The Angel of the Fairies (Fairy tail fanfiction)

Chapter 21 - Like Ants, We March Back Home

Chapter 21

Like Ants, We March Back Home

It was a heinous ordeal. Cruel and unforgiving, it didn't matter if it was men, women, children, people, everyone suffered in some horrible way. For some, in a twisted way, it probably was forgiving, though. A lot of criminals, be it Dark Mages, or petty thieves, had taken the advantage of the battle, jumping into the fight with glee. They had stolen, raped and killed, simply for their satisfaction. Yes, it had been heinous but for some it had been wonderful.

For Lucy, though, it had been nothing short of awful.  

Now she sits in the rubble of their Guild Hall, in a lumpy chair that causes her back to ache uncomfortably. She twists her wedding ring around and around her finger, her heart pounding in her chest. 

Surrounded by some of her friends in cold, dark body bags. 

"You're going to rub your skin raw," Natsu observes, reaching out and placing his hand over the top of hers. She lets out a shuddering sigh but stopes her fidgeting.

He's standing next to her, ignoring the chair beside her for some reason beyond her. Lucy twists her hands in her skirt, not knowing what to do with her hands. She sucks her bottom lip between her teeth and looks up at Natsu. Her eyes immediately land on his hair.

It's a stupid thing to notice. But some combination of grease and sweat and lying flat onto the Guild floor has slicked his hair down, making him look something of a Pomeranian, and it makes the situation feel a little less horrifying.

Because it is horrifying.

She'll never get used to seeing her friends and guildmates crying, injured and mourning their dead family. Because that's what they are. Family. And now they're in body bags. 

Lucy twists her body, her arm pulsating in her lap. A shuddering hiss leaves her lips, and Natsu's worried eyes immediately land on her.

"I'm okay," she says, because it's the only thing she can think of. "I'm fine, our friends are fine, you're fine, right? Because I'm fine." a little over half a dozen of her Guildmates are around her, and she can't tell if they're more horrified of the words coming out of her mouth or the way her arm looks a little blue and how she really, really doesn't think it should be bent that way.

Don't get her wrong, she's totally aware that she probably sounds like she took a massive hit to the head, but she's honestly fine, besides her very much broken arm, she's fine. She's surrounded by the people she cares about the most, which is more than she thought she would end up with when the first explosion had gone off. So, again, she's fine.

Natsu's hands hover over her ridiculously broken arm with worry, having switched sides and dropped down in the chair beside her so he can clutch at Lucy's uninjured arm and press his body slightly against her in comfort. 

Lucy meets Natsu's eyes and makes an awkward motion with her mouth that she hopes looks more like a smile than a grimace, "At least we're alive," she says.

Natsu's soft sigh isn't anything close to a laugh, but his eyes look a little looser around the edges than they did a minute ago, so, Lucy counts it as a win.

"Just hold on until Wendy comes back," he says, his grip on her shoulders goes a little slack before he starts rubbing his hand along the length of her shoulders and slightly down her back. 

She shudders at the touch, closing her eyes at the warmth the movement brings her. Lucy's arm is really broken, though. Fortunately for her, Wendy is spectacular with her magic and would probably be able to heal it with little to no effort. And equally unfortunately for her, Wendy had yet to arrive back from whatever Makarov and his team of five, including Erza, had gone off to do. If she were to guess, she'd say they were most likely searching the area for the guildmembers they had yet to find.