A/N: YO YO YO! Thanks SO MUCH for the reviews, I'm so glad you guys liked the last one! This one is Edger230's request! THANKS AS ALWAYS! :)

"Lucy, look! No, over there, wait, that one! Look, it's just…it's so many!"

"WOW, it's so…tall!"

"MY GOSH we have to try that!"

"You're all nuts–never mind, I'm going into the chocolate shop, and no one's stopping me."

By the dialogue of the gang that spring evening, most would have assumed they had never seen the heart of a city at night. However, no matter how many times Emmet, Lucy, Benny, and Sweet had experienced the city, downtown Syspocalypstar at night still stole their breath away.

"Are you ok?" Emmet whispered to his girlfriend for the fifth time. He would have tightened his grip around her, but with the way she clung to his arm, he wasn't sure if he could. The oily darkness hardly touched them as the glittering, flickering lights combined into a steady glow from all sides. A brisk, evening breeze rushed in their faces, and Lucy curled tighter against her boyfriend.

"Yeah, fine," she replied. A smile followed her words, and she pressed a quick kiss to her boyfriend's lips. "Just glad you're here, you've been busy lately."

"Guys, look!" Benny pointed ahead, accidently bringing up the hand that Sweet was holding before dropping it quickly. "It's the Syspocalypstar Waterfall, we can climb on the rocks today!"

"Let's go!" Sweet clutched his hand again, and the two took off like a rocket, appropriately.

The elation in Emmet's face was hard to miss, but Lucy tried as he exclaimed, "Lucy, let's go, it sounds fun!"

Emmet tugged on her hand in child-like excitement to walk across the rocks, but she held it at her side. "Emmet, I don't know, why don't we just stay here and let them have their fun?" It wasn't a lie, Lucy told herself. It wasn't. Benny and Sweet needed some space during their almost-but-not-quite-yet phase of a relationship if anything was to develop, and Lucy wasn't going to step on that. She was also sure Emmet was not going to step on the rocks.

A flash of disappointment crossed his face, like popping a balloon. "Aw, but it'll be fun, they won't mind! I used to do it when I was a kid!"

The look on her face told him the discussion was over.

"Fine," he relented, biting back a sigh. It would have been worth it if she had smiled, maybe thanked him, or at least told him why, but she merely rolled her eyes at his reaction and jerked his hand towards the ledge, where they could watch Benny and Sweet tread the rocks.

Lucy rested her elbows on the bar, and Emmet watched her carefully, as if an answer lay in the face of the woman he had fallen so hard for. Something seemed off, he knew it, it had been 'off' for the past couple weeks.

"Are you sure you're ok–"

"I'm fine, Emmet."

The way she snapped his name like it was a curse word sliced his heartstrings in half.

As he shrunk back, dropped his head, and focused all his watering gaze on Benny and Sweet, Lucy only gripped the rail, trying to blur the deep, unquenchable, burning urge to shut her eyes and fall asleep right onto the sidewalk. Holding her eyelids up felt like keeping fifty pounds in one arm as her fingers went numb. The knowledge that her boyfriend was hurting pricked her conscious, and she nearly reached out to his hand, but weariness handcuffed her.

Minutes went by in perfect silence, and while the lovable lilt of Benny and Sweet's laughter reached them from the base of the waterfall, neither felt the need or desire to react to it.

Maybe he was overreacting. Goodness knows he had done that before. Maybe his girlfriend was just having a rough day, and he had pricked a nerve in the wrong way at the wrong time.

Then again, the past weeks had not been kind to Lucy. A snappy remark here, a sarcastic bite there, it all had slowly increased over time. He had tried everything he could think of, cuddling her, kissing her, telling her how pretty she was, all to no avail, whether it was Unikitty's suggestion or not.

"Lucy?" His words jsut surpassed a mumble, and he nearly repeated himself after she did not reply.

"Yeah?"

A pasty liquid went down his throat. "You still love me, right?"

Lucy froze.

Her hand cupped over Emmet's. He was warm. His hand was clammy and his pulse rushed, but it was warm. "Of course I do."

No response but the heaviest sigh he had ever uttered.

The moment crashed, however, when Benny and Sweet zoomed up the stairs, feet soggy and wrists dripping wet. Benny waved his arms wildley as he exclaimed, "That was awesome! Water feels REALLY good, especially when it runs over your hands, almost like riding a spaceship!"

Though no one else on the planet had a response to such a Benny-like sentence, Sweet replied with equal vigor, "That's what I thought too!"

"Hey, Emmet," Benny broke his squealing-match with Sweet and turned to his friend. "Why didn't you guys come?"

The look on Lucy's face was unreadable, but he tried anyway.

"Uh, Lucy didn't think it was a good idea. HEY, let's go check out that nightclub!" Emmet pointed across the street towards a glittering, disco-lit and heavily-photographed nightclub, complete with the types of people no one would want to associate with.

A small spider gripped every one of Lucy's ribs and tugged them together.

"Uh, guys, I don't think that's a good idea." Lucy's protests went largely unheard as Benny and Sweet rushed forward like two teenagers on the rebellion, and Emmet followed in a brisk walk, checking every other moment as she struggled to keep up.

"Come on, Lucy, we've never gone to one of these before!" Emmet reached back and grabbed her hand, tugging her along.

"Ok, ok, ok, fine, " she relented, though every ounce of her bitter, frazzled mind screamed and cried at her to stop. "But just stay near me, alright?"

It only took a few moments to gain access into the club, apparently saving the world multiple times gives you some prestige.

The moment she saw the drinking, the men twice her height, the girls with sharp nails, the music that would have made a rock concert blush, and the blinding lights, Lucy grabbed hold of her boyfriend's wrist and promised herself she wouldn't let go.

"Uh, you ok, Lucy?" Emmet shouted over the voices and music roaring in their ears. "You seem a little pale."

As Sweet and Benny disappeared from her view, Lucy turned her gaze to Emmet, heart throbbing, throat closing, and eyes watering, be it from the lights, music, or her own haywire emotions. "Uh, fine, yeah, just stay by me, alright?"

Whether Emmet agreed to this or not seemed of no concern to Lucy, and she held his arm in an iron grip as they found two seats at the bar. She switched her gaze repeatedly from Emmet to the crowd and back again, as if he would disappear if she looked away for too long.

Emmet took a sip of his club soda, though he could hardly drink with his girlfriend tying herself in a knot across from him. Every bush, every movement, every shout seemed to put her on edge. "Lucy, let's get out of here, you look exhausted!"

He braced himself for a snappy remark.

"Alright, thanks."

The earnest, thankful glint in her glassy eyes told him all he needed, and after bidding their goodbyes to fun-loving Benny and Sweet, high-tailed it out of the nightclub and into the spring air. It had never felt so cool to the pair of special best friends.

Neither said a word. How could they? Other couples had rocky date nights. They had harmonious evenings. Other couples fought and switched between silence and sarcastic comments. They complimented each other and caused a lot of blushing. They weren't like other couples.

"You want to go home?" Emmet asked, quietly and tentatively, as if she would yet again pounce on him.

"Yeah. Let's go home."

The walk to the car was silent.

The drive was silent.

The walk into the house was silent.

Everything was silent until they climbed into bed together, when Lucy finally mumbled, as if the world had pushed her to the limit of into speaking to her favorite person in the world, "I'm sorry."

Emmet turned to face her. She had her arms crossed over her chest, pouting like a child, as the dim, burning light from her lamp barely illuminated her face. Tears had dried and stained on her face, glistening against her freckles, and she rubbed them against her sleeve in foolish hopes he wouldn't notice.

"Don't be. That place was stupid."

Though he knew he would pay the price later, Emmet stretched his hand across the bed and gently lay it over Lucy's. She gripped back wearily.

It took only a moment for Lucy to hike the short distance between them, collapse at Emmet's side, and snuggle into his chest. Her arms linked around him. He did the same. She pressed a slow, warm kiss to his lips. He returned it. She sunk into his arms. He curled around her.

After flicking the light off, Emmet murmured, a small smile on his face, "Sweet dreams, Lucy. I love you."

"I love you a lot more."

#

You lost him.

He's gone.

And it's all your fault.

The last thing she heard was Emmet's scream.

"EMMET!"

Lucy shot up in bed. Sweat. Cold. No, too hot. Much too hot. Her hands quaked. Her shoulders trembled. Everything inside her, her feet, her hands, her chest, it was all too tight. Her heart lay at the top of her throat, kicking and throwing a tantrum. She swallowed to get it back down. It did nothing, just reminded her of the awful, bitter taste in her mouth. In an effort to distract herself, she thought of the headache that wrapped a scalding bandage tightly around her head, but she found this to be worse, and the knockout sent her against her pillow once more.

Had she gotten any sleep last night? More memories of lying awake and drowning in thoughts lay in her mind than any images of her falling asleep.

Her hand reached out to the side of the bed.

Blanket.

The bloodshot blurriness of her eyes shot towards where Emmet should have been, but his space was empty.

No.

Not this time.

She had done everything right.

"Unikitty!" Lucy's voice reprimanded and scolded her for using a crashing volume at such an early hour, but as she collapsed out of bed, tripped over the carpet, swayed as she ran away from her vision and headache, it turned out her voice mattered very little.

The culprit sat in the kitchen as Lucy walked in, eating a donut, and reading from a bridal magazine. "Lucy? You look…" Unikitty scrunched up her nose. "…awful. Are you alright?"

"Where's Emmet?" Lucy's voice scratched and pleaded for mercy. She shot a look at the clock.

7:08 A.M.

"Oh, he got a call an hour ago that there was an emergency meeting downtown–"

"–downtown?"

Unikitty stared at Lucy like she had just thrown a fit because Emmet left a mug out. "–and he didn't want to wake you up, so he left. He figured that since you were so exhausted he'd be back before you woke up."

Through the course of Unikitty's story, Lucy had thrown her hoodie over her top, grabbed the car keys, and snatched her phone. "Ok, thanks. How do you know that?"

The bridal magazine on the counter practically screamed Unikitty's guilty name, along with the mail-in tickets to win a free honeymoon. Unikitty carefully shoved them behind her. "Uh…I was just…up early…one of those things."

Despite her attempts to cover her tracks, Unikitty wasn't sure if Lucy had even seen them. "Lucy, are you sure you're ok?"

"I'm going to the meeting."

"But you went to five last week!"

All Unikitty could hear beyond Lucy's words was the sound of her trembling, heavy steps as she ran towards the door. "I can take care of myself."

The door slammed shut behind her.

Unikitty bit her lip. "Emmet, whatever you do when she gets to you, make her nice again."

#

"Lucy?" Emmet's voice flicked the roof with an iron touch when his girlfriend erupted through the doors of city hall, like a student spotting their teacher at the grocery store. Unexpected, and a little terrifying. "What are you doing here?"

He's ok.

Pushing, shoving, and kicking past the dense crowd between them, Lucy threw her arms around Emmet, hugged him tighter than she imagined he could stand, before her muscles waved the white flag. Every bone fell into the deepest sleep she had ever felt. Though she attempted to lift her arm, just to test it and make sure it still worked, her mind shushed her, whispering it was fine. She heard mumbling. Maybe it was from Emmet.

"Lucy, are you alright?" Emmet's words hardly made it past the pasty fog that clouded Lucy's mind, and she replied to whatever he had said by curling her arms around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder, and moving her feet until she nearly stood atop his. His arms cradled around her back, and something akin to words filled the air. What he said or why he said it, she didn't know, but that was hardly important. It was much more vital that she stay in his warm, protective arms, the ones that were rocking her very close to sleep.

The softest, warmest feeling she had ever felt overtook as Emmet's hands raised up her back, gently fingering the hair at the base of her neck. It tickled. As he held her, like she was a priceless jewel, she melted farther and deeper into his embrace. Her eyes were closing, they must have weighed a thousand pounds. She wasn't going to fall asleep. She would just close her eyes for one minute, a tiny minute, with Emmet, before they went into the meeting together.

There was a moment, however small, when Lucy realized sleep was inescapable.

#

Miserable.

Every single aspect of Lucy's life the moment she woke up felt miserable. A bitter, muddy taste tapped her lips, her mind wanted to wake up but her body wasn't quite ready, she felt too hot but her legs were too cold, and she had no idea how she had gotten into her bed.

Finally, after an intense battle of wills, Lucy won custody of her body and opened her eyes. She was…home. She was sideways in the bed, her head dangerously near falling off the mattress, with blankets tangled up and pillows strewn around as if the pillow fight of the century had taken place.

A smile came over her lips briefly. That pillow fight she and Emmet had done a few years back was one of the best days in her life.

Emmet.

Just as she scrambled up to either call for him, look for him, or track him down again, Emmet walked through the slightly ajar door with a smile on his face." Hey, Lucy, you're awake!"

At the tone of his voice, Lucy asked, "How long have I been out?"

It was impossible to miss the faintest flash of disapproval and disappointment that crossed his face. Even as he sat down on the bed, sighed with a smile, took her hand in his, and pressed a warm, lingering kiss to her forehead, she knew something had killed his optimistic mood, and a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach told her it was her fault.

"About seventeen hours. You passed out in the car, woke up five minutes later, then fell asleep for the whole ride home. I took you here, and you haven't woken up until now. How do you feel?" Emmet said the whole sentence in half a breath.

Lucy winced. Emmet looked like the exhausted one, with bloodshot eyes, a weak smile, and a frame that melted into the bed. "I'm ok," she murmured, snuggling up beside him. "I just didn't get enough sleep last night."

Even without looking at him, Lucy knew that he wasn't buying it.

"Lucy," Emmet muttered under his breath, disapproval and frustration coating his voice. There was a 'You're lucky I love you' at the tip of his tongue, but he bit down on it. For once, as he looked at his girlfriend's hand interlocked with his, Emmet was going to be the tough one, for her sake. "I want you to tell me what's been going on. You haven't been right for the past couple weeks, you won't let me go anywhere, you're not sleeping, and you've been taking on way too much. What you're doing isn't healthy, and I want you to be better."

The confession, the confession that he was worried, left his chest a thousand times lighter, and his heart finally began to beat again, the weight of the world no longer clutching it.

His girlfriend blinked a few times, winced, and looked down to her lap. "It's nothing. I'm just working too much."

"Why?" Emmet wasn't letting this go, and they both knew it.

"Emmet, please."

"Lucy…"

Lucy remained silent, but Emmet saw something in her quiet nature, and he only watched as she tucked her trembling hands in her hoodie, hugged her knees to her chest, and let a strand of hair fall across her forehead. Her lips remained sedentary as she admitted, as though her body refused to give in, "I'm scared."

Before Emmet found the space to reply, scalding, boiling tears broke through the lines and poured down her face, staining her freckles. "I…I can't, Emmet. I can't do it. It's…it's too much, every night…I always…I'm terrified…I don't…"

"What?" Emmet kneeled across his girlfriend, lifted a gentle hand to her face, and tried to make sense of the words she repeatedly mumbled. "Lucy, you have to tell me what's bothering you."

A hand creeped out of her hoodie, and she reached to him, gripped his wrist, and refused to let go. "You…I can't lose you. Every single time we do something, I almost lose you. The Abyss, Rex kidnapping you, everything, every time I almost lose you. I can't sleep, I just… I keep seeing you jumping, or disappearing…" Salty, smooth tears turned to harsh, hiccupping sobs, and she clutched his wrist. "…or…or worse…every night I lose you, I won't…I can't…"

"Lucy…"

"I…I need to keep you safe." Finally, her eyes shot up to him, bloodshot and exhausted, quivering and glassy. She bit on a sob and choked out, "I…I won't let you get hurt. Not again." The bawling felt good. The sobbing felt terrible. She wanted to cry until she couldn't do it anymore. She wanted to stop crying that instant. She wanted to sleep the sleep that other people had, where nightmares refused to touch her and she merely slept. Would she ever get that again? Would she ever sleep?

"Come here."

Lucy didn't want to open her eyes until Emmet had his arms tightly around her frame, cuddling softly in his arms.

But once she was there, she left them closed. If she opened them, it might all be an illusion. She couldn't handle that.

After weeks of holding it back, choking it down, snapping at everyone, Lucy broke. She sobbed like a baby into her boyfriend's arms. She cried for the day he jumped, when he fought President Business, when the submarine exploded, when they got kidnapped and she was away from him for so long, when Rex tried to kidnap him, when Rex almost killed him, every single time she could have lost him in an instant. In many days and many ways, if she had gotten there a moment later, he would have died.

More crying.

As Emmet snuggled his girlfriend in his arms, she moved into his lap, curling her legs up and nestling into him. He ran his hands over her back, rubbing her shoulders and threading through her hair. She was worried about keeping him safe? Did she know how much he worried about her, how he lay at night waiting for her to wake up, sometimes watching her breathe and just being thankful that she was in his life? "I love you. I love you so, so much, Lucy."

"I can't…I can't sleep, Ems." Lucy's crying grew to sobs once more. "I'm scared, at night and day I get so close to losing you, I can't…I need you…"

"You're not going to lose me."

"Someday I…I will."

The words finally gave Emmet pause. She wasn't wrong. Eventually, their time would come, for each of them. What was he supposed to tell her? How was he supposed to comfort someone who was terrified of death, the most inevitable consequence of all? He was no psychologist, philosopher, he didn't even think too deeply about life unless it was necessary.

"Lucy," Emmet mumbled into her shoulder. "Look at me."

The grip she held on him tightened, but after a moment of patience, she pried herself off, still holding fast to his arms. Tears stained her face, crimson from her sobbing tinted her eyes, and her mascara was smudged, yet Emmet still thought she was the most beautiful, adorable girl he had ever seen.

"I love you." Gently, he pressed a quick kiss to her lips. "I'll never stop. You don't have to worry about that type of leaving."

For a moment, the Lucy he knew returned, and she sniffed, pouting slightly. "I'm not. Unikitty wouldn't let you leave, anyway."

Emmet smiled. "I know. But death? Lucy, I'm not magic, I can't stop any of us from dying. You can't live in this constant state of protecting me, because one day, I'm going to go." Emmet breathed in, his own tears choking his words and threatening to spill. "And one day, you will too. You have to live your life, and we're going to save each other plenty of times in the future, I know it, but you can't go looking to save me from some disaster."

The wind ceased rustling, the birds quieted their songs, everything seemed to forget to speak as Emmet lifted a warm hand to Lucy's cheek. "But remember, we won't really be gone. Eventually, I know we'll meet on the other side." Emmet took her hand in his. "Together."

"I'm still scared," Lucy whimpered. Pathetic. She was so pathetic for being scared. Here she was, bawling to her boyfriend, and he was so patient. No one in the world would match up to him, or even come close.

Emmet nodded, and a soft glow, a gentle fire, enveloped Lucy's body as he whispered, "This fear isn't going to go away just like that. But I think you'll start to feel a lot better just because you talked about it. The nightmares will stop too, I know they will."

The fact that he didn't flinch when she griped tighter gave her some comfort. "I hope so."

"And you can wake me up any time they happen, ok? But missing sleep and getting stressed is only making them worse, and you know it." Emmet winced as he pulled back, and he pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. "Your poor mind is running on overtime, Lucy."

"You're sweet," she murmured, running her hand along his shoulders. "I love you. A lot. More than you'll ever know."

A smile overtook his face. The words still gave his heart a run for its money, even after years of hearing them. "I love you too."

The rustling of the wind through their window brought some steady constant to Lucy's mind, and she breathed in the sweet scent of spring, thoughts running from her mind and sulking back to where they had come from. Maybe it would be ok. Just maybe.

"Thank you," Lucy murmured, unsure how to show how much he had helped her. If she tried to make a long speech, he wouldn't believe her. It would just be words. But she had to say something more than the same thank you she gave when he got her breakfast. "Emmet, I…you're…"

Somehow, some way, he knew what she meant. "Don't worry about it."

Emmet carefully kissed her, pausing a moment to feel her smile, and went to pull away, but Lucy held him there for a moment longer. She curled her hands around his, just to give him pause, so she could feel his smile against her lips for a few more seconds. He was still the best kisser she had ever dated.

After several more moments, she broke away, her breath ragged and slightly ticked off at Lucy's mood fluctuations of the past ten minutes. "I feel a lot better," she whispered, smiling softly as she pressed her forehead to Emmet's.

Emmet grinned, and as he went to kiss her again, they both yawned.

The sweetest sound in the world in their ears was the sound of each other's laughter.

"Tired?" Lucy asked, smirking in good nature.

Shaking his head, Emmet fell back against the pillows, eyes already shutting. "Uh, no, not at all."

"Nice try."

Despite his protests about his state of slumber, Emmet gratefully accepted Lucy's decision to curl up in his arms, resting her head on his chest. "You gonna be ok?" His words were paired with a soft kiss to her forehead.

"If you stay here, yeah, I think so."

His girlfriend fell deeper into his arms, and in turn, Emmet sunk into the bed. Sleep treaded the carpet lightly into the room, shushing the pair as Emmet mumbled, "I won't move."

Lucy's words hardly made it out. "Thanks. I love you."

"I love you more."

#

That evening, when dusk had settled and the world had quieted out of mutual respect for the time of day, Unikitty arrived home from a gruesome outing at the craft store. Mutters about never doing it again and ordering online passed through her breath as she stumbled into the house, locked the door, and dropped her bags to the floor. "I'm home!"

No response greeted her, and she raised an eyebrow. Lucy had to be awake by now, right? It was Saturday, Emmet and Lucy's prescheduled time to bake together. Or, Emmet baked, while she and Lucy ate the frosting, stole his stuff, chased him around the kitchen, and acted like general, well-meaning hindrances until he let them have whatever dessert he had made.

The kitchen lay empty and clean, a miracle for that evening, but the bedroom door was slightly ajar. Unikitty poked her head in, and there she found her two favorite people in the world, snuggled up together and snoring louder than she would have ever bet.

Unikitty smiled, tip-toed across the bedroom floor, and curled up beside them. After all, her room was a whole twenty-three feet away, and Emmet and Lucy would never want her to walk that whole way.

Yeah, she was staying right there.