Hey, Dark Gothic Lolita here!

So, my exams are finally finished and I have this coming week off before lectures start up again! I want to see if I can get many things updated this coming week before I hibernate again due to work and university! As you can see, my lil story here is about to come to an end! I'm on V and after this, I just gotta push out 4 more chapters and this journey will be DONE, before I can solely focus on the others that I have been lacking in the updating area (sowie!)

Disclaimers are boring

ENJOY!

I love you in 26 different ways

V is for vita

Nobody knew where he was. It had been a few weeks since everyone last saw him and it wasn't until one by one, everyone started getting notes left in their houses or places of living. Nobody saw the signs at all, they didn't get it and they weren't jealous that they didn't understand what he was going through, but they pitied him.

Everyone had eventually found out that Natsu was E.N.D, they all learnt of the real reason as to why he was alive. Natsu couldn't believe it and he didn't want to believe it, but Happy had understood early on that he was actually E.N.D. He knew that Zeref wouldn't lie that if he killed him, he would be killed off too.

Natsu had managed to put on a front, show everyone around him that really, he was okay. So yes Zeref had been stopped in a way that meant that he didn't die, but he felt like he had lost touch with his humanity. There's always a small price to pay, a sacrifice to make when breaking a curse that has been placed on one by a god. Natsu losing his sanity, his humanity in order to live so that when he killed Zeref and he wouldn't die was that sacrifice he had to make.

He actually wrote letters to everyone saying that he loved them and he wanted them to remember him as the Natsu that they had known since he was young, not the Natsu that was unleashing chaos into the world.

There were tears in their eyes when they all read their letters together in the guild, as the remaining dragon slayers tried to sniff the papers, but didn't get a single trace of his scent lingering on them at all. They felt scared. How could he just up and leave them like this? They could have helped him!

Happy was sobbing alongside Lucy as they hugged each other. They felt his departure the most and had spent everyday trying to find their loveable fire dragon slayer, only to come back empty handed. It was like he just vanished off the face of the earth.

Juvia was the only one who was silent as she slipped off of her chair and walked out of the guild unnoticed. She had been there when she witnessed Gray and Natsu fighting, fighting as if to kill one another. Well, she had only picked that vibe up from Gray. Gray had told her that he was going to go after E.N.D and it seemed like he didn't even care that his best friend/rival was that so called E.N.D not even bothered to find out why that was.

Natsu was only fighting Gray for him to get out of his way so that he could find where Zeref was and kill him. There was no killing intent aimed at Gray and Juvia was beyond happy that she was able to come in between that fight at the time that she did. She didn't know what she would do if she found Gray OR Natsu dead on the floor.

She knew that Gray wouldn't have thought of it and maybe her intuition was way off, but something was telling her that actually, Natsu had gone back to the place where him and Gray both fought before all three of them collapsed. She didn't want to get anyone's hopes up just yet, in case she was wrong and on top of that, she wanted to return the favour for when he found Gray for her.

She made her way through the market, through the crowds of people, walking out to the edge of town, finding the desert and it was nightfall by the time she got to her destination. The air was cool and made her wrap her coat around her body tighter and she walked into a certain cave that she had seen.

If it were her hiding, she would have hidden at the very back of the cave. She didn't bother hiding her presence because she knew that Natsu could definitely smell her already, even if he couldn't see her. The deeper into the cave she got, the hotter she felt, alerting her of Natsu's presence in the cave and she grinned before she started running blindly in the dark.

Despite tripping on many rocks, she eventually got to a part of the cave where there was a light at the end of the dark tunnel. She smiled as she saw a figure sitting in front of the fire.

"Juvia Lockser, I actually can't believe they sent you to come and find me."

Juvia's smile fell off of her face as soon as she heard that. Was that a bad thing? Did Natsu hate her secretly or something? He probably wanted Lucy to be the one to find her. She didn't blame him at all, they were practically nothing to each other, so why should she be the one that's here?

"Ah, actually I came here by myself. Everyone's out there looking for you, just that I seem to have a better idea as to where you could be."

She wouldn't let him phase her. This was a defence mechanism. E.N.D must have been shocked that someone actually found him and the fact that it was someone who wasn't in his team shocked him even more as well as hurt him. She came closer to him before sitting opposite him. He snarled at her with all his dark marks over his body.

Juvia jumped before holding her hand over her heart and calming herself down. When she looked over at Natsu, she saw hurt flash through his eyes briefly, almost as though he still cared for one of his nakama before a smirk replaced it and his eyes turned bitter.

"Hmm, you're afraid of me. Why did you even bother coming?"

"I'm only scared because you made me jump! You literally just growled at me out of nowhere!"

E.N.D looked at her in shock, almost as though he couldn't believe that she was talking to him like that. He looked over at her frustrated face and found himself sighing and childishly pouting. Juvia smiled when she noticed that she was getting a more Natsu like response out of him.

"I'm not coming back. I don't know how you found me, but it's not safe for you to be around me. I'm losing myself to this demon inside of me and I don't want to hurt anyone. I mean if I can kill Zeref, that means I could kill anyone just as easily."

Juvia felt herself tearing up, but she had to be the strong one in this situation. Natsu always held the weight of the guild on his shoulders and it was finally starting to weigh him down. With no one by his side to help him once in awhile make sure he was okay, it was crushing him. Partially because he was always so happy go lucky and played his sadness behind that facade that people didn't notice.

Juvia had already made her resolve. Despite what would happen, she was going to stand by Natsu for as long as he needed her. She moved over next to him and he flinched, but let her sit there anyway as they stared into the fire.

"Then you shouldn't lose. You've always been so strong, never let anything rule over your life, so why are you going to let a stupid demon try and take over now? I don't think so! You're way stronger than some stupid demon that was put inside of you! You think you're going to go through it alone? No way! We're all here for you Natsu, you don't have to bear the weight alone! Trust me, it will make it worse."

Natsu turned his head to find Juvia giving him the softest smile and his heart thumped weirdly in his chest. He watched as Juvia sat closer to him and held his hand. He blushed and when he looked back at her face, he noticed that so was she. The black marks on his body seemed to be retreating slowly, almost as if E.N.D was fighting for control.

"You can't let yourself rot away here," she whispered softly while moving his hand to her heart. He could feel the quickened pace of her heart beneath her chest and his eyes widened. He didn't know what it was, but it was almost like the constant screaming of E.N.D in his mind was fizzling out, as if screaming at Juvia in anger for saving him.

"I won't let you. The world needs you to be safe Natsu. Fairy Tail wants you to come back. We can help you, we're not weak, as if we would let you kill us anyhow."

She smirked at him and it actually made him smile, her attempt to lighten the whole situation up. Man, that used to be him doing that. Maybe he did need someone that he could lean on, use a shoulder to cry on once in awhile. It got tiring always trying to be the happy guy, the one that people come to when they've got problems of their own. With Juvia being here, him venting and finally letting things go, it was like he was alright now.

He then frowned when he realised that Juvia hadn't really mentioned what she would want for him. He didn't know why Juvia's opinion counted this much, but with her hand still in hers and on her chest, he wasn't stupid as to why. Luckily he hadn't been too far gone in losing his humanity, it had just been random thoughts that popped up like 'kill master' or something.

"And what about you?"

Juvia was about to question him when she got what he was talking about. This was the time to show him how much he meant to her. She looked him dead in the eye and used her other hand to stroke his cheek. He growled deeply in content at the contact and Juvia giggled, the sound ringing like soft bells to his ears. She moved forward, letting go of his hand and letting her lips fall on his.

Natsu could feel his heart was about to rip out of his body. What the hell was happening?! Why did she kiss him? Didn't she love Gray? Why was he enjoying it so much when he could easily end her here? He almost scowled at that thought. There was no way he would ever let Juvia get hurt, especially never by him.

He let himself indulge in the kiss and brought his hand around her waist and let his other hand entangle themselves in her hair. Who knew that Juvia would be the one to find him? Who knew that Juvia would be the one to make E.N.D disappear from his mind. Who knew that Juvia would be the one for him?

She started pulling back, but only so that she could let her forehead rest against him, feeling the adrenaline rush through her body. When she was in love with Gray, she had never been brave enough to do that to him, but here, she kissed Natsu right off the bat. She looked deep into his eyes to make sure that he could see the love that she held for him, that it was real and only for him. She was going to make it alright for him. She smiled once more that made Natsu realise that everything was going to be alright.

"Me? I just want you to live, Natsu. I just want you to live."

Kind of an odd chapter, but I plan on using this as a prompt some time in the distant future, so I didn't really want to write too much on it. Here, Natsu is in the early stages of him 'losing' his humanity to E.N.D. I was going to make him really violent, but I thought I'll leave that for another story I'm writing as well as maybe the future prompt. Couldn't bring myself to do it now otherwise this chapter would go on forever!

If you've got any questions for me, my inbox is always open, or you can find me on tumblr dark-gothic-lolita is who I am! I like to try and update people on there about where i am, what stories i'm planning or giving out sneak peeks! If you're obsessed with me and on tumblr, head over there!

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Lolita-chan