Coming home

Chapter 1, natsu's arrival in Magnolia

His black sandals grasped the dirt road that lead to his home of magnolia. The wind blew in his pink hair while his blue cat partner happy quietly drifted in the air with his wings. "we're finally home, happy." spoke the eighteen year old. Happy looked to his friend with a smile as he overlooked natsu. His hair had grown just a bit after the last time they had cut it which was about 3 months ago. His body had gotten bulkier from all the muscles he had gained while training so he wore a large tan coat hooked only together by the fairy tail emblem made into a metal round button. there were no sleeves present but only thick large pieces of cloth that made him appear even bigger than he already was. He wore a slightly bigger pair of white trousers than he normally did, as he had muscles form there as well, while his torso and forearms were covered in white bandages, some red tinting them as his wounds didn't completely stop bleeding when he had left the infirmary where he had been. Nothing else covered his chest though. He had gained about 4 inches since he last saw his friends. when gaining strength you have to gain height as well, said his teacher for four of those 18 months. "natsu" he turned to his flying friend who swayed idly by him as he contemplated what had happened over the course of those 18 months to the guild. DId they grow stronger? Did they get any new members? How had they changed? Most importantly, how had lucy changed? He had wondered about the girl ever since they left. at times he thought he could hear her shrill screams echoing in the distance. He grabbed his weapon of choice, a katana, and flew out the entrance to their always moving temporary home for no one to be there. He dreamed about her as well, and most of them weren't good dreams. He saw her multiple times get caught or be held up in a fight she was bound to lose. he would cry her name but there was an invisible wall separating him and her. Those had been terrible, but not the worst. The worst ones were the ones where she didn't acknowledge him as a friend anymore. That had hurt him to the core. It had been right after he discovered he liked her than just more than a friend, too. he prayed that wouldn't happen, that she'd be happy and run into his arms, telling him she loved him the same way he did. He knew it wouldn't happen, because lucy couldn't feel that way about him could she? They were only partners in combat, nothing more right? He plagued himself with such thoughts as he inevitably had to come back to magnolia. Then he sprung an idea on happy. why don't they stay a bit longer and train. natsu gave reason to stay as he still hadn't build up as much muscle as he would've like to and that happy could travel a bit more since they still had lots of jewels to spend. in reality though, natsu only wanted to get away from magnolia and from lucy. Dammit why did she have to make his heart pump out of his chest? Why did the thought of her make him sigh in content as he longed to be near her? dammit, why, why did she make him feel this way?! it was so infuriating! "NATSU!" The volume of his friends voice snapped him out of his thoughts as he looked upon his friend with a look of surprise. Happy was practically emitting anger at natsu. a red aura clouding around him for just a split second. happy had become more angry as he had been separated with carla for too long. he wanted to get back to his white cat beauty but his idiotic partner wasn't even listening to him! "sorry happy, what did you ask?" he brushed off his friends reaction just slightly as he didn't want to make him even angrier but he also wanted to think about lucy and the guild again. "i said 'are you sure they won't be angry at us for not coming home when we were supposed to?' " " i don't think so, but you never know. They could've turned into a guild of people who hold grudges" natsu said as he stood up, realizing he had taken a seat on a cliff edge, dipping into the towns shops and apartment buildings where a certain blonde haired mage had resided the last time he saw her. "but i think if they're the same people i knew a year ago, then they'll just be happy to see us."
natsu smiled to his friend. happy had been wearing a small scowl with his cute puffy face but it now was laced with a smile as he agreed in silence with his friend. "so lets go, happy!"
natsu shouted to his friend childishly as he began running over and down to the dirt road street that lead into the side of town where fairytail was. Oh what surprises lie in store for these two when they come home.
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As they arrived at the spot where the new fairy tail should have been, there was just flat land, following out to the dark blue sea, the sky blending in with the sea. Happy and natsu looked around, confused by the sight. where was their guild? Had gramps built it somewhere else than where it had originally been before tartaros? They had asked near by neighbors if they had seen the guild hall for fairy tail but they merely laughed. still confused of where their guild had gone, they went to their house up on the hill. The wooden floor was swept clean. the floor was practically shining with the sparkle it had. It looked somewhat old though as a light cover of dust covered it. Natsu wondered who had cleaned the floor and swiped it of any stain or trace of mess they made. "natsu?"
a familiar high pitched bar maidens voice rang throughout the large space. Natsu at first had recognized it as his lovely lucy but alas it was mira. It wasn't like he wasn't excited to see one familiar face, but he had wished that face would belong to the person he loved.
"mira?"
natsu turned behind him, expecting to find the white haired girl in her regular attire but that had changed as well. She wore a black dress, similar to the one she wore during the grand magic games but it wasn't as tight and exposed as that dress. It was a loose flowing dress in the top and covered her arms in thick fabric, like she wanted to hide her body from sight. her hair was in a slightly different style as well Instead of having her bangs up in a small ponytail, they stayed loosely on her forehead. The rest of her hair though had followed opposite as she styled a high ponytail for her long silver white locks. "wow mira, you look... different." the words were caught in his mouth as he looked at the women who had always been at the bar attending to the guild members with a friendly cheerful attitude. She could kick some serious butt though if she wanted to. "i could say the same for you natsu." she replied, a smile on her face. "hey, do you know where the guild is?" natsu looked to his hammock for a bed as he asked the question. "i've been trying to find the guild but no one knew what fairytail was or they just laughed at me. can you tell me where...it....is?" the last part came out as a question as he looked to mira. her eyes started to tear up and natsu had no idea why. Crap, he thought i've made her upset. He wasn't going to be like that insensitive bastard gray when it came to the demon. He had changed quite a bit, but his feelings of idiocy towards the ice mage had stayed the same. "mira, what's wrong?" he asked. he stepped closer to her but she waved him off, telling him silently she was fine. "nothing. well, i couldn't say its nothing but the guild was disbanded after you left." as the word left miras mouth natsu froze in disbelief. Fairy tail? Disbanded? ridiculous! they had to be together still! this couldn't be happening! He had felt something dissolve on his skin on his right arm after they left, but he had been wearing a cloak and thought nothing of it. he slammed his fist into the side of his house, causing the board to split in two but surprisingly did not affect the house. mira jumped a bit at the forced attack against the wall. "dammit! how could this happen? Why did it happen?" natsu looked to mira for answers but she did not meet his gaze, instead deciding to look right outside his house where she stood. She crossed her arms, trying to cover herself even more than before and said "i don't know why natsu, but makarov decided to disband the guild, after all the hard work into making it a great and wonderful place to be." she gripped her clothes in anger at the thought. " He said everyone had gone their separate ways but that wasn't true! there were still so many people bonded to the guild like i was that didn't have anything else up their sleeve to go to."
she looked in thought for a moment at the ground before returning her gaze to natsu to see how he would react to the news. surprisingly, he was calm. never had he been this calm in a situation like this before when considering the guild. He really has grown up a lot in the past year mira thought. The calm though wasn't reassuring, but more scary than if he had outburst about his home. "so, do you know where some of the other guild members are then?" his question surprised the white mage a bit. She answered though with no hesitance. "well, most of them are at the new guild hall for a guild we just made. we decided that if makarov didn't want to run as a guild master anymore and discontinue fairytail that was fine, but we weren't going to stop being friends and stop the bonds we were to make if we were to disband the group." She turned around to look at the now setting sun. "i can show you it, if you like." "yes, please! i want to see everyone!" his smile was wide as he looked at her like he hadn't changed at all. She smiled at him. "well alright then" she took him and happy down from their high home to a place deep underground right near where his house was. torches guided them down the steep incline to the underground guild. The round ceiling was high as they walked down a flight of dirt stairs while they talked about what had happened in the year and a half he'd been gone. " everyone still looks somewhat the same, but man should you see erza. she's completely different from a year ago. She's become like another me!" natsu's jaw dropped at that. he tried to imagine the she devil as a lovely barmaid serving him his drink. he couldn't picture a big smile on the scarlet haired girls face or would rather not to. it was so out of the ordinary that he just couldn't stand it. "Also levy has changed somewhat, going from a smart sophisticated young woman to a lady crazy about metal, but still smart." it sounded like mira was trying to insult levy but playfully so natsu didn't ask, but he did have his questions about his partners appearance. had she changed as well? mira avoided lucy discussion at all as she talked about the new guild. had she grown apart too? was that why mira wasnt talking about her? He outruled that as he thought mira would be the first to tell how lucy was doing since she was the only one who knew he liked her. "so mira," natsu inquired. mira looked up to him with a questioning look, wondering what he could want to ask. "How's lucy doing?" her eyes widened in shock as she turned her head back to the path where they would come up to the wooden doors that lead to the hall in no time. Her eyes shrunk as sadness overcame her features but natsu could barely see this reaction. Her eyes began to wet with tears once again. "she's....." she began weakly but couldn't continue as a sob almost racked her body but she held it in, letting a heavy sigh escaped her instead. "she's changed natsu. she is probably the most changed out of all of us. she became... distant after you left. She still came around the guild though. i dont know if she'll be there today, she did go on a s-class mission the other day." natsu froze at mira's chosen words. he had been surprised a bit to hear his lucy had changed but this was even bigger than that. Lucy going on a s-class mission? That was impossible! sure the lucy he knew was strong but not that strong! as he started to accept that fact though, he wondered then if lucy would be willing to go on dangerous missions with him now. They could conquer the evil villains and then have enough time for the two of them alone for him to tell her his feelings of love for her. he shook the thought from his head. geez, he was such a lovestruck guy. who could've imagined that the great natsu dragneel would be turned to mush by a single blonde haired beauty? he definitely couldn't have. They finally arrived at the doors to the guild hall. what awaited him beyond these doors? New faces? old faces? he could never tell until he opened them. "well, they're all waiting behind that door, for you to come home." said mira, trying to encourage him to go inside and see them. for some reason though he just couldn't open the door, scared of something that his overactive brain had started conjuring the day he realized he'd have to return home. He nodded his head absentmindedly as his brain thought a mile a minute. Suddenly though his thoughts disintegrated. Of the thoughts one was left and it had been the one to clear his mind from this crazy mind exercise of opening the damn door. He would get to see lucy again. It didn't matter if she had changed her clothes or dyed her hair, she was going to be the same lucy he knew when he had left on the inside. The thing that made him love her was going to be there right? it didn't just disappear into the fog of her person he was sure. He was wondering himself what made him love her. Did anyone know what made a person love another in a romantic way? not to his knowledge, but they still got together. Maybe it was the way she smiled, or the way she was always so positive and practically shining with those locks of blonde. That is what pushed him to put a hand on one of the doors and with ease slide it open. Who knows what awaited him on the other side, but hopefully he at least knew one of those possibilities.