haha HELLO!
you've probably already figured this out, but this story is officially discontinued. i stopped writing for fairy tail back 2017, and i never managed to finish this fic! :(
that being said... here i am, 3 years later. this isn't an actual update, but i thought i'd post the outline i had going for the rest of the story. just to provide (mostly myself) with a bit of closure!
thank youuuu ^_^
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Chapter 19: Natsu comes back home to find Igneel staring at Jude Heartfilia's post, and Igneel immediately starts questioning him about it. Natsu mistakes this for anger, and feels guilty. Natsu seeks Lucy's advice on the situation with Igneel, and Lucy, not knowing about what her father did, tries her best to help. Igneel begins getting overwhelmed by the massive amounts of things said about him online, and Natsu keeps feeling more and more bad about it. His guilt and insecurities about Igneel's retirement are first shown here.
Chapter 20: Natsu forgets to take his pill in the morning because of the drama surrounding him, and goes to school feeling horrible. Later, when he walks home with Lucy, he breaks into a fit of coughing, breathing heavily, and wheezing in front of her for the second time. Lucy begins to get suspicious that Natsu isn't telling her something. She watches him scramble into his house without a word, and decides to leave him be for a while.
Chapter 21: Natsu finally musters up enough courage to face Igneel about the mess. He confesses to his father about how he's been feeling about everything for the past seventeen years, and he and Igneel have a very overdue conversation.
Chapter 22: He talks to Lucy about it, who doesn't bring up the fiasco from the day before, and the two go back to their regular relationship. Igneel responds to Jude's post. Natsu writes on the desk again for the first time in a while. He gives Lucy a hypothetical situation with someone with lung disease, like him. Lucy responds asking why he'd write something like this, and Natsu, unable to keep it from her any longer, writes back telling her the person he was describing was him. Lucy responds by asking to meet him.
Chapter 23: Natsu and Lucy talk. Natsu finally reveals to her about his Interstitial Lung Disease, and tells her it is a lifelong condition that isn't life-threatening. He tells her everything.
Arc 3: Her Problems
This arc focuses on Lucy and her problems regarding her impending marriage and her relationship with her father. Throughout this part of the story, her relationships and her friendship with Natsu is challenged.
Chapter 24: Jude gives Lucy more marriage interview files, and she finally has enough. She flees to Natsu's house, where he gladly lets her in. Lucy meets Igneel for the second time, and realizes that he is the same flutist she is so obsessed with.
Chapter 25: Jude begins to question who his daughter has been hanging out with for so long, and asks Lucy to tell him. Lucy doesn't tell him much, only that she's made new friends, including Natsu, the boy who had the concert Jude had attended. As he watched her talk about him, he realizes something is clearly up.
Chapter 26: (FILLER) Lucy's friends begin to tease her about her friendship with Natsu. The group goes to the new amusement park in town. Tons of friendshipping shenanigans.
Chapter 27: Jude asks to meet Natsu, and Lucy arranges a dinner. When Jude finally does meet Natsu, he asks about his future ambitions. Natsu replies by simply stating that he wants to play the flute. When he leaves, Jude turns furious and suspects that Natsu only wants to play flute as a profession because of Lucy's newfound love for the instrument. Normal Jude worries=Thinking he's after their money. What he doesn't know is that Natsu's father is Ig. Neel.
Chapter 28: Jude decides to look over Lucy's next marriage interview, which turns out to be with Gray. His family owns a successful company, and Lucy doesn't realize it's him before she comes face to face with him. Their interview is completely platonic, but Jude sees it as something else. He believes that Lucy's finally found someone she likes.
Chapter 29: The next day at school, Lucy and Gray joke about the interview, and believe they came off as completely uninterested in each other. Natsu is relieved to hear that it was just a misunderstanding. Lucy comes home and her father tells her he's really 'happy for her', which makes her confused. She finds out that her father wants her to marry Gray.
Chapter 30: Lucy, frustrated and shocked, tells her father she's already in love with someone else, and that Gray already has a girlfriend. Jude is confused, as he thought the two of them had really hit it off. Lucy vents to Natsu about everything, and Natsu goes to talk to Gray about it. Gray and Natsu talk it out, but they are unable to reach common ground. Natsu is insanely jealous of his friend, and Gray just wants Juvia.
Chapter 31: News has reached Juvia's ears, and she is now ignoring both Gray and Lucy. She breaks up with Gray once she hears about his marriage to Lucy, and is now completely and utterly heartbroken. Lucy talks to Juvia and tries to make her understand, but Juvia sees it as her best friend going behind her back and betraying her. Lucy goes back home and tries to reason with her father once again, telling him about her now broken friendship and the break up between Gray and Juvia. Jude is apathetic towards his daughter's internal wounds.
Chapter 32: Lucy and Natsu text each other about their sorrows, and Lucy is shocked to find that Natsu is being a little stiff around her. Having a sense of why, she asks to meet him in the park, where they talk things out. During this time, they share a hard, lonely kiss. Meanwhile, Jude finds out that Lucy has gone to see Natsu again, even though she is happily engaged. Jude, furious, goes to Natsu's house to talk to the boy, but unwillingly comes face to face with Igneel.
Chapter 33: Jude realizes who Natsu is: the son of his favorite musician. Igneel and Jude have a long conversation about the entire situation, and Igneel reveals everything about Natsu to Jude, which makes his worries lessen. Jude learns that Natsu is in fact a good kid that'll surely make his daughter happy. Natsu and Lucy come back to Natsu's house, where they see Jude and Igneel talking. Natsu gets Jude's blessing.
Chapter 34: Jude voids the marriage set up for Gray and Lucy. With everything resolved, Igneel urges Natsu to ask Lucy out properly. This chapter focuses on how Natsu asks Lucy out. Lucy, of course, says yes.
Arc 4: Their Relationship
This final arc focuses on the newfound romantic relationship between Natsu and Lucy, and life after high school.
Chapter 35: Natsu and Lucy forget to tell their friends about now being boyfriend and girlfriend, and instead focus on getting Gray and Juvia back together. In the end, their friends witness them kissing, and instantly explode with questions.
Chapter 36: Natsu and Lucy's first date! What could go wrong?
Chapter 37: Lucy takes Natsu to her mother's grave, where they share a moment. Lucy introduces her boyfriend to her mother, and the two spend the day in Acalypha. They begin thinking about life after high school, and what they want to do when they study in college. Loke-sensei combines the two English classes!
Chapter 38: Gajeel and Levy get together. The four couples go on a quadruple date. (Jellal and Erza, Gajeel and Levy, Gray and Juvia, and Natsu and Lucy). The boys are more interested in fighting each other, and the girls feel bad about it. Natsu makes up with Lucy later, as with the rest of the boys.
Chapter 39: Lucy begins writing her first novel to prepare herself for college. Natsu begins to train on harder pieces to prepare for college-level readings. They rarely get time for each other as Lucy gets a part-time job and Natsu overworks himself.
Chapter 40: Natsu and Lucy finally get a break and use it to spend time with each other. They get forms from Loke-sensei asking them what they're interested in doing after high school. Reality is quickly catching up to them, but neither want to let go of what they have together. Natsu talks to Lucy about wanting to actually be with him or not because of his disease.
Chapter 41: Timeskip to when Natsu and Lucy are leaving for their respective colleges. Lucy's enrolled in a creative writing program, and Natsu's going to a music school. They visit the desk where everything began one more time, before they each depart with a tearful wave. They say goodbye to their friends. Levy is going to the same college as Lucy.
Chapter 42 (Epilogue): Natsu proposes to Lucy using the desk years later. The two get married and live their own version of happily ever after.