Don't let go

A NaLu Fairy Tail fanfic
Set right after their battle with Avatar and just before they arrived at Magnolia.
Disclaimer: Fairy Tail does not belong to me.

It's been a year since she last saw him. The same toothy grin, the same rowdy attitude… nothing seemed to change. Same old Natsu. As she watched him talk with Wendy, she breathed in deeply, gritting her teeth against the pain gripping her heart.

One year… one whole year of being alone. One year ever since she lost Aquarius. One year since the guild disbanded… and one year since he decided go and leave without saying goodbye. Now he's back and saying they'll bring back Fairy Tail. In all honesty, she really was happy to see him. She didn't expect that she would miss him and Happy to this extent. Happy when he said that they would bring Fairy Tail back, bring THEIR family back… however… seeing him… she sighed again, before looking up at the orange sunset.

"Are you OK, Lucy?"

Looking at the blue exceed floating beside her, she smiled at him and ruffled his soft coat. Hiding the pain in her heart.

"I'm ok Happy."

"But you seem sad… are you hungry?"

At his words, she couldn't help but sweatdrop. "I'm not hungry, cat." Giving him a small grin and then flicking his forehead affectionately, earning a slight yowl from him as he held his paws on his head.

"Awww! Natsuuu! Lushy is being mean again!"

Me? Mean? What the?!

Before she could say anything, she heard laughter coming from the fire dragon slayer as Happy flew and hid behind his pink head.

"Lucy is always mean." Came the laughing retort from the said dragon slayer.

What the? "Oi! Take that back!" She screamed as she stomped towards them, intending to kick him to the next dimension, only to stop at Wendy and Carla's joined laughter. Glaring at the fire dragon slayer, she merely glared at them before rolling her eyes and walked onwards ahead of them, Wendy and Carla hurrying to match her strides.

Natsu smiled as he looked at the blonde walking ahead of them… he really did miss his partner. One year of being away from her, his family. He wanted to show them how strong he had become only to find out that the guild had disbanded. He continued to watch the celestial mage in front of him… he had heard her sigh and knew that their separation hurt the girl… she hid it behind a smile but he could hear it in her voice and see it in her eyes. Her actions spoke how much Fairy Tail meant to her, remembering the board where she took notes where almost all of their guildmates where last seen and what they had been doing.

He didn't have the chance to talk to her yet… from the time they met in Crocus, it was one adventure to another, and at night, she would immediately roll over and go to sleep… it was as if she was avoiding him.

Looking up ahead, he knew that they were nearing Magnolia and with every step, Lucy seemed to withdraw into herself more and more. His eyes widened when he saw Lucy's eyes as she spoke with Wendy. She was smiling, however, her chocolate orbs spelled a wealth of pain.

He frowned before turning to his partner. "Hey, Happy." at his words the blue cat turned his eyes on him, "Why don't you go ahead with Wendy and Carla?" The blue exceed merely smiled before going on ahead to the sky dragon slayer and her exceed. Natsu then took their spot beside his partner.

"We're close to Magnolia now… we'll soon see everyone!" Grinning at his partner, Natsu raised both arms and stretched.

Lucy merely looked at him and smiled softly before turning to look at their friends ahead of them.

Natsu sighed and lowered his arms, walking closer to blonde haired mage.

"Luce…"

Blinking at her partner's serious tone, she turned her head to look at him, "I'm sorry…"

Breath stopping at his words, Lucy faltered in her steps as well… making the dragon slayer hold her arms for support. Biting her tongue, she tried to keep the hurt inside her in check.

"It's ok Natsu. I understand… you don't need to say anything…" came the soft whisper. She tried to pull her arm away from his hands only to find his grip tightening. Blinking in surprise, she turned to look at him. "What the… Natsu?"

"It's not ok. You're hurt… I can see that… and I'm the reason for it."

Lucy bowed her head at his first words, hands tightening into fists as he spoke. At his words something in her snapped. She tried to pull her arms away from him, eyes blazing.

"Then why bring it up? Do even know how it was?" she hissed, "You left me! With just a freaking NOTE! You didn't even think to tell it to me straight out… to top it all of, the master disbanded the guild."

Breathing harshly, Lucy swiped the tears that fell from her eyes as his hands dropped from her shoulders. "You left me! We were supposed to be partners… but you left me! You had Happy with you, everyone had someone even when the guild disbanded… but I didn't! You all left me alone!"

Natsu gritted his teeth at her words, hands clenching into fists as her voice rose at each point. He felt Wendy and the others stop and stare at them, heard the little girl's soft worried voice as she called out to the celestial mage only to stop as Carla urged them to move on, throwing him a slight nod. Understanding that this was his problem to fix. He hated it when he saw his guildmates suffer or cry… but it was Lucy's tears he never wanted to see. Lifting his hands to her, Natsu bit the inside of his cheek as she stepped back away from his reach, shoulders heaving as she sobbed.

"Luce…."

"You left me… why did you leave me…"

Unable to stand her pain any longer, Natsu stepped forward and enveloped her in his arms regardless of her struggles to move away from him. Tightening his embrace on her, he lowered his face to her neck, breathing in her scent. "I'm sorry…"

Lucy tried to wriggle out of his tight embrace to no avail, the dragon slayer enveloped her frame closer to his. "I didn't want you to get hurt. I thought you'd be ok since everyone else would be there. I knew they'd take care of you… I didn't know that the master disbanded the guild, if I had only known, I'd have brought you with me."

Hands clutching his vest, Lucy sobbed as she pressed her face to his neck. "Why didn't you tell me up front… how could you just walk away and leave me that note?"

Natsu sighed, "I couldn't… I knew that if I said goodbye to you… I probably would have brought you along with me."

"I wouldn't have minded…. you know that…."

"I know. That's why I didn't. I needed you to be safe and happy while I trained to get strong… I needed to get stronger so I can kill Acnologia… for Igneel…" he lifted his head from her neck and cupped his hand to her chin, raising her face to meet his. "I needed you safe."

Lowering his head to hers, Natsu let his arms go around her. "I've lost Igneel… I won't be able to take it if I lost you as well… I still get nightmares with what happened to future Lucy. I keep on thinking, what if it was you?" What if I lost you? Shuddering at the dark memory, his hold unconsciously tightening around the blonde girl. "That's why I left without saying goodbye…"

At his words, fresh tears fell from her as she sobbed and wrapped her arms around him as well. All of them had scars from their battles, the worst was with Tartaros. All dragon slayers found their parents, only to loose them for good, with Natsu, it was to see his father fall before the same dragon that nearly obliterated them eight years ago. Gray had lost his father and she had lost one of her precious friends. "It hurt so much that you left me…"

The fire dragon slayer sighed, "I know… it was hard for me and Happy… you know, Happy whined about it for almost 2 weeks after we left you…"

Lucy couldn't help the choked laughter that escaped her at his words. Natsu grinned ruefully, "I really missed you, Lucy…"

"I missed you too…" came the soft reluctant reply

Wiping the tears from her face, Natsu grinned at her, "I promise I won't leave you again… we're a team. You, Happy and me. We stick together from now on."

"I'll hold you to that. I'll kick your ass so hard the next time you do that." came the soft mumble.

Natsu laughed out loud at her words before crushing her into his tight embrace.

"Come on… Wendy and the others are probably worried about you…"

Nodding in ascent, Lucy gripped his hand tightly as he dragged her to their friends.

Don't ever let go.

AN: wheee! after 3 years, I've finally had the chance to write again… I'm overflowing with the fluffiness of NaLu and just had to write something down. Also this is my first time here in tumblr and I'm getting fired up with all the NaLu feels I'm getting here!

So, I hope you enjoyed this story. I'll be posting this on my account, under my penname - Aoi mizu no tenshi

Let me know about your feedback on how this story went and what I could do to improve on it. If you have any requests, I'll try to do that as well!