#ft ficlet

Chapter 9 of The Soul Mate Swap is up! Hope everyone enjoys it! Poor Natsu is having a rough go of it.

Link: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/11537861/9/The-Soul-Mate-Swap

Chapter 9

A/N: This chapter takes place at the same time as Chapter 1. It's only been a few months since Lisanna's death. This chapter coincides with Lucy's first Soul Mate Swap.

January 1, x784

It was a busy day at the Guild. Quite frankly, it was chaos every Soul Mate Swap.

Mira was racing back and forth, taking orders and filling drinks as fast as she could. Elfman was manning the grill, a steady string of curses grumbled under his breath. Gray was acting as bartender, looking as unfazed as always as he mixed drinks, ignoring the women who came to lean against the bar, hoping to catch his attention.

"Can I take your plates?" Natsu asked, not even waiting for a response as he yanked the plate away from a table full of boisterously loud men.

"We're not done!" one man shouted as Natsu walked away with his leftover French fries, but Natsu didn't pause to acknowledge him. He sat the plates in the sink with a little more force than what was necessary.

He returned to the dining area and weaved through the crowd to a table of gossiping teens. Ignoring their presence, he began wiping down the table.

"Hey!" One of the teens pounded her first on the table. "We're still sitting here!"

"You finished your food thirty minutes ago," Natsu said in a dead voice. "Now you're just taking a table away from someone who wants to eat."

The teen sneered, but the group got up and left, muttering about shitty customer service. But Natsu didn't care. He kept his back to them and continued cleaning, his face stony. He went back to the kitchen and sighed when he saw the overflowing sink full of dishes.

The clinking of dishes could be heard from the dining hall, causing Mira to shoot Gray a worried look. He just shrugged before he gave the cocktail he'd made to the flirty woman across the bar, and then walked into the kitchen. Elfman gave him a shrug when he walked by, not sure what had gotten into Natsu.

"You washing those dishes or breaking 'em?" Gray asked. He leaned against the door to the dish washing room, watching as Natsu practically slammed the plates down while washing them.

"Fuck off, Ice Breath," Natsu replied, not halting his work.

"Can you maybe take the attitude down a notch, jackass?" Gray snapped. "Mira and Elfman are working their asses off to keep this place running. No one needs your dramatics."

Natsu slammed a plate down, and then turned around to face the other man.

"What do you want from me?" Natsu growled back.

"Maybe be nicer to the customers and not kick them out of their table, huh? And maybe you shouldn't take their plates away while they're still fucking eating!" Gray said, his voice rising.

"Don't you have drinks to make? Just leave me the fuck alone."

Gray sighed. There was just no way to get through to this idiot.

"Just get your shit together Natsu," Gray said as he walked away.

Gray felt a little guilty. He knew Natsu wasn't handling Lisanna's death well, especially not tonight. In a few hours' time, the Soul Mate Swap would start. Gray didn't know what to expect. Lisanna had only passed away a few months ago. Gray snorted to himself as he continued mixing drinks. Natsu had always been emotionally constipated. It was no wonder he'd rather slam plates and pick fights with customer than just address his feelings, Gray thought to himself. He worried about tonight. How would Natsu handle his first Soul Mate Swap without Lisanna?

Near the end of Natsu's shift, Mira came to find him. She looked nervous as she approached him where he was washing dishes.

"What are you doing tonight?" Mira asked in a hesitant voice.

Natsu just shrugged.

"Laxus is having a party if you want to come along," Mira offered. "We'd love to see you. Gray said he might be there too."

Natsu made the mistake of looking into those pleading blue eyes and couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt. He knew he'd been avoiding, well, everyone if he were honest. But he'd particularly tried to avoid Mira and Elfman. It was only out of financial desperation that he even returned to work at the Guild. He heaved a sigh.

"Sure," he said. "Might as well."

"Great!" Mira said excitedly and gave Natsu a quick hug. "I'll see you then." She smiled sweetly at Natsu before returning to the bar.

Natsu sighed for probably the hundredth time that day. It was going to be a long night.

When Natsu arrived at the party, it was in full swing. Music poured out of the house, blasting some terrible music Laxus had no doubt picked out. Natsu rolled his eyes. The guy really had terrible taste in music. He cringed at the screaming voice coming from the speakers.

Mira enveloped Natsu in a long hug as soon as he arrived, going on about how much she'd missed having him around. She was eventually dragged away from Laxus, who didn't waste words on Natsu, only giving him a nod in greeting. He couldn't really expect more from Laxus. The two of them had had a "friendly" feud going since Natsu was a kid. While they were practically family, that didn't stop Natsu from always picking fights with the elder (and always getting his ass handed to him).

Natsu weaved his way through the crowd, being greeted here and there by friends and classmates. He didn't have the energy to provide much in the way of conversation. He checked his watch. About two hours until the Soul Mate Swap. He felt a knot in his stomach. What would happen? Would he swap with someone? He still struggled to wrap his head around the fact that he and Lisanna were not destined soul mates. He couldn't imagine loving anyone but her. It felt like a betrayal to her memory to even consider it. She had chosen him, right? That night that felt so long ago. Natsu felt a pang in his chest as he remembered.

Finding a spread of alcohol and food in the kitchen, Natsu quickly helped himself. He poured himself a shot of something, grimacing when he realized it was some sort of cotton candy vodka and didn't burn as much as he'd been hoping for. He browsed through the drinks, taking a shot here and there.

All the while, his thoughts circled around Lis. She had dragged him to so many parties just like this one. Why wasn't she here now? He should be swapping with her tonight, he thought dismally. Hell, he should have swapped with her a year ago. He never did find out who her bastard soul mate was. He downed another shot, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand.

"You keep up like that and you won't make it to midnight," a flirty voice said behind him.

Natsu spared a glance at the girl who had come up to stand close beside him, a coy smile on her face.

"That's the point," Natsu replied dismissively.

"Why don't you come drink with me and my friends?" the girl asked, eyeing him appreciatively. Natsu felt a twinge of irritation.

"Nah," Natsu replied, shrugging off her hand. He didn't even look away from the alcohol.

The girl scoffed.

"Suit yourself," she replied and wandered off.

The party went on, with Natsu downing drinks as quickly as he could get his hands on them. Gray showed up at some point and promptly picked a fight with Natsu. Mira was kept busy trying to keep the alcohol out of Natsu's hands and to keep him from actually battling Gray, but he was too determined. Mira just shook her head. At least he was out of his apartment, right? She wondered. This didn't really count as drinking alone, she tried to convince herself. Natsu is just…drinking himself into oblivion…alone… on a couch… at a party where he refuses to talk to anyone, Mira thought. She couldn't even convince herself that this was any sort of improvement. She instructed Laxus to keep an eye on him as much as he could. Laxus just grumbled. Natsu could get downright belligerent if anyone tried to interfere with his drinks.

Natsu was lying full-length on the couch, head leaning over the side as he tried to quell the nausea in his stomach. The crowd in the living room was chanting something he couldn't quite make out. The room was spinning. He was just thinking he should make his way to a bathroom or a sink or even a trash can when he suddenly felt a mysterious, intense pressure on his body, making him dry heave.

The next moment, he blinked to find himself standing in a crowd on what appeared to be a pier by the ocean. The air was salty, the breeze chilly, but it felt good. Natsu looked around curiously, noting that his nausea was gone, replaced instead by what felt like butterflies in his (well, his soul mate's) stomach. Around him was generalized chaos. There were a couple of girls standing beside him, but all three took off running in opposite directions. Many other people were running around as well. Some couples were kissing or hugging. Natsu snorted as he saw one of the girls quite skillfully climbing a flag pole, laughing uproariously. Huh. It was fascinating to him that she hadn't fallen flat on her ass.

Something fell in Natsu's face and he flinched before realizing it was his soul mate's long, golden hair. How troublesome, he thought as it whipped around him in the breeze. He kept trying to shove it out of his face but it stuck to something sticky on his lips. What was that? Lip gloss? Hmm, tastes fruity, he thought, licking the substance curiously.

Natsu shivered lightly and looked down curiously to find his soul mate was wearing a skirt. Natsu himself usually ran on the warm side and rarely experienced cold. But it was clear his soul mate wasn't dressed for the weather. He shook his head. He crossed his arms, trying to warm himself slightly. He wondered how long it had been and searched the girl's pockets until he found a phone. The picture on the screen was of a small, white dog. The clock on the screen didn't show the seconds, so he slipped the device back into his pocket. He sighed and looked around at the ocean beside them. He briefly wondered what city they were in. It looked rather familiar. Was this Hargeon or was he still in Magnolia? He looked around for some sort of indicator, but didn't find an answer.

Just as quickly as it had happened before, he felt a sudden, intense pressure return followed by roiling nausea and dizziness. Man, he'd forgotten the state of his own body. He found himself on the floor, dry heaving and coughing heavily from the intense nausea. Seated on the couch opposite him, Natsu saw Laxus staring at him with a furrowed brow as if thinking hard about something.

....