Good Intentions

The Girl By The River

Disclaimer: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong to Hiro Mashima

Chapter 17: The Girl By The River

Natsu stood by the doors of the guild hall. He was waiting for Mira to come open the building so that he could choose a mission from the request board. Mira showed up about thirty minutes later.

"Good morning, Natsu.", Mira looked at Natsu with concern, "What are you doing here so early?"

"Good morning, Mira. I just want to pick a job request from the board. I don't really want to take a train so I figured I would get an early start."

Mira nodded and opened the door. Natsu headed straight to the request board.

She let herself into the building and immediately went into the kitchen to prepare Natsu some breakfast. By the time Natsu had picked his job she had a plate heaping with food ready for him.

"Sit and eat something.", she commanded.

Natsu shrugged and did as he was told. He handed her the request so she could write it down in her notebook and began to eat his food. Mira noticed that Natsu was once again wearing his scarf and it made her sad for him. They had been so happy yesterday, it really wasn't fair.

"Natsu, I'm really sorry this was done to you. You didn't deserve it."

Natsu tensed at her words but gave no other indication that he had heard.

'Are you doing this job to avoid Gray?", she asked carefully.

"No. He knows I'm leaving. We both need time to think things through."

"Natsu, don't ...", Mira sighed, not knowing what to say, "I liked the two of you together."

"I did too. I'll probably be gone for about a week."

Mira nodded and jotted it down, "Be safe."

Natsu thanked her for his breakfast and left. Mira continued with her preparations for the day.

Gray woke up with a start. Crap! He was going to be late for training. Natsu was going to be pissed. He got up quickly to get himself ready and that's when he remembered. There would be no training that morning. There would also not be any more team jobs. Team Natsu, for all effects and purposes, was no more.

When Erza had first suggested that they all work together he had been less than thrilled. After many jobs, though, he had come to really enjoy the closeness that they had carved for themselves. He had trusted all of them to have his back, had even trusted them with his past, and in the end it seemed that only Natsu had been worthy of that trust.

At the thought of Natsu, his heart felt heavy in his chest. He had a lot of thinking to do although he was fairly certain Natsu had already made up his mind. He knew the pink haired idiot well enough to know he had been saying goodbye last night, that the solo mission was more for him than for Natsu himself.