A/N: Just wanna see how far I can take this...So! who wants to join me on the feels-coaster!? Hah!? ANYBODY!?...No?...Kay, fine, I'll go by myself...

Right Before My Eyes

He awoke with sweat beading down everywhere, breathing breath he didn't have. Suddenly his room seemed way too stuffy, even for him, and his hammock didn't feel quite right as from when he first laid his head down.

"Natsu..."

At the voice of his feline partner in the dark, he turned,"...Sorry, Happy...did I wake ya?"

Happy only shook his head, a worried glance at his friend, now staring into his lap, for how he had woken up," I already woke up," He uses his wings to fly to him," Hey, Natsu...did you have a bad dream...too?" The 'too' is delayed as if he wasn't really comfortable with his own night terror, which of course he wasn't; neither of them were.

Natsu however kept staring into nothing, his thought process taking him back, reliving a vision he wishes never made itself known in his mind.

He knew that somehow, someway his own future self had ultimately failed in keeping her safe, losing his life in the process. And it pained him that, even though he hadn't yet, he had almost failed again. Failed her again. Technically, he did twice. The him from her real time had failed her in staying alive, from before she had lost her right hand, from before she had gone through the gate, and again when they had been confronted by Future Rogue, when he had tried to kill his very much present Lucy, when he couldn't take the blow of the shadow spear in time, when Future Lucy jumped right in after his miss and took it for him and her past self. He'd even failed to move at all after that, seeing her body sprawled across the floor like that, already broken from her own hardships, with his Lucy cradling her, trying to keep her from fading, and Happy insisting that it didn't matter which Lucy she was, she was still Lucy.

Even though Wendy, Charle, Lily, and Loke were all there to witness this horrible murder, it was as if only he, Lucy, and Future Lucy were in the room. And when she asked to see Lucy's guildmark...he really lost it. He remembered the day she showed him her mark, a couples days after they'd met in Hargeon, when he brought her in through Fairy Tail's doors, how extremely genuine her happiness was. It made him angry, so rage-filled at this being who would dare take that away from her, take her away from them. He grit at his teeth so hard, they might have started bleeding, but he wouldn't care at that moment, his only focus was her and this bastard who had dared to so much as intend to hurt his nakama.

So as her future self breathed her last, shed her last, and managed her last parting words of wanting more adventures, and her final wish to protect the future for everyone, he truly lost himself to his searing inner rage. When that bastard however continued to insist that Lucy would close the portal, which in actuality they did and then destroyed it, and insisted that it was as destiny dictated, Natsu's body began to move on it's own then.

"I'll burn your destiny to ash!"

His fist flew forward ignited by the flames of his anger, forcing Future Rogue back by quite a distance,"I won't let anyone steal Lucy's future!" I promise...Lucy...

But that was over and done with, they had won, and all was sent back to their proper timelines and such. He had sulked a bit before the ball, but no one knew, nor could they tell when he showed up in the king's crown and shouted," PRAISE YOUR KING, BITCHES!"

And even when they went home, they partied for almost two weeks straight before everyone decided that they actually needed money and began going on jobs again.

But then after that...after that, the gravity of everything came back like it had just been temporarily put on the back burner of Lucy's stove. Because no matter what-

He kept seeing it happen.

It didn't matter how many times he tried to tell himself that it was only a dream, only a nightmare, he would see it, and it would keep on repeating, repeating, repeating, repeating until he woke up.

Always him and Lucy, and always someone else, sometimes Future Rogue, regardless of what he knew of the Rogue from his own time, and sometimes just another faceless visage, but it didn't matter who it was, they were always after one thing: HIS Lucy. His present Lucy, his Lucy that he'd almost lost, his Lucy that he'd almost made the same unknowing mistake once again.

No matter the setting of his nightmares, it was always the same scenario.

Him and Lucy, and somebody else. Whenever that somebody else appeared, every time...Every. Single. Fucking. Time. Something would strike Lucy, and she would go down. Sometimes, she screamed out for him, and he could still hear her voice long after he woke up-

"NATSU!"

-And the times that were worse, was when she didn't even have time to scream, nothing but blood falling from her pretty lips, like a twisted way of her applying lipstick. Again and again...over and over, and he would silently cry and twist the fabric of his hammock. Because again-

"Again...right in front of me...," She was taken right in front of him, and again he had been unable to save her.

"Something precious was stolen right before my eyes...,"His hand makes its way to his forehead, Happy still nestled in front of him,"Natsu...I want to go to Lucy's..."

Natsu did, too. He very much wanted to go to his partner's house and stay there, curl up into her bed and pull her into him like a child would with their favorite toy, hold onto her until her natural scent of stardust twilight overran his nose, until all of her essence overran every single one of his senses and he lost his own self within all her Lucy-ness.

"Okay...,"So he wasted no time in rising from his hammock, Happy unfurling his wings once again to perch on his shoulders. He didn't bother with locking the door - of course, who would be stupid enough to just waltz into his house? - and hastily made his way to town, to Strawberry Street where one of his favorite places was, besides the guild at least.

He turned into the little alleyway where her window was situated another story up. While Happy merely floated up, Natsu gathered energy into his legs before scaling up the side of her building and reaching the window sill. If he didn't feel so down, he would have joked about playing ninja.

As they slipped inside, padding carefully on her bed as it was right next to the window, whatever light from the moon spilled out over her still form, lying on her side with her golden strands splayed over her pillow like a halo. Lucy almost seemed to glow with the moonbeams, which he thought kinda made sense 'cause she used the stars with her magic, so wouldn't she be a star herself? No, because Lucy's the Queen of stars...like when she uses Urano Metria...

Happy settled in the space by her stomach, curling as much as he could into her before going still. Natsu silently lifted the covers, trying not to disturb or rouse her from the land of dreams, because for sure he would get a Lucy Kick right out the window. He froze when she did move, stretching her arm up and over her head before dropping it back down, and he let out a relieved breath. He slid his own arm over her, and as gently as he could manage, pulled her slightly into him, like a hug from behind, and nuzzled his face into the back of her neck, trying to inhale as much of her reassuring scent as possible as he began to fall into the land of dreams that wouldn't haunt him, because she was right there.

Before he's completely gone, his mind goes back to the night when everything had been set back on track, the night he defeated Future Rogue and sent them all back to their proper time. He brings certain words to his thoughts and repeats them like a mantra, not like he'll ever forget though, because those words are the most important binding he's ever put on himself.

I promise...No one will steal your future, Lucy. We still have lots of fun things to do...

A/N: Yay, Natsu's side! If anyone has questions for Fairy Tailes AU, please feel free to ask! I will answer the best I can!

Reviews and constructive crticism is much appreciated