3rd POV
Lucy flinched when hearing that word. She slowly turned around to face the person who called her that. He was sat up in the bed he was in, his eyes shining with a crimson red. E.N.D.
Upon seeing Lucy, his face lit up.
"Princess! It is you!" He said smiling. Lucy awkwardly smiled back at him, "Hi...E.N.D.."
E.N.D's smile grew at that, him getting up out of his bed and standing up, though he instantly fell over. Lucy ran over to him in a slight panic and helped him up.
E.N.D took this opportunity to peck her cheek. Lucy blushed at that but decided to pretend it didn't happen.
Once E.N.D was stood up, he had one hand around Lucy's waist and the other was cupping her cheek. Lucy's cheeks were tinted with pink but she carried on with what she knew she needed to do.
"E-E.N.D.." she began.
"Hmm?" He answered.
"W-what's happening to Natsu right now?"
"He's being tortured."
Lucy shivered, "..why?"
"Because otherwise he'd gain control.."
"Why do you..uh...particularly want control..?"
"Because 1, I get to beat and kill people which is fun and 2, I get to see you!"
"H-Have you ever talked to Natsu about uh..maybe..working together..?"
"Working together?"
"Ya know like uh..Say, for example..when Natsu needs to fight..you're in control.. normally Natsu's in control and uh...when you're with me uh.." she struggled to think for a good idea.
"We can share!"
"Yea— uh..what?"
"We can share, meaning our personalities become one and we share you! Actually, why don't we do that normally? Yeah we should!"
"W-what?"
"We can merge! Meaning our subconsciousnesses that keep us separate beings will merge and we'll become one person!"
"W-wait that's not what I-"
"Great idea Princess!"
And with that E.N.D, once again, fell unconscious, but this time in was in Lucy's arms. Lucy put him in the bed he was in before breaking down in a panic, 'what have I done?!' She thought, 'with this, I won't ever have Natsu back!' And then the tears came, she cried for a good 10 minutes before running out the room to Makarov and the rest of team Natsu to say what happened.
While she was telling them what she'd done she was sobbing and crying with no hints of the waterworks stopping. None of them blamed Lucy, though she felt overwhelmingly bad about it. She just hoped when Natsu wakes up again he'll be more like Natsu then like E.N.D.
The guild soon got the news as well and yet again, no one blamed her. Everyone did their best to comfort her but that ended with no avail.
A week passed and still no sign of Natsu waking up.
2 weeks passed, still no sign.
4 weeks.
A month.
2 months.
It was around 2 months and 3 weeks after Natsu fell unconscious. He finally stirred.
As soon as Natsu woke up, he screamed loudly. You could hear it from outside the room and it was clear it belonged to him. Lucy and the rest of Team Natsu ran into the infirmary as quickly as they could. They came across Natsu.
He was sat on the bed holding his chest with a terrified look on his face. His eyes were reddish on the outside and as the colour got closer to his pupil, it turned to an onyx colour. The guild mark he had was now different, it was half fairy tail, half tartaros and the whole arm with the guild mark on was covered in etherious markings. He turned to face them, his face slowly calming to just a surprised expression.
"N-natsu?" Lucy asked, hope evident in her voice.
"Luce..?" He asked, his voice shaky.
Relief washed over Lucy and the rest of them at the fact that he didn't call her 'princess'.
Lucy smiled at him, walking up to him. She leaned down to him and hugged him tightly. "I missed you Natsu.." Natsu paused for a second before hugging her back.
"How long was I asleep?" He asked.
"2-2 months.." Lucy responded. "And 3 weeks," Erza finished.
"That long?" Natsu asked in disbelief.
"Yeah you took your time waking up flame brain" Gray added.
Natsu flinched at Gray's voice. His gaze met Gray's and his eyes narrowed, his grip on Lucy getting tighter.
"Natsu?" Lucy asked.
"Ah...it's nothing.." he looked back down at Lucy and smiled, holding her close.
Lucy missed this, she missed Natsu's warm hugs. She missed being in Natsu's arms, in them she felt so safe. Now he was back, and she was in his arms yet again. And she loved it.
Erza smiled, choosing to temporarily ignore the fact of Natsu's reaction to Gray earlier and took Gray and Happy out of the room with her to go tell Makarov and the guild the good news.
Once Natsu and Lucy were alone Natsu cupped Lucy's cheek and pulled her into a kiss. His free hand slid down her waist and pulled her onto his lap, facing him. He kept the hand at her lower back and moved the other hand to the back of her head, the hand wrapped around her hair. He pushed her head further into the kiss, deepening it and slyly slid his tongue into her mouth.
Lucy didn't expect the kiss but didn't object. She enjoyed it greatly,
2 and a half months without Natsu and the first things they did were hug and kiss. When the tongue came though, that's something she really wasn't expecting. Though she went along with it. She moved her arms to rest on Natsu's shoulders, both of their eyes now closed.
As they began making out, Makarov, and team Natsu came back in. Though they soon regretted that. As soon as they entered the room, Lucy's blush covered her whole face and she instantly pushed her face away from Natsu's, breaking away from the kiss. Natsu groaned at this and turned to face the members of the guild that had just walked in.
Makarov took a while to 1, recover from what he just walked into see and 2, take in Natsu's change in look.
"So...Uhm.. Natsu.. Do you want to go see everyone in Fairy Tail again?" Makarov asked warily. Natsu sighed but nodded, "sure" he shrugged.
Makarov nodded and went out before anyone else to inform the guild. Erza and Gray followed soon after. Lucy and Happy turned to face Natsu, "you sure you're okay Natsu?" Lucy asked.
"Yup!" Natsu agreed enthusiastically. Lucy smiled and followed them out leaving Happy and Natsu alone in the room.
Happy didn't know what to do, since all this happened he hadn't got a chance to hug Natsu but that's what he wanted more than anything right now. He was about to ignore it and walk out until he saw Natsu open his arms out for a hug, a warm smile on his face. Happy almost burst out into tears when he flew into the Dragon Slayers arms, into the warm embrace.
It was soon short lived though as Happy had to leave before Natsu did. He flew out of the hug and smiled at Natsu one last time before going out the infirmary doors.
As soon as the doors shut Natsu's smile dropped as he stood up and walked to the back of the room. His eyes narrowed as he stared there. "You can come out now, I know you're there."
As soon as the words left his mouth, Mard Geer, Seilah and Kyoka all appeared before him. They were all on their knees, bowing.
"Master, it's good to see you again." Mard began. Natsu just hummed in response.
"If I may Master, Why are you with the Fairies?" Seilah asked him, confusion evident in her tone and face. Natsu then began to explain, "you see Seilah, I'm not just E.N.D anymore, I'm Natsu too. I took it upon myself to merge us together so we're not separate beings anymore, but we're now the same entity."
The three demons gasped quietly but quickly understood, now noticing his guild mark. They all nodded, knowing now there'd be a drastic change in what they were originally planing but they were all prepared for that.
Not even a second after, the doors opened to a shocked Lucy. She looked straight at them with wide eyes. "T-Tartaros!" She exclaimed. The 3 Etherious narrowed their eyes at her. Natsu was quick to just in between them though, "heya Luce!" He joyfully said to Lucy, smiling.
He walked towards Lucy and away from the Demons, his smile never leaving his face. He grabbed Lucy's hand and then turned to the tartaros members. "This is mine, no one hurts her no matter what alright?" He asked. Though his tone sounded innocent, when said you could feel the venom lacing each individual word. The three demons nodded, each one fearing for themselves and their Master.
Lucy turned to Natsu, "Natsu what's going on? Why're they here?"
"Don't worry Luce, they can't do anything without my permission or my command to, so they can't harm any guild members here without my approval first." In a way, this slightly calmed Lucy. She knew that now Natsu and E.N.D's personalities are now one, Natsu wouldn't let E.N.D hurt a fairy tail member easily, so they were all safe.
Natsu's arm wrapped around Lucy's back, holding her close to his body. Lucy blushed at this. Natsu kept her close as he walked out of the infirmary and into the main guild. After they walked out the doors of the guild, the 3 tartaros demons followed suit, which shocked all the fairy tail members that were there and watching.
Once Makarov saw he stormed up to Natsu to question him. "Natsu!" He began, "Why are the Tartaros demons here?!"
"Well I'm still their Master, even if I'm in Fairy Tail too" he answered.
"But that- that doesn't mean you can just let them in here!"
"They won't hurt anyone."
"And how do you know that?!"
"Because our Master would not let us." Mard intervened, "we would never do anything against our Masters will." Seilah and Kyoka nodded in agreement.
"There see? They can't do much as touch any of you without my permission." Natsu explained. Makarov sighed and slowly nodded, still unsure.
"I- I can allow it for now, but if they do anything I deem suspicious, then they're being kicked out." Makarov said sternly.
Natsu clapped his hands together, "perfect!" he started, he turned around to face the 3 demons, "Kyoka you go back to the guild to get the others and bring them here, Seilah and Mard you two can stay with me here while we wait for the others. Okay?"
"Yes Master." All three of them stated in sync, while bowing. Kyoka quickly vanished to get the others while Mard and Seilah stood up straight again.
Makarov pinched the bridge of his nose. 'This is gonna be a long year' he thought.
~~~~~
(1907 words)
Okay wow, I wrote a lot more then usual. And I'm happy about it too :D
I originally wrote this on the same day as the last chapter but I decided to wait until I post it due to the decision of going over the chapter looking for errors.
Anyways, cya in the next chapter :D