A/N: Hello, Fairy Tail fans! Thanks for clicking on my story! I'm a recent convert to the Fairy Tail anime and this is my first story for it. This was supposed to be a one-shot but turned into a two-shot. I know this idea is probably overdone, but I think I found my own twist to put on it that I hope everyone will enjoy. Hope you like it and please leave reviews! :)

Hey, Lucy, I Remember Your Name
by Elodie Kumari

Why did it always have to rain during funerals? Was it the Earth mourning for the soul it had lost? Was it God shedding His mighty tears with the mourners? Was the rain God's way of apologizing for taking away someone so precious to them? Natsu Dragneel could not be sure. He could not be sure of anything through the sense of déjà vu that was currently blindsiding his senses.

The whole scene was familiar. The cathedral, the headstone, the grave, the tears of his fellow guild members as they mourned their nakama… it was all very tragically, agonizingly familiar. The Dragon Slayer had never in his worst nightmares thought he would relive this memory. After Lisanna's death, he hadn't dared consider having to endure another funeral for someone he loved. Yet here he was, standing in front of another tombstone that bore yet another name of someone dear to his heart.

Since Lisanna's return from Edolas, her headstone in the church graveyard had been removed. Everyone in the Fairy Tail guild had been relieved to see that spot of ground vacated. None of them had imagined that it would so soon be occupied again. The new headstone was right in the very same spot. No one had imagined the world being so cruel to their poor guild.

Guild Master Makarov was at the front of the group, kneeling in the mud in front of the grave, his aged head bowed and his weary shoulders shaking. No one could see his expression. Natsu stood not far behind him with a grief-stricken Happy sobbing miserably on top of his head. Next to Natsu stood Gray Fullbuster, dressed in a black mourning suit, his stormy blue eyes cast into a shadow by his jet black bangs as he hung his head. The tears streaming down the ice mage's cheeks were clearly visible even with the rain. Erza Scarlet had found herself wrapped in Gray's embrace as she sobbed into his shoulder, her red hair and black dress soaking wet. Just behind the three mages, a weeping Elfman Strauss held his two grieving sisters, Mirajane and Lisanna. Levy McGarden had fallen to her knees like the Guild Master, tears streaming from between her fingers as she sobbed into her hands. Just behind her, Gajeel Redfox knelt down and put a large hand on his shoulder, his own eyes a storm of rage and pain. Pantherlily stood next to his master, his arms crossed in front of him and his head bowed in sorry. Wendy Marvell clutched a forlorn Carla to her chest and she cried into the Exceed's snow white fur. Cana, Juvia, Gildarts, and everyone else in Fairy Tail, along with the guild's friends from Lamia Scale and Blue Pegasus, were also gathered in the graveyard. Everyone was dressed in black, and everyone was displaying varying states of deepest mourning.

Natsu, however, could just stare at the tombstone before him, hardly registering the words etched into the granite as a storm of emotions tore through him. "Lucy Heartfilia," the stone told him heartlessly. "Beloved Friend to Mages and Spirits, the Very Heart of the Fairy Tail Guild. X767-X784."

Natsu felt his fists tighten as the memory clawed its way to the forefront of his muddled thoughts. Just yesterday, he, Lucy, Gray, and Erza had taken a job to the canyon lands just south of Magnolia. A wild, lizard-like creature had been attacking hikers there, and a handsome fee was offered to anyone who could get rid of it. Thinking it could possibly be Igneel, Natsu had urged his team to take a job. They went and found the creature, and though it was not a dragon, it proved to be a powerful, dangerous beast that was hard to be. The four mages had fought their hardest against the monster's attacks, Erza using requip after requip and Lucy opening gate after gate as Natsu and Gray tried to take the beast down with their respective elements. The fray had led them to the edge of a canyon, right on the precipice of a very high, steep cliff.

Natsu squeezed his dark eyes shut and his entire frame began shaking as the memory engulfed him. He could still hear Lucy's voice clear as day: she was calling out to him, begging him and the others to be careful as the monster drove them towards the edge of the cliff. Natsu had attacked with his Fist of the Fire Dragon, and as the creature fell back, its long tail had whipped out toward Lucy, who had stood closest to the edge. He could still hear her scream as the tail whipped her and she was thrown back over the edge. Erza and Gray had yelled her name, and Natsu had turned just in time to see her fall through empty space, screaming and reaching out to him as her body plummeted out of sight.

After the battle, the trio had searched for Lucy all day and well into the night, still holding on to a slim hope that she had survived the fall, that maybe one of her Celestial Spirits had saved her when they couldn't. Their hopes were shot down, however, when they found her ring of keys left abandoned at the bottom of the cliff. She would never have willingly let go of those keys. Not if she was alive. It was like Lisanna all over again: not even a body was recovered.

Natsu had no idea how long he stood out there in the church yard, staring at the grave of his best friend. What did it matter, anyway? How could time just keep moving after such a tragedy had struck his life? Did it feel no remorse? No mercy? How could the world keep turning after it had lost the most precious thing it contained? How could Natsu keep on living after the one person that had kept him grounded was gone?

My fault, came the accusing whisper, the same whisper that had circled the Dragon Slayer's mind since Lucy had fallen off the cliff. It was my fault… all my fault…

"Natsu?" Happy sniffled, his innocent, high-pitched voice choked with tears. "Natsu, everyone else has gone back inside."

It was true. Natsu had sensed the other members of the guild leaving, but he did not have the power to go with them. One by one, they had all trickled away, first Makarov, then the other mages, with Gray and Erza being the last to leave. The only living souls left in the graveyard were Natsu and Happy.

"Happy," Natsu said gruffly, reaching up and patting the blue Exceed's head, "I want you to go back to the guild, alright? I'll be there in a moment."

Natsu felt the little blue Exceed nuzzle the top of his head for a moment before opening his wings and taking off in the direction of the guild. He listened carefully as the sound of Happy's wings faded into the rain. When he was completely alone, he stepped forward until he was just in front of Lucy's grave. As he knelt down in the wet grass, not caring if his rented black suit got dirty, a flash of bright crimson suddenly caught the corner of his eye. Turning his head, he was the splash of color was a bouquet of a dozen roses clutched in his right hand. He had completely forgotten he was holding them. He had been clenching his hands so tightly they had gone numb. It was strange how vibrant and bright the flowers were amidst all the gray and gloom surrounding him, like the rain had drained all color from the world. Or maybe Lucy had taken all the color with her, just as she had brought so much color to Natsu's life when she entered it. Whether it was before he met her or after her death, Natsu's world was a dark, gray void without Lucy.

As the Dragon Slayer looked from the roses to the gravestone, he felt his hand tighten even more around the green stems stubbornly. Part of him was still unwilling to accept that she was gone. They hadn't found a body. He, Gray, and Erza had searched all day and into the night, and they had found no trace of the celestial mage. Therefore, it was possible that she was still alive and out there somewhere. He didn't want to give up until he knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was alive or dead. If there was even the slimmest chance, Natsu refused to give up hope.

But as he clenched the roses, something else bit into his palm, and looking back at his hand, Natsu saw Lucy's ring of celestial keys sitting around his wrist like a bulky charm bracelet. One look at those keys, and Natsu knew she really was gone. She never would have left them behind if she was alive.

For the first time ever in his memory, Natsu lost hope.

As he reached out and set the roses before Lucy's headstone, he felt something wet hit his cheeks. This would have meant nothing to him, seeing as it was raining and all, but these raindrops were hot. They were tears. When had Natsu started crying? Had he started just now, or was it when Happy left? Or had he been crying the whole time without even realizing it? Natsu couldn't tell. Ever since the accident, he had felt nothing but numbness. Now, however, as he stared at the bright red roses, the golden keys, and the dark gray tombstone bearing his closest friend's name, he felt an explosion of agony blossom in his chest, burning his heart and lungs and organs worse than Cobra's poison flames and the Etherion combined. He tried to breathe, but his breath caught in his throat and turned into a sob, and as soon as the cry escaped his lips, he knew he was doomed. More sobs followed in quick succession, stealing his breath and making his lungs ache. His hands dug deep into the grass and mud as he fell down on all fours, shaking with uncontrollable sobs. He could smell the salt of his tears mixing with the scents of the earth, flowers, and rain as he bowed his head, his spiky pink hair hanging over his closed eyes. He let all of the anger, pain, and grief he had carried in his heart flow out of him in a torrent heavier than the pouring rain. Overhead, lightning flashed and thunder echoed through the stormy gray clouds. It was as if the storm was actually crying with him.

"Lucy…" he heard himself whisper through his sobs. "Lucy…"

He never told her. He had never realized it until this moment, and now he wished he had seen it sooner. Why was it that he never knew what he had until he lost it forever? He never had the chance to tell her… and now she would never know…

Natsu suddenly threw his head back and howled like a tormented soul in the deepest depths of Hell. Her name tore at his throat as he screamed it for the entire world to hear, for all the word to know his anguish. Then he collapsed into the mud again and continued sobbing his heart out, Lucy Heartfilia's gravestone glaring emotionlessly at him all the while.