Maybe it was due to all the excitement from the previous days, but everyone seemed fine just having a chill day relaxing in the resort suite. We already spent half the day playing Twister and baking brownies. Well, maybe I should say almost baking brownies. After two attempts with two packages of brownie mix the girls told us they couldn't salvage it because there was nothing to salvage. The mix wasn't turning out the consistency it should have apparently. The first batch had too much flour and was behaving like dried out clay, while the second batch felt like whisked eggs. Eventually, after lunch, Gray kicked back on the couch and was joined by Juvia and GaLe, which quickly turned into Juvia kicking all their asses continuously in Mario Kart. Cana, Mira, and Laxus seemed to be wrapped up in a very intense card game, which I sincerely hope does not involve gambling.
"Hey Natsu, Lucy. Join us!" Mira calls out to us, beckoning us over to the dining table.
"What game are you playing?" Lucy asks. Cana lifts up the cover of the card box, and I read 'Cards Against Humanity,' a familiar feeling of dread appearing in my lower gut. Luce and I slowly sit down at the table, and Cana deals us in.
"We've played about five rounds so far. You guys know how to play?" We both nod, and Cana looks satisfied. "I have two points, Laxus has three, and Mira has one. Laxus is judging."
The black card on the table reads: What would grandma find disturbing, yet oddly charming?
I check my ten white cards, and resist the urge to look over at Lucy's hand. Raising my eyebrow at more than half of my cards I decide to put my game face on. What would grandma find disturbing, yet oddly charming? Shrugging, I put down a card I hope will make Laxus laugh.
Collecting the cards together like a poker player taking the pot, he shuffles them and reads them out loud. "What would grandma find disturbing, yet oddly charming?
"The gays.
"Republicans.
"Natural male enhancement.
"German dungeon porn."
Laxus has appropriate and unique reactions to each card, but he hesitates over just one of them. "I think German dungeon porn wins this one," he finishes with a chuckle.
"Yes!" I exclaim, my excitement building with the thrill of my win.
"Oh come on," Cana reasons, "not natural male enhancement?" Laxus just smiles and hands me the black card.
"Natsu judges next!" Mira says, drawing another white card. I pick a black card that reads: What will always get you laid? My face flushes, but hopefully the rest are too busy picking white cards to notice.
Gathering the cards in my hand I bask in the power I hold. Slowly, I read them out. "What will always get you laid?
"Sexual peeing.
"Getting naked and watching Nickelodeon.
"Getting really high.
"Making a pouty face."
I contemplate the cards in front of me laughing uncontrollably at all of them. "I think making a pouty face wins!" I laugh. "Although sexual peeing was a close second." My eyebrows raise as Lucy sheepishly reaches for the black card and counts it as her first win.
"Getting really high always got me laid," Laxus mutters.
"Why not sexual peeing?" Mira asks with a pout.
"Ahh come on, pout to your boyfriend at least," I reply, making everyone laugh.
After a couple more rounds the points stack up as so: Laxus- 4, Mira- 2, Cana- 3, Lucy- 2, Me- 2. I can feel the energy around us making us act sillier than usual.
"My turn to judge!" Cana says in a sing-song way. "Blank: kid-tested, mother-approved. Dang it, I have a really good white card for this one. Let's see those white cards!
"Child beauty pageants.
"Cards Against Humanity.
"A bitch slap.
"50,000 volts straight to the nipples... okay that one wins for sure!" She collapses into giggles. With a look of pure victory, Laxus silently adds the black card to his small pile.
With Laxus judging again, I frown at the perfectly good white card I wasted. A bitch slap could have totally won that one! Oh well, the next black card reads: What never fails to liven up the party?
"Expecting a burp and vomiting on the floor.
"Hot cheese.
"Not wearing pants.
"Dying.
"I think dying wins," Laxus says, breaking a smile and then laughing in a way I haven't heard him laugh until today.
"FINE LAXUS I GUESS YOU'LL BE DYING AT MY NEXT PARTY," Cana exclaims as Lucy takes the black card.
"Hot cheese sure would liven up my party," I say with a smile, even though that wasn't my card.
"I'm judging again!" Luce smiles. "The black card is... What ended my last relationship?" Her voice trails off, but her smile never fades. I pick my card carefully.
"Whipping it out." I can't help but laugh at my own card. Don't judge me.
"Erectile dysfunction." One look at Mira and I can tell that's her card.
"Preteens." For some reason my mind shifts to that night with Lucy when I thought I lost Happy, but we found him again with Romeo and Wendy. We seemed to make up after a hard time, and almost kissed that night. Maybe if the card was 'What majorly cockblocked me?' Lucy would pick that. I laugh out loud at my idiotic thoughts, but thankfully they're disguised as laughing at the cards.
"Daddy issues. Daddy issues definitely wins." Lucy says, her face smiling to the breaking point. Laxus takes the black card, ignoring the stares Mira and Cana are giving him. "I um, have to check on something. I'll be right back guys." Lucy pushes her chair back a little and leaves her cards on the table. She heads over to the girls' room, and I begin to follow her.
"What, did Lucy pout at you or something?" Cana teases. Embarrassed, I sit back down with my back to the rest of the room, but don't pay as much attention to the game.
"The new black card is: What is Batman's guilty pleasure?" Laxus reads out loud. I play two more rounds of the game before leaving Cana, Mira, and Laxus to play themselves for however many rounds they please.
I spin in a small circle, having lost track of Lucy. Maybe she's in the girls' bedroom. Juvia is still kicking ass, showing up the rest on how to play video games, but this time they're playing New Super Mario Bros. U. I guess I can understand how Lucy felt if she just needed some alone time. Taking a look at each of my friends, I walk over to the sliding glass door that opens out to the balcony. I close it behind me and lean against the railing, breathing in the cool breeze. The beach where we were yesterday looks so tiny from up here. Thick clouds hide the sun, and the other smaller, uninhabited islands are visible out at sea, looking farther away than they really are. I gently close my eyes and take in the sounds of the ocean, birds, and... talking?
Above me I hear a voice which can only be Lucy's. She must be talking into her phone, and on speaker phone, because I can vaguely hear another voice. I look around myself, startled, but realize the sound is coming from above. I carefully look for any visible sides of the roof, but I don't spot her. Unintentionally, my super hearing picks up the conversation.
"... without permission!"
"I don't care!" Lucy's voice sounds desperate, and I hear a little ache in her tone. I want nothing more than to wrap my arms around her and make her feel better, but there's no way I can reveal myself. "I wanted to do something nice for my friends! Something you might not understand."
"Listen, I'm trying to be understanding here." I can hear the voice try to muster up some form of tranquility, but sensing how distressed Lucy is, she won't notice. "But when you go behind my back, underneath my radar, and do something that could have dangerous results? That can make a parent worry."
'Parent?' Oh.
"You've very rarely been a worried parent, why start now? My friends are vacationing here until we have to go home at the end of summer break, whether you like it or not."
"You call that... school your home so easily." Maybe it's just my imagination, or that I've never met this man in person, but he seems hurt while saying this. I know of all the trouble he's caused Luce in the past, and I know of all the terrible things she'd like to call him, but all that doesn't feel justified right now. He truly does seem worried.
I imagine Lucy throwing up her arms. "That's because it IS my home! More of a home than any you've ever given to me. You know what, I don't even care. So what if the cleaning service found beer bottles in the trash of the supposedly empty penthouse and alerted you? So what if it turns out to be your apparently irresponsible, teenage daughter? You've never showed this much worry about me before, especially considering you tried marrying me off!" My heart lurches at the mention of that.
Her father hesitates before replying. "I'm coming over there. I'm worried about you, Lucy..."
"I don't need a babysitter," she says abruptly and coldly.
"I don't mean to baby you. But I am flying there the next chance I get. I have to see you, maybe explain some things."
"Don't you dare come here, not after everything you've done. Has it ever occurred to you that I came here in spite of you? Has it ever occurred to you that all this time, I've just been running away from you?" There's a pause. "Don't come back here."
She huffs a little, something she does when she's agitated and red in the face. I can only assume Lucy hung up the phone, so I quickly rush back into the suite so she doesn't find me on the balcony when she comes back down, but not before whispering to myself, "what ended my last relationship? Going to jail for homicide, maybe."
Well, maybe that's a little harsh. Despite the faults the man may have, and the heart attack his actions gave me earlier this school year, he seemed to be truly worried about Lucy. I don't know what kind of danger she could have gotten into here, but she's with her family. We'll protect her, and I promise I will not let Lucy get into harm's way again.
I stood there awkwardly in the middle of the room, when Lucy bumps into me, rushing from outside the door.
"Sorry, I needed to get a breath of fresh air," she says, very rushed. I catch her in my arms before she can run off to wherever, and she almost drops her phone.
"Maybe a chill day wasn't such a good idea. It seems we needed some kind of distraction from our lives back home. All of us. That's why we came here, isn't it?" I search her face, worried my words may have struck too close to home, but Lucy just sighs.
"Maybe. Look, I'm feeling really tired, I think I'm just going to take a nap. Wake me if you need anything." She turns and drags her feet through the door to her bed, and I almost feel like calling out to her. I'm waking you up! I need you!
Instead, Gray flags me down to join them in playing video games. Juvia and Levy are sitting on the floor, their heads resting on their boys' knees, so I join the boys on the couch. But Lucy keeps nagging at the back of my brain. I know there's something I can do for her. There has to be. I finally get the idea when the game enters an underwater level. After accidentally killing my toad because I was lost in thought, I surrendered my wii remote and jumped up.
"There's something I have to do. I'll come back real soon guys, and I've got my room key and phone." I run into the boys' room, quickly change pants, and grab sandals and a light jacket. Closing the door behind me, I smile at my brilliant plan.
~
Maybe it's because I'm alone, or it's slightly darker out, but the walk to the little beach is longer than it seemed. Or maybe it's because Lucy was leading us that time, and she knew her way around. I shove my hands in my jacket pockets and walk along the sand, until there's grass under my feet again. I take off my jacket, wrap my phone and keys in it, and hide it under a bush. It's really cool how you can stand on a beach, walk a few steps, and stand in shrubbery. The trees might be helpful here, too. I carefully walk closer to the shore, and contemplate taking off my shoes as well. As I get closer to the water, I hold on to the thin tree trunks as I pass, until I'm finally standing with my feet at the edge, looking out for the little lichen-covered cave.
"I should have brought a flashlight with me..." I mutter as I hold on to the tree for dear life. I walk along the edge, swinging my arms like a monkey from one tree trunk to the next, so I don't fall in the water. It feels like I've walked the entire perimeter of the island, but that's probably just because my arms are starting to feel tired. "Maybe it was the other way..." I think until I stumble across a rock that looks a little out of place.
"Aha!" I exclaim, almost letting go of the tree. It's too far away to reach with my foot or hand if I tried, but I'm sure it's the place. I look around it carefully and see what Lucy meant when she was telling me the story. The rock seems to stick out of the water, rather than off the island, so there's water between the rock and the shore. I can feel my strength wane, so I have to think fast. I grab one of the tree's branches and shake it to break it off. Hopefully there aren't any creepy insects in this tree...
The branch breaks with a snap that almost makes me let go of the tree again, and thankfully it doesn't have many long branches sticking out at the top. I hold the stick at the end and point it over to the little cave. The branches just reach, so I try to hook the vines and leaves covering the cave onto the small stubs sticking out at the end. When I think it's connected, I lift the branch up and over. Of course it fails the first time, but I repeat that over and over again until I think I can see into the cave. Both my hands are raw from gripping rough bark, but the vines end up ripping off the rock and the leaves tangle up on the tree branch. I place the branch strategically back onto the shore and pull myself back in. Then, after hiding my shoes back with my jacket, I go for a swim.
Lucy said before that she could never reach the cave because there was nothing to hold on to. But with a branch, however flimsy it may be, hooked onto a bush on the island, I may be able to grab a single flower. It's better than nothing, at least. I swim out to the sand bank, marked by a tree hanging over the water. Then, I swim over to the rock, trying to preserve my energy. When I get to it, the water is a lot deeper than I expected, being so close to the edge of the island. It's like the world just dropped beneath the island at this one point, and it's a little unnerving. No wonder Luce never got the flower.
But... I have my branch. I take hold of it gingerly, not wanting to pull it in with me. With my one little lifeline, I take my first look into the cave Lucy spoke about. There they were. Pink, purple, and white flowers with stems of pollen. They looked so tiny and fragile, and the lack of sunlight had caused their petals to wrinkle up, but I couldn't believe it. After all those years without sunlight the flowers were still there. I reached up and tried to grab one, but all I got was a handful of rock. The weak pollen scent drifted down to me, reinforcing my strength and will. I had to get that flower. It was the only thing I could think of that would make Lucy feel better. Three more tries later, and I got a small cut on my hand from a sharp piece of rock. I winced and drew back my hand. Thankfully it was not a huge slash, and more of a prick at the top of my palm. Maybe fate felt bad for me, because on the next try I grabbed a hold of a stem. With one hand now holding onto a flower stem inside a rocky cave and the other gripping the broken end of a tree branch, I felt like I had conquered the world. I plucked the flower as close to the base of the stem as I could, and pulled back.
Holding the precious flower above my head I let go of the tree branch and swam awkwardly back to the sand bank, which I walked across until I could see the sand. From there I awkwardly swam to the shore and uncovered my jacket and shoes. Waiting to dry off a little bit, I stumbled back to the resort, shivering and ignoring any weird looks thrown my way. My arms still ached from all the work, but it paid off. I have the flower. I threw open the door to the penthouse, grabbed a glass, filled it with water, and plopped the flower in it.
"Uh, Natsu? Why are your clothes wet?" I hear Levy ask. Only then do I realize all my friends are staring at me.
"I kind of went for a swim at the beach..." I answer simply. I watch with confusion as shock spreads across my friends' faces.
Levy takes a small step forward. "We thought you'd be out somewhere having dinner with Lucy. That is why the two of you left, isn't it?"
The chill I felt before from my wet clothes is nothing compared to the chill I feel creeping down my spine. "Lucy left?!"
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
SUPER DUPER SORRY THIS IS SO LATE! The song is Anachronism by Crywolf, and I love the atmosphere it creates❤️