I do not own Fairy Tail or any of its amazing characters (Natsu and Lucy would've kissed by now if I did!)
"Earthland to Luce" Natsu frantically waved his hand in my face, I didn't snap out of my shock until he flicked my forehead.
"Ouch Natsu! What the heck?!" I rubbed away at the soreness and he gave me an exasperated
look and let out a huff.
"You've been staring at me with your mouth hanging open like a dead fish for almost two
minutes! I couldn't get you to respond and you were starting to scare me."
I furrowed my brows at him and smacked his shoulder, "I do not look like a dead fish you
pyromaniac! And excuse me for being surprised and confused when you freaking tell me you're
from the future!" Natsu's eyes crinkled and he turned away as he tried to suppress a laugh, "what's so funny?!"
"I've just missed this is all, it's just like old times." I furrowed my brows at him as an idea struck me, "is this… some sort of prank or something? Is the guild in on it too? I bet Mira was covering for you earlier telling me the S-class trials were starting again and I bet Happy is just waiting to barge in and laugh at my gullible stupidity!"
"No Luce, I swear I'm being serious. I know we were always pulling stunts like this on you for a
laugh, but what I'm telling you is the honest truth." I stared at him skeptically but only saw sincerity in his green eyes.
"How… How can this be possible? The Eclipse Gate is the only known way for time travel and that's been destroyed!" he scratched the back of his neck in thought.
"Well it's complicated, it was a variation of the eclipse gate but… different. Dark forbidden magic had been used with celestial magic to open a different type of time travel gate. They called it the Lunar Eclipse Gate or something like that. To be honest, I'm not really sure how it worked, you know I've never been really good with that stuff."
"So did you use the dark forbidden magic to make a gate to come back? How would you even be able to do that - you can't even use celestial magic!" My brows furrowed as I waited for his response.
"I wasn't the one that created the gate, it was a dark guild that I don't know the name of. The
cloaked guy you saw earlier is the Master of the guild. He slipped through the gate right after I
came through." My breath caught at that, what does a dark wizard from the future want from
me?
"You're just confusing me more Natsu. Can you at least explain to me why you're here?" he
pursed his lips, "I can only tell you so much or else it may alter the future irrevocably. Or at least that's what Levy told me. So I'll try to tell you as much as I can."
"...okay I'm all ears" I crossed my arms and gazed at him expectantly. He shifted a bit before standing and pacing in front of me.
"Well I'm from three years in the future. In around six months from now, you'll be kidnapped by that dark guild and…" he stopped in his tracks and a dark look shadowed his face, "...and you'll be murdered."
I stopped breathing for a moment, I'm going… to die? Natsu's face looked anguished and he
had a haunted look in his eyes as he stared distantly.
"How did it happen? Or how will it happen I guess" I asked tentatively.
I know death comes for us all eventually, but I never thought my time would be cut so short.
There are so many things I still want to do, so many adventures with my guild I have yet to go
on. I still have to find Aquarius's key, and I didn't want to die without finally having the love I always read about for myself. I still haven't even had my first kiss for crying out loud!
"You were tortured… you had accepted a solo mission requesting celestial wizards thinking it
was the perfect job. But things took a bad turn, I hadn't known until it was too late, and by the
time I found you -" Natsu's voice broke as tears started to slide down his cheeks, "it was too
late."
His fists clenched showing the whites of his knuckles as more tears flowed and the distant look returned to his face. I stood and pulled him into a tight embrace, I knew how hard that must've been for him to witness. He always does anything he can to protect everyone in Fairy Tail. He had even sworn to my future self to never lose me again a few years ago at the last time travel disaster. To have to lose his best friend all over again must've broken him. I felt him shake as sobs wracked his body and he pulled me in tight, like if he loosened his hold on me I would slip through his fingers and disappear.
I rubbed circles on his back and felt tears start to prick at my eyes at seeing the sorrow my partner had been through. I would give anything to take away his pain. It just didn't feel right to see Natsu in this state, he was always the strong one in our partnership.
After a few more minutes of us holding each other, he seemed to calm down and he burrowed his face into my neck and took in a deep breath.
"I can't tell you how much I've missed you Luce… everything about you. These past couple years have been a living hell. I would have given anything to see your smile, hear your voice, or
even smell your scent one last time. And miraculously, here you are in my arms again."
My throat closed as I tried to hold back my tears. I don't know what I would do if I was in his shoes, I couldn't imagine going through my everyday life without Natsu. Just the year that he went training felt like a miserable eternity, I can't imagine knowing he died and having to continue my life without him.
After another couple minutes I composed myself enough to whisper, "so I really only have a few more months?"
Natsu pulled away and stared intensely into my eyes, "you are NOT going to die again Luce. I
refuse to ever let it happen. That's the main reason I came back, this time I will protect you and I won't let history repeat itself."
"But Natsu, if Levy said you need to be careful not to alter the past too much… Then that may
be a bad idea, what if me living causes a bunch of other things to change and -"
"To hell with the consequences Lucy! I will not allow you to be killed, I don't care if all of Fiore
ends up burning down. I will make sure you survive and get to live the life that was robbed from you." His eyes were fierce and I knew there was no arguing with him. He only got the intense look he was giving me when he got into a serious fight, and there would be no stopping him.
"Okay Natsu, I trust you more than anyone else on Earthland so I know I'm safe as long as I'm
with you." His gaze softened as he stared at me.
I saw his eyes dart to my mouth and my heart seized wondering if he was going to go in for a kiss again, but he seemed to be fighting an internal battle and didn't lean into me.
"So… Now that the morbid news is over, can you explain to me why you have that mark on your
neck, why your eyes keep shifting to gold, and why you tried to kiss me earlier while growling "mine"?
He stepped back a bit and awkwardly scratched the back of his head, "yeah I'm sorry about all
that. I know it's gotta be confusing, but I can't tell you any information on that or it can… Mess
things up. Trust me - I wish I could tell you everything but there are some things you're just
going to have to wait and find out as the next few months unfold."
I tried to push down my annoyance, I know he's probably right but it really sucks! I'm getting so
confused. He's acting like we're together romantically or something but Natsu has never shown any real interest in me in that way. I completely gave up on the prospect of being with him but now I'm not sure what to think.
"Just try to be patient Luce, I know that's not your strong point-" I send him a glare and he let out a chuckle, "but I promise everything will be revealed sooner than you think." I nodded up at him.
"Well if you can't tell me more about that, then do you have some sort of plan on what we should do? What about the creepy dark guild master that has a vendetta against me?"
"Well things are already a little different than before since the leader of the dark guild came back with me. So my plan for now is to lay low and stay in close proximity to you to keep you safe and make sure they don't come for you. But I need you to try to stay with my past self as much as possible just to have the added protection. I'll try to figure out a way to take down the dark guild before they get a chance to hurt anyone else." He placed his calloused hand on my cheek, "but for now, as long as you're safe that is my main goal."
I blushed at his words and looked away, I can't deal with these mixed signals I keep getting! I
cleared my throat, "well can we go back to Magnolia anytime soon then?"
"Yes, tomorrow morning my past self will be back in Magnolia and I know you'll be safe with him and the rest of the guild. And of course I'll be watching over you from the shadows."
"That sounds easier said than done, especially with all the dragon slayers in our guild with noses as strong as yours" I pointed out, he smirked at me, " you don't gotta worry about me
Luce, I've improved a lot of my skills the last couple years and have actually learned a way to
mask my scent so no one will know. But tomorrow night will be important at the guild so you'll have to go back. But for tonight, how about you lay down and get some rest. I'll keep guard just in case that psycho kept following us."
"Okay, I'm going to hop in the bath to try to relax a bit first" his eyes flashed gold again at my
words, "stop doing that with your eyes if you're not going to explain why they're doing it! You're
starting to freak me out" I muttered as I grabbed a towel from the closet and slipped into the bathroom.
I spent the time in my bubble bath deep in thought about everything Natsu had told me. It was almost too much to comprehend; my death, the dark guild coming after me, and Natsu and I's possible change in relationship.
I can't help but wonder what the dark guild would have to gain by coming to the past, but I knew it couldn't be good. And what would I have to do with it? Why was it always me that got sucked into weird time travel situations?
The only reason I could think of on why they'd want me dead is to possibly steal my Zodiac
keys, if the Lunar Eclipse Gate worked similarly to the original Eclipse Gate that would make
sense.
But I can't dwell too much on it, I need to stay calm and collected to get through what's to come. Natsu did say tomorrow night would be important after all, so maybe I'll get some of the answers I'm looking for… or maybe it will just complicate things even more. I'll just have to wait and see.
Hello lovely readers,
It's been a long time, and I'm sorry for making you wait so long for an update! My goal is to finally finish all my stories in progress. I will try my best to continue to update this story as much as possible and hope you're enjoying it so far!
Happy reading!
~Bookgeek102~