"So, that's it, huh?" Lucy pops her gum and acts as if the love of my life hasn't just floated away into the sky. I try to muster up the gumption to glare at her-but I can't quite make it. I see my other self waving maniacally before there's a huge flash of light and then-nothing. Quiet. Silence. No buzz in the back of my skull, no pops or flashes at the edge of my vision.

No magic.

"That's it." I echo, totally unable to believe it. The fear of the future looms up suddenly, like a stop sign I only see after I pass it, and I wish more than anything that I could just hop in my car and drive away. Drive for miles, and just keep cruising until the world turns to a blur and my thoughts turn to mush.

Lucy punches me in the head before I can daydream too much. "Ow!" I grab my temple, straighten, and this time really do glare up at her. I have no idea how my Earthland self was brave enough to stand up to her, but if he can, maybe I . . .

"Are ya back talkin' to me, punk?" she snarls, waving her fist at me for a second punch. "Are ya? Are ya?!"

I decide that rebellion can wait until Lucy is in a better mood. "Anyway, it's too bad that Lisanna's gone again."

"Yeah . . . y'had a big crush on her, didn't ya?" Lucy slides down from the rock cluster she was perched on to sit next to me, and nudges me with her shoulder. "Too bad y'weren't man enough to find your way out of a urinal."

I'm torn between blushing bright red or storming off. "That d-d-doesn't even make sense." I stutter, then flinch, waiting for her to smack me.

She doesn't. She's staring thoughtfully off into the sky, where our new friends just vanished. "That other you was pretty damn hot."

"Now that's just insulting. I'm the same me." I mutter, but hardly loud enough for her to hear, and if she does, she ignores me.

"So, what now?" I ask louder. "What do we do, with no magic?"

"That Jellal character seems to have things under control." Lucy says, with a gesture over her shoulder to where the prince is stirring the crowd into a royalty-loving frenzy. "I guess we'll jus' follow him for a bit, and if we don't like him . . ."

"If we don't like him?" I venture.

"I'll assassinate him." Lucy says, with that same scarily certain tone that I can never figure out-is she serious or just joking around?

"R-right." Great idea, Luce. Not that I'd ever be that sarcastic to her face. Somehow, though, she can tell I'm thinking it, because she squints at me like she's preparing to unleash one of her famously creative wrestling moves on me.

"I mean, we've always done what we wanted anyway." Lucy continues, after apparently deciding that it isn't worth it to beat me to a pulp just yet. "So if we don't like this king, we'll jus' wait it out 'till there's a new one."

"How can we have a guild with no magic?" I wonder, probably for the fifth time, and Lucy does smack me now, knocking me into the dust using just her elbow. You should be around when she utilizes her whole arm. "Y'idiot! Were you not listening to what Other-You said?!"

"Sorry?" I sit up, rubbing my head gingerly. "I must have forgotten with all the smacking." It's a testament to how riled Lucy is that she lets me get away with that much lip, because she's too busy ranting at me to inflict any more bodily damage.

"As long as we have our friends, we have our guild!" she says, like I'm a moron . . . which, really, I'm not.

"But do they believe that?" I ask doubtfully. Lucy stands, and hauls me to my feet as well, without giving me a choice about it. She keeps ahold of my hand for a second longer than necessary.

"I believe it." she tells me, in one of the rare moments where she's being serious with me. "And you believe it. Even if no one else gives a damn, there's our guild right there."

"I've never heard of a guild with just two people." I say, skeptically.

"I've never heard of a guild without magic!" she snaps back. "While we're at impossible tasks, we might as well go whole hog!"

It's such a Lucy thing to say that I don't argue anymore; and we grin at each other for a moment. I hold up my hand. "High five?"

She smacks my hand so hard, I think my arm might fly off, but she's smiling so I know that she doesn't actually mean it this time. We twist our fingers together, and Lucy hugs me impulsively. "Let's do it!"

I pull back, finding our faces inches apart. Without thinking, I lean in and brush my lips against hers.

"Idiot!" Lucy reflexively throws me into the pile of rubble she was sitting on, and backs away from me, her face-wait, is she blushing?

"Ah-oh-s-sorry-" I babble, my head where my feet should be and my feet waving in the air like banners. I flip easily back to a standing position, and from right side up, Lucy is definitely blushing. "Sorry." I add, though I think I might have said that already.

"Y-you-" It's the first time I've heard Lucy stutter or seen her look anything but confident and a little annoyed. Her new short hair does nothing to cover her expression, which is almost childish in its shock and timidity. "You-Natsu-"

"I said sorry." I mumble, feeling worse than if she'd hit me. "It was . . . I mean, forget about it."

"I can't." she mutters, then claps a hand over her mouth.

I cock my head, thinking. "You don't have a crush on me, do you?" The words burst out of me against my better judgment, and though I wish I could take them back, I can't.

"Shut up, idiot!" she snaps. Her face is beet red by now, but her eyes bore into mine with fierce determination. "It's nothin', you're right, forget it."

I step closer. "You do, don't you?" I'm so caught up in excitement at having something over Lucy that I forget what kind of a threat she poses.

She's got me in some twisted position before I know what hit me; and I'm sure my body wasn't meant to bend this way. "Ow-ow-ow!"

"Listen to me, y'idiot," she snarls-I wonder if she thinks my name is "idiot"?- "I said it was nothin', so what does that mean?"

"It's nothing." I say weakly, and she lets me go, brushing herself off and straightening up. "Right-" she starts, and I catch hold of her collar and drag her back down, kissing her for real.

"A-" she starts, her shoulders stiff under my hands. I take advantage of her open mouth, and she jolts away in shock before, inexplicably, tackling me, banging my head against the rubbled for the thousandth time. I barely even notice.

In fact, for quite a long time, there isn't much I do notice; except for Lucy, that is.

So much for the love of my life-I think she was sitting next to me the whole time.