Well I didn't plan on dropping the new chapter so soon, but school is already over for the spring semester. So, I have a lot more spare time on my hands. I don't plan on having any "sketchy" activities happen right out of the gate, but no promises on that. From here on out the chapters are going to get a little lengthier because I want to provide a little more details and emotions from the characters. Well, with no further wait, enjoy! Also, thanks for the follows and all reviews are welcome!

Faith in a Hero

~Lucy's bedroom

Natsu was in a state of sleep that Lucy had only seen him in after he ate etherion at the Tower of Heaven. He looked so worn out, and despite his destructive nature, he actually looked peaceful. Lucy let a smile spread across her tired face as she took in the sight of the dragon slayer. Letting out a grunt as if he knew someone was trying to wake him up, Natsu rolled over onto his face to the middle of Lucy's bed.

Slowly standing up behind Natsu, was no other than his blue haired friend, Happy. Rubbing his eyes, happy whined, "Natsu, roll back over, it's too cold without the blankets. I need your body heat." Lucy managed to shake her trance from the sight of the sleeping dragon slayer and was now irritated. Having a not so very pleasant evening at the hot springs was one thing. Finding an exhausted Natsu in her bed was something that she almost grew accustomed to. But, the fact that Happy didn't even care that she was standing literally a few feet away was a little too much for the celestial mage to take.

Before Lucy could open her mouth to go on a rant, she saw Happy rubbing Natsu's head as if he was sick. Lucy looked to Natsu and noticed that he was actually shivering, and letting out quite sounds as if his body was cramping.

No longer angered, Lucy asked Happy, "Hey is something wrong with Natsu? He almost never shivers." She felt a trace of worry in her voice and fought her body's natural habit of blushing whenever she displayed any emotion.

Still rubbing Natsu with his paw, Happy responded without looking away from Natsu, "He's been sleeping like this the past couple of days. He's been training to be able to use his flame-lightning dragon slayer mode with more ease. But, it hasn't been going to well, he's only able to use it for an attack or two before it wears off."

Remembering Natsu bursting into rage and launching a full power blow at Future Rouge after he killed Future Lucy, (present time) Lucy almost forgot to breathe. She thought to herself, Natsu with just his fire dragon slayer magic was one of the most deadly wizards throughout Fiore, but whenever he uses his flame-lightning mode, there aren't that many people who can oppose him.

Momentarily escaping her thoughts, with a puzzled expression that Happy didn't see, she asked "Wait, but if trying to use it too often does this to him, why does he keep trying?"

"He won't tell me, he's been training with it for a couple hours a day. He's been exhausted, I'm surprised he still manages to go on missions. He sure is the tough."

"Yeah, I guess he is." Still, not fully understanding why Natsu would put his body through so much pain, a new question emerged in Lucy's head. "Wait, why did you two come here anyways?"

Happy removed his hand from Natsu's spiky pink hair and extended his arms into the air to stretch. Letting out a high pitch yawn, he responded, "He wanted to come see you and ask you something. He wouldn't tell me what it is, but I guess it's important because he was worn out after today's training."

Lucy looked away from Happy to hide her blush. Thinking to herself, she wondered why Natsu would go to such extreme measures to see her when he could just have waiting for tomorrow. Remembering Erza telling her that Natsu is always extreme when it comes to things involving herself, caused Lucy to violently shake her head so she could get the thoughts out of her head.

Deciding that it would be a little rude to try to get the two intruders to leave while it was already late at night, she decided to let them stay. "Well, for this once I guess you two can stay here, it's already late and I would feel bad for making you two leave while it's so dark out."

Lucy started to scan the room to find a place where she could lie down for the night. However, the yells of a certain cat brought her trail of thought. "It's already night time!? I promised Wendy and Carla I would take them fishing!"

In a frenzied manner, Happy jumped onto Lucy's window ledge and slid the glass open. Waving his paw while stepping out the window, the cat shouted out, "Bye Lucy, take care of Natsu! Tell him I'll meet him at our house tomorrow!"

Before Lucy could complain about being stuck with an out cold dragon slayer, Happy was long gone soaring through the sky. Letting out a sigh, she complained out loud, 'He could have at least closed the window".

Lucy propped her knee on the ledge of the mattress to get in a better position to close the window. Making only small movements so she wouldn't wake her sleeping partner, she eased her hands to the window and quietly slid it shut. Easing her way off of the bed, she began to ponder and were she would sleep yet again. The thought of sharing a bed with her partner crossed her mind and her face burned red with embarrassment. She violently shook her head again and pushed both of her hands to her face. Quietly whispering to herself, "That would be totally inappropriate. What would he think if he woke up and saw me lying next to him? I know that I would make a big deal out of it, besides were just partners…"

Lucy's monologue was cut short when Natsu rolled over onto his back. She looked at her partner and he looked like he was burning up. She saw a small amount of sweat forming on his forehead, but it was quickly evaporating. Lucy decided that she should at least try to do something to help him feel more comfortable. After everything he's done for her, it would only be common courtesy.

Walking into her kitchen, she turned on her water faucet and soaked a rag with cold water. Squeezing the excess water out of the cloth, she turned off the faucet and made her way towards her bed. She sat down next to Natsu and gently placed the rag along his forehead. After placing the rag, her hand naturally made its way to his hair and she began running her fingers through his hair. Natsu's breathing stabilized and his body began to relax.

After staring at his peaceful sleeping body for an amount of time she didn't realize, Lucy realized she had been playing with his hair. She pulled her hand away and quickly blushed. Reaching to the floor adjacent to her bed, she pulled up the blankets that she had previously thrown, and wrapped herself in them. It won't be that weird if I sleep next to him right? It's not like were cuddling or anything like that. So it's fine then. Just two friends sleeping on the same bed. Not weird at all.

Lucy looked into Natsu's sleeping face, and whispered to him, "Goodnight Natsu." She rolled over so that the front of her body was no longer facing him. She closed her eyes and began to think about the faith she had in him during his battle against Sting and Rouge. She smiled and her breathing slowed to a steady quite rhythm. She had fallen asleep next to her best friend.

~Slightly after sunrise in Lucy's bedroom

Lucy eased her eyes open and slowly sat up. Letting the covers fall off of her body, she extended her arms into the air and let out a squeal like yawn. She felt some liquid on the corner of her mouth. She realized that she must have been drooling, and she wiped it off with the sleeve of her pajamas. She rubbed her eyes and looked over her room and saw that the sun had risen. She sighed, and removed the covers from her lower body.

Before she could get off of her bed, a familiar voice froze her in her tracks. "Morning Luce!"

Lucy slowly turned her head towards Natsu. As if her neck had been rusted over, her movements were jagged as she brought her gaze to meet her partners. The events of the previous night's events came flooding back to her. She had fallen asleep next to her best friend. But, that was it, nothing else happened. It was just two friends sleeping near each other.

Trying to hide her embarrassment of being seen right after waking up, she replied to her partner, "Oh, um, good morning Natsu". The dragon slayer was looking at her with a peaceful look in his eyes. Lucy started to blush, "Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?"

Natsu looked away from her and began to scratch his cheek. "Nope, there's nothing there. You just look um I guess different when you're sleeping." He looked back towards her and saw that she was turning red. "Hey Lucy your all red, are you getting sick or something?" He put the back or his hand on her forehead and left it there trying to determine if she was running a fever.

"Nope, no fever. But, if it's not a fever, then why are you all red?" Natsu leaned in close to Lucy. Their faces were mere centimeters apart. Lucy nearly stopped breathing and slowly leaned back from her friend.

"Natsu, what are you doing?" She tried to take eyes away from Natsu's gaze, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She felt her heart fluttering in her chest and her face felt like it was actually burning. "Natsu why are you getting so close to me?"

Ignoring her question, Natsu leaned even closer to her face. They were no further than a centimeter apart. "Hmmm, Lucy, you have bags under your eyes."

Now feeling irritated with her partner, she pushed him away and let out an irritated moan. Wanting to get her mind off of their recent proximity, she remembered that Natsu had originally invaded her apartment to ask her a question.

"Anyways, Happy said you came over here to ask me something, so what's up?" She felt a little cheesy for actually asking him "what's up", but she shook quickly it off.

Natsu looked out of the window and stared out onto the view of Magnolia from her window. Lucy couldn't read the expression on his face. It was like he was lost in thought, but she could tell that he was being serious for once.

"Luce, the way that your future self looked at all of us, and spoke with all of us. It was obvious that we lost to the dragons after the Grand Magic Games. But, in particular, the way she looked at me, and the way she cried when I tried to comfort her. It was like she already heard me make her the promise to protect her, but if the future I promised to protect her, that means that I didn't keep my promise." He turned his gaze towards Lucy, and she saw that he was actually in pain. Not a physical pain but emotional pain.

"Natsu..." Lucy let her voice trail off. She didn't know what else to say.

Natsu raised his hand out and held it in the stop position. "Don't say anything Luce. Not yet." Lucy simply nodded in compliance.

"When I saw your future self die, something inside of me snapped. I don't know what would happen if I were to actually lose you. You said that you believed in me when I fought Sting and Rouge with Gajeel. But, did you believe in me when the dragons came through the gate? Or would you believe in me against a stronger opponent like Acnologia or Zeref?"

Lucy stood up off of the bed, but before she could tell him that she would never stop believing in him, Natsu grabbed her hand. Lucy blushed as he turned her hand over to reveal the Fairy Tail emblem.

"Lucy, I promise to you that I won't fail in protecting you or the guild. My future self and my current self failed future Lucy. But, I still have you in front of me, and I promise that I won't let you feel pain like your future self had to".

Tears started to form around Lucy's eyes. "Natsu… I will always…"

Lucy's front door slammed open and Gray barged in. His forehead was covered in veins. Lucy quickly pulled her hand away from Natsu's and whipped the tears from her eyes.

With a true sense of urgency in his voice, Gray nearly shouted out, "Natsu, Lucy, we have trouble. A message just arrived from Gildarts. Master gave us a mission to do a.s.a.p. Meet us at the guild hall when you're ready." Realizing that he probably barged in at the wrong moment, Gray quickly left and closed the door behind him.

Natsu stood up cracked his knuckles. Lucy didn't want the let the chance slip away, so she embraced Natsu from behind. Natsu started to blush, "Luce? What are you doing?"

Burying her face into his back, she meekly responded, "I will always faith in you to protect our future Natsu. I already told you that since I first met you I believed in you. I won't ever stop believing in you."

~Well that's it for chapter two! If y'all remember, before the Grand Magic Games, Gildarts left to have some time alone or something like that. So what could possibly have caused him to send an urgent message to the guild? All reviews and questions are welcomed in the review section! Thanks for reading!