The NaLu Chronicles

Tell Me You Don't Love Me

It was her wedding day.

Let her repeat that.

It was her wedding day!

So why, for the love of Google, why was she kissing Natsu Dragneel?

Well, okay, no, he was kissing her. As in, she was wearing a dress, white as driven snow, about to become Mrs. Lucy Eucliff, when Natsu Dragneel came into her dressing room, thankfully devoid of the excited wedding party, locked the door behind him and declared, "I'm late, I'm really late, I know that."

Looking up from where she'd been fiddling with her veil, which she'd yet to pull over her face, she squinted at the clock and told him, "No... Well, maybe according to the actual itinerary where guests are supposed to show up and get a seat before the music plays, but I haven't walked down the aisle yet, so I'd say, on a scale of how late you could be, you're still doing pretty good."

He shook his head, walking toward her, his hands fisted and his face twisted with something that made worry worm its way into her heart.

"Natsu? What's wrong? You look... scared. Oh God, is it Zeref? Is he back? Or a dark guild? Tell me it's not the butt gang!" She started wringing her hands. "You need to say something! The list of villains going through my head is insanely long and really, really freaking me out!"

"No, no, nobody's back. It's not... It's not fighting-related."

Her brow furrowed as she stood up a little straighter and frowned. "Friends then?" She inhaled sharply. "Oh no, is it Mira? Is she okay?" Her eyes darted around, worry clawing at her throat. "She told me she couldn't come, scheduling differences or something, but she was fine when I talked to her yesterday. I mean, yes, she spent an hour critiquing my choices in cake and telling me it was a metaphor for something else, but otherwise, she seemed fine, if a little annoyed..."

"Mira's fine." He shook his head and glanced away, brow furrowed for a moment. He looked down and paused as he found a pair of white heels waiting nearby. "Your moms wedding shoes..."

She smiled then. "Yeah! I'm surprised you remembered."

He swallowed tightly. "I know how much it meant to you that you had them... Especially since she can't be here to see you get married."

Lucy's smile softened. "She wasn't big on ceremonies anyway. She told me when I was a little girl I should skip the whole shebang and just get a quickie marriage in a court house. Less fuss."

His mouth curved up faintly. "But Sting wanted the wedding?"

Lucy shrugged. "You only get married once, right?"

He raised his eyes to meet hers then. "Yeah," he rasped.

She stepped closer to him, reaching out to press a hand to his chest, over his heart. "Natsu, are you okay?"

He looked down at her hand, her pale pink finger nails standing out starkly against his black suit jacket. And then he reached for her wrist, his finger circling the gold bangle there. "You're wearing the bracelet I got you for your birthday..." he said quietly.

She looked down at it, all looping figure eights of gold and diamonds. "Well, it's the prettiest thing I own." She smiled. "Not to mention it has the most meaning."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Do you remember when you gave it to me? You said it meant forever. That it was a sign I'd always have you." She watched his thumb circle the loops. "For infinity."

"You will," he told her.

She looked up at him then, somehow looking so sad and broken on a day that was supposed to be full of happiness. He touched a loose curl hanging at her cheek and she tried not to shiver when his knuckles brushed her skin. Wedding day, wedding day, Mrs. Lucy Eucliff. She'd spent years getting to this place. To this moment in her life where she could accept that Natsu would always be there, he just wouldn't be hers. So she tried to let go and move on and she started dating Sting, who was an amazing, wonderful man, and she loved him. She did. It wasn't the all-encompassing, passionate love she'd once expected for herself, but it was warm and kind and steady. Natsu was not steady. He was very unsteady. Unpredictable. Unexpected. Unlikely. Unrequited.

"We should get out there." She blinked away the haze that filled her and moved to take a step back. "I— I mean 'I'. I should get out there because I'm getting married, not you, not us, not we, I mean I am but you should go out, too."

His mouth curled up in a faint, soft smile. "Do you love him?"

Lucy startled. "Wh-What? Natsu, where is this coming from?"

"Just answer me, honestly. Are you in love with him?" He stared searchingly at her. "I don't mean grow old together and hold hands and sit on porch swings love. I mean, does it make it easier to breathe when you see him? Does hearing his voice make your heart ache? Does getting up every morning make you excited because you get to see him?" He shook his head. "Would you let the whole world burn so you could kiss him?"

Her breath stuttered from her lips, where his eyes had settled now. "Natsu?" she whispered.

"I have a better question..." He raised his eyes to meet hers. "Do you love me?"

Her heart stopped in her chest.

He reached for her, his hands on her elbows, tugging her an inch closer. "Look me in the eye and tell me you don't love me... Say it and I'll walk away. I— I'll watch you marry him and I'll send you a completely over-the-top wedding gift. I'll congratulate you when you have children together and I'll stand back and watch you live your life with someone that isn't me. But if you can't, if you tell me that you love me even a little bit, then I'll do anything, everything to show you that I'm worth taking this risk for. That loving me and being with me and choosing me is worth it."

She stared up at him, her eyes wide, in a wedding dress meant for another man. And then he kissed her. He kissed her until her lips were swollen and her breath had left her and her heart beat right out of her chest and fit itself into his. He cradled her head, her hair coming loose around his fingers, and he kissed her with all the passion she'd once wanted for herself, until she felt the heat of it down to her toes, flaring across her skin until she was heady and unbalanced and desperate to claw the lace dress from her body just to feel his hands replace where it touched.

"Tell me," he said against her parted lips, breathing into her mouth, staring into her eyes.

A tear fell down her cheek. "I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you."

Lucy Heartfilia got married that day, in her mother's shoes, in a court house downtown, holding Natsu Dragneel's hand, with a proud Mira to bear witness.

He made sure she never regretted it.