GAH! WHAT HAVE I DONE?! Well here's chapter 24. Please R&R and I shall see you at the bottom of the page.

POV: Natsu

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy tail

I rush down through the incredibly white halls feeling my heart in my throat as I push past nurses and patients that get in my way. Their surprised, angry faces are a blur to me that I ignore having only one goal in mind, a goal that seems to be just about impossible to reach at the moment. A few of the patients push back blocking my way making the anger inside of my burn like melting steel as I do everything in my power not to start a fight. The last thing I need is to get thrown in jail for assaulting someone inside a hospital again.

Gritting my teeth, I look up at the man who has now blocked my path and placing a large hand down on my shoulder, "Whoa, where's the fire," he asks halfheartedly but the look in his eyes show his clear annoyance to my one man stampede. I can quickly tell that from his uniform he's a top ranking doctor, but probably not as high as Porlyusica.

"Excuse me," I growl trying to duck under his arm but he catches me by the arm pulling me back towards him but I quickly kick him in the shin and once he releases me I rush on down the hallway once again. I don't look back, even after the man continuously calls out for me, and I know that it won't be long before he or someone else calls the security guard.

Not bothered at all with that, I push on finding a clear path down a hallway that leads to my destination and the excitement and relief come bubbling up inside me. It's as if I were a runner and the finish line is only a few yards away with my name on the golden trophy naming me a winner, but there is no golden trophy, and I'm no winner.

I crash around the next corner, panting for breath, as I freeze in place for the familiar faces that greet me in the waiting area just outside of the room. Jellal, Loke, Laxus, and Makarov look up at me from where they're sitting each sending their own quiet glares. I'm breathless from the running, seeming as I single handedly ran from an alley close to the hospital towards Fairy Hills and then back once I found out that Lucy was in the hospital, and it's now even harder to breathe under the heavy glare of the men in the room.

"Did you finish the job?" Makarov asks calmly, as if I had come all this way just to give him my report and it makes me sick to the point where I want to puke. He's acting as if we weren't in a hospital with Lucy in the next room in who-knows-what kind of condition she's in.
"It's done," I grunt trying to calm myself down, because suddenly I feel the urge to punch someone real hard, but having most of the Dreyer men in one room doesn't count a good victory for me. Just as I'm about to demand what just happened, the door to Lucy's room opens and I hold my breath as a light pink head pops out of the room showing a young girl at around twelve years old, "Chelia?" I gasp watching the young girl lightly skip towards Makarov with a grim expression on her face seeming to ignore the tense feeling in the room and the glowering men around her.

Makarov opens his eyes setting them down on the young girl asking, "Is it done," which she replies with a curt nod, not a single emotion swimming across her face.

"The spell hasn't fully taken effect, but within the next thirty minutes it should be done," she answers impassively before turning on her heel and heading down past me toward the way I just came from.

I get the urge to go after her and strangle her to death knowing full well why she was here, but not truly understanding why they would send her instead of her older cousin Sherry who was more experienced at wiping the memories of a person.

Wiping memories.

The thought makes me sick and I swallow the bile that has risen at the back of my throat threatening to choke me. Instead I look on over at the old man just about ready to put up a fight and demand what the hell just happened. "You better hurry on in, you only have thirty minutes before her memory is erased," Makarov says while keeping his eyes closed seeming in concentration, "Know that this will be the only and last time I allow you to get anywhere near her," I don't need much prompting after that.

Feeling my stomach tying itself into painful knots, I move on toward the door to Lucy's room and stand before it finding myself unable to open it. Maybe it's best if I just leave now, it would save us both the goodbyes, even though she probably wouldn't remember it later on, and it would probably hurt even less, but I needed to see her. Isn't that the reason why I ran towards her rescue even though I never made it in time?

Taking in a deep breath, I turn the knob on the door and push the wood forward as I'm greeted with the nostalgic sound of the heart monitor lightly beeping in the background. I walk in further, seeing that the room is dark other than the light of the full moon outside filtering in through the open windows, and I close the door behind me unable to stand having so many pairs of eyes breathing down my neck. I sigh once the door clicks shut and search the room quickly finding Lucy lying in her uncomfortable bed staring up at the ceiling with wide unemotional eyes. From what I can see she's perfectly fine, no new injuries other than the ones that long ago faded or are still in the process of recovery.

I hang by the door just staring at the broken down girl before me wondering how she could ever get over what has happened to her since the moment she first stepped foot into Magnolia. Right now she probably looked broken to the point of no repair, but tomorrow she's probably be back to her bubbly self hanging out with her friends and forgetting all about her troubles, especially me, the source to all her silent distress.

"Natsu?" her voice is a question as the light in her eyes returns and I'm surprised she still remembers, though I doubt I've been standing by the doorway like a total loser allowing time to just slip on by me.

Stuffing my hands deep into the pockets of my pants and ducking my head hiding half of my face into my scarf, I make my way towards her, "Hey Luce, what's up," I ask trying to keep myself in check when all I want to do is curse the world with all its unfairness.

"What-what happened to me," she asks, her voice shaking, and it stabs at my heart, "The last I remember is Chelia closing the door to my room and a man with a dark purple eye cornering me before I blacked out,"

Freed.

I clench my fists inside the pockets of my pants and grit my teeth trying real hard not to storm out of the room at that instant and hunt down the green haired man from the Thunder God Tribe. Instead, I sit on the edge of the bed and take Lucy's thin hand in mine wondering if I'd ever be able to hold her again after this. Probably not, which is why I need to make this moment last as long as I can.

"Your guess is as good as mine," I answer bluntly and her dark eyes turn to look at me through the darkness. We stay in an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes before I clear my throat taking her hand in both of mine wracking my brain for what to say, "Lucy, I need to tell you something," I whisper and she turns her head towards me showing me that I have her full attention, "I want to apologize for everything that's happened to you. It's my entire fault and I'm so sorry. Could you ever forgive me?" I plead and a look of confusion washes over her face.

She opens and closes her mouth seeming to be looking for something to say but sighs heavily clearly frustrated, "It wasn't your fault, I'm just get so clumsy sometimes…"

"But it is my fault," I argue, cutting her off, "If I had listened to Makarov and stayed away from you like I had initially promised, none of this would have happened. You'd be safe and living a normal life instead of looking over your shoulder for some evil you can't see,"

"Makarov?" she asks a bit incredulous, "What does he have to do with anything? Natsu, what's going on?" the panic in her voice makes her voice rise in volume while also making the heart monitor beep erratically and I squeeze her hand to reassure her that everything is fine, even though we both clearly know it's not.

"Lucy, I'm going away for a while," I state and the heart monitor stops beating for a split second before beating even quicker, "I just came by to apologize for everything I've done to you, intentional or not, and to say my goodbye," her mouth opens and closes again as she tries desperately to say something, but her eyes have begun to lightly glass over showing that my time is almost up. Tears have started forming at the edges of her eyes, but they haven't begun to spill just yet, but it's only time before they fall shattering us both.

"You can't go, you just can't," she pleads clutching onto me with the little strength she has left and her eyes have begun to glass over even more, "Natsu, I- I love you," the words catch me off guard. They sound so sincere but deep down my logic tells me that it's only the hysteria and fear of losing me that has her saying such things. I mean, we've only known each other for a few weeks and in that short amount of time we haven't learned a single thing about each other. Although, since I saw her that first time when she was in this exact room only a few weeks ago I had felt like I knew her the moment our eyes locked with each other. At the time I had acted as if I were uninterested in her, but truth is that deep down I felt like I had met her once before, but I couldn't remember from where. All in all, I knew that I was in love with her too.

Feeling my heart ache for her words to be real, I lean on over, my face inches from hers, and I hear her heart stutter through the heart monitor, "N-Natsu, What a-are you doing?" she asks timidly and I can tell that she's blushing from the proximity.

"I'm going to make the eyes that have been watching you and scaring you go away," I whisper and before she can say anything else, I press down my lips onto hers. The kiss doesn't last long, seeming as it isn't long before I feel her body go slack under me and the heart monitor goes back to a steady beeping, but it was something that words could not describe.

I've kissed a few girls back then, each being quite a disappointment to me until Lisanna came and made me feel butterflies the first time she kissed me before we, more like me, decided we just stay friends. This kiss, on the other hand no matter how short it was, made my whole insides burn like a satisfying fire that warms you up like hot chocolate in the middle of winter. If it would have lasted a little bit longer I probably would have seen fireworks dance before my eyes, but instead I only saw sparks before they were snuffed out by time.

Heaving a heart-wrenching sigh, I lean back in and give Lucy one last peck on her forehead before pushing myself off of the bed and heading toward the door with my head bowed in defeat. I take one last look behind me at the girl who unknowingly stole my heart and find her sleeping peacefully with a small single tear running down her cheek. Swallowing my frustration down like bitter medicine, I open the door and walk out into the bright waiting area where all four men look up from where they're either standing and sitting as I walk right past them unwilling to look them in the eye for fear that I might lose my nerve and start something I might regret later. Instead my mind goes back to when Laxus and Makarov had both warned me the first time and what my answer had been.

"Yeah, yeah I know. Keep my distance, keep my mouth shut, and make it a point to stay invisible from her as much as I can without giving anything away,"

How different things would have turned out if I had just listened.

"Natsu..." Makarov starts but I cut him off unwilling to listen to his reprimands or overused warnings.

"Yeah, yeah I know. Keep my distance, keep my mouth shut, and make it a point to stay invisible from her as much as I can without giving anything away," I say bitterly as I pass him making my way toward the hall I had come from earlier, "Don't worry about anything gramps, I won't make the same mistake twice." He glowers at me but says nothing as I continue walking. Before I turn the corner and leave, I stop and say over my shoulder, "I'm going away for a while. I need some time to think," I say not really wanting an answer but receiving one anyway.

"Take all the time you need," Makarov grunts and without another word I walk on towards the shadows that is my life and away from the light where Lucy belongs.

Because monsters belong in the darkness while angels live peacefully on in the light.

So there was chapter 24. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it even though I bet a lot of you just want to throw things at me for what I've done. Feel free, I'd throw things at me as well, but alas the story must go on.

Shout Outs

Thanks to all of my Fantastic Favorites...

- BeastlyTick59

- skye-chan54

- Saphyra-8

-KelionnaOfSilverMoon

- AnimeLover2014

- Chibi Akabari

To all of my Fabulous Followers...

- sky-chan54

- Saphyra-8

And to all of my Fantabulous Reviewers...

Katara Asuna Rose - I'm glad you enjoyed it and don't worry, we only have a bit more to go.

richgirl555cub - So much emotion, I understand completely how you feel, and the rule she broke was getting caught for her curiosity, even when she didn't fully show it.

BeastlyTick59 - That's awesome, We'll be going to BOA next week and this week we have Area. I know, and i'm sorry for keeping you all in suspense, but would you read my story otherwise if I didn't?

MeGustaZeref - Thank you, and it's not that Lucy is a threat, it's just that Makarov is very protective over Lucy and doesn't want her finding out what's going on around Magnolia. Basically kind of what I'm doing with all of you.

FanFictinLeon - Cliffhangers are my specialty, and it's kind of hard not to write cliffhangers. I don't know, it's like some kind of necessity of mine, And it's so good to hear from you again.

Sara lovelymusic - couldn't have said it better myself.

Owl's Song - like I told FanFictionLeon, I can't help writing cliffhangers. My chapters just end up like that when I write them and I'm too effy to go back and change them, if not it would take me WAY longer to update than I already take. As for the client thing, they - meaning the bounty hunters - don't really get paid much. It's more like a community service thing they do for the town which I will later explain in an upcoming chapter.

Well that's all the shout outs for tonight.

If you are enjoying my story so far please follow, favorite, and review - remember, reviews are a writers candy - and if you have any questions or ideas you'd like to see put into this story you can also PM me and I'll gladly add it in.

Until next time my lovelies.