In Another Lifetime

[17] Magic or No?

A black light sped towards her.

"Lucy!" Natsu tried to block the light from the side but missed. Lucy could only stand there as the fatal light came at her when a black-hooded figure jumped in front of the light, last minute.

"No!" Lucy dropped to the ground, tears filling her eyes as she saw her future self die below her.

"You saw yourself die?" Ms. Vermillion repeated.

Lucy nodded. "Well, I saw my future self die. But it was me, both ways." She was currently sitting in detention on Monday, with the others surrounding her. Erza, Juvia, and Levy didn't look too surprised, as Lucy had told them earlier, so Lucy didn't question their indifferent expressions. Jellal didn't look like he was paying attention at all, so Lucy ignored him as well. Gray and Gajeel had eyebrows raised, but Natsu's response intrigued Lucy the most.

"How do you know the one who died was you from the future?" he asked, his expression unclear.

"I don't know how I know the other me was from the future," Lucy answered honestly. "I just do. I don't know anything else, though."

"So there were two of you," Natsu tried to clarify. "The one in the future died, but another one of you still lived. Right?"

Lucy shrugged. "I'd like to think so. Most likely, though."

Natsu let out a breath at this, as if he were holding it in this entire time. "Oh," he said. "Alright, then."

"What?" Lucy asked jokingly. "You were worried that I actually died?"

"No!" 

Natsu's quick reply only made Lucy's lips curl upwards. Before Lucy could verbally respond, however, Natsu beat her to it.

"That was only for one night, though," he said. "What were your other dreams?"

Lucy knew Natsu was asking this on purpose, but she answered the question, nevertheless. "The one I just told you about was the one I had last night," she said as she flipped through her notebook. "On Saturday, I dreamed about . . ." Lucy hesitated as she looked down at her entry. How could she word this so the others wouldn't get the wrong idea?

"'I walked into my living room and was excited that Natsu and Happy were there,'" Erza suddenly read after stealing Lucy's notebook out of her hands. "Who's Happy?" she asked a moment later.

"Happy's my cat," Natsu said to Erza before turning to Lucy, who was trying to snatch her notebook back from Erza. "Happy was in your dream, too?" he asked her. "Could he talk and stand on his back legs?"

Lucy gave up on her failed attempts with Erza and turned to Natsu. "I don't know anything about that, but he could sit upright and hold a fish in his hands -- paws, whatever -- so probably? And is he blue?"

"He is!" Nastsu jumped out of his chair, causing Lucy slight alarm. "Wow, even Happy's involved in this."

"Shall I continue reading?" Erza asked loudly. She paused for half a second before continuing. "Good. 'I walked into my living room and was excited that Natsu and Happy were there. However, they turned out to be mere illusions and I felt greatly saddened and lonely.' Wow, are you writing a novel or something?" Erza looked up to grin at Lucy, who took the opportunity to take her notebook back.

"Lu-chan, why were you sad that they weren't actually there?" Levy asked. "Exactly how close were you and Natsu?"

Lucy frowned, thinking hard. "Um, I think we were really close friends," she began, "and I think I was used to Dragneel always being in my house, for some reason."