nalu one-shots

find someone to carry you.

As Happy carried him away from the battlefield that might have been his grave, Natsu's thoughts descended into a chaotic morass that threatened to overwhelm him.

It was a lot for one person to take in all at once. Too much, even. The dragon slayer's once simple view of the world had been irrevocably shaken.

The world had been such a simple place before END.

His mind railed against Zeref's words. They were lies;dirty lies meant to make him doubt, to make him fear. Words to turn the tide of war against the guild, and Fiore itself.

Even as he rejected them, though, in his heart, he knew they were truth. Bitter and ugly perhaps, but truth all the same. Worse yet, his magic knew, and so did the soft embers of Igneel's power that yet mingled with his own. It whispered these same traitorous words until Natsu clapped his hands over his ears in an attempt to drown them out; but they rolled on and on regardless, revealing a vast web of tragedy that didn't seem to have an end...

They were over Magnolia, now, and night had fallen. Natsu wondered just how long he had been hanging listlessly from Happy's painfully singed paws. He didn't remember the trip, let alone releasing his hold on his ears. When had he succumbed to the truth, let it send him catatonic as he struggled to process it?

He had been willing to die in the face of that truth during his fight with Zeref. Somehow, that seemed easier than living with it, and a small, dark part of him wished Happy had been just a moment too slow.

As the guild came into view, and as Happy began to make his descent towards the front gate, panic and fear combined to rise like hot bile in the back of Natsu's throat, and he struggled in his friend's grasp.

Forced to backwing sharply to keep from dropping his injured companion, the exceed gasped in pain and said "What? Natsu, what are you doing? You're gonna make me drop you!"

"Not there, not down there," the dragon slayer begged desperately "I can't-"

Natsu's eyes were locked on the well lit courtyard below his feet. He could see them- his friends and family, running here and there in the torchlight, but as yet, no one had spotted him. The idea of facing them now, of being forced to tell them the truth, made the panic worse.

"Where then?" Happy panted, immediately filling his friend's heart with guilt. The exceed was clearly exhausted, not to mention injured, thanks to his own recklessness...

"Behind the guild," Natsu answered quickly, reasoning that he just needed a few minutes to collect himself and catch his breath. After that, he could-

His stomach gave a sickening twist that had nothing to do with the way Happy dropped sharply into the narrow alley that ran behind the guild on silent wings. It had nothing to do with the stench emanating from the garbage cans that lined one wall, either.

Happy dropped Natsu while they were still a few feet off the ground, too exhausted to go any further. The slayer's sandals hit mud, and the sudden wave of agony that shot up through his body nearly made him scream, but he managed to restrain it to a groan that escaped from between clenched teeth.

Happy tumbled weakly out of the air, and Natsu lunged in an attempt to catch him. Exhausted muscles, aching joints, and broken bones conspired to make him too slow, though, too clumsy to do more than stumble forward and crash into a garbage bin. The noise the bin made as it careened down the narrow alley was deafening, and he would have winced if he hadn't been too busy falling.

Natsu dropped to his knees, feet shy of where his friend had crumpled in a small heap of fur and feathers, then toppled forward, only barely managing to catch himself with his left hand. Fingers scrabbled at the thick, dark mud (had it rained while he was gone?), but it didn't stop his palm slipping so he landed on his elbow instead. Head hanging slack as his rose colored hair trailed the dirty ground, Natsu cradled his right arm against his chest. The entire limb was in agony, feeling as though his very bones were burning him from the inside out, charring tissue and cracking tendon with their heat...