"Lucy!!!" The boy cried out as the unknown woman blew an attack that made a direct hit. Blonde was swept off her feet and was blown to the air.

Her body hit the ground hard, and once it did, it didn't come back up. Natsu's eyes widened before he attempted to ran toward his team mate.

"Not so fast." The woman with the hair as black as night commented and made the vines move, wrapping themselves around the helpless boy.

He tried using his fire but it made no effect. His heart held fear; an emotion he wasn't really familiar with.

The woman began walking towards Lucy's unconscious body. She forcefully grabbed the locks of her hair in between her fingers and pulled her head up.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Natsu began struggling harder in order to help, but the luck wasn't on his side today.

Woman's face twisted in anger before she smashed blondes face into the ground.

"Stop it!!" He roared.

"What's wrong? You don't like me hurting her?" She smiled evilly and stood on her feet. Her hand began letting out some kind of smoke. She made sure Lucy's body got in contact with it.

"Would you look at that? I'm shortening her life spam." She laughed with satisfaction washing over her.

Natsu's heart began beating harder and harder until he couldn't feel anything at all. His eyes went white as the intense fire burned down the vines and everything close to him; every last bit of grass and flowers was burnt to the ground.

The woman gasped, amazed how he managed to free himself.

Fire mage didn't lose any time and charged right at the old hag. She didn't have enough time to react before his fiery fist smashed her face.

She was sent flying into a near by rock, banging her head into it. Her conscience faded away more with every passing second.

She glanced at the couple not too far away. She smiled at the despair she brought.

"After that spell you'll be lucky if she even has a week left." she whispered but Natsu heard it. He heard it loud and clear.

"N-No.. You're lying.." she whispered as his eyes filled with tears, and heart with pure anxiety. Celestial mage's body that he held slowly began moving.

Her eyes opened to see what a crying mess her best friend looked.

"Natsu..? What's going on..? Where's the woman?" She shot back to her senses and got up from his hold.

"She's.. done for." He assured her and forced his signature grin. Blonde paid no attention on his strange behavior.

"Oh.. good job, Natsu!" She cheered, jumping up and down with a big smile plastered on her lips.

Fire mage glanced at her with a serious face and sad eyes.

-

I'm gonna lose Luce in a week..

I only have a week left, maybe even less than that..

What am I gonna do?

Should I tell her? No, definitely not. If I told her, she'd be sad..

"Earth to Natsu!" Blonde moved her palm in front of boy's dazed look on the ground as they walked to collect their reward.

"Huh?" He blinked before locking his eyes with Lucy's.

"I was talking to you.." she pouted and crossed her arms.

"Sorry.. I spaced out."

- two days later -

"What am I gonna do?!"

"What am I gonna do?!"

"What the hell am I going to do?!" Fire mage walked in circles.

"I don't wanna lose her.. not now, not when I didn't even tell her.." he whispered as pain filled his body.

Emotional pain isn't felt the way a cut or bruise is. This is much different and only you can tell it's there. Sometimes the pain is at the back of your mind like a pulse. Other times it pushes itself forward demanding attention. Cutting your heart and mind in half stinging with every breath you take.

- next day -

"Hey Luce!" Natsu greeted as he entered her house through the window as usual. He never left her side, every day he visited and stayed for the whole day.

He was terrified that he could walk in next day and she would be gone. Just the thought haunted him daily, it gave him nightmares.

"Oh, hi Natsu!" She greeted back like every other day; like nothing was wrong.

But there was so much wrong. Her skin was getting whiter, her voice sounded tired, and her movements became slower.

The boy watching felt like a helpless child, he saw she was getting worse yet he couldn't do anything. He could just stand by and witness it all.

It was a pure torture.

"Uhh" Time seemed to slow down when she was falling. She quickly grabbed onto the kitchen counter and slid down.

"Luce, what's wrong?" Natsu shouted worriedly.

In the grip of silent panic, wild eyes, pupils dilated, heart racing, brain on fire, brain synapses firing like a hyped up internal aurora borealis, like a cluster bomb exploding in his brain, turned his brain to a mental soup of conflicting instructions, brain frozen, brain feeling like it's seized up, shrill scream, running aimlessly, frozen in panic, almost threw up, brain feeling like it's been pickled in brine.

"I-I'm okay.. just lightheaded.." she spoke like a whisper, talking seemed like it took much more effort than it should.

Fire mage quickly picked her up and walked over to the bed. He placed her fragile figure down before pulling the blanket over her.

Night was still young.

The stars shined bright.

Tears fell silently and the sobs were barely heard.

The pain was real; so so real. To such extent it became unbearable.

"Bye, bye my angel.." he sobbed as the golden dust fluttered out of the window, leaving the bed empty.

—————————————————————

this was really rushed, please forgive me!

i didn't include the guild or any romantic stuff because i wanted this to be realistic.. i dunno why i just felt like it i guess

anyway, i hope you enjoyed reading this