Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

In a cottage that looked very proudly hand-built around a tree, a pink-headed fire mage was rummaging around in the early morning. Dressed in a black vest with gold trim, beige pants, and his white scarf, he stepped around his messy house with practiced ease as he sniffed and searched about.

Natsu Dragneel scrunched his nose as he lifted a towel with an odd green stain on it.

‘Nope. Not that.’

He dropped it, and his eyes landed on his dresser, spilling over with stuffed-in clothes. He rifled through it, tossing coats, shirts, and pants over his shoulder.

Natsu scratched the back of his head. It wasn’t here, either.

“Hey!” came a muffled shout, and Natsu looked over his shoulder to the pile of clothes he had created on the floor. Sentient clothes?

A blue tail swished from underneath them, and the lump of clothes began writhing. Natsu chuckled and shuffled the garments around to reveal a blue cat, looking none-too happy—which was ironic, because his name was—

“Happy,” Natsu smirked, “What’re ya doin’, rollin’ around in my stuff? Thought you grew outta that years ago.”

Happy huffed and pulled a sock from off his head. “Seriously? You’re the one who buried me.”

Natsu scoffed and stepped around the cat. He lifted the cushions on one of his sofas, scanning the horrendous collection of crumbs, coins, and cat hair. Not here, either.

“You ready to go?” Happy asked as he wrapped up a fish in his green kerchief. He tied it around his neck, a makeshift backpack covering up a tattoo of the same color on his back.

Natsu tossed the cushions back onto the couch; they landed very much not in the spot they belonged in. He’d get them later. His olive eyes scanned the floor for the umpteenth time, his pupils turning to reptilian slits as his gaze became intense, taking in details and carvings and colors that ran through his mind like a flipping notepad.

‘Not that. Not that, either. Not that, not thatnotthatnotthat—'

He sighed and let his eyes relax again, feeling that razor-sharp focus ebb away as Happy sprouted white, angelic wings and fluttered up to his shoulder. “Still can’t find it?” The cat asked.

“Not yet,” Natsu said, and made for the door.

Maybe it was at the guildhall.

“Here’s the thing, Lucy, if we go on this one, then you’ll have rent money for four months instead of one,” Natsu explained. He tapped the flyer on the job board with the most serious-business face he could muster.

“And if we go on this one, we won’t get eaten by a…” Lucy squinted. “’Bear shark’? That doesn’t sound real. What even is that?”

“Somethin’ cool, I bet!” Natsu grinned, and Lucy’s eyebrow twitched.

The celestial mage was dressed in her white vest with navy trim and matching skirt. Her hair was half-pulled up in a side ponytail—which she looked ready to rip out, Natsu thought.

“I’m not going on a wild goose chase for some made-up monster half-way across the country!” Like a knife to its chest, Lucy jabbed a finger into another job quest, and the paper crinkled painfully as she tapped it with each word. “We’re doing this one.”

Natsu glanced back at the job board. His eyes roved across the flyers, sifting through jobs of less interest. He had already done his daily once-over for anything mentioning dragons, wyverns or even large lizards, but, with a pang of disappointment he should be used to, there was nothing. Just cool bear-sharks that he also wasn’t going to find.

He tilted his head back and gave a tremendous groan. “Fi—ne,” he whined, “But I’m picking the next one.”

Lucy began pulling the flyer from the board as Natsu crossed his arms and muttered to himself. Something glinted in his peripheral vision. He spotted something under a chair at one of the guildhall tables, and his heart soared. Was that it?

He darted forward, tipping the chair over and snatching up the shiny object that had caught his eye. As he crouched, he turned it over in his hand and sighed. Just a lousy Jewel. He tossed it over his shoulder, and the coin chimed as it knocked onto the wooden floor.

“What the hell, Natsu?”

Natsu blinked and looked to see an affronted-looking Jet sprawled out on the floor next to the chair that had clattered over. The speedy mage got up and brushed himself off.

“You gotta problem?”

Natsu blinked dumbly. “No. What, were you takin’ a nap down there, or somethin’?”

Levy chuckled from behind her book as she shared a glance with Lucy, who was palming her forehead.

Jet gaped, “Are you dense? You knocked over my chair—while I was still in it!”

Natsu glanced at the chair and then to Jet, crossing his arms in disinterest. “Didn’t notice, I guess.”

Jet squawked in offense, but Natsu was already walking away, eyes scanning his guildmates and the things on their tables. Maybe his friends had his missing item. He spotted Happy chatting up Carla and Pantherlily. Juvia was eyeing Gray from across the room. Cana was a barrel deep in liquor. Nothing he saw fit what he was looking for; books, mugs, plates of food, it was all—

Oh, he could go for some lunch. He jerked abruptly in the direction of the bar, catching a glimpse of drumsticks that Gajeel was wolfing down, and his stomach rumbled enviously.

“So… guess we’re going after lunch, then?” Lucy asked from behind him, an amused smirk on her face.

Natsu’s step faltered, and he stared at her with blank olive eyes.

Lucy’s eye twitched. “Don’t you dare—”

“Goin’ where?”

Lucy held up the job flyer with all the calmness she could muster—which wasn’t much—and wiggled it pointedly. It was for a missing family heirloom—a diamond-studded sunflower pendant—in Hargeon. Simple. Straight-forward. Boring.

“Oh, yeah! Yeah, after lunch, sure,” Natsu grinned, and Lucy sighed exasperatedly.

“You’re more distractable than usual today,” she muttered, folding up the paper as she followed Natsu to the bar. He began flagging Mira down. “If someone comes at us with a laser pointer, we’re screwed.”

Natsu perked up at that, pausing with his hand in the air. “They have laser magic? Like Sting? He’s gonna be so mad when I tell him, heh.”

Lucy just closed her eyes with her hands on her temples.

Natsu was like a bloodhound unleashed.

They had met with their client and been given a brief description of two suspects—they hadn’t left anything behind, but Natsu had caught their scent in the targeted jewelry shop. It hadn’t been hard. They smelled like they hadn’t showered in a while.

When he realized he had their trail, excitement zipped through him, and he cracked his knuckles. They were still in the town. Amateurs.

So Natsu led Lucy and Happy down the streets of Hargeon, reminiscing about this little town the three of them had first met in. Natsu had been in search of Igneel, and Lucy… well, he couldn’t really remember what she had been doing here, but she had ended up at Fairy Tail, and that’s all that mattered.

As they walked, he heard Lucy and Happy arguing about whether snatching fish from boats was really considered stealing—since, really, the fishermen stole them from the water first—and he smiled. He glanced back to them, to his best friends in Earthland, the people he would—and has—fought tooth and nail to protect. Lucy began lecturing Happy on all the ways she would use him as bait to replace any stolen fish. He watched them, moving forward with his nose sniffing half-heartedly, eyes lingering on Lucy, on the guild mark on her hand, which was resting on her hip, on her short navy skirt over her thighs—

Tung!

Natsu rubbed his head and stared at the lamppost he had run into. Lucy and Happy’s conversation thoroughly interrupted, their mouths twisted oddly to cover a smile.

Happy let a chuckle slip. “Did you just run into—”

“C’mon, it’s this way,” Natsu said quickly, unaware of the red circle quickly forming on his forehead.

The cobblestone underneath their feet turned to sun bleached piers. Oceanwater and fish were on Natsu’s tongue, muddling the scents he was looking for in the marina. Boats rocked and creaked around them, and he tried looking at them as little as possible as nausea threatened to stir in his belly.

“Maybe they took off already,” Lucy said, crossing her arms. “It has been a few days. If they’re smart, they would have skipped town by now.”

“If they did, they just left,” Natsu said, turning his nose up and sniffing the air. He walked down the dock, scanning boats that bumped shoulders with each other. There were a few fishermen working in their vessels, but otherwise no characters of interest.

A shadow passed over Natsu, a brief streak of shade, and his head snapped up to see a massive wingspan fly right past the sun.

A surge of delight surged through him and straight to his heart, and before he knew it, he was moving. He bolted forward, ignoring Lucy’s surprised noise as he leapt clear over a boat and onto the next dock with a flat thunk of his sandals.

He opened his mouth to shout, but the noise died in his throat. The shadow angled into a descent. It glided to land further down the marina, beating its wings to slow its landing.

Oh.

“Natsu, what is it?” Lucy asked from the other dock, a hand on the whip on her belt.

Natsu blinked and tried to shake off his disappointment. He looked at the pelican again, then back to the sky. It had been bird wings. Not leathery, crimson scaled ones. “Nothin’. It was closer than I thought it was.”

Lucy and Happy searched the sky, too, confused. Lucy watched as Natsu stared at a group of pelicans soaring in the distance. She huffed, and much like a mother redirecting a toddler, said, “We can bird watch later. Focus, Natsu.”

Natsu stared blankly for a moment. Focus on…?

“Oh, yeah!” Natsu said, bopping his red forehead with a palm. He turned on his heel and began sniffing the air again, ignoring Lucy’s exasperated sigh.

“What is up with you today?” Lucy asked from the other dock, passing by a boat to keep her eyes on the dragonslayer. Happy was staring intently at the water as he walked, tail twitching at the sight of little minnows that darted around below the surface.

“What’d’ya mean?” Natsu asked absently. Something sour was wafting through the air, carried by the sea breeze. Lucy began talking again, but low chatter caught his sensitive ears, and they twitched to listen. Like a fishing net, Lucy’s high voice passed right through him while the lower baritones of two others caught his attention.

Natsu’s feet carried him to a white and red rusting fishing boat with an enclosed cockpit as the voices grew louder.

“—to me, Natsu?”

Natsu swiveled his head around. Happy was setting Lucy gently on the dock behind him, wings fluttering.

“What?”

“This is what I mean,” Lucy huffed, “You’ve been spacey all day. You’re barely hearing anything I—”

“Hold on, Luce, you’re too loud,” Natsu interrupted with a hand up. Lucy’s face twisted into frustration, and she opened her mouth right back up for some reason, but Natsu turned to the fishing boat again. He crouched low, and Lucy’s words never left her lips. The voices were quiet, now, probably spooked by all of Lucy’s yapping.

The smell of body odor and cigarettes finally made his nose twitch, and he grinned. Bingo.

“Found ya!” He cackled, and roundhouse kicked the boat, a satisfying tang ringing out with two cries of alarm. Two forms burst out from the cockpit, one bulky and the other lanky—that one was hauling a jingling burlap sack. They scrambled onto the dock, and as soon as their shoes touched the wood, Natsu sprung forward with a fist cocked.

He swung—and hit nothing but air. He made a confused noise as his momentum carried him forward and right over the edge of the dock.

Greenish water rushed up his nose with a giant splash, and he resurfaced coughing and spluttering. Happy was above him instantly, helping to haul him out of the water. Algae clung to his face and seaweed hung from his hair.

“You okay?” Happy asked. “You missed ‘em!”

Natsu wiped his face with a ‘yuck!’ and saw Lucy bolting after the bandits. He didn’t answer Happy’s question as his feet hit the dock and he took off after them, slinging droplets of ocean water and bits of algae. They left the wooden docks, hitting cobblestone streets once more.

Something wasn’t right. Natsu didn’t miss!

As he caught up to them, he inhaled deeply, and the air grew dense with heat and magic. He prepared to launch a roaring stream of fire that would not miss.

Then Natsu blinked, and the bandits disappeared. He and Lucy skidded to a stop, and he swallowed down the fire building in his belly. Flames tickled his lips as he exhaled, quelling the surge of power within him, for now. It was like holding back a massive sneeze—it made him itchy.

“Did they just vanish into thin air?” Lucy asked, whipping her head around.

“Maybe they teleported, or something,” Happy said.

Natsu lifted his nose to the air, ignoring the way his fire poked and prodded within him to come out. His hands twitched to light themselves up, and he let flames dance around his fingers. It helped to relieve that itchy feeling.

“Their scents are still pointing back to—” They all turned their heads back towards the docks to see the bandits rushing from the boat like it was the first time they had left it.

“Here they come again!” Happy exclaimed.

“How’d they do that?” Lucy asked, a hand already on her whip again.

Natsu’s fire rushed up his arms like a phoenix set free, and he sprung forward. The bandits came off the main stretch of the dock, and then split. He sensed magic in both, but one of them dwarfed the other, like a flashlight next to a lighthouse.

‘Or a laser,’ Natsu thought with a grin.

“I call the big one!” Natsu hollered and sprung after the lumbering figure.

Lucy shouted an affirmation and bolted after the lankier one with the burlap sack.

Excitement swelled in Natsu again as he gave chase. His pupils became reptilian slits, and his vision narrowed right to his target. A growl ran up his throat unbidden, turning to a rumbling chuckle as his sandals slapped the street.

He loved his job.

“Get back here!” Lucy fished a key from her belt as she ran. Her boots pounded the cobblestone beneath her feet, an odd cocktail of seawater, fish, and perfumes from the nearby shops filling her nose. Ocean colored storefronts flew past her, and afternoon shoppers darted out of the way as she barreled through the street.

Her leggy target leapt, landing on an awning over a bakery’s doorway, and vaulted onto the roof. Lucy scoffed in disbelief. ‘Seriously?!’

She huffed and swung her key in a cross formation. “Open! Gate of the Archer! Sagittarius!”

With a mighty bell toll and a golden flash, a tall man in a horse costume shimmered into existence.

“Reporting for duty!” The celestial spirit greeted with a salute.

Lucy pointed up to the roof as she ran. Her spirit fell into step beside her. “Can you pin that guy down?”

“Absolutely!” Sagittarius nodded and leapt up to give chase. Lucy found a precarious stack of crates in an alleyway and scrambled up them to the roof. It took longer than she would have liked to admit, but she hauled herself up with a grunt.

She sprinted forward and saw Sagittarius knocking arrows onto his bow as he jumped to the next rooftop. He loosed them, and the bandit hit a chimney with a strained yelp, pinned like a scarecrow by his clothes.

Lucy sprung to their roof and then doubled over with her hands on her knees, panting. What a long chase.

“The criminal has been apprehended, Lucy,” Sagittarius reported with another salute, stiff-straight.

“Thank you, Sagittarius,” Lucy said, and snatched up the large sack the guy had been carrying. It was filled with jewelry from one of the local shops; price tags were still tied to the ornate creations. The criminal squirmed the best he could whilst pinned by his shoulders and waist. One arrow had narrowly missed the middle seam of his pants, which the guy stared down at with wide eyes.

“You stupid bitch!” The guy snarled, brown eyes glaring daggers. He had matted black hair, and missing teeth. “When my partner gets a hold of you, he’ll—”

There was a thud behind Lucy. “What, this guy?”

Lucy turned to see Happy and Natsu with a bright, cocky grin, toting a large man over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He was knocked out, and smoking. The scarred bandit Lucy had caught gasped.

“I don’t think he’ll be doing anything anytime soon,” Natsu chuckled, and dumped the man onto the roof. He crossed his arms, and sent Lucy a look. “So, did you get the one that had lasers, or what?”

Lucy’s eyebrow twitched. “They didn’t have—oh, forget it,” she said, and palmed her face. “Thank you, Sagittarius, we can take it from here. Let’s get these guys to the Rune Knights.”

The costumed spirit gave another mighty salute and disappeared with a shimmer of gold. Natsu sauntered up to the pinned bandit, scrutinizing the scrawny, dirty man. He glanced back to Lucy, olive eyes flitting down her form—checking for injuries, maybe—before spying the bag of jewelry and looking back to the thief.

“Nice try, I guess,” Natsu said, and began ripping the arrows out of the wall with ease, freeing the man’s limbs once again. Once his arm was loose, he immediately swung at the fire mage, who ducked with ease. Natsu grabbed his wrist and twisted it to the side, raising his own fist as it lit up in flames.

“I was hopin’ you’d try that.” Natsu smiled like a shark, and ripped the guy off the wall, whamming his fist right into his stomach. He crumpled to his knees. “That’s for stealin’.”

The man wheezed but staggered back to his feet with a grunt, a hand swiping behind his own back. He launched himself at Natsu with a dagger, but the fire mage caught his arm again before cracking him across the jaw hard. Lucy winced as the bandit fell to the ground, unconscious.

“K.O.!” Happy cheered.

“And that’s for callin’ Lucy a bad name,” Natsu said, and plucked the slack-jawed guy back up by the collar of his shirt.

Lucy blinked and heat creeped into her cheeks. She glanced away with a small smile. “Thanks, Natsu.”

Natsu grinned in that way he did, lighting up everything in a mile’s radius, and he hauled the scrawny bandit over to the larger one. As Lucy sifted through the bag of jewelry, her brows furrowed. Something was missing.

“The pendant isn’t here,” Lucy reported, and Natsu cocked an eyebrow. The dragonslayer began patting the two men down, pulling their belongings from their pockets: cigarettes, a knife, a couple silver rings, a small bracelet, and—“That’s it!”

A necklace glittering with diamonds sporting a large golden flower in the center hung from Natsu’s fingers. Light glinted off it and into Natsu’s eyes like star fragments as he sniffed it.

“Wow,” Lucy breathed, and came to examine it for herself, the bag of jewelry hanging limply next to her. “It’s gotta be this one. It’s beautiful.”

It was then that she heard Natsu was muttering to himself. “…not this, either…”

“It’s not?” Lucy asked and fished the job posting from where she had tucked it in her boot. A sketch of the pendant was on the front—a necklace studded with diamonds and what looked to be a sunflower in the middle. “Sure looks like it.”

Natsu’s head snapped up to her. “Hm? Oh, yeah, this is the one we were lookin’ for. Smells like the jeweler and everything.”

Lucy rolled her eyes. He had gotten distracted again, it seemed. He was so weird today.

Natsu handed it over, and Lucy stuffed it carefully into the bag after allowing herself to gawk at it. She held her hand out for the rest of the jewelry Natsu had pilfered from their marks—but he was already impossibly hauling the two men over his shoulders. He grunted as he stood, arms curled up over them as their heads slumped over limply, slack jawed.

“Ready?” He asked, and Lucy nodded, the other jewelry forgotten as she turned to lead the way.

Sometimes it was easy to forget that Natsu had the strength to lift ten men, if he wanted to.

They made their way off the roof and started for the Rune Knight’s station. As they walked, they chatted idly, making plans to return home and discussing that, yes, they were definitely taking the train, no matter how loudly Natsu moaned about it.

“Complain all you want. You gotta admit, you had fun today,” Lucy chided, and Natsu scoffed.

“Would’a had more fun huntin’ a Bear Shark. I was promised lasers.”

“You’re really hung up on that, huh?” Happy chuckled. To Lucy, he added, “He knocked the big one out when he said all he had was some kinda dumb illusion magic.”

“That must be how they almost got away earlier. They made clones,” Lucy said, glancing at the two men draped over the dragonslayer. She poked the bigger one’s forehead. Yep. Definitely real.

They walked on, and Happy pleaded to make a pit stop by the fish market Hargeon was known for before heading home. As Lucy explained all the reasons taking raw fish on a train was a bad idea, Natsu faltered in his step, cocking his head oddly as he stared down the street.

“What the hell is that?”

Lucy followed his gaze and saw some sort of… creature writhing on the ground. It had fins and yet it was furry, large and rotund like—

“A Bear Shark?!”

“No way!” Natsu said.

Wait a second… Lucy’s head whipped to the bandits over Natsu’s shoulders, eyeing the larger one again as Natsu began speaking of plans to catch the beast.

The bearded bandit’s dark eyes blinked open, and Lucy ‘eep!’ed.

The larger bandit twisted, knocking the pink-headed mage off balance and sending he and his unconscious partner to the ground in a heap of limbs. In a swift motion, the larger man grabbed a fistful of Natsu’s hair before slamming his face into the cobblestone street; the road cracked and sent pebbles shooting to the side.

“Natsu!” Lucy exclaimed and was already reaching for her keys. Taurus would be able to muscle this guy back down—

Flames erupted from Natsu’s form, and the criminal howled in pain, grabbing his unconscious partner and lumbering away. He ran right towards Lucy, and she abandoned her key in order to grip onto the man’s shoulder. He whirled, and stars exploded in Lucy’s vision when his elbow slammed into her nose. She cried out, stumbling backwards, dropping the bag of jewels and cupping her face—blood was already seeping through her fingers.

What Lucy thought could have only been a meteor shot past her, ramming into the larger bandit and his unaware accomplice with a whirlwind of flame. Natsu took them both to the ground, snarling as he wrestled the man down.

“Are you okay, Lucy?” Happy asked, hovering next to her, eyes wide as blood dribbled to the concrete from Lucy’s chin.

Lucy opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted as Natsu’s voice thundered out.

“You wanna take cheap shots? I can throw those, too, ya bastard!” He roared, and yanked the man back up by his shirt. Flames ate holes into fabric as the man howled in pain, writhing as he tried to pull away. Lucy realized that Natsu’s forehead was bleeding, dripping into his eye and off his jaw. The bandit’s skin was sizzling, blistering as Natsu’s fire ripped into him angrily.

Natsu grabbed the guy’s head and rammed his knee into his face—blood shot from his mouth, and a tooth clattered along with him to the ground. Another K.O.

Natsu’s fire snuffed itself out with a whoosh, and the mage turned to Lucy, face still twisted in rage. He saw the blood running from beneath her hands, and his expression changed into something more worried. He rushed up to her.

“You okay, Luce? Sorry about that; dunno how he got the drop on me,” He said, and his hands raised gingerly, twitching in the air over hers.

Lucy’s nose pounded and stung and was making her eyes water. She blinked her tears away. “Yeah, m’okay,” she said from behind her hands.

“Lemme see.” Lucy let him nudge her hands away to reveal the already bruising bridge of her nose.

“Dammit,” Natsu grunted, and his fingers brushed either side of her cheeks as he angled his head to get a better look. He was so close. Heat flushed Lucy’s face, adding to the blooming red on her nose. He gently prodded it, and she flinched with a hiss of pain. He pulled away, sighing. “Doesn’t look broken, at least. We can ask Wendy to take a look when we get back, okay?”

Lucy nodded, wiping the blood from her mouth and tilting her head back to try and stave the trickle of crimson running down her face. Natsu blinked in realization and shucked off his vest before handing it over. “Here, this’ll work for now,” he said.

“Are you sure?”

“C’mon, Luce, you’re drippin’ everywhere,” he snapped impatiently, using his other arm to wipe at the blood in his eye. It smeared across his skin like paint; the corner of his bangs was matted down awkwardly, slick and dark. She huffed and snatched the black and gold-trimmed vest from his hands, pressing it to her nose and feeling it dampen immediately.

“Fine, but let me look at that,” Lucy said, voice muffled somewhat from Natsu’s vest as she gestured to his face. The garment smelled like a campfire.

Natsu waved her away with assurances that he was fine, and his head swiveled around, nose sniffing the air. He walked a few paces to the unconscious bandits before turning on his heel and starting back in the direction they had been heading. His eye caught the railing on the edge of the street; on the other side, it gave way to the ocean. He leaned over it, staring intently at the water below. It rippled as drops of blood blotted its murky surface.

Lucy’s eye twitched. “You’d better not be looking for—”

“Y’think that Bear Sharks can swim? Makes sense, right? Maybe it jumped over,” Natsu wondered aloud, and Lucy rolled her eyes with a sigh.

“Lucy, don’t pass out!” Happy shouted, waving frantically.

“I’m not passing out!” Lucy snapped, stomping her foot. Natsu looked back over his shoulder. Lucy pointed to the smoking heap that was the two bandits. With all the patience she could muster with a pounding nose, she said, “Illusion magic, remember? He must’ve heard us talking earlier.”

Natsu’s mouth formed a small ‘o.’ He winced, then, and palmed his forehead carefully; his hand came away red. Natsu wrapped his scarf around his head like a bandanna to staunch the bleeding—it wasn’t something he did lightly. Lucy’s face crinkled in concern. Maybe he’d been hit harder than he was letting on. The pristine fabric began to blush over the wound on Natsu’s head.

His eyes found her and the blood on her hands again. He frowned.

“Alright,” he said, tightening the knot of his scarf as he walked towards the bandits again. “Let’s get these bozos taken care of and get some grub. M’starvin’.”

Natsu hauled the two men up onto his shoulders again, and the trio pressed on. She offered to summon Taurus to lighten his load, but he assured her that he had it, this time. Lucy watched him carefully for any falter in his step, for any wince of pain. All she noticed was that Natsu didn’t get distracted again after that.

He was quieter than usual as they turned in the criminals. He seemed to endure rather than enjoy the thanks from the shop owner as they returned the stolen items and, most importantly, the family heirloom.

After they had dinner, Natsu stopped abruptly to stare into a bookshop window. Intrigued, Lucy inched over to see a display of children’s books, one of which was painted with a bright red dragon. Happy and Lucy shared a glance. The look in his eyes confirmed her own suspicions—it wasn’t just her. Natsu was acting weird.

Lucy cleared her throat. “You okay, Natsu?”

Natsu blinked and gave her a puzzled look. “Huh? Yeah, why?” He began walking again, unbothered as normal.

“You just seem… distracted today,” Lucy said.

“Yeah, Natsu, you been thinking too hard again?” Happy asked.

Natsu made an offended noise that made Happy laugh. The two began to bicker as they walked, but Lucy lingered behind them. She glanced at the dragon book again. Natsu had looked sad when he was staring at it. It made her heart ache.

Though Lucy had accepted the loss of her parents, at least she knew what had happened to them. Natsu was always looking, always hoping that one day he’d get a solid lead on Igneel so that they could be reunited. That had to be exhausting, sometimes, always keeping an eye and ear out for clues that would lead to his dragon. That’s what had led them to meet in this very city, after all.

As Lucy watched Natsu try and swat Happy out of the air playfully, she sighed.

Maybe he’d just had an off day.