Disclaimer: Fairy Tail is owned by Hiro Mashima Sensei. I own nothing except my fic.

This is a Nalu one-shot. Here is a challenge. Feel free to guess the identity of the Sakura Tree. If you can, be specific in identifying the character and where this character come from.

Hint: So far, only one of my readers got it when she read my original version in Chinese and she really knew what I was up to when I wrote this one-shot.

Please review. Please pity the poor me who is always waiting for reviews in vain (I'm not kidding when I was eagerly waiting for reviews once for the whole night as I can't sleep) ^^

Thank you ahuna67 for your beta. ahuna is being nice to beta this fic despite the busy schedule. I really appreciate it.

The Never Wilting Sakura Tree

A Sakura Tree stood upright in the Southern Park of Magnolia. The Rainbow Sakura flowers were blooming. The tree swayed in the wind as the colourful petals fell.

"Can anyone hear me?"

Year Y118, Magnolia

"My name is Lucy, I'm a student of Fairy Academy. I just recently transferred to this academy due to the relocation of my dad's company. In this era, there is no magic. Based on the history, magic had gradually died off after the War of Eclipse 300 years ago. Now, no one in the world possessed magic after the last mage had passed away. It was said that the school building was currently located where the building of Fairy Tail guild was back then". A blonde teenage girl stopped at the entrance as she looked up to the school building.

"I love the freedom I get here since I used to be in a strict environment. This place is full of weird people. I wonder what kind of fun things will happen today".

"Good morning!" Lucy greeted everyone upon stepping into the class but at the same time she also tripped on a trap. A pail of water spilled all over her and the class burst into laughter. Lucy was pissed.

"Hey! Which one of you did this? Lucy demanded.

"Probably Natsu, isn't it?" Bisca, a girl with long green hair with a straw hat replied.

"Only Natsu would do something like this." Alzack, Bisca's boyfriend with messy black hair added.

"Natsu!" Lucy stormed over to confront a boy with spiky pink hair who had a scaly white scarf over his neck. The boy was really pissed.

"Look what you had done! I'm planning to get Gray with that!"

"Huh?!"

"What kind of idiot would fall for that?" Natsu cried out loud.

"Why you?" Lucy jumped on Natsu and beat him up. Lucy could get along with anyone. Somehow, it was just him that she always had problem getting along with. He would always get onto her nerves and they would start fighting. She didn't know why, she just wanted to hit him when she saw him.

"Oh my, both of you are making love this early again. Maybe you should consider doing this only at home". Gray, the spiky raven-haired handsome boy with a scar across the left hand side of his forehead commented. He was the one Natsu supposedly laid a trap for.

"What give you that idea? I have nothing to do with him at all and never will I have anything to do with him!" Lucy retorted while getting herself on top of Natsu.

"You should be the one falling on that!" Natsu cried while he struggled to get Lucy off him.

"Like I will fall for a childish prank like this?" Gray placed his bag on his desk and proceeded to sit down. Natsu grinned evilly. His plan would work this time.

"Childish?" Was Gray calling her childish? Gray shot off as soon as his butt made contact with the charcoal Natsu placed on his chair. "HOT!" Gray cried.

With that Gray and Natsu clashed.

"Bastard, that burnt my butt!"

"You wanna go? I'm all fired up!"

"Bring it on, Bastard." Gray pulled off his tie and stripped. He planned to top Natsu with it.

"Don't take it all off!" Lucy cried out loud.

The boy almost clashed until Erza, the student council president stepped in. As expected from the scary president, the boys were taken care of easily and they would really get along very well after some "therapy" from Erza.

"AYE MADAM!" The boys said in unison as they had their hands over each other shoulder.

If there was nothing going on after school, Lucy would head to the Southern Park of Magnolia. Over there, there was a Sakura Tree which was said that it would never wilt. No matter which season, it would be blooming beautifully. The petals of the Sakura would turn from pink to rainbow at night and it was a beautiful sight. That was why this park had become a well-known attraction within Magnolia. People would definitely come here to view the Sakura when they dropped by. It was an attraction not to be missed. Even so, in the past 300 years, people had tried all means and way to move this tree away to obtain some space for development but somehow the tree was so tightly rooted and there was nothing they could do. So it remained there, in the park for 300 years.

Somehow, Lucy had always felt that the tree was lonely.

Lucy would normally wait until the public returned home in the late afternoon or the evening and she would be able to sit under the Sakura Tree to read her favorite book. She would always cry whenever she read that particular book. That was the final book written by Lucy Heartfilia in her advanced age. It was said that she wrote that book under the same Sakura Tree but she passed away before she could finish her book. Tears flowed down Lucy's cheek and dripped on the opened pages.

"Are you crying?" A voice was heard.

"Who is it?" Lucy turned to look around for the source of the voice while sniffing from her crying.

"I see that you can hear me." The mysterious voice spoke.

"Where are you?" Lucy asked.

"I'm the Sakura Tree".

"What?!" Lucy sweat-dropped at the reply in disbelief.

Lucy and the Sakura Tree became friends since then. Lucy would always confide with the Tree whenever she was troubled and whenever she experienced happy moments. The Tree would always laugh with her. Somehow, the Tree's laughter always sounded bitter and sometimes, she thought she could almost see the Tree in human form; a lonely human boy in black with his back facing her as the wind blew past him.

One day, Lucy came to the Tree. Her eyes were red and puffy from all the crying when Natsu's prank had gone overboard. She was really scared to death to only realize that it was just a prank from Natsu for his revenge against her for getting in his way all the time by activating his trap meant for Gray.

The Tree could guess more or less what happened even without Lucy telling it about it. Somehow it just came to him. For some reason, Lucy was really scared of the thought of what happened.

*Flashback*

Lucy was on the way home after school when she was approached by a trio of guys with bouncy butts. They wanted to flirt with her. Lucy felt really disgusted. She did not dare to think what was going to happen next. She closed her eyes when the leader caressed her face after his two underlings, one thin and one fat guy caught her by her arms. She was trying to find some openings on how she could get out of this.

"Girl, how about we make out over at my place, it is going to be fun". The leader suggested as Lucy snapped open her eyes and kicked him in his groin catching them by surprise. She managed to break free of the underlings during the chaos while she made a break for a run.

However she was quickly caught up by the thinner subordinate A who grabbed her arms. The leader and the fat subordinate B came right after. The leader was caught off guard when he approached Lucy as he was hit on his head by a bat.

"Lucy!" Lucy was relieved to see her pink haired classmate, Natsu coming to her rescue. He grabbed Lucy and they ran. Soon they came to a diverging path.

"Lucy you take that route, I will lure them away". Natsu pointed to her back.

"But you will be in danger".

"Don't worry, we will get out of this safely". Natsu gave her a reassuring smile while he urged Lucy to go. "Go now!" However, they were a step too late when Lucy proceeded on the way but staggered backwards in wary before she could go ahead. The trio had cornered them appearing in all three directions. The leader approached the pair.

"Both of you really have the guts to go against me. None of you are getting out of here alive". Lucy was really afraid. Were they going to die here? "I will start with the girl. I'll show you the power of the true evil". The leader brought out a gun aiming at her.

"Lucy!" A gunshot was heard. Lucy watched in fear when the pink-haired boy clutched his chest and collapsed on his back. She caught him before he hit the ground.

The leader smirked proudly at his work while his two subordinates looked dumbfounded. They had gone too far when he merely wanted to harass the girl. "Aniki, I think you had gone overboard. Let's run before the police come here after hearing the gunshot". the fat subordinate B advised and the leader finally noticed the severity of his action . With that, the trio fled in panic leaving the couple alone.

"Natsu? How are you feeling?" Lucy cried shaking Natsu's body. He had taken the bullet for her. Lucy watched in horror at the vast amount of blood Natsu lost as Natsu's uniform was stained red down his chest area. Lucy feared that the bullet might have hit his vital organs. She gasped when she saw the red and sticky liquid from his bullet wound seeping through his fingers running down the back of his hand in increasing amount. Lucy trembled in fear. She was really afraid that Natsu would die.

"Lucy… I'm glad…" Natsu struggled to open his eyes smiling weakly at her as his face scrunched up in pain when he pressed on his wound desperately trying to stop his own bleeding.

Lucy's heart lurched. "You will be fine. I will call for an ambulance, hang on." Lucy took out her mobile and struggled to dial the number but she was stopped by Natsu with his bloodied hand. He shook his head. He knew very well himself what was happening to his body.

"No…! The… bullet… hit… right… on my heart. There is… no… way… I will… live..." Natsu started to cough out blood. His breathing was ragged as he struggled to breathe.

NO! NATSU! You'll be fine. I'll find a way to save you. Please hang in there." Tears fell from her eyes to his cheek. She had never been so scared in her life. She looked around to see if she can seek help but Natsu nudged her hand weakly.

"Don't... go... " Natsu begged. "This... is... my last... request... to... you." Lucy cradled his head on her lap. She was beaming in tears when she nodded her head. Her body was shaking with all the sobbing. Lucy brushed locks of pink hair which was covering his eyes and caressed his face, talking as much as she could to him to keep him awake. Natsu's expression softened at her action as he nuzzled her hand weakly in return. His gentle expression which was unseen of really scared Lucy. His eyes began to close slowly as he murmured in his barely audible voice. "Lucy, thank you... My chest no... longer... hurt... but I'm... feeling... really... tired, I will... like... to... rest…".

Lucy watched in shock as his hand which was holding on to hers fell limp onto the ground at his side. Lucy felt empty as she shook him hoping that her pink-haired classmate who was sleeping with a peaceful and contented expression on her lap would open his eyes to tell her it was just a joke.

And to Lucy's horror, it was really a joke.

Natsu snapped open his eyes and cracked into laughter. He could not stop laughing as he sat up and banged his fist on the ground. The trio turned out Natsu's friends from his part-time job at a restaurant the Jiggly Butt Trio in disguise. The blood on Natsu was actually tobacco sauce mixed with water Natsu had specially packed and hidden inside his uniform which he had broke open when the leader fired the toy gun at Lucy.

As for the blood he coughed out, it came from the "bloody sweet" given by his school's "most cunning" Vice President of the Student Council when he overheard their plan back then when Natsu and the trio were discussing about it during their break while visiting their petite lady boss, Coco. The blue haired Vice President acted as their adviser for the sake of making it as real as possible. He said only to Natsu. "I just really wanted to help you for some reason". The Vice President had tried the same tactic on his scarlet haired president but it never worked. He merely wanted some free time when the president wanted to work him to death.

"All went according to plan. The lines I used were adapted from your favorite book with some revision. I can't believe you fell for it. This is really easy". Natsu commented as he pointed his finger at Lucy and laughed at her.

"Natsu, you are too much! My head and my groin hurt". The leader complained when the three of them showed up. Natsu ignored his complaint much to his annoyance. "You should have dodged yourself". He retorted folding his arms turning to Lucy's direction.

Lucy was fuming mad in embarrassment. She slapped Natsu really hard and left abruptly in tears.

*End Flashback*

"How could he joke with something like that?" Lucy cried as she complained to the Sakura Tree. "He is too much."

The Tree watched over Lucy waiting for her to calm down. Lucy turned and looked at the Tree swaying with the wind as petals fell from it. The feeling she had just now was too familiar to her. She could understand how her favorite author felt when her only love supposedly died on her arms. "Wait, love?"

She finally decided to ask the Tree as these questions had been lingering on her mind for quite some time. She had always wanted to know more about her favourite author Lucy Heartfilia. What kind of feeling did she have when she wrote her books? Most importantly, what kind of ending Lucy Heartfilia wanted to write in her final book which she never got to complete? Lucy believed that the Tree might know something since it had been here for 300 years. On top of that, Lucy wrote her book under it. The Tree paused for a moment. Lucy thought she asked something she should not.

"Lucy in her time was a very popular girl in Fairy Tail. She was well-liked by many guys. I admired her perseverance and she didn't give up easily. I had seen her growth over the years. She became more and more beautiful. I watched over her when she started writing until the day she passed away lying on me, on my trunk. It was as if she knew that I was always watching over her. My heart broke when she breathed her last. I love her but I guess we were not meant to be". Lucy found herself in tears when the Tree finished. Drops of tears fell on her hands.

"Have you not once talked back to her then?"

The petals which turned rainbow in colour fell as the wind blew. The night had fallen.

"She couldn't hear me". The answer was obvious. Lucy realized she should not have asked. Lucy thought she saw a blonde girl and a pink-haired boy walking away from one another in opposite direction in her mind.

"I believe…" The Tree seemed to be thinking for a moment. "Lucy had planned for the ending to be a perfect one this time. Look! He is here".

Lucy raised her head and she saw that hateful person approaching her. It was her classmate, Natsu. Natsu scratched his head as he spoke up awkwardly, "I'm sorry, Lucy. I shouldn't have played that prank on you and made you cry. I'm here to pick you up, everyone is waiting for you".

That was when Lucy burst in tears. She cried really hard which startled Natsu. Lucy felt as though the happiness she had once lost came back to her. The image of a blonde girl facing a spiky pink-haired boy with a red Fairy Tail emblem on his arm had overlapped in her mind when Natsu offered his hand to her.

The next day, the same thing happened again. A pail of water was spilled over her head.

"Not again!" The class burst into laughter.

"Yeah". This time round, Lucy did not know how she should react. She was tired of it.

Natsu came over to take a look at his prey. "See if I don't get you this time, Gray!" But Natsu was stunned to see Lucy drenched instead. "Eh? It's Lucy. Damn it! The undead Sakura Tree will certainly come after me if it learnt about this."

"Oh yeah, I have yet to ask you, what is your name?" Lucy asked the Sakura Tree which seemed to be smiling at her. But the Tree would not reveal its name. "Just know that you will find your happiness this time, I'm sure of it and I will watch over you until then".

"Life is like a song of variations, constantly repeating, constantly changing, all for the sake to the pursuit of a perfect melody."A boy with spiky pink hair tugged his scarf as he looked up to the sky and smiled.

"I'm sure Lucy's story will reach a perfect ending this time right, Lucy?"