~Some time later~

Lucy sighed as she woke up from her sleep. Her eyes shifted down to her body, she looked kind of burned, but she didn't care about how she looked like. Her head hurt and her body burned from the inside, still effected by the electricity.

Natsu's eyes opened from the sudden movement that was made in his lap. His head lowered and he noticed the blonde awake. He smiled softly, now sure that she was alive and with him. He smiled as the weight from his chest has been removed. He slowly and gently wrapped his arms around her shoulders and gave her a tight embrace.

Lucy was surprised by her teammate's reaction, but she didn't argue. She simply didn't have the strength. She hissed at the pain, making Natsu's grip loose.

"What did he do to you?" He asked in serious tone, he was always serious when it involved her. She looked at his eyes, they held anger and pain, her look softened as she held his cheek.

"I'm okay, I'm tougher than that!" She gave him one of her rare goofy smile. But, Natsu still demanded an answer, and she knew he won't give up until he gets what he wants.

"He electrocuted me, but it was nothing Natsu. Honestly.." she whispered as Natsu took her by the shoulders.

"I heard you scream, Lucy, don't lie to me. It hurt you, just look at yourself! He came back with your motionless body... I thought I l-lost you.. I was scared.. and so damn helpless.. I'm sorry, Luce.. I said I would always protect you, and I failed.." his eyes traveled all across the room, everywhere, but Lucy. He couldn't face her, he was ashamed of himself.

"Natsu... don't be like this. You know you couldn't do anything to prevent this, so don't blame yourself. I'm glad it was me who got electrocuted instead of you.. I'm glad that, finally, I was able to... protect... you.." Lucy then passed out again, she didn't get a lot of her energy back. Natsu continued to hold her, planting a kiss on her head.

"Dummy, you're not suppose to protect me. But, thank you..I'm really grateful to have you.." he mumbled.

~

Lucy woke up after some time, and found herself alone in the cold cell. She frantically looked around to see her best friend, but she didn't... anxiety grew inside of her and she began thinking what was happening to Natsu at this exact moment.

What if he's doing something even worse than what he did to me? Damn it, why did I fall asleep! Lucy thought an she curled up to a ball and dug her head into her knees. She was terrified, the feeling within her was much worse than any pain she had ever experienced. Waiting..

"Natsu will be okay, Natsu will be okay, Natsu will be okay..." she repeated to at least try and convince herself into believing her own words.

~

An hour later, shadowed man came and pushed Natsu into the cell. He was conscious, but something was off with his behavior. His eyes were dead and he looked like all hope was sucked out of him. He just laid beside the wall and slipped down into sitting position. His clothes was torn apart, too.

"What did you do to him?!!" Lucy shouted, despair clearly hearable in her voice.

"My name is Red.." The man simply smiled and closed the door behind him, turning Lucy's focus back to Natsu.

"Natsu? Natsu, are you okay?! Say something!" He yelled and shook his shoulders. Repeating her questions few times, but Natsu seemed.. dead.

His enthusiasm, gone.

All his energy, gone.

All his dreams, dead.

All his hope... gone.

His mind was a blank.

Only thing that seemed to be left was the soulless body.

"Please, Natsu, you gotta snap out of it! What happened?" She failed again with her unanswered questions. Her eyes began to water as she began thinking of losing him. Lucy blinked her tears away and shake her head, she choose to stay strong, for Natsu.

She was determined to bring him ti his old self, she wasn't planning on giving up any time soon.

~~

"I-I'm so useless.." Lucy mumbled quietly as her head dropped in disappointment. She was tried doing anything that came to her mind but in the end, she couldn't help him...

But, she was willing to do one last thing that could work. She looked at Natsu hesitantly before putting her palms on his cheeks. She threw her leg over him and they were now facing each other, even tho Natsu' eyes were looking right through her. As a little girl, she always read that at the end of every story, a true love's kiss solved any problem. She was doubting this method a bit, but if it meant bringing Natsu back, she was more than willing to do it.

She leaned closer and lightly pressed her lips against his. She felt electricity going through her entire body, but, unlike before, this electricity felt good. It felt right. She pulled away quickly, she didn't want to do anything that would be considered as too much, as far as she knew, he could've loved somebody else.

When she opened her eyes, she noticed that his were closed. She hoped that it worked, but his eyes still remained shut. Lucy's head dropped once again, now completely sure how useless she really was. She couldn't even bring her, who she believed was, soulmate back. She thought of herself the worst way possible and continued throwing insults at herself.

"I'm sorry..." she whispered as tear slipped down her cheek. She didn't want to be strong, she believed that she could be his savior once, but that was clearly too high of a reach for her.

She felt horrible, useless, unworthy, helpless, hopeless..

As her hands began moving away from his face, she felt a strong grip on the side of her arms. She glanced at them and then looked up at his eyes, not looking through her anymore, looking at hers.

Her eyes watered from happiness as she smiled and said 'welcome back'. He grinned as his palms found their way on the back of her neck. He pulled her closer and their lips collided again. Lucy's eyes widened, but closed soon enough, melting into the kiss.

The kiss was slow and soft, comforting in ways that words would never be. She was assured that he was back to normal. His hand rested below her ear, his thumb caressing her cheek as their breaths mingled. She ran her fingers through his hair, pulling him closer until there was no space left between them and she could feel the beating of his heart against her chest.

"W-Why did you do that..?" She asked, touching her lips as blush spread across her entire face like a virus. He grinned at her childishly and planted a kiss on her forehead.

"You did it first, didn't you?" Her face burned from the embarrassment from hearing his words.

"Y-You n-noticed, huh?" Lucy's blush seared through her cheeks and for a minute she thought her face was on fire. She suddenly felt awkward, demure, and coy; even going as far as attempting to hide her rosy features behind her slim fingers.

So adorable.. Natsu thought and smiled.

"What do you think brought me back?" He asked rhetorically and childishly.

- 1 week later -

Both, Natsu and Lucy, were out if their magic power. Red kept torturing each of them in front one another. Natsu was beaten every day while chained to a wall or a chair. He couldn't recall how long the beating had gone on for, he only remembered the final kick and the sound of the iron bar falling to the concrete. His face wasn't too bad, just a cut on his cheek, it was his body that was damaged almost beyond the point at which recovery was possible, the blooming purple patches told of internal ruptures, likely organ damage.

Perhaps for anyone else in the team the bleeding would not have been deadly, yet for Lucy it was. Her body naturally ran on low blood pressure and so she could never tolerate loosing the amount other people could. Natsu remembered that split second he saw the metal tear into Lucy, he knew going on this job was a mistake that would haunt him for the rest of his days. He tried crawling to her and call out her name few times but it was useless, she was unconscious and the capability of her dying was higher every second. Natsu became anxious and his breathing became quick, his heart raced from worry, regret and anger.

That was when a loud bang was heard, his head slowly risen up to reveal Gray and Erza. He weakly smiled at them as his eyes collapsed.

~ Infirmary (3 days later) ~

A groan was heard from a Fire dragon slayer as his eyes opened, he examined the whole room in search of the blonde Celestial wizard but he found none. Soon enough, he felt a jolt of pain going through his body, he hissed at the pain and looked down. His whole body was covered in bandages, even tho you could still see the bruises. He noticed that he was alone in the room, and heard yelling from the room next to him. He rushed over, limping at times since his body was still in a bad condition.

When he came to the door his face fell faster than a corpse in cement boots. In that instant his skin became greyed, his mouth hung with lips slightly parted and his eyes were as wide as they could stretch. Polyushka and Wendy were desperately trying to revive Lucy as her state became critical. Natsu ran into the room and squeezed Lucy's hand, not caring about his unbearable pain. Two girls were shocked to see him awake, but didn't have time to think about anything else beside helping Lucy.

"What's going on!" Natsu shouted in worry, Polyushka looked sadly at him, but he shrugged it off. His eyes and mind were determined to get an answer to the question.

"S-She's not good, Natsu-san... we're doing our best.." Wendy stuttered a bit, feeling uneasy for telling Natsu such bad news right after he woke up from his 'coma state'.

"You need to get out of here, do not disturb us." Polyushka sentenced as an order, with which Natsu didn't agree at all.

"No, I need stay with her."

"IF YOU DO NOT EXIT AND LET US DO OUR JOB LUCY WILL DIE! DO YOU WANT THAT TO HAPPEN?!" She screamed into his face and left him wide-eyed and speechless. He hesitantly looked at Lucy and got out in the waiting room.

"You better help her.." he whispered, just loud enough for Wendy to hear. She nodded her head as Natsu slightly smiled over his shoulder. He, once again, felt useless.

~~

Polyushka and Wendy got out of the room where Natsu still sat at the chair, impatiently waiting for them. As soon as he heard the door opening his head shot up, he didn't have to say anything, the look on their face told him everything he wanted to know.

She's okay.. he thought as a smile was plastered on their faces, and now Natsu's too. A lot of pressure was lifted off his shoulders and he let out a sigh of relief.

"Can I see her?" He asked, girls nodded their heads and he didn't lose anymore time, going straight in. When he entered she was sound asleep which made him admiringly smile. He loved her.. and as much as he hated the job he took, piece of him was glad he did, because if he didn't, he could never express his true feelings.

Lucy woke up after few more days of sleep, she was welcomed back by all her friends, especially Natsu. After awhile everything went back to normal and Natsu and Lucy actually started dating. Natsu thanked Lucy for bringing him back from the spell that Red had put on him, he knew too that it could only be removed by a true love act.

—————————————————————
If you read all of this, I'm really grateful. Of course the original idea goes to 11525DREAMTHEATER

Hope you enjoyed reading it just as much as I did writing this

I don't really like the ending but I still hope you do

Till next one shot, bye-bye ❤️