A/N: I can't thank you guys enough for waiting for this chapter! It took me more than a few months (which isn't fair to you all), but I've finally worked up the motivation to finish this off. This is the final chapter for Breaking the Boundary, and I hope you guys like it! See you at the end of the chapter~

Natsu almost forgets how to breathe.

He shakes Layla once, twice. He can't let her fall asleep—let her die. She needs to see Lucy again, she needs to give her daughter a hug, she needs to tell her that she loves Lucy. There's no way that his own words—his own, "Your mother told me to tell you that she loves you,"—will be enough.

The last thing he recalls Layla having said was, "Tell me a story, please," but he swears he heard, "The sky looks beautiful tonight," somewhere between the sentences of his story. He hadn't acknowledged her verbally, but he'd given her hand a tight squeeze. It does, but with no moonlight to filter out the darkness, it's dark and empty.

Everything is too quiet, and the silence becomes deafening. Finally, he bites his lip and pulls away from Layla. Her expression is calm, and he whispers, "Sweet dreams."

He can't die. Not yet, anyways.

Natsu redirects his attention elsewhere, hoping for a sign of a lifeboat. There's a distant light hovering over the ocean, and the fire of hope is rekindled in his chest. He opens his mouth to yell for help, but nothing comes out. Throat frozen, the blood in his veins is beginning to slow to a stop.

In the distance, there's a soft, faint whistle. It's barely audible, despite the lack of commotion. The sea of bodies drift, last moments frozen in a corpse that's never to be recovered. The whistle, though, sounds life through the Atlantic, and Natsu knows he needs to move towards it.

He doesn't care where it's coming from or who is doing it. He just knows that if he can make it to the person who's calling out for a rescue, he'll be okay.

Launching himself away from the debris that has been supporting him with as much effort as possible, he paddles towards the sound. He can't decipher whether it's actually coming from a faraway place or if he person blowing it no longer has enough air in their lungs, but he swims.

Heads are bobbing on the surface, barely moving, but it's much more than anyone else around. Natsu squints to make out a face, eyes barely able to see through the darkness. His mind begins to alarm, and he works up the last of his voice to yell.

"Gray! Gray!"

The other human, holding onto a floating chair with someone Natsu recognizes as Juvia, turns into the direction that the shout comes from. Gray's face lights up a bit, and he returns the favor and calls back to Natsu.

Natsu swims with all of his might to get closer to the two faster, and when he does, he exchanges a brief hug with Gray. It's one of relief, and it's almost like they've forgotten about all of their bickering on the ship. Juvia receives her own embrace, which she melts into. Then, the three decide on a plan to call the lifeboat's attention towards them.

"There's three of us," Gray begins to say, though it comes out as a whisper. "If we can cause enough commotion, they're bound to hear us. It's going to be hard, though."

"Gods, I can't believe they took this long to come back," Natsu says, rolling his neck. He holds onto the chair, turning towards the boat. "There's only one."

"There are only a few people left, Juvia thinks. One will be enough in the end."

If only they had come back earlier, they all think.

"How are we going to get their attention? Splashing? I can barely get the whistle to do anything."

"The whistles going to have to work. Where'd you get that, anyway?"

Gray points to the floating man nearby, and the three of them shiver. Whatever it takes to be saved.

Their conversation continues, and they settle on a scheme that might be enough. The three of them begin to switch between splashing and waving one of their arms in the air, and Gray huffs into the whistle with the little air in his lungs. Natsu struggles to roar out a yell of distress, and the lifeboat begins to pass them by.

It's a little way off, and the men aboard are pushing at the bodies, shining their lights down on the faces. The one in the front, a look of pain and sorrow on his face, yells out into the night, "Hello? Is there anyone alive out there?"

He repeats the call out into the open, and as the lifeboat begins to get farther away, Natsu stops yelling. He takes in a deep breath, and yells with everything he has. It's short and nothing compared to what he wants to do, but it's enough for the men in the lifeboat to stop paddling and point their light out into the distance, towards them.

Gray blows the whistle again, and Juvia raises her hand into the air. Natsu coughs alongside them, shielding his eyes from the light, and he hears the men announce, "We're coming to get you!"

Warmth pools inside his stomach, and he's overwhelmed by a sense of relief.

Gray hopes to see familiar faces on the lifeboat as he wraps himself in a blanket the men had handed him. Juvia sits close to him, closing her eyes to rest at last. Natsu is propped against his shoulder, shivering off the cold. Gray, though, can't bring himself to close his eyes as he hopes and prays that Loke or Cana will uncover their head and greet him.

No one turns around, and he feels a pain stab through his heart. He shifts his gaze out towards the ocean of bodies, wondering where they are. (He'll never know about what happened to Loke, and he later finds out from one of the others who had been recovered from the water that they had been saved by a woman with brunette curls. She'd offered her the rest of her flask and had given up her life vest to save the poor straggler. It was Cana who had given up her things, and the last she'd been seen was on the ship, before it had split in two.)

Gray bites back some tears as the lifeboat pulls away from the area of the sunken ship. The bodies are lost into the ocean by the time the sun rises, and only half of those who had been lost to the sea will be given names by the end of 1912.

Taking the metal pocket watch out of his slacks, Gray takes the cold metal in his hand and holds it over the ocean. "This is for you two," he says. "You won't be forgotten."

His fingers let go of the watch, and it falls into the ocean. It plunders into the dark depths, and Gray mutters his final goodbyes.

With that, he closes his eyes, prepared for whatever waits for him next.

"There's the last one," someone says, pointing out to the little lifeboat coming towards the Carpathia.

Lucy feels a shred of hope fill her heart. If she squints, she thinks she can make out a few bodies inside, huddled together in blankets to gather up enough warmth to stop shivering. She clenches nervously at the railing. Her knees are wobbling, whether it be from being on another ship or because all of her hope is bet on this last lifeboat, she'll never know.

The docking of the lifeboat is slow, and Lucy can't see anything from where she's standing. She takes a step back and figures she'll wait in the area for the passengers to board. The frets, and as she picks at the dress, she runs her hand over an irregular edge, hidden in the ruffles. She pulls it out, holding an envelope with her name in Erza's handwriting.

"My dearest Lucy,

"If you find this and I'm in the area, please don't bring this up. I hope you don't, anyhow, because how embarrassing would that be? Anyhow, this is potentially the last time I will speak to you or your mother in a while, so I would like my final words to be embedded permanently. Jellal suggested a letter, so thus, I decided to go with his word.

"I do hope you enjoy the dress. It's one of the finest ones I've designed yet, and I think it suits you perfectly. Again, though, please feel free to keep it. You are free of charge, because I would do anything to show my appreciation to my dear friend.

"Also, I hope you go after the boy you're in love with. If I remember correctly, his name is Natsu, am I correct? It would be such a sad fate for someone with so much potential to marry a man she doesn't love and end up a housewife. Go to college, travel the world... Oh, and kiss him, because you've been waiting to do that, haven't you?

"I'm sure he has been, too.

"Well, Miss Lucy, I hope you have a wonderful time in America. I wish you the best of luck, and I hope that we may meet again, whether it be in the United States or back in Europe.

"Farewell! With love, Erza Scarlet."

Lucy holds the letter in her hand. She nods, affirming Erza's request. She wants to see her again, to meet with the woman who's been the role model she aspired to be. Erza had been such a wonderful person to spend her time with, and she also yearned to send her best wishes for she and the man she loved with all of her heart, Jellal.

She has yet to see Erza anywhere on the Carpathia, but a red-haired maiden would be hard to miss. Lucy, however, decides to focus her attention on the stragglers who are being lifted onto the ship. First, a woman, then a man she doesn't recognize at all. Lucy bites at her lip, and when blue locks and ocean-colored eyes come into view, one wave of relief washes over her.

"Juvia," she exhales in relief.

Then, up comes another, a man with black hair. The two are taken away and wrapped in coats, and finally, the railing swings open to help another climb up. The salmon hair and sharp eyes are impossible to mistake, and he takes the stewards wrap over his shoulders. They begin to escort him into another area, but when he finds the person he's looking for, he pushes away from men to greet Lucy with open arms.

He swings them open, and Lucy sprints into them. He huffs out her name when she collides with his chest, and then squeezes her tight. His embrace is warm and familiar, and as he squeezes tighter, he pulls Lucy off of her feet and spins her. In the momentum of the moment, he lifts his head and plants a kiss on her lips, slightly sloppy, but powerful nonetheless.

Lucy heats up under the touch, face flushing. She falls into it, melting, arms looping around his shoulders, fingers running through his hair. She's waited for this, but seeing Natsu again is such a relief. He's breathing and walking, and that's what's important. Then, in exhaustion from the night, he puts her down and allows his head to fall onto her shoulder.

"Natsu, you're okay... I can't believe you're alive..."

"I told you I would see you again," he says, lips pressed to her shoulder. He hadn't believed his words when he told her on the Titanic, because everything in fate was telling him he was to die, but in the end, he had kept his promise.

"Is my mother with you? She wasn't with us, and I haven't seen her... Maybe I missed her when I was—"

"Lucy, I— Gods, I'm so sorry. She was with me, but she ended up—"

"Oh," Lucy whispers, eyes staring towards the remaining passengers who are hauled onto the ship.

Her eyes play with her, imagining that her mother is among them, standing along the railing. She's patiently waiting her turn to speak with Lucy, probably going to say good things about Natsu, then she would give a squeeze Lucy into a tight hug and shower her with relieved affection.

She's not standing there though, but Natsu is. Lucy wraps her arms around him, and she begins to cry. Her tears slide down her cheeks, and she buries her chin into Natsu's hair. He's still hiding his face in the crook of her neck, and he places a hand on her waist. He whispers apologies, not sure if she can hear, but she does.

Lucy's heart is filled with pain. She'll never see her mother again, but she doesn't want to think about it. She knows Natsu is going to tell her something about how her mother said to say that she loves her. She knows her mother well, and that hurts, too. The warm familiarity and afternoons with tea will no longer be there to make the bad days feel like nothing.

Oh, but Natsu's there. He's a burning ember, all passion and energy. He's hot to the touch, but a careful handler could easily tame him. The adventure and kindness and intimacy she needs is in reach, in the body of an Irishman who knows not of the edge of the world.

She's not alone, she thinks, and that is what stops the tears from falling.

Levy feels an ache in her chest. She can see Lucy below, reunited with the Irishman she'd described so avidly in secret letter exchanges and over dinner conversation. She's happy for her best friend, and that makes her smile, but nothing is there to stop the tears from falling when Gajeel is not one of the stragglers who are loaded onto the lifeboat.

She finds herself sitting inside of the recreation room for reading and music later that day. She ponders the idea of meeting with Lucy and having the reunion she yearns for, but she doesn't. "Maybe later," is what she tells herself.

The piano keys are cold and sturdy beneath her fingertips. It feels the same as the one on the Titanic, but she kind of misses it. The room had a clean and new ambiance to it; the smell of mahogany and age old books mingling together in a scent that could only describe her relationship with Gajeel.

Levy presses down on one key, and then another, and then a third. With each key, her heart jumps just a little. She closes her eyes and relives the memory of her final moments on the deck. She can still recall the band playing, and she remembers Gajeel's face when he ushered her into the lifeboat and propped a quick kiss on her lips.

Oh, she had been surprised when that happened, and she only wished it could have been longer.

The final memories she has of the American musician are ones of disaster and sorrow, but the kiss had been warm. Her fingers remember the feeling of his calloused hands and how it felt for him to teach her melodies on the piano. If she tries hard enough, she can still taste the tea they had shared together.

What she had imagined would be sour reflections of the past in the beginning, when she had first met the American man, had turned into the warm moments that made her voyage on the Titanic feel not so bitter.

Other than the man who'd influenced her thoughts and ways of thinking far too much for her own liking, the interior and comfort of the Titanic was easy to miss. She was grand in design, deluxe in size, and truly a ship of dreams. Many of the employees had always carried warm smiles and pleasant personalities accompanied them, and the scent and taste and feeling of the ship continues to linger in Levy's memories.

She isn't yet able to determine if these memories will come to haunt her one day, but for now, it soothes her. To her, the Titanic has yet to sink.

Biting her lip, Levy blindly presses at the piano keys and plays the song that she remembers most clearly about the night. She doesn't know its name, but it is the last song she remembers the band playing. It's good and pure, meant to make the crowd happy. It washes away her sorrows, and suddenly, America doesn't feel so far away.

"Juvia," she starts, "is sorry for abandoning you, Father."

She tips her head down and crosses her hands in front of her. Juvia's father, standing in the doorway of the room he'd been temporarily assigned, is startled, scratching the name of his neck. With shaky hands, still rattled from the events of the night, he lifts his daughter to stand upright and pulls her into a hug.

Her skin is cold to the touch, still chilled from the Atlantic, but her being in his arms is as warm as ever. It's a sigh of relief that escapes his lips when Juvia buries her face into his chest, truly happy that her father had made it to safety.

His eyes travel elsewhere, however, when he realizes that Juvia is not alone. A man, young and finely aged, is propped against the corner. He recognizes him immediately as the boy Juvia had been spending her time with aboard the ship and as the young heir to the Fullbuster family. Juvia's father offers a smile to say, "Thank-you," and Gray dips his head in acceptance.

It's easy to see that Gray had accompanied Juvia throughout the night, kept her safe, and had brought her home. Nothing on the face of the Earth could be enough to give to him to show Juvia's father's gratitude.

"Juvia," he says, "darling. You have all the time in the world to spend with me. Please," he says, holding out his hand towards Gray, "do what you need to do with this young man."

Gray chuckles a bit. He can't believe that Juvia's father is so willing to dismiss her into his custody, especially after their night. If anything, he knew that if he'd experienced this sort of thing with his family, he would hold them and never let them go.

It's silent, but the proud smile he offers to Gray and Juvia is one of acceptance—acceptance of anything they could have to offer him as news. If anything, he would love to give the Fullbuster boy a place to stay in the trying times to come.

After all, a home is the best thing to give someone, he thinks.

Juvia dismisses herself and promises to return to her father before sunset. She then strides over to Gray, who takes her hand and guides her up to the deck. Along the way, they remain quiet, but once out in the open air, he plants a warm kiss on Juvia's forehead. He trails down to her cheek, and shifts to the left, just close enough to barely touch the edge of her lips.

Entirely flusted, Juvia spins around, sputtering her and Gray's names, covering her cheeks with her hands.

"I'm not quite ready for more yet," he says, "but we'll be spending more time together, right? So we'll have plenty of time."

"Plenty of time? Do you mean that?" Juvia perks up, grabbing Gray's hand in her own.

His fingers are cold from the April air, and it's almost haunting. She has held his hand on several occasions during the night, whether it was to stay close, to keep up, or just for comfort, but during all those times, his hand was cold. She doesn't want to remember the night, the people died, or the pain she felt in her chest.

She wants to forget.

"Of course, I mean that," Gray says, ruffling her hair. Then, he points out, "You lost your hat. You like nice, though, without it."

"Sh-sh-should Juvia not wear a hat ever again!?"

Gray releases a hearty, meaningful laugh. The corners of his eyes wrinkle and he shows his teeth in a smile, and he shakes his head. "Non, non, non," he says in French. "Don't give up your style for me. You look nice either way, mademoiselle."

Lucy runs her hands over Erza's letter to give her strength. She's already several ship attendants if she'd given her name to any of them as a way to sign in and confirm she survived, but they had all denied. Lucy had spent the better part of the day at the back of the ship, staring in the direction the Titanic should be, but the vast space is empty.

She wonders who else is lost to the sea—who won't be reunited with their families. There's a throb in her heart when her thoughts run over Layla, but she's already done her fair share of crying over that.

The morning time had been spent with Natsu on the top deck. He sat beside her on the bench in silence, back leaned against the railings behind them, and he stared out into the general distance, eyes occasionally finding a new place to stare.(He cried about Loke and Cana when Lucy wasn't around. The tears that fell were heavier than those that had fallen in a long time. The last time he'd wept that hard had been when Igneel died.)

Lucy leaned against him, but the weight she bared was light. She cried silently for an hour or two, and Natsu ran his hand up and down her back and arm, looping his arm around her shoulders. He couldn't say anything, because Layla had been in his guardianship when she died, so her death was on him.

Natsu was eventually asked to leave, and Lucy had spent the remainder of the day on the deck until dinner was called for the Titanic passengers. She ate quietly, then reunited with Levy through a tight hug and heavy tears, then went back to the top deck to watch the sunset. She's been standing on the deck for a good length of time, and she finally works up the courage to do what's been tugging on her thoughts since she'd had her last conversation with Natsu.

Folding the letter in her hand, she thinks about what Natsu told her about what her mother said. Lucy wants to be strong, so she marches down to the cabin she's sharing with her father below the deck, and swings the door open. Or rather, she pushes it open slowly and peeks inside before announcing her presence.

"Lucy, where were you all day?" her father asks, sitting at the desk. He's probably writing out a message he wants the telegram room to send off towards America or back to Europe. Lucy doesn't really find herself caring who it goes to, but she bothers to peek at the words anyway.

"Sorry, Father, I was upstairs. I needed to be alone for the day."

"Understandable," he states.

Lucy wonders if he's upset about Layla. He wonders if the thought of never seeing his wife again, or why he didn't wait for her hurts him. It probably does, because Layla was one of the few things and people he cared about with all of his heart (or, at least, that he would admit.) The letter he's writing has a lot of sentences that imply he's in pain, but he doesn't say anything. He doesn't even acknowledge Layla's death.

"Father," Lucy starts, taking in a long breath. "As soon as we dock in America, I'm going to school and I'm going to travel. I also have no intentions of marrying the man you've arranged for me to marry. It doesn't matter to me if I have your support and money or not. This... This is my life, so I plan to live it my way.

"Mother isn't here anymore to negotiate with you on my behalf, but I still am. Upon our arrival at the harbor, you told me that I am not Lucky Lucy, but I am. I'm lucky to have survived last night, lucky to have met Natsu and many others on the Titanic, lucky to have the ability to go to school, and lucky to have worked up the strength to tell you this.

"There are so many things I want to do, and I don't want to be held down to one place, so I'll be taking my lea—"

"Lucy, darling," Jude starts, tapping the end of his calligraphy pen to the desk. He bites at the bottom of his lip for a second, brows pulled together in frustration. Lucy almost wants to flee to escape his wrath, but she stays, feet planted on the ground. "Pick the university you want to go to, and I will pay for your tuition. Your mother would have wanted for you to pursue your dreams, and I will not tolerate my beloved daughter walking out on me. I will not lose anyone else."

It feels as though Lucy's jaw physically drops, but it doesn't. She lets go of the breath she's been holding in, and smiles. "Oh, gods, Thank-you," is what she begins to say, and tacks on an, "I love you," stepping towards her father, wrapping a hug around his shoulders.

The Carpathia docks in America on April 18, and she is greeted with massive crowds of those who want to get a closer look at the survivors on the Titanic. Passengers who have families and friends anticipating their safe arrival in the new country are in the crowds, too, waving their hands to greet the ones they see on the top deck, leaning over the railing to greet them.

It's hard to ignore the tears that are falling, Natsu thinks. They're not his own,—not Gray's, either—but rather, the tears of the people around him. Landfall and the end of a journey has never looked so sweet, and Natsu feels the yearning ache to run off the ship and feel the sturdy ground once more.

The landscape is entirely unfamiliar to him, but Gray is pointing to certain things, telling Natsu what it is and how he knows. The Statue of Liberty was the first and only thing Natsu could tell what was, but up close, the design was grander and worth much more than any picture he'd seen. Gray, though, is familiar with a large section of New York, but he's never been here in person.

"You know, Natsu," he starts, voice a bit hoarse, "I thought I would regret meeting you, and as soon as we docked in America, I'd get my ass as far away from you as possible."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Natsu spits, puffing up his cheeks in a childish manner.

"Calm down, hothead. Now, I'm kind of glad I got to meet you. I might actually look forward to seeing you again, and maybe in a week, a month, a year, or even more, we can meet up again, share a drink and talk."

"Of course," Natsu replies, standing up straight.

He turns to Gray, who stands up to face him, too. The harbor wind is tousling their hair, coats shifting to the rhythm of the breeze—to and fro. Natsu raises a fist, and Gray raises his, and they collide in a bump.

"We're friends, right? So, of course, we'll see each other again. One way or another."

~FIN~

705 survivors from the Titanic were accounted for on the Carpathia, out of an approximated total of 2,223. On April 22, several ships set out for the disaster area and recovered 328 bodies. The lifeboats were only capable of holding 1,186, and none of the lifeboats were filled to their maximum capacity. 1,517 people were lost during the disaster, most of whom were the ship's crew and third class passengers. The lifeboats were only capable of holding 1,186.

The Titanic disaster was the 6th deadliest maritime disasters. Dr. Robert D. Ballard later discovered the Titanic wreckage on September 2, 1985, 73 years later, taking the first pictures of the ocean liner since she had sunk.

A/N: The Fairy Tail characters will never cease to mean the world to me, because they're all so powerful, and their family/platonic bonds are so important. Love comes in many forms, and that is an important lesson for this story.

The title, Breaking the Boundary, is the way it is for multiple reasons. The first is because I wanted to break the social barrier between classes and give the characters respect for not how much money they have, but for who they are. Secondly, I wanted the gender barrier to break, mostly shown through Lucy. At the time, little was expected from women, and going to college and picking the person they love was not one of them. I wanted to tell a tale of a girl who wanted to learn, go on an adventure, and fall in love with who her heart pulled her towards, which is something that many women, even today, cannot do.

Thank-you so much, everyone, for sticking with me through these long weeks and months. Your attention and comments and encouraging messages have helped push me towards this moment. Thank-you for following the story about how a gypsy meets a girl who wants nothing more than an adventure, or all of the others whose tale got told.

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