He didn't understand what he'd done to her, but he would by the time she was finished.

"Natsu, I—"


Lucy Heartfilia is not really the one you'd expect to run out of words. She's been properly educated when she was at the Heartfilia estate when she was young. She's a bookworm (it's said that she'd already finished reading all of the books in the library along with her bestfriend Levy) and for Mavis' sake, she's a writer (and a damn good one according to Levy). She never loses in an argument (well, she became well adapted to giving remarks to each strange dialogues between the members of the guild) and was not really known as a quiet fellow.

Whether she's just pouring out her feelings after Master Makarov gave her touching words after the Phantom Lord incident –

"When you smile, we smile too. In times of your pain, we are in pain, too. You are a part of our family, Lucy. Remember that." Master Makarov smiled at her.

Lucy cried loudly as she was yelling a mix of "I'm sorry", "Thank you" and "I love Fairy Tail"'s towards the sky.

—or just plain complaining that Natsu and Happy snuck into her house uninvited, she never runs out of words.

"Yo Luce!"

"Lushiiiii~" Natsu and Happy welcomed Lucy when she got into her house.

Lucy was shocked and threw the groceries that she bought into the two intruders, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE UNINVITED!" Every damn time this happened, Natsu only grins in reply.

But this time, it's different. After seeing her future self die and Natsu defeating future Rogue for her sake – to protect her future – she's been bothered by it.

She's been bothered by the fact, well, according to Happy, he has never seen Natsu so furious since they the day he was born. Every time she sees Natsu, there's a warm feeling swelling in her chest. It's not that Natsu has placed a strange Dragon Slayer spell in her— it's silly because she's not a dragon nor an enemy – so she has been ignoring it (well, she tried) but when Alegria happened… she can never ignore it ever again.

She's not dumb and she's not as dense as Natsu. She must have already known what that warm feeling was. When she saw a petrified Natsu, her eyes were clouded with unshed tears and hugged him immediately. He should not have been turned into an inanimate being if not for his missing scarf. Lucy felt guilty because she should not be the one who was spared but Natsu. But at the same time, determination revived her spirit as soon as she realized that this would be an opportunity to pay everyone back for all the times that she has been in trouble. And she swore that after all of this, she'll never ignore— never deny him ever again. Whatever happens, she'll make sure that everyone comes back… especially Natsu.

"I'm all revved up, Natsu." Lucy's eyes had a different kind of glint – it's a mixture of kindness, determination and strength. "I promise I will bring you back." Her forehead touched Natsu's and smiled.


Honestly, Lucy's memories of the destruction of Tartaros were very hazy to her. No, she wasn't the one who destroyed the dark guild but her family, Fairy Tail. What she has managed to destroy is Alegria. She found out that Celestial magic can have other forms and managed to modify Urano Metria to break into Alegria. After bringing everyone back, Fairy Tail struck will all of their power and defeated Tartaros.

And now, Natsu's in front of her. He showed off his toothy grin and patted Lucy's head.

"Good Job, Luce!"

Lucy's eyes were filled to the brim and covered her face with her hands. "Natsu, I—!"

Natsu did not understand why Lucy was crying and he could only form an 'o' with his mouth while his hands panicked on where to touch Lucy to soothe her down. But eventually, his whole body moved to wrap his arms around the Celestial mage properly. He chuckled and managed to spew out some words.

"Naaaaani? The great writer Lucy Heartfilia-san is running out of words?" Lucy smiled and Natsu's flesh tingled by her action. He also smiled and patted her back. "Thank you for saving me."

Lucy tried to say something but she failed. Instead, she broke away from the hug and cupped Natsu's face then traced the scar on his neck with her left hand. She stared lovingly at the now flustered Fire Dragon Slayer. "L-Lucy, y-you're being w-weird…" Natsu's mouth was being funny as Lucy continued to stare at him. It looked like he's shivering from the cold when he said those words.

Those words that made Lucy finally speak up.

"Am I?" Lucy chuckled. Natsu scratched the back of his neck and nodded as a reply to Lucy's question. Lucy removed her hands from Natsu's face (Natsu's face became a bit down but shrugged it off immediately and looked at Lucy's eyes) and observed as her arms did a swift motion around his head.

"There."

Igneel's scarf.

"A-Ah!" Natsu's eyes widened and grabbed the piece of cloth that his foster father gave him, "Cool! Howd'ya find it?"

Lucy giggled and poked his forehead. "Dummy, it's just lying around and I just happened to stumble over it. Consider yourself lucky that I found it!" She grinned while Natsu laughed at her actions. He never knew that Gray's not the only tsundere in the house.

"Hai hai." He clutched his scarf and buried his face for a bit in it. At the same time, he sniffed the soft piece of cloth which was dominated by Lucy's smell. It seems that she kept it really close to her the whole time he's out. He became intoxicated with the smell of citrus and vanilla— who knew that combining these scents would make a good combination? Or maybe it's because it's Lucy's scent that he's biased with it. After a few seconds, he returned to Lucy who was being fidgety the whole time. He did not know what's wrong but… something's bothering her.

"Luce?"

"N-Natsu uhm… I…"

Natsu titled his head as a sign of curiosity on what Lucy's going to say to him. "You what?"

"I…."

"Hmmm?" He leaned closer to the blonde to make sure not to miss anything. Well, his hearing is superb but he wouldn't risk it.

Lucy gulped and realized that there's no turning back in this. 'Stupid Lucy! Why are you chickening out now? Even if we're in a rubble or somewhere, this couldn't wait SO GO LUCY-' She suddenly smacked herself to prevent her thoughts from confusing her and she took a deep breath.

"Okay Natsu, don't freak out okay? This will be very random…and very uhm unlike me… Please let me finish okay?" Her fingers were moving in a funny manner while her eyes avoided Natsu's. He nodded and she could feel that he's being impatient with what she's going to say.

And she's gonna start it with a bang— as what writers would do.

"Firstly, Natsu, I think I'm in love with you." Natsu's face was indescribable and he was about to say something but then he covered his mouth when he remembered that he can't talk just yet.

"Good save. Secondly, I know you're now creeped out with me saying this at this time but I realized after Alegria was casted and I was left alone, I realized – uhhh wait confirmed those feelings. You don't know how much my heart wanted to self-destruct seeing you petrified or dissolved or whatever happened to you. I blamed myself for being the one who survived but… I uhm… sorry for being a freak but I kinda heard your voice…" Lucy's face is now a hundred shades of red and her hands are gripping what's left of her skirt for support, "A-And that kind revived me. And tadaaaa, even I did not know what exactly happened but I managed to break Alegria and make you guys move again." Her eyes moved to peek at Natsu's reaction and she regretted when she saw his neutral facial expression. Now she's becoming overly conscious of herself which is draining her little confidence that she had a while ago. She knew that Natsu's listening carefully (Oh c'mon Lucy, he's a freaking Dragon Slayer! So he definitely heard every single bit of what you said!) so she should get this over with right away.

"A-Ahem." She closed her eyes for a bit and took a deep breath. "Lastly, even though this happened, please don't uhm… " She can't find the right words to say so she gulped for the second time and tried to clear her mind. "I want our relationship to not change. I want you not to forget about my feelings but I want to at least maintain our friendship. It's okay if you do not love me back the same way as I love you – I mean, who am I? I'm nothing compared to Lisanna. I cannot win against her, y'know?" Her face turned into a frown but only for a bit. "But our friendship is important to me, too. We're still guildmates and nakama, right?" She paused for a few seconds, smiled at the salmon-haired boy then directed her eyes at her feet.

"T-That's all." Her hands moved from her skirt to her back and fidgeted from time-to-time. Natsu, on the other hand, remains still. The air around them was filled with tension so thick that it could be cut with a knife.

Until the salmon-haired boy spoke up.

"Maaaan Luce, that was uhm shocking." Her face color turned into a shade similar to Erza's hair and she was supposed to comment when she was cut by Natsu.

"Shocking because you didn't know that I loved you from the start."

Now this made her head shoot up and look into Natsu's eyes.

"Eh?"

"What's with the face, Luce? I didn't know you're this dense!" He grinned and added, "And I thought I was the dense one!"

'W-W-WAIT WHAT

F-FROM THE START!? WHEN WAS TH—'

"Since that time in Hargeon, dummy." She did not realize that she was actually saying her thoughts out loud. "Do you think I'll invite you to form a team even though we still do not know each other that well? I should've asked other people in the guild— and honestly, before meeting you, I never imagined that I would be in a team. Well, Happy is a different topic though…"

Lucy looked like she was struck by a lightning and retorted, "WHAT THE HELL THAT DEFINITELY MAKES SENSE"

'BUT WHAT ABOUT LISANNA—'

Natsu laughed and continued, "Lisanna is only my sister. Nothing else. Sure when we were young, she uhm kinda made the wife thing… but we were still young and we're just playing around! I never agreed to it, actually. You can ask Lisanna if you want. Siblings, hear that? And why do you think Mira wanted us to be together if she knew that her little sister is…yeah you get it, right?" He poked her forehead lightly and smiled at the Celestial mage.

"O-Oh…?" Lucy wasn't able to look at Natsu's eyes. He noticed that her chocolate orbs were unfocused. His grin widened and he spoke again.

"Hmmmm, so after hearing what you had said –" He took one step closer to her and touched her cheeks, "It makes me wanna do this."

And in a heartbeat, his lips gently touched hers. Lucy stared blankly at Natsu after that and then she could feel steam coming out from her head due to embarrassment and shock. "W-Wha-?"

Natsu just grinned and hugged her tightly. "I don't think I could comply with the last thing that you said. I can't pretend that this never happened. So, you should prepare yourself and put up with me for a very long while."

"Very long while huh? Why so confident?" This time around, Lucy was the one who grinned.

"Well, that's because I'll never let you go."

"Ooooooh."

"So expect me to be in your room often than usual."

"NO WAY."

"Without Happy." His grinned looked like lecherous one.

"NATSU!" Lucy smacked Natsu's head as the both of them laughed. Meanwhile, their guildmates just stared at them, not having a single clue (?) on what's going on.

"He liiiiiiiiiiiiikes her." Happy rolled out his tongue again. As usual.

"It's about damn time." Erza nodded as if she already knew what was going on.

"M-My precious little babies…." Mira wiped her tears as she felt really happy that one of the pairings that she's been 'shipping' since Lucy turned up to the guild is finally happening.

"You're finally a MAN!" Elfman shouted as he pumped his fist in the air.

"M-Mira-nee… Elf-niichan…" Lisanna sweatdropped as she smiled at her two friends. 'I hope you'll be together, forever. I wish that from the bottom of my heart.'

"What the hell man, seriously, did you even think about the time and place?" Gray teased.

"Gray-sama's being jealous? Juvia's hurt!" Juvia clung into Gray's right arm and she almost melted after Gray shouted at the two. "LOVE RIVAL!"

"JUVIA GET OFF ME!"

"SHUT UP ICE PRINCESS!" Natsu shouted back.

"I'M NOT YOUR LOVE RIVAL, DAMMIT!" Lucy complained.


And from now on, Lucy Heartfilia will not run out of words ever again.

- Well, not until Natsu Dragneel gave her a diamond ring on their third anniversary.


AN: First posted in tumblr. Spoilers until chapter 340. (This was done before Alegria was broken so sorry for the inaccuracy.)