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Gray and Lyon:
He’s grown. That’s the first thing Gray thinks when he lays eyes on Lyon again for the first time since Tenrou Island. He’s taller than Gray now. Only by an inch or two, but it feels like more somehow.
When they were training under Ur, they argued constantly, always trying to one up each other in anything and everything. One of the more petty things that they had squabbled over was who was taller.
Neither was. They had actually been the exact same height. Down to the centimeter. They stood back to back and insisted Ur tell them who was taller every few days, and each time, she’d sigh, shaking her head with an exasperated smile as she obliged them.
“Hmmm… Oh!” She’d gasp, as if realizing something, and they’d both turn to her eagerly, wondering who had finally had their growth spurt. “My boys are both growing up to be so strong,” she’d declare, ruffling their hair and laughing at their complaints.
There was no denying it anymore; Lyon was taller now. There were also very subtle creases around his mouth and eyes that didn’t used to be there. A new scar peeking out from underneath his collar. His hair laid slightly differently atop his head.
Gray didn’t know how to handle it. It shouldn’t have mattered, really. Why did it matter? Why did looking at Lyon, in all of his taller, bigger, older glory make Gray’s chest hurt so badly? It was stupid.
He couldn’t help it. He didn't know if this awful, empty feeling he’d get around the other man was ever going to go away. And that’s what Lyon was now— a man. Gray would turn 19 in a little while, he was technically an adult, and he had always felt pretty grown up, but seeing 25-year-old Lyon made him feel strangely small.
When Lyon teased him for being younger now, telling him to ‘respect his elders’, Gray’s heart tugged uncomfortably.
Lyon wasn’t older than him. They— they were supposed to be the same age. Their birthdays were only weeks apart.
Lyon had lived seven whole years without him. He’d missed all of it. They had just gotten back on the same page, just reconnected after Ur’s death ripped them apart, and then Gray went and lost seven years worth of time with Lyon.
Who would he be today if he hadn’t been frozen in time like that? Who would he and Lyon be to each other? As much as they fought (and they would surely never stop fighting), Gray thought of the other man as his brother. He’d never say it aloud, but it was true.
Fuck. This sucked.
-
Erza and Jellal
There are four different Jellals fighting for space in Erza’s head.
There was her first love from childhood. The kind, sweet boy who had protected her and shown her nothing but kindness and gentleness. The one who’d gifted her a last name and made her blush and giggle.
The second was pure evil, a monster who tortured her both mentally and physically. A dark and manipulative man who she’d very nearly died in order to stop. He’d killed Simon, and Erza wasn’t sure she could ever really forgive him for that.
The third, the one who she’d seen only a few weeks ago and had been struggling to come to terms with since then, was nothing. And everything. A blank slate, wiped clean of all memory and of Zeref’s evil influence.
He was a man half-mad with confusion and self-hatred. And yet he had managed to revive long buried feelings in Erza when he protected her, cried for her, gave Natsu his own magic, and then willingly turned himself into the Magic Counsel’s custody with zero hesitation. A good person after all.
And now, there was Jellal number four.
He looked healthier, like he’d gained some weight since breaking out of prison. He had friends again, true companions, rather than pawns. He looked… more settled.
It seemed that the weight of all of his sins was still squarely on his shoulders, but not in the way it had been before— crushing him down until all he wanted was to give up and die. No, this Jellal was doing penance, fighting for what he believed in and seeking to right his many wrongs.
It made Erza happy to see him like that, above all. But there were also other, more complicated, emotions that twisted her stomach into knots.
When he’d turned himself in to the Council, she didn’t know if she’d ever see him again. But now, in what felt like barely a month to her, here he was— free and completely changed.
And she’d missed all of it.
He looked so grown up now. A calm, assured self-confidence about him that was so different from all of the other versions of him she had witnessed so far.
It was… really attractive, among many other things. And Erza didn’t really know how to feel about that. There had been— something between them all those years ago.
Feelings.
But with everything else that had happened to them over the years, Erza didn’t know if they could, or should, ever let that seed grow.
And now, maybe Jellal had moved on. Or just wouldn’t be interested in her anymore. It had been seven long years for him, and Erza must’ve seemed like a little girl to him now, with all his new worldly experience.
He’d grown and changed…and she hadn’t. She hadn’t had the chance.
That thought unsettled her greatly: made her feel small and fragile in a different way than she ever had before.
She’d blinked and everything had changed.
She had been trying to avoid even thinking of her siblings from the tower of heaven. Of little Milliana, her younger sister in everything but blood, someone she’d protected and mentored, who would now be a little older than Erza herself.
Erza tried her best to shake off these negative thoughts and frowned. At least she and her friends hadn’t died in a dragon attack.
-
Lucy and her father
The first time she sat down to write to her mother after getting back from Tenrou Island and remembered that she now had to address her letters to her father too, she broke down crying once again.
She’d missed all of it.
She’d finally stopped hating him, been ready to give him another chance to be her family, despite all his flaws, and then she goes off on what was supposed to be a week-long trip, at most, and misses the last seven years of her father’s life.
He’d waited for her. Wrote to her. Sent her birthday gifts. He’d actually tried, like he promised he would, and she had never even gotten the chance to choose whether to forgive him.
Never got to write him thank you letters for his presents.
Never got to get lunch and awkwardly chat about his new job.
Never got to ask any of her burning questions about her mother, now that he was finally in a place to talk about the woman.
Never got to say goodbye…
Lucy crumpled up the paper in front of her, with nothing but Dear Mom written on it. She threw it over her shoulder haphazardly and sobbed into her arms, feeling like everything inside of her was spilling out onto the table and when she was done crying there would be nothing left.
-
Natsu and Romeo
“Romeo is older than me now. How strange.”
It’s Wendy saying these words that makes Natsu realize how much they’d truly missed while on Tenrou.
Of course he’d noticed that Romeo and the others were older now. Contrary to popular belief, he isn’t actually stupid. But he hadn’t let himself stop to grieve the years he’d missed. He hadn’t realized until right this moment that that’s what he needed to do.
He needed to visit the grave of those missing seven years and throw a rose on it— or, something like that… he’s not really a metaphor guy.
Romeo is older than Wendy now, by just under a year. And it’s so weird. Natsu saw him just a few days ago, almost 8 years old, grinning and carefree in that way that only children could really be.
He’d only come up to Natsu’s waist.
He’d been so excited that Natsu was selected for the S-class trials. Romeo was a little upset that he hadn’t been chosen, but he told Natsu that he was sure the older boy would win the title, and would he promise to take Romeo on an S-class mission when he got back, pretty please?
The kid had even made him a ‘you can do it’ card, which was packed in his bag for the trip and almost definitely lost in the fight with Acnologia. Natsu didn’t think of himself as very sentimental, but he’d do just about anything to get that card back.
Romeo was a teenager now. And still clearly Natsu’s biggest fan, but in a ‘my idol is probably dead so I’m going to become him to cope’ kind of way instead of the ‘wow, Natsu’s so cool, one day we’ll team up to go on missions’ kind of way.
He was angrier. Still super sweet, but more jaded now. Less outgoing and more defensive.
While these personality changes were not entirely out of the norm for a teenager, Natsu knew it was trauma that had done this. He recognized it in himself. Only loss turned smooth edges jagged and sharp like that.
Natsu and the others vanishing had caused that change. They were the loss. Natsu failed Romeo. He heard from Bisca and the rest that Romeo never gave up hope they were alive, and had refused to stop looking for them.
Natsu had become someone else’s Igneel.
That realization hurt more than he could explain. He never would’ve wished that on anyone: the not knowing, the wondering, the hoping and hoping but never having reassurance.
Natsu had also missed out on seven years of continuing his own search. So much could’ve changed in seven years for Igneel, wherever he was.
At least Romeo had actually found them. He had gotten to bring Natsu home, and now that the dragon slayer was back, he wouldn’t waste a single second.
He intercepted the younger boy as he entered the guild hall today and ruffled his hair. Natsu told Romeo with a grin how impressed he was by the boy’s developing magic style, feeling warm as the kid swatted his hand away with a pleased smile.
They all had a lot of lost time to make up for.