Firefall || Fairy Tail

53 : t h e . n i g h t . b e f o r e . w a r

Natsu was not expecting to find someone in his house when he and Happy charged inside to look for stuff to take over for when they dropped in on Lucy, especially the sister he thought was still resting in the infirmary across town. However, she wasn't surprised to see him bolt through the door like a mad man, but it did make her jump a little.

"You're home?" He blinked, taking a step toward her. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine." She shook her head, "Stop worrying about me."

"Kind of hard when you crash landed this morning."

She put her hands on her hips, "You didn't even see me crash. As far as you know, I landed really hard."

Natsu squinted, "Verani explained how she found you, sis. She had to partially carry you back to the guild hall."

Kia sighed with a shrug, "You worry too much."

He was about to tell her that he had every right to worry, because he had never seen her fall from the sky. Even when they were little and learning their magics, she never crashed. But Happy hopped up and calmly flew over to her, hugging Kia as he buried his face in her chest, "I missed you."

She smiled as she wrapped her arms around him, kissing the top of his head, "Missed you too, Happy."

Natsu sighed. He knew there was almost no point in arguing with her, no matter how hurt she was. He was her brother and had known her his whole life. He didn't care about her saying that she was technically Zeref's sister, she had said the same. She was his sister. And was why he knew that there were still things that were bothering her. He could see it in her eyes, in the tension in her shoulders. But she had essentially been Zeref's prisoner for nearly a year and there was everything else she had been through that day with telling the guild her story.

He wanted to push. He wanted her to spill everything. There were so many questions that he wanted to ask, but he didn't think the brink of war was the best time to make her re-live everything, but there was one thing he wanted to talk about.

"Hey Kia."

She looked up from her embrace with the little blue Exceed, eyebrow raised at the serious tone in his voice, "Yeah?"

"Can we talk about Dad and that stuff that happened?"

||~x~||

Even at this time of night, Magnolia was never this quiet. The citizens had been successfully evacuated, which was a huge relief for everyone in the guild. The impending battles would be hard enough without having to worry about the possibility of innocent casualties.

Gray couldn't decide if the quiet was helping or hurting his state of mind. It was letting him have the time to think through things without interruption, but that also meant that he was getting to think about things without interruptions.

He had plenty of feelings that he needed to sort through, but he also knew that he had some that he needed to admit. However, that was something else he was debating, when would it be best for him to say anything.

It was in that moment that a certain blue-haired mage walked up from behind, "Are you okay, my love?"

He peeked over his shoulder, "I'm fine." Lifting his hand, he held up the chocolate bar that he had been absentmindedly holding, "Care for a bite?"

"Wow!" Juvia stared at the item in her hands, "My darling Gray is sharing his food with me? His lips touched this!"

"I hope you know I appreciate you." He looked out over the city again, "I can always count on you to be by my side, right?"