The Dragneel Affair | NaLu

Chapter 12 - The Affair and The Cat

The morning was cold, as it should have been. Lucy crawled out of her tent, wrapped up in a blanket. She couldn't stand laying in the stuffy tent anymore (Natsu snored). As she stood up, a letter that had gotten caught on the blanket fell onto the ground. She leaned down and picked it up. The letter was in Russian, but a second in Austrian. "I want you to continue working on it," the letter said. "Even if you aren't in the empire anymore." Lucy read the Austrian version of the letter.

"Dear Natsu,

"Winter seems to be coming to a stop. Which is nice, considering it's always coldest this time of year. I'm doing well. School started up again the other day, much to Zeref's disapproval. But, he's been trying to leave the house now, to occupy his thoughts.

"He did it again. He lived again, too. He's been staying in his room. I try to check to see if he smuggled anything in, but I can never find anything. He came out of his room on New Years. We had dinner together in front of the mantle. He read to me, like how he used to.

"There's been news that a thief has come back to St. Petersburg. Apparently he was one of the greatest thieves in Russian history. He stopped around twenty five years ago, around the same time mom and dad were married. I think he might be dad, but Zeref disagrees. He thinks that if it really were dad, he would come to Moscow and see us before robbing another city.

"I hope you are well, and that everyone else is too. I hope Makarov hasn't worn himself out yet. In all honesty, you have that affect on people. And I hope you are speaking Austrian as much as possible. I've been studying it to write this to you. You should continue working on it, even if you aren't in the empire anymore. It's a good skill.

Sincerely,

Wendy"

Lucy remembered Wendy being mentioned as Natsu's younger sister. She must've been pretty smart if she was able to write a letter in two languages. Lucy folded up the letter and grabbed her father's old coat, Natsu had kept it, it was warmer than his other one. She slid it on and headed into town, watching the sun slowly rise in the horizon.

• • •

Mothers and their children were walking along the road, heading into shops for first chances at the new products. Lucy crossed her arms over her chest as a gust of wind blew at her. She shivered and fixed one of the buttons on the coat. Not hearing the shushed gossip coming from two women standing next to her.

"Lucy? Lucy!" She heard her name being called. She turned around, expecting Natsu to be coming after her. To her surprise, it was actually her childhood enemy, Sting.

"Sting?" She asked. He was on horseback, dressed in an Austrian military uniform. He came up to her and smiled, which was a first time she'd ever seen that without him making fun of her.

"What are you doing in Pressburg?" He asked her. "Dressed like that, I should add," he gestured to the dirty, worn down blue dress she was wearing and the over-sized coat.

"You haven't heard? My family is dead," she said bluntly. Sting nodded.

"I knew that, I read it in the paper. . . Along with the fact that you're sleeping with a Russian." Lucy's cheeks turned red and she stammered.

"W-what? H-how did-?"

"Someone saw you kissing a Russian soldier at a ball." He looked up at the sky. The clouds were thick and heavy. Water started falling from the sky. He fixed his hat, "I should go. Or should I take you with?"

"No, go ahead. I doubt we're going to the same place." Sting nodded and waved goodbye. Lucy stood their, finally picking up the gossip from women walking by. She felt something crush inside her. She wasn't worthy of anything. She shouldn't have kissed him, they weren't even engaged. Now people saw her as a slut, sleeping with soldiers who missed the women at home. She stood on the sidewalk, letting the rain drench her clothes.

• • •

"Lucy! There you are!" Natsu ran towards her. Lucy was seated under an umbrella, trying to get her thoughts straight. She looked up at the sound of his voice. She stood up and was nearly crushed by the impact of him running into her and wrapping his arms around her. "I was so worried! I woke up and you were gone. Erza was freaking out, she thought you got annoyed with us and left," He rambled. Lucy looked through the windows of the buildings around her and noticed people watching her or whispering to their neighbor. She sighed. It didn't matter what they thought. The man standing next to her made her happy. He was worried about her. She wasn't a slut, she was simply a girl falling in love.

"Then Gray told me to go look for you and I didn't know where to start-,"

"Tell me about your family."

"What?"

"Your family, tell me about them." Lucy held his hand and lead him out of the city. He spent the entire ten minutes walking to the campsite talking about his two siblings.

• • •

They waited the rain out inside their tents. Apparently, Makarov had planned to leave today. But because of the rain, they would leave tomorrow morning. Lucy and Natsu were seated across from each other inside the tent. Lucy was sewing up a hole in her coat while Natsu played a card game. Lucy eyed him and the cards occasionally, helping him if he got stuck.

"The queen," she said. 

"What?"

"Set that card with the queen," she pointed at the red queen of hearts. He thanked her and continued on with his game. Lucy chuckled as she noticed Jellal complaining with Erza. Apparently Loki had kicked him out of the tent and he was stuck in the rain. Erza wouldn't let him in, she was trying to take a nap and needed all the space could get, and she wanted to watch him suffer. Lucy smiled as she finished stitching the hole. She tore the extra thread off with her teeth and started putting the small sewing kit back together.

"Lucy," Natsu whispered.

"Hm?"

"Cat," Natsu pointed outside the tent. Sitting right in front of the entrance, was a small, blue kitten. He watched Lucy, staring at her lap. Lucy held her hand out to the cat. The cat hesitated, but took the invitation. He stepped into the tent and crawled into Lucy's lap. Natsu watched as Lucy began petting the kitten.

"Two."

"What?"

"Put that card over that black two."

• • •

Author's Note:

So I've started my next fanfic already and for anyone who's just as excited as I am for the new Beauty and The Beast movie, you should be excited for my next fanfic. I'm working on a NaLu and Beauty and The Beast crossover! This will be my second Fairy Tail x Fairy Tale story and I really hope you will like it. I'm going to publish all of the chapters at once so there won't be any waiting on new parts. I feel like this would work better with Gajevy but I'm a NaLu writer and I've been wanting to do this crossover ever since I finished writing His Cinderella.

I have another fanfic in works also but it won't be up for a long time. I might start posting chapters this fall. It may sound like a long time but I started writing this story when I was 20 chapters into The Demon and The Princess, so it's not that crazy. The story will have a wizard school theme and it is heavily inspired by Carry On by Rainbow Rowell (one of my favorite authors). The big thing that is missing is the whole boy x boy theme so don't expect too much of that.

There will be a lot a filler chapters coming up, only because I know it would take a long time to travel from Vienna to Moscow on horseback. Once the traveling ends I know where the story will go from there, for now I'm quite honestly going with the flow. I also felt I needed to fit Happy in here somewhere so now we finally have Happy!! Yay!

Until I write again,

~ Lucy