One-shots

Natsu's face paled when the crash sounded. Lucy, on the ground, stared up at him with wide eyes.

Happy looked hurt, too.

He swallowed, backpedalling. "I-I didn't mean to!' He defended himself.

Gray offered a hand to Lucy, sending a nasty look his way. "You should apologise,"

Natsu's mouth was dry. He wouldn't--couldn't--look at Lucy. "I'm sorry. I-It really was an accident," 

The ice mage is looking for a fight.

Natsu couldn't stand the voice. "I-I have to go," He stammered, stumbling on his way out. The guild watched the spot where Natsu had grabbed Lucy and thrown her to the ground. 

They all collectively forgave him. Their beloved Natsu would never do such a thing on purpose. 

If only, they'd known back then, that it would be the beginning of a horrifying, endless nightmare for their resident blonde and her salmon-haired best friend.

Natsu hadn't come out for a week. People had checked on him, but Happy had told them he didn't want to see anyone. Everyone respected his wishes, except for one mage. She couldn't...

If he was hurt, she wished he'd tell her, because that's what friends were for. She sighed wistfully. Just then, the door swung open. Lucy whipped around, hopeful.

"Natsu!' She cried happily. She reached a hand for him. 

He smiled. "Hey,"

After having known him for so long, she could tell it didn't reach his eyes. "Is everything okay?'

His smile fell, growing fainter. "Yes."

The answer was so short and vague that it was completely unlike him. Before she could ask, he turned to the mission board.

"Let's go on a job, Lucy." He commanded.

She was too happy to have her friend back to care. 

...

The mission was simple. Catch a bunch of thieves who'd stolen from Duke Earl's estate. The thieves had come during the night, and Lucy was able to figure out if the thieves had taken the train to a different town.

Knowing they hadn't and were still within the town, they'd asked if anyone had seen the suspicious individuals. The criminals were clearly not very clever; neither was the duke if they'd managed to steal from him. 

Either way, their tracks led them to the forest. Here, Natsu could destroy as much as he wanted. Lucy was more than astonished that he didn't. He refrained from damaging too much.

He was so disinterested, in fact, that he was simply scaring them off than even attacking half of them, only focused on capturing them.

They were given the full reward, for once. But that no longer mattered.

Lucy hated seeing her best friend so gloomy. So, she summed up her courage to ask as they were walking back from the train station to the guild.

"Natsu?'

"Hm?'

"You know, if you're trying to hide your sadness, you're not doing a very good job, right?'

He stopped. Lucy, who was walking behind him, stopped, too.

"You're my best friend, Lucy. But if you wanted me to give you space, I would," he turned around. Lucy shrunk when she saw his furious eyes. He'd never been so angry at her, before. "So, stop prying into my life."

"No." she whispered. "You're not-you're not even acting like Natsu, anymore," she whimpered. "What the hell is wrong with you?'

He didn't bother with a reply, resuming his walk to the guild.

Once Lucy had informed her friends of the mission, Erza and Gray congratulated them both on the legendary feat, but Lucy was quick to inform them of Natsu's unusual behaviour. Erza and Gray tried to grill him on it, but he only got more agitated at the questions they threw.

Lucy regretted letting him leave the guild, letting him go home, more than anything.

It wasn't what had set everything in motion, but...

if she'd pushed harder, maybe all the things that followed never would have happened.

Weeks had turned into months. The guild was getting used to it, save for a celestial mage.

Because Natsu's absence shouldn't be normal. It shouldn't be brushed off.

In the end, though, she couldn't blame her guildmates and friends, either, because Natsu brushed them off just as easily.

He'd turned into this hothead--he already was one--but he couldn't stand the sight of Gray or Erza, and pushed her away too.

The door opened. Lucy swung around on her chair, to meet his onyx eyes.

He sent a nod her way. "Natsu," she called.

His eyes darkened in warning. She wasn't going to question him anymore, but...

she would never, ever give up on him. Of that much, she was certain. She'd only very rarely felt so strongly about something.

"Let's go on a mission."

These days, Natsu only ever showed up if there wasn't enough money to feed himself or Happy.

Happy was the only one who knew what was wrong; at least, that's what the guild assumed, as they hadn't seen the cheerful, blue cat in months, either.

He stared at her blankly. "No."

"Why not?' Lucy was quick to shoot, grabbing him by the wrist before he could leave. They were standing by the mission board, so she grabbed a random mission off of it.

She pulled it in front of his face, "this one. Let's go."

His lips twisted into a sinister sneer, "who are you to order me around?'

Lucy stepped back, gaze wary.

She was scared of what he was becoming but, "if you're trying to scare me, I won't be." she admitted. "even if I wanted to be, you don't scare me. And you never will."

He raised a doubtful eyebrow, "is that so?' his voice had gone darker, but she wasn't scared. 

"Natsu, you can burn me to a crisp, if you want. I'm not scared to die." She said, fiercely. "If I were, I would never have stayed in Fairy Tail."

She took a breath, "But I am scared of losing you."

He flinched. "I can't do this-"

"Why won't you just tell anyone what's wrong?' She asked, shakily. "You don't have to be happy all the time. No one will judge you of being human."

He chuckled, hollowly. "No, I'm not." He raised his eyes to her, taking a step away like being near her was stifling. "Don't you get it, Lucy?'

He was getting away. She began to reach for him, but something was holding her in place.

"You are scared. Not of me. But of something worse. Something you know exists. We both know it exists."

"When you grabbed me," he continued. "all I could think about was how frail your hand was, how I could crush it. All those veins in her arm. How I could rip you apart. How..." he seemed to choke on the words.

"...how what, Natsu?' she asked, knowing she was treading dangerous territory now. 

"How I wanted you as mine. How I wanted to hide you from the world. To kill you? Or to devour you?' He smiled, so heartbroken by his own twisted words.

Lucy wanted to hold him and comfort him. Tell him he would never think such a thing, tell him she wanted him for herself too, if her fluttering heart was anything to go by.

Tell him it was okay.

She was paralysed.

"I'm turning into a monster. I'm not worth loving anymore." His body distorted, tears blurring her world. "I'm thankful you want me, still. Enough to come to guild this early. Enough to talk to me alone."

He waved his hand around, motioning at the empty guild.

"But, I'm going to spend my days by myself. I can't afford to let you close, anymore,"

Goosebumps covered her skin, tears falling down her cheeks. 

"No..." She gasped. "Natsu, don't leave."

"I don't need anyone. You don't need me." He smiled, his eyes glistening. 

"I love you," she whispered, desperate to make him see how much he meant to her.

"Well, stop." He hissed, gripping her scarf tightly. "I can't-it hurts, Lucy. You're hurting me."

"Why?!' Lucy cried, voice breaking. "Why're you leaving me, too?'

"Because I can't deal with this voice, anymore. I refuse to hurt you. I love you too much to do that. It'd break me," His voice dropped low.

"You are hurting me. I don't-you were the one who brought me into this world where I was happy. And now you're leaving? We can find a way, Natsu. Please..."

She ran towards him. Maybe she could force him to stay, to knock some sense into that stupid brain of his.

That dumb bitch

Mm, stay with her, Natsuuu, if you leave, some other guy will take her

Kill her. Use your fucking flames. Don't let her disgusting hands near you

Natsu's body shot a flaming circle in between himself and her on instinct.

Lucy leaped back, gasping. "Natsu! No!'

He stared longingly at the guild. He lit his fist on fire, shakingly lifting it to his shoulder.

Lucy's heart clenched with horror. "please," she begged, dropping to her knees.

She shook her head wildly. "No, no, no. Natsu, don't-"

Her words got stuck on her tongue as she watched him burn his guild mark away. He resisted the sting of the pain, the taste of the burn. It almost felt exhilarating, like coming alive after all these months of being half-alive.

He smiled sorrowfully because nothing hurt more than leaving, not even the burn of his own power. "I know I have no right to request anything of you, but please take care of Happy."

He pulled the letter out of his pocket. Truthfully, he'd never come to guild to pick a job. He'd come to say good bye. 

He threw it into the fire, hoping it'd burn.

Telling her he loved her was like rubbing salt into her wounds. He couldn't show her the letter; he was too cowardly for that.

His eyes widened when she jumped into the fire to catch, cradling the half burnt letter and her own burnt hands in her lap. She raised those glowing eyes to him, swollen and--

he swallowed. 

"I love you, Natsu." she said, her lips quirking upward in the saddest smile he'd ever seen.

I love you, too. I love you so much I want to kill anyone who even dares to look your way. I hate Gray. I hate Erza. All because of you.

Kill her. I want to pull out your eyesockets and rip your limbs from your body or burn that pretty face of yours

He pulled away. He didn't look back that morning. He walked away.

The guild found their floorboard burnt, though Lucy'd put the fire out. Her own hands were burnt, but she was sitting at a table, head covered by her arms.

She hadn't looked up.

It took them a while to peel her off of the table, but her eyes had glazed over like she was staring at something they couldn't see.

Natsu never returned to the guild after that day, and Lucy took Happy instead.

She'd still never minded giving her heart away to him, even if it ruined her for the rest of the world.

Even when he was forgotten, she and Happy remembered the boy who'd shown them the world, shown them the wonders they wouldn't have seen otherwise.

And the man Lucy loved with all her heart.