#Tonight was the deadline because after today I wont have access to wifi or my laptop and I really wanted to get this done BEFORE

[wendychuu]

The Key To Our Future

A/N: I needed a feel better fic after this week’s chapter idk about you. :’) <3 lets be real that chapter made us all depressed (link to it on ff.net!)

Summary: Some stories endings are just the beginnings. NALU. One-Shot. Based on Chapter 538.

Pairing: Nalu

Rating: T

"Haa..haa..haa.." Lucy pants as she struggles to keep focus to continue writing in the remaining blank pages inside the Book of End.

She tries to keep her breathing normal but it is difficult due to the demonic energy draining her energy away. But nevertheless there's no giving up now, not with Natsu's life on the line, and it's up to her to save him.

Gray and Happy watch Lucy intently; making sure to be there for her for whenever she needs it along with hoping whatever she's writing is working.

"What is…"Happy comments slowly but is too stunned to continue as he moves in closer to examine the book.

"Happening to the book?!" Gray says astonishment in his voice.

After finishing a page, the letters in the book suddenly glow — as the words that were once surrounding the three of them —go back into the book.

"The letters are going back into it." Happy points out.

"With this, everything should be fine…" Lucy says tiredly. She tries to steady her breath; despite Gray cooling her off earlier she still can slightly feel the burning sensation in her body. A few drops of sweat slide drip off her face due to the heat and her breathing are shallow from exhaustion.

Happy tries his best to keep faith in her words yet finds himself in anticipation. He hopes with all his might that everything is, in fact, fine as she says. Zeref's warning about Natsu dying once the book disappears still haunts Happy's mind.

Gray silently nods not bothering to question her. He has full faith in Lucy but there is something peculiar about the entire thing. It seems too easy to just have the ability to gain access and rewrite something like the Book of End. He can't help but worry. Something still doesn't feel right.

"All our memories of him were written," Lucy assures them as she closes the book.

"Natsu's…" Lucy attempts to speak but her voice falters. She struggles to get the words out due to the small amounts of energy she has.

"The Natsu we know…" Lucy tries once more and takes a deep breath to see if that will help give her the strength to get her point across. However, little by little, it seems like no matter what she does her energy just leaves her.

"Is no demon…" Happy helps Lucy by finishing her sentence. He also feels the exact same way as her and knows that regardless of who or what Natsu is, he is always Natsu.

Lucy feels her eyes struggle to stay open and her body is unable to hold on any longer which results in her passing out.

The unconscious celestial mage falls nearly onto the floor if not for Gray being close by and catching her.

"LUCY!" Happy cries in distress.

"I thought that it would be okay since she touched that evil book for such a short while, but…" Gray thinks out loud worried about the well-being of his friend.

He knew something wasn't right.

His hair begins to stand upwards as dark marks appear on parts of his body; he gets his Devil Slayer form out to try and use some of the powers to help Lucy.

"This time I'll use this power to destroy…this demon." Gray holds on to Lucy's right hand to rid of the demonic energy that slowly has been taking over her body; exorcising it in the process.

Moments afterward Lucy regains her consciousness and coughs.

"Are you okay?" Gray asks keeping a tight grip on her; hoping he didn't hurt her.

"Thank you, Gray..." Lucy smiles gratefully.

"The patterns on her body vanished…" Happy mentions wondering how or what exactly Gray did to make them go away.

The Book of End begins to evaporate slowly.

"Look." Gray motions to Lucy.

"The book is disappearing…"

"Zeref was defeated." The Ice-Make user says with a small smile; happy at last everything is finally over.

By the time this book disappears Natsu will go… Words of worry take over Happy's mind as he stares at the book. The blue exceed is still reluctant to fully believe Natsu isn't going to disappear.

He begins to cry thinking all the negative outcomes of all of this. He feels Lucy's hands pull him into a hug as she too, shares his concern. She closes her eyes wishing that Natsu will just hurry and appear out of nowhere or tell them how he's doing.

And as if dreams truly do come true; the sound of someone walking come closer in their direction and it's no other than Natsu.

The three of them look at Natsu unable to even say anything.

No words can even describe how happy Lucy feels seeing the sight of him. Her best friend is here in person, alive, and walking towards them.

The gods have answered her prayers; it is a miracle.

She happily sobs into the palms of her hand, the closer Natsu comes.

"Yo." Natsu waves with a smile as he winks at the group.

"NATSUUU!" Happy practically explodes with joy flying as fast as his wings would take him towards Natsu.

Both Gray and Lucy cheerfully look at Natsu; the two don't say anything yet as they are just enjoying the fact he's here right now.

"It's over." Natsu declares.

"Yeah" Gray agrees.

"As expected of Natsu." Lucy laughs a little while she wipes the tears out of her eyes.

"Uaaahhh! Natsuuu!" Happy bursts into tears hugging and nuzzling himself all over Natsu's face.

"So many tears! I told you I would certainly come back, Happy!" Natsu laughs with amusement as he tries to calm his exceed partner down.

"They're not tears! It's just juice overflowing" Happy retorts.

"No, they're tears."

"Natsu~" Happy repeats Natsu's name again wanting to hug him once more. He mainly needs it to give himself reassurance that Natsu is truly here and not actually going to disappear. He starts to feel emotional at the thought once more.

"Hey…" Natsu notices and pats Happy's head as he pulls him into him into a small hug.

"I think the first also passed away."

"Eh…?" Happy moves a bit away from Natsu to make sure he heard those words right.

Gray gasps in shock.

"The first…" Lucy mutters sadly.

"But you guys shouldn't look so down..." Natsu tries to comfort them. "Because I'm not sure but, isn't this what first wanted…?"

"I see…" Gray looks down with a small smile realizing that it probably is what Mavis has been wanting since the beginning.

"Let's laugh and return to the guild with pride!" Natsu yells with much gusto.

"Yes!" Happy cheers happily.

"Yeah." Gray adds.

"Yes!" Lucy ends with the final agreement; moved by Natsu's speech tears swell in her eyes.

Natsu flashes his classic smile happy to hear his friends feel the same as him.

The three of them begin to head back towards the guild hoping their friends are there waiting for them. Gray and Lucy are a bit ahead of Natsu and Happy but occasionally Lucy looks back at Natsu to ease her anxiety and to possibly overhear what they talk about.

"Your right hand…" Happy looks at Natsu's hand noticing it seems to be burned and in bad shape.

"It's just a bit burned…" Natsu scratches the back of his head trying to play it off cool not to worry Happy. "It'll be okay, Wendy can heal it later!"

"I can see the guild." Gray affirms as he turns his head towards Natsu.

"Even so, just now I feel nostalgic about it." Natsu reminisces.

"..It's finally over." Lucy sighs with relief.

"I want to relax at home for a while…I also need to finish the manuscript to the book I was writing." Lucy declares to herself knowing that she's gotten pretty behind on writing due to the war.

"I need to apologize to Juvia properly." Gray says sheepishly. Recollections of the fight between Invel, himself, and Juvia fill Gray's mind.

"When things calm down a bit, I wanna go out on another adventure." Lucy hums optimistically.

"That's great." Gray compliments.

"I want to go too!" Happy chimes in.

"An adventure to find Aquarius Key!"

"Aye! I love that huge fish!" Happy excitedly waves his arm together.

"She's half-fish, half-person!" Gray exclaims in disbelief at Happy.

"She's a mermaid." Lucy corrects both them.

"Speaking of which, since this battle ended, is there something you wanna do?" Lucy asks Happy. She is genuinely curious to hear if Natsu has any plans or just him and Happy in general. Maybe they can come with her if they wanted.

"Aye!"

"Do you wanna announce it? Natsu~" Happy teases as he withholds a giggle.

Lucy and Gray look back wondering why Natsu didn't respond.

"Natsu?" Happy repeats his name.

But the three soon realize no one was there.

Fear stricken faces took over all of them.

How long was Natsu gone?

"Huh? Natsu where are you?" Happy tears up ready to panic at any given moment.

"Hey…stop this weird joke." Gray demands angrily.

"…" Lucy balls her hands into a fist and trembles.

"Why…"

"I should have rewritten it properly…" The blonde complains; unable to mask the regret in her voice.

All faith is lost.

Everything has been for nothing.

"U-Uguh..."

Lucy grinds her teeth back and forth as the tears silently fill her eyes. Her hands shake once more becoming clenched fists and she digs her fingers into her palms as she bites her lip quivering up.

"WHY!"

Lucy's face contorts into a terribly beautiful, yet heartbreaking expression as she lets herself fall to the ground.

"Natsu? Where are you?" Happy hastily flies looking for Natsu.

"This can't be…" Gray in denial refuses to believe this is even happening. He had watched Lucy the entire time, never taking an eye off her as she wrote in the missing letters. He watched her through blood, sweat, and tears to do whatever she had to save Natsu's life. Everything she did helped him so why...what went wrong?

"NATSUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" Lucy screams letting out such a piercing cry so loud, it can be heard bellowing throughout Magnolia.

"Why! Why!" Lucy mourns smacking her hands against the hard pavement on the ground. "He shouldn't have disappeared…I…W-We…"She chokes up midway stopping herself to swallow to catch her breath. "It's not… It's not fair!" She digs her nails into her hands tightly, ignoring the developing scrapes she is giving herself.

"Lucy you gotta calm down!" Gray tries to get a grip on Lucy to reason with her but no avail. All he wants to do is comfort and calm her down; he knows out of everyone the most how important Natsu is to Lucy.

Deciding to not give up, Gray nearly gets smacked in the process of her tantrum but finally gets ahold of her and looks at her in the face as calm as possible.

"Breathe Lucy, you have to breathe."

Lucy stops for a brief moment and does what he says then quietly whimpers into his arms.

"Natsu is gone forever…" Happy says meekly joining Gray who is busy comforting Lucy. He gets in between the two of them also wanting comfort as well.

Lucy's eyes become filled with sorrow; her face stares blankly off into space as she recalls everything that has happened throughout the war.

Though there's one thing, in particular, she learned from it all, it was that was what helped her truly realize how much she loves Natsu.

From meeting Natsu the first time when he saved her from the criminal "Salamander" Bora, to him dragging her along in Hargeon and helped her join Fairy Tail — the guild she's dreamed of joining for so long — to giving her kind friends, a loving guild of a family, and new goals in life.

He saved her from poison when they went to Galuna Island.

He caught her when she was falling out of the tower as she yelled out his name being sure that he would be there to catch her.

Lucy blushes as she remembered fondly of when Natsu had uprooted the entire Rainbow Sakura tree for her specifically since she couldn't go to the viewing because she was sick.

Natsu…I…

The fire dragonslayer took her on many adventures, some were just crazy and others were fun. There were also times where things got rough but they always had each other's backs through thick and thin in the end. After all, it was more fun when they were together.

Yet the world has been so unfair and cruel to her and Natsu.

Is it so hard to just let us be happy?

Fate why must you be so cruel to us...

Lucy feels anger rise within her; she shoves herself away off of Gray to give herself some space. She places her hand across where her heart is; the place where she has been keeping her residing feelings for Natsu and stares up into the vast sky.

Suddenly a strange feeling erupts within her heart. It's a warm feeling, a familiar feeling, a strong feeling.

Lucy suddenly finds herself in a white space and across from her, there's a figure standing in front of her who appears to be running right at her.

Lucy- The voice begins suddenly then Lucy blacks out.

Suddenly Lucy feels newfound determination wiping the dry stains from her tears off her face.

"No more crying." She vows as she wobbles standing upwards to regain her posture.

"Huh?" Both Gray and Happy watch in shock at Lucy's sudden mood change.

"It's not the time to sit and cry or do nothing. We need to find him. We need to find Natsu!"

Happy smiles tearfully agreeing; satisfied that Lucy is back to her usual self again and it seems she has a plan as well.

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Gray chuckles.

"We're going to look all over Magnolia; let's split up." Lucy suggests.

"But Lucy…there's only three of us we can't possibly search the entire town ourselves" Happy replies doubtfully.

"Happy's got a point there." Gray concludes.

"You don't have to worry about that." A low familiar voice adds in.

The trio all look at each other wondering who just said those words until they turn around to see Erza and behind her, the rest of the guild—including Makarov—ready to be used at their disposal.

Lucy smiles as her chin trembles at the sight of her family.

"We got your back, Lucy, you can count on us." Erza gently hugs the Heartfilia with a small squeeze.

"Yeah, girl I'm here for you." Cana places a hand on Lucy's shoulder.

"Don't worry Lucy, I can help too! I have a good sense of smell that can help track Natsu down!" Wendy beams with a twinkle in her eye as she holds onto one of Lucy's hands.

"Ay, don't go takin' all the glory kiddo. I've got smelling capabilities too ya know." Gajeel's rough voice breaks through the girls; he ruffles the sky dragonslayer's hair earning a pout from her in response.

"Love rival fear, not for Juvia has your back, you can count on me." Juvia simply states moving in closer to the group; giving Lucy a warm smile.

"We got ya Lucy." Mirajane winks with Lisanna agreeing alongside her.

"We'll bring em home Lucy." Makarov weakly gives her a thumbs up.

The rest of the guild told her similar words; all in all wanting to do nothing more than to help her find Natsu.

"Ev-Everyone…" Lucy lifts her hands to cover her mouth; feeling moved by the words of her fellow guild members.

"I…thank you."

Afterward the guild split up into different squad units.

Gajeel, Levy, and Pantherlily to the station and Book land.

Erza, Jellal, Wendy, along with Carla, to the hospital.

Laxus, Mirajane, Lisanna, and Cana to the public bath.

Juvia and Gray to Fairy Hills.

Happy decided to go check his and Natsu's house.

Makarov and the rest of the other guild members to the East Forest.

Lucy decides to stay at South Gate Park to check if there is any sign of Natsu here.

Time passes and it's getting late.

Happy's the first to come back and reports that Natsu wasn't home.

Shortly after, each group came back and shared the same news.

"I just don't know where that boy could have gone off to." Makarov grumbles folding his arms together.

"It's okay Lu, don't worry we'll find him." Levy rubs Lucy's back as she notices the blonde is beginning to lose hope.

"Are you sure you checked everywhere though Lucy?" Gray asks wondering if they missed any places.

"Erm..yeah, I hav-��WAIT!" Lucy gasps.

"My apartment!"

"Wow, how could we forget the most important place of all?" Erza says blatantly in a teasing way.

Giggles from the other guild members, especially Mirajane and Cana can be heard.

"Oh goodness…" Wendy shyly twirls a finger in one of her pigtails unsure whether to giggle with them or get embarrassed.

Lucy blushes feeling her embarrassment rise wanting to deny but knew it isn't the time.

"Come, everyone! To Lucy's apartment-"Erza shouts valiantly but is cut off by Lucy before she can finish.

"I want to go myself though!"

"Eh?"

"But Lucy are you sure?" Cana interjects.

"I'm positive." Lucy affirms trying to emphasize that she wants and needs to do this alone.

"Well, we won't force you but…let us know immediately if you need some help okay? We'll be waiting here for you." Gray pats her head.

"Thank you, Gray. In fact, thank you, everyone, you've all been a big help…I'll be back soon!" Lucy waves and then heads off into the direction of her apartment.

As soon as her apartment comes into view she dashes up the stairs hastily. Unlocking the door within seconds she bursts into the room nearly tripping over a hair brush that is on the floor.

"What the hell…when was this…?" Not bothering to question how or why it got there she charges into the depths of her room trying to check every nook and cranny for Natsu.

Checking high and low she calls his name as she searches for him. Or anything that can give him away but—she can't find him anywhere.

"Natsu...where the hell are you!"

No answer still.

Lucy's shoulders drop in resignation. She deeply lets out a sigh feeling the need to cry her eyes out all over again.

"Natsu…please…I…I can't...I can't be without you." She croaks holding her hands over her heart ready to cry at any moment.

Just as she's about to cry she feels arms hugging around her.

Lucy's heart skips a beat as she can feel hot breath against the back of her neck, leaving her to shudder and blush at the feeling.

"Lucy…" A voice whispers her name so quietly it's barely audible to hear.

"Natsu?" Lucy returns with a question of her own in the same tone as the mysterious voice. Unsure if she's going crazy she swears that the voice is Natsu's and hopes by some miracle that it is.

A moment later she hears the faint sound of what sounds like a chuckle.

Natsu's chuckle.

"Is this a dream?" Lucy softly speaks up hoping her words are as clear as she can make them. "It almost sounds like that was a laugh from Natsu."

"Hah…" She isn't sure if she can allow herself to believe this is all really happening.

"This isn't a dream though Lucy…" The voice replies in a rather stern but gentle tone.

After that Lucy can't resist anymore she needs to know if this is a dream and who is with her right now. She instantly feels her cheeks wet; her eyes widen in revelation.

Pink spiky hair.

Scarf.

Usual charcoal smell.

It's him.

"I'm truly here Luce." Natsu cups one of Lucy's cheeks with a hand lovingly. "I'm truly here and never going anywhere again."

Lucy becomes overridden with emotions and jumps onto Natsu hugging him.

"YOU ARE SUCH AN IDIOT! I WAS SO WORRIED! I THOUGHT YOU WERE GONE!" The celestial mage hugs him tightly, not wanting to ever let him go. Natsu wraps his arms around her bringing the two as close as possible, wanting to make sure Lucy is able to fully believe it's him in the flesh.

"I was beginning to fade away though but then I heard your voice and saw you, Lucy. I don't know how but I saw you and I tried to run to you but something wouldn't let me. Then I ended up here." Natsu says in a low tone.

"I heard yours too…Natsu. I was there as well actually and I knew it was you that I had seen. I was trying to reach you but I blacked out." Lucy hangs her head down. "I don't exactly get what had happened or why we were there…"

"Natsu I-I…I can't stand the thought of losing you! I can't handle it anymore."Lucy clutches her heart remembering the pain she felt in her heart during all the times Natsu was in danger. She blushes due to having admitted her feelings in a way and continues to look down on the ground in hopes Natsu can't see the expression on her face.

Unfortunately for her he wanted to see it and he lifts her chin up with his thumb; wanting her to look at him. Natsu begins to open his mouth as if he is going to answer back but Lucy is faster and springs up an issue the two have long since needed to talk about.

Feeling the air already too awkward Lucy thinks she may as well get everything out in the open while she's at it.

"Natsu…when you left for a year it was hard." Lucy states. "It nearly broke my heart when I found out you had a tumor inside of you. I thought you were going to…die" She hesitates to try to sound out the word. "I found out about you being END but I didn't care, regardless of who and what you are, you are always going to be Natsu to me. Not a demon, not a monster, Natsu."

"And if you truly disappeared from the world I would have been miserable without you…"

"…"

Natsu quietly accepts her confessions feeling warmth rise within his cheeks. He bites the inside of his cheek cursing himself for not being able to respond as quickly as he liked.

"Thank you." He blurts out suddenly.

"No one has really cared…this much about my life."

Natsu inhales deeply as if he is trying to calm his nerves down.

"I'm still truly sorry I left for that year Lucy. You didn't deserve that and it did hurt me to do so."

"It's okay Natsu, I mean, I forgave you a long time ago so don't worry about it." Lucy answers calmly.

"While I left to get stronger for everyone, including you, I wanted to try and see if I could find Aquarius' key to bring back to you Lucy, to make up for leaving like that. Of course, I couldn't probably take too much of the pain away but…" Natsu trails off.

Lucy opens her mouth slightly; awestruck from hearing those words come out of his mouth. Though now she feels terrible thinking back because of how angry she was at the time.

"Also I, um, I appreciate you being so worried and taking care of me when I was unconscious." The pink haired dragonslayer veers his attention off of Lucy so she won't see the redness of his face.

"Ya gotta laugh though how fate has put us through hell and back with each other. One of us is either going through death or a near death experience." He continues with a hint of laughter in his voice. "When I thought you had died from Dimaria, it made me go insane with rage. Life wouldn't be the same…without you either."

Lucy feels her face grow hotter hearing that all that was over her. She is touched once more yet happy at the same time. She takes a free hand of hers placing it on his —that is currently still on her cheek—beaming a bright smile—but then feels like she probably looks goofy so she tries to hide the fact she is a blushing mess.

Lucy also remembers what Happy had said earlier about Natsu having to "announce something".

"Natsu, um, earlier Happy was telling me how you had something you wanted to announce when this was all over?" She decides to be brave and ask seeing if she can get an answer.

"Uh…" Natsu loses his composure for a brief moment wanting to back away from Lucy but holds his ground keeping cool.

"I uh, I have no idea what you're talking about. Sorry." Happy now comes to mind and Natsu's face grows a more worry some expression wondering if he's doing okay.

Lucy pouts and chides herself for bringing Happy up because it just ruined the moment. She knows how much of an important part of Natsu's life Happy is to him.

Uuuugah…I still want to continue talking to you though Natsu…

As if cutting her off from her thoughts Natsu abruptly takes Lucy's hand out the door leaving her flabbergasted,

"Don't worry Lucy, I plan to make the announcement very shortly, but not right now." Natsu winks while running faster taking Lucy closer by his side so she can match his running speed.

Lucy nods agreeing but is now even more curious as to just what kind of announcement it is going to be.

They shortly bump into everyone from the guild and they run at Natsu like a stampede. Most hug Natsu crying saying they missed him. It results in creating a circle around him and Lucy, but she slips away so she doesn't get mauled.

"NATSU!" An emotional Happy leaps onto Natsu hugging him so tightly it was making it hard for Natsu to breathe.

"Never scare me again, will ya?" Gray smacks Natsu's head in a playful way.

"Hey there Natsu, looking good I see."

Natsu sees Makarov in the arms of Erza and nearly finds himself wanting to cry because he's happy that in the end, Makarov is okay.

Everyone keeps asking about how it went with the battle against Zeref or where Mavis is.

"Before I start telling stories though guys there's something I wanna do first." Natsu says with a toothy grin.

"Sorry for making you wait, Luce. The "announcement" I have to make is aimed specifically at you and only you." He walks up to her and takes a hand of hers gently; holding it as he continues speaking.

Lucy feels her cheeks glow wanting to take her hand away but as if Natsu can read her mind his grip tightens to make sure she doesn't try and escape. Unsure of what's happening Lucy decides to not resist and stays quiet.

Happy giggles and gets off of Natsu knowing exactly what's about to happen. He is the only one Natsu ever told his announcement to.

"First things first…"

"Lucy I'm sorry I'm a reckless idiot sometimes. I know I've messed up and I thank you for staying with me regardless. I know sometimes it can be super crazy and there have been quite a few times that were hard to handle. But I overall really enjoy being your friend, teammate, and partner. I love everything about you." Natsu confesses.

"And I have something special I wanna give to you."

Natsu pulls out a box and opens it in front of Lucy.

And the look on her face is worth taking a picture of.

The gift inside is the key of Aquarius.

"I was able to find it and meant to give it to you the next time Id see ya but..we were a bit awkward for a while so I waited till the time was right."

Lucy breaks down in tears of nothing but complete happiness. She just can't even believe what's happening right now. He hands it to her and she takes it holding it like a newborn baby.

She wants nothing more than to kiss Natsu and thank him as many times as she can.

"Now Lucy save the tears if you can, there's something else."

Natsu gets down one knee pulling out yet another box.

"N-Natsu…?" Lucy breathes deeply; feeling her heart ready to burst.

"Lucy…I can't imagine growing old with anyone else, nor do I want to. I know you're the only one I want to share the rest of my life with. There are many ways to be happy in life…but all I really need is you. I love you." Natsu admits with nothing but love in his voice as he starts to get emotional and caught up in the moment.

"And I know my life will never be complete without you beside me to share it. The story of our love is only the beginning. Let's write our own happy ending. Let's write our own future Lucy, let's write the future we both deserve, together. That's why…"

"Lucy Heartfilia…" Natsu sounds her name out entirely.

"Will you do me the honor of being my wife and marrying me?"

Natsu opens the box.

Inside is a gold band garnished with pink jewels in the shape of stars with a red heart in the center. On top of the heart, there is tiny little princess tiara.

Lucy has never felt her heart glow so wildly, it is filled with love and happiness, it could burst at any moment.

She breaks down in tears smiling widely jumping into Natsu's arms.

"YES!"