Lucy clutched her side, breath coming in short pants. One of her eyes was squeezed shut and blood trickled sluggishly down her forehead. Her legs shook with fatigue, her clothes torn and ragged. By her side her keys lay uselessly. She was out of magic power.
The dark mage in front of her cackled madly, the eerie sound echoing through the dark woods. Broken trees were scattered across the marred dirt ground. The mage lowered his hand to his side, a ball of dark purple specked with black gathering around his fingers. With what little energy she had, Lucy threw herself behind a broken tree trunk, just barely missing the attack.
She dropped her head back against the cold rough bark, her breathing laboured. A sharp knife of pain dug into the bleeding wound on her side. She winced and squeezed it harder. The mission was supposed to be easy; find some old lady's missing ring in the woods, collect the reward and head home. None of them expected the sudden attack by a dark guild called The Black Cobra. A damn strong dark guild.
Now, her she was. Alone, injured, out of magic power with no means of defending herself, exhausted, facing a powerful dark mage that was showing no signs of backing down anytime soon. She had been separated from Erza, Gray and Natsu during the fighting.
She heard a crackle of magic and rolled out of the way just as an energy ball slammed into the tree trunk, exploding it into a million pieces. Lucy curled into a ball on the ground in a futile attempt to protect herself. She could hear the mage coming closer. Lucy curled herself into a tighter ball, tears leaking from her eyes as she waited for the end to come. A thunderous bang filled the air. The end never came.
Confused, Lucy cracked her eyes open and found that someone was standing in front of her. The second she caught sight of pink, her eyes snapped open. Natsu.
He was covered in cuts and bruises, his arms and legs dripping with bright red blood. The dark mage was slumped against a tree trunk, his chest charred and smoking. Lucy uncurled from her protective ball, just as Natsu collapsed backwards. "Natsu!" she shrieked dragging herself to his side.
There was a huge gaping wound on his chest, presumably from the attack he just saved her from. "Natsu!" she cried, setting his head gently on her lap. But his eyes were already drifting shut. "Lucy..." he whispered, before his eyes closed. "Natsu!!" Lucy screamed. "NATSU!"
•••
Lucy felt exhausted, her vision foggy and her body ached everywhere. She was covered with fresh white bandages, curtsy of Wendy. She sat in a hard wooden chair beside an infirmary bed. Natsu's infirmary bed. She'd barely moved from it since the mission. Erza and Gray were fine; tired and injured, but fine. But Natsu had yet to wake up.
Lucy's mind kept replaying the scene over and over, desperately wishing that she could have taken the hit instead. If only she wasn't so weak, maybe this wouldn't have happened. As she stared at his immobile body, tears escaped her eyes for the millionth time. She covered her face and sobbed quietly into her palms. Until warm fingers brushed her wrist.
Lucy sharply pulled her hands away to find Natsu's warm onyx eyes staring back at her. "Natsu..." The name slipped from her lips in barely a whisper. He smiled, although it looked like it hurt him. "Why are you crying Luce?" he asked gently, his voice raspy. "I don't like it when you cry".
Lucy flung her arms around him, burying her face in his chest and sobbed her heart out. She barely registered the warm arms that wrapped around her, or the hand gently running through her hair. She just held him as tightly as she could and made a silent vow to never let him go again.
When she finally calmed down, she lay on his chest, listening to his steady heartbeat. "I thought you were going to die you idiot" she hissed, tears filling her eyes again. Natsu chuckled softly and kissed the top of her head. "It'll take more than that to take me down"
"Natsu?" she asked. "Yeah?" he murmured back. "Why did you do it?" she said softly. Natsu smiled fondly at her. "Because I don't know what I'd do without you Luce. I'll always protect you" Lucy sat up and gave him a soft smile. She leaned in and kissed his cheek. "Thank you" she whispered. Natsu grinned. "Anytime"
