Tides of Virtue (Fairy Tail Fan-Fiction)

The Sun and the Moon

Slowly, he lowered his face down, and hesitantly pressed his lips to hers like he was unsure if he was allowed to. However, when Serenity accepted his approach by returning his kiss, Natsu eagerly brought his unoccupied hand up and cupped the back of her head, pulling her closer, parting his lips and deepening the kiss.

His flavor was addicting...like smoke-laced caramel, and Serenity wanted more. Moaning, she broke her hands from Natsu's grasps and wrapped them around his neck, pulling gently at his hair, before next freeing her legs and wrapping them around his waist. However, when she did this, he suddenly broke the kiss, causing Serenity to whimper as she looked up at him with profound curiosity swimming in her golden-eyes.

When she saw the confusion that littered Natsu's features and the cloudiness of his gaze as he looked at her swollen lips, she opened her mouth to speak, but stopped as he abruptly rolled away from her, starting toward the window. "I should go," he muttered, moving to pull himself over the sill.

"Wait!" Serenity cried, sitting up on the bed, her hair a mess of golden curls that fell around her delicate frame and sprawled on the mattress. "Please, stay." Halting, Natsu looked at her with his cavernous eyes, which were filled with uncertainty. "After that nightmare I just had, I'm not sure I can sleep if you're not here with me." They stayed like that for a few moments, Serenity's gaze pleading for Natsu to stay, while he just stared at her, the corners of his lips pulled into a thoughtful frown, before finally sighing in defeat as he closed her window and flipped the latch, locking it.

Walking back over to Serenity, Natsu laid on the bed, his arms crossed behind his head as he gazed up at the ceiling, his eyebrows drawn together and his eyes glazed over. Was it something I did? She thought, clasping her hands together in her lap. He's never looked so...thoughtful.

"Natsu?" Tentatively, Serenity crawled over to him, looking down at his stony expression. "Are you okay?" He didn't respond. "Did I do something wrong?"

Propping himself up on his elbows, the pink-haired boy looked at her with wide eyes. "No!" he cried. "You didn't do anything wrong! Quite the opposite!" Running a nervous hand through his spikey hair, Natsu laid back down. "Let's just...sleep now, okay?"

Smiling, Serenity crept toward him and cuddled into his side, resting her head on his chest and entwining her legs with his. As Natsu wrapped his arm around her back, she let out a content sigh, immediately feeling comforted knowing that he was there to keep her safe...and, with the gentle beating of Natsu's heart as her lullaby, she soon drifted back into Dreamland.

~

The sky was crying. Its teardrops fell all around the warrior: plastering the thin strands of her golden hair against the soft skin of her delicate face, wetting the ground beneath her feet, turning it into slushy mud, and weighing down the light fabric of her turquoise kimono, which, in her left sleeve, she'd hidden the dagger that she meant to use to slay her enemy, whom was standing in front of her, his back to her as he stared down the canyon that stretched before them at the white waters of the raging river.

"Zeref," she'd meant to shout, but instead it'd come out a strangled whisper; however, it was enough to get the ebony-haired boy to turn toward her, his eyes like two black holes that seemed to draw her in.

"Again we meet, Ciara," he said, his expression unyielding. "I feel as though we've been going around in circles. How many times has it been that you were reborn, now?"

Looking at the ground, the golden-haired girl smiled sadly. "This remains my fourth life, dear Zeref. Until I am in a state where I am no longer mendable, I will continue to be brought back to life—of course, you know that already. For it is my destiny to rid this world of your darkness." Sorrowful tears filled her eyes. "You were right in my first life. Our paths are ones of very different natures." Choking back a sob, she looked up and met his eyes. "However, I continue to love you. For without darkness, light would not exist."

Wiping at her runny nose, Ciara continued. "The woman I was born to in this life did not come from this land, she came from one farther away, and she taught me about 'yin and yang.' From her I've come to learn that we are not of opposing natures, but of complementary ones!" Ciara took a step toward him. "We can be together! Please!"

Turning away from her, Zeref looked up at the sky, letting the raindrops fall on his pale cheeks. "Love is for humans, and I care not for them or their ways." When his gaze moved back toward her, his eyes were the same blood red as she remembered them becoming when he'd gotten angry with her. "They are murderous; and I wish to rid them of the world so that a new era can be born."

Clenching her fists, Ciara glared up at the dark wizard as she stepped closer to him. "Don't say that! Though some may be bad, others are good! They have kind hearts, and high spirits even in the worst of times!" Pulling the dagger out of her sleeve, she brought it toward his abdomen; however, he quickly caught her wrist and turned the tip of the blade around so that it was facing her instead.

Using the hand that wasn't holding the hilt of the dagger, Zeref grabbed Ciara's waist and pulled her toward him, the knife piercing through the thin material of her kimono and tearing through her flesh, blood quickly oozing from the wound and staining the front of her robes crimson.

Bringing his mouth close to her ear, the dark wizard quietly whispered, "I continue to love you—but we cannot be together. For you are the sun, and I, the moon." Turning around with Ciara in his arms so that she was facing the great drop of the canyon, he kissed her cheek before letting her go.

As she fell backwards over the cliff, the golden-haired girl sent her childhood friend a gentle smile, before saying in a soft voice, "complementary." This caused the ebony-haired boy to gasp; however, Ciara's body was already lost to the raging waters of the river, drowning beneath its foaming surface.

~

Eyelids flying open, Serenity was immediately confronted by the harsh rays of the morning sun, which shone brightly in the room, dappling the ligneous flooring with patches of yellow light and dancing across the pale sheets of her bed like the calm waves of the ocean. Burying her face in the side of Natsu's neck, she attempted to hide away from bothersome disturbance, but to no avail. Letting out a quiet groan, she slowly sat up, careful not to wake the sleeping boy next to her, before rubbing vigorously at her eyes, trying to clear them of sleep.

The nightmares had confronted her frequently throughout the night, and in all, a death had awaited her: decapitation, disembowelment, falling from great heights, and many other excruciating demises. However, after each, the pain that followed when she'd woken up from the dreams, had become less and less, and after her last one, she hadn't even felt anything. There was a pattern, too. Each time Ciara was reborn into a new life, she'd obtain an additional power that voided the possibility of her dying of the same cause twice. When she fell to her death, she obtained wings in her next life. When she was decapitated and disemboweled, she gained quicker reflexes, the ability to think hastily in difficult situations, and greater durability. Finally, when she'd drowned—she became a Water Dragon Slayer.

Sighing, Serenity quietly stood from the bed and walked over to the mirror on the far side of her room, before staring intently at her reflection, a slight frown pulling at the corners of her pursed lips. She'd been wondering who Ciara was, and doubting her own identity because of the words that Jellal had spoken to her, when the entire time, Ciara was her, and she, Ciara. Her purpose was to banish the dark wizard, Zeref, from this world. It was her destiny, her sole purpose for existing. Yet, she'd failed many times, because she had feelings for him harbored in her heart. However, this time—this life—was different. Glancing over at Natsu's peaceful sleeping form, she smiled tenderly. Serenity no longer loved him, for someone else had stolen her heart. Someone who ignited feelings inside her that she'd never felt before. To her, he was the sun, and she, the moon. She shined because he gave her the ability to glow.

*~~~~~*

Edited.

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