DISCLAIMER: I don't own Fairy Tail. Cover image not mine :) Wish I could draw though.

"Want some fish, Lucy?" I hear Happy ask, distracting me from my thoughts. I tried to muster a smile and face the adorable blue cat.

"Thank you, Happy, but I'm already full," I gently say, trying not to sound rude.

"But you haven't touched your food, Lucy," was Happy's concerned reply. "Are you sick?"

"No, Happy. I just feel a little sleepy today." I lied while faking a yawn and stretching my arms above my head. I turned sideways and found him by the guild's entrance.

"Natsu!" Happy called, as soon as the pink-haired mage entered the guild with his customary wide grin.

"Oi Happy! Lucy!" He called, immediately approaching our table while grinning even wider, if that was even possible.

"Natsu, Lucy is not eating."

"Oh? Why Lucy, are you sick?" Natsu asked, his grin gone, brows furrowed in concern. Slowly, he touched my forehead with the back of his left hand. "But your temperature's just fine."

"I'm fine Happy, Natsu. Really nothing to worry about." I tried to give them my best smile. "Have some breakfast Natsu."

"Are you sure?"

"Very." Natsu seemed to accept it and started taking a fill of his breakfast. It's not that I like lying to them. It's just that I really can't tell them about my problem.

But I can tell you, right?

I lost a very valuable item – a photograph that I found inserted in my future self's notebook, something that I kept as a souvenir from the Grand Magic Games, and the Eclipse fiasco that happened afterwards. It was a photograph of me and Natsu, which I have no memory of being taken. I gathered that it must have been taken from the future.

I can still see the picture vividly as I close my eyes. It was taken on a summer, when everything is bright and beautiful. The two of us were sitting under a sakura tree, the same one that he uprooted for me to see from my apartment window seven years ago, when I was sick and could not attend the festival. I realized this because the huge pot he used to carry the tree was standing innocently at the side of the photograph. I wonder why no one ever bothered to remove it.

I can still remember how my heart leaped the first time I saw it, and the blush that crept up my face. Maybe it was because of the way his warm calloused hand that has faced so many battles was wrapped gently on the curve of my waist, and the way his eyes were fixed on my face, a light smile playing on his lips. Or maybe it was the way I was circling my arms around his neck, a hint of blush on my cheeks as I smile happily for the camera. It was beautiful.

I have never really given my feelings for my best friend much thought, but it knew it was there. Just thinking of the countless times that he rushed to my side when I'm in need of rescuing, or comfort me when I'm feeling discouraged and sad and hurt, or the simple truth that he'll always be there to catch me when I fall, literally, it is impossible not to have feelings for him. I have never felt this safe and protected my entire life, and a huge part of me is wishing that he'll never leave my side.

It was just in Natsu's nature to save someone in danger or wronged, I tell myself every time. I realized this even more when he stormed the inn where the mages from Sabertooth were staying just to avenge Yukino, a girl he hardly knew. I felt less special since then, and kept my emotions in check.

Seeing that photograph however, has given me a hope that I did not want to have. I considered it as a gift from the future, as something to look forward to. It has given me courage to keep fighting to live for the future.

And so I have been keeping that photograph under my pillow so I can look at it every night before I sleep.

And now it's gone.

I blinked as I see a hand that's waving in front of my face. It was his hand.

"Yo Lucy, you're not listening, are you?"

Guiltily, I faced him and tried to smile. "Forgive me, Natsu, I was just thinking of something."

"What are you thinking about?"

"Just the recent events, actually. I am still a bit shaken with the future Lucy incident, to be honest," I answered half truthfully.

"I see," he said with a far-away look in his eyes.

"So what were you saying, again?"

"Oh right. I was asking if you wanna go see the Sakura trees today." Sakura? Did I hear him right?

"S-sakura?" I asked again, stammering.

"Natsu has been wanting to see sakura trees the moment he woke up today!" Happy replied, still not finished with his fish.

"Why?"

I hint of blush graced Natsu's cheeks, while he lifted his right arm to scratch his head. "I just figured that we missed it this year because of all the recent events. So… do you want to go see it with me?"

"Uhm, yeah, sure," I said, blinking as I feel my heart beat fast.

"She liiiiiikes you!"

"It's not like that!"

"Natsu, Lucy's feeling okay already!" Happy exclaimed, earning a wide toothy grin from Natsu.

"Alright!" Natsu stood up, as if he's all fired up. "Don't forget to bring the camera, Happy!"

Camera?

"Aye sir!"

I was about to stand when Mira-chan approached our table. "Natsu, Master is looking for you," she said with a smile.

"Oh. Wait for me here, Lucy." He said, removing his hand from his pockets before rushing to Master Makarov's office.

That's when I saw it. A peculiar thing falling from his pocket where his hand had been.

I reached down and picked it up from the floor to confirm if my suspicion was right.

Indeed it was.

Natsu stole my precious photograph.

Oh he's gonna pay for this.

END.