Struggle

For the most part, Lucy was in good shape. She regularly worked out (either in her house or on jobs), and kept physically fit. However, she physical intensity wasn't her thing; never had been, never would be. So when a job called for her and Natsu to climb a mountain, she wasn't happy about it. Speaking of which….

"Why couldn't we bring Happy?" Lucy cried as she tried to keep climbing after Natsu, who scrambled up the rock with no problem.

"Carla's teaching him the Transformation magic," Natsu answered, not looking back.

"How'd he convince her to do that?" Lucy asked, surprised.

"She offered." Lucy blinked. Well that was weird. Then, the sound of some rocks tumbling down the cliff face got her attention back on what she was doing, and with that, she continued climbing. As she did, she heard the sound of an eagle.

"A bird, that can't be a good sign," Lucy moaned. She could only imagine how high they were now. Strike that, she didn't want to imagine it.

"C'mon!" Natsu said, looking down from where he was standing, "You're doing great! Just keep going!"

"Okay!" Lucy groaned, as she kept climbing.

After a little while, she had stopped paying attention of the time, but it felt like it had been a long time of just climbing. And at this point, Lucy was tempted to just drop down, if to give her limbs a rest.

"Are we there yet?" she called.

"Almost," Natsu said, dangling off the cliff on a ledge. Lucy looked up. It mostly certainly wasn't "almost".

"This is impossible!" Lucy cried.

"No its not," Natsu said, as he looked down at her.

"Easy for you to say, you're not struggling!" Lucy moaned. Natsu blinked at that.

"You know," he said, "Igneel told me that struggles are a part of life, and you've just got to deal with it if you want to give over them."

"A lot easier to do when you're a giant fire breathing dragon," Lucy said, "And when you're said dragon's kid. Natsu looked down at her, and cocked her head, before dropping down to Lucy's level.

"What're you doing?" she asked.

"Igneel also told me to help other's through their struggles," Natsu answered "Now let's go!"

"Gah!" Lucy cried, as suddenly she was grabbed and pulled into the air. Lucy instinctively wrapped her arms around the closest thing. The closest thing just so happened to be Natsu's neck.

Not missing a beat, Natsu started climbing up the cliff. And in just a few seconds, they were on top of the cliff. Lucy looked down back down, and was surprised to see that they weren't as high as she initially thought they were.

"Wow," she said, "That was quick."

"I don't know what you were freaking out about," Natsu said, "It wasn't that hard."

"I guess not," Lucy admitted. So all this struggling, was really for nothing, I suppose."

"Come on!" Natsu said, "Let's finish…"

*Chuu

"Thank you!" Lucy said, smiling, "That made things a lot simpler." Natsu touched his cheek, as he turned the color of his fire.

Note: Sorry this was so short. It was basically just Lucy having a struggle, and Natsu helping her out with it. No real overt NaLu in this, but I think there's strength in simplicity, especially in scenes like this.

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