It's been a while! I'm sorry I've been gone longer than I wanted to be, I've just been so busy! I was crying really hard after I read that last Fairy Tail chapter. I didn't want it to end! Rumor has it though that the anime is going to pick up in 2018, and it's going to go farther than the manga. I hope the rumor is true. Anyway, let's get back to my ultimate masterpiece before I go to my side stories.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail

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Where is END? (Ch. 5)

Part 1: The Misery

As Lucy walked into the guild, she was immediately hit in the chest by a blue, flying fur-ball.

"Lucy!" Happy exclaimed, hugging her tightly, "I was so worried about you!"

She was a bit surprised by this sudden care-filled hug by the Exceed who teases and makes fun of her. However, she took it as she could for two reasons: she loved Happy despite his abuse to her and she was going to die soon and never get a hug like that again.

"Happy," Lucy smiled down at him, "It was just a small cold. I'm fine."

"Hey Luce."

Lucy looked up from Happy to see Natsu walking up to her with a concerned expression on his face. "Hey Natsu!" She smiled brightly, her heart pounding louder and louder in her ears with every step he took toward her. For some unknown reason, Lucy found herself wanting to fling her arms around his neck in a great, big bear hug, but she held that longing down though and only smiled at him.

"You feeling okay?" Natsu asked, cocking his head to the side when he reached her.

She nodded, "yeah, I'm sorry I worried you."

He smiled back, shaking his head, "it's okay…just wake me up next time and I can take you to Porlyusica. You didn't have to go there by yourself, especially so late at night."

"I don't want to wake you up."

Natsu shook his head again, "you're worth it."

Red-faced Lucy simply blinked twice at him; she didn't even notice Happy flying out of her arms toward Carla, saying that he was glad she was okay.

"Uh o-okay…"

Natsu blinked at her, "you sure you're feeling fine, Luce? Your face is red."

She wanted to slap him for his oblivious nature, but she held her hand to her side.

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It was a week later and the original Team Natsu was getting ready to leave for a mission before Erza, Gray, Wendy, and Carla came up to them, saying they had needed money as well. So it had turned into an Extended Team Natsu mission, which Lucy hadn't minded in the slightest at first – she was always happy when they tagged along, they were her friends, of course! However, when her third panic attack set in, this one worse than the first two, she wished this was a solo mission.

How in the name of Mavis could she get away from her friends as she held this demon down? They were all in the forest, which would conceal her pain, but it would do nothing if she couldn't get away from her friends.

Lucy's whole body was shaking from head to toe and she pressed her lips firmly together to keep from screaming. It hurt so bad, it felt like someone was digging up her stomach with a spoon, burning her up inside with a candle. She was surprised she wasn't curling up into a ball now.

"I want to sleep…"

Erza saved her, stopping where they were in the forest and turning to them. It was one of the only times when Lucy was happy the redhead was so bossy:

"This will be quicker if we all split up," she said, "this is a big forest and the monster that's attacking the village could be anywhere. If we all split up individually, we'll cover more ground quicker."

"What?!" Natsu argued, "but I want to-"

"Are you arguing with me?!" Erza glared at him, threatening him with a stare that would even make Lucy shiver if she wasn't already – her whole body was vibrating. She was so afraid she would explode like a grenade; she could feel the demon/human blood coming up her throat, scorching like fire – demon fire.

"N-no ma'am!"

Erza sighed, "Natsu, Happy, Wendy, and Carla, you four search from the skies; Lucy, Gray, and I will stay on the ground. We'll meet at the entrance of the forest at five o'clock. Any objections?"

Who would dare object, especially after that threat toward Natsu?

"Good," Erza said when no one spoke, turning and continuing to walk forward, disappearing into the woods.

Gray turned to his comrades, "be careful you guys; good luck."

Natsu simply growled in response, "Gray! I bet I could find and kill the monster before you do!"

"Is that a challenge, Flame Brain?!"

"You bet it is, Ice Princess!"
Gray shot him his signature, icy smirk, "500J says your wrong!"

"Grr, you're on! Happy, let's go!"

"Aye sir!" Happy exclaimed, grabbing Natsu and flying into the air, disappearing into the sky. Gray was gone right after him, turning right and running away.

Wendy giggled as her cat frowned disapprovingly, "Well Lucy," the young dragon slayer smiled at her friend, "good luck and be careful."

Lucy, in fear of opening her mouth would cause her to throw up or scream, simply smiled back through her pain and nodded.

Grabbing Wendy from behind, Carla disappeared into the sky…

…and Lucy collapsed.

She went flat on her face, dirt smudging her cheek and nose, mouth opening to let out her reddish-black blood.

She didn't scream even if she wanted to: Lucy was choking on her own blood, plus, she had held it in her throat for so long that she doubted she would be able to speak let alone scream for a while. Besides, everyone was still too close, they would hear her and come quickly enough to see her.

Her face burned as the blood oozed out of her mouth; at first she let herself simply stay on her stomach, body motionless in the dirt as she submitted to the attack, but as the blood crept into her left eye, the fire burning it shut, Lucy gathered the strength to push herself up onto her knees and elbows. She stopped the blood from getting onto her face and burning her other eye; as she gagged up dark blood, she wiped at the blood on her face desperately. The burn from her mouth, up her cheek into her left eye didn't leave though and the blonde desperately tried to open it, but it stayed sown shut.

Her arms gave out on her and Lucy's face was back into the dirty…well, now, it was a pile of scorching blood; she immediately rolled to the side away from it.

She found her throat clearing up; she had finished puking. It ended quicker than it had before, which was strange, but the electric shocks zapping throughout her body were nothing like the ones before. As the leftover blood dripped from her mouth, Lucy gasped for air, not even realizing that she wasn't breathing before, when the blood clogged up her burnt throat.

Lucy's eye was still glued shut and she let out a small scream as she clawed at the dirt, causing it to get into her nails.

"Shh! Lucy, don't scream!"

She screamed anyway.

Lucy didn't know how long she lay on the ground, one eye wide open, unblinking in fear, and the brother stayed shut in pain. Every once in a while, she'd let out a shriek as her body was constantly in spasm. It seemed like endless hours, but it couldn't be. Her first panic attack was five minutes, the second was ten; it should only be twenty minutes unless she's simply not thinking straight, which seemed most likely.

"Grrr…."

Hiccupping, Lucy weakly lifted her head, blonde hair full of dirt and dark blood, to stare at the monster the job requested for her and her friends to slay. It didn't attack, but took a few steps toward her. It was a Forest Vulcan and it simply stared at her.

Slowly, Lucy pushed herself to her knees, failing a few times and falling onto her face, but she managed to get shakily onto her feet while her panic attack spiked up. She screamed and gasped before looking up at the Vulcan. It was very tall, but she wasn't scared.

"…kill..m-me…"

It cocked his head to the side at her scratchy voice, watching her tears slide out of the open brown eye.

"P-..p-please…please kill me…please."

It still didn't move and Lucy was so close to passing out, but she took fragile steps toward the Vulcan. Setting her hands against it's fur, Lucy squeezed her working eye shut to join it's brother.

"T-take it away…please, the pain..i-it's too much…I'd rather die now…kill me..please…"

The Vulcan jerked away, irritated with the celestial wizard's cling to him. "Grr…"

"N-no!" Lucy shouted gripping at the Vulcan harder, jumping closer to it, "you have to kill me! Kill me now! Please! Let me die! Let me die!"

She coughed up more blood, gripping the monster tighter for support. Her hands slipped and the Vulcan fell onto his back, but Lucy just jumped onto his chest, grabbing onto him again.

"Let me die!"

Her hands slipped again as she squeezed, but she grabbed on again anyway. As she begged and begged for death, her hands kept on slipping, but she continued to grab on. The monster was doing nothing and she could feel something gooey on her hands when she constantly grabbed him, but she didn't care. The pain clouded any thoughts; she continued to beg.

"Kill me! Let me die, let me die, let me die! Please, please kill me! Let me die, let me die. Let me…l-l-..let me die…d-die…die…"

The panic attack simmered down until it was nothing, but the burning blood still stung her face and eye. Lucy had lost a lot of blood and was so tired now…so very tired…

Slowly, Lucy stood up away from the Vulcan, opening her good eye.

In front of her was a dead Vulcan with its chest and stomach ripped open with it's insides in a mess.

She didn't really know what to think. At first, it was: "did I do that?" then she drew a blank, but at the same time, she put the pieces together and wasn't surprised.

The demon seed is infusing strength into her muscles – strength that was supposed to be Natsu's – strength that belonged to a demon, to END. Lucy looked down at her hands: they were completely coated with bright red, Vulcan blood. She rubbed it against her fingers, smearing it against her skin. Looking at the Vulcan again, she felt pity. The monster she had made a desperate request to had backfired.

She felt hot; her vision blurred.

She remembered falling; she remembered black.

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Gray trudged alongside the trees, hands in his pocket with his head slumped down. "Man, who knew finding a monster in the forest could be so hard…I feel like I've been looking forever."

Sighing, the ice mage checked his watch: it was nearly five o'clock. He had better get back to the entrance like Erza said or else he'd have to face her wrath. He shivered at the mere thought of it.

Whistling a tune Ur had taught him a long time ago, Gray went south back toward the town; he had not idea how far he had to go, but he knew he was going the right direction. He had been walking for only five minutes before he came across a green furry creature.

He stopped in his path, eyes widened.

The monster – which he could now see that it was a Forest Vulcan – lie dead; its stomach and chest had been dug and torn out of its body like a predator had gotten to it. Gray put his hand against his mouth to keep from throwing up: there was a lot of blood.

A few feet away were more blood – just a pile of it though – but he could tell it wasn't the Vulcan's blood. The monster's blood was bright red whereas the pile of blood was darker…and it looks like there some black blood too.

Gray recovered from the scene, shaking his head and chuckling, "oh Natsu…I guess I owe him some money."

It would only be Natsu that would do such a number on the Vulcan…and if Gray didn't know any better, that's a pile of demon blood. It seems the pyro had taken a few hits.

He bit his lip; he had forgotten: Natsu was still a demon despite the war against Zeref and Alvarez being over. His best friend was still a demon…Gray had to start searching for something to be able to defeat END, but spare Natsu. It's going to be a hard task, but if it was to save his best friend, then he'd gladly go the length.

Sighing to get the depressing feeling to leave, Gray looked around: Natsu wasn't anywhere around – no one was – so it seemed like the dragon slayer was out of the woods now. Gray left the scene, walking toward the entrance, quickening his pace – he didn't want to be late.

Erza, Wendy, and Carla were there when the ice mage arrived. The redhead approached him as he neared, "did you find the monster, Gray?"

"I found its body. It seems that Natsu got to it first: its belly was torn up."

Carla frowned disapprovingly, "destructive as always I see…"

Erza giggled, "Why are you surprised, Carla?"

"I'm not."

"The monster was a Forest Vulcan. We should go back and tell the village chief that his people are no longer in danger."

"Let's wait for Natsu first," Erza ordered.

Gray smirked, "can't we just leave him?"

"Lucy's still in there too," Wendy reminded, hugging Carla to her chest.

"Not to mention that Tomcat…"

The four of them waited patiently for five minutes. Finally, Natsu had walked out of the forest toward them with Happy in tow.

The pyromaniac flashed them his trademark smile as the two approached, "yo!"

"Natsu!" Erza exclaimed, "you're late!"

Cowering behind Happy, Natsu shook in fear, "I'm sorry! I lost track of time! Please don't hurt me, Erza!"

Gray's mouth dropped at the dragon slayer's appearance. That's weird, there was obviously demon blood in the forest, but Natsu looks perfectly fine here…that's odd. Maybe Wendy had run into Natsu and healed him.

Turning to ask the healer his concerns, Wendy shook her head, "I hadn't seen Natsu since we split up, to now."

Gray raised his eyebrow, walking over to his friends.

Erza sighed, "I'll let you off the hook this time, since you defeated that Vulcan. Good job Natsu."

Both Natsu and Happy drew a blank, "huh? What are you talking about?"

Erza raised an eyebrow and that was when Gray was standing next to them. "Natsu," Gray asked, "did you defeat the monster in the forest?"

Natsu shook his head, "no. Happy and I hadn't found a trace of anything, even in the sky."

Erza turned to Gray with a death glare, "explain! Why did you lie?!"

"I didn't lie!" Gray defended, "I told you what I saw."

"What did you see, Gray?" Natsu asked.

Gray, instead of summing it up like he had before, explained what he had seen and why he assumed it was Natsu who had defeated the Vulcan, but the fire mage just shook his head, "it was not me."

They all hummed in thought. This was confusing…

"Guys…" Wendy said, causing the teenagers and exceeds' attention to turn on her, "…Where's Lucy?"

That caught Natsu's attention; everything else about the monster and its mysterious death was no longer a concern to him. "She's not here?"

Wendy shook her head, "she hasn't come out of the forest."

Turning to the large forest, Natsu felt a sickening feeling in his gut rise to his throat. What if there was more than one Vulcan? What if it was an actual demon that killed the Vulcan and now had Lucy? What if there were bandits? All the worse-case scenarios of what could be wrong ran across Natsu's mind. Where was she?

"It's five-thirty," Carla pointed out worriedly, "and it's not like Lucy to be late."

Erza and Gray turned to the forest along with Natsu: there was something wrong.

"Lushee…" Happy mumbled.

…

Natsu took off running.

"Natsu!" Erza called out after him, but she knew that there was nothing stopping Natsu, especially if Lucy was in trouble.

Natsu wasn't very far from the line of tree which led into the forest when he had pulled to a stop: there was someone coming out!

"Lucy?" Natsu called, but she didn't answer.

Worse-case scenario said it was another Vulcan with his favorite girl in his hands. Natsu shivered with fear.

However, it wasn't Lucy; it was a man.

Natsu raised an eyebrow, "Loke?"

Loke didn't say anything; he simply stared at Natsu with a frown and serious expression, still walking toward him.

That's when Natsu noticed what Loke was holding:

"Lucy!"

In the spirit's arms was an unconscious Lucy covered in bright red blood and dark blood.

Natsu was by the lion's side in a split second, taking the celestial wizard from him, "Wendy!" he called, but the sky dragon slayer was by Natsu's side in an instant, as well as everyone else. Natsu lowered the girl onto the ground, but kept her in his arms as Wendy began to heal her.

He stroked her cheek, horror shown across his face, his heart beating fast. "Luce," Natsu whispered, "Luce, it's me. Open your eyes, Lucy."

"Loke, what happened?!" Erza demanded and Natsu looked up at him, but the spirit continued to stay silent, looking down at Lucy in sadness, pity, and fear.

Just what had happened?

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Lucy remembered opening her eyes to a white ceiling, blinding her. She squeezed both her eyes shut immediately, groaning at the light. She knew where she was: the infirmary in Fairy Tail; that was a given.

"Luce?"

She knew that voice anywhere.

"N-Natsu?"

There was a warm, comforting hand against her cheek and she leaned into it before opening her eyes again. She came face-to-face with the man she loves – his gentle black eyes boring into hers, soft, wild pink hair framing his tan handsome face, followed by a white scaly scarf with which he wouldn't be the same without. Lucy smiled gently at him. "Hey…" Then she frowned at the worry in his eyes and she frowned at the achy pain.

"Hey…I'm so glad you're awake. How do you feel?"

"I feel hot…"

Hot?

…

It all came crashing back.

"W-what happened?" Lucy asked, focusing on his thumb stroking her cheek bone – underneath her left eye that had been sealed shut before – and his gorgeous face awfully close hers.

Natsu opened his mouth, but then closed it. He opened it again then, but then shook his head, "I don't know. You were just…unconscious…a-and there was a lot of blood. Luce…" he shook his head again, biting his lips; the blonde could feel his hand tighten around hers – since when was he holding her hand? His soothing voice was now a shaky whisper, "y-you really scared me."

"I'm sorry…I don't remember what happened," she lied, flinching as she did. She hated lying to him so much, "There was just…I-I don't know. I was just…I-I don't remember; e-everything went black-"

"Shhh…" Natsu shushed her, stroking her cheek and spreading that lovely warmth of his, "its okay. Loke already told us everything."

Lucy raised her eyebrows, "Loke?"

"Yeah," Natsu smiled a little for the first time. It didn't reach his eyes, but it was still a smile and Lucy mirrored it, "Loke said he and your other spirits felt the hit when you took damage. He came to check on you and saved you. He brought you back to us."

Lucy blinked. It didn't make any sense to her. Why would Loke come to Earthland and she hadn't been injured. Could he have felt her panic attack?

"Luce…"

Lucy looked up at him; his eyes were red, "I'm sorry I wasn't there to protect you."

She only smiled, "it's not your fault. I don't blame you. Besides, you can't be with me all the time – I've learned how to defend myself the past year and a half. I was just taken off guard."

He shook his head, his bangs hiding his eyes, "I know…I know how much stronger you've gotten, but Luce…it's still my job to keep you safe. I-I should've gone with you when Erza split us all up."

"Natsu," Lucy placed her hand on his chin, directing his face to look at her again. His eyes were even redder. "You love your guild, you think it's your job to keep everyone safe."

"But Luce, you're not just anyone in this guild. You are my best friend."

Lucy's fingers traveled from his chin to the back of his neck, pulling him closer. The blonde closed her eyes and smiled as their foreheads met. "I'm fine, I promise. You're here with me now and that means more to me than you know. Thank you."

Natsu's eyes widened at her actions, bringing flashbacks to the time where he had set his own forehead against Future-Lucy's, thanking her for trying to save them when she was apologizing for not doing very much.

Natsu blinked back the tears, smiling at her sunny face. That alone was enough to bring back his self-esteem. Lucy was okay – that's all that mattered.

There was a quiet knock on the door then and it slowly opened, revealing Porlyusica with a sullen expression and Loke with that same seriousness behind her. Natsu and Lucy pulled away from each other and greeted them.

"Yo," Natsu smiled.

However, Lucy frowned at their expressions. This could not be good. "Hi Porlyusica. Hi Loke."

"Glad you're awake, Lucy," Loke replied.

"Hi Lucy!" Wendy was in the doorway with a smile; Carla was hovering next to her. "I'm glad to see that you're doing okay. I was just coming to give you another round of healing magic, but I had just remembered that I healed all your wounds an hour ago."

Lucy blinked…she didn't have any wounds to begin with, did she? Anyway, she smiled back, "hey Wendy! Thank you for your help!"

"Oh, it's not a problem, I'm just glad you're feeling better."

"I am."

"Oh, Natsu," Wendy turned her attention to the fellow dragon slayer, "Master wants to speak with you for a minute."

Natsu nodded, smiling at Lucy and then standing up, "I'll be back, Lucy."

"Okay, I'll see you soon."

As Natsu disappeared out of the room with Wendy and Carla in tow, as soon as the door shut, everything was serious.

"So what happened," Lucy asked, turning to the two, "after I passed out? Loke, I don't understand why you're here."

"It's true what Natsu said, that the others and I felt you take tremendous damage," Loke explained. "I came to Earthland to check on you and found you unconscious with the Vulcan dead."

"I don't understand," Lucy said, "I didn't take any damage. How did you and the others feel the hit if there wasn't one?"

Loke sighed, sitting on the edge of her bed, "Lucy…we know what you did to yourself."

Lucy simply blinked before her eyes widened, "w-what? I didn't tell you." The blonde turned on the nurse, who was busy getting ready to take Lucy's temperature. "Why'd you tell him?!"

"She didn't tell me or any of us," Loke said. "We're your celestial spirits Lucy; we're connected…we can feel your suffering, we just know."

Lucy didn't reply, instead, she sat up like she was told to and let Porlyusica stick the thermometer in her ear.

"Tell me," Loke said, "why'd you do this to yourself?"

"You should already know."

"I want to hear you say it."

Lucy looked at the wall, "I wouldn't say I 'did this to myself', I would say I 'saved his life'. You've known why for a long time now. As soon as you made a contract with me, you knew that Natsu was a demon because I had known. I love him, Loke. I'm not going to sit and watch the life drain out of him."

Loke narrowed his eyes, "no life is worth yours."

"…excuse me?"

"You heard me."

Lucy could not believe he had just said that. He would rather have Natsu, his friend, die than his master. She narrowed her eyes, "You don't know how it felt to see the love of your life lying there, dying, Loke, especially if you knew you could do something to save him."

"I do actually."

Lucy raised her eyebrows at first, but then she realized:

"Aries."

Bitterly, Lucy hissed quietly, "and still you say his life isn't worth mine…"

"It isn't. He's not my master, Lucy; I'm not worried about him. Besides, he's Natsu Dragneel. He can get out of any pinch unscathed – you know that-"

"And I'm Lucy Heartfilia – Etherious Lucy Heartfilia. I don't watch the people I care about die when I could do something about it. Even if I wanted to take this out of me now, I can't. Once the seed is moved, it's moved. It's rooted; it knows it's been moved so it's rooted now."

Loke's face was tight and he looked down.

"And I know you don't like it, Loke, but I'm going to eventually die."

"What about your friends? Will you tell them? What will they think when they find out? I respected your wish and covered you up, but by the way things are going, they're bound to find out. What then?"

"They won't find out."

"Let's just say they won't. How will they feel when you die? How will Natsu feel? They'll obviously be heartbroken, but they'll get over it eventually. Natsu? You know him. You know how much he cares for you. You know how much he's lost. You know after Future-Lucy and everything he's been through, he'll be so destroyed. Who knows if he'll ever recover from your death. Do you really want to leave him like that?"

"Of course not," Lucy shot back, "but I don't have a choice, do I?"

"You could at least warn him, prepare him – all of them."

"You know that Natsu would do anything in his power to save me."

"I know."

"He'll be wasting his time and then he'll regret not spending his time with me before I die."

"What if he really does find a way to save you?"

Lucy didn't answer. Instead, she looked away toward Porlyusica's notes, seeing that her temperature was 112.8'F (44.9'C) in both ears. The pink haired nurse had stayed quiet during the whole argument and remained so as she worked.

Lucy turned back to her spirit, "so what did you tell Fairy Tail?"

"Gray discovered and told the others about the demon blood you had thrown up and the monster you killed, but I had gotten to you before they did so he hadn't seen you. I told them that a demon attacked and killed the Vulcan as you were using me to fight it. He did a number on you before I could do anything and threw you into the woods. I was able to fight it off and it ran away. I found you and brought you to the others. That's what they think happened.

"What really happened was another panic attack though…and you ripped open the Vulcan's belly."

Lucy was speechless for a moment, "I-I…I don't know how I did that, I was just-"

"-begging for him to kill you because the pain was too much," Loke finished, "I know."

Lucy didn't reply to that. Instead, Porlyusica spoke for the first time: "You're gaining the strength. That demon seed is now giving you the strength Natsu would've had. You did that with your bare hands, correct?"

Lucy nodded, "yes."

"I'm afraid it's worse: not only has your temperature increased, but your strength as well, and you'll only get stronger."

It didn't surprise her at all. In fact, the celestial wizard was almost happy about that. She could use that to help fight on missions.

Porlyusica gave Lucy the drowsy potion, "Your wounds are 'healed', but I've ordered that you stay in bed for another day. Got that?"

Lucy nodded, drinking the potion down, "yes ma'am. Thank you, Porlyusica."

She simply sighed, "I'm just sorry that what I'm doing is not enough to save you."

The blonde smiled, "its okay."

Sighing again, the old lady made her way to the door, "be more careful next time if you want to keep this a secret."

Before she was able to leave though, Natsu had walked back in. Lucy smiled at his presence, happy he was alive, unlike what he would've been months before…

"Excuse me," Porlyusica said, moving around the pyro and out of the room. She was gone now.

"Oh Natsu," Loke said, standing up, "I need you to keep a watchful eye over Lucy okay? It's time I went back to the spirit realm."

Natsu smiled, "do you even need to ask?"

Loke smirked, "good point."

"Don't worry," he flashed his goofy grin, "she's in good hands, I promise. Come and visit us some time, okay? We'd love to catch up with you."

"Sure, see ya." With that, Loke was gone.

Natsu turned to Lucy, smiling before sitting back down next to her.

"So what did Master want?"

Natsu sighed, "Gramps is sending me on a solo mission. It was a special request asking for me. I don't know how long I'll be gone, hopefully not longer than a week."

"What do they want you to do?" Lucy asked, already feeling the affects of the potion making her drowsy. She lied down.

"I don't know yet…probably something destructive since they're asking for me, by name, specifically," He smiled at her.

Lucy giggled. "When do you leave?"

"In two days; you'll be better by then and I want to stay with you until you're better."

The blonde smiled gently at him, "Natsu?"

Turning to her, Natsu blinked, "yes?"

"Thank you for being here with me."

Smiling back, the dragon slayer scooted closer, taking her hand in his again, "anything for you, Luce."

They talked for nearly an hour before the potion kicked in. The last thing Lucy remembered was Natsu running his fingers through her hair and humming softly.

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You're very welcome for the long chapter! I figured I might as well for multiple reasons: one, it's an apology for you guys for waiting so long, and two, I didn't want to make this chapter only the panic attack and another chapter the aftermath. I wanted to cram it all in one and have a point where there wasn't any pain, but happiness and seriousness as well. I think it worked out pretty well. A oneshot is coming next and then "Bloody Child".

-zEllie