Shattered Dreams ||Nalu||

Chapter Nineteen

She wasn't sure how long she spent stumbling around the rubble of what had once been a town, but it was quite a long time. When she blinked, coming to the realization that she no longer knew where she was, it was nightfall. Hours upon hours had passed since Natsu had left her there, and she was alone to deal with the cold of the night.

She hugged the jacket he'd left her around her tighter, one hand remaining fisted in the scaly scarf. "Natsu," Lucy breathed, tears rising to her eyes. She hadn't had the pain. So he was still alive...right? He had to be...he'd promised he'd find her...

Until then, until she either had an attack or he found her, she had to keep going. As much as she hated the thought of it, she had to stay alive. Shivering, the celestial mage picked her way through the rubble, looking for a decent place of shelter. First things first: she needed food, some place to hide for the night, and firewood. Luckily, she had the flint and steel she'd used to make fire for Natsu...perhaps it would even attract him back to where she was...

Lucy took a deep breath, letting her brown eyes search the area around her. She wasn't alone, she told herself as the silence pressed in. Natsu was still alive out there. She just had to stay alive until he could find her.

There!

She climbed along some rocks that had once belonged to some building or another, smiling smugly to herself as she made her way over to the untouched house. She inspected the door, then ducked inside, closing and locking it behind her before surveying where she was.

It had once belonged to a family, that much was obvious. There were children's toys littering the ground, and an untouched cup of old - disgusting - coffee on the dining table. Lucy wrinkled her nose at the smell of rotting food, but ignored it. At least she would have shelter from the biting winter winds tonight.

She found the fireplace quickly and lit it, working silently but surely, careful not to light the rest of the building on fire in the process. She set the flint and steel aside with a gentle hand, sweeping her dirtied hair from her face and biting her lip. It was warm and cozy within moments of the fire being lit, but it felt so lonely...

Shrugging the jacket off but leaving her scarf on, Lucy decided to investigate and explore the house. She started with the kitchen, but quickly left it when the rotting smell overpowered her. Closing the door behind her, she decided against going into that room in particular ever again...maybe she could make a home out of this place for the time being?

The next room she explored was a child's bedroom. The old occupant couldn't have been more than a few years old at the most, and had obviously been a boy if the colors and toys were anything to go by...not that little girls couldn't enjoy dinosaurs and action figures, but the clothes confirmed it. A thin layer of dust coated just about everything, including the small bed that the boy had probably once slept in.

Next was the parents' bathroom. She hadn't bothered entering the one closest to the living room she'd set up camp in, as it had smelled absolutely terrible, even with the door firmly shut. She stepped inside, grimacing at the shattered mirror. She hesitantly tested the sink faucet, and was only slightly disappointed when the water didn't turn on. The bathtub was the same.

Finally, Lucy headed into the parents' bedroom. She smiled faintly when she saw it, taking in the cleanliness - other than dust, of course. The mother or father would have been a clean freak if the orderly clothing hanging in the open closet was anything to go by. The bed was large and comfy looking, and just for a brief moment, Lucy considered sleeping in it. But then she decided against the idea. She didn't want to spend the night in a bed that had once belonged to people that were now dead.

And then she stopped in front of a body-length mirror that showed her her entire body. Lucy stared at her reflection, barely recognizing the haunted girl that stared back at her. Her body was no longer anywhere near as soft as it had once been, now mostly made of the muscle that came alongside constant movement and the workouts Natsu had made her do daily alongside him. She was a bit on the thinner side from not eating as well as she should have, and she was dressed in dirtied clothes that were a bit worse for the wear. Her once shining golden hair had been reduced to hanging around her face in disgusting and tangled pieces, her brown eyes dull with loss and hopelessness, and her lips, once usually set in a large smile all of the time, had been pulled down by stress and grief.