"Basically, in your life, every important event comes down to twenty seconds."

A thirteen year old Natsu frowned, eyes flickering up to Gildarts. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"All you ever need is twenty seconds—for anything." Gildarts paused, his eyes flickering across the field before them. They'd gone out here to train, to spar for a bit. Somehow, that had morphed into Gildarts spilling what few life lessons he had for the energetic fire mage. "Every important moment...only twenty seconds of absolute, sheer bravery is needed. That's what life is—all of these important few seconds strung together."

"Gotcha," Natsu muttered, giving a nod, although his face was still twisted up in a confused expression. "...I think."

Gildarts' words lingered in the back of Natsu's mind for years—he'd never really been able to make sense of it. But he sure as hell tried.

When Natsu was fourteen, he took Gildarts' lesson as an excuse to do stupid shit.

"Gray! Natsu!" Erza had cried, fire in her eyes, as she chased after the two boys. "What the hell do you think you're doing!"

Erza had been slaving away in the guild hall's kitchen the entire day, trying to recreate some world famous strawberry cake recipe that she'd discovered in some buried treasure she encountered on a mission a while back. It had taken her a couple weeks to gather the special ingredients, and prepare them. The strawberries had to be from a specific region in the hills far beyond Magnolia; once retrieved and picked, they had to be soaked in a special type of honey infused with magic for three weeks. Once everything was ready, the recipe had to be followed precisely. The cake was legendary, and Erza had been anticipating eating it for weeks.

Of course, Natsu had come up with the genius idea that he should eat the cake. He'd asked Erza if she'd share—she'd violently denied him a slice of her cake—and so he'd resorted to plotting against her to swipe a piece or two. He knew he couldn't work alone, and therefore he had recruited Gray to assist him.

Gray was hesitant, unsure if this was truly as good of an idea as Natsu seemed to believe it was. "Are you sure about this, flamebrain?" Gray whispered as they hid behind the bar's countertops, watching as Erza carefully sat herself down at a table with her precious cake. "I think Erza might kill us."

"Don't you wanna slice of that cake?" Natsu said, peering at the black haired boy.

"Well, yeah, but—"

"Then, we'll get some," Natsu said with confidence.

"How?"

Natsu cocked an eyebrow. "All you need is twenty seconds of absolute, sheer bravery."

And so, off they went, sneaking up behind the scarlet haired girl until the exact instant before she placed a bite of the cake in her mouth. The two boys yelled out their war cries, kicked over the chair she was seated in, and grabbed the cake; they hightailed it out of the guild hall, hauling ass back to their super secret hideout (around the corner).

Erza fell to the floor, the bite of cake on her fork smashing into the floorboards; she let out a scream as she watched those two brats run off with her perfectly crafted cake. Absolutely raging, Erza chased after them, more furious than she'd ever been before, screaming swears the entire way out of the guild.

By the time she'd made it out the door, the two idiots had cheeks full of decadent strawberry cake. Erza's eyes dropped to the plate on the ground, wiped completely clean.

No cake left.

Erza let out a screech, and then she dove at the two boys, ravenous and horrified and more pissed off than Natsu could've ever imagined.

The boys limped home, beaten, bruised and bloody.

But at least the cake had been good (not that Erza knew).

When he was seventeen, Natsu had begun to rethink his position on Gildarts' wise life lesson from a few years back. Now, he looked at the whole twenty seconds thing as a battle strategy.

Natsu rolled his eyes as Lucy frowned at his arm, wrapping his wounds up with bandages and gauze, trying to stop the excessive bleeding. As she worked on him, he let his eyes wander, peering at their surroundings.

They'd come earlier that morning to free a small town from the corrupt hands of a dark guild that was controlling local businesses and townspeople. Natsu had barged into the town, fists set ablaze, ready to take down anyone who opposed him. Lucy and Happy followed behind, cringing, fully aware of how terribly this situation was going to turn out.

Whoever had personally asked for Team Natsu in this quest had been horribly mistaken. Natsu facing off against a dark guild that hurt poor, innocent villagers? That was a recipe for disaster.

And it truly, truly had been.

Natsu had busted into the dark guild's hall, demanding to fight the master of the guild to a fight to the death. Lucy had chirped in with a gentle, 'or, you know, just leave the townspeople alone and don't come back'. The dark guild had geared up for a fight, everyone heading to battle stations. Lucy was just about to call in for some backup—Erza and Gray, maybe—before Natsu torched the place.

The entire guild hall was up in flames within seconds. Natsu barrelled Lucy and Happy out before the building collapsed.

Unfortunately, the master of the dark guild and a few of his lackeys had managed to escape, and he ordered them to kill Natsu on the spot. That only seemed to make Natsu giddier, and he let out a boisterous laugh before he sent the lackeys spiralling into a fiery oblivion.

Lucy face-palmed. He'd managed to hit a couple houses with that last blast. Lucy sighed, sending out a signal to the Fairytail guild that backup would be necessary—and that Master Makarov might as well make an appearance, since he'd have to make a statement on the destruction of the town.

Natsu dove at the dark guild master, throwing a couple fistfuls of flames at him; the man dodged the attacked, and the flames headed straight towards town, crashing into some houses and buildings.

Lucy sighed. Good thing she'd evacuated the town. Although, the village people probably wouldn't be too pleased when they returned...

A vicious fight ensued between Natsu and the dark guild master, one that basically knocked the entire town over in the process. Of course, by the end of it, Natsu was beaming happily while the dark guild master lay charred on the ground—just like the rest of the village.

Fairytail had arrived, and the guild members helped village people back into what was left of the town, now that the townspeople had been given the go ahead to return to their homes. Mira had already calculated the cost of the damage that Fairytail would have to be responsible for, and was reciting it back to Makarov, who already had tears in his eyes.

Lucy sighed, wrapping the bandages around Natsu's arm—he'd gotten a bit beat up in his battle with the dark guild.

Happy laughed as he fluttered around, glancing at the destroyed city surrounding them. "Boy, Natsu—you really know how to flatten a place."

Natsu shrugged. "Hey, I got rid of the dark guild, didn't I?"

"Yeah," Lucy smirked. "But at what cost?"

"Well, the people are free, aren't they? I think that's worth rebuilding a couple shacks."

"A couple?" Lucy stammered, exasperated. She looked around. "Natsu, there's not a building left standing!"

"Details," he grumbled.

"How do you manage to do this every time?" Happy asked, still amused by the situation.

Natsu grinned. "You really wanna know my battle strategy?"

"Aye!" Happy retorted. Even Lucy leaned in a little bit, intrigued by Natsu's strategy that also happened to leave every town they visited flattened.

"In every battle, you've got twenty seconds. Those twenty seconds will change outcome of every battle." He paused. "You've got twenty seconds to act on absolute, sheer bravery. And that's how it happens every time—because I'd rather be brave and wreck a couple buildings than not attack every chance I've got. What if that attack was what saved these people from a dictatorial dark guild?"

Lucy blinked, surprised to hear such a thought out response from the fire mage. She leaned back, looking at her best friend. He'd clearly thought about this in depth, measured out his destruction in comparison to his aid. Maybe he'd even considered toning it down, but realized that he might not save as many lives if he did. And he'd decided, all in all, to be brave. Because that's all you needed, according to him. Twenty seconds of absolute, sheer bravery. It took Lucy a couple seconds to form the words on her lips, but when she spoke them, they were the truth.

"Natsu?"

His dark eyes snapped up to hers. "Yeah, Luce?"

"I'm glad you had those twenty seconds."

Up until this point, Natsu had used Gildarts' lesson in just about every single aspect of his life. But when Natsu was eighteen, that was when he came to a different meaning of Gildarts' words. One that focused far less on himself.

"Natsu!" Lucy's voice cut into the dark haze surrounding the boy. She came into view—blurry and smudged with ash—running over rubble and limp, lifeless bodies. She sounded like she was still a far distance away; must be his hearing. He must've blown his ears out a bit. "Natsu! Hang on!"

She was running at him, eyes frantic and wide. They'd just been in the midst of their worst battle yet. The whole guild was involved. A war. And Natsu had just ended it singlehandedly.

He hadn't done it with ease, though; their enemies had been strong. Too strong. Just in the preemptive battles that had occurred, the little attacks they'd landed on Fairytail had been devastating. Within the first wave of attacks, Fairytail was already down for the count. Elfman, Juvia, Gray and Levy...they'd been badly injured too early in the game. Everyone else was in a scramble, just managing to survive the small blows their enemies inflicted. Natsu knew that his guild wouldn't last long. And if he let it go too far, he'd lose someone.

The smaller, weaker enemies were rushing towards the guild. But further back was the real threat-the leaders of the guild, the strong mages. Their magic power was shocking.

So, he dove in head first. Left Lucy and Happy behind, told them not to follow, and ripped into battle. He'd blasted everyone he could see, used his strongest attacks, did whatever he could manage. Once the enemy started to fight back, everything went blurry. He lost count of how many times he'd been rocked with an attack; he lost count of how many blows he'd gotten to the head or torso. He'd worked through the pain-he had to, for his friends.

So, he tried to remember what he was standing up for, tried to remember his friends. He thought of Lucy, counted to twenty, tried to be absolutely brave.

One.

He dove forward, eyes landing on a few minor enemies.

"Fire Dragon Iron Fist!"

He didn't wait for the flames to disperse. He didn't have time. He rolled, midair, jerking to his left to see a swarm of new enemies arriving.

Two.

"Fire Dragon Roar!"

These enemies were stronger than the last ones. A barrage of attacks hit him after his flames fell flat, not doing enough to wipe them all out. Natsu closed his eyes, the sting of poison attacks ripping at his flesh.

Three. Four.

Even more enemies arrived, now. Too many. He had to wipe them out or he'd be screwed.

Five, six, seven.

Natsu landed with a thud, clouds of dust billowing up from the dirt below him. Arrows flew at his position; he breathed fire, dropping them all to the ground before they managed to get too close. But before he could even realize, more attacks followed.

Enemies ran towards him, spouting poison and blowing it towards him; other enemies hurled ferocious water attacks at his location. Natsu gritted his teeth, only able to block a couple attacks out of the dozen poised upon him. His entire body stung; his skin was burning up from the poison and ached from the water attacks.

He had to keep going.

Eight, nine.

More enemies. Not the fodder, now-the higher ups. The more powerful ones. The ones that would cause trouble for the guild.

"Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!"

Enough to wipe out the weak, but simple amusement for the stronger mages before him. He'd have to do better.

Ten, eleven, twelve.

Wind attacks whipped at his flesh; ice chipped at his wounds. Magical swords flew at him; he managed to dodge the attacks at large, but they nipped at his skin as they whizzed by. He was getting tired, running out of magic energy. He needed to keep going. He had to.

Thirteen.

Too many powerful attacks to dodge, and they were getting too damn close. He hopped out of the way of a vicious plant attack, but fell right into the trap of a giant beast. The beast's fists slammed down, knocking Natsu over. It hit him again, sending him flying back; his side smashed into a nearby cliff. He let out a grunt, struggling to stand. The pain of the last attack added onto the wind, ice and water attacks he'd been smacked with before was bewildering. The poison attacks from before were starting to affect him; his movements were becoming slow, sloppy.

The enemies neared, cornering him against the face of the cliff.

Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen.

"Crimson Lotus-" Natsu began, but was interrupted by a harsh lightning attack. He jumped out of the way, but was instantly hit with three even stronger forces: an ice attack, a poison attack, and an attack of several enchanted longswords.

He tried to dodge them, but his movements were too sloppy from being poisoned; Natsu tripped, stumbling forwards, directly into the attacks.

Natsu let out a cry as the swords impaled him, stabbing through his stomach, chest, legs and arms; the ice attack hit next, tearing open even more of his already demolished flesh. Then, the poison attack hit, perfectly timed so that it had the best access to the wounds inflicted by the previous attacks.

Seventeen, eighteen.

Natsu fell forward, coughing out blood.

Nineteen.

He had to save his friends.

Lucy...

The enemies, the leaders of the guild they were opposing, circled the rose haired mage, smirks on their lips.

Only one more second. One more second to be brave.

Twenty.

"Fire Dragon Secret Art: Nuclear Blast!"

Far away, down the valley, the battle was just starting. The enemies were weak, but there were quite a few of them; they were the fodder the opposing guild had sent whilst the main force was focused on Natsu up ahead.

"Lucy!" Happy cried, pointing up ahead. "Look!"

Lucy flicked her whip, wrapping it around an enemies' neck; with a flick of her wrist, she snapped the man's neck. Her eyes flashed up to the horizon, where Happy was pointing.

Fire, erupting from the bottom of a mushroom cloud that was beginning to take up a majority of the sky. Lucy recognized those flames.

Her heart surged. "Natsu!" She glanced up at Happy. "We have to go get him!"

"Aye, sir!" Happy nodded as he took a hold of Lucy, picking her up, away from the small horde of enemies currently battling the rest of the Fairytail guild.

They flew over the enemies, dodging a couple attacks along the way. Lucy didn't care; she wasn't concerned with this battle. Her guildmates could handle it, now that the blast of fire up ahead had wiped out any real threat. Right now, she had one priority-find Natsu.

He'd run off like a complete idiot and barreled headfirst into a battle with a stupid amount of enemies (which, by the way, contained the leaders of the enemy guild, who were stronger than anyone could imagine) without even consulting anyone. One second, he was by Lucy's side, and the next, he'd wrapped his arms around her, giving her a tight embrace. And then, he was gone, shouting over his shoulder not to follow him.

Lucy's eyes scoured the ground before them as they entered the absolutely wasted battlefield; the entire place was a steaming, burning pile of ashes. Dead bodies lay around, burnt to a crisp. Lucy narrowed her eyes, glaring down into the ash, looking for any sign of a rosy colored head.

"Natsu!" Lucy cried, eyes falling on a limp body beside the edge of a now tarnished cliff. Pink hair covered in grey ash, but pink nonetheless. "Right there, Happy!"

"Aye!" Happy cried, flying in as fast as he could, dropping Lucy off a few feet away.

"Natsu!" The celestial mage cried. "Natsu, hang on!"

She ran to the boy's limp body, skidding to her knees beside him. The ground was hot, hot enough to burn the skin on her knees-but she didn't care. Natsu was here, and his body was so still, and oh god, he was covered in blood and horrible, open wounds, and-

"Luce..." A hoarse little voice whispered, barely audible.

Lucy's brown eyes ran over his face; her hands were on his back, then his cheeks, then his forehead, pushing some sweaty, ashy hairs back. "Natsu? Natsu, can you hear me?" She tilted his head up.

He had one eye peeked open, and his dry, bloody lips spread into a tiny little grin. "I was...pretty brave...huh?" He managed, too weak to say any more.

Lucy smiled down at him, absolute joy on her lips, but the sting of impending tears hit her eyes. She began to sob, her hands intertwining in his hair. "Of course," Lucy murmured. "You're always so brave."

"...Twenty...seconds..." He whispered hoarsely before his head drooped, too heavy for him to hold up. He let his eyes fall closed, not caring if it was the last time they'd open. He could die, here and now, and it would be fine. He'd protected his friends, his family. They were safe. Lucy was safe. He'd killed the leaders of the enemy group...

He'd been brave, if only for twenty seconds.

Guess Gildarts' advice wasn't so bad.

Natsu blinked, groaning as a bright, white light shone directly into his eyes; he tried to lift his arm to cover his gaze as he blinked, but the action left him reeling as pain encompassed his entire body.

"Ah," He hissed, turning his glare down to his arm. Natsu blinked, surprised to see most of his body wound up, covered in thick, heavy bandages. His eyes adjusted to the light a bit more, and he turned to his left, looking at the brace his left arm was in. His right leg was hung up in a sling, and he had blotches and patches of bandages and medication running down his entire body.

He was in a hospital bed, wearing only a pair of boxers, alongside a stupid amount of bandages and gauze.

"You're awake!" A voice said softly, but was filled with happiness.

Natsu's gaze flickered up, and his dark eyes landed on a pretty blonde smiling up at him; she was sitting in a chair beside his bed, to his right.

"Luce," Natsu breathed, voice still rough and crackly. "You're here."

"Of course," She mumbled, cheeks going a bit red. "You think I'd be anywhere else?"

Natsu smiled at her for a second. "How long was I out?"

"Six days. Wendy healed as much as she could, but they said it'll take some time. You were poisoned pretty badly, and you just needed to get it out of your system."

Natsu's expression fell serious, remembering why he was in the hospital in the first place. "How's everyone?"

Lucy gave him a smile, cheeks rosy. Her eyes were bright, hooked on him. "Everyone's fine, Natsu." Her voice fell quiet. "Thanks to you."

Natsu snorted.

"No, really. Thank you. You...you saved us, Natsu."

As much as he would've loved to brush it off and act like it was nothing, the look on her face made him hesitate; his expression grew serious and his dark eyes landed on hers. Her eyes grew soft as they looked at each other. Natsu wanted to speak, but he couldn't quite find the words.

Lucy's smile faded away, and the next thing Natsu knew, she was jabbing a finger at him. "But I swear to god, if you ever, and I mean ever run off like that again, without even an explanation...or a goodbye..." Her eyes dropped and her little hands balled into fists, frustrated. She blinked back a couple tears, angry and upset.

Natsu cocked his head slightly to the side as he watched her. "Don't cry, Luce."

Her head snapped up. "I'll cry if I want to!" She sucked in a breath. "You could've died Natsu. You almost did! And that's how you left me? With a measly hug?"

Natsu blinked. "I...I didn't know what else to do," He explained. "If I told you what I was gonna do, you would've smacked me."

Lucy didn't meet his eyes. "Maybe you deserved a smack. It was a stupid idea."

"It worked, didn't it?"

"Not the point."

Natsu shrugged; the movement made his body ache to its very core. "Twenty seconds of absolute, sheer bravery." He let out a sigh, and then looked up at the blonde before him, lips twisting into a little smirk. "Guess that's all it takes."

Lucy looked at him, unable to prevent her lips from twisting into a wistful smile; she remembered those words from the first time Natsu explained them to her. Twenty seconds of absolute, sheer bravery. It suited him. He was the bravest person she knew.

Stupidest. But bravest, too.

Lucy's brown eyes searched his face for a few long seconds, a deep frown muscling its way over her features. Her hand fell onto the bed, nudging his; a second later, she twisted her wrist and slid her palm against his, intertwining their fingers. His skin was warm, comfortable, safe. Still, her eyes frantically looked over his face, her eyebrows tugging down as her frown grew.

Natsu met her gaze, confused by her expression. "You okay?" He asked, worried that something was wrong. She looked...confused and upset and...something else he couldn't quite read.

Lucy didn't respond for a few seconds; she just blinked at him, the confused expression in her eyes only getting stronger by the second.

And then, she spoke.

"One," Lucy whispered, brown eyes not leaving his gaze. "Two. Three. Four."

Natsu frowned, not understanding, but the girl continued.

"Five, six, seven," Lucy continued on, "Eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve." She continued all the way up to nineteen, and then paused, her brown eyes watching him carefully.

Natsu didn't really get it. "Luce?" He said, unsure.

Lucy's lips spread into a tiny smile. "Twenty. Twenty seconds of bravery, that's all I need, right?"

And then she leaned in and kissed him.

Her lips were soft and they tasted sweet, like candy, and suddenly all of Natsu's wounds didn't feel so bad anymore.

He kissed her back, moving his lips around hers, reveling in the moment. She deepened the kiss and her hands reached up, twisting into his hair; his big hands fell onto her back, tugging her closer to him. Taking the hint, Lucy crawled onto the bed, laying beside him slightly as the two continued to feverishly kiss.

It deepened further, and Natsu's big hands were on her tiny little waist; he urged her up, over, wanting her on top of him so he could better access her lips. And she obeyed, willingly; she tossed her right thigh over his hips without hesitation.

But she leaned against several different wounds and the pain shot up his body; Natsu let out a cry and a hiss, and Lucy jumped back, pushing herself back to a standing position at the side of his bed.

"Ah!" Natsu spat as his hands flew to his side. Everything stung, burnt, ached. "Fuck."

"Oh, crap!" Lucy cried, hands flying up over her mouth. "Oh, god, Natsu, I'm so so sorry!"

"It's okay," Natsu gasped, holding his throbbing side, "No worries." The pain faded slightly, and he tried to hide his grimace.

"Should I call the nurse?"

"No," He sputtered. "I'm fine."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Lucy asked, hands flittering over him but failing to make contact. There really wasn't much she could do. He needed to rest, and she'd just aggravated the wounds.

"Lucy!" Natsu cried, still in pain but in control of himself enough to stop the girl from overreacting. "I'm fine." He watched her, saw the panic in her eyes. Typical Lucy. Always freaking out over nothing. He couldn't help but crack a smile.

The blonde girl met his gaze, noticing the grin on his lips. Her mouth twisted up into a smile, too, but she pushed her lips out in a pout. "I'm a bad person."

"Why's that?"

"You're here, half dead, all hurt and nasty, and I try to jump you." She sighed. "Bad Lucy."

Natsu snorted. "No complaints from this end."

She lifted an eyebrow. "Really?"

Natsu nodded. "Nope."

"Well, good. Because..." She trailed off. "I've been waiting for those twenty seconds of bravery for a while, now." She twisted on her heel, headed towards the door, trying to avoid the boy seeing how red her cheeks had gotten. "I'm gonna go get the nurse, okay? You need some new gauze. I'll be back." She gave a little wave of her hand, and was out the door.

Natsu sat back, blinking, numb, deliriously happy.

In all his years, he'd never taken Gildarts' words in that way...but he was pretty glad that Lucy had.