"Why is it that every time we go up here that I forget to wear warm clothes?" Lucy asked no one in particular as her and her best friend Natsu the dragon slayer, trekked up the face of the infamous Mt. Hakobe for another mission. The mission was to find and pick a rare type of flower that only grows on top of the mystical mountain and blossoms just before the Midsummer Festival. This flower was said to have beauty that far surpassed any other summer blooming flower and smelled better than anything in the world. The reward was 200,000 jewel so Lucy could pay the rent for this month and still have some to spend on new clothes for the upcoming festival. The wind started to pick up on the god-forsaken mountain and she shivered from the bitter cold.
Hey, Luce. You alright?" Natsu asked her, noticing her shivering and falling behind.
"
Yeah." She breathed. "Just a little cold is all."
"Here. Take my vest. It should warm you up enough to get to the grove." Natsu said shedding his vest and placing it around her shoulders. His hands lingered there for just a second too long and she noticed this. She looked up at him but he quickly removed his hands and walked a few steps ahead of her.
"Thanks Natsu." Lucy said smiling feeling the warmth of his vest. Even though it didn't have any sleeves, it was plenty warm enough to prevent her from freezing. Natsu sure is a good friend. Lucy thought smiling to herself. They had finally reached the grove of the legendary Julianus flower.
"These flowers are so beautiful, don't you think Natsu?" Lucy asked almost in a daze. The flowers were every bright and beautiful color imaginable. They were just as beautiful and wondrous as the rainbow colored sakura tree back in town. Natsu couldn't stop looking at her. She just looked so beautiful surrounded by all these incredible flowers.
"Amazing..." He breathed as pink tinted his face.
"Wh-What?" Lucy asked. It wasn't like Natsu to blush. Ever. And it was almost like he wasn't calling the flowers amazing but-
"Nothing. Come on. Let's get this back to town." He said. As they headed back down the mountain, the wind started to get worse and night began to fall on the two of them.
"Natsu, we gotta find a cave or something or we'll freeze to death." Lucy said as she shivered despite the warmth of the vest Natsu gave her.
"Here's a cave. Let's stay here for the night. I saw a tree nearby so we can use that for firewood." Natsu said. Later that night, a fire was steadily burning and the two were huddled by the fire.
"Will the flowers be alright if they are left overnight?" Natsu asked.
"I'm not sure. But even if they aren't, we could just go back and pick some more first thing in the morning before we head back." Lucy replied in a sleepy voice. It was so comfortable huddled up by this small fire. It was so relaxing. She then dozed off and her head lolled onto Natsu's shoulder with a small smile on her face.
"Yeah." He replied resting his head against hers and wrapping an arm around her before dozing off himself.
Morning broke and Natsu opened his eyes. He noticed the fire had gone out and Lucy was still resting her head on his shoulder. The one thing that had changed was Lucy was right up against Natsu and her hand was under his between them. Natsu's eyes grew wide as he saw this. When did that happen? Guess it didn't matter now. This moment was perfect. He rested his head back on top of Lucy's and exhaled. He didn't want this moment to ever end. Just then, Lucy started to open her eyes. Natsu sweat dropped, again wondering how her hand ended up under his, and more importantly, who caused it to. Lucy wiped the sleep out of her eyes with her left hand still groggy.
"Morning." She said with a small smile. She shifted her right hand and felt something on top of it, all her sensory nerves registering again.
"Nat-"
"Oh would you look at that! We need to go get these flowers back to the client!" Natsu interrupted jumping to a standing position. He really did not want to talk about what just happened. He didn't even know how to. Lucy probably didn't like him back anyways and he didn't want things to get weird between them. He busied himself with gathering up their equipment while Lucy just stood there looking at her hand perplexed by what just happened. Realization struck her and she suddenly blushed.
"Natsu I-" She was once again interrupted.
"Crap! The flowers are starting to wilt! We gotta get them back to town! Come on Lucy!" Natsu yelled. He grabbed her by the hand and raced out of the cave with the bags of flowers in one hand and Lucy's wrist in the other. "We don't have time to use the trail to get back down. Aha!" Natsu exclaimed as he punched down a tree.
"I know it'll give me motion sickness but it's the only way to get down the mountain in time. We're going to ride this thing straight down the face of the mountain and all the way into town!" Natsu yelled.
"But why don't we just go back and-"But before she could finish, she found herself sitting on the tree trunk looking down at a particularly steep slope. Natsu pushed the tree sled over the edge and down they went. They made it all the way to the bottom of the mountain and started running to their client. The Julianus flowers were fading fast and needed water immediately. They finally made it to the client, gave him the flowers, and got their reward. As they were walking back from the guild to confirm the job had been completed, Lucy couldn't quit thinking about what had happened in the cave last night and neither could Natsu.
"I need to talk to you about this morning." They both said in unison.
"You first."
"No you."
"You!"
"Stop."
"Stop that!"
"Hahaha!" They both laughed.
"Okay," Lucy said lowering her voice and sounding more serious. Natsu stopped laughing. "Were you holding my hand this morning?"
"No I uh, actually found your hand there." He replied nervously.
"Oh." She said sounding a little disappointed. It felt nice, Natsu holding her hand. She knew that much.
"'Oh?'" Natsu asked, unsure as to why she sounded disappointed.
"It's nothing, Natsu." She replied with a smile. "Also..Natsu?"
"Yeah?" The fire mage asked sensing Lucy was about to say something serious. She moved closer to Natsu and looked into his eyes.
"Natsu I l-" But once again she was cut off.
"Lucy Heartfilia! You have a bounty on your head that I'm gonna collect on!" A dusty looking wizard yelled running his hand through his dirt brown hair. He stepped up to her and reached out to grab her.
"NO!" Lucy yelled in anger landing a rock solid right hook to the mage's jaw sending him flying backwards. "I HAVE SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO SAY AND I'M GONNA SAY IT!" She grabbed one of her golden keys. "GATE OF THE LION! I OPEN THEE! LEO!" She summoned Loke, her most powerful combat spirit.
"What can I do for you today?" Loke asked pushing his glasses up.
"Beat the crap out of that guy!" Lucy ordered. Loke complied and used Regulus Impact on the mage in question.
"As I was saying," Lucy continued as an obviously intimidated Natsu stood with his jaw open.
"Natsu, I like you." Lucy wrapped her arms around him. Natsu suddenly tensed up.
"Look out Lucy!" Natsu shouted. A boulder the size of a house was falling towards them and was about to crush them both. Lucy closed her eyes and fell to the ground. She opened her eyes and blinked. She wasn't crushed. Nor was she injured. She looked up and saw Natsu. He had caught the boulder and was holding it up using his flame elbows as boosters to hold the rock up.
"Lucy, get out of here!" He shouted at her. She ran out from under the boulder and turned back and looked at Natsu. His flames were dying.
"Lucy, I gotta tell you something." He said in a strained voice. He dropped to one knee.
"Natsu no! Get out of there and then tell me!" She couldn't believe this was happening. Tears rolled down her face. "Natsu! Please!" She cried.
"Luce, don't cry." He said in a calm voice. "I want you to know, I love you too. Now go beat this guy." He said with a smile as a solitary tear rolled down his cheek. And with that, his flames died and the rock fell on top of him.
"Natsu.." Lucy breathed in shock. "NATSUUUU!" Lucy cried, a river of tears flooding her face and falling to the ground. Lucy fell to her knees and wept bitterly. She had just confessed to the boy she loved. And he had reciprocated. Suddenly, an anger she had never felt before in her life, one rivaling even that of Natsu's, swelled up inside of her. It was as if Natsu's fire was coursing through her very veins.
"You…YOU DID THIS!" She roared at the earth mage. The earth mage took a step back at the absolutely petrifying look in the celestial spirit mage's eyes. It was a look that meant death and retribution.
"You. Will disappear." Lucy said in a low voice. The foolish earth mage found himself paralyzed in fear as he heard the conviction and truth in these three words. Lucy stood up and began reciting an incantation that she had cast only once before successfully.
"Survey the Heavens, Open the Heavens… All the stars, far and wide… Show me thy appearance… With such shine. Oh Tetrabiblos… I am the ruler of the stars… Aspect become complete… Open thy malevolent gate. O 88 Stars of the heaven… Shine! URANO METRIA!"
As she cast the spell, her eyes glowed purest white, and her body shone like the sun. Magic rained down from the sky like a magnificent meteor shower, beautiful and also deadly. Each hit connecting with the nameless mage's body again and again and again. The spell completed, Lucy was herself again and drained of all her magic power. But instead of feeling better, now that she had her vengeance, she felt cold, alone, and most of all, sad. She had lost her best friend in the world. The one who stayed by her, made her laugh, always made her smile with that cute, wide smile of his. He always came to her rescue when she got kidnapped or got into trouble. He was a hot head and a goof ball, but he was also her best friend. And now he's gone. She looked over to the giant rock that had crushed him and saw his scarf pinned under the very edge of it. She picked it up and wept bitterly again as she held it to her face. She curled up in a ball and cried her eyes out.
The team that went to retrieve Natsu's body could find nothing as to where his body was as there was nothing left to find.
All of Magnolia wept bitterly for him at his memorial service. The rain seemed to pour for days with no end in sight. Her friends tried to cheer her up and get her mind off of it but there was nothing that could be said to ease her aching heart. The Midsummer Festival was that night and she finally decided to get out of her apartment and go to it. She grabbed Natsu's scarf that she had been wearing since the day he died and went out. All of magnolia was there including a few Fairy Tail members. She found a bench and sat down. Functioning these days was so hard for her now that Natsu was gone. She sighed and let her head drop. Natsu loved the Midsummer Festival. It was one of his favorite festivals of the year. She let the tears roll silently down her face. She felt somebody sit down beside her. A tear threatened to fall off her face when a warm finger wiped it away along with the rest of her tears. The hand the finger belonged to lifted her chin up to look at the owner of the hand.
"No more tears, Luce." A familiar, kind, and warm voice whispered in her ear.
"Na-..Na-…Natsu…?" Lucy couldn't believe what she was seeing. It was Natsu.
"It's me Luce." He replied with a smile. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. The rain had finally stopped.
"But I watched you die Natsu.." Lucy said confused.
"Yeah I thought I was about to die too. Luckily though, the earth was soft where I was standing and the heat I generated let it break away when the rock fell on me. I fell into an underground sewer system and got washed out to sea. But, if there's one good thing that has come out of this whole thing," he said pulling out a certain mystical flower. "It's you." He said giving her the legendary flower. She cried but `not out of sorrow, but out of pure and perfect happiness.
"Oh Natsu I'm so happy you're alive! I feel like I can finally smile again! You have no idea how I've felt these past few days!" She cried as she buried her face in his neck. It felt so warm. She finally smiled after what felt like an eternity as she lost herself in the moment. She silently prayed that this moment would last forever.
"I love you Natsu. Never scare me like that again.." She said into his neck.
"I love you too Luce. I'll always find a way back to you. No matter what." He replied. He took her hand in his, put the other on top of her head and touched his forehead to hers. Afterwards, they got up and enjoyed the festival. And upon hearing the safe return of their most powerful dragon slayer, Fairy Tail, as well as Magnolia as a whole, rejoiced.
"You know, Lucy," Natsu said as they walked hand in hand. "That scarf looks good on you." Natsu gave her a classic eye squinting smile as they headed for home.
