Wheels of Fire

Renewed Strength

The weather was unseasonably cold in Earthland, almost like without Natsu Dragneel, there was no summer. Outside, people walked around in sweaters rather than the usual summer attire of shorts and tank tops. They looked at the overcast sky and hoped the sun would be back before their weekend plans.

In her apartment on Strawberry Street, Lucy looked after a different Natsu, still just as reckless, still willing to put himself in the line of fire to save a friend, but even just looking at him, he was so different to the boy who often slept in her bed with Happy and ate up her food.

Natsu Dragion was covered in wounds, his shirt removed as his whole chest had been wrapped in bandages with thick patches shielding where rib bones had pierced through the skin. A fitful look kept flinching on his bruised and battered face. Lucy's fingers combed back his pink hair, and slowly a soothing smile spread on his face. His eyes fluttered open, and he gazed up at the blond sitting beside him.

"Lucy," he whispered hoarsely with a smile. Then he flinched from the pain. "What happened?"

"What do you remember?"

"A ... mission?" His face crunched up as memories came back through the fog of agony. "A rescue mission. Driving everyone. A battle, magic and ... and cannonballs. Wendy ... and Romeo ... the kids. They're just kids, trapped in the middle of all that, and then..."

He gasped as he remembered seeing a cannonball flying toward Jet, spinning the car around, and using it as a shield to protect the man. The cannonball had slammed into the driver's door, crushing his bones. After that, all he really remembered was pain heightening his sense of determination, focused solely on getting them out of the battlefield alive.

Lucy quietly told him, "The driver's side door took a direct hit. You ... were injured ... badly."

"Yeah," he whispered. He could feel how bad it was. Even shallow breaths sent spikes of pain through his torso. Then an even more important question entered his mind. "Is my car okay?"

Lucy had to laugh in disbelief. What a silly thing to worry about! Yet to Natsu Dragion, that four-wheeler meant everything. "It doesn't look pretty, but it still drives. I managed to drive us back to Magnolia so you could go into surgery. They had to repair some organs and reconstruct many of your bones."

She still felt a wave of sickness as she was haunted by the sight, his ribs crushed and sticking out, his face partially crushed, and then the long drive back to town sitting in a seat soaked in his blood. She had cried inconsolably for hours while he was in surgery, with even the doctors unsure if he could pull through such a devastating injury.

"Is that why I still hurt?" he muttered. "For some reason, I thought magical healing would also take away all the pain."

"Only for minor injuries. Yours..." Lucy felt her eyes starting to fill with tears again.

"Hey," he whispered gently. He reached up and caressed her cheek. "When we take a mission, we know the risks."

"But I'm supposed to look after you, and you got so badly hurt."

"I knew what I was doing when I turned that car around and drove into the path of a freaking cannonball. That was my own choice."

"I should have stopped you."

Smirking, he replied, "If your reaction time ever became faster than my driving speed, I'd marry you."

She burst into a laugh, and he also chuckled, but then cringed in pain as his ribs ached.

"A car is more than transportation, Princess. It's a weapon, and it can also be a shield. When I use it as a shield, my priority is to protect my passengers. When you sit in my car, you're my responsibility."