Hey there! An other day, an other chapter! Yay! So here it is chapter 4. Hope you will like it. I am really in got writing spirits with this story even more after reading the newest manga chapter. Hell Natsu is one kind of a dragon slayer!

Anyway thanks to everyone who either, read, review, put it in favorits an/or alerts or everything together. Thank you all for supporting this story!

So enough of my talking, now please read, enjoy and review.

Disclaimer: I sadly don't own Fariy Tail neither do I own Hotarubi no Mori e, it all belonges to the originals.

The yokai I fell in love with

Recap

Soon our ages would match each other, but if Natsu didn't age… I would soon surpass him with my own age. The difference would grow bigger again and then we maybe wouldn't be able to spend so much time together anymore. The days flow by and soon again the summer came to an end.

This thought made me depress as I lay there in uncles house. Tomorrow I would have to leave again. There were so many things I thought about. I knew that someday I would be older than Natsu but I didn't like this thought, just then my uncle came up to me telling me that he cut some watermelons.

We eat the watermelons together, they were sweet, cold and delicious. Just then my uncle started to tell me about the weather here, where he lived. He told me that the winter was freezing cold and the summer blazing warm. He said that it was because the village was surrounded by mountains and still far away from the beach. I thought about it and then Natsu came back into my mind. Was he freezing in the winter? Did he even feel the cold as a yokai?

"Ne… Uncle…" I started as a thought entered my mind. I wanted to do something for Natsu and I knew the perfect way on to what I could do.

Lucy POV

"A scarf?" Natsu asked and I could hear the surprise and suspect in his voice.

"Yeah, my uncle told me that the winter is freezing cold. So please wear it in winter." I smiled as I put my hands behind my back. Natsu looked at it for away before he suddenly put it around his neck.

"Wha- Wait! Natsu! I said in winter!" I protested but he only looked up with his mask at me and shook his head. I felt like he was grinning under it all over his face.

"I like it! It looks like it is made of scales! It matches my dragon mask perfect! I promise to wear it!" I sighed and smiled again at Natsu. I shouldn't be surprised that he would do something like that.

"You're and idiot… Bye! See you next year!" I said and then waved when I turned around and ran down the path back to the village. I still heard Natsu chuckle and that made me somehow really happy but still there was this heavy feeling in my chest, I still couldn't explain...

The days passed, then weeks, months and finally years. It was like a circle, spending every summer with Natsu and then wait three sessions till I would see him again. Time flew by and then came the year I started to go to High School. It was winter when I the first time really noticed it. It wasn't in summer when I realized the feeling in my heart, it was winter.

In this winter I kept staring outside the window, looking at the mountains far away. My thoughts were always clouded by one person and sometimes it was hard to focus on school. I spaced out more and more often and my friends didn't know what to do with me. It wasn't much later when I started to eat less than before. I lost my appetite or I just couldn't eat as much as I wanted. It always tasted… not right, not as good as it should.

My mom was worried if I got sick in the winter. I felt bad for making my parents and my friends worried about me but it wasn't much later on my way to school when I realized the reason behind my strange acting.

I was on my way to school in the morning, thinking again about many things, mainly the next summer, the mountain and what Natsu was doing right now. I failed to notice a friend of mine who was calling out to me.

"Lucy. Lucy. L-U-C-Y!"

"Y-yes." I looked up a bit to see Loke one of my classmates. "O-oh, Loke. Good Morning."

"Good Mornig, Princess." He greeted/winked back. I couldn't help but giggle a bit, for some reasons Loke had kept addressing me as a Princess sometimes. "Look out there, near your feet. It's frozen."

I stopped and looked down and started carefully taking one step after another. I didn't notice that Loke was still there and that he was watching me.

"If you continue that way, you will slip, Princess. It's dangerous. Please allow me, your knight in shining armor to give you a hand." He said and when I looked at him again I saw that he was stretching out his hand to me to take it.

"Thank you." I answered and moved my own hand to take his. I hesitated shortly but then he grabbed my hand and he was taking me along. He was walking ahead while I followed behind him. The warm feeling of his hand, brought back thoughts I was thinking for a while…

I didn't really hear what Loke started to say. I only focused on our hands touching as my thoughts went off to Natsu. I was wondering what he was doing right know. If he was wearing the scarf I gave him but I dismissed this thought fast, Natsu kept wearing it since the day I gave it to him even in summer. Then I started to wonder what it would feel like to touch Natsu. I wanted to see Natsu. This thought never let go of me for the rest of the winter and spring till to the summer where I would finally see Natsu again.

When I finally was on visit by my uncle again, I put on my new High School uniform and went up to the mountain like I did with my other uniform years ago. I matured more and my chest grew a bit more, also I got a bit taller but I guessed that Natsu was still taller than me.

When I was finally there, I saw Natsu already waiting for me. He was still on the stairs, wearing his dragon mask and unsurprisingly also the scarf. I didn't say anything and just smiled at him. So we faced each other in silence. It wasn't awkward or anything. We just stand there staring at each other, I wished he wouldn't have his masked on, I wanted to see his face.

"Is that your new uniform?" He finally asked and I nodded. We started moving and went down the path which would lead us to the clearing with the lake. We walked peacefully next to each other.

"Time really flies, doesn't it?" Natsu said as he crossed his arms behind his head. "You're already in high school, huh?"

"Yeah, it really does…" I smiled sadly and when walked again in silence till we reached the lake and sad down. I noticed that Natsu was acting different than usually but also I know that I acted different too.

"Oi! I noticed that you don't come running at me anymore these days. Did you get ill or so?" Natsu suddenly ask and I could already image his grin under the mask. He had a wooden stick in his hands and held it in my direction.

"I learned my lessons after all those beatings." I joked and fake pouted at him but my mind was already remembering that fearful day. I didn't show it to him. I still didn't want to worry Natsu in any way.

"I am looking forward to it..." I then started as I looked smiling up into the sky. "In three years, when I graduate, I plan on looking for a job here."

I felt that Natsu was looking at me now but I still continued to tell him my plans. "If I life here… then I can be with you more. In autumn, winter, spring and of course summer. I can always come here to see you, right?"

We looked at each other for a while before Natsu broke our glance and looked away. When he spoke I could hear sadness in his voice, I didn't like. I didn't want Natsu to be sad, I wanted him to be happy.

"Lucy…" He started. "Let me tell you about myself."

I was surprised, Natsu normally changed the topic when it came to him. But at the same time I was happy that Natsu would finally tell me about himself so I kept quiet and mentioned him to continue.

"I am not a yokai… but, I am no longer human also. It seems like I was once a human, but when I was a baby, I was abandoned in this forest. I'd only just been abandoned, so I cried helplessly as if to call back the parents who left me. The other yokais said I didn't stop crying and was getting on the nerves of them all." Natsu chuckled shortly before he continued his tale. "They made me stop in putting this dragon mask on my face that was when I started to laugh the first time in front of them all. I don't really know but my laughing must have been warmed up their hearts. Cause I should've died then, but the mountains god appeared and casted that damn spell that allowed me to continue living. But this spell had his costs.

I would never move on. I'm like a ghost. Lucy…" He looked back at me, but still I could only hear is emotions out of his voice. His mask kept me away from reading them in his face but still I could tell that I didn't like the sadness I heard one bit. "It's okay if you forget about me and just move on without me. A body that's maintained by magic is very weak. If it touches a real human body, the spell will break and the body will disappear. It's a damn fragile thing…. I don't know how long you can-"

I cut in in Natsu tale. I didn't like the way it was going and I didn't like that he wanted me to forget him. He was a precious friend of mine. I would never want to forget him. "Something that disappears when touched… It's just like snow, isn't it?"

I prayed my eyes off from Natsu and looked ahead into the sky. "Natsu, I thought of you during winter, even during autumn and spring. I guess you could say that you were always in my mind."

I stood up and went some steps in the direction of the lake before I turned around and looked at Natsu with a smile. "Natsu, don't forget about me. Don't forget and I won't forget you."

The wind blew stronger and my hair waved in it, I tucked a strand back behind my ear. I would have liked to see the expression on Natsus face but then again, maybe it was good that I could see it.

"Time might separate us some day. But, even still, until then, let's just stay together." I smiled at him and we watched each other for a while longer till I heard him chuckle.

"Weirdo…" I giggled as I heard it.

After that day everything seems to be normal between us again. But still there were changes I noticed on Natsu. He acted more and more carefree and I felt like he had stopped to make sure not to touch me. I on the other hand started to act more carefully. I always made sure not to touch him and it wasn't always easy.

"Yokai festival?" I asked him curious as we sat be the lake fishing. We sat on two rocks, Natsu on a bit bigger one so that I had to look up to him. The water was clear blue and I could see the fishes but for some reasons we didn't catch one.

"No weirdo, a summer festival held by yokais." Natsu chuckled.

"There't not much of a difference…." I mumbled as I looked up to.

"Idiot! The nuance is completely different!" He argued back and I giggled.

"When you were little, I thought you might get scared. You were a bit like a scared little kitty." I protested slightly but Natsu ignored it and continued. "So I didn't invite you. But now you're older…. So can you sneak out of your house? Tonight?"

Natsu didn't look at me he scratched the back of his head and stared in the opposite direction. "I've wanted to go with you for a long time..."

I looked also in the opposite direction Natsu was, slightly looking at his form with my cheeks in a light pink color. "I-I want to go."

"Really!" He said as his face snapped fast back into the direction to face me, his mask was near to just fly away by his fast movements if he handed hold to it with one hand. "Meet me at eight! Where we normally meet, you know! The stone gates."

I giggled at how happy his voice sounded as a thought entered my mind. "But a festival filled with yokais sounds a little unnerving… On top of that, it's at night…"

Natsu removed his dragon mask a bit so I could see his face where a wide grin was placed. I didn't fail to also notice his light pink cheeks. "Don't worry! From the outside, it's not very different from a human festival! They always try to mimic a human festival. You should have seen the one 10 years ago! They failed miserable."

Natsu started laughing and I couldn't help but laugh too but then he stopped and again gave me his toothy grin. "And I will protect you anyway, Luce!"

I blushed a bit and turned to the side. "When you say thing like that, it makes me want to hug you."

I was then surprised to hear his reply. "Do it."

I looked at him to make sure I really understood him right. He must have felt that I doubt his words. "I mean it. Hug me… seriously."

"Natsu… idiot." I sighed and then smiled at him. "If I really would huge you… you would disappear and we wouldn't be able to spend time together."

I should have understood it then that he really wasn't joking. Maybe if I had understood it… maybe then I wouldn't have gone to that festival. Maybe then so many things wouldn't have happened… but I still went there. Even though I don't regret going there with Natsu, I always felt the same sadness when I remembered this night…

Hope you liked the chapter, the next chapter will maybe take longer, since it is one of the important final two chapters and I want to make it good... But I will try not to let you guys wait to long.

I am kind of sad that this story is going to end soon... it became a really interesting and fun to write project... but I guess every stroy has to end sooner or later.

So thanks again for reading and please leave a review.

See ya in the next chapter (^.^)v