Dragon's Requiem

Lying with Beasts

POV: Lucy

          The full realization that this is not my Natsu is truly hitting me. His tone is different. He acts different. He scares me to the point of needing to defend myself, but without my keys... I don't stand a chance against his strength. Now, he is squatting in front of me, shirt half undone, and I can tell where he is going to take this. I how know he means to punish me. But he's not my Natsu. I don't want to sleep with him, when he's like this. This isn't Natsu. He's not my husband. That's why, when I tell him my name, I tell him my maiden name. I see a flash of something in his eyes. It hurts me. I want to believe that he's still in there. What if...

           I loosen my grip on my dress. I relax, slightly. "I'm sorry," I tell him. "I just want to get out of this and go home." He squints for just a millisecond, registering what I just said. 

          "With your missing husband?" 

          "Yes." I say it plainly. I don't know if I'd be able to leave him here. Not in this place and not when there's a way that I could save him. What if... what if he does sleep with me? Would he recognize me? Would it trigger a memory of before? I'm not sure. What if it doesn't and I lose my chance at ever getting him back? I can't concentrate. Natsu huffs out a mocking chuckle.

         "Good luck with that. Now then...," he says. Then, he stands at full height and looks down at me. "I've grown tired of this." He steps closer. I scoot back and he grins. He kicks off his footwear and I try to look less nervous than I am. So much about his has changed. I love him. I need to remember that. I love him and I need the real him back. He caresses my neck in his warm hand and he horns and wings retract. He looks like he used to. He looks like the man who sang with me at the hidden lake. But his eyes are still the wrong color and the closer he gets to me, the more he look like he might get sick.

          "Now, keep being a good girl. This is going to be a while..." He trails off as he puts he knee on the bed and leans me back, craning his head to kiss my neck. I can feel him shaking. I can sense his magic pressure building. He's fighting something and I know it has to be my Natsu trying to stop Chimera from touching me. I hear him breathe in just for a millisecond, and then all hell breaks loose. He roars that same beastly roar that he did at the guards, but with so much pain behind it that it sounded like I had hurt him, physically. He rolls away, landing on the floor, and clutching his head, grunting and convulsing. He's drooling and blood is leaking from his nose in a small rivulet. He looks possessed.

          All of a sudden, the spasms slow and Natsu goes limp. I'd been frozen in shock and terror and I almost didn't want to touch him, for fear of him waking and attacking me or of causing more harm to him. But I lean forward. He doesn't stir. I put my hand on his elbow. Nothing. Shit. I quickly drop to my knees, in front of him. I grab a blanket that he'd discarded and hold it to his nosebleed. I open his mouth and can feel his warm breath on my hand. Thank Jupiter. Sliding behind him, I prop him up and hang his head forward. I change to a fresh piece of the blanket and watch it turn a bit dark. With one hand on the blanket, stopping the bleed and keeping it out of his open mouth, and the other around his waist, I realize that this is the first time in months that I have held him. I feel a single tear roll down my cheek. Natsu's warmer than I remember. He smells different. His hair isn't as fluffy. 

          "What have they been doing to you, Natsu...?" I drop my head onto his shoulder, for just a moment. Then, I lean forward and check the blanket. I change to another fresh piece and hold him tighter against me. I've missed his touch. After getting used to sleeping next to someone, being alone, again, was hard. But this, this is almost nice.

          Not knowing when he might wake up and how he'll react, I check the blanket, again. It's mostly dry. I shrug. It's the best I'm going to get. I toss the blanket aside and stand, keeping Natsu propped up. Then, grabbing him under the armpits, I start to heave him onto the bed. Suddenly thankful for the muscle mass that I gained during my long travel, it doesn't take as much effort as I had originally thought it would. I prop him up against the headboard. His nose isn't bleeding anymore, so I take the ruined blanket to the bathroom and run a clean piece under some water. I use it to clean up Natsu's face and neck. I also His eyes are darting around. I hear him groan. He must be having a nightmare. I toss the blanket away and run my hand through his hair. His face eases. He looks calm. 

          Yawning, I look things over. It must be late. The windows are dark, now, and their images are hard to decipher. The lamps are the main sources of light, now. I'm not sure how to put them out. I try to focus on my magic, but I can't even feel it. I sigh. Time to try stupid attempts at turning off magic lamps.

          "Lamps, off," I command. Nothing. I try looking on the walls for some kind of trigger for the lights, but there's nothing. I sit back down and think for a moment. I clap my hands, twice. Still, the lamps remain on. I groan and flop back. I raise my hand and snap my fingers, thinking that maybe I have to ask a guard, but this is when the lights go out. Of course, Chimera Natsu would make the sound of a single finger snap the sound that turns off his lights. Nothing says, "I'm the boss," like snapping your lights off. I snap, making sure it wasn't a timed thing, and the lights brighten, again. I snap for a third time and groan.

          Shaking my thoughts away from my lover's stupid lighting choice, I slide back, until my head hits the pillow. Turning to my right, I slide Natsu down, into a more comfortable position.  I scoot myself to the edge of the bed, far away from Natsu. I don't want to cause whatever that was to happen, again. I was able to hold him, just fine, when he was unconscious, but that doesn't mean that whatever triggered that curse won't reactivate, when he wakes up.  I spend the next few hours unable to sleep. I keep looking behind me, at the silhouette of the sleeping dragon slayer. Asleep, it's easy to forget what he is and what is happening. It looks like the remains of a dream, the image of sleep still stuck in my eyes, as I wake, back home. 

          "Lucy! Hey, Lucy!" someone is shouting. "Cassian's starting to use magic!" Turning around, I see Natsu. He looks like he used to, but somehow older. In front of him, a young boy with messy strawberry blond hair is holding a ball of light. I walk towards the boys and ruffle his hair. I kneel to look closer at it and see that he's, in fact, holding a small sun, in his hands. A star.

          "A celestial mage? A celestial dragon slayer?" Peering over his ball of magic, I see a woman standing under a tree, far in the distance. She only takes a few steps forward, but she travels the distance between us. The woman is now standing before me and offers a familiar smile. It's Virgo! 

          "Princess! I've found you! Where are you? We cannot connect to your magic energy or operate through our keys," she reports. She takes my hands in hers and holds them tightly.

          "I'm in Zeref's castle. I found Natsu, but he's under a spell. What do you mean you can't access your keys?" I ask. My spirit have been able to come to our world of their own volition for years. What's happening that they can't, now?

          Virgo grimaces. "We're not sure. Something in the physical world is making it so that we can't leave the celestial plain, or at least travel to the physical plain. This was the only way I could reach you. You said that there's a spell on Natsu. Could the same thing be true of our keys?" I look down at our hands. The leather strap that was tied around my wrist materializes, like smoke.

          "That could be. I know that my magic is being suppressed, so the same is probably true of you and your keys. If you can get a message to Levy and Master Makarov about what's happening here, do it," I instruct her. "They need to know that Natsu is alive and under a serious curse. He is what they've been calling Chimera." She nods and tells me that she will try. WE agree to meet here, in my dreams. If Zeref gets found out or doesn't get information we need, at least we have Virgo.