This is EmmaCoris speaking, your beloved author's annoying little sister. I will explain pretty much everything below the story.
This 13,000-word baby was born a week ago when I showed her Criminal Minds. I swear she was possessed after she saw how Hotch's wife was killed. She literally stopped the show, grabbed her computer, and stubbornly told me, "This is NaLu, sis, all the freaking way."
Brenna has taken some liberties with the way the criminal justice world works. She tried to make what she wasn't sure of as vague as possible to minimize the chance of error, but you're still going to have to excuse any mistakes. I've done nothing except read this thing over. The credit goes completely to her.
THERE IS A LEMON PRESENT LOOK FOR MARKS ().
So enjoy her work and leave a review to let her know what you thought.
FT is not hers - or mine, for that matter. Some things just don't end up where they should. :)
- EmmaCoris -
Lucy swore as the mug in her hands tilted, boiling water spilling onto her fingers before soaking her nice carpet. Her nerves took a moment to process the pain before quickly overloading her senses. She scrambled to set the mug down and shook out her throbbing hand while challenging her tea to a stare-down. The tea stared back, completely unaffected, and she gave up with a angry huff.
She spilled the tea every single time she tried to carry it across the room – which was ridiculous, because she preferred to think that she learned from her mistakes. That was obviously not the case with tea-carrying, something she should've had down pat from her proper days.
Her father was probably rolling in his grave.
Blowing on her abused fingers, she moved the mug to its spot on her desk with the speed of a snail and collapsed into her chair. Her computer greeted her with the login screen as she swiveled around to face it and promptly realized she had left the bowl of baby carrots by the kitchen sink.
She liked to snack while researching ideas for her next novel. First it had been apples, then it had been popcorn. After the scales showed exactly what her weight thought about daily popcorn, she switched back to apples before moving on to Persian cucumbers and baby carrots. She preferred the cucumbers, but the corner store had been out and anything else was too far away to be convenient, so she settled for a jumbo-sized package of tiny carrots.
Resettling took longer than she wanted it to and then she was distracted for a solid forty-five minutes by a select news clip that popped up in response to her filtered searches. Erza Scarlet-Fernandez, one of her dear – and slightly more sane, although that was debatable – friends, had finally been promoted to Chief of Police for the local department. Lucy couldn't say she was surprised. After Erza took down the underground drug trade last spring with a hellishly complicated plan that had been doomed to fail, the promotion had been hers. It was just a matter of time before the head of the state PD got over his sexist ideals.
Scanning the newsfeed with a practiced eye for any little discrepancies in the story – Erza deserved only the best article for this – Lucy opened Messenger and sent a quick congratulations. It was only at the end of the article that she realized the flipside to Erza heading the PD, and the implications had her blanching.
One of Erza's leading proposals had been a Suspicious Online Search Response Team, nicknamed SOS Response. It had good intentions. The idea was that all online searches on the public Internet domain, which was free and used almost universally in Magnolia, would be screened and those flagged as suspicious would be tracked. The goal was to curb suicide rates that had been climbing since the drug infestation of 2013. The problem was that most of Lucy's novel-related research would most likely be flagged as suspicious.
The ones she had planned for today would definitely be flagged, and if she knew anything about Erza at all, SOS Response would already be set up and running.
She reached for her phone and hit redial.
"Lu?"
"Hey, Lev. You okay? You sound pretty bad."
"I'm good. Just had a long night."
"It's two o'clock. That's ten-ish hours since we ended chat night."
Lucy carefully re-read the paragraph on SOS Response. Her brain didn't like what it saw there and her mouth twisted in distaste. It was looking like she'd have to call Trimen's Services and get a private network installed – which would be a pain in the ass, considering how the public domain gave her everything she needed already.
"I had a much longer night than that. Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to wake you."
Lucy grinned and listened in. Sure enough, a gruff male voice muttered a reply. Levy made a quick, dirty little promise before the crinkling of her mattress protector accompanied her as she rolled out of bed.
"Gajeel came over?"
"Yeah. He brought Lily and I finally proved that the mattress cover was not a waste of money. We'll probably end up saving hundreds."
Gajeel's cat, Panther Lily, was a tough, furry sweetheart that battled alley cats for fun and could bush out his fur so he looked twice his size. But the kitty was terrified of lightning, and every timed it stormed he thoroughly soaked the mattress with pee. Spring in Magnolia cost Levy and Gajeel thousands of jewels every year.
"Stubborn bastard won't admit he's wrong until it's shoved up his nose," Levy grumbled.
"You know you love him," Lucy teased, ignoring the pangs her own heart was sending. She would be the first to admit that she was a hopeless romantic, always searching for just the right man to complete her life, but recently her excursions had been producing more perverts and crushed hopes than anything else.
"Yeah." Levy sighed. "What did you call about?"
"I take it you haven't checked the news."
"Don't tell me."
"Erza's in!"
Lucy knew her face didn't match the elation in her voice. She took a long sip of her now-lukewarm tea and waited for Levy to organize her thoughts.
"That's really great for her. She deserves it. You want to kidnap her to celebrate?"
"Sure. Friday night works?"
"Yeah. I'll have to check to make sure, but it should work."
"SOS Response is probably up and running."
"Yeah." Levy clicked her tongue. Dishes clattered in the background. "Well, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. Are you going to call Trimen's?"
"Someday. I'll need days of emotional and mental preparation, then therapy after."
"Or you could call a different city."
"I'll stick to local. They might give me headaches, but they have good quality."
"True. You want me to come over later so we can browse suspicious content together?"
"Sure, but you don't have to. Spend some time with your honey-bunny. I'm sure he misses you."
"Oh, I know he does. Erotica has nothing on what we did last night."
"I didn't need to know that."
"We still on for lunch tomorrow?"
"Yeah. See you then, Levy."
"See you."
Lucy hung up and flipped her phone on her desk, enjoying the resounding clack each time it landed while she rummaged in her drawers for her research list. She discovered it folded into a paper boat and tucked into last month's article folder. Unfolding it, her eyes immediately landed on her doodle from last night. A bunch of pink spikes sat on a crudely drawn anchor, complete with a piece of rope coming from the top. The anchor had arms and legs and held a torch in its left hand.
It was about as nondescript as her brooding could get.
Groaning, she pulled her focus back on track and started from the top of her list. The first was human body limits in extreme conditions, but that didn't really strike her as suspicious. A student could be researching the same thing for a research paper. She moved on, dutifully sipping her tea, and was nearly a quarter of the way down when her eyes landed on a red flag.
DIY hgmn's knot – killer MO?
If anything was going to land her on the SOS Response list, it would be a search on hangman's knots. Popping open her outline binder, she pulled out a nameless character sketch that would belong to her villain, a wronged man-turned-murderer terrorizing a city with an unusual signature. She wasn't sure if she would even finish this work, let alone submit it to her editor. It would be her first try at mystery thriller and a long way from her comfort-zone genre: romance.
Still, her last work had centered around a mystery-type plot with a happy ending rather than a complicated romantic tragedy, and it had been a near immediate success. It made sense to continue expanding her reach into the genre if it was working out for her. Not only that, but almost half of her friends were somehow involved with the justice system. Erza was in the PD and her husband Jellal was a defense attorney. Cana Alberona and her father Gildarts Clive, a very mobile team, were some of the best private detectives in the state. Gajeel Redfox was in the military. Levy McGarden was a reporter, but she often covered local cases and was the first news outlet the local PD contacted when information had to be spread.
There was also the matter of Wendy Marvell and Chelia Blendy, the resident medical teen geniuses. Regardless of what they said, Lucy was certain that they had been contacted by the PD more than once for consultation. They knew the layout of the morgue better than Lucy did, and Lucy found herself running coffee to Erza there at least twice a week.
The point was, she'd be able to provide juicy, insider-only information for her readers without going through hours of painstaking phone calls and scheduling. That was way too tempting to pass up.
She sighed and prodded Chrome until it opened. Once the browser loaded, she typed in how to make a hangman's knot and hit enter. If she was lucky, the SOS Response would still be in its early stages, which meant some searches would be missed. If she was very lucky, one of those elusive searches would be hers. Or maybe the officer that was saddled with breaking down her door for no reason would recognize her name and would figure that since writers searched up crazy shit all the time, there was no pressing need to storm her apartment building. At any rate, enough false alarms might get her kicked out of the SOS Response filter parameters.
Her luck ran out two hours and four bowls of carrots later. Someone knocked very decisively on her door. She jerked out of her chair in shock and toppled over, taking the chair with her. The landing was painful, with her ribs colliding with the armrest. Swearing – and going for the most colorful options she had – she untangled herself from the chair and straightened out the scene before answering the door. It wouldn't do for a potential business contact to see her work space looking as though a hurricane had gone through.
The unwanted visitor knocked again, then in a haphazard pattern that had her frowning. It had to be someone she knew for them to be comfortable enough to make music on her front door, but it could also be any of her friends. Except for Erza.
Erza was always down to business.
"Coming!" she called, pausing in front of her door to fix her ponytail. It was probably a cop on the SOS Response, and looking her best had never hurt. An apology complete with an explanation for her research waiting on the tip of her tongue, she opened the door with a beaming smile.
"Hey! Sorry fo—oh."
Natsu Dragneel stood on her doorstep, one arm raised to rap his knuckles against her door again. Her practiced smile dropped, her eyes went wide, her brain immediately forgot everything it was supposed to remember, and her heart set off at a million beats a minute. He opened his palm in greeting and smiled, flashing sharp canines, and proper etiquette flew out the window. She knew her mouth was slack and she wasn't sure she could do anything about it.
"Yo, Lucy!"
He always managed to render her speechless. While she gaped and scrambled to regain her composure, stammering what came to mind, his eyes lit up with amusement. The shit-eating grin she'd fallen for on the spot widened until it gave way to laughter.
"I knew it!" he chuckled. "Erza's getting pretty paranoid, sending us to check on weirdoes like you."
The teasing nickname she'd had to endure since high school struck home and she slammed back onto the rails, regaining her bearings in a second.
"Weirdoes?" she asked indignantly. "Wait, what do you mean by us?"
That sobered him up. "Oh, yeah. Popsicle panties is here too."
"The fuck was that, shithead?"
Lucy first saw Gray Fullbuster's fist as it flew at Natsu's face. She flinched away, startled, but Natsu only grinned as he caught it with his hand as though it was a lousy baseball pitch. The rest of Gray came into view shortly after. True to his habit, he was missing his shirt, but not his tie. It looked very odd.
"Hey, Lucy. Good to see you." Gray inclined his head, then rounded on Natsu with a completely different temper. "At least tell me when you're moving on, flame brain!"
"Maybe you should pay attention, frosty ass!"
"What did you call me?"
"A deaf stripper!"
"You little—"
"Boys!" Lucy exclaimed. "Since when are you in the PD?"
Both had joined Erza in the military right out of college. While Erza returned after her first tour with a European lawyer as her lover-soon-to-be-fiance and set up shop in the local PD, Natsu and Gray stayed with the army. They dutifully returned to Magnolia each time they were on leave and made sure to get the old gang together, but never before had they taken on jobs while on leave.
Lucy was split between growing hope and expectation of disappointment. She hated not knowing if two of her oldest friends were alive or dead. Gray was the brother she'd never had and Natsu . . . well, that was a bit more complicated.
"Honorably discharged a month ago," Gray said. "Erza found us, dragged us to her office, and forced us to join her little SOS army or whatever."
"It was horrible." Natsu exaggerated a shudder. Lucy only rolled her eyes and stepped aside, inviting them in. They were bound to break something the moment they set foot within her apartment, but she really did miss them.
"You two wouldn't have gone with her if you didn't want to," she said, unable to wipe the soft smile off her face. "I'm just happy you're back in one piece."
"Well," Natsu began dramatically, "I did get shot several times, and since Gray is such a lazy ass I had to pull the bullets out myself, and—"
"What the fuck?"
Lucy giggled and shook her head.
"Anything you two want for lunch?"
XXXXX
Natsu did not, as she expected him to, drift around the edges of her life without really crossing her path. No, the insufferable bastard had the nerve to assign himself the duty of breaking down her door every time she landed on the SOS Response list.
It didn't take long to discover that she landed there quite often.
By the end of March, her fridge was bare save for the last bag of baby carrots that she had labeled with her name too many times to count in the hopes that Natsu would leave it alone. She'd also finally set up the guest room, if only because when Natsu showed up during her late-night searches he had an annoying tendency to fall asleep on her bed. He still headed towards her room first; only after she screamed at him and smacked him with a pillow did he call her a big meanie and go where he was supposed to.
It was college all over again, except this time the fridge was hers and there was no collective fund that would pay to restock it. So Lucy fished out her naughty list, picked a suspicious topic at random and searched it up. This time it was on how to quickly kill someone with a knife. Her mystery novel was still going strong and to spice it up, she'd binge-watched Criminal Minds – with Natsu, more often than not – and used the villains from each episode as inspiration.
Forty minutes in, she heard the echoing thuds of his boots on the landing. She jumped out of her cozy chair, grabbed the rather extensive grocery list from her desk, and waited for him at her door. When he knocked in his usual haphazard pattern, she opened the door with a smile, shoved the list in his face and slammed her door shut before he could get a word in.
She could easily imagine him scramble to catch the paper. He would glance at it, look at her door with a bewildered expression, then take the time to read it when he realized it probably wasn't a prank and the door wasn't going to suddenly open again. He would run a hand through his hair and puff out his cheeks. She knew exactly what he did, because she and Cana had hacked the security systems at their college dorm.
Lucy was a smart girl. She'd taken advantage of the cameras to watch her best friend – and crush – every time she didn't let him in.
"The hell is this, Luce?" he called.
"If you're going to eat me out of my house, you'd better start paying for it," she replied tartly.
"That's not fair!"
She blinked at the door in disbelief. "I don't care. I'll either see you in an hour with the groceries or not at all."
He kicked her door. He knocked. He did every annoying thing he'd ever done save for picking her lock. Then he moved on to demanding, whining, and – after half an hour – begging. Lucy returned to her chair, put in her favorite pink earbuds, and turned up the music. She barely head him over the steady beats.
A part of her was freaking out. What if he'd changed more than she thought and didn't come back? What if he hated her for making him pay for what were technically her groceries? But rationality made a stand and pointed out that even if he didn't return, he did eat her fridge bare. He owed her those groceries. She made good money from her books, but she wasn't a millionaire. Besides, it would cost him the same as if he'd eaten from his own fridge.
Exactly an hour later, she got a text telling her to open up. She stared at the message with skepticism. Natsu figured it out himself and sent her a picture of tightly packed grocery bags. They were all paper, just like she preferred. Did he remember that little detail from years ago or did he also get paper bags?
She replied with a thumbs up and went down to help him. Marine Corps or no, it was impossible to carry so many bags at once, and if he completed the list, he would have a lot of groceries. She'd numbered each item to say how many she wanted, taking care to make sure she wasn't exploiting him.
He met her halfway up the first flight of stairs, six bags in each hand. Even though his fingers were turning white, he didn't look strained at all. His uniform jacket was nowhere to be seen and Lucy took a moment to eye the taut arm muscles his short-sleeve failed to cover. It really wasn't fair.
"Is there anything left in the car?" she asked, knowing what the answer would be before it came out of his mouth.
"Nope! I got 'em all."
"And you're not going to let me help," she said resignedly. He grinned and she went back upstairs, holding her apartment door open instead. Natsu came up not two minutes later, shuffled through her door sideways and carefully set the bags down. Half ended up on her counter and half on the floor right next to it.
She peeked into the bags, gaped at the incredibly Tetris-like organization, and looked up in time to see Natsu collapse unceremoniously onto her couch. Aside from him appearing to doze off, there was nothing to suggest he'd just carried twelve bags full of groceries up four flights of stairs.
"What happened to your jacket?" she asked.
"I hate it," he muttered.
"And you wear it because?"
"Erza makes me."
"Ah." She picked a bag and started taking it apart. "Where did you learn to pack like this?"
"Wasn't me. The guy packed 'em up like that. Took him five seconds." He scoffed. "How many years did he waste perfecting that?"
"It's not necessarily a waste, since it lets you show off your Hulk by carrying everything up yourself," she said, then pulled out what she counted to be the fifth packet of chicken breast. "How much chicken did you buy?"
"Eh. Dunno. You still make that spicy chicken, right?" He looked up to see her answer, then continued, "Now you can make it every day."
"You expect me to cook for you every day," she repeated flatly. "Oh really."
He immediately turned around and trained his infamous puppy-eyes on her, with his hands clasped under his chin and bottom lip sticking out. Lucy felt the blush coming from miles away. To save at least some of her dignity, she rolled her eyes and turned to throw two packs of the chicken into the sink. Natsu's whispered cheer told her that she had most definitely lost, and it didn't surprise her in the least.
She'd always ended up giving in, and he always ended up giving back.
XXXXX
By the end of April, she'd had her domain changed to a private one and her searches no longer landed on the SOS Response list. The domain did nothing to keep pink-haired men out of her life. Natsu was coming over "just because" and usually ended up staying the night. He'd be knocking on her door after his shift, on weekends, or for absolutely no reason other than to make a nest on her couch and pull her into watching Man VS Wild. Sometimes he'd bring Play Doh and pelt her window with little multi-colored balls. If he knew she was working – which she suspected he did, because someone had been messing with her Fantastical app – he would pick her lock and barge in. Occasionally he helped out. He knew plenty about the PD's protocols, which Lucy used to her advantage and added lots of detail to her scenes. Most of the time, however, he turned on the Xbox he'd brought over two weeks ago and played Black Ops Three on full volume.
Apparently, being in the military hadn't drilled out his love for the damned game.
So when came by after work with a bottle of Pinot Gris, she let him in without a grumble and poured them both a glass. Twenty minutes and two glasses later, she found herself sitting next to him on the couch, being taught how to make her character shoot a gun.
"Use the stick to aim, then press the back to fire," Natsu instructed, guiding her fingers until her person – some guy in full army gear – shot several rounds at a barrel. Every single one missed.
"Why did I agree to this?" she muttered, pulling her controller away from him and making her person run in jerky circles. When she tried to move a different direction, she ended up colliding with a pole and was promptly shot down by Natsu.
"Hey!" she exclaimed. "I am not playing against you!"
"Luce, don't be mean! It'll be fun!"
"No. No way. You are going to pull your fancy bullshit on me and I won't get a single hit in!" she said firmly, then hiccupped. Natsu snorted. Still, she didn't drop her controller and kept going. By midnight – another two glasses later – she hadn't hit him once, but she did learn how to duck. That alone cut how many times she died by at least a half.
When she did hit him, it was a miraculous accident in the form of a solid head shot.
"Ha! I got you!" she cheered, throwing her controlled on the couch and swinging a clumsy punch in his general direction. To her great disappointment, she missed. The room spun ever so slightly. She hiccupped again and leaned against him, grinning stupidly. "Did you see that?"
"Sure did, Luce. I kinda died, too." His arm wrapped around her shoulders. "Damn, still a lightweight, aren't ya?"
"Am not."
"Mhmm." His voice was teasing and her smile grew. She really did love him.
"You're warm," she mumbled. With a sigh of content, she snuggled up against him and promptly fell asleep.
Waking up was a nightmare for many reasons. Someone – and she blamed Natsu – had stuffed her head with stones. Every time she moved they rolled around, creating a racket. Her mouth was dry, her tongue too big, and her eyes really disliked lights in general. For some reason, she had left her curtains open, and bright sunlight flooded the room. She never left the curtains open. Why had she?
Closing her eyes, she took her time in rediscovering where exactly her arms and legs were. It took her too long to realize she was on the couch. Then she remembered Natsu, the Pinot Gris, and Black Ops Three. The world quickly began making sense. Swearing, she made a vow to never drink that much again and immediately resigned herself to the fact that she would break it as soon as she met up with Cana – or any of her friends, for that matter.
Regaining feeling, however, also meant regaining orientation. It took her less than two seconds to regret waking up at all. Maybe if she had slept a little longer, she could've avoided the entire situation altogether.
She opened her eyes and stared at a sleeping Natsu. He was on his back, his head was on her lap, one arm dangled off the couch while the other was folded across his stomach, and he had the tiniest bit of drool at the corner of his mouth.
He looked absolutely adorable, even when he let out a huge snore and mumbled a string of snow-related insults. Lucy didn't need to think twice to know who was in his dreams, and if she knew anything about Natsu, they were probably fighting. Natsu was also most likely winning, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was that he was sleeping with his head on her lap and she didn't know whether she could escape without waking him up. She knew for sure that she didn't have it in her to pretend to be asleep. He'd always known when she was faking it.
He solved her problem for her by rolling over and falling off the couch.
XXXXX
It took all of May and June for Lucy to even begin considering that maybe, just maybe their weird as fuck relationship was simply a habit for Natsu. He'd done the same things in college. He'd snuck into her dorm while she was in class, eaten all her food – including the emergency snacks she stashed under her mattress to hide from him, the jerk– and made a huge mess that she would scold him for but still clean up the moment she returned. She'd never stayed mad for long and before the day was over she'd find herself watching a movie with him or proof-reading his essay.
He was a creature of habit. It made perfect sense for him to come home after his service was over and start up the same habits he'd left behind. However, Mirajane hadn't changed all that much either and still insisted that there was something there, something no one, not even Natsu, could fully understand.
"Lucy, give him time. You know how thick-headed boys can be," Mira said, steadily wiping a beer glass dry. Lucy rolled her eyes and finished off her milkshake.
"Sure I do."
"There you go. Now, I have a slightly less important matter but it's just as pressing." Mira pursed her lips. "It's Cana's birthday next week, so I'm throwing a party for her on Friday. It'll be an all-nighter with dirty dancing and drinks and you are going to be there, no excuses."
Lucy opened her mouth. Nothing came out, so she closed it. Mira smiled triumphantly. On the third try, her throat decided to work and she tried to weasel her way to freedom.
"Mira, I really can't—"
"Nonsense, sweetheart. I've already talked to your editor and publisher and manager—"
"The fuck, Mira?"
"Language, Lucy, but the point is that you have three weeks left to finish act two and since I've known you forever, I'm sure you're already done." Mirajane changed glasses. Lucy gaped in disbelief and complete surrender, because Mira was dead-on about everything. "So you will be coming to this party and you will stay until the end. Are we clear?"
"Yes, ma'am," Lucy muttered. She received a bright smile and a free refill for her milkshake in return. Neither did anything to quell the sense of despair that hung over her, accompanied by the knowledge that she had just signed up for a killer hangover and a lot of regrets. Nothing Cana ever did was subtle. The party would definitely have a lot of dirty dancing, a lot of drinking, and a lot of strip poker. Chances were that most of the party-goers, Lucy included, would find themselves waking up naked and unable to do anything about it.
She was still surprised sometimes at all the shit drunk her managed to get into.
Sighing, she hauled herself to the nearest Rite Aid and hunted for hangover meds. Mirajane had a homemade cure that was definitely something along the lines of magic and witchcraft, but she withheld it for devious purposes and made people do stupid things as a result. Lucy had learned quickly that if she didn't have her own supply to lean on, she would regret it dearly. Picking a brand she trusted just a bit more than the others, she gently turned down the flirty cashier and headed home, knowing exactly what she would find.
For the first time in over seven years, she was absolutely wrong.
Natsu was waiting for her on the third flight of stairs, two duffels by his feet, although waiting might be too generous of a description. He was pacing fervently and the moment he saw her, he grabbed the duffels and dragged her to his car.
"Natsu, what—"
He shushed her and all but shoved her in the front seat. Quickly throwing the duffels in the back, he took his place behind the wheel and broke over five different traffic laws in a crazy drive out of the city. Lucy sat in silence, too dumbfounded to speak. When he pulled over at a small gas station on an empty freeway that didn't come even remotely close to Magnolia, Lucy exploded.
"What the fuck, Dragneel?"
"I'm saving your life!" he protested. "You know exactly what kind of shit Cana and Mira are going to make us do!"
"Kissing Gray wouldn't have killed you!"
"Yes, it would've!"
"Is it really that bad?" she asked, suddenly seriously considering it.
"Don't you dare think about kissing that pansy snowflake," he growled. Lucy snickered, took a moment to let the situation fully set in, and realized that she honestly didn't mind being kidnapped by Natsu.
"So we're just going to run away?" she said.
Natsu shrugged. "We're gonna try. Erza always hunts me down. Dunno how she does it."
"Oh, well. I guess I should say thanks for trying."
He gave her the very smile she had fallen in love with and they quickly spent all their pocket change on snacks and fast food before hitting the road again. He rolled down all the windows while she dug up their shared playlist from college.
"I'm thinking Hargeon," he said. "They have an awesome seafood buffet. Sounds good?"
"I'm up for pretty much anything so long as you don't make me sleep in the wild without a tent." She laughed, remembering the horrible camping trip in their junior year. "Why'd you wait for me?"
"Can't go without ya, Luce. Like you said, it's more fun when we're together."
Her blush – and her smile – didn't leave her face for hours.
XXXXX
Lucy tried to hide from the insane crowd of piss-drunk people that were steadily demolishing the private event room at the Strauss Bar n' Grill. Unfortunately for her, a decent amount of the piss-drunk people decided that they liked what they saw and kept trying to get just a little closer. For a drunk Max Alors, any closer would be under her clothes, and Lucy did not want to apologize over and over again for allowing him to cheat on his broom.
"Help me please," she muttered under her breath, ducking under Max's outstretched arm and gently shoving a couple crazy dancers out of her way as she desperately made her way to the second floor. Yes, it was reserved for another group and yes, Mira had told them they weren't allowed to escape, but they were just as loud – if not louder – than the roaring birthday party downstairs. Lucy had no idea how she was still sober, but she had managed to successfully avoid Cana-sized portions of booze for the last five hours and she was determined to keep the count going. The bet had been hers, after all. She wasn't about to lose.
By the time she actually reached the top of the stairs, she had been kissed as least three times, lost both her shoes, and someone had spilled beer on the front of her dress. It didn't help that the dress was a light pink. Besides making it look as though she'd been peed on, the beer stain clung to her skin with a disgusting stickiness that she refused to endure.
Her luck struck gold when the people in the upstairs party – also piss-drunk – stumbled out into the corridor, roared in approval at the sight below them, and wasted no time in stumbling down the stairs to join in. Lucy glued herself to the wall to avoid being carried along with them, then ducked into the room they abandoned.
It turned out to be only slightly smaller than the downstairs room, which gave her a pause and made her reevaluate how big she thought Mira's restaurant was. The fact that it was tucked into the bottom of a high-rise didn't help. The only other person in the room was the bartender, and she had to admit that he was damn sexy with that pink hair of his.
Her eyes widened and her mind screeched to a halt as she processes exactly what she was seeing. Making her way over in a daze, she dropped onto a barstool and stared uncomprehendingly at the glass of water Natsu placed in front of her. At least, she assumed it was water. It could've been vodka.
"Can I borrow your hoodie?" she asked.
He shrugged it off. "Sure. Why?"
"Some jerk spilled beer on me." She turned around, expertly unzipped the back of her dress, and pulled on the hoodie. Reaching underneath, she pulled the top of her dress down until the beer-soaked top was folded around her waist. The hoodie smelled like him.
Turning back to grab her water, she paused when she saw his face. His expression was different. The way he looked at her had changed. It was subtle, but it was definitely there, and Lucy realized that he really liked what he saw. She also realized that she liked what she saw, but then that was an everyday occurrence.
"How'd you end up as a bartender?" she asked, trying to find a more stable ground. Her sudden question worked. Natsu blinked, a faint blush crawling up his neck, and smiled sheepishly.
"I kinda slipped the guy on duty a few drinks and they pulled him into the party," he said with a shrug. "No one noticed when I took over and I bet they're having just as much fun playing strip poker without us."
"You're never one to skip the crazy."
He shuddered. "I still get nightmares about kissing Gray. No way in hell am I going through that again."
Lucy couldn't help the giggles even though Natsu feigned great offense. She patted the seat next to her with a smile. "Let's have a drink, to the successful avoidance of piss-drunk hell."
He pulled out four beers, slid them across to her, and vaulted over the counter. Lucy shrieked just a bit, but he landed cleanly on his feet between two barstools.
"Sorry about the GPS tracker, by the way," he said, popping off the caps. "Completely forgot 'bout it."
"Hey, it's all good. Now you know how Erza finds you every time," she said.
"True." He grinned and they clinked their bottles.
The beer proved to be exactly what she needed. "Watch her pull out a whole bag of tricks next time," she said teasingly. "I bet she has the entire book memorized."
"Not just the book. She's got every margin scribble down. That monster will find me even if I hike it to the moon," he grumbled. Lucy laughed, leaning against him, and brought the bottle to her lips. She knew she'd be in the range of tipsy soon enough, but that was much better than roaring drunk. Drunk her tended to mess up, and mess up badly. Time with Natsu was one thing she desperately wanted to get right.
"Thanks, Luce," he said suddenly, raising his beer in a sort of salute.
"What for?"
"For everything."
The effect was unsurprising and immediate: she choked on her beer, blushed a beet red, and tried to stammer at least a partially dignified response. Natsu stared at her with wide eyes before erupting in roaring laughter, taking her along with him. They laughed until their sides hurt, exchanged a few sarcastic quips, finished off their beers and laughed some more.
When they kissed, they were just sober enough to remember – and continue it – the next day.
XXXXX
()
Their first time together was unlike any sex she'd ever had. She didn't just lay in bed, waiting for the pleasure to drown out everything else while a man she barely knew worked on getting her clothes off. No, with Natsu it was a race to see who could get the other naked first. She refused to take turns, to slow down, or to go step by step; she wanted him then and there and a pair of pants wasn't going to stop her.
The pants did look good on him, though.
He seemed to have a similar drive, because she knew for a fact that her comfortable black bra had been snapped in half. She didn't want to think about her shirt; it had gone missing before they even made it to her bedroom. They were all over each other, kissing and biting without paying the slightest attention to their surroundings. Electricity shot through her every time her nipples rubbed against his bare chest. After a long, mind-consuming kiss, she fought to catch her breath while he moved on to her neck, his teeth skimming across her skin and leaving behind trails of fire. His fingers pulled at her jeans and she shifted her hips to help, only to moan when he squeezed her ass.
When they tripped over the edge of her bed, Natsu spun them around so that he landed on his back. She only laughed and kissed him while his hands wandered along her sides. He tasted hot, male, and eager. Every time he tried to move she kissed him harder, doing her very best to drown in his taste. For her, there was nothing she wanted more.
His hands returned to her ass and squeezed hard. She gasped, reveling in the sensation of his warm hands firm on her otherwise frozen butt, and he used the moment to roll them over. She fell flat with a whine but didn't move to stop him, knowing that riding him wouldn't be enough this time. She wanted him to be rough and dominating, to fuck her so hard that she wouldn't be able to walk tomorrow. One day she'd make sure that she got her turn – and she had no problem with tying him up if necessary – but being in control meant taking it slow. She wanted to tease him, to see how he reacted to every touch.
She knew she didn't have the patience for that, not when she wanted him so much that it hurt.
"Oh, come on," she moaned, fisting her hands in his hair while he played with her breasts. Apparently someone wanted to slow down, to draw it out. He smirked and pinched a nipple, making her cry out while he kissed his way down her stomach. She wasn't really sure when exactly she'd lost her jeans, but her panties vanished in moments and then his mouth was on her, rough and demanding as it worked around his fingers. She threw her head back against the mattress as loud, shameless moans left her lips. The pleasure built up with every little thing he did, from the way his hot breath tickled her clit to how he pressed the little nub in a way that made her lose her mind. Her body couldn't relax for fear of being torn apart by the burning pleasure coursing through her.
When she came, she screamed his name, and his answering groan immediately turned her on again. Panting and far from satisfied, she pushed herself up and brushed her hair out of her face. Natsu didn't give her a break, pulling kiss and after kiss from her while she worked on getting rid of his pants.
"I want you inside me now, Dragneel," she said, "and I will ride you if I have to."
He grinned, his eyes holding a dark, wild fire that only fed her desire. "That can be arranged."
She barely caught herself when he swung her on top of him. It took mere seconds for her to process and understand. Turning so that he would only see her back, she reached between them and gave him a hard squeeze before taking him in, reveling in his choked moan. She'd barely settled when he thrust up into her, filling her so completely that she couldn't think. The pace he set swept her off her feet and when she couldn't keep up, he pulled her close and rolled them over again.
Her face buried in a pillow, she whimpered and moaned his name as he tore her apart with harsh, deep thrusts. He seemed tireless, shattering every single expectation she'd had for the night – and sex in general, really – while she fell apart beneath him over and over again. Only when her body was utterly spent did he let himself come, moaning into her skin.
He peppered her shoulders with little kisses before pulling out and laying next to her. His fingers played with her hair, curling and tugging. She rolled onto her side and scooted close with a lazy smile, loving the way he held her and the way he smelled as she buried her face in his chest. His heart raced, a loud, powerful beat that she focused on to cement the moment in her memory.
"I love you, Luce," he murmured, pressing soft kisses to the top of her head. She smiled. She knew he loved her; he'd told her on a lazy Tuesday morning, when they'd both woken up on the couch again and neither bothered to move away from the other.
"I know, Natsu. I love you too."
()
XXXXX
July was complete hell. Lucy hadn't thought there could be anything worse than Natsu being in the military – she had somehow ended up being signed on as his next of kin, which meant the apologies-for-your-loss letter would be coming to her mailbox – but apparently him being in the PD could easily add twice as many grey hairs and wrinkles. She knew all too well that she had bags under her eyes; she had long since given up trying to hide them with concealer. If Natsu saw her like this, she would be treated to another "you shouldn't worry about me" speech before an apology complete with a hungry, demanding kiss.
They'd been cuddling when the call came, both naked and tired after a long evening exploring each other. Even though he wasn't even close to being her first and she knew she wasn't his, each night spent together burned with the novelty of the arrangement and the feelings they shared. She'd learned that he was sensitive when it came to his scars. He wasn't ticklish, but even the softest touches had his muscles flexing in response.
He'd taken the call with an exaggerated grimace and rolled out of bed, saying he'd been called to the station. She hadn't wanted him to go. He'd laughed, kissed her, and promised to be back before she knew it. She'd watched him leave with a content sigh and a smile and wondered how on earth she'd managed to get this lucky. She'd taken a hot bath and started reading a new book, waiting for him to call and tell her he was coming home.
Instead, she'd gotten a call from the head of the state PD. She'd been told in a tight, displeased voice that there had been a vital breach in the staff data archives. She'd been told to come down to the station and she nearly ran a child over in her rush to get there. It was every nightmare she'd researched coming to life: a killer was on the loose, a killer who knew exactly what he wanted and how to get it.
"What does he want, Erza?" she asked. Her voice was calm and collected, something that probably surprised her more than anyone else. The Chief of Police stared at the wad of crushed paper she'd been playing with for the last twenty minutes. She looked older than her years. Lucy knew she was exhausted and she could guess why.
"We don't know," Erza finally said. The resignation and her discomfort with it were plain as day. "Every visible sign of Jellal in our home was destroyed. Gray was attacked and Juvia received a call from a disposable that told her he was dead. It crushed her. Gildarts and Cana are out of state right now, but they've reported being followed. Each interaction has his signature all over it: painted on walls, scribbled on notes we recovered, and countless other methods. Everyone who helped us on the case, even the technicians, have been located and terrorized, with considerably more anger taken out on the men."
"Except for Natsu," Lucy realized.
"Yes. Based on the FBI BAU's profile, we have to assume Hikaru holds Natsu in a special spot because he was the one who gunned him down. It's my professional opinion that you be put into protective custody until we can secure Hikaru again."
Lucy glanced through the one-way mirror into the interrogation room and bit her lip. Natsu sat inside, snapping at Gajeel while the grim-faced soldier muscled his way through a list of standard questions. His face was drawn, his hands in fists and his knuckles white. Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. It physically hurt to see him beating himself up over something he couldn't control.
"Shouldn't you be protecting him, then? I didn't even know about Hikaru until now," she said softly.
"It is easier to die than it is to live with our imperfections," Erza murmured, staring at Natsu with a soft gaze. "The information missing from the breach was focused on our personal lives, specifically on the people we listed. The automatic and most often correct assumption is that an officer of the law would put a loved one's name on next of kin or first contact. Active service has no guarantees. If we fall in the line of duty, we want the people we love to know first. For a killer as organized as Hikaru, to have those people under his thumb means to have the officers."
"You're thinking he'll go after me to hurt Natsu because living with the knowledge that he couldn't stop Hikaru would be worse than death."
"We know he will. Natsu is a trained and able Marine. He is not an easy target, and if he was alone, he does have the means to change identities and leave the country on borderline illegal terms. But he loves you, and he won't leave without you," Erza said. "He is an excellent solider and officer in everything except emotional control. All of us are. Despite the specialized training, we aren't capable to leave loved ones behind us to take the fall or pick up the pieces. If he left, it would hurt you greatly, but the idea that you could still die and he wouldn't be there to prevent it would destroy him. He would see it as a failure on his behalf, and he would take the blame entirely on himself."
"But Hikaru attacked Gray."
"Gray was the first victim. The BAU sees that as a test run. Hikaru wanted to see how far he would get with attacking a Marine. From what Gray recalls, Hikaru most likely left the fight with a damaged shoulder, but it's not certain. He won't go attacking another Marine, as he showed with Chelia and Wendy's dorm and my house."
"He tried head-on revenge and got beat up, so now he's hunting for the weak links." Lucy shook her head, a sob lodging in her throat. "Oh, Natsu."
Erza shifted her weight. "If you agree to the Witness Protection Program, there is a safe house set up for the first week. You'll change your identity there. Juvia will join you. Then you'll be relocated to another location each month. The FBI will pay all expenses and bills."
"The feds?" Lucy asked, surprised. "They're involved?"
"They flew in last night. Once the case takes a personal turn, the officers involved are automatically deemed unfit for duty and the FBI sends agents to oversee and or substitute. For this case especially, we need their resources and access."
"And how long will I be in Witness Protection?"
"Until Hikaru is behind bars. I'm truly sorry, Lucy," Erza said quietly.
Lucy released a shaky breath and wrapped her arms around herself, longing for the comfort only Natsu could give her. If she agreed, she wouldn't see him for a month, maybe more. He would have no idea where she was. But then that was the entire point of Witness Protection: she would disappear from the face of the earth. If she went, however, Natsu would be able to focus. He wouldn't be torn between protecting her and doing his job, a job he was already deemed unfit for.
"I'll go. Is there paperwork?" she said, wiping away her tears.
"Yes. It's in my office."
Lucy glanced at Natsu again. "Can I say goodbye?"
"Of course." Erza's voice was soft, tinted with a bit of understanding. She knocked on the door before opening it and letting Lucy inside. Natsu shot out of his chair the moment he saw her and she ran, tears streaking down her cheeks. She skidded around the stainless steel table and crashed into him, nearly knocking him backwards. His embrace squeezed the air out of her, but she clung to him just as tightly, silently crying into his shirt.
"I'm sorry, Luce," he whispered, kissing the top of her head. She hadn't said anything about Witness Protection, but he seemed to understand that she would be going. He'd always been aware of the full situation.
"There's nothing to be sorry for." She looked up at him, cupping his face with her hands and trying to memorize every detail. She loved the way his eyes burned with silent promises that only she could see. She just loved him, and she loved him so much that it hurt to see him be anything but happy.
"I love you," she said, reaching up to kiss him. He didn't cry easily, but the wet sheen to his eyes gave him away.
"I love you too." He hid his face in her neck and she almost didn't hear his sniffle. When Erza cleared her throat to signal it was time to leave, she waited for him to regain his composure before stepping away. Her watery smile didn't hold up for very long, not when she could read the pain on his face.
She blew him a kiss before the door snapped shut between them.
XXXXX
August made July seem like a stroll on the beach. Each morning, Lucy checked her entire apartment with a knife in hand. She checked it again each time she came home from an errand or a walk. Every moment spent outside was spent in guarded terror, constantly resisting the urge to look behind her. If anything was going to give her away, it would be a hypervigilant attitude.
When she was at home, she watched the news and nothing else. Occasionally, she caught glimpses of Natsu standing in the back, usually hidden between Gray and Gajeel. He looked absolutely defeated and her mind kept jumping between the possibilities of the visible exhaustion being what it was or being bait for Hikaru, to make him think he'd won. If he thought he'd won, he'd become cocky. He'd make mistakes.
She kept waiting for any sign that her situation would change. She checked in daily with an agent from the Bureau that she'd never met and agreed to multiple cognitive interviews. The stress and fear was eating her alive, so she went and adopted a cat.
Knowing that she would be yelled at by multiple high-ranking agents, she tried her best to act relaxed and casual as she entered the run-down pet store. While the sign in the window proclaimed that the store offered cats, dogs, and birds for sale, she only counted three cats and one very beaten up parrot. The only cat to turn away from her with a haughty sniff was the weird one with vivid blue fur. Lucy smiled sadly, recalling all the times she'd been called a weirdo, and firmly told the woman at the checkout that she would take the blue one.
The woman took one look at her and offered the blue cat for free.
"You're grieving, sweetheart," the woman said. "It's written in your eyes. Besides, he's been here too long. No one wants a cat with blue fur these days."
Lucy bought the fussy cat high-quality cat food and some toys, but no collar. She wouldn't be putting an address on the tag anyways. Thanking the woman for her kindness, Lucy tried to pry her new pet out of his cage. When he refused to budge, she tried bribing him with the cat food. He ignored her completely in favor of staring at a glowing fish-shaped sign.
"You want actual fish?" she grumbled. "Fine, then."
She asked the woman to watch the stubborn animal for her while she made a run to the nearest store. Returning nearly an hour later with two pounds of raw tuna, she apologized profusely for taking so long and received an invitation to tea. Everything went along smoothly – the cookies the woman had made were delicious and the cat actually behaved so long as she gave him fish when he asked for it – until roughly eight o'clock that night.
Taking an unexpected call from the Bureau agent, she nearly screamed when the first thing she heard was the name she wasn't supposed to use.
"Miss Heartfilia?"
"Agent Tearm?"
"Miss Heartfilia, my apologies for using your name. This is SSA Wilkes with the FBI, and we are afraid that your location has been compromised. Are you at your temporary residence?"
"N-no," she stammered, glancing around in panic. "How was it compromised? Was it something I did?"
All she'd done was adopt a cat.
"I'm afraid agent Tearm has been killed, ma'am. Now, you must stay focused. I need you to follow my directions without fault. Can you do that for me, ma'am?"
"Yes." Her voice shook ever so slightly.
"Excellent. First, I need you to write down this number. Once you have the number, I need you to dispose of your current phone. You have the issued burner phone on you?"
"Yes," she said, scrambling to write the number on the back of her hand. She had it memorized, but she wasn't going to take any chances.
"Great. Ma'am, I need you to dispose of the burner cell as well. There are ways for Hikaru to track that number. Head to the mobile store on the corner of Sixth and Garden and purchase a pre-paid burner phone. Are we clear so far, ma'am?"
"Yes."
"Once you have the burner, call this number. I will issue further instructions then. Please hurry, ma'am. Your safety is of utmost importance and time is extremely limited."
The line went dead. Lucy glanced around, dropped her phone into the nearest trashcan, and took off running down the street, her heart in her throat. She refused to make it easy for Hikaru to kill her – she'd make him follow her to the ends of the world first.
XXXXX
Lucy had no idea what Hikaru looked like. The only details the media had managed to squeeze out of the investigation were that he carried a gun and wore a ski mask to every attack, which made him just about every man she passed in the streets. She gave that unpleasant realization a good deal of attention on the two-hour drive it took to reach the new safe house, which appeared to be just outside Magnolia's city border.
The man that greeted her at the set address took her by surprise. He was large in all directions, towering over her by a good two feet, and the ironed black suit made it impossible to tell if the mass was all muscle or if the agent had eaten a few too many donuts. His skin was very pale and when set against his black hair, tied back in a small ponytail, it looked almost grey.
"Ma'am, right this way," he said, indicating the small, secluded house behind him with a flick of his hand. There was a small flourish in the gesture, as though he was proud to present the top-secret hideout. She followed a thin cobblestone path as it snaked through an overgrown garden, carefully observing the house.
Natsu would've loved it. It was small, close enough to the city but provided nearly complete seclusion, which would allow them to have loud, uninterrupted sex without having to worry about waking the neighbors. Her lips curved slightly at the bittersweet thought.
"What's the plan from here?" she asked quietly, pushing the front door open. The living room appeared to be a cleanup in progress, with clothes strewn all over a large black couch but mostly off the floor. A half-eaten pizza lay abandoned on the coffee table. Dishes were stacked around the sink and stacks of papers littered a desk pushed against the far wall. The bedroom wasn't separated from the rest of the house, and Lucy could make out a large bed with black sheets and a fiery red duvet.
SSA Wilkes bolted the door and pulled out his phone.
"May I ask what that is, ma'am?" he said, frowning at the cat in her arms. She realized she still hadn't given the annoying bastard a name.
"A cat. I adopted him this morning," she said. "Can I ask—"
"Did you hear that, officer?" Wilkes sneered at the phone, his grubby fingers repeatedly pressing the volume up button. "Your woman got a cat. You must be really unsatisfying as a partner if she was forced to take in such a hideous animal."
Lucy's eyes went wide. Adrenalin flooded her body as realizations clicked into place one after another and she scrambled for the door. Hikaru's open palm caught the side of her face, sending her sprawling. The cat leapt out of her arms with a hiss.
"Don't touch her, you motherfucking son of a bitch," Natsu's voice snarled from the phone.
"I already did. Did that hurt, ma'am? My apologies. However, leaving is out of the question." Hikaru hauled her to her feet by her hair. Tears sprung to her eyes. "Now, let's get you a chair, ma'am. It's looking like you've got a nasty bruise there."
He pushed her down onto a crude kitchen stool and bound her feet to its legs, using his free hand to keep her arms pinned. At least some of his bulk had to be muscle, because Lucy couldn't make him budge. Once he was satisfied with the strength of the knots, he tied her wrists behind her back. She sniffed, blinking her tears away; there was no way in hell she would give the motherfucking son of a bitch the satisfaction of seeing her cry.
"You know, ma'am, this is the good officer's house. I believe it's your first time here?"
"Lucy, can you hear me?" Natsu demanded. He'd put a lid on his emotions and his voice seemed cold, but she knew him too well. The terror was louder than anything else.
"Yeah. Hey, Natsu," she said. The words lodged in her throat.
"I'm sorry, Luce. I . . ." He swallowed. "I know you didn't sign up for this, and—"
"Stop it. We're all going to be fine. W-we are going to be fine," she repeated, her voice cracking. After a deep breath, she added, "You didn't sign up for this either."
Hikaru chuckled. "All very touching, ma'am, but I can assure you that you're wrong. Officer Dragneel did sign up for this, and none of you will be fine after I finish. After I'm done here . . ." he began, striding over to the kitchen and picking up a small knife. "Well, after I'm done here I've got several other lovely ladies to visit. I'm sure they're all looking forward to seeing me."
Lucy bit down on the inside of her cheek while Hikaru slid the flat side of the blade across her forehead and down her cheek. He repeated the motion, tilting the knife enough to leave a shallow gash. The sting reminded her of a paper cut. He kept sliding the knife across her face, trailing along the same route, and by the fifth repetition she was blinking blood from her eyes.
"Maybe I should kill her now, officer," he said casually. "Maybe I should spare your woman the suffering of knowing that you were too late. She is far more beautiful than I accounted for." The knife dug a little deeper. "Or maybe I should carve into her lovely, flawless skin, leave a few marks of my own. Then I'd be doing her a favor by ending her life. Imagine your woman begging me to kill her."
Natsu didn't respond. A honk and the sound of screeching tires carried across the line. Hikaru's arm jerked downwards, digging the knife into her shoulder and leaving a deep gash on her arm. Taken by surprise, she couldn't catch the pained gasp that left her mouth.
"You fucking bastard!"
"My apologies, ma'am," Hikaru drawled. "Didn't mean to nick you there."
He flipped the knife and swiftly plunged it into her side. She let out a choked scream and lurched forward, toppling off the stool. It slammed into her thighs as the ropes pulled it down after her. The knife shifted and dug deeper as she tried to curl away from the attack. Burning pain ate away at her mind until she could focus on nothing else. She barely heard Natsu's enraged shout over the frantic thudding of her own heart.
"Are those your headlights there, officer?" Hikaru asked, the surprise in his voice almost genuine. "Well, ma'am, it appears that I'll be moving up my timetable."
He pulled out a simple black gun, released the safety, and whipped it across her temple.
XXXXX
"Fuck off, Gray. I'm not going anywhere."
"Natsu, fucking listen to me—"
"Fuck off."
Lucy barely made it into the waking world, and even then, sleep kept calling her name. It would be so easy to relax and fall back down again. Taking a moment to process what she was hearing, she did her best to gives names to the voices, then faces to names. Moving proved to be a problem. Her limbs were unusually heavy and didn't respond the way she wanted them to. Sleep called again, this time a little more demanding, but she brushed it off. Something in the man's voice – Natsu's voice – made her wary.
There was a sliver of suppressed fear; something that she barely noticed but knew shouldn't have been there.
A soft, metallic hiss was followed by a gush cool air. Lucy tried to open her eyes, found them glued shut, and listened in. She was too tired to put in a greater effort. Heels clicked against a tile floor and she knew she wasn't at home. Her bedroom was all carpet.
"Natsu, I need you to come with me." Erza's voice, strong and steady, made an immediate connection to a face she knew. Why was the Chief of Police . . . wherever she was? Hadn't she been in Witness Protection?
What happened with Hikaru?
"Why?" His answer was wary but not really caring. Her Natsu wasn't in that voice.
"You are going to come with me to the cafeteria and—"
"No."
"It isn't up for debate—"
"I'm not going anywhere, Erza."
Someone sighed. Heels clicked again, this time steadily receding until they were cut off by another hiss. Memories filed into their proper places, their cabinets serving up connections to make a story. Lucy put more effort into making her body work, alerted by Natsu's voice. He shouldn't sound so harsh, so tired. Her eyelids fluttered, revealed endless, blinding light on the other side, and promptly slid shut. A soft groan built up in her throat before pushing past her lips.
"Luce?"
Her name was barely audible, more a breath than an actual word. She forced her eyes to open and blinked rapidly, needing to see his face. She had to know that he was okay. Erza had told her how he'd react, and Hikaru had taunted him with her life as bait. It would've crushed her too.
She stretched her fingers. Immediately, his hand was there, his fingers tangling with hers. She grabbed Natsu's wrist and tried to pull herself into a sitting position, only to be gently held down.
"Lemme up," she muttered, squinting against the lights.
"No, Luce, sorry. Porly said she'll skin me if I let you move," he said gently. Her eyes finally focused on his face and she gasped, struggling to sit up again. Natsu didn't let her.
"Wha' happen' to your face?" she asked.
Dark bruises trailed up the side of his jaw, ending with a stunning black eye. He grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. She eyed the layers of gauze wrapped around his knuckles with a frown.
"You bea' 'im up, didn' you," she murmured, skimming her fingers across the bandages.
"Might've," he admitted. She rolled her eyes but smiled, knowing that she shouldn't have expected anything different.
"Wha' happen'?"
His grip on her hand tightened. "The bastard's behind bars and without a face."
"Motherfuckin' son of a bitch," she said helpfully. Natsu snorted.
"Yep."
"Wha' happen' before tha'?" she pressed.
He sighed, letting his eyes close, and she realized just how tired he was. The black bags under his eyes dwarfed the ones she'd had at the beginning of the entire ordeal and his skin was a shade paler that she remembered it being.
"Hold up. Never mind. You," She freed her hand and pointed at him, "are gonna take a nap with me."
"Luce—"
"You look like shit," she told him honestly. His eyes widened. "C'mon, Natsu. I'm not goin' anywhere."
"Yeah," he said, but he wasn't all there. She saw the vulnerability in his posture, the set of his jaw, the slump of his shoulders. He looked like a man trying to hold up the world and finally realizing that it was too much.
Whatever happened after she'd been pistol-whipped had shaken him up much more than he dared to admit.
"Hey." She scooted closer to the IV stand and patted the other side of the bed. "C'mere."
"Porly—"
"Is gonna understan'." Her tongue felt too thick to finish off the words, and that irritated her greatly. "C'mon. Please?"
He didn't protest again. Instead, he kicked off his shoes and lay next to her, wrapping his arms around her waist. She determinedly ignored the sparks of irritation in her abdomen and twisted so that she could hold him, cradling his head against her chest. She played with his hair, tracing senseless patterns on his scalp until he fell asleep. It took less than five minutes.
"Breaking the rules already, huh, Lucy?" Erza's entrance was announced by the telltale hiss of the doors and the staccato clicking of her heels. She carried a loaded tray in one hand and held her phone in the other, her thumb rapid-fire texting.
"Hey. Don' tell me anythin'," Lucy said. "He gets time."
"Just one thing," Erza promised, setting down the tray and taking over Natsu's abandoned chair. "You've been out since a day and a half ago. You're in here for bowel puncture and blood loss, so take it easy or Natsu won't be the only one getting skinned."
Lucy pressed a gentle kiss to the top of his head, careful to not wake him. He still frowned and tightened his grip on her, snuggling closer with a quiet murmur. She couldn't help the smile that curved her lips.
"You should get some sleep too, Lucy. We all need you back on your feet to help us get him living again," Erza said, nodding at Natsu. "He hasn't slept since you got checked in."
Lucy sighed, brushing her fingers through his hair again, and shook her head. "It shows. Was I really tha' close?"
"You looked like it. The paramedics took twenty minutes to get to your location and Natsu was forced to come down to the station to fill out the offense report for beating Hikaru to near-death. The state PD wasn't sympathetic about your condition. Natsu almost quit on the spot before I told him that he could be facing time if he didn't fill out the form."
"Good thin' tha' you were there, then," Lucy said. "Wha' happen' to my cat?"
"That little . . ." Erza took a long, deep breath and forcefully unclenched her firsts. "Your cat is fine. More than fine, actually. He takes after Natsu."
"Huh?"
"Jellal and I took him in. I've always wanted to have a pet and I figured it would be a good experience to prepare us, but I believe I've changed my mind."
Drowsiness set in slowly, encroaching on her control of her body, and she lost track of their conversation about the cat. "I'm on knock-out drugs?"
"A few mild ones, yes."
"M'kay." She buried her face in his hair and breathed in the familiar scent that was all him.
"I'll check in on you guys later. See if you can get him to eat when he wakes up," Erza said. Lucy hummed in agreement and closed her eyes, waiting for the clicking of Erza's heels to fade away. Twisting slightly to relieve the pressure on her wound, she curled around Natsu and smiled when he mumbled again.
"I love you so much, you idiot."
XXXXX
Lucy flushed her midnight vomit, tucking her hair behind her ears. Using the sink to climb to her feet, she grimaced at the feeling of cold sweat stains sticking to her back. She had absolutely no doubt left, but she couldn't bring herself to wrap her mind around the enormity of the truth.
Besides, how on earth was she supposed to tell Natsu?
They were both nearing their thirties, yes, but they hadn't really planned for kids. It came up every once in a while, usually while she was babysitting Levy's little boys. Natsu would come home from the station, collapse on the couch with a dramatized groan while the boys fell over themselves in laughter, and shoot her a mischievous grin. He'd wrestle the twin devils and she'd make dinner. Once the boys were either asleep or back with Levy, she and Natsu snuggled on their beloved couch while Happy – the motherfucking cat she wished she hadn't adopted but loved too much to give away – flexed his claws on her thighs. One of them would drop the idea of kids or parenthood in the form of a joke and they would move on, usually heading towards a bit of lovemaking. But they'd never sat down and talked and decided that they wanted kids.
She had to admit that they'd been slacking on protection for the last few months. Sometimes they ran out of condoms and she'd tell him to go ahead anyways, knowing full well what it could mean but not really worried. After a few of those times, they'd begun to forget condoms altogether. She'd been meaning to start taking birth control for over two weeks now. Natsu had asked her about the pills once, but he'd just shrugged when she'd admitted that she'd forgotten all about them and wasted no time in reducing her to moans and whimpers.
She still had no idea how he was so good at making her fall apart.
Crawling back into bed, she found him wide awake and struggling to regain control of his breathing. There was no need to ask. Regardless of what he thought, she was well aware of his nightmares. She knew they were worse after cases that were particularly gruesome or ones that didn't end on a happy note. If the offender – a killer more often then not, especially since Natsu had been snagged by State Homicide Department – managed to fall of the radar completely and wasn't caught, it came back to haunt him.
As the state PD's communications liaison, she knew what went well and what didn't. It was her job to know.
"Hey," she said softly. "Do you want to talk?"
"You know?"
"I'm your wife and I've been through the mincer and grinder they call an awareness exam. What do you think?"
He snorted, closing his eyes. "I bet you gave the instructors hell."
"Of course I did. Don't veer off topic, detective."
He sighed and rolled over to hug her, holding her close. She kissed his jaw.
"Just say it, Natsu. You don't do well when you overthink."
"Every time it doesn't go right, we don't get them, or we're too late, they always come back. Except this time, they're going after you and I'm not fast enough to save you," he said, the words coming out in a rush. "I know that you're okay, but what if next time they shoot for real? What if I . . ." He took a deep breath. "What if you don't make it?"
She couldn't imagine how he felt, but at least she knew why. It had taken him a week to tell her about what happened after she'd been knocked out. The motherfucking son of a bitch had fired four shots, all aimed at the wall, while Natsu was just outside. Natsu hadn't known the shots were for show – he'd fully believed that he'd been just a few seconds too late.
"What happened with Hikaru wasn't your fault. I was left with too many blind spots. I didn't know what he looked like, how he spoke, what his habits were. I know that protocol usually keeps those kinds of details in the dark, but now that I know how important they are, I can push for at least a picture."
"It wasn't your fault."
"And it definitely wasn't yours. He'd stayed off the radar for thirteen years, Natsu. You can't honestly expect yourself to know and be prepared for every trick in his book."
She stroked his cheek, paying just a little more attention to the latest addition to his steadily growing collection of scars. Telling him about the life growing in her stomach probably wouldn't go over too well right now, and it wasn't like the baby was due tomorrow.
"How about this: we'll have a code word for when I'm in trouble. I'm sure Makarov won't crack down on us for that," she said.
He grinned and reached behind him to pull a indignantly meowing Happy off his back. "Pick a word, then."
"Hangman."
"Really?"
"Yup. I was researching hangman's knots when you and Gray first came over for a visit. It's probably why I had to change my last name ten months ago," she reminded him. His grin widened, taking on a touch of fondness.
"Hangman it is. I love you, Mrs. Dragneel."
"And I love you, Mr. Dragneel."
He kissed her again, taking his time to explore her mouth and leave her breathless. She reached for him, knowing what was coming their way, and reminded herself to call Erza. That woman was long since overdue a sincere thanks for everything her annoying program had done.
After all, if it hadn't been for SOS Response, they might've never gotten this far.
What's the final score? Let us know.
So. Brenna dearest has some explaining to do. She's also sleeping and deserves some slack. Honestly, I'm impressed she even wrote this. She was diagnosed with chronic fatigue a few months ago - basically a condition where she's always tired. She's having a really hard time with all the new restrictions. I'm not sure if you guys knew, but she was taking ballet classes nearly every day. She loves to dance. Now she can't even walk to the studio - three blocks away - because it tires her out.
Brenna's been doing her best to continue working on Loner Alpha, and she thanks you for your patience. I've been helping her out with editing and she's optimistic about getting the next chapter posted sometime this month.
Again, thank you for your patience.
- EmmaCoris -