Learning How To Live [E.N.D. | NaLu]

11

NATSU

We finishing organizing the library in uncomfortable silence, and the train ride home was no better. Eventually, I made myself fall asleep, but I could still almost physically feel the tension between the two of us, and it was making me nervous.

As soon as the train stopped, I got off and quickly started on the path out of town and towards the forest. Erza ran up to me, putting a hand on my shoulder and turning me to face her. "Natsu, where are you going?" she asked cautiously, her eyebrows furrowed in concern.

I forced a small smile. "I just need a minute," I whispered, glancing at Gray. I turned and walked away, but I could feel Gray's eyes burning into the back of my head until I disappeared from sight.

LUCY

The three remaining members of our team walked back to the guild quietly. I'd tried to see what Natsu was thinking or planning, but he put up a high wall that I couldn't see over, trying to reassure my worries by simply saying he needed time alone.

When we were just about to enter the guild, I waved Gray towards me. Erza looked confused, but I just told her to go inside and that we'd be in soon. Gray crossed his arms, leaning against the wall nonchalantly. "What happened?" I asked sternly.

"What do you mean?" he asked with faux confusion.

"It was pretty obvious something happened in there," I said. "Just tell me what it was."

He sighed, uncrossing his arms as he dropped his façade. "While we were organizing, I found a table with nearly every book of Zeref I'd ever heard of on it," Gray said simply, as if the find was normal. I was about to destroy them, but he stopped me." Gray's face twisted. "I could've killed them all, but he didn't let me."

"Relay the conversation, please," I demanded.

Gray muttered something under his breath that I couldn't quite hear. "Well, E.N.D. was the one I tried to destroy first. That was the one he grabbed out of the fire." He pushed his hair out of his face in distress. "He said it wasn't as evil as I thought." His eyes were wild with frustration. "He said the thing with more power than Zeref, the most evil demon in existence, wasn't as bad as I thought." Gray was shaking, and his fists were clenched to the point that his knuckles turned white.

I stayed silent in the presence of his boiling anger for a moment. "Gray, what if he's right?" I proposed quietly. Gray looked at me in sheer disbelief. "I mean," I started, trying to fix what I'd said, "he's been who knows where, and he knows things we don't know. What if he knows something about E.N.D. that we don't? Have you considered yet that he might actually be right?"

Gray looked at me as if I'd betrayed him. "I'm not believing him until he gives me proof. Until he can prove to me that the thing my father spent his life trying to kill isn't evil, I'm not going to stop trying to kill it." And with that, Gray stormed into the guild.

I sighed, a bit worn out from the job and the drama. Slowly, I trudged home, looking forward to relaxing a little.

I lowered myself into warm water, feeling instant relief in my tense muscles. I sat there silently, wondering what Natsu was doing, and where he was. I furrowed my eyebrows, trying to reach into his consciousness, but there was nothing but a thick fog I couldn't penetrate. I closed my eyes in resignation. "He'll come back," I muttered to myself, trying to convince myself that it was true.

As I closed my eyes, the scene Gray described played through my mind. I kept trying to think of reasons Natsu would know things we didn't, but couldn't find any. He couldn't have met demons who knew E.N.D.; from what I understood, all the demons in the underground hideout had been humans before, and the books of Zeref had never been human. He couldn't have met the demon himself, because he was still locked up inside that book until Zeref decided to let him out. The only thing I could think of was that the cult members had told him things about E.N.D., but even then, I knew Natsu wouldn't believe something like that unless he knew for a fact it was true; he certainly wouldn't take some deranged cult member's word for it.