What? Procrastinator you say? Why yes, yes I am.

CHOICE

"Where am I?" My voice rung out, echoing through the nothingness. My mind throbbed as I crawled, trying to haul myself up. My surrounding became hazy as I picked myself up, my vision twisting to a side.

"Lucy." My mother's silky voice called for my attention. I turned my head to see her in all her beautiful glory staring down at me with concern.

"Why did you take so long?" She asked me in a worried tone. I tilted my head in confusion, wondering why she was acting so...scared.

"Wha?" Was all I could croak out. I think all of those little 'trips' sucked all of my energy out or something, because I was feeling really weak.

"You took too long to come back!" She said in a panicked tone, pacing back and forth. The creek materialized in front of me, seperating my mother and I. I tilted my head to the side in confusion, my bearings coming back to me.

"Too long?" I repeated, wondering what she was talking about. All of a sudden it felt like a switch went off in my head as I blanked out. The urge to cross the stream grew so immense that I found myself shuffling towards it.

"Lucy.." My mother said in a warning tone, realizing what I was doing. I disregarded her completely, my eyes alert and focused only on the stream. Something tugged in my gut telling me I wanted to-no needed to go to that stream. My skin made contact with the cold liquid, and soon enough without realizing it, I was wading waist deep.

"Stop Lucy!" My mother yelled, her arms held out in a pushing motion. Shock stopped me for a moment, my mother had never yelled at me before. She stared at me with desperate, wild eyes before sighing in relief, realizing I wasn't walking.

"What?" I asked and my feet started to suddenly move by themselves robotically. Fear came to my mother's eyes again as she began muttering to herself.

"Think about Natsu!" She suddenly called. I was so close, only ankle deep. My mother was standing less than a yard in front of me. And yet, right when she said that a sick feeling came to my stomach and I stopped completely, my legs frozen in place.

"If you come any closer you will die Lucy. Die." My mother said in a soft but stern voice. My eyes widened slightly and the sick feeling washed over me and made me feel even worse.

"D-die?" I gulped in fear, the word tasting bitter on my tongue.

"Yes you wi-" She stopped all of a sudden, her face forming into a mask of horror that didn't look good on her pretty face.

"What?" I asked worried. Her eyes finally regained focus and she looked at me as pale as ever.

"We're too late. You're dead."

"DEAD? WHADDYA MEAN DEAD?" Natsu screamed at Mira, pacing before knocking a lamp off of the table.

"She's...gone." Mira said quietly, sobbing. Natsu glared at her menacingly, his eyes threatening her to repeat what she said.

"Natsu calm down." A stern but weak voice called. Natsu whipped around to see Erza standing there, trying to look strong when really she was holding onto the wall for support.

"Calm down?! CALM DOWN!" He roared, his body shaking with anger as tiny flames licked his outline.

"She's dead Natsu, don't make this harder than it has to be." Erza faltered slightly, trying to clear the lump in her throat.

"Yeah come on Natsu." Gray said quietly, not even adding 'Flamebrain' or 'Flaming idiot'. He was grieving just like the rest of them were.

"Fix her." Natsu said in a dead voice, his eyes full of desperation and fear. When no one moved Natsu stormed forward, taking Erza by the collar and pinning her against the wall.

"I SAID FIX HER!" He yelled in her face. Gray and Mira were literally frozen. Never had they thought they'd see Natsu doing this to Erza, practically manhandling her.

Erza just ignored his words, tears brimming in both of her eyes as she looked over her shoulder, trying to look at anything but Natsu's face. She knew how bad it hurt to lose a loved one, his actions barely surprised her.

"I said..fix..her.." His voice was weaker as his finger slipped, his bangs covering his eyes as he took a step back. "Please..." He pleaded, the immense pain he was feeling ringing in his voice. By then a lot of others were in the room, hearing the commotion. They watched in stunned silence as Natsu collapsed to his knees, his face hidden as the silence presumed.

"I'll do anything...anything to see her smile..one more time." He said his thoughts aloud. Lots of others began to cry as they realized their dear celestial mage had passed away.

"Natsu, Lucy wouldn't have liked you acting like this." A voice said politely. Natsu didn't even look up to see who it was, recognizing Lisanna's smell as she took a cautious step forward.

"Come on Natsu, we just need to-" She began talking soothingly until he shot up like a rocket, startling her into falling backwards onto the planked floor as he towered over her, anger in his eyes again.

"Don't say her name! Don't think her name! Don't even breathe her name!" He sneered at Lisanna dangerously, his eyes feral. Everyone had stopped crying, tension crackling as they all bunched their muscles, ready to knock Natsu out if he became too dangerous.

"Natsu.." Lisanna said, startled at the fire dragon slayer's attitude. Never in their whole childhood lives had he acted like that towards anyone, especially not her.

"I don't care what you think, what any of you think. Just leave me alone!" He snarled at her, fire now erupting from him as he took a dangerously close step to Lisanna, close enough to harm her.

Right when things were about to get out of control, a loud noise echoed throughout the room as everyone stared, in yet again, stunned silence as the large hand that had slapped Natsu across the face shrunk down, a small man with an angry scowl on his tear stained face.

"Enough!" He bellowed, his voice deep from tiant form. Natsu flew across the room, crashing into an unoccupied bed, crushing it under his weight. He didn't even feel the splinters that embedded themselves into his skin, his whole existence didn't matter anymore without his partner.

"I just want my Lucy back." He finally sobbed, a childish ring to it as he tried to compose himself several times. All the anger and defensiveness softening into remorse and pity as they saw the great Salamander of Fairy Tail reduced to a pathetic heap on the floor. He tried to muffle his heartbreaking cries, but alas his heart would do him no justice.

The Master pushed everyone out, trying to save Natsu at least some of his dignity. He knew the boy was hurting deeply, his intense love of comrades also a burden when it just wasn't enough.

"My boy...I know you're hurting right now, but you have other nakama, people that care about you. She wouldn't approve of how you've been acting." Makarov scolded lightly, not even bothering to approach the boy, knowing it'd only make things worse.

"But I finally realized I loved her, and now she's gone...just like...Igneel." He choked out, curled into the fetal position. A loud, audible gasp was heard, obviously from the Guild members that were eavesdropping. Natsu ignored them, thinking they were surprised at what he had said. But quite the opposite, actually.

"But I finally realized I loved her, and now she's gone...just like...Igneel." He choked out, curled into the fetal position. My eyes widened in surprise as my cheeks did their own thing, lighting up like the fourth of July. My bed made a small creaking noise as I slightly shifted, wincing at how loud that would be to his dragon ears. As if on cue, his ears perked up but he didn't bother to turn around. I stared at his back for a few moments until a soft smile adorned my face. I lifted my shirt slightly and looked down to see a large bandage wrapped around my torso and waist. I brushed my hand across it slightly, seeing that it needed to be rewrapped do to the red color that was dry now, but had been seeping through.

As silent as a ninja(nin-nin!), I crept over to him until I stood right behind him, trying to hold my giggles in at the same time of feeling pity. I could hear his cries and I knew it was because of...me. I had fought through that stupid current to get here, and I wasn't going to make it this far just to back out now.

"Wow you look...pretty pathetic." I deadpanned, crouching down as best as I could and brushing his bangs out of his face. His coal black eyes met with mine, startling me by just realizing how close we really were. My cheeks reddened slightly as his eyes widened, registering that I was here.

"...Luce?" He asked, his voice raw from all the crying. I felt a tear drip off the bridge of my nose as I smiled softly and nodded, pulling him ever-so closer to me. I wrapped both my arms around him, as if sheltering him from everything else. His eyes never left my face, his mouth gaped slightly open like a child's would be. I continued to smile at him, rubbing his back and trying to calm him.

"You're not dead?" He asked me, his eyes still glazed over with shock. I smirked at him playfully, helping him up as best I could.

"I'm not gonna go out that easy." I joked lightly, waiting for him to recover. After a few minutes he jumped in surprise, his face the hue of Erza's hair.

"Y-y-y-you're her-here? That means you heard everything I-I said...just a few m-minutes ago...?" He asked, trying to hide his face from embarrassment. My own face lit up, but I tried to save the poor guy from embarrassment.

"A few minutes ago? No I don't think so." I lied, looking to the ground. I heard him sigh and felt a hand pick my face up, making me stare straight into the midnight black eyes of Natsu.

"Well then I guess I gotta repeat it. Iloveyou." He said really fast, his tan cheeks now red. I giggled at him, my own face the color of a tomato.

"I love you too." He grinned his fanged smile almost sheepishly as he pulled me closer, stealing a kiss from me. Everyone roared, barreling towards us with their arms outstretched. I was too busy blushing to feel the crushing arms of Lisanna, tears streaming down her face.

"Idiot! Don't do that!" She cried along with Levy and surprisingly Erza. I smiled at her, returning the hug. Erza's eyes darkened as she summoned a sword, animatedly crying.

"You dare do that again and I shall torture you merciless!" She warned. I sweatdropped, taking a step away from her outnumbering swords.

"H-hai." I stuttered, shaking slightly. Natsu snickered at me, his eyes brighter than before.

I'm glad I stayed.

The End.

UWWAAH is it sad that this is the only multichap story I've ever finished? I think it is ~ I'm done, huzza! I know their ooc, *dies* I got Nevermore!(Maximum Ride) SHE BETTER END UP WITH FANG, I MEAN I LOVE DYLAN BUT IF SHE DOESN'T END WITH FANG THEN...*flips table*

Hope you enjoyed, please review and if ya want(shamelesspromotion) check out my other story 'The Switch' and more~ Thanks ^.^(I really hope that wasn't too cheesy 3)