Everything He's Lost

Chapter Six

3rd POV

Natsu had become an empty shell of a man. He had taken on as many dangerous missions as he could. Often times he would just sneak them off the S-class board, and not tell anyone about it. He couldn't live with himself. Not after what happened. He didn't want to live anymore. He couldn't bear waking up in a world where his beautiful wife and daughter were not anymore.
He had been at home when the first of the hallucinations started. At first they were pleasant. They brought back times of love and happiness. When his big empty home wasn't so empty. They were of Lucy and a younger Nashi running around having the time of their lives. But then it changed. It would change to Lucy her mangled corpse crying out asking why he didn't save them and Nashi crying out "PAPA PLEASE!" Reaching out to the man and no matter how fast Natsu ran he never was able to catch them.
It became so hard for him. He finally turned to a bottle, just to sleep through the night, but his dreams were haunted by those memories. No matter how hard he fought he was never able to escape the never ending torment.
He was lying in the filthy bed that was his and Lucy's. He never washed the sheets because he was afraid that he would lose the scent of her on them. He would have Nashi's toys near by as a reminder of his little girl. Everything to remind him of his failures.
He had been in and out of sleep the last few hours when he had finally seemed to fall asleep for the night when suddenly he was rudely awaken by a blast of cold water on his face. He sat up swinging his flaming fist around trying to find the perpetrator entering his home. "Natsu calm down." Erza said with a stern tone trying to reason with him. This was the last person he expected to see, she was also the last person he wanted to see in this moment.
"Erza what the hell are you doing here?" Natsu growled at her. Wiping his face, trying to get all the water off. He looked around slowly and noticed the other two men standing in his house. "Get the hell out if you are going to lecture me again. I don't want to hear it." Natsu growled out. "Natsu we aren't here to lecture you. We are here to bring you to the guild." Gray stated leaning against the door. "You are gonna want to go with us. I promise." Gajeel said in his gruff tone.
"Screw you." Natsu said angrily "I know what you are trying to do and it won't work. I'm tired, now leave me alone." He said in an angry tone. Natsu quickly got back into bed huffing realizing how wet the bed is.
"Natsu don't make us do this the hard way." Gray said to his friend, he knew insulting the man would do no good. "You really need to come with us." Erza reiterated. Natsu turned over completely ignoring them. He was in no mood to be in a place that had so many memories of his dearly departed wife and daughter. "Fine don't say we didn't warn you." Gajeel gruffed out. Erza leaned down and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt now noticing how putrid Natsu smelled. They sat the man up noticing how his unshaven face looked. The way his eyes sunk in and the bags around them grew. His eyes were blood shot and the usual sparky onyx had been replaced by a complete loss of life stark black.
He was in rough shape.
Erza quickly helped the poor man she considered her brother into a new set of clothes, all the while he complained about wanting to be left alone. But the group couldn't care less. They were wanting him to meet his daughter right away hoping he would knock out of his slump.
"Natsu this is important someone is waiting at the guild for you." Erza said trying to get him to stand up and come with them. "Erza if it's another one of those fan girls or someone trying to meet Lucy I'm tired of explaining she's gone. Please don't make me do this again." The man looked up at her in desperation. "Please...." The woman knew he had been through a lot and knew he was troubled. She didn't know it was this bad. She wished she had been there for him more. Maybe he wouldn't look as bad as he did in this moment.
"Natsu this isn't one of those instances you are coming with us. End of discussion." Erza finally said in a stern tone. She grabbed him one more time by his collar and quickly dragged him out of his house. Natsu knew he wasn't going to win the battle so he just let her drag him towards the guild. He figured while he was there he could get a drink, or as many as it took to stop those damn hallucinations.
Soon they arrived in front of the giant double doors as they opened them and pushed him inside he froze. It had been months since he had been in the guild. It all looked the same, felt the same, and had the same energy. It almost smelt the same but there was something different about it. He pushed the thought out of his head, and moved on to thinking about how Lucy should have been there and Nashi should have been playing with all the other guild children, and looked around once more. Not seeing anything out of the ordinary.
"Ok Erza I'm here now where is this mystery person at?" He questioned throwing a quick glare to the woman who drug him there. "Just wait a second. She's being cleaned up by Wendy." Erza said softly. Natsu just gruffly walked toward the bar sitting down and ordering a strong drink. However Mira knew better and made him something to eat and brought him a water. Natsu wasn't very happy but wasn't in the mood to fight with the she-devil.