Letters To Lucy

Epilogue

To everyone's curiosity, neither Natsu nor Lucy spoke about what happened. The only answer Natsu would give his guildmates when they asked what he did and why he was gone for so long was that Porlyusica refused to let him leave, on the thought that he would ruin all her hard work.

Lucy, on the other hand, was a different story. Like her rose-haired best friend, she didn't tell anyone anything that had happened while she was missing. In fact, she hardly spoke the entire week she's been back. The only person that she'd have a somewhat complete conversation with was Natsu, and even then it was hard for him to get her to talk.

But Fairy Tail had an idea. After all, two months of being Zeref's, the black wizard, prisoner was something no one except for those who witnessed it could understand.

But that wasn't the only reason Lucy never spoke of it. A big part was that she couldn't even remember most of her time as a prisoner. They were fragments inside her head that didn't make any sense, which scared Lucy even more than it would have if she had her full memory. Was the time so bad that her brain forcefully blocked the horrid memories? It wasn't unheard of, Lucy knew.

She stared at the neatly stacked letters on the desk near her bed, fingers aching to reach out and hold them close to her as she often did with her keys. But she refused to reread them another time and experience all the pain her dear family had felt while they wrote them.

She was relieved to be home again after all this time, even with her closet being filled to the brim with Natsu, Happy, and Plue plushies, courtesy of Juvia. Though, the original Plue Lucy had on her hospital bed with her was resting on her pillow. She gladly welcomed the comfort of her home, but it still didn't feel safe, not yet. Not until Natsu arrived.

Her gaze moved from the letters to the scar on the palm of her hand. A delicate finger traced over the fresh scar as the memory of where it came from resurfaced.

Lucy was being held in a cell once more. Her clothes, the same ones she was wearing the day she got taken, were tattered and covered in grime. In front of her Zeref glared down at her wickedly, his black eyes teetering to red before switching back, flickering like a dying light lacrima.

"How did you lead him here? What did you do?"

What she did? Lucy didn't know but she wasn't about to tell him that. She knew who was here, who would always come save her even if he had to walk through hell and back to get her. She knew that he was going to come bursting through like a ball of fire any second now and take her home. Natsu always did. And he doesn't like to give up easily.

A burning in Lucy's chest made her reel back. That was only part of the story to her scar. That was the day of her rescue, no doubt, but the entire memory was just fragments like the rest of them. There was a knee to her gut that had flown her halfway across the room like she weighed nothing more than a feather. That was when Natsu came in.

Dust and smoke collected in the air as it followed a loud explosion. In front of Lucy stood a great wall of fire, surrounding her in an almost protective nature as it shielded her from further abuse given by Zeref.

Natsu was her first thought.

She was right, he was here for her, and he came in just as she thought he would. Through the flames he walked, his scaled scarf whipping around behind him until the man she'd been waiting for stood in front of her.

"Natsu..." He didn't respond to her soft voice, instead dropping her celestial keys into her hands as he got into his familiar fighting stance. The fire died down and Zeref stood unscathed as he glanced at his brother.