Fairy Tail Furious

Chapter 28

Gently nudging under his chin, Lucy spoke quietly in the dark bedroom. "Natsu. Natsu, wake up," she whispered, resting her cheek against against his muscular arm. When his nose twitched, she knew she was getting his attention. "Natsu, wake up."

"Wassa..." Natsu gurgled, swallowing his dry throat away before blinking his brown eyes open. They were bleary, but he rubbed under them and sniffed. "Yeah...I'm up, I'm up..."

"Natsu," Lucy poked him once more before pulling her hands to tuck under her own chin, pressing her lips to the sleeves and hid her hands from the slight chill inside them.

Natsu, now fully aware, turned his head to look at the blonde woman. He frowned a bit before nodding. "Sorry 'bout that, Luce," he yawned, preparing to sit up to leave the bed. "Didn't mean to wake ya..."

But Lucy held him still by throwing her arms over his chest to weigh him down, making the pink haired man blink and look back down to her. She wouldn't look him in the eye, but slowly shook her head. "What's wrong, Luce?" Natsu asked her with confusion.

Swallowing the lump in her throat, Lucy breathed through her mouth. "There really...There are gangs that try to take people as property, Natsu?" she peeped out. "If they're angry at someone, they can just try to take them or kill them. Is that how it works?"

Natsu tilt his head. He slowly rolled to his side, bringing his other hand up to push the blonde hair out of her face to see how glossy her brown eyes looked in the tiny light peeking from the window. Natsu frowned at the sight.

"What's wrong?" he asked her quietly, making her sniff. "Is it because of what happened today with Juvia?"

Lucy shrugged, rubbing her cheek against their shared pillow to catch a tear. "I just never thought, you know, that people will actually try to kill each other, if they're mad. Or even someone like that Trinity Raven gang trying to buy Juvia-chan, like she was nothing more than a thing hanging on the wall in a store. Juvia-chan saved my life the other night, and then they want to get back at her by either attacking the bar, or taking her?"

"Juvia and the Phantom Lord aren't in the prostitution business like Trinity Raven is," Natsu explained to her carefully, holding her cheek that wasn't against the pillow to try and make her relax. "Juvia and those guys see it as something they wouldn't be okay running, especially when they have young people like Sue and Boze with them - Juvia is very protective of Sue ever since they brought them into their gang, and so is Gajeel and Totomaru."

"But that weird creeper was trying to get Juvia-chan, Natsu," Lucy shivered. "And Levy-chan was so scared for her, and crying. I don't know why anyone could do such things to people, especially when they started it all, and Juvia-chan was just trying to help! They were the ones who started it. Levy-chan told me that, if someone pisses someone in another gang off, the whole gang has the right to even it out until they're satisfied with the okay from their boss. I don't think those guys went to their boss before confronting Juvia like that, Natsu!"

"They probably didn't, knowing them. I don't think they talk with their boss, now that I think of it. That's how some things are, Luce," Natsu sighed, rubbing his thumb across her cheekbone. "They pull shit like that and try to win in the end, but that's why we play smarter than them. Gajeel would have done the same thing for his sister, but probably push Vidaldus and his car off the top of the cliff..."

"That would've caused even more problems, right?" Lucy mumbled, seeing Natsu nod in response. Biting her lip, Lucy scooted closer to Natsu, pressing her face into his shirt and cuddling more to him. "I don't want that to happen with anyone in Fairy Tail, Natsu. It's not right."

"It's not gonna happen with us, Lucy," he told her, wrapping both of his arms around her, tugging up the thick blanket to tuck around her shoulders and rubbing her back soothingly. "I won't let that happen to you, I promise, Luce. It ain't gonna happen in Fairy Tail, or with you. Not when I'm around."

"I just don't want anything bad to happen...not to my friends," Lucy confessed quietly, curling against him. "I don't want to see my friends get killed, or see them cry because someone is trying to take them, Natsu."

"And it won't happen," Natsu hushed her gently and held her closer. "It's not going to ever happen, because I won't let it happen."

"Natsu," Lucy sniffed and clung to his shirt, hiding her face in his neck, the pillow, the blanket. She held on to Natsu and he comforted her with gentle pets and his warmth, and she didn't care if her heart was hammering against her chest for the closeness or how she wished in the back of her head that they could stay this way forever. "Natsu, please help me get tougher. I wanna get stronger so I can do better on jobs with you and everyone."

Natsu nodded and held her, rubbing his hands on her back and her head and petting her hair. "Sure. Whatever you want, Luce," he told her gently, fixing her bangs out of her face. "I can show you some self defense moves tomorrow, if you want. But, for right now, get some sleep, okay?"

"Can you stay, Natsu?" she asked him, suddenly worried that he's going to let her go and leave the bedroom. She may have hit him whenever she woke up to find his arms wrapped around her, yell at him, but now she didn't want to be alone. For Lucy, she has been alone for a long time, and now she was tired of it - she didn't want to be alone anymore.

"I'll stay as long as you want me to," he told her, a small smile on his face. "Just kick me out whenever."

"No, no. No," Lucy shook her head against him before hiding her face back in his neck. She felt his chuckle vibrate against her, and she felt warm and safe in his arms. "Please stay with me. Don't leave me alone, Natsu."

"I won't ever leave ya, Luce."

Lucy closed her eyes and fell asleep to Natsu's arms remaining around her, keeping her warm. She dreamt about her mom watching in the crowd, while she sat in the passenger seat of Natsu's car; a proud smile on her mother's face as her daughter and partner won first place over and over again.