. Rekindled Flame .

She was his flame.

She was his happiness.

She was his damn life.

And here she was, curled up in his arms in a way he'd never thought possible.

His sharp ears picked up a sniffle in the room over, but neither of them moved to get up. He didn't want to and Lucy was too tired, passed out on her side in their bed, to get up and deal with their newborn daughter.

Haru's gonna come get us if anything's wrong, the dragon slayer decided, burying his face into Lucy's blonde hair.

Natsu knew Lucy had been having a hard time recently. He'd spoken with Igneel about it - he still couldn't believe that the dragon was back, simply hanging out in the area that Natsu had grown up in - and Igneel had suggested that there were still traces of the curse that had nearly killed her. The nightmares came every night lately, and Natsu suspected it was the lack of sleep reducing Lucy's strength. Not even her magic could keep such dangerous dreams from her mind when she didn't have the energy to use up.

Natsu grumbled at the thought and tightened his arms around her when she whimpered softly, shifting in her sleep. He knew better than to wake her up at the moment. She'd wake up in a flurry of violence, searing even him with the heat of her celestial magic.

So he simply curled around her, offering what comfort he could. She'd be alright, she always was. She'd just be in a dark mood when morning came.

That's how it always was with Lucy.

Lucy suddenly rolled over and she shuddered, pressing her face into his scarf-clad throat. Even after the dragon's return, he still wore Igneel's gift everywhere, and that included bed. By the way she began to wrap her arms around him, Natsu knew without a doubt that she was awake. "You okay?" he murmured in her ear.

Lucy slowly shook her head, giving a shaky sigh. "No," she whispered.

He sighed softly and drew her as close as physically possible, as if he was trying to wrap himself around her and take the nightmares straight from her mind. That was impossible of course, but he could still try...right?

He still regretted not being able to help her that day so many years before. The day that had begun a living hell for the woman in his arms. He'd screwed up thousands of times when it came to Lucy. He'd hurt her emotionally unintentionally several times, he'd managed to actually nearly singe her with his magic on a couple jobs, when he'd gotten too excited. He had troubles when it came to helping her care for their kids, even when he did try his damn hardest.

But both of them had accepted that that was simply part of him being himself. It was just...Natsu. Natsu had problems when it came to those kind of things, and no matter how hard they tried, there wasn't much they could do to try and fix it because there wasn't anything wrong with it.

And Lucy had such problems, too. She couldn't move past the dreams the curse had given her. She couldn't look at him in the eyes sometimes, and when she did after those moments, her looks were terrified or suspicious, as she thought one of the Marked Ones she'd described would launch itself at her. Sometimes, if Haru or Sage - their newborn daughter - moved too quickly, she'd cry out or move away with a flinch.

It was just part of being human, and that was something Natsu had realized long ago. It was normal for them to make mistakes.

"Natsu?"

Lucy's small voice had him looking down to find her face tilted up towards his, her brown eyes shining nervously. He merely gave her his signature grin and gave her a reassuring kiss to her forehead before tucking her safely against his chest, closing his eyes.

"Don't worry, Luce, that stuff will never happen," he reassured, a fierce tone entering his voice as he buried his face in her hair. "I've got ya. Kay?"

She gave it a moment before giving a muffled, "...yeah."

"Good."

And he did. He had her. She was his to protect and his to love with all of his might, even when she was half-crazed with exhaustion and terror from her nightmares. The fire in his belly had been rekindled the second his eyes had met her's after she'd woken, and as long as he had her at his side, it'd stay lit.

Lucy suddenly spoke, her voice muffled. "Love you."

He grinned hugely, heart swelling just as much as it had the first time he'd heard her say those words.

"Love you, too, Luce."

I'm SO sorry this is a day late! I ended up not feeling well yesterday, so I wasn't able to finish this, or the next chapter of Paranormal (which I'm working on now). And, honestly, I've rewritten Natsu's three times. I just couldn't figure out how to end this. I've been working on the Shattered Series for so long, and this...this is the end of it, and I wanted it to be perfect. In response to a you reviewers (KaUiA and MarSofTheGalaxies), it wasn't too long though it WAS longer than the other chapters of SS. And no, I did not consider any bonus chapters (lol). I think this is a good point to end the series, honestly, so this is the final installment. I don't want to push it any further, and I'm pretty happy with how it's ending here.

Shattered Dreams was my first serious Fairy Tail multi-chapter. I write a hell of a lot of ideas down in my notebooks, and this started out as a simple concept in that notebook. I wrote out ideas, changed them, spoke with my editor (who I apologize to, because I don't think we went through a single chapter of SS together), and then changed things as I went. My editor is the one who suggested the idea of Shattered Reality (I think). She helped me and continues to help me a hell of a lot more than any of you could imagine. So I'm going to thank here here. And I'm also going to thank all of YOU lovelies. Because you know. Without you readers, it'd kinda suck. So THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!

SO! I leave you with the final author's note in regards to the Shattered Series. Thank you all again for reading. I hope you enjoyed, and if you liked this, I'll point you in the direction of a rather large project of mine that just began, Between the Lines. Just finished writing the fifty-fourth chapter of it, and it's going to be a fun adventure, I think. There's also Paranormal, as previously mentioned. That's just a fun thing that really has no plot.

So..."Don't say goodbye!" :D

~river