Night Demons
Lucy tossed and turned in her sleep, her soft quilt long discarded to the ground in the midst of her midnight struggles. Her breaths came out jagged, as if forced, and her head whipped from side to side, searching for something she couldn't see. Finally, the blonde bolted upright, doused in a cold sweat as her bed sheet clung to her bare, damp legs. She began to pat at her body with shaking hands.
"I-I'm okay. You're okay, Luce," She stuttered as she finished her search and let her hands fall weakly to her sides.
She picked her quilt up form the floor and smoothed it out over her, laying her back to the mattress once more in many feeble attempts at sleep. Finally, she snapped her watering eyes back open, and forced herself up out of her bed and began to change out of her pajamas - which she noticed was made up of one of Natsu's many forgotten cotton t-shirts and a pair of cotton shorts that barely covered her underwear - into something warmer, and more suitable for the 'great' outdoors, which would soon be Magnolia's cobblestone streets. When she deemed herself fit after brushing her hair and choosing to leave it hanging just past her shoulders, she vacated her flat, locking the door behind her as she found herself on the stones outside. She then turned and began to make her way to the other side of the city, past the cathedral and Fairy Tail, to her boyfriend's home, where she hoped she would be able to find the pink haired Dragon Slayer and find some comfort in retelling her nightmares to him, which she had done countless times before.
When Lucy became aware of her surroundings after walking across town, she found herself on the threshold of his house. With an almost timid knock, she tapped her fist against the wooden door and waited for a response, since she knew that he would hear her - in fact, she probably didn't need to knock, he would just be able to smell her there, as crazy as it sounded. When no-one came to answer, she frowned, mostly in confusion, and let her hand rest on the wood with more force, stumbling as the door swung inward without a sound or prior warning. The Stellar Mage blushed at her intrusion, and smoothed out her skirt, scanning the dark room as she did so.
Suddenly, a harsh sound filled her ears as Natsu's hammock swung violently as it's owner writhed in his sleep, just like Lucy had been not two hours before hand. Instantly, the blonde rushed over to where she assumed the material was, hindered and unsure by the darkness, and when she was satisfied with where she was, she reached her arm out, only to snap it back when her - something she thought she would never get used to thinking - Dragon Slayer began to yell.
"Natsu?" She whispered as he rotated once more and she caught a glimpse of his tear stained face before it was covered again by his pink locks. "Natsu!"
This time, she forced herself to reach out to her boyfriend as he began to scream again, ignoring the sound of a pair of wings and loud sniffles, which undoubtedly meant that Happy was right behind her. Through his screams, she caught the phrase he kept on repeating.
Where are you?
Those three words broke her heart as he repeated them over and over, his voice straining through his screams. Her hands found his shoulders and she began to shake him, attempting to rip him from whatever was terrorizing him in his slumber, but her actions where met with his fist coming up and slamming into her own shoulder, tearing her off of him with a cry of pain, and sending her landing onto the wooden floor with a loud bump. She ignored the pain when she heard Happy whimpering behind her.
"Lucy?" The blue exceed said, his eyes swimming as he lunged forward and buried himself into her stomach.
As if acting on reflex, her arms surrounded the cat and she leant her head down, murmuring small little words of comfort.
"Shh, it's okay Happy. I'll wake him up and he'll stop shouting, okay? Shh."
When she found it okay to pull away from the hug, Happy grabbed her hand with his paw and looked up at her as she began to stand. His eyes still shed tears as he spoke.
"Are you hurt?"
Lucy faked a smile and told him she was fine, although her shoulder was in agony from the Dragon Slayer's punch. She pried the Exceed's paw away and turned back to where Natsu was still tossing around, his voice finally quiet from his screams, and despite the situation, Lucy wondered how he was still in the hammock. Gritting her teeth, the Mage placed her hands on either side of his face and held him steady, her words pleading.
"Natsu, please wake up. You're scaring Happy half to death. Wake up!"
Suddenly, his teary eyes snapped open, and as soon as he saw who was before him, Natsu snaked his fists up to his eyes and wiped away the liquid that leaked from them, not wanting her to see him cry, although he just knew that she had seen him. Then he sat himself up, not meeting her eyes or his 'son's'.
"I'm sorry, Happy, are you- are you okay?" He said, twisting his head away from the cat's sad gaze.
With a sniffle and a paw dragged across his nose, the Exceed looked at Lucy, who was unknowingly clutching where Natsu had hit her, and looked back at his 'father'. "You hurt Lucy!"
The pinkett's eyes widened, and he turned his gaze to his girlfriend, who stood with her head bent. "I what?"
"You hit her when she was trying to wake you up!" He cried, also looking at Lucy now.
If it was possible, Natsu's eyes stretched wider as he jumped from him makeshift bed and walked over to his girlfriend, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. When he reached her in two short strides, he grabbed her hand and she looked up at him, an almost sorry smile playing on her lips.
"Lucy, did I really hit you?"
"You were asleep, so don't worry about it, okay?" She smiled, cocking her head to the side.
"But I hit you."
"It's fine Natsu, really, it doesn't even hurt much-"
"Where did I hit you?"
Slowly, Lucy removed her hand from her shoulder, grimacing not from the pain, but from the expression the Fire Mage made when he caught sight of the healthy sized bruise that had formed on her skin from his touch. He ghosted his fingers over the sensitive skin before looking back up and meeting her brown eyes.
"I'm sorry."
"I know you are. And you didn't have to say it. It wasn't your fault."
"But I hurt you?"
"And you think you've never done that before? Natsu, I'm used to your sleeping habits."
In the long silence that followed, Happy had already excused himself and had gotten back into his bed and to sleep, leaving the pair that had somehow made their way to the center of the house alone. With another glance to her bruise, Natsu suddenly realized.
"Uh, Luce-"
"Yeah?"
"Why are you here?"
Suddenly, a blush forced it's way onto Lucy's face and spread rapidly, moving down to cover her neck in a matter of seconds as she began to stutter a reply. "I, uh, I just-. God, it sounds so stupid now but-"
"Well, spit it out."
"Well, you see, I had a nightmare and I couldn't sleep so I decided to come here?"
"So you... decided to come to my house... in the middle of the night... because you couldn't sleep?"
"When you put it that way..."
"Why didn't you say so earlier!" He beamed, a slight pink dusting his cheeks as he laughed.
Lucy finally pulled out of Natsu's hug as she finished retelling him her nightmare. As silly as it seemed, it really did feel like a weight had been lifted off her chest every time he listened to her, which he was actually very good at surprisingly. He raised a pink eyebrow at her, deep in thought as he contemplated everything she just said.
"So you're saying," He said finally, his hands finding his chin as he leant forward. "That you're scared of dragons?"
This made the blonde cringe. "No. I never said dragon. It was more-"
"Luce," The Fire Mage interrupted her, smiling. "It's fine. Dragons are pretty scary, believe me I've-"
"You've met one, I know, I know,"She laughed, the tension relieved from her chest once more.
"Yeah, well, it's natural to fear them, but... you've never really been like that before."
"It's probably from the book I was reading before I fell asleep," She mused her thoughts aloud. "The heroine is sent to defeat a dragon, but in the end, it overpowers her, and uses one of his claws to slit her throat."
This made Natsu reel backwards slightly. "That is a bit gross."
Suddenly, something clicked in Lucy's mind. "Natsu, you always seem to listen to me when I have a nightmare, so know-"
"No."
"What?"
"I said no. I'm sorry Luce, it's just-"
"Natsu please, I might be able to help, I mean, you always make me feel better, so now it's my turn, right?"
"Lucy," He breathed, sliding his eyes shut. "I don't really wanna tell ya. I know it sounds weird, but you're helping me by being here right now. Honestly."
Something inside of the Stellar Mage snapped at his words. "You were screaming Natsu - Happy was in tears. There is nothing I can do to help you just sitting here. So please, you say you trust me, so why can't you tell me?"
Silence.
"Well?"
"Fine," He sighed, looking away from her and to where Happy was sleeping away. "I saw everyone I cared about in my life disappear."
"You saw everybody die?"
"No, not die. You all just... faded away. It started with Igneel first, I had to watch him leave me in my sleep again, then the old man faded before me, and I forgot about him suddenly. Then it was Gildarts, then Lisanna, then Erza and Cana. Then Levy, Jet and Droy. Then it was Gray. I kept on forgetting about them. Then, whoever was left at the Guild just... vanished, even Gajeel and Laxus. All I heard was Wendy screaming for me to help her, but when I tried, it was like she never existed." He then turned his head back and looked at Lucy, who was staring at him in shock, her eyes shining. "Is this making any sense to you?"
The Key user nodded slightly. "Is that all?"
"Not even slightly. Next thing it was you. You didn't disappear at first, God no. Instead, you were lingering at the edge of my sight the entire time. I could hear you shouting for me, and I could feel you grabbing onto my hand, but when I tried to touch you, you moved again. Then I started to forget about you. First I forgot your name, which made everything worse. I knew you were important to me, but I didn't know who you were, and why you meant something to me, Then I started forgetting what you looked like - I could remember everything we'd done together, but instead of seeing you, I just saw an empty space, or a blurred out version of you. Then I just forgot everything about your entire existence, and for some reason that I didn't know, I started crying. Then you woke me up."
When he had finished his tale, Lucy hadn't realized she was crying, her hands clamped over her mouth to silence her quiet whimpers. Suddenly, she lurched forward and wrapped her arms around Natsu, who had turned his gaze from her and was staring into space.
"I'm here now," She whispered, her voice wobbling. "I'll always be here."
"I know that," He said quietly, his voice not yet a whisper. "But I'm still scared that everyone's gonna leave me alone in the world."
"But you know they wont - you know I won't leave you alone."
"And you know that I wouldn't ever let a dragon hurt you, so I think we're even." He laughed, finally returning the hug, and tightening his grip around his girlfriend and taking in her scent.
"I'll agree on that." She smiled, nuzzling herself into his shoulder.
When Erza found Natsu's door unlocked the next morning, she instantly began to fret. Sure, she knew the Dragon Slayer could handle himself, but still, it wasn't like him to leave himself vulnerable, which he was in slumber, no matter how much he would argue against the fact. Hesitantly, the redhead pushed the door open and stepped inside, giving the room a once over before her eyes landed on the couple who were fast asleep on the sofa. With eyes wide, she made her way over to the pair, a slight blush creeping up her cheeks - she had never been a fan of two people of the opposite gender sleeping in close proximity before marriage without reason. But when she reached them, all ideas that they had... done anything... unorthodox fled the Requip Mage's mind. Instead, her blush was replaced by a small smile, and a feeling of almost nostalgia at seeing the boy who she had always thought of as a brother finally finding someone to be truly happy with.
The two Mages before her had their arms wrapped around each other in their sleep, as if to protect the other from whatever lurked around them, and the boy - no, man, as Erza had to correct herself - had his head resting on the woman's chest, whilst she rested her chin upon his pink hair, both smiling soundly. Erza wished she had some way to capture the moment before her, because, as Natsu had kept memoirs of almost every job he had been on, the redhead had kept tabs of every significant event in her and her nakama's life, including Lucy, no matter how short she had known the Stellar Mage for. As she remembered what she had came here for, the Requip Mage leant forward and began to shake the pair.
"Natsu, Lucy," She smiled, almost reluctant to awaken them. "Wake up-"
"What's taking so long?" A loud, male voice yelled, entering the building also, and stopping in his tracks as he clocked what Erza was looking at, a smile taking shape on the Ice Mage's face. "Oh, I am so gonna find a way to use this a blackmail."
"No you're not." A yawning Dragon Slayer said below them, stretching out his arms and sitting up, causing the blonde beside him to wake up also.
"What's going on?" She smiled at her team, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
"We were heading out on a job, but if you two are too busy..."
"No way," The pair yawned in unison before speaking at the same time.
"We're up and ready."
"We're not letting you two have all the fun!"
"Just let me brush my hair first."
Hey guys! I don't actually know where I was going with this chapter, but I started out with a nightmare thingy, and it just went from there. I'm still learning how to write the Fairy Tail characters since this is only my third time every writing about them, so I hope it's not too OOC, which seems to be my biggest problem at the moment.
Anyway, the fourth chapter should be up ASAP, since I wrote it before this, but anyway: I hoped you enjoyed this chapter!
