"Natsu!"
Natsu blinked. Was that her voice? The one he had been craving to hear since the day they had met?
The beautiful, strong, amazing, mute woman he had fallen in love with. He never thought he would hear her voice, since past trauma had stolen it from her long before their chanced meeting. He had always imagined it would be angelic.
His eyes refocused on her face, taking in the long blonde hair that shone with the reflected light of the stars above, and the delicate slope of her nose and jaw. And then her eyes; huge, deep pools of the most decadent chocolate brown. He could drown in them forever.
He frowned. They weren't supposed to be like this. This was all wrong. Tears streamed in rivers down her face, running her make-up. She'd be annoyed at that later, probably. She was also going to have to wash her hair; the blood in it was causing it to matt. Not to mention he was sure that no amount of foundation would be able to hide the bruises that stained her face.
He tried to reach to her. Tried to offer comfort in the dirty back alley they were now trapped in. He wasn't even sure which of their tainted histories had brought this upon them. He couldn't remember if anyone had said, and he hadn't had time to make out any faces in the dark before the gunshot had sounded.
Darkness crept into the edges of his vision and he managed a rueful smile. It felt like the warmth of his body was seeping out of him. Oh. Was he bleeding? Probably. Is that why Lucy had found her voice? That was sort of silly. She had no reason to worry. He would be fine. He should tell her so. He should grin like he always did and promise her nothing was wrong; he would protect her like she had done for him so many times.
As his sight became even more limited, Natsu's brain finally processed what had happened. He had pushed Lucy out of the way. He had been shot. And now Lucy was being forced to watch him bleed out. But at least it wasn't her. At least he'd done that right.
"Natsu! No!"
He hadn't really wanted the first time he heard her voice to be filled with such terror; cracking with distress and horror.
He just wanted to look at her for a bit longer. To hear her a bit more. But he was thankful for what he got. He smiled, trying to express how much he loved her with that alone.
He realised that this was the first and last time he would ever hear her voice.
His heart stopped. Everything went black.