The train slowed down gradually until it came to a complete stop, releasing a long hiss of steam before the doors opened.
The name "Acalypha" was engraved in simple letters on the platform sign, already a bit worn by time.
The city was smaller than Magnolia, and much quieter. The light stone streets extended in an organized manner, lined with low houses and old buildings, many of them with facades covered in ivy. There was none of the typical bustle of a tourist town, just the movement of local residents going about their routines.
Lucy and Natsu walked side by side through the city.
On the way, they stopped at a small flower shop near the central square. Lucy chose simple flowers in shades of white and lilac, holding the bouquet with care, as if it required more delicacy than any magic she had ever used. In a way, it was true. Those flowers weren't just flowers; they were for her parents' grave.
Her parents, Layla and Jude Heartfilia, had been successful members of the Love & Lucky guild, but they decided to leave it after Layla's pregnancy with Lucy. Their daughter's name was chosen, inspired by the absence of the letter "K" on the guild's sign, a small detail that, for them, had meant something greater. During the time they were still part of Love & Lucky, the couple accumulated a considerable amount of money and experience, which allowed them to found a powerful and extremely wealthy organization: the Heartfilia Konzern.
Years later, the old guild suffered an invasion by a Dark Guild, precisely when Jude was returning with the intention of recovering his fortune and reassuming control of the Heartfilia Konzern. Lucy, however, arrived before him. Alone, she defeated all the Dark Mages, in a confrontation that would mark a turning point in her life. It was from that moment that father and daughter began, slowly, to mend their relationship broken by time and her father's poor choices.
Now, however, none of that made a difference.
Her father was dead.
Just as her mother had died much longer ago....
The cemetery was located in an elevated area, away from the center. An old iron gate creaked slightly when pushed, revealing a wide, well-maintained grounds with organized rows of headstones surrounded by tall trees that filtered the sunlight.
The air was calm, almost solemn, laden with a silence that didn't oppress, but merely observed.
Lucy walked until she stopped in front of two graves side by side.
The surname Heartfilia was engraved there.
She took a deep breath, took a few steps forward, and knelt before the headstones. Carefully, she placed the flowers in the center, arranging them with trembling hands.
Natsu remained right behind her, in silence, respecting that moment without stepping too far away.
The wind gently rustled the leaves of the trees.
Neither of them said anything for a while.
Lucy was the first to break the silence.
"When I was a child... I didn't like my father very much."
Her voice came out low, without resentment, just honest.
"After the Phantom Lord... I was angry at him for a long time. I thought he would never change." She lightly squeezed the fabric of her skirt between her fingers. "But after the incident with the Dark Guild that attacked the old guild he and my mother were part of... things started to get better. He tried. For real."
She lowered her gaze to the flowers.
"Even so... I'm sad. Very. But... I can't cry."
There was a small silence before she continued, the doubt slipping out almost unnoticed.
"Sometimes I wonder if that means that, deep down, I still hate him."
Natsu took a few steps forward and crouched down beside her, getting to the same height. He rested one elbow on his knee, looking at the graves before turning his face to Lucy.
"Not crying doesn't mean that."
Lucy stared at him, surprised by the calm firmness in his voice.
"Everyone deals with sadness in the way they can...." He continued, without haste: "Some people cry. Some people stay silent. Some people just feel a strange emptiness in their chest and don't even know how to explain it. Human emotions are complicated. Sometimes the pain doesn't come out through the eyes. Sometimes it just stays there, heavy, taking up space. That doesn't invalidate what you feel. It doesn't make you a bad person. It just makes you human."
Lucy felt her chest tighten even more.
She didn't cry.
But her heart beat strongly.
The way he spoke, without judgment, without trying to fix anything by force, made something inside her warm up even amid the sadness. She quickly looked away, feeling her face heat up, trying to contain that confusing sensation that mixed pain and something very close to deep affection.... He really had changed a lot, had become a real man....
"Thank you..." She murmured, her voice a little lower.
Natsu kept his gaze on the graves for a few more seconds before speaking again, his voice a little lower:
"No problem... I've never been very good with words, much less with feelings. Before, I was even worse. You know how I used to be." He lightly scratched the back of his neck, looking away for a moment. "Now I'm learning to deal with these things. So... sometimes I talk too much, like now or in various moments in the last week, or I end up expressing myself in a strange way. But that doesn't mean I don't understand what you're feeling."
Lucy slowly raised her eyes, finding his figure. The way Natsu avoided looking at her directly, as if afraid of saying something wrong, made the knot in her throat tighten even more...
"You've really matured, Natsu... I thought you were very good with words, and I understood exactly what you meant. Everyone feels in a different way. My not crying doesn't diminish my grief...." She closed her eyes for a moment and said with a slightly faltering voice: "I wish I had said more things to him... Now I can't anymore."
Natsu moved a little closer, the movement careful, almost imperceptible.
"Even if you didn't say it out loud, it doesn't disappear." He spoke softly. "Feelings don't always need words to exist."
For a few seconds, Lucy remained still. Her body tense, as if holding something with all her strength. Then, suddenly, the resistance gave way.
The tears came.
First silent, then more intense, escaping without her being able to stop them. Her shoulders began to tremble, her breathing became irregular, and she brought a hand to her face in a useless attempt to contain the crying.
Natsu said nothing.
He just extended his arm and pulled her carefully, wrapping her in a gentle embrace, firm enough to convey presence, but gentle enough not to suffocate her. Lucy hesitated for a brief second before leaning against him, burying her face in his chest.
And then she cried for real.
The crying came out heavy, laden, as if everything she had held back since her father's death finally found a breach to escape. Her fingers clenched in his shirt, seeking support, while the tears soaked the fabric.
Natsu remained there, still, one hand resting on her back, making a slow and constant caress, as if saying without words that he wouldn't go anywhere.
.
.
.
.
.
Time passed almost imperceptibly until Lucy's crying subsided completely. When she finally pulled away a little, her eyes still red, she breathed deeply, as if relearning to keep air in her lungs.
Natsu said nothing.
He just remained by her side until he felt it was enough.
After a few minutes, Lucy stood up slowly, wiping her face with the back of her hand. She cast one last look at the graves, silent, laden with things that didn't need to be said.
"Shall we go?" Natsu asked softly.
Lucy nodded.
They left the cemetery the same way they entered, in silence. The iron gate creaked again when closed, and the sound echoed briefly before disappearing among the trees. The way back through the city seemed longer, perhaps because Lucy was quieter, her body a little hunched, basically with "despondency" stamped on her forehead.
Natsu walked beside her, without hurrying his step, naturally matching her pace.
Acalypha remained calm. Some people passed by them, greeting each other in low voices, children ran through the square, oblivious to everything. Life went on, indifferent and constant, as it always did.
When they arrived at the station, the movement was moderate. The train to Magnolia would still take a few minutes to arrive. Lucy sat on one of the wooden benches on the platform, looking at the tracks with a distant expression.
Natsu leaned against a nearby column, crossing his arms.
"Sorry." Lucy said suddenly, without looking at him.
"For what?" Natsu replied.
"For getting like that. I know it's not easy to deal with this...."
Natsu gave a discreet half-smile.
"You don't need to apologize. Really." He tilted his head slightly. "I just stayed there. You did all the rest yourself."
She breathed deeply, nodding in silence.
The train whistle sounded shortly after, and soon the composition appeared in the distance.
When they boarded, the car was less crowded than in the morning.
They sat side by side again, Lucy by the window and Natsu sitting next to her.
The train began to move.
For a few minutes, neither of them said anything. Lucy watched the landscape pass slowly, green fields replacing the city, while trying to organize her own thoughts. The emotional exhaustion was evident, but there was something different in her expression.....
Natsu decided to break the silence by using the environment to his advantage to say something completely random; he pointed out the window and said: "Look at that. It looks like a whole village built around that lake."
Lucy followed his gaze and leaned a little to see better.
"It's beautiful." She commented. "I never noticed this part of the route."
"I believe that's the beauty of traveling without haste, something I've learned to appreciate a lot lately, since my trip with Juvia..." Natsu replied calmly: "When we run too much, we miss a lot of things...."
"..." Lucy observed him for a few seconds before speaking. "Are you really the same Natsu I knew?"
She looked away for a moment, turning back to face him soon after.
"In the past, you hated wasting time. You always wanted to go as fast as possible to the mission or rush back to the Guild. You were never the type to stop and appreciate landscapes or places..."
That doubt had been accompanying her for days, hammering in her thoughts throughout the last week. It was still hard to get used to the idea that someone so close, someone she had known for so many years, had changed in that way. It wasn't just her who felt that; even the rest of the Guild commented, in silence or in whispers, on how much the "guy" seemed different. Sometimes, he even seemed like another person. Especially for those who had known him since childhood, it was strange to see him like that. Natsu had always been someone who seemed incapable of fully maturing, no matter how much the world tried to force him.
All they could point to as the cause was the death of Happy, someone who had been practically a son to Natsu. His best friend, his constant companion. Deep down, everyone knew that losing someone like that couldn't pass without leaving marks. After all, how could someone who loses something so important not change, at least a little? Thinking otherwise seemed naive, almost foolish. That was precisely the beauty of people: they changed. They weren't like the characters in the books she wrote.
Despite that, she still asked that "question" with a certain insecurity, because her feelings about it were confused. She missed the old Natsu, that direct and carefree impulse, but at the same time, she was happy to see him more mature. This change made something possible that before seemed distant: the chance for her romantic feelings for him to finally be reciprocated. Still, she didn't have the courage to "take that step" in their relationship. It wasn't the right time. There were too many things in process, wounds that hadn't yet healed. Natsu was still changing, trying to move forward after losing Happy. And she herself also carried her losses: she had lost her father... and Happy, who had also been her friend....
"... Of course it's me." Natsu replied with a forced smile: "One of the things I learned from losing Happy is that we only live once. We need to make the most of the life we have now, because we never know when everything can end. That's why I started thinking more carefully about the things I still want to do: get a girlfriend, or maybe two, travel the whole world and see everything it has to offer..."
Lucy froze for an instant.
It wasn't something immediately noticeable. Her body just stiffened slightly, almost imperceptibly, while her gaze remained fixed on the landscape beyond the window, though she no longer truly saw it. His words echoed in her mind in a strange, displaced way, as if they didn't belong to that moment.
Or maybe two...
Two girlfriends...?
So that's it? He didn't think about having just one?
The idea hit her harder than she expected.
Had he become a womanizer...?
Her heart gave an uncomfortable leap in her chest. The sadness she had been carrying until then was pushed to the back, replaced by a tight feeling in her stomach, almost suffocating. No woman likes the idea of sharing the man she loves, and she was no exception.
She blinked a few times, as if that simple gesture could reorganize her own thoughts, but it didn't help. The confusion persisted, heavy and uncomfortable....
A brief silence settled between the two, denser than the previous ones. The sound of the train running over the tracks suddenly seemed too loud, filling the space that no words could occupy.
Lucy took a deep breath before speaking, choosing her words carefully.
"Two girlfriends?" She asked, her tone too neutral for someone trying to seem indifferent.
Natsu turned his face toward her, finally noticing the subtle change in her posture. The sudden silence, the slightly rigid body... something was wrong. He took a second to respond, as if mentally revisiting his own comment.
"Ah... I was just saying...." He said finally, scratching the back of his neck again, visibly awkward. "It's not like I want to be selfish or hurt anyone. I'm not saying I'm going to go around collecting girlfriends like trophies, like Gildarts does. That would be stupid. And wrong."
He let out a short sigh before continuing, now more serious.
"If something like that happened... like, me ending up involved with more than one person... it would have to be with everyone's consent. I wouldn't deceive any of the parties involved and would make it clear that both would be my women. But, being honest, Lucy... I don't even know if that's something for me. It was just a silly thought that came up when I was talking about making the most of life. Nothing more than that. Sorry if it sounded strange...."
Wanting more than one woman was, deep down, a common desire among most men. He was no different. The difference was that he didn't want to hide it, nor push someone into a situation they weren't prepared for. Mentioning this topic now wasn't impulsiveness, but a choice. He wanted to make his intentions clear from the start.
He knew that Lucy had feelings for him. Precisely because of that, he thought it was important to be honest before anything advanced too far. Making this point explicit early on would prevent her from getting emotionally involved without fully understanding the kind of relationship he might offer. For him, it was better to deal with possible discomfort now than to cause much greater pain in the future.
It wasn't about selfishness, but responsibility. If someone chose to stay by his side, they should do so of their own free will, with full awareness of what they were accepting and not because of expectations created in silence.
Lucy blinked a few times, processing each word.
The tightness in her chest eased gradually, as if someone had loosened an invisible knot. The suffocating sensation gave way to something more confused, an unexpected mix of relief and curiosity. That response wasn't what she imagined hearing. There was no arrogance, no disregard... just raw, awkward sincerity, typically his.
And that, somehow, left her even more unsure of what to feel.
She took a deep breath, letting the air out slowly, as if only then realizing she had been holding her breath. Her body relaxed a bit against the train seat, though her heart still beat faster than normal. After a few seconds, she ended up admitting:
"I... was surprised. When you said that, I thought you were speaking lightly, as if you didn't take that kind of thing seriously. But the way you explained it now... it doesn't seem like that."
Still, Lucy knew she wasn't in a condition to think about that subject clearly. The pain from losing her father was still recent, too heavy to ignore. And, added to that, there was the fact that the man she was in love with had admitted the possibility of wanting more than one girlfriend.
It was too much information to process all at once. Her feelings were confused, mixed between grief, affection, and an insecurity she still didn't know how to name. That had been, without a doubt, the worst possible time to admit out loud something that should have remained only in her thoughts. In such a delicate moment, talking about wanting more than one woman only made everything more confusing and heavier than it already was.....
______________________
(A/N: Did you enjoy the chapter? Then you should know that over on my Patreon you can read up to 10 chapters ahead for just 5USD! And yes—for that price, you also get full access to all of my content. That's right: cheaper than a snack… and with way more drama, action, and guaranteed emotional damage.
The link is right below. See you there!
My Patreon: patreon.com/Adam_Kadmon
Thank you so much for your support — you make all of this worthwhile.)