After the END

Chapter 7: Love

Sting's P.O.V.

"What is it Natsu?" I ask confused since I thought he already told us everything. "Don't tell the rest of Sabertooth I am alive." Natsu says. I look at him confused, "Natsu of course I am going to tell them you are alive, did you forget that I told you how devastated we all were when we find out what happened to you!" I say but at the end I lose my temper and yell. "Sting." Rogue says bringing me back to my senses. "I know, and that's exactly why I don't want you guys to tell them, I don't want them to go through that same pain again." Natsu says. "What do you mean by that?" Rogue asks concerned. "I... I probably won't be here in about a week, maybe even less." He informs us.

"What?" I ask completely stunned. "Long story short my organs are slowly dying and I'm losing more and more of my magic every day, and the same goes for E.N.D. with his curses. He is taking his curse power to help keep my organs functioning while I try to hold onto the magic power I have left because either my organs will stop or I will be completely depleted of magical energy, either way I am going to die." Natsu tells us. Neither of us say anything as we stare at Natsu in horror.

"Is there nothing that can be done, no magical spell or medicine or anything!" Rogue says becoming frantic to my surprise. Natsu shakes his head, "No nothing, ever since I came back E.N.D. has been doing research on anything that can sustain his, our, life, but after a week of researching and scouring every book he could find he came up empty handed, that's the main reason why he revealed himself to everyone, because he was pissed as all hell." Natsu tells us. "So I just wanted to say goodbye." Natsu says giving us a small smile.

"How can you smile!" I yell at Natsu as tears threaten to spill over. "Because before I didn't have the chance to say goodbye, and to tell you how much I appreciate our friendship, or how happy I was to meet two new dragon slayers, despite how idiotic the two of you are." Natsu says still with that small smile on his face. "Speak for yourself." Rogue mutters. Natsu lets out a small chuckle and then gives us a sad look, "You should probably go now, it was nice to see you again." He says. "You too." I say as we head up the stairs.

When we reach the main floor we say goodbye to everyone trying our best not to let tears fall. As we finally leave and head towards our guild I notice that Rogue suddenly stopped walking. "Sting." Rogue says in a soft voice as tears flow down his face. As I look at him the same thing happens to me as we just stand there and weep till our eyes are all red and puffy and our voices are strained.

Natsu's P.O.V.

When Sting and Rogue leave I felt exhausted, emotionally and physically. Right before I'm about to let E.N.D. control my body again I hear a voice coming from upstairs, "Where is he!" I hear Happy scream.

Happy... Oh right he went on a mission with Carla for three days, I guess he just got back. I think to myself. "Happy just try and calm down." I hear Erza say. "No! Carla had a premonition thing or whatever when we were traveling saying that Natsu is locked up in a cell!" He yells. "But Happy like we explained earlier Natsu isn't completely himself right now." Cana says. "And like I said I don't care so show me where he is!" He yells at everyone again.

A moment of silence falls but then I hear the door at the top of the stairs open. I hear Happy flap his wings down to where I am and slam into the bars. "Natsu!" He yells with tears in his eyes. "Hey little buddy." I say over joyed to be able to see him. "Natsu I know about E.N.D., but I don't care! All I want is Natsu to come home! Please, all I want is for you to come home!" Happy says balling. "I'm sorry Happy, but I can't leave this cell, why don't you go with Lucy for tonight?" I suggest. "NO! I want to be by your side, like we used to. I want things to go back to the way things were, so please, come home." Happy says quietly at the end losing steam he had from all the crying he's doing. "Happy it's already pretty late and you just got home, you need rest." I say to try and convince him otherwise. "Not without you!" Happy yells again.

Suddenly I hear footsteps walking down the stairs and the small clank of keys hitting together. Lucy appears from the bottom of the stairs with keys in her hands. "I got the ok from master. Happy if you want you can sleep here with Natsu tonight." Lucy says. "Wait a min-" I try to protest but Lucy already unlocked the door.

Happy comes flying in and slams into my body. I decide not to say anything as I just smile at Happy who has already passed out from exhaustion. I guess I passed out too at some point because when I open my eyes Happy is gone and Lucy is putting a blanket over me.

"Oh you woke up." Lucy says. "Where is Happy?" I ask. "He looked uncomfortable so I put him on the couch in Makarov's office." Lucy says. "Oh ok," I say but notice that Lucy seems a little concerned about something, "is something wrong Lucy?" I ask.

"Natsu do you.... Do you still.... Do you still love me?" Lucy finally spits out. I just sit their stunned not knowing what to say. "It's just that I still love you, probably more than I should, but when you came back it wasn't you, and he kissed me, and you didn't fight back, and that time when you told me you loved me it was sort of in a pretty drastic situation and you might have just said it beca-" "Lucy!" I raise my voice not able to listen to her anymore. "I-I... Yes, of course I still love you, and I have always loved you, probably since the day I met you. I did not say 'I love you' just because of the situation. And when E.N.D. kissed you..... That was the only time that I truly tried fight against him, but then I remembered everything that I did to you...." I say quieting down at the end. "You still should have fought Natsu. I don't solely remember you when E.N.D. took over your body, I remember everything about you, when we met, the countless times you have saved me, when you gave me courage, when you made me cry, when you made me laugh, when you would always come back to me, how I felt whenever I saw you get hurt, and when you told me you loved me and how happy I was but devastated when you disappeared a few moments later." Lucy says causing a small smile on my face to form but also tears to prick the sides of my eyes.

All of a sudden she pulls out a small key that was in her pocket. "Levy gave me this." Lucy says as she walks towards my handcuffs. I immediately jump back, "Lucy what are you doing, I don't trust myself enough to not let E.N.D. come out and for me to not hurt you again." I say trying to get away from her; however, she grabs my hands and pulls them towards her. "Natsu I trust you more than anyone I know, you won't hurt me." She says.

Without releasing I relax my hands as she unlocks the handcuffs. I feel E.N.D.'s presence a bit more but I am still able to suppress him easily. "You okay?" Lucy asks. "Yah." I say. I then proceed to put my hand on her cheek and lean in and kiss her.

We continue to kiss not backing down when I unconsciously stick my tongue in her mouth. After a while we stop making out since we both need some air. We look at each other and I notice a hint of pink blush covering her cheeks. I lean in again and we start kissing again.

As we are doing so Lucy begins to lay down causing me to be on top of her. "Wait Lucy." I say as she has fully lays down. "You don't know everything, there are still things that I need to tell you." I say. "I don't care what else you need to tell me, I love you." Lucy says. "What if you hate me after I tell you?" I say worried. "I may get angry but I will eventually get over it, nothing will ever make me hate you, I promise." Lucy says. "I honestly don't deserve you." I say looking into her eyes. "Yes you do." She says as she leans back up and starts kissing me again, but after a bit I lean her back down again as I slowly reach down to remove her shirt.

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A/N- I'm sorry that is as far as I can go! I was so embarrassed to just write that much, but you get the idea about what they did.

I hope you guys all liked this chapter, it 's probably one of the longer ones, and please like and comment because I would love to know what you guys all think!