Summary : When Natsu was still uncounscious, he's made a dream… or was it more like a vision ? Something was wrong, he couldn't tell why but… Why was there a woman who looked just like Lucy in front of him, in this weird dream ?

Characters : Natsu Dragneel, Anna Heartfilia, Lucy Heartfilia, Happy

Word count : 2,531

• I haven't written someting for like… 3 years ?That's my first time writting in english ever tbh so I apologise in advance ahahah ! (English isn't my mother language, so I'd like for you to tell me if I do some grammatical mistakes (or other) please, that would help me a lot !)Btw, here's just a littlenaluone-shot (ั₀ั)༘

Natsu opened his eyes, or that was more what he thought he did.

Everything was dark, oh so dark. There was a strange feeling in his chest, this feeling you have when you feel guilty about something. But about what was he feeling guilty ?…

Because he left the guild without even telling that he was going to "beat Zeref" ? No.

Because he lost the last power Igneel left to him ? … No either.

Why couldn't he even know why this feeling was dangerously pulling in his chest ? Tch, that was frustrating. There were a lot of things that Natsu could see as irritating -especially now that he knewwhohe is- but this one was really upsetting.

The more he thought about it, about what Zeref told him, the more he felt like he now hated himself. Really, that was the first time he thought this, and to be honest he didn't liked this toxic thought. He perfectly knew that that wasn't him, that he wasn't like that. Where was the over-positive boy who always laughed and smiled with true enjoyement ? Now he was lost, apparently. Lost into the abyss of the cruel verity.

Suddenly while the dragon slayer went into more negative mind, a hard light has hit his head. He wrinkled his sharp eyes, but quickly relaxed at the peaceful warm which emanate from the light. And then a sweet smell hits his nose : a smell of summer breeze and citrus fruits. What was that ? This smell reminded him of something -or more someone- but he couldn't tell what or who, again. Something was different… Damn it ! He hated being so disorientated !

Slowly, his oversensitive ears perceived a sound, a voice. After a moment, he could distinguish that the voice was soft and calm, a woman voice. … No, there were two voices now. The other one was a little hard to decode but at least he did it, that was a child voice. Natsu wanted to know from where this came from, the curiosity has hit him very hard now. Was he even able to move ? Ugh, he didn't know, but he didn't sensed anything trough his body, not even a flinch. Everything hurted, that was so damn painful, but at the same time the light which were still on his face recomforted him a little.

More time passed, and the fire mage was getting angry. He still heard the voices -whithout understand what was saying-, still had this bright light on the face, but still couldn't move and so, couldn't do anything to know more about what the hell was going on. He sighed, all of this was really annoying and didn't help him to not thinking about all the negativity which came so suddenly in his life.

A clear and beautiful laugh could be heard after a while.

"You're a very lively little boy isn't it ?"

"I'm not little !"

"Yeah yeah you're right."

That was it again, the voices of the woman and the child.

"I'm brave ! Why can't I go with you ?"

"Because you can't, there some poeple you don't need to meet over there… well, not for now."

That discussion strangely surprised Natsu, the child's voice seemed pretty familiar to him… Strange.

"No ! Gimme a better explanation !"

The woman seemed to sigh. "So stubborn…"

After this short moment which seemed to be a quarrel between a mother and her son, Natsu's head began to hurt, very much, horribly hard. He wasn't able to refrain from shouting because of the pain, it was like he's going to explode ! And the quarrel between the two voices didn't helped his pain to go out. Keep shouting of in the pain, he noticed that he was from now on capable of moving and took advantage of it to held his painful head between his two hands.

While he was saying to itself that he could die because of this damn deadly pain–

"Stop it Natsu ! I've already said that you can't ! Don't be stubborn like a rock !"

Did she just… He wasn't dreaming right ? The mysterious woman said his name ?

Then he oppened his eyes, the almost left pain at this right moment pleasantly surprised him too. But this surprise was nothing next to what he came to glance right after.

"Don't try to say that you forgot what I said to you please… I need to go here alone. You'll go with me one day too, I can assure you, but that's not today. You perfectly know that I'll take you with me when everything will be ready !"

The woman who was standing in front of him looked exactly like…

"Lucy ?!"

The "Lucy-like" didn't seemed to react at Natsu's surprised reaction. Maybe she couldn't hear him ? But wait… Where was the little boy ?…

"Uh ? What's wrong now Natsu ? You've just stopped doing anything for a while."there was a moment of silence beforeshe seemed to sigh one more time, squatting in front of him "If you want to do your "kitty-eyes" again, it won't work now, you know that right ?"

… Okay, everything was clear now.

He was the little boy, and he now saw everything like if his soul was actually into the boy's body. But he didn't think that he could take control of it, just looking.

He now took the time to look more attentively at the woman who's intrigued him very much. Her face was almost exactly the same as Lucy's, it was stunning. Natsu tried to notice the difference between them, and to be honest, he was happy to see that he was really good at this game.

Her scent, it wasn't the same. Lucy smells like spring flowers and juicy strawberries, this woman smelt like the summer breeze and citrus fruits, that he smelt at the beginning of this "weird dream".

Her hair was a little different too. Lucy's lock of hair seems more muddled than the one he was looking at.

And the one difference he was the most happy to notice was her eyes -more precisely her lashes-. Lucy's lashes are more big and volomptuous. He knew it well, because even if he would never admit it, he always loved to look at her eyes. They're so big, looks like 2 big cup of hot chocolate -the one she loves to take when it's very cold in the winter-, and they reflect the light in a cute way.

He wanted to take an other look at her but he listened himself speaking.

"Why do you want to protect me this much, Anna ? I'm not even your son…"

His voice sounded sad, almost like if he wanted her to be his real mother.

She looked at him with wide eyes. And then she did seem sad too while ruffling his salmon hair with sympathy.

"At first it was my mission, but then I learned to appreciate you. Now I want to protect you by myself, even if I know that you'll soon go somewhere veeery far without me."

"But–"

"No, I still can't tell you where and when you'll go, sorry."

There was a long moment of silence between the two.

Natsu's thoughts turned more understandable, and he now knew that the scene which appeared in front of him wasn't a dream, but was a vision of the past, of his own past. But… how and why couldn't he remember this mysterious woman, who actually seemed to matter a lot for him in the past ? That was so strange. He couldn't forget a person of this importance… but, well, he already did.

Who was her for him ? It's obvious that they had a "mother-son" relation, but what else ? How did he know her ? And how did he forget her ? He wanted to shout out all the insecurity and questionings that he had for a moment now.

"Can we make a promise, please ?"

The deepness of her quiet voice surprised him. Her look was serious.

He saw himself nodding quietly. "Aye."

Anna tightened him her little finger, a little smile shining on her angelic face. Suddently, the sense of guilt that Natsu felt before returned quickly in his chest. Something… something important was going to be said, he could feel it.

"When I'll send you where you need to go for your important journey… Please, would you deliver a message to someone ?"

Little Natsu nodded lively, so she continued.

"If you'll meet a girl wearing the same face as mine, please, tell her that…" Tears began to flow along her face, still smiling. "I'm begging you, tell her that I'm sorry."

He didn't understand, but still nodded quickly. The pain in his chest grew up more and more and he almost couldn't breathe, that was horrible.

"This girl will be victim of a cruel fate, and all of this will be only my fault. Please, just tell her that I'm sincerly sorry…"

The little boy finally spoke again, and what came out of his mouth made Anna smiling with a more sad smile. "I don't understand."

She laughed a little. "Sure, of course you don't understand… It's a weird request isn't it ?"

"You always were weird Anna, of course what you request me is weird too."

She laughed again, more sincerly this time, Natsu's reaction seemed to calm her a little. It already had been a small time since Anna held her little finger in front of her, waiting for Natsu to hold it with his own little finger. The little dragon slayer finally did it, embarassed to see that it had took him time to understand why was she doing this.

Happily smiling now, the blond woman looked deeply into Natsu's eyes, making him blush a little.

"O-Ok, I promise."

"Alright, thank you very much, Natsu."

After this scene, Natsu understood everything -or almost everything-. He still didn't know what was this "mission" and this "important journey he had to have". He still didn't know what was exactly this "cruel fate" Anna talked about, but he knew one thing, one important thing… This girl, the person he needed to deliver the message, it was Lucy. His Lucy, celestial mage of Fairy Tail. That's when he finally understood it that the vision became blurred, and everything went dark again.

It's been 3 days… Three days since Happy came in a hurry in the infirmary with a Natsu on the floor, bleeding and unconscious. Three days that he was still sleeping.

Lucy and the blue cat at her side didn't leave Natsu's bed after this day, they were still so worried, waiting for him to wake up… He had just escaped the death after all.

Happy just came out of the guild hall. The first master told him to take some food for him and Lucy, because they didn't need to have them deadly worried and sick too. As he hated to see Natsu almost dead, the exceed didn't liked to see Lucy with this sad and worried face for this long period of time. He liked to see her smiling, laughing, even shouting at him because he did some joke on her. Happy came to appreciated Lucy very very much, much more like a mother, and who like to see her mother crying ? Nobody.

The cat sat down next to her, holding two fishs with him. Without even telling something, he raised one in front of Lucy's nose, trying to tempt her.

She sadly smiled at him, gently lowering the fish with her hand. "No thank you, Happy. I'm not really hungry now."

"But Lucy, Master Mavis said that we need to eat something or we'll be sick too !"

He didn't received any response from the blonde mage.

"… Do you really want to be sick in front of Natsu when he'll get up ? I don't think he'd be happy about it…"

This remark flinched Lucy's attention. Of course she didn't want it, but, she couldn't help herself… She really wasn't this hungry, maybe because of all the worries. She left her look of Natsu for a moment, wanting to say something to Happy, but the look he had on the face made her quiver.

"H-Happy ? What's wrong ?" She seemed alarmed, the blue cat watched Natsu's hand with wide eyes. Then he looked amazed right after this and shouted something at Lucy, didn't let her eyes watching something other in the room than Natsu's hand.

"It moved ! Natsu's hand flinched !"

Lucy immediately watched at it, somewhere happy about it, but still worrying that this would be a false alarm. His hand… It really began to move a little ! They both watched it as like it was the best scene you could see in your life, waiting to see if the fire dragon slayer would finally open his eyes.

And, thanks god, that's what he did.

Slowly but surely, he opened eyes, half-opening slightly his dries mouth.

He blinked eyes a lot of time, he wasn't used to see this much light now that he slept for 3 days without interruption. He smelt all the odors, moving of the nose, and then he noticed two very particular smells, two smells that he likes : Lucy's and Happy's. His head turned by itself to the two who were waiting for him to wake up for too long now. It's when Natsu saw Lucy's face that he remembered the vision he's just had.

He needed to tell her.

He needed to accomplish his forgotten promise.

He almost jumped out of his bed, hugging very hard the celestial mage. Damn, was he crying ?

"N-Natsu ? What's going on ? Are you alright ?" She was blushing, surprised by his sudden mood swing.

Now, he needed to say it now. But that was for two reasons, now that he completely understood everything. The first reason was because it was the initial promise, telling her what Anna told him to say. But the other one… was personnal. He now knew that he was the reason of her cruel fate, finally knew that it was the reason of his guilty feeling just before.

By the way, he just absolutely needed to tell her.

And that's what he finally did.

"Sorry."