"It's you.. LUCY HEARTFILIA!!" The shadow dragon slayer shouted on top of his lungs as he fired a dark arrow towards the blonde.

Everyone's faces drained from the color they realized what would happen next.

Natsu jumped from his spot, desperately trying to stop the attack with his body. On his misfortune, he was too late.

The arrow filled with power of hatered coming from the one who shot it flied at full speed and stuck the blonde in a second.

Her eyes slowly became emotionless as her head lowered to look at her sliced stomach. Her legs felt weak and soon, she fell forward.

Everyone stood on the spot, their bodies too shocked to even move. Their attention was focused only on the dying blonde in front of them, completely forgetting about the Slayer who sunk into his shadows and went away.

Natsu could feel the sweat drench his skin, the throbbing of his own eyes, the ringing screams vibrating in his ears, and the thumping of his heart against his chest. His fingers were curled into a fist, nails digging into his palms.

He couldn't believe his eyes. He didn't want to anyway. He never saw something like that even in his worst nightmares. But that was only because his brain always woke him up before such a horrific image covered his mind. And now he was seeing something his eyes won't ever be able to erase.

The adrenalin flew over his veins like a carp through the river, but he couldn't move a single muscle, not even to scream. The absolute horror completely paralyzed him.

He didn't remember being that scared in his life.

"Lucy!" The boy with salmon hair was the first to come to his senses and come to her side. He took her in his shaking arms as tears ran down his face.

"Don't.. cry.." she uttered, too tired to even speak. She used the last bits of her strength to reach Natsu's face and wipe away his tears.

"Luce.. you're gonna be okay! Don't worry! Wendy, you can heal her! What are you waiting for?!" He shouted in direction of the small wizard in desperation and a bit of hope, but it all disappeared as quick as it appeared when he saw her shaking her head.

"What..?"

"The wound is too deep, Natsu-san.. Healing magic has no effect on a wound like that, it'll only cause Lucy-san more suffering.." she said through her tears.

Natsu's whole being was filled with nothing but pure fear. His body felt hot and sweat started trickling down his neck. Fear tortured his guts, churning his stomach in tense cramps. Fear engulfed his conscience, knocking all other thoughts aside. Fear overwhelmed body, making it drastically exhausted.

His blank staring into nothing soon came to an end as he didn't feel Lucy's warmth against his cheek. Her hand fell onto the ground motionlessly, her eyes closed and her breathing stopped.

"N-No! No! You can't do this, Luce! Stop it! Don't go!" The boy tried shaking the blonde awake, but she didn't move. He called out her name multiple times, but she didn't answer. He wept and wept, but she wasn't there to comfort him anymore.

"Stay.. please.." his tears soaked her clothes when he hugged her corpse. His heart was breaking more and more every second, and no one was capable to put it back together beside her.

- reality -

Though his eyes were open he can't think of why; his heart was pounding, mind empty. It's as if a hypodermic of adrenaline has been emptied into his carotid. He stared into the utter darkness, breathing rate beginning to steady.

Then he remembered.

Lucy..

He jumped from his bed and put on his coat, he began sprinting to the well known apartment.

He grit his teeth, terrified to find out if what happened in his dream was true. He came to his location and swung the door open.

He ran to the bed where the blonde would usually sleep.. but she wasn't there.

Streaming tears cleansed hid red cheeks. Few droplets remained, forgetting their way as the path was swept from beneath them, consequently blurring Natsu's vision with waves of sadness only the broken encounter. The salty release calmly flowed into his mouth so that he could taste his own sorrow.

Bitter. Unforgiving. Pain.

"Natsu..? What're you doing here?" Someone spoke as the bathroom door opened. Dragon Slayer's ears picked up the voice and he knew exactly who it belonged to.

His head turned to look at her, just standing there. He fell on his knees from relief which startled the blonde.

"Hey! What's wrong? Are you okay?" She ran to his side and grabbed his shoulders. The worry in her eyes refused to go away until she knew he was alright.

Suddenly, she could feel warmth on top of her hand, when she looked at where it was coming from she saw Natsu's arm tightly griping on it. Like his life depended on it.

His head slowly rose up to look at her. His tear stained cheeks saddened Lucy, but his warm, grateful smile made her heart flutter.

"Hey.. you can talk to me.. what happened?"

"It's not important anymore, the only thing that matters is that you're safe." He got on his feet and cupped Lucy's cheeks in his warm hands.

"Don't you ever die on me, got it?" He said determinedly, almost making it sound like an order. His words immediately reminded the blonde of her future self dying.

"Got it.." she cracked a small smile before releasing herself and giving the boy a peck on the cheek.

"Thank you for always looking out for me, Natsu.."

Lucy turned around and began walking back to her bed. Natsu felt like something was holding him back, like he didn't have the strength to say what he wanted to say. But he soon changed his mind because he didn't knew what could happen tomorrow.

"Luce.. I've got one more thing to say." He clenched his fists, hoping for the best.

"Okay, what is it?"

"I don't know what future holds, and I don't want for you to have the same fate as future Lucy. If something similar happened to you I would never forgive myself, but not entirely for the reason of me being weak; but because I was too much of a wimp to say to you how i truly feel." Natsu took a deep breath in to prepare himself for what was coming.

"I need you to know.. that I love you. More than I have ever loved anyone in my life. If something were to happen to you, I don't know what I would do." He sighed as the heavy burden he carried on his heart has finally fell down.

"Do you really feel that way?" Lucy walked back to him and placed her palm on his cheek, her eyes trying to find an answer in his.

"Yeah.." he sighed once more.

"Good, because I feel the exact same way." She grinned happily as his face held surprise all over it.

"Wait, what?"

"Yup! You have me head over heels for you."

In a moment he pressed his lips against hers, he felt her body loosen and arms touch his shoulders. The way their lips fit was like two puzzle pieces. She relented as he played with her hair and held her tighter and tighter until they broke apart.

Only gasps filled the room before their eyes met.

"I love you," they both uttered at the same time before chuckling softly at their silliness.

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well i was gone for some time, sorry about that..

hope you liked this chapter!