I recently reinstalled The Arcana and was inspired to write this.

This isn't fully edited, but still in good shape.

As always, thanks for all the love and happy reading!

Lucy sighed as she leaned back against a tree. Natsu glanced over with a grin. "You okay?"

"Mmmm." Without opening her eyes, Lucy gave him a thumbs up and wrapped her blanket more firmly around her. "Traveling takes a lot out of me it seems."

They'd been on the road for nearly a week. Natsu, a magician, had been training her for several months to strengthen and hone her magic. In their world, magicians weren't all that rare, but one as strong as him was. Natsu had an affinity for fire magic, which was both beautiful and also extremely dangerous. With his magic, he could easily take a job in one of the many palaces he'd visited in his life and live a cushy life as a guard, with little to no worry.

Instead, her master had decided to roam the world, seeing the sights and helping where he could; he'd even taken her on as an apprentice.

She'd heard more than enough stories about him to know that with his outgoing personality and affinity to grow easily attached, he cared about a lot of people, but he'd never had an interest in staying with or traveling with any of them. Something about not wanting to be slowed down by someone else or their plans. However, he'd made an exception for her, several months prior.

She perked up when she heard Natsu start shuffling his tarot deck. "Are you going to do a reading?" she asked without opening her eyes.

"I was just going to check that we're on the right track," he murmured. His tone surprised her, so she forced her tired eyes open to check on him. He leaned forward, a blanket spread before him with several cards turned over. Brow furrowed, he looked as serious as he ever did when he did his readings, but there was an edge to his aura that she wasn't used to.

Lucy frowned. "Is something wrong?"

He didn't respond right away; he flipped two more cards, then huffed as he gathered the deck together. "I don't know." Natsu wasn't one to lie, but she could tell that he was avoiding saying something. Leaning forward, she rested a hand on one of his.

"Do we need to get back on the road?"

His eyes reflected the firelight back to her as he met her gaze. With a grin, he set aside the cards as he flipped his hand so their palms connected. "No, leaving tomorrow is fine." He squeezed her hand. "How about we try something new tonight?"

"With my magic?"

"Yes." He linked their fingers together so she couldn't pull away. "We're going to combine them."

Lucy's eyes widened. "Can we do that?"

"Of course. But it's different than just sharing magic with each other." With one hand, he finished rolling up the blanket he'd been using while he maintained his connection to her with the other. "I think we've been working together long enough that you can do it. Do you want to try?"

Excitement immediately replaced the exhaustion she felt. "Yes! Absolutely!"

Natsu chuckled and moved closer, so close their hips and shoulders touched. "It may be a bit overkill to be this close. I can move back if you'd like?"

Ignoring the flush spreading across her cheeks, she shook her head. "No, no this okay."

"Good, then let's get started." He rested their joined hands on his knee. "Now this isn't something you can do with just any magician. You need to be familiar with each other's magic to make this work, because we're going to work off of each other's magic. Does that make sense?" She nodded and he squeezed her hand. "Good. Now close your eyes."

Lucy did and she could immediately feel the shift in his magic. When someone takes on an apprentice, both magicians become as familiar with the feel of the other's magic as they do of their own. Natsu's magic was hot, temperamental, and easily influenced by his emotions, but also warm and comforting. It meshed nicely with hers, the brightness of her magic flowing easily around his without being caught in the inferno.

"You can feel it, right? The warmth?"

"Always," Lucy says, teasing. "It's no different than the heat from your skin."

That statement made him flush, causing a brief flaring of his magic as he turned his head, but not before she caught the darkening of his cheeks. "Try to focus," Natsu said.

"Sorry."

He cleared his throat. "So, I want you to start first. Create a light. Something simple and easy to move around. A ball, a line, whatever you want." Lucy raised her hand and a small ball appeared above the fire. "Okay, now move it. Around the fire, around us, wherever you want, just try to keep it in motion."

The golden ball began to move, a glittery tail following it as it bent and twisted, floating lazily around their campsite. After only a few seconds, Natsu raised his hand and a second ball appeared, right beside hers. It's orange glow shifed as it began to wind its way around her stream of color, sputtering with shades of red and yellow. Natsu's fire swirled around her own magic, keeping pace without interrupting the flow.

"Make it move faster," he whispered. The heat of his breath on her cheek distracted her, and she sent her magic flying across the clearing, much faster than she'd intended. He chuckled as he managed to keep pace. "I didn't mean quite so fast."

She didn't say anything, just focused on her magic as she drew shapes in the air in front of them. Occasionally she did something to throw him off, to see if she could surprise him and lose him, but he always kept up easily.

"You're doing well," he said as he dispersed his own magic. "The risk of two magicians using their magic in the same space comes when they cannot control their magic and they fuse. If that happens, there's no way to know for sure what it could do. If the magics are incompatible, or too strong, people can get hurt, or worse. That's why practicing like this is a good idea; to learn how to control your magic around another magician, to make sure that kind of thing doesn't happen.

"Doing it this way is much harder, since our magics are so close, but that also means that if you can master it, you won't have to worry about using your magic around anyone."

"Are you sure this is the best way, master?"

Natsu grins. "I know you can do it." His eyes gleam in the firelight. "Are you ready to try following me?"

His confidence boosted her courage, so she nodded. He created a similar ball, his of a dull orange flame, and began to spin it in a circle. He moved it slower than she had, giving her plenty of time to adapt as her magic spun slowly around the small flame. Once she got used to the pattern, she pulled her ball of light in closer to his.

"That's excellent. Only get as close as you think you can handle. The closer your magic gets, the harder it will be to maintain." His hand tightened slightly around hers. "Can you feel it? The way it pulls and pushes, like it can't decide if it wants to get close or push away?"

"It's much stronger when I'm doing the following," Lucy commented. She could feel sweat beginning to bead on her forehead. This was more complicated magic than she was used to, so maintaining it continued to grow more difficult.

Before she was done, she moved her magic much closer, as close as he'd been to hers. Natsu immediately tried to pull his own away. "No, Lucy, wait-"

The two balls began to glow brighter, and sparks flew as they suddenly slammed together. Lucy didn't see what else happened. She only heard a small explosion as Natsu appeared in front of her and wrapped her up in the safety of his arms.

She barely heard him hiss over the crackling behind him. Once the sound died down, she lifted her head and found several smaller fires, many times brighter than their campfire, glowing in the grass around them.

Natsu pulled back and waved his hand, putting them all out, one by one. Lucy gasped as he turned fully away from her. "Natsu, your back!"

"It's okay," he tried to say, but she cut him off.

"No, it's not!" She made sure the remnants of the other fires had been put out before wrapping her arms around him. "I need to look at it," she said as she unbuttoned his shirt. His skin felt as though it was heating up as she quickly undid the few buttons he had done. She carefully pulled the fabric away from his back, revealing several gashes. He grunted when she poked a larger one right over his spine.

As her hands hovered over his back, the cuts all knit themselves back together, leaving his skin as smooth as it had been. Before she could wipe off the blood, Natsu whipped around and pulled her arms this way and that, examining her. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she said.

"Are you sure?" His eyebrows were furrowed together, his mouth in a sharp frown. "Nothing hit you?"

"I promise I'm fine," she reassured him again. "Are you okay?"

Instead of answering, he yanked her forward so he could crush her to him in a spine bending hug. "Don't scare me like that again. I can't bear to lose you," he mumbled into her neck.

"You're not going to lose me," she reassured him.

The thought was preposterous, but when he pulled back so she could see his face, she didn't voice the thought. He carefully took her head in his hands, making sure to keep his eyes locked with hers. "I can't do it, Luce. I can't live without you. I don't like who I am without you. I'm incomplete at best- even with Happy. I can't lose you." His eyes burn so intensely, they nearly glow. "Promise me you won't leave me."

"I promise," Lucy whispered. She wasn't complete without him either. Even after she'd figured out how to be her own person again, nothing felt normal without him around. "I won't leave you."

He sighed, some of the tension leaving his shoulders as he did so. He pressed his forehead to hers as his thumbs gently rubbed her cheeks. "Thank you," he whispered.

In the silence that followed, Lucy made a silent vow. Natsu was the strongest person she'd ever met, but she knew that he avoided getting too close to people because he couldn't handle loss well. That he'd allowed her to get close was a gift, and she would never squander it.

So she would do everything in her power to always be there for him. She would always be by his side, no matter what she had to do, so he would never have to experience losing her.

Never.

I love you all. I hope you're staying safe, happy and healthy.