Red Asters & Purple Gladioli

Chapter 7

A blur of color slams into Lucy and makes her tumble onto her back. Hard. Shocked, she lies immobilized as her body is unexpectedly dragged by fingers knotted into her blonde strands. Loose stones in her path, tearing up her already ruined shirt.

Coming to her wits, she grasps the wrist in a punishing hold and twists until she hears a crack. Instantly, her hair is released as the other tenderly cradles their hand. Jumping to her feet, Lucy angrily turns to face... herself?

'Shite! We forgot the leader.' She concludes, inspecting the woman in front her with amusement. At that moment, Natsu arrives with fists blazing, ready to unleash hell. Only to stop and stare at two Lucys? Blinking his eyes in confusion, he struggles to understand what he's seeing, 'Maybe I hit my head during a fight?'

'There! That's the leader! He changed his appearance to look like mine, so that he could fool you. But you believe me, right Natsu?' Fake Lucy rambled, pointing at Lucy, and batting his eyelashes to garner sympathy. Playing the part of a damsel in distress.

Ready to throw down, Lucy readies herself for the Lucy Kick to end all previous kicks. Pissed that someone would portray herself as needing to be saved. Before she can make her move though, Natsu retaliates with a Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame thrown right at the unsuspecting bandit leader.

'I think you might have gone overboard, Natsu...' Lucy hesitates in admiration, once the dust clears to reveal a medium-to-well-done Kokatsu, his luscious perm now nothing but ashes. He coughs, startling the two mages who were quite sure the leader had sustained irreparable damage.

'How... did you... know?' He coughs out pathetically, receiving a deadpan from both the mages.

'Lucy would never ask to be saved; she'd fight herself!' Natsu remarks, proud of his partner's strength, 'Also, Lucy is a helluva lot taller than 4'6.'

With that parting retort, Natsu lugs the charred man over his shoulder and carried him back to where the rest of his gang are tied. Lucy following close behind, touched by Natsu's confidence in her strength and abilities.

***

A while later, Natsu and Lucy trudge a bit further away, having left Happy to guard the tied-up criminals with a stick. 

Standing behind a spindly tree for some semblance of privacy in the barren land, Natsu and Lucy check over the other in concern. Other than some nasty cuts from the vines and a few bruises turning a mottled yellow, they seem to be relatively alright. At least there are no broken bones! Simple mercies.

As Lucy turns around to allow Natsu to inspect the damage to her back, it slips her mind that her Soulmark is now very visible through the tears in her shirt. Eyes widening as she finally realises this, she tries to move away from Natsu, hoping that he hasn't noticed it.

However, she's stopped in her squirming by a calloused hand that holds onto her waist, another palm smoothing down her bare back. Wriggling stronger, she hastily attempts to move out of Natsu's firm grip, not wanting him to accidentally touch her Soulmark. 

Not wanting her minuscule hope for Natsu being her soulmate to be crushed, so soon. And absolutely not wanting to end up bitter and alone like her father, after the woman he loved left once she had found her true soulmate.

Watching her father wither away and drown his sorrow in work and booze had scarred a 5-year-old Lucy and compelled her to vow to herself that "No matter what happens, I will never fall in love with anyone but my soulmate. I will find them, whoever they are, and then we'll live together forever. I will not be broken beyond measure."

She had lived by this promise until she met Natsu. The only one who had made her feel so cherished that she was willing to risk her heart for someone who might not be her soulmate. The only one who made it seem worth it to live the rest of her life in agony, for even just a few years of loving with him.

Despite that, sometimes she fervently wished that Natsu was her soulmate, for it would mean that he would never leave her broken. After all deep inside, Lucy was still just a young girl afraid of having her heart shattered and she protected herself by the inevitable fact that whoever her soulmate was, they would love her. Without a doubt.

'Just like Natsu loves me in his own way.' The thought has her freezing in place. She really should stop projecting onto Natsu. Just as she's mentally smacking herself, Natsu says something that causes the butterflies in her stomach to flap around in a frenzy.

'Am I that desperate to hear those words that I'm actually imagining him saying it to me?' She asks in disbelief. Proven wrong, when Natsu repeats his earlier request, voice even lower causing those butterflies in her stomach to redouble their efforts.

'Can I touch your mark?' Natsu repeats, five simple words that have so much power behind them. Power that decides the fate of their relationship. Heck, the fate of the rest of their lives!

And no. She's not ready for this. She needs more time. Maybe have a few conversations together back at her apartment. Get all their cards on the table before she's ready to take this step. Be a bit slower. Yet as she panics, she realizes that loving Natsu is never going to be predictable or safe. It's wild, it's reckless, it's all about feeling and not overthinking.

'Do you trust me, Luce?' Natsu cuts in softly, almost as if he can understand how frazzled Lucy's thoughts are.

So, throwing caution to the wind, Lucy decides to trust Natsu. And she makes the decision that changes her whole life.

She nods her head. Once.

Natsu's sharp intake of breath and the way his hands map out Lucy's back so carefully, so slowly like he can't believe he's being allowed to do this, proves to Lucy that she made the right decision. Regardless of whether Natsu is her soulmate or not, she's not giving up on him. Not a chance in hell. 

Their breaths staccato as Natsu's fingers inch closer to her shoulder blade, to the red bud curled into itself like it's trying to protect something. His calloused hands touching Lucy like it's the last time he will. Trying to memorize how her satiny skin feels under his palms.

And they both exhale an expectant breath when Natsu places his palm over her mark, waiting hopefully for a blinding light that will prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the two of them are Meant to Be. 

Yet, against all hope nothing happens. Seems like their love had never been a part of Fate's plans.