"Hey Luce! Wait up!"

"No Natsu, I know where he is! I've got to find Laxus!!"

"Dammit! Yeah, ok Luce, it'll be even faster tho if you let Happy carry you"

She slowed to a stop, turned towards him and put her hand up to her chin in thought before smiling at him, "ok yeah that makes sense thanks Natsu. Where's Happy?"

"Oh yeah, he's back at the guild, let's go back and find him." Natsu was trying desperately to buy time, time and distance from Laxus.

"We can't go back to the guild Natsu, that's the wrong direction and would be slower. I'm just going to keep running" she went to turn back around from him and continue running.

"You can't!"

"I can too!"

"No Lucy, it's a real bad idea. You should come back and we'll find Happy"

"Natsu Dragneel, are you trying to tell me what to do?" angry eyes had found him now, great, he could see a Lucy kick in his not-too-distant future.

"Nope. Definitely not"

"Okkkkk, then I'll be on my way" she turned and started her run again

"Nope. Sorry. Can't let you do that Lucy" he resorted to running around in front of her and shaking his head. She tried a few times to evade him but he just kept blocking her path – he was banking on her not wanting to fry him, and the few times she'd gotten close enough to throw sparks at him she'd diligently taken a step backwards and tried another direction. It was odd really as she hadn't backed away from any guild mates earlier, but with Natsu it was almost like her body was reacting without realising.

Lucy's own thoughts were long gone, clouded by lightning – since this morning she'd been steadily losing clarity on her thoughts and emotions until she was here completely driven forwards by the lightning in her veins pulling her towards Laxus. But when it came to injuring Natsu her mind seemed to clear for the briefest second giving her the space to pull back enough so he wasn't in danger, as soon as his pain subsided, she was thrown back into the clouded path of lightning.

"Hey Natsu!" looking up suddenly he found Happy flying overhead, he'd been so focussed on stopping Lucy he hadn't heard him coming, "try getting closer to Lucy"

"Suuuree" he was sure Happy had a good reason for inflicting bolts on him…then again he did have a keen sense of humour so one could never be sure, but giving the benefit of the doubt he started striding towards Lucy again until he felt the prickle of the lightning, "uhhhh, how close Happy?"

"There! If she takes a step away, follow her!"

"What! That's just gonna keep getting me shocked!!"

"Geez, yeah I know Natsu but I gotta see something"

"Alright buddy, just know if you're doing this for fun I'll get you back"

"Have some faith wouldya! Did you notice Lucy didn't back away when she shocked anyone in the guild earlier?"

"Well yeah, what's your point?"

"That she steps away from you, and see just as she does her swoony face changes!"

He cocked his head back to look at Lucy and tested the idea a few times, sure enough just as the crackles of lightning hit him, he saw fear flash across her face, the stupid fake smile dropped and her eyes seemed to focus more before she stepped back and the façade came straight back up.

"I got an idea Happy. You may wanna fly away a little bit though. I'm not sure how much of a perimeter this is gonna make", a quick 'aye sir' and Happy was flying away to a safer distance after hovering over the pair earlier.

"Ok Lucy. You are gonna talk to me whether you want to or not", he let her step back from him without following and took a deep breath "Lightning Fire Dragon Mode!", fire and lightning crackled around him. Still unsure on his plan he took quick steps towards Lucy, each one increased the electricity he felt and still struck him with pain but thanks to his dual mode the pain was much less than it had been previously and he continued until he was in front of Lucy gripping her upper arms to stop her fleeing as he looked down at her but she'd focused her gaze on the floor.

"Hey Luce, talk to me. Please"

It took a few seconds but she finally lifted her head to look at him and it almost cracked his heart in two. His plan had worked, she was lucid from the lightning spell – Happy's theory had been right and seeing him in pain seemed to keep her mind grounded, though his dual mode absorbed a lot of the pain it was still there and had become much more intense when he'd made physical contact with her and his pain must've been clear enough to keep her sane. But with it she had tears rolling freely down her face and he hated to see her cry.

"Lucy, please. Talk to me", unable to watch her cry anymore he just shut his eyes and leaned his forehead down on hers – every point of contact he made increased his pain but if it grounded her it was worth it.

Finally her sobs stopped, and she too closed her eyes taking a somewhat shaky breath "Natsu…"

It had come out like a whisper on her breath but he'd heard her and his eyes popped open to watch her, glad to see the tears had stopped for now he kept watching her thinking it was a safe way to see if she was going to go back to her crazy status.

"Yeah Luce, I'm here. Now please, talk to me. I'm not sure how long I'll be able to stay here but I need you to tell me what you want to do, because the Lucy that's here when I walk away…well she's not very informative" he ended with a strained chuckle.

"Ok", conversation – that was a huge relief to him.

"Great, so first up. Do you actually want to find and mate with Laxus?" distain at the idea was clear in his voice and he'd been pleased to see her eyebrows frown together at the idea she didn't exactly look excited for the idea.

"No, I-I don't like Laxus like that. And…and I don't like being forced into it"

"Ok. Do you remember what Gajeel said? That another slayer could fight him for you"

"Yes"

"Great! So….uhhh I guess, well do you know who you want to fight Laxus for you?" he could see her mouth open and close a few times seeming to want to say something but not managing to voice it, she finally managed to slowly shake her head against his and some tears escaped from her shut eyes. He couldn't read her face, but it seemed she was keeping whatever she was thinking to herself again.

"Right. Ok well, I don't think you can really have Gajeel ya know – him and Levy…" he felt her shake again, right ok looks like listing is the way to go. "Well Cobra I think is with the snake chick so that wouldn't really be cool either. What about Sting? Oh actually he and that white haired girl always seem to smell like each other so maybe that's not a great idea. Rogue? Actually no, we watched him kill you, I know it wasn't him him but still, doesn't feel right ya know." She'd kept shaking her head at every slayer presented, even though none had been in question as Natsu crossed them all out of the list himself, sometime in his slayer listing her hands had come up between them – one was tightly grabbing his scarf and the other had grabbed his shirt firmly.

"Hey Luce, we're out of slayers", he bumped her nose gently with his trying to pry some answers from her. All of this questioning was exhausting especially along with the pain he'd endured all the way through, he had beads of sweat on his forehead from holding up his dual mode and wasn't sure how much longer he could keep himself in it knowing when he dropped it he was in for some real agony. But, after a pause she just shook her head again but broke down in sobs, she dropped her forehead from his and instead buried her head in his scarf. He took his hands from her arms and instead placed one at the back of her head gently and the other around her back keeping her solidly against him – every contact point became another lightning patch but he could handle it for Lucy.

"Well ok, Wendy is left but well I don't think that's such a great idea Luce, she sees you more like a sister", again another shake of her head.

He leaned down so he could talk into her ear to make sure she heard him, "My offer stands Lucy. I mean if you want it to. I know you didn't really answer yesterday when I said I'd beat Laxus up for you, but I am a dragon slayer ya know…" she was again shaking her head and he frowned not sure whether to be insulted or not but she gently pushed herself away from him so she could look him in the eyes.

"Natsu, you offered before we knew everything. I heard what Wendy said this morning. I know it's a fight to a dragon death and I could never ask you to do that"

"Yeah but I'm not gonna lose Luce so you got nothing to worry about", flashing her a big grin of confidence hoping it may help her.

"I know you're really good Natsu, but this is Laxus he's beat you more times than I can count"

"Pfffft yeah and? I beat him too remember! Plus, I ain't gonna lose over something this important"

"….ok well even if you were to win. I still couldn't ask you to fight Natsu"

"Geez Lucy why not?!"

"Because of what Gajeel said yesterday…" her gaze fell from his and locked directly on to his scarf "that you know you don't just have to beat him and things would be normal"

"Oh you mean about the mark transfer thingy?" she gave him a small nod of confirmation

He took a deep breath, of course he hadn't wanted to just come right out and tell her that he was going to challenge Laxus anyway. He'd wanted to see first if there was someone else she wanted to be her champion and to confirm she didn't want to be with Laxus, if she'd truly wanted to be with another dragon slayer he would have let her. But, after ruling out every slayer including Laxus and finding she didn't want any of them, well he'd be damned if he didn't fight for her. But if her only worries were that he'd lose well there's no way he'd lose, it was too important – she was too important to him. And after realising just how important Lucy was to him last night he'd wanted nothing more than to see that stupid lightning dragon on her neck replaced with his own fiery one, if she wanted to be with him too that would be beyond amazing for him. But he'd also decided that if she didn't then he wouldn't stop what she wanted, dragon laws be damned – as much as he'd hate it, he had decided he'd let her be with whoever she wanted to after he freed her from Laxus. So long as she was happy, he'd be happy.

And so… "Lucy, look at me", deep chocolate eyes met his onyx. "There isn't any way I'm letting sparky pants take any choice from you. And if you don't want any of the other slayers then I'm gonna fight for you, and I'm gonna win. And we'll work out the rest afterwards, ok?" She flung herself at him, arms wrapping around his neck as she hugged him tightly.

"Thank you Natsu" whispered in his ear had the instant effect of bringing a big grin to his face and a big wave of relief flooded him. The downside to that was his concentration on his dual mode slipped considerably and waves of pain flowed through him and he dropped violently to his knees bringing Lucy with him as she was brought to awkwardly land on his thighs as he'd sat down on his calves.

She pulled back quickly to look at him, "Natsu, are you ok?"

"Gahhh, just lost concentration there. I don't think I can hold out this mode any longer though Luce. Just don't worry – I'm gonna go find Laxus, but first I need you to get back from me so I can drop this mode without being in too much pain."

"Oh right!", pausing for a second she put her left hand at the nape of his neck tangling her fingers in his pink locks the other came up to cup his right cheek as she quickly leaned her forehead against his one last time – both their eyes flitted shut. Before he knew it she'd pulled away, pressing a quick, light kiss to his left cheek before scrambling off him and away until the lightning around her fizzled out and her cloudy brain started to come back.

When he saw the lightning fade he dropped his dual mode, she'd moved far enough he wasn't crippled in pain just exhaustion from his continued concentration.

Soon enough she started back off running in what he assumed was the direction of Laxus, he didn't hinder her this time though, just called for Happy who picked him up and carried him after her. He'd let her lead him to Laxus – then he'd challenge him.

I really enjoyed writing this one, the talk between Lucy and Natsu has been clear for me for a while.

Hope you all enjoyed it too!

Copperreign12 thank you as always for your review! :)