The Struggle to Let Oneself Love Another

Chapter 13

Erza was sitting at the top of the guild hall sorting through a stack of pictures. She thought to herself, "These are definitely the cutest ones by far, but these are better for potential wall paper! I must get these framed as quickly as possible." Her frantic organization of the photographs was cut short when she heard the dragon slayer call her name. She turned around and saw him walking towards her with a friendly grin. "Hello Natsu, you seem rather cheery today, I thought you would still be in a lot of pain from your injury. Then again you do heal quick like me."
"Nah to be honest I was in a lot of pain this morning. I had to muster up all my will power just so I wouldn't cry in front of Juvia. So we decided to go see Porlyusica to find out if she could do something about the pain. And man let me tell yeah this medicine is amazing. It took the pain right away. But that broom was definitely a force to be reckoned with." 
The both of them gave a small chuckle at Natsu expense before Erza continued the conversation. "So why is it that you've come looking for me, when you should be at home healing with your personal nurse Juvia?" Her comment brought a light blush to his face as he imagined Juvia in nurses uniform. He quickly snapped back into reality and remembered what he came here to talk about. With a now serious look on his face he said, "Erza don't you think it's about time you filled me in on what happened right before and after I was stabbed and passed out?" Her gentle smile quickly faded away and was replaced with one of nervousness. "Yes I suppose it's about time I told you what I witnessed. Come. Sit next to me I'll explain it all." Without protest he sat next to her and gave her his full attention. Unaware of what was to be said he prepared himself for the worst.
...
"I'm just ganna head straight to the main events. As you know the demon and myself were locked in combat, while you and Juvia were merely spectating from the side lines."
"You know I would have come in to help you... But... You know... I got stabbed."
"Yes I know, anyway before you were hurt you yelled out to me, which caught the attention of both the demon and I. He must have noticed that Juvia was with you because... because..."
"Because what!? What did you see?"
"Her eyes they were red and I saw her take out a knife and stab you with it."
It was quite. She didn't continue any further. She thought it would be best to have it sink in before she went on. "Since the demon had to focus on controlling Juvia I was able to finish it off, thus finally releasing her from his mind control magic. However I think forcibly severing that connection must have affected her memory because when I ran to your side Juvia was yelling about how you just passed out and started bleeding out of nowhere. That's when I realized that she had no idea that she was the one who stabbed you."
"W... wait Porlyusica told me that you brought both Juvia and me to the infirmary. What happened to her?"
"Yes about that... for a while Juvia tried to stop the bleeding but I think it was all to much for her to take in so suddenly. The whole time she was crying and screaming her lungs out. She truly believed you were going to die. So naturally the amount of stress was too much for her and she passed out as well. After that I equipped my fastest armor and made my way here while carrying the both you."
At this point in the conversation Natsu was sitting with his head looking down a shadow covered the top half of his face. "Erza I..." He was interrupted by the sound of glass shattering near them. They both quickly stood up and made there way to investigate the noise. When they got to one of the support pillars they discovered that on the other side of it was a shattered plate with cookies that had Natsu's face on them. From past experiences they knew exactly who had baked these. They also realized that Juvia must have overheard everything that was just said. "Natsu you need to find her quickly."
"Yeah your right I'll..."
He stopped mid-sentence and fell onto the ground. He started to grunt from the pain that was suddenly coming from his stab wound. The pain just kept elevating, he could feel himself on the verge of passing out. The last thing he saw were the cookies Juvia had made for him with tears streaming down his face his last thought was her name. "Juvia."
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Earlier that day:
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"Ok Natsu, Juvia will await your return." After going their separate ways for the time being Juvia returned to Natsu's house. She had decided earlier to bake some cookies for Natsu, since the medicine seemed to have completely revived him from the pain. "Natsu will definitely enjoy Juvia's cookies especially if I put his face on them. I would put Juvia's face on them but it would be to embarrassing if somebody else were to eat them other than him." She happily placed the cookie dough in the oven and waited patiently for them to bake. Once they were done she used many different frostings to draw a chibi Natsu on each cookie. "There Juvia is all finish. Juvia just knows that Natsu will love these." She started to imagine Natsu happily eating her cookies, "These cookies are pretty tasty Juvia, let's get married and have 23 babies."
"Whatever you want my precious Natsu." She quickly snapped out of her imagination fantasy when she realized that it would be better to surprise him with the cookies now instead of waiting for him to return. So she grabbed a random plate and placed the best looking cookies on it. Then she made her way towards the guild hall.
When she arrived she saw Lucy sitting next to and talking to Gray. She was glad that the two of them were able to find love, so she went up to them to ask if they knew where he was.(Read chapters 9-11 for clarity) "You're looking for Natsu? Have you checked the roof? I saw Erza up there earlier and you said that he needed to ask her something right? He's probably up there with her."
"Thank you Lucy, farewell."
She made her way to the roof while cautiously holding onto her gift for Natsu. As she approached the sounds of conversation she suddenly stopped when she heard the voice of Natsu  say, "Because what!? What did you see!?" His serious tone made Juvia stop in her tracks. Then she heard those words from Erza. "Her eyes they were red and I saw her take out a knife and stab you with it." Hearing this made Juvia head hurt. She was remembering things she didn't know happened. She remembered being under the control of the demon and how she tried to hurt her friends. Then she remembered the exact moment Erza just described. She couldn't handle it, tears were running down her face. She was being punished by her lost memories. "No...no it can't be true. Juvia would never do that! So why does she have these memories? And more importantly how is Natsu going to react to this news?" She continued to listen until she heard him say, "Erza I..."
She couldn't bring herself to hear it, she fully convinced herself that Natsu would now hate her. She dropped the plate and ran. She ran as far as she could without stopping until she ran out of breath. Then she collapsed on the ground. The tears wouldn't stop and it started to rain as well before she cried herself asleep she thought to herself, "Natsu."