Nightmare, a fairy tail fanfic

Wrote this last night to celebrated my two years of posting Fairy Tail stories! So hard to believe its only been in my life for a little over two years, these characters are so dear to me now, that I can't image my life without them in it, nor the people who I have met because of them. Forgive any errors that you find in this story, I didn't have the time to read it before posting.

Running. Lucy was running. Her breath came in gasps as she kept moving forward. What she was running from exactly, she didn't know. Suddenly, she stumbled, crying out as she fell. She lay there, gasping, her energy spent, her fear not enough to get her legs underneath her and moving again. Instead, she closed her eyes as the thrashing noises continued behind her, coming ever closer.

Just as she heard it take its final lunge, she awoke with a start, eyes wide opened and gasping for air as she looked around. Slowly she recognized the familiar sites of her own room, her breathing calming but taking a long time to do so. She listened intently, but the only sounds in the room were her own. Collapsing back against her pillow, silent tears fell from her eyes.

It was a reoccurring nightmare, one she had had every once in a while for as far back as she could remember. Every time it felt real, sometimes starting in the middle of some activity she had actually done that day, the nightmare sneaking up on her much like whatever stalked her in her dream. She never saw what was behind her, not clearly anyways, having never dared to look back as she ran nor to open her eyes as she heard it lunge.

The only relief she could bring herself to feel is that it should be some time before she had it again, rarely did it come close together. Still, she knew she wouldn't be sleeping that night. Groaning, she got out of bed, heading to the bathroom to get dressed and ready for the day. Might as well get some writing in, make some good use of these extra hours of being awake.

XXX

Gasping, Lucy woke up from the same dream the very next night! She groaned as she looked at the clock and saw she had only gotten about three hours of sleep. Why did the dream change up its pattern?! Two days in a row of poor sleep wasn't going to be fun, but she climbed out of bed, repeating the same process of the night before.

XXX

A week later, Natsu entered the Guild Hall and looked around to see if there was anyone to fight. Spotting Gray, he went over and instigated a fight, which of course wasn't a hard matter with his longtime rival. Soon the pair had pulled in other members of the guild, but this time it wouldn't be Erza who broke it up.

Natsu was swinging a punch at Elfman when he overheard Levy asking Mira if she had seen Lucy. This caused Natsu to pause, after punching Elfman of course. Thinking back on it he hadn't seen Lucy in a few days and if she had headed out on a job, she would have told Mira about it, who would have told Levy when she asked.

Something wasn't right, Natsu was sure of this. He started moving towards the front door when he heard Gray trying to call him back into the fight, using one of his regular taunts. If it was anybody but Lucy who he was going to look for, Natsu would have jumped back into the fray in an instant before heading out to look. However it was Lucy he was worried about and so he ignored Gray, leaving a very puzzled Ice Wizard behind him.

Sniffing, he didn't catch any new smells of Lucy in any of her usual haunts. The library, while he was no longer allowed to enter it after one to many burnt books, he could tell she wasn't inside of it, her scent was old around there. The place she liked to stop and either sip tea or eat some food while she read had the same thing. He decided this method was taking too long and it would be smarter to start at her house and follow the newest scent from there.

However, that wasn't necessary. As he drew closer he could tell that Lucy was home. Perhaps, if Levy had stopped by, she had been too deep into writing her book to answer it. Levy was too polite to just barge into Lucy's house. Good thing he wasn't. Natsu jumped up to her window, grasping onto its ledge and pushing it open before pulling himself through. Would have been easier if Happy was there, but he had gone off with Carla and Lily to visit the Exceeds.

He looked around and saw Lucy at her desk, her head resting on her arms and the soft sounds coming from her let him know she was sleeping. He let out a sigh of relief. She must have pulled an all-nighter or two while working on her newest book. Natsu didn't think she could be too comfortable there, so he picked her up gently in his arms and took her to her bed, holding her with one arm as he pulled back the covers.

Carefully placing her on her bed so she wouldn't wake, he let out a gentle breath of relief when she latched onto her pillow. Pulling the blankets back up over her, Natsu shook his head at his best friend, a small smirk on his face. The weirdo needed to learn better sleeping habits, like his! Natsu yawned, then crawled onto the bed beside her, pulling her against him before taking a nap.

XXX

When Lucy woke, for the first time in days it wasn't because of a nightmare, but because her body was telling her it was time to get up. She could tell by the lighting that it was night time and last she knew the day was just starting to dawn, so she must have slept all day! Lucy went to move to get up, but realized that there was an arm around her. Noticing she was in bed, she knew it had to be Natsu.

She should be annoyed that he broke into her house, but she knew she hadn't gotten to here by herself, so he must have stopped by to see her and found her asleep at her desk. Lucy was debating on lying still until he woke up, even though she really had to use the bathroom, but Natsu rolled over just then, releasing her.

By the time she was back from the bathroom, Natsu was awake and looking at her, signature grin in place. Lucy shook her head and said "I should be mad at you breaking into my apartment… again… but thank you for moving me to my bed."

Natsu chuckled and said "No problem. Levy was a little worried about you, I overheard her asking Mira if she had seen you and so I decided to come check on you. I figured moving you to your bed was payment enough for a nap on your soft bed." Lucy rolled her eyes, but chuckled as she did so. She then asked "Want anything to eat?"

"Sure! I'll have anything!" Natsu beamed at her. "You mean everything." Lucy replied dryly, before motioning him to follow her. As he watched her cooking, Natsu decided to make small talk and so he asked "Have you been pulling all-nighters again with your book Lucy?" Lucy's hand stopped moving momentarily, but enough to catch his attention.

She knew he had seen her small pause and so she sighed as she replied "Actually no. I've been having a nightmare every night, so I've only been getting a couple hours of sleep each night. Once I wake up from it, I can't go back to sleep, so I do get up and write, but I don't plan to or set out to do so." She had Natsu's full interest, who asked "What sort of nightmare?"

So Lucy told him about it, how she had had it for as long as she could remember, basically every detail about it. By the time she was done, the eggs she had been cooking were ready and so she sat down across from him. As she pierced one of hers with a fork, she said "Actually, sleeping with you is the longest I've slept since its started."

Natsu paused, his own forkful of eggs partway to his mouth as he considered this, before asking "Does it happen during the day too?" before placing his fork, minus the eggs, in his mouth. He glared down where they had fallen back onto his plate. Smiling and trying not to laugh as he roughly speared the same piece of egg, Lucy replied "It never has before, always at night, but I also can't usually sleep during the day after having had the nightmare. Of course with it never having happened back to back before, this has never been a problem, I just went to bed earlier the next night."

Natsu nodded, successfully getting the bite of egg to his mouth this time. After swallowing, something that he tried to remember to do around Lucy, he asked "Do you think if you go to sleep now it will come back?" Lucy sighed and said "Well it is night time, so probably. But I'm still so tired, so I've got to try to sleep."

Seeing her bite her lower lip, Natsu decided he was going to stay and he told her so by saying "Well, I'll be here for you tonight if it does happen." Lucy looked startled, but then tears filled her eyes and all she could do was whisper "Thank you Natsu." He nodded and they finished their eggs in silence, before heading back to Lucy's bed.

XXX

As she heard its lunge, Lucy forced herself to open her eyes and what she saw terrified her. A giant beast, unlike anything she had ever seen towered above her, huge fangs pulled back and ready to bite her, sharp claws extended and ready to rip her to shreds. Why had she opened her eyes!? Before she could force herself to close them, however, she saw a blur as an object came out of nowhere and struck the beast.

As her eyes focused on the new form, she saw Natsu standing over her like he had many times before. "I've got you Lucy!" he exclaimed, before lunging himself at the creature. "You scared Lucy! You'll pay for that!" he yelled. Soon the beast was no more and Lucy saw Natsu smiling as he walked back to her. With that, her dream faded and she knew nothing more until she awoke the next morning.

XXX

As Lucy's eyes opened, she saw Natsu's own eyes staring at her with concern. "Did you have the nightmare again Lucy?" he asked. Lucy smiled at him, then pulled him into a hug as she replied "Yes, but this time you were there and made it better, just like you always do." Natsu grinned at her words, returning the hug. Never again would Lucy ever have that nightmare, Natsu had truly defeated it.