I wrote this at 1 in the morning and finished at 4. That being said, this might not be my most amazing work. I looked through it and managed to fix some really awful parts though so that's good.

Also, this is my first one-shot. I know I should be working on my main story but when inspiration strikes, I find that it's best to get it down before you regret it. Take that lesson to heart, folks.

"Miss Heartfilia?" a voice asked with concern and uncertainty.

There was no response from the blonde young child in the hospital stretcher. She sat up and looked forward at nothing, her eyes looked glassy and quite frankly, dead. She had been unresponsive for an hour now, and the nurse who was assigned to the girl's floor had spent every minute trying to coax her into awareness, but to no avail. Until now, for she stirred slightly at her name. Hope rekindled itself within the female nurse, and she tried to wake the poor girl one last time.

"Miss Heartfilia?" she asked a bit louder. "Miss Heartfilia, can you hear me? Please answer me!"

The blonde girl blinked as everything adjusted. Her vision became clearer and her hearing seemed to be less distorted, but it was still a bit muffled. Someone was calling her, she was vaguely aware of that fact. The girl tried her best to focus in on her surroundings.

"Miss Heartfilia?"

Blink. Blink. The blonde turned her head to the nurse standing near the edge of her stretcher. Her body felt heavy and her throat was dry.

"Water," the girl croaked pitifully. The nurse nodded and rushed off to get the girl a glass. She blinked and looked around the room she was in. The walls were white and the linoleum floor was the same color. She was in a stretcher, she noted with confusion; a thin blanket had been thrown over her for comfort more than warmth. A curtain stretched around a portion of the room she was in, the nurse having to go behind it to get the water.

"I'm glad you're awake Miss Heartfilia," the nurse remarked as she filled the Styrofoam cup. "I mean, you were always awake but at least now you're responsive." The young nurse returned and handed the cup carefully to her, ready to grab it if the girl dropped it. The girl took a small sip as it burned down her throat. After a few more sips her throat was back to normal; she even managed to take greedy gulps before a wave of nausea set in her stomach.

Almost dropping the cup into the nurse's hands again, she clamped her own hands over her mouth and coughed.

"Miss Heartfilia, are you alright?" the nurse asked, her short brown hair framed her face as she leaned in towards the girl. "I should have mentioned to take it easy one the water, you suffered quite a blow to the head."

'Miss Heartfilia' looked at the brunette in confusion. "Wha-?" she asked before she was cut off by a door opening in the room. A man in a white lab coat walked toward her and the nurse with a slight smile on his face. It was not a happy smile, more sympathetic.

"Ah, Miss Heartfilia," he said in a mock tone of cheerfulness. "You're finally awake. I know you have a lot of questions, but we have to get some of my questions out of the way, alright?"

The girl nodded slowly as she watched the brunette nurse leave the room politely.

"First off, what is your full name?" he asked.

"Lucy Heartfilia," she said after hesitating for only a moment.

"Good. Next: What is your date of birth?"

Small pause. "July 1, X767."

"Very good. And the last question I have for you is: Do you remember what happened?"

A longer pause then the first two settled in the air as Lucy racked her brain for any recollection of the most recent past.

"I…," she trailed off as she thought. "I was in a car with my family, on a drive in the city."

The doctor nodded, his face drained of any emotion.

"We were all driving and laughing and talking and then…"

No.

No.

This couldn't be true.

"Miss Heartfilia? Could you continue? Please." His tone was sad, but he needed her to finish. It was his job to make sure she was uninjured.

"W-we were… there was…" Lucy had the idea in her head but could not for the words.

"There was an accident," the doctor offered her as a start.

"…Yes. There was…an accident. A bad one."

After a moment of silence, the doctor spoke.

"Lucy, my name is Dr. Wright. You and your parents were brought to this hospital after a car accident. Your family's car was hit by a drunk driver last night. Do you understand?"

Lucy felt tears prick her eyes as she nodded. She was vaguely aware of the bandage the wrapped around her head and the little bandages all over her body. "Where's Mama and Papa?" she asked quietly. The doctor grew very quiet as Lucy felt her heart beat faster.

"Lucy, your parents were in bad shape when they arrived to begin with, but your mother… your mother was in critical condition."

Lucy remembered begging her mother to sit in the back with her during the car ride as the tears welled up in her eyes. "Critical?" she asked as her voice cracked. "What does that mean?"

Dr. Wright looked at the ten year old in pity. She didn't deserve to go

through this.

"It means that her life was in danger. It means that she was already…very weak."

"Was?" the little girl asked with a bit of hope as the tears streamed down her face. "You mean she's alright now, right?"

The doctor would not look at her in the eye. Instead, he sat down next to her on the stretcher and looked down at his hands.

"Lucy, your mother, Layla, she protected you. Did you know that? She shielded you from the crash. That's why she was in bad shape. She loved you so much, that she protected you from harm."

Lucy felt as though her heart had stopped beating. "Loved…?"

"I'm so sorry Lucy, but your mother, Layla, she didn't make it."

Lucy raised her hands to her mouth, feeling nauseas again. "No," she whispered between her fingers. "No. NO. You're lying! It's not true. Mama wouldn't…Mama would die from something like that!"

Dr. Wright ignored her protests and continued. "Your father is in a stable condition, and should recover within about 2 weeks. You should also stay here for that time; we'd like to keep an eye on you."

Lucy stared at him with the widest eyes he had ever seen, the tears now coming at an impossible rate. "Ma…ma. Mama. Mama wouldn't, she couldn't be…"

The small girl grabbed the pillow she had been resting against and sobbed into it, practically screaming. It broke the doctor's heart. It seemed like this was all his job ever was. But he swallowed down any comforting words he felt like saying and stood up. After all, he had more bad news to break to other patients and families. As he left, he was replaced by the nurse with the brown hair. She sat on Lucy's stretcher and gathered her up in a giant hug, holding the girl as she let the sobs rack her body.

Her mother was dead.

Gone.

Forever.

No more hugs.

No more snuggles.

No more kisses on the boo-boos she got from playing in the park.

No more story time with Mama.

No more.

Gone.

Forever.

Lucy gasped as she awoke from the nightmare, sitting up slightly. She sat there, propped up on her elbows, panting in a cold sweat. She shivered, despite being under the thick comforter on her bed. She sat up slowly and brought her knees up to her chest in a fetal position.

The body that was peacefully sleeping next her went rigid and sat up suddenly. "What's wrong, Lucy?" Natsu asked the girl with concern.

She shook her head and stared at her kneecaps. "Nothing," she replied quietly. "It was just, that dream again. Don't worry about it. You can go back to sleep."

She was barely able to make out his head violently shaking in the dark of her apartment bedroom. "No way!" he growled as he pulled her into a warm embrace. "I'm staying right with you like this until you fall asleep. I'll even kick that dream's ass!"

Lucy chuckled despite the feeling in her heart. "You can't beat up a dream, idiot," she mumbled as she snuggled deeper into his arms. He rested his chin on her head as they sunk back into a laying-down position.

"Shut up! I totally could."

"Yeah right."

Natsu nestled his head against Lucy's. "Hush," he murmured. "I'm trying my best here."

She opened her eyes to look at him. His pink hair was a mess as usual when he slept. His arms were strong and locked around her in a reassuring embrace. His warmth and scent soothed her shivering and made her feel more relaxed.

It was about 6 months ago when the pyromaniac delinquent from Fairy Tail Academy asked her to go out with him, which she promptly refused. But after a month of constant nagging and persistence, Lucy finally decided to give the guy a chance. She had just gotten over the death of her father, and thought she would appreciate the distraction. She didn't think she would fall completely head over heels for him. Nor did she think that, following the death of her father, she would be plagued by nightmares of her mother's death.

She tried to handle them alone at first. She would only get them about twice a week, which she thought she could handle. But suddenly, she got them every other night. She was losing sleep and it was showing. Natsu confronted her about it after a week of her showing up to class half dead and falling asleep on the bus. She only told him that there was nothing to worry about, that nothing was happening. But Natsu persisted until Lucy didn't have the energy to fight about it anymore.

She was getting them every night when she told him what was going on. They tried every remedy in the book to cure nightmares, but nothing worked. That is, until Levy found out. Levy had been reading a book about the psychology of dreams and nightmares and said that often times, the person having the nightmare feels lonely and seeks human affection and warmth through the night. Natsu heard this and immediately said that he would sleep with her, which made her turn a violent shade of red. After punching rather hard, it was agreed in a more private setting that Natsu would come over one night for a test run to see if it would work.

At first Lucy was nervous that the pinkette would do something bad to her in her sleep, but after making him swear that he would do nothing but close his eyes and rest, she relaxed a bit. They first night was very awkward for her. Where Natsu fell asleep rather quickly, Lucy couldn't close her eyes for more than a few seconds at a time. That is, until Natsu rolled over and grabbed her into a hug.

At first she tried to pry him off but after a good 15 minutes of attempting this, she gave up on trying to escape his death grip, and just tried to make herself more comfortable. Within moments, she fell asleep and didn't have the nightmare. She didn't even dream at all. The test was deemed successful, so he came over almost every night to help her fall asleep. She would always wind up in his embrace somehow in the morning. At first she was annoyed, but after a few nights she didn't seem to find at all.

But there were some nights when the nightmares would break down the walls he had built to protect her from their dark images. She would always wake up in a cold sweat and start shivering; she even cried once when it got real bad. He would feel her move and immediately check on her to see if she was okay. Natsu would then hold her until she calmed down and fell back asleep.

Lucy studied his face shyly as his chest moved up and down in a rhythmic fashion. His face looked somewhat peaceful but also slightly annoyed. She closed her eyes and tilted her head down.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to him quietly. She felt him stir and position himself to look at the sleeping beauty.

"Lucy," Natsu's voice was serious. "Look at me."

At first she didn't respond, but eventually Lucy caved in after feeling his stare bore through her closed eyes. His looked at her with determined onyx pools, all while shifting himself to grab her shoulders.

"Luce," he began. "Why are you apologizing to me?"

She stared at his chest quietly without giving him an answer.

"Luce, look at me." She obeyed and lifted her face to meet his eyes. He spoke again in a slightly softer tone. "Please answer me."

Lucy sighed. "Ever since we started dating, you've been so…kind," she confessed quietly. "You do all of these things for me whenever I have a problem, without even a second thought." She paused for a moment as she looked away from his intense gaze. "So I guess I'm apologizing for being so high maintenance and annoying."

There was a moment of silence between the two before Natsu moved. He cupped her face in his hands and gently tilted her head to look at him.

"Lucy," he began for what seemed like the tenth time. "I've never been any good with handling my feelings ever since my dad ran out on my mom and I. And ever since Mom passed, it was even tougher, that's probably why I became a delinquent." He chuckled a little bit at the last part, making Lucy's heart clench slightly. She knew it wasn't easy for Natsu to talk about this; he was barely able to tell her about it when they first started going out.

"But I know," he stated with confidence as his hands tightened slightly under her chin. "for a fact, that I love you more than I have loved anyone else in ever before." Lucy's heart beat faster as he proclaimed this. "So when it comes to things like this; like coming in to sleep with you because you need me, I don't care. I actually like being here, did you know that? I like being needed, because for so long I only ever thought about myself. Now that I have the privilege of being with you like this, I get to think about you and that-"

He stopped abruptly as he caught his breath. Lucy placed a reassuring hand on his cheek while he tried to gather his thoughts. Natsu took a deep breath.

"All I know is that I love you and I like being here. I don't mind staying here with you. Lucy, you're not high maintenance and you're certainly not annoying."

Lucy felt a tear slide down her right cheek. Natsu wiped it away with his thumb and smiled at her. She smiled back and let out a small laugh.

"Thank you," she whispered weakly. Natsu kissed her on the forehead swiftly and pulled away to look at her.

"I love you," he said, raising his eyebrows innocently.

…

…

"I love you, too."

Natsu grinned madly before giving her a quick kiss on the lips, short and sweet. She was pulled into another embrace which she welcomed. She snuggled into the warm pinkette, his scent lulling her to sleep.

She felt like the luckiest girl in the world to ever find such an astonishing man who could be a laughing idiot one second and a deep and understanding boyfriend the next. She knew he was bad at anything that had to do with emotions. When he told her he liked her, his exact words were "Go out with me, dammit!" His mom's death had been crushing, just as her owns had been. So maybe he knew how she felt. Hell, maybe he had nightmares too and didn't want her to go through the same sense of loneliness he had.

Lucy suddenly gripped his tank top at the thought. Natsu took notice.

"What's wrong?"

She shook her head with a slight smile. "Mm-mm," she assured him. "Nothing."

He raised an eyebrow at the blonde skeptically but left it alone.

"Natsu?"

"Mmm?"

"...Thank you."

I'm still bad at ending anything so apologies for that. The AU this is set up in is modern day, or something close to it.

Work on chapter 10 for 'The New Dragon Slayer' is underway. If you don't know what that is, why don't you stop on by? Or not. Whatever is cool with you.

Have a fantastical day. I'm gonna go to the Science Center.