Lucy giggled and deflected a snowball with her coat-clad arm. She stuck her tongue out at her energetic, prankster brother and knelt down to scoop up a handful of snow. Carefully packing the white powder into a ball, she hurled it at her brother with as much strength as her seven year old body could produce. It hit him square in the forehead and sent him tumbling backwards into the snow. Lucy laughed, but was soon clocked in the head with a well-aimed snow projectile. She wiped off the snow, shivering as some melted and dripped down her neck, and turned to look at the culprit.

"Gotcha! You should know better than to turn your back on an enemy, Lucy!" Her raven haired best friend crowed, stooping to pick up another handful of snow. Lucy frowned at him and cowered in the snow, arms curled around her head to protect herself.

"No! I don't want to die, Gray! Don't hurt me!" She glanced up at him through a crack in her arms and pouted cutely, her eyes watering with fake tears. "You wouldn't hurt li'l ol' Lucy-chan, would you? Not your little sweetheart?" She teased. She grinned as Gray tensed up, his cheeks seeming to be coated with a pink dust. Lucy smiled smugly and was about to paste her friend with another snowball, when she yelped. She fell, face-first, into the snow as the freezing weapon knocked her down from behind. She heard Natsu laughing gleefully and sat up, frowning.

"Meanie!" She yelled jokingly, trying to hide a smile. Natsu grinned.

"That's the second time we've gotten you from behind, dummy! Be more aware!" He answered. Lucy huffed and stood up. She calmly brushed herself off, straightened her ruffled hair, and chuckled evilly as she pulled the two hidden snowballs from her pocket. Gray and Natsu stiffened as she raised her arms, a snowball in each hand, and threw them with all her might at her playmates. As soon as she heard impact, she took off, laughing.

"Hah, morons! You're the ones who need to be more aware!" She gloated. She looked over her shoulder at them and grinned.

She didn't really know what happened next.

She had been running full speed into the trees at the edge of the forest, and she heard Gray and Natsu close on her heels, when the ground beneath her feet disappeared. She gasped and flailed her arms, reaching for something to grab onto. Her hands caught the edge of the cliff that had seemed to pop out of nowhere, and she cried out in pain as the earth crumbled beneath her left hand and caused her wrist to bend to far back with a sickening crack.

She looked up as she felt a warm hand grip her healthy wrist, the one that was still managing to cling onto the edge, and found herself staring into Gray's onyx eyes. Natsu's pink haired head came into view as he stumbled through the snow and collapsed onto Gray's legs, pulling him backwards from the ledge from where he'd been slowly sliding towards the ravine.

Gray gritted his teeth and his small muscles became more defined as he struggled to pull Lucy up from her awaiting death, but his bare hands were starting to sweat with the effort to hold Lucy's weight (as a girl, she grew faster than the two of them,) and his grip was slipping dangerously. Not only that, Lucy noticed that he-and Natsu-were being dragged towards the edge along with Lucy.

She bit her lip and turned her eyes back to Gray's face. She gazed at him for a moment before smiling sadly. She loosened her grip and let her fingers slide a bit. Gray's eyes widened.

"Lucy, what are-"

"Gray, I don't want you two to fall with me! And who knows? Maybe I'll be okay!" She shouted, cutting him off. Her eyes glinting with determination, she let her clutch go completely slack. Now, with only Gray and Natsu holding her up, she knew she was only seconds from falling. She grinned up at them, tears pricking at her eyes.

"If I don't survive this, I love you two!" She said, the happiness in her voice obviously fake as Gray's fingers finally lost their hold on Lucy's. She gasped and shrieked as she hurtled down into the gully. They watched in horror as her small frame was swallowed up in the mist, their ears ringing with the sound of Lucy's scream.

Then, abruptly, the scream stopped as a loud thud resounded through the woods.

There was a shocked silence. The winter birds stopped calling out, the wind stopped blowing, the snow ceased falling. There was no sound, no sound at all.

And that made Natsu's wail even louder and more heartbreaking as it ripped through the still, thick air.

"LUUUCCCCCYYYYYY!"