Chapter One: Separation

Natsu and Lucy stood before the Eclipse Gate watching at it as it glowed with centuries old magic, taking those who had just walked through it into another dimension of existence.

Hopefully now, they prayed, Mavis and Zeref's story will become one of love, hope and a happy future.

'A happy future,' Natsu mused as he turned to look at Lucy, subconsciously squeezing her fingers in his palm. It felt nice holding her hand, especially after everything they had just been through, and as he watched her hair billow around her while she slowly finished her spell, he felt sublime happiness of a kind he hadn't ever experienced before.

Lucy gently opened her eyes, the swarm of magic around them dying down to a soft breeze.

Her body tingled with the magic she had just wielded. His did with the magic he lent her in lieu of one missing key.

They shared a warm smile, one that spoke eons more than mere words ever could. Natsu, never one to deny himself any impromptu desire, raised the hand that wasn't holding hers to gently cup her cheek, running his thumb over a cheekbone, thriving in her soft blush.

Lucy began leaning into his palm -

-only to feel her face slip right through his hand.

Lucy's eyes snapped up to his, only to find them equally wide in horror at what they were seeing.

Alarmed, they began reaching for each other, trying desperately to establish contact, to prove to themselves that everything was okay, but never being able to do so. With steadily increasing panic, the two realised that they were both fading away.

They could hear the distant cries of their guildmates, calling their names in fear, and they could see the Gate glowing ominously in a corner of their periphery, but their worry could only accommodate the extremely distressing sight of the other steadily disappearing.

Lucy made to yell his name, doing her best to reach for him despite the growing distance between them; he was now a full arm's length away. Natsu seemed to be doing the same, not that she could hear him call her name either.

Their fingertips brushed tortuously close before they were pulled forcibly apart by some invisible force, the last thing they witnessed being each other's panicked faces, before losing all feeling and watching their world turn black.

Lucy woke up under a canopy of trees. Blinking to get accustomed to the light, she jolted up, worried for her best friend, and in the process unwittingly ruining the layer of leaves that had been placed on her.

"Natsu!" she called. "Natsu! Where are you?"

"I'm here!" came a voice behind her.

Puzzled at not entirely recognising it, Lucy turned around - only to find the person she was looking for, though not like how she had last seen him.

Before her, with his arms crossed and a very puzzled frown on, stood a shirtless and clearly very confused seven year old Natsu.

"Ugh. What the heck?" wondered Natsu, rubbing the back of his aching head as he sat up, breathing air far different from what he had been inhaling only moments ago.

"Lucy? Lucy!" he called, standing up and shaking off the groggy results of his rough landing.

He looked around the large meadow he was in, his concern growing with how distant her scent was. What was worse was that it didn't even entirely feel like her scent either. Not the one he was used to anyway.

Shaking off any remaining lethargy, Natsu got on his feet, letting his nose decide where he was headed, which was apparently towards a small forest.

Not long after, he reached the edge of the thicket, finding a clearing where stood a large marble statue. From where he was standing a few yards behind it, Natsu could see the form was of a female with wings. An angel lady? With quite a following too, if the number of people around her was to be believed.

Figuring a potential need for stealth, Natsu managed to sneak around the gathering, avoiding any wayward gazes from those standing in front of the statue.

Once he successfully made his way around, it dawned onto him that the statue wasn't a mere piece of fancy, artsy decoration. With a gulp, he tasted the grief in the air, finally noting that it was a -

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We are gathered today to bid farewell to the radiant Layla Heartfilia - mentor, role model, caring Master to beings of the stars, loving wife and proud mother. On this day..."

And Natsu could hear no more. It was all he could to stay hidden as all the little clues before him pieced together into one painful picture.

This was when Lucy's mother had died.

And right on cue, his sight fell on a little figure right in the front of the crowd and the sight of her had his heart squeeze inside his chest in agony.

Her small frame was quivering as she did her best to rein in her emotions, no doubt having been told it was wrong to cry in public. Natsu had seen Lucy cry before, each time more painful than the last, but none of those could rival watching this Lucy - looking so tiny and so vulnerable - as she held back her tears, silently watching her mother being buried.

Natsu decided right then to do everything he could to make her feel better. No matter what or how long that took.

"Natsu?"

"How do ya know my name?" the seven-year-old asked, titling his head in confusion. "You were asleep when I found you."

Lucy simply blinked, as Natsu's eyes drifted to the pool of leaves on her lap.

He pouted. "And you ruined your blanket too."

Absently, Lucy finally registered the foliage she had been practically buried under, the gesture being every bit as thoughtless and thoughtful as Natsu was.

With a steadying breath, Lucy tried to smile at him, doing her best to both seem unthreatening as well as buy her time to figure what she could of what was happening.

"Are you constipated? You're making a weird face."

Lucy blanched. "Of course I'm not! And my face isn't weird."

Natsu chuckled, his eyes swimming in mirth.

Lucy's eyes narrowed. 'The little twerp is teasing me!'

She was about to give said twerp a piece of her mind when the oddity of it all occurred to her.

Her mind whirring with possibilities, she hesitantly looked at Natsu. "Um, what day is it?"

Little Natsu's playful smile fell immediately. "A few days past July 7," he answered softly, his demeanour now far less chirpy that he just had been.

'Time travel!' Lucy's brain screamed at her and Lucy understood just how wrong it was for her to be talking to Natsu. Little Natsu. Little Natsu that she technically hasn't met yet. Little Natsu who is years away from ever meeting her.

Oh dear.

"I see. Thank you for taking care of me, but I have to leave now."

Natsu's head snapped up to hers, the fear in them so apparent Lucy's body stilled in its exit all on its own.

"Um, do you have to?"

Lucy swallowed around a lump of emotion, before answering softly, "I have someone I'm looking for."

The little boys eyes widened with curiosity. "Really? Me too!" he grinned at her and Lucy felt her heart plummet to her stomach as she understood just whom he meant.

Not that he noticed. "Are you looking for another Natsu?"

Lucy nodded mutely, a myriad of emotions washing over her.

"Is he your son?"

Despite herself Lucy managed a snort "Do I look like I would have a son? No, he's my friend," she smiled. "My best friend."

"Oh," said Natsu. "Well, I'll help you find your Natsu!"

Lucy snapped back to her previous chain of thought, recognising the dire need to not interfere with the course of time more than she already had.

"Um, no that's okay. I'm - I'm sure he's around here somewhere," she laughed nervously.

Natsu watched her with sceptical eyes, before looking at the ground sullenly. "You don't want to be with me either, do you?"

Lucy's heart broke at the sorry image the boy made.

That's it.

Screw time-space continuum.

"No no, not at all!" She said, sitting on her knees so they were now seeing eye to eye. "I was just worried you're too cool for me! You're a fire dragon slayer, aren't you?"

"How did you know?" he asked, his eyes full of awe.

"That's a secret," Lucy winked at him and had to withhold a giggle as his mouth dropped open in a little 'o'.

Recovering, he offered her a smile. "Well you're pretty cool too! We can definitely be friends!" he declared proudly.

Lucy smiled warmly at him. "The best."

Scarf around secured around the head? Check.

Hands in sneak-jitsu position? Check.

Nin-nin? Double check.

All ready, Ninja Natsu crawled around the Heartfilia manor's premises stealthily.

He had waited as patiently as he could all through the ceremony, resisting the urge to comfort the little grief stricken Lucy before him. Somehow, he persevered. The knowledge a random stranger wouldn't be allowed to get close enough to Lucy to help her did help. A bit.

And so the moment the many people visiting the grave had trickled away and Lucy had been ushered inside by an old lady, Natsu made his move towards the sprawling Manor.

The guards were easy enough to pass by and with his keen dragon slayer senses, and he was able to bypass any and all secondary security personnel without incident, easily climbing up one of the manor's walls.

Following a pleasant, subtly-Lucy smell, Natsu soon found himself outside the window of a heavily decorated room, full of neatly arranged soft toys and books.

'Huh,' thought Natsu. 'Figures she would be reading since she was tiny.'

His visual sweep of the room culminated at the large four-poster bed, this time noticing the little ball of curled-up-like-a-prawn Lucy.

Crying.

He could hear her whimpers, calling for her Mama. Asking her to come back.

Oh he knew that feeling.

Shaking his head and smothering the hurt he was feeling for her, Natsu then quickly knocked on closed window, allowing her to know of his presence.

When Lucy peeked from underneath her blanket, he nearly laughed at her surprise at seeing a random pink haired dude hovering outside her window.

Nearly.

The many streaks of tears still running down her cheeks did effectively dampen his amusement after all.

And her shock had him thinking. He hadn't really thought this through.

Realising she may just start screaming any second, Natsu quickly thought of a solution. Bracing himself on just his feet on the window's ledge, he began juggling fire balls and making funny faces before pretending to swallow all of them.

Pretending. He couldn't really eat his own fire, of course.

And though she didn't laugh or call him silly, Natsu saw Lucy's tired eyes widen in pleasant wonder.

He signalled for her to open her window.

She paused, still a bit suspicious and Natsu put on his best, most innocent smile. It turned into a genuine grin as she hesitantly got off her bed and quietly padded to the window.

Natsu found it unbelievably endearing as he watched her stick a wee pink tongue out the corner of her mouth, as she stood on her tip-toes, stretching as much as her little body would allow to reach the latch of the large windows.

After a little struggle, she managed to open the window, stepping aside to let Natsu in.

"Yo!" he greeted.

"G-good evening," she responded stiffly, straightening her spine and doing a little curtsey, clearly new to the form of greeting.

"Hi, I'm Natsu," he prompted.

"My name is Lucy Heartfilia," she answered in a small worn voice.

Natsu ignored the millionth painful pang of his heart.

"Hi Lucy, do you know what I am?"

"A perbert?"

Natsu resisted the urge to both laugh and smack himself on the forehead. "Nah, not a pervert. I'm a dragon!"

"A dragon?" she whispered, Natsu now clearly having her full attention.

"Yup!" he grinned. "I'm the cheer-upper fire dragon. And I've come to make a little princess happy."

Lucy blinked before offering him a sweet giggle in response. "You're funny. There's no princess here. Just me."

"Well, just you is all I've been looking for."

Lucy's eyes widened and she made to smile, but it fell before it reached its full splendor, her brown eyes filling with sorrow.

"I am sorry. I don't think I can be happy right now. My Mama is gone."

Natsu sucked a breath through his teeth.

Gearing himself for his self-appointed task, he crouched before her.

"Hey," he said, with a small gentle tap on her cheek. "You loved your Mom right?"

"With all my heart," was her vehement reply.

"And she loved you too, right?"

"Mmmhmm."

"Did you like seeing your Mom happy?"

Another nod. "She looked her best when she laughed!"

Natsu smiled. "So won't she be happy when you are?"

Lucy seemed to take a moment to process that. "So..." she began hesitantly, "...if I'm sad Mama is sad too?"

"Probably," Natsu shrugged.

"So I can't be sad she's gone?"

Natsu realised the flaw in his logic, taking a moment to appreciate how even at a mere seven years of age Lucy could still teach him new things. "You definitely can. Be as sad as your heart wants to be and cry as much as you need to. Then when you're done, being happy would be easier again."

Lucy nodded her understanding. "Will you...will you stay? Even while I'm sad?"

"Definitely," he responded immediately. "I'll be here if you want to cry, and when you're ready, we can make you laugh again as well!"

Lucy smiled warmly at that, "That sounds like a nice plan."

Thank you truly for reading! This will be a short multi-chapter; it was originally supposed to be just be a drabble, but then blew up to some thirty-seven pages long, so...whoops?

Do let me know what you think, reviews are the best form of feedback one could ask for! :D