Lucy woke up with a groan; her head was killing her.
Actually her entire body was hurting. She had never once, in her entire life, felt so sore and achy. Her head pounded persistently with a headache, her neck throbbed in agony, her shoulders were sore as if she had been carrying heavy rocks for years on end, and the rest of her body felt heavier than lead. She could die and still be in his pain.
Something floated above her head and she blinked repeatedly to make sure she wasn't just dreaming. Nope, definitely not, there was definitely a blue cat hovering over her.
"Lucy!" it cried out. "You're all right!"
It knew her name! How did this blue cat know her name?! Was it a new spirit? But surely she would remember a spirit that she made a contract with? She wasn't some heartless cow who used keys like tools, they were her friends (no matter how much Aquarius disagreed on that notion).
"Natsu!" the blue cat shouted. "Lucy is awake!"
Lucy struggled to sit up as a rather cute, pink-haired, boy rushed to her side. "Lucy!" he sighed in relief before he suddenly yanked her towards him. She struggled against him as he held her tightly against his chest and nuzzled her hair. Who the fuck was this weirdo? And why was his sniffing her? "Thank God," he murmured into her hair, "I thought you were never going to wake up."
Lucy desperately sought out the words that would get this stranger to let her go. While she couldn't find any, she tried to pull away using all of her strength (which really wasn't much) but this Natsu bloke just held on even tighter, she felt incredibly suffocated.
"I'm sorry," she mumbled against this very naked, but damn, it was nicely built, chest, "but who are you?"
Oh…it looks like she found those magical words as he let her go to look down at her in horror.
FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT
Lucy had amnesia.
She had fucking amnesia.
She didn't remember anything! Not a single thing from the moment the weirdo thanked him for something he didn't do to the point he stupidly wasn't there for her and let her crash into that fucking, stupid, in the way, tree! Fuck! If he hadn't been busy fighting the other bandits he wouldn't have neglected his duty in protecting her and none of this would be happening right now. How can his best friend, his partner, his….well everything, forget who he was? It wasn't right!
"Look, stop whinging about it you brat," Porlyusica snapped. "There's nothing we can do. Her brain is still healing from that knock and if we interfere with that she might never remember, or worse her head would explode."
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Happy screamed right in their ears. This caused Natsu to accidentally let a fireball slip, Lucy to jump and crash into a tray of medical supplies, Master to fall out of his chair, and Porlyuscia's eye to twitch. "DON'T LET LUCY'S HEAD EXPLODE!"
"DON'T DISRUPT MY MEDICAL ROOM. OUT, NOW!"
And that was how they ended up in the bar of the guild, Lucy staring at everything in wide-eyed wonder, while everyone re-introduced themselves. Lucy screamed at the sight of Gray walking around starkers, acted nervous round the likes of Laxus, Gajeel, and Juvia (who was sending really mixed signals with her hugs and tears, and then her glares and threats of death), got really shy round everyone else – especially Mirajane, who Lucy kept staring as if she was the best food in the world. Which really annoyed Natsu.
Actually Natsu didn't like the hero worshipping way Lucy was looking at everyone, at all. "But Natsu," Happy looked up from his fish, "that's how she used to look at everyone when she first came here."
