Find a Way

Truth and Tears

Mio's POV

"Okay everyone settle down!" A short old man yelled.

The room went silent and everyone looked towards him.

"I'm now going to announce the winner of the contest."

Everyone's faces turned a mix of anticipation, excitement and seriousness. After a unnecessarily long pause...

"And the winner is...LUCY HEARTFILIA!!!"

Everyone cheered as Natsu dragged Lucy up on stage. She looked absolutely ecstatic as she took the envelope from the guys hands.

"Thank you so much Master." She smiled.

"Congratulations. Guess this means no jobs for a while?"

"Nuh-uh. I'll still be doing jobs." She stated. "After all, you think I'm gonna be letting this Pyro out alone?"

Everyone laughed as Natsu blushed slightly.

"Now LETS PARTY!!!"

Everyone immediately went running for their homes to get changed. I followed after Lucy as we ran all the way back to her house. She quickly shoved the prize money in a draw and locked it before dashing into her room. She came back out in a long red dress.

"Now what are you going to wear?" She asked.

I opened my bag that I kept on me physically to see what clothes I had. I'd don't have anything fancy, unfortunately. Before Lucy could even suggest me borrowing one of her dresses, Natsu came bursting through the door in his suit.

"You guys ready?" He questioned.

"Lucy is. Me, unfortunately, am not. For I have no fancy clothes." I sighed.

Then, just as I would expect from him, he grabbed my wrists and dragged me out the house.

"SEE YOU BACK AT THE GUILD LUCE! I need to help Mio find a dress!!!" He yelled back.

"Natsu, you don't need to-"

"I know! But I want to." He smiled.

Soon we arrived at a shop. It wasn't overly expensive or fancy, but it did have some nice stuff. Natsu just made me sit down while he got a dress. He saod something about him being in here the other day to get another dress, probably the one he got for Lucy. He said he saw another dress that reminded him of me.

It was sweet to know that he still cares about me after all this time, but it hurt too. Especially since I know it must be hurting Lucy. He never told her about his past. She just had to deal with his odd way of acting. I could tell it hurt her because she really cared for Natsu, but she know Natsu can't 100% trust her with everything. Like he does me.

Soon he came back with a short Galaxy-design dress. It was beautiful. I tried it on, then once I was sure I liked it we paid and headed back to the guild hall.

"So..." I began as we walked. "You got Lucy that blue dress, didn't you?"

"Mhm."

"I only thought that's you did that for people you really care about."

"I do. Lucy's a really great friend."

"Friend huh? Well you seem really close."

"Yup. We always go on jobs together, and hang around a lot."

"From what I've heard, you sometimes just break into her house to sleep or wait for her to get home."

"Heh. Well...it just feels really warm and homey in her house."

"Even though you have your own?"

"I don't know." He trailed off. "Anyways...I'm just glad you're back."

I was afraid he'd say that.

"I'm glad I'm back too. That's some Guild you're in. You're all just one big family, aren't you?"

"You bet. It's so much fun, there's never a boring moment."

"Seems so..."

We got back to the hall and everything was so loud and lively. People were dancing and having fun. Cana was chugging down barrels of beer. I, on the other hand, was up on the balcony looking over everyone, when I felt a presence behind me.

"Hey Mio, you seem pretty down. You okay?" Natsu questioned me.

"I'm fine. Really. It just...weird. Being here. Seeing you again. It all just feels so...unreal."

What is this? Why do I feel so strange? It feels like there's something wrong. Like something's off.

"Well if it's just a dream, then I don't wanna wake up." He joked.

"...but isn't reality just so much better? You have real people, who really care about you."

Am I even real? Did I die on that day and this is just some magic that keeping me like this?

We were silent. My gaze was cast down at my feet, while Natsu's was on my face.

"Mio..."

"Natsu, I want you to listen to me. For once just stay quiet and listen and concentrate on everything I'm saying." I told him. "I'm not your only friend anymore. You have a Guild. A family. You need to trust them with everything. You need to tell them when something's wrong with you or you'll just suffer."

"What-?"

"Why didn't you tell anyone that you were suffering over the thought of me being dead. Every. Single. Year. You only ever gave Gray a slight outline. That you lost a friend somewhere around this time." I almost yelled. "You never told your master. Not Erza, not even Lucy! She was worried about you. Whenever we had a practice breaks she would just look out into nothingness wondering where you were, how you were doing and if you were okay. Everyone else was really worried too. But you didn't tell anyone. Why?"

"Because...they don't need to have me and my problems on their shoulders."

"That's what a family is for Natsu. You want Lucy to always be able to rely on you, but you can never rely on anyone else. You've always been too afraid to tell others how you really feel. You need to stop. You have a family, and by hell you have to start telling them everything that's making you hurt. Because if you don't you'll just suffer. I don't wanna see you like that. Nobody does."

"You have no idea the pain I went through when I thought you were dead!" He almost screamed. "You were my best friend, and my first friend ever. The thought of you dying was like I got stabbed straight in the heart."

"I know. But that doesn't mean you can just bottle it all away. Please Natsu. You've gotta start trusting everyone. If not for yourself, then for me. For Lucy."

He was silent. Trying his best to push back tears.

"Natsu, if you need to cry just cry, it doesn't help you to keep it all in."

With that one sentence, he curled up in a ball against the wall and cried. I sat beside him and listened.

"I-I thought I had lost you forever. I didn't want to lose you. Then I met everyone here and they were so kind. Everyone just reminded me of how kind you were to me. Then I met Lucy, and she reminded me of you the most. Although you're nothing alike, you both make me feel like just being beside you is home. But it's like Lucy just has something that makes me just feel out of place when I'm not next to her."

His voice was horse and scratchy. He sniffed occasionally between words as tears fell from his eyes and he the floor.

He's such a child. He doesn't even know how much he loves her...