This is what happens when you stay up late reading suicide and tragedy fics about Lucy crying over NaLi.

It was inevitable, really. And it was ridiculous. But in her defense, she should've been told before she'd fallen for him.

It had started off as a tingle, just a small feeling and then a wave of denial. Because this was wrong, she wasn't supposed to feel for him. She was supposed to be his friend and kick him and his stupid cat out of her apartment when he broke in without feeling this twinge in her heart. It kept happening though, and soon the denial ebbed away until she was left with the realisation she was in love with her best friend. She stashed it away, hid it, where nobody would find it.

She was quite good at that, pretending she didn't see Natsu as more than a friend. And it worked too. Becuase no one ever suspected a thing. Not when she laughed with them at the guild or when she complained about his habits and tendency to destroy anything breakable or when she left and returned for missions with a smile on her face. And for a while, she believed she had a chance. She believed that he would eventually fall for her too and sweep her off her feet, planting a kiss on her lips like in the stories she read and wrote.

And then she learned about Lisanna.

The first thing that registered in Lucy's brain was sadness. She was sorry for her friends. It wasn't like she had lost anyone as loved as Lisanna obviously was. She couldn't empathise or anything but she had genuinely felt sorrow for her guildmates.

And then she saw the look in Natsu's eyes. That look that told her she had lost to a dead girl. And then, she could only feel hate and jealousy.

She had decided she would wait for him, becuase she had time. She was still clinging onto the hope that he would learn to love her back. She still believed that when Lisanna returned.

Lisanna was kind. Lisanna was beautiful. Lisanna was selfless and brave and funny and loved. It was not as though anyone treated Lucy any different, but she could not help but feel bitter. Lisanna was everything Lucy believed she wasn't.

So whatever hope she was holding onto disappeared. Becuase she saw the way she looked at him. And she saw the way he looked back.

She tried so hard to forget, to try to be a good friend to her crush's girlfriend. To try to banish the feelings and move on. Because five years on and they're announcing their engagement and that look in their eyes has not subsided one bit. And Lucy is slowly dying one piece at a time.

The last piece goes at their wedding.

Lucy has given up long ago but her heart doesn't care. It continues to torture her, to leave her heartbroken and crying silently into her pillow at night. She is still firm friends with the couple. Nobody knows her secret either. She's done a good job at keeping it hidden.

That just proves she's been going around in circles all these years.

But she guesses it was inevitable. After all, he was never even hers to begin with.

Well this me writing when I'm sleep deprived. Recycled idea, I know but I wanted to try it out. And just so you know, I'm NaLu all the way.

R&R