Luckily Mira hadn't asked any questions when Natsumi came ambling into the guild with a dower look on her face and dark circles under her eyes, but something told Natsumi that she didn't need to ask. She probably knew everything, anyway, especially with the way she'd been acting recently. Not like it mattered, the dragon slayer thought. The whole guild could go mind their own damn business, for all she cared. She was done talking about it with everyone. She wouldn't, however, refuse the extra two pancakes Mira had added to the already intimidating pile. The pink-haired girl poured an equally large amount of syrup over the pile and voraciously dug in, feeling more like herself with every savage bite she took.
"Hey, Charcoal Brain, you're dunking your hair in your syrup. Some of us would like to keep our own breakfast down." Gray said as he came up to the bar, waving at Mirajane. Natsumi gave him a sharp glare, looking him straight in the eyes as she stuffed another huge, dripping forkful into her mouth, cheeks filled to capacity. Gray shuddered, glaring back. "You're fucking disgusting, you know that, right?" When he received no response other than a vague, pancake-filled hum, he rolled his eyes. "Okay, whatever. Listen, I just came to warn you. Juvia just came back from a job. Said she'd run into Freed on the way to the train station. Apparently they're due back today, so if you're looking to make yourself scarce, I'd suggest you take a job pronto," he gave her a meaningful look, taking in her wet hair and crumb covered face. "Though I guess covering yourself in syrup also works as a pretty good deterrent."
Natsumi's eyes widened. She hadn't expected the Thunder Legion to be back so soon. Rearranging her face into another annoyed glower, she swallowed her current bite. "Why should I care?"
Grey scoffed, "Oh, so we're playing this game now? Alright. Whatever. I was just trying to help."
Immediately feeling like a heel, Natsumi relaxed her expression a bit. "Dude, sorry. Thanks, but I'm good. Plus, I haven't finishing demolishing these yet," she said, gesturing to her food. "It's not a big deal, trust me."
He didn't look convinced, but seemed to accept her response this time. "Yeah, well, don't say I didn't warn you," he said, walking away, nudging her shoulder gently as he passed.
"Yeah, yeah," she mumbled to herself, shoveling in another bite, "Bastard's lucky I didn't punch him for cracks like that."
"He's only trying to look out for you," Mira chimed in, hands busily wiping down the bar top in preparation for the morning rush, "We were all concerned for you after the tongue-lashing you gave Laxus, and even more so after you came back and started acting like nothing happened."
"So everyone's still hung up on that? Figures."
"It was kind of hard to forget you screaming your head off. Plus, Lucy came by before the Thunder Legion left and gave him a talk of her own, but you didn't hear that from me."
"Ughhhhhh," the pink-haired girl groaned as she leaned her head back, palms flat against the bar. While she wasn't surprised, she had hoped that not everyone would know about what had happened. "I just want to stop talking about it!" she whined to the barmaid, scrunching up her face in distaste.
"I don't think it's as easy as that, I'm afraid," Mira said in a gentle tone. "These things have a way of cropping back up until they're resolved."
"But I did resolve it. What's done is done and everyone just needs to leave me alone!" She was trying so hard, and it didn't seem like anyone was cutting her any slack these days.
Mira stopped in her ministrations, turning to face Natsumi fully with a small smile on her face. "You should know better than anyone that Fairy Tail doesn't know the meaning of minding their own business. Plus, it's pretty obvious that you aren't fooling anyone," she finished with a giggle.
Before Natsumi could give a reply to that, a shrill cry of "Natsumi!" echoed through the guild hall. Turning toward the doors, Natsumi saw Happy swoop in, Lucy close behind. The Exceed came to a stop on a barstool next to the dragon slayer, looking up at her with eyes full of huge crocodile tears.
"Natsumi left us! That was so mean!"
"I'm sorry, Happy. I was just hungry and didn't want to wake you up after such a late night," She smiled down at him. "I'll make it up to you late, I promise."
"Does that promise involve fish?" he asked in a small voice.
"It does if you want it to," she laughed.
The tears abruptly stopped, the feline's expression suddenly clearing into a sunny grin. "Yay! Lucy, Natsumi promised me fish!"
Lucy, who'd been leaning against the bar next to the cat, rolled her eyes, "So I've heard." The celestial mage offered Natsumi a tentative smile. Natsumi smiled back to let her know that all was forgiven for their fight the night before.
Reassured, the blonde took in her friend for the first time that day. "I know I've called you a messy eater sometimes, but this is honestly ridiculous. Your hair isn't even dry from showering and you already need another one!"
"Hey! I'm just enjoying my food!" Natsumi groused.
"By wearing it?" Lucy asked with a raised eyebrow.
Natsumi stuck her tongue out, "I can do what I want, mom," she said as she wolfed down the last of the plate's contents.
"Ugh, fine," Lucy conceded, "Though this is due to special circumstances. Any other time and I'd take you out back to hose you down."
"Now that is something that I'd pay to see."
"Oh, fuck off, Bickslow!" Natsumi shouted over her shoulder, "You're such a perv-wait." she stopped, her eyes widening. "Bickslow....is back. Which means..." she trailed off, shooting Lucy a worried look before turning to face the newcomers in the guild. Bickslow had taken point, strolling through the guild's open doors with his trademark shit-eating grin plastered on his face, completely unphased by Natsumi's yelling. Behind him walked Freed and Evergreen, who looked pleasant, albeit a bit tired, with Evergreen failing to shoot Mira a question about the whereabouts of her incompetent brother. As they advanced to their normal table near the back of the guild hall, Natsumi felt herself tensing, in anticipation or dread, she didn't know, of the next person to walk through the door. As the seconds passed and no one appeared, she heaved a sigh of relief.
Lucy was puzzled as well. "That's....strange. I haven't seen Laxus without at least one of them since we got back from the Games."
"I bet he's scaaaaaaaaared," Happy sing-songed with a sly look. "He's probably afraid Natsumi's gonna finish what she started."
"Shut up, cat!" Lucy said in warning, noticing Natsumi's uncomfortable expression. "I'm sure it's nothing," she reassured her friend with a smile. "He's probably just out running errands or catching up on sleep or something."
Natsumi forced a smile. "Yeah, probably."
"Or he's crying because he looooooves you."
"I'm serious, Happy, cut it out!" Lucy yelled.
The cat sniffed, "But it's true! He loves her and Natsumi loves him!"
"HAPPY!" Natsumi bellowed. "Stop it, okay?! You're not helping!" She hopped off the barstool and turned, taking in the small crowd that had trickled in since Lucy and Happy's arrival. "And that goes for all of you, too! I'm done talking about it, so stay out of my business! There's nothing to talk about and I've had it with you all trying to tell me what to think. I'm done with this!" She didn't turn around to see the teary expression that was probably on Happy's face, knowing that it would stop her from what she was going to say next.
"And the next person to ask me to talk about it will meet the business end of my foot, no matter who you are!" she ignited her fists for good measure, scowling at her audience, whose expressions ranged from chastised to amused.
"Is that a promise?"
Fuck. She thought as the voice of the very last person she wanted to see wafted placidly through the open doors of the building.
The person who the voice belonged to strode into the guild, looking disturbingly normal to Natsumi's eyes. He stared her down with all of his trademark arrogance, his long, fur-trimmed coat moving billowing behind him. Natsumi stood frozen in place, onyx eyes wide, some part of her mind cursing her for not doing something, whether that be mouthing off or running or punching that fucker in his stupid smirking face. It was almost a comfort when seeds of her righteous anger returned. At least that she'd dealt with that before. She had no idea what she would do if she found herself overcome with the despair she'd felt that morning, so she clung to her frustration, turning her shocked expression into a glare.
He advanced, sauntering until there was a matter of a few yards between himself and Natsumi. Coming to a stop, he raised an eyebrow expectantly. When the pink-haired girl didn't react, he chuckled, smirking face morphing into a giant grin. "Well?" he asked, crossing his arms. The room was tomb-silent as everyone looked on warily.
"Well, what?" Natsumi responded, trying to work through her shell-shocked mind, trying to make sense between his sudden appearance and the words he was speaking now.
His grin gave way to an annoyed expression at the confused girl in front of him. "You said you'd hit the next person who said anything about it, no matter who it was. Was that a promise?"
Oh. So that's what he was getting at. What an asshole.
She glowered at him, confusion gone. "Yes, it was a promise. People need to mind their own business."
His eyebrow raised once more. "What if it's their business as well?"
Now he was just pissing her off.
"It's not. If I don't want to talk about something, then I ain't gotta. Got it?"
"Oh, grow up," he quipped, glaring back at her, "Maybe people wouldn't be on your case if you didn't go around screaming at the top of your lungs."
Her hands began to shake. How dare he blame her for this. "Oh, yeah? Well maybe if you weren't such a bastard, then none of this would have ever happened!"
"If you weren't such a pest, then I wouldn't have to be such a bastard! You should have just left me alone!"
"That doesn't give you the right to treat your comrades like burdens, you asshole!" Natsumi screamed, her flushed in anger, growing more livid with each word that came out of his mouth.
"It does if they're weak." He said, deadly calm, eyes coldly staring into the eyes of the girl standing across from him.
Several people gasped at his words, not expecting the words from Laxus, who hadn't uttered anything of the sort since the days of his excommunication.
"Don't talk to Natsumi like that, Laxus!" Happy yelled from the bar, wings flapping in anger.
"Shut the fuck up before I do it for you." Laxus threatened, turning his cutting gaze squarely on the Exceed. Tears in his eyes, Happy shrank back into Lucy, scared and angry. Lucy glared over to the blonde dragon slayer, not cowed by the power of his threat. "That goes for the rest of you, too. Anybody that tries to interfere is going to get fried, got it?"
Natsumi was nearly blind with rage, the picture of Laxus swimming before her through a sheen of unshed tears. Taking a breath to ensure she wouldn't throw sparks with her next words, she spoke.
"Fuck you, Laxus. You haven't changed at all. We're supposed to be family here, but you don't even know what that means. Any other day before now, I'd melt that stupid expression right off your face, but that's what you want, isn't it? But I'm going to do it." She spit, her voice low. The guild exploded into shocked whispers, flabbergasted that Natsumi of all people would ever walk away from a fight. She knew better. She'd let him goad her into a fight once, and she didn't recognize the person she became when she let her rage win. The guilt at seeing him crumple underneath her blows had made her nearly sick, and she refused to put herself through that again, no matter how angry he made her.
The sharp, cutting sound of Laxus's laughter echoed off the walls of the guild, startling everyone out of their conversations.
"I don't think so, Salamander. I'm pretty sure you are." He laughed, one hand coming up to run through golden hair.
"No, I'm not!" she yelled back, stomping past him as she headed to the doors. She'd get Lucy to grab a long, long job and then get the fuck out of Magnolia. That'd show that pretentious freak. He didn't move to stop her on her way out, but as she moved to pass through the doorway, a wall of purple runes materialized and blocked her, pushing her backwards as she made contact. She howled with rage, the familiar feeling resurfacing from the depths from which she'd manage to push it all those days ago.
"Thanks, Freed," Laxus called, and goddamn it she could hear the arrogant grin on that bastard's face. She didn't turn around to face him, however, opting to stare trembling at the swirling runes in front of her.
"So it looks like you'll be fighting after all. Freed won't let anyone in or out of the barriers until one of us concedes defeat, is knocked unconscious, or dies. And unless I've heard wrong, Levy's out on a job for the rest of the week, so I doubt you'll be getting any help on that front. Sorry." He laughed again, a short thing, full of triumph.
"Then I forfeit!" Natsumi yelled at the cage, still shaking, her palms growing warm.
"Does that sounds like an honest concession, Freed? Are you moved to dispel the barrier?" Laxus asked his team member casually, as if enquiring about the weather rather than a proposed cage match with a guild mate.
"I'm afraid I'm not, sir," Freed's voice answered from the back of the guild.
Laxus clicked his tongue, the sound grating in Natsumi's ears. "So there you have it, Short Stack. Freed's under my orders not to dispel the cage until an actual fight happens. I trust his judgment about legitimacy, so don't get any ideas about half-assing this thing."
Natsumi could barely control her breathing. How dare he? How dare he not respect her enough to make her own choices, to decide what was best for herself. How dare he call her weak and threaten her friends and undermine their bonds as comrades. How dare he have claimed to love her.
"I'm going to make you regret this, Laxus. I'm glad you've already know where the infirmary is." She hissed, steam rolling out through her nose and mouth as she turned to face him, eyes narrowed to slits.
"That's my girl." He smiled as he slid his coat from his shoulders and tossed it away, exposing the heavily muscled arms that lay beneath.
"I'll never be yours or anyone else's!" She screamed, her control lost as she rocketed towards him, fists blazing.
He easily pivoted, knocking her in the back with an elbow and sending her flying towards the far edge of the cage near the back of the guild. Flipping in mid-air, she pushed off the edge of the barrier and sprang right back with an answering wing attack, which Laxus dissipated in a shower of sparks. In the brightness of the explosion, Natsumi landed a solid kick to the side of his head, snapping it to one side.
"Yeah! Kick his ass, Nat!" Lucy screamed from the sidelines, with Happy following up with an enthusiastic "Aye, sir!"
Their cheers seemed to break the seal of silence that had fallen over the guild, and the audience erupted in an explosion of raucous shouts of encouragement to Natsumi. She could hear Gray shouting out insults to Laxus over the noise, which led to a serious of boos at the mention of the lightning dragon slayer's name.
"Are you happy now?!" She yelled as she attacked again, covering the makeshift arena in roiling flames.
He didn't answer, only let out an answering blast of lighting, which pushed them both back against the edge of the cage.
"Is this what you wanted?! You aren't even taking this seriously!" She screamed as she rushed him again, nearly purple in the face as he dodged a serious of her flaming kicks. "Even after all this bullshit, you still won't actually fight me!"
She quickly jumped to dodge a bolt, the attack detonating where she had been standing a fraction of a second before.
"You're just playing with me! You don't actually care about doing this to prove anything. You don't respect me as an opponent-" she shouted as she closed quarters, engaging him one on one. "You don't respect me as a mage or as a guild mate!" She got him in the sternum, and found the rasping sound he made as he stumbled back almost made her smile...until he came back and caught her the stomach with a strike of his own, knocking her prone several feet away. Springing to her feet again, she responded with a sword horn attack, still raging at him. "You don't think I'm worthy of ever being your equal, much less your better! You never thought I was strong enough. You think I'm weak and need to be taken care of. And I'm going to kill you for it!" she roared, the inferno engulfing him.
"You don't love me! You don't know me! If you did you'd know that I wanted to fight you to get stronger! I wanted to get stronger together because that's what caring about each other is about! You don't hold back the person you love from growing just because you're afraid that they'll get hurt! How dare you take that away from me, you bastard!" she cried, her fire dissipating. Her vision started growing blurry again, from a mixture of anger and frustration. "How dare you try to put me on a shelf so you could feel better about yourself and play out your hero shtick. I can't forgive you for that!"
"I didn't refuse to fight you all this time because I wanted to hold you back!" he yelled, speaking for the first time since they began. "I didn't want to fight you because I didn't want to hurt you, you colossal idiot! God damn it!" He glared at her as lightning began to dance along the lines of his body, making him look like some kind of avenging angel.
"I don't know where you got that stupid idea into your head! Of course I respect you! You're one of the best mages here!"
She laughed, a sobbing, borderline hysterical burst of sound. "Then why won't you fight me seriously?!"
"Because why would I ever fucking raise my hand to the girl I love again?! Do you think it's easy to live with myself after what I did to everyone? What I did to you? I put you in the fucking hospital! And then I left, and by the time I saw you again we were going to get incinerated by a fucking dragon and my last thought would have been how much I regretted ever hurting you. Of course I want you to get stronger and I want you to surpass everyone here, even me, but why would I ever want to fight you seriously when I already have and it fucking destroyed me?"
The words he was saying weren't making any sense to her. The sentences he was stringing together didn't compute in her brain.
"How am I going to get stronger if I don't fight the strongest people I know?" she asked, her confusion startling her out of her righteous anger.
"Hell if I know, Natsumi. You fucking blindside Gildarts every time he's in town. Erza's no slouch. Gramps is a goddamn Wizard Saint for fuck's sake! Have Gray and Wendy and Mira tag team you for all I care! Fuckin' take down every person in the goddamn world and I'd be happy to watch you. But please, don't ask me to hurt you. I'm not going lie and say I always thought you were strong, but that's been years, Nat. I don't refuse to fight you because I don't think you're worthy. I just...don't want to use my hands to hurt you anymore, and I don't want to be a tool in some quest to inflict pain on yourself."
The air in the room seemed to have burned up with the flames she wielded. Natsumi didn't think she could physically inflate her lungs anymore. She could barely see though the haze of dust and smoke in the arena, which irritated her already watering eyes. All of the grief she'd feared earlier came rushing back to the surface at his words. Her legs felt shaky, as if she'd run much further than the short battle had allowed for. Managing to make her voice work, she asked him in a wavering voice.
"Then why this?" she whispered, halfway expecting him not to hear her, even though the cheers had long since fallen into hushed silence. "Why would you come here and say those things? How could you?"
He pushed his hand through his hair, taking in a large breath. "'Cause I'm a fucking idiot, that's why. I thought this was the only way to give you what you wanted, even if it was going fuck me up again, emotionally or otherwise. I figured you'd jump at the chance. When you didn't, I guess I kept trying to goad you. Look, it was a stupid fucking plan, alright? If you want to keep at it, I won't stop you, but I said what I wanted to say." He finished, slouching slightly in defeat.
"You tried to manipulate me," she said, walking toward him slowly. He didn't look at her, keeping his gaze fixed firmly on the ground in front of her feet.
"Yeah, Nat, I guess I did. I didn't mean for it to go so far, but it did. And I'm sorry, but I guess I can't really take it back now," his voice was gruff.
She walked closer, coming a stop directly in front of him, her face nearly pressing against his chest. Looking up at him, he averted his gaze again. Frustrated, she hooked a leg behind him, buckling his knees and sending him kneeling the ground before her. She took a step back from him.
"Look at me," she ordered in a flat voice.
When he didn't, she grabbed his face in both her hands and made him.
"Guild mates don't ever treat each other the way you treated everyone today. Treated me. Family doesn't shout and threaten the way you threatened Happy. They don't put on elaborate productions because they're scared." He tried averting his eyes again, but she held him steady, making him keep her gaze as she looked down at him. She continued, even as her voice began to waver in its steadiness, growing watery. "They don't manipulate the people they love to prove a point. And after today, you have to make amends with everyone here, because you've disappointed a lot of people. Disappointed me."
She let go of his face then, dropping her hands to her sides and looking at him with an unreadable expression.
There as a pregnant silence where nothing but the steady breathing of the surrounding people could be heard through the floating runes they observed the standoff.
Holding Natsumi's gaze, Laxus whispered in a voice only she could hear.
"I'm so fucking sorry, Nat. For everything. And I love you, even if you probably don't want to hear that."
Her eyes misted over as he looked at her, her face growing red and her hands shaking. He hung his head then, knowing that he'd managed to seal the final nail in the coffin that was the absolute train wreck of his interaction with Natsumi, only to be nearly knocked backward when she fell to her knees and embraced him, burying her head in his chest. Too stunned to move for several moments, the sounds of her stifled crying jolted him to action. He wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her hair, pulling her closer to him as they kneeled on the floor together.
He held her for a long moment, before looking up at the walls of the barrier around him, and the people beyond them. He nodded toward Freed, and the mage touched the end of his rapier to one of the walls, which immediately began to dissipate. Uncertain murmurs began to run through the crowd.
"Well guys," he began in a voice that silenced the impending noise, "I know I fucked up bad and you guys are probably going lynch me later and that's fine, 'cause I deserve it. But right now I've got bigger things to worry about, so you're going have to manage until I get back," he finished, scooping up Natsumi and rising to his feet. Giving another nod to the Thunder Legion, he quickly strode out of the guild, leaving the baffled crowd in his wake.
Several seconds after their departure, with silence still dominating, Gray cleared his throat.
"Okay, did what I think just happen, happen? And also: what the fuck."
With that, the guild exploded into a flurry of activity as all witnesses attempted to rush the Thunder Legion at once, shouting questions all the while.
"Why did you guys agree to do that?"
"Is Natsumi actually going give Laxus the time of day after that stunt?"
"What did he say to her to make her cry like that?"
"Did you see Natsumi? She was so manly! It was awesome!"
As the Thunder Legion attempted to do as much damage control as possible, Gray made his way to the bar, where Lucy was still standing, holding an exhausted Happy. She shot him a smile as he approached.
"I reiterate: what the fuck," Gray said, taking a seat at the bar and divesting himself of his shirt before he slumped against the bar top.
Lucy giggled nervously, "I'm pretty sure that was the most dramatic confession Fairy Tail has ever seen."
"Yeah," he agreed, "But also probably the shittiest one. He's going to be still crossing people off his apology list when he's 40. If I were Nat, I'd have castrated the dude if I had him on his knees in front of me."
The blonde sighed, "Normally I'd say you were being too harsh, but honestly I'm not sure I wouldn't have done the same. That was way too close to the Harvest Festival for comfort."
"I thought Natsumi was really going get hurt!" Happy whined.
"I think we all did, buddy," Gray told the cat, his head resting on one hand. "It's going to really take something special for him to ingratiate himself to everyone again. Especially since he's kind of a douche to start with," he clicked his tongue in distaste. "That lip he was giving everyone didn't help, either."
"I'm sure Nat will come up with something suitable as punishment, assuming she doesn't decide to kill him once she calms down," Lucy said, confident in her friend's abilities to at least inflict physical pain.
"I actually doubt it," Gray said, dropping his arm back to the counter. "We all know Natsumi. She's not the brightest crayon in the box on the best of days. Combine that with how easily distracted she is, I doubt anything significant will happen, especially since she actually cares about that guy. There's really only one thing left to do."
Happy and Lucy looked at each other, then at Gray, offering a unison "What's that?"
He chuckled, standing up to head out of the guild. Lucy barely caught his comment as he waved behind him without looking back-and without collecting his discarded shirt.
"Never let them live down that fucking ridiculous production."