Natsu's fists were clenched as he stood alone. Blood pouring down from his head and mixing into the tears streaming from his eyes. Where he was too drained to even consider blinking them away. His body was shock still, eyes still focused on the picture that had stopped him in his tracks.
The crumbled body of his teammate. Best friend. Secret love. Mate. She was just laying there. Why was she just laying there? She was bloody. Why was she bloody? Lucy hates being dirty. Her hair was disheveled and her face was covered with a mixture of blood and tears. Lucy would never allow anyone to see her cry. She was too stubborn for that, ne Lucy? You're too stubborn aren't you?
"Lucy get up.." His voice was quiet but it still had that teasing lilting edge to it that it always had as he grinned. "Come on Luce! We haven't defeated the mage yet! You don't want me to steal your fire eh?"
He laughed, hoping she would awake and scold him for letting the mage get away. She would get up, yell for a bit then smile softly. That smile she only smiled at him. The one that was sweet and gentle. Then she would run off with him hot on her trails. Of course Lucy would still do that. She was Lucy! She would always act the same no matter what happened!
"Lucy!" He added a whining edge as he usually did when she was sleeping. Which usually prompted her to kick him out, while he was only begging for food. Then while he sat, sulky outside she would invite him back in with a blush and a plate heaped with food held in her hands. "Get up!"
She was so bloody. She looked so different but she was Lucy! So there was no way she was any different. She was always the same. Always his best friend. His Luce.
"Don't you want to get up? Don't you want to go home? I know how much you love your hot baths! You sure look like you need one." He was desperate now, voice sounding far too stilted. As he added in a jab in an attempt to rile her enough to wake up. As he looked though there was no change in expression. Face still settled into an expression of utmost fear. Lucy shouldn't feel that much fear. Her face was so pale. No red flush of anger. No pink tint of embarrassment.
His hand trailed to his face and he pulled it back hand shaking as he saw the fingers gleaming with moisture. Why was he crying? Lucy was fine, perfectly fine. There was nothing wrong with Lucy! Damn it! Lucy was fine! In his rage he punched the wall of the cave they were in.
Knuckles cracking open and beginning to bleed sluggishly. So much blood. Matched the blood that flowed out from Lucy…
Why was she bleeding so much?
Flashes of a fight. Fire brightening up the dank cavern as he fought. Lucy complaining but joining in. Spirit after spirit being summoned as she slashed out with her whip. Hair being latched on by the mage…
Stop…
Pulling her up by the hair, roots complaining as she shrieked out her pain. Tears beginning to pool in brown eyes.
Stop…
Smirking. "Weak! So weak!" Can't even save your girl Salamander. Snear. The glint of a weapon then a screech as magic encrusted knife, meant for slaying stabbed into flesh of Lucy's stoma-
Stop!
"No! Lucy is fine! She's fine! She's fine!" A bout of hysterical laughter as Natsu stormed toward her. Hand reaching out to latch at her skin as he pulled her up. Body slumping forward weakly in his hands. Skin too cold. Clammy. Feverish. Bloody. So much blood.
"Aren't you okay Luce? Too strong for such a cowardly mage I know that!" Tears streamed more viciously down his face as his vision blurred more but he blinked them away. Unwilling to let go of Lucy's body as his legs weakened and he collapsed to the ground. Temperature so cold. He wasn't supposed to be cold. He was fire. Maybe he could warm Lucy? Yeah all she needed was some fire, she was far too cold. "Should be complaining soon huh? Always too sensitive to the cold?"
He could feel his temperature rising and he encouraged it. Lucy's body beginning to feel at least slightly warm in his hands but it wasn't enough. "Still too cold Lucy. Can't get too hot though, heat is known for consuming. Flame is too much for you too. So sensitive to the heat too, huh?
Flames began to break out along his skin as he continued to hold on to her. Unknowing of the charred flesh that was beginning to smoke up from her body. Ash crumpling to the floor around them. No wind to even blow it away.
The tears grew even more vicious as he shook her. Desperate to see her again. Desperate to see her eyes. Desperate to get rid of the vision of her broken body. Desperate to see past the blood. The pain. The desolate. Pale expanse of her body. He choked, flame beginning to envelop him as well as he felt sweat began to bead from his skin. "Too hot for me, huh? Lucy you're infecting me with your weirdness again! But you're still so cold!"
The cold brush of death- NO!
Lucy's fine!
Cold but fine nonetheless!
"I will save you Lucy, don't worry!" A bright grin.
He promised. He always promised. He couldn't go back on his promises. "I'm following your advice Lucy! I'm never going to go back on my promise as well!"
The smell of burning flesh began to permeate the air but Natsu smiled. Fangs exposed, "My mate should never be alone, right!"
With those words the flames burned even brighter. Trailing up and enveloping Natsu's body as well as he held the charred body of his partner close. Smoke rose from his body and he coughed. Lucy wouldn't be alone. Because Lucy feared being alone. Cowered at the thought of being lonely.
So Natsu would be with her. In this life and the next. Because he couldn't be alone either and without Lucy he was nothing. Because Lucy was his life. His love. His reason. His light and his fire bended to his will.
Harming him and burning him with such a searing pain that it brought a hiss out from between clenched teeth.
"Natsu…"
"Natsu…"
"Natsu…"
By the time the rest of the guild had arrived there would be nothing more than charred flesh and bone that had once been Natsu and Lucy. Together even in death, because the dragon slayer always held his loved ones close and Lucy was his most precious treasure. So of course he held her even closer.