Just What I Needed

The small campfire flickered and danced from the winds, but luckily for the pair, the cave was filled with large stalagmites, shielding them from the brunt of the storm. The mission was pretty much a bust for now and hopefully would clear up by morning. So, they buckled down, scrounging up old, dry animal bones as fuel for the fire.

"Is something wrong Natsu?" Lucy scoots over closer to where he's sitting with his arms wrapped around his knees. She'd noticed he's been preoccupied lately, maybe a little sad, but she wasn't sure.

He rests his chin on his arms. "Just been thinking about something."

"Wanna tell me about it?"

When Natsu tilts his head to look over at her, Lucy's big brown eyes catch him off guard. She looks so genuinely inquisitive it melts his resolve not to tell her anything. He lets out a puff of air. "When you were fixing my book, Zeref looked… panicked, surprised that it was even possible that a human could bring me back to life. Then," he averts his eyes, "Gray mentioned what happened to you. Will you tell me… a-about the markings?"

Lucy closes her eyes, letting her memories return to that moment. All those ribbons of words and symbols filling the air around them. The instant sensation that something was horribly wrong, yet no hesitation to take action. It was Natsu, and nothing would stop her from saving him. In hindsight what she had done without thinking it through could have amounted to suicide, but if she were true to herself, she wouldn't have changed a thing.

With an exhale, "I-I'm not exactly sure what those were." She props her head on her knees. "I just remember feeling like… like I—I was becoming connected to the book and to you, and I had no control over it once I started. The missing words… I just knew them and started filling in the blanks, faster and faster as they came, so I wrote as if an unseen force was guiding me. But then," Lucy shivers from the memory, "heat unlike anything I had ever felt before travelled from my fingertips along my arm, my chest until, it felt like my head was gonna explode."

She pulls her knees tighter to her chest. "I think…. Once I'd repaired the missing words and you were whole again, maybe it was the demon magic trying to overtake me too. But that's only a guess." Lucy looks over and sees a pained expression on Natsu's face. "I'm fine, I swear," she cracks a small smile, reaches over, and places a hand on his. "You don't have to worry about me Natsu."

But, Natsu wasn't okay with it. The demon magic that had created him had also brought him so much despair and now to know for sure it had attacked Lucy too. "I hate it sometimes," he whispers in a low tone, "this demon magic is a curse and a plague on my life. Maybe it would have been better if Zeref had never created E.N.D."

Quick as a flash, Lucy jumps up, shaking her fist at him. "Don't you ever, ever, Ever, say that again Natsu!"

Whoa! He leans back, eyes widened at the blonde with his hands up to block if she decides to hit him. "I-I just meant that, l-look at all the trouble it caused. I almost killed Gray when I couldn't control it, and it almost killed you too."

"Natsu I agree that it's like a curse to bear, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't have been created." She sighs and closes her eyes to hold back the tears. "Zeref may have become corrupted, but in the end, he made you because he loved you."

"I don't know…" Natsu rests his chin back onto his arms, contemplating what she had said.

"Hey," Lucy drops to her knees, placing her hands on his shoulders, and resting her forehead against his. "I have no doubt in my mind okay. As far as I am concerned, you are a blessing that Zeref created for us, and I'm sure that everyone would agree with me."

He squeezes his eyes shut as the hole in his heart refills. She always knew how to make him feel better. "Thank you, Lucy…" I really needed to hear that…