on the opposite sides of a train compartment much like this. It was hard to believe it had been just a few days. It felt like it had been several centuries.

Lucy smiled down at Natsu’s snoring face; even though his motion sickness had been neutralized for the trip, he still insisted to rest his head on her lap, because ‘it’s just so much more comfortable than any headrest’, apparently. She had protested, claiming he didn’t need to take up her personal space this time around, but in the end relented and allowed him to lay his head on her lap.

Who did she think she was kidding? Of course she enjoyed it just like he did. It made her feel safe and needed.

And this time she didn’t even need to worry about her clothes getting stained by his vomit again; it was simply too perfect of an occasion to pass up.

After another forty minutes that had ran past Lucy way too fast for her tastes - she wouldn’t have minded to stay like this a little bit longer - the train pulled to a stop into Magnolia’s station. It wasn’t actively raining anymore, but thick, grey clouds were covering ominously the sky, and the scent of rain and wet grass filled her nose as soon as they stepped down onto the platform; she eagerly sniffed at the air like a bloodhound, thoroughly enjoying the refreshing smell.

“Whatcha doin’, Luce?” Natsu asked curiously as he too walked out of the train and handed her duffel bag to her, who took it. “You’re being weird. Right Happy?”

Happy obviously agreed gleefully. “Yeah, Lucy’s a weirdo!”

Yep, no princely type at all, Natsu Dragneel.

It was just fine for her.

Deep inside her, she could feel Loke rolling his eyes and slapping a hand to his forehead, frustrated at the lack of manners of the Dragon Slayer.

”I’m going to strangle him one of this days” he grumbled softly within her mind. Lucy giggled, not really minding Natsu’s less than gentlemanly behavior that much, but nevertheless amused by Loke’s antics.

She took a deep breath, letting all the scents of Magnolia wash over her, envelop her in its embrace.

She was home. For real, at last.

Lucy felt like she had been away for years rather than days: there was a new found glow to the city that she had never managed to see before, when her eyes were clouded by loss and frustration. The whole town had seemingly bloomed while she was away, just like its namesake, as it prepared to welcome her back at the top of its beauty

She knew that couldn’t possibly be the case; it was just her being so happy she was seeing the world through rose tinted lenses but… it couldn’t hurt to dream a little bit, now, could it?

So many things had changed since she had last been in town, she couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed just thinking about it. She was drowning, her head spinning and her breath hitching and coming out in small, fast puffs; her knees wobbled on the spot, struggling to keep her standing upright, nevermind take a step forward.

“Luce? Are you coming or not?”

Natsu’s voice woke her up from her reverie, and she saw they were already several feet ahead of her. They were looking at her quizzically, confused as to why she was being so slow.

She took a deep breath, and then another. It was alright, she told herself sternly. She would make it through this, just like she’d always had, time and time again.

No… they were going to make it. Together, as a team, as partners.

All on their own, her lips curled up in a smile, and her knees stopped feeling like they were made of jelly.

Lucy sniffed and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. “Of course. Don’t you dare to go without me.”

She broke in a quick jog, swiftly closing the distance between them. She laughed joyfully, feeling too light and bubbly to care much about Happy’s snickered “Lucy, you’re sooo sloooow!!”. She just stuck her tongue out to the lovable jerk of a cat, unfazed.

Still, she jumped out of her skin when Natsu’s hand closed over her own, his calloused fingers delicately entwining with her own. She blinked and felt her cheeks warm and blush furiously, caught off guard by Natsu’s unexpected sweet gesture.

When she managed to look away from their joined hands, she found Natsu studying her face carefully, gauging her reaction for traces of mockery or deceit, as though he was not sure of what he was doing and wanted some sort of reassurance from her.

She didn’t think it was possible, but she blushed even more brightly, acutely aware of the comforting warmth of Natsu’s hand over hers.

When his research didn’t seem to turn up anything suspicious, he beamed up at her with his toothy, gorgeous smile that could easily burn brighter and hotter than the sun and that never failed to melt Lucy to a shapeless puddle of boiling feelings.

“You were being all weird and thinking too much.” Natsu explained, quite lamely maybe, but he trusted Lucy to see the meaning of his words. He lightly squeezed her fingers.

She didn’t waste time to respond in kind, squeezing back and smiling warmly. “Yeah, you’re right, let’s go to the guild already.”

As they started walking again, hand in hand, Happy leisurely let himself float a little way behind them, cackling to himself under his breath at the grossly sweet display of affection. When he was sure Lucy could not hear him anymore - Natsu could, but Happy was sure he was so engrossed in his sappy hand holding he wouldn’t pay attention - he quietly began humming to himself.

“Natsu and Lucy sitting on a tree, kissing~”

He had to do a somersault midair to dodge a small fireball that had been aimed at him with uncanny precision.

--

Natsu all but punched the guild door open with a deafening bang that, Lucy was positive, could be heard by the whole town.

“YOOO, WE’RE BACK!” he bellowed at the top of his lungs. The brawl in the hall instantly halted midway and the entire guild turned to the source of the sudden noise.

A choir of “Natsu! Lucy! Happy!”s and “Welcome back”s echoed through the crowd, accompanied by hard pats on their backs as they weaved their way through towards the bar. Lucy was almost knocked down to the ground when Elfman slammed his big hand on her shoulder with too much enthusiasm.

She would have ended sprawled face-first on the floor if Natsu’s hold on her hadn’t tightened at the last second and supported her weight until she managed to recover her balance and steady herself back to her feet.

“Ya doing okay?” he asked, concerned, without letting go of her hand. She smiled at him, moved by his protective streak even when in the most innocent and harmless situations. Lucy didn’t like to be treated like she was made of glass and ready to shatter at the first bump she got, but she couldn’t deny it wasn’t that bad to let herself be supported and protected by a caring Natsu from time to time.

She blushed and nodded, “Yeah, I’m fine.”

But danger was looming right under the corner, and they realized this a second too late.

Lucy belatedly realized this oh-so-sweet scene had happened just four feet away from the bar. Behind which Mirajane was standing and attentively watching the whole scene as it unfolded, drinking avidly every stammered word, every adorable blush and loving glances the two mages exchanged as they momentarily forgot where they were and with whom.

Big, big mistake.

Mirajane immediately slammed the tray she was holding on the counter with such force the whole bar rattled violently - Master Makarov was almost thrown off and a few glassed did topple down - but she hardly paid that any mind.

She instead pointed at Natsu’s and Lucy still intertwined hands. “And what is that?!?”

If she had flashed a spotlight on the two mages and then zeroed in a laser pointer on their hands, Lucy was sure it wouldn’t have had the same effect.

The whole guild heard Mira’s shrill shriek - and by whole guild Lucy meant the whole goddamned guild. Even Laxus and Gildarts were back and staring right at her and Natsu. Of course Lucky Lucy had to pick one of the occasional days they were all gathered at the same place. Of course - and followed her line of sight, landing squarely on Lucy and Natsu’s hands.

Suddenly feeling self-conscious under the insistent stares of every single member of the guild, Master included, Lucy instinctively tried to disentangle herself from Natsu’s hold. Natsu, on the contrary, squeezed her fingers in his even tighter.

He didn’t want to let go of her. So what if everyone was staring? Let them stare as much as they wanted to! Natsu would simply love to shout that Lucy was his girlfriend out loud to the whole world, if he could.

He didn’t really get what was the problem with the guild knowing. It was not like they could possibly keep it secret to their nakamas, any way.

She wasn’t already regretting this arrangement of theirs, was she?

When Lucy met his eyes, she ceased her attempts to wriggle free of his grasp at once. Her flustered expression softened with fond tenderness, and after a split second he saw her nodding once. Just half of an inch, but for Natsu it was like she had just kissed him again like that time on the ship, and he felt a sudden fuzzy feeling bubbling up from his chest and spread throughout his whole body.

It was okay. It was just Luce being a shy weirdo as always. He really needed to work on that with her.

He beamed and triumphantly raised their joined hands for all to see.

“Oh yeah, we’re together now!” he declared loudly, his heart swelling with pride. A wide smirk split his face when he caught sight of Gray nearly choking himself on his drink and then looking at the two mages with the most hilarious fish face Natsu had ever seen. Take that, popsicle.

The entire guildhall fell silent, not a fly to be heard, staring at them like they were two aliens.

Lucy smiled timidly, quickly growing uncomfortable under that eerily silent gaze. She grabbed twisted a strand of her hair in her free hand. “Yeah, we are.”

Happy picked right that moment to flutter down and sit on the counter beside where Mira was standing, impossibly still. He threw Lucy a look.

Oh gods no, please, Happy, don’t-

“Aaand,” the evil blue cat drawled out, never breaking eye contact with Lucy. Lucy shook her head furiously, begging, pleading- “They even smoooocheed!!!”

The silence grew tenfold. Everyone’s eyes were wide as saucers, but if Lucy focused she could almost see the light bulbs popping alight over their heads as realization finally sank in, one after another...

And then the guild exploded.

“HELL YEEEEESSSSSS!!!!!”

Lucy yelped loudly - though she barely heard the sound she had made herself, let alone the others - and she had to tug her hand away from Natsu for real this time to protect her eardrums from rupturing. She was sure she just felt the whole building shake ominously.

Several hands grabbed her and Natsu, patting their backs with renewed energy and complimenting them. Cana even went as far as to cast her half finished pint of beer aside and stood on top of one of the tables closest to the bar.

“Pay up, motherfuckers!!” she bellowed, making a beckoning gesture towards the crowd pressing against Lucy and Natsu.

And indeed several people groaned and started rummaging through their pockets as a flow of jewels started streaming towards a grinning Cana, who pocketed the money just as quickly as she could go through three entire barrels of booze. Lucy was definitely impressed.

Shocked as she was, Lucy just couldn’t help but laugh at the sight; had they been so obvious, that there was such a massive betting pool going on about them? Seriously, it seemed like every single guild member owed Cana money for losing or were already lining up to get their quota of the award.

Even Erza had wagered on them, Lucy was stunned to find out. The scarlet red of her hair was all too recognizable among the sea of mages crowded around betting pool master Cana Alberona.

For the sake of everyone involved - herself included - Lucy seriously hoped she had placed her bet favorably.

But suddenly her musings were cut short when a couple of slender and insanely strong arms wrapped around her neck and squished her hard against someone chest, and her vision went white.

“Mira!” she choked breathlessly, trying to avoid to accidentally swallow a ball of beautiful silver hair as Mira buried her face in the crook of Lucy’s neck. “Mira, I can’t breathe-”

Mira shook against her - Lucy couldn’t tell if she was laughing or crying - but indeed her chokehold loosened enough to let Lucy breathe. Lucy let out a breathless laugh and patted the barmaid delicately on her back.

“Ignore her, she’s just too happy you two finally got together,” Lisanna said from behind the counter. She winked conspiratorially at Lucy when the Celestial Spirit mage turned to look at her. “It took you long enough, we were starting to despair over here.”

As to confirm this, Mira finally lifted herself up, and Lucy could see she had indeed been crying. She was unfairly beautiful even when she was all flushed and puffy eyed, what kind of sorcery was that? Lucy wanted that spell too.

“I-I’m so proud of you two~” Mira wailed weakly, “I knew from the beginning you were made for each other.”

And again she all but crushed Lucy against her. Lucy threw a pleading look to Natsu, requesting assistance, but the jerk was laughing his ass off watching her get engaged in some sort of wrestling match with hugging demon Mirajane, along with Happy, Gray and Juvia. Some friends they were!

Thankfully enough, someone had caught sight of the commotion and stepped in.

“That’s enough, Mira, you’re going to choke her if you keep this up,” Erza said firmly, placing a gauntleted hand over Mira’s shoulder and tugging lightly at it. Mira pouted, but otherwise didn’t fight back and let herself be peeled off Lucy by the other woman before heading back to the other side of the bar.

Lucy rubbed her sore neck, wincing. If this was the strength of a happy Mira hugging a friend, she really didn’t want to know what a angry demon Mira could do to her enemies. She prayed she’d never get to know this.

“Thank you, Erza. I thought I was dead meat there. Someone should look and take notes.” Lucy turned to throw a pointed look at Natsu, who was now howling and guffawing, the jab flying several miles over his head. She sighed in defeat.

“It’s no problem,” Erza said with a smile. Then she wrapped an arm around Lucy’s shoulders and pulled her against her own chest. On which she was wearing a plate. A metallic plate.

The impact between Erza’s armor suit and Lucy’s forehead sent a jolt of unbearable pain down the whole length of Lucy’s spine. She yelped and whined, but Erza didn’t seem to notice and simply kept pressing Lucy to her in what she was probably convinced was a friendly and reassuring gesture.

Oh sure, Lucy’s eyes were indeed tearing up, but she doubted it was what Erza had in mind.

“Don’t do that again, Lucy,” Erza mumbled softly in her ear. “We are family. We always have your back.”

Lucy’s heart swelled and this time the right kind of tears pooled in her eyes. She gently pulled away. “Thank you, Erza. I’ll keep it in mind.”

“Yeah, speaking of which-” Gray had sneaked up on them, silent as a cat, and Lucy nearly jumped out of her skin when he spoke loudly directly in her ear. Erza just laughed at her surprise. “-that was bullshit. What the hell were you thinking, going all secretive on us?”

Lucy whirled around, her ponytail following suit and almost slapping him squarely on his nose. He had his reflexes to thank for that lucky miss. Natsu laughed even louder from the bar.

“Didn’t you do something like this too? Pot calling the kettle black?”

“Yeah, I know,” Gray admitted shamelessly with a smirk, shoving his hands in the pockets of his pants. “That was dumb of me, but I thought you’d be smarter than that, ya know?”

It had been a pretty stupid move, in hindsight. But at the time it didn’t feel like it was. She had wanted to solve this matter quietly and smoothly. She had failed so hard on that aspect, but now she really didn’t mind as much as she had thought she would.

She opened her mouth, racking her brain to find the words to better explain what she had been going through at the time, but Gray shook his head and Erza placed a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it lightly (Lucy was sure by the end of the day her shoulder would sport five little purple bruises in shape of Erza’s fingertips).

“It’s okay,” Erza said fondly. “You don’t need to tell us now if you don’t feel like it. Take your time.”

Lucy felt tears well up in her eyes again. She felt blessed to have such a caring family, as rough and utterly crazy as they could get from time to time. Gray picked up on the suspicious wetness of her eyes and snickered, though she could feel it lacked any sort of actual bite or derision.

“Now, now, don’t start crying too. More importantly,” And here he glanced back at Natsu, who had stood a few feet away the whole time, strangely silent as he paid close attention to the exchange among the rest of his team. However, when Gray and Natsu made eye contact, Natsu stiffened and bared his teeth menacingly. “Who was the first one to take a step? I didn’t think firecracker over there had the balls to make a move on ya.”

“Oi, icecream, the fuck are ya trying to say, huh?”

“Actually,” Lucy interjected before the situation degenerated for good, jumping between the two friends with her arms splayed wide to keep them from jumping to each other’s throat again. The two mages glowered at each other, but didn’t make a move with Lucy now standing in between. “Natsu was the one to propose.”

Gray’s face fell and Natsu pumped his fist in the air, flashing an obscene gesture at Gray over Lucy’s head. “Aha! You bastard, suck it up.”

“But,” Lucy went on, unperturbed. “I was the one who kissed him first.”

This time it was Gray the one who made an equally rude sign at Natsu, who oof-ed quietly and dramatically doubled over. “I knew you didn’t have the guts, molten brain.”

Lucy threw a pleading look at Erza, but the older woman just shrugged innocently, suddenly busy with the fresh new slice of strawberry cake Mira had just placed in front of her. Some things just didn’t change.

Lucy stepped out of the line of the fire and retreated to safety back to the bar just in time: the two young men stalked determinedly towards each other, until they were face to face, the tips of their noses touching.

“Ya wanna go, snow fairy?”

“Be my fucking guest, matchstick.”

Well, there they went. In a blink of an eye the two mages were already engaged in one of their usual scuffles, fists and kicks flying around so fast Lucy could barely tell who just hit who. And when Elfman and many other guys roared their approval and dived right in, things turned so messy Lucy stopped trying altogether, deciding instead to pay all of her attention to the milkshake Lisanna had just placed in her hand.

“On the house, we’re celebrating.” Lisanna said with a wink and a chuckle before gracefully walking away along the bar. Lucy smiled and thanked her for everything before the youngest Strauss could step out of earshot.

She watched, amused, the brawl getting more and more hectic by the second while sipping her sweet drink. Her interest spiked up significantly when she caught sight of Laxus stand up and join in the fight, sleeves rolled up. Oh gods, this was turning dangerous and exciting real fast.

“Juvia wishes to give Lucy her congratulations for the sheer success.” a soft voice spoke up a few inches from her ear. Lucy spluttered over her drink and the glass nearly slipped out of her grasp.

“Gosh, Juvia, don’t scare me like that,” she mumbled, dabbing at her mouth with a napkin. “I thought you were supporting Gray in there.” She tilted her head to the whirling fistfight. Rogue flames, ice spears, iron rods and straying lightning bolts were now dominating the scene.

“Juvia doesn’t think she could stand up to Laxus. Juvia would only be a liability to Gray-sama if she tried.”

As Elfman fell, literally thunderstruck, under a vicious electric spark, Lucy totally could see her point. She nodded and hummed in agreement, taking a sip of her drink.

Then she remembered something. She stopped drinking and placed the glass back on the counter.

“You knew, didn’t you?” she asked quietly, throwing caution to the wind. “Of Aquarius?”

Juvia’s smile dimmed severely. She looked sad all of a sudden. She nodded.

“But… how?”

Juvia lowered her eyes and folded her slender hands on her stomach. “As Juvia already told Natsu, Juvia doesn’t know for sure. When Aquarius’s key was broken, Juvia felt a tug at her stomach, and a deep grieving washed over her and the water comprising her body. At the time, Juvia didn’t know what to make of it, but with time it became clear.”

Lucy listened carefully to every word. What Juvia was saying was interesting from an academic standpoint, but she failed to see how and why Juvia had been able to pinpoint Aquarius’s magic so precisely; Juvia made it seem like she should be able to sense every Water Magic user on earthland.

But Juvia wasn’t finished yet. “Does Lucy remember the first mission she and Juvia went on together?”

Lucy frowned, nibbling at her lip and drumming her fingers over the counter as she tried to recall. If she wasn’t mistaken, it had been the Tower of Heaven, and Juvia had openly antagonized her the whole time until she had fallen victim of one of their enemies’ mind-controlling spell. She remembered Juvia trying her very best to drown Lucy, until… until…

Oh.

Juvia smiled warmly when she saw realization dawning over Lucy’s features, and pointed at her own stomach.

“It’s just a theory, but Juvia believes a bond was formed when Lucy used Juvia’s body to summon Aquarius,” she explained to a very shell-shocked Lucy. “And the Unison Raid Juvia and Lucy performed afterwards just sealed it.”

Lucy was so utterly caught off guard she couldn’t find anything to say. Not only what Juvia was saying sounded solid to her, but the implications of it...

Oh gods, she was tearing up again.

“Thank you, Juvia,” she sniffled, wiping her eyes dry with the napkin. If she kept going at this rate she’d soon run out of water to effuse, and would have to resort to cry blood.

Juvia chuckled softly. “Lucy is Juvia’s good friend. Juvia is glad Lucy is truly back with us and finally found happiness. It took Natsu and Lucy a lot longer than Juvia had expected to get together.”

Yeah, actually, about that, Lucy was still a bit puzzled. “Wait, did you know we liked each other? Weren’t you always going off on me about this ‘Love Rival’ thing?”

Juvia blinked, confusion written clear on her delicate features. “Juvia thought it was a funny shtick to keep between good friends, even when it was clear Lucy liked Natsu. Kind of like that.”

Juvia pointed at the heart of the still rampaging fight in the middle of the hall, where Natsu and Gray had each other in a tight chokehold. Lucy slapped her hand over her face, finally realizing the source of her attitude.

Of course it had to be Natsu’s and Gray’s fault. Was there anything those two hadn’t meddled in and messed over?

“Don’t tell Juvia,” Juvia suddenly looked horrorstruck, “Lucy didn’t think it was funny?”

Poor Juvia, Lucy mused. The Water mage had obviously believed she was just being friendly in the Fairy Tail way with all her heart. Just the thought of it not being the case had her positively flabbergasted.

Lucy suddenly didn’t have the heart to rain on her parade.

Lucy smiled, and if it looked from outside as contrived as it felt on her face, Juvia didn’t mention a word about it. “Nah, it’s alright. Just, it’s not gonna be believable anymore now, is it?”

“Indeed,” Juvia agreed soberly, tugging at the sleeve of her dress. “Juvia shall stop from now on, if Lucy so wishes.”

“It’s alright,” Lucy said lightly, waving a hand. “If we tone it down a bit, we can keep it up on something else. Like this.”

She cupped her hands and focused her magic into her palms. It strained a bit, still not fully recovered, but nevertheless a little twirling water bubble materialized in the space between her hands. Juvia’s eyes widened.

“Ooh, Lucy has grown a lot stronger than the last time Juvia has seen her. But Juvia won’t lose to Lucy.” she declared with renewed passion flaming into her deep blue eyes as she turned her whole hand into water. Lucy chuckled and reached again for her milkshake, taking another sip.

“Sure! Bring it on!”

Lucy leaned back against the counter, her focus shifting again to the brawl, and fixed on a particular tuft of pink hair zooming around the room, too busy punching and being punched to take notice of anything else.

Surely stormy waters and jutting rocks were waiting ahead of them, throwing everything they had at Lucy and Natsu to make them sink and drown, but as of now, with her ten golden keys safely hanging from her belt and the warmth of Natsu’s lips still lingering on her own, Lucy was sure they’d be able to swim through it all. And as she watched the fight evolve in intensity, surrounded by friends and family that were ready to die to protect her just like she would to protect them, Lucy thought that, if this was one of her stories, this moment would be just the perfect time to say-

The End