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March 3rd, X779

It wasn't the first time they'd been caught unaware by a snowstorm. Lucy watched glumly as the snow flew around the small window of the shack they'd just barely managed to find after an hour or two of trampling through the storm. Natsu had been cranky during the process of finding it – mostly because Wendy, who'd complained that she couldn't even hear her mother over the roar of the freezing winds, was shaking like a leaf.

Natsu was just frustrated, Lucy knew, with his own inability to provide the heat that had begun to fail him again in the last few days. He'd exuded so much power keeping them consistently warm in the time since Lucy had accidentally "charged him back up" that he'd used it all up rather quickly. Now, he was refusing to let her do it again, worried about what it might do to Valhalla.

She could understand that. If Valhalla was already unstable with Mavis being missing and whatever Loke had done to Lucy, she'd not have wanted to make it more so. At the same time, however…

Lucy was cold.

Wendy was cold.

Even the cats were tucked into a blanket with Wendy, trying to keep themselves warm, and Happy's pathetic little mew was the last straw.

Hopping to her feet and tucking her precious blanket a little tighter around her, Lucy made her way over to Wendy. Wendy furrowed her brow when Lucy dropped to sit beside her and leaned in to whisper to her. Natsu, who'd taken to sitting near the only other window in the shack to watch for Vhalis despite the wards and runes he'd put up, glanced briefly at her before returning to his quiet vigil.

"Here's the deal," Lucy muttered in Wendy's ear. "We're going to convince Natsu to give me his scarf, and then he's going to go back to being our personal heater, because I'm tired of not being able to feel my toes."

Wendy's eyebrows shot up. She looked over her shoulder at Natsu, who seemed comfortable albeit alert. Lucy wasn't sure how he'd been able to sit as long as he had been, watching nothing but the snow swirling around. She'd been bored after only a few minutes of doing the same thing. "Is that a good idea?" asked Wendy uncertainly.

"It's either that or we lose our toes," said Lucy.

"...Natsu," Wendy called after a moment's pause, not keen on losing her toes. His attention turned on them immediately. Lucy could see the distress over their situation that he was trying to hide away. There was a tightness in his eyes and the glow that still lingered seemed darker in some way. "Are you sure you can't make it any warmer?"

Suspicion flickered. He eyed Lucy, as if knowing precisely what had happened. She sighed. "Natsu," she said, "your cat is cold, which is saying something. Look at him. He has more fat on him than the rest of us combined. I understood it before, when you couldn't, but it's ridiculous to refuse something that would definitely help us out. It's cold. If I was outside for more than ten seconds, I'd freeze in place. Please."

"Please?" echoed Wendy hopefully.

Natsu studied them for a long, long moment. With a heavy sigh, he finally rocked to his feet, unwinding his scarf from around his throat. His fingers ran fondly over the material. "If something goes weird because of it, I won't do it again," he said firmly. "I don't like Mavis and her decisions and rules, but Valhalla's something different." His gaze flickered with grief. "Some of us don't remember much about the homes we had before Valahalla. I don't want to ruin it unnecessarily."

Lucy's annoyance with his reluctance melted away. She smiled reassuringly, even as she shivered. "If I wasn't worried about us catching hypothermia, I wouldn't ask, Natsu."

"Hypo-what?" he muttered, handing the scarf over.

She didn't answer him. Lucy took his scarf with gentle hands and affectionately brushed her fingers against it. "I miss wearing it," she said aloud, wishing she could simply throw it around her neck again. It hadn't just been unnaturally warm; it was comforting to have something of Natsu's around, even when she couldn't see him.

Natsu's gaze flickered with some unreadable emotion. "The others didn't like that I let you wear it," he admitted. "A lot of humans have tried to take advantage of us when we trusted them with our diales. Not me," he amended, "but a few of the others, like Levy. We're not supposed to let others touch them if we can avoid them. I liked when you wore it though. It meant it was safe."

There was a strange tug in her chest. It could have just as easily been whatever she was doing to offer him some of Valhalla's power, but she knew at least a portion of it was affection for the silly pink-haired idiot in front of her. Within moments, heat was filling the shack, emanating directly from Natsu. Only then did she offer his scarf back, and he took it, throwing it around his neck. "Better?" he checked with Wendy, who nodded.

"Thank you. It really was cold, Natsu," Wendy said sincerely.

"I know." He reached out to gently ruffle her hair.

Wendy smiled back, and then suddenly gasped. "Natsu!" she cried, flinging herself at their pile of bags and belongings. He looked startled by her sudden rush. "Natsu! Do we still have my cards?!"

"Your cards?" muttered Lucy.

Natsu cracked a grin. "They're in my bag," he told Wendy, who dove for his bag. To Lucy, he said hesitantly, "Back before…before you got sick, Wendy found some cards she wanted to teach us."

Lucy thought she recalled some distant conversation about them. She recalled Natsu's voice, inquiring about what they were for and then what kind of games they might play with them. She could almost hear Wendy's brief response, though it was all muffled and blurred by what she presumed to be her death.

"I want to teach Natsu Slapjack," Wendy explained as she came trotting back, a deck of cards in hand.

Lucy winced. "Could we not teach Natsu that particular game?" she begged, which only served to carve more interest from him, naturally. Natsu was more than happy to sit where Wendy told him to, curious about why Lucy was dreading this game so much. Still, Lucy agreed to join them when Natsu gave her a hopeful glance.

"Natsu," asked Wendy as she began shuffling cards, "if Lucy gave you more than what she just did, could you fix the weather and the seasons? To make them normal again?"

Lucy thought it was a good question and looked expectantly at Natsu, who shrugged. "Being able to do some tricks and being able to do my work are two different things," he said simply, as if it were enough explanation. It was most certainly not.

"So…if Lucy gave you a lot of power, then you could do your work?"

"Maybe, but we're not going to find that out right now." Natsu was firm in his decision about that.

"It would be nice if you could though," Lucy mused. "You said you need Levy to make it springtime though, right?"

Natsu nodded, running a hand through his hair as he puffed out a quiet breath. "I can't do it without her. I doubt she's much better than the rest of the gods by now. You'd have to help us both out if I wanted to make spring happen."

"If the cold keeps up like it is," said Lucy under her breath, recalling the freezing rains of the previous summer, "I might be tempted." Natsu threw her an exasperated look that Lucy chose to ignore. "Is it like when you showed me the lights? You said things were right and you wanted it to happen, so it did. Would it be like that?"

Natsu's gaze brightened, if that were possible, as if he were remembering that night. Lucy found herself amused, but also delighted that he clearly treasured that night as much as she did. "Something like that," he said. He turned his attention onto the cards in Wendy's hand. "Show me how to play this game you don't want me to learn, Luce."

And for a little moment in time, they forgot about the Fall, and gods, and the end of the world; they were simply Lucy, Wendy, and Natsu, enjoying one another's company – and the sting of their colliding hands when they slapped them down to win.

It was peaceful and quiet as Natsu threw a thicker blanket over Wendy, not wanting to exude more power than he absolutely had to. It was better to preserve it for emergencies, not slowly expel more and more over the next few hours. He would have to hope the shack they hid in was better sealed against the heat than it probably was, only offering a little here and there to help keep the warmth steady.

When he was confident Wendy and the two cats snuggled into her were comfortable, his attention turned on Lucy. She ought to have been sleeping already, but she was doing something else instead. He paused to study her profile in the flickering firelight and felt something in him twist in wonder at the sight. She looked lovely like that. When he drew closer, Natsu realized she held her notebook and pen. He'd not known she'd found those in his bag, preserved from the before times.

As if feeling his gaze, Lucy said without looking up, "We're going to have to track down more food soon. We're not low enough for me to be too worried, but we're going to have to really start rationing until we get more."

She was inventorying, Natsu realized. He'd not known she kept track of everything on paper. "I'll see if Wendy can talk to Grandeeney in the morning. Maybe she can point us in the right direction." He doubted she would, though she'd occasionally offered pointers here and there. Spirits were unlikely to help in such a direct way, even for their own children.

Lucy hummed and snapped her notebook shut. She glanced up at him, and not for the first time, sheer awe at the fact that she was there, in front of him, nearly sealed him into temporary silence. Her lips twitched at his stare. "What?"

"Nothing," sighed Natsu, not wanting to explain the strange swell of emotion that overcame him rather regularly when he thought for too long about how lucky he was that Lucy had come back to him – and the accompanying fear that she'd be taken away just as quickly. "Usually you're asleep by now."

Lucy shrugged, twirling her pen between her fingers. She didn't bother to explain her lack of willingness to sleep. Natsu thought her to look somewhat uncomfortable though, and he wished she'd tell him what it was. Instead, she said, "You're far away."

Natsu couldn't help the way his lips curved into a grin that was a little smug. "You get mad when I look over your shoulder, Luce."

"Yeah, well, this time, I want you to come sit with me, so stop being difficult." She pointed to the spot beside her.
Natsu snickered, but did as she said, sitting so close that his shoulder brushed hers. She leaned into him, sighing softly at the warmth he cautiously offered. She seemed to enjoy it, so he allowed a little extra heat to pour forth, just for her.

Only for her.

And maybe just a little for Wendy, too.

Natsu couldn't say what drew him outside to the pitch black night three days after they'd first taken shelter from the storm that had passed through. It was something urgent though – something that made him hyper aware of the world around him in a way that he hadn't been since the Fall. Something that made his skin crawl, as if there were Vhalis hiding in the woods, watching and waiting to see what might walk into their claws.

It was only the thought of the danger that might be afoot that made him halt at the edge of the wards and runes he'd carved into frozen earth and ice. Natsu narrowed his eyes, searching the darkness. A quick look over his shoulder at the small shack they were using assured him that nothing was amiss there, where he'd left his friends. Lucy had been snuggled up with Happy, her back to Wendy's, when he'd felt the need to step outside. It had taken a long time for her to fall asleep. She'd been struggling with it, admitting that something felt off.

Natsu furrowed his brow, wondering if that feeling of something being off was what he now felt. The feeling was growing heavier in his chest with each passing moment, and the longer it went on, the more uncomfortable he got.

Without thinking much of it, he uttered a warning hum, letting it threaten anything in the general vicinity considering coming close: approach and learn the might of the sun god, who might not have been at the peak of his power, but was strong enough to hold his own – strong enough that a flick of his fingers melted the majority of the snow in the space within their wards.

Nothing changed. The feeling kept crawling.

Until–

"Natsu?"

The sleepy call of his voice had him turning his face instinctively, though he never turned his eyes from the darkness. "I thought you were asleep."

"Kind of hard to sleep when you're waking me up with loud noises," replied Lucy in a sleepy way. He heard her footsteps approaching until her fingers slid into his, squeezing his hand affectionately. "What's wrong?"

"Where's Wendy?" he asked instead.

"She's still out. She could sleep through a tornado."

Natsu dared a look at Lucy. She was sharp-eyed and watching him closely, as if knowing something was off. Knowing she'd had some strange feelings, too, over the last few days, he asked, "Do you feel anything weird?" She hesitated only a moment before nodding. He turned his attention back on the potential danger. "Wake Wendy up and get our things." He found himself shifting back and forth, uneasy. "Now."

One of the things Natsu loved most about Lucy Heartfilia was her instinctive knowledge of when to argue with him about him being bossy. She asked no questions, only turned and ran back to the shack like the jaws of Hel itself were at her heels. He heard her rousing Wendy, the door left cracked open in her wake. Deciding they were taking too long, Natsu bolted inside to help them. As Lucy got Wendy and herself bundled into their winter clothes, Natsu shoved necessities into their bags.

It happened between one blink and the next. One moment, Natsu was rushing to push things into his bag; the next, he was blinking his eyes back open as Wendy shrieked his name in terror. It took him a moment longer to focus than he'd have liked as she desperately shook him. "Natsu," she sobbed, "Natsu, wake up!"

Natsu rocked upright, grimacing as pain throbbed through his head. Wendy sobbed again, this time in relief. He sat there for a moment, dazed, until Wendy shook his shoulder again and rasped, "Natsu, it's Lucy–"

The world snapped back into focus, and he threw himself at Lucy, who'd also been knocked askew. She lay face down on the floor, frighteningly close to the fire he'd kept burning for them all night. "Luce," he choked out, terror rising in a dangerous wave of heat. He rolled Lucy onto her back. He unzipped her coat to get a better glimpse of her face, patting her cheek. It was clammy and pale. "No, no, no. Lucy."

Lucy's eyes fluttered. "Na'su?" Her voice was no more than a whisper, slurred and confused.

Natsu could hardly swallow his sheer terror. This was like that night all over again. He half-expected to turn around and find Erza behind him, waiting in a corner for him to make a decision he never wanted to make again.

"Natsu!" Wendy shook his shoulder.

Natsu snapped his focus onto the present again. Right. He glanced back though, just to make sure. He didn't see Erza, so he eased somewhat. Whatever was wrong with his Lucy wasn't enough to bring Erza crawling out of hiding, so that was a good sign. He cradled Lucy's face between his hands, trying to rouse her further. "Hey," he said urgently. "Hey, open your eyes, Luce, look at me."

She tried, though her gaze was unfocused and hazy. Wendy sniffled as she clutched Natsu's sleeve. He wondered if she was as panicked as he was.

"My chest," Lucy finally groaned, fumbling at her coat, just over her heart.

Natsu shoved her coat aside and pressed his ear over her heart. It beat as steadily as ever, which was a relief. There was no sign of it stopping. He looked at Wendy, but she shook her head, unsure of what to do. Distressed, because that discomforting feeling was getting worse the longer they hung around, Natsu lunged for his bag. "Wendy, grab her backpack. You're gonna have to carry it."

"But–" Wendy snapped her mouth shut when he glared at her. "Okay." She shouldered her bag just as quickly, clearly struggling as soon as she strapped on Lucy's to her chest. She made a face that told her they were far too heavy for her to go far or fast, but that she'd manage for now.

Confident that Wendy was ready, Natsu threw his own bag on and reached out. He scooped Lucy into his arms. She was more awake, but still struggling against whatever had downed her. She only gasped softly and wound her fingers in his coat. Natsu kissed her head before looking up to ensure Wendy was ready.

"Come on, Charle – and you, too, Happy," called Wendy as she hurried from the shack.

Natsu took a moment – just one – to make sure they had everything, and that Lucy was secure. Certain, he followed Wendy. He was sure Lucy would be alright without her hat and gloves. He'd keep her warm enough.

He nearly ran right into Wendy, who stumbled with a gasp. "Wendy–"

Without a word, Wendy pointed slowly at the sky, her finger shaking violently.

When Natsu had looked at the night sky only minutes before, it had been black except for the beautiful stars splashed across it. Now, it was oddly green, with flickers of other colors occasionally splicing through it in small flashes. A particularly bright flash suddenly erupted far off, and Natsu could only stare in horror as something burning brightly was thrown towards the earth below in a beautiful arcing comet. Fire and dust trailed slowly behind it before it slammed into the earth hundreds, if not thousands, of miles to the east.

They felt the tremor of the world beneath them even where they now stood.

Natsu felt dizzy as a second star was thrown. It was followed by a third, and then a fourth.

He knew then what he'd been dreading and why Lucy had felt it even more than he had.

What little remained of his home in Valhalla was now Falling, just as he had close to two years prior.

If you thought we'd get some chill after last chapter...you were semi-correct.

Let the chaos begin.

3idiotsrule, regarding your question about Natsu returning Ophiuchus's heart...yes, he did! I just failed to make it clear.

Sir Sasquatch, regarding the comparison to Pokemon...I cackled like a damn witch when I saw your review.

Thanks to reviewers (3idiotsrule, InWonderl4nd, DREAMCHASING, nerdalertwarning, BurstingDragons, & Sir Sasquatch!) as well as those who favorited and followed!