#daily2020

Fairy Tail  100 Year Quest / Lucy Heartfilia POV / NaLu & Nasha

Spoilers for 100YQ ch. 65-67

~

"For the last time, Natsu, we are not taking Nasha back home with us."

"But Lucy…" Natsu whines quietly, arms wrapped securely around the sleeping girl in his arms.

Dear Gods above, Lucy prays, looking up at the sky for strength. This boy… She takes a deep, calming breath, looking at the picture the two in front of her make. Yes, Natsu would probably make an amazing (if extremely enabling) father. And Nasha is… well. Maybe Lucy wouldn't mind it, having such a lovely girl as her daughter (mortifying as the thought of what is implied in the process as it may be).

"Think about it this way," she whispers to Natsu as she reaches over to gently brush a few locks of pink hair out of Nasha's face. The girl doesn't so much as stir. "How would you feel, if she were ours and Edolas' Natsu came and whisked her away?" She can feel her face heating up with every word, but she doesn't stop. "Natsu… Wouldn't you be upset?"

That makes Natsu look up sharply, something almost feral in his eyes. "I'd burn him to ash if he tried." And yeah, okay, that's Lucy having a bit of a hard time breathing right there. 

Still, she swallows past the wave of heat crawling through her and, wetting her lips, Lucy says, "See? So, we can't take her with us. He probably feels the same."

Natsu looks back down at Nasha and deflates a little, the sudden fight in him gone. "Yeah, alright." 

Lucy breathes a sigh of relief.

It doesn't last long.

Fairy Tail / Lucy POV / (very light) NaLu

~

It's rare, she thinks, that a day like today occurs.

A day where Lucy can just breathe, can just sit in her apartment, and read, and write, and just, be. No fuss, no chaos, no uninvited guests. No end of the world plots she has to go help in stopping. 

Just her, and her own thoughts.

Just her, and the quiet of her home.

It's nice.

She knows her friends would think it's lonely (Levy), or boring (Natsu), but honestly? With the agitated life she leads every day, with the way she barely has time to inhale between one near doomsday and the next, she thinks a little boring loneliness does her a world of good.

Not that she feels bored. Or lonely, for that matter. Those were for a younger Lucy, who ached for adventure, and for constant company. The Lucy of today embraces and cherishes her rare days home alone.

Now, in the waning light of oncoming twilight, she sits by her open window, and lets the warm, gentle wind caress her face, twist through her hair. 

"Hey, Lucy," she hears, and it almost breaks her peaceful state of mind. She opens her eyes. Natsu and Happy are standing in the street outside her window. Natsu's hair looks ablaze in the orange light. (It feels like a scene from one of her romance novels, Lucy thinks, and smiles.)

"Hey," she greets. 

There's a funny look on Natsu's face. "Found us a job for tomorrow," he says. Happy adds, "Train leaves at ten a.m.," from his perch on Natsu's shoulder.

Lucy blinks. She'd have thought they'd just barge in and drag her away. "Tomorrow?"

Natsu shrugs. "You're having one of your days off today, right? It can wait."

Honestly, Lucy should stop being so surprised when Natsu's being thoughtful. It's not such a rare thing anymore.  "Alright," she says. "Thanks. I'll… see you in the morning?"

Natsu nods, and throws a hand up to wave. Happy does, too. "See ya."

Lucy watches them leave. Then, when she can't see them anymore, she looks up at the colorful sunset.

Fairy Tail / Natsu POV /NaLu

~

He doesn't even mean to say it, when it leaves his mouth, it just comes out. 

He and Lucy have been hanging out for the evening, Happy, the traitor, having ditched them to go and spend time with Charle, and they've been talking and playing cards (though not strip poker because Lucy's a coward).

And perhaps it was because of the way Lucy's shirt (for once not skin-tight) was hanging around her belly, or maybe because of the way her cheeks were puffing in a vexed huff as she looked at the cards in her hands, but suddenly, Natsu wondered. Out loud, too.

"I wonder what you'd look like, with your belly full of Nashi."

Lucy, as always, because she is a weirdo (as much as he loves her, she is), just gapes at him, and then starts sputtering, face turning redder than Erza's hair. "What?!" she asks. Shrieks, more like.

Natsu shrugs. "You'd be so round!" He grins at the image that pops into his head - Lucy in a pink summer dress, belly huge, sitting under a rainbow sakura tree, a soft look on her face. He likes the image. He likes the idea. 

Lucy looks at him, still in complete astonishment. Natsu takes the opportunity to win the card game.

Scumbag System / SVSS / Shen Qingqiu POV / BingQiu

~

"Why are you crying? What has this master done for you to cry so bitterly?"

Luo Binghe hiccups, turns pouty lips and big, wet eyes on him, and Shen Qingqiu can't help rushing to his side. "What is it? Tell me."

He runs careful fingers over Binghe's cheeks, wiping the tears away even as more keep falling, before taking his face between his palms and placing a featherlight kiss to the crimson demon mark on his forehead. 

Binghe hiccups again, shuddering under Shen Qingqiu's gentle touch. "Shizun," he mumbles, hands coming up to grasp at Shen Qingqiu's robes. "Shizun, Shizun, Shizun…" 

The bamboo hut around them is quiet, their breaths and Luo Binghe's sniffles and mumbles the only sounds that can be heard, and it feels like they're in a bubble, like they're the only ones in the world. It settles something in Shen Qingqiu's chest, the wild thing that had reared its head at his husband's distress, and he's able to think a little bit clearer now.

"I was only gone for a little while," he murmurs into Binghe's hair. "Tell this husband what happened?" 

Luo Binghe nuzzles his face even closer into his robes and when he speaks, Shen Qingqiu almost misses it, it's so quiet. "I had a nightmare. Shizun was… Shizun was like before. Cold. And this disciple did horrible things to Shizun in retaliation." He clings tighter. "Shizun died by my hand. I kept trying to make myself stop but I couldn't. I couldn't, Shizun."

Shen Qingqiu's heart beats like a wardrum in his chest, because that sounds like… Oh, how that sounds like. But it was just a dream. It was just… 

That timeline didn't happen, nothing of that horrid storyline happened. They're both alive, and they're here and they're together, and they are so much better than those versions of them ever were. "It's alright, Binghe," he soothes, because it really is. "It was just a dream. I am here. I am alive. I am alright. We are alright, my husband. So, no more tears."

Fairy Tail  100 Year Quest / Natsu Dragneel POV / Natsu Dragion / NaLu

Spoilers for 100YQ ch. 65-66

~

"It's weird, seeing you two like that."

"Hm? Weird?"

"You and Lucy. And the kid, too."

"Ah. Is it? So weird? It actually feels like the most natural things in the world to me."

Fairy Tail  100 Year Quest / Lucy Heartfilia POV / Levy McGarden / NaLu

Spoilers for 100YQ ch. 65-66

~

“So, Lu-chan, when are you guys getting married?” 

She almost trips on empty air. 

Alright, so that came out of nowhere. Lucy looks at Levy, at her sweet, very much not innocent smile, and feels something hot and prickly crawl up her neck and settle in her cheeks. Dammit.

Fairy Tail / Lucy POV / NaLu

Spoilers for 100 Year Quest, ch.66

~

Honestly, it's like her heart is just about ready to beat right out of her chest, her face so hot it's probably glowing, knowing her luck, and Lucy is pretty sure she'll never be able to look Natsu properly in the eyes again. 

''We were alone in a car and he, y'know, came onto me pretty strong,'' her other self had said, when Lucy'd asked about her and her own Natsu, and the words have been echoing over and over in her head for the past couple of hours now.

She looks up and ahead, to where Natsu, her Natsu (no, no, not mine, he's not, it's not like-) is walking and arguing with an amused looking Gray.

It's different, she tells herself, ignoring the growing supernova in her chest and in her gut. This Natsu is different, and I am, too. Things are… She sighs, and looks up at the sky. 

Suddenly, viscerally, achingly, she wishes she could see her mother. Or maybe Aquarius. "It'll never be like that, with us," she mumbles under her breath. 

Fairy Tail / Lucy POV / NaLu (implied)

Inspired by 100YQ chapter 65 spoilers!

~

It's a dream she mostly forgets by the time she wakes up.

A little girl at her heels, wild, pink hair, big brown eyes, cheerful, cheeky grin. Lucy's chest swells with adoration, and with pride, and with longing, just looking at her. She would tear the world apart for this child.

'Mama,' the little one says, reaching for her with her tiny hands. 'Mama, up. Up.'

And Lucy gathers her into her arms with a fond huff, pressing her face into the girl's shoulder, and breathing her in. She smells like ash and stardust and cherry blossoms, and it's the most beautiful scent Lucy has ever known.

'Mama, when is papa coming home?' her child asks, skinny arms around Lucy's shoulders, small fingers playing with the ends of Lucy's hair. 'He promised to play with me after my afternoon nap.'

Lucy bites her lip, because where is that man? Honestly… He should've been back by now. 'Don't worry, sweetheart,' she says, pressing a kiss to the corner of the little girl's eye. 'I'm sure he's almost home. He promised, didn't he?'

But she hasn't even finished talking, and her daughter's face already perks up as she looks at something- no, someone behind Lucy. Her smile turns blinding, like- 'Papa!' 

Lucy lets her squirming daughter down, lets her run as fast as her little legs can carry her. 

And by the door, leaning against the frame with a cocky grin, Natsu waits, just for a split second, before crouching, picking the girl up, and swinging her into the air.

Their laughter is absolutely infectious.

And as Lucy steps closer, ready to join them in their giddiness, the world, the dream starts dissolving, turning gold around the edges, and then dark.