Survive If You Can [UNDER EDITING/HIATUS]

Chapter 15|Faults and Burdens

After what happened earlier, the group continued their journey with Lucy using Natsu as her support while she kept on limping.

"You sure you don't want me to carry you again?" Natsu smirked with his hand ready to snake around her waist.

"No, thanks," she smirked back. "Not after you said I look fat before," she huffed and he responded with a laugh.

"Never thought Lucy would be the type of person to fall for that pink idiot," Gray confessed to Erza.

"Your shirt is gone by the way," Erza pointed out. Instead of looking down, he groaned thinking she was right. Erza just wanted him to look down so he'd miss the tree and hit it. Unfortunately for her, he avoided it, but fortunately for her, he believed her. That doesn't seem so fortunate, though.

Her mind suddenly remembered a past conversation she had with Zeref and Natsu. They were talking about their relationships before the apocalypse and Natsu had mentioned the name Lisanna. She knew it seemed familiar, so she asked, "Did Lisanna and Natsu started dating after I left for college?"

"Not really. Although it was obvious to everyone that they had feelings for each other, they never confessed. Even after we left for different colleges," he told. "But if I'm not wrong, they got accepted into the same college, so they probably went together."

"Natsu told me about his girlfriend before and he said her name was Lisanna."

"Really? Did they break up or something, because she's not here."

"She. . . she turned. . ." When Natsu said she turned before, she didn't feel anything, but now, after knowing who actually turned, her heart pained. All of those things the kind girl did for them.

She remembered that she had two siblings, though they didn't go to the same school for some reason.

"Oh. . ." he responded not knowing what would be the appropriate reply.

While they were conversing, Zeref was eavesdropping. He really wanted to meet this girl, but when he turned his head around, he was met with smiling faces from the blonde girl and his brother as they laugh about who knows what. They didn't look too bad to him. Maybe Natsu had one more chance after all.

"Where are we going exactly?" Sting asked the dazed black haired man. "What's our destination."

"I don't think we have one," Yukino replied.

"If you want to find Mavis, we can just go to Australia," Natsu said.

"Do you think it's easy? From here to there is a 14 hours flight, how long do you think it will take if we walk?" He shook his head, not knowing and Lucy sighed. "And since when does your brother have a wife?"

"We just never told you. She had to go work there for a few months, but. . . you know?" he replied referring to the plague.

"If you're going to Australia, I won't be following. I still have to find Kagura here," Erza stated. If they do have to split, she knew she would be upset, but she also knew that everybody had different plans.

"No, we're not going to Australia," Zeref told. "We're going to keep walking and see where this path takes us," he smiled, but behind it were doubts. He yearned to see his wife again, but he didn't want to regret it later when he visits her and she's gone. Instead of discovering whatever the truth was, he would rather believe that she was alive.

●●●

Immediately after finding a bench, Freed led his companions to it as Mira sat down with her brother carefully massaging her feet. Her eyes were tightly shut whilst she tried to ignore the pain below her stomach. Evergreen had also attempted to try and soothe her worries by massaging her shoulders-- which was strange, because she doesn't show her kind side often.