Natsu was worried about Lucy. She was being weird, but not the good type of weird that he liked about her. Instead of yelling at him or joking with him, she was just sleeping and had been most of the time since the day before. If she was sick, it would make sense to be so tired, but she wasn't. There was no sharp tang of illness in the air and nothing else unusual about her scent. The closest he'd gotten to a normal reaction out of her was when he'd stuffed his face into her neck to sniff her again and she had swatted at him, but even the hit wasn't normal. Her slaps and punches to his head were usually of the headache inducing sort, but she'd barely tapped him.

It wasn't only the sleepiness that had him worried. There were also the nightmares that seemed to happen almost nonstop while she slept. The first one happened right after she fell asleep when they'd gotten to her apartment the afternoon before. She had woken up screaming, "Don't! Please stop!", and stared wide-eyed at Natsu as if she didn't recognize him for a few seconds. After that, he'd decided not to leave her apartment until she was normal. The decision turned out to be a good one because Natsu had to wake her up from nightmares several times after the first one, and nearly an entire day had passed without any progress. If anything, she seemed to be getting worse.

Now, it was midday and she was asleep again, but he could tell another nightmare was beginning. Her breathing was becoming rapid and she was starting to twitch, so he put a hand on her shoulder to gently shake her as he said, "Luce, wake up."

She shot upright, looking around frantically in search of something Natsu didn't know how to fight. He would've burned away her nightmares if he could've, but he was completely helpless against the unseen enemy causing her so much harm. Lucy finally settled down after a few seconds when her brain finally caught up with what her eyes were seeing. Slumping against Natsu's side, she said quietly, "It was the same thing again. I was a little boy running away from the people throwing rocks at me while screaming horrible things."

"I never knew you were so curious about what it was like to be a guy." He tried to joke, but it fell short. Neither of them was in a laughing mood. Something was seriously wrong with his best friend but he didn't know what to do. Since he knew she hadn't eaten anything since the evening before, Natsu asked, "You hungry?"

"Not really, and I don't want my kitchen on fire again."

"Aw, come on, Luce. I put the fire out before anything was damaged." He leaned his head against hers where it rested on his shoulder. She was still leaning heavily into him, as if she was too tired to sit up on her own.

Natsu expected her to take a jab at him for the time he'd started a fire while trying to cook, but she didn't say anything about it. She just laid back down as she said, "I think I just need to rest and then I'll feel better."

He couldn't just keep sitting there not doing anything at all to help her while she was tormented in her sleep. As she got comfortable under the blanket, he stood up and said, "You should get Loke or Virgo to stay with you while I go find Wendy. I think she missed something yesterday."

"I'll be fine by myself. I'm not going to bother either of them to sit here while I'm sleeping." By the time she finished speaking, her voice had trailed off into nearly a whisper and her eyes were closed. When her breathing evened out almost immediately, Natsu assumed she had already passed out. That definitely didn't seem right. Lucy was always energetic and playful, not like this tired, pale, zombie-looking imitation of her. He rushed out of her apartment to track down Wendy, hoping the other dragon slayer could fix things.

By the time he returned with Wendy, only about fifteen minutes had passed, but so much had changed. Both Virgo and Loke were sitting on Lucy's small bed. The blonde was sobbing into Loke's chest while Virgo patted her back in an attempt to comfort their shared key holder. "What happened?" Natsu demanded, ready to fight whoever had upset her.

"Put your flames out." Loke said impatiently, staring at Natsu's flaming fists. Once the likelihood of property damage was diminished, the zodiac leader explained, "Virgo and I both came to wake Lucy from another nightmare. She was thrashing around under the blanket like she thought it was attacking her. Beyond that, I'm not sure what happened. She hasn't said anything."

The room was quiet with the exception of Lucy's stuttered breaths as she tried to calm down. Wendy walked over to the crowded bed and knelt down next to it as she said, "Lucy, can I check to make sure nothing else needs to be healed in your head?"

When the still teary-eyed blonde nodded, Wendy reached over to hover her hands in front of Lucy's forehead, sending her magic out in search of any unhealed damage. The brain was difficult to work with, which is why Wendy had such a hard time the day before when attempting to heal Lucy enough for her to survive without Laxus and MiraJane's support. There had been bleeding in the soft tissues surrounding her brain, putting pressure on the vital organ, but Wendy thought she'd repaired all the damage. Without the threat of immediate death hanging in the air, the young dragon slayer took the time necessary to thoroughly examine the blonde. Even with the more thorough examination, she found nothing overly concerning. There was only tension in Lucy's neck, which was likely due to the emotional stress she was enduring and only ran the risk of causing a headache.

Wendy let her magic recede after soothing the minor aches in Lucy's muscles. Looking at the others with a mixture of disappointment and relief, the Sky Dragon Slayer said, "There's nothing wrong. I'm not sure why she's not doing any better."

"I'm just tired, guys." Lucy said, finally speaking for the first time since waking. "These dreams are exhausting."

"What happened this time?" Natsu didn't share Wendy's hesitancy to join the pile on the bed, so he shoved his way onto the mattress to sit next to Lucy.

Her gaze went distant as she let the nightmare replay in her mind. She was starting to suspect something, but she didn't want to share it with the people in this room until talking to the person she believed these nightmares actually centered around. Instead of answering Natsu's question, Lucy asked, "Anyone know where Bickslow is at?"

"Why the hell does he matter?" Natsu asked irritably. He still blamed the Seith Mage for Lucy's injury, no matter how many times she told him Bickslow had nothing to do with it.

Wendy answered Lucy, "He's gone with his team. They left yesterday to go out on a job request, but I don't know for how long. I didn't pay much attention. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Lucy said as she patted Wendy's hand reassuringly. She could always call him to ask the questions forming in her mind, or maybe it would be better to wait until he was back. If they were on a high-risk job, having the conversation she wanted to have with him would probably be a bad idea.

Restless movement and a sudden spike in temperature drew Lucy's attention to Natsu, making her realize she needed to distract him before he got much more worked up. Looking at him, she said, "I am getting a little hungry." It was a lie but sending him out on an errand would be better than having him cooped up with her and worrying about things he couldn't control. "Can you get me something to eat from the guildhall? Some soup would be nice."

"Sure, Luce." Natsu flicked her forehead softly and then popped up to his feet, ready to finally be doing something helpful.

Wendy followed him to the door while saying, "I'll make sure he doesn't forget what you actually asked for."

Once enough time had passed for both dragon slayers to be out of ear shot, Loke said to Lucy, "So, what's really going on with you? You can tell us. Both of us can feel something draining you through our connection with you, so don't try to act like nothing is wrong."

Lucy sighed, knowing she should've expected this from her trusty lion. She looked over at Virgo to see concern clouding the maid's usually expressionless face. As their contract holder, she felt like she owed these two an explanation. Plus, they would handle the truth much better than Natsu.

"I first noticed it yesterday right after I woke up in the guildhall. I think it's some sort of residual side effect of Bickslow holding my soul while my body was healed, because there's a link between us now." She didn't add any details about how right it felt to be wrapped up in his arms when he hugged her because she still hadn't figured that part out herself, and she didn't want anyone getting the wrong idea. Or maybe the right idea? She hadn't decided how she felt about that. "And now there are the nightmares, which I think are actually memories of some really horrific things Bixy went through as a child."

Nodding in understanding, Loke said, "Seith Mages have always been feared by the general population. Sometimes they're executed simply for existing."

"I've heard of that, but I never put together that Bickslow must've experienced some of that prejudice. He's just always so happy. I never would've thought those things happened to him." Details of the last nightmare played through her mind again. She hoped that hadn't really happened to her friend.

"Natsu is almost back." Loke warned her, having heard the dragon slayer's noisy approach with his sensitive ears.

"Already? He must've run all the way there, irritated Mira into getting my order ready immediately, and then ran all the way back." Lucy smiled at her best friend's antics. He could be such a mother hen sometimes.

"Sounds about right." Loke answered and then said, "I think we'll go back now. Call us if you need us."

Virgo stood and then bowed as she offered, "Princess, I would be happy to prepare you a meal if the dragon slayer spills all of the soup before arriving."

"Thanks, Virgo." Lucy smiled a bit as she imagined splashes of soup sloshing out of the to-go container with each running step Natsu took. "I'll call you out later when I get hungry." With a nod, Virgo disappeared along with Loke.

It was only after she'd called out Virgo to cook a meal, forced herself to eat it, and then convinced Natsu she would be fine to bathe alone that she was finally able to get him to go away. She loved the overbearing idiot, but she really just wanted some space for a few minutes. There was no way she would be calling Bickslow with Natsu anywhere nearby. He was already too worked up and suspicious of Bickslow's part in her current ailment – though, she had no idea exactly what that ailment was.

Her earlier decision to talk to the Seith Mage when his team got back to Magnolia went up in flames after having another nightmare. This one was a continuation of the one from before, featuring a detailed memory of a young girl's death and the tragic aftermath that followed. She didn't plan to talk to him about that on a lacrima call, but she really needed some answers. At the very least, she wanted to be sure she wasn't just going crazy.

After the exhausting task of digging her lacrima comm out of her closet where she'd hidden it from Natsu to avoid him breaking another one, Lucy sat down on the edge of her bed to catch her breath before making the call. Exerting the energy needed to walk to her closet, shove things around, and then walk back to her bed had drained her body. She just hoped she could stay awake long enough to have a conversation.

Lucy looked at her lacrima while wondering if Bickslow had one of his own. She had no idea, having never felt the need to stay in contact with him more than the occasional conversations at the guildhall. There was an easy way to find out, though. Keeping her fingers crossed, she pushed her magic into the orb with the intention of calling Bickslow and then waited, but nothing happened. Either Bickslow didn't have one or it wasn't with him. Whichever was the case, it didn't matter since she couldn't talk to him.

Another idea came to mind, one she was almost certain would work, but was she really that desperate? About half a second went by before she decided, yes, she was definitely that desperate. Again, pushing her magic into the orb, she focused instead on calling Laxus and immediately got a connection. Ignoring the surge of embarrassment threatening to turn her face tomato-red, Lucy attempted to act normal when his grumpy face appeared on the screen. "What do you –" Laxus' rude greeting was cut off by something even more rude tumbling from his mouth, "Holy shit, you look bad. Are you sick?"

"Hello to you, too." Lucy answered irritably. "No, I'm not sick. I don't think so, anyway."

"How do you not know if you're sick?"

Lucy opened her mouth to answer, and then closed it again, unsure of how to answer. Laxus' brows went up as if to say, 'well?', which made Lucy huff before saying. "I didn't call to talk to you, anyway. Is Bickslow around?"

Laxus' expression became one of true concern as he demanded, "What do you want with him?"

"To talk to him. Duh. I just said that." Lucy's subconscious told her to stop being so rude but she just couldn't help herself. Laxus was always so difficult and she wasn't in a very patient mood.

Rolling his eyes, Laxus looked over his shoulder and said, "Bix, come here."

Lucy heard Bickslow's voice say, "What's up, Boss?" but she couldn't see him on the small screen. Still looking away from the lacrima, Laxus said, "You've got a call."

"Seriously? From who?" Bickslow's head appeared over Laxus' shoulder just before he said, "Oh, hey Cosplayer! You look like shit. Are you sick?'

It was Lucy's turn to roll her eyes. "I must look terrible because literally everyone I've seen today has said that."

"Oh, uh – " Bickslow didn't know what he was supposed to say to that, or what to say at all. Lucy had never called him before, and the fact that she went through Laxus to do it just made things weirder.

Saving him the trouble of figuring out what to say, Lucy said, "I wanted to talk to you about something. Is now a good time?"

"Sure."

When he didn't take the lacrima from Laxus, Lucy said, "Preferably without an audience."

Laxus cut in objecting, "You two are not about to plan a date over my lacrima comm. Why didn't you call his?"

"I tried." Lucy said, to which Bickslow answered, "Oh, actually, I think I left mine at home. Sorry, Boss."

"Whatever. You two can talk when we get back tomorrow."

"Wait!" Lucy shouted, but it was too late. Laxus had already ended the connection. She flopped backward onto the bed with a groan. After going to all the trouble of getting Natsu to go away and the exhausting feat of finding the lacrima, she still failed to get any answers. And she'd just embarrassed herself in front of one of the rudest people she knew.

She closed her eyes as fatigue settled over her again. Part of her brain said it didn't make any sense that she was so exhausted, but the rest of her ignored that logical thought in favor of sleep. Darkness started closing in around the edges of her mind, but a buzzing noise pulled her back to consciousness. It took a few seconds for her to realize there was a call coming in on her lacrima.

Lifting up the orb to hold it over her face instead of sitting up again, Lucy answered the call and saw Bickslow's helmet-less face displayed there. "Hey. Sorry. Laxus gets like that sometimes."

"It's fine." She said with a yawn.

He looked at the bags under her eyes and the washed out look to her face. "You sure you're alright? You really don't look so good. Is it because of yesterday?"

"I think it is, actually, but not because I hit my head." She paused to figure out how to put her thoughts into words, not missing the wary expression on Bickslow's face. "You know how you said there was a side effect to the soul hugging thing?" He nodded and looked even more wary, but she kept going, "Well, I think there's more to it than me just feeling like you're inside me somehow."

"Cosplayer, if I was inside you, there would be no room for doubt about how I got there." His playfulness made her smile and roll her eyes.

"Not like that." The smile faded from her face as she said, "It's something else, something kind of weird. Have you – " She stopped and then tried again, "Every time I fall asleep, which is happening way too often, I have crazy dreams that I'm starting to think aren't dreams at all."

When Bickslow's expression began to look like he felt sick himself, Lucy ventured, "I guess you know what I'm talking about?"

After a second, he answered, "Yeah. So, is that why you look so bad?"

Shrugging, she said, "Not sleeping well isn't helping, but I think something else is wrong. I just don't feel right, and I'm so tired. I've hardly done anything besides sleeping. None of that is happening to you, I guess? You look fine."

"Babe, I always look fine." His tongue came out of his mouth like usual, but he still looked put off by what she said. "Wendy already checked you out?" When she nodded, he said, "Well, I guess I could look at your soul, but I don't know what I would be looking for. I've never done anything like what I did yesterday."

"Alright," she sighed with obvious disappointment. "When will you guys be back?"

"Just can't wait to see me, huh?"

Fluttering her eyes in an exaggerated fashion, she said teasingly, "I always look forward to seeing your pretty face."

Bickslow snorted and then said, "We'll probably be back midday. We already finished the job but there isn't a train station close by. We're supposed to be taking the first train out of the nearest station tomorrow morning." Lucy could hear Laxus' voice in the background shouting something about Bickslow needing to hurry up and get off his lacrima comm.

"You should give him back his precious lacrima before he zaps you."

"You're probably right. I think he's charging up for a blast right now." He answered with a half-smile, but it fell as he said, "Take care of yourself, alright? I'll come straight to your apartment when we get back."

Waggling her eyebrows, she said, "I'll be in bed waiting for you."

Chuckling with his tongue hanging from his mouth, Bickslow said, "I can't wait."

The connection ended then, and Lucy realized she felt a little better. Whatever was wrong with her definitely had something to do with Bickslow, because just talking to him left her feeling more alert than she had felt all day.

XXX

Natsu's instincts were rarely ever wrong, and this time was no different. He and Lucy had been friends long enough for him to know when she was just trying to get rid of him, so he'd given her the space she wanted but he hadn't gone very far. Perched on the roof on her apartment, he was in the perfect spot to keep an eye, or an ear, on her to make sure nothing else happened.

He was glad he'd done it, or else he wouldn't have heard her conversation with Bickslow. Being right didn't always feel great, especially when it meant Lucy had been lying to him. Natsu didn't understand why she was covering for Bickslow or why she felt the need to hide this from him. Whatever was going on with her soul was hurting her and Natsu only wanted to help.

Time crawled by as he waited for her to fall asleep again. He could tell she felt better by the sound of her moving around in her apartment and then taking an eternal bath. While he was waiting, Happy flew over and landed next to him. "Hey, little buddy."

"Is Lushi feeling better now?" Happy asked as he folded his wings and curled his tail around his feet. "Carla told me that Wendy had to come heal her again."

Natsu scooped up his cat-friend and held him as he said, "I dunno if she's ok. She kicked me out."

Looking appalled, Happy shouted, "What! Why is she being such a jerk? And I even brought her a fish!"

"Let's take it to her. Maybe then she'll let us stay." Having a semi-reasonable excuse to go back inside, Natsu hopped off the roof to land on her windowsill, then opened the window to crawl inside. "Luce! Happy brought you a fish!"

"Hang on a sec. I'm getting dressed." Her answer came from behind the door to the bathroom, which he had been expecting. As soon as she came out of the door and saw the look on Natsu's face, she knew he hadn't actually left her apartment. With her hands on her hips, she said, "You heard everything."

"Why would you lie to me, Luce?" The hurt tone in his voice had her irritation flying right out the window he'd left open. She sighed and dropped her hands to her sides before walking over to the window to close it. Since the little bit of energy she'd gained after talking to Bickslow had already started to fade, she flopped onto her bed and then patted the spot next to her. When Happy tried to follow Natsu onto the bed with his fish, she said irritably, "I don't think so, Happy. Put that thing in the sink and then wash your hands before getting in this bed."

Sensing the threat of Scary Lucy behind those words, Happy flapped his wings to glide into the kitchen while shouting, "Aye, sir!"

Natsu just sat cross legged on the bed staring at her, waiting for her to explain, which made Lucy feel even worse. He was never this quiet. "I just didn't know how to explain it to you without making you more upset with Bickslow, because it all revolves around him but it isn't his fault."

"What makes you so sure it isn't his fault? He's already tried to kill you once. Maybe he's doing it again."

"You're being ridiculous." Knowing her best friend, Lucy added, "If you get yourself so worked up that you light my bed on fire again, you'll just be proving my point."

Natsu huffed in irritation but reined in his magic. She hadn't been wrong in assuming he was about to let off some steam. Hoping he was in control of himself, Lucy started to explain the details Natsu didn't know about. "When Bickslow held my soul yesterday, pieces of mine got mixed up with pieces of his. I'm not sure how it all works, but I think the nightmares I'm having are actually his memories."

"So, the little boy that stuff keeps happening to was him?" His angry posture relaxed a bit as he thought about what that must have been like for Bickslow. Lucy hadn't told him much about the dreams, but the little bit she said was pretty bad.

Lucy nodded and then said, "He hasn't said so, but I got the impression he's also seen some of my memories, which is really weird. I believed him when he said he doesn't know how to undo this or how it even happened, but I'm hoping he can figure out why I feel so weak today."

"Maybe your soul is broken now." Natsu mused aloud, which had Lucy cringing as she said, "I hope not. That sounds like a death sentence."

His eyes narrowed at her as he said in a tone usually reserved for enemies he was preparing to punch, "It won't be. I don't care if I have to beat the bits of your soul out of him and stick them back myself. You're not dying on my watch."

"Yeah, Lucy." Happy said as he landed lightly between them. "We won't let anything bad happen to you."

"Thanks, guys." She said and meant it. No longer keeping a secret from Natsu had a bit of the weight lifting from her chest, but it didn't do anything to alleviate her exhaustion. "I'm really tired, though, so I want to go back to sleep."

"Go ahead," Natsu said as he laid down next to her, "I'll stay awake to make sure nothing happens to you."

"Me too!" Happy agreed as he curled up between them.

Lucy couldn't stop the smile that stretched her cheeks as she pulled the blanket over her shoulders. She had the greatest friends.