A/N: I don't have all that much to say...Let me know what you think! I'm not overly excited about how this ended, but I think this has gone on long enough. Love you all and thank you so much for begin patient with me and reviewing/following/favoriting as long as you have. t honestly means that world since this was my first story on this site. :) (Also check out my other story Tears Run Gold, it's another Nalu with mixes of Sting and Yukino thrown in as well. It might help you deal with this one ending)

Natsu froze at my words, his eyes seared into mine. I waited patiently as he processed my words. I'd lied to him for almost as long as he'd been lying to me, and while I felt that my reasons were justified, that didn't excuse my choice, simply explained it, so it was only fair to give him time to work his mind around what I'd just admitted.

"Mine?" I nodded and watched my confirmation work its way into Natsu's mind. His expressionless face began to transform; first disbelief, then confusion, followed by frustration, and ending with…I wasn't exactly sure. A cross between happiness and anger perhaps.

When it appeared he was down thinking and instead was waiting for me to explain, I spoke, "at the time I thought it was a good idea to lie about who the father was. I thought you had no idea that the two of us had even had sex and it seemed like you and Lisanna were hitting it off again and I hadn't wanted to ruin that for you. I knew that you deserved to know the truth, but I couldn't bring myself to tell you. I was too weak I guess. Too afraid of what the consequences would be. I'd already lost you as my best friend and I couldn't bare to force you into a role you didn't want, at least not with me"

"But you were wrong." His words were soft, but felt like hot coals on my skin. He was struggling to understand my logic, but the anger was preventing that. I couldn't really blame him, it was how I felt when he told me he'd lied as well.

"I know I was wrong Natsu, but think about it from my perspective! I'd thought the guy I love had finally worked it out and wanted me as much as I wanted him only to wake up alone and forgotten. That destroyed me. I wanted to leave the guild for a second because it felt like losing my mom all over again. But then you didn't remember anything and it was like another knife to my gut. Something so important and meaningful to me was erased from your memory as if it was nothing at all." Natsu opened his mouth to interrupt, but I cut him off before he could, the words flowing hot and angry out of my mouth. "You don't know how that feels, because I'd been wrong, you weren't leaving me in the way my mother and father and every other person seems to have, you'd never been there in the first place. At the time, I thought I had fooled myself into thinking you cared about me as anything more than a friend. Nothing is worse than thinking you know where you stand with someone only to find out you were so, so very wrong. But then I thought we could at least go back to the way things used to be between us. Back to being friends and nakama and I could deal with that because at least you were in my life, but then I found out I was pregnant and that hope was shattered as well. How could we be friends when I was pregnant with your child? You'd always feel responsible for me and that would destroy you Natsu. You give everything to our guild and you would have given everything to be there for me and our child, and, to my knowledge, you didn't even want to be with me in that way! You wanted that with Lisanna, and I couldn't ruin that for you. I love you and I want you to be so happy, because you deserve to be happy. And I thought Lisanna was going to be the one to bring you that happiness. So I panicked and took the easy way out of the situation. I lied and used Jason to back up my lie. It was wrong and a little bit selfish in the scheme of things, but I hadn't meant it to be at the time. I promise I hadn't planned on it hurting you, I was just doing my best with what little I could. Because I didn't know that you felt the same way about me that I feel about you." I could feel the tears burning at the back of my throat and I desperately wanted to continue defending my choice and explaining it to him until he understood, but if I tried to talk anymore I would break down and that wouldn't be fair. Natsu needed to get his anger and frustration out without worrying about hurting my feelings, and if I was crying he'd swallow everything he wanted to say down just to keep me happy. I didn't want that.

"You thought that I didn't have a right to know that I was about to become a father? Lucy, what the hell! You criticize me for lying to you about not remembering, and here you are justifying lying about something far worse!" I flinched. "That child, our child, deserves to know its father! Were you really going to let it grow up not knowing who its actual father was?! Or were you going to tell the truth then? Because I can tell you it fucking sucks not having a father, hell you should know that!"

"I know how it feels having a father who doesn't give a crap about you, because that's how mine acted when I was growing up. That only changed recently, but it was too late to erase everything I had to go through growing up without a mother or father. So I know how it feels to see someone care more about something than their own daughter and I didn't want to put my own child through that! Because face it Natsu, if I'd been right and you did love Lisanna than she and whatever family you had with her would come first. Or if you decided not to pursue a relationship with her and instead stayed with me…what kind of life would that be for us? Forcing you to stay out of responsibility? You'd grow to hate me and our child!" I cried at him.

"And how was the different than letting Jason be the father!" He roared back.

I opened my mouth to respond, but hesitated. He was right. Everything I'd just argued was exactly what would have happened had I forced Jason to pretend to be the father. It was even more unfair because there was no reason for Jace to pretend other than because he was my friend and he'd simply been here at the right time to help.

"I'm a hypocrite." I whispered, feeling my anger dissipate completely and be replaced with emptiness.

Natsu sighed. "Lucy…"

"No," I shook my head as the tears began to run down my face. "I tell you that I don't know if I can forgive you for what you've done to me and yet here I am expecting the same thing from you. What I did…was so much…worse!"

"No it wasn't." Natsu said softly, reaching across our small distance and hesitantly pulling me to him. When I didn't resist and instead sank into his hold, his arms tightened around me. "Like you said you were doing the best you could at the time. You didn't know that I love you, and you were afraid. It's my fault for putting you in that position in the first place." Sobbing into him, I shook my head. "Alright, how about we're both partly to blame in all this?"

"Can you forgive me?" I managed through my tears, gripping his shoulders as I spoke, afraid he'd drop me here and now.

"I already have Luce." He placed a kiss on my head and I felt as if a spring within me had been released. All the tension and negativity left my body at the simple action, and for the first time in weeks I relaxed completely and allowed myself to enjoy the feeling of his arms around me while I cried.

"Natsu," I began after my tears had mostly halted. "You know, I think I was wrong." Pulling back slightly, I looked into his onyx eyes, filled with confusion and worry, "I know I can forgive you. I already have, you're the most important person to me, you always have been. I don't want to loose you ever again." He smiled slightly before taking my lips with his own.

"I'm never leaving you again, Lucy, I promise." He murmured against my skin as his lips made their way from mine to the skin on my neck. "I love you and I will make up all those tears I made you shed with smiles and laughter." He pulled back and looked into my eyes, as if to be sure I believed him. "You're my mate Lucy, and nothing will ever change the way I feel about you."

A wide smile broke across my face at his words, even in my wildest dreams I hadn't imagined hearing those words would feel so good. "I can't imagine anything better." He smiled before bringing his lips back to mine. 'His mate,' I repeated over and over again in my mind, letting the happiness wash over me and melt away all the pain and suffering I'd put myself through in the past two months. His mate; nothing had ever sounded sweeter or more perfect.