Have A Fairy Good Day (Fairy Tail One-Shots and Short Stories)

Your Alternate Path

Written by Elodie. Based on the manga. Featured after the Tartaros Arc.

With the recent anime episodes, I felt that this was the right time to release Your Alternate Path after it's been sitting, waiting, for months. This is how I believe Natsu and Lucy's reunion should have gone down. Apologies in advance for the feels.

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Every breath perfectly practiced, every step in time with a heartbeat, every movement trained to exact precision; that was what a year had achieved for him. His strength had been doubled and his power tripled. He was finally ready to go home; he was finally ready to protect his family.

But first, to let the world know.

Natsu was on his third town tonight; Crocus. The previous two towns he'd briefly stopped at had passed in a successful blur, staying a few nights with only slight glimpses of his face, leaving a witness or two behind as proof of his visit. It was endlessly amusing to listen to the accusations and gossip before he moved on. The first article of his return was printed in that morning's issue of Sorcerers Weekly, in the column titled Fairy Tail Sightings.

Since when had his guild turned into a nationwide game of hide and seek with the members when they were widely known to be based in Magnolia? The thought lingered heavily at the back of his mind, like there was something he should know but didn't.

Quiet and stealthy, Natsu moved through the dark alleys of the country's main city. Somewhere in the distance, Mercurius towered over the rest of the city, the Flower Light Palace living up to its name as its windows glowed peacefully, beautifully golden. Its magnificence shone in comparison to the dirty streets in which he traipsed, scouting. What he was scouting for? That was a mystery, even unto himself. Instinct, he would say; instinct and intuition was keeping him up this early hour.

'Happy,' Natsu called, keeping his voice low not to disturb the sleeping civilians shut tranquilly in their homes. 'Happy.'

'I'm here,' the exceed replied.

Happy glided down easily on ivory wings that stood out in the darkness like a bluebell amongst a field of sunflowers. The azure cat hovered to a stop in front of him, wings hanging him in the air gracefully, looking back over his shoulder in the direction from whence he came.

'Anything?' the boy asked, not expecting a negative answer. He was granted with a smile from the exceed as proof of his excellent guess.

'Nothing,' Happy told him. 'Nothing suspicious anywhere.'

Sighing, Natsu bit the inside of his cheek, 'Maybe my hunch was wrong.'

Happy shook his head confidently, 'Your haunch is never wrong, Natsu. Unless you're hungry. Are you hungry?'

'I'm always hungry.'

Happy rolled his eyes, but refrained from answering the childish reply of the fire dragon slayer.

They cast their thoughts over the unsettling feeling Natsu had felt in the pit of his stomach earlier in the night, that something was amiss in Crocus. Natsu had only been able to describe it as something crawling up through his insides, repeatedly, sticking thorns inside his chest.

'I just dunno, Happy,' Natsu murmured. He placed a hand on the back of his neck and rested it there, the back of his hand brushing against the tattered inside of his midnight hood. 'I sorta want something to happen, ya know? I don't wanna go back to Fairy Tail as if I haven't changed at all.'

'But you have changed, Natsu,' Happy assured him proudly. 'You're much stronger now! I bet you could beat even Erza and Gray!'

Natsu's shoulders stiffened. The requip mage and the ice stripper hadn't honestly been the first people he'd wanted to show off his new strength to; it was someone else who'd hogged his attention so gracefully for the entire year he'd been gone. The whole reason he'd left was so she wouldn't disappear, just like his father had. The others, too, he had a desperate desire to protect, but her ... though he knew she could take care of herself, he honestly didn't want her to have to.