When lunch time had come and passed and Lucy still hadn't made it to the guild, Natsu became worried that she had started avoiding them again. Waving away the rest of the concerned guild members, he and Happy left to drag Lucy out of her apartment.

He climbed in her window and found her sitting, fully dressed, on the edge of her bed. She turned at the sound of him clambering in, took in his worried expression, and forced a smile.

"I was going to come to the guild…I just…was thinking," she said, not moving from the bed. Happy flew across the room and snuggled deep into her lap. She pet him absently and said, "I lost track of time."

"Is something the matter?" Natsu asked, leaning against the window. Instantly he regretted his words. She was dying. Of course something was the matter. Sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck, he tried to fix his mistake, "Well…other than…you know what I mean."

She laughed, though she looked wistful, "I do know what you mean."

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I am. I don't hurt or anything. It's just…I hate the look the guild members give me. Like, they're trying to memorize me for when I'm gone."

She sighed, "I'll be talking to Levy and I'll look up to see her staring at me. And…"

Lucy trailed off, turning her head to the wall to hide the emotion on her face. Happy shared a look with Natsu, "Lucy…"

"It's okay," she whispered, still resolutely facing the wall. "You guys go on ahead. I'll meet up with you at the guild."

Happy hesitated, but respected her wishes and flew out of the room, nodding at Natsu on the way out. The fire mage pushed away from the window and stood just behind her.

"I don't think it's really sunk in yet," Lucy said.

He didn't know what to say, so he just remained silent. He hadn't noticed before how delicate her shoulder blades were. Staring at her back, they looked like the fragile bones of a baby bird. He'd seen her get smashed into the ground and recover well enough afterwards, but looking at her hunched over on the bed…she seemed so breakable.

"I'm sad, but I don't think I'm the proper level of sad for dying. I feel like I'm stuck in the shock phase. When will I wake up not thinking this was all a horrible dream?" She pointed at her bedside table, where an index card was propped against the clock. The index card read It's not a dream.

"It's already been half a month since I found I was going to die. And, what have I done?"

"Lucy," Natsu said. He put his hand on her thin shoulder, half-nervous that she would fall apart under his touch. She didn't. She turned in towards his hand and wrapped her arms around him. "I have an idea."

"Hm?" she asked, resting her head against his chest.

"So that the others can stop trying to memorize you all the time, let's have a memory day," he said. She pulled away to look at him, smiling automatically at the enthusiasm in his expression.

"Explain more," she said.

"Well, we can spend the whole day with our nakama. And, we'll make memories together and they'll be able to stare at you as much as they want and commission as many paintings of you as they want," Natsu said. "But, once the day is over, they have to treat you as they always have. To get it out of their systems. It can be sort of like a festival."

"That's a good idea."

"Hey, don't sound so surprised!"

She laughed, but after a moment her face grew somber.

"Natsu…why don't you stare at me like everyone else?"

"Because…," he didn't know how to explain it right. He gestured vaguely, at a loss, "I don't want to think about after…I don't want there to be an after."

She kissed his neck and then laid her head on his shoulder, "Me neither."

He held her, glad that she couldn't see his tears.

#5 Me Neither