Back to the Start(nalu)

7- What Matters Now

I race down the street, turning down the corner they had disappeared around.

I don't know what I'm even doing or what is even happening, but no matter how unlikely it is I can't help but have a need to see. I just want to see her.

There's a crowd of girls up ahead all circled around. I pick up the pace, my adrenaline high, and break through the crowd of girls as soon as I get to it. A few girls stumble back as I push through the crowd to get to the center but I pay it no mind.

When I make it through the people I fall to the ground from a sudden lack of resistance. A silence travels through the crowd as they all stare at me in surprise and anger for the distraction. Unlike the actual day I was here, this time I brush my eyes right past the fake Salamander, ignoring him completely. Last time what was important was keeping him from slandering my name, but that is hardly important anymore. I look all around me, giving a quick glance to each person to see if they're who I'm looking for. Many of the people I glance at have glares on their faces directed at me but I ignore them all.

None of this makes sense. Absolutely none of it...but I've never been much for things making sense.

My eyes stop moving and they lock onto a girl standing slightly in front of the rest, one hand clutched to her chest. Her brown eyes start to reappear out of the cloudy set that were there from the love charm the fake Salamander had put her under. Her face is is a look of surprise and confusion.

It's her. It's really her.

Lucy's here. I can see her chest move up and down slightly as she breaths and her eyes blink.

Why should it matter if being here makes sense or not when being around Lucy is the only thing that could possibly make sense to me now? Doing anything else just wouldn't matter.

My hands grow clammy and I gulp nervously. My feet are stuck in their spot, a strange feeling keeping me from moving. Part of it is shock and some of it is fear. I'm scared that if I even breath this dream will go away and I'll wake up to a dark, lonely apartment.

Lucy's defenses go up and she takes on step back, ready to move. Her hand drops from her chest and moves to rest on the keys that are at her side. Something clicks inside of me and my previous fear gets washed away by the feelings of grief and desperation that come pouring in.

A desperate feeling to touch her skin, to feel the warmth of Lucy's living self rather than the coldness that's been stuck in my mind from the last time I had touched her, always causing a chill to run up my spine anytime the memory flashes by. I don't want that to be the last thing I remember of her.

I take one step towards her, all logical thinking put to the side as her name starts to come out of my mouth.

"Lu-"

"Hey!"

A sharp pain flares in my cheek and my vision blurs. I fall to the ground and a bunch of charmed girls attack me. My arms cover my face instinctively and I take the beating. It goes on for about half a minute before the yelling stops and footsteps fade away as they leave, probably following fake Salamander.

I slowly sit up and sigh.

"Are you alright, Natsu?"

Happy appears beside me and I nod my head. A couple of tears slide down my cheeks and Happy looks at me in surprise.

"You're crying?! I didn't think they hit you that hard."

I ignore him and wipe my cheeks with my hands.

It wasn't from those girls. That didn't matter. These tears are because of Lucy. Seeing her alive like that right now makes the weight of her death so much heavier...but I can't tell Happy that so instead he goes on thinking I was hit too hard.

We sit there in silence for a minute while I think in my head.

Where did she go?

Surely she didn't follow the other girls because the charm broke after I barged in and she ended up thanking me for it after...

As soon as I have the realization somebody taps my shoulder and my body goes rigid in shock. My head perks up abruptly and I turn around to the source. I take a sharp intake of breath when I see her from so close.

"Thank you for your help!"

Her voice rings through my head. Her sweet voice soothing the headache that's been present since the incident.

She's here.

She's really here.

I'm here in that day three years ago. The day that I had met her all through coincidence.

Her appearance is slightly different now and her outfit brings a feeling of nostalgia. Her hair is a little shorter than it was. It only reaches about midway past her shoulder blades. Her face looks more childlike. Her cheeks are slightly rounder and eyes are barely wider.

I never realized that she had changed in three years. I was around her so much that the differences just came gradually.

"That guy was a real creep, huh?"

I snap out of my trance to see her looking off in another direction, probably wherever the fake salamander ran off to.

I don't know how I got here, but it doesn't matter.

She looks back to me and smiles again.

"My name's Lucy!"

She's what matters right now.